Chapter Text
The day was strangely so peaceful. And somehow for some odd reason, he was enjoying the moment.
This was so unlike him, Juggler thought to himself. This was so so unlike his usual self, he thought again as he angled his trimmer to slightly cut a stray branch off of his pet bonsai tree.
"This is very uncharacteristic for me, yeah?" he asked no one in particular.
Juggler glanced up from his desk as he was greeted with an empty office. He sighed before wheeling himself towards the side windows. He glanced over towards the hangar as he watched the engineering crew diligently working on the maintenance of their three giant robots. Juggler's eyes were set towards the new addition to their lineup. King Joe Custom. That giant robot was really such a beauty...
Initially, he had been sceptical that the humans could actually salvage and reconstruct King Joe after recovering the wreckage from the last battle. Yet, here they are. It was still so amazing how the crew could somehow manage to alter the Pedanian technology of King Joe and integrated it into their own technology to allow them to take control of the alien robot. He snorted.
For some reason, he couldn't help being amazed at the ingenuity of the humans on this planet.
Juggler's attention then turned towards a commotion at the western corner of the hangar. He smiled. There they are. His 'kids'. Yoko had started another arm wrestling session with the rest of the crew. And as always, the lads were quite excited at the thought that they might be able to defeat her this time. When will those boys learn—!
Juggler frowned. Without warning he could sense an arrival of a powerful presence. And a familiar one. It was something he didn't expect to—Juggler immediately shot up from his chair before running out of the office...
×××
Bako chuckled aloud as Yoko defeated yet another opponent without much effort. He was about to resume analysing the technical data that had been piling on his desk before noticing the presence of a young man he never met before. He got up and walked towards the man who seemed to have lost his way around.
"Oh hey there, lad. You're not supposed to be here," he started to say. The young man turned his attention towards him before taking off his hat. "Did you by any chance got lost or something? This area wasn't supposed to be freely accessible to the public."
The young man just shrugged at him. "Oh no... I meant to come here actually. I was wondering if I could find—what's happening over there? Is there something fun—"
"Hey please, you can't just—!"
At that moment, Captain Hebikura rushed over towards them before grabbing the young man's arm.
"Ah! Hebi-chan! I was about to call you. This young man has been wandering around—"
Hebikura hastily nodded his head before placing a hand over the young man's mouth. Bako frowned.
"Hebi-chan? By any chance, did you know this kid?"
"Hebi—?" exclaimed the young man before the captain clamped his mouth even tighter. The man laughed nervously.
"Haha... err, yeah. This guy was a friend. It seemed that he decided to pay a visit here to see what kind of workplace I'm in without warning me first." Hebi gave a stern glare at the young man. "So umm... yeah, sorry for the trouble!" he said again before dragging the other man away.
Bako continued eyeing the two as Yuka walked over to check on him.
"Who was that? Why's the captain dragging him away?"
The old man just shrugged. "He said it's just an old friend. What a peculiar fellow, that one."
Notes:
For a while tbh I've been mulling over the idea of what might happen if Gai was to check in on him so I thought I might as well write it out. Not to mention there was a certain observation that I wanted to highlight in reference to Juggy's character.
Chapter Text
Yoko excused herself as she defeated Haruki yet again in arm wrestling. As soon as she stepped away from the table the boys immediately crowded around Haruki to offer him some words of comfort. It was at that time she saw Yuka talking to Bako excitedly about something.
"Hey!", she exclaimed, before nudging Yuka in the arm. "What's the fuss? Did something happen earlier?"
Yuka just shrugged. "Nothing. Just that someone came to see the Captain."
Bako snorted. "No, there's more to it than that. The lad apparently had been wandering around here aimlessly. And before I could ask how he managed to come here, Hebi-chan came rushing over and whisk his friend away."
"...it looked like he hasn't been expecting the sudden visit."
"Who you guys have been talking about?" asked Haruki as he walked over to their side.
Yuka smiled mischievously. "How about we check it out?"
×××
Juggler had just barely dragged the man towards the main office before finding his chance to kick Gai on the knee. Safe to say that he wasn't exactly too thrilled to see his old 'friend' coming unannounced to his current workplace.
