THE LIVING SECRET

In the dimly lit corridors of the Aritsu Research Facility, Grinal and Rigaka march forward, escorting Aritsu, the former zord member, who is moving with a wheelchair, for interrogation.

Rigaka's voice breaks the silence, "Are you guys seriously doing this? And for what reason?"

Grinal turns to face Rigaka, "We are here to investigate the accident in room F5. It's no ordinary mishap; all subjects, except Akio, lost their lives. Their lives are crucial, Rigaka."

Rigaka sighs, understanding the gravity of the situation, "I know, but..."

Grinal interrupts, "The President wants answers, and we have to find them. There's something dangerous going on around the zord, and that incident might be a sign of a larger threat."

Aritsu, trying to console Rigaka, adds, "It's okay. I was a former zord member. I can handle this pressure."

They continue walking, leaving behind Sanjo, Rigaka, and Aritsu's precious but troubled son.

The weight of responsibility bears down on Grinal's shoulders. Despite knowing the hardships Aritsu is facing, he has no choice but to follow orders.

The facility is tense, and they have to get to the bottom of the incident to protect everyone else.

Inside Akio's room, a gentle knock on the door heralds the arrival of a nurse.

Akio, lost in thought, is gazing at the sky through the window.

"I hope the view is good," the nurse says softly.

Startled by the voice, Akio turns his attention to the door. "Oh, it's the nurse," he says with a small smile.

The nurse chuckles, "Yeah, it's me. I bet you don't even remember my name."

Akio hesitates for a moment, trying to recall. "Oh, sorry. Actually, I really don't recall your name properly. My bad. I think it was something like..."

"It's Shiba," the nurse interjects with a warm smile.

Akio claps his hands, "Yes, it is. Shiba, Shiba, right."

Taking a seat beside him, Shiba asks, "You're feeling good now? Physically?"

"Yeah, kinda. But I want to ask something of you. How come I can move freely just after waking up from 10 years of a paralyzed state? It's not normal, right?" Akio wonders aloud.

Shiba leans back, pondering his question. "You should know that the definition of normal for zord is not the same as for newborns. Get used to it. And, it's because of your charge. For some reason, your healing capability is top tier."

Akio's curiosity deepens, "It even healed my fatigue?"

Shiba smiles, "It did. Look, even I can't figure it out. Your charge is unique. So, I got no clue of how your charge is working. It's beyond my comprehension."

An air of resignation falls over Akio as he gazes back at the sky outside the window.

"Also, another thing I was wondering about. When I woke up, there were only corpses all around. What actually happened there? Was it because of me?"

Shiba gives an immediate response to that, "No. It was because of an accident. Don't overthink. We're in a jobline where people will die. It's not like we can save everything. Acceptance is important."

Akio gets a little shock. He remembers that he said the same thing to that stranger that night.

Akio asks desperately, "What's your age?"

Shiba responds, "Around 22. Why?"

Akio shakes his head slightly, "If my elder sister were alive, she would be at your age. You talk just like her. She was like the ideal woman."

Shiba teases him playfully, "Oh wow. Are you trying to hit on me?"

Akio chuckles, "Nope, not at all. I just became an adult. It's too early for me."

On the other hand, Aritsu is in an interrogation room. Aritsu observes his surroundings—a confined space with a single table and two chairs.

Turning his attention to the soldier in charge, Aritsu politely requests, "Could I have a glass of water, please?"

The soldier obliges and leaves the room to fetch water.

After a brief wait, the soldier returns with a glass brimming with water.

Aritsu nods his thanks, then inquires, "And where's Grinal?"

The soldier coughs and clears his throat, "He is coming. I think he is bringing the warrants and such."

Leaning on the table, Aritsu raises an eyebrow, "He doesn't have them yet?"

Soldier : "Actually, things are happening too fast. So keeping pace with that is a pretty tough job to do."

Aritsu nods in understanding, then asks politely, "Your name?"

"It's Frigha," the soldier replies.

Aritsu jests, "Frieza?"

Frigha chuckles, "No, it's Frigha."

"Okay," Aritsu says with a smile.

