Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

There was no way the guards would dress like that. As the girl walked towards him, her black robe billowed open, revealing a short skirt underneath. The guards' tigresses, on the other hand, would only tuck their trousers into their boots. "You are..." He felt a chill run down his spine from the eeriness of it all.

"I've come to save you!" The girl raised her hand from under her robe, a bunch of keys hanging from the tip of her index finger. The keys were stained with blood, the dark red bloodstains reflecting the dim light.

Sosuke instinctively tried to move back, but the girl said, "We beat up a lot of people before we found this key. Don't be afraid, we'll unlock the handcuffs for you right away."

As the two were talking, the other men in black robes walked toward Kamimura, whose face was grim.

Sosuke found it strange that Kamimura had remained silent from the very beginning.

“Superhuman strength always comes at a price, especially for a ‘dead man’ like you,” one of the black-robed figures said. “Any last words, Naga lackey?”

Kamimura made a "hoarse" sound in his throat, and he rolled his eyes, which were almost popping out, as he glared at the person who spoke.

“Like a goldfish,” Sosuke thought, “who are the Nagas? I think I’ve seen them in some report.”

“The Naga, those arrogant creatures who call themselves ‘gods of the universe,’” the girl seemed to know his question and explained in a low voice, “They like to modify extraterrestrial life forms, such as dinosaurs and humans, because doing so gives them a sense of being a creator who controls everything.”

"Humans?" A bad feeling welled up in Cangjie's heart. He quickly looked down and examined himself from his toes, saying, "Thank you. It's unbelievable that there are such monstrous aliens... I have to go back and report. Have you seen my cell phone or communicator?"

With a "click," the girl unlocked the complicated shackles, and with a soft metallic clang, Sosuke finally regained his freedom. He twisted his stiff wrists.

The skin on the back of his hand was very dull, perhaps because it had been tied up for too long. After the blood flowed smoothly, his whole hand felt numb and tingly. When Sōsuke turned his arm back to his eyes, he saw a purplish-blue bruise as expected.

“A cell phone or a communicator? I didn’t see anything like that,” the girl said. “This guard is a seasoned veteran we’ve been watching for a long time. How could he make the mistake of a novice? He must have thrown away all the equipment that could locate you when he took you away.”

A seasoned veteran? Sosuke turned his head and looked at Kamimura again. In his memory, Kamimura was really just a slick laundry shop owner who knew how to sew and repair shoes.

At this moment, the laundromat owner's face was covered with a layer of gray. He opened his mouth to speak, but only uttered meaningless syllables, and mouthfuls of thick black blood gushed from his throat.

Four men in black robes surrounded him, their hands clasped together in front of their chests, chanting incantations.

“It is hateful for a human to serve the Naga, but he is about to die. Can you smell the stench? His internal organs are probably rotting away,” the girl said softly. “Kirielod, the god of mercy, forgives the souls of hell.”

"Kirieloid!" The name was legendary. Almost every alien captured and put into the interrogation room would mutter about the Kirieloids and curse them to hurry up and join them.

"Are there many aliens saying bad things about God Kirieloid?" The girl held up her index finger and mouthed "shh": "Don't make any noise when you're performing a ritual to guide the souls of the dead."

Sōsuke struggled to suppress the urge to shout, and nodded.

The girl continued, "Kirieloid protects his followers, treating even Earthlings the same. But some aliens never consider Earthlings as intelligent beings, so it's only natural that we often clash with them and are gossiped about behind our backs."

Sosuke was skeptical: "That... except..."

"Who else did you find? There might have been many other people in white coats arrested along with me, including a researcher named Aya who has difficulty walking."

“Yes, there are, but they are all male. Aya is a female name, right?” The girl lowered her head slightly. “They are all dead. They were injected with serum extracted from certain monsters. That stuff… can unleash potential, or it can become a deadly poison.”

Sosuke suddenly lowered his head and held the bruises on his arm up to his eyes.

The girl said sympathetically, "I'm so sorry, I know you really want to be with your friends, but it seems like... you can't go back."

Chapter 104 Photos from a Century Ago

"During the riots sparked by Bizomo, 5 researchers on duty were seriously injured, 12 were slightly injured, and 2 are missing..."

In the second conference room of the TPC Far East Headquarters, Tetsuji Yoshioka was giving a brief summary report on the casualties and losses: "Three police officers died, seven were seriously injured, 23 were slightly injured, and one is missing. 'Hastur' was hacked, and two Level 1 research materials were stolen."

As Yoshioka Tetsuji spoke, he looked at Aiba Yu: "The three missing persons are Tango Yuji from the Life Science Research Center, Kamimura Aya from the Space Development Center, and Fujisawa Sosuke from the Police Department's Air Force. According to Kubota Kosuke's report from the Life Science Research Center, Tango Yuji has been confirmed to have defected. He shut off the safety valve of the giant statue and stole it."

