Godzilla 2000: New Era, PART 4 · 1:07am Dec 27th, 2020
Commander Aso let out a weary sigh as he rubbed at his temples with one hand while blindly opening the door to his office with the other. The G-Force commander could feel such weight figuratively and literally bearing down upon his aged form. Two board meetings back to back, having to issue a no-shipping zone around the corner of Japan’s territorial waters for fear of monster attack, a bunch of dead end solutions to try and find Godzilla, and the media circus starting to kick off now that the Eiko-Ryu vessel had been found scuttled on shore with no hands aboard with damage to the hull. Any hope he might have had about keeping this harrowing discovery a secret until more could be sorted out had been effectively kneecapped, leaving him scrambling to assemble a panel of experts on top of everything else.
His sake cabinet tucked away in the corner of his office was starting to look very appealing in his mind’s eye, and the aged general-turned-commander was wondering which was worse: Feeling his age in another barrage of meetings, or coming in slightly inebriated. He wasn’t a young man and hadn’t been for a long time. Which was why he wasn’t sure if he should be proud or surprised some of his old soldier instincts still kicked in the moment he stepped halfway into his office and noticed somebody had snuck in and was sitting next to his desk. Instantly his muscles tensed, and his free hand snapped down from his face and towards his sidearm.
Thankfully the intruder wasn’t anything resembling a threat, just an aged woman of comparable demographic to himself wearing weatherbeaten and sun-bleached clothing, a white top and simple red dress. Sun-curled gray hairs hung beside her face with a ponytail sporting an ornate band on the back. To her credit she was unmoving in reaction to seeing Aso about to pull a gun on her, just calmly holding her hands up to show she was unarmed while blinking plainly.
“Commander?” A gruff, strong voice called down from further in the hallway, no doubt coming from Pentecost.
Out of the corner of his eye, Aso could see his protégé looking at him a bit inquisitively as he saw half of his superior standing inside his office doorway. He started to approach while also letting his hand glide to his side towards a revolver hidden in his coat pocket.
“If I may have a moment of your time, Commander…”
Aso tensed, letting his mind play through the possible options of how the next 10 seconds were going to play out. Had this been any time before the 1980s, if somebody weird approached him he would have brushed them off. But these were weird times, and if somebody had the gumption to somehow sneak inside the office of arguably one of the most powerful people on the planet, they certainly believed in the importance of their own words. He could have her thrown out, either ordered out himself or have Pentecost handle her, call security, and maybe even find who to reprimand for being so unobservant that a woman in her 70s slipped past them.
He could, but he didn’t.
Commander Aso straightened up and put his hand away from his gun, leaning back out into the hallway to throw his voice to the approaching British man.
“At ease, Pentecost… Just had some stray thoughts come to mind.”
The look Stacker gave him communicated a lot, and Aso was just as visually talkative. With but a few gestures of the eye, the message was received. Pentecost stopped in his advance, withdrew the hand from his revolver’s handle, and saluted.
“I’ll see to it you’re not bothered, Commander.”
Aso gave him a nod before stepping back into his office and closing the door. His company had not moved, just calmly sitting in one of the extra chairs across from his desk. A minute later Aso set down to small bamboo cups with a sake jar in between them. As host, he poured the first for his company before she returned the gesture. His observant mind picked up on the simple, faded red dress she had on under the white.
“You are a miko, correct? A soothsayer,” The commander noted, seeing the similarity to the attire of a Shinto shrine priestess.
“That I am, Commander. Though I admit my garb is in a bit of disrepair. I’m not from the core islands.”
“Offshore then? Okinawa?”
“Odo,” she corrected and that gave Aso the briefest of pause before she continued, “My name is Hina, shrine priestess and caretaker of the shrines at Odo Island.”
“Old-fashioned, huh? Should have considered other career paths,” Commander Aso hummed as he sampled some of the apple sake, “My office is not easy to get into unnoticed. Care to tell me who was lax in security?”
“When you’re as old as I am, you know a few things,” Hina quipped while nodding and taking a sip, “This meeting is not due to the folly of your subordinates, I’m sure they are excellent guardians.”
“And what might the nature of this meeting be?”
“Godzilla.”
Commander Aso sighed but nodded, “I had a feeling it would be when you said where you came from. Come to offer me any sage advice on how to find your island’s sea monster? I’m not a religious man but at this point, I’m willing to ask for anything.”
Hina wrinkled her brow and shook her head slowly, letting her grayed ponytail switch back and forth slowly.
“I am a medium at best, Commander, not an invoker. I couldn’t tell you where he is, I only came to warn you.”
“A warning?” Aso cuffed, “I think I would be one of the last people not to take his threat seriously.”
“With someone of your station, it would be expected," Hina nodded while pouring him another bit of sake and patting his desk assuringly, “I apologize if I gave you a stir.”
“Forgiven. But if you came here to warn me about Godzilla coming to attack once again as its ancestors did, you’ll be quite assured I don’t intend to allow a repeat of what befell my country 45 years ago and then repeated 30 years later,” Commander Aso said with a calmness returning to his tone as he briefly motioned outside the window to the distant hangar of the Super-X3 assault plane, “We’ve come a long way since 1954 and ‘84.”
“And in 1954 and ‘84, jets and then the Super-X weren’t enough,” Hina frowned.
“C.C.I. has been arming us with a lot more than just bigger and better planes, Hina,” Aso grunted with an affirmed nod.
“Commander, I know you are a reasonable man, and I know you’re only trying to protect as many people as you can. But… you can’t kill it,’ Hina whispered with a frown crossing her aged features.
“It’s an impressive creature, only the foolish would deny it. But it can be killed. It might’ve taken a miracle of science and the sacrifice of a good man in ‘54 to end it, but it ended. Then the next one died five years ago from its own rampant mutation,” Aso took another shot of sake, not knowing why he was trying to steel himself so badly. Perhaps he wasn’t just talking to Hina about these assurances.
“And each time, Godzilla only came back stronger,” Hina frowned while taking another shot herself, "And many times, it's coronation as the new king happened to be in the exact same city the last fell in."
“You mean another individual of its species appeared,” Aso corrected, “A bad side effect of nuclear arms buildup from a reckless Cold War. A war that’s over, as is its species.”
“You sound assured.”
“Only confident. After the origins of the 1984 individual were verified, I had teams sweep the Pacific looking for any surviving members of its species. Zoologists, ecologists, a few paleontologists, and even a few psychics. They found nothing,” Aso steepled his fingers together and nodded with a blank expression, “The current individual, is the last of its kind… It might be, perhaps, the creature studied in Kyoto back in ‘93, all grown up. I know it was gentle back then, and I take no pride in considering its demise.”
Commander Aso frowned across his wrinkled lips, feeling his badges of rank’s weight upon him, “I never wished to be the man who destroyed a remarkable species. But even if the 1993 individual is the one who yet lives, I can’t be asked to sacrifice human life for its survival. If it came ashore, the results could be catastrophic.”
“Commander, you can’t destroy destruction. You are thinking it a rabid dog you can put down and be rid of,” Hina shook her head, frowning as she drew something from a small bag she’d had parked beside her chair.
