Contrary to popular belief, the KDF doesn't provide comprehensive insurance—life, health, or auto insurance—to low-ranking officers. And even if they did, Rin doubts there's a clause that covers Ultraman's tomfoolery as a cause.

So when Ryuzaki Rin strolls out of her usual diner and finds her car on fire, thanks to a 40-meter-tall pain in the ass, all she can think of is how financially crippling this is going to be, how she'll have to take the train to work, and how she can't wait to give that gigantic tinman a black eye.

She calls the cops, goes back to her tiny apartment, scans every line of her auto insurance, and spends hours on the phone with the HR Department. Rin sits at her work desk, rigid and tensed, as she pours over her papers. "The documents say the insurance covers Kaiju attacks," she repeats, trying not to sound exasperated.

"We understand your problem and we symp—"

"Really, Mr. Maeda, this is the fourth time you're hitting with me that."

"I apologise, Officer Ryuzaki. I really do. But that damages to your vehicle was caused by being subjected to combustion. There is no proof that Neronga was the one who—"

Rin massages her temples, "What about the Ultraman Direct Involvement clause? It says something about 'debris from his battles or inadvertent impacts'?"

"Again," Mr Maeda from HR sounds bored, if she was being honest, "the policy does not cover secondary or collateral damage caused by environmental changes or events indirectly resulting—"

"Environmental changes?" She repeats, "No, that's not what I asked about."

There's a heavy sigh from the other end. Rin makes a note to report Mr. Maeda for his insensitivity. "Officer Ryuzaki, environmental changes resulting indirectly from Ultraman's actions include fire damage resulting from heat or energy discharges. We deeply sympathise with your situation and will do our best to provide you with the best possible solution within our policies."

Rin doesn't let go. "What about filing it as collateral from war or nuclear—"

"Your insurance doesn't cover—"

"Well, what does it cover?" She asks sharply without raising her voice, "Because frankly, I am receiving zero help from a company who has, not once or twice, but five times said that they sympathise with me."

"We can cover the costs of towing your vehicle—"

"Is that so? And where will you tow my crispy fried Toyota to?"

The silence that follows shows that she's testing his patience the way he is testing hers. "Officer Ryuzaki, we—"

"Don't say it. Don't you say it!"

"—at UltraGuard sympathise with your situation and hope to—"

"Mr Maeda."

This stretch of silence is different than before. It's more contemplative. "If you ask me," Mr Maeda lowers his voice like he's looking over his shoulder, "You have a better shot at suing Ultraman than expecting your insurance to help you out."

That gets Rin's attention. Adamant that she'll make Ultraman pay every cent required to fix her car or buy her a new one, she keeps a megaphone on her while she travels to and from work. Her colleagues offer condolences and share her plight because being ground staff at KDF doesn't exactly have a lot of benefits. Insurance being one of them. One of her seniors tells her that he sets aside money every month to pay for premium parking in exclusive zones 'just to be on the safe side' as UltraGuard covers damages to cars and bikes only if they're in the exclusive zone.

"But it is surprising," one of her fellow aviation mechanics muses, "how someone as cold and resolute as you couldn't make them pay for anything."

"I made them pay to tow my car all the way to the farthest junkyard," she answers flatly, pulling her workbag across her chest, "Besides, I plan on suing Ultraman so I'm not letting this go."

Her colleagues laugh before they stop, one by one, and realise that she's serious. It's not surprising. Ryuzaki Rin is known for her silence and diligence. None of the maintenance staff members would be surprised if they saw Ultraman standing outside court tomorrow.

Lucky for her, the alert goes off while she's on the tarmac, doing a maintenance check on one of the choppers. Rin grabs her megaphone and hitches a ride with the evac squad. Within minutes, she's outside the baseball stadium where Gigantron, the bird-like Kaiju, is spotted. The evac squad gets to work, directing civilians out of the way.

The stadium parking lot is ablaze and Gigantron's screech tears through the night skies. All Rin can think of, however, is the number of people who will end up in the same predicament as her.

Is Gigantron scary? Mortifyingly so, yes. Should any rational person run the other way if they saw it approaching them? Absolutely. Would any mortal human be considered suicidal and an utter moron for sprinting towards the Kaiju? Unquestionably. But Rin is a poor government worker who sends a large chunk of her salary to her aged parents in Aomori. She can't afford to buy another car and she can't afford to travel by public transport because of the abysmal connection line to HQ. Rin's needs outweigh her fear by a grand margin.

So she sucks it up and begins to sprint towards the baseball stadium.

Gigantron's green eyes glow brightly in the orange haze. She ducks her neck and prowls, searching through the wreckage. When she doesn't find what she's looking for, Gigantron lets out another screech that almost, almost makes Rin pee her uniform trousers. Because she's not completely off the rocker yet, Rin keeps a 50-meter distance, running past Gigantron but not really away from the creature.

It's when she is close to the stadium that Ultraman appears. Rin hides by the exit, sweating from exhaustion and the heat. Her heartbeat is erratic but that is expected because it is frightening to stand here and she's close to tears.

Ultraman takes a swing at Gigantron's beak, making her fly back into the ground. "That's for messing up my game!" He bellows. Rin makes a note of this.

She continues to watch from a safe distance as the two giants exchange blows and blasts of energy. She gets her opening when Ultraman stumbles against the stadium's high walls. He places a hand against it to brace himself. Without wasting another second, Rin turns on her megaphone and points it at Ultraman.

"Excuse me!" Her voice makes him twitch. He looks around before turning his bright, flashlight gaze down on her. "I need to talk—"

"Do you mind?" He sounds irritated, "Bit occupied here. Go, find a KDF Officer to get you out."

