Ultraman Liege Episode 11 (2025)

Prologue[]

Bulldozers and metal pipes, heavy machinery and the material they were built to carry across the blank zone of outlines for future buildings yet to be made all covered the vast distances layered in dull brown dirt. This vacant construction site abandoned for the day sprung to life once again in the early afternoon while the sun hung high and radiant upon it. Little critters bounced and scattered between it, blips in the map that had it not been for their laughter and the recklessness of their footsteps would be undetectable.

In this maze of machinery and raw materials they hid and poked their heads out to take a peek towards one another’s hideout, pretending the metal bars stacked and fastened together with rope so as to not collapse were great forts or the forklifts and road rollers a strong cavalry and mighty dragons at their beck and call.

One of the young masters of these make-believe kingdoms was a boy whose sweater was already caked in a layer of dust, donning the mask of a smiling blue creature with protruding silver fangs. He prowled and crawled on all fours, checking around corners with a turn of his head to inspect for potential adversaries. Like a watcher of golden palaces held firmly in the greed of his palm, this beast would spare no trespassers and extend no mercy on any who stepped into its property.

“Shuwatch!”

But some rulers were mightier than others and had a lot more to gain, or rather everything to lose.

A second one slightly shorter than the first with a black and white striped shirt leapt from behind, startling his to-be opponent. His mask was a cheap silver that hardly sparkled in the sun, but with piercing green eyes and a red lower lip. Earning the attention of the first, the master of the kingdom he intruded upon, his grunt was a declaration of war.

The blue-masked beast rose and leapt upon him, their hands meeting as they wrestled back and forth for supremacy, throwing up clouds of dust from the floor they threw each other across. Finding himself overpowered by its raw brawn, the shorter silver-faced ruler reached for something he had hidden behind the wheel of a vehicle: a small and plastic mimicry of an automatic rifle. Getting into a squat position he made a rapid “Powpowpowpowpow!” sound, prompting his opponent to throttle and thrash around before he collapsed motionless on his back.

The day saved, the silver-masked hero approached his fallen enemy and stomped down on his chest, placing hands on his waist as he looked to the heavens with great pride in his victory. Yet when his attention was directed to the sky, he was suddenly knocked down to the ground below when his fiendish foe wrapped his hands around his leg, tickling him and pulling until he too collapsed before they resumed their wrestling.

For all the weight this battle had in their hearts, the two could do nothing but laugh all across it, whether they ate dirt or sought victory, it was all the same for them.

Until a true threat arrived.

Leaping out from a large metal bar was a cruel witch from a far off land that had come uninvited: wearing a pink dress and the mask of a human woman with long blonde twin tails. She stuck forth water pistols and assailed them both without mercy, prompting them to put their differences aside and rise up together.

Only it wasn’t to fight this time.

“Woah woah woah time out!” said the larger, blue masked boy as he subsequently revealed his pudgy face. “What are you doing here?” he uttered like it was some grave accusation.

The girl immediately conceded to the forfeit and removed her mask as well, revealing herself pouting. “What’s wrong? What’s the problem with me being here?”

Dusting himself off, the other boy promptly removed his mask as well and said “We’re playing monsters okay? Not magical girls, go play with my sister or something Tsumugi!”

Crossing her arms, this girl -Tsumugi- appeared rather upset at the boy’s comment. “The other girls don’t like it when I bring water guns, they say they have no place in a tea party and ‘Barbie doesn’t open carry’, which is totally not true if you’ve watched the movies by the way!”

“Well-” the chubby boy scoffed “Guns have no place in monster fights either! They never deal any damage that actually matters!”

Looking a little past them to the dropped rifle the shorter boy had brought, Tsumugi pointed at it and went “Then what’s that over there?”

“That’s how I fire my Specium Ray!” its owner ranted like he’d explained it a million times already.

Relenting, the chubbier boy turned to him and said “Forget it, a girl wouldn’t know the first thing about monsters…”

Gritting her teeth, Tsumugi approached them both while saying “I know that Red King’s weak spot is right around- here!” before promptly stomping on their feet, one after the other, getting both boys to jump back and howl in pain while clutching their shoes.

The girl watched them as she stepped back with a smug smile, even crossing her arms.

“That may be true…” murmured the shorter boy begrudgingly, “But you’re still not invited!”

“Why not?! Is it because I’m a girl?”

Recovering, the two boys looked at each other before turning to her in the most stone faced of expressions. “Yes” they said in unison.

“Wooooow okaaaaay.” Tsumugi groaned at their utter lack of shame. For that alone she didn’t even want to play any more so she went to walk the other way, before abruptly stopping. There was something she could do to teach these boys a lesson, to show them that a girl could be above even them when it came to monster enthusiasm. All she had to do was take a risk.

Turning back, she said “Do you know any other girls that know as much about monsters as me?”

“You probably only care about the pansy ones like Pigmon or Baby Zandrias…” grumbled the shorter boy.

“Nuh uh! I like the scary ones as well! In fact I am good friends with a monster!”

Silence reigned over their make-believe kingdoms for a moment, the boys looking at her with dumbfounded expressions and glassy eyes that filled Tsumugi with a sense of pride at how badly she’d shocked them. That was until they both suddenly broke into laughter.

“Bwaaahahahahaha! Yeah right! Next thing you’re going to say is that an alien took you for a ride in their spaceship!”

Now more infuriated than ever before, Tsumugi ran at them and snatched the masks right off their hands before running off.

“Hey!” one of them exclaimed before she turned mid-run to look back at them and flaunt their stolen masks.

“Come and get them!”

Answering her demands, the two ran off after her in a sprint, stirring up clouds of dust as they left the construction site behind.

The stamina of youth was admirable, the three ran out of the city and into the woods, down a steep valley where they had to dodge twigs and branches as they descended down uneven terrain into a more mountainous region. Both boys had long considered leaving her be and returning back home to get new masks, but it was the nerve of childhood that kept them at it. And in the end that ended up being the right call, as in the midst of their pursuit they heard the girl stumble and fall on her face with a yelp, causing them to freeze up in worry.

“Tsumugi?” asked the chubbier boy. She was annoying, but he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.

Moving slower down the leafy hillside, the two made sure to watch their step as they tried to hunt down where amidst the foliage the girl was, before she suddenly sprang up and scared them, a hand extended to a particular direction. “There it is! Follow me!”

It was no longer a pursuit. That reckless girl with twigs and leaves on her hair going through the forest like a wild animal had lured them somewhere for a very specific purpose. Now more curious than anything else, the boys followed her to a flatter area, past a creek and eventually to the mouth of a cave partly concealed by vines from its top half pouring down and partly from the trees set around its base.

Lots of crushed wood seemed to litter the floor, making them watch their step as they got closer. On further examination, the cave opening must have been at least thirty meters in height, only made to look smaller from the vines flowing from the plain that was directly above the mountainside it was set in.

With a cautious step they approached before Tsumugi stuck her hand back, silently ordering them to stop. She then made a few long strides closer, put her hands around her mouth in the shape of a cone and shouted “GOMORA! IT’S ME!”

Silence resumed, the deafening void of sound that made every moment last an eon. Tsumugi had dragged them both here to show them something impressive, in different circumstances they’d have just thought she was trying to trick or lie to them, but this was too far a distance and the terrain all too treacherous for it to have been anything but the truth.

Indeed, when yellow eyes with small, black and beady pupils appeared amidst the darkness, scanning around until they arched to the direction of the girl that was tiny compared to them, the truth was revealed.

“Th-that’s-!” the skinny boy gasped, nearly slipping backwards. Tsumugi suddenly ran into the darkness herself, prompting him to instead man up and try to go after her. “Don’t go in there! It’s dangerous!” he shouted, but didn’t make it very far before his physically larger and stronger friend held him back.

“Don’t follow her you idiot! Do you have a death wish?!” the chubbier boy cried out directly to his face, throttling him by the collar of his shirt while the veins in his eyes lit up with a bright red colour, primal terror usurping any other desire but to merely flee. “She’s already as good as dead in there so let’s get out of here before we become dessert for that monster!”

“What are you two yammering about? Gomoras don’t eat human meat.”

Turning their heads sideways, they witnessed Tsumugi once more, though this time sitting down on some large brown object poking out of the cave and holding her only a little above their level as if it was some magic carpet.

“Tsu-Tsumugi?! What are you doing that’s danger-”

Before he could finish his sentence, the protrusion tossed her a little over a meter into the air where she stuck her arms out before landing back down on it, the process repeating as if the girl was on a trampoline. She played around like that for a moment before it stopped moving and she instead climbed further up its length, subsequently sliding down with a “Weeeee!”

“-ous…”

“Gomora lets me play with its tail! I can use it like a swing or monkey bars or it can toss me up and down… at least until I get seasick.”

A little roar as well as the puff of a breath escaped from the part of the cave where eyes were visible, something akin to a chuckle.

“So you were right… you really are friends with a monster…” the flabbergasted shorter boy conceded, now seeing the truth with his own eyes. Now more excited than scared, he ran up to try and get on Gomora’s tail before Tsumugi stopped him.

“Wait! Gomora only recognises me so it won’t let you play!”

“What?!” the boy shouted, riling up some birds that took off. His knees buckled under the weight of disappointment as he fell on them, earning a pat on the shoulder from his taller friend.

“Can you introduce us to Gomora then?” the chubbier boy asked.

“Hmm, I can try but-”

“But what? We’re friends here aren’t we?”

“Oh, so now I’m your friend?”

The two boys went silent, doing nothing but staring at her and each other with blank expressions. Yeah, that was kind of opportunistic of them, but what a great opportunity it was!

Now both falling on their knees they groveled and begged “Pretty pleeeeeeease?”

Tsumugi in return though only crossed her arms. “I’ll try but this isn’t up to me. If Gomora likes you then it will let you play, I can’t force it to. Maybe if you come with me to play a few times it will get used to you.”

She left the possibility open, but couldn’t make any promises.

“Oh, but one thing: do not and I mean DO NOT come here yourselves! The only reason Gomora is docile is because I’m also here.”

As if to affirm, the monster let out a light growl before the girl hopped off its tail which then receded into the shadow. Putting on her best smile, Tsumugi waved at it and went “Bye bye Gomora!” before it snarled once more and stomped its way deeper into its cave, leaving the boys with disappointment in place of their initial excitement.

Once she turned back to them the girl said “I’m saying it out of concern for you. Please don’t come here on your own.”

“Okay…” the two agreed at the end and with slumped shoulders tailed her back to the route they had used to come here, even receiving their stolen masks.

Half way back home the shorter boy seemed to already have recovered and made peace with his disappointment, though his friend had evidently not.

“It’s not fair… I bet she just wants Gomora all to herself…” he grumbled only after noticing she was a far enough distance away that she couldn’t hear him.

Pushing a branch out of the way, the shorter boy went “Well… what if she’s right though? I wouldn’t want to risk it…”

“No way. I bet she’s angry at us for not letting her play monsters.” the chubbier boy said, cracking his knuckles. “There’s only one way to teach that greed of hers a lesson.”

Thinking to himself, his friend went “We invite her to play more often?”

Caught by the collar, he was pulled in to make sure none of their whispers could be overheard. “If we can’t have Gomora… neither can she.”

Chapter 1[]

The average person -if presented with a three-layered ice cream of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate flavours with a further chocolate encrusted cone, multiple churros implanted into it, actual strawberries, cookies that collectively made a crude panda face and a big waffle stuck on its side- would probably dig in before it starts melting.

Too bad Tenko wasn’t the average person.

Instead, as soon as she bought it fresh off the store she simply waltzed around town staring at it with one hand on her cheek, mumbling to herself “Sho kyute…”

She couldn’t bear to eat it, fearing ruining this confectionary masterpiece in her hold. She could stare at it for hours and eat it in her mind again and again without so much as taking a single bite in reality, that’s how mesmerising it was to her.

But alas, as she cruised down the morning city’s streets it wasn’t the only cute thing around. Like magnets drawn to the highest concentration of cuteness in their proximity, Tenko’s gaze immediately darted to a straw cat rolling around next to a dumpster only a couple meters in front of her, playing with its tail. Almost forgetting about her ice cream she wanted to squeal and go play with the cat as well- but something prevented her.

Walking just a little ahead of her and heading the same direction she was there was an old man with a blocky body type and an evident hunch, keeping hands in his coat’s pockets whenever he wasn’t busy adjusting his hat on a very obviously bald head. A real geezer if you will, probably so old that he made that lamp back in the base look young in comparison. As he walked past the cat, he looked at it and without prompt stomped right on its tail, earning a yelp before it jumped and scurried to safety while he continued on his merry way.

This sent a shock through Tenko’s whole body, making her freeze up on the spot. Her eyes unblinking, her mind stuck on that moment, replaying it in her head to make sure it was reality and not some figment of a hyperactive imagination.

No, it was real. The second hand pain as if she had a tail of her own might not have been, but the cat’s pain absolutely was.

