Super Sentai vs Super Sentai
Author' note: Man, it's been really hectic that updates have been rather slow. I know that something is wrong with my writing skills (as in lack of details). But I'm intent to finishing this off. To answer some reviews... Don't worry, I don't intend to input romantic pairings in this fic. It's mostly friendship pairs. So don't worry about ships being sank. It'll never happen. At any rate, the next chapter is here.
ACT 7: The Courage of Red
"What did you just say? !" Radiguet said in both anger and disbelief, on Jarmin's return after she ultimately was unable to make Gai leave the team, "You were unable to enlarge your fellow Bouma monster? !"
"I didn't want to believe it, but it was as if my resurrection denied me of my power to enlarge Bouma monsters." Jarmin regretted, clenching her fist in anger, "Urgh…!"
"Well… that may be true." Juzou added, "That weak Ayakashi too… it's as if his second life was gone."
"We currently also lacked the resources to build a Kong for Mozoos to pilot." Mazurka also added, noticing the lack of technological machinery around.
"Given time, we can afford that one." Radiguet assured them, still angry at the last experiment he tried when Jarmin was away, "And those Dimensional Bugs refused to enlarge monsters anymore. What in the world…!"
"Space Beasts cannot be enlarged without Gyodai." Ahames commented, "Without the rest of the Changemen, the Power Bazooka cannot be formed, and even if we have Gyodai, he'd just spend his time sleeping. It seems that someone is toying us, refusing us the ability to enlarge our monsters."
"And in the same time, those foolish Sentai couldn't summon their robots as well. Grr! Talk about a missed opportunity!" In frustration, Radiguet smashed his fist to a nearby wall, in which Ahames approached him.
"Not to worry, Radiguet. I have my plan ready." She said, "But first, allow me to scout for their weakness… for now." As she said that, she left the gathering of the villains, heading to the world, as if already locating where the Sentai Warriors were.
It was Sunday. Takeru and the others were at the Kourakuen Amusement park, apparently on the request of Miki. A young girl named Hitomi, who befriended her, was being lonely as she invited her friends to play with her, but none of them come due to other businesses. Taking pity on her, Miki decided to bring the rest of the team as a replacement for her friends. Youhei and Sayaka were both ecstatic at the prospect, seeing that they were good with children as well. Although Gai felt a bit too old for such thing, he decided to tag along as well, while Takeru was pretty much indifferent.
'I was pretty sure that this amusement park has another name as I know…' Takeru wondered as he walked, before he decided to let it slide, 'Ah well, no matter.'
"Yo, Takeru!" Youhei greeted him, carrying several soft drinks, "Hey, come on, don't be so gloom, try to have fun for awhile! You know, even if you're a hardened warrior, you deserve to have fun as well!"
"Well… all right, but I'm kinda thirsty." Takeru said, grabbing one of Youhei's drinks. After taking several sips, he then asked again, "Where's Gai?"
"Him? He's already having fun with Hitomi!" Youhei then pointed at the roller coaster, where Gai was already there besides Hitomi, riding on the front seat, "See? Even older guys knows that it's OK to have fun!"
"All right, all right. I'll get to one ride after I finish this drink." Takeru said, sitting down on a nearby bench. Shortly after, Gai returned from the ride, already carrying Hitomi on his shoulders.
"That was fun, bro!" Hitomi said cheerfully as Gai laughed.
"Heh. Glad you're having fun, kiddo!" He said, though he sighed, 'Whew, thank god she's not calling me 'old man' or something like that. That would sound unpleasant to my ears…'
"Hitomi! Gai!" Youhei called both of them as he approached them with the drinks.
In the same time, both Sayaka and Miki were done shopping some small accessories. Walking together, they were about to catch up with the rest, chatting together.
"You worked part-time here?" Sayaka asked.
"Yes, for awhile." Miki said, reminded with her previous part-time job when she was recruited by the Goggle Five, "I was an announcer."
"Did you enjoy being an announcer?" Sayaka continued to ask.
"Well, I suppose. It helps me develop my speech." Miki said, "This place is really nostalgic to me." She was also reminded on how the Goggle Five base was located near the stadium, which means, she often visited here.
"I feel the same way too." Sayaka was also reminded on how many adventures she had in the amusement park. One particular event that she remembered was when she pretended to be a mother of two children, in which she developed genuine, mother-like feelings for both child. 'I wonder if those two are okay now.'
"Sis!" A voice was heard approaching them. It was Hitomi, holding several balloons, whereas Takeru, Gai and Youhei tailed behind her.
"Ah! Hitomi! Having fun?" Miki gently asked.
"Yes! Can we go to a ride? The six of us?" Hitomi suddenly asked for a favor. The boys only smiled in response.
"Why not? We can have fun together." Sayaka nodded and asked her, "Where do you want to go? It's your choice, Hitomi."
"I want to go to that haunted house over there!" Hitomi then pointed an old, traditional-style haunted house. Just looking at the house shocked Takeru.
'Oh boy… it's THAT house…! What the hell is it doing here?'
It was certainly that one haunted house. The same house that scared him to death and he couldn't even shake it off. Last time, he, after becoming Shinken Red, entered that house again to encourage his friend to overcome his fear. He ended up fainting as a result, unable to shake that fear. However, Hitomi looked as if she's eager to enter. WAY too eager.
"Ah, you're so brave, Hitomi! You're not scared?" Sayaka teased with a smile.
"Not at all, sis!" She answered.
"Well, what do you think, guys?" Miki then turned to the boys and asked.
"Hah! I ain't scared of any ghosts. Bring it." Gai confidently answered, cracking his knuckles as he teased Hitomi, "Any ghosts coming to ya, Hitomi… I'll punch'em on the face! If that ghost doesn't have head, then the body will do!"
