Chapter 8: City of Love

Since Aoi’s arrival Yoshimi hooked herself into every feed on the matter. There were a few unauthorized drones flying around: those what were provided most of the streams. She saw almost everything so far, even the unabashed lewdness Aoi did to that building.

Much of what Aoi did made her sick. All those lives taken, the shamelessly and cruelty of it all. But she knew Aoi was still Aoi. That was what she was betting on.

Yoshimi’s eyes were fixed right on her old roommate’s big green ones. It was a bit unsettling that there was no white to them. They were human enough otherwise, but the sclera was dark as the abyss.

Though the kaiju-woman was a mile away at least, the flat nature of the city combined with the clear sky of the mid-afternoon day to make that blue-green gal visible from her vantage point.

Aoi was staring back, she knew it. She felt it in her body. She had seen the things her old roommate was capable of since getting these monster traits. Being able to see that far, while that big: it just made sense.

Her only doubts pertained to what Aoi thought of her now. If she could just get some conversation in...

Aoi walked closer. Every step of hers a quake. Every foot fall claimed lives and caused countless Euros of damages. She didn’t look down at the soldiers when she snuffed them out, nor did she acknowledge the helicopters she sucked up with anything other than a gulp. Still, the twitch at the corner of her lip with every act of destruction let Yoshimi know that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Quakes grew strong, the city grew weak. The army started getting more desperate. They fired something experimental at Aoi. It looked like some sort of incendiary shell. It had a needle tip and stuck into the viridian flesh of her hip. There, it erupted into a bolide of flames. One of her back tentacles just braved the flames and chucked it away. Aoi had not a scratch on her, but where the shell landed began a great fire that took out a whole block before dying down.

The closer Aoi got, the more the surreality of everything set in. The enormous scale of her roommate set in. The skin was light green-blue or blue-green: not a natural color for sure, but not unappealing given its lighter shade.

Then Aoi got real close. She kicked through the surrounding buildings which till then stood proud like the landmark’s royal guard. Feet slammed on the shrubbery directly below. She wiggled viridian toes into the green turf beneath, further ruining the meticulously kept greenery around the immense tower.

Yoshimi found it difficult to look Aoi in the eye for multiple reasons: her girlfriend’s height chief among them. Instead, she looked down, moving towards the railing to take in just how big her friend became. It was hard for her mind to comprehend.

Aoi took just one more step and she was there. Her girlfriend’s humid breath ruffled her very being. Aoi stood a little taller than the tower, so Yoshimi found herself level with those blue-green lips of her roommate. In this moment, her heart dropped. Yoshimi thought maybe she was wrong about Aoi after all.

“You left me.” Aoi said. “You left me to die!”

Her voice rose at the end. The entire structure groaned as she set her fingers upon her. Her back tentacles rested at her side, though the ones on her head wriggled and writhed here and there.

The heat from Aoi’s breath almost got Yoshimi sweating. She thought her nerves might make her do that soon enough.

“I’m sorry Aoi!” she shouted. “I was afraid, I didn’t know what it was. I wasn’t thinking!”

Aoi grunted. The tower groaned as she started picking at it with a finger. A bit of stress relief.

“My last memory of you was bailing, and then what? Nothing!”

Her every word carried a force that Yoshimi had to brace herself against. The brief glimpses into Aoi’s maw--with its slick greenish flesh and dripping spittle--provided another reason to hold herself steady.

“What was I supposed to do though? Call you? You didn’t even last an hour before you ate someone. You swallowed someone whole Aoi. Don’t you know how horrifying that was?”

Aoi looked to the side and almost grr’d. “You couldn’t possibly understand how it felt. The hunger--the sense of unease. All those weapons were pointed at me, and I was supposed to just stand there and take it? While some idiots debated pumping me with lead?”

“But you kept going Aoi. You didn’t stop.”

“Of course I didn’t stop!” Aoi said. “I became something greater Yoshimi. I am something greater. I’m an evolved being.”

“You just mated with an office building. Some evolution that was!” said Yoshimi.

Aoi clenched her fingers. The digits burst through some of the iron lattice of the tower and it shifted slightly. Anger flowed through her in a sharp spike but, then, a chuckle.

“I... wow I did fuck a building didn’t I.”

Yoshimi looked down at the metal floor and twisted her sneaker. She chuckled as well.

“I imagine it’s funny at some level, but hundreds died. You’ve probably killed thousands in just one day. You’re becoming a monster Aoi.”

Aoi went silent for a moment, then continued.

“I’m not a monster anymore than a human stepping on termites is. All of this is beneath me now. All of them are.”

“Is that it Aoi? Am I beneath you now?”

Aoi looked down. She grit her teeth. Her voice was a roar. “You left me when I needed you!”

“Well I’m here now!”

“Well I don’t need you now!”

There was a chill in the air.

“I’m unstoppable Yoshimi. Nothing can break me.”

