Shinryoku Mouthhold Regression

At noon on doomsday, the sky turned orange. Then came the Firewalker, walking on the sky over NeoTokyo, like a man striding in the heart of a ball of flame. Fearful people fled through the streets of the city as the attack sirens sounded.

The Firewalker put forth his left hand, and an NHK antenna complex vanished in a burst of fire. He put forth his right hand, and a freeway overpass was vaporized.

In Shinryoku Citadel, on the slopes of Mount Takao, Commander Matsui came stumping into the command center on his wooden pegleg. He looked out through the plate glass, at the burning man in the sky above the city. "So," said Matsui, "I see the end of the world has begun. The Lord of the Fire has arrived. We have come at last to the final battle."

The Commander turned his white-maned head. "Dr. Kanzaki, will Ryoji be able to fight?"

The Doctor said, "Ryoji is fully healed. I could've brought him up out of deep sleep this morning, if only I'd known--"

"How quickly can you awaken him?"

"Maybe fifteen minutes--"

"We may not have fifteen minutes left."

"Ten--"

"Make it five!"

"Aye, sir!" Dr. Kanzaki turned and hurried out of the command center.

Commander Matsui turned to the technicians. "Prepare the regression sequence apparatus... just in case."

"Yes, sir!" The technicians wheeled out the steel regression chair, and began attaching cables and activating the regression mainframe.

The Commander looked out at the city. The burning man was haphazardly leveling skyscrapers, one after another. "Izumi, are you getting a reading on him?"

The young woman at one of the control consoles moved her large smooth beautiful hands across the controls. She said, "Sir, I've never seen power anything like this before..."

Suddenly the swinging doors opened wide, and two young men burst into the command center. It was Daisuke, the First Shinryoku, and right behind him the Second Shinryoku, Tomomi.

Commander Matsui said to the two Shinryoku Warriors, "Men, welcome to the end of the world."

Daisuke glanced out the window like a hawk. "Is... Is it he?"

"Yes," said Matsui, "the Firewalker, the Lord of the Fire, has come at last."

"What about Ryoji?"

"Dr. Kanzaki is awakening him right now."

Tomomi interrupted, "As soon as Ryoji gets here, we've got to undergo Triad Fusion. It's our only hope!"

Outside, up in the sky, the burning man gestured, and a block of downtown NeoTokyo vanished in a flash of flame.

The Commander spoke into the com link. "Doctor, how long?"

Dr. Kanzaki's voice came over the speaker. "I've just decanted him from the tank. He can be there in maybe four minutes."

"I see." A grim Commander Matsui thought a moment, then said, "Daisuke, Tomomi, we can't wait. You've got to buy us some time, until Ryoji gets here."

"Yes, sir!" Daisuke turned and dashed out onto the balcony. He vaulted over the railing and changed in mid-air. Shinryoku transform, level four! Like a star of blinding green light, Daisuke flew into the city, toward the Firewalker.

Tomomi changed on the balcony. Shinryoku transform, level four! Like a scarlet spot of arc-welding, the Second Shinryoku streaked through the sky behind his fellow warrior.

The Lord of the Fire turned and snuffed out the green light with a gesture, almost casually. Quiet gasps went up in the command center. The Commander's jaw was clenched. "Izumi?"

"Sir, we've... we've lost the First Shinryoku..."

Dead silence filled the room. Then Matsui muttered, "Daisuke, Daisuke..."

Commander Matsui spoke into the com. "Tomomi, pull back!" But out the window, everyone could see the burning man hurling a geyser of flame at the scarlet spot of light. Tomomi dodged.

"Sir, he almost..." Tomomi's voice came through the com link. "Sir, he..." Now the burning man caught the Second Shinryoku with a glancing blast. The scarlet winked off, on, off, then...

Shinryoku transform, level five! Now the scarlet spark grew, bloomed into a blazing red rose of light. Tomomi attacked the Firewalker.

