"Eh."
"The subway in Arakawa Ward is blocked again?"
On the train, Tennyo Ei tilted her head as she looked at the notification on her phone.
"Who knows, maybe it's the aftershock from yesterday's earthquake?"
To this, a certain 'culprit' who was resting with his eyes closed shrugged, with an 'it has nothing to do with me' attitude.
"Wasn't it a terror... oh, right."
Tennyo Ei, who had almost let it slip, covered her mouth with her hand. If it weren't for 'Kazu-chan's' relationship, they would definitely have thought it was just an earthquake in Arakawa Ward, right?
Although, the news Nagisa Kazuha had heard from her parents was also a concealed lie.
"Nao-chan, what are you looking at?"
"Study notes..."
With two beautiful girls sticking close to him, the people in the carriage all cast envious glances at Akiyoshi Yuu.
After school, the three of them were on the train to Kouou Academy.
As for worrying about the beautiful girls attracting train perverts...
That was from a different era!
There were indeed many perverts on the trains in the island nation in the past.
Later, as this behavior was continuously reported, fermented, and escalated to the level of 'national shame',
the Metropolitan Police Department cracked down hard. Plus, the price of being caught was 'social death', so it had almost disappeared.
As long as a female student pointed you out as a 'train pervert', it was almost equivalent to being convicted on the spot. Even in court, the conviction rate was as high as ninety-seven percent, followed by being asked to resign from work, having your personal information exposed, and being completely abandoned by society...
So the office workers in the carriage all held the hanging rings with both hands high up, wishing they could write 'I'm impotent' on their faces.
Going to work every day was tiring enough. They dared not hope for any youthful encounter; all they had was being framed for extortion.
Unless it was that pretty boy—
Numerous envious and jealous gazes swept over Akiyoshi Yuu.
And Akiyoshi Yuu, resting with his eyes closed, was multitasking, controlling a battle far away.
Boom!
An armor-piercing round hit the 'Jishin Namazu's' forehead.
The tungsten steel warhead instantly pierced through the giant black fish's flat head, then flew out from its 'back' and embedded itself in the building behind it.
The huge 'Jishin Namazu' continued to swim forward without a care, chasing after a patrol armored vehicle. This made Superintendent General Takeya and the others, who were observing through the camera, ponder to themselves while giving another order.
"Use HEAT rounds."
As the 'Jishin Namazu' was chasing the Type 87 armored patrol vehicle, a Type 16 assault combat vehicle rotated its turret and aimed at the swimming 'Jishin Namazu'.
Boom!
Boom!!!
As the muzzle spewed out flames, the Jishin Namazu's huge body suddenly trembled, and a 'flame' spewed out from the other side of its body.
No, that wasn't a 'flame', but a metal jet spewing out at 9000 m/s!
Unlike the 'armor-piercing round' that passed straight through, the damage caused by the HEAT round was more terrifying. But the huge 'Jishin Namazu' just became more violent, abandoning the Type 87 armored patrol vehicle and instead rushing towards the Type 16 assault combat vehicle.
"As expected."
"This 'supernatural creature' has no vital organs like a brain or internal organs."
After successive probes, most of the people in command already had an idea. The other party's body was not very sturdy, so—
"Use HESH rounds."
Although it was regrettable, they couldn't just let this 'Jishin Namazu' continue to cause trouble. Even if it was Arakawa Ward... that was still Tokyo!
To deal with various situations, the armored forces sent by the First Division carried a variety of warheads. Even 'outdated' HESH rounds were also prepared. A Type 16 assault combat vehicle on the opposite side of the street stopped and quietly aimed at the 'Jishin Namazu'.
Boom!!
The muzzle spewed out smoke and fire, and a huge fireball instantly engulfed the 'Jishin Namazu'.
In modern armored vehicle combat, there would not be a scene like in the movies where a single shot would create a huge fireball that shot into the sky, unless it hit the ammunition rack and caused a cook-off.
