Volume 1, Chapter 22: The Linjiang Crisis
3:48 a.m.
Linjiang North Bridge.
The wall of water was still rising.
At first, the people standing on the bridge deck didn't even run.
Because their brains didn't immediately understand what was in front of them.
The river, hundreds of meters wide, looked as if an invisible hand had lifted it whole from below. Layer after layer of black water piled up, forming an enormous, almost vertical wall against the night sky. The very top was torn apart by the wind, white spray scattering outward and then falling again under the bridge lights like a rainstorm.
Thirty meters.
Forty meters.
Still going up.
The small cargo ship that had been sailing normally under the bridge was lifted by the water, its bow tilting up to an unbelievable angle, and the securing locks on the containers on its deck snapped one after another.
CRACK!
The first container slid off.
Then a second.
The crew finally reacted, and alarms went off all at once.
"Get out!"
The Nexus on-site supervisor practically roared it.
"Everyone off the bridge deck!"
"Forget the vehicles!"
"Run!"
The people who had just been gathered around the transport vehicles in strict accordance with the plan scattered in an instant.
But the shout had already come too late.
The top of the wall of water began to tilt.
Not in any single direction.
The entire upper half simply lost its support.
Like a high-rise made of river water beginning to collapse.
Toward North Bridge.
It came crashing down.
***
BOOM—!!!
The leading edge of the water hit the bridge piers first.
The whole bridge shuddered as if something had punched it hard from below.
Every vehicle on the deck bounced at once.
Then the real mass of water came down on top of it.
Black river water surged over the guardrails.
Lamp posts snapped outright.
The heavy transport vehicle was shoved several meters sideways, and the side panel of its already-breached compartment tore away completely.
A Nexus escort vehicle slammed into the median.
Its airbags burst open instantly.
Farther away.
Ordinary vehicles that hadn't fully left the approach ramp had no idea what was happening ahead.
The first sedan braked hard.
The car behind it braked too.
But the ones farther back were already too late.
BANG!
BANG BANG!
A chain of collisions quickly spread backward.
Within seconds.
Both sides of North Bridge were in chaos.
***
Tanaka Makoto didn't even see the wall of water start to rise.
He was just driving forward, following the temporary detour signs.
Then every car ahead suddenly lit its brake lights.
"What the..."
He hit the brakes on reflex.
Right after.
A boom far too heavy to be thunder rolled toward him from ahead.
Even the car windows shook.
Tanaka looked up.
The next second.
His expression froze completely.
At the far end of the bridge deck ahead.
A piece of the night sky was missing.
To be precise—
It was blocked by water.
An entire wall of black river water was bearing down from the side of the bridge.
"..."
For once, Tanaka didn't even have time to swear.
He cranked the steering wheel hard.
His little delivery truck had just started to swerve aside.
When the first rush of water swept across the road.
The rear of the truck lost its grip instantly.
The whole truck spun out sideways.
BANG!
Its right side slammed into the guardrail.
The seatbelt cinched tight across his chest.
Tanaka's vision went black for half a second.
"Hss—"
When he looked up again.
The window beside the driver's seat had cracked into a spiderweb.
The truck was wedged at an angle between the side road and the main bridge's maintenance area.
A snapped lamp post lay across the hood.
The engine was still running.
But one side's tires were already off the ground.
He tried to open the door.
It wouldn't budge.
"..."
Tanaka was silent for two seconds.
He picked up his phone.
There was still signal.
His first instinct wasn't to call the police.
Calling the police obviously wouldn't do any good at this point.
He glanced at the time.
Then opened the staff group chat.
His finger paused.
3:49 a.m.
Other than himself.
What normal person would be awake right now?
In the end, he backed out.
And called the fire department.
***
On the other side.
Takahashi Misaki woke up later than her driver.
She had been leaning against the car window, sleeping so deeply she'd nearly lost consciousness.
Then her whole body was suddenly yanked tight by her seatbelt.
Her head hit the side of the seat.
"Ow!"
The taxi driver was swearing too.
"What's going on?!"
The road ahead was already a mess.
Every warning light on the bridge was flashing.
Horns.
Brakes.
Screams.
And in the distance, some kind of enormous crash of rushing water.
Misaki leaned over to the window.
She took just one look.
And every trace of sleepiness vanished.
"...No way."
She saw the river.
Not beneath the bridge.
But on top of it.
