Barugon's History
A monster who appears once every thousand years, Barugon was revered and feared in the myths and legends of New Guinea. Barugon's egg, which resembles a giant opal, was placed in a red sack and concealed in the Valley of Rainbows by Ichiro, a Japanese soldier, who found the egg during World War II. 21 years later, Ichiro resolved to obtain the priceless object, sending three treasure hunters, Kawajiri, Onodera, and his brother, Keisuke, to search for it. The three men made their way to New Guinea by posing as sailors on a merchant ship, with Keisuke also hired to pilot a helicopter to leave New Guinea once the gemstone was obtained. However, after Kawajiri located the ‘opal’, Onodera betrayed him and Keisuke, intentionally letting Kawajiri be fatally stung by a cave scorpion, then setting off explosive charges, hoping Keisuke would die in the resultant cave-in. Fleeing the cave with the egg, Onodera made it back to the ship, and began the return journey to Japan. During the voyage, Onodera developed symptoms of malaria and athlete's foot, which the ship's doctor began treating using an infrared heat lamp.
During the final leg of the trip, as the ship neared Kobe, Onodera accidentally left the egg under the heat lamp, which he carelessly neglected to switch off, and went to play Mahjong with the ship's crew. The lamp incubated the egg and it hatched into a baby Barugon. Barugon then rapidly grew to his full size, causing the boat to explode, before swimming to shore and making his way into downtown Kobe, levelling much of the city, before continuing onward to Osaka where he froze areas of the city solid with his Chilling Liquid, including the keep of Osaka Castle. As Barugon rampaged, the military attempted to destroy him with a missile strike, but Barugon destroyed the missiles and their launchers with his Rainbow Death Ray, blowing the launch facility to pieces. As this happened, Barugon's Rainbow Death Ray also happened to catch the attention of Gamera, who had recently returned to Japan from space to resume his quest for energy to consume. The two titans clashed in the castle's grounds, and just when Gamera got the upper hand, Barugon used his Chilling Liquid to freeze Gamera solid, though Gamera managed to cut Barugon's cheek with his frozen hand just before he was completely frozen. With the military and Gamera out of the way Barugon left Osaka and began travelling towards Tokyo.
After Karen informed the JSDF that Barugon's weakness was fresh water, the JSDF set up a plan to drown him in Lake Biwa north of Kyoto, utilising a large diamond from New Guinea that had been handed down through multiple generations to attract him, but the plan seemed to fail, as Barugon eventually lost interest. A week later, with Barugon kept from continuing on his journey east by artificial rain, a second attempt was put into motion, utilising a ‘Ruby Death Ray’ that imbued the diamond with infrared light. This time, Barugon continued following the diamond all the way to the shores of Lake Biwa. As the amphibious vehicle carrying the Ruby Death Ray sailed out into the lake, disaster struck when Onodera arrived on a speedboat and attacked the team, stealing the diamond from the JSDF. As Onodera attempted to make good his escape, Barugon used his extremely long tongue to ensnare both the thief and the diamond, and consumed both, before quickly getting back to the safety of the lake’s shore before he could be injured by exposure to the water.
With this plan a failure, the JSDF changed tactics, bringing in more helicopters to drop artificial rain to keep Barugon at bay. The next day, Keisuke and Karen arrived at the missile facility destroyed by Barugon during his attack on Osaka, and discovered that the wing mirrors of a jeep destroyed by Barugon’s Rainbow Death Ray remained intact, despite the rest of the vehicle having been completely disintegrated. Realising that this meant Barugon’s Rainbow Death Ray must have a weakness, he presented the mirrors to the JSDF and explained that mirrors could be used to reflect Barugon’s beam back at him. With this plan approved, the microwave antenna on Mount Kajika was equipped with giant panels coated in mercury, turning it into a mirror capable of reflecting the energy. A set of remotely-controlled tanks were then sent to the summit to be used to provoke Barugon into using his beam.
That evening, the plan, code-named Operation Rear-View Mirror, was set into motion. As the tanks fired on Barugon, he fired his Rainbow Death ray towards them, destroying the vehicles and striking the reflective surface of the antenna exactly as had been predicted. As the energy was shot back towards its source, it struck Barugon over his spine, blowing vast quantities of skin and muscle off and leaving the monster screeching and writhing in pain as blood freely issued from his wounds. However, the reflector, while extremely powerful, had failed to kill Barugon. Realizing the humans had the ability to potentially kill him, he refused to use his Rainbow Death Ray again.
Just as all hope seemed lost, the areas of Osaka frozen by Barugon finally began to thaw. Revived, Gamera emerged from his icy prison and flew to Lake Biwa to fight Barugon. Though Barugon was a worthy fighter and capable of defending himself in close quarters, Gamera held the upper hand, and hurled him into the Biwako Ohashi Bridge. Barugon made it to the shore again, and attempted to subdue Gamera by knocking him down with his tongue and holding him against the ground with his legs, but Gamera remained in control, eventually hurling Barugon back into the lake. Barugon panicked and attempted to scramble out of the water, distracting him for long enough for Gamera to use his jaws to grab hold of Barugon by the neck, dragging him away from the shore and into Lake Biwa's interior. With his strength rapidly fading away, Barugon began to violently bleed, and sank below the lake's surface as Gamera pulled him down, eventually reaching the bottom. After Gamera let go of Barugon, the monster attempted one last, futile use of his Rainbow Death Ray, which rose above the surface, but faded before it could hit anything; Barugon had finally died.
