Chapter 4: Just Another Morning
Asuka Sohryu
April 2nd, 2024, 5:00 am
Setting my phone's alarm to random was a mistake. Having a chorus of hallelujahs blasting me awake was not how I needed to start my day but I suppose it could have been worse. As much as I would have liked to just go straight back to bed after turning it off, that wasn't an option and I had to rub the grogginess out of my eyes while sitting up. On the other side of the bed, Kensuke stirred before rolling over and starting to snore. That damned technician still wasn't out of bed by the time I'd brushed my teeth and got dressed. It was only after I'd finished brushing my hair and making sure that it was styled to my usual picture-perfect look that I finally heard him get up and shuffle groggily to our small excuse for a kitchen.
"Hmph," he grumbled as he stumbled over to the counter to pour himself a bowl of one of those ridiculously sugary American cereals that he'd taken a liking to. "G'morning."
"Morning, sleepyhead," I replied tersely as I slipped my boots on.
"Hey, you're not skipping breakfast, are you?" he asked, slowly growing more alert to the world.
"Of course not," I rolled my eyes while grabbing my car keys from the kitchen counter. "I'm picking something up on the way."
"You know, going out to eat too much is bad for your health," he joked.
I just turned and silently stared at him, then down at the bowl in front of him.
"Touché," he said at last.
After going over my mental checklist of everything I needed to do before I left, I nodded in satisfaction before stepping towards the door.
"Bye, Ken," I called back to him before leaving. "See you at work!"
"Bye!" he shouted after me. "I love you!"
A moment later, I was pulling out of our apartment's parking lot and on my way to work. As I told Kensuke, I stopped by a fast food place on the way to work to pick up coffee and a couple of those breakfast sandwich things they have where they put eggs and sausage inside of an English muffin. Probably not the healthiest way to start the day but it was still more than enough for me. Even if the sausage was terrible but that was something that I'd learned to live with since leaving home.
Before I exited back to the main road, I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through podcasts, trying to decide on something to listen to for the drive. None of my regulars had new episodes up so I settled for a Kaiju conspiracy series I didn't normally listen to, who'd just posted an episode titled 'Tokyo's Silver Giant'. You didn't need three guesses to figure out what that was going to be about.
"Welcome to another episode of Godzilla Land News," a young woman's voice opened as I returned to my commute. "I'm your host, Daughter of Mothra."
"And I'm CornMuncher108," a much older-sounding man chimed in.
"Why are you still calling yourself that!? I thought I told you to come up with a better name."
"Because I like corn. Corn's delicious."
"Rice is better but that's not what we're here to talk about today."
"It's what I talk about every day, DoM."
"Don't call me dom! It's weird."
"Then why did you name yourself that!"
"I didn't!"
With that intro, I was just about ready to turn it off and switch to something else. Just before I could tap my phone, though, they finally got on topic and I decided to keep listening for a bit.
"Now, the topic that everyone's been talking about is one of the biggest stories in kaiju news since the original Godzilla's return over twenty years ago," Daughter of Mothra announced, referencing an infamous and highly disputed 'Ghost Godzilla' theory regarding the Tokyo Bay attack that happened when I was a baby, which anyone with even half a brain knew was complete unsinn. "The new silver giant that was seen near Tokyo, battling a new Megaguirus that the G Squad pigs found themselves unable to match up against, like always."
My hands tightened around the leather grip on my steering wheel as I imagined them around the neck of that disembodied voice.
"Hey, go easy on them," Corn Muncher said, instantly winning me over to his side despite how impossible to take seriously his name was. "They're out there doing their best. It's not their fault that they're grossly underqualified for this sort of thing."
Nevermind. Any goodwill that he had earned with me was immediately thrown out the window.
"For those who haven't heard yet," Daughter of Mothra continued, "there was a Meganula outbreak in Tokyo yesterday followed by the sudden appearance of a Megaguirus much like the one Godzilla defeated back in 2000."
"Go, go, Gojira!" CornMuncher cheered.
