Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

Those Yapools, those bastards who love to throw trash out of other dimensions, the red crack in the sky is definitely theirs.

Gruglem, what a nuisance, darting from one phase to another like a ghost wandering in a mirror maze. If it weren't for the Night Raid's traps, I wouldn't have known which phase to look for it in.

Spatial turbulence wasn't exactly an enemy, but it was enough to make him uneasy. He hoped that next time he needed to travel between worlds, spatial turbulence would be kinder to him and not turn into a crazy, leaky, spinning washing machine.

Similarly manipulating space, the jellyfish, named Mezad, floats quietly in the sky like an indifferent jellyfish. It bears some resemblance to real jellyfish on Earth; simply observing it evokes no sense of danger, but rather a feeling of "ethereal beauty" due to its leisurely posture and translucent, soft body. However, if you get too close and disturb it, the jellyfish extends its highly venomous tentacles.

Divers will then encounter a "devil who seems to be an angel".

Aiba Yu stood amidst the swirling sandstorm, his energy forming a barrier that repelled all the sand and dust that might obstruct him. Flames danced like silver dragons, melting all the nearby sand into crimson droplets, which, from afar, looked like red rain falling from the yellow sand.

Mezad detected the threat and, in the overlapping, kaleidoscopic space, emitted a distant, mournful cry like that of a whale.

As if echoing the monster's roar, a burst of light erupted, and a thick, turbid wave of gas, mixed with molten droplets and dust, rolled out. Silver threads woven from flames coiled and rose into the air, as if guided by invisible steel cables, outlining the giant's silhouette.

After resting for a while, Samuel finally woke up.

"That's... Gaia?" Sasaki Atsuko saw the silver light almost fill the entire screen. Takayama Gamu was still trying to analyze Mezad's characteristics when she suddenly heard her call Gaia, and couldn't help but show a strange expression.

Beneath Mezad's whisker-like tentacles, the sand and gravel were pushed aside, emitting a low, muffled roar as they rubbed together, while even more intense flames engulfed them.

The building, half-eaten, stopped turning into sand. The residents, now without ceilings, looked up blankly at the sky that suddenly appeared above them, as well as the sand and people suspended in the air by an invisible force. The residents recognized them as their upstairs neighbors, with whom they often had friendly exchanges about things like, "Please keep an eye on your kid so he doesn't stomp on the floor," or "Then please don't let your kid saw wood while practicing the piano."

"Is the space fun?" The giant raised his hand, his massive body creating a gust of wind in the air.

Half a second later, the hand tore open the barrier that no one had noticed before, and a large amount of air poured into the alternate dimension behind the barrier, like someone blowing a leaf flute, which fell into Mezad's ears and was the horn of the enemy's advance.

But Samuel did not attack. Instead, he became one of the very people he despised, stirring up turbulence in the alternate dimension while standing outside, silently watching the jellyfish inside through the rift he had torn open, awaiting Mezad's choice.

Either come out and get beaten up, or get sliced ​​into jellyfish skin by the turbulence inside.

"Roar—" Mezad rejected the fate of the jellyfish skin. It gathered its dreamy, veil-like tentacles, brownish-brown with suckers, and more like an octopus's tentacles, which surged out of its body. The translucent "umbrella" flew high, and the devil finally stripped off the angel's clothes.

The octopus's tentacles multiplied extremely rapidly, seemingly intending to catch its prey off guard. Mezad's "umbrella tips" pointed outwards, while its underside tentacles were aimed at its enemy. Octopuses are assassins of the deep sea; they usually move in slow motion, but when hunting, they compress seawater and suddenly propel themselves out at astonishing speed.

The same was true of Mezad. Just as people saw the giant tear open the crack and the invisible wind sweep into the unknown abyss, something that looked like both an octopus and a charred jellyfish squeezed out of the abyss. The brown "umbrella" was covered with clearly visible bones. The monster opened its arms and "swallowed" the giant in one gulp. Its long neck was arched, and it roared with its head down.

"Holy crap!" Kinoshita Kei, who was watching from a distance, was startled. After all, it was a battle between giant creatures, and even from a distance, the scene looked to him as if someone was being swallowed whole by Kero.

But just as he was about to utter his next words, a burst of light, even more intense than Mezad's attack, erupted, slicing through the sand and dust from between his arms and legs, sharp as knives.

