Chapter Text
The second one who rose from the oceans, originally with the same hatred for humanity in his heart that the original had. Over time, he has soften up: like a apprehensive cat that slowly befriends a stranger that feeds it tuna.
In case you can't tell, we like to give him a lot of fish. Especially tuna, his favorite.
He is currently near Iwato Island. When rough storms come in, he sinks into the ocean to avoid them. Some of us follow him there to make sure it stays that way.
We can't afford to have Gojira get lost or go rogue.
~ 牧島 真優
A clash of thunder broke Mayu's focus. As she slammed her notebook shut, she felt disappointed with how much progress she wasn't able to make in that sitting. Although she had written down plenty about both Gojiras (the current one, and his long deceased predecessor) by that point, she still wanted to discuss their possible impact on the world at large.
She wanted to vent her worries about the instability of the human world, and how she feared that not even the threat of giant monsters were able to slow down fiery tensions. (If anything, they seemed to escalate international politics at large, as governments were all too happy to claim that the beasts were creations from their international rivals. Rather than acknowledge them as the extraterrestrial threats or scientific accidents that they often times were.)
Mayu lowered her mechanical pencil onto the table as she closed her notebook and slid into the inside pocket of her coat. She opened the door of the small cabin she was in, and stepped out onto the deck. The waves beneath her shook the boat around in a choppy manner, but she wasn't bothered by it. The rain outside immediately soaked her face as it splattered round droplets onto her glasses. Admittedly, Mayu was never a fan of that kind of weather; she felt similarly about other things that blurred or otherwise obscured her vision the same way. It didn't help that her dark-green hair was still dripping from when she stepped out there an hour earlier, or that she wasn't able to warm herself up in the cabin either.
However, it wasn’t all gloom. The relatively calm waters meant as much good news to her as a rainbow in the sky would have meant to anyone else. It was clear that was Gojira was still asleep, undisturbed by the weather and the increasingly lighter clouds above. She tried to hold back the small smile on her face, worried that her superiors and the other specialists on board would falsely assume that things were completely okay. Yet, it broke through her lips like a thin ray of sunshine, unfettered by the thoughts of the world around her.
A resting kaiju is, perhaps, the most at peace that a kaiju could be.
Notes:
This doesn't take place in a specific continuity. When I write for fandoms with a lot of incarnations (like this one or Batman), I like to pick and choose what I want to use. In this case, there's a lot of elements from the Showa-era films. There's also elements I added for my own enjoyment, like the relatively modern setting, anime hair colors, and any OCs that might show up (like our lead character, Mayu).
That being said, do expect elements from other Godzilla installments to show up later. I won't say which ones, though, as that's part of the surprise. :^)
Chapter Text
The descendant of the original Angurius. Given that the first one originated from Siberia, it seems like an odd choice for him to stay at Monster Island.
Angurius and his predecessor are both ankylosauri. In spite of that, he can't use his thin tail as a mace since there's no club at the end of it. He can, however, curl himself up like a hedgehog, as the spikes on his back were mutated when he reawakened.
Brave to the point of foolishness, Angurius always seems to lose. Yet, he doesn’t lose the spark that makes him try again when next time arrives.
~ 牧島 真優
Mayu was glad to be under the shade of a tree as she looked down at the gazed down at the lake within Monster Island. The summer weathering was sweltering, and the inactive volcano in the distance didn't make her feel any less cooler. Cryptomeria trees were scattered in clusters, and they thrived in the intense sunlight the island received that day.
The same, however, couldn't be said for the island's monsters.
Mayu kept an eye on Angurius in particular; Monster Island was a far cry from the habitat he originally lived in. Although she wasn't sure if Siberia was a lot warmer during the Cretaceous period or not, what she did know was that he had a preference for colder temperatures.
That wasn’t to say that there weren't cold areas on Monster Island. The lake that she was watching him swim in was one such place; likewise, – similarly to most other places in Japan – the weather changed with the seasons. Really, what separated Monster Island from the rest of the nation was the fact it was meant to be a nature reserve (of sorts) for Japan’s kaiiju. Namely, the ones who resided in areas too dangerous for their continued existence, or the ones that were born with nowhere in particular to return to.
The sight of both Angurius and Gojira relaxing at the lake was enough to make Mayu smile. Angurius in particular happened to be poking his head out from above the water, while Gojira was near the edge watching his friend's every move.
Angurius response to the heat didn't come as a surprise to Mayu at all. It made sense that he'd try to cool himself off within the weather; like a lizard that was already too warm avoiding sunlight. After what seemed to be a few minutes, however, he had changed his mind. He stepped back onto the land, and let out a deep breath. Gojira happily greeted him back onto the surface, to which the other kaiju chirped back with a reply of his own.
Just seeing Angurius so refreshed afterwards made Mayu's smile grow wider. However, her face became exhausted as sweat began to bead down her bangs and crawl towards her cheeks. The way mammals, like humans, and the way reptilian kaiju managed their temperatures was different, and the sweat was just a reminder of that.
However, that didn't mean there weren't similarities; Mayu herself knew that very well. She reached over to grab the steel water bottle laying against the tree behind her, and pulled it up to her mouth. The cold water inside tasted like ice-cold relief, and Mayu made sure to take another sip of it afterwards.
The kaiju had a method that was just as good at beating the heat too.
Notes:
This chapter's summer themed. It's fall now.
I guess you could call it a send-off to the season. I spent most it with a sunburn on my arm this year that never went away, though; as much as I usually like summer, I'm just happy its finally the season where we can wear jackets.
But yeah, Monsters in Peacetime is finally coming out of its hiatus. While it's not entirely complete yet, it is approaching the final stretch writing-wise. With eight of my eleven entries done, I figured now is a good time as any to start posting; granted, I'll be posting up to Chapter 7 (out of the 11 entries Mayu writes) in the upcoming weeks, but since you guys have been very patient, your reward is more monsters to read about! \o/
Chapter 3: バラン (Varan)
Chapter Text
A triphibian kaiju that resides near the Kitakami Mountains. More specifically, he likes to rest near the bottom of the lake; he has been known to come up if he's been disturbed by something on the surface.
The village near the lake (who see Varan himself as a malevolent mountain god) has been known to rebuild itself regularly. Surprisingly, attacks on the village itself aren’t common these days, as they’ve made peace with their beloved "Baradagi-sanjin".
Rumors has it they hold festivals in Varan’s honor. There are rumors that one's happening in a few days, so I went to check it out.
~ 牧島 真優
As Mayu walked down the roads of the village, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of a sight in the distance; Mount Hayachine. The trademark snow that the mountain was usually associated with wasn’t there; it was summer, and dirt took its place. Supposedly, the mountain itself was rumored to be the den of a rain god, which intrigued her quite a bit. Perhaps another kaiju god similar to "Baradagi-sanjin" lived within it?
She forced herself to stop as she pulled out her notebook from between her arm and her side. She opened it up to the page she was on at the time and hastily wrote that bit of information down. Although it seemed like a pipe dream, she wanted to come across it someday and perhaps be the first to record it. (As a rule of thumb, if there was one kaiju within a spot, there tended to be multiple others alongside them.)
Mayu finished writing everything down in her notebook and clutched it close to her chest as she continued walking. Although her legs were focused on the path she was on, her eyes were all too happy to wander around at her surroundings. Quaint houses with brown roofs were densely spaced apart from each-other and a forest of cypress trees served as the backdrop behind them. The few businesses that were there were hardly discernible from one another, with the only thing that set them out from one another from the outside being their signs. Despite that, people waved warmly at Mayu as she passed by them. Stalls were being assembled around her, and strings of lanterns were being tested out to see the best way – if any given batch of them even could – light up the crowded streets at night.
The pavement under Mayu's feet turned into grass before she knew it. The neighborhood had vanished behind her and in its place a big lake had appeared. It was surrounded by hills and cypress trees resembling the ones she had previously seen, and on the edge directly across from her stood Varan, the kaiju she had been sent to check up on.
Despite the pandemonium around him, the monster himself was at peace. Varan stretched open the membrane between his limbs, and hopped off of the rock he sat on. As he floated through the air for a few seconds to the other side of the lake, he piloted himself into the water, and landed in it softly. Small waves formed around him as his head poked up from the water itself, and he paddled around casually afterwards. The sight brought a smile to Mayu's face.
"I remember the first time our village even encounter Varan... We couldn't believe that Baradagi-sama was right in front of our eyes."
Mayu turned to see in the direction the calm, unfamiliar voice came from. Now on her right was an old man, with long white hair that glowed blonde in the sunlight reflected from the lake. His long, white robes reached past the grass below them, and the way he sat was both simple and refined.
"Who are you?" Mayu asked, unsure as to why the old man was there or where he even came from.
"I am Yasuda Mayasa," the man replied with a nod of his head. "I am the guji of the local temple here. I take you must be from out of town."
"That is correct, Yasuda-sama," Mayu replied. She had eveb added an honorific meant for high-ranking individuals (such as a priest like Yasuda himself) at the end of his surname. "It is nice to meet you. What is your connection to Varan specifically?"
"He is our god," Yasuda answered. "I serve as his middle man. I ensure that he and everyone who worships him are on good terms. I oversee offerings like the festival, and meditate his blessings. The latter of which is why I'm here right now; it doesn't take much to keep him calm."
Mayu nodded along. She was surprised to see that Yasuda glanced at her specifically after he finished his explanation.
"Why are you here?" Yasuda asked her back.
"Me?" Mayu stammered slightly. "I'm just a researcher who was sent up here to document Varan... I take it he's not called Baradagi-sanjin much these days, is he?"
Yasuda chucked, "That was from when we thought he was part of the mountain itself. It has been a long time since I've heard anyone call him that."
Mayu chucked back nervously. Recalling that she had previously written that down as an alias for Varan made her shudder.
