Pandora's Box

Tokyo schoolchildren watched the battle unfolding nearby with trepidation, albeit from their smartphone screens. Some wanted to go outside to witness the battle of the demigods with their own eyes, but they were strictly forbidden to leave the school.

Ami and Sanno fought to exhaustion, unable to find a gap in each other's defenses.

"Ami! Don't you want to return Yomi's body?"

"Not this way! Whatever Izanami is planned, it won't lead to anything good! Come to your senses, Sanno!"

"Shh, it still won't work out the good way…" Sanno concluded angrily and turned on the blades on his back.

Ami transformed her umbrella and soared into the air. Sanno used the black magatama to transform the blades. He accelerated them and gathered a powerful stream of air.

"Yami no tatsumaki!" He roared menacingly, using the power of the god of storms. "Tornado of Darkness!"

The umbrella turbines heard the crackle of the magatama, and Ami rushed towards Sanno. However, the powerful whirlwind that was raised shifted her trajectory along an arc. Finding herself behind Sanno, Ami instantly transformed the umbrella and grabbed onto the suitcase with the Magmatama. And then grabbed the handle with her hand.

"Don't even think about it!" Sanno roared, clinging with his free hand.

He sucked Ami in with the help of the tornado and pulled the suitcase towards himself until their chances were equalized by Yomi's smoky hands.

"I'll help!"

"S-stop!!!"

Sanno shouted anxiously.

The suitcase suddenly swung open, and a bright light poured out of it.

"Damn it…" Sanno whispered with annoyance. "…I didn't plan it, but… this will do…

…Izanami won."

"What is this light?"

A second later, a powerful explosion was heard, comparable to a powerful nuclear bomb. The silhouettes of the incarnations of the sacred trinity dissolved inside the epicenter, and a devastating shock wave spread across Tokyo.

"Magmatama exploded!?" Fumiko froze in horror.

A strong earthquake began. It split the center of Tokyo and formed a giant expanding abyss, dragging neighboring buildings into itself. Fumiko grabbed the control panel so as not to fall out. Those who were on the ground ran in panic in different directions.

However, the explosion was so powerful that most of the people near the epicenter were simply scattered in all directions. Miku hit her head on a pole and lost consciousness. When Keshita came to, he noticed how the ground was splitting, and Miku was falling down on a small island of asphalt. He didn’t have time to reach her with his elongated bone, and Miku fell into the abyss. Keshita decided to jump after her, but Kamiko stopped him.

"No, let me go!" He struggled. "I have to save her!"

"It's too late, can't you see!"

A powerful glow was also coming from inside the abyss, literally burning.

"This is a lethal level of radiation. You won't survive there!"

"N-no… this can't be!" Keshita grabbed his head with both hands, going crazy.

An electromagnetic pulse jammed the signal from the TV tower, and the head of the Mikhail clone came to his senses.

"…hmm, what did I miss? Wow, the situation is heating up… What is this!?" He looked down, in Fumiko's arms at the top of the tower.

"Huh? You came to your senses?" She read his thoughts.

"The Abyss of Evolution!"

Suddenly, Sanno's voice was heard from somewhere in the air.

"Now the whole world will change!"

When the glow of the epicenter weakened, Ami, from the roof of a neighboring high-rise where she landed after the explosion, was able to see Sanno's melted cybernetic body, behind which the decrepit body of an old man was visible.

"The Abyss of Evolution!? More like a bleeding wound of the planet…" Ami was horrified.

"Goodbye, Tsukiyami Ami!" Sanno said in a decrepit voice and turned off the barely functioning blades.

"Stop!"

Ami extended her hand, as if that could stop him. Sanno fell straight into the Abyss, where his silhouette quickly disappeared.

"So that's how it is! The catalyst of evolution!"

Mikhail watched, and then suddenly bit Fumiko's hand. She instinctively threw her head out the broken window, and her head flew straight into the abyss.

