Jugglus Juggler Chronicle: Ja no Michi wa Hebi

is a short novel that is bundled with the magazine , written by Takao Nakano while supervised by Kiyotaka Taguchi and Tsuburaya Productions. It features the story of Jugglus Juggler by explaining the events in-between the end of Ultraman Geed The Movie: Connect the Wishes! and Ultraman Z.
==Etymology==
The novel's title comes from the Japanese proverb . In the original proverb, it uses the Kanji for snake, "蛇" in two separate readings, Hebi and Ja, but usually the word Hebi in the end is rendered in Hiragana to distinct the two aforementioned readings. Its meaning can be read as "snake follows the way of serpents", referring to imitations, with its English equivalent being "monkey see, monkey do".Ja no Michi wa Hebi by David Galef
The novel title uses the first two Katakana from Jugglus Juggler's name (ジャ) to substitute the "Ja" pronunciation, but by doing so rids any real meaning to it, interpreting as if Juggler following the path of a snake.
==Plot==
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The story opens with the Interstellar Alliance engaging in a cold war against the emerging Imbat Federation, with an all-out military conflict is imminent. The Alliance's transport ship Aprohols was on its journey to to deliver the Enmanium ore from Planet Centaurus, barely passing Imbat's border, but the ship gets attacked by Grigio Raiden. Both the Interstellar Alliance and Imbat Federation pointing the blame for this attack to each other, further escalating the conflict.
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Here, it has been established that Juggler's actions from Ultraman Orb THE ORIGIN SAGA created a series of long term consequences that resulted in Planet Kanon losing its cultural relevance, the monarchy system being abolished, the Interstellar Alliance taking over the planet and turning it into a dystopian tourism center. His crimes of chopping down the Tree of Life and his subsequent run-ins with the Interstellar Alliance after that turned him into a wanted criminal in the 7 universes and have branded him a pariah by residents of Planet Kanon. Nevertheless, Juggler goes out of his way to frequently visit Micott's grave in spite of the risk posed to his life.
During his recent visit (exactly right after the fight with Gillvalis in the World of Side Space), he is arrested by the Interstellar Alliance and is brought to Planet Kanon's consul, Rebeshie, to negotiate with him to assist them in arresting Phalaris in exchange of his crimes being pardoned. Juggler is about to turn down the offer, even if the news of Biranki's capture reached to him.
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Planet Baphomet was initially a desert planet which was modernized through the establishment of mining activities. The Interstellar Alliance tried to take advantage by setting up a puppet government, but it was overthrown by its population and it is now ruled by the Imbat Federation through its military council. Although positioned as the center of the Federation, in reality the planet has become nothing more than a planetary-scale criminal hub.
Juggler reluctantly took Rebeshie's offer and slipped onto Planet Baphomet, more specifically a tavern nearby the space port. After saving an Alien Salome dancer and the Alien Godola bartender, Juggler would get a clue as to where the criminals might gather, as well as Phalaris' potential hideout. He would then find the Gigan Castle through rumors of flying saucers heading to this place and enter through an air vent.
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Inside, Juggler would find himself trapped by Phalaris after confronting Sagittari, the latter welcoming him as part of the contestants to fight for the gene bomb that Phalaris plans to provide to the victor. Juggler is forced to take up the challenge and fights against Alien Arcana Doman Seman, whose use of Kaiju Cards leads to his own downfall. His next challenge came in the form of Alien Chibull Mabuze through his Frankenstein's Monster-esque creature, Zigzag. With Crowley's help, he is able to force Mabuze into forfeiting the match and relieving control of his monster.
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Juggler then plowed his way through 100 mercenaries before finally reuniting with Biranki. However, he sniffed out her intention of getting captured on purpose just to gain his attention. Phalaris sets up a trap on Biranki to avoid Juggler from getting close, but as she grows irritated by Phalaris' constant meddling, Biranki summons Gango to destroy the entire castle. Sagittari returns and transforms into Grigio Raiden to fight the arriving monster to a standstill. In the middle of the chaos, Juggler discovers Phalaris as an elderly man who hides behind a muscular hologram. Having grown old and tired from being an arms dealer, Phalaris was given the Fruit of Life from a certain someone and use to create the gene bomb. While he does intend on giving to bomb to the winner, he will also provide the blueprints to the losers and wishes to see the entire galaxy fighting one another using the gene bomb to achieve peace when no one is left behind. Although Juggler is declared a winner of Phalaris' game, he does not intend to keep the promise and holds Juggler at gunpoint, only to die from the falling rubble. As Juggler defuses the gene bomb and retrieves its Fruit of Life, Biranki loses her memory when the electromagnetic wave from the monsters' fight reflect back on, thanks to Phalaris' restrains. With Gango disappearing, Juggler spirits the amnesiac Biranki away while Grigio Raiden continued her rampage.
Meanwhile in space, the escaping Mabuze decides to forfeit his quest for the Fruit of Life and shifts his focus to create a Monster Bomb for commercial purposes. He sets his next destination to a Planet Earth in another universe to join the Villain Guild.
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Juggler brought Biranki to Planet La Rochefoucauld where he would meet his old friend Jinobe for regular maintenance of the Jashin Blade. Juggler also entrusted the old man to take care of the amnesiac Biranki, as well as the latter with his Okinawan snake pet Crowley.
