Power Rangers Samurai vs. Ronin Warriors
Act 5: The Sushi Vendor in Gold.
As he had every morning, Antonio pulled his cart from the Shiba House to the pier. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky and water were blue as could be.
"Another perfect day for fishing guys!" He said to no one in particular, but particularly to his two Zords, hidden away in his cart.
As he approached his usual spot, he noticed something out of the ordinary. A line of people outside some place called Gold Sushi, the same place he had seen a sign for yesterday. He set up his own stand, but noticed no one was coming over.
As he stood there in disbelief, Mia came along on her morning jog. Seeing Antonio's less than cheerful face, she stopped.
"What's wrong?" She asked in her best big sister voice.
Antonio pointed towards Gold Sushi.
"Oh that? Don't worry, it's a new place and people are curious. The crowds will taper off, I guarantee it." She replied.
"Okay, if you say so…" Antonio replied, less than optimistic that there was some light somewhere at the end of this tunnel.
"Hey, get your line in the water. Eventually that guy's got to run out of stock, and you'll be ready to pounce on him!" Mia suggested.
With new found vigor, Antonio cast his line and Mia smiled and continued her morning jog.
Back at the house, Ji and Kevin were checking through the library there to figure out if the Nighloks had all been taken care of. They had faced their share of them before, but somehow a few more managed to crawl out of the Sanzu and cause trouble. Ji went from page to page, showing the illustrations to Kevin, who noted if they had faced it and then moved on to the next one. Outside, the crack of wood against wood was heard as Lauren and Jayden sparred with Sakura and Navcase. Mike and Emily had gone grocery shopping.
"Amazing! You have faced all these Nighloks already? There can't be that many left." Ji exclaimed as Kevin confirmed yet another one.
"That's true Ji, but a few slipped through the cracks. That's the guy we faced last time, for example." Kevin replied, pointing to an illustration.
"We're BAAACK!" Emily exclaimed, carrying a few bags while Mike had somehow been nominated to carry the rest of them. Ji and Kevin put "Who's that Nighlok?" on hold briefly to lighten Mike's load, at least until they got it into the kitchen and put away.
"What took you so long?" Ji asked.
"Mia made a long list?" Emily suggested.
"Yeah, it took us a while to find some of the ingredients she wanted. But it'll all be worth it!" Mike added.
The clacking of shinai was interrupted by shouting, so everyone rushed outside to find out what was going on. Lauren was holding back Jayden, and Navcase in turn, was holding back Sakura. Both seemed to be quite upset at the other.
"I HIT YOU FAIR AND SQUARE!" Jayden shouted at Sakura.
"IT WASN'T VALID!" Sakura shot back.
"Oh, and your little tricks ARE?! " Jayden retorted. "Is that how you're gonna beat me when we settle this once and for all? Tricks and special moves? How about that iron overcoat you've got?"
"I CAN BEAT YOU WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT, SHIBA! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU'RE MESSING WITH!"
"ENOUGH!" Ji shouted over the din. "Now bow to each other and call it over." Ji commanded.
The two did as they were told, and huffed off in opposite directions in anger.
"Did I miss something?" Mia asked as she came into the house, finding no one, and then proceeded out back.
"Everything was going great, we were all enjoying a good spar, when Sakura pulled some move Jayden didn't like, he went ballistic on her, she did some kind of ninja weave on him which made him madder, somehow Navcase was able to get a hold on her and I was able to restrain Jayden before things really got out of hand." Lauren explained.
"I'll wait until Jayden calms down and then try and talk to him. Lauren, maybe you, Emily, and Mia can get Sakura out of here for a little while?" Ji asked.
Lauren nodded and said she'd try.
"But where do we take her?" Mia asked with hushed tones.
"Yeah, besides taking her to a bar where bikers hang out and watch her wipe the floor with them?" Emily added.
"You've thought about this a bit haven't you?" Mia asked in jest.
"A little…" Emily confessed.
"Look, we'll just take her to the mall, we'll wander around, and maybe we'll find some stores with sharp pointy things for her to look at." Lauren mused.
"Maybe we can get her to open up too. She really hasn't done or said much around here." Mia suggested.
