Disclaimer: Super Sentai and all related elements are the property of Toei. The writer makes no profit on the contents of this story.
Warning: The contents of these stories do and will continue to contain explicit materials, including detailed descriptions of violence, gore, some nudity and pervasive language. Reader discretion is advised.
If nothing else, Ijirashii Riku learned in school. That was about it. As a social failure, Riku's school days were filled only with facts and figures. No friends, no sports, certainly no girls. He was a stereotypical dork in glasses. He loved anime and manga and still watched Tokusatsu. He didn't necessarily like this, but he was willing to live with it. After all, what choice did he have?
Riku was studious; that was also undeniable. He took cram courses after school with no complaints. He had nothing better to do with his time. These classes tended to run well into the night.
It was one such night that Riku's lonely life came to a rather violent end.
Kyuuketsuki Sentai
BloodRanger
Night 1
Rebellion of Darkness; Revealed BloodRanger
Riku had noticed her the moment he entered class. How could he not, she stuck out like a sore thumb. First was the pair of long, blonde-dyed pony-tails. Lengths of her long hair jutted from the sides of her head and curled down. Her clothes didn't help much either. Everyone else was dressed casually, but their clothes weren't nearly as glaring. She wore a bright yellow vest over a sparkly pink top and a pink miniskirt. What's more, she seemed to be ignoring everything around her quite fervently; bopping her head to a tune playing on her Ipod.
Riku sat behind the girl, trying not to notice her jerking her head to the music. The professor; a lanky, bespectacled individual; came in and greeted the students. He began the session, going over the information that Riku and the others would need for their exams. Riku paid avid attention, but still found himself distracted by the blonde before him, still listening to her music. It seemed harmless enough, though he wondered why she bothered coming to a night course if she wasn't going to pay attention.
Suddenly, she popped up from her seat and began bopping more. Riku could only guess the song was coming to a high point, but that didn't mean she had to be so overt about it.
"YEAH!" She shouted, distracting the whole class.
The teacher scratched the chalk against the board in surprise. Until now, he'd ignored the girl. Most students that came to these things, he'd found, were forced by their families and used it as time to slack-off. He didn't really care, but he wanted a little respect for doing this. At the very least, he wanted quiet.
The girl looked around, seemingly oblivious to everything that had transpired.
The teacher walked up to her. "Miss…" he said with a hint of impatience, "I don't care if you want to waste your time here. But, I must ask that you not disrupt this class."
"Oh!" the girl said, seemingly surprised. "I'm sorry. I guess I got carried away."
"I suggest," the teacher continued, "that if you want to continue slacking off here, you find a means of distraction that is not liable to send you screaming."
"But sensei," she said, her voice dripping with false innocence. "I don't know what you mean. I've been paying complete attention the entire time."
Riku became confused by this. Was she trying to be funny? Why was she wasting time like this?
"Look, Miss," the teacher said, "I may not be able to throw you out; but that doesn't mean I have to take your sarcasm."
"I'm not being sarcastic," she said, making an indignant pout. "I've heard every word."
"Look here…" But the teacher was cut off. The girl had shoved her notebook in front of his face. "W-What?"
"See?" she said, smiling widely.
The teacher pushed up his glasses and began studing the notes. Riku could tell by his expression that, shockingly, she was telling the truth.
"Th… This is…" the man stuttered, "…completely accurate."
She nodded. "Impressed? I was the best note-taker in my class."
The other students laughed out loud at this situation. The room had exploded in laughter. Even Riku, despite himself, actually laughed at the girl's antics.
Flustered, the teacher returned to the front of the class and resumed his lecture. The girl sat again and returned to bopping to the beat of her Ipod. Chancing a glance back at her, the teacher saw the look on the girl's face. He saw, what he could only describe as, the most evil looking smile he had ever seen.
After the class was done, Riku began his walk home. Strangely, the girl was in front of him, on the same path as he was. Every turn he made towards his home, she turned just before him. It was strange that this person that he'd never seen before was taking the exact same path as him. Halfway home, under a street light, the girl stopped in front of him, causing him to stop too.
