By this point, Serizawa was quietly getting the Destroyer in position.
On the Seagull, the sailor with the communications headset was dripping
with sweat from all the tension. In a shrill voice, he called out, “Stop!” The
sound of the quietly turning propellers died down to nothing.
The entire crew felt as if their hearts were standing still.
Step by step, Godzilla approached.
Serizawa raised his right hand.
Shinkichi pulled ferociously on the lifeline. With a whoosh, he floated
upward.
Serizawa, however, stayed in position with the Destroyer.
Godzilla got even closer.
As he rose to the surface, Shinkichi screamed inside his helmet. “Dr.
Serizawa! Dr. Serizawa!”
But Serizawa was determined. With a swift movement—WHOOSH!!—
Godzilla closed in.
It was now or never! Click! Serizawa released the Oxygen Destroyer’s
safety catch!
Water began to rush into the device. The round, cannonball-sized capsule
slowly began to open, and bubbles started rising from the Destroyer.
Thrusting it toward Godzilla, Serizawa pulled himself back into the shade
of the rocks.
Glub-glub-glub-glub . . . Godzilla moved forward into the cloud of
rapidly churning bubbles.
No sooner had his entire body entered the cloud of bubbles than
whoosh!!—Godzilla did a somersault and turned around.
Serizawa watched while hiding against a boulder. Quietly he pulled out a
jackknife from where he had it hidden near his hip . . .
Back on board, Shinkichi had removed his helmet as he watched the
bubbles rising to the surface grow more intense. He grabbed the radio
transceiver and shouted over and over, “Dr. Serizawa!! Dr. Serizawa!! . . .”
Emiko and her father watched with sad faces.
On the seabed, Godzilla was clawing furiously at the underwater rock
outcroppings. He was writhing in agony. Driven to painful desperation, he
struggled to make it to the surface of the water.
As he watched, Serizawa whispered to himself, “Shinkichi . . . I wish you
a happy life. Take good care of Emiko. Sayonara, sayonara . . .” And with
that, whoosh!!—he cut the breathing tubes and the lifeline with his knife.
In the maelstrom of bubbles rising from the Destroyer, Godzilla writhed
in distress. Each time he started to topple over, he managed somehow to get
up again.
The fiercely bubbling water formed a swell like a small mountain,
pushing the surface of the water upward, and the Seagull with it.
Suddenly, the professor, who had been hauling in the lifeline that Ogata
was guiding, pulled up the end of the cord. There was no longer any tension
in it.
He began shouting at the top of his lungs. “Serizawa! Serizawa!! . . .”
There was deep sadness in his voice.
The slack lifeline was dead. It felt strange and unsettling as they pulled it
up. The end showed it had been cleanly severed with a sharp knife.
Still holding the radio transceiver, Shinkichi stood there in a daze.
“Dr. Serizawa! Dr. Serizawa! I should have helped . . . Dr. Serizawa . . .”
Emiko grabbed onto him. She was already in tears.
Then, right before everyone’s eyes, splash!!—Godzilla’s anguish-filled
face appeared at the surface, spraying everyone.
Summoning up what remained of his last strength, he was trying to attack
the Seagull.
“Aaaagh!!” Emiko let out a sharp shriek.
Shinkichi grabbed her and held her tight.
Everyone gasped and threw themselves down, face-first on deck.
Godzilla writhed around, making some big movements with the last of
his strength, then SPLASH!!—he collapsed back into the sea, sending up a
waterfall’s worth of spray. His form started to sink.
Glug-glug-glug-glug . . . Godzilla’s dead body sank quietly into the still-
bubbling water . . . For some time, his form lay on its side between the
seabed boulders, but then it dissolved before everyone’s eyes.

Godzilla: Godzilla in Tokyo
Prayer for Peace