"So," said Matsui, "Tomomi has finally broken through to fifth level. Izumi, are you getting this?"

"Yes, sir."

The battle raged in the sky, back and forth. Tomomi lasted ninety seconds before the Firewalker cut him down.

"Commander," came the doctor's voice over the speaker, "Ryoji is on his way to the command center."

"Acknowledged." Commander Matsui turned to Izumi. "I'm afraid the task falls to you of breaking the news to Ryoji. Oh, and Izumi?" The old man's expression softened. "You may take a few moments to say good-bye to Ryoji. But only a few moments."

Izumi was already on her way through the swinging doors and down the corridor to the lab. She met Ryoji halfway down the corridor.

As Ryoji rounded the corner, he saw Izumi running toward him. There were tears glistening on her cheeks. Before he could react, she caught him, got behind him, pulled him back up against her. Izumi's large smooth lovely hands came around from behind and locked together tight over his mouth. She clamped her warm soft powerful hands over Ryoji's mouth so extremely tight, that he couldn't open his mouth or say a word.

Izumi leaned back against the wall, holding Ryoji's mouth. She said, "Ryoji, love, just listen. We don't have much time left. The Lord of the Fire has come. He's leveling the city. The Commander sent out Daisuke and Tomomi to hold him off. And..."

There was a catch in her voice. "Ryoji... oh, Ryoji... Daisuke and Tomomi have fallen in battle."

Ryoji suddenly felt dull and empty. His only comfort was the tightsqueezing warmth of Izumi's strong beautiful hands locked so hard and tight over his mouth. "Mmmmmmmhhhh... MMMMMMMMHHH!!!"

Izumi took her hands away so Ryoji could speak: "No hope of a Triad Fusion now... Izumi, I've got to transform to fifth level again, and fight. I've got--mmmmmmmmpphhh!"

Izumi clamped her large beautiful hands back over Ryoji's mouth. "No, Ryoji, listen. This may be the last time I ever get to hold your mouth. Tomomi went to fifth level."

"MMMMMHH -- mmmm'mmmmmm???!!"

"He lasted less than two minutes against the Firewalker."

Silence. Izumi gripped her hands even tighter over Ryoji's mouth before she finally let him go. "Ryoji... I will always love you..."

"And I will always love you, Izumi-chan..." Ryoji didn't want her to stop "mouthholding" him, it had always been their special little secret. He wished she could keep holding his mouth forever. But... "But I've got to go now. And fight."

Izumi gave Ryoji's mouth a final quick tearful squeeze. Then the two of them hurried back down the corridor to the command center.

Ryoji said to the Commander, "Sir, you've got to let me go out there and fight the Firewalker!" Through the plate glass, the burning man could be seen in the sky, plowing flaming swaths back and forth through the heart of the city.

"Out of the question. Believe me, you can't take him, not even at fifth level. We would only lose the Third Shinryoku. And where would we be then?"

"But sir..."

Commander Matsui turned to the technicians. "Is the regression sequence ready?"

"Yes sir, the regression sequence apparatus is ready and on standby."

"Commander," said Ryoji, "you can't really mean to use the regression sequence!"

"I'm afraid we have no other options left. Ah, Doctor," the Commander called over Ryoji's shoulder. Ryoji turned to see that Dr. Kanzaki had returned to the command center. "Doctor, you will prepare the Third Shinryoku to undergo the regression sequence."

Already Dr. Kanzaki was gesturing to the technicians, who began attaching cables to Ryoji's ankles and wrists, an electronic headband to his scalp. Ryoji objected, "Commander, if I undergo the regression sequence, we're talking about rewriting the entire course of history!"

"If you don't undergo the regression sequence, this is the end of the world."

Dr. Kanzaki inspected the cable connections. "Now, Ryoji, you know the drill. The regression sequence will be powered by diverting the energy of your transforms. But in order to run the sequence successfully, you must reach deep within yourself. You must reach deep within, and use the key that unlocks the heart of your soul. You alone know that key."

