After leaving Tobirama's restaurant, Tatsuya has been roaming around Kuoh without a destination. His mind is so cloudy by the thoughts of his current predicament that his body is moving on its own. He subconsciously avoids hitting others and waits for the lights to cross the street more easily than a normal person could consciously, thanks to his training.
By nightfall, it seemed like Tatsuya would stay in this state forever, but his walk comes to a stop once he hears a faint noise. The dead look in his eyes vanishes, and the life completely returns to them as his attention goes completely to the noise he heard.
Sniff
Sniff
It sounded like someone crying, a female by the timbre of the voice. Tatsuya looks in the direction it is coming from and sees an abandoned building, with the owner of the cry probably inside.
'Maybe a lost child who got separated from their parents, or just got hurt while playing with their friends.' Tatsuya tells himself. 'Better check it. It's getting late and dark. She must be afraid!'
As Tatsuya approaches the building, a cold chill runs down his spine, and his instincts tell him that entering this place is a bad idea, but his conscience won't allow him to leave an innocent child by themselves, and if his instincts are correct, then it is only one more reason on the list to help whoever is in there.
Tatsuya slowly opens the door of the building. He pokes his head inside to take a peek and sees that the place is empty, no lights, and destroyed furniture everywhere.
He enters the place, slowly, step by step, and whispers loudly. "Anyone there?"
Sniff
Sniff
The sound is louder now; it's coming from one of the rooms. Tatsuya looks around and sees strange marks on the destroyed furniture; claws, from what it looks like, but not from any animal Tatsuya has ever seen.
Treading carefully, Tatsuya goes to the room where the sound was coming from. Poking his head inside, the teenager scouts the place and sees nothing.
Sniff
Sniff
The sound is closer. Tatsuya looks around and sees a quick movement in one of the doors, and goes quickly after it. Entering the door, there is a corridor with many entrances. Tatsuya observes movement in the last door frame on the left and runs after it.
Once he reaches his destination, Tatsuya finds himself in a room with no exits or windows; most importantly, the room is empty, just like the others. Tatsuya decides to investigate the place. The room seems like an old storage closet. The teenager sees old buckets and mops on the ground, empty bottles of cleaning products, nothing standing out except a dusty old metal closet. Tatsuya frowns at the sight; the chill in his spine is back just by looking at the storage item. Slowly and steadily, the ninja approaches the closet. He holds his breath tighter with each step, and when he is in front of it, Tatsuya's breathing has come to a full stop. With trembling hands, Tatsuya goes for it and opens the closet with one swift move… only to find it empty.
"*sigh* Thank god there is nothing". Tatsuya says in relief as he closes the closet.
The white-haired teenager ends up using too much force when closing the door, making the closet fall to the side, but before he can chastise himself for his actions, Tatsuya sees that there is a hole behind where the closet was standing. What's inside drains all the color of the boy's face; the same would've happened to his hair had it had any color. He takes a step back and gulps in shock; sweat starts to form in his brow, his hands tremble again, along with his entire body. Tatsuya opens his mouth, but nothing comes out except shallow breaths.
The hole is an entrance to a secret room, but it is what's inside that is really shaking Tatsuya to the core; chairs, tables, couches, desks, a bed, a full set of furniture… all made from bones, human bones.
'Is Leatherface living in Kuoh?' Tatsuya jokes to mask the fear he is feeling inside.
Decided he had seen enough, Tatsuya readies himself to leave so he can find the missing child and call the police, but when he turns around, there is someone at the entrance of the room.
The newcomer is a woman. She is dressed in rags and covered in dirt, yet her appearance seems too healthy for someone who looks like a homeless person. Her hair is brown, Tatsuya can see it even with the mud over it, and her eyes are of the same color. Her body looks healthy. The teenager tries not to stare but notices the good-shaped legs, thick thighs, and curves of her well-nourished body, especially the bust, which is larger than the average woman's.
Tatsuya shakes his head and looks at the woman in the eyes. "Are you okay? Were you the one crying?"
Tatsuya's mind goes into overdrive thinking about the possibilities. If this woman has been a hostage, it is only a matter of time before the responsible person returns. Before he can say or do anything, the woman turns around and leaves Tatsuya with his thoughts. The teenager immediately notices and goes after her.
