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This had been a bad idea.
A really, really bad idea.
God, what had they been thinking?
Grant funding was worth a lot, absolutely, but their lives? Rie wasn’t sure if she was that desperate, and she was (relatively) confident the other two were the same.
So then, why the hell were they risking their own lives just to get some data for a proof-of-concept device that might not even work?!
The ground shook again, and the trio covered their heads to protect themselves from falling branches and debris.
“How’s the device?” Shinichiro called over the din.
“I’m fine, in case you were wondering.” Keisuke huffed, pulling his backpack further up his shoulders, “You could at least pretend to care about my well-being, y’know?” He looked over the device that was also slung over his shoulder, resembling more an expensive water gun than a piece of scientific equipment. “Seems to be relatively okay — I mean, even as a prototype, yours truly did make sure that it was robust enough to handle-” another roar rent the air, and more dirt, stones, and branches fell down around them. “To handle this!”
Shinichiro gave a sheepish nod before looking over to Rie. “Still getting a signal from it?”
Rie quickly grabbed her tablet from where it was also slung over her shoulder in a similar fashion to the device. “Yeah, seems like it. Look, guys, I want this data as much as you do, but should we really be-”
“Hey, don’t you dare back down now!” Shinichiro said, “We just need a couple of good readings of Graim, and then we can go!”
“Plus, you were the one who was pushing us to do a proper field test before applying for any funding,” Keisuke unhelpfully reminded, “So it’s a bit late to get cold feet considering this was your idea.”
“My idea was to go after a kaiju in a more controlled environment, not in the middle of a forest in the middle of nowhere”
“What, you want the kaiju to be close to civilisation?!” Shinichiro asked.
“No, of course not, it’s just- you know what I mean!” Rie said, throwing up her hands, “I didn’t think we’d be risking our lives this badly, you know? Full offence, but I don’t think this project is worth our lives, quite frankly.”
“Well, we’re here now, and it’d probably be just as much a risk to try and head back down anyways,” Keisuke said, looking in the direction of the roars that had been slowly fading as they were talking. “Look, I think it’s moved over that way. That’s back down the trail as it is, so we’ve got no choice but to head that way regardless.” He pulled up his backpack again, making sure the device was slung in front of him. “Cmon!”
Shinichiro followed along behind him, giving what he probably thought was a reassuring smile to Rie. It didn’t work, but it’s not like she had much choice but to follow along. Better for them to all die together than for her to deal with survivor's guilt for the rest of her life.
“We are not calling it that. I refuse to submit that name in a grant application.”
“Oh cmon Rie,” Keisuke whined, “The UltraScanner 5000 is really catchy!”
“It’s not, it’s childish and stupid. How are we supposed to communicate that this is supposed to revolutionise kaiju research methods if it sounds like something you’d see in a Saturday morning cartoon show?”
“Well, I mean, there are plenty of kids' shows about kaiju nowadays…” Shinichiro mused.
“Not. Helping.” Rie said, pointing at him in annoyance, “Besides, disaster-type movies and stuff have been all the rage for a while now. This name feels more like something out of a superhero show, not one of those!”
“Well, if you have any better ideas, lemme know!” Keisuke huffed, slumping back into the chair, “Plus, it’s not like Shinichiro’s name was much better, anyway!”
“Hey, the Mobile Kaiju Multivariate Composition Analyser-Scanner describes it perfectly!” Shinichiro retorted.
“Yeah, and it’s a mouthful. How are we supposed to shorten that? MKMCOAS? MoKCMAS?”
“This is a kaiju scanner, not a satellite,” Rie sighed, also slumping back into her seat. “We’ll have to think of it later. Right now, we need to focus on proving that it works first.”
“You’re not seriously suggesting that we go out and, like, find a kaiju, right?” Keisuke asked.
Rie said nothing.
“Oh my god you are.”
