Honda wrung her hands in distress as the helicopter landed near Godzilla. As soon as they had touched down, she ran to him as fast as she could. She pressed her hands against his snout and looked into his half open eyes. She spoke to him breathlessly. "Godzilla! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

Godzilla moved his head ever so slightly and stared back at her. His eyes widened for a moment and she felt him speak to her. I'm sorry, Friend. I failed you!

"No, no!" she cried. "It's going to be alright! Just hang in there!"

Godzilla's eyes darkened and closed. He let out a long, rasping breath and was still.

Yuma and Omori were now by Honda's side. Yuma whispered to her, "Is he…?"

"He's alive," she replied, sobbing. "I can feel his pain. He's not healing! I don't know why, but he's not healing!" She fell to her knees and wept bitterly, one hand still pressed against Godzilla's snout.

Honda remained awake by Godzilla's side all night. She did not speak to anyone, she did not eat or drink, and she did not move from her spot. A huge crowd gathered around, but Omori and his men kept them far back. A biohazard response team was brought in and, with Yuma leading them, they climbed onto Godzilla's body wearing radiation-resistant suits to examine the wound in his neck and take tissue samples.

Once Yuma had finished, he took his samples to a waiting military truck and had them sent off to his lab. He removed his suit after a decontamination shower and stood by Honda's side, saying nothing. Honda had seen him do this before when he knew she was emotional, to let her know he had something to say but respected that she might need a moment first. She did not keep him waiting for long. "What is it, Adam?" she said, wiping tears and mucus from her face.

"I think you should know the whole story behind Gaira. And I think you should hear it from the one who knows it best."

"And who would that be?"

"His brother."

Honda slept through the first half of their long drive to Gifu Prefecture that morning, but she did not feel truly refreshed upon awakening. How could she with so much stress and so many things on her mind? She awoke to the sound of a woman's voice on the radio.

"Yesterday evening, Godzilla suffered his first defeat in battle against an as-yet unidentified humanoid monster that attacked Hiroshima. Godzilla was gravely wounded and knocked unconscious during the fight while the other monster escaped into the sea. Residents of the Chugoku region have voiced concerns that the monster, which was seen eating passengers of a ship wrecked during the fight, may still be lurking in the nearby waters, ready to strike again at any moment. The news of this first major loss for Godzilla has reignited the controversy over Project G. People from all over Japan are flocking to Hiroshima to show their support, but internationally, it seems that apprehension over the future of the program is increasing. The question on everyone's mind is, quite simply, has the King of the Monsters been dethroned?"

Honda grumpily leaned forward and switched off the radio. What a tacky and mean-spirited thing to say! Godzilla had for months been a savior not just of Japan, but of many other nations. Mocking him at a time like this was not only disrespectful but ungrateful, a slap in the face to all the good work Project G had accomplished.

Remember, Kumi, Honda thought, trying to calm quench her anger for the moment. Remember who the real enemy is. She sat back in her seat, arms crossed, her thoughts returning to Gaira. "Just what the hell was that thing anyway?" she grumbled.

Yuma cleared his throat and sat up straighter, as though bracing himself for an awkward conversation. "Kumi, have you ever heard of the Reisendorf study, sometimes called the Gargantua Experiment?"

"Can't say I have."

"I thought not. It's been kept a secret for years, but I think you should know about it now. During World War II, the Third Reich worked on genetic and biological experiments to create 'supermen,' as well as creating chemical and bio-weapons. You knew that much, right?"

Honda shifted in her seat. "Yes. Unfortunately, Japan was involved in some of the same cruel human experimentation."

"Regrettably, yes. Anyway, there was one particular scientist from Switzerland named Reisendorf who worked on the Übermensch program. His idea was not to create superior people through eugenics, but to physical augment human beings to make them immortal. He would inject them with a chemical cocktail that he believed would grant them enhanced strength, resilience, and fertility."

Honda cringed at the idea. "Did he actually get anywhere?"

"Most of his subjects died in the process. He was eventually able to create two enhanced specimens, but there were some…adverse side effects…as you've already seen."

Honda was confused and was about to ask Yuma what he meant when it dawned on her that there could only be one reason for him to bring this up now. "Gaira?"

