Birth, life, death, rebirth.
Ryuu blinks and I see newly spawned fish swimming off the island’s coast. They are alive only long enough to be swallowed by saber-toothed megalodons emerging from the deep. The megalodons are, in turn, killed and eaten by the seal-men, were-walruses, and dolphin-maids living along the island’s shore.
Birth, life, death, rebirth.
Ryuu rolls his eyes and I gaze upon the island as it was at the dawn of time, with societies of giants, dwarves, and shapeshifters living in vast cities, all of them coexisting peacefully with the dragons and kaiju of the forest. Ryuu squints and the view in his eyes springs forward through history so that I witness the cataclysmic event that brings this golden age crashing down.
Birth, life, death, and rebirth.
Closer still to the present, I see Kintaro’s arrival through Ryuu’s gaze. I watch the legendary warrior and his compatriots as they restore a semblance of peace to the island and its peoples.
Ryuu’s eyes shift and the images there blur as they rocket forward, shooting by the present to travel decades into the future. Kintaro is inexplicably on DragonIsland once again. The island and the others around it have changed almost beyond recognition. The balance between all things—beast and man, nature and technology, good and evil—has been lost once more.
At the heart of this vision is a young girl. She is beautiful and strange, and my heart is filled with love at the sight of her. She stands before the massive hand jutting from KaijuIsland’s landscape—the same hand I rested on during one of my earliest nights upon the island—and calls. The hand begins to rise, shaking the earth around it, heralding the dawn of a new and better age.
Birth, life, death, rebirth.
Before I can learn what happens next, Ryuu’s gaze moves elsewhere.
The images in the god-dragon’s eyes leave Earth and journey to the universe’s edge and beyond. I witness billions upon billions of realities that defy description and astonish the imagination. I watch as these planes of existence come to a crashing halt. The light of their stars fades out so that countless new universes may rise from one space-time rending big bang after the next.
Birth, life, death, rebirth.
Ryuu blinks again and I see Mom and Dad bringing the baby-me home from the hospital for the first time. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen them. Their dog, Lady, is already pregnant with Bear’s mother.
Birth.
The images in Ryuu’s eyes swirl, moving forward in time so that I watch my younger self go through school, my first Glee Club solo, and the plane crash all over again.
Life.
Ryuu’s gaze re-focuses and time returns to the present. The view in his eyes move across the ocean, out of the labyrinth to Japan. Dad is there, standing outside on a dark, cloudy day. He is on stage with several other men and women before a crowd of people. Most, like him, are clad in juxtaposed outfits of hardhats, white gloves, and business suits. A banner with Japanese kanji reading, FUTURE SITE OF NEO-TOKYO, is strung across the high wire fence behind them. My Dad gives the signal and another man in a hardhat lifts the plunger that will send the multiple city blocks on the other side of the fence crashing to the ground in a massive implosion.
Before the man can press the plunger down, a bolt of crimson lightning flashes out of the sky to obliterate the building closest to them in a blast of concrete and steel.
Zodon roars as he descends out of the clouds. I watch my father and his business associates bolt in absolute terror as Ningai’s dragon-self begins laying waste to the empty buildings.
I look on through Ryuu’s eyes as the horror of Zodon’s destruction is broadcast into every home across the globe by TV, radio, and live stream.
Japan’s Self Defense Force quickly musters into action. They come at Zodon with tanks, jet fighters, surface-to-air missiles, and countless brave soldiers.
But the daikaiju remains unharmed.
Zodon merely laughs them off before utterly destroying them.
I look on with incalculable sorrow as, for the second time in just over half a century, the leaders of the world discuss the potential use of nuclear weapons upon Japanese soil.
Death.
I can’t allow this to happen.
I won’t!
“Bear,” I whisper, my voice echoing endlessly within the deep labyrinth.
Ryuu looks at me, indifferent.
“Bear!” I shout.
Ryuu growls and every molecule of my body trembles.
“BEAR!”
