They weren't carrying conventional weapons.
They were modified tactical bunker-busters... heavy warheads designed specifically to strike hardened targets, with six times the explosive payload of standard cruise missiles.
Four were launched.
Two struck the heads, and two struck the torso.
The blast waves toppled every building still standing within an eight-hundred-meter radius.
The smoke and dust cleared.
The Nine-Headed Serpent was finally wounded.
The third head on its left had been blown halfway off, dark green blood gushing from the stump. Two patches of scales on its torso had shattered, exposing flesh that was rapidly contracting and healing.
But it wasn't dead.
It let out a shriek that pierced the heavens—all nine heads spewed thick clouds of black mist into the sky at once—then its entire body twisted violently, and it charged toward the coast.
It plunged into the Pacific Ocean.
Waves more than twenty meters high surged across the sea.
Then it vanished.
Sonar tracked it for an hour and a half before losing it completely.
"It got away."
Those words spread around the world.
The tone of international opinion changed instantly.
[So you drove an injured giant nine-headed serpent into the Pacific Ocean, then just washed your hands of it???]
[How many countries border the Pacific Ocean? If that snake ends up in a little island nation like Fiji or Tonga—]
[That would be a disaster capable of wiping out an entire country.]
[Japan and the United States must take responsibility for this!]
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency closed-door meeting on the third day after the incident.
The Pacific Islands Forum issued a collective diplomatic note in strongly worded terms, demanding that Japan and the United States accept full responsibility for the "Mount Fuji incident" and bear all subsequent tracking and defense costs.
Japan was