"Here is a briefing on the suspicious intrusion into the base," the head of the information department said. "We have compiled the surveillance footage from the 24 hours before and after the incident, combined with the police report, and the list is as follows..."

Three hours later, the Victory Team...

Daigo, who had just returned from dealing with the monster in the new development zone, kept yawning. Shinjo was still undergoing a check-up at the medical bureau and had not yet been released. Horii, on the other hand, was also forcing his eyelids open, waiting for Captain Megumi to speak.

“According to the report at the meeting, the monster codenamed ‘Samuel’ reappeared in the Bizomo incident, and its actions seem to favor our side. In addition, at least three types of suspicious individuals have infiltrated the base,” Megumi’s words instantly dispelled the drowsiness of the two sleepy team members: “The confirmed identities are Manon aliens, Lebik aliens, and one human whose identity is yet to be confirmed…”

"Humans?" Horii's eyes widened. "You mean, invasion?"

“That’s right, at least in terms of appearance, she is undoubtedly human. She was monitored and found in the ‘Hastur’ warehouse, where she participated in the theft of the giant statue and the monster corpse found on the Reicuran alien spaceship,” Megumi said. “We cannot rule out the possibility that an alien is disguised as a human, Nori.”

"Yes!" Having received the request for assistance from the Information Department early in the morning, Ye Rui spent the entire morning fiddling with his computer, even eating lunch at his workstation. With the help of the search program he had written, Ye Rui indeed achieved considerable results.

"The woman who appeared in the 'Hastur' warehouse is a real person. She is a registered geisha with the stage name Tsuneki Ayaka and her real name is... Strangely enough, the data about her personal information in the registration information is blank. Logically speaking, she should not be registered in this situation."

"Also, regarding the missing persons..." Ye Rui hesitated for a moment.

Knowing the power of the search program he had written, Megumi asked, "Did you find them?"

“No, I only filtered out the data before the Bisoma incident,” Nori said. Fearing that his words were too absurd, he invited the others to his computer. He did another search on the spot and said, “Kamimura Aya’s legs are deformed due to the sequelae of poliomyelitis. I think this can be used as a core feature to search for her. My original intention was to find her traces, but I found something else.”

"Among the data showing the same deformity, I conducted further screening based on her facial features. You see..."

The screen kept refreshing the photos, arranged from recent to distant years. Without exception, they were all girls sitting down with leg deformities similar to Aya Kamimura's condition. Judging from her eyebrows and eyes, it was undoubtedly her.

The people in the photo seem unchanging, while the time stamp in the lower right corner races uncontrollably toward the distant past.

It was finally captured in a black and white photograph from the early 20th century.

The photo shows a middle-aged woman and two children, with a dilapidated old wooden house in the background, its pillars extremely thin and leaning precariously. The middle-aged woman has her arm around the boy's shoulder, while the boy holds onto the girl's arm. The girl sits on a low bamboo chair.

The three men wore layers of bulky clothing on their upper bodies, but their lower bodies were dressed in thin trousers. The boys' trousers were just above their knees, with their calves and ankles exposed, and they wore straw sandals.

The girl's clothes were the best, presumably because she received the most care, since she had the fewest patches on her clothes, and her pants and shoes were the only ones that could cover her feet—but even this could not hide her legs, which were twisted like a bow being pulled open.

The three looked at the camera with a hint of timidity. The middle-aged woman had a hunched back, a common posture for women in that era, considered a sign of gentleness and quietness. The boy's lips were tightly pursed, his hair plastered messily to his face, probably because he couldn't find a skilled barber and had it hastily cut short with scissors.

The girl bit her finger and pressed her knees tightly together, trying to make her deformity less noticeable. Her large eyes looked carefully ahead, as if she were peeking at someone outside the photo through the lens.

"The photo was taken in the winter of 1917 by a British businessman who enjoyed observing the lives of ordinary people." For comparison, Nozue pulled up recent photos of Aya Kamimura and her brother, Osamu Kamimura.

Lina frowned and leaned closer.

Some said, "Even though they've all grown up, you can still tell they're basically the same person... How old are they anyway?!"

“No, the key is this photo,” Ye Rui flipped through the pages for a while and pulled up the data recorded in 1920: “It’s the same British businessman who revisited the small town where he had stayed three years later.”

It was still that crooked wooden house, but it hadn't been repaired and looked even worse.

The middle-aged woman was nowhere to be seen; the adults had been replaced by an old man wearing a melon-shaped hat. Only two children remained in front of the door: a girl sitting, a boy lying down. This time, the boy's clothes were the best; the girl's shoes had a hole in them, her toes sticking out.

The boy lay on a cloth, a coffin lying beside him. The girl sat against the coffin, one hand cradling the boy's head. She stared at the camera with wide eyes. An old man stood close by, his hand waving in a blur, seemingly chasing away an out-of-place merchant.

"Aya Kamimura's brother is dead?" Lina exclaimed in surprise. "But according to recent information, her brother opened a shop outside, didn't he?"

