Ultraman Legend of the Light Chaser

“Yes,” Samuel quickly flipped through the diary, stopping at a record: “Returning to the unit tomorrow, Shudo… Commander.”

The other party did not notice anything unusual.

Samuel breathed a sigh of relief, realizing he hadn't mispronounced the name.

Jun Sakuma was still asleep, but thanks to his habit of keeping a diary, Samuel was able to learn about everything around him through it.

This seems to be an alternate Earth, inhabited by man-eating beasts that feed on fear. To prevent the spread of fear, humanity established the Memory Police (MP).

Ten months after Jun Sakuma was transferred from a regular police station to the TLT's Memory Police, his wife, Sakura Sakuma, was killed by a monster.

It is now the 12th month, and if Samuel does not appear, he should die on the roadside on his way home from the cemetery.

It's such a depressing world; even the air is filled with a faint smell of blood.

It was as if behind a thin veil that barely concealed the view lay a hellish realm where demons and monsters roamed freely.

Jun Sakuma's job was to repair and mend that piece of gauze.

He unconsciously began to miss the warm sunshine of the previous world.

What happened to Estend? He managed to preserve that tiny sliver of light at the last moment, but we don't know what the outcome was.

The crack closed so quickly that he didn't even have time to say goodbye.

...But that's alright, he doesn't like saying "goodbye".

"dad?"

The person at the desk turned their head.

"Lunchtime, I'm hungry, should I go buy some bread?"

The speaker was Karin Sakuma, the daughter of Jun Sakuma.

Still in elementary school, she's at an age where she's full of curiosity about everything.

She was indeed a cheerful child, but... perhaps due to the effects of having her memories erased, she became much more silent.

Jun Sakuma may have taken over the work well from his wife Sakura, but Samuel certainly didn't know how to take care of children.

"You like bread?" Samuel asked as he walked in.

The refrigerator in the kitchen was opened.

It only contained things like milk, eggs, and toast.

"Isn't it bad for your health to eat only this?" Samuel thought.

Karin followed with her small steps, holding up her delicate hand: "Is it milk toast?"

“That’s all we have left,” Samuel recalled that Jun Sakuma’s wallet was on the low cabinet next to the coat rack. “You have a good time at home this afternoon, I’ll go prepare the ingredients for dinner.”

"Is Dad going out?" Huali's voice sounded a little uneasy.

Jun Sakuma concealed the truth from his daughter, attributing Sakura Sakuma's death to a car accident. In her mind, her mother died on her way home from work, and her father, about to leave, might also die on his way home…

She is afraid.

Tiny toes curled up on slippers painted with cat faces.

Samuel observed her unease and pondered, "When a child is afraid, what's the best thing to do?"

The father gently placed his hand on his daughter's head.

"I'll be back soon, don't be afraid."

Huali raised her hands and grasped the hand that was patting her head: "Dad, you never liked to pat my head."

"Ah." Samuel realized he had been exposed and tried to pull his hand back.

Karin gently rubbed her warm, large hand against hers, her soft, fine hairs scratching her palm back and forth.

“Dad said that touching your head will prevent you from growing taller,” Huali looked at him. Her profile resembled her father’s, but her features were very much like her mother’s, especially her eyes, which seemed to be immersed in well water. “But Huali thinks it doesn’t matter if I don’t grow taller, Dad must come back.”

"……Um."

Samuel wasn't very good at handling this situation, so he could only give a vague reply while fetching her lunch.

After lunch, Huali continued building with the blocks she hadn't finished, while Samuel put his wallet in his pocket and went out to find the market.

Jun Sakuma's diary is filled with his own emotions. When explaining things, he prefers to write only the general outline and rarely describes the specific details, let alone things like where there are shopping malls. Everything has to be explored by Samuel himself.

Samuel remembered the words the fully armed group used when he first arrived: "Alien Beast Vibration Wave".

Based on Jun Sakuma's work, he could probably deduce that there were also sophisticated organizations on Earth specifically dedicated to fighting "alien beasts".

Before fully understanding the situation, he needed to use his ability cautiously. After all, he still needed to stay in Sakuma Jun's body for some time until he was sure that the body could survive after being separated from his light.