She turned on her heel and looked at him with an angry glair. "What the hell is your problem, Perv!"
"W-what?" Riku replied, stunned.
"You've been following me all the way from the school!" She said, pointing an accusing finger at him. "Are you some kind of creepy stalker? Are you planning to follow me home and rape me?"
"N-no!" Riku said, panicky. "I-I swear! I walk this way every day!"
Faster than anything, the girl's expression changed from anger to humor, as she began laughing. Riku, once again, was in complete stunned confusion.
"God! The people in this town are easy!" She exclaimed through her laughter. "You should see the look on your face right now!"
Now it was Riku's turn to look indignant. "Hey!" He said. "That's not very funny. What if someone had heard all that?"
"Relax kid," she said. "Look around. There's nobody around to hear us."
Riku looked about. It was true, the street they were on was clear.
"Honestly, I thought you had a sense of humor," she said. "You laughed when I got the teacher."
"Well," Riku muttered. "Everyone laughed at that. But that doesn't mean I like being accused of stalking!"
The girl nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I guess that's true. I'm sorry." She held out a hand apologetically. "I'm Veria Saki."
Riku, hesitantly, accepted the handshake. "Ijirashii Riku."
"Nice to meet you," Saki said. "And I'm really sorry about the gag. I just like a good laugh."
"I can tell," Riku said. As they broke the shake, he shook his hand about. "You're hands are kind of cold."
There was an almost sad look in her eye as she looked at her hand. "I know." Again, her emotions took a rapid turn as she once again had a happy face. "So, you go to night classes a lot?"
"Yeah," Riku replied, as the two began to continue their walk. "How about you?"
"Nah!" she replied. "I just wanted to have a laugh. I planned that whole gag from the beginning. Totally worth it!"
Riku chuckled under his breath at the memory.
"See?" She said. "You do have a sense of humor."
"Do you go to school around here?" Riku asked.
She stuck out her tongue in a disgusted look. "I haven't gone to school in… forever."
Riku gave her an odd look. "You dropped out?"
"Not… exactly," She said cryptically.
They continued to converse all the way to Riku's apartment. He was honestly shocked that this strange girl was so interested in him. She asked about his life, his family; everything.
As they approached, Riku asked, "I was wondering; how did you know I was following you?"
"You weren't," she replied. "I was following you. It just looked like you were following me."
Riku was, once again, confused. "How were you…?"
"Ah-ah," Saki replied mischievously. "That's my little secret."
Riku shook his head. "Well, this is my apartment. Where do you live?"
"No where near here," she replied. "I should probably get going. Akira-sama won't be happy if I'm not back before dawn."
"Akira-sama?" Riku responded.
"Some other time Riku," she said. "See you later!" she said as she began to run off.
Riku looked on after the girl. As he made his way to the door, he shook his head. "See you later," he said. "Not likely."
But, he did see her again. The next night, on his way into the class, she was standing outside the building. She talked him into skipping the course. It required almost no effort; something that surprised Riku, as he was usually highly motivated to study. He brushed it off as hormones. Saki was a very pretty girl, after all. Riku later reasoned he'd have been stupid to turn down spending time with anyone for studying.
They continued most of that night doing exactly as they had the previous night. They talked their way through a shopping area in the city. As they walked, Saki noticed a cardboard display in the window of a DVD store. It was of a certain American vampire film that Riku really knew nothing about. She became visibly annoyed just looking at it.
"Not a fan?" Riku said, noticing her manner.
"It's insulting!" She exclaimed. "I'd like to turn that lady into a vampire and stick her under the sun! See how much she sparkles!"
Riku laughed. "It's weird how people take stuff like that so seriously."
Saki gave him an exasperated look. "You have no idea, kid!"
Riku continued to laugh, and, eventually, Saki found herself joining him in laughter. The two continued on, discussing things. Neither was aware of the glowing eyes following them on the rooftops.
"Saki," Riku said, as the two sat on a bench in the shopping area, looking up at the night sky.
"Yeah?" She replied.
