64. Exhilarating Aggressiveness

Because Nagi Saijo still refused to accept the idea of "coexistence with monsters," Dan Moroboshi replaced her this time.

Dan Moroboshi, Qiming, Yamanaka, and Kishida boarded the Guts Wing No. 2 and headed toward the troubled No. 4 Sakura Maru.

When they arrived at the scene, the berserk female turtle was on the verge of flipping the cargo ship over. The people on board were terrified, with nowhere to escape in the vast open sea.

"It looks like the crew is not in immediate danger of not being able to escape, so let's just sit back and watch," Qiming suggested that they all enjoy the show.

Naturally, Dan Moroboshi would do no such thing. "How can we stand by and watch people die? Yamanaka, cut the chains connecting the ship and the giant turtle."

"Leave it to me." Yamanaka aimed and fired. The Guts Wing No. 2 shot out two beams of laser light, severing the chains.

"Splash!" At that moment, the water surface broke, and an even more massive male turtle appeared. It bit through the capture net, helping the female turtle regain her freedom.

"No!" Watching his hard-earned prey escape and dive into the deep sea, Kurosaki let out a heartbreaking, miserable scream.

When the ship docked at the nearby Kozu Island, Kurosaki immediately vented his anger on the Guts Select members.

…………………………

"What the hell were you meddling for?!" Kurosaki's face turned red with rage. "Did anyone ask you to fire any lasers?!"

"What are you talking about?" Yamanaka and Kishida were taken aback.

Qiming stood aside, watching with a cold, detached gaze—the look one gives to a corpse.

"We spent two years preparing to capture that giant turtle, costing one hundred million yen! How are you going to compensate us?!" Kurosaki angrily demanded an accounting.

"You really don't know what's good for you!" This attitude infuriated Yamanaka and Kishida.

Qiming spoke up leisurely:

"Compensate you? How about we toast with a glass of champagne to celebrate that you thoroughly deserve this?"

"You were blinded by greed and encroached upon the giant turtle's territory. In my opinion, the price you've paid is still far from enough."

Kurosaki's assistant was also enraged: "What did you say?!"

Seeing Qiming speak up, Yamanaka and Kishida tacitly stepped backward, leaving the stage entirely to this professional.

Dan Moroboshi, however, hoped to prevent the conflict from escalating: "Lower your voices, everyone. We only scrambled because we received the ship's SOS signal. Now that everyone is safe and sound, shouldn't we be rejoicing?"

The captain stepped forward: "On behalf of all the crew members, I express my gratitude to Guts Select. Thanks to you, both the people and the ship were able to return."

Kurosaki's assistant was clearly unconvinced:

"Is there anything wrong with us capturing monsters?"

"Once these giant turtles give birth to equally gigantic offspring and grow in strength, they will definitely attack humans."

"Mr. Kurosaki is merely preventing such a crisis. This is what a human being ought to do!"

Qiming glanced at him sideways and shook his head. "It seems that sniffing too much bootlicking easily inhales fungal spores, which in turn affects brain development. That's why your perspective on things is dark and narrow-minded, and your thoughts are biased and extreme. You kiss so much ass that even you must think it smells delightfully fragrant."

Yamanaka and Kishida could not help but take a deep breath. When they were on the same side as Qiming, this level of aggressiveness was truly refreshing to the soul.

"Bastard, what kind of attitude is that?" The group of capture team members was furious.

"My attitude toward you has actually been far too good. I've given you way too much face."

With a swift slap across the face, Qiming sent Kurosaki's assistant spinning like a top before he collapsed onto the ground and passed out.

"A Guts Select member is beating people up!" Kurosaki screamed in terror.

"Am I hitting a human? It doesn't really look like one." With another slap, Qiming used enough force to slam Kurosaki directly against the wall.

Seeing that things had gotten out of hand—if their boss was beaten up, who was going to pay their salaries in the future?—the other members of the capture team rushed toward Qiming.

Kishida felt that he couldn't let Qiming fight alone and immediately prepared to fire a warning shot.

Dan Moroboshi quickly pressed his hand down. "Don't be reckless!"

A mere physical scuffle could barely be passed off as Guts Select members "mingling with ordinary citizens," but firing a gun would make the situation infinitely worse.

Yamanaka remarked, "Qiming can totally handle this kind of situation, right?"

True to his words, Qiming picked up a wooden baseball bat from the side and began swinging it at a rate of six strikes per second, beating the capture team members until they wailed in agony.

The captain and crew on the side watched with dumbfounded expressions, involuntarily taking a step back as if trying to draw a clear line between themselves and the capture team.

At that moment, the first mate began to scratch an itch. Like a spreading virus, the behavior instantly infected every single crew member.

Yamanaka asked, "What's wrong?"

The captain replied, "Who knows? We drank some turtle egg soup and now our whole bodies are itching."

Seeing this, Dan Moroboshi stepped forward and observed for a moment. "This is hives. Turtle-shell-patterned hives are truly rare."

Yamanaka noted, "The unconscious Kurosaki and the others have them too."

The knowledgeable Kishida thought for a moment. "It might be the female turtle haunting them."

A crew member asked fearfully, "Haunting?"

Kishida explained, "That's right. Turtles hold deep grudges. Haven't people said that once a turtle bites someone, it won't let go until it thunders? Besides, 'turtles live for ten thousand years'; who knows, this hatred might take ten thousand years to dissipate."

Many of the crew members were terrified. In just a short while, the itching had become unbearable for them. What would happen if they itched for the rest of their lives?

"Utterly ridiculous! Don't listen to his nonsense!" Kurosaki, having just regained consciousness, covered his face and said.

"You'll find out soon enough whether it's true or not." Having beaten the others into submission, Qiming casually tossed the baseball bat onto Kurosaki's head, causing the latter to let out a miserable shriek and pass out once more.

With that, he walked over to the inn's balcony, followed by Kishida and Dan Moroboshi.

Kishida pondered aloud, "Wasn't today's incident a bit too much? A Guts Select member beating up ordinary citizens—what happens if word of this leaks out?"

Qiming replied casually, "Aren't there excuses aplenty? We can just say we suspected that Superbeasts—which feel no pain—were disguised as capture team members, so we conducted an inspection."

"In the end, we discovered they could feel pain, thus verifying through this method that there were no Superbeasts present."

Kishida: "?"

Dan Moroboshi looked at the capture team members sprawled all over the floor. "This matter... was indeed a bit excessive."

Qiming sneered, "Excessive? It's just a bit of flesh wound. This is only the beginning."

"The 'hives' they contracted are a curse from the giant turtles. The two giant turtles will use this to sense the location of those who ate their babies, and then hunt them down one by one."

"It's just the thing to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, letting the world know that some things simply cannot be done. If you do them, this is the end that awaits you."

Kishida and Dan Moroboshi were utterly shocked. Yet, Ultraman Tiga—who loved humanity—was unwilling to abandon lives so easily, and he asked Qiming if there was any way to save them.

Qiming answered, "As for the members of the capture team, it goes without saying—they must die. Someone has to take responsibility for this matter. Since the captain and the others didn't directly attack the giant turtle, we can still spare their lives."

He called the captain and the first mate over and explained the situation, causing both of their complexions to change drastically.

The captain hurriedly asked, "If the giant turtles come to kill us, won't Guts Select protect us?"