He tried, as best he could, to remain optimistic.
But even so, he could not defy his stubborn fate.
No matter how hard he tried, it always found its way to the surface.
He became increasingly withdrawn, and increasingly prone to letting his emotions take hold.

I cannot see anything around me.
I cannot even determine what any of it is.
I cannot touch anything, nor can I even move.
The radiation deep within my chest is melting away, and my blood is dripping from every part of my body.
Even that breath which once tore through the sky is no longer of any use.
The blue light that once flickered deep within my eyes is now fading into profound darkness.
The raging atomic fire has fallen silent, transforming from a furious inferno into a cold stillness.
And yet… I understand.
This is a place where I can live in peace forever.
A place where there is nothing left that can threaten me.
The blood pouring from my wounds vanishes into the primordial cold, while my body hardens, becoming like silent coral.
…Was I destined to reach this place from the very beginning?

What Godzilla encountered upon reaching that land was an absolute taboo beyond the limits of language.
There was only one thing that could be said with certainty: it was a higher-order concept, an existence so far above Godzilla—the god of destruction himself—that even he was reduced to something insignificant.
Even the King of the Monsters stood in awe of it, struggling desperately to escape its dominion.
Yet the sight of it, burned irrevocably into his retinas as an unavoidable reality, left him with no choice but to be ensnared by it, utterly and unquestioningly.
Every conceivable means of counterattack was reduced to ashes, without exception.

The moment I put it on, I felt something click into place. And I loved the feeling more than I could possibly express.
Later, they tried to remove it from me, but by then it was already too late. It had already fused with my body.
…As though it had become a part of me.
I can feel that it is perfectly synchronized with me. No one can stop this anymore. It has already “become this way.”
I can remain together with it forever.
There is no way to suppress this consciousness. It is simply too powerful. There is no going back anymore.
I am nothing… just “Goji.”

There is no time for this pointless nonsense.
Nor is there any point in continuing this endless game of chasing each other's tails.
What I seek is radiation.
It is my source of energy.
It is thanks to that radiation that I am able to sustain myself.

Relationships are irrelevant.
I am an entity above every living creature.

The city was silent.
Not peaceful—silent.
There was a difference between the two.
He could feel it beneath the concrete, beneath the steel, beneath everything that humans had built.
Something was waiting.
And somehow, he already knew that it had been waiting for him.

He continued walking despite the pain.
There was no reason to stop.
Stopping would only give the memories time to catch up with him.
The streets around him were empty, but he could still hear voices.
Perhaps they were real.
Perhaps they had simply become another part of him.

The light above the horizon was not sunlight.
It was too pale.
Too distant.
It illuminated everything without actually making anything visible.
He stared into it for what felt like an eternity.
Then the light stared back.

Something had changed inside his body.
He could no longer tell where his flesh ended and the radiation began.
Every heartbeat carried heat through his veins.
Every breath seemed to disturb the air around him.
He was no longer certain whether he was controlling it—or merely allowing it to happen.

They called him a monster.
They had always called him that.
At first, he hated the word.
Later, he understood that words were simply another form of fear.
If calling him a monster made them feel safer, then there was no reason to correct them.

I remember the ocean.
I remember its coldness.
I remember sinking beneath the surface and seeing nothing but darkness.
But I do not remember rising again.
Perhaps I never did.
Perhaps the thing that emerged from that darkness only happened to have my memories.

The heat inside me is becoming quieter.
It no longer burns.
It simply exists.
That is somehow worse.
A fire that screams can still be extinguished.
A fire that has learned silence may remain forever.

He reached toward the strange object.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then something moved beneath his skin.
He immediately pulled his hand away.
It was already too late.
Whatever he had touched had recognized him.

There was no explosion.
No warning.
No great sound announcing the end.
The world simply became different.
One moment, there were cities, oceans, people, and machines.
The next, there was only an enormous shadow beneath an unfamiliar sky.

I can hear them calling my name.
They think I am angry.
They think I am afraid.
They think there must be some human emotion behind everything I do.
They do not understand.
I am not angry.
I am simply moving forward.

The creature looked toward the horizon.
Nothing stood there.
Yet it continued staring.
Something existed beyond the distance that its eyes could perceive.
Something without a shape.
Something that did not need one.

He had spent years trying to become something better.
Every attempt had failed.
Every failure had left another scar.
Eventually, he stopped asking whether he could change.
The question became whether there was anything left that needed changing.

The radiation began to disappear.
At first, he panicked.
Then he realized that he could still breathe.
The pain was gone.
The trembling had stopped.
For the first time in his existence, there was nothing demanding that he continue.

There are things that should never be understood.
There are things that become smaller the moment they are given a name.
This was not one of those things.
Naming it would not make it smaller.
Understanding it would only reveal how little there was left to understand.

I do not remember when the voice became mine.
Perhaps it was always there.
Perhaps it entered with the radiation.
Perhaps there is no difference anymore.
When I speak, it answers.
When it answers, I already know what I will say.

The soldiers raised their weapons.
He watched them without moving.
He could have destroyed them.
Instead, he waited.
Not out of mercy.
Not out of fear.
He simply wanted to know how long they would continue believing that their weapons mattered.

The sky turned red.
The sea became strangely still.
Even the wind seemed unwilling to cross the empty space between them.
Something enormous had arrived.
And for the first time, the creature realized that being enormous meant nothing.

He looked at his reflection in the water.
The face staring back was familiar.
The eyes were not.
There was intelligence behind them now.
Not human intelligence.
Something colder.
Something patient.

I no longer feel the need to return.
There is nothing waiting for me there.
The cities will continue without me.
The people will create new names, new weapons, new gods.
Let them.
I have already found something older than all of them.

They believed destruction was the end.
They were wrong.
Destruction was only the moment when everything unnecessary was removed.
What remained afterward was much quieter.
Much simpler.
And far more difficult to stop.