Just then, the door opens again, and Aritsu immediately recognizes the person who enters—it's Grinal. He walks into the room with a warm smile on his face.

The tension in the room eases a bit as Grinal greets Aritsu, "Good to see you, Aritsu."

Aritsu nods in acknowledgment, "Likewise, Grinal."

Grinal takes a seat opposite Aritsu, placing a folder on the table. "I apologize for the delay. Things have been quite chaotic."

Aritsu waves it off, "No need to apologize. I understand."

Grinal opens the folder, taking out some documents, "We have a few questions regarding the incident in room F5. Can you please cooperate with the investigation?"

"Yeah of course."

Grinal takes his seat, placing the documents carefully on the table. "Okay, so you know that my way of interrogation is pretty different."

Aritsu looks intrigued, "I actually don't know."

Grinal hesitates a bit. Aritsu's not knowing about him, kinda caught him off-guard.

"Then let me explain it. I can walk between memories. That's my charge. It means I can access your recent past memories and view them firsthand, but there's a catch."

Aritsu raises an eyebrow, "What catch?"

Grinal continues, "You need to allow my mental presence into your mind. If you resist or try to block me, it will cause a feedback loop, resulting in an unpleasant electric shock for both of us."

Aritsu ponders for a moment, "So your power comes with a toll from you? Like a Type 2?"

Grinal nods, "Yes, exactly."

Aritsu recalls someone with a similar ability, "Oh, I remember my old friend, Haiku. He had the power to walk between memories too. Now he's a higher-up, though. Always was a bit foolish."

A small smile appears on Aritsu's face, but Grinal quickly intervenes, "You can't reveal sensitive information about higher-ups like that, Aritsu. It's against the rules."

Aritsu lets out a huge laugh, "my mistake. Old age is cracking my intentions.."

Grinal is quick to correct him, "You're just 46 years old. It's not that old, to be honest."

Aritsu playfully tries to defend himself, "I don't know. Maybe my mental age grew faster than my physical age. Hehe."

Grinal sighs in jest, "Your son has a lower mental age than his physical age, and you have a higher mental age than your physical age. You two are quite the pair."

Aritsu smiles, taking it as a compliment, "You're praising us too much."

Grinal retorts, "It wasn't a compliment."

saying so, Grinal notices something. Grinal has been known aritsu for a long time. but he never saw him this happy.

"I haven't seen you this happy before."

Aritsu looks at grinal, "you think so. but you see, I got my son back. of course, i am happy. Maybe he still thinks of me as a hindrance. But I will still wait for him. i am also thinking of getting artificial legs. with zord techs, it can be done in a few hours."

Grinal: you didn't want those artificial legs before. right?

Aritsu smiles, "well, i can't show my uncool side to my son."

Seeing so, Grinal also smiles.

Aritsu: Okay we have wasted enough time, let's get you jogging in my memory.

Grinal corrects him, "it's called memory walker."

Aritsu: it's the same. Do it.

Grinal takes a deep breath, preparing himself to enter Aritsu's mind. With practiced ease, he activates his memory walker ability and seamlessly traverses the ethereal realm of memories.

Inside Aritsu's mind, Grinal finds himself within the mental cube—a structure made entirely of memories.

The reflections of these memories are like holographic images surrounding him, each containing a piece of Aritsu's recent memories.

Grinal navigates through the sea of memories, searching for the specific one he needs—the period just before Akio's transformation. Finally, he discovers the memory he seeks and gently steps into it.

The scene unfolds before him—the experiment hall, Rigaka and Arish engaged in conversation, and Akio confined within the tube. Grinal observes the bubbling liquid and the moment that changed everything.

He scrutinizes the memory, desperately seeking any clue that could shed light on the accident. But despite his keen eye, he finds nothing that explains the cause.

As Grinal prepares to leave this memory cube and return to the mental realm, he is compelled to venture into another cube—one that houses the scenes from the tube accident itself.

Inside this new cube, he watches the events unfold once more. He sees Rigaka and Arish conversing, Akio inside the tube, and the mysterious bubbles that held a terrible secret.

