The drive to school was quiet. Tohru would occasionally look up to Katsu, then back at the road with its traffic troubles, then back at him with concern. His brother radiated anger. No, not anger, he determined. More frustration with their grandmother who wouldn’t understand why he had this sympathy for the Kaiju. They were all over the world, they were on the news regularly, so why in hell wouldn’t Granny Aoi want her grandchildren to be interested in that? Or at the very least a grandchild. The answer was plain to see; it brought her pain. Pain from the heart.
Tohru just sat in the passenger’s seat, pulling out his phone. Yamato was texting him, asking if he had any spare change for lunch today, further explaining his dad cut his allowance after he failed the English test. He texted back. He didn’t have any money on him which got an emoticon response of a cutesy anime fox girl dressed as a shrine maiden raising her arms with an angry face and a speech bubble that read “Boo!” in English. If only his father could see this, he thought. In terms of emoticons he was pretty fluent after all. The mood, however, wasn’t going to change that easily.
It was when they finally arrived in front of the school was when Katsu heard the ringtone of his phone and raised it to his ear.
“Yeah it’s me…yeah…nah, I’m not bu–you don’t mean…holy shit, are you serious?! you bet I’ll be there! What time?” Nodding his head, a pure look of glee came into his eyes. The biggest smile a man could ever give was on full display, eager with each nod of the head, as if he was taking in everything the other person said on the other side like he was carrying an order.
Tohru watched. A bad feeling hit the pit of his stomach.
“I’ll be there! Okay. Okay. See you tonight.” With a tap on the phone’s screen, Katsu ended his call. His eyes wide and a stupid grin was on his face. The look someone gets when they’ve hit the jackpot. the mother of all jackpots.
“Umm…Big Brother?”
Katsu’s attention quickly went directly to Tohru who, he realized, had been sitting next to him the whole time. “What? Oh, sorry, it’s just that something big is going on tonight with my volunteer group and I cannot miss it. Looks like I’m going on a trip too, I guess.” The grin was now lopsided and he was starting to look jittery.
“To where, exactly?” Tohru asked warily.
“I can’t tell you. It’s confidential. I’ll be calling Granny in a little bit, and make sure she has everything she needs before I leave,” he reached over and opened the passenger side door for Tohru who was giving him a mixed look of confusion and concern. “Hey, don’t worry about me. I can handle anything! You get out and have a fantastic day of school, be respectful to Mr. O and call Grandma when you’re on your way to Osaka.”
“Okay, but–”
“Now get to school or you’re going to be really late this time.”
At the mention of being late for school, Tohru quickly got his bag and himself out of the truck just in time for the first bell to ring. He raised his hand and was going to thank his brother when the door slammed in his face and the truck drove off.
Tohru sighed but there was nothing he could do now.
He jogged to the school gates just as the gym teacher, Mr. Seshita, scowling at him and holding a ruler he uses to thwack delinquents with. Or so the story goes. He never actually saw him use it. There were other students arriving just as he was but didn’t get a second glance from him. Tohru guessed the reason for the solitary gaze but didn’t see Yamato at the gates until he heard a “waaaaaaaiitttt!!!” coming from the far side as a thin boy wearing a red sweatshirt under his uniform jacket was sprinting with the speed of an Olympic runner. Tohru saw Yamato, sweating profusely, and waving in return to his best friend’s gesture. That was until he hit the closing gate full force.
Yamato Shimazaki wasn’t so much phased by the impact, he was certainly a tough kid who can take a beating. However he had a big of a problem with authority figures, especially gym teachers who shut the school gates on someone’s face just as he was crossing the line. He fell on his rear, rubbing his nose and muttering something as the great shadow of Mr. Seshita loomed over him like a reaper.
“What the hell, man?!” Yamato demanded. “I was over the line!”
“Almost isn’t good enough,” Mr. Seshita growled, crossing his arms and looking down at the poor boy. “First bell rings and you ain’t here, you’re not getting in. You’re officially late, buster. That’s unacceptable at this school! Haven’t you learned anything from being late so many goddamn times, you worthless fool? I guess not, delinquents never can understand the basics of being on time.”