"Either way, Baradagi-Sama doesn't care what you do here at the lake, just as long as you're quiet and respectful about it," Yasuda added as he looked towards the lake itself.
Mayu observed how their conversation ended as she and Yasuda continued to watch Varan together. The monster didn't seemed bothered by her presence (and naturally not that of the local guji either), but she knew that it couldn't stay that way forever. A festival was coming up soon, and she needed to know if he was truly okay with that in particular or not.
"The 'respectful' part wouldn't have anything to do with the upcoming festival, would it?" Mayu glanced back at the village, which was quite distant from the lake.
Yasuda nodded slowly, "Although the village has gotten better at treating Baradagi-sama over the years, there are still many situations we have to be careful with. From what I've heard, there's fireworks this year, and I worry that might unintentionally provoke Baradagi into violence."
Provoke him? It took Mayu a few seconds (longer than she would have liked to admit) for it to register in her mind. Fireworks and kaiju weren't something she thought about together, yet the cause for Yasuda's concern became increasingly evident as she thought about it.
Fireworks were known to fly through the air like they were rockets, and erupted with the volume of bullets and cannons. Although the explosions themselves were meant to be harmless and beautiful, it would have been easy for the tormented beasts known as kaiju to interpret them as something else. Such as a returning army, or as a war.
"...I see," Mayu finally nodded. "I can't imagine Varan would be a fan of that."
"If it's not too much to ask, can you pursue the rest of the festival to drop them on Baradagi's behalf?" Yasuda asked. "You're an expert in kaiju behaviour. I could imagine they'd be more likely to listen to you than to me."
"But aren't you the guji? Wouldn't you have enough authority over the festival to do that on your own?"
"I could, but the town has other interests in mind aside from religious ones, as the festival is also intended to help grow the town itself, as its harder for small village's to survive these days. Think about it; how many towns have kaiju of their own that they worship?"
"Not too many..."
"Exactly. Which is why I need someone to help appeal to the scientific end of things," Yasuda chuckled. "Or perhaps, more accurately, the 'city-dweller' end of things. Maybe then they'll be able to listen."
"I-- I haven't spent much time in the cities lately, but I'll see what I can do," Mayu agreed, if somewhat awkwardly from the doubts growing within of her.
With that, Yasuda nodded one last time as he and Mayu said their goodbyes to each-other.
Before Mayu knew it, she had made her way back up the hill. The stands were taking their finalized shapes, and the lights above her dangled securely from their ropes. Even the shrine that Yasuda worked at was nearby, which naturally became her first stop once she made it there.
As Mayu perched herself at the top of the staircase, she noticed what was happening through its open doors. A mikoshi, or a small statue of the shrine itself, rested on wooden beams as it was monitored by two shrine maidens. More priests, all clad in robes similar to the ones Yasuda wore, discussed among themselves about where to temporarily move "Baradagi" to. (From what Mayu overheard, they were planning on taking the small representation of Varan to the cave that his statue was originally located at.)
A small smile broke through Mayu's otherwise concerned face. Although the statue looked nothing like Varan himself, it at least gave her peace of mind that he was "being relocated" away from the festival. If only it were that easy to move the kaiju himself away from there and onto Monster Island temporarily...
As soon as Mayu heard something roll slowly past her, that smile vanished. It had to be on some kind of cart, as it sounded like the squeaking of wheels and the movement of stone pavement. Those weren’t the fireworks... Were they?
Mayu spun around to see a different sight behind her. Rather than a cart of fireworks, there was a cart full of towels, plastic hats, and masks; all in Varan’s supposed likeness. The hats especially didn't look like him, as they resembled brimmed buckets with frog eyes on top of them. Whoever manufactured the hats seemed to have gotten "triphibian" and "amphibian" mixed up with each-other.
"Want a Baradagi hat?" The man next to the cart asked.
"No thanks," Mayu answered.
"Are you sure?" The man pulled a hat off of the cart to show her, "It'll keep the sun off your glasses. It's supposed to get pretty bright today."
Mayu shook her head sideways, "I'm good, but I appreciate that you at least asked me."
"Ah well," the man shrugged. "I need to get these set up at my booth anyways..."
"You wouldn't happen to know where rhe people in charge of the fireworks are, would you?" Mayu asked, having been reminded of her task by the indirect mention of a booth.
The man blinked, seemingly dumbfounded by her question.
"I was sent up here by Yasuda-sama to warn them about using the fireworks," Mayu explained. "While I can't imagine that Baradagi would have any issue with the towels, or the masks, or... Those hats, a kaiju might take issue with the constant explosions, if that makes any sense."
Without anything else to say, the man only pointed in the direction that he had gone in previously. Mayu knew what he meant, and silently thanked him with a nod of his own. It was clear that she'd have to go a long way to get there, as fireworks tended to distant for the town's safety, but it was a long distance that she was willing to go.
She just didn't anticipate how out of town it was.
To put it simply, if the town was spread out as much as it already were, imagine how farther one would have to go to find something on its outskirts. It was no wonder why the town wanted to keep Varan’s lake so close to them; even when the lack of distance tended to coat more destruction than it was worth.
Mayu was fatigued by the time she made it to the top of the hill where the cannons were situated (and partially buried into the ground). Her legs had become sore and her vision had become dizzy. She could barely even make out the distant truck and the crane that were nearby. A feeling of dread grew within her as the fireworks that were there finally caught her eye. Spheres of various sizes were ready to be loaded into the cannons, some of which happened to be particularly large; shakudama, as they happen to be called.
There was a reason that Yasuda was anxious. The mere presence of the shakudama in particular wasn't helping any of that.
Bittersweet childhood memories came back to Mayu. Warm nights where the fireworks glimmered in the sky as whimsical classical music played in the background. Those should have been joyful memories if it weren't for the dulled terror that Mayu had seen on the faces of her older, male relatives. Fathers, uncles, grandfathers alike; all had volunteered im the Japanese Self-Defense Force and have encountered war. War against monsters, war against organizations, and – when they had finally returned to see everyone else in the Makishima family – war against life itself.
She remembered how none of them were certain about the explosions, or where they were coming from. Friend tended to be indistinguishable from foe, and if there was one thing to be certain about kaiju, it was that its entirely uncertain to know how they'd react. If people could lash out or flinch in fear of what they heard, what would stop a monster? Especially one that was the target if most of the firepower?
The sight of men in dark gray shirts brought Mayu out of her thoughts and reminded her of what she was sent up to do. They were the fireworks crew, and Yasuda needed someone to warn them not to disturb Varan!
"Excuse me, sirs, but I have a message from the local guji," Mayu cleared her throat nervously. "Yasuda says that the fireworks are unnecessary, as there's a chance you might anger the local mountain god."
"Huh?" The fireworks crew was confused.
One of them in particular spoke up, "We were here last year with a few fireworks, and it was fine then."
"I'm referring to this year's," Mayu said as she readjusted her notebook as though it were an inspectors clipboard. "For example, I've noticed you've all brought quite a few shakudama here."
"Yeah. They're awesome, aren't they?"
"If by 'awesome', you mean capable of accidentally summoning a greater power, then sure. We can agree on that."
The man looked back at all of his coworkers; each one of them was more puzzled than the last one.
"We're from out of town, so we'd have to consider how much time and money we'd wasted if we left." another one of the men added.
Mayu, however, remained unconvinced and showed them the front of her notebook; the emblem on its cover that stated she's associated the JSDF herself. "You need to head my warning. The costs they already have to bare from canceling would be nothing in comparison to the damage Varan and the lawsuits that you'd be dragged into afterwards would cause."
The men whispered among each-other, seemingly shocked that the military (or technically a researcher that's assigned to work for them) has gotten involved with what seemed like to them was just business as usual.
"A-are we getting sued now?" One of the men quivered.
"Nobody's getting punished," Mayu answered. "Yet. If you need more information about what Varan might tolerate fireworks-wise, it might be wise to get ahold of him yourself. He's probably back in the town itself by now. Of course, that's also assuming he's not peacefully explaining the situation to your boss too... But it wouldn't hurt to check."
The men turned silent as disappointment spread across their faces. Mayu felt just as disappointed in herself for ruining what they would have considered harmless fun. She knew that she were doing it for Varan, yet also knew that it was still important to keep the human element (especially the enjoyment and pride of having worked on) of the festival itself intact as well.
"I know things aren't going to plan, but I appreciate that your enthusiasm was in the right place," Mayu told them. "It is what Varan would have liked regardless."
"What do we do if we can't stay?" One of the workers asked, "It's not like we have anything to do here except head back and just return the fireworks to their factory. And then wait for someone else to order those same ones..."
Mayu smiled, "If nothing else, there's always next time.”
As the workers all agreed among themselves, Mayu knew that it was time to head back. She turned around to face the lake again, and sighed happily. The fireworks had been called off, and she was relieved that she'd be able to tell Yasuda the news.
Her eyes widened in surprise, however, when she saw that Varan was once again visible from the distant lake. It was typically hard to miss a kaiju of any size (as they all were some variety of huge), but to see him sitting there peacefully nesr the lake was a bit of a surprise.
Maybe that's why they were so compliant...
Mayu nodded at Varan as though she expected him to know what she had done. Even he wasn't capable of much except being represented on an altar (to pray to), it seems that he appreciated being looked after.
Chapter 4: ベビーゴジラ (Baby Gojira)
Chapter Text
A hatchling discovered as an egg on the shores of Monster Island. It has recently cracked and revealed a younger monster that resembled Gojira.
How it got there is a mystery. One that asks many questions about Gojira's reproductive cycle than we never though to get the answers to before. (And admittedly, I don't wish to think about too hard.)
All we know is that this "baby Gojira" likely wasn't born from atomic fallout like his predecessors, the Gojiras that came before him, were.
As a result, we don't know what to predict with the little one. His potential is very much unknown.
