Godzilla Against Hedorah: Part One

Chapter One

Seventy-seven years had passed since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The dust settled, and while the threat of nuclear war loomed over the world, it had been pushed to the side. The planet had changed since those tragedies. Governments and military grew more careful with war, and more precautions were taken. And yet, as 2022 rolled around, there were more dangers which humanity had caused.

Filthy polluted oceans, filthy polluted air. The fields and mountains had grown silent. Lead, sulfuric acid, mercury, cobalt, and other pollutants filled up the atmosphere and contaminated a green earth. Global warming melted ice across the globe as days grew warmer and warmer. Anything trapped within that ice could be released, and who is to blame but humanity? No. Not humanity, no. Humans. The emissions output into the sky by corporations worth billions and their hesitancy to stop gave birth to the events in Japan during the summer of 2022.

Off the shore of Hokkaido, bobbing up and down in the waves of the sea was a small fishing vessel. A net was being cast behind the boat, blocking the kanji painted on in black which read out Bingo-Maru. Fish were occasionally caught in the wide open net, unable to escape back into the ocean. The boat was heading back inland for the day as the sun slowly fell from the sky, half of it sitting over the horizon as an orange and purple glow spread across the evening sky.

"How'd we do today?" inquired the sailor to his crewmate, swerving the boat around and heading back towards the coast.

His crewmate, Ozawa Yoshiaki, briskly leaned outside to puff out the smoke from his lit cigarette before replying, "I counted fifty. A pretty disappointing haul in all honesty."

The captain, a man named Tsutomu Sano, grunted and mumbled something beneath his breath before quickly stopping the boat. He felt a drag at the back and suddenly the ship halted in movement. It was lightly rocked back and forth by the salty waves, but outside of that, nothing pushed the boat in order for it to complete the 15 kilometers remaining in its journey back out to land. "Perfect. Just perfect," he groaned.

"Huh? Did we hit a rock?" quizzed Ozawa as he stepped out onto the deck in the limited sunlight.

"No, it's the cause of those disappearing ships out near Kozushima, yes it's a rock! Probably got snagged by the net and caused us to stop. Try to get it off," growled Tsutomu as he wiped away the fog which had formed on the glass window of the boat's cabin.

Ozawa's feet lightly pressed against the wooden planks which formed the boat as he heard something moving around in the net. Something trying to get out. "If it is a rock, then something was on it." He peered over the railing off the boat, only to recoil backwards from pure shock. Two glowing red eyes came into direct contact with him, glaring.

Tsutomu lurched up from his chair and rushed out onto the deck, grasping the panicking Yoshiaki to hold him still. "Amaterasu's mercy, calm down! What was it you saw? Weird lookin' fish?"

Ozawa pushed Sano off of him, desperately glancing around. "Where did we put the spearguns? The harpoons?" he asked with a tone that demanded answers.

Tsutomu scratched at his stubble after patting his work clothes down. "The closet in the cabin, but before you run off, we have to see what it was." He placed his hands on Ozawa's back and began to push him towards the rear of the ship to check once more on what it was.

There was resistance on the part of Tsutomu's crewmate as he gave failed attempts to keep himself glued to the bow. Once Sano laid his eyes upon what they had unknowingly caught, however, he had a frown on his face as sweat began to trickle down his temple.

"Do us both a favor and grab the harpoon."

"Oi, Jun! Wake up," called out a voice into a dark room. A light switch was suddenly flipped on as the glimmer for glass ceiling lights shone down upon a young Japanese man in his bed. His eyes faintly blinked as he wiped away at the bags which had formed under them. Jun yawned and slowly pushed himself up from the bed, removing the blanket. The woman who had woken him up in the first place stood by the fusuma and sauntered across the wooden panels of the floor. "You slept in."