“But I’m here, so…”
“No excuses! You should have thought of that before you decided to take your time getting here!”
“But–”
“WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!”
There came a few snickers from the students behind them before Mr. Seshita turned his square head and gave them all his signature death gaze. People were quiet very quickly.
After being ordered by the gym teacher to go to class before Roll Call, the students quickly dispersed leaving Yamato alone to face the full and long-winded rant about how being a delinquent is a disgrace to one’s family, and how he should bring honor to himself by making the effort to arrive earlier to school next time and to do his homework to earn his education and all this while comparing him to the western dogs who think they are better than them. On and on he went. Tohru couldn’t help but look behind his shoulder and hear this tirade, watching as two other teachers went to intervene. He didn’t see the rest. He just got his indoor shoes on and arrived at his homeroom, Class 2B, shortly after. He delivered his signed note to his homeroom teacher, Mr. Tanaka, who read it quickly and gave his signature. Thanking Tohru, he told him to return to his seat with a wave of a hand. Yamato arrived shortly after the second bell rang, having indignantly given Mr. Tanaka a tardy slip and bowing in apology. He was given the same dismissive wave of a hand as he did with Tohru and took his seat.
School went well for the most part.
Tohru found it difficult to concentrate on the lessons. His mind kept wandering back to Katsu. He looked so excited despite what happened that morning with Granny Aoi, whereas typically he would be in a rut all day stewing until the next day when things calmed down. It was a universal reset button. Not today. Today was different somehow for him. And it all had to do with that phone call he got. Tohru considered giving his older brother a call or a text when the lunch bell rang. Before long, the second period came and went, still, he didn’t call to Katsu. Then the third period was over and he didn’t realize it until it was too late. By the time he realized what time it was, school had ended, everyone had begun cleaning up and started heading off to their clubs or to cram school or for some just going home or heading to that new arcade down the street that’s really popular.
The sun was setting over the horizon and the two sat on the front of the school’s steps, waiting for Mr. O. They were waiting for two others to join them on the trip. They were looking at their phone for any text messages or calls to come in. Instead they got news notifications from the states. Ebirah had been successfully brought down and had been on route to the black ops site collectively named Monster Island. While not outright confirming its existence, the Island housed the kaiju captured by the UN’s Counter Kaiju Bureau and was somewhere in the south pacific. According to Katsu, the island was artificial and had been a staging ground for a supposed alien invasion that no one knows about. The transport taking Ebirah was attacked later that day by activists, causing the sedatives given to the creature to wear off and waking it up. The article didn’t say whether or not Ebirah was captured again or what became of the activists.
Tohru closed the article and sat there looking at his messaging app, particularly over his brother’s messages, the cursor blinking in and out of digital reality in its blank isolated box. Tohru would start texting something like “Hey Big Brother, I’m heading off to Osaka. Have fun with Granny without me!!” with a few dinosaur emojis before deleting it all and starting fresh before deleting that text again and starting all over.
“Lighten up, will you?” Yamato chimed in. “He’s going to be fine. Probably got a call from a cute girl or something.”
“I suppose,” Tohru said wearily. “It’s just I’m worried he’s gotten himself in with the wrong crowd, you know? Did you see the news report this morning, about the one with the lobster Kaiju? You should have seen the look on his face, he was completely absorbed by the thing like a child watching his favorite anime hero.”
“So he’s a Kaiju groupie, there’s a lot of people who like those monsters.”
“Yeah… But what are the chances that those groupies are more trouble than they seem? Like S.C.A.L.E., who in the past have seriously hurt people with their actions.”
Yamato scoffed. “Like your brother is stupid enough to join those terrorist crazies. You can’t be serious. This is your brother,” he patted Tohru’s shoulder a bit rougher than what had been meant to be. “This is the same guy who saved our asses back when we were being bullied by Kobayashi’s gang of thugs and wannabe gangsters, don’t you remember? And your brother beat the crap out of them. They were black and blue for weeks. Trust me, your brother is a good guy in my book!”
