Fanfiction: Alive

(UM Mebius Gaiden: Armoured Darkness manga by Uchiyama Mamoru)

The other day I started off writing one thing—focused on a younger Hikari and Fightas, to flesh out their backstory—and when I got stuck in a rut, I decided to have Fightas explain it all to Mebius. But for what reason would they meet?

(Again, UM Mebius Gaiden: Armoured Darkness manga by Uchiyama Mamoru)

This one, for starters.

And yes, I do enjoy writing a lot of Hikari-ish pieces. *blush*

Title: Alive
Date: 12/9/2009
Fandom: Mebius Gaiden manga
Genre: General/Drama
Rating/Warnings:PG for the alcohol and some mild Mebi/Hikari. Ultraman and all related characters (c) Tsuburaya Productions 1966, 2008. Fightas, Melos and all related are the creations of Uchiyama Mamoru. The names 'Lucien Candela', Kenjin, Aisal-Hal and the members of the Aisal-Hal should not be taken as canon.

The characters Nembu and Ethyl were created by U of M787. Thanks for letting me use them, U!
Summary: "We're alive right now, aren't we?" Set after the end of Mebius Gaiden: Armoured Darkness (OVA and manga). Mebius tangles with the dark armour again and Hikari is less than pleased.

The last of the Jackal army fled skywards, beaten, broken and hopefully dissuaded from appearing again. Mebius watched their disappearing backs and prayed fervently that it was so; he had no wish to tangle with their kind again, let alone the vampiric fragments of Armoured Darkness that had almost overcome him. The suit was whole and someone would undoubtedly seal its powers—the Braves Directive? The Universal Sci-Tech Bureau?—but right now, he was a little too tired to care. He needed sleep, and a long stint in the lightchambers didn't sound bad at all. He briefly considered, for the first time in his Garrison career, putting in a claim for hazard pay.

"Mebius." Hikari's voice was low and sharp, insistent. "Are you all right?"

All right? He'd been thrown backward by destructive beams, buried under rubble, slashed, kicked, punched and nearly assimilated. He'd slashed, beamed, flipped and lunged for a few brief hours that seemed to have consumed half his remaining life expectancy. Still, he nodded. Hikari had made it through far worse, almost getting pitched into that black hole. "There's no need to worry. I'm not hurt."

"Who said anything about worrying?" Wounded as he was, Hikari's hand flicked out and he smacked the young fighter in the back of the head nearly hard enough to take him off balance, and a lot harder than the man himself thought he did. His eyes burned with cold fury, and though Mebius had never seen him so visibly angry, there was a sick familiarity about that gaze. He had no way of knowing that the same glare had appeared, many times, behind Tsurugi's helmet. "What were you thinking, honestly? If you do something like that again then by the Sage, I—" Hikari bit the last words down and turned savagely away, limping off to the Medical Room like most everybody else, leaving a confused young man with one more sore spot to account for.

"Mebius, wasn't it?" He turned around, still rubbing his head. Standing at his shoulder was an armoured warrior, eyes glittering with mild amusement behind his visor. It had to be Captain Melos' younger brother...what was his name again? "Fightas. Good grief, you really went and pissed Luc—Hikari off there."

"You know him, Fightas-san?" Mebius replied, surprised.

"That man saved my life." The man obviously meant every word, but it did nothing to lessen Mebius' confusion, and it showed. He sighed. "Get seen to with the Cross, and meet me back here. You do drink, don't you?"

--

Fightas shed his helmet as they passed through the door of the Horn and Helmet and waved at the bartender. "The usual for me, and a Jolokia for my friend here!"

"Ayessssir," whistled the bartender through his baleen, and slung two glass globes through the air to a table right in the corner. One of them was wreathed in acrid smoke; that was the one Fightas pushed towards the hapless fighter, making encouraging noises.

"Er...?"

"Oh, psh. It's just pepper and spices—it'll put the fire right back in you. Of course," he said as Mebius unlidded the globe and took a draught of what felt like a ten-alarm inferno, "they don't name it after them ghost peppers for nothing." Once Mebius had stopped gasping like a goldfish and the other guests of the bar had dried their tears of laughter, he raised his own beverage and added, "It's on me, by the way. Thanks for looking out for my brother and, uh, my niece. They're not the easiest people to relate to."

