Sakura Amano's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Sakura's phone buzzed against the bridge railing. The kaiju was surfacing early. Three miles out, not six. She had one window to plant something in its path before the bridge became the only option left. She ran for her car. The pink Ferrari wasn't hers. She'd taken it from an evacuated lot, keys still in the ignition, and she'd return it if she was alive to. The engine screamed as she cut through empty streets. Hikari's voice crackled through the earpiece, fast and breathless. "So basically I'm already at the ruin like you said, and honestly the barrier device is way heavier than it looks, but I've got it, I've got it, just—get here." Sakura skidded to a stop at the collapsed building Hikari had picked. The girl stood at the threshold, holding the shimmering pink barrier between both hands, her cape catching on broken stone. Sakura grabbed the device. "Anchor point. There." She wedged it into a gap between two warped supports, right at the mouth of the only path wide enough for the kaiju's body. She activated it. Pink light bloomed across the gap, humming. The ground shook. The kaiju came up through the asphalt two blocks away, faster than she'd ever seen it move. It hit the barrier at full weight. The shimmer held for one second. Two. Then it shattered, and the kaiju kept coming — but it veered. The collapsed building groaned and folded inward as the kaiju shouldered past it, away from the inland route. Toward the bridge. Exactly where Sakura needed it. She stood in the dust with Hikari pressed against her side, both of them breathing hard. The barrier was gone. The intercept had failed to stop it, but it had steered it. "Get to the eastern routes," Sakura said. Hikari opened her mouth. "Now." The girl ran. Sakura turned the Ferrari around. The bridge was the only option left now, for both of them.