"Oh yeah, I'm all for it!" Youhei also confirmed his willingness. He was about to ask for Takeru's willingness, but then he saw him shaking a bit, "So… Takeru? Wanna go for it?"
'If I refuse now, they'd laugh at me… Okay, put it together, put it together…!'
"I'm prepared." Takeru nodded, trying to hide his fear.
"Well then, let's go!" Cheerfully, Youhei took the lead as the six entered the Haunted House.
"Man! That was quite the scare, eh? Hitomi?" As the six finally got out, Gai asked Hitomi.
"Yeah, it's fun!" Hitomi just laughed at it.
"What a brave kid." Youhei muttered, "It's not everyday we see a kid not scared with ghosts."
"Ah! It's Mama!" Hitomi pointed and went to meet her mother, who had promised to meet her after she was done with her business, "Thank you! That was fun!"
The team, with the exception of Takeru, waved their hands as Hitomi and her mother waved back and they left the scene. "Hey, Takeru? What's the matter?" Gai asked. Takeru was silent.
And suddenly, he fell flat to the ground, fainted.
"AH! Takeru!" Miki was shocked looking at Takeru, "Are you okay? !"
"He just fainted." Sayaka said after holding his forehead, "It's about time we should return anyway. Let's take him back to Kizuna."
"He looked kinda healthy when he entered." Youhei commented as he carried the unconscious Takeru, "Maybe he was sick?"
"Or maybe… that haunted house scared him to death?" As Gai said that, he held his mouth, trying to hold his laughter. The super stiff, super serious Takeru who bravely fought monsters head on, couldn't even hold his bravery against one haunted house that a little kid that hadn't even reached the age of 10 could withstand. The mere thought of that made Gai want to laugh, but he held it well.
However, a certain woman witnessed the whole event. This woman was in fact Ahames in disguise. "So… this Shinken Red fears ghosts?" She muttered, "In that case, I know one Space Beast that could prove to be useful for this."
The next day in Kizuna, a frustrated Takeru holed himself inside the training room, training alone. To have other Sentai warriors know about his one weak spot was heavily embarrassing for him. He didn't even want to reveal that to his vassals beforehand, but it wasn't the vassals that knew his secret, but it's his seniors who found out.
"GAAH!" Takeru let out one cry before striking the air with all his might. Just then, the door opened and Sayaka entered the room.
"Still training, Takeru?" She asked, "You've been there for hours."
"Never mind me…" Takeru said as he tried to find a place to sit down and relax after the rigorous training and frustration-venting. Shortly after, Sayaka grabbed a nearby towel and handed it to Takeru. As she smiled genuinely for that, he had no choice but to accept and wipe his sweating face with the towel.
"I understand how you feel." Sayaka said as she sat next to him, "You were scared of that haunted house, weren't you?"
"I said, never mind me…" Takeru tried to avoid the subject, but Sayaka pressed on.
"It was surprising, actually." She said calmly, without any tones to mock him, which surprised Takeru, "But, I think it's very normal for you to be scared like that, if you did have a fear of that house since you're little".
"Well, that was very embarrassing." Takeru said in shame, "I, the 19th Lord of the Shiba House, who have fought against the Gedoushuu bravely… can't even face a haunted house without fainting."
"It may take time, but I'm sure you will be able to overcome your fear." Sayaka continued, "It's just in your imagination, you have to face it. I haven't fought any Gedoushuu, but… they were fearsome enemies, were they not?"
"Yes."
"Well in that case, you should know that in reality, you have faced worse adversaries, and such fear and imaginations would be easy to cut down, if you want." Sayaka said, as Takeru suddenly went silent and listened to her advices.
'Cutting down my fears…' He thought, reminiscing the battles he had against the Gedoushuu. Those were hard battles, but for some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to face that damned haunted house with a straight face.
"Oh… by the way, where's the others?" Suddenly, Takeru changed the subject.
"Well… Youhei and Miki returned to college and school respectively. Though, they should be back in a short time." Sayaka said, looking upwards as if daydreaming, "I know that we have our duties to uncover this mystery, but we can't abandon our daily lives in process." Hearing that, Takeru was stunned. Although it was for the duty of the clan, he knew that he took his vassals from their daily lives, forcing them to fight and abandon their former lives. All he hoped was that they were enjoying their normal lives, in which Sayaka continued, "Being in such education sure is fun."
"You didn't experience such thing?" Takeru asked, curious at Sayaka who was currently just about a year older than Youhei.
"No." She sighed, remembering her past as a soldier, "I was born and raised as a soldier, even though I'm more into inventing gadgets and devising strategies. I never experienced the childhood like a normal child, going to school and such..."
Silently listening to Sayaka's story and looking at her, Takeru felt that he was like that as well. All the education he got was from his samurai upbringing, spending his childhood training as a lord's body double and rarely did he get a formal education. Which suddenly reminded him about someone else that he hadn't mentioned.
"Well… what about Gai, then? Where is he?"
"Oh, him." Sayaka's words suddenly turned sour and slightly annoyed, "He said he's off to have some fun. Just when I thought I could use some help in thinking of a strategy…"
"I don't think he's into deep thinking like that." Takeru answered as he got up, ready to practice more. 'I need to be stronger.'
He then looked at a target practice made of wood. In its place was the image of a ghost, a pale ghost that used to appear in the haunted house and scared him. 'I can do it, I can do it, I can do it…' Takeru tried to wash away the fear that has haunted him. Eventually with a yell, he ran forward, his shinai raised upwards, ready to strike at full force…
When suddenly his Shodo Phone, which he put on the ground, rang, disrupting Takeru's concentration and he was unable to take the target practice down. 'Tch…'
"Don't mind it, you're just taken by surprise at your Shodo Phone." Sayaka said, bringing his phone to him and cheering him, "You can do it next time, I'm sure."