"It was an honour to fight alongside Captain Melos and Captain Aura." Mebius' voice sounded a little crispy round the edges to his ears. "Captain Aura's father was one of the Twenty-Eight?"

"Cal Kalim," Fightas said without missing a beat. "Good guy, but went to pieces around sharp objects...oh yeah, I knew a few of the Aisal-Hal," he said in response to Mebius' expression of surprise, using the reverent name Ulterra had given to the last twenty-eight men who had faced Jackal alongside Garrison captain Zoffy Kenjin. "Went to school, trained with some of them. When I heard they all died, I felt I should have died with them." Fightas paused to sip his drink, winced slightly and went on. "Which brings us to your blue friend. You heard about the time I tried to fight Seven?"

"I can't say I have," Mebius shook his head and replied; he had been very young indeed when Jackal first threatened the Land of Light, and on the cusp of graduating from school when the villain escaped his black hole prison. He remembered fear, and evacuations, and a whole bunch of worrying—but it had been a very volatile time. Looking back on them now, he realised his mind had settled firmly on remembering the most ordinary things possible about that period.

"Oh, all right. I kept challenging him. He kept on refusing, but Melos finally asked him to do it. My sword, his Slugger. The Slugger won. I died."

"But you're..." Mebius rapidly scoured his brain for an appropriate turn of phrase. "...you're here."

"But I'm still here. Down in SciTech they were working on an energy matrix...reconstitutor, or replicator or something. Medicine's not my strong point. Anyway, I woke up strapped down on a table and some scientist called Lucien staring at me. Not how I woulda chose to come back. We had a nice little debate right there. I chewed him out for making me into a guinea pig, and he...ergh..." Fightas clammed up, sensing he might have said too much. Mebius' curiosity, however, was now aroused, and he pressed on.

"What did he do?"

"...Took a glass rod, smacked me over the knuckles and gave me hell." The image of Hikari rapping Fightas' hands with the lab equipment (and a most disapproving expression) sent Mebius into a gale of laughter and fire flew up his throat quite the wrong way. Fightas' expression told him it served him jolly well right. "Hey, it wasn't funny, trust me. That man's a devil with scientific equipment. Thank the gods he didn't break out the burette..."

"I wonder why he got so angry." Mebius stared down into the half-shot of Jolokia that remained. It stared back, promising that the slight burning in his midsection was going to stay for a long vacation. At least he felt very, very awake.

"What, at me or at you? One of his assistants was the brother of one of the Twenty-Eight. He's been through a buncha wars—I bet he's seen his fair share of death. And...ah, you probably know him better than me. He's tangled with the Armoured Darkness before, right?"

"Yes. Oh," Mebius said, as light dawned. "OH," he said louder as even more light dawned, and uttered a final, tiny horrified "oh" as it all settled in. That armour had taken him in, too.

"If he gave a complete stranger hell for chucking his life away, what do you think he was going to do to his friends, eh? Look, what if I told you he tried yanking Father out of that black hole with just that armour of his on?" Horror suffused Mebius' face. The Arb Gear was definitely nowhere near as strong as the steely suits Melos and his brother wore. No wonder he had come back to the battleground looking the way he did! "He did. You didn't know? By the look on your face, you'd like to smack him upside the head right about now, too."

Mebius' voice rose in volume, and pitch. "I—of course I would! He could have been squashed—Why would he...after all that...!"

"And you were just asking why he got so angry?" Fightas drained his tumbler and signalled to the bartender for another. Mebius hid his embarassment in his drink, knocking back the rest of his beverage. "You wanted them to live, even at the cost of your own life. You know you need strength for their sake. But you know what else Hikari told me? You don't have to be the strongest person in battle, just the one who survives. That's the best all the people around you can hope for. You just want them to survive. They hope the same for you."

"...We're alive, right now." The response was soft, almost too resigned.

