The Daini-Gen'you-Maru was in trouble.
The Japanese cargo ship was caught in a storm of unbelievable strength. The vessel swayed from side to side, dipped from back to front, sloshing water high over the rails, forcing her crew inside lest they be swept away. Only the captain braved the slippery deck, staggering from the cabin to the bridge, his death grip on the slippery rail just barely keeping him upright.
The captain burst into the bridge; even after slamming the door behind him, the deafening cries of the storm forced him to raise his voice. "What's our position?"
"I don't know!" shouted their navigator. "The radar and the compass are both messing up!"
"What? How?"
"I don't know what's wrong, but look!"
The radar screen was pure static, while the compass tilted chaotically in every direction.
The navigator trembled anxiously. "We could be hundreds of kilometers off course for all we know!"
The captain seized the radio transmitter. "Mayday, mayday! This is the Daini-Gen'you-Maru! Does anybody copy? We're in a lot of trouble!"
Suddenly, the ship gave a violent jolt.
"Hey!" the captain shouted at the helmsman. "Keep it under control!"
"It's not me, cap! I'd need arms like Godzilla to turn the rudder a centimeter in these waters!"
The ship jolted again, this time throwing the captain and his crew to the cabin floor. Only the helmsman remained upright, clinging to the tiller, so he was the first to see their visitor, and reacted with a terrified cry: "Kaiju!"
The cabin window was smashed wide open a moment later by a colossal tentacle, which seized the helmsman mid-yell. He clung to his tiller for dear life, crying out in pain as the tentacle tightened. The captain drew his revolver and emptied it into the slimy appendage, while the navigator seized a nearby fire axe and chopped away with all of his might. The tentacle dropped its captive to the floor and shrank back out the window, leaving a trail of clear fluid that gave off vapors and a hissing sound but no odor. As the captain quickly reloaded his gun, the navigator hurried to the helmsman's side.
"How is he?" asked the captain urgently, pointing his out the window.
"He's alive! Weird; his arms looked burnt but he's cold all over."
The captain noticed a faint layer of frost on the side windows, as well as chunks of ice in the water on the floor.
A huge dark mass with glowing yellow eyes emerged at the front of the ship, and two more tentacles reached toward the crew on the bridge. The captain got off only two shots before being knocked to the floor. The navigator seized the tiller with one hand while holding onto his unconscious crewmate with the other as the nefarious feelers crept toward them. Lightning momentarily made the stormy sky as clear as day, allowing the navigator a brief glimpse of the fully-illuminated visage of a monstrous cephalopod. He shut his eyes and fearfully muttered a final prayer.
But the light did not fade. Instead, it grew brighter, to the point that the navigator could see it through his closed eyelids. Presently as he was not taken by the tentacles, he nervously opened one eye. The sea monster had disappeared, and overhead was a luminous being, emitting a powerful white glow that pierced the darkness of the storm. As preposterous as it seemed, the navigator thought he could hear a choir of angelic female voices, chanting sweetly, "Mothra, oh, Mothra!"
Kumi Honda awoke with a start and sat straight up in her bed. She was trembling; in fact, the whole room seemed to tremble for a few moments before becoming motionless again. Anxiously, she reached through the dark for the lamp on her nightstand but did not feel it there. She held her hand out toward the chest of drawers she knew to be on the opposite side of the room. A heavy object slid into her grasp – the flashlight she kept atop that chest. She turned it on and groaned as she surveyed her bedroom.
Everything was a mess! The chest of drawers had opened up and scattered her clothes around the room. Her writing desk had tipped over, dropping its contents to the floor: her notes, pencils, her alarm clock, and the telephone, from which she could just faintly here the dial tone droning on. Fortunately, her bookcase had stayed mostly intact, but a few books had fallen out and a framed picture of her parents lay face down on the floor. With an exasperated sigh, Honda concentrated on the picture; it lifted itself off the floor and replaced itself on the bookcase. Miraculously, the glass had not shattered. She repeated the process with other objects on the floor, lifting them with her mind and putting them back in place.
A few months prior, she fought a psychic battle with the alien computer M11. During the struggle, Honda discovered that she possessed telekinetic powers. In the time since, these new powers, as well as the telepathy she already knew she possessed, had intensified; she could now hear the thoughts of people around her, and sometimes her room shook when she dreamed.
And what peculiar dreams they were! Similar to an incident that transpired after her first encounter with M11, she had recurring dreams in the form of distorted, seemingly unconnected imagery. The four most common images were a craggy beach, a mushroom cloud, something bursting up from the ground, and a curious symbol: a gold square cross with curved white lines radiating out, encompassed in a golden circle, all emitting a soft glow. Though Honda could not determine the significance of the symbol, she had an idea as to what the beach and the cloud meant.
