***

[Shores of Osaka, Experimental Phase Wall, Section 14]

The city was going about its business as usual. It was after midnight. Most people were asleep, but some daring souls were still out on the streets. However, the shores were deserted because the local police force had closed the area. All because of the continuous streaks of minor earthquakes that occurred recently. The shaking was so strong it even woke up the locals and caused them to flee their homes near the shore. But it was only the revealed part of the true story.

On the spiritual, hidden side, they were defending against a horde of underwater ghosts that were attacking the city perimeter, with the kaiju ghost as the impromptu leader. Ghosts were mainly the type of sea monsters, but there were also spirits of people who drowned in water or died on land, then dumped in the ocean. They tried to force themselves through the experimental spiritual walls, but they always failed because of their low spiritual power.

However, there was few spirits that broke through. This spirit had a large body covered in tentacles, resembling an octopus or squid. It was quickly cut down by the man in the bear mask with a katana, which had been forged by a legendary smith recently. On the shore, there stood Kiyona. She was summoned to an emergency signal, and she quickly arrived at the scene using her spiritual body. She could easily maintain the connection with her physical body even if it was a few kilometers away from the office because she inherited yokai blood from one of her ancestors. Yokai possessed greater spiritual abilities than humans did.

They are hard to come across nowadays because most of them live in seclusion in hidden villages scattered across Japan, because they often get mistaken as the ghosts, spirits, or even demons. Some have even chosen to forget their ancestors and live as ordinary people.

Kiyona was a half-spirit, half-human who possessed great supernatural powers. Her physical form resembled that of a girl of about twelve years old, but her soul was three times older than that. She was channeling her spiritual energy to fire AOE elemental magic-like seals that weakened the ghosts, allowing the others to destroy them with ease. She could use these spells from a distance as well.

“Why did we need to be only using our spiritual bodies? I’m feeling far too light! If I jump, I’m afraid I’ll go too high!”

The man in the bear mask was rushing through the ghosts, cutting them with a spiritual katana, while complaining. Not far away from him, a voluptuous woman wearing a cat mask shot with two spiritual pistols resembling 1911 Colt handguns. The bullets fired by those guns were powerful enough to punch holes through concrete walls, spiritually. It had a range of over 50 meters, so the ghosts had no chance of evading them. She was shooting compressed, pure spiritual energy toward the ghosts, and she didn’t need to aim because they were so close together.

The spiritual pistol could take any shape; all it needed was a barrel and a condenser. That was how she could shoot them so accurately. It was a straightforward technique developed by the United States decades ago, because of the lack of proper exorcists in ghost-torn areas.

“Stop whining, Bear! You’re just making a big fuss about nothing! Look at the Dog, he’s doing just fine!”

Muscular black man with the dog mask was throwing spiritual punches at the ghost of a rotten dolphin that had jumped high enough to get around the wall. He was distracted for when the Cat, who wore a cat mask, spoke about his codename. He opened his mouth with an angry downtown New York accent in English.

“Cat, don’t you fucking say my codename while in the battle! And shut up, you stupid cunt!”

He performed three punch combo moves on the dolphin that had tried submerge him into a ball of water. The attack was so powerful that it made the surrounding water boil, spiritually, and the spirit was forced to retreat to the depths.

“...”

The Asian man in a crow mask and a duster looks at them with a stony expression on his face. He was their sniper, and he was aiming for a largest ghost that was traveling towards the wall and trying to pass through it. It was a huge jellyfish-looking thing that moved like a living organism, and it had tentacles all over its body. It looked like an ocean predator that would be found in the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, but it was actually a ghost.

A clean blue line was traced through the air, scaring the woman with the cat mask, curving in the air, bypassing the wall, and curving back to hit the target right on the head. The target’s head exploded in ghostly matter, which vanished after a few seconds.

“What are you doing, Crow?”

He didn’t respond.

“I said, what the fuck are you doing?! Are you still trying to kill me because I ate a rare pudding from your country? What the hell is wrong with you?”

He didn’t respond again. He simply aimed, shot, and killed the next ghost that was heading towards him. Kiyona was thinking he wasn’t really paying attention to her, but then the man finally replied.

“Shut up. You’ll complain about the complaining of the complaining if you don’t shut up.”

The woman with the cat mask frowned, but she did not stop talking. The four of them argued while the ghost ectoplasm piled up. It was a bizarre sight. The more they argued, the more efficient they became. Kiyona stood there sighing, being the only stranger in this group, and she wanted to talk to the man in the bear mask. He seemed more sane than the rest of the people here. However, she decided against saying anything because she knew he wouldn’t answer her anyway, because he was in the middle of the fight.

She sighed and looked up at the sky, where a giant silver moon was rising slowly above the horizon. The silhouette of a kaiju was seen moving, coming closer to the city. But when she wanted to avert her eyes, a blinding light appeared out of nowhere.

***

[3000 meters in the air, Osaka Bay Waters]

The four stealth bombers in rhombus formation were circling overhead, their engines roaring loudly. Their job was simple: they would drop their payloads on top of the kaiju and then retreat. They have almost depleted their bombs. The leader of the formation reached to control and spoke up.

