Chapter 2

The city was currently peaceful today and at the samurai household, the rangers were once again training in the back, but this time by themselves. Emily happened to be practicing with a wooden sword when Kevin approached her, "Hey Emily, if you have any worries just come to me ok?" She ceased her training and looked at the blue ranger in wonder, "Worries?"

"Yeah I was thinking…Maybe you miss your family…You know spending time with your sister and all I know you two were really close."

Emily smiled at at this and patted his shoulder, "You're a sweetie Kev, but I'm fine."He simply just smiled at her answer.

With Mike, he was currently working on his symbol power on paper having Nariko watch by his side. Once he finished writing the kanji, the symbol began to glow green and leafs sprayed from the paper. "I finally did it! Booyah!" cheered Mike

Nariko giggled and clapped for the green ranger, "Good job Mike you're improving!" both Emily and Kevin happened to witness the whole thing and smiled at their friend's happiness.

"Yeah you sure did!" said Emily who then went back to her training while Kevin eagerly went over to Mike, who was helping Nariko stand.

"Hey Mike I know how hard you've been working on your symbol powers, it took me years to master if you ever need a talk I'm here for you."

Mike gave him a little look before slowly nodding, "Yeah…Whatever you say dude…"

Kevin then turned to Nariko putting his hand on her shoulder, "Nariko I know you're still feeling unwell so if you need anything and I mean anything, you can always come to me."

"Thanks Kevin I'll keep that in mind."

The blue ranger smiled once more and soon made his way over to Mia seeing if she needed anything. Nariko then made her way over to Jayden and Master Ji with Mike following right behind her. Once reaching the two Mike couldn't help but ask, "What's up with Kevin? Why is he so worried about everyone?"

Mentor Ji shook his head while shrugging, "I don't know…He's been like that since yesterday…" Nariko looked to Jayden who looked back at her, rubbing her back in comfort.

2 hours later inside the household, Nariko was walking through the hall making her way to the kitchen. Upon arriving she went over to the pantry but upon opening the door, Nariko saw there wasn't much to eat. She then went to the refrigerator for a beverage instead, unfortunately there wasn't much to drink either. "Oh dear…We're running low on food and drinks…" muttered Nariko

She left the kitchen to find Ji, who happened to be in the living room. Nariko approached the samurai master, "Ji…"

"Oh Nariko what is it?"

"We're running low on food and drinks so I'm gonna go and buy some more."

"No absolutely not!"

"But Ji!"

"It's too dangerous for you to go alone! Bring Jayden with you!"

"He's too busy training and I know how you hate it when his training is put on hold."

"Nariko…"

"Ji...I'm not a weak defenseless little girl anymore, you know I can take care of myself besides it's just a trip to the store then back I'm not going anywhere else."

The samurai mentor sighed and placed his hands on his hips staring at Nariko. It was silent between the two of them until Ji broke it, "It's just a trip to the store right?"

"Yes."

"No wandering off to someplace else?"

"No."

"All right you can go but promise me you won't be out too long and you'll hurry back once you bought everything you need."

"I promise Ji." Thus Nariko took her leave from the living room and back to hers to change clothes before going into the city.

Minutes after Nariko had left the household, in the living room Mentor Ji and Mia were picking up dishes from the table after the group had a snack break. While picking up dishes Kevin had just entered and quickly took the dishes out of Ji's hand, "Here let me help!" both Ji and Mia looked at each other before looking at Kevin. Suddenly the alarm went off throughout the household.

Mia looked to the blinking symbol on the wall, "The Gap Sensor! A Nighlok has entered into our world!"

Mentor Ji pressed the symbol on the table which showed a map of the city. Upon it showed the Nighlok's location. Ji then noticed a blinking white dot heading towards the location. "Oh no this is not good…" muttered Ji

Both Mia and Kevin turned to him at this time. "Why? What's wrong Master Ji?" asked Mia

"It's Nariko, she's near the Nighlok's location."

"What?!"

Just then Jayden, Mike and Emily ran into the room. "What's going?" asked Emily

"A Nighlok has appeared and unfortunately though Nariko is heading right towards it." informed Ji

Jayden immediately looked to the samurai mentor, "What? Nariko is out there?"

"Yes...She went out to get groceries and insisted she go by herself believing that she would be fine…I'm sorry Jayden I should have asked you to go with her."

"No it's all right, it's not your fault. I just need to get to Nariko in time." Jayden looked to his team, "Come on guys we need to leave right now." and thus he darted out of the household along with the others, heading towards the location of the Nighlok and Nariko.

Meanwhile in the city, Nariko was walking through the park, carrying bags of groceries hand in hand. As she made her way through, Nariko spotted a two toned Nighlok talking to a little boy. The sight made Nariko drop the bags and quickly approach the two, "Hey!" both looked at her only to have the Nighlok answer, "What do you want?"

"Get away from him!"

"Why don't you make me?" the Nighlok then began making his way over to Nariko who quickly got into a fighting stance.