M11 had suggested that Honda might not be as human as she had always thought. Not knowing whether to believe the machine or not, she turned to a certain companion with whom she shared a psychic bond; he told her that she should go to the Adona Islands for answers. Perhaps the beach was from one of the islands, where several years before an atomic bomb had been detonated.
But even setting aside her doubt that anyone would believe her story, she could scarcely conceive that she could get approval for an expedition to the Adonas. Torn between this knowledge, her fear of her secret getting out, and her strong drive to discover the truth, on top of the strain from her powers escalating beyond her control, she became so exasperated that she had taken a leave of absence from Project G, citing fatigue and emotional distress.
She was now back in her little Tokyo apartment, seldom going out into public or interacting with anyone. When there were other people around, sometimes her mind wandered and she would begin to sense their thoughts; she could not filter their thoughts out once it began, and soon the stimulus would be overwhelming. It became so bad that she had a week ago made a late-night shopping trip and picked up as much non-perishable food as she could take home with her, creating a stockpile so she could stay indoors and alone for however long she needed. None of this actually made the process any easier, as being alone with her own worries and paranoia only permitted them to be more persistent and intrusive.
After about fifteen minutes, Honda had finished picking up around the room and laid back down in bed. Between the blinds of her window, she could just barely see that the night sky had taken on a subtle blue light; only an hour or so remained until dawn. She rolled to face the opposite wall and closed her eyes. The time did not make much difference. She had no plans for the day.
Sleep proved allusive for a while. Honda felt lonelier on this night than usual and decided to test her powers. There was an island thousands of kilometers away where an old friend who shared her telepathic gift lay sleeping, and she attempted to contact him. She concentrated hard, pushing through the bombardment of brain waves from seemingly everyone between them until she could sense him.
"Godzilla-san! Are you awake?"
Friend Honda! You've come back?
"Not yet. My powers are growing. It hurts and it scares me."
I am sorry that you are hurting. In time you will control your powers.
"You said that before and I'm still not so sure, but thank you for the encouragement. Say, I wanted to ask you again about the islands. Can you tell me more about them?"
The Wise Ones live on the islands. They rule the creatures, the plants, and the land. The Wise Ones feel the Earth and can tell you all.
"And who are these 'Wise Ones'?"
They are the Wise Ones.
"But who are they?"
The Wise Ones. If you want to know more, you must talk to them yourself.
Honda sighed. Godzilla was exceptionally intelligent for a nonhuman animal, but his capacity for complex thought fell somewhat short nevertheless. She resigned herself to the idea that she had obtained all of the information from him that he could give her.
"Oh, well. Have you had any exciting adventures lately?"
No.
"Really? No monsters to fight?"
Just one, but it was not an exciting adventure.
"I see. Tell me more."
There was a giant walrus way up north attacking boats, so they sent me after him.
"Ah, right! I think I heard something about that. How did that fight go?"
He was weak. He got one good jab at me with his tusks, then I slammed my tail on him and broke his spine. He would have drowned and been in pain, so I broke his neck and ended it quickly.
"That was probably for the best."
How about you? Have you had exciting adventures?
"Nope. Just more strange dreams and waking up to the room shaking." Honda yawned loudly. "Speaking of which, I think I'm finally ready for sleep. Thanks for the company."
Thank you, too, friend. I hope I see you again soon.
At about that same time, another of Honda's friends, Doctor Adam Yuma, was slouched in a chair next to the bed of one of his youngest patients, Keiko. She had been under his care since she was thirteen. Today was her sixteenth birthday. Though she had been sound asleep for several hours, Yuma did not move from her side.
Finally, after waiting all through the night, Yuma heard the door to the ward open softly, followed by the soft footsteps of a nurse tiptoeing toward him. "Doctor," she whispered, holding a clipboard out for him, "her bloodwork came back."
Yuma took the clipboard and quietly walked over toward the window, opening the blinds just enough to allow enough light to read by. He stood silently there for about a minute, pouring over every detail. Once he had finished, he handed the clipboard back to the nurse, tears trickling down his face. "Thank you," he said meekly.
The nurse took the clipboard back, fighting back her own tears. "I'm so sorry!" Without another word, she quietly left the ward.
Yuma approached Keiko's bed and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "Happy birthday, Keiko," he whispered.
He left the hospital soon after and returned to his apartment nearby. He plopped down on the couch and fetched the driest liquor in his cupboard. He turned on his television but hardly paid it any attention as he drank himself to sleep.
