Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

Aiba Yu realized what was going on: "Script?"

Kinoshita nodded vigorously: "Right, I remember you recognize Mebius. That old Showa guy must know him. Let me think of something else... Dyna? Max? Galaxy X, Geed, Orb, and the one I mentioned before, Tiga?"

"...I only know Ultraman Tiga."

"Holy crap, fellow countryman, how many dungeons have you cleared? Tiga didn't even get a Shining Form when he came over?"

"Shining Form?"

Kinoshita Kei stretched out his hand and drew a line in the air, then bent his right arm and placed his left palm under his right elbow: "It's the one where everything turns into light, a bunch of kids gesturing with you... Hmm? You really don't know?"

Aiba Yu noticed that his starting stance looked familiar: "I recognize this move."

"Hey, could it be a modified version like this one, right..." Kinoshita Kei scratched his head, then sidled closer, whispering like he was secretly discussing a classroom barbecue with his classmates behind the teacher's back: "Hey, you can wear armor, what's that form called? It doesn't matter if it's chuunibyou, it won't be any more chuunibyou than Spiral Flash Super Rondo Roar or anything like that."

Kinoshita Kei's eyes were full of curiosity, and Pito, with a half-eaten pea cake in his mouth, leaned over. The muscular man's eyes were shining, and the stool was supported by only one leg because of his body, as if it could fall over at any moment.

Aiba Yu hesitated for a long time before asking, "The form... needs a name?"

Isn't it enough for you to know what it's good for?

Besides the amplification of telekinesis he learned from Mezad, he developed a new use for it today, namely "Clarity Punch," which seems to have a miraculous effect on those who are dizzy. A few punches can clear away the confusion debuff, making their minds exceptionally clear. It is far superior to simply shouting and punching with their mind.

Kinoshita Kei was stunned, his mouth agape as if he had seen an alien in front of him, speaking with a Beijing accent and asking him where to buy douzhi (fermented mung bean juice).

"Big brother!" Kinoshita Kei patted his fellow villager's shoulder loudly. "There's a saying that goes, 'A name equals a fighting power.' Even if you're called Number One or Number Two, you'll get a bonus! I know why you can only summon a shadow of armor. It must be because you haven't given it a name!"

Aiba Yu thought he was lying.

Kinoshita Keishin, who had been chatting with him earlier, was now completely relaxed: "You've cleared so many dungeons and you still don't understand the essence of tokusatsu dramas! My friend, you're such a noob."

Aiba Yu grabbed his hand from her shoulder and turned to look at him: "Pito, did he train today?"

Kinoshita Kei's expression changed, sensing something was wrong. He tried to break free, but the hand gripping his arm was like a rose gold bracelet that couldn't be opened because the key had been lost.

"Oh, I asked him a few questions from the book list. Wasn't the long-distance run supposed to wait for you to come back?"

"No, no, you just came back from outside and woke up a monster," Kinoshita Kei flashed eight white teeth. "Are you tired? Want some water before you go..."

Before he could finish speaking, his already stiff smile was pierced by the cold wind.

"I'm not tired." Aiba Yu let go of his hand and patted the snow that had just gotten into his hair.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: A Letter to Uranus

"Phew... You're using this to settle personal scores!"

On the ice, a muscular man sat on the back of a human figure. His two-meter-tall frame made the person he was using as a cushion look as thin as a chick. He was sitting on the chick, who was carrying him as he did some less-than-perfect push-ups.

It was impossible for it to be a standard move. The chick's claws trembled as if they were on vibrate mode, while the muscular man crossed his legs and occasionally shifted his body if he felt uncomfortable. This time, he directly pressed the chick to the ground.

"All I did was say 'you're so bad,' and it just slipped out. How can you blame me? Dude, do you even know what dorm life is like?" Kinoshita Kei said in a self-deprecating tone, sweat clinging to his eyelids, freezing and obscuring his vision. "Don't even mention calling each other 'bad dog,' it's normal to force each other to call each other 'dad' or 'grandpa,' the higher the seniority, the closer the relationship! Everyone has been the dad of the whole dorm!"

"No." Aiba Yu directed the snowflakes to stack a salted fish in front of Kinoshita Kei, and the salted fish flicked its tail to wipe all the ice shards off his face.

Pito scooped up the snowflake-shaped fish with great interest. The fish, in a human-like manner, opened its mouth and "whoosh" sprayed out a stream of icy water mixture, thus avenging the countless times that salted fish had stuck water stains on other people's clothes.

"Then, then you," Kinoshita Kei felt his chin and chest almost freezing to the ground, so he quickly moved, trying to prop himself up again.

While cursing the salted fish king for eating too much and being too heavy, he chatted idly to distract himself: "Now you can experience the joy of being each other's father. 'Vegetable Dog,' 'Dog,' 'Son,' 'Dead Ghost,' which one do you like? If you don't like any of them, I can customize one for you."

Aiba Yu watched as the chick struggled to prop itself up by less than a finger's width, its chin held high as if it were truly lifting itself off the ground.

“You’re applying force from the wrong spot,” he said. “You can’t get up like that.”

"I understand, you don't like any of them. Let me think of something for you..."

Bang!

Before he could finish speaking, the chick that had been craning its neck to look at the sky collapsed to the ground. The muscular man who had been sitting on him, unmoved just moments before, jumped up like a rabbit and rushed over to him, rubbing his hands and face, saying, "Quick, quick, get out of here! Don't let him freeze like an ice pop!"

Aiba Yu waved his hand and withdrew the domain. The pale world was replaced by carefully painted walls. He looked at the clock hanging on the wall: "It's one minute and seventeen seconds longer than last time. The progress is getting faster and faster."