“I am.” Rie said, straightening up, “And I think I’ve found the perfect target.” She pulled up a newspaper article on her tablet, “Seems there’s been some reports of a kaiju causing damage in the hills around this village. Spooking the livestock and such. Now, the JDF don’t seem to be too keen on investigating it-”
“Well, I mean, yeah, kaiju keep on popping out of those weird-ass portals in the sky. I’d say the JDF have their hands full enough as it is.” Keisuke interjected, “I mean, seriously, we’ve got enough problems to deal with in our local kaiju population. Why do we have to deal with ones from, like, other universes, or something?”.
Rie rolled her eyes, “Well, obviously, yes, but I argue it’s more likely that they just see some ‘crazy villagers out in the boonies’ letting the current crisis get to them or something” she said, with not insignificant venom. “Personally, I’d wager that there might be some truth to this article. And if I’m right, and we do find something, not only do we get a ton of data, we prove that we also have the talent to find and deploy our system effectively!”
“…Which means that we reduce the chances of the JDF or whoever else simply taking the schematics and kicking us off of the project if we do manage to get it off the ground,” Shinichiro said, “Since they’ll want experts like us to help them train everyone else!”
“Exactly! Which is why it’s critical we get some good data now, so we don’t run the risk of that happening once we put an application in,” Rie said, “Plus, while it’s in the countryside, our target shouldn’t be too far from civilisation, so if we need help — or phone signal — we can get it. Perfectly safe!”
There was a pause.
“So…?” Keisuke asked.
“So? Go get ready!”
“Huh?! We’re leaving now?!”
“No, not now, silly,” Rie laughed, “We’ll be heading out early tomorrow. I just thought you guys might need some time to prepare, that’s all.”
“Wait, we really are doing this?” Shinichiro asked.
Rie nodded. “Of course. And, cmon Shinichiro, don’t lie, you really want to see your pride and joy in action, right?”
“Stop trying to butter me up like that,” Shinichiro grumbled, but, as he followed Keisuke out of the room, Rie did notice a glint of excitement in his eye. Good. If these guys weren’t 10000% in it, this could all fall apart at the seams.
Besides, it probably wasn’t a majorly dangerous kaiju, anyway, so where was the harm?
Now, more than ever, Rie wished she had inherited her mother’s propensity for forethought. But alas, as she trudged alongside the others, she couldn’t help but acknowledge that her incredibly thoughtless plan could cost them more than a prototype.
“Hey.” Keisuke said, breaking the silence, “D’you think one of those giant guys is gonna show up?”
“Hm? Oh, those… what were they called? ‘Ultramen’, right?” Rie replied.
“Yeah, them. Wonder if it’ll be another new guy, or maybe one of the previous ones will appear again.”
“Well, they only seem to show up when it’s a ‘portal kaiju’.” Shinichiro said.
“…And Graim is a portal kaiju? The first one of those showed up a couple months back, remember? Got fought off by that giant guy with the glowing trident-looking thing, too.”
“Oh yeah, didn’t he have a trident shape on his head, as well?” Rie mused.
“For a guy with a ton of trident imagery, he didn’t seem to be very, I dunno, ‘aquatic-minded’.” Keisuke said.
“Eh, maybe he just likes the aesthetic?” Shinichiro suggested.
“D’you think those guys know what an aesthetic is?”
“Maybe? I feel like that has to be something universal, right?”
“Ehhhh….”
Before either of them could continue, the ground shook again.
“Damn, and here I thought it was getting further away.” Keisuke cursed.
“It kind of feels like it slammed into the side of the mountain.” Rie said, looking around, “Hey, look- I think there’s a clearing up ahead! We should be able to get a better view from there.”
“Towards the kaiju?” Keisuke said incredulously.
“You said it yourself,” Rie said, flashing a pained smile, “We’ve got no choice but to head towards it, right?” Keisuke only grumbled in response.
Not wanting to become impaled by falling branches, the three of them hurried towards the clearing. Though it turned out to be less of a clearing and more of an end to the tree line, as the grass sloped away quite suddenly down into a cliff. And there, in the valley before them, was their target: Graim.
And it wasn’t alone.
“Called it!” Keisuke laughed, pointing at the humanoid newcomer, “Never, ever doubt me again!”
Rie squinted, trying to get a better look, “Is this one new? He kinda seems familiar.”