~ 牧島 真優
Mayu lifted her pencil away from the last bit of kanji at the end of her name, and raised her head out of her notebook. She could see the smaller, baby Gojira and his adoptive "father" nearby; the second Gojira that she had spent countless hours studying throughout her years as a kaiju-zoologist. The smaller one was waving his tail with glee as he tried to hop onto the larger Gojira's back. Yet, he seemed unamused by little one's playfulness.
Like nearly all of the kaiju native to Earth that that they studied, Mayu and the other researchers had grown attached to the other, smaller Gojira. With that said, that didn't mean that they could ignore a crucial problem that came with the existences of two almost-pararell Gojiras at once.
How could they be kept track of as separate monsters?
They had rather simple solution; a nickname. After what Mayu remembered as a surprisingly heated debate, the name "Junior" was what they decided to call the smaller one. The older Gojira got to keep his name for himself, as messing with the classifications for "the King of the Monsters" was immediately agreed upon to be an idea that wasn’t worth the effort. (With "King of the Monsters" itself being a mouthful of a nickname itself.)
Unsurprisingly, nicknames were a concern that never bothered the kaiju themselves. They had other issues to worry about.
Mayu's eyes remained focused on Gojira himself. Although Junior was bright and hyperactive – as any young animal should have been, the older kaiju seemed visibly annoyed by what was happening around him. He raised one of his feet off of the ground and started to slowly step away from Junior. He clearly wanted to get away from his most-likely-surrogate child for a bit.
The ground beneath Mayu shook as it dawned upon her that Gojira was heading her way. She knew exactly what would happen if she didn't get out of way soon, and she certainly didn't want to be there for it. Her legs picked up the pace as she held onto her notebook tightly. She had no choice but sprint out of the path of "the king" and the likely heir to his title.
One thing Mayu always kept in mind was that a short distance for a kaiju tended to be a much longer one for a human. Among the many things a researcher needed to be, they had to be athletic enough to handle a sudden change in position. Even the smallest step of a kaiju could have led to them getting squashed alive or trapped in the tumbling nature around them if they weren't careful.
Tumbling nature especially. The ground shook beneath Mayu. As soon as it stopped rumbling, she looked upwards to see that Gojira had stopped close to where she was at originally. The sheer amount of running she had done earlier made her lightheaded and unable to focus very well on the towering, thankfully-distant kaiju nearby. She could readily, however, lower her notepad away from her chest so she could write in it once more. As she completed a few more sentences, she stopped in the middle of one to see if anything had changed.
Junior had followed Gojira there too. A worried chirp came out of the younger kaiju as an annoyed roar came out of Gojira himself. The bigger kaiju, however, either had an idea of his own, or was too tired to stay awake, as he laid himself down across the ground. (And thankfully, not in the direction Mayu herself went earlier.) Junior seemed rather disappointed by it, and looked at Gojira with his wide, doe-like eyes. Even those weren't able to stay open for long, as a small yawn came out of Junior's mouth and dragged the rest of his face with it.
The ground around Mayu shook again as the smaller kaiju collapsed onto it in exhaustion. She clutched onto her notebook and pencil tightly as she waited for it to fade. Once the last quake passed, she took a moment to breathe, and then opened her notes back up. As she laid the graphite tip of her pencil back on the page, she looked at the two kaiju in front of her and observed them closely. Both of the monsters were peacefully asleep, and left unbothered by the other residents on the island. A long, tired smile was even on Gojira's face as he adjusted the way he slept to keep an eye on his surrogate son.
Mayu smiled at them, fully aware that they couldn't see it themselves. She found it sweet to see them spending time together like that.
Even the cold heart of the King of the Monsters has been known to melt sometimes.
Chapter Text
The queen of life, death, and rebirth. A passive goddess whose mere presence inspires optimism, but springs into action if the world needs her.
She died again recently; this is at least the twentieth time that's happened. Now, she's on her twenty-first(?) life, and is resting within her egg.
Mothra is usually monitored by her loyal priestesses, but it’s crucial for us researchers to watch her throughout her egg and early larval days. She’s due to hatch any day now.
Deep down, we all fear that her endless cycle of rebirth could be interrupted one day, and that she might never come back.
~ 牧島 真優
Mayu looked up from her notes as an enchanting, if somewhat melancholic, harmony filled the air. Although it was a typical for the tiny, fairy-like priestesses to pray to Mothra that way, the performances were known to make even the people who see them everyday stop in their tracks and listen in on them.
“♪ From the beginning~ ♪”
“♫ ~From the begi~inning ♫”
“♪ It didn't link ~ ♪ ”
“♫ Di~idn't link ♫”
“♫ The promise between you and me~eee... ♪”
From what she was able to make out of from the lyrics (which were in an endangered language that was likely related to modern-day Malay), Mayu wasn’t too optimistic about how things were going. It was a feeling that she expressed in her notes earlier, and one that she still was very anxious about.
Mayu glanced closer at the two priestesses to see if they felt the same way. The slightly taller of the two, Andida, had dark teal – almost cerulean – hair that cascaded down her shoulders like a waterfall. The other priestess, Delima, had magenta hair that was as vibrant as the tropical blossoms that grew on their island. Although their flowing yellow dresses and flower headbands made them come off as joyful, both of the priestesses appeared gloomier than anyone had ever seen them before.
Ae the priestesses concluded their prayer, Mayu glanced over at the giant speckled egg behind them. Its pastel patterning resembled Mothra's big, blue eyes and the wings that she would have when she reached her imago form; beautiful, orange ones that camouflaged her whenever the sun began to set.
"Have you heard anything from Mothra yet?" Mayu asked as she readjusted the pencil in her hands.
"No, unfortunately," Delima began to speak Japanese. "Mothra has been taking longer to hatch than she normally has."
“I see,” Mayu began to write down what the tiny priestess said into her notes. However, the hidden animosity in the air made it hard for her to complete them. She couldn't help but be distracted her task. As she glanced up at Adinda, the slightly-taller priestess glared back at her skeptically.
Adinda and Delima were clearly worn out from how much they had been put through over the years. In fact, Japan’s discovery of Infant Island had been nothing but consequences for all of the residents who weren't Mothra herself. The two priestesses, internationally known as "The Shobijin" seemed to have it among the worst, as their story was very well-known; even to those who never studied kaiju at all. They were kidnapped, forced to perform for the public's amazement, dragged to Japan with Mothra another time when her egg washed up on its shores, and, of course, ultimately ended up as celebrities again afterwards. Was it any wonder that Andida seemed stand-offish with foreigners after what had happened to her?
"I can tell that you two aren't... Uh... Too happy right now," Mayu observed. "How does Mothra not manage to feel the same way? After all that has happened, she's never attacked us on her own will or anything like that."
Adinda continued to glare at Mayu, "That's because nobody's ever told you about Battra before, have they?"
"I-- I know who Battra is," the name was one Mayu had obviously heard of. "Kind of, at least. It's hard to get information about kaiju who just rise out of the Earth one day, and--"
"Battra wouldn't exist if Mothra felt the need to smite the rest of its world for its mistakes," Adinda bitterly replied.
Mayu blinked in surprise. "Really? I always thought that kaiju have a full range of emotions. I never thought that there is a darkness-light dichotomy between her and another kaiju that's not Goji--"
"Just be happy the Earth hasn't sent Battra after you guys recently. It did it twice before, and it could always do it again."
Andida sighed and sat down on the edge of their stone platform, as Delima gently patted the shell of Mothra's egg. Mayu had no problem with them taking a break from the dancing and singing because it was naturally tiring.
"Sometimes, I wonder how Mothra manages to keep being so positive in the face of everything too..." Andida sighed as she propped up her head with one of her arms.
"How come?" Mayu asked. "Is something wrong?"
"Of course there is!" Adinda answered, clearly fed up with the questions she was being asked. "If all of your civilizations could leave us alone, we're sure Mothra would be fine. These days, each of her incarnations keep getting weaker because there's less hope for her to draw from. And we all know who's getting rid of the hope..."
Delima nodded as she chimed in to say something as well, "No matter how hard we pray, she needs a lot more faith than we can provide in order to even hatch."
Mayu raised the eraser on her pencil to her lips as she entered her thoughts. Although she found it educational to hear from the perspective of the priestesses, there was one thing that confused her especially. How could a kaiju get weaker?
To humans like herself, even the weakest kaiju was an unstoppable force of nature. Even though Mayu wasn’t afraid of them, she had to be careful with her positioning whenever she'd study most of the other kaiju. All it would take was one wrong step, and she would have had a reason to truly fear the destruction they were capable of... And those were just the preventable – if obviously fatal – accidents! That wasn’t taking actual, malevolent attacks into consideration either.
Mayu gave a delayed, if slightly baffled response. “Wait, who?”
Adinda raised her head upwards, crossed her arms, and turned away from Mayu "You! Your kind was what brought all of Infant Island into this mess."
"It-- It's not my fault!" Mayu sheepishly – and anxiously – hid her face with her closed notebook. "I knew about what happened to you guys already, but--"
"This is not a matter you can 'but' out of," Andida levitated towards Mayu and lifted the book away from her face. "Everything your higher-ups have done only serves to make our island's magic weaker."
Mayu jaw dropped as she tried to grasp the notebook away from Andida. It didn't work, as the priestess chose to jump downwards with it and back onto the rock Delima and Mothra's egg were on.
"But Adinda, shouldn't we at least explain a bit more about how that works to her?" Delima called out towards her fellow priestess and walked over to where the notebook was laid down.
"I don't trust anyone to know the secrets of the island. All of that should just be between the two of us," Adinda replied. "I don't care how benevolent the researchers say they are; revealing more information about Infant Island to them will only hurt us more in the long-run."
