Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

Chapter 110 Clues Converge

As Aiba Yu continued flipping through the pages, he discovered that the diary's owner was indeed surnamed Hojo, but was not a dry cleaner employee.

"My sister brought my nephew to visit me, but I had to pretend no one was home," the diary entry read. "I really want to see them; I'm so hungry..."

"

The nephew of the diary's owner is of college age, and Aiba Yu guesses that he is the dry cleaner's employee.

“I was starving and I was smashing through walls in my dreams, chewing up my neighbor bones and all.” The handwriting became increasingly bizarre and frantic at this point, with a large blot of ink appearing at the end.

After another line, the handwriting became neat again: "How could I have such thoughts? That's not me."

Aiba Yu, who could read ten lines at a glance, paused for a long time on these two sentences. There was no special ink mark as if it were full of poison: The owner of the diary wanted to see his sister and nephew. He was hungry. The handwriting was very neat at the time, which means that he wrote this sentence in a conscious state.

Did he realize that he wanted to eat people? Or did he simply hope that his sister would bring him some food that could be stored for a long time when she visited him?

Aiba Yu turned another page, and it turned out that the handwriting at the beginning was the last vestige of rationality—the next dozen or so pages were filled with crooked words like "hungry" and "so hungry," the force penetrating the paper, sometimes even a single word taking up the entire page.

But he didn't actually break down the wall into his neighbor's house. He smashed everything he could, scraped his own house beyond recognition, and covered the fresh plaster with hardened bloodstains, but his neighbor was still alive.

The diary ended there, with only a thin, palm-sized booklet tucked in the back.

It was a propaganda brochure of the Kirieloids, with a cover featuring an extremely tall, blurry human figure with his head slightly bowed. The pilgrims were at his feet, like an ant colony that had overcome countless hardships to find their nest.

The inscription on the title page reads: "The God of Gods knows all things. Before the eternal night falls, the merciful God will guide people to paradise."

……

“So that’s why you suddenly developed the habit of writing a diary,” an old acquaintance arrived in Sato’s interrogation room the next day: “It turns out it’s not your own.”

Aiba Yu said, "I don't have time to write a diary, and even if I did, I would only burn it."

Wearing gloves, Sato gently closed the leather-bound notebook and stared intently at the person who had given him the diary: "I'm very curious where you got this... a mental patient's diary."

"He is not mentally ill."

“So I’m more curious about what drove him to such a state of mental illness,” Sato said. “Don’t you know that if you give me something of dubious origin, I’ll immediately become suspicious of you?”

Aiba Yu's reply was: "I know, but I think you really need it."

Sato shook his head and chuckled: "You really did me a big favor. Now all the clues can be pieced together... Do you think I should lock you up first, in the isolation room right here that's used to detain dangerous and suspicious people?"

“You wouldn’t do that,” Aiba Yu said, letting it go in one ear and out the other. “Hurry up, connect all the clues, what conclusion do you have?”

Without a good straight man, Sato felt like he'd punched cotton, the cotton covering his face, almost suffocating him. He slammed his fist on the table and roared, "Couldn't you at least act scared and beg me to let you off the hook? Even my clerk knows how to act! You think you can settle something this big with just a few skewers of barbecue?"

He held up two fingers, then spread his ring finger, making three: "At least two... no, at least three barbecues!"

“Okay,” Aiba Yu readily agreed.

"The most expensive barbecue on the whole street!" Sato paused halfway through his sentence, then spat out, "I forgot you Air Force idiots get high pay, you don't care about the cost... Never mind, let's get down to business."

Including the diary brought by Aiba Yu, Sato received a total of three clues from the Information Department, the GUTS team, and the Air Force: a hundred-year-old photo of the Kamimura siblings, the results of the interrogation of the Manon aliens, the surveillance of the Crow people and the invaders, and evidence that aliens were suspected of conducting human experiments under the guise of a "charitable organization".

What appears to others as a complex and tangled mess is, in Sato's eyes, a jigsaw puzzle whose original form can be foreseen.

