CH 55

In the peaceful city of Tachikawa, Tokyo.

「Thank you for the food.」

「 Thank you for your continued patronage!!」

This year marks the 10th year since the owner opened his ramen shop in Tachikawa. The “black soy sauce ramen” is now a Tachikawa specialty that has been made with stubborn persistence and by adhering to the traditional.

The store was filled with autographs of celebrities.

It was past the noon rush hour and the owner was about to start preparing for the evening.

Garararara.

「Welco……me……?」

A man was wearing a long black coat, a black fedora hat, and black sunglasses on his face. In short, he had a bizarre appearance, with his entire body black from top to bottom.

「F- For how many people……?」

「Can we have for around 10 people?」

If he was here to eat ramen, there was no reason to refuse. The owner nodded his head and regretted.

The man dressed all in black and a group of men and women wearing the exact same outfit enter the room.

A child who looks about the size of an elementary school student. A long black-haired woman so tall that you need to look up to see. A large man with so much muscle that his coat is about to be ripped off. A woman with a pair of ears growing out of the side of her fedora hat.

All of them were dressed in the exact same bizarre attire as the first man who entered the room: sunglasses and black clothes.

(Do I have an interview today……?)

The owner made the ramen without making eye contact as much as possible.

「Thank you for waiting … Here’s your black soy sauce ramen …」

Slurp slurp, Munch munch! Munch!

The black-clad group eventually finished their ramen without uttering a single word other than “Itadakimasu” or “Gochisousama”.

「Thank you, it was delicious.」

「Th- Thanks for your patronage…… Umm, if it’s okay with you, this……」

「……Hee, You have quite a strange taste, owner.」

After the group of black-clad people left, the owner put up a new piece of paper next to the celebrity autographs that adorned the restaurant.

On the colored paper, “Heinous Mysterious Death Green” is written in large letters.

Among the words, only the character “人(Person)” doesn’t completely support each other making it look like the character “ハ”. Perhaps he does not know the character for “Person,” or perhaps his heart is dirty.

「Mysterious being……? Hahaha…… No, impossible…… Haha……. Alright, let’s pretend I didn’t see that.」

The owner looked up at it and decided to forget all about it by thinking that it was some kind of shooting after all.

And he had decided to change the name of restaurant to “Men in Black”.

…………

The purpose of the black-clad group was not to eat ramen noodles. They were headed for a large home improvement center in Tachikawa.

The people on the road were astonished to see the group.

「O- Oi Rintaro. Isn’t this outfit too conspicuous after all……?」

The black-clad Kenmochi Minato, also known as Swords Mountain Mysterious Being, Swordminas, called out to Rintaro, who was walking at a steady pace at the front of the group.

「Don’t worry, it’s all part of the plan. There’ s a reason for us to stand out.」

「Eeeh, what reason……?」

It was hard for Swordminas to believe that this overly conspicuous disguise was some kind of plan.

But this man was Death Green, the heinous mysterious being who had inflicted a devastating blow on the Hero Headquarters. She convinced herself that he must be hiding some unimaginable secret in doing this. She decided to endure the embarrassment of having people around her look at her strangely.

The group went shopping at a large home improvement store, seemingly oblivious to the stares of others. Adhesives, plywood, sprays, nails, rubber mats, wires, a large quantity of fireworks, and anti-crime colored balls[1]. Everything was in preparation for the next operation.

「Samecchi will buy this stuffed animal with her allowance, ssu.」

「I just needed a whisk for my protein! The shaker is too small for me!」

「Hmmm……… should the next bingo tournament prize be a silverware set. …… No, a vacuum cleaner with consistent suction power would be too hard to resist……」

「Hey hey, Everyone, have you forgotten today’s purpose?」

The group left the home improvement center with a lot of luggage in their hands. While other customers looked at them suspiciously, they got into a black car and drove away.

…………

That night, two motorcycles, one red and one black, were seen heading north at high speed along the Nakasendo Road. Their destination was the Saitama Shintoshin area.

「Mu? What’s that……?」

The red motorcycle in the lead spotted something laying on the road. The road was covered from one end to the other, as if it were a roadblock, and it looked as if countless thorns were growing toward the sky.

He  braked suddenly and tried to evade, but he was not fast enough to make it in time.

Bam!

Immediately afterwards, the front and rear wheels of a red motorcycle that passed over them burst off simultaneously. The motorcycle had stepped on a device often used by American police to stop runaway vehicles. It was a home-made “spike strip” made with rubber mats and nails.

「…!?」

「Uoooooooooh!?」

The black bike narrowly dodged the spikes, but the rider with the red helmet was thrown off the bike and tumbled down the roadway. The tipped-over motorcycle slid on the asphalt, its bright red cowl sparking.

「Kurenai-senpai, are you okay!?」

The rider on the black motorcycle immediately turned around and ran to her fallen comrade. As if aiming for that moment, an order echoed through the city at midnight.

「Now! Do it!!!」

Thrown from the top of a building, it was a “cast net” made of woven wire. It covered the fallen Retto and the astonished Kirika.

Seeing the wire net entangled in her body, Kirika immediately readied her Victory Transformation Gear.

「Turn it on!!!」

「Victory Change!」

An ultra-high-voltage current travels through the steel threads and attacked the two Victor rangers.

「Abababababababurururururururu!!!!???」

The man in red, Kurenai Retsu, could not transform in time and was instantly scorched black. The discharge was so intense that the entire area was blacked out and the city of Saitama was enveloped in total darkness.

A warrior in a black Victory Suit, slashing wires, stares down the darkened road. There stood a man in black, still wearing sunglasses even though it was nighttime.

「As expected it can’t be so straightforward.」

「No, that’s impossible! Why are you here ……Death Green!!!!」

「You talk as if you have a perfect grasp of my whereabouts.」

「…………!?」

「Stalker-chan need a strict “punishment”.」

Meanwhile, in the command room of the Victpr Ranger secret base, Commander Samejima Asaka was biting her nails.

『Encounter! Commander Asaka, he is aware of the hacking!』

「Calm down. It’s still within expectation.」

The monitor on Asaka’s computer showed the Saitama Super Arena, located several hundred meters away from where Kirika and the others were attacked.

At the Saitama Super Arena, Minato, a tall, beautiful woman wearing glasses, was standing alone.

「Achoo! I was told that I should put on my glasses and wait here…… I wonder how long I should wait……? But, it sure is c-c-c-cold……!」

The frames of the glasses Minato was wearing were embedded with a lens so small that they were almost invisible to the naked eye.

[1] Basically, they’re paint balls — plastic spheres filled with brightly colored liquid pigment. But unlike the fun-and-games variety, these balls are kept on hand in case of a stickup. The idea is to lob one after a robber and mark him to improve the chance of an arrest.