Shinichiro squinted along with her. “Uh… I think I saw him befo- oh yeah! Wasn’t he one of the first of these guys to show up back when the portals did? He’s got the same red and blue pattern, as well as those weird horn-looking things.”
As if to make a point that they were not ‘weird horn-looking things’, the giant in question reached up and pulled them off his head, revealing them to be short blades of some kind.
“OHHH, him!” Keisuke and Rie cried out in unison. Perhaps a bit too loudly, as it looked like Graim clocked their position on the edge of the cliff. Not willing to risk it, the trio quickly ran back to the relative safety of the tree line.
Rie leaned up against a tree to catch her breath, looking skyward. “Great, now we’ve got two of those guys to worry about.”
“Should we try and scan the Ultra as well?” Shinichiro asked.
Keisuke's head spun so fast to look at him that Rie was sure she heard an audible crack. But before he could protest, she said, “Yeah, I mean, maybe? To be honest, we have no idea what those guys are made of, so maybe we should try to first get some data on something we can then compare, just to make sure it works, y’know?”
“So, scan Graim a couple times, then focus on the other guy?” Shinichiro mused.
“No, no, scan Graim a couple times, then get the hell out of here.” Keisuke replied, “I signed up for one giant thing that can squash me, not two.”
Rie nodded. “This is already getting pretty stupid, all things considered.” She looked back through the thinning trees, just able to make out their target engaging in an ungainly wrestling match with its re-horned adversary. “Let’s just wait until the two get a bit closer, then we can scan Graim and get out. The range is around 500m, right?” She asked, turning to Shinichiro. He nodded. Keisuke huffed, pulling his backpack back onto his shoulders. Wordlessly, the three of them headed back towards the clearing.
They were lucky. As if on cue, just as they breached the tree line again, Graim and Ultra tumbled towards them, well within the 500m range. An air of professionalism descended on the trio, likely driven by a desire not to waste such a prime opportunity. Rie immediately pulled out her tablet, readying the analysis program for the incoming data. Keisuke handed his backpack over to Shinichiro, priming the device and moving to get into position. Shinichiro, after getting over the shock of how light Keisuke made the backpack seem, manoeuvred himself to a spot where he could more easily coordinate the positions of the others.
“Ok, I’m all set over here! Go for it, Keisuke!” Rie called.
“Looks like our oni-looking friend is going for a tackle, get ready!” Shinichiro called. And tackle he did, with enough force that the three of them almost lost their footing — but it was a blessing in disguise. Graim was now no more than 250m away from them. Keisuke readied the device, pointing it like a gun at its target, before depressing the large trigger on its underside. The device emitted a loud beep before falling into a pattern of quieter, deeper beeps: a sure sign that data was indeed being collected.
“How’s it looking?” Shinichiro called over the din of the battle. Rie gave a thumbs up, not taking her eyes off the tablet. While she’d have to properly compare it once they got back, from memory, the data they were getting seemed to match the publicly available data for Graim in the JDF database. It took everything in her not to squeal in delight.
“Keep the data coming, Keisuke!” Rie called.
“Alright, alright, just… gimme a second. These guys are moving around way too much.” Keisuke panted, trying to follow Shinichiro’s directions as much as he could with whilst having something akin to a several-pound water gun strapped to him.
“Do you think they know we’re here? Shinichiro asked.
“Graim? Yeah, maybe. We are a possible lunch-” Rie said.
“Don’t say that!” Keisuke interjected, fumbling with the device to get it level.
Rie ignored him. “But the other guy? Doubt it. As far as I’m aware, those guys don’t eat people, so I’m not really sure whether he’d care about a bunch of wannabe researchers fumbling around near a kaiju.”
“Oi! I am not breaking my back out here trying to get good data, only for you to call it fumbling! Or me a wannabe!” Keisuke shouted. Thankfully, it seemed like he would get a lucky break: both Graim and Ultraman were now parallel to the group, waiting for the other to move. Keisuke sighed in relief, aiming for Graim once again, before lowering the device.
“Hey Rie, send all the data we got to the cloud and clear the cache. I wanna scan the alien.”
