Haruno felt that she would never forget the scene she saw earlier in her life.
The ground first undulated slightly, as if something was turning over in the depths.
Then, a low and continuous vibration crept up from beneath the soles of her feet. The soil was pushed open by a brutal force, and gravel and mud were thrown into the air.
That massive entity slowly raised its body from underground, as if a sleeping mountain were standing up once more. Irregular bony protrusions on its back extended segment by segment, like an ancient mountain ridge.
When it completely detached from the ground, the surrounding air sank.
Its back blocked the original daylight, and the shadow it cast almost engulfed the entire field of vision.
Breathing sounds came from high above, slow and heavy; each rise and fall was accompanied by hot air rolling through the cold atmosphere.
Chaotic sounds faintly emerged from the gray-white fog, as if multiple creatures were restless at the same time. Their silhouettes appeared and disappeared, and there was more than one.
The Great Beast did not stop; it merely leaned its body forward slightly and took a step. The ground crumbled, and the vibration traveled along the line of sight straight into the fog.
Second step, third step—it walked steadily toward that dense fog, and the monsters within it began to stir.
In the next instant, that white-hot radiance erupted violently, slicing through the monsters in the fog with ease—as smooth as a heated dinner knife cutting through butter—followed by immediate melting, turning them completely into ash!
"Th-this is..."
Although she had seen the other party conjure strange creatures before at the Ginza hotel, such a massive scale was still far beyond Haruno's expectations. Just looking at it from afar caused her body to spasm uncontrollably—an instinctive reaction of a living being when sensing unspeakable danger. When the disparity in the scale of life is too great, one cannot even muster thoughts like 'fleeing' or 'trembling'.
However, after this magnificent spectacle, a surge of ecstasy uncontrollably welled up in the young woman's heart.
Bringing this child to Osaka this time was indeed the right choice. As long as she could make reasonable use of this great power...
She subconsciously looked toward the girl beside her.
Then she discovered that a trail of blood was slowly sliding down the corner of Ruri's eye, like a terrifying scar, appearing exceptionally jarring on the girl's shockingly pale face.
"Master Ruri?!"
"I'm fine."
Ruri said.
She seemed to want to appear nonchalant, but because it was too strenuous, her speech instead sounded like she was gritting her teeth with all her might.
Then blood also began to seep from her nose.
Haruno was horrified.
No, no, no, there is no way you look like you're fine!
"I'll take you to rest... Tsk, of all times, the bodyguards are missing now..."
Haruno hurriedly tried to grab Ruri, who was still maintaining the pose for summoning Godzilla, to take her to a nearby place where she could rest.
However, because of Godzilla's explosive birth, the ground had suffered discontinuous collapses, and many places had become riddled with potholes. Even the breakwater, which had originally been planted with grass, was now uneven, clearly unsuitable for resting.
"No... it's not time yet."
Ruri panted slightly, then coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"It's already over, Master Ruri. The monsters have all been wiped out by your... uh, familiar. The fog is also starting to clear. It doesn't matter if you make that big guy disappear now."
Haruno said, gently comforting her while supporting Ruri.
"That's not the problem... [Great Beast] cannot just disappear."
Ruri shook her head gently.
Is that called the Great Beast? But it looks like Godzilla no matter how you look at it...
Haruno muttered to herself, but still asked: "Will there be any problem if you make it disappear now?"
Could it be that it will turn back into stone?
A stone over a hundred meters high and nearly a hundred thousand tons falling from the sky would indeed be quite dangerous; if luck were bad, it wouldn't be impossible to cause a super massive secondary disaster.
As expected of Master Ruri, even now, is she still so concerned about ordinary people?
At this moment, Ruri said slowly.
"It doesn't fit the setting."
"?"
[Great Beast] should disappear into the sea."
"..."
Don't worry about the setting at a time like this!
Also, this thing is definitely Godzilla, right!
Fortunately, their current location was not too far from Osaka Bay. After Ruri issued the final command to God... [Great Beast], she collapsed into Haruno's arms with a thud.
