Chapter Text
------------------------------------------*Living Room*-----------------------------------------
Later that evening at the Kamitani Residence, “Mom! I want to go to the Rangers Meet and Greet at the park!” Taka exclaimed but his mom was too busy and needed to catch a deadline for the upcoming exams.
“Hayato! Would you please take Taka to the park tomorrow for me? I need to work overtime!” Taka’s mom exclaimed.
“I can’t take the brat. I have a baseball match coming this weekend.” Hayato nonchalantly uttered.
With Hayato’s response, nobody will be capable enough of taking Taka to the meet and greet.
This made their mom sigh with grief and look at her anticipating child,
“I’m sorry Taka, maybe some other time? Hm?” Taka’s mom smiled sweetly
but Taka really wanted to go to the park tomorrow to meet his favorite superhero. This gesture made Taka wail as loudly as he could in hopes of letting his mom take him to the convention like she always does.
“But I want to go tomorrowwwww. Please, mom!!! Just this once? Please! Please! Please!” Taka jumped up and down while continuously tugging at her mom's dangling sleeve.
His mom, however just scratched her head due to the loud voice of her son.
Little did she know that Taka thought differently, he thought she had an itch so he climbed on top of the desk in hopes to relieve her of her itchiness and maybe win her time to take him to the meet and greet, this, however, was proven to be a huge mistake as Taka carefully raised his leg and stepped on the ajar drawer in hopes of scratching his mom’s head and doing her a favor, the whole table loudly collapsed on the floor, which resulted in their mother’s laptop breaking in half.
“Taka!!!! What have you done?!?!” His mom shouted angrily at him.
Taka, frightened by his mother’s sudden burst of anger immediately sobbed and flopped on the floor, his snot flowing everywhere down his face.
Hearing the loud crash, Hayato suddenly went inside the living room to investigate what was happening and found his mom at the right side of the room, clutching her ears with her head bowed to the floor while in front of her was a sobbing Taka who was too scared to even stand up. Being the man of the house, Hayato sighed and picked up his whimpering little brother and looked at his mom,
“Calm down and let’s talk about this at dinner tomorrow” Hayato muttered silently so that he won’t scare his little brother.
His mom regretfully nodded in response and with that, Hayato carried Taka to his room.
----------------------------------*Taka’s Bedroom*------------------------------------------
“Nii-chan, do you *sniff* think that mom *sniff* hates me?” Taka mumbled while Hayato was about to walk out of the room.
“Well, she’s not happy with you right now.” Hayato bluntly stated before turning around and walking back to his own room.
-----------------------------------*Next Day*--------------------------------------------
Morning came and Hayato woke up to the sound of the rooster’s crow.
“Weird, Taka’s not making a noise. His irritating voice always wakes me up.” Hayato thought.
He didn’t think much of it as he proceeded to get off his bed and go straight to the living room but as he arrived, Taka was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Taka?” Hayato asked his mother who was busy preparing his lunch box.
Hayato’s mom paused at this question and told Hayato how she overheard Taka getting up in the middle of the night and dialing Ryuuichi’s home number, asking Ryuuichi to pick him up at their house at 5 in the morning. Hayato was stumped at Taka’s bold move but didn’t think much of it. His mother on the other hand was worried about Taka’s well-being and wanted Hayato to check on him.
Hayato just sighed at this command but got ready to go to school anyway.
---------------------------------*School*------------------------------------------
Class just ended and Hayato completely forgot to check on his brother due to the amount of work that they had to do.
“I’ll just check up on him before I go to baseball practice.” Hayato thought while walking to the Babysitter’s Club but as he was 3 classrooms away, Hayato felt multiple hands dragging him to the football field,
“Come on Hayato! This is no time to be slacking off!” exclaimed the first guy.
“What are you saying? He’s our best player!” the second guy shouted.
“Exactly! That’s why he needs to practice with us!” the third guy happily cheered.
Hayato didn’t know their names because he didn’t bother to remember them but he dared to ask,
“Who the heck are you guys?”
The three people were baffled but softened their expressions almost immediately. They were already used to the cold Kamitani and just laughed it off, leaving Kamitani confused with their actions.
--------------------------------*Babysitting Club*-----------------------------------------
Taka was quiet at the nursery today and didn’t bother to talk to anyone. Even Kirin didn’t approach him and continued to play with the other toddlers.
Ryuuichi was worried that Taka got into a big fight with Hayato since Taka called their house in the middle of the night and his voice was so hoarse, Ryuuichi thought it was probably from all the crying that he did but a gut feeling told Ryuuichi that this was no ordinary fight that the two siblings normally have so Ryuuichi went and voiced his concern to Usaida but Usaida just told him to shrug it off because this always happens but Ryuuichi knew that Taka may be the toughest kid in the nursery but he was the most emotional, aside from Kazuma of course.
“Ryuuichi, aren’t you supposed to go to class?” Usaida told him sleepily.
