Is He Ultraman?

The silver giant grappled with the insect-like monster, its long tentacles thrashing wildly like woven vines. Thunderous booms echoed through the air, while towering curtains of dust rose from the ground...

The footage paused the instant the giant seized the monster's antennae. The projected screen shrank, and Nick Fury sat behind the desk opposite it, propping up his chin as his one eye narrowed to a slit.

"'Indescribable.'" His gaze shifted to Agent Coulson standing beside the desk. "Is that the best word you could come up with for your mission report?"

Agent Coulson nodded gravely. "Believe me, sir, if you'd been there, you'd understand. That scene was simply... unparalleled. Those two made us look like a bunch of ridiculous clowns. The Quinjet's firepower was completely ineffective against that big thing. The Vulcan cannon and high-explosive warheads did nothing—we couldn't even scratch its hide. I'm starting to wonder whether all our conventional weapons are useless against something like that..."

It was no wonder Agent Coulson was beginning to question everything. Anyone who had witnessed that scene would probably have felt the same. Until yesterday, the Quinjet had still counted as "heavy firepower" in Coulson's mind, but now its airborne weapons seemed all show and no substance—at best, only slightly more useful than decorations.

"All conventional weapons?" Nick Fury raised an eyebrow. He felt Coulson was being too absolute. To him, the monster might have been terrifying, but it was nothing more than an oversized beast. If their attacks had been ineffective, that only meant their firepower was not strong enough. A bigger gun might not necessarily fail to blow it to pieces.

"I don't know, sir." Coulson considered for a while before saying, "But personally, I believe conventional weapons below the level of nuclear arms may all be ineffective."

Fury said nothing. He had always trusted Coulson's judgment, but this time he felt Coulson was exaggerating somewhat. Still, considering Coulson had just lived through a nightmare of a night, it was understandable.

The footage resumed, and the battle between the giant and the beast continued. Before long, the giant had completely subdued the beast. At last, the giant crossed his arms and fired a dazzling stream of golden light from the edge of his raised palm, blasting the beast apart from the inside out.

The footage froze again on that frame.

Fury turned to Coulson once more. "Your assessment?"

"Extremely destructive. Compared with humanity's existing weapons... even the most conservative estimate would put it on par with a tactical missile."

In truth, Coulson had no idea of the golden beam's actual power. He was only estimating based on what he had seen. But deep down, he clearly understood that its power was certainly far greater than that. It reminded him of when the giant had used that move in front of them. The S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor on site had been so excited that he leaped straight into the air and nearly choked. Grabbing Coulson's hand, he had pointed at the sky-high energy readings on his tablet and babbled incoherently about things like "unbelievable" and "a miracle."

Coulson could not make sense of those energy signature graphs or the mass of complicated readings, but the practical results alone gave him a rough idea of how terrifying that beam was—the Quinjet had bombarded the monster with everything it had for ages without even scratching its skin. Yet the giant had fired just one beam and blown that enormous creature to pieces on the spot. The difference in power was obvious.

"I consulted several experts, and they all lean toward the belief that this giant is an extraterrestrial life-form," Coulson said. "They said the nature of the giant's physical existence differs from every known life-form. They mentioned something about quantum... something. You know, I've never understood that scientific stuff, but in any case, they all seem to agree that this giant is the alien life-form we've always hypothesized about..."

"He's human," Fury suddenly said.

Coulson froze, not quite processing it. "Sir... what did you just say?"

"I said he's human." Fury spoke in a low voice, then paused. "At least, that is what he appears to be."

Coulson was thoroughly confused. The director did not seem like the sort of man who would joke, but that guy was a full fifty meters tall and could lift a giant beast weighing tens of thousands of tons with his bare arms!

No matter how one looked at it, a being like that had absolutely nothing to do with the word "human," did he?

Expressionless, Fury tapped a few buttons on his console. The image of the giant and the monster shrank into a corner of the projection screen, and a new image appeared in the center.

It was clearly footage from a surveillance camera at some street corner. A man wearing a black coat and dark pants appeared in the image.

"This is surveillance footage from within the restricted zone during last night's incident," Fury said flatly. "He was the only person to appear inside the restricted area from beginning to end. There is no indication of how he passed through our perimeter. Furthermore, after the beast was defeated, he never appeared in any camera footage again, nor was he seen by anyone. It was as though he had vanished into thin air within the restricted zone."

Coulson paused, then said in surprise, "Sir, are you saying that this man is..."

Even though the speculation came from Nick Fury, it still sounded far too absurd. Setting aside the logic and plausibility of it, that giant known as "Ultraman"... could such a powerful being truly be a form assumed by a human?

"Yes, and I believe he noticed that surveillance camera as well. He simply never thought to hide from it," Fury continued. "A few hours ago, I had some experts enhance the footage and run facial recognition. Guess what? We found this man—and you happened to meet him not long ago."

Coulson froze again. I met him? Who was it?

When the enhanced, clear image of the young Chinese American Richard appeared on the screen, Agent Coulson's open mouth was nearly large enough to swallow the entire display.

"I know this is surprising, but strange things keep happening in this world. It is not as though we have never seen them before," Fury said. "For now, we cannot confirm whether Richard is Ultraman, but he should at least be connected to him. So I need you to make another trip to the Daily Planet and ask..."

"No, sir..." Coulson stiffly turned his head, his voice mechanical. "You don't understand. He... he told me himself last time... told me that he was Ultraman."

Fury stared at him in surprise. "And you are only telling me something this important now?"

Coulson pulled a miserable face, feeling as though he had nowhere to voice his grievances.

How the hell was I supposed to know he was serious when he said that?