September 2nd, 10:51 AM, Diet Building, 1954

"...Representative Oyama, you report the destruction of seventeen houses and nine people dead," spoke up Representative Asakura. "Now that just leaves the matter of livestock. Would you please itemize the animals, Mayor Inada?"

Inada, the mayor of Oto Island, nodded, "Ah, yes, I almost forgot. I can confirm twelve cows and eight pigs are either dead or unaccounted for."

The meeting with the Oto Island Disaster Petition Coalition had been going on for almost an hour. For Shinkichi, it had been practically an eternity. He could still freshly see the broken corpses of his mother and brother being pulled from the wreckage that had once been the house he grew up in. Emiko stood by his side to keep him calm. Then, he was called up before the podium. He took a deep breath and, after a sympathetic smile from Emiko, walked up as strongly as he could be at the moment.

"It's true," he spoke into the microphone. "I don't know what I saw, but it was immense and very much alive. It..."

Shinkichi felt a lump develop in his throat. He could feel his eyes burning with restrained tears, but he continued speaking.

"It killed my brother and my mother," he spoke, his voice cracking through the barely contained sobs. "My-my brother, Ma-Masaji told me that he had... been attacked by a creature out at sea. I-It was that same creature that killed him."

Oyama gave the young man a sympathetic nod before dismissing him from the podium.

"Professor Yamane," he spoke up. "Would you mind giving us your thoughts on the matter?"

Professor Yamane Kyohei nodded and walked away from his daughter. He was a man past his years; he walked with a slight limp though he didn't need a cane... yet. His once black hair had long since turned gray though his mustache remained its original color. He reached the podium and tapped the microphone before speaking.

"The damage done to Oto Island could not have been done by the storm," he spoke. "As described by Mr. Hagiwara, there were signs of destruction from above and the helicopter was reported crushed. In addition, he and young Shinkichi mentioned seeing a large organism responsible for the deaths of Morita Omine and Masaji."

"Professor," Oyama asked the man. "Are you certain the damage was caused by such an organism?"

Yamane nodded. "I'm sure you are all aware of cryptozoology, the study of creatures that may or may not exist? Perhaps you heard of footprints on the banks of the Himalayas left behind by the Abominable Snowman or Yeti as they are called in those parts of Asia. It could stand to reason that this... creature may be categorized as such. Besides, our oceans are vast, we know less about the waters that encompass our planet than we do stars in the the night sky. So, I am certain that there are still mysteries to be uncovered beneath the waves. Of course, we might not know until later seeing as I and a few of my colleagues will be headed there this afternoon."

Meanwhile, Emiko cast a sad glance back at Shinkichi who was clearly not comfortable returning to his birth home. It wasn't like he didn't have anyone waiting for him on the island anymore.

Poor Shinkichi, she thought.

September 2nd, 1:30 PM, Tokyo Harbor, 1954

The Kamome, Professor Yamane's personal research ship was surrounded by an entire crowd wishing her and her crew a safe journey and back to and from Oto Island. The crew itself consisted of Yamane himself, Emiko going as his assistant, Shinkichi, Hagiwara, and Yamane's colleague, Professor Tabata Izuku as well as a few graduate students. While scanning the crowd, Emiko spotted a familiar face standing solemnly as a statue. The man was garbed in a tuxedo with a nest of messy black hair on his head. Though he was wearing sunglasses, she could see the strap of an eyepatch on his right eye. It was another of her childhood friends and her father's protege, Serizawa Daisuke.

"Goodbye!" Emiko cried out, waving a white handkerchief to the doctor. "See you soon!"

If Serizawa had seen her farewell, he didn't show it as he emotionlessly slipped back into the cheering crowd. Emiko couldn't help but feel a pang of hurt thinking her childhood friend didn't see her. She felt the engines of her father's vessel rumble beneath her feet and with that, the Kamome began her voyage to Oto Island.

"I saw Serizawa in the crowd," Emiko told her father as the Kamome drew closer to the shores of Oto Island.

"Oh?" Yamane's eyes widened at the mention of his old protege.

"Yes," Emiko nodded. "Though, I don't think he saw me. I never thought he'd leave his lab to see us off."

Yamane chuckled and shook his head. "Even hermits need some fresh air and sunshine every once in a while, Emiko."

Emiko snickered and looked out on the clear blue seas. Her eyes fell upon Shinkichi standing on the deck as still as a statue and frowned. She thought about going down there and talking to him, but she banished that thought. Right now, he probably wanted to be left alone. Just then, the whistle rang out and the captain declared, "LAND HO!"

Upon disembarking, Mayor Inada led Yamane and Tabata around the areas of the island that had sustained the most damage. Just the sight of crushed houses was enough to make anyone's stomach churn to know that something or someone had done this much destruction in one night. Emiko followed them only to notice that someone was missing. Where was Shinkichi? She looked over a hill and spotted him standing in front of nine grave markers. Upon closer look, she noticed he was standing before two in particular, both the names of his brother and his mother etched into them. Emiko reached out to the young man only to pull her hand back and gave him a saddened frown. She knew how he felt at the moment when her own mother died just a day before her eighteenth birthday and the grief she felt in that loss was tremendous, despite her father's best attempts to comfort her. She could only imagine what kind of grief Shinkichi had to losing both his brother and mother in one night.

I'll just leave him alone, Emiko thought. Let him mourn.

She walked away from him and rejoined the investigative team who were currently examining the village well. Tabata waved a Geiger counter over the well. The counter buzzed angrily in his hands.

"The water's contaminated with radiation," he whispered to Yamane.

