So, here you have Act 2, hope you like it

A few days had passed since they first fought Kagekumaro and no Ayakashi had attacked yet, just a few Nanashi here and there. Kaoru was starting to question if Jii had been right about calling the retainers but according to her caretaker things were the most tranquil when they were going to take a turn for the worse.

So, Kaoru decided to train with her retainers, they had to be on the same level as her.

As she had said the best among them was Ryuunosuke, with Mako following a close second and Kotoha was not half bad but Kaoru had a few qualms about her.

She was too young and to… naïve for the lack of a better word, it didn't matter that she was just a year younger than her, it felt as if she was a child, the yellow samurai had that kind of aura that irradiated happiness and light.

Kaoru is almost tempted to dismiss her but she had to admit that the team needed her.

Chiaki was another matter, completely another matter.

Jii was watching them as they practiced their Mojikara over paper blocs, each of them was writing kanji correspondent to their element.

"You are doing pretty well" The old man said with a proud smile as he saw Ryuunosuke's and Kotoha's calligraphy, then he looked at Mako's and Kaoru's and smiled again.

"I'm not sure about that" Kaoru muttered but it was loud enough for Jii to hear and so the man turned to Chiaki who was having a hard time writing the kanji for "Grass", even though Kaoru had to admit that it was readable he got the stroke order totally wrong.

She resisted the urge to wince when Jii hit the Green samurai on the back of his head.

"The stoke order is wrong"

"Hey! That hurts!" Chiaki turned to face Jii while complaining "There was no need to do that!"

"Silence!" The man walked a few steps away and added "If you cannot properly write your words, you will be no use to the princess"

"Yes, yes" Chiaki responded while rolling his eyes, then he bent forward a bit to pretend to continue practicing his Mojikara but instead took out Kuma Origami and tapped it to make it shift into a bear.

Kaoru noticed it and coughed a little bit to catch his attention, he was trouble but she didn't want to hear Jii lecturing even if he wasn't lecturing her. The boy rolled his eyes and ignored her and made Kuma bit Jii's leg.

She grimaced and tapped Shishi Origami to make it turn into its lion form and knocked away Kuma.

"Chiaki! You shouldn't use the Origami like that!" Ryuunosuke chastised him "Besides we are in front of our princess"

"Can you stop with the "princess" and "lady" stuff?"

"What?"

"I didn't come here to be part of some period drama" The Green samurai saw Kuma fly towards him and caught it with his hand, then he looked at Kaoru who had also caught her origami in her hand and said "I'm not your retainer"

The girl sighed and said trying to keep her cool "Look, if you are not going to be serious about being Shinken Green, pack up and go" She heard Kotoha gasp and knew that she had failed a keeping her temper down "I don't care about you thinking about me as "Hime-sama", but as I said…we don't have used for usele-"

That seemed to rile up Chiaki, who got closer to the Red samurai and interrupted her "What? Are you going to fire me or-?"

"Yes"

"You don't get to decided that yourself"

Both samurai locked their eyes while the other Shinkengers stood by and saw the exchange, Mako particularly was interested to see how it developed but before she could make a comment Jii hit Chiaki in the head again while giving Kaoru a disapproving look.

Kaoru just turned her back and walked into the Shiba Manor, she wasn't going to be lectured by her caretaker in front of the other Shinkengers.

"Hime-sama"

Kaoru heard Jii said while she was sitting in the garden, she was reading a book as a way to relax and forget a about the whole debacle with Chiaki. She just nodded as a way of acknowledgment and waited for the lecture.

"Hime-sama, you lost your temper today"

"Chiaki will just hold us back, his lack of training bothers me" She closed her book knowing that she would have to pay attention to what he was going to say.

"While I agree that he is lacking…in a few fields" Jii said "There is always room for improvement, your fellow samurai…have not been trained with the same rigidness as you…" He made a pause "Even if you haven't finished your training and…"

She huffed and closed her book as a way to end the conversation.

Kaoru knew that she was acting childish and that she had let her emotions show in front of her retainers but she wasn't going to hear about it today.

"Until you are ready to continue your "special training", you should try to get to know your retainers, even if you don't want to make friends, it won't hurt" He then added "Take it as a way to build trust between…"

"I'll consider it" She interrupted him, they already had this conversation.

