Chapter Two: The Flower of Qijiela

Above the city of Kumamoto, shrouded in night mist, Yue Longze flew through the air, struggling to control his body and suppress the surging urge to destroy.

“That is…!”

On the ground, Daigu stared in shock, eyes fixed on the vague shadow in the night sky.

Yue Longze’s head throbbed with pain. In the last shred of lucidity, he willed himself to disperse, transforming into countless black specks of light that faded into the darkness above.

On the streets below, the crowd had descended into madness, fighting one another like a mob without sense or order.

The chaotic noise of the crowd roused Yue Longze from his stupor.

“Where am I…” Clutching his head, Yue Longze felt his mind still clouded. Fortunately, his will was strong, and his unwavering desire to become a warrior of justice had not yet succumbed to the invading darkness.

“Give me the Kijella pollen~ I need Kijella pollen~”

“The pollen is mine!”

Similar cries echoed continuously from the throng.

Yue Longze suddenly sobered, his heart pounding.

“How…how can this be?”

He was bewildered. According to his understanding of the story, the emergence of R’lyeh Island meant the world had already experienced the battle with the evil deity Gatangeje, and was nearing its end.

But before him now was a scene that should have taken place before Gatangeje’s appearance!

Yue Longze took out the Dark Spark Stick from his pocket, staring at it in confusion as he wandered aimlessly through the city.

Around him, people intoxicated by Kijella pollen’s bliss fought desperately for the last traces of pollen under the night sky. Though they knew dawn would bring a fresh bloom, they could not endure even a moment without it—the pleasure was too exquisite.

“Strange, Daddy, that big brother doesn’t seem to have ever entered the wonderful dream world,” a little girl’s voice piped up behind him.

“Huh?” Yue Longze turned warily to see a girl in something like surgical attire standing behind him, with a man dressed the same at her side.

The girl blinked her wide eyes, studying him curiously.

“She’s that cyborg kept alive by Kijella pollen extract…” Yue Longze recognized them both at once, his familiarity with the story serving him well.

“I don’t need such dreams,” he replied quietly, touching the Dark Spark Stick through his clothes. “No matter how beautiful, a dream is still just a dream.”

“You’re a strange one—just like that Daigu guy,” the girl muttered, pouting, while her father merely smiled and led her away by the hand.

Yue Longze paid them no mind. He was determined to find out what had happened to this world, for the storylines of R’lyeh Island and Kijella were now in conflict. He had to understand why.

———

“Who was that giant just now?”

On the other side of the street, Daigu was deeply troubled. If another person with a twisted heart like Masaki Keigo appeared, things would only grow more perilous.

A strange buzzing came from Daigu’s Spark Stick. He drew it out and saw it flashing with a peculiar light.

…

Elsewhere, Yue Longze also sensed an anomaly from his own Dark Spark Stick. Drawing it out, he saw it was flashing continuously, as if pointing the way, or perhaps resonating with another stick.

“Could it be Daigu?” Yue Longze looked thoughtfully behind him.

…

Guided by their respective Spark Sticks, Yue Longze and Daigu walked toward the source of the light.

Bang!

“Ow! That hurt!”

Yue Longze, head down, collided with a passerby and fell to the ground.

“You’re…”

Daigu, seeing the young man he’d accidentally knocked over, instinctively reached to help, but then noticed the Dark Spark Stick in Yue Longze’s hand.

“Shinjaku Daigu?”

Yue Longze forgot his soreness, astonished by the man in the GUTS uniform before him.

“You…you know me?” Daigu was equally surprised.

“Uh, well, I’m just very familiar with the Victory Team, so…”

Yue Longze instinctively hid the fact that he was a traveler from another world.

“Oh. I see…” Daigu nodded, then continued, “But that thing in your hand… you were the giant in the sky just now, weren’t you!”

“That’s right. The black giant was me.” Since Daigu had already seen the Dark Spark Stick, Yue Longze decided not to hide that he was the Dark Tiga.

“The people of this world are all lost in the dream brought by Kijella pollen,” Daigu said gravely. “We have to save them from this false happiness!”

Clenching his fists, Daigu’s hatred for Kijella was palpable.

“To save humanity…” Yue Longze murmured. Having just crossed into the Ultraman world, he now stood shoulder to shoulder with Daigu, fighting to save humankind. Even though this had always been his dream, the reality was overwhelming.

