(A/N: Space Godzilla made a brief cameo at the end of "Osaka vs. the Space Monster" as the centerpiece of the Xian's second invasion, which was thwarted by the Prince. His is another movie that I wish I could recommend you see, but I really can't.
Jumbo, on the other hand, comes from Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba&!, which I can heartily recommend without reservation.)
Both Sanada and the newly lanky Chiyo-chan have been called colossi in these pages, while Sakaki has been referred to as looking positively gigantic. What, then, was Takeshi "Jumbo" Takeda? There was only one word for it: the man was epic. He was the sort of fellow who regularly smacked his head off of door frames, was forced to get all of his clothes specially tailored and had to turn showerheads up to get his shoulders wet… assuming he could even fit in the stall.
He could have pursued a lucrative career as a bouncer, dock worker or even bear wrestler, but rather than take up an occupation that took advantage of his mighty proportions, he'd decided to carry on his father's business as a florist. You'd never guess it to look at him, but he was a master of bringing out the best in plants, even though, as Chiyo had noticed earlier, he did tend to water them a little too much sometimes.
All most people saw when they beheld (a less dramatic word than "beheld" just wouldn't fit) Jumbo was his size. They didn't often notice that he wasn't bad looking, in a scruffy, blocky sort of way, or that his hair spiked in a manner that Sakaki assured him was very charming. Beholders were often surprised by his gentleness, but learning from an early age to contain their beastly strength is the way of most huge people.
He lived quite a ways from his shop but walked practically every day, gas prices being what they were. Once he got there, the day would be a long one; the help had quit one by one as flowers became less and less important and the increasing workload had made him progressively grouchier, driving his employees off even faster until here he was running a one-man show in the middle of an occupied city. Fun.
Today was even longer than usual. If only it were because he had more customers than normal… but no, it was his precious few just being particularly difficult. He found peace in arranging a large basket with the distracted-but-caring air of a High School teacher (who was not Yukari), but was almost instantly jerked out of his meditation by the shop's dorky little bell. Pa-king-king-king!
Jumbo growled softly. Today was just not his day.
"Are you Takeshi Takeda, who is known to Andrea Sakaki?" the blue spaceman asked, making Jumbo drop his flower arrangement and stare for a few seconds. Close encounters of the third kind always went "clunk" like this. You wander around, minding your own business in your own little world and then clunk! you're talking to a space alien and don't know what to do or say.
This particular Xian was a little guy with a sharp, vulpine face, and long snowy hair done into a tight braid of a stereotypically Chinese style. Even though he stood to about Jumbo's elbow, the florist had to fight the urge to shrink from him. "Who wants to know?" he asked carefully.
"Nobody you'd want to be associated with," the visitor replied, grinning humorlessly to reveal a tooth that matched his golden eyes. "But if you don't leave with me now, you'll fall in with an even worse crowd."
"Now hold on! I have a business to run."
He grabbed Jumbo's arm and started to walk away, but it was like trying to pull an oak tree. "See here, you great oaf! I'm trying to help you!" He considered adding before I break your leg and drag you away, but his people skills had improved considerably since his bride-kidnapping assignment all those years ago.
Jumbo was usually good natured about people riffing on his size, but he wasn't inclined to take it from this guy. "Maybe if you explained…" he started angrily, but then sirens started wailing in the distance and his spine turned to ice. The faint vestige of intuition deep within him was quivering. "Wait. Is that for me?"
"Could be," the visitor confirmed.
"What? But what the heck did I do?"
"It's not what you did, it's who you know. Now would you come on, or do I have to break your leg and…?"
Sakaki never explained exactly what "measures" she had taken, though it was evident that she put her faith in them completely. Under this repressive regime where effective resistance was precluded, an umbrella of passive defenses, covert organizations and sympathetic officials had formed over the people. It was never made clear which of the "Gray Charities" Sakaki had called upon, but it didn't matter in the end. She hated skullduggery anyway.
Unfortunately, it was swiftly catching up to her.
"You know, I just realized something," Kaori said suddenly, sitting up at her counter/desk. The reinventory lugs were carting new shelves full of merchandise in; one had thought to ask what had happened to all the stuff she had before, but a long, angry stare had answered him well enough. By now she knew most of the guys by name, and they'd long since learned not to wonder what went on in her store after-hours.
"Eh?" Xandra glanced up from her magazine. "What?"
"Chiyo-chan didn't act weird around me, did you notice? She didn't get leery or anything."
"Huh, guess you're right," Xandra agreed with a faint smile. "Well, she always was really polite. Maybe she was smart enough to watch us and see for herself? I think of everyone who knew about the Sakaki thing, she was in the best position to know what it was."
"That must be it. Refreshing, though, wasn't it?"
Ayumu wandered down the stairs along the store's edge, looking slightly more glazed than usual. Without seeming to actually notice it, she wove quietly through the bustling restock and joined them. "What's all this for?" she asked.
Kaori blinked. "Um… everything was blown up last night, remember?"
