Chapter Thirteen: Sudden Synchronized Strikes

Two versus five. Surely, we’ve got this, Ren thought. No matter how burly the oni or how strong their musculature, surely sheer numbers would win the day.

“More mahourangers. That means more snacks for both of us,” said the red oni.

“Take out the weakest one, and don’t get surrounded,” said the blue oni.

The mahourangers had at least a half-week of training under their belt now. All of it was focused on teambuilding. They could do team attacks, perform synchronized maneuvers, back each other up.

Surely, they had this in the bag.

A forgotten sushi wrapper wafted between the two sides on the faintest of breezes. Eerie calm fell over the abandoned neighborhood.

“Mahourangers…” Ren paused for effect. “… get ‘em!”

The five rangers rushed headfirst at the pair of oni. Red Oni picked a dilapidated stop sign right out of the ground to use as a club. Ranger Smalt led the charge against Blue Oni while Ren, of course, beelined for the red one. It just made sense, perhaps a move done on instinct. Yuto pulled off a leaping strike, and his spear imbedded itself in Blue Oni’s naturally armored, scale-covered forearm.

The Snapdragon Ranger performed a sliding strike to Red Oni’s shin with her tonfa. She then spun around and beat him against the back and then again against the chest. Sparks flew with each strike, a phenomenon the squad was well-versed in by now. The oni bared its teeth in a wide, fanged grin, then sent the Snapdragon Ranger careening down the street with a single mighty kick.

“Ho Ho Ho. Too easy!” said the red oni.

“Miyu!” Ren called back to where the Snapdragon Ranger was still sliding along the concrete street. He held his bat up, read to strike the oni.

Red Oni swatted the bat away mid-strike! It then grabbed Ren in both hands and lifted him clear off the ground.

“H-hey!” Ren said.

The oni’s mouth opened wide, revealing multiple layers of razor-sharp fangs. It lifted Ren up, and then clamped its jaw down upon the Kermes Ranger’s helmet.

“It’s trying to eat me!” Ren cried.

Sparks flew within Ren’s helmet now. He certainly couldn’t let one of these sparks get into his eyes. Could the healing pod even repair that? He closed his eyes on instinct as a blood-red fang smashed through the visor.

“Your Power Helmet’s structural integrity has been compromised!” chirped the castellan, over comms.

“I noticed!” Ren said.

A whiff-whiff of arrows bouncing off the oni’s hide could be heard even with Ren’s face halfway down the beast’s gullet. Sakura was shooting at the creature, to no effect.

The oni said something, inaudible given that its mouth was full. Then, it chucked the Kermes Ranger clear up into the sky.

Light streamed into the hole that was now pierced right through Ren’s helmet. He was flying vertically upwards. Gravity soon won out, and his progress slowed.

He could see the city center from here. A few tall buildings—the Tenshigurobu hospital, for instance—still stood as Ren knew them his whole life. Just as soon as his vision focused upon this more populated district, he began to fall.

Oh, don’t tell me he’s about to kick me, Ren thought as he plummeted towards the ground.

Red Oni kicked him, right in mid-air. Ren flew off perpendicular to his previous trajectory and landed with a crunch at an intersection, beside the Snapdragon Ranger.

“Ugh.” Air drained from Ren’s lungs. Miyu writhed about at his side, unable to rise to her feet.

+++

They did not, in fact, have it in the bag.

One by one, each ranger flew through the air and into a pile on the street. Ranger Smalt fell last, his shield giving him a bit more resilience than most.

“All the squad tactics in the world aren’t going to matter if these things can waylay us with a single blow!” Haruto grumbled.

“Castellan. We need some kind of heavy weaponry!” Ren said.

The hole in Ren’s helmet distorted the incoming comms.

“Aye. Assemble to man the Mahou-powered Power Cannon!”

This was the first time anyone in the squad had heard of a Mahou-powered Power Cannon. Still, they got up to their feet and struck a pose. With Ren in the center, Miyu and Yuto got to one side while Haruto and Sakura got to the other. That familiar tugging or pulling motion of gravity gone askew accompanied a low-level static sheen. A massive artillery piece warped in, with Ren entirely encompassed by a ‘gunner’s seat’. All sorts of batteries and coils, sparking with mahou-electric energy, adorned the front-end. The whole thing was lopsided with the two seniors on the right end. Still, they had the twin oni dead in their sights.

“Alright, targeting these onis!” Ren yelled.

Come to think of it, the plural of onis should just be ‘oni,’ shouldn’t it? Ren shrugged this thought aside and gunned twin triggers.

