Sentient Star
The Kyurangers had a rare encounter.
A/N: This is another one of those fics inspired by one of @asknarashikari @narashikari’s prompts. Credit where credit is due.
FFN I Ao3
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During one of the instances where every Kyuranger was inside the Orion battleship, everyone was doing their own thing. Kotaro and Stinger were busy training, mostly sparring against each other with Stinger imparting some knowledge to the youngest member.
Champ was nearby pumping some dumbbells but was also watching the sparring session between surrogate brothers.
Raptor was by the pilot seat with Shou and Tsurugi behind her.
Lucky, Hammie, and Garu were by the table eating some food that Spada was serving.
Naga and Balance were talking to each other.
"Hey, not that it's a bad thing, but aren't there more planets being attacked by Jark Matter?" Lucky asked.
"We're only one team and we only have one ship capable of traveling through wormholes," Raptor turned her back on the console and faced the inquiring member. "The Kyuvoyagers are only able to travel in short distances."
"We already covered this, Lucky, every time a new Kyuranger joins," Hammie laughed. "You're so funny."
"We're only waiting for a distress signal from a nearby planet before we can help?" Kotaro asked, wiping his sweat with his shirt's sleeve as he walked inside the bridge followed by Champ and Stinger.
"If we could visit multiple planets at once," Shou nodded somberly. "Unfortunately, we can only send one team on a planet that needs help."
"Why couldn't we send two teams?" Tsurugi asked. "We already have 12 legendary Kyurangers, we can send, at most, six teams of two members to nearby planets."
"It's too risky." Shou shook his head. "At the very least, I want to send a team of five members to mitigate the risks," He added. "Each of us is indispensable, the universe cannot afford to lose anyone of us."
"But aren't we all taking risks here?" Kotaro voiced out. "Plus you have sent Stinger on an undercover mission, and there was also the time where you sent Stinger and Champ together."
"That was…" Raptor trailed off.
"Yes, I did send them." Shou nodded. "You have to understand, Stinger and Champ are seasoned warriors, while most of us were only chosen recently, as such we don't have much experience to call to."
"You're inexperienced, commander?" Spada asked.
"As you know, I'm too old to be sent on duo, or trio missions."
"Don't worry commander, I'm sure that with Lucky, we'd all return alive." Garu offered.
"That's only applicable if Lucky is on that team, what about the other teams where Lucky's isn't with them?"
"The commander's right," Stinger agreed with the high-ranking officer. "Most of us didn't start out as warriors."
"Commander, I'd like to visit a nearby world to stock up." Spada voiced out. "We're running out of food and supplies."
Hammie opened the holographic screen by the table and zoomed out of their current location.
"Looks like the only nearby planet is one full of vegetation." Hammie pointed to the one green planet.
"I can whip up a few new dishes with vegetables and fruits." Spada cited.
"Well then, we're going to planet Lachaniko." Shou commanded.
"Grazie!" Spada grinned.
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It had been decided, via the usual Kyulette the chance, to send in six Kyurangers into the vegetation-rich planet. The Kyurangers that were selected were Spada, Hammie, Raptor, Lucky, Kotaro, and Tsurugi.
The Kyurangers has just descended to the planet's surface when they saw incoming Jark Matter ships.
Everyone immediately readied themselves to transform when things began to be launched at the Jark Matter ships, crashing them to the planet's surface. Soon after, vines began erupting from the ground and wrapped the crashed ships themselves around it, covering everything.
However, their intent to battle the Jark Matter proved to be a huge mistake as vines began attacking the Kyurangers.
"Wha- Why're they attacking us?!" Hammie exclaimed. "We're not the enemy!"
"It probably thinks we're here to destroy the planet," Kotaro offered as he dodged an incoming stone. "It probably wants to eliminate any invading species."
"I don't understand," Raptor jumped over some vines coming at her. "We landed on the planet just fine."
"Kotaro's right," Spada caught a flying wooden stake coming towards him. "The planet is just protecting itself."
"This is legendary!" Tsurugi exclaimed. "A sentient planet, I thought this only existed in manga."
"Not the time Tsurugi!"
"Talk about Lucky!" Lucky exclaimed before ducking from an incoming projectile. "We can simply ask the planet to give us what we want!"