"Yeah, I'll try." As Takeru said that, he activated his phone, "It's me."
"Takeru!" It was actually Miki calling him. However, the sounds of beating, along with the voices of Gai and Youhei, as if they were fighting, were heard, "The Hidrer soldiers seemed to be plotting something nefarious in the Kourakuen Amusement Park. We could use some help in investigating it!" Just right after that, he heard the sound of someone being kicked, and it would seem that Miki was the one who kicked it.
"Got it." Takeru instantly closed the connection and turned to Sayaka, "Let's go." As Sayaka nodded, both of them went to the teleportation room to transport themselves to where Gai and the others were.
Meanwhile, as the three fought, suddenly, the Hidrer soldiers were pulling back. "Huh? They're retreating? Even when they actually surround us?" Youhei said, "Maybe they developed some brain that they know we're too much for them."
"Oh, you ain't running away, buddy!" Gai grabbed at one of the retreating Hidrer soldiers who tripped.
As he tried to punch the soldier's weak point, however, suddenly the soldier raised his foot, and kicked Gai on the groin.
"ACK! Grr…" Gai yelped in pain, holding his crotch as the Hidrer soldiers retreated, "Come back here, ya blue hairy bastard…! I swear, your crotch is going to receive more pain that I ever…"
"Well, well look what we have here!" Youhei said, approaching Gai with a playful tone. A big grin was formed on his mouth, "We can call that a karma retribution for kicking me in the groin back then! And the squeezing of Takeru's too!" He recalled last time Gai won over them by using low blows aimed at their groin and the sight of a normal soldier attacked him on the groin was a hilarious sight.
"You pickin' a fight with me? !" Gai was annoyed hearing that and was just ready to punch Youhei in the face, before Miki broke up the tension.
"We don't have time to argue about this!" She said, "We have to find out what they're planning!"
"She's right." A voice rang behind them and when the three looked, Takeru and Sayaka were already there, "Any ideas about what they're doing?"
"Don't know yet." Youhei said, "All I knew is that they're entering this place, which is closed down for some reason. They might be searching something of interest here."
"Where are they going, again?" Sayaka asked. As Miki pointed to the direction where the soldiers went, which was on the way to the haunted house, she nodded and said to the rest, "All right, we're going, guys!"
As the five ran to the direction of the haunted house, however, Gai was having trouble running as his crotch just got kicked. "Hey, wait up for me…!"
They eventually managed to catch one of the Hidrer soldiers entering the haunted house. The moment he saw that house, Takeru was shocked. "Of all places they ran into… here? !" His voice was clearly not as confident as before. In fact, it was more of frustration and annoyance.
"Ahem." Gai coughed up, trying to muster all his confidence after recovering from the pain of that one kick, "So they holed up in here. I'd say we bust in here and crash'em. You don't mind, huh, Takeru…" Unfortunately for him, Takeru was just silent, being pressed with such question that put his confidence at test. He wanted to agree, but deep down, that fear of ghost still lingered in his mind, "Or don't tell me you're still scared? Like that time before…"
"What did you say?" Takeru glared at Gai, his anger started to build up.
"I mean, come on, Takeru." Youhei suddenly made a reply, intending to build his courage up, "You're a House Lord, right? What would your family say if they find out you're scared to death by ghosts? You should man up."
"This is like trying to adding oil to the fire…" Sayaka commented, thinking that both Gai and Youhei's remarks about Takeru could rile him up. However, she decided otherwise and joined in, "But Youhei is right. If it's fear, you have to face and defeat it. You've fought Gedoushuu, a haunted house like this should amount to nothing compared to what they could do."
"You don't need to tell me that…!" Takeru was even getting riled up, thinking that everyone was underestimating them, "I'm not afraid …!"
"Takeru, your voice is shaking." Miki noted at Takeru's tone of voice, as he was trying to put a strong front, "No one would blame you if you're scared. Everyone has their own fears… But it's not good if you kept latching to it…"
"Enough!" Takeru suddenly shouted, ending the whole chatter about how they doubt that he could walk inside while standing still without passing out, "I'm going!" Takeru ran off alone, impulsively entering the haunted house by himself.
"Well that was quick." Gai said before turning to the rest, "We shouldn't fall behind as well. Let's go, guys!"
"OK!"
Gai and the rest followed Takeru inside the haunted house. As all four entered, the door suddenly shut itself close and an eerie laughter was heard.
The four bravely entered the hallways of the haunted house, ignoring pretty much all ghostly attractions that got past them. Once they eventually made it to a big hall, they realize that something was wrong.
"Was this room even in the house?" Youhei wondered. As far as he remembered, he didn't come across this room when they entered the house the last day.
"I don't know." Sayaka shook her head and then looked around. There were several doors in the room as well as some windows and a blank painting frame on the wall, "There's something strange about this room…"
Just then, one of the doors opened and the team took fighting stance… only to find Takeru running off in panic and shut the door tight, heavily catching his breath. "There you are, Takeru!" Miki said as she dropped her fighting stance and ran to him, "Are you okay? My, you're sweating heavily."
"I'm fine…" Takeru tried to pass it out, but suddenly Gai interrupted.
"I know why. The ghosts inside still scare you."
"I'm not!" Takeru denied angrily.
"Listen here, if you're really a leader, then man up!" Gai also replied angrily, "If any of those Shinkengers see you like this, they'd be planting their faces on their hands in shame!"
"Gai… what do you know about me and the Shinkengers?" Takeru retorted with similar words that Gai used to him, "If you don't know…"
"Yes, I don't know..." Gai bluntly said as it only incited anger to Takeru, but before he could lash back, Gai managed to continue, "… in details. All I know is that the Shinkenger is a Sentai team, and a Sentai team is always composed of brave people. Now, do you still call yourself a Sentai warrior?"