"But rather than the big G himself showing up to save the day again, this ancient dragonfly was defeated by a giant silver man falling from space in a meteor and saving the day before vanishing without a trace as quickly as he had appeared. Not much is known about this new alien hero but folks online have already taken to calling our new guardian the Ultra Man."
"More like 'Ultra man, I hope it isn't an alien'."
"What do you have against aliens?" DoM asked. "Aliens are cool."
"My friend, you weren't there for the seventies," Corn replied as if that wasn't a complete non sequitur.
"O~kay… So, if not an alien, then what do you think the Ultra Man is? Wait, why am I even asking you that? You always pin everything on the Americans. Let me guess, this is some new project by the Men in Black."
"Of course not," Corn said. "This is clearly a new Jet Jaguar."
I picked the wrong moment to tap a sip of my coffee and suddenly found myself wishing I had windshield wipers on the inside of the car. Instead, I had to pull over and make do with the stash of napkins I always kept on hand.
"Jet Jaguar?" DoM's tone mirrored my own dumbfounded reaction to such an asinine theory. "That robot from the seventies that no one's seen in, like, fifty years?"
"Correct."
Both insane podcast hosts remained silent for a moment, while I continued on my way.
"That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard," Daughter of Mothra said at last. "And I work with you, so that's saying something."
"Look, I watched all the security footage and I'm telling you, it's Jet Jaguar. The silver body with marks on the chest, the sculpted face, and you can't tell me that the way he shows up and then disappears isn't just him changing his size. It's clearly my boy JJ."
"Then how do you explain the lasers it fired from its arms? Or how it moves like a human being and even had Megaguirus drain it's power like an organic being? He's an alien."
"I don't know, nanomachines or something," Corn said defensively. "It's been fifty years I'm sure the technology has advanced a lot since then."
"Unlike your theories," DoM replied sarcastically. "I mean, you might as well say it's Zone Fighter."
"Hey, it's still more likely than aliens. I've seen aliens before and they're not like that. And don't diss Zone Fighter, that was a great show."
"I know, we did a whole retrospective on it and everything, which our viewers should all watch as soon as they finish listening to this because it was great and didn't get nearly as many views as it should have."
"I even got to interview the show's costume designer for that one," Corn said right before I finally turned it off.
I had no interest in hearing those two idiots plug their own shit, or even just keep rattling on their absurd theories. What, was I just supposed to believe that 'Ultra Man' was some kind of size-changing alien hero of justice or something? Besides, I was just driving up to the security gate and needed to shut it off, anyway.
Pulling out my ID card, I pulled up in front of the gate while one of the usual security guys walked over.
"Good morning, Lieutenant Sohryu," he said while giving my card a quick look and signaling for the guy in the gatehouse nearby to let me in. "Hey, you hear the big news?"
"What news?" I asked, mostly just to humor him.
"Well," the guy whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember glanced to the side conspiratorially before leaning in as he handed me my card back. "You didn't hear this from me, but word is that we're going to be getting a high-ranking visitor soon."
That caught my attention.
"What? Who?"
"Don't know yet." He shrugged as he stepped away and motioned for me to go through. "But I think we all know what this means."
"They're finally moving forward with it," I muttered, more to myself than to him.
My mouth cracked into a smile as I made my way to the garage. It seemed that I was finally going to get my chance. All I had to do was wait just a little longer. It felt like I'd been preparing for this my entire life. I'd even moved halfway across the world just to improve my chances. Now, all I had to do was impress the bigwig when they got here and the opportunity would finally come falling into my lap.
What could possibly go wrong?
Rei Ikari
April 2nd, 2024, 6:00 am
I was already awake by the time the alarm clock sitting on the dresser next to my bed went off. Despite that, I waited for the third buzz before hitting the off button. Not because I needed to, but simply out of habit. I continued to stare up at the blank white ceiling of my room. Nothing would be accomplished if I simply laid there like some kind of doll waiting to be played with, so I swung one leg off the side of the bed, then the other, before standing up and walking over to the bathroom to commence my morning hygiene routines.
