Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"You said there was something going on with the rosewood, and you found another strange stone!" Jun Sakuma pounded the floorboards loudly. "I picked up that stone, and you just fell asleep again without saying a word!"

"Yeah, I slept pretty well, so I decided to go out for breakfast."

"Who the hell eats pudding for breakfast? Seriously, do you know how badly you changed the subject?!"

Samuel narrowed his eyes.

This time it was Jun Sakuma's turn to laugh at him with his hands in his pockets: "You're just like that greenhorn I was when I first joined the police station. Even though you were starving and exhausted from staking out all night, you still insisted on saying, 'Ah, sir, I can do it'... Honestly, if you have difficulties, just say so. I'm an 'old man' who has seen a lot of the world."

Samuel didn't say anything, continuing to scoop up pudding in silence. After finishing one box, he poured it back under Pear's disapproving gaze and asked the shopkeeper for a box of red bean flavor.

When the other person didn't speak, Jun Sakuma stopped talking. Seeing him open the pudding lid with a "hiss," he said, "Eat less, I'm afraid of getting high blood sugar."

"Okay, this is all I'll take." The cocoa flavor will have to wait until next time...

Samuel's answer was so straightforward that Jun Sakuma was speechless for a long time before finally managing to humph and ask, "So what is that stone?"

"Hmm..." Red beans aren't as tasty as maple syrup, but they have a better texture.

“It’s something that’s no longer needed,” Samuel glanced at the two red beans stuck to the lid and decided not to lick it like Sugiyama Mao did. “It’s a medal of courage, or you could call it the ‘Medal of the Light Chaser’.”

"The Light Chaser...a meritorious deed?"

"Once you open it, you can use my power to transform into a giant."

“Oh,” Jun Sakuma suddenly realized something was amiss: “But you can become a giant even without it, right?”

“Those weren’t for me, they were for you,” Samuel said regretfully, glancing at the empty boxes after he’d finished eating. He took a few more steps and threw them into the trash can. “Anyway, they’re useless now. If you like them, you can keep them as toys.”

Although it's useless, how did it suddenly appear beside the rosewood pillow? Samuel suddenly fell asleep at that time, perhaps something happened.

When Karin woke up, she knew nothing at all. When asked if she had dreamed anything, she wiped her drool and said, "Miss Elf!"

Jun Sakuma realized that the "freakish creature" occupying his body was the type who wouldn't tell him anything unless he was asked. He'd never encountered a young lad like that in the police station before.

Jun Sakuma would deliver a swift chop to the top of his head to show him the sharpness of his senior.

And Samuel... couldn't beat him.

They'll also be kicked into the consciousness space to contemplate life on the white, empty floor.

Therefore, Jun Sakuma chose to be tactful, preferring to use words rather than fists.

"You've never mentioned it before, didn't you think of it before?"

"Daddy, konpeito!" Karin pointed to the sinful, glittering little flower-shaped candy.

Samuel rubbed her head: "Bad teeth."

Then he said to Jun Sakuma, "Yes, I can't remember."

"So what is that stone?"

“Chun, your current state is called ‘human form’,” Samuel explained. “It’s a term used to refer to the Earth-human form of Ultra Warriors. Some are transformed directly, while others are possessed.”

"Am I the kind of person who is possessed?"

"Yes, he was saved after he died by possessing someone else's body."

“You don’t have to emphasize the word ‘death’.” If Jun Sakuma were in control of his body right now, he would probably be rolling his eyes.

Samuel laughed and said, "Alright, let's go back to that 'Light Chaser's Medal,' which I gave to my former human host."

"...You saved him too?"

Samuel bought a teddy bear balloon following Huali's directions, which finally made the puffed-up little girl smile again: "I guess so, but actually, he also saved me. It would take a long time to explain in detail, but if you want to hear it, I can tell you slowly when you have time."

Before Jun Sakuma could speak, he found himself suddenly back outside, where Karin was holding his hand, hopping and skipping lightly like a rabbit while holding a balloon.

"I need to sleep a little longer. Wake me up tonight."

"Ah, are we going to the base again tonight...?"

Samuel's voice was muffled: "Go, and... Kaori needs to wash her hair, it's getting oily."

……

The short holiday ended, and Karin reluctantly returned to school.

After washing her hair, it was so fluffy that it took Jun Sakuma quite a bit of effort to braid it. In the end, he managed to put it into a simple ponytail. Karin looked in the mirror and added a cherry blossom hair clip.

Jun Sakuma began to organize the mission records of the night raid team over the past few days.

The Night Raid team fought two more battles against the Alien Beasts and rescued their child, whose parents had been infected and turned into Alien Beasts. However, Kazuki Komon seemed to be traumatized by the child's serious injury and performed poorly in the subsequent battles. He even showed signs of leaving the team and was almost taken back by Saya Shudo and her subordinates to have his memory erased.

Fortunately, the kid eventually came to his senses and returned, damaging Northfield's regenerative organs at a crucial moment. This alien beast that had previously participated in the beating of Samuel should never be seen again.

Jun Sakuma gave a thumbs up to Kazuki Komon.