Aso perked an eyebrow at the object placed upon his desk, roughly the size of an American football, puzzling at the pointed shape. It was roughly teardrop-shaped with a curve towards the point, though it was so old and worn it took him several moments to realize he was looking at a very old bone. So old it looked liable to fall apart if he tried to pick it up and so he was cautious not to.
“An old relic from Odo, acquired some few hundred years ago. The mummified tip of Godzilla’s claw…”
Aso inspected the ancient finger bone, putting in his mind’s eye the shape of the World War II photographs he had seen from Lagos island. While the nail that would’ve grown atop the bone was missing, no doubt disintegrated with age, the overall shape did match up and there wasn’t much else he could think of that would correlate to the size.
“Quite the find. Truly is... But, if you are expecting this to be world-shattering I must confess it isn’t. We know at least two of those dinosaurs survived into the 1950s and 1970s respectively. This,” he motioned to it, “Must’ve been one of their ancestors.”
“It was found dead on the shore, mostly just a decayed skeleton carried in by the tides before it sank. Someone saved a piece and took it to the shrine. Those who worked as the mediums on Odo Island are the only ones to have ever seen it up close.”
“I’m honored, but this hardly changes any conviction,” Aso noted with a slight frown, “This was a mighty but mortal animal, and its kin were susceptible to a freak mutation brought about by reckless nuclear arms development. To speak frankly, it’s no more a relic than if my family passed down the skeleton of a beloved dog.”
“Godzilla is not just what you think it is. It’s been a force on Odo Island since the first people sailed there,” Hina whispered as she gently tapped at the ancient relic, “What you and my son see as a freak mutation, I have known to be a kami for decades.”
“A kami?” Aso scoffed incredulously with a furrowed brow, "You mean you see it as some deity like the Mothra are seen as?"
Hina only nodded, “Not in the way the Mothra are, but more than mortal nonetheless. Destruction is always the fate of the proud. Godzilla is a manifestation, and incarnation of that.”
“I know magic, Hina. More a poorly understood science than anything else,” Aso nodded with a slightly incredulous look about him as he thought of not only the big wake-up call G-Force had when the Shobijin, Mothra, and Battra all appeared, but also plenty of other individuals the public wasn’t privy to like the Wylders, “But I was also in Kyoto in 1993 when a young individual of the species was being cared for. I got to see it very up close and what I saw was a remarkable creature, but a being of flesh and blood nonetheless.”
“Ah yes, the test subject of so many studies,” Hina nodded, “Of the same blood, but he wasn’t a Godzilla just yet… The researchers are very smart men and women, but I feel sometimes they doesn’t see the forest for the trees. What they studied was an innocent being who one day would be chosen as the next incarnation for destruction. It was no kami yet.”
“Others have studied Godzilla biology before,” Aso noted, “Dr. Shirigami worked on cells in 1989, and I myself scouted Kenkichi Yamane to help with studying the oncoming nuclear meltdown behind the 1995 catastrophe.”
Hina shook her head, “And if I recall, young mister Yamane’s predictions didn’t happen. And we both know what happened when Shirigami tried to control the cells for his own ends. I might not be a researcher, but I know why the Godzilla cell research was banned…”
“Shirigami created Biollante because he was…” Aso paused as he looked at the perked brow on Hina’s face.
Realizing she’d caught him on the suspected word, he sighed and conceded the point, “Arrogant thinking he could predict and control what he turned loose… However, the 1995 disaster was averted because we took the proper precautions and acted accordingly to stop the nuclear meltdown the second Godzilla was going through,” Commander Aso grunted, “Without the Super-X3 and the freezer masers C.C.I. invented, it could’ve been the end of the world.”
“And without the third Godzilla incarnating, Tokyo would still be a radioactive wasteland; and the Destroyah would’ve killed hundreds of thousands more. And Destroyah was the spawn of someone trying to escalate the situation by unleashing something he himself didn’t fully understand,” Hina retorted astutely but not sternly, “I don’t disparage the efforts of you and your soldiers, nor Dr. Serizawa. I’ve spoken to his nephew Dr. Ishiro Serizawa often and I know his beloved uncle was a good man. But imagine, for a moment, if his Oxygen Destroyer had been used more frivolously and a thousand Destroyah were unleashed on the world?”
She frowned and patted his desk, “Only a thought. You all acted wisely and courageously for the sake of all of us. But remember what I said about the overly prideful…”
“I doubt the victims of Godzilla attacks across the years were overly prideful,” Aso muttered with a slight growl as he pushed back memories of Tokyo set ablaze back when he was a young man in 1954, “Nor that they did anything to deserve it. Say you’re right. Say fate decrees Godzilla is some kind of... of avenging force meant to wreak havoc upon the proud, why didn’t he attack the United States in 1954 when they were the ones who dropped the bomb… ?! If you tell me for one moment that the people of Tokyo had it coming I will have to ask you to-“
“My beloved daughter-in-law almost certainly didn’t deserve her fate, no more than the victims of Tokyo did,” Hina whispered with a hitch in her voice, managing to continue staring at the commander even while the edge of one of her wrinkled eyes started to glisten, “But you’re a soldier. You know full well that when unjust wars break out, very rarely do the people responsible for starting the shooting have to pay the price for it…”
Aso, perhaps realizing he had almost gotten out of his seat, sat back down as the words sunk back in. Letting out a long breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, he poured another two cups of sake and gently nudged one towards his company. He and Hina drank quietly for several minutes before she resumed.
“Say an arrogant builder constructs a grandiose tower on the beach despite warnings of building there, and people moved into it. Then when the builder is away enjoying their fortune, a hurricane comes and smashes the tower to pieces as the foundation slides off the sand and plummets into the sea. In this case, who truly paid for their arrogance? The builder who was so proud to think they could overcome nature, or the residents who were so confident that the builder had succeeded?” Hina frowned.
“… I suppose, it depends on if one thinks a vengeful god was the one who sent the hurricane to this proverbial Tower of Babel,” Aso grunted and Hina shrugged her shoulders.
“Kami are not necessarily gods. They instead represent something. The Godzilla from 1954 was 50 meters tall. Back in that time, H-bombs were starting to make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like firecrackers. Then in 1984, the new Godzilla was 30 meters taller and born from even more devastating weapons so recklessly carted about the ocean. And then there’s this new one… born in an age where nuclear power and weapons are even more potent than before,” Hina grunted as the aged shrine priestess motioned outside to the G-Force hangers and compounds.
“Reports put it at just over 100 meters tall,” Aso conceded, “Slightly larger and no doubt more powerful than even the ‘84 individual was after bolstering itself… That is why we had to keep building stronger and stronger.”
Hina shook her head, “It’s not going to work…”
“I understand that it is fantastic. And I understand its illusion of invincibility and spontaneous reincarnation might make it come off as something mystical to you. But it is just an animal, my protégé Pentecost nearly killed the last one when he piloted Mechagodzilla and we are only getting stronger! When we overtake and overcome it-“ Aso started to say with an assuring tone he had used with so many frightened politicians.
“You can’t overcome it, that’s the illusion!” Hina snapped as she jolted up, eyes clearly dilated with stress and a sweat beading at her weathered skin, “Trying to win an arms race with destruction itself has been something mankind has been failing at since time immemorial.”
