Old Gods in a New World [Godzilla]

[IceOriental123]

Old Gods in a New World


Chapter One
Unearthed Grudges

​

"-as of today, the situation in Nagoya is still developing. Reports have come in that there are at least 1.3 million evacuees who have managed to escape the city. The Earth Defense Force is currently preparing their next attack on the kaiju in the city. Our news helicopter has managed to capture footage of the kaiju in the streets of Nagoya today, which will now be played. Please be warned that some of the footage may be distressing for some-"



"Are you ready?"

Miki Saegusa flicked the dusty television off with her remote as she hoisted herself off the sofa in the haphazard basement they were using as shelter. She turned her attention to the burly Caucasian man with a thick mustache, dressed in a dirty brown military jacket of sorts, staring at her with a serious but unaggressive look. Around his neck was a necklace with some large tooth. Douglas Gordon, the man had called himself when they had met just four days ago. When Nagoya had been wrecked to pieces by the attacking kaiju and the intense attempt by the JSDF to drive it off. Miki felt like she could still here the intense explosions that shook the city. The image of the cruel monster roaring amidst the flash of bright white from missile strikes was etched permanently in her mind.

"I'm ready." She finally said.

"We're just trying to make it as far east as possible. It might take us one or two days, maybe more."

"Yes, I know." Miki nodded.

"If you feel footsteps getting louder, immediately duck into a building." Gordon repeated for the thousandth time.

"I got it. Really."

"Alright, good. Come along, kid." He motioned for her to follow him and headed for the stairs leading up to the intensely barricaded door at ground level.

"I'm seventeen already." Miki muttered under her breath.



They stuck very close to the buildings as the two walked down the deserted streets, littered with rubble and abandoned cars. The other side of the road had a giant pawprint leading into a collapsed office building that had thankfully fallen the other way. Scorch marks and small craters from errant missiles and bombs littered the streets. An enormous signboard advertising technological company Apex's flashlights had been partially smashed through.

It was surreal for Miki. She had lived long enough in Nagoya and the sight of familiar streets being like an abandoned warzone was difficult to take in, filling her with a slow creep of anxiety. Down the street was a candy shop she used to go to. Further on to the left would be a market she had been to twice or thrice.

"Careful not to trip on the rubble." Gordon warned. He had been incredibly quiet during the walk, keeping two metres ahead of her and slowing down once in a while to avoid outpacing her with his tremendous strides. Despite the situation, he seemed unnaturally calm, almost like an everyday stroll. He didn't even seem tired. Miki's legs were aching already after the past few hours. The man walked with a slight limp on his right leg, Miki noticed.

Miki sidestepped the gigantic pile of glass and concrete that Gordon was warning her about. It seemed that a missile had blown out several floors in the building they were next to. As she maneuvered around it as carefully as she could, her sneakers fell upon an arm sticking out of the rubble. Miki let out a short shriek of terror before slapping a hand over her mouth to muffle it.

Gordon spun around immediately, quickly striding over. His heavy grey boots crunched over the glass fragments on the ground.

"Don't look at it, kid. Come on." He gently patted at her shoulder. She tried, but her eyes couldn't help but stay fixed on the horrific sight. It was a man's arm, rather muscular. There was a broken digital watch on his wrist, and down his forearm was tattooed several characters in Mysterian script.

The resounding booms of approaching footsteps immediately shook her from her daze. Gordon pulled her along with more force this time, and Miki obliged, beginning to pick up speed. The man pushed at the door to the building they were at, but the door refused to budge even after a hefty shoulder tackle.

"Door must be barricaded. Come on, kid." His voice was more serious now. The footsteps got ever closer and ever louder. The two of them broke into a jog, running across a road that extended perpendicular to the one they were following. The two of them skidded to a stop at the next building, the automatic sliding doors stuck in open position. The receptionist desk had been knocked aside and the floor was strewn with all kinds of items.

Miki and Gordon's heads turned from the direction they came with the deafening sound of a building collapsing down the street, the kaiju slamming its entire massive body weight through it and stomping onto the road with thunderous stomps.

Just like Miki had seen it on that fateful day of its arrival, it was a gigantic quadrupedal creature 10 storeys tall with a long, horned face and a maw filled with sharp teeth that could have fit a car with no issue. Its back was a menacing spiked carapace like a porcupine and armadillo mix, scorched and slightly damaged from missile impacts.

She knew it, had seen it in news reports and documentaries, but always from high up in a helicopter or some stationary camera footage. She had never expected Anguirus to be standing down the street from her, staring with an intensity she had rarely seen.

The kaiju opened its massive jaws and roared, a low intense bellow that shook the ground, before Anguirus charged at them down the street.

"Hurry, Miki!" Gordon yelled from inside the door a few metres away, just enough to snap her from her daze and sprint in as fast as she could. Gordon began to run too once she made it through the doors.