"Oh, right," Ayumu nodded. "Makes sense."
"Sleep well?" Xandra asked, thinking of the "visitation" that night.
"Yeah. Well, sorta…" She pondered her answer for a moment. "No, yeah."
"Um… well, as long as you're well rested. I was just about to head up, actually. Kazuki'll probably be along some time today and I figured you'd want to see him."
"Kazuki?" Ayumu's eyes lit up. "Wow… it's been forever an' a week!"
"He usually comes on Thursdays to see if we got anything new. Won't he be surprised?"
"Probably not," Kaori answered. "It's not like this hasn't happened before."
"He might be surprised it wasn't you this time, though," Xandra smiled impishly. "I think by this point we're all just waiting for the next time you blow the place up."
"Ms. Aida?" One of the lugs held out a clipboard. Kaori fixed her co-proprietress with a look and didn't let it falter even as she accepted the board, signed slowly and handed it back without looking. After a few more seconds, though, she finally gave in and started laughing. Why do we always get the weirdoes? the reinventory guy wondered as he walked away.
Organizing their new haul of merchandise took a few hours and Ayumu was more of a hindrance than a help in this; unsurprisingly, she had some pretty strange ideas about what should go where. But then, she was such fun to have along that it didn't bother them much anyway.
"Everything's new!" a male voice marveled as they finished up. Kazuki had apparently managed to enter without setting off the entrance bell, and now meandered through the light shelving in a state of mingled interest and dismay.
Kaori always thought that Kazuki should have been a girl. He was only a little taller than them, slender and soft of build, with large, almost perpetually half-lidded eyes and long eyelashes. For all of that, his hands were surprisingly inelegant, which made his skill with a brush an even greater surprise. "Hi, guys, I…"
Ayumu walked up behind him and dropped her cold, delicate hands over his eyes. "Guess who?"
"Yuki Matsuoka?"
"Nope."
"Zhang Ziyi!"
"Nope."
"…mom?"
"Are you even trying?"
"Help me out, here! Wait…" he suddenly whirled and grabbed her in a fierce hug, completing the turn with her in tow. "Osaka! Heyyy!"
"Hi…" The Space Cadet staggered and leaned against a shelf. Even that half-turn was enough to make her a little dizzy. "Whoa."
"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly. "Wow, where have you been?"
"Asylum."
His grin faltered. "…oh."
"Crud, I was s'posed to gloss that over, wasn't I?"
"Er… probably." He scratched his neck uncomfortably. "Uh, but you're okay now?"
"Oh, doin' just great!" Ayumu waved a dismissive hand. "Geesh! Spend a couple months in an asylum and everyone acts like there's something wrong with you!"
Well if she wanted to make light of her situation, who was he to drag things down? "G-good to hear! I guess."
"An' where've you been?"
"Living out in Chiba with Sanada. I draw stuff for a living now."
"Y'always were good at that. You figured out a good way to draw blood yet?"
"No, actually, the color never comes out right."
"I find a pencil works pretty well if ya don't mind gettin' a little graphite in ya."
Kazuki opened his mouth to reply but didn't know what to say. Was she kidding? He had never learned how to tell. But fortunately, when you're talking Ayumu, you only have to hold out for a few seconds before a random subject change would hit. And sure enough…
"Say, Kazuki, y'know that statue you got?"
"You mean the coin bank that looks like a frog?"
"No, no, no, the one that turns into a giant monster when the rising sun strikes its eyes? Looks like he's constipated? The Shiisa!"
"Oh, right! Yeah, what about it?"
"You still got 'im?"
"Nope. Why do you ask?"
"Ah, just curious." The possible doom of the human race hadn't even crossed her mind.
"It's getting late," Kagura said apologetically. Fortunately, that one glass was all the alcohol Yomi had enjoyed, and so their visit turned out to be very pleasant and low-key. Kagura was glad, for in spite of her joke, there wasn't much about getting drunk that appealed to her. "I have to get up early for some Enryu stuff tomorrow, so I'd better go."
"Yeah," Yomi nodded slowly. "Thanks for listening."
"Hey, no problem," Kagura said, ruffling her hair roughly, "What're friends for, right? I might see ya later tomorrow, if you're not doing anything. Say, 'round eight?"
"Well… I'm probably going to go to work after all. I'm feeling a lot better."
"Until eight? Jeez! Are you some kind of masochist?"
"At least I won't be in mortal peril."
"I've heard you can die from boredom." They eyed each other; this was a long-standing dispute, and it didn't look like it'd be resolved tonight, either. Whose job actually sucked more? In the end it's a value judgment and useless to argue about. "Right. Well, see ya."
"Yeah."
As Kagura walked down the dark street, hands thrust into her pockets and leaning into a light, chilly breeze. Something Yomi had said earlier was still troubling her. "Chiyo looked awful, didn't she? So spent and tired."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"First Ayumu, then Chiyo and Tomo… have you noticed that whenever this stuff with the giant monsters directly involves us, it's always the most child-like of us that get hit the hardest?"
