Author's Note: This fic happens to be one of the longest projects that pikachucranstongirl and I have actually gotten written down so far. It was formerly titled The Pink Leopard's Call but then we realized that it didn't quite fit as well as the new title. We've been working together on storylines since we met, but only now have we actually found a fic where both of us are interested in writing at the same time... This is based off of DJ Rocca's Nikutai no Kizuna The Ties That Bind and we do have her permission to write and post this. Also you might want to keep in mind that we started writing this before we found out that Disney had indeed given Casey a last name. In this fic, we gave Casey the last name Lindhart. We would change it to what Disney has it as, but we like Lindhart better than Rhodes... We both hope you enjoy reading this and that you will review. Thank You!
Disclaimer: Neither I, my co-writer, nor our inspirations own Power Rangers or Super Sentai. We're all just average people with a lot of crazy ideas running through our deranged heads. It would be ridiculous to even try to sue anyone over a fanfic that makes us absolutely no money. We used several sources to help us write this.
Pairings mentioned are as follows: Casey/OC, Lily/RJ (If you can't stand OC's we beg you to give this fic a chance. We hate Mary Sues as much as the next person, or at least I do... I dunno about Pika... Just give it a chance. If you don't like it, just be glad we cannot charge you money to allow you to read this.)
Forgotten Past
Chapter 1: Fading Hope
Nightfall rapidly approached the City of Ocean Bluff, a light pink tinge painting the western horizon. RJ let out a great big sigh, turning from the sight to focus on the waxing moon just to the northeast. Despite everything, Dai Shi was getting stronger at a much faster rate than the whole ranger team, himself included, could keep up with. They were starting to get drastic and RJ could only think of one former student of his that he would not only want to have on the team, but would also increase the probability of finally defeating Dai Shi and every evil entity they'd not been able to get rid of thus far. He'd already built the Pink Solar Morpher with her in mind. He only hoped that she would accept his offer and that she would be accepted by the rest of the team. 'Maybe things will be more balanced around here.' he thought, his lips twisting slightly into a small smile. Things had certainly been stressful as of late and the entire team was experiencing the symptoms of the previously mentioned stress. Especially the red ranger, whom he had witnessed tossing and turning in his hammock on several occasions.
At the same moment in time, two young women dressed in the customary, washed out blue and black Pai Zhuq uniforms lumbered into their shared room, dropping the books in their hands haphazardly onto their matching beds. The first, a young woman of Japanese descent, with long black hair held in a loose ponytail, opened the sole window to their room, sighing as a lukewarm breeze filtered into the sparsely decorated room.
"There, much better." she murmured; She let the soft breeze caress her lightly sun-kissed skin as she gracefully pulled the tie from her hair, letting her silky jet black locks cascade down her back. She stretched her arms out, stifling a yawn as she let herself fall back onto her bed.
"Don't you dare think about falling asleep on me, Jasmine. You promised you'd stay up with me and that we'd help each-other study. I don't want us to be the only ones who don't know what our animal spirits mean when it comes down to a romantic relationship." the second young woman looked plaintively at Jasmine, pulling at a lock of her own slightly curly golden locks. "C'mon, get up, Jaz." She said, standing and pulling at her roommate's hand.
Jet-black orbs snapped open to stare in annoyance at her companion before snorting as she sat up.
"Anna, it's one in a thousand chance that any of us will actually find our intended mate, let alone bond with them. I don't even know why they force us to learn this anyway." Jasmine stated with a sigh of exasperation as she opened a large tome to a page she'd marked towards the end of the book.
"Jazzy, I thought you'd care more, I mean, considering who your parents are..."
"Leave my parents out of this." Jasmine whispered softly. It was a command, not a request, despite the method of delivery.
"Okay..." Anna said, biting her lip. "I didn't mean to upset you... Let's just study already. I don't want to wind up in trouble with Master Brandison. What was it she said about the wolf?"
"She didn't say anything about the wolf. She avoided the entire portion." replied Jasmine as she smirked at the surprised expression of her friend.
"Oh, I must have been asleep!" Anna groaned, clasping her hand to her forehead.
"Day-dreaming is more like it. If only RJ was still here..." Jasmine mused. "I can just imagine the blush that would creep over his face on the section about the wolf spirit." She sighed forlornly as she thought back to her previous Master. Despite the fact that he was genuinely uncomfortable with the formal address of Master when most of the students weren't much younger than he was, RJ Finn had been a terrific Master to those few students he had taught while at the Academy. Jasmine had been one of them and she likened him to be the caring big brother she'd not had as a child. No, her Elder Brothers, the twins, were both inherently annoying and neat freaks to a fault. "Anyway..." Jasmine continued. "The Wolf Spirit is monogamous, taking only one mate with which they are bonded for life. A Wolf makes for a very protective, yet creative mate." The rest of the piece on the Wolf Spirit went into detail about it's compatibility with other Animal Spirits.
