Chapter Text
It's 5 AM.
The loud sound of the alarm clock can be heard ringing its purposefully annoying tune inside the ultra's room. Zero lays in his bed, slowly waking up to its sound. He opens his eyes, which lights up as he leaves his dream—or a nightmare, as it is common for him to have.
He groans in annoyance as he starts to fully wake up, not yet ready to start the day's routine. That routine keeps him busy and sane, but it's a routine so dull that just thinking about it is already a drag.
He gets out of bed.
He eats his breakfast, if you could even call it that. His father used to tell him that he should always eat a proper meal first thing in the morning, but all he can afford now is a hot cup of powdered milk, and maybe some bread if he feels like it.
He showers, taking as little time as possible.
He gets dressed, putting his essentials in his pocket: His phone, a wallet with a bit of cash as well as his cards, and most importantly—a Pigmon necklace.
Why isn't he wearing the Pigmon necklace and just puts it on his pocket? Well, such accessory can be since as childish, that wouldn't be a good first impression for a job interview.
He rushes to commute, walking towards the train station at a quickened pace, but not fully running. He gets on the train and-
"Just great."
As he enters the vehicle, he finds that all the seats are taken. Standing on a train ride isn't that much of an issue for him, but the last time he was able to catch the train in the morning and sit down was well over 2 months ago. Well, school just started again 2 months ago, so it's not surprising why the trains are packed first thing in the morning.
He finds an empty handrail and hangs onto it, fearing that he may accidentally hurt someone with his two sharp sluggers if the ride gets bumpy.
Nothing of note happens for the next few minutes, people come and go on the train as they meet their destinations. The towering buildings outside comes and goes with a blur, only leaving the plasma spark tower as the building to always be in his view. However, after 40 minutes of standing, something happens to Zero.
"S'cuse me, excuse me..."
A young man with a guitar backpack squeezes his way through the packed train, finding an empty seat or handrail to hold on to. He just came in from the station that they had just stopped in, barely managing to get in as the train was ready to get going. His 'excuse me's are laced with the sound of exhaustion, seeing as he had to run to catch up to the train.
He fails to find something to hold onto, and as the train speeds up-
"W-woah!"
He bumps into the shorter man in front of him, his forehead bumping right onto the sharp back of the two head sluggers.
"Ow!" The man exclaims as he hisses from the pain. Zero opens his eyes wide as he felt the impact at the back of his body, jolting him awake. He turns around to see the other on the floor, eyes closed while he soothes his forehead with a hand, with everyone else looking at him as well.
"Oh, are you alright?" Seeing as he was the reason this guy got himself hurt, he takes the initiative to check on him, even though he had no fault in this directly.
"U-um yes... that was ultra-sharp..."
Zero ignores the funny way he talks and offers his other hand to help him back up.
"Thank you!" He's immediately met with thanks as the other uses his hand to support himself, getting back to his feet. He pats his bottom for a bit, clearing any dirt that might've latched onto his pants, then gives Zero a warm smile as another thanks.
He finds a vacant handrail at the other end of the rail, walking away from Zero and holding on to that instead. Zero looks away eventually, already forgetting the commotion.
A few more minutes pass, and Zero's station arrives. As the train stops, he takes his hand off the rail and gets ready to get out of the train. As he does, a shine visible at the corner of his eye catches his attention.
He looks to his right and sees the source of that shine. It was from the keychain of the man that bumped onto him earlier. The light of the sun caused the keychain to shine brightly, making it hard to see what it was. He stands still in front of the door for a minute, as the shape looks recognizable.
"Hey! We don't have all day man!"
The shout of a man around his age snaps him back to reality.
"Oh, sorry."
He gets out of the train and gives way to the other people leaving as well. He slowly walks away while still staring at the keychain. When more people started leaving, their bodies blocked off the sunlight, causing the keychain to be visible.
"Is that-"
The keychain was that of his old band—The Ultimate Band Zero.
He stops walking and stares at it for a while, not really knowing how to process it. The band itself was unpopular. They were a virtual or online band, so nobody really knew what they looked like or who they were (aside from their names). They only garnered a small number of fans, until they eventually disbanded to "pursue their own careers". That was well over 4 years ago, he was only around 23 years old, and the band only lasted 2 years.
He looks up to see the face of the person who owned the keychain. A head crest with holes on the side, and eyes that shined like diamonds. The other man saw him staring and met eyes with him, tilting his head. His eyes and color timer shined at Zero when he looked at him. The crowd leaving the train dissipated, making the sun hit the window and the keychain.
