Title: Lord Butler
Author: Veronica
Chapter Rating: G
Spoilers: nothing
Pairings: Takeru Shiba & Kotoha Hanaori

Summary: This is my version of episode 22 of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Kotoha catches the eye of a young Bocchama and he asks Genta to ask her to pretend to be his fiancée in order to keep the gold-diggers away. Meanwhile, Doukoku unleashes a new monster that feeds on the affectionate feelings of its victims.

Chapter 7: Surprise! Our Tono-sama is a manservant?!

"Good evening, everyone!" Genta exclaimed enthusiastically as he showed up around four o'clock on the evening of the party at Yoshibou's mansion. He had a black garment bag tossed over one shoulder and a smile on his face.

"Hi, Gen-chan!" Chiaki said, with a smile as he looked up from the PSP that he was playing on before going back to his game.

Ryuunosuke looked at Chiaki with a disapproving frown before saying, "good afternoon, Genta-san." Noticing the garment bag slung over his shoulder, he eyed it curiously before asking, "What's in the bag?"

"Hello, Genta," Takeru said as he came into the room. He saw the garment bag and Genta grinned as he handed the mysterious garment bag over to Takeru. Takeru took the bag and headed back into his own room.

"How does she look?" Mako asked as she and Kotoha walked out of Kotoha's room and into the room where Genta, Ryuunosuke, and Chiaki were currently hanging out. When Kotoha stepped into the room all three of the guys looked her way.

They stared.

"Wow, Kotoha, you look beautiful!" Ryunosuke was the first to speak. He smiled at the blushing Shinken Yellow who was now decked out in a knee-length white dress with assorted teal and yellow designs on it and a cute pair of white strappy heels. Her dark hair, usually in pigtails or down, was up in a sophisticated bun.

"Thank you, Ryu-san." Kotoha replied.

"You look great, Kotoha!" Chiaki said, smiling genuinely at his best friend and closest teammate.

"Thank you, Chiaki," Kotoha beamed, glad to have her friend's support.

Before anyone else could say anything, a limousine pulled up outside, the engine being turned off and someone exiting the car to come to the door. A moment later, someone knocked on the door and Kotoha smiled once more at her friends and went to answer the door.

The man on the other side of the door bowed at the sight of Kotoha and motioned her to head out to the limousine. She nodded once and headed out to where the long, dark limousine was parked just a few feet ahead of her. A man dressed like a butler bowed as he opened the backdoor of the limousine for her to enter the vehicle.

When he straightened and their eyes met, Kotoha gasped in surprise.

"To-!" She began, but with one warning look from Takeru, she shut her mouth.

The others who followed her out, with the exception of Genta, were shocked as well. Genta just grinned delightedly at the sight of his best friend dressed as a butler.

"What the -?!" Chiaki began, only to be elbowed in the ribs by Mako. He grunted in surprise, and turned his head to glare at her. A moment later though he turned back to face forward and pulled out his cellphone to take a picture of Takeru helping Kotoha into the back of the limousine. Chiaki grinned, mischievously.

Mako leaned towards him and said, "I want a copy of that picture. Send it to me, will you?"

Chiaki only smiled more widely and nodded.

When Ryuunosuke saw what Chiaki was doing he frowned disapprovingly, though secretly he was just as amused-and confused-by the fact that Tono would take it on himself to go along with Kotoha as her manservant.

Once Kotoha was safely in the car and seated in front of Takeru, she asked the question that was plaguing her mind, "um, Tono-sama, why are you dressed like that?"

They were alone in the backseat of the limousine, so Kotoha felt that it would be okay to ask the question. Takeru gave her a slight smile and answered, "Genta thought it would ease your mind a little to have a familiar face in the crowd at this get together."

This, of course, was a lie, but Takeru didn't want to admit to her that he was concerned for her welfare. And sure, he could have asked Chiaki or Ryuunosuke to do this, but somehow he didn't want to leave this for anyone else to do. He chose to not analyze his reasons for this reluctance.

Kotoha nodded in acceptance of his answer and relaxed her grip on the hem of her skirt hem.

This is going to be a long evening, is what they were both unknowingly thinking at the same time.

Meanwhile, in the Sanzu River, Shitari and Dayu were trying to come up with a plan of attack that would succeed in overflowing the Sanzu River into the human world.

"Summer is difficult," Shitari stated, before continuing with, "it'd be something if we just let Doukoku's power continue to increase."

He turned away from Dayu and paced over to another corner of the ship.

"If we don't limit it, it might destroy this world and the human world, maybe even us as well. That's why we let Doukoku sleep." Shitari explained.

