Chapter 137 -The Monster of the Human Hearts

The room fell silent once more.

Forced to sleep on the bed, Akane instinctively turned her head.

She looked at Minami, who was sitting at the small round table with his back to her, the soft glow of the desk lamp illuminating his figure.

She realized—she really didn't understand Minami at all.

He dragged her out of bed in the middle of the night.

Talked about preparing a tokusatsu performance for the cultural festival.

And now, he was sitting there, seriously working on a new script.

Even though the desk lamp didn't disturb her sleep—

For some reason, staring at his back made her climb out of the warm bed.

"Shinjo-san?"

Minami turned his head slightly, momentarily pulled from his thoughts.

"The light's too bright—how do you expect me to sleep like this?"

Akane, now dressed in Minami's blue sportswear, muttered, "I'm getting up to make myself something to eat. Want anything?"

"Just make me whatever."

Hearing that, Minami suddenly realized—he was a little hungry.

After all, it was already midnight.

It had been over six hours since he last ate.

Since Shinjo was willing to cook, he had no complaints about taking advantage of it.

"Seriously, who the hell writes scripts in the middle of the night?"

She grumbled as she got to work.

But despite her complaints, her hands moved with practiced ease as she prepared their meal.

She had left some ingredients untouched earlier—now, they were just enough for a midnight snack.

As she cooked, she stole glances in Minami's direction.

After responding to her, he had lowered his head again, deep in thought, carefully structuring his script.

His focus was unwavering.

Under the glow of the lamp, his furrowed brows looked like towering ridges.

His sharp yet refined features were accentuated by the lighting, making them even more striking.

Even Akane had to admit—

This egotistical, self-assured man had every reason to be confident.

At least, judging by that face alone.

And…

"Who's he even writing this script so seriously for, anyway?"

She muttered a small complaint, then glanced at the food she was preparing.

After a brief hesitation, she decided to put in a little extra effort—

For some reason.

Her movements were quick and precise.

In no time, the meal was ready.

She brought it over and placed it in front of Minami.

Watching him eat every last bite without leaving a single scrap behind—

Something stirred inside her.

A strange sense of satisfaction and pride.

No matter how arrogant his words were—

In the end, he still ate her food, didn't he?

Akane's mood instantly improved.

After finishing their meal, she quickly brushed her teeth and freshened up before crawling back into Minami's bed.

Then, after a moment of hesitation, she turned her delicate, beautiful face toward his direction and softly murmured—

"Goodnight, Minami-kun."

She waited for a response.

After a brief pause, she heard his voice.

"Hm."

A simple reply.

Yet, for some reason—

On this stormy night, with a typhoon raging outside—

Those two letters were enough to calm her restless heart.

She slowly closed her eyes.

Meanwhile, sitting at the table, Minami simply shook his head and continued thinking.

After the previous simulation, he understood Akane much better.

That's why he could easily guess why she had written a tokusatsu script just two weeks before the cultural festival.

It was all because of Karasawa Yuka, the Shinjo family's housekeeper.

Under her influence, Akane had always dreamed of creating her own tokusatsu show.

She wanted to write stories she wanted to see—

To watch her characters, her kaiju, come to life.

To witness the ending she envisioned.

For her, that alone would be enough.

The cultural festival presented her with a golden opportunity.

Naturally, she was tempted.

That's why she had approached Minami for advice on scriptwriting.

Even in the simulated memories, when she spoke about that cultural festival—

No matter how well she pretended, it was obvious.

She still held onto that long-lost dream.

If that was the case—

Minami figured that giving her something to hold onto might be the key to fixing this regret.

And as for the script—

To be honest, he already had an idea.

With his Level 4 Writing (Romance) skill, all he needed to do was sit down.

And countless ideas would begin colliding and forming in his mind.

Here, "writing" didn't just refer to literature.

Anything involving text—scripts included—fell within his domain.

Minami had already read Akane's script before.

And, to put it bluntly—

It was terribly generic.

A monster appears for some reason.

A hero emerges to stop it.

The monster is defeated.

Humans reflect on the ordeal.

That was it.

A painfully standard, utterly unremarkable script.

No personality. No highlights.

Aside from her polished writing style, there was nothing worth mentioning.

That was why Minami had asked her—

"Did you write this badly on purpose?"

Because he could tell.

Akane did have solid writing fundamentals.

But just because someone had writing skills didn't mean they had a talent for crafting compelling plots.

Minami rested his pen against his chin.

Since he had considered all of this—

Why not flip the question around?

What kind of script would actually satisfy Akane?

It wasn't hard to figure out.

He recalled a conversation from the simulation—

Between Akane and Karasawa Yuka.

A single sentence had shaped her complex personality the most.

"A story where the monster wins has never existed."

Minami turned to look at the peacefully sleeping Akane.

The script she truly wanted to see.

The one she truly wanted to write…

Minami had an answer.

He glanced at the blank pages before him.

This was different from The Girl Hidden Within the Azalea Fields.

It would be his first time writing a tokusatsu script.

With a rough plan forming in his mind, Minami began drafting the storyline.

Choosing the setting wasn't difficult.

Tokusatsu shows had long used their plots to criticize the Japanese government's incompetence.

And Tokyo had always been a disaster-prone city.

That was practically a tradition in all Japanese tokusatsu stories.

After some thought, Minami set the synopsis:

Japan, after announcing its decision to dump nuclear waste into the ocean.

The waste polluted marine life, causing mutations.

The Japanese government, disregarding international regulations, continued their reckless actions.