Rie looked up at him with surprise, before her own scientific curiosity got the better of her. She nodded, and, with a few taps, sent the data they had on Graim back home. She cleared the cache, then nodded at the others. Keisuke got back into position, aimed, and activated the device.
“…Keisuke, did you break it or something?” Rie said once the new data started to come in.
“Huh? No, of course I haven’t! I barely touched it since the last bit of data you got!”
Shinichiro rushed over as fast as he could, burdened as he was. He peered over Rie’s shoulder and let out a startled cry. Keisuke looked over to him in concern.
“Keisuke, do me a favour and… go for Graim again,” he said, not taking his eyes off the allegedly correct data that had been recorded. Still confused and a little annoyed, Keisuke nodded, putting his aim back on the kaiju.
“…What the actual hell.” Rie said after a moment.
“Well?! Is it broken?!” Keisuke asked with a rising panic. After neither of the others replied, he called, “Hey! Answer me! Is it over or not?!”
“It’s not broken.” Shinichiro said in a quiet voice, “Which means…”
“Go back to the Ultra, Keisuke.” Rie ordered. Keisuke opened his mouth to protest, but when he met what was probably the most solemn face he’d ever seen his friend wear, he promptly shut up and prepared to record again.
“…Oh my god. I can’t- It’s all-”
“It’s all what?!” Keisuke called, struggling to keep up with the increased pace of the fight in front of him.
“It’s all NaN! Almost every single data point is just… not a number!” Rie said, incredulously, “NaN, NaN, a ridiculously high number for that data point, NaN, NaN again… What the hell is that thi-”
Suddenly, a shrill alarm filled the air. Shinichiro’s face went white as a sheet.
“Dammit, that’s the overclocking alarm! Keisuke, quick, shut it off before-”
But it was too late. Both targets suddenly were completely focused on the trio, and Rie could’ve sworn that, despite not having any facial features that could emote, the Ultra seemed both surprised and concerned by their presence. A hesitation that gave the kaiju the upper hand; it made a beeline for the group, its long, rotating tusk spinning rapidly as it descended upon them. Frozen in fear as they were, the three of them had no hope of avoiding becoming mincemeat. Rie covered her head, her eyes tightly shut.
There was a loud crack. And then an even louder cry of pain.
Rie slowly opened her eyes and gasped. There, standing almost directly in front of them, was the Ultraman. Graim, who may have been denied an easy meal, was instead granted an equally worthwhile prize: successfully impaling its assailant. Rie looked up and saw that the kaiju had managed to jam its horn right into the strange, blue lamp-like thing in the centre of the Ultra’s chest. Rie had already figured from seeing previous fights that the lamp was likely a weak point, but even if she hadn’t before, the fact that seemed to now be leaking some sort of golden… light would have made the point pretty clear. As the Ultra desperately tried to remove Graim’s tusk, more of what Rie assumed was analogous to blood began to leak out from the centre of the lamp. With every movement, the horn seemed to crack it more, making a sickening sound not unlike that of the shell of a toffee apple, a mixture of cracking and squelching as the pieces didn’t quite break apart. Giant globules of gold leaked out from the intrusion before most of it seemingly sublimed into golden wisps that were soon blown away by the mountain winds. Ichor. Rie, perhaps because she felt she was only a few moments from death, suddenly remembered her Greek mythology phase from her youth. The golden blood of the gods. A reminder that those who possess it are far above mortals such as herself. How could they not be, when their very lifeblood was toxic to humanity? And yet, a part of Rie insisted that it couldn’t be ichor, could it? Would one possessing such a substance within their veins deliberately put them in harm's way, for lives so much smaller than theirs? An action that shows such brazen disregard for their own life, in order to keep others safe? Rie hoped this was true, if only so that the three of them didn’t run the risk of contracting some hitherto unknown disease upon accidental contact with the liquid light seeping out of the wound. Not that she would be willing to test that, of course. She would never put her life at risk in the name of science. Ever.
