Chapter 25

It happened to be another day at the Shiba household filled with training, currently in the front yard Mike and Kevin were practicing with their spin swords while Emily was practicing her symbol powers. Kevin watched as Mike easily sliced a whole watermelon in half, he nodded in approval before showing off to Mike by cutting a coconut in two in midair.

As they continued their training Emily had finished up writing a symbol on the easel, suddenly from the symbol a huge boulder appeared, she gasp and quickly ducked under the table as the rock began rolling towards Kevin and Mike "Watch out!"

The guys looked and quickly backed up, trying to stop the boulder with their spin swords. Though it was no use, the guys were soon pushed off to the side by the rock which soon stopped once running into the stone bench.

Emily came running over to Kevin and Mike, she stopped and sheepishly looked at them "Sorry…"

"No problem Em! Man…How cool would these be if they cut through stone like Deker's sword?" said Mike as he admired his spin sword

A bit out of breath from the ordeal Kevin said "Just be glad we haven't met anything that will require that type of power."

"True…Still would be cool…"

Meanwhile in the city Jayden, Nariko and Mia were at the marketplace gathering groceries. Currently Jayden was waiting outside a store messing with a candy machine while Nariko and Mia went to buy the food. Soon the girls came out with only Mia carrying a bag of groceries, the red ranger immediately abandoned the machine and approached the girls "Hey Mia, can I take that for you?"

"Sure, thanks!"

As he took the bag, Jayden took a look at the food inside "Oysters…Chocolate sauce…Brussels sprouts…You sure you got everything you need for this recipe, Mia?"

"Sure am!"

"It sounds uh…Interesting…"

"The secret is to mixing ingredients at just the right way."

While Mia began walking away the couple shared a look before Jayden looked the other way muttering "Explain that to the paramedics…"

Nariko looked at her fiance in disbelief then sharply elbowed him in the side just as Mia turned around looking at the two in confusion "What?"

"Ah! O-Oh! Nothing…" Jayden quickly said, Mia simply just shrugged her shoulder and continued her walking. Once she was out of earshot the red ranger turned to his fiance "What was that for?"

"That was for what you said!"

"You didn't have to elbow me that hard!"

"Well then you shouldn't have said it out loud!"

And with that Nariko walked off in the same direction as Mia, Jayden sighed a bit before following after his fiance.

10 minutes passed and the three were still making their way back to the household. Noticing how quiet the Yamada princess was being, Mia couldn't help but asked "Hey Nariko…Are you ok?"

"Yeah…I'm fine…"

"You sure? You've been really quiet ever since we left the household."

"Yes I'm sure…Just thinking that's all…"

"About what?"

"Just…Something…"

Jayden looked at his fiance in concern and before he could ask her, his samuraizer went off to which he immediately answered. The red ranger listened for a moment then nodded "Got it!"

He looked to the girls "A nighlok has appeared…Nariko-"

"I'll be fine getting back home Jayden…You and the others go take care of that nighlok."

"Nariko…"

The Yamada heir simply turned away and walked off leaving Mia and Jayden to stare after her. The pink ranger looked to her leader "Jayden…"

"I'm sure she's fine Mia…Just give Nariko her space, I assume she wants to be alone right now."

"If you say so Jayden…" thus the two rangers set off towards the location of the nighlok that had appeared.

Meanwhile back at the household Nariko had just walked in only to have Ji approached her "Nariko I'm glad that you're back I just…" he trailed off once noticing the look on the princess' face "Nariko…Are you ok?"

"Yes I'm fine Ji…Look I'm gonna be out in the garden and would very much appreciate it if no one bothers me."

"Yes…But of course…Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yes I'm sure…Now if you'll excuse me…"

And with that the Yamada heir brushed pass the samurai mentor who couldn't help but stare after her in worry.

Minutes later the rangers had returned to the household after having some difficulty dealing with the nighlok named Armadeevil, which had a tough shell to crack and escaped during the battle.

