Tales of the Amalgam'verse: First Friend · 3:58am Nov 4th, 2018
Didn't think I'd let the 64th anniversary of Godzilla go un-celebrated, did you? Might be neck deep in work, but I managed to whip this up for some fun. Consider it a tonal palette cleanser after the Halloween special. Proofed as per usual, but the lovely Faith-Wolff and wise Lance-Omi-kron
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Kyoto Institute of Biotechnics, 1993
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“All right children, it’s time we headed back to the dormitory for the afternoon lesson, the Baby will still be here for us to visit next week,” A young woman in a simple dress suit and bob hairstyle noted with a click of her heels.
The dozen or so children, between the ages of ten and fifteen, mumbled in protest. At first glance they seemed to be a normal group of tots to early teenagers, but further inspection would reveal that many of them had some more unusual features. Monochrome hair that ranged from the darkest blacks to the brightest whites, skin that could be either normal hues or any shade of gray, and depending on their epidermis coloration, many of them had dark veins on their cheeks and under their eyes that went all the way down to the throats. The offspring of intermarriage between humanity and the would-be invaders from the 1950s, the Mysterians. While some of the children exhibited greater physicality and were often offered enrollment in the G-Force M Soldier unit, a sizable portion of such unions produced ones with bolstered mental capabilities. Psychics. And it was to a primary school in Kyoto that such gifted children were sent. It was a relative win-win situation for all parties.
G-Force got to keep tabs on most of the up and coming psychics, on the lookout for any potential abuses of power, and the children were given teachings by Mysterian and older hybrid personnel on how to better control their abilities while also being offered potential paths to work in G-Force or affiliated groups like C.C.I.
One such instructor for the younger children was one of the earlier hybrids to be born, who was currently chuckling as she opened the automatic doors leading in and out of the paddock room.
“Ah ah, none of the sass,” Miki Saegusa quipped as she worked to herd the children out, “Don’t forget to thank Ms. Gojo for the presentation.”
The children all turned about and bowed to a slightly older woman dressed in a set of dirtied boots, khaki pants, and shirt.
“Thank you for the presentation, Madam Gojo!”
Azusa Gojo chuckled and nodded to the group, bowing back.
“Thank you all for visiting!” the young biologist quipped and waved to the children as they started to file out with Miki.
In some ways, Miki and Azusa’s jobs weren’t all that different. Kyoto’s Biotechnics Institute took care of unusual children of more than just the human kind. A happy warbling behind her and the resulting grins on the psychic children told her the baby dinosaur she’d been taking care of was among those displeased to see the visiting field trip end. Azusa did momentarily pause when her observant eye counted twelve attending children when she thought she had counted a Baker’s dozen entering.
Writing it off momentarily at either over-counting or just forgetting if one had run off to the bathroom, she turned and went back to her work.
“Madam Gojo... I’m twenty-five,” she muttered to herself, briefly contemplating her reflection to see if she somehow looked a lot older in this attire.
The baby Godzillasaurus chirped as he approached his surrogate mother, who smiled and patted his head through the cage bars before going over towards the haystacks to bring some more in to replace old nesting material.
But Azusa’s observation skills were always very sharp even when on the task. The odd sensation of being watched never left her and out of the very periphery of her vision, she noticed a little pale slip of hair poking out from behind the opened hallway door. Pulling up her notepad and hiding a smirk, she pretended to never notice anything while jotting down the behavioral observations of the field trip. The way the little bit of hair, which seem to be the end of a pigtail, slightly shifted up and down and that tiny glint of what she suspected was an eye hiding in the shadows of the door told her somebody really didn’t want the field trip to be over just yet.
Still pretending to not notice anything, Azusa put the notepad aside and turned around to grab some hay tufts. Hefting them onto her shoulders, she’d just managed to lob two over the fence when her charge started chirping loudly.
Already privy to what had gotten his attention she still feigned ignorance.
