Episodes 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-end

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第11話　アバレサイキック。ブヒっ。
Abare Saikikku. Buhi.
Abare Psychic. Oink.

Light, sparkling in blue crystalline tumbline water. A waterfall down a dim grotto, a stream pouring away and amongst the rocks under the water in a still pool, is one rock which has crystal gleamings. Looking closer, we see it is another of the dinosaur eggs. Some of the tear-drop marks on it are pulsing with power. That power has an echo, in the coiled shell held in a leather-clad hand. Jannu utters a small gasp and says grimly, "Found it." She is again atop a high building. She comments that this time nothing will go wrong. She looks out over the bay. "Just wait, Asuka." Her eyes are deadly with anger.

Asuka sits, eyes closed, in the Abaranger control room. It is dim, and there are electrodes attached to his forehead. The cords go down his body to a small table on which sits his blade, elegant and long. The room is filled with a soft whistling sound. On the other side of the table is Sanjo, working at a terminal. In front the central screen is a radar, the left shows what I think is a world-map. Suddenly the silence is broken. Ryouga and Ranru come in to look at the right-hand screen, which shows the sleeping Knuckles. Delighted, Ranru says, "Oh, after eating he sleeps, he's so cute!" Ryouga is with her on this and tells her it's great to have another one. "You're too noisy," Sanjo suddenly says firmly. They turn to him in surprise, and he hooks his head sideways to indicate Asuka. Extremely sheepish, they bow their heads and Ryouga apologizes. Asuka blinks and smiles, telling them it's all right. As he removes the electrodes and gets up he says it hasn't worked yet, anyway. Heading closer to Sanjo, who has folded his arms and looks as always slightly put out, Asuka explains that when he came to this world there were four more dinosaur eggs. But at present they've only retrieved the one. And what he's been doing with Sanjo is trying to feed his senses and the power of his sword into the system, to use it to narrow down the search. But still, they get nothing. He's going to have to go out and continue the search by himself.

The door of the restaurant opens with a cheerful jingle of bells and in walks their regular customer. "Hi - " he starts and comes to a surprised halt. The restaurant is empty. He stares around, then comes closer to the kitchen and calls, "Hey, isn't there anyone here?" Of course there is no answer. Rather confused and disappointed, he heads back out the door. Timing is just perfect, for as he leaves, the wall slides back and the counters move aside. Ryouga is at Asuka's back, gently pushing him towards the door. "We'll be all right," he tells him warmly. They give him their encouragement, even Sanjo sort of saluting him. He bows formally in thanks to them and turns, his large sword sheathed in his left hand. Turning to leave he walks straight into the arms of their customer, who had decided to give it another try (mighty loyal, this man). "Oh, I'm sorry! Go on in!" Asuka tells him quickly and races out the door. The man is stuttering his surprise, but now Ryouga bounds to him and squeezes his shoulders calling welcome as he stutters, "Where did you guys come from? You weren't here just a minute ago!" But Ryouga reassures him and gets him settled down. Ranru calls, "You want your usual, yes?" He is still stuttering and Ryouga fills in the blanks for him, "Dinosaur Curry!" he calls. "Yay!" she answers and starts getting it ready. Ryouga reassures the man that the curry will be the exceptionally delicious today, which might not be reassuring after the misadventure with the Sponge Curry. But just then Emi walks in. She slips her bookbag off her shoulders, looking unhappy as she walks by. Ryouga, surprised, notices and asks her with concern, "Hey, what's the matter? Every day you come in and shout good morning, this isn't our usual Emi-pon." She sheepishly glances at him, then decides she will try. "Well, I don't understand, but there's something really funny going on with one of my friends in class!" "Huh?" he responds to her in surprise.

Voffa's fingers touch his keyboard, musical notes weave into the air in discordant tones. "Oh, no good, no good at all!" he mourns furiously. Mikela is also at work. Yellow is a distorted girl's face, blue is a twisted pineapple. Red is... um... good question. Burukogi? Purukogi? "Kogal, purukogi and a pineapple," he says worriedly as he paints. But now in exasperation he wipes the images away. "Oh, it just won't come to me!" An artist's work is never done. Jannu arrives to glower at them. "Don't you have anything for me? We need to gather more tears of Another Earth's people." Just then, the chamber holding Rije creaks open. Jannu quickly turns and bows greeting with respect to Dezumozorlya. "You have found one of the vanished dinosaurs?" asks that mysterious one. "Yes. We can use it in the invasion of Another Earth." She is fized by the glowing, green gaze. "And that is why you want Another Earth's human tears?" "Yes." This confirmed, Rije/Desumozorlya turns to "Voffa," expectantly. He is uncertain and begs off. He isn't ready, yet. He turns to Mikela. "Um, this time it's your turn." Mikela frantically responds, "But I haven't got it yet!" Then he continues indicating, however, that one he's already got out there might be of use to them. Rije's eyes close on their green fire. Jannu listens to Mikela's explanation boredly as Rije looks about and says unhappily, "Today I don't kiss anyone?" She pouts and huffs out a breath. "What a disappointment."

There is a man loading up a box beside his car. He has some cleaning equipment in a bucket next to it, and he straightens up with a weary sigh. He takes some more folders out of the trunk to put in the box. It is to this scene that Ryouga arrives. He looks with interest, then turns to Emi who is behind him. "Is that her father?" he asks. When she confirms, he starts forward purposefully. Emi quickly catches his arm and pulls him back. "Where are you going?!" "Well, to Haru-chan's." "Now just a - oh, come on!" She drags him back around the corner, for Haru is coming out onto the balcony above her father's car. Looks like she's doing the laundry and exchanges pleasentries with her father. Ryouga comments, "They look pretty normal to me." Haru is wearing an apron and says something about tea to her father. "Really normal, nice even." Emi grabs his shoulders and peeps over them, glowering stubbornly at him. "But she got 100% on the last test!" Somehow this doesn't strike him as signs of evil, but she says that isn't the problem, and stands on something to get a better view as she tells him what she saw.

There they were, in class under the bright lights, doing their best on the test. She was leaning her head on her palm in thought when in the row on her left, ahead of her, Haru turned around. Her eraser lay far away from her on the floor, closer to Emi. Pink, with a rainbow wrapper. Haru held out her hand. The eraser twitched, skidded and then flew into her palm. Emi stared, stunned. And then Haru held her hand over her blank test paper. The paper glowed white under her palm and the answers appeared on it.

"That WAS wierd!!" Emi says firmly. "Well," comments Ryouga cheerfully, "Maybe it was just like this!" He has sliding through his fingers a bright red fuzzy things, that I can't remember what they're called. And one who cares to look can see the string stretching past his chin, but ignore that. Up on top of a stone Emi glares at him and says, "No, it's nothing like that!" But she glances back over her shoulder and sees Haru leaving the house, so she quickly pulls Ryouga back with her. Haru tells her father she's off and will buy groceries to fill up the refrigerator tonight. He apologizes that she has to do this, but she responds with good cheer and heads off. Ryouga folds his arms and says with praise, "She's one nice girl." "Ryouga-san, let's go," says Emi firmly. And she pulls him with her to trail Haru. The other girl walks along. She carries a white, canvas bag on which is a symbol which looks a bit like an E. Well, if you turn it sideways it looks like the top of a three-pronged spear.

The same symbol is at the center of a wall of screens, each filled with an image of high school students and their surroundings. The man watching the screens has a strange mask over his eyes, that completely disguises the upper half of his face, which is slightly chubby. He smiles, smug. One screen goes to Haru as she walks along a pathway green with new, spring leaves and the skeletal branches of trees which haven't grown new leaves yet. There are two people behind her in the image, one with a bright red jacket. The image has left them and followed her down the stairs of a subway tunnel or underground passage before the man watching realizes something is odd. He takes control of the image, panning it so he can see behind her as she walks down the stairs. The two people come into view, and yes they are clearly trying to be stealthy about following her. The image is slightly blurred, but that doesn't make them less suspicious. With an angry growl, he gathers his power in a swirl of violet energy. Haru is struck by it, she stiffens and her face goes blank. Now she hurries down the stairs, and her pursuers race after her. But at the bottom of the stairs they find she is waiting for them down the hall, and she is aglow with green light. She reaches her right palm out as wind whips her hair, and tells them in a double toned voice echoing with power that they should stay out of the way of a psychic. They are caught in the wind she generates, crying out as her power throws them back painfully against the walls. Now her eyes glow with purple fire and flames rise up around the pursuing pair, who are just getting back to their feet. They cry out and writhe in pain and terror as they are engulfed. Haru smiles a cold, heartless expression. She turns and walks away. Ryouga slaps his transformer. "Bakuryu CHANGE!" he cries. The red glow surrounds him, and in armor he snatches up Emi and leaps from the heart of the fire. When they land and turn, the flames are gone as though they'd never been. And so is Haru. "She's run off!" comments Ryouga breathlessly. "See, that's what I don't understand. Why did this happen?" Emi pants.

大天才予備校 Daitensai Yobikou. Great Genius Cram School is the name of the facility, with that E mark above. The center is an image of an eye, by the way. Kids are arriving for class, using their id cards to check in. The man watches his screen and gloats about the success of his work. He is bragging to the choir, for Jannu steps out of the darkness to receive his report. She points out sternly that this had better be aiming towards her goal of gathering human tears. He nods gravely and she leaves him.

They are blissfully unaware of the girl who pulls a brochure from its case. It is Ranru, reading the brochure about how this school would make the students into mighty geniuses. There is a picture of the man with his head gear. Ryouga takes the brochure next and reads it a little, puzzling over how this must work. Sanjo takes it next to read critically and here we are aware of a change. Not only is he wearing small, oval silver-rimmed eyeglasses, but his hair is not tied back and he's flattened it down. What he comments gets a concerned Emi to protest again about her worries. He tells her calmly that now she has to go home. When she utters a squawk of protest, Ryouga agrees with his teammate. "Leave it all to us, don't worry!" "But - " she starts to protest. "You be safe, okay?" says Ranru cheerfully. Emi's head sinks. "Well, I don't really think so." "No, really!" says Ranru. She bounces so as to give a better view of her. Though she is much too old for a high school girl's uniform, and perhaps that she's wearing the skirt long is kind of a giveaway that she's faking. They must have dug these uniforms out of their closets. Each one is of a different school. Ryouga's has silver buttons and no tie, but Sanjo's has dark buttons and a red tie. Emi reasons about her good record at school and pleads to be allowed to go in with them. Ryouga finally says, "Okay, then four of us will go!" Sanjo rolls his eyes up at the ceiling, but Ranru accepts Emi happily. Then Ryouga spots a secretary-like lady passing by and dashes over to her to ask where class is. She tells him, and they're off.

A classroom full of young girls and boys, Haru just about the only one not wearing a school uniform. At the front of the room there is a podium, and on that podium there are three bright blue er... white radishes. Daikon. The three Abaranger and Emi have settled at the far back of the room. The girls exhange uneasy glances. And the teacher arrives. His deep voice booms through the room making them jump. He tells them today they will increase their power. Then he turns his head sharply and one of the daicon levitates. It floats in front of him and with his will he slices it into many round pieces. The kids all hold out their palms and the pieces fly to them. They all say, "Thank you, Principal." And they put the slices in their mouths and eat them. "Very good, very good. Now we begin." He holds his leather-clad palm out. A flash of light and their faces all go blank and they are motionless. Laughing, he transforms into his true face. I'm suspecting a Daicon as the plant part. The animal part is a rhinocerous. The mechanical? Maybe it's the glasses. His is Torinoid 3. Tensaikikku. Tensai as in genius, sai as in Rhino. Kikku? Sensing, knowing. Hah, the puns, the puns! He has them all stand up, but then there is a mocking protest from the back of the room. The kids all turn around. The Abaranger toss off their school uniforms and leap onto the tables they were sitting at. Ranru holds a small box in her hands. "Look, everyone!" she commands. She opens the box and pushes a button atop it. Inside is a large flashbulb and the bright flash breaks the children from their trance. Stunned, they mostly fall or just slump down. Emi races to Haru's side. "I came to help you!" she cries, and the other girl stares at her. But at the front of the room Tensaikikku starts to laugh. "How very nice of you to be here, Abaranger!" The students all see him, now. With cries of terror almost all of them break for the back of the room, though Haru stands stunned beside Emi. They race to the doors and pound, struggling with the nobs which won't turn. They are imprisoned here. Their captor says amusedly, "There's no running away from here." Ryouga and Ranru leap from the tables and challenge him for whatever he's done here. But suddenly there are Barmia everywhere. A black one gets its arm around Ryouga's neck. A white and a black one grab his ankles. Another black one gets hold of Sanjo's right ankle, yanks him off his feet and with a white one pins him to the table, his face twisting with pain. A white one manages on its lonesome to get Ranru pinned, and Emi cries out in dismay as her friend stares in hollow-eyed confusion at the struggle. Ryouga shouts, "Emi-pon, help the others, please!" She moves to do her best, but then Haru jerks free and says, "No!" Startled, Emi wheels to look at her. And this sudden refusal amidst the panic gets the other students' attention, too. They all look at Haru. "No, no I'm not giving up my powers." She backs away towards the interested Torinoid. Emi gasps and grabs for her hands. "What are you saying? You all want to be part of the Evorian plans?!" Face twisting with anguish, Haru pulls free. "I'm getting one-hundred on my tests now!" "It's not real, though!" protests Emi. "These results are bad!" She points out harshly that it's just fine if it's not easy. But Haru counters that it's easy for her to say. But her father has problems, their family is in bad shape blahblah or something. And her arguments are swaying the other students, to whom tests have suddenly come easy and they refuse to believe that this can be an evil thing. They turn their will on the suddenly frightened Emi, and the Abaranger watch in dismay as the room fills with a kind of ugliness that can only come from pained hearts. But the Torinoid is amused again, and says she'll understand it all, once she's eaten the psychic radish. A flare of power from both hands whirls into the students, who all stiffen and come under his control again. They move to pin Emi, and Haru brings a piece of the radish for her to eat. She pleads with them, but they force it on her, and while the Abaranger struggle furiously, Tensaikikku laughs. It is Sanjo who calls for the change, and they are all too willing to go with him into armor. They punch their way through the Barmia to him and all three punch him, but as their fists touch, he teleports them away with him.

They land on hard-packed sand, him some distance away. "What's happened?" cries Ryouga. They are on their feet and he mocks them. So they race at him and strike, but he beats them back. With the other two at his support, Ryouga uses the Abare Laser and his shot breaks the Torinoid's horn. Unfortunately this doesn't seem even to sting his pride. He mocks them again. When they attack simultaneously again, he teleports once more. They tumble back to their feet and Ryouga protests, "Now we're in a forest?!" For they are, a forest of young trees. But they are not alone, for as Tensaikikku points out, their friend is here too. The students walk out from among the trees, still mesmerized. And Emi is there among them. They gather at his side, faces blank. And he will have them attack. They raise their hands, eyes filling with purple fire, and blast. Ryouga calls out to them to wake up, but words just aren't going to do it as they blast the trio again.

Emi's gaze falters. Or does it? The shift is so slight as to seem one's imagination. As Ryouga and the others try to recover, she lifts her left hand and adjusts the position of her glasses on her face, raising and lowering them a few times. This catches Ryouga's eye. He gets to his feet, and Tensaikikku mockingly tells his victims to... um... finish off their victims. Another blast of psionic power sends Ryouga tumbling.

Inside Bracchio is is Kera who asks the others, "What shall we do?!" Tyranno answers, "We should go help." Ptera counters, "But all those other people are too close, they'll be in danger!" Knuckles says, "Should we call Asuka?" Bracchio tells them "No, not yet." For Asuka is riding his Raptor along a beach, green weed on the stones nearby. The image of it hopping with him on its back is really, really pitiful this time, they haven't even tried. But when they switch to him reining it in, they're using real footage. The animal stands, shifting slightly, as he pulls out his blade and brings it to his forehead. A flare of white light and he lowers it. "Just a little farther," he says grimly. But when he flicks the reins for them to go on, he is hit by red lightning and knocked from the saddle. He gasps and curls around his wrenched shoulder. Jannu has found him again, and intends to keep him from his goal. She stands and he sees her. Gathering his legs under him he stands and calls her name in fury. She counters that he isn't getting what he wants. He realizes she has the dinosaur. And she tells him he'll never get it. He pulls out the key and transfers into armor to fight her. Leaping, he meets her blade but she gets the better of him (I like her a little for this toughness). But then she calls in the Barmia and leaves while he foolishly allows them to distract him.

Tensaikikku is amused, and now that his troops have tenderized the Abaranger, goes to fight them himself. Has a little fun doing some Aba Red bashing. Ryouga falls. His blade slides from his hand towards the mesmerized teenagers. When he turns to grab it back, it is too late, for the crowd as one is walking towards him, right arms outstretched. They step on his blade as they move over it, unaware.

And Asuka fights the small hoard of Barmia. They are no match for him, as he tumbles them into the tide pools. Another group is rushing him but he knows there is no time. He pulls out his blade, turns the dial on it to summon flame-mode. And he raises it above his head, blue-violet fire gathering around him, then plunges it into the rocks. Liquid fire rolls out and engulfs the Barmia, who melt into it in agony. They bust into flame and the fire-wave dies away, leaving black scorch marks on the beach. Asuka calls for his Raptor and leaps aboard.

Tensaikikku uses his own red fire to toss the Abaranger through the air and teleports them into an abandoned building. The tile on the roof are gone, the floor is broken and uneven beneath their feet. The area is dim, light streaming in through distant windows. They look around in a panic. Where are we now? they wonder. But then the children come screaming at them. But they aren't really there, or they are but not quite solid. They race through the trio, causing painful explosions where they touch. Tensaikikku's face appears in the ceiling to laugh at them and rain down fire. They fall weakly at last. And he's come to finish them off. "It's over," he crows. But then the fine Abaranger blade slips over his shoulder and taps for his attention. Startled, he turns around to find Emi behind him holding it in her hands. And with a scream of rage she attacks, slicing down and cutting his visor in half. The shining light of his eyes goes out, and all the other students slump bonelssly to the dusty floor. Emi crows in delight and Ryouga shouts his appreciation. She calls back, "Thank you Ryouga, you remembered our signal!" The others are confused, Ranru asking for explanation. He tells her that he'd known when she'd raised and lowered her glasses like that, she was not under the control of Tensaikikku. That one is most upset. "Cursed girl!" he snarls. But she responds, "Not cursed girl!" With a flourish she announces proudly, "I may be normal, but I have the heart of Abare Pink!" "But you ate the Psychic Daikon, how come you aren't controlled?" he asks in bewilderment. I'm not sure what she says, but it is to the effect that "Too bad," for eating and drinking blahblah. I think she relates it to the substance having been forced on her against her will and therefore not working so well. On his feet, he is after revenge against her, but our heroes pull out their personal weapons and attack. While Emi cheers them on, the Ryouga tells her to go for it. She fires the gun, perfect aim damaging their enemy and is delighted with her success. So are they. They assemble the Dino Bomber and destroy him. A surprised Rije notices that. And with his destruction they find themselves outside the school, under the light of the afternoon sky. Emi is literally jumping for joy, still holding Ryouga's gun. "Well, we're really back this time!" comments Ranru. And now the stricken students start to wake, confused. They look around.

But of course the energy hurtles into the sky, which then rolls with black clouds and rain drenches the area. To giant size he goes, to Rije's delight, and now they are able to call in their dinosaurs. Bracchio gladly brings them out, and they form Abarenor. This gets laughs from Tensaikikku , who attacks them with a powerful energy ball. But while he gloats, they don't let themselves go down. They attack with the drill and go right through him. He is utterly destroyed. Yay!

Late afternoon, the sky pink and gold. By the river stand two girls. One says quietly, "I'm so sorry, 'Miri. When you needed me - " "Oh, no it's okay," replies Emi. "Now it's all back to normal." And behind them on stairs up to a bicycle or strolling path are the three Abaranger. Sanjo comments stiffly, "If you're healthy and honest, then you don't have to study." Then he adds, "But I don't think that." Ranru glowers at him from the other side of the fence. "Why'd you say that?" He gives her an annoyed look and says, "Well if you think about things, you can enjoy life." And Ryouga seems to agree with him. Ranru is getting slightly annoyed with him. But he is wandering forward to give Haru encouragement (I think I have her name wrong). She smiles and nods acceptance of what he says. Emi bounds in front of him and says with delight, "Cool, Ryouga you always know the best things to say!" She whaps his chest affectionately and he grins at her. But the whapping is having a startling effect. Ryouga suddenly cries out in surprise as he starts to levitate. Emi's accidently sending him spinning, to all of their surprise. She makes the connection with her waving hands in shock, when she turns from him, he is released and falls several feet to the ground. And suddenly she crows with delight, "Now that I have the power, I can become Abare Pink!!" Ryouga dives behind Ranru and Sanjo to get out of the path of her power. They all watch as she moves, fist punching out and then in. "Bakuryu Change!" she cries. And Ptera, before the commercial, asks us "Is Emi really going to transform? Come back and see!"

"Bakuryu, Change!" Emi cries. And when she completes the gesture a puff of pink smoke rises around her. And a little voice starts protesting, "Buhi! Buhi, buhi buhi buhi!" For when the smoke coalesces what they see at their feet is a pot-bellied pink pig. "Why? Why?" is possibly Emi's cry. They all gape at her. "Emiri?!" gasps Haru. And Sanjo says, "That's YOU?" They all circle around the little pig. Ryouga leans down to her and gasps, "You're not Abare Pink, you're Abare Pig!" Sanjo starts it but together they finish, "You have to STUDY ENGLISH more!!"

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第12話　アバレノコギリ、京都を斬る！
Abare Nokogiri, Kyoto o Kiru!
The Abare Saw cuts Kyoto!

Kyoto, capital of Japan for centuries before the seat of power transferred to Tokyo. Kyoto, a modern city lit by modern light, sprinkled with tiered pagodas, temples and shrines marking back to ancient methods of construction. The night above deep and black.... The tourist attractions here and there. Long buildings brightly lit, painted red for the color of life. Lanterns shaped in ancient style but illuminated by elctric lights. Taxis on the narrow city roads. Businessmen wandering home beside the flowing water of canals. A drunken man sings a patriotic song about Kyoto as he staggers on a dirt street. Houses that look strangely old but with neon lights brightening the dirt roads beside them. And a taxi comes along behind him, honking in warning. He turns and greets it with joy, for he needs the taxi. He is a happy drunk. Either that or he's giddy with exhaustion as he asks for a ride. The driver pulls the lever that swings his passenger door wide for the man to get in back. Apologizing and thanking him, and laughing to the air, the man gets inside making much of the tight fit (though there is plenty of room) and tells the driver where he wants to be taken, please. The driver cannot help but smile back and gets ready to go. It is a Kyoren Cab. Just as the passenger door swings shut, there is a strange screeching sound. Both driver and passenger are puzzled. I think the passenger scolds that the driver should not keep trying to start a car whose engine is already running. The driver, of course, knows this sound is not from his engine. But just as he's puzzling the sound changes to that of something being torn through, and the land beneath them starts to shake violently, causing the men to hang on. Cutting through the buildings beside them is a enormous disk casting gigantic sparks into the night sky. The disc is gray with a blue center and it comes towards the terrified men in the now tiny-seeming vehicle, and they scream.

Nearby, something can be seen through the shrubbery. There is a girl in white, watching the fires left in the wake of the enormous saw. She has a sweet, square face, her bangs are cut smooth and her expression is somber.

And at the Dinosaur Restaurant, Ranru reads the headline in the newspaper about something happening in Kyoto. The description of what appeared to be an enormous buzzsaw. On the TV there are pictures to be seen of where said saw had gone through a bridge in the scenic mountains. Now rather puzzled people sit in their cars on opposite sides of the collapsed area, unable to cross. "Could it be a Giganoid?" wonders Sanjo. "A regular one?" also wonders Ryouga. They think about it, frowning. Suddenly their bracelets go off. "Everyone, can you hear me?" comes Asuka's urgent voice. Glad of the distraction they answer him. Much to their shock he tells them he is in Kyoto. He is outside a gorgeous temple, the front of which has stone foxes standing watch. He heads up the steps, looking wonderingly around him. "Fushimiinaritashi"伏見稲荷大 reads the heading on the sign. The temple is red, modern glass, white signs probably of blessings. There are people come to see, some to pray. Enormous bells hang from the rafters with huge tassles dangling down. The statue of a man, or even a god, sites behind fencing to keep the birds and tourists away. The statue wears read robes, holds a bow, a quiver of arrows at his back and possibly a blade in one hand. The grounds are very empty and Asuka wanders them, telling his three friends that the signal was particularly strong, but that last night it had gone out. "Last NIGHT?" yelps Ryouga in worry and looks at the others. For the newspaper they've been reading was about things that happened last night. Looks like the paper is dated May 4, 2003. Heh. Asuka gasps when he hears about it. He stands in front of two red-gated pathways, and for the viewers Ryouga answering him appears framed in the gateway of one as he says they'll have to come down because it's probably an Evorian attack. At that moment, Mai comes out from the back. She wears a lovely pink light sweater with lace collar and teddy bears trimming the waist. "What's wrong, Ryo-chan?" she asks with concern. "Mai-chan!" he gulps and goes to reassure her. This leaves Ranru un-reassured. "What can we do? Suke-san isn't back yet." "And there's also Emi," points out Sanjo. He turns, folding his arms, to look critically at the adorable pig worrying in the traditional dining area. Whether or not they can understand her, she is apologizing for all this. But Ryouga grins and says, "Well, Mai-chan will go to Kyoto with us!" and bounces her up into his arms. She is delighted at the prospect. Ranru nods and gets them moving, "We'd better go right away." They all dash into the back to get ready. Emi-pig calls after them forlornly, "Don't forget to leave a meal for me, please!"

