Chapter Two: The Mysterious Crystal

On a deserted street corner, Tetsuya slipped his hand into his trouser pocket and carefully grasped a crystal nestled within. Warmth radiated from it at his touch. The crystal was about the size of a cellphone, flat and fitting perfectly in his pocket—when his hand entered, it closed around it securely.

“I’ve been in this world for three years now, haven’t I…” Raising his head to gaze at the bright sky, Tetsuya murmured to himself.

He wasn’t someone native to this dimension’s Earth; he was just an ordinary person, living in a certain universe, a man from the solar system’s Earth. Yet his life and identity had been transformed by that crystal. His original name was Lin Tetsuya, a late-blooming enthusiast obsessed with Ultraman—a solitary male creature. Who could have guessed that on Christmas Day, while he rewatched the Ultraman movie series alone in his room, something happened that he would never forget.

That night, the room’s lights flickered and then went out. Lin Tetsuya, unnerved by this uncanny event, noticed that the screen playing the Ultraman movie had gone completely dark. Then, a small white selection box appeared, hovering above the screen.

“The significance of light—are you willing to explore it?”

An ordinary person might have scoffed at such a melodramatic question, but as a deep Ultraman fan, Lin Tetsuya leapt from his seat at once. “Light”—a simple word, yet it represented infinite possibilities.

Lin Tetsuya often dreamed of becoming Ultraman, saving Earth and so forth, but he was clear that such things were impossible. Yet now, the question before him offered limitless imagination and potential.

Suppressing his excitement, he dragged his mouse and clicked the “confirm” button as quickly as possible. After waiting a moment, the only anomaly was the lights turning back on.

As Lin Tetsuya puzzled over whether he’d been targeted by some bored hacker, a knock suddenly sounded at his door, disrupting his peaceful, reclusive life. When he opened the door, he was met by a Santa Claus.

No, it was an elderly man dressed as Santa Claus. He handed Lin Tetsuya a crystal and immediately disappeared from sight. Lin Tetsuya instinctively accepted the crystal, returned to his seat full of confusion, and mulled over the event, unable to make sense of it.

Then, when midnight struck on Christmas Eve, dazzling white light suddenly shot from the gaps between his fingers. Lin Tetsuya quickly shielded his eyes with his free left hand and peered into the heart of the light to see what was happening. He saw that the crystal in his hand was the source of the radiance. As his gaze rested on it, a powerful suction began to draw him in, growing stronger and stronger. He struggled to hold himself back, but as the force intensified, he was inevitably pulled toward its center. Finally, the light faded, and his messy room was left completely empty.

When Lin Tetsuya regained consciousness, he discovered he had become a pilot—Naie Tetsuya.

Third Lieutenant Naie Tetsuya, assigned to the Seventh Air Squadron, 201st Flight Team, a rookie freshly inducted into the Air Self-Defense Force.

Lin Tetsuya was astonished to find himself fluent in Japanese and possessed a remarkable ease with flying; knowledge of aviation seemed etched into his mind. Over three years, he fully adapted to the identity of Naie Tetsuya, honing his piloting skills to rival the veterans. In his final year, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant and transferred by his superiors to the Seventh Air Squadron’s ace unit, the 204th Flight Team.

There, he met a man—Shunichi Maki.

Throughout those three years, Lin Tetsuya never ceased to explore the crystal, but always found himself at a loss. The only thing he knew was that the crystal’s light consistently strengthened his physical endurance and neural response speed. It was precisely for this reason he had been transferred to the ace unit.

Yet these things alone were not enough to determine the nature of his world. Today, Tetsuya finally understood his situation and confirmed his goal: in the world of Ultraman Nexus, there was only one giant. He must succeed in receiving the light from the Next—only then would the crystal reveal its true power. If he waited until Nexus appeared, who knew if he would even still exist in this world?