"Firstly, that information isn't meant to be public knowledge; it's for scientific use only," Mayu puffed her face up angrily. "And secondly, I can't leak anything that I document. I write about other kaiju – including gods of other religions – with that thing. Do you think their priests and priestesses would be okay with you guys snooping through my notes either?"
"Bold of you to assume that the civilized world still cares about gods like Mothra beyond fearing them," Adinda levitated the book upwards and skimmed through the notes that Mayu took about other monsters.
"The only reason your civilizations even fear Mothra and Battra is because they're punishments for their actions," Delima explained. "I'm sure they regret turning Infant Island into their testing ground by now, don't they?"
"Considering they resolved that decades ago, I'm sure they have..." Mayu glanced off to the side awkwardly. "Isn't that the reason that Japan and Indonesia have a defensive agreement concerning your island specifically?"
Delima nodded, "Yes, but that doesn't mean its still good for our village overall. Just because we don't have to fear being obliterated by a bomb or kidnapped anymore doesn't mean we don't have problems either. If anything, the presence of both militaries is eroding the faith our people have in Mothra. As her subjects begin to think like the rest of the world, she is unable to draw any of positivity from them. Unless we find another means to gather it, she will just become weaker and weaker."
Mayu tugged on the collar of her shirt as her eyes darted away from the miniature priestesses, and around the rest of the island. It only took her a matter of seconds to see a sight that would have been out of place from the days before Infant Island's discovery. Soldiers from mainland Indonesia.
Physically, they didn't look to different from the priestesses themselves; size not withstanding, of course. The skin of the soldiers glowed similar shades of bronze to that of the Andina and Delina's, and their buzzcuts came in a variety of hair colors that camouflaged them within the trees they were walking past. The brown-and-green patterns on uniforms were far more vibrant than anything Mayu saw on the JSDF's army-men, and they all seemed to be happily joking around with each-other.
Intrigued, Mayu turned her ear towards them and listened in on what they had to say. Although she was capable of understanding their language – a skill that she had to learn for work – , the foliage around the island effectively sound-proofed it. Similarly to how they couldn't hear her talk about Mothra earlier, she couldn’t exactly make out what they were talking about either. If anything, it seemed like small-talk with one or two comments about one of the island's other peculiarities mixed in.
...All of which Adinda and Delima likely understood themselves to begin with. Even if they didn't hear anything from that specific group of soldiers, there was no doubt in Mayu'd mind that they've heard similar things from others like them.
Without anything else to observe, Mayu returned her attention to the priestesses in front of her, "From what I understand, does this mean that Mothra needs faith to survive?"
Both Andida and Delima nodded in response.
"In a way, yes," they spoke together in unison. "Although things might be grim now, there still needs to faith in the Earth's ability to recover. Without optimism, we would only be left with Battra, who feeds on negativity and has no interest in selflessly protecting all of the species on it. If humanity could give our goddess a chance, she would become powerful enough to be Earth’s strongest defender."
Mayu pauses before nodding. From the sound of it, it wasn’t necessarily about religion, but about seeing the brighter side of things and having faith in the natural order of the world. Presumably, Mothra must have been one of many deities that the planet channels on its own, as her priestesses didn't say anything about everyone needing to worship her or Battra specifically.
But how could anyone truly be hopeful about the future with the way it was going? Sea levels were rising. Rocks were sliding more often. Conflicts were escalating to levels that hadn't been seen in decades, and the economies were dropping in a similar way. Combine all of that with the ever-present threat of malevolent – and dubiously benevolent – kaiju, and it was a perfect recipe for worried civilizations. Japan worried about Gojira and Ghidorah. The US worried about Kong, Tiamat and Abaddon, and even mainland Indonesia – not just Infant Island – worried about Battra and Ebirah.
Mayu didn't even want to think about the implications of aliens brainwashing the Earth's kaiju, and then sending them to shores where their militaries aren't equipped to handle that specific monster. That was one worry that was much too out of her field of knowledge to even process!
"I agree with you guys that things aren't great, but is there anyway I can help?" Mayu humbly asked, "For instance, do you need anyone to babysit the egg? Or anyone to bring food over for you two, or--"
"Just believe in Mothra," the two priestesses cut Mayu off. "You have done enough as it is."
With nothing else to say, Andida and Delima snatched up the notebook and tossed it towards Mayu with all their physical might. Mayu flinched a bit, and picked it off of the ground where it fell in front of her. She sighed as she began to pick up the rest of her supplies and stand back up. There didn't seem to be any need for her to stay; Mothra's priestesses didn't enjoy her sitting over the egg alongside them.
However, Mayu couldn’t bring herself to turn away from Mothra entirely. She cared about all of the kaiju, so she was naturally worried about the one who loved humanity back the most.
Mayu scanned the egg for any small differences, small cracks that weren’t there previously came into view. Although they were each a few inches tall in length and didn’t mean much by the scale of a kaiju, it was a small sign that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. Mothra was in there, and it would have only been a matter of time until she hatched again.
A small smile grew across Mayu’s face before it shrunk back into nothing again. As good as she thought the news was, she didn’t want to inspire false hope in Andida and Delima in case it weren’t the case. What she feared most was not Mothra getting worse, but rather, accidentally giving Mothra’s two most-devoted believers a false sense of hope.
Mayu held her notebook tight against her chest as she ventured away from the two priestesses and back towards the rain-forests of Island Island. Mothra always liked to be far from human society when she regenerated, and this time happened to be no exception. It was going to be a long walk back to the outpost the JSDF and her fellow researchers shared, but in Mayu’s eyes, the trip had been worth it just to see how that one kaiju in particular was doing.
She didn’t expect to see anything out of the ordinary on the way back. She never anticipated having to stop for a larger-than-normal butterfly that was crossing her path. Given that it appeared to be only two feet wide, it wasn’t Mothra by any means; yet it intrigued Mayu just as much. Butterflies were considered spirits, or guides to spirits to the underworld. What was one doing not from the never-ending cycle of life and death?
Mayu knew that she had to take a detour. She hid behind the closest assortment of foliage she could find, and watched as the butterfly laid down on the rocks surrounding a small, nearby waterfall. A clear view of it was achieved easily enough, which gave her plenty of time to pull her notebook back out and begin writing about it.
Upon closer inspection, it was not a butterfly, but a moth. More specifically, the Altas Moth, Attacus atlas. Its size and the vivid orange color of its wings with recognizable white and black splotches on them made it somewhat reminiscent of Mothra herself. Not unlike the goddess that it resembled, the moth was very at peace with the world around it. The running water didn’t seem to bother it, nor did Mayu’s own presence.
As Mayu continued to write about it, she remembered something that she read about moths and butterflies specifically while she was doing introductory research for Mothra years ago. About how moths could be messengers that foretold of life and death. Black moths meant that someone was dying, but what did a white moth symbolize? And what about orange ones?
The sound of the waterfall itself had quickly become overshadowed by another one of the songs from Mothra’s priestesses. It was another prayer, and yet, it sounded far more hopeful than their previous performance was. Whatever was happening back there with them was a sign of good news, which made a surprised smile grow across Mayu’s face.
Who knew just how important the little things could truly be?
Notes:
Japan and Indonesia talking about nuclear testing and debating who owns Infant Island is not actual history. It is something I made up for the story to explain the testing on the island that occurred in Godzilla vs Mothra, as well as its recovery by the time of Godzilla vs Ebirah. IRL, the two countries are close with lots of cultural exchange. Hence, their allyship in this fic. It helps that Indonesia was also the location of Infant Island during the Heisei era.
Adinda is named after the story "Saïdjah and Adinda, which is from a larger piece of Dutch literature, *Max Havelaar*. In fact, its a bunch of stories/essays in a story about the exploitation in colonial Indonesia and all of the negative impacts it was having there. (Sort of like how "The Jungle" criticized and drove public attention to working conditions and meat industry around that same time period.) There is literally a part where the author drops the formatting of it even being story, and starts venting about the point of "Max Havelaar" (the work itself, not the character of the same name in it) and that, yes, he wanted people to be outraged and to do something about the mistreatment happening there.
Tell me, doesn't that sound familiar to the themes/message surrounding Infant Island a bit? How the island's magic gets lost more and more throughout the Showa era until Mothra's allowed to return to her island and rest?
That being said, I feel that I should end this A/N on a lighter note. How about I treat you to an Indonesia cover "Koi no Fuga" to end this author note off? Given that it's the song that Mothra's fairies chant in this chapter (and in our world, a song that their original performers had as part of their own careers), I figured I'd provide this as a fun easter egg that may/may not help with imaging their song better.
(Realistically, probably not, but I found it amusing something that specific existed while writing and I wanted to share it.)
Chapter Text
The crustacean kaiju that comes out of the seas to bathe on Infant Island's beautiful, sandy coastline. According to the local islanders that live there, they leave fish for him at rock-like alters to ensue that they'll catch a far more plentiful amount of food for their population.
Although Ebirah is revered, his relationship with them is based on avoidance and keeping a mutual distance. He was never a benevolent deity like their main goddess; he is Hachiman if he not only fed fisherman, but lived under in the sea itself.
Perhaps a comparison to Poseidon would have been more appropriate?
~ 牧島 真優
Mayu struggled to see what was going on in the ocean in front of her. Although the shores of Infant Island remained safe, the saffron-based gas that clouded the air irritated her eyes. The spice's earthy scent mixed with the sweet fragrance of a strange, tropical fruit that was extinct in the wild. She wasn't the only once experiencing it either, as all of her fellow researchers reacted similarly to her. Supposedly, the saffron gas was even worse if one were above the ocean itself.
Despite the discomfort with her current surroundings, Mayu couldn't abandon her responsibilities and flee to safety. It was her job as a zoologist to monitor the monsters in the pacific, and she couldn't let her superiors down. Or herself for that matter, as she cared for the well-being of the monsters more than anything else.
