Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

“A gentle reminder: these are past exam questions from your reference book.” Pito’s words were like a northwest wind in January.

"That's the 'Family Ties with the Motherland' edition I bought separately! It's not on my reading list! 'Not on'! You know what I mean?"

The land of ice and snow is cold, the swordsman's sword is cold, and the swordsman's heart is even colder.

The young man's tearful plea could not shake his truly steely heart.

"You don't want to exercise, and you haven't finished reading your book. What do you want to do?" A loving father's love is as heavy as a mountain.

Kinoshita Kei felt himself getting smaller and smaller, and his voice getting weaker and weaker: "Coach...I want to take a break..."

"Whoosh—" A blade of light bounced from the side and embedded itself in the ground at his feet, the tiny sparks of lightning stinging his skin.

"I want to take a break...and cultivate both literary and martial arts!"

The swordsman and his fellow villager nodded in satisfaction.

"Good job, little Jing!" "Very good."

……

Things weren't as bad as Kinoshita Kei thought. Pito couldn't resist striking a pose, but his real task was to drag Kinoshita Kei on a long run through the snow.

The location for the long run was originally planned to be on the pebble path in the ecological park, but after Aiba Yu discovered that his domain had expanded, he changed the location to inside his domain. He used this space to hone the light of Uranus, train Kinoshita Kei's physical abilities, and increase his proficiency in opening his domain. Here, he could also manipulate snowflakes to practice his mental power in his spare time. It was a blessed place that exceeded his expectations!

Kinoshita Kei sees it differently.

The Salted Fish King transformed into a swaggering swordsman. Kinoshita Kei thought he was about to be chopped up, but to his surprise, after he agreed to train, the King pounced on his back and enthusiastically said, "Come on! Let's start today's physical training: a long-distance run while carrying Father Earth! I've precisely adjusted my weight, so it's exactly the same as yours!"

Regardless of how horrifying it is that a muscular man would make himself carry someone, his two-meter-tall stature and weight, similar to Kinoshita Kei's, are simply...

"King of Salted Fish, are you hollow?" Kinoshita Kei hoisted the bear-like thing onto his back, while Aiba Yu directed the snowflakes to move aside, clearing a dry path for Kinoshita Kei. This was the first time Kinoshita Kei had seen the ground of this area; it turned out to be—

"How am I supposed to run on this ice?!"

Chapter Thirty-Three: Tokyo Bay

Kinoshita Kei had no recollection of whether he had fallen asleep or passed out the night before. This morning, he ate soy milk, fried dough sticks, and small flower cakes, and was instantly healed by the kind-hearted elderly people in the cafeteria. The chef, who was from Suzhou, had kept his merits hidden.

Aiba Yu continued to "close his eyes and rest," while Pito, tired of the spicy fish, rummaged through Kinoshita Kei's snack box and pulled out a sweet treat. It was cool and creamy, and Pito's eyes lit up. He then opened the comics folder he had saved on his computer.

Unlike Kinoshita Kei, who was holed up in the highly secretive underground base of Geo, Takayama Gamu, as the Alchemy Star and a member of XIG, enjoyed a high degree of freedom. Kinoshita Kei eagerly awaited his five days of free time each month, while Takayama Gamu, as a member of XIG, only needed to report to Ishimuro Akio to be able to ride the Dove-Linner home.

But he didn't have high expectations for it.

If Kinoshita Kei were to talk about "going home" and be overjoyed, pondering whether to return in triumph or keep a low profile and give his parents another big surprise, then for Takayama Gamu, "going home" represents not-so-pleasant memories.

Despite being born with innate knowledge, the children of the Alchemy Star ultimately grow up as true children. Like every child, they yearn for friends and to belong in a group, and they never know how to hide their talents in their areas of expertise.

