"Well, this is an eye-opener." Within the first minute of transforming into Ultraman X, Taichi searched every corner of Tokyo Bay. He didn't find any treasure, but he did find plenty of sealed barrels filled with concrete. It seemed "sleeping with the fishes" in Tokyo Bay was no longer just a figure of speech.
Since there was nothing valuable near the shore, he would have to expand his search. He just needed to get back to land within three minutes.
"Honestly, the efficiency of dumping someone into Tokyo Bay with concrete is terrible," Mordred complained. "Can't they be a little more direct?"
"No, this is a society ruled by law now," Taichi said with a wry smile in his mind. He turned to look at the figure of Mordred, who had manifested as a thought-form from a tarot card. "If they can't find a body, they can't file a case. With no case, no one will look for them. It's a bit of a hassle, but it eliminates future worries."
"When it comes to the methods of harming their own kind, humans on Earth are the most skilled," even X said with a sigh.
"Alright, our goal is to find treasure at the bottom of the sea. We don't have time to talk about the deceased," Taichi said, moving forward at full speed. X's maximum speed in water was Mach 1.8, which was about the same as his walking speed on land.
"By the way, Mordred, since you can manifest a form here, can you control X's body?" Taichi suddenly asked her.
"Are you an idiot?" Mordred rolled her eyes. "I'm just your Persona right now. I might seem to have my own thoughts, but I'm essentially just a part of your subconscious. What I say and do is ultimately what you think I would do."
"Do you think a fragment of your subconscious can control this giant body?"
Oh, so she couldn't.
"Then what did you mean in the Palace when you told me to let you take over my body?" Taichi continued to press the issue. Since X was handling the search in the ocean, it wouldn't hurt for Taichi to get a little distracted and talk to Mordred.
"Berserker mode? Corruption? Using violence out of anger? All I was doing was trying to use those emotions to make your body unleash my power," Mordred said with an irritated stomp of her foot. "But this big guy thought my thinking was too extreme and didn't want me to stir up the hatred inside you."
"And I'm supposed to be one with you!"
Taichi stared at Mordred for a few seconds, then clapped his hands.
"Huh? What are you doing?" Mordred asked, looking bewildered.
"Honestly, you almost fooled me," Taichi said, still clapping.
"Tch," Mordred's brows furrowed.
"First, I'm not a schizophrenic. My subconscious can't just float to the surface and communicate with my conscious mind like this."
"Second, I don't know much about Jungian personality theory. I haven't even read the basic definitions. But you tried to explain it to me in terms I could understand. That's impossible."
"Finally, and most importantly... if you were really a part of my subconscious, X would never have such a strong negative reaction to you. I trust him."
"...Tch, wouldn't it have been easier to just be fooled? Why do you have a brain!" Mordred's face showed impatient frustration. "Ah, fine, you're right! I'm not some Persona! But since this world has no Spirit Origin Records, I can't even get a replica of my Heroic Spirit self. And then, when I couldn't understand why I was even born, I was inexplicably pulled toward you."
"In your terms, I've probably become your 'Heroic Spirit Power,' and you've become the 'key' to a Pseudo-Servant."
"We're not very compatible, so it shouldn't have worked. But your body is like a master key. It forcefully unlocked my Heroic Spirit Power and even used my power without my permission... That armor is the result."
"Honestly, it's infuriating to have my power used by a coward who can't even endure physical pain." Mordred's expression grew more sinister. "And with X protecting you, I can't even forcefully possess your body. X, you're a pain in the ass!"
Oh, the woman standing before him had a spear pierce her body without even uttering a word of pain. So, her words were true. Taichi felt a sense of admiration and respect for Mordred, but there was no way he would give up his body. Even if this wasn't his original body, it was still much better than being an invisible ghost.
"Taichi! Treasure! Wait, no! It's a sunken ship! I found a sunken ship!"
In the second half of his second minute in X's form, X found a wooden sunken ship near the coast of Nara Prefecture. Due to the corrosion from the seawater, the original appearance of the wooden ship was gone, but the several half-meter-high wooden chests instantly got X's attention. One of the chests was likely filled with books, but they had turned into an unrecognizable mess. The other chests, which were relatively well-preserved, contained several boxes that hadn't been corroded by the sea. They still didn't know what was inside, but these were probably the most valuable things left on the ship.
With time running out, Taichi took the boxes and used the optical fiber cables on the seafloor to quickly return to Tokyo. He landed in an alley near Shujin Academy without any surveillance cameras and reverted to his human form. The timing was perfect, but there was a problem: the boxes were difficult to move. They weren't very big, but they were heavy.
X used his Ultra psychic powers to break the locks on the boxes. Two of the boxes were filled with gold bars. In total, there were thirty-six, weighing a little over eighteen kilograms. Another box was full of land deeds and related documents, including the ownership of nearly twenty square kilometers of land in Gifu Prefecture. The documents were old, and it was a question whether the local authorities would still recognize them. The last box contained a few seals and some jewelry. The seals matched the ones on the land deeds and documents.
Holy cow! This was a goldmine! In one trip to the ocean floor, he had found the ownership of twenty square kilometers of land, eighteen kilograms of gold bars, and some not-so-precious-looking jewelry. Even if the land deeds were no longer recognized, the gold was enough to keep him happy for a while.
Taichi couldn't stop smiling.