Lauren went into Sakura's room while the other two waited in anticipation outside. Minutes later Lauren came out, gave them a thumbs up and a few moments after, Sakura emerged in her usual attire, minus her swords.
After several agonizing hours(for Sakura) of watching Lauren, Emily, and Mia seemingly try on every single piece of clothing at every single store, and after they had to suffer through Sakura inspecting and procuring several swords which she had shipped to a mansion in Toyama, the four ended up at the food court to recharge. The challenge now was trying to get Sakura to talk. Mia decided to start things off simple.
"So, do you have any siblings?" Mia asked. "I have a younger brother."
"I have an older sister." Emily confided.
"I have a twin sister, one older sister and two younger ones. " Sakura explained.
"WOW! Four sisters and one's your twin?" Emily exclaimed.
"What are they like?" Mia inquired.
"My twin, Ayame, is nothing like me. Carefree, laid back, huge sweet tooth, loves to sleep late, you'll usually find her in one of two places; lounging by or in the pool or in her workshop banging out some new mechanical monstrosity. That bike I rode in on, Kanesada? One of her many projects."
"And that armor you have? Did she make that too?" Lauren asked.
"She helped with it; someone else did most of the work."
"My older sister, Yuri, I guess calling her a gentle giant would be accurate. But she's one hundred percent the anti-girl. Short hair, built like a tank, has a big soft spot for my youngest sister. Then there's the middle sister, Suiren, who is one hundred and twenty percent girl. Take her shopping; you'll be dragging her out. She'll flirt with any, and I mean any guy that strikes her fancy. Last but not least, there's Ran. Very sweet and innocent. She's pretty talented at art and music, although she rarely shows them off."
"Will any of them be joining us anytime soon?" Lauren asked.
"Probably not, hopefully Navcase and I will be all you need to stop the resurrection. "
Meanwhile in the same mall, Mako, Kaoru, and Kotoha were also on their own mission.
"Are you sure this is a good idea Mako-san? My English isn't that good…" Kotoha worried.
"It'll be okay Kotoha; I'll take care of everything. Mine's gotten much better living in Hawaii with my parents." Mako reassured her. "You really should get a present for Mitsuba. Maybe we should get something for Hikoma-san too…Should we get anything for Tanba?"
"A brain, perhaps?" Kaoru commented.
"Very funny Kaoru…" Mako replied, not aware that the princess could have such a dry sense of humor. "But we should get to looking. You never know when Ryu is going to call and tell us it's Kuroko time again."
The other two nodded and they set off.
Back at the food court, as the four munched away and compared purchases, something Navcase had said was bothering Lauren.
"Sakura…I have a question." Lauren began hesitantly. "It's about Navcase…"
"He's married, if that's what you're asking. Sorry."
"HE'S MARRIED!?" Lauren, Mia, and Emily shouted in unison at the revelation. In fact, they were so loud that other people in the food court glanced over at them.
"With fraternal twins, I might add." Sakura added. "Ran adores them. She's probably helping Yuriko with them as we speak."
"Does she mind him being here? His wife, I mean." Mia asked.
"She goes stir-crazy when he's not around. She's really worried that he won't come back."
"She must be worried even more now that he's a father too…" Emily added.
"No, that's not what I was asking about. Why does he call himself the Sword of Heaven, and is he really a 'Seishi', a celestial warrior?" Lauren asked.
Sakura looked around briefly to make sure no one was paying attention to their conversation anymore, and then continued.
"He is. So is his wife. There are seven all together, counting them. In addition to being a pun on his last name, he's called the Sword of Heaven because that's the power he got from Amaterasu. Let's just say he was born knowing how to use a sword. " Sakura explained.
"Who's Amaterasu?" Emily asked.
"In Japanese mythology, she's the goddess of the sun. Legend has it that one of her younger brothers threw an animal carcass into her room and she freaked out so much she hid in a cave. This of course, was bad because we need the sun. After trying everything to get her out, one of the goddesses…um, how can I put this…?" Mia said, searching for the right words. "Did some very risqué dancing, which got Amaterasu's attention and when she peeked her head out, they caught the light in a mirror and the world had sun again."
"What are the other Seishi like?" Emily asked. Lauren was silent as she was busy putting all the pieces together in her head.
