What does it mean that the group members have given me back the light?

"Superpowers?"

Gu Nuo was slightly taken aback.

Superpowered person... This is a term that is not unfamiliar to him.

Gu Nuo knew that the third host before him, Qian Shuling, was an artificial human created by the "Son of Prometheus" project and was originally intended to be a superhuman to fight against alien beasts.

Seeing that the other party had some minor misunderstandings about his background, Kirino Makio shook his head but didn't explain much:

"The voices in people's hearts, things that are about to happen, things that people cannot see... I can see all of these, they have nothing to do with my will... such as your true face."

"I don't understand."

Gu Nuo didn't care about the last sentence in the other person's words; he just looked intently into Kirino Makio's eyes:

"Since you have such power, then why didn't you protect your daughter just now?"

"...Some futures...cannot be changed, just like what happened earlier."

Kirino Makio said, as he met Gu Nuo's gaze directly:

"And... that's what I want you to see too."

"I want to ask you, Ultraman, after seeing humans like that, do you think there's still any need to save humanity?"

"???"

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The superpowered user in episode 39 of Ultraman Tiga, titled "Hello, Ultraman".

Chapter Twenty: No, buddy? Here we go again?

The man in the wheelchair tilted his head slightly, sunlight dancing on his glasses.

"From a very early age, I often stood at a distance, watching you fight demons and bravely protect humanity. You are the righteous Ultraman who defend human peace."

"To be honest, I didn't like you guys at first."

"People see you as monsters, enjoying your protection while coveting your power by any means necessary. So, what are you fighting for? — I presumptuously believe the answer is 'self-satisfaction'."

"Because this is a phase I went through. My experience is similar to yours. As a superpowered person, I was once feared and even bullied by people who couldn't understand my power."

"At that time, I also tried to do some good deeds within my ability. I naively thought that as long as I continued like this, someone would eventually understand me and recognize me."

“I didn’t make it to that point, so like looking in a mirror at my past foolish self, I think you will give up sooner or later.”

"But I was wrong."

At this point, Kirino Makio paused slightly:

"That ray of light, even when it was severely injured, stood in front of the lights of thousands of homes, which suddenly changed my mind."

Gu Nuo listened in silence, knowing which battle the other person was referring to.

That was the second host, Jun Himeya, who, after being injured in the battle against the demon-type alien beast Garbelos, fought against the invisible alien beast Gruglem three times in one day despite his injuries. In that final battle, Jun Himeya's red youth form was so badly injured that he could hardly maintain the existence of the Meta Domain.

"It's unbelievable that there are people like this in the world—even after the battle, when he was so badly injured that he couldn't stand up, his first reaction wasn't to be glad he survived, but to regret why he hadn't saved more innocent people."

Kirino Makio looked up at the sky, the flowing cloud shadows reflected in his glasses, as if telling a story of his bewilderment:

"Why did he go to such lengths? He had done his best, even burning his own life, but he never thought of anyone acknowledging or understanding him... In the end, all he got in return was being kidnapped by an organization called TLT after this battle and subjected to human experiments that stopped his heartbeat."

"I didn't understand, but I breathed a sigh of relief after he managed to escape the lab."

Kirino Makio gently turned his wheelchair, letting the sunlight fall on his knees:

“Right after that, I continued to observe you and began to try to do something.”

"When the first ray of light disappeared into the darkness, and we rallied again—I revealed my superpower and evacuated the people who would otherwise have died at the hands of the monster."

"After the second ray of light shone its last brilliance in the sunset—I adopted a girl named Xiao Kui, whose parents died at the hands of monsters... and she looked a lot like me."

"And while the third ray of light battled an utterly invincible opponent for a full day and night..."

Kirino Makio suddenly lowered his head, gripping the armrests of his wheelchair tightly, veins bulging: "I've lost my legs."

Gu Nuo: "..."

"The Memory Police erased the memories of the monsters from the people I saved, but for some reason, the fact that I have superpowers is imprinted in their minds."

Kirino Makio's voice was low and hoarse: "They blamed me for the damage to the house and property. Those people... forgot about the monster, but remembered that 'a superpowered person caused the disaster'."

“My home was set on fire, and my mailbox was filled with threatening letters… Finally, those people even signed a petition demanding that the government put me in a special detention center.”

“I never expected anything in return from them.”

Kirino Makio's voice suddenly rose a little. He looked up at the silent boy in front of him: "But when I saw those people I had saved holding up signs that said 'Monsters, get out'..."

He raised his hand, sunlight streaming through his trembling fingertips: "I really don't understand, Ultraman, do humans like this really deserve your life-risking protection?"

The silence was deafening.

After a long pause, Gu Nuo finally spoke in response.

“Actually, you didn’t need to use your daughter as an example to show me these things,” he said.

"...What did you say?" Kirino Makio was slightly taken aback.

"I mean, I will try to think about the problem you mentioned."

Gu Nuo paused for a moment, and after waiting in place for a short while, he took out a stone from his pocket.

"But before that, please protect your daughter."

Upon reaching the other side, to Kirino Makio's puzzled gaze, the simple yet spirited horse on the stone gradually glowed with a soft white light...

……

……

"Um... what's wrong, Gu Nuo?"

On the way to the same tram station, Anna observed Gu Nuo's expression and asked cautiously.

"I'm thinking about a question that's a bit beyond my level."

With a slight sigh, Gu Nuo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

He felt that such a question should not be answered by a 17-year-old high school student like himself.

