I became Hokage in Tokyo

Chapters 204 and 206: Am I a Toad?! Jiraiya, the Hero of Mount Myōboku!

"I...I'm so scared..."

Yuki Mineko's long black hair was tied into a high ponytail, and her dowdy black tracksuit couldn't hide her ample bosom. She squatted down, hugging her knees, trembling.

Taking advantage of the moment she squatted down, Yuki Mineko quickly ran her hands over her body.

My phone is gone, my keys are gone, all I have left are my clothes and shoes.

I was just jogging in Yoyogi Park, how did I end up here all of a sudden?

And these clover clovers are ridiculously big! This is definitely not Tokyo, we might not even be sure if this is Earth.

"Sir..." Mineko Yuuki raised her head with tears in her eyes, looking at the white-haired man in a panic, her eyes pleading.

"It's too troublesome to explain to each of you individually, beautiful young lady. I'll explain it to you all when you're all awake."

"Okay, okay."

Yuki Mineko wiped away the tears from her eyes with her side palm, secretly scrutinizing the white-haired man in the red outfit with a professional eye.

Judging by appearance, he is about 190cm tall and weighs over 80kg, so he should be over fifty years old.

There was a red mark under each of his eyes, extending to his cheeks. His long, gray hair cascaded down to his waist. Judging from his attire, he looked like a Kabuki actor or a warrior.

His eyebrows and eyes looked quite heroic, with a dashing and unrestrained temperament. It was just a pity that his bulbous nose was too conspicuous, with some small bumps on it.

Her appearance, which could have scored over 80 points, suddenly plummeted below the passing grade.

In the next ten minutes or so, the remaining six people also woke up one after another.

Everyone was in a daze as soon as they opened their eyes, and it took them a long time to come back to their senses.

Because their environment was so strange, with plants blocking out the sun. If it were a primeval forest, it would be understandable, but when did clover and taro leaves grow taller than a person?

Beneath these enormous plant leaves, everyone appears as tiny as an insect in a potted plant.

"Where am I? Even if it were a kidnapping, they wouldn't kidnap a poor guy like me."

"Another world! This must be another world! Summoning circle, where's the princess?"

"Baby, where are you? I'm sure I'm holding the leash."

After the initial shock, the group began to discuss the matter animatedly. Eventually, everyone turned their attention to the silver-haired man whose attire was completely out of place in modern fashion and whose expression was one of utter composure.

"Sir, may I ask who you are?" someone asked cautiously.

"That's a good question!"

The white-haired man seemed to have been waiting for someone to ask him a question. He was prepared, tossing his long, gray hair and leaping a few steps like a kabuki actor. He stretched out his left hand with fingers spread towards the crowd, while his other hand pointed towards the sky, chanting:

"I am the immortal Daoist, a toad spirit from Mount Myōboku, also known as the Toad Sage! Please give me your guidance!"

Everyone was stunned, and an awkward yet polite smile appeared on their faces.

Doesn't this person feel ashamed?

"Hahaha, what toad sage? Look at your big nose, you're more like a toad!"

A plump woman, whose figure was so round and bloated that it reminded people of balloons or tanks, laughed while covering her blood-red mouth covered with lipstick. The makeup on her face fell off like plaster.

"Toad? What nonsense are you spouting, you fat wretch? I am Jiraiya, the hero of Mount Myōboku!"

Jiraiya became enraged, as if someone had hit a sore spot, and started arguing loudly with the fat woman.

"My nose just had a slight mishap during my cultivation; it will soon return to normal. Unlike you, you fat woman, once I regain my original appearance, a man like me can charm any woman!"

"Like a toad yawning, what a boastful tone! You're just bragging. If that's the case, I was a real beauty when I was thinner!"

Perhaps because the fat woman's weight was more than a tenth of that of the tall Jiraiya, she was not intimidated at all and retorted sarcastically.

"You fat slut!"

Watching Jiraiya and the fat woman engage in a heated verbal battle, everyone was speechless, feeling that this man named Jiraiya was very unreliable.

Jiraiya the Toad Sage?

