Yu Zhou and Charija still had no idea who the old man really was.
All they knew was that he looked no different from an Earthling, yet had the power to build a palace beneath the sea… and even raise monsters like King Guesra.
But Charija never cared about the seller. As long as the monster was real, the deal was done. After tuning his time-travel suitcase, a white glow expanded from it, forming a shimmering wormhole in the air.
"Come here, come here."
Charija beckoned the old man over, then grabbed Yu Zhou as well.
"Wait—me too?" Yu Zhou jabbed a finger at himself.
"If you don't come, I won't feel safe," Charija replied matter-of-factly. Then, standing tall before the suitcase, he declared:
"Departure!"
The wormhole swallowed the three of them whole. Even the suitcase jumped in after them, closing the rift behind.
With a flash of light, they crashed down by a cliff face high in the mountains.
Yu Zhou rose steadily, scanning the mist-choked landscape. Yes, this looked like Earth—but there wasn't a soul around. Definitely not the kind of place to find someone's children.
"Old man, there's no one here. How could your kids be?" Yu Zhou frowned, glancing at the elder who was still groaning from the fall.
"The last traces of their life force… ended here." The old man steadied himself and looked around with grim certainty. "I've been here before. By then, their auras had already faded."
"I just bring you here. What happens next is your problem." Charija sat right on the cliff edge like it was a picnic spot.
"Fair point."
Yu Zhou shrugged, plopped down beside him, and dug out the last snacks from his space bracelet. He handed some to Charija.
"Got any Happy Water?"
"Yeah, here."
"Delicious!"
"..."
The old man could only stare in silence at the two freeloaders having a snack break while he burned with desperation. But there was nothing he could do—they had fulfilled his request. The rest was up to him.
Then—
A blue energy beam split the sky, lancing down right onto the Happy Water bottle in front of Yu Zhou.
BOOM!
The drink exploded, liquid flashing into steam. The ground cracked open, leaving a smoking crater. The cliff shook violently, seconds away from collapse.
"Run!"
Yu Zhou bolted, dragging Charija with him.
Charija was hauled across the rocky ground, his rear grinding so hard it nearly sparked. The old man, meanwhile, sprinted like a track athlete toward safer ground.
"What the hell was that?!"
Charija rubbed his bruised behind, staring back at the collapsing cliff.
With a thunderous crash, the entire cliff face crumbled into the abyss.
"That was close…" Yu Zhou exhaled, then tilted his gaze upward. Hovering above was a starship, circling them like a predator.
"It's them!" The old man's face twisted with rage as he pointed upward. "That's the Muzans' ship—the ones who murdered my children!"
"Muzans?" Yu Zhou muttered. The name was familiar.
Think… twelve years ago. Earth. Around the time Tiga first appeared and the Victory Team began fighting monsters.
If it was recorded, it would be in TPC's archives. And also, in his own phone files.
Yu Zhou pulled a special phone from his space bracelet, flipping through the Ultraman Tiga case logs.
There it was.
The Muzans: a race of hunters. They shackled advanced beings with wristbands, exiled them to planets like Earth, and then hunted them for sport. The proof of the kill was the retrieval of those bands.
Two victims had been exiled to Earth that year: a young woman named Rucia, and a young man named Zara.
"Old man," Yu Zhou turned to him. "Your children's names?"
"My kids…" The elder's eyes softened with grief. "The girl is Rucia. The boy… Zara."
"Just as I thought."
Yu Zhou remembered clearly—in the original timeline, both had been killed by the Muzans. And when Daigo discovered it, his fury drove him to transform into Tiga and destroy the Muzans' enlarged form.
"You—you know where they are?!" the old man asked desperately.
Yu Zhou pointed toward the valley below. "Down there."
According to the records, Zara had died at the foot of the mountain.
"Then I'll go!" The old man rushed downhill without a second thought.
Meanwhile, aboard the starship—
The Muzan pilot scratched at his insectoid mandibles. "Did I just… shoot the wrong people?"
He had been chasing prey, but when he saw three figures up on the mountain, he fired without thinking. Now that he looked closer, they didn't match the profiles.
"Tch. Whatever. Just Earthlings. Easier to erase them."
He powered up the cannons again and fired more beams at the cliff.
"Charija, move!" Yu Zhou yelled, dragging him away again as the blasts pulverized the ground.
Charija's backside was once more introduced to the rocks, sending up clouds of dust.
"This damned ship! Attacking us for fun now?!" he roared.
Then, furious, he whipped out a capsule and hurled it skyward.
"Zoiger! I choose you!"
With a blinding flash, Zoiger materialized in the air. The avian kaiju screeched, then immediately fired a barrage of light-bolts upward at the starship.
But these blasts weren't nearly as strong as Zoiger's mature form. Halfway there, they were neutralized by the ship's counter-beams.
"Zoiger, ram it!"
Obeying Charija's command, Zoiger accelerated like a missile.
CRASH!
The impact shook the ship violently. Inside, the Muzans stumbled, scrambling to keep the vessel under control.
"Deja vu…" Yu Zhou rubbed his chin, watching Charija order Zoiger around. "This looks awfully familiar."
"Zoiger, light-bolt barrage!"
Another salvo rained upward. This time, the ship didn't counter—it swerved sharply and retreated into the distance.
"These two aren't ordinary Earthlings…" the Muzan muttered, gripping the controls. "Anyone who can summon kaiju… is dangerous."
"Trying to run?!"
Charija whistled Zoiger back, then pulled Yu Zhou onto its back.
"Zoiger, after them!"
"Wait—why are you dragging me along too?!" Yu Zhou protested as the giant bird banked after the fleeing starship.