At this time, the comment section of that news video had already gathered quite a few messages.
[What happened? Isn't it summer right now?]
[Although it's unclear what the situation is, it's better to stay at home or in a supermarket to wait for rescue, absolutely do not try to play the hero and run outside]
[Ah, that movie, right? Utterly nihilistic, I've seen it too lol]
[Currently in Osaka, opened the window this morning and took a look, thought I had arrived in another world...]
[Shouldn't it be that you just got off the plane?]
[Stop talking nonsense, the flight routes over on the Osaka side have long been suspended, even the trains have been affected]
[Spare me, I still have to go to work]
[Still alive! Corporate Drone-chan lol]
Asakura handed the phone back to Yukino, his expression calm.
The young girl looked at him, wanting to speak but holding back.
Although she really wanted to say something, in the face of this kind of situation, the person in front of her might be the only one who could be considered an expert.
A moment later, Asakura spoke to her seriously.
"That last one is playing with a manga meme, I've seen it before."
"..."
Yukino began to sincerely doubt whether her brain had a problem for harboring any expectations toward this guy.
"I know what you want to say, but right now it's just a bit of fog, that's all. As long as normal communication is still possible, there shouldn't be any huge problem." Asakura waved his hand, not caring too much about it.
"What do you mean?" Yukino knit her beautiful brows, her appearance perfectly exemplifying the fact that a beautiful girl looks good no matter what she does: "An abnormal climate like this has appeared, and it's still not considered a huge problem?"
"Fog itself is a type of liminal space, and in occultism, it is usually related to 'disruption' or 'blocking'. It's just like some classic horror games, where the heavy permeating fog serves as a metaphor for the protagonist's inner heart or something." Asakura explained to her: "So as long as communications haven't been cut off, it means the 'disruption' itself hasn't been established, which means it doesn't have much to do with the occult—compared to the supernatural, I lean more toward this heavy fog being caused by other factors."
"It couldn't really be an abnormal climate, right? Something like the El Niño phenomenon?" Yukino asked musingly.
"I lean more toward it being pollution. After all, you know the Government, they are all gods among men."
Asakura shrugged.
Although one cannot generalize across all prefectures and cities, the Government's efficiency is famously low; even the hole where an elderly person fell into a sinkhole and drowned last year hasn't been filled up to this day.
"I hope that's truly the case."
Yukino seemed to relax a bit.
"There's really no need to be so tense, didn't Ruri go along as well?"
Asakura continued to comfort her.
"How do you know..." Yukino was taken aback instead by Asakura's matter-of-fact display.
"It was mentioned when chatting with Ruri."
Asakura took out his phone and pulled up the text message Ruri had sent him yesterday.
[Ruri/Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Great Battle of Osaka, the Descent of the Queen of Nightmare (vampire emoji)]
[Ministry of Magic President: Universe Cat Meme.jpg]
[Ruri/Fallen Angel Kuroneko: I shall temporarily subject myself to guarding the Snow Sister, Alas (sparkling appearance emoji)]
[Ministry of Magic President: Subway Elderly Man Phone Meme.jpg]
"It feels like your chat logs don't connect with each other at all," Yukino evaluated.
"This happens occasionally." Asakura put away his phone: "In short, even if they really run into some irresistible situation, Ruri, as a member of the Ministry of Magic, has her once-a-week invincible Hearthstone, allowing her to directly teleport back to the Ministry of Magic's coven cabin."
Yukino: "..."
Is there a possibility that the one I'm worried about isn't Ruri, but my sister?
Although she really wanted to complain like this, even with Yukinoshita's emotional intelligence, she knew that saying such words would inevitably hurt someone's feelings too much.
So she merely continued to stare at Asakura with that resentful, Snow-Woman-like gaze.
Asakura let out a sneeze.
Just then, Yukino's phone rang.
The young girl looked at the caller ID and found that it was actually Haruno—she and her sister basically rarely spoke over the phone. Recently, although their relationship had improved a lot due to having a few slightly out-of-the-ordinary shared experiences, it still mostly amounted to exchanging safety updates via text message or email at night; situations where she would directly call her over the phone were still relatively rare.
"Hello?" Therefore, Yukino answered the call without much hesitation: "Is something the matter?"
[Yukino? I remember you mentioned before that Asakura would be participating in that volunteer service activity of your Sobu High, right?]
"Yes. What about it?"
[If he is right next to you, I hope you can hand him the phone.]
Yukino hesitated for a moment, but still handed her phone over to Asakura.
