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"Hey, there's a report of a Ganglar." Umika stated as she held out her phone at Tooma and Kairi.
"Seems the police are already on the scene." Tooma commented.
"All the more reason to hurry and get there before they kill it." Kairi said.
The three said no more and quickly prepared themselves. Once properly disguised, they went after the Ganglar. At least the location wasn't too far away from where they were. Made it easier to get there before the police could do too much damage.
Though, when they arrived, they only saw Keiichiro there.
"Where did the others go?" Umika asked, looking around. "I don't see them anywhere."
"That is weird. They all were reported to be here." Kairi said.
"We can figure that out later. I don't think he's going to last much longer on his own." Tooma nodded to the fight. "We best get involved before the Ganglar flees on us."
Their attention was drawn back to the fight. Keiichiro was not doing too well. The Ganglar was starting to make more and more contact with him. He was struggling to block and retaliate.
"Let's go, guys." Kairi said.
The three of them transformed quickly and then rushed into the battle. They fired off shots at the Ganglar, making them back away from Keiichiro for a moment.
"Phantom Thieves." The Ganglar grumbled.
"Did you think we weren't going to show up too?" Umika taunted.
"We're taking your collection piece." Kairi stated, aiming his weapon at the Ganglar.
"I'm not giving it over that easily." The Ganglar stated.
"We'll just take it by force then." Tooma replied.
At that, the three of them rushed into battle against the Ganglar. For a minute, Keiichiro watched them fight and then he came back into it. He was mostly focusing on the Ganglar as well, but did take a few swings a the Lupinrangers as well. They were pretty easy to dodge. He clearly wasn't in the best shape to be fighting.
The Ganglar was getting aggravated by the onslaught of attacks. They swung hard at everyone, making them all jump back to avoid it.
"You're all such annoyances." The Ganglar spat. "Especially you."
They focused on Keiichiro. Before anyone had much time to react, the Ganglar ran at the Patranger and hit him with as much force as they could muster. Keiichiro went crashing to the ground and untransformed. He didn't move.
"Much better." The Ganglar said. "I've had enough of this."
They fled from the scene. The three Lupinrangers moved to follow but they all hesitated. They couldn't help but look back over at Keiichiro.
"I suppose we can't exactly just leave him here." Tooma commented.
"Where did the others get to?" Umika questioned. "Why aren't they back yet?"
"Who knows. Let's at least make sure he's still alive." Kairi shrugged and walked over to where Keiichiro laid.
He nudged him with his foot until he rolled him over. Kairi crouched down and looked at him.
"Well, he's breathing but seems pretty beat up." Kairi determined.
"Wonder what happened. Normally he isn't that easy to injure." Umika said as she walked over.
The three untransformed and looked at each other. What exactly did they do in this situation?
"Should we just wait for them to show up?" Tooma questioned, crossing his arms.
"We don't know where they are, though." Umika pointed out. "They could be anywhere."
"But why did they leave him here alone?" Kairi said. "It seems really suspicious."
"I'm going to get a better view of the area and see if I can spot them." Tooma stated.
Kairi and Umika nodded to him. Tooma took off to the rooftops and did a scan. They waited for him to return, keeping an eye out for the ones they were looking for as well. It was such a strange scenario to have stumbled into. Why would they have been separated like this?
It didn't feel like a set up. They assumed that if it was meant to be a trap that they'd have been jumped already. Clearly something else had happened but they had no idea what that could be. There were no clues for them to work off of to figure it out.
Tooma returned to them. "Didn't see them but I took a look online and it seems there was a sighting of another Ganglar not long after this one was posted. They must've been fighting two and got separated not long after."
"So... what do we do?" Umika asked. "Do we go after them?"
"I don't think they're fighting anymore. Felt like I'd have seen some sign of it. And the location was miles away. It would take us forever to get there. I think something happened to take them that far away." Tooma said.
"Let's just take him to our place and tell them he's there. We can say we just stumbled across him." Kairi shrugged.
"Nothing else we can do but leave him here or call an ambulance." Umika said. "And I don't think we can do that when we look like this."
"Yeah..."
...
With a bit of effort, they got Keiichiro back to their place. They set up an awkward cot for him in the dining area. They didn't want to bring him anywhere else into the place if they didn't have to.
They all made a quick stop to change back into their normal clothes before they did anything with their guest.
"I got the first-aid kit." Umika announced as she set it down beside them. "And sent a message to them about what's going on."
"Seems he got quite a few cuts on his body." Kairi observed.
"We'll probably need to take off his shirt and all to see the true damage." Tooma stated. "Let's just get this over with before he wakes up."
Tooma took control of the situation for the time being. He moved in and pulled off Keiichiro's jacket and then slid off his shirt. Umika and Kairi helped to move Keiichiro as needed to make it easier.
They thought taking off his shirt would be the end of it, but there was another article of clothing there as well. The three looked at each other for a moment.
"What's that?" Umika was the first to ask. "Doesn't really seem like anything usual."
"It's not supposed to be like a bulletproof vest or something is it?" Kairi said.
"I don't think it matches that description at all." Tooma sighed. "Who knows what it is, but there's blood soaking through so clearly we need to take it off."
He reached over and pulled it over Keiichiro's head. There was a sudden panic at that was revealed by doing so.
"This is not what I expected!" Kairi complained, covering his eyes and looking away.
Tooma also averted his gaze. "Today is full of surprises."
