Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

The wine sold in the shop wasn't very clear, but the villagers liked it.

Jun Sakuma remembers sneaking a sip when he was a child. The adults thought he would choke, but he exclaimed "It tastes good!" and was severely scolded by his mother, and his father also got a beating.

"It's all packed, here you go!"

Jun Sakuma took the jar with one hand and flipped open the "cell phone" cover with the other.

"how?"

Chapter Seventy-Two: The Reason for Strength

"What's wrong?" The liquor store owner scratched his head and noticed that Jun Sakuma was standing still.

His fingernails turned white as he gripped the "phone," and if he used any more force, he suspected he could hear the casing creak under the strain.

“It’s nothing,” said Jun Sakuma. The man in the black suit turned and walked out of the shop. The shop owner scratched his bald head in bewilderment, glanced down at the money on the counter, and then stuck his head out again: “Hey—you gave me too much! I already lowered the price!”

Jun Sakuma waved his hand and did not turn back.

"Samuel! What are you doing?" Jun Sakuma was forcibly dragged back to his consciousness space. He had originally planned to erase the memories of people he knew so that he would not suffer any accidents and make them sad for him.

But just as he pulled out the memory eraser, Samuel seized control firmly and wouldn't let him take it back.

The memory eraser had its keywords changed. Samuel looked down and saw the words "Sakuma Jun" displayed on it. He put the memory eraser, which had been alarming due to unauthorized keyword changes, back into his pocket and let it whimper.

When a child called him, saying "You didn't answer the phone," Samuel rummaged in his pocket and found a piece of konpeito (Japanese candy) made of rosewood for him. He then casually pinched the part of the speaker that was on the outside into a thin slice, and the sound disappeared, and the world became quiet.

The afternoon air was relatively hot, the dragonflies flew listlessly, and the Shiba Inu shook itself like a spinning top, getting half-dry from the water, when the person who went out to buy alcohol returned.

Shota grabbed a towel, draped it around his neck, and walked inside. He went through the back door, turned out of the kitchen, and saw Jun Sakuma gently put down the sake jar and half-squat down next to the old man who was lying on his back, already asleep.

The old lady was half-reclined on the sofa, and greeted him softly, with a basket of vegetables in front of her that she hadn't finished picking.

"Shh—" 'Jun Sakuma' held up his index finger and tiptoed over. Shota patted the dog, which obediently darted back into the yard, not barking or making a sound. The kettle in the kitchen was steaming, and the bubbling sound of boiling water echoed in the living room.

"Dad's asleep. We made a little extra food, so please stay for dinner." Shota said as he dried his hair with a towel. Once the water stopped dripping, he went to help the old lady pick out the vegetable leaves.

After watching for a while, Jun Sakuma followed suit and squatted down in front of the sofa to help pick the remaining vegetables.

“I made some sugar cakes, the kind that Karin likes,” the old lady said. “Take some back with you. I also planted some eggplants and cabbages. The peppers aren’t ripe yet, we’ll talk about that next time. Shota will pack some for you and we can take them with us.”

Jun Sakuma said thank you.

“We’re such a distant family,” Shota nudged him with his shoulder. “Hey, take my business cards with you. Let me know if you need any renovations later. I’d like to expand my business.”

Jun Sakuma, listening to their conversation in the consciousness space, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan: "Samuel, let me out! I can't let them worry, you know? The old folks aren't well, they've already lost Sakura, and they've always placed their longing for Sakura on me—you know what kind of enemy we're facing, if anything unexpected happens, I..."

“No surprises,” Samuel said. “I’m here.”

"I'm glad you said that, and I really do want to see Karin go to university, but many things can't be avoided just by making a decision. I hope you understand?"

"Would forgetting you really lead to a good outcome?"

“Of course…” Jun Sakuma’s voice lowered: “Of course it’s not a good result either, but it’s better than, better than suffering another blow.”

"Without you, what would Karin be like in their memories?"

