1982

"Have you seen Momozono?" I hear my name mentioned. At the corner of my eyes I see Miyuki, a girl from my gymnastic squad talking to some boys who are resting at the sideline. I guess my play time is up. I lauch a final kick, grab Hiro's arm and twist it behind his back. "Game over, Hiro."

Hiro groans in pain as I release him. "You're in the wrong club, Momozono," he says for the hundreth times as he shakes his head.

"Yeah, you should come and join us!" The other boys who've been watching chime in.

"Momozono!" Miyuki yells when she finally notices me. She doesn't look happy. "Coach is looking for you. Your exam is in fifteen minutes!"

Exam? Shit. It's exam day. How could I forget!

"I'll be right there!" I yell back. Miyuki shakes her head and leaves. I collect my belonging and wave goodbye to the kids at the karate club. I often come here after school to kill time before my rythmic gymnastic lessons begin. The boys taught me self-defence. I wish I'm in this club instead of next door. But Mom thinks karate is too 'boyish' and signed me up for rythmic gymnastic instead.

As much as I feel I'm in the wrong club, I apparently excel in gymnastic, especially the ribbon. Although my coach would tell you that if I work harder, I'll achieve more.

"Momozono!" My sour-faced coach looks like he's aged five years older when he sees me walks through the door.

I cringe at him. "Present!"

"Stretch!" He barks. "You have ten minutes."

My heart is starting to race. I frantically trying to recall my routine in my head as I do my warm up. Actually I'm already warm from dueling with the boys next door.

Okay, I don't remember much. I'm screwed. Big time. I look through my bag looking for my notebook. Surely I've written it down somewhere. But no such luck. I probably left the notebook in the locker.

"Momozono! You're next!"

This is it. I'm finally paying for my laziness and disorganisation. I'm gonna fail.

Or maybe not. What's that sticking out from my jacket's pocket? I quickly reach for it. My notes! Hah! Turned out I've had it with me all along. I must have intended to study it at some point but never got around to it.

I quickly look through it in the one minute I'm waiting for my turn trying to sink in as much as possible.

"Momozono! Go!"

I toss the paper aside and leap into the mattress.

I get into adrenaline high and my body starts moving automatically. When I finish, I don't even remember what I just did. I try to peek at my coach's expression but he puts on a stoney one.

The examiners finally lift up the score. 8, 8.5, and another 8. Hah. Not bad. I expected worse. Not a perfect score but hey, that's pretty good for an amateur gymnast who forgot her exam day. I silently pat myself on the back. Good job, Miki.

I walk back to the sideline where I left my bag. I sit croslegged looking for my towel in the bag. I suddenly feel like I'm being watched. When I look to the side, my eyes meet Miyuki's but she quickly looks away and whispers something to Aisha, the girl she's sitting with. Then Aisha looks at me.

I wave and give her a smile but she frowns in return. What is wrong with her?

I decide to ignore them and watch the next girl who's having a turn on the mattress. Maya is really good. She's probably the best gymnast around here. I clap excitedly when she finishes. Perfect, she's going to have a perfect score.

Yep, sure enough it was a perfect score.

"Copycat!" I hear a hiss. I turn my side and it's Miyuki talking to Aisha again.

"She should get zero for originality," Aisha hisses back and Maya seems to hear. She gives them the 'what did you just say' look.

Maya walks towards them with hands on her hips. "You're just jealous coz I had a perfect score."

"You copied some of my routine," Miyuki confronts her.

Uh oh. Cat fight.

"It's a common routine, not copyrighted to you," Maya defends herself. "The examiners obviously didn't care. Momozono copied some of mine too." She suddenly points her finger to me.

"Whoa." I put my hands up in the air in defeat. "Leave me out of it. I'm no threat to you all." They're the top scorer. I'm just middle class, if not close to the bottom due to my lack of practice.

Miyuki suddenly decides that we should take the copying matter to the coach and she drags me along with them! What the hell.

"I wouldn't call it copying. It's helping each other out. So what if we take inspiration from one another?" I try to reason with them to find middle ground. I think this has been blown out of proportion. I don't think anyone purposely try to copy anyone. There's only so many moves you can do. Obviously sometimes some things will look similar. After all we're trained by the same coach.

"Let Coach decides if it was inspiration of blatant copying!" Miyuki snaps.

