Chapter 13

"Raito? Where are you going?" Narumi's voice halted his movement. He turned away to face her.

"I'm going to meet the person from yesterday. Why?" He arched one eyebrow in question. He furrowed his brow when he saw she bit her lips in indecision.

"I'm going with you." He looked shocked for a second before he shrugged his shoulder.

"Suit yourself." He slowed down his pace to match his companion. He glanced at her furtively. She had a hard glint on her eyes. He frowned in suspicion.

'There's something fishy about this situation. But what?' He thought contemplatively.

Along the way, Raito kept glancing towards Narumi while furrowing his brow. She knew he was thinking about her peculiar behavior. There were a few times he wanted to ask her but then he snapped his mouth shut and kept his silence. The silence was awkward. Both of them tried to think of something to say but reluctance to be the one who's going to break the silence first. At last, both of them gave up and just kept their thought to themselves.

"He's here." Dan suddenly said. He nudged his brothers and tilted his head sideways before he choked. Goh frowned at the reaction and took a glance at their approaching brother. He did a double take after he saw the reason why his brother was so shocked.

"Taro?" He stuttered in response. He knew he was ogling his brother with wide eyed expression when he saw Taro's steps faltered and uncertainties painted his feature. He shook himself when he heard Hokuto snickering from the background.

"Wow. Who knows our otouto have hook himself with a human?" Hokuto tried to contain his laughter. Indeed, the reason they were so shocked when they saw a human female possessively hooked her arm with Taro. He cheered inwardly while appearing calm and collected outside.

"That's enough. Here they come." Hayata scolded lightly at his brothers. He's the only one who looked composed. He turned to the pair and plastered a smile. He got up and his brothers followed his lead.

"Hello Raito. We meet again." He shook his hand. Raito gave Hayata and Dan a small smile. He frowned when his gaze strayed to Goh and Hokuto. "They are my brothers that I told you about. This is Seiji Hokuto," Hokuto waved at Raito. "…and this is Hideki Goh." Goh smiled and nodded at him.

"Pleasure to meet you. My name is Tohsaka Raito." Raito greeted and shook their hands. Automatically, he felt a jolt, the same one he felt when touching Hayata and Dan yesterday. He jumped when he felt someone touched his shoulder lightly, and saw Narumi looked at him worriedly. He smiled to indicate that he's fine. The others looked intently at his reaction and stored the information to be pondered later.

"And who is your friend here?" Hokuto suddenly asked mischievously. They saw Raito blinked bemusedly for a while before he widened his eyes.

"Oh, yes! This is Kousuke Narumi." Raito spoke sheepishly. Narumi mock glared at him.

"Your fiancée. Don't forget that." She pouted. The others gasped in surprised.

"Your fiancée?!" Goh blurted. He winced when Hayata jabbed his side roughly.

"Yeah. Is that a problem?" Raito narrowed his eyes at them.

"No, sorry. You didn't told us that you are in a relationship yesterday. We thought that you are single." Dan tried to salvage the situation. He exhaled gratefully when Raito accepted his excuse albeit suspiciously.

"Hey, why don't we all sit down?" Hokuto suddenly spoke to break the tensed atmosphere.

"Ah, yes. Please sit down both of you." Hayata led them to one of the secluded bench to sit down. He tapped his fingers on his knee in distracted manner while thinking on how to breach the topic of Ultra Warriors with a human nearby.

"Ahem." Raito cleared his throat impatiently when he saw no one wanted to speak first. He turned his attention towards Hayata when he deduced that he was the leader of their little group. Hayata raised his head and smiled.

"Sorry. Lost in thought."

"So? Why do you want to see me here?" Raito ignored his apology and came straight to the point. The others were silent and let Hayata do the talking. Meanwhile, Hayata looked undecided for a while before he sighed.

"Have you ever heard about Ultraman?"

Raito looked startled when the question came out of the blue. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

"I'm sorry?"

"Ultraman. Have you ever heard about it?" Hayata asked almost exasperatedly.