Suddenly Ryoji could feel his cheeks burning. He couldn't -- not right in front of everyone here in the command center! Mouthholding had always been Ryoji and Izumi's precious secret, their private little thing that they did alone together. But with the fate of the world resting on his shoulders...

As Ryoji looked up, his eyes caught Izumi's, and he could see that she too was blushing. But he could also see that she too knew what had to be done.

Izumi silently stooped and stepped underneath the cables attached to Ryoji's body. She sat down in the steel regression chair. Ryoji glanced in her eyes one last time. A gentle smile played on her lips. Then Ryoji turned and sat down on Izumi's lap.

He sat there on her lap in the regression chair, as she reached around and fastened her huge smooth strong hands over his mouth. She clamped her hands over his mouth so hard and tight that his lower face went blindingly icy white hot. Ryoji, unable to speak, glanced at the others in the command center as Izumi "mouthheld" him on the chair. Their faces were unreadable, except for the Commander's: the old man wore a kindly, knowing, almost fatherly expression.

Commander Matsui said, "Initiate the regression sequence!"

Dr. Kanzaki said, "Regression mainframe is operational, all systems are go. Ryoji, you may begin the sequence."

With the strong comforting powerful sensation of Izumi's hands clamped oh so tight over his mouth, Ryoji focused himself. Shinryoku transform, level one!

Power flowed through his body. The warm electric thrill of Izumi's mouthhold mixed and mingled with the power of transformation. In a sudden shock of light and darkness, Ryoji's world dropped away from him, and everything became to him less than what a man sees behind the back of his head...


Ryoji found himself lying on his side in the darkness. He opened his eyes, and propped himself up on one elbow. A faint moonlight diffused through the room. He was back home at the apartment. He put his hand up to his face, and discovered that he now had a mustache.

A mustache? But that must mean... that must mean that this is now at least two years ago!

Ryoji realized that he had regressed back at least two years into the past. Back to the days when he and the others first became test subjects in Dr. Kanzaki's biophysics experiments. Back to the days when he first became a Shinryoku Warrior.

Ryoji lay there, halfway sitting up in the dark. Then behind him he heard someone shifting and moving. Izumi! She snuggled up against Ryoji from behind, all warm and soft. She reached around from behind, and placed her warm soft hand over his mouth. And then Izumi clamped her big warm strong hand hard and tight over Ryoji's mouth.

"Mmmmmmmmmmhhh..." A little shudder of pleasure went up Ryoji's spine as Izumi silently mouthheld him in the dark. A warm, tingly feeling filled his frame. Yes, Izumi knew how much Ryoji loved it when she held her hand over his mouth like this!

For a moment, a temptation stole over Ryoji. Why not relive these last two years together with Izumi? Why not relive those days when he first became a Shinryoku and went forth to do battle with the elementals, and then with the Lords of the Elements themselves? Things could end differently this time, and in the meanwhile he could relive once more the joy he and Izumi had known together...

Now, in the darkness, Izumi made an insistent little noise down in her throat, and squeezed her warm strong hand even harder over Ryoji's mouth. Ryoji had only moments to arrive at a decision, before this developed into something more than just mouthholding in the dark.

Ryoji made his decision: the fate of the world hung on his completing the mouthhold regression sequence. Ryoji focused his mind inward. Shinryoku transform, level two!

The warm firm pleasure of Izumi's mouthhold met and mingled with the pale moonlight in the darkness, as once more Ryoji's world fell away from him...


This time, Ryoji found himself standing out in the kitchen of an unfamiliar apartment. It was broad daylight. From the living room, he heard the sound of laughter and conversation, and music playing over it all: "When logic... and proportion... have fallen sloppy dead, and the White Knight is talking backwards, and the Red Queen's 'off with her head!'..."