The jellyfish, now brownish and seemingly charred, was truly being scorched by the intense heat. It wasn't that it wanted to devour the giant; rather, the giant was inside, gripping its tentacles tightly. Silver flames surged from Samuel's body, clinging to him like maggots.

Mezad's roar turned into a wail, its tentacles involuntarily curling up, its umbrella-shaped body opening and closing and twisting in an attempt to break free. But the giant did not let it go. After burning through one of its tentacles, Samuel reached out and grabbed its plesiosaur-like neck.

A strong sense of crisis swept over Mezad. Realizing it was being completely suppressed, it mustered all its energy, and a serpentine current of electricity blasted towards the giant. The surrounding air was instantly ionized, and shockwaves, electric snakes, and sparks threatened to flatten the desert beneath its feet, but suddenly, a golden glow flashed from the giant's body!

The deadly shockwave and intense heat were paused in that radiance; Samuel restrained them with his telekinesis, and the python of fire and thunder froze in mid-air, looking as if it had been suddenly smeared into extremely sticky glue.

This was not a task Samuel was good at, so his brilliance rose and fell like the tides. Samuel felt as if a very inelastic net was stretched in his head, its surface rubbing against his brain as if he were trying to start a fire by rubbing sticks together.

Just as he felt his head was about to split open, a warm current surged through his body, instantly tearing away the net and allowing his brain to rediscover the joy of freedom, finally giving him a chance to catch his breath. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he forcefully tossed the exhausted Mezad high into the air.

Team Lightning reacted quickly, firing continuously at the defenseless monster. Their machine guns spat fire, and at the same time, the instantaneous Pelleriti Beams struck Mezad. The fragments fell to the ground, emitting black smoke, and were completely engulfed by the silver flames.

"What is that?" Kinoshita Kei saw what was "covering" Samuel, a blurry, indistinct shadow: "I really am a good-for-nothing, I can neither hear nor see clearly."

"I can't see it clearly either, it's not your problem," the salted fish said. "It looks like armor or something, a reinforced form?"

"Fine, good-for-nothing is good-for-nothing, as long as the fellow villager is awesome," Kinoshita Kei said, trying to reason with the lazy bum. If he had free hands, he would definitely give a thumbs up from afar. "But why is the fellow villager still standing there... instead of 'washing his socks' and flying away?"

The salted fish looked at him with its monotonous, dead fish eyes.

"No way... there are monsters that won't leave after the fight is over?"

Chapter Twenty-Two: Giants in the Land of Sand

It's daytime now, and the weather forecast predicts sunny skies. It's noon, a perfect time to invite one or two friends over, find a nice place to sit and have lunch, and enjoy the warm breeze.

But in the areas where Mezad caused desertification, the weather was as overcast as the underworld—which is understandable, with countless buildings forming dust overhead. The sunlight became dim when it reached this area, and the flashy signs of shops, the outdoor seating areas, and the carefully decorated walls used to attract customers were all tinged with a uniform, dim yellow color.

Hitomi Onodera had heard the legend of "Yomi," the land of the dead. In mythology, the great god Izanagi wanted to go to Yomi to retrieve Izanami, but Izanami ate food from Yomi and became covered in maggots, resembling a perfectly decaying corpse that maggots relish. Terrified, Izanagi fled, and Izanami, despite her best efforts, could not catch him.

The picture book depicts Izanami beautifully, like the ancient princess she imagined as a child, with flowing, jet-black hair cut in a princess style, the ends of which fall like sparrow feathers onto her intricately embroidered twelve-layered kimono, unfurling behind her like a fan. Turning the next page, the book says that such a goddess has fallen to the land of the dead, and maggots crawl around in her eye sockets.

The “Land of the Dead” has corrupted the Mother Goddess to an unbearable state. In Hitomi Onodera’s imagination, the water of the Land of the Dead is probably a dirty, dark yellow color, with insects dancing on it, people immersed in it, and occasionally hands emerging from the bottom of the water, with corpse oil seeping into the fingernails of those hands.

Hitomi Onodera had never trained for long-distance running and would seek transportation for even slightly longer distances. Since the incident occurred near the Statue of Liberty in Tokyo, the sands were able to catch up with her at a faster pace. The rustling sound of silkworms eating mulberry leaves rushed from behind her to in front of her; her footing gave way, and she fell into a hole in the pavement.