Yoshimi held back tears. “Is that it then?” The big super evolved people eater doesn’t need her girlfriend.”

Aoi felt a pang of sorrow. Her throat stung. “No it’s just--urgh. If only I could show you. If only you could see what this is like, to view things from my eyes.”

Yoshimi stepped closer, walking through the hot rustling air from Aoi’s nostrils. Just idle breaths. She walked up to the guardrail of her platform and pointed.

“There’s your view is it.”, said Yoshimi

That block fire was only now just dying down. The army was moving in. A building groaned as it collapsed forward onto a street. Military sirens blared.

Aoi took a deep breath. “None of that matters. It’s a stepping stone.”

“I think you’ve done plenty of stepping as it is!”

The tower rumbled. Aoi had clenched it again. She was agitated enough that the tentacles on her back started to curl around it as well. It was something to squeeze.

“A-aoi easy with the tower please.” said Yoshimi.

“If you’d just listen. Maybe there’s a way I can share with you. I’ve done wackier things with my body.”

Something soared through the air. It came from a big tank-treaded truck several hundred feet behind Aoi. She was too distracted to see it fire. The payload was a big metal sphere that blinked red in the sky. At the height of its arc it split open and numerous smaller hemisphere’s popped out to form a sort of sweeping-spread: an enfilade. They landed down the length of Aoi’s left thigh, though a few missed and stuck to the lattice of the tower’s supporting leg instead.

“Aoi!” cried Yoshimi.

Three short beeps then the payloads blew. Aoi was fine, the tower wasn’t. The explosions ripped through the lattice of the thing and it bent to its side. The shockwave of air yanked off the guardrail on Aoi’s left side: and the tilt of the platform sent Yoshimi falling.

She screamed, the heat of the explosion roared beneath her, but she landed elsewhere. It was something soft and warm; it was Aoi’s palm, over 50ft across.

Yoshimi looked up at a face painted with pure rage. She felt heat building in Aoi’s skin.

“Wait, Aoi don’t!” was all she squeaked out before the kaiju-woman moved her other palm over her head.

Aoi tugged Yoshimi close to her bosom as though protecting some priceless jewel from both sight and harm. Her throat started glowing a bright blue. Her eyes shimmered.

Yoshimi squeaked. “Aoi, please. It’s so hot in your hand, I’m sweating.”

Aoi stared daggers at the convoy. They fired more at her. Everything they had. Tanks and fire rounds, electrical bombs: nothing worked. Something was roaring inside Aoi and she was about to let it loose.

“How dare you interrupt us!” she shouted. She flung her mouth agape and it crackled with turquoise light. Her chest rumbled and shined a similar shade.

She let loose a roar and a torrent of concentrated, searing death with it. A bright blue blast of radioactive fury ripped from her maw towards the intruders. It melted the concrete to glass and turned those billions of experimental weaponry and those hundreds of lives into naught but molten mash.

“How dare you try to hurt her! How dare you try to hurt me! You fucking pests. Insolent food!”

Aoi’s tail dug deep into the ground and lashed up a chunk of debris that it then batted forward into the distance. The clumps of terrain and concrete landed smack dab at another block.

Yoshimi squeaked. “Please, Aoi. It’s hot in here. Your body...”

Aoi paused for just a moment then opened her hands. Yoshimi was there, laying down. Her normally pale skin was a bit pink, and she was covered in sweat.

“Yoshimi, I’m sorry I just got lost in the moment. Are you ok?”

She nodded. “Yes, I don’t think I’m burned or anything.”

The little woman sat up in Aoi’s palm and looked at the smoldering devastation before her. More vehicles were moving in the distance.

“Yoshimi, I... you’re right about something. I’ve been a bit of a monster. But there’s no going back.”

“That’s not true Aoi, you can-”

“No, it’s true and you know it. Even if I could reverse this, I’d be killed. Dissected. My body stored in facilities across the globe so scientists could figure out what the hell happened to me. I’m not doing that. I want to live. I want to become something better.”

“Aoi...”

“I can take you with me. You just need to trust me. You’ll be able to see and feel as I do. We’ll be closer than ever!”

“Aoi, what are you talking about.”

“My body responds to my will. Sometimes directly, other times subtly and taking its time. I’m slowly becoming mistress of my every cell...”

“You’re scaring me Aoi.”

“I know but, look, if I don’t do this, you won’t survive. I won’t become a monster, I’ll become something greater, but Paris won’t survive it. You won’t survive it, unless I do this.”

“Aoi please, don’t.”

The hand beneath Yoshimi’s feet lurched upwards. She was face to face with those lips again. Aoi’s humid breath engulfed her. A long range shell headed their way, but Aoi batted it away with a tentacle.

“Trust me Yoshimi.”

“Aoi, please I... I love you! Don’t do this!”

Aoi paused, taking those words in. She then opened wide and stuffed Yoshimi into her maw.

She swallowed.