"It doesn't work that way!" Hammie exclaimed.
"Kyaa!" Raptor screamed as her wrists were caught in the vines.
"Raptor!" Spada exclaimed in alarm before rushing towards the android's aid and cutting her restraints only to get caught himself.
Tsurugi was quick to take action as he cut vines that restrained Spada and the ones coming for everyone else. He summoned fire to his sword and spun in place, burning the vines coming at them to ashes.
"Everyone okay?" Spada heaved.
"I'm fine." Hammie's hands were on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.
"I'm fine too," Raptor nodded. "Thank you for saving me, Spada."
"Tsurugi's the real hero this time," Spada shook his head. "You were about to be captured by the vines too."
"I think this planet is too hostile to gather food." Tsurugi shared his observations. "We need to evacuate immediately."
"Wait, where's Kotaro?" Lucky questioned.
"What?!"
The deployed Kyurangers looked around, and indeed, their youngest member was missing. They were so focused on freeing themselves that they did not notice that Kotaro had been captured.
"We need to report this to the commander." Spada stated somberly.
"I don't want to know how Stinger and Champ are going to react." Hammie admitted.
"Lucky! Good that you called," Shou answered the call as Lucky held his Kyuchanger and Kyutama up. "Kotaro has just contacted us, and he said that someone wants to talk to all of us."
"Wha-"
Everyone looked at each other.
"We barely made it far from the ship, commander," Spada reported. "What did Kotaro say?"
"What's wrong?" Stinger's worried voice was heard.
"The planet's hostile to non-natives," Tsurugi reported. "We just got done defending ourselves from the planet's hostile vegetation."
"Meaning, Kotaro's been captured." Champ's voice offered.
"You said you guys barely made it far from the ship?" Balance asked.
"Yeah," Hammie voiced her affirmation. "I'm worried about Kotaro."
"Kotaro said that someone wants to meet our leaders," Shou relayed what he had heard. "We're going to have a change in personnel." The commander's voice was final. "Hammie, Raptor, you both need to return, Stinger and I will replace you both."
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The team that consisted of Lucky, Stinger, Shou, Spada, and Tsurugi walked. They had expressed their worries about Kotaro's situation and the possible trap they were being led to.
"On top of contacting us, Kotaro had sent us a map of the area," Shou informed the people who were had been deployed earlier. "He had also marked where his contact is going to meet us."
"We should be near." Stinger commented.
"We're going to get Kotaro back, I promise." Spada gave his word.
"Kotaro can take care of himself," Stinger responded. "I just hate the fact that I wasn't able to prevent this from happening."
"We all took this risk, Stinger." Shou offered. "You of all people know that."
"I know…"
"We're here." Tsurugi voiced.
Everyone was standing before a cave.
Shou, Spada, and Tsurugi debated to themselves whether to go inside the cave right then and there or have some preparations.
"Let's get inside," Lucky grinned and chose for everyone else as he went inside the cave.
"Uh, Lucky! It doesn't work…" Spada trailed off.
Lucky simply walked inside, ignoring the others.
"That way…" He finished half-heartedly before giving chase to the Red Ranger.
Stinger followed both rangers, extremely worried for Kotaro.
"What a legendary man," Tsurugi commented. "He's like one of those daredevils back in the day."
"Daredevil?" Shou couldn't help but ask.
"It's an old term for people who aren't afraid of danger." Tsurugi answered as he followed after Stinger who had already followed Lucky inside.
"A daredevil, huh," Shou commented to himself as he followed suit. "I suppose one could describe me as a daredevil back in the day." He gave a wistful smile.
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Everyone was greeted by Kotaro and a figure obscured by a sky blue light. Kotaro was dressed in a Sky-blue kimono and Haori paired with a gray Hakama. The boy's hair was green, which clashed with the boy's outfit.
"Welcome Kyurangers," Kotaro greeted.
"Kotaro?" Spada questioned.
"Can we please have Kotaro back?" Lucky immediately asked for Kotaro. "We were simply defending ourselves when you attacked us."
"Big Bear said the same," The green-haired Kotaro responded. "I just want to see for myself if those claims are true."
