Chapter Text
November 10th, 7:05 AM, Pacific Ocean, Onboard the Kyoryu No. 2, 1955
Tanaka Yoshi couldn't help but feel uneased today. Granted, they had just caught a massive haul, but there was also the massive ships that surrounded the fishing trawler, their cannons armed and ready to engage one or two monsters that had survived countless extinctions. He looked back at the ocean as the sun was just starting to peek over the dawning clouds, its light giving the waves a goldenrod hue and how it glinted off the gunmetal gray hulls of the ships.
Yoshi was a man with his own paradox. At times, he could find peace by gazing out at the surface of the waves with his two daughters, Saeko, and Reiko, how the light of the moon, the stars, and the sun would reflect and make it appear as if it were a mirror made of pure water. However, at the same time, he was terrified of what lurked beneath it. He had been scared of it since he was a child, how, every time he would go to the beach with his mother and father and worry about whatever nightmare would haul itself to shore and try to devour him. His wife, Mei, even heckled him about this once upon a time.
"You're worrying about imaginary sea monsters and yet your job requires you to harvest things that live in the sea," she once said, chuckling at the irony.
For a while, Yoshi understood where Mei was coming from. Why did he even sign up for a job that would require fetching the creatures that live beneath the sea so that they could be consumed? For a time, he let his fears erode, disappear into the back of his mind until he believed himself to be crazy to live in fear of the life that went their days beneath the waves.
And then, Godzilla appeared in 1954, and suddenly his fears reemerged with the fires of a volcano. The fact that a creature such as Godzilla or, more recently, Anguirus, not only existed, but could effortlessly live on sea and land filled him with another, greater fear; what else dwelled under the sea? What other nightmarish leviathans from the prehistoric age, lay dormant beneath the waves, just waiting to awaken and claim the world for themselves? Was humanity truly the dominant race on this planet anymore? Was it ever, the dominant species, or were they just trespassers in a world once ruled by gods of flesh and bone?
"Captain?"
It was his first mate, Inabara Mako.
"The nets are full," he told him. "Anymore fish and they're gonna tear."
Yoshi nodded. "Radio to MF Hokkaido," he told him. "Tell them we're heading back to port. Relay the same message to the ships."
Mako nodded and went to the telegraph. He was about to order the ship to turn around, when he saw something in the horizon. It looked to be a torrent of... something.
"What is that?" one of his crewmembers asked.
Mako looked closer, and his eyes widened. It was a torrent of sea life. Sharks, dolphins, fish, rays, whales, all of them swimming as a single wall of life toward the fleet. Some of them collided with the net, causing it to wrench off. The cable snapped and sliced off one of Mako's arms off at the elbow, causing him to drop down and scream in pain as his blood painted the deck. The ship was nearly swamped by the flood of marine life. He then noticed the battleships turning their guns toward what looked like a reef heading toward them... until he realized what was beneath it.
Godzilla.
And then, the early morning sky was split by bullets and artillery shells.
He had been swimming for quite some time. How much, he couldn't tell. All he knew was that his enemy, the armored one, had gone so far that he lost his tracks. At the moment, he was more concerned about taking his anger out on something. He also needed nourishment, so he devoured a whale, but caused an underwater stampede. Just then, he noticed a few human vessels up ahead. He thought back to the vessels that were around when the waters in the bay turned into burning acid. He also remembered the vessels that fired those exploding spheres at him off the coast of his island lair. He pulled his lips into a snarl and rushed to meet them.
Besides, he needed something to take his frustrations out on.
The originally calm morning had erupted into chaos. Artillery shells struck the water all the while exploding on Godzilla's skin or some just bouncing off. Godzilla had yet to fully reveal himself, keeping only his dorsal fins above the surface. He changed direction and headed toward one of the battleships, the USS Emmerich. Before the ship could fully take evasive action, Godzilla's fins sliced right through her hull, cutting her in two like a hot knife through butter. The halves of the ship began to sink beneath the waves while the Emmerich's sister ships, the Tatopoulos and the Devlin . aimed their cannons. First, the Devlin fired her howitzers at Godzilla only for him to dive beneath the water. For a few moments, the sea was silent with the remaining American vessels standing by.
"Send a telegraph, helmsman," Yoshi told Helmsman Jonouichi, taking advantage of the relative peace. "Tell them that we've fallen under attack by Godzilla."
Just then, he noticed something dark swim beneath the Devlin and a chill ran up his spine. Godzilla was directly beneath them! However, just as he was about to call out, Godzilla's enormous talons emerged from the depths and sank into the Devlin's hull, holding her in place. He could only watch as the waters underneath the ship began to glow an eerie blue, illuminating the silhouette of the giant saurian, before a lance of blue energy split the dawn and blasted a hole through the Devlin's command center . As soon as the ship began to sink, Godzilla let go and moved onto the Tatopoulos. The final battleship unloaded shell after shell upon Godzilla. At this point, Godzilla's head was starting to peek above the surface like a gargantuan crocodile, his eyes burning like embers. The crew of the Kyoryu No. 2 could only watch as Godzilla's dorsal fins took on a blue glow and his Atomic Breath erupted from his jaws and went right through the vessel which ignited her ammo stores, causing her to not only explode, but also burn like a Viking funeral boat. The only ship left to protect the Kyoryu No. 2, was a patrol boat that could only shoot its machine gun in vain. It wasn't enough to do any damage to him, but it did get his attention as he chased after the ship before reaching out with his claws and smacking down as if it were only a fly before he threw the wreckage and crushed bodies aside.
Seemingly satisfied, Godzilla dove beneath the water. However, his tail stayed in the air for a few good moments... right above the Kyoryu No. 2. The tail waved in the air like a worm before it rushed toward the trawler.
As his doom fell towards him, all Yoshi could do was list off the names of his family.
"Mei," he started. "Saeko... Reiko..."
And then, nothing.