Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

She would occasionally wipe the corner of her eye, and sometimes she would rub her fingers at an odd angle that would surely break a living person. Kinoshita Kei saw a blurry shadow forcibly pull her finger back, and the ball joint creaked.

Sometimes she would wipe her beautiful eyes crookedly, and Kinoshita Kei would unconsciously think of the cult-like figurines of the King.

"I'm not fucking going to get a zombie movie or some kind of horror movie script..." As he took a bite of the sandwich, his favorite salt and pepper seasoning tasted bland and tasteless today.

"That voice, Dead Salted Fish, Salted Fish King, is that you?" He felt his ears starting to ring: "Stop talking, my ears hurt. If it's Salted Fish King, clap your hands."

The "wife" obediently clapped her hands and then slapped her own hand to the ground.

Kinoshita Kei mentally prepared himself to help her pick up her hand, but the blurry shadow had already reconnected her slender white hand to her arm before he could.

"And who are you?" he tried to speak to the shadow.

But he could not make out the intermittent human voices coming from the direction of the shadow as the disc was scratched.

"Alright, as long as it's not Sadako and Kayako," Kinoshita Kei pushed the food box toward his "wife" and uttered the most common greeting among Chinese people: "King of Salted Fish, and this guy I don't recognize... Brother Shadow, have you eaten yet?"

……

"Don't be discouraged if the experiment fails, eat first!"

"Stop talking about failures, okay? Isn't the system perfect?" The genius of Alchemy Star, Takayama Gamu, was utterly confident in his research: "It's just that the instrument's precision isn't high enough. If that succeeds..."

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence, staring blankly at the rooftop of the building in front of him: "Hey, what's that?"

His labmate looked in the direction he was pointing and said, "There's someone there. That's a good place to relax and have lunch. What's wrong?"

Takayama Gomu raised her voice: "Aren't there two people?! I'm asking about that thing with the light floating outwards, the semi-transparent one... is it haunted?"

"I wonder if you're hallucinating from being cooped up for too long. I just asked you to invite that literature girl to the lab, but you wouldn't go," his companion patted his shoulder and half-pushed him forward. "The good girl from the literature department is already gone. Stop dreaming, Meng."

“It really is.” Takayama Gamu still didn’t look away. The people on the rooftop seemed to be talking. They walked over, and their angle of observation shifted. The semi-transparent blue-clad figure with glowing spots on his body seemed to have seen him. Their eyes met in the air.

For a fleeting moment, he felt as if he were back in the experiment. He saw the red giant destroy the monster, the giant turn around, nod at him, and the triangular gem on its chest gleamed.

He murmured, "Ultraman?"

Chapter Four: Omens

After experiencing multiple shifts in his worldview, Kinoshita Kei's worldview was refreshed once again as soon as he closed the food box.

It was a strange phenomenon that I could not explain with my knowledge from both my previous lives—a semi-transparent crystal cone-like object appeared in the void about a hundred meters above the ground.

"UFO?"

Regardless, this strange thing was too close. He picked up his salted fish "wife," who was still stammering and saying things he couldn't understand, and hurriedly ran downstairs. Brother Shadow seemed to have said something as well, and he could feel that the other party was following closely behind him.

As expected of a ruthless manufacturer, his "wife" had barely taken two steps before her ankles started to loosen. He managed to catch her hands, which had nowhere to go, but he couldn't catch her legs, which were swaying and falling down.

"While I'm glad you've become like this, you really are the King of Salted Fish, aren't you?" Kinoshita Keido said, his footsteps echoing across the three floors. "Can you change back? Or change into anything that doesn't lose any parts!"

His "wife" turned back into a flailing salted fish in his half-disappointed gaze.

With firm flesh, smooth scales, and a distinct ocean flavor, it is a truly qualified and fresh sea fish.

"Maybe I'm the shame of transmigrators..." Kinoshita Kei didn't know if Magikarp would evolve into Gyarados, or how far it could jump with its "Splash" move, but judging from its appearance, it probably couldn't run as fast as him.

"Brother Shadow, Brother Shadow?" He was holding a bag of salty seafood, throwing his freshly washed clothes to the back of his mind, and shouted, "Based on my experience of watching countless movies, that thing in the sky is going to start kidnapping people or summoning wind and rain like a charlatan soon. I have to go home to the coffee shop after I leave school. Can you take the Salted Fish King away from it?"

"That thing is parked on the street where my family's coffee shop is. My grandma has difficulty walking, and the two employees are young part-timers. If something happens to them, it will be hard to explain to their parents. Brother Shadow, are you some kind of monster? Did you offend some deity, and now the other party has descended to earth to cause you trouble?"

Brother Shadow seemed to have spoken, but when it reached his ears, it was still completely inaudible, like crackling smoke.

Kinoshita Kei sighed, "Humans are born of human mothers, and demons are born of demon mothers. Humans and demons are different, and that is truly not a lie."