"Hey, wait, it's dangerous!" Tatsuya yells while chasing the woman, who somehow is already at the entrance of the corridor he came from.
The chase is quick, and Tatsuya finds himself back in the main hall. The woman is there as well, standing in the center with her hands joined behind her back. Tatsuya raises his hand and slowly approaches her.
"Lady, look. You can't wander off like that". He says calmly to avoid scaring her. "We need to leave."
"You're pretty." The lady speaks for the first time; her voice is soft and composed.
Tatsuya blushes for a second, but quickly fades away. Their current situation makes it hard for him to waste time in senseless banter.
"Thank you". Tatsuya says, standing in front of the woman, he puts his hand over her shoulder, making her blush and look him in the eyes. "But we need to leave."
"*moan* I think I'll keep your head, may as a lamp or a paperweight". The woman whispers.
Tatsuya raises an eyebrow. He has heard what the woman said and takes a step back. With a calmer mind, a thought occurs inside the ninja's head.
'I got so worried for her safety that I didn't think of one possibility.' Tatsuya tells himself. 'What if she is the perpetrator?'
Taking another step back, Tatsuya looks at the woman again, his eyes widen as he connects the dots, the woman's voluminous body is healthy, meaning she hasn't been starving. Then he looks at her rags, it isn't wool, nor silk, nor any sewing material he knows. It's human skin. Then he looks at the mud in her hair. Blood. Taking another step back, Tatsuya watches as the woman's body starts to convulse. Protusions start appearing in the woman's chest, and the rags are torn to shreds, leaving her naked torso exposed. Tatsuya has neither the interest nor the time to admire the bare breast on display as her belly button starts to enlarge until there is a big mouth-looking hole on her stomach, her ribs coming out in a way that makes them look like fangs, while her internal organs turn into tentacle-tongues swaying madly outside her body. Next, her face starts to distort, her teeth start coming out of her mouth, cutting the skin of her lips until it takes the form of a spherical-shaped mouth with a large tongue sticking out, giving her the appearance of a lamprey.
"You're one ugly motherf-" Tatsuya has no time to finish as the creature charges at him, making the teenager break from his stupor.
The ninja flips over the creature's head. Recovered from the shock, he faces the beast and enters a battle stance.
The creature spreads its arms; they split in half, and from the middle, one tentacle sprouts on each arm, while the two halves turn into blades.
Tatsuya is at a disadvantage now. His knowledge of the human anatomy allows him to observe a person's muscles and predict their movements, but this creature is not human, and its anatomy is completely foreign, so he can only guess what it's going to do.
ROAR
Giving a battle cry, the creature attacks. It swings its left arm at Tatsuya, but he avoids it by stepping to the side and counterattacks by kicking the creature in the thighs, then the ribs. The creature isn't hurt, only annoyed at Tatsuya's attempt, and spins its body trying to hit him with the other arm. Tatsuya evades the second attack with a backflip jump, but the creature grabs him with its tentacle by the leg and throws him to the ground.
"AHHH"
The teenager's yell only makes the creature moan in pleasure. It tightens its grip on Tatsuya and spins around before throwing him into a wall. Tatsuya's back begs him not to let this happen again when he hits the concrete, then his ribs beg the same once he falls on the ground over his belly.
"*grunt* It seems… I won't be able to take it down the way I am…" Tatsuya whispers between breaths. "That crazy robot told me Power Ranger face monsters like this almost every day. Let's see if I can do the same."
ROAR
The creature seems to have listened to what Tatsuya said and didn't like it.
"Didn't like it?! Too bad, then you're gonna hate this!" Tatsuya says, his voice and expression full of determination as he takes two ninja stars from his belt, one is a large four-pointed star device with a hole in the middle, the other has the kanji 赤 written on it, which means red, with a red figure in it wearing a helmet whose visor is in the shape of a ninja star too. "IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"
"Power Star, lock in!" Tatsuya locks the smaller star into the hole of the large one and holds the device forward.
"Ready! NINJA SPIN!"
Tatsuya spins the star of his morpher with all his strength, making it rotate at high speed, which only increases by the second. Once it reaches the necessary velocity, his instincts tell him to launch it. By doing so, Tatsuya makes the Power Ninja Star fly out of the morpher with a bright light, blinding the creature, and circles around Tatsuya, forming his Power Ranger suit from feet to neck. Then, a helmet with a black ninja star visor, just like the one in the Ninja Power Star, comes down over his face.