Asuka walks disconsolately along a path framed by pillars painted bright red. Some are older, their color lost. "It sounds like an enormous saw," he thinks to himself about what they'd told him. And then it hits him, the horrified realization and he breaks into a frightened run.

On Dino Earth, the enormous Evorian palace stands filled with the ringing odd melody Voffa has composed. He is beginning to sound quite please, for he says that this new Giganoid will, against the Abare Suits and Another Earth people - he's cut off as Mikela interrupts him to say sneeringly, "No, it's my next Torinoid that will defeat them!" Just then, the bean capsule opens to reveal Rije. She opens her eyes filled with green fire and steps out. Then the voice speaking through her says sternly, "Mikela, Voffa, where is Jannu?" Mikela cackles and tells her Jannu is still off trying to retrieve the Bakuryu. Her expression stern and forbidding, Rije/Dezumozorlya stares upwards.

Light falls through the sparse tops of spring trees. Jannu walks swiftly through the forest. Birds cry in the distance and ahead of her there is an enormous blue and black dinosaur, dozing and surrounded by mist. She holds up the curving shell-stone and gives a little snort. Then she brings that stone to her forehead, and it glows purple. Power sweeps around her, and soon a white glow flares in front of her forehead as she is answered. She opens her eyes and utters a low snarl, turning the stone to point it at the dinosaur, which snorts steam in irritated response. The leaves torn up on the harsh breeze whip around Jannu, and she is tumbled to the ground. She turns her head angrily, but the dinsaur has already plunged its head into the earth to tear away. She snorts with pleasure as she gets back to her feet. "As long as it works, that's all I want to see." She walks on.

The Kyoto JR Station. Our heroes have arrived and as they walk onto the street, Mai drags Ryo forward. "Look, look!" she cries. He follows the point of her finger with his gaze. "Ah, that's the Kyoto Tower!" he tells her happily. They are looking up at the enormous white pillar with a ring near the bottom and a smaller ring near the top. Naturally they go up there to look down on the city below. Mai is utterly transported by the view. "This is so great! Look there!" Ryouga hurries over and clasps her waist firmly. "Mai-chan, now remember we didn't come here today to play - " but the view captivates him, too. "WOW! This is really great!" he agrees with enthusiasm as they cuddle together. Ranru grins but Sanjo regards them with mild exasperation. "Hey you guys!" comes a call. "Asuka!" Ranru answers with delight as he bounds up the stairs to join them. "Lookit this!" Asuka holds in his hand the shattered shell of one of the Dinosaur Capsules and Ryouga gets terribly excited again. "Great! Now we can hurry up and find our new buddy!" But Asuka's face is drawn and troubled. Then he suddenly looks alarmed and dashes across the chamber. "What is it?" Sanjo calls after him alertly. Tearing his eyes from the view he looks at them wildly. "I can feel it! Out there, the sign of a Bakuryu!" Sanjo and Ranru look slightly worried, but Ryouga is eager and delighted.

And so they head towards a white entrance building. Outside a man calls to people. The front of the building has many vehicles parked, and the sign indicates that this place, well it's kind of like Universal Studios. This is a place that showcases the movie sets and things like that in Kyoto. Huge letters on one wall say PADios. Kyoto Studio Park. Asuka tells them it's somewhere in here. They trail him to one of the ticket booths, Ryouga carrying a very excited Mai in his arms. "You're sure about this?" asks Sanjo doubtfully. "Yes," Asuka answers. Ryouga sets a grinning Mai down. She is raring to go in, and the ever-spirited uncle of hers is just as wiling. So in they go.

To this place, which is filled with false store fronts. Where street prams let off happy tourists. Asuka stops and brings his pommel to his forehead, but there is no response to his signal. "All right?" wonders Ryouga. Troubled, he eyes the blade as he looks up and around. "The sign's disappeared again," he says worriedly. So has Mai, she's dashed off ahead of them. But Sanjo says grimly, "If there's no sign, then we'll have to search." Ranru nods agreement and points out, "It has to be somewhere nearby." Ryouga makes an agreeing sound. Then a voice bellows his name down the path. "Ryo-chan!! Hurry up, hurry hurry hurry!" Little Mai, who knows all too well where she is and what she wants to do. She's passed an elderly man in an old-style police outfit, giving directions to a pair of uncertain customers. As she runs on, Ryouga distractedly says "I guess that's what has to be," and goes off after her.

Their meandering takes them into a part of the lot where women walk in bright kimonos, where the buildings ache with simplicity of style from an older time, all made of wood to the naked eye. A trio of people walking past, one an old man dressed in purple and yellow, two holding straw hats and chatting to each other, catches the eye of a rather confused Asuka. He trots forward to get a better look at their backs. Finally he turns in helpless bewilderment and asks, "What is going on here? What is this place?" Grinning, hand in hand with Mai, Ryouga answers him. "This is the Edo Period!" "Huh?" the poor hapless fellow asks. Laughing, Ryouga explains. "This is the set for a movie. Come on!" and heads off down another street. Still somewhat bewildered but beginning to feel more wonder, Asuka trails along with the rest of the group, trying to take in all the sights around him. Walking backwards Ryouga explains, "This here is the Japanese Hollywood!" Behind him there is a man dressed in a guard uniform (blue and white kimono, shiny black hat) and talking to two lovely young girls. Ryouga is telling how this kind of reminds him of when he was in Junior High School when he bumps into the man. "Oh, so sorry!" Then he gets a good look and says in joy, "Oh, you're a SAMURAI!" The man grins back at him and stands proudly until Ryouga asks, "Can I borrow your Katana?" With a shout, the man draws his blade. Ryouga yelps and jumps back, but then the man grins at him. "Sure," and hands him the blade. "Oh, thank you!" Turning to find Sanjo behind him, Ryouga says, "This is so cool!" Then with a devilish grin he takes a quick swipe at Sanjo, who utters a cry and covers his shoulder, expression torn with pain. Then he remembers his dignity and straightens up with a sniff. "You're such a child." Asuka has watched all this with wide-eyes, but finally realizes they were playing and manages a weak smile. Ranru is laughing, too. Suddenly she looks about in dismay. "Where's Mai?" For she is gone and they all look about. Much to their surprise she is nowhere to be seen, and Ryouga hands the blade back to the samurai as they all dash off in different directions to look for her. Ryouga goes through a souvenier shop. Asuka past a fountain. They meet up near er... I think an entrance, but they haven't seen her. Then Asuka spots something which really startles him. Above them there is a figure inching along a thin wire from the second story of a building. "What is that there?" yelps the startled Asuka, grabbing Ryouga's shoulder and pointing. Looking close we see the figure is a animatron or whatever they call these things. Plastic form swathed in black, being pulled and pushed along by machinery. Ryouga says, "Oh, that's a Ninja. I'll go this way." He dashes off, his explanation not nearly enough to clarify things for the bewildered off-worlder. Ranru is in a building and dashes up a flight of stairs. All of them attract attention with their repeated calls of Mai's name. Up on the next floor Ranru wonders, "Where did she go?" But then she gives a gasp of delight and dashes forward. There is a display case full of classic cameras. A Franch Camiflex, and others. She knows her stuff. She is practically drooling on the glass when she shakes herself and dashes off to continue the search for the vanished Mai. A sculpture of enormous demon heads which rotates as a waterfall passes under it. A patio for weary tourists to sit and rest their feet. Sanjo wanders through, eyes sharp for Mai. Down a dirt street, he pauses to glance at something between the red buildings. This is to duplicate the um... well, ease and comfort district? "Yoohoooo!" says a sudden, bubbling voice. A woman heavily costumed and make up like a geisha, coiffered with a wig larger than her head, waylays Sanjo. "Oh, you're such a handsome man!" she says, and starts dragging the rather startled fellow into the building she's stationed at. Two friends help drag him in.

Asuka enters a dark building full of shadows, dust. The sound of wind whistling hollowly. "Mai-chan," he calls, voice trembling. Bodies lay in the dust. The corners are black and deep. A man caged behind bars shifts and moans, reaching for our nervous hero, who yelps and hops back. A woman rises like a ghost from a barrel, voice a wail. So is Asuka's but he still manages to call for Mai. A body hangs from one wall, face bloody and deep hollows under the white eyes. Suddenly with a groan the wall falls towards Asuka. He jumps away only to have another door open ahead of him and a screeching man with thin white hair leap at him. I'm afraid that was all he could take and he fairly flies, screaming, from the haunted house. Other customers on their way in gape at him as he dashes past them.

"Mai-chan!" calls Ryouga, passing an artificial pond full of green water. He is in front of a costume shop and finally gets an answer, her calling his name. He spins around and says her name with some frustration but she hasn't noticed. She bounds out to show him her costume. She is in black tights, colorful Y thong sandals with red and black ribbons anchoring her ankles. She has netted sleeves and a dark, dark blue tunic over which is belted a tunic and she has a bright blue scarf around her neck. Yes, she is Blue Shadow! Ryouga gathers her grinning form into his hold and says scoldingly, "We were really worried about you!" poking her with his finger. "I'm OK!" she says, cheerfully flipping her hand wide near her nose. This is a salute, not mockery.

This crisis over, the group meets together in a quiet part of town. Ryouga apologizes sincerely to the others, and Asuka shakes his head that it's all right. It seems he's managed to get the seriousness of it across to Mai, who looks truly embarrassed as she bows her apologies to them. Sanjo sets a hand on her forehead telling her not to wander off like that, when we notice something a little funny about his face. He has lipstick prints all over, from at least three different sets of lips. Ranru notices right away and points with effort holding a straight face, "What're those?" He realizes what she's looking at and he goes white, horror on his face. Then Mai turns and says, "Look, Bakuryu!" Asuka gasps and whips around, but to be sadly disappointed. The green head rising form the artificial pond is made of fiberglass, the hissing sound from a hidden speaker. A second, much smaller head rises. It, too, is mere artistry. Ryouga gently explains to Mai that they aren't Bakuryu, merely ordinary dinosaurs. Extremely disappointing for Asuka, who was really hoping. Perhaps he's beginning to think he was wrong all along. But then the screaming starts, almost loud enough to drown out a distant rumble. Ryouga snatches up Mai and our heroes dash off to investigate.

The giant buzzsaw tearing through the streets and buildings is moving terrifyingly fast. Customers and actors flee in terror and confusion. And so do our heroes as it bears down on them. They hurtle around a corner and change into their armor. Still carrying Mai, Ryouga leaps with the others up to the top of a wooden tower. Asuka calls Bracchio, who responds poetically, "To protect the small lives," as he comes out of the depths of the lake and goes on about love and snow. They have to listen more for the danger they are in than to him, though. The saw bears down on their position and they have to leap from it, terrified. They are just in time as the tower is cut in half. They land on the cement of a parking lot and stare up, stunned. And walking around a corner is Jannu, observing it all. They do not know she is nearby, but she knows where they are. She speaks to Asuka, though he cannot hear, that this is the first time he will fail to protect this world. The stone glows bright purple in her hand as she fixes her will to it. And then she sends out a signal to the buzzsaw, calling it's name. It cuts through a building and rolls to a halt in front of them and Asuka gasps with horror. For their is the sweet blue and gray Dimenocodon. It swings a head full of golden fangs to look at them. "Dimenocodon!" cries Asuka, "Why are you doing this?" "It's the Bakuryu?!" gasps a shocked Ryouga. But Jannu isn't finished. She tells it to go and destroy Kyoto. Then she teleports away. The dinosaur turns and starts walking away. Asuka cries, "Wait, please, Dimenocodon!" and runs after him. Ranru is quick on his heels. A police or security guard has arrived on the scene, looking quite confused and stunned. Ryouga quickly hands Mai off to him, asking him to take care of her. He straightens up and salutes, promising. She callls encouragement to her uncle as he dashes off.

And on Dino Earth Voffa completes his composition and hollars to Dezumozorlya about it, snatching a fruit to throw into the musical notes hanging suspended in the air. His Third Giganoid, named Tokei. It is far above them, a bit lizardlike. Dezumorlya comments, "The Tyrannosaurus and the others combining is troublesome. The Abare Suits and the people of Another Earth, too." Voffa bows to her. And Rije is allowed to manifest. Looking up at the looming giant she laughs. "How cute! Good luck!" and she blows the magic kiss at it.

Dimenocodon tromps through the city, its saw whirling and now everyone can see the horror of what is attacking them. Asuka cries frantically to it to stop. But then the Giganoid appears in their world. It wriggles and writhes, then starts tromping along. They see it in horror. Ranru calls into her bracelet, "Ptera, where are you now?" She is answered that they are coming, they'll be there soon. "HURRY!" Ranru calls frantically. Asuka turns to them. "You all go after the Giganoid, and I'll try to stop Dimenocodon!" They are quite willing. And off they all go. Asuka races on foot after the Dimenocodon, which is walking along and making all kinds of noise and destruction. And there is someone watching all of this with a troubled, stern expression. The beautiful girl, face a study in perfection, who also happens to look exactly like Rije. Well, except for that lack of the four gems on her cheekbones, for one thing. She stands amongst the trees, bushes and watches. And so too do the three bright-colored Abaranger, as the huge Giganoid starts taking bites out of a building. They are amazed. So is Rije, who is "watching." She leaps from her perch to go ask for an explanation from Voffa. He replies that it has to fuel up in order to work. More specifically, on old things. What he says reassures her and makes her grin. And the Abaranger wonder what they can do until their Dinosaurs arrive. Well, Ryouga suggests the Dino Bomber. This was probably not the brightest idea, for when the power hits the Giganoid, it turns on its attackers. The eating it's done has given it the strength to use its own magic. And by the way on its face is the word EVOLIAN. A beam of red light plays down at the trio, engulfing them and they cry out in fear and agony. Asuka hears their screams through his bracelet and this brings him up short. He calls their names frantically. And they, engulfed in an increasingly bright light, twist until they flare away. The angry monster tries to continue its rampage, but it is hit again by a blast. Bracchio has arrived, small head on long thick neck down to enormous body. He's come here so quickly he cannot be careful of his steps, and foliage is crushed and pushed aside under his mighty feet. "Answer me, please! Ryouga-san, Yukito-san, Ranru-san!" Asuka cries into his changer. But there is nothing, nothing except Dimenocodon rushing through the woods in one direction, and Tyranno, Kera and Ptera racing towards him from another. Tyranno shouts at Dimenocodon for explanation, for he is brightly colored and not the faded yellow they were. But he does not answer them. Ptera and Kera come head to head with him, his saw whirls in his back as he rages, then curls over to attack them with the deadly blade. Asuka sees and cries out to them. Bracchio, too, tells him the battle continues. He blows a fireball and the Clock Giganoid, which counters with blue firebolts. The two beams hit and Bracchio loses, getting a mouthfull of the other creature's bolts. "Bracchio!" cries Asuka. Receiving no response he looks up at the sky. "What are we going to do?!" But now he, too, is struck and this time by vicious red lightning. The power blasts him from his armor and he falls, landing hard he twists to look at his assailant. Jannu. She is so very pleased with herself, too. He scrambles up to face her, but she is pleased for she has Dimenocodon under her control. And with the shell-stone, she uses it to transfer into the ancient armor. But the armor, too, has undergone a change. It is more stream-lined, a sweeter balance of curves. More feminine but no less powerful. She tells him, "The Abare suits and the Another Earth people won't be coming back. And soon you will come to your end." She stalks at him. It is her voice we hear now, distorted by the power of the armor but recognizable. Shaking, Asuka demands "What did you do to them?" I'm no sure what she says.

But they are falling, falling down a tunnel of light, the marks of a clock that they pass through. And Ryouga lies on gravel and sand. There is a murmur of many voices. Leaning over him are six men and six women. Their gray, green and blue kimonos are not so bright as the ones we've been seeing. Their hair, though shaved and tied back in an ancient style, is not overly large or shining with plastic deorations. Their faces are clean. When Ryouga groans and stirs, the frightened people all leap back. He is not alone, for Ranru and Sanjo are there with him, scrambling to their feet and ready to fight while the nervous people who were hovering over them flee in all directions. The houses are wook. The roofs are tiled in ceramic. "Where are we?" gasps Ranru. The people are peering out at them from behind poles and around corners. Suddenly a voice calls out. There is the village samurai, his clothing heavier and grayer than the man we'd seen before and behind him a group of men without helmets, his men who follow him to challenge these strangely dressed outsiders. Ryouga concludes that they've stumbled into a movie set and bounces forward to point at the blade he assumes is real. Provoked, the man draws his weapon and those with him follow suit, faces hard. Ryouga instinctively dives when the man takes a swing, and skedaddles back behind a heavy, wooden sign. "What'd you do that for?!" he growls from this fragile protection. The man growls at him, steps forward and takes another swipe with his blade. The wooden sign is sliced smoothly apart. Ryouga gapes. "No way." As the man raises his blade again, Ryouga clings to the part of the board still hanging and yelps, "That thing's REAL?" Sanjo, eyes wide with panic, and Ranru looking horrified decide this is a good time to run for it. They take off at high speed and Ryouga, not too slow on the uptake, hotfoots it after them. It takes only an instant for the guardsmen to pursue. Our trio dives around the corner, while confused townspeople gape at the activities and the guardsman keeps shouting at them to wait.

"WHAT?!" cries Asuka. He is rather bewildered by Jannu's suggestion the others will never be coming back. And the battles outside keep going on, Clock Giganoid blasting Bracchio, who is forced to retreat slowly. And he reports that the others are having equal difficulty with Dimenocodon. But he believes in them, and Asuka chooses the same. He will believe that his friends will get back, or be gotten back, to him somehow. Jannu is not sympathetic of this, hahah. She launches herself at him, grabs him by the throat, pins him against a tree and starts kicking. He transfers into armor and starts to hold his own.

Our three lost ones are racing, and they are fast. The guardsmen are having to work just to keep them in sight. Around corners, between houses, along lanes cooled by the shadows of leaves. The three make a sharp left , terrifying a man and woman preparing a meal, and another set of people hanging up laudry on poles in front of their house. They make it into one open area and skid to a startled halt. For up ahead of them is a Daimyo's castle. It towers above, and the color, as well as the absence of annoying bright colors around them, finally makes one thing clear. This they state in horror and disbelief to each other but it is Ranru who finally comes out and says it. "We're in the Edo Period?!" But they hear the cries of the guards who are catching up with them. "Hide!" calls Ryouga. Sanjo dives into an empty bucket and slides the cover shut over him. Ranru slides open the door of the building and slips inside, sliding it shut, panting. Ryouga can find nothing but a wooden cart. He makes the best of it, though. He watches as the guards collect, and their commander sends them off in other directions. It is he who comes Ryouga's way. He goes to the end of the street and looks both ways, eyes sharp. However, he has passed by Ryouga who nervously gets up and just cannot figure out what he should do. But then he turns with an alert grunt. Ryouga tries uselessly to shrink behind the thin pillar he is standing at. Useless, he knows it and whimpers with fear. Suddenly a small child pops up in the cart. "Push me!" he commands imperiously. He has a topknot, a fringe of bangs, and the hair elsewhere is shaved. Ryouga stares up at him. "Eh?" he asks. "Hurry up!" the boy commands and settles himself firmly in the cart. Ryouga, confused as he is, obeys the imperious child. He rolls the cart out into the road and turns in to face the furious commander of the guard. Inside the cart there is a strong bamboo pole, and as Ryouga shouts a battle cry of "Go!" and runs at the guard, the little boy picks that pole up. And when they get to the man, the child cries out, striking forward with the pole and hitting the man hard. He is knocked over, lands flat on his bat and loses consciousness. The boy runs beneath his nose with a smug chuckle, and Ryouga grins his delight and applauds. The child twists around, looks slightly bewildered, then gives him a thumbs up. Sanjo is peeping out from the bucket and gives an impressed noise. Ranru from her hiding place is more vocal in her delight and they both come to give congratulations and stare at the child. Again with imperious firmness he tells them, "Get!" Ryouga thanks him and they start to dash off, but then pause. "What's your name?" Ryouga calls back to the boy. "Daigorou!" is the answer. For a moment, the three freeze and stare at him, recognizing the name. And then a man cloaked in a deep, gray light kimono steps out of the shadows. A huge rice-hat obscures his face, and a long katana hangs at his side. Never looking at them, he takes the handle of the boy's cart and starts away with him, calm measured stride. The Abaranger gape. Ranru stutters, "They are - " she can't bring herself to say it. Sanjo says softly, "So they were really real. The Lone Wolf and Cub." The pair disappear around a corner, passing by the unconscious man. Ryouga snaps out of it first, grabbing Sanjo's arm and reminding the others they must flee. With gasps, they all race away.

And in the present, Tyranno and Dimenocodon are holding each other at a standstill. But Tyranno is alone, and slowly giving ground. In response to the saw he uses his drill-tail attack. Doesn't work well, and Dimenocodon is able to knock him over. He lies next to the other two, energy crackling along his tail, and himself shifting in and out of consciousness. Dimenocodon shrieks in victory. Asuka is having similar difficulty with Jannu, who is cutting him to pieces. Not literally. But she takes him down and is ready to finish him off. But when she raises her blade to direct the killing energy blast, a child appears in front of her. Glowing white delicate dress. "Rije!" Jannu gasps and raises the blade to hold off. Asuka twists over to gape at the small form standing his protection. But the girl glowers at Jannu and shakes her head ever so slightly. That was not needed as such, for Jannu has already realized that this isn't Rije. "Who are you?!" she demands angrily. The girl's lips thin.

Ryouga leads the others down another narrow path between buildings hung with coils of... something, coiles at any rate heck don't ask me. There are baboo decorations, heavy gray bells. The panting trio keeps running. Someone else is running, too. Someone in a brilliant red kimon decorated with gold and flowers. The kimono is tight around her legs, making her take mincing steps but she hurries gamely on anyway. In her elaborately coiffed hair are decorations of red and white flowers, I'm just going to pretend I know they're not plastic. She is frantic, this girl, looking back over her shoulder and clutching her hands to her throat. And there is something rather familiar about her face and the pitch of her whimpers. She collides headlong with Ryouga under a blossoming cherry tree and they both go down, Ranru and Sanjo skidding to a stop. They are in front of a dark building with a watermill going around slowly. Ryouga gets back to his feet, apologizing profusely and checking to see if she is all right. Startled to be addressed, she pulls out a pair of glasses (yes, they did have glasses in Japan in that time period, not today's type as such but sadly they had to adapt a modern pair for this. "And the role of the glasses was played by..." sorry, I digress) and peers at Ryouga through them. It is then that, despite the hairstype and the powered face, the delicate red color to her lips, who she looks like becomes clear. The face is Emiri's. Ryouga, not always the brightest star in the sky, greets the girl with delight. "Emi-pon! What are you doing here? You were a pig!" This gets a very logical, if somewhat surprised, response. "I am no pig!" Outraged, she gets to her feet and informs them regally (with all sorts of cool 'Hi I'm way better than you low-born morons' vocabulary) that she is the daughter of so and so and a princess. She probably says her name, but what with their efforts to be realistic in ye-old vocabulary, I'm not entirely sure what she's saying. "Princess Saki," perhaps. They all gape at her. And then there is the thunder of hoofs. A white horse is racing on the hard-packed dirt of the streets. The princess hears it neigh and quickly takes the strange trio on as her er... protectors. Or at least as someone convenient to hide her. The four duck together into a building and hide behind bales of something. But the rider seems to have some psychic knowledge, for he reins in his horse right in front of the entrance. The princess whimpers and makes herself small. Ryouga gapes at the clothing he can see under the cloth sheltering the entrance. Blue top. White pantaloons with gray designs. Rice-straw sandals feet clad in white. Something out of legend. The man seems to have a cane. He turns and walks towards the entrance while Ryouga is getting more and more excited. For the symbols on his clothes are something very old and respected. All three Abaranger peer out, eyes round. They are afraid of what they will see, and yet terribly excited. Who? Who? Who is it?