Picking up the toothbrush sitting beside the sink, memories came of another life. One that felt more like a dream than something I had ever lived. A young girl looking at her reflection in the mirror of a much nicer bathroom while her mother stood beside her, showing the girl how to brush her teeth.
I couldn't see that little girl in the mirror in front of me, however. Instead, I stared into the blood-red eyes of a monster, bulging green veins spreading out across its face like a demented spider's web and sharpened, curved teeth protruding from a gaping mouth.
…
Hesitantly, I picked myself up from the floor. I had to fight against the tremors as I quickly opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed everything I could. I downed a cocktail of various painkillers, antipsychotics and antidepressants, among other things. Enough to kill a normal human being.
Unfortunately, I was not human, or something that would die so easily.
When my senses returned to me, I was staring at my reflection again. What stared back was not me but the face of the seemingly normal young woman I might have been if my life had gone differently. Brown eyes, red only because they were bloodshot. The pale skin of someone who didn't get enough sunlight. Faded blue hair that was starting to show its natural dark color at the roots. Rei Ikari stared intently at me as I stared back at her, content that I hadn't transformed in the middle of the night into that thing. The real me, if such a thing even exists.
After returning to the main room of the small studio apartment that I had to myself until the end of the month, I made my way to the kitchen area and opened up the minifridge sitting on the counter. Rei Ikari was a vegetarian, not by dietary restriction but by choice. Growing up, she'd always felt a strong sense of connection to all animal life and couldn't stand the idea of eating what had once been a living being. But I was no longer so lucky as to be afforded the luxury of being a picky eater.
I procured a slab of raw meat from the fridge and proceeded to bite a chunk out of it. While I could still need 'normal' foods and did, in fact, regularly do so for other meals, my altered physiology could not properly sustain itself without a certain intake of what I could only describe as life force. I did not fully understand the situation and any who could have informed me of what was going on were already dead by my hand. What I did know, however, was that if I did not consume the flesh of a recently deceased living animal with some regularity, my body would start to break down and, more importantly, my baser instincts would take over.
After waking up in an alley hunched over a pack of stray dogs, their blood still fresh on my lips, I had decided that it would be far more prudent to start making regular trips to local butcher's shops instead.
I finished my meal, for lack of a better term, and struggling not to think of the cow that it had once been, I headed back to the kitchen for a shower to get the blood off. After that, it was finally time to get dressed and head out for the day.
I'd never been much for fashion. Even before, Rei had a tendency to just wear her school uniforms as regular clothes even when not required. That was no longer and option for a variety of reasons, though, so I'd had to start building up a small wardrobe of outfits.
Today's outfit was a simple white sweater that covered my belt and tartan skirt over a pair of plain black leggings. Nothing that particularly stood out but was not conspicuously nondescript, either. One of the keys to not standing out in a crowd was not to look like you were trying not to stand out, after all. Add to that my regular leather riding boots and jacket and I was almost ready to head out. There was just one thing that I was missing.
I picked up the long red scarf hanging from a hook on the door. My fingers brushed along the faded cotton fabric as I wrapped it around my neck and tied it securely the way I had been shown long ago. The last thing that Rei Ikari had ever been given by her mother and my symbol to remind myself that despite everything, that girl was still a part of me. That I was still, on some level, human. And that I still had something worth fighting for.
I stepped out into the sunlight looking, for all intents and purposes, like an average young woman getting ready to face the day. I didn't have any leads to follow up on this morning, so I would spend my time maintaining my current civilian identity and keeping my ears and eyes open for any signs of potential Shocker activity. Said identity was not Rei Ikari, of course. That name would draw too much attention.
Regardless, I walked down the flight of steps leading to the parking lot where my bike was waiting for me. A seemingly ordinary white motorcycle with prominent red and black accents. Perhaps a bit high-end for someone of my supposed modest income to be driving around casually. But the Cyclone was, much like its rider, more than it seemed.