Sheesh. "Look, we're going to be competing as one team anyway. What's the point of trying to put each other down?" I give peace keeping another shot.

"Who says so? I don't want to be on the same team as you. You'll bring the score down!"

Ouch. That hurts.

Miyuki then rolls her eyes at me. Okay, she's getting into my nerves with her holier than thou attitude. I feel like punching her face right now but I would get into so much trouble for that. I think I'm already in enough trouble with my coach as it is. So I walk away instead. This is why I hate girls. They're so bitchy, so competitive, and such drama queens. Dealing with boys is so much easier. They punch each other but they don't hold grudges.

Talking about boys, I think I'll just hang with the boys next door. Watch their karate session. Learn a thing or two.

"Momozono!" My coach's voice echoes in the gym. "Where do you think you're going?" Ah damn it. Caught. I was just one step away from the door.

Reluctantly I stay. Miyuki and Maya are still debating. They try talking to Coach but he dismisses them because he's concentrating on the girls who're still doing the exam.

Finally everyone had their turns. The coach lines us up and gives us individual feedback.

"Momozono. Great stamina and control. Very stable. But you got to pay more attention to detail. Too many negligible errors can become a problem."

Ahh...what else is new. I'm not the most meticulous person.

Coach clears the gym and we are all told to practice a bit more on ribbon control as that's apparently what a lot of girls lacking today.

I don't mind ribbon. I join the others and start twirling it around.

After some practice, coach tells us he's leaving but we're welcome to continue using the gym to practice for next week selection. He's selecting the top gymnast in every aparatus to form a team to compete in regionals.

Some of the girls, obviously exhausted, leaves along with him. I stay back with four other girls, just enjoying ourselves.

"Are you Momozon Miki?" I pause when I hear a voice. I see this girl, shorter than me, long hair, holding a piece of paper. I don't think I've seen her before. She's probably a junior, she looks quite young.

I smile and nod at her. "Yes."

She smiles back at me. "You're prettier than in the picture."

Turns out the piece of paper is actually a photo of me. Why does she have a photo of me? "Where do you get that from?"

She grins widely. "Dai Sentai Goggle Five needs you."

"Dai what?"

"You have to come with me."

"To where?"

"No time to explain. Come on." She pretty much drags me out of the gym floor towards the door.

"Wait! Let me at least put on my clothes!"

She looks impatient but she lets me wear pants and zip my trainer jacket.

"Come on!" She grabs my wrist and drags me again.

"My bag!"

"You don't need it. Come!"

I wonder what can be so urgent. Did I mess up something again? Hundreds different scenario runs in my head. Am I forgetting to attend some appointment? Am I getting called to headmaster's office? Are they finally kicking me out of school because I accidently kicked the PE teacher on the nuts?

Wait. She's taking me out of the school ground!

"Where are we going?"

She's not replying but I feel like we're running faster and faster.

Amusement park? Why is she taking me to the amusement park?

We keep running and then she slows down in front of a red telephone booth. She opens the door and gets in while dragging me with her.

"Wait a minute!" I protest.

But this girl just continue to ignore me. She closes the door with us squished inside. She presses something on her watch and holy crap what the...EEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

We're suddenly sliding down through this tunnel with rows of oval windows on the two sides which are pretty much useless since you can't see anything through them.

What is this ride? I never knew the telephone booth is actually a ride!

The slide is getting steeper. AAAAHHHHH! Where did that girl go? She was just in front of me earlier!

For what feels like forever, I see a light in a distance which I hope is the end of the tunnel.

I slide on my knees as I land in a strange place and suddenly another person, not that girl but a guy in black sweater, comes out from another tunnel screaming. His tunnel opening is a bit high up so he salto out of it but lands on his bum. Ouch.

As I try to stand up I bump into yet another person, still not that girl but a guy in a khaki overall and a beanie. "Where am I?" The guy says.

Good question. What is this place? I look around. Is this some kind of a joke? The place is full of big blinking computers. Is this a futuristic themed ride? Then I notice yet another person. A slim guy, probably as slim as me, in blue shirt. His puffy hair reminds me of poodles.

"Welcome," a voice says. We all turns our heads to the direction of the voice.

Standing there is an old man with a cast on his arm. Poor guy must have broken his bones or something. With slides like what we got here with, I'm not surprised. It's not made for old people.