He took out the crystal from his pocket, thinking of the direction of the sun. Occasionally, the crystal would emit a glow. Tetsuya stared dazedly at it, his gaze seeming to pierce through the crystal into the future he knew lay not far ahead—three months from now.

In three months, Shunichi Maki of the Air Self-Defense Force, while investigating mysterious aerial phenomena, would collide with the red luminous “Red.” Miraculously surviving, Maki would be deemed dangerous by the special military agency BCST and subjected to forced confinement and surveillance due to the TheOne monster incident.

But all this would change because of him.

Smiling, Tetsuya returned the crystal to his pocket. Bathed in sunlight, he followed the crowd, gradually disappearing into the distance.

These days were his vacation. Returning home alone was nothing difficult for Tetsuya, who was used to solitude.

Late at night, Tetsuya lay in bed, unable to sleep. The thought of what would happen three months later kept him awake. He opened his eyes; moonlight spilled into the room, shrouding everything in a hazy glow.

Suddenly, he felt homesick. He wanted to visit China, but with his current identity, it was impossible. As a member of the Seventh Air Squadron’s ace team, the 204th Flight Team, he could never go to China under this guise—any hint would result in interrogation and imprisonment. He piloted an F15 fighter jet, and if he defected to China, it would be a grave matter for the United States and Japan; he would surely be assassinated by agents from both countries.

Shaking his head, Tetsuya mused, “If I became Ultraman, I suppose nothing would be a problem…”

“I wonder if, in this world’s China, there is a version of me…”

These thoughts only troubled him further, yet also intensified his anticipation for the arrival of TheNext in three months. He drew out the crystal, and under the moonlight, examined it closely. Suddenly he sensed a faint energy, as subtle as moonbeams, flowing from the crystal into his body. After three years of observation, Tetsuya knew this energy was continually improving his physique.

“If, during this flow of energy, my consciousness moved in reverse, could I enter the crystal’s world?”

The idea, suddenly leaping forth in his mind, excited Tetsuya. He focused his consciousness, feeling as if he were struggling upstream in a river, fighting against the current—an arduous effort lasting an indeterminate time. Abruptly, his mind cleared, and his awareness seemed to enter a space!

His consciousness entered a realm suffused with silver light. The first impression—vast, truly vast, limitless, stretching beyond sight. Surveying his surroundings, he saw nothing but a floating rhombic crystal-shaped luminous object overhead; all else was empty.

Tetsuya pondered for a while, then decided the answer lay within the rhombic crystal’s light. He concentrated, trying to probe it with his consciousness. Dimly, he perceived a light before his eyes, and suddenly torrents of information surged forth, imprinting themselves deep within his mind. The flood of data forced him out of the space; as he returned to his body, his brain’s self-protection mechanism triggered instant unconsciousness.

It was not until midday that Tetsuya shook his aching head and awoke from his coma, having dreamed a long dream. In it, he became Ultraman, fighting countless battles—those experiences seemed etched into his body, becoming instinct.

Sitting up in bed, he gazed at the crystal, lost in thought. Last night, when his consciousness entered the crystal, in that silver-lit space, as he tried to probe the rhombic crystal, a message had come directly to him:

“Host not detected possessing light…”

If “light” meant Ultraman, then the message plainly stated he had not yet become Ultraman and thus could not access the luminous object.

Thinking it over carefully, Tetsuya felt this conjecture was likely correct—the crystal’s true purpose could only be realized after he became Ultraman.

With this conclusion, Tetsuya was no longer anxious; instead, he grew more interested in the empty, silver-lit space itself. He had entered it when moonlight transmitted energy—so he wondered, would sunlight work as well? Experiment proved it did, but sunlight’s nature was utterly different from moonlight. Upon entering, Tetsuya felt his consciousness scorched, tormented beyond endurance.

Glancing at the calendar by his bedside, Tetsuya knew that after today, he would return to the squadron.

He suddenly found himself wanting to see Shunichi Maki again.