“Oh don’t get so mouthy, lunch will be on soon,” Azusa groaned as she stretched out her back and stealthily throw a glance back towards the door.
Now the pigtails were sticking out either side of a potted plant fixture.
Figuring she’d humor the child, as no doubt Miki would notice somebody missing and be back soon, Azusa walked right past the plant and ignored the tiny sounds of rapid shifting and little footsteps circling around the other side. Putting her back and a good eight meters to the plant, Azusa typed at the climate control monitors to adjust the humidity and temperature of the chamber. Working at them for a good while and hearing a loud chirping coming from the dinosaur, Azusa checked her watch and noted Miki wasn’t back yet.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, deciding it was time to stop joking around. She turned about as she spoke up, “Alright young lady, you don’t want to miss your-”
Her last syllable paused in midair when she saw the place she was sure the little girl had been behind her back and in front of a very eager dinosaur, was completely empty.
“-...class?” raising her brow, Azusa glanced about the room to try and see if the little one was hiding somewhere she had suspected. But between the fact the little girl didn’t seem particularly good at hiding behind anything on account of her wide hairstyle and the limited places she could be in the room, all options were quickly exhausted.
“Where?...” Azusa whispered to herself as she paced away from the computers to further investigate.
She couldn’t have gone inside the enclosure. Her fitting between the bars was impossible, and given the heights at which Azusa had seen her hair, there was no way she could have been tall enough to vault herself over. Scratching at her scalp and flicking her braided pigtails behind her head, she stood with a hand on her chin as she surveyed the paddock room.
Her eyes never found the girl, but she did notice something slightly amiss with the floor in one particular spot. Both the fact the dinosaur was looking at it intently with a tilt of his head, and a slight blurriness across several square feet of floor. It wasn’t anything significant, almost like looking in a lens that has fingerprint smudge on it, but how the light was reacting to the spot seemed amiss. That and she could hear a subtle chiming noise in the back of her head between her ears.
Azusa pursed her lips and approached, thinking she could hear somebody breathing as she got closer to the spot. That was when the doors to the room opened again and a slightly perturbed Miki stormed in. The hybrid’s typically very human-like appearance faltered when dark veins became visible across her face and throat.
“Io, that’s enough!”
Azusa blinked rapidly, the sensation in the back of her head lifting. Like a veil on top of her being yanked away, or more accurately her mental projection being canceled out by the much more experienced hybrid, the little girl became blatantly visible standing directly in front of Azusa while halfway into a tiptoeing sneaky step.
Io Shinoda paused but quickly realized the situation she was in and didn’t try to flee. Azusa looked her over for a moment but found she couldn’t quite put the little one to exact memory other than maybe vaguely seeing her in the back of the group once or twice in the field trip. She seemed a lot younger than some of the other kids, not to mention shorter but that might’ve been on account of age. Io lowered her head, her pale bangs hiding her face as her pigtails drooped to give her an extremely melancholy demeanor.
Miki sighed, canceling out her abilities and pacing forward to gently take Io by the hand.
With a sheepish grin, she looked to Azusa and rubbed the back of her own head, “So sorry about that, perception alteration-”
Her gaze didn’t become harsh per se, but a bit sterner when she looked down at Io, “-something she knows she shouldn’t be doing to people. Sorry to disturb you, Miss Gojo.”
They bowed and hurried out of the room before Azusa could even say anything.
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It was hours later and towards the end of the day, having just put in an extra amount of hay for the nest just in case Kazuma tried to impress her with his machinery again, given last time ended in them crashing his latest flying contraption into the previous nest, that Azusa found herself with another pair of visitors. She perked her brow when she recognized the younger of the two approaching.
Io Shinoda, still in her school uniform and now standing beside a man whom even of average height made her look absolutely tiny, kept her brow low as she approached behind her company. The man was extremely tired looking, visible bags under his eyes and his hair scattered about in a wild mess. He might’ve cleaned up a bit nicer but given he looked like he only had all of five minutes to act, definitely not enough to shave off the stubble rolling across his chin and jawline, much less fully fix up the suit and jacket he was wearing.