Her vision became clearer as the saffron faded away. There was a battle in the ocean, and Ebirah wasn't even a part of it; he was kept at bay by the clouds of saffron that were still visible over there. Boats from both sides were firing at each-other. Mayu recognized a couple of them that were assigned by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force to monitor the kaiju on the island, as well as a few more from the Indonesian Navy who were stationed there for the island's protection.
"...Of course, The Red Bamboo came back. How are they still active?"
The Red Bamboo were easily identified by their shark-like transport boats. Mayu was never around to see them in their prime; she always assumed that the organization was annihilated off of the map along with the rest of their headquarters on Letchi Island. Apparently, being targeted by both Godzilla and Mothra at the same time did not completely deter them. Stragglers likely existed outside of the island, and it took years for them to eventually rebuild their numbers... Into the small militia that Mayu saw in front of her that day; even then, it was probably just a fraction of their current membership.
The deafening fire of a cannon rippled through the air, which forced Mayu to duck her head away from the battle. Saffron and the scent of Letchi Island’s native fruit returned to the air, as the seas became covered in the same mustard-yellow mist that obscured everything minutes earlier.
Mayu’s frustrated grip tightened around her notes. Although she hadn’t written anything in some time, she struggled to keep the pencil in her hand still. Her rage could barely be contained. If it weren’t for the fact she were just one powerless human being, she would have ventured into the sea like Ebirah would have otherwise. She wanted nothing more than to tear those boats away from each-other, and to rip the steel of the Red Bamboo’s ships apart.
As envious as she was of the crustacean’s tempestuous behavior, it was not something she wanted to encourage; in either herself, or Ebirah. She knew that the kaiju would be fine, as the saffron gas was meant to disarm, annoy, and dissuade him from attacking the humans. That didn’t make her any less ashamed of the armies she was rooting on to win, however, as the weapon (that was being used on both sides) was originally developed by the Red Bamboo themselves.
Deep down, all Mayu hoped was for it to stop soon. Hopefully before Ebirah could catch wise and wreak vengeance onto all of them, including the innocent who were forced to witness the fight itself...
Notes:
This is pretty much just the Godzilla versus The Sea Monster chapter, lol. Aide from borrowing Ebirah's backstory from one of the IDW series, there isn't a lot to say here. Same monsters, same islands, same antagonists. The only thing missing here is Tom Servo and Crow T Robot riffing on it.
...Okay, so I will admit that the fact this chapter is a battle scene made me question if I should have bumped this fic up to a T. I decided against it in the end, as the fight was very distant from where Mayu is, and that the bomb that gets deployed is this fruit-spray thing that's supposed to deter a specific monster from fighting the humans (and with no capabilities that could actually harm either party). Plus, this is still below the "canon-typical violence" levels one would expect from a Godzilla movie in the first place; violence probably doesn't mean much here when we can talk about disasters and death so freely without actually having to show the effects of them, lol.
Chapter Text
An amphibious dinosaur that resides deep within the Pacific Ocean. Even among kaiju, he is notable for having a relaxed temperament.
Kaiju, in their natural state, are like the dinosaurs in movies. The public assumes they like to eat and terrorize people, but many would rather eat fish and leaves in peace.
I have to wonder if Titanosaurus is truly a dinosaur. He has fins, webbed feet, and antennae: features no dinosaur has ever had historically.
Personally, I suspect he might be classified as a Ichthyostega, a late Denovian era creature with fins and legs. It too, lived on sea and land.
The sight of the ocean was one that was all too familiar to Mayu. Although the waters were far more gentle and clear than they were before, the same sense of awe and lowkey dread remained inside of her. Researching kaiju, especially up close and on a boat that risked being capsized at any moment, was always risky. Really, there were only two main differences from before; one of them was the fact she wasn't there to study Gojira that week. The other one was the weather. The sun wasn't hiding behind the clouds that day, with its beams instead being absorbed by the ocean. In a way, it felt like there were two suns with how intense its reflection was, as the heat bouncing off of it was fierce in its own right.
It was certainly warm, to say the least. Almost too warm, as Mayu felt her skin on her forearms start to burn. No amount of sunscreen was enough when one was above the ocean itself. She slowly turned around to look behind her shoulder. Standing behind Mayu was her boss, Admiral Akagawa. He was fully clothed in his own uniform, clad with metals, and a hat that kept the sunlight from blinding his watchful eyes. The weather didn’t seem to be bothering him in the slightest; or anything else at all, for that matter.
Mayu's mouth wavered uncertainly. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to scowl at him in jealously, or just simply be in awe at the fact he was there visiting her at work that day. He was a good leader and had a keen attention to detail; two traits that she respected him immensely for.
"It's hard to believe that a seemingly peaceful creature would change its mind and attack us," Akagawa slowly shook his head.
Mayu nodded back at him, "That's what happens when they get brainwashed. Aliens don't care about these things; they just want weapons that they could easily control and turn against us. They don't care about Titanosaurus as a being, only as a means to an end."
"I can tell that that was the case," Akagawa raised his hand towards the edge of his chin. "From what we've discovered, it wasn't just the invaders from Black Hole Planet 3. They also had someone from here helping them..."
"Here, as in Earth, right?"
"Yes. Not only that, but a marine researcher from the very country we're meant to protect..."
Hearing that only made Mayu less certain. Marine researchers were meant to help the Earth, not turn its creatures against everyone there. What could a marine researcher gain from causing destruction, other than perhaps a taste of misplaced vengeance? As Mayu looked back at Akagawa, she noticed that he seemed a lot more certain about what was happening.
"Have you heard of the name 'Shinzo Mafune'?" Akagawa asked.
"I'm afraid not, sir," Mayu shook her head sideways.
"I figured you haven’t. The validity and ethics of his work had been questioned time and time again... JAMSTEC doesn't like to talk about him."
"Then how do you know he's involved with it?" Mayu blinked, innocent of the navy's own affairs, "...With the aliens, not with JAMSTEC, as I can believe tha--"
"We interrogated him after we found him at the scene of the incident," Akagawa explained. "Is there anything that you'd like the JSDF to ask him on your behalf? You sound rather curious about that guy's credentials..."
Mayu stared off towards the ocean in front of her. Her stomach was about to flip from the sudden nervousness that had developed within her. It wasn't every day that she had a chance to ask questions about science, especially anything that was related the neuroscience of kaiju; a subject that had very little research done on it before. At the same time though, interrogation was merely a method of human-versus-human warfare. Information gained that way would be covered in proverbial blood. And that was assuming that Dr. Mafune wasn't simply going to provide false information to get the JSDF off of his back...
"Well... Uh... Akagawa, sir..." Mayu stumbled over her words as she tried to get her thoughts in order. "Would-- Would they accept questions about how the minds of kaiju work? And if their brain activity is affected by hypnosis like it is with humans? And if so, how would all of that work?"
A fire lit up in Akagawa's eyes. The sight of it nearly sent a chill through Mayu, only to be drowned out by the intense, ocean heat surrounding them both. She had a suspicion that, based on whatever was going through her general's mind, she has asked the right kind of question. (Or at least, one that the JSDF as a whole might have also saw value in.)
Just as quickly as Akagawa's eyes lit up, however, they had faded away. The general tugged on the edge of his sleeve, and nodded back in response, "Yes, those would be fine. I'm sure the JSDF feels the same way about it that you do."
Mayu nodded back. Her mouth pinched itself shut. The confirmation of her own thoughts didn't sit well with her, but, in the very least, she felt it was nice to know that it had gotten approved.
...It's a good thing the JSDF were interested in that too? Right?
Mayu's gaze remained focused on the sea. Titanosaurus was still swimming within it, peacefully and carefree as ever. The memory of recent events surrounding him was made her wonder if those could be prevent from happening again. The aliens that attack the Earth were always countless steps ahead of them in technology... How could the governments and militaries of the world compete with that, short of prying information out of the mouths of those who had helped them?
Surely, it was something that the JSDF would never actually tell her. But she at least hoped to get an answer, if only for the sake of the kaiju and the nature of their existence...
Notes:
JAMSTEC (海洋機構), is a Japanese national research institute that studies marine-earth science and technology. It exists in the real world. Similarly, for any fandom-blind readers that are still here, yes, Black Hole Planet 3 is also the name of a planet in the Showa continuity of films. Planet names are not the G-series's strong suit, and I'm glad that we have better planet naming conventions in the real world. (Although something like "TOI-411 b" probably wouldn't be winning any best-planet-name awards either.)
Anyways, now that we've made it about 2/3rds into the fic, I have an announcement I'd like to make. Namely, that the fic will be going on hiatus so I can work on the remaining chapters without any additional pressure. Don't worry this is not an extended excuse to procrastinate, as two of them are written and the other two exist as fully completed outlines; so there's no reason for me to suddenly ghost the fanfic. That being said, I promise that the wait will be worth it, as that's when the interconnected story elements will really come into play. After all, there is a reason that this chapter is focused a bit more on the human-related end of things. ;D
Chapter Text
A Pterandon that originated from a species that lived under the volcano within Mount Aso. They woke up due the exposure if radioactive material within the area; perhaps from the shores of Kikuchi and onto the soil of neighboring Kumamoto.
I say "they", as those were his parents. The current Radon is their child.
Ever since he was an orphaned egg, Radon had been raised on Monster Island by our loving kaiju researchers. Generally, that is where he lives as well. With that said, he has been known to take flight, and visit the volcano that would have otherwise been his home...
~ 牧島 真優
Summer at the Aso-Kuju National Park was known for being three things; its warmth, its mostly cloudy skies, and its muggy air that was almost inescapable.
Mayu shielded her eyes with her hand. It did nothing to deflect the glare of the sun that hit the lenses of her glasses. She could barely see Mount Aso in the distance, as it looked more like a brown blur against a sharp reflection of white. Although the skies weren't very cloudy that day, she certainly felt how warm and muggy the aura around her was...