"Big Bear?"
"His soul was watching over the chosen of the Kuma Kyutama," The green-haired Kotaro stated. "As of now, he's waiting for when I release this boy," He gestured towards the pillar of Sky-blue light with them. "He has also given me the pleasure of being able to communicate with you, the Kyurangers, when I inhabited the boy's kyutama."
"I see, so that's what the vines on Kotaro's hands are," Lucky grinned. "You're doing the same thing as commander Big Bear did when he chose Kotaro."
"What do you mean, Lucky?" Stinger immediately asked.
"Talk about lucky!" Lucky exclaimed. "Kotaro wasn't in any danger than we had all thought."
"You still have yet to answer Stinger's question." Spada pointed out.
"Basically, when planet Lachaniko –"
"Call me Karpos as that is my name." Kotaro, no Karpos, gave their name. "That is the planet's name."
"When Karpos captured Kotaro, they immediately tried to ask him on what were our intentions were on this planet, but lack the means to do so." Lucky began to explain. "That was when Big Bear communicated with them and told them about a way to communicate with us."
"That would mean that the vines are Karpos's way of establishing a connection with their body to Kotaro's kyutama and subsequently possessed him." Shou theorized.
"That's legendary!" Tsurugi exclaimed. "Not only were we able to find a sentient planet, but we were also able to communicate with them!"
"The universe is vast," Karpos stated. "I imagine there are many more of us in this universe, in another universe, a planet named Mogo was given something that allowed him to travel through the cosmos, which has made me a bit envious of them." Kotaro's face was pouting as soon as the planet mentioned Mogo.
"Why did you attack us?" Stinger questioned, still on guard.
"I can only sense intent," Karpos admitted. "The moment I felt that you were ready to fight, I did not take any chance in order to defend myself from would-be invaders." The possessing planet explained.
"We were only here to harvest some vegetables for our dwindling food supply." Spada stepped forward.
"I gathered as much." Karpos made Kotaro's head nod.
Karpos made Kotaro's fingers snap as a number of bundled vines came in from the entrance. This made everyone in the room tense; it took everything in their power not to default to their instincts and prepare for battle.
"I appreciate the restraint," Karpos stated. "I took the liberty of harvesting food-matter for you as soon as I was sure of your intentions."
Karpos made Kotaro hand the Kyurangers basketfuls of fruits and vegetables.
"It is time we part," Karpos stated. "I have one request, please do not engage in battle while on my body, please let me deal with the invaders."
"Of course." Shou readily agreed.
"You are free to land on my surface whenever you please, even harvest some goods, my companions here cannot consume all of them on their own."
"You've got our word." Lucky grinned.
Karpos made Kotaro give Stinger the boy's clothes, which were neatly folded on top of a pedestal.
"Tell the boy he can keep the clothes I made for him, based on the traditional clothes on his home planet."
And with that, the vines that connected Kotaro's kyutama to the planet's sentience receded and Kotaro collapsed as a result.
Stinger gave his basket to Lucky and carried his surrogate younger brother on his arms.
(linebreak)
Kotaro found himself waking up inside the Orion Battleship, wearing traditional clothing from his home country. He immediately remembered the events that lead him to wear a Haori, Kimono, and Hakama, which were worn during formal occasions in his country.
Kotaro was inside the cave, being dragged by the vines that had wrapped around his body. A Sky-blue light emanated from his jacket's pocket, which was the Koguma Kyutama, and docked itself onto Kotaro's changer before his clothes turned blue.
The next thing he knew was wearing the formal garb he'd been wearing when he met with Lucky and the others.
"Are you alright?" Stinger was in Kotaro's room.
"I'm fine, aniki." Kotaro assured his surrogate older brother. "I was conscious while everything happened, Big Bear was instrumental in letting Karpos know that I gave them my consent to possess my body."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm fine." Kotaro nodded. "I'm just glad that the clothes he made using their powers and my Koguma kyutama was something from my side of Earth and not on the other side."
"You looked good in those," Stinger praised. "How bad could it be?"
"Ask Tsurugi about Greece and Togas." Kotaro shook his head. "I do not fancy being bare-skinned on other planets, thank you very much." He shivered at the thought.