"Ultraseven... I want to know what you were thinking, back then."
Hinako Shimizu closed her eyes and asked the question earnestly, speaking to Amamiya Rin, who shared one mind and body with her.
In this moment, she couldn't make up her mind. She didn't know whether she should do the thing that, on the set of Ultraman Leo, Dan Moroboshi had judged to be wrong.
"Don't let it bluff you, Hinako. The reason Dan Moroboshi thought what Leo did was wrong wasn't because saving the child was wrong — it's that Leo did the right thing at the wrong time. There's nothing wrong with saving an injured child, but his first priority was to defeat the monster and prevent further casualties. Saving the child could have been left to someone else."
After Hinako Shimizu voiced her plea for guidance, Amamiya Rin — who had been watching in silence all this while — finally gave her a decisive answer, a beam of light cutting through her confusion, shattering the shackles locked around her heart.
"Hinako, understand this: the Giant of Light never chooses between sacrificing one and saving the many. The water dragon's wrath should never be quelled with an innocent woman's blood, and Ebisugaoka's peace should never be built on slaughter and suffering! Backing down out of fear of the enemy's threats, tacitly allowing an innocent woman to be branded a sacrifice and persecuted — that is not how the Giant of Light fights!"
Amamiya Rin's warning, coming from the one who had lived it, swept away the last of Hinako Shimizu's hesitation.
"I understand now."
In Hinako Shimizu's golden eyes, the confusion was fading, replaced by something firmer, something fiercer than the doubt and helplessness that had been there before.
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"Understand what, exactly?"
The nine-tailed black fox's tails stilled for an instant. Something flickered faintly in those blue-green slit pupils.
Its voice sounded composed, but beneath that composure lay a thread of unease and probing that was hard to catch.
"Killing an innocent person by force in the name of some so-called greater good — that isn't sacrifice at all! What you just said is nothing but quoting out of context! You're deliberately twisting Mr. Ultraseven's intentions!"
"Quoting out of context? Twisting his intentions?"
The nine-tailed black fox let out a sneering laugh, its voice suddenly dropping, carrying a condescending, crushing weight.
"Fine. Even if that's so, what of it? The reality is, I've traded those women's lives for the peace of thousands upon thousands. That's fact — an unchangeable fact. Eight years after eight years, generation after generation, the water dragon has never broken its seal, and Ebisugaoka has never suffered disaster."
It paused, a flicker of mockery crossing those blue-green slit pupils.
"Or can you prove that everything this old one has said is a lie? That even if you killed us all, nothing would happen? That the water dragon wouldn't break free, that no one would be harmed?"
"I can't prove it. But even if what you say is false, I have to treat it as true."
Hinako Shimizu fell silent for a second before speaking slowly.
"Exactly. As the righteous Giant of Light, you can't gamble with innocent lives."
The corner of the nine-tailed black fox's mouth twisted upward, its smile brimming with satisfaction.
The Giant of Light's morality was Hinako Shimizu's weak point. Against someone with such a high moral bar, threatening innocent lives was the most effective weapon.
But the nine-tailed black fox, never having watched Ultraman, surely didn't know one thing.
When Ultramen face this kind of trolley problem, they either power up beyond their limits, or a deus ex machina arrives — another Ultraman swooping in to help.
Though Amamiya Rin hadn't told Hinako Shimizu that he could, at any moment, deliver a line like "I brought [X] lives with me" to resolve the dilemma she was bound to face, he had already prepared to lend her the power of the Soul Reviver's Sword to save the day.
But before that, he'd let himself keep watching to see how far Hinako Shimizu's resolve would carry her.
"Is that so... But I won't compromise with you!"
The giant's body sank slightly, fists clenched, settling into a fighting stance. A resolute fighting spirit radiated from every inch of her, and those golden eyes blazed brighter and more dazzling than before.
The nine-tailed black fox's smile vanished. Not just the smile — its fur bristled all at once, its arched body tensed, sharp fangs bared, and a threatening growl rumbled from its throat.
"If I choose to indulge you, if I choose to tacitly allow you to persecute the innocent in the name of some greater good, then sooner or later you'll use that same excuse to commit even greater evils, forcing me to keep indulging you for the sake of what's already been sacrificed."
Hinako Shimizu's voice grew colder, and more resolute, with every word.
"Indulging evil only breeds greater evil. That much, I understand."
Before the words had even finished, a muffled boom erupted from beneath Hinako Shimizu's feet.
The lake's surface burst open, and the giant's body became a streak of light, hurtling straight at the nine-tailed black fox!
A hundred meters closed in an instant!
Her right fist, charged with power, tore through the air with crushing pressure, slamming down toward that black fox skull!
The nine-tailed black fox's pupils contracted. All nine tails rose at once, weaving together into a black barrier in front of it!
"BOOM—!!!"
The fist crashed against the tails with a deep, thunderous impact. The nine bushy tails scattered outward from the blow, and the nine-tailed black fox's body was flung skyward, hurled dozens of meters backward.
"Have you lost your mind?!"
Landing on the water's surface, the nine-tailed black fox shook its numbed tails, its blue-green slit pupils wide with shock.
"You're abandoning Ebisugaoka? You're giving up on the innocent people who'll be caught in the crossfire?"
"I never abandoned anyone!"
Hinako Shimizu shot back fiercely, her gaze steel-hard, stamping her foot against the lake's surface and launching herself a hundred meters into the sky.
"Once I've destroyed your fox spirit clan, I'll head straight for Ebisugaoka and fight the water dragon with everything I have, to stop it from causing harm!"
Before the words had even finished, Hinako Shimizu's body had already flipped in midair, her right leg rising high, blazing light gathering at the sole of her foot — a burning meteor plunging straight down at the nine-tailed black fox below!
Ultra Kick!
Every strand of the nine-tailed black fox's black fur stood on end. Instinct screamed at it to dodge, but the streak of light falling from the sky was too fast — too fast to escape in time.
"BOOM—!!!"
A shockwave that shook the very air tore across the lake's surface. Centered on the point of impact, the water for a hundred meters around was crushed downward into a massive, bowl-shaped crater, while countless tons of water were hurled outward in every direction, bursting into walls of spray dozens of meters high!
"AAAGH—!"
The nine-tailed black fox let out a shrill, agonized cry, its nine tails thrashing wildly in the impact as it tried to steady itself.
But the force of that kick was simply too overwhelming — overwhelming enough to tear through its protective demonic aura the instant it made contact, overwhelming enough to snap five of its ribs in that same instant. Of its nine great black tails, only eight remained.
____
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