“Right, senior, I’m a freshman, Alisa Mihairovna Kujou.”
Alisa remembered to introduce herself. In Sakura Country, etiquette is incredibly important. In school or at work, you must use honorifics when speaking to someone older than you, like a senior or a mentor.
“Third year, Zhao Hao.”
Upon hearing the name Zhao Hao, Alisa slightly opened her mouth in surprise, exclaiming, “So you’re Zhao Hao senpai!”
“Oh, I’m that famous? Even a freshman who just enrolled today knows me?”
While Zhao Hao knew he had some fame at Tokyo Private High School, he didn’t expect even someone who just enrolled to know him.
Alisa nodded affirmatively and said, “In my class, many students were discussing the school’s two male gods, and Zhao Hao senpai is one of them.”
“The other is Usui Takumi, right?”
“Yes, it’s said that you two are rivals, yet friends, the two people with the best grades, the most outstanding in sports, and also the two most handsome in the entire school.”
Having just enrolled today, Alisa didn’t know much about the school’s big shots, but her classmates couldn’t stop discussing how amazing these two were, how popular they were. And while Usui Takumi already had a girlfriend, Zhao Hao was still single. Some girls even said they had a chance with him.
Zhao Hao tilted his head, then his lips curled slightly upwards as he flirted, “Oh, so you think I’m handsome?”
“Ah… I… You…”
Taken aback by Zhao Hao’s sudden question, Alisa stumbled over her words. She didn’t expect this senior to ask that. She mumbled softly in Russian, “You are kind of handsome…”
“??”
Zhao Hao was caught off guard by the reply in another language. But that was Russian, right? He did know a few mainstream languages.
Thinking back to the name, Alice Mihairovna Kujou, it seemed she was a mixed-race beauty.
Alisa, looking down, accidentally saw Zhao Hao’s right hand. It was shaking slightly.
“Senpai, what’s wrong with your right hand?”
Zhao Hao, with his right hand in his pocket, replied, “The crowd was so dense earlier. I accidentally got shoved and fell.”
“I see.”
Alisa understood. The crowd had been incredibly dense when the monster appeared, as everyone was running back, making crowding and trampling highly possible.
But this was just an excuse Zhao Hao made up on the spot. The reason his right hand was slightly trembling was because of the fight with Jetton earlier. When Jetton used his flying kick, he used his fist to counter, leading to this natural phenomenon.
You see, Jetton weighed over 30,000 tons. Combined with the fall from high altitude and the buildup of force, even with his preparation, Zhao Hao had not fully blocked the attack. He still felt a slight pain now. He’d trained for five years, but that didn’t mean he had become a man without pain.
“The scene of the incident is right ahead. Let’s go take a look.”
With that, Zhao Hao headed towards the site of the fight between the monster and the giant.
Alisa followed Zhao Hao for about ten minutes and arrived at the scene of the fight.
The site was covered in large and small rocks. Many people were busy rescuing those injured. There were cries of the wounded, and cries of the loved ones of the dead.
“It’s so tragic.”
Alisa couldn’t bear to look at this scene of devastation. Having grown up in a wealthy family, she had never seen anything like this before.
“This is just the beginning.”
Zhao Hao gazed at the people working hard to rescue others, the people yelling and venting their anger. His heart remained unmoved. This was just the beginning. He had a feeling that more powerful monsters would appear.
After all, judging from the monsters that appeared yesterday and today, the ones that appeared next would probably be elite or boss-level monsters from other Ultraman worlds.
And combined with this world’s own Kaiju and Dark Mephisto, and the final boss, he didn’t even know if there were any native monsters on this planet. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
Even with five years of training, all he had gained was a stronger physique and some fighting skills. These elite monsters, how many of them could he easily handle? He had his work cut out for him.
Alisa fell silent. Yes, they’d had one attack today, but it could just be the beginning. Who knows how many more attacks they’d have to endure? That was truly a disaster.
Zhao Hao returned home and turned on the television. The news was filled with stories about the afternoon’s giant-vs-monster battle. They even showed several photos of Nexus, Jetton, and the Chester fighter jet.
Especially the Chester fighter jet’s incredibly powerful firepower. Experts were questioning whether it was specifically designed to fight monsters. Had monsters been appearing all along without anyone knowing, but the government had been keeping it under wraps? All kinds of questions left viewers with doubts.
In the TLT-J branch of Sakura Country, the high-ranking leaders, Togo, Koyanagi, and Soma, finally decided, after speaking with the leaders of TLT headquarters, to publicly reveal the existence of Kaiju and the monsters that had been appearing in cities.
As the seer, Kiraizawa Yu, had predicted, the high-ranking leaders at TLT headquarters were not all fools. They knew they couldn’t keep this a secret anymore. The Forget Me Not was no longer usable on a large scale.
And they had no idea how many more monsters would come through this spatial rift. All they could do was prepare. A designated spokesperson would be doing a live broadcast at eight tonight to expose this matter and give a reasonable explanation to calm people’s fears. Otherwise, the Kaiju would only grow stronger.
“A spatial rift? The Kaiju alone are enough to keep us busy. Now they throw a spatial rift into the mix, and we’ll have monsters attacking us every so often. It’s going to be rough, sigh…”
On the Night Raid Team’s side, Hiraki Shiori slumped on the table, muttering to herself, “Thankfully, Ultraman showed up. We wouldn’t have been able to beat that huge monster without him.”
Ishori Mitsuhiko, sitting beside her, agreed. “That’s right. According to my analysis, today’s monster was no weaker than yesterday’s. If we were hit by that fireball, the Chester would have been instantly melted. And that barrier would have been able to withstand any of our attacks. Its body hardness is higher than any of the smaller Kaiju we’ve faced before.
Plus, the monster’s huge size. Without Ultraman as our main force, we wouldn’t have been able to eliminate it.”
Up until now, the largest Kaiju that had appeared on Earth had been about ten meters tall. Monsters like the second-generation Kirieloid, Jetton, these were only encountered in the last couple of days.
The larger the size, the stronger the power, the higher the defense, and the more difficult it was to handle.
Hearing the two praising Ultraman, Saijo Nagi felt a surge of anger. He knocked on the table and said, “You two, don’t forget, this so-called Ultraman is also a kind of Kaiju. We can’t rely on him to deal with those monsters.”
Hearing Saijo Nagi say this, Oogami Ichiro, a new recruit who hadn’t participated in any missions yet, couldn’t hold his tongue. He retorted, “Vice Captain, I think Ultraman is our ally. The two times he appeared, he only fought monsters and then left directly. He hasn’t posed any threat to us humans.”