Ryouga can't handle the suspense and bounds to the door to ask if it is who he thinks it is. But the man who comes in says he is not, but identifies himself as Tachinosuke. And guess who he is the spitting image of. Except his hair is darker, he is supposed to be younger and they did do a good job with that. "Suke-san?" Ryouga puzzles in surprise. The others pop up from behind the bales to stare at their friend's doppelganger. Gracious, they even did his eyebrows and beard! He, however, ignores them and calls out to the princess behind the bales. She has to return to her father. She minces out the door, fleeing him with all sorts of comments on how the trio messed up in hiding her. Tachinosuke pursues her, trying to reason with her. The horse stands and patiently waits, ears fanned out to the side as the colorful trio stands nearby and watches the scene. "I'm never going back!" she vows. The old man calls to her to wait. She rounds a corner near a bridge before he catches up with her and grabs her shoulders. She wriggles furiously. "No, no, NO! Let go of me!" she shrieks. And then shrieks again, wordlessly, when hollow wooden spears seem to drop from the sky to embed themselves in the dirt at her feet. The man screams, too. Naturally the Aba trio arrives to see what's happening. "What happened?!" Ryouga calls to the princess. She points a shaking hand beyond the spears and they turn to look. It was never the spears that frightened them. It was instead....

Three dark and sinister men. The man at the center in a black kimono, the two at his sides in dark gray. A menacing wind kicks up the dust around them as they stalk towards the princess and her dubious band of protectors. Each man looks murderous. The blakc-clad on has an eight o'clock shadow. His hair is thin atop his head, eyes looking small and beady. One man wears a lighter gray kimon, hair a shock of thick, smooth black. A beard shadow beginning, and a stick of straw or rice dangles from between his lips. The third, in a more silken kimono, has a bit of a widow's peak. His hair is long enough to be tied back. His is a handsome face, but no less menacing for it. Tachinosuke isn't sure what he's facing. Ryouga comes to the logical conclusion that they must be bad guys. They stalk towards our heroes. I wonder if they're also something out of legend or far older ninja/samurai stories. Our heroes and their two new companions huddle nervously close to each other. The Abaranger are shaking, their knees trembling, but then still position themselves protectively in front of the more vulnerable two.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第13話　アバレてチョンマゲ！
Abarete Chonmage
The Abare Samurai Topknot!

The Dimenocodon stops and lets our heroes get a good look at it, before continuing to commit rampant destruction. It hits Kera pretty hard, also Tyranno and knocks all three down together. And the enormous Evorian Clock Giganoid turns its power on the three primary colored Abaranger. They are sent far, far back in time, to the Edo Period when the doors of Japan were closed and the outside world was considered as alien and distant as the moon. There our trio encountered an Edo noblewoman who was the spitting image of Emi, running away from her family. And pursuing her the family's elderly Samurai retainer, a man who looks exactly like Ryunosuke. And they are being pursued by a trio of lethal assassins.

But in the present, the battles are still going... going... well, the Clock Giganoid's blasts force Bracchio back. It trundles in pursuits and raises its head to continue blasting our mighty dinosaur. On Dino Earth, Mikela fiddles with a strange piece of technology, Rije bounces with delight and... the strange machine proves to be a makeshift camera. He calls the to pose and they all do as the camera snaps a picture. Flash. It blinks its eye and out comes a sweet photo of the three of them.

While they're fooling around, Jannu is continuing her campaign to slice Asuka into little pieces. She's a talented woman in that respect, I must concede. She gets him down and prepares to finish him off, only to find there is a little girl standing in the path of her blast. A little girl with long, black hair, dressed in glowing white. A girl who looks exactly like Rije. Except for not having a Dragon person's little gems on her face. "Who are you?" Jannu demands furiously.

But the girl looks saddened for an instant. "Is it alright?" she asks.

"Huh?" wonders Jannu. But she doesn't wonder for long. The girl suddenly levitates, and Asuka gasps in surprise as she floats away... into Jannu. Inside Jannu. And within the armor, the woman's eyes open wide and brilliant brown in shock. Within her mind she sees Asuka's face, his form obscured by brilliant light. His hand reaches for her and he is beautiful (though I doubt she's thinking that herself). He starts to turn away and a voice calls his name tenderly, teasingly. But it is her voice, a tone she's never used. And he swings back to face her with a smile. Within her eyes is the hidden reflection of... her own face, free of the red leathe. Not her own face, she might argue. The face of Mahoro, wearing a warm and loving smile. She hears him say her name tenderly and tilts her head back, eyes closed as though waiting for a kiss. And sheer, white light overwhelms the vision.

The girl in white is now a bare few meters behind frozen Jannu. The armor Jannu wears starts to glow as it deactivates, and the girl turns around to face her. "Is it really alright?" she asks, her eyes puzzled.

Jannu spins on her, free of the armor and free of the horrifying vision she's been shown. Her face is blotched and red, eyes shining with pain and fury. "WHAT did you DO to me?!"

"Nothing," the girl says miserably. She fades away. And Jannu glowers as tears run down her cheeks. The sensation shocks her and she gasps, raising a hand to touch the moisture and stares at her damp fingertips. "I'm crying?!" she says shakily. "Why? Why me?!" She stares at where the girl had been and gone.

Asuka has lost his armor and finally made it to his feet, favoring his injured ribs. "Jannu?" he says uncertainly, for this is certainly a new development for him. But she is furious and now in no mental shape to continue the battle. Without looking at him she snaps something and teleports away. Above him there comes a cry. He looks up to find Dimenocodon has stopped and then the giant bows its head and burrows into the ground. Bracchio has turned the tide of his own battle, blasts forcing the Giganoid to lumber backwards. It, too, burrows into the sheltering Earth. He tells Asuka he has done it. Asuka hears but there is no relief. For he is puzzled about the girl who had appeared, and what exactly had happened after that.

AAAAAaaaand in the past, some time during the Edo Period, another battle is going to have to be engaged. For the men in dark kimonos stroll menacingly forward at our three heroes and their two erstwhile companions. Ryouga bravely snarls "You guys have scary eyes. Keep that up and you'll never get a girl to like you!"

The man in the center answers in a voice laced with darkness, "Princess Saki, we're going to kill you." Suke-not-same-san throws the frightened girl behind him. The three men draw their long katanas. But this doesn't get quite the reaction they surely expect.

Sanjo's eyes blaze and a smirk crosses his lips. "I guess we have to," he says coolly. And Ryouga and Ranru are in complete agreement with him. For they change into their fighting armor. The brilliant, strange outfits stun the pair they protect. And Ryouga starts firing at the startled men's feet, causing them to jump to escape the flashing sparks.

The princess and her retainer, cringing at the initial sound of the guns, start to get very excited. "Ooooh!" gasps the girl. But of course the three men are only seriously infuriated.

"Damn you!" curses the fellow who appears to be the leader. He goes at Ryouga with blade ready and a fire in his eyes.

But Ryouga is quick and evades the blade. His armor is proof against this ordinary weapon, and he pins the man, then uses two fingers to snap the fine metal. Half the blade falls to the hard packed gravel under their feet. The man he's fighting gasps in shock, but has no time for more as Ryouga twists around, grabs his throat and flicks his face, sending him flying onto the lesser roof over the hanging paper drying under the rafters of the nearest building. He hits his head against a hard wooden strut and rolls back down to fall at Ryouga's feet. Their audience is gleeful at the easy victory. Ranru is against another of them, man in light gray kimono. She attacks with her feet, kicking him back, back and back. She finally kicks him through the fragile doors of a building. He lands among straw panels. The two watchers are very pleased. Sanjo, meanwhile, drags the third along the surface of the road. Getting the man up to speed, Sanjo gives an extra push and lets his body slide away. His head collides with a cart of some kind, and empty buckets rain down on him from above. He tries to protect himself, but gets hit hard and loses consciousness. The princess applauds them and asks them where they possibly could have come from. Ryouga tells her happily that they are the protectors of peace, the Abaranger. The girl giggles over that, and her retainer is delighted, too.

But hundreds of years later (okay, maybe only two hundred), on Dino Earth, someone else is not delighted. "Eh? WHY?!" asks a very confused Mikela. Rije, concerned for him, bounces over.

"What's wrong?" He hands something to her, sputtering about it, and she takes a look with curiosity. It is the photo they had just taken. And their images are disappearing from it, slowly, from the bottom up.

"Why, we're ceasing to exist!" gasps Rije. "That can't be right! Why?!"

Voffa stutters, "What is going ON, Mikela?"

"I don't know, I'll try to find out!" he whines in equal confusion. Off he goes. Rije continues to stare at the photo, from which their images are vanishing with disturbing speed.

And, in the Edo Period... in part of one of the extensive noble houses.... Ranru, Ryouga and Sanjo sit on their knees, on pillows, before the princess. They have learned they are three hundred and fifty years in the past and explained it to her. She is amazed, but she tells them that however unbelievable she still believes it. There are small tables in front of our young heroes. They thank her for her belief and bow to her. But her retainer wants to know how they came to be in this time. And are they going back to the future? Sanjo answers him with troubled brow, that they were time-slipped by the Giganoid, and he doesn't know if they will ever get back. Ranru looks distured when he says this. And the princess asks about the fate of the small child, which lends to Ryouga's unhappiness written on his face. But he rallies, for he always makes the best of his situation, and clambers to his feet. If he can't get back, he'll at least protect the future for Mai's sake! The princess is delighted.

The future. Mikela is reading a newspaper. Inside is a picture of when the Evorian fortress first loomed over and attacked Tokyo. The newpaper talks about the panic and just what the HECK was that thing. But in the midst of reading, it changes. Into an image of what looks suspiciously like the last shot of a war... and the headline sings victory... and the word Evorian is written in the paper sub-headings. All destroyed, it indicates. He reads the headlines aloud again to his two companions in total show. "We're completely destroyed?!!!"

Voffa reads more, confirming the headline and Rije says in distress, "But this is terrible! What's happened?"

But Mikela is not too slow. "Oh my heavens... those that we sent to the Edo Period... they must never have given up. And they changed the future...."

Rije turns away from him in shock and stares down at the photo. The blackness has reached most of the way up their chest. "So you mean we will just disappear?" She drops her hands in distress and then dashes over to Voffa. "What'll we do, what'll we do?" she asks him, pulling at him. He doesn't know what to say. But then footsteps sound and she whirls to find a familiar face returned. "Jannu, it's terrible, listen - " she is cut off in mid sentence. Jannu has grabbed her by the collar.

"Have you been here all this time?" the woman demands icily.

Startled and frightened, Rije starts to ask "Why are you suddenly - "

"You haven't gone to Another Earth?" Jannu accuses, eyes brittle and blazing at once.

Rije, twisting in her grip, is becoming terrified. "I didn't go. I won't go." Finally, Jannu's expression twists and she shoves Rije away from her, then turns and stalks off. Rije stares after her in confusion.

Having achieved a moment to herself, Jannu thinks "I don't understand. Why would I cry?" For she remembers that battle with Asuka. The moment she'd pulled him to her and forced the soul-contact through their gems. Forced him to know that Mahoro no longer existed. Had she been contaminated somehow from doing that?

As if in answer to her thought Mikela suddenly yelps, "Ah, I know what happened!"

An inn, the Edo Period. Most people in dark blues, grays, a rare woman in red kimono. The subjects of attention, though, are the three assassins. They are drowning their sorrows in lunch and possibly some sake. Their leader is grumbling while the others drink. As he complains, someone enters the restaurant. Someone whose arrival has the servers quaking in terror. Someone with a big gun who hisses... oh my, a familiar face. The Sniper Crow has arrived and already sought out people of like mind. And he wants to know more about what they were just speaking of.

On a rocky beach stands a red gate to a Shinto Shrine. Asuka wanders slowly towards it, mourning the loss of the other three and beginning to feel they might never return. But his misery has a voice to override it. Bracchio signals him, telling him not to give up hope. Telling him that they will win and return Dimenocodon to the fold as one of them. Asuka leans against one of the poles of the gate, thoughts turning to Jannu and the fact that he is still alive. Why are things happening the way they are? Bracchio, out in the lake, rears his head to talk to his companion. "Asuka, do you remember the Dino Harp?" Startled, Asuka lifts his gaze, eyes wide. Not a harp, as such. Well, a mouth-harp. Bracchio wants him to play. And he obeys, lifting his harmonica to his lips he plays. The music is sad, and the dinosaurs listen to it, sighing.

Edo Period. The princess leads our heroes through a beautiful garden, across a bridge over a still, manmade pond. Her retainer trails them. She asks Ryouga more about the strange world of the future, or she's only commenting. When Ranru asks her something, she counters about her belief in what they're telling her. For they've told the darkness and the light. "But I believe people are not fools," she tells them. Her retainer nods agreement as she bends down to look at a flower blossom floating on the water. She laughs at their unease, and what she tells them gets Sanjo to ask about a flower. She chuckles and bends down. She writes kanji in the sand under their feet.

Ranru reads "Warau Hime." 笑姫 "Laughing Princess."

She relates laughter to the flowers, and Ryouga is impressed with her logic. "Laugher is not a dream," she tells them reassuringly. They are all blissfully unaware of the dark weapon being lowered to take aim at them.

But Sanjo sees something. "Look out!" he cries, leaping into the path of the shot. He is changing into his armor and thus is protected when the mighty bullet hits him. Smoke rises all around them, the others have also switched into their armor.

It is not the Sniper Crow alone. Two other Torinoid are with him. The Explosive Dandelion. The one that's kind of vaguely like a water bug. They laugh evily, while the startled Abaranger move to protect the two fragile, normal humans behind them.

"What are they doing here?"

The bug explains, "Well, we're here to make sure you don't change history and make the future into something terrible."

"Huh?" ask our heroes. But the time for talking is long past. The battle must be joined. Sanjo hits the bug first with his Tricera Banker. Ranru goes up againt the Lion, this leaves the Crow for Ryouga. That gets him on the run and he is chased off. But the Lion gets a firm grip on Princess Saki and she struggles as her elderly retainer races to her aid. She calls for Ryouga desperately. But the Torinoid take her away with them.

The sad music flutters in the air. But it is interrupted by determined footsteps. Legs clad in red leather. Asuka lowers the harmonica when he realizes Jannu is nearby. He gasps and covers it protectively, eyes wide. But for once she is only staring at him. There is a hint of red in her eyes, cheeks slightly puffy. She stands on the other side of the gate, and Asuka scrambles to his feet, fighting to stay in place and not run from her. "Jannu!" he yelps.

She steps forward. "Cut that out!" she snaps.

But he pulls himself together. "How long were you crying?" he calls back.

She haughtily replies, "That is only a reaction of this body." Like a legend. This body is only a convenience. Asuka's eyes widen in horror at the implications. Especially when she comments on throwing it away.

Shaking with reaction himself, he clenches his fist around the harmonica. "So. I thought you had feelings. I was wrong." She snorts at him in contempt. And he glares. He changes into his fighting armor. She follows suit. And they begin to fight in the shallow water of the lake shore. They meet and slash at each other.

Our heroes find their enemies holding the princess on a bridge, and when Ryouga yells at them to let her go, they threaten to kill her if he fights back. They are frozen, while the Torinoid mock them. And they have to drop their weapons. The crow fires on them and all are being attacked mercilessly by the Barmia while the princess screams to them. The crow grins and says they'll protect the Evorian future.

But in the future, though Mikela is feeling good about this, Rije realizes in horror that their images are still vanishing. Only the tops of their heads are still visible, and starting to fade. "Why are we still disappearing?" But neither of the males has a clue.

A black Barmia has Ryouga pinned, is throttling him with its staff. The princess screams to him, "Ryouga, don't let them beat you!!" And she may be the reason. For she turns her head and sinks her teeth into the Lion's finger.

"Ouch!" he protests. And then protests again when she stomps angrily on his foot and he lets her go.

She dashes forward, yanking the gun right out of the Sniper's hands before he really realizes what's happening. And she spins around and starts firing at the three Torinoid, from really close range. "Now!" she calls to the Abaranger. Turns out all three of them were being throttled. But they rally at her call. They kick the Barmia off of them and leap into the fray with greater fervor even than before. They tear through the Barmia in their spined mode and go after the three Torinoid, hearing the princess cheer them on from the dubious safety of a nearby building. They attack with their weapons, slashing and tearing, destroying all three Torinoid.

And Rije is horrified when their images vanish completely from the photo. And now so too do the three of them begin to vanish. In a last ditch effort to save themselves, Voffa calls to the Clock Giganoid to use its power. And it stands up laboriously and crosses its arms as the clock on its face twirls back, back....

Princess Saki returns home to the arms of her retainer, the three armored Abaranger at her back. He thanks them when they suddenly begin to glow. And they realize what that means. Ryouga steps forward to thank them and ask them to protect the future. When they ask why, he tells them they'll probably never see them again. And so they all step forward to wish both princess and elderly man well. She calls out Ryouga's name as they vanish from this time. And she looks up to touch wistfully the flowers. Her smile is the tender smile of a woman who had to say goodbye to the man she'd fallen in love with (Ryouga, for the less observant).

Asuka and Jannu are still engaged in battle, blasting powerful energies back and forth. She gets him a good one and he falls. But when she races to finish him off, he turns the handle of his blade and uses a wind attack. She is caught and thrown back away from him. His armor is lost to this process, but he struggles to his feet. His arm aches and he rubs at the pained muscle. Then a flare beyond him catches his eye. For suddenly the three others are back, still in their armor, looking quite surprised. He runs into their arms. Only they come under attack from the Giganoid. Before they can worry, the dinosaurs tear to their aid shouting scolding words through the bracelets about worrying for the three. Ryouga apologizes warmly to their concern. The three join with their friends and form Abarenor. The great machine uses the Ptera cutter, but the Giganoid's shell is proof against their attack, even against the Tricera Punch. It's tail is hard on them. When Ryouga wants to try the drill, Tyranno vetoes the move and explains that his tail was damaged in the battle against Dimenocodon. They can't use it. So what can they do? Well, Jannu knows what she will do. She uses her stone to summon Dimenocodon to fight them. Asuka stares in horror as he attacks them viciously, bringing Abarenor down.

"Dimenocodon, stop!" he cries, and runs towards the battle. Jannu humphs in superior smugness watching him run. Dimenocodon sits back to let the Giganoid take over pummeling Abarenor.

"What can we do?" cries Ryouga. As Dimenocodon charges to continue its attack, Asuka suddenly sees the light. Or rather, he sees his harmonica. And with that one brain-flash, he begins to play the aching, sad music. He thinks hard as he plays, hoping his inner voice will reach the mighty dinosaur. Jannu sneers, but then to her shock she sees Dimenocodon coming to a lumbering halt. He turns to listen to the sweet music. He can hear Asuka's voice, and the music.

Another time. Another world. The yellow Dino Earth. The pale green grass and a warrior standing there playing the music just for them. He sees the same warrior on gravel rock. And the music, the sound makes the dinosaur weep.

And with those tears the hold the Evorian - Jannu has over him is fading. She is stunned to realize it. Asuka is stunned with delight. But suddenly his bracelet grows another head, temporarily displacing that of Knuckles so Dimenocodon can speak to him. "Asuka, can you forgive me? I - I " and he breaks the bonds holding him. The spell shatters into pink fragments. The Giganoid stomping on Abarenor is not prepared to face the attack that comes. Abarenor gets back up. Ryouga calls for Abare Combiner, and Dimenocodon becomes their left arm. With his help they are able to slice, dice and totally destroy the Clock Giganoid.

And an utterly furious Jannu stomps away. She doesn't see the glowing child who watches her go, then vanishes.

But thank heavens for the Evorian on Dino Earth as they pour back into existence. Rije sighs her relief and looks at their photo. As she looks, their images return to it.

Out of the old-style part of the park the four run. Mai has been waiting for them this whole time with the police man. She is so happy, she races to Ryouga. He throws her up and apologizes, suggesting they go home. She's happy to agree. And when they exit the park, Mai points with shock at something. No, someone. The elderly man walking towards them has a cane. He is dressed in a dark gray suit, with a hat over his thinning, white hair. He greets them with a surprised laugh of delight.

Ryouga gapes at him, setting Mai down. "Tatsunosuke-san, you were also brought to the present?!"

The man stares at him as if he's lost his mind. "Tatsunosuke? No, my name is Ryunosuke," he tells them.

Ranru's eyes open wide. "Suke-san? You came to Kyoto?"

Amused by her surprise he tells her he's in Kyoto on business.

"What kind of business?" asks Ryouga.

Sanjo says coolly, "Sounds suspicious to me."

Mai agrees, folding her arms accusingly. "Suspicious!" she says. Asuka, a bit confused, gives him a wide-eyed uncertain stare. Their reactions only send him into giggles and then he laughingly tells them it's time to go home and urges them towards the train station.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第14話　発掘アバレサウルス
Hakkutsu Abaresaurusu
Excavation of Abare Saurus

Human Emi stares into a small mirror at her reflection. She pokes at her cheek and utters a miserable sigh. Mai pops over and asks concernedly, "Are you getting fat?" Far from being offended, Emi mourns, "I've been eating too much, I guess." She lowers the small, yellow mirror and, pouting, complains "Oink." The four Abaranger, who are cleaning the restaurant, nearly jump out of their shoes and socks in alarm. They whirl to look at her, to be sure she's not turned into a pig again. She never notices their panic. Ranru is dusting the higher parts of the walls, Sanjo is dry mopping the dining area, Asuka is polishing the table. Not too sure what Ryouga is doing. They decide to pretend not to be concerned, and continue with the cleaning. Ranru dusts with a vengence. She gets over by the painting of the tyrannosaurus and accidently jostles it from its hook. She yelps as it falls to the floor. And then it flops on its face revealing... another picture tucked into the back of the frame! Well isn't that just interesting? Ranru agrees with me, and bends down to investigate. The picture is a drawing of a blue triceratops, a red tyrannosaurus and a yellow pteranodon. When she folds it over she finds there is a map on the opposite side. X marks the spot in a forest. Her eyes get a devilish gleam and whatever she says attracts the others like bees to honey, Asuka asking what she's talking about. She explains that this map, clearly drawn by Suke-san, must lead to some treasure! Sanjo huffs, "It's rubbish," and moves to continue sweeping. Ryouga takes the map and he and Asuka study it with fond amusement. Ranru takes it back and says, "Well then, I'll go find it myself!" She's like an excited child. Mai asks if she's sure she can figure this out, and Ranru happily assures her she can. The map has certain areas on non-specificness. Like the mountain in the background is labelled "That mountain".

Ptera skims through the skies. "I'd say it's not okay," she comments to Ranru. Ranru is trudging through the forest below, passing a large boulder and assuring her companion that this is a worthwhile endeavor. Or at least a lot of fun. She has to jump over a gap in the path and finally finds a place where the whole path is cordoned off by light chains, ropes and eight or so wooden signs someone's put up basically all saying KEEP OUT. Go no further. She apologizes to the spirit of the signs and makes her way through the maze of this barrier. Finally she reaches the top of a rise and looks down to a clearing below. And what at first glance appears to be white boulders peaking up through the ground quickly resolves in her experienced eye to be the fossilized bones of a dinosaur. "It is a Bakuryu?" she yelps in excitement. She starts forward, but there are dark cloth-covered legs near hers. There is a sudden shout behind her and she whirls, lets out a cry as a very heavy hammer starts a downward swing at her head. She blocks the blow, changes into her armor and strikes back with a fierce kick... into the chest of a little old man who lands as though he's been hit by a wrecking ball and struggles to breath, coughing and clutching at his chest. Ranru goes into a frantic panic and leaps to help him. "Oh no, are you okay? Oh, no, what'd I do?!" She frantically tries to wake him up. The recovering man opens one bird-bright eye to stare at this bewildering yellow apparation. In the end she ends up back in her regular clothes, carrying him piggyback down to the dig. "You're an Abaranger?" he asks and she confirms. "Ryunosuke told you about this place?" "He's been here?" she counter asks. "Oh, no I haven't seen him in a long time." Just then Ranru abain gets a good look at the fossilized bones in front of them and her shock is so great she releases the old man's legs, tumbling him to the ground. She never notices, though he springs back up pretty quickly. "It's a Bakuryu - Oh no, a dinosaur's remains! There were dinosaurs in Japan - " While the man stands proudly, she reaches down to stroke the huge bones and he lunges quickly to pull her away. "Don't touch!" he half whines. He pulls her back a step and then draws a line in the soft loam with his foot. "Don't get any closer than this!" he tells her. She glowers at him, lower lip starting to pout. "Why?!" Then she opens up the paper she's carrying and stares at it, practically in tears. "I guess this isn't a treasure map, after all." But the old man sees the drawings on the other side and reacts with excited delight, bending down to pull the picture up so he can see it better. He takes it from her hands, eyes alight and turns it over to see the map on the other side. "This is Ryunosuke's!" Ranru stares in surprise while he flips the paper to the other side again, to chuckle in warm affection at the drawing. For this is a window to fond and chaotic memories.