Armor-piercing rounds were kinetic energy projectiles that used high-strength alloy warheads to forcefully break through defenses. In short, they were 'physical attacks' with great power. HEAT rounds, on the other hand, used the metal jet formed by the explosion of a shaped charge to penetrate armor, which could be seen as a 'magical attack'.
And HESH rounds... used plastic explosives to create a shockwave on the armor plate.
By using overpressure to cause the inner layer of the armor to spall, it could kill the personnel inside the vehicle and damage the equipment, which could be seen as a 'concussion attack'.
At the same time, HESH rounds could also be used as high-explosive rounds!
A single HESH round could create a very spectacular scene. A plume of smoke and dust tens of meters high would rise, as if one had instantly arrived in the war-torn Middle East.
This kind of attack was not very effective against modern armor with composite armor and explosive reactive armor, and often resulted in 'smoke but no damage'.
But for a supernatural creature like the 'Jishin Namazu', it was a fatal blow!
In the explosion, countless fragments flew out, and a large amount of vermilion wood chips were traces of the 'torii' that had once been on its back.
Amazing.
On the distant train, Akiyoshi Yuu, who was controlling the clone with his eyes closed, couldn't help but admire.
The power of modern weapons was no less than that of a Jounin.
If Akiyoshi Yuu had been at the scene, he would have been blown to pieces long ago.
But that supernatural being, which the island nation's police called the 'Jishin Namazu', was just a creation of his ninjutsu.
If it was destroyed, he would just create another one.
"Did we get it?"
In Arakawa Ward, Nishiohisa Town, where smoke was billowing, the observer in the armored vehicle stared at the center of the explosion. And the big shots far away in the Metropolitan Police Department also stared nervously at the screen.
The smoke and dust gradually dissipated, revealing... a small half of a broken torii, and a ground full of rubble.
Phew~~
"It seems we've won..."
Pushing his non-prescription glasses, Superintendent General Takeya had just finished his victory speech when the screen in front of him suddenly changed.
"Roar!!!"
The sound like a steam whistle turned into a mighty roar.
A huge figure suddenly shot up from the center of the explosion!
"Jishin Namazu?"
"It's not dead... no, it's stronger?!"
Almost everyone who witnessed the 'Jishin Namazu' had this thought flash through their minds.
Because the black fish, which was once only about ten meters long, had now become a twenty-meter super-giant monster!
Twenty meters might not sound like much. However, a normal heavy-duty truck is only six meters long, and a heavy-duty large flatbed truck with 12 wheels, known as the 'hundred-ton king', is only 17 meters long.
A classic fighter jet is mostly around twenty meters long. However, unlike the 'slender' fighter jet, this 'Jishin Namazu' was obviously a short and fat guy.
The 'Jishin Namazu', raising its head from the center of the explosion, heavily 'smashed' its body onto the street.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
Circles of visible shockwaves seeped into the ground. The entire battlefield was like a drum being beaten violently and rapidly, shaking and trembling fiercely! Large swaths of the cement street, along with trees and paving stones, were lifted by the incomparably huge force, shattering into a billowing cloud of smoke mixed with tens or hundreds of tons of rubble.
Earth Release: Fissure Palm
Under this continuous vibration, on the violently shaking buildings around, countless spiderweb-like cracks spread wantonly, and finally:
the buildings built by humans finally couldn't withstand it. The steel bars twisted and deformed, and the earth and stones poured down like a swift waterfall, collapsing with a roar, stirring up thousands of aftershocks.
Very good, it has leveled up!
In the neighboring Bunkyo Ward, Akiyoshi Yuu, who had just walked out of the subway station, had a flash in his eyes.
Unlike the other flashy and unsightly 'Fire Release' and 'Lightning Release' that were performed.
Genjutsu was silent, and could defeat enemies in a single thought. Earth Release could travel underground and be used freely in the earth.