"Nothing gets through his armor! How are we going to fight him?" questioned Mike

"We'll find a way! He must have some weakness…" told Jayden

"May I remind you that none of our attacks damaged him at all?"

Kevin looked at Mike when he said that then looked away and said to himself "Not one of them…"

"Like Jayden said…There must be some crack in his defenses." Told Ji as Jayden, Mike, Emily and Mia took a seat in the living room.

After thinking for a bit, he soon thought up of something and exclaimed "That's it!"

Jayden looked at the blue ranger "What? You have an idea?"

"Yeah! I think I crack the code…We just need the right ranger…With the right attack…In the right order! We'll beat him as a team!"

"Speaking of team…Where's Antonio?" wondered Emily

Thus the ranger team began waiting around, reading books while Ji was trying to contact Antonio. After dozens of tries Ji finally but his cellphone away "I wonder what he's gotten himself into this time…"

Kevin shut his book at this "Seriously…That guy is a trouble magnet!"

"Guys…He may seem a jokester but Antonio takes this stuff seriously. He wouldn't just ignore our calls…He could be in trouble…" said Emily

Soon noticing that his fiance was missing, Jayden looked to the samurai mentor "Ji…Where's Nariko?"

"She's out in the garden."

"What is she doing out there by herself?"

"I'm not sure…But she told me she doesn't want to be disturbed at all."

"That's a first…"

The red ranger then began making his leave from the room, Ji called after him "Jayden where are you going?"

"To check on Nariko."

"But she said she didn't want to be disturbed."

"That's not going to stop me from seeing her."

Out in the garden Nariko had her sais with her and was practicing with them. While she was practicing, little sparks of lightning slowly began to circle the blades. "Almost there…Got to get this one technique down…" thought Nariko

Soon the blades were surrounded by lightning and thus the Yamada princess made a swinging motion with her weapons, the lightning left the blades and formed two lightning spheres that traveled very far before disappearing. Nariko smiled a bit at her success "I did it…A bit sloppy though…"

"Nariko?"

She gasped and turned around to find the red samurai ranger standing there "Jayden!" the Yamada princess quickly hid her sais behind her back "I didn't know you were back."

"We've been back for quite some time…What are you doing out here by yourself?"

"Oh just practicing with the sais you gave me."

"How come you didn't want anyone to disturb you?"

"Jayden you know that I don't like being disturbed when I'm training."

"True…But you don't mind when I'm watching you practice."

Before Nariko could say anymore, the gap sensor went off in the household. Jayden looked to the building then back at his fiance who gave a small smile "You should get going."

"We're not finished here, when I get back we're resuming our talk."

And with that said the red ranger took his leave from the household with his team following. Once he was gone from sight, Nariko slowly lifted her left sleeve that happened to be covering her hand to reveal a burn mark that she received during her practice, the Yamada princess gazed at her hand for a bit before quickly making her way into the household.

At the city Armadeevil had showed up again to create more fear, the nighlok was having a blast but to his dismay the samurai power rangers showed up to stop him.

"You fools again?" said Armadeevil

"Yeah but this time we're shutting you down hard!" told Mike

"Ha! You just proved how foolish you are thinking you could win!"

The nighlok quickly attacked the rangers who were completely caught off guard by this and were thrown upon their backs. Just as Armadeevil was about to roll towards the fallen rangers to hurt them more, he stopped in his tracks once a great shock to his shell.

The nighlok quickly turned around and growled "Who did that?"

Right above him, upon a bridge stood a hooded masked figure that simply stared down. The rangers looked up at the figure in wonder. "Hey…Who is that?" asked Mia

"Not sure…But it seems like they're on our side…" said Jayden

"You there! Who are you?" demanded Armadeevil

The figure gave no reply but brought out their sais that were immediately surrounded by streaks of lightning. The person then made a swinging motion with the sais and from the blades two spheres of lightning shot out towards Armadeevil. The attack hit the nighlok straight who cried out in pain.

