A/N: Like many others, I am publishing this story under Sentai, since the PR category is still currently plagued by the dreaded "Error 2". It is, in fact, a PR Samurai fic.
Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, characters, events etc. Anything not covered by these rights should be presumed to be purely the creation of the author.
Rating: T – may be mild adult themes, language and violence.
Timeline: VERY loosely based on the events of Forest for the Trees. It is inspired by the episode, and there may be some crossovers, but on the whole, expect there to be changes.
Emily was sitting in the main room of the academy as the others performed their morning rituals. She had gotten up a little earlier than usual, unable to sleep as a result of recent events. Things had gotten a little more subdued than usual in recent days as a result of what had happened with Metatone.
Kevin had been working hard, helping those he had hurt to recover and helping out with the chores. Nobody blamed him for what he had done, they all knew that Metatone had him under a spell. It could just as easily have been Mia that had been put under his control, but that didn't seem to stop him blaming himself. They had all kind of informally decided to just let it run its course. He would get over it in time. Nothing they could say would get him through it any quicker. He needed to settle it himself.
Mia and Jayden had also been noticeably more subdued. Sharing a room with her, Emily was close to Mia, and had talked to her many times any time she was upset, and so she had no second thoughts about letting her talk to her about her own difficulties. Mia had told her about what had happened, or more accurately hadn't happened between the Red and Pink Rangers. Mia still felt a little foolish for building up a relationship that didn't exist in her head, and was just trying to get through the embarrassing period of having to be around Jayden and see him each day until it passed. Jayden had never been particularly talkative, but his interactions with her had noticeably changed, so it seemed he was going through something similar, even if he was going through it from a different perspective, since he had never had those feelings for her.
She had something occupying her mind though, something she knew they had already discussed, but it kept playing on her mind anyway. She sat, staring at a piece of paper, and on the face staring back at her from it. It was a sketch of the stranger who had turned up during Jayden's battle with Kevin.
He was an older man, not Mentor Ji old, but certainly older than the Rangers, somewhere in between. He had long, dark hair, and a dark beard and moustache. He was swathed in white, flowing robes, with dark clothing underneath, and worn, black leather boots.
Mentor Ji had spent some time with Mike, Mia and Emily, listening to their descriptions as they told him about what had happened, and more importantly about the mysterious stranger. He had made a sketch of him from their descriptions, hoping that the scrolls would herald some answers as to who he was, but so far he had found nothing.
She couldn't help staring at his eyes, they were dark, and intense, with a predatory edge to them. As he watched the battle, she could remember his gaze never shifted from them for a moment. Far from seeming to be frightened or confused about the scene, he had managed to give them a detailed account of what was happening on the building site. Indeed, he gave them a remarkably detailed assessment of the battle, indicating he knew far more than he was letting on, and making her suspect that the canvas roll he was carrying contained a weapon of some description.
She almost jumped, but quickly relaxed as a familiar, warm arm snaked its way around her shoulders, pulling her back into his chest. Mike kissed her softly on her cheek, before taking the drawing from her.
"Are you still worried about this guy?" He asked her. She just nodded.
"I just can't help feeling like he was up to something." She told him. "I mean, don't you think it was odd he seemed to know what was going on?"
"Emily, we're on the news all the time." He reminded her. "I've got at least four Facebook fan pages dedicated to me. Everyone knows the Rangers..."
"But we weren't morphed!" Emily reminded him.
"He probably just thought we were there to watch too." Mike told her reassuringly, taking the drawing away from her as he held her warmly. "Look, I'll admit, the guy was kind of weird, but maybe you're just reading too much into this..."
"He just disappeared Mike." She told him. "What was he there for? Where did he go? Why was he watching us?"
"I get it, it's kind of weird, but if he was going to make a move, he would have done it by now." He told her. "You want to know my theory?"
"You have a theory?" Emily asked him. It was comforting to know that he had been thinking about it, and she wasn't the only one obsessing about the stranger.
"I think Mentor Ji knows a lot more than he's letting on." Mike told her. "Remember Kevin told us about that fisherman who just happened to be on the beach when he was trying to get the Swordfish Zord? What was he doing there?"
"Fishing?" She asked him a little sarcastically.
"And yet, he watches Kevin catch a one hundred foot, three ton robotic swordfish and there isn't a word about it on any website, magazine or supermarket tabloid?" He asked her. "Just think about all the information Mentor Ji gets. Just think about all those gap sensors that are all over the city. Who do you think put them up?"
Emily wanted to answer, but she found herself just wondering what Mike was getting at.
"I think Mentor Ji isn't as isolated as he makes out." Mike told her. "I think he has agents of his own keeping an eye out on the city. Maybe this guy's one of those agents and he just doesn't want us to know yet."
"So he's got people watching us all the time?" She asked him a little nervously. "Yeah, that's so much less creepy."
Just then, Kevin, Jayden and Mia came in and sat down with them. Emily moved to her own seat opposite Mike as they arrived, all taking a seat.
"What's going on?" Emily asked them.
"Mentor Ji wanted to talk to us about something." Jayden told them. "He said we were all to meet him in here."
"Speak of the Devil." Mike commented as Mentor Ji arrived, carrying one of his books. He smiled as he put a box down on the table, opening it to reveal the three power disks.
"Rangers, I have exciting news about our progress." He told them. "Now we have three of the missing power disks, we have a new power at our disposal."
Jayden leaned forward, leaning towards the table.
"Beetle, Swordfish, Tiger." He began, pointing to each of the disks in turn. "Together, these three disks allow us to form the Samurai Battle Wing."
As he looked to Mentor Ji, he opened the book showing them an illustration of a new zord configuration, utilising the three new zords.
