EPISODE 3 - THE TWIN HEADED FLAME BEAST
Taro looked intently at the three dolls on the table. He crossed his hands in front of his chest and sighed.
"It's hard to believe that all of this happened in a span of three days only."
"Three days!?"
Everyone spluttered. Zoffy widened his eyes in shock while Zero and Mebius looked in awed disbelieved.
"Impossible!" Ultra Father whispered.
"Father?" Ace spoke hesitantly. The others took a step back warily when the temperature inside the room plummeted drastically.
"Ken. Calm down." Ultra Mother rubbed his knuckles with soothing voice. He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breathes. When he opened back, the others saw that his eyes turned a few shade paler than normal, indicating that he was reigning his anger.
"I'm calm." He spoke slowly.
"Three days with two separate group using two kaijus dolls to fight. I feel that there is someone out there orchestrated all of this. But who? And why?" Taro spoke, frustrated with the mystery.
Taro whirled around quickly. There were quiet footsteps heading towards the room he was in. He teleported himself to hide between the crevices with the dolls. He peeked around the corner and saw someone opened the door slowly. That person entered and closed the door quietly.
"Taro?"
Taro almost sagged in relieved. "Misuzu?" He teleported back on the table. She smiled and sat down in front of him. "What are you doing here?" He questioned.
"Nothing. I just want to see how you are doing." She lied on her front, facing Taro. He kept his quiet for a while before he sighed.
"Misuzu, what do you think about my theory regarding the various strange occurrences? There's a possibility that someone is behind all these strange incidents. Some evil force is using the darkness in people's heart." Taro clenched his hands in anger. "That's right. That must be it." He was too absorbed in his theory, making him startled when the door suddenly opened from the outside.
"Oh no!"
He quickly teleported in front of her, hoping her size could concealed him while she grabbed all of the spark dolls to hide it. Having not much time, she only managed to turn her back to that person. She bit her lower lips anxiously while he stood still, praying that she saw his reassuring nod just now.
"Misuzu, what are you doing?"
She turned back when she heard a very familiar voice.
"Oh, it's Hikaru." Taro popped up from behind her shoulder blade.
"Don't scare me like that." She complained.
"This is my room though." Hikaru grinned and walked towards them.
"I was talking with Taro." She paced around while looking at the two space dolls on her hands.
"About?"
"About the stuff that happened since the shrine burnt down like that biker and those arsons."
"And…so?" The teen asked distractedly as he tried to light the lantern.
"We were wondering if the people were being controlled by the kaiju."
"That's right." Taro chimed in. "Someone must be attempting to control the evil hearts with the spark of darkness and the kaiju."
"Can such an evil person exist?" Hikaru frowned in disbelieved.
"Furthermore, somewhere in this town…"
Suddenly there was a small explosion coming from behind them. Taro whirled around and spotted fire came from the outside.
"Another kaiju?!" Hikaru exclaimed and ran to the window to see. Misuzu followed behind him anxiously.
"Hikaru!"
"Misuzu! Come and join us!"
Two of their friends, Kenta and Chigusa yelled from below simultaneously.
"Don't surprise us like that." Hikaru huffed and walked back to where he was standing before.
"Fireworks? It is summer indeed." Taro mused. He almost fell down when she whirled around to face Hikaru.
"What do you wanna do? Join them?" She asked brightly.
"No way." He shrugged his shoulder and chuckled. "Fireworks are fun but I'm too old for them." He walked outside. "I'm going to see they play below. Wanna come, Misuzu?" He walked backwards while asking her.
"Of course! Wait for me." She stopped when Taro teleported himself on the table. "You don't want to come with us, Taro?" She asked curiously. Taro chuckled.
"No. I will just look from here. Have fun."
"Okay! Bye Taro!" She dashed to follow her friend. Taro flew to the window and looked down. He laughed when he saw Hikaru was running around while waving the firework in his hand.
"Children." He shook his head fondly. "Always so happy in every situation. This is why I fought all these times. To preserve their precious smile. Thank you for reminding me about it. I will protect you all forever." He vowed. Unknowingly a flare emitted under his foot, directly where the mark was.
"Woah! Did you see that?" Zero punched the air enthusiastically.
"His mark flared." Ace said in shock.
"But why?" Ultraman spoke dumbfounded.
"Did you noticed that it flared as soon as he spoke he would protect them?" Jack looked at Ultra Father for confirmation. The latter nodded.
"Yes. From this we can conclude that his mark reacted strongly when his sense of protectiveness emerged."
"It just showed us that he had a destiny to fulfill there." Ultra Mother spoke.
"More mystery. I'm starting to hate it already." Zoffy said in a huffed.
Taro stood still as soon as he heard thundering footsteps came towards the room he was in. He ignored it and let the teenagers talked among each other. He heard an unknown female voice with them but assumed that she was their friends. He almost dozed off before straightened when he felt someone was looking at his back with so much hatred, making his spine straightened. He exhaled the breath he was unknowingly held when the unknown human walked out.
"Something's not right." He whispered, knowing only Misuzu there to hear him.
"Taro?" She sounded worried.