On the way, they occasionally encountered classmates who were looking at the strange sight. Kinoshita Kei shouted at the top of his lungs, "What are you standing there for?! If you just stand there looking at it like an idiot, you'll be dead by now! That thing might be a landslide in Takamagahara or a leaky sewer! Run!"

His classmates saw that his hands were empty.

The way he was holding him made it seem like he was looking at a lunatic.

Just outside the school gate, Kinoshita Kei, with eyes that could only catch a glimpse of Aiba Yu's outline, shoved the Salted Fish King into his hand: "If it's really like enemies coming to your door, you should hurry up and go to the school's underground parking garage. It's behind me, turn left at the end. They built it to air defense standards. We all say that if the quantum physics lab blows up, that's the safest place."

After saying that, he ran towards his own coffee shop, below where the UFO was hovering.

Aiba Yu watched him run away while holding the salted fish. The salted fish splashed around, trying to pat his face, but he grabbed it tightly.

“See? I told you he was very filial,” Pito said excitedly, “both to me and to the grandmother who adopted him.”

In the sky, the human defense force's aircraft had arrived at the designated location: one helicopter and three fighter jets. These were all standard military aircraft, not cutting-edge products like the GUYS or Night Raiders.

"...There are many ways a soldier can die."

Suddenly, Pito heard the person above him say slowly, "When you don't know who the enemy is, death is the most regrettable thing."

Pito knew what the enemy was. When they came, he felt a serious threat, as if someone was pointing a sword tip that could cleave the entire planet in one fell swoop at him. He jumped around uneasily, actually trying to distract himself.

But the warm embrace soon disappeared, and Aiba Yu threw him on the grass, just like his unfilial son did when he thought he was a complete slacker.

"Go hide wherever you want." With that, the Hasegawa Rescue Team resumed operations across multiple universes.

The salted fish flipped itself over, stretched its fins, and with a splash, leaped into the air. A red light flashed, and when it landed, it looked like the old cat that Grandma Kinoshita Kei raised.

Yuu Aiba watched as the cat caught up with him and came to be level with him.

"You wouldn't believe it, the salted fish has turned its life around!" The round, lucky cat-like creature stretched out its four short legs and paddled rapidly at an incredible speed.

The one Pito transformed into was certainly not the one Kinoshita Kei's grandmother kept, since currently, apart from Aiba Yu and Kinoshita Kei, no one else has been able to see his true form. He was just thinking of something fast in a moment of desperation, and immediately locked his thoughts onto that short-haired cat. It has an extraordinary sixth sense and often comes looking for salted fish by the smell, pouncing on it like a hungry tiger and scaring the fish away.

Kinoshita Kei noticed that the cat seemed to be able to find the King of Salted Fish, so every time the King of Salted Fish was lying dead in his room, he would always remind him, "Don't go to my grandma's room."

Pito didn't take it personally; on the contrary, he thought it just proved that he was a good planet with lots of energetic children!

Having spent a lot of time together and observed a lot, Pito, transforming into a short-haired cat, effortlessly used his hind legs to pounce on Aiba Yu's back, then quickly climbed onto his shoulders and secured himself on the cheap train.

“You’d better not grow to gigantic size right now,” the fat cat licked its paws, its body still cracked. “It’s already amazing that you’re this lively after coming through the spacetime turbulence! Have some faith in my children. Their human forms are still immature, but they can protect me!”

“You asked me to help cultivate those human hosts, and I agreed. I will definitely see it through to the end,” Aiba Yu said. “I will not… disappear halfway through.”

The short-haired cat didn't understand his question: "Then what are you going there for now?"

……

An evacuation warning has been issued for this area. Please evacuate immediately!

In coordination with the defense forces, evacuation notices were promptly issued on the ground, police cars with sirens blaring drove through the streets and alleys, and people rushed out.

The taxi stopped halfway through the trip, so Kinoshita Kei had to get out and take the bus. When he returned to a place half a block away from his coffee shop, the evacuation had been going on for quite some time, and he saw his grandmother being helped out by the shop assistant.

The shop assistants were all young women, still wearing their aprons. They couldn't carry an adult on their backs, so two of them dragged Kinoshita Kei's grandmother along, with the old cat following behind. They were "running," but their speed was more like walking. Anyone could see the anxiety on their faces, but out of a sense of morality, they couldn't just abandon the elderly woman and run away. So, while anxious, they would occasionally look up at the UFO, appearing hesitant.

Kinoshita Kei rushed back and resolved their moral dilemma. Being stronger, he carried the old woman on his back. He urged the shop assistant not to look back and to get out of there, saying as he ran, "I told you the shop needed a vehicle, at least a small electric scooter! You insisted on using bicycles to save money, and those bicycles don't even have a back seat, just a plastic bag in the front! Look at the state of things now?!"

"Why didn't you stay at school and came here instead?" Kinoshita Maho glanced at the old cat, making sure her darling was still there, and continued to ramble, "What's that in the sky? I thought my presbyopia was getting worse, but I only found out about a U something F from the little girl."

