The Strange Fish hunted the living creatures of Kyoto with terrifying speed; whether they were humans or other animals, all were marked as targets. Most horrifying of all was that these creatures did not simply consume their prey after a kill. Instead, the victims were absorbed by the Strange Fish, merging to become a part of their very bodies. One Strange Fish, originally only half a meter long, swelled by a third of its size after devouring several pet dogs, and its back sprouted canine-like fur and muscle tissue.
On the streets of Kyoto, bloody screams echoed incessantly. Less than twenty minutes after the Self-Defense Force received the first eyewitness reports, three squads had already arrived in the urban areas near the coastline.
"Target spotted! Twelve o'clock!" a soldier shouted.
The squad leader signaled for the unit to halt before giving the order to attack. The soldiers raised their high-caliber weapons and opened fire on the approaching swarm of Strange Fish. Bullets tore through the creatures' hides, causing blue fluid to splatter everywhere.
"The firing is effective! Keep moving forward!" the squad leader ordered calmly.
The Strange Fish fell one after another under the disciplined suppressive fire. Expressions of relief appeared on the soldiers' faces; they seemed to believe this was nothing more than a simple mop-up operation.
"Don't lower your guard! Maintain formation!" the squad leader reminded them.
On the streets, the populace fled in a frenzy.
"Please remain calm! Evacuate according to instructions!" soldiers shouted among the crowd, attempting to organize an orderly retreat.
A young mother clutching her infant approached the soldiers in terror. "There are still people over there!" she gestured tremblingly toward an apartment building.
Two soldiers immediately split from the team, charging into the apartment complex to rescue several trapped civilians. The unit continued its advance, eliminating wave after wave of the Strange Fish.
"Even if there were ten times as many of these monsters, we could wipe them all out!" a soldier said confidently.
At that moment, a spotter suddenly cried out, "Captain, look at the dead ones!"
A few living Strange Fish surrounded the corpses of their fallen comrades and actually began to devour the dead kin along with the debris of surrounding buildings. This consumption was accompanied by visible growth in size and shifts in physical form.
"Damn it, they're evolving!" the squad leader cursed, immediately notifying the other squads. "Attention all units, increase firepower! Do not let them feed!"
The soldiers adjusted their firing modes, switching from semi-auto to full-auto in an attempt to eradicate the Strange Fish before they could evolve. But there were too many of them, and there were always survivors slipping through the cracks.
One soldier realized he had run out of ammunition. He swapped magazines rapidly, but in those few seconds of respite, a single Strange Fish had already devoured three corpses and doubled in size.
"It's getting bigger!" the soldier screamed in horror, immediately opening fire on the mutated creature.
The bullets struck the Strange Fish but only kicked up sparks on its surface. Having absorbed the wreckage of buildings, the scales of the monster had reached a hardness far exceeding their previous state, forming a chitinous protective layer.
"Standard rounds are useless!" The soldier's voice carried clear panic.
The squad leader immediately commanded, "Use armor-piercing rounds! Repeat, use armor-piercing rounds!"
The soldiers swapped ammo quickly, but more Strange Fish had already completed their evolution. Even the effectiveness of the armor-piercing rounds was noticeably declining.
"Requesting fire support! Emergency request for fire support!" the squad leader roared into his communicator.
The Self-Defense Force began deploying heavier weaponry. Grenade launchers and machine guns were rushed to the front lines. Explosions shook the streets of Kyoto one after another.
One soldier operated a grenade launcher, aiming at a massive Strange Fish. "Eat this!" he gritted out, pressing the trigger.
The grenade hit the monster dead-on, blowing it into fragments. Before the soldier could cheer, he saw the fragments generated by the explosion being rapidly devoured by other nearby Strange Fish.
"They're still merging!" a soldier exclaimed.
Two large Strange Fish coiled around each other, their skin melting and muscle tissues intertwining. Minutes later, they transformed into a giant beast nearly ten meters long. Its back was covered in sharp spines, and its mouth split into multiple lobes, each crowded with razor-sharp teeth.
The captain tried to organize a final line of defense: "All heavy weapons, concentrate fire! Aim for the head!"
The soldiers unleashed everything they had, but the giant beast only faltered slightly. It let out a deafening roar and charged the line.
"Retreat! Everyone retreat now!" the squad leader ordered, but it was too late.
