Kyoto Revelations

At roughly the same time his son was entering San Andreas Sandwiches with his friends, his father was half a world away, pulling up to a nice retirement home on the outskirts of Kyoto. A man in his thirties accompanied him and gave directions. This man was Edo Hirashi, son Of Edo Takashi and his guide on this trip

Hirashi was a square jawed man, with a stocky build a bit shorter than the reporter and definitely in better shape. His close-cropped hair was shiny black and his eyes a deep brown. He repeatedly warned Hakama that his father was not “always there” but agreed to take him to visit.

After talking to the pretty young woman at the front desk, they were escorted through the facility to a small, private room, where Edo Takashi, a gray-haired man with a leathery face, surrounded by stacks of paper, greeted them from his wheelchair. “I would rise to welcome you, but I did not listen to my doctors and diabetes claimed one leg before I got treatment,” he said by way of welcome. He spoke predominately Japanese, while Sato Hakama spoke mostly English and Hirashi, who was fluent in both languages, frequently stepped in to translate.

Hirashi scowled at his father’s greeting and took a seat. Hakama walked over and shook the older man’s hand before sitting down. “Now, you had something you wanted to show me?” he asked Edo.

Edo smiled. “First, some background. When I was in school, I covered most costs by working part time for my dad. He rehabbed real estate to sell or save for the current owners. I was assisting one of these operations in one of the older houses outside of Tokyo proper, when I stumbled on a hidden room.

“Inside that room were stacks of papers and documents of all sorts. I did what I could to preserve them, thinking they may have historical value. But then I began reading some, and discovered what I thought was an excellent science fiction story.” He pulled out a large folder full of plasticized documents and passed it over to Hakama.

Sato skimmed through the folder as Edo continued: “It talked of something called ‘The Titan Project,’ and plans to defend against attacks from giant monsters. To a college-age kid, it was brilliant, the stuff of high adventure. It was all presented in a bland, matter-of-fact manner, but it fired my imagination. For two months, I tried to find out who might have written this material, and all I could find out was that it had been an American, involved with some military group, out of the city of Boston, which was destroyed during the Lost Years. Beyond that, all I could find of the man was a reference to his favorite dining place - a place I used to name my ‘host’ for the Ultimate Warrior, Hugh O’Neil. You see, as I lost hope of finding the original author, or someone from his family, I also found myself running short of cash, despite dad’s success, and submitted a rough idea for The Ultimate Warrior to Big Adventure Comics.”

“Ah, so that is how you got credit for creating him - he was based on someone else’s fiction stories?” Hakama surmised.

Edo paused. “That was what I thought then, but as I mined the documents for more details, more story ideas, I began to think it was more than just a fiction. And then the events of the last few days happened, and now I am pretty sure it is, at least partly, based on facts!”

The room fell silent for a moment, then Hirashi spoke: “I told you he…”

Sato interrupted: “So you think this ‘Protector’ we have in San Francisco is part of the Titan Project?”

“Yes, I do. Interestingly enough, the name of the Titan Project does not come from the giant monsters it was apparently meant to fight - I can’t figure out where that concept came from, as a matter of fact, it comes from…”

Sato interrupted Edo this time: “It comes from the largest moon of Jupiter, where an unmanned probe found … something.”

“Yes! You know that part?” Edo asked, excited.

“Some bits and pieces. Never heard anything about giant monsters but do know that the factory that built the probe was located near San Francisco, the old version of the city, and that most details were lost, which means the probe returned somewhere around twenty-forty,” was Hakama’s answer.

“That would fit what I found, too - and Boston was destroyed in twenty-forty-nine, so I would place the return around twenty-forty-seven or so,” Edo replied. “One thing I found very interesting, there was an indication that the … well, let’s say Protector for now, that it could recruit others to fight with it. I never wrote that into the character, though they somehow came up with it for the current version, sort of - the last one, instead of giving his power to one person split it between two.

“That is one of the pages I have tabbed for reference,” he added, indicating the folder.

“Another section I think is important - they had a lot of space dedicated to classifying giant monsters - and even settled on the same term you did, Sato. But they had two tags instead of one - Terrestrial or Extraterrestrial for the first one. Then they had five categories shared by both tags - Minor Kaiju, the ones like Blastswarm or Velocivores, that are usually susceptible to standard weapons and often only a threat when in large groups. The main Kaiju - Drillgar, Arachdyl, Horrorhound - the ones that there are multiple examples of, but which are almost always seen singly, and are generally resistant to most conventional weapons. The Greater Kaiju, who are unique - sometimes they seem to be specific evolutions of lesser types, sometimes they are simply distinct creatures. They are intelligent, able to communicate sometimes, and very dangerous - they also seem to be able to command the lesser types. Above them are the two types not listed for terrestrial Kaiju - the Master Kaiju - or Daikaiju - who are far more powerful than the other types and usually able to disguise themselves as natives of the world they are invading or as other native life forms. Above them is a theoretical Emperor Kaiju, a being far beyond even the Daikaiju in power.”

