"What an exhilarating exercise!! Let's do it again!!" While still going through the Bayshore route increasing the distance between them and the Kaijus, Ino suddenly exclaimed with an exciting look on her face while she stretched her body. Luckily, Hanabi gave her one of Lady Naga's clothes to cover up the 'good parts' of her body which surprisenly fitted her.
"How will you call what we just went through to be an exhilarating exercise for you?" Suguru asked with a bitter look on his face. "Who wouldn't call it that?" Into asked back as she gazed at Suguru with a strange smile on her face. When Suguru saw this expression, he involuntarily stiffened before he muttered in a low tone "I... I... wouldn't"
"Well suit yourself, you are being pessimistic you know. Besides, why are you guys heading for Yokohama? That place Is even more dangerous than Tokyo you know" Ino suddenly changed the topic as her gaze shifted to Lady Naga who is steering the RV. 'That's right, I didn't ask them why we are going to Yokohama' Ashiro suddenly thought as realisation dawned on him as he also looked at Lady Naga.
"That's none of your business" But the response both Ashiro and Ino got were just five words filled with indifference and coldness. "Damn, talk about cold" Ino responded with an intimidated expression on her face.
"Pfft!" Suddenly, Kyoto made a low chuckle that still rang in everyone's ear. "What do you find so funny Kyoto?" Lady Naga immediately asked as soon as she heard the sound Kyoto made with an ominous tone. "Nothing! Nothing, I swear!! That just got into my nose so I involuntarily made a sound, that's all!!" Kyoto panicked as he explained in a hurried tone.
"Well when we get to Yokohama, I will help you check what got into your nose alright?" Lady Naga asked with a charming smile now on her face. But that expression didn't calm Kyoto down one bit as he suddenly had a dejected look on his face while he muttered bitterly. "Yes Lady Naga"
"Pfft.."
"Hahahaha!"
This short scene immediately brought an outburst of laughter in the RV and Ashiro, Hanabi, Suguru and even Ino burst out in laughter. This made Kyoto to feel even more dejected as he lowered his head.
"Lady Naga"
"Yeah, I have seen it"
Only Kaguya and Lady Naga who is seated at the front seat were the only ones who weren't laughing as they spoke to each other. And suddenly, The RV screeched to a halt before a chaotic pile-up of rusted and burned-out vehicles, blocking their path to Yokohama. Lady Naga cursed under her breath as she slammed her hand against the wheel.
"This is just perfect," she muttered. "We're so close!"
Hanabi who has stopped laughing at the moment peered out the window, scanning the area with a scowl. "Too tight to drive through. We'd have to move the cars manually. But that could take time."
Kyoto sighed, leaning back in his seat. "Time we don't have. What if Kaijus catch up?"
Suguru tilted his glowing crossbow across his lap, readying himself. "We could blast our way through."
Lady Naga shook her head. "That would just draw more of them."
Before they could brainstorm further, a low rumble reverberated through the ground. Everyone froze, exchanging alarmed glances. The sound grew louder, accompanied by an unsettling vibration that made the RV shudder.
"What the hell is—" Ino started, but her sentence was cut short as black, pulsating tendrils suddenly exploded through the floor of the RV.
The first tendril coiled around Suguru's legs, yanking him out of his seat with terrifying speed. He screamed, clawing at the edges of his seat as he was dragged toward a gaping hole in the floor.
Another tendril lashed out, wrapping around Hanabi's waist and pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled, her bio-cannon firing off a stray shot that ricocheted harmlessly off the walls. "Damn it! What is this?!"
Kyoto's pistol glowed as he aimed at a tendril slithering toward him, but before he could fire, another coiled around his neck, lifting him into the air as he choked and gasped.
Kaguya was able to reach out to her shield which was just beside her as the tendrils also got to her by wrapping themselves around her waist and arms.
Ino snarled, her katanas igniting with fiery energy. She slashed at the tendrils attacking her, managing to sever one, but two more immediately took its place, wrapping around her wrists and dragging her backward.
Lady Naga drew a knife from her belt which she borrowed from Kyoto and attempted to cut herself free as tendrils grabbed her arms and legs. She snarled in defiance, but the tendrils were unrelenting, pulling her toward the center of the RV.
'Not again?'
Amidst the chaos, Ashiro, seated near the back, could only watch in horror as the thick tendrils erupted in every direction. One coiled around his torso, lifting him high into the air. He thrashed and screamed, his small fists pounding uselessly against the slick, unyielding surface.
The RV groaned under the pressure as more tendrils invaded, writhing and pulsing with an ominous, otherworldly energy. As the tendrils tightened their grip and began pulling the group toward the hole in the floor, the vehicle itself seemed to come alive with an eerie, guttural sound, as though the Kaiju infection had merged with it.
"Hold on!" Lady Naga shouted, her voice strained as she fought against the tendrils. But her words seemed futile.
One by one, the group disappeared into the dark abyss below, their cries and struggles fading as the RV itself was consumed by the writhing mass of alien corruption.
....
Ashiro's body dangled helplessly as the tendrils pulled him deeper into the dark, pulsating abyss beneath the RV. The air around him grew heavy and suffocating, thick with a foul-smelling miasma that burned his throat and lungs with every shallow breath he managed to take. His limbs felt like lead, and his vision blurred as the oppressive darkness closed in.
"I... can't breathe..."
He struggled weakly against the tendril wrapped tightly around his torso, but it only seemed to squeeze harder, as though mocking his feeble resistance. A distant, muffled sound of the others' cries reached his ears, but even that faded into silence as his head began to droop.
'Is this how it ends?'
His eyelids fluttered shut, the last vestiges of his strength slipping away. But just as he was on the brink of unconsciousness, a sudden, inexplicable sensation surged within him—a flicker of energy that felt both alien and achingly familiar. It spread through his veins like molten fire, momentarily dulling the suffocating effects of the miasma.
The tendrils around him seemed to recoil slightly as if sensing the strange energy, though they quickly tightened again, dragging him further into the abyss. The flicker of power was gone as quickly as it came, leaving Ashiro to question if it had even been real.
His vision finally gave out, plunging him into total darkness, and his body went limp.
'Who... am I? What... is this... inside me?'
The last thought echoed in his mind as he suddenly went lights out