Luckily (or perhaps unluckily), that choice was made for her. With a pain-filled cry, the Ultra pulled Graim’s horn free from his chest, spilling the light-blood everywhere in the process.
Everywhere, including right on top of the trio.
Shinichiro took a deep breath… Then shivered, stuffing his hands into his jacket pocket. Even if the cherry blossoms were coming out, it was probably still a bit too early to be spending much time outside around sunset. But he needed to clear his head. He briefly checked his phone and smiled; even more congratulatory messages from friends and relatives. ‘Congratulations on graduating!’ ‘Top marks from a top university too, well done!’ ‘We couldn’t be more proud of you.’ ‘Lemme know if you wanna hit the town to celebrate!’. He put his phone back in his pocket and leaned back on the bench.
None of that really mattered to him right now. Finally, he was right where he had desperately wanted to be for years. Out of the three of them, Rie would be the last to graduate, and then they could finally, finally work together like they used to. Except this time, it would be professionally: as fully fledged graduates, not teens messing around in Keisuke’s shed. Both Rie and Keisuke had already started to send property listings to him in a desperate attempt to get him to move closer (he was already considering it, despite it being way too early for that), and Rie had already sent him an outline for what she wanted their joint PhD project to be.
‘I think something like this could really be useful in furthering the understanding of kaiju both in academia, and with ppl like the JDF!’ She had texted him. ‘Combining Keisuke’s engineering and your kaiju biology knowledge into some sort of analyser program and/or device would be so groundbreaking and cool it’s not even funny. Oh my god I cannot wait to be out of here so I can start lol.’
Neither could he. Shinichiro closed his eyes, feeling a warmth emanate from his chest as he imagined all the things he wanted to do with his friends once they were all able to get back together. As he sat there on the bench, the March evening air somehow wasn’t feeling as cold as it had been earlier.
Keisuke was tired. So, so goddamn tired. He looked over blearily to his clock. 02:13. He then looked back at his paper. Still no progress, and this draft was due in tomorrow— today at noon. He looked up to see an equally bleary-eyed Rie bringing him a cup.
“Here. Some tea. I think at this point coffee would be doing you more harm than good.”
Keisuke murmured in appreciation. “Shouldn’t you be going to bed now? It’s really late.”
“Hey, what about me?!” Came Shinichiro’s voice from Keisuke’s computer.
Keisuke just rolled his eyes. “You’re fine, you’re in your room! Rie still has to go back to her flat, remember?”
“Keisuke, I literally live 3 floors above you, it’s not an issue, relax.”
“Yeah, but-”
“Drink.” She ordered. Keisuke obliged.
“Why don’t you just go to sleep now and wake up early?” Shinichiro asked.
“I’ve got labs at 09:00. I’d be getting like… 2 hours sleep, tops.” Keisuke grumbled into his cup.
“Eh, but you’d at least be a little fresher than you are now,” said Rie, peering over his shoulder. “Besides, you’ve barely made any progress in the last half hour. I highly doubt you’re gonna write more than a couple hundred words before you inevitably crash.”
“The tea’ll help.”
“It probably won’t.” Rie said with a tired smile. “I agree with Shinichiro. Go get some sleep, and see how you are afterwards. Worst case, you write as much as you were ever going to if you just stayed up.”
“Y’know, I would’ve been fine if you just let me have the energy drinks.” Keisuke grumbled.
“Hello? What part of ‘labs at 9 AM’ sounds compatible with ‘major caffeine crash?” Shinichiro said incredulously, “Honestly Keisuke, we went over this several times already.”
“Alright, alright, you don’t have to nag, geez.” Keisuke said, failing to suppress a yawn.
“Well, that settles that. I also have an early day tomorrow, so I’m gonna head out now. Shinichiro, I’m counting on you to make sure Keisuke goes to bed, understood?” Rie said, hands on her hips.
“Got it! Uh, you can’t see me, but I’m giving a salute, ok?” Both Keisuke and Rie snorted at that.