She had just gotten halfway into the entrance room when Anguirus stomped outside the building, throwing up all the items on the floor and sending her flying over the askew receptionist table and colliding into the ground. Pain shot through her ribs immediately, eliciting an immediate cry of pain.

Outside, Anguirus skidded to a frantic stop, ferocious claws gouging up the road and sending cars flying away like toys. The kaiju tilted its head sideways and opened its mouth wide enough to cover the entire length of the entrance. It slammed its head through the glass, shattering it. Miki found herself frozen. Her heart pounded in her chest and she whimpered in terror, but her legs refused to cooperate.

I'm going to die! The thought raced through Miki's mind as the jaws snapped shut with a sound like a thousand whips cracking at once onto the receptionist table right in front of her, exploding it into a shower of wooden splinters. Miki could hear herself screaming and felt Gordon grab onto her and roughly pull her up into his strong arms. He immediately turned and sprinted with her down the hallway to the other side of the building. One of Anguirus' front legs reached down after them, missing them by several metres and crashing into the walls and roof, knocking out the light fixtures and smashing huge cracks into the concrete walls.

Roaring in frustration, Anguirus pulled away from the entrance, hurriedly made its way to the other side of the street, and sprinted at their building.

"Gordon!" She yelled uselessly. The man was running as fast as he could, grunting in pain at his right leg. He had made it over halfway down the width of the building when Anguirus collided into its entrance, sliding on its belly. Pillars crumbled like papier-mâché and concrete walls and support were smashed under Anguirus' mass. Plumes of dust from the destruction raised after Gordon and Miki, and the kaiju moved ever closer. Gordon stumbled, trying to keep his balance under the quaking ground. Anguirus' snout pushed through the smoke plume, so close that Miki could see the serrations on his teeth, until it finally slid to a stop.

Letting out another fierce bellow, Anguirus pulled itself on with its claws, raining chunks of walls and metal onto them. Gordon continued unabated by the carnage, finally reaching the other side and into an alley as the kaiju continued its relentless crawl at them.

"The building's going to go." Gordon said, surprisingly only slightly out of breath. He continued his sprint, down the alleyway and onto the road, chased only by the angered bellowing of the kaiju.

When they were several hundred metres down the street, the building heaved and then collapsed into itself with a tremendous groan, smashing down on Anguirus. Debris flew like deadly projectiles, chunks of rebar and concrete shooting down the street and smashing onto walls. Gordon held Miki's head down as he continued running.

The massive wall of dust and smoke enveloped them, causing them to cough uncontrollably.

If there was any hope that Anguirus had perished in the massive collapse, a roar from that direction and the sound of a landslide of concrete and shattered glass, together with more familiar heavy footsteps heading away from them, broke that notion fast.



Miki sighed in relief when a door on the third storey of the residential building opened when Gordon turned the knob. The two of them quickly entered, shutting it behind them. Gordon dragged a cabinet behind the door for a barricade and hurried to the windows to shut them and draw all the curtains. Both of them were completely covered in fine dust and Gordon's limp had gotten worse from all that running.

Dropping her backpack by the door, Miki took a quick survey of the living room. The occupants had clearly left in a hurry. Toys lay strewn on the ground in front of the television and as Gordon sat down with a sigh at the dining table to examine his right knee, Miki noticed that plates of now-cold vegetables were placed on the table for dinner.

She could smell something in the air still. Pleasant incense. Following her nose, Miki's eye caught a small wooden shrine in the corner of the living room, decorated with withering orange and blue flowers. The wood was carved with images of butterflies and moths and a small jade statuette depicting a four-winged moth in flight, with oversized antennae common with the depictions. There was no mistaking it, this was a shrine to Mothra.

Beside the incense burner was a small wooden tablet etched 'MOTHRA, OUR DIVINE GODDESS, DESTROYER OF DESGHIDORAH, SLAYER OF GIGAN, QUELLER OF RODAN, SEALER OF BATTRA, SUBDUER OF DAGAHRA, HIGHEST GUARDIAN OF THE IWI.'

Miki gently ran her hands over the tablet, over the etchings in the wood. A feeling of warmth slowly washed over her, tingling her fingers and spine. She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath of the incense.

"Put your bag on, Maya. We're just leaving for a while, it's like vacation."

"Our Divine Goddess, please grant us safe passage once more in your infinite mercy and benevolence."

"Sakura, we have to go! Enough praying, the goddess will understand."

"Daddy no! I've left Miss Asumi in my bedroom!"

"Maya, I'll buy you a new Miss Asumi doll, there's no time!"

"I don't want a new one! I want the one grandma gave me!"

"Eichi, look!"

The familiar roar of Anguirus rang out in the distance and screaming ensued. Hurried footsteps rushed away out of the front door, accompanied by the sobbing of a little girl.

Miki's eyes shot open. What the hell was that? She thought. Had she been imagining it? Shaking her head, she readjusted the tablet to its proper position, stretching her limbs and rubbing her still-tingling hands. As she breathed deeply, deep-seated thoughts bubbled to the surface again.