A huge amount of water was pouring over the guardrail from the other side of the road and rushing along the bridge deck.
A white van was even shoved crookedly into the central median.
The taxi driver had already started reversing.
"We have to go, we have to get out—"
Before he could finish.
The car suddenly sank toward the left.
Misaki's body tipped along with it.
She grabbed the door handle on instinct.
"What was that?"
The driver stepped on the gas.
The engine roared.
But the car didn't move forward normally.
Instead, at a very strange angle—
It slowly began sliding toward the side of the bridge.
The driver's face went white.
"The wheels!"
"No—"
He'd already turned the steering wheel all the way.
But the car kept moving sideways.
As if the whole taxi had suddenly been set on a floor that was tilting more and more steeply.
The problem was.
The bridge deck wasn't tilted.
At least, not to the naked eye.
Misaki looked down.
And saw something even stranger.
A half-finished plastic water bottle by the seat.
Was rolling across the floor of the car—
Sideways, toward the door.
Not toward the front.
Not toward the back.
To the left.
She slowly raised her head.
"Driver."
"...Yeah?"
"This isn't a problem with the car, is it?"
The driver couldn't say a word.
***
3:49 a.m.
Shuichi was already dressed.
So fast that even he was a little surprised.
Black pants.
A loose jacket.
Sneakers.
Phone shoved into his pocket.
He had just pulled his door open.
When the door next door opened at almost the same time.
Yusei stood in his doorway.
He'd already pulled on a dark hoodie, and his hair had obviously just been raked through a couple of times with his fingers after waking up.
The two of them looked at each other.
Neither asked "why are you awake" first.
Because the second tremendous boom was already reaching them from the distance.
Even the window glass gave a faint rattle.
Yusei looked north.
"North Bridge."
Shuichi said "mm."
Yusei turned to look at him.
"How do you know?"
"Just saw it on the news."
In reality, the news hadn't even had time to officially put out the location yet.
Shuichi realized that himself as soon as he said it.
But Yusei didn't think too hard about it.
Because the connection that was always there in his chest was growing more pronounced.
An intensely uneasy feeling.
Coming from a different direction.
Asakawa.
She was awake too.
And rapidly going on alert.
Yusei pulled out his phone.
At almost the same moment.
Mio's message arrived.
【Are you awake?】
Yusei replied immediately.
【Yeah, something happened at North Bridge.】
Less than three seconds later.
【I saw too.】
Then.
【I'm going over.】
Yusei typed.
【Wait for me.】
Message sent.
Mio didn't reply.
Yusei knew at a glance.
"She's definitely not waiting."
Shuichi was already heading for the stairs.
"Normal."
Yusei followed.
"Where are you going?"
"To look."
"Look at what?"
"The bridge."
"Why are you tagging along?"
Shuichi looked back.
"What about you?"
Yusei stopped for a moment.
He couldn't even be bothered to come up with an excuse.
"I'm going to help."
"Then I'll watch you help."
"..."
Yusei hurried after him.
"You stay put on the outskirts."
"Mm."
"Don't wander off."
"Mm."
"If it's really dangerous, leave."
Shuichi didn't slow down.
"I know."
He agreed far too readily.
If anything, it made Yusei even more uneasy.
But there was no time to argue with him now.
The two of them had just reached the bottom of the stairs.
When city emergency alerts finally started popping up on their phones in waves.
【A major incident has occurred in the Linjiang North Bridge area.】
【Nearby residents, stay away from riverside areas.】
【North Bridge and riverside roads are now under full lockdown.】
A third came right after.
【WARNING: Unknown abnormal phenomena are suspected in the incident area. Do not go there on your own.】
Shuichi glanced at it.
And pressed his phone dark.
Too late.
They were already out the door.
***
3:50 a.m.
Asakawa Mio was running fast.
But she hadn't transformed yet.
Where she lived wasn't in the same apartment building as Yusei and Shuichi, but it was actually a little closer to North Bridge.
The very instant she woke from sleep, she knew something was wrong.
It wasn't a calamity beast alert.
Her phone didn't even have any messages at the time.
It was Yusei, on the other end of the connection, suddenly jolting awake.
Then his heart rate had picked up.
And only after that had the first boom come from the distance.
By the time Mio rushed out of her place.
The northern night sky was already blurred by some enormous cloud of mist.
She checked the local emergency channel as she ran.
The first leaked video to be uploaded shook badly.