The mechanism of the memory eraser is keyword search and erasure. It's like suddenly having a glass of water scooped out. After the removed memory disappears, something else "logical" will naturally fill the gap.

If it weren't for Jun Sakuma, Karin would probably be remembered as a child born to Sakura Sakuma in a daze.

Even though there's a chance that Sakura and Karin could regain their memories after being erased by encountering similar events, Jun Sakuma didn't want them to bear such a "background."

He was speechless.

The old lady had already picked some of the vegetables from the basket, and Jun Sakuma and Shota quickly helped her finish.

“I won’t stay for dinner,” Jun Sakuma said, standing up as the two men tried to persuade him to leave. “I have urgent business to attend to.”

He wrapped up the new sugar cakes made by the old lady, waved to the sleeping old man, and only returned control to Jun Sakuma after walking out the door.

The memory eraser had already crumbled into pieces in my pocket.

“Samuel, you really are…” All his composure vanished, and Sakuma Junma looked back at the room greedily, like an escaped prisoner.

The Shiba Inu ran over and wagged its tail at him.

The old lady leaned against the doorway, and Shota came out to see her off. The latter asked him how he was going to take the groceries back, and Junji Sakuma didn't know what to say, so he could only reply, "Come back and get them next time you have time."

After walking a little further, Shota turned back, but the Shiba Inu followed behind.

“Go back!” Jun Sakuma shouted.

The dog took a half step back, but as Jun Sakuma walked forward, it kept its distance and followed closely. Jun Sakuma stopped at the corner, and the dog followed him there and stopped as well.

"Alright, if you're willing to come along, then bury it for me while you're at it." With that, he pulled out the expensive machine, now reduced to pieces, from his pocket.

The fragments fell into the mud. Jun Sakuma pointed to the ground, and the dog obediently dug a hole and turned all the fragments into it.

"Smart." Sakuma Jun gave the dog's head a good rub and walked briskly towards the road leading away from home.

"I'm going out!" he waved.

His response was the dog's howling.

……

"Why are you stopping me?"

The sky was already tinged with the colors of the setting sun, and weary birds returned to their nests, their clear cries echoing through the forest.

Someone leaves, and he doesn't know when he will return, only to hear a voice, whether old or lively, saying "Welcome home."

Jun Sakuma walked slowly along the familiar path. TLT's forces had not yet gathered to search for him, so he still had some free time.

Samuel sculpted himself and sat on the shoulders of the man who had left home.

The countryside was deserted as night was about to fall. He saw the winding road following the contours of the mountain, like the vines tightly wrapped around the neck of a strange beast.

“Erasing memories is admitting defeat in advance,” Jun Sakuma said slowly, the man of light who had not yet recovered becoming drowsy again. “Forgetting is just escapism. You may think it will make things easier, but you will lose a more important power… I told you, I’m here, you will be fine.”

“You took my machine apart, and now they’ll never forget it.”

The night insects gradually stirred, beginning to rub their elytra. Samuel's phantom, seen through the setting sun, was tinged with the colors of the evening glow. Jun Sakuma felt that he looked warmer in this form than when only the silver light shone through.

“The memory eraser has a location tracking feature,” the former memory police officer said half-jokingly. “I thought that when they came looking for me, they would naturally find that I had erased the memories of my family and old acquaintances. The key word was ‘Sakuma Jun’.”

“You know what a fugitive is, right? Someone who cuts off all contact with relatives and friends, making it impossible to get to their aid,” Jun Sakuma said, turning back to look again, casting long shadows. “When I was solving cases, these kinds of people were the most troublesome. We lost that useful emotional appeal…”

Samuel withdrew his gaze from observing the golden crow fall to the ground and turned to look at him.

Jun Sakuma said with a slightly self-deprecating tone, "I thought I was going to become an unyielding 'outlaw' too, as long as Mom and Dad and Shota didn't worry about me. As for what would happen in the future, I'd just take it one step at a time. But now I can't do anything about it. You... sigh..."

As for Karin, she has been forgetting what the teacher taught recently. It's not that she's not trying hard; Jun Sakuma knows perfectly well that it's because her memories of the alien beasts have been erased twice in a short period of time.

He dared not risk erasing her memory a third time. If she turned into a little fool with premature dementia, he would truly have no face to see Sakura Sakuma.

"If you say anything discouraging again, I'll switch your human form." The Light One remained in the same position, sitting steadily on his shoulder. He went back to staring at the sunset, as if he really couldn't bear to look at the human form even once.

“Samuel! You…” This time, Jun Sakuma was not as indignant as usual. Instead, Samuel’s words made him feel much more relaxed.

Moreover, as Samuel said, erasing his family's memories might have made him feel he no longer needed to hold back and could go all out. But now that he has their memories intact, Jun Sakuma finds himself even more motivated to "win."

because

Because someone cares about you, you can become stronger.

The person leaving home paused, turning back one last time.

With the image of his hometown's mountains etched deeply into his mind, he took a deep breath and finally strode away.

His silhouette blended into the mountain shadows, following a path whose destination was unknown, heading towards a homecoming whose end was uncertain.

"Let's go, I've had enough sightseeing. Karin and Himeya are still waiting for us."

Chapter Seventy-Three I've Always Been Here

The grasshopper and its spider friend disappeared into the grass. Karin wanted to chase after them, but was pulled back by Jun Himeya, who was afraid that she would be bitten by poisonous insects.

"Wow... I can't play with grasshoppers anymore, and it's getting dark. Where's Daddy? Where's 'Daddy'?!" The little girl asked her temporary guardian for help.

She was already tired of playing.

Himeya Jun restricted her movements, preventing her from running around, but even a small patch of woodland was enough for her to spend the whole day catching grasshoppers and scaring toads, filled with the excitement of not having to go to class.

Now, she was hungry, and just as Himeya Jun didn't know how to answer her, Sakuma Jun appeared in front of her carrying a bag.

"Wow, Daddy! I want to fly too!" Huali ran over, but her attention was immediately drawn to the package handed to her: "What's this?"

"Half of it is for your Uncle Himeya. Have something to eat first, then we'll find a place to stay." Jun Sakuma opened the roughly wrapped package, revealing a surprisingly delicate selection of sweets that didn't match the packaging.

"Grandma's sugar cake?" Huali recognized it at a glance.

"I saw them on the street and bought some because they looked similar," Jun Sakuma denied, telling Karin to eat them with the inner packaging paper instead of using her hands directly.

He dared not say that the items were from his hometown, otherwise Huali would probably ask, "Then why didn't you go back to your maternal grandmother's house?" Of course he couldn't go back. It wasn't just about TLT; the alien beasts and their controllers were troublesome enough.

He had considered leaving Huali in their hometown, but… Huali seemed to possess a special talent: ordinary people couldn't see Samuel, but Huali could see him clearly. He wondered if this talent, left in the sparsely populated countryside, would attract alien beasts as food. If it were a powerful alien beast, he feared the stone warning Samuel had left behind might not be enough to stop it.

"After we finish eating it and eliminate the alien beasts, Dad will ask your grandma for more," Jun Sakuma thought, hoping that Karin could be as happy as possible during these turbulent days.

Himeya Jun also picked up a piece of sweet cake; he hadn't eaten anything all day and was indeed very hungry.

He looked down and saw that Huali had carefully bitten a hole in the white sugar cake, revealing the filling inside.

The outer skin is made of glutinous rice, with icing sugar sprinkled on the imprinted patterns. The filling is a crystal red color, sweet and sour, smooth and refreshing, leaving a lingering fragrance in your mouth.

"It's rose petal cake," Huali thought to herself. At first, she wolfed it down because she was hungry, but after swallowing one piece, she realized the taste. She smacked her lips and picked up the second piece much more gently.