July 2007

Tokyo, Japan

Cameron Watanabe was in love with Tokyo. He'd never been there in person before deciding to take a sabbatical from his work at the academy to do some well-needed research into his family's rich heritage. It was hard not to want to move there, with all the samurai heritage of the city. He'd never felt so connected to one place in his life.

"Konnichiwa," he heard behind him.

Cam turned around and smiled. "Nuan-san. I've missed you." He turned and bowed. He blushed as he realized he'd still been holding an inlaid katana which could easily have taken off the beautiful Japanese girl's head.

Nuan smiled back at him and came forward to touch the hilt of the sword. "Utsukushii," she told him in awe.

"Yes," he agreed, placing the katana back on its stand. "It is very beautiful." He began to gather up his sketches in his backpack. "My father has a sword like it back home."

Nuan nodded serenely. "Are you headed home soon?" she asked with concern as she noticed the plane ticket in Cam's hand.

He took her shoulder. "I wish I didn't have to go, but it's been almost six months, I really need to return to my work..."

Nuan brushed out her black hair and avoided his gaze. "You promise to come back someday?" she asked him firmly. "We never finished trimming the gardens at jiji's house."

Cam took her hand and held it to his cheek. He kissed the inside of her hand. "I'll come back soon," he promised. "Then I'll take you to America with me."

She shook her head. "You don't understand, do you Cameron-san?" Nuan dropped his hand. "I can't go to America, I have school here, and father will get very angry if I leave before I'm finished."

"Then I'll come the moment you're done," he told her vehemently, wrapping his arms around her. "I'll come the second you're free."

"Adiosu, Cameron-san," she touched his cheek briefly and walked back toward the front desk of the museum.

"Nuan, wait!" he called to her, running to catch up. "I mean it, I will come back for you."

She turned back to face him once again. "If you come back, you will be a different man that the one you are today, aman."

Cam boarded the plane feeling the dead weight of what she'd said. She didn't believe that he really loved her. The months that they'd spent together, they'd been the world to him, but she seemed like she expected them to mean nothing. Maybe she was too used to being hurt by men, that she thought the American would never come for someone like her. He had to prove her wrong.

August 14th, 2009

Wind Ninja Academy, California, USA

"Happy birthday dear Cameron, happy birthday to you..." he looked up and stared right through Tori, her long blond hair brushing his cheek as she kissed it.

"I can't believe you're 27 today," his father said with exasperation. "Time flies so fast when you get to be my age."

Cam shook his head. "Time flies no matter what age you are."

"You look bummed out, man," Dustin noticed as he polished off the first piece of Cam's chocolate cake. "You should cheer up, this stuff is great." He picked up the novel Kanoi had purchased for his son and the wakizashi that Hunter had picked up for him at an auction.

Shane had bought Cam a year's subscription to Playboy, his first issue was sitting underneath the mound of wrapping paper, where it was likely to stay. Tori and Blake, having been out of the country at Blake's last race for Factory Blue, had been too busy to get him anything, but had insisted on his taking the wad of bills that now crowded his pockets.

"Yeah," he shook off his reverie and took a bite of the cake. "Thanks a bunch."

"Seriously, Cam, you really don't look happy," Kelly realized as she took the sword from her boyfriend and placed it out of the slightly drunk Dustin's grasp.

"Maybe this will cheer you up," Dustin said with a smile, handing Cam the gift he'd picked out himself at Walmart a few days before.

"A new external harddrive," Cam said distantly. "Thanks, Dustin, I've been needing one of these."

Dustin smiled and reached for another piece of cake. Kelly slapped his hand away and otherwise occupied his hands by sitting down in his lap.

"Is everything all right, sotsu?" Kanoi asked apprehensively.

"Everything is just fine, dad." He stood up and walked outside on the balcony overlooking the vast forest that surrounded the academy. "Just give me a minute."

He pulled out his cellphone and dialed the number he'd looked up about an hour ago. "Hello, I need to book a flight," he looked back at his friends, they seemed to be enjoying themselves, which should have made him happy, given that they'd almost died last month- all of them. "Tokyo, Japan," he told the woman firmly. "Tomorrow morning if it's still available."

He closed the phone and turned back to his dad.

"Going to Japan, son?"

Cam nodded. "I have some things I need to do."

"Things that relate to the jeweler call Marah received an hour ago for an engagement ring?" his father asked casually.

Cam froze. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."

His father backed away. "The girl you've been writing to these past two years, the one you met in Tokyo, you never told me about her."

"I didn't want them to know," Cam said quietly, motioning toward his friends. More firmly, "You read my emails."

"I'm a sensei, not a saint," Kanoi said with a chuckle. "I could have figured as much with that expression you had when I came to get you at the airport. Believe it or not, I was once in love with a woman."

Cam laughed. "I suppose so, I'm here."

"Does this have anything to do with what happened in Angel Grove?"

"I'd be lying to you if I said it didn't make me think hard and fast about what I'm doing with my life. I'm tired of feeling like a spectator, dad. I need this. I need her."

"She must be quite a woman to have captured your heart, Cameron."

"She is," he promised. "You'll like her, she's a lot like you, actually."

Kanoi cocked his head to the side. "Devious and cunning?"

"Something like that."