"That's the human form of Uranus that I've chosen! I've selected the one with the best compatibility from billions of people, there's no mistake!" Pito tucked the man into the blanket, covering him from head to toe, tucked the corners in, and then plopped down on it like a hen incubating eggs, thinking that this would keep him warm.

Aiba Yu hesitated, then silently dragged Pito up despite his protests. He gathered light in one hand and held it above the sleeping man's forehead, letting tiny particles of light slowly fall.

……

[A tribute to Mr. Uranus, the god of love:]

The distant Milky Way seems to linger for today, yet also seems like a fleeting dream from yesterday.

Uranus didn’t know how much time he had spent staring at them in a daze; he only felt that his cervical spine should have been stiff by now, and his bones should be cracking when he turned his neck.

There's nothing else to see here except the sky.

Those stars have been silently "watching" the Earth since time immemorial. They are like fireworks that never go out, and countless people who see them yearn to pluck them down.

Uranus gazed for a long time, as if reminiscing, as if lost in thought.

Another persistent person has arrived; he is a rare "visitor" and "returnee".

As usual, he took out stacks of letters.

[Your classmates have all written to you, and I can't let them leave me behind! Besides... I really have a lot to say to you, and I hope I haven't bothered you.]

How could I be disturbing you? Uranus wondered.

The person reading the letter was a gray-haired man whose voice was completely unsuitable for the somewhat childish tone of the letter, but Uranus listened intently.

An aging man stood in the wind, facing the boundless darkness of the distance, the sand and dust telling him that "the wind is still listening."

That's right, he couldn't see Uranus, or rather, Uranus didn't want to meet this "acquaintance".

Even so, the man, who thought only this world and the passing wind were his audience, continued reading.

[The light of the sky always appears to help humanity when we are in danger. Hmm... why do you help us?]

A silly question from a silly child.

Uranus sat halfway up the mountain, lazily relaxing. His head was above a small flat area on the mountaintop. The man slowly unfolded the letter on this flat area and began to read it in a muffled voice, completely unaware that the audience he was expecting was sitting right next to him.

"Can I take a picture with you?" the child asked in the letter.

No. Uranus answered in his mind.

Can I shake your hand? I haven't washed my hands in three days... No, I still need to wash them.

He washed his hands. Uranus then turned his gaze from the man back to the starry sky.

The man continued reading. These letters contained no amazing or imaginative words, but he didn't find it boring at all. He read them by lamplight from dusk till nightfall, rested for a while, and then read them again from nightfall until the crescent moon was high in the sky.

Few people can sustain their voice for so long. He wasn't exceptionally gifted, so in the end, his voice became increasingly dry and unpleasant.

There were quite a few letters, and the man read them slowly and deliberately, but left in a hurry afterward.

He read the entire letter aloud, bowed deeply, and left, the glass dome reflecting the twinkling stars.

……

Kinoshita Kei awoke reluctantly from his dream.

He stared blankly for a while.

That giant, the giant named Uranus, spent most of his time in his dreams gazing at the stars.

"Sky light, it's normal to like the sky," Kinoshita Kei initially thought.

But as the man began reading children's letters to Uranus, Kinoshita Kei felt that the sky had transformed into the night ocean, and the shimmering light on the water's surface was like stars, gathering together like a void deep in the universe, a shadow left by time.

It felt as if a cold, dark current might surge towards him at any moment.

Only the voice reading the letter was like a stone in the waves, gentle and calm, so soothing that it made Uranus drowsy.

I think... I think... it would be even more beautiful there if you were there.

A desolate song gradually rose in his ears, sung by a man, yet it also sounded like many people were singing, from the beginning of time to its end.

"One day, I looked into the distance and saw my home on the boundless green grass, with walls covered with ivy, and the first rays of dawn on the horizon."

"The gentle breeze told me to go to the other side of the river, where there is a girl playing a leaf flute."

"Back then, I was young and didn't think much about it. I just wanted to grow up without a care in the world."

"I want to pluck the stars down and adorn the new house woven from clouds, my dream girl, my hometown."

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Geological Research Group's Metaphysical Report

GUARD Base.

The geological research team was thrown into chaos by a strange eyeball that suddenly appeared in the mountains, following Bokulagu.

They've seen quite a few monsters these past few days—those that fly in the sky, swim in the sea, and run on the ground—and they've even dealt with some kind of metallic life form that somehow somehow came together. But no matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn't figure out what was going on with a giant human eyeball growing out of the mountains.

"Huh, this thing can even laugh, just like a certain wave." Kinoshita Kei knew this monster, EyeQ, it's all eye-like things. He preferred the monster cat a bit more. EyeQ always reminded him of a certain software from a certain company.

Because of this eyeball, the geological research group next door couldn't eat. They watched the video repeatedly until they vomited, but still couldn't figure it out. Several of them even brought it to the cafeteria to continue their discussion.

Kinoshita Kei listened to them whispering about heat data, spectral data, and the geological characteristics and elemental content of the nearby rock strata. Several heads huddled closer and closer, the plates lying across the table, emitting a lonely aroma of food.

"Slap!" One of the researchers spread his hands and leaned back tactically: "It can't be explained by science."

There's no way to explain it; Kinoshita Kei is gulping down miso soup.

“Then let’s explain it with monster studies!” one researcher chuckled. “Let’s eat first. When we come out with the report, we can just say it’s a legendary monster from the deep mountains. Anyway, no matter how we discuss it, we can’t figure out how a living eye that can turn on its own can grow out of a pile of rocks. We might as well find a monster legend.”

"Cough cough cough..." Kinoshita Kei almost choked on his own. Was the head of the geological research group next door really this Zen? If he couldn't explain it, he'd just send a metaphysical report?