This clearing, the woods a bit younger than now, and two boys dressed pretty much identically, in beige shorts, light shirts, light brown caps and sandals, are locked in combat. The old man voices, "I'm Denjiro Tatsuyoshi. And when we were kids, Ryunosuke and I fought like devils." The two throw each other around, end up tumbling in the grass. Their faces are identical (Ranru, imagining the battle, can't figure out which boy is which, so finally Denjiro tells her to shushup and listen). They drag each other back to their feet and exchange punch after punch to each others' jaws. Then, worn out, both boys fall over backwards. And one time, when they'd worn themselves to the ground, Denjiro let his hand fall limp and it brushed against something dry and hard. "That was the day I found my dream," his older self tells us, as we watch his younger forget everything but the curiosity he's found. He brushes aside the dried grasses around the strange spine. He's tried a little too hard and as soon as he's cleared some of the bone, the spine falls off. Amazed, he picks it up and stares at it. Ryunosuke gets back to his feet and comes to peer over his shoulder. Ryunosuke proves to be the one in the darker shorts. When he offers to help dig up the skeleton, Denjiro reacts with fierce obsession. "No! It's MINE! My fossil! Go home!" Much later, Ryunosuke returns. He's brought a cooked sweet potato as a bribe and Denjiro accepts it graciously. He gives in return a drawing he's done. That drawing, it is Denjiro's work.

He stands proudly, a sweet little old man with white hair. He still has the broken spine he's carried lovingly all these years and now he tells Ranru, "I call it Abare Saurus." Over the years he has uncovered much of the buried skeleton, and he allows her to approach while he tenderly brushes the bones of debris. He's been working on this for nigh on seventy years. He can't wait to show people. Everyone should live for their dreams. Ranru excitedly offers to help him, but he reacts as though scandalized by the suggestion. "No, never! I decided I will do this by myself!" Ranru looks wounded by that, but he ignores it to say huffily, "Even Ryunosuke only ever got to watch!" He continues, giggling innocently. Ranru cannot help but smile, he's so cute. "That's a real dream," she comments softly.

And speaking of dreams, guess who's go - er - coming around the bend. Jannu continues her mission to collect the missing Bakuryu. And now the stone glows in her hand. "A Bakuryu signal!" she snaps. "I'm not letting Asuka get this one!" She quickly moves forward, but a call in the sky gets her attention. It is Ptera swooping by overhead. Rather than alarmed, Jannu nods to herself and smiles. She is looking rather frayed around the edges.

Ptera speaks to Ranru, delighting in the presence of Dino Guts. When Ranru asks "But isn't this a fossil?" Ptera replies, "It's here! We were on Another Earth, too!" She swoops overhead, and her passing is enough to distract Denjiro, who gazes up in awe. "Oh, that's one of Ryunosuke's Bakuryu, isn't it?" he asks. When she nods and grins confirmation, he adds happily, "But my Abare Saurus is so much cooller!" Ranru cannot help but chuckle. She doesn't have to agree with him.

Jannu makes it to the rise, eyes searching for her missing dinosaur. The signal is strong, and her attention focuses on the strange duo in the clearing. "Abare Yellow," she identifies Ranru firmly. Then she holds out her stone shell and it shines brilliantly for her. It's signalling about the bones. "That's no Bakuryu," she comments tiredly, "But it is something special." Then Dezumozorlya's voice, projected through Rije, fills her head. "Ah, now you've found something interesting. This was a dinosaur evolving into a Bakuryu." Mikela echoes that statement with disbelief back on Dino Earth. Dezumozorlya explains, "The dinosaurs on Dino Earth evolved into the Bakuryu." Mikela is still stunned, "So Another Earth's dinosaurs were also becoming Bakuryu?!" I don't know quite what she says back, but Voffa is inspired and starts playing his keyboard a swift melody.

And above the valley the portal from Dino Earth opens wide. The refrain Voffa plays can be heard and it causes an alarmed Ranru to spin and look up. She gets Denjiro to clear the area with her, just as the threads of multi-colored music rain down and enter into the remains the old man has been digging up for so long. Skidding to a halt Denjiro whirls and says pleadingly, "You're an Abaranger! Protect the fossils!" Ranru agrees, but keeps protecting him from the stray lightning's skittering around them. They are eventually hit and fall. When Ranru looks up, she finds Jannu there with a crew of Barmia. "Jannu! What are you doing here?!" Denjiro ducks low behind Ranru, clinging to her shoulders in fear. "Stay out of my way!" Jannu snarls. She sends the Barmia to fight, and Ranru changes into armor to hold them off. Denjiro grabs up a thick branch and tries his level best, shouting curses at them for having disturbed his dig, his precious Abare Saurus. He can't hit any of them, they move very quickly and are more bemused by his efforts than anything else. One finally dives down and pins his ankles, soon toppling him. Ranru sees him fall and tries to get free to help him, but the Barmia is trying to throttle him. However, the calvary has arrived! Armored Sanjo flips in, kicking the Barmia off of Denjiro and fighting them back. Ryouga tumbles in with his armor, and Asuka leads the charge towards Jannu, demanding to know why she's there. Eyes wild, she counters that the fossil is very much like a Bakuryu. But that is no comfort, for the music has completely gone into the old fossilized bones, and now the remains become liquid light and rise into the sky under the portal. The skeleton reassembles, intact above them. There is a round, red object visible in the cavity behind the eyes, the brain. Gemstones in the spines on its back. And on Dino Earth, Voffa names his latest composition. "Giganoid number Four,復活 Fukkatsu." Resurrection. Its shriek cuts the air as the portal closes. Denjiro stares amazed up. "It's moving. It's moving!" He takes a few steps to see better. Ryouga, ever the optimist, is delighted. He thinks it's an Iguanadon. But Sanjo raises a cautioning hand. For Jannu has control and sets it to attack. Asuka calls Bracchio for help. Bracchio comes out of the water with a speech about fighting until the very last. And the lurching Abare Saurus goes to fight. Ranru in her armor stands behind Denjiro, who is gazing in ecstacy at the skeleton and babbling his delight. Finally, the others call her. "We have to assemble!" Ryouga says. She calls in Kera, but when she leaps up to join her companion, she is rejected and sent falling to land heavily on the ground below with a cry. Dismayed, Asuka leaps to her, comforting hands on her shoulders he asks, "You can't fuse with Ptera?" And the Bakuryu cries in the sky. "Ptera!" weeps Ranru. For Ptera is circling away from the battle. Sanjo asks from inside Kera, "Where is she going? We have to combine!" Fukkatsu utters a cry and then releases exploding spine-bones or something like that to bomb Tyranno and Kera. "Oh stop, Abare Saurus!" Denjiro cries out from the dubious shelter of the trees. He is practically in tars as the explosive bone pieces hurtle through the air. One missile falls towards his position. The explosion knocks him flying, a cut on his brow. He loses consciousness. Ranru races to him, calling his name, Asuka on her heels. Fukkatsu cries again and starts to dig underground, go into hiding. Jannu, furious, tries to call it back. Rije, watching this all through her powers, wonder where it's gone.

The Dinosuar restaurant has it's temporarily closed sign up on the door. Inside, Ranru stares with wide eyes and white face as they finish taking care of the unconscious Denjiro. His head has been bandaged in white cloth. Ryouga tenderly pats the frail old man's skin and smiles reassuringly at Ranru. They've put him in the raised dining area, a soft gray blanket to keep him warm, head on a cushion. As Ryouga puts away the first aid kit, Asuka talks asks Ranru, "It has Dino Guts?" Uncertain and still shaken she answers him, "Ptera said so. She said he's an ally." She uncertainly takes a step as they all listen to her, and softly says "So we shouldn't be fighting." Ryouga says thoughtfully something about the Bakuryu and dinosaurs. Sanjo faces away from them, arms folded and expression troubled. But he turns slightly when Ryouga points out that Tyranno and the others didn't do so well against it. Sanjo points out firmly, "It's not a Bakuryu, nor a dinosaur. It's a Giganoid." Ranru gets frantic, "But I know how Ptera feels!" They do not know that Denjiro is awake, listening to them argue. He closes his eyes on the grief he feels.

Inside Bracchio, the other four dinosaurs have their heads together to discuss this. Pachy is wondering about this creature really having Dino Guts as Ptera. Dime points out that it had fled them, afraid. Kera pridefully replies something about Ptera and history. Tyranno is worried about when Ptera will return. It is up to Bracchio as the oldest and wisest to soothe them. "It isn't only Ptera's fault," he tells them.

The city is at rest, ignorant of the dangers facing them. Jannu stands in a high place, her small fossilized shell gripped tightly. She slowly turns, and finally it picks up the signal, glowing brilliantly in her hand. Very pleased she says, "I found you, Fukkatsu! Come out!" And at her demand it, does, tearing out from under the train tracks. She smiles wickedly as the great beast rises from the ground. "Now, you will turn this world so that it is the same as Dino Earth!" Brain glowing brilliantly, it obeys her commands. Its breath bathes the near building of the city and the air turns yellow. The buildings start to crumble and calcify. Jannu lowers her hands and smiles, nodding her approval. "Go!" she tells it, and the mighty one turns and tromps through the city.

Ryouga and Sanjo watch this on the screen in the kitchen. Troubled, Sanjo closes it up and folds his arms thoughtfully. Asuka's eyes go wide. "That dinosaur is going to make Another Earth just like Dino Earth!" This is no small thing, for most of what's on this earth could not survive the environmental devastation. They are unaware that Denjiro only pretends to be sleeping, and is listening to every word they say. Quietly exasperated, Sanjo stands and speaks into his bracelet. "Let's go, Tricera." His friend is willing. And Ryouga calls Tyranno to help, too. "I'm with you, Ryouga!" he is answered. Sanjo turns and orders, "Ranru, you have to call Ptera." But she shakes her head, eyes haunted and miserable. Tearing the words from her throat she tells him, "I... can't." He stares back at her in shock. "Can't? But you - " he isn't quite sure what to say. She looks away from him, to Denjiro lying there. But Ryouga smiles understandingly and comes to put his hand against her back. "Ranru, take care of the old man, okay?" he tells her with a grin. And he leads the others off, while Ranru seems a bit shocked by the turn of events herself.

The enormous Fukkatsu strides through the city leaving destruction in its wake. The three Abaranger are catching up on their Ride Raptors when they're hit by furious red energy bolts. Thrown, they find Jannu come to stop them. Madly she calls, "Today is Another Earth's final day!" And she changes into her armor to fight them. She sends in the Barmia. Bracchio comes out onto the streets. From his packs race the other four dinosaurs to fight, but the terrible breath of Fukkatsu drives them back, making them cough and hack. Ranru paces nervously in the restaurant when Ptera calls. "The others are in a pinch!" she says worriedly. Ranru bites her lips as her companion continues, "I just can't keep holding out like this. Understand, I know you want to protect - " but her worried apology is interrupted. Denjiro asks softly, "My dream?" He pushes the covers off and sits up, staring at her with a sad, warm gaze. Ranru blushes furiously, but then she rallies and explains to him that she believes in people's dreams, and that her personal goal is to protect the dreams of other people. "Abare Saurus is Denjiro's dream, but if we destroy it...." She trails off, biting her lips again. But behind her she hears, "The two of us will have to combine!" It is Ryouga, of course. "What?" asks a startled Sanjo. They are visible in the viewscreen, standing there in armor. Ranru and Denjiro stare at the screen.

And they do combine. They look so light without the addition of Ptera. In the brain, with only the two of them in place, Ryouga says thoughtfully "Well, we can't call it Abarenor... ah!" And he dubs the formation Abarenorji. Sanjo makes a wry sound at that. They charge into battle, but Fukkatsu beats them back. They just don't have the power. But Tyranno says they'll keep trying. And they do. Ranru is at the computer panel and tries, but is told "Unable Communicate." She gasps in dismay. Denjiro watches alertly, sitting backwards on a folding chair. She's trying to reach Fukkatsu. And then Denjiro says, in a choked voice, "That thing is not Abare Saurus. It's not my dream." He reaches into his vest. The broken spine falls to the floor as Denjiro unfolds the paper to stare at the picture he'd given Ryunosuke so long ago. With finality, he tears it in half. Ranru gasps in shock. And then he explains quietly, "A long time ago, when Ryunosuke and I returned from the war, what we saw...." Tokyo in ruins. All the fragile homes of people made rubble. Only the hardier buildings of strong brick still standing. Weary people clearing up what remained of their belongings. "I wasn't free to dig out the dinosaur. We came into the city and helped rebuild. This city became my real dream." He stares around, lost in memory. Ranru picks up the broken spine and cradles in carefully in her fingers, listening to him. And then Ptera signals her. "Ranru. This is the same thing the Evorian did to Dino Earth." She says more, pleading with Ranru to pull herself together and fight the threat to this world. Denjiro turns and nods gravely to her. And she says she will go, determined.

The others are fighting, still in Abarenorji, when they hear Ptera's cry. The speedy flying dinosaur hurtles down to them. Ranru rides atop the head, held on by some magic. "Ranru!" Ryouga calls in delight. And she changes into her armor, brave and strong. Even Sanjo sounds passionate (for him) when he calls, "Ranru, combine!" "Okay!" she answers and enters Ptera. Abarenor is formed, they are at their strongest again. Sanjo says calmly, "I knew you'd come." Ryouga sputters indignantly, "Hey, I'm the one - " But Ranru ducks her head, surely smiling within the mask, and thanks them, calling them to go into battle. They blast Fukkatsu, and she points out that this is not Denjiro's dream. They use Ptera Cutter, slicing off one of its hands. But then to their shock the hand simply regenerates. And it hits them with its corrosive breath, then races in and grabs them. Horrified, Asuka is about to leap to their aid when Jannu comes up and slams him down. Knocked badly, he doesn't get up again quickly. She's smug, but then a surprise enters the field. Denjiro has ridden in on Ryunosuke's motorbike and sidecar. He leaps off and shouts to Fukkatsu, "Hear me, please! Those dinosaurs are your friends!" He steps closer to the raging battle and continues to shout. He shouts about its life, begs it to stop. "Abare Saurus, stop!" He begins to weep. And somehow, it hears him. The globe, the remains of the mighty beast's brain, begins to glow. It flares with brilliant light, responding to him. And then the beast drops its arms and stands motionless, allowing Abarenor to pull away. It cries out softly and Denjiro realizes it's responding to him. "Ah! Abaresaurus!" he whispers in awe.

Jannu and Asuka's blades are locked, they struggle but she looks up in surprise. "What it is, Fukkatsu?!" She slashes Asuka down and breaks from the battle to shout, "Fukkatsu! Go on the offensive!" But it does not respond to her call. In Abarenor, Ranru knows that this is their chance. She holds the broken spine and and uses her equipment to locate the place it was fallen from. A weak spot, a vulnerable point. Lock On. And they leap, drill spnning, and stab deep and true. Abare Saurus is destroyed. He explodes. And Jannu furiously releases her armor. With a hiss of contempt she snarls, "That fossil was no real Bakuryu!" and she teleports away. Asuka snarls and clenches his fists.

The sun is just starting to set, the afternoon tinged with red. Ranru races to Denjiro and calls, "Did you see?" She is grinning with joy. He turns and musters a smile for her. "Yes. You did a great job." He assures her again, then turns to gaze where Abare Saurus had been. A tear runs slowly down his cheek and Ranru is not blind. He quietly tells her that it really was Abare Saurus. And she realizes then that it was still his dream. But even as she starts to feel miserable he says softly, "Humankind needs dreams to live." The others race to join her, but they see her misery and stop, gathering close. She is starting to tear up as she shouts, "More than ever, I'm determined to protect people's dreams!!" But then Denjiro utters a startled cry and she turns alertly. "Oh, there!" He is standing next to the motorcycle and gazing in complete delight at.... (commercial break) He holds the two pieces of his picture in his hands and grins giddily. Ranru races to see what is gong on. "Look!" he tells her. There is the sweet picture of the blue triceratops, red tyrannosaurs and yellow pteranodon. She looks up at what he's been staring at, and realizes. They exchange grins of delight. For at the top of the rise beyond them are Kera, Tyranno and Ptera. Limned by the setting sun they duplicate the positions of the ones in his drawing. The drawing he'd made around about seventy years before. And it is enough for him. Ranru wipes tears from her eyes as the others join them under the proud scene.

第15話　アバレ世間は鬼ばかり Abare Seken ha Oni Bakari Naught but Demons Abare World
Sanjo's father arrives on the scene, and he is NOT a happy camper. One begins to see where he gets it, thoug. Men wearing demon masks, faces full of teeth, red lips and bulging eyes. "I'll wipe you out!" screams Sanjo, slashing viciously wiht his blade. He fights madly, blindy, the Tricera Bunker stricking armored Asuka and Ranru, knocking them away from the mad Abare Blue. Ryouga, out of armor, grabs him and tries to restrain the struggling man. And there is a child in the hospital who turned his head as a nurse pushes the distressed Sanjo from the sickroom. He is not in a position to see that a blue and white bag contains one of the dinosaur capsules, glowing. He sits miserable and shaken wondering why he's failed. Rije puts a daisy in her hair, grinning with delight. She kisses a shark-type Torinoid. Ranru is dancing clumsily with a man who... well, he's um. Got pigtails. In her armor she is moving to the dance he teaches her. Later, she's still doing those moves while Asuka peers over a very thoughtful Ryouga's shoulder. And Asuka is trapped in a tunnel. The four will fight.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第15話　アバレ世間は鬼ばかり
Abare Seken ha Oni Bakari
Naught but Demons Abare World

Tall office builings stretch into the sky. Far below are children on their way to school. The road hisses beneath them as they move along at what seems a surprising pace for a walk. Until you realize that they're all wearing those shoes with the little wheel on the heel. They cross an overpass. And somewhere in the woods there is a Bakuryu capsule, which chooses this time to send out a pulse of energy. Hmm. This one's been hiding, I guess. The boy in the lead of the group shifts off the wheels and stops, puzzled. "Eh? The others accumlute around him and one ask, "Whazzup?" "Did you just call me?" "Nope, didn't call," the other boy says cheerfully. The group starts to move on, but the boy stands there. He looks around in puzzlement as he hears it again. Not knowing he's not speaking with his mouth he says in his thoughts, "There it is again. Hey, who's calling me?" The others are going, but they pause. "Hey, what are you doing, Jiro? You don't hurry and you'll be late!" one cautions. Off they go. Jiro starts to hurry after them, but the call comes again, strong and urgent. He decides the only thing to do is investigate and heads off of the pathway. The call comes again, among the trees. And at last he finds the source. He gasps in amazement at the egg with its glowing, green gemstones. Immensely curious, he heads for it. He bends down and picks it up. "An egg?" he wonders aloud.

Other people have eggs like this on their minds. Breakfast, and Asuka is studying his chopsticks grimly. "There are still three eggs, and we have to find them before Jannu does. Eggs are among the food on the table, looking suspiciously like raw eggs to be cracked open and spread over other parts of breakfast. Mai has just finished her serving, and sets her chopsticks on her bowl with a happy "Goshisousama!" (thank you I'm all finished) Ranru and Ryouga, her default parent-figures, echo it with her and just in time, for Emi has arrived to pick her up on the way to school. She bounds off and waves at them, but Ryouga urgently calls her back. She has eggy-rice stuck to her lips and he must wipe it gently off to keep her presentable. He tells her okay and she grins and laughs, heading away again. "Take care of her, Emi-pon!" he sings cheerfully. She just as cheerfully responds, "She's in my hands!" They leave together, Ranru waving wildly until they're out the door. And then Tyranno signals, pleased to praise Ryouga for being such a good father. "You really think so?" And Ryouga is embarrassed and grateful for the praise. He happily tells them that he's going to try to be a great father. Across from him at the table, Sanjo rolls his eyes and looks away. Ranru tells them with delight that her father was really worried about her, so they exchange messages all the time. Curiosity leads Ryouga to ask Sanjo about his father, but Sanjo lurches to his feet and says coldly, "I don't have a father." He stalks away, leaving them bewildered by what, for him, is a show of temper.

Jannu is bathed in furious lightning. It is Dezumozorlya via Rije in a heck of a fit, punishing her. But she is not the only one to feel the wrath. Voffa is next, for his failures with the Giganoids. And then she turns to attack Mikela, but he's quicker with the mouth than the others. "No, no the next one can do it!" he tells her. Out of the air comes his new Torinoid. A Shark/daisy/car exhaust pipe. Er, Torinoid Number 10. Sharkurumargaretto. Mikela introduces it, and Dezumozorlya decides to be pleased. "I leave it to you, Mikela," she tells him. And to Rije, who greets the Torinoid with delight. "Oh, may I have one?" she asks. Well, he's utterly pleased and gives her a daisy for her hair. She settles it in place and gives him the kiss to send him off.

School's out. Everyone is heading their usual way except this one boy, Jiro, who sneaks carefully off with his bag now rather distended on the side. He settles down behind a pillar and takes out the precious cargo. "What kind of an egg is this?" he wonders. "Some kind of really big lizard?" The egg, silent since he found it, pulses now. The boy sucks in a breath as he hears its silent voice. "I hear you again. So that was you?" It communicates with him insistently. "Take you to your friends?" the boy puzzles out.

Sharkurumargaretto walks the streets, so to speak. Terrified people flee ahead of it. He corners a small crowd in a covered parking lot and starts firing on them from his exhaust cannons. They cry out as the air fills with smoke that drops them, coughing, to the cement floor. He cackles, "Suffer, suffer!" Fortunately, the four Abaranger arrive to fight him. They challenge him enthusiastically, and change into their armor when he fires, much to his surprise. I guess they didn't really brief him before sending him out. "You guys!" They go into their presentation, and he sends the Barmia to fight them. In the meantime, young Jiro skims across the bridge on the wheels of his heels and comes to a halt. He opens his bag and peers into it, fretting. "Give you to them, you say. But who are they to give you to?" The egg pulses in response. The boy translates what he hears. "Your friends are nearby?" He stares around. The Abaranger fight with all their courage. They are really tromping on the Barmia, and Ptera has one pinned when Ptera calls through the bracelet, "Hey, can you feel that?" "Eh?" wonders Ranru. But Tyranno clears up the question by crowing, "It's a Bakuryu signal!" "Bakuryu?" repeats the startled Ryouga. Sanjo body-slams a Barmia and Kera speaks through the bracelet, something about Asuka and his power. "WHAT?!" asks the startled Asuka, still struggling. Sanjo, though, scolds Kera and the others for distracting them while the battle rages. They get through the Barmia and prepare to charge Sharkurumargaretto, who pulls out a huge white daisy to show them. Confused, they pause. "This is the kind of flower that shows everyone what they hate," he tells them gleefully. And he starts plucking the petal chanting, "Love, hate, love, hate," and they are confused, but he finally lands on hate and announces smugly, "Hate-beam!" And he uses the daisy to send out a power pulse towards them. Ranru is caught firmly in the blast, her body limmed in brilliant light as she cries out. And then... And then she finds herself out of her armor, in a dance studio. No one else is there but her until she sees the mirror ripple. Out of it floats a familiar figure. To her, that is. This is a man playing a woman. Heck, it may even be his life. "Ran-chan!" he greets her. "Sakeuchi-sensei!" she responds with horror. He has two things in his hands he handles as though they are bean-shakers and holds them out to her. Horrified she puts her hands out in defense "Oh, I hate those Natto-things!!!" And he tells her mockingly, "If you hate natto, you can never be an idol!" And then he goes straight into teaching her a routine, making her stand straight in front of him and moving to the beat of a bright song. Ranru follows the moves like a puppet, clumsily but trying. They're doing okay until she's supposed to swoop her torso left and instead goes right, colliding with him. He throws an utter fit, for they've been going over this routine for ages and she still messes up here. Ranru cringes in shame. He gets her going again, and of course the same thing happens. He nearly has an apoplexy. He yells at her, then gets her going again. He traps her between the natto shakers, trying to force her to go beyond her hatred of the stuff but she totally locks up. And, in the real world, the others watch in astonishment as Abare Yellow clumsily dances about, unaware of her real surroundings. Sanjo yells at her to come to her senses, but Sharkurumargaretto is only just getting started. He tells them happily that his Kirai-beam puts them right in the entrance to that which they hate the most. "Now which one will be next?" he ponders. Furious, Asuka leaps to attack him. He pushes our boy back and pulls out another flower. A quick plucking of the petals, and he fires on Asuka, who is totally engulfed. He is out of his armor and in a long, dark tunnel. No one else is around. Terrified, he looks for other people. "What am I doing here?" But then he senses a presence. Jannu teleports into the area and walks towards him. "Jannu!" he snarls. But she snorts at him and confronts him with the truth about Mahoro's death. About the fact that she now wears the body of that woman. Asuka shudders violently, and then for Mahoro, launches himself at her with a scream. And Abareblack swings madly at empty air, unaware of his surroundings. And this amuses Sharkurumargaretto no end. Now he turns to the other Abaranger. "It's your turn next," he calls smugly. Furious, they race at him.

