Miko

"Stop it!"

"We have to stop that Earthquake Catfish!"

In the Metropolitan Police Department's operations room, Director Takeya lunged over the console and roared into the microphone.

Bunkyo Ward.

This area was home to a large number of top universities, as well as private elementary, middle, and high schools for the elite. It wasn't safe to say that every student there was "rich or influential," but they were at least from middle-class families or better. Most of those families had some social connections. They weren't ordinary people who could be brushed off at will.

If he let the Earthquake Catfish run rampant in Bunkyo Ward, he might as well bow, resign, and retire as the Metropolitan Police Department's commissioner!

And that was with the Prime Minister's Official Residence giving him its full support.

Otherwise, the earlier bombardment of Arakawa Ward alone would have been enough to get him fired.

"We can't do it!"

Faced with the order,

the armed helicopter pilot from the First Division's aviation company, deployed at the front, cursed in reply.

"That monster can burrow underground! How are we supposed to stop it?!"

"Sir, we need tactical guidance!"

In Japan, "tactical guidance" meant calling in American troops.

In its nearly 250 years since its founding, America had been at war for almost all of them: the Revolutionary War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq...

"The beacon's flame still shines, the Union's aircraft carriers set sail; freedom's armies march abroad, and foreign lands are consumed by war." It wasn't just a joke. It was a fact written in piles of corpses.

"Sorry, Director Takeya."

But with the great nation's representative in the meeting room, Brigadier General Thomas shook his head.

"Yokosuka Base does have a few 'bunker busters,' but by the time we rearm and get them here, it'll already be—"

Too late.

Besides, Brigadier General Thomas couldn't guarantee that a bunker buster could kill the extraordinary creature called the Earthquake Catfish.

The United States used these bunker busters as a powerful weapon against underground facilities in the Middle East. But their opponent here in Tokyo hadn't been forced underground, so they hadn't brought many Spear Bearer hypersonic bunker busters.

"Damn it! Damn it!!"

He punched the console, startling the staff beside him.

Human flesh was no match for metal. Blood ran from the split skin on his knuckles, but Director Takeya seemed not to feel a thing. He only stared at the Earthquake Catfish, which kept moving through the earth toward Bunkyo Ward.

Extraordinary power. Extraordinary power.

If he had extraordinary power of his own, how could he have been reduced to this?

"Huh?"

Among the three heading toward Imperial Sakura School, Amame Ei turned to look at the street.

Black luxury cars roared past one after another, like black arrows speeding by, drawing winding trails across the road.

Speeding, running red lights, honking loudly—the cars seemed to have gone mad, telling every other vehicle and pedestrian: Stay away from me!

"What's going on?"

Class Monitor Nao was baffled too.

This was Tokyo, and not just anywhere in Tokyo, but the heart of Bunkyo Ward!

Driving like that would get their licenses revoked for sure.

They might even spend a few years in prison.

Beep beep, x2

Just then, Akihi Yu and Amame Ei's phones rang.

"Xiao Yie. What?"

"Yeah, we're not far from the school. Our location? All right, we'll wait here!"

Unlike Amame Ei, who kept nodding at the urgent words coming through the phone, Akihi Yu only had one response after hearing what his younger sister said:

"Stay where you are. I'll be there soon."

"Yu, what happened?"

At Class Monitor Ai Nao's question, Akihi Yu turned and nodded toward the west.

"A terrorist attack is spreading this way."

?

Screech—

A few minutes later, a black car came speeding toward them and stopped abruptly beside the three, leaving several scorch marks on the road.

"Ei, get in!"

The door swung open. Nagisa Kazuha, usually as aloof as a flower on a mountaintop, anxiously grabbed Amame Ei by the wrist and practically dragged her into the car.

The next second, before the door had even shut, the car accelerated away, leaving Class Monitor Nao staring blankly.

What on earth was going on?

Rumble, rumble,

The rampaging Earthquake Catfish kept burrowing through the ground, veering left, then right.

Its movements seemed utterly random.

Whenever it burst out of the earth, cars, houses, parks, bridges—whatever stood in its way—crumbled into ruins beneath its enormous bulk, leaving utter devastation behind!

