ULTRA MOTHER

PRANG!

I rushed to our living room to see what was that noise. In front of me, a crystal ball had broken, Taro's toy from his childhood. I knelt down and picked up the pieces. I didn't knew why but suddenly I had a bad feeling about it. I tried to contact Taro but no one's answering.

I turned around when I heard the door to the quarters had been opened from the outside. I saw Ken's solemn face looked at me then to the broken crystal ball in my hand. He walked slowly and took his place beside me.

"What happened?" he asked me.

"This crystal ball had been broken. What a waste. I really love it," I frowned when I didn't heard any comment from Ken. I turned around to face him but he's just bowed his head. I put my hand on his cheek and looked at him lovingly. He seemed to stare anyway but my eyes. I instantaneously knew this reaction. He only did this when he's anxious...or guilty.

"What's the problem? You know you can share with me, right?," I coaxed him. He just exhaled the breath that he seemed to be holding on. He took my hand and rubbed it soothingly.

"I have a bad news about Taro. He's...he's dead," my hands fell limply to my side. I tried to laugh at his explanation.

"You're joking, right? I know you want to shock me. Actually Taro is hiding behind that door, ready to burst into it with his goofy smile, right?," Ken kept his mouth shut. I got up and made my way to the door but Ken held my wrist tightly. I slumped weakly to the floor. Luckily, Ken was there to catch me.

"No, no, no. You're lying," I wailed.

"I'm sorry. But this is true. His corpse had been sent back to the morgue. Our sons are there to guard his corpse. You know how they tend to protect Taro even he's died," Ken tried to make me laughed but his effort was fruitless. I'm already in my own world and his word was an echo to my mind. I didn't knew what he was saying next but suddenly I had been pulled upward to my feet. He wrapped his hand on my shoulder. Numbly, I followed him as he guided me towards the morgue.

Along the way, I tried to remember everything about Taro. His smile, his jovial feature and his mischievous grin. I choked on a tearless sob. Ken rubbed my shoulder soothingly. I still remembered how he complained to me about the lacked of time Ken spent with him. Taro rant and rant all day. I just smiled and giggled at his funny expression. After some time, he quieted down because he knew that all of his ranting was useless. I told Ken about it and guiltily, he agreed to take a leave just to spent a day with Taro. Lucky for us, he took a day off on Taro's birthday.

I smiled at the memory of Taro's jumping and dancing happily when he heard about the news. He smiled and thanks us a lot for our sacrificed for him. I still hung the photo that we snapped together. I inhaled and exhaled deeply to calm my raging emotion. I needed to keep my emotion in check. For my other sons and for Ken.

I glanced towards Ken and saw him walking stiffly with a cold expression on his face. I knew that right now I needed to be strong and lend some of my strength to him. I took his hand on mine and tightened my grip around his. Startled, he looked down towards me. I just gave him a small smile and he smile back. 'Be strong!' I chastised to myself.

'Take care of Father. He's our pillar. Love you, Mother'

I gasped. I didn't knew if the voice was reality or fantasy. But I'm not sure why I felt relieved to hear that voice. I didn't care if the others thought I was insane as long as I could heard it.

We're almost to the morgue. I inhaled deeply to prepare myself for what I would be facing next. Together, we entered the morgue. My eyes only set on the body that had been laying on the berth although three of my sons were there, murmuring softly between them. I choked.

"My son...," Ken tightened his grip on me when he saw that I was about to fall down. We made our way to his corpse.

"Father, Mother," our sons greeted us with a solemn face. They backed away to give us some privacy. The sight of his corpse nearly made me hysterics. There were gashes and burned along his body. If he was not died, surely I could patched him right away. And if not for the fact that this was his corpse with no spirit at all, I would be assuming that he was deeply sleeping.

"Where's Ace?," Ken broke my musing. I looked up to them expectantly. They glanced among themselves with a shocked expression painted on their face. Before any of them had time to respond, an anguish cried made us turned around to see the subject of our conversation appeared in front of the door.

"Otouto!," he cried.

The next chapter will be from Ultraman Ace POV.