"Well, other than Navcase and Yuriko, there's Ryo, who's also my boyfriend. He can make flame wings grow out of his back and he can manipulate that fire into swords, fireballs, things like that. Anubis is able to teleport, but it's only once a day so it's usually to get out of jams. Then there's Suiren's BFF Yoko, she's a total Valley Girl, can manipulate the weather and can do Chi magic, and swears there's this blue haired guy with a high-pitched voice annoying her all the time. Then there's her cousin Ayako, who claims that person who's talking to her cousin is named Ri Houjun and absolutely, positively, loves Japanese animation and could possibly quote whole series verbatim if you let her. She can manipulate space into force bolts and she has this magic ring that apparently holds some alien superhero type. Finally there's Kashin, an angry policeman with an electromagnetic personality."
"Wow!" Emily exclaimed which seemed to be the only thing she was saying lately.
"Now where do you fit into all this?" Mia asked. "You called Navcase your protector when we fought that monster."
"That's because he is. All the Seishi are my and my sister's protectors."
"If I remember the tale right, isn't there a priestess?" Lauren asked.
"A priest, since Amaterasu is a goddess. But yeah, they protect him too, especially Yoko."
"Okay…if Amaterasu's Seishi are your protectors…and Navcase said you were incredibly powerful, on par with our Shogun Mode, then that must mean…" Lauren thought aloud, putting the pieces of the puzzle that was Sakura together in her head.
"Yes, I'm a demigoddess and Amaterasu is my mother." Sakura finished for her.
At this, Mia spit out her soda, which happened to soak Sakura in the face.
"Sorry…" Mia apologized, handing over some napkins.
"So who are you so worried is helping the Nighloks?" Lauren asked.
"Promise you won't tell the others? " Sakura asked.
The three nodded. The others would probably find out eventually themselves. Ji and Jayden had a little more to go on because they had read the letter, and although Lauren could understand Navcase, he and Sakura had kept the Rangers on a need to know basis up until now.
"His name is Tenma Furukiayu. Major figure in Japanese organized crime and a guy Kashin spent most of his career trying to bring down. He's a Seishi also, aligned with Amaterasu's archenemy, a demon lord named Drakka. He kidnapped Kashin's daughter and convinced her that he was her real father, than used her, along with the children of two of his subordinates, his screwy second in command, a master swordsman, and a time-warping lunatic, tried to destroy Japan and succeeded in summoning his true master to Earth. Makoto, the Priest of Amaterasu, was able to seal him away."
"Are the other Seishi mean?" Emily asked.
"It depends on who you're talking about. Tenma, and his second in command Houji, are very bad news. If you thought my sister Ayame was a mad inventor, Houji takes the cake and opened a restaurant to sell it. But Kazuhiko, the so-called Sword of Hell, isn't a bad guy; he even helped us stop Drakka in the end. Ayako's best friend is Naru, and Karen, Kashin's daughter, is really nice, although I've only met her once. It's tough to explain, but Shou is much more of a danger to himself than he is to others." Sakura explained, and then paused to let all this sink in. The three were speechless.
"Relax! I highly doubt he's even involved with the Nighlok. They're small fry compared to Drakka; he wouldn't even bother with them." Sakura assured them.
"I hope you're right Sakura, I really do." Mia replied.
Lauren's Samuraizer rang and she answered it.
"Hello?"
"Lauren, it's Jayden! Where are you?"
"At the mall with Emily, Mia, and Sakura, why?"
"There's a monster close by! He's turning all the people into zombies! We'll meet you there!"
"That your brother?" Sakura asked. Lauren nodded.
"Tell him to bring my katana to me."
"Sakura says bring her swords too." Lauren replied.
The four girls threw away their trash and made a mad dash out of the mall. They found a red and black monster standing around, surrounded by Moogers, and all the people around him were standing still as statues.
"Maybe we should get the people out of here first." Mia replied.
As if in answer, the people formed a human wall around the monster, as the Moogers leapt over it to face the Rangers and Sakura!
"Any ideas?" Emily asked.
"A couple. Let's do this. Ready?" Lauren asked.
The other two Rangers nodded.
"Samuraizer! Go Go Samurai!"
"Red Samurai Ranger Ready!" Lauren declared.
"Pink Samurai Ranger Ready!" Mia declared.