The person filming was obviously in a high-rise far away.
In the frame.
The whole Linjiang River looked as if it had suddenly thrown up a wall.
Mio stopped running.
"..."
She quickly turned into an old street with relatively few cameras.
Whenever an incident this big happened, she would transform here.
Tonight was no different.
Only, she had just reached the end of the street.
When another tremendous boom came from the direction of the bridge area.
Right after.
A small delivery truck that had been knocked almost completely out of control crashed from the side road ahead into a barrier.
Its front end swung around.
And it ended up wedged at an angle outside a maintenance entrance.
Mio had been about to go around it.
Then she saw the person inside the door.
She stopped short.
"..."
That face was far too familiar.
Tanaka Makoto was gripping the steering wheel, trying to kick open the jammed door.
He had just looked up.
And saw her too.
The two of them stared at each other through the cracked car window.
"Asakawa?"
Tanaka's first reaction wasn't even to ask.
What she was doing here.
It was to yell.
"What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?!"
Mio: "..."
She ran over.
"Manager, are you hurt?"
"I got banged up, nothing serious."
Tanaka tugged at the door a couple of times.
"The door's stuck."
Mio looked at the front of the truck.
The lamp post and the guardrail had sealed the driver's side completely.
The passenger side, on the other hand, was close to the maintenance passage.
Normally, he could get out that way.
The problem was that the ground suddenly shifted again.
This time, Mio clearly felt it herself.
Her whole body's center of gravity was pulled toward the river.
She immediately steadied herself against the truck.
Tanaka swore inside the cab too.
The little ornament hanging from the rearview mirror swung almost horizontal.
Mio looked up.
A string of metal-tearing sounds came from the bridge in the distance.
The next anomaly might be even stronger.
There wasn't enough time.
Tanaka was still trying to undo his seatbelt.
"You go first."
He said.
"I'll wait for the fire department."
Mio didn't move.
"Asakawa?"
She looked at Tanaka.
A few seconds later.
She spoke very calmly.
"Manager."
"What?"
"There's something."
Tanaka frowned.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
Mio took a light breath.
"Please don't tell anyone."
Tanaka: "?"
The next second.
Blue light spread out from beneath her feet.
For the first time, Tanaka's expression stopped dead.
***
There was no drawn-out ritual.
Because there was no time.
Pale-blue hair rapidly spread out from among the dark strands and streamed back in the night wind and mist.
Her eyes brightened to a clear blue.
Her supermarket uniform was covered by a layer of flowing energy.
A form-fitting white-and-blue combat structure took shape along her body.
The golden King's Mark flashed at her side and on her thigh.
Silver-blue over-the-knee battle boots touched down.
Finally.
The lance solidified out of the light in her right hand.
The whole process took no more than a second or two.
Tanaka sat in the driver's seat.
He couldn't say a single word.
Mio had already walked over to the door.
She gripped the lance with both hands.
And drove the tip into the gap in the twisted metal.
Tanaka finally found his voice.
"...Blue Lance?"
Mio's ears felt a little hot.
Even in a situation like this, it was still a bit awkward.
"Yes."
"You?"
"Yes."
"..."
Tanaka fell silent.
Mio pried hard.
CREAK—!
The warped car door was wrenched open by brute force.
She grabbed its edge.
And pulled once more.
The whole door came right off its latch.
Tanaka looked at her.
Then at the door.
Then back at her.
A lot of things seemed to be snapping together in his head at lightning speed.
Stomachaches.
Suddenly leaving her post.
Calamity beasts appearing.
Half an hour in the bathroom.
The injured wrist.
A vein at Tanaka's temple twitched, very slowly.
Mio had already held out her hand.
"Can you walk on your own?"
"I can."
Tanaka undid his seatbelt and climbed out of the truck.
He'd barely touched the ground.
When a tremendous crash suddenly came from the distance.
Mio's head whipped around.
A whole cluster of lights in the middle section of North Bridge shifted sideways at once.
The vehicles on the bridge were sliding in one direction.
Her face changed instantly.
Tanaka saw it too.
"Go."
Mio looked back.
Tanaka was leaning against the truck.
"My legs aren't broken."
"But—"
"The fire department's right behind us."
Tanaka pointed at the rescue vehicle lights that had started approaching in the distance.
Then he looked at the young woman in front of him, the one whose shifts he scheduled every day, whom he nagged to clock in on time, who occasionally grumbled a little about overtime.