Where Tatsuya was standing, now, there is a ninja clad in red and black, with a sash across its front with the design of a four-pointed ninja star in his place.
(insert ninja steel red here)
"Ninja Steel! Red Ranger!" Tatsuya yells and strikes a pose, and for some reason, an explosion with red smoke appears behind him.
ROAR
The creature, fully recovered from its temporary blindness, stares confused at the ninja clad in red standing in front of it.
"Round two!" Ninja Steel Red says.
Tatsuya raises his hand in the air, and out of nowhere, a ninja sword appears. 'That robot wasn't kidding?! Rangers can summon their weapons at will!'
Assuming a battle stance, Tatsuya faces off against the monster once again. The creature decides it has had enough of the teenage antics and charges again.
The monster swings its arm at Tatsuya, who blocks it with his sword, then he clashes the blade against the second arm, which is attacking immediately after the first blow.
"Haiyah"
Tatsuya then goes on the offensive. He goes for a left horizontal cut, but the monster blocks it with an upward vertical attack, making the ninja's sword bounce back, then it counterattacks the ninja with the same arm and hits Tatsuya right in the ribs, causing sparkles to erupt from his costume.
"Aaaah". Tatsuya groans in pain. The morph made him faster, stronger, and more durable, but these perks also came with a huge flaw. "I'm not used to these abilities, and haven't trained with them yet. I'm basically a master swordsman fighting with a nunchaku."
Tatsuya shakes his head and ignores the momentary pain. Going for another attack, he tries piercing the monster in its stomach-mouth, but the creature stops his attack using its rib-teeth. Tatsuya smiles under his helmet, expecting the exact action to happen. He lets go of his sword and jumps over the monster using the sword's handle as a stair, kicking the monster with his foot in its higher lamprey mouth, making it recoil in pain and open its stomach-mouth, letting go of the sword.
The ninja grabs his sword back before it touches the ground and spins when the monster tries to kick it away. His spin attack ends up hitting the creature on the rib he had kicked before, but this time it is effective, and sparks erupt from the blade once it touches the monster, just like it did when the monster hit him.
Roar
The monster roars in pain and wobbly charges towards the ninja again.
Ninja Steel Red responds by striking a fighting pose with his sword. "Ninja Ranger, fear no danger".
Tatsuya sprints forward to meet the creature head-on. Once in range, the ninja strikes against the creature at the same time it goes for the attack, the sword clashes against the creature's bladed arm, and more sparks erupt. The monster recovers faster and strikes Tatsuya in the torso with a vertical slash, making him take a step back, but he endures the pain.
Tatsuya charges again. He goes for another slash, the monster prepares to defend, but the Ranger's attack is a feint; instead of hitting the creature, the ninja flips over its head and cuts off the tongue of the higher mouth when he is above its head. Once the tongue hits the ground, it starts struggling and jumping wildly, like a fish out of water.
ROAR
The monster contorts in pain, but that only gives an opening to Tatsuya, who is now facing the monster's back. The ninja stabs the monster, making his sword come out of its stomach-mouth. The creature lets out a cry of pain and spins its body, swinging its arm in an attempt to hit the ninja, but Tatsuya easily evades it by lowering his head and attacking the creature again, kicking the monster on the rib he had cut before, then another kick in the face, followed by a roundhouse kick with his other leg on the other side of the monster's head.
The attacks delivered by Tatsuya are strong enough to make the monster step back. It recovers and uses one of its tentacles to rip the ninja's sword from its back.
"You can keep it for now, but I'll want it back later". Tatsuya light-heartedly jokes, still nervous but more relaxed than before. "Ninja Blaster! GO!"
Summoning a blue-colored blaster with a golden frog figure in it out of thin air, just like the sword, Tatsuya aims at the monster and shoots. Surprisingly, the monster deflects all shots using Tatsuya's sword, with the last one being reflected back at Tatsuya, and hitting him in the shoulder.
"AH!"
Roar
"Why can't you speak normally when looking like this?" Tatsuya jabs once again to diminish his nervousness, holding his shoulder where he was shot. 'I don't want to think how many cuts, bruises, and broken bones I would've had by now were it not for my Ranger gear.'
