Chapter Two: Henshin

“Ghost! A ghost!” Yuto pointed wildly at the armored figure that had just waltzed into their midst.

Wasting no time, Haruto surged forward. He delivered a swift kick to the creature’s helm. The ‘head’ flew off the body, crashing into the walls with a dull clang.

Blue, heatless flame erupted from the now-empty neck hole. While Haruto reeled back and the others screamed incomprehensibly, Ren struggled back to his feet. Its helm had a sunken-in face displayed. It looked a bit like a suit of old samurai parade armor, but entirely made of sleek futuristic metal and moving on its own.

“It’s… some kind of robot!” he said.

“A robot? There’s ghostly energy fuming out of it!” Yuto said.

“Greetings, conscripts,” a voice came from deep within the suit of walking armor, not the helmet that was rolling ever-so-slightly on the floor.

“It can still talk?!” Miyu said, partially in wonder but equally in terror.

The walking armor waddled over to its helmet, knelt awkwardly at a right angle to pick it up, and then placed the helm back on its head. Flame spurted out, mostly contained in the sealed-up suit.

“You have been chosen,” the armor said again. “I am the castellan of the Temporal Fortress of Regulation. Have you uncovered your power pendants?

“Kafstelle-an?” Haruko said.

“I think it’s English,” Ren said.

“Cast-stell-lan,” Yuto said.

Now that it was clear at least they weren’t about to be murdered or possessed by a ghost, they took turns bouncing the name around on their tongues.

“Maybe if Becca-kun were here, she could pronounce it,” Yuto said.

“You just want to gawk at the hot foreigner,” Miyu said with an annoyed look on her face.

Ignoring—or oblivious to—this bickering, their ghostly host began his recruitment spiel:

“For a thousand generations, the Temporal Fortress has protected the myriad time-streams from the nefarious forces of the Schattenritter. Countless world-spheres have had their leylines obliterated, unraveling history in real time! The Vorreiter may already be active in your world even now, aiding in the history dispersion of your metropolitan area.”

“We have no idea what any of that means!” the students said in unison.

The castellan threw its hands up into the air. “Ay! Follow me. Follow me!”

It clanked towards the wall. A hallway apparated out of thin air as it walked.

“What…” Ren said, not believing his eyes.

“This fortress shall edit itself to conform to your needs,” explained the castellan.

They were currently stuck in a dead-end chamber. The group had no real option but to follow this spectral suit.

“What happened to our old schoolhouse?” Sakura asked.

“This fortress has been Instanced with your disused educational facility,” explained the armor as it walked.

“Instanced,” Ren repeated. Their ghostly host had said that word before…

“Aye! When you and only you enter this domicile, the Temporal Fortress will appear in its stead. It will not work with those who are not chosen, so don’t go trying to show your friends! Now, do you have your Mahoucoin power pendant?”

The group glanced about, looking at themselves.

“Never heard of one,” Ren answered for them.

Azure flame spurted out of the helmet’s eye sockets. “The mauve coin seems to have fallen within this dwelling. Hopefully, it is not too late to partially reverse Instanceization!”

The hallway continued to create itself as they walked. They walked through another archway, and suddenly, the school science room reconstructed itself. A black starfield awaited outside the windows.

“Where’d the new schoolhouse go?!” Miyu asked.

“You will be returned to familiar space-time when you exit the fortress,” said the castellan. “The mauve coin. MahouRanger Mauve, you must find it!”

It wasn’t hard to spot. A purplish glow emanated from underneath an old, disused desk. Haruko made a beeline for this table, then crawled under it.

“Is this it?” she asked.

Haruko presented a token, looking suspiciously like a fifty-yen coin. It reflected off their dim phone flashlights with a slight purple sheen, the same as the pulsing glow that had led them here.

“Upon transformation, this token will be imbedded in your six-sided Power Amulet for safekeeping,” the castellan said as if they knew what that meant.

“Hey, ghost armor guy.” Ren pointed at senior Haruko. “She your Mauve Mahou-whatever? Should she pass it to another one of ours?”

Admittedly, this almost didn’t seem real. It surely affected how flippantly Ren took all this in stride. Maybe there was a gas leak? The abandoned schoolhouse was old, the pipes were leaky. They could all be hallucinating. Perhaps it was all a particularly weird dream? He’d wake up, having already ridden his bike home and fallen right asleep.

“The MahouRanger Mauve’s position is predestined,” said the castellan. “Only the Mauve Ranger would find the Power Token!”

Ren thought about it—Haruko had spied the glow from the old schoolhouse same time as he did.

“What does it… do?” Haruko asked, tossing it around, eyes transfixed.

“Another two of those will get you a drink from the school vending machines,” Yuto said.

The warm purple glow was tempered as Sakura held the coin. It illuminated her arm and face in the low light.

“Ranger candidates must…” the castellan hunched over briefly as if it had deactivated. Then, he stood up straight again and continued as if nothing was wrong. “Say the transformation code phrase!”

There was a pause as the group waited for the phrase to be revealed.

“You shall know of it instinctually!” said the castellan.

Sakura closed her eyes, holding the coin between three fingers. Her lips quivered as if a phrase was at the tip of her tongue.

“H-Hold on just a moment,” Yuto stammered. “Don’t say the phrase! We don’t know if that’ll enter you into some kind of binding, unfair, magical contract, or summon forth a soul-sucking monster. That’s always what happens in these kinds of movies! How about we just backtrack until we find our way back to the front doo—”

“Henshin,” Sakura declared.

+++

Stronger than before, a mauve glow filled the room. It surrounded Sakura until only her face was visible. While bright, it did not radiate any heat. Sheer luminosity kept the rest of the go-home club at bay.

“S-sakura!” Yuto and Miyu yelled.

The light seemed to lift their upperclassman into the air. The rough approximation of a Showa-era Japanese science classroom had not come with accompanying lab equipment. If it had, the surprising spectral force of this purple light would have dashed it all against the floor.

It felt like a good two minutes had passed, then the glow faded.

Sakura was still there. Everything below the neckline, however, was covered in a light, purple-colored suit. It was form-fitting aside from two bulbous shoulder pads.

“Mahou Mauve, transformed!” Sakura exclaimed as she landed back on the floor with catlike tread.

“Senpai… you’re like some kind of magical girl!” Miyu squealed.

“If magical girls came armored for war,” Haruko said. “Is this some kind of live action roleplay?”

“I… I don’t know why I said that!” Sakura buried her head in her hands. “It just came to me automatically. Oh, everyone’s going to think I’m a Chuuni!”

Yuto nodded, mouth agape. “It’s like it’s straight out of a Tokusatsu!”

“The material will be stronger than your Earth-steel,” claimed the castellan. “Wear this, and no denizen of the Umbral Court shall be able to overcome you. Find your Power Tokens and become MahouRangers, oh chosen ones!”