After finally convincing Shinichiro that he was heading to bed, Keisuke hung up. He stared at the document, considering whether to go for just half an hour more. But the idea of sleep was very tempting, and he did promise his friends, so…
After setting his alarm for 4 AM, Keisuke crawled under the covers. It was nice, having friends who both cared about him and were willing to enable his less-than-healthy study habits (to an extent). He really couldn’t have gotten luckier to get in with a group of people that just… got him, like no one else could. Keisuke closed his eyes, the warmth his friends gave him helping him drift off to sleep.
Rain fell hard against her window. Rie sat in the glow of her computer monitor, the only thing lighting up her room in the fading light of the afternoon. She’d been staring at her assignment for the past few hours now, getting it less and less, hating her own stupidity more and more. The hole in her chest sat there achingly, to the point that she was almost struggling to breathe.
All this work, everything she’d done, and in the end, she really was just a fraud, wasn’t she? Childish dreams only get you so far: you have to want it, you have to work for it, you have to be able to actually do it, or else you’d just fail. Like every other time you have. When was the last time you made someone proud? Rie gripped her chest, as if that would make the pain go away. She had hoped that calling her friends would have helped her. Instead, it just made her feel all the more inadequate. They were so much smarter and were doing so much better than she was. Why did they even bother with her in the first place? Pity? She sighed, leaning back in her chair with closed eyes.
Maybe she should just give up.
Loud knocking on her door shook Rie out of her introspection with a start. Strange, she hadn’t ordered anything (as far as she could remember), and the mail had already arrived for the day, so who…?
“Oi, open up, we’re soaked!”
Keisuke?! Wait… ‘we’?!
Rie hurried to the door and opened it. There, looking incredibly bedraggled, were Keisuke and Shinichiro, holding similarly soaked grocery bags.
“Move, move, out the way, I need to get dry.” Keisuke huffed, pushing past a very confused Rie, “Shinichiro, put the stuff on the table, I’ll go find the towels. You haven’t moved them from where they were last time, right, Rie?”
“I- uh- hey wait, hang on!” Rie called, chasing after Keisuke in a bid to make sure he didn’t turn her flat upside down looking for towels. Shinichiro closed the door behind him before putting both his and Keisuke’s bags on the kitchen counter.
“What even is all this, by the way?” Rie said, appearing from her room with some very fluffy towels, Keisuke in tow.
“We were worried about you.” Shinichiro said matter-of-factly. Rie just shot him an incredulous look in response.
“Yeah, you weren’t right when you called us, and you haven’t really been right for a while, so we figured we had to take some emergency measures to help you.” Keisuke said, snatching both towels from Rie, before throwing one to Shinichiro.
“But- wait, you noticed?”
“Hm? Oh, what, noticed you weren’t doing so good recently? Yeah, duh?” Keisuke said, voice muffled by his towel. Rie looked over at Shinichiro, who was busy unpacking a not insignificant amount of groceries. He just looked up at her, shrugged in a way to say ‘yeah, it was obvious’, before returning to his unpacking duties.
“I- you- what- huh-” she stammered, “Wait- why are you both wet? Keisuke, you literally live in the same block as me, why did you go outside?”
“Oh, we figured we were gonna buy a lot of food, so I came and helped Shinichiro carry it all.” He said with a shrug, placing his towel on the kitchen counter. “I am the strongest out of all of us, and plus, what’s that saying again? ‘Many hands make light work’ or something? Yeah, that. Anyways, I didn’t think the rain would last that long.”
“Keisuke, we’re under a rain advisory.” Rie deadpanned. He just shrugged in response.
“Anyway, Keisuke and I are going to make you hotpot. So just sit and relax for a while, ok?” Shinichiro said.
“But I-”
“Ah ah ah, no you don’t.” Keisuke said, blocking her path back to her room. “You are gonna sit, and you’re gonna chat with us, and you’re gonna be honest with us about what’s been going on, and, most importantly: you’re gonna take a break, ok?”
Rie wanted to protest; she really did. She knows she should feel guilty about folding so easily to their demands — she was practically procrastinating! But, under the expectant and intense gazes of her friends, she really didn’t have a choice, did she? She sighed, flopping on the sofa, and watched as Keisuke and Shinichiro tried to work together to make a hotpot (which was going about as well as you might expect).
