"The whale is attacking the whaling ship... it sounds like revenge."
"So the whale carcasses that appear in southern Wakayama every few years are probably the souls of the whales that were hunted in those years?"
Kamiyakawa fell silent and just thought to himself.
Internationally, whaling is strictly restricted in order to prevent over-hunting of all species of whales and to protect this rich natural resource for future generations.
Most countries have signed the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
However, there are a very few countries that still carry out whaling activities in their own way.
Japan is one of them, and it hunts huge amounts of whales. It even engages in commercial whaling under the guise of "scientific research."
To this day, whalers are still active in Abashiri in Hokkaido, Ayukawa in Miyagi Prefecture in the northeast, Wada in Chiba in the central part, and in the southern waters of Wakayama where the Kamiya River is currently located.
After Kamiya calmed down, the other three people in the car were still talking.
Listening to their conversation, it can be known that Tadokoro Yoshio and others, as the official spiritual exterminators of the Wakayama Kinan area, have participated in the activities of exterminating and treating carcass whales in the past.
However, with their strength together, they can only deal with monsters at the mid-to-lower D-level level at best.
Facing the disaster of whales that have gathered C-level strength, they basically provide assistance and help.
In addition, Tadokoro Yoshio and others also briefly talked about the current situation of whaling ships in the sea——
Most of Wakayama's whaling ships have returned to the harbor following command and dispatch these days.
However, there are still a few ships that have sailed out to the far reaches of the Pacific and are still on their way back.
…
That night.
The southern waters of Wakayama are about 60 nautical miles away from the port.
A whaling ship named "Akimaru".
The Akimaru is an ocean-going trawler with a speed of about 16 knots.
The distance is 60 nautical miles, and it takes about two hours to reach the port at full speed.
The captain of the Akimaru is named Yoshitoki Anaga, a middle-aged man in his 40s with rich experience at sea.
Ernst & Young was standing on the deck at this time, staring at the dark sea at night in a daze.
The sea tonight is surprisingly calm, but there seems to be an undercurrent.
The lights were on on the deck behind Captain Ernst, and the carcass of a huge baleen whale that had just been fished out was being laid out.
The sailors are busy doing preliminary treatments for the whale.
The Akimaru returned this time after receiving a notice from the Wakayama area.
The reason is: "There is an emergency at sea. Return immediately."
Generally speaking, captains of whaling ships in the waters south of Wakayama will immediately change course and go to the nearest port after receiving such a notice.
In the whaling industry, there is a rumor——
At certain points in time, ghost stories of whales gathering in the sea will appear.
Moreover, it is said that this kind of whale ghost only attacks whaling ships.
Of course, these strange stories about the sea in the industry are basically only spread among sailors.
Most people don't have the opportunity to experience it personally.
There are many taboos about going to sea, and quite a few seafarers prefer to believe such horrifying legends.
However, the whaling industry is highly profitable, and the output of whale meat, whale skin, whale oil, etc. can bring considerable economic income.
Strange stories cannot scare away whaling ships, and many people still flock to the whaling enterprise.
"In just over an hour, we will arrive at the port."
Captain Ernst thought this as he held the rail in his hand. He withdrew his gaze from the dark and calm sea and turned to watch the crew dismember the harvest of this voyage.
The deck beneath his feet was dripping with blood, reflecting the white lighting.
At this time, the first mate on the ship came to him with a strange expression: "Captain, something strange seems to have happened. I think you should come and take a look."
…
Captain's cabin.
The cabin is sailing along and is shaking slightly.
Various instruments in the captain's cabin are operating, and the indicator lights flicker on and off.
"Captain Ernst, sonar on..."
The first mate spoke into the sonar system.
It can be seen through sonar that there seem to be many huge creatures moving underwater about 20 nautical miles away from the Akimaru.
Moreover, he followed the Akimaru's route all the way.
"What is this? A pod of whales?" Ernst frowned while looking at the radar situation.
"I don't know...I can't tell, it's just weird." The first mate shook his head. After about three or four minutes, his expression became horrified. He pointed at the radar screen and said in a slightly trembling tone, "That's it, here we go again.
Come on, Captain!"
In fact, Captain Ernst can also see the sudden abnormality without the first mate reminding him.
Those "things" that were clearly displayed on the sonar just now suddenly disappeared.
Disappeared without a trace.
It's as if it never existed at all.
Chief Mate: "It was the same situation just ten minutes ago. The things on the sonar showed that they were about 30 nautical miles away from us. They followed us all the way. Then they suddenly disappeared. When we saw them again, the distance had been shortened to more than 20 nautical miles. Ten
10 nautical miles per minute, this..."
"Don't think blindly, you bastard!" Captain Ernst interrupted the first mate directly, "Maybe we encountered a military submarine or something like that."
Although he said this, Ernst's expression actually became very unnatural.
"The Akimaru is moving at full speed, we will return to port as quickly as possible!"
