Chapter Seven: Big Bad Tengu Terror

‘Ganbatte’ was often translated into other languages as ‘do your best!’ This missed a fair bit of cultural context. It was more an exultation to encourage the object of these cheers to fulfil, through their own effort and perseverance, the societal expectations placed upon them in the role they were assigned.

As the tengu loomed over the Smalt Ranger, viciously slapping Yuto with razor-sharp wings, the Mahourangers learned that their cheers had failed to motivate their comrade. All the ganbatte in the world would not be able to encourage their partner to fulfil the societal expectations placed on him in this role.

“Gah! He’s too strong!” sparks flew from Yuto’s uniform as the tengu struck him again. “Get him off!”

“Uh… back him up!” Ren said.

A sea of enemies lurched to meet the team. The liquid-metal make of these creatures provided an illusion of perpetual motion as they flopped about. Ren performed a stylish spin with his red-colored bat.

“Rangers… get ‘em?” he said.

The four mahourangers not currently being waylaid by a giant humanoid bird ran forth, assorted melee weapons in hand. Sparks flew. Monsters flew away and splattered. Rangers also flew away and writhed about in response to sledgehammer body blows from the living weapons.

“Gah! They’re so slippery!” Miyu said.

At least the blunt damage of the bat and tonfa proved more effective than their compatriots’ weapons. It was certainly easier to beat a puddle of semi-cohesive liquid than it was to slice or stab that same puddle. Sakura’s arrows wouldn’t even embed themselves into these things!

Still, these blob-mooks kept coming.

“Ranger Smalt is in danger!” the castellan warned.

There’s got to be a better way, Ren thought.

Another creature leaped into Ren’s way. He stared down the creature, looking for a weak point. A shortcut, anything.

That’s when he saw it: a crest or seal right near the creature’s collar. A bit like a dog collar, or a brace keeping the thing’s head on? No matter. Ren threw the bat to the ground, then delivered a punch right to this creature’s collarbone. Immediately, the creature discombobulated and disintegrated into a billion little globules. It did not reform.

“A weak point!” he declared. “Everyone, punch their throats.”

Saying it like that made it sound like a simple matter of fact. But one by one, the rangers punched. One by one, the assembled piles of goop burst. A quick ‘death’ if that truly applied to sentient fluid. No flurry of sparks, just utter disintegration.

“Hurry up!” Yuto begged.

The squad rushed to relieve their blue-colored partner from the feathered menace.

“Your opponent is me!” Haruko said, leaping through the air with an acrobatic kick.

His mighty boot whiffed as the tengu flapped away.

“Hehe. Another one? I happen to eat Lifestream Regulators for breakfast!” taunted the tengu.

The other rangers ran to Yuto. His smalt-colored uniform sparked. That tengu’s feathers had sliced right through his armor.

“Retrieving!” the castellan announced.

Yuto disappeared in a smalt-colored flash.

“Sending Ranger Smalt to the Power Healing Pod! He’ll be back up and walking by morning.”

The ground was slightly chilly where Yuto had been lying mere moments before. The spear and shield had been warped away as well. Pity, as Ren was thinking of dual-wielding.

“Why is everything a ‘Power’ such and such?” Ren asked.

Alas, there was no time for further debate. The tengu swooped down, swiping in mid-air with its wings.

“Oh-ho! It looks like I have the high ground!” The tengu flew to a stop between the wooden posts of a tori gate.

The four rangers left standing grouped together. An uneasy standoff ensued.

“What’s a Schatterritter and how does it… affect the timestreams? Or whatever?”

The bird-yokai flipped around to land atop the gate. “Hehe. Hoho. Corrupting the leylines I go! It just kind of happens wherever I happen to be. But at a nexus point like this, why, history just sort of unravels. How fun!”

Well, that didn’t sound good. Ren’s first instinct was to regroup, let Yuto heal, and come back with a full team. Certainly wasn’t a problem that they could leave roaming free.

“Okay. Strictly in team coms,” Ren began. He could only assume the tengu could not hear them. “How do we ground it?”

“Leave it to me!” Sakura said.

Ren nodded. “I hear you. Don’t go telegraphing it too much, though. Let the rest of us distract him!”

There was another pause as the squad caught its breath. Then, Haruto pointed at their corvid-esque foe.

“Face me!” he said.

“Oh-ho. Back for more?” the beast squawked menacingly. “Your feet have limited range, my yellow-colored nemesis!”

“It’s Topaz!” Haruto said, already winding up for a flying kick.

Haruto sailed through the air, his angle of attack well below the tengu’s perch. Their foe flew up, then provided a flying kick to his own that bounced Haruto clear off the tori gate.

“Hiya!” Miyu said, charging forth with twin tonfa bared.

The Snapdragon Ranger charged forth. She would not be avenging her cousin on this day, as the flying monster grabbed her in its talons and then kicked her through the gate as well.

“Isn’t that just another variant of yellow? How do you tell those last two apart?” the tengu let out a gruff ravenlike chuckle.

Ren charged with his bat. He swung, hitting nothing but air. Then he jumped and swung again. The monster’s clawlike feet parried the bat effortlessly. With a whoosh, the tengu body-slammed this Kermes Ranger into the ground.

“This is almost too easy,” cried the tengu. “Did you all do any squad training? At all?”

Ren coughed. He felt the perspiration fogging up the helmet.

“Actually, no,” he managed. “We didn’t get to that part.”

“Oh, that really is unfortunate.” The tengu’s beak wasn’t terribly flexible, but it was open into something approaching a cocky smile. “Too bad for you. What color is that? Red? It’s pretty dark out.”

“Kermes, actually,” Ren said, then: “Hurry it up!”

“Hurry wha—” the Tengu was cut short as an arrow embedded itself deep in its arm. All at once, the Tengu was

“R-right in the elbow socket!” the raven cried.

The squad of four regrouped.

The tengu hovered a mere meter above the ground and was unable to rise higher. “Oh, my flying arm! My days flying in the Umbral Court’s multiversal triathlon, ruined. Ruined!”

“He’s staggered,” Sakura said, knocking another arrow.

“Rangers… let’s get him all at once this time!” Ren declared.

The group charged as Sakura let loose another arrow targeting their foe’s other elbow.