IMPORTANT: I don't, nor do I claim to own My Hero Academia, Super Sentai or Power Rangers. Those series are owned by Kohei Horikoshi, Toei and Hasbro respectively. this is just for fun so please don't sue.
Author's notes:
I'm so sorry that you had to wait almost 3 months, I really wanted to get it out earlier but then good ol writers block decided to rear its ugly head, couple that with a bit of built up stress and here we are now.
But that is neither here nor there, I've kept you waiting long enough, Please enjoy the new chapter...
Act 2: Samurai In Training
Ji grinned at Izuku's answer. "Then let the training begin." Ji said as the two walked back out to the training grounds, the black figures followed after them. Ji grabbed two training swords and tossed one to Izuku "first things first, there are two types of Nighlok, first are the wrathful warriors." Ji then got into a stance, the black figures surrounded him with their own training swords. "Next are the hordes of moogers, if you want to get to the Nighlok, you'll have to get past them."
Izuku then got the idea of the training. "oh! So you're the Nighlok and the… uh… "
"Kuroko."
"The kuroko are the moogers and I'm gonna have to fight them to get to you."
"That's correct Young Midoriya, come at us when you're ready." Ji stated.
Izuku took a deep breath before running at them, he swung his sword at one of the kuroko but they dodged and slammed their sword into Izuku's side, knocking him to the ground. "Arrgh!"
"Young Midoriya." Ji said as the Kuroko ran to Izuku's side to help him up. "Can you stand?" he asked as the kuroko began helping him to his feet.
"Y-yeah im fine." Izuku said as he picked up his sword. "I'm fine."
They tried that style again but it ended in the same outcome with izuku on the ground. "Perhaps I jumped the gun a bit with the combat training." Ji said as the kuroko once again helped izuku back to his feet.
"I'm sorry, Mentor." Izuku apologised.
"No no it's okay, well just take your training a bit slower." Ji said before ordering the Kuroko back to their regular tasks around the Shiba house. The two then walked over to one of the training dummies. "Copy my movements." Ji said he struck the dummy twice before performing a three-sixty degree slash.
Izuku then copied his movements, he was about to ask Ji if it was good but was suddenly hit in the back of his head by Ji's sword. "Ow! What the heck was that?"
"I was checking your reflexes, you'll have to be alert at all times." Ji answered. "We'll have to work on those." Ji walked back into the Shiba house while Izuku continued striking at the dummy.
Ji continued training Izuku for the rest of the day, it finally ended when one of the kuroko ran up to izuku holding his phone up. " A phone call… is here! A phone call… is here!"
"Huh? Oh thanks." Izuku said, quickly taking the phone.'' Hey mom, … , yeah i'm fine, … , i'm sorry i didn't answer, i lost track of time, …, where am i? Uh..." Izuku quickly looked over at Ji.
"Library." Ji coughed.
"Library! I'm at a library, …, alright i get it, I'll be home in half an hour, … , got it, bye." Izuku ended the call and put it in his pocket. "I-i gotta go, where's my bag?"
Another one of the kuroko walked over to izuku and handed him his backpack. "before you leave." Ji snapped his fingers and another one of the kuroko ran over and handed izuku a sheet of paper. "It's a training regimen for you, it includes an exercise schedule, dietary plan and training routine. I had the Kuroku make this for you while we were training, it will ensure that you'll be in top physical shape to fight off the Nighlok."
"Thanks Mentor." Izuku said, looking through the regimen. "So can I tell mom what I'm doing here?"
"No." Ji coldly replied.
Izuku was taken back by the instant response. "really? But this is a lot to take in a-and-"
"I get it, you don't want to lie to her, but we have to keep the Shiba house and your role as a samurai ranger a secret."
"O-okay I understand Mentor." Izuku sheepishly said as he put the regimen into his bag. "Thanks for letting me do this, I promise I won't let you down." izuku bowed before leaving through the large gate. "See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow Young Midoriya, it's only going to get tougher from here." Ji said as the gate closed behind izuku.
…
ONE WEEK LATER
Izuku sat near the entrance of Takoba municipal beach park, Ji had told him that the day's training would take place there. After a few minutes of waiting izuku spotted a couple of the kuroko running over to where he was waiting followed soon after by a loud Vrooming sound, Ji then arrived on a motorcycle, screeching to a stop in front of Izuku and the Kuroko. "Morning Young Midoriya."
"M-morning Mentor." Izuku said, a bit stunned at how the motorcycle clashed with the mostly traditional Japanese aesthetic of the Shiba house. "I didn't know you rode one of those, I thought it'd be something old fashioned like a horse."