"You said that the other day, hime-sama"

The girl looked at the few flowers that were in the garden and said "We should get more tsubaki, tell the kuroko to plant some when the weather improves" Then she stood up and looked at the cherry trees and added "Get some shiragiku too"

Jii just nodded and went back to the manor after a bow.

She had lost interest on her book so she closed it and sighed, she was going to ask the chef kuroko to prepare some senbei when she saw Kotoha walking towards the exit while carrying a training sword and a bamboo flute.

Curiosity got the best of her and so she followed the Yellow samurai till she stopped at a park near a bridge that was about twenty minutes walking from the manor.

At first Kaoru had wanted to return to the manor, it was too cold and she had not taken a warmer jacket with her but at east she was using a scarf and boots, she considered her options. She was curious about the way her retainers trained by themselves, so she stood at a reasonable distance and after a few minutes of watching the Hanaori girl train she walked over to her and said "It would be good for you to train with someone else"

That seemed to startle the other girl who dropped the training sword over her feet and said " !"

"Sorry for startling you" Kaoru said walking towards her and looked at the bamboo flute Kotoha had on her pocket.

Kotoha noticed that and got flustered, then she picked up the training sword and said "Umm…"

"I can train with you" Kaoru offered and thought "Too much for being nice"

"I wouldn't want to bother you, hime"

"It wouldn't be a bother" She responded while taking out her Shodophone to write a kanji to conjure a training sword "It's have been while since I had a training partner"

Meanwhile at the bridge near the park where Kotoha and Kaoru were training, Ryuunosuke and Chiaki were about to have a heated discussion. They had been helping Mako search for Kotoha, they didn't know that Kaoru was also missing since they assumed she was in her room, and after a while he decided to buy an oden and sit to eat while he said "Anyway, our "Hime-sama" is far too strict"

That riled Ryuunosuke up and he reprimanded the younger samurai "You are really stubborn. Don't say bad things about our princess"

Chiaki took a bite of his oden "You are fawning to much over her even though she barely pays any mind about us unless we are practicing Mojikara or having dinner"

"It is not fawning!" Ryuunosuke stood in front of Chiaki and looked down at him "As a retainer, this is the customary etiquette required" He looked at Mako and then again at Chiaki "That's the way I was raised! Wasn't it the same with you guys?"

"Not really"

"Then your parents were pretty irresponsible"

"True" Chiaki said sighing and walked away, then he turned back and started walking up to the Blue samurai "But it still pisses me off!"

Mako had enough by then and stood up in between Ryuunosuke and Chiaki trying to keep them apart "This is no time for a fight"

"Whose side are you on? "Hime-sama's?" Chiaki asked in a mocking an annoyed tone.

"I abandoned my dreams to come here…" Mako started to say and thought about how to say what she thought about the situation "If she is an irresponsible leader, I'm not goignt to trust my life to her. That's all"

"The princess is not irresponsible-"

"I haven't made up my mind…ye" Mako looked at him and asked "Ryuunosuke, didn't you abandon kabuki? Don't you feel the same way?"

"No" He walked past Mako and stood a couple feet away from the group, even if he said that he didn't feel the same way, her words hit a sore spot for him. Then he said "For samurai, once they decided on a lord, then that's their lord…or lady"

"Geez" Chiaki was rubbing the back of his head "I just can't with this "lord" and "princess" stuff!"

"As a retainer, you…"

Both samurai were rushing up to each other till Mako stood in between, then she saw Kotoha training nearby. She started walking over to Kotoha and stopped on her tracks when she saw that Kaoru was with her too.

That was a surprise.

She resumed her walk while Ryuunosuke and Chiaki followed her.

"Kotoha…" She said in a relieved tone and then she acknowledged Kaoru's presence by bowing her head, she hadn't made up her mind about how to address her and the girl didn't seem to mind despite whatever Ryuunosuke said about manners. Then she asked "What are you doing here? Why are you training without us?"

"Did "hime-sama" made you come here to practice?" Chiaki asked while standing next to Kaoru and having a bite of his oden.

Kaoru closed her eyes and was about to say something but refrained to do so, she didn't need to antagonize the Green samurai twice in a day.

Still, she wanted to have a fan with her to hit him on the head.

