Mami Tomoe sat on the bed in her room, the light from her phone screen reflecting on her face.
A line of text was typed into the search bar “Superman.”
The moment she pressed enter, Mami Tomoe thought only a few entries would pop up.
The result was hundreds and thousands of entries: comics, animations, movies, TV series.
Supermen from different eras, Supermen with different art styles, Supermen in different storylines there were even several versions of the origin story alone.
“He’s truly amazing, Superman there are so many stories.” Mami Tomoe scrolled down and then back up, her finger hovering over the screen, not knowing which one to click on.
For Mami Tomoe, this was a sweet dilemma; stories too numerous to finish meant she could spend a lot of time getting to know Superman, and getting to know a Superman was, in itself, a process to look forward to.
Mami Tomoe flipped her phone over, placing it face down on the quilt, her gaze landing somewhere on the ceiling.
Memories surfaced involuntarily just a short while ago, she had been standing outside Jina’s Villa, holding her musket, with Superman flying in mid-air beside her, using Freeze Breath to suppress the zombies.
That feeling was very strange.
It had been so long since she fought alongside others.
Ever since Kyoko Sakura left Mitakihara, every one of her nights had been spent alone.
Finding a witch alone, transforming alone, fighting alone, cleaning up the mess alone, and then going home alone.
Placing the Soul Stone on the nightstand in the empty apartment, and saying “Good work” to herself.
However, ever since she had this Chat Group, the situation had improved a lot.
Mami Tomoe could share her experiences as a Magical Girl in the group no need to hide, no need to pretend; everyone in the group knew her identity and thought she was amazing.
Saeko would reply to her earnestly, Jina would exaggerate her praise, and Superman would say “Good work”.
Just these words alone made the apartment at night feel less quiet.
Mami picked up her phone, opened the search results again, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
“Which story should I start learning from?”
Kyubey crouched in the corner of the room, tilting its white head, its round red eyes staring at Mami without blinking.
Just a moment ago, its sensory system had captured something strange Mami Tomoe’s existence had briefly vanished from this World.
The time was extremely short, so short that even its sensors couldn’t confirm whether it was a glitch or a real anomaly.
Kyubey didn’t ask; it just watched.
…
[Mami Tomoe]: Superman, are you coming to the World I’m in?
[Superman]: Yes.
I want to specifically learn about your situation as Magical Girls and see if I can help you solve the problem with the witches.
Is that okay?
Mami Tomoe’s finger hovered over the virtual keyboard for a second.
Although Superman had mentioned coming before, and Jina had also brought it up to her, she still froze for a moment when the words actually appeared on the screen.
It wasn’t because of hesitation, but because an unfamiliar emotion was surging in her chest not nervousness, not worry, but joy.
The last time Mami Tomoe had felt this way was a long time ago, before Kyoko Sakura had left.
She had companions
[Mami Tomoe]: Of course!
I mean, it’s my honor to be able to fight alongside Superman.
[Jina]: Come to think of it, the time we spend in each other’s World is calculated based on points…
Superman, I’ll give you all my points.
[Saeko]: I will also transfer all of my points to you, Superman.
Thank you again for your help before.
Ultraman watched the point transfer notifications popping up on the screen one after another and was silent for a moment.
This was Superman’s reputation.
No need to prove himself, no need to explain; just the name alone could make people from different Worlds empty out their entire savings without reservation.
When Ultraman borrowed this name, he only thought about convenience, but now, looking at these unhesitating point transfers.
Ultraman suddenly felt that the weight on his shoulders was heavier than he had anticipated.
[Jina]: However, it seems we don’t have a legal identity when we cross over…
I wonder if it will cause trouble for Superman?
[Mami Tomoe]: It’s fine, my apartment happens to have an extra room, Superman can stay with me.
Ultraman looked at this sentence and began to think about a practical problem.
How to tell them in a reasonable way that he actually possesses Super Intelligence.
Most people’s impression of Superman was limited to physical abilities like “Super Strength,” “Heat Vision,” and “flight,” and few people knew that Superman also had an attribute called Super Intelligence.
Superman had it, and of course, Ultraman had it too.
It’s just that he usually only used this thing for scientific research and memory, rarely using it to formulate plans.
The reason was simple: once he activated Super Intelligence to deeply contemplate certain grand propositions, Ultraman’s brain would involuntarily run to two extremes.
Either becoming overly Buddhist/passive since everything is entropy increase, doing anything is meaningless or becoming overly radical if one wants to completely solve the problems of human society, the most direct way is to erase all the humans who create the problems.
Neither was what Ultraman wanted.
To prevent himself from one day losing his mind and turning into an inhuman ideology, he set hard limits on his Super Intelligence.
Ultraman pulled back his thoughts and walked to the wardrobe; this time, he would be staying in Mami Tomoe’s World for a relatively long time, so his attire had to be appropriate.
A white shirt, dark trousers, black-rimmed glasses, and hair slightly messy but not looking sloppy.
Ultraman inspected every item, confirming there were no flaws.
Pretending to be Superman in the group, and pretending to be a Superman who doesn’t know the truth in front of Mami a disguise within a disguise; everything had to be careful and cautious.
Everything was ready, and Ultraman stood in front of the mirror, looking at the gentle man with glasses in the reflection.
“Kyubey.” Ultraman said the name in a low voice, with undisguised disgust in his tone.
Weaving a huge lie with incomplete truths, tricking countless girls onto the battlefield, letting them be repeatedly crushed between hope and despair, and extracting energy from that to delay the entropy increase of the Universe.
Such an alien creature would be a standard invader in any work and he was going there this time to face these detestable guys head-on.
Ultraman remembered that there is a another superhero named Ultraman.
A person named after a giant hero was going to confront an alien invader lurking around young girls.
Ultraman curled the corners of his mouth at himself in the mirror.
“Does this count as going to fight an alien invader as Ultraman?”