Such ferocity, such recklessness. The reverberating noise of his sole slamming into the sidewalk became etched in the deepest recesses of her ears like it had echoed out loud and bounced across some nonexistent walls.

How could someone do such a thing to a poor animal? What prompts a person to hurt something for no reason at all?

As her brows furrowed, she became determined to find out.

Tenko’s steps became like stomps as she marched to that old fart’s direction at double her original pace, but before she could get to him something surprising happened: a man’s head popped out of a nearby dumpster, a familiar man’s to boot.

“Hey dumbo!” exclaimed the brown haired young man whose green eyes were almost as startling as him literally arising from the garbage, getting the elder to flinch back. “Who do you think you are hurting one of this planet’s precious little thingies?”

“Who are you?!?”

“That is not relevant pops! Now answer my question!”

Grunting and gritting his teeth, the baggy eyes of that old man fixed themselves on Aki. “I’ll do what I want with these pests roaming the streets! If I can step on a cockroach then nothing’s stopping me from stepping on some disease-ridden runt squirming on the streets like an idiot!”

“And who are you to make that call when it’s not bothering anyone?”

“It’s bothering me by existing!” the old man grumbled, shoving Aki back when he fell out of his dumpster.

Quickly he arose to full height, eyeing down the elder like they were about to get into a boxing match.

“What’s wrong sonny? Going to hit an old man?” the elder snickered, taking advantage of his old age to make himself out to be the victim while not relenting from giving Aki a shove or two.

Tenko grit her teeth. That old jerk was fighting an unfair battle and he knew it. Part of her wanted to throw away any decency and give him a sucker punch, however she then noticed how calm Aki was acting when he could have long retaliated.

“I don’t know, going to hit a BOIS-Strike member?” he suddenly said, lifting up his BOIS ID to show off with a smirk on his face.

Immediately the old man’s jaw dropped as his eyes seemed to sink into his skull, his whole body appearing to become smaller as if he no longer was making any attempt to appear imposing in any sort of way, but rather retreat.

Attempting to wear an awkward smile, the old man tipped his hat and began to slowly walk away while going “Oh- oh my I- th-thank you for your service young man! I’ll be off!”, vanishing from sight in mere seconds.

With a proud look on his face and hands on his hips, the green eyed young man congratulated himself and went to pet the kitty, only for it to hiss at him and run off.

“Sheesh, talk about a tough crowd…” he grumbled and rolled his eyes, expecting to go back to his ‘home’ before they met something they didn’t expect to see: those of his maroon-haired coworker with her signature pigtails. “Oh, Tenko?”

Realizing she’d been spotted and with quite the stern look on her face, his fellow BOIS-Strike member shook her head and resumed a lively expression, walking up to him now that her daze was through. “Mornin’ Aki!”

“Morning to you too!” he replied and waved at her, watching her bounce his way like a rabbit before laying a hand on his uniform to dust him off. “Oh, thank you, I didn’t notice that.”

“Uuu uuu, no problem.” she said before looking at her ice cream once more and making the difficult decision to finally start eating it. Don’t want a coworker getting jelly now, do we?

That’s when she noticed the same cat was creeping up on them once more and laid eyes on it. Squatting, she made a certain noise while gesturing peculiarly with her free hand -noting to remind herself to clean it before touching her ice cream again- which ultimately convinced the cat she was safe, moving her way to receive a gentle petting on the back of her head, comfort for the hurt previously dealt.

Aki could only raise an eyebrow, slightly disgruntled that the same cat that rejected him had wholeheartedly embraced Tenko. One day he’d learn to tame this planet’s animals.

“So what are you doing out here this early?” Aki asked, pointing at the sunrise past the surrounding skyscrapers.

“Just out for a morning snack before work.”

“Morning… snack…?” he asked, scanning that icy cold tower in her grip, wondering just how much of an appetite Tenko must have had to consider that a ‘snack’.

“Mhmm! It’s delish!”

So ‘Delish’ is how the humans called this thing, he noted that for future observation.

Suddenly as he was lost in his thoughts he realized the cat had lied on its side, accepting Tenko’s painted nails tickling and lightly scratching at its stomach.

“There, she should be more approachable now, you can pet her as well.”

It took him a moment, but Aki only then realized Tenko had eased tension with the cat for his sake, sort of like making an opening in a team battle to let him attack when the opponent was busy.

Now curious to see what would happen, he squatted down and began to scratch the cat’s belly as well. He was a lot rougher and more reckless than her, but not quite enough to really scare the animal away, more just make it frown in disappointment at this brute.

“Hehey! Look at that! I think it likes me!”

Tenko giggled and after a few seconds left him on his own, taking off the aiding crutch that was her own hand which she kept tucked in her pocket to clean up when the opportunity would arise. It took him a moment but he got used to it and so did the cat get used to him, Tenko reading in its face that in spite of Aki’s mannerisms the critter found him endearing.

“I saw you confronting that jerk earlier.”

“Yeah, that guy was a total prick to this poor thing.” Aki complained. Sometimes it felt like humans really didn’t know how to behave when around the very creatures they shared a planet with, no wonder aliens had left long ago. Maybe these critters were a little smelly and weird as well, the way they hung around populated areas where he couldn’t possibly imagine where they’d get any food instead of running in the open. It was a sad little creature that needed his help to stand up for itself, but yet again what life form in this world didn’t? He could go on and on about all the little weird, paradoxical and eccentric things the inhabitants of this world did that caught his attention and he was sure Tenko probably wouldn’t catch on- but something she said made him rethink.

“You look like you really care for animals, I like that in a guy.” Tenko said as she bore her canines with a shut-eyed smile.

Bringing all his thoughts to a sudden halt, Aki suddenly stared back at her with a dumbfounded expression, scouring for the right words to use. In the end however he merely let out an awkward but boisterous laughter. “Ahahahahaha! I- well, you could say that.” he boasted, not realizing that when he’d taken his eyes off the cat he’d strayed a little too far in the wrong direction and got his finger locked in its jaws.

Giggling, Tenko was suddenly alarmed and took a look at her wristwatch doubling as a communicator, realizing her time was running short. “Oh shoot, I’m going to be late for work!”

“Don’t you mean we?” the brown haired young man replied, shaking the cat to get it off while still looking at Tenko.

“Mmm.” his coworker nodded before looking at her ice cream. “I’m going to have trouble eating the rest of this in so little time. I don’t want to throw it out but I don’t want to get brain freeze either, mmmmmm.”

This truly seemed like a trivial issue, but to her it might as well have been the most important matter in the world. His tooth-mark ridden finger freed, Aki got up and said “I can help you if you want.”

“Would you? Would you?” Tenko eagerly replied, hoping that she could at least share it so it wouldn’t go to waste.

Nodding, Aki tried to grab a scoop with his bare hands before Tenko suddenly reeled it back like some prized possession. “Hands off! They might have germs on them!”

Looking down at his palms, a cursory scan revealed she probably was right, but that begged another question. “Then how do I eat it?”

His coworker answered with actions over words, shoving the whole three-layered ice cream into his face. After she pulled away, it remained coated with a layer of frosting he began to lick off, his eyes lighting up as he got the first taste. “Wow, this ‘Delish’ is really good!”

“You think so? Then let’s get moving!”

With Aki picking up a backpack whose presence amidst the trash Tenko didn’t question, the two of them began to walk down the street looking like clowns straight out of a circus, but for them the walk was enjoyable enough to not even notice the passerby comments, even finding the anxiety of getting to work on time thrilling.

Chapter 2[]

His eyes unblinking, laser focused on nothing but the object on the table as if it were some hidden treasure or a mirage that would vanish from existence if he so much as turned away from it- the captain in this almost immobile statue-esque state finally spoke up once his whole team was assembled in the room with him.

“Ladies and gentlemen-”

“Wouldn’t it be ‘gentlewoman’?” Junichi’s voice cut him off right as the whole crew piled on top of each other and surrounded the table to have a look, curious and narrowed glances darting to the subject of their gathering.

Masayoshi looked at him with eyes bearing no emotion but disbelief, asking “Who says ‘gentlewomen’? Are you stupid or something?” before looking back down. “Ladies and gentlemen, what you are looking at right now is a threat mailed directly to BOIS Japan’s HQ this morning, warning us of an imminent monster attack.

The threat in question revealed itself to be a letter with sloppy handwriting that came from a thick marker, riddled in spelling errors, smidges attempting to cover up some and compress text near the bottom when room began to run out, as well as a drawing of what looked like a brown triangle with a green circle in the middle of it.

Looking up from it, the digital brows of Jet Lynx furrowed as he said “Captain I am sorry to inform you, but I think this is just a prank from some kids.”

“Oh it most definitely came from kids alright.” Rise noted, taking a gulp of her beer.

Kaori put on a slight frown, supposing it was because of the messy handwriting or the skill (or the lack thereof) put into the drawing. Little did they know that if they saw her own handwriting and art they’d be having second thoughts. “H-hey hold on now… some people just write messily okay? Not everyone can be Picasso…”

“Nah, that’s not it.” the monster biologist explained, pulling from the right pocket of her lab coat the empty envelope from which the letter had been extracted. Once she set it down on the table she pointed to a string of words and numbers on it. “We have the address it came from. Like, the exact address. The sender just mailed it normally, only a kid could do something that innocent.”

“Ah, then that settles it!” Aki commented while slamming a fist into his open palm. “Let’s go knock on the door and give ‘em a scare! That ought to teach them for playing tricks on BOIS.”

Junichi was quick to protest, waving his hands to try and catch his attention and with an awkward grin on his face “No no, that will only traumatize them! I’ve worked with kids before, there are better ways to discipline them than with fear.”

While discourse over the letter and its contents was at large, Masayoshi remained seated down comfortably with his hands interlocked, finally breaking it off. “Actually- I think it is worth a shot to test its legitimacy.”

All eyes darted to him at once, startled that he’d take the time out of not just his but all of their days to humour this threat.

“What’s the matter captain? What’s the matter?” a slightly worried Tenko asked.

“You can’t possibly think some kids can actually threaten us with a monster, right?” Rise asked with an askew brow, curious to see his verdict while downing her beer.

“Maybe it’s not so much a threat as… a warning.” Taking his eyes off the paper, he glanced at them all. “What if some kids found a monster but didn’t think we’d take them seriously about it unless they made it look like an emergency?”

“That is plausible…” answered Kaori with a hand on her chin. “But they could still be craving attention, we can’t go running to investigations on a hunch.”

“Perhaps we can’t- however!” Masayoshi abruptly raised his index finger in the air, noting to make a point. “When I was your age my superiors used to tell me cautionary tales of one of our predecessor teams, I believe ‘TAC’ was their name who had a bad habit of neglecting the warnings of children only to find them proven true. Many preventable Terrible-Monster attacks ended up costing them so we’ve since had an unspoken policy to always take heed to what children have to say.”

“That… I can’t argue with that.” conceded Kaori, right as Jet Lynx’s face began to distort as various documents began to open on its monitor.

“A quick scan of the archives proves that Captain Masayoshi is correct. However, to save us the trouble of taking the long way I advise the deployment of remote controlled Arindo Drones.”

“Great call Lynx” congratulated his captain.

“I’ll go fetch the remotes.” the robot member said before walking off the room, giving an empty space for the team to space themselves out a little.

“Uuu, but where do we know where we’re going?” Tenko asked, picking up the letter.

“Yeah, does this thing have any coordinates written in it?” asked Junichi next, trying to take it from her.

A cautious Kaori got in the middle and intervened. “Ah wait you’ll tear it!” she said before snatching it off their hands, beginning to examine it. “Ahem, it says here that the cave they found the monster in is located near Nakaya Peaks.”

“Woah, you can read that?!” asked Junichi, as if Kaori had just revealed that she could decipher some manuscript from a lost dialect dated ages ago.

“The spelling is not that bad…”

Hopping next to her, Tenko began to point at the weird coloured shapes “Then what is this supposed to be? Some type of sandwich?”

“That’s clearly a cave!”

“Whuh?! Kaori, you have sharp eyes for bad art!”

“It doesn’t look that bad!”

All of a sudden, the woman in the black ponytail received a glare from the captain. “I see that you’re also a connoisseur of underappreciated art Ms Tsujimoto… They say the greatest artists are respected by only a few during their lifetime, so I reckon you’re one of the select bunch who can grasp the complex artistic depth of this piece.”

Flinching back in disgust, it was as if a chill ran down her spine, her captain thinking that this way his own childlike doodles could earn some appreciation from her. In reality, Kaori just felt self conscious about her own penmanship which was hardly better than what was on the paper. “DON’T LUMP ME IN WITH YOU!”

In due time, Jet Lynx returned with four remote controllers resembling those of old timey game consoles that he handed to the two pilots and two field agents respectively, leaving himself, the captain and Rise to observe.

“Arindo Drones have arrived at Nakaya Peaks.” he commented as the four of them examined the controls.

“So what are we going to do with these?” asked Aki, swinging his around lightly before biting one of its corners.