“Oh right! I’ll be taking my leave!” Ryuuichi hurriedly went outside of the nursery room and ran to his next class.
Taka, on the other hand, didn’t dare to speak even though Usaida went to him.
“You and your nii-chan got into a fight again?” Usaida teased but Taka wasn’t replying.
Little did Usaida know that Taka was just actually battling the tears from trickling down his face.
This made Usaida approach him seriously but then Midori wailed.
It was time for her diaper change.
This frustrated Usaida because he was about to ask something important to Taka but decided to accompany Midori’s needs first since she was the youngest. This then led to Usaida taking his eyes off Taka to take care of the situation.
“Done!” After 5 minutes of excruciating nasal torture, Usaida finally finished changing Midori’s diapers and began to walk back to Taka when he noticed that Taka was nowhere to be seen in the nursery room.
“Uh-oh.” Usaida muttered, “God, please save me from Hayato’s wrath.”
-------------------------------*Taka’s Journey*--------------------------------------
“Hmph! Nii-chan and mom just hate me, that’s why they don’t want to go with me to the meet and greet!” Taka thought and felt a lump in his throat, a tear trickled down slowly through his cheek but as quickly as it appeared, it also disappeared almost instantly thanks to Taka’s quick reflex.
He didn’t want anyone to see him and tell his brother that he had been crying because his brother would smack him again. With these thoughts running through Taka’s little head, he suddenly heard a loud noise from the next corner of the corridor.
“What did you say a**hole?!” Taka jumped to the sound of an angry upperclassman so he decided to check it out.
As Taka peeked at the corner, he saw an angry guy holding this guy’s collar. Taka was amazed and terrified at the scene that was unfolding right in front of him because even though he watches movies with those scenes, he never actually saw a real one. This got Taka amazed and wondered which one was the villain and which one was the superhero.
Now that Taka’s curiosity has peaked, he decided to keep watching.
“Hah? Are you deaf? I said ‘Why should I say sorry when your girlfriend was the one clinging onto me?’” The victimized guy said while having an indifferent look on his face.
“Wah! So cool! Just like a superhero!” Taka marveled at the guy’s reaction and wanted to look closer so he tactfully went closer to the action without anybody noticing.
“Your arrogance is really pissing me off. This should treat your narcissistic a** some lesson.” The mean-looking guy remarked spitefully and raised his fist.
This was what Taka remembered in the movies.
The guy raises his fist and it’s either the main hero fights back or his friend saves him. Taka wanted to look cooler than his brother so he decided to go with the latter.
Taka then put his right leg forward and continued to sprint in the bully’s direction. Filled with the crowd’s gasps of terror, Taka grabbed the bully’s left leg and bit really hard. Taka felt excited, he was a werewolf in disguise! But then he felt a sudden jolt of pain on the left side of his face.
He fell painfully to the floor and he thought, “Is this the part where the friend dies?”. Taka could hear screams and at that moment, he decided that he wanted his big brother right then and there. Taka was going to cry for his brother when he suddenly felt warm, large hands delicately picking him up from the floor.
“How dare you hurt a child right in front of me” Those words were filled with so much malice that it made Taka shiver in fear but as the guy holding him felt this, he looked at Taka and his eyes changed from anger to softness.
Suddenly, a teacher shouted, “What’s going on here?!”
“Oh frick! Run!” All the people ran except for the guy holding Taka.
“What are you doing here Mori?” The teacher asked but the Mori just shrugged.
“Well, what are you doing? Class is starting soon, you should head back to--” Just as the teacher was about to finish her sentence, she noticed the black eye that Taka had received and was terrified.
“Did you do this to him, Mori?!”
“No! Who do you think I am?! I love children!” Mori exclaimed.
“Well, report the one who did that to this poor little boy. Here, I’ll take him to the infirmary room.”
The teacher held out her hand and Mori obediently obliged. Taka was still feeling lightheaded and didn’t have the mental capacity to fully grasp the situation so he decided to just doze off.
2 hours passed and Taka finally woke up. It was 12 pm, which means it was the upperclassmen’s lunchtime. Taka knew this because his brother always went to the nursery room but he probably won’t visit there today since he had practice. This made Taka’s mood sour but still wanted to thank the superhero from earlier.
Taka walked across the corridor until he saw the superhero eating bread while entering his classroom. This got Taka excited which made him rush over to talk to him.
“Nii-chan!” Taka shouted, which made the superhero look at him with a surprised expression.
“You’re the kid from earlier! How are you? Are you okay? How’s the bruise? Does it hurt? Where’s the teacher that was taking care of you? Why isn’t she taking care of you? You could be in an accident!”
The superhero ranted worriedly but noticed that Taka was looking at him like he was the overprotective father so he abruptly stopped and smiled at him.
“So what brings you here? Do you want me to call your mom or--”
“Take me to the Rangers meet and greet!” Taka enthusiastically shouted.
“I’m sorry. The what?” Superhero asked, baffled.