What good were kaiju anyway? Why did people even want to coexist with them? They were just like bullies, using their size against humans. They were too tall, too strong, too heavy to stop. Even Mothra. If she was so benevolent, why did her worshippers have to suffer and flee like everyone else, while she rested on that island far away? They were all the same in the end. Like…like Godzilla.

The nightmarish roar, the crumbling building, the rain that night…

The tablet cracked under her squeeze. Miki pulled her hand back in surprise. She didn't realise she had been clenching her fist. Miki reflexively gave an ashamed bow to the shrine, mentally apologising.

"It shouldn't be that aggressive." Gordon's voice shook her from her thoughts. She turned around, walking closer to him and leaning on the sofa. He was deep in thought, resting his head on a fist.

"Huh?"

"Anguirus."

Miki turned to look at the curtain, in the direction they had fled from. "Is that…him?"

"Huh? Oh you mean Anguirus Prime. No, it's too small. No tail club either. This is what some people call an Angilasaurus, or Angilas for short. Just one of the species."

"Too small." Miki muttered, drawing a slight smile and eyebrow raise from Gordon.

"It's the truth, kid. You'll know if you saw him."

"No thanks."

Gordon's smile held for a few moments before vanishing. "But as I said, I've worked with the species before. They're not aggressive to people like us. We're too small to be food and too weak to be threats. That one dropped a building on its own head to get to two tiny humans like us."

"It's an animal, you can't predict it." Miki shook her head dismissively. "How would you even know?"

Gordon regarded her with a slight chuckle as if he found that funny.

"Anyway, we should probably get this dust off us before we get respiratory issues." He said.

"T-that can happen?" Miki shot up straight in alarm.

"Yeah. Don't want to survive a kaiju just to be killed by dust, do you? Go wipe down in the washroom, fast."

Miki didn't need telling, quickly grabbing her backpack and then heading in. She could see Gordon had returned to his thoughts, staring at the curtains. If he was right then Miki didn't want to stick around any longer in Nagoya to find out what was making giant thousand tonne ankylosaurs suicidally angry.

------古神------​

A/N: Welcome to Old Gods in a New World, a Godzilla fanfic set in a world where dormant kaiju have awoken in the past decades and mankind find themselves no longer the top dog on Earth. Hope you enjoyed! More will be coming soon.

 

[IceOriental123]

Old Gods in a New World

Chapter Two
​

The Leviathan Wakes
​

Kaiya rumbled through the remnants of the basement's closet. Just two cans of food left. If rescuers didn't come soon…

"How much food do we have left?" Haru asked from around the corner.

"We still have a lot, don't you worry! They kept this place stocked up!" Kaiya called back, hoping she sounded as convincing as she hoped. Grabbing a can of peaches, she shut the closet and walked back over to Haru.

The ashen-haired boy sat on the stained couch of the club's private room, his gruesomely snapped leg tied with a makeshift splint to the best of Kaiya's ability. Haru absent-mindedly stared at the TV screen, displaying only static.

"Here, a can of peaches. You have to eat up so your leg heals properly." Kaiya said, twisting its cap open with a can opener and passing it to him. Her boyfriend took it gingerly, giving her a small, fake smile.

"What's wrong, Haru?"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? It's not your fault." Kaiya sank down into the sofa next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"It is…I'm the one who suggested coming to party here. Now we're trapped underground and you have to take care of me because I got this stupid injury." Haru said, his voice shaky like he was on the verge of tears. Kaiya glanced around at the rubble that had crushed the pathway to the door, the concrete and rebar stained with dried blood and severed fingers.

"Come on, Haru, don't be like that. You couldn't have predicted this freak earthquake. Chin up, we'll get out of here soon." She planted a kiss on his cheek, ruffling his hair with her fingers. She stood up again, walking back towards the cabinets around the corner.

Then she heard it. Digging. Like excavators or bulldozers, coming from above.

"Haru. Haru! Do you hear that?" Kaiya jogged back to him, grabbing his hands into hers. "It's digging. They're here to rescue us. Hey! We're down here!"

"Help us, we're down here!" Haru called out.

The digging got louder and closer, tonnes of rubble being scooped aside.

"We're here!" Kaiya cried out louder. "We're-"

The ceiling tore open violently, debris raining down onto them. Blinding sunlight poured into the room, casting upon the ferocious teeth and nose horn of the massive creature above. It shoved its snout into the room amidst the terrified screams and its jaws snapped shut like a vice.

-----古神-----

​

The Angilas roared as it clawed its way through the entrance of the building, glass shattering and raining over Miki. She tried to stand, but the ground turned to soft jelly beneath her feet. She slipped over and over as the kaiju tilted its head and opened its mouth wide, the all-consuming maw stretching the entire length of the room. Miki screamed to no avail, as the kaiju snapped its jaws shut with a deafening crack around her.

