Sorry, I Misspoke

When Agent Phil Coulson visited the Daily Planet building again, he was told that the newspaper's owner, Richard, was personally overseeing construction on the rooftop. The employees explained that Mr. Li had suddenly decided the Daily Planet's roof absolutely had to have a "planet" on it. A crane had arrived yesterday afternoon and hoisted a massive golden planet gleaming in the sunlight onto the roof, and a group of workers was busy up there now.

So Agent Coulson went to the top floor of the building. The moment he pushed open the door, the entire world seemed to be ruled by deafening construction noise. Electric drills and pile drivers formed a wild symphony. Coulson felt his eardrums buzzing violently, as though his whole head had grown a size larger.

From afar, he spotted Richard standing on high ground. Covering his ears, he made his way over, stopped beneath the raised platform Richard was standing on, pulled out his credentials, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Mr. Li! I'm Phil Coulson, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.! We've met before!"

Richard turned to look at him, thought for a moment, then nodded to indicate that he was listening.

"It's like this—we have a few questions we need to discuss with you!" Coulson continued shouting, doing his best to drown out the roaring construction. "Would it be convenient to spare us a few minutes?"

Understanding, Richard made an OK gesture, then pointed at the construction site and held up three fingers.

Coulson guessed, "You mean... wait three minutes?"

Richard nodded again.

Coulson continued yelling, "Then I'll be in your office."

Coulson felt that those few sentences had nearly torn his throat apart, while his eardrums were on the verge of rupturing. He retreated to Richard's office and had not waited long before Richard came down.

Richard sat behind his desk and glanced at Coulson's sparse hair.

"You must've been very busy these past two days, Agent Coulson?"

Agent Coulson's face immediately darkened.

It's true that I've been busy, but what's with you always staring at my hair?

Would it kill you not to bring that up?

"Actually, you didn't need to shout like that just now." Richard slowly took a sip of tea. "You could've spoken normally. I would've heard you."

Coulson: "#￥@*&%..."

Then why didn't you say so earlier? I nearly shouted my throat raw...

Coulson truly was a mature and steady S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He could always put the mission ahead of his personal feelings. He asked, "Is that one of your superpowers too? Super hearing? An ordinary person couldn't hear anyone talking in an environment like that."

"Mm-hm, it is." Richard nodded readily.

Coulson took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "Then, early yesterday morning, at Bex Waterworks... you were there, weren't you?"

"I was." Richard continued to admit it without hesitation.

Coulson was somewhat surprised. He had not expected the other man to admit it so readily. Even if he did not produce an alibi, Coulson had thought he would at least deny it verbally. Who would have thought that Richard had no intention of denying it at all? He had an unbelievable, straightforward attitude of "whatever you say."

To be honest, Coulson had been rather nervous about coming to see him. After all, he now knew that the man might be Ultraman, someone capable of dismantling an aircraft carrier with his bare hands—an existence infinitely close to a god in human terms. Probably no one could face such a being without feeling nervous.

"Then," Coulson took another deep breath and asked solemnly, "are you..."

"Yes," Richard said simply.

Coulson froze. I haven't even asked the question yet. Why are you answering already?

"What did you say you were?"

"Ultraman, of course." Richard spoke as though it were only natural. "Isn't that what you wanted to ask? Whether I turned into a giant early yesterday morning and fought a Space Beast? Yes, I did."

Coulson opened his mouth wide and blinked twice. Only after a long moment did he slowly say, "Actually... actually, I wanted to ask whether you saw anything unusual yesterday..."

This was completely outside the script!

Coulson had prepared a whole series of questions and several different approaches for drawing information out of him. Yet before Coulson had even used a single one, the other man had impatiently given him the answer outright.

This wasn't scientific! Weren't superpowered people supposed to do everything they could to conceal their abilities and hide their identities?

At least, every superpowered individual S.H.I.E.L.D. had encountered so far had been like that.

Coulson studied Richard suspiciously, looking at his plaid shirt and casual pants, his completely ordinary outfit without the slightest distinguishing feature...

He could not help asking again, "Are you really that giant?"

"No," Richard said.

Coulson was puzzled. "But didn't you just say you were?"

"I did, but you didn't believe me." Richard spread his hands.

That was true enough. There was no proof for something like this; no one could believe it based on words alone.

"Then... how about you grow bigger again?" Coulson asked tentatively.

Richard smiled and glanced at the noisy newspaper office outside the window. "Are you sure?"

"No, forget it..." Coulson immediately changed his mind.

As for whether the other man was telling the truth, Coulson felt that he probably was. No matter how absurd it sounded, Richard really had appeared inside the cordoned-off area yesterday, and he clearly knew about Ultraman's battle with the monster early that morning. S.H.I.E.L.D. had completely sealed off that information. Outsiders had no way of knowing it.

Setting the question of his identity aside for the moment, they had reached the most important part. Like many others, Coulson had far too many questions about Ultraman. There were so many that he was not even sure where to begin. After thinking it over repeatedly, he finally asked, "Then, Mr. Li, may I ask... how did you obtain this power? Or rather..."

He paused, his gaze flickering.

"...are you really an Earthling?"

Richard looked at him calmly.

It was an expected question. It was only natural for people to wonder after seeing Ultraman in that form, and the theory that Ultraman was a visitor from beyond Earth had recently been circulating everywhere, including in mainstream media.

"No," Richard answered. "I come from a place unimaginably far from Earth, a distant planet in the M87 Galaxy known as the 'Land of Light.'"

Coulson paused. "The M87 Galaxy? I remember... doesn't it have a supermassive black hole large enough to swallow the entire solar system? And wasn't that the first black hole humanity ever photographed?"

"Oh, sorry, I misspoke." Richard's expression did not change. "I meant M78."

Coulson: "..."