"Why are you hanging out with me?" he asked. "We don't even know each other. Why are you talking to me?"
"I don't know…" she said. "I really don't. There's no reason or anything. No plan. I just… I guess I just needed to talk to someone who didn't really know me."
"Why?"
"Maybe…" Saki began, hesitating. "Maybe… so I can forget, just for a little bit."
"Forget what?"
Saki didn't respond. Instead, she sniffed the air, quite noticeably. "Fuck!"
"What's wrong?" Riku asked, noticing the concerned look on her face.
"Riku, I'm sorry!" She said as she shot from her seat.
"Why?" Riku replied.
"Because, it's very likely you're going to die right now," She responded.
"What?" He exclaimed, standing up. "Saki, is this another of your jokes? Because, if it is, it's pretty bad."
"Fucking hell, I wish it was!" She said. "I'll try to protect you, but, if this gets really out of hand, I might accidentally kill you myself."
"Saki! This isn't…"
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Riku turned to the sound of the scream. The screamer was a young woman. Before her was a dark, hairy shape. The shape stood before her for a few seconds, twitching sporadically, before lunging at the woman and tacking her to the ground. More creatures dropped from the rooftops and attacked other shop goers. Many ran off, but quite a few were literally being torn apart by the monsters attacking them. Riku looked about at the rapidly growing chaos, then found his attention drawn back to the woman, who was not far from him and Saki. The thing attacking her began to raise up, a pool of blood dripping from its victim's neck. Blood also dripped from it's long, protruding incisors. To Riku, the thing looked like a giant, humanoid Rat! The creature cried out in a high-pitched cry.
Saki stood before Riku and held her arm out before him defensively.
"Saki!" He said, "We need to…"
He stopped. He looked at her eyes. Before, those eyes were a pleasant hazel brown color. Now, everything but the pupils, even the corneas, was blood-red. He had no idea what to think, seeing that. What the hell was going on? He thought.
"LYCANTHROPES!" She shouted. "You have broken the sacred Code of the Dark! You attack humans in public! Why have you done this?"
"Who asks?"
From the gathered crowd of rat-men, there emerged a mildly obese fellow with large grey eyes that were noticeable, even from a distance. He wore an overcoat over his body and had a rather large grin plastered across his face.
"I am Lady Veria Saki," She replied. "Vassal of the house of Dracul; Member of the Clan of the Hunting Wolf; Warrior of the King's Royal Guard and Member in-good-standing of the Counsel of Four Clans. In short; I'm a woman you don't fuck around with!"
Riku stared awkwardly at Saki. This was so unlike the girl he had met the previous night. She was so stern; commanding. This whole situation was flying over his head.
"Ah," the man replied. "One of the higher ups. What a pleasure. We've been tracking you all night, but we never suspected you were one of The Four."
"Answer me, vermin!" She demanded.
"We're here," he continued. "To declare the intent of our King!"
"King?" She replied. "Shifters don't have a fucking king! All creatures are under the jurisdiction of THE King!"
The man chuckled. "Not any more, bloody. And now, to show honor to the new King of the Dark, we will serve your head on a silver platter!"
A dark aura surrounded the man as his coat began to tear. The face of the man grew large amounts of hear in an instant, and his features morphed into that of a cat. In just seconds, the man was replaced by a seven foot tall humanoid cat, that growled into the night.
"S-Saki…" Riku muttered, terrified out of his mind. "What is all this?"
"Stay behind me Riku," She said gently. "This is where the shit hit's the fan!"
"KILL THE FUCKING BLOODY!" the cat monster roared.
The Rats all ran at the girl. Before they attacked, seemingly from nowhere, Saki pulled out a pair of short-handled sickles with wolf-shaped ornamentation where the metal met the handle and swiped at the pack. The first two in line spurted blood from massive wounds, as the others retreated a step.
"What the Fuck!" She said, gouging another beast that jumped from the side. "What the hell do you think you are?" She impaled another to her left. "How high in the food chain do you think you are?" Two more, decapitated. "What the fuck do you Think I Am?" She flipped the blades in her hands and shoved them up into the ribcage of one of them and lifted it over her head. "I'm a Fucking VAMPIRE, BITCH!" She then, literally, tore the beast in half, sending its blood an guts all over. "And I'm higher on the chain than all of you!"