Standing near a port hole, Shitari heard a grunt as Urawadachi, a blue hammerhead shark looking ayakashi hefted himself through the porthole and onto the ship.

"I'm finally up! I want to slurp up human life soon!" Urawadachi exclaimed as he stood near Shitari.

He traipsed over to near where Dayu stood and with flamboyant hand gestures he said, "it is so sweet!"

"Urawadachi," said Shitari in a reproachful tone of voice, "I didn't summon you. You won't increase the river."

"That doesn't matter; I just slurp because I want to!" Urawadachi exclaimed, as he made is way over to where Shitari stood with his back to him. Having made his point, Urawadachi walked over to another part of the ship and away from Shitari and Dayu.

"See? Without Doukoku reigning things in, this happens," Shitari said, clearly exasperated. "Everyone just does want they want."

"Well, I suppose," Dayu said, unimpressed by Urawadachi's behavior as well.

"That reminds me," Shitari said as he came to stand near where she was now seated, "you've been pretty well behaved lately."

"Really?" she answered, in a casual tone of voice.

Doukoku may not have realized Juuzou saved you, but I did." Shitari stated. "However, I will pretend as if I don't know anything for now."

"Oh, I get it," Dayu said as she readied herself to play on her shamisen.

While Kotoha and Takeru were just stepping into the ballroom of Yoshibou's family home, the other Shinkengers, excluding Genta, were informing Jii-san of the plan, including the surprising addition of Takeru going with Kotoha as her manservant. Though they were saving that bit of information for last.

"The Matsumiya family?" asked Jii-san, as he paced the room in front of Ryuunosuke, Mako, and Chiaki. The three Shinkengers were sitting, well, in Mako's case, kneeling, and drinking tea as they watched Jii-san process the news of Kotoha's involvement in the plan.

"The Matsumiya's are famous plutocrats," he explained, as he continued pacing. He stopped pacing and asked, "Kotoha is going to say she's the fiancée for one of their noble sons?"

"According to Genta it seems the candidates for Obocchama's fiancées are ferocious," Mako responded.

"He's fed up with it, so he thought of announcing a fake betrothal," Chiaki put in.

"I see," said Jii-san, still looking somewhat thoughtful and more than a little confused as he asked, "But why Kotoha?"

"Oh, he met her at Gen-chan's cart one time," answered Chiaki.

Chiaki got a somewhat thoughtful look on his face and said quietly, "What if he was serious? But that couldn't be."

Chiaki shook his head, trying to convince himself as he said, "nope, nope, nope."

A flash of memory of Kotoha stepping out of her room and Mako asking them how Kotoha looked in the dress assaulted him. He shook his head to clear the image from his mind.

Kotoha was a precious friend to him; he didn't like the idea of not knowing what this guy's intentions were toward her…and the fact that if he were genuine that the guy would most likely convince Kotoha to stop being a Shinkenger and then where would that leave the team? Where would it leave his relationship with Kotoha? They couldn't exactly be friends like they once were if Kotoha married the guy. He shook the gloomy thoughts from his mind and concentrated on what Ryuunosuke was saying now.

"The problem was to make Kotoha seem like a fine lady," Ryuunosuke said, "I think we succeeded, but it is really all up to her now. Well, and I guess she'll have a better chance of that now that Tono is acting as her manservant. I'm still not sure how that came to pass though."

"What?! Our Tono is an attendant?!" Jii-san exclaimed.

"Yep, and I've got the picture to prove it," Chiaki said with a smile as he pulled out his shodophone to show off the picture to Jii-san.

"CHIAKI!" Jii-san barked, genuinely annoyed with Shinken Green.

Chiaki just grinned all the more.

Author notes: Happy belated New Year, everyone! I apologize for the delay in getting this story completed. Thank you for your continued patience. Hopefully this year will be the year that I complete this story, because frankly I have other ideas for other stories going around in my head but I want to complete this one first. Anyway, how'd you like the chapter? Were the characters in-character? How'd my fellow Takeru/Kotoha shippers like how I explained Chiaki's response to Kotoha being the fake fiancée? Personally, I thought it was a pretty good explanation, though not the only one I'll admit. How'd you like him taking a picture of Takeru dressed in butler clothing? *grins* He would so totally have done that if given the chance.

Next up…Kotoha and Takeru meet up with Genta, Takeru gets schooled in being a good manservant, and Yoshibou asks Kotoha for a dance? I'm already working on chapter eight, so hopefully it will come about better than this one did.

-Veronica