“If we’re going to investigate in a cave then it’s only natural we’ll run into tunnels, especially if there is a monster inhabiting it. Using these you can scramble and look through them individually to gather information.” the robot explained.

“So this is like an investigation!” the green eyed young man said before turning to Tenko, going “I bet I’ll find something before you!”

“Oh bet?” she replied, accepting the challenge.

When the four of them aligned in front of a monitor, Rise turned it on into four split screens each broadcasting the same footage of the cave’s mouth.

“Incredible… it looks just like it!” commented Masayoshi, beholding the artistic talent of the letter’s sender in comparison to the real deal.

While none could quite agree with him, their drones still went on their way in search of what might be inside: a ruse or a monster?

As the drones dove in under the four members’ control their vision shifted from a regular camera to a thermal one to observe their surroundings better under the shade. The cave seemed to be maintained at a relatively warm temperature with low humidity, stable living conditions for a monster. It didn’t take long for them to notice that peppered across the swept away dirt were the remnants of monster tracks, though too numerous to quite figure out where they were headed. As such, the four of them were forced to split apart and go into different directions, following the tracks with the most warmth lingering in the present.

Tenko wasn’t quite sure where to look so she kept her camera down for safety, but ultimately through the vastness of jagged rock she spotted something oddly familiar that bore a distinct blue tint to it, emphasizing it had gone cold. A closer inspection showed that it was too angular and flat on different surfaces to be a rock before comparing it from different angles settled it at last.

“Ah! That must be a monster skull!” she commented, turning to an expert in Rise. “Any guess as to what that is?”

Squinting at it with a beer pressed against her lips and a hand on a wall, the monster biologist took a few seconds to examine before saying “Judging by the twin protrusions from its nasal cavity and the angle they are at… must be a Gakuma skull. Beta to be exact.”

“So we’re looking for Gakuma then?”

Rise clicked her tongue twice, “See how it’s detached from any sort of body? If a Gakuma had died on its own here then we’d be seeing the rest of it, so it must be something that hunts Gakuma instead.”

“Then, can you do a search on what sort of monsters prey on Gakuma?”

“I’ll try, shouldn’t take too long.” said the blonde before going over to a terminal, only to be interrupted by the erratic Junichi.

“Ah ah wait! What’s that over there?!” he said, pointing at the screen with such intensity that it obscured others’ view.

Rise stopped herself and got a look at what he was bringing attention to. Lining a wall were strange marks whose orange colour implied had some lingering heat to them.

“Did it coat the wall with blood or something?”

“No, that’s too shallow to be a coat of any sort, if anything it looks more like an indentation to me. I think those are scratch marks instead, lots of monsters will claw at or headbutt walls of caves to sharpen their weapons in time for mating season.”

Stroking his chin, Junichi went “Most interesting…” with a faux-dignified voice, making a mentally note of that.

So they were searching for a monster that preyed on Gakuma and seemed to be approaching mating season, potentially with large horns or claws. Kaori noted that and looked for similar signs, only to find more of the same old walls and floors without anything particularly interesting. As a matter of fact, she started to feel like she was looking at the same walls over and over, constantly repeating. Sure a cave’s innards couldn’t be that diverse, but by that point she felt like it was just one image being replayed on loop. Upon lowering her camera, the answer for why that was became known.

“Oh shoot, I’ve been going in circles.” she said with embarrassment, backing off to better examine the area. What she saw then was that ever since she’d gone down that pathway she kept her drone flying around a stone pillar of sorts.

She began to scan it from bottom to top, only to end up startling something when her camera was pointed near the ceiling. It was too quick and too sudden to judge and the fact she flinched only made it more difficult to get a good image, but what she assumed she’d seen was no monster but a flock of bats taken aback by the sight of her drone. That seemed like an ultimately inconsequential break, until the audio feed did something unexpected: it echoed with a strange metal ring.

The room then went quiet, everybody keeping their hands off their controllers to stop and listen, even Rise ceasing the typing she was doing for Tenko’s earlier request.

Before the sound could come to an end, Jet Lynx took an audio sample and processed it, giving his verdict. “It appears that this is no ordinary pillar, but rather the metals that make up its composition are ideal for oscillation. In other words, it’s like a giant tuning fork.”

“So the monster must have some fondness for sound waves huh?” noted Kaori, keeping that in mind.

Masayoshi observed them all, each seeming to have reached different findings and possibly different conclusions. If they found the monster, then perhaps at least one of them would prove beneficial for luring it out.

Though there was an exception, something he came to find out when he turned to look at the rather upset Aki mumbling to himself as if he was struggling in some sort of competitive game. If he had been playing a game then that look would have been of someone intent on winning, something the captain could only find amusing.

“Gah! Did I get scammed out of a good route or something? I want a redo!” the green eyed young man complained before slamming a fist onto his controller, accidentally turning it from heat vision mode to standard mode, albeit with a flashlight turned on. This unexpected error triggered a chain reaction, prompting hundreds of bats to squeal as they rushed off into the subterranean air. They were making lots of noise but it was distinctly different from that on Kaori’s end of the feed, implying there was no ‘tuning fork’ here.

Yet all this commotion couldn’t have gone unnoticed. Another snarl sounded, but it wasn’t one of many flying critters screaming at once, it was a distinctly singular voice and a quite mad one at that.

The sound of stomps was unmistakable, the reverberating bellow they made as Aki’s screen jerked up and down, the flashlight he’d turned on revealing dust and small pebbles dropping from the ceiling. As soon as his captain ordered him to turn it off to not upset anything however, the host of this earthly residence decided to show itself.

Dark brown ridges lining it from top to bottom, a long and muscular tail swinging back with every step. Upwards curved horns that rang with every step and a nasal protrusion pointed outward like a small dagger. Above that stomach of gravely texture rested a mean scowl with yellow eyes roaring and snarling at the intruder, a shape that blended with the rocks, yet whose motion against the white light of Aki’s drone made it evidently distinct. That was-

“Gomora!” yelled out Tenko in excitement, pointing at the monster with joy.

Rise decided to pause her search, determining that they’d already found the monster they were looking for without her reaching any conclusions on the database scouting front. “Well, that settles it for me.” she said and crossed her arms, leaning against a wall to observe.

From down in the dumps to soaring sky high, Aki leapt up and pumped a fist into the air, throwing out a “Yahoo!” before looking at Tenko. “Look at that! I found the monster so I win!”

“Uuuuwwww…!!! Meanie!” the pigtailed girl replied with a pout.

With no time to spend on losers, Aki looked back at his captain like a kid showing their parent something cool they found with an outstretched hand. “Captain look! I found the mons-”

A crashing sound interrupted him. All those who remained staring at the video feed saw Gomora’s claw sweep in and fell the drone in one blow, knocking it to the ground where its image throttled relentlessly in blurs before fading to static. Aki stood still and shut his mouth, cold sweat running down his forehead.

After taking a moment to process the sight, Masayoshi interlocked fingers behind his desk. “We’re cutting that out of your salary.”

Tapping her mute coworker on the shoulder, Kaori leaned in and whispered “You seriously need to move into the dorms already…”

“I- I still found the monster…”

“You sure did, good job on that.” replied his captain before getting back up. “The rest of you, retrieve your drones and Lynx will put them on autopilot to return to base. Gomora is a fickle monster, you never know if they’re going to mind their own business or wreak havoc so we need to remove it from the mainland. Once we capture it we’ll airlift it to the monster sanctuary on Lagos Island.”

Fastening his headband around his forehead, Junichi said “So what’s the plan cap? How do we lure it out?”

Putting on the ever faintest smile and his hands behind his back, Masayoshi replied “We won’t be following a traditional plan. Given how unpredictable a Gomora can be, I want each one of you to devise a scheme of your own to capture it and we’ll attempt them in order before resorting to more traditional means.”

Having given his verdict, the captain neared the door and finished off his commands with “I’ll give you a few hours to prepare and then we’re off.” before exiting by the sliding door.

It took them a moment, but upon realizing their task the four agents turned to excited mumbling about what they’d do. Even Rise cracked a smile. “Looks like I’ll have a lot more work to do.”

“So will I.” noted Jet Lynx.

In midst of their brainstorming, Aki turned to Tenko and drew her attention, bringing her to a corner where he entertained her with whispers. Kaori kept an eye on them, unsure of what they could be talking about but finding Tenko rather thrilled by it, whispering back what could be her own ideas. In a way it was heartwarming, in another the kind of team those two could make was a very worrying thought.

Snapping her out of those contemplations was Junichi who commented on the matter. “Those two have been a lot chummier since this morning, haven’t they?”

“Well, I’m just glad to have Aki off my back for once.” commented his coworker while doing some stretches as if to physically get rid of the pain of having to carry him.

“That is true, he flocks to you all the time. Guess he got used to looking for you since you introduced him to the job and all, so now that he’s getting more comfortable he’s branching out.”

“I hope so-” Kaori replied before her face lit up, remembering something amusing. “Earlier today he told me she had him try ice cream for the first time in his life, now isn’t that an image?”

“Eh? Aki’s never had ice cream before?” questioned a rather surprised Junichi.

Her eyes widening, Kaori realized she’d made a blunder and almost blown his cover. “He had a sheltered upbringing…” was the best excuse she could spit out as fast as she could.

“Ah, that’s rough…” the pilot went before leaving her side, going to prepare for his plan.

That was close, it would have been bad if she was the reason he got exposed. Even so, it was a natural blunder to make. She’d gotten so used to Aki that she didn’t even process his oddities as all that odd any more, as if she forgot he was an alien.

That was good. That was something to smile about. Aki was making more human friends, seeing more of humanity up close besides just her, so in that way he was also becoming more human. Less entitled, less like Izac.

Chapter 3[]

Birds chirped humbly as they splashed around in small ponds, bathed to cool themselves off the sun’s rays as Spring advanced and Summer was drawing nearer and nearer every day. They never had to worry about their home being trodden by outsiders and they were good at avoiding predators so they could afford such moments of leisure, though just this once to avoid the wheels of a jeep they had to flock away in the blink of an eye, clearing the scene for the new arrival.

Pushing her door open was Kaori armed in a military vest and binoculars around her neck. She shut it behind her, took a few steps forward and looked down the steep hillside maybe some forty to fifty meters in height, leading to a long forest-filled plane below. On her level was another less lush plain that made a U-shape around the side of the mountain, her standing on the flat top of one end and staring down at the other, there where the entrance to that cave was.

Right above it, stuck on the rocks above its mouth and on the flat surface on top were various explosives of moderate strength, enough to give the place a shake without disturbing the local wildlife too much. Taking cover behind her vehicle, ducking and bringing a detonator to eye level with one hand while she raised her wrist communicator with the other, the BOIS-Strike member simply needed to say one phrase: “Gomora Capture Operation 01, initiate!”

And thus it began.

With a press of the detonator the explosives went off, leveling the trees on the top which scattered around in stray branches, birds fleeing just in time to dodge them. The explosives around the cave caused a small landslide, making the vines that hang near them drop like ropes on the floor when the earth above and below them shook. By blowing up part of the entrance as well as the ceiling of the cave Kaori counted on causing enough commotion to lure the monster out- and lure it she did.

Even before it showed its face to the world its stomping steps and roars could be heard echoing from deep within, causing even more of a tremor than the explosives themselves. At last Gomora revealed itself out to the world, caked in a layer of grey ash that concealed its naturally brown colour when it flailed and swung its claws around in a circular motion along with its head, aiming them to the sky in one synchronized movement.

Peeking from the back of her jeep to get a good look, she wasted no time to reach inside and pulled out a familiar controller, one for the Arindo Drones.

Launching from the trunk of her vehicle, it lowered itself to Gomora’s altitude and caught its attention, first luring the monster further from her into the forest as her plan began. With a press of a button a sound wave was emitted from the drone, prompting it to flinch back and duck, covering not its ears but its horns. Under Kaori’s commands the drone began to move in a circle, emitting the annoying metallic ring from all directions to make this hulking colossus cower and shrink.

To that Kaori couldn’t help herself but smirk. If her reading on that monster’s sensory organs had taught her anything it was that Gomoras communicate not with their voices but through oscillations of their horns. The waves they produced when in contact with solid objects could send interior ripples that shattered them from the inside out, which is how they burrowed underground. So, by playing an inversion of their typical sound waves’ reaction to a tuning fork, she could produce a distinct metallic screech that would make them dizzy, courtesy of Lynx’s technology of course.

“I’ve got this right in the bag! Sorry everyone but it looks like we won’t be needing any of your plans~” Kaori boasted, impressed by her own plan’s efficiency in instilling fear to a giant monster.

What she did not account for however was that Gomora would suddenly spring to life and strike both of its horns at once, releasing a sound wave of its own in the form of an outwards ripple that distorted the air. As it passed through the drone it stunned it just long enough for a swipe of its claws to knock it off the air, getting rid of this pest that might as well have been a mosquito buzzing in its ear.