Though as the Nighlok took a couple of steps he suddenly stopped, "Wait a minute…You look familiar girl…Ah! Now I remember! You're that girl Master Xandred is after! Yeah you're definitely her! Oh boy if I capture and bring you to Master Xandred he'll be so proud of me: Doubletone!" before the Nighlok could take another step Jayden appeared in his ranger form and attacked Doubletone with his sword.

"You stay away from her!"

Kevin and Mike joined Jayden's side to help him fight Doubletone, while Mia and Emily went over to the little boy and instructed him to run away which he did. In doing so the girls joined the boys in the fight. Unfortunately Doubletone managed to get the upper hand on the rangers and easily escape the fight, once the Nighlok disappeared Nariko went over to the group "Are you guys all right?"

"Yeah…But I think that Nighlok is planning something real bad." said Mike

"I'm worried about that kid we need to find him!" said Mia

Jayden turned to Nariko and gently grabbed her shoulders, "Nariko…I want you to head back to the household this instant while the others and I search for the boy."

"I understand…" the rangers watched as Nariko picked up the grocery bags and quickly made her way out of the area before going off their own way to search for the boy.

Later at the household Jayden, Mike and Emily returned after Mia and Kevin found the boy. Currently the three were watching Mia who had returned and was now cooking in the kitchen. The pink ranger had just pulled out a chicken from the oven when Nariko showed up during this time. She was a bit surprised to see Jayden, Mike and Emily at the kitchen door. "What are you three doing?" asked Nariko

They quickly turned around and shushed her before they went back to observing. Nariko stood at Jayden's side and watched as Mia cook, "What does Mia think she's doing?"

"Making a home cooked dinner to take to Kevin he's staking out that baseball kid's house in case that Nighlok returns." answered Mike

"But Ji and Nariko does the cooking." Jayden pointed out

"Kevin's feeling sad so Mia wants to cheer him up with something a little less fancy you know?" said Emily

"Like burnt chicken?" wondered Nariko

Emily just shrugged in response and they continued to watch the pink ranger cook.

The next morning, Nariko was in her room, sitting at an open window and staring out while playing with her necklace. Since she happened to be completely distracted Nariko didn't hear the knock upon her door or the sound of it opening. It happened to be Jayden who stuck his head into her room and spotted the dark haired beauty. He walked in carrying a tea cup upon a tray "Nariko?"

She snapped out of the daze she was in and looked to the red ranger, "Oh Jayden…I didn't hear you come in…"

"I brought you your tea."

"Thanks."

Noticing the look on her face, Jayden placed the tray on a table and took a seat next to Nariko. "Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh no it's nothing…I was just simply thinking…"

The red ranger then noticed Nariko still playing with her necklace, "You still wear that necklace?"

"Of course I do after all you're the one who gave it to me on my birthday…I never have taken it off since then…"

her answer made Jayden smile, in turn he gently grabbed Nariko's left hand. "I'm happy to hear that from you." Suddenly the Gap sensor went off in the household.

Jayden looked towards the door, "I've gotta go."

Nariko looked at him in worry, "Jayden…"

At the call of his name he looked back at her ,"Don't worry Nariko I'll be fine, you stay here and rest ok?"

"Ok…" the red ranger who happened to be still holding her hand gave it a firm squeeze before letting go and dashing out of the room.

Minutes passed and Nariko was still in her room but sitting at her table painting a picture. While she painted, the door to her room opened and Jayden quickly entered, he went over to Nariko who ceased her painting upon his arrival and grabbed her hands making her stand "Come on Nariko."

"Jayden what's going on?"

"There's somewhere that the others and I need to go to and we want you to come along."

As he begun leading her out of the room, Nariko couldn't help but ask, "Where are we going Jayden? Jayden?"

Later they arrived at a baseball field and joined up with the others rangers at the bleachers. As Jayden and Nariko took their seats the dark haired beauty recognized the little boy she saw yesterday, "Hey…It's that little boy…"

"The little guy is Ryan…Apparently that Nighlok, Doubletone managed to fool Ryan into making a deal with him." toled Kevin

"What was the deal?" wondered Nariko

"The deal was if Ryan threw away his baseball gear then Doubletone would bring his Dad back who happened to go away since he was in the Army. Though the truth is Doubletone only wanted Ryan to throw away his dream and use his sadness to make the Sanzu River rise." explained Mia

"Which is why you can never trust a Nighlok…" Nariko then noticed Jayden pull out his samuraizer who began writing a kanji in mid air.

The symbol glowed and flew over to Ryan entering his body. Just then the image of a man dressed in an Army uniform stood behind the boy who immediately turned around and smiled in happiness "Dad!"

"Go get them tiger!" the image then went away which only made the boy smile even more before joining up with his teammates.

Mike who was surprised by the whole thing lightly nudged Jayden in the shoulder. "How did you do that hocus pocus?"

"I just helped a dream become a vision but I can only sustain it for a moment."

Jayden's answer made Nariko smile and hugged his arm, laying her head upon his shoulder "You're a big sweetheart you know that Jayden?" this only made the red ranger laugh a bit and laid his head against Nariko's as the group continued to watched Ryan's baseball game.