Tohru couldn’t help smiling at that. Until a voice came from behind making him jump.
“There you two are,” the voice was female, due to the tone and pitch prevalent in the opposite sex, but it was brisque, to the point, if not aggressive. The only girl in their school to have that kind of approach in meeting people.
The eldest of the twin Otaki granddaughters, Akane Otaki stormed up to the pair, followed by the younger twin Chouko. The pair looked visually identical with some minor differences. Both were five foot three, had slender builds, had beauty marks on the opposite sides of their cheeks, black hair and brown eyes. However, the two couldn’t be more different from each other. Akane was, more or less, a tomboy who instilled fear and commanded respect from both students and teachers alike. Not a troublemaker or delinquent by any means, but she could certainly have played with the leather jacket she wore over her uniform with an embroidered image of the American movie Kaiju Nemesis on her back and the fur collar. She certainly was portrayed as the toughest to the outside worod . With her mid length hair tied in a ponytail, and strutting around like she’s the baddest girl in the East with boots that came half way up her leg, most people tended to steer away from her like a hurricane.
Chouko was the complete opposite of her sister. She appeared smaller than her, meek and mousy. She only wore her school uniform, had her hair in a short curled style to mimic the more popular girls, specifically Idot Suzumiya Akatsuki, and only had one accessory. That of a small swallowtail butterfly hairpin clipped over the right side to help get those unruly bangs out of her eyes when she was studying. She was the kinder of the sisters, the one who would volunteer for school festivals and plays. Who would aid teachers in assignments, cleanup, and messages from one important person to the other. Chouko was one of the leading members of the student council, although she was the treasurer she took her job seriously. However, she was, by nature, shy to a fault. And her helpfulness attracted the occasional bullying from the other students, teasing, cat calls or worse, genuine harassment. This would continue until they realized who her sister was and wisely left her alone. And those who didn’t, soon found out with a few teeth missing and a black eye.
Tohru thought of the pair as yin and yang, the opposites that attracted.
And there came Akane now, storming up to Tohru with a glare in her eyes and the ultimate “resting bitch face” as the Americans called it. Chouko ran right behind her by about a few inches, begging her not to hurt the two.
“Where the hell have you two slackers been?” she demanded, stopping in front of the pair and getting too close to Tohru’s face for his comfort. “I thought you were supposed to come by the shop to help Grandpa load up the trailer. Where were you two?”
“Um, school,” Yamato retorted, getting between Akane and Tohru. “Some of us can’t just bail out of nowhere, and join their uber-rich granddad in a week-long inventors convention. And we didn’t know Mr. O needed help in the first place, so chill out Tsundere.”
“Stop calling me Tsundere! Of course, Grandpa needs help. He’s an elderly old man who’s arthritis has been killing him worse than his back. If you paid attention, you’d know that, dumbass.”
Chouko cleared her throat uncomfortably and rested her hand on Akane’s shoulder. “Sister, please calm down. You know how stubborn Grandfather gets. He even refused our help and that of his employees. You can’t be mad at them.”
“I agree,” Tohru piped up. “Mr. O likes doing things his way. Once he’s set his mind to it, there’s no stopping him from doing whatever he wants.”
Akane’s shoulders slouched as she calmed down. “Yeah…but still…”
“Still nothing,” Yamato says. “Have a little faith in the old geezer.”
Akane narrowed her eyes at Yamato. “Don’t call him that.”
Tohru nudged him, giving him a side-eye. He bowed before the two girls and said. “We’re sorry about the inconvenience we caused. But we never got a message from Mr. O and we were told to wait for him.”
“Yeah, where is he anyway?”
“I’m over here, you whippersnappers!”
