Ayako stood in a ruined city. The Kaiju had come in the night and by morning the port city of Abashiri had simply ceased to exist. All the remained was a twisted maze of metal and cement, strewn with the corpses of its once inhabitants.

She was too late.

Togashi, her Operator, a mile distant shared her agony through the Bond. His attempts to comfort her were a thin slick of oil on the sea of rage the roiled in her heart. Why had the G.I. failed? Why had Togashi been so slow at preparing her to fight? Injustice piled on injustice until it felt as though she would burst from the pressure. [Ayako, you must calm down. There is nothing we could have done.] Togashi sent.

Nothing? Ayako lifted a girl in her palm, she was not much younger than Ayako herself. The girl’s porcelain skin would not have been out of place on a doll. Only dolls didn’t bleed. And who would twist the limbs of a doll at such angles? Who would paint a doll’s face with such terror? Who would discard such a beautiful doll as if she were garbage? [Ayako, please. You must control your emotions.] Togashi sent urgently. His words were like the buzzing of a fly.

The city was littered with broken dolls. A sharp pain lanced at the base of her spine. Why should broken dolls make her so angry? Ayako laughed and looked down at her hand in surprise. Red rivulets ran from her clenched fist. Suddenly it seemed so simple.

Dolls were meant to be broken.

---

“Ms. Ross, we have a problem.”

Caitlyn Ross set down her clipboard to look at the young officer who had burst into her office. She made quick note of his rank and said, “How can I help you, corporal?”  

“There has been an incident in northern Japan, a Goddess suffered a symbiotic break. She was last seen headed south from Abashiri in the Hokkaido prefecture.”

Caitlyn’s grip tightened on the clipboard. “How long ago?” she said.

“Less than half an hour, mam.”

“Start the media blackout in Hokkaido and every neighboring prefecture within fifty miles.” Caitlyn’s mind raced to keep pace with her pounding heart. What a disaster. “Does anyone else know about this?” she demanded.

“No one who shouldn’t, mam.”

“Let’s keep it that way, corporal. I’ll get a team together to clean this mess up. Keep me informed.”

“Mam, yes mam,” the corporal said, saluting. He exited as quickly as he had arrived.

When the door shut she dropped her face into her hands, rubbing her eyes. She had not slept well lately. None of them had. Too many battles. Too many defeats. They were spread thin. Thinner than the public could ever know. Worse, there were only a select few with the clearance to deal with a rogue Goddess. If word of the flaw ever leaked to the public it would all come crashing down. The Goddess Initiative, the world. Chaos, bedlam, the end of everything.

Caitlyn lifted her tired eyes and did what she had to. She picked up the phone, and made the call.

---

Ayako loved autumn. She loved the way leaves crunched beneath her feet. The dolls reminded her of autumn.  

There were hundreds of them, so lifelike, so real! They trampled each other as they ran but she collected as many as her hands could hold. They squirmed and wriggled, some even jumped right back out of her hands. Those ones left little red splotches on the ground. The rest she crunched beneath her feet like little doll leaves. Even the color was right, a satisfying bright sticky red.  

“Please!” one of the dolls in her hands cried. His little doll arm pointed at her. “You are supposed to protect us.”

“POINTING IS RUDE,” Ayako declared and plucked the doll’s arm off. If he behaved better she would return it to him. The doll screamed, fell, and lay still-- broken.

That was okay, Ayako knew. That’s what they were for.

---

Jiwoo wiped the blood from a cut on her lower lip and looked down at the girl at her feet. The Japanese Goddess had fought like a wild animal; scratching, biting, and howling madly. Now she lay dead; black hair floating behind her head in a pool of blood. The sight made Jiwoo’s stomach turn and she looked away. The city, she didn’t know its name, was miles distant. Leading Ayako out had not been difficult, but it had been costly.

The highway was shattered in a hundred places, crushed cars and broken bodies blanketed the lanes exiting the city. It was as bad as any Kaiju attack. Worse. A Goddess had died, and Jiwoo had killed her. [It is done.] she sent to her Operator.

She put her back to the carnage and began the return journey to South Korea. Victory rarely felt so hollow.