Miki woke up with a start, throwing the soft, patterned blanket off of her and against the wall as she sat up. She panted heavily as her head swiveled about, studying her surroundings. Just a nightmare. She was still in the apartment. She was alive, she reminded herself, she had escaped the Angilas.

The bedroom was a child's bedroom, with a small bed, a writing desk filled with Grade 4 homework, and a small cozy shelf with children's manga stacked neatly atop each other. Through the drawn curtains, she could see the faint orange touches of the rising sun. It was bizarre being in someone else's bedroom. She even missed that mess her uncle and aunt called her bedroom, but of course, that was a collapsed pile of rubble now.

Miki clambered off the bed and stretched, letting out a big sigh before taking a deep breath and immediately coughing. That damn Mothra incense. When they'd first come into the apartment, the windows had been open and the apartment well-ventilated, but now that they had shut it the fragrant smoke had spread everywhere overnight.

As she grabbed her hair ribbon, Miki's gaze caught a little plush doll dressed in a red kimono and carrying a tiny fan in one arm. This was Miss Asumi, she assumed. Well, it seemed ordinary enough, she thought as she gingerly picked it up, caressing the soft material.

"Don't go, grandma!"

"Don't cry, Maya. You can come visit me in Sapporo once it's the holidays. Look at what I have here."

"Is that…?"

"You wanted the Miss Asumi doll on your birthday, Maya. Here, you can put it at your bedside and it's like I'm still here with you."

Miki jerked her hand back from the doll, causing it to flop onto the bedside table lifelessly. She lifted a slightly trembling hand to her forehead. No fever. What the hell is going on? Shaking to clear her head, Miki walked off to clean herself up.



"The new route could be us going straight north. Fastest route, buildings as shelter." Gordon traced a gloved finger along the map.

"Buildings don't seem to help much." Miki shrugged, taking a bite out of a slightly stale sandwich. "There's a liquid nitrogen plant to the east of the city, we could use that and then head north from there where the Angilas is less likely to show up."

"Sure, not a bad idea. We could even cut through these mountains once we're at the outskirts." Gordon suggested, tracing his finger northeast of Nagoya.

"Oh no, that's the spot where Baragon appeared about five years ago and dug out a deep tunnel straight downwards. It's collapsed and left a big deep hole in the ground. The teachers in school always say that the area could be unstable and have sinkholes and fissures." Miki said.

"That's what I get for choosing to vacation in a city I've never been in." Gordon let out a wry smile before rolling up the map. "Let's just head for the liquid nitrogen plant first then."

The sudden roar of jet engines streaked over the building low, causing the apartment to tremble and Miki to yelp in surprise. Gordon rushed to the window and cautiously peeled the curtains back just a little, giving Miki a glimpse of several jet fighters speeding westwards.

"That's a good distraction for us, come on, let's go." Gordon urged. Miki nodded with wide eyes, grabbing her backpack and stuffing the rest of the sandwich into her mouth as fast as she could.

-----古神-----

​

Two men stood on the deck of the fishing boat Ryujin Maru. A grizzled old man with one ear, face baked by a lifetime under the hot sun at sea, and a younger one, only twenty years of age. The two of them stared into the blue waters, staring at several plastic bottles that floated past.

"The catch is bad again." The younger man, Senkichi, remarked. The older man, Koji, merely stared into the water in silence.

"Maybe the refugee ships leaving Nagoya disturbed the marine life." Senkichi suggested, hoping to get some response. Koji shook his head, keeping his same solemn gaze into the water.

"I heard the EDF are going to launch some attack today or tomorrow on the kaiju in the city." Senkichi said aloud. It was like he was talking to a brick wall.

"My god." Koji muttered with a shaky fearful tone Senkichi had rarely heard him speak in. Quickly, he rushed to the edge of the ship and stared down into the murky depths. His jaw dropped and with a terrified yelp he scrambled away, leaving Koji behind. The ship's radio was broken, the older man knew. There was no transmitting any warning.

"So, you've awoken once again…" Koji muttered to himself as he watched the flash of glowing blue spines surging deep through the depths.

-----古神-----

​

"I hope this isn't a sore spot for you." Miki said. "As sore as my legs anyway."

"What is it?" Gordon asked. He had slowed down his pace, but only for Miki's sake. Even with his slight limp he had kept the same pace for the past few hours and looked to be able to do so for the next few days.

"How did you…uhh…injure your knee?" Miki asked, wringing her hands together anxiously. Gordon looked down at his right leg for a few seconds, seemingly reminiscing deeply.

"If it's too sensitive then…" Miki quickly spoke up again, but Gordon turned back to her with a chuckle, waving her fears away.

"Tore my knee ligaments when I ended up rodeoing a Skullcrawler."

"What."

"It's true. It was a Skullcrawler infestation in Changle, China. Ended up landing on one with an axe and rodeoing it into several maser cannons. Hurt my knee badly." Gordon spoke of the story with a wistful remembrance, a warm smile on such a serious face.

