Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

"Help! Someone's in danger..."

Estend recalled the countless planets destroyed by the Yapool forces, and how he felt when his teacher praised him for helping to develop a new light weapon, thinking he had finally made a name for himself.

When everyone is swept up in the frenzy, those who remain clear-headed suffer greatly, because they know what they are doing.

But there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Back then, he was still asleep and didn't understand the consequences of his actions. He was intoxicated by the dream of glory he had woven, regarding other planets, other civilizations, and other life forms as just data on a piece of paper in Arantar and the research institute. Only the plant seeds his parents gave him made him vaguely aware that "those are probably places with strange and wonderful plants."

He later awoke and witnessed firsthand what the expeditionary force had spread; Pasifica became a "synonym for hell" that he didn't want to recall.

He witnessed Fos-001's transformation little by little, from treating him as an experimental subject to recognizing him as a self-aware and individualistic being, and finally "rebooting" him himself...

Samuel was born from the "corpse" of Fos-001.

Fantastic made no secret of his purpose in creating Samuel. From the fact that he named the work after a legend from Earth, it is clear that he hoped Samuel, just like his name, would bring death to the earth.

"A radiant messenger accompanied by poison," giving people hope before bestowing death upon them—perfectly embodying the aesthetics of Fantasia.

Therefore, the ugly appearance of the control system infuriated Bante. However, after hearing about the movements of the Land of Light, Bante had no choice but to stop being so demanding about these trivial matters in the eyes of the Equipment Department and send his students and works to Earth.

Thus, Estend got his chance.

An opportunity to redeem oneself, to redeem friends, and... to atone for one's past actions.

The weapon he developed was taken to the battlefield by the Yapo people, and may have killed many people. He was indeed happy because he had developed a new weapon. When the weapon was approved for production and equipped the troops, he was only excited about the recognition. He even looked forward to its performance on the battlefield.

Some people have no idea what they are doing unless they see or hear the pain with their own eyes and ears.

Estend was ashamed of being that kind of person.

“Work hard, Samuel,” Estend said softly. “Let’s go to atone.”

Chapter Twenty-Five: New Team Members

“My name is Keita Kobayashi,” the examiner who had been in charge of timing the timer grinned, showing his little tiger teeth. “Don’t call me ‘Vice Captain,’ it sounds really old. We’re about the same age, just call me Kobayashi.”

"Yes, Vice Captain Lin!" A clear female voice, the girl with round eyes shouted loudly, and even saluted.

Estend saw Kobayashi Keita's face visibly fall, and his smile revealed a hint of helplessness.

Their rescue team was originally a full-strength team of seven. Previously, there had been two vacancies due to a lack of work, but then one person resigned because of the monster's appearance. Now, at least they have been re-hired. The girl with round eyes was one of the new recruits who was hired along with him and Samuel.

“Alright, alright, we can talk about the form of address later,” Keita Kobayashi said to the round-eyed girl. “Introduce yourself first, and tell us what you are good at and what kind of work you like so we can see which position we can assign you.”

"Ah, my name is Sugiyama Mao!" The girl stood with her legs together, trying to make herself look taller, but she was still only about the size of Estend's earlobe.

“Let me take a look at your application form,” Keita Kobayashi said, flipping through the documents before writing Mao Sugiyama’s name under the “Mechanical Support” section. “Not bad. Few girls like operating heavy lifting equipment.”

A young man with wheat-colored skin, who was sitting next to Sugiyama Mao while leaning against the back of a chair, gave him a thumbs up.

Mao Sugiyama smiled, revealing two dimples.

“Your turn,” Keita Kobayashi said, turning to Estend. “I remember your name is Aiba… Kanade?”

“It’s Aiba Kanade,” Estend immediately replied.

"I studied information and communication, so at least someone can share my work." Keita Kobayashi wrote Kanade Aiba's name in the "Information Plan" section.

Están pulled Samuel's sleeve.

Samuel immediately replied, "Aiba Yu."

Then he just stood there without moving.

“You can’t count on his social skills.” Estend silently rubbed his forehead.

Keita Kobayashi didn't seem to care: "I remember you did very well in the physical fitness test." He then added Yu Aiba's name to the "Search and Rescue Operation" section.

"Are you sure it's just 'excellent'?" The young man with wheat-colored skin leaned over and glanced at Kobayashi Keita's register: "He broke the record! His 3000-meter test speed is something I might not be able to surpass even after training."

"It's impossible to surpass it. Stop gilding the lily, Fatty is empty."

"I call this muscular! And my body fat percentage is within the healthy range!"

"Yes, touch your snack box before saying that."

"Wow, don't eat my snacks!"

The young man with wheat-colored skin started arguing with another young man who looked somewhat sinister. The three newcomers looked at them with confusion. Keita Kobayashi even stopped showing his little tiger teeth, squinted at the two of them, and slowly tightened his grip on the pen.

"How can you be so disrespectful in front of a newcomer!"

The door was flung open with a bang, and the two who had been chattering away just moments before fell silent as if they had been choked.

A serious-looking middle-aged man strode in, glaring at the two who had been acting like fighting cocks. The two immediately shrank back into their seats, and the young man with the wheat-colored skin stopped clinging to the back of his chair; he quickly got up and turned his chair around.

Go back and sit down properly with your back straight.

"Hasegawa Hayato".