"Yeah, we're alive and kicking. It hurts like hell, but it's still a life. So what are you going to do, kid?"

"I don't know." Mebius was drawing several blanks, and decided to defer to experience. "What should I do? He...Hikari might might come after me with a burette." Fightas laughed a short, explosive laugh.

"Anger, like jolokia, cools in three days. Decide what you want to do while you're handling your insides, yes? I should have warned you: you really aren't supposed to chug that stuff like that. You're going to feel like death warmed over in the morning." He did.

After many cold showers and much concentrated thought, he decided he had his solution.

--

"You can't very well stay angry with him forever," said the plump, bespectacled Ultran. There was just a hint of chastisement in his voice.

"I am not angry, Nembu," Hikari replied in a completely deadpan tone, eyes never straying from the image projected in midair as he manhandled his keyboard. "I am merely disappointed."

"You can't very well stay disappointed with him forever, either." Nembu had been assisting Hikari the longest, since his early days with the Universal Science and Technology Bureau, plus he was older than his superior; he had no problems being frank with him. A little too frank for his tastes someimes, Hikari thought crossly. "Oh, yes, you'll be pleased to know the Braves Directive has taken charge of Armoured Darkness. We don't know how many there are left out there, but if we can dissect one...would you like to see it?"

"I would not, thank you." The reply was smooth and quick, almost too quick.Those two words set in motion a furious, unpleasant scrabbling in the back of his mind, exacerbated by recent events. Right now, he did not wish to see the horrendous groaning hunk of metal for a long, long time. "Please give my thanks to the Directive for their prompt action."

"Of course."

"Professor Lucien!" Another one of Hikari's lab assistants ran up, something in her hands. "There's a package from you. From Mebius."

"Huh? Ah, I mean thank you, Ethyl." He pulled loose the knotted cord and unfolded the cloth wrapper. Inside was a bento box, with a distinct smell of curry. Oh, it was from Mebius, all right. A note affixed to the top read: I'm waiting outside. Please come and meet me?

Hikari stared at the package for a while, and then up at his two assistants. He wished they didn't look so very expectant. "Ethyl, isn't this your curry recipe?" he asked, very calmly.

"I, er, helped him a little, professor." She tried to look bashful, but did not succeed.

"Well, there you go. What are you going to do?" Nembu asked.

Hikari paused, and then said very quietly, "Have dinner."

--

Mebius was indeed waiting outside—with another bento—and they ate next to a broken building, watching people pass by and enjoying the warmth and light of the setting Spark more than the grain and meat and spices. Finally Hikari put down his cutlery and sighed. "You have a very strange way of apologising."

"I was a little worried you wouldn't think I meant it. And I do—I'm sorry I made you worry."

"There's no need for that." It looked like he wasn't 'disappointed' any more, after all. "I apologise too. I shouldn't have been so harsh. But your life does not belong to you alone, you know. You knew full well what the Armoured Darkness is capable of. You've seen it. And you still put your life on the line."

"Yes, well, Fightas told me you went into the black hole to save Ultra Father."

Hikari let out an impatient snort. "That man always was an idiot. Look, that was different—"

"How?" Hikari fell silent, unable to find any particularly strong logic. "You could have been lost just as easily as I could. And then what would happen?" Mebius added, almost to himself, He looked up at the sky, newly robbed of light and not yet dark enough to show off its stars. "I'm not willing to see the people close to me die just yet. Not for a long time. I'm not ready."

"Nobody is, are they?" Hikari's gaze suddenly seemed tired and sad and old. "You and I have seen death lots of times, Mebius. There's no hurry to chase it down," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it gently. "Promise me you won't do something so reckless again. Please."

"You know I can't do that," he replied softly. "And neither can you, although I wish you could." He looked over the near-empty streets and the faint lights in windows nearby. The wind carried the sounds of voices, and he suddenly brightened. "But I can do...this." He sprang to his feet and raised one arm high above his head.