"I'm fine, Misuzu. Don't worry." It was silence for a few seconds before he heard the last footsteps got out.
"She's not what she claim herself to be. I need to watch her more carefully." He deduced, still feeling the chill from her stare.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Seven crossed his hands over his chest.
"Yeah, did you see how she stared at him? It was creepy." Jack shuddered.
"Do you think she's going to be like that biker before?" Mebius asked to no one in particular.
Both of the parents were silent. They looked at their unconscious son with pride mingling with worry. The father stroked his son's cheek tenderly while the mother gripped her son's hand tightly as if to shield him from everything.
"I don't know about you guys but the respect for my otouto have raise a few notches higher." Ace declared with pride.
"He always have our respect, but this? This shows us how resilient he can be in the face of danger." Zoffy announced. The others nodded their heads.
"He is my instructor. Of course I respect him as my teacher." Mebius proudly stated.
"Hikaru get up! How long do you plan to sleep in?!" A voice brought Taro out of his sleep. He looked blearily when Kenta tried to wake Hikaru up. He smiled when he saw Hikaru was being herded out by his friend. He closed his eyes, intended to continue sleeping when a voice jolted him to the present.
"I'd like to change my clothes."
"That woman again!" He hissed.
"I'm starting to feel that this is a mystery novel that we have to solve." Zoffy quipped dryly.
"Shhh!" Ultraman shushed him, eyes planted solely to the memory.
"Wait a minute. She's changing here?!" Taro automatically turned around in shock when her words registered in his mind.
"Oh! What should I do…? He whispered awkwardly when he heard rustles of fabrics.
"Do we have to see this?" Zero's cheek turned red. He watched the others surreptitiously. They either looked on stoically (in the case of Ultra Father and Zoffy), frowning in disapproval (Ultra Mother, who also glared at her husband if he ever dared to look on the scene with so much of a twitch of a mouth), winced with beet red expressions (himself, Mebius, Ultraman and thankfully his own father), watching gleefully (he was very sure Jack and Ace just wanted to have a blackmail material for Taro) and worse yet, looked on in amazement. Wait-what?
"Wait a minute. Why do you look like that?!" Zero pointed in shock at Qiv who was looking in open admiration. He swore he saw she was drooling just now.
"Looking like what?" She shrugged innocently.
"Like…like you never saw people change clothes!" He was blushing by just saying that words.
"Oh you mean she's going to strip naked?"
"What?!" Everyone spluttered.
"That's what she's going to do, right? I had read it but I never saw how the art of seducing took hold. It was truly magnificent." She said in awed. The others glanced awkwardly, wanted to ask the question but didn't wanted to be the one to ask.
"You didn't know how to seduce men?" Ultra Mother asked with gentle, as gentle as she could be with that awkward question.
"No. At my home planet, if we like that person we just ask for their hand of marriage. And it is a custom for the other side to accept." She said with a smile. The others blinked, didn't know how to respond.
Taro's cheek turned redder and redder when he heard the sound of clothes been unzipped. "No, I will not look!" He said firmly. "I will not look!" He reiterated, aware how his voice shook just to reign in his impulse. By now, all of his face had turned red, the same shade of color of his body. As soon as he heard the clothes fell down to the ground, he quickly turned around to face her.
"Just a peek!"
Jack was howling with laughter at this point. He grabbed Seven by the shoulder to help him from rolling on the ground. Ace didn't had any problem with that, rolling on the ground while clutching his stomach.
"This is the most funny things I have seen by far!" Jack wiped the tears from his eyes.
"There goes my respect for him just now!" Ace was huffing while still clutching his stomach.
"You are embarrassing me, otouto." Zoffy dragged his hand across his face with a sigh. He was shaking his head, mumbling about the integrity of Ultra Warriors these days.
"Where did you get these perverted behavior, my son? Surely not from me." Ultra Father chuckled and shook his head. He frowned and turned around when he felt someone stared at him. He gulped when he saw his wife looked at him intently. "Hey, I never behaved like that!" He widened his eyes in shock.
"Really?" She replied, deadpanned.
"Of course." He nodded furiously.
"We will speak about it later. The four of us." She emphasized at the word 'four'. Both her husband and her son shuddered at the tone, feeling sorry for Taro and afraid for themselves.
"W-What's this?!" Taro exclaimed in shock. The woman stood in front of him. One of her hand was holding a candle holder while the others gripped a Dark Spark and a doll.
"There goes our funny scene." Ultraman spoke, making the others shut their mouth. They looked on awkwardly when they realized things were going to turn bad when the woman revealed her true color.
"The spark of darkness!" He exclaimed, still in shock.
"Heh! It's too late to notice that now, Taro!"
"That voice!" He tried to turn around to face the owner of the voice but he had been gripped on the waist.
"The great Ultraman No. 6 has been reduced to this form." Alien Valkie spoke with mirth while poking Taro's head simultaneously.
"You will pay for harming my otouto." Ace said darkly at the scene.
"Alien Valkie, why aren't you a doll?" He spat, trying not to wince by the rough treatment.
"What do you think?" Valkie smirked and shook the doll, enjoying the warrior helplessness.