Behind him are children in blue and white spandex uniformed suits...wait...there she is! The girl who took me here is standing with them! There are two ladies behind the kids and few steps apart from this crowd stands a man...wearing...normal civilian clothes...quite handsome...okay, he's hot...probably much older than I...but not old like the old guy...

"This is the Future Science Institute," the old man explains.

"What?"

"Huh?"

The kids seem to take pleasure in our confusion. They all broke into toothy grins.

"I'm Hongo, the director." He went on talking about this dark science empire called Deathdark that's been destroying Japan.

He must be kidding. What is this? Some kind of role playing?

The more he talks the more confused I get. It all sounds pretty scary. But the scariest thing is, I don't think he's joking.

The hot guy who's been looking extremely serious in the background finally comes forward to join us and he tells us what he witnessed earlier today.

Something about creepy robots in army suits attacking them and how they dissapeared into a wall.

Hongo then tells us that we've been chosen based on our skills and we'll be fighting as a team called Dai Sentai Goggle Five.

Skills? What skills? And fight? There must be some kind of mistake.

"Um...I think you have the wrong person," I tell him.

"The computer doesn't make mistake," Hongo replies.

"But I'm only sixteen."

"You're also a skilled gymnast and a fighter."

Err...but I'm not THAT skilled that I can fight evil.

"Don't worry, you won't be fighting barehanded. Everyone, I'm counting on you!"

"Yosh! We'll fight them," the guy in black looks determined. Wait a second, what makes him think he can speak on everyone's behalf?

"Yeah!" The guy in khaki suit agrees. Everyone else seems to be pumped up. Their energy is pretty catchy. I can't help but smile myself.

"Put these on please!" The kids comes forward and put something on each of our right wrists. It looks like a watch without the time. There's a number on it, mine is five, and a yellow V letter underneath the number and a small red bulb at the top.

"Professor?" The hot guy looks surprised by the watch.

"Braceletes," Hongo explains. I really should call him Professor too.

"Akama Kenichi!" He points to the hot guy. "Goggle Red!"

Hot guy, or Akama Kenichi, makes this movement and suddenly his bracelet lights up and in a blink of eye, he transforms...into...a red guy in helmet...I mean he's now wearing a red spandex suit and a red helmet. Wow. Like magic.

"The Ruby that shines on yout helmet, represents the lost civilisation of Atlantis."

He then points to the guy in black. "Kuroda Kanpei. Goggle Black!" Kuroda does the same as Akama and transforms. His emerald gemstone represents Asia.

"Aoyama Saburo. Goggle Blue!" Sapphire representing egyptian civilisation.

"Kijima Futoshi! Goggle Yellow!" Opal for Lemuria.

"Momozono Miki." I stand up straight and feels obliged to put on my best determined expression. "Goggle Pink!"

I think he expects me to be doing the same as everyone else. I copied the hot guy, I mean, Akama's movement and yelled out 'Goggle Pink!'

My bracelet lights up and...whoaaa wow wow wow...it's a strange feeling like you're being tickled everywhere, a little uncomfortable but bearable. Suddenly I'm covered in spandex and a helmet. My stone is diamond. Ohhh...I like diamond. "Representing Incan civilisation." I don't know where that is but hey, this is pretty cool. I suddenly feel power surges through me, much like an drenaline rush, but more powerful. Suddenly I feel like I'm capable of anything including fighting evil forces. ESPECIALLY fighting evil forces.

Professor explains that the stones will give us power against evil to protect the OUR civilisation.

Goggle Red yells out "Goggle Five!" And I don't know where it comes from but I suddenly know how to make formation with the rest of the team. Must be the power of this suit.

I'm beat and so are the guys. We sit around in the lab wiping our sweats. We've gone through an intensive training on how to use our power and all the weapons that come with it.

Funny how the weapons are based on rythmic gymnastic aparatus and all of the guys have done some sort of gymnastic training before as well as self-defence!

Guess what my main weapon is? Yep, the ribbon. Maybe it's the excitement talking but I finally feel like this is not a random draw. I'm meant to do this. This is truly my destiny.

"Coffee?" One of the ladies, she's called Midori, offers. The ladies turn out to be Professor's assitants and they help the kids in the lab. The kids are called computer boys and girls and they are all genius kids who can operate the computers. Their job is to support us from the lab while we're in the battlefield. Each of the computers is linked to our suit and is able to monitor the state of our energy and power.