It is to this that Jiro arrives. The yellow clad warrior keeps crying out dismayed apologies and dances, seeming unaware of the battle near her. The black clad warrior screams and slashes at empty air. The blue and red tackle the shark monster. Jiro stares, then opens his bag and asks the egg, "Are those guys the friends you're looking for?" The egg pulses urgently and he utters a soft, agreeing sound. He watches the battle. Sharkurumargaretto pins Sanjo, who ends up looking directly at Jiro. There being a child to protect, he starts struggling harder and the child utters a gasp and steps closer. Sanjo punches free of Sharkurumargaretto and races to him, while Ryouga holds off the monster. "You shouldn't be here, hurry up and get away!" Sanjo tells the boy, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him slightly. Jiro tries to tell him "But there's this - " However, he never gets to finish his explanation. Sharkurumargaretto manages to back Ryouga away and then fires the Kirai-beam at Sanjo and the child. Sanjo throws himself directly in the path of the beam, spreading his slight form as wide as possible to protect Jiro. He is engulfed. Sanjo finds himself in darkness. The ground beneath his feet roils with mist, there is nothing to see. He holds his blade and wonders aloud, "Where am I?" But then he sense something and peers nervously into the dark. And something ripples into existence. A demon mask. Two sharp, pointed horns, bulgin eyes and bright red lips, it hovers there. "You!" Sanjo gasps. And it swings in at him, mouth opening wide full of fire. It becomes huge and Sanjo frantically raises his blade to defend. But the enemy is intangible and he cannot touch it. "Disappear!" he screams again and again. Like the other two, he knows nothing of his surroundings and struggles against empty air. "Sanjo-san!" cries Ryouga, clinched with Sharkurumargaretto. But the most horrifying thing of all is Sanjo's wild swings take him towards the terrified Jiro. The boy has to dive to avoid the slashing blade. Sharkurumargaretto allows Ryouga loose, so he can take advantage of the moment and fires his cannons at Sanjo and the child. He scores a good hit. The rising smoke invades Jiro's lungs, and the little child lays on the cement, coughing painfully. With dismay and fury, Ryouga returns to the attack. Sharkurumargaretto is amused, but the unexpected happens. With a scream, Ryouga powers up, the white spikes out. Sharkurumargaretto laughs and shoots him with the Kirai-beam. But even more unexpected... Ryouga shakes the beam off, screaming with rage. "What, he isn't in another world? Why?!" But no answer is forthcoming as Ryouga leaps high and kicks hard, startling the Torinoid into teleporting away. And with him gone, the spell on Ranru, Asuka and Sanjo is broken. They shake themselves out into the perception of their world, totally stunned. Ryouga leaps to the child who lies, coughing. "You all right? Answer me!" But the boy cannot through the coughing. His face is clammy, perspiration rolls down and dampens his hair. His eyes are closed.

Back at the dinosaur restaurant, Asuka is explaining what had happened. Ranru stands in the middle of the floor practicing the dance routine, determined to master it. Asuka ends his explanation with "For me, the worst thing was Jannu." Ranru comments that if she can only get through the whole thing it won't have such a hold on her. Then she turns her head and asks curiously, "Hey Ryouga, how come you were the only one not affected?" "Oh, yeah!" He stands up and points out, "Well I have no idea, either." Curious, he goes to the silent Sanjo and touches his back curiously. "Sanjo, what about you, what did you see? I mean, I never saw you act like that." Grimly, Sanjo answers him. "A demon." "Demon?" asks the startled Ryouga. Asuka blinks, then asks tentatively, "What is a demon?" Ranru, who is amused as all heck, puts her fingers up on either side of her head and growls to demonstrate, swinging her body around Sanjo to tease him. "Loudmouth," he snaps angrily at her, and she pouts for it was all in fun. "You all can't understand," he tells them angrily, then marches out the door. Asuka says in dismay, "Oh, he's gone away mad now." Ranru is pouting still, her hide smarting from many a confrontation with Sanjo in the past. But Ryouga is thinking about it hard. He folds his arms and studies the ceiling. "A demon...?"

A towering office building, shining in the light. Sanjo walks inside purposefully. He carries a silver case and heads past the receptionist. She quickly gets up, is intimidated by the purpose the small, young man radiates and asks uncertainly, "Excuse me, who are you here to see?" "The president," he replies bluntly. She hurries after him as he rounds the corner to head up the stairs. "Who may I say - " "His son." Stuttering with shock, she races back to her desk to alert the boss.

Ryouga has a sketchbook open and has made several small pictures of the two-horned Japanese demons, trying to find the connection for Sanjo. Asuka peers over his shoulder, still very bewildered. Ranru is still working on that dance routine. "Um, are THOSE demons?" Asuka finally asks Ryouga. Rouga barely seems to hear him. "But what kind of demon did Sanjo see?" he wonders aloud. But an answer comes from a surprising source. For the dinosaurs are discussing this, too. The newcomers especially ask Kera what is this thing about demons. Kera answers, "Yukito saw a demon." As all the other dinosaurs repeat, "Saw a demon?" the three Abaranger gasp and whirl around. "Saw a demon." And Kera says, "His father's a demon." They all gasp in shock. Ryouga, brow furrowed, needs clarification. "Sanjo's father is a demon?" Dimenocodon asks, "So you mean what he hates most is his father?" Kera agrees with that assessment. "He doesn't have a father now." And the others cringe nervously back, processing those statements.

Sanjo breezes through a door into a plush, dark office with a good view of the neighboring skyscrapers. The door shuts behind him and he stops near an easy chair, resting one hand in his pocket. He looks about the room and something catches his attention. His eyes narrow and he shifts to get a better look. There are kabuki demon masks displayed on the wall. One is the one from his vision. And Sanjo's expression upon seeing it is just lovely. You'd think his jaw might pop, he's clenching it so hard. His lower lips juts and his eyes burn. The color of memory. "Demon," he thinks. Only sixteen years old and the brunt of his father's furious contempt. "You can buy anything you want with money, that's all that matters in this world. Understand?" sharp-voiced, cold man who turns and walks away from his son's bright pain. Behind him on the wall is that mask of a demon, and the young Yukito cannot help but equate that mask with his father. It is the present and the door behind Yukito opens. He jerks from memory and turns his head. Of course it is his father, stern man in a black business suit, power tie and all. The man steps forward and stops, ice. "I'd think you'd be ashamed to show your face around here." And for a long moment Yukito does not answer, only stares at his father and is trapped in the memory of the demon-mask flying at him. Of fighting a demon he cannot touch. And he swallows and thinks, "Why are you stuck on me forever like some kind of ghost?"

Back at the Dinosaur restaurant, the others are investigating Souichirou Sanjyou (it's spelled that way on the screen三条 総一郎). He is the president of Sanjo Corporation. It is responsible for about 30% of the world economy (which I hear is really bad these days, hmm). One of the greatest of 324 companies in Japan, and of 2763 worldwide, with holdings in Amerca even. Ranru reads the information aloud (and slowly, for the benefit of the kids watching), and they are all suitably impressed by what they read. "Wow!" Ptera remarks that Yukito is the son of an extraordinary man. Tyranno is confused by her delight. But Ryouga is grinning fit to bear. "And Sanjo said 'I have no father'," He remarks laughingly. "He was lying!" *tsk* Don't they even wonder....

"You want to cut the ties between us?" I think that Yukito has succeeded in surprising his father. Stalking past his son to his desk, the mighty president remarks sneeringly, but Yukito counters coolly that this all ends today. His father turns and regards him with a frown, then a snort. He sits down, lecturing about all the things he'd bought and paid for as Yukito grew up, education, home, etc etc etc. Yukito looks bored by the reasoning, and perhaps well he should be. He sets the silver case firmly on the table. He has brought cash. And when his startled father asks, he explains that this covers all the finances spent, from his birth to graduation from junior high school, after which he left home. Fury gets the better of him and he snaps, "I'm giving it all back to you!" He turns the case full on, so it is all that is in his father's direct line of sight. His father recovers quickly, if he's hurt at all. "This is the money you've siphoned off those rich people whose bodies you touch. That's not work," he sneers. And Sanjo clenches his fist atop the case, then turns away. "That's what I don't like. People who, like you, think the world revolves around money." Before he can speak further, the alarm on his bracelet goes off. It is Asuka, frantically calling to tell him the Torinoid is back. Yukito's father raises his gaze, curious and asks what that's about. Yukito simply glowers at him and says icily, "I don't need your money any more." He stalks to the demon mask and pulls it from its display. "I want you out of my path!" and he throws the mask hard into his father's hand. His father stares at it, and watches his son dash through the door, expression of cold disapproval never noticably changing.

Ryouga in armor battles the Torinoid, is smashed to tumble on the cement. Ranru and Asuka gather around him. "Virus cannon!" (I think it's virus he says) and Sharkurumargaretto blasts them. They cry out as they fall. He laughs, but just then Yukito arrives. "Wait!" He walks without his armor, strong and cool. "Sanjo-san!" calls Ryouga with relief. "Oh, you again!" says Sharkurumargaretto. Yukito challenges him, changing into armor to fight. He attacks straight away with the Tricerabunker.

And in the hospital lies Jiro. The doctor is reassuring her that the boy is going to be just fine. The doctor is wrong. The boy turns his head to look at the pulsing egg and tells it, "Wait, okay? Very soon I'll get you to your friends." And then... spots materialize on his skin. When they come in all the way they look like enormous, round bruises.

Sanjo fights, and is doing so very well. The others watch with admiration as he knocks Sharkurumargaretto to the brick walkway. He is breathing hard, the battle a concentration of will and his friends run to his side, happy to tell him how great they think he is. Ryouga is truly delighted, and Sanjo tells him to leave it to him. "Oh, this is such a relief!" delights Ryouga, who has an extraordinary amount of faith in his surly comrade. But Sharkurumargaretto is royally pissed, and picks the petals off of one of his flower. And Sanjo takes a few steps forward to face it, confident that this time it cannot affect him. He is wrong. For when the beam engulfs him, he is taken at once to the dark place. And this time the mask does not merely fly around him. This time it has a body, too. A body spinning under a white mantle. His father's body. Sanjo sees this in terror. "Why? Why is this happening again?!" The others watch in horror as his body twists and he spins, then screams "Disappear!!" And he hurtles forward. Unfortunately, they are what is in his path. Ryouga tries to hold his ground only to get a face full of Tricerabunker. The impact throws him out of his armor, he hits the cement hard, blood streaming from a scrape on his forehead. When Sanjo screams and leaps at the fallen man, Ranru and Asuka grab his arms trying to keep him off. He fights them wildly, pulls loose and cuts them down, mind trapped in darkness with demons all around. It is far worse than it was before, and he's forced his two friends to the ground. Ryouga scrambles to his feet, calling Sanjo's name and races over, grabs him around the race and struggles with him. "Disappear!" Sanjo screams again. "Stop it, please!" Ryouga screams back at him.

These events are all very interesting to you-know-who. Rije is highly amused back in their home on Dino Earth. He tells Mikela how great it's doing. Then she asks quizzicaly what the Shark-part of the monster does. They've seen the Virus-Cannon, and the Hate-beam. But what else. Mikela hasn't really thought about that. While Sharkurumargaretto watches and laughs at the Abaranger, they consider. And Sanjo still struggles in Ryouga's desperate arms, until his armor shuts down in a glow, allowing Ryouga to spin him around and punch him in the jaw, trying to bring him back to his senses. All of this battling has taken its toll, and Sanjo is slow to recover. Sharkurumargaretto is all set to hit one of the others, and Asuka obligingly charges at him, but lightning rains down, forcing our hero away and in agony. Mikela calls, telling Sharkurumargaretto to return home so they can upgrade his power. With a last, mocking commment, he goes into the vortex and is gone. His spell lifts from Yukito, whose head pounds as he struggles back to his feet. "Why?" he hisses. And then it becomes more of a whimper as what has happened hits him. "Why can't I defeat the demon?"

Evening at the Dinosaur Restaurant. The closed sign is up (they're going to run that place into the ground). Sanjo sits at the table, and turns his head very slightly so he can look out of the corner of his eye at the area beside him. He shivers slightly and closes his eyes, resolutely not looking at anything but his hands. Ranru is in the process of bandaging Ryouga's forehead in thick, white gauze. Asuka sits in front of him and tentatively reaches out towards the bandage. "Are you all right, Ryouga?" he asks shyly. Ryouga grins cheerfully. "Oh sure, I'm always fine, this is just - " he reaches up to touch the bandage and unfortunately puts too much pressure on the wound, cutting himself off to stutter in the sudden sharp pain. Ranru whaps him on the back of his head and scolds, "Hey, you stop moving!" He gamely holds still, but his eyes fall upon Sanjo and he fights to hide the pain he's in, "It's just a little thing," he says, aiming his voice towards Sanjo who sits in a cloud of self-recrimination. But then the news comes on and it is a report about the hospital. What he hears horrifies him and he races out, while a very startled Ryouga calls after him.

Sanjo races to the hospital, peers in room after room. He opens one door to find a ward full of people writhing in agony, nurses trying to soothe them. The new report had described the symptoms. Blue spots appearing on the bodies. One young man has them all over his neck and the inside of his arms, that we can see. Sanjo gasps and continues searching. He checks the tags on the doors until he finds the one he knows and opens it. We hear a child's voice, whimpers of agony. Mother, nurse and doctor hang over the child writhing on the bed. Jiro, the huge blue blotches all over him. They are all rather startled when a complete stranger shoves between them to get a closer look at the child, and the doctor has the nurse force Yukito out of the room. No one notices or hears the egg in Jiro's bag as it pulses, for only Jiro could hear it and he's beyond communicating. Yukito backs from the door unsteadily, turns around and clutches at his chest, over his pounding heart. "This is my fault," he drags the words from a closed throat. He looks back at the room where the boy struggles to survive, takes a few steps, then falls limply onto the waiting couch and stares in shock at the walls.

第16話　乗ってけ！アバレサーフィン！ Notteke! Abaresaafin Ride! Abare Surfing!
The continuing story of Yukito Sanjo and his father, the evil... er... the business magnate. Of the day Yukito finally left his home forever. Of the struggle to defeat their most hated phobia. A bandaged Ryouga and a worried Emi push a bowl of natto on poor Ranru. She eats it, trying hard, her face a mask of disgust at the taste and texture of the extremely healthy horrid food. Yukito Sanjo, driven to extremes of emotion, is once again carrying his suitcase of money while Ryouga sticks with him and tries to cheer him up. And Jiro is recovered, beside the armor-clad Asuka he is grinning with joy (which we know heralds the maturing of the Bakuryu who had called him). And yes, Abarenor is perched on this red one's back. Ryouga and Yukito change into armor together. And Jannu meets the little girl in white again, who leaves her with a passing comment that does not please the red woman at all, as she turns and finds no one there. Sharkurumargaretto is unlikely to last past this episode.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第16話　乗ってけ！アバレサーフィン！
Notteke! Abaresaafin
Ride! Abare Surfing!

A little boy, Jiro, finds a dinosaur egg amoung the trees of a small city park while he's on his way to school. He comes upon a battle between the Abaranger and Sharkurumargaretto, and armored Sanjo tries to send him to safety, but is hit by the Kirai beam. Trapped in a nightmare of fighting an intangible demon-mask, and we learn that Yukito hates his father more than anything. Sharkurumargaretto fires the Virus Cannons, Sanjo's armor protects him but Jiro is infected. Sanjo tries to cut the final ties between him and his father, tossing a demon mask into the man's lap. But it isn't enough, and caught in the Kirai beam again it is all the worse for him. Fighting madly he deals Ryouga a terrible blow. He finds Jiro in the hospital, writhing in pain, blue spots all over his body. The doctor has the nurse shove Sanjo out of the way, out into the hall. "This is my fault," Sanjo chokes out, clutching his chest, he looks guiltily back over his shoulder.

Morning comes inside the hospital. Outside Room 201 where Jiro is, Sanjo has spent the night, sleepless on the bench. Through the closed windows we can hear the thin sounds of ambulance sirens. Sanjo looks down at his clasped hands.

But back at the Dinosaur restaurant things are more cheerful. Ryouga is scooping rice into his mouth with chopsticks, then sipping his Miso soup. All kinds of good Japanese good foods including fish are spread out on the Tyrannosaurus-skull table. Ranru sits on Ryouga's right, Mai on his left and Asuka next to her. The other two adults watch him eat, Ranru with concern. "You okay?" she asks. When he gives her a puzzled look she clarifies, "Your head." He answer her happily, "Oh yeah but eating a good breakfast makes you really healthy!" he indicates the dishes spread around them. "My head will heal really fast, right Mai-chan?!" and he grins at her. They say, "Yeah!" together and continue gobbling up breakfast. Asuka and Ranru can't help but grin. And Emi is there, too, bringing out a dinosaur bowl full of... "Here you are, Ranru, Dinosaur Natto!" Those bowls are pretty big. And my, does Ranru's face turns a fastenating color! You can see the whites of her eyes. Then she starts wailing protests, but Ryouga grabs the bowl from a grinning Emi's hands and scolds her, saying that if she can't push herself past this, she won't be able to defeat the Torinoid. Emi nods and mmphs firm agreement, and they both glower sternly at Ranru, whose return gaze is betrayed and tragic. But she grabs the bowl by its neck and uses her chopsticks to stir the natto. She gathers up a mouthful, stares at it in white horror, then closes her eyes and puts it in her mouth. They watch critically while she fights to make herself swallow it (believe me, I know how she feels, I hate that stuff, too). Then Asuka softly brings up, "Yukito-san... hasn't come back yet." But Kera answers through the viewscreens, the big tattletale. "Yukito spent the night at the hospital." They understand about the child, but Ryouga wonders what happened with his father. Tyranno wonders, too. Ryouga worries about this, fine brow furled.

On Dino Earth, Mikela is working on Sharkurumargaretto, putting the finishing touches with a small paintbrush that seems to deliver little electric shocks. The shark rubs his face where it's touched. When Rije asks, Mikela says to wait and enjoy what she sees. Voffa wonders aloud where Jannu's gone off to this time. But Rije, while they argue, thinks that she must be off searching for another egg.

A bright light appears above the city, then flashes down. It lands atop a building and forms in swirling tendrils Jannu. She turns, holding the searching fossil in her hand. Glaring at it she speaks harshly, "Where are the remaining Bakuryu eggs?" She holds it up and does a quick twenty five degree sweep. But nothing happens. "Nothing," she breathes angrily. If she goes in a swirl of light. She lands atop another very high place and holds up the fossil. With a snarl of fury she says, "Show yourself!!" But of course there is nothing, and she flashes away again. This time she lands on an overpass, people rushing by her but she's in a safe zone. The dull thunder of people rushing by she ignores, holding the stone up. Behind her the girl in white appears. She walks past, pauses and says in an echoing voice, "You're still at this?" Then disappears. Jannu startles and turns around, but there is nothing to see behind her. "Again?" she says thoughtfully. Around her, not in synch with her, innocent human pedestrians walk by. "What are you?" Jannu worries. She stands, a red figure on the bridge, while the white blurs of human beings go by, and below a train moves out. Jannu takes off again.

Sanjo's taken off his coat. Under it he wears a long sleeved black shirt. The Dino Brace looks huge on his wrist. He stands restlessly. A doctor and nurse rush by, caught up in discussing the problems while a voice on the hospital intercom pages someone. Sanjo rounds the corner and raises his bracelet. "It's me," is all he says. But of course his voice comes through and Asuka gasps with relief. "Yukito-san!" He's got the computer screen open and all sorts of lovely data is shown. I think it's being used for the egg-hunt. Straight to the point, Sanjo asks if they know what's going on. Uncertainly, Asuka tries to answer him and also to ask questions. Behind him, Ranru is still eating the Natto. She takes a deep, gasping breath and puts another bite into her mouth. She's starting to get inured to the taste and texture (I can't see me ever accomplishing that feat, she's quite a girl).

Sanjo wanders back to his seat on the bench. He sits down heavily. A pained glance at the door, and he cannot help but say a silent prayer to the gods that they hurry and find a way to defeat this Torinoid. He is off-balance, shaken to the core by his weakness in this battle. He finally says aloud, "But what can I do about it?" Then someone pats him on the shoulder. When he turns his head to find out who, he ends up with a finger poking into his cheek. Sanjo finds, to his shock, that Ryouga has come to him at the hospital. "Yay," Ryouga greets him with an irrepressible grin and the peace sign. "Well, there aren't more of them," he comment cheerfully as he sits down. "Ryouga," Sanjo acknowledges him wearily. Rouga happily rests his chin on his thumbs, considers the ceiling and asks, "What's your father like?" Oddly frightened by the question, Sanjo gets to his feet. "None of your business," he says in a strained tone and walks off quickly down the hall. Ryouga raises an eyebrow and looks after him, then cups a hand near his mouth and calls gently, "The demon will come out again." Sanjo halts in mid-stride and turns to look at him. Ryouga grins and puts his hands up to make little horns and play at being a demon. They wander the tidy park near the hospital, leggy boys. "So... you were born the son of a big business president. You must've been a heck of a kid." Sanjo settles on a stone table, tired already. His thoughts go back, despite himself.

Papers, tests of some sort. Algebra to be done. (1) 3(2r+3y) = 6x+9y (2) 2(6a-7b) = 12a-14y (uhoh) The answers are written large, by a steady hand. The hand of a small boy with a tutor sitting beside him. A boy dwarfed by his study-desk. "I was home-schooled for ten hours every day. Even when I had a cold, or a fever, I had no days off." His father, dressed in a rich, black and white robe, regular clothes beneath, watched the sessions from the doorway. "I didn't have friends because other kids were noisy." Tiny boy in a tiny business suit, plunked into his father's chair at the head of an enormous table. Middle-aged men giving reports to his father who stands beside him. Walking down the marble steps of his father's building beside the man, with employees trailing behind them. He looks up at the distant ceiling, gaze following wher his father points and listening to a long lecture.

"Wow," Ryouga says. "I didn't live in a world where my fate was decided (very iffy translation)." Grimly, Sanjo says, "That's not all."

A Junior High School student, at last some freedom. And a girl, sweet and gentle. Young Yukito Sanjo very shy. They went for romantic walks together to enjoy the chirping of birds, the breezes in their hair and moving branches of trees. Yukito put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into his embrace, for once he was at peace. His father, witnessing the budding romance, stared grimly at them from near the flowering bushes.

A briefcase full of Japanese money, who knows how much. Opened to the rather disturbed gaze of a man and his wife. They look uncertainly to each other for a decision. Yukito stands numbly near his seated father who tells the two he wants them to move, somewhere far from his son. Then he stands and leaves the room coldly, while Yukito helplessly clenches his fists.

And so it is that the moving van is loaded, the girl walks towards her parents' car. Hearing a noise, she turns and with delight sees Yukito, who stands breathless at the sight of her. She starts towards him, but her parents have just come out of the house heading for the car. Her mother lunges for her, "No!" and grabs the girl's arm, pulling her to the car with them. Looks like they didn't explain the reason for the sudden move. Startled, confused, unable to say goodbye, she is taken away from him. He watches them drive off, the bewildered girl sticking her head out of the window and calling softly to him. He cannot help but sniffle.

When he conftonts his father, the ice man says cruelly, "The world revolves around money. You can buy people with money." And Yukito swallows a scream and blazes hate at his father. "Do you understand?!" snaps the old man. And then he stalks away, leaving only the demon mask for Yukito to focus his rage on. Shaking, sobs locking up his throat, Yukito breathes out, "My life..." he has to strain to pull himself into motion, "...is NOT GOING TO BE ABOUT MONEY!" he shouts up the stairs. He whirls and heads for the door. This motion startles his father on the stairs and makes the man turn. Through the window beside him we see that the world is drenched in rain, and can hear sharp thunder outside. Yukito, drenched the moment he left the shelter of his father's house, sobs at the unfairness of it all. He almost glances back, but then races on.