Commander Aso was silent for a time as his company poured herself another drink, thankfully having both the mental faculties and courtesy to pour him one as well, despite the stress. Giving her a moment more, he finally spoke.
“You seem awfully convinced these mutations predate nuclear weapons.”
Hina took in a deep breath to steel herself before nodding some conviction, “In ancient times, dragons or monsters might use fire, storms, and lightning because to ancient people those things were the most destructive forces they knew of. In 1954 the most destructive force ever seen was the atomic bomb. Is it any surprise then that the modern kami of destruction not only was the only being to survive such devastation, but ascended from it while wielding its power?”
“If you seek it out as your enemy, before knowing for sure while having pride in your conviction,” Hina’s eyes glided to the city outside the window behind them, “You might fulfill the same prophecy that predicted the devastation wrought decades prior.”
Aso did take a short pause to think through the logic. Godzilla was still an enigma about half a century after the first one had appeared. Even back in the 1980s when efforts to use the second individual’s cells to make anti-nuclear bacteria were in full swing, no one could really get it to operate entirely as desired. The bacteria failed to kill the beast, only knocking it out for a brief time. And that’s not without mentioning Biollante coming into existence. Even with all the strides made at Kyoto in 1993, no one could fully crack the reason why Godzilla thrived off the very thing that seemed antithetical to every other lifeform to ever exist. Not even the mutant iguana that appeared in New York City in 1998 was so affected, and it wasn’t even attacking as much as it was roaming about.
“I can concede, there are plenty of things we don’t know about Godzilla. Enough that I hope when all is said and done, we can still study whatever is left. But to suppose something is supernatural from ignorance is just not something I can gamble upon. I am sorry,” Aso sighed with a haggard frown starting to cross his features, “Humanity has been plagued by monsters for decades, the last one even more so.”
Aso sat back in his chair as the memories returned to him, of the titans shrouding whole cities in shadows, “Biollante, Ghidorah, Battra, Radon, SpaceGodzilla, Destroyah, DesGhidorah, Dagahra… It took a lot of development, but we finally have weapons that can stand up to each. To fight the living hurricanes, to win back the world for mankind…”
“Some would say, trying to fight hurricanes is a fool’s errand,” Hina lamented, “How are the latest weapons by C.C.I. and G-Force any different than the past failures?”
Aso frowned, “To the less advanced, such fights might be foolish. But we have a chance now. The current Mothra is a non-issue, so just one name still stands in the way of a monster-less world.”
“And what if another titan appears? What if the current Mothra decides humanity risks going too far?”
“If you’ll excuse the ambition of an old soldier who only wants for the world to make some semblance of normality where people need not fear being trampled underfoot,” Aso sighed, “If the last Godzilla, the last dragon can be felled, I’d gander any other can be dealt with as well. C.C.I. is a gateway to that, the forge to make the dragonslayers of G-Force their blades... I apologize if you think my stance as foolish.”
“You shouldn’t, as I think no such offense. You are only trying to save lives so fates that befall people like us don’t happen again. Nor do I disparage my son for thinking Godzilla’s mysteries can be solved under a microscope. But what is supernatural, what is a kami, and what is a force of nature aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. This new Godzilla, I have seen it… And if it is indeed the individual from Kyoto having taken up the mantle, I do sincerely hope it is no enemy of mankind,” Hina sighed as she closed her eyes in contemplation.
“Then I am to presume you came to me to ask not to hunt it down, potentially kicking the proverbial bear and inciting its wrath?” Commander Aso grunted
Hina nodded but also raised her hand, “There is... more…”
Aso sat up in his seat a bit more as she slowly opened her eyes.
“Destruction is wrought upon the proud, but that doesn’t necessarily mean only upon humanity. In 1954 and 1984, humanity showed its fouler hand and was given the consequences. In 1993, a kinder hand was shown to the sea dragon and it just might have swayed judgement. Godzilla has reawakened and is on the move… But I don’t think we are his target.”
======
It was the next day, in the middle of making lunch, Yuji paused upon hearing the phone going of. Ichinose had just stepped into the ramshackle fisherman’s apartment that constituted the GPN office. Io made for the phone with her arm that wasn’t in a splint, only for Yuji to gently put her hand aside and take it himself after nodding to her.
He put it to his ear, “Godzilla Prediction Network, Dr. Yuji Shinoda here.”
A calm, very mature voice seasoned with age replied, “Dr. Shinoda, I hope you are well.”
Yuji’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he recognized the voice from his years working with G-Force in Kyoto.
“Commander Aso?!”
“Yes, I believe it’s been some years. Surprised I got this number from a fishing company. I wasn’t expecting a man of your expertise should be there, Doctor. An incident has occurred and I’m bringing relevant experts on deck. Can you be in Kyoto again for a meeting?”
Yuji inwardly swore as he glanced at the time, a sticky note Io had made for him reminding him of a meet up with Dr. Chapman in Osaka that day. Yuji did what took more than a monumental moment of strength and resolve for him. Stalled for a few seconds so he could think while on the phone with one of the most powerful men on the planet.
“I-I’d love to be an expert advisor and help anyway I can, but… you see… I was going to meet with a colleague today in Osaka and I never trust the train schedule.”
Aso hummed in contemplation, “Hmm, well if you can reschedule I do assure you this is of potentially international importance. No doubt on a subject you and I are well acquainted with. What is this meeting with your colleague about?”
Yuji sweated but paused when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Yuki was motioning to the note regarding the meeting with Dr. Chapman and flashing a universal okay symbol upon pointing to herself. Io perked up slightly and Yuki visibly cast her glance on to her as well before nodding to Yuji.
“… Nnooothing of such importance, Commander. Seems my schedule just lightened up as I have a... colleague to help me out with that. I can meet you in Kyoto today if the trains are running good.”
“Oh? I’m glad it’s not a burden to you as that was never my intention, Dr. Shinoda. But this is a pleasant gain upon a circumstance most unpleasant I’m afraid,” Commander Aso grunted, “I’ll have a ticket and clearance passes wired for you. Come whenever you can.”
“Yes, I’ll be there as soon as I can, Commander!”
Yuji hung up the phone and looked to his-... Well he didn’t really consider her a hiree as much as a coworker now. Words were being grappled for but Yuki cut them off by snapping her fingers and making a thumbs up.
Yuki smirked, “Get going you! I’ll handle what business you got in Osaka. This place smells like fish anyways.”
Yuji Shinoda took in a deep breath, feeling bits of camaraderie he hadn’t felt in about seven years as the warm feeling sank in. He quickly nodded before turning to his daughter.
“Io, you going to be okay? I’m sure the commander wouldn’t mind if you wanted to tag along,” he spoke with excitement still in his voice, not at all wanting to disclude her.
Io only deadpanned at him, “And let the 12-year-old inside high-security G-Force research? Somehow I doubt that’s going to happen. I’ll be fine, father. Besides, I have some summer homework to do.”
He frowned slightly, very unused to running off without her until she gave him a nod. She didn’t show any happiness but definitely no disapproval either. He might’ve still prodded just to be sure had Io not shifted her attention away from him and instead to chopping up some carrots to place on Yuki’s plate before going back to her assignments without any heed to Ichinose’s presence. Yuji’s eyes caught Yuki’s for a few moments before a warmth set in.