"Vampire?" Riku muttered. "Did she say… Vampire?"
Saki continued slaying the rat-things until she got to the Cat. She swiped at him, but he caught her arm and slammed her into a wall. She tried to attack again, but he continued to counter and knocked her back.
"Maybe we're not as low as you think, bloody!" he hissed.
She smiled. "Wanna bet, shifter?"
She lunged at the beast. In an instant, she seemed to explode into a mass of yellow. Riku was taken aback by this, as what was Saki tackled the monster and began striking at him. He soon realized that the yellow had a solid shape, and that it looked like a large dog. A wolf? He shook his head. This is nuts, he thought. This can't be real. How can Saki really be a Vampire?
The beast knocked the wolf-creature off of its body. She lunged again, but a good kick sent her right back at Riku. She reformed into a human as her body slammed into his, knocking them both down. She sat up, groaning lightly in pain, while Riku remained collapsed on the floor.
"Enough games!" the monster exclaimed. "Kill the bloody Bitch, and her pet meat, too!"
The Rats once again ran at the two. Saki raised her arms in defense, but found it unnecessary. The group of monsters all suddenly found themselves impaled through the brain by arrows.
"What?" The cat exclaimed as it looked up.
Saki looked up too, and smiled at seeing a figure on the roof the a bow in his hand. The moonlight revealed a thin young man with a combed over hairstyle and a blue streak running through it, wearing a blue vest, black pants and a blue band running from his shoulder to his wrist.
"Ryuji-kun!" Saki exclaimed, returning to her feet.
"Saki-chan," the young man said casually, running a hand over his hair. "I cannot believe you're having such a problem with these vermin." He leaped down from the roof to stand at her side.
Another figure dropped down from above, crushing to rat creatures under him with an audible crunching of their bones. He was a muscular man who wore a green martial arts training gi, black slacks and a green headband below his spiky, straight up hair style.
"Kouki-chan!" she said again, happily.
The man nodded curtly, his face stern, "I am relieved to see you aren't hurt, Saki-san."
Another walked up the opposite side of the way. She was a, seemingly, teenaged girl with short-cut hair, wearing a highly stylish pink gown.
"Yumi-sama!" Saki said. "You're here too?"
"But of course," she said. "Even a Queen must be willing to do battle, Saki-chan. Especially if her husband plans to."
"You don't mean?"
"SAKI!" Riku exclaimed, jumping to his feet having regained his senses while the three new people appeared. "Who are these people?"
"Show Respect Human!" The man called Kouki exclaimed. "We are the Counsel of Four Clans! Feel honored to view even one of us and not be destined for death!"
"What the hell are you talking about!" Riku shouted, his frustration and confusion having grown out of control. "All this talk of Counsels and Vampires and I don't understand what is going on!" He stopped to catch his breath.
As he tried to calm himself, Riku heard something. It started off so softly he barely noticed it, but it was growing louder. It sounded like the hoof beats of horses, coming from behind him. He, and every living thing there, turned to see a fog rising from down the alley. From this fog emerged a horse drawn carriage. The carriage stopped before them, and the door opened. Instantly, Saki, Ryuji and Kouki all kneeled down, Saki dragging Riku down with her, while Yumi simply bowed her head. The creatures all growled in anger and fear as the occupant of the carriage stepped out.
Riku looked up. He saw a man before him. He wore a long, red cloak that shrouded him from his head to the ground. It came up to a rounded collar that encircled his face, hiding his features, leaving only his red eyes and his red-streaked hair.. There was a haunting air around this man; one that chilled Riku to his core.
"Who?" He whispered.
"I'm a vampire," Saki said curtly and quietly, "They're lycanthropes and HE is my King! Shut Up and show respect."