As a result, Takayama Gamu became an unpopular "show-off" in his childhood. His classmates would say things like, "He always acts like he knows everything," and "He's just a good student, what's there to be so arrogant about?" It wasn't until Takayama Gamu met Daniel McAfee, the current chairman of the Alchemy Star, that life became a little easier. He realized that he wasn't the only one with such "troubles," and that there were so many like-minded young people in the world.

Oh right, and there's Fujimiya Hiroya. He disappeared from the Alchemy Star several years ago. I wonder how he is now. When I go back this time... will I be able to see him? Perhaps at the end of the long beach, I'll see a cold-faced guy, seemingly unintentionally but actually "accidentally" waiting for me, whom he considers an older brother.

The sea of ​​my hometown is now before me. The confluence of warm and cold currents brings it abundant resources, and the climate is warm, with little frost even in winter.

Takayama Gamu slowly walked along the path he used to take home from school as a child. He thought of his unpopular elementary school days and the huge dark shadow he had seen on Dove-Linner on his way there. What was that? It seemed to be heading towards Chiba, his hometown.

Although Atsuko Sasaki's reply was that no abnormalities were detected, he still felt uneasy. He suppressed this restless feeling and decided to go home and check first.

……

"This workshop is above the second middle school."

"The Hercules team's tank maintenance workshop," Nakai Ryoya's introduction finally moved beyond just the astronomical research group's equipment; he began to introduce the base's situation: "Because we need to requisition the access tunnels for large equipment to the ground, our telescopes and the Hercules team's tanks are all using this workshop closest to the access tunnels. The same goes for the Fighter fighter's workshop. Although they're all on different floors, you'd better not wander around aimlessly."

"I know, I know. I'll be targeted by a sniper rifle lying in the shadows, and 'boom!' I'll be blown to smithereens." Kinoshita Kei nodded obediently and took notes.

“This kind of common sense doesn’t need to be noted down,” Nakai Ryoya said, seeing that he had actually written a big “Don’t visit other places” in his notebook. He was both amused and exasperated. “Next, we’re going to another workshop. It’s relatively smaller there, and you won’t see any large equipment. It mainly makes small and medium-sized equipment and is located closer to the ecological park… Actually, you should have seen it from afar.”

"You've seen it?"

"It's a building with a transparent glass top. It's built quite high, and the top connects to the outer shell of the base. It's actually a specially opened 'window' through which you can see the sea outside... It's a bit like an aquarium, but it's for people, not fish—would you like to go up and take a look?"

So the building that looked like it had a crystal on its head was the building housing the small and medium-sized workshops? It would be a lie to say he didn't think so, Kinoshita Kei nodded. Nakai Ryo also chuckled, and it wasn't until almost noon that he finished his morning work and led the long-awaited Kinoshita Kei to the top floor of the building.

Kinoshita Kei had expected to see a pitch-black seabed, similar to the deep-sea diving scenes he'd seen so many times on television, where the inky black water was partially illuminated by the submersible's lights, and occasionally some unfamiliar, strange creatures would flash by in the shot. But what he saw here was a shimmering blue, like the color of the ocean when viewed from outer space.

An unfamiliar crab was perched on the glass shell, blowing bubbles, its large eyes seemingly watching them.

A beam of shimmering blue light emanated from the side generator, weaving together to form transparent "walls" displaying data on various elements, pH levels, temperatures, and other information about nearby marine life.

“This is also the work of the ‘dangerous’ biological research department,” Nakai Ryoya handed him another piece of candy, this time sea salt flavored: “No need for mints during breaks.”

Kinoshita Kei stuffed the candy into his mouth, secretly realizing the reason why Nakai Ryoya had developed into his current size. He reached out to touch the rotating 3D images of species on the "walls," and the moment his fingers touched the projection, it seemed as if something was activated.

