Chapter 7: Zaki? Never Heard of Him

Shunichi Maki’s identity as an air force officer, though he had plans to retire, spared him from a great deal of trouble. Because of this, the military institution where Sara Mizuhara was stationed didn’t give Shunichi Maki a hard time.

A month had quietly passed since the fierce battle between Nexus and the Progenitor Beast. The media remained obsessed with reporting on the event. Even though Nexus hadn’t reappeared, people continued to discuss him. Sometimes, parents would invoke the incident to frighten misbehaving children—threats like “If you keep acting up, the demon will come and take you away” became commonplace in households.

As a result, most of Tokyo’s population gradually became familiar with the event. Some admired Nexus, but most were terrified of the Progenitor Beast. Fear was the prevailing sentiment.

Thus, the TLT was established.

A massive memory-erasure operation was about to sweep over Tokyo, making everyone forget both the Progenitor Beast and Nexus. In fleeing from fear, people would also lose the courage to overcome it. One could only wonder which genius had come up with such a plan.

None of this affected Jojo, however. Having anticipated these developments, he had already left Japan. Escaping was something he excelled at.

If it had been another Earth defense organization, Jojo might have tried to make contact, but not with the TLT. Zagi was hiding among their ranks; his current strength was unknown, but anyone capable of creating Dark Mephist was not to be trifled with. Not only would he risk alerting the enemy, but he wasn’t even sure he could win.

But all that could be set aside for now.

After a month of slumber, the old sage had finally regained some of his strength. The first thing he did upon awakening was to pull Jojo into the subspace.

Compared to before, when the subspace was like a corridor of flowing light, it had now become a misty, deep blue expanse. Wisps of blue energy drifted about like fog—clearly, this would become the scene for future communication between Nexus and his compatible hosts.

Yet, the old sage was still weak and remained in the form of Nexust rather than evolving into Nexus.

Noah, in his current form, gazed down at Jojo for a long while, unsure how to begin. He lacked experience in these matters, and their relationship was somewhat complicated.

How to explain it was a problem in itself.

The two stared at each other, big eyes meeting small. Jojo felt the old sage’s gaze was strange, but he didn’t overthink it. He simply asked, “Noah, how much strength have you recovered?”

“Can you take the form of the Red Nexus?”

Jojo thought to himself, if Noah had recovered enough to become Red Nexus, then he could go deal with Zagi. Zagi was seriously wounded right now—this was the easiest time to take him down.

Noah fell silent, gazing at the unreserved Jojo. Young man, you’re a bit too familiar! How do you seem to know so much about my forms after recovery?

After a long pause, Noah replied gently, “Not yet. I gave my life to Shunichi Maki, so I’ve only recovered a little.”

He didn’t know how this young man was so familiar with his affairs, but the light never lied.

“I see.” Jojo couldn’t help but look a bit disappointed, sighing, “Looks like we’ll have to let Zagi go for now.”

To put it bluntly: we probably can’t beat him, so let’s not throw our lives away.

To put it nicely: Zagi, you just got lucky.

Noah was a bit confused by this, asking, “Who is Zagi?”

The old sage still didn’t know that, when he had been chasing the Progenitor Beast to the edge of the universe, the visitors he’d once helped had created a new enemy for him.

“Zagi?” Jojo eyed Noah’s current Nexust form up and down, then explained, “He looks just like you when you have wings, but he’s black, and doesn’t have wings on his back.”

Noah: “?”

Staring at Jojo’s earnest description, Noah wanted to say those weren’t wings, but he understood who Zagi was. In short, a robot created and then corrupted—a common occurrence in the universe, nothing strange. Just someone who looked like him—not worth worrying about.

The old sage had yet to realize how troublesome this Zagi, created by the visitors, would become.

Noah looked down at Jojo, but after much thought, still couldn’t bring himself to discuss their relationship. Instead, he solemnly said, “Zagi isn’t important.”

“Jojo, do you remember the one we fought before?”

Noah’s tone was heavy as he spoke.

“He isn’t dead. One day, he’ll return to Earth.”

“We have to be ready.”

“Perhaps, in a few years, we’ll face our final battle with him.”

Compared to the black giant with wings that Noah sensed—no, not wings, but jet-black appendages on his back—Zagi was insignificant.

“Wait! Wait!” The more Jojo listened, the more wrong it sounded. He quickly raised his hand to stop Noah, looking up at Nexust in disbelief. “Are you saying you plan to stay in my body for good?”

“Is that a problem?” Noah asked, puzzled.

There was a would-be Child of Light right in front of him. Though still immature, he was better than any other human on Earth. Why keep searching for another compatible host?

Hearing this, Jojo was dumbfounded. Of course it was a problem!

The Bond of Light had now tied him down for good. Did that mean he’d have to deal with all the monsters that would flood the Earth, and Dark Zagi too? Wasn’t that just asking for a lifetime of trouble?

No way! He refused!

Just as Jojo was about to voice his objections, Noah, still in the form of Nexust, waved his hand. Instantly, a vortex of space-time swirled within the subspace. A mysterious gale blew fiercely into Jojo’s mouth, making his face flap wildly as he spun inside the vortex, his words turning into unintelligible babble.

Seeing Jojo’s terrified expression, Noah tried to comfort him in a gentle voice, “There’s no need to be afraid. I’ll send you to a place where you can grow even faster.”

Fortunately, when traveling between universes in the past, he’d always left behind a stone statue or two. Now, they could finally be put to use. The only question was, how much energy did those statues still have?

Jojo stared, aghast, at Noah, who was clearly on a different wavelength, mouth wide open and still trying to protest.

Damn it!

But Noah didn’t hear a word.

If he didn’t hear it, it didn’t count as a refusal. And if there was no refusal, it meant agreement.

“Jojo really is a good kid,” Noah thought, and turned into light, merging into Jojo’s body.

At the same time, on another Earth…