Asakura accepted the phone with a completely blank face, and then heard Haruno on the other end chattering away non-stop about something.
[Is that Asakura? Is it Asakura? Fantastic, we are saved!]
"No, wait a second for me, what happened?" Asakura couldn't help but pull the phone a bit farther away, asking with a slight headache.
[Did you know that Osaka inexplicably started fogging up since last night?]
"Yeah, didn't the news say it was an abnormal climate?"
Asakura asked.
[Until a short while ago, I thought so too, because Master Ruri said there was no feeling of the 'Glow-Majesty Particles of the Night Sky' in the air.]
What on earth is that incredibly awkward and tongue-twisting phrase? Recently, second-generation anime mobile games don't even use such artificially fabricated terms anymore.
Huh, what, they are still using it?
Then never mind.
In short, Ruri's meaning was that there was no magical energy present in the atmosphere.
Although she was far from matching Asakura, who possessed the function of a storage battery and was therefore extremely sensitive to magical energy, Ruri, as a witch, still had some ability to perceive magical energy to a certain extent.
"And then?"
[And then just now, we ran into Siren Head in the fog.]
"Siren... what?"
[It's a monster that's over ten meters tall, with a slender body just like a telephone pole, a head that consists of rotating sirens, its entire body covered in rusty skin, and it even mimics broadcasts when it walks.]
Asakura: "..."
Yukino stared dead at Asakura.
"An 'abnormal climate'... huh." She said in a highly sarcastic, passive-aggressive tone.
"Understood. The situation is urgent right now; let's go to America and slaughter Trevor Henderson." Asakura stated with absolute gravity.
"Wait, shouldn't we be going to Osaka? What kind of ghost story is going to America? And why did a strange person's name suddenly pop out of nowhere?" Yukino couldn't help but complain and criticize.
[Ah-ya-ya, doesn't Yukinon know? Siren Head is a monster created by Trevor Henderson, you know~]
Haruno's sarcastic voice came through the phone.
You could definitely tell they were blood sisters.
"The creator of the monster? Is he a magician too?" Yukino knit her brows, but then she very quickly realized the strange point in the phrasing: "Wait, it's not 'created' but 'authored/crafted'?"
[Trevor Henderson is a horror work artist, his general works are primarily illustrations, and besides, he is Canadian, so you wouldn't find him even if you went to America~] Haruno said.
"Setting aside that kind of matter, how are things on your end? Did you shake off that monster?"
Yukino asked with genuine concern.
Although judging by how Haruno still had the spare energy to be sarcastic, the other party shouldn't be in any particularly urgent mortal danger, yet with her own family running into this kind of incident, it was difficult even for Yukino to stay calm.
[Hmph, why must we evade its sharp edge!]
Ruri's voice suddenly burst out from Yukino's phone.
"Ruri, how is the situation right now?" Asakura hurriedly asked: "What is the strength level of that kind of monster?"
[Small fry.]
Ruri delivered a classic mesugaki declaration.
[Master Ruri is incredibly amazing, you know! She formed hand seals while chanting a massive string of incantations, and that Siren Head which was originally drawing close to us instantly turned into a pile of cats!] Haruno said, her tone completely filled with deep emotion.
[A trivial matter.]
Ruri said, though she sounded exceptionally satisfied with Haruno's compliments. It seemed that particular Yukinoshita was different from the Hiranoshita in front of Asakura, knowing perfectly well how to provide emotional value to others.
Furthermore, Asakura felt that Ruri's forming of hand seals and chanting of incantations were completely just putting on a show. After all, truly activating a magic spell only required a few syllables. For someone like Asakura who was already practiced to the point of absolute mastery, as long as the target lacked mystery levels or absolute conceptual resistance, he didn't even need to make a sound to unleash a spell in the blink of an eye.
"Ruri, do you think there's any connection between the heavy fog and the monsters?" Asakura asked the girl.
[I can't tell for sure, but there should be a connection. I feel like right now, rather than saying 'monsters have appeared in reality', it's more like 'Osaka has entered the world of monsters'. I'm sorry, I'm not particularly certain, it's just that I have this kind of feeling...]
"It's fine. A lot of times, a sudden flash of inspiration or a whim from someone possessing supernatural power carries a certain degree of credibility," Asakura said.
In fact, he was also considering what exactly the situation was right now.
Initially, Asakura figured it was probably another urban legend being manifested into reality because too many people knew about it.
If that were truly the case, then for the entirety of Osaka to be blanketed this time, the scale was simply far too massive.