At that sight, Kaori stood motionless and unresponsive, preferring to say nothing and save what little reputation she had left instead of embarrassing herself further.

Overshadowing her both literally and figuratively, one of the sleek black stealth bomber-esque jets sped above the field agent and onto the direction of the thrashing and very upset monster. To be more exact: it was the Ichigo.

“Gomora Capture Operation 02, here we go baby!”

Inside the cockpit Junichi giggled to himself, excited to see what fruit this would yield. His plan was fundamentally similar to Kaori’s, he’d deploy a particular sound wave to get Gomora’s attention- just a different kind. The sound the Ichigo made appeared like a long wailing noise, something like a whale’s cry resonating from the bottom of the ocean or a muffled and deep elephant.

Upon perceiving it Gomora remained static for a moment, its attention most definitely caught which excited Junichi a great deal. The next step would be to fly off and lure the monster with him, yet as soon as he turned his back on it the jet’s sensors went off with a warning message, urging him to make a forceful right pull on his controls and skew sideways to dodge a flying boulder.

“What the-?!” were his only words in reaction, turning back to witness Gomora’s eyes fiercer than ever, angled with raw wrath as it jumped up and down, stirring up clouds of dust and splashes of mud which the local wildlife fled from. It dug its claws into the mountainside and yanked out boulders to toss his way, wishing nothing but death upon the origin of that abhorrent noise.

Already panicking, the pilot didn’t notice an incoming call until a few seconds in, finally picking up to meet Rise’s raging voice.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”

“I- I- I’ll explain! You told me that the reason it must be sharpening its horns against the walls is because mating season is coming up a-and I figured I should play some recordings of a female Gomora to lure the guy in!” Junichi uttered with slurring words, trying to balance communicating with evading the onslaught thrown his way.

“And it didn’t dawn on you for one second that Gomora might be a female- and thereby playing the noises of other females would upset her?!”

That was a good point, one that made Junichi sit still in silence.

“Oh, right. So what do I do now?”

“TURN THE NOISE OFF!”

Slamming down on the controls repeatedly without even looking at them, the Ichigo’s speakers stopped broadcasting those noises, only to shift to something else entirely.

“I. HATE. EEEVERYTHING AAABOUT YOU. WHY. DO IIIIII LOOOVE YOU?!”

“Nononononono not that!” he mumbled to himself as he flew off as fast as possible, at the very least getting away from any sort of civilisation while that song played.

When the noises of a potential homewrecker disappeared off her sight, the Gomora was allowed to relax at last, puffing out of her nostrils to regulate her breathing. She’d had enough of these disturbances, if that was the last of them she’d gladly return to her cave, patch it up for stability, get some rest and relax, maybe if possible get a nice meal.

Meal?

Meal…

Something smelled like a meal.

Sniffling the air and raising her head, the monster picked up a familiar warm aroma. It was unmistakable that this smelled like a meal, a plump and meaty meal with juices she could almost taste packed into its tender flesh. Her eyes shot downwards to search for it, noticing on the ground a jeep with a large cargo attached to its back: a slab of metal on wheels carrying a light brown piece of flesh with an almost orange tint to it and square scales. Of course she didn’t know what any of that was, only that it smelled like some good food.

So, with quite the appetite stirred by these annoyances, Gomora gave chase.

Aki peeked out from the driver’s seat, getting a good look at the monster until it caught wind of him and rushed after his vehicle. Pressing a foot on the gas he wasted no time to proceed with the mission- “Gomora Capture Operation 03, I’ve got this in the BAG!”

Though the terrain was far from ideal to drive such a vehicle through, the forest was flat enough that so long as he avoided running head first into any trees he should be fine. Probably.

He tumbled about and jumped on the more uneven parts, occasionally peering behind to check of Gomora was catching up or if the chunk of flesh had fallen and when he confirmed otherwise he continued to speed ahead no matter how much mud, twigs and bugs splattered against his face.

Kaori who watched from a distance as he vanished into the woods put her hands on her hips and mumbled “When did he learn how to drive?”, hoping in her heart of hearts that the answer wouldn’t have been ‘never’.

“When did he learn how to drive?” asked Masayoshi from his desk to Jet Lynx, who simply shrugged. “No seriously, his ID says he doesn’t have a driving license.”

“Ahaha…” Rise awkwardly laughed, evading eye contact while scratching the back of her blonde hair profusely. “I may or may not have given him a ten minute driving lesson one time when I was a liiiittle hammered…”

Its little wheels rolling their way to her, the small blocky robot of gold approached its master, making a “Fwo-whoom” sound amidst mechanical beeps.

“Don’t look at me like that! You’re the reason I have alcohol readily accessible at all times!” she scorned her own invention with a finger pointed its way, only to receive a “Fwo-whoom?” in return.

Shaking his head to forget what just happened, the captain turned to his other robotic subordinate. “I see the idea with all of their plans so far but… all they really do is drive Gomora further out in the forest. That’s not going to lead it to Lagos Island any time soon, we still have to transfer it somehow.”

“I have a feeling that there’s more than meets the eye with Aki’s plan sir.” replied Jet Lynx, equally focused on seeing it through to the end.

Though it was branded as one of humanity’s modern inventions meant to help them catch up or even outdo nature in its own territory, something told Aki that while a jeep could handle rough terrain it was better fit to escape pursuit from a cheetah or a lion and not a sixty meter tall titan who closed the distance with every single step it took.

He could only keep Gomora at bay for so long before the quakes of its steps stirred up dust that scattered against the back of his neck, giving him an uncomfortable tingle. Still, he held out because he knew Gomora wouldn’t be on his tail for long.

Between the treeline, climbing up a branch with a helmet sporting many twigs duct taped on it was Tenko prowling like a leopard stalking her prey. Once the two of them crossed a certain checkpoint she lifted a hand into the air -one carrying a flare gun- and fired straight up.

Light, sound, a sudden boom and sparks of red caught the attention of the giant monster who stopped dead in its tracks to arch its neck sideways and observe. It was indeed a peculiar show that might have otherwise caught her attention, but it would by no means take priority over a good meal. She couldn’t let it get away after all- or maybe she wouldn’t have to fear that ever happening. When Gomora turned again she found the vehicle stopped, abandoning its course to let her have the chunk of meat that had been dangled like a carrot on a stick for so long.

Rubbing her hands together, the giant monster leaned forward and wagged her tail while taking a fresh bite right out of it, chewing up with great haste and vigor. Before long the giant monster had gobbled up all it was offered and got up to full height, roaring out as a testament to her approval of such a meal before stepping away slowly, back to the direction of her cave.

One step, firm and convicted, ready to go.

Second step, slower, somewhat numb and weak around the sole.

Third step, sluggish, unsteady as if she couldn’t find her footing and even then just barely standing up.

Fourth step and a thud, Gomora collapsed right on her face in a climactic cloud of dust, lying still and unconscious.

Out of the woods emerged four different parties all running up to the muddy tracks left by the monster, watching its dazed and sleepy eyes as drool pooled from its mouth along with a repeating snore.

Aki, Tenko and Junichi after he had landed his jet all regrouped in front of the monster to get a closer look before Kaori drove down to their level with her jeep, finding the first two with big cheeky smiles doing little to hide their excitement.

“So what exactly happened here?” asked the pilot, waving at the unresponsive eyes of the titan to make sure she really was unconscious.

“Wanna tell them?” asked Aki to Tenko.

“Sure!” she answered back with a jump, clapping her hands before beginning her explanation. “Okay okay- the plan was to catch Gomora’s attention with a biiiig piece of meat that we laced with sedatives to knock her out! I had to use a flare gun to distract her so Aki can leave the vehicle safely and as you can see it all ran without a hitch!

“I’m impressed.” chuckled Kaori, lightly clapping her own hands in response. “But what kind of meat did you use?”

A ring coming from her communicator, Tenko lifted it to let Rise’s voice do the talking. “Unfortunately we didn’t have any Gakuma carcasses in the morgue so we had to use that Zumbolar Tenko killed the other day. Their species are related species so I thought it should be good enough and looks like I was right.”

“Doh! That’s such a good plan!” Junichi said with a mixture of disappointment for himself and happiness for his coworkers before giving Aki a friendly smack on the back. “Way to go man!”

It was true that he’d handled the most important part of the operation, but giving credit where it was due Aki pointed at Tenko and said “Well, I just did the driving. That was all Tenko’s idea.”

“Is that so?” sounded the voice of the captain from her wrist communicator. “Then great work Tenko, we’ll be sending the Lidorias Helicopters to pick up Gomora in a few minutes.”

“Yeah way to go!” said Junichi, this time to the right person with Kaori adding “That was genius!” to do her part. Immediately, voices both from the communicator and those of people around her encircled the girl, showering her with praise that seemed to have no end.

Aki stood by the side initially with a smile on his face, going “Yeah! Way to go team!”, though nobody seemed to hear him. He stood there and watched for a moment, then for another and again another. Tenko was receiving their praise in droves, never ceasing, never letting up, never ending. What might have been a second or two of standing there and listening to them applaud her felt like an eternity for Aki. Like it all played in slow motion.

Their words echoed in his head, their thanks, their congratulations. He tried to keep his smile up, he tried to maintain it as hard as he possibly could, but that thing just wouldn’t stay on.

Before he even knew it he stood still as a statue, unblinking eyes like those made of glass staring at them, staring at her. That girl smiling, thanking them like she was some princess beloved for just existing.

He’d done something too okay? He’d driven that dangerous road in fear of getting trampled- they didn’t know he could just transform and get himself out of there if need be so why weren’t they more concerned for him? Why weren’t they thanking him for doing his part?

It was only a mission anyway, she just did her job, it wasn’t that much. Nobody else ever got praised for just doing what they were told to, one didn’t just get a pat on the back for doing what they had to do.

Two seconds. It couldn’t have been any longer than that, but for him they never ended. Because those were two seconds where everybody was looking at her but not at him.

As Aki’s face morphed into a scowl, he felt a strange aftertaste in his mouth that made him forget all about that ‘Delish’ he had that morning.

He felt bitter.

“Another successful mission.” mused Masayoshi, leaning back on his seat with hands behind his head.

“I’ll go get some anesthetic rounds ready on a vehicle, I suggest we tail them at least all the way to the port in case something happens and we need to administer another dose.” Rise said, preparing to exit the room.

“I see, then I’ll be the one to drive.” her captain replied, finally seeing her out. With just him and Lynx in the room he leaned forward again and interlocked his fingers together, observing the robot make adjustments on some digital monitors to run a few calculations.

Under normal circumstances silence would have remained, Masayoshi would have sat around for a moment doodling by himself, Lynx would have kept at it with his work and Builgamo would have ran circles around the room waiting for its maker to request another beer-

-but these weren’t entirely normal circumstances.

“I’m glad we could avoid a violent confrontation with a Gomora.”

They weren’t exactly paranormal either, just, something about them was a little less than normal.

“They’re always a hassle to deal with. Over a hundred years developing weapons and it never gets any easier.”

Without turning to address him, the robot gave a simple but pragmatic answer. “Monsters perceive all the changes in their environment as dangers and the last hundred or so years have been full of changes. They adapt and as time goes by they as a species grow stronger so they can fend for themselves better.”

“That is true, but… hmph, forgive me…” the captain snorted, giving in to an awkward laugh. “I’m just a little nervous, I’ve never had to handle a Gomora before.”

“The vibrations in your voice already informed me of that much.”

“Right.” Masayoshi straightened his posture and glanced around somewhat uncomfortable. It really was weird having a robot that can read you like an open book based on data and patterns all the time. “Just that- Gomora right after the mutated Altes Tiger, Izac… those are pretty strong monsters, aren’t they?”

Only then did the robot stop his operations, when its captain had made that observation. ‘Strong’ and ‘weak’ were vague terms that it couldn’t compute quite right, not without gauging at the intentions behind them. Thus Lynx turned to look at Masayoshi.

“When this mission is over I want you to unlock the Ichigo and Nigo’s hidden commands. Nobody knows when we’re going to need them at this rate.”

That stern and serious gaze was like that of a teacher, sure to get any misbehaving child in line. Though he was neither, it seemed to work just as well on a robot.

“Affirmative.”

Chapter 4[]

Another day dawned upon the world, another light upon the crowded streets, the busy markets where the grown ups’ voices never came to an end, the glass giants that filled up cities and reached for the very clouds in the sky. The sun shone indiscriminately upon this whole world, upon the creations of mankind and the spawn of nature from the biggest tree to the smallest worm all the same. And with a bike ride from the city to the woods, Tsumugi could have a chance to see all of it relishing in the orange light of this weekend’s sunshine.

She pedalled past many faces, some she knew, others she didn’t. Family that lived nearby, teachers off enjoying their lives, classmates doing their own thing and plenty of strangers, the number of which grew thinner and thinner the further out she went. Out from the routine, out from society, out from the world and into nature.