"Everyone, don't panic!"

"Don't push! Don't run around! Follow instructions—"

Large numbers of police officers had arrived in Bunkyo Ward and were working hard to evacuate the crowds.

Thanks to the frequent natural disasters in Japan, emergency drills were held from kindergarten all the way through high school.

The crowds were orderly enough, but everywhere the Earthquake Catfish went, chaos followed.

Rumble, rumble~~~

Its huge black body "swam" through the earth.

Cars were no more than duckweed in its path, and houses were merely somewhat larger "pebbles." Buildings collapsed and structures crumbled wherever it passed. The gigantic Black Fish didn't care about those "ants" at all, but every movement still posed a deadly threat to ordinary people.

"Report! The Earthquake Catfish is approaching Ousakura Girls' High School!"

"What?!"

In the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's operations room,

Director Takeya staggered backward as if he'd been struck over the head. His own thoughts rang in his ears.

Ousakura Girls' High School.

It was a typical elite girls' school, attended mostly by the daughters of old aristocratic families and rising political and business elites. Many of them were only children. If anything happened to those heiresses, Director Takeya couldn't imagine whether their furious parents would tear him apart alive!

"Stop it at all costs—"

Halfway through his sentence, the director stopped.

How could they stop it?

Unlike the Self-Defense Force units stationed elsewhere, where people collected their pay and did nothing,

the First Division was already among the elite of the elite, and its fighting spirit was decent.

But how could they stop an extraordinary creature that could burrow into the earth at will?

Jump out of a plane, pull out a transformation device, and yank the Earthquake Catfish out of the ground—

Then lift it into the air and strangle it, just as Heracles had done?

He glanced at the footage coming in from the front. The Earthquake Catfish smashed through a building with a crash, its massive body landing in the street and blocking a group of black cars speeding away. Director Takeya shut his eyes in pain.

It was over!

"Miss, hurry!"

A gigantic black monster burst through a building and crashed down into the street, blocking their way.

The middle-aged driver in a suit and sunglasses kicked open the car door and jumped out. As he opened the rear door, he kept his eyes on the extraordinary creature before him.

That was right. He knew it was an extraordinary creature!

As the Young Lady's driver and bodyguard, the middle-aged man had already learned from his employer about the appearance of the extraordinary. But he hadn't expected to face an extraordinary creature so soon, nor that it would be so terrifying.

Boom!

A collapsed building blocked the road, trapping numerous luxury cars.

Faced with danger, the heiresses dropped all pretenses. Some screamed and ran for their lives, while others were helped—or even dragged away—by their drivers and bodyguards.

"Th-this is..."

Nagisa Kazuha had just gotten out of the car and was stunned by the sight. Fortunately—

"Run, Xiao Yie!"

Amame Ei had just gotten out too. The moment she saw the monster ahead, she grabbed Nagisa Kazuha's hand without hesitation and turned to run.

"Monster, over here!"

The middle-aged driver pulled out a pistol, flicked off the safety, and aimed it at the gigantic Black Fish.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

There were quite a few others in the same situation. Several drivers also drew their guns and opened fire.

In Japan, where guns were banned, the fact that these "drivers" could pull out pistols in the middle of the street was enough to show how powerful the people behind them were.

But it was all useless.

Whoosh—

A whisker as thick as a barrel swept across, sending the middle-aged driver flying.

He crashed through the window of a nearby shop and fell inside amid a shower of shards.

The Earthquake Catfish continued forward, its massive body crushing the abandoned luxury cars. Metal groaned as these million-dollar status symbols turned into scrap. They wouldn't even need to be compressed at a junkyard—the engines, bodywork, and glass were mashed together into a single iron pancake.

The enormous Earthquake Catfish seemed to have no concept of "good" or "evil." It simply swam onward, crushing everything in its path. The heiresses fleeing for their lives let out the loudest screams of their lives.

That should do it.

Smack—

For some reason, a bump suddenly appeared beneath Amame Ei's foot as she led Nagisa Kazuha by the hand.

She lost her balance and fell hard to the ground.