"I… of course I…" Takeru tried to answer, before suddenly the other doors opened and Hidrer Soldiers started coming out, along with a monster which is shaped like a house, with white wall decorated with four windows and a green head coming out from its door, and a red roof.
"Who are you? !" Sayaka asked.
"Space Beast Hozu…!" The monster introduced himself, "Sentai… in the orders of Queen Ahames, I will turn this house into your grave!"
"OK, that can wait later…" Takeru said as he took fighting position, followed by Gai, and the team started fighting the Hidrer Soldiers.
While they could fight on their own, the amount of the Hidrer soldiers seemed limitless, and they kept coming and coming. In the same time, a strange aura started surrounding the room and Takeru along with the rest felt considerably easier to fatigue. "There's something wrong in this house…!" Miki said as she threw a Hidrer soldier to the ground and stomped on its weak point. As another Hidrer soldiers tried to tackle her, Youhei suddenly punched him on the face and then kneed on its weak point. Shortly after, he was breathing heavily.
"Yeah. It usually takes longer than this to get me tired, but I'm starting to lose stamina quicker than I thought…" He replied.
"I am the God of this house…" Hozu said as he shoved away the attacking Takeru, Gai and Sayaka, "Anything that I want to happen in this house will happen!"
With that, as he snapped his finger, not only more Hidrer soldiers arrive, several windows materialized on the wall and unleashed a barrage of bullets, attacking the team. However…
"IPPITSU SOUJOU!"
"CROSS CHANGER!"
"BLUE TURBO!"
"CHANGE MERMAID!"
"GOGGLE PINK!"
The team managed to transform in the middle of the explosion, saving them in the nick of time. With their strength recovered thanks to the transformation, they managed to fend off several of the Hidrer soldiers a little longer, before eventually they started running out on their own.
"Damn, this isn't going anywhere!" Black Condor said as he eventually used his Jet Wings to break through the Hidrer's formation and got into the room where the soldiers came out, hoping to find a source of the soldier's entrance. However, to his surprise…
"Empty…? ! What kind of joke is this? !" He said in frustration. As suddenly another Hidrer soldier materialized out of blue, he kneed it before tossing it out of the room. Suddenly, however, the door closed and he was locked inside.
"God damn it, open the door!" He yelled, knocking the door, to no avail.
"Haha… one down." Hozu said triumphantly as he saw Black Condor locked inside.
"What do you mean down? !" Blue Turbo protested, "He's just locked inside, he can get out just fine!"
"Didn't you remember? I am the God of this house." Hozu said, "So if I want that door to lock him forever, it will happen, no matter how much he tried. And don't worry, I also planned that he would suffer inside till he die."
"Bastard!" Blue Turbo said as he tried to tackle Hozu and tried to throw him. However, the monster was too heavy for him to lift.
"Why don't you take a stroll in my Garden instead? !" With that, Hozu swung and threw Blue Turbo out of the window.
When Blue Turbo came into, he realized that he was outside the Haunted House. However, instead of being in the amusement park, he found out that he was in another place. The hot air, the black sky, the rotting leaves, the flaming trees, the demonic-like plants that surround him… it was like he was inside the Garden of Hell itself.
"What is going on here…!"
Hozu continued the fight against the team, this time taking on Goggle Pink. As she attacked with the Pink Dia Baton, he managed to grab it and threw her off. And when he pointed his arm to the painting on the wall, the painting flew off and latched itself onto its hand. "Feeling familiar?"
"What?" Goggle Pink was puzzled with the statement. She had no problems with painting and pictures thus far. However, when suddenly Hozu scratched its claws onto the painting, it created a picture of a hellish forest, with an owl latching on one of the forest. Instead of normal owl, the owl had a demonic visage on it.
Looking at the owl, Goggle Pink was suddenly reminded with her previous incident of being trapped in a picture book created by a Mozoo and was about to be burnt alive, although she managed to escape. "Wait, how did you…!"
"Too late!" As Hozu spoke, the demonic owl suddenly was animated as if alive. Its red eyes flashed and it let out a roar, also unleashing a red ray that engulfed Goggle Pink and sucked her inside.
"Three down."
"Red!" Change Mermaid tried to call Shinken Red, but since he wasn't used of being called with his morphed name by his friends, nor did his allies did to each other, and he was currently busy fighting, he didn't reply, "Uh… Takeru!"
"What?" After slicing the latest Hidrer soldiers, Shinken Red finally replied and looked around, "They got her too…? !"
"Only two left, just as planned…" Hozu said as the door where the team came from opened. A figure came to the room it opened… Ahames.
"Ahames…!" Change Mermaid muttered.
"It's been awhile, Change Mermaid." Ahames said, "I haven't forgotten how you drove me crazy and nearly got myself killed. I will make you pay first, before the rest of the Changeman follow."
"But how? ! The explosion at the Dengeki Base should've…" Change Mermaid said, reminded with Ahames' last stand of doing a suicide run to the Changeman's home base the Dengeki Base, destroying it as she was on the deep end of sanity. However, she was alive, and her sanity seemed to have been restored as of now, "Or don't tell me… Bazoo is…"
"Star King Bazoo is no more." Ahames answered, "However, I have found someone else that will restore the Planet Amazo for me to restart my reign. For that… you must die."
Right after he finished, Shinken Red didn't waste any word and immediately tried to slash Ahames, but she blocked it. "You would strike me down, even if I say that my reign would be peaceful?"
"Your lies are so obvious." Shinken Red said, "For someone like you, I know that once that planet of yours are restored, you'd set your sight to Earth. Also, I don't plan on dying today."