Two spiraling magical bolt-orbs spun about as they flew down the street. The intertwined helix split off, each orb striking one oni. Windows shattered against the shockwave. Smoke filled the street, out of which a lone silhouette appeared.

“B-rother!” the blue-hued oni held a hand up, then collapsed backwards.

Cyan blood trickled out of Blue Oni’s mouth. Even their blood was color-coded!

Sparks, then a massive mushroom cloud of an explosion, filled the alley street. A warm thermal wave off the blast invaded Ren’s compromised helmet. Walls and gates fell over as the back façade of the nearest abandoned house collapsed.

“We got him!” Yuto declared.

“Someone will have heard that,” Miyu added.

Ren nodded. He put two fingers to his helmet’s ‘ear’.

“Hey, castellan, get me out of this thing,” Ren said, tugging at the metal brace he was stuck inside.

A thundering rumble came from the explosion and smoke. Ren tried to open the Power Cannon’s gunner seat, to no avail.

Again, the thunder grew louder, then repeated with increasing speed. A red streak shook the alley walls as it rushed the cannon in a shoulder charge like a linebacker from that one American sport. The device crumbled, the other rangers diving out of the way, while Ren was stuck and helpless!

“Raaah!” Red Oni grabbed Ren right out of the gunner’s seat and used the Kermes Ranger as a battering ram to break through one house after another.

“H-how are you still alive?” Ren stammered between blows. “We hit you both dead-on. Why’d your brother go down?”

The oni didn’t seem angry—well, not angrier than usual—over the explosion of his brother.

“We exist to serve the Kagehime,” said Red Oni. “I can get another brother made, no problem. It’ll be a gift for delivering her majesty this universe!”

Ren beat on the last oni standing’s shoulder ineffectually. A great leap burst through the ceiling of a house at the edge of the neighborhood, such that the oni and Ren were now on the roof. The oni held Ren up by the hole in his helmet. A razor-sharp nail reached dangerously close to Ren’s eye.

The Kermes Ranger focused intently on his bat, which he’d dropped long ago by now. It teleported into his left hand. With more focus, the bat became aglow with magical power.

“Ranger! Use Power Incantations to increase your weapon’s power!” urged the castellan.

“Power Incantations? Like what?”

There was a pause as the oni headbutted Ren, causing the helmet-mounted comms to stutter.

“Just say whatever comes naturally!”

“Mahou… power… bash! Aaaaah!” Ren brought the bat down on the oni’s head. The beast appeared unfazed. No, it wasn’t unfazed; it was angry!

“Gaaah!” said the Oni with a snarl.

“Raaaaah!” Ren yelled back, his voice hoarse.

Again, Ren hit his foe. And again. The oni stumbled, feet precariously close to the edge of the roof. Then, on the next blow, the Oni grabbed the bat.

“Hehe.” The Oni squeezed, his prodigious strength bending the Power Bat. “Pathetic ranger. If only I had a cook fire. Rangers are always better well-done.”

Just then, an emerald bolt struck the oni in the back. Both the grip on the Kermes Ranger and the bat loosened, allowing Ren to wrestle his weapon free.

“Power… headshot!” Ren said, and bashed the oni on the chin.

The oni stumbled back, feet reeling off the edge of the roof.

“My gloriousness, the Kagehime. Wh—y,” the oni stammered.

One last follow-up bat to the temple caused the oni to release its grip from Ren’s helmet. The oni collapsed backwards, then fell off the roof. Another fit of sparks, and an explosion followed in short order. Ren was thrown back, clear off the roof in the opposite direction. He landed in a small yard, just in time to watch the entire house collapse in on itself.

“Gah. Rangers, report,” Ren said between coughing fits.

“We’re en route to your location,” said someone he thought was Miyu.

The helmet was so damaged he could barely hear.

The squad of four soon ran into the backyard that was now missing an accompanying home.

“Are you alright?” Sakura offered a hand to help Ren up.

Far in the distance, sirens could be heard. The squad froze.

“We can’t go to jail!” Yuto said.

“Quickly, we’ll cut through the neighborhood and hide out at my place!” Ren said.

Just then, something caught his eye. An emerald green streak on a roof three buildings away. He gasped, then jumped up to the nearest stable wall.

“What do you see?” Miyu asked.

Another green wave of static disturbance flickered away from the far roof.

Those sirens grew louder. They had to go!

The sun was just beginning to set, offering a veil of stealthy camouflage to their retreat. This wasn’t supposed to happen—they felt like a bunch of vandals, not great heroes saving a city.

“Was that…?” Ren asked, even as he leaped to another roof to the north, in the direction of his own house.