"How would I know what it is? It's either a UFO, a monster, or aliens taking a liking to this remote little planet. This world is really chaotic! Anyway, if it gets away this time, I'll use next month's budget to buy an electric scooter! The kind with a back seat that can carry people, my life is more important!"

"...You brat, whose life are you calling a dog's life?"

"Ugh," Kinoshita Kei almost bit his tongue, "My life, my life..."

Chapter Five: Seize the Light!

The cost of training fighter pilots can be calculated in gold; the training cost for one F-22 pilot is approximately $1000 million, and that's just the investment in flight training.

The data on the pilots—if the costs of fighter jet procurement and maintenance are included, the previous investment is just the beginning.

Now, these pilots, made of piled-up gold, are facing a "UFO" they've never seen before, a triangular pyramid-shaped crystal object.

Unable to ascertain the threat posed by the object, they could not open fire rashly without orders from their superiors.

The city and other regions were engulfed in a heated debate, while the transponder remained silent. Pilots listened to the tearing sound of air in their oxygen masks as they waited impatiently. Several fighter jets circled for a long time, and people were urged to evacuate below.

Perhaps it was only a moment, perhaps a long time, but the "UFO" showed signs of movement. It slowly descended from a height of 100 meters, heading towards the predicted location at coordinates (335, K1). If no action was taken, it would surely collapse the buildings below, and it's hard to say how many people are still trapped inside!

"0073, requesting permission to fire!"

"permit."

The rate of fire of aircraft cannons is in the thousands per minute. They ignited almost as soon as the ban was lifted, unleashing a hail of bullets. Even if the pilots didn't expect the cannons to solve the problem, they hoped they could at least achieve some results. But those bullets, enough to make the logistics team curse, were completely ineffective, like hitting extremely thick armor. The flying sparks seemed to mock, "You failed to penetrate the enemy's armor."

The deafening roar of the engines couldn't drown out the monster's howls inside the "UFO." Firepower strong enough to tear tanks apart like pies was powerless against it, and the flight altitude indicator sounded like a death knell. Rows of blue light bands lit up on the "UFO," emanating some kind of high-energy ray, shattering the glass and surrounding walls of the affected high-rise buildings like tofu.

"What is this?!" The pilot circled his fighter jet. Although rockets shouldn't be used in the city, it seemed there was no other way. Something looked like it was about to burst out of the crystal. His intuition told him that it was definitely not some friendly alien messenger. He focused his sights on the ever-widening crack in the crystal.

The crack was directly opposite a building that had luckily escaped being crushed. He had to be careful about the angle of his shot, lest he miss and destroy the fortunate building.

"Wait, there's someone over there!"

The pilot of the 0073 fighter jet froze, his finger poised to press the launch button. He stared intently at the figure on the rooftop, seemingly trying to confirm whether it was a dummy.

The launch window was fleeting; after a moment's hesitation, the fighter jet had already passed the optimal angle and had to make another turn. The pilot turned his gaze and saw that there was indeed a blue figure standing on the rooftop.

"Hold on tight, I won't be able to look after you after this." Aiba Yu stood on the edge of the rooftop, the wind and dust from the "UFO" falling swept past him, and a short-haired cat with patches of milky white and orange-yellow curled up on his shoulder, chubby like a ball, its fur flying wildly in the wind.

Previously, he could conceal his form to conserve energy, appearing as a semi-transparent ghost. Now, to greet the monster, Aiba Yu must complete the physical construction, thus his figure appeared in the pilot's field of vision.

He raised a hand, and silver light gradually brightened in his palm. As if drawn by something, light fragments continuously appeared and swirled in the void, eventually condensing into a blade shape. The light blade flew into the interior along the gap the moment it was fully formed. The sound was fleeting, like quickly tearing a piece of paper. A muffled thud came from inside the crystal shell, followed by a furious roar.

"Meow—!" The short-haired cat desperately clung to the uniform under its paws, and the stronger wind lashed against its body, which had a wider area of ​​contact with the force, making it look like a kite being blown by the wind.

Aiba Yu threw out his light blade, drawing a lot of hatred, and then jumped off the tall building, running wildly along the relatively better-equipped open road.

The monster ripped off the crystal shell, revealing its mouth, which had just been blasted open. Locking onto the source of the attack, it gave chase, causing streets to collapse and destroying gas pipes, water pipes, and electrical circuits along its path. Flammable gases shot into the sky, exploding upon contact with fire, creating small mushroom clouds beneath the monster's feet. Water gushing from burst pipes flowed wildly along the streets, gathering in low-lying areas and quickly flooding underground parking garages.

"Pitto, tell me the monster has changed targets!" Aiba Yu opened his bright silver eyes, and the surrounding buildings appeared as semi-transparent three-dimensional images in his eyes, with the situation inside clearly visible. He had to lead the monster to a place with no people or even fewer people.

"Meow meow meow? Meow meow meow—!" (I'm not familiar with alien creatures, how would I know if it has changed targets!) Pito was already delirious from the wind, communicating in his mind and making incoherent noises.