"Uhh, yes. But what it's got to do with the reason you want to meet me?" Raito asked, bemused.

"It's the sole reason we want to meet you, actually. We are Ultramen. More specifically, Ultra Warriors from the Nebula M78, the Land of Light." Narumi gasped and squeezed Raito's hand while her fiancée gaped at the four of them.

"This is a joke, right?"

"I'm afraid not." Hayata answered Raito solemnly.

"You alright, kid?" Dan asked when he saw Raito looked speechless.

"What do you expect after you dropped that bombshell out of the sudden?" Raito retorted after he got his tongue back. He took a deep breath to still his thundering heart.

"Okay, you are Ultramen. Who are you exactly?" He asked with a curious tone.

"I am Ultraman, the first original Ultramen who came to defend Earth once. This is Ultra Seven, Ultraman Jack and Ultraman Ace." Hayata introduced every one of them to Raito. They smiled and waved at him when their name had been called.

"Why are you telling me this?" Raito asked after a while.

"Before I tell you why, I must tell you a story first." He waited for Raito to nod before he continued. "There are 6 Ultra Brothers. Ultra Brothers are a group of warriors who had came to defend Earth as their protector. The first one to come is me, Ultraman. Then Seven, Jack and Ace. Our commander, Ultraman Zoffy is one of the Ultra Brothers too although he only came when one of us in trouble. The last one is our otouto, Ultraman Taro."

There was a sharp pain in Raito's mind when he heard that name. He winced and massaged his temple warily. 'Taro. Who are you actually?'

"Raito? What happened? Are you alright?" Narumi put her hand on his shoulder worriedly. He gave a soft smile to his fiancée before he turned to the self-proclaimed warriors from the outer space.

"Alright. And why are you here?" He questioned them. They looked at each other before bowed their heads in sadness.

"We're looking for our lost brother, Taro." Goh told both of them.

"What happened to him?" Narumi asked, hesitant.

"He was attacked by an alien and crash landed here. We believe that he's in this area." Hokuto continued, staring at them intently. Raito gulped.

"So, you need our help to find him?" He asked.

"No." Both of their eyes turned towards Dan. "We believe, no, we're very sure that you're Taro, Raito."

Raito leapt from his seat and stared at them in disbelieved. Narumi quickly followed and tightened her grip on his hand.

"Do you purposely said that my fiancée, the one that I had known for a very long time is your brother? You're insane." She scoffed at them to conceal her shock. He felt her shaking hand on him but he didn't commented on it. "We're out of here." She pulled him along. He followed her lead silently, still in shock.

"Taro!" Hayata suddenly yelled. She turned around and narrowed her eyes in anger.

"He's not Taro!" She's all but shrieked. He ignored her and stared him dead in the eyes. Raito was mesmerized and stared back at him.

"You feel that something's wrong, right? You are Taro, there's no doubt about it. Please remember. Remember your life. If not for our sake, then remember for the sake of your parents!" Hayata raised his voice. On cued, the others got up. They simultaneously hold their hands out and lights burst out from their clenched hands. Raito squinted his eyes and saw a few symbols floating in the air, just a few centimeters from their hands.

"You're crazy. Let's go Raito." Narumi tugged his hand harshly. He just followed without thinking but not before he cast a final gaze towards the four warriors. He didn't knew why but he felt sadness welled up on his chest at the pain radiating from the elderly men.

"What do you think, nii-san?" Hokuto asked his brothers after the retreating figures lost from their sight.

"Taro lost his memories. Probably his head had collided with the ground with so much force that made him forgot everything. But that woman, Narumi. She lied to us." Dan stated.

"Yes. But why do you think so?" Goh crossed his hands over his chest and furrowed his brows in deep thought.

"Whatever the reason is, only she knows about it. We can do nothing but continue to watch them from afar." Dan sighed.

"I just hope that Taro can regain his memories faster. Bad times are approaching." Hokuto shuddered and kept his gaze locked at the sky for a moment.

"I sense that we're going to need Taro's power sooner than later." Hayata mused aloud.