Samuel confirmed that the phase folds of the Dark Realm and the Meta Realm are reversed, but knowing the principle is one thing, and how to operate it is another.

All we can do is try to sense Meta's domain first. Hopefully, Nexus won't forget to pull him in before the fight starts, otherwise we'll really be stuck outside watching helplessly.

His attention then returned to the "Honor of the Light Chaser".

Undoubtedly, this was something he gave to his human form a long time ago. Just like the changes that have taken place on Suffer Star, this thing should have long since drifted away to an unknown place.

It's a miracle that it's been preserved so well, having turned into this grayish stone, clearly having lost its usefulness.

"Could it be him?" Samuel wondered, but then thought it was unlikely.

He himself didn't know how long he had been asleep on Suffer. Given his former human lifespan, he would probably have turned into dust in the universe long ago.

Indeed, this is another world, and its timeline cannot be compared with the previous world.

But the appearance of the "Merit of the Light Chaser" at least means that it was after he met his former human host—even this period of time is long enough for a species to develop a primitive civilization.

Or perhaps, in the future, he passed on the "Honor of the Light Chaser" to someone else? And then that person traveled through time to the present?

Moreover, the one who returns it to themselves may not necessarily be the human being; perhaps they regard it as an important object and pass it down from generation to generation.

But whoever it was, why did they return the items but not show up?

Friend or foe?

Samuel suppressed his doubts and decided to rest for a while to speed up his recovery.

In any case, maintaining a state of combat readiness is the most important thing. As long as there is still the strength to fight, most problems can be turned around.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Adaptable One

"Ah, so you're the one making the tea now?" Jun Sakuma took the water cup from the young woman's hand, somewhat surprised. The girl in front of him was a very introverted person. Not to mention serving tea to her senior, she was even awkward when she spoke a few words.

“Yes, Shintaro is going out on a field assignment today,” said Mizuki Nonomiya. She was wearing a light yellow shirt under her black suit, and her hair was neatly styled, making her look quite energetic.

"Setting off so early? Looks like you have a lot of work to do," Jun Sakuma said, opening his work page. "Thanks."

Mizuki Nonomiya smiled at him and said, "I'll come and get you some more water later."

"I can do this myself. I'm not the kind of old-fashioned person who likes to exploit newcomers."

“Shintaro is right,” Nonomiya Mizuki tucked a few stray strands of hair behind his ear, steadying the tray with one hand: “Sakuma-senpai is indeed a very easy person to get along with.”

Hearing these words from the little girl made Jun Sakuma a little embarrassed.

"Then please leave the water replenishment to me."

"Ah, okay, okay..." I answered subconsciously, only realizing what I had said a second later.

Looking up, he saw his younger colleague smiling at him. He turned around and walked to Hiroyuki Misawa's desk, handing him a cup with brown ring patterns.

With Shintaro Hirata absent and Hiroyuki Misawa clearly on edge, driven to the brink of madness by the files, Jun Sakuma naturally took on the task of fabricating news, typing out headlines like "The Call of the Fishmen! The Song Heard by the Ocean-going Fishing Ship is Actually..." under Samuel's disdainful gaze.

"Why did you suddenly wake up?" Jun Sakuma asked the guy who had woken up early in the morning, sat cross-legged in his consciousness space without saying a word, and only muttered that the fried dough for breakfast looked too greasy.

Upon hearing this, Samuel finally revealed a hint of resentment due to lack of sleep: "It's just that so many images are crowding into my head, and I'm woken up by the suffocation."

“…That sounds terrible,” Jun Sakuma laughed, “Hahahaha…”

“I’m going to be bothered by them for a while,” Samuel yawned, then glanced disdainfully at the hard floor. “I want to change my human form.”

"Hey!"

"Ah."

……

Half of the news was enough to infuriate a serious reporter, and then Shudo Saya, who should have been out and about like a bee with Hirata Shintaro, appeared—by phone.

"Urgent mission. You, Guangzhi, and Ruisheng are to go to Area 8. The target has been assigned to you. You must complete the mission today!"

"Huh?" Sakuma Jun, who was bursting with inspiration, was a little reluctant to leave. He opened his phone and found that his boss had sent a list of directories, with information on more than twenty people lying quietly in the list.

"No way?!" Hiroyuki Misawa next door had already exploded.

Each of these items represents a file, and Jun Sakuma suspects that Hiroyuki Misawa pulled his own hair out before it naturally fell out of his body.

Once they were on the bus, the specific details of the subsequent tasks were sent to them.

It turns out that TLT recently obtained new information about the giants and identified the Dark Giant and the Ultra Warriors' suitable candidates.

The "white-clad cleaners" have already set off and are secretly searching for their whereabouts.

The memory police are responsible for clearing the memories of people who have recently had contact with the candidates.

The reason it is called "suspected" is because each appearance of the adaptable person is only a fleeting glimpse, making it impossible to determine their route of action. We can only obtain simple information about the people who are more likely to come into contact with them based on the location and time.

Jun Sakuma glanced at them; most of them were convenience store owners or something similar...