At some point the girl hopped off her bike, deeming the road from there on out too rough for her to proceed any longer and instead considered walking by foot to be less risky. Down the slopes and cliffs she went after that same checkpoint she always would dump her bike at, pushing through leaves and twigs all in the same adrenaline-high frenzy to push on and reach her destination already.

The terrain seemed smoother that day oddly enough and the forest path less crowded, as if a way had been made just for her arrival, like this would be a special occasion. Well, to her every occasion might as well have been special, few people got to enjoy the luxury she did.

Tsumugi thought to herself about how lucky she was. What other girl was friends with a monster? She remembered her dad showing her that old movie from abroad about a huge ape taken from his homeland and forced to be a public attraction before going wild and kidnapping a woman. That didn’t seem ideal to her, almost a little scary, but she would never have to worry of that happening to her because Gomora was a kind monster.

That’s right, Gomora was special. So then, was she special for being friends with Gomora? In her own heart, Tsumugi sincerely believed so. That she was the most special girl in the whole wide world. But of course she couldn’t be special on her own, being special was directly a product of association with Gomora, so it was more like Gomora made her so special. Gomora made her happy, so she also wanted to make Gomora happy. Tsumugi may not have known what makes monsters laugh or smile, but she was certain she’d done it somehow. Maybe she really was special all on her own- or maybe Gomora and her made each other special.

She wanted to keep making Gomora happy even if only by being there, so time and time again she would return to its cave, yell out the magic words and never look back. Doing that she felt like a princess, a monster princess and Gomora’s tail was her proud throne.

There it was: the maw of the cave. She knew how it goes so there was no reason to hesitate, merely breathe in, relax and yell it out.

“Gomora! It’s me!”

Ground rumbling, pebbles leaping into the air and leaves rustling. Those were the usual signs of Gomora's arrival. She waited a few seconds for them, then another few, then some more. The sequence of events must have played in her head a hundred times by then, but no Gomora was in sight.

Maybe she didn’t yell loud enough.

“GOMORA! IT’S ME!”

Again, no Gomora in sight.

Curiosity left the little girl, instead what entered into her mind was worry.

Without Gomora showing any signs of life she began to walk into its cave. She’d never gotten too far in so she didn’t know how much she’d have to search to find her monstrous friend, but the deeper she stepped into this darkness the more unwelcoming it felt. There was no way a place like this could belong to Gomora, there was just no way.

Like blankets of darkness piling up on top of her, Tsumugi’s vision was concealed by the shadows to where she couldn’t even see what was in front of her. Only hear.

Squealing, fluttering, a flock of flying critters must have flown past her. The chilling gust their wings stirred up was enough to make her blood run cold and prompt an ear-splitting screech that echoed inside the cave, bouncing from one wall to the other. Tsumugi heard her own agonized voice repeat in the darkness hundreds of times, enough that she lost track of when she actually stopped screaming.

Gomora must have heard her by now. There’s no way it wouldn’t rush out to save her if it hadn’t.

That could only mean two things. Gomora was dead, or…

Steps. Stomps. Tremor. Clamour. Short of breath. Frenzied. Terrified. Hasty like her life depended on it.

If Gomora’s body wasn’t already decomposing somewhere within this impenetrable darkness she could never hope to breach and thereby confirm her fears, then that left no other possibility.

Gomora left.

Or-

Someone took Gomora.

The walk back to her bike was a blur to her, a blur that festered even on the road back. At some point in midst of her wobbly pedalling she had to dodge a car on the opposite lane she almost rammed into, deafened by the warning horn. That almost snapped her awake, but not quite, not enough that the rest of the ride didn’t feel like riding a bolt of lightning through the gloomy night sky, so swift yet too awfully fierce.

Though there was something that caught her attention. As she drove past a construction site she heard two distinct voices giggling and mumbling amongst each other. Tilting her head to the side she saw them, and then she needed no words or thoughts any more. She’d made up her mind.

Turning to enter the construction zone, her bike dropped flat on the dust and stirred up a small cloud she walked straight through like a lonely spectre, a silhouette in the mist that the boys couldn’t help but notice, lifting their masks. Though they took off theirs, Tsumugi put on her own, a mask of an ogre bright red with eyes that were just about to pop out of her sockets, a mask of flesh made of her own twisted face and gritting teeth, the mask of someone who knew what she was going to do all too well.

The shorter boy flinched when he saw her, taking a step back and putting on a face that clearly spelled out fear. That’s how she knew he was innocent.

That fatso though, he who maintained a faux-seriousness on his face as if to deny allegations before they could even be thrown his way, he had ‘guilty’ spelt all over him.

“Didn’t we tell you last time? You’re not invited to play monsters with us-”

No words, only a stomp right onto all of his toes, enough to pound them into mush. He let out a cry of pain and lifted a leg to catch the injured foot in his hands, too foolish to know he’d left his other one open. Again, Tsumugi stopped on it with all she had, earning another defeated cry from someone who was all bark and no bite, not once fighting back.

Shoving him on his back was easy. It was getting on top of him and laying waste to his face and shirt that was… even easier.

Punch after punch, claw after claw, his cheeks turned redder and redder before they’d turn black. Choked, throttled, slammed down into the dust for the back of his skull to hit against over and over until whatever was inside would be shaken enough that he could man up and give an answer.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

“I- I didn’t do anything!” he hurried to deny himself, shooting a glare to his utterly paralyzed friend.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” Tsumugi roared like she was another Gomora, lifting her fist to land down on the boy’s cheek and knock his head sideways.

It hurt. It hurt her hands a lot, but so long as it hurt him more she was content.

Lifting him up by his collar she gave him a firm shake and screamed right into his face, her voice like a gust of wind blowing away his hair and going into his mouth, eyes and nose.

“WHAT DID YOU DO? WHAT DID YOU DO? WHAT DID YOU DO?!?”

Sheepishly, a little voice from behind murmured “Ken… just tell her already! She’ll break all of your teeth if you keep going!”

“Aren’t you going to help?!”

Shrinking back, his friend gave his answer.

Tsumugi kept on throttling, hitting and slapping him with all she had until her own hands turned red, the fat boy trying to shake her off yet always finding himself too weak to do anything. He felt like a fly caught in a venus flytrap. Though, that wasn’t what ultimately made him fold, but rather something he caught at the corner of his eye.

“Fine! You want to know what happened to Gomora?!”

That’s when Tsumugi stopped. She looked down at his face, blue and black all over with a fine stroke of red down his left nostril, oozing into his mouth to paint his teeth pink- and with bloodshot eyes of her own she patiently awaited his account, to pass judgement on himself.

But in that pool of guilt, he felt himself spotless and innocent. Enough to crack a smile that revealed a chipped tooth before he lifted a hand up slowly, not to strike but to point somewhere with a shaking index finger.

Trusting him not to dupe her, Tsumugi looked off to the city and in the far far distance, enough that it seemed like a spot of black in the blue of the sky- she saw it.

Four large helicopters of blue with red rotors and a yellow beak-like design on the front held up the four corners of a giant net, curled up within being the large brown mass of a bulky saurian resting in a thoughtless slumber. To its left and right were the Ichigo and Nigo accompanying its transfer.

Down below citizens on the sides of the road watched mesmerized, kept in line by the black-suited field agents of BOIS making sure they wouldn’t overstep any boundaries. And scattered in two groups, one of Kaori observing through binoculars with a cross-armed Aki tapping his foot on the floor impatiently and the other Masayoshi in a jeep watching from a different direction.

“Captain, are we sure bringing Gomora through the city is a safe plan?” Kaori’s voice spoke through the wrist communicator.

“It’s the fastest route unfortunately. If we took any longer route then the effect of the sedatives could end up running out while we’re over the ocean.”

His testimony sounded good enough to Kaori, but there was an awkward feeling that she couldn’t nonetheless shake off. Maybe it was from how much Aki was moving around like he was constantly anxious, maybe it was something in the air or in the commotion, but this didn’t feel right to her for reasons she had no words for. And as she caught a glimpse of what looked to be a little girl on her bike driving the opposite way from everybody else, that feeling only permeated.

It was as if her legs had caught on fire, her muscles strained like an olympic athlete in a once-in-a-lifetime performance. It was as if they had minds of their own begging her to stop and give them peace, yet her will was imposing itself on them, drowning out their voices with one singular request: pedal.

And pedal she did.

Tsumugi pedalled all the way into the city, huffing and puffing more than those little lungs of hers could ever handle yet somehow succeeding like a frenzied animal on a hunt. Even when the crowds got too dense for her she didn’t stop. With the same momentum she hopped off her bike and pushed through them to get closer and closer to her target oh so close to vanishing in the blue backdrop of the sky. She shoved her way across the vast forest of legs belonging to faceless people taller than her until she came face to face with the police tape and those upholding it. Without a thought in the world she tried to get past it as well, though this time she proved less lucky.

“Stay back! BOIS-Strike is in the middle of a mission!” a police officer replied, trying to get her to stand behind the line in an orderly fashion.

Tsumugi tried to shove him too, but no matter how hard her legs or arms pushed they couldn’t get him to budge, proving that there really was an unmovable object in this world that could get in their way, that could part her from Gomora.

There was nowhere to go forward and there was no way back. No matter how badly she struggled and squirmed she couldn’t break free, she couldn’t escape him, thus she was abandoned all to her lonesome, stuck between a rock and a hard place with no way out. The only thing she could do was look up at the unconscious monster being carried off into the air to who knows where- and only then did she realize a blemish in her vision- that it was blurred.

She blinked twice for what seemed like the first time in forever, sending fluids fluttering from her eyelashes, fluids she didn’t know were there until just a moment ago. Tears.

Was this it? Would she never see Gomora again? Maybe it was too good to last, maybe she didn’t know what she was getting into, maybe this was all just a dream bound to end… but couldn’t they at least let her say goodbye before it ended?! Couldn’t they be decent enough to let her have this moment with Gomora or was she just a clown for all to point at and laugh all along?

A clown who went and showed those two her friend, who thought that this way they could get along better. Was that the price to pay for wanting to be nice?

It wasn’t fair, but she had nothing she could do about it but watch. At least she could scream out one last goodbye and hope that would make her feel better, that it would put Gomora’s own sadness at ease if it suddenly woke up in a place where it would never see her again.

With a deep inhale preparing her, Tsumugi put all the wind in her lungs out with this one shout as her final goodbye.

“GOMORA! IT’S ME!”

But maybe that wasn’t goodbye. Not quite yet.

Chapter 5[]

Nobody saw it when it happened, nobody noticed the monster’s eyes had shot wide open like a bolt of lightning had just gone into its head. At first all was quiet, thus it was only normal nobody would have noticed- until Gomora sprung to life.

Thrashing, roaring, tugging at the very net that curried her, the giant monster regained control of its own limbs in a sudden rampage in the middle of the air, shaking its carrier and the four helicopters that struggled to hold themselves suspended mid-air.

As its aggravated screams filled the air, so did those of the populace who jolted back in shock, letting out gasps, mumbles and all sorts of panicked noises while they watched the monster attempt to escape. Tsumugi herself remained paralyzed. She wanted to spend more time with Gomora… but maybe not like this.

Masayoshi’s eyes widened, his heart dropping to the pit at the bottom of his stomach as he witnessed the sudden sight. Not a moment later a voice blared into his communicator.

“Captain Taguchi do you copy? Do you copy Captain Taguchi?!”

For the chemicals in his head to make the right reactions and wake him up to action proper it took a moment, but once they did he kept his eyes on the monster as he raised his watch to his mouth.

A quick call had to be made, if Gomora kept going at it then the helicopters would be downed in no time. “Lidorias Helicopters: disengage. Back away and leave it to the Ichigo and Nigo. Junichi, Tenko, do you copy?”

“Clear as day!”, “Yes!”

Fighting in the middle of a city was the last thing he wanted, but perhaps since the civilians had already been broken up by law enforcement then maybe evacuation would be quicker. He didn’t- he couldn’t know for certain, but he had to count on it if he wanted to save any lives whatsoever. Masayoshi looked to the back of his jeep, staring at the Gloker Bazooka and the two tranquilizer rounds he had with him. Perhaps with them this whole mess could be avoided, whatever the case, it was worth a shot.

But if he wanted that shot to count, he had to take it himself.

“Keep Gomora busy and I’ll fire tranquilizers when I have an opening!”

Thus, when the ropes snapped and the net was left to plummet down, as the cloud of dust sprung into the air and the ground rattled, he could only gulp and hope he had made the right call.

Kaori and Aki also had to spring into action in the meantime. The latter was about to run off on his own while the former focused on evacuating civilians, only for the sheer volume of the human flock to be so overpowering that even he needed to lend a hand into guiding them to safety, lest he be trampled underfoot.

All this time Kaori couldn’t get that girl out of her mind, that girl on the bicycle speeding to the opposite direction of everyone. Was she safe? Where had she ran to? She had a responsibility as a member of BOIS-Strike, but protecting even those who didn’t want to be protected was part of that job. Surely, if Aki could go running off with his own heroics all the time then just this once she could separate from the group too and then answer her captain if need be. Children mattered, right? So she couldn’t be blamed for hoping to save one.

