“To preserve a spirit of fair play, the International
Swimming Federation will henceforth ban participation in official events by
people who can breathe underwater.”
(1961, from an official proclamation regarding the banning
of professional swimmer Lolly Lemar)
Shortly afterwards, Lolly Lemar announced she would be
working as Aqua Angel, the world’s first female superhero
A bizarre and horrific scene was playing out in the
Ikebukuro West Gate Park in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.
Several cars had crashed into buildings or flipped over in
the park and a crowd created a chorus of screams while fleeing. Like a school
of fish fleeing hungry sharks, the people ran every which way, bumped into each
other, tripped over those who had already fallen, and fell themselves.
The cause of the panic was also human in shape. A group of
gentlemen wore old-fashioned tuxedos and morning coats with bowties.
Their faces revealed a wood grain pattern, glass eyes were
embedded in that surface, and their painted-on mouths showed toothy grins.
These were clearly wooden puppets.
They must have had some kind of machinery within because
they turned their empty smiles around and swung their arms down on the backs of
the people who had failed to escape in time. The wooden fingers extending from
their tuxedo sleeves glittered with sinister metal claws.
Police ran from a nearby police station and drew their
handguns, but they could not fire in the middle of such a panic. They were
instead swallowed up by the panicking crowd.
The knife claws slashed a young man’s flesh and blood
sprayed. The puppet with blood splattered across his smile turned its glass
eyes toward a new target: a crying kindergarten-aged boy who had gotten
separated from his mother. One claw on the puppet’s left hand pierced the young
boy’s short collar and easily lifted the small body with stiff, awkward
movements.
The puppet readied its right hand’s claws in front of the
small child dangling in front of its bloody wooden face.
When the young woman finally found her child within the
chaos, she screamed in terror while others shoved her out of their way.
“Help! Someone please save my Masaya! Please!”