But even with that light blinding him, the light of the other's diamond-like eyes and color timer shined through, making them visible to Zero. His color timer... It was the shape of the letter "Z".
Then the train's door closed, and it started moving again. Zero watches as the other moves farther away from him, then walks away to go about his day.
Aside from that, his day turned out to be mundane as usual, following the routine he always had: Rush to any scheduled job interviews he might have, then rush to the mall where he works as a salesperson. After his shift is over, he rides the train back home to his apartment, then spends a few hours wasting his time on his phone.
As he scrolls through social media, that little interaction he had that morning comes back to his mind. Through the two years during his band era, and throughout the four years he'd lived as an ordinary person, he'd never seen anyone wearing any of their band's merch.
"Maybe I was just seeing things." "Maybe it was just given to them by another fan, and they don't actually know it was merchandise of our band." Zero can't help but deny what he saw, deprecating himself in the process. He's always been prone to doing so, considering that he sees the disbanding as his own fault.
"If they really were a fan, they would've followed our official accounts on social media..."
Suddenly, Zero remembered that he was the one managing all of the band's official social media accounts. He brings out an old, dusty notebook from a cabinet, flipping through pages to find the login information of the account.
He first logins on their Shuwatcher account, as it was the last active account that they used. He ignores the painful last tweet from four years ago, the post about the group's disbandment. He scrolls through the followers list, trying to find any account that he thinks might be connected to that person.
But he finds no one.
"It's fine, I'll just look at the other accounts."
He logins on Ultrabook, scrolls through the followers list.
Nothing.
He logins on Ultratube, scrolls through the subscribers list.
Nothing again.
He continues going through all of their social medias, losing more and more hope on finding who this person was for each account that he doesn't find a clue in.
"This is stupid."
He closes his laptop, already ready to give up. He covers his face with his hands, feeling stupid for even trying. He glances at the notebook one last time, seeing one more account that he hasn't looked at yet.
"Our Ultramail..."
Their band's email was always listed on their social media; in case a fan wants to reach out to them or for business inquiries.
"Maybe..."
He quickly opens his laptop back, opens the browser, opening the ultramail website, then enters the login information.
"FOR SECURITY REASONS, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ANSWER THREE SECURITY VERIFICATION QUESTIONS."
"Shit."
These security questions were set up by him and his team members six years ago. It'd be a miracle if he could remember what the answers were. And he's definitely not contacting his old band mates for the answers, if he could even contact them in the first place.
The questions are as follows:
"What is Zero's favorite animal?"
"Oh, that one's easy."
He types the answer as "Pigmon".
"What is the nickname Glenfire gave to Jean-Bot?"
"Oh, I actually remember this one."
He types the answer as "Grilled Chicken."
"Who was our first fan?"
"...What kind of..."
He genuinely doesn't remember any of them setting up this last question, nor does he remember the answer.
"Were they... an Ultraman?"
Zero types out the answer as "Ultraman".
"WRONG ANSWER."
"Ugh. Does this thing have a hint? Oh, there is!"
He clicks the "Hint" button next to the question box.
"They sent an email where they said our song was 'ultra-amazing!!!'"
"Ultra-amazing... How the hell am I supposed to remember-"
"U-um yes... that was ultra-sharp..."
Suddenly, Zero's mind goes to that young man he met earlier. When he was in pain, he said that his slugger was "ultra-sharp".
"Could he...?"
Zero types out "Ultraman” but doesn't press enter.
"Shit, I don't know his name..."
Zero stares at the screen for a while, watching the typing cursor blink as it waits for Zero's next input. He tries to recall everything he knows about that person from earlier this morning for any clue of his name. Be it in his bag, his other keychains, his clothes, his physical features...
"Physical features..."
Then suddenly, Zero's eyes opened wide, remembering a detail he saw from that person. A detail he couldn't miss.
His color timer.
Zero types out the answer as-
"Ultraman Z"
Zero holds his breath, then presses enter. He watches the buffer circle spin as it sends the answers to the website. He waits anxiously until...
"LOGGED IN SUCCESSFULLY."
Zero let out a sigh of relief. He was so focused on cracking the code that he didn't realize that he had already found out the name of the person that he saw today. He looks at the inbox of their email and sees one last email (that isn't spam).
It was sent four years ago on the day of the announcement of their disbandment. It was sent by someone named "Ultraman Z"
The subject was:
"Thank you for everything, Ultimate Band Zero... Master Zero!"