"Yes please." I stand up and follow Midori. I do need my coffee.

"Get me one too," hot guy tells me. I roll my eyes. How bossy. He's been pretty bossy the whole day in fact. The other guys were quite fun and would crack jokes every now and then but this one always wore a frown and looked so serious. He doesn't seem to appreciate us joking around. He's been appointed team leader, so I guess it's his job to be uptight. But I wish he would loosen up a little.

He does deserve the leader position though. He's extremely skillful. None of us are his match. Except maybe Kuroda. He's pretty good too and an experienced strategist. I think out of all of us, Akama respects him the most.

I'm the youngest in the group and the next one is Aoyama. He's pretty goofy. I like him. I find it easiest talking to him compared to the others. Kijima is goofy too. He's quite old though.

Kuroda is the second oldest after Kijima. He makes me swoon sometimes. While I'm much younger than him, he treats me like equal. He told me I looked matured for my age and and...he thought I was very pretty. Awwww. He gained a disapproval look from Mister Uptight though for saying that.

Akane, that's the girl who took me here, she's my computer girl. She apologised for dragging me without explanation. She said she was worried I wouldn't come if she tried to explain. She's a sweet girl. She looks after me well.

When Midori finishes making her coffee, she shows me how to use the machine. I make one for me and one for Akama.

"Here." I hand the cup to Akama who's talking to Kuroda but he didn't hear me. Kuroda who sees me nudges him.

"Oh." He turns his head to me. He takes the cup from me and our fingers touch for a moment. He's obviously not happy that I've accidently touched his precious finger. He gives me a deep frown. I quickly withdraw my hand and sit with Aoyama while he goes back to talking to Kuroda. Luckily I have my coffee or I'll be really cranky. What an ungrateful bastard. Not even a thank you.

"Where's mine?" Aoyama demands as soon as I sit down.

"What?"

"Coffee."

"You didn't ask for one."

"Can I have one too?"

"What's the magic word?"

"Pleaseeeee."

"Get it yourself," I snap.

Kijima thinks it's so funny he's practically rolling on the floor laughing.

"You're unfair Miki," Aoyama complains. "You made one for Akama and he didn't even say the magic word!"

"Yeah, I guess that was a mistake. I've learnt."

"You're so grumpy, Miki, it's hillarious." Kijima hasn't come out from his laughing fit.

"Glad you find me entertaining."

"Faster! Faster!" Akama yells at us. I'm already out of breath from trying to catch up with the boys. They're all much taller than me which means I have to run faster to be up to speed.

Suddenly an explosion happens right behind me sending me flying few metres away.

I groan in pain as I struggle to get up. I don't know what hurts more, my body or my pride.

As the smoke subsides I can see Akama looking straight into my eyes. "You've got to try harder."

I bit my lips trying to hold back tears. As if I'm not trying hard enough. I feel my bones are about to break from all the training he's putting us through.

"Take it easy, Chief," Kuroda suddenly appears behind me. He helps me to stand up. "Miki is just a girl."

"It's not an excuse," Akama snaps. "Do you think the enemy will take it easy on her just because she's a girl?"

Kuroda sighs. "Are you okay?"

I nod weakly. "I'm fine."

"Let's do it again. This time make sure you make it to the other side before the explosion," Akama says looking sharply at me.

"What about five minutes break?" Kuroda asks. "She's exhausted."

"No, I'm fine," I insist. "Let's do it again." I don't want to annoy him further by asking for a break. He's already annoyed when I came late today. The boys have been training since morning but I have school. They all quit their job to focus on being a sentai but Professor said I should still go to school. I quit gymnastic though because there's no way I can do that plus this.

I'm once again too slow and the explosion sends me flying away.

"Now you do it alone. I want to see how you run," Akama tells me as he frowns. "You're small and light. You should be fast."

Easy for you to say! I try my hardest to stop myself from rolling my eyes. He always sounds like he knows everything. I don't know how much more I can stand his attitude. He's so critical it's making everyone so tense. I don't think this is how we should be working as a team.

