Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

…

"Hey, Tsurugi, do you have a second?"

Tsurugi Ohtori, former president of the universe and twelfth member of the Uchu Sentai Kyurangers, glanced up from the newest chapter of his legendary autobiography which he was composing to glance at Kotaro Sakuma, the youngest member of the team and eleventh Kyuranger. "Sure, Kotaro. What is it?"

Kotaro fidgeted. "Well… Normally, this is the sort of thing I'd ask Stinger, but… You're the only other person on the ship I'm sure is human, plus, you've been around a lot longer and seen much more of the universe than I have, so… I thought… That you might know the answer."

Tsurugi frowned and put down the tablet he'd been writing on. "The answer to what?"

Kotaro swallowed. "So… Everyone on the team but us are aliens, right?"

"Technically, so are we from their perspective, but yes, basically. Why?" Tsurugi asked. Did Kotaro have xenophobia? It would be understandable given how Jark Matter had brutally oppressed their shared homeworld, but as far as he could tell, Kotaro got along with everyone on the team.

"So… If they're all from different planets, how come so many of them look like us?" Kotaro asked.

Tsurugi raised his eyebrows, mildly impressed. He'd wondered if Kotaro was ever going to ask that. He chuckled in amusement. "How typically anthrocentric."

"Huh?" Kotaro said in confusion.

"Turn that thinking around, kid. Even if Earth is our home planet, and majorly important to Jark Matter for some reason, it's not the center of the universe. Think about it like this. The universe is a big place. I mean really, unbelievably, mind blowingly big. There are worlds out there with civilizations who'd mastered intergalactic travel before we discovered fire. And yet, despite all those worlds having species develop on them with little to no contact between each other for eons, somehow an astonishing number of them just happen to share certain physical characteristics." He glanced at Kotaro. "So really, the question shouldn't be why do they look like us, but why do we look like them?"

Kotaro blinked. "Uh… I don't know. Why do we?"

Tsurugi shrugged. "No idea."

"Really?" Kotaro asked, looking disappointed.

Tsurugi chuckled. "Boy, that's a question that philosophers and scientists have been asking themselves for millions of years. Nobody figured out back when I was president, and nobody's figured it out by now, either. Maybe nobody ever will. Maybe it'll just be one of those great mysteries of the universe. Something people will always wonder, but never find out for sure, that will always remind us that no matter how much we learn, there's always more to discover."

"You really don't have any idea?" Kotaro asked, somewhat crestfallen, but also intrigued.

Tsurugi smirked. "Well, there are countless theories, but there's a couple that are especially popular. One is convergent evolution. It's basically the idea that somehow, despite growing up in completely different environments and having totally different origins, different species wind up evolving to have similar traits and features that other species do. So, basically, a lot of different species resemble humans – or rather, we resemble them – – through pure coincidence."

"Seriously?" Kotaro asked skeptically.

"It's actually happened more often than you think, even here on Earth. Lots of bugs, birds, and even mammals all developed the ability to fly independently of each other, for example. It's not implausible, though I'll grant you that so many different species sharing so many almost identical physical characteristics is a bit of a stretch," Tsurugi conceded. "The other prevailing theory is that we all resemble each other through intentional design."

Kotaro frowned in confusion. "Intentional design? Like… God wanted us all to look like each other for some reason?"

Tsurugi shook his head. "Eh, more likely it was some incredibly conceited precursor race that wanted to leave their mark on the cosmos so seeded their DNA on countless worlds so that it would evolve to look like them in some way or another. It would explain why so many species are-from our perspective – – humanlike, and why even a lot of the more monstrous ones still have a humanoid body structure. Two arms, two legs, bipedal, head in the same place, that sort of thing."

Kotaro made a face. "I don't like that explanation."

"A lot of people don't. It does make a lot of sense, though." Tsurugi shrugged. "But like I said, nobody really knows for sure." He glanced at Kotaro. "Is some of our teammates looking more human than others a problem for you?"

Kotaro shook his head fervently. "No, of course not!"

Tsurugi chuckled at that. "Good lad. In any event, it would be a mistake to assume that just because guys like Lucky or Hammy could pass for human means that they are human on the inside. Biologically speaking, that is."

"Like Stinger having a tail?" Kotaro asked.

"As well as a massive internal poison factory and no actual bone structure, or at least a thing we would consider to be a skeleton," Tsurugi agreed. "As well as Spada having gills and webbed toes because he comes from a planet that's mostly water, so is actually amphibious. Or Hammy being cold-blooded and her skin is actually composed of millions of tiny reflective scales which she can use to blend in with her environment, along with a prehensile tongue. Naga's people are also cold-blooded since they're descended from reptiles as well, and he's got retractable venomous fangs and smells with his tongue. And Lucky's people are actually evolved from giant cats similar to our world's lions."

"…. So that's why my allergies have been acting up lately…" Kotaro murmured.

"But the most important thing to remember is, no matter how different or similar they look to us or we look to them, all of them have a heart just like us," Tsurugi told Kotaro. "Metaphorically speaking, that is. Not all of them have organs that actually match what we would think of as a heart, but… You get my point."

Kotaro nodded. "Yeah. I do. Thanks, Tsurugi."

"No problem, kid. And hey, if you've got any other questions you don't feel comfortable talking to the others about, you can come to me, all right? One Earthman to another," Tsurugi promised, grinning at Kotaro.

Kotaro fidgeted. "Well… There are a couple of things I've been wondering that I wasn't sure I could bring up with the others…"

"Oh? Like what?" Tsurugi asked.

"If everyone's from space, then how come they all speak Japanese?" Kotaro asked.

"They aren't, it's a universal translator thing," Tsurugi said vaguely.

Kotaro frowned. "Okay, I thought it might be something like that, but then why do a lot of the planets and peoples we've encountered have cultures, motifs, or legends so similar to our own? Like, why did Jark Matter have a special resort almost exactly like the mythical Sea Dragon Palace, right down to having a magic box that turns whoever opens it decades or centuries older? And how does Spada know how to cook food so similar to what we have on Earth if he's never been here before?"

Tsurugi hesitated. "Uh…"

"And how come all the planetary systems are based and named off of the constellations, since, according to what I learned in school, constellations are just formed by how stars appear to us from our planet, but actually look completely different from further out in space? And for that matter, how come we don't have a constellation system of our own, or even a Kyutama?" Kotaro pressed on.

"Um… Well… That is…" Tsurugi stammered, baffled.

"And what exactly is the difference between Champ, Balance, and Raptor, anyway? I mean, Balance says he's a mechanical lifeform, Champ is a robot, and Raptor is an android, but what does that really mean?"

"I… Err…" Tsurugi said eloquently, drawing a blank.

"And speaking of Balance, if he's about 400 years old, and Jark Matter took over the universe back then, how come he doesn't know more about stuff which should been public knowledge back then, like you, or the original saviors? And how come everyone acted as if the concept of police was a completely foreign idea when we visited the world of the Dekarangers? I mean, how is it possible that the very concept of a police force never existed on any of their worlds, even if it's one controlled by Jark Matter? And another thing…"

I have made, Tsurugi thought as Kotaro blurted out question after question, much to his dismay. A horrible mistake. One that is truly worthy of a legend…