Ten minutes later, Natsuki and Marshal Stacker left the laboratory.
They walked down the long corridor of Shatterdome Base.
"That covers the details of our plan."
"I hope you can join our operation the day after tomorrow."
Marshal Stacker spoke to Natsuki as they walked.
Whatever Natsuki had said to Dr. Albert, the fact that he had voluntarily revealed his three-minute combat limit showed complete trust.
Although Stacker had worked to earn that trust, he would never betray it.
Despite being an alien, Natsuki was still willing to help and trust humanity. Stacker had already felt that goodwill clearly.
"No problem," Natsuki said with a nod.
"Arrange the plan however you normally would. I'll cooperate as much as I can."
Hearing how agreeable Natsuki was, Marshal Stacker breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, he hadn't gotten angry over what had happened in the laboratory.
Although Natsuki came from another planet and had the power to upend everything whenever he pleased, their time together had convinced Stacker that meeting him had been a stroke of luck.
Negotiating with Mr. Natsuki was clearly much easier than dealing with those people at the United Nations, Marshal Stacker thought.
"Oh, right."
"You'll have to lend me a Jaeger to play with."
"I don't suppose you'll refuse that condition?" Natsuki asked, turning toward him. "Any one will do. I'm not picky."
Natsuki had felt a flicker of curiosity the moment he first saw those Jaegers in the hangar.
While fighting in person was more convenient, piloting a Jaeger could be fun, too.
As people got older, they naturally developed a keen interest in all sorts of strange things.
He still remembered what Raleigh had reminded him of during their sparring match.
"Well..." Marshal Stacker gave it some thought.
There were only four intact Jaegers capable of combat: Gipsy Danger, Cherno Alpha, Crimson Typhoon, and Eureka Striker.
Apart from Gipsy Danger, the other three Jaegers already had pilots who had worked together for years, and barring any surprises, Gipsy Danger's pilots would be finalized that day.
Which Jaeger should I let Mr. Natsuki use...?
Marshal Stacker seriously considered the question. All four Jaegers had important missions to carry out.
Besides those four Jaegers... right.
"Mr. Natsuki." Suddenly remembering something, he stopped and looked at Natsuki. "Aside from the four Jaegers whose pilots have already been confirmed, we actually have another Jaeger with a few defects."
Considering that Natsuki most likely only wanted to pilot a Jaeger out of curiosity, and hadn't learned the relevant piloting skills, Stacker thought this Jaeger was the best choice.
Risking an incomplete Jaeger to satisfy Natsuki's curiosity was perfectly acceptable.
"Dr. Albert has been repairing that Jaeger. Apart from some defects in its two-pilot neural synchronization system, everything else works normally."
"If you'd like to try it, we can make some temporary modifications to this Jaeger and switch it to simulated controls, though it would only be able to perform a few simple movements."
Upon hearing that,
Natsuki rubbed his chin and thought for a moment.
"As long as there's nothing wrong with the Jaeger's main body, that's fine. I don't need two-pilot neural synchronization. I'll pilot it alone."
Raleigh had chatted with him about Jaegers during their helicopter ride to the base the previous evening.
He knew the two-pilot neural synchronization system had been designed to ease the mental strain on an individual pilot.
He had no need for anything like that.
Besides, he couldn't possibly Drift with a human. His vast memories would swallow the other person up in an instant, making them lose all sense of self.
"Are you sure?" Marshal Stacker asked worriedly. "Piloting a Jaeger alone puts an enormous strain on the mind. Almost no one can do it."
He knew Natsuki was immensely powerful in combat, but he wasn't sure whether his mental strength was on the same level.
"Don't worry. My head's pretty sturdy," Natsuki said with a confident smile.
It was just a Jaeger. No matter how much mental damage it could cause, it couldn't compare to kaiju with the power to inflict curses.
After so many years in the Space Garrison, what hadn't he seen?
"All right. Please follow me." Marshal Stacker nodded dubiously, deciding that Natsuki probably knew what he was doing, then continued leading the way.
Meanwhile,
inside the laboratory.
"Kony?"
"Are you all right?" Dr. Newton glanced at the mixed-race man still standing in the middle of the room. This was the first time he'd ever seen the man look embarrassed since they'd met.
When Kony Albert had first arrived at the base, both he and Hermann had been rather hostile toward him. Geniuses, after all, rarely took kindly to one another.
But they soon discovered that his knowledge far surpassed theirs. For some reason, he also possessed a wealth of information about kaiju. According to him, he had obtained it by Drifting with a kaiju's secondary brain.
In short, Kony Albert had earned both doctors' respect in a very short time through his knowledge and refinement.
In their minds, this genius who hadn't yet turned thirty should always have been composed and elegant. Why had he suddenly seemed so off after Mr. Natsuki had snapped back at him today?
He'd been standing there for over ten minutes.
"...I'm... fine."
"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Newton." Albert finally came to his senses, a gentle, polite smile appearing on his face as he answered Newton.
Then he took a deep breath and headed outside.
"I'll return to my laboratory now. See you this afternoon."
Dr. Albert left Newton and Hermann's laboratory.
He passed through the long corridor lined with steel pipes.
Then he returned to his own laboratory, which also served as his quarters.
As soon as the door opened, an array of precision scientific instruments came into view. Several kaiju organs were neatly arranged inside one wall, making it clear that his work spanned both physics and biology.
The lighting was dim, but the face beneath his silver-rimmed glasses was darker still.
His expression gradually turned cold. He walked over to his desk, opened a locked drawer, and took out an envelope.
Inside the envelope were several sheets of white paper covered in densely packed writing.
"Why?"
"Where exactly did things go wrong...?"
As he read what he'd written on the papers, he grew increasingly agitated.
The papers clearly read: [The Precursors first made contact with Earth during the Cretaceous period, leaving a passage on the ocean floor...] [2013: The first kaiju arrived in San Francisco...] [Winter 2020: The chosen one, "Raleigh Becket," lost his older brother and left the Jaeger Program...] [January 8, 2025: Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha were destroyed in battle against kaiju. All pilots were killed...] [January 12, 2025: Four Jaegers carried the Nuclear Bomb to the Mariana Trench on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and destroyed the Breach. Eureka Striker's pilots, Stacker Pentecost and Chuck Hansen, were both killed in action...]
All of this was information he had compiled from his own memories.
Kony Albert was a transmigrator.
Natsuki's bracelet could only detect the fluctuations produced when transmigrators stole spacetime source energy. It couldn't directly pinpoint transmigrators who had fully integrated into this world and become part of it, so the Captain's main assignment for him was to investigate.
Natsuki knew very little about transmigrators.
Likewise, the transmigrators knew nothing about Natsuki.
Bang!
All traces of Albert's refined demeanor vanished. He flung the papers onto the desk, then angrily slammed both fists against it, his face filled with disbelief.
"Can someone tell me why the fuck there's an Ultraman in this world?!"
After their conversation in the laboratory, he was certain that the man wasn't some innocent soul who could be easily manipulated with moral arguments. He was even a little extreme.
Now one thought filled his mind: could the Jaeger he had prepared for himself... really take on an Ultraman?
Before you continue