"Skullcrawler infestation…were you part of the Earth Defense Force?"

"That's classified." Gordon put a finger to his lips. The two of them carried on, the orange rays of the setting sun shining onto their backs and casting long shadows that stretched on the road ahead of them. Soon enough, the pristine white towers of the liquid nitrogen plant showed up behind a few buildings. But surrounding the factory were dozens upon dozens of heavy military trucks, jeeps, and tanks, bristling with guns and crawling with soldiers and workers of all kinds, along with the whirring of helicopter blades in the distance. Emblazoned on each truck was a large logo displaying a green globe surrounded by a laurel wreath, with three arrows within the globe. A logo Miki easily recognized. The Earth Defense Force.

"What…are they doing here?" Miki scratched her head, turning to Gordon.

"No idea, kid. Let's ask them."

As the two began to walk even closer to the plant under the shadow of the surrounding buildings, something leapt out of one of the abandoned stores, a helmeted soldier in full EDF military gear, pointing his firearm at Miki.

"Halt!"

Miki screamed.

Gordon moved blindingly fast, closing the distance in barely a split second and yanking the assault rifle from the soldier's grasp and smacking him in the face.

"How dare you leap out at civilians and point weapons at them?!"

"T-this is a restricted-"

"Do you not fear surprising them into attacking or fleeing? Would a simple shout not be enough?" Gordon continued his furious tirade, slowly causing the soldier to step back one step after another until he finally broke and bowed to both Gordon and Miki, apologising profusely.

Gordon shoved the gun back into the soldier's arms, motioning Miki over.

"Tell your superior whoever he is that we are to be taken directly to the EDF command headquarters for the Nagoya operation."

"Uhh…I don't think that's possible, sir."

"Tell him I'm former captain Douglas Gordon."

"Right." The soldier nodded, a confused look on his face as he pulled out his walkie-talkie and spoke into the phone. "Sir, this is Echo Sector. There's two civilians here requesting to be taken to the command headquarters."

He paused as whoever on the other side spoke. "I know sir, but he said he's Captain uhh…"

"Douglas Gordon."

"Captain Douglas Gordon." He said. As whoever on the other line reacted, the soldier's face paled. He nodded to himself as the man on the other line spoke. Then he affirmed his understanding and put the walkie-talkie down.

"Colonel Gondo has approved your transfer to headquarters sir. There'll be a helicopter west of the plant about to take off. I shall escort you there." The soldier said, bowing in what appeared to be terror. He raised the walkie-talkie to his mouth again. "Eagle Seven, delay takeoff, we have new passengers. Delay takeoff now."

In the distance, a deafening frequency Miki recognised as the Condor Alarm sounded out. The annoyed squawks of several Giant Condors cut through the air, and Miki noticed a few of the enormous birds emerging from the nearby mountainside and flying away from them.

"I said delay takeoff!" The soldier yelled before motioning Miki and Gordon to follow him.



Miki shifted uncomfortably as the uniformed man in front of her looked her up and down, stroking his chin with his fingers, examining her more like she was some piece of equipment. The nametag on his EDF uniform identified him as Colonel Goro Gondo. The wind began to blow harder on the various tents surrounding an abandoned factory that, combined, formed the EDF's temporary HQ in Nagoya.

"I didn't realise our recruitment standards had fallen this low." Colonel Gondo said.

"I'm not here to be recruited into your organisation." Miki replied defensively, folding her arms.

"It's okay, Saegusa. He's just making a joke." Gordon said, walking up to him. The two gripped their hands into a firm handshake, patting each other on the shoulder like old friends.

"Yeah, a joke." Miki muttered to herself.

"How's the knee, Gordon?" Colonel Gondo lightly tapped Gordon's leg with his boot. "The old Kamacuras injury treating you well?"

"Hey, hang on." Miki frowned.

"You should introduce yourself." Gordon said, stepping aside.

"Fine. My name is Miki Saegusa. I'm not part of your organisation." She bowed. Colonel Gondo had a handsome grin plastered on his face.

"Colonel Goro Gondo, of the EDF's G-Force."

"G-Force." Miki tried her best to suppress a giggle.

"Look at that, Otonashi" Colonel Gondo turned around to look at someone else behind him in the busy tent. "Even children are laughing at us now. I told you we needed more commercials."

"I mean, you're the anti-Godzilla force and last I checked, he's still alive, unfortunately. And I'm seventeen. I'm just short."

"He's been dormant for the past three years. Frankly, I hope he comes back, otherwise I'd become a monster that eats up tax money." Colonel Gondo said, flashing her a dry smile. Miki felt her teeth grit so hard she thought they might break, at the casual way he talked about that possibility.

"Not that G-Force was capable of doing anything when he was around either." She tried to hide her seething. She could see Gordon looking at her with a raised eyebrow, not realizing she was capable of such attitude.

