"So, you're saying you're from the Land of Light, and you're a... uh, space cop?"
Near Sitka Naval Base, Alaska.
Bundled up in thick winter clothes, a man of British descent braved the wind and snow, staring incredulously at the Asian man beside him.
Ahead of him stood an unfinished wall. He was a construction worker on this "Wall of Life," and on his way to the site, he had come across a man lying stark naked in the snow-the very man now standing before him.
"To be precise, I'm a member of the Land of Light's Space Garrison. My duty is to uphold justice in the universe," the Asian man replied casually as he stood in the snow, unhurriedly putting on the clothes the other man had handed him.
He looked to be in his early twenties, with handsome, well-defined features and a tall, lean build. The wind gently tousled his thick black hair. He was unquestionably good-looking.
"So, a space cop."
"Wait... you're not serious, are you?" Raleigh Becket watched the man, who had finished putting on the winter clothes. There wasn't a hint of humor on his face, and Raleigh suddenly realized he might not be joking.
Things like the Land of Light and space cops sounded completely made up. Raleigh couldn't imagine how advanced a civilization had to be before it dared call itself the universe's righteous police force. Weren't they afraid the other civilizations would gang up on them?
Besides, the man before him looked no different from an ordinary human. How could he possibly be from another planet?
He was more inclined to believe he'd run into a lunatic.
A lunatic with an unusual constitution, who could lie in the snow and ice without showing any signs of frostbite.
"Believe me or don't."
"Anyway, thanks for the clothes. At least I won't look so awkward now."
"I'm Natsuki. What about you?"
Natsuki zipped up the dark green coat and grinned at the man of British descent before him, extending a hand. His bright smile revealed white teeth and made him look quite friendly.
The man opposite him looked to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight. His blond hair had a yellowish cast and looked as though it hadn't been washed in a while. His face was weathered, as if he'd lived through plenty of things he would rather not revisit.
Raleigh Becket (the male lead of Pacific Rim)
"Raleigh." Looking at his smile, Raleigh nodded and returned the friendly gesture, reaching out to shake his hand. "Raleigh Becket."
Snowflakes drifted down from the sky, settling on them both. Deep down, Raleigh was intensely curious about why the other man showed no signs of being cold.
He seemed to have put on the clothes simply to cover himself, not to keep warm.
So, after letting go of his hand, Raleigh asked again, "How do you do it?"
"Sitka's January weather doesn't seem to affect you at all."
They were in Sitka, Alaska. Lately, temperatures had been colder than in previous years, and snow had already accumulated on the roads. With resources scarce, people froze to death by the roadside every day.
Someone like Natsuki, who could lie completely naked in the snow without suffering any harm, defied all common sense.
"This little bit of cold is nothing to me."
"I'm an honest-to-goodness Ultra Warrior who passed the Space Garrison's assessment," Natsuki replied casually.
Compared with the low temperatures in space, this bit of cold really was nothing.
Within the Land of Light's Space Garrison, he wasn't particularly strong. Never mind comparing himself to the Ultra Brothers-he couldn't even measure up to someone from their children's generation, like Taiga. To put it harshly, calling him a rank-and-file grunt wouldn't be unfair.
Even so, he was an official member of the Space Garrison, a bona fide Ultra Warrior.
"Are you sure the cold hasn't scrambled your brain...?" Listening to Natsuki spout nonsense, Raleigh frowned again. He had no idea what an Ultra Warrior was.
Yet the serious look on Natsuki's face gave him pause.
When he used to tell people he'd piloted a Jaeger, their reactions had been much like his own now: disbelief, followed by a few mocking remarks.
He knew how it felt to be ridiculed, so he swallowed the rest of what he had been about to say and quietly nodded.
He exhaled a cloud of white breath, disturbing the falling snowflakes before him, and said with a little sympathy, "Maybe somewhere in the universe, that Land of Light you mentioned really does exist."
Rather than mock Natsuki, he went along with him.
"But like you said, you should be out upholding justice in the universe right now. Why come to this godforsaken place?" In Raleigh's eyes, Natsuki was a man shrouded in mysteries.
Lying in the freezing snow completely unharmed was extraordinary enough to tell him that Natsuki wasn't an ordinary person. But even if he really did come from this supposed Land of Light, why had he come to this dump?
"Why did I end up here?"
"Yeah, I'd like to know that too... All I did was slack off a little, stop trying a little, finish slightly fewer assignments, show up late a little more often, skip work a little more often..." Thinking about why he'd ended up here left Natsuki seething, and he counted the reasons off on his fingers for Raleigh.
"Fine... I know I've got a few 'minor flaws,' but that's no reason to exile me here."
"Exile. You know what that means?"
"Basically, my coworkers and my boss couldn't stand me loafing around on the job, so they kicked me into this universe, hoping I'd mend my ways."
"Heh. A bunch of naive fools," Natsuki said with a scornful laugh.
Get me to stop slacking off at work? Not a chance!
Natsuki had originally been an Ultra Warrior in the Land of Light's Space Garrison. Though his attitude toward work was rather lackluster, he hadn't done anything seriously wrong.
But at some point, his old friend Ultraman Hikari had developed another piece of fantastical technology. He claimed it could help ordinary Ultra Warriors unlock their potential, and under the pretext of helping Natsuki, he had applied to the Chief of the Space Garrison for permission to use it.
Supposedly, the device could correct an Ultra Warrior's behavior and enhance his potential. Upon hearing this, the chief felt its effects were perfectly suited to Natsuki's condition. As it happened, some minor anomalous fluctuations had appeared in a certain universe, so with a wave of his hand, he had sent Natsuki straight into exile there.
That device was the Black Bracelet on Natsuki's right wrist. It hadn't been activated yet.
In short.
Natsuki had come to this universe for two reasons: to investigate the anomalous fluctuations, and to become a capable, powerful Ultra Warrior under the corrective influence of the high-tech device.
After being transported to this universe, Natsuki had briefly lost consciousness. When he woke up again, Raleigh Becket was rousing him from the snow by the roadside.
Raleigh listened as Natsuki rambled on at length, but he never managed to understand what any of the things Natsuki mentioned actually meant. Still, that no longer mattered.
His last question was also the one that had been on his mind ever since he'd found Natsuki. "So... why were you naked?"
"Do these, uh... Ultras you mentioned all dislike wearing clothes?"
There it was-the million-dollar question!
The question left Natsuki rooted to the spot.
That really was a damn good question!
Natsuki thought back over his nineteen thousand years in the Land of Light. It seemed... he'd genuinely never worn clothes.
There was a chance he'd been human in his previous life, though he couldn't say how great that chance was. Why put it that way? Simply because those fleeting human memories had become utterly insignificant after nineteen thousand years had washed over them. Even if he'd remembered a few scattered fragments at birth, by the time he was old enough to form memories, he'd forgotten every last one.
So Natsuki genuinely wasn't in the habit of wearing clothes.
Seeing Natsuki fall silent.
Raleigh sucked in a cold breath, his pupils trembling slightly. "God... aliens really don't wear clothes."
Natsuki: "..."
"Let's change the subject. Like where I can get a hot meal?"
Raleigh: "Okay."
He rubbed his cheeks, still thinking of Natsuki as a poor fellow with mental problems, then turned and headed off in a certain direction.
"Follow me."
Before you continue