“Cover for me! There’s someone I need to help!” she shouted at Aki before sprinting away, leaving him troubled and alone.

“Seriously…?!” the green eyed young man grumbled, only for his own thoughts to be muted out by the sound of jets sweeping through the air over them. A sight to behold for many, but one that made his brows do nothing but narrow.

Where once was a cloud of ash and silt spewed skyward by the descending body, now arose the horned titan shaking off debris from the tattered road on its feet, biting and clawing out of the net before it was cast off from its flesh. This habitat of grey and silver was unfamiliar to it, brighter than the shade of the cave yet duller than the lushness of the forest, it was a jungle of concrete it was unfamiliar with, a land it never knew and couldn’t call home.

Home.

Gomora was taken from its home, so it had nothing on its mind but getting back home. She sniffed the air, let her horns vibrate and calibrate their inner compass to find whichever direction ‘home’ was in. With a sharp turn of her head Gomora’s eyes were transfixed in the right direction, so she would go there no matter how many of these grey blocks she had to trample, no matter how many of these little specks on the ground she had to grind to red mush.

However, where four blue birds of steel fled from her another two painted black sped her way, issuing their challenge.

With a snarling roar Gomora’s claw hasted to swipe across a building, ripping it off its foundations when she threw it over to its side, knocking a cloud of dust and debris in the air. Left and right she pushed them apart and out of her way, leaving a trail of chaos to clear her path. Roads were knocked skyward when the imprints of her foot were left in the soil below, rain of glass descended on the land at the sweeps of her mighty tail of raw muscle, wherever Gomora went only a wasteland remained in the city’s place.

Seeing such signs of aggression, the Zetton Jets opened suppressive fire immediately, constant streaks of orange energy blasts flying in straight lines to splatter against the monster’s neck and chest, digging into its brown hide to deter its rampage. As they came closer to the monster, Gomora attempted to capture both in her clutch before they made sharp turns left and right, evading her. The Nigo caught Gomora’s attention first, making turns across the sky to keep the monster busy while the Ichigo unloaded bombs onto her back, clouds of fire startling the roaring beast. In response, her left claw was jammed into a building and dragged across its side, nail marks left in its wake before the whole thing was ripped right off its foundations like a piece of flesh off an animal, swung and thrown against the air like a massive projectile after the Ichigo.

Thanks to the Nigo’s fire the airborne building was rendered blasted into pieces which rained harmlessly upon the empty roads, even providing a smokescreen for the Ichigo to swoop down and open fire before hightailing upwards when Gomora attempted to catch it.

The two jets flew round and around, always with projectiles at the ready and blasting without end to keep Gomora irritated- but in a stable place, right where they wanted it for their captain to take his shot.

“Hold it off just a little longer.” Masayoshi said into his communicator, having gotten out of his vehicle at a more strategic position and trying to adjust his aim.

Side by side, the pilots of the two jets looked at each other through their helmets and nodded, firing off the same weapon at once. From the ports underneath their aircrafts, the Ichigo and Nigo unleashed two white warheads each, packed with Specium energy that when slamming against the monster’s chest reverberated with a deafening burst, concealing the monster behind a mantle of grey and orange while its roar was drowned out.

To avoid running into the explosion the two made an upwards turn, only for something to come springing out at them. Gomora’s tail uncurled from within the smokescreen like the tongue of a chameleon, heavy but slim and swift as a whip- it struck the underside of one of the Nigo’s wings and made it stagger mid-air, struggling to complete the loop but not quite falling.

“Tenko, is everything alright in there?!” Rise’s voice sounded from within the aircraft, the pilot clutching her control’s tightly as if they were made of stone, struggling to move. With bated breath she awaited to find stability, pushing the controls until they felt like they were at the cusp of breaking all the while a crack rose up the left side of the glass. Tenko pushed on until succeeding, at which point she let out a huff and finally had the freedom of mind to answer.

“I’m fine, but speed has dropped by thirty percent and… the glass is cracked around the left, should I retreat?”

Temporarily silence ensued, vague muttering she was too deafened by her own blood pressure to hear until Jet Lynx’s robotic voice came on. “Gomora’s tail must have caused some structural damage, but it’s only the outer layer of the glass that’s cracked. We’ve reinforced it enough that you are under no risk besides limited visibility. Do you think you can still fight?”

Tenko asked herself the same question, going quiet for a moment. From a safe distance she watched Junichi make loops around Gomora, his line of fire short lived and often intercepted as the monster used its tail to keep him at bay, constantly forcing her fellow pilot to be on the move without any good openings. Speaking of- her captain had yet to find an opening for the tranquilizer and Gomora -even in spite of the burn marks on its chest- seemed no worse for wear. The stories of these monsters were right, they certainly were tough, backing away now would mean things would get much more difficult for her crew and the number of casualties would only go up. Knowing all that, she couldn’t possibly in her right mind leave them on their own.

“I’ll keep fighting!”

Speeding back into combat, Tenko did just as she said.

Aki on the ground meanwhile remained busy with evacuations and through his earpiece listening in on the pilots’ conversation. For a moment his eyes widened and his whole body stiffened up into a marble statue, Tenko was out there fighting while he was busy dealing with civilians. He knew it was part of the job but- but the fight was right there! There was a monster to beat and even with her they didn’t seem to be doing much better, didn’t this fight need Ultraman to settle it? What was he doing down there on the ground?

It wasn’t right. Ultraman shouldn’t be busying himself with the job of the attack team. He fought the monster, they held it off and helped prevent casualties. It all ran like clockwork for so long- the formula worked for a reason, but there he was, doing no job worthy of honour. He had to get out there and fight or else-

They might end up beating the monster without him.

When Gomora was swinging its tail at the Ichigo it faced the opposite, increasing range at the cost of mobility and aim. This allowed a rapid stream from Tenko’s weapons to blast it all over the horns, startling the monster enough that her partner could swoop in and continue firing at Gomora’s knees and calves, bringing the monster down to one knee.

Seemingly immobile, now would be the perfect opportunity for the captain to open fire. He maintained a firm stance, he looked through the scope, he eyed the monster and pressed down on the trigger- but it never connected.

A flash of bright green lit up the blue sky, overpowering it with that intrusive, invading glow before a warrior in silver and red leapt out of nowhere with a knee right at Gomora’s chest. The impact echoed out with a ripple across the air, knocking it down and him on top of it while Masayoshi’s shot missed.

It took him a moment to readjust and contemplate what had just happened. While part of him was minorly upset at the sudden turn of events, the other was at least glad he didn’t accidentally sedate Liege. Whatever the case, with him holding Gomora back his chances of getting a good shot in were only increased. He felt like he could trust the Ultra enough to hold it in place, so all he needed to do was aim again, but maybe not from here. When Liege and Gomora got back up, wrestling with brute brawn of their muscles he realized they had gotten awfully close for comfort, so the captain went into his vehicle and drove away to find a new strategic position.

The ground rumbled, the road shook and made his vehicle jump. He didn’t want to look back as he heard the sounds of grunts and torn buildings, of ceaseless fire and of violence. Masayoshi kept his eyes on the road and kept on driving, knowing not that doom was just a hair's breadth away from the back of his neck. He swallowed his spit, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and he kept driving, hoping to find sanctuary somewhere and if possible, save Gomora with himself.

Now, why were so many civilians on the road yet to be evacuated? He thought he’d already appointed people to tend to them, BOIS-Strike members included, so what were they doing all this time? He didn’t know, but if he wanted a chance to save them then he’d have to keep driving and never look back.

Upon making contact with a building, his back felt a ripple boom out across it while the foundations he was pushed against rattled and shook, bending under his weight. With a monster to his front and a wall to his back Liege had nowhere to go, but he’d have to go somewhere. Its fist came in and he ducked, letting it punch through the building that he was pressed against. Again another strike came and he ducked under that one as well, his green eyes zeroing in on its charred thorax at that moment.

In a mighty push, Liege rammed himself shoulder-first into the monster, shoving it further and further away until he’d opened up more room for him to move. As soon as he took his body off its own Gomora snarled to the skies and attempted to swing at him some more only for him to evade with a light hop back turning into a forward shove of his sole into its gut. On contact his foot planted itself into its brown hide, though it hardly made the monster budge, forcing him to push deep into it just to get Gomora to backtrack slightly. This was succeeded by streaks of blasts from the Zetton jets coming from above, forcing the monster to submission.

Without a moment to waste for this opening, he came rushing in again with a shoulder tackle- however much to his surprise Gomora’s claws plopped down and held him by the shoulders at the moment of contact, restraining the Ultra for a knee to the gut to knock him away. Overcoming the nausea of an attack to his vitals occupied Liege’s mind just long enough for the monster to close the distance, leaving him no room to flee, thus forcing him to resort to the only other option he had: to block. From clutching his stomach, Liege’s arms arose and crossed, taking punch after punch of Gomora’s hits to his bronze bracers that rattled with every hit when dust was blown off of them. He endured and held on tight like a solid wall, forcing those arms together to protect his face and chest no matter what.

Growing aggravated at his resilience, Gomora used a double punch and grabbed him by the hands, aiming to pry them open. Slowly Liege’s bones were put under strain, drawn away while he was forced to confront the monster eye-to-eye once more. That yellow glow stared menacingly at his own green eyes, demanding eye contact as some sort of herald of the beating he was about to receive. Before Gomora could make its move however he hasted to raise a foot and ram it into its abdomen, knocking the monster away with greater success than before. Even so- Gomora returned in another charge he had no option but to kick against once again, his arms too burdened to move just yet.

A second time, Gomora was blown away and a second time she returned, forcing Liege into a third front push of his foot. This time however it met not the monster’s stomach but its claws catching him by the ankle, digging into it while his balance was weakened. He didn’t have much time to react, it was move or let the monster flip him over- so without calculating his options Liege decided to give Gomora just what it wanted, backflipping and in the process striking its chin with his free foot until he cartwheeled away, back to safety.

Blood coursed through his limbs again, the temporary numbness of those blows leaving arms and legs as an irritating feeling of needles festered in midst of recovery. Gomora however seemed to not slow down even a little, its vigor without end and its anger ceaseless. He was already beginning to go out of breath, his mind flashing images of that tiger again, prompting his fist to curl up almost on instinct.

When his mind was occupied, he failed to react to Gomora already sprinting ahead with its horns facing at him- but luckily for the Ultra the Zetton jets sped from the left and right and dropped bombs as they zoomed past it, intercepting the monster dead in its tracks. This stirred up a cloud of ash that provided cover for them to shoot through while the monster was left a throttling, blinded mess. Eventually Gomora was forced to make a spin and swing its tail to get them to back off and the cloud to clear.

Liege watched as the jets sped off, keeping an eye on them, how whenever Gomora’s tail was brought in they would scamper to flee. He could do better than that.

Rather than running away, he charged at the monster and made a frontflip to evade a powerful swing of a tail constructed like a club merged with a whip, a powerful combination sure to break bones if it hit him right. He landed at just the right position to dodge it at the end of its swing, giving him the maximum distance available from it while also close to the main body. From Gomora's side he made a small jump and came down with a chop right at its horns, bringing its whole head down and guiding it into a headlock where he repeatedly pummeled its face and eyes. Through raw brawn the monster attempted to push him off, slowly overpowering to raise its head- but continuous bullets from the Zetton jets kept it at bay and under Liege’s repeated chops.

Each and every blow rang like a bell inside its skull, sending distress signals as ripples bounced within its horns, echoing in Gomora’s brain. Its horns were particularly notable parts of its anatomy, toughened up through friction and polished through the metal in its cave. For them to be struck meant that all its hard work would be going to waste, so while it was in that chokehold Gomora attempted to use them for what they were worth while it still could. Striking them with both palms, the horns generated a ripple and a tingling sound that startled Liege, seeping into his ears like insects ready to gnaw at his brain. This made him let up the assault for just long enough that Gomora managed to slam its arm onto the back of his neck, throwing both of them forward and rolling on the floor.

Through the carpet of dust and concrete the combatants scampered and arose, Gomora rising to its feet first and rushing into a headbutt before Liege could quite find his footing. Without putting any thought into it he set hands onto its nasal horn and held on tight while the monster forced him through the city’s streets, feet burning as they skid across the ground and displaced the concrete. Sizzled, scarred and with sparks flying from their heels, they dug into the ground and impeded the monster’s progress as it left behind a carved out road before its forceful push was slowed to a halt, left to Liege’s tight grip. With a sigh that sounded like a chuckle he raised its head slowly, holding fast without a sign of letting go.

Gomora however had other plans. Through her curved horns surged a red colour that made its way onto the one at the tip of her snout, immediately beginning to pulsate with ripples and vibrations going into Liege’s hand, earning a grunt as they burnt him. As such he at last caved in and pulled his hands away to recover, given no time to react when its horns then met his stomach, cutting the Ultra’s breath short. Vibrations, distortions in the air went into and through the Ultra as he was lifted up, pumped with flashing orange energy before he was flipped over the air like a ragdoll, thrown onto his back far from the monster’s range.