Then, from the depths of the ocean, a monster awakened—

The ancient creature Thanasis, which had existed since the Permian period.

Corrupted by the tainted waters, it rose from the deep.

Its first appearance—

Japan's Fukushima coastline.

A towering, sky-piercing figure.

With a mere flick of its hand, it could bring destruction on an unimaginable scale.

Upon surfacing, it immediately obliterated Japan's nuclear waste disposal facility.

Then, it disappeared without a trace.

But this was only the beginning.

Thanasis began appearing at every nuclear wastewater dumping site Japan had set up.

Missiles and firearms deployed by the Japanese government had no effect on its thick hide, unable to slow its destructive advance.

Plagued by this disaster and pressured by public panic, the government decided to take action, hoping to put an end to the monster crisis.

And in Minami's script, the protagonist was one of the key figures involved.

He was a scientist with an exceptionally high IQ.

From the moment Thanasis first appeared, he quickly noticed something unusual—this kaiju seemed to be targeting and destroying only the facilities that dumped nuclear wastewater into the ocean.

He proposed to the higher-ups that they should cease all wastewater dumping, believing it was the only way to stop Thanasis's attacks.

But his suggestion was swiftly rejected.

Because simply knowing of Thanasis's existence was enough to send Japan into a state of unrest.

Much less the idea of coexisting with it.

The government instead demanded that he and his fellow scientists find a way to eliminate the kaiju once and for all.

With no other choice, the protagonist turned his attention to analyzing the tissue samples left behind by Thanasis, hoping to uncover a weakness.

And in the end, he did.

Through his research, he discovered the kaiju's biological secrets.

Thus, the secret weapon known as the Gene Missile entered development under his command.

During this time—

Thanasis's appearances grew more frequent.

Clearly, the ever-increasing nuclear pollution in the ocean was pushing it into a state of agitation.

At this moment, it truly seemed like the guardian of the planet.

And the Japanese government, with its relentless pollution, was nothing more than a parasite leeching off Earth.

Finally, the Gene Missile was completed.

The protagonist was confident that his creation could destroy Thanasis in a single strike.

And indeed—

Before countless hopeful eyes, the missile struck Thanasis square in the chest.

Upon impact, the kaiju—once impervious to bullets and missiles—suddenly froze in place.

Then—

A deep, sorrowful cry echoed through the land.

A sound that carried the pain of countless marine creatures suffering in silence.

With its back against the sea, Thanasis collapsed.

Falling into the swirling abyss of nuclear wastewater.

Its body, ravaged by the Gene Missile, began to rot.

The same deep crimson blood that ran through all Earth's creatures flowed from its wounds.

Turning the ocean's surface red.

As government officials celebrated their victory—

The kaiju lying in the nuclear waste suddenly reopened its dimmed eyes.

It roared once more.

Because, after spending so much time submerged in nuclear pollution—

Its very genes had mutated.

The once-lethal Gene Missile was now barely effective.

All of Japan watched in horror as the decaying beast rose once more.

And their cities—

Were completely annihilated.

Even the Japanese government had never imagined—

That the nuclear waste they had fought so hard to dump would be the final nail in their coffin.

A towering, grotesque figure stood amidst the ruins of Tokyo.

Its rotting flesh, writhing and shifting, let out ceaseless cries of agony—

Even as it destroyed everything around it.

The sheer irony of it all was suffocating.

From the very start, Thanasis had only wanted to protect the ocean.

And yet, just for attempting to fulfill such a simple desire—

It had endured relentless attacks from humanity.

Just as the protagonist, staring at the ruins of Tokyo, spoke with utter heartbreak—

"This is the disaster Japan's government brought upon itself."

A monster born from the malice of human hearts.

Nothing could defeat it.

And what was even more ironic—

After wiping out Tokyo's economic hub, the very backbone of Japan's economy—

Thanasis, now fully mutated, succumbed to its own uncontrollable transformation.

Just before all of its vital signs faded—

Thanasis turned its massive body—

Gazing one last time at the distant, endless blue sea.

The place where all life was born.

The mother that had once nurtured it.

But it could never protect her again.

A kaiju, standing motionless upon the Earth—

Yet, even in death, it had loved this planet far more than humanity ever did.

Following this catastrophe, Japan's government suffered a devastating blow.

And due to international pressure, they were forced to abandon all plans to continue dumping nuclear waste.

Because now—

No one could be sure whether another "Thanasis" lay dormant beneath the ocean's depths.

"That'll do."

Minami set his pen down, nodding slightly as he examined the near-complete storyline.

On the first page of the manuscript, he casually scrawled down the title—

"The Monster of the Human Hearts."

Just as the title implied—

Thanasis was a monster born from the darkness of human nature.

Awakened by human greed—and ultimately perished because of it.

A conclusion both poetic and tragic.

Humanity had won—and lost.

The kaiju had lost—and won.

A hero's ending—applied not to a savior, but to a monster.

Somehow, it carried an indescribable charm.

Since The Monster of Human Hearts was written as a stage play,

It was shorter than The Girl Hidden Within the Azalea Fields.

Minami estimated he could finish it by tomorrow.

Setting his pen aside, he turned off the desk lamp.

He lay down on the futon—originally meant for Shinjo—

But seeing as she was already asleep in his bed, he didn't have the heart to wake her.

"I'll run the third simulation tomorrow."

He casually glanced at his phone.

1 AM.

Minami slowly closed his eyes.

Yep—

"I'm still just as brilliant as ever."