Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

One of the team members, deeply moved, nodded repeatedly after a brief moment of stunned silence.

And what happened next was completely

Ralph's words came true.

Daigo, a newcomer who had only taken a few basic classes before, spent the last five days here doing some training. The main flight lessons would have to wait until Rena returned to teach him, or until Shinjo finished his mission and taught him for two days. After all, his primary task was to learn how to fly the Flying Swallow No. 1, and the air force had not deployed this new aircraft. Only Aiba Yu had served as a test pilot, which was a relevant specialty. Otherwise, Daigo's flight courses might have been postponed.

"Do you know the procedure for anti-vertigo training?" Aiba Yu asked.

Daigo nodded: "I trained halfway through... I threw up before I could finish." He still remembered Lina saying "it was so much fun," even though she thought it was funny when she saw him spinning around so much!

“That’s perfect, let’s get on the equipment,” Fujisawa Sousuke, who had been keeping a close eye on the situation and had his ears perked up, heard the captain say, “He’ll have to throw up a few more times anyway.”

For a moment, Fujisawa Sosuke didn't know whether to laugh at the newcomer's incompetence or at himself for being so easily fooled.

It feels like you're all ready to fight, only to find out your opponent is a complete novice. Strike hard, but if you don't, you'll look stupid.

"Sigh." He sighed heavily, watching Daigo successfully spin himself until he fell flat on his face.

……

TPC Life Sciences Research Center

Dr. Mizuno and his investigation team received video footage from the air force, showing the cockpit monitoring of TPC1.

The fragmented footage was processed by the information department members in slow motion at a thousand times the speed. The workload was too large, so it took a lot of time before they were finally able to see the true appearance of the "shadow" that the pilots claimed to be.

It was a creature with a long, thin tail. The image remained blurry even after processing, and Dr. Mizuno could only make out the outline of its membranous wings. But there was no doubt that this was evidence of the existence of the Lightning Man.

"Why did they suddenly appear at such a low altitude?" This is a question his team urgently needs to study.

“Switch back to the previous frame,” Dr. Mizuno said. “Look at a few relatively large ‘shadows’.”

The scene then shifts to show images of about five or six individual lightning figures on the screen.

Dr. Mizuno stepped forward and pointed to one of them with a laser indicator light: "Look closely, the body shape is very compact, and it can be basically determined to be an independent individual, but its head is too wide, with dividing lines—like two heads overlapping."

“And this one,” the indicator light moved down: “two tails, the boundaries of the membrane wings are very clear, and four growth foci can be seen, while other individuals only have two.”

"Go up, I remember the frame rate was between 60 and 70, that's the frame that captured the most lightning people."

The screen switched as instructed, and even through the cockpit glass and thick clouds, about a dozen shadows of varying sizes could be seen passing in front of the windshield.

Dr. Mizuno continued, "There are even more changes here. In addition to the overlapping heads and limb regeneration we just saw, there are also... Look, it separates from the chest cavity, but there is only one abdomen and tail. This is even more exaggerated, with four tails, while the outline of the body is clear. It's hard to say it's an image problem."

Through his thick glasses, Dr. Mizuno scanned his team members one by one: "So I suspect... perhaps the Lightning Men have mutated, a widespread mutation, like deformed children born after exposure to nuclear radiation. They may have encountered some kind of change."

"This change might be the reason why their clouds left the ionosphere—do you have any guesses?"

After a brief silence, a female researcher with nearly silver hair spoke up: "The organisms in the ionosphere are constantly exposed to high-energy solar radiation and cosmic rays, possibly related to solar flares? They suddenly encounter extremely strong bombardment of charged particles, which causes mutations."

“We also use the ionosphere to propagate high-frequency radio waves,” another researcher said hesitantly. “Solar flares have existed since the birth of the Earth. If we rely solely on them, then the dominant mutations of lightning people will be extremely frequent, and may even become the norm.”

"But we know that biological evolution is a continuous adaptation to environmental changes. Since the Lightning People live in the ionosphere, they must have already developed bodies capable of adapting to high-radiation environments. Therefore, I think the possibility of it being caused by a solar flare is very small. Perhaps the real origin of the mutation is..."