“Alright, thank you. Just be prepared, Dr. Chapman is a bit… eccentric.”
===============
The Eiko-Ryu, that was what the ship had been named and what was still scrawled on the bow. It was, serendipitously, quite possibly the only part that was still intact even with the noticeable char marks. One could favorably make a comparison between the ship and a deer carcass after it had been chewed on by a whole pack of wolves. Honestly seemed like a miracle it drifted into harbor in one piece, as it was now elevated and supported by struts and cables within the empty warehouse. Yuji looked upon it grimly, knowledge of what happened almost half a century ago as well as 30 years after all too familiar. The arrival of a destroyed ship under mysterious circumstances was the prologue to much more.
Familiarity of another kind came to him at the arrival of Commander Aso, cordially walking up to the biologist flanked by several familiar and unfamiliar faces.
Yuji said his hands to his sides and bowed respectfully, “Commander.”
“At ease, Dr. Shinoda,” Aso quipped while patting Yuji’s shoulder before motioning to his company, “These are some other experts from Crisis Control Intelligence who’ve been working with the Eiko-Ryu since it arrived in port. Fresh from surveying the lower decks, Dr. Joanne Johnson-“
The younger woman with extremely pale, probably bleached white, hair and a pair of near amber-green eyes nodded to him jovially behind a set of glasses; her white coat and work gloves marred with grime from evidently working hands-on upon the ship, an enclosing biohazard helmet tucked under her arm.
“How do you do? Read a lot of your work from Kyoto Institute, Dr. Shinoda!” Dr. Johnson smiled as she extended a hand, only to quickly retract it after noticing how much random assorted sea grime was stuck to it, “I’ve been heading a survey of the ship.”
A new face, but not a very impersonable one. At least compared to the typical CCI crowd. If it weren’t for who she was standing next to, Yuji could almost look forward to consulting alongside. Commander Aso next motioned to Joanne’s superior, and in all too familiar face standing in his business suit-black longcoat two piece with his hands behind his back showing no intention whatsoever to shake or bow.
“Dr. Mitsuo Katagiri, head of this operation procedures.”
Katagiri and Shinoda locked eyes in a moment that could’ve played out any one of a dozen or two different ways. It almost seemed like they were testing to see who would make the first motion that would set the conversation off. Hairs were starting to stand up on Yuji’s hackles as he could feel Katagiri’s stare piercing right through him. It was almost a game of chicken to see who would either cow or attack first. To Yuji’s surprise, though he never showed such, bluntness was met with bluntness and neither cowing nor confrontation ensued.
“Dr. Shinoda, looks like your expertise is on call.”
Yuji raised his eyebrow, “And what might the current call be behind the fate of a certain ghost ship? Any sign at all of the crew or what happened to them?”
Katagiri directed a sideways glance to his subordinate and gave her a slight nod while not flinching or breaking his stoic façade in the slightest. On cue, Dr. Johnson stepped up and motioned for the rest of them to follow her towards the vessel.
“There were trace amounts of radiation, showing the boat had been in contact with a source in the last week. Comparing some data to what had been gathered over the 1980s and earlier this decade to check for ratios between alpha, beta, and gamma ray particles, it seems that Godzilla had been near the vessel. Enough to show it had been in direct contact and at one point, the boat was heavily irradiated. Don’t worry though, the amounts were so small we had to actively search to detect them.”
Katagiri chimed in as he walked towards the side of the vessel with no caution, “The levels were low. Approximately 0.01 millisieverts. And if you don’t trust me Dr. Shinoda, I had Doctors Sandra and Joseph Brody verify them this morning… You’d get ten times less than getting a dentist X-ray. That’s why it was safe to haul into here.”
Commander Aso perked his brow, “I understood it was safe to move it here, but that seems very low. It was my understanding Godzilla tends to pollute any region they have walked through, enough that cleanup operations are required. What were the numbers like in prior attacks?”
“Far higher,” Dr. Shinoda sighed, “Variable but, far higher.”
“We're not exactly sure why the readings are so low, could be the seawater helped to flush the boat, could be time, getting caught in a storm, we’re still checking things. The boat washed up in the same currents that flow to Japan from the south, the same ones that Godzilla took when it appeared at the cliffside not long ago. Dead barnacles clinging to the side of the ship also matched up with Southern Pacific species not typically found around Japan,” Dr. Johnson noted as she motioned to a few of the stationary crustaceans clinging to the hull.
“Speaking of marine life, have any of the bodies of the crew been found?” Commander Aso interjected as he looked at the ship, “The interior seems to be mostly intact. I don’t see it torn into that much.”
“Something certainly damaged the interior from some kind of impact, but it didn’t seem to reach the lower decks. We scouted it out hoping to find some survivors may be hiding inside the closets or storage,” Joanne frowned and shook her head, “Nothing.”
Yuji furrowed his brow as he rubbed at his short beard in contemplation, “… In the 1984 incident with that fishing boat, sea lice that had been mutated feeding on Godzilla’s blood climbed on board and killed the crew… Any sign of them?”
He glanced about, thankfully noticing no personnel being attacked by meter long bloodsucking crustaceans, but he also hadn’t thought to look and see if they had been shipping anything off-site. He wouldn’t have put it past C.C. I. to keep things on the down low and hoped the presence of the commander would force some honesty.
To his relief but also mild surprise, Katagiri spoke up, “None. There were no animals or traces of them found on board. Nor any evidence of the parasites making a comeback.”
“And yet the crew was still missing, and there’s more,” Dr. Johnson led them to a gear booth and within a few moments they were all geared up inside biohazard suits, climbing on deck.
Yuji and Aso soon saw why Joanne had wanted them to see for themselves when she pointed to the shipmaster’s deck. Six obvious bullet holes were punched through the door with a noticeable notch in the metal frame indicating where a seventh round had gone. She pulled up a bag containing a standard issue pistol.
“1911, 9mm. serial number registered to the captain of the ship, Capt. Heinrich Reinhardt.”
“Whom apparently was shooting at something,” Yuji grunted as he looked about the interior of the cabin, “And yet there’s no bloodstains of him or what he was firing at.”
“Nor any bodies.”
“Could he have been firing upon something outside the door? A handgun will do no good against a kaiju, but desperate men sometimes wish to go down with a fight,” Commander Aso sighed grimly, “... But then, the bodies…”
Katagiri crossed his arms, “And the doors to the lower decks were also destroyed. It’s currently impossible to tell if they were forced open from the inside or wrenched open in a desperate attempt to get to the lower decks.”
“Why though? What could possibly have happened?” Shinoda retorted as he tried to formulate the events in his mind.
“Dr. Johnson, if you will.”
Joanne nodded and pointed to the rear of the ship, which had obviously sustained some kind of impact as it was very blatantly crushed from top to bottom.