The four raised up, again, Saki, again, dragging Riku with her. With a snarl, one of the rats charged at the group. Immediately, Saki whirled and got between it and the King. She reached to the same place she had before for her weapons, but found that they weren't there. It took an instant to realize they had been dislodged when she fell, and in that same instant the rat was only a few feet in front of her. The others reacted but they weren't going to move fast enough. Saki closed her eyes and readied to make the ultimate sacrifice for her people.
She didn't have to.
The sound of tearing flesh caused her to open her eyes. Reacting unbelievably fast, Riku had gotten between Saki and the beast, thus taking it's sharpened claws in his stomach. The beast made to bite down on the boy, but an arrow from Ryuji finished the beast instantly. Saki stared, wide eyed, as the boy fell to the ground in front of her.
"RIKU!"
Ryuji, Kouki and Yumi all surrounded Riku and Saki as she knelt down to him.
"Any of you shifty bastards moves, it's my arrow and your brain!" Ryuji exclaimed.
"Riku…" Saki muttered in distress as the boy in her arms breathed heavily. "Oh, god! This wasn't supposed to happen. You're just a kid. This doesn't involve you."
"Saki…" Riku muttered.
The king walked up to the girl. An arm emerged from his cloak, resting his hand on her shoulder.
"Saki," he said. "It's time."
The girl nodded. "Yes, Akira-sama." She moved Riku to brace him against a wall. "Hold on," she said. "I promise, I'm going to fix this."
Riku coughed up blood, unable to respond to her.
Saki looked about and quickly found where the weapons had fallen. Saki stood, retrieved her weapons and joined the others. They all stood in a line beside the King.
"Lycanthropes," He said in a calm voice. "You have committed treasonous acts against creatures of higher rank. You have broken the Code of the Dark by showing yourselves in full view of humans. You have shown blatant contempt for authority and aggression to the crown. How to you plead?"
"We no longer bow to the Bloody king!" The cat proclaimed. "ALL HAIL LUPUS REX! May He Reign Eternal!"
"I'll view that as a confession," The king replied. "The penalty for treason; Termination. Everyone!" He raised his left arm, revealing a black armlet with a silver cross over it.
The others all raised their lefts, revealing identical devices. Riku, with all his energy, watched intently as the five struck their right hands to the armlets. At the center of each cross was a small, metal point which pierced the flesh of their hands when they touched it. The objects began to glow as drops of blood ran across their surfaces. The five then trust their left arms upwards and shouted, "BLOOD GEAR!"
Riku watched in shock as an astounding metamorphosis took place before him. Like before, Saki again became a yellow wolf-like thing, and Ryuji seemingly joined her, though his form was blue in color; Kouki and Yumi assumed bat-like shapes, green and pink respectively; while the king, Akira, seemed to simply dissolve into a red cloud of mist. Soon, black bands of a leather-like material began forming around each of them, binding each creature into a humanoid shape. While the four animal forms seemed to almost struggle against this, the mist simply filled in the bonds and slowly solidified. A solid black shape engulfed the heads of each creature, reducing the visible color into a stylized shape on the front of a full-faced helmet.
When it was done, the five stood before the beasts in a radically different form. Their bodies were made out in their mutual colors, with black bonds wrapping around them. The bonds formed gloves, boots, pants, and, on the women, corsets. On their chests were black patches marked with red symbols. On Saki and Ryuji's were the face of a wolf. On Yumi and Kouki's were the image of a bat. On Akira's was the image of blood dripping. The shapes on their helmets also came in sets. Saki and Ryuji's looked like animal mouths with four fangs. Yumi and Kouki were the same, but with only two. Akira's simply looked like a wispy flame. Aside from this, the only other noticeable difference is in their metal shoulder gaurds, in that Akira's jutted out from the shoulder while the others' formed to their's.
Riku, fading slowly, was astonished by the appearance of these five beings. "A vampire… sentai?" he muttered. "Kyuuketsuki… Sentai… Buraddo… renja…" These were his las t words before passing out.
"My guards," Akira said, raising his arm in a slow and somewhat menacing manner. "Kill them."
The warriors all nodded and ran at the monsters. Saki once again slashed at the beasts with her sickles, decapitating and disemboweling them with even more ferocity and abandon than before.