"Mebius, what are you—"

"With the heavens as my witness, I, Mebius, swear to live for as long as I can, as well as I can, and keeping as many things safe as I can!" he recited in a clear, strong voice. Hikari simply stared up at him with the most exquisitely dumbfounded look. "How 'bout that?"

There was a brief, terrible silence—and then Hikari started laughing. Mebius hadn't heard it in a while. "Yes, I think it will do." Rather more sedately, he rose from his seat and raised one arm. "And with the heavens as my witness, I, Hikari, swear to live for as long as I can, and as well as I can..." He paused. "...gaining as much knowledge as I can."

"And keeping people safe!"

"And protecting as many sentient beings as I can," he added, before shivering slightly. "Those close to death must live life all the more more strongly. But it's getting cold out, and I think I should protect my health, first."

"...I know something that'll warm you right up!"

"Please tell me it doesn't involve more curry."

"It is not curry. I swear it," Mebius replied vehemently.

The two spent the night sipping Jolokia (Mebius reminded Hikari to go slowly far too many times for comfort), counting the stars and talking of the most ordinary things, the things that happened between the strategies and battles and monsters. And for those brief hours, for two of the countless fighters facing death in every battle, it felt good to just be alive.

Even if Hikari's core temperature didn't go down for two days. [+/-]"...You don't have to be the strongest person in battle, just the one who survives. That's the best all the people around you can hope for..."

Tragedy and Truth on Arb アーブの悲劇と真実

(This article contains spoilers for Hikari Saga 1, and some of Mebius 9.)

Today, dear readers, I would like to tell you a story about a little blue planet in a corner of the universe, one that some call a 'star of miracles'.

Once upon a time, tucked away in a corner of the universe was a little planet with no name. By providence, it grew stable, orbiting a single star. The planet's surface heaved and rolled, producing gorges and mountains both. Volcanoes erupted, covering the whole planet with rich soil. Its atmosphere filled with oxygen and nitrogen and other gases life would find pleasant. Water ran under the soil and over it, carving its own paths. Mists filled the air, shielding it from the harshest radiation of the sun.

By even more providence, life did come to be on that planet. One species found its niche very fast, driving out all other competitors. It was not the physically strongest species, or the swiftest, but the most adaptable: the albes, arthropods with crystalline shells. Albes were omnivorous by nature, consuming anything from plants to predators to carrion. Their shells were fortified both by their food and also minerals extracted from the soil. They lived in colonies somewhat like ants with three clear roles: there were the male soldiers, who ingested poisonous plants to store their compounds within centipede-like fangs, attacking most fiercely as they died; female scouts and workers who collected food and watched for threats; and the queens who ruled and expanded the colonies. And through every colony rang the hive-mind, the deep unity that turned a bunch of albes into a cohesive whole. So numerous were they that the planet shone the very blue of their crystal bodies.

With time came intelligence, language and civilisation; and the albe queens became known as Tenke, the warriors Nalaha and the scouts Yaase. The hive-mind or Taraku became their sole tenet and for the most part, albe society retreated underground, only making the occasional sortie to get food for the colony. The struggles of life went on high above them, and as all other living things went extinct, they turned their diet to carrion and moss and water, and through evolution they lost their legs and much of their flying power. With no predators to disturb them, they grew more sedentary, and turned their faculties to the pursuit of knowledge and mental prowess. They developed telepathy and telekinesis that grew stronger with every generation. Whole castes and sometimes colonies fused over time into single entities, each little mind becoming a part of something greater.

Millennia passed, and the albes' evolution continued as their hunger for knowledge grew stronger. No longer were the groups physically different from one another; the singular intelligence of the Taraku had united them physically and mentally, and they functioned as virtually a single entity. They just knew who did what, without question. The yaases, well-camouflaged in their pointed crystalline shells, would stand guard over the pleasant green earth, waiting and watching for anyone who approached the megacolony. Roving alien visitors were not uncommon by that time. Peaceful visitors, of calm heart and mind, were questioned about the worlds beyond, for the albe could sense their guests' state of mind also. Those who came with the intention to hunt or harm or capture were summarily executed by the nalahas, and their thoughts dragged out of their dying minds. Through all these the albes learned of love and hate, war and peace, villains and heroes, honesty and deceit.