"Godzilla's 'King of the Monsters' for a reason." Gordon shrugged. "Not a single other kaiju that can beat him."

A silence fell across the room.

"Mothra can." A feminine voice rang out from behind Colonel Gondo. A woman walked up beside Gordon and Colonel Gondo. She was tall, slightly taller than even Colonel Gondo, though still beneath the massive man that was Gordon. Her raven hair was streaked with blue that went to her roots, tied in a neat ponytail. Clad in a black shirt beneath a shiny red leather coat, her soft skin was a tanned brown, with several pale bony ridges down her cheeks. Her eyes were a sharp golden with black sclera, but she studied Miki with a gentle gaze. A Mysterian, Miki realised.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Otonashi." Gordon folded his arms, though regarding the Mysterian with a smile like an old friend.

"You don't know the will of the goddess." The woman said. Well maybe a woman, Miki thought.

"Greetings, Saegusa." The Mysterian gave her a wave.

"Nice to meet you." Miki bowed. "Are you a Mysterian man or a woman? Sorry, you all kind of look the same."

She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth. "T-that's not what I meant." She muffled through her hand.

"Smooth teaching." Colonel Gondo elbowed Gordon.

"I met her five days ago."

"It's okay, I understand our men and women look similar to you. I'm a Mysterian woman. My Earth name is Miyuki Otonashi." She stretched out her hand for Miki to shake. She gingerly did.

"Sir, our trucks have filled up with liquid nitrogen. They're proceeding to their planned positions." A soldier called out from the other end of the tent.

"Alright, enough welcoming, back to the operation." Colonel Gondo clapped his hands together. With some murmuring the group crowded around a table depicting a map of Nagoya and its surroundings.

"As we've reiterated before, Angilas C10 here is a Duke-class kaiju. This means that there is a high chance our plans will not work." Colonel Gondo said. There was some murmuring amongst them.

"Should she be here? Isn't she a civilian? That would violate our operational security." Someone said. Everybody's heads simultaneously turned, their gazes falling onto Miki, who very much wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.

"I-I mean, who would I tell your secrets to? The Angilas?" She muttered, shifting nervously.

"Major Hayama, please escort her to Otonashi's room for the time being." Colonel Gondo ordered. In sync, everybody's attention turned back to the map, with Otonashi giving her a sympathetic nod.



"I suppose I wasn't expecting anything else." Miki wrinkled her nose at the scent of the Mothra incense. It was like she couldn't escape it wherever she went. The room that was assigned to Otonashi's was fairly barebones, with a specialised red sleeping bag of a soft material. The Mysterians had weird skin that reacted poorly to specific materials, which was likely why she wasn't in EDF uniform. Sighing, Miki pulled out a leaf of blank printing paper and after a bit of absent-minded searching, some of those coloured space pens the Mysterians had.

Major Hayama was a good-looking young man with a tanned complexion. He plopped down at the table opposite to Miki with a big sigh, propping his head up with a palm.

"Sorry about that. Colonel Gondo's all business once it comes to actual planning." Hayama said.

"I don't suppose you could tell me." Miki muttered, absent-mindedly streaking colours randomly onto the paper. A flash of lightning streaked through the window, lighting up the night sky.

"Sure, actually. As long as you promise not to tell anyone and get me in trouble. Colonel Gondo would kick my ass to the Moon."

"Huh? Yeah, don't worry."

"Do you know the Baragon tunnel nearby here? Or do I have to explain that?"

"I know about it."

"Ok good. So, we measured the tunnel's dimensions and found it was big enough to nicely fit Angilas C10 inside." Hayama drew a circle in his hands to symbolise the hole. He then dotted in front of the hole with his finger.

"So that's our maser array. We've covered the hole, so we lure him in." The sound of explosions shook the entire building, causing both Hayama and Miki to yelp in surprise. "…with that. Our jets have been keeping him west this whole time and now we lure him east."

"Could have done with a warning." Miki mumbled. The paper was a mess of black and blue randomness.

"When the EDF air support comes in, everyone puts their heads down. Ahem, anyway, we put our maser array there and blast it. The Angilas runs over, falls into the hole, and our liquid nitrogen trucks camouflaged and hidden in the surrounding trees drive over and pour liquid nitrogen down, freezing it inside." Hayama pointed around where he had drawn the hole with his finger

"Is that it?"

"I mean…not really a bad plan. Angilas aren't particularly intelligent."

"Just animals." Miki said. Her fingers were all warm and tingly now as she breathed in more of that incense.

"Well, I wouldn't say that. To be honest, this one's been acting with unnatural ruthlessness. If it weren't for our lack of options, we'd have wanted an option that enabled us to study what went wrong with this one. To prevent future incidents and such." Hayama said, drumming the table with his fingers.

"Will you be taking part?" Rain began pelting at the window, and more thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Yeah. I'm right at the front of the maser array in a jeep. If it goes wrong, I'll have to wait for everyone to escape before I can. So, I'll likely die in that case." He seemed a bit too casual about that.