And that magnificent giant beast, like a Tokusatsu monster that left its mark on film history, slowly walked into the sea, leaving the people of Osaka with a meaningful silhouette before instantly disappearing into the ocean.
Several years after the disaster, the people of Osaka, in order to commemorate the monster that saved them, specially built a statue of Godzilla in the center of the affected area. They also proposed many curious explanations for the phenomenon of it instantly disappearing into the sea, but most believed that it must have been a miraculous moment that displayed some kind of supernatural power.
As for the instigator, Ruri, when Asakura curiously asked about this matter, she told him the real answer obtained from the [Great Beast]'s side.
"Because there is a ring of cliff-like ocean trenches outside Osaka Bay. At the time, [Great Beast] couldn't see clearly beneath its feet, lost its footing, and fell in."
She said: "Because it felt a bit embarrassing to stand up again, it crawled away afterward."
Asakura: "..."
That feels so pathetic, [Great Beast].
Time returns to the present.
Although the fog disaster had been initially quelled and the thick fog was gradually dispersing, Haruno had finally found her two female bodyguards and had them take the fainted Ruri to a nearby luxury hot spring inn.
"Be careful. She was hit in the face by flying rocks during the earthquake earlier, which is why she fainted."
Haruno warned them.
"Shouldn't we take your friend to the hospital, Miss?"
One of the bodyguards asked in a low voice.
"Are you telling me how to do my job?"
Haruno narrowed her eyes and stared at the other person.
"...I wouldn't dare."
The latter hurriedly bowed and scraped, almost dropping Ruri to the ground.
However, she couldn't help but complain inwardly: Could it be that this child doesn't have a good relationship with the young lady?
And Haruno naturally had her own thoughts.
After all, Ruri wasn't actually knocked unconscious by a rock; it was from overexerting her magic (in her opinion).
As an ordinary person, she didn't know if anything suspicious would be detected if she were sent to a hospital in this condition.
Honestly, she didn't dare to gamble.
Therefore, for now, all she could do was temporarily settle the young girl and wait for someone who could make decisions to arrive—when the fog began to clear, she had confirmed that mobile communication seemed to have been restored, but when she called Yukino, for some reason it was in a busy state, so she could only wait a while before trying again.
But shortly after, she received a text message from Yukino, which clearly stated that that lord was on the way.
This made Haruno breathe a sigh of relief.
Although, in her view, Ruri, who could summon God... [Great Beast], might be even more powerful than Mr. Asakura, judging from Ruri's attitude toward that lord at the Ginza hotel, even if the other party wasn't as powerful as Ruri, they must be a veteran. At the very least, compared to an ordinary person like herself, they would know better how to handle Ruri's current situation.
Because of Ruri's timely intervention, although a super-giant monster appeared in the fog, the final damage caused was not so great that it was unacceptable.
Therefore, post-disaster order did not collapse, especially after the police intervened, allowing everything to return to calm.
But precisely because of this, even though it was late at night, the area outside The Inn was brightly lit due to various emergency lights and the like. Combined with ambulances and fire trucks running back and forth, the crying of children and the scolding of adults, as well as the police shouting to maintain order, it was as if they were in a bustling market—full of noise and clamor.
Haruno felt her temples throbbing uncontrollably, and her head was buzzing from the noise.
Fortunately, Ruri was still in a deep sleep and didn't seem to be disturbed by the noise outside.
...Perhaps in a sense, it would be better if she showed signs of being disturbed?
Haruno couldn't be sure about that, though.
After barely making it to the second half of the night, whether it was the affected citizens or the busy doctors and firefighters, things had settled down a bit, and Haruno finally felt a little sleepy.
Just then, a sound boomed, causing her to open her eyes abruptly.
The nerves that had been tense because of the fog were plucked once again. She didn't know if it counted as PTSD, but the young woman's body tensed up tightly.
