After School


Wherever you went in the world, one thing remained surprisingly consistent. If a student was summoned to the principal's office at the end of the school day, you could reliably bet that they were not happy to be there. And whilst this aphorism certainly held true for Tatewaki Kuno, he lacked the traditional sense of intense trepidation common amongst youths in his position as he stared levelly across the desk at the vice-principal of Furinkan High School, who returned his gaze calmly, ignoring the one-eyed mask-wearing platinum blonde girl standing at Tatewaki's back.

"What is it you wished to see me about, Yamaoka sensei? I was supposed to be leading the kendo club through their training regime this afternoon," Tatewaki observed, his words carefully selected to convey his displeasure without being too crassly blatant in his disapproval.

Vice-principal Bunko Yamaoka, a tall and slender man edging towards the far side of middle-aged, delicately pushed his thin, wire-rimmed glasses up his long, sharp nose with a spidery finger. "As you know, your position here at Furinkan High School is... unorthodox. Your father-"

"Is a raving lunatic, and so he appointed me as acting substitute principal," Tatewaki interjected bluntly. "So, what tedious bit of paperwork must I fill in for him today?"

"Actually, it's about Project Sentai," Yamaoka explained patiently.

At those words, Kuno groaned in exasperation. "My father still hasn't given up on that white elephant? Oh, very well... let's get down there..."

At Tatewaki's acquiescence, vice-principal Yamaoka pressed a button concealed under his desk. Hidden servos engaged with the faintest of whirs; the door to the room would have snapped closed, if it wasn't already shut, before engaging locks more commonly seen on a bank vault than a school office. A necessary precaution as the entire office suddenly began to lower like an elevator, descending down a concealed shaft.

The heir to the KunoTech corporation grimaced as music began to play from small speakers built into the desk. "Do we really have to listen to that music? It sounds like an old sentai theme song!"

"The girl your father contracted did insist upon it, master Kuno," the vice principal calmly replied, "She vetoed the Hawaiian music your father suggested…"

"Of course she did. Because if you're going to build a secret base underneath a school, why wouldn't you have knock-off sentai and tokusatsu music on loop in the background? Tatewaki drolly replied.

After a descent that felt like it took minutes, but was probably far shorter, the office-turned-lift descended into a vast underground cavern. Anyone who knew anything about Japanese geography would have known this was a very unlikely natural feature, what with the archipelago's propensity towards violent earthquakes. But the fact it had been artificially dug out was quite obvious, given the legions of construction automatons busy at work all around - either digging fresh space from the bare rock, or erecting half-fashioned structures that would become rooms, monitoring stations, and the like.

At the center of the chaos was a tall, slender, young Japanese woman, with dark hair and dark eyes, clad in the stereotypical white lab coat that would be worn by any scientist in a sentai series. Which was probably exactly why she dressed like that all the time, a Furinkan High uniform briefly visible under the coat. She held a clipboard in her hand that she was constantly flipping through, checking against, and altering with a pen in her other hand, alternating her efforts to berate and badger the uncaring synthetic workers surrounding her.

"Watch out! Clumsy clanking contraptions! We are trying to make sure the school is still capable of standing after we deploy Project Sentai, not have it collapse before we've even started defending it! Ugh!"

"Having trouble with the help, Hakase-san?" Vice-principal Bunko Yamaoka asked as he, Tatewaki and Rose approached her.

"Call me Kei! It's easy to remember, practically one syllable! Still, The artificial intelligence on these drones is pathetic! Is there any reason I am being forced to attend my work with such bumbling bots?!" She snapped angrily at him.

"Well, we could always send the students in detention to assist," Rose dryly offered up.

"Don't be ridiculous, they'd be even worse! At least the robots know how to listen!" The doctor scoffed, "So, I heard that Rose saw something interesting…"

"Yes, The new boy, Ran-something…" Rose offered, "He seems to have some skill to him,"

"Considering he lives with the heathens at that accursed place?" Kuno offered, "Bunch of beasts, and the oldest is worst of all. To think, they had me fooled to the point they had me obsessed with that low hanging fruit. Rose at least shows skill, grace and competence…"

At this Rose discreetly hid her blush.

"But I have had her fighting those barbarians every morning, and she has not shown any signs of improvement, and I barely break a sweat in our spars…" Kuno finished, "A bunch of tricksters, just like their mother…"

"I am aware of their afflictions, sir, but he seems similar to our local former hero…" Rose mused, "Noble, selfless and even doesn't think Nabiki is a heartless lizard,"

"Keep an eye on him," Kei cut in, "We need a good quality Red, and sir, whatever you say, you're no Red! And if he manages to get that 'lizard' to be a heroine… That will be the first from them!"