A mid-twenties Kotoe raked noodles into her mouth as she read an article on her phone. The days of playing games on her phone were long gone. Her hair was tied in a tight bun and she wore a tidy military uniform. The article had a stamped comment that read "non-AI," indicating it was written by a human rather than a computer. That seal was required in journalism, but who knew how much truth there was to it.

This one she knew was real though, she recognized the article's reporter. This reporter had been following her and was trying to get a story. The publication world knew something was being built to defend against the monster that had risen from the sea now known as Godzilla. There was so much speculation on whether it was being built by the corporate or government sector. AI or a human-controlled mechanism. A defensive or offensive weapon.

Kotoe was part of a select group that knew the secret and that the final phases were being completed. She had a meeting with the head developer, a close friend, Hirooki. She didn't exactly know what his computer code did as she was focused heavily on her training for the project.

After finishing her early lunch, she put on her coat and walked outside into the corporate campus she had called her home for the past five years. She paced toward a building that was made of concrete and had few windows. It looked more like a bunker than a building. Next to the structure was a wide circle pad that looked like a missile silo. A few yards away stood the corporate headquarters. The building was made of all glass and it had a giant logo displayed on the front.

The usual amount of reporters, around ten, were hanging out by the entrance. Kotoe cut passed them as various microphones were placed in her face. Before last week, she was a nobody, but after the announcement that she would be directly involved with a new defense weapon, she was now a worldwide celebrity.

She scanned her badge. Next time she would remember to take the underground entrance. After passing security checkpoints, She went by the common room, a giant cafeteria, the coding room, and towards Hirooki's office. He was so special that he got his own office.

Hirooki was already on his computer, working away. His black hair was in a ponytail and he had orange-tinted glasses on his face. He couldn't stand the white glaring computer screen, so he bought himself a pair of tinted glasses.

"Any software updates?" Kotoe asked.

"Just a few update statements to some tables in the database. Mecha AI reported the database stats to be optimal. Access speed was still clocking in a few milliseconds than what we want, this should fix that. With the AI's help, I was able to track down a couple of troublesome tables."

His keyboard was vertically split into two pieces. He considered it a healthier option than a traditional keyboard. Next to Hirooki's keyboard was a picture of two guys, one slightly older, Hirooki's father. He had also worked here but had passed away. That's where Hirooki took over. Japan has a strict reputation for completing one's work. Next to the picture of his father were various origami shapes. Hirooki's fingers swept over the keyboard, a master of the computer key positions.

He designed a query that read:

UPDATE SET 745 WHERE filenum='832'

The computer AI responded with text, "Should I update this across all tables associated with this foreign key?"

"Yes, please. And go ahead and add an index in the mechanical table, the query data looked off." Hirooki said as he leaned back in his chair. "And continue to analyze the query report from the profiler and build indexes on the reported tables."

The computer screen flashed as different tables appeared and were updated. "Build me a log and display the queries." He clicked on another program and noted the changes. Then he looked over at Kotoe. "We want the Mecha to access the data from the tables as quickly and efficiently as possible, don't we?"

Kotoe rolled her eyes. "Does this AI log how much honey to put in your tea?"

The clacking keyboard stopped as they heard the sliding entrance doors open behind them. Two young interns were led into their room guided by Chiyo.

"Kotoe. Chiyo. Meet our interns." Chiyo said as the interns all slightly bowed their heads. Chiyo was the leader of the department and had been for years. At times, she could seem brash. She was good at pushing her employees to achieve to impossible. She had short black hair and wore a business suit.

The interns waited with nervous grins, they looked overwhelmed. Kotoe knew how vigorous the intern selection process had been, and these two had emerged victors. Their youthful energy was evident in their attire and eager demeanor.

"Meet Mai and Akio. Mai has a degree in engineering and won the Python coding competition set by the state of Japan. While Akio is top of his class at the local University in Data Sciences." Mai had short hair and a white fitted button down and Akio had on a sweater with a collared shirt on underneath. His waving black hair partially covered his thick glasses.

"Nice to meet you, Mai and Akio."

Both of them smiled and bowed respectfully.

Kotoe felt like this was going to slow the project. They had a team of fifteen coders that Hirooki oversaw already, this was asking for something to get overlooked. She knew the board was frantically trying to present the weapon. You could only tweak the project so much before it just needed to go. Chiyo's favorite argument was to not let the team forget about The Challenger, the tragic result of a rushed launch. But with the looming threat of Godzilla, they were under pressure to meet their deadline.

"I'd say let's break them in and show them what is really going on here." Hirooki swooped around in his chair. He typed in a password and stated, "Computer open doors." He turned to the interns. "Voice control."

In front of him, two dark shades parted to reveal glass windows. A silver robotic head with yellow plastic eyes roughly twenty-five feet high appeared behind the windows. The mouth had lines of mechanized teeth. A shiny fin sat on the top of its head.

"We call it MechaGodzilla." Chiyo announced. "It's top of the line with advanced AI, known as Mecha AI. This AI can make its own decisions and adapt to changing events, much like automated cars."

The interns crept forward to peer down beyond the glass window. At close to four hundred feet high, the Mecha's head almost touched the ceiling bay doors. Perched on elevated platforms, workers operated a welding torch to affix the final pieces together on the cyborg's chest. As everyone pulled closer to the glass, Akio pulled back and stood before Hirooki's computer. He kept his gaze up toward the window.

If Kotoe, Hirooki, or Chiyo had looked closer at Akio, they would have noticed his black glasses flickered as he gazed at the code visible on the computer.