Disclaimer: The Troopers and their universe do not belong to me but to their respective creators (whose name escapes me at the moment). Azhure, Orion and Silver belong to me and as for Aikyo and Rin, these characters belong to my friends Annette and Linda Marie.

About the story: I mainly wrote this fanfic for me and my two friends so yes, there will be pairings and yes, there will be romance. However, the story is mainly about the Troopers and how they will deal with a new threat. Love stories are on the side but not the main subject of this story. Also, I wrote that like I was reading a manga so if you want to have a better idea about the facial expressions and the action scenes, do the same.

About comments: Feel free to send me constructive comments about the story.

About misspellings: English is not my first language so, despite the fact that I'm not an awful writer, I'm sure there is grammar errors and misspellings in my chapters. Do not be shy to tell me about it and I shall correct the mistake right away. For future references, feel free to also explain to me the mistake to not repeat it. ^-^

We are no more

"Something is wrong," Azhure said after she walked through the portal taking them back to Nasuti's house.

"Oh, please... Don't tell me they're in trouble," moaned an exhausted Aikyo. "I have no more juice in me to move even a raindrop."

"No, no... Not that kind of wrong."

"There are different kinds of wrong?" asked Rin, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not like before," the princess insisted. "Something is missing."

"Missing?" The tomboy looked around. "What is missing?"

"I don't know. Let's go inside."

The girls took their bags and passed through the front door of Nasuti's house. What they saw was a real surprise to them. The Troopers, except Ryo, had gathered their luggage near the entrance and were discussing loudly in the living room. The atmosphere was very serene as the loud noises were mostly them laughing out loud.

"This is...a bit freaky," Rin remarked as she tilted her head on her right side.

"I hope they were not planning to go somewhere without telling us," Aikyo said with a frown. She removed her shoes and walked toward the living room. The five young men were gathered around a big bowl of nachos and soda. Aikyo looked up to Shin.

"What's going on here?" she asked. Shin stood up with a big smile.

"Aikyo! You're back!" He hurried to her side and hugged her tightly. "I'm so happy to see you. How was your training? Where are Rin and Azhure?" He looked behind her and saw the other girls coming.

"I'm fine, Shin but...you seemed overly joyful."

"You will never guess what happened to us while you were gone. Please, come and sit down. We'll tell you everything." He took her hand and led her to a seat next to him. The others greet the girls but were stunned by Azhure's stare. She stopped her gaze on Touma and seized his shoulder.

"Your armor... Where is it?" She couldn't tell what was wrong until she walked in the living room. The thing missing was the energy emitting from the Troopers's armors. The feeling was not exactly like the same as when Silver stole Shin's and Touma's orbs though. That was the reason why she wasn't able to precise what she felt.

"They're gone. We've destroyed them. We destroyed Kikoutei to save the world," he told her with a small smile, putting his hand over hers. Seiji invited them to sit down and once Azhure and Rin did, the Troopers told them about Mukara and the black Kikoutei, about the story behind the two armors and their last battle.

"We are no longer the Samurai Troopers," Touma told Azhure. "We are normal teenagers."

"We can go back to a normal life, without fighting," Shin continued, looking at Aikyo. The silver hair girl let go a sigh of relief and hugged her lover.

"Well that means I'll be the one saving your cute butt now," she told him, teasingly. Everyone but Azhure laughed. The magician stood up, upset.

"This is no wonderful news!" she almost yelled. The guys blinked at her. "Who will protect this world now? If there is another menace, who will protect the innocent, the weak?"

"Azhure, it's not our job anymore," Ryo answered.

"We did our share to protect this world so far. We never failed. Now, it's over," Seiji continued.

"Well I don't agree!" And on this, the brown hair girl walked out of the room. Touma sighed and went after her. Rin stopped Aikyo from following them and shook her head.

"We won't be able to talk to her now. She's too upset. Let Touma do it. This is what you want, right?" she told her friend.

