Wakana waited next to her patrol car as the panic had died down. She lost track of her partner in the chaos but had expected him to return to the car at least. She had radioed him but he never responded. She radioed Headquarters and even the nearest Koban just in case he had reported there but nothing.

Another patrol car arrived with two more officers to assist Haruka in searching for her partner just in case he had been injured and couldn't respond. Worst case scenario they'd find a body. The trio had split up to cover more ground. They were to immediately radio if they found her partner or ran into trouble.

After several hours of searching and two more patrol cars arriving to assist, they found no sign of her partner. The only place they hadn't looked was the rubble of the destroyed section of the school. That was the last place she saw him but she had assumed he had gotten out long before the building was destroyed. That was the only place he could be. While there were rescue crews on the scene looking for anyone who could've been buried, they hadn't found anyone yet, dead or alive.

Renka, Shiori, and Taiga sat together in a family restaurant enjoying their time off from school and secretly celebrating their first victory. Their unexpected vacation was only temporary. They had until the debris was cleared and the rest of the school was deemed safe for students. Shiori wasn't sure if she could return but she was going to try.

"Do you think the other ones we fight will be just as easy?" Taiga asked.

"Easy? You call that easy?" Shiori asked. Renka shared the same look as Shiori as they wanted to hear Taiga's reasoning.

"Well, yeah. The monster didn't grow to giant size. We didn't even have to call for our mechs."

"What did the monk call them?" Shiori asked.

"Ancestral Beasts," Renka said. "He told me we'd know how to pilot them as soon as we're inside the cockpits."

"And they'll combine too," Taiga said with a giant smile. "I can't wait to try that out. We'll need to call it something."

"Yeah we can't call it Ancestral Beast Combined Form all the time," Shiori said. "That's too much to say."

"In America, they call it a 'Megazord'," Taiga said. The girls looked at him.

"Wait, they have ranger teams in America too?" Renka asked.

"Not in real life. They have a TV show based on sentai. They call it Power Rangers. They model their suits after the sentai teams and then fight rubber suit monsters based on the real monsters the teams have fought."

"So, they made a TV show based on us?" Renka asked.

"Not us specifically but their first one was based on the Zyuranger team."

"How do you know this stuff?" Shiori asked.

"I've been watching it online. It's actually not bad. I can't wait for them to make one based on us. I wonder who is going to play me."

At that moment, a group of people came in and the moment the rangers saw them they knew they were Antisen. Usually, anyone involved with Antisen didn't have to announce it as they had a certain look to them. It wasn't far off from the old yanki or sukeban look from the 80s and 90s.

The three rangers subtly stared at them as they passed and sat in a booth nearby. They decided it was prudent to stop talking about any ranger-related stuff altogether. Antisen people were unhinged and location didn't matter to them. They'd start a fight anywhere and didn't care who they hurt in the process.

"We need to stop that new ranger team," one of them said. "They cause more trouble than the monsters. The monsters would do less damage if they didn't fight the rangers."

"We could probably even talk down the monsters but those rangers only want to start a fight. I looked up info on past monsters and none of them wanted to destroy Japan. They were trying to find a way to live here but were oppressed by the rangers."

"The Rangers have no right doing any of this. Who do they think they are? They have to be stopped no matter what."

"Right. We need to find where they live so we can make sure they stop being part of that oppressive regime."

"Exactly. The government isn't doing anything to stop them."

"Why would they? They're probably funded by the government. You've seen what they can do. There's no way that stuff just magically appears. Someone has to give them money to make it."

The three rangers remained silent as they heard the group plot their demise. These were the same people they had to protect.

Tenzo dropped down on the couch after his bath. Soaking in the water had been relaxing but today's events were taxing. Sensing his exhaustion and knowing about what had happened at the school, his wife brought him a beer and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm so happy you made it home safely. It must've been terrifying. Did everyone make it out?"

Tenzo sighed. "There's still several students and teachers unaccounted for. They're still working on clearing the debris but the longer it takes the less likely anyone under there will still be alive."

His wife hugged him tightly, supporting him through his emotional turmoil, and relieved he came back home to her.

At that moment, their boys came running out of their room. The six-year-old twins were in their pajamas and should've been asleep but they heard their father's voice. They dashed over to their father and hopped onto the couch with him. He hugged them tightly and placed a kiss on their heads.

Tenzo had come home while his wife was putting them to bed. He went straight to the bath where the piping hot water-filled tub was waiting for him. While he didn't want his wife to feel like she had to serve him, she was more than happy to take care of him however she saw fit. He'd be lying if he said he didn't like it at all. He also did his share of taking care of her. He wanted her to be happy and not feel like she had to do everything even if she was a housewife.

She gave up her career to raise their children. That was her choice. She said the kids came first and were more important than her career. While Tenzo didn't want her to give up her career that she worked so hard to achieve, he was relieved she wanted to focus on the kids and that they could raise them properly.

And no matter what, they'd always find time to care for each other in every way. Tenzo wondered if, they could care for each other after the kids went to sleep.

Haruka sat at her desk as she filled out another report. She leaned back in her chair and found herself examining her hand. She looked at it front and back while moving her fingers in various and random ways. It wasn't injured but rather her ex-boyfriend's words still lingered in her mind. These hands, not only took care of the dead and prepared them for the afterlife, but they fought to protect innocent people from monsters.

Her assistant, Tokide poked her head in the door, informing her that a family had just arrived. She got up and followed her young assistant to the lobby. A middle-aged couple stood from their seats as they watched Haruka approach them. She had expected them to talk about burying one of their parents but this job had taught her that children die too and this was another one of those cases. The couple's son died who was only in elementary school. The monster attack had caused a panic and the boy was trampled.

Haruka fought with all of her willpower to suppress her rage. She planned to unleash all the pent-up rage on the next monster that reared its ugly head. She listened to the details the couple wanted for their son which included being cremated in his soccer uniform.

With a tightly gripped fist under the table, she assured the couple their son would go into the afterlife peacefully.

Several Jipnas returned to the black sakura tree with captives from their assault earlier that day. The captives were dropped hard on the volcanic rock floor of the forest. Some of them were high school students who wore the same uniform as Renka, Shiori and Taiga. Others adults were teachers, including the one who blamed Shiori for stealing her wallet. One of the adults was Wakana's partner.

Spirits emerged from the energy wall and circled their prey like sharks before invading the bodies. The people screamed as their bodies transformed into other Japanese people from the past. Once fully transformed, they stood up straight and looked themselves over approvingly.

"Our army is growing," Tachibana said.

"We can't be incompetent like Koiso," Asaka said.

"Koiso was an acceptable loss and there'll certainly be more along the way," the white circles said appearing to peer down at the adult male captive that had yet to be transformed. This one was specifically for the being with white circles. The man wore a military uniform and held the rank of captain. The white circles disappeared as a red energy ball surrounded by swirling black mist emerged from the wall. It invaded the man who howled in agony as his body changed.

Once the transformation finished the new man stood and just like all the others, looked himself over. He pulled a pair of glasses from his chest pocket and put them on. Light reflected off the lenses making them appear as white circles. This man was arguably the most infamous person in modern history, Hideki Tojo. He looked at his generals and then at the energy wall surrounding them that housed countless more entities that were just waiting to be released.

"But they're all worth the goal of protecting Japan."

To be continued...