Deep beneath the sea.
Countless wrecks and corpses darkened the water until it was impossible to see an inch ahead. Then blue-white flames erupted.
Fwoosh! KRAAAAAASH!
The current split, and the water vaporized.
The flames carried an energy that defied the laws of nature. No—a spear shot forward like a ray of light.
Toward the enormous shadow moving at an unbelievable speed.
Toward a calamity that could never be allowed to live.
But the mythical monster defied the laws of nature just as surely as the energy in the spear did.
KRRRRRUMBLE!
The sea shook.
At the same time, large and small whirlpools of water surged up from the depths and blocked the spearhead as it raced forward.
KOOOOONG!
The collision sent waves of force spreading outward, one after another.
By the time the shock and thunderous roar that had shaken the world had subsided, the flames that had pulverized every obstacle in their path were also fading away, having exhausted their strength.
The spear had failed to reach the monster before its body vanished into the darkness far ahead.
Swish. Clack.
The sea had already grown quiet.
Someone caught the spear as it drifted helplessly with the current.
The man stood with his back to me, staring silently in the direction the monster had gone. He seemed ready to erupt like an active volcano.
No. Let me correct that.
He didn’t merely seem ready to erupt. One touch, and he would explode.
He’d been that way when the monster he could never allow to live had escaped.
And he was that way now.
“Enough.”
The instant the sharp voice slipped from my lips without my realizing it—
Flash.
A vivid green light spread through the water, and everything around me melted away.
The sea, dark as night. The enormous wreckage of high-rise buildings. Even the nameless corpses that had died with their eyes wide open.
In place of the vanished hologram, several dozen unfamiliar faces came into view.
Men in military uniforms and expensive-looking tailored suits.
The old man seated opposite me, at the head of the table, spoke with a grave expression.
“Good heavens. To think Leviathan got away.”
It was the first time I had seen his face, but according to Team Leader Choi, that old man was one of the three most powerful people in Japan.
No—if you counted the authority he actually wielded, he might be number one.
The position of Defense Minister was an immensely powerful one even in peacetime. In a situation like this, with the country at war, he possessed more power than anyone.
But looking at the old Defense Minister put me in a foul mood.
To be honest, I wanted to deal with that damned old man before Leviathan, who wasn’t even here.
Why? Simple.
An hour ago, he’d eliminated our last chance to catch it.
Now that I knew what had happened, I wasn’t about to be polite.
“Yeah. Shame it got away. If someone had helped at the end, we might have caught it.”
“……!”
The conference room went still. While the other Japanese men glanced nervously at one another, the Defense Minister fixed me with an offended stare.
“That sounds as though you’re blaming Japan. Or have my old ears misheard you?”
“I heard you were over eighty, but you’re still in good shape. Your hearing’s pretty sharp for an old man.”
“What?”
“Have your ears actually gotten worse? You already heard me, so why do you keep asking?”
“How dare—!”
Bang!
The Defense Minister slammed the table and turned to Team Leader Choi.
“Are you going to stand there and allow this insolence?”
Normally, Team Leader Choi would have given me a warning look by now.
Normally.
“By ‘insolence,’ Defense Minister, do you mean striking the table during a meeting like this?”
“What?”
“Japan formally requested assistance through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We answered that request and risked our lives to come here. And yet…”
Team Leader Choi’s words cut off, and his gaze turned cold.
“Why did you not deploy additional forces?”
“……”
“As I understand it, at the exact moment Jin Taekyung attacked Leviathan, at least two thousand Hunters had been mobilized. The Ground and Air Self-Defense Forces were also standing by.”
“That was…”
“I know most of them would not have been much help in a fight. But if you had deployed Japan’s Hunters, even then, they could have slowed Leviathan’s escape for a little while.”
Team Leader Choi’s words were clear and precise. They were also entirely true.
That little while was exactly what I’d needed.
A bit of support—and sacrifice—to distract the wounded monster and delay it as it dragged itself away.
Instead, after risking my life to go down into that deep water, I’d had to watch its back grow smaller in the distance.
Team Leader Choi and the roughly two hundred Hunters who’d disembarked from the aircraft and were preparing to enter had been forced to watch it escape, too.
“I could no longer stand by, so I tried to lead the Hunters in myself. Your side stopped us. You even invoked your authority over field operations.”
“……!”
“If you wanted to keep your own losses down and claim the credit, you should have done the job properly. Then we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
The Defense Minister clenched his lips tightly before speaking.
“The encirclement… The encirclement was perfect.”
The Skeleton King looked at me with genuine curiosity.
“If it was perfect, shouldn’t Leviathan have failed to break through?”
“Yeah. It should have.”
“But it broke through?”
“Yep.”
“And you lost track of it because of the magical power it released?”
“Yep.”