"Are you nuts?" he hissed at the man. "You can't just barge over here like some dumb idiot without warning! This place is supposed to be a secret military installation—not some friend's apartment you can just come over to visit like there's no problem—!"
Gai snorted without thinking. "Aha... I just realised. But I've been wanting to see what this place was like after hearing that you're working here from Riku. I can't help it if I got curious about you, can I?"
Juggler started pressing on the side of his head as a migraine started forming. Gosh! He should've made it a point before to tell that Riku kid to not inform Gai about this recent venture of his. Because he knew that this idiot would do something like this. Of course! Why didn't he think about this?
Gai cocked his head at him. "By the way, Juggler... earlier, why did the old man call you Hebi? That's not even—" Immediately Juggler's hand flew towards Gai's mouth.
"Shush!" Juggler glared at him again. "Don't call me that here! Over here, my name is Hebikura Shota. Captain Hebikura Shota. If you HAVE to be here right now, you better refer to me by that name instead!"
"But why Hebi—!" exclaimed Gai again just as Juggler pull his hand away. He hastily placed a finger to shut him up again.
Juggler stepped away as Gai went quiet before rolling his eyes at his old friend. He started slapping the sides of his arms and his uniform to brush off the crease that had formed to try to make himself look much more presentable.
"Just because. Also because the others and my kids are not aware of my real identity currently and I wanted it to stay that way. For now." He gave Gai a dirty look. "To be frank, I'm rather proud of my naming sense. Unlike someone, I actually made an effort to think up a name to blend myself amongst the humans that actually reflected my true identity properly. Instead of just slapping a surname to my real name and be done with it."
He received another look from Gai as Juggler snorted.
"So now that you've seen me, why don't you just—" Juggler didn't manage to finish that line as Haruki, Yoko and Yuka suddenly chose that particular time to come back to the office together.
×××
"Captain!" greeted the trio as Juggler waved it off.
"What are you guys fussing about here suddenly?"
"We heard that your friend had come to see you and we're curious to get to know him!"
Yoko suddenly grabbed Gai's arm. "Are you a strong person? Wanna have a match with me?"
"No, I don't think you need to bother with—" Juggler started to say before Haruki grabbed Gai's other arm.
"Rather than a match, how about a spar?" Haruki exclaimed.
To which both Haruki and Yoko chirped about going to the gym and whisked Gai away. Juggler shook his head before turning towards Yuka.
"This is your plan, isn't it? Did Yoko try to coax you to spar with her again?" he asked as Yuka grabbed his arm tightly.
"This looked interesting, right? Let's go and see~~~!"
Chapter Text
Juggler nudged Yoko aside the moment they reached the small gym before standing between them and Gai. He smirked slightly. "It's not worth it to fight with this person, Yoko. It wouldn't make an interesting battle, much less an exercise. Compared to my old friend here, wouldn't training with Haruki again be the better idea?"
He turned towards Haruki before snorting. "You're still pretty clumsy even on Windom. Don't you think you needed a lot more training to do, Haruki-chan? At the rate you're going right now, you can't even dream of piloting King Joe Custom."
Haruki smiled nervously at him before slowly nodding his head in defeat. "Y-yes... Captain."
Juggler grinned before stepping towards the centre of the room. "Even then, since we're already here... we might as well show off a bit to the kids, don't you think so, Gai?"
Gai laughed loudly. "Sure. But since it's been a while since we saw each other, some lessons in sword-fighting? I haven't had a serious fight lately and I felt my skills had been a bit rusty..."
Juggler rolled his eyes at his old friend. "Seriously? You gotta be kidding me," he started to say before grabbing a set of wooden swords from a storage cabinet nearby. He threw one of them towards Gai and the man caught it deftly.
"How many times do I need to tell you that just having that fancy sword with you wouldn't mean anything much if your skills weren’t fully up to it? But if we want to do this you better be serious and not act like you did back in Suzark, you hear me?"
Gai chuckled again as he nodded. "Of course, my dear old mentor."
Juggler rolled his eyes again at Gai before turning towards Haruki and Yoko. "Pay attention. Especially you, Haruki. While you don't usually need this skill while piloting the giant robots during battles, it might still be useful to you someday."
"Osu!" exclaimed Haruki in response.