“A radioactive entity, probably Godzilla, startled the crew in the middle of a storm. Its kind have proven notoriously difficult to track long-distance and can cover a lot of ocean very swiftly, especially in the midst of the storm it’s not impossible the Eiko-Ryu’s crew could’ve been preoccupied with their tasks when they roused its attention and were taken by surprise,” she motioned to the captain’s deck, “Capt. Reinhardt would have ordered the crew below deck for their safety, especially when the creature attacked the back of the boat and damaged it. Nonetheless he’s unable to outpace it and set upon by it. In futile defiance he discharges his weapon at Godzilla through the door before succumbing to rapid onset radiation poisoning that also would’ve killed some of the crew.”
She then pointed to the doorway to the lower decks, which had been wrenched off its hinges, “Some survivors hid throughout the attack and escaped notice by the time Godzilla left. Because of the damage to the frame they had to burst the door open from the inside where they collected their fellows in a bid for bringing their bodies ashore, and leaving on a life raft.”
“Could it have been any other kind of monster aside from Godzilla? The giant iguana that attacked New York City was also a radiation-born mutation,” Commander Aso grunted as he looked over the ruins of the grime and sun bleached deck of the ghost ship.
“None of the crew had been eaten, or else there would’ve been bloodstains by the attacker, and the ship was not carrying any food stocks. The boat that the big lizard attacked was a fully-stocked fishing vessel and it was going for the cargo, not the crew,” Katagiri replied with a frown, “And it left survivors on board.”
“But if your story is right, then there should still be a life raft with surviving crew members. Has any raft been found?” Yuji lamented.
Joanne shook her head, “None, though there might have been an attempt as one of the lifeboats is missing.”
Aso surveyed the scene grimly, “And Godzilla was on the same route the ship was on… Very well could have been it after all…”
The slight bit of remorse in his tone was picked up by Yuji and company, and the former could gander at why. The commander had been at Kyoto a few times in 1993 and knew full well the nature of who was growing up there.
Yuji looked to Joanne, “Were there any radioactive materials aboard? Something that got its attention?”
Joanne lowered her brow, “C.C.I. wasn’t doing any of those kinds of operations here.”
“I’m being serious.”
“As are all of we, Shinoda,” Katagiri grunted with the slightest of growls as he stood up behind his subordinate, “Eiko-Ryu was doing deep-sea mapping. If you don’t believe me you can see that we had a currently missing Satsuma 2 submersible on board. A submersible whose tether connecting them to the vessel has been torn in half. I don’t like to think of what happened to that crew either, but what I can think of is the lack of excuse you might be looking for.”
“Excuse?” Yuji snapped incredulously, “Katagiri, innocent people are dead. I wouldn’t try to excuse that, no matter who did it! I was only looking for something that might have spurred it. Like how a shark might bite a fisherman on accident because of the bloody fish bait in his pockets.”
“Keep to saying that so,” Katagiri noted stoically as he crossed his arms, “But Dr. Johnson here has done nothing short of commendable work verifying the culprit. C.C.I. only recruits the best and I trust her judgment.”
“Well, we don’t have a smoking gun that Godzilla caused it all,” Dr. Johnson muttered even as the young doctor stood up a bit from the praise, “But most of the lines of evidence do certainly match up to its against other known suspects.”
“But what about the motive? The 1954 boat attack happened because the vessel was directly atop the creature when it awakened. The second incident 30 years later was more accidental because they were near the creature when a volcanic explosion roused it, and the sea lice were the ones who actually did the deed. Every other time the second Godzilla attacked boats at sea was either because they were military vessels firing upon it, or nuclear powered ships that it saw as food,” Shinoda yelped as he motioned to the boat, “I’m willing to buy this was just some research vessel, but then there’s the question of why Godzilla would go out of its way to attack just a research vessel. And the third Godzilla was not hostile-“
“I think the crew of the Eiko-Ryu would contest that if it was hostile or not when its radiation cooked them alive,” Katagiri snapped, with Dr. Johnson increasingly feeling like she was caught between two bulls about to lock horns. She whirled around to Aso for help as Katagiri continued to rant, “Or are you still stuck thinking it was that helpless whelp back at Kyoto?”
“Dr. Shinoda,” Commander Aso barked as he stood to the group with his back turned, hands behind himself and head bowed, “… I understand that the creature you studied up close half a decade ago was gentle. Enough so your daughter played around it… But I also know that a playful cub can become a dangerous tiger that mauls its keepers years later. The current Godzilla may or may not be the individual hatched at Kyoto. Could be a new beast entirely, a fourth aberration of its kind… But I didn’t ask you to come here to match wits with colleagues. Especially not now that I am convinced-“
Yuji, and to her credit Joanne, were about to speak but the old commander must have sensed this as he raised a hand to silence them, “Convinced enough to take precautions. Who or what was responsible may not be known, but the threat is a reality, so we have our suspect. A few dozen missing or dead people are testament to that reality… Dr. Shinoda.”
Aso turned around to face Yuji head on, showing a face that managed to be both commanding and yet pleading, “I know how this might be a personal subject for you, but your efforts are indispensable. G-Force and C.C.I. have been trying to figure out how to accurately track monsters for decades with no success. As soon as they dive under and move quick enough or deep enough, sonar can’t do anything to find them and satellite predictions are less accurate than storm tracking. The Godzilla Prediction Network has been keeping records of attempts to track down the creature first seen in 1995, and I know you’ve come close with your data. Data no one else has access to.”
Yuji took in a deep breath and sighed, glancing to a man he once knew very well and came to know far less in the form of Katagiri, “… I’ve had my reasons. All of the GPN’s data is kept off any internet lines, strictly physical exchange… I was concerned that there had been or would be attempts to seize it remotely.”
Katagiri shot him back a comparable look, “So you would hoard years of work that could save lives, over some paranoia?”
Yuji bristled, “If I got the first inclination that someone was in danger, I’d have published everything on every newsprint they could have me!”
Katagiri stiffened as he snapped back, “The Crew of the Eiko-Ryu already suffered the same fate as the Yahata-Maru in 1984 and the Eiko-Maru thirty years prior. I’d say that was ‘someone in danger’. And yet you’re still dragging your feet. Or do you think my people’s lives don’t matter to you just like they did before?”
That did it, Yuji snapped around and for a split second didn’t know if he was about to slug Katagiri through his mask. His hand was stayed, but his words were not, “You’re using their deaths to try and prove something!? Wasn’t stealing my work one time enough to win whatever game you think this is, Mitsuo-”
“Enough!” Aso barked as he stomped between them and separated them, huffing under his haggard breath for several seconds to collect himself, before looking to a very surprised Dr. Johnson, “Dr. Johnson… are there any anomalies that don’t match up with Godzilla being the culprit?”
Dr. Johnson held her breath for a moment before steeling herself and nodding her head, “There is one peculiarity… Not inexplicable, but peculiar.”
They followed her down to the lower decks, Aso poignantly standing between Shinoda and Katagiri. They soon found themselves inside an above-average sized room where things seemed peaceful at first, especially given that the door was still connected to its hinges and not ripped out or pushed out like the others. That perception was quickly shattered when Dr. Johnson opened it to reveal a short staff with a hook, the kind meant for grabbing overboard lines, was buried in the hardwood; seemingly swung by somebody who would have been inside the room.
“Signs of a struggle is why we initially thought some of the sea lice or some other mutated parasite could have gotten on board, but we didn’t find any blood or fluids to show for it; though the rainwater had washed into here. The weird part would be these,” she motioned to the noticeable tears crisscrossing the walls, with broken pieces of plastic and metal covering the floor.
