As I said I will not be re-writting the whole series so...since Act 4 was focused on Ryuunosuke and Mako, my Act 4 will actually be Kaoru's point of view on her retainers.

So...it's a bit shorter than the others.

Sorry, Act 5 will be featuring the battles again as it features more of Shinken Red's journey.

*****At the Shiba Manor*****

Kaoru had been practicing the new characters that were given to her by Jii, unlike her teammates she was practicing them at her room since they were not to be seen by anyone else.

Also Jii had not given up trying to get her to socialize more with her retainers, sure she liked Kotoha well enough as a training partner but Kaoru wasn't going to make friends with her.

And Ryuunosuke and Chiaki got on her nerves but for different reasons, one was too invested on the samurai traditions (someone has to give him the memo that this isn't a period drama) and the other was too much of a slacker.

Mako...was still analyzing everyone and reminded her too much of her mother to her taste, the Pink samurai seemed to be the kind of person who wanted to take care of everyone but also knew no boundaries.

Also, Ryuunosuke had been interested on talking with the other about their feelings about being a samurai or something like that.

Too much drama.

She was pondering on that while Jii evaluated her work, he seemed to be pleased by it though she saw him frowning a few times but didn' say anything.

"Hime-sama, breakfast is about to be ready" Jii fianlly said "You should go, your characters are acceptable"

The Shiba Clan lady deflated a little, acceptable wasn't enough.

She stood up and went with a heavy heart to the main room where her retainers were practicing their own characters.

Well, were supposed to but it seemed that they had already finished...except for Chiaki who was still practicing the character for "leaves" with Kotoha watching him. Mako was reading a magazine and Ryuunosuke sat in front of him while saying "A samurai's life is pretty hard, isn't it?"

Chiaki gave Ryuunosuke a weirded out look and said "Why are you doing this again?"

"You can always talk to me about anyting" The Blue samurai insisted.

"I'm fine" The Green samurai said and looked away.

Ryuunosuke was down for a seconde before putting his hands on Kotoha's shoulders while saying "If you have any worries, tell me"

The Yellow samurai smiled brightely as she always did and asked in confusion "Worries? Why would I have worries?"

The young man seemed to lose his calmness for a moment and then regained it before saying "You know, like...if you want to go home or if you feel alone..."

Kotoha tilted her head and smiled not understanding, then she said "I...think I am okay"

Chiaki stood up wanting to avoid further annoyance and went to Kaoru while saying "Could you stop that?"

"Stop what?" She asked wanting to hear more of the conversation between Ryuunosuke and Kotoha, the truth be told she had never thought about her retainers' feelings about leaving their previous life. Well not much, it wasn't like she could emphatize...she had always lived at the Shiba Manor with Jii and before that with her mother.

"He is being annoying"

Kaoru tilted her head and said "Kotoha seems fine with him asking"

"Everything is fine for Kotoha" He scoffed and crossed his arms before leaning on the wall.

"True" She muttered and added "Has he been doing this for long?"

Chiaki seemed to think for a second before saying "Since yesterday"

She was about to say something when she heard Kotoha saying with a smile "There is no need to worry"

And then the Yellow samurai took a sip of her tea while the Blue samurai made a pout while nodding , Kaoru was about to step in to talk with Kotoha when she saw Ryuunosuke sitting next to Mako.

She leaned on the wall to hear the conversation, she knew that Jii would scold her for doing that but she wanted to see and hear what the Pink samurai could say.

Mako wasn't one to tolerate Ryuunosuke.

In the last few weeks they had been living together Kaoru noticed that while Mako could be kind (usually), she wasn't exactly the most understanding person to those who annoyed her and among those was their teammate.

"Mako! You have been keeping quiet about something" Ryuunosuke said in a tone of voice that made Kaoru and Chiaki cringe "If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know"

The pink samurai turned her head in annoyance and told her teammate "You are annoying"

"Eh?" The blue samurai blinked in confusion and then started to say "But, Mako-"

The young woman hit him with the magazine she was reading an gave him a look that warned him not to keep speaking with her and so Ryuunosuke stood up while pout.

"Well, he had it coming" Chiaki muttered and tilted his head before saying "At least he is not comming to pester you"

"He wouldn't do that" Kaoru simply said and shrugged, something that surely would gain a scold from Jii as it was undignified for a Shiba, then she added "He is too keen on keeping traditions to try to ask such a personal question"

"Oh, right" The teenager rolled his eyes and said with a mocking tone "You are hime-sama"

For a moment Kaoru considered hitting him with a fan, then she remembered that her favorite one was in her bedroom and settled for shooting an annoyed look at him.

"I'm going training" She said after a moment and decide to try to be kind, so she asked "Want to come?"

Chiaki scrunched his nose and putting his hands on his pockets he said "Pass"

"Your loss" She said and started to go to the training yard when the Sukima Sensor rang.

*****At a Shinto Temple*****

There was a boy speaking with an Ayakashi named Namiayashi, apparently the Gedou was trying to convince him about something and they were talking secretively.

