Kai's Vexing Day

"Heavenly Arch Saint Magiel, I beseech you, please grant my request." Kai, the red magician, MagiRed, bowed down before the elderly giantess who ruled the heavenly world of Magitopia, in just the fashion that his teacher Hikaru had told him to. There was a time when Kai would have been yelling his head off in this situation, demanding his way come hell or high water, but this was far too delicate a situation, far too desperate a need for him to jeopardize with rash action. If Magiel were to refuse him this one thing, Kai didn't know how he'd ever be able to recover from the loss…

"Red Magician." Magiel's aged voice boomed all around Kai, causing his very bones to shake. "MagiRed, you led the battle against the Absolute God N Ma and saved the Three Worlds from oblivion, and this is all that you ask for?" All was silent in that vast white room, and then she chuckled. "Truly you are your father's son."

"Then…?" Kai dared to hope, yet braced himself for disappointment.

"Your request is granted, I shall allow you this exception to the Law."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Kai shouted excitedly as his joy overwhelmed all composure within himself. He bowed wildly in an exaggerated fashion like a small child, and then ran out of the Heavenly Temple faster than he would have ever thought possible.

"Hmph." Magiel harrumphed as the doors closed behind Kai, and then turned her head, facing the reader. "Personally, I don't see what the big deal about young love is anyway. Maybe the surprise that's in store for him will give him some perspective, hmmm?" And then she vanished.

"Yamazaki, Yamazaki!" Kai Ozu waved his hand wildly above his head as he saw the flower of his heart approach, Yuka Yamazaki; school idol and manager of his soccer club, she was a stern but gentle young woman who'd held his heart in the palm of her hand from the moment they'd first met. Ironically, the greatest obstacle between them was himself, or to be more specific his identity as MagiRed, with whom she'd become hopelessly infatuated after he'd saved her from the Hades Beast Mimic.

"Hey Ozu, you said you had something you wanted to tell me?" Yamazaki's smiling face filled Kai's heart so full of elation, he'd nearly forgotten why he'd called her to this place, the very place where he'd first confessed to her and ran headfirst into the obstacle of his own creation. This time though, things were going to be different.

Noticing that she was beginning to stare at him, Kai cleared his throat, and spoke. "Yamazaki, I know you've told me that you like both me and MagiRed. Well…I am MagiRed!" Kai paused, waited for her to skeptically demand proof, prepared to do so.

"Oh Ozu, I'm so happy!" Yuka Yamazaki said as she wrapped her arms around Kai Ozu and hugged him tightly, obliterating all rational thought within. "I knew you'd tell me one day, I just knew it."

"Yes, I…wait, what?" Kai pulled back a little and looked down into Yuka's eyes, the wheels in his head turning just so. "You, you knew!" She nodded happily, seemingly unconcerned by his shock. "When did you find out?"

"Remember when that monster kidnapped me, and tried to marry me?" She spoke about what had happened to her as though she were describing a particularly cheesy soap opera, but that was not what stood at the forefront of Kai's mind.

"When Groom do Bridon kidnapped you…that was last summer! You knew all this time, and you didn't tell me?" Kai didn't know what to make of this, this wasn't how this was supposed to be going at all.

Yamazaki shrugged. "I knew you liked me, and I knew that you knew that I liked MagiRed more, so I realized that there had to be a good reason why you wouldn't tell me that you were MagiRed, and decided to respect that until you could tell me." She smiled, but not even that could raise his spirits now.

He stared blankly at her, and fell to his knees. For a moment it looked like he was going to start screaming, but his voice came out quiet and hollow. "No, there wasn't a good reason; it was just some stupid rule that we weren't allowed to tell people that were the Mahou Sentai Magiranger." Kai lamented all the time that had been wasted and lost, all because of one stupid little rule.

"It's okay, Kai." Kai looked up; it was the first time she'd ever used his given name. "Let's stop worrying about the past, and make the best of what we have now, my brave magician."

"Okay, Y-Yuka." He stood back up, and she wrapped her arm around his. Sure, it was more vexing than he'd expected, but Kai wouldn't trade this day for anything.