"While it's important to preserve tradition, it's wise to utilize modern advancements." Ji said as he got off and walked over to Izuku. "Plus, horses make my hips ache."
"O-oh, okay." Izuku responded to the information he'd rather not known. "Mentor, if you don't mind me asking, what are we doing out here?" Izuku then asked.
"When you morph into your ranger form, you are given a boost to your strength, speed and endurance, while it helps to have that safety net, you shouldn't rely on that alone." Ji explained before one of the kuroko handed him a book, he flipped through the pages before landing on the one he wanted, he then showed it to izuku.
It showed a previous red samurai ranger holding a gigantic sword that was almost taller than the ranger himself. "Each samurai ranger has their own unique weapon to utilise in combat, for the red ranger it's the 'Fire Smasher', it is a powerful weapon but it takes a lot of strength to wield." Ji explained.
"O-oh so we're here to improve my strength?" izuku asked.
"Correct." Ji answered. "I've done research on this beach and i found that a lot of people have been dumping their trash here for years, so we'll be coming here every day till it's clean to build up your strength, it'll also give us the opportunity to return the beach to its former glory."
When they finally walked through the beach's entrance, they were a bit surprised to see that two thirds of the trash was already gone. "I was expecting a lot more trash." Izuku said when he saw the view.
"That's because there should be more trash, the images i looked at had a lot more there." Ji said confused. "Whatever, you'll pick up the rest that's there, get to work." Ji said as the two walked down to the piles of remaining trash.
Izuku began sorting through the trash and carrying it over to a designated trash pickup nearby, as he rummaged through the trash Ji was at his side to advise him. He eventually got to a large metal cabinet, Izuku grabbed it and began to slowly drag it through the sand. 'Cmon, this thing is heavy.' Izuku thought as he tried to move it.
"Do you want a hand with that?" The two looked up to see another person at the beach's entrance. He was about a year or two older than Izuku, he had blonde hair and blue eyes. He walked down to the two and picked up the container with ease. "It's nice to have some help with cleaning the beach."
Ji blinked at the older teen's arrival. "Wait, were you the one who's gotten rid of most of the trash?"
"Yep, the name's Mirio Togata." the teen said as he placed the container on his shoulder. "So what brings you down to the beach?"
"I am training my student to build up his strength, Young Midoriya get back to work." Ji ordered, Izuku quickly ran to pick up a couple of metal drums, Ji sat back while the two teens walked to the trash pickup.
"Im Izuku Midoriya, its nice to meet you." Izuku introduced himself to the older teen.
"Nice to meet you too." Mirio replied.
As the two walked to the pickup area, Izuku began to think. "hey have i seen you before? You look familiar." After a moment, Izuku realised where he'd seen him. "Wait, you were at the UA sports festival."
"Yeah I was, I hope I made a good first impression."
"…Yeah …definitely." Izuku shuddered at the memory, Izuku then got curious. "So why did you come here?" he asked.
"Same reason you came here, my trainer instructed me to clean this place up five months ago to build up my strength." Mirio answered. "He should be here by now, I guess he's busy with hero work."
"Wait, hero work? Is your trainer a hero?! Which hero is he?" izuku excitedly asked.
"Hey I didn't say he was a hero, he's an intern at a hero's agency." Mirio replied. "And i kinda can't tell you who he works for, breach in contract."
"Right, sorry." izuku apologised.
The two kept sorting through the trash for a while longer until Ji called for Izuku. "Young Midoriya! Our training here today is finished!"
"Sounds like you're gonna be heading off now." Mirio said as he grabbed another piece of junk.
"Yeah, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Izuku waved goodbye as he ran up to Ji. "So are we gonna head to the Shiba house now?"
"Yes but remember, I said we came here to build up your speed and endurance as well." Ji said as he put on his motorcycle helmet.
"So how am I gonna do that?" Izuku asked.
"Simple, by keeping up with me on our way back to the Shiba house." Ji said before riding away on his motorcycle.
Izuku stood there stunned for a few seconds. "H-he was joking when he said I had to run after him, r-right?" Izuku turned to the Kuroko only to see that they had left him too. 'Okay he wasn't joking, gah what did I get myself into?!' Izuku thought as he began running after Ji.
...
A FEW DAYS LATER
After school Izuku made his way back to the Shiba house, he walked through the large gate to meet with Ji in the training ground. "Hey Mentor."
"Hello Young Midoriya." Ji greeted his student "are you ready to begin today's training?"
"Yeah." Izuku said as he put his bag down. "So are we doing more sword training?"