I obey him anyway. I run as fast as I can to the other side but halfway through he stops me. He comes over and stands in front of me. So close I can feel his breathing. I take a step back because he's making me nervous. He suddenly reaches for my elbows. It jolts me when his warm hands touch my skin. "These." He pushes both my elbows toward my side. "Keep them close to your body. You'll be faster that way. Your arms were flying everywhere. They slow you down."

"Huh?"

"Trust me. Try again."

I do as he told me. I made it! I made it to the other side before the explosion gets me!

I jump and punch the air. "YEEHAA!"

The rest of the boys cheer and clap for me. Even mister cranky looks pleased. "Excellent. Take ten."

Kuroda comes and high-fives me. "Well done, Pink!"

"Thanks!" I grin ear to ear.

I join the boys and take a gulp of water and wet my face to cool myself down.

"You should use the fact that you're a girl to your advantage and not use it as an excuse for not being able to do something," Akama suddenly preaches out of the blue.

"Excuse me? When did I ever use it as an excuse?" Gosh, he makes me mad.

"All I'm saying is you're as capable as any of us. You just have to try harder," he continues ignoring my question.

"Look mister, I don't know what your problem is. I've never asked for any special treatment or being treated differently because I'm a girl."

"I never said you did."

"You make it sound like I did!"

"Well, it's not my problem if you feel that way."

"It is your problem! You're the leader! You're supposed to encourage your team members, not put them down."

"As I said, it isn't my intention to make you feel that way."

"Ughhh!" Shouldn't he apologise instead of ticking me off some more? He frustrates me to no end. Before I can stop myself, I raise my fist and launch it towards his face but he blocks me. I clench my teeth.

"Enough, Momozono." He pushes my hand downwards but I'm already so work up, I'm not going to let him off easily.

"Come on," I challenge hinm. "Since you think I should be treated as one of the boys, let's settle this man to man."

Kijima has his jaw hanging open. Aoyama looks concerned. Kuroda observes us carefully. Akama looks at me like I've lost my mind.

"What? You're scared of a girl?"

"Enough, Momozono," he repeats. "We shouldn't be fighting each other."

"Then apologise," I demand.

"For what?"

"For saying that I use the fact I'm a girl as an excuse for not being able to do something."

"I didn't say that!"

"Yes, you did!"

"Momozono..."

"Don't Momozono me!" I launch a kick to his waist which catches him off guard. He bends slightly in pain. Hah. I launch another one but he's now prepared. I'm now in such a high I keep attacking him and he keeps blocking me.

"You think you're so great, don't you? You think you know everything about everyone!" I keep launching kick after kick, punch after punch. Akama keeps moving backwards until I corner him into a big rock. He now has no choice but to attack me back to free himself.

"Stop it you two!" Kuroda runs over.

Akama grabs one of my wrists and twist it behind my back. "You're asking for this." He then throws me into the ground.

He thinks I've given up but I haven't. I use my foot to trip him and when he's on the ground I sit on him so he can't move. I pull his shirt up bringing his face towards me.

He looks flusterred. "Momozono..."

"Apologise!"

"For what?" He yells back.

"For looking down on me!"

"I wasn't! You misunderstood me! All I was saying..."

"I don't care!" At this point I just want to let out my frustration and not to hear his excuses. "Do it!"

"Alright alright! I'm sorry. There. Happy now?"

Miki - 1, Cranky - 0. Haha!

I could have let him go at this point but for good measure I push him back down with all my might.

Maybe a bit too hard.

"Are you okay?" I suddenly panic. His eyes are closed and he's clutching his head. He looks like he's in a lot of pain. I may have pushed him into something sharp on the ground. I hope he's not bleeding.

I quickly push his head to one side to check. No blood. Thank goodness.

He suddenly opens his eyes. "Have you had enough? Can you get off me now please?" His eyes wonder to below his waist. The area I'm sitting on.

It's my turn to be flusterred. I now realise this can look inappropriate. I quickly get down and let him go. He stands up and walks away without saying anything. I feel a bit bad now.

"Aparatus and formation training. Let's go! No slacking!" Okay, I take that back. Mister Uptight is back to boss us around.

By the end of the day, we're all dying. Literally. I'm going to be bruised everywhere. Kuroda tried to negotiate for a lighter training program but Akama wouldn't hear a bar of it. According to him, Deathdark could attack any moment now and we have no time to waste.

"Eight o'clock sharp at the training ground tomorrow," Akama tells us before we part ways.

"I have