Chapter 75: Only Those with a Protective Heart Can Become Light
On the surface, Golza had finally finished its all-you-can-eat buffet in the village, but clearly this appetizer wasn't enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.
So next, it locked onto that bus desperately fleeing for its life. From a distance, it looked like a tin can packed full of fresh, tender meat.
Accompanied by a deafening roar, Golza bellowed and began pursuing with massive strides.
It didn't even need to run.
Just walking with those enormous strides created a pressure that made the prey ahead feel like they were suffocating.
"Faster! Go faster!!"
The female teacher gripped the seat back with white knuckles. Looking back through the rear window, she could clearly see that massive maw full of fangs getting closer and closer.
"I've got the pedal floored already!!"
The driver was drenched in sweat, his face completely drained of color.
This broken-down bus running at eighty kilometers per hour was already at its absolute limit. Any faster and the engine would explode.
"Mommy..."
"I want to go home... waaah..."
Inside the bus, the children's crying filled the air.
Just then...
A purple ultrasonic beam fired from Golza's forehead, grazing over the bus roof and instantly shaving off half the mountain wall ahead.
Tumbling boulders completely blocked the road in front of them.
"SCREECH—!!"
Ear-splitting brake sounds rang out.
The bus barely managed to stop less than two meters from that pile of debris.
A dead end ahead, a pursuer behind.
Despair swept over everyone in the vehicle like a black tide.
Deep underground.
The air was getting thinner and thinner. Each breath felt like it would tear their lungs apart.
After hearing the girl's words, Kazama Chiba was momentarily speechless.
His original bottom-line plan had been to forcibly take Michiyo through the Shadow Kingdom. Although she'd be corrupted by dark forces, as long as she stayed alive, there'd always be opportunities later to find someone skilled in magic to dispel the curse.
But he hadn't expected Michiyo to misread his conflicted expression while weighing the options.
This girl with severe psychological trauma had developed heartbreaking people-reading skills through countless experiences of being pushed away.
She'd decided that Kazama Chiba's troubled expression was a prelude to abandoning her, just like all those people who'd found her distasteful before.
"Stop talking nonsense."
Michiyo shrank back, tears already welling up in her eyes.
Sure enough... she was being rejected again, wasn't she?
Then Kazama Chiba's tone carried a note of irritation.
"Can you stop randomly guessing what other people are thinking? Who said I was going to leave you behind? Are you looking down on my abilities? Think I can't get you out of here?"
Michiyo froze, apparently not expecting this kind of response.
She blinked somewhat blankly, her voice timid.
"But big brother's expression just now... you looked really troubled. I know that expression. That's the look people have before abandoning troublesome things... just like when Dad didn't want me anymore."
Kazama Chiba suddenly reached out and grabbed her soft little face, forcing her to raise her head and look at him.
"I was indeed thinking about something just now, but I was thinking about how to save you."
"Why would you save me?"
Michiyo still didn't understand.
"Big brother only just met me for the first time... I'm completely useless... even Mom and Dad don't like me..."
"The reason is simple."
Kazama Chiba sighed, his gaze becoming somewhat gentler.
"Because when I look at you, I see my own unlucky self from the past."
"Eh?"
Michiyo raised those eyes that were always darting around evasively, as if trying to confirm the truth of these words.
"Really...?"
"Did big brother also not have any friends when he was little?"
Kazama Chiba's eyes became somewhat distant.
Images flashed through his mind—himself fighting for food in the orphanage, himself always huddled in corners watching other children get adopted.
If someone had reached out to him back then, would he have needed to become like this?
"Something like that. Nobody to manage me, nobody who cared. Just like you—always felt like I was that extra puzzle piece in this world. No matter where I was placed, I never fit in."
"Back then I also thought the whole world was targeting me. As long as I didn't speak, as long as I didn't exist, everyone would be a bit happier."
The darkness fell into brief silence.
After a while, a small hand grasped the corner of Kazama Chiba's shirt.
"Then can big brother let me be selfish just this once?"
Michiyo's tone was unusually serious, as if making some kind of final testament.
"Since big brother doesn't have friends either, and I don't have friends... but before dying, can you let me be big brother's friend?"
"Even though I'm useless, and cowardly, and always causing trouble for people. But if I'm big brother's friend, then at least from now on, big brother won't be someone without friends anymore."
"This is the only thing I can do for you."
Kazama Chiba released his grip and showed a somewhat roguish smile, vigorously ruffling the girl's messy pink hair.
"Alright then. Since you're already my friend, I absolutely won't let you die. Understand?"
Kazama Chiba then explained his plan.
"Listen carefully, Michiyo. I have a method to get you out, but the process will be very painful. It might even turn you into a monster."
"So, as my good friend, are you willing to trust me?"
Good... friend...
Michiyo blankly repeated those words.
For her, these three characters were simply too heavy.
So heavy that she even forgot about their current predicament.
Those fears, that inferiority complex, that despair accumulated at the bottom of her heart—miraculously, they dissipated considerably in this moment.
So I can have this kind of relationship too?
Then that little girl who always hunched her shoulders with an apologetic "I'm sorry, it's my fault" expression showed a smile for the first time.
"Yes!"
She nodded emphatically and buried her small head in Kazama Chiba's chest.
"I trust big brother... as long as I'm with big brother, becoming a monster is fine too!"
"Phew..."
Kazama Chiba exhaled a breath of stale air.
In that case, there was nothing left to hesitate about.
"Hold onto me tight. It might be a bit cold and a bit painful. Either way, bear with it."
Just as he was about to recite the incantation to summon the Shadow Khan...
"Eh?"
Michiyo behind him suddenly made a confused sound of surprise.
"Um... big brother, why is your backpack glowing?"
"What?"
Kazama Chiba instinctively turned his head.