"No, today we'll start testing your symbol power, the burst you gave off when you morphed was strong but now it's time to see how strong it actually is." Ji said as one of the kuroko handed him a stack of papers. "You did bring your Samuraizer with you, right?"
"O-oh yeah the flip phone." Izuku leaned down to get his Samuraizer out of his bag.
"Young Midoriya, what's that?" Ji noticed a burn mark on the shoulder of Izuku's uniform.
"Oh I-it's nothing." Izuku dodged the question as he got out his Samuraizer and transformed it into its brush mode.
Ji showed him one of the papers to izuku, it had the kanji for smoke (煙) on it, he wrote it out and was engulfed in a large cloud of smoke. After the smoke cleared Ji showed him another page, this one had the kanji for sword (刀) on it, after writing it a sword materialised and fell to the floor.
He continued writing out the kanji one after the other, with each stroke he began getting more and more tired, he had twenty six pages left when he fell to his knees.
"Young Midoriya, are you able to keep going?" Ji asked.
"Y-yeah i can k-keep…" Izuku was able to do one last stroke before collapsing to the ground.
"Young Midoriya!" The Kuroko ran to the young teens' side while Ji began to try and think for an answer. 'what happened? Is he overworked? But that shouldn't be the case, as demanding as the training regimen was, he shouldn't be this exhausted, unless...'
An hour later Izuku woke up in one of the rooms in the Shiba house, he looked to his right to see Ji watching over him. "w-what happened?" he asked as he sat up.
"You collapsed from exhaustion." Ji replied, upon hearing this izuku lowered his head. "Young Midoriya, the training regimen I had the Kuroko draft up was designed to prepare you to become a samurai ranger within a month. As harsh as it was, it shouldn't have caused you to collapse." Ji stared at the young teen. "You weren't sticking to it, were you?"
Izuku sat quietly for a second before speaking. "You said that the Nighlok were hell bent on the destruction of our world, that they are stronger than any hero, If I want to even stand the slightest chance against them, I'll have to work harder than anyone else because I can't even defend myself from other people, let alone be strong enough to fight the Nighlok."
'This kid' Ji thought "not being strong enough isn't ideal, but not being able to even stand is far worse." he stated. "If you want to get stronger fast then I'll have the Kuroko modify your training regimen, but pushing yourself to the point of not being able to stand isn't the right way to getting stronger, do you understand?"
"Yeah." Izuku weakly said as he got to his feet.
"Good, I think we should spend the rest of today's training practicing your swordsmanship." With that, the two headed out back to the training grounds.
...
THE NEXT DAY
Ji sat in the training grounds waiting for his student, today he had prepared some off site training for the soon to be samurai. As Ji checked that he had everything he needed for today's training, a frantic Izuku burst through the large gate. "Ah Young Midoriya you're he-" Ji stopped when he saw the panic on Izuku's face. "Young Midoriya, are you alright? What happened?"
"I-im so sorry, mentor, when I was packing to leave school and my friend saw my Samuraizer in my bag, he thought it was just a flip phone but he used his quirk on it a-and… I'm sorry, mentor." Izuku apologised as he pulled out his Samuraizer, broken and charred.
Ji looked at the broken Samuraizer before calming his student down. "It's okay, I can fix it." Ji said before running into the Shiba house, He returned a minute later with his own Samuraizer, he walked over to Izuku and took the broken Samuraizer off him, he wrote the kanji for repair (修理) and in a flash, it was fixed. "There you go, good as new." Ji said as he handed it back to Izuku.
"Ah thank you mentor." Izuku said, taking back his Samuraizer.
"Young Midoriya, is everything alright?" Ji asked.
"Y-yeah, everything's fine." Izuku answered.
"…Alright then." Ji said as he grabbed a bag off the ground. "Let's get going," he said before walking to the gate.
"Wait aren't we gonna be training here?" Izuku asked.
"No, today's training will require a change of scenery." Ji said as he walked through the gate, Izuku and a couple of Kuroko followed behind him.
Halfway through the group's trek through the rocky terrain, Izuku began to get curious about the training location. "Mentor, where are we heading?"
"Somewhere you can train in your element." Ji answered.
Izuku was a bit confused by Ji's answer. "train in my element?"
Ji went on to explain. "Symbol power is tied to the elements, for the Shiba bloodline it is the element of Fire, you'll need to master it to become a samurai ranger."
After two total hours of walking, the group reached an opening in the tree line, there they saw an old dilapidated building. "Mentor, what is this place?" Izuku asked.
"The previous Shiba house." I solemnly answered. "This is where the final battle between the seventeenth team of samurai Rangers and Nighlok took place."
"What happened?" Izuku asked.
"The Nighlok launched a surprise attack, led by their leader: Master Xandred."