One year, a refugee came to the albes' world. Wounded beyond any help, he died on the beautiful ground and the albes gathered in his memories like stray fish. Shadows tipped them all; shadows with horns and slanted eyes, screeching in eternal hunger. He was the first, but gradually more and more appeared, and the albes came to know them all. Even the occasional predator now had memories of this shadow, and the albe knew fear on a personal level for the first time. In the earth and in their communal mind now lay memories of suffering and vengeance and despair and anger.

The albes were too static now on their world to even think that they could stand against these hungry shadows, but still they hoped and waited. Along with the memory of villains, there were memories of heroes, and many a creature had made known to them a race of silver-skinned giants who had come together to defend the peace of the universe, heading a sort of space garrison. The good respected them. The vicious feared them. It was in this strange race that the albes put their trust, swore allegiance and protection, and prophesised their fate. A race of insects still thinks as insects; if the hero did not appear, then their hope lay in their poison and strong mind and sheer numbers, sleeping and working and multiplying below the soil as they had done for so long. Thus, the prophecy ended:

...But even there will be hope.

From the tenke will come the yaase;
And clad in the armour of light
The nalaha, part of the earth of the albe.

The albe waited for their saviours for millennia more, and gradually the prophecy of Taraku became known as the prophecy of Tsurugi instead. The words changed, and what they believed, too, changed: that from the heavens would come a warrior, and clothing himself in armour of light, he would become one with the earth of Arb.

And that is the end of it, for on Arb, other types of stories begin even now. [+/-] Once upon a time, there was a little planet with no name...

----

（この記事に、ヒカリサーガ１　ウルトラマンメビウス第９話のネタバレが少し含まれています。）

今日は、宇宙の隅っこにある　「奇跡の星」とも言われる小さな青い惑星について語りたいと思います。

昔、宇宙のある隅っこに名もなく小さな惑星がありました。
摂理によって、その惑星が安定し一つの星を周回することになった。
惑星の地盤の沈下と隆起によって山や谷が作られ、火山の噴火で豊かな土壌に包まれてきたり、
大気は酸素や窒素みたいな生命に優しいガスで満ちてきたり、
水は地面や地面の下に流れ自らの道を刻み始めた。
霧がその惑星を覆い太陽の強い放射線を和らげてくれた。

重ねた摂理で、その惑星に命が誕生した。ある一種が適所を早く見つかり、他の競争生物をすべて追い出してしまった。
それは最強でも最速の生物ではなく、最も順応性を持っていた生物　水晶のような甲で体を守る節足動物のアルベでした。
雑食性で、植物も生きた獲物も腐肉を餌にした。強い甲は、獲物や土から取れたミネラルで補強された。
アリのような巣で暮らし、アリのように三階級のアルベがいた。
雄の兵隊アルベは有毒植物を食べその毒をムカデのように牙に溜め、死ぬ際に最も強い攻撃をしてくる癖が付いた。
雌の働きアルベは餌を集め、敵の見張りをし、女王アルベは巣の中心でアルベの数を保ち続けた。
そして、毎巣に数々のアルベを結束したコロニーに変わる強い集団意識があった。
その数が大き過ぎて、惑星はその水晶の体の青に輝いた。

時は流れやがてアルベに知性、言語や文明に覚めた。
女王、兵隊、働きは、テンケ、ナラハ、ヤーセと呼ばれました。
集団意識の「タラク」が唯一の法になり、アルベの社会は地底に潜って食をとる為だけに地上に現れた。
命の争いはその頭の上で続け、他の生物が絶滅になったら自分の食べ物を死肉、ゴケ、水に変わり、進化で足も飛行力を失った。
捕食者の恐れがなくなったアルベたちは知的能力に全力を注ぎ始めた。
テレパシー、テレキネシスを使う様になって、時代が過ぎるほどその能力が強くなった。
巣の一階級、または丸一つの巣が一つの生命体に融合させられて、一つ一つのの小さな意識がもっと大きい存在の一部の力となった。