The two female bodyguards in the same room as her also perked up. After exchanging a glance, they quietly walked to the door at Haruno's instruction—that booming sound had come from the hallway outside the door.
Because it was a fairly high-end hot spring inn, it retained a considerable degree of traditional Japanese elements, so most of The Inn's architecture was wooden, and it was only two stories high at most.
In normal times, this design was indeed quite elegant, but in chaotic times, the semi-open Japanese-style courtyard meant it was easy to be invaded from the outside, and those wooden-framed paper sliding doors were somewhat meant to keep out honest people rather than villains.
In the next instant, the two bodyguards suddenly slid open the door, wanting to launch a fierce attack on the person standing outside.
As a result, they slammed into an invisible wall, and were immediately transformed into two small snakes amidst uncontrollable screams.
Seeing this scene, Haruno was startled at first, but then she calmed down.
"It has been a long time, Mr. Asakura."
She stood up and said to the young man in the hallway.
In the wooden corridor bridge, the front of an old-fashioned Ford car was stuck diagonally into the ceiling, looking as if it had fallen from the sky without finding a good landing spot—to put it more colloquially, it looked like it had crashed.
The floor was covered with wood shavings and glass shards.
And in the midst of this mess, the young man stood leisurely in the hallway, not even a speck of dust on him.
Right, such a divine figure—how could he really crash here? He must have chosen to appear this way for some reason.
"How is Ruri?"
The other party asked.
Haruno was just about to answer when she saw him frown slightly and make a 'quiet' gesture at her.
Immediately after, the young man brought his two fingers together to his chest, formed a strange hand sign, and said softly: "Domain Expansion: Minovsky Particle Diffusion."
Haruno didn't actually watch much anime, but because Hiratsuka liked it, she was occasionally dragged along to watch some.
Such as Gundam and so on.
Thus, the young woman had a retort stuck in her throat: So you're actually a Newtype, huh.
However, in the next instant, Haruno saw countless points of light seemingly spread out, only to disappear entirely in the blink of an eye.
Although everything seemed to have no changes, the young woman always felt that the surrounding air had indeed undergone some kind of change.
It was as if she were standing in some invisible cage...
She subconsciously took out her phone and checked the screen from an angle where he couldn't see.
No service.
Haruno gasped.
Do you actually have a Gundam?
Has the supernatural world surpassed ordinary people even in terms of science?
Immediately, she realized something, and her expression became somewhat ugly.
"Mr. Asakura... are you trying to say that someone is eavesdropping..."
"Ah no, that's not it."
Asakura replied: "I just discovered that there were hidden cameras for filming in that room."
Haruno: "..."
No, no, no, this is actually worse in a sense!
She screamed in her heart.
By the way, she had already had her bodyguards check all the places where hidden cameras were likely to appear when they checked in, so how could there still be fish that slipped through the net...
"Compared to that,"
Haruno took a deep breath, letting herself calm down a little: "Master Ruri, she..."
"Take me to see her."
Asakura said loudly.
Haruno immediately made way, allowing him to walk into the room.The two small snakes that were the bodyguards in the room scurried around in panic.
Asakura pointed his finger, and the two snakes immediately froze, then obediently slithered to Haruno's feet.
This time, it was Haruno's expression that looked somewhat unnatural, as she clearly wasn't used to being surrounded by two snakes.
To divert her attention, she said to Asakura, "Because I wasn't sure if sending her to the hospital in this situation would reveal anything strange, I had to move her here to rest for a while..."
Asakura performed a quick check and immediately reached a conclusion.
"The situation is a bit bad... Don't worry, it's not your fault."
As soon as Asakura said this, he saw Haruno's expression turn grim, so he comforted her, "It's just that her body has a small problem... But thanks to this child having... well, encountered some things before, her body is actually tougher than average... Even tougher than mine... If it were anyone else, they would probably have died instantly the moment she used such a reckless Magic Spell."
Asakura sighed, "Alright, prepare a bath for me."
Looking at Ruri, he added, "The kind that can be mixed bathing."