The emergency sirens were ringing out across Furinkan. Nerima and Itabashi were under an evacuation order. Godzilla had crossed the Arakawa River in Wako, breaking through the military defense lines meant to keep it out of Tokyo proper. While the Tendos and Ukyo had packed their essentials as soon as Godzilla had crossed over into Gunma during its earlier battle with a Kamacuras infestation, the inhabitants of the Neko Hanten were not used to how quickly the great kaiju moved. Nor how aggressive it tended to be. Kaiju were a coastal hazard, so even Cologne had underestimated them for lack of experience, living in the mountains of Qinghai. There'd been attacks in the year and a bit since they'd arrived, but apart from Anguirus making a brief appearance in Ibaraki, none of those had touched Kanto.
This meant that the Chinese trio were running about trying to pack things as quickly as possible. A vehicle honking outside the door drew Shampoo's attention, and she put down her suitcase to peek outside. To her surprise she found the Tendo household, Soun at the wheel of a van packed full of goods while pulling an empty trailer, the rest of the household (and Ryoga) walking alongside.
"You guys were too late to get a van, no?" Soun asked.
"Yes?" Shampoo replied.
"Kaiju attacks mean a truce in Japan. It's been that way since the feudal era. Come on and load her up," Soun said, pointing a thumb to the trailer.
Shampoo gave a quick nod. "T-thank you. I will tell great-grandmother."
Shampoo ran off to the kitchen, shouting for Cologne. As the old woman bounced over to the front door to confirm things (and probably negotiate rights to ride in the van), Ranma, Ryoga, and Akane hurried in to help grab some things to load up. With the added hands the packing took far less time than Shampoo had expected, and they were hurrying off on their way down the road.
The streets of Nerima were too crammed with every citizen trying to flee by car, truck, bicycle, or foot to allow anyone to drive much faster than walking speed. Shampoo was peddling at a slow pace along behind the van, while most of the others were walking. Cologne and Kasumi were the main exceptions; the former sat on the roof of the van, while Kasumi was riding on the back of Shampoo's bicycle. Shampoo wondered a little at how tightly the older girl was holding on to her given their slow speed, but chalked it up to the emotions of the evacuation.
SKREEEEOOONNNK!
Shampoo felt a shiver run down her back at the distant roar of the mighty kaiju. Everyone on the street had paused for a moment, glancing in the direction of the unearthly noise. No human could help but be a little transfixed at the pale blue flashes just visible above the roofs of Nerima's streets.
As Shampoo let herself breath again, Mousse let out a gasp.
"The Jusenkyo water! We forgot the Jusenkyo water!" he shouted, leaping up onto a nearby roof.
"It is replaceable!" Shampoo shouted.
"Cursed water is also dangerous to transport in these packed conditions!" Cologne added. "If it gets destroyed we can just order more!"
Mousse, however, wasn't listening and rushed off along the rooftops.
"There's Nannichuan water?" Ryoga asked, watching Mousse leave.
"Yes. Nannichuan and Nyannichuan both," Shampoo replied. "Cases arrived yesterday. We were going to offer them to those who needed them, but then evacuation was called."
Ryoga nodded, before handing the suitcase he was carrying to Ranma (who protested noisily). Ryoga was hopping off after Mousse as soon as his hands were free.
"We can order more... stupid boys," Shampoo muttered.
Ryoga hurried after Mousse's white clad form. The other lad wasn't too far ahead, so he was easy to track. Rushing across rooftops had always been faster, but the advantage was especially apparent with the streets a sea of humanity rushing in the opposite direction. They'd made it the better part of the two kilometres back to the Neko Hanten in a third the time it had taken to get away from the restaurant.
Another distant roar made him falter slightly. Looking across the city, from his vantage point atop a roof, he could see the smoke rising over Wako. There, in the middle of the smoke, being peppered with explosions, was Godzilla. The king of kaiju couldn't be more than six kilometres away. The giant beast lit up that sickly blue, a burst of atomic energy slamming out of its mouth and into where the artillery units must have been.
Ryoga couldn't help swallowing with fear. Not many people saw Godzilla so clearly and lived to tell the tale.
Shaking his head, he turned back to see Mousse down on the streets again. They'd made it past the wave of evacuees and the streets were empty now. Ryoga hopped down and rushed after him, trying to forget the fear rising in his stomach.
"Come on! Come on! Yúchǔn de mén!" Mousse hissed under his breath as he struggled with the lock on the front door.
He finally opened it as Ryoga caught up to him.
