Chapter 134: He Is Working for Himself

“Sit down.”

Captain Sakomizu gestured toward the bed, its sheets perfectly smooth, as though no one had ever slept in it.

Taiga hesitated before walking over and sitting down.

“What is it, Taiga?”

Taiga merely sat there, looking at Sakomizu. On the way there, while Hiroyuki was dragging him along, he had mentioned this man. Hiroyuki had said, “You can think of him as Captain Zoffy himself. Of course, if you can tell the subtle difference between him and Zoffy, I think he’ll be even happier.”

His name was Shingo Sakomizu.

The moment Taiga heard that, he froze. The name sounded strangely familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere before.

Hiroyuki had nodded. “Of course it sounds familiar. You communicated with him during the GUYS era. Back then, he was GUYS’ captain and director.”

“That captain? He’s still alive?”

Taiga had been startled. That had all happened so long ago. And when he thought of his own human host, Kotaro… Captain Shingo Sakomizu was still alive?

“Of course not.” Hiroyuki had shaken his head honestly. “The person you’re about to meet is still Captain Zoffy. He’s simply using this name.”

Taiga had found himself unable to follow. After thinking for a moment, he asked, “Then what did you mean when you said they were subtly different?”

Hiroyuki had looked puzzled as well, then slowly nodded. “I think it’s probably because… names themselves possess ‘power.’ Since the names are different, there are slight differences between him and Captain Zoffy.”

And so, while they were talking, Hiroyuki had brought Taiga to the dormitory. He had explained that leaving Tregear behind had surely been the captain’s decision, and Tregear himself seemed to have agreed. If Taiga intended to drag Tregear away by force, surely he ought to at least inform the captain first.

In a voice so soft that only he could hear it, Taiga had muttered, “Who’s dragging anyone away? I’m not a kidnapper.”

He looked up at the elder brother before him, who now wore a different appearance. His presence was unchanged; he was unmistakably the captain of the Inter Galactic Defense Force, Zoffy. Taiga could not understand what Hiroyuki meant by “different.”

Seeing the conflict and confusion on Taiga’s face, Captain Sakomizu turned his chair around to face his younger brother, who had once again become a source of concern. This younger brother had been dependable for quite some time and rarely gave him anything to worry about. Yet the moment that thought crossed Sakomizu’s mind, he could only shake his head. Sure enough, some things simply could not be mentioned aloud without bringing trouble.

Taiga held it in for a while before finally asking, “Why is Tregear here?”

“Because I brought him here, of course.”

“…He’s working for you?”

“He’s working for himself,” Captain Sakomizu corrected him. “I did not force him to stay. So there is only one reason he remains here: he wants to stay. Nothing more.”

Taiga felt anger beginning to brew inside him, yet he could not determine its deeper meaning. He pressed his lips together before asking, “He’s dangerous. You know that. He did many terrible things in the past. Though his hands may still technically be clean—the people he provoked and manipulated brought their fate upon themselves—he used demonic power to beguile them, plunging entire planets into chaos and causing countless innocent people to suffer. Are all those deeds simply to be wiped away?”

His elder brother continued smiling. Not a trace of emotion crossed his face as he looked directly into Taiga’s golden eyes and answered in an even voice, “How could they be?”

For a moment, Taiga did not know how to respond. But he did not need to. His brother continued, “Just as you said, the things he did, and the people he harmed, are enough to warrant his death countless times over—and even that would not be enough to atone for his sins.”

Taiga grew tense at those words.

“Of course, I will not let him die. More precisely, I will not let anyone kill him.”

“Because I received some information from a source that is, well, highly reliable. It says that if Tregear, the host of Grimdo, is killed, he will not truly die. He will immediately be resurrected in another parallel universe.”

“In other words, killing him would merely drive him out of this universe.”

“I must do everything I can to prevent him from leaving this universe. Do you know why, Taiga?”

Hearing the question, Taiga straightened unconsciously, as though he had been given an examination problem. After thinking it over, he answered tentatively, “Because… we can’t let him bring disaster somewhere else. After all, he is from our universe, and we have a duty to…”

He could not continue.

As Tregear’s friend, someone who had grown up beside him, Taiga believed he had a duty to resolve Tregear’s problems—whether that meant searching for him wherever he might be or bringing him home.

Residents of the Land of Light were not permitted to leave the Planet of the Ultras without a valid reason. Naturally, Taiga should have brought Tregear back after he abandoned his homeland without cause. He had always regarded that as self-evident.

The problem was that he had never had the time.

As one of the Land of Light’s senior warriors and a member of the Ultra Brothers, he had been duty-bound to fight. There were too many things he had to protect. Responsibility filled his life and consumed every moment of it. When he became busy, he nearly forgot not only Tregear, but even where his own home was.

That was why Taiga had learned to be so sensible from a very young age, becoming accustomed to having a father who was only half-present in his life. This made Taiga feel guilty toward Taiga, yet it also gave him comfort to see how mature and understanding his son had become.

Whenever he thought of his old friend, Taiga still felt guilty. If only he had noticed Tregear’s abnormality sooner—noticed his confusion, his helplessness, his bewilderment, and his pain—perhaps, perhaps…

To outsiders, Tregear’s descent into evil was naturally his own fault. No matter how insistently one argued that this minor incident or that seemingly insignificant event had served as the spark that set off his corruption, in the end, he had still been the one to take that step. It was like a murderer who emphasized the conflicts in his childhood home, the setbacks he had endured while growing up, and the cruelty of fate. None of those things could justify harming others.

Taiga naturally accepted that reasoning. But accepting it did not make it any easier for him to let go of what had happened to Tregear.

Tregear had been his best friend. Their shared past seemed to remain right before his eyes. How had things come to this? Could it all have been nothing more than a nightmare?

“You’re not wrong, but you’re not entirely right either.”

Sakomizu rose to his feet. Through the clear glass window before the desk, one corner of the temporary laboratory could be seen outside. Geed was still crouched there, trying to fit the roof back onto the temporary building, carefully adjusting its position.

“Look at all that. Without the support of so much equipment, it would have been difficult for me alone to persuade the Science Technology Bureau, the Supreme Commander, and the Council to approve sending it all out here.”

“Of course, the research into nebula particles is important. But it is not so important that they would agree to risk transporting all this equipment to Earth.”

“What truly moved them was Tregear—the fact that I would keep him here and have him continue his research into nebula particles. That was the key.”