Gu Nuo felt sorry for Kirino Makio, a superpowered individual. Makio had performed good deeds because he was moved by the experiences of his senior, Himeya Jun. However, when he experienced something similar to Himeya Jun's, he fell into a deep abyss of self-doubt.

Yes, self-doubt.

He believed that at the moment Kirino Makio raised this question, what was questioning him deep down was not just Gu Nuo in front of him, but the self that had once been moved by the light.

Gu Nuo did not compare the severity of the experiences of Ji Yajun and Kirino Makio because it was meaningless. The kind of fate where good people don't get good rewards cannot be convinced by who suffered more.

But Gu Nuo wouldn't stop fighting because of this issue; one thing is one thing.

Unaware that Anna was looking at him with a hesitant expression, Gu Nuo, lost in thought, parted ways with her at the train station and soon returned home.

He had barely sat down, not even warmed the chair, when a private message suddenly came through the chat group.

[The ultimate elbow striker: Nono, I want to ask you something.]

[The Ultimate Elbow Strike Master: What would you do if one day the person you saved ended up hurting even more people?]

No, buddy?

Again?

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Chapter Twenty-One: The Cursed Spirit and the Boy

Let's rewind to half a day earlier, to the world of sorcery.

"Now, let's review the whole incident again."

"On Monday at 10:10 a.m., three bodies were found inside the Impression Cinema."

"The three deceased were wearing school uniforms from a nearby high school and were suspected to be high school students. The heads of their bodies showed extremely unnatural deformities. An investigation confirmed that it was caused by a cursed spirit."

"However, the traces left by the cursed spirit at the scene were interrupted midway, and what remained not far from the scene was only the trap left by the cursed spirit—two aggressive humans who were transformed by curse magic and resembled the cursed spirit."

The middle-aged man driving the car, wearing glasses, adjusted his glasses, his fingertips lightly tapping the steering wheel. His gaze, fixed on the lone boy walking not far ahead through the windshield, continued driving.

"Right now, our only lead is the person present who was a suspected witness watching the same movie as the three deceased—Yoshino Junpei… who is the one we are currently tracking."

Ijichi glanced briefly at the rearview mirror, confirming Hisahito Itadori's expression.

"And then what? What should we do?" asked Yuujin Itadori, sitting in the back row. He leaned over the gap in the middle of the front row, staring at the boy's back in the distance, and gripped the octagonal stone in his hand.

"use this."

Ijichi reached out and tapped the small cage on the passenger side. Inside the cage, a yellow creature—a miniature frog with wings—was baring its teeth and shaking the bars, making a soft "squeak" sound.

"Is this... a cursed spirit?" Yuujin Itadori scratched his head and asked.

"Fly Head, a low-level curse below level four. When we find a secluded place, release it and let it attack Yoshino Junpei."

Meeting Itadori Yuuji's astonished gaze, which seemed to say, "Huh? Using a cursed spirit on an ordinary person? Is that even possible?", Ijichi spoke calmly, as if discussing the weather:

“Scenario 1: If he is an ordinary person who cannot see the curse, please save him.”

"Scenario two: If he can see the curse but doesn't know how to deal with it, please save him and then ask him about the events of that day."

"Please provide the third option: if he uses magic to exorcise the cursed spirit..."

He tapped the steering wheel lightly with his fingers, paused for a second, and said, "Then please, Mr. Itadori... arrest him on the spot."

"...If there's anything wrong, then apologize, right...? I understand."

Yuji Itadori was silent for a moment, then twitched the corner of his mouth and muttered something under his breath.

The images of those humans who were twisted into monsters, struggling in agony before their deaths, still haunted his mind.

I feel a little sorry for that boy, but this is the only thing I can do now.

He already had the horse talisman he borrowed from Nono in his hand. If it really had the magical effects shown in the anime, then Yuujin Itadori believed that if there were still humans who had been transformed into cursed spirits, there was a possibility of saving them by relying on the power of this talisman.

……

……

Yoshino Junpei spent his high school years being bullied.

He wasn't sure when it started. Was it a chance misreading the air? A mistake in gym class? A refusal to help a classmate cheat? Or perhaps... he hadn't actually done anything wrong.

Perhaps malice never needs a reason, just as raindrops never choose where they land when they hit the ground.

The rotting flesh of memory festers between his teeth: mud-covered sneakers stomping into his eyelids, the crackling sound of cockroaches breaking between his molars, the close-up shot they took with a flash when a cigarette butt burned through his hair... But what remains in his mind now is the distorted, unrecognizable corpses of those people in the movie theater.

Humans do not have hearts; what humans possess is only something called a "soul."

'They always see the unseen as something extraordinary, but to me, who can see the soul, it's no different from the body—it simply exists.'

The man who had done all this spoke with a voice as sweet as honey, his fingertips gently stroking Shunping's hair, which was curled by cigarette butts.

Life has no value or weight, just as water is to the heavens and earth; life is merely a cycle within that space.

'I'm just like you, meaningless and worthless.'

Therefore, we are free.

The flickering lights cast the silhouette of a smiling man onto the mottled wall, its shadow writhing like a living pool of asphalt.

'No matter what Shunping does, I will approve of you.'

Yoshino Junpei stood in the shadows of his detached house, savoring the rotten sweetness of the man's breath. His words, like tiny insects crawling into his ear canal, somehow gave him an irresistible urge.

Will you approve of me no matter what I do?