A feeling of dread began to grow in Izuku as he heard the Nighlok leader's name.
"At the climax of the battle Master Xandred was able to mortally wound the red ranger, however in his last moments, the red ranger was able to seal away all the Nighlok back to the netherworld."
"Why did you show me this?" Izuku asked.
"I needed to show what is at stake." Ji answered. "This is the responsibility of being a samurai ranger, at any moment, you must be willing to put the fate of the entire world before your own wants, desires and yourself."
The group then walked over to the back of the building, where there was a small gravel pit surrounded by a stone courtyard. "So what's the purpose of this place?" Izuku asked.
"The chest you brought to the shiba house contained some of the strongest weapons in your arsenal." Ji said as one of the Kuroko handed him the red disc. "Including this, the lion fire spin disc." Ji whipped out his Samuraizer and wrote out the kanji for stone warriors (石の戦士) in a flash, six stone figures surrounded the pit, Ji then continued to explain. "There are others like it that store up the symbol power of each samurai ranger throughout history, getting stronger with each generation."
"How do I use it?" Izuku asked.
"Watch." Ji replied, using his Samuraizer to write out the kanji for sword (刀), he grabbed the sword that materialised and placed the disc onto the blade's hilt, he walked into the pit and spun the disc, a fiery vortex of fire engulfed the blade. Ji turned to one of the figures and swung the blade at it. "blazing strike!" A fireball shot from the blade and hit the figure, the moment the fireball hit the figure it was engulfed in flames, he did the same to the figure next which resulted in the same result. He turned to the final figure, he sent four slashes that resembled the kanji for fire (火). "Fire Character Strike!" the moment that wall of fire hit the figure, it created a large crack. "So how was that?" Ji asked as he walked out of the pit.
"That was amazing!" Izuku said in amazement, only to notice something. "M-mentor your hands."
Ji looked down to his hands, they had several burn marks from the heat emitted from the blade. "It's alright young Midoriya, my symbol power isn't tied to fire so I'm unprotected from the backlash and am also unable to utilise your disc to its full potential." Ji held the blade out to his student. "So are you ready to wield it?"
Izuku took off his jacket and grabbed the sword. "Yes I am!" Izuku walked into the pit and stared down one of the stone figures. He spun the disc and the blade was engulfed in the violent fiery vortex, izuku dropped the blade when the flames reached his hand."Ack!"
"You have to focus in order to properly control the flames." Ji instructed.
Izuku picked up the blade and spun the disc, only to drop it again. "Come on!" He tried it again, to no avail. "Damnit!" He tried it a few more times, each time ending the same way. "Come on!" Izuku punched the ground in frustration and anger.
'He isn't focused enough, is he distracted by something?' Ji looked down at Izuku's jacket and saw his samuraizer sticking out of it, that's when it clicked. "Young Midoriya, earlier you said your friend destroyed your Samuraizer, has something like that happened before?" Ji asked.
"Yeah, for most of the time i've known kacchan, he has done stuff like that before" Izuku lowered his head. "From telling me I'm worthless to shoving his explosion quirk in my face, literally."
"Then he is not a friend, he's a bully." Ji stated. "Young Midoriya you cant let him do this to you, you need to stand up to him and tell him you won't let him do this to you anymore. He doesn't get to decide your worth, you do."
"Yeah, I will." Izuku smiled.
"Perhaps we should end today's training here." Ji said as he picked up the sword, only for Izuku to grab his wrist.
"No, let me try again." Izuku desperately asked. "Please."
"Very well then." Ji said as he handed the blade back to Izuku and stepped out of the pit.
Izuku stepped back into the pit, the blade was once again surrounded by a raging vortex of fire, the vortex began to solidify as Izuku tightened his grip on the blade. He turned to one of the untouched figures. "Blazing strike!" a wave of fire launched from the blade to the stone figure, a large crack forming where the wave hit, he repeated the attack with another one of the remaining figures. Izuku turned to the final figure, he gave another spin of the disc. "Fire Character Strike! Ha!" He launched the attack at the stone figure, in an instant the figure went up in a fiery explosion. Izuku stood there in a bit of stunned silence as the flames began to calm and subside. "I-i did it." Izuku looked at Ji excitedly.
"Good job, Young Midoriya" Ji smiled at the joy in his student's voice. "Now for the last thing for today" He said as one of the kuroko handed him the pentagonal box, Ji held it up to show Izuku. "This is your most powerful weapon against the Nighlok."
"What does that do?" Izuku asked.