Juggler turned his attention back towards Gai before taking the initial pose for his Serpentine Blade...
"Let's begin the lesson," he said before they begin.
×××
Gai took a seat on a nearby bench as he silently observed the young members of Juggler's STORAGE team sparring with each other at the centre of the gym. Haruki and Yoko were practising Judo with each other while Juggler was teaching the younger one named Yuka.
It was a strange sight for him to see... yet it wasn’t really out of place. It made him reminisce about the early days of him and Juggler back in O-50 when they used to be training together in preparation for the climb towards the Warrior's Peak.
That had been so long ago and he never thought he'd see this again after so much time has passed, especially considering everything that have happened between him and Juggler. And somehow... he couldn't help feeling happy for his friend.
Of the three kids, it was clear that the one called Yoko was the more skilled... followed by the boy named Haruki, and lastly, Yuka. The youngest one seemed the most unskilled in battle, but he felt as if push come to shove... even that kid could put up a decent fight.
That boy Haruki though, there was something about the kid that made him feel drawn towards wanting to know the kid more. Was that the one Riku had told him who was bonded with Z? He couldn't help feeling a sense of nostalgia in the kid somehow. It made him think about the early days of him getting used to being Orb. And then meeting Asuka as he slowly learning his ways to being proper—!
Gai stopped himself from that thought as he took another look at Juggler's human team members. Was it a coincidence? For Juggler to be watching over yet another young Ultraman who reminded so much of himself when he had been of a similar age? And the girls... was it a coincidence as well that the two had a similar presence as—
—Ricca and Micott.
Gai turned his attention towards Juggler, and it struck him that he only started noticing it now. Juggler... had a soft gaze towards the girls, especially the youngest one. And when it comes to Haruki, he was stern and blunt in pointing out the kid's mistakes and scolding him to get better.
Just like how his friend used to be when he and Juggler had been travelling together.
It reminded Gai of the many memories in Kanon, and he couldn't help being a bit sad.
×××
"Jug—Hebikura... san, everything's alright with you, isn't it?"
Juggler gave him a silent look before checking to see if his 'kids' had noticed his slight blunder. They were back at the STORAGE office and the trio had been minding their own businesses at their desks. Yoko had been pestering Haruki for a few more rounds of arm-wrestling while Yuka was deep in concentration doing her research on her computer.
Juggler let out a sigh of relief before giving Gai an annoyed glare. "What're you talking about?"
Gai let out a weak smile at his friend. He didn't really want to ask Juggler about his earlier observation about the team members. But after returning to the office, he couldn't keep it in any longer.
He sighed before slowly taking out a small pot that Juggler had hurriedly hidden under the desk.
"Old friend... do you want to talk about this?"
Notes:
A bit of side note. Early on, I've been seeing how some people comparing Haruki to Gai in referrence to their connection to Juggy. And following that, was the comparison to the rest of SSP gang in relation to Yoko and Yuka (also Bako, in a sense). Though to be honest, I'm seeing more similarities with the people Juggy and Gai have met from Kanon.
And seeing the kind of backstory Juggy had and seeing the team he had currently, I would've wondered what Gai would think if he had met the team. Or this is just me wanting to write more Juggy-centric stories. It's been a while anyway XD
Chapter 4
Notes:
Was fiddling with this old draft and accidentally posted the incomplete draft due to my giant fingers. But then I thought... hey, I might as well be posting it anyway.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Juggler stared silently towards Gai before his eyes trailed slowly towards the item his old friend had just taken out. The small pot that he tried to hide from view the moment he found out about Gai's arrival. His 'bonsai' tree.
The small sprout that he'd been caring for quite some time during his earlier travel. His still-tiny and growing Tree of Life.
He was hoping that Gai wouldn't notice that tree. Guess he failed at doing that. He sighed.
"Guess you're not gonna stop pestering me about it till I tell you, huh?"
Gai gave him a cheeky grin as he rolled his eyes at him.
×××
He took Gai out towards the rooftop area after telling the kids to not bother eavesdropping on them. Not that he'd let them anyway.
Even then, he wasn’t planning to divulge everything to his old friend.
"It's no coincidence, isn't it? You coming here and joining this planet's defence force..."
