“I am quite lucky that worked,” the seller of aquatic cuisine said to himself, his hand gripping one of the sapphire-hued oyster shells. Kotaro was clearly more than he seemed, but it would be a long time before the world at large would find out exactly how much more.
In the meantime, Megadrak began trailing a line of fleeing, panicked would-be shoppers and business owners who rushed down the boulevards leading towards the Akihabara section of the city. It took mere minutes for the towering monster to overtake them with its massive gait. Several people in the fleeing crowd found themselves pulverized under its scaled feet, whereas others were caught in its hands and quickly subjected to grisly deaths between its jaws or its hands.
As Megadrak crossed into the Electric Town, it intercepted a bus whose driver inadvertently crossed into its path. The kaiju lifted the bus off the ground in a single hand as if it were a Tonka toy, and inspected the vehicle at face-level. It observed the tiny faces of the humans within as they screamed what one reporter later called “bloody hell” upon receiving a close-up view of the monster’s enormous green eyes.
Its curiosity apparently sated, the beast hurled the bus back down to the ground. The vehicle smashed on the hard asphalt and bounced about a few times before coming to a halt. The impact shattered every single one of the large transport vehicle’s windows and distorted the shape of its cylindrical metal carriage into something resembling a battered tin can. None of the humans within would re-emerge. Satisfied that they had all been expunged, the kaiju continued its march to Akihabara.
***
It was amidst the blocks of shops selling electronic goods in Akihabara where Megadrak would finally meet resistance from the human populace. This came in the form of ten olive-green M4 Sherman tanks, all provided by the US military for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and operated by American soldiers. Several meters behind the tanks were a cadre of Japanese soldiers armed with high-powered assault rifles to back up the heavy artillery.
Standing before the battle-ready soldiers, who themselves stood just in front of a cordon they had set up at this point in the city, was Major General Hiro Matsumoto. He oversaw this military unit, and his task was to prevent Megadrak from proceeding any further into Akihabara.
It was there that the experienced military leader laid eyes upon the majestic monstrosity for the first time. He said a silent prayer to Hachiman, the Shinto god of war and patron deity of soldiers, to grant him and the men under his command the courage and fortitude to battle this incredible creature, and to the bitter end if necessary.
The command to attack the apocalyptic giant was given in short order.
Megadrak was at first startled to be struck with a salvo of T4 high-velocity armor-piercing ammo that spewed with hot fury from the tanks’ 76 mm guns. The high penetration capacity of tungsten-coated aluminum projectiles may have made this ammo the bane of the German Panzer tanks they encountered on the battlefields of World War II, but they appeared to do little more here than irritate the ultra-tough hide of the gargantuan kaiju.
The barrage struck Megadrak hard and fast enough to make it obvious to the creature it was under attack, however. Such a challenge to its newly claimed territory could only be answered with a counterassault of extreme prejudice.
The monster angrily rushed forward and kicked two of the tanks with its titanic clawed foot. One of them flew directly over the heads of the soldiers situated at the cordon many meters behind the defense perimeter. It landed on the asphalt with a clanging thud and exploded almost immediately, blasting apart a large portion of the thoroughfare surrounding it.
The second tank barely missed the line of soldiers when it landed, forcing Major Matsumoto and several of his men to leap for cover. This armored assault vehicle didn’t explode on impact, however, but simply had its turret and a portion of its thick steel hull severely warped.
“The men inside may be alive!” the major said to two of his men. “Go and help them out!”
The soldiers did as ordered, and with some effort they managed to pull the hatch open. The two men inside, however, lay strewn over the shattered controls with no sign of motion. One of them had his skull crushed inwards, while the other’s body was twisted so severely that his legs were folded completely over his back.
The other three tanks switched to the use of their turret cannons, to which they hoped the monster would prove more vulnerable. Matsumoto ordered his infantrymen to add to this fusillade of metal projectiles by aiming their rifles and firing at will.
The barrage of cannon fire exploded against Megadrak’s über-dense scaly skin, but again the kaiju seemed more enraged than injured. It responded to the stronger assault by stepping on the middle tank of the remaining trio, exerting its full tremendous weight and crushing the large combat vehicle completely flat in roughly ten seconds.
Despite being a seasoned combat veteran who thought he had seen the worst battlefield atrocities imaginable, Matsumoto nevertheless winced at the sight. He felt as if he could actually hear the men inside the tank screaming as they were slowly pulverized inside its interior.
The military leader aimed his own weapon at every part of the creature he estimated to possess a remote chance of being vulnerable to injury. He fired several rounds at the giant reptile, but the kaiju seemed to entirely ignore the paltry assault of infantry to concentrate its efforts on the two tanks left in the battle.
It lifted one of the thirty-ton armored vehicles off the ground with the ease a human may lift a baseball and hurled it at a nearby building. The tank smashed clear through a section of the twelfth floor and landed somewhere deep inside the structure; Matsumoto had no idea if the men inside could have survived, but he highly doubted it.
