At 09:00 on 25 August
2030, Tokyo Station.
As for what in
the world happened there at that time, the official reports list it simply as “Unknown”.
While there were
numerous eyewitness accounts and various reports were compiled, all remained
strictly at the stage of speculation, with the vast majority closing with “individual
impressions”.
Although many of
the artificial satellites that should have served as objective “viewpoints” had
been destroyed by projectiles generated in Godzilla’s vicinity, a few remaining
satellites captured footage of the sky above Tokyo Station at that time. There,
some kind of “explosion” occurred. The center of the massive, pancake-shaped
cloud of Red Dust collapsed, and a blue light burst forth.
What that light
was is clear.
Yet as for what
took place before that light arose, it was left behind shrouded in mystery.
It is said that
the total height of Godzilla, which had taken up position at Tokyo Station and
continued to grow, had reached 100 meters.
Centered around
the singularity, the creature—possessing a body constructed from Archetype
built up around it—had created a thick wall of Red Dust in its surroundings.
The Red Dust absorbed electromagnetic waves of all frequencies, placing the
capital’s center around the Imperial Palace in an optically vanished state.
Only the records
from seismographs faintly hinted at the “fight” inside.
Godzilla’s
movement after coming ashore at Tsukiji was almost entirely traced by a array
of seismographs that continued to operate even amidst the chaos caused by the
Red Dust. Where it was bombed by guided missiles, where it took shelling from
tank companies, and so forth were clearly verified and cross-referenced with
the state of the destroyed city. Furthermore, that data backed up the fact that
Godzilla, which had violently transformed its form continuously since coming
ashore, rapidly increased its mass while scattering Red Dust.
What remains
inexplicable is that just before the “explosion”, right after passing 09:00, the
seismographs began detecting “two” sources of vibration. Suddenly, right beside
the Godzilla that had been there from the start, that “vibration source”
appeared. Its weight was estimated to be roughly equivalent to Godzilla’s, but
where that mass appeared from was completely unknown, and the prevailing view
attributes the cause to the singularity inside Godzilla. Malfunctions of the
seismographs have also been pointed out, but it is unreasonable to assume that
seismographs installed in various locations suffered systematic malfunctions
all at once, and a systematic malfunction implied, in other words, that the
cause did not lie with the seismographs.
Even if the
cause was said to be the singularity, since a singularity was an
incomprehensible thing, it amounted to nothing more than blaming something
incomprehensible on something incomprehensible.
From the
seismograph data, it is inferred that a “hand-to-hand fight” unfolded between
what were assumed to be two giant living creatures. There is not much
information to be read, yet one can still observe a state where one side lunges
at the other, is thrown off, and leaps forward once again. At this time,
Godzilla fired heat rays thought to be molecular lasers from its mouth once,
and then a second time. In total, it fired five molecular lasers, but the
target location was considered to be at point-blank range. It is most
reasonable to think that it was targeting the opponent it was grappling with in
“hand-to-hand combat”.
It is believed
that the other entity was defeated by those heat rays, or perhaps, with that as
a trigger, that “explosion” was brought about.
The scale of the
“explosion” that “blew away” the Red Dust in a single breath was roughly
equivalent to the range over which the Red Dust had spread like a pancake, and
in Chiyoda and Minato wards, it was particularly severe.
What artificial
satellites were able to capture was the sight of Tokyo after the fog of Red
Dust had cleared.
Godzilla was
nowhere to be seen.
The capital of
Japan, which until then had been covered in red fog, had every corner covered
in blue crystals. The crystals stretched sharply and pierced through buildings,
at a glance recalling the appearance of a hell composed of a bed of needles.
Tokyo, which had been lifted up, pressed down, and warped here and there due to
the ecological anomalies and crustal movements brought by Godzilla, exposed a
completely altered form.
Speaking quite
simply, it is safe to assume that the “explosion” erased Godzilla’s form from
this universe.
Rising as a
candidate for this is a type of Archetype molecule called the Orthogonal
Diagonalizer (hereafter OD), which was known for possessing the effect of
“neutralizing” various Archetypes.
Serves as
corroborating evidence that several days before Godzilla’s disappearance due to
the explosion, OD was sent to the governments of several nations by the hands
of BB, who belonged to Union Compound India, and around the same time, research
data regarding OD was widely shared on the internet.
However, doubts
have been raised as to whether an explosion caused by OD could possess an
effect sufficient to blow away the Red Dust piled up in Tokyo in a single
breath, and in fact, in an experiment Union Compound India conducted against
the kaiju “Salunga” that appeared locally in Upala, its effect remained
limited.
Union Compound
India continues to refuse to disclose Archetype research-related materials,
including the survey results on this kaiju, and the matter has been brought to
the United Nations level. However, the Shiva Consortium, the parent
organization of Union Compound India, shows traces of deep UN involvement from
its very establishment, serving to provide a prime topic for conspiracy
theorists. It seems it will still take a long time for the “conspiracy”
revolving around the “new material” involving multinational corporations and
nations to come to light.
The blue
crystals that appeared in various parts of the world in place of the Red Dust
appear to be a group of molecules possessing a composition entirely different
from Archetype. Those molecules, provisionally called Phenotypes, have not
shown singular physical properties as of yet. It is merely known that they are
amorphous silicon-based structures possessing utterly ordinary electrical
conductivity, utterly ordinary dielectric constants, utterly ordinary hardness,
and the like.
There are
multiple people who claimed to have seen a giant of light fighting Godzilla at
Tokyo Station, which was sinking in Red Dust.
They say a giant
made of metal appeared beside Godzilla and challenged it to hand-to-hand
combat.
That giant
suddenly appeared in a manner delivering a flying kick to Godzilla, and just as
it landed several punches to its snout, it was blown away by a blow from its
heavily swung tail. When it lunged forward once more, it took Godzilla’s heat
ray head-on, melting its torso, yet it did not let go of its grip, seemingly
trying to pin Godzilla to the spot. The heat rays released by Godzilla pierced
its body two and three times, with the final one said to have blown away half
of the robot’s head.
Just as the
robot nodded to “someone” on the ground as if prompting something, or perhaps
saying farewell, an explosion arose, repainting red into blue.
They say that
the Red Dust was blown away all at once, and when they opened their eyes,
Godzilla’s form was no longer there. Naturally, no trace of such a giant
“robot” remained there either.
It is not a
matter of discussing whether to believe it or not.
However, it is
intriguing that multiple people tell similar eyewitness accounts. Although
discrepancies exist in the fine details of the fight, those people all
uniformly testify to the appearance of the “giant”. There are no signs that
they colluded, but whether that means they can be trusted is another matter
entirely.
In the end, what
happened at the heart of Tokyo at that time came down to a single word: “Unknown”.
And it is
certain only that thereafter, the Red Dust and its derivatives swiftly
vanished, and the kaiju ceased to show themselves.
It is not even clear whether humans exerted any influence on the kaiju’s abrupt appearance and their anticlimactic end. That phenomenon merely passed through the few months of the summer of 2030 like a nighttime parade of a hundred demons.