Juggler snorted. Gai's not even beating around the bushes with the questions.
"Suppose it wasn't and I intentionally joined this organisation for my own purposes, would you have any issue with it?"
Gai shook his head. "No. I'm actually happy for you. It was nice to see you doing something positive and being on the good side..."
Juggler scoffed at that. "You thinking highly of me felt more out of place than you suspecting me of some underlining motives. Cut it out."
The two of them went silent for some time before Juggler let out a long sigh.
"It wasn't as if I planned it beforehand to help the humans here with their problems. It just happened that I end up stumbling into it by chance." He shrugged. "Not to mention that some of the people here were pretty decent."
That last comment made Gai smile as Juggler immediately averted his eyes from the man.
"Regardless, this looked good on you. You got a bit more sociable since the last time I saw you."
Juggler immediately rolled his eyes at the man. "Coming from you, that didn't sound like a compliment." He sighed.
"Well if you're still so curious about it, don't bother thinking too hard on it." Juggler made a face at Gai. "I was just indulging myself with some bit of curiosity. That's all."
"Juggler..."
Juggler cast a sidelong glance towards Gai as the man let out a soft sigh.
"...I didn't come here to reprimand you for doing this."
Juggler let out a snort. "Oh really? Back then, even before I completely allowed myself to succumb to darkness... you did have a knack for making someone feel unwelcomed."
He looked up towards his old 'friend'.
"Back then, nothing I have ever done could ever match up to the great deeds of an 'Ultraman'. You made it so clear back then, wouldn't you agree... Gai?"
×××
Gai opened his mouth to try to counter the remarks before changing his mind. This sounded like one of Juggler's old tantrum outbursts that the guy used to have before. That should mean that he needed to tackle this carefully. He didn't want to lose his old friend again as he did in the past.
"Gosh!" Gai exclaimed as he scratched the back of his head. "If I'd known that you'd act like this, I wouldn't have bothered asking about that small plant you're hiding earlier."
Juggler immediately averted his eyes from him as his words hit the mark. He sighed. What other things in the past that he'd done unintentionally to cause some hurt to his old friend? Was there any relation to the Tree of Life? The small plant he found earlier did resemble the ancient tree that they used to see back in Kanon.
"Juggler, I—"
"It's not as if I was still fixated with that tree." Juggler suddenly spoke out. "But that didn't mean that I would ever stop thinking about that tree."
Juggler heaved a long sigh.
"After all, it was the seed from that tree that saved my life and it was also that same seed that turned me into what I am right now."
Notes:
Sorry for the long hiatus. Between my many backlogs of stuff to catch up on and stuff to write, at times trying to keep up with that was difficult. And I had a hard time tryna word the conflict that Juggy would still have and also tryna connect it with the latter revelation of how he manage to end up at STORAGE.
Chapter 5
Notes:
Was suddenly reminded about this fic due to the Juggler-centric episode of New Generation Stars.
So I might have end up changing my mind about how to conclude this fic. Not that I forgot about it, honest!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"After all, it was the seed from that tree that saved my life and it was also that same seed that turned me into what I am right now."
Gai frowned as he listened to Juggler's words silently. So that's how he tried to describe it, huh? Though as much his friend claimed that he no longer had any attachment to the Tree of Life, he doubted that it was the truth.
Judging from those words anyway. As well as his friend's actions.
Gai recalled again the two incidents that practically shaped Juggler into what he's become now.
"Juggler, I—" he started to say as Juggler held up his hand at him.
"Enough already with the questions. I rather not have you or any other Ultras come here and meddle with things unnecessarily. It's bothersome." The man shrugged. "So I'll appreciate it if you just leave here without any more fuss. Those two kids were still quite green that they still hadn't noticed who you really are yet. And I intend to keep it like that a bit longer since it'll be problematic if they start wondering about the relationship between you and me now. So shoo!"
"Oh... I see." Gai turned around to leave before a sudden thought crossed his mind. "Juggler—!
Juggler just rolled his eyes lazily at him. "What?"
"By any chance, was there any specific reason for you to be the captain of STORAGE here? Did you find out something prior to coming here? Like that time with Gilvalis..."
Juggler made a very disgruntled face at the man before dragging Gai back down from the rooftop.
