The mine was tossed about by the waves, but every time it made a big movement, it was blocked by Godzilla's fangs, and it barely stayed in Godzilla's mouth. But it seemed like it was only a matter of time before he took off. At this rate, the last of the precious mines will flow out of Godzilla's mouth.
Since the wires are not connected, Noda and his team have no way to detonate the mine. The mines look like they're about to flow out of my mouth at any moment. Soon, Shinsei Maru will definitely be crushed by Godzilla's jaws. At that moment, Shikishima shouted.
"Lie down!"
As Noda and his friends lowered their heads, a bullet from a 13mm machine gun was fired into the mine in Godzilla's mouth.
Shikishima continues to fire machine guns like he's spinning around. At the moment Godzilla was angry and prepared to pounce, one of the machine bullets miraculously hit the mine at an ideal angle.
A big explosion.
The Shinsei Maru was momentarily lifted into the air, its stern being destroyed by the explosion. And then it crashed into the sea.
A large amount of water poured down like a waterfall from above. Shikishima was writhing in the breathless water falling. Part of the destroyed stern had hit him in the head, causing a large gash.
Mizushima was also hit by shrapnel in his left arm, causing a fracture. Shinsei Maru also completely lost her rear end, and heavy flooding began in that area. Everyone waited for Godzilla to emerge from the plume of water, clinging to the Shinsei Maru as it continued to sink.
If Godzilla had not been damaged by the current attack, the members of Shinsei Maru would not be saved. After the water mist had cleared, Godzilla's body, with half of his face blown off, was floating helplessly.
"Did we do it?"
Noda answered Akitsu's question.
"We might have been able to defeat him."
However, immediately after that, Godzilla's amazing regeneration ability was activated. The destroyed face was regenerated at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.
When his eyes and fangs, which were supposed to have been blown off, were regenerated almost to their original state, Godzilla regained consciousness, lifted his upper body over the sea, and let out a roar.
Godzilla cannot be killed.
And that meant that Shinsei Maru would be completely destroyed.
Godzilla's upper body moved dramatically, and at that moment, when I thought that the giant jaws had taken Shinsei Maru into its mouth, a number of explosions of flame enveloped Godzilla along with the sound of wind
"What!"
When Noda looked beyond the wind noise, he saw an incredible sight.
The heavy cruiser "Takao" had arrived there.
Godzilla let out an angry roar and began swimming, heading for Takao, where it was preparing for the next bombardment. Takao's accurate fire hits Godzilla, who is submerged in the water. However, her bullets do not reach Godzilla, who has gone underwater.
Godzilla passed through the gaps between Takao's bombardment, which exploded underwater like a depth charge, and headed toward Takao itself. Immediately after Shikishima muttered that, Godzilla soared into the air like a whale jumping right next to Takao.
"Awful"
Then, using the force of the fall, he destroyed Takao's bridge with his giant jaws and claws. In an instant, its superiors, including the captain, who were on the bridge were crushed along with Takao's structures.
All six 20.3cm cannons installed on Takao's foredeck swung toward Godzilla in order to take out the enemy in the heavily damaged core
Simultaneous firing of all cannons...
As expected, even Godzilla could not withstand the volley of fire from almost zero distance, and she fell into the sea with smoke rising from her body, submerging in the water. In the end, Takao defeated Godzilla, even though he was covered in wounds. The surviving crew members of Takao on deck let out a roar in unison.
It had difficult voyage from Singapore. And the captains on the bridge were captured instantly. It was the moment when everything like that paid off. Shikishima and his friends, who were watching what could be described as a deadly battle, generously praised Takao for managing to take down Godzilla.
But...
Suddenly, the sea beneath Takao began to glow blue. One after another like a string of beads began to glow. It was a divine scene, as if a dragon of blue light had appeared. Noda watched with some kind of instinctive fear.
"···what?"
