Ultraman Arbitrary Key: Dawn

"Thunk." The door to the seaside restroom opened, and Qi Ming emerged with a face as dark as storm clouds.

"Team Member Qi Ming, why did you...?"

Yamanaka had wanted to ask why Qi Ming had left at such a critical moment, but seeing the gloomy look on his face, he was too intimidated by his aura to speak.

Strange. Why were you so furious after using the restroom? Did you fall into the toilet or something?

Emi was also curious when she saw Qi Ming looking like he was about to explode. What was with that expression, like he had suffered some immense injustice?

If anyone should have been losing it, it should have been the Ultraman Warrior. Could Team Member Qi Ming be upset because he had missed that ridiculous scene while in the restroom? After all, he had not joined their discussion at the time.

Come to think of it, whenever Ultraman Warriors fought monsters, Team Member Qi Ming was always very quiet and almost never gave any real-time commentary...

Huh?

Could it be...

How could I have such an absurd idea? Haha...

After catching sight of Ryu Junya's swollen, battered face from the corner of his eye, Qi Ming took several deep breaths and stopped himself from losing composure.

Normally, he was someone who kept his emotions hidden. But the grief and indignation in his heart just now had rivaled "Zero being stuck at eight meters tall because Taiga Nozomu would not cooperate, then getting brutalized by two monsters," so he had nearly lost it.

"Team Member Emi, are you all right?" Having calmed down, Qi Ming asked about Emi's injuries. If he had not specifically told her to get the fish, she would not have been hurt.

If it had been Nagi Saijo instead, she probably would have delivered a clean counterkill.

Emi put her hands on her hips. "Don't underestimate me, Team Member Qi Ming. I passed the assessment too, so I'm a Defense Team member. What's a little injury like this?"

In her view, if she had not been ambushed, Ryu Junya might not necessarily have been able to beat her.

Qi Ming said, "That's good."

Emi asked, "What about you, Team Member Qi Ming? You looked a little down just now. Did something happen?"

Qi Ming began making excuses. "While I was in the restroom just now, I thought of Tekkadan's failure in Gundam and Captain Orga's death. I couldn't help feeling sad for them."

Emi said, "?"

Captain Orga's death had been so absurd, yet it could actually make Team Member Qi Ming empathize with him?

And why had he thought of that while using the restroom... Well, all right, that could be understood as the surroundings stirring his emotions.

Qi Ming pointed at Ryu Junya, who had been pulled ashore by the other soldiers and was receiving emergency treatment, with more than half his life gone. "Emi, how do you think we should deal with this guy?"

Emi thought that if they kept making a fuss, things would become hard to resolve. She quickly said that he had already been beaten by Team Member Yamanaka and had accidentally been swept into the sea. He was miserable enough already.

"Besides, based on what I know, his loss of control when facing monsters is understandable."

She said that Ryu Junya's younger sister had died in a monster disaster. Ever since then, his temperament had changed drastically, and he had become irreconcilably hostile toward every monster.

Qi Ming sneered. "Yamanaka is human, and his superior is human too. Yamanaka hit him just now, but would he dare take his anger out on his own superior?"

"At its core, it's still that old 'getting hurt by a tiger and taking revenge on a cat' routine. Being hurt yourself is not a reason to hurt others."

At that moment, Mamoru Shirogane came over and told Qi Ming to stop while he was ahead and not continue any further.

He said that the Defense Force, like TPC, hoped for peace. They were comrades-in-arms, and one day the two sides would surely come to understand each other.

"Understand? All he can do is straighten out his own prejudices." Qi Ming looked at Ryu Junya and continued sneering.

In the original Chaos Ultraman series, when Ryu Junya had been about to finish off a badly wounded monster, Musashi stopped him, and the two had this exchange.

Musashi said, "I understand the pain of losing your sister, but not all monsters are bad. Humans and monsters can definitely coexist."

Ryu Junya roared, "I don't want that! I just want to destroy it! I'll never forgive monsters. I have to kill it with my own hands!"

That level of obsession was already close to, if not beyond, Nagi Saijo's.

Qi Ming was not Musashi, who had even been willing to forgive the Chaos Virus. He would not give Ryu Junya a chance like in the original story. He would never tolerate a single rotten orange.

Qi Ming said, "He has to pay the price."

Mamoru Shirogane said, "Of course mistakes should be punished, but the punishment has to fit. You can't sentence someone to death for littering, right?"

"Besides, you did not suffer any substantial harm, and wasn't the matter resolved satisfactorily?"

He once again tried to persuade him earnestly, saying that the essence of Ryu Junya's "causing trouble" just now had been his hope that the two monsters would kill each other and reduce Ultraman's burden. He regarded Ultraman as a comrade from the same camp.

Qi Ming smiled. "I'm actually a very kind person. It doesn't necessarily have to be the death penalty. It's just that the current punishment isn't enough to make him remember the lesson in the future."

Considering that Ryu Junya had fired a shot at Chaos Ultraman during his second appearance in the original story, kindhearted Qi Ming was willing to spare his life so as not to make Mamoru Shirogane lose face.

But whenever he remembered what he had seen and smelled inside Rayloas's mouth, a wave of nausea came over him.

Getting pounded a dozen or so times by Rayloas and Anguirus was fine. He barely felt any pain now anyway.

Mamoru Shirogane thought, Isn't this enough? The man already had more than half his life beaten out of him.

"Captain, are you saying you'll cover my compensation for emotional distress on his behalf?" Qi Ming asked.

