"I have always wondered, just where did your father get the idea for that first monster?" I asked.
Evean translated my words, either his English wasn't very good, or he didn't want to conduct the conversation in it. That was fine with me, it was his office and none of us wanted to be rude to someone we were trying to get information out of.
I listened to his reply in Japanese, and then Evean translated his words for me:
"He says, his father was never quite clear on that, he went on a retreat for a period of time after the war years, when he was still having trouble finding work due to his job with the military."
"I can imagine that must have been a rough time for him," I suspected it had been a rough time for many people in Japan. "To have only been doing his civic duty, and then having to be punished for it."
Evean translated, and he nodded rather vigorously, obviously this had been a sore point with his son as well.
She told me his response, "Exactly, it was a very rough time for him. He had only made films for the military, films so well done that even the great Frank Capra used parts from them. So he took some time to meditate and think about his career. When he came back, he was quite energized. I believe that was when he first started to draw sketches of gojira, and his other monsters."
I looked at Evean, and then back at him, "Fascinating. Any idea of where he went?"
He shook his head and spoke.
"No," Evean translated, "He only ever said that he left from Koshien."
"Koshien?"
"Yes, Koshien stadium, where the Hanshin Tigers play."
"Ah," I nodded, "Well thank you very much for your time, my colleagues and I appreciate your attention and hospitality very much."
"You are most welcome," he said and we all stood then, bowed, and were shown out.
"So, what do you think?" I asked Evean. "Think there's a portal there?" We were back at the hotel; everyone was sitting in Evean's and my room with us.
Evean nodded, "It seems likely. In the morning we'll take a train to Kobe, which is where the stadium is, and go look."
"How hard will it be to get in?" Joseph asked.
"Not hard at all, there's a game on tomorrow, we'll just buy tickets and go look around."
"Say we find a portal, then what?" Gregory asked.
Evean had been translating the conversation to the other group members who only spoke Japanese. Jane spoke up then and said something, to which Evean replied, and then spoke to us.
"Jane thinks if we find a gate, she and the others should spread out and spend the rest of the day talking to the stadium workers, about any myths or stories associated with the place."
Everyone nodded and agreed, it was a good idea.
"What about weapons, and supplies?" Suzona asked.
"Swords and knives I can get," Evean said. "Same for some basic body armor, and any provisions."
"What about firearms?"
Evean shook her head no, "Too difficult to get here, the culture in Japan doesn't support it, just trying to get any would draw more attention than I'd like to attract."
"We don't know if they'd work on the next plane anyway," I pointed out.
"True," Suzona nodded.
"Anything else?" Evean asked, first in English, and then I guess in Japanese and looked around the room.
Everyone shook their heads no, and stood up to leave, a couple of people asking her questions before leaving.
Suzona took advantage of this to press up against me, she was still in the outfit from this morning, and I had to admit, it did look good on her.
"Care to spend the night with me, William?" She asked in that sexy contralto of hers.
"Um, thanks but no thanks," I said back, keeping my voice low.
"You would turn me down, for that?" Suzona said angrily.
I don't know what surprised me more, that yes, I was in fact turning down hot and sexy Suzona for Evean, who wasn't currently anywhere near as hot; that Suzona was angry about my not wanting to sleep with her; or that I was really enjoying pissing her off by turning her down.
"I really like Evean, Suzona. You and me, well, we've never gotten along that well."
"But I know how to please a man, William. I can show you much pleasure in bed."
"So can Evean."
"Her? What can she know?"
"I've slept with you both, Suzona," I sighed, "I know what each of you can do."
"So, you know you should come with me then," Suzona almost purred.
I shook my head and tried not to grin, "Sorry, Suzona. But she's better than you."
"What!? How can that be!"
"Truth is, you're not even close," I said and gave her a nasty smirk. Yeah, I was enjoying it and I know I shouldn't have been. "She doesn't have to rely on her looks like you do, after all."
Suzona cursed rather loudly, then turning on her heel she stalked out of the room, the others looking over curiously.
"What was that about?" Gregory asked, then went and followed her out of the room.
"You know, she'll only want you more now," Joseph whispered to me.
"Too bad for her then," I said. "I can do without the ice queen."
"I wasn't talking about Suzona," Joseph laughed and nodded towards Evean who was looking at me with a rather predatory smile on her face.
"Uh-oh."
The next day I spent the train ride sleeping, Evean at least was as worn out as I was. Suzona ignored me, thankfully, and Gregory at least, seemed rather pleased with himself.
When we got to Kobe, Evean woke up and got us transportation to the stadium, which was rather large, but as soon as we got near we could all feel it.
There was a portal here.
After buying tickets to the game, we went in and quickly tracked the portal down; it was back in the area where the maintenance crew stored the equipment to maintain the stadium grounds. None of us were able to get back there with a game going on. So those of us who only spoke English went and watched the game, while the others went and investigated things further.
"So, what's this game called?" Joseph asked.