The monster's response is to just charge again, swinging Tatsuya's sword madly and without finesse. The ninja looks at his blaster, then quickly focuses back on the battle, an idea popping in his head. Every time he tried a direct attack, the monster had better chances of defending and counterattacking, but whenever Tatsuya used misleading attacks, it got caught by surprise, even when it was paying attention to the surroundings.
'That means it has no perception or awareness of what's around it… That's it, instead of fighting it head-on, I must use the battlefield against it.' Tatsuya nods at his plan and charges.
When in range, the monster attacks Tatsuya with his sword, but the Ranger slides under the monster's feet and aims his blaster. The monster notices the weapon and evades the shot, but the ninja wasn't aiming at it. Instead, Tatsuya shoots the chandelier on the ceiling, making it fall right above the monster.
ROAR
Noticing the scream of anger, Tatsuya smirks under his helmet. "I'm just starting, mate."
Following his terrible Australian accent, Tatsuya shoots again, but instead of pulling the trigger, he throws his blaster at the monster, who evades just by moving its head. The gun's handle hits the wall and bounces back like a boomerang right at the monster's nape. Stumbling forward because of the surprise hit, Tatsuya grins under his helmet and flips over the monster, getting his sword back from its tentacles while doing so, then grabbing his blaster before it hits the ground..
"Had enough yet?" Tatsuya asks, holding his sword with one hand and his blaster with the other.
Roar
"I'll take that as a no!" Tatsuya nods and throws his sword this time.
The monster evades again, but Tatsuya shoots the sword with his blaster, making it spin in the air, and hitting the monster on the face with the handle. He shoots again, making it bounce off the wall and then back in the direction it was first thrown. Tatsuya could've sworn the world was in slow motion when the spinning sword passed over the monster's shoulder, right when the blade was pointing down, cutting the monster smoothly on its shoulder.
"Time to finish this!" Tatsuya declares.
Tatsuya never took a life before, but he remembers what the robot told him. The Power Rangers before him fought against monsters almost daily, and 99,99% of them were mindless beasts or creatures of pure evil just for evil's sake, no redeeming qualities, and no desire to change what they are. That doesn't mean Tatsuya would just kill this creature; it must face justice for what it has done.
Tatsuya then takes the Ninja Power Star from his sword and puts it on his blaster.
"Ninja Blaster Finishing Mode!" Tatsuya yells. 'Next time I meet that robot, I'm gonna thank him for letting me read the manual on how to use these things.'
The golden frog's mouth on the blaster opens, and a barrel comes out. A humming sound starts, getting louder and louder.
The monster, not realizing it is over, starts limping towards the ninja. The battle has taken its toll, and it can't fight anymore.
"Fire!"
A huge red energy wave comes out of the blaster's barrel, engulfing the monster's whole body when it hits. When the walls get hit, it doesn't take long before they crumble down and let the laser get out of the place, floating through the air for the whole city to see.
Tatsuya sweats at the thought of people coming to the battlefield and getting themselves in danger, making him leave his finger of the trigger and holster his blaster.
When the smoke disappears, the monster is nowhere to be found; in its place, a perfect miniature replica is standing. Tatsuya, now panting after his adrenaline lowers and his body starts feeling the soreness of the fight, slowly approaches the action figure look-alike and grabs it; his morph deactivates when he touches it, and he looks at the object in its hands.
'Is this the monster?' He asks himself, trying to find an explanation for why the monster was turned into a toy-like object. "Maybe the morphin grid saw my desire to keep the monster alive so it can face justice and allowed me to use my laser to somehow shrink and freeze it in this state."
Tatsuya stops whispering once the pain of the battle starts to kick in, making him fall on his knees, panting harder than before. Sweat starts to drop from his face and hits the floor.
Tap tap tap tap
Hearing footsteps, Tatsuya's fear returns to his heart. The monster was probably the one responsible for that bone furniture, but it doesn't mean it was acting alone; it could've just been a minion of the mastermind, and even if it was the mastermind itself, the teenage ninja was in no condition for another fight.
Tap tap tap tap
The sound just gets louder and closer. Fear may have taken hold, but it did nothing to Tatsuya's determination. If he is to die, then he will meet his maker with his head up and his eyes ahead.