"Amazing!" Ryuunosuke went up to Kaoru and said "Fantastic work, hime-sama, I'm glad to have such a dedicated leader"

Kaoru got uncomfortable and nodded but the Blue samurai didn't notice it and then went to Kotoha and held his hands over the Yellow samurai's while saying "And you Kotoha…what a splendid dedication!"

"Oh no…" Kotoha got flustered again and pulled her hands away and backed up a bit, then she looked at Kaoru while smiling a little "I just want to make sure I can help out our princess, that's what being a Shinkenger means, that's what my onne-chan taught me"

"Sister?"

"I'm replacing my sister as Shinkenger" The Yellow samurai said while taking out her flute "She got sick…"

"Seriously? Your luck is pretty bad" Chiaki said as he walked up to Kotoha.

"No, I am happy" She said dismissing his statement and surprising everyone "My grades are pretty bad and I can't make nice-looking bamboo stuff like the rest of my family…" She looked away "The flue and the sword are the only things I'm good at. Being a Shinkenger is the only things I can do. I just wanna do my best"

They all started to feel sorry for Kotoha and Ryuunosuke was trying to hold back tears, then he walked over to Chiaki and placed his hands on his shoulders while saying "Did you hear that? Such purity! She is a true samurai's child"

"Idiot!" The Green samurai pushed his teammate away and looked back at Kotoha "She has been brainwashed!" He held out his last oden and offered it to her "Here, for you"

"Eh?"

Mako walked up to Kotoha and hugged her while Kaoru looked away uncomfortably catching the attention of Chiaki, meanwhile Ryuunosuke let a few tears drop.

"We should head back" Kaoru said and started walking while Ryuunosuke followed her.

The samurai returned to the Shiba household right when the sensors detected Gedoushuu activity at Ugetsu-cho so they went to the location and when they arrived they saw a lot of Nanashi chasing around citizens.

The Ayakashi, Ootsumuji, ordered the Nanashi as soon the samurai transformed into their Shinkenger form, they all started to fight in different zones of the battlefield and started using their signature weapons.

At some point, Shinken Red started fighting Ootsumuji one-on-one while using her Rekka Daizantou who in turn was trying to slash her with its sword. Shinken Yellow used her Land Slicer to slash the Nanashi but it almost struck Shinken Red and so the Ayakashi used the distraction to hit the Red samurai and slammed her against a building.

"Hime-sama" Shinken Yellow ran over to Shinken Red and knelt down beside her.

"This is it" The Ayakashi prepared to give a final blow while Shinken Yellow got in front of Shinken Red and the other Shikengers ran over to them, they all were hit by the attack reverting to their civilian forms "What a bunch of weaklings"

Kaoru back on her civilian form tried to stand up a few times before she finally could and she held onto her arm before saying "You can stand up, right?" She leaned against the destroyed building and then added while she picked up her Shinkenmaru "If you can, then get up…if don't…don't get on the way"

She didn't wait to see who stood up, meanwhile Mako was the first one to get up and asked "Are you okay, guys?"

"What a jerk" Chiaki muttered as he got up but she had heard it and responded "If you are going to get beaten that easily, you are not needed!"

"Hime-sama" Kotoha said in a sad tone while she grasped a rock.

"Princess, we are trying our best!" Ryuunosuke said "Please, consider…"

Kaoru didn't turn her back and coolly said "Trying you best won't save lives, not even yours!" Then she wrote the kanji for the transformation

Seeing that Kotoha wasn't standing up Mako turned to her and gave her a concerned look, she knew that the girl had taken the worst of the hit and so she started to say "She didn't need to say it that way…Kotoha, wait here-"

"No, she is right…" The girl started to say as they saw Shinken Red fighting Ootsumuji again while saving a little girl and carrying the girl back to her mother "What's the point if we can't protect anyone"

At seeing that, Chiaki said "She is strong…I can give her that"

"Perhaps from her position a samurai has no need for kindness" Ryuunosuke reflected.

"All that matters is to defect the Gedoushuu and protect everyone" Mako said.

They all took out their Shodophones and transformed into their Shinkenger forms, they all deflected the Ayakashi's attack and then Shinken Red said while spinning the disc of her katana "Let's attack together"

The Shinkengers charged forwards as they each sliced the Ayakashi with their combined attack and destroyed it. Still, the Ayakashi had its second life as it grew into a giant version of itself.