Raising those horns in the air like a proud blood-soaked crown, Gomora roared out as if the victor had already been decided. It might as well have been when the beeping sound coming from Liege was accompanied with repeated red flashes, all the while he could barely climb on all fours.

Masayoshi in the meantime had aligned his position behind and somewhere to the right of Liege, hoping to get a good shot from there. He stepped out of his vehicle once more, he came down to one knee and he raised the loaded bazooka once more, ready to open fire. Yet again however, he didn’t. He couldn't. He wasn’t fast enough.

Slow and meticulous she drew near, caving in the ground with heavy and imposing steps. Gomora was going to finish him there and then and he wouldn’t even fight back- that felt like the most critical moment that Masayoshi would have to take the shot at and he was just about to do so, but someone else beat him to it.

The Ichigo and Nigo swept down and suspended mid-air in front of him, opening fire upon the unsuspecting monster who was riddled with blasts from head to toe. Liege was prompted to raise his head and look at them at that moment, observing their vigorous efforts to fight for him- to fight in his place. Something about that ticked him off, how they were saving him.

When Gomora swung her tail to ward them off like she always did, he raised a hand and generated a halo of jade light, throwing it at just the right time and just the right angle to curve and slide through meat and bone, coming out the other side and vanishing into the horizon while Gomora’s tail was parted from the rest of the body, left to flop and flutter around.

“ALRIGHT!” Junichi cheered and threw his fist in the air. The transport had been a failure and a good few city blocks had already been trampled, so the enemy losing a crucial weapon meant a lot to turning things around. Certainly it wasn’t ideal, but if it meant stopping Gomora’s rampage then it was just what they needed.

Masayoshi couldn’t help but sigh at the sight, neglecting to press the trigger. Its Megaton Tail was one of Gomora’s most important weapons in nature, by taking it out that meant its chances of survival were decreased. The monster sanctuary was fairly hands off when it came to monster bouts, leaving them to their own to settle as any other parts of nature, but what they’d done might have spelt death for Gomora in the future. Even so, so long as there was a chance for it to live it wasn’t all over, now more than ever it became that much more crucial for him to take that shot and knock Gomora out cold, save its life even if wounded-

But in the process he neglected his own.

“Captain, watch out!” Junichi’s voice exclaimed, getting him to get his eye off the scope and get a better look at his surroundings.

Gomora’s disembodied tail kept on bouncing and squirming like a mad python, like a mobile tower flailing around and ready to bring all in its path to ruin, with Masayoshi first in its scope.

Before he could react, a shadow was cast over him as the Ichigo flew in the way, opening fire upon the tail, but alas he was too late. Too few shots were fired and from too short a distance, the accumulated damage wasn’t enough to bring anything more than bruises to the hide of the tail as it struck him right in his jet, knocking it out of the air and to his captain’s direction.

His jeep couldn’t be salvaged, his weapon would only weigh him down. Without a second thought he discarded everything and leapt as far away as he could, narrowly evading the crash that stirred up rubble and flames, carving through the road as the downed jet came to a halt and the car under it was reduced to nothing.

Both inside and outside the Ichigo, the pilot and the captain laid unconscious with bruises on their faces and ash on their clothes, surrounded in a garden of wreckage while that tail danced its mocking dance over them.

From her own jet, Tenko’s eyesight snapped to their direction, almost as if she forgot all about the battle just to check on them.

Liege too stood still, getting back up on his feet with a hand on his head, shaking and grunting to himself.

“You idiots… don’t you know Gomora’s tail keeps moving even when detached?!”

Chapter 6[]

Through arid streets dyed in dust and perpetual sandfall with strong blowing winds, the city more resembled a desert than a place of habitation. Dry, empty, bleak and mute past the sounds of constant fire, of thundering roars and tremoring stomps. In all that chaos it would be easy to miss people simply left behind under rubble, behind abandoned vehicles and robed in police tape flowing in the wind. Kaori suspected that much when she left Aki alone to handle the evacuation and her suspicions were proved correct indeed when somewhere in the hazy wilderness of these ravaged streets she noticed a little silhouette in the heat-distorted air.

Standing there, shouting her lungs out yet seemingly mute to all those who had left her behind, all those who hadn’t gone to look for her, was a little girl standing alone in the barren city, her pained voice hidden by the commotion of the giants’ battle.

The clangs of Kaori’s protective gear would have alerted her if it wasn’t for the intensity of noise, thus when she reached for the girl’s shoulder she found her rightfully startled.

“It’s not safe here, let’s get you back to-”

“No!” the girl cried out, not just rejecting but outright resisting her. She pushed, clawed and tried to break free from her hold like her life depended on it.

Concern immediately seeped into the BOIS agent’s mind, wondering why this girl was so adamant in staying there when she offered her a way out, even a ride if she was just that scared. But the opposite seemed to be true, it wasn’t that she was paralyzed with fear, but rather that she wanted to stay there.

Cracking a small, forced and awkward smile in an attempt to ease tension, Kaori squatted down to her level and set hands on the girl’s shoulders. “Calm down, what’s the matter exactly?” If she couldn’t evaluate her condition then she couldn’t get her to move- well actually she could if she wanted to be forceful, but that was no way to handle a scared child at a time like this so she’d rather not resort to that.

“It’s Gomora! They’re hurting it!” she replied with a throat already gone sore by the time Kaori found her, smacking her arms and shoulders without mercy. Once she noticed the badge on Kaori’s protective gear, her strikes only increased in speed and strength. “Please do something! Do something now! They’re- they’re hurting Gomora!”

The girl seemed more concerned for the monster than herself, there was definitely a story there but she didn’t know if it was one worth learning, at least now. Yet at that moment her captain’s words came back to her, his noting of the importance of hearing out children. Furrowing her brow, Kaori was determined to get to the bottom of whatever was happening underneath their noses, starting from this girl.

“What’s the matter with Gomora? What do you know about it?”

“Gomora- G- Gomora is- i- Gomora is a good monster! Gomora doesn’t want to hurt anybody! It’s my friend!”

Somehow the girl knew Gomora from somewhere, she knew it well enough to call it a friend. But that couldn’t be right, it couldn’t be anything more than a childish delusion. You couldn’t call something that big your friend, you were from different worlds, you were different beings, Gomora might as well be alien to this girl. No, she may have called it a friend but they could never be real friends, they could never understand each other, otherwise it would have already heeded her warning, listened to her pleas and stopped.

But Gomora didn’t stop. It kept on fighting with fury, with tooth and claw against Kaori’s own friends. Junichi, Tenko and Aki.

She couldn’t just outright tell the girl those words, nobody would listen to someone telling them their friendship was a lie- they’d have to see it for themselves. But if she was watching all this violence, all this pain and wreckage and still didn’t get it, then maybe she never would.

As the sound of bullets speeding through the air rang louder than ever before the girl covered her ears and let out a terrified shriek, more than ever before giving Kaori the push she needed to try and get her out of there. Pulling on her hand she said “Come on, let’s go!”

“No! Make them stop make them stop make them stop! Make them stop hurting my friend!”

The sound of crashing metal reached Kaori’s ears, inspiring a reaction like instinct. Once her head moved up to gaze up the battle at a breakneck pace she watched the Ichigo plummet to the ground, she heard the sound of it scraping against the road, of its wings sizzling against the concrete and that awful sound like nails grinding on a chalkboard.

She quickly raised her arm, shouting into her communicator the first words that came to mind “Junichi! Are you okay?!”

No response. Her heart skipped a beat.

Switching channel, she then addressed her captain. “Captain?! Come in! Captain!”

Yet again, no response.

That’s when her hand tightened around the girl’s. It didn’t matter what the plan was any more, with two members down it was do or die. “Gomora… is also hurting my friends.”

Even if it had to be by force, she’d drag that girl away from danger no matter what.

Though she didn’t gaze upon it directly, the battle indeed raged on. Even without its tail Gomora still rushed at Liege for a headbutt, only for him to jump over it and roll across Gomora’s back to find his way to its behind. He stretched a hand forward and fired two green arrowhead projectiles that staggered the monster, only for the third to be interrupted by its tail coming to whip him from the back and knock him down. Before however it could pounce on him Tenko opened fire to ward off the tail just for her jet to have to retreat so it can dodge a clawing from Gomora.

The pilot was beginning to grow weary of the situation, their numbers were dwindling and they were down to just her and Liege with Junichi and the captain going quiet. They didn’t answer to any of her calls and she had to constantly be on edge, watching out for not one but two opponents, a task that became even harder considering her cracked glass limited her field of vision.

So many things were going on in her head at once, it was a mess full of worry and doubt, if she’d succeed, if her team was okay. But she couldn’t let it get to her, because if she faltered then it could very well be the end after all she’d gone through, after the plan her and Aki had come up with together to capture this monster. She hated that it had to come to this, but she couldn’t let all of those efforts go to waste.

An idea popped in her head all of a sudden: if she couldn’t navigate on her own, then maybe she could use a navigator.

First on her mind was Aki, yet no response came from him. Momentarily she feared something might have happened to him, but for the good of the mission Tenko pushed down such thoughts. That only left Kaori, who after a moment of worrisome silence also responded.

“What’s the matter Tenko?”

“Auuuu…. this might be a bit difficult to ask but, if it’s not difficult, could you lend me a pair of eyes…?”

Silence again, though Tenko did not know it Kaori stared between the trouble of the jet and the girl by her side. She stood between her friend and coworker asking for help and the girl begging her to make Tenko stop. She weighed her options, looking at the teary eyes of the girl tugging on her sleeve when she stopped in her tracks.

The show must go on.

“What do you want me to help you with?”

Back in her jet, Tenko smiled and nodded. “I want to take out the tail but I can’t when I have Gomora keeping me busy. Can you keep an eye out on one while I fight the other?”

“Alright!”

Immediately, just as Liege was shoved out of the way by the ancient monster the Nigo dove in, opening fire that startled the beast and got it to flinch and cower. When its tail swung at her from behind, Kaori’s voice exclaimed “Left!” prompting her to turn and let the disembodied appendage fly straight into its master, keeping it occupied as it knew no friend from foe.

Rise’s voice suddenly came into the cockpit from Tenko’s communicator. “Tenko, try to aim at the wound at the base of the tail with a laser. If you deal internal damage then it will all fall apart.”

“Got it!” said the pilot and sped forward. Even if her speed was decreased, with Kaori’s aid she could make up for it by timing things right. She first opened suppressive fire on the tail to make it back off and when Gomora came to swipe from behind and catch her Kaori’s “Up!” got her to act right on time, letting the monster miss. Subsequently, Liege didn’t waste a moment to tackle the monster right from the side, knocking it away.

Flying around the hopping tail in a circle, Tenko charged orange energy into the ports of her aircraft and as soon as she aligned with its base unleashed twin energy beams that went right into the flesh and bone, flowing through it all the way to the very end of the tail. From bottom to front it burst apart, torn from the inside out and splattered into tiny pieces.

What was counted as a great success to BOIS-Strike however sent a chill down the spine of Tsumugi as her heart hardened at its sight.

Gomora’s tail wasn’t just any old limb, it was her throne. She remembered all the times it lifted her up and down, all the times she’d used it as a slide, a trampoline, monkey bars or any other playground item. It was fun not because of the action itself, but because it was with Gomora, her big monstrous friend that wouldn’t hurt a fly. When she was with Gomora she could slide down its tail hundreds of times and she’d never get bored.

And there it was, gone forever.

Why? Why did this happen? How could this happen? Who would do this?

So many questions polluted the young girl’s mind. She wanted an answer for them, for why Gomora had to suffer when it had never hurt anyone before now, before it was forced to hurt people. She looked up at that woman looking at the battle, observing it with nothing but a crooked smile on her face. Clearly, these wicked adults wouldn’t bother to answer her questions, they didn’t care why Gomora had to die, just that it had to and they would make sure to go through with it.

But she wouldn’t let them. She wouldn’t let them kill Gomora, no matter what.

“No!” Tsumugi yelled, jumping on Kaori and tugging on her equipment, trying to pull her down.

Startled, she took her eyes off the battle and looked at the girl, trying to push her off. “Hey, calm down okay! My friend is counting on me out there!”

“So is mine!”

Two sides fighting a battle of their own, a battle over who would be a helping hand to their respective friend. It wasn’t a battle of bullets or brawn, rather a battle of wills and determination. If only Kaori knew that their win conditions were different, she wouldn’t have bothered entertaining it.

As she escaped from the remnants of the disembodied tail, Tenko was met with nothing but garbled noises from Kaori, fearing something had gone wrong with her equipment.

“Kaori?” she asked, unaware of her current situation and with an eyebrow raised behind her helmet.

This lapse of judgement, this temporary distraction caused by Tsumugi proved to be the perfect opening Gomora needed. Dashing at her, the monster roared and swung its claw to avenge that disembodied tail, startling the pilot who slammed down on the trigger to open fire without plan or preparation, merely unloading rounds without getting out of the way.