“Yugi Shinoda,” the man addressed himself as such while in the middle of a very frantic bow after stopping about three meters away from Azusa. He motioned to the girl, “My daughter would like to give you something regarding what happened earlier.”
His facial expression showed more fear and worry then genuine anger thankfully. Io Shinoda paced forward ahead of her father and now Azusa could see that she was holding something.
Io bowed to the still dumbstruck biologist, “... I am sorry for my actions earlier today Ms. Gojo madam ma’am-”
The way she said it sounded like she was reading off a script, “I swear not to act like that again towards you-”
“Iiioooo,” Yugi grumbled.
Io shrugged, “-not to anyone again at all. Please accept my humblest apologies.”
Azusa took in the sight when Io presented a very lovely made bento box, before sighing and returning the bow.
“Thank you very much, young lady. It was a lovely trick.”
Io perked up slightly and Yugi cringed with an awkward chuckle, “Ehe, one I hope she doesn’t put much practice in… It’s not exactly smiled upon to abuse one’s powers on others without them knowing.”
Azusa crouched down regardless and accepted the box. When she and Io locked gazes the biologist tried to look as friendly as she could with a beaming smile before reaching out to pat the little girl’s head. Her smile soon turned into a frown when Io quickly shied away and power walked to the back of the room. Yugi shrugged, pacing up to Azusa with a knowing expression.
“Don’t let it get you down,” he muttered, “Io’s... Not very social.”
Azusa sighed, but still couldn’t quite banish the frown as she looked Yugi over and recognized the tag poking out of one of his pockets.
Azusa pointed to it, “Cellular biology wing, right? I think I remember you from some of the meetings. Listen, please don’t be too upset with her. She’s very young and I think she was just worried about leaving me alone with the dinosaur.”
Yugi raised an eyebrow, “Worried?”
“Well, given she stayed behind to watch me.”
“Would have thought she had seen you around the little tyke enough during the field trip to know not to,” Yugi muttered while nodding towards the enclosure and its occupant who was looking at the procession curiously, “Just about everyone in Kyoto knows he’s gentle as a lamb.”
Azusa pursed her lips for a moment before motioning with her hand for Yugi to follow her. Together they walked over to a more distant side of the enclosure before Azusa turned back around.
“I remember all the children in the trip prominently but her, I think she was hiding behind Miki or lurking in the background the whole time.”
Yugi’s frown sunk even lower as Azusa continued on.
“Never saw her near the other children when they gathered around close to the fences. When I called over Baby, she never got anywhere near them or anyone. I think she’s scared of him.”
Azusa looked over to her right to see the baby Godzillasaurus looking back at her from the other side of the perimeter fence, tilting his head curiously. With her theory in mind, she was glad he had his attention on her and Yugi and not Io.
But that soon started to change when the dinosaur sniffs at the air and started to move away from them and towards the other side of the enclosure. Azusa followed his line of sight and saw he was heading directly towards Io, who was pressed up against the back wall, sitting on a bench oblivious to everything else. Before she could move past Yugi and try to stop her charge from surprising and giving Io a panic attack, Yugi got in front of her.
“Not quite that actually,” Yugi shrugged and rubbed at the back of his head, “given her drawing books are almost nothing but him, I’d say she’s pretty interested in the young Godzillasaur. She keeps scribbles and notes on him like a project. It’s other children who are the issue.”
Azusa relaxed somewhat but couldn’t fully banish her frown when she saw Io draw up her legs and hug her knees to rest her chin on them. Yugi shared the somber expression.
“Io… Doesn’t do well with others. I tried my best with her but she’s my first and I couldn’t profess to know that much about raising psychic children. She was alone a lot before a year ago, having then been enrolled here.”
Azusa remembered the general ages and heights for the field trip. Io would be the shortest by a long shot.
“She seems younger than most of the other children.”
