Working Title - Making Sentai Hentai

Transformation
or
I am The Black Knight
or
Turning Saturday Morning into Mature Content

Summary – Mason wakes up after being attacked. His old life comes rushing back. He is a delayed reincarnate as background character in a TV show he loved as a kid where Magical Girls and Ranger Teams battled the Monster of the Week.

He wants to be more than just a forgotten side character. It only takes a moment for him to decide to take the knowledge he has of the various seasons, spin-offs, and crossovers to make his life better.

1.

I set my messenger bag on the expertly made bed and sat next to it. I had been released from the hospital earlier that morning. A driver in a nice suit had been there to pick me up and had brought me to a small mansion that appeared to be empty. Everyone I had seen so far had been staff of some sort. A chef, a driver, a maid, and the groundskeeper. They were all professional, if a bit cold to me. Judging by the family pictures on the wall I had a family. My parents were obviously successful for them to own a place like this, but it didn't look like they had been here in a while. All of the vacation photos were of the two of them with me quite clearly missing.

Two days ago, I woke up in the hospital in a fugue. Memories from my first life flooded my mind. I had been in my early thirties and had a stable job working as a graphic artist where I made most of his money drawing porn of famous characters. When I wasn't hunched over at my desk, I spent my time doing the rounds at conventions and catching up on the most recent media. The last thing I remembered was being sick and using the time to watch a few series of a show I loved as a kid. I had a soft spot for Tokusatsu. Call the teams whatever you wanted -Rangers, Riders, Sailors, Scouts, Magical Girls, or Sentai- they all held to the same formula. A color-coded team of heroes would fight against a weekly monster sent by some big bad evil guy, or BBEG for short, who usually wanted to take over the world. When not dealing with world threatening threats the team would invariably have to put up with some incompetent side-kick, some sort of bully, and balance their normal lives.

Mason was one of those bullies. Well, he was more of a background delinquent that appeared in a few episodes where his purpose was to be caught in an attack by a monster and its minions or make snide remarks to the team when they were in their civilian lives. He was a fictional character that disappeared after the first season. Written off, or simply forgotten, once things picked up.

Now, I was Mason. Did he even have a last name?

I was a fictional character in the show that I had grown up watching. This wasn't supposed to happen. Things like this were for light novels, manga, and anime. Still, it had been two days, I was still in this body and this world. From what I was able to gather from Mason's memories, this was the first episode of the first season of the fourth series.

Each series had its own theme magic, dinosaurs, knights, space police, ninjas, and many more. This version was a quasi-medieval mess with knights, wizards, and monsters inspired by mythological creatures. It ran for five seasons in which the main villain changed twice, the entire team was replaced by the last season, and there were quite a few cross-overs with other series.

This version had been one of the more successful, hitting at the right time when the original audience was now old enough to enjoy the nostalgia and the younger viewers loved the show for what it was. It also led to various video-games, comics that were fleshed out the wider lore, and a couple straight-to-streaming movies. This was also the first time they combined two shows in one setting. Royal Scouts, the female team, and the Knight Rangers, the other team, were in the same world at different locations.

I was a good-looking guy in my late teens or early twenties at most. Mason was part of multiple clubs and teams and was the classic rich-kid playing as a bad boy. I had perpetually messy blond hair, blue eyes, and was maybe five-nine. Mason could have blended in with the team if not for his overly obnoxious behavior. A couple episodes teased that he was a mysterious hero that showed up a few times before joining the main roster. The identity turned out to be a popular character from a couple of series prior, but the false leads were fun to watch.

This series didn't focus around high school, but didn't state when in the characters' lives this was. It was either before senior year in the summer between leading up to it or the few months after graduation. Most of the civilian events happened at locations in town like a community center, town square, or places like that. Thankfully, the monsters stayed roughly human size, none of them breaking ten feet in height and didn't transform into kaiju and destroy the city.