"That's a sharp mind you have, Shinken Red." Ahames complimented, "Indeed, this planet has given me enough embarrassment of reducing me into a begging wreck in front of King Bazoo. Once I regain my power, they will feel my wrath…!"
"That's why we're here to protect it…!" Shinken Red said as he put more strength in pushing his sword towards Ahames' baton.
"Can you really do it?" Ahames calmly said as the Rigel aura started to enhance her power, "When beneath all those confident exterior, you're just a sniveling coward?" With that, the Rigel Aura surrounded Shinken Red's Mojikara and she deflected his sword, and administered a fatal beating to Shinken Red, ending with a powerful blast from her hand, knocking him away and de-morphed him into Takeru once more.
"Takeru!" Change Mermaid tried to help him, but Hozu got in her way. With the strange aura surrounding the house getting up to her fatigue, when Hozu opened the windows on his body and unleashed a barrage of vulcan bullets, she was also de-morphed. Several Hidrer soldiers also appeared and grabbed her arms, restraining her.
"Sayaka…!" Takeru tried to get up, fighting the fatigue that plagued him thanks to being in the house. However, suddenly Ahames pointed her baton to him.
"HARD WALL!"
After saying the words, Ahames' baton emitted a ray to the ground. When Takeru tried crossing the line, he felt like he smashed to a wall.
"Now… Shiba Takeru…" Ahames beckoned after looking at Hozu for a bit, "You shall realize what a coward you are."
"Let there be ghosts in this house!" Hozu suddenly chanted and all of the sudden, Takeru saw everything that made him scared to the haunted house. Visible ghosts, headless bodies, zombies, dead men in flames, skeletons, and many more… all came to shape and started giving a chilling voice, with intent to consume Takeru. With his fatigue combined with his inherent fear of such thing, Takeru was unable to stand strong at all, even with his Shinkenmaru at hand.
"No… No…!" He didn't even notice that other people were watching, he was too consumed with his inner fear that all he could do was to act like someone completely freaked out, "Get away… get away… GET AWAY FROM ME! AAAAHH!" Frantically running to the other corner and swinging his Shinkenmaru in fear, Takeru continued to scream. Unable to fight back properly, the conjured ghosts started ganging up on him, while he could do nothing but to scream in fear.
"TAKERU!" Sayaka called out, but Takeru was too consumed in fear to listen.
"Ah hah hah, look at that… Your designated leader…" Ahames taunted, pointing at how Takeru was struggling and cowering in fear against the ghosts, "Is nothing but a pathetic coward who can't even face up a ghost!"
"No!" Sayaka shouted angrily at Ahames, "I've just met him for a short time, but Takeru… Takeru is not like that! He'll never give up this easily!" She was reminded at how in the last time when Gai tried to sell the team out, Takeru never gave up in believing him even when the team was thrown into chaos. His persistence to not give him up was what made the team remain intact.
"You may as well resign yourself to death, Nagisa Sayaka!" As Ahames said that, she hit Sayaka on the face, knocking her down as Hozu approached her, "Because you have no hope for victory. Not only Shiba Takeru… the others are on the verge of death as well."
"What? !" As Sayaka said in disbelief, Hozu suddenly produced three mirrors on the wall, showing what happened to Gai, Youhei and Miki.
"Behold and fall into despair…!"
After minutes of knocking the door to no avail, Gai finally gave up, completely fatigued from knocking the door and the surrounding aura that diminishes his stamina. "Is there no way out? Damn it!" Kneeling down, he smashed his fist to the floor in frustration. Unfortunately for him, it made him unaware of a mask located on the ceiling.
The mask suddenly let out a beam. When Gai took notice, he was too late to dodge. Screaming in pain, he rolled to the ground several times, until he was able to at least sit down. However, when he looked at his hand, he noticed something similar on it…
A crystal.
It's a crystal protruding out of his hand. It was giving him a lot of pain. Shortly after, not only on the hand; his back and his neck also grew the same crystal. Gai was familiar with this. Previously, he was hit with a beam from the Vyram Empress Juza which slowly sapped his life force and turned him into a crystal, with him only able to wait until he die.
"Not this again…! Damn!" Gai cursed as he tried to withstand the pain, getting up. Just as he stood on both his feet, he suddenly realized that his feet became heavier and shouted in pain. He noticed that this time the crystallizing was a slow, painful process and it has reached his knees. Any time the crystal grew, he would feel more pain stinging his body.
And when Gai looked at his hand, he realized that his hand also got heavy. It turned out that the crystallization process also started from his hand.
"No… NOOOOO!" In despair, Gai screamed, that after he cheated death once, he'd die again, this time even more pointless than usual.
Youhei tried to get in to the house again after being thrown to the garden. However, he couldn't even budge the door nor smash himself into the window. "Damn, if only there's a tool for this…!" Youhei said. He would gladly turn into Blue Turbo to barge in, but his power had been drained by the weird atmosphere. Giving up, he turned around and noticed something in the garden… a shining hammer located on the road surrounded with rotting leaves.
'A hammer? Lucky me!' He thought as he ran to grab the hammer. If he had that, he could smash the door open and help his friends.
Unfortunately, once he arrived, the hammer suddenly crumbled, turning into ash. Disappointed, Youhei tried to go back. However, suddenly the ground quaked. Before Youhei could move forward, he felt that something big bit him from the back on the neck and in the same time, he felt an immense pain and a nauseous sensation. As he struggled to turn behind, he saw something green from the ground, like a tentacle sprouting. He somewhat knew it looked familiar…
Before he could confirm what it was, the ground let out several tentacles with huge mouth to bite him on both arms and legs. Looking at the huge mouth, Youhei suddenly remembered his incident with the Poison Bouma. Protecting his friend, he was bitten and the bite delivered heavy poison that would've killed him if the cure wasn't applied to him, in which Haruna, the friend he protected from the poison, managed to get after faking defection to the Bouma tribe. These tentacles that bit him were the same. However, there was nobody around to bring him an antidote.