He turned to the crowd. "This water is unsafe!" he shouted, "Don't drink from it!"

This sparked an uproar in of the assembled people.

"Then what are we supposed to drink now!?" a man yelled indignantly.

Yamane turned to Mayor Inada.

"How long has the water been radioactive?" he asked.

"Just now," Inada answered. "It was fine yesterday."

Tabata turned to Yamane, "That would mean the other wells on the island are contaminated with radioactive fallout." he whispered. "The question is, why are we only detecting it right here?"

Yamane was just about to speak when he heard one of the graduates, a young woman named Mayumi call to them.

"Professor Yamane! Professor Tabata! You have to come see this!"

Yamane ran up to where she was pointing and their eyes widened. It was a footprint; a massive footprint the size of a small bus. Though there was so much debris, they could make out a few details such as four toes with claws spread out in a reptilian position.

"Mr. Hagiwara," Yamane asked Hagiwara. "If I were to tell you this was the footprint of a large animal, would you believe me?"

Hagiwara shrugged. "Unless we're sharing the same hallucination, I would believe anything you say." He then went to work taking photos.

Just then, something caught Yamane's eye; something writhing within the debris. He reached down and pulled it up. It looked somewhat like a horseshoe crab but without the tail and with a more segmented body divided into three lobes. It... it couldn't be. Could it? Yamane instantly snatched it up and his eyes widened.

"Emiko, come look at this," he called to his daughter. "Quickly!"

"What is it, Dad?" she asked.

"It's a trilobite!" he told her in awe. "It's an honest to God, living, breathing trilobite."

"But, aren't they supposed to be extinct?"

Yamane flashed Emiko a knowing smile. "Not anymore."

"Yamane," Tabata called to him. "I know you're excited and all, but, I would advise not touching that thing with your bare hands. The center of the print contains strong doses of Strontium-90."

As evidence of this, the Geiger counter started going off faster than it did with the well. Yamane nodded and slipped on some rubber gloves. He made sure to put the specimen in a sample bag.

"I'd like to examine other corners of the island that received the most damage." he told Inada.

Inada nodded and gestured the team to follow him.

September 2nd, 6:44 pm, Oto Island, 1954

Emiko had snuck out of the tent to look for Shinkichi. Sure enough, she found him walking down the hill.

"Where were you?" she asked. "I was worried about you."

Shinkichi shrugged. "Just taking a walk to clear my mind about a few things."

"Such as?"

Shinkichi sighed and sat down on some debris as a makeshift chair.

"LIke the fact I no longer have a home to come back to. The fact that I no longer have a mom. The fact that I no longer have..." his voice choked up a bit. "The fact I no longer have a brother."

Shinkichi clenched his fists together.

"It should have been me." he whispered in an emotionless voice that made Emiko jump back. "I should've stayed there with them when the house came crashing down. I never should have-"

"Don't say that," Emiko told him. "It wasn't your fault."

Shinkichi was silent for a moment until he spoke again in a shaky voice.

"I... I'm never going to... TALK to them anymore."

Emiko stepped forward and hugged the young man, letting him sob into her shoulder. Just then, their embrace was shattered by the sound of a hammer striking a bell. Everyone stepped out of the tent and the villagers stepped forward and headed for the tallest hill on the island.

"What is it?" Yamane yelled to the villager ringing the bell. "What's going on!?"

"There's something over that hill eating the other cattle!" he yelled back, "Whatever it is, it's big and it's alive!"

The villagers carried with them rifles, spears, swords, anything they could get their hands on as they ran up the hill, Shinkichi, Emiko, Yamane, Hagiwara, and Tabata following them as they did. Just then, something reared its head. And then, the screaming started. Before them was a head the size of a house. It was reptilian and covered in gray, almost black, crocodilian skin that seemed to absorb the afternoon sun. The face of the beast was vaguely feline with fangs on both jaws and two small ears by its side. In its mouth was a dead cow impaled limply by the creature's fangs. The monster tilted its head upwards and swallowed the dead bovine like a hawk devouring a mouse. That allowed the beast to turn its attention to the people.

Hagiwara was both panicked and stricken with awe. He took a quick picture of the beast, which caused it to flinch slightly. The monster curled its lips back, revealing its fangs, and loosed a low, rumbling growl. That growl deepened and intensified until the monster opened its jaws and let loose a roar unlike any other living creature on the planet. With that, the people began running down the hill, only stopping briefly if the beast was chasing them. Emiko, being the last to run, struggled to keep up with the group. She tripped over something, possibly a root, and she fell to the ground with a yelp. She felt a sharp pain in her ankle that intensified every time she moved it; a sprain. She struggled to get back to her feet, but the pain of her injured ankle forced her back down. She looked up... and screamed in sheer horror as she saw the beast looking right at her with its flame-colored eyes! The creature tilted its head in what could only be described as curiosity. Just then, she saw the creature lift its right claw and reach for her. All she could do was curl up into a ball and whimpered with closed eyes, just anticipating the end as tears of both pain and fear ran down her face. However, the end didn't come as she was grabbed by the arm and lifted up. She opened her eyes to see Shinkichi lifting her to his back and giving her a piggyback ride, all the while, both could hear the monster roaring. She heard a snort, almost like that of a whale exhaling, and heard footsteps that sounded almost like explosions. It sounded as if the beast was leaving. The two stopped to catch their breath as the footsteps faded away.

"Emiko!"

Emiko looked up to see her father reaching for her and embracing her. She held onto her father, letting out sobs of joy and fear as if she were four-years-old again having woken up from a nightmare. They all looked back to the hill to see the beast had disappeared like it was a frightful mirage.