"Big Brother Zero... you're amazing..."
Although he had already seen Zero kick through blastproof glass, Zero's piloting skills still left him utterly stunned.
"Of course. If I transformed, I could finish off a weak monster like that in thirty seconds."
"But I'm a little tired now. I need a rest."
With that, Zero handed control of the body back to Shinji.
Shinji felt drained of strength. Ultra Psychokinesis consumed the human host's stamina. That level of fatigue was nothing to Zero, but for Shinji...
He could not even stand up.
"That stamina of yours... you really need to work on it..." Zero grumbled.
When he was lifted out of the Entry Plug, members of the Medical Team had to support him. It took quite a while for him to recover enough to stand and walk.
"You did really well today, Shinji." Misato Katsuragi drove up in her sports car to pick him up.
"Mm..." Still not fully recovered, Shinji answered unsteadily, and Misato helped him into the car.
"Getting results like that on your first time piloting really took us by surprise."
"Work's over. Time to go home!"
Seeing Shinji sitting silently in the back seat, Misato decided to take him to see something.
"Sorry, I'd like to take a little detour."
"Where to?"
"Somewhere nice."
When they reached the Mountain Ring Road, Misato hit the brakes. She and Shinji got out and gazed into the distance.
The sun sank toward the west, spilling golden light into every corner of the city.
No matter how many times he saw it, the beauty of the sunset always moved Zero. "It's beautiful... You'd never see a view like this in the Land of Light..."
"The last time I watched a sunset was when I was helping Geed."
"We of the Ultra Race all love the sunsets on Earth..."
"One of our senior warriors is even known as the warrior beneath the setting sun."
Caught up in Zero's feelings, Shinji began to appreciate the sunset too.
While Zero and Shinji admired the view, something happened.
Misato checked her watch and said, "It's time."
The combat buildings all sank underground, and civilian buildings rose in their place.
One tower after another rose into view.
"It's incredible..."
"If only Rento's world had technology like this..." Even Zero was moved by the sight.
"This is Tokyo-3, our city."
"And it's the city you protected."
"The city... I protected..."
Shinji gazed toward the city. Zero gave him Ultra Vision, letting him see the people emerging here and there, and the lights coming on in homes throughout the buildings.
As he stared blankly at the city, a feeling he had never known before welled up in his heart.
Perhaps this was "happiness."
"How does it feel to have protected this city?" Zero asked, sensing Shinji's spirits lift.
Having fought alongside many new-generation Ultramen, Zero could see that Shinji had the potential to become a hero. Though the boy was insecure and timid, with proper guidance and help for his psychological problems, he could surely become a brave, powerful warrior.
"Yes, Big Brother Zero." A smile appeared on Shinji's face for the first time in a long while.
To help Shinji truly change, Zero decided to give him a worthy dream.
"Shinji, what's your dream?" Zero asked, striking while the iron was hot.
He wanted to guide this boy and help him understand what he was fighting for.
"I... I don't have a dream yet..." Shinji's spirits sank. Starved of affection for all fourteen years of his life, he had never considered that question.
He felt that someone like him did not deserve a dream.
If he had ever had one before, it was to receive praise from his father, even a single word.
But now he understood that, in his father's eyes, he was nothing more than a tool. His father was cold and cruel.
After Zero's kick and those threats, his relationship with his father would most likely hit rock bottom.
Without Zero, he would probably have been forced to pilot, suffered serious injuries, and then lived a miserable life until his usefulness ran out and his father kicked him aside like a stone.
But things were different now. Whatever he did, Zero supported him.
Not only did Zero refuse to treat him as a disposable tool, he also gave him care unlike anything he had ever known, even risking exposing his identity just to make Shinji's father say something that might cheer him up.
At this turning point in his life, Shinji was like someone who had found a guiding light in the darkness. With that positive, constructive guidance, his personality was quietly changing, like the earth beneath a spring breeze.
"But now I want to search for my dream..." Shinji said quietly.
"I feel happy right now."
Zero pointed at the rows of buildings. "Besides the buildings, what else do you see?"
"The lights coming on... Are those the lights of every home?"
Zero caught the key phrase.
"Then go and find your own dream. But until you do..."
"Make protecting those lights of every home your dream."
"Fight so you can feel the happiness of protecting those lights of every home again, Shinji!"
"To protect... the lights of every home?"
Shinji looked toward the city again, toward all those lights.
His first reaction was, Am I worthy of that?
Seeing what was on Shinji's mind, Zero encouraged him again.
"Shinji, while you're protecting the lights of every home, there's still one light in this world shining for you: me."
"Go ahead. Don't worry."
Shinji looked at Zero, and resolve took hold in his heart.
"I might not be able to do it now, but in the future, I'll do everything I can!"
"I want to protect everyone with my own strength!"
"That's wonderful. You'll definitely make that dream come true. Maybe someday, I'll need you to protect me too, Shinji," Zero encouraged him.
At that moment, a crack opened in Shinji's closed-off heart, and light slipped inside.
Watching the sunset, Zero recited a famous saying.
"A senior Ultra Warrior once said something that many of us Ultra Warriors have taken as our motto. You should hear it too, Shinji."
"Never let the passion in your heart die. Show compassion for the weak and help one another. Be friends with people of every nation and every race, even if that trust is betrayed thousands upon thousands of times!"
Shinji repeated it silently. Never let... the passion in your heart die... I'll remember that...
"That warrior's name is Ultraman Ace. Those were his final hopes for the children of Earth before he completed his mission and left."
Shinji paused, then gazed at the city beneath the sunset and spoke that famous saying aloud. Misato heard him.
"This boy..." Misato smiled.
Meanwhile, in the command room.
Commander Ikari was in a foul mood, not only because Shinji had dared to defy his orders and he had ended up injured.
Everything Unit-01 had done and demonstrated today had also slipped beyond his control.
As someone who knew the truth behind it all, he knew Shinji could never normally have achieved that on his first time piloting.
With that in mind, he ordered Ritsuko Akagi beside him, "Give Shinji a full physical examination tomorrow!"
Before you continue