Immediately after, a pillar of light came out of the water and pierced the center of Takao. It gradually became thicker, and eventually Takao exploded with the light at its center.
The explosion was not large enough to ignite the ammunition depot. The iron that made up Takao was suddenly turned into a gas by the extremely high temperatures of the heat rays, and it was an unusual explosion, like a solid steam explosion.
Takao was engulfed in crimson flames and disappeared into the sea in a very short time, with all the crew on board. All that remained was the lingering smoke of the Takao explosion floating on the sea surface. Godzilla slowly appeared there.
His body was sore and red all over. What was that string of blue lights? And why did Takao disappear from this world in an instant? And what happened to Godzilla and caused him so much damage?
Perhaps due to the damage caused, Godzilla turned around and swam away, leaving a huge column of water behind. The Shinsei Maru, which was reduced to almost a wreckage, was barely afloat with Shikishima and the others clinging to it. Shikishima lost consciousness.
When Shikishima woke up, he was in the hospital room. Seeing that he had regained consciousness, Akitsu, Noda, and Mizushima, who had a splint on his left hand, all looked into the room. Akitsu said with a sigh of relief.
"Did you finally wake up?"
"Here?"
"It's a hospital in Yokosuka. They were taken to the hospital right after that."
"What about Kaishin Maru and the people of Takao?"
Akitsu shook his head silently. That tragedy claimed many lives.
"...Godzilla, what happened to him?"
Noda answered that question.
"As it is, his whereabouts are unknown."
"Godzilla was heading towards Tokyo. If we don't issue an evacuation order soon, we'll be in big trouble."
"The government is hiding this information from the people."
"Why didn't they inform the public immediately?"
"Probably out of fear of confusion."
"Confusion? This is not the time to be talking about things like that. We need to start evacuation now!"
"I guess no one wants to take responsibility for the expected havoc."
Akitsu told him to spit it out.
"Information control is this country's specialty."
Noriko, whose appearance had changed, rushed into the hospital room with Akiko.
"Hiroshi-san!"
"Don't panic. It's not a big deal."
Even after returning to the barracks, Noriko continued to stare at Shikishima as if she were blaming him.
"What's wrong"
"What really happened?"
"I told you. We failed to clear the mine. That's all."
"You're lying, you're hiding something."
Noriko's pursuit becomes more acute.
"I've always thought that Hiroshi-san seems to have a hard time living... that he's hiding something. Isn't there something connected to that?"
Shikishima was irritated by Noriko's sharp point.
"What's causing Hiroshi so much trouble?"
This has nothing to do with Noriko.
Noriko's emotions overflowed as if stimulated by Shikishima's involuntarily raising voice.
"Don't say that. You helped me and we lived together until today, yet I can't be involved in your life in the slightest?"
He has no words to answer.
"If you're burdened with something, I want you to share some of it with me."
Shikishima tried to escape from this situation, but the intensity of Noriko's gaze made him realize that it was impossible.
"I am a person who escaped from a special attack."
"Picture?"
"On the day of the sortie, I pretended that the plane had broken down and landed at an emergency landing site on Odo Island."
Shikishima went to the wooden box that was set up as a Buddhist altar and brought out a number of photographs wrapped in oiled paper and showed them to Noriko.
"It belonged to the maintenance soldiers on Odo Island. They all died."
"...What happened?"
"The night I crash-landed, a giant dinosaur-like monster came to me. I was asked to shoot it with my Zero Fighter's machine gun. But I... ran away again. As a result, they were killed by the monster. They were all people who could have found their families."
Noriko gasped when she learned the origin of the photo, something she had never been able to ask about until now.
"Just then...the thing we call Godzilla reappeared."
"Godzilla?"
"But again, I couldn't do anything."
Once Shikishima's emotions overflowed, they flowed out like an unstoppable muddy stream.
"That's why... I'm a person who shouldn't be alive."
"Hiroshi-san... the survivors should live properly."