With Shinomiya Oko serving as a negative example, no one dared to advise Makoto to leave anymore.
But even so, many people on the periphery quietly slipped away, fearing the nuclear bomb the President was about to drop would affect them.
Among them were some characters from various anime and people Makoto knew.
"Eri, let's go." Kogoro leaned close to his wife and whispered, his voice very low.
His eyes involuntarily darted towards Makoto, then quickly looked away, his face etched with anxiety.
"Ran isn't back yet." Eri frowned, clearly disagreeing with Kogoro's suggestion.
"Ran is in America, she's fine. The ones in trouble are us… if Nishikawa Makoto doesn't stop the nuclear bomb, or if a little bit leaks through and catches us, what then?" Kogoro's voice rose unconsciously, sweat beading on his forehead.
"We need to hurry back to the city. Maybe we can still make it."
The blast radius of a nuclear bomb is roughly ten kilometers.
If they drove away now, maybe they could still escape.
As he said this, Kogoro didn't have much confidence himself.
Their generation understood that history better than Ran and the others did, and naturally feared it more.
Eri frowned deeply, suddenly noticing her close friend Yukiko standing not far behind Makoto on the right. After thinking for a moment, she walked over and asked, "Yukiko, are you leaving?"
Yukiko looked at her close friend for a few seconds, then silently shook her head without saying a word.
She still remembered the incident where she had severed ties with their family in the Chainsaw Man World.
Although from Eri's perspective, what she did was correct, it had still left a crack in their friendship.
Seeing her friend wouldn't speak, Eri didn't insist. After thinking for a moment, she prepared to leave with Kogoro.
But just as she turned, Yukiko suddenly spoke: "You'd better not go."
Hearing this, Eri paused, looking at her friend in confusion.
"What are you standing there for? Let's go!" Kogoro was still urging her, his voice already tinged with irritation.
He kept looking back towards the parking lot, fearing it would be too late if they delayed even a second.
In his mind, images of mushroom clouds rising… heat, shockwaves, scorched streets, and...
He didn't dare think further.
"I said I'm not going. If you want to go, go!" Hearing Kogoro dare to yell at her, Eri's temper flared.
It had to be said, there was a reason these two had been separated for ten years, and even in the original work, their relationship never recovered even after Akai Shuichi came back.
"Fine, go then! I hope you don't get blown up." Kogoro turned and walked away, fuming. But his steps felt oddly heavy… after walking a few paces, he couldn't help but look back once.
"It's not that I'm worried about you, I just don't want Ran to be sad."
Leaving those words, he quickened his pace, running towards the parking lot.
He got in the car, started the engine, and as it sped out of the parking lot, his hands were still trembling. He glanced at the rearview mirror… the Totsuki Culinary Academy was shrinking behind him, his wife and Makoto's figures already out of sight.
"It's okay, it's okay..." He muttered to himself, as if trying to boost his own morale. "We still have time, we definitely still have time..."
He slammed his foot on the accelerator, the car racing down the road. The traffic around him was full of people fleeing just like him, fear etched on every face.
Horns blared, mingling with shouts and curses.
"That stupid woman!"
After driving a distance, Kogoro thought about Eri again, but now the cars behind him were backed up too… going back was impossible.
Meanwhile, at the Totsuki Culinary Academy, large numbers of guests who had come for the Moon Banquet Festival were leaving by car, less than one or two out of a thousand remaining.
"Hachiman, we..." Saika clutched Hachiman's sleeve, her small face pale.
Hachiman shook his head, signaling her not to worry, his gaze fixed intently on that man's back.
His relationship with Makoto wasn't particularly close… not even one-tenth of Yu's.
But as one of the first batch of players to cross over, Hachiman was definitely among those who trusted Makoto the most.
It was because of that man that they could repeatedly return to reality from other worlds.
"Just trust him," He said softly, as if comforting Saika, and also comforting himself.
Time ticked by agonizingly.
On the road, Kogoro's car had traveled a considerable distance.
He glanced out the window… the mountain where the Totsuki Culinary Academy sat was completely out of sight.
"At least I won't be affected now..." He panted, his heart still pounding fiercely.