"Well…I hope you don't die." Miki couldn't really find better words.

"Thanks. You'll be safe here anyway. Well, they'll turn the lights off so the Angilas doesn't run up for this."

"Can I ask you something real fast?"

"Sure."

"How did Gordon hurt his knee?"

"Huh? Oh, the story I heard was that he was jumping off a building to shoot the perfect shot on a MUTO."

"I…see." Miki said.

"I didn't know you drew." Hayama said.

"I don't."

"Then what's that?"

"Huh?" A haze seemed to clear in Miki's mind that she didn't even know was there. Her eyes widened like dinner plates as she stared down at the paper she had been randomly streaking colours on. The drawing was messy and horribly amateurish, but it depicted mountains, the Angilas, and worse of all, from the image of a charcoal-black dinosaur bristling with maple-leaf white dorsal spines, a ferocious look in his eyes. A lightning bolt flashed behind it.

"I…that's…" Miki stuttered in disbelief, running her hands over the drawing and glancing over to see the stains of the pen's ink on her hand, as if not trusting her eyes.

"Is that…Godzilla?" Hayama reached across to touch the paper.

"It's nothing. Just nothing." Miki snatched it out of his grasp and ripped the drawing to shreds before crushing the remnants in her palm. She stood up fast enough to knock her chair over with a resounding clatter of metal and strode to the window with the same hurry, grabbing and prying on the stiff lock with all her effort until it finally popped open.

"Now hang on." Hayama tried to speak up, but Miki slid the window open and tossed the shredded papers out into the rain before shutting it again. Huffing, she picked up her chair and replaced it in its proper position before bowing and apologising once again.

"It's alright." Something beeped on his belt. "I think it's time for the operation. Just stick tight here, Miki. Don't go anywhere. It's dangerous to be in the mountains in the rain."

Miki sighed and nodded. Hayama gave her a thumbs up before walking out of the door and shutting it behind him. She could already hear the faint sounds of heavy vehicles driving away through the deafening roar of lightning and rain.

Moments later, the room was plunged into darkness. Miki walked over to the window, peering through the raindrops at the headlights of various jeeps and the maser trucks lighting up each other as they headed away from the command headquarters. It wasn't like she was a daredevil or anything, but a part of her urged her to run out, to watch as the creature which devastated the city and killed her aunt and uncle be defeated.

The door behind her creaked open, and Miki turned and squinted to see the familiar large frame of Gordon at the doorway.

"Whatcha looking at, kid?"

"Just watching the operation. Watching it leave I guess." Miki said.

"Well, looking at the map outside, if we climb to the top of a nearby mountain, we'd have a clear view of the Baragon tunnel and by extension the operation." Gordon said, holding up two ponchos. She couldn't see it in the darkness, but she somehow knew he was grinning.

"That's horribly irresponsible." Miki chided, but she herself was smiling from ear to ear.

"Eh, what's life without punching a superior officer or running out into a storm when you shouldn't?" Gordon tossed a poncho to her.



The sound of a thundercrack rang in Miki's ears as she trudged up the slippery mountainside, the boots she wore struggling for grip against the slick rock and mud. The icy wind bit into her skin through the poncho, causing her to pull it closer against herself as she shivered. Gordon's flashlight shone through the darkness as his coarse hand gripped tightly against her, keeping her upright through all her stumbles. Finally, they found themselves on one of the peaks surrounding the taller mountain not too far away. Gordon pointed down southwards, and through the darkness and sheets of rain, Miki could make out the lights of the various Type-90 Maser Cannons, a satellite dish-esque weapon on a small crane, mounted on a truck. Ahead of the row of Masers in position was a small jeep – Major Hayama's.

Down a mountain slope from their position, to their west was where the Baragon tunnel was supposed to be, yet the ground looked completely solid amidst the row of runway lights that had been lit up. Miki guessed that they lead straight to the covered hole itself.

The sound of jets roared overhead. Flying in this weather had to be hazardous, but the planes continued regardless. As they streaked away, their deafening noise was replaced by the familiar booming bellow of the Angilas.

"Tar- appr-…-ing!" Captain Gordon's communications device crackled with the chatter from the EDF soldiers, white noise garbling most of what was being said. Miki watched as the Angilas walked closer, its long snout, nasal horn, fanged teeth, and the beginnings of the thick, spiked carapace illuminated. With terrifying speed Miki was quite familiar with, the Angilas leapt forward, crushing several lights in its jaws with maddened fury.

"Op-…-ire!" The runway lights began to slowly turn off one by one, leading towards the tunnel in the ground. As the Angilas moved forward to follow it, blue beams of atomic energy resembling crackling bolts of lightning shot from the satellite dish heads of the Maser Cannons. The bolts streaked through the air, notably conducting into the rainfall and dimming ever so slightly in travel. One errant blast collided into the forest, blowing two large trees into a fiery mess. Numerous others fell short and struck the ground in front and around the kaiju, blasting glowing-hot chunks of dirt into the air.