And at the lance in her hand.
His expression grew somewhat complicated.
But in the end, he said only this.
"Asakawa."
"Yes?"
"From now on, if something comes up, don't just vanish for half an hour without a word again."
Mio was taken aback.
Tanaka's tone was irritable.
"At least send a message."
"..."
She suddenly felt a little like laughing.
"Got it."
"And one more thing."
"Yes?"
"Don't get hurt."
That line, at last, sounded a little less like a manager.
Mio was quiet for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"Okay."
The next second.
Blue-and-white light exploded from where she stood.
Tanaka raised a hand to block the rush of air.
When he opened his eyes again.
Mio had already leapt onto the outer edge of a building in the distance.
A few bounds.
Straight for North Bridge.
Tanaka stood there watching for a long time.
Then he looked down.
And saw the car door she'd ripped off lying on the ground.
"..."
He was silent for a few seconds.
He picked up his phone.
Opened the staff group chat.
His finger hovered over Asakawa Mio's name.
In the end, he didn't send a message.
He just swore very quietly.
"What kind of people have I been hiring..."
***
North Bridge.
The third disorientation had begun.
This time, the affected area expanded to nearly a kilometer of the main bridge.
The bridge deck itself didn't noticeably tilt.
But every unsecured object started sliding toward the south side.
Vehicles.
Broken glass.
Dropped phones.
Water.
And people.
"Hold on to something!"
Someone shouted.
A Nexus staff member clung to a structure at the side of the bridge for dear life.
Another was hoisted completely off his feet by his safety line.
Farther off.
An overnight bus's tires no longer meant anything in terms of friction.
The whole bus was moving sideways toward the guardrail.
The dozen or so people inside who hadn't evacuated yet screamed.
The driver stood on the brakes.
It did nothing.
The right side of the bus had already hit the guardrail.
The metal groaned.
The first railing started to bend outward.
People inside started crowding toward the other side.
But the so-called "other side" meant nothing at all.
Their bodies were being pulled in that wrong direction too.
The bus slid another half meter.
The guardrail's second joint snapped.
Below was the Linjiang River.
"Help!"
Someone pounded on a window.
The next second.
A streak of blue-white light shot across the mist from the distance.
BOOM!
A lance came down from the sky.
And pierced straight into the bridge deck beside the bus.
Nearly half the shaft sank in.
Mio planted one foot on the guardrail.
Her left hand gripped the bus's already deformed frame.
Her whole body was pulled outward at an angle by the abnormal direction.
But she didn't budge.
The moment she landed.
Several people on the bridge deck nearby froze.
Someone shouted on reflex.
"Blue Lance!"
Mio had no time to respond at all.
"Everyone in the bus, move to the left side!"
Her voice cut through the alarms around them.
"Don't all move at once!"
"One at a time!"
The driver reacted first.
He began organizing the passengers to move toward the relatively safer side.
Mio's grip on the bus frame tightened bit by bit.
Her Kingship-boosted body's strength was far beyond what it used to be.
If it were only this bus.
She could drag it back with no trouble at all.
The problem was that "down" in this world was currently tilting toward the river.
She was fighting a force that could keep dragging away the entire bus, passengers and all, through the anomalous field.
And that force was still growing.
The metal bridge deck slowly cracked beneath her battle boots.
Mio gritted her teeth.
Just then.
The golden connection in her chest suddenly flickered.
Very faintly.
But clearly.
In the distance.
Yusei could already fully sense what she was doing.
***
"Asakawa's straining."
Yusei suddenly said.
He and Shuichi had already gotten into a taxi they'd flagged down on the spot.
The driver hadn't wanted to head toward North Bridge at all.
In the end, he could only drop them off two kilometers away.
The road ahead was completely closed off.
Yusei had just gotten out of the car.
When he stopped for a moment.
Shuichi looked back.
"What?"
Yusei looked down at his hands.
"She's holding something up."
"Heavy?"
"Yeah."
"Is she hurt?"
Yusei closed his eyes and felt for it for an instant.
"Not yet."
Shuichi looked into the distance.
The night sky over North Bridge had already turned the color a disaster site ought to be.
Red and blue emergency lights.
Bridge lights.
Mist.
And huge shadows that kept swaying.
"Let's go."
He said.
Yusei looked at him.
"You're really going in?"
"To the outskirts."