Commander Aso and Yuji Shinoda at first looked perplexed but Mitsuo Katagiri noticeably stiffened.
“The computation room has been sacked,” he muttered with a grim expression.
Joanne frowned but nodded as she pointed to the broken plastics and bent metal, “Not just smashed up, but, as my superior noted, sacked. All the computers and thinking machines were torn out and then broken apart, all the chips and memory removed and then the rest discarded.”
“It must’ve been by some of the crew,” Katagiri spoke plainly, “Trying to protect the data.”
“CCI is very secretive about their ordeals,” Yuji muttered, “But Godzilla wouldn’t have cared about computer chips.”
“They could have been trying to take only the essential parts, not weigh themselves down on the escape,” Katagiri replied with the curtness removed from his tone, in a way that Yuji couldn’t help but nod in small acknowledgment to.
“Possibly…” Yuji surveyed the damage, “They must’ve been very desperate, if they were the ones who did it.”
Katagiri looked to Joanne with a contemplative glance before smiling slightly, “My employees are very dedicated… You’ve done very good work Dr. Johnson.”
She bowed slightly as a hand was placed on Yuji’s shoulder from behind. Commander Aso, the owner of the hand looked down the destroyed hallway the crew once occupied, now littered with debris and half flooded from rainwater and seaspray.
“… Dr. Shinoda, I know you have some bad blood with C.C.I., but we’re all conscious of the sanctity of human life here,” he turned to look at him and Shinoda felt as if he’d never seen Aso look so old and tired before, “I’m not asking you to surrender your life’s work to a rival. I’m asking for you to work with me, work with G-Force again. If it’s recognition or compensation you want as the man who finally figured out how to track Godzilla, I can see to it that you get both.”
There were many, many thoughts crisscrossing Yuji’s mind. Some comparing the dingy and smelly apartment rented out from the fisheries to the clean abode he once had at Kyoto. By mere isolation that had only been disrupted recently against working with dozens of like-minded coworkers when he used to be part of G-Force. And then also acknowledging those coworkers would include, alongside fairly amiable people like Dr. Johnson, the likes of Mitsuo…
It had been years since he heard Katagiri’s given name, let alone said it. Not since 1984 and its fallout….
Shinoda motioned to the commander and they both left the ship and stepped away from it, taking off their hazard suit helmets.
“Commander… I have to ask, because I have a lot of respect for you… I have to know first, what’s to become of Godzilla?”
Commander Aso, one of the most powerful people on the planet, was worn out and tired from the responsibility weighing down on his back.
“About three dozen men and women are gone from this coil, Shinoda. And this sort of thing is always a prelude to far worse. Dr. Katagiri wasn’t lying when he mentioned that. First it was a ship lost at sea, then shoreline sightings… then Tokyo was up in flames or crushed to rubble.”
Yuji frowned as the space his wedding ring once occupied ached, “So I am aware Commander, so I am aware…”
============
Dr. Elsie Chapman at first seemed like the typical egghead Yuki Ichinose had met. Wearing an overcoat for lab work outside of the station, thick glasses, an odor to indicate diligent use of alcoholic hand sanitizer, and an appearance that bordered somewhere between barely kept and frayed. Aside from the observation she was American and sported a head full of curly red hair that stuck out in a crowd, she seemed like just one of the group. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had contemplated if this was the type of lady Io wanted around her father… And then somewhere else in her mind she quickly power walked away from such thoughts.
Dr. Chapman led them through a corridor into a small laboratory, opening the door to let Yuki and Io in. Inside Yuki could see the lead lined casing Yuji had put the sample in, sealed shut once again with several see-through containers with various robotic arms or thick gloved slots so one could manipulate objects within without exposing it to the open air. Out of her depth was an apt description of the majority of the utility she stole around her, though she did recognize the Geiger counter with a concerning glance.
Dr. Chapman somehow was aware of where she was looking even with her back turned to Ms. Ichinose, opening up a laptop to browse through some files.
“Don’t worry, I ran decontamination procedures. Thing was barely radioactive to begin with and I’ve dealt with a lot worse…. So…”
Dr. Chapman removed her glasses and hairband to let her locks fall free, running a hand through them as if to massage her scalp by pulling at the roots. She took off her lab coat to reveal a flannel longsleeve with a vest, a pair of very oversized sunglasses clipped to the middle. In an instant her demeanor changed to the most deadpanned and yet confused visage imaginable.
“…. What the fuck did you send me?”
Yuki’s jaw dropped slightly as she glanced at Io, who only shrugged her good shoulder and shook her head slightly before sitting down to sit this one out.
Traitor, Yuki passively jested in her mind. She wondered, just what kind of colleague did Yuji send her to now?
“Um… a whale?” she tried to articulate.
Dr. Chapman gripped her laptop while letting out a loud shrug, turning in about to show the screen as she pulled up to read blobs with small text notes jotted down beside them both. One of them looked a bit different than the other in that it was more… colorful would be the best word to describe it she supposed? Several moments passed before Yuki realized Dr. Chapman was still looking to her as if there was something there to be obvious.
Dr. Chapman’s eyes rolled as she pointed to the plainer blob, “This is Megaptera novaeangliae, and this other thing is what you sent me.”
Yuki almost felt the knee-jerk reaction to get defensive and clarify it was Yuji who sent it before stifling that. She tried to grasp at what the weird woman just said before finally coming upon one of the words from the back of her mind.
“Mega..ptera,” her grasp on Latin was better than the layperson but she certainly was no biologist on what sounded like a scientific name. Honestly the best thing she knew was mega meant big and ptera met wing thanks to her having covered the Radon story involving a giant mutant pterosaur.
“… Why are you comparing the whale sample to a big bird? Or is that from Radon?” Yuki muttered.
Dr. Chapman blinked, “… Dr. Ichinose, if I got to work on cells from Radon, I wouldn’t be working where I was in ’93.”
Yuki paused before quickly shaking her head, “Oh, sorry. I’m not a doctor I-“
“She’s a nature photographer,” Io piped up, spurring Yuki to glance over to her and see the girl had also looked over to her briefly.
Even without any mind-reading abilities that she wasn’t sure if Io had like some other psychics, Yuki was able to pick up on the body language. It seemed their little heart-to-heart in the hospital, while not exactly making Io friendly had helped convince the girl where loyalties lay. Enough for a united front.
Thankfully Dr. Chapman’s mouth dropped slightly as her eyes fidgeted in contemplation before letting her eyes widen slightly. She took in a breath and after a pause to contemplate cleared her throat.
“Ahrm… My apologies, I was expecting a different kind of crowd when Yuji sent you in his stead.”
Yuki chuckled a bit nervously, “Everyone’s tribal… So, maybe without the jargon? I know enough about animals but I just haven’t really memorized classification I guess.”
Elsie shrugged but nodded, “Fine enough. Well the normal-looking cells I pointed to first are from a humpback whale…. Whatever the hell you lot sent me is what a Picasso painting is to a sheet of printer paper.”
Yuki perked up slightly, “So, is in another kind of animal maybe? Certainly looked like a whale from what we glimpsed.”