The giant beast leaped into the air, landing in the center of the defense line as soldiers scattered. A spiked tongue shot from the monster's mouth, wrapping around a soldier and pulling him in to be devoured.
"Where are the reinforcements?!" a soldier screamed in despair, only to be struck by the monster's tail, snapping his body in two.
The defense line collapsed completely.
Information soon reached PPDC headquarters.
"Intelligence confirmed: Kyoto is facing a large-scale Kaiju invasion. They are requesting emergency support!" the communications officer reported loudly.
The command center was in chaos. "Deploy all available Jaegers immediately!" the commander ordered.
Due to funding shortages, the Jaeger base in Kyoto had been closed years ago. There were no combat units there, only logistics and intelligence personnel. Because of the suddenness of the event, even with high-tech transport aircraft, the Jaegers from the Hong Kong base would take at least two hours to reach Kyoto.
Worse still, footage from scout helicopters showed that a never-ending stream of Strange Fish was still pouring out from the sea, pushing inland into Kyoto.
"Establish a second line of defense! Mobilize all reserves and veterans!" the Kyoto Self-Defense Force commander bellowed.
Simultaneously, traces of the Strange Fish appeared in multiple locations across Kyoto.
In a high-end apartment, a corporate executive had just finished a video conference and was heading to the kitchen for a glass of water. Suddenly, the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room shattered, and three small Strange Fish leaped inside. The executive reacted quickly, grabbing a golf club and swinging at the nearest creature. The fish was sent flying, but the other two had already pounced on him.
"Help!" His screams were cut short.
In a nearby shopping mall, hundreds of customers were trapped. Mall security attempted to organize a defense, building makeshift barricades out of various store fixtures.
"Push those cabinets over here!" a guard shouted.
The customers were in a panic; some tried to help, but many more simply screamed or wept in terror.
"They're inside!" a girl suddenly shrieked.
Dozens of Strange Fish flooded into the mall from ventilation ducts and sewers, pouncing on the nearest humans. A bloody massacre began.
In the nightlife district, on streets bathed in neon lights, intoxicated people had yet to realize danger had arrived. The Strange Fish crawled silently from the sewers and launched a sudden ambush.
A thug was bragging to his companions about his 'heroic deeds' when he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. He looked down to see a Strange Fish biting his leg.
"Baka! What the hell is this!" He pulled out a pocketknife and stabbed the fish hard.
The fish let go, but more of its kind were already closing in. The thug and his friends stood back-to-back with weapons in hand, ready to fight.
"You bastards! Come on, you stinking fish!" the thug leader roared, swinging a steel pipe and knocking a lunging fish aside.
"Baka! I've been on the streets for ten years, you think I'm afraid of you monsters?" another thug shouted, piercing a fish's eye with his knife.
"You piece of trash! Die!" the leader bellowed, repelling three fish in a row.
Their struggle sparked a momentary surge in morale, and several nearby patrons joined in, using wine bottles and stools to resist the onslaught. However, when a massive fused monster appeared at the end of the street, they were instantly sobered.
"Damn... what is that thing!?" the thug's voice turned dry.
"I don't want to die... I don't want to die yet!" one thug dropped his weapon and bolted.
"Baka! Don't run! If we stay together there's still hope!" the leader shouted, but no one was listening anymore.
The giant monster reached them in a single stride, and the leader's eyes filled with despair: "Baka!"
An office worker who had just finished work stood on the light rail platform, looking confusedly at the emergency alert on his phone. "Kaiju invasion? Didn't they just invade Hong Kong two days ago? Is this some kind of prank?" he muttered.
The next second, the platform's glass shattered as a Strange Fish lunged at him. He instinctively raised his briefcase; the fish's teeth sank into the leather. He swung the briefcase, slamming the fish to the ground, then stepped on its head, grinding down until it stopped moving.
"Thank God..." He sighed in relief.
But when he looked up, his face turned deathly pale. Dozens of Strange Fish were sprinting toward him from the distance.
Kyoto fell into total chaos. The Self-Defense Force lines were being breached continuously as the Strange Fish infiltrated every part of the city through sewers and rivers. The most despairing fact was that these Strange Fish were constantly evolving and merging, becoming stronger by the second.
The Hong Kong Jaeger base had activated its emergency aid plan, but they were still on their way.