I mounted the Cyclone as I had done countless times since taking it from a Shocker research and development lab that I had raided early in my campaign to destroy the organization, before putting on my helmet and putting the key in the ignition.
The best places to go for information were where a lot of people gathered regularly. Even the most seemingly upstanding establishments were often frequented by people with unsavory connections, or those who knew people who did. I recalled hearing of a trendy café downtown that had been growing more popular lately. It seemed as good a place as any to begin my search.
Shinji Ikari
April 2nd, 2024, 7:00 am
One moment, I was getting tossed into the sandy beach of Odo Island by a silver alien. The next, I was lying in bed as my other self's alarm clock was going off beside me. I wasn't sure which was worse. Especially because while my combat training with Ultraman had taken place in a dream, or whatever you want to call it, I was still feeling it as if we'd been practicing in the real world. My joints were stiff, my muscles ached and I'd spent all day working out despite having just woken up. I could only hope that wasn't an indicator of how the day was going to go. I wasn't exactly holding my breath, though.
After shutting my alarm off and stretching my aching back, I climbed out of bed and made my way to the kitchen to put on a pot of rice. While I had that going, I went back to the bedroom to get freshened up and take a shower. After getting dressed, I returned to the kitchen and started frying some eggs to go with my rice. It was a simple breakfast, especially compared to some of the meals I'd make for Asuka and Misato back in what I couldn't believe I could now call simpler times.
Once the food was ready, I moved out to the living room to turn the tv on, planning to watch the news while I ate. A lot of it was speculation about Ultraman, about me, but of course, they reported on other things, too. It was mostly just a reminder that this world wasn't that much better than my old one, mostly just different. It also made me realize that I hadn't really watched the news much before. If I had, I certainly would have learned about kaiju much earlier than I had.
After I'd finished eating, I sent a quick text to Mari asking how she was doing before getting ready for school. It seemed odd that I hadn't heard from her since she'd left to go take care of her sick aunt back in England but she was probably just busy. I couldn't help but start to worry, though. What if something had happened to her?
Regardless of the status of Other Me's girlfriend, it was time for me to get to school. So, I grabbed my backpack and headed out for my second day of college, nearly missing my train. Since the other Shinji and I had finally decided that he would be the one taking classes and doing school work, though, we made the switch in the middle of the ride to campus.
This was actually the first time that he'd fully taken control of his body from me and it proved to be a strange experience. It was as if I was just sitting there normally on the train seat when suddenly something pulled me back, dragging me out of my body while someone else stepped up into my place. And then I was sitting again, not on a train seat but on the old couch in the living room of the cabin back on Odo Island. The big TV in front of me was turned on and playing… well, me. The image on screen was exactly what I'd been looking at before and I could hear the sounds of the train and everyone on it over the speakers. This must have been how the other Shinji watched what I was doing while I was in control.
"Good morning, Shinji Ikari."
I turned to see Ultraman walking into the room. Even though I'd known him for a couple of days now, it was still a strange sight to see. Especially how his… skin, I guess it was, looked like it was solid metal and yet still moved like it was human skin. Even stranger, even though I was no longer looking at the screen, I could still somehow see what the other me was doing back in the real world at the same time as what I was actually looking at here our shared mind.
"Um, morning," I replied. "Should we get back to training?"
The alien shook his head.
"No, Shinji 2 will require plenty of energy to make it through the rigors of his schoolwork," he explained. "Energy which we would be using up if we were to train while he does so. For now, we rest."
"Oh, okay," I said, not really sure what else to say. "Wait, Shinji 2?"
"I need some way to differentiate which of you I am referring to," Ultraman said. "Context clues can only go so far. Thus, I have settled for now on calling you Shinji 1, while he is Shinji 2. Though I may change this manner of address later if a more appropriate system of designation presents itself."
"But, shouldn't that be the other way around?" I argued. "I mean, he's older, so it makes more sense that he'd be first."