"Ahh—"

"Xiao Yie?"

Amame Ei, still holding tightly to her wrist, turned and tried to help Nagisa Kazuha up, but—

She had been independent and self-reliant since childhood, but she couldn't run while carrying someone her own age.

"Xiao Ei, don't worry about me! Go!"

Nagisa Kazuha forcefully pulled her hand away. Though her legs felt so weak that they hardly seemed to belong to her, she could still speak clearly.

"Go!"

"Run!"

"As long as you can survive—"

"No."

Amame Ei was trembling all over, but she didn't turn and run. Instead—

she stepped forward and stood in front of Nagisa Kazuha.

"I'm the older sister!"

"If I run away today, I'll regret it for the rest of my life! What would be the point of living like that?"

Whoosh—

She spread her arms, standing in front of her fallen younger sister.

The petite girl clenched her lower lip so hard that she drew blood.

"Grandpa, everyone else has a mom and dad. Where are mine?"

"Haha, well..."

The old man in priest's robes scratched his head, trying to laugh it off again. But when the little girl kept asking—

"Xiao Ei's father is a great man,"

"and her mother loved deeply, but sadly, she trusted the wrong person."

"...That's how it is. Don't worry, Xiao Ei. Grandpa will always be with you."

But only a few years later, the old man who managed the Small Shrine passed away.

After that, the little girl often went near her "father's" home and secretly watched the happy family of three.

Envy, jealousy, resentment, unwillingness to accept it.

Until one day—

"Want to play together?"

Faced with the hand her "younger sister" held out, the hesitant little girl eventually chose to take it.

It was so warm.

"Stop—"

Memories flashed through her mind. The mountain-like shadow loomed right before her. Amame Ei took a deep breath.

"Stop!!!!!!"

Wave after wave of sound spread outward, echoing across the whole district.

?!

The sound wasn't particularly loud, but everyone heard it in their ears. The heiresses fleeing for their lives, the drivers and bodyguards, the helpless pilots of the armed helicopters overhead, and the soldiers and police rushing in from afar.

"Stop——"

Most terrifying of all was the Metropolitan Police Department's operations room, where the battle was being watched through countless surveillance cameras.

Every loudspeaker, large and small, seemed to speak with one voice. The echoing sound waves sent the entire operations room into chaos. Everyone was knocked off their feet and nearly lost consciousness.

"What?!"

Staggering, Director Takeya dropped to one knee and forced his head up, staring at the monitor.

On the screen, the arrogant Earthquake Catfish had stopped!

And opposite it:

Whoosh.

A ray of light descended from the sky and fell upon Amame Ei.

A white Chihaya floated down and draped over her; a red Hi-bakama wrapped around her waist and fell like a long skirt.

A golden Heavenly Crown settled on her head, gleaming brilliantly. On either side of it, branches sprouted from thin air, cherry blossoms blooming and swaying with a delicate fragrance.

Jingle, jingle~~

The Kagura Bell, made up of three tiers of bells and trailing long ribbons, dropped into her hand. Amame Ei, who had been ready to accept her death, looked down in bewilderment.

Had she already died?

She was familiar with these garments. After her grandfather passed away, she had become the shrine's Miko.

During the annual memorial ceremony, this was her formal attire.

But—

Boom!

The monster before her, as huge as a small mountain, began moving again. With no time to think, Amame Ei raised the Kagura Bell almost by reflex.

"Evil spirits—be gone!"

Whoosh—

A vermilion torii gate suddenly flew down from the sky.

As everyone watched in stunned silence, the torii plunged into the back of the enormous Black Fish with a wet thud.

"Woooooo~~~"

As the torii came down, the giant Black Fish began shrinking, shrinking.

In the end, it became a "pocket-sized" creature barely half her height. No—compared with an ordinary catfish, it was still a colossal beast.

The "pocket-sized" Earthquake Catfish swam to the feet of Amame Ei, now dressed in her ceremonial attire, and rubbed against her Hi-bakama like a puppy.

"Huh?"

"Good~~ good~~?"

She patted its forehead, her face full of confusion. Three philosophical questions surfaced in her mind:

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?