As Ryoji turned to walk into the next room, he looked down and saw that he was wearing bell bottom blue jeans, and a tie-dye T-shirt in a rainbow of colors.

Ryoji entered the living room. Old wicker furniture, wicker chairs and a wicker sofa. Bookcases. A cable spool turned on its side as a coffee table. Ferns and other plants here and there around the room. The air was thick with smoke.

There were maybe eight or ten people there in the room, including Izumi, who was sitting at the end of the sofa, near the picture window. They were all dressed in the fashions of the late 1960s. The stereo blared. The acrid smoke burned in Ryoji's nostrils. One of the young men turned around. It was Daisuke.

"Hey, man!" Daisuke gave Ryoji a friendly punch in the shoulder. "You gonna party with us? Far out!" Ryoji gave Daisuke a friendly smile, and stepped past him toward the large window. Ryoji looked out the window. It was a port city -- sun out over the ocean in the afternoon, call it west coast. American? Could this be San Francisco? Ryoji had evidently regressed back in time to the era of the Sixties.

He glanced down at Izumi, sitting there on the sofa. She glanced back up at him and smiled. Then, without a word, Izumi reached up and took Ryoji by the arm. He turned and sat down beside her.

Another song came on the stereo: "When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars..." Izumi reached her right arm around back behind Ryoji's head. Then her hand closed over his mouth, and she clamped down hard and tight. Ryoji twisted his head and went, "Mmmmmmmmhh, mmmmm hhhmmmmm!" But Izumi wouldn't let him go. Her large smooth womanly hand stayed fixed firmly in place over his mouth.

"This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, Age of Aquarius... Aquarius... Aquarius..." Izumi sat there mouthholding Ryoji on the sofa, as the music swelled in the smoke-filled room. Oh, how tight she was holding her hand over his mouth! Over by the window, Ryoji saw Tomomi wearing a Nehru jacket and chatting with a young woman Ryoji didn't recognize.

Nobody else in the room seemed to be noticing the strange way Izumi was keeping Ryoji shut up, with her hand glued over his mouth right out in public. Oh, it felt so good to be sitting here, getting mouthheld! If Ryoji abandoned the regression sequence, he and Izumi could grow old together, perhaps even live out their lives before the coming of doomsday.

But no... Ryoji tried to get up, and in response Izumi playfully reeled him back into place, her hand now gripped even harder and tighter over his mouth. She wouldn't let him go, and she wouldn't stop holding his mouth. No, now she kept on mouthholding him even tighter than before, so tight that Ryoji couldn't even move his jaw.

"Mmmmmmmmhh!!" Ryoji just loved it when Izumi kept his mouth held shut so tight like this! But he turned his thoughts inward, into the depths of his mind. Shinryoku transform, level three!

In a daze of smoke and loud music and afternoon sunlight, the tight warm intensity of Izumi's mouthhold clashed with inward light and darkness, and Ryoji turned on, tuned in, and dropped out into the void...


Now bells tinkled in the breeze. Ryoji looked. A few hundred meters ahead stood a Buddhist temple. Ryoji recognized it: the Sensoji temple, the oldest in Tokyo. But the Nitemmon Gate, which dated from 1618, was not yet built. By now, he must have regressed back several centuries into the past.

Ryoji turned and saw Izumi, dressed in a kimono, seated on a low bench, back among some trees by the side of the pathway. He stepped over toward her and smiled. "Are you tired?"

"We've come a long way," she said. "Let's rest before we go on to the temple."

Ryoji sat down beside her on the bench.

Izumi turned coyly away. "Silly, I thought maybe you wanted me to hold your mouth!"

"All right!" Ryoji chuckled. "Go ahead, put your hand over my mouth!" He took Izumi's smooth warm hand and lifted it toward his face. She giggled. Then Izumi reached up and clamped her hand in place, extremely tight. Ryoji had trouble even breathing, with her hand over his mouth and nose so hard and tight.

"You're so funny," said Izumi. "Why do you like it so much when I hold your mouth like this?"