"That hardly seems fair, does it?" Kagura said to the air. "Damn."
There were hardly any pedestrians out, but she was starting to feel a little anti-social and this was probably a good thing. As she rounded a corner, though, three men in suits (no jackets in this weather? Obviously Gaijin) whisked by her walking in the opposite direction. Towards Yomi? She thought fleetingly, coming to a stop and looking after them. No, they wouldn't dare. Not a diplomatic worker. And she'd have told me if she'd done anything.
She wondered vaguely what they were up to, but the ability to keep your head down is a virtue 'round these parts. Kagura continued on her way, quickly forgetting about them.
"I don't understand. Why do you need these people?" Masema asked, for once managing to get the drop on Yukia. She was sitting on the deck of her room, legs crossed and eyes closed. He would have thought that she was meditating, but the set of her shoulders struck him as oddly… predatory. He got the sense of great, dark wings folded in the air above her, a sinuous body…
"It's an astral web," she answered softly, tracing invisible lines in the air before her with both hands. "Bonds between people, stronger than any circumstance or bureaucracy can make. I can use these. The one that I need, Mihama, is the most important, but her close friends and theirs, a lover if she has one, parents if we can find them… they would help things along."
"I've been wanting to get my hands on a Mihama for a long time."
"Not this one. She won't be alive when I'm done with her. Sorry."
Masema shrugged. "Getting my war will be worth it. I can't pretend to understand what you're trying to do, but as long as the end of it is the end of the Earthmen, I'm with you."
"It'll be the end of more than just that," she assured, smiling beatifically without opening her eyes. "You'll get your money's worth."
The "scaly sandbar" that Chiyo had noticed on her flight in was in fact the mighty Manda, a 100-meter long sea-serpent of colossal strength and nasty temperament. As one of the few cities whose ports were open to foreigners, Shizouka rated two guardian monsters: Gigan on land and Manda beneath the waves. If a ship was found to be carrying contraband, it wasn't just brought in so its crew could be detained… it was DRAGGED into the DEPTHS by a SEA MONSTER!
There wasn't a lot of smuggling going on in Shizouka.
The Gaijin who lived and worked in the city felt especially safe, since there were not one but two monsters waiting to spring to their defense in the case of an American invasion. On this fateful day, however, it turned out that two were not nearly enough.
It all started when the sonar network noted that Manda was stirring, but couldn't see anything that he could be reacting to. Remembering some obscure stories that he'd heard from the Earthmen, the Gaijin SDF Commander called up his assistant and found out that yes, Earth did know of a menacing creature that was able to slip through sonar undetected…
The call went out, and a calm, orderly evacuation of the area immediately around the bay began, Black Hole People first, Earthmen second. This nonsense came to a quick stop, though, when an atomic beam roared out of the bay, carrying Manda hundreds of feet into the air. For a shining moment while the serpent hung above them, silhouetted in the beam's ferociously blue light, all of the evacuees were equal regardless of their homeworld. (Though the mad rush probably wasn't much of an improvement for anybody.)
Then Manda smashed down over a tract of warehouses, thrashing and writhing and making his distinctive "hisssss-grunt!" sound, crushing everything about him beneath his coils and raising billowing clouds of debris. This almost obscured the King of the Monsters as he emerged from the bay, but nothing could obscure his terrible roar.
This Godzilla looked older and, if not wiser, then a lot meaner. His dark hide was covered with rough white scars, including one that raked over the side of his face and swallowed his left eye. It's a lot easier to be King when there's no contenders, after all—but even though the years of "Earth overrun by monsters" had been hard on him, he'd held on.
A sinister red light grew in Gigan's visor and the cyborg monster came to life with an ear-splitting shriek, clashing its scythes together in a shower of sparks. Godzilla looked at him, unconcerned; he wasn't even bothered when the smaller monster took flight towards him and a buzzsaw in its torso blurred into motion.
Apparently, it meant to zoom low over Godzilla and gash him with his saw. This was a tactic that had given him victory over several larger monsters… but unfortunately, Godzilla knew how to duck. As his body went down, his great tail rose ponderously behind him and Gigan didn't have time to swerve before they collided thunderously and the cyborg was sent flipping wildly through the air.
Godzilla's dorsal fins lit as he turned casually and loosed another beam at his falling foe. Gigan's explosion was a matter of much debate and confusion—it was not in itself nuclear, but it was touched off by a beam from Godzilla, basically a living, breathing, pissed-off nuclear reactor. But if that fact didn't take it out of the running, then this was the largest non-nuclear, non-volcanic explosion ever recorded. Gigan chunks were skipping off of Mount Fuji in the distance.
Godzilla grunted in disappointment and started landward, ignoring Manda as the serpent slinked back into the water and swam for his life. The King of the Monsters strode imperiously, head high, confident that nothing in this world could stand against him… and probably right. The vengeance of the Earth had begun!