"Argh! You're so annoying!"
×××
Some time... much MUCH later...
"Well, I better get going—"
"Ah, wait—! Orb-san!"
Orb turned around again as he glanced back towards Ultraman Z. "Wait is it?", he asked as Z just shrugged shyly.
"Uhm... if it wasn't much trouble," said Z slowly as he scratched the side of his head, "Haruki wanted to talk to you... about Juggler-san."
Orb cocked his head at Z before nodding his head. "Oh... I see."
They picked a spot where the area was shielded adequately to filter out the more dangerous UV rays from the Land of Light before transforming into their humanoid forms. As soon as Haruki saw Gai's face he immediately let out a loud gasp. Gai just blinked at the young man in confusion.
"Unh... is something wrong?"
Haruki hastily shook his head and waved his arms at Gai before shrugging. "I just realized that I've met you before... back on my Earth, at the STORAGE HQ. I didn't realize you were actually an Ultraman yourself!"
Gai blinked at him again.
"We did?" Gai asked again before snorting to himself. "I suppose I did meet you in the past... but because of this unknown threat wiping away all of the past records and memories, I didn't remember ever seeing you before."
"So how did we end up meeting in the past?"
Haruki ran a hand over his head before shrugging.
"It was sometime after we just acquired King Joe and started customizing it for use... you came by without warning. Bako-san—I mean, our Chief Engineer—saw you and thought you got lost and somehow found yourself at the hangar. But then the Captain caught you and hurriedly spirited you away." Haruki grinned. "I supposed you got curious about what the Captain was doing there... and you probably came to check the place out, after hearing about it from Senior Geed."
Gai just chuckled to himself. "Heh... I see. That DID sound like something I'd do." He shrugged. "So what did you want to know?"
Haruki bit his lips. "Earlier, when Z-san told you about the Captain... you said you know what the Captain was referring to when he talked about the past." He shrugged.
"Like what Z said earlier, my impression of the Captain was different. And you're right, it's really hard to figure out what he's thinking. At times he caused me so much trouble but then he helped me out when I'm in a pinch. Captain Hebikura is an odd guy... but I felt that he's really good underneath all that."
"I just... wanted to know him a bit more. And maybe understand him better." Hiroki shrugged again. "Or maybe I just missed him."
Gai blinked his eyes. "Whoa... I didn't expect to find someone else who treasure that guy so much aside from myself."
Hiroki chuckled aloud.
"It's because everyone liked the Captain so much. Even with all the outdated puns."
×××
"Back then, the Captain mentioned a tree. A great tree. He said that there was a war... and he cut that tree. But instead of being praised for stopping the war, his action was spurned." Hiroki glanced up towards Gai.
"Can you tell me more about that?"
Gai let out a sigh before finding a spot to sit down and invited Haruki to join him.
Gai took a long breath before letting it all out in one breath.
"Thousands of years ago, not long after I was chosen to become Ultraman Orb... Juggler and I happened to arrive on this one planet, after pursuing a giant monster. That time we found out that there was a great tree on that planet that held great power within it. And then a war started, just to get that power." Gai smiled bitterly. "In just that very short time, a lot of things had happened."
Haruki nodded, before cocking his head at Gai. "Was that tree really so important?"
"Yeah." Gai sighed as his memories of that very old incident start to come back even more in his mind. "That tree was called the Tree of Life. It was very important to the people of Kanon. Yet Juggler cut it down."
Haruki frowned as he heard that. "I see... but still, the Captain ended the war, right?"
Gai just shrugged at him. "But that was not something he should have done. Even if Planet Kanon didn't get destroyed after the Tree was cut down, that action was not his to decide."
Notes:
Reviving this piece and finally finishing this draft after almost a year. Hope I can really finish this fic finally.
Chapter Text
Hiroki glanced back towards Gai.
"Ne, Gai-san." Self-consciously, he started scratching the side of his head. "This must seem a bit impertinent for me to say this to you, but perhaps you also should try to understand the Captain even more?"
Gai cocked his head at him before frowning. "What did you mean?"