Having listened to all my helpful answers, the Skeleton King muttered, “What? Are they fucking idiots…?”
“……!”
“……!”
With that single statement striking the truth with perfect accuracy, the temperature inside the conference room dropped below freezing.
But watching everyone fall silent and glance nervously around gave me no satisfaction at all.
Fucking lunatics.
Those bugs were worse than monsters, and they were sitting there calling themselves the operation’s command staff. I couldn’t even laugh.
It’s not like I can say “fuck this” and quit.
The number of casualties confirmed so far was roughly one hundred thousand.
It was only that low because, by some stroke of luck, the tsunami Leviathan had caused had stopped around the outskirts of Tokyo.
If it returned after I left, Tokyo would be renamed Atlantis.
And if it gives up on Japan and goes after somewhere else…
That would be a problem too.
Of course, the idiots here—including that old monkey chief—would probably dance for joy because they’d survived.
“……”
The worst part was, they really would.
After letting out a hundred-percent pure, deep sigh, I spoke to the Defense Minister, who had become completely silent.
“Enough. Get me someone else in charge.”
“S-someone else?”
“The Prime Minister. Or the King of Japan. Whoever it is, they’ll be better than you.”
“The King of Japan? How dare you speak of His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Japanese Empire—”
“Oh, give me a break. How long are you going to keep up the empire crap? Your empire got flattened by two atomic bombs. You should’ve given up the title of Emperor while you were at it.”
“That was a savage and barbaric act of destruction by those American Yankees!”
I plugged my ears as the Defense Minister shrieked.
“I think I’m going to get radiation poisoning. I think I’m going to get radiation poisoning. I think I’m going to get radiation poisoning. I think I’m going to get radiation poisoning.”
“Chikshō!”1
Maybe he’d lived long enough not to care. Or maybe radiation contamination had robbed him of all fear.
Just as the Defense Minister was rampaging and charging at me with his old body, the Skeleton King reached out and seized him by the back of the neck.
“Stop, you old and insignificant hu—no, Yellow Monkey.”
“You wretch! Release me at once! How dare a fur-covered Yankee lay a hand on the Defense Minister of the Great Japanese Empire!”
“You dare insult the great United States in front of me?”
“I have not forgotten the terrible things you bastards did to this land and its innocent subjects of the Imperial State!”
Vengeful spirits of Pearl Harbor, descend upon me!
These fucking lunatics…
A Japanese imperialist from the ’70s-and-’80s generation arguing with an American monster from the Demon Realm.
Watching those horrifying hybrids with my own two eyes made my chest swell with emotion despite itself, but it was not over yet.
Fwoooooosh.
“……?”
What the hell?
A chill ran through me, and the fluorescent lights began to dim.
Even the people struggling to separate the Defense Minister and the Skeleton King shuddered in the cold.
What the hell is happening all of a sudden?
I turned my head. My eyes met Team Leader Choi’s across the room.
That was when I realized it. My mouth fell open.
A shout from moments earlier rang through my ears again.
Vengeful spirits of Pearl Harbor, descend upon me!
No. Fuck. Don’t tell me…
Whoooooosh! KRAAASH!
The eerie energy became a gale, shattering the fluorescent lights overhead.
I was already running through the sudden darkness toward someone.
“Look closely, and feel their resentment—!”
“Hey, you crazy bastard!”
Crack!
Thank goodness.
Thanks to a time-honored promotion system that still valued family and connections over ability in the twenty-first century, most of the high-ranking officials and generals in the conference room were ordinary people. They were too frightened even to hear the Skeleton King’s shout.
And apparently my demand for someone in charge had gotten through. Before long, the manager—no, the Prime Minister—arrived.
“You came all this way to help our country! I am most grateful, Jinsang!”2
“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you, Prime Minister Koizumi.”
I had never imagined I would live to see the day I met this man in person.
I’d only ever seen collections of his quotes online. Seeing him now gave me a brief jolt of excitement, like I’d met a celebrity.
Of course, this wasn’t the time to show it. We needed to deal with Leviathan.
At least, that was what I wanted to do.
I did.
“I’ll get straight to the point. To track Leviathan—”
“I hear the Defense Minister was rude to you, Jinsang.2 Once this is over, I shall reprimand him severely, if only to ease your hurt feelings!”
“Uh. Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Why the look, Jinsang?”2
“No, it’s just… We also need to discuss Leviathan. And the way you keep addressing me is a little…”
“The way I address you, Jinsang?”2
“……”
“Ah, I see. It must sound like something else in Korean. Then shall I call you Gyeongsang,3 using the last syllable of your name?”
There was no way that would work.
I’d dodged a pile of shit only to get pissed on.
Is he wishing me a minor injury next time I fight Leviathan…?
I weighed Jinsang2 against Gyeongsang,3 then sighed.
Well, at least it isn’t Severe Injury.
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