Mamoru Shirogane said, "Do you have any wishes? I'll do my best to fulfill them. How about giving you some extra vacation time?"

Vacation? Wasn't that something he gave himself whenever he wanted?

Qi Ming shook his head. "Give me my phone... Oh, no, give me my crutch."

Not understanding why, Mamoru Shirogane handed him the crutch and braced himself against a nearby trash can to keep his balance.

After taking the crutch, Qi Ming headed toward the Defense Force's position. Ryu Junya's subordinates had already given him emergency treatment, and his life was temporarily out of danger.

When they saw Qi Ming approaching, those people immediately became tense.

They were elite soldiers selected from special forces, yet even now, they could not figure out how Qi Ming had removed their magazines.

Seeing Qi Ming staring thoughtfully at Ryu Junya lying on the ground, one soldier said, "You... don't do anything reckless. If you do this, you'll start a war between us and TPC."

At those words, the Defense Team members who had followed him over were stunned as well. They all wanted to urge Qi Ming that it was about time to stop.

"War?" Qi Ming smiled disdainfully and raised the crutch in his hand. "I want to give him a gift."

One soldier muttered upon seeing that, "There's no need for that. Our commander isn't crippled like your captain..."

Nagi Saijo's gaze instantly turned cold and razor-sharp.

Qi Ming smiled. "He'll need one very soon."

"Stop!" Mamoru Shirogane had already guessed what Qi Ming intended to do.

Qi Ming viciously raised the crutch in his hand and brought it down hard on Ryu Junya's right leg.

"Crack." The crisp sound of bone breaking rang out.

Ryu Junya's right leg was broken.

Even though he was still unconscious, Ryu Junya instinctively convulsed.

Under everyone's dumbfounded stares, Qi Ming tossed the crutch onto him. "When he wakes up, help me pass along a message—when you see me, Qi Ming, in Japan from now on, keep your head down and behave yourself!"

"Emi, come on. I'll go with you to the medical room and have you checked out." After doing all that, Qi Ming beckoned to Emi.

Emi had wanted to emphasize again that such a minor injury was nothing, but faced with the imposing Qi Ming at that moment, she obediently followed him.

Dozens of elite Defense Force soldiers did not dare chase after them. They could only stare blankly as Qi Ming left.

"Clap clap clap!" For some reason, Yamanaka began applauding Qi Ming's retreating back with all his might.

"What are you doing?!" Kishida jumped in fright.

Yamanaka said, "I don't know why, but I just really want to applaud!"

The next moment, the TPC security personnel who had originally come to maintain order also began applauding Qi Ming's departing figure in unison.

Kishida hesitated for a moment before joining in. Nagi Saijo began clapping as well, the sound sharp and ringing.

The Defense Force soldiers felt as though the thunderous applause were slapping them across the face, making them wish they could crawl into a crack in the ground.

After getting into the vehicle, Qi Ming fastened the seat belt for the injured Emi and instructed the other team members staying behind to handle the aftermath through the communicator:

"Don't forget those children who broke into the restricted area. A simple scolding and lesson won't be enough."

"Find their parents and teachers, and make sure their deeds are properly publicized in front of the whole school."

Emi said, "If you do that, those kids will be ostracized by their classmates."

In Japan, that would lead to bullying.

Qi Ming said, "Not sending them to juvenile detention was already merciful enough."

The argument that "they're just children, why bother with them?" did not work on him.

That night, Ryu Junya's superior, the scum of a human being from Chaos Ultraman—Officer Saijo—directly contacted Chief of Staff Gondo.

He lodged a fierce protest and demanded that those who had attacked his subordinate be handed over.

Officer Saijo said, "You fought in territory under our Defense Force's jurisdiction. Not only did you refuse to accept our command, you even ambushed our soldiers. This is going too far!"

Chief of Staff Gondo had already received the report. He immediately brushed him off with evasive pleasantries, while inwardly bursting with delight.

The Defense Force had always believed that it inherited the legacy of Japan's military establishment, possessed deep foundations, and had well-trained personnel. It had always looked down on the newly established TPC, claiming that TPC lacked "Showa spirit."

And what happened? Wasn't your Showa spirit still smashed to pieces by Qi Ming?

After talking in circles for a while, Chief of Staff Gondo said, "As far as I know, your subordinate was disarmed by our Defense Team member Qi Ming in a direct confrontation."

Officer Saijo on the other end became even more furious. "What do you mean by that? Are you saying our Defense Force is inferior to your TPC?"

Chief of Staff Gondo said, "If you insist on extrapolating from a small matter and raising it to that level, then I have nothing to say."

"You!" Officer Saijo was nearly furious enough to burst a lung.

After his subordinate, Officer Smith, had inexplicably fallen from a building, the relationship between the Defense Force and the Americans had suddenly grown much colder.

Now that this had happened too, he felt incomparably stifled.

"See you at the next joint military exercise. Under the scrutiny of so many media cameras then, let's see what tricks you can pull!"

With that final threat, Officer Saijo ended the communication.

The joint military exercise was an alternative sort of "competition" regularly held between TPC and the Defense Force.

On the surface, it was advertised as "sparring and exchange, competing with and encouraging each other to improve."

But judging from how both sides invited large numbers of media outlets, it was clearly meant to show the public "whose soldiers were more outstanding, more worthy of the citizens' trust, and had the brighter future."

Yet unexpectedly, the final winner of the Defense Force's internal selection was not Ryu Junya, whom Officer Saijo had favored.

He was eliminated by a soldier named Hirota, who had suddenly begun to shine.

Of course, that was a story for later.