何万年も過ぎた後に、アルベの進化がもっと進んで、知識を求め続けた。
その頃にはもうアルベたちの中で肉体の区別が出来ない、とも言うより必要がなかった。
タラクの下に統一され、アルベたちはまるで一つの存在として生きてきた。
周りの役目を紛れもなく知っていた。
水晶のような甲羅を擬装にし、ヤーセたちは澄み切った緑の大地に見張りをし、メガ巣に近づくものを待ち続けた。
その時には、異星からの来訪者も少なくはなかった。
他者の心までも感じれるアーブは平和的な者に向こうの世界の事を訊き、
悪事をする為に来たものを早速ナラハ体で捕らえ、死んでゆく頭からその記憶や知識を引きずり出した。
そうしてアルベは愛と憎しみ、戦争と平和、悪人と英雄、真実と詐欺―その全てを学べました。

ある日に、一人の逃亡者がアルベの惑星に着いた。
致命的傷を負い、美しい大地の上でその命が絶えてしまいアルベは彼の記憶を小魚のように集めました。
その記憶が、影に染められた―切れ長の眼で角を持つ、無限の空腹で叫ぶ影に。
彼が最初だったが、やがてその影を知るものがだんだん現れて、アルベはその皆を知ることになってしまった。
捕獲者にもその影を恐れる記憶があり、アルベは初めて肝までに降りる恐怖を味わう事になった。
あの日から、土とその偉大なる意識に、苦しみ　復讐　絶望や憤怒の記憶が存在した。

あの時のアルベは不動過ぎて逃げる道がなく、その飢え続けている影に歯向かえる訳がなかったと悟った。
それでも、彼らは希望を灯し待ち続けた。
敵の記憶とともに、味方の記憶を持っていた。
沢山の生命体から、銀色の巨人の事を知っていました。
その巨人が警備隊みたいな物を設立し、宇宙の平和を守り続けた。
善に尊敬され、悪に恐れていた。
その巨人にアルベたちは信頼を託し、彼らに忠心と防御を誓い　運命を予言した。
所詮アルベは昆虫から進化した生物。もしも救いがなかったら、持っていた毒や強い念力を使い果たすしかなかった。
それに、まだ土の下で眠り生活し繁殖している無数の同胞たちに、生き抜く希望があった。それでタラクの予言の最後の一

説は、こう言った：

「だが希望はまだある
テンケより生まれしヤーセ
光の鎧を纏い
アルベの大地の一つのナラハ」

アルベはそれから何万年も救世主を待ち続け、「タラクの予言」も「ツルギの予言」に変わってしまった。内容は変わり、信

じたものも変わってしまった。
『天空より舞い降りし勇者、光の鎧を纏い　アーブの大地と一つにならん』と言う事に。

それがそれで終わった。なぜなれアーブの大地では、今でも別々の話が始まろうとしている。 [+/-] 昔　名もなき小さな惑星があった…

Fanfiction: Bringer of Light

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one concerned about this. I probably am ^^; The Japanese Wiki entry for Mebius does mention this matter, though. (and, as always, click to enlarge the picture.)

What follows is not canon, was executed in about two days (and edited for 6-7) and is strictly the ramblings of a meticulous fan to reconcile things internally. But I do hope you enjoy it nevertheless.

Title: Bringer of Light
Date: 21/5/2008
Fandom: Ultraman (Mebius)
Genre: General
Rating/Warnings: PG. Ultraman and all related characters (c) Tsuburaya Productions 1966, 2008.The name 'Lucien Candela' should not be taken as canon.
Summary: Set post-series. Mebius finds out, a little awkwardly, what Hikari's actual name is. But in the end, perhaps a name is what you answer to.

Someone was calling him. Ultraman Hikari turned, and raised one hand lightly in response to the familiar voice. "It's been a while, Mebius. What brings you here?"

"I just thought I'd stop by and say hello. Captain Zoffy told me you'd been assigned to the weaponry research department. So this is what you do here..." he replied, voice trailing off as he surveyed the area and its controlled chaos.