“My mom won’t take me and my brother has practice.” Taka pouted.
This made the superhero guy unable to refuse the order so he happily obliged.
“Okay. I’ll pick you up at the nursery room. The babysitting club was it?”
“Not there! I’ll just hide here!” Taka cried and went under the superhero guy’s table.
“What?! You’re not allowed to---”
Their Math teacher suddenly came in and told all of them to sit down. The superhero guy was confused with the rush of events but decided to just enjoy it.
The class got dismissed and it was now time to go to the meet and greet.
As the superhero guy and Taka were walking at the school grounds, the Superhero guy asked Taka what his name was and he answered with “Kamitani Taka but you can call me Taka.” Taka answered while looking at the direction of his feet.
“Ohhh. Taka huh? Like the falcon? That’s pretty cool! My name’s Mori Haruto. It means, ‘The Sunny Forest’. You can call me Haruto if you like.” Haruto excitedly announced.
“Ok. Haru-niichan.” Taka smiled and continued to walk through the school grounds while holding Haruto’s finger.
--------------------------------------*Baseball Field*------------------------------------
“1, 2, 3! Strike!” The referee bellowed.
“Ugh! That was close!” Hayato’s teammate cried.
“Your posture was too stiff. Try swinging from the shoulders instead of the wrists next time.” Hayato responded.
“Thank you, master!” Hayato’s teammate yelled but Hayato just smacked him on the head and glared at him, “Never call me ‘master’ unless you want to be artificially alive.”
“Uwa~ Scary~” Hayato’s teammate muttered under his breath.
Time passed and it was now Hayato’s turn to strike the ball so he got up and positioned himself to strike the incoming force that was going to get thrown in his direction.
“1, 2,---” Hayato was waiting for the three when he unsuspectedly saw his little brother walking with a male student who was around the same age as Hayato.
This rare sight made Hayato miss the shot.
“Tch. Stupid distraction” Hayato grumbled.
“Kamitani! Are you sick?” Hayato’s coach remarked.
“No-- I was just--” Hayato was about to answer when his teammates intervened and told him how he was burning when he was clearly not. This made Hayato irritated and was about to protest that he was fine when his coach suddenly told him to take the rest of the day off.
“What? But I can still--”
“No buts Kamitani. It’s either that or you’re out of the team.” His coach bluffed and he really wished that Hayato bought it.
“Roger that coach.” Hayato whispered and began to go to the bleachers to take his things.
As he was rummaging through his bag, he found a small, shiny, red ball snuggled inside his duffel bag and he thought it was a lollipop, however upon further inspection, he found out that it was an action figure of Taka’s favorite superhero.
‘Ranger Red’ as lame as that sounded.
“Hey!”, Hayato’s annoying teammate cheered, “Now you can take your little brother to the meet and greet!”
Hayato was puzzled, “How did you know about that?”
“Huh?” His teammate replied, “Oh well, I overheard your little brother asking our classmate Haruto if he would go to the Rangers meet and greet, and surprisingly, Haruto immediately agreed.”
If Hayato was puzzled 10 seconds ago, now he was speechless.
“How can his vulnerable little brother ask a stranger to go to the meet and greet? Was it really that important?” Hayato pondered while fixing his things but eventually decided to go to the stupid meet and greet in order to make sure that his brother wasn’t causing more trouble for them again.
--------------------------*Meet and Greet at the park*----------------------------------
“Haruto! You’re late! The meet and greet is about to start and you aren’t even in your proper attire yet!” The flashy middle-aged lady nagged.
“What's ‘proper attire’?” Taka asked.
Haruto looked at him and almost giggled, “I’m sure it means ‘costume’ in your vocabulary.”
Taka was confused. Costume for what? They were attendees.
He still didn’t get it until Haruto put him down and disappeared inside his trailer.
Taka was going to go after him but the nice ladies told him to sit down and even offered him juice and crackers. This made Taka forget about Haruto-niichan until he saw him get out of his trailer.
Taka was going to run to him when he noticed that he was wearing a shiny red costume and a helmet that matched the color of his suit.
“RANGER RED!!!!!!!!!” Taka shouted at the top of his lungs, which made the other kids look in their direction and run after their favorite superhero.
The screams of children and their never-ending energy made Taka squished and almost tripped himself when he felt hands carry him.
It was his favorite superhero! Ranger Red was disguising himself as a student in their school all this time in order to keep the world safe! How cool was that?!
“Today, I present to you, my sidekick!" Ranger Red exclaimed while carrying Taka 'Lion King Style', "His superhero name is ‘Ranger Falcon! He saved me a while ago and risked his life. Now that’s a superhero virtue!” Ranger Red announced and all the teachers and children cheered happily for them except for one person and as Taka's eyes landed on him, his smile was quickly wiped from his face as he remembered his brother’s lack of concern for him when he needed him the most and now that Haruto-niichan was here. Taka decided that he doesn’t need his brother anymore.