"Come and get me". Tatsuya says while getting into his feet.
Tap tap
"Ara-Ara. You sure ain't shy". A female voice speaks with a seductive tone.
In front of Tatsuya stands a girl, probably his age. Before the monster transformed, it was a beautiful woman, but this girl in front of him put her, and probably every woman he's ever seen, to shame.
She is a beautiful young woman with a voluptuous body, white skin, blue eyes, and a buxom figure. Her most distinctive feature is her long, beautiful crimson hair, which reaches down to her thighs with a single hair strand sticking out from the top; the color reminds him of his ranger outfit. She is dressed in a school outfit, consisting of a white long-sleeved, button-down shirt with a black ribbon on her shirt collar worn under a black shoulder cape and a matching button-down corset, a magenta skirt with white accents, and brown dress shoes over white crew-length socks.
"*pant* Who… are you?" Tatsuya asks between breaths, eyes focused on the girl's.
"Isn't common courtesy to tell your name before asking?" The girl asks with a smile, stepping close to the ninja.
Tatsuya doesn't humor her and instead takes a step back, narrowing his eyes at the girl; he wasn't going to be tricked again.
"Are you with that… creature?" Tatsuya asks, tightening the grasp he has on the doll-like figure in his hand.
"Creature?" The girl asks, her curiosity seems genuine, and she stops in her tracks.
"Two mouths… one in the head… the other in the stomach… a lot of teeth". Tatsuya says, moving his eyes around and looking for an escape route, he found thirteen when he entered, but now he must look for the ones that will get him out with no chance of being caught. 'Only two.'
"Canis". The girl whispers, but Tatsuya hears.
'So… she knows the creature, I wonder why'. Tatsuya tries not to think of all the possibilities, too tired to waste energy on them.
"I am Rias Gremory". The girl, now named Rias, announces with a reverence, lowering her head and grabbing the sides of her short skirt, giving Tatsuya a full view of her panties without realizing it. "May I ask your name now?"
"*sigh* My name is Taka-" Tatsuya's body couldn't hold the pain any longer, making him fall unconscious when he was about to bow to the girl.
Rias's eyes widen when she sees Tatsuya fainting and goes to grab him before his head hits the ground, making it hit her bust instead. She lowers him to the ground and notices the figure in his hand. She grabs it and takes a look. Her eyes widen once again after noticing what the figure in Tatsuya's hand is.
"Canis!" Rias whispers. Her eyes lock on Tatsuya's face as hundreds of questions start to pop into her head. "What are you?"
"Buchou".
Rias looks behind her shoulder and sees three figures approaching. Two girls and one boy. The tallest girl is wearing the same school uniform as Rias. She has purple eyes, a buxom figure, with a long ponytail that reaches her heels, which is her most prominent feature. At her side is another girl sporting the same uniform. She is clearly the youngest of the group; she has white hair and yellow eyes, her body is petite and frail-looking, unlike Rias and the raven-haired girl. The boy is also wearing a school uniform, a black blazer with the same insignia the girls have, black pants, and shoes. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a chivalrous air around him.
"Akeno". Rias says, looking at the raven-haired girl, then turning to the other girl and the boy. "Koneko, Kiba".
"Ara~ Ara~" Akeno says, her eyes locked on the white-haired boy sleeping in Rias' hands, unlike Rias, her tone is full of mischief. "Who is this?"
"Cute". Koneko says emotionless. "Can we keep him?"
"Now, now Koneko". Kiba says gently. "We can't own someone... Not until Buchou claims them."
"I don't know". Rias says, looking at Akeno. "But I intend to find out."
"Are we taking him with us?" Kiba asks.
Rias looks at the doll-figure she's holding, knowing that unless she takes Tatsuya, she will have no answers.
"Yes". Rias says, getting on her feet, gently tossing the doll to Kiba, then trying to lift Tatsuya's body with both hands. "Koneko-chan, a hand please?"
"Hai Buchou!" Koneko says. She grabs Tatsuya's body in a bride-style and looks at his face again.
"Shall we go?" Akeno asks her president before stealing another glance at the unconscious boy. 'He really is cute, isn't he?'
Rias nods in response, and they all start to leave. This day hasn't been going as Rias expected.