"Shuichi."
"I know."
"You—"
"Get over there first."
For once, Shuichi didn't argue with him.
"Asakawa matters more than me."
Yusei was stunned for an instant.
Shuichi was already walking ahead.
"Don't just stand there."
Yusei followed.
After running a few steps.
He couldn't help glancing at Shuichi's back again.
What he'd said just now sounded...
A little strange.
But clearly, now wasn't the time to think about it.
***
The two of them quickly reached the first rescue cordon.
Beyond it, ordinary people weren't allowed in.
Firefighters, police, and paramedics were being constantly deployed toward the bridge area.
The riverside roads were already deep in water.
In the distance, cars had been washed up onto the roadside.
Yusei put on the dark face mask he'd brought with him.
And pulled his hood low.
Shuichi looked him over twice.
"You're planning to go in like that?"
"What else?"
"People can still recognize you."
"Then what do I do?"
Shuichi glanced to the side.
A motorcycle rescue volunteer had just taken off his helmet and set it on his bike seat, then run off to help move equipment.
Shuichi was silent for a second.
"No."
Yusei: "I haven't said anything yet."
"You've got the look of someone about to steal something."
"Borrow."
"If the owner doesn't know, it's called stealing."
"..."
In the end, of course, they didn't take it.
But not far on.
They really did come across a temporary rescue supply point with a few spare protective helmets laid out.
Black.
Full-face.
Originally meant for bridge maintenance and emergency crews.
Yusei looked at Shuichi.
Shuichi looked back.
"This one's fine."
"You just said—"
"You sign it out."
"Oh."
A minute later.
Yusei had put on a full-face black safety helmet.
Dark hoodie.
Work gloves.
Ordinary pants.
He really was a lot harder to recognize now.
Shuichi looked him up and down.
"You look like a delivery guy."
Yusei's voice came from inside the helmet.
"Shut up."
"Really."
"You want to wear one too?"
"No need."
"You stay on the outskirts."
"I know."
Yusei stared at him for a few seconds.
In the end, he didn't keep at it.
He turned and ran toward the rescue command area.
***
Of course, he couldn't get in.
At least, not normally.
A firefighter held up a hand to stop him.
"You can't go in here!"
Yusei spoke through the helmet.
"I can help."
"Back up!"
The words had barely left his mouth.
When a sudden scream came from up ahead.
A small engineering vehicle, knocked askew by the water, was stuck against a tilted guardrail.
A rescue worker was pinned underneath it.
A few people were trying to use a jack.
But the ground kept changing.
There was no way to hold it steady.
Yusei took one look.
And went straight around.
"Hey!"
The firefighter reached out to stop him.
He missed.
Yusei ran over to the engineering vehicle.
"Is he still alive?"
Someone underneath shouted back.
"His leg's stuck!"
"The vehicle can't move again!"
Yusei glanced down at the structure.
Then grabbed the edge of the vehicle's body with both hands.
At first, the people around him didn't even understand what he was about to do.
The next second.
The engineering vehicle slowly lifted.
"..."
Everyone froze.
Yusei gritted his teeth.
"What are you staring at!"
"Pull him out!"
That shout snapped everyone awake.
The trapped rescue worker was quickly dragged clear.
Yusei made sure the man was clear.
Only then did he lower the vehicle back down bit by bit.
THUD.
The wheels touched the ground.
The surroundings went quiet for a moment.
The firefighter who had tried to stop him looked at this man in the black helmet.
Then at the vehicle.
"You..."
Yusei shook out his hands.
"What else can I help with?"
The firefighter was silent for two seconds.
Then pointed ahead.
"Come with me."
That was the entire process by which he got access to the scene tonight.
***
The outskirts.
Shuichi didn't follow him in.
He stood in a slightly elevated temporary parking area.
Watching.
The first wall of water had partly receded.
But the river was nowhere near back to normal.
The water flowed in directions so chaotic it didn't behave like water at all.
In some areas, it ran downstream.
In others, it flowed backward.
At the very center there were even several low-lying hollows that completely defied the normal laws of fluids.
Shuichi watched for a dozen seconds or so.
His gaze slowly shifted to the bridge deck.
Debris on the bridge was sliding.
Stopping.
Falling back into place.
And before long—
Starting to drift in a different direction.
"..."
It wasn't random.
At least, not entirely random.
He took out his phone.
Opened the timer.
The first record.