"Between missions, yes." Hikari followed Mebius' line of sight and chuckled. It must have been completely new to the young fighter, this battleground fought with nothing but information. "I could show you around, if you'd like. I bet the younger members would be happy to see someone from headquarters."

"If it's not too much trouble, I'd like that very much," Mebius said with a smile. Just then, someone else approached the two, a disk of microfilm in hand, and Hikari turned to the sound of his voice.

"Professor Lucien? Lucien Candela? These are the files you wanted." He looked at Hikari, as if expecting a response. Mebius was about to open his mouth, to tell him that surely the researcher was mistaken. Perhaps his friend had a brother, or he was being mistaken for another scientist. But then the Blue Ultran nodded, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world, and took the disc from him.

"Thank you. I'll get this back to you by day's end. Anything else?"

"Yes. Chief Eien wants to see you." Noticing Mebius' presence, the researcher bowed, and the fighter followed suit, slightly dazed.

"Understood. I'll be right over. He must be new," Hikari added once he was out of earshot. "Sorry, Mebius, I need to look over this right away. We'll have a chance to talk later."

"Sure, not a problem," Mebius said by way of acknowledgement. "But...he called you 'Lucien'?"

The man fiddled with the disk gently, his expression somewhat unreadable. "What they used to call me, before I went to Arb. Now if you will excuse me..." He turned on his heel and headed back to a terminal, leaving behind his very confused comrade.

------

The day was almost at its end before the two were able to resume their conversation. Up on the Garrison's roof deck, Mebius was deep enough in thought that he almost missed the approaching footsteps.

"It's a bit dangerous to be so occupied," Hikari—no, Lucien said dryly. Mebius had done his research in the past hours. He'd gone through the list of Star Mark recipients, scientific journals on planetary studies, experiments in portable weaponry like a few of the Ultra Brothers possessed; every one of them mentioned a 'Professor Lucien Candela'. One had a picture staring calmly back at him from the screen. The most recent document he could find that contained the name was a proposal to study the Planet Arb, once a flourishing utopia and now stripped bare and cold. Through his friend, he knew this all too well.

"I...I must apologise," Mebius said. "We've fought together all this time, and I never knew or asked your real name. I just called you what Ryuu-san called you. But I remember when I was younger, still in school, they mentioned the scientist Candela Lamben, and how he worked beside the First Six and the Emperan resistance forces. That scientist was your father?"

"It's nothing to be sorry about. And yes, I am that Candela's son." He leaned against the railing beside Mebius, folding his arms before his chest. "I suppose my father hoped that his son would bring pride to the race when he named me. Lu-shi-en, blue-shadow-advance. For a long time I was able to take pride in that name, and continue the work he started during the Emperan occupation. And then, I requested to go and investigate Arb..." He fell silent for a while before Mebius' questioning gaze encouraged him to continue.

"You must understand one thing." There was a cold steel edge at the back of his words. "Lucien was pure and naive, believing with one heart in the goodness of life. When Arb died—when that beautiful, innocent place died, he died with it, consumed by Tsurugi and its desire for vengeance. Hikari...Hikari is the one who fights for all the Arbs yet to be, before history repeats itself and more life is sacrificed." He broke off with a short laugh. "Please excuse me. I'm rambling."

"It makes sense anyway," Mebius replied slowly, thoughtfully. "That part of yourself may not have died so easily. It comes back to Earth again."

"It does? You would think the Sage himself guided us there..."

"I checked it out. Lucien, in French—another Terran language—it means 'bringer of light'. And so you have brought light to many people. It is a good name to simply throw away and let die. Should I use it, from now on?" he asked, curious and intent on receiving a definitive answer.

"Well, that's something." He tilted his head, a faint smile playing on his lips as he thought it over. "No, Mebius. Lucien is dead, Sage rest him. Call me what you always have. After all, you and Ryuu and the rest of them had a part in that naming. So, would you still like that tour tomorrow?"

Mebius smiled once more. "Yes, Hikari, actually I would." [+/-] "...he called you 'Lucien'?"

P.S. - This is what happens when you put Ming and old books together: