Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

“Mizawa-senpai, don’t you feel this way? No matter how much you resist in your heart, or how many times you apologize, it’s useless. We are indeed altering other people’s memories. Their condemnation of the ‘One-Eyed Bird’ is correct. We…”

"Do you know why you're being investigated?" Hiroyuki Misawa abruptly interrupted her, the empty soda can being placed back on the table with a "click," a hollow and desolate sound.

"Because we need to investigate puppets similar to Riko Saida."

"No, that's just the outermost reason. For the memory police, they have another purpose."

Mizuki Nonomiya, after all, couldn't understand the underlying reasons like a seasoned veteran of the workplace. Hiroyuki Misawa touched his thinning hair and spoke again with a helpless and bitter smile: "Public opinion has been made public, and the 'memory erasure' work is meaningless. If there is any use for it, it is to help people who have been driven crazy by the alien beasts return to normal. That's all. The personnel composition of the memory police is already a bit bloated. Mizuki, we're going to lose our jobs, but this is a good thing and worth celebrating."

"As for our personal future, Commander Shudo has been holding meetings at the base for days, probably negotiating new responsibilities with those old fogies. But where can we go now? Either they erase our memories and release us back into society—we know too much, and given their style, they won't trust us without thoroughly cleaning our heads—or we're locked up here, waiting for TLT's assignment. The ideal position is probably something like base logistics."

Our R7 factor score when we joined the company was only average in these departments, even lower than that of the white-coated cleaners. The review was not only to eliminate doubts, but also to determine whether we should be laid off or continue to contribute somewhere else.

Mizuki Nonomiya unconsciously clenched the Coke can in her hand; it was extremely cold to the touch. When she turned her gaze to the tall buildings outside, her focus shifted from the sky to the ground, with concrete walls almost completely filling her field of vision.

“There will be no more ‘one-eyed birds’,” Hiroyuki Misawa said. “If you’re lucky enough to have your memories restored, remember to get together with your former colleagues now and then.”

Chapter 151 The Person in the Mirror

The suspension for investigation did not restrict the personal freedom of Hiroyuki Misawa and Mizuki Nonomiya. A new program was implanted in their communicators. Hiroyuki Misawa held one end of the communicator and tapped it in his palm with the other end. Saya Shudo noticed his change but did not reprimand him, only letting him enjoy his leave.

“I’m not afraid of losing my job,” Hiroyuki Misawa casually stuffed the tampered material from the censorship department into his pocket, then tugged at his clothes. When he looked up again, he had regained his usual seriousness. “I’m only afraid of losing my memory. You can make me sign countless confidentiality agreements, or even monitor my communications, but I don’t want to forget the days when I was a ‘one-eyed bird’.”

Shuto Saya had just returned from a meeting when her usually diligent subordinate said these words, leaving her with a complicated expression.

Seeing her expression, Hiroyuki Misawa understood: "It seems the negotiations are not going well. Commander Shudo, you must know better that memories... or rather, memories that carry experiences, are important to a person. Haha, it's a bit shameless for us to say that."

"Cut off the memory police doesn't mean we'll release you all."

“You’re not sure you’re saying that,” Hiroyuki Misawa said in a declarative sentence. “I know you did your best, it’s alright.”

Hiroyuki Misawa, a cog in the vast underground organization TLT, finally faced the day when he was ordered to cease operation as circumstances changed.

Shudo Saya watched him calmly walk out of his office and out of the Memory Police's door. She felt no overwhelming emotion, no grief, anger, or resentment. She watched him walk out of the building, his figure getting smaller and smaller until he became a dot, like a truly ordinary nail—rusty and finally no longer usable.

Hiroyuki Misawa's residence was near the site of the battle damage. The house itself was undamaged, but the underground pipe network was damaged. On the way back, one could see some water pipes and gas pipelines being dug up and re-laid.

There are a few puddles on the ground, left over from when fire hydrants are opened and closed. If you have the time, you can get very close with your camera lens and capture the reflection of the city in these puddles that are less than a step wide.

But he didn't want to look at them. As he stepped over the puddles, unsurprisingly, he heard the mysterious voice again.

You avoided the topic of Mizuki Nonomiya.

"Oh."

They deceived and coerced you into becoming a "one-eyed bird," and now they've abandoned you.

“I did it voluntarily,” Hiroyuki Misawa stepped over the puddle, seemingly oblivious to the faintly shimmering pentagram within it. “When circumstances change, of course we need different responses. In the past, when we needed police officers with memory, I would do it. Now that we don’t need them, I won’t.”

Several students ran past laughing and joking, each grabbing onto the other's backpack, trying to make the other carry them so they could save energy. In the end, they both clung to a third person's backpack, causing the third person to stumble. The latter retorted, "Damn it, if I dream of a one-eyed person tonight, I'll be dumbfounded tomorrow!"

You think they're right to criticize.

“Why not? Experiences make up a person. If we remove their memories, we are prying the bricks that make up a person from them,” Hiroyuki Misawa replied. “Jun doesn’t say it, but I know he has always been bothered by the grave without ashes, and his family has no idea. If he forgets about it, I will not be happy for him at all, but I will only feel sorry for him.”

You can choose not to have your memories erased, and you can make amends for your mistakes.

The reverse pentagram disappeared from the puddle, then reappeared in the blurry reflection of the car window, in the glass of a distant building, and in the rearview mirror of an electric scooter passing by.

As Hiroyuki Misawa walked forward, the scarlet pattern followed him as he traveled through various places where reflections could be seen, never leaving his side.

He suddenly stopped, turned to the side, and looked at the glass display case in the store, which was filled with various kinds of cigarettes.

He wasn't interested in the colorful cigarette boxes, but rather in the shadow behind the glass—a shadow with eyes like black jade and a red-black body. As he turned his head to the side, the shadow also turned its head to the side, and their gazes met.

[Break the River of Oblivion, and all your memories will return, and no one will be able to control them anymore.]

Hiroyuki Misawa nodded, and the red and black figure inside also nodded, its eyes seemingly able to suck away souls, as if it really was... another version of itself.

"I knew this day would come when I joined the company, but it came a little too soon."

The memory policeman walked forward, and the red and black figure also took steps. When he passed a new puddle, the figure was suspended upside down in the water, replacing the original one.

Hiroyuki Misawa turned around, now seemingly willing to look at the scenery in these ubiquitous puddles.

He stretched out his foot; his leather shoes, which he had worn for a long time, were already a bit wrinkled, but he didn't care.

"Snapped!"

He stomped down hard, the water's surface shattering like a broken mirror. Muddy water droplets splashed onto his trousers. Hiroyuki Misawa...

He burst into laughter, and those unaware of the situation simply assumed he was an adult experiencing a sudden burst of childlike innocence.

The red and black shadows inside were churned out of shape. He felt it wasn't enough, so he rubbed the sole of his shoe on the thin layer of water. As a result, neither the shadows nor the pentagrams could ever take shape.

"You've been bothering me for a long time! This kind of trick won't work on me!"

"Who can live off one meal a lifetime? If you don't even have that much awareness, why are you a memory police officer?"

"Barnib, or rather... Alien Beasts, as long as I can wipe you out, what does it matter if I lose my job, lose my head, or even my life? Get out of here!"

……

On the other side of the city, there's Baolucao's haunted retirement home.

Sakuma Junmai was trying to turn the glass crafts he had made into stable glass balloons. Karin heard his plan and insisted on trying to put her in one of those balloons and let her roll around. She had seen similar inflatable things before and had been very envious of the people inside.

Jun Sakuma rejected her suggestion. He had already successfully made a small semicircle, which was now attached to Horokusa's precious camera. It was impenetrable, and Samuel was watching him try to conjure a shield from above.

Baoluca glanced at the precious gem and the soap bubble-like barrier, and thought of the goldfish bowl that had ascended to heaven. Although Sakuma Jun was full of confidence that "it is dustproof, insectproof, and very sturdy," he still asked cautiously, "Won't it explode? This camera is very expensive. I took several orders before I bought it. It's my livelihood."

"Don't worry." Samuel had a certain amount of confidence in Jun Sakuma's "creation": he thought that the "explosive" property could make something that wouldn't explode no matter how much it was dropped, and now that he was thinking about the "stable" property, it could only become more and more reliable.

However, Horokusa's words reminded him that he should consider making the barrier giant to test the reliability of the barrier that Sakuma Jun had created.

“Never mind, the space isn’t big enough,” the little light figure floated to Jun Sakuma’s side, “Make your shield, and test it with light later.”

"Huh? Light? I don't know how to use it."

"It's very simple: gather the energy and then throw it out."

"……real or fake."

"Hmm... just don't throw them all away, and remember to hold them up to the sky."

Chapter 152 Painting, Swing, and Ghost

Jun Sakuma was initially worried that he might not be able to control the energy and blow up the crooked tree, or that he might lose his bearings and cause Brownian motion that would destroy the Finance Minister's retirement home.

“You’re overthinking things,” Xiao Guangren followed him out and floated by the window, still with his arms crossed. “I’m watching, so practice with peace of mind.”

Upon hearing this, Jun Sakuma adjusted his breathing, concentrated his mind, and earnestly felt the warm current emanating from the Order of the Light Chaser. It flowed gently and endlessly, and just touching it unconsciously brought a sense of peace and comfort, like the old house at the foot of Mount Tsurumo.

The human form raised his hand, palm facing the empty space, and shouted!

At this moment, energy is released simultaneously and, according to Samuel, flows outward!

Hikaru turned his head in the direction of his outstretched hand, carefully observing the disturbance that Sakuma Jun had been stirring up—

breeze.

"Do you know how much energy you just used? About the same as one of its hairs." Jun Sakuma turned his head and saw Samuel pointing to the window behind him, where a plush bear was lying. Karin and the bear's heads were close together. When she saw Jun Sakuma looking at her, she smiled and waved to him while pinching the bear.

"Enough to light a bulb." That was the final word.

Here it comes, this kind of declarative statement that is both accurate and ruthless... Jun Sakuma awkwardly rubbed his hands: "But I clearly felt quite a bit just now."

Samuel said, "Perhaps it's because you're afraid of damaging the nearby trees or houses; the Lightbringer's Honor is very obedient."

Then, he changed the subject: "We can't keep thinking about the future, Chun, a small alien beast."

Jun Sakuma suddenly felt a heat in his pocket. It was the transformation device inside reminding him. He instinctively took a step and tried to run towards the location where he sensed the alien beast, but when he turned around, he found that Samuel was still in the same spot, with his arms crossed and no intention of moving.

"Hey you……"

“It’s just a small alien beast. I told you long ago that you can act independently,” the little light man waved at him. “This time it’s the enemy, so don’t save your energy.”

Huali opened the window and squeezed the little bear's paw again: "Go, Daddy!"

"Are you just slacking off?"

Samuel laughed and said, "If you can't beat them, remember to call for help."

Sakuma Jun was somewhat uneasy, but more than that, he was eager to try. He wanted to see if he would perform better than usual without Samuel's supervision. Previously, when eliminating smaller alien beasts, Samuel had been watching over things, so he could do whatever he wanted without fear. Whether it was damage caused by overflowing energy or unnoticed attacks from the shadows, someone would be there to anticipate it. If they encountered opponents with excellent defenses, and his fists were ineffective, Aiba Yu would step in and deliver a fatal blow.

"You'd be better off not shouting." Jun Sakuma thought the transformation device was the most considerate, as it would only silently send energy and never utter a word of mockery.

Golden veins spread throughout his body, and the sudden surge of high temperature distorted the surrounding scenery. The "light bulb dad" that Huali mentioned soon turned into a black dot in his field of vision.

Huali obediently watched her father run away, then her eyes darted around and fixed on her father's back.

It's shiny, palm-sized, and warm.

Samuel floated into the room before she could catch the moth, hovering above her as she jumped.

She was just a hair's breadth away from the finish line, and after jumping a few times, she finally gave up.

“You should go to class,” Samuel reminded her.

This should be the time when Huali was learning from an unqualified "teacher," and if I remember correctly, this lesson was taught by Genji.

Karin looked scared, but Samuel could tell she was faking it.

"I don't want to memorize poems, boohoo..."

Xiao Guangren watched her wash her face with the back of her hand, waiting for what she was going to say next.

"I forgot about Teacher Genlai's homework last night while doing crafts," as expected, she always had to look pitiful for a while before revealing the truth: "Will you secretly remind me later? 'Dad' can do magic tricks that Teacher Genlai can't see, right? Just... make a few words appear?"