In dealing with the final tank, Megadrak decided to sate its curiosity as to precisely how the humans were situated inside the confines of these little constructs. To that end, it lifted the last of the armored vehicles and casually tore the turret section from the hull, exposing the Sherman’s interior. One of the two occupants quickly fell out of the makeshift opening when the kaiju turned the tank upside down to peer inside. The soldier shrieked all the way to ground, only to go permanently silent upon striking the pavement over fifty meters below.
The other occupant of the now-exposed interior managed to prevent himself from falling by instinctively grabbing onto one of the control levers at the dashboard. Nevertheless, he screamed just as loudly—albeit even longer—than his departed comrade when he realized that letting himself plummet to the ground far below would have been less ghastly than the alternative he was about to experience.
Megadrak held the open portion of the tank over its open jaws and furiously shook the object a few times until the driver was knocked loose and landed on the monster’s large, grayish-green tongue. The hapless man shouted and pounded his fists and feet against the foul-smelling spongey material beneath him, his mind overwhelmed with nightmarish horror until he faded from sight forever when the kaiju closed its mouth.
“My gods, Major!” the infantryman standing and firing beside him said. “What should we do now?”
Matsumoto contemplated the answer for just under two seconds before responding. “We… must retreat. We cannot hold the line, but we may at least have bought many civilians enough time to reach the evacuation points safely. It is now up to the Air Defense to take up the fight.” The officer grudgingly lowered his rifle and turned to the line of infantry under his command. “Retreat, men! Retreat!”
The soldiers wasted no time in complying with the order. The two dozen men began running down the main boulevard leading into Electric City where their transport vehicles awaited them. Megadrak appeared aware that it would likely have trouble crushing every single one of those fleeing little enemies by pursuing and attempting to grab or stomp them into oblivion.
Hence, it tilted its massive head in a curious manner, as its olfactory senses—proving as acute as its sight and hearing—picked up the faint scent of gas emanating from
the spilled fuel of the first tank it hurled. It also detected more fumes drifting up from a gas main punctured when the exploding tank blew up the asphalt.
As if by instinct, Megadrak opened its mouth, and the deadly radioactive mist began billowing out each side of its gullet. This time, though, instead of exhaling its corrosive fog directly at the withdrawing humans, it deliberately respired the gaseous substance through the pompadours of flame surrounding the detonated tank. The mist proved highly flammable and combined with the gas fumes wafting about to form an organic blowtorch of considerable range and intensity.
The concentrated stream of projected flame spread across the length of the street at astounding speed. It enveloped Matsumoto and his fleeing men within seconds after being spewed, and the soldiers all screeched in agony as their fragile bodies were immolated.
One man managed to duck down a side street, but not before he was hit by the infernal cascade as well. The pedestrians that remained within the stores lining the avenue were subjected to a horrifying spectacle as the soldier ran past the shop windows with his body enveloped by blazing plumes of reddish-orange flame. The sound of the man’s death screams and the nauseating stench of burning flesh would forever haunt the memories of the unfortunate witnesses.
The triumphant and still supreme Megadrak resumed its trudge into Akihabara, wading through the inferno it had wrought with nary a scorch to its hide or discomfort from the incredible heat. Its resounding victory roar sent chills to the marrow of any person within earshot as it conveyed the message that the first line of defense from its territorial rivals was unsuccessful, and almost insulting.
It was now up to the Air Self-Defense Force to mount the next phase of resistance. It was already clear to all concerned, however, that they may be up against an utterly unstoppable foe, one that had stepped out of one of humanity’s darkest myths.
CHAPTER 14: A Nightmare on Electric Avenue
Jun Goya strode into the kitchen of his modest but comfortable apartment sequestered on one of the upper levels of an apartment complex on Electric Avenue, located in the heart of Akihabara. The smell of deep-fried agemono drifted from his kitchen, and his mouth salivated in anticipation of sampling the latest culinary creation of his wife, Izumi. Their seven-year-old daughter Kimiko ran around the table, likewise excited about the upcoming meal but also to expend some of the boundless energy typical of kids her age.
“You will need to calm down if you want to sit and taste some of this agemono,” Izumi said with a warm smile. “I know kids must be kids, but please become a proper young lady for the dinner table.”
Kimiko kept running about singing the lyrics to “Butterfly from Nagasaki,” which was bringing Hamako Watanabe’s sweet voice into their home via the 78 rpm spinning on the family’s small record player.
Jun laughed at his daughter’s antics. “I knew getting that record may not have been the best idea. Our little blossom cannot get enough of it.”
“Hai,” Izumi agreed as she set the table. “But I would still take Ms. Hamako over the noise passing for music in those American imports, like that Elcuck Presley.”
“I believe the gentleman’s name is pronounced Elvis,” her spouse of nine years replied with a sarcastic tone. “Get it right—show a man of his talent the proper respect.”
Izumi snorted with counter sarcasm. “Oh, begging my pardon. Elvis, you say? Those Americans never cease coming up with such strange-sounding names. As if the likes of ‘William’ or ‘Marion’ were not queer enough.”
It was just that moment the Goya family would find their domestic bliss shattered forever. And it began with Izumi’s older sister Amaya Ito, who lived in an apartment on the floor above their own, suddenly storming through their front door without knocking first.
