Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

The two chatted casually, and for the first time, Jun Sakuma discovered that his work wasn't so boring.

After all, there are other people doing the work, and he can just sit on the sidelines with his hands out of the way, openly and legitimately slacking off.

"Put it aside if the files aren't fully organized."

The sound of wedge heels clicking echoed as Shudo Saya, dressed in a black suit and white shirt, seemingly wearing only black and white, walked in and looked around, saying, "Sector 9, coordinates 020, has discovered survivors who encountered the alien beast. Jun and Hiroyuki, come with me on this mission."

"Yes!"

The mission location was a dense forest, a favorite spot for picnics, barbecues, and mountain climbing.

Especially along streams. When temperatures are high, the babbling brooks can provide crucial coolness.

Shuto Saya completed the handover with Night Raid Squad member Wakura Eisuke, and Samuel glanced at Misawa Hiroyuki's movements before stepping forward with him.

The woman in the pink top covered her head and cowered. When she saw the approaching man in black, she sat down on the ground and dragged herself backward with her hands and feet.

"Monster! Monster! Don't come any closer!"

In her eyes, the man in black had transformed into a terrifying alien beast with long tentacles and a body covered in pustules.

Hiroyuki Misawa reached out his hand to her, and she rolled away on the spot to avoid it, disregarding her image.

Hiroyuki Misawa took two more steps forward to try and hold her down. She called out, "Xiao Ma! Zhou Ping!" while trying to twist her body. Finding that she couldn't break free, she lowered her head and bit the arm that was holding her shoulder.

"Ouch!" Hiroyuki Misawa tried to pull his arm away, but the woman bit him hard, and he couldn't break free for a moment.

Samuel stepped forward and grabbed her, but she acted as if she were insane, clinging to Hiroyuki Misawa's arm like a monster, refusing to let go and biting it tightly.

That's it! That's it! It took Xiao Ma and Zhou Ping away!

“The alien beast is gone!” Afraid that forcibly pulling her away would hurt her, Samuel could only hold her chin with one hand, carefully controlling the force to prevent her from biting down again.

Hiroyuki Misawa winced in pain, his eyebrows and nose contorted in agony. Saya Shudo stepped forward and pulled out something that looked remarkably like a cell phone.

There was no work page inside, only a blinding white light.

A flash of white light entered her eyes, and the woman, tormented by fear, stared blankly ahead.

"Xiao Ma, Zhou Ping... is dead..."

Samuel saw the woman loosen her bleeding teeth and stare into the void, muttering nervously.

“If I’m eaten by a monster, I’ll be eaten too.” The woman turned around, her empty pupils staring at Hiroyuki Misawa. As if she was using up all her strength, she hugged herself and let out a final, hysterical scream.

"Clear her memory, take her back for observation, and once you confirm there are no problems, she can go back," Shuto Saya instructed.

"Sigh, they're all so crazy, it's better to forget about them." Hiroyuki Misawa rolled up his sleeves, revealing deep teeth marks on his skin. If he let her bite him any longer, he might bleed, and then he would definitely have to get a medical check-up.

If a survivor of an attack by a mutant beast is bitten, and the wound becomes contaminated with mutant beast genes, they may not even know how they turned into a monster.

Junya Sakuma sighed in his consciousness space, "What's more terrifying than death is the endless spread of fear."

“If you’re dead, you’re nothing,” Samuel said. “Not even fear.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jun Sakuma explained to him. “Alien beasts feed on fear, and if people knew of their existence, it would be hard not to feel fear.”

The memory police officer continued, "One or two is fine, but if it spreads and everyone knows, it's tantamount to providing food for the alien beasts. So, all we can do is erase their memories so that those monsters can't grow stronger."

Samuel paused for a moment, then said, "You can't hide it forever, and you can't weave memories..."

People are different because of their different experiences. Forcibly erasing parts of someone's memory by a memory police officer is undoubtedly an offense to their "existence," or even a crime.

Just as one lie requires countless more to cover it up, TLT's actions are tantamount to drinking poison to quench its thirst.

Even a small leak, or even just a small-scale spread, can shatter the defenses built by the memory police, as the long-suppressed confusion from various "accidents" bursts forth like a raging torrent breaking through a dam.

"Ah... it's just a temporary measure. I don't know why I impulsively agreed to be transferred here from the police station." Jun Sakuma clearly knew the nature of his job.

He continued, "But we have no choice. There are many different kinds of alien beasts, and they are elusive. Until we can completely eliminate them and protect people from dying in their mouths, the work of the memory police is meaningful."

"Have you thought about what would happen if the truth were to be revealed?" Samuel asked, voicing a question that Jun Sakuma had considered but was unwilling or unable to delve into.