As if on cue, the four teens turned in unison as a bright red, yellow, and white camper pulling a trailer with a tarp covering something huge pulled in the front of the school. Pulling up to the right of the group, there emblazened on the broadside overtaking most if not the entire window was the company’s logo in bold magenta letters “Otaki Factory” with the head of the company’s mascot, a robot with a silver pointed head, big blue square eyes, a triangular nose, a vented mouth that resembled a big smile and it’s fist raised high in the sky to victory. The robot was Mr. O’s favorite character from an old manga series he read when he was a young technician student back in the early 60s. It was the story about a brilliant scientist who created an android super soldier to fight and defeat the evil Seatopia and its Great King Antonio to bring peace and protect the world, following the many adventures of the Robot Hero, Jet Jaguar or Jaguar Jay if you’re going by the grittier reboot. Jet Jaguar would have a number of film and television adaptations, toys, anime, Manga, and a video game Tohru himself had played while on break. Mr. O beat him every time.
After the creator of the original 60s manga had passed away, Otaki Factory bought the license and made the character their official company mascot. Mr. O absolutely loved the character. Claiming to be the foremost expert on all things Jet Jaguar. His office at the shop was littered with Jet Jaguar merchandise, some he helped create, others were relics that were impossible to find. Chouko once told Tohru and Yamato that her grandfather had an entire room in his house filled with statues and miniatures. Like a fan boy’s man cave gone mad.
And there as the doors opened stood the man, the myth, the legend with a zest for life and a funny limp. Goro Otaki was rather short for a man of his status and renown. Standing barely 4 ’10 and much shorter than his granddaughters, he stepped out of the camper and stretched, unrolling the sleeves to his company’s grey and red letterman jacket revealing arms so thin it was a wonder he could lift five to seven boxes full of parts. Otaki was bald on the top of his head, flanked by white hair cut off by a blue and white headband. He had Two prominent square teeth that poked out when he smiled and that signature lazy eye that made one wonder if he could see out the corner of it watching you when you’re slacking off.
As he stepped out his wooden sandals clicked audibly on the pavement, as he gave Tohru and Yamato a once over. “Staying out of trouble, are we boys?” He wheezed.
“As far as anyone is concerned, old man, you bet.” Yamato gave a thumbs up and a smirk before both Tohru and Akane struck him in the sides with their elbows.
“Still has that spirit I like,” Otaki chuckled as he patted him on the arm. “Good. Good. I need that for when we get to Osaka. As you know, it’s going to take us a little while to get there. At least six hours. So let’s get all comfortable in this old heap of junk!”
“Grandpa, please tell me we’re going to have separate areas to sleep in,” Akane complained. “I am not sleeping next to this idiot.” She thumbed at Yamato, who was still rubbing his arms and flipped her off, sticking his tongue out.
“Akane, be nice to your coworker,” Otaki scolded. “He’s here to help ensure the future of humanity as my junior chief mechanic on this trip.”
Yamato heard that and gave a cocky grin. Standing straight with the prestigiousness of his position.
“But don’t worry, my dear,” Otaki continued. “you and Chouko will be the top bunk while Tohru and Yamato are on the couches.”
Akane smirked while Tohru, but mostly Yamato who’s moment was ruined and deflated, grumbled with contempt.
Tohru, regaining his manners, bowed respectfully to Otaki. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be a part of this expo with you, Mr. O. I’ll do my best.”
“Excellent! That’s the kind of attitude I want from you four. Now, come along!” He eagerly gestured everyone in. “Our journey to protecting the Earth starts with a single step. Now let’s get a move on, children! Time waits for no one!”
One by one, Akane, Chouko and Yamato all piled into the camper as quickly as they could, chatting amongst themselves. Tohru was the last to board before being stopped by Otaki.
“Something on your mind, son?” He asked inquisitively. “I can read faces pretty well, you know. And yours is saying you got something going on.”
“Sorry, Mr. O,” Tohru said wearily, wanting nothing more than to get into what was going on at home with someone. It wasn’t proper to weigh down your burdens on someone else and expect them to fix it all. But then again, this was a person who would give the clothes off his back for someone in need. “It’s just I’m worried about my brother. He’s been arguing with my grandmother for a long time now and I’m afraid he’s going to do something stupid or get himself hurt in the process. I don’t mean to bother you with any of it.”
