1.30: High Flying StuntsI looked down into Rui’s eyes, noh-frowning. Her sudden request confused me for a moment… that is until I remembered she was far too short to see over the crowd. She really was tiny. That was why I kept calling her a loli oni. If I were still human, or as weak as my old self, I probably would have refused. I’d have called myself pathetic for being at the mercy of such a small person. But an extra pair of eyes searching the traincar made sense.

  “Step aboard, Rui,” I said, leaning forward and csping my hands together to make a stirrup for her.

  She nodded, a small smile flickering across her face. “Give me a good boost. And don’t manhandle me.”

  I noh-blinked, but the moment she rested her weight on my hands, instinct kicked in. I lifted her fast… a little too fast. A few passengers gasped as Rui shot upward like a unched firework. The timing was terrible! At that moment, the train went around a bend. I staggered, adjusted, and managed to keep her from smashing her face into the ceiling.

  She spun midair. A half twist, half acrobatics… and nded squarely on my shoulders. Her thighs locked around my neck for bance. Then, with surprising grace, she threw both arms up and pressed her palms ft against the ceiling, steadying herself. Her fingers trembled slightly, but her grin was blinding.

  The entire train car erupted in appuse.

  People stared. People pointed. People cheered.

  I’d never heard a commuter train packed be this loud. Rui, perched atop my shoulders in her grunge-goth outfit, looked like a chaotic magical familiar riding a sentai hero into battle.

  “Hehehehe! Great boost, Susumu!” Rui whispered, tapping the top of my helmet. “Now, do a little showboating. Slow spins. Nice and easy. And don’t drop me.”

  Loli. Sve. Driver.

  When I hesitated, she immediately began smacking the top of my helmet with both hands like it was a taiko drum.

  “C’mon! Sentai ride! Let’s go! Let’s goooo!”

  I stiffened. Her relentless drumming echoed inside my helmet like a war march. To shut her up, I started turning slowly. My cape fanned out in a swirl. Rui’s hair fluttered. The crowd cpped, whistled, and filmed us with their phones.

  “Amazing advertising stunt!” a woman cried. “That billboard on his butt is truly genius!”

  “N-no!” a middle-aged man barked back. “Don’t disrespect Magiranger Red! Sentai is noble!”

  “Oh, please! Sentai exists for spstick!” she shot back.

  I tried to tune them out… at least until another flicker of movement appeared outside the window. My noh-breath hitched. Rui must have caught the shift in my posture.

  “Susumu…” she whispered sharply. “Keep the act up. Don’t scare them. If it attacks us here, we can’t do anything.”

  I swallowed and forced myself to keep spinning. My feet moved into spontaneous choreography. A sentai step here, a dramatic pivot there. Rui ughed above me, then raised her voice, “Everyone! If you love this performance, don’t forget to visit Natalia’s Fashion Mansion!”

  She grabbed my cloak and wrapped it around her own shoulders like a capelet, gripping my neck tighter with her thighs. And that was the exact moment I realized something startling…

  There was a cute girl on my shoulders.

  An extremely cute one. She was holding onto me. Laughing from her belly.

  The loli oni was unexpectedly adorable up on my shoulder, hair bouncing, wearing a wide smile.A warmth spread through my neck.

  N… now… now… D–don’t lewd the loli oni!!! Don’t lewd the loli oni. DON’T—

  Then I saw it.

  A pale, distorted face pressed to the window across the aisle. Its mouth gaped impossibly wide. The train lurched violently, as if acknowledging the presence of the horror. I froze mid-step. Rui gasped, her thighs tightening around my neck like a vise.

  A ghostly hand lifted.

  “What’s it going to do…? Has it completely lost its senses already?” Rui whispered, her voice shaking.

  Everyone’s eyes were still on us, but our eyes were locked on the Noh-face’s. It drew back its shadowy hand…

  And then smmed its balled fist into the window.

  CRASH—RATTLE—CLICKETY CLICK

  The car erupted into chaos.

  Everyone noticed the Noh-face together.

  “It’s the Noh-face!!!” someone screamed.

  “Save us, Magiranger-san!” the thinning-haired man yelled. “You can do it!”

  “You idiot!” the woman screamed back. “He’s just in a COSTUME!”

  “Ahahahaha!” Rui suddenly cried, lifting her arms like a stage vilin. Kind of a twist. “Behold this city’s TRUE sentai warrior! Though he looks like comedy relief, he’s a REAL HERO! The justice duo will protect you! Ohohohohoho!”

  That’s not the right kind of a ugh for this situation!Be cute, more! Don’t break character!

  My knees knocked. Facing Noh-face again was… too much. I was traumatized from st time.

  “He actually looks like he’s gonna pee himself!” a kid jeered. “Some sentai hero!”

  Noh-face struck again. Cracks spiderwebbed across the gss.

  CRASH CRACK RATTLE CLACK

  “Noh-nuts!” Rui snapped, reverting instantly into oni-mode. “Do it! You have the strength. If you let someone die in here, you’ll regret it forever! I know you’re scared shitless! Remember Reiko-chan! Don’t let anyone else get hurt! You can’t!”

  Before I could respond, she hopped off my shoulders on her own and swung off a pole like some kind of pyground acrobat. She was truly surprising. It was enough to know about her monstrous strength. Her weight vanished from me, and suddenly I was cold head to toes. Ice flooded my body.

  She kneed me HARD toward the window where Noh-face waited.

  I stumbled through the crowd, the passengers parting like water. Most everyone was terrified. My palms hit the gss. Noh-face stared back, eyes pits of bckness, its mouth stretching wide like it wanted to swallow me whole through the window.

  Its fist tightened.

  I raised mine. Took in a single, sharp noh-breath.

  It stopped.

  Its enormous mouth slowly closed.

  COME… FOOL.

  The cold voice echoed inside my mind… not through my ears, but through bone and soul.

  Then it flipped effortlessly off the moving train and vanished into the shadows of an alcove.

  Relwing