"That's it," Yukito Sanjo tells Ryouga. "I never went back. Up to now, I've tried to forget it all." Ryouga half nods. "But then the demon appeared," he comments and settles on the bench below Sanjo. Sanjo sits back a little. "When the demon appeared, I realize my fate was still tied to him. So I gave him money." Just the day before, a suitcase full of far more money than his father had given the girl's family. His father's stiff, faint surprise and questioning of it. And what Sanjo himself had said. "This is for from when I was born until I got out of Junior High, all you spent on me. I'm giving it back!" Eyes clouded with confusion, Sanjo leans forward, lips pouting. "I thought that would set me free. But the demon appeared again." Ryouga listens, turns his head thoughtfully while Sanjo whispers shakily, "Why?!" It makes Ryouga smile softly. "Sanjo-san," he says. Startled from his thoughts, Sanjo looks down. Suddenly all mischief and eagerness, Ryouga touches his friend's knees. "So how much was it?" "Huh?" gasps a startled Sanjo. Then he pulls himself together. "That's enough!" he snaps and stalks away.

On Dino Earth, in the Evorian... Tower, for lack of a better word. Sharkurumargaretto cackles gleefully. Mikela is satisfied. "He'll power up soon," he tells the other two. "He doesn't look any different," grumbles Voffa. "It's not the outside that's changed, it's the inside!" Mikela answers indignantly. Rije isn't bothered. The daisy still in her hair, she tells the Giganoid happily, "Keep on trying!" and dances over to kiss him away. He leaves in a gleaming heart.

Inside the tall building President Sanjo is busy working on some papers. Ouisde the window behind him a mighty head raises up, a man standing atop. Tyranno utters a hissing roar which gives President Sanjo pause. When he turns, it is to the sight of a cheerful young man dressed in red and black, who stands atop a red and silver dinosaur's green-eyed head. And when the human in this bizarre sight raps on his window and grins at him, he can perhaps be forgiven his shock.

The docks. Water mostly still, boats moored. Sharkurumargaretto walks to the end of a dock to stare in appreciation into the water. "Oh, soon you'll make a great tsunami!" he says gleefully. His license plate says EV-10. "No it won't!" counters a voice behind him. He turns to find Asuka and Ranru have arrived. "You again," he greets them. They change into their armor and race to attack. But he gleefully shows them his new capacity. They are hit by a fountain of water and pushed back, crying out. Sanjo paces restlessly, heavily, where he is, while his friends fall to the soaked cement. "This is the power of the shark!" Sharkurumargaretto calls. "Why aren't Sanjo and Ryouga here?!" worries Ranru as she and Asuka struggle back to their feet. Well, because Sanjo is sitting miserably on a park bench. His bracelt chimes and he hears Asuka's voice calling him and Ryouga, begging them to come quickly. He can hear them crying out as they are hit again and leans against a post. "If I change, he'll only beat me aga - " he thinks unhappily. But then, "Sanjo!" he hears Ryouga calling him. Startled, he straightens up and looks around. Ryouga is racing up the park path, a familiar large, silver case in his right hand. Panting, he halts in front of Sanjo and then presents him with the case. "But this - " Sanjo starts, holding it in shock, and then stares stunned at Ryouga. "You... my father had th - " Ryouga is quick to reassure him, "Oh, no he gave it back. I didn't steal it or anything." Sanjo isn't any less startled. "But why did you - "

Sadly, Ranru and Asuka are getting trashed. Sharkurumargaretto is powerful and they are still uncertain from their past failures. And out he takes one of his daisies. And pulls the petals off until he hits both of them at once with the Hate Beam. As before, Asuka faces Jannu and Ranru is trapped in the studio with her bizarre teacher.

And Ryouga strolls along beside the confused, silent Sanjo. As they start down a flight of stairs he starts to speak. "Parents and children are really tough, huh? I mean, I really can't wait to see how Mai-chan grows up!" he says with utter joy. Sanjo pretends to ignore him, but he continues blithely. "But you know, she won't grow up exactly the way I want her to, and that's just the way it is. I am who I am, and Mai is who Mai is." They reach the bottom of the stairs and he says, "Your father is your father, and you are YOU." He sets his hand firmly on Sanjo's shoulder to emphasize the point. For some reason, this really strikes home and Sanjo turns to Ryouga, who starts to grin widely at him. Somewhat hurt, Sanjo stutters, "What are you trying to say?" And Ryouga smiles and says, "The demon you face isn't really your father, is it?" More confused and now slightly insulted Sanjo asks, "What do you mean?" "You're trying to cut the connection between you with money. Just like your father did your girlfriend." Sanjo looks floored. "Me?!" Shaken, he breathes in stunned, "Just like him?" He repeats it again, and Ryouga nods agreement. But it's finally sunk in, and suddenly Sanjo comes alive with purpose. "Let's go, Ryouga." He turns and starts off at a run, lugging the case. "Right," yelps Ryouga, spinning around. "Oh, yes Asuka and Ranru are waiting!" and he tears off after his friend.

Asuka tumbles, staggers back, favoring his injured shoulder. His breathing is ragged. Jannu snarls, "It's over, Asuka!" and she charges at him, blade ready to kill. And suddenly he gathers his power, white and shining for a moment he screams, "Jannu!!" and swings his blade up. He slices straight through her. And she utters a horrid scream. Her body glows white as she spins with the impact, pulsing. She falls and the glow becomes piercing brilliance, dissolving the illusory world while a terrified Asuka stares wildly around. And he is in the real world, still in his armor. Gaping about his eyes fall on the little girl in white. She stands near the edge of the dock, staring at him with an expression both mournful and proud. She glows and fades away. "That girl!" he gasps uncertainly. Sharkurumargaretto is equally uncertain.

Ranru's teacher greets her enthusiastically, "Yup! Again and again!" he tells her. And he holds out his hands with the two bunches representing natto but then... the bunches are gone, he is waving enthusiastically at her with empty hands. Ranru grins in victory, "I've conquered natto!" "Right, so let's go!" her teacher says, making some of the dance moves to indicate the plan. "Okay!" she answers him cheefrully. And they go into the dance routine, Ranru singing the words to the song, and she is perfect. He mouths the words with her as they dance and when they are finished, Ranru cocks her head challengingly at him. "How was that?" "Oh," he says girlishly and then reverts to a manly voice, "Perfection!" He gives her a muscle-bound salute and fads away, giggling. "I did it!" she shouts when she sees the real world all around her. Well, isn't that a surprise for Sharkurumargaretto! The surprises keep coming.

Ryouga and Sanjo arrive near the docks. Ryouga calls challenge to the Torinoid, presenting Sanjo as their next champion. The pair change into armor. Together they leap rolling into battle, kick Sharkurumargaretto back. When the other two calls their names in relief and no little worry, Sanjo turns back to them and says, "I'm really sorry." This is a shock for Ranru. "You're admitting you made a mistake?" Startled into this conversation, Sanjo stiffens up and starts to respond, but there is still the enemy to fight and he turns back to the battle. For Sharkurumargaretto pulls the petals from his daisy and then fires the Hate Beam at Ryouga. Ryouga simply burst it apart with a growl. Then he complains poutingly that he isn't being sent to see what he hates, before adding "'Course I don't know why." Sanjo, though, takes up his gun and says heavily, "Show me my hallucination." He walks forward like a man going to his execution. Asuka gasps behind him, Ryouga utters his name with gentle belief, Ranru is too worried to speak. The Torinoid hisses as Sanjo approaches, then in a fury bathes him in the Hate Beam. It engulfs him and he cries out, writhing.

And he goes straight into his nightmare. The darkness around, roiling mist at his feet, and a demon under a dull, white mantleawaits. The demon turns gracefully, lifts its head (a human behind a mask). Sanjo lifts something, too. His gun. His voice shaking he orders, "Show your true self." The demon responds to the command by tossing the mantle and whips around. Mantle, kimono, mask all fade away and a man is there. Sanjo's father in a dark business suite, glowering. "This is wrong," Sanjo says shakily. "Whatever it is I really hate, it's not you." He touches his hand over his heart for a painful admission. "Inside I'm still bound to you, there will always be a little bit of you inside me. I know!" And the illusion in front of him changes, the face fading away and hair becoming long. For the enemy he faces is really himself. Sanjo takes a stronger grip on his gun. "But I can't keep being afraid of that. Disappear!!" And he fires (now isn't this most existential?). The white-orange blast hits, destroying his motionless doppelganger. Destroying the hallucination.

Sanjo comes out of it, still on the docks and still with his gun trained on Sharkurumargaretto, who is quite stunned. Until he is blasted. And the others gather around him, Ryouga clings to his arm and crows with relief. "Ryouga," Sanjo suddenly says sternly, causing him to look puzzled and Ranru to cock her head. "You," Sanjo starts, then turns with more confidence and some scolding, "You were right." He pushes a little, shrugging his arm loose. Startled and confused, Ryouga apologizes then points at Sharkurumargaretto, who is getting back up to fight again. Sanjo calls for the next step, and they blast the Torinoid with the Dino Bomber.

Once he is destroyed, his victims recover. Relieved doctors find their fever gone and them conscious. Jiro's mother is happy and bowing to the doctor, thanking him while he's trying to tell her they hadn't actually done anything but he is vastly relieved. Jiro slips off the bed to greet the egg in his bag, which glows urgently. "Right, let's go. I understand." Before the adults notice, he is out the door on his mission.

Asuka calls Bracchio, who is already there and unloading the Bakuryu with a rousing speech probably quoted from some Tokusatsu theme. Abarenor goes into battle, easily punching out Sharkurumargaretto. But when he uses his water attack, they are driven back and their humans knocked from the mighty robot. While they are puzzling over what's happening, the Torinoid heads out to sea to call in a tsunami (for the rare uninitiated, tidal wave). And Jiro rolls on his heels swiftly along the streets, panting. He carries his bag with its precious contents. There is very little time. Asuka is still holding Ryouga up and he tells them with fright, "Abarenor is not good in the ocean!" Oh no, what can they do? But then, "HEY!" shouts a voice. They turn and Sanjo gasps, "Jiro!" He rushes to greet the little boy, kneeling and touching his shoulders. "You're all right?" "Yeah, and I have this!" Jiro digs into his bag and pulls out the egg, setting it in Sanjo's hands. Rather stunned, he does a bit of gaping. Presumably, he's in his armor after all. The others gather around him as he stands up. "It's a Bakuryu egg..." he stutters. Jiro grins up at them and explains, "The egg's wanted to get to you, Abaranger." While they are still gaping, there's a sudden odd roar from Sanjo's changer. he looks in surprise and suddenly Kera's band is overlaid by another model, the deep red of a new Bakuryu. And it speaks to them while they are still shocked, "Oh I was so lonely!" The egg in Sanjo's hand glows, then suddenly cracks open to reveal a tiny, perfect stegasaurus-type Bakuryu. Asuka is utterly in heaven. "StegosRidon! It's you!" They are all delighted and Jiro says, "How CUTE!" The Bakuryu leaps from Sanjo's hand and suddenly grows to its full size. He yelps happily through the bracelet, "I did it, I'm ready!" Tyranno asks, "Why didn't Asuka hear you?" A bit confused themselves, they look in the remains of his egg. It's empty. I guess there's some relation. But Ryouga pulls them back to the matter at hand. The Torinoid out in the sea, calling in a tidal wave. "Stegos can go," Asuka tells them. "You guys board Abarenor!" They enthusiastically dash to do so. Stegos tells them to come on, he opens up his back to provide them with a flat place to stand. They join him, Sanjo uttering a prayer to him. And out they ride into the ocean. Jiro at Asuka's side hollars, "Go for it! Don't lose!" And they destroy the Torinoid without any difficulty, riding the Tsunami wave like a surfer. They skid to a halt on the suddenly smooth water. "You're so cool, Abaranger!" Jiro bellows. He and Asuka nod and grunt agreement to each other.

Later, they've returned to the Dinosaur Restaurant. They sit on the stools along the counter, Asuka, Ryouga, Mai, Ranru and Sanjo, with bowls of soup in front of them. Sanjo turns thoughtfully to Asuka. "But why could Jiro hear the Bakuryu's voice?" he asks. "Well..." Asuka says thoughtfully. "Jiro must have the Dino Guts. He's stronger than other children." As they speak, Emi comes around in her kitchen apron. She sets a glass of juice in front of Mai, who grins thanks at her. Ryouga suddenly says happily, "Well that must mean in the future he'll be an Abaranger!" This triggers an indignant glare from Emi, who says, "What about me and Suke-san? We heard the Bakuryu voices, too!" But Ranru says she has another question she wants the answer to more than that. "What is it?" Ryouga asks her. Pouting slightly, she eyes him. "Why were you the only one not affected by the Torinoid's beam?" Mai pipes up, "I know why!" In the pre-commercial remark Tyranno says, "Eh, Mai knows the reason? Well, tell us!"

Confidently, Mai grins and says "Ryouga doesn't have anyone or anything he hates." Startled, Ryouga realizes "Well, yeah that's true." Totally wounded Ranru gapes at him. "You mean that's IT?" Sanjo starts to take a bite of his food and says huffily, "It's because he's too much an idiot. The Torinoid couldn't get to him." "Well, I like lots of people," Sanjo points out. "Right, Mai? Especially you!" and they grin gleefully at each other and he showers her with little kisses. "I love you too, Ryo-chan!" Mai tells him joyfully. Then she turns her sparkling gaze to Sanjo. "And Yukito also loves Ryo-chan!" Sanjo goes all shades of gray and snaps, "Don't be stupid." Mai gives Ryouga a questioning glance as Yukito turns his back on them and folds his arms stubbornly. Then they start to snicker, for Sanjo says "In this whole word, I hate him most of all." This sends all of them into fits of giggles and Sanjo makes sure they cannot see his smile.

第17話　戦場のアバレかっぽれ Senjou no Abare Kappore The Battlefield's Abare-Strut
The others watch in surprise as Ryunosuke starts to dance. Asuka, however, stares in horror. His eyes are wide and his face goes completely white. "Kappore, kappore!" he cries in dismay (it appears to relate to the meaning of the word "strut"). A nightmare of the Barmia, painful enough to make him faint and fall limply from the stool he was sitting on. The Abaranger are fighting and getting trashed. And we get another image of Ryunosuke as a young teenager, being bright and cheerful in front of a broken wall scorched from flames. He is dancing for two younger children, a boy and a girl. And Asuka lies delirious, a damp cloth on his forehead. He sweats, trapped in memories of darkness, of Barmia everywhere and a white one slashing down. And there is a man in a white duster (yes, this is Abare Killer but he doesn't get involved yet). He wears sunglasses and looks alittle damp, he is young like them. The Abaranger fight a crowd of Barmia, and this time their Dino Bomber is enhanced by Asuka's weapon. The four of them together will fire.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第17話　戦場のアバレかっぽれ
Senjou no Abare Kappore
The Battlefield's Abare-Strut

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第18話　誰だ？アバレキラーだ！
Dareda? Abarekiraada!
Who is it? Abare Killer!

Lighting, fire, and the portal to Dino Earth opens wide above the city. Civilians know what this usually means, and run in a panic. As well they should, for down comes a Torinoid chanting "bell bell bell". It is the usual blend of plant, animal and thing. This time the thing is a telephone, crocodile and um... a Japanese Fatsia. It's name is Yatsudenwani, Torinoid Number 12. Rije, listening, puts her fings down and delights, "He seems really strong!" Pleased with himself, Mikela is happy to agree. Voffa and Jannu utter irritable snorts at his arrogance. But the might telephone Torinoid is all ready to start his attack. He laughingly tells the humans to go ahead and run. But then he is struck by a blur moving too fast to see. We get brief flashes of white boots. Again and again, he's spun in circles until his attacker stops for one moment, long enough to use a blade and mince the Torinoid. Rije stares, stunned. "He's erased." As much as she'd disliked Mikela's arrogance, Jannu gapes. "What?!"

The Abaranger trio arrive at the scene. They look wildly around and Ryouga hisses, "Where are you, Torinoid?" Folding his arms Sanjo comments that maybe he'd already run off. But then someone says, "I destroyed it." Startled, the three have their guns out to fire but all there is to see is a man in white. White boots, white jeans, white duster. Dark shirt, though. He leans against the strut of a building, cool and perfectly collected. And he is a fine looking young man. He holds what appears to be a cellphone in his hand, and almost they are uncertain he had addressed them. "You are..?" begins a startled Ranru. "Talking to you will only get in my way," he comments bluntly. Sanjo holsters his gun and says snidely, "An ordinary human, beat a Torinoid?" The man he's addressing gives him an aggrieved glance, and closes up his rather inerestingly designed cellphone. "Ah, but I'm not your run-of-the-mill human," he responds, strolling towards them. He slides his left hand from his pocket to reveal a white Dino Brace on his wrist. They gasp at the sight. And now he raises his wrist, presses the crest on the pteranadon-like head, whose jaw opens showing fangs. Lifting it to his face he says softly, "Bakuryu Change," and presses the button. It's eyes flash red. Light swirls down his body and back up, re-clothing him in white a black armor, a belt whose emblem looks like a cracked egg with three black spines on top and one on the bottom. Following a grand tradition, his armor seems heavier than his, sweetly lined in gold. His mask, well, it looks menacing in the red of the goggles.

Asuka, in the Dino Restaurant, sees this suit on the computer screen. His eyes go wide with horror. "That's... Zerogo (or something like that)!!"

Our sweet optimist, Ryouga, is delighted to welcome the new guy. "Hey, there're now five members in Abaranger!" he crows. But it is not to be. Not yet, anyway. "I'm not joining you," the man tells them. "Why not?!" yelps Ryouga. "You got the Dino Guts, then you've got to use that power to fight to protect Earth!" The man utters a snorting laugh and cocks his head back at Ryouga. "And that's what you call fun?" he asks. "Eh?" stutters Ryouga. The man says something to the effect that one should use this for one's own pleasure. He draws his short blade and uses it like a pen in the air. A few simple swipes and a dozen or so energy arrows float around him. Then those arrows spin to target the startled Abaranger. "What in - " Ranru begins. But then their surprise enemy sends those arrows flying at them. The arrows impact painfully, piercing our heroes and sending them tumbling. Ryouga gasps, "What are you doing?!" "Oh, enjoying a game," he is told. Sanjo is halfway to his feet and furious, "Who are you?" he snarls. "Me?" the man asks back. "Oh, right. Well, since you're the Abaranger... how's about this?" And he uses his blade again to write in the air, this time it's letters in delicate cursive. Abarekiller hangs in the air. The trio utters soft gasps, and Ryouga reads the word aloud in shock.

Four months ago...

A fairly large hospital. An ambulance rolls in, late evening. In one office a man is pumping weights, shirtless. His whole upper torso shines with sweat. All that work, but he doesn't have much in the way of abs. Finishing his workout, he lets out a breath, eyes glazed. "That's enough of that," he comments, bored. A knock on the door and he gets up, reaching for his shirt, as a worried nurse dashes in. "Doctor Nakadai," she says softly, yet twiddling her hands nervously. She's come to ask him to hurry. He brightens and looks at her hopefully, "Is it interesting?" He trailed behind her, putting on his lab coat as she explains about the case. They pass a small television in one of the waiting areas, whereon a rather familiar scene is being shown. First a worried male newscaster, but the words he's saying stop Nakadai in his tracks. And when the live footage comes on showing a pale yellow pteranadon doing barrel rolls over the city streets, he is rivetted. So much so the anxious nurse comes to try to get him moving again. She even tugs at his arm but he seems totally unaware of her.

He drives his very expensive white car along the Tokyo streets. License plate numbers are 35-10 (sorry, can't read the rest). His expression is wild with excitement as he heads into the area of chaos, to see a pale yellow tyrannosaurus walking the streets. It roars and his flesh sings. "Go!" he says happily, fingers squeezing the steering wheel. The pteranadon swoops down. Nakadai can drive no further through the panicked crowds, so he abandons his car and heads in on foot. There is a triceratops, tromping on cars. "Oh, wow! First time for everything!" he practically sings as the big creature gets closer to where he is. He clutches the shirt over his heart, right in the middle of everything he stands unflinching and taking joy in the chaos, as a car kicked by the triceratops flies over his head to land on another car behind him, and both go up in flames. He's still relatively nearby when the tyrannosaurus finds Ryouga trying to save a neighbor's dog. He stands beside a police car, ignoring the terrified people running by him like waves. And then his grin vanishes as the mighty dinosaur suddenly burrows into the ground. Well, that's no fun. "Hey!" he calls it. Too late, it's already gone. "Awe, you're kidding! It's over already?" he mourns like a child, deflating and arm hanging limply at his side. He sighs and turns, completely indifferent to the flames and rubble behind him. After all, there was nothing worth seeing.

Back to the hospital he goes, and he is the one to operate on the injured Ryouga. He operates in silence except for requesting the occasional tool (a forcep). One man assisting questions the nurse, maybe about Ryouga. She reports he'd been a resident in America. The other man assisting complains the doctor hadn't telephoned. Nakadai utters a quick instruction the first man hastens to obey. Only in his head is the young doctor complaining of helping stupid people. He utters another heavy, aggrieved sigh. "Helping this guy... is not fun," he complains. But then he hears something. A distant, distorted, terrified voice calling for help. Puzzled, he pauses and wonders who is calling him. He picks the word "transform" out of the distant muttering, and then tears off his mask. When the others question him, he abruptly tells them to close and walks out. They all lunge after him, but there is an injured man to help and he is too quickly gone.

Yes, gone out into the night where an enormous, yellow tyrannosaurus is racing along the roads. Also a pteranodon and triceratops. Out to arrive close on the scene wherein Asuka tries to interpose his body to protect Ryunosuke and Emiri from their attack. In time to witness the arrival about the same time he gets there of Sanjo and Ranru. He sees them snatch and don the bracelets from atop a flight of stairs. Watches them get stomped on and then push the dinosaurs up, and comments, "So that's what's transform means," cupping his chin thoughtfully. And then watches wide-eyed as the color comes in blue on the triceratops, and brilliant yellow on the pteranadon. "What are you?!" he gasps in delight. Them he pouts while they lunge at the tyrannosaurus to stop him and get stomped on and kicked away. Seeing the fighting tyrannosaur, the smile returns to his face. "It's you, right? You're calling me!" he turns and lopes back to his car. "Wait, I'm coming!" he cries over his shoulder. But then... he sees the red blur of the dino-brace fly to a man on top of a building. He watches in utter indignation as Ryouga gets the bracelet without even knowing what it is. "Hey, him? No, it's not true!" Nakadai whines. And the tyrannosaur comes out in brilliant red. The three Abaranger assemble, and Nakadai huffs and pouts. "I thought you were different," he grieves.

The battle with the mighty Evorian Fortress as it coasts over Tokyo the next night. Tentacles lashing down to catch Abarenor. Nakadai watches in the distance, still disgruntled and much aggrieved. When the Fortress is destroyed, he finally can watch no more and stalks back to his car. But suddenly he is struck by... unknown. A piercing agony in his heart. It makes him twitch and writhe like a puppet on strings. The pain in his heart drives him gasping to his knees. "Why is this happening now?!" he gasps (implying it's not unexpected exactly). And suddenly a strange thing falls from the sky to land silently near him. It looks like an enormous egg. He struggles to his feet and approaches it. When he touches it, the outer shell disintegrates. Inside there is a smaller, white gold and black egg. And there also is a Dino Brace. Curious and wanting, he picks it up and puts it on his left wrist. And it starts to transform him. In red-gold electric bolts that jar his whole body in the agony it causes him. He writhes, struggles to his feet. The armor assembles and then dis-assembles on him and he sort of weaves, before slumping forward. He lands sprawled out next to the egg, whose black spikes glow orange-red. Nakadai's clothing is in tatters. His flesh is bruised and scored. He looks pretty awful. He twitches as its voice speaks in him and then he forces words out his torn throat. "It was you? You were calling me?" Whatever he hears from it makes him smile. "Thank you," he says. "I thought I'd be bored forever."

But there is a lot of recovering to do. He's been treated himself, bandages everywhere, shoulders, stomach, left arm, right leg, right back-of-hand. He limps through the hospital corridors holding himself up with a crutch, falling, forcing himself back up. Again and again he tries to transform. There is a warehouse-like place where he keeps something under a tarp. When he tries to transform there is only utter agony. "Again!" he snarls, staring at his bracelet. Searching for clues to the problem, he watches the four Abaranger transform and the spikes jut out from their armor. There are four of them, he notes, and that this could be fun. And he begins to manage the transformation, and to shut down without agony. He laughs madly near his tarp-covered treasure.

Today, now. The Abaranger tumble in all directions under his attack, crying out with pain. They fall and he surges towards them, becoming the speeding blur he cuts an x in each of their chests. When he tumbles to a halt, they are blasted and fall. Ryouga calls him to stop, "You're a human! The Dino Guts you have lets you change, but why fight us?" It seems he wants them gone. And Ryouga, with the others back on their feet, finds him totally bewildering. "That's weird. That's utterly strange!" he calls hoarsely. But there is only a snort and a lecture in response about the fun of fighting. And Abarekiller sets his blade in a more powerful form and starts towards them again.