“Yeah, eight years as of last month,” Yugi shrugged his shoulders, “I was already working here and thought it’d be better if she was around other kids and I could be close by so I got her enrolled in Psychic care and research early. She seemed to like the idea, always was a sharp one; but didn’t seem to stick the way I liked it to.”
“And her mother?”
Azusa didn’t realize how much her innocent question bit and stung until she saw Yugi visibly flinch up. Before she could take it back, however, Yugi was already fishing out his wallet. Pulling free a small picture that had been folded up to fit, he spread it out to reveal it. The image showed a woman sitting in a hospital room with several machines of both Terran and Alien design tucked into the corners. She was stunningly beautiful by even human standards despite being a Mysterian with extremely dark eyes sporting black sclera and prominent facial veins. Her hair was long, likely hip length, white as snow. Dressed in a hospital gown with a lab coat thrown over a chair, her soft smile and slightly swollen belly gave her an unprecedented glow.
“My wife, Asuka Shinoda.”
Azusa couldn’t help but tilt her head slightly at the very human sounding name. As she began to ponder small speculation and mental math if this meant Io’s mother was also a hybrid, Yugi picked up on it and chuckled nostalgically.
“Hehe, Asuka. She insisted on a name from Terra even before we met… she always was an odd-one-out... Io takes a lot after her and sometimes I wonder if that’s a good thing. Asuka would have loved it but given her behavior…”
Azusa looked up at him and finished his sentence with a slight grimace, “She sticks out from the other children even more.”
Yugi nodded slightly, “A lot of the other children have things like two extended families, presentations on what their Mysterian ancestors did on their ships, sometimes even two names like what Miki has. I.. couldn’t give her any of that... Last month they had a Bring-Your-Parent-To-Class day and that just made it more obvious when all the students recognized the eccentric biologist from their lab field trip who gave a speech with his suit on backward.”
Azusa would’ve laughed if she wasn’t grimacing, remembering some gossip about that field trip and now realizing ‘Dr. BackFront’ was standing in front of her.
She patted him on the shoulder, “Hey, don’t beat yourself up. Parenting ain’t easy. Singles even more so.”
Yugi cringed, “Well I wing alone the best I can. Scatterbrain like me can forget to put my socks on the right feet...”
Azusa shrugged and finally chuckled with the hope of alleviating some of the dourness, “I’d buy it. Your shirt’s on backward this time.”
Yugi’s eyes widened and he glanced down to finally realize what she was talking about. Swearing under his breath he fidgeted to try and fix it but soon came to the realization he’d probably have to take his whole suit jacket off to do so and resigned himself to it with a groan.
“Dumb mess. Would take a gal from a spaceship to like me.”
“Heeeey,” Azusa jokingly punched him in the shoulder, “You never know what the future holds. No one’s to say it happens just once.”
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Somewhere, miles away in Tokyo, a young journalist photographer named Yuki Ichinose sneezed in the middle of an equipment set up. Springing up, a red-headed intern with the name label ‘Tachibana’ handed Yuki a tissue.
Yuki sniffled and spoke nasally, “Thanks Yuri, don’t know what came over me.”
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Yugi paused for a moment as he got the weirdest sensation, and could be forgiven for reading it slightly wrong. He glanced over at Azusa and muttered.
“... Do you like grilled or sushi? I ask because Io’s coming and hope it be best it could be.”
Azusa snickered and shook her head, “Sorry, I already have a date.”
Yugi thankfully caught her jesting mood and could tell it was nothing harsh, chuckling, “Darn, and I was hoping so I can get close enough to study your pet dino’s G-cells.”
“There are about 15 levels of illegal right there after 1989.”
Yugi groaned, “Yes yes, I know. Biollante Incident, don’t remind me... Yeesh, Asuka was chomping at the bit to get the project until they went with Shirigami.”
“Well, no Biollante then if she got the job?”