…
About twenty minutes passed.
The originally calm sea seemed to have become more stormy.
The Akimaru's hull shook violently.
Several sailors who were working on the deck suddenly became unstable and fell to the ground.
When they stood up unsteadily, they looked towards the sea.
On the originally dark sea, the waves were rolling, especially in the distance, there were some huge white objects, which were appearing and disappearing in the waves.
Those white objects tumbling in the waves seemed to be far away from the Akimaru.
Logically speaking, sailors cannot see things that far away with their naked eyes alone at night.
But I don’t know why, but those “things” that are sinking or floating on the sea surface, as if they are constantly swimming, are unusually conspicuous.
"Woo——"
"Buzz——"
The sailors began to hear sounds on the sea around them.
The voice was ethereal and long, lonely and sad.
Like the heavy sigh of the ocean.
The sailors looked at each other——
"Whale call?"
"No...isn't it? That's not what you usually hear, right?"
"..."
Moreover, it was not just the unusual whale calls, but some crew members on the Akimaru also heard other sounds on the sea that had become very noisy.
The sound was like a conch horn, mixed in with the sound of wind and the sound of whales.
On and off, whimpering.
"Hey, did you hear it? The sound of conch blowing?"
"No, don't scare yourself."
"Really, really, please listen carefully."
"obviously……"
The dark waves rolled incessantly.
At a certain point in time, the sailors who were chatting uneasily suddenly became quiet, and almost everyone had expressions of horror and fear on their faces.
"Woo-"
At this point in time, the sound on the sea, similar to the blowing of a conch horn, became extremely clear.
Moreover, among the ghostly songs played by the conch, everyone on the ship also heard another, even more creepy sound.
This kind of sound should not appear at sea.
At least it is absolutely impossible to appear on the Akimaru.
That was the voice of a boy speaking. The voice was obviously not too loud, but it could be clearly distinguished among the ethereal and heavy sounds of whale calls and waves.
"Mother?"
"Are you there, Mom?"
The Akimaru was full of adults, no little boys.
…
A port in southern Wakayama.
People here have been evacuated.
Only uniformed Metropolitan Police officers were active.
The Special Investigation Countermeasures Room of the Metropolitan Police Department has the authority to mobilize some special police forces other than spiritualists.
Most of this special police force has participated in the battle against ghost stories.
In the previous battles against the Pink Fairy and the God of Plague, there were also activities of these personnel.
A temporary office in the port.
Tadokoro Yoshio and others are already busy frying.
"The whaler named Akimaru is on its way back, right?"
"Yes. Judging from its positioning, it is very close to the port and is still moving quickly. It will arrive at the port in ten minutes at most."
"But, we can no longer contact that ship. What happened to them?"
"Mr. Tadokoro, um... look at the radar! What are those things?"
"Whales, these are whales, right?"
"..."
Kamitani was sitting quietly in the corner of the office, scrolling through his cell phone, and was out of tune with the tense atmosphere around him.
Until Tadokoro Yoshio turned around and called him: "Kamiya-kun, the whale...it seems the whale is here!"
"Ah." Kamiya put away the phone and nodded, "What should we do?"
"You are the commander here!" Tadokoro Yoshio looked anxious.
"Uh... not really. I have no experience in repelling whales, and I'm not very good at fighting in the sea. The higher ups sent me here mainly to prevent the whales from landing. I don't know about other things. How about you figure it out?
Well, I will just cooperate with you."
Kamiyagawa seemed to be a little uninterested and not very active.
It is true that he has no experience in commanding operations and is indeed not good at maritime operations.
My abilities are limited and I can’t help with many things.
There's no point in being anxious.
As long as you prevent the whale from landing, it will be regarded as a favor from a loyal person.
"Anyway, let's go to the harbor first!"
"good."
Kamiyagawa did not refuse.
…
Harbor side.
The sea was originally calm tonight, but the wind and waves suddenly became very strong.
Officers in Metropolitan Police uniforms walked back and forth with large flashlights.
The searchlights on the harbor swept across, and the outline of a fishing boat could already be seen on the distant sea.
That should be the Akimaru on its way back.
The sea near the harbor was not very calm, and it was even more unusual near the Akimaru.
The seawater behind the ship's hull seemed to be boiling, and some huge white objects appeared and disappeared.
"Whales! Those are whales!" Tadokoro Yoshio pointed at the sea and shouted.
Huge searchlight, light swaying.
"Woo——"
"Buzz——"
Above the sea, an ethereal, distant, and extremely abnormal whale call sounded.
Then all I saw was a huge white patch emerging from the water surrounding the Akimaru.
The water splashes.
Some faint blue lights flicker like "blue tears".
Kamiyagawa stood on the edge of the harbor pier, using the technique of slicing off hair, and squinting his pupils, so he could see clearly.
That white thing is a huge skeleton.