"Where's the Nannichuan?" Ryoga asked.
"It's in the basement, with the Nyannichuan. I'll go get it," Mousse replied, his tone sharp and stressed. "You hop up on the roof. Keep an eye on where big ugly goes. It sounds like it's getting closer. We don't want to get cut off."
Ryoga nodded. "Sure thing."
He hopped up on the roof of the restaurant, staring out across the city. As he landed another roar echoed out across the city. Turning, he saw that Godzilla was definitely closer now. Godzilla's roar was drowned out by the booming off jet fighters overhead. The planes released a volley of missiles before scattering off, barely any closer to Godzilla than Ryoga himself was at the moment. The missiles slammed into the great beast, causing it to let out a cry of pain. Godzilla's back then began to glow and a blast of its atomic breath cut an arc across the sky, going above Ryoga's head at one moment.
The sheer terrifying power of it caused him to stumble back on his rear. Glancing behind him, Ryoga saw that the upper floors of the towers over at Hikarigaoka were now missing several chunks out of them.
"I've got it!" Mousse yelled from down below.
Ryoga looked over to where Godzilla was. It was close now.
He hopped down beside Mousse. "We need to get to a shelter. We can't outrun it this close."
"There's shelters?" Mousse asked, adjusting his glasses. "Why is everyone evacuating then?"
"They were never able to build them big enough to fit everyone. They're mostly just for the elderly, disabled, and those sorts of people who can't travel easily," Ryoga explained, grabbing Mousse's wrist. "There's one under Hikarigaoka station. I think it's the closest."
Mousse nodded and followed as Ryoga ran. The ground began to shake, and they realised Godzilla was getting closer. Another roar was nearly deafening, Ryoga letting go of Mousse's wrist to cover his ears.
"Are you trying to run towards it?" Mousse shouted as the roar faded, though both their ears were still ringing.
"No! I'm taking us west to Hikarigaoka. That's the opposite direction. Godzilla was to the south, by Wako," Ryoga replied.
"You idiot! Wako is to the north of Nerima! And Hikarigaoka is east of us!" Mousse shouted. "I can't believe I forgot how bad you are with directions! You just acted so confident!"
"Oh yeah, well... well..." Ryoga began, not sure what to say. Was his directional curse about to get them both killed?
While self doubt and feelings of failure were familiar to Ryoga, he still hated them and his eyes hunted for an escape. Someone else to blame, surely... That's when he took a proper look at the case Mousse was carrying.
"Apparently I'm not the only idiot here! You grabbed Nyannichuan water, not Nannichuan water!"
"What!?" Mousse said, before slipping his glasses back on to look closer. "I... uh..."
"The kanji don't even look that similar!" Ryoga shouted.
"I was panicking, okay!?" Mousse countered.
They were both illuminated by another flash of pale blue light. Both lads looked up, seeing the beam of Godzilla's breath cutting across the sky above them. The arc it traced proved Godzilla was only a few blocks away at most.
"We're going to die," Ryoga muttered, tears starting to pool in his eyes. "I'm going to leave Akari a widow before I even get to marry her!"
"I don't plan to die!" Mousse shouted over the booming footsteps of Godzilla's approach. "We just have to get out of its way!"
With that, Mousse began to run, and Ryoga followed him. The winding and narrow streets of Tokyo were not conducive to keeping an eye on Godzilla, and the beast's roars were deafening beyond the point of tracking, but they kept running. It seemed like it was working until one of Godzilla's feet slammed down onto their path. The great kaiju became visible around the apartment building, and it turned to look at them as they screamed.
In his shock, Mousse had thrown the casket of Nyannichuan water in the air, and the pair watched as the small wooden barrel arced through the air. It managed to fly far enough to land on Godzilla's tow, where the wood shattered against ancient skin as hard as rock. There was then a burst of wind and dust that forced both boys to cover their eyes.
Wind the strange blast of air stopped, both boys blinked their eyes open. Godzilla was gone? Stepping out around the corner to look for where the 100m tall beast had gone, Ryoga at first didn't see anything at all. It was only when he looked down that he saw a girl (or, young woman, he supposed) sitting on a pile of rubble that was one a house. She had two-tone hair that reminded him a little of Herb, the middle was a sort of silver-blue colour while the sides were a dark almost green colour not too different from Ryoga's own.
He also realised that she was quite naked, even if long side strands provided her chest with a smidge of modesty (akin to how Shampoo often looked). He spun around, grabbing a tissue for his nose. Mousse, however, simply stared ahead.
