It wasn’t a cowardly thing to scream. In this case, it was likely the most sane reaction Daichi could have given. After all, how often does the sky fall into the sea?

Well, it wasn’t exactly the sky itself, but when a meteor the size of a football field crashes with the sound of a mechanical screech, the madness would allow some pace for imagination.

The sea was getting stronger and wilder. Waves began crashing on the shore, as the horizon went from a soothing line to the jagged points of a shark’s jaw. Soon enough, Daichi heard a deafening sound, yet one he couldn’t perceive. So low, yet so strong. Between the crashing sounds of the waves getting stronger and seemingly closer, so did the deafening silence. And in the now thick fog, the shadow of a man took form. Only… that man was a little too big for something so far away, and had eyes that glew a bright amber yellow. Flashes from the shadow’s chest shone in a white, almost rainbow light, and suddenly, the man felt nothing but fear, as the shadow grew ten times in size, and was now fully emerging from the water. He could now hear the sound that made his ears go mad : clanking, whirring and buzzing. Lots of it, like if a factory was walking towards him with all its windows open.

One swoosh of air and a gigantic hand escaped the fog. Then suddenly, the entire being. No, the entire thing. A massive human-looking… figure with an armour of metal, and what looked like a long stretch of golden hair arranged in a ponytail. A mechanical beast, too tall to measure.

“Oh, my… Oh, no…” the puny thing whispered at its feet.

But he had not the time to think of a sentence before the colossus collapsed. If Daichi’s own strength could merely swing a fistful of sand less than a metre away, this impact sent him and a tenth of the beach flying in all directions.

As he opened his eyes, Daichi found himself almost buried in sand. And in front of him laid the beast. Finally catching a breath, he could now look at the giant without fear- well, without too much fear.

Daichi didn’t bring a camera. What he did bring, however, was the notebook he always would carry with himself outside- in case an idea of any sort came to him. So Daichi started sketching. In great detail, he drew the head, the large shoulder pads, all of the machinery that showed up in every articulation. And on the arm facing him, he saw a strange script. Some characters were faded, but in his notes, he wrote this:

ᚹᚨᛚ-ᛃᚱᛁ- -ᛁ---ᚾ

His sketch now over, he allowed himself the luxury to examine in detail of the beast. Huge dents and what seemed like gigantic claw marks cut open the sides of the machine, exposing all of the interior blops and beeps. And as he was trying to restrain himself from imagining what kind of thing could have caused the damage, as if what made sense to him wasn’t already challenged enough, a little voice in his head steamed louder and louder, “There must be something inside. Someone. A pilot.”

This made no sense, how could he know this strange new technology?

But the thought in his head continued. “They might be in danger.”

His body was refusing to approach the metal monster, but his heart compelled him to. With caution, he scaled the titan’s head, looking for a way in-well, one that was intended to be used, unlike those improvised doors made of hanging wires and torn shell plates.

“Finally, a door!” he proclaimed with relief, grabbing the thick, metallic shaft locking the access.

Entire darkness. That was what he faced. Sometimes, it would be interrupted by the shining light of sparking wires, echoing into the endless tunnel in front of him. Slowly, one careful step after the other, Daichi entered. It wasn’t long before the void ceased, now filled with the bright, colourful lights of controls and what looked like floating screens of neon pink and blue.

But there was no body. No pilot. Nothing. Had the giant metal thing piloted its way here? Disappointed, but most of all relieved, Daichi was about to get back outside and home to tell everyone of the discovery. But something caught his attention. There was a voice. Cooing, in fact. A very soft voice, breathing and exhaling in cute little ‘uhs’.

It seemed to come from the wall at the back of the room. When he reached the source of the sound, Daichi pressed a button near him, only for a portion of the wall to open to reveal…

“A baby?” His eyes didn’t deceive him. Strapped in a complex sort of seat laid inside the wall a beautiful baby, with fair skin, short flaming red hair and emerald eyes. Unaware of the entire situation, the baby smiled at him, its eyes slowly closing, before gently falling asleep.