Counting from the end of the last round.
Forty-six seconds.
The second round of the anomaly began.
It lasted five seconds.
And ended.
Shuichi restarted the timer.
None of the rescue workers around paid any attention to this young man leaning on the railing.
Everyone was too busy.
Second time.
Fifty seconds.
The third hadn't started yet.
Shuichi looked up at the river.
A plank drifting on the water had been spinning along with the current.
Then suddenly—
It paused, ever so slightly.
And shifted half a meter against the current.
Shuichi's eyes changed.
"Here it comes."
A young firefighter hauling rescue rope nearby heard him.
"What?"
Shuichi raised his voice.
"Hold on to something!"
"Huh?"
"Three seconds!"
The firefighter didn't even have time to ask.
The next instant.
The whole world tilted again.
The firefighter's body lurched hard to the side.
The rope box in his hands went flying.
Shuichi had already grabbed a fixed railing beside him.
His body was pulled sideways.
But he didn't fall.
Three seconds.
Four seconds.
It ended.
The rope box crashed back to the ground.
The firefighter stared at him, still shaken.
"How did you know?"
Shuichi let go.
"The water."
"What water?"
Shuichi pointed at the river.
"Before it changes, it flows backward for a moment."
The firefighter followed his finger.
He couldn't make sense of anything.
Shuichi had already restarted the timer.
"The next one's in about forty to fifty seconds."
"..."
The firefighter stared at him.
"What do you do?"
Shuichi thought about it.
"Supermarket employee."
"..."
***
On the bridge.
The bus was finally being pulled back to the safe zone bit by bit.
Mio's battle boots left two clear gouges in the bridge deck.
The silver lance was still stuck in the ground as an anchor.
The feeling from the other end of the connection was getting clearer and clearer.
Yusei had arrived.
She knew.
She didn't even need to see him.
The very next second.
The power inside her body, which had been holding at a high level the whole time, suddenly dropped a little.
Someone was controlling her output at a steadier level for her.
Mio was startled.
Then realized right away.
Yusei.
From around 70%.
Down to about 55%.
Less burst.
But holding it for a long time actually became easier.
Her grip on the bus frame steadied even more.
"..."
That guy.
When had he learned to do that?
In the distance.
Yusei himself was stunned for a moment too.
He'd simply sensed that Asakawa didn't need more power right now.
So he'd instinctively tried adjusting the connection.
And it had actually worked.
On the bridge.
Mio didn't ask.
She just let out a soft breath.
And kept dragging the bus back.
It was the first adjustment the two of them had ever made without talking it over.
***
Takahashi Misaki no longer thought she had any chance of "getting home safe."
The taxi had stopped less than twenty meters from the edge of the bridge.
The so-called "down" changed every few dozen seconds.
The car had already slid more than ten meters along the bridge deck.
It had only stopped for now after hitting another car.
The driver had split his forehead open.
He was a little dazed.
Misaki undid her own seatbelt.
The first thing she did was go to help the driver.
"Driver?"
"...I'm fine."
The driver shook his head.
"You get out first."
Misaki tried pushing the door.
The right door wouldn't open.
The left side—
Outside was a badly deformed guardrail.
Worse still.
When the car had slid sideways just now, its underside had hit a broken metal structure.
One of the rear wheels was already hanging in the air.
If she moved even slightly.
The whole car rocked with her.
The driver's face went white.
"Don't move!"
Misaki froze immediately.
Someone was shouting in the distance.
Rescue workers were approaching this way.
But several cars were strewn every which way in between.
The next disorientation could come at any moment.
Misaki took a deep breath.
She looked down and felt for her phone.
The signal kept cutting in and out.
Messages wouldn't go through.
She suddenly remembered what she'd thought yesterday as she left.
Once she went back to Nanting, she'd probably just go back to working normally.
Yet less than a day later.
She was stuck on a bridge.
"..."
Were she and Linjiang just not meant to be?
As she was thinking that.
Someone suddenly screamed in the distance.
Misaki looked up.
Beside the bus that Blue Lance had just pulled back.
A blue-white figure pulled out a lance.
And almost the very next second, charged off toward another danger point.
Pale-blue hair drew a striking trail through the mist.
Misaki's eyes lit up.
"Blue Lance..."
Of course she'd seen her before.
Online.
On the news.
In the supermarket's staff break room.
She'd even discussed the new combat suit with Asakawa, Shuichi, and the others.