"Baseball," I said watching the teams play. I hadn't seen a ball game in over fifteen years and I'd never seen a Japanese team play before. I had to admit, these guys were good. I was especially impressed with the Tigers' playing.
"How's it work?"
I went over the rules fairly quickly, just giving them the highlights.
"Doesn't sound too hard," Gregory said when I finished.
"Yeah, that's what everyone thinks. Anybody can play it, but playing it good is a lot tougher than it sounds, there's a lot more strategy involved than people realize too. Those professional pitchers can also throw that ball pretty fast, and make it do some strange things."
Just then the pitcher threw a slider and struck the batter out.
"Yeah, I can see that," Gregory admitted. "Is this a popular game here on your plane?"
I shook my head, "Only two countries really play it. Mine and this one."
"Who plays it better?"
"Well, back home everyone thinks we do," I said. "But watching these guys play, I'm not so sure."
"Don't they ever play each other?"
I shook my head again, "No, they don't. And it's kind of a shame. But both countries are far enough away from each other that it would probably play hell with any kind of schedule."
Several innings went by before Evean showed up to talk to us.
"Okay, the others are going to stay until they're pretty much asked to leave or chased out of the stadium. Teshes has actually managed to find one of the groundskeepers and is actually making some progress with learning about the stadium."
"Really?" I asked.
Evean nodded, "She told him it's for a school report, so he's more than happy to help out."
"So, what are we to do?" Suzona asked.
"Enjoy the game, for now. When it's over we'll meet at this hotel," Evean handed us each a piece of paper with a hotel n
ame and address on it. "I've already booked us rooms there."
"Where will you be?" I asked.
"Getting us supplied."
"Need any help?"
Evean laughed, "This is not the kind of thing a gaijin can get involved in. Sorry, Will, I'll have to take care of this by myself."
I sighed.
"What's a gaijin?" Joseph asked.
"People like us," I said.
"Yeah, you stand out to much," Evean agreed.
"You're not exactly Japanese yourself," I pointed out.
"Yes, but I'm Asian, and I'm considered lower-class here. No one will pay me any mind.
"See you later!" She said and left us.
"That is one well organized woman," Joseph said smiling.
"What, you too?" Suzona complained.
"After what she's done to Will the last couple of days, any guy would have to be interested!" Joseph teased, earning a dark look from Suzona.
"It's your funeral," I said shaking my head.
We left after the game ended, Suzona had attached herself to my arm, and I decided not to complain, as it put an end to the men constantly trying to stop her and hit on her, which kept slowing us down. She might be taller than most of the guys here, but that sure didn't dim their optimism.
We got checked into the hotel, and got all of the room keys, then went to the hotel dining room and had dinner. Suzona was dropping hints left and right about what she wanted to do tonight, which was apparently me.
I was being deliberately obtuse. We really didn't get along well, or maybe it was I just didn't get along well with her? Ever since I'd told her off that one time in South Africa, she sure seemed to want to get along with me!
Yeah, she was hot, and yeah we'd been to bed together that one time and yeah, I'd even enjoyed it. But she wasn't someone I could relax with and just be comfortable with. It wasn't just that she was a demanding lover, she was a demanding everything, all the time. I'm sure there were guys who were okay with that, Gregory sure seemed okay with it. I, however, wasn't.
Even Rachel wasn't as demanding, and she was a queen!
Jane, Shin, and Loomis showed up about an hour after we did, but there was still no sign of Evean, or Teshes for that matter. Suzona had used her good looks to get the concierge to hand over the room keys and she started to parcel them out, one to Jane, one to Shin, one to Joseph, and she kept the fourth one and just smiled at me.
"Looks like Joseph will get his chance with your friend tonight, doesn't it?" Suzona said with a smile.
I was about to say something, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, looking back I saw it was Jane, and she was smiling. She took my hand and led me off, to Suzona's swearing and Joseph's laughter.
"Thanks," I sighed as we passed out of earshot and started up the stairs to the rooms.
"You're welcome," Jane said.
I almost tripped. "You can speak English?" I asked surprised. "How?"
"You never lose your native languages, the ones you grew up with. It seems our two native planes have almost the exact same language."
"I had no idea. Does anyone else know?"
Jane shook her head, "No, I'm not in the habit of sharing my advantages with people I don't know."
"You know Evean."
"Or don't trust," Jane said with a grin. "I mean really, Will, I thought you were afraid of Evean, and now you're sleeping with her?"
I blushed, "She's a lot more, umm, human, when she's not so attractive that it's almost impossible to have normal thoughts in your head when she's trying to charm you."
"Well that's kind of shallow." Jane said unlocking the door to the room.
"This from the woman who was afraid to talk to me when she found out I was working at the stable?"
Now it was Jane's turn to blush, "Okay, you may just have a point there. And you are right about one thing, she certainly is a different person here than she is back on Saladin."
I nodded, "Yeah, she's really bothered by her looks still."
"Don't they have surgeons here good enough here to fix that?" Jane asked surprised.