“The fate of humanity rests in our hands!” Mistaking Yue Longze’s hesitation, Daigu gripped his shoulders, his voice filled with emotion.

“Then let us save the Earth!” Yue Longze recovered and answered firmly.

Satisfied, Daigu smiled and nodded, then raised his Spark Stick, transforming into Tiga and soaring towards the massive Kijella standing on the plain.

Yue Longze raised his Dark Spark Stick and transformed as well. For the first time, he forgot the corrosive influence of darkness and transformed with a heart full of light.

A black figure appeared above Kumamoto, following closely behind the Tiga that Daigu had become.

This time, with his heart leaning towards light and the will to protect, Yue Longze was able to resist the darkness.

Flying ahead, Daigu glanced back and nodded to him. Yue Longze responded with a nod of his own.

With a thunderous crash, the two giants landed on the earth, sending turf and stones flying and a deafening roar across the sky.

Standing on the ground, they sized each other up with curiosity.

Daigu wondered why, aside from the color, this giant looked exactly like Tiga. Yue Longze, meanwhile, was overcome with excitement at seeing Tiga up close for the first time.

“It’s Tiga!”

Among the crowd below, waiting eagerly for Kijella to spread pollen again, someone cried out.

“Is Tiga and that black giant here to inhale the pollen too?”

...

Facing a monster for the first time, Yue Longze’s blood surged. He clenched his fists and charged straight ahead.

His heavy silver fist smashed down on the slumbering Kijella, jolting the monster awake.

“I never thought Tiga and this giant would intervene in humanity’s choices,” remarked the cyborg girl's father, standing beneath a gleaming flying saucer in the distance, holding her hand.

Suddenly, two fleshy tentacles shot out, striking Yue Longze squarely in the chest.

Reacting quickly, Daigu fired a small energy beam at Kijella.

“No, Ultraman! Please spare our Kijella!” the crowd below shouted, desperate to protect the source of their euphoria.

Hearing their pleas, Daigu’s milky white eyes flickered towards the people. He hesitated, then turned back and resumed his attack on Kijella.

Yue Longze’s fighting skills were clumsy, but his body’s battle instincts saw him improving rapidly.

With a hideous lurch, the monstrous bud at Kijella’s center split open, revealing a maw dripping with foul slime. It spewed a cloud of Kijella pollen straight at Yue Longze, while Daigu, seasoned by experience, deftly dodged the attack.

The pollen cloud struck Yue Longze, dizzying him and clouding his mind as it gnawed at his will.

Kijella’s slimy tentacles seized the opportunity to wrap around his ankles, hoisting him upside down and sending powerful surges of strange yellow electricity through his body, wracking him with pain.

Daigu, preparing to sever the tentacles with an energy blast, was struck on the head by another tentacle with lightning speed and crashed heavily to the ground.

Above, in the pitch-dark sky, the Victory Team’s second jet sped towards the battlefield.

“Shinjo, are you ready to support the giants?” Rina asked, gripping her controls tightly.

Though the black giant was unfamiliar, his actions made it clear he stood on the side of justice.

“Though Kijella’s pollen is intoxicating, I’d rather face the harshness of reality!” Shinjo declared, hammering the trigger for the Texas Laser.

A golden beam, thick as a bowl, shot out and cleanly sliced through the tentacle binding Yue Longze, severing it instantly.

Freed, Yue Longze flipped backward with agility and began to gather the Dark Zeperion Ray.

Daigu, seeing this, also began to charge the Zeperion Ray. Two brilliant beams surged at Kijella, overwhelming the monster with destructive force, burning it to nothing, not even roots left behind.

Night fell over the earth, and two mighty figures stood tall against the darkened land—one radiant, one shrouded in shadow. The colorless timer on the chest of the black giant continued to flash.

High above, the figures of the cyborg father and daughter slowly faded from sight.

“Thank you, Tiga,” the father said with a gentle smile.

“I’m sorry…I never meant for you to die, too…” Daigu’s voice was thick with guilt. With Kijella’s destruction, the father and daughter, who depended on its pollen extract to survive, would also perish. Yue Longze turned to Daigu, unsure of what to say.

“It’s all right, Tiga. Because of you, and that black giant, we now understand what true life is,” the father said, still smiling as he held his daughter’s hand. A sudden gust of wind swept past, and their forms vanished without a trace…