Shison Sentai Rekinger 01 – Resurrection! The Black Sakura Tree

A female Gedoshu sprinted through the thick, dark and uneven terrain of Aokigahara. She firmly held onto an urn as she darted around the trees and hopped over exposed roots while carefully stepping on the volcanic rock floor. There were the occasional human remains and human garbage but that lessened the deeper she went into the forest. She didn't have time to relish in dead humans who decided to take their own lives. She had to finish her objective before the Shinkengers caught up with her.

She came to a massive clearing and placed the urn on the ground near more similar-looking urns. Normally, there were no such clearings in Aokigahara. The other trees steered clear of the tree that was in the center of the clearing. However, they bent themselves to create a canopy as if to protect the tree. The tree wasn't entirely natural as sakura trees were not indigenous to the forest but a sakura tree infused with spirits of the dead will bloom anywhere.

The spirits will also corrupt the purity and innocence of the tree, turning its petals black rather than pink. The mere thought of a black sakura tree would cause disgust among any normal person, but the yokai love such a tree.

The Gedoshu cut open her hand and threw her hand around the spray her blood over the urns. She then placed her bloody hand on the trunk of the tree. Once she pulled away, the bloody handprint glowed purple. She backed away as the lids of the urns rattled before blowing off. The contents inside the urns were sucked into the purple light.

The trees surrounding the clearing disappeared, replaced by a swirling purple and red wall. Spirits shot from the walls and flew all around the area. Some even took the shape of what they looked like as a human.

Two white circles appeared in the midst of the swirling red and purple wall. The female Gedoshu knew exactly who it was and dropped to her knees.

"Grandfather," she said.

"You've done well surviving as the last Gedoshu, Iwanami," a voice said as it came from the wall.

"Thank you, Grandfather."

"Now, I have one more task for you."

The six Shinkengers stood outside the forest. They hadn't dared enter it knowing full well of the dangers that lurked in there even for a full ranger team. It had been some time since the Gedoshu had disappeared into the darkness. Shiba Takeru had not moved since his team arrived. He remained focused on the forest in front of him. On his left was Ryunosuke who was just as focused and stood battle ready. On Takeru's right was Chiaki who had since become bored and somewhat annoyed. He stood up straight with his Shinkenmaru resting on his shoulder. The two girls, Mako and Kotoha had also relaxed but only slightly. Kotoha gripped her Shinkenmaru tightly with both hands and tried to hide her fear while Mako was trying not to become complacent. Genta had become more like Chiaki. He even sheathed his Sakanamaru and crossed his arms.

"While I understand it's not a great idea to follow her in there," Chiaki said. "What's the purpose of staying out here?"

"For when she comes out," Ryunosuke said.

"It's a forest," Chiaki said. "This isn't the only way out."

Takeru didn't say anything. He continued to stare at the forest, even noticing Ryunosuke slightly turn his head toward him, silently questioning their course of action. Ryunosuke wasn't Chiaki's biggest fan but he couldn't deny the logic.

Takeru gripped his sword, raising it. "Here she comes," he said. The Gedoshu exploded from the forest and blasted through their line, knocking over Chiaki, Mako and Genta. Sparks flew from their chests.

"After her!"

"She's insanely fast," Mako said. "We're not going to catch her at this rate."

Takeru stopped running and pulled out his lion origami and his Shodophone. He wrote the three-stroke kanji character for large across the top of this lion origami.

"Origami, Large form."

The other Shinkengers all did the same, calling forth their own. Genta had his own and flashier way of calling his mecha.

"We should combine and just step on her," Chiaki said from his cockpit. No one responded to his comment.

"I don't understand why she's running," Kotoha said. "She would've been better off in the forest."

"Maybe she's not wanting to hide," Ryunosuke said. "Maybe she wants to cause as much damage as possible. We're approaching Shizuoka and which has a higher population than any of the surrounding towns near Aokigahara. But why did she go there in the first place?"

"None of this makes sense," Takeru said. "I want to know why she took that urn into the forest."

"What kind of urn was it?" Kotoha asked. "I know it's the remains of a person but of who?"

"What would a Gedoshu want with a human's remains?" Mako asked.

"I had read stories from the previous generations about collaborators who helped the Gedoshu," Takeru said.

"Humans helped the Gedoshu? That can't be right," Ryunosuke said.

"That's been the case all throughout history," Mako said. "There have been people who collaborated with armies for a multitude of reasons. Some women even bore children from those soldiers."

"Are you suggesting there are some hybrids?" Ryunosuke asked.

"It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility," Takeru said.

"That's a hell of a jump," Genta said. "From collaborators to breeding with them. Not sure I can buy that, Take-chan." Genta listened closely to the comms wondering if he'd be able to hear Ryunosuke make any noise regarding him calling Takeru by his nickname. He knew it bothered him which caused him to do it more.

"I've got a visual," Mako said from her flying turtle. "She's on the outskirts of the city."

"Move to intercept," Takeru said. "Let's deal with this quickly."

The rangers jumped down to the street, drawing their weapons before landing. Aside from the normal sounds of a city, there wasn't any sign of the Gedoshu. People stopped what they were doing as they watched the rangers patrol the area.