"No. This is regarding—"

He huffs, turning his attention back to Gigantron. "Run along, bro," he commands, "This isn't for people like you."

Bro? Rin frowns and touches her short hair. Does he think I'm a man?

In the distance, Gigantron bats her wings and leaps into the sky with a roar. Hot on her heels are KDF pilots, shooting mercilessly at her. Ultraman breathes heavily, preparing to follow suit. Rin tries again. She raises her megaphone and announces.

"Ultraman, I'm going to sue you for vehicular damages!"

Ultraman cannot blink but she's quite sure he rolls his eyes at her. "Sure, dude," he says, taking flight, "If you can track me down."

"I accept that challenge!" She yells back but he's long gone.

Coated in soot and smelling of smoke, Rin manages to hitch a ride in a KDF car back to HQ. She's ushered through an obligatory health checkup before she's allowed to run down to her office. She shares the bullpen with three more colleagues—a Warrant Officer, another (Flight) Sergeant like her, and a Flying Officer—all of whom are confused about why she was at a baseball game when she doesn't know the first thing about it.

"Overtime's cancelled," Warrant Office Watanabe tells her, switching off his computer. "Your trip back here was unnecessary."

Rin takes her jacket off and drapes it over her chair. "I told you, sir," she says flatly, cracking her knuckles, "I'm suing Ultraman so I need to get some paperwork done."

It's not the whole truth but that doesn't make it a lie either. While her colleagues bid her goodnight and leave, shaking their heads in exasperation when they think she can't see them, Rin pulls up everything KDF has on Ultraman. Everything that she is allowed to access.

It doesn't tell her much, except that the superhero had made a miraculous return after months of being AWOL. His fighting style is different. His attitude is different. His build is different. She fast-forwards through civilian sightings and scans articles but there is little to indicate who Ultraman might be behind the mask.

For a moment, Rin thinks she's an idiot for seriously trying to find out who Ultraman is. He's been around for decades. Surely the dedicated fans must've tried their hand at sleuthing? And what if the KDF already knows? There wasn't a resource at its disposal that the organization couldn't exploit to take what it wanted.

But nobody must've looked with the fury and commitment Ryuzaki Rin was born with because she hits the jackpot several hours into her detective work. She knows she's breaking the law by accessing CCTV footage through unauthorized means. But she's from the maintenance staff. Nobody cares what they're up to in their cabins as long as their planes and jets and choppers take off.

Rin cross matches dates and finds the earliest footage coinciding with Ultraman's appearance, which isn't long ago. The rest of it must have been wiped for storage reasons. Whatever the case, it doesn't take her long to discover that, before his return, Ultraman was meticulous about where he showed up from and how much of him was caught on camera. Part of the videos were edited, important bits missing now and then. It's only in the footage with Neronga that she finds glitches.

An excitement she has felt in years runs through her veins. She hurries to salvage anything she can find from this evening.

"Game," she murmurs, "He said something about ruining his game."

She procures every record from the cameras placed in and around the baseball stadium but focuses most on the one where she was hiding. It takes her a while to narrow down a suspicious figure amidst the panicked crowd rushing out of the exit. A Giants' player, in white, with a baseball cap. Rin sees him run down the exit before disappearing out of frame.

Rin scrutinizes the video as closely as she can, even going as far as analysing the shadows. Her mouth curves into a rare smile when she discovers that the mystery player's shadow moves in the opposite direction of the rest of the crowd. She tries and tries to zoom in but it's very difficult to capture his face where it isn't pixelated. You'd think a multi-billion yen worth of a stadium would have better cameras for security but no.

She just about manages to note down his jersey details and take a screenshot of his face—whatever quality it may be—when the video altogether vanishes from her monitor. Rin stares at the screen for a full three seconds in muted horror. Someone had hacked into the cameras, overriding the encryption with ease, and wiped just about everything while Rin was watching. She jolts into action and begins to wipe all possible traces and footprints she might have left to be on the safe side. She prints the picture, switches off the lights in the cabin, and stumbles out into the hallway to find anybody who might know a smidge more than her about baseball.

She catches one of the secretaries—the nicer one—in the foyer. As casually as she can, not that she needs to sound any more monotonous than she already does, Rin asks the officer, "So...was there a baseball match today?"

"Hell, yeah," he swings his fist enthusiastically, "The Giants were playing the Swallows. It was the opening match. Sucks that I had to miss it." His shoulders drop and he runs a hand over his salt-and-pepper hair. "The Doc's been making us run around the clock. But I thought your crew had been dismissed, Sergeant Ryuzaki."

"Yes, but I had a bone to pick with a certain superhero so I stayed to prepare a few documents for the jag."

She says it so seriously that the secretary does not take her seriously. He barks out a laugh and slaps her shoulder in good humour. "Yeah, there's a rumour going around that you have a bone to pick with Ultraman because of what happened to your car. Nuisance, ain't he?"

"Indeed." She drags the conversation back to why it had started. "I have a friend who's into baseball and she wants me to come to a match with her. She's a big fan of this guy." She points at the sad screenshot amidst her other things. "Do you know who he is? His jersey number is seven."

This time, the secretary looks genuinely baffled. Like she's grown horns or scales or has started turning into a mini kaiju. "That," he gapes, "is Sato Ken. He's the guy in the world of sports right now. His stats are off the planet. Like...Sergeant Ryuzaki, he's the guy."

She frowns, "So you've said."

His watch beeps an alert and he immediately brings the conversation to an end. "Good luck with your court case, Sergeant. Don't be too disheartened if you don't find Ultraman. It's okay to give up sometimes."

Rin turns as he walks past her. She scowls at his back, annoyed by his words. "This is impossible," she snaps to herself, "Who the fuck is Sato Ken anyway?"

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