Chapter Twelve: Duo Duels During Impending Dusk

“—shin!” Ren continued even as his head flew straight through a paper door.

The sentai suit formed around him even as he was thrown through the door. A sheen or wave from his neck down to his toes overwrote his school uniform, even underneath the death grip of this blue-tinted bruiser. While the new outfit was as thin as plain clothes, Ren could physically sense it hardening to weather the incoming body blow.

The house he’d just been thrown through had been abandoned for years. The foundations were still standing, but the interior was a rotting shell of a former domicile. Ren kept flying through a second wall even after he was smashed into the ground and released from the suplex.

Everything was protected, aside from his face. Unfortunately, suplexes were performed face-first, leaving Ren reeling and unable to tell up from down.

“Uhhhh. Helmet. Warp the helmet in!” he said into the air.

The castellan must have heard him. While there was no response, Ren felt a sudden change in air pressure, then the extra weight took hold. Only then did the beak-like mahouranger helmet appear as if from nowhere. Ren hastily put it on. Only then was his body fully protected.

Two burly figures stood silhouetted in the now-gaping hole in the front of the house. That mountainous red figure was still there. But he was joined by a slender, yet no less muscular, companion, this one tinted blue.

“You have been suplexed by Blue Oni!” announced the monster.

As a mild-mannered, unassuming Japanese teenager, Ren was well-versed in the concept of oni. Giant mountain trolls who eat travelers. A shrine two towns over had oni statues on its roof, similar to gargoyles at Notre Dame. They were supposed to be able to shapeshift. Certainly, it would be impossible to sneak around town as a three-meter-tall horned beast.

Both oni wore tiger pelts that were conveniently color-coded with a matching red and blue tint, respectively. The blue oni had a cracked horn on the opposite side from the red oni’s.

Okay, thematic opposites. Ren adopted a defensive stance and sized up the twin oni. Big Red should be more impulsive. Blue ought to have self-sacrificial tendencies and a more analytical thought process. This wasn’t important right now, as Ren was in no way equipped to take on either oni solo.

“Bat. Send in the bat!” Ren said.

The monsters shouldn’t be able to hear him through suit-only comms. Ren felt the change in air pressure as his signature weapon began to warp in. He barely had time to swing as the red oni rushed him, body-slamming him through the home’s back wall.

+++

The red oni kept going, through the wall, through a fence, then through the back wall of another home before changing course to avoid a stovetop and instead smashing through a side wall into another narrow alley. Ren was left on the ground amidst trash bins and refuse.

Ugh, it feels like I got hit by a truck, Ren thought.

Rather than awaken in a magical new world, however, Ren looked up to see the fanged grin of the red oni.

“On your feet and fight, red ranger!” yelled the oni.

“It’s Kermes!” Ren began to protest.

Rather than respond, the red oni reached down and grabbed Ren by the helmet. The massive oni-claw dwarfed Ren’s entire head, and the beast was strong enough to lift Ren off the ground. While Ren swatted ineffectively at the monster with his bat, the oni seldom seemed to notice. He launched Ren clear over the next house and out into an empty street.

They were heading back toward the city center. It was only a matter of time before they encountered witnesses. That could cause a scene! There was little he could do to keep the pair of oni at bay all by himself. He needed the other rangers.

No sooner did Ren think this than did a cry come out from a roof one building over.

“Stop right there!”

Ren had never seen the teleportation effect of a ranger warping in from an outside perspective. Now a yellow sheen like television static cropped up atop the empty home. A mahouranger with twin swords appeared out of this static, struck a pose, then leaped down to ground level. This ranger threw themselves between Ren and the red oni.

“Miyu!” Ren said, struggling to get to his feet.

This yellow ranger looked back at Ren, body language harsh.

“Do I look like I have boobs? This is Ranger Topaz!”

“Oh.” Ren looked his companion up and down.

Indeed, this was Haruto. He should have known by the swords!

“Sorry, they’re both a hue of yellow!” Ren bowed slightly.

“Yes, yes, Snapdragon and Topaz look too similar,” Haruto said. “Topaz comes in many colors. Couldn’t my uniform have been more of a white-ish hue?”

“Enough!!!” The red oni stomped on the ground. “Quit yer yappin’.”

“More sentai rangers just means more food for our cook pots!” said the blue oni.

“Why are they talking in Kansai regional accent?!” Haruto asked.

Ren shrugged as if to say ‘beats me.’

“We ain’t got time for this,” the blue oni said. “Grab the yellow one, brother. I’m starving!”

The two rangers both took three steps back. Being eaten would be a most embarrassing fate indeed.

“But I want the red one!” yelled the red oni. “It only makes sense that I eat the red one!”

The pair of oni turned towards each other, then butted heads.

“Raaaah!” yelled the twins, horns clashing.

Haruto and Ren looked to each other. Should they try to sneak away? Get a surprise hit in? For the moment, these oni appeared more interested in killing each other.

“You eat the yellow one. I’ll let you have any blue ones we see too!” the red oni grappled with its twin.

Another cobalt static-y pillar appeared at the edge of a nearby alley. Ranger Topaz and Ranger Kermes stayed back and let it happen. A metallic blue riot-style shield materialized out of the aether, ramming into the blue oni from behind.

“Aha! Here’s one!” said the blue oni. “You take the red, I’ll take this one!”

The blue oni was pushed back away from the red oni, who looked upon the scene with a dumbfounded look.

Ren and Haruto moved quickly to back up Yuto.

“C’mere, Azure Ranger!” said the blue oni.

“Actually, it’s smalt!” said Yuto and Ren simultaneously.

Ren delivered a baseball bat swing to their foe’s kneecap. The oni howled.

By now, the Snapdragon ranger and the Mauve ranger had teleported onto the nearest roof. Sakura let loose some arrows—one of which hit Ren’s shoulder, to no effect. Ren and Yuto beat the blue oni back until it stumbled back towards its brother. The street was perfectly aligned to silhouette the sentai squad in the glare of the sun setting over the Sea of Japan, while the oni were frame by the eastern mountains. 

“The real fight starts now,” the Kermes Ranger said, twirling his bat around with a flourish.