"Yellow Samurai Ranger Ready!" Emily declared.
"Rangers Together! Samurai Forever!" The three said in unison.
As they were doing this, Sakura focused her energy, causing her to erupt in an aura of flame, which in turn summoned her armor.
"Okay. Em, you take the Double Disc and use it to give you another Earth Slicer. See if you can hit him from out here." Lauren said.
"Got it!" Emily replied.
"Mia, take the Shark Disc and use it on your Spin Sword and see if you can stretch it over those people to get him too. "
"I'm on it!" Mia replied.
"Sakura, you're with me. Let's get those Moogers!" Lauren exclaimed.
"Thought you'd never ask." Sakura replied, pulling the sticks off the back of her armor and igniting them into energy swords.
Mooger blades were no match for energy ones as Sakura tore through their weapons and then them quickly, with Lauren backing her up. Mia and Emily, however, were having difficulty with their own tasks of trying to hit the monster. Every time Mia would try and strike, a Mooger that was not occupied by either Lauren or Sakura would block the attack. Emily was having a similar problem, except hers was trying to get the angles right so that her Earth Slicers would hit the monster but not the crowd.
"Em! Go for the Moogers instead! We'll have to try something else." Lauren shouted.
Luckily at that moment Jayden and the others showed up with Navcase, fully morphed and ready to go.
"Jayden! The monster's using the people as a shield. We can't hit him, the Moogers stop us every time we try and hit him from above."
"Then maybe we have to try hitting him from below. But we'll have to time it just right. Emily, you're Earth, so you might have the best shot of hitting him." He replied, handing her the Black Box. He then used his Samuraizer to draw a kanji to make a hole.
"This should let you tunnel underneath all those people and hit him." Jayden explained.
Emily leapt into the hole, went Super Samurai Mode on the way down(triggering Mega Mode on the others), and came up with her Spin Sword and the Black Box joined, and nailed him with her special attack.
The attack was not enough to take out the monster, but it was enough to break its control on the civilians. Realizing they were in the middle of a monster attack, they immediately panicked and ran in all directions, nearly stampeding the Rangers. Antonio managed to direct the traffic away from the scene while the others kept the monster at bay.
"Okay, let's finish this. Better not take any chances on this. Navcase, Sakura, will you help us out?" Jayden asked.
They nodded.
"Okay then. Fire Smasher! Cannon Mode!" Jayden declared, transforming his zanbatou into its disc cannon mode using the Tiger Disc. Kevin, Mike, Mia, and Lauren loaded their discs in with Jayden's own Fire Disc, and they took aim. Emily grabbed the Bullzooka and merged it with her Super Spin Sword to form the Super Bullzooka, and inserted the appropriate disc for its finisher as the weapon roared.
Navcase began to gather his Chi, glowing with energy, as Sakura began gathering energy for her full power sure-kill.
"Okay! Barracuda Blade! BARRACUDA BITE!" Antonio declared, slashing the monster multiple times with his tanto before leaping out of the way.
"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu! HITEN MUGEN ZAN!" Navcase called out.
He pushed off, shattering windows and tearing up the ground under him as he flew at the limits of his shinshoku, hitting the monster dead center with an upward slash, sending the monster skyward where it was met by Sakura.
"FLARE UP…NOW!"
Both the monster and Sakura plummeted, Sakura dropped like a rock due to her armor. With Kevin, Mike, and Mia helping Jayden to brace the cannon, and Emily needing both hands to absorb the eventual recoil from the Bullzooka, Lauren whipped out her Samuraizer and kanjied up a cushion to catch Sakura.
"NOW!" Jayden called out, and he and Emily let loose, as the monster staggered after the previous three attacks.
The attacks hit, and the monster went up in fireworks as usual.
"Time for the second life guys!" Jayden cautioned.
Just then Emily collapsed, de-morphing in the process!
"Em!" Mike shouted, running to her side. "Emily, you okay?"
"I don't wanna fight the Nighloks today daddy, have Serena do it…" Emily mumbled sleepily.
"It's okay; she passed out and fell asleep." Mike replied. "But I'm feeling kind of weak myself; we really did a number on that guy."
"That must have done a number on us too, I'm feeling weak too." Kevin reported.
"I'm so weak I don't think I can draw a single line, let again a whole character." Mia added.