"That is not true." Ultraman shook his head again. "Both of you were born at exactly the same time as each other relative to your respective timelines, which would make you both the same age by that metric. It is true that Shinji 2 has many more hours of consciousness, you are from a future point in time relative to Shinji 2. Thus, neither of you can truly be considered older or younger than the other as the answer changes depending on what metric is used to measure age. As your timeline's existence predates the one we currently reside in, it seemed more appropriate to give you the designation of Shinji 1."
I opened my mouth to argue but I couldn't think of anything to say so I ended up just standing there like an idiot. "Okay... So, what do we do now?"
Ultraman took a moment to give that question some thought before answering.
"I have taken to meditation while I wait," he said at last, and it occurred to me once again just how strange it was how his mouth didn't move at all as he spoke. In fact, I was pretty sure that it couldn't move at all. "I take this time to reflect on my past experiences and consider what future actions to take. However, if you wish, we could use this time for conversation. I have countless experiences which I can share of my past exploits as a member of the Intergalactic Defense Force and also wish to hear what tales you have of your world."
I considered that for a moment but a thought popped into my head. "Wouldn't that be distracting for the other me, though?"
"Have you been aware of what we've been doing in here while you are in control?" he asked me.
"No," I replied.
"Then that is your answer," Ultraman nodded. "It is up to you if you wish to do so, however."
Giving it some more thought, I couldn't think of a reason not to and, if I was being honest, I was curious what kinds of stories this ancient alien being had to share. The only other aliens I'd ever met before were… less than conversational, to put it lightly.
"Alright," I agreed.
"Very well," he nodded, then gestured towards the other room. "Shall we go somewhere more comfortable?"
I followed Ultraman into a room that led out into a patio, where among various shelves and other decorations, two large wicker chairs were set on either side of a wooden table that looked like it had been made of polished driftwood. The alien took a seat in one of the chairs while motioning for me to take the other, which I did.
"I have told you that I am a member of the Intergalactic Defense Force and that while we are bonded together, it will be your responsibility to act in my place," he said. "But due to the impending attack by the monstrous insectoid known as Megaguirus, I did not have the time to fully explain what this means. Allow me to begin by correcting this mistake.
"My people come from a world in the distant Nebula M78, which we call the Land of Light. Roughly 30,000 years ago by how you measure time on this planet, our world was attacked by the Lord of Darkness, the sole survivor of a dead world who had embraced the powers of darkness and led a conquering army to enslave the universe. My people, as beings of light, were able to combat this threat and, after a long and grueling war, finally defeated him and his empire for good. In the aftermath of what we call the Ultimate Wars, my people decided that they must continue to use their power to spread peace throughout the universe and so the Intergalactic Defense Force was formed."
I followed along, trying to take in everything that he was saying. Though it was pretty hard to believe. 30,000 years? I couldn't even begin to imagine something happening so long ago.
"Our organization is dedicated to defending those in need and stopping threats against inhabited worlds," he continued. "I, myself, am a warrior specialized in battling and subduing monsters much like the ones that inhabit this world."
"I see," I nodded. "Then, did you come here to fight the kaiju?"
"No." Ultraman shook his head. "Though that would be in line with my usual responsibilities and, if you are willing, I will help you defend this land from any monsters that attack, that is not why I was sent here. Your planet is actually outside the territory currently patrolled by the Defense Force, though we have expanded this way in recent centuries."
"Then, why are you here?" I asked, thinking back on what I could remember of when he'd first introduced himself to me. "Wait, didn't you say something about being here because of me?"
Ultraman was quiet for a moment. His blank face was as unreadable as ever but I assumed he thinking of how to respond to my question.
"That was a theory, though I do not know for sure," he said at last. "A strong chronal anomaly was detected in this region of space and eventually tracked to this planet. I was sent to investigate this anomaly."
"A chronal anomaly?" I repeated.
