"Is it still not fixed?"
Officer Fujino was very anxious, pacing back and forth in the cabin.
Twenty minutes ago, their craft was attacked by that three-headed Kaiju. Fortunately, Duel King Youyu summoned the Netherworld Egyptian God in time to battle it, saving them from being swallowed by the dragon.
But as they say, when gods fight, mortals suffer. The clash between the Kaiju and the Egyptian God emitted lightning, and the aftermath of a lightning bolt struck their already unbalanced craft.
They crashed into an iceberg in Antarctica.
The engineers were making every effort to repair it, but so far, they hadn't managed to get the craft airborne again. The communication system was also out of operation—experts speculated that the electrical interference from the battle between the three-headed dragon and the Egyptian God affected their electronic equipment.
Fujino was agitated.
At that time, the Duel King didn't even look back as he leapt out of the cabin, and now there was no sign of him.
Although Fujino didn't particularly like this Duel King, if anything were to happen to him while he was under his watch, how could he report back to President Haima...
...No, besides that, the loss to humanity and society would be enormous!
So now the craft was wrecked, communications were down, Fujino was extremely anxious, staring out at the snow-white scenery, and he couldn't stop worrying about where Youyu was...
Just then, a beam of spotlight fell on his cabin, shining through the porthole.
A black transport aircraft hovered above them, looking down, the thick metal plates outside the black cabin clearly imprinted with the name "Emperor."
...
Moments later, Officer Fujino was standing inside the transport plane of the Emperor organization.
"So... did you just duel here?" Fujino looked at Youyu, raising an eyebrow.
Fujino seemed a bit displeased.
Goodness, on our side we were freezing while repairing the plane, worried sick about you like ants on a hot pan, and you were here chilling, playing cards in the air-conditioned room?
"It was a friendly exchange and spar," Youyu said earnestly. "I just exchanged techniques with Dr. Serizawa from the Emperor organization. He's quite an excellent duelist, showing me the strength of this organization and the power of the 'Kaiju'.
"Not at all, compared to Mr. Youyu, we're still far behind," Serizawa adjusted his glasses. "Mr. Youyu's guidance made us realize our own limitations and the gap with true strength."
Dr. Serizawa was actually considered the ace of the Emperor organization—after all, this world revolves around cards. As the Kaiju research expert capable of handling "Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju," Serizawa was naturally the strongest weapon of this organization, much more effective than intercontinental missiles or oxygen bombs.
Their round of mutual praise seemed to make Fujino, who felt like an outsider, very uncomfortable. He turned to Serizawa with an unfriendly expression: "Our department has taken over the Zero Kaiju matters, withdraw your people, Serizawa."
"The Kaiju-related matters have always been handled by 'Emperor,' maybe you haven't heard?" Dr. Serizawa maintained a smile.
"Really? I honestly haven't heard." Fujino wasn't polite at all. "If you didn't remind me, I'd have thought your focus was on studying Kaiju mating."
Youyu raised an eyebrow: "Kaiju mating?"
He didn't quite get what that reference meant.
"They bailed on the generals during the last hearing," Fujino laughed sarcastically, "leaving only a projection in the hearing hall playing a small movie about Kaiju mating."
Youyu was somewhat surprised.
This kind of thing exists?
A young listener nearby couldn't hold back, standing up from his seat and raising his hand: "Uh, just to clarify, I'm not an 'odd-jobber,' I'm Dr. Serizawa's secretary... well, perhaps an odd-jobber for the doctor,
but I remember that documentary was censored!"
He paused, and seemed less confident: "Uh... at least the crucial parts should be censored, I think..."
Youyu: "..."
But Youyu roughly understood Fujino's point.
Emperor was an established organization, founded many years ago. Their founding purpose was 'Kaiju'—massive beings that could pose a large-scale threat to humanity. However, their initial intent wasn't to eliminate Kaiju, but to study them from a scientific perspective.
Meanwhile, the D Department was a burgeoning agency responsible for all supernatural affairs worldwide, primarily focusing on handling and eliminating them.
Officer Fujino seemed to feel that the Emperor organization was taking away their business.
"Now is not the time to debate jurisdiction," Serizawa said solemnly. "I just exchanged information with Mr. Youyu, and we've agreed that the urgent task should be to concentrate all resources on tracking the whereabouts of Zero Kaiju... and the 'Light Society.'
Fujino was quite confident: "We've got it covered."
"Really?" Youyu glanced at him, "but I remember you never told me about the ancient Zero Kaiju related to 'Light of Destruction,' right?"
Fujino's face stiffened, his instant confusion seemed to say—Huh?
"'Light of Destruction,' the malevolent intention of destruction from the depths of the cosmos," Dr. Serizawa explained, "In the ancient era, the cosmic king of three heads, 'Thunderstorm Kaiju: Thunder Dragon King'—what we've always called 'Zero Kaiju'—descended upon Earth.
From our years of investigation and research at the Emperor organization, we believe there's evidence indicating this Kaiju is the carrier of 'Light of Destruction,' coming for slaughter and devastation, with the intent to flatten our world."
As he introduced, the secretary's brother had already projected related materials onto the large screen in the cabin. The images were of extensive text data, along with various shadowy outlines of "Thunderstorm Kaiju: Thunder Dragon King."
"Fortunately, there were defenders on Earth at the time." He said, "Some monster spirits stood up to resist the invaders from beyond. The mainstay of the resistance was the Kaiju 'Dogoran.'
This part of the story Youyu had heard in different versions in monster movies. Countless years ago, King Ghidorah descended upon Earth, battling Godzilla, the king of Earth, and was subsequently sealed in Antarctica.
"We've also discovered signs indicating that the Light Society, currently stirring from the Underworld, is similarly connected to the waves from 'Light of Destruction.' We believe this is also why they are so interested in Zero Kaiju."
Youyu glanced towards Fujino again: "I'm sure you guys must've discovered all of this long ago, but because of complicated confidentiality regulations, you deliberately didn't mention it?"
"Uh... uh, yes." Fujino looked elsewhere, "The army's confidentiality regulations... are very strict, yes that's it."
"Looks like your intelligence network might need an upgrade," Serizawa said.
"I think it's okay." Youyu said seriously, "Actually, their intelligence isn't slow, sometimes quite on point." After a pause, he added, "Especially compared to news and newspapers."
Though he said that, Youyu already found it odd.
Although he never had a great impression of Fujino's D Department, their intelligence network shouldn't be this poor. At least in the past events involving small lobsters and the Three Phantasm, they played quite a role.
Why does it seem like they're blind when it comes to issues related to Light of Destruction? Especially when compared to the Emperor organization, their intelligence feels significantly behind.
Fujino scowled: "But none of this helps. You researched all this time, only to know this Thunderstorm Kaiju might be a servant of 'Light of Destruction,' maybe even linked to the current Light Society.
But so what? The tasks remain unchanged, these are just pretty background stories, providing no practical help for operations..."
Youyu and Serizawa exchanged looks.
"Uh, actually that's what I was about to mention." Serizawa cleared his throat, "The leader of the Light Society, Saiou Takuma, that divination master vanished for years...
...We might have located him."
Fujino: "!"