“This is the Silent Bird-3-1. We were almost out of S-bombs. Requesting for permission to use the H-Bomb.”

“This is the Rikujo. The permission is not granted. Return to base after using your last low yield munition. The battleships are arriving. Over.”

“This is the Silent Bird-3-2. I’m going to launch all of our remaining S-bombs at once. Over.”

“This is the Rikujo. Understood, over.”

The formation’s second bomber separated from it and dived to the target. When it was about 500 meters away, it launched the remaining bombs at the kaiju. Following that, the bomber increased its altitude while circling the target to assess the damage.

The bombs exploded, releasing a wave of heat and light that covered the area. The kaiju was blown away, but it had already started regenerating. Bombs inflicted a massive amount of damage on the kaiju, but it was still standing. The bombs did their job, but the kaiju was just simply regenerating faster than they destroyed it. While looking at the kaiju, the bomber regained altitude.

Something unexpected had happened.

On top of kaiju, a golden-colored dimensional rift appeared. It was horizontal, large enough for a kaiju to enter, and its diameter was about 50 meters wide. A giant humanoid mech emerged from the rift. It looked like an angel. The angel held the spear in both hands, which resembled a cross between a spear and a sword. It had a golden armor that covered its entire body, and its wings were folded behind its back.

“Wait a minute—“

It was crashing down on top of kaiju. The mech threw the spear and became lodged on top of the kaiju’s head, and then slowly penetrating inside, until the crest on top of it blocked further insertion. Light filled the crest, causing the kaiju to shriek in agony. Its body convulsed and turned red as if it had been burned by fire. It couldn’t regenerate anymore; it had lost its source of spiritual energy.

The mechangel avoided the collision by activating thrusters on the mechanical wings. It landed on the water as gently as a giant machine could. It was completely silent as it landed, but there was a splash.

It then did something strange. It hugged shishkebabbed kaiju in the back with both hands, and then...

“GERMAN SUPLEX TECHNIQUE, UNDERMINING THE ENERGY OF AN INFERNAL SPIRIT!”

.

.

.

The angel suplexed the kaiju. 

Lodged spear went even further into the kaiju’s body, causing it to paralyze. The angel then released the grip, stood up, and used his left leg to kick the kaiju away, sending it to the further away from the bay. It was so powerful that even the waves were pushed away from the impact site.

It was a surreal experience for many people with spiritual eyes. In the middle of the night, an angel descended from the heavens and fought with the kaiju, who was trying to attack the city, and the angel was kicking it away from the shore. No one could believe their own eyes; it was a genuine miracle.

The bomber’s pilot was stunned, but it remained calm as it circled the battle zone. The bomber had recorders always on, especially in these more spiritual ones, they could find out what happened later.

After the mechangel stood up next to kaiju, a thunderous voice echoed through the skies.

“Subject K-4531, you’ve been charged with eluding capture by utilizing an unknown entity. Stop resisting now or you will be punished with DEATH!”

A kaiju’s mouth let out an ear-shattering screech, and the kaiju convulsed itself. It attempted to remove the spear with its tentacles in the back, but it was firmly lodged.

“So you have chosen DEATH! Let me be clear! If you don’t cooperate, I will destroy your soul and your physical form! Do you understand?!”

The kaiju didn’t reply at first, but it finally opened its mouth with a terrifying roar.

The crest glowed even brighter. Insides of a kaiju that had previously glowed purple glowed white. The nightmare version of the King of Monsters shrieked its last roar before being completely engulfed in light.

Everyone was blinded by the light for a few seconds. The kaiju then vanished, leaving the spear floating in the water. The angel snatched it and flew into the golden dimensional rift.

The nearby bomber was left alone, and the first words in the channel were...

“Holy shit! That was amazing! Did you see the angel? What the fuck was that thing?”

***

Everyone in the command center was celebrating their victory. Everyone except the real Ichiro, the commander. It wasn’t that fun sitting in some spaceship and watching the battle he could fight himself. He thought hard about it, and concluded that this kaiju, which was defeated right now, can be classified as a ‘shadow being’.

After tapping the terminal loudly enough for everyone to hear, he opened his mouth.

“Excellent work, everyone. We worked very hard. Keep up the good work! Let our grand plans for the future come true! I’m heading home!”

When Real Ichiro closed his eyes, a dimensional rift large enough for him sucked him inside and quickly closed. The other Ichiros rejoiced even more at the sudden disappearance of a commander. Few seconds later, someone sent a voice message to every Ichiro’s watch, informing them.

“Our plans were approved by Commander! Prepare for the army for the liberation of ‘sector 8’! Our revenge will soon be enacted!”

Real Ichiro didn’t know that his simple words of encouragement were misconstrued and that he had been elevated to go into the frontlines. 

***

Ichiro had returned to his apartment. As if nothing had happened, he walked to his body. He didn’t even look around. He had the same appearance as the night before, except he was now as thin as mist, almost invisible in the dark. Ichiro approached his body and pressed his hand against his head, entering inside his body.