The next day.
The sky was clear, the air crisp, and a gentle breeze blew. With May's Golden Week underway, this national highway from Tokyo to Saitama Prefecture should have been packed with traffic, but a roadblock had been set up near the outskirts of Saitama.
Even drivers reluctant to have come all this way for nothing could only obediently turn around and head back when they saw the armed Self-Defense Forces personnel at the checkpoint.
After passing through the checkpoint on the highway, Uchiha Senmon drove to a hill not far from Saitama's urban area.
According to Google Maps, there had originally been a gas station here, but now not even ruins remained.
"They can't brush this one off as a gas pipeline explosion. A gas station explosion? But even a gas station explosion wouldn't change the terrain and shear off a hilltop."
Uchiha Senmon got out of the car. Looking at the scene, which resembled ground zero of a nuclear blast, he could not help shaking his head and sighing.
At the blast site, a group of people in white protective suits were searching for something with various instruments in their hands.
"While you were driving, the Metropolitan Police Department issued a press release. A tanker truck fully loaded with liquid chemicals crashed into the gas station, setting off a chain of explosions."
A burly, overweight police officer weighing well over a tenth of a ton climbed out of the police car's back seat.
It was hard to imagine that someone of his weight was actually the Section Chief of the Fourth Investigation Division.
"Section Chief, the center of the blast wasn't far from Saitama. Tens of thousands saw the fireball and mushroom cloud firsthand or were woken by the explosion. Can an explanation like that really convince