I was not going to be just some minor character that faded away into the background. To be damned sure, I wasn't going to be monster bait. There were a couple of ways to get my own set of powers depending on how expansive my new world was. If this reality connected to the attached media then there were a lot of interesting ways I could influence things. Living in the background of a world with superheroes sounded rather depressing. The various female heroes and a monster girl or two was a bonus.

It was time to break out some Google Fu.

~§~

I didn't realize how long I had been researching until one of the staff informed me that dinner was ready. My back popped, complaining that I had been hunched at the keyboard for too long. Now that I was fully aware of my surroundings I caught the scent of a wonderful meal. My body moved on autopilot, steering me through the house on muscle memory.

There was only one sitting at a large table when I arrived at the dining room. It felt odd to be in a house full of people and be so isolated. Memories of Mason's life beyond the plot were of many meals just like this. The staff treated him like a client, and they didn't make an effort beyond that. They carried out their duties and Mason had ignored them for the most part. There was no emotional connection. With this little insight I was beginning to see why the guy had acted the way he did. I wasn't going to forgive a guy who acts like an asshole just because he has a tragic backstory.

I shrugged the thoughts away, turning my focus on how to move forward. The research into the depth of the lore told me that this reality was fully connected to the comics which expanded on so much more of the world. That also meant that I could make a plan with more options.

Now that I knew where I was, I could make a better approach. There were plenty of ways to get my own powers if I wanted to massively alter the future and waste everything I knew. The more subtle approaches were few but were worth the effort.

If I wanted to mess up the timeline there was a Knights Crest, the power source of this series, hidden out in the world for a sixth Knight to discover. It was a common trope of these kind of shows to have a mysterious ally appear after a season or two. The problem with that would be that I would need to act as the sixth Knight to keep the events on track. I didn't want to be some background character, but that didn't mean I was going to fight monsters every week. Another world-altering option was to take one of the Crests that was supposed to go to the main cast. Again, that would put me front and center in whatever plot took place. Fighting the occasional monster sounded cool, but I was more inclined to pop in when I pleased.

The expanded canon gave me a few more options. There was an interstellar source of power that wasn't connected to the Knight Rangers or the Royal Scouts, the female team that had their own adventures at the same time. The problem being that I had no way to travel to other planets. That limitation actually cut off a couple more power-sources.

If I ignored the unreachable options, there were two that fit my needs. One was a Royal Scout artifact that granted powers equivalent to one of the team. It belonged to a fallen member and was placed in a memorial. The Royal Scouts had their headquarters in the 'side room' of the local museum. It was an area protected by magic that only Scouts and their allies knew. While it was the easier of the two, I didn't think I'd look good in knee-high boots and a short skirt. If I was lucky, which I wasn't going to count on, then the powered form would appear as a tuxedo. I'd save that for a back-up in case I messed up.

The best option was the Black Knights Crest. It appeared as a McGuffin in the first movie. The Crest had been lost to time, locked away as it was supposedly corrupted by dark magic. The villains for the Scouts and Rangers teamed up to find the Crest. Spoilers, toward the end of the movie the crest had to be destroyed to prevent it falling into the hands of the bad guys. The Black Knight only appeared for a matter of minutes when some random minion tried to activate the Crest. It didn't accept the poor guy and turned him to ashes after a couple of seconds. Thankfully, it was the simple fact that the Crest had protection against the villain's power. The Black Knight also appeared in a one-on-one showdown with the Red Knight. Red, the leader of the Rangers, had to enter an alternate dimension to face the original Black Knight to sacrifice the Crest to prevent it from being used by evil.

Honestly, it was a lot of wasted potential. The movie was more about having the two shows interacting, new uniforms for merch, and a reason to replace the villains. Removing the Black Knight Crest from the plot would hardly change anything. Plus, it was the easiest one to find.

I finished my meal and returned to my room. The Crest was located in a vault hidden in the mountains. It was a bit of a hike from town in the show, but I didn't have a team of editors to cut out the boring bits. The teams left the museum base, in town square, around mid-day and arrived at the cave at night. I went through my closet only to find that Mason wasn't a fan of camping or hiking.