Yugi gave her a wide-eyed, grimacing, chuckling shake of the head, “Hehe noooo. Knowing her, she’d have used a venus fly trap instead of a rose. Always was a risk-taker.”
“Kinda like Io?”
Yugi sighed and nodded as he watched his daughter, who seemed to perk up slightly when she saw the foliage in the enclosure nearest to her starting to rustle.
“Yeah… she’d have loved that about her, though it worries me sometimes… Again, just wanted to apologize.”
Azusa shook her head and waved him off, “No need. Actually was really impressed to see the stunt she pulled off.”
“Her little disappearing act where she projects something on top of herself in someone’s head?” Yugi chuckled, “Not quite sure how she learned how to do that. She first managed to pull it off while still in the crib and gave me a heart attack checking every room in the apartment when she decided to play peekaboo with the copied image of her blanket. Used it to get in all sorts of trouble since.”
“Well, if trouble’s the issue, maybe she just needs an outlet.”
“At her age?”
“Some children get an early start on such things-”
Azusa saw how Io’s eyes widened and her head perked up when a scaly head poked out of the shrubs and looked upon the little girl with red and yellow eyes. One could of swore they just presented Io with the most adorable puppy in the world given her expression compared to how most girls her age would react.
“-… Yugi, what are your work hours?”
Yugi cringed, “Longer than I would like. 9 to 7.”
“So got some hours between the school getting out and you leaving?”
“Y-Yes,” Yugi muttered with a bit of shame in his tone, “Miki or the neighbors watch her for me usually but…”
Azusa watched on with a beaming smile and started to approach when she saw Io get coaxed off her bench seat by the little dinosaurs’ cooing and eagerly meet him on the other side of the fence.
“I have an idea,” Azusa hummed.
Soon the biologist was coming up beside Io and crouching down to her level.
“Hey,” she whispered.
Io looked over at her and jolted back into startled surprise. She put her hands up and in an instant she seemed to phase out of existence, replaced with a piece of wall. The chiming was back within Azusa’s head, but now she just rolled her eyes at it. Reaching into the bag on her back, she drew out a large flower and held out the stem in front of her.
“He really likes these, how about you give it to him?”
The ‘wall’ stayed there for a moment before slowly moving and flickering away. Io Shinoda returned to view and looked between Azusa, the flower, and the dinosaur. Her little hand gently gripped the stem and she turned to face the reptile. After a few moments of looking up and down, she looked over to Azusa and saw her father standing behind them. Seeing Yugi was present and knowing it was safe with this woman like it was with Ms. Miki, Io held her arms up.
Her tiny voice was barely above a whisper, “I can’t reach…”
Azusa beamed, gently taking the little girl up into her arms and supporting her.
“Now, let him come to you, don’t move or make a lot of noise.”
She stood beside the fence and nodded to Yugi.
“Codes 541864,” Azusa quipped with a glance towards the keycode controlling the gate.
Yugi caught onto her train of thought and plan, sighing and smiling to himself despite some worry as he punched the key in and nudged the door open after the latch clicked off. Azusa stepped inside and looked at the curious dinosaur.
“Oookay, oookay, easy does it,” the baby started to approach causing a slight stillness in breath for both Azusa and Yugi.
Knowledge that the reptilian was docile was well known and Azusa had been alone with him in the enclosure many times with her back turned. But he was still the size of a couch and hadn’t been around children without a fence in the way before, so eyes were wary in case an accident happened. But thankfully, the dinosaur’s caution and curiosity spurred it to move slowly.
Stopping a short distance away from his mother and the tiny human hatchling, the baby sniffled the air and eyed the tasty looking blossom the hatchling was holding. He warbled wantingly and waited for his mother’s cue, a bit wary at having someone new in his enclosure that wasn’t that nice Kazuma male-man that gave him burgers or donuts behind his mother’s back.
But the hatchling with pretty white hair seemed to perk up at his call and soon held out the blossom to him. The baby wiggled in joy and paced over, soon feeling the delicious sweet-tartness of the petals in his mouth when he chomped down onto them.