The father of all daikaiju opens his black hole-sized mouth and roars as he swallows me whole.
Rebirth!
Chapter 41
I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve.
—Quote from the 1970 film, Tora! Tora! Tora!
I’m Raymond Nakajima, Japanese-American and freshman at Bradbury Middle School.
No.
I’m Momotaro, Toho clansman and heir of Kintaro, floating free within the heart of the nexus between worlds known as the deep labyrinth.
No.
I am Kumagor, the great bear-dragon, totem daikaiju of reluctant warriors, bringer of judgment, and executioner of worlds!
I was here when the Earth first spun and I will still be here when it returns to my father’s gullet!
My hide is tougher than the hardest iron, my teeth sharper than the keenest blade, my claws longer than the greatest spear, my girth larger than the highest mountain!
And my breath—hotter than the raging inferno that is the sun’s heart!
I am strong. Strong! STRONG!
And, for interrupting my hibernation, my brother Zodon must be destroyed!
These are the thoughts coursing through my mind—Kumagor’s mind. It’s like we are copilots of this, his great and terrible body. One minute, he’s in control, the next, I’m in the driver’s seat. Our thoughts and feelings bleed into one another’s until the bear-dragon and I are unable tell where one of us stops and the other begins.
But don’t let me confuse you.
What’s happening here is just like the shobijin’s relationship to Gryphina. As a result of Ryuu swallowing me whole, the bear dragon Kumagor and I have formed a link between our minds.
Still not following me?
Allow me to explain further.
My body is still there, in Ryuu’s Heart—or more accurately now, his belly—drifting among the kaleidoscope of colors.
But my mind is here, with Kumagor, as he—as we—tunnel through the Earth, raking away bedrock as though it was loose sand as we make our way to Tokyo.
I’m literally in two places at once!
But there’s more.
My physical body in the labyrinth’s core is still looking out at the world through Ryuu’s gaze and transmitting what it sees into my displaced mind.
I can still see every when and every where all at once.
I experience Kumagor’s traveling through the earth from his point of view.
But I also see it from the perspective of the god-dragon.
Ryuu shows me Kumagor’s green, pebbled-hide.
Our hide.
My hide.
Its jade expanse is interrupted only by Bakeneko’s jagged claw-marks along my right side, now stretched to epic proportions. My front and hind paws would rival skyscrapers in height. Stegasaurian plates rise like a mountain chain from my immense back, terminating at the end of my giant alligator’s tail.
A horn-rimmed, ceratopsian shield of bone flares out from the bridge of my skull to cover the soft flesh at the back of my neck. The scaly, fang-filled muzzle of a bear extends forward from the shield to form my face and give me my namesake.
I’m a monster.
A dragon.
A god!
I’m the might of the world personified and I’m unstoppable!
I sense Zodon nearby and tunnel upward to breach the surface in an explosion of rubble and dust. A storm conjured by Zodon hims
elf rages across the Tokyo cityscape. Everywhere I look, bright lightning flashes and black tornados whirl.
I roar in challenge, the sound of my voice overwhelming the wind, rain, and thunder as it causes windows of the vacant buildings surrounding me to implode.
Through Ryuu’s gaze, I sense Ningai Ura’s momentary fear at my arrival. I feel Zodon quickly pushing it away from their co-inhabited mind, replacing it with the long-standing malice we daikaiju feel toward one another.
Zodon postures. He roars and spreads his wings, trying to appear as large and as menacing as possible.
But I’m not fooled.
I stand on my hind paws and rise to my full, incredible height, roaring as I cover the black dragon in my immense shadow.
Let your storm blow all you wish, brother.
Have you forgotten after so long that it is I, Kumagor, who is the strongest?
I drop back onto all fours and charge, the empty towers of concrete and steel between Zodon and myself disintegrating as I plow through them.
Zodon and I collide and I bowl my brother over onto his back. Buildings crumble to dust beneath him as he falls. I leap on top of him and we roll down the thoroughfare, tearing at each other with tooth and claw, churning up a mile of dust and pavement as we go.