"Are you their boss?!" Taro demanded. He clenched his teeth in pain, feeling dizzy to speak but his overwhelming need to know forced him.
"That's right! You're spot on!" Taro narrowed his eyes, spotting sarcasm on that sentence. "…is what I want to say. But I'm simply an agent." Valkie twirled around. Taro closed his eyes and took a few deep breathes. "My master is far greater and far more dangerous than me!" He then twisted Taro's waist to the side a few times.
"Arghhh!" Taro screamed.
"My son!" Ultra Mother hugged her son tightly. Her shaking hand hovered a few feet from her son's waist and cried. "Our son had a broken hip, Ken. It didn't healed properly. All these times, he walked with a fractured hip." She looked with anguish at her husband. Ultra Father cradled Taro with shaking hands.
"My boy! My poor little boy! Why didn't you told us that you were hurt badly?" He rocked his son's body, disbelieved and anguish warring on his emotion.
After that, Valkie punched Taro several times on the face and body, earning a distressed yelled from Ace.
"NO!" Ace wailed in agony. His hands covered his face. He couldn't looked at the memory any longer or he would be tempted to blast it to eternity.
"Arghhh! Stop!" Taro moaned, lying limply on Valkie's cruel hands. He gasped harshly when he felt his hip bone cracked and shuddered every time a crack sounded. Tears fell from his pain filled eyes while his fingers tried to dig somewhere to ground him to reality.
"Arghhh!" They had been shaken out of their stupor when a crater formed not too far away from them. They turned to the side and saw Seven stood gasping for breath. His eyes were glassy and a few of his tears were leaking from his eyes.
"I'm suppose to protect him." His knees buckled and he put his head on the ground while screaming out loud. Zero shuffled to his father, still shaken from the memory and put his hand on Seven's shoulder.
"Dad."
In a flash, Seven was clutching his son tightly to him as soon as he heard Zero's voice. He mumbled a few unintelligent words to where Zero would agreed meekly. He raised his head upwards and saw Ultraman was comforting both Mebius and Jack, in which the former stood catatonic while still staring at the memory and the latter gripped Ultraman's arms while crying unashamedly. He looked to the side and saw Qiv was wiping her eyes and looked forlornly at the scene. She snapped her head to look at Zero and smiled sadly when she saw he was looking at her.
Taro registered Alien Valkie was talking but the pain was too much. He just realized something was happening when he saw the woman dropped the candle holder.
"W-w-what are you doing?!" He said between his gasp for breath. He widened his eyes when he realized what she was attempting to do. "Stop!" He yelled. He gathered his remaining strength and teleported out of Valkie's hand. He appeared a few feet away from all of the dolls they managed to collect and focused his powers to teleport out with all of it despite his pain. Suddenly the room he was in exploded and he only managed to grab Kemurujin before he had been thrown out.
Taro screamed when he felt his body had been burnt badly by the fire. He fell to the ground with Kemurujin doll below him to soften his landing. He gasped when the impact jarring his broken hip and raised his head frailly to see Hikaru looked to him bemusedly.
"I'm sorry. This was the only one I could save." He let his head thumped weakly to the ground as the memory faded.
"He was hurt. Badly." Qiv whispered. The atmosphere turned sombre by the memory.
"How many times do he have to hurt before he can be happy?" Ultraman said brokenly. He punched the ground, lacking in force.
"Can we made the vision go faster?" Mebius spoke with a shaking tone. Seeing his mentor in a distress state made the young warrior wanted to rip everything that made his childhood hero hurt.
"I'm sorry but I can't." Qiv replied with a bowed head.
"Toughen up, Mebius. We need to see this. If you can't stomach what agony he had been enduring, remember that he did that to save us. Watch with pride that even after all this, he still walked with confidence befitted of a hero." Zoffy spoke gruffly. He had already walked towards where Taro was laying. He sat down beside him with his head stared straight ahead. His hand was stroking his little brother's knuckle in slow movement.
Taro awoke with a gasp. He stood still while looking around him in shock, noting that he was in a cage.
"You're awake."
He quickly turned around and saw a boy sat on a chair while tapping on a device.
"Where am I?" He asked, feeling that the boy had an ill motive towards him. "Open up!" He tried to use Ultra Nenriki but realized belatedly that all of his energy had been directed to his healing. Even though it was not a full healing but it was passable for his standard. He still needed to see a real medic to mend his hip but for now he needed to satisfy with what he managed. He shook the cage and to his dismayed, it didn't budged a bit.
"It's useless. You currently don't have the strength to get out of there." The boy spoke with a bored tone.
"Who are you? Where is this place?!" Taro yelled while shaking the cage, frustrated with the situation.
"I'm Ichijouji Tomoya." The boy spoke and lowering his device. "And this place is within my partner, Jean-Killer!" He revealed the Dark Spark he was holding to the stunned Taro.
"What? How many evil human he must encounter in a day?" Jack said in shocked.
"Can't he get one day of rest from all of this excitement?" Zero asked after he managed to get out of his father's embrace.
"It's going to turn from bad to worse soon." Zoffy winced.