Kouki pulled out a twin-sided hand-axe, forged in the shape of an open winged bat, and used it to violently mutilate his targets. After lodging it in an enemy, he used his other hand to attack other enemies with highly accurate blows. Once he pulled his axe free, he returned to attacking with it.
Yumi gracefully swung a long spear at the rats, gouging them on the bat-shaped tip. She then repeatedly thrust the spear into the guts of the enemy, leaving them all spurting blood and guts.
Ryuji ended up using his bow as a melee weapon, the sharpened tips slicing into the rats. He quickly turned on heel, drawing an invisible bowstring. Arrows of blue-light shot from the mouth of the wolf ornamentation on his bow handle, impaling several rat-brains.
The red warrior, Akira, slowly approached the cat creature. The rats tried to attack him, but he casually slashed them with his ornate sword. He drew closer and closer to the cat, slowly lurking closer to it. The monster showed mild signs of panic, though it remained firm in its place. When Akira was right in front of it, the cat monster swiped at him with its claws. Akira casually dodged the swipes of the creature's claws, then hit the beast it the face with the handle of his sword. The creature stumbled, then tried to strike again. Akira swiped it with his sword, not disemboweling it, but still cutting it severely. The cat monster lunged again, but found its throat caught in the hand of the vampire king.
Akira raised his sword into the air, silently signaling to his allies. The others had finished slaughtering their opponents and saw the raised sword. They tossed their weapons in the air. Maneuvered by an unseen force, the weapons began interlocking. The Axe floated upside-down, the sickles linked into the blade at opposite sides of the center, forming another pair of blades. The spear linked into the hilt of the axe, and the bow split in half and linked into the spear, forming a broad sword blade. The combined weapons dropped onto Akira's sword, whose hilt extended.
Akira tossed the cat monster into a wall, grabbed the hilt of the massive blade and impaled the beast into the wall.
The monster cried out in pain as the weapon dug into his body. "This is just the beginning, vampire!" It hissed. "Lord Lupus Rex will devour your heart. The age of the vampire is over!"
Akira leaned in, towards the beast. "I look forward to the attempt."
"Lunatick! Forever!"
"Be sure to share that sentiment with your master," Akira replied. "In Hell!" He pulled out the blade, swung it over his head and decapitated the monster, sending it limp to the ground.
In the distance, two figures watched the results of the battle. One made a movement, but the other held out its arm, stopping them.
"Not Just yet,"the figure said. "Let the king have this one. He will soon realize the scope of what he is against."
Saki ran to Riku, her strange garb vanishing as unnaturally as it had appeared. She saw the boy was still slumped against the wall. She knelt by him and examined him. The other four also returned to their previous appearances.
Saki turned to the king. "He's still alive," she said. "But he's fading fast. He needs medical help!"
"That is not our concern," the king replied. "He's seen too much, anyway."
"But…" Saki muttered.
"Humans must never know the truth," He continued. "The Code must be upheld."
Saki looked down, sadly. She felt so much guilt over this.
"Unless…" the King said leadingly.
Saki's eyes widened. "But I barely know him!" She stated. "How can I make such a rash decision?"
"It is the only way," the King said. "The choice is yours, Saki. Make it."
With that, the king walked off to his carriage. Yumi followed behind him. Kouki and Ryuji both leaped onto the roofs and vanished into the dark, as the carriage carried Akira and Yumi back into the fog.
Saki, alone now, looked at the young man in her grasp in desperation. She argued with herself whether what her King suggested was right. Finally, her guilt overcame her.
"Forgive me," she said.
Saki's mouth opened, revealing two-inch long canines coming from her upper jaw. Hesitantly, Saki brought her mouth to Riku's neck. The boy's body flinched as the fangs pierced into his neck.
In this instant, Riku's lonely life came to an end; and a new, secret life had begun.
What world of supernatural horror has Riku been drawn into?
Who is Lupus Rex? Why is he leading this Deadly Rebellion?
The Nightmare Continues…
TBC