Mineko Yuuki frowned. She seemed to have heard this name before. She had read about it in an illustrated book when she was a child. The master was a ninja who could summon frogs, and his name was Jiraiya.

Secretly memorizing the information, Mineko Yuuki timidly spoke:

"Excuse me, could you two please stop arguing?"

"For the sake of this lovely little girl, I'll let it slide with this fat woman."

Upon seeing the pretty face of Yuuki Mineko, Jiraiya immediately changed his expression and waved his hand casually.

"Lord Jiraiya, may I ask where this place is? And how did we end up here by accident?" someone asked, seizing the opportunity.

"This is Mount Myōboku, located on the inner side of the world!"

Jiraiya stroked his chin a few times and said in a calm voice:

"You people in this world have probably never heard of it, so just think of it as another world. Sometimes, mortals like you, whether lucky or unlucky, stumble up from below by accident."

"However, such a thing is extremely rare, it might not happen even once every hundred years in the past. In the last ten years or so, as the seal has loosened, gaps connecting the two worlds have appeared from time to time, and more and more mortals have accidentally come up to the inner world. But I have never heard of seven strangers barging in at once like today."

Upon hearing Jiraiya's words, everyone frowned, half believing and half doubting.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I was just taking my baby for a walk in Yoyogi Park in broad daylight. I wasn't running around at all, so how could I have ended up at some Mount Myōboku?"

The fat woman looked incredulous.

"The spatial rift connecting the two worlds appears randomly in the surface world, and its size is also random. You were all sucked up by the rift in that place called Yoyogi Park, weren't you?"

"Nonsense!"

The fat woman grew increasingly agitated, raising a fleshy hand resembling a pig's trotter, spitting as she spoke:

"I always keep my baby's rope tightly tied to my wrist. If I get sucked into another world, where will my baby go? And my Chanel bag is gone too. Did you hide it?"

The fat woman shouted at the others:

"Look at yourselves, everyone. Don't you have absolutely nothing left?"

"My phone and wallet are gone!"

"Me too, and my mechanical watch too."

Someone belatedly reached into their pocket and exclaimed in surprise.

Suddenly, the way they looked at Jiraiya changed.

Jiraiya stuck out his little finger and picked at his ear, then blew on it and said dismissively:

"This immortal has no obligation to answer questions from fat women and stinky men. Believe it or not."

"Everyone, don't be fooled by this man's words. He might have come to this place in a daze, just like us. He just woke up first and stole our valuables, so he made up this lame lie to fool us."

Seeing Jiraiya's guilty look, the fat woman became even bolder and started shouting aggressively.

"Sister, please don't say that. I... I believe Mr. Jiraiya isn't that kind of person."

Yuki Mineko stopped sobbing and gently comforted the fat woman.

Not everyone was swayed by the fat woman's words. A young man wearing black-rimmed glasses spoke up:

"We've all ended up here together, we're all in the same boat, it's not good to suspect others without reason."

The fat woman muttered a few words and then stopped making a scene.

"Mr. Jiraiya, could you please say a little more?" Mineko Yuuki bowed to Jiraiya and asked.

"Since it's a pretty young lady asking the question, then this immortal will take pity on you."

Jiraiya suppressed his previous frivolous expression and became serious.

"You did not enter Mount Myōboku physically, but your souls were drawn in, so naturally you did not bring any physical possessions with you."

"You say we are souls now, but what about our clothes...?"

Jiraiya gave a meaningful smile, but didn't say anything more.

When the bespectacled man saw Jiraiya's expression, he immediately imagined a lot of things.

Female ghosts in folk tales don't come out naked to haunt people; perhaps there's some unknown secret behind it.

"A soul? That's just a ghost. This person is talking nonsense again. Look at me, I can run and jump, and my feet can't leave the ground to fly, how could I be a ghost?"

The fat woman said dismissively, then jumped around a few times, causing the ground to shake violently and the surrounding giant plants to tremble.

"Listen to me, everyone, this guy is talking complete nonsense. Don't believe him just because he's wearing an old-fashioned costume. He might just be a Kabuki actor, or maybe he's someone who escaped from a mental hospital."

