After three hundred years, the sacred peak of Mount Fuji once again punished this country.
Thick smoke billowed from the crater at Mount Fuji's summit, rising over a thousand meters into the sky. Occasionally, volcanic bombs shot out in red arcs.
Beside Lake Motosu at the foot of the mountain, a group of divers and researchers in white coats worked at a frantic pace, glancing at Mount Fuji from time to time with faces full of worry and fear.
Several fortified positions had already been hastily built along the shore. Fully armed Self-Defense Forces personnel established several lines of defenses and sentry posts. Attack helicopters took off and landed in succession, while armored vehicles and wheeled combat vehicles stood in formation, their guns ready, braced for battle.
"The vast majority of surviving tourists trapped inside Mount Fuji's barrier have been rescued, but time was short. There may still be people hiding on the mountain."
"We can only put that down to their bad luck. There are already countless people missing, killed by monsters or dead from falls. A few more won't matter. We're short-handed, and Mount Fuji is erupting. It's too dangerous to send any more rescue teams."
"Yes. Successfully rescuing His Highness Prince Fumihito of Akishino was enough."
Inside the large tent serving as the temporary command center behind the defensive positions, Fujinomiya City's deputy mayor, wearing a dust mask, wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked:
"Do we really not need to evacuate the residents of the towns around Mount Fuji?"
"The Japan Meteorological Agency says Mount Fuji's current eruption is only VEI-1. It can't even reach Lake Kawaguchi Town at the foot of the mountain. Evacuating residents now might be making a mountain out of a molehill."
The Volcanic Explosivity Index, or VEI, was a scale