"Aagh… AGH! It hurts!" Youhei screamed in pain, struggling as his body temperature started to rise heavily and he was having trouble to breathe. His muscles got weakened and he didn't know how long he could go on.
"A… AAAAAGGGHHH!" The pain was so immense that eventually, he could only resort into screaming in pain.
When Miki woke up, she found herself inside a similar setting, trapped inside a picture. "This? I hope the same method would work…" She muttered as she looked for something sharp that she could use to smash away the demonic owl, destroying it and getting out of there.
Looking through the background, however, she noticed something much more eerie than her last experience. It was just a picture that she was sealed in. However, the picture was getting a bit too real. It was less cartoony than the picture book that she was previously trapped in, in fact, it was like she was in Hell itself. The thick black sky surrounding her didn't help the situation. However, she decided to be brave and continue searching.
Until suddenly, she felt a chill on her body and she was paralyzed. "What…? I can't move my body…!" Miki struggled to at least move her arms, but it was no use. Suddenly, she felt like her body was stung with quite the severe pain as her hands were moved upwards. No sooner, her body was suddenly floating in the sky.
The owl then produced an eerie sound, which almost sounded like a demon laughing. When Miki's body was turned to face the owl, its eyes suddenly flashed red and pushed her to a nearby tree. In a sudden, chains materialized around the tree, practically tying her wrists and ankles to the tree.
'Not this again!' Miki thought as at first she attempted to struggle. However, in a sudden, the owl's eyes flashed red again and unleashed a beam that swoop through the woods surrounding her, effectively creating a forest fire.
Unfortunately for Miki, since she was completely tied to the tree, she was unable to make a back flip to avoid the flames on the ground or burn her bindings. On the top of it, what tied her were steel chains this time and when they got in contact with fire, it became even hotter, effectively also burning her wrists and ankles.
'Agh! Can't… move! Am I going to die here…?' Miki thought as the fire started to come closer to the tree. In a sudden, the owl's eyes flashed again and the fire suddenly let out a wave that was aimed to her body. "EEK!" All she could do was only struggling to no avail and scream at the burning pain that was administered to her body.
"Gai! Youhei! Miki!" Sayaka shouted, looking at the mirrors Hozu shown, which showed Gai being slowly crystallized, Youhei being given a dose of heavy poison and Miki being burnt with no way to escape.
"All of them are experiencing a worse version of near-death situations that they once experienced!" Hozu boasted, "I learnt that from the likes of Radiguet, Mazurka and Jarmin, thus I was able to recreate similar situations in this house, only this time far more severe, they cannot escape, only death awaits!"
"Did you see that, Nagisa Sayaka?" Ahames said triumphantly, pointing to the mirrors "Your friends are about to die, and your mighty leader is too busy cowering like a coward…" She then pointed to Takeru, still consumed with fear and was getting beaten up by the ghostly apparitions. "You are better off resigning to your death, so I can kill you personally, as a first step to my revenge for the Changeman."
Sayaka was silent hearing this. Things have looked like it was completely on the side of the enemies. However, there was one thing she remembered. Last time, she and the Changeman were also in the verge of defeat against the Gozma. However, she survived with her friends. It was because… she never gave up and bravely fought despite the odds against her and her friends.
"Never." Sayaka said defiantly, "Takeru would never give up... And neither will I!".
"Well it doesn't matter, I suppose." Ahames said as she pointed to Sayaka, "Die!"
She let out energy blast to Sayaka, who dodged, but was nonetheless hit. Shortly after, Hozu also approached her and began to brutally beat him.
"Sayaka…! Guys…!" Takeru looked at how Sayaka was beaten, and gave a look at how his other friends were in extreme danger. He had to help them somehow, but suddenly, it struck him. The rest have seen him acting not like his usual aloof self. The Lord of the Shiba house, reduced to a cowering coward when faced with just ghosts. He was completely ashamed of himself.
Just then, he heard a sound of a throbbing heart. As he noticed, it came from the same room that he went before he met the rest of the team inside the house. His instinct said that it might be the key to defeat Hozu. However, he knew that it would be guarded with lots of ghosts that he feared.
'I can't do it…!' Takeru almost fell into despair. However, he remembered what his friends said…
"In reality, you have faced worse adversaries, and such fear and imaginations would be easy to cut down, if you want"
"You've fought Gedoushuu, a haunted house like this should amount to nothing compared to what they could do"
"All I know is that the Shinkenger is a Sentai team, and a Sentai team is always composed of brave people. Now, do you still call yourself a Sentai warrior?"
'I have to do it…! I have to… cut my own fear…!' Takeru thought as he was cornered. Just then he realized something that he didn't think of due to his fear. 'Mojikara' means 'Character Power'. As of current, he was filled with fear, thus the character 'fear' is dominating him. Fear brought panic to him and it overwhelmed him.
'All right, I need to stay calm…'
Holding his Shodo Phone, he then brushed the kanji of 'Serenity'. After writing it, the kanji went into himself and suddenly he felt rather calm and refreshed. As one zombie tried to approach him, he felt like only seeing a Nanashi troop trying to slash him, in which he calmly slashed it, and it went down. Knowing that he cut down the thing that scared him, he felt extremely glad.
'It's true… I've fought things worse than this. Compared to even the Nanashi… these are nothing! I was only too consumed with my childhood fear… But now I know I can do it…!' Takeru thought as he started cutting down more apparitions. The more apparitions he slashed, the more he felt confident and courageous than usual.