"Ah, so you too noticed how these two are acting toward each other," Shuu said to Rin. The tomboy nodded.

"It was kind of hard to ignore what's going on between them. I think the only persons who are not aware of what's going on are them."

"Hopefully, Touma will tell her before we move out," Shin said.

"You're moving out?" asked Rin curiously.

"Yeah," Shuu answered her, leaning against the couch, his arms pulled behind his head. "We're going back to our families. There is no use for us staying all here. Except for Ryo, of course. His dad is out of the country again so it's less lonely for him to stay here with Nasuti and Azhure than all alone in an apartment."

"So this is goodbye?"

"Of course not," Shuu told Rin with a laugh. "Unless you really want to get rid of us that easily. You can call me any time you want."

"It's going to be lonely around here without you guys," Aikyo commented.

"We all have our duties in our personal life to fulfill," Seiji replied, "but hopefully, we will be able to meet often and keep contact."

"Right," Shuu exclaimed. "For now, let's just enjoy this afternoon together! Cheers!"

***

"Azhure, wait!"

"Just leave me alone!"

"I'll leave you alone after you listened to me!" Touma said before grabbing her elbow. The teenage girl swiftly turned around and freed herself but didn't try to run from him. She knew he was stubborn enough to follow no matter where she will go. The archer sighed. "You don't know what it was like," he started to tell her. "We weren't born with those armors. They chose us just before Arago tried to conquer our world. We didn't know each other and we didn't know a thing about our armors. They were evil, Azhure. Made out from Arago's shell after he was defeated 1000 years ago. Our virtues keep them straight but they always were thirsty for war and battle." He took her hands in his and squeezed them gently. "If it wasn't of Shin, we would have been corrupted by our armors when Mukara first appeared. You would have come back to a destroyed planet for sure. They had a mind of their own and in the end, we didn't have a choice but to fight Mukara with the white Kikoutei."

Even though she understood all this, she was still concerned about their safety and most of all, the safety of this world. She couldn't voice it though. What use was there to reveal her fears when they were no longer able to fight? However, she didn't want to take the burden either.

"I know it might be hard for someone like you who always had magical powers and responsibilities tied to them, to understand how we feel," Touma told her. "I never curse my existence or my armor. I accepted gladly the fate that was put on my shoulders and to be honest, I'm glad I wasn't alone in this. But now, we are free to go back to before we got our armors. Seiji will be able to go back to his kendo training. Shuu can focus on working hard to take over his family business. Same for Shin. Moreover, I think Shin will ask Aikyo to move in with him. As for Ryo, he will be able to study for what he wants to do while staying here without worrying to put Nasuti in danger."

"And what about you, Touma?" she asked him. "What is your dream?"

"Me? Well, I'll probably get ready for university and follow in my father's footsteps. He did propose me to hire me to help him in his research until I find a subject on my own to search on."

"Is that all you want?"

"Huh?"

"To study. Don't you want more than that?"

"I love to study, actually. That's why being a researcher suits me fine. I'll be able to learn new things every day. That's something I couldn't accomplish with my Samurai Trooper duty."

She envied him to know what he wanted to do with his future. As for her, she was still wondering what her place in this world was with her abilities. She loved magic but couldn't do anything about it here. Maybe she should move on too, just like the Troopers. After all, her home world was no more and with Silver gone, she was free to go anywhere she wanted to and be as free as she could dream of. However, something kept her on Earth. Or rather, someone was keeping her here but he was completely oblivious to her feelings for him.

To reveal her feelings to him was too hard for her yet. She didn't get any encouragement from him to start with. He was always nice but he never seemed to be interested in her. He took care of her just like anyone would take care of a friend in a new country. Moreover, it wasn't in the customs of her people to just voice these feelings. The man had to somehow court the woman he loved for some time and his intentions had to be sincere, hence the reason why Orion was always around her when she was alone with one of the Troopers: to make sure she wouldn't be abuse.