Aside from the awe of seeing such a pretty little thing, Daichi was most of all confused. How did the baby wind up in this secret hiding spot inside of the wall? Who would send their baby inside a machine to fight and crash on a deserted beach? And, if it came from the stars, how come the baby looked human? There was no note. Was the baby sent here to die? If so, that is one impressive and expensive way of rejecting your child.

These questions weren’t getting an answer very soon, anyway, and Daichi knew it. Call it attachment, call it curiosity, but the only thing he did next was to take the child. No more exploring, no more wondering or wandering. Enough was enough, and this baby was the one step too far for his curiosity.

As he left the room, he found himself back into the pitch-black corridor, then back outside, clutching the child. It shook him how much time had passed: the sun was already set. And in the night, what he saw were lights. Lots of lights. Flashlights, to be exact: a lot of people were coming. Daichi felt a chill down his spine. These weren’t late-night swimmers.

“Here! Here! I see it!” said one voice.

“What on Earth is that thing?” said another.

“Would you look at the size of it!” said a third.

Dozens of people were lining up in front of the giant. Daichi couldn’t see well, but he knew they were officers of some sort. Was it the police? Army? PSIA, CIRO? The more he thought, the more scared he became. Suddenly, a curious man shone his light a bit too far up.

“Someone’s up there! Look! Someone is coming out of it!

-You, there!” yelled a voice in a megaphone, “Drop the thing!”

-I can’t!” yelled Daichi back. “It’s… it’s complicated.”

No response. Down there, he could see multiple people discussing. After a short while, the voice picked up again.

“Alright. You can come down. Very slowly. Do not try anything.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He could hear the officer’s fear in the voice. He wanted to yell back, tell them he was scared too, that he meant no harm, but he knew it would not do anything, so instead, simply followed orders.

It was a long, very careful slide, but eventually, after what felt like an endless scaling down, Daichi finally met with the people from below.

“What is your name?

-Daichi Satou, I’m a historian at the Mie Prefectural Museum.

-Mie? What are you doing so far away in Chiba?

-I… uh… needed fresh air,” stammered the poor man, anxiously gazing from time to time at his bike and metal detector, not far behind the sea of officers. He couldn’t exactly explain how this whole day started as a very illegal scavenging hunt to save his job.

“And how did you wind up on top of this thing?

-I… um… I was… walking along the beach, trying to get some sun and it crashed out of nowhere.

-Is that true? You were not aware of the presence of this machine before the crash?

-No, sir,” he affirmed.

There was a long pause. Daichi could see the officer before him thinking.

“What are you holding?

-I, uh…

-What are you holding?

-This… this might get weird…

-Show it.”

Not wanting to stir the conflict anymore, he complied, and unveiled the sleeping beauty.

“What were you doing, scaling a ruin with your own baby? Are you not aware of the dan-

-It’s not mine,” he interrupted. And in the officer’s eyes, he could see the same confusion he felt earlier.

“What?

-I found it. In the wreckage. Hidden.

-Inside? You went inside it?

-I’m sorry, I was not aware of-

-What else did you find? Any help on the situation would be appreciated.

-Nothing, I’m afraid. Only some unknown technology and hanging wires.

-I see.”

Not long into the silence, the officer was handed something. Daichi’s eyes opened in horror as he recognized his metal detector.

“What is this?” the officer asked in a stern, almost disappointed tone.

-I… uh… metal… erm…

-Yes, I am aware of that, thank you. Care to explain what it was doing here, next to a bike, on this beach that, previous to our arrival, had only one person wandering on it?

-I’m…

-You weren’t getting some fresh air, were you?

-Please understand…

-Do you have a permit to use this? Were you hoping to send your discoveries to your museum? This is an illegal practice.

-I am sorry, I know I was in the wrong in every way tonight, please, don’t-

-The only thing”, a strong, loud voice stated brom behind the wall of officers, “we want from you is a complete silence on what happened tonight.”

Like a rehearsed play, the wall opened in two, revealing two men backlit by the torches of further back agents. One was a tall, gruff looking man, built like a bear wearing a uniform, and the other, a rather frail, relaxed dude with a boyish face, a three-days old beard and long greasy hair arranged in a ponytail.