Unable to reply, Ryoji could only go, "Mmmmmmmmhh!!!" Then, with a mounting sense of determination, Ryoji focused on the depths of his soul, as Izumi sat there mouthholding him, somewhere in Japan's ancient past. Ryoji focused past the powerful sensation of Izumi's hand clamped tight over his mouth, and... Shinryoku transform, level four!

The glories of ancient Japan melded with the glory of Izumi's mouthhold; the weight of centuries dropped away from Ryoji like a cloak falling away from a man's shoulders. Ryoji dropped into the darkness...


Now outside the tent, the cold winds howled and tore across the snow-covered tundra. Ryoji huddled with the other members of the clan around the fire which burned at the center of the tent. Smoke wafted up and out through the hole in the middle of the tent's roof.

Today's hunt had been a success. Ryoji and the other men had brought down a wooly mammoth, luring it into a pit and then finishing it off with their spears. Now Izumi and the other women were slowly roasting mammoth meat over the fire.

Ryoji glanced around in the dim light of the tent. He caught the eyes of Daisuke and Tomomi. The men were blood brothers. They had been successful together in the hunt. They would eat well tonight. Life was good.

Izumi stepped back from the fire, and busied herself on some nameless task over toward one wall of the tent. She was dressed in animal hides.

Ryoji realized that this time, he had regressed back many thousands of years into the far distant past. Fifteen, twenty, thirty thousand years? There was no way of telling. Apparently it was the Ice Age, and here he and Izumi were, part of a nomadic band which wandered the icy expanses of eastern Asia.

Ryoji silently stepped over next to Izumi. He looked into her eyes, and immediately she gave him a conspiratorial smile. While the others huddled together around the fire in the middle of the tent, Ryoji turned his back to Izumi and cuddled up against her. She reached around and placed her hands over his mouth, one hand over the other hand over his mouth.

Then she clamped her large warm strong hands in place hard and tight. And the two of them crouched together, over by the wall of the tent, Izumi mouthholding Ryoji with a savage strength. He allowed himself to luxuriate for a moment in the wondrous beautiful overpowering sensation of her hands clamped so hard over his mouth. Then Ryoji focused his mind in a supreme effort of serene concentration. Shinryoku transform, level five!

Bright firelight, and odor of roasting mammoth, and howling wind, and warm tight mouthhold, all flowed together and were one, as Ryoji shot backward across the eons of time, like a flung stone skipping across the surface of a pond.


Skip!

Ryoji was on the veldt, beneath a hot, bright equatorial sun. Animals like gazelles sprang from the brush and dashed away. He turned and looked, this way and that, for the sight of a predator. His nostrils sniffed the breeze. He smelled nothing other than the musky odor of his mate, Izumi.

Now Izumi approached him from behind. She reached around and locked her hands tight over his mouth, squeezing his face so violently, oh, so tight!

Ryoji noticed that he was wearing nothing. He also noticed that Izumi's hands were... hairy. But so was his face, as she mouthheld him beneath the harsh African sun.

Skip!

Something like a gigantic rhinoceros, but hornless, with twin rows of knobs up and down its snout, crashed through the forest into the clearing. Ryoji seemed to be smaller and shorter. With small slight surprisingly strong arms, not unlike the arms of a gibbon, Izumi seized him and pulled him back protectively into the brush, with her hand clamped over his mouth extremely tight.

Skip!

Hot, humid, oppressive jungle. An ankylosaurus grazed maybe fifty meters away. Ryoji's mind was filled with vague primary colors of fear, hunger, caution. Izumi slid up against him from behind, tried to wrap a clawed forelimb across his scaly mouth. She hissed as she pulled his mouth shut tight.

Skip!

Deep in primordial seas, Ryoji squirmed and flexed as a school of primitive fish shot by, out of reach. Izumi floated behind him in the salt water. She wrapped her tentacles over his mouth and squeezed him tight.