[Japanese mackerel (Scomber japonicus) is a migratory fish and an important fishery resource. It primarily feeds on shrimp, fish, and copepods. Sea surface temperature has the most significant impact on its CPUE (core efficiency), followed by temperature-salinity interaction and sea surface salinity. For detailed research, please refer to…]

"That voice is the one from the phone call!" Kinoshita Kei recognized her immediately. It was the mechanical female voice that suddenly appeared when he received Abe Shunsuke's call that day. At the time, he thought it was artificial intelligence, but he never heard anyone mention it again at the Geo base, so he assumed it was just a pre-recorded audio, similar to the sound of a tram announcing a stop.

"Her name is Freya. The chief designer is Norwegian, so she's practically an artificial intelligence."

"Half?"

“She will only respond when a predetermined ‘point’ is triggered. For example, when a new user joins, she will only confirm and generate personal registration information and send an email. Here, she is just a fully automated database interpreter. She is not capable of doing anything more flexible or proactive.”

"So, she'll hand me candy when I ask for it, but when I have coffee, she doesn't proactively ask me if I want sugar or milk?"

“That’s right, unless you specifically add instructions like ‘Get coffee, then ask what to add’... But if every part has to be that detailed, it’s too cumbersome and a waste of storage space. The IT department’s coders will smash your skull with their keyboards before they can hit you with a sniper rifle.”

Kinoshita Kei interrupted Freya's incessant rambling. She really was an automated data reader; in the short conversation they had just had, she had already gotten to the topic of aquaculture, completely disregarding the listener's needs and simply reading out what she had searched in her database without any emotion...

He shifted his gaze from the glowing blue projection wall to the outside of the glass window. The crab had slithered away sometime earlier, and an octopus was now perched in the corner, "watching" them. A swarm of scaly, silvery fish swirled behind it, and...

"Holy crap, a fellow countryman?!" Kinoshita Kei saw a figure flash across the water further away.

"Fishing crates?" Nakai Ryoya asked. "Where are the fishing boats?"

"No, I... I was mistaken. That was an octopus, I thought it was a box, hehe, hahaha..."

Ryoya Nakai glanced suspiciously at the octopus's soft, fluffy shell and silently labeled the newcomer as having "bad eyesight."

Chapter Thirty-Four: Bokulagu

“There’s a child who’s not feeling well, Musar, go check on him.” The muscular man put down his comic book, his gleaming eyes fixed on Aiba Yu.

The latter ended his "closed-eyes rest" and asked, "Aren't you going by yourself?"

“It can’t see me, can’t hear me, can’t sense me, so going there is useless. It’s better to train Xiao Jing here,” Pito sighed. “This is the second one. Gilu is the same way, waking up inexplicably from his sleep. Gilu has a bad temper and wants to rush to the ground.”

I can understand the noodles, but Bokulagu only likes to eat seaweed, and its biggest hobby is being an 'invisible fish.' It won't even acknowledge someone waking it up, or even if they provoke it to its face.

“Moussa… Samuel, I sense its restlessness. It’s good at hiding itself, so you probably won’t find it for a while. It’s heading towards the coast of Chiba Prefecture now. I don’t know what it will do after it comes ashore. You’d better go and check.”

Chiba Prefecture, located by the sea.

Takayama Gamu's fears came true; the shadowy figure he saw on the Dove-Linner was indeed a monster. The reason why Sasaki Atsuko hadn't detected it using radar and sensors was explained when Kitada Yasushi of the Inazuma Team collected the smoke emanating from the monster.

"That monster's mass was almost entirely derived from seawater, its composition was largely the same, and it wasn't very big, so it couldn't be tracked in the sea. The incendiary bombs were neutralized by the seawater. As for how to deal with it... the intense heat could evaporate it, but that would also destroy the city..."

Takayama Gamu reported his analysis to XIG's commander: Team Lightning's Fighters didn't have weapons capable of instantly vaporizing monsters tens of meters tall. To achieve his proposed solution, there was only one way. He shut down the NAVI communicator and prepared to pull out the Sapphire Cone.

The waves crashed against the rocks, white foam appeared and disappeared, and a figure disappeared for several years before reappearing.