The silence that followed as Jasmine jotted the finer details in her notebook was penetrated by a snort emitting from Anna.
"One mate, yeah, right, in a perfect world maybe." the blond girl retorted. "We all know RJ's bonded to someone other than his first mate and you and I know who that is." Anna continued, rolling her eyes.
"True. You read the next part, Anna." Jasmine said with a yawn, not wanting to get Anna rilled up.
"Okay, that would be the Tiger... Um..." Anna began. 'Tiger...' The thought flitted through her mind, bringing along with it a face as well as several memories attached to said face.
Jasmine remembered rather clearly the circumstances in which her Father had taken on his first student. It was a boy about the same age as her brothers, though he was nothing like they were. Whereas her brothers were pretty much your average Japanese eight year olds, this boy was different. He was what some people called a Gaijin, an outsider. Her mother knew his mother, and had offered to watch him while his parents were away for a few days, avoiding the need to pull him out of school and drag him along wherever they were going.
At first, Jasmine only stared at the boy, watching as he awkwardly interacted with her brothers. He was uncomfortable and judging from her brothers' reactions, he was a relatively new student at their school anyway. As strange as it was, she longed to touch his dark brown hair; To pet it as though he were some sort of pet cat. The first time she looked into his golden brown eyes, she knew that she never wanted him to leave. She immediately took to following him around, a rather easy feat as the skinny boy tended to enjoy her quiet company.
He slept in her room that night as the boy had admitted to a fear of the dark, and she had a night-light, unlike her brothers who had never needed such a thing, nor would they keep a light on. She had later woken in the pitch black room to the sounds of her very scared roommate. He'd had a nightmare. When she'd called for her father, the boy had done something strange. He'd growled like a tiger cub at the presence of her father in fear as the light was turned on, revealing for a very short moment the face of the tiger overlaying his own. The boy had the animal spirit of the tiger.
When morning had arrived, Jasmine had come into the dining area to see her new companion sitting next to her father looking very nervous. Her father had a wide grin on his face. He was going to train the boy in the way of the Tiger. She doubted that the boy even remembered what had happened during the night, but now she had a nickname for him. Tora-chan. He was her Tiger. She never called him by anything other than Tora or when around anyone who might chide her for not using the proper address, Tora-chan.
She had quickly learned that while her Tora-chan looked like a pushover, that he had a protective streak the size of Tokyo Tower. He would defend the younger kids in school and if anyone dared to threaten her, he was ready to throw a few well placed punches in retaliation. He always seemed to know exactly the right thing to say, be it a comforting word, or an insult to someone whom had done something to upset him.
Her close friendship to him was only enforced by an incident when they had been on a school field trip to the zoo and had somehow managed to get separated from the rest of the group. She'd been terrified and while Tora had been on the verge of panic himself, he had gotten them safely back to their group. He had also been the reason that she had discovered her talent for healing.
One lazy Saturday afternoon they had been roller-blading in the park down the street from her home. She wasn't quite sure if it was the speed or if it was something else, but her Tora-chan had tripped over something, causing him to lose control and slam into an oak tree hard enough to knock several acorns down. He had fallen in a crumpled heap at the foot of tree, completely unconscious. She had fallen to her knees at his side in mere seconds, not caring that she scraped her knees on the rough tree roots as she eyed the large bump that was rapidly forming on his head. She had been terrified at first, that her Tora was going to leave her. In later years she would muse that the terrifying experience had been the main trigger for the faint pink glow that emitted from her hands as she had slightly touched near the bump on her Tora-chan's head and that he was the only person she could use it on with ease. Anyone else took intense concentration and even then that didn't guarantee success, even with the training she'd gotten from her mother.
Their close-knit friendship lasted for three years, when he had abruptly moved away, out of Japan, and eventually out of her life forever. They had promised each-other that they would correspond through letters. Her Tora-chan wrote her a total of two letters and one postcard before they stopped coming completely. She sent a total of fifty letters before she truly gave up. Wherever her Tora-chan had ended up, he must have forgotten her completely.
"Jasmine... Woohoo, Jasmine? Earth to Jasmine, come in Jasmine!" Jasmine was vaguely aware of a pair of arms waving in front of her face as she jumped slightly at the voice rousing her from her reverie.
"What?" Jasmine quirked an eyebrow at Anna.
"Jas, you totally spaced on me. You better not be having a Zen moment or else I'll kill you." Anna threatened, though her tone was light and joking.
"I was just thinking about something..." Jasmine muttered under her breath. "You wouldn't understand... What did you say while I was spacing out?" she asked, attempting to change the subject. Anna only rolled her eyes, not seeming to press the issue.