"I'm feeling it too. But we had to make sure." Jayden reminded them. "Antonio, how are you feeling?"
"FANTASTICO! I'll handle this, guys!"
"Wait, I have an idea!" Mike interrupted. "You know the character we use to make the Folding Zords big, right?"
Jayden nodded.
"Maybe we can use it on Navcase or something, the same way we use it to make the Bullzooka big enough for the BullZord to hold it!"
Lauren asked Navcase if he was up for being a guinea pig, and he nodded, but it was just in time, as giant Moogers and Spitfangs showed up too!
"One Moment. Armor of Crimson Hope!" Navcase called, snapping his fingers.
To the amazement and utter shock of the Samurai Rangers, an exoskeleton of sorts appeared on Navcase, making him look almost like a Megazord! Lauren drew the symbol, and sure enough, Navcase grew to Megazord size.
"Okay LZ, Buddy, let's do this!"
The LightZord transformed into a giant robot, and the ClawZord emerged from Antonio's cooler and became a giant robot. Antonio went into Mega Mode, and inserted his separate Mega Blade into the console.
"LZ, take out those Spitfangs for us!" Antonio called out.
The LightZord fired discs from its waist, which at the very least stopped the Spitfangs from well, spitting. Giant Navcase leapt into the air and came crashing down on one with Ryu Tsui Sen, and took out a second when he landed with Ryu Sho Sen. He then took a stance that caused Antonio to exclaim (of course Navcase had no idea what he was exclaiming) "Navcase! This is no time to play pool!"
With help from his verniers, Navcase flew through all but one of the Spitfangs, and caused the last to explode with a strike that came with no evidence of the power behind it.
"I'm going to have to ask him to teach me some of those moves!" Kevin exclaimed in surprise.
"That guy could show all of us a thing or two, Kevin." Jayden added.
"Okay! Claw Battlezord South!" Antonio declared, spinning the wheel next to him to the blue face, which also changed the Claw Battlezord's weapons to its double katana.
"Double Katana Strike!" He called out, slashing the Moogers to ribbons. "Now for you! Come on Octo, you're up!"
Antonio's other Zord showed up, and formed armor and a spear for the Claw Battlezord, switching it into Claw Battlezord North. Reaching back similar to how Navcase did, and Navcase once again taking the Zero Stance, the two struck simultaneously, destroying the monster for good.
"FANTASTICO! Take it away, Jay and Lauren!"
"Samurai Rangers…" Jayden began.
"Victory is ours!" Lauren finished.
Watching on TV at Mr. Brown's, the seven cheered as they watched the Samurai Rangers' victory.
"I suppose that brings this chapter to a clos…" Takeru began.
"Wait WAIT Take-chan! It's time for a CLAP OF VICTORY!" Genta insisted.
The other six reluctantly put their hands together for a loud resounding clap that was once again heard by the Samurai Rangers.
"Well, we didn't get to help them this time, but there'll be other chances." Ryunosuke commented, somewhat upset that they were unable to be kuroko again.
"I ALMOST FORGOT! Daigoyou's the only one watching the STAND!"
Genta comically bolted out the door and down the street. He came up, gasping for breath.
"Please tell me no one from Michelin came to visit while I was away…" Genta asked hesitantly.
"Nope Boss! I guess everyone ran for cover!" Daigoyou replied.
"Well, I see some coming now! Be quiet!" Genta shouted.
Over the horizon, the Samurai Rangers and Navcase approached. Jayden and Navcase were carrying an unconscious Sakura, and Mike was piggybacking an unconscious Emily. Navcase pointed out the sushi stand and the group headed over.
"Welcome to Gold Sushi!" Genta exclaimed as the group approached. Genta took one look at Navcase, and was immediately reminded of a similarly dressed swordsman.
"J-j-j-jUZO!" He shouted, high-tailing it out of there with his stand.
"I wonder what that was all about." Mia said.
"Who's Juzo?" Kevin wondered.
"I guess Navcase will have to take a rain check on that sushi." Lauren asked.
"Well, Em and I got all the stuff Mia asked for back at Jayden's, so let's get going! Who's hungry!?" Mike exclaimed.
With that, the Samurai Rangers plus two headed home…
This brings this Chapter to a close…