Ji grinned as he took out his Samuraizer and wrote the kanji for awaken (目覚め). The box unfolded with the front legs folding out of the sides, the back legs folded out from the bottom before the flat end of the box separated and folded down, finally a head folded out of the tip. "The Lion Folding Zord."
The small zord jumped from Ji's palm at Izuku, it crawled up his arm and perched itself on Izuku's shoulder. "O-oh, it's cool but how is that gonna help me fight the Nighlok?" Izuku asked, the Lion Zord began roaring at him for the comment.
Ji held out his palm and the Lion Zord returned to him. "You'll see." He placed the Zord on the ground and used his Samuraizer to write the kanji for big (大), the Zord rapidly grew to a height of twenty meters tall.
"Holy Woah!" Izuku jumped back in surprise.
"The wrathful Nighlok have two forms, the first form is around the height of a person, when mortality wounded they transform into the second form which ranges from fifty to sixty metres tall."
Izuku was taken aback at that fact. "T-that's way taller than mount lady."
"So when that happens, you'll have to use your symbol power to enlarge the Zords to continue battling them." Ji finished.
The Lion Zord looked down at the group before bellowing out a loud-
"ROAR!"
"That was a bit loud don't you think?" Izuku shouted, covering his ears.
"That's why I left it till the end of today's training, we should probably get going before anyone shows up." Ji said as he used his Samuraizer and wrote out the kanji for return (戻る), the Lion Zord rapidly shrunk down, transformed back into its original form and landed in Ji's palm.
"Isn't the Shiba house a bit far from here?" Izuku asked in a panic.
"Not a problem." Ji said as he wrote the kanji for gate (門) with his Samuraizer, a portal then opened that lead back to the Shiba house. "Let's go."
"W-wait, you could do that the whole time?! D-do you know how much I spent on traveling to the Shiba house!?" Izuku angrily asked.
"It takes a lot of symbol power to use so it's only for emergencies." Ji quickly replied. With that, the group quickly ran through the portal before it closed behind them.
…
ONE WEEK LATER
Izuku walked through the grand gate of the Shiba house to begin the day's training, as he walked into the courtyard, he saw Ji walk out of the main building holding something. "Hey mentor." Izuku greeted him.
"Hello Young Midoriya." Ji greeted his student. "Are you ready to continue your combat training?"
"Yes I am." Izuku said as he walked over and grabbed one of the training swords.
"Before we begin, I have to give you something." Ji said as he handed Izuku what he was holding, it was a training gi. "Put this on, then we'll begin."
After a minute, Izuku walked out into the courtyard in his training gi: it consisted of a black sleeveless top with the Shiba clan symbol on the right of his chest and the kanji for fire (火) on his back, a red belt and long pants.
Izuku grabbed one of the training swords and got into a battle stance, he stared down Ji and the Kuroko, tightened his grip on his sword and then ran at them.
Izuku swung his sword and knocked one of the kuroko to the floor, another one of the kuroko began swinging their sword at Izuku but he managed to dodge the hits and swung his blade back at them, knocking them to the ground as well. Three of the kuroko all attacked at once but Izuku managed to block their attack and knocked them back, the last Kuroko swung their sword at izuku but he dodged it, kicked them back and jabbed them with his sword.
Izuku then looked up at Ji, the two circled each other, swords at the ready. Izuku took a breath before running at Ji, he swung his sword at Ji but Ji blocked the hit and swung his blade at Izuku. Izuku ducked out of the swords way and pulled out his Samuraizer, he wrote the kanji for smoke (煙) and in an instant Ji was surrounded by a cloud of smoke. "You've improved a lot in the past three weeks, young Midoriya, but I'm not so sure you'll be able to beat me." Ji said as he heard footsteps behind him, he blocked the attack and pushed Izuku back, he then jabbed the sword into Izuku, knocking him to the floor. "Not for a lack of trying." Ji said as he offered his student a hand.
Izuku took his mentor's hand and got back to his feet. "Yeah, should I go back to practicing with the training dummy?"
"Maybe." Ji replied, as Izuku began walking to the practice dummy, Ji swung his sword at the back of the teens head.
On instinct, Izuku reflexively lifted his sword up to block the blow. "Or maybe not" Ji smiled as Izuku looked back at him.
"Hey, i-i did it, i blocked it" izuku smiled as he turned back to Ji.
"Perhaps we should continue your combat training." Ji said before getting into a fighting stance, Izuku smiled back at his mentor before assuming a fighting stance as well. The two ran at each other, slamming their swords against each other.
Author's Notes:
Once again, i'm so sorry that this chapter took longer than i hoped to get out, i'll try to get the next chapter "Debut Of The Red Samurai" out as soon as i can.
Take Care.