It was a typical summer day for Aso-Kuju.
Mount Aso was the volcano she came there to see. It had been known to erupt occasionally. From what she had heard, it has done so nine times within the last fifty years; with the previous year having been one of them. Only once, however, did those eruptions have anything to do with the monsters she studied. More specifically, the eruption in 1956 ended with the deaths of two giant pteradons. If another incident like that had happened before, it certainly existed in the times before there were humans to document it.
Even then, sixty years ago was quite awhile back in and of itself.
Mayu kept her eyes on Mount Aso as she observed it from a distance. Nearby Mount Nakadake was closed due to the volcanic gases it was emitting; a sign that something was certainly off about it that day, which was partially related to her own reason for being there. She looked up towards the sky, and smiled at the sight of Radon overhead. With a steep, graceful dive, the pteradon circled around the volcano and towards the ground. His head rotated separately from his body as he seemingly scouted the area. Seeing that nothing was there was what made Radon finally lower his talons onto the beige dirt below.
There was no time to waste! Mayu whipped open her notebook and wrote down what she saw as fast as she could. By the time she raised her head away from her notes, Radon's wings had already drooped; the rest of his posture followed it afterwards. A weak cry came out of his beak as he looked around, only for his neck to slump down once he realized there was nothing there. He then spread his wings, and took the skies again, and resumed circling the volcano like he had done before.
Was Radon there to mourn his parents? A thoughtful frown formed on Mayu’s face as she looked towards the sky and slowly nodded back to him.
Kaiju were capable of love. It's certainly reasonable that they were capable of mourning their loved ones too.
Notes:
As it turns out, my break ended up only being a few weeks. A strong push of motivation towards the end really helped with that. So I guess I'm back now, lol.
Chapter Text
A robot created by the renowned roboticist, Ibuki Goro. Reasons for his existence are unknown; most likely meant to be a companion.
Jet can grow from the size of man to that of Japan's towering kaiju. He has been known to fight alongside them, but his track record in battle is lackluster. For starters, it's doubtful that Jet's inner workings can withstand the damage kaiju like Gigan and Megalon dish out. Saw-blades and lightning were never the friends of electronics.
According to Admiral Akagawa, Jet has developed a mind of his own. His creator insists otherwise. I'm unsure who to believe.
~ 牧島 真優
Gears buzzed and lights flickered all around Mayu. She stood in a house that was covered wall to ceiling with technology; one that was none other than the residence of Jet Jaguar and his creator. She glanced around the room in search of someone to talk to. It only took a few seconds to release that Jet was there with her, although he seemed far more preoccupied with the simple chores he had been assigned. Even if he could have spoken to her directly, it was evident that he was so focused on his work that he couldn't provide any deep commentary for her.
Mayu sighed and held her closed notebook against her chest. What was Akagawa thinking when he sent her to write about Jet? Robotics was far from her area of expertise!
All she knew was she questioned Akagawa about it before he left. He said, "if it could reach hundreds of feet and stand toe-to-toe with other kaiju, then it too, counted as a kaiju."
So much for carefully categorizing all of kaiju by their original phyla, classes, and orders...
Mayu shook her head sideways, defeated by how things had turned out. Although she still respected her Admiral highly, she also questioned a lot of the decisions he had made recently. She heard that nearly every sub-branch and outpost that connections to the JSDF's navy already had a story or two about him, and none of them were good. Not necessarily scandal-worthy or apocalyptically-bad, just small conversations and tasks that were causing a fair amount of eyebrows to be raised from within the army’s lower ranks.
In her own case, she was certainly getting frustrated about her current assignment. She went into zoology; the study of animals. Finding whatever was that made Jet Jaguar tick was a better task for an engineer, or another roboticist. Anybody but her, really...
At the same time, however, Mayu knew that the job was expected of her. Sure, it was not one that she expected herself to do easily; but what was she going to tell Akagawa later? That she couldn't do it? That she wasn't qualified to do her assignment?
If anything, she was tempted to just to lie to her admiral and tell him that Jet Jaguar had the physiology and psychology of an actual jaguar. Certainly he'd accept that, right?
Instead, she forced back a further sigh of frustration and continued to think some more. The only thing she knew that she could do was interview Goro about him and hoped that he could tell her everything that Akagawa wanted to hear. Luckily, he was nearby her tinkering on another robot; a smaller model with a frame like Jet's, green plating, and frizzy, white hair.
Dr. Ibuki certainly had an interesting way of designing robots... Both of Goro's models were bulky in posture, and, in Mayu's opinion, notably tacky looking as well. At the same time, appearances weren't everything; there were a lot of questions on her mind, and all of them related to what Jet was capable of.
“How tall can Jet Jaguar grow?” Mayu asked from afar. "I know he can grow to the size of other kaiju, but certainly there have to be heights that he can't reach... Does his weight similarly change alongside his size? You built him, so surely you would have copy of his specs lying around."
"If I handed them over to you, you wouldn't find the answers you're looking for," Goro lifted his head away from the robot he was working on. "The truth of the matter is that I don't know how those powers of his work. I never intended for him to become a giant. If anything, you should try squaring his height a few times; then you'll get what you're looking for..."
Mayu's eyebrows creased together. She didn't think that was a particularly helpful answer. She silently shook her head as she summarized what Goro told her in her notebook.
"Height: Jet Jaguar to the power of Jet Jaguar. Possibly cubed."
She glanced up from her notes and back at Goro. "You seem awfully uncertain about your own creation."
"That's not entirely true," Goro shook his head. "I know a lot about all of my creations. However, that doesn't mean I understand every last thing about them. There are aspects of Jet that I can't seem to explain myself..."
"How is that possible, Dr. Ibuki?" Mayu raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the one who created him. I'd expect you to know Jet better than anyone else."
Out of all the fields of science, Mayu had a hunch that robotics was one of the most certain; one of the ones that not only ran on logic, but one that was easy to explain as well. Robots were a work of engineering. They were meant to be constructed with every last detail in mind. Sometimes, she was even convinced robotics wasn't a science as much as it was a kind of mathematics. And mathematics is even more certain that engineering itself could ever be.
Needless to say, the idea that someone couldn't understand their own robot’s specs confused her immensely.
"Sometimes, it just happens." Goro sighed. "I can't test every single bug that crops up in their programming. If this was some kind of accident on my end, then it was certainly a happy one."
Mayu stared at him blankly. "You mean you don't beta test--"
"Oh, don't worry. I test him," Goro cut her off with a laugh. "I make sure he can do the tasks he's intended to do just fine. I just don't have a reliable way to test him against other kaiju; especially when he thinks that he's one of them."
Mayu felt her mouth scrunch inwards as she turned away from Goro in disbelief. She shook her head silently and looked over at where Jet Jaguar stood. She couldn't believe that he "thinks he's a kaiju". He clearly had a human level of sapience; a trait that was non-existent with them if one didn't take external communicators like Mothra's priestesses into consideration.
It was clear that Jet Jaguar liked to keep himself busy. Sometimes, he swept through the room with a broom in his hand, while at other times, he organized the shelves nearby after Goro pulled a book or two off of them to reference. Despite the sharp angles of his design, the grin on Jet's face remained welcoming and dopey the entire time. Mayu wanted to even smile back at him, until she remembered that it was always fixed that way and wouldn't have amounted to anything. That was because Jet had no real way of articulating his mouth. Whenever he spoke, the lights built into his teeth would have glowed with his voice. Given that he was a rather silent robot, that rarely happened at all. Getting anything from him directly might as well have been impossible.
As far as Mayu knew, everything that Jet had ever said were simple statements. Statements that were meant to be commands for himself and the other kaiju; not that they ever understood him, of course, but it was the thought that counted. Statements that were meant to evacuate humans from a disaster or upcoming attack. But not statements about his own existence or how he came to be. That was truly going to remain a mystery.
Mayu glanced up from her notes again, only to see that Jet had stopped next to Goro and his desk.
"Shouldn't you be working, Jet?" Goro raised an eyebrow at his creation.
Jet stared back at him blankly. Or at least, as blankly as a robot with permanently furrowed eyebrows could. The only sounds that came out of him were the soft humming of his internal machinery.
"Come on, Jet, guests are here." Goro narrowed his eyes at him. "I want them to see what you're capable of."
Yet, nothing happened. Jet continued to look directly at Goro, only to shrug him off a second later. As the robot began to head towards the part of the room Mayu stood at, Goro slumped over his desk and caught his own head with his hands.
A shiver went down Mayu's neck. "Are you sure he doesn't have free will?"
"No." Goro let out a long, aggravated groan."Jet doesn't have free will... Why do you keep asking that?"
"When you put it that way, that is a good question," Mayu mumbled to herself as she wrote down what she suspected was going to be Goro's final answer.
Mayu's eyes returned over towards Jet. He stood in front of the window that was next to them both, and silently readjusted the blinds on it to let in more of the dim, evening sun. She couldn't help but wonder if he was truly aware of the time it was, or if he were just running on an internal clock that had specific commands for each hour. Yet, before she was able to able to write off his behavior as being purely tied to his programming, a strange beep came out of Jet as he continued to stare outside.
"Before you ask, that's not a warning," Goro spoke up. "He just likes to talk to himself. Otherwise, he'd be talking to us directly in Japanese, instead than to himself in bleep-boop."
Mayu simply stepped away from the window to get the perfect distance to obverse what Jet was doing. The robot was merely looking out the window with his hands behind him back, and seemingly contemplating... Something. Mayu wasn't sure what, but she had a feeling it wasn't something he was going to say out loud.
Carefully, Mayu made her way over to the window and stood next to Jet. Her eyebrows arched inwards as she raised her hand towards her chin to think about what was happening further.