Yuma woke around noon when a neighbor knocked on his door. He sat up and immediately felt the stinging in his head. He groaned and lay back down momentarily. The neighbor did not wait for him to answer before stuffing an envelope under his door and leaving. Once his head was a bit clearer, Yuma got off the couch, picked up the envelope, and carried it into the kitchen to prepare himself some coffee. He did not even notice that the television was still on with the volume turned down low.
As he sipped, he looked at the envelope and saw that it was from the Iwato Base. Excitedly, he opened it and began to read the letter inside. To his surprise, it was from Commander Takashima, Honda's pilot on missions. The body read:
We received the letter you wrote to Doctor Honda, but she is not here. She has taken a medical leave on account of possible mental health problems. She has asked to be left alone. That said, knowing how close the two of you are, she might like to hear from you. She said she would be in her home in Tokyo.
Yuma thought he knew Honda's home phone number, but was not sure could recall the digits in the correct order. He decided to give it a shot anyway.
Honda lurched from bed as the phone rang on her nightstand. She did not bother looking at the clock as she snatched up the handset. "Hello?" she said, surprised by the hoarseness of her own voice.
"Kumi?" asked Yuma on the other end, getting settled in front of the TV.
"Oh! Adam!" Honda sat up straighter, correcting her posture as if he was in the room with her. "How are you?"
"I'm…" He hesitated. "Well, I'm chuggin' along. Just thought I'd call you up, see what's happening. How are you?"
"Oh, I'm okay, for the most part."
"Are you sure? Kumi, I heard you were on medical leave for-"
"It's nothing!" she interjected. "Er, I mean, it's a little bit of something, but I'm sure I'll be fine."
"You sound defensive."
Honda said nothing back. She wanted to be open and honest with him, but did not know if she could.
Yuma gave a worried sigh. "Look, Kumi, I know I'm not a psychotherapist, but it definitely sounds like something's wrong. I mean, if it's enough that you're on medical leave…"
"I know, I know," said Honda, despondently. "I'm sorry, Adam. I just kind of feel like this is something I have to face on my own."
"You never have to face anything alone! I'm your friend and I want to help if I can."
"Thank you. I'll, uh…I'll think about it, but I don't really want to talk about it anymore right now."
"Fair enough. I won't press you too hard up front."
"I'd appreciate that. So, anyway, how's the hospital?"
"The hospital? Eh, same old same old."
"I read about that big breakthrough treatment you came up with. Yeah, the, uh, what was it called?"
"We don't have a name for it yet. Basically just a new type of chemo."
"Sure. But it works really well, right? The article I read mentioned Keiko, and said she was getting better. That's fantastic! How is she now?"
Yuma took a deep breath, trying as hard as he could to not cry. "She's worse again."
"What?!"
"Yeah. She went into remission for a while, but it didn't last. New blood work shows that the cancer is back and more aggressive than before. I'm out of options and out of time. Palliative care is all we have left."
"My god! Adam, I'm so sorry!"
Despite Yuma's best efforts, a tear broke free from his left eye and crawled down her cheek, leaving behind a salty trail. He covered his eyes and sank deeper into his seat.
When he did not speak again after a moment, Honda continued, "Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?"
"Doubtful. Unless you can bring me some wine."
Honda sighed as she pondered her situation. She was so lonely yet so afraid to go out in public. "I could use a drop myself, honestly."
"So?"
"So, I'll just hop on my bike and be there in about a week."
Yuma chuckled and lowered his hand from over his face. As his eyes fell on the television, he gasped out loud.
"Adam?" said Honda. "Adam? Something wrong?"
"Kumi! Do you have a TV in the room?"
"What? Well, no, but I have a TV and another line in the kitchen."
"Turn on the news! You have got to see this!"
Moments later, Honda was in the kitchen, glued to her television as the news anchor narrated the events she was seeing.
"For those just tuning in: the crew of the Daini-Gen'you-Maru, a cargo ship that went missing during a tropical storm earlier this week, have been found alive and well. They were spotted by a patrol helicopter near Odo Island in a lifeboat. It was previously speculated that the ship had drifted into the Adona Islands and been destroyed. No new word from government officials at this time."
Honda watched and listened in amazement. Surely there was going to be some sort of investigation into this, right? Could this be her chance?
"Kumi? You there?"
Honda cleared her throat and tried to contain her excitement. "Yeah, I'm here."
"Sorry, but I have to go. I just spoke to Hirano at the research center. They're bringing those sailors in for evaluation, and they want me to oversee the process. Talk to you again soon!"