And on Dino Earth, poor Mikela is practically spitting mad. "My poor Torinoid!!" Voffa considers then turns to where the woman and girl stand. "Rije, was that one really a strong soldier?" She nods and says it's true. Voffa turns frustrated to "Jannu?!" But she agrees, and wanders forward talking about the Abare Suits, more to herself than them. Something about a bomb, and what it's doing in the hands of someone from Another Earth (I know!!). The others turn and look at her, puzzled. So then Dezu pops in to talk through Rije, and orders Jannu on a mission to retrieve you-know-what. Rije is herself again and happily kisses Jannu's hand to send her off. (Sheesh, how's she been getting there otherwise? Or is this only when it's a mission?)

Abarekiller slices them, and they get back to their feet, Sanjo urging them to really fight now. Ryouga has a hard time bringing himself to, but of course their new enemy only slashes them down again. Furious, Sanjo gets ready to fire. But Asuka arrives in his armor to physically restrain the enraged man. "Hold up, please!" he begs them urgently. "WHY?" snarls Sanjo. "Because that's Zerogo!" He goes on to explain that it was a prototype bracelet for the transforming soldiers. Listening, Abarekiller taps his blade on his shoulder. Asuka continues to explain that it proved to be dangerous. In a kind of very large bomb way. They stutter what he said and all stare at the new guy as Asuka explains that if that bracelet blows, it'll wipe out all of Tokyo. We see them imagining Abarekiller screaming in agony as his body become a bright, white fire that pulses out across Tokyo, bright enough to be seen from space. And he seems to know it, too. He nods slightly. The Abaranger all gasp while Asuka frantically warns the newcomer to stop transforming with the suit. But he thinks it's all good fun *cough*. "You'll destroy Tokyo?!" gasps Sanjo. "It'd be the same, going out with me," the madman replies musedly. They are all shocked, but Sanjo and Ranru are of one mind. Get that bracelet off of him. They rush at him together while Asuka shouts frantic warnings. Ryouga is very upset, declaring that the man in the suit can't be really human. They are at a major disadvantage as they cannot risk him blowing up. But they go to more powerful form. They stand no chance, and he knocks them into a car. Then he stalks at them. They call in their private weaons and leap to attack, but when those strike the bracelet on his wrist, a considerable portion of their power is sucked from them into the changer. They scream, and then he cuts them down. This time they lose their armor and lie on the cement, Sanjo clutching at his battered chest. Abarekiller chuckles and fingers his bracelet fondly. Asuka screams, "STOP! Are you TRYING to blow yourself up?!" He turns to meet Asuka's charge and when our boy foolishly strikes with blade, catches it on the changer again and sucks power from him, too. Asuka is down and armorless now, too. Ryouga leaps into the fray, tackling the madman and shouting painfully for him to stop fighting. He only chuckles and gets back up. "You fool," he says, and attacks. Ryouga uses only his hands to fight, pins the man's leg and begs to understand why. "Geez you're annoying," sneers the other. He slashes Ryouga down and then says, "Vanish." He punches hard, powerful. It sends Ryouga flying back until he hits a wall hard. The impact is enough to shut down his armor and he lies motionless, blood tricking from his mouth and head. "Weaklings. If you don't fight to win, then all you'll get is dead." The others stagger towards them, Ranru calling Ryouga's name. But he turns to them, very pleased with what he's gotten, telling them how he loves this. "Loves?" repeats Asuka, disgusted and horrified. But now Abarekiller releases his armor to say farewell to them. "The real game starts now," he comments. He turns and walks away without a glance back. Ryouga lies limp.

The young doctor, madman, lunatic, drives his car contentedly along the road before uttering a noise of faint surprise. Jannu stands in his path, waiting for him. He stopes the car and gets out. "Well, and what are you?" he asks coolly. "The Lead one," she replies just as coolly. "Jannu." "Ah," he says, closing the door of his car and approaching her with interest. "So you're one of the attackers from a hidden place." She glares at him when he comes in front of her. "Return the Bakuryu. And that bracelet." He is amused and intrigued by her, maybe. "You're a sexy girl," he says, reaching out to touch her chin just under her lips. "You gonna be my follower?" he teases. She shoves his hand away angrily and tries to slap him, but he catches her wrist firmly and yanks her to him. "I like strong people, too," he muses. Then he reaches up and touches the gems on her cheek with his left hand, causing a terrible scatter of power, possibly from her to him which hurts and she struggles. He lets her tear herself loose, she huddles defensively, hand over her bone points. Perhaps now she can feel some sympathy for Asuka. But she's quick to recover, uncoiling and hissing "You filth. I should - " "You should - what?" he mocks her. But then his bracelet squawks at him. "Ah, my love calls. Later," he tells her as he walks away. She is too stunned to respond, putting a hand tentatively to her gems. I'm not entirely sure what to make of her expression as she watches him drive away.

The wounded have returned to the Dinosaur Restaurant. Ryouga is still unconscious, Asuka and Sanjo drape him on the floor of the raised dining room. Emi and Mai tear over to him while Ryunosuke tends to Ranru. Mai shakes him, tears streaming down her face, she thinks he's dead, while Asuka mutters a quick order to Emi to get the first aid kit. Ryouga struggling to consciousness, bruised hand twitching until he can move it to touch and reassure Mai. He tries to sit up, telling her weakly that he's all right and reminding her that he promised to be there when she gets married, so of course he's going to live. She begs him to promise again and he does. He looks up over the head of the weeping girl, his smile gone and stern purpose in his expression. Ranru wonders what they can do, and Sanjo growls softly that they need a plan on how to fight this guy. When Ryouga cannot suggest anything, he sighs gruffly and gets to his feet. But Asuka says angrily, "This is no normal human being. He's got that awful suit." Before they can continue the discussion, the alarms start going off and they all dash for the secret operations room. "Now what's happening?!" worries Kera before the commercials. "Come back and find out!"

They race into the room. Asuka's blade, plugged into the sensors of their computer system, is flaring brightly. "A Bakuryu signal!" he gasps. Emi is all for it, until Asuka says grimly, "No." "Eh?" He turns away from them, eyes blazing, and tells them that Abarekiller is immensely powerful with the Dino Guts and all. He thinks that's the signal his blade is picking up. And in the dining room, Ryouga holds Mai tightly so that she cannot see his face. He is deeply frightened.

Night, dark and deep. A construction area, heavy curtains to keep debris from falling on innocent passersby. To this area drives the white car, our young madman. He walks inside to where his beloved is hidden. Even as he pulls the tarp off, he changes into his armor. And he stares down at the powerful egg, whose energy pulse is strong with violence. "So that's what you wanted. Dino Guts to charge you." He touches his bracelt worshipfully, then gives the power to his egg, chuckling to himself that the game is only getting more interesting.

第19話　よろしくアバレアミーゴ Yoroshiku Abareamiigo Nice to meet you, Abare-buddy!
"Killer's love?" For he waits for the egg to hatch, wearing his armor. The others are fighting and protecting someone from falling debris. And the Bakuryu is free from its egg, eyes glowing bright red. Its mad companion is in ecstacy. And the four Abaranger with Emi and Ryunosuke turn in horror to look at something in front of them, where they stand in the Operations Room. And the Green Bakuryu has arrived, He is happy to help. He becomes Abarenor's left shoulder, but since he talks and turns his head, it's like a two-headed mecha! And Ryunosuke has a strange thing in his hand, appears to be doing ritualistic moves (that thing he holds may be Abarekiller's). Voffa uses a white feather to draw a picture of a curving, musical score (he's composing again. Giganoid next time?) Jannu is looking more than a bit off her rocker these days, stalking over to see what he's up to. And the Giganoid is a grim giant. It has some fun playing trampoline with Abarenor. Someone in Ryunosuke's motorcyle, and someone in a blue car (Sanjo?) both drive frantically.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第19話　よろしくアバレアミーゴ
Yoroshiku Abareamiigo
Nice to meet you, Abare-buddy!

The Evorian home on Dino Earth. Rije asleep in her chamber. Jannu paces past it, hand tracing worriedly near her mouth. Voffa is composing. "It's come!" he chants happily. For he's drawn a musical symbol and plotted notes upon it. His newest composition is ready. Unfortunately, Mikela cannot say the same. He's putting up a draft in the air. "Apple, gorilla, trumpet..." but it's not right and he erases it miserably. Voffa remarks something about this new one. And Jannu ignores them, deep in thought. "What is that man? When he..." she thinks to herself, remembering their encounter. The man who stepped out of his white car and asked her who she was. How, when she'd demanded the Bakuryu and bracelet from him, he'd kept looking at her and remarked, "You're a sexy girl. You want to be my follower?" and had touched her as though he had the right. How she'd tried to slap him and he'd snatched her against his body. "I like a strong person, too." And then the horrid creature had touched her spurs, causing a painful, invasive lash of energy and she'd wrenched free of him, feeling violated. Jannu draws out of the memory, and touches her spurs lightly, silver fingernails careful.

A creak, and Rije's casket is opening. As Jannu thinks, "My senses aren't wrong...." Dezumorlya speaks through Rije, then, to her. "Do you understand yet, about that man?" "Dezumorlya-sama," Jannu greets, bowing low. But her lord says sternly, "What is he?" Humbled, Jannu replies that they don't know for certain yet. But Dezumorlya tells her, "Be that as it may, he's taken a Bakuryu from the Evorian." She turns and moves away, back straight. "That is an offense beyond forgiving." Jannu agrees and bows to her lord's departing back. She says determinedly that it should be left to her, she won't fail again. Poor Jannu.

And the subject of their conversation, Abarekiller, is still pouring power into his Bakuryu egg. While energy crackles. He stands motionless, only waiting for it to finish. And when it does and the egg flashes its lights in pleasure at him, he chuckles. "Well, not out yet huh?" He gathers it up, excited, to move it.

The sword lies in the place made for it, flashing periodically. They stare at it rather numbly. Asuka gets twitchy and says, "That's a really strong Bakuryu signal." Emi bounds over to where Ryunosuke is opening up a palmtop computer and says his nickname anxiously. He's right with her. "We'll get a detailed fix on the location," he says. The others gather anxiously as he computes and they stare. But Asuka pulls himself away again. "I think..." he says gruffly, "I think that's TopGaler's egg." "TopGaler?" asks Ryouga. "What kind of beast is it?" Sanjo asks accusingly, arms folded. Asuka stands, still and then he takes a breath as though steeling himself. "Did you ever wonder why there are only four Abaranger?" Evidently they hadn't. "Eh?" asks Ranru. Ryouga shoots her a puzzled look. Asuka turns around to face them. "We though we could gather all the lesser powers together and make one tremendous power. If there were several people, they could talk together and keep each other from going bad." Ranru considers this a proper thing. Asuka continues urgently, "But... when the Zerogo suit was made, they weren't thinking that way."

Memories. Dino Earth. Their people had to work in hiding. And the aged man creating in the dim light of a lamp keeping the room he is in brighter. A small hologram in front of him of the sweet Zerogo suit. Asuka voices over, "The Evorian had giant monsters, so for the warrior to go defeat them there had to be a very strong partner." And for that sake he'd created a beautiful short sword in white, gold and black. A special changer, too. Even the belt buckle. "A long time ago people stopped and imprisoned a Bakuryu that had destroyed almost all of their colony." And so the old man had gone out into the night, out to the stone prison, where the Dino Symbol was carved into the side. The mini-mountain wreathed in chains. In front of it there were two flaming braziers, and the old man had raised his hands in supplication or demand. He had sent his signal through the blade he'd made, then finally used it to send a blast of tremendous power. Into the symbol, and the power destroyed the mountain, freeing the beast locked inside. TopGaler had called and spread his wings wide.

"And that was TopGaler." They've listened intently to him. Ranru, pale and drawn asks, "But that Bakuryu, it isn't evil... is it?" Ryouga moves forward and asks Asuka hopefully, "But it hasn't shown up yet, so it must still be in the egg, right?" Asuka does not dispute it, but he hesitates to answer. And Ryouga says firmly that they can still retrieve it. This lifts Asuka's spirits and he nods firm agreement. Just then Ryunosuke's machine completes its work and he says confidently, "We've pinpointed the location!" They quickly gather around to see.

And the Evorian are hard at work. Voffa plays what sounds vaguely cheerfuly in a discordant way. As he plays he says it's going to be one heck of a revised Giganoid. Jannu comes to watch him play, eyes bright with hope. And he finishes.

So it is that on Another Earth, our Earth, the alarms go off and down comes the screen. Emi goes to it to check and gasps, "Oh guys, this is bad! There's a Giganoid in Tokyo Harbor!" They utter frightened yelps and take a look. The screen shows something under the water, heading swiftly towards the city. Whatever it is, it's pretty darned big, looks sort of like a plane or a lizard with flaps on its neck. Asuka quickly says they'll have to split up into two groups. Off dashes Ryouga immediately, the others on his heels.

Ryouga drives Ryunosuke's motorcycle, Ranru rides in the sidecar. "We'll leave the Giganoid in the ocean to you guys," he says firmly as they drive. Ah, Sanjo's got a new car. This one is a lovely blue sports car and Asuka rides with him. And he answers Ryouga through their bracelets, "Yes, we've got it. And you guys watch it with Abarekiller." Anxious, Asuka calls into his bracelet, "Bracchio, we need you." And the big one comes out of his hiding place in the depths of a mountain lake or somewhere. His usual quote as he tromps through the woodland, scattering trees with his mighty feet.

Ranru and Ryouga arrive at the building under construction. We all know that the expensive white convertable out front is Abarekiller's. But they don't. They run past it into the construction area and look around. "Where?" grumbles Ryouga. They hear a sound behind them, and Ranru calls him with her, together they head down a flight of stairs into a basement. And when they get to the bottom, they see the egg and hear it humming with power. "Found it," Ranru gasps in relief. "The Bakuryu Egg!" yelps Ryouga. But before they can move, there is a crackle of energy strong enough to light the whole room. They gasp and then, "You're late," says Abarekiller. He moves slowly into their site, out of his armor but hand held out to let the energy from his bracelet charge the huge egg. "Stop, please!" cries Ryouga anxiously. He tries to warn the man about the danger this egg represents, but only gets snickered at in response. "Well, it only gets more and more interesting," the man says wryly. (should I start calling him by name? I mean, I know it but they don't know it, he hasn't introduced his true identity) "Just watch a little longer, and you'll see my Love." Ranru says sharply that they don't want to, they have to get out of here. And Ryouga adds almost snarling, "We're not letting you release that Bakuryu!" And they change into their armor. He turns his back on them and follows suit, "Bakuryu Change," a soft command. His eyes sparkle. "Come," he challenges them. And when they start, Ryouga calling, "Give us the egg!" Abarekiller answers mockingly, "Can you make me?" He speeds through, cuts them to pieces, kicks them back against a wall and then asks mockingly, "What's the matter, finished already?" But they leap back to their feet and lunge at him again. "NEVER!" snarls Ryouga.

"Are they all right?" Emi worries. Ryunosuke chuckles and tells her surely they are. He sets a cup of some drink in front of her. She sighs and gives him a thankful smile. But then the alarm signal starts flashing. They quickly dash to check the computer screen, Ryunosuke typing in commands rapidly. "Oh, this is bad!" he says when they see what the computer tells them. Emi gasps and signals the others warning them that something immensely powerful is approaching Ryouga and the others (iffy). Asuka gasps into his bracelet, "What?!" Sanjo glances at him, but decides to concentrate on the driving. And Abarekiller is once again wiping the floor with our two heroes. A frantic signal through Ranru's bracelet and Emi calls that there's a powerful Giganoid. And then the building begins to shudder. Ranru gasps and looks up. They scramble to their feet as the shudders are so pronounced, debris starts to rain down. For the Giganoid is headed their way. This one is massive. His right arm is an arrow, his right a crossbow. His head is highlighted by what looks like a massive anchor. He is Giganoid Number 5. 狩 Shu. The Hunter. And he's headed for the building where the egg is hidden. This would explain the name.

The little blue sports car speeds towards the docks. It shrieks to a halt and both Asuka and Sanjo fall back against the car seats. Sanjo asks into his bracelet what's going on over here, then. But then sirens starts pealing in the air and they jump, looking towards the industrial buildings. There are workmen in white hard hats running frantically away from the sea. Others are racing down the stairs of their buildings. They race, in fact, right towards Sanjo's car. Asuka says it looks like this is the place after all, and they unbuckle their seatbelts and leap out. Asuka practically has to tackle one man racing with wind-milling arms to ask where whatever it is is coming in. He points wildly back the way he came from. "Over there. Way over there!!" and with a last remark, races off. Asuka and Sanjo glance back to see him go, then Sanjo says, "Let's go." "Right!" and they dash off against the tide.

Abarekiller is still playing slash-the-Abaranger. He's got them both down and Ryouga cries, "Ranru-san, you okay?" She nods rather than answers. Suddenly their opponent rests his blade on his shoulder and says rather bewilderedly, "What are you up to? Hurry up, go and fight." "Huh?" pants Ryouga. "What makes you think we'll leave?!" snaps Ranru. At that he utters a surprised, "Oh, don't you know? Around here there's a grade school, and a hospital." "What?!" gasps Ryouga. Yes, indeed. The hospital he's abandoned and that really doesn't deserve such a slimeball. Ryouol (?) Medical University Hospital. And out front, terrified people point as Hunter Giganoid shakes the ground in the distance. And in the grade school a boy student glances up from his work and calls, "There's a monster!" In the distance it roars, and the whole class, teacher too, scrambles. But Abarekiller still mocks his two opponents. "If you don't get going soon, it'll be awful." The two exchange glances, torn, and speak each other's names. Ryouga states it for them, "Let's go." As they dash off, Abarekiller calls, "I'll just stay here and protect my Love." And he laughs lunatically.

Asuka and Sanjo race towards what is fairly clearly a Bakuryu tromping through the shipyard. A Bakuryu whose tail snaps like scissors. And the mighty Giganoid prepares to fire. He brings together his arrow arm and the crossbow arm. Inside the grade school, teachers and our two Abaranger are getting the classes out, frightened children race through the halls. Ryouga calls through his bracelet to find out what's going on with their friends. Sanjo gasps into his bracelet that they'll be there soon as the two of them race. Class after class. And the Giganoid fires, sending up white sparks silhouetting a huge billboard of a blonde lady and a grand piano. A stray energy beam hits the top floor of the school. The Abaranger are briefly trapped at the top of the stairs with a class of children. Their screams can be heard through Asuka and Sanjo's bracelets. "What's happened?!" gasps Sanjo, skidding to a halt. "Ranru-san!" Asuka yells into his bracelet. But then the ground shakes. The giant monster they are pursuing is in front of them. The sun is above and all they can see is blackness, no features to make out. They gasp in terror, unable to move. Far behind them is Bracchio, who lifts his head and utters his own surprised gasp. The mighty, green-black head swings down at the two helpless men. They cringe, expecting to get snapped up. Even Bracchio cries out. But then a new head appears on Asuka's bracelet. Green and silver, with a long nose. Startled, he untucks and looks. And then he is overjoyed. "Parasorokkiru!" he cries. "What?" asks a very startled Sanjo. But Asuka seems to have forgotten him, getting up. "Where WERE you?" he calls. The great, green and silver head is down to get a close look at them, shining red eyes alight. "There was no signal from you at all," breathes Asuka. And Parasarokkiru pulls up, dancing playfully with his scissoring paws and tail. "Sumanai, senor, yurushite por favor!" he says enthusiastically. ("I'm sorry, sir, please forgive me.") I can't describe his movements well enough, but he dances wonderfully and whirls, all action as he explains where he'd been. Pamferu Island? Sanjo repeats the place name in mild surprise. "Is that far?" Asuka asks him. "On the other side of the world," he says frankly. "The other side?!" yelps Asuka. Para has more to say, but he has come very far and Asuka is practically in tears, welcoming him. Bracchio replaces the Para cover with his own to say that they must get going to help Ryouga and Ranru. He opens up his packs to let the primary three fighters out. Tyranno leads the charge, Ptera and Kera just as happy. And Para runs to join them.

Ranru and Ryouga have managed to protect the children from the falling rubble. "Don't cry," she tells them. "It's all right." Ryouga tells them softly to go on, and they help shepherd the kids around the bits of the ceiling. Be careful, it's all right, etc. But when they get out of the school, it is to the sight of the approaching Giganoid. The two Abaranger move in front of the children, pull out their blasters and start firing. This doesn't do much more than irritate it. They urge the children to run while they continue firing. Finally, the Giganoid gives a savage snarl and strikes out, sending the huge billboard of the blonde lady and the piano falling towards the children. "Look out!" screams Ryouga. The kids scream too, for there's no time. But Para is on the scene, he is one fast Bakuryu. Ryouga and Ranru watch in surprise as he comes spinning in tail first, bladed tail chopping. He carves out the piano and it lands, metaphysically balanced on the four legs and safely above the children. The kids come out of their huddles as Sanjo and Asuka arrive to help them up and utter comforting words. And piano music starts to fill the air. Ranru stutters, "Oh, fantastic! Too fantastic!" A stunned Ryouga says, "It's another friend-Bakuryu?!" Indeed. And Para is playing the piano he'd magically carved out with his tail. Talented fellow. He identifies himself and then says, "Yoroshiku, senor, senorita." (nice to meet you sir and ma'am) "Thank you Parasorokkiru!" Ryouga calls up, waving. But then he is called by Tyranno, for the others are fighting the mighty Shu. Tyranno bashes him, knocks him down. Teasing aside, they join up with their human partners to assemble Abarenor. Shu is back on his feet, and the giants face off. He lunges at them, and they move to face him. Sparks fly as they bash each other and then hold braced. They kick him back, then hit with Bakuryu Burst, making him stumble. Asuka calls, "You guys keep at it, I'll go for Abarekiller!" and he dashes off.

Beneath it all is our young madman, still charging his egg. He knows, feels, senses that it's about over. Asuka rounds a corner, heading into the construction area. "Where?" he wonders, looking about. He races forward. But things are progressing nicely downstairs. The egg's glow is stronger than ever. Asuka hears the pulse of its power and heads for the stairs. But before he can take more than a step, he is attacked by purple/pink lightning. It knocks him down, and then Jannu appears. He snarls her name. She counters that they are quite happy for this guy to free up TopGader and get him for themselves. And she changes into the armor to fight him. He pulls his blade and they attack, but this time he is the one who cuts her down and knocks her back. His strikes affect her and he is hard and cruel. The traditional now moon blade attack ("Circle Moon" for Abaranger - huh) takes her down. Stunned, she gasps "Why does he have such power?!" "This battle has to be over quickly," Asuka tells her in a shaking voice. "I have to go help my friends." And when he is about to blast and finish her off, he is stopped in his tracks. The little girl has put in another appearance. She stands between them, glowing white. As she once did to Jannu, so she does to Asuka. "Is this all right?" she asks him. Stunned, he stops and stares. "You have to remember," she tells him, and suddenly floats towards him, into his body.

Into memory. A roaring fire. Caves. We see through someone's eyes, armored, battered men staring in horror at us. "Stop," one says softly, but we attack and the men we approach dive for cover. An older person in a cloak grabs two young children in our path and herds them to dubious safety. And there are two young people trying to move an old man, yes, the old man who made the Zerogo suit, out of our path. The man points at us. "ASUKA!" he calls in shock, "Have you become evil?!!" For we are Asuka, approaching to kill, wielding a familiar green blade in our line of sight, the one Jannu holds these days. The old man calls his name again and memory whites out.

Asuka finds himself still in the construction site. Jannu is gone, nor is the little girl anywhere to be seen. Panting with horror he gasps, "Now..?" And the others are still fighting with the punch, Ptera Cutter. But then their enemy takes to the air. Leaping high, He puts his hands together and fires down on them. They are hit pretty badly and soon fall. Shu lands on their back and jumps up and down on them. Panting, the feedback agonizing, when he goes up high to body-slam, they roll Abarenor over and try "Bakuryu Fire!" Flames from Tyranno's mouth force the Giganoid away from them. And they call in Parasokkiri to join them. He races in and becomes their left arm in place of Tyranno's tail. This formation they dub Abarenorokkiru! And it's quite cute with Para's head poking out of their shoulder. And when their enemy comes at them, they use his scissors to cut off his arrow hand, then grab him around the waist and toss him aside. They exchange praises, then use the Chokichoki Scissors attack. In a kind of joke, they snip all his armor off, leaving beneath his head only the energy matrix that holds him together, which he treats as being naked, swifly moving his hands to cover his privates. But without the armor the energy blasts apart. Another Giganoid destroyed. And they are very happy.