That area was originally where water pipes and natural gas pipelines ran. The buildings had turned into sand, and the surface of the ground was naturally not spared either. A thick layer of sand had accumulated underneath. She wasn't injured from the fall, but a constant downpour of gravel was falling from behind her. The small pit had turned into a quicksand-swallowing field. She couldn't escape on her own and could only cover her mouth and nose, breathing cautiously.

Yellow sand poured down, the sky seemed to turn upside down and merge with the swamp, covering everyone. Onodera Hitomi inexplicably thought of "the Land of the Dead".

"I want to see more, this is a rare business trip..."

For those outside the disaster area, they witnessed a rapid expansion of the desert; while for those within the area, especially those near or inside buildings, they were experiencing being buried alive.

"A rare opportunity... garbage! Damn it! Wasn't it supposed to be a beautiful, natural, and refreshing environment? Wasn't it supposed to be a seaside city with the sky and water blending into one? Wasn't everyone fighting for it?! You're shoving a monster in my face, do you think you're doing justice to the opportunity I fought tooth and nail for?! If I can get out of here alive, I'm not doing this anymore, I'll just go home, retire, and play with my cats!"

People tend to swear when they're nervous, and since no one hears them anyway, Onodera Hitomi's carefully maintained ladylike image crumbled. Wearing her newly fitted glasses, the lenses covered in dust, she took them off and angrily threw them into the sandpit, as if doing so would make her fearless and daring to point at monsters and curse them out. But she didn't dare look up, because she was sure she'd get a mouthful of sand.

Is this what they call being buried alive? After she finished cursing, her anger dissipated, and all that remained in her heart was fear.

But then, without warning, the cascading sand above disappeared, and light descended from the sky, piercing the miasma of the "Land of the Dead" and driving away the maggots that gnawed at people. It was like the aftermath of a thunderous, furious downpour, when you find the rain has stopped, so you draw back the curtains, open the windows, and the moment fresh air and bright sunlight flood into the room.

There was still some dust around, but it no longer viciously tried to bury people in the "Land of the Dead." The light reflected off the fine sand and dust, which obediently floated in the area reached by the light. Occasionally, a smooth surface would reflect the light, and the death warrant would become stardust.

Hitomi Onodera's travelogue adds a new scene—a land of sand bathed in radiant light, and a silver giant.

Samuel did not leave immediately after the battle, because he heard a sound from beneath the sand.

Those were people who failed to escape in time, were buried in the sand, and were not yet dead, but were about to suffocate due to lack of oxygen.

Samuel saw the phantom of his own armor, a form he had seen before: in the Land of the End, the Lightbringer's Medal cast countless shadows of people connected to him, a roaring, surging crowd, fireflies vying for light with the heavens.

After the armor appeared, his psychic abilities, which he was not good at, seemed to have gained a powerful boost. "I want to save the people who are buried inside." As soon as this thought crossed Samuel's mind, he had a way to do it.

That is, to send all the sand within a kilometer radius into the sky!

As for where to throw it, he believed that the reconstruction team of the city would need the sand and gravel readily available. There was an open space not far away, not very large, but enough to build a stable structure by piling up the sand and gravel, which the construction team could use.

Kinoshita Kei, watching from afar, was nervously...

Because there were still monsters appearing, he was prepared to pack up his valuables and run away with Xianyu.

He saw his arrogant fellow villager standing at the center of the blazing light. He wasn't a god, but the dazzling light made him seem like a god descending to earth. The giant's hands rose from below as if he were lifting something heavy, and the sand within a thousand meters rustled and flowed backward into the air with his movements.

Watching special effects on screen is completely different from being there in person. If any company can produce such special effects, and they dare to release them, Kinoshita Kei would take his whole family to see them one, two, three, four times, until the popcorn vendor at the door calls him brother.

The sand bounced and hopped, forming a bridge, one end connecting to the desertified commercial street, and the other end connecting to...

"Holy crap, my school!!!"

Kinoshita Kei stared in disbelief as the bridge drew closer and closer, finally crashing into the playground with a deafening roar. At first, there were quite a few students watching the spectacle, but after the evacuation notice was issued, they had all vanished without a trace. The last to leave was the maintenance worker, who pulled his small trailer, which carried his aquatic turtle tank, which he had tended for many years, and a tank full of turtles.

The turtles were resting with their eyes closed in their aquarium, while sand fell from the sky, compacting them firmly onto the playground. Samuel had deliberately tamped it down, fearing that the wind might stir up a new sandstorm.