"Put simply, something that goes against the normal flow of time," he explained. "For example, if something had traveled forward or backward in time relative to where it should be. However, the anomaly we detected was too great to be something as simple as that. Like, perhaps, a refugee from a dead timeline finding their way into this one."
"Oh," I replied, my eyes widening as I realized the implications. "So it is me, then?"
"That would seem to be the case, though it is too early to jump to any conclusions," Ultraman confirmed. "Regardless, I have determined that you are not a threat to the peace and stability of this region. For now, I will simply sit back and observe. However, if any threats do appear, we will need to work together to stop them."
"Of course," I muttered, subconsciously gripping my knees. "Well, it's not like I don't already have experience with that sort of thing."
"Indeed, I sense that you have been through much," Ultraman said. "Would you care to share your story?"
"I thought you said that you've already seen what I've been through?" I asked, looking up at those yellow, lens-like eyes that never seemed to betray even the slightest hint of emotion. It must be nice, being able to hide what you were feeling so easily. I wouldn't look so afraid all the time.
"I would still like to hear you talk about it," he said after a moment's pause. "And I have a feeling that it will be good for you, as well. Sometimes it is good just to have someone to talk to."
"Oh, okay." I sat up, trying to think back on everything that had happened before. It felt like a lifetime ago. In a way, it had been. "Well, I guess it started when I got a message from my dad telling me to come to Tokyo-3. I was supposed to meet a woman there, Misato Katsuragi, who would take me to the place he worked. I remember standing at a payphone when she didn't show up, finding out the line was dead. Then I turned around and… That was the first time I'd ever seen a monster-"
Takuya Komori
April 2nd, 2024, 9:00 am
Pain.
Every cubic centimeter of my being was pain.
I regained consciousness strapped to an operating table. The same table where I'd been cut open, injected with so many needles that I'd already lost count long before I'd finally passed out, and watched as parts of me had been removed or replaced. I was like a frog in a high school science class, if all the students were sadists trying to cause as much agony as they could.
While I was still slowly coming to my senses, I started coughing up blood. A lot of it. Some dark, some fresh. I could swear that one of my lungs tried to make its way up through my esophagus before I finally managed to get it under control.
"Ah, I see that you are awake." A blurry shape walked up to me and it took me a moment for my vision to focus enough to see that it was Doctor Death. That vampire-looking bastard had his usual smug grin on his oh-so-punchable face. "How do you feel?"
"Like shit that got run over by a lawn mower," I rasped, noting that it felt like I'd been gargling rusty thumbtacks. "So, we done here yet?"
"Done?" the Doctor asked. "My friend, we are remaking you from the ground up into something beyond the limits of human nature. Did you really think it would only take one day?"
"No," I admitted. That would have been far too easy.
"Don't worry," Doctor Death said in a clearly false tone of reassurance. "We'll have you in fighting form soon enough. Now, then. Let's get back to work, shall we?"
The good doctor then proceeded to take a scalpel to my stomach, or rather, the open hole where my stomach should have been. I'm not sure which I felt first, the blade against whichever organ it was that he proceeded to cut out of me, or the icy chill of his hands.
"You won't be needing this one, anymore." Doctor Death's flippantly calm tone was that of someone commenting that the weather was nice, not a mad scientist pulling out what I think might have been my liver. It was slowly dawning on me where he had earned his moniker of 'Doctor Shinigami'. "Another one for the pile, then."
The last thing I saw was another doctor running over with a red bin marked with a biohazard symbol that Doctor Death casually tossed what I was pretty sure was my liver into. Then I passed out again. A small mercy.
Author's Notes: We're back! Again! At least this wait wasn't as long as the last one. I'm back from my fanfic hiatus and I'm going to try and bump this story up my priority list so that I can actually make some reasonable progress on it. My ideal would be to get a new chapter out at least every other month at the latest but we'll see how it goes.
I was originally going to have Shinji start his first day of Kaiju Studies this chapter but I had the idea early on of having a montage of the main characters going through their daily routines and that eventually turned into this. So, it looks like Kaiju Studies will be next chapter.