Skip!

Gasses spinning, forming with age-long slowness into stars. Pressure of light from an earlier generation of stars. Ryoji is the silent nebula, Izumi is the silencing starlight pressing in upon him.

Skip!

Now the blinding silent flash of light, but running backwards like a movie in reverse, running back toward the initial tight crunch of the Big Bang. Unimaginable tightness! Inconceivable tightness! All running silently backwards, the mouthhold regression sequence now shooting back fifteen billion years to the impossible silenced cosmic tightness of the monobloc.

Skip--°


As if in a dream, Ryoji found himself wandering in a garden, in the dim light of earliest dawn. He was walking in a maze of tall, manicured hedges. Now he turned the corner, and he saw what sat at the heart of the labyrinth. Ryoji's heart began pounding uncontrollably.

For at the center of the garden maze was a throne carved of granite. And on the throne sat... Izumi! But not Izumi as Ryoji had ever seen her, no. This was Izumi as if in a dream, dressed in a rich gold-trimmed robe, her hair done up beneath a bejeweled diadem -- as if she was a goddess, surveying the world before it began.

"As if" she was a goddess? Ryoji wondered to himself what "as if" might mean, now that he had followed out the regression sequence back beyond the remotest of beginnings.

Izumi gazed upon Ryoji, and with blood-red lips she gave him a crooked smile. "Ryoji, come here... I know what you want!"

Ryoji's mouth was so dry, he couldn't speak. He could only stumble forward toward Izumi, dizzy, as if he was in a trance. As soon as he got up near her, she reached out and took him by the arm, and pulled him onto her lap.

Now Izumi's large smooth sexy hands fastened over Ryoji's mouth. She clamped her hands hard and tight, impossibly tight over his mouth -- tighter than Ryoji had ever dreamed possible! His mouth, his lower face, vanished into a blue-hot blaze of unbearable tightness. Ryoji's consciousness was swimming. He almost thought he was going to pass out from the unendurable intensity of Izumi's mouthhold.

"Mmmmm'mmmmhhhmmm..." He strained to form words, but he couldn't. "Mmmmmmmhh, mmmmm mmmm hhhmm mmm MMMMMMHH!! MMMMMMMMHHH!!"

From behind his neck he heard Izumi chuckling. "No, no, love. I'm not going to let you go. I'm never going to let you go!"

"Mmmmmmmhh, HHHHMMMM!!!" Ryoji twisted and turned his head against Izumi's mouthhold. But she wouldn't let him go! He reached up and started pulling and prying on Izumi's arms and hands, oh her beautiful hands clamped so impossibly tight over his mouth! But it was utterly in vain. Somehow Izumi was so strong that Ryoji couldn't budge her unbreakable mouthhold in the slightest, not even struggling against her with all his strength. It was as if Izumi was carved from the same hard granite as the throne on which she sat!

Izumi clamped her hands over Ryoji's mouth even harder and tighter. "Ryoji, love, I'm never going to let you get away -- no matter how hard you struggle, no matter how you make noises and gesture at me to let you go. No, I'm just going to sit here and keep mouthholding you forever!"

Izumi lowered her voice and crooned into Ryoji's ear, "Mouth held oh so tight, can't speak a word, held prisoner on my lap forever! That's what you've always wanted, isn't it?"

"MMMMMMHHHH!!! HHHMMMM, MMMMMM!!!"

"You can't talk any more, but I know what you're wondering: 'Izumi... is that really you?'" A throaty snarl: "It's the Izumi you've always hungered for!" She squeezed her huge smooth hands over his mouth even tighter yet.

Now, swimming in the silenced tightness of her stupefying ultra-mouthhold, Ryoji realized that this was what he had always hungered for... and now it could be his forever... Izumi's hands gagging his mouth tight forever, imprisoned on a stone throne in the perpetual grey dawn before the beginning of the world...

No!!!