Azusa was worried that Io would startle or yelp when the baby unexpectedly chomped down on the flower, flashing serrated teeth and large fangs less than a hand’s breadth from her face. Instead, she felt the girl rise up and suck in a breath in such a manner she knew Io had stars in her eyes. Even more so when the dinosaur finished scarfing down the flower and leaned in to sniff for more, not minding Io eagerly petting and stroking him. He even let out a soft series of clicks, like a purr, when she scratched behind his ears and ran her fingers between his scutes.
Azusa beamed and smirked, “So, Io. I’ve got a lot to do around here, how’d you like to come here after school for a few hours?”
Io’s head whirled around to stare into her with a widened expression of pure shock.
Azusa tilted her head, “Can do your work, draw some, and help keep our friend here company while giving me a hand.”
The baby Godzillasaurus moved in and nuzzled the human-hatchling, both to check on her and see if she had any more flowers. The hatchling, Io Shinoda, squealed with delight and hugged his muzzle. She felt a thought come from the face pressed up against her, a question as to who she was.
Io beamed and projected her answer to the dinosaur, -"I’m Io! Your new friend!"-
The saurian repeated the word, grasping it and wagging his tail as he repeated it. Io giggled. She’d correct him later that ‘Io NewFriend’ was not her name.
Yugi Shinoda let out a deep sigh of relief, hoping this just might work. If anything, he hoped Asuka could see their daughter right now. It had been a long time since Io smiled this widely.
And so, two young souls destined for great journeys started their treks with each other at their side. Kyoto Institute would never soon forget the havoc of which they’d bring…
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Two Months Later
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Io Shinoda stood up on her tippy toes, pointing a meter stick she’d borrowed from her classroom at the keypad. After tapping at the object a few times to no avail, she grumbled and turned to the large form looking at her behind the fence.
-”It’s no good. Can’t hit the keys hard enough. Can you reach?”-
A clawed hand of the recently named Junior went through the bars, feeling around before tapping at the keypad with a taloned digit. Io grinned mischievously, rubbing her hands together.
-”Pewfect! Now move it up… up.. Aaaand push!”-
The pushed numbers slowly appeared on the keypad’s screen. 5...4…..1...8….6….4. The gate clicked and Io pulled it open.
-”Right, like we practiced now!”-
Junior lowered himself as far as he could, waiting for the little weight to climb onto his shoulders and collar before rising up. Io grinned and held onto her friend’s scutes and jokingly kicked his collar with her heel.
-”Giddy-up!”-
This story is really good honestly. I don’t know why but some of it reminds me of my childhood a little.well at least for this part. Overall great story and keep it up.
Baby Goji!!!!!!!! And he made a friend!
That's so adorable! :)
So that's what you meant when you said that we were going to see Io again soon, and to think that I was unknowingly catching on to what you were planning next.
I was wondering when you were gonna post something commemorating the 64th anniversary of Godzilla. I knew you were swamped with work, and to be honest, I wouldn't have blamed you if you were too busy to do such.
I'm glad you included those links. It's been a while since I've seen Godzilla 2000 so I didn't recognize the little girl and her dad's names. This was sweet.
Darn it, Tarb. I was almost killed by the hidden feels within this adorable story. A double knockout. If the feels don't get you, the cute will. Love this work and it's always nice to see more momma Azusa.
ohey
surprise cute
thancc
This was really touching. Just what I needed!
Adorable and you turned Io into a Hybrid, Neat
The wholesomeness, IT HURTS! hrgk... *has heart attack*
Aww! So cute!
This is a really sweet entry, and definitely needed after the last one.
Also interesting Io is a Mysterian Hybrid in this universe.
Oh no. It's too cute! Must! Suppress! The HNNNNNNG!
*Inhales, exhales, inhales, exhales, inhales*
HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
(anyone who knows where i got that from gets a cookie)
Such an overload of cuteness.