“This matter,” hammered the Goliath, “is now under the jurisdiction of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, and will be handled by the Japan Ground Self-Defence Force. You are trespassing on private ground requisitioned by the country of Japan.

-Now, now, Colonel,” swiftly answered the David, “Our friend here was obviously not made aware of the sudden change. We can’t have him punished for something he didn’t know.” He bowed with a hefty amount of swagger.

“Koji Yasuda. My friend here is Colonel Daiki Muto. At your service, mister…

-Satou. Daichi Satou.

-I see. Well, I think it’s fair to assume today was the weirdest day of your life. You must be wondering ‘well, what now?’, I believe.

-Ye-

-Well, do not worry anymore, everything is under control.

-We were notified by seismic readings of an important impact off the coast,” affirmed the Colonel, “and the ground forces were immediately tasked to secure the area while the intelligence agency took care of keeping it under cover.

-And yet we have a loose end. You, mister Satou.”

At these words, Daichi swallowed. What were they going to do to him? Kill him? Erase him from all records? Then melt his body in acid to hide all truth, and hunt his wife and family?

“Oooh, do not worry, mister Satou, we are not the yakuza. You will be handed (and gently forced) to sign a non-disclosure agreement stating you have not seen anything, nor have even roamed the area. This entire evening will become our little secret, and should anyone ask about today, you will be in charge of changing the events in a consistent, believable manner as to keep the location and nature of our strange little discovery.

-But… and today… My job… I need to bring back something of value…

-You will be compensated by the government for your troubles and the Mie Prefectural Museum will be notified of your dedication, going so far as… risking a little trouble,” the laid back man assured with a grin. “You will also be exempted from all illegal activities committed tonight, which, of course, refers to your unorthodox archeological methods. However…”

Yasuda held out his hand in a demanding manner, still holding his smirk.

“Another little condition is the requisition of every object found originating from the unidentified flying-not-so-flying object. This includes… the baby.

-...whatever will you do to her?” Satou asked, clutching the child further.

“We have no way to prove the child is human. For all we know, it came from the deepest corners of space and merely looks like a human baby, when it could be a fully grown adult and possibly even an extraterrestrial criminal sent to exile on Earth.

-That’s not what I see,” mumbled softly Daichi to the sleeping child.

“An innocent thought for sure, and one I would like to share, but one however I cannot risk to. It will be put on tests with our best biologists. I know especially one of them who will be most excited to know of this case and work on it. Should the test result positive, if somehow this is in fact a human child, she will be put for adoption. The process will be long, arduous and carry with itself a large, large pile of paperwork, but it is all for the greater good.”

His hand moved closer.

“Come on, now, mister Satou.”

The biggest decision was now in front of him. He was not going to let that beautiful thing be lost in mountains tests and experiments to then be given away, or worse, kept as a freakshow for the high-ranked.

“Maybe… I could take her off your hands?

He knew he piqued Yasuda’s interest with these words.

“My wife and I… We’ve been looking forward to having a child. I could take her with me, back to Mie, and raise her as our own. She will not be made aware of her origins, and I will report anything suspicious, in which case you are… free to test her any way you want.” The very act of saying the words out loud stung like nothing else ever could.

“A most promising solution, I see that everyone wins… I will personally visit and check on her every month.

-Every month? How about once a year?

-Every three months.

-Twice a year?

-Done, if you are willing to risk every six months with no visit.

-I can manage. I think…”

He could see the grin on Yasuda’s face reaching its limits.

“Very well! We will provide adoption papers for you and your wife. Welcome to fatherhood, mister Satou.”

I was now well past midnight, with Daichi escorted back to Mie. Of course, his bike was attached to the roof, but his metal detector was confiscated and very likely set for destruction. All he had was himself, his clothes, and his new treasure.

After a long discussion, furthering their deal, Koji Yasuda fell asleep in his seat. ‘A very peculiar man, this one,’ he thought. ‘Having him visit regularly might actually be fun.’

As he looked down, he gazed one last time at the baby girl fast asleep on his lap. And right before he dozed off himself, one final thought crossed his lips.

“Beautiful baby girl… You’ll be safe with me, little star child… Hoshiko.”