Just then, the car radio suddenly emitted a harsh screech, followed by an urgent broadcast—
"Emergency announcement! Emergency announcement! Multiple unidentified objects detected approaching Tokyo airspace at high speed! Repeat, multiple unidentified objects detected approaching Tokyo airspace at high speed! Residents are advised to proceed immediately to the nearest shelter! Residents are advised to proceed to the nearest—"
The broadcast cut off abruptly, leaving only a piercing static sound.
Kogoro's hand jerked violently, the steering wheel almost slipping.
He looked up at the sky—
Nothing.
Just as Kogoro and others let out a breath, movement finally appeared in the sky.
A massive nuclear warhead flew in from the horizon.
But it wasn't just one… it was two, three, four...
The first one fell on downtown Tokyo.
Instantly, the entire earth roared, erupting in a red-white light that illuminated the sky.
The Totsuki Culinary Academy was in a mountainous area. The violent tremors caused many cars returning to the city to lose stability and fall off cliffs.
Kogoro's car was also jolted violently. He clung to the steering wheel, his ears filled with the sounds of crashing vehicles, screeching brakes, screams, and explosions that grew closer with each passing moment.
Then, the second one fell… this time in Edogawa Ward, on the edge of Tokyo's urban area.
The dust kicked up by the shockwave blotted out the sky, the ground trembling violently, as if the whole world was collapsing.
"No... No, no, no, no, no—"
Kogoro watched the mushroom cloud rise in his rearview mirror, his pupils contracting sharply.
That fiery red, surging cloud, carrying the stench of death, was exactly like the images in the textbooks he had studied.
Then, a dense barrage of nuclear warheads fell, covering all of Tokyo.
"Wh-What's going on!? Why are they targeting the city!?"
Kogoro's pupils shrank drastically. He shouted incredulously, his voice cracking: "Shouldn't they be aiming for the Totsuki Culinary Academy!?"
His voice had completely changed, laced with tears, despair, and the primal fear of an ordinary person facing apocalyptic power.
"Idiot. Why would they only target the Totsuki Culinary Academy?"
Nayuta, who had previously controlled the minds of all American citizens, looked up at the rapidly descending warheads and said nonchalantly: "They have to account for Makoto's escape range too."
Now that America had decided to use nuclear weapons, why would they only aim at one location?
They had witnessed the Flying Thunder God Technique before. They knew Makoto could teleport kilometers away in an instant. They had to conduct a full-scale carpet bombing.
Probably all of Tokyo would be bombed.
No, maybe all of Japan would be bombed.
After all, putting yourself in their shoes… America had completely broken ties with Makoto. They would definitely go all out and leave no room for error.
Anyone with a sound mind knew that staying by Makoto's side was the safest option.
But many people, facing life-or-death decisions, couldn't think clearly and missed that point earlier.
Still, one had to admit… some people were indeed quite foolish.
"Aaaaah!"
Instantly, countless screams erupted from the Totsuki Culinary Academy, but they were quickly drowned out by the detonations of the warheads.
More people abandoned their cars, fleeing frantically back towards the academy.
The roads were littered with abandoned vehicles, scattered luggage, and people who had fallen and scrambled back up to keep running.
Kogoro was running too.
He had no time for dignity anymore. His suit jacket had been lost somewhere, his tie hung askew around his neck, and he had lost one of his shoes.
His lungs burned as if they might explode, but he couldn't stop! He absolutely couldn't stop!
The mushroom clouds in the sky kept rising, the earth trembled beneath his feet, and the air reeked of scorched residue… the smell of annihilation.
"Eri! Help! Help me!"
He finally saw the gate of the Totsuki Culinary Academy, saw the figures who hadn't left, and saw that man… still sitting in the same spot, his posture barely changed, still eating.
Kogoro scrambled and crawled into the academy, but stumbled on the last step, falling hard.
He turned his head to look at the sky behind him… the dense cluster of warheads continued to fall, fire and smoke shrouding half the sky.
But his gaze involuntarily fell on Makoto in the distance.
As the top sniper of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, he had excellent eyesight.
Even from that great distance, he could still see the man was eating, his expression calm, as if watching a fireworks display.
Kogoro suddenly felt like a clown.
At that moment, all he wanted to say to Makoto was, "Heh, can I regret this?"