The room fell silent. The only sound was Anlan's breathing.
He took a deep breath, felt his heart pounding faster in his chest, and tightened his grip on the Spark Lens.
Recalling a pose that had almost faded from his memory, he suddenly swept his arm forward and raised it above his head. In a furtive whisper, he said,
"Ultraman Tiga—transform!"
The room remained silent.
An awkward sound echoed through the air before fading away.
Anlan held the Spark Lens aloft. Its crystal-clear surface shimmered beautifully in the light.
But it didn't shine with the brilliant radiance he'd imagined, and no miracle occurred.
Still holding the rather embarrassing transformation pose, Anlan blinked.
His excitement deflated like a balloon pricked by a needle.
He looked up at the unresponsive Spark Lens in his hand. His face twitched, and he took another deep breath before striking the pose again.
"It must be the pose, or the transformation call. Anlan, put that clever brain of yours to work and think carefully..."
Anlan froze as he remembered the conditions for transforming into Ultraman Tiga.
One of them was the "light-gene factor" left on Earth by the Ultramen—in other words, the genetic material of the ancient warriors.
"Damn it!"
He finally couldn't hold back a curse.
"Even childhood heroes care about bloodlines? Figures. Another work from the Land of the Rising Sun. Ordinary people aren't worthy of being heroes, huh!"
Anlan swore bitterly and lowered his arms in frustration, giving up on messing around.
He held the Spark Lens and teleported back to the building's lobby, where he sat down on the sofa.
As his fond childhood memories crumbled into disappointment, his mind raced.
"I remember that when Tiga fought the evil god Gatanothor, children all over the world became light and saved him."
"Does that prove this gene could be lurking in all humans, and Daigo just made it manifest?"
"But that doesn't help me. I'm a 'vegetable' in the Naruto world. I don't have a single bit of Ultraman Earthling DNA. Did I really draw an expensive piece of scrap metal?"
"Even a GUTS fighter jet would be better than this."
Anlan shook his head, abandoning the idea of finding a shortcut. He poured the power of his Sharingan into the Spark Lens.
His chakra-like ocular power flowed into it endlessly, like mud sinking into the sea, without stirring so much as a ripple.
But he could feel the Spark Lens absorbing his power and accumulating energy.
"...Don't tell me this thing needs three years to charge, only to last three minutes when it matters?"
Just as Anlan was staring at the Spark Lens in disbelief, Daju called out from the kitchen.
"Young master, your late-night snack is ready!"
He set the Spark Lens on the tea table in the living room and got up to head toward the fragrant kitchen.
Sleepy-eyed Daju watched the "wicked master" enjoying his late-night snack, licked his paws, then swayed back into the living room.
The cat leaped onto the sofa with practiced ease. Just as he was about to curl up and resume his interrupted dream, a glint reflected from something on the tea table caught his eye.
"Hmm? What's this, meow?"
Daju tilted his head and curiously leaned in for a closer look.
Beneath the warm yellow light, the Spark Lens lay quietly on the table, radiating a mysterious, sacred aura that somehow felt familiar to the cat.
"Is this the young master's new toy? What a strange shape, meow."
Anlan had drawn all kinds of strange toys from the New World through the Cyan-White Stone Gate.
And knowing how steady his young master was, Daju naturally assumed that anything he left in the living room couldn't be dangerous.
He stretched out his furry paw and pressed the whole pad against it—
At that very moment, the Spark Lens lit up with a soft, pure radiance. Its light flowed and flickered gently, as if it were alive.
Daju froze, then grabbed the Spark Lens in both paws and waved it around aimlessly, tilting his head as he inspected it.
Before long, unmistakable disappointment appeared on his round feline face.
"It doesn't make a nice sound, and the light isn't bright or flashy enough..."
He muttered under his breath, his ears drooping. "Ayan definitely wouldn't like a toy like this. It's a failure, meow."
In the open-plan dining room, Anlan sat at the table, staring blankly at his fat cat as he waved the glowing Spark Lens around like a cat wand—
The sight was so shocking that Anlan felt as if his eyes were deceiving him!
"Holy crap! Does Daju have Earthling genes? Is he the chosen child of justice? Is he going to transform into Ultraman Tiga?!"
"Does this make any sense?! A cat that licks people turning into a righteous, majestic Giant of Light?!"
"Could this... be the true meaning of light—love?!"
Anlan was stunned.
"What about me?"
"I'm the future clan leader of the Great Love Clan! Are my capacity and my 'love' really inferior to a cat's?!"
Remembering how the Cyan-White Stone Gate had described the item—"Love is a beam of light"—Anlan was so shocked he could barely speak.
The thought that Daju might become "light" filled him with misery.
His cherished childhood dream, treasured for years... had just been stolen by a fat cat with nothing but female cats on his mind!
"Calm down. I have to stay calm!"
"Think it through. If Daju really can become a 'Tiga Jinchūriki,' that might not be a bad thing for the clan or for me. It'd be another trump card to keep up our sleeve."
Anlan chewed his late-night snack without tasting it as he thought.
"Besides, it's no big deal! It's just an Ultraman. I can slap a Susanoo over him, and he'll take off!"
"I, Anlan, am invincible!"
Anlan watched in trepidation as Daju pawed at the glowing divine artifact. His heart leapt and sank with every sway of the Spark Lens.
He was afraid that in the next second, the chubby cat would let out a classic "Heh—cha!", smash through his ceiling, and shoot into the night sky as a streak of light.
The feeling of watching his cherished "moonlight" get defiled by his own cat was just... unbearable!
At last, Anlan watched Daju put the Spark Lens back on the table and fall asleep on the sofa. He couldn't resist teleporting into the living room and picking it up.
The moment his fingertips brushed the Spark Lens, a strange feeling welled up inside him.
It seemed to be calling to him?
"What is this supposed to be?"
"Did it go from being devoted only to me to getting NTR'd by some blond, then awaken into a bus anyone can ride?!"
"Does it really have to be like this?"
Anlan pressed a hand to his forehead, utterly baffled. His gaze shifted back and forth between the snoring Daju and the Spark Lens.
"Could it be that my ocular power changed the Spark Lens's requirements for the genetic factor, and then, and then..."
"Forget it. I'm done thinking about it!"
"As long as it works!"