"What? !" As Ahames was joining Hozu to beat Sayaka down, she was shocked to see Takeru even putting up a fight with the apparitions.
"Impossible!" Hozu exclaimed, "Those who get here will be inflicted with an aura that instills fear that would drain their strength due to it! How come…!"
"To use a haunted house for a setting, you did well to make a place to instill fear." Takeru calmly said as he slashed another apparition, "But if one completely resists the fear and have courage… There is nothing that a human like us cannot achieve."
"You fool, you forget that I am the God of this House!" Hozu boasted, "If I will it that you never leave this house until you die, then you will!"
"You think I'll fall for that?" Takeru said confidently as he pointed to the door where the throbbing heart sound came from. Looking at Takeru, Hozu was suddenly shocked.
"Ippitsu Soujou." Calmly, Takeru wrote the kanji Fire with the Shodo Phone, turning him into Shinken Red. Without wasting any other word, he then ran into the room.
"No… NO!" Hozu screamed in panic, "My Queen! Please disable the wall!"
"What's with this panic? !"Ahames asked.
"That… that was the source of all my power!" Hozu said, "If he destroyed the source, all this dimension and illusion I created would be for naught! And those three would get out of their death trap as if nothing happened to them! Then, this house would return to a normal haunted house and we'll be back into the real world! And we'd be in big trouble!"
"So that's how it goes…" Sayaka said as she finally got up. "So if I can keep you here at bay and let Takeru do the rest, we will get out of here…"
"Ah! Damn me and my big mouth!" Hozu lamented as he ran off, "I better hurry!"
"You're not going anywhere! CHANGE MERMAID!" Sayaka said as she transformed into Change Mermaid. However, Ahames blocked her path as other Hidrer soldiers followed Hozu.
"I won't let someone block Hozu's path to ensure you all stay here until you die." Ahames said, "I am your opponent, Change Mermaid!" With that, a fight broke out between Change Mermaid and Ahames.
'Gai, Youhei, Miki, hold on…! Just a little bit more and we'll be free! Believe in Takeru…!'
Shinken Red made his way through the hallway, the same hallway featured in the haunted house, only this time he did not scream in fear, but bravely running to his target deep inside. Any apparitions that came near him were slashed down without fear by Shinken Red.
On the way, however, he found a familiar piece located on the floor. 'What is this…' As Shinken Red picked it up, he noticed that it was a disc from the Shiba House which went missing when all the hijinx began. 'Lightning Disc… What's it doing here…? Well, I'll think about it later.' Putting it on his belt, Shinken Red continued to run forward.
Eventually, he came across a huge red throbbing heart planted onto the wall.
"This looks like it." Shinken Red said, putting his personal disc to his Shinkenmaru, turning it into Rekka Daizantou. 'If my feeling is right, destroying this may pave way to get out of this place. Here goes.'
"Stop right there, brat!" Hozu eventually arrived to the room, but he was too late as Shinken Red already raised his Rekka Daizantou, preparing to attack.
"Rekka Daizantou: Hyakka Ryouran!" With one clean slice, Shinken Red cut down the throbbing heart as it was cut in two and followed with many explosions near the heart, the place started to crumble.
Back in Kourakuen Amusement Park, the team materialized in front of the haunted house. "Wha…? We're out of the house?" Gai said as he tried to get up. However, the moment he noticed that he could move his arms and body, he was filled with joy, "I'm fine again! Great!"
"Whoa! It's like I was never poisoned at all!" Youhei said, realizing that he didn't feel all the pain he previously felt.
"Thank goodness! All those burnt wounds are gone!" Miki said, holding her wrists, checking if it still hurt after quite the time she was chained to a tree, and it didn't hurt at all.
"It was thanks to Takeru." Sayaka, still in her Change Mermaid suit, said, "He managed to cut down the illusion that held you all in trouble. It looks like Hozu possessed that haunted house, arranging it to his image, manipulating it with his power. In other words, it possessed its own dimension and used the house as a gateway. Thank goodness Takeru got rid of his fear of ghosts and managed to destroy the source, bringing us back here."
"That's too long." Takeru said, still in his Shinken Red suit, "Explanations like that should be saved until we completely get rid of that monster." He pointed to Hozu, who also materialized to the real world, panicking. Ahames was nowhere to be seen, however.
"Agh! No! My power…!" Hozu lamented, feeling powerless.
"You bastard… trying to relive me of that one past, aren't you? !" Gai shouted angrily, "You're gonna pay for that! Guys, let's go!"
"OK!" Both Youhei and Miki gave thumbs up as they prepared to transform.
"CROSS CHANGER!"
"BLUE TURBO!"
"GOGGLE PINK!"
And so, the team transformed and lined up, ready for battle.
"Shinken Red! Shiba Takeru."
"Black Condor!"
"Blue Turbo!"
"Change Mermaid!"
"Goggle Pink!"
"Even though we are from the different time and team… We are still united as one!"
"We are… SUPER SENTAI!"
"I may have lost most of my power, but I can still fight!" As Hozu said such, a lot of Hidrer soldiers arrived to help him, "Attack!"
The Super Sentai began their skirmish against Hozu and the Hidrer soldiers. However, as they weren't in Hozu's dimension, they no longer feel tired over time and the Hidrer soldiers' numbers were limited.
Eventually, Hozu shot out several bullets in succession from his windows, only for the Sentai team to leap to him and gave him a flying kick on his face, except of Shinken Red who instead slashed him with his Shinkenmaru.
Several Hidrer soldiers then lined up in front of him, trying to attack. Shinken Red just calmly put his newly found Lightning Disc on him and activated it.
"Shinkenmaru: Raiden no Mai!"