"Wow, that looks like one seriously badass bird." Mike said cheerfully as he let out a low whistle, clearly impressed.
"Yes, so each disk must go to the person ready to help pilot the zord." He told them.
Emily looked across and saw the look on Mike's face as a little smile started to cross his lips. She knew that he was self-conscious about the fact he was behind in his training, and that he had been working hard on his sword technique and his symbol power recently. He had told her in some of their few private moments that it occasionally got to him to see Kevin and Jayden with the new disks. It felt like he was constantly reminded that he wasn't good enough, and as Jayden got a second disk in the Tiger Disk, he felt like he would never catch up. She didn't need to hear him say it to know that he felt he was finally getting his shot. The new zord required three pilots, that meant someone needed to take one of the disks.
"I'm keeping the Tiger Zord." Jayden told them with a smile. "After being sacrificed by my predecessor, and what I went through to get him back, we have a connection."
"The Swordfish Zord, will go to Kevin." Mentor Ji announced as Jayden picked up the Swordfish Disk and handed it to him. "He caught it, and therefore has a connection to it."
"Thanks." Kevin said with a little smirk. They all saw that one coming, he had gone through so much to get it, they knew he had a connection. "We have a connection, but...I didn't catch it."
"I don't understand." Mia commented, looking confused.
"He chose me." He explained. "I tried every symbol I could think of. Capture, catch, lure, bait, reel...then I finally had a thought about it, and I tried another symbol."
He traced it on the table with his finger, and Mia smiled as she saw it. Kevin had already told Jayden the story.
"Please?" Mike asked, recognising the symbol. "That was what got you the Swordfish? You asked it?"
"I stopped trying to force it, and just asked for its help." Kevin replied. "It didn't want to be captured, it wanted to be an equal."
"That just leaves one more disk." Mentor Ji told them. Mike shifted a little more closely, and his smile broadened. Emily could see that he thought this was his moment. "We've decided that the Beetle Disk, should go to Mia."
"Me?" She asked as Jayden handed it over.
"We trust your control over your symbol power the most." Mentor Ji announced. Emily looked sympathetically towards Mike as she saw the look of disappointment on his face. She knew that he respected Mia, and truth be told, he would probably agree that she had the greatest mastery of symbol power. "And we know that you'll do the difficult work needed to master this disk."
Mike's knuckles cracked in frustration as they said this. Emily knew that Mentor Ji had expressed the opinion that Mike needed to work harder before. He had been working hard, in fact, he had been working on his symbol power between training sessions for weeks now. He had been working harder than any of them to catch up. She could tell that he probably took that remark from Mentor Ji as a shot against him.
"We're counting on you." Jayden told her. She just smiled in response.
"Thank you." She answered. "I won't let you down."
Mike just got up from the table and headed for his room.
"Mike, where are you going?" Kevin asked him.
"I'm going to train." He announced, walking from the room. Emily was about to go with him, but Mentor Ji held up a hand to stop her.
"He seemed upset about something." Mia commented, looking to the disk sadly. She held it up. "Was it because of this?"
"Whatever it is, he'll need to deal with it." Jayden told them, giving a knowing look to Mentor Ji. They had discussed the possible problems with Mike's attitude behind closed doors before. While they could understand his disappointment, the fact was they needed to be sure they could rely on whoever they gave the Beetle Disk to. Whether it hurt his feelings or not, the fact was right now, Mia was a much better choice.
Out in the yard, Mike took up his sword, beginning to work through his frustrations. He didn't need Mentor Ji's lectures or constant assertion that he wasn't working hard enough. The fact was, despite the opinion of the others, he had been working harder than any of them.
While he occasionally was late to practice, or had the occasional lapse of concentration, he regularly spent hours out on the yard or in the nearby woods by himself working on his technique. He had spent many nights in Emily's room, having her tutor him in the ways of his symbol power. He was doing everything he could to try and catch up to the others. He didn't understand why, it was just taking him longer to figure things out than the others.
He had let his sword lessons and his symbol power training lapse in his youth, his family was a little more liberal in their attitude to ensuring he trained than the others, but he felt like Mentor Ji didn't respect him or his talents at all. The fact was that there was a lot of things he did well. While he hadn't done much training with the sword, he had always kept up his hand-to-hand training, and indeed excelled at it.
Karate, judo, aikido, sumo, submissions...he had an impressive repertoire, one that had been tested more than a few times through a slightly turbulent childhood. Sometimes, his obsession with gaming took him to arcades in less than admirable areas in search of new games and new challenges. At least one Tekken tournament had ended up with him seeing far more action outside the arcade than inside it when one of his opponents took his loss badly. He just needed help with his other skills, help that at times he felt like he wasn't getting from Mentor Ji. Sometimes, it felt like he spent most of his time lecturing him and telling him he wasn't good enough than doing anything practical to help him.
As he exerted himself, he finally succumbed to exhaustion, collapsing to the floor. He just lay on the ground, closed his eyes, and felt his frustration building. He remembered all those times he had watched as they utilised the power disks, giving them incredible power. He watched them wield amazing abilities.
"I can't believe they didn't pick me." He thought to himself. "I guess I'll just have to train harder." He performed a kip up, flicking back to his feet and resumed his training.
Just then, he realised his Samuraizer was bleeping. He didn't know how long he had been out, but as he rolled to his feet, he saw the others rushing from the academy, and was grateful that he seemed to have been roused on the initial alarm. He didn't want to miss any opportunity to show the others that they had made a mistake about him. He wasn't the joke they believed him to be. They knew nothing about him, but he was determined to make them realise their mistake in the only way he had done his whole life. Mike didn't tell people how good he was. He showed them!