“Izumi! Jun! Come quick!” she screamed frantically.
“Amaya, we are about to eat,” Izumi said in response. “Can you sit with us and tell us what is going on here?”
“No!” Amaya responded with continued alarm. “You do not have a television, but I do! You must see what is being televised now! If you do not see it, you will not believe me!”
“I will go up and take a look,” her brother-in-law said. “My love, take care of Kimiko while I see what the fuss is about.”
Izumi agreed as her husband walked out the door and up the flight of stairs leading to the floor where Amaya’s apartment was situated. She was moving faster than he had ever seen before, and he could scarcely keep up with her.
“Slow down, Amaya!” he requested.
“No, we must hurry!” she insisted.
Eager to see whatever the matter was and get back to the dinner he had been so looking forward to all day, the electronics store clerk sighed and hastened to his sister-in-law’s apartment. In the front room of her modest flat was the small console television she owned, and the harried woman motioned for Jun to step in front of it. She pointed to the device her brother-in-law considered a needless extravagance, and he glared at the small black and white picture. What unfolded on the screen sounded like a news alert, but the images he saw flash across the tube were beyond anything he had seen even in the realm of American science fiction cinema.
“The daikaiju has been referred to as Megadrak,” the nearly hysterical voice of the newscaster proclaimed over footage of the enormous dragon-like beast charging through familiar boulevards. “The government reports the entire metropolis of Tokyo must be evacuated to allow the military to launch a full strike against this unbelievable beast. We urge all citizens watching this to inform those not yet aware of the danger to head to their nearest bomb shelter in an orderly fashion. Evacuation transport will be arriving at each as soon as possible.”
“This… this cannot be real…” Jun stammered in disbelief.
“It is real, Jun!” Amaya implored. “This is Nippon News; they do not lie!”
“I recognized that area on the screen. It is located just several blocks from Electric Avenue!”
“Hai! Do you not hear the sirens and the screams beginning outside? We need to get my sister and little Kimiko, and leave the city! Never mind the bomb shelter; we can use my car to drive out of the prefecture.”
The human screams emanating from the streets down from the upper floor of Amaya’s apartment suddenly became much more audible.
“I need to see exactly what is going on out there!” Jun proclaimed as he ran to the double windows on the side of the apartment.
The electronics store clerk pulled open the drapes to see what type of commotion was occurring down below. What he saw marked the beginning of the end of the life that he knew.
Jun found himself viewing a monstrous creature whose size made it level with the window of the tenement’s uppermost floor. The kaiju was in the process of stuffing a handful of captured people into its cavernous toothy maw, which it then began chewing into a mass of pulpy gristle. The sound of the tiny captives’ collective screams being suddenly silenced with a series of wet crunching sounds was even more horrifying than the sight accompanying it.
Jun froze in place, his mouth agape and his eyes looking as if they would burst out of their sockets. The sight occurring before him was out of his darkest nightmares, the type of scene one can only imagine if they had taken street drugs with a hefty degree of impurities. There were no words his shell-shocked mind could articulate; and no startled exclamation in his colloquial repertoire could possibly do justice to what he was seeing.
“Jun, what is wrong?” Amaya inquired from across the room.
Her brother-in-law remained staring out the window, unable to respond to either her impassioned query nor the tableau his eyes were fixed upon. And if one would think such a scene of unremitting terror couldn’t possibly get worse, they would have quickly been proven wrong.
After Megadrak finished its grisly banquet, the mighty kaiju suddenly turned its gargantuan, dragon-like head and found its bright green eyes staring directly at the little being looking out the window at it.
That little being would be Jun, and the sight of him reminded the dreadful beast that the huge structures surrounding it were nesting units for its tiny territorial rivals.
The kaiju released one of its angry, tremulous roaring hisses and raised its enormous hand to strike. The sight triggered an adrenal rush in Jun’s bloodstream that finally prompted his flight response.
“Amaya, move!”
Jun ran across the room to his sister-in-law and pushed her toward the door as hard and as fast as he could. This frenzied movement was barely sufficient to enable the two to evade Megadrak’s enormous scaly hand as it came crashing clear through the front room’s wall. Fortunately for those two the creature had no conception of how large the room inside the structure was, so it underestimated the extent of the reach required to grasp its intended victims. As a result, Jun and Amaya managed to rush through the door as large chunks of debris were strewn about them.
Before Megadrak could unleash a second strike intended to fully demolish the building before it, the creature’s adept hearing picked up a whining noise that emanated from far above it. The distracted beast turned its head to see a squad of six F-51 Mustang fighter jets rapidly descending toward it. The beast turned and roared a challenge, as it had by now realized that these loud little airborne constructs were a means for its tiny foes to attempt to challenge its rightful hegemony.
The major question for Jun and Amaya as they ran down the steps to the still intact floor below them was whether they could gather their family and escape from the building—let alone the city itself—before the harbinger of apocalyptic doom claimed their lives.
***
“Do you see the size of that thing, Captain?” one of the American pilots, Lieutenant Arnold Lemke, said to his squad leader.
Megadrak: Beast Of The Apocalypse Page 14