Creation began on 10-11-20
Creation ended on 10-14-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Evangelion Malevolence: God of Destruction
"…Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki went to the shrine the Third Child works at?" Misato questioned Ritsuko the next day.
"Yeah, apparently, he had to…consult with his beliefs, and there seemed to be a crisis of conscience he was facing." Ritsuko explained as best she could.
"A crisis of conscience? Most of the time, the only crisis of conscience is people getting worked up on abortion rights."
"That's usually in the US, but it gets questioned every now and then in this country. What's got you riled up?"
"That boy's stubborn unwillingness to accept what NERV does for everyone."
"Well, he's been vocal about his disgust about us ever since he got here, and his father's been no influence over his own decisions. If anyone was to try and compare the two, they wouldn't get very far past the sole fact that they're related."
"Tell me about it. The kid seems to prefer that shrine over the Geo-Front. I say the first disaster that strikes, his first instinct is to run towards the shrine instead of a shelter."
-x-
It was a shocker for those that came to the temple this morning. Not only was a man that looked exactly like Itsudatsu Isayama in the shrine, but another elder associated with the paramilitary agency that Shinji went to half the week was also there.
"Hirotoshi," Itsudatsu greeted the man in brown clothing with a cane. "It has been too long."
"Yes, it has," the lookalike, Hirotoshi, responded, bowing his head.
"They're brothers?" Shinji asked Rumiko.
"They're twins," she clarified. "Identical twins."
"Except one's a temple owner and the other's a…prophet?" Another employee questioned.
"It happens," Rumiko stated as the mysterious twin took notice of the statues.
"He will return to take his revenge upon the nation," Hirotoshi uttered. "There is no time left to prepare for anything else."
"Who will return?" Itsudatsu asked him.
"Godzilla," his brother explained. "Godzilla will return soon. He will exact vengeance against the people."
"So, then, you believe that Godzilla does exist?" Kozo Fuyutsuki asked him.
"Godzilla is the embodiment of our destruction. Every breath he takes is death in pursuit of those that try to run away. Each steps he takes forward is to trample upon those within his grasp."
"Even so," Itsudatsu replied, "there is the hope that the motherland's former enemies from ancient times will arise to protect the land from this devastation."
"If the Guardian Monsters are strong enough," Hirotoshi stated, "but they are only three sacred beasts…and this animal has been revived to destroy the nation, down to the last man, woman and child…because it must."
"Uh, excuse me, sir," Shinji intervened in the conversation. "You seem to genuinely believe that Godzilla will return. If he does do so, can you answer why?"
-x-
It was bad for Gendo, but NERV was on indefinite standby. The lack of activity from the Angels, followed by the discovery of their corpses, and the discovery that Hokkaido had been left in ruins by a creature with no relation to the Angels, had put the agency on hold by the Committee and the UN, as there was no guarantee that NERV could deal with such a creature they weren't prepared to deal with.
If this creature did attack Japan once before, how did the military defeat it? He wondered as he sat in his office. How did this beast get dealt with before it could attack any further and ruin the country? There's no record of how they defeated, just that they defeated it. How?
-x-
"Human artillery…can do nothing to harm it," Shinji and Rumiko recalled Hirotoshi's words as he explained his beliefs of what Godzilla was capable of, based upon what it had done in the past. "This animal has lived for countless eons. Because of the arrogance of humanity, our entrance into the Atomic Age, nuclear weapons and energy…have granted the creature extraordinary capacities for its survival. However, it is still an animal, and it can still be defeated…but not like before…and not with any weapons used by people."
"But…if it can't be stopped by people," Rumiko expressed, "then how can it be stopped?"
"This beast represents the collective will to survive…of many thousands of people."
"A…a collective will?" Shinji had asked him. "What do you mean by that?"
"This animal…is possessed by the restless souls…of all those that perished due to the terrible battles that were part of the Pacific conflict!" Hirotoshi revealed.
"You're saying that…this Godzilla…is possessed by the souls of the people that died during World War Two?" Fuyutsuki questioned, just is curious as to what was going on.
"Within this great beast, the souls of all the people who died…have combined…and brought new life to this fallen monster, imbued it with a new purpose," Hirotoshi explained.
"Shinji?" He heard Fuyutsuki's voice behind him as he walked down the street; he had asked Itsudatsu for some time off after hearing what his brother had revealed. "Do you actually believe what that man said in the temple?"