As she sat there, talking about everything and nothing in particular, she noticed that the hollow ache in her chest had been replaced by a small, warm glow that seemed to tell her that everything was going to be ok.
The three of them awoke as if from a warm dream, the memories that they just relived still clinging to them like honey dripping off a honey dipper. Keisuke even yawned and stretched before giving a startled yelp that brought the others to full alertness.
They were back on the outcrop again. They had never left. Rie looked down at herself; physically, she seemed fine, with no signs that she’d just been hit with alien blood, aside from her now completely busted tablet. She heard a groan from Keisuke, who had discovered their precious device had suffered a similar fate.
Wait.
Hang on.
All three of them had the same realisation:
What about Ultraman?!
They scrambled to their feet and looked out from the clearing to find the view significantly different to the one they had left. In the centre of the valley lay what could only be the smoking remnants of Graim. Looking to their left, they found the Ultra, leaning back against the cliff-face, with his left hand held over his chest. A strange brace on his wrist seemed to be periodically glowing, and while Rie couldn’t quite see from this angle, she had a strange notion that it was helping heal the damage Graim had inflicted on him. Rie then looked up to notice that said Ultra was looking directly at them, with what seemed to be a concerned expression, even though Rie knew that there was no way to tell, given that his face couldn’t emote.
The trio then had another realisation.
“We’re so, so sorry for causing you trouble!” They shouted in unison, bowing deeply. The Ultra seemed startled at that, pausing his healing procedure to shoo at them as if to say, ‘Hey, stop that.’
“We were just wanting to get some good data of a kaiju for our project, and-” Shinichiro began, before cutting himself off as the Ultra leaned back with a nod. Rie shot a confused look at the others. Does he know? Oddly, despite the fact that it really made no sense that he would, all three of them had the strange sensation that he somehow did.
“Are you gonna be ok? I mean, that kaiju did nail you pretty badly.” Keisuke asked. In answer to that question, the giant pushed himself up from his position, doing a few test stretches before flashing them all a peace sign.
Huh. Not exactly the kind of thing they would’ve expected from an Ultraman, but still.
“Uh, by the way, will we be… ok? I mean, is your, uh, blood, or whatever that was, y’know… safe?” Shinichiro asked nervously. The Ultra cocked his head to the side in thought. Not exactly the most reassuring gesture, and the following slightly too hasty nod did not do much to change that. They could do nothing but nod in response.
Seemingly satisfied that his charges were (mostly) ok, the Ultra gave one last cocky salute before taking to the skies with a shout. Rie watched as he soared off before shaking herself out of her wonderment.
“Hey! Wait! Come back! We didn’t get a chance to say thank you yet!” She called after him. She squinted as his form quickly became a dot in the afternoon sky, “Hmph, asshole.”
The three of them stood in silence for a while, with nothing but the sound of the wind between them. Eventually, Shinichiro piped up.
“What do you think his name was?”
“Hm?” Keisuke murmured, seemingly still deep in introspection.
“The Ultra, I mean. Do you think he had a name?”
As soon as the question left his lips, the three of them suddenly knew the answer, almost as if they were remembering the name of an old friend.
“Zero. Ultraman Zero.”
———
It was not often that Mebius had visitors in his office. It was even less often that he found visitors had come to his office whilst he was away. But that was the scene that greeted him as he entered.
“Oh, hey Zero, hey Taiga!” He said with surprise, “What’s up?”
“Oh thank Noa there you are. Mebius, you gotta help me, I think I’m actually gonna lose it.” Zero said as he grabbed Mebius’ shoulders with a not insignificant amount of panic in his eyes.
“No, no you’re not, you’re gonna be fine, geez,” Taiga said with a long-suffering sigh. Mebius gently detached himself from his junior before placing the datapads he’s been carrying onto his desk.
“Alright, tell me what happened.”
After a short few minutes of recounting his encounter with Graim and the graduates for the second time in as many hours, Zero seemed both exhausted and beside himself.
“I mean, have I given them some horrible disease or something? And what was with those memories? And why could I feel their thoughts and emotions afterwards? It was almost as if I had fused with them, which, y’know, I hadn’t!”