Moreover, up until just now, no eyewitness reports of monsters appearing in the dense fog had leaked out onto the internet.
If Ruri and the others were the very first case to encounter a monster, what would that imply? Could it be that magical energy, or rather, witches, are more easily targeted by those things?
No matter what, the current development certainly did not look like a good thing no matter how one viewed it.
"Asakura..."
Yukino looked at Asakura, her tone hesitant, not knowing how to bring it up.
"Yeah," Asakura merely nodded quietly and handed the phone back to Yukino: "It looks like our volunteer activity is going to have to end early."
Just as Yukino wanted to give her sister a few words of caution—though she didn't know where the impression came from, she always felt that her sister seemed to quite enjoy adventures, so she would only feel at ease after saying a few words.
However, right at this moment, Haruno suddenly cried out in alarm through the phone.
[Wait... what is that?]
"Sister?" Yukino was startled by the other party's voice.
[In the sky... there seems to be something quite extraordinary appearing... Yukino... you must not come over... bzzzt...]
"Sister?!"
Before the other party could finish speaking, the call cut off directly.
Seeing this, Asakura checked his own phone and found that the internet also seemed to be starting to descend into chaos—the communication signals over on the Osaka side were cut off, and among the messages left by some people who were currently in Osaka, it could be discovered that they seemed to see something white appearing in the sky.
It was just that it happened too abruptly on the internet, causing the people leaving messages to only have a few hurried, brief words. Those who legitimately wanted to describe it probably disconnected before they could even finish typing their words...
Well then, now the 'disruption' is here too. It looks like this heavy fog definitely has some old thing behind it.
"Go find Hiratsuka-sensei to request a leave of absence for me, I'm leaving right now." Asakura stood up, picking up the plastic bag next to him that served as a little nest for the Bowtruckle, preparing to set off directly.
"I want to go too!"
Yukino immediately said to him seriously.
"No way."
Asakura flatly refused: "I have no intention of bringing a drag-along."
"But—"
"No need to be in a hurry to say 'but'," Asakura waved his hand: "I won't stop you. If you want to go, just go by yourself. It's all the same to me whether you take a plane or a train."
"Then what about you?" Yukino asked, her beautiful brows furrowing slightly once again, seemingly also remembering what those posts had said—that the traffic situation and paralysis on the Osaka side were pretty much total.
"I'm driving there myself."
Asakura replied.
Saying that, he walked out of the wooden cabin.
It was still raining outside, but not a single raindrop could fall onto his body, as if there were a transparent thin... thick membrane around him, easily separating the curtain of rain.
Asakura lightly tapped the ground twice with his foot.
Of course, this time he wasn't calling the old tree spirit.
On the empty ground in front of the wooden cabin, ripples suddenly began to undulate, but that wasn't the kind of wave kicked up by the water surface accumulated from the heavy rain on the ground. If one looked closely, it could be discovered that the thing that actually showed waves was the ground itself.
The originally solid and muddy ground turned exactly like liquid clay at this moment. After a wave that wasn't particularly turbulent passed, an old vintage car appeared, completely covered in dirt, right in the center of the empty lot.
"I don't dislike your proactive attitude, but many times, things you can't do are simply things you can't do." Asakura looked at the young girl standing behind him, just a single step away from the curtain of rain: "Rest assured, no matter what happens, I will definitely resolve it."
Yukino bit her lip, remaining completely silent.
"Don't tell me you don't believe in me?" Asakura, on the other hand, looked quite happy, turning up the corners of his mouth as he asked.
"Of course I believe in you, I'm just a little angry."
"What?"
"I don't harbor any anger toward Asakura, it's just the shame and annoyance at my own powerlessness. I clearly already decided to work hard, but just like what you said, it's exactly the same as back when the human-face sores happened—I didn't manage to achieve anything... The current me isn't even as helpful to you as Yui."
You're saying that as if Yui is completely useless...
...Well, by a witch's standards, she really is a bit weak.
"Well..." Asakura scratched his head.
Did he speak a bit too harshly just now? It felt like he had given this child a bit of an inferiority complex. What should he do if she completely shuts herself out...
"However, even so, I still won't give up."
Yet Yukino merely stared at him fixedly: "One day, I hope that I can stop being the side that gets protected. My ideal is absolutely not to be protected within someone's embrace..."
"Is that so." Asakura didn't know what to say, so he decided that it was best to just smile.
"Asakura-kun."
"?"
"Be careful on the way."
"Yeah, I will."