"Unfortunately…yes," Shinji revealed to the sub-commander as he turned to face him. "I don't believe he's making up any of what he said back there. This book I've been reading for a while now, everything he's said is just like what was written in the pages, based off predictions and stories based off actual events. And if he did indeed try to warn people about it, it'd make sense that nobody of today's generation would want to believe it unless there was proof. This…is something I can believe in. Call me mad if you will, but if Godzilla's going to return, I'd put my faith in some monsters killed by people from thousands of years ago to save us now if no weapon the military has can stop it, and that includes the Eva."
"I thought you'd say something like that, that you don't have faith in the Eva. Why is that?"
"If that's something that man spent his whole life working on, it makes no sense to build it so that only a teenager could use it to fight against monsters the world knew nothing about…and then tell me only bits and pieces years later after leaving me with people you could very well say only took me in because they were paid to. If my life was going to be nothing but one, big, fat disappointment after another, I was better off being dropped off in front of a firehouse somewhere before I was old enough to remember anything. At least then, I'd probably have a life worth living. Right now, the only good thing I have is my job at the temple. It keeps me away from that man and that monster he helped build. You have no idea how much I hate it, to have to sit in it for hours every time while you monitor me and tell me I have to empty my mind. It's not easy to keep a clear head when you're inside something that stinks like blood and decay and it always feels like there's something trying to drill into your head. So…I'm sorry, but I'm glad I don't believe in the Eva. It's a nightmare made by people wanting so desperately to believe that something is coming to get them and they have something that can drive it away."
As he turned to resume walking, Shinji returned to his reminiscing about what he learned about Godzilla from the mysterious twin of his boss.
"If Godzilla is to return in the future," he had spoke to Hirotoshi, wanting to know the reason behind this monster's hatred against the nation, "can you tell us why it would return to Japan? I heard that it attacked the nation before, but…why would it repeat itself? Why Japan and not some other nation? Why does it want to destroy this nation? What could cause it to desire that?"
"This murderous drive is only because the Japanese want to forget what happened long ago," Hirotoshi revealed the reason behind its intentions.
"Forget about what?"
"Although it was a war, it was a war of choice, and the choices made by those in power during the war…resulted in the pain and agony that was inflicted on all those people that became casualties of the conflict. The Japanese have deemed it preferable to forget all about their role in the suffering of that war. The dead are restless and enraged by this…and seek vengeance against the nation through Godzilla. So long as it lives, they will not rest until all of Japan is in ruins."
"But…didn't the soldiers of Japan die for this country?" Fuyutsuki had asked him. "Why would they want to suddenly destroy us?"
"It's not just the military that could've had a change of heart after dying, sir," Rumiko had told him. "Militaries only make up a fraction of a population. The people that suffered back then, all over what's left of Asia, the civilians, the arts and craftsmen, the fishermen, the teachers, the florists, the taxi drivers, their spirits are overwhelmingly more numerous than just some soldiers that fought in a war of choice. They didn't have a choice."
And she was right; those that didn't take part in the war…were much larger than the sum of those that did, which might've meant that Godzilla was controlled by…dead civilians, not soldiers, enraged by their demise and were now looking for payback against the living.
"I was there when Godzilla attacked Tokyo for the first time," Fuyutsuki revealed to Shinji.
"You? You were there? Like…there, there?"
"Yeah, I was there, there. I'm much older than I appear. I'm actually seventy-nine years old."
Shinji looked at him like it was a bizarre discovery to be standing in front of a man several months away from his eightieth year of life.
"What is it that people say about those that don't look their age? Babyface?"
"Yeah, that's what people tend to say. So…you were in your twenties when it appeared the first time? What was it like?"
Fuyutsuki sighed as he looked away from the boy.
"I can still see it as though it were only the day before," he stated. "I could see it from eight blocks away, back when Tokyo was still recovering from the last war, back when you could enjoy the seasons. Even from that distance, its menacing figure was nightmarish, like a great demon overflowing with unjust hatred. I was on the streets, running like everyone else that night it turned the sky red with the fire it spat from its mouth, running for my life. Before the sun rose upon the ruins, everyone I knew, everyone I loved…was gone. Gone forever."
"Mother! Father! Where are you?!" His voice from the past echoed in his mind as he recalled that awful night that changed the lives of everyone.
"I can never forget those events, no matter what the media smears it with," he told Shinji. "The cries of people losing their homes, their lives, their peace of mind. Not even the change of seasons can dim such painful memories."