"Give her a little privacy!" Ryoga hissed.
"Wh-oh, right. Japan and your backwards gender norms," Mousse muttered, before pulling his glasses off. "Happy?"
"I... I guess that works," Ryoga replied, before Mousse started walking towards the girl. "Oy! What are you doing?"
"I'm going to offer her my robe."
"Oh... that's... that's very good of you," Ryoga said.
He listened in as Mousse made the offer. The girl didn't respond with anything Ryoga could hear, but Mousse called out that she was decent a few moments later. Ryoga turned around, and found Mousse hadn't lied. The young woman, despite wearing Mousse's loose robes and her short stature (somewhere between girl Ranma and Shampoo's height) managed to fill it out quite well. It was clear that, under the robes, she was built like a tank, probably more solid than Ryoga himself was.
"Did you see what happened, miss?" Ryoga asked.
The girl stared at him, tilting her head.
"To Godzilla? It vanished," Ryoga explained.
The girl pointed at her nose.
Ryoga glanced at Mousse, who shrugged. Ryoga turned back to the woman.
"Pardon?" Ryoga asked.
"Me?" the woman said.
"You?" Ryoga asked.
"Godzilla," the woman said.
Ryoga lifted a finger, not sure what to say to her, before turning to Mousse. "You... you cursed Godzilla!"
"I... of course. Why do you think I threw the Nyannichuan at it? I saved our lives," Mousse replied, crossing his arms and nodding to himself. "I think I deserve a thank you."
"Th-than-wait! How do you know Japanese then?" Ryoga asked the woman, as he realised her two tone hair did match Godzilla's colour scheme fairly well.
The girl shrugged.
After a bit of arguing, Ryoga and Mousse agreed that giving Godzilla to the government was a bad idea. Sure, she'd destroyed several cities, but was that really on purpose? She wasn't biting them or anything. Plus, Godzilla had saved the earth before. So she didn't really deserve to be poked and prodded and experimented on by the authorities. (That she was currently a cute girl and they were teenage boys probably helped.)
Instead Mousse led them back to the Neko Hanten, keeping Godzilla away from the kitchen. And turning the water heater off, just in case. Mousse then phoned Shampoo's cell, explaining what had happened in rapid Mandarin Ryoga couldn't follow.
Everyone arrived back at the restaurant surprisingly quickly. It helped that the authorities had no idea what was going on, and so still had evacuation orders up. The roadblocks meant no one could drive back in, but sneaking past police was something Genma and Ranma were experienced at, and able to help the others with.
Godzilla, herself, had been rather peaceful while they'd waited for everyone to arrive, happily devouring any food Mousse put in front of her. She'd also been fairly peaceful as Cologne had examined her, confirming that she was indeed Godzilla. Ryoga had been slightly frightened to learn that she apparently was still containing all the spiritual energies of her natural form in this compressed human size.
"I'll go get the waterproof soap. You males, keep an eye on her. Shampoo, Tendo, Son-in-law, you three keep an eye on the males," Cologne said, before hopping off.
"Uh, sure thing?" Ranma said, before sitting down at the table where Godzilla continued to munch on a yak and broccoli stir fry. "You, uh, seem more peaceful than I expected?"
"Mmrph?" Godzilla replied, with a full mouth.
"Well, yer always fightin' normally. But right now yer just eatin' and ya let the old bat prod ya with her icy fingers an' all that," Ranma explained.
"I don't pick fights," Godzilla said, grabbing a chicken ball with her hand and dunking it in sweet and sour sauce. "I just finish them."
"I suppose I can relate ta that," the black haired boy said, before picking up a pair of chopsticks.
He reached over to grab an egg roll when Godzilla growled at him.
"My food," the shrunken kaiju said. A faint pale blue glow shone out from between her sharp teeth, and her eyes began to glow with the same colour.
Ranma gave a slow nod before standing up. "Yooouuur food. Yep. Your food, miss king of the monsters, ma'am. Very sorry."
"It's a whole table!" Genma protested, marching over. "You're not such a big shot anymore, little Goji-chan. Learn to share, missy."
To punctuate his point, Genma grabbed a spring roll and tossed it into his mouth.
"No," Godzilla replied, before blasting Genma in the face with her breath attack.
Luckily for Genma, it proved more akin to the blast of a chi attack than the atomic fire of Godzilla's true form. Unluckily for Genma, that was still enough to blast him from his feet and knock him out.
Shampoo and Ukyo both burst into applause.
"Shampoo likes her!"
"Me too!" Ukyo added.