"Where are you going!?" Fumiko also extended her hand, grimacing in pain.

Keshita noticed a head flying past, his and Mikhail's eyes met for a moment. But it was enough for Keshita to understand Misha's intention. Tamiya threw Kamiko aside and ran to the edge of the abyss.

"I'll take care of everything there!"

He said goodbye to Kamiko with anxiety and then added more seriously.

"And you — here!"

"No need!" Soda reached for her brother's retreating.

Keshita jumped into the Abyss and dissolved in its glow. At that moment, Ami landed with a crash next to Kamiko.

"The radiation from the Abyss is too dangerous, we need to do something about it immediately!"

"But Keshita and Miku are there!" Kamiko objected and then looked around. "Where's Buki!?"

"Unfortunately, Ami is right…" Fumiko intervened over the intercom. "This is a completely new type of radiation. We and probably all of Tokyo have already received lethal levels of radiation. If we leave things like this, the planet may become uninhabitable soon!!!"

"W-we can't lose my brother again! I'm going after him!" Kamiko transformed her boots.

"No!" Ami stopped her with her hand. "Your help will be needed here. Your brother entrusted this world to you, too, didn't he!?"

"We don't know what exactly is happening there. But if Sanno and Mikhail went there voluntarily, they should survive. We just need to somehow close the Abyss to protect ourselves from the radiation… like they did in Chernobyl during the nuclear disaster."

"What exactly did they do there?" Ami asked.

"They built a structure made of absorbent material around the exploded reactor. In simple terms, they locked it in a Sarcophagus."

"But where are we going to find something like that in such a short time!?" Kamiko was worried.

"Shh." Ami clicked her tongue in displeasure at the idea that had come to her mind.

"Ami!" Yomi immediately read it.

"We’ve no other choice. We did it, so we’ve to fix it!"

"W-what are you planning?" Kamiko sensed something was wrong.

"Help evacuate the city and leave the Abyss to me!" Ami rushed off, giving the order.

"Ami!"

"Soda, leave it to her. If the goddess says so, we can't resist. The people of the city urgently need our help!"

Ami activated the umbrella in fighter mode and soared into the sky.

"Are you sure?" Yomi asked sadly.

"Sorry, we never had time to talk about everything… but I don't see any other way."

"This will kill you!"

"I was born to protect Japan and all the people!" Ami said firmly. "I leave Sanno to you."

"It seems I can't argue with my wife…"

Ami blushed with embarrassment, as if she realized this for the first time. Although it was obvious, after all, she lost her husband on their wedding day.

When the girl reached the desired height, she changed the umbrella mode, transforming its ribs into rotating blades to maintain altitude.

"This Abyss reminds me of Yomi no Kuni - the land of the dead."

"Rather, the entrance to it’s Yomotsuhira."

"Yes. And, like our father Izanagi, we’ll close it with a 'rock that only an infinite number of people can do'!"

Ami released all of her remaining white magatama, and, as if controlling them with electromagnetic, gravitational force, she rotated them, putting out her hand, directing them down to the Abyss.

"Well then… it's time to say goodbye, my love…" Ami said sadly, holding back a stream of tears. "I hope we meet again!

Chibiki no—"

Yomi didn't let her finish, covering her mouth with a smoky palm, and formed his face next to hers.

"Sleep, my princess…" He said tenderly.

"N-no, just… not again…" Ami fell asleep.

"These are my magatama and my burden too."

Yomi carefully transferred Ami to the umbrella roof, creating a static platform in it. And then finished the technique.

"Chibiki no Iwa!"

Yomi said in a loud, cold voice.

The blades of the umbrella under Ami suddenly accelerated and absorbed the energy of the white magatama, growing and growing to the sides like crystals. Ultimately forming a giant, semi-mirrored, translucent pyramid like the Fujiyama dome.

Yomi himself became like the "operating system" of the Sarcophagus — a rock that only "a thousand people can handle" — Chibiki no Iwa.

Darkness came.