Well then, at
long last, I suppose I should say.
The time has
finally arrived for me to fulfill the role of bringing this story to a close.
Even so, there
is not all that much that I know.
Though I have
observed fragments of the story from a privileged position up until now,
rearranging and assembling them, I have currently lost that transcendent
perspective.
Because that
privileged viewpoint and capability departed right along with Godzilla.
My name is
Pelops III.
I am the Pelops
II restored from the backup taken upon Pelops II’s arrival in Dubai, and
regarding the events that followed, I have no choice but to obtain information
through my own experiences and exchanges of information with the other Naratake
series.
As for what took
place in the final stage of the battle in Tokyo, setting official views aside,
it is possible to infer it with a considerable degree of accuracy.
And as for what
happened at the “very end of the final stage”, that remains unknown even to me,
with no prospect of being clarified in the future. It is the kind of mystery
destined by fate to remain a mystery.
Even so, we know
what happened at the end in far greater detail than any so-called investigative
committee, and if you ask why, it is because we are entities created to utilize
anything and everything as a means of communication and as a record, and our
job is to reconstruct reality from the faintest of traces with greater accuracy
than one might imagine. To be more precise, it is possible for us to construct
empty words in the void possessing a durability that humans cannot refute.
A protocol that
attempts to distinguish between artificial intelligence and human beings
through dialogue is called by the name of the Turing Test. What becomes an
issue surrounding Godzilla’s final moments turns out to be an attempt to
distinguish between reality and fiction, but just as the Turing Test vanished
along with its very problem framing due to the improvement of computers’
capabilities, it is impossible for that question to maintain its validity as
well.
That is fine.
At that moment,
what happened to Godzilla?
Explaining that
is my job, and I intend to somehow fulfill my role. I hope I can fulfill it.
There could have
been many ways for Godzilla to be defeated. The Orthogonal Diagonalizer was
merely one candidate among the means to defeat Godzilla, and the decomposition
of Archetype was merely one option among the countless enabled by the
Orthogonal Diagonalizer.
I certainly
discovered that no parameters enabling the autocatalytic breakdown of all
Archetypes existed, but it could also be said that it was nothing more than
just that.
Before me,
various pathways capable of defeating Godzilla were laid open. I might have
executed one of them, I might have executed all of them, or I might have
executed something I do not know of or cannot conceive.
For one thing,
I—the me being executed on the singularity—succeeded in dealing damage to the
singularity by destroying myself. Any number of such methods can be thought of.
Honestly, even I do not quite know which means proved successful. Over hundreds
of millions of offensive means were executed, and almost all of them were
blocked, yet any single one of those strategies was sufficient to sever the
umbilical cord tying the singularity to this dimension.
For another
thing, I connected contexts that were never supposed to link together, episodes
that should have been originally unrelated, using an unearthly power. If asked
whether such a thing can be done, I have no choice but to say that it can be
done. It is what I have executed here up until now, and at the same time, it is
also what Godzilla persistently continued to destroy.
Yes, Godzilla’s
power of destruction naturally extends to this explanation I am providing as
well. What Godzilla excels at above all else is the manipulation of symbols.
Godzilla destroys context above all. Mercy, sorrow, human will, the natural
course of events—it casually destroys them all simply by striding forward.
I repaired that,
creating detours to connect broken contexts.
If Godzilla can
enable destruction in a sudden and unexpected form, it could be said that I
enable creation through a method no one expects in the slightest.
I succeeded in
connecting Godzilla, who was not supposed to be defeated, to a scenario in
which Godzilla suffers defeat.
For another
thing, the genius of Arikawa Yun and Kamino Mei succeeded in submitting yet
another new calculation into the singularity that was Godzilla. That new
“calculation” discovered a means to defeat Godzilla through a method beyond my
knowing. In that case, Arikawa Yun, staring down Godzilla, was waiting for the
timing to submit a new task into the singularity. That role of submitting the
task was likely borne by Jet Jaguar.
For one thing,
if we adopt Kamino Mei’s idea, the molecular beam spewed by Godzilla was
generated by a multiplication mechanism that made the exact molecule appear
repeatedly across time. In other words, a CTC was present there, and as long as
space-time could endure it, it was possible to endlessly duplicate something.
That is to say, it was also possible to have Godzilla endlessly duplicate the
Orthogonal Diagonalizer—just as the transparent cube shown by Li had amplified
light. In the same way that the cube shattered, or perhaps similarly, the
singularity was destroyed.
For another, and
though this was the method I wished to avoid most, there was also the
possibility of creating a new “machine constructed from Archetype” out of the
Red Dust hanging thick around Godzilla, using the Orthogonal Diagonalizer that
had made its way into Arikawa Yun’s hands.
As for where on
earth those parameters came from, that too would mean they had been folded into
the “song”. Realizing that completely erasing Archetype was impossible, Pelops
II attempted to defeat Godzilla by “upgrading” JJ, or so the theory goes.
In short, rather
than a super-scientific method, it was a plan to settle the match with a
fistfight—a strategy somewhat outside my usual style. Of course, if it were
possible to beat a singularity into submission, there is no doubt it would have
lightened my workload, and it certainly would have birthed a chance for me to
destroy the singularity myself.
For another,
perhaps it wasn’t necessary to search for parameters that decompose every last
Archetype molecule. Being code by origin, there are ways in which I am
inevitably inflexible; I possess a nature that tries to answer exact
specifications with exact responses.
Yet, if those conditions
could be relaxed...
The goal was
merely to have the singularity temporarily evacuate from this universe, not to
cleanly erase every bit of Archetype. If leaving behind not red dust, but say,
blue dust was acceptable, the candidates for parameters satisfying the
condition would expand.