The others exchanged bewildered glances, unsure whether to believe Jiraiya.

After all, their five senses are exactly the same as before, so it would be too absurd for someone to suddenly say that they have come to another world, or that they are still souls without bodies.

"So what should we do?"

"With so many of us missing together, the Metropolitan Police Department won't just stand by and do nothing! We must trust the Metropolitan Police Department and wait for the police to rescue us!"

The fat woman raised her arm and shouted loudly, and several people couldn't help but nod in agreement.

This female citizen is so unreliable.

Mineko Yuki's eyes darted around.

I can barely take care of myself, how could I possibly save you?

The fact that so many people mysteriously disappeared together in Yoyogi Park and ended up in this mysterious place that resembles a giant plant kingdom is clearly beyond the scope of the Metropolitan Police Department's capabilities.

Yuki Mineko had been secretly observing Jiraiya's expression. His words and actions showed no sign of nervousness or apprehension; on the contrary, he exuded composure and calmness.

Unless Jiraiya's mental fortitude and acting skills are at their peak, he wouldn't be able to remain as composed as he is now.

It seems that the key to breaking through this incident lies with Jiraiya.

Furthermore, this man wasn't completely unresponsive; Jiraiya's attitude towards her became much warmer. However, this wasn't surprising, as Yuuki Mineko was used to men treating her differently because of her beauty in her daily life.

Now that things have come to this, I have no choice but to sacrifice my looks in the hopes of getting more information out of her.

Mineko Yuuki squinted, her eyes instantly clouding over with a thin mist, her face filled with sorrow, looking poignant and moving. She pursed her lips, about to say something to Jiraiya, when a voice was heard:

"Croak—!"

A yellow toad, larger than a millstone, came crashing down like a mountain collapsing and trees falling. Its back was covered with black bumps the size of fists.

Everyone was dumbfounded. This toad was huge! It was practically a monster!

The giant toad stuck out its tongue and caught the fat woman. Its tongue tightened, and it tried to pull her over.

But the fat woman stood tall and imposing.

Helpless, the giant toad could only pounce on her, wanting to swallow the fat woman whole.

"Aaaaaah—! Help! Don't eat me!"

Caught off guard, the fat woman was pounced on by the giant toad and knocked to the ground. Her face showed a look of extreme terror, and she let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.

The giant toad opened its mouth and swallowed the fat woman's right side. The fat woman was unwilling to be swallowed and struggled with her hands, slapping and hitting wildly, tearing and rolling on the ground with the giant toad.

"Quick, let's all go together and get her out!"

Yuki Mineko's expression changed, and she quickly greeted them.

Although the toad was frighteningly large, there were many of them, and they could still manage to deal with it if they all attacked together.

But the others hesitated and dared not step forward.

The fat woman's body was too large and enormous for the toad to swallow whole.

Not only that, the fat woman also used her size advantage to pull her body out of the toad's mouth, showing a trend of defeating the enemy in the battle!

"Croak!"

The giant toad seemed to sense something, or perhaps it was tired of the tug-of-war, and suddenly abandoned its prey, leaping into the grass.

"The toad demon is nothing special; I still managed to drive it away."

Although the fat woman who escaped from the tiger's mouth was covered in mud and looked disheveled, she still stood up and said triumphantly.

Based on the fat woman's size alone, she is the strongest fighter among the seven.

Those who perished alongside them couldn't help but show their admiration.

But their faces quickly froze.

The clump of giant plants rustled for a moment, and the head of a python, larger than a dining table, emerged, coldly and indifferently watching them from five meters above the ground.

"Hiss hiss hiss—"

Everyone stared wide-eyed in terror, frozen in place, too afraid to move.

Although the toad had already run far away, the terrifying python had no intention of circumventing the humans. It tilted its head back and arched its neck, ready to pounce and bite.

Mineko Yuuki gritted her teeth, rushed to Jiraiya's side, and tightly grabbed Jiraiya's sleeves with both hands.

"Chirp chirp, help, help..."

"The Art of Disordering Lion's Mane!"

(End of this chapter)