Lightning gathered at the Shinkenmaru and as Shinken Red slashed forward, all the Hidrer soldiers were hit on their weak spot with a stream of lightning, and even Hozu was hit as well.
"Whoa!" Blue Turbo said in awe at Shinken Red's new technique, "Since when did you…?"
"Just recently." Shinken Red said, "I found one of my lost discs at Hozu's dimension."
"One of your lost discs? You mean there's more?" Black Condor asked in which Shinken Red nodded.
"At any rate, we'll finish him first." Shinken Red said, pointing at the now wounded Hozu, and immediately turning his sword into Rekka Daizantou.
"OK!" The team nodded as they combined their attacks; Double Ribbon Spark, Mermaid Typhoon, J-Machine Gun and Condor Finish; to Hozu, greatly wounding him, which ended with the team putting their hands together as Shinken Red jumped on them, which caused him to leap higher and finished Hozu with Hyakka Ryouran. In the end, the monster was destroyed.
"This brings this chapter to a close."
Just a short moment after defeating Hozu, Takeru returned to the Shiba House, meditating in the garden and recollecting the recent events.
'For a long time, I was too caught up with a childhood fear. True… it was embarrassing. But if it wasn't for them… I might still be stuck in that pointless fear.'
Opening his eyes and looking upwards, Takeru took a long breath, remembering his old and new friends. 'Jii… everyone… It looks like in place of you all, I've found myself a group of dependable friends and seniors. I will be okay…'
When he tried to meditate again, Takeru was surprised to see someone approached him. It was Sayaka. Surprisingly to him, instead of her usual white shirt, she was wearing a white kimono. "Sayaka?"
"Nice day, isn't it, Takeru? Are you thirsty?" She asked, approaching him, "I'll get you some tea." However, Takeru was just silent, which confused Sayaka, "What's wrong?"
"No, I just thought…" Takeru muttered, "It's kind of strange seeing you in kimono."
"What? ! How rude!" Sayaka was flabbergasted at Takeru's remark and set up an angry face to him, "I worked very hard in my time to be able to even purchase this! And you… you…" Suddenly, she started sniffing and broke out crying, burying her face on her hands.
"Um, I didn't mean that, Sayaka." Takeru tried to apologize, approaching her, "I mean, I got used seeing you in your usual uniform, that it was surprising to see you in such traditional clothing. It's good, really…"
"BLEH!" In a sudden, Sayaka revealed a joking face, mocking his attempted apology.
"What? !" This time it was Takeru who was taken aback, "That was… a ruse? !"
"Uh huh, it's just a joke. I came here to see how you're doing." Sayaka said as she managed to turn the atmosphere of the conversation for better, as Takeru started to calm down, "Well, you may have gotten over your fear over ghost. But looks like there's something else you fear."
"Upsetting a girl?" Takeru asked with a deadpan voice, "It's a tact that needs to be followed. Not a fear."
"Your bravery saved the day, Takeru." Sayaka said, reminded of how Takeru's sudden turn of bravery managed to turn the table of the battle, "Without it, we might've met our end back then. Thank you."
"Stop that." Takeru said, "I… should be the one thanking you all. If it wasn't for your words, I might still be stuck as the guy who's scared of ghosts, unworthy to lead you all."
"Takeru…" Sayaka muttered, but suddenly, such conversation was interrupted when a hand voice touched Takeru and Sayaka's shoulder. It was a man in skeleton suit, making eerie noises. However, as both of them turned around, their expression was just deadpan, since Takeru just got over his fear, and Sayaka knew that someone used to scare her like that and it didn't work.
Takeru just sighed. And as he stood up, without much impression, he calmly grabbed the skeleton man's head and ripped it, revealing Youhei inside that mask.
"Same thing I saw in that haunted house, in the middle of the day. Very funny, Youhei." Takeru said in a deadpan tone.
"Takeru…" Youhei said in awe, "Wow! You've changed! I thought you'd still be scared, so I wanted to pull a fun prank, but…"
"I told you it wouldn't work, Youhei." Suddenly, from behind, Miki also arrived, "I knew that looking at him, Takeru has changed. You just wouldn't listen to me, and now you just embarrassed yourself in this failure of a prank!"
"Ah… well, everyone makes mistakes." Youhei tried to defend himself.
"Ha! Good thing I didn't take part of this silly endeavor." Gai, who also entered the garden also gave his words. Then, he turned to Takeru, "Still… Takeru, you've proved yourself as a man. I've changed my opinion on you."
"Really?" Takeru said.
"I'm serious. Now that looks more like the one that could lead a team!" Gai tapped his hand on Takeru's shoulder, showing on how glad he was on Takeru getting over his fear.
"Guys. I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for you." Takeru made a honest statement from his heart, "I'll… be counting on you."
"Of course. We'll always look out for you, Takeru." Youhei nodded, taking Takeru's hand and tightening the grip. As he put it to the front, Gai, Miki and Sayaka also put their hands together, symbolizing their bonds.
Takeru has found his bravery and saved the day. However, Ahames and the others would surely find another nefarious plan that would endanger them and the world. Don't lose… and keep on fighting! Super Sentai!
"Impressive burst of courage… Shinken Red…" Back in the evil dimension, Juzou commented, having witnessed Ahames' endeavor against the team from afar. "It looks like Uramasa can't wait to shed your blood… soon…"
Super Sentai vs Super Sentai… will continue at Act 8
Author's note: Whew... The battle scenes seemed rather lacking, or maybe I am just fatigued. At any rate, this chapter mostly is about a one-shot joke in Shinkenger that never got touched again after introduced: Takeru fainting in fear after visiting a certain haunted house. It also showed him growing over that fear. Well, hopefully this will inspire me for the next chapter. Please send in your reviews. Constructive critics are also welcome.