Time now to complete the mouthhold regression sequence. Deep within himself, Ryoji let go. He ceased grasping. He let go of everything; he let go even of his heart's deepest desire. Effortless and limpid he turned inward, tranquil as never before. Shinryoku transform, level six!

The blue light of transformation merged with the silent blazing tightness of Izumi's eternal mouthhold, and light exploded forth from impossible tightness as the world began...


Ryoji coughed as the last of the rebreather fluid poured from his lungs. He blinked his eyes and tried to focus.

He heard Dr. Kanzaki's voice: "There, Ryoji, you're doing fine. Just take a minute to rest. You're fully healed. So I thought I'd bring you up out of deep sleep this morning..."

Now Ryoji managed to make out the hands on the wall clock. It was about... quarter to noon.

Ryoji climbed over the lip of the sleep tank, and he set his bare feet down on the floor. He took the proffered towel from the Doctor.

Ten minutes later, Ryoji was fully dressed and on his way down the corridor. Five minutes left until the end of the world...

He ran into Izumi, on her way to begin her shift in the command center. He pulled her aside into a doorway, then turned his back and leaned back against her. Izumi read the signal: she reached up from behind and clamped her warm smooth hand over his mouth, hard and tight.

"Mmmmmmmmmhhh... mmmmmmmmhhh..."

"Silly," said Izumi, "why do you like it so much when I hold your mouth?" She slid her hand away from his mouth, and stroked his cheek.

"I don't know," said Ryoji, "but I do know this: Izumi-chan, I'll always love you!"

"Well! And I'll always love you, Ryoji!" She pressed her hand over his mouth for a second again. "What the hell's gotten into you, anyhow?!"

He just chuckled. They walked together the rest of the way to the command center.

Izumi sat down and took her post at her console. Ryoji looked out the plate glass at the city, then he glanced at the time. Any moment now...

The sky suddenly turned a lurid orange. And there, walking on the sky...

The alarm sounded within Shinryoku Citadel. Ryoji turned to see Commander Matsui stumping into the command center on his wooden pegleg.

"So," said Matsui, "I see the Lord of the Fire has arrived."

The Commander turned to the technicians. "Prepare the regression sequence apparatus... just in case."

"Aye, sir!" The technicians wheeled out the steel regression chair...

The swinging doors swung wide, as Daisuke and Tomomi burst into the command center. Matsui turned his white-maned head toward the three Shinryoku Warriors. "Daisuke, Tomomi, Ryoji... welcome to the final battle."

Daisuke peered out the window, at the burning man in the sky. "Is... Is it he?"

"Yes," said Matsui, "the Firewalker, the Lord of the Fire, has come at last. And so the end of the world has begun. Men, we're counting on you... to deliver us from doomsday."

Daisuke, ever the impetuous one, was already out on the balcony. He vaulted over the railing, changing in mid-air. Shinryoku transform, level four! In a blaze of green light, he rose into the sky.

Tomomi changed out on the balcony. Shinryoku transform, level four! A spot of scarlet arc-welding, he rose up after his fellow warrior.

Ryoji glanced back into Izumi's eyes one last time. A gentle smile played on her lips. Then, without even touching the railing, Ryoji somersaulted off the balcony into thin air. Shinryoku transform, level six! His aura burned bright blue, then unfolded like a shining rose of blue light, then unfolded yet again like the blinding blue Eye of God.

Back in the command center, Commander Matsui said, "What the... Ryoji has somehow broken through to sixth level! Izumi, are you getting this?"

"Yes, sir."

Ryoji joined his two fellow warriors up in the air above Mount Takao. "Are you ready?"

Tomomi said, "Ready!"

Daisuke said, "Let's do it!"

They all focused together. Shinryoku meta-transform, Triad Fusion! And the three lights, green and red and blinding blue, merged together into a single giant warrior of white light.

The sky over NeoTokyo exploded, as their first blow staggered the Lord of the Fire. The final battle had begun.