I bat at Zodon’s black lion’s head with my paws—paws that could crack open the Earth like an egg shell—until unconsciousness threatens to overtake him.
I’m about to strike a final, devastating blow when his jackal’s head latches onto me and digs its muzzle into the wound at my right side.
I howl, my pain unbearable, and roll off of him. Lake-sized tears of agony form in my enormous eyes.
Zodon launches skyward, the flapping of his immense wings conjuring a cyclone in his wake. He disappears into the dark storm clouds above.
I want to retreat into the Earth and lick my wounds, but Kumagor’s indomitable will refuses to let me give up. I roll to my feet, his rage replacing my fear. I stand on my hind paws and roar, using the flashes provided by the storm’s lightning to scan the gray canopy overhead.
The Earth is my realm, but the sky is Zodon’s. For all my power, I can’t take wing. If as Kumagor I knew the meaning of regret, I might well be feeling it now, for it appears Zodon has a means of escape. Possibly even a tactical upper—
Crimson lightning flashes down from the sky to strike me square in the face! I howl and drop to all fours as successive bolts blast my hide, striping it with black scorch marks.
I do what to Kumagor is unthinkable.
I run, smashing through one condemned skyscraper after another as I try to escape Zodon’s onslaught. I trample through a high wire fence that would’ve been beneath my notice except for the fact that I’ve seen it before. It’s the same fence my father stood in front of when he was about to demolish the city blocks Zodon and I’ve been battling through.
What remains of my humanity is seized with horror as I realize I’m about to take the battle outside the area scheduled for demolition. I collapse onto my haunches, trying to halt my forward progress. But not even Kumagor can defy the laws of physics completely.
My momentum carries me toward a tall concrete building. My eyes grow wide as I spot the news crew clad in rain slickers stationed at its top.
Thankfully, I skid to a stop just short of the building’s side.
Red lightning streaks down from the sky and I’m left with no choice. I rise onto my hind paws and take the full brunt of it, protecting the news crew as best I can.
The lightning sizzles across my skin, driving me back and back. At last, my body roasting, my pain incalculable, I topple backwards and crash into the building.
Ryuu has mercy. The building sways under my weight, but holds.
I feel Kumagor’s despair. I feel my own. We were so close to ending this, but now the tide has turned against us.
Ryuu’s omniscient perspective kicks in and I see the news crew on the building behind me shaking with terror. I see the fear-filled faces of the millions watching at home via their broadcast.
Through Ryuu’s eyes, I watch as Mom buries her crying face in Bear’s neck. I see Dad as he stares into a television and resigns himself to the world’s end.
I’ve failed them all.
I’ve failed myself.
But then I realize, through the god-dragon’s gaze, I can also see Zodon as he darts among the black storm clouds, hiding from me as he brings down thunder and lightning.
I know exactly where he is.
We can do this, Kumagor!
But the great bear dragon already knows.
I feel the gases within my immense stomach gathering. I sense the large gland hanging at the back of my throat spark with bioelectricity. My stomach contracts, forcing the gases trapped there up my subway tunnel of an esophagus.
I open my mouth.
The gas passes over the gland’s electrical field and fiery, orange death erupts from my throat!
The pyre slices through the sky like the beam of a flood light, searing through clouds, rain, and darkness to blast Zodon.
The shadow dragon is immediately engulfed in flame. Zodon utters a final, screeching roar as the charred, smoking cinder that’s its body plummets toward the Earth.
But the only thing left behind by either him or Ningai Ura when the dragon’s remains reach the ground is the sword, Kusanagi. The blade rings as it impales itself within the turf.
The storm immediately begins to dissipate.
I roll over and rise up on my hind paws as I roar in victory.
I turn and look directly into the terrified news crew’s camera.
Using Ryuu’s omniscient perspective once again, I watch my father as, miles away, he looks at the TV and sees the soul of his son in the gargantuan eye beneath Kumagor’s furrowed brow.