“It’s not just one shop. I also screened some recent data based on Kamimura’s facial features. He’s a dry cleaning shop owner, yet he appears at the annual meetings of major conglomerates. Although there are no reports about him, he acts intimately with many conglomerate leaders and heirs, like old friends. Kamimura is probably their alias, and their real name is unknown.”

"What's going on... about a 'dead man's' business empire?" Horii felt he desperately needed to calm down and sort out his thoughts. It was supposed to be just a missing person case, so how did it get involved with people from over a hundred years ago, about "resurrection" and "immortality," and then turn around to involve a whole bunch of conglomerates?

After thinking for a moment, Megumi asked Nori to pack up all the investigation data: "If there are too many loose ends and it's hard to clean up, you can ask for outside help, such as someone in the interrogation room."

She paused for a moment, then instructed, "Don't go through confidential channels, don't let anyone else pass it on, just hand it to him directly."

Chapter 105 The Corpse in the Dry Cleaner

When Nori found Sato, he was squatting in the interrogation room, arguing with the arrested Manon alien.

The two Manonians, one clamoring for a fair duel with "Samuel" to be the best of three, the other sitting quietly and reservedly, not uttering a word.

The Manon aliens were completely unyielding, and Sato was racking his brains trying to figure out where to start when the GUTS team delivered crucial investigative intelligence.

What puzzled onlookers only made Sato's eyes light up.

“You’ve been used as pawns by the Kirieloids, Manonians!” Sato tapped the table, feeling confident. “Tell me, the Crow People’s group isn’t on your side at all, is it?”

“Your information network is really impressive,” Sato continued. “I believe that if we start the investigation from the base’s logistics center, especially the procurement of supplies, we’ll definitely uncover something interesting—alien beings posing as ‘deliverymen’?”

……

Commercial street.

Aiba Yu has only been to this bustling street three times.

The first time was when the base was completed. Everyone gathered at the location closest to the sea in the commercial street to watch the headquarters base operate for the first time. As the magnificent lights rose over the sea and the base buildings slowly emerged from the water, the crowd erupted in cheers. At that moment, Yuuki Tsukishiro, who was standing next to him, grabbed his head and spat in people's faces, shouting like a madman.

The second step was purchasing suitable carving knives. Beginners often unconsciously use too much force when carving, resulting in countless knives being "abnormally ruined" in Aiba Yu's hands. The owner of a shop selling adult arts and crafts training courses offered him wholesale prices on the condition that he purchase from their courses. Aiba Yu was interested in the wholesale option; as for the training courses… he hadn't attended a single day, giving his spot to a fellow member of the staff who loved seal carving.

The third time is now. Aiba Yu looked up at the dry cleaning shop sign and stepped into the shop that Fujisawa Sosuke had mentioned many times, the shop opened by Kamimura Aya's brother.

The dry cleaners should be busiest around the time people leave work, but the doors were locked. A lock was no obstacle for Xiang Ye You; he slipped inside the closed doors, and the stench in the air made him frown.

According to nearby shops, the dry cleaner has been closed for several days, which is quite unusual. In the impression of the people around, Kamimura is an extremely hardworking businessman. His dry cleaner has always been open all year round without fail. Moreover, it is said that he not only runs one shop but also takes on other businesses.

The stench emanating from the shop had already attracted the attention of nearby shops, who suspected that there were dead rats or rotten fruit that had been left uncollected.

If any of them had ever smelled the stench of death, they would immediately realize that it was actually the smell of a corpse.

The source was inside the door next to the reception desk in the outer hall; a dark brown, viscous liquid was seeping out from the crack in the door.

The moment the door opened, a corpse sitting with its back against the door fell to the ground at their feet. "Splash," the bodily fluids splashed out, creating ripples.

"An alien?" Aiba Yu guessed.

The corpse was truly bizarre in appearance. The skull was extremely high and steep, like a mountain peak, with the end even slightly bent backward; the humanoid structure had a very robust torso, but the limbs were disproportionately thin.

The decay began strangely at the extremities; his hands had detached from his body, leaving only broken bone fragments, while his torso and head remained intact, covered with dark gray keratinous skin.

Aiba Yu didn't remember ever seeing an alien like this before, and he kept his distance.

He kept his distance, observing only with his eyes to avoid damaging the body and hindering the TPC investigation. After a short while, he noticed something that was soaked in oil.

The object lying on the chest of the "alien corpse" was a rectangular plastic sign. The rope had rotted away, leaving only the edges and corners, and the plastic sign was stained dark brown. It was almost invisible unless you looked closely.

But it was this rotten plastic sign that made Aiba Yu, who had remained unfazed even upon seeing a corpse, instinctively take a half-step back.

“Work ID…” Aiba Yu recognized it; the same thing had been worn by employees of the supermarket inside the base.

Not just anyone can open a shop near the headquarters; only shops that have been vetted and deemed "trustworthy" are granted access. As a form of identification, the employees serving the business all wear specially made work badges.