Zero didn't cancel his transformation. He stood still, carefully watching the ground, waiting to see where Fukude Kei might appear.
But just like Yu Zhou, who had already reverted back to human form, he didn't notice any movement at all.
"Hm?" Geed glanced at Yu Zhou on the ground, then at Zero beside him, both of them seemingly searching for something. He scratched his head in confusion.
"What are Zero and Senior Tiga looking for? Don't tell me… an Ultra Capsule?"
Speaking of Ultra Capsules, Riku had also checked with Laiha through RE.M.'s scans of the area. There was no trace of the Little Star's light here.
Normally, every time a monster appeared, it was because the Little Star's light had lured it over. But this time, no such light had appeared—
And yet three monsters had shown up at once!
It made no sense at all.
On the ground, Yu Zhou quickly circled the spot where the Spark Doll Killer had exploded, searching every corner nearby, but still couldn't find any trace of Fukude Kei.
"That guy runs pretty fast…"
With nothing to show for his efforts, Yu Zhou looked over at Zero, who was still standing where he was. He shook his head, signaling that he hadn't found anything.
Zero, seeing Yu Zhou's signal, immediately soared into the sky and disappeared into the clouds.
Geed, watching Zero leave, had no reason to stick around either. He leapt up and shot into the sky.
Left with no leads, Yu Zhou could only sigh helplessly. If only he had Asakura Sui's ability to track locations instantly—then taking down Fukude Kei would be a lot easier.
Or even better, if Yu Zhou himself had Sui's ability. That way, he'd be able to sense anything, anywhere. He could even use it when he returned to his own world, to know ahead of time what kind of crisis awaited it.
"It was just my misunderstanding." Leito sat down on the steps of a plaza, letting out a small sigh before smiling at Riku. "When I transformed into Zero, I felt so happy, like I had become a superstar."
Riku nodded in agreement, understanding the feeling.
"But… that was Zero's power." Leito's excitement slowly faded. "I was only borrowing Zero's strength. It wasn't really mine."
"I can't be an Ultraman." He turned his head toward Riku, apologetic. "Sorry. I spoke too casually before."
"I feel the same." Riku laughed sheepishly. "I used to underestimate the struggles of a salaryman's job."
"No way, my work is nothing but boring and ordinary." Leito shook his head.
"By the way, Leito," Yu Zhou cut in suddenly, "when you transformed into Zero, weren't you still at work?"
"Eh??"
Both Leito and Riku froze at Yu Zhou's question.
"Now that you mention it… yeah, that's true." Leito scratched his head in embarrassment and nodded at Riku.
"…Crap, I'm gonna get my pay docked again…"
Leito sighed helplessly. His salary wasn't that high to begin with, and on top of that, he was constantly losing money from wage deductions. His wife was a full-time housewife, and they had a daughter to raise.
"I'm really sorry!" Riku said awkwardly, unable to help. He was broke himself and couldn't support Leito either.
"It's fine." Leito smiled faintly. "Sacrifices are unavoidable when you're an Ultraman."
"But why do you push yourself so hard, Leito?" Riku asked after a pause, sighing. "Your job must be exhausting. If it weren't for Pega helping me, I couldn't handle mine at all."
"Because there are people I want to protect."
As he spoke, Leito looked down a few steps, where his daughter Mayu sat quietly blowing bubbles.
"Sorry to keep you waiting!" At that moment, a woman carrying groceries approached Mayu with a smile.
It was Mayu's mother—Leito's wife, Lumina.
"Thank you for helping us out!" Lumina bowed politely to the two women who had been watching Mayu.
Clearly, they had been looking after her daughter while she was away shopping.
Yu Zhou glanced at Lumina and froze.
She looked exactly like her TV counterpart—and more than that, she was the spitting image of Mizuki, from Ultraman Max!
In Max, Mizuki was the partner of Touma Kaito, Max's human host.
Could it be that parallel worlds sometimes produced identical people?
Lumina, identical to Mizuki, was now Leito's wife—and Leito was Zero's host.
That meant Zero had not only cuckolded Leito, but also Max?!
But then again, Yu Zhou had also seen something similar in the Ultraman X world—there was a man named Tamaki Tsukasa who looked exactly like Rena from his own Tiga world.
"Zero, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
Yu Zhou turned to Leito as he spoke.
"Hm? What is it?"
Leito took off his glasses, letting Zero assume control of his body. Zero's voice responded to Yu Zhou.
"Well, it's not anything too important… But you should know Max once stayed on Earth, right?" Yu Zhou asked.
"Yeah. Back when he served as a Planetary Observation Officer, he lived on Earth for a while," Zero nodded.
"And you know that during that time, Max shared his body with a human named Touma Kaito, right?" Yu Zhou pressed.
"I've heard of him. But after Max defeated Zetton Shin, he left Kaito and returned to the Land of Light," Zero confirmed.
"Then… do you know about Mizuki, Kaito's partner?" Yu Zhou asked, curious.
"Mizuki? That name I don't know. Never really looked into it." Zero shook his head, puzzled. "What about her? Was she special?"
Yu Zhou coughed awkwardly. "Not special in that sense… It's just that she looks exactly like Leito's wife, Lumina."
"…What?!"
Zero froze, feeling like he had just been accused of doing something terrible.
Leito quickly slipped his glasses back on, regaining control. He frowned at Yu Zhou. "Wait, Yu Zhou, did you just say that on another Earth, there's someone who looks exactly like my wife?"
"Yeah," Yu Zhou nodded.
"And that person is basically Ultraman Max's partner?"
"You could say that."
"…Oh my god…"
Leito's heart felt heavy for a moment. But after a brief silence, he realized the truth—
His wife was his wife. That other world's Mizuki was Mizuki. They were two different people with no connection.
Seeing Leito calm down, Yu Zhou didn't push the topic further. He had only wanted to ask if Zero knew about Mizuki's existence.
Riku, listening to their conversation, frowned slightly.
Yu Zhou knew so many things—details even Zero didn't know. He claimed to have only visited the Land of Light, but clearly there was more to his story.
"By the way, Zero… do you know who Tiga really is?" Riku suddenly asked Leito.
Leito removed his glasses again, letting Zero resurface.
"What's wrong?" Zero asked, surprised.
He knew that, for now, Riku didn't know Yu Zhou was actually Tiga. So why bring this up now?
"I saw Tiga in human form," Riku said seriously.
"Hm?" Yu Zhou's brow furrowed at that.
If Riku had discovered that he was Tiga, he would have confronted him directly—not said it this way to Zero.
Which meant Riku had indeed seen a human Tiga, but didn't realize it was Yu Zhou.
Zero picked up on this too. If Riku knew Yu Zhou was Tiga, he wouldn't have phrased it like this.
"What did he look like?" Zero asked curiously, feigning ignorance.
"Eh?" Riku blinked. "Wait… shouldn't you already know what Tiga looks like?"