Hiroki shrugged. "Earlier, when Z-san told you how the Captain had tried to take Ultroid Zero away and the reason why he did it, you said 'Ah, so he's still hung up about that'... I thought perhaps you could figure out what the Captain was thinking, a lot better than I did. But then you said that even you don't really understand him at times or even know what kind of relationship you have with each other."
Gai just sighed helplessly after hearing that. "Well... you caught me. But as I said before, I did consider him a part of my precious bond. I just don't know if the feeling was mutual with that guy now."
Hiroki let out a long sigh.
"Something that the Captain said to me before, stuck to me very strongly. even until now. It was back when STORAGE was suddenly disbanded, and I was pulled out from the front lines." Hiroki sighed again. "I got somewhat depressed for a while after that and almost questioned myself if I was not good enough to remain on the frontlines."
Hiroki gave a weak smile to Gai. "But then, the Captain said this to me. He told me to 'prove them wrong. Show those who deny my sense of self that their assumptions about me were wrong'. I didn't really understand what he meant at that time, but thinking back about it now... perhaps I may have understood it a bit."
Gai continued to stare at the younger man as Hiroki continued talking.
"Perhaps, there was another reason for the Captain to keep on trying to become stronger. Another reason why he kept wanting to fight you even after he had fallen into darkness."
He shrugged. "Perhaps the Captain wasn't really fixated on what justice or righteousness really is. Perhaps all the Captain really wanted, was to catch up to someone."
Gai blinked at him in confusion. "Wait, what you mean... that guy wanted to catch up to—who?" The frown on Gai's forehead grew deeper as he finally reached the conclusion. "Me?"
"Don't you think so? I mean, it's what I felt about myself a lot of time."
Gai let out a gasp as the thought never crossed his mind. "I seriously never thought of it like that."
Hiroki suddenly chuckled at him.
"I mean, you said it yourself. The Captain... is an important bond for you."
Hiroki's words struck deep into his heart as Gai also burst into laughter.
"I guess you're right."
×××
"If you trust him, you should've tried your best. If you can't do that, all you do would just hurt your partner even more."
It's been a long time since he recall the words that Asuka once said to him before. Just when he thought he had truly understood those words of advice, something or someone else would come to prove him wrong.
He took out Juggler's Dimension card from the inside of his jacket to reminisce again about his friend. He wondered where his friend could be travelling out there by himself and when the two of them could see each other again. He missed his friend so much and wondered if the two of them could ever travel together again the way they used to. Certainly, they should be able to do that again, considering even the people in the future considered him a hero... despite not being an Ultraman.
He wondered if that could still possibly happen.
Gai did try before in the past to convince Juggler to join him and travel together again like in the old times. But often, whenever duty calls and he had to go off fighting monsters that suddenly come attacking innocents and causing destruction, he always came back to find his friend already gone off to some unknown destination. At times he wondered if Juggler was never interested in reconciling with him. But if what Haruki said was true...
Without warning, the Dimension card he was holding started glowing brightly. And as Gai waved it slowly in front of him, the intensity of the glow kept on changing as if there was some kind of source that was causing the card to glow.
A tiny spark of hope suddenly burst inside his heart.
Perhaps his friend was somewhere nearby!
Juggler frowned as he suddenly sensed a familiar presence moving rapidly towards his direction. Yet as far as he remembered, he'd done nothing as of late to warrant any attention coming towards him. Heck, it's been a while since he saw his old crew and he doubted that any of the kids had been able to sniff out any information regarding his whereabouts.
So how did that guy manage to find his way to him?
Juggler just shook his head before turning around to greet the unexpected visitor.
Gboxb321 on Chapter 2 Sun 24 Jul 2022 12:40AM UTC
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Izzu on Chapter 2 Sun 24 Jul 2022 04:25AM UTC
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PanickingNoob (Guest) on Chapter 3 Fri 29 Jan 2021 04:46PM UTC
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Donam on Chapter 3 Thu 21 Jul 2022 07:06PM UTC
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Izzu on Chapter 3 Fri 22 Jul 2022 10:34AM UTC
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;-; (Guest) on Chapter 4 Fri 05 Aug 2022 09:35PM UTC
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Izzu on Chapter 4 Sat 06 Aug 2022 08:49AM UTC
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Tanook112 on Chapter 6 Sat 05 Aug 2023 01:02AM UTC
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