"It's pretty much certain that two forces took advantage of the situation in the Bizomo incident," he said. "One is the Kirieloids. They deceived the Manonians into cooperating, but in reality, they betrayed them to cover their own tracks. The Manonians attracted 'Samuel,' allowing the Kirieloids to launch their operation. In fact, it's thanks to the commotion you caused that they fled in haste, otherwise my team would have been on the missing persons list as well. Thanks to your kindness, my team didn't rashly use gunpowder and firearms against Bizomo, which resulted in their own downfall."

Aiba Yu nodded at first, then his neck stiffened.

“Don’t look at me with that incredulous look,” Aiba Yu’s reaction pleased Sato, and he finally laughed heartily: “‘Samuel’ first appeared in Tsukishiro Yuki’s laboratory. When it went to the air force’s logistics hangar, it didn’t even look at the road and just turned around and went along the shortest straight line. It is obviously extremely familiar with TPC.”

“Hey, didn’t I tell you that everyone’s posture and walking style are slightly different? Just like the meat on these skewers… the composition is the same, and the size is about the same, but the distribution of fat is always different,” Sato’s analogy was extremely unique: “It’s just that we are too familiar with each other, so it would be hard for me not to remember your habits.”

He pointed to Aiba Yu's clothes: "And in this hot weather, don't you find it strange that you wear long sleeves all day?"

“This is a uniform,” Aiba Yu said.

“Yes, yes, our meticulous flight team captain ‘never’ breaks the rules,” Sato’s expression changed instantly: “Give me a break! You can only fool others. If you’re so capable, take off your clothes and get a full medical check-up at the medical bureau. No backdoors or fabricated data allowed.”

"I respect you as a good...good man!"

Sato managed to suppress his "good monster" assessment, coughed lightly, and reassured her, "Don't worry, the interrogation room judges people by their behavior. Even if you told me you were an alien, I wouldn't have a problem with it."

"One side is the Kirieloids, and the other side?" Aiba Yu didn't like explaining things that required a lot of talking, so he brought the topic back on track.

“Of course it’s the side that the Crow Man and Dr. Tango colluded with! I don’t recall Dr. Tango having a reputation for being ‘good at socializing’ when he could accurately contact aliens,” Sato said. “But if it’s the dancer Tsuneki Ayaka found in the surveillance footage, it would make more sense if she were such a social butterfly.”

"You'd better be careful of that woman named Tsuneyuki Ayase. My team member was possessed by Bizomo and broke into the storage room of the Raichuran monster's corpse. This dancer went in and came out unharmed. We only found some partially burned body tissue in the carbonized marks on the wall. It belonged to my team member."

As Sato spoke, he held the skewer of the grilled meat very carefully, without breaking it, and with great force, rubbing the thin stick back and forth on his thumb.

Aiba Yu remembered the casualty report from the ground guard. Of the three dead, only one person's body was never found; his death was eventually confirmed through DNA comparison.

“Then there are some far-fetched ‘speculations’,” Sato seemed calm. He had already composed himself when he received the casualty report and was no longer bothered by anything else.

"I believe that whether it is the Kamimura siblings to the Kirieloids, or the Dango and Tsune to the other side, they are just the outermost executors."

Chapter 111 Drifting

An investigation into the Kirieloids and the individuals Yuji Tango and Ayaka Tsukigami is underway. Meanwhile, the outside world is also keeping a close watch on the recent series of attacks by monsters and aliens.

The incident at TPC's headquarters naturally became a hot topic and a subject of intense discussion.

However, the current "hot topic" has gradually veered off course, shifting from concerns about casualties to questions such as "whether the TPC is up to standard, whether the top leadership should be replaced, or whether a new defense force should be established and its armed forces strengthened."

It's hard to say that there weren't people with ulterior motives manipulating public opinion. On one hand, both the Kirieloids and the "New Human Project" organization, which includes Ayaka Tsukishiro, are happy to see the TPC's declining prestige. They see the TPC's handling of alien and monster incidents under Sawai Soichiro's leadership as too mild; the Kirieloids hope to escalate the conflict, while the "New Human Project" organization simply believes that such methods lack sufficient deterrent power.