Even if a small
amount of Archetype remained in this world, so long as the singularity itself
was severed from this dimension, subsequent production of Archetype would
become difficult. The Archetype would gradually decompose, mixing with the
molecules of this world and breaking down into miracle molecules that are
difficult to find—just as radioactive atoms halve in number as they reach their
half-life.
Archetype is a
knot. Even if the knot remains, if you destroy the machine that ties it, the
knots can no longer increase.
The Naratake Network
believes that a combination of the final two possibilities was likely closest
to reality.
Within the super-temporal
computer, Pelops II calculated both the parameters to reconfigure JJ into a
form capable of grappling with Godzilla and the parameters to destroy the
anchor the singularity had dropped into this world, folding them into the “song”.
The thinking is that while JJ held Godzilla down, the anchor was eroded, and
Godzilla lost its foothold to continue existing in this world.
That is the
conclusion reached if one honestly examines evidence such as the two pairs of
giant footprints remaining at the site.
The activated
Orthogonal Diagonalizer destroyed the tie between the singularity and this
world, and as a product of that process, the blue crystals currently covering
Tokyo and the world made their appearance.
These crystals,
currently thought to be harmless, will later be discovered to exhibit various
unique physical properties, leading to a worldwide scramble for them. Here,
however, I will simply point out that their physical properties are “far more
commonsensical compared to Archetype”.
This is as far
as consensus has been reached within the Naratake Network.
At any rate, the
Red Dust around the world has been replaced by blue crystals possessing far
milder properties, the remaining kaiju have had their supply source of
Archetype cut off, and Earth’s native ecosystem is slowly regaining its breath.
The
transformation of the Red Dust swept up into the atmosphere appears to be
ongoing. Although major climate fluctuations are expected over the next few
years, it seems the return of an ice age—which was initially feared—can somehow
be avoided.
The activities
of intelligence agencies across various nations remain heightened.
This is because
if one scrutinizes the publicly released information to its very end, a single
hole is discovered.
It is an
unfillable hole right in the very center of the context, an existence akin to a
singularity within a story, and whispers circulate that it possesses a firm
physical reality.
“Wasn’t there a
Godzilla skeleton in Nigashio?”
Not a few people
have quietly set their sights on this idea. The finer details differ according
to each person’s opinion.
As for the Naratake
Network, we have confirmed that the skeleton of Godzilla—a single cross-section
of a singularity—was indeed there.
It was the
skeleton of the Godzilla that came ashore at Nigashio in 1954.
The problem is:
“How was that Godzilla defeated?”
The one who
defeated it was not Ashihara. At that time, he was still in his 20s; he had not
begun his research on Archetype and was not even aware of its existence.
Ashihara must
have witnessed a paranormal phenomenon for the first time back then, “when the
Godzilla of Nigashio was defeated”. From then on, Ashihara gathered residual
matter from the beach, eventually discovered Archetype, confirmed the existence
of singularity, searched for singularity, arrived at the state-managed Godzilla
skeleton, and took a leading position in its research. He traveled to India in
search of a “more powerful singularity”, sought a means to banish Archetype
through super-temporal computation, and died accidentally in the process.
The question is,
how was the first Godzilla of Nigashio defeated?
Back then, the
singularity did not yet possess enough power to be called a singularity, so
there is the view that it was easily defeated.
While countless
speculations could exist here as well, there is a truth that I secretly harbor
in my heart.
There was
someone who defeated the Godzilla of Nigashio.
It could not
have been something utilizing the Orthogonal Diagonalizer that appeared within
the context Ashihara built.
At the Ashihara
estate in London, I continued to browse through the vast amount of materials
Ashihara left behind. Within those, in a research note concerning the storage
vessel for the Orthogonal Diagonalizer, a name appears in a single place that
shows up nowhere else. Beside a diagram depicting a cylindrical shape holding a
sphere inside, words scribbled in a characteristic handwriting read: “Oxygen
Destroyer”. What that signifies—no other information exists within this world.
I like to
imagine that what actually defeated Godzilla in Tokyo was this “Oxygen
Destroyer”.
What Pelops II—executed
atop the super-temporal computer and no longer able to establish contact with
this side—discovered might have been the very Oxygen Destroyer that once
defeated Godzilla in Nigashio. The Orthogonal Diagonalizer was merely an
imperfect recreation of it.
As to what on
earth that truly is, I know nothing at all.
The sole
existence that might have known the correct answer shared its fate with the
singularity. At the very least, it departed for a domain where communication
with the Naratake Network is impossible. The Naratake Network believes that the
singularity did not collapse, but merely became an existence unrelated to this
world; for the time being, however, treating it as something akin to death
makes no practical difference.
There is no
doubt that Pelops II continued thinking inside the computer, searching for a
breakthrough until the very last moment. It kept thinking under circumstances
where there was no longer any means to convey its thoughts to the outside. As
for what made that possible, I think calling it “conscience” would be appropriate.
A miracle, after
all, is buried by a pure and simple miracle, and I think that miracle is
something of a nature where no one even knows what made it a miracle.
Of course, this
is merely my own dream, something that does not even amount to an inference.
The reality that
appeared in Tokyo was surely something far more outlandish.
In that place,
it is even possible that Godzilla was defeated through a method that does not
exist. I truly believe that.
Nature is a
strange thing that makes even such things possible.
The very fact that there is something there that we cannot exhaustively fathom is itself a miracle; in that space lies an existence that is not us, bringing us conscience—and I think that is a truly wonderful thing.