The hooded figure then jumped down and began casually walking away. Not liking at what's happening Armadeevil curled up into a ball and began rolling towards the person "You're not getting away that easily!"

Seeing this as an opportunity Jayden got up "It's time for Kevin's plan, phase one!"

The other rangers quickly got up on their feet and began Kevin's plan.

"First we'll use his own speed against him!" said Mike

Both he and Emily quickly got in Armadeevil's path towards the hooded figure and used their symbol powers to create a barrier. Doing so, the nighlok ran into the barrier which sent him upon his back "Oh! That's stone cold rangers!"

"Now phase two!" told Jayden who pulled out his spin sword along with Mia and used their powers upon Armadeevil.

The nighlok once again rolled up in a sphere to protect him from the rangers' attacks and chuckled at their attempts "Ha, ha, ha! That actually tickled a bit!"

Jayden then looked to Kevin "Now phase three!"

The blue ranger pulled out his samuraizer "On it!" and began writing out a symbol "You still can't see the writing on the wall, can you nighlok? Time to make you come out of your shell! Tidal wave!"

A huge wave of water appeared and headed towards Armadeevil, immediately soaking the nighlok in water.

Kevin put his samuraizer away "That should do it!"

"Ha, ha, ha! All you did was clean my indestructible shell! Thanks for the wash!" chuckled Armadeevil

"You sure that's what we did?" questioned Jayden

Suddenly Armadeevil felt his indestructible shell cracking and began to panic "What? Ah, my shell it's cracking!"

"Your armor may be able to handle any single attacks…" said Jayden

"But with the single attacks in the right order, even your armor isn't strong enough!" finished Kevin

"First we soften your shell, then we raised its temperature with our intense heat and wind attacks and last the water quickly cooled your hot shell making it brittle. So now it's time to break your invincible armor for good!" said the red ranger

"Impossible!" cried Armadeevil

And with that the rangers charged the nighlok head on, not knowing the hooded figure was still there watching from behind a tree. Armadeevil was soon destroyed but immediately came back in his large form. The rangers wasted no time forming their megazord and defeating the nighlok once and for all. At last the battle was over and done with, the rangers had returned to the ground with their folding zords going back to their small size.

"Hey guys…Who was tat hooded figure that helped us?" asked Mike

"No clue…But did you see that move with the lightning? That was pretty impressive and powerful!" said Kevin

Jayden stood there in thought for a moment "Those sais…They looked exactly like Nariko's…Could the hooded figure be her?"

The red samurai ranger then looked to his team "Come on you guys let's head back to the household to rest."

At the Shiba household, upon entering the building Jayden immediately went over to the samurai mentor "Ji…Where's Nariko?"

"She's been in her room sleeping, I just checked on her a few minutes ago."

"Really?"

"Yes…What is it Jayden?"

"Uh…Nothing…I'm going to go check on Nariko myself."

Thus the red ranger quickly made his way to his fiancé's room, where he found the Yamada princess in her bed peacefully sleeping. Jayden quietly made his way over and kneel by her bed side, gently stroking her cheek "Nariko?"

She gave out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes "H-Huh, Jayden?"

"Hey…There's something I want to ask you…"

"What is it?"

"Were you there to stop the nighlok from attacking us?"

"What are you talking about? I was mostly here sleeping…"

"I see…Well I was just wondering anyway…"

Jayden stroked her cheek once more "Well I'm gonna leave so you can go back to sleep…We'll continue our talk from earlier after you nap ok?"

"Sounds good to me."

With that the red ranger leaned down and kissed his fiance on the forehead before taking his leave from the room. As he closed the door behind him, Nariko listened carefully to Jayden's fading footsteps before letting out a relieved sigh "Oh man…That was cutting it close…I don't like the fact that I lied to Jayden but…I'm starting to have my doubts if I'm really good enough for him…I want to protect him just like how he protects me…Which he mustn't know what I'm doing…"

Nariko then looked at her left bandaged hand "I just hope he understands my reason for keeping this a secret from him…"