"Come on, guys. Stop being weird about it. He has breasts. So what? We're treating his wounds. Now, can we get to it before he wakes up and makes this even more awkward?" Umika interrupted them.
"Can't you do it?" Kairi asked.
"It's not easy to do alone. Come on." Umika huffed.
Kairi and Tooma looked at her. She gave them both a hard glare for a moment.
"Let's get this over with. Umika, can you wash off the blood while I get some antibiotics opened?" Tooma said.
"Got it." Umika nodded. She grabbed a clean cloth from the kitchen and ran it under some water. She returned and started cleaning off all the blood.
"Kairi, can you get a dry towel for when she's done?" Tooma requested.
"Sure." Kairi did so.
"Think I got what will come off." Umika stated not long after.
Kairi moved in and carefully dried off everything. Once he was done he nodded to Tooma. Tooma took over and placed some cream on the open wounds.
"Can one of you hold him up so we can wrap the bandages all the way around?" Tooma asked next.
"I'll do it." Kairi moved behind Keiichiro and cautiously lifted him slightly off the ground.
Tooma and Umika worked together to get the bandages around him and secured. Once done, they set him back down.
"Do you think he'll fit in a shirt of yours for the time being, Kairi? His is quite bloody." Tooma said as he examined the clothing in question.
"Probably. I'll be right back." Kairi left the room.
Umika sighed. "So... this was something."
"We learned something we weren't supposed to." Tooma agreed.
"We were trying to help. I think he'll understand." Umika replied. "Not like we care about this revelation. I think he'll be fine."
"Hopefully."
Kairi returned with a shirt. With a bit of effort they were able to get it over Keiichiro. They left him to rest on the cot for the time being. They weren't entirely sure when he would wake up. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long.
The three of them awkwardly stood around the area. None of them knew what to do. This was certainly not the situation they had expected to end up in today.
"Did they ever reply to you?" Kairi asked Umika.
Umika checked her phone. "Yes. Said they'll come by in a few hours. Just said they got caught up in something and can't come right away."
"No duh they got caught in something."
"They can't exactly tell us what happened." Tooma said.
"Yeah, yeah." Kairi said.
"Guess we just have to keep an eye on him until then." Umika stated.
"Seems so." Tooma nodded. "Shouldn't be that hard."
They fell back into silence for a bit.
Kairi broke the silence. "So... Kei-chan is... trans I'm guessing?"
"Don't know what else explains what we saw." Tooma shrugged.
"It doesn't matter." Umika said.
"Well, he is probably going to realize we saw and then this conversation will happen." Kairi pointed out. "It will matter to him."
"Do we bring it up with him if he doesn't mention it?"
"If he doesn't want to talk about it, we shouldn't force him to." Tooma stated. "He'll talk if he wants to."
"I'm kind of hoping he doesn't wake up until they get here so we can maybe avoid this conversation..." Umika said.
...
Unfortunately for them, that wasn't how it went. A little while passed and then Keiichiro began to stir. The three of them exchanged looks. No one wanted to be the one to start this conversation.
Somehow Kairi got shoved forward to be the one to do the talking. Kairi sent a glare back at Umika and Tooma before he walked over to Keiichiro.
Keiichiro was just opening his eyes as Kairi approached him. Kairi awkwardly stood there for a moment, just looking at him.
"Um... hey." Kairi spoke hesitantly. "How are you feeling? Seems like you got roughed up quite a bit."
Keiichiro blinked at him for a while, not saying anything. For a brief moment Kairi couldn't help but wonder if he had been hurt worse than they thought.
Then Keiichiro spoke. "Why am I here?"
"We were out for a walk when we found you beaten up. Took you back here and treated your wounds. We uh... didn't want to cause a scene by having to call an ambulance for you." Kairi lied. "What happened to you?"
Keiichiro sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position. "We were fighting a Ganglar. Got jumped by another one and then it summoned a portal and everyone was taken but me and the first Ganglar."
"They did quite a lot of damage." Tooma commented.
"Yeah. I thought you were better than this at staying out of such harm." Umika added on.
"The sneak attack got us all good." Keiichiro replied. "It wasn't my doing."
"We weren't insinuating it was." Kairi stated. "Do you feel okay? The others are coming to get you in a little bit."
"I'm fine." Keiichiro said. "I guess... thanks for the help."
"It wasn't like we could just leave you there."
Keiichiro simply nodded. Everyone fell back into silence. Kairi walked over to the kitchen once more. He gave looks toward his two friends.
Keiichiro didn't say anything more to them. He simply waited for pickup. Though, the three of them were quite certain he was aware that they were aware.
Eventually, Kairi had enough of the awkward tension building in the air. "So, you're trans, Kei-chan? That's interesting."
Keiichiro's eyes widened in shock, perhaps from how blunt it had been said. He didn't offer any response to what Kairi said other than a very hesitant nod. He refused to look at anyone.
"It's okay, you know. We don't care. You're you no matter what. This doesn't really change anything." Kairi continued.
"But fighting in a binder doesn't seem very wise." Tooma added.
"I know that but... I can't bring myself not to." Keiichiro mumbled. "Just... leave it at this. I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay."
"We are available if you ever do want to talk. Whenever you're ready. If ever." Kairi said.
"Yeah! You'll always be welcome here!" Umika nodded.
Even if they were technically enemies, they weren't going to turn him away like that. Especially when they were kind of friends in their civilian lives.