So... go hiking, and you can gather information while walking by using your superior hearing and vision.

Dinner was a minor matter; what he needed to resolve most was reporting back to MP tomorrow—Sakuma Jun's diary didn't mention where his workplace was.

Samuel's ability to guess who was calling was purely by luck, thanks to his diary entries complaining that "Commander Shudo is too serious."

So when he went out this afternoon, he needed to find MP's location.

I really hope the owner of this body wakes up soon.

……

"Chun! Run!"

On a night filled with the chill of the wind, the pale moonlight cast a frosty, snow-like hue over the trees.

Today is Christmas, and Jun Sakuma took a day off to leave work early so he could pick up his wife and go shopping in the mall to buy some things, such as decorations for colorful balloons and food that Karin likes, as a surprise for their daughter.

The doll brand that their daughter loved released a new product that was extremely popular, and it quickly sold out in their satellite city. So the couple planned to go to a larger neighboring city to buy the doll.

They drove home with lots of bags and packages. A half-person-tall teddy bear lay quietly in the back seat. Sakura Sakuma would look back at it from time to time, a smile on her face, clearly thinking of her daughter holding it.

While traveling along a mountain path, a yellow "fog" blew in from an unknown place.

"Pollen? Are there still flowers this season?" Sakura Sakuma looked at the slowly drifting object through the car window with a puzzled expression. There were also tiny, shimmering particles in the "pollen." Sakura Sakuma rolled up the window and said to her husband, "Something's strange. Let's drive faster."

Jun Sakuma received a phone call and was driving slowly along the roadside. He was also puzzled by the scene before him, and when his wife urged him on, he naturally stepped on the gas.

The silver-gray car drove into the area filled with pollen.

Jun Sakuma drove his wife into "hell".

That day, a cold Christmas night.

Jun Sakuma saw the blooming yellow flowers.

That color should have been vibrant, yet it grew on a terrifying alien beast.

As a memory police officer, he naturally knew what was going on. He desperately tried to escape, but the car's horsepower seemed insignificant under the power of the alien beast.

The mountain-sized monster blocked the car's path with just one claw. The hood was pinned under its claw, and pollen corroded the exterior of the car, making a hissing sound.

His wife yelled at him to "hurry up and leave," but the two discovered that the door lock was broken, the entire frame was corroded and twisted, and pollen was about to seep into the car through the body material.

The car body next to Sakura Sakuma was the first to be breached by pollen, and Jun Sakuma didn't want to relive the scene afterward.

In a daze, he saw several dark blue shadows.

"The alien beast has escaped. Please accept our condolences. If you wish to 'forget' it, we will handle it."

This was the most humane conversation that Jun Sakuma heard from Commander Shudo.

His cherry blossoms withered, but he was lucky.

He survived.

Should he choose to forget?

Like everyone they "dealt with," they live in false memories, even misdirecting their grief.

His hatred should be reserved for the alien beasts, not for the fabricated "car accident".

“No, Commander Shudo, the memory police are not afraid of alien beasts,” he heard his own voice say. “Only by remembering it can I be more convinced of the meaning of my work.”

Chapter Two: "Alien Beasts"

“You look great, Sakuma-senpai!” The young man with a youthful face handed him the documents.

"Ah..." Samuel took the overflowing file bag, wanting to say thank you, but then a voice in his head said, "He's Shintaro, tell him not to use so many honorifics."

"Thank you, but you don't need so many honorifics, Shintaro."

The young man put down the documents he had handed over, straightened his clothes (which were not wrinkled), and said with a smile, "Senior is still so approachable. Seeing that you have recovered well, Senior Misawa must be very relieved."

"Thank you for your concern, then let him go about his business."

"Yes, thank you for your concern. I'm much better now. If you have anything else to do, please go ahead and take care of it."

"Yes!" the young man replied cheerfully. Judging from the two stacks of documents he was carrying, he probably had to go and greet other people as "senior" to them.

Samuel, who was not good at small talk, breathed a sigh of relief.

The voice that had just been directing him in his mind belonged to the owner of this body—Jun Sakuma.

As Samuel searched for MP's base, his dormant consciousness finally awoke.

……

"A monster?! What do you want to do by controlling my body?"