Shinken Red motioned her teammates to follow her and Shinken Green and Shinken Blue attacked it with her. Meanwhile Shinken Yellow and Shinken Pink went to help the boy who seemed to be overly confused at the situation.

"I have no business with you five" Namiayashi said "My fun beings here"

Then it disappeared into a crevice.

The five samurai stood there trying to understand what did the Ayakashi meant with "fun" and then Shinken Pink said "That child worries me, who knows what it told-?"

"Let's go find him" Shinken Red interrupted not wanting to waste any time her "Let's split"

They all unheshined and then went their separate ways to find the boy.

*****At a park*****

As far as Kaoru remembered Ayakashi only went to children to make them scared not talk, it was strange that the boy wasn't scared of Nimiayashi.

She decided to go to children's park and its surroundings to seach for the kid, it was the only place she could think of and there was no hurt on trying to find him there.

It was fairly quiet for an afternoon and there was just a bunch of kids at the playground.

The Red samurai couldn't remember the last time she went to one of those places and as she watched some little girls playing on the swings she felt a pang of nostalgia.

"I thought you said that we should find the kid" She heard Chiaki's voice approaching and when she turned to face him, the girl saw that he had a box of oden.

"I'm looking for him" The Red samurai said and looked pointedly at the oden "Unlike you"

"He couldn't have gone that far" He said without any preocupation "And its no like the Ayakashi will come back soon"

Kaoru wanted to scold him but instead kept her cool. He was right no Ayakashi returned for while, especially when they started to go dry.

Instead she motioned him to follow her as she started to go down to the other park where she knew that was a baseball field.

"Can't I least finish my oden?" He asked annoyed.

She didn't answer and kept motioning him to follow.

The walk to the field was silent as neither of them wanted to start a conversation with the other.

Kaoru was glad and grateful for the silence, it was something that she needed after the reatiners started living at the manor.

There was too much noise nowadays.

For his part, Chiaki was glad for the silence as he still didn't know what to make about the team leader and she always seemed to be pissed off at him.

When they were approaching the field, they saw Ryuunosuke and Mako already talking to the boy though it didn't seem that he was receptive about receiving their help.

"Well, they found him" Chiaki said and started eating the oden he had left and when he saw her annoyed look he said "Do you want?"

She just shook her head and said "Let's go back to the mansion, they will take care of this"

"Are you sure?" He asked a little worried. Sure, he didn't want to follow the kid around but what would happen if the Ayakashi returned.

Kaoru was about to respond when both of them got a message on their Shodophones, it was from Mako and it read "Found him, we are going to keep an eye on him and see if the Ayakashi comes back"

"I suppose we can head home" Chiaki said relaxing a bit, at least the kid would have someone to look out for him just in case, and then saw Kotoha near.

"Hime-sama! Chiaki!" She called them and Kaoru noticed that she was relieved.

"She hasn't gone out much yet, surely she was worried that she wouldn't find her way back to the manor easily" Kaoru realized after a few seconds and said "We were about to go to the manor, it's good that we found you"

Kotoha smiled.

*****Back at the Shiba Manor*****

When they got back they explained the situation to Jii, who was worried about them as they didn't exactly tell the kuroko about where they were going, and after that each of them went back to their rooms.

Kaoru had left some of her new characters undone so she decided to practice Mojikara before going to the training yard.

She was training her sword technique when she smelled smoke.

The Red samurai looked around to see if she could determine the origin of the smoke but she realized that it wasn't near her.

Was something burning inside the manor?

She ran back into the manor and saw the smoke filling the hallway and she felt her heart rising as she fought back some memories.

Then she realized that the origin of the smoke was the kitchen and so she went to investigate, she saw some kuroko coming out and in with some towels and one of them was carrying a fire extingisher.

"What is happening?" Kaoru asked and went to the kitchen's door.

"Ryuunosuke and Mako have decided not to take their eyes off that kid, he stayed there while she came to cook"

"She said that he was feeling homesick so she is prepraing a bento for him" Kotoha responded without looking at her, the younger girl was looking at the Pink samurai in awe.

Kaoru frowned and thought "Oh, him being homesick makes sense, that was why he was being so annoying"

"I admire people who knows how to cook" Kotoha commented and said "I could never learn even when my grandmother tried to teach me"

The Red samurai simply muttered "I never learnt to cook either"

"Is that cooking?" Chiaki said snickering as he saw how Mako used her Shinkenmaru to cut a cabagge when she realized that she wouldn't be able to cut it with the knife she was using.

A kuroko just stood there wanting to give her some tips but she shook him off.

"She said that she wanted to learn how to take care of a household since she wants to be a normal bride" Kotoha added.

Chiaki fell on his back from the surprise while Kaoru snickered, a samurai could never be normal and the fact that she was using her Shinkenmaru to cook showed that.

She remembers that her mother used too cook, sometimes. She never used a katana to do so though.

"I just hope that Ryuunosuke doesn't die" Kaoru muttered but she knew that Chiaki had heard her when he snickered.