The bones are arranged one after another and are spliced together. Under the illumination of searchlights and other lights, they look extremely ferocious.
A complete whale skeleton!
This thing must be a whale skeleton.
"Woo——"
The abnormally huge whale whale jumped out of the water, flipped its body and crashed straight into the Akimaru.
The Akimaru's hull swayed and tipped toward the sea.
"Woo——"
"Buzz——"
At the same time, several more whale skeletons emerged from the water, screaming sadly and hitting the whaling ship with their pale skeletal bodies.
The faint blue light spots on the water surface flickered even more intensely.
Around the Akimaru's hull, there were several working boats heading towards the dock.
It's the crew on the ship who are abandoning the ship and evacuating.
However, the wrecked whales did not seem to be interested in the operating boats. They just kept jumping out of the sea and continuously and violently rammed the whalers.
But the movement of the whales was too great.
Several work boats that were being evacuated were capsized due to huge waves, and screams continued on the sea.
The crew members who fell into the water began to swim toward the shore desperately.
I don’t know how many of them can successfully swim to the shore.
On the pier, several speedboats controlled by police officers from the Metropolitan Police Department had already sailed out, their motors roaring, trying to rescue those who fell into the water as much as possible.
"Woo——"
"Buzz——"
The ethereal whale call continues.
Another abnormally huge whale jumped out, and the Akimaru, which had been overturned and tilted, completely sank in the final impact.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The bloody baleen whale carcass on the deck also fell into the sea.
The skeleton whales boiled and whirled around the baleen whale carcass, whining for a while, and finally they all headed towards the pier.
"The whale is about to attack the pier, prepare to fight, shoot!"
Tadoshi Yoshio spoke loudly.
Bang bang bang!
Suddenly there was a constant sound of gunshots along the pier.
Generally speaking, it must be a weapon carrying extraordinary power to effectively damage the monster itself.
The special firearms worn by the police officers on the pier are, to put it bluntly, ordinary thermal weapons.
The number of extraordinary firearms and weapons is originally very small.
However, the bullets they use in their guns are specially made.
It is similar to the soul-expelling silver bullet used by Yuki Masakisuke, and the soul-breaking iron bullet Kamiyagawa received from the Special Investigation Countermeasures Room of the Metropolitan Police Department.
However, the damage caused by exorcism ammunition fired by ordinary weapons to the skeleton whale is really limited.
"The strength of a single skeleton whale is probably in the E-level or D-level range. But when a large number of skeleton whales gather together, they can almost pose a threat to a C-level monster."
Kamiyagawa did not immediately take out the [Banshee] to join the battle. He first roughly assessed the strength of this group of whales.
"Woo——"
A huge whale carcass screamed and rushed towards the shore of the pier, with waves rising high and dots of blue fluorescence turbulent in the water.
At the same time, the sound of a conch horn sounded on the sea surface.
The faint blue fluorescence seemed to be controlled by the sound of the snail, lingering around the whale, holding its skeleton up.
"Buzz——"
Under the support of the blue light spots, the whale broke out of the water and flipped in mid-air.
The dock became extremely chaotic and people were immediately dispersed.
The noisy gunshots continued.
Uncle and nephew Tadokoro have already taken action as spiritual masters.
Masaichi Tadokoro threw out a handful of yellow talisman paper made of cinnabar.
Tadokoro Yoshio shook his head and rang a Kagura bell rapidly.
The kagura bell kept ringing, causing the scattered yellow talisman papers to fly.
Many of the yellow talismans clung to the body of the whale, and then exploded violently, creating a powerful wave of air!
The ability of Uncle and Nephew Tadokoro to control the yellow talismans is far inferior to that of the little miko Onizuka. The power of the explosion of a large number of yellow talismans is comparable to the power of two or three talisman papers controlled by the little miko.
However, this method can still be used to treat a single whale whale.
"Buzz——"
The skeleton of the whale that rushed forward was scattered in the explosion.
Scattered pale bones fell onto the dock and onto the sea.
woo woo woo woo--
At this time, the intermittent conch sound coming out of the sea became a little clearer.
Blue light spots danced on the sea surface, holding up the scattered whale bones and gathering them together.
The broken-down whale seemed to be being pieced back together.
The serious and experienced Tadokoro Yoshio couldn't help but become confused when he saw this abnormal scene: "The whales are reuniting? Why? Such a thing has never happened before!"
The scattered whales reunited...
This kind of thing is unheard of.
Never happened before!
The young Masaichi Tadokoro turned around and looked at Kamiyakawa who was standing not far away, his face full of grief and anger: "Kamiya-kun, why are you just looking at it!?"
It is true that Kamiyagawa has not taken action yet.
He stood facing the sea, not affected by the commotion around him at all. His originally condensed pupils became deeper and shimmering, looking at a specific point on the sea without moving.
Kamiyagawa seemed to notice something.
He could feel that there were other things on the sea where the pale bones of whales were turning in the distance.