Shinji sighed and offered his condolences for his loss of family and friends back then.
"I don't understand how such a creature is capable of such cruelty," he admitted.
"It'd have to be one from Hell to unleash such devastation upon the world," Fuyutsuki claimed.
-x-
The Port of Akita was among the parts of Japan that had survived Second Impact, but its economy survival rate required that it be expanded upon to ensure more reliability with the fishing needs of the people that lived there.
"Hey, skipper," said a young sailing man to his superior as their boat returned to the port with their catch of fish and crab, "you think your wife will be home after this week is over?"
"I have no clue," an older man responded. "I just want to get out of the water and relax to some soothing music."
Suddenly, the water around their boat started to disappear as it rose into the air.
"What the Hell is going on?!" They gasped as they felt their boat move above something that was moving, the water falling from around it.
The people nearby, either fishing for leisure or working to support themselves or their families, saw as something colossal emerged from the ocean.
"Ah…aah… AAAAHH!" An elderly man with his grandson yelled, recognizing it.
It was bigger than it was the last time it appeared, charcoal-black, with bone-white spines and eyes as blank as a frozen wasteland. The only difference was its ten-meter increase in height. Beyond that, it was still the same, monstrous nightmare that had laid a curse upon the nation. As it shook the residual water off its body, more people out and about saw it and panicked as they turned to flee.
"It's Godzilla!" Another elderly man yelled, running as fast as his withered legs and cane would take him.
"Rrrrrraaurgh!" Godzilla roared as he began his advance upon Akita.
-x-
"Hey, this just in!" One of the NERV personnel informed the others in the cafeteria within the Geo-Front, carrying a tablet. "They're saying that a monster called Godzilla just showed in Akita!"
"What?!" Misato, who was also in the cafeteria, responded to this discovery. "Godzilla?!"
She looked at the tablet screen, seeing what she could of the monster that most people believed to be nothing more than a myth. And she was unable to look away from it. The monster was absolutely horrifying; there was no other way to describe it other than that. The way it looked, like it was pure evil incarnate, made it appear anything but a bad dream one would wake up from. Except this wasn't a bad dream; people were awake and this beast was real.
"It's going to destroy the entire city," a woman said as the monster looked as though it was chasing after the people that were running from it.
"This is not a movie, people!" A man in front of the camera told the viewers as he started running with the cameraman. "This is real! The myth is alive! Godzilla, the scourge of Japan, has returned and is here to take vengeance upon us for our sins! I don't know if we're going to survive this! This might be my last day to live doing my job! Goodbye, everyone! Goodbye!"
They couldn't see anything, but the sound of Godzilla's roars and the sounds of giant footsteps and beings being demolished was evident of the rampage that was being unleashed upon the city.
"What if it comes here?"
"It'll destroy all of Japan."
"It once destroyed Tokyo. Tokyo-3 won't be any different."
"But it could be a while before it comes here."
"I'm taking my family and getting out of here."
Misato knew that it would be some time before Godzilla reached Tokyo-3. That time could be used to make a strategy to deal with the threat it represented. It wasn't an Angel, but NERV could still do something about it.
-x-
Godzilla had already trampled a quarter of the city, and it was about to do away with the rest it as it made its way downward towards the rest of the nation.
A thud stirred a woman from her slumber in a hospital bed, and she awoke with her last memory of being a suicide attempt that didn't end well for her. She looked out of a nearby window and saw the monster advancing towards her!
"Oh, no! No!" She cried, trying to get away, but she couldn't move as her arms and legs from her suicide attempt were broken and bandaged. "No!"
"Grrrraurgh!" Godzilla growled as it continued to edge closer towards her.
"Ahh! Aah! Aaah!" The woman cried, hysterical at the fact that this ancient and horrifying beast was going to crush her.
Suddenly, it wasn't there. The beast had just walked past the building, including her. It just…it just ignored her.
I'm still alive, she thought, now feeling relieved. It didn't see me. Thank the gods.
Then…the beast's tail came into her perception…and slammed into the building, demolishing it like it was made of wooden blocks!
To be continued…
A/N: I felt the need to have Fuyutsuki have some more depth, so I made him older than he was in canon, thus allowing him to have some history about Godzilla's first attack on Tokyo in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. And for those that saw the film, I'm sure we all thought the same with that girl in the hospital bed; we feared the beast was going to kill her, but then it went past her, and then its tail came and cast judgment. What do you think so far?