“Bah! Not at all, boy. Your Aoi Handarwa’s grand boy, ain’t you?”
Tohru turned with shock. “You know my grandmother? I mean, she mentioned you two dated.”
“About fifty years ago or so,” Otaki laughed. “Damn toughest lady I ever did meet. But she gave him a call just as I was about to leave. You want to know what she said to me, Tohru?”
Tohru shook his head. “No, sir.”
“Well, it was more or less a threat coming from her. She is quite a woman in her old age. Though, nothing’s changed on that front. Anyway, she told me to bring her grandson home safe and sound from this trip. I’m a man of my word, Tohru, and if I am going to protect the Earth and its people then it must start with all of you. Including them.” He looked back at Akane and Chouko with a faint smile as got in the camper before Tohru could. “As for your brother, he is young like you, I’d imagine. I’m sure he’ll find his own way back. Hope that helped you a little, Tohru?”
Tohru stopped to think. No matter what happens, how far they drift apart or how their interests may differ, but ultimately they were still brothers. They still had each other’s backs. When their dad got sick and had to stay at the hospital, it was Tohru who found Katsu in the hall, sobbing, tears streaming down his face. He told him to leave, saying he wanted to be alone, but Tohru refused. Telling him he was right here for him and no matter what happened they would always protect each other. From the grief of their father’s death, from bullies, from crazy teachers and even from a kaiju itself.
“Yeah,” he said. “Thank you, Mr. O.” He bowed again before moving to sit next to Yamato.
“Right,” Otaki announced, closing the door and taking his seat at the front. “We still have a few hours before we make our first stop at a hotel outside of Tokyo. So I’ve picked some Bento boxes for dinner and some movies to kill some time.”
“Oh, Grandpa,” Akane raised her hand excitedly. “Can I pick the first movie?”
“Fat chance,” Yamato said. “You’re only going to watch those dumb Nemesis movies. Especially the one where she fights those weird ass Space Pirates flying around in a castle sitting on a dinosaur’s back.”
“The Great Daitanix Invasion is one of the best of the original Heisei Nemesis movies right after Nemesis vs. Skar Kaiser X and Clash of the Old Ones!”
“It’s a movie about a giant monster fighting another giant monster in cheap rubber suits surrounded by miniatures. How is that entertainment?”
The argument would last for the first few blocks of their drive, the camper finding it difficult to maneuver in the front of the school. Chouko, trying to deescalate the argument, recommended the two would play rock, paper, scissors to forever determine the outcome of what movies they’d watch. Akane won, best two out of three, making a sort of happy dance before rubbing in her victory by poorly singing Wages of Sin, Nemesis’s heavy metal theme song, just to annoy Yamato. He denied it, that he was annoyed, but it was clear on his sour face.
Tohru watched this and laughed with everyone. He thought to himself how this was going to be one long ride to Osaka. At least they could have a little fun on the way there. He peered out the window. From where they were driving he could clearly see his apartment building, one of many lining the skyrise of Tokyo, and he couldn’t help but think about his brother again, pulling up his text messages. He texted: “Hey Big Bro! I’m going to miss you in Tokyo. Don’t forget to call Granny! Love you!” Followed by a smiling emoji and click send. The last part he knew was mushy, he rarely said he loved his brother in private much less in public, Katsu would have knocked his block off if he especially said it in public. Yet it felt right to him. But he knew he loved him too.
If only Tohru Nakajima knew at this moment as the camper pulled off to the highway, his brother, Katsu Nakajima, having received his brother’s text only gave it a side look before slipping it back in his pocket. He could respond later to it after his mission was complete. Wearing an identical set of grey workman’s coveralls, he and twenty other people from differing nationalities boarded a large black nuclear submarine, confiscated from the United States military after a successful raid during the transportation of a kaiju by the Servants of Creatures Arriving Late to Earth, or better known as S.C.A.L.E.
Their destination: Monster Island.