Everything she had been seeing seemed too weird to merely be a coincidence. There was no doubt to her that Jet was just as alive as an any other kaiju and had as much will to show for it. After all, it wasn't like anyone could control nature either.
The same thing might as well have applied to advanced robotics; especially ones that might have hearts made of literal gold.
Notes:
For my own amusement, I snuck one of my non-fandom OCs as an easter egg in this chapter; namely, as the smaller robot Goro Ibuki is working on. If the naming conventions for Jet Jaguar were anything to go by, that version of said OC would probably end up being "Green Together" or "Strength Lion(ess)", or hell, probably even "Mecha-Frankenstein" given her own design inspirations. (Which is also a hint about the remaining two chapters, wink wink nudge nudge.)
But yes, I love robots and love exploring in my fics; primarily within my Mega Man ones, but I'll take what I can get. As a result, this chapter was one of the chapters I was looking forward to writing most while I was working on Monsters at Peacetime. Looking at it now, I’d still agree that it’s one of my favorites alongside Mothra’s chapter.
Chapter 10: サンダ + ガイラ(Sanda and Gaira)
Chapter Text
The twin sons of Frakenstein. Kaiju made in humanity's likeness with the hearts and size of true giants.
Sanda originates from the mountains, with light brown fur and scales that match the terrain. Gaira's from the sea, with long green fur that drifts like seaweed when he swims.
Although Frankenstein has been dead for nearly a century, both of them apresently reside on Monster Island. They're recent additions who had been found wandering the Earth.
Gaira is rarely by his brother's side, but doesn't seem to trust the humans here around Sanda either. We wish both could trust us on their own terms.
~ 牧島 真優
Mayu shivered as she watched a fight break out in front of her. Although she was at a safe distance from all three of the kaiju involved, she could help but wince at the way Gabara kicked the dirt around while he tried to tackle Sanda. It wasn't only because Gabara was notorious for picking fights with the other kaiju who resided on the island, but also from a twinge secondhand embarrassment for him.
What could he possibly be trying to achieve by tossing sand at a monster that might have been literally made out of it?
Gabara hurried back towards Sanda as soon as he started to flee. Before the green, goblin-like kaiju had a chance to pounce, Gaira had snuck up behind him and restrained Gabara by his arms. Mayu winced as a hyena-like series of cries came out of Gabara while he struggled away from Gaira's grip. Although the sounds of kaiju were always interesting to listen to, they also tended to hurt the ears of anyone near by from their sheer volume.
The cries were drowned out shortly afterwards by Gaira's low, guttural growling. Once a gap of quietness occurred between the two, Mayu looked back up, only to see the fight was still occurring. Gaira had started fiercely striking at Gabara from within his hold. As sorry as Mayu might have felt for Gabara as a victim of the other brother’s rage, she ultimately couldn't allow herself to feel that sympathetic to him. Gabara always had a tendency to "dig his own grave" when it came to picking fights with the others.
However, him getting into another fight was no what concerned Mayu. Rather, it was the fact that Gaira had not changed much over the entire year that he had been on Monster Island. Nearly all of the fights he had been in sparked over Sanda; the brother he was fiercely protective of. So much so, that Sanda never really had a chance to adjust to life on the island either. Anytime he tried to get close to the human researchers – or even other kaiju – it wasn't long until Gaira was the to lash out at anyone there.
Unsurprisingly, those fights never ended well. She and the other researchers there regularly needed to retreat, head back to the drawing board, and switch up their approaches to reach out to Sanda another day. And fights? There was a reason that Gaira had a similar reputation to that of Gabara's when it came to relations on the island...
At her size, Mayu knew that there wasn't much that could have been done about the fight. She couldn't break it up, or fight off any of the kaiju from each-other. All she could do was look down at her notes. As she opened them back up, she smiled at everything she had written down about Sanda and Gaira so far.
It was nice to visit the kaiju on her own terms for once. She was there on her own accord; she wasn't bound to any of Akagawa's tasks or his questionable judgment. Rather, she was there because the story that followed Sanda and Gaira to Monster Island spoke to her.
...Or technically, the story of Frankenstein himself; it was certainly not a short one.
Mayu's smile faded as she looked back up at Sanda and Gaira. Although neither of them could be described as "human" in terms of their appearance, there was no doubt that both of their faces resembled that of their father's. Even looking at them from a distance reminded Mayu of the black and white photos everyone had taken of Frankenstein back when he was alive.
The main difference between Frankenstein and his descendants, however, was that they were closer to nature than he ever was. While Sanda was formed from the soil, and Gaira was formed in the sea, Frankenstein himself was a marvel of science; an accomplishment of humanity. An immortal man who could endlessly come back to life.
Mayu's heart sunk as she remembered just how cyclical time truly was. Frankenstein predated Godzilla by nearly a hundred years. The same could be said of many other kaiju that she had become acquainted with; Rodan, Angurius, Kamacuras, and even Jet Jaguar. Really, the only kaiju that Mayu knew was created by humanity before Frankenstein was Battra, and even then, that was only because he was formed by the Earth to serve as a wrathful God. Despite all of that, all of them kept on living. Frankenstein was just merely the first case of that happening.
The earth started to shake. Mayu's thoughts vanished out of her mind like smoke as she tried to keep herself standing. Although the source of it was only from the kaiju themselves, it reminded her of the way Frankenstein's story ended. The Earth reclaimed him in the only way it knew how to.
Her reflexes were still as sharp as they were against any other approaching kaiju. She clutched onto her notebook tightly as she sprinted her way towards an increasingly stable ground. A sigh of relief came out of her as when she finally looked up, there were no cracks on the ground to be seen from the direction she had fled from.
They were just fighting Gabara. Not Baragon, or anyone else capable of tunneling through the Earth. At the same time, though, a fight between kaiju is no place to stick around. A sense of dread began to grow in Mayu as she ventured farther and farther from the fight.
The kaiju themselves weren't what scared her, but rather, it was what made them the way they were. The real monsters behind their creations.
Her legs became heavy. She had slowed down tremendously. A conversation she had before with Andida and Delima began to replay through her mind; its subject matter as relevant as ever.
She remembered what they had said about Battra. She remembered how they mentioned that nature liked to regenerate itself, even in the face of mankind's worst mistakes. She remembered that the two sides of nature – its kindness and brutality – liked to come together as one in order to regain a sense of harmony.
And most importantly, she remembered how they said that nature could be cruel and uncaring, but it ultimately cared for every life that ever lived on it.
Once Mayu had stopped moving entirely, she turned past her shoulder and looked at Sanda and Gaira one last time. Not only was she at a safer distance to do it again, but the fight had ended too; nothing made that more clear than a fuzzy glimpse of Gabara fleeing from them in a panic. Instead, Sanda was now tending to Gaira's wounds, as they both sat down to rest.
Her heart had become warm. Even through science and all of mishaps they had been through, it was easy to forget that they both had some humanity to them. Granted, humans that had been dead for over a hundred years, but was still a form of humanity. Whether it was nature or humanity that preservers in the end, there always seems to be a speck of brightness at the end of a very, very dark ride.
All she could hope for was, that if darkness and tragedy returned to the world, she would at least live to see the smallest glimmers of nature and hope once it could recover.
Chapter 11: 機龍 (Kiryu)
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
A beast made of steel. The JSDF has created him with the goal of monitoring the seas for threats; extraterrestrial and otherwise.
Kiryu is not only a marvel of robotics and engineering, but the JSDF considers him their "shining diamond"; the pride of the navy. How that's connected to "self-defense" is anyone's guess.
The way they accomplished this was by building the mecha over the skeleton of the first Gojira as an internal support structure. His spirit is likely bounded to the mortal realm again by iron and blood.
I worry about the repercussions of this. Shouldn't he be allowed to rest peacefully?
~ 牧島 真優
Mayu found it challenging to concentrate on the inactive kaiju in front of her. Although he would have towered above her normally, she was more than a few stories off of the ground and was viewing him from a balcony within the navy's hangar. Three stories upwards wasn't enough to truly appreciate Kiryu's imposing force. She knew she would have been using the term "appreciate" rather loosely in her current situation, as she was more terrified of how he came to be than anything else.
In a move that was against her better judgment, Mayu leaned over the balcony's rails to see how Kiryu was progressing. The bones of the original Gojira were encased around a maze of metal that served as his new organs. Layers of armor, made of the strongest alloys known to man, were being secured around him with drills and cranes. Even the inactive yellow lights in place of his eyes haunted her from where she could see them. How was a mecha developing red scars below his eyes already?
Mayu peeled herself away from the railing and back onto the platform she stood on. Behind her was not only the all-to-familiar face of Admiral Akagawa, but a woman clad in a red jumpsuit that she had never seen before in her life. Mayu had a suspicion that she was the "supervisor from a leading international expert in mecha assembly" that Akagawa talked about hiring for the project.
Admiral Akagawa bowed once both of their pairs of eyes were on him. "I'd like to thank you both for your contributions to Kiryu's development."
Mayu nearly recoiled. She only caught herself at the last moment before anyone else could have seen her true reaction. Her wide eyes twitched as she glanced over at the other woman, who merely nodded back at her. With her icy, golden eyes, and sly fox-like grin, "the supervisor" was nearly as intimidating as Kiryu himself.
Why would a stranger ever feel the same way she did about what was happening? Mayu couldn't help but feel like an idiot for looking over at her in the first place.
"Thank you, Admiral, for giving me the opportunity to do so," the woman bowed back at him. "I'm sure Kiryu would agree with you; his internal processors and memory system are coming along great. However, I will need some assistance integrating Gojira's DNA into it, so that everything can truly be stabilized. Right now, he's like a shell without a ghost."
As soon as she had finished speaking, the woman closed her eyes and brushed loose strands of her long orange hair past her shoulder. She then glanced back over at Mayu again, almost as though she were expecting her to agree to that plan at all.