“Raymond?”
I roar, letting the years of pent up hurt and anger flow out of me.
In his penthouse apartment, dad’s bottom lip begins to quiver as a single tear slides from his right eye down his cheek.
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him cry.
I give the camera a final snarl and then turn away. I gingerly pluck Kusanagi from the ground with my teeth. The sword is less than a toothpick in my monstrous jaws.
As the last of the storm clouds break up, I reenter the tunnel in which I arrived, returning to the Earth so that I may resume slumber and heal.
Kumagor has had enough of the world of men!
Chapter 42
Birth. Life. Death. Rebirth.
—Ancient Toho saying.
I awake from fevered dreams, enraged to have my slumber disturbed again so soon.
I leap up from my resting place and backhand the giant standing closest to me, sending him sprawling through the wall of the grass hut in which he and his kind have imprisoned me.
Do they think Kumagor will be caged so easily?
The other giants inside the hut come forward and lay hands on me, calling me ‘peach-boy’ as they plead with me to calm down.
How dare they insult my majesty!
I shake them off me and seize one by his robe. I lift him over my head and toss him into his brothers, scattering them like leaves in the wind. I run out of the hut, exiting through the hole in the wall made by the first giant when I knocked him through it.
I run down the muddy path, enjoying the sun and wind against my hide, roaring at my captors and sending them into a panic.
A young giant possessing either great bravery or stupidity comes charging toward me. There is something familiar about him. But it does not matter. He will fall before Kumagor just like all the others!
“Momotaro-sai,” the giant calls. “It is me. Ishiro! Please, calm down.”
He reaches me and tries to pull me to the earth.
A foolish race, these giants.
I grab him by the throat and squeeze. He struggles to free himself, but it is to no avail.
Your life is forfeit, giant!
; Then pain explodes in the back of my head and I fall to the ground, unconscious.
When I awake again I’m I unable to move. I look down to see that I’m on back, my body tied with ironweed ropes anchored to the ground by multiple stakes.
Fury fills me and I begin to struggle against my bonds. One rope pops free. Then another.
Suddenly, the face of a beautiful young girl fills my field of vision.
“Raymond-sai,” she says. “It is I, Kitsune. Please! Relax. You are safe. It is okay. I’m here with you.”
“Raymond-sai? Who is—?” Then it all comes flooding back to me. My life back in the States. The plane crash. My time on Dragon Island. Kitsune. Ishiro. Ningai Ura. The Toho. Zodon. The labyrinth. And most of all, my time as the bear-dragon, Kumagor.
“I,” I stutter, “I’m all right, Kitsune. It’s me. Raymond. I’m back. Please, let me up.”
Kitsune gestures and the two Toho warriors standing guard within the grass hut housing us hurry forward and begin untying my bonds. By the time they finish, Tanuki has appeared within the doorway holding a basin of water.
He enters. Ishiro comes in behind him. There’s a bandage wound around his chest. A ring of purple bruises encircles his neck.
“Leave us,” Tanuki says.
The guards bow and then exit the hut.
I survey the dark bruises lining Ishiro’s throat.
“What happened to you?” I ask.
Ishiro utters a hoarse laugh. “You did!”
“Oh! I see. Sorry about that.”
“You were not yourself there for a while after the monk Mikoshi returned you to us, Momotaro-sai,” Tanuki says. “But it is good to see that you are now back in the realm of flesh and blood.” Tanuki holds out the basin to me. “Here. Wash your face.”
I sit up and start to slide my hands into the water, but freeze in mid-reach.
The face of the boy peering back at me from the water’s reflection is gaunt to the point of emaciation.
And his once black hair is now solid white.
“You have gazed upon the true face of Ryuu,” Tanuki says. “Not even the heir of Kintaro may do such a thing without finding at least a little death...one from which you have been lucky enough to be reborn.”
Dragon Island Page 20