Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 5 Chapter 6 Part 1

CHAPTER VI

6—1

The highway connecting Kanagawa Prefecture and Tokyo was closed off, but there was a car parked on the prefectural border. It almost seemed to be watching over Kanagawa. That car belonged to the Special Division’s surveillance group. It was impossible to see what was happening over in Kanagawa due to the white mist covering the prefecture. As they carefully watched the fog from a distance, it suddenly turned red.
Furthermore, the fog, which had remained stagnant as if kept in place by a thin film, slowly began to waver. However, by the time one of the agents noticed, it was already rapidly approaching. The agent immediately slammed on the gas pedal, but it was too late. The moment the fog swallowed the car, it stopped accelerating before sliding to a full stop. The passengers once inside had vanished.
After the red fog devoured the earth, the planet would undoubtedly look like a floating red apple from space. There would be no humans left on its surface, nor any signs they ever existed. It would be a true paradise, and with that, the Dead Apple would finally be complete. A dead planet covered in red fog—that was what Fyodor had planned and sought out. Nothing other than death could wash away the original sin of man, so it was only fitting for the sin, which started with a fruit, to end with one as well. Perhaps nobody other than Fyodor ever realized that the knife in the red apple was alluding to this moment.
The red fog gradually grew more powerful to devour every single soul.

“The fog has begun spreading!”
An operator’s voice yelled in the Special Division’s operations room. The measuring gauges creaked. Each worker pleaded for an explanation of what was going on.
“The singularity’s variance is immeasurable!”
“If the fog continues to spread at its current speed of twelve and a half miles per hour, the entire Kanto region will be engulfed in approximately one hour and thirty-five minutes—twelve hours and thirty-six minutes for all of Japan, and a hundred and sixty-eight hours for the whole planet!”
Murakoso, an agent with long, wavy hair, frowned while blowing a bubble with her red gum until it popped. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
A shrill sound stood out among the various noises.
“Hmm…?” Aoki, who noticed the sound, opened his eyes wide. “We’re receiving a call from England’s secret military agency.”
Ango leaned forward in his chair. “…! The Order of the Clock Tower?” He immediately connected to the call. SOUND ONLY appeared on the
LCD screen when an alluring voice greeted them:
“How do you do?”
Everyone in the Special Division stiffened as if they had been struck by lightning, then swallowed their collective breath.
It was Dame Agatha Christie—an enticing woman who could charm someone with only her voice.
Even though she was speaking through a machine, her overwhelming air of authority was palpable.
“On behalf of the European nations, allow me to express my sympathies for the crisis your nation finds itself in.” Her voice was brimming with refinement and deceit as she continued, “Therefore…”
This was a farewell call.
“…I have dispatched a skill user to incinerate the fog before it spreads to other parts of the world.”
“Incinerate…?!” Ango’s throat had turned painfully dry. “What’s their ETA?”
“Exactly thirty minutes from now, at daybreak…,” she replied with her clear and beautiful voice, then promptly hung up. Her call was not a proposal but a declaration.
In fact, several British bomber planes were already en route to Japan as well. The European nations were planning on disposing of Tatsuhiko Shibusawa and sinking Japan along with him.
Thirty minutes. There are only thirty minutes left. If we don’t do something about the red fog before then…
“…Yokohama will be burned to the ground.”
Ango’s dazed comment was lost in the operations room. Nobody could utter another word. Only the crude noises of various machinery remained.