Disclaimer: I do not own Lupinranger vs Patranger or Super Sentai either.

The seconds on the clock continued to tick down while Sakuya Hikawa sat restlessly tapping a pen on his desk. As he continued to watch the clock in the main office of GSPO headquarters, his teammate Tsukasa Myoujin glanced up slowly from her own paperwork. She raised an eyebrow at him before they both heard the voice of the Patrangers' leader Keiichiro Asaka. Without looking up from his stack of case files, Keiichiro interjected, "Knock that off Sakuya. It's annoying."

The Green Patranger put down his pen and leaned back in his chair with a sigh, "I'm sorry Senpai but I can't take it. It's Friday afternoon and I have to get out of here!"

Tsukasa shook her head and the Pink Patranger closed the file she was working on, "Sakuya, it couldn't have been that bad of a day. It's been really quiet lately and..."

"And that's just it Senpai," the younger Patranger cut in, "I was hoping I could get out of work at a reasonable hour and enjoy the rest of the day. It just so happens I had a hot date lined up."

Keiichiro continued to do his paperwork without even paying much mind, "Oh? Is it with that Umika girl again? The one from the café?"

"No. Actually, it's someone I met on an online dating site," Sakuya answered, "Her name is Kasumi Tanaka. She works a sales job with beauty products and if her picture is anything to go by, she certainly knows her stuff. I'll have to make sure I look just as good."

Sakuya glanced at his reflection in a computer screen and smoothed back some of his feathery brown hair. Keiichiro looked up from his desk and exchanged a curious look with Tsukasa before the two older Patrangers just shrugged.

As Sakuya cleaned up his workstation for the day, he called out to Tsukasa, "What about you Senpai? Do you have any big plans this weekend? Any dates lined up too?"

The Pink Patranger stopped and frowned slightly to herself in thought, "Hmm, come to think of it... no, not really."

"Ah... well too bad," Sakuya sighed, "I was hoping if we doubled up, you could be around to help me out a little bit so I don't screw up. This girl is really pretty so I don't want to mess up tonight either."

"And what exactly were you planning to do?" Tsukasa asked curiously.

"Well, I was going to meet Kasumi at Kasai Rinkai Park. There's a little bit of an autumn festival going on there and I thought we might take a little walk and grab some dinner nearby there."

Keiichiro stopped writing his report and glanced at his subordinate, "Kasai Rinkai? You do know a few people have gone missing there recently, right?"

"Nothing the regular police can't handle," Sakuya said waving it off, "Besides, Kasumi would have nothing to worry about either. She'll be out with one of Tokyo's finest cops."

At that, the clock struck four and the Green Patranger jumped up from his desk to bolt out the door, "All right! Finally! Wish me luck guys! Have a good weekend!"

As he rushed out the door, Tsukasa watched her younger teammate go while shaking her head to herself. After a long moment of silence, she looked at the last of the work on her desk and then to the mountain of papers on the workstation of her remaining teammate. She watched Keiichiro get back to his work for a moment, oblivious to everything else around him before she cleared her throat, "Keiichiro?"

It took him a moment before he set his pen down and looked up calmly, "Tsukasa? Is something wrong?"

"As a matter of fact there is," she said scratching her chin, "It's been a quiet week with no Ganglers or Lupinrangers running amok. It's a nice Friday evening and we're still stuck here doing paperwork."

"I see," he nodded seriously, "Well... if you want, you can leave early and I'll stay to finish the rest of your reports..."

"I actually had something else in mind. Something more fun..." she answered with a laugh.

Keiichiro raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Fun? What are you taking about?"

"I was thinking we should get out of here and go on a little modified assignment," Tsukasa explained, "After all, it's our duty to look out for Sakuya, isn't it? I figure we should go keep an eye on things and find out who this new mystery woman is. Just to make sure he'll be okay."

Keiichiro knew Tsukasa often viewed Sakuya like a little brother but he gave a mild frown, "Really? Because it sounds more like you're meddling and it's probably not a good idea to poke our noses into his date. Besides, we have better things to do anyway."

Tsukasa got up from her desk and went to go put on her suit jacket over her pink blouse, "Nonsense. This a perfect opportunity. Didn't you say yourself that several people have gone missing around Kasai Rinkai? If we go, we can keep an eye out for any kidnappers there too. Think of it like we're going on a stakeout."

The Red Patranger wrinkled his features and set his paperwork down. That was an interesting proposition and framed in that way, it was hard to argue against it if they could accomplish multiple objectives at once. Tsukasa stood waiting with an expectant look before he looked up to her and set aside his work. Keiichiro straightened his red necktie and fetched his own suit jacket before giving a nod, "All right then... what are we waiting for? Let's go."