But actually seeing her in person was a completely different feeling.
So fast.
Fast like a streak of blue light skimming across the bridge deck.
Misaki should have been happy.
A hero had arrived.
But for some reason.
When that figure flashed past in the distance.
She felt a strange flicker of familiarity.
Not her face.
At this distance, there was no way to make it out.
It was her movements.
Or rather—
Something she couldn't put into words.
She frowned.
But had no time to keep thinking about it.
The taxi suddenly slid another centimeter toward the outside of the guardrail.
Misaki's face changed instantly.
"..."
Better focus on staying alive first.
***
3:56 a.m.
The Linjiang Security Technology Center.
Saeki Soichi had been standing in front of the main screen for a full eight minutes.
The scene footage kept switching.
The transport vehicle losing control.
The core falling into the river.
The first wall of water.
Damage to the bridge.
And then the ever more frequent shifts in abnormal direction.
Technicians reported rapidly.
"The anomaly zone is still expanding!"
"Currently centered on the point where the core entered the water, the radius is already over 1,100 meters!"
"Maximum difference in water-level fluctuation: 19.7 meters!"
"Multiple points on North Bridge's main structure are taking abnormal lateral loads!"
"Water levels downstream are starting to change abnormally too!"
Kamiya's face already looked grim.
"And the core's location?"
"Nothing at all!"
"Sonar?"
"The underwater environment is too chaotic to form a usable image!"
"The transport case?"
"Nothing either!"
Saeki hadn't said a word.
Not until the screen once again showed the entire bridge area shifting toward one direction at the same time.
Finally, he spoke.
"What does this ability resemble?"
No one answered.
Kamiya looked at him.
Saeki didn't know either.
At least, he'd never seen anything like it in the past.
But one thing was already very clear.
After the black core had fallen into the water.
It had finally started truly working.
The old man stared at the screen.
"Notify the city emergency system."
Kamiya was taken aback.
"We already did."
"It's not enough."
Saeki said.
"Give them all the anomaly-range projections."
"Don't hide anything."
"But the core—"
"The core stays confidential."
"All disaster data goes to the rescue departments, openly."
Kamiya nodded.
Saeki went on.
"And also."
"Prepare an underwater search."
"The moment the anomaly intervals can be predicted, send them down."
"We have to find it."
Kamiya asked.
"And if we can't?"
Saeki didn't answer right away.
On the screen.
A visible depression was starting to form in the Linjiang River again.
A second water anomaly was taking shape.
And this time.
Over a far larger area than the first.
The old man looked at that stretch of river.
After a long while.
"Then tonight's problem."
"Won't be just one bridge."
***
3:57 a.m.
Shuichi saw it too.
The river was sinking again.
But unlike the first time.
This time it wasn't just a simple depression in the middle.
The entire surface beneath North Bridge was tilting in a very slow motion.
High upstream.
Low downstream.
Then the reverse.
As if someone had grabbed the whole river.
And given it a gentle shake.
The timer in Shuichi's hand had stopped at this reading.
【00:43.8】
Shorter than the last round.
He looked up at the bridge.
The vehicles hadn't all been evacuated yet.
Yusei was helping out in the middle section.
Blue Lance was on the east side.
There were still at least a few dozen people on the west side.
Farther away—
A cargo ship that had been sailing normally downstream was being pushed sideways by the current.
Its bow was starting to veer toward the main bridge pier.
If it hit.
The problem would go well beyond damage to the bridge deck.
"..."
Shuichi's face slowly darkened.
The firefighter from earlier had already started looking to him on instinct.
"Is another one coming?"
Shuichi didn't answer.
He watched the water.
A few seconds later.
"It's not like the last ones."
"What do you mean?"
Shuichi raised a hand and pointed at the cargo ship.
"Get the people under the bridge out."
The firefighter followed his finger.
His face changed.
"The ship's going to hit the bridge?"
"Yes."
"How did you—"
"Notify them first."
This time, the firefighter didn't ask anything more.
He grabbed his radio at once.
Shuichi, meanwhile, looked up.
At the blue figure on the bridge in the distance.
Then at the man on the other side in the black full-face helmet, moving a vehicle together with the rescue crews.
One on the left.
One on the right.
Both busy.
Shuichi slowly let out a breath.
What a pain.
This time, it seemed—
It really wasn't something he could just stand back and watch anymore.