"I was reading about the Tiger..." Anna informed her, annoyance laced in her voice as she twirled a finger through a lock of her golden hair.
"Well... Would you mind reading it again, Anna?" she queried, her eyes pleading with Anna to do so. "Purdy-please with ice cream and bananas on top?" she let her lower lip slide up as she did her best attempt at a puppy-dog face.
"Fine, but you owe me, Jasmine Kandou." Anna said with a teasing glare at Jasmine. "Basically what it says here is that the Tiger is pretty much the feline equivalent of the Wolf, well except that while they usually mate for life, they are also known for being a key component in many Triads. Their protective instincts are increased tenfold if their mate is threatened by another. They can be downright possessive at times as well as infinitely passionate. They are quite open with showing their affection for their mate." Anna finished her summary of the short paragraph with a sigh. "You'd think they could make these texts more exciting or at the very least more specific. I mean jeez, what the hell are Tiger Spirits supposed to be so passionate about?"
Jasmine smirked at her clueless friend, a wild glint in her onyx eyes.
"They mean in bed, sexually... Just like the creative bit about the Wolf..." Jasmine explained, a dark blush rising up into her face. Even the Pai Zhuq weren't the type to be at all open about sexual matters.
"You're kidding. I never would have caught that." Anna said looking up from her books. "Jas, you have such a dirty mind.
"I'll tell you now that there are a heck of a lot of sexual references in a lot of our assigned reading. It takes a well trained mind to catch them, Anna." Jasmine said with a gasp at her friend's accusation. "And I do not have a dirty mind. I'll tell you who has a dirty mind, though. All those girls who started chasing after Master RJ the moment things fell through between him and Master Brandison. Granted they were older than us, but still it was enough to make RJ leave the Academy. I miss him you know. He was a good, understanding, caring Master, even if he was quirky enough to give my Father a run for his money in oddness."
"Yeah, it completely blows. I mean, he was quite possibly the coolest Master this Academy has seen in a long, long time." Anna agreed. "It really is a pity he left. It was refreshing seeing a Master hanging around who didn't have any gray hairs." The joking comment made Jasmine fall back, an intense bout of laughter overcoming her.
"I'll..." she giggled finally, her laughing fit coming to an end. "have to tell him that if I ever see him again." she said, grinning. "I'm sure he'll be glad to know you thought he was cool and that his youthful form was a refreshing sight for you."
"You ever tell him that and you will wish that you had never met me." Anna warned, though it was just a playful threat. "I would hate to see his face if someone ever did tell him. He'd probably blush like a little girl."
"Would not." Jasmine countered, narrowing her eyes defensively.
"You wanna bet on it?" Anna offered, pulling her wallet out from the end table drawer.
"I'm not betting against you on something so silly, Anna." A huge yawn escaped her soft pink lips. "We should probably study the rest in the morning or something. I'm getting really tired."
"Yeah, okay... I'm tired too. Might as well learn the stuff when we're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed." Anna murmured, carelessly shoving the books on her own bed to the floor before getting up to change into a white silky pair of pajamas. Jasmine was more careful, stacking her books on top of each other and setting them on the desk by their window before turning to get a pair of her own pink pajamas and going into their attached bathroom for a shower.
She had taken a while in the shower. Long enough that Anna had already fallen asleep quite a while before Jasmine emerged from the bathroom, shutting off both the bathroom light and the light to their room, leaving only the small night-light she'd brought from home with her in the bathroom. As she walked to her bed she peered out the window. Just as she sat down on her bed, wishing upon a star, she jumped in shock at the sight before her.
"Tora-chan" the words floated off her tongue as she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The boy was gazing at her longingly, looking very lost and scared, much like he had the first day she'd met him, except he looked older. Much older, closer to the school photo he had included in his last letter to her. She still had that photo in a box that she kept hidden away. The boy appeared to bite his lip, his warm gaze unsure but also filled with something else. 'Love' Jasmine thought, watching him closely. He had smiled shyly when Jasmine realized the feelings he had been trying to convey. "I miss you, Tora-chan." she murmured, slowly getting into bed. When he came closer to her, she could see that his form was not solid and was more of a wispy spirit-like figure. As she laid down, Tora-chan knelt next to her bed, his hand lightly caressing her face as she fell asleep, gazing into his eyes until her eyelids finally became too heavy and all went black.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading, Both pikachucranstongirl and I pray that you will bless this fanfic with a review. It's roughly 4 and a half pages in OpenOffice so that's not bad for a first chapter. We have up to chapter 5 done (though we are in the editing process which we do ourselves rather than relying on a beta reader that might be even more unreliable than we are...) and are working hard on finishing chapter 6. Also, if you don't know what Gaijin means; It is an old, once good, term that has become a derogatory term for Foreigners. Please Review. Our writing depends on the reviews we get!