"The day when mankind discovers electromagnetic waves."

Chapter Eight Meteorite

Dr. Mizuno and his team's conjecture coincides with Aiba Yu's speculation.

The Life Science Research Center could only conduct research using blurry images, while Aiba Yu had a clear view of what was inside the cloud.

He naturally saw normal individuals, as well as many abnormal, mutated individuals.

He wasn't sure if what he thought was a "mutation" was normal for the Lightning Man, so he borrowed materials such as "Evolutionary Biology" to read while subtly asking acquaintances who worked at the Life Science Research Center.

It wasn't until Dr. Mizuno's interim investigation report was delivered to the director's desk that Sawai called Aiba Yu over and said with a smile, "The culprit behind TPC1's mishap has been found," and only then did Aiba Yu put all the pieces back together.

"The 'culprit' you mentioned..." refers to the Lightning Man, or humanity itself?

Aiba Yu didn't say the second half of the sentence. He remembered Commander Yoshioka's resolute words: "Things that threaten human safety must be dealt with."

"Be more careful when you travel in the future," Director Sawai instructed after he received the report. "Make sure your team knows about this too. The planes used by other officers aren't as structurally robust as TPC1."

The Lightning Man has shown aggression, and such incidents will only increase.

Aiba Yu remembered that thunderstorm, and the people in the cockpit probably wouldn't forget it either.

The edges of the rapidly condensing and growing cumulonimbus clouds were bathed in the autumn sunlight, turning a translucent white, while the center remained pitch black, the boundary between black and white sharp and clear. Stratospheric winds and thunder rumbled within the clouds, raindrops suspended in mid-air, pushed aside by the passing lightning bolts.

Aiba Yu's first reaction was, "What kind of alien is playing tricks?" or "Someone from the South Pacific has broken the seal and their aura is leaking out."

However, during his recent nightly investigations, he found neither traces of extraterrestrial activity in the ionosphere nor any signs of instability on the South Pacific seabed.

Upon his arrival on Earth, the seal that had been solidified in stone was still in operation, and the underwater ruins remained as silent as the eternal night of millions of years ago.

He ruled out all the options except for humanity itself.

"Should we eliminate them?" Aiba Yu asked.

His tone was flat, like a casual greeting, but Sawai noticed the creases in the report in his hand.

“It’s just that TPC1 encountered an isolated incident. We haven’t received any other reports of crashes due to encounters with the Lightning People, and apart from knowing that they live in the ionosphere, we know nothing else,” Sawai said. “At the very least, we need to study their habits.”

"By the way, the air force's thunderstorm response manual is very good. During this period, please work hard to compile a declassified manual that can be used by civil aviation and distribute it. Before making it public, have the secretariat review it to ensure that it does not involve classified matters... Protecting civilians is our top priority."

"Understood." Aiba Yu accepted the order and left.

Coexistence is never a simple matter.

The Renlong in Gaia World has a good temper and can communicate with humans. He loves the homeland he guards. Therefore, when the construction team dug up to his head, his first thought was not that he was offended, but that the construction team might dig through the underground river and cause a water seepage and collapse.

Other subterranean monsters briefly reached a consensus with humans during their battles with future humans, and humans, to some extent, felt a sense of goodwill towards the creatures that had fought alongside them.

But Lightning Man is different.

Yuu Aiba could only hope that the situation wouldn't escalate, that TPC1's ordeal wouldn't be an isolated incident, and that the Lightning Man's "friend" was indeed a friendly signal.

……

After a period of relative calm, Daigo gained the friendship of his fellow air force members, as well as the reluctant admiration of Sōsuke Fujisawa—many people work hard, but few possess his extraordinary perseverance.

Anti-vertigo training is extremely painful for beginners. When Fujisawa Sousuke first started, he felt that the sky was always black, the floor was always soft, and he didn't care about the taste of his food anymore. Since he was going to throw up anyway, he would just stuff his mouth with whatever he could find.

Daigo's performance remained positive every day. Aiba Yu was strict with his team members, especially making Fujisawa Sousuke, whose foundation was not solid, memorize materials while doing physical training. Seeing this, Daigo also demanded the same of himself, learning from the old men to torture both their bodies and their minds.