Yet for the rest, they struck true, impacting into the thick hide of the Angilas. It roared in annoyance, slamming its forearms into the dirt repeatedly before it charged head-on towards the maser arrays. Boulders the size of cars were thrown up with each step as it ran, footsteps trembling the ground even with Miki's distance from the battle. Maser bolts crackled into its skin, yet it did not slow down a step.

Finally, with about a hundred and ten metres to spare from the Baragon tunnel, the Angilas leapt into the air.

Miki covered her mouth with both hands while Gordon watched on impassively at the titanic creature sailing through the rain. Then it landed, yet instead of the tremendous, earth-shaking crash Miki expected from such a landing, the ground instead crumbled like powder beneath its limbs. The Angilas let out a surprised cry, its four limbs scrambling immediately, digging into the side of the hole that threatened to envelop it. With a massive heave of effort that nearly crumbled one of the sides, the Angilas hauled itself over the edge and began to sprint up the mountainside at the masers.

"No!" Miki couldn't help but cry out. The volley of maser fire intensified threefold, nearly blanketing the Angilas' body in the energy, but most simply impacted its formidable carapace and fizzled out with only so much of a scorch mark.

"This i-…Kaiju Preven-…-etwork. Kaiju landi-…-Nagoya. King-…ss. Repeat. King-class-"

Miki and the EDF soldiers in the maser trucks were too focused on the situation to hear the warning. The Angilas slammed one forearm onto the road in which the masers were situated.

"Come on…retreat!" Miki yelled in vain.

The maser truck just behind Major Hayama's jeep adjusted its guns and opened fire. The bolts flew into the Angilas' left eye, causing it to shriek and trash its head. With impossible accuracy, the maser blasted again and again, each shot colliding into its eye or tongue.

"Damn." Gordon remarked, nodding his head.

The maser cannon continued its deadly precision, and Miki watched agape as the Angilas lifted one claw to block the barrage and lost traction on the wet mountain slope. With an enraged, pained cry, the kaiju fell backwards, tumbling over itself as it rolled into the Baragon tunnel. A heavy thump that Miki felt in her feet signified that it had hit the bottom.

The ground shook again, even heavier. And again. Must be trashing inside, Miki thought. Yet she felt a chill run down her spine as if it were something she recognised and feared.

Trucks that had been hiding in the trees, some dangerously close to the craters where missed maser bolts had struck, rolled out towards the hole, supported by tanks with searchlights. Soldiers ran down on foot, stumbling in the rain, and Miki could only stare in awe as liquid nitrogen spilled from the truck containers, pouring down into the hole while the Angilas roared again, slamming itself against the sides of the tunnel. Gordon's communicator burst into a barrage of shouting and orders. The heavy shaking continued.

"That's…" Miki felt Gordon's hand suddenly squeeze hard onto hers. The ground quaked some more.

Oh.

Footsteps.

"Major, look!"

"There!" Gordon pointed at the distance.

Its charcoal-black skin had hidden it amidst the shadows of the hills and mountains southwards, but Miki could now see the familiar figure emerge from the shadows. With each heavy step, the dirt on the ground broke and landslides crashed down beneath its saurian feet. Its enormous, heavy tail dragged on the ground behind it. Miki could see the silhouetted jagged dorsal spines on its back, each the size of a house. Its pointed reptilian face regarded the scene in front of it, yellow and orange eyes glaring at everything in sight, a fierce piercing stare that made Miki freeze even when she was sure Gordon and her hadn't been noticed. Then, it opened its mouth and roared.

It was a terrible, utterly powerful cross between a shriek and a bellow that made the earth quake beneath the kaiju. Miki could feel it rumbling in her very bones, reverberating into the deepest corners of her mind. The downpour suddenly crashed into her from the front, shoved over a kilometer by the mighty roar, forcing her to shield her face.

The EDF comms fell dead silent immediately.

"Godzilla…" Miki could only whisper.

-----古神-----

​

Kaiju Prevention Network

Accessing Kaiju Data…



Name: Giant Condor
Classification: Common-class
Size: 15 meters
Wingspan: 25 meters
Weight: 2,000 tonnes
Behavior: Social and curious creatures that generally do not regard humans as prey. Beware of flying aircraft into areas where they flock, as they may regard it curiously and cause extensive damage to the aircraft. All aircraft and airports are to utilize the special frequency of Condor Alarms to drive them off.


Name: Angilas C10
Classification: Duke-class
Size: 40 meters tall
Weight: 30,000 tonnes
Behavior: Unlike the others of its kind or the kaiju known as Anguirus Prime, Angilas C10 showed unnaturally heightened aggression, attacking the city of Nagoya and directly targeting and devouring humans. Angilas C10 is marked for immediate critical termination.