Heavy footsteps shook the earth. A guttural roar promising violence. The monster appeared from the darkness; the soldiers froze —

And immediately started laughing.

Cut!!!” Hiroshi yelled. “What the hell kaiju is this?”

“Don’t yell at me,” Daiki answered. “I’m sweating to death in this rubber suit and I need a cigarette.”

Hiroshi hurled the director’s horn to the studio floor. “That’s NOT what I told Ono to make. Where is he?”

The costume designer was called.

“Ono. What is this thing. It’s not the kind of kaiju I asked you to make. It looks like a — a mosquito with a cat’s head! That’s not very scary!”

Ono shrugged. “Well it’s not like I have a budget for much.”

“You can do better,” Hiroshi grumbled, “even with a tiny budget.”

“I could add some plastic fangs to the headpiece. I thought I saw some leftover from your vampire movie.”

Hiroshi sighed. “Let’s break for lunch.”

***

He’d been hired to make cheap monster movies and was failing miserably.

The movie company was a mess. The costume designer had to hunt through dumpsters to make costumes. The actors were desperate for any role as long as a paycheck was promised. Hiroshi had to write, direct and deliver 3 movies a year.

“That’s it,” Hiroshi thought. “I’m quitting.”

A heavy load seemed to slide heavy off his back. *I’m free*, he thought.

With a light heart, he gathered some fishing gear and went out on his boat the next day.

He spent the afternoon lazing in his boat, thinking about all the cigarette commercials he’d be making. Eventually he dozed off and dreamed of dancing cigarette boxes … he was doing the tango with one particularly lovely box when he was nudged awake.

Fish on!

He fought with it for about an hour, wondering what he’d caught. Until finally it surfaced.

A scaly hand slapped on the side of the boat, followed by a head. With two pairs of glaring red eyes.

“Could ya help a kaiju out,” the monster growled. “I got this fishing line stuck in my teeth.”

Hiroshi looked at his fishing pole and shoved it aside while grabbing his clippers.

Freed of the fishing line, the kaiju sighed in relief. “What can I do to thank you?” It said. “I can grant you one wish.”

***

“Say that again?” The monster said, gnawing on some bits from the chum bucket.

“It’s one movie,” Hiroshi said. “It would be easy. Just some stomping on peasants and their homes.”

It stared at him.

“And all the chum you can eat. Cmon, what can go wrong?”

“Ok. I’ll give it a shot. Chum, you say?”

-To be continued, maybe -