“It was very dark… And there were explosions,” Io muttered morosely.
“Well based on the description and the size, not much else it could be. I can do a DNA test and the time I got, but the tissues in this thing were all kind of messed up. It’s almost like... imitation crab,” Dr. Chapman quipped with a casual swear as she took a pen and pointed at some other pictures.”
“The general shape on the outside matches marine mammal hide, except there’s no hairs. Even the biggest whale that looks naked still has some fur scattered about.”
“It was in Godzilla’s mouth though, and I know radiation can cause hair loss. Did it make the stuff fall out then maybe?” Yuki frowned.
Elsie shook her head, “Not a single follicle either. In fact, everything below the surface is just a massive mess. Some of the muscle tissue is more like a squid, and a little bits of bone Yuji got me more like fish.”
“Could it be a mutant? You had a look at that mutant iguana in New York those imbeciles on the news mistook for Godzilla,” Io noted as she looked at the screen.
Chapman shook her head, “No. I sampled that thing’s blood more than anyone but Tatopoulos. Even as messed up as it was, I could still clearly tell it was a lizard and not a dinosaur like I first thought. Such wide scale mutations are mostly just speculated at, but so far we can still tell what they were originally…”
“You compared it to imitation crab earlier, is that why?” Yuki hummed while tapping at her chin.
“Pretty much, but this thing is like the entire seafood platter all at once. A chimera, bit like that Biollante creature, but way more extreme. And I haven’t heard about any mad science labs busting at the seams with hybrid monsters lately. But here’s the really freaky part kids,” Chapman grunted as she pulled up a video.
Even without good labels or an exact knowledge of what certain tissues look like a close-up, Yuki could tell she was looking at a microscopic image of cells; presumably those of the sample. What caused her jaw to drop was when Dr. Chapman hit ‘Play’ and spurred the video to go into motion, showing the cells still moving.
“This was taken an hour ago when the buggers finally stopped moving and died. The tissue was very much still alive when Dr. Shinoda sent it to me,” Elsie huffed with a frown and crossed arms as she studied her own work with disturbed visage, “Cellular activity after death isn’t at all uncommon. Somebody cells can stay alive for a day or two after the brain bites it. Bacteria even longer. But this? The tissue was actually trying to still repair itself, until it finally started running out of cellular energy and succumbed.”
“Succumbed? To what?” Yuki muttered.
Chapman pointed to an odd growth on the tissue mass, “I found this thing had several dozen times more chromosomes than any animal I would ever expect to have.”
“Most vertebrate animals have double digit chromosome counts, some insects have triple digit, and few types of protozoa and plants have quadruple digit chromosome counts,” Io hummed as she perked up at the screen.
Elsie stole the briefest of moments to mentally sigh at the sight. Conflicting warmth and cold crisscrossed her nerves. A bit of pride made her smile and nod at the astute girl while holding back another thought flickering in her mind. Looking at cellular biology, sitting in a lab, and chiming in on a conversation; Io looked just like a smaller version of Asuka. Flashbacks to an old shinto shrine and fishing house at Odo Island over a decade ago replaced the clean, sterile laboratory. Back when she first met Io and had to say goodbye to her friend. Elsie flicked out her sunglasses and put them on to cover her eyes, hoping to hide them as she indicated another back of pictures, showing the innards of the cells.
“Quite right, Little Miss Shinoda. I was expecting just double digits, as all marine mammals have. Instead I stopped trying when the count breached 300 and eyeballing the rest of it, I was only a tenth in,” Elsie muttered with some exasperation as a diagram she’d drawn up representing the chromosomes, “DNA replication of chromosomes to this degree is insane, let alone how vigorous it was given it seemed dead-set on not dying and trying to make as much tissue as it could before it ran out of cellular energy. That was causing errors, and errors meant tumors, lots of them.”
Io opened her mouth to speak but Yuki beat her to it.
“And the radiation from long contact with Godzilla just caused even more damage, right?” Yuki hummed as she looked at the tissue sample photographs before glancing up at the raised brow of Dr. Chapman and pouting in response, “What? I didn’t flunk out of highschool. The reason radiation is so bad is that it damages the DNA and makes regrowing components like body parts mess up.”
“In a way,” Dr. Chapman hummed, “Your body is constantly regrowing blood, muscle fibers, organ walls, hair, skin, and more. Some faster than others. Damage to the DNA is one reason why hair grays and cancers or tumors become more common with age. Body can only keep remaking those tissues over and over again so many times.”
“Like a countdown timer for lifespan?” Yuki hummed and earned a nod from Elsie.
“Radiation exposure….” Elsie bit her tongue for a second while glancing towards Io as if to ask permission to delve into a topic like this in her company. Given Dr. Chapman was an old colleague of Yuji’s and the timing of Io’s mother’s departure, Ichinose was pretty quick to realize some of the implications and the indication Elsie was very much in-the-know. Dr. Chapman waited until the girl nodded to her for the redhead to continue.
“Damages DNA, faster than how normal wear and tear from exposure to elements and aging does. Combine that with how much DNA this thing had and how rapidly its cells seemed bound and determined to regrow, and getting near Godzilla was like gas on a fire for its fate,” Chapman quipped as she tapped at her laptop to log some information, “And the bit of bone Yuji sent me hadn’t a single ring on it. Whatever this thing was, it was less than a year old when it died, and the crazy cellular growth is probably how.”
She slid the laptop over to Io and Yuki, taking a seat and rubbing at her temples.
“Some of this information is on a network,” Io muttered as she tapped at the computer.
Yuki perked her brow in a way Elsie noticed, holding up a finger.
“Shinoda was always paranoid C.C.I. would take his research or that it would leak incomplete.”
Io continued the statement, “It’s why all the GPN data is on a closed circuit. All direct cable link. No internet.”
“Eh don’t worry Kiddo, auntie Elsie isn’t going to go screaming to Katagiri. Lord knows C.C.I. has enough dodgy projects. Tatopoulos and I trust them as far as we can throw them. All my data stays between myself and you lot. I had to use the lab’s network for the heavier machinery, but the data is locked behind several firewalls,” Dr. Chapman hummed as she leaned back on her desk, “Besides, nobody even knows Yuji roped me in on this. Not unless they can intercept satellite phones amidst everything else this country puts out. You’d be more prone to eavesdrop on someone watching cartoons.”
“You’re always a great help to us, Dr. Chapman,” Io said as she stood up and bowed respectfully.
Elsie crossed her arms as she stood over the little lady and waggled her finger, “Uh uh, what have we said?”
“….” Io seemed to shrink a bit in embarrassment, “Thank you, auntie Elsie.”
Elsie Chapman chuckled and patted Io’s shoulder to coax her to stand up, squatting a bit to get on her level.
“Atta girl. Keep getting smarter kid and I’ll have to come to you for references someday,” Elsie smiled and earned a tiny one from Io in response.
Dr. Chapman straightened back up and offered her hand to her other company, “Ms. Ichinose, I believe the data transfer should have everything Dr. Shinoda asked for, as well as all my notes. Feel free to bring coffee next time. Machines here need more cream.”
Yuki Ichinose sighed and nodded, taking and shaking the hand, “And, off the books and to the commoner here. What might you think it was?”