Though it wasn’t Kaori, someone else tended to that.

“Out of my way!” groaned a voice rife in frustration, the Nigo immediately receiving a silver backhand that knocked it out of the sky, skidding and crashing down across the roads until it rammed into a storefront. Taking its place, Liege caught the incoming Gomora’s arms and pried them aside before jumping up to land down with a chop to the head that made his opponent almost kneel. He pressed down on her horns to keep her that way before force put into her neck knocked the Ultra into the air, though even there a double bicycle kick to the chest and face served as retaliation, knocking away the monster while he landed down with a huff.

It all happened fast, too fast for Kaori to realize, but when she heard the sound of metal colliding with the earth something immediately knocked sense into her. For a moment she was tranquil, ignoring the girl that incessantly pounded on her stomach and legs trying to grab her attention by force, but Kaori wouldn’t have it. With widened, unblinking eyes she slowly arose, staring at the torn and shredded forest of cut down buildings, the pillars of smoke and the blaring alarms from cars that had yet to be ground to paste.

She scanned it all with such profuse attention, yet none of it told her anything, none of it made sense, none of it explained to her what had just happened. All sound seemed to drown out, fading to static. The tremors, the roars, the grunts, the cries of that little girl trying to get to her. It all went mute before this nauseating discord inside her own head, the steps of giants like distant gongs barely heard but evidently felt in her skin and bones, in every hair that leapt on its end and stood upright at attention like a trained soldier.

That was all until a certain voice caught her attention, one coupled with steps slow and methodic, like those of a prowling predator gently approaching his prey.

“Is that all BOIS-Strike has to offer?” pondered the red giant, calmly marching towards a panting Gomora with his arms shrugging. It must have taken a great deal of effort to say those words, the roughness of his voice, the heaving of his chest and the palpitation of the flashing gemstone showed just that- but even so he’d gone out of his way to say them. “A hundred years of fighting alongside Ultras and you’ve yet to learn how to beat a single measly Gomora?”

At the sound of its name, the monster growled at him for intimidation, but it was clear that Liege wouldn’t stand back while it kept going and crashed into a building. That’s why it made its move and charged at him like a mad bull only for him to leap over and roll across its back, bringing himself behind the monster. No longer did it have any tail to swing, thus those instinctual movements of mere muscle memory were of no avail. With another jump he landed on its back and pressed his feet against it while grabbing a firm hold of Gomora’s horns, pulling back on them almost to mount the monster and pull it out of the rubble. Left and right he threw Gomora around, like a rider his horse he handled her with ferocity, driving Gomora repeatedly into buildings to bludgeon her head and horns.

“Now where would any of you be if it wasn’t for me?”

He pulled and pulled, stretching his own back as much as he could while pressing his soles right into Gomora’s spine, getting it to arch its own back even as it wailed and cried out in pain.

Snap.

A bloodcurdling crack sounded out as Gomora’s horns snapped right off its head, a shriek like no other escaping the monster’s lungs while it clutched for its missing crown. Liege on the contrary fell on his back and discarded them, stumbling away to recover and get up again.

Kaori watched it all and so did Tsumugi, both of their eyes transfixed on the sight but for different reasons.

The little girl felt her heart crack more and more as Gomora lost more pieces of its body. First it was riddled in burns across its chest, then riddled with so many bullets and lasers that its skin changed colour, then stripped of its tail and finally its horns. Wasn’t that enough? How much more were they going to take from Gomora until they were satisfied?

Would its life be next?

Tears bubbled up behind the girl’s scarlet cheeks, rising before gushing out in streams along with a wail of sheer pain, one that could make a person think she herself was experiencing Gomora’s pain. Angrier, sloppier, stronger than before she kept pounding away at Kaori’s legs, tugging on her clothes as if to rip them off while bawling her eyes out.

“P-Peaze mayge im staaaap! Mayge im stop- I’m beggin yiu! I- I- I don wand Gomola t-to dai!”

Between her sniffling, gagging and shaking the girl became nigh-indecipherable. She was doing that annoying mumble-cry where none of the words came out right yet she still kept on and on, letting them flow out like an endless rampant river no matter if Kaori listened or not.

And really, why should she listen?

All she had to do was keep her eyes on Tenko, tell her when something’s about to hit her out of left field and help her navigate. She was trusted to do that, she promised to help- but because of this kid’s cries she took her eyes off of her and let her be struck down, nothing but static coming from her end of the communicator. Tenko could be dead for all she knew, gone and never seen again, a human life lost forever. The girl was in much the same predicament as her, she’d tried to distract her so Gomora could live, but all it amounted to was both of their friends suffering all the more.

Captain. Junichi. And now Tenko. All of her friends had gone quiet, now all that remained was-

“Shuwap!”

His right hand outstretched and his left over its wrist facing the side, Liege unleashed red energy blasts like the shots of a flare gun from his fingertips at moderate intervals. Not too short that another one hit before she could notice the first, but not too long that the enemy could have an opening. No, the intervals were perfect for Kaori to notice the violence enacted upon Gomora’s hide. Each and every blast pierced its skin, scattered scales and blew apart chunks of flesh, marring it permanently.

Gomora wailed in pain and anguish, stopped dead in its tracks as it took hit after hit without reacting, merely crying in pain as its skin was torn and ravaged as if by the talons and teeth of a predator. This pain, this move, it was the same as Izac’s.

The girl’s crying got louder and louder, drowning out even Gomora’s lamentations.

Kaori felt like her head was spinning from all the things going on. There were her friends whose status was unknown, there was Aki, there was Gomora, there were civilians that who knows how and if they were evacuated, there was this girl, it all was too much for her.

But again, those words remained. Her captain’s plea to listen to the voices of children in the midst of disaster and trust them.

Squatting down, she wanted to at least stop the crying first and then she’d get everything in order. Tenko was closest to her so she’d go check on her, then Junichi- or maybe the captain? She didn’t know where he was, or maybe civilians, but they were out of sight so they were probably the furthest away-

WHATEVER!

Just stop those annoying tears and everything will fall in line!

“Hey hey, calm down!” she told the girl, having to shout just to be heard over her crying. Blasts kept ringing out in the back, her head still spinning, her vision blurring yet never giving out, like it wanted to keep her conscious just to torment her. For how long was Aki going to keep firing- never mind, the girl! Focus on the girl!

“Calm down! It will all be alright just listen to me!”

More crying, more tears wetting both of their clothes, more roars of agony like a voice begging to stop.

Kaori was also begging for this to stop, all of this. For everyone to just go quiet for one moment.

But they wouldn't. They kept on crying, they kept on shooting, they kept on roaring, her head kept on spinning.

She was getting desperate, enough to grab the child by the forearms, squeeze them tight and shake her.

“Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!”

She didn’t care any more, she gave in to the madness as well, hoping to slay the madness with more madness, the disorder with disorder. But it didn’t stop. Her pleas repeated, following the rhythm of those red blasts that had no end.

Like a whip, her hand flew horizontally and smote the girl’s cheek, leaving a red imprint on it- and making all go quiet.

For a moment the girl stood still, her head facing sideways, her eyes widened, the pain on her face still seeping in, registering in her nerves. It almost made Kaori smile and sigh, only for the crying to come back twice as loud, waking her up to the foolishness of her move.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry!” she repeated in a frenzy, hugging the girl tight to apologize. But that didn’t help, the blow had already been dealt.

She didn’t know if she wanted to squeeze the life out of her or apologize with all her heart, but she did neither because she didn’t think either would solve anything. Not when this ringing persisted in her ears.

There was another way to get that girl to stop.

Reaching for her belt, Kaori unholstered her pistol and turned to face the Ultra whose back faced her way as he kept on firing at the tortured Gomora. Immediately she let out several shots to the back of his neck, slamming down on the trigger again and again until it got the giant to stop. He remained still for a moment, turning back and facing at her, those green eyes of his fixed on his teammate and the girl weeping by her side.

“Haven’t you had enough?! Take a good look at Gomora! Does it look like it still wants to fight?”

Doing just as she said, Liege turned to examine his opponent, finding the saurian charred from head to toe, shrinking back, covering its head with his arms while it let out soft whimpers, anything but a sign of aggression. For all its pain, Gomora still had her life.

Going quiet, Liege clenched his hand and nodded, an act directed at Kaori.

And at that, when the buzzing stopped, when the cries of torment came to an end, Kaori felt a massive weight lifted off her shoulders, like she was allowed to breathe again. Now she could face the little girl and tell her it would all be okay, that it was all over, that she wouldn’t have to cry because Gomora was safe.

Epilogue[]

But she didn’t.

Because right as Kaori turned to face Tsumugi, a sound more overpowering than any before filled her ears, freezing her whole body solid.

It was a humming sound, consistent, continuous, recognizable and electronic. The faint green glow cast upon the earth like a shadow told her all it needed to before she even turned to look at it. But once she did, Kaori found Liege with his right arm vertical, resting on his horizontal left and blasting away a concentrated beam of energy.

When the stream ended his target -or what was left of it- was unveiled: a silhouette of total black, a burnt, crisp skeleton in the shape of something with four limbs shriveled up like a statue of charcoal. Not a living skin cell could be seen on this thing he left behind, this mush of body parts torched to nothingness. The plumpness of Gomora’s figure was no more, now thin enough that a light arid breeze carrying sand with it could knock it over like a pitch black stick.

Gomora was dead. But to add insult to injury, Aki kept on talking.

Raising his hands and stretching them out to the sides, he said “Alrrrriiiiii~iiiiiight! You can come on ooooout noooow everybodyyyy!”

Making a twirl, he began to pace around the city, bowing left and right at the wreckage as if it was some grand applauding audience.

“Ultraman Liege has saved the day once again! You can return to your homes now without fear because everybody’s favourite superhero has it aaaaaall under control!” he chuckled, bringing one hand to his hip and sticking the other forward in a peace sign he flaunted around.

“The fight has been won, the evil monster has been vanquished by the warrior who brings smiles to this beautiful planet full of wonderful people! So come on out and put on your best smiles!”

‘Right’

‘I forgot’

‘Aki really is…’

‘...not a human.’

Teeth gritting, grinding, pressing against each other to the point of cracking. A helmet dropped to the floor and then-

“YOU BASTARD! YOU CALL THAT A FIGHT?!”

A voice, a familiar voice reached his ears and Liege turned to find its source in one of his own comrades, in a Kaori fuming and red at the face, with eyes life fiery daggers staring his way. Spit flew out as she shouted, straining her lungs to their fullest capacity.

“LOOK AROUND YOU- YOU PSYCHOPATH!”

And look he did. At the ruins, at the leveled streets, at the wasteland beneath his own feet and at the smokestacks rising from the downed vehicles. Some of that was Gomora, the blame couldn’t be put on him- but Tenko’s jet, the buildings he’d purposefully driven the monster into, for those there was no excuse. But when confronted with them neither did he emote, nor did he respond.

How could he after all? When he’d failed to do the one thing he’d come to this planet to do. But that didn’t matter to him, because he’d won that murder of a battle, he’d taken the credit he was looking for. He did what he wanted to do, not what he was supposed to, but who could tell what mattered more to him? Nobody. For nobody could read those thoughts that hid behind those soulless lime green eyes of his. Not Kaori, for sure.

“YOU CALL YOURSELF ULTRAMAN?! YOU DIDN’T PROTECT A SINGLE SMILE!”

He didn’t even protect Tenko, the one person he’d devised that plot to capture Gomora with. He’d backstabbed her all for himself, when she trusted him.

But Liege wasn’t the only person Tenko trusted who had failed her.

Images flashed in her head, softening her expression.

Images of her team, what they’d sought out to do, what smiles they’d started the day off with and gone into the operation bearing. Where they could be now, stranded amidst rubble, hurt, bleeding, wounded. All of them in pain, but what had she done to mend it?

But maybe she wouldn’t need to conjure up such images when she could so much as turn her head a little back, to look at the direction that weeping was coming from.

There was also that girl whose tears still flowed, the tears she’d failed to stop. Gomora as well, they never meant to kill it, she didn’t know when or how the mission statement changed or why she went along with it, why she let herself get carried away, why she’d failed them too.

Her knees buckling under the weight of her own part in this catastrophe, Kaori dropped to the floor, hands clutching her shirt to tug on it as her breath turned heavy, feeling herself heating up from the inside out like she would burn alive or suffocate.

In a small, whimpering voice she confessed her own sin.

“...just like me.”

And so, with nothing but Tsumugi’s sobs filling the dry air, the city went quiet.

Liege looked down at his hands, opening them, closing them, clenching them tight.

“What a planet of ingrates…”

Pushing both feet against the ground he took off, flying far into the blue sky until he disappeared in a speck of light. Yet, he couldn’t have gone far. Not with such a bruise he couldn’t, not until it healed and he fed the beast in his own heart until it was satisfied.