Takayama Gomu sensed a familiar presence. Right to his right, a man in black stood on a reef, the sea breeze blowing through his hair.

Those somewhat indifferent, but not distant, eyes turned to him, but only glanced at him briefly before turning back to look at the monster.

"Fujimiya?"

I dreamed of getting closer to confirm things, but at this moment, it was more important to tell people to take refuge as soon as possible. But the man gave me a different feeling. He stood there, not a sturdy big guy, but like a nail, more stable than the reef under his feet.

The man, suspected to be Hiroya Fujimiya, raised something—a bracelet with two slender, triangular wing-shaped ornaments and a central object about the size of a watch. As the man in black raised his hand, it emitted a ghostly blue light.

As if in response to him, a ring of dark blue light appeared out of nowhere in the sky. It was so dazzling, like sunlight reflecting off the water, that Gao Shanwomeng could barely open his eyes.

Then came the sharp whistling sound of a heavy object tearing through the air. A ball of blue light, like a cannonball, plummeted from the clouds to the ground. The sand and mud on the beach were soft, and the ash kicked up by the falling object was almost as tall as the monster. The small earthquake made Gao Shan hunch his legs to steady himself. When the shaking subsided, he looked up again, and the man in black was gone, replaced by a blue giant.

The giant, like the man in black from before, turned his head to look at him. No matter what, Takayama Gamu could no longer believe that the other party was unintentional. Clearly, he recognized him and knew Gaia.

A friend who had been missing for several years returned as Ultraman. Gamu Takayama has confirmed that it is Hiroya Fujimiya. So what about the silver giant seen in the city before? Who is the unknown life form number two detected by XIG?

The catastrophe brought about by the Root Destruction summons has already been prophesied, but now so many giants have appeared. Is this Earth's defense mechanism going all out, or is it a sign of a more complex tomorrow that is beyond prophecy?

"That was in the desert..." Several days ago, after the Mezad desertification incident, XIG detected traces of life forms from outer space. The metallic life form Apatee was battling Gaia in the Middle Eastern desert.

Seiichiro Tsutsumi recognized the blue giant and rescued Gaia from her predicament at Apatee, but his reaction was not one of "meeting a kindred spirit," but rather one of indifference.

"Atsuko! It's Gaia!" Georgie, who had been frowning when Team Lightning's attack failed, immediately beamed with joy upon seeing the giant appear.

Atsuko Sasaki was used to Gaia's practice of recognizing people based solely on height. When the blue giant appeared in the desert that day, she even asked, "Why are there two Gaias?"

“This is not Gaia,” Atsuko Sasaki said. “XIG hasn’t given it an official name yet; it’s currently called ‘Unknown Life Form No. 3’.”

“Number Three…” Georgie noticed another flashing alert on the screen: “It’s Number Two! Number Two has appeared too! Is this Gaia? Oh no, Gaia doesn’t have an extra number.”

"That's a silver giant! Did you really pass the color blindness test?"

“I’m just not very good at identifying large creatures,” Georgie adjusted the microphone and alerted the Lightning team at the front: “Unknown life form number two has appeared. Please collect biological data.”

……

When Aiba Yu emerged from the sea, he saw a monster with a shark's head holding up two pincers to absorb Agul's energy. The scene resembled a large feline grabbing a person's shoulder with one paw and opening its mouth, seemingly either to gnaw or to scrape off some material with its barbed tongue.

It had probably just emerged from its feeding ground, its body covered in seaweed and other similar things, like a damp camouflage cloth. While in the sea, Aiba Yu couldn't sense it, but as soon as it came ashore, it was like a rain cloud suddenly appearing in a parched desert, so abrupt it looked like the worst possible Photoshop editing.

Aiba Yu arrived relatively early; the people had already been evacuated. He scanned the ruins with his eyes at full power but found no one buried. It was Agul who stopped Bokulagu, who was trying to continue his rampage and whose mind seemed to have gone mad.

Agul's lightsaber did not work.