"You've studied DNA before, haven't you?" Akagawa turned his head over towards Mayu.
"I have," Mayu reluctantly nodded. "But, no-- Not like this..."
What ever happened to being a researcher for the good of both humanity and nature? It was a task she wanted to avoid with every last atom in her body. Yet, unfortunately, both her job and her family's long-standing connections to the JSDF depended on it.
Andida and Delima were right to doubt her. All of the information she gathered was meant to stay as classified information. It wasn't meant to be misused for the navy's own personal gains.
"Yes, sir," Mayu choked out. She hoped that it would be enough to get Akagawa off of her case. If it weren't, his bosses would have made it their new goal to make her work-life hell. Legally-speaking, they couldn't fire her; in Japan, it was more customary to drive somebody to snap and make them quit from where they were working.
The last acknowledgment Admiral Akagawa gave Mayu was a nod. As he walked away, she was left alone with the other woman; both of them in front of Kiryu, and with nothing to say to each-other.
Needless to say, she was absolutely nervous about what was supposed to happen.
"You can just call me Hanabi," the woman said casually. Unlike Mayu, she didn't seem bothered by the implications of their own actions.
"Isn't that informal?" Mayu raised an eyebrow at her.
"That’s because tech isn't formal," Hanabi shook her head sideways. "It's countless nights slaving away at a computer and working on crunch time. I'm supervising the whole team, and even I'm not immune to it. Building a robot together is tough work."
Mayu felt her stomach flip. What Hanabi described sounded awful; yet, it didn't seem to bother her too much. She was able to see some similarities to how Goro Ibuki viewed his own work in that field, which only served to make her more anxious. If there was one thing Mayu remembered about Goro above all else, it was that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. How could someone "not know" how they programmed free will into their own creation?
"Now that I've explained what I do, what's life as a kaiju researcher like?" Hanabi relaxed her arms behind her head.
"I'm a kaiju-zoologist," Mayu held her notebook close to her chest.
"Gee, I didn't realize you had such a fancy title..."
"I study monsters," Mayu answered as simply as she could. "It's my job to not only document everything about their lives, but to make sure humanity is treating them fairly as well. I do not get the impression that we are doing that currently."
"That sounds cool," Hanabi nodded back at her. "So, uh, how exactly would I let Kiryu know that? As far as I know, we're treating him pretty fairly. Sometimes, we'll even program him some fish to eat. Doesn't every Gojirasaurus like fish?"
Mayu pushed her glasses against the bridge of her nose, and sighed. "He has a right to be left alone. He probably doesn't care how many fish you offer him; if he doesn't have a stomach, he can't truly enjoy them."
"We'll program a stomach into him if it's that big of an issue."
"You don't get where I'm coming from. We shouldn't be bringing kaiju back from the dead."
"That doesn't stop Mothra," Hanabi pointed out. "Heck, hasn't that second Gojira done the same thing a few times too? And what about Frankenstein?"
"The second Godzilla isn't anything like the first," Mayu narrowed her eyes at Hanabi. "We should not be messing around with a force of nature that terrifying. We don't know what kind of repercussions would be in store for us..."
"It's been seventy years, Makishima," Hanabi squinted at the kanji written on the front of Mayu's notebook. "Things have changed a lot since them. I'm sure Gojira had come to terms with it in the meantime."
"Don't you believe in the afterlife?" Mayu asked, concerned with the way Hanabi was reacting to all of her questions. " Reincarnation? The way time keeps repeating itself in cycles?"
"Does it matter?" Hanabi shrugged away all of Mayu's questions.
"Yes it does," Mayu stormed towards her. "Everyone's lives depend on it!"
The pressure on Mayu's lungs had become too much for her to bear. As she breathed in and out as hard as she could, she noticed that Hanabi had backed away from her uncomfortably. Her eyes were darting around the hangar as though she didn't want to stay there for any longer than she needed to.
A flash of self-awareness was what made Mayu catch herself again. "I-- Do you mind if I leave for a bit?"
"Sure," Hanabi shrugged again, only with her shoulders the second time around.
Mayu weakly nodded and sprinted away from Hanabi as fast as she could. It took some time for the balcony to fade away, but once it did, she knew she had the long, deep corridors of the rest of the hangar to look forward to. Whether that meant taking a break in them, or simply getting lost, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she wanted to get there.
"Hey, Makishima!" By the time Hanabi had called for her again, her boisterous voice had become very quiet. "When will you be able to help me with that AI chip?"
Mayu was too far away to answer that question. Although she knew running away from her problems wouldn't solve them, she knew no good would have came from her running back towards them either; even if was just to say "soon". Her heart was pounding hard against her chest, and she was desperately trying to swim through a current of her own dread.
The white suit of her Admiral in the distance felt like a light at the end of a tunnel. Mayu forced herself to a stop as she approached him. She still had some adrenaline within her from running, but instead of continuing to run, she narrowed her eyes at him instead.
"Why the hell did you approve a project like this?"
"Firstly, you need to mind your manners," Akagawa looked down at Mayu, who had leaned in towards herself to breath. "It's rude to address your your superiors like that."
Mayu glanced back up at him. Her eyes were narrowed with rage, and she pinched her lips shut as she waited for him to continue.
"Kiryu is a project of desperation. I'm not sure if you've noticed this lately, but more extraterrestrial threats have been landing on Earth. Not only that, but more terrestrial monsters have also been getting brainwashed, and even our own titans like our current Gojira can't keep up with them. A second Gojira would be just as good as a first to have around. Could you name a better way to do that than resurrecting his corpse?"
"Well, for starters, We shouldn't be messing with the state of life and death like it means nothing," Mayu objected. "Every time mankind plays God, the monsters on Earth punish us for doing it!"
Akagawa only laughed in response. "You don't need to worry about what we're doing. All stages of Kiryu's creation are being heavily supervised. That would include you and your efforts, as you're one of our best researchers. All of the love and care you have put towards them has resulted in high-quality resources for the rest of us to use on him."
It was that exact moment that Mayu's heart had cracked into two. Her shoulders fell, and she had barely managed to catch her head with her hands. Everything she had done was ultimately for nothing. Worse than nothing, in fact; to the active detriment to the world.
"It's our best chance of getting things under control," Akagawa lowered his hand onto Mayu's shoulder. It was frigid to the touch.
"Everything will be fine, with or without your help. It's your choice if you wish to stick around, or spend time in an empty office with a paycheck and nothing to write about. Besides, a mech like Kiryu is too important to pass up. If we ever get dragged into war with another country, we can harvest the power of kaiju ourselves and use it to our advantage."
Akagawa's laughter became increasingly distant. By the time it had dissipated, Mayu had ran as far away from him as her exhausted legs could take her.
Was this what her work was leading to? More needless destruction, rather than peace? And in the careless hands rather than trusted ones like she had hoped?
Mayu pulled her head up and leaned against the closest wall she could find. She was unsure what to do with herself anymore. Maybe, just maybe, she could gather her thoughts while she was still there.
The feeling of the cold notebook against her chest weakly sparked an idea in her mind. As she skimmed through it to ruminate on what it was, a drastic possibility grew within her; one that she was unsure of even wanting to do.
It was all confidential military information. Should she leak her notes to the public, especially the ones about Kiryu? The public should have a right to know what the JSDF was planning.
It was not a possibility that Mayu liked. She had already betrayed everyone else: it was a miracle that Akagawa even let her keep the notes at all. The faces of everyone she had interviewed and interacted with flashed through her mind as she continued to think about it.
Not only were Mothra's priestesses already cynical of her intentions, it was incredibly likely the others would end up feeling the same way about her too. The image of Yasuda's wise old smile fading as Varan's village was dragged into war wasn't a pleasant one. Likewise, she had a feeling that Goro Ibuki was ready to jump into a lawsuit about Jet Jaguar's schematics being plagiarized at any moment. And if she were to do that, she was absolutely certain it would hurt Mothra's chances of coming back.
All Mayu knew was that none of them would have ever approved of the true plans that the JSDF had in store for her notes.
She was willing to stand on a podium for all of Japan to see; to apologize for what she had done, and for what she wanted to do next. She wanted it to be loud and clear enough that even Gojira and Kiryu could understand what she would have wanted to say. Even a little Indonesian television coverage wouldn't have hurt.
Mayu closed her notes and glanced over at the glowing, digital map on the wall across from her. Earth and its continents were a soft, calming blue; yet the flashing red dots all over the world were what caught her eye. If there was one thing Akagawa was right about, it was that there was more kaiju activity on the military's radar than there ever was before. Even some human-versus-human conflicts were being picked up by them due to how destructive they were.
The world was already heading to hell. She had nothing more to lose.
Things are already looking bad and unavoidable. It still wasn't wasn't too late to try and turn things around. Starting with the potential impact that Kiryu would have...
Notes:
And so, Mayu releases all of her notes and basically recreates the ending of Watchmen. It never goes well when you drop critical paperwork like that in the face of Armageddon. Never go full Rorschach if you can help it, lol.
Anyways, I'd like to thanks for reading, and sorry about not warning you guys for the story's downer ending sooner. I added that tag in when Rodan's chapter went up, but with how quickly the story had been finished after the first batch of chapters, I should have just added it from the beginning. ^^"
Monsters at Peacetime was a very interesting fic to work on. Not only was it different from what I usually write, it was also one of the fics that I had a blast researching for; from science to little tours of Japan, there was never a dull concept for a chapter. That being said, I'm sure it won't be the last time I ever write about Godzilla and his friends, but... If I had to guess, it might be awhile, given it's not a fandom I'm super-active in. (Hopefully, whenever that day arrives, I'll even sneak Mayu somewhere within that fic's human cast as a little easter egg to you guys. After all, you guys have been some of the most dedicated readers I've ever had!)
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