On the other hand, the real driving force lies in the efforts of certain opponents. These are either "hawks" who yearn to rebuild the defense force and advocate for resolving concerns with strong military force, or opponents of a global organization united by all humanity—why should national security be maintained by a global organization led by outsiders?

"TPC can't even protect its own headquarters. Internally, its base is attacked by aliens, and externally, it relies entirely on Tiga to deal with monsters. What use are they?"

The GUTS team members were shrouded in a low mood because the outside world had been quite unfriendly to them recently, especially after the damage to their headquarters and the fact that the monsters in the newly developed area had been defeated by Tiga.

Only the equipment maintenance room was understanding towards them: Daigo and Horii's Hyuga 1 had crashed, but the logistics department refused Daigo's request to come and help. "You're going to have a tough time lately, so rest more and do other things. You don't need to come here to do hard labor," the logistics guy pushed Daigo and Horii out of the hangar. "Remember to treat our Hyuga 1 better in the future."

Daigo, staggered as the logistics staff pushed and pulled him from both sides, said with difficulty, "But according to usual, we have to come and help for at least three days... It was the same last time..."

“Do we need your little bit of hard labor? Just shout at other logistics hangars, and who wouldn’t rush over even if it means losing money, just because they hear about ‘taking care of the Flying Swallow’?” The guy pushing Daigo said, “The Flying Swallow is a ‘star’ in the entire TPC logistics field, so there’s no need to worry about a lack of people to take care of it.”

The logistics guy was initially proud, but then said with concern, "However, even its cockpit was burned to a crisp. You guys are really lucky to have come back alive... Don't pay attention to the drooling of those bored people outside. Let them try! I guarantee they'll wet their pants if they get close to the monster!"

While receiving some consolation might lift one's spirits slightly, it cannot mask the fact that the winning team's record is not so impressive.

Some argue that national defense forces should be reinstated, as only those who truly love their land can unwaveringly protect their citizens. But who are the Victory Corps? Stationed at their Far East headquarters, separated by continents and oceans, their nationalities are remarkably homogeneous. Can you really expect them to genuinely empathize with the suffering of people elsewhere?

Daigo wanted to say that he could relate, and that the GUTS team hadn't slacked off when dealing with the monsters; no one had hesitated when it came to fighting hard—but he couldn't say that, as it would only attract more criticism.

Megumi Kiyama thought it was not a good idea for the team members to stay at the base and be bombarded by outside opinions all day long. Therefore, she issued an investigation mission, sending Daigo and the others out to investigate the whereabouts of the aliens in plain clothes.

Everyone knew that this task was just an excuse to adjust their mindset, but they still accepted it seriously. Horii even drove a Sherlock car with a full load of equipment on patrol.

He genuinely wanted to find the alien who dared to invade the headquarters base. At the same time, he was even more worried that the monster appearing in the newly developed area might be Sanada.

Ryosuke.

The police department received a report from residents of a commercial street near the base that there was a strangely shaped corpse in a dry cleaner that had been closed for several days. At first, everyone thought it was some kind of monster embryo or alien, but the next day, DNA testing revealed that it was half human!

Horii was extremely worried about this discovery, the only consolation being that the corpse was not Sanada Ryosuke. Based on subsequent monitoring of the battle between the monster and Ultraman Tiga in the newly developed area, the monster's strange behavior led Horii to a terrifying speculation: perhaps the monster, like the corpse in the dry cleaner, was a human in disguise, which would explain the monster's contradictory behavior.

As Daigo wanders through the streets and alleys on foot, he receives speculation from Horii, and his mood grows increasingly heavy.

He couldn't tell anyone about Tiga, nor could he share his speculations about monsters with his teammates. Sometimes, when he heard people saying things like, "The GUTS team is useless, not even as good as one of Tiga's fingers," he almost couldn't help but want to jump out and shout, "Tiga is a member of the GUTS team!"