To further investigate the incident behind Phalaris' crimes and Sagittari's origins, he delved into the dark space network, more specifically going to the Gang Satellite space colony that orbiting Planet Hydra. From an Alien Markind, Juggler learned of Sagittari's origin as an ex-Alliance sniper who was left to die and obtaining the power of Grigio to enact her revenge, joining forces with Phalaris to further his sales as a weapons merchant before she was turned into a cyborg, with her Grigio form turning into Grigio Raiden as well. As the arms dealer spent his retiring days in solitude, this is probably where he was given the Fruit of Life and goaded into destroying an entire civilization, an act that even the Markind finds it repulsive.
Next he met up the Alien Borg Madam Graia, who revealed to him of Celebro's existence and his penchant for Civilization Self-Destruction Game. Juggler puts two and two together, then reaching the conclusion that Phalaris' recent crime was all because of Celebro's doing.
Juggler then returns to Planet Baphomet to discover it in ruins due to Grigio Raiden's actions. Being a cyborg monster, she went on a rampage to destroy everything in sight due to no longer under Phalaris' command. As she prepared to depart for another planet, Juggler deduced that Celebro was trying to start a new game and hopped onto the monster, intending to give her a mercy kill if she were to reawaken from her slumber.
On another world, Celebro was already starting another round of his game and possessing a government officer, staring at one peculiar shark-themed space monster that caught his attention.
Grigio Raiden arrived on Earth, crash landing at the mountainous area of Yamanashi Prefecture. As he was heavily injured from the atmospheric entry to Earth, Juggler leaves the monster before the authorities arrived. He then discovers the Fruit of Life sprouting a new tree, believing that this world's Tree of Life is dying. As he continues his trip, Juggler resolves to raise the plant and consider this planet worth his protection.
==Continuity nods, placements and references==
*Planet Centaurus (which was the home planet to its namesake race) is mentioned for the second time in another work under Taguchi and Nakano, the first time being Ultraman X The Movie: Here He Comes! Our Ultraman as one of the victims of Desastro.
*From Ultraman Orb Chronicle:
**The Alliance's ship, Aprohols, was transferring its supply of Enmanium ore to Kinmamon from Planet Centaurus. The Enmanium ore originally appears in chapter 2-3 of Orb Chronicle as a type of mineral from Planet Ganun Api.
**The entire chapter 1 serves as the aftermath of Juggler's heinous actions prior to his redemption. His crimes as a mercenary and the prison break from Planet 484 came from chapters 2 and 3, as well as his attempts at unsealing the Lord Monsters on Earth during the events of Ultraman Orb is made known to the Interstellar Alliance.
**While trying to show her gratitude to Juggler, the Alien Salome offers him a cup of space coffee from Black Star and imploring him to stay at her home for the entire night. The space coffee references Black Directive's occupation after retiring from being a conqueror, while the latter offer references Juggler's use of adult euphemism on Naomi in episode 2 of Orb. Additionally, Juggler refused the offer for coffee, excusing it as how he don't accept it from strangers, referring to how he had once drugged Biranki in Chapter 5-2 of Orb Chronicle.
**Madam Graia's complains about how she prefers the simplicity of invasion projects in her younger days parallels a similar comment made by Black Directive, who prefers to use Nova as his partner/bio-weapon instead of overly-complicated plans and/or treating invasions as some sort of entertainment.
*Due to Alien Chibull Mabuze's appearance, this novel also serves as a prequel to Ultraman Taiga. Mabuze's final appearance has him contemplating to sell the Monster Bomb, setting forth the motion of episode 4.
*From Ultraman Z:
**Phalaris' moniker is , which is a call forward to the moniker that Celebro granted to Destrudos, .
**Prior to Phalaris' death, Juggler points his finger upwards in a subtle way of warning his opponent of his impending doom. His words as to Phalaris being a fool to only notice his finger references the events of episode 10 when Juggler points out to Haruki and Yoko about focusing their target on the Alien Barossa, who is about to strike the pair in an ambush.
**Grigio Raiden's fate of crashing to Planet Earth coincides with the first chapter of Life-Threatening Decision Height ―The Story of STORAGE's Founding―.
**Juggler suffers from burns as a result of his atmospheric entry to Earth. This may be the very injury that prevented him from growing giant again, as the last time he was able to do so was during the Geed movie against an army of Galactrons, wherein he exited from the battle unscathed.
**The end of the novel establishes that the Bonsai tree which Juggler tend to during his time impersonating as Hebikura was indeed the Tree of Life in its miniscule state.
**Celebro's sole appearance has him observing Genegarg's development, which eventually setting up the events of the theft of Ultra Medals once he possesses the monster.
*The twin-headed mercenary that harasses Alien Salome hails from the Altair System. This marks it the third time the greater system is mentioned in Takao Nakano's Ultraman Series novels.
==Trivia==
*The Alliance's capital planet, Kinmamon, is named after the goddess from the Ryukuan Shintoism.
*While trying to break free from the Interstellar Alliance's capture, Juggler brought up the tales of the Biblical figure Adam and Eve, as well as their banishment from Eden as a result of a temptation from a serpent.
*Juggler's pet snake, Crowley, is named after the real life cultist Aleister Crowley.
*Imbat's capital planet, Baphomet, is named after the deity worshipped by the Knight Templar.
*The Planet La Rochefoucauld is named after the French writer François de La Rochefoucauld.
*If the included Jugglus Juggler Chronicle photobook were to be believed, then an Alien Serpent is present among the mercenaries under Phalaris' command, even though his name is not mentioned anywhere in the story.
==References==
Category:Novels
Category:Ultraman Z