Grinal carefully examines every detail, hoping to unearth the truth hidden within the memories.

Frustration starts to creep in as he searches diligently for any indication of what might have caused the tragedy. But as hard as he tries, he comes up empty-handed.

Just as he is about to exit the memory cube, something unusual catches his attention—an unexpected movement in one of the other subjects within the tubes.

He pauses, fixated on the subtle motion of the left eye.

"There's no mistake. It happened," Grinal murmurs, his heart racing with shock.

Determined to validate this crucial discovery, Grinal rewinds the memory, replaying the moment again and again.

Each time, the result remains unchanged—the left eye of the subject moves with distinct intent.

"A left eye... It moved," he confirms with conviction, realizing the significance of this revelation.

Exiting Aritsu's mind, Grinal returns to the material world, his mind still reeling from the revelation. Aritsu also came back to senses as Grinal took off his mental presence out of Aritsu's brain.

Aritsu shakes his head, "Oh, that hurts a bit. To think someone was inside my brain is creepy. So, did you find anything useful, Grinal?"

Grinal is frozen, his mind is still grappling with what he just witnessed in Aritsu's memories.

Aritsu asks desperately, "What happened?"

Finally finding his voice, Grinal responds, "I saw movement from the 2nd left of the tube. But Akio was in the middle of the tube."

Aritsu's expression changes from concern to heightened curiosity, "Wait, what? Are you saying, someone other than Akio also woke up? But we didn't find any signals for that."

Rohan, another soilder who was quietly listening, interjects, "When one wakes up from the tube, we shut down the sonar system for the safety of that particular person."

"When one wakes up from the tube, We shut down the sonar system for the safety of that particular person."

Grinal's realization sets in, "So that means that if anyone else woke up, we wouldn't have known. And the explosion of the tube could have covered it up."

Frigha speaks up, "Something like this never happened before. And who would've thought that the tube itself would get blown away."

Rohan snaps his fingers, "So, that means someone awoke after Akio. And in that explosion of the tube, he died?"

Grinal is visibly shaken, "It's a big crisis. I need to check the corpses again."

Rohan confirms, "They are all taken to the morgue. We should go there."

Frigha starts searching through the documents, and suddenly he finds something of importance.

"Yeah, found it. The one on the 2nd left of the tube is Kaush."

Aritsu looks at ceiling, " "Kaush? Why does the name feel so familiar? I feel like I've heard this name somewhere in this base, from someone I know, but I just can't remember."

Suddenly, the name rings a bell within Grinal's brain. He just understands who Kaush is. It's a very familiar name for him.

A name which was buried under the secrets of the zord.

A secret that could end their entire Organization.

Grinal clutches his head, overwhelmed by a rush of memories and revelations.

In his mind, he starts talking to himself, his voice filled with a mixture of shock and realization.

"I know who he is. I know."

While they were preoccupied with the interrogation, just 20 minutes before, outside the morgue, two guards named Ila and Kila were engaged in conversation about the current situation.

Ila casually leans on the morgue door, but to their astonishment, the door opens.

It was supposed to be closed. Worried that something might be wrong, they cautiously enter the morgue to investigate.

Among the rows of corpses, Ila notices something amiss. Shocked by what he sees, he reaches out to Kila.

Ila trembles, "One is missing."

Kila is taken aback, "What do you mean?"

Ila struggles to find the words, "There's a dead body missing."

"What the actual-."

Before they can react further, they sense a presence behind them. Turning around, they come face to face with Takeshi, a member of the helping patrol.

"F*ck."

Returning to the interrogation room twenty minutes later,

everyone is perplexed by Grinal's sudden revelation.

Grinal slumps in his chair, "I thought he died in the tube accident. He is alive... Kaush, also known as Mr. Poker, he is alive. I'm relieved that he is alive, but this is going to be a significant issue if this information reaches other zord members."

Aritsu is lost in thought, repeating the name, "Kaush... Kaush... where did I hear this name from?"

A secret which could end the entire organisation.

In Grinal's mind, he realizes the connection, "It's Poker. The step-brother of the president."