"Don't worry about this world," Touma told her with a smile. "No matter the evil that can appear or be reborn, there is always a force of good somewhere that will take care of it. Besides, knowing you, you won't be able to stay idly by. You'll do your share to protect this place. It is your home now, isn't it?" Azhure gave him a small nod.

"I see your point," she said with a resigned tone. "I'm sorry about my outburst." She looked at the luggage in the entrance. "You will be leaving soon?"

"Ah this? Well...yes. We were planning to go back to our families tomorrow morning."

"I see... So you will leave me behind?"

"Of course not." He reached into his left pocket and took out a torn piece of paper. "You have my phone number home and my cellphone number. You can call me whenever you want."

"Really?"

"Yes. Like that, you will not have an excuse to fall behind class."

"Oh... Well... Thank you." She smiled to him as she took the paper and put it in our own pocket. He did not notice the sadness in this smile.

"Now that's settled...shall we go back to them? I would like you to join our celebration. Nasuti should be back soon with Jun with some groceries and Shuu promised us to cook us something we'll never forget."

She nodded and let him take her back to the living room. She truly enjoyed the evening she had with them. They made jokes, talked about old times and even told stories about their fight with Arago. The girls learned a big deal that night about the Troopers and what they faced so far. It was the kind of night that everyone talked about when they faced their final battle: one day, they will reunite, talk about it and said it was 'the good old days'.

For a time, Shin and Aikyo vanished during the evening, but no one really noticed until they came back. Rin helped Shuu in the kitchen with the food and surprisingly found a very stubborn Shuu when it came to some specific preparations methods. They fought a lot but the supper was amazingly exquisite. Nasuti put Jun to bed after the boy fell asleep on Byakuen while the rest of the group was still chatting happily.

Finally, around 2am, only Shuu and Touma were still up. Both were sharing a small bottle of sake Nasuti opened earlier in the evening. They did plan of finishing it but without getting sick.

"You still have the hots for her, don't you?" Touma asked his friend with a grin. Shuu gave him an embarrassed smile.

"I know she loves her childhood friend but I can't seem to give up on her. Maybe I'm too stubborn to understand that 'no' means 'no'."

"I heard he likes Nasuti."

"When did you hear that?"

"Don't know... I think the sake made me forget that."

"Great. I think you had enough sake for tonight," Shuu responded before emptying the bottle in his glass.

"I think...you are right."

"Won't you miss being around lots of people? I mean, you're not exactly going back to your family. Just your empty apartment cause your dad is never around."

"Heh. Maybe."

"Why not stay here? With Ryo? You would be less lonely that way."

"Nah. I don't want to be a bother. Besides, I need to make sure Azhure never finds the sai I hid from her. Keeping it here is too dangerous."

"If you care so much for her, why don't you just tell her already?" Touma gave a confused look to Shuu.

"What are you talking about? I...I don't care about her THAT way! Am...I?"

"Why are you asking me for?" Shuu replied with a sweatdrop.

"I...I don't know. Let's forget about this." Touma swallowed the rest of his cup in one sip. "I think...it's time to sleep."

"Don't run away from the issue," his friend warned him.

"I'm not running away. She's a good friend and I want her to be happy. That's all."

"Dude, can't you see what's truly going on?"

"What are you talking about?" Shuu sighed at his remark.

"Forget it. Maybe you're not ready to realize this yet. But you better open your eyes soon before it's too late." On this, Shuu finished his sake and went to bed.

Touma didn't understand these words. Maybe it was because he wanted to ignore them or maybe it was because of the sake. Either way, he went to bed and the next morning, he left with Rin, Aikyo and his other companions for Tokyo. It was a sad morning really as no one really wanted to close this chapter of their lives. On the other hand, they couldn't wait to start this new life they had. To be absolutely free and focus on their future was a true gift for them. After waving goodbye to Nasuti, Jun, Ryo and Azhure, the group left and once they reach the city, each went on their own road.

Little did they know that a mysterious event will bring them back together under a new duty very soon...

The end