Chapter 8: Is That How You Understand It?

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Tokyo, Mount Stonewing.

As the name suggests, this mountain was named for the presence of a Stonewing.

The night sky was studded with stars.

Beside the half-shattered Stonewing, a young boy watched the shifting heavens through his telescope, his face tense with anxiety. Perhaps it was fear, the dread of suddenly glimpsing some monster, that made him avert his gaze after only a short while. He looked instead at the Stonewing, sorrow etched into his childlike features.

In the ancient legends of this small town, the Stonewing was a miraculous stone that had fallen from outer space long ago.

From as far back as he could remember, Hiroki had always gazed at the sky, dreaming of a spaceship with Stonewings, soaring through the boundless universe. This telescope had been a gift from his uncle, Tatsumi Chiba, three years ago. Hiroki had named it Voyager One, a tribute to his childhood fantasies about the stars.

But recent events had filled him with a new fear of the night sky.

The news on television declared that the Root of Annihilation, foretold by the Alchemist Star, had finally begun its invasion of Earth.

Now, the sky above was no longer safe for humanity. At any moment, monsters could appear through wormholes and wreak havoc on the planet.

With this thought, Hiroki’s unease deepened. Dejected, he packed the telescope away.

Just then—

A faint golden light flared beside him, illuminating his face.

“Huh? What’s happening?”

Startled, he turned his head and saw the Stonewing glowing with a dazzling gold radiance!

“It’s… it’s glowing!”

His mouth dropped into an O of astonishment, eyes wide with disbelief.

The golden light felt warm, dispelling the unease in his heart.

Somehow emboldened, Hiroki’s curiosity overcame his fear. Instead of running, he observed the Stonewing intently.

Could it really be a spaceship?

With this thought, Hiroki took two hesitant steps forward and reached out to touch the Stonewing.

Nothing remarkable happened—aside from the glow, it seemed unchanged.

Yet, faintly, he thought he heard a sound from within, though he couldn’t make it out.

Instinctively, he pressed his ear closer to the Stonewing, just as a loud voice erupted:

“Damn it! Noah, you barbarian!”

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The shout was so loud that Hiroki stumbled back in terror, eyes fixed on the Stonewing in horror.

To encounter a talking stone in the dead of night—was this not a haunting?

Before he could recover, a vortex unfurled on the surface of the Stonewing.

A figure shot out from the swirling portal and landed with a thud on the ground.

As the Stonewing completed its transmission, its remaining energy spent, it vanished entirely once the figure emerged from the vortex.

Nearby, Hiroki’s face had gone deathly pale, his whole body quivering like a frightened quail, lips pressed tight to stifle any sound.

Though he’d glimpsed, by the golden light, that the figure from the vortex appeared to be a man, fear still gripped him.

The night was cloaked in utter darkness.

Time itself seemed to slow, the silence so profound that Hiroki could hear his own heartbeat.

After what felt like a long interval of stillness, Hiroki cautiously turned to sneak away.

“Hey, kid.” The voice came from the shadows—Jozhe.

Hiroki froze, rigid with fear.

There was a rustling behind him, then footsteps.

‘Oh no, oh no! It must be an alien!’

Hiroki’s body tensed, terror etched on his face, eyes squeezed shut as wild thoughts raced through his mind.

‘Is it going to capture me and take me into space?’

‘Goodbye, Mom. Tonight I set sail for the stars…’

The footsteps halted before him. Hiroki sensed someone standing just ahead, his anxiety mounting.

But nothing happened for a long while. When the expected abduction did not come, Hiroki dared to crack open his eyes.

Though the world was pitch black, Jozhe could see that the boy was terrified.

He adjusted the bundle in his hand and spoke gently, trying to reassure him: “Don’t be afraid. I’m a psychic. You dropped something.”

With that, a pale white glow emanated from his hand, illuminating the darkness like a lightbulb—a deft use of his ability to shape light.

Since the boy had already seen more than he should, Jozhe decided to improvise.

After all, glowing arms were not so strange for a psychic.

But, to Jozhe’s surprise, the boy’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted dead away.

“Uh… Am I really that scary?”

Jozhe glanced at his glowing arm, feeling rather satisfied with himself.

He surveyed his surroundings, taking in the unfamiliar terrain.

Clearly, this was a new world.

The old sage’s transmission had placed him on a deserted mountain.

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His luck, it seemed, was not the best—to run into a kid at this hour.

He looked down at the boy’s face. There was no sense of recognition; he was a stranger.

He pondered whether he ought to take the child down the mountain, when a distant cry rang out.

“Hiroki—Hiroki—”

It was a woman’s voice. Jozhe immediately extinguished the glow from his arm.

Children were easier to manage, but adults were prone to panic.

After a moment’s thought, he retreated quietly, whispering, “Noah, wake up!”

“My arrival was witnessed. Do you have a memory-erasing skill?”

“To avoid exposure, we need to erase his memory of seeing me.”

Ever cautious, Jozhe spoke with grave seriousness.

If no one remembers me, then I wasn’t exposed. jpg

Noah: “……”

The old sage lapsed into silence.

Really, was this something an Ultraman would say?

Noah felt obliged to correct him: “Jojo, he’s only a child!”

Noah’s solemn voice sounded in Jozhe’s mind, and after a moment’s thought, Jozhe understood.

His face lit up, and he asked eagerly, “So you do have a memory-clearing skill? Quick, how do I use it?”

Noah: “?”

Is that what you got from this?

“No!” Noah refused flatly, feeling the weight of responsibility for Jozhe’s education.

“Oh well.” Jozhe sighed, privately disappointed.

He was convinced Noah could do it, but simply refused out of principle.

The beam of a flashlight drew nearer.

By then, Jozhe had quietly slipped away, unseen, his gaze lingering on the scene.

In the darkness, a woman with a flashlight shook the boy awake: “Hiroki, Hiroki, why are you lying here?”

“Mom? There was—an alien! I saw an alien!”