"What should I tell them?" Kanoi asked, waving to the guests inside.

"I don't really care, I just want to be with Nuan. I just want to bring her here and be with her. That's all I want."

"You really have changed, son."

Cam turned back from the railing. "What?"

"You've changed."

The words stung. "If you come back, you will be a different man that the one you are today, aman."

"She told me that when I left, that I'd be different when I came back for her, if I came. I wanted so badly to believe that we'd never change."

"I didn't expect her death to hit you so hard," his father said quietly. "For a girl you hardly knew, Trini Kwan has had a deep impact on you."

"I never realized how fast it can all end, until now."

"Your last bit of childhood is leaving you, Cameron. That would upset your mother."

Cam looked down at the amulet around his neck. "It was bound to happen some time, I just didn't expect it to happen like this."

"You feel like you failed her somehow."

"Didn't I?" Cam asked, pulling the amulet off and stashing it in his pocket where he didn't have to look at the stone, and all the parts of his life he'd lost.

"You didn't fail anyone."

"Then why do I feel like this?"

"Because you're human, because you are samurai, noble, because, unlike your mother, I could never sway you to the ways of shinobi. You will always be too strong in your ways for me to change you- or for the world to bend you from your path. You brave the wind, my son, because the path beneath the trees is dark and your soul is bright."

"What if she isn't there, father?" Cameron said, clenching his fists. "What if Nuan isn't there to keep me away from that path in the trees? What happens to me then?"

"You are not Kiya, Cam. You are not my brother, you will never fall from grace."

"I wish I believed that."

"I look into your heart, and I know that no amount of pain could lead you to kill. No amount of hatred could make you the monster my brother became. Zordon saw in you the sort of love that only a warrior of the light possesses. You are a fighter, Cameron."

"The sacrifices we made weren't noble, they weren't right. I can't accept them."

"Then don't accept them, but they are reality nonetheless." Kanoi held out his hand, in it was the book he'd given Cam. "Read it sometime," he told his son. "Consider it kata for the mind."

"I have to go," Cam told him, taking the book.

"Go, and come home with your bride, but do not fear the pain you feel is the sort that will drive you to evils, for it is this pain that makes you samurai."

August 15th, 2009

Tokyo, Japan

"Konnichiwa," he said to the girl standing with her back to him, her long hair tied up in ribbon. She was tending the garden by herself.

"Cameron-san," she said quietly, without looking up. "I graduated last month, and I waited for you, but you didn't come."

"I was..."

"It doesn't matter," she told him. "You changed."

"Nuan..."

"You changed, Cameron. I told you that you would, but you didn't want to believe me."

"I was in Angel Grove, I was there when the bombs went off. I was there when they died. A girl, a friend of mine died, and her blood ran off me like water, Nuan. And I saw you."

She turned and touched his cheek with her pale hand. "I am not dead," she told him.

"No," he agreed. "No, you aren't." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

"I know who you are, Cameron Watanabe," she said as he brought her closer to his chest.

"Who am I?" he whispered into her ear.

"You are a warrior of light, a good man," she replied, touching his lips. "You are Samurai."

"Marry me," he pleaded. "Come back with me and be my wife. Leave this life behind and come with me."

She turned her head into his shoulder. "And why would I do that?"

"Because I love you. I've loved you since the day I met you, and I never, never, stopped thinking about the day I'd come for you."

Nuan smiled. "You are koikomoru, deeply in love?"

"More than I've ever been."

"And there are gardens in California?"

"My world is a garden." He held out the ring to her, the diamond glinted in the sunlight.

"And jobs for me?"

"Lots of jobs."

"And friends?"

"And friends."

Nuan smiled and took his ring. "I suppose I could marry you."

"You'd make me the happiest man alive." He kissed her lips softly and broke away.

He took her to the steps of her father's house and told the family that she would be coming with him to California. Nuan's mother smiled at the new prospects for her daughter, the father scowled at first, then closed the door behind him.

August 18th, 2009

Blue Bay Harbor, California

Cam led Nuan down the terminal to his friends, who were all waiting for him.

"Wow," Hunter said with a smile. "Nice catch, Cam."

Shane nodded and pinched himself to make sure he was still in reality.

Tori looked over that the guys with a mortified look. "Welcome to the family, Nuan," she said with enough humility to counteract the men.

The Japanese girl smiled back at her. "Hajimemashite." Nuan said with a bow. "It is very good to meet you, Tori. Cameron has told me so much about you."

Tori looked over at her friend with a smile. "Nothing but good things, I hope."

"Nothing but good things," Cam promised.

Dustin pulled out a sheet of paper and started to read, "Watashi no namae wa Dustin desu," he said in terrible Japanese.

"It's nice to meet you as well, Dustin," she replied.

"We should get you settled," Cam said, realizing that his friends were standing in awkward silence. "We'll have dinner later."

He smiled over at Shane, who stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. "About that gift..."

"It's fine, Shane," Cam promised. "Think nothing of it."

"You might be able to get some great ideas from it..."

Cam silenced him with a blush. "I've got it handled."

Shane nodded and accepted Tori's punch to the stomach. "You are such a loser," she told him with disgust.

"Your friends are strange," Nuan said with embarrassment. "But they are oddly funny."

Cam shook his head. "Just you wait until you meet my cousins..."