But the secondary plot complication remains. Young Abarekiller still charges his egg. Asuka tears down the stairs, heading for the room, but it is already too late. The creature inside the egg is beginning to tear its way out. Killer watches in awe. "He's about to be born!" he says gleefully. A bright flash of light as some pieces fall away, leaving only darkness. Startled by the flash, Killer covers his face but quickly relaxes and peers in. In his eye we can see the reflection of the crack in the egg, growing. And a littel white head poking out with a black crest. "What is it?" he wonders in amazement. And then it glows and starts to expand. The egg shatters completely. This scene is what Asuka almost arrives to. He is around the corner and only sees the shadows of the growing Bakuryu and the man backing away from it. For the Bakuryu hits the roof, and rubble comes tumbling down towards Abarekiller, who shields his face with a cry. Asuka, the building quaking around him, makes the decision and runs for it. "Is this the end of Abarekiller?" asks Ptera. We'll see after these messages, hahha.

世界中が氷の都に変わる！？
Will the world turn to ice!?

Mountains of ice. The Aurora Borealis hanging above. The sea deep and blue-black. Our four Abaranger, their spikes out in battle mode. Powerful Blue and white dinosaurs, one's mouth all fangs, frozen under ice which is falling apart. The Bakuryu in conference within Bracchio. Ryouga fighting Abarekiller in the night, and getting the worst of it. A purple monster. Is it a Torinoid, or something completely different? An extraodinary woman dressed in gold, with leaves and gemstones. A Dragon Human, for she has the spikes on her cheekbones. Two powerful Bakuryu free of the ice, coming out of the water with fires behind them. Abarenor fights their combination on a field of ice.

Abaranger Deluxe

Abaresama-wa Kinkinchu!

Asuka makes it to the surface as the immense gorgeous new dinosaur breaks free, tearing apart the girders of the building being constructed. Abarenor turns to see this new challenge. He is beautiful, wide black, white and gold wings flap in the air. "TopGaler!" cries Asuka. (ToppuGeiraa トップケイラー) The Abaranger stare in shock. What they've heard so far bodes ill. Ranru wonders "What about Abarekiller? He was in that building..?" But he himself answers her worry, voice amplified and echoing in the atmosphere. "No way in Hell," he says mockingly. And a blur leaps over TopGader's head to land on his nose. Abarekiller, armored and secure. He's having a heck of a time, he tells his companion. And TopGader answers him in a voice strikingly like his own, low and soft with menace, appreciating that he is alive. For he had changed into his armor before the falling debris could crush him. And he invites his TopGader to fight Abarenor, but they are almost of a size. Asuka gasps in horror. TopGader comments, "Humans. If things are too easy, they'll be bored." (this may be purely referring to his companion) "We'll just use them for easy practice, then," Abarekiller says. And it will begin.

第20話　キラーオー、アバレ初め！ Kiraaoo, Abarezome! Killer-Or, Abare First Formation
Stegos Ridon is taken by Abarekiller, much to particularly Yukito Sanjo's horror. "Stop! Give Stego back!" he shouts. And Abarekiller responds with a demand to learn more power. For he has attached Stego to TopGader. And Ryouga and Abarekiller fight one on one on ye old quarry. When Ryouga powers up to the spiked version, the other guy may be in for more than he can handle.

Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty

第20話　キラーオー、アバレ初め！
Kiraaoo, Abarezome!
Killer-Or, Abare First Formation

In our last episode: Something old, something new. Yes, the arrival of the green scissor-dinosaur, Parasorokirri, took our heroes by delighted surprise. This they needed, for also they have to deal with the the awakening of TopGaler, a tremendously powerful Bakuryu who also happens to seem, well, psychotic. But that's all right for him, he's bonded a companion who is just like him. Abarekiller, whom I just don't get why he was a doctor when several other occupations, such as terrorist, would have suited him so well. And he leaps off TopGaler's nose. "Let's go, TopGaler. Show them what we can do." With flaps of his mighty wings, TopGaler sends everything loose, and even not so loose, flying at Abarenor. Cars are caught in that wind, trees torn loose of their grounds. The windows of building shatter. And the fierce wind pushes them back. Ryouga shouts, "Abarekiller! Stop your Bakuryu from doing that, please!" Sanjo points out furiously that this isn't likely to happen. From a peaceful rooftop, Killer eggs his companion on. Nurses and doctors are working hard to evacuate the higher floors of the nearby hospital. Tyranno calls urgently, "TopGaler, stop! Why are you doing this?" TopGaler responds something about his feathers. Bracchio arrives on the scene. He's come with StegosRidon, who tromps into the battle to show what he can do. But TopGaler takes to the skies and swoops down on Abarenor, wings slicing with each pass. Asuka calls out to them. StegosRidon shouts a challenge, tromping into the field. And TopGaler calls on his companion. Abarekiller brings out his lovely blade, "Time to play." And he sweeps the air with his blade, weaving a magical song of power that flows outward. It hits and engulfs StegosRidon, taking control of his mighty body. A situation he protests most alarmedly. Killer joins with TopGaler and calls for formation. Asuka gasps as Galer picks up Stegos and starts the transformation. And in short order stands a new enemy. Killeror. Largely deep red, but the head of Galer has become a spear-like weapon in its hands. Asuka continues gasping, and he is echoed by a shocked Jannu who has appeared behind him. Abarekiller is considering the possibilities. He caresses his spear. "This is Killeror. Not bad. This is the combo of two Bakuryu. You have seven." (Para, Ptera, Tyranno, Bracchio, Kera, Dimenokodon, and what's his name with the head) And so he issues them challenge. "Two versus seven. Just perfect to destroy you all." They brace themselves alertly. "We aren't playing," protests Ranru. "Oh yes, we are," he counters happily. A game to see whose is better. How many Bakuryu you can get. And he sets the rules. He goes on the attack. Sanjo snarls at him, and when next he slashes catches his spear arm in Para's blades. They are at a standoff, for a moment, circling. "I'll get Stegos back with the spear," growls Sanjo. Alarmed, Ryouga protests "But Killer's in there - " Ranru, however, supports Sanjo's plan and Ryouga has to give in. They use Kera to punch Killeror back, then quickly change Para for Tyranno's tail. Killer snorts and sets his weapon hovering in mid air. "Death Stinger," he calls it, and sends it at them with a blast of energy. When they are aiming to spear him on Tyranno's tail, he has sent his weapon straight through their formation. And Asuka gasps as the explosion hits. They struggle, staggering back and then finally the formation breaks apart. Bakuryu and their human companions fall willy-nilly. Ranru and Sanjo land together, the shock of this attack knocking out their armor and they twist in agony on the cement. Asuka drops his armor and races to them. "Yukito-san, Ranru-san, please be all right!" He lays a worried hand on Sanjo's arm, curls his body anxiously to help Ranru pull herself up. "We're all right," she tells him painfully, "But what about Ptera and the others?!" For the three dinosaurs lie on the city streets, uttering soft cries of pain. Asuka gets to his feet and comments grimly that TopGaler was designed to combine with any of the other Bakuryu. "That's his power." Whether they are willing or not. Sanjo gets a stubborn set to his jaw and glares up at Killeror. But it's not over yet, for.... "Tyranno. I'll take you." Abarekiller raises his blade inside Killeror, intending to make a three-Bakuryu combo. As his formation moves, Ranru realizes what's happening. "He wants to get Tyranno!" Asuka screams "Run away, all of you!" to the Bakuryu. But Sanjo calls out only to one. "StegosRidon!!" he screams, and then marches forward. "WAKE UP! STEGOS!!" And his shouts get through. The dimmed eyes of his second companion brighten, then glow. Killeror is hit by feedback as one component rebels. A distant roar from deep in Sanjo's bracelet and he lifts his arm to find Stegos' face appearing over Kera's. "What am I doing?" asks the confused dinosaur. Asuka and Ranru peer anxiously over Sanjo's shoulder. But before anyone can answer him, he understands and goes into total revolt. "I don't want to do this!!" he cries. And Killeror starts to come apart as Stegos pulls away. Slightly irritated by this, TopGaler complains. But Stegos flees down the city streets. Flying above in TopGaler, Abarekiller says coolly, "StegosRidon, we are the only ones who know your real power. Don't forget it." And he flies away. Jannu, furious with all this, snarls and spins away herself. And the sounds of ambulances keep the air busy, while Sanjo worries.

An ambulance pulls in to the hospital nearby. Nurses, doctors, everyone rushing wounded people in to be treated and their lives saved. A nurse helping guide one gurney in spots something in the bushes beyond the driveway. A man dressed in a red jacket lies there, blood on his face. A thick bandage on his head red with fresh blood from the wound underneath. "Him!" And she calls someone to help her.

Ryouga is perfectly fine now he's been treated. Cheerful as ever, he bounces to his feet to bow and thank the young nurse for helping him yet again. She gently scolds him while filling out a treatment chart, telling him to be careful. He grinningly promises he will. But then his gaze falls on a surprising sight. A picture of Abarekiller. Well, the doctor he used to be, dressed in black and receiving an award, but wearing an expression of extreme boredom. With a yelp of surprise, Ryouga gathers up the picture. "Who is this?" he asks the nurse urgently. Distracted, she nevertheless is kind enough to answer him. "That's Doctor Nakadai," she tells him. "He's a genius. He's also the doctor who operated on you that time." A dim memory, that voice. The man who'd saved his life. The nurse is cleaning up still and says, "But he quit working here soon after that." "I think I know why," stutters a wide-eyed Ryouga. And he dashes off.

Abaranger's secret room. Sanjo leans, arms folded, against the wall and away from the others. Asuka, Emi and Ranru discuss the situation. They are worried about Ryouga. They are worried about the three injured Bakuryu. "Will they be all right?" Asuka seems to believe they will, but for now they cannot form Abarenor. Just then his bracelet goes off and Ryouga's voice comes through urgently. "Is everyone all right?!" They gasp in relief and delight. Ryunosuke grabs at Ranru's wrist and calls the boy's name into it. Ranru half-snaps "We were so worried!" But Ryouga is one-track minded. "Hey, do you know which direction TopGaler flew off in?" Sanjo's eyes widen. "He's going to look for Abarekiller himself." Then he starts towards the door. Startled by his sudden motion, Asuka leaps after him with a questioning, "Yukito-san?" He pauses and looks back over his shoulder. "I'll bring Stegos back, even if I have to beat him down." And he goes on. "Beat him down?" echoes Emi, curling her hand into a fist in dismay. They watch him leave and worry.

Upset doesn't even begin to describe Dezumozorlya, who fires punishing bolts at the unfortunate Jannu from Rije's hands. "Another Earth person is obviously more useful than you!" it seethes. Poor Jannu has been forced to her hands and knees, panting from the pain. Voffa remarks on the problem being with TopGaler, and Mikela grieves about his defeated Torinoid. Voffa intends to create a new Giganoid to take him down. Eyes glittering with fury, Jannu thinks "TopGaler, your power will be mine!!"

And a blue car pulls up along a rocky shore. With a few exhalations of his own, Yukito Sanjo gets out of the vehicle. He trots to where the waves come up on the shore. Facing the sea he shouts, "Stegos, come out!!" When there is no answer, he starts to race along the edge of the surf. "I know you're out here!" And Stegos' voice comes through his bracelet, shaky. "Yukito, I..." his voice comes stronger with dizzy excitement "...didn't know I had that kind of power! I might be able to do something incredible!" Hearing that, Sanjo utters a soft, angry noise and runs on.

A man walks near the ocean, slacks and boots of brilliant white. His jacket flaps artistically behind him. He wears dark sunglasses. "This is where we lost Stegos' signal," he had said. "I will look from the sky," his companion had replied. And he continues on. Until someone shouts, "Doctor Nakadai!" This actually surprises him a little. He stops. "I found you," says Ryouga from rather a distance behind him. And so Nakadai turns to look at the other man. Ryouga's eyes are almost feverish with anxiety. They stare for rather a long moment at each other. Nakadai slips his sunglasses off to see more clearly. And then Ryouga says determinedly, "You operated on me and saved my life. Thank you very much!" he bows deep to show his sincerity. Head cocked, Nakadai wonders, "Are those foolish words really what you want to say?" Looking slightly peeved, he pockets his hands and turns his back. "Should I say 'you're welcome' and offer a handshake?" he sneers. But Ryouga is not deterred. He takes a step forward. "No. Now it's my turn to help you. Give me the bracelet!" He moves closer with determination again, but his words start Nakadai laughing. Between cackles he says, "Oh, you're going to help me." He turns to face Ryouga again, genuinely amused but not friendly. "I'm so happy, I could just cry." The smile vanishes from his face as fast as it had appeared to show his own deep determination. "But," he says and raises his left wrist, "I want this." He turns his wrist slightly to show off the changer. "That's no good!!" Ryouga cries out frantically. "If you keep wearing it you'll - " "I know, I know," Nakadai laughs. Then he touches his bracelet, switching into armor in an instant. He sweeps out his blade and sends it flying into the sky to land a distance from them, point in the ground. "Okay, then let's play a game. If you get the sword, I'll give you the bracelet." Ryouga lifts his hand balled in a fist, little finger sticking out. "I pinky-swear!" he says hoarsely. And now he, too, changes into his armor. Nakadai gives him an instant to start his introduction, then goes on the attack too fast to see. He cuts Ryouga down quickly. Then he watches the other man recover and says musingly, "You know, that doesn't look cool." Furious, Ryouga scrambles to his feet and pulls out his gun to fire. Nakadai snorts at him. "You're going to fire that?" Slightly exasperated, Ryouga tosses his gun to the side. Nakadai cocks his head again, "Why'd you do that?" Ryouga straightens up and tries to make a point, "But this is a game, right? It's not to the death." Nakadai counters thoughtfully, "If you don't have the stomach to kill me, you'll never win." He tears in and punches Ryouga way back.

Voffa plays his composition, calling out his newest Giganoid. The notes float in the air. And a ball bounces out of the bushes on Another Earth. No, not a ball. A fruit of the Tree of Life (haha). And it assembles into the form of the Hunter Giganoid, but... his face reassembles into a heavier, more armored version. His bow-hand reconfigures into a powerful machinegun, his arrow-hand becomes something more like a cannon. It's a gun too, I just don't know the word for this ancient type. Hunter Giganoid, version II.

Asuka and Ranru see it start attacking the city on the computer screen in their hidden base. When they shut it off Asuka turns a worried look to her and says, "Let's go!" She agrees willingly. As they dash off Ryunosuke calls Asuka's name and Emi speaks what they both are thinking, "But Tyranno and the others still can't move!" The two stop and turn. Asuka says firmly, "The Bakuryu aren't only Abarenor." Ranru makes a supportive noise at his side and tells them, "Until Ryouga and Sanjo return, it's up to us." They are in agreement and dash out. Trembling, twisting her fingers together with worry, Emi says "Please hang on, you guys..!"

Out on the streets they change into their armor and arrive on the field of battle. Asuka calls into his bracelet, "Bracchio, come on!" and thus Hunter is hit by the big one's fire blasts. Asuka then shouts, "Bakikeronagurusu! Dimenocodon! Parasarokkiru!" Their "heads" appear each in turn on his changer. Out they come from Bracchio's back, bouncing into battle, punching and slicing the powerful enemy. Their two human - er - well, you know - companions rush into battle, Asuka commenting that because Tyranno, Ptera and Kera are out of action they'll have to do the best they can.

Thankfully they are unaware that Ryouga is getting his poor body massively abused. It's a form of exercise, I think, for Doctor Nakadai as he picks Ryouga up by his collar and does high kicks into his ribs. Perhaps we hear them crash before he throws him down again. Amused, Nakadai pauses in the beating to point out, "Why would I not use such power when I have it? That would be boring." He squats beside the fallen man, lifts a seemingly boneless arm to pat Ryouga's changer, "That's why this game." Ryouga, still struggling with the previous strangulation, gasps hoarsely, "You can't play games with people's lives!!" and grabs at Nakadai's shoulder. "Eh, but it's good," the madman replies, shoving Ryouga's hand off and commenting with a hand to his chest, "That's what I'm free to do." He stands straight and says contemptuously, glancing away, "I don't just endure like you." He suddenly goes and picks up Ryouga's abandoned gun. "See, there's this power and if you don't use it, it'll go to waste." As he speaks, he starts firing all around Ryouga, who has finally managed to get back up. "HEY! You're cheating?!" "I don't care about rules you made." And Nakadai flips the gun into blade-mode and comes in to attack, slashing cruelly. After a bit of this he pins Ryouga, who hangs on to the smooth side of the blade, trying to keep it off of him. Nakadai says conversationally, "I'll tell you one thing. The reason I saved you was just a game. Your life means nothing." And he starts attacking again. Ryouga is helpless to stop him. Tumbled to the ground he scrambles back to his feet, and Killer aims the gun. "Bye." He fires and the world turns to flame around Ryouga, who falls with a cry of agony. Killer points the gun up at the sky and says mildly, "Oh, how sad...." But the flames begin to die, and the smoke dissapates. And there... breathing heavily, hollowly, is still Ryouga. He's moved to his higher level, fierce white spikes sticking out of his uniform. Intrigued, Killer shifts towards him, then when he gets a full look, jumps back slightly. Roaring, Ryouga hurtles down upon him, the shots he fires have no effect but by the time Ryouga collides with him, yellow lightning crackles all around them. And the impact sets off a small explosion, dirt flying in every direction. Abarekiller is sent tumbling willy-nilly, to land right next to his blade on his stomache. The flames die down again and Ryouga is there, the spikes gone back to normal mode. He is slightly staggered, but he lifts his hands to stare at them in shock. "I have so much power?" Killer stirs where he's fallen and says shakily, "Yeah, that was good." He rolls over onto his back, panting between words. "You were so bright. That's your power." He slowly pulls himself to his feet, and starts to stagger towards Ryouga. "You know that you really want to see your full potential. You're just like me." He's fallen to one knee, but he gestures at his chest to emphasize his point. His hand stiffens, and opens to let Ryouga's gun fall to the ground. He falls, too, onto his back next to it. A very alarmed Ryouga startles, then gasps, "No I'm not!"

Stegos hides in a shallow cave, shaken, his thoughts awhirl. He speaks to Sanjo, still racing towards him and getting close. "He knew... he knew how powerful I could be!" "He was only using you!" Sanjo shouts, pausing to look sharply around. "Abareno is strong enough even without me." Wincing, Sanjo tilts his head in a negative and holds his wrist near his face. "That's not true. We wouldn't have been able to beat Sharkurumargaretto and Ayameganezumi without you!" He races on. But Stegos says sortly, "The Abarenor combination is not enough to make me strong. I want to forget... I want to use... my real power!!" Somewhat hysterical, he suddenly stands up and pounds out of the cave, tearing down some of the rocks as he passes. Sanjo was just about there, and the ground shakes beneath him, making him slip on the smoother rocks. He cries out to Stegos as the Bakuryu races off, and then Stegos' face vanishes from his changer, leaving only Kera's. He runs in pursuit.

Ryouga races to the fallen man in a panic, gathers him into a sitting position, anxious arms around his torso. "I only wanted to save you!" he near-whimpers. Killer shifts slightly to look at him. "Abared," he breathes. Nearly hysterical with relief Ryouga gasps, "Doctor Nakadai!" But with sudden speed Nakadai snatches up Ryouga's gun and places it against his stomach. A little slow on the uptake, our boy gasps again, "Doctor Nakadai?" Voice strong, for it has all been an act, Nakadai mocks "Game over!" He starts to get up, using a slight pressure with the gun to make the stunned Ryouga stand, too. "Nothing cool about you at all." Then he snorts and fires point blank. The blast forces Ryouga back, back, until his suit explodes and vanishes, leaving him defenseless and curled around the agony in his gut. Killer, Nakadai, takes up his own blade now. And he's coming to finish Ryouga off, who watches him with pain-glazed eyes, gasping. But in mid-step there is a crackle of energy. Stegos' head appears on Killer's changer. "Stegosridon!" he says in amazed victory. Ryouga's mouth drops open. And then the Bakuryu speaks, voice trembling. "I want you to teach me my full power!" Killer nods his satisfaction. "All right. We will teach you." Forgotten is Ryouga, who look around in shock as TopGaler swoops down. "Goodbye, Yukito," says Stegos with some regret. Thus Ryouga sees as Sanjo arrives nearby and stares mournfully at what's happening. "So stupid," Sanjo whispers, fist clenching at his side. Ryouga sees the trembling and tries to pull himself together to help somehow. "Sanjo," he pants and starts to get up.

"Bakuryugattai," says Abarekiller. And the pair form Killeror.

On Dino Earth Rije says happily, "Ah, I've found TopGaler!" "Great!" crows Mikela. "Hurry up and we'll fight him." Rije smiles and turns, "Okay! See you soon!" she calls to the Giganoid in the field and blows it a kiss move it to another location.

Asuka and Ranru stand side-by-side, firing steadily on the Hunter Giganoid, who is tangling with the other four Bakuryu (Bracchio, Para, Dimenocodon, and Pachy. It is staggered by their combined power, but then it suddenly is surrounded by energy which takes it away. "He's gone!" gasps Ranru. "What is going on?!" pants Asuka. Well of course, Hunter Giganoid has been relocated to the forest near the ocean, appearing in front of Killeror. From across a small inlet, Ryouga and Sanjo gape next to each other at the scene. Hunter fires his left hand and out comes a chain which binds Killeror tightly. With the formation held, Hunter starts towards it. A yellow-framed scene which Rije beams out for the others to see. Voffa is feeling quite smug. "It's too soon," Jannu points out coldly. But Mikela thinks she's just jealous and mocks her. She glares daggers at him.

As the Giganoid Hunter approaches, Killer in unconerned and chuckles in his cockpit. "Killeror, show them your real strength." A surge of power as the great formation gathers itself, following the motion of its pilot. He closes his arms, then flings them out wide. Killeror does the same and the chains burst apart. The Evorian gasp in shock. "How?" protest Voffa. But it's not over yet. Stegos' tail whips the air, Killeror prepares like a runner for a dash. He slashes his tail and fires blaze around him, boulders sent flying. The Abaranger stand witness, for Ranru and Asuka have arrived to join their two friends. "What is that formation?" Ranru pants. Abarekiller shouts happily, "--- STRIKE!" Into the air leaps the great formation, curls up and spins down, the spikes of Stegos radiating out. They tear the Hunter Giganoid. On the ground again, the elated Killer shouts "Bakuryu deadly blow, Death Combustion!!" From Killeror's mouth comes a beam of fierce laser light, blue and bright it hits the ground and he sweeps it towards the Giganoid. The poor thing is utterly eaten by the fire in a matter of seconds before it explodes. The Abaranger gasp in amazement while Killeror does a little victory dance. "This test is over. Now on to the next game," Abarekiller says in the cockpit.

Waves dashing against the rocks. Ranru turns to the others to say in wonder and shock, "You're telling me Abarekiller purposely lured a Giganoid out just to test his power?" Asuka looks away, but Sanjo answers her, "He was testing to see if Stegos was really pooling his power as he said." "Now we have a very frightening enemy," Asuka adds softly. Ryouga, his new bandaid stained by fresh blood, moves past the others to stare out at the moving sea. He remembers, shuddering, what Killer had said to him. "You know that you really want to see your full potential. You're just like me." That last echoes in his head and Ryouga clenches his fist. "I'm not!" he whispers. "I'M NOT!" more strongly. But the sea continues its ageless motion, responsive to the winds and the distant pull of the moon. And Abarekiller laughs in their imagination.

第21話　アバレ恋！キロキロ Abare Koi! Kirokiro Abare in Love! Kirokiro
Ranru looks stubborn and utterly unhappy. She picks up the phone at the restaurant, later looks in horror as she is suddenly wearing a beautiful white wedding dress. In armor she winces and shakes while the boys grab for her back and scratch. The restaurant's most loyal customer collapses at Ranru's feet inside. Abd there is a crocodile-telephone Torinoid who's utterly taken a fancy to her. "Ranru-chan!" he cries and races to hug her. She turns, dignity forgotten, and runs with a scream of horror. He graps her hands between his own as she gapes. In armor again, she snarls, "Ankyloberisu! Come out!" And that one's head on Asuka's changer grumbles, "I don't wanna." Asuka, looking frustrated with the others near him in the restaurant, speaks scoldingly to the yellow dinosaur. In armor he pounds on the ground, driven by frustration beyond frustration. Voffa, Mikela and Jannu seem to be dancing. And the poor Crocodile Torinoid is wearing an apron, at bay in front of a very relaxed Nakadai. In armor, Nakadai and Ryouga fight with our boy getting the worst of it.

Episodes 1-10 11-20 11-30 31-40 41-end