That fighting spirit even frightened Fujisawa Sousuke.

"Victory Team has indeed sifted out some good prospects." After finishing a set of training, he was drinking water on the sidelines when he saw Daigo muttering to himself as he got up from the ground and stuffed himself back into the equipment. His skillful operation made it impossible to tell that he had just been lying on the sidelines panting and feeling dizzy.

While panting, a flight manual kept popping out of his mouth.

"What a pervert," he thought to himself.

Although there's no need to worry about Daigo getting solo permission before him, even a freak has to follow basic principles—no matter how hard he tries, it will take time to catch up, and besides, Fujisawa Sosuke isn't standing still.

But he felt he should do better. The Victory Team was a comprehensive team that, in addition to flying fighter jets, also had to undertake tasks such as investigation and disaster prevention of abnormal events, while the Air Force had only two tasks: flying the planes well and protecting the safety of important people and facilities.

In other words, if they were to let this newcomer from the Victory Team outdo them in flying skills, it would be tantamount to having their livelihood stolen.

Given Daigo's level of effort, the captain's personal notes and lessons, and the fact that GUTS has an ace pilot giving him lessons, he might actually surpass Fujisawa Sosuke after obtaining his solo flight permit.

"I can't let you beat me again! I've already lost once!" He gulped down another big mouthful and climbed onto the equipment before he could rest enough.

Aiba Yu noticed his performance and ticked it off in the daily training log.

On the last day of the joint training, the members who had been away on flights returned one after another.

"Hey, did our Fujisawa Sparrow get his solo flight permit today?" The person who came was Watanabe Yota, who was in the same class as Fujisawa Sousuke, but he had long been able to fly independently, so he often teased the rookies in the team about getting their permits.

"Sparrow" was the nickname he gave Fujisawa Sousuke, partly because he was a chatterbox, and partly to mock his loose tongue, comparing it to the size of a sparrow's. Instead of worrying about the license, he should first learn how to slide kneeling in a unique way after offending someone with his loose tongue, especially the captain.

Fujisawa Sousuke ignored him verbally, muttering to himself as he recited the manual, but his eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets, fixed on Watanabe Yota, who was making sarcastic remarks, as if he was about to pounce on him at any moment.

"Do you know how beautiful the starry sky is when you fly at night?" Yota Watanabe chuckled. "Very light clouds, you can see the black sea, the city lights in the distance are dazzling, the Big Dipper hangs there, and the Milky Way connects with the lights."

"Oh, there was a meteor shower this time, and we made a wish."

He leaned closer: "I wish this newbie could fly solo soon~"

"To reduce the hazards of static electricity buildup, the instrument panel must be checked for reliable operation of the static brush before flight," Fujisawa Sousuke recited through gritted teeth, "to prevent the formation of the St. Elmo Fire phenomenon!"

"Hahahaha," Watanabe Yota looked up at him, his two rows of teeth flashing and piercing his eyes: "I even saw a fireball, um... to be precise, a meteorite. Hey, apart from in the newspaper, you've never seen a meteorite from the captain's seat, have you?"

Chapter Nine Time Machine

What Yota Watanabe saw was not an ordinary "meteorite".

Just as many ancient texts regard fireballs as ominous omens, as they streak across the sky with their crimson tails, attracting countless curious and inquisitive gazes, they also signify the reawakening of a shadow from 30 million years ago.

"What kind of creature is that?"

The moment the images captured by the Flying Swallow-1 satellite were projected onto the screen after its survey, a thunderous sound resounded at the TPC Life Sciences Research Center.

"A monster? An abnormally large, ferocious beast?"

"The operation was directed toward the village, but they were frightened away by the signal flare, which was both terrible and unexpectedly cowardly."

Excitement, doubt, fear, and frantic curiosity swept through the conference hall like a storm.

Some scientists have speculated: "It has lizard-like features, could it be a relic from the dinosaur era?"

"Such a giant creature actually lives on the Mongolian plains! What an unexpected discovery!"

The entire life science research center was in an uproar. It was easy to imagine that the images brought back by Flying Swallow 1 would cause a tremendous earthquake in the academic world.

Daigo's hands were still shaking when he returned to the team.