The middle-aged man looked at them with eyes like those of a hawk, his pure black pupils like obsidian immersed in ice water, firm and pure, even the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes carried a sense of being carved by a knife.

He took the register from Keita Kobayashi and, while looking at it, instructed: "Mao Sugiyama, first learn how to operate the support machinery, Keita, you teach her; Kanade Aiba, first familiarize yourself with our information equipment, practice strictly according to the operation manual, ask me and Keita if you don't understand anything; Yu Aiba, follow Sora and Rikuto, first learn how to use the search and rescue equipment."

The team members all agreed, and Hasegawa Hayato added a sentence that made most of them tense: "Now is the period when monsters are frequently appearing, and our mission is much more arduous than usual. Everyone must intensify their training and not slack off! Remember, life waits for no one!"

The atmosphere in the room only became lively after Hasegawa Hayato's footsteps faded into the distance in the corridor.

“It’s a monster-prone period, really scary,” the tanned young man said first, now completely out of sorts, practically reclining in his chair. “I never thought things from the documentaries I watched as a kid would actually happen…”

Keita Kobayashi helped the nervous newlyweds sit down, then turned and opened the bookshelf, bending down to pull out three thick books from the bottom shelf: "So we have to dig out the rescue work manual for dealing with monster disasters from decades ago. Hmm, this is the paper version. When you get your work computers, there will be an electronic version of the manual on the internal website."

He handed the three books to the newlyweds, asking, "Kong and Lu Dou, have you finished reading yourselves during this time?"

"Dare you not finish reading it!" The young man called "Sora" slapped his forehead with a loud crack. "My head is about to explode! There were so many types of monsters before! And the rescue precautions are different for different types of monsters!"

"Of course you'll freak out if your head is full of snacks," Lu Dou mocked, "and you even leave crumbs all over the pages..."

"I've shaken it all off! You'll die if you don't snap at me?" Sora tried to grab Lu Dou's face again, but Kobayashi Keita grabbed her and pulled her back to her seat.

Keita Kobayashi squinted and smiled at the three newcomers, saying, "They've always been like this, fighting with Sora Hara and Riku Yamashita. They feel uneasy if they don't argue for three sentences. You'll get used to it."

Beside him, Yuan Kong, his face green, was twisting his right hand.

The hand gripping his right arm tightened its hold even more. Kobayashi Keita turned to him, flashing his fangs, and finally released his grip. He and Hara Sora hurriedly hugged his arm and rubbed it frantically, no longer looking at Yamashita Rikuto, who was still mocking him with his eyes.

"snack?"

It was Samuel's voice, with its usual calm.

But this made Estend turn around sharply to look at him—snacks? You're interested in these?

Yuan Kong's eyes immediately lit up.

"Mushroom Mountain's chocolate cookies, strawberry chocolate, lion pudding, white balloon pudding, and stretchy cheese rice cakes!" Sugiyama Mao listed them off with great familiarity.

Yonahara Sora quickly took a few steps and grabbed Sugiyama Mao's hand: "My dear friend! You're a sweets lover, right? Even though you have to be with Keita and aren't in our group, just because you said that, I'll save you a snack after training every day!"

The round-eyed girl, completely oblivious to the awkwardness of being grabbed by someone she was meeting for the first time, smiled and revealed her dimples: "Thank you so much! I'll bring out my treasured items when I get home!"

"Two idiots."

The sound was very faint, almost inaudible, but Samuel could hear it and looked toward the source of the sound with some curiosity.

Rikuto Yamashita glanced at the people chatting and snacking over there with some disdain, then stood up and extended his hand to Samuel: "From now on, we should all be part of the search and rescue team. Please take care of me."

Shaking hands is a basic courtesy among Earthlings, a point that Estend and he have explained.

So Samuel extended his right hand and grasped the calloused hand.

Yamashita Rikuto smiled at him, noticing his somewhat gloomy face.

"By the way," amidst the background chatter of Sora and Mao Sugiyama, Keita Kobayashi asked, "You're brothers, right? Who's the older brother and who's the younger brother?"

"I'm the older brother, and he's the younger brother!"

"I am the elder brother."

……

The two turned and looked at each other.

Keita Kobayashi burst out laughing.

“Hmph, he’s a bit…rebellious,” Estend said, pulling out his ID card and gesturing for Samuel to take out his as well, displaying the two cards side by side: “He was born after me, you see, so his ID number is a bit higher than mine.”

Samuel silently took back his identification card.

Estend patted him on the shoulder: "Don't worry, I'll take good care of you in the new environment. It's my duty as your older brother."

“It’s so enviable,” Yamashita Rikuto said, whether in a sigh or a complaint, “I wish my older sister was like that.”

“Sister?” Estend asked.

"Well, she's probably still reading in the bright library at school right now," Yamashita Rikuto seemed reluctant to talk about his sister. "...Never mind, let's change the subject. I'll take you to see the dorm."

Keita Kobayashi stopped the still-talking Sora Nahara: "Let's go, take the newbies to get familiar with the dorms."

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Fog Blows

"Communication headsets, far-infrared drones, electromagnetic scanners, miniature water quality analyzers, air..."

"...Hey, where's my air quality monitor?!"

Wearing a blue rescue uniform, Estend circled his bed, rummaging through it as he went.

一只手递了个加装了空瓶子的东西到他面前：“是这个么？”【欢;:迎"进"!入【,!夜;袭";的":月:费.'群;:】:.6;9.4:9.,3:""6!，1:3";5."