Title: Red
By: akinosora01
Category: Super Sentai/Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
Status: Complete
Chapters: 1
Author's Note:
Um….very bad attempt at character study?
Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.
Red
Red is the color of courage, of bravery, of leadership. Red is the color of ShinkenRed.
Red is the color of the blood of his vassals on his hands, of the countless injuries they suffer because of poor calculating judgment on his part.
Takeru wonders if any of the previous Shiba heads have had the same thoughts.
The truth is, a leader will have to sacrifice those who trust and follow him (to the death, his mind whispers, and Takeru pointedly ignores the little voice). And many a time it is not only once, but sometimes again and again, because the leader has to survive. There must always be a leader for vassals to follow.
But what's a leader without followers?
He watches his team—Ryunosuke, Mako, Chiaki, Kotoha, Genta—train (he inwardly chuckles at Chiaki's attempt to train), and, again, questions himself: is it right for him to expect his vassals, four young people who should, by rights, be living normal lives, to take part in a fight he should be fighting, alone?
And, once the need to fight is gone, could he go back living alone, without all the distractions and idiosyncratic antics his squabbling vassals bring while living at the Shiba residence?
Immediately he chastises himself. Of course he'd be able to; he's been able to live with Jii all these years, hasn't he?
As he sighs and shakes his head with Jii when Chiaki loses to Kotoha in a sparring bout, yet again, he thinks that while he'll be able to go back living alone, he has to admit that he will miss the feelings of closeness, of belonging, of family that his vassals bring him.
))))
I always thought of Takeru as a lonely soul, partly because of his burden as being the substitute as the eighteenth head, and partly because he bears a great burden of protecting the Earth from the Gedoushuu evil, despite the support the other Shinkengers give him.
Otherwise, eh, somewhat disappointed by the lack of quality of this piece. Will probably do a Takeru/Kotoha soon in the future.