This operation was clearly very laborious. The red light on the fellow villager's chest was like the setting sun that was about to fall into the ground and had cooled down. This reminded Kinoshita Kei of the finest salted egg yolk, the kind that sizzles with red oil, smooth and sandy, with a wonderful texture.

Kinoshita Kei stared blankly at the giant, momentarily lost in thought.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Useless Wood and Matches

Day two.

In the live broadcast of the bustling reconstruction of the commercial street, Kinoshita Kei listlessly slumped on the counter of a coffee shop.

It was somewhere between breakfast and lunchtime; those who woke up late were still lazing in bed, while those who woke up early were already in the middle of their workday, making the café deserted. Muxia Maho gave up trying to persuade him to keep his posture, picked up her fat cat, and went upstairs to rest, out of sight, out of mind.

Although he didn't have classes in the morning, Kinoshita Kei usually wouldn't look this lazy at this time, all because...

"Ah~" Kinoshita Kei yawned: "Sleepiness is contagious."

The ghostly fellow villager found the best spot to bask in the sun and leaned against the shop window, fast asleep, his head and half an arm rubbing against the glass. One wonders if it was uncomfortable. With no customers looking, and the rather attractive shop assistant sent off to buy fresh ingredients, Kinoshita Kei idly picked up sticky notes from the counter and folded them into paper airplanes.

It's not that he doesn't want to fold other things. When he was little, he could fold paper airplanes with the cardinal directions and write various choices on the inner pages. He would play with his classmates like it was a game of dare, but he has forgotten all of that now. He only remembers folding the simplest paper airplanes.

If he weren't afraid of disturbing people's rest, he would have liked to test whether the paper airplane would pass through the ghostly body of the villager.

He whispered this idea to Xianyu, who shrank back and transformed into a swordsman who could write easily. He grabbed the pen with his five fingers and wrote in a few strokes: "This should be the hand that holds a knife. Alas... I advise you not to do this, or you will get beaten up."

"If I aim it at you, will the paper airplane still fly through?" Kinoshita Kei was really bored. He found something interesting and was eager to try it out.

The scarred, muscular man flexed his chest muscles, which could crush a man, and said eloquently, "I can't touch others, but I can beat you up."

"Damn it," Kinoshita Kei whispered, "why is that?"

"Because you are a human recognized by Uranus, the Light of the Sky grants you permission to stand beside me."

The salted fish king can communicate in this form, but it's not so easy to communicate with him. Kinoshita Kei clicked his tongue and turned his gaze to Aiba Yu again, unable to help but recall the "spectacle" he had seen yesterday.

For the victims, it might not be an event worth revisiting, but Kinoshita Kei could never forget it. Even when Gaia appeared and splashed him with mud and sand, it didn't evoke such strong feelings in him.

When he gave his electric scooter to the two girls, he felt like a hero, a model citizen, a paragon of virtue. Back home, he might even have received a banner of commendation. In some novels, the two girls would probably remember him forever, and after a few more encounters, they'd at least become close friends. When the monster disappeared and he realized he'd done a good deed, his mood was like receiving a commendation letter from the police for returning lost money—a small flame flickering and burning brightly, like a firework exploding.

Kinoshita Kei lived like a ghost, while Kinoshita Kei lived like a god who only did his own thing and cared about nothing else. When he realized that this was a world where a monster could crush him at any moment, he devised a bunch of ways to survive, and even considered moving to a place outside of Japan, where the monsters weren't the center of activity and all the strange events were just gossip, and he could peacefully watch the drama unfold.

Once you learn that Aiba Yu is from the same hometown, something seems to change.

"King Salted Fish, I told you that the foundation of this world is a tokusatsu film, right?"

Upon hearing this, the swordsman wrote with such force that it seemed to penetrate the paper: "Heartbreaking."

“…Disgusting,” Kinoshita Kei said. “The first movie I watched when I was a kid was Ultraman Tiga. Strangely enough, on TV, everyone had the same unchanging face, made by a model, with no expression. You could only tell his emotions through his body language—but back then, I thought, ‘Hey, this giant is so gentle.’ Tiga’s eyes were like salted eggs. I suspect the strange translation was because of those eyes…I just happened to see those salted egg eyes.”

It's like seeing Daigo.

Kinoshita Kei continued speaking in a low voice, while the muscular man shrank behind the counter and listened quietly.