They didn't find it so funny when Mako said that she had left some food for them after packing everything she could.

Only Kotoha ate that food.

*****The next day at the Shiba Manor*****

Kaoru was not surprised when she went to the main room and only Kotoha and Jii were there taking their breakfast.

"Are Ryuunosuke and Mako looking over that kid?" She asked for confirmation.

"Yes, they haven't returned yet" Jii informed her "There have been no signs of the Ayakashi either"

She nodded and sat down as one kuroko offered her a cup of tea.

"Where is Chiaki?" She asked, again knowing the answer but wanting her suspicions be confirmed.

"He overslept" Kotoha said.

"Is there any day that we have no training at dawn that he doesn't oversleep?" Kaoru thought. At least he no longer needed the kuroko to wake him up when they had to train on the morning, something about him wanting to get better at being a samurai.

"I should give him a talk" Jii said with dissapoinment, he truly felt that the Green samurai should be more serious about his intents at getting better as a retainer but he also knew that he was too young still to truly assimilate the situation...then again, the princess was the same age as him and was very serious about her duty.

She had to be.

"I'm here" Chiaki said after a long yawn and stretching his arms. He sat unceremoniously and thanked the kuroko for this meal.

He then noticed that Jii was looking at him as if he was going to be given a lecture.

"What?" He asked "I'm early"

Jii was about to scold him but the sukima sensor rang and they had to leave to help the others with the Ayakashi.

*****A forest near the Shinto Temple*****

When Shinken Red, Shinken Yellow and Shinken Green arrived to the battle Shinken Pink and Shinken Blue were down and Namiayashi was laughing at them.

"Sorry for being late" Shinken Yellow said.

"Focus" Shinken Red told them as Nannashi came out the ground.

The five Shinkenger used ther special weapons to fight them easily as the Ayakashi was fighting Shinken Pink and Shinken Blue.

"We have to attack him at the same time" Shinken Pink told Shinken Blue as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay" He said as he stood up.

Then they used the Water Arrow and Heaven fan to attack Namiayashi and end his first life.

"We did it, Mako" Shinken Blue said and tried to put his hand on her shoulder but she turned to Shinken Yellow, who said "That was great, Mako-chan"

"Good job...Mako, Ryuunosuke" Shinken Red praised them. Jii had told her that it was a good idea to tell her retainers when they did something good.

"Not bad" Shinken Green said shrugging and pointed at the sky "Second life"

"Leave this to me" Shinken Pink said taking out Kame Origami.

"I'll follow you" Shinken Blue nodded while taking out Ryuu Origami.

As both Origami took their giant form they went forward to attack Namiayashi and worked together to make an attack as Ryuu Origami lifted Kame Origami to threw it at the Ayakashi.

"We should join them" Shinken Red said and took out her Origami.

"Okay" Shinken Green and Shinken Yellow agreed.

Then they combined all Origami in Samurai Gattai.

The Ayakashi and the mecha engaged each other in the fight, then Namiayashi bite it and made the Shinkengers drop their sword and almost fall to their feet.

"What's up with this guy?" Shinken Green asked.

"Hime-sama,I have an idea" Shinken Blue said after a few seconds.

Shinken Red turned her head to him and after considerng it, she said "Okay then, I'll leave it to you"

"Thank you" The Blue samurai bowed a little before turning to his station and using the Ryuu nobori gyaru which made the Samurai Gattai jump up.

Then Shinken Pink used the Kame Tenkuu Ken which make Kame Origami punch the Ayakashi and when they lifted up their sword.

"Samurai Giri!" They all said finally slashing Namiayashi

*****At the baseball field*****

The five samurai were watching the baseball game and all of them were relieved that the kid was okay, his leg was broken and couldn't play but he at least now knew that he shouldn't trust an Ayakashi.

Also he seemed to be listening to his coach advise.

Kaoru tilted her head a little before sighing and writting the character "Memory" to conjure the memory of the child's grandfather.

It was brief but she knew that he would be happy, at least for a moment.

Chiaki looked weirdly at her and raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, Kotoha just said "Very impressive, hime-sama"

The Red samurai just shrugged and said "Let's get back home"

*****The Gardens*****

Kaoru was tending to the new flowers the kuroko had gotten for the garden when she heard a few steps behind her and was not actually too suprised to see Kotoha there with her flute on her hands.

"I-" The Yellow samurai started to say with some embarrasement.

"You can stay, I don't mind" Kaoru said turning back to her flowers and considered if she really liked the white shirageku they had gotten instead of the red ones they had before. After a silence she added "I know you come here at night since you came to live here, you play the flute well"

The younger girl blinked a few times before bowing her head and saying "T-Thank you, hime-sama"

After half an hour or so they heard the sound of broken plates and Kaoru asked "Mako?"

The Yellow samurai shook her head and said "Ryuu-san seems to have developed a crush on Mako-chan and is trying to cook for her"

The Red samurai sighed and thought "I hope them cooking doesn't become an habit"

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