“Ok, ok, calm down for a second.” Mebius soothed, “Did you not know that Ultra blood could do that?”
“I’m sorry, what?!”
Mebius nodded. “Something kind of similar happened in my final encounter with Mecha-Zamu. He managed to get me pretty bad whilst he was… possessed? I suppose? Anyways, it was bad enough that a lot of my light leaked out, and some of it entered into Mecha-Zamu’s scar on his head, bringing him back somewhat…” he trailed off, face darkening.
“Hey, uh, Mebius, I didn’t mean to bring up old wounds- uh, no pun intended! I just-”
“It’s ok, Zero!” Mebius said, flashing him a sad smile, “Bittersweet memories are par for the course in being alive. I’m alright, I promise.”
“Right, ok. Good.” Zero said, leaning back into the sofa, before straightening back up again, “So are they gonna be fine? Like, no lingering health problems, no weird headaches or anything? ‘Cause I can still feel a faint connection with them, but I don’t know whether they can as well, y’know?”
“They’ll be fine. Probably.” Mebius said with a shrug, “Like I said, it only really happened to me once, and the recipient wasn’t exactly human, but I’d be surprised if it did end up harming them. They’ll be fine. If anything, reliving those memories might help them to keep going despite what is probably a major setback, if their device really was ruined,” he mused.
Zero sighed in relief, now fully leaning back into the sofa. Good. His blood didn’t possess weird human-harming properties. One less thing about himself that he had to keep tabs on.
“Ok, now that we’ve confirmed that no humans were harmed in the killing of that kaiju, can you please go and see Grandma now?” Taiga said, “Graim literally pierced your colour timer! I don’t care if you used the Aegis to fix it, you still gotta let somebody take a look at it, at least!”
“Geez, leave me alone, Taiga,” Zero said, brushing him off, “I’ll do it later when I’ve got some time, alright?”
Taiga huffed in response. “Alright, but you better! Seriously, some role model you are.”
“Oi, what was that?”
“I said what I said! You’re probably one of the only people I know who actively avoids getting injuries checked over.”
“That- That’s not true!” Zero spluttered. “Plenty of others do!”
“Oh yeah? Like who?”
“Well, uh… Orb probably wouldn’t! And… maybe Victory as well… Oh! And the new guy, what was his name again…”
“What do you mean by ‘the new guy’? There’s like, three or four of them!” Taiga retorted.
Mebius suppressed a chuckle as he watched the two cousins fight. He started walking over to his desk when he stopped, sensing that someone was trying to contact him.
Zero noticed him pause. “What’s up? Someone trying to call?”
“Oh, hey Hikari!” Mebius said. Panic overtook Zero’s face.
“Ohhhh no no no no no, please no…”
“Hm, what’s wrong?” Taiga asked. Zero turned to him in a panic.
“Hikari’s been trying to find me. He wants to ask me some questions about what happened, undergo some ‘tests’, you know how it is,” he said with a groan. He turned to Mebius with a serious expression, “Mebius, please, don’t tell him I’m here, I’m begging you."
“What’s that, you’re outside?” Mebius said, seemingly ignoring him. Panic overtook the cousins as Mebius began walking to his office door.
“Uh, uh, hey, wait, the window to the office next door seems to open,” Taiga whispered, moving Zero’s cape aside as it hung on the coat hanger to peer through the window, “Maybe you could-”
Too late. Mebius was already opening the door.
“Is Zero here?” Hikari asked upon the door being opened, not even looking up from his datapad.
“Uh, y’know what?” Zero crashed through the window behind Mebius, “He just left.”
Hikari looked up in mild surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah…” Mebius said, sheepishly tilting his head to block the view of Zero reaching back through the broken window to grab his cape, “Sorry.”
Hikari seemed even more surprised, though only vaguely noticing the hurried footsteps and swoosh of fabric getting further away from him down the office corridor.
Taiga looked around at the mess his cousin had left, with only one thought in his mind.
Wait, they’ve both seen that movie?! Since when?!