They split off into pairs with Takeru and Genta going straight ahead. Mako and Ryunosuke went to the left and Kotoha and Chiaki went right.

Some screams erupted from the temple near Kotoha and Chiaki. They rushed over to see the Gedoshu attacking people.

"Found her," Chiaki said. "We're at Hodaiji temple."

The Gedoshu looked at the two approaching Shinkengers and then took off in the opposite direction.

"She's running," Kotoha said. "Heading west."

Iwanami plowed into a group of people that were waiting at the intersection. She threw civilians all around to shield herself from any long-range attacks.

Ryunosuke aimed his bow but couldn't launch any arrows. Mako waved her fans to clear the civilians and create an opening. The Gedoshu ran into the darkness of a nearby alley. However, Ryunosuke and Kotoha had their opening. He fired arrows as she threw her Land Slicer. The arrows struck the Gedoshu at the same time the Land Slicer ripped through her body.

Takeru, using Kyorumaru, struck the Gedoshu several times from a distance. The sword wrapped itself around Iwanami and pulled her back and slammed her into the ground. There was a sudden explosion that knocked all the Shinkengers off their feet.

"What the hell was that?" Chiaki asked.

The rangers approached the body but it wasn't of the Gedoshu they just battled. That wasn't anywhere to be seen. It was a human woman.

"Where's the Gedoshu?" Mako asked. "Did she switch with a civilian at the last minute?"

Takeru knelt down to examine the body. 'No. He pointed to the wounds on the body. These are from Kyorumaru. This is from Kotoha's Land Slicer and these are from Ryunosuke's arrows."

"That can't be," Ryunosuke said. "I know for sure I was shooting at the Gedoshu."

"They killed a woman!" someone said from the crowd.

"No we didn't," Kotoha said.

Despite their pleas to the contrary, the Shinkengers couldn't calm the crowd. The growing crowd got louder, yelling obscenities and started throwing random objects at the Shinkengers.

Shiba Kaoru sat alone in her room. She ordered no one to disturb her. It had been a few days since the incident and it wasn't looking good. Not only for the Shinkengers but for all ranger teams. Protests had erupted in response to the accidental killing of the politician, Hasegawa Yoshimi, a right-wing nationalist. Despite her extreme views, she still got enough votes to be elected but still remained relatively unpopular. However, her death seemed to increase her popularity.

People wanted all ranger teams to disband and let local police handle all creature attacks. Kaoru couldn't believe the stupidity of the people. Local police did not have the means to handle such attacks. How could they think that would work?

Kaoru sighed as she leaned against the wall. Her eyes shot open and to the window. She saw the silhouette of a person appear on the other side of the paper sliding door. There was a faint light tapping against the wood.

"Enter."

The door slid open to reveal a middle-aged woman wearing white ninja gear. She carefully stepped into the room as if she was trying not to alert anyone outside. Kaoru was relieved to see Tsuruhime returned uninjured. She was one of Kaoru's oldest friends and had been instrumental in keeping Kaoru hidden while growing up. She thought of her as an older sister.

"It's not looking good out there," Tsuruhime said. "All publicly known ranger teams have gone into hiding. The rest who are still on Earth are trying to act as normal as can be. But they're all scared."

"What about the Dekarangers?"

"They've gone into lockdown with forcefields outside their HQ. That hasn't stopped the rioters from trying to get in though. They're debating on relocating their base for a while."

"Find out anything on the body?"

"I sent Sasuke and Saizo to investigate the body. That body is under heavy guard."

"That's usual, even for a politician," Kaoru said. "Abe Shinzo didn't even get that."

"They were able to sneak in and confirm that it is a Gedoshu. It's only human on the surface level."

"So, this thing has been posing as Hasegawa this whole time?"

"It looks that way. Seikai and Jiraiya have been watching her residence and so far it appears legitimate."

"Okay, so if she's been Hasegawa the whole time and her body is now heavily guarded, this means someone else knows she was a Gedoshu, otherwise why heavily guard the body."

"Do you think this was a long-term ploy by the Gedoshu to turn the public against all the Sentai teams?"

"I'm not sure," Kaoru said lightly shrugging. "It's true the Gedoshu wanted to take over but they only had animosity toward the Shinkengers. Plus, they've all been wiped out. Even if this was their end game, there's none of them around to enjoy their victory. There's someone else at work here."

"Whomever it is, their goal is the same," Tsuruhime said. "And it appears to be working. Half the country has suddenly turned on us and the other half is too scared to show their support. If they do, they get attacked." Kaoru looked up at Tsuruhime. "It's bad out there, Kao-chan."

Tsuruhime hadn't called her that name in a long time but after seeing the fear in her normally stoic eyes, she had to ease her tension.

"But what about the eyewitnesses who saw the Shinkengers fighting the Gedoshu?"

"They're being silenced. They're being called Sentai apologists. There's now an anti-sentai group calling themselves 'Antisen'. They're the ones doing most of the rioting."

"I fear for the safety of the new Sentai team," Kaoru said.