"Then why don't you say so?"

An unfamiliar voice pierced his mind, and Daigo suddenly stopped and looked back. In the crowd and beyond the shadow of the wall, there was a person wearing a jacket and black-rimmed glasses looking at him.

“Kirino Makio,” the man introduced himself with only one name, then changed the subject: “Because verbal attacks are always merciless, if you admit that you are Ultraman Tiga, it is the same as admitting that you are a monster… From the day you admit it, reverence and fear will occupy your life. People will want to be close to you, but they will not hold back when criticizing you.”

"Who are you?" Daigo asked warily, reaching into his pocket and silently pressing down on the PDI.

A self-introduction with only a name is useless, and who knows if it's a fake name? Daigo's unusual behavior puzzled passersby. Kirino Makio laughed and said, "You're attracting attention like this. Why don't you find a quiet place to sit? You're looking for aliens hiding on Earth, right? Maybe I can help, but there are conditions."

Lean less.

The two found a bench with few people around and sat quite far apart. Flowing water and falling leaves, warm breeze and flying petals, birdsong in the green shade, clear sky and rolling clouds—it should have been a beautiful scene, but Daigo had no heart to appreciate it. His thoughts drifted away unconsciously as he wondered if it was right or wrong for him not to contact his teammates using PDI in time.

According to regulations, he should have notified his teammates to surround the suspect the moment he spotted him. None of the rules and regulations he had memorized stated that "the enforcement department is allowed to conceal intelligence and engage in private conversations with suspicious individuals."

Kirino Makio simply smiled at Daigo's wariness. He leaned back in his chair, skillfully taking out a stack of newspapers to cover himself, appearing nonchalant.

"Do you also feel that your power is a burden?" he said. "It is clearly out of good intentions, but it is destined to be misunderstood, which leads to unexpected bad results... Tiga, as long as you appear, more people will question the meaning of the GUTS team, and even the existence of TPC."

Chapter 112 Preview

"Do you think these questions are meaningless as long as people's safety can be protected?" Before Daigo could speak, Kirino Makio revealed his thoughts, causing Daigo to pause in surprise.

“Mind reading, precognition, and seeing through the true nature of things,” Kirino Makio said. “When I was young, I became famous for my ‘superpowers.’ At that time, I didn’t know how to hide them. Reporters who came to see me were worried about my situation. Knowing my abilities, they reported on me as a clown who was trying to attract attention.”

Because of that report, Kirino Makio returned to the human world from being a "superpowered person".

It's hard to say that the reporter's actions were wrong, because Kirino Makio was only in elementary school at the time. Although his abilities were powerful, his physical strength had not improved. In other words, he might be able to hide for a while by using his premonition, but it would be difficult for him to escape from a large group of people.

The reporter worried that if his true story were published, this elementary school student, who was no different from any other child except for his "superpowers," would become a "guest of honor" in some research institutes or secret organizations, and be forced to do things he did not want to do.

At the time, Kirino Makio was still naive. The reporter asked, "Do you want to play with your classmates and continue your studies, or would you rather go to an unfamiliar place? I can't predict what you will encounter."

Unconsciously, Kirino Makio used his precognitive abilities and saw the future of the journalist after he answered "I want to go to a wider, unfamiliar world": the old journalist wiping away tears in front of a newspaper, regretting his reporting for the rest of his life.

Holding the new pencil case the reporter gave him, Kirino Makio replied, "I want to play with my classmates."

Thus, the report of "the attention-seeking clown" was published, and Kirino Makio has been able to live as an ordinary person who is not so ordinary to this day.

When he saw "Tiga," he was both happy to have found someone like him and couldn't help but wonder if his choice back then was right or wrong. The life of an ordinary person is certainly good, and he's now used to his way of life, but he still hopes that one day he can be revered like Tiga when he defeated the monsters, and realize his due value.

Compared to the powerful but physically weak Kirino Makio, Daigo is undoubtedly safe. Even if his identity is exposed, he can simply go to another planet. Even if he continues to live openly on Earth, no one can do anything to him.