"Father, are you saying there might be more Kryptonians out there in the universe?!"

  Crk said, his voice brimming with excitement.

  Jor-El nodded.

  As a fragment of the real Jor-El's memories, he hadn't held much hope for that possibility deep down.

  But seeing Azuma Shoyo changed his mind.

  If there could be a second, why not more?

  The truth was…

  There were more—but they weren't exactly the kind of people Crk and his father would want to meet.

  "It's possible, but whether they exist is something you'll have to find out for yourselves," Jor-El said.

  Crk calmed down at that, nodding thoughtfully. "I'll definitely find them."

  Jor-El gnced at him but said nothing more.

  Then Crk turned to Azuma. "Azuma, remember I said I had a gift for you?"

  Azuma nodded—he'd been looking forward to it.

  "Father, could you bring out a few suits?" Crk asked Jor-El's AI.

  Jor-El nodded.

  Moments ter, the floor ahead rose, revealing racks lined with Superman suits in various colors.

  Well, really, they were standard Kryptonian combat uniforms.

  There were also a few sets of external battle armor.

  "Azuma, pick whatever you like," Crk said.

  Azuma nodded.

  He'd been dying to own a Superman suit. If this was Crk's gift, it was pretty damn cool.

  "Can the colors change?" Azuma asked, turning to Jor-El.

  "The inner suits are fixed, but the outer armor's colors can be adjusted," Jor-El replied.

  "That's good enough," Azuma said. He chose a bck skintight suit and a lightweight armor set.

  After changing, he transformed into a Kryptonian warrior.

  The armor was still bck for now, complete with a matching bck cape.

  Kryptonians seemed to have a thing for bck.

  General Zod and his crew, who'd show up ter, wore bck armor too.

  "What colors do you want?" Jor-El asked.

  "Gold and white," Azuma said. "White cape, and for the armor—mostly white, but make the shoulders, chest, and here gold," he pointed out.

  "Oh, and can we swap the S?"

  "Yes," Jor-El nodded.

  "Then make it an X," Azuma said.

  The X didn't mean anything special—just the first letter of his surname, that's all.

  Soon…

  With Jor-El's tweaks, Azuma's armor transformed into something entirely different.

  A white suit and cape, accented with a golden X on the chest and gold highlights on the shoulders, arms, chest, and feet. It gave him a holy, radiant vibe!

  Underneath, though, the bck skintight suit remained.

  White outside, bck inside.

  Hmm… why did that feel like it implied something?

  "Good?" Jor-El asked.

  Azuma checked out his new look and nodded, pleased. "Yeah, I love it!"

  "Cool!" Crk said, eyeing Azuma's outfit. "Though I still prefer mine."

  He flicked his vibrant red cape with a grin.

  Deep blue and red—it'd been his favorite combo from the start.

  "Crk, thanks for the gift. I really like it!" Azuma said.

  "That's just part of it," Crk replied, gesturing around. "This ship—I want us to share it. From now on, it's our secret base. What do you think?"

  "You're giving me the ship?" Azuma asked, stunned. A whole spaceship, just like that?

  Well, not giving—sharing.

  Still, that was generous as hell!

  He'd thought the suit was the whole gift.

  "We're the only two Kryptonians on this pnet. This stuff should belong to both of us," Crk said.

  Say what you will—Crk was a genuine good guy.

  If Azuma had found all this first, he wouldn't be nearly as open-hearted if he discovered another Kryptonian. His first thought would be, Is this guy a threat?

  Of course…

  It was precisely because Azuma knew Crk's nice-guy nature that he'd pretended to be a Kryptonian in the first pce.

  If it were someone else—even a justice-aligned hero like Batman—he wouldn't have dared.

  "Crk, has anyone ever told you you're a total softie?" Azuma said.

  "Hmm, pretty sure you're the first," Crk replied with a ugh.

  They shared a grin. Then Crk had Jor-El's AI package up Kryptonian knowledge and transfer it to Azuma.

  Azuma figured, Why not? and accepted it all.

  Sure, Krypton was gone…

  But the sheer volume of knowledge it left behind was insane!

  Even with Azuma's super brain, skimming through it all would take at least a decade.

  A whole civilization's worth of wisdom, built over countless years.

  Mastering it completely?

  That'd take a century, easy!

  Not that he needed to. He could just cherry-pick what he needed and learn it on the fly.

  A super brain didn't mean super creativity, but it sure made learning existing stuff a breeze!

  "Maybe I could start a company in the anime multiverse," Azuma mused.

  Then he reconsidered—too much hassle.

  If it was just for money, he didn't need to bother.

  "Eh, I'll figure it out ter."