“So, what does all of this have to do with the Protector or the Ultimate Warrior?” Sato asked.

“If you look through the marked documents, you’ll see some of what I’m getting at - when they found what they called ‘the Prototype' on Titan, they believed it was a weapon to fight Daikaiju - something they had not yet encountered on Earth.”

Sato sat back considering his words carefully. “So, you mean to say they encountered kaiju on Earth?”

Edo nodded. “That is what some of these notes suggest. They were searching near space for a way to combat or communicate with them and found the Prototype. They were just beginning to unlock its secrets and train soldiers to use it when everything collapsed, and the entire project was lost to history.”

Edo’s son just looked sadly at Hakama, until he saw the other’s pensive expression.

Suddenly Edo changed the subject: “Did you know Ultimate Warrior ceased publication for almost a year?”

“Uh, no, I did not,” Hakama replied.

“A month before the Exerians appeared, Big Adventure decided he was too fantastic a hero and they needed to focus on more mundane characters. Then the invasion hit, and they stopped all publications altogether for six months - before the first Exerian kaiju appeared. Then I received a call from the newly appointed editor in chief, one William Cummings, asking if I could write a new Ultimate Warrior story to relaunch the line.”

His son chimed in at this: “That was the Legacy of the Past miniseries, right?”

“Exactly!” His dad replied, clearly pleased that his son knew this. “It started with an alien kaiju arriving on Earth, near Sydney, Australia, and awakening a terrestrial one. The two fought across the countryside, causing mass destruction. During the fight, an airplane was knocked out of the sky and crashed on a remote island - the island where the previous Ultimate Warrior had retired to, after defeating his main enemy but suffering severe injuries in the process. He summons the power one last time to search the wreckage for survivors, and finds two, a female archaeologist, and the son of the second host of the Ultimate Warrior power. Hearing what happened to them, he decides to pass the power on to both of them, because he knows that this is the beginning of something major, and that he is in no shape to deal with it “

“I have not followed the stories since my son stopped reading - about the time Bill - Mister Cummings - stopped writing to become the line editor,” Sato admitted.

“Ah, then you don’t know that your article, where the Exerian bio-warriors were named kaiju, was reprinted in the third issue of my mini-series, and then in the compiled version that came out a year later?”

“No, I did not know that!” Sato exclaimed, then added: “But the news agency owns my articles once they see print, so they would not even have had to tell me. Still, it would have been nice to know…”

Edo laughed. “I know how that goes. If my son had not married a lawyer - and a very good one at that - I would not have seen any money from the reprints of the earliest Ultimate Warrior books.”

Hakama nodded. “But why tell me this now? I am not sure…”

“Because I believe there are terrestrial kaiju hidden around the world. If this Protector can find and talk to them, we may finally have a way to defeat the Exerians once and for all. The documents have some notes as to where they may lie dormant, but that information is very sketchy at best.”

Sato was about to say something when Edo cut him short with: “I am very fatigued and my attendant approaches with my evening meds.”

“Ah, well, then, I thank you for your time, sir,” Sato said. “May I take these documents to examine?”

“The ones in the folder are copies meant for you. I also have this,” he took out a tiny digital storage device, “that contains scans of all the pages that I could not treat to survive this long, and several that are not in the folder but may be important, somehow. There are also copies of a few documents that confirm, and more that contradict, some of the material that I have unearthed. If you can stay another day, I might be able to talk to you again tomorrow?”

As an orderly entered the room, Sato informed him: “I do not think I can, but I might be able to return in a week if my publisher believes there is a story here.”

With an obvious mix of fatigue and hope in his eyes, Edo replied: “I hope they do. There is much more. So much. But I am too tired. Thank you for your time, Mister Sato. And thank you, my son, for coming and helping today. Good night,” as he said this, the orderly also bade both men good night and wheeled Edo off to another room.

“Well, that was … interesting.” Sato commented.

“I am not sure if this shows my father is more clear-headed than his doctors believe, or completely mad. I hope the former but…”

Hakama smiled. “I completely understand how you feel. I was beginning to doubt my own sanity after this ‘Protector’ first appeared, but now some of what I learned is supported by this and other recent events. It remains to be seen how much. I need to get to my hotel for some rest and then to fly back home.”