The samurai took out their Origami and used their Mojikara to make them grow, then they charged towards the Ootsumuji but the Ayakashi was stronger.

"The Origami won't be enough. We need…" Shinken Red started to say.

"Samurai Gattai, I heard about this!" Shinken Blue said excitedly "All of you, follow my lead!"

The other samurai agreed but when they tried to form the mecha it ended up looking like an oden and Shishi origami was left out of the combination.

"Is this how its supposed to look?" Shinken Pink asked.

"Ryuunosuke…" Shinken Red said in a frustrated tone "What is that supposed to be?"

"Is there something wrong?" Shinken Blue asked confusedly.

"What about me?!"

"What are you doing, man?!" Shinken Green complained "Why am I on the bottom?"

"Is this a joke?" The Ayakashi started walking over to the origami oden to attack "I have played this game before"

Shinken Red sighed and said resignately "Morons, I'll handle it…" then she wrote the kanji for "Combine" "Samurai Gattai"

And so the origami shifted into different forms before combining into the Shinken-Oh. When they were all in the gattai, Shinken Red turned to Shinken Blue and said "Don't try to do it again"

"My apologies" He said ashamedly.

"I liked the one from before" Shinken Yellow commented.

"And now I'm hungry…" Shinken Green complained remembering that he hadn't finished his oden.

"Focus" Shinken Red said in a serious tone.

Then the Shinken-Oh swung its Daishinken down at Ootsumuji, who in turn summoned Nanashi that surrounded the mecha and used chains to invobilize them. Luckily for the Shinkengers, Shishi origami let out a large flame that took out most of the surrounding Nanashi and then Shinken-Oh pulled the chains held by the leftover Nanashi.

The Shinkenger unsheathed their blades and held it in front of them was the Shinken-Oh pointed its Daishinken at the Ayakashi.

"Daishinken!Samurai Giri!"

After that they spun their Shinkenmaru while the mecha swung its blade over Ootsumuji defeating it.

"This brings this act to a close"

The samurai stood near a large fountain as they were preparing to head back to the Shiba Manor, then suddenly Ryuunosuke knelt down in front of Kaoru making her back up a bit.

"Hime-sama! I was overcome with emotion in a lapse of impetuousness" The Blue samurai said while bowing "Please accept my sincerest apologies"

"Eh?" Kaoru managed to say and then, after some thought she said "There is no need for that"

"Now I truly understand what it means to be a samurai" He said with energy "Isn't that right, Chiaki?"

The Green samurai crossed his arms and said while looking defiantly at Kaoru "Yeah, but I still don't buy this period drama stuff"

"Hey! Listen, as a retainer…"

"That works for me" Kaoru simply said surprising the other Shinkenger and stopped Ryuunosuke who was about to start an argument with Chiaki.

Chiaki blinked not knowing what to say about that and just nodded uncomfortably. Then Kotoha walked towards Kaoru and bowed while saying "Hime-sama, um, I'm sorry" Then added with conviction "I'll try harder next time"

"You did well" She said quietly and looked away, then added "All of you"

That made Mako smile with approval, that reminded Kaoru of her mother and made her heart flip a little.

"Such kindness!" Ryuunosuke cried out and the put his hand over his mouth to mute a sob, then added "And in comparision, I…" He fell down on his knees once more and Kaoru almost fell back but Chiaki grabbed her by the arm "I made such a foolish mistake, in the heat of battle! How pathetic! Princess, to show my repentance…" He started to take out his jacket.

"There is no need for that!" Kaoru quickly said raising her hands but to no vail as Ryuunosuke went to the underneath the waterfall of the fountain.

"How cringy" Chiaki muttered with a bit of disdain while Ryuunosuke cried out "Hime-sama, I'm sorry"

"I hope this doesn't become a habit" Kaoru muttered while putting her hands on her pockets and looking away.

"Ryuunosuke might just be the most obnoxious of us" Mako commented.

"What should we do?" Kotoha asked Kaoru, she was holding the man's clothes.

Kaoru considered going back home as she was tired, and she was sure the rest were as well tired, but she said "Let's wait for a bit, let's hope he doesn't get a cold though"

This is the end of Act 2, leave a review either if you liked or disliked it, I want to hear you thoughts about this and suggestions.

See you later, if you want you can check out my other stories.