Yuma nodded. "He was one of Reisendorf's subjects. The other was called Sanda. Once the Allied Forces pushed into Germany, the Nazis decided to send Reisendorf and his project out of the country so he could finish his work elsewhere. To Japan, in fact. That's how Gaira ended up halfway across the world."

"Let me guess," said Honda. "They were in that weird old army hospital, the one your lab is built over."

Yuma was a bit embarrassed that she had realized and drawn attention to this fact. "Yeah…that one."

"What about Sanda? You mean we're actually going to meet him?"

"In the flesh." He took his eyes off the road for just a second to give her a reassuring look. "Don't worry. He's not like his brother…much."

Later that afternoon, they arrived at a solitary old house among the Kiso Mountains. An old woman in a floral patterned blue and white kimono stood waiting for them on the porch. "Doctor Yuma!" she said as they got out of the car and approached. "How nice to see you again. And you must be Doctor Honda!"

Honda smiled and bowed. "Pleased to meet you."

The woman curtsied. "Maya Mizuno. Formerly Doctor Mizuno. Please, come inside and make yourselves comfortable."

The house was large and opulent, decorated with various paintings, small sculptures, and works of embroidery. "Gifts from patients," explained Mizuno. "I helped thousands of people with life-threatening conditions over the course of my career, and many of them wanted to give me something in return to show their gratitude and respect." In the kitchen, she fixed a pot of tea and poured a cup for each of them.

"Thank you," said both of her guests.

"You're welcome. I don't get visitors often, so I make sure to treat them well when they come. I used to prefer the solitude over the hustle and bustle of the city, but after fifteen years of mostly keeping to myself, I do get lonely at times."

"What about Sanda?" asked Honda. "Does he keep good company?"

"To an extent," said Mizuno, the pleasant smile on her face fading into an expression of bittersweet remembrance. "He can't talk so he communicates by sign language, but also…well, he's not exactly the happiest individual. Because of what those experiments did to him, he can't ever live a normal life; and he overestimates the burden he places on me, so he feels sad and unmotivated most of the time."

Honda finished her cup. "Do you think he resents other people for what's been done to him?"

"I don't think he resents people so much as that he worries that he'd be seen as a monster, even though he knows that he's a human, no different in heart or mind from the rest of us. He almost certainly resents our government, and Germany's, as well, for dehumanizing him and his brother so." She stood up, took their empty cups away, and picked up an old notebook from the kitchen counter. "I'll let you hear the rest in person."

Mizuno led them toward a nearby cliff, about half a kilometer from the farmhouse. As they walked, she explained Sanda's hiding place. "You can't see it from here, but there's a huge cave in the side of this cliff. It opens at an angle so that you can't see in very far, and from a distance it just looks like a shallow gap in the rock. It directly faces the sun when it comes up and the mountain obscures the sun in the evening, so you can't see the shadow cast on the back wall unless you're up close and looking directly into the opening."

Sure enough, Honda could not clearly see the cave until she realized that she was standing right at its entrance. "This is where Sanda lives?"

"Yes," said Mizuno. "He stays in a deeper part of the cave most of the time. There's another opening that leads into a small valley on the opposite side where he can stretch and get some sun without worrying about being seen. In fact, there's a whole network of tunnels underneath these mountains that he can move around freely in." She took a few steps inside and gave a whistle, which echoed eerily through the dark depths of the cavern.

The ground trembled beneath their feet as Sanda emerged. Honda had expected him to look more bizarre after having seen Gaira's monstrous appearance. He had the same sunken eyes and craggy skin, but his skin tone was more natural, albeit rather yellow, and the hair that covered his body was more of a golden brown. He had an ape-like face but with a distinctly human nose and pale blue eyes.

The giant eyed Honda curiously yet timidly, like a child meeting a stranger. Mizuno smiled up at him and waved. Sanda lowered himself slowly to the ground so as not to shake them off their feet and sat down at the edge of the cave with his legs crossed. Mizuno sat down on a chair-sized rock just outside and opened the old notebook. "Sanda had a nurse who taught him how to write, and he wrote down his life story before he became too large to hold pen and paper. Shall we begin?" Mizuno opened the book and began to read.