With the laptop under Io’s good arm, no one noticed the data light on it still blinking. Nor was it apparent that the images inside it and writing were being flickered and fed through something copying it. Cellular charts, Dr. Chapman’s notes, diagrams, a few papers on Godzilla, and more.
“Between you and me? Godzilla is the second-weirdest creature Japan has ever seen-“
The final image remotely downloaded was of the GPN address at the fishery, and a picture of Yuji, Yuki, and Io. The last was zoomed in upon with curiosity by the viewer.
“-The weirdest was whatever it was he just killed, and that’s got me concerned.”
Nice to see more of this story. The suspense is building up as the scientists regroup and decide whether to make preparations to fight against Junior or learn more about the situation. The appearance of Joanne Johnson is a welcome addition. Love the ending with the reveal that the DNA sample was from a creature not of this world.
Always happy to see more of this story. Excellent work as always!
Hina’s talk with Aso was interesting.
The conversation between Aso & Hina is my favorite scene of this part with how it explores the themes of this special. And one thing I'm liking across the story is how you're leaving the hints across the plotline to let us put two & two together about what's going on.
I'm giddy about the wylder family references dropped in this. Overall so far I'm loving the Lovecraft-esque eldritch horror vibe going on with our mysterious 'threat' and am eager to see more, the story so far is an odd blend of heartwarming and unsettling.
Also I want to shove a lit stick of dynamite down Katagiri's throat.
Thanks for adding more scenes with Hina, loved that she’s not the type wacko that just does a bang up job on “warning” the military leaders.
Also,
Pffffhahahaha
Ha Imbeciles.
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Yeah, I wanted to seem to play into that, but also show her world view had some grounding to it. Ties back to the 'maybe magical, maybe mundane' aspect of how Odo Island treats Godzilla vs. the rest of the world. Was a lovely scene to write and I do thank you for letting me use her :)
Canon ship, Io and the word "imbecile"
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You and some other folks
My pleasure to give you guys a wink for canon. While I am limited in who I can use and if I should use them (after all, don't want to bloat the plot with too many names, hence we don't see Miki so far), I was given an opportunity here.
Cue the happy Corona noises.
That’s one thing I’ve always been wondering about after I watched 1954 that I rarely see brought up in Godzilla stories.
This entire rewrite exists to make this reference, that’s the illusion!
I feel like this is a Pacific Rim reference.
This scene is the best out of the part, and among one in the whole rewrite. In concept, two characters just sitting & discussing what are basically the themes of the franchise should be boring, but the execution is well crafted in this case with how the characters used their personal experience to make their point. And both characters carried their debate maturely & Eloquently. You seem to have a knack for making concepts that should fail on paper somehow work. As for my personal take on the Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane topic with Godzilla. I’m not a big fan of making him outright mystical, I feel the idea of making Goji a fantastical factor that would exist regardless of nuclear weapons takes away from the connection he has with mankind being born from our most destructive weapon. Though the idea he is created from hubris in general does alleviate this problem somewhat.
This was a good brief scene showing the growing camaraderie between the GPN, and Yuji’s concern about being there for Io.
Already commented on the Mystery style for this story in a previous review. So I’ll just say I like the pathos & history showing between Yuji & Katagiri in this scene. Joanne worked well enough as the middle man between the two. Though I feel you’re starting to overdo it with emphasizing the Chains Of Commanding on Aso. On a final note, I do like how the Milleniums feel threatening even off screen.
This was a great scene to let us put all the pieces together through the combination of setup & foreknowledge. Elsie’s characterization is a good replication of the Cartoon version, but still has her own flair. And the reveal of the DNA mutations emphasizes how truly alien Orga is.
Overall, this was a solid setup chapter for the rewrite of the looming threat Orga poses.
The first conversation was rather interesting. I do like how you didn't make Aso out to be 'in the wrong' entirely. While Hina was right in a pattern, and magic is very much a thing with Mothra is around, Aso is also right in that they should protect themselves. Basically the viewpoint comparison of the devout and the soldier. I really do like the analogy to dragons as they are a fitting theme to destruction and one that we see all around the world in one shape or form.
You know, I can't help but think of an analogy to the second part: A man blames the disappearance of his mice on an elephant while it could only reasonably be done by a cat. The elephant is larger, destroys his crops, and elephants have killed people. The man wants it gone and this opportunity to 'blame' something on it just rears its head. So he just uses 'logic' to reason away any inconsistences on how an elephant could do something in his home without causing the destruction it would have if it did it. All while the cat got away scot free due to the man's irrational thought process.
Okay, maybe not the best analogy but them coming to the conclusion of Godzilla did it was nonsensical. They just want an excuse to kill the big monster.
Lastly, nice bit of exposition on what the 'creature' was. Really adds to the mystery. Also Io is fantastic. Love her character.
Great job, bud.
And I like the early bit with Aso and the sheer weight he has on his shoulders.
And finds an old woman in his office. Namely an old woman with some information.
I like how he is willing to hear things out due to sheer weirdness which he's experienced and being smart enough to realize that if she came this far then there's good reason.
I do like that she's here to warn him, but acknowledges she's not able to find where Godzilla is...just that Godzilla can't be killed.
And she's right: killing Godzilla never really works out. It always comes back stronger...and whether mystical or true, Godzilla doesn't seem very keen on staying dead.
And we learn an interesting bit of information on the claw from before and where it came from.
I do like that while Aso means well, his hubris, and humanity's, is still very clear. Godzilla has to be something that can be killed. And even Aso on some level acknowledging it.
Also like the mention of the Wylders.
Hina's points are very well informed, and I like them. I do also like her point...and Aso also evades the actual answer and probably the point.
Despite Hina's warnings, he refuses to think of the mere possibility humanity can't overcome something. Again, hubris.
I also note that Aso never really suggests the prospect he might not HAVE to kill this Godzilla, despite knowing for a fact he might be be Junior.
Aso is well intentioned...but he still views the kaiju as a problem by existing.
I also like the ending of the scene: it's ambigous how much of her is her guessing and how much there might be something sincerely mystical.
I do like the interactions that resulted and how Yuji and Aso get along. As well that Io and Yuji have settled down a bit.
Meanwhile we see the ship and the examination....And Katagiri.
I do like examination. Shows some details that don't line up with what normally happens with a Godzilla attack.
We know what happened, but they don't...but it's clear it's nothing they've delt with before or Godzilla. Even if we didn't see that, things don't line up.
I do like that Joanne admits that things don't add up completely and there's no smoking gun at play.
I also like that Aso is reasonable...but Katagiri is basically taking things personally...and it's clear that Katagiri's ego is still there. I'm still adament he seems to be a Narcisist.
I like the evidence...but of course Katagiri ignores the fact a struggle took place. He has a narrative and he wants to keep to. Again, sign of being a narcisist.
I like the sudden bluntness from Chapman. I love the snark.
"It was very dark...And there were explosions"
I love that line.
And the thing...being more like the thing. Of course given the HEAT team ends up dealing with that DNA monster, this might be handy if this is before that.
I do like that to a degree that these things are vulnerable to radiation due to the amount of DNA in it.
I like both the playful parts and the growing sense of dread that comes with how things are going.
Solid chapter.