Later that day, civilians made their way around the waterfront park of Kansai Rinkai enjoying the bright clear autumn afternoon. It was sunny and cool and many people were out enjoying an autumn festival that was taking place as a few areas of the park had attractions and booths lining some of the walkways along with some vendors selling art and food. From behind the cover of some bushes and a thicket of trees, the Gangler monster Vapora Fume surveyed the area. The female monster with a crystalline body resembling a rounded glass bottle eyed several potential targets, all of them looking to be handsome affluent young men.

She smiled to herself thinking that so far her plans for becoming the next successor to the Gangler organization was going along perfectly. So far she had been having a lot of luck luring in these wealthy and influential men and it was her hope that once she had enough, the government would be willing to pay a great ransom to her or even cede some power in exchange for their lives. Of course, it also helped that at this point, she had bent these victims' wills to her own from exposure to her special powers. She glanced a small crystal bottle with a stopper that she kept on her person containing her prisoners.

Right now, she had to get ready for her next "date" and by the looks of it, she was ready to score big. One of the GSPO's very own elite agents was ready to be suckered in without him even knowing it. Vapora put away her glass bottle and produced another one resembling a perfume bottle. She sprayed it several times letting the vapors revert her to her human disguise of Kasumi Tanaka, an attractive slender young woman with dark eyes and long hair. She smoothed out her purple dress and gave a proud smile to herself before walking from the treeline to head over to the park's large ferris wheel where she was to meet her next victim. As she neared the wheel, she heard someone call out to her, "Kasumi? Kasumi Tanaka?"

She turned and saw Sakuya approaching her wearing a green collared dress shirt over some dark slacks. In his hand he carried a small bundle of flowers and wore a friendly smile. Kasumi's lips curled into a predatory grin before she softened it into a pleasant smile. This was going to be all too easy.

Some time later, Keiichiro and Tsukasa made their way through the autumn festival in the city park while keeping their distance from Sakuya who already had his arm around the young woman named Kasumi. For now, they were both laughing and seemed pretty into their date as they continued to walk and converse intently with each other. After tailing Sakuya from work, the two older detectives used their experience and police training to follow their target while blending into the crowd. Of course, it also helped that they were not wearing their GSPO duty uniforms and had opted to stay in their civilian work clothes instead. As they wove through the crowd following Sakuya and Kasumi through the crowd, Tsukasa idly looked about at the concession stands and the entertainment vendors who had been set up here and there along the treelined walkways.

"Well, so far so good. It seems things are going well and Sakuya picked a great day to go out," Tsukasa mused aloud.

"If you say so..." Keiichiro shrugged with a non-committal expression while keeping a more vigilant watch over their surroundings, "I still think this is kind of a waste of time."

"You know Keiichiro, it's okay to relax and enjoy life every once in while," his comrade said giving him a gentle elbow in the side, "Besides, we're still doing good by looking out for our friend."

"Sakuya doesn't need our help to screw up his date tonight," Keiichiro sighed patiently as he looked around for any suspicious activity, "He can manage that all on his own."

Tsukasa glared at him incredulously, "Keiichiro... sometimes I don't think you have a single romantic bone in your body, you know that?"

"That's not true," he said matter of factly, "You know me better than that. I can be romantic if I wanted to."

"What I do know is that you're already married to your job," Tsukasa teased him gently with an amused snort, "If that even counts. And are you really still looking around for kidnappers right now?"

"Umm... no?"

At that moment, they saw Sakuya lead Kasumi toward the patio of a small outdoor café at the edge of the park. They continued to laugh and hold hands, completely unaware they were being followed. Once they were seated by an attendant, Keiichiro and Tsukasa passed by the patio to take a casual look around when they were stopped by one of the café servers. The young woman who was working as a hostess gave them a bright smile, "Good evening sir and miss. Would you like to be seated too? We're offering a special couples discount on our tea and crepes tonight."

The two detectives looked at each other in surprise before Keiichiro balked, "What? Oh no no no... you've got it all wrong. We're actually..."

"We're actually very interested," Tsukasa interrupted taking Keiichiro by the arm while giving the hostess a warm smile, "That would be great. Can we take that table over there?"

She pointed over to a corner table just close enough to eavesdrop on Sakuya and Kasumi while also preventing them from spotting the two as well. The hostess gave a welcoming gesture, "Of course miss. Right this way."

"Thank you," Tsukasa said as she pulled her sputtering teammate along and cozied up beside him as they walked, "Come on now dear."