“I don’t know,” Jun Sakuma answered bluntly. “Eliminating memories is such a sensitive topic. Maybe we’ll become pariahs…”

"So you want to continue doing this kind of work?"

“Someone has to do it. Look, if this memory hadn’t been erased, this person would have ended up in a mental hospital,” Jun Sakuma’s voice lowered. “Besides… if Karin were to remember what I looked like when I ‘died’… she’s still so young, it’s better if she forgets everything.”

"That's it."

Samuel and Hiroyuki Misawa together carried the unconscious survivor into the car and took him to a specially isolated hospital.

He frowned and glanced at the survivors, whose expressions were much more relaxed, and said to Sakuma Jun in his consciousness space, "There are many alien beasts?"

"Ah, otherwise why would we need to set up a special department to erase memories to prevent panic?"

"So, if your work goes wrong..."

"Hey, don't curse my job like that!"

"Well, if your work fails."

"Watch your words!"

Where I will go

To understand the source of fear.

“…Huh?” Jun Sakuma couldn’t get the next sentence out of his mouth; he got stuck.

"Your body still needs my light to survive, so I will need to borrow your body at that time."

"You're using it right now! Go ahead and give it back if you dare!"

"You're going to die."

"...Watch your word choice!"

Chapter Four: Hunters and Remains

The familiar deep mountains and forests.

Because of the presence of alien beasts in the suburbs, the memory police often drive up the mountains.

The previous victim had just been discharged from the hospital after undergoing examination when the next alarm sounded.

Hiroyuki Misawa lost the rock-paper-scissors game and was buried in a pile of files. This time, the person going on fieldwork with Saya Shuto is the respectful newcomer, Shintaro Hirata.

"After dealing with the witnesses in the parking lot, we still need to patrol another route up the mountain," Shudo Saya instructed. "The area within a five-kilometer radius of the target point is under lockdown because the alien beasts appear during the day... There may be more witnesses than we think."

Shintaro Hirata pointed to the roof of the car: "You mean in the sky? Like flights or something?"

"We don't need to worry about that; Sakuma has already gone there."

At this moment, Jun Sakuma was sweating profusely, facing the "question mark babies" in the entire cabin.

Ah, he couldn't sweat, he could only make weak dissuasive sounds, and watched helplessly as his fellow memory police officers forced everyone in the cabin back to their seats and forcibly erased their memories with the equipment.

The passengers in the front row obediently lay down in their seats after being exposed to the light, while the people in the back row were indignant: "Terrorists?! What are you doing!"

A young man holding up his phone said, "I've already called the police!"

Others pushed forward, attempting to intervene and help.

Then Samuel took them down one by one.

"Clean and efficient, Sakuma. You haven't neglected your workouts even while on vacation, have you?" The memory police officer in the same group grabbed a passenger's shoulder and shook the machine amidst the passenger's reluctant struggle: "Hey, please turn around. You saw something 'bad' too, right? Come on, you'll forget about it right away."

The young man, who had threatened to call the police but couldn't get through, was gritting his teeth, preparing to rush out for help. Hearing this, he finally realized what was happening:

"Is it because of that monster?"

Instead of showing any fear, the young man suddenly realized something and became furious: "No wonder the newspapers have been full of inexplicable 'accidents' lately! It's either a virus outbreak here or a tunnel collapse there, it's all because of those 'monsters', right?"

His colleague frowned, stepped forward, and aimed the machine at him. Another memory police officer twisted his head, forcing him to face forward.

The young man struggled on: "You... you're blocking information! You're fooling the people!"

White light flashed.

"Don't even think about hiding it..."

The young man rolled his eyes and fainted.

“If only everyone were as daring as him,” Jun Sakuma sighed. “There are always a minority like him; there are far more…”

Samuel turned his gaze to the pale-faced passenger beside him.

The other person grabbed his arm as if seeking help: "Does this mean we weren't hallucinating, and what we saw was a real 'monster'?"

"That...that thing really exists?! No, no, no, my whole family lives here! You can definitely take care of it, right? Call the army!...Ah, can the army take it down?"

A real-life "drama" was unfolding inside the cabin.

After the truth was revealed, some people were furious, some were stunned, and most were naturally terrified of the giant creature.

This is understandable. When monsters beyond our comprehension are confirmed to exist and we see them with our own eyes, most people's first reaction is terrifying thoughts like, "Could I survive if I encountered such a thing?", "What if my family encounters them?", and "Will it storm into the city?"

These are things that everyone can't help but imagine: fear, the food that alien beasts love.

By the time everyone who had witnessed the monster had been settled in, the sun had already set.

The police officers, looking exhausted, disembarked from the plane, and Samuel suddenly looked up at the distant mountains.

Verdant as the sea, like golden clouds ablaze.

"What happened there?" Jun Sakuma asked.