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It wasn't entirely that unusual to stumble upon a ganglar just out in the wild. That did happen a few times. It was a little annoying to suddenly have to deal with it, but nothing that couldn't be handled. At least, that was how it normally went.
Kairi had been walking around the town, avoiding having to do any work at their daytime job once more. Finding the ganglar at least gave him a good defense now. However, when he tried to contact Tooma and Umika to alert them of the ganglar, he found that there was no signal in this area. He couldn't reach them.
Oh well. He couldn't just sit back and let this ganglar go. It was terrorizing people. Worse things would happen if he left to go get signal than if he stayed and fought now.
That was how Kairi found himself in his current situation. He had transformed and gotten the ganglar's attention. The two were locked in combat. Kairi was struggling to get the ganglar to stay still long enough to open its safe. Every time he thought he had it, the ganglar moved away before he could open it.
And then someone who he really hadnt wanted to join showed up. Kairi really wasn't sure why a certain red Patranger had been in the area, but he had been and was now also after the ganglar, and also him. Fighting two enemies was not making this any easier.
"Always butting into things that don't involve you, don't you, mr. policeman?" Kairi said. He was annoyed at all of this.
"It's my job to deal with the ganglars. And it's my job to take you down, Lupinranger." Keiichiro shot back, taking a swing at Kairi.
Kairi dodged and retaliated. He knocked Keiichiro back and then went to attack the ganglar again. He had been so close to getting its lupin collection piece. If Keiichiro would just sit still for a second then he could do that. But, that was asking far too much of that man. Keiichiro was not going to sit back.
Kairi barely got to swing his sword at the ganglar when Keiichiro was already back to attack him. The two continued to clash as they also tried to fight the ganglar. Kairi was having no luck with opening the safe still. Keiichiro was not giving him a moment to breathe.
"You're lucky the others haven't shown up yet." Keiichiro stated as the two rangers clashed again.
"There's no signal here, mr. police officer. No one is gonna come." Kairi replied smugly.
"There isn't?" Keiichiro grumbled. "Well, I'll take you down all the same with or without help!"
"I thought we were supposed to be fighting me." The ganglar interrupted them by sending them both flying backward with a strong hit.
Kairi recovered fast and got back to his feet. Keiichiro wasn't getting up as fast. He was gripping his shoulder. Had he gotten hurt worse from that attack? Served him right for getting in the way.
"You're an easy target now, Patranger!" The ganglar wasted no time.
Keiichiro had barely gotten back to his feet before the ganglar was charging at him. It seemed inevitable that he was not going to be able to dodge it in time. Kairi briefly was smug about it, but then felt bad for it. The ganglar was coming full force. That attack was going to do damage. The ganglar had the intent to strike to kill.
"Move!" Kairi didn't know what came over him, but he found himself dashing forward and shoving Keiichiro out of the line of attack. Unfortunately, Kairi couldn't say he was so lucky.
Thankfully, he was angled odd and the attack didn't hit him as badly as it was meant to. It still hit him hard, though. The ganglar slashed its claws down his body. The force sent Kairi stumbling backwards. He tasted blood in his mouth and then his transformation shattered. He barely registered what was happening as his legs gave out and he was crashing to the ground.
"Well... not who I intended to kill but, works for me~" The ganglar laughed. "I'll finish you off later, Patranger."
There was silence from Keiichiro for a long time. No sounds of movement or words coming from him. The world around was so silent.
"Kairi-kun...?" It was a very quiet whisper at first, but then the voice got louder. "Kairi-kun!"
Kairi was rolled onto his back. Somehow he was managing to stay conscious, but his vision was blurry. He could barely make out that Keiichiro was the face he was seeing.
"Hang... hang on..." Keiichiro sounded lost and desperate.
Kairi didn't recall much else other than he thought he was picked up. The pain was getting too much to withstand.
...
Kairi groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He had no idea what had happened or where he was. The room he opened his eyes to see was not one he recognized at all. It wasn't a hospital room. Kairi knew that much. So, where was he?
He felt his chest where the worst of the pain had been. There were bandages there. He wasn't wearing a shirt.
Kairi cautiously sat up and looked around. There wasn't much in the room to indicate where he might be. He was very confused. Where was he? Where had Keiichiro taken him?
Speaking of Keiichiro... where was he? Could this be his house? And also... he knew his identity now. Had he alerted the rest of his team? Were Umika and Tooma being taken into custody? Had they already been?
There were so many unanswered questions in Kairi's mind. He didn't know what to do. He wasn't restrained at all. Was the door to the room locked though? Maybe he was stuck in here. Maybe he was going to be taken into custody once Keiichiro saw he was awake.
He was startled out of his thoughts by the door opening. Had it not been locked or had he missed the sound of it unlocking? Either way, Keiichiro entered the room. A look of relief washed over his face as he saw Kairi.
"You're awake... thank god." Keiichiro walked over and started checking him over. "Do you feel okay? Does anything hurt bad?"
"I'm fine, Kei-chan." Kairi tried to act calm, but his voice wavered as he spoke. He was scared to see what his fate was going to be.
"You've been asleep for almost a whole day. I was getting worried."
"Why didn't you bring me to the hospital?"
"I... didn't know how to explain what happened to you." Keiichiro said. "Kairi-kun... you..."
Kairi just nodded. There was no way to deny it. Keiichiro knew his identity as LupinRed now.
"I... haven't told anyone." Keiichiro stated. Kairi stared at him with wide eyes.
"Eh?" Was all he could say in reply.
Keiichiro couldn't look at him as he continued. "You... you're my friend. And... and you got hurt saving me. I can't... it feels wrong to arrest you."
"Kei-chan..."
"Why? Why are you doing all of this?" Keiichiro questioned. "What brought you to turn to this life?"
"A ganglar killed my brother... I was told if... if we can collect all of the lupin collection that we could bring back those dearest to us." Kairi tried to keep the explanation simply and not out his accomplices.
Keiichiro was silent for a while before he replied, "I'm so sorry... That must be hard."
"It's fine." Kairi brushed off the sympathy.
"Well... I don't think I can find a good reason to turn you in. If that's why you're doing this... I can't stop that. It's not right."
"So, you won't keep fighting me?"
"I can't guarantee that but it would only be for show. Our bosses wouldn't take lightly to a change of heart no matter the reason." Keiichiro replied.
Kairi looked down at his wounds. "Don't think this means I'm taking more bullets for you though, Kei-chan."
Keiichiro laughed a little at his response. "It should be me taking blows for you if anything. That's my job, isn't it? To protect people."
Kairi cracked a smile. "I guess it's both of our teams' jobs now. We always were protecting people anyway because we didn't want more people to feel the hurt we have."
"You bear a heavy burden." Keiichiro commented.
"I do." Kairi couldn't disagree with the assessment.
"Let me take some of it for you. You don't need to bear it all alone. I'll help you get your loved ones back. All of your loved ones." Keiichiro promised.
"Won't that make you an enemy with your bosses?" Kairi questioned.
"So what? Noel will figure something out if it comes to that I'm sure."
"Did you tell him you know about me?"
"No. I wanted your permission to tell anyone first."
"You can tell him and I guess if you think Tsukasa and Sakuya will be receptive to this, them as well. I'll see if my accomplices are willing to reveal their identities as well."
"I think I know who they are."
"But if they don't want to be known, then you can't tell anyone but Noel about me."
"Deal." Keiichiro agreed. "Just promise you won't do something reckless like this again."
"Can't promise that with this job, Kei-chan."
"At least promise you'll try."
"I promise."