The Red Patranger acquiesced and followed along until they were seated at the table near Sakuya who was still busy with his own date. Once they sat down, they were given two cups of tea and a pair of large crepes with strawberries and whip creme to share. After the server left, Keiichiro looked to his teammate pointedly, "What was all that about?"

"Just staying focused on the objective," Tsukasa replied innocently as she pointed over to Sakuya's table and then took a nibble of the crepes, "Thanks for playing along."

Keiichiro stared incredulously at her for a moment before shaking his head and taking a sip of tea, "You know... I was starting to think all this might not actually be about Sakuya tonight, but about you."

Tsukasa stopped and looked at him in surprise as she put down her fork, "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"About what Sakuya said earlier," Keiichiro prompted her calmly, "He was bragging about having plans and going on a date tonight. I thought you might be feeling a little insecure... or maybe even jealous."

"Me? Insecure? Jealous? Give me break Keiichiro. You're completely off base," she scoffed defensively.

"Am I?" he said as he leaned back in his chair and took another sip of tea, "Maybe you just felt like you've been missing out and when he brought it up, you started feeling more self conscious about it."

The Pink Patranger pouted toward him and gave a mild huff, "All right... let's assume for one minute you might actually be a tiny bit right. Would that be wrong? I mean, with the way we've all been working lately with our cases, fighting the Ganglers, and chasing the Lupinrangers it kinda feels like we haven't had much of a life outside of work recently, don't you think?"

Keiichiro shrugged quietly and let her continue, "Is it such a bad thing to want to get out a little it and have some fun instead of wasting all my young life doing paperwork and running down criminals?"

"No... I guess not," he said idly watching Sakuya's table, "Is that an admission then that I was right?"

"I might have to give you more credit," Tsukasa sighed in resignation, "It's not often, but it's annoying whenever you're right. I'm sorry if I was a crappy friend and dragged you out here for nothing tonight."

"Forget it Tsukasa. No big deal," Keiichiro said off-handedly as he took the single fork on the plate and used it to take a piece of the crepe for himself."In a way, you're also a little right. Maybe it's not so bad if we can just relax tonight and enjoy the evening too."

As he took a bite of the food and washed it down with some tea, Tsukasa stared at him incredulously and she felt her cheeks growing warm. She pointed to the fork.

"Keiichiro... what are you doing?"

He glanced at the fork looking genuinely perplexed. Since the day they had become friends and partners at the police academy, there were often times that Tsukasa was in complete awe of how Keiichiro could be such a brilliant policeman and a competent fighter in the field, yet be so oblivious and dense at the same time. Did he not just realize he had shared an 'indirect kiss' with her by eating with the same fork?

He blinked again in confusion, "What?"

While all that was going on nearby, Sakuya leaned over the table and took his date's hands as they finished their food, "Kasumi, I've been having a great time with you tonight! Do you want to keep things going and go somewhere else after this? Maybe go dancing or hit a karaoke bar?"

Kasumi feigned a thin smile, "That sounds great. I'd love to, but could you give me just a minute to freshen up a little?"

She pulled out a small perfume bottle from her jacket pocket and held the spritzer with one hand, "I want to try my newest scent. I hope you like it."

She turned the nozzle toward Sakuya and playfully sprayed him with a sinister giggle. As the small cloud of enchanted vapors filled the air, Sakuya stopped and wore a dumbstruck expression on his face while Tsukasa stopped her outburst at the next table over when she caught a faint whiff of the spray. She wrinkled her nose in mild disgust, "Ugh! What is that? It smells horrible."

Keiichiro stopped and took a quick sniff of the air surprised that he actually smelled a pleasant floral scent instead, "Really?"

Kasumi took the dumbstruck Sakuya by the hands and said, "Now my dear... you'll do exactly as I command."

Before anyone could speak further, a red playing card sliced though the air and stuck at the edge of the table. Everyone turned to see the three vigilante Lupinrangers already suited up as they dropped from a nearby rooftop of the café and confronted the table. Civilians started to scatter in fear and confusion as Lupin Red readied his blaster pistol, "Hold it right there Gangler. You're not going anywhere!"

Keiichiro and Tsukasa nearly fell out of their seats in shock before they jumped up and tensed for a coming battle. Kasumi gave a sneer as she dropped her human disguise with a sneer, "We'll just see about that. Sakuya, your first command is to destroy the Lupinrangers!"

Before anyone else could react, Sakuya brandished his VS changer with a stone cold look in his eyes and prepared for battle against anyone who stood in the way of his new mistress. He aimed it toward his new foes and pulled the trigger.