Glowing?
This bag contained nothing but the Book of Clow, along with some emergency rations and water.
The Book of Clow did have magical power, but it had never glowed on its own before.
And the Rat Talisman was currently in hibernation mode—it couldn't possibly cause this kind of commotion.
Filled with doubt, he stopped the motion of summoning the Shadow Khan and pulled the backpack around to his chest.
The instant he unzipped it...
"Hummm—"
A radiance carrying a sacred aura erupted from the backpack like a bursting dam.
The originally dim, lifeless underground space was instantly illuminated as bright as day by this brilliance.
Kazama Chiba instinctively squinted.
In that dazzling light, he saw the source.
That Sparklence lying quietly among the miscellaneous items was now erupting with radiance too blinding to look at directly.
"This..."
Kazama Chiba was completely stunned.
He instinctively looked toward the Book of Clow.
Confirmed repeatedly that the Rat Talisman was still in the Book of Clow, with no contact to the Sparklence.
Without the Rat Talisman driving it, this fake transformation device had somehow become real in this moment?
Looking at the brilliantly glowing Sparklence in his hand, Kazama Chiba fell into confusion.
This wasn't scientific.
Or rather, this was very unmagical.
When he'd forcibly activated the Sparklence with the Rat Talisman before, he couldn't transform into Tiga. So why was this thing activating on its own now?
Based on Kazama Chiba's understanding of the lore, to get the Sparklence to respond, either you had to be like Daigo with innate super-ancient DNA as a chosen one, or you had to be like those kids in the theatrical version with light in your heart.
And he happened to possess neither of these qualities.
"DNA... light in the heart... I clearly don't have either one."
Looking at the little girl beside him whose face was full of anticipation, an absurd speculation rose in Kazama Chiba's mind—even he found it ridiculous.
Could it be because of that conviction to let this girl survive that had caught the light's attention?
Even Kazama Chiba himself didn't quite believe it.
Urushihara Michiyo nearby hadn't noticed Kazama Chiba's extremely complex psychological turmoil.
As a hardcore tokusatsu fan (though she only watched to escape reality), she recognized what that glowing stick was at first glance.
"Big brother, this couldn't be... the Sparklence?!"
The little girl's eyes instantly went wide as saucers. Like she was witnessing a divine miracle, she extended one finger and carefully poked that mass of gentle white light.
"Big brother, you're actually Ultraman Tiga?!"
"Don't talk nonsense."
Kazama Chiba shook his head, trying to make this child sober up a bit—and himself too.
"I'm just an ordinary person. No super-ancient DNA, can't glow either."
"That's not true!"
Before he could finish, Michiyo suddenly shouted in loud objection.
This socially anxious girl who normally turned red just from talking to people was now displaying a surprising stubbornness.
"In the TV show, Daigo always says he's just an ordinary person too."
Kazama Chiba was still being stubborn.
"That's different. At least Daigo had that DNA inheritance thing. My body is pure-blooded Kamimizu City native."
But the girl continued. "But if big brother has Michiyo as a friend now, then you're not an ordinary person anymore!"
Kazama Chiba nearly threw his back out from that logical leap.
"What kind of reason is that? Are you indirectly praising yourself as very important?"
"N-no I'm not!"
Michiyo's small face instantly flushed red, like a small animal whose thoughts had been exposed.
But she didn't shrink back like usual. Instead, she stepped forward, those small hands gripping tightly onto the wrist where Kazama Chiba held the Sparklence.
"I'm saying... from my perspective, the fact that big brother is willing to become friends with a freak like me, willing to stay behind for a burden like me... just that inner kindness alone has already surpassed all ordinary people!"
"From the moment big brother decided not to abandon me... in my eyes, you're already more dazzling than any Ultraman!"
These words were too direct.
So direct that Kazama Chiba—this adult accustomed to protecting himself with sarcasm—couldn't find any weak points to counter with for a moment.
He looked at those bright, sparkling eyes of the girl.
There was no doubt in them, only pure trust.
As if saying: As long as it's you, you can definitely do it.
"You little..."
After a long while, Kazama Chiba sighed.
"You're really good at putting people on pedestals. Since you've said that much, if I keep being wishy-washy, won't I look pretty pathetic?"
"Then transform already!"
"Big brother, what are you waiting for?"
Michiyo suddenly pushed him forcefully, pointing toward the overhead sealed by massive boulders.
"Transform! Go beat that monster and protect the Earth!"
"..."
However, when it actually came to this step, Kazama Chiba hesitated instead.
The failure in his apartment last time was still vivid in his memory.
What if it didn't work this time either?
What if this radiance was just a flash in the pan?
"Are you afraid?"
Just then, a pair of warm little hands covered the back of his hand.
Michiyo was gripping his hand tightly, showing a brilliant smile.
"It's okay. Even if big brother doesn't have the qualifications, I can lend you my courage!"
"Even though I don't have much courage... I always shake when answering questions in class. But if it's for a friend, I can give it all to you!"
"Everything... I'll lend it to you!"
Kazama Chiba asked her, "Why?"
When Michiyo answered, her eyes seemed to contain light.
"Because I want to keep being friends with big brother forever from now on!"
"So please!"
"Let me become light together with you!!"
"..."
Looking at the serious Michiyo, Kazama Chiba suddenly laughed.
That's right. Things had already come to this point—who cares about the damn lore!
The Sparklence had already lit up on its own. What was there to be wishy-washy about?
Then he hesitated no longer. Raising the Sparklence high, he struck that classic pose engraved in his DNA.
"TIGA—!!!"
The Sparklence's wings spread open.
The next second, a dazzling pillar of light tore through the underground darkness, erupting upward with unstoppable momentum and shooting straight into the clouds.
A familiar voice rang out from within.
SHUWATCH!!