In the high-intensity confrontation with the army, Earth Release was the first to break through to the Chunin level, unlocking all the C-rank Earth Release jutsu!
Good!
Having obtained a large number of new ninjutsu, the means he could use had become more numerous.
While walking towards Kouou Academy with the class president Nao and Tennyo Ei, Akiyoshi Yuu quickly scanned the new ninjutsu in his mind, and at the same time, controlled the even larger 'Jishin Namazu' to sweep its gaze over the scattered Self-Defense Force.
It's time for a counterattack!
Inhale—
The giant fish opened its huge mouth and took a deep breath.
Exhale—
Countless small stones flew out from its huge sharp teeth, expanded in mid-air, turning into millstone-sized rocks, and then under the force of gravity,
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!!!
Earth Release: Rock Swarm Gun Jutsu
The dense rocks fell like rain, as if thrown by a medieval heavy catapult.
But when the number reached a certain level, even the most advanced steel war chariot would be defeated under such a dense 'rain of rocks'.
The machine guns were smashed into parts, the barrels of the cannons were bent, and even the barrel of the main cannon was twisted under the bombardment of the giant rocks... the entire First Division of the Self-Defense Force was routed on the spot.
This was not a normal battle between two armies, but a complete ambush with 'no intelligence', 'no preparation', and 'no plan'. Faced with the increasingly powerful 'Jishin Namazu', besides hiding in the armored vehicles and barely surviving, there were no other means of counterattack.
No, it's not that there weren't.
"Armed helicopters, fire air-to-ground missiles!"
At this point, Superintendent General Takeya gave the order with red eyes. Although this order completely 'overstepped' his authority, he couldn't care less now.
From the armed helicopters that had risen in altitude, one missile after another whistled down, shooting towards the even larger 'Jishin Namazu' below. Each of these missiles was enough to blow an ordinary building to smithereens. Even a high-strength reinforced concrete structure would have difficulty withstanding repeated bombardment. But:
"How could this be..."
"Damn it, is it immortal?!"
"Hey, are we fighting 'Antaeus'?"
In the combat room of the Metropolitan Police Department, Brigadier General Thomas looked at the screen, where the giant catfish was constantly being injured by missiles, then 'drilled' into the ground, and when its head emerged again, it was completely intact. He couldn't help but speak.
Antaeus.
A giant in Greek mythology, the son of the earth goddess Gaia and the sea god Poseidon.
It was said that Antaeus was incredibly strong, and as long as he maintained contact with the earth, he was invincible.
Later, Heracles discovered Antaeus's secret, lifted Antaeus into the air, making it impossible for him to get strength from Gaia, and finally strangled him to death.
"Then, do we have any way to make this fish leave the earth?"
Facing Brigadier General Thomas's question, the noisy combat room fell silent.
"I think..."
The chief priest of Yushima Tenmangu spoke again.
"The torii that the 'Jishin Namazu' is carrying is very likely a barrier that seals its power and demonic nature."
"The current Jishin Namazu is not only stronger, but its desire to attack is also higher..."
"Then what should we do?"
Superintendent General Takeya, his eyes red, turned his head abruptly.
The Metropolitan Police Department had evacuated the surrounding residents in the first place.
But the scene had already been beaten into a mess. Not to mention the casualties of the Self-Defense Force, just this current appearance, how could they explain it to the public?
Counter-terrorism?
Even terrorists would have weak legs when they saw this!
"Mr. Takeya, you should consider how to intercept this supernatural creature."
Brigadier General Thomas's words made the Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department come back to his senses.
On the surveillance screen, the Self-Defense Force had already given up the fight, and the giant 'Jishin Namazu' also seemed to have lost interest, and suddenly plunged into the earth.
The next second, its huge body emerged from a park a few streets away.
Then it sank back into the mud, as if...
"The Jishin Namazu is moving at high speed underground!"
"The target is..."
"Bunkyo Ward?!"