"Not where she came from, you have to understand that Evean comes from a bad place and a bad time here."
"Hey, I had a hard childhood too you know!" Jane laughed and turned to me as I closed the door.
"Not compared to her," I sighed and gave Jane a hug. "Let's not talk about it."
"So why is she so hot for you now, anyway? I'd have thought that once she got you, she'd be done with you."
I laughed and gave Jane a kiss, "You know how I like to make love with the lights on?"
Jane's eyebrows went up, "Wow, that was pretty bold. So you really do like her, huh?"
I thought about that a moment, "Somewhere on Siren we went from being enemies to being friends I guess. And the other night in the room, well, it was the kind of thing you'd do for a friend if you really cared about them, and well, I'm glad I did, because you know what? After a while she wasn't ugly at all."
We went to bed then, and I was rather surprised that Jane actually wanted to make love. We hadn't had sex together since back on her home plane when we'd been dating. I don't know if it was because of what I'd said earlier, or if it was just because she'd 'rescued' me once again.
In either case however, I was more than happy to. I liked Jane a lot, obviously, or I would never have slept with her in the first place.
§ §
"Getting in your last round?" Fel said smiling at me.
"Eh," I shrugged, "I don't think that far ahead, you know that, Fel."
"Even Roden was impressed. Aryanna however says she wasn't all that surprised and that she's proud of you."
I sighed, feeling both annoyed and embarrassed. "Don't you guys all have better things to do than keep tabs on my love life?"
Fel laughed, "Are you kidding? Making bets on our champions is one of our favorite pastimes!"
"I'd ask if you were kidding me, but suddenly I don't want to know," I said shaking my head. "My only regret is that I think she's going to kill me with sex now, and not even intentionally! I really had no idea just how much it meant to her."
"Making someone you care for happy often gets you a far bigger return than the effort you put into it."
"I guess," I replied, "I just had no idea."
"Which is kind of surprising, you've had a pretty good success rate at making women happy, William."
"I don't know, I think I fail a lot more than I succeed."
"Well, that's the problem of men everywhere; you at least don't stop trying."
"So, what's going on back home? I suspect you have something for me to do?"
"The gojira has been active again; it destroyed more of Barassa, and did attack some of the units outside the wall, to the east again. It seems that right now it doesn't want to stray too far from the city."
"So, that's what, five days?"
Fell nodded, "People are starting to flee the city, a few tried to leave via boat. I guess they thought the monster would ignore them during an idle period."
"It didn't, I take it?"
Fel shook his head, "No, it didn't. So those that are leaving are fleeing overland."
"What's the army there doing about it?"
"Stopping everyone and checking them. They're executing anyone who is even carrying a symbol of Tantrus, and making rather nasty examples of any of his clergy that they find."
I wasn't really surprised by that. Tantrus's people had summoned this rather nasty monster after all.
"So refugees aren't going to be a problem for us then?"
"No, but several of us are worried about what this monster is going to do once it runs out of food."
"Well, what has it been eating?" I was pretty sure I knew, but I had to ask.
"People, mostly. There aren't enough fish in the river to feed something that big."
"So what do you think it will do?"
"I'm not sure, William. My biggest fear is that it will swim out into the ocean
and feed on the fish there."
"Why is that your biggest fear?"
"Because then we won't know where it is, and we won't be able to kill it. And if it is capable of asexual reproduction, who knows how many of them we might be facing in the future?"
"So, hurry up."
Fel nodded, "Yes, hurry up."
"I take it everyone is getting the same orders tonight?"
"That and one other thing, William."
That caught my attention, "What?"
"You must be prepared to be ruthless. This could end me, this could end us all. You do what you have to do, and if it means you have to do something bad, you do it. Understand?"
I nodded. I understood.
Ten
Earth - Nishinomiya
Koshien stadium
At breakfast the next morning Joseph was looking rather pleased, tired, but pleased.
"I have a bundle in my room for each of you," Evean said, giving me a wink. "We will be going through the portal in a few hours."
I looked around, I didn't see Teshes anywhere, and asked about her.
"She's holed up inside the stadium. She hid out there last night. When we're ready, she'll open the doors for us from the inside."
"Smart," Gregory commented.
"Very. I'm sure you all got the same lecture last night that I did. Don't hesitate to take advantage of any situations you happen on. Now, eat up, and then come up to my room to get your gear."
I sat down and ate quickly, then followed Joseph upstairs.
"Still alive I see," I told him.
"She said she went easy on me," he laughed.
"So what did she buy us?"
"No idea, I was too busy with other things to check the bags," he grinned.
I snorted, "I'd call you a dog, but for all I know, you are right now."
"Wolf, it's called a dire wolf. Dogs are small."
"Whatever," I said and followed him into the room. There were nine bags there, they all looked like sports bags and had the team logo on them for the Hanshin Tigers.
"Well this is going to stand out," Suzona snarked.
Portals of Infinity: Kaiju Page 8