It was time to take a trip to town.

~§~

The driver, I still had no clue what his name was, didn't speak during the drive to town. My small mansion was located on the outskirts in a rich neighborhood. The neighbors were faceless extras that appeared in various episodes as business owners, city council members, or in the mix at the many seemingly-required charity events. Only the most die-hard of fans knew their who they were. This show may have been my guilty pleasure, but I wasn't that obsessed.

He dropped me off at the main entrance to the Shopping Mall and drove away once I was out of the car. The cold detachment from the house staff was already annoying.

A new fact hit me as I stood in front of the mall. This setting wasn't at the same point in time as my original world. There were high-tech carriages pulled by mechanic horses parked next to standard cars. Holographic ads interacted with the approaching shoppers while underpaid workers handed out coupon fliers. The police wore chainmail shirts and open-faced helms. Shock batons shaped like blunted swords were attached to their belts. Their guns were crossbows that shot laser bolts. Everything had a slight 'medieval' tint to it. A Feudal Japan element was introduced in the third season after the arrival of a new villain appeared. It was a 'soft pilot' to launch a new character on their own connected series. Miku the Tech Samurai was a solo hero that fought against a reincarnated evil Shogun and his minions. She always appeared in the cross-over events.

At least the people dressed in normal clothes.

I got a few dirty looks as I entered the mall. It took me a moment to figure out why. They probably didn't have many, if any, good memories of Mason. He was an asshole to everyone and didn't even have minions like others of the same make. Now that his life was mine, I realized how talented he really was. Mason had spent a lot of time on various activities where he'd effortlessly become the best. At least until one of the Main Characters came along. They would inevitably become the best for an episode before seemingly never showing up again.

The dirty looks followed me all the way to the sporting goods store. Only the store employees didn't treat me like something they stepped in and that was because it was their job. The camping section was easy enough to find. It was also overwhelming. I had no idea there were so many products. The section alone could easily be a separate store.

"Do you need some help?" A strained voice asked.

I could recognize the Customer Service tone anywhere. The clerk was a cute young woman that braced for whatever insult I was going to throw at her. She looked familiar, another background character that popped up in different locations. It made me wonder if they were recycling the extras, or if the sheer amount of monster attacks made stable employment difficult.

"Yeah," I said checking out her name-tag. "Cheryl, I'm going on a hike. It's probably not going to be overnight, but I want to be prepared. I have no idea where I should start."

Cheryl blinked, visibly confused at my reply.

"Oh, uh," she stepped closer to the shelves. "Are you going to be using trails?"

I thought for a moment and shook my head.

"Ok," she turned her attention to my clothes and looked me over. "You're going to need hiking boots then. Those shoes will give you blisters if you're going more than a mile. A pack is a must. A good water bottle too."

"One moment," I said holding up a hand. "I'll go grab a cart."

Cheryl nodded and shifted her attention back to the shelves. The rest of the store employees watched the interaction in a confused silence. There hadn't been any yelling, insults, or temper tantrums. It had to be a first for dealing with Mason.

I returned to the aisle a moment later with the biggest cart I could find. It could easily fit a person laying out flat in the basket. Cheryl watched me approach with her brow scrunched up. She had pulled the short straw to deal with me. I had worked in retail enough times to know that dealing with customers was one of the worst parts of the job. The other being the management.

"Do you get commission?" I asked as I pulled the cart to a stop.

She sighed and nodded.

"Great," I replied. "I want the best. Not the most expensive, but the best. I'll buy everything you suggest, but I don't want junk."

Her eyes widened. For the next hour I got the best customer service I had ever received. I left with two carts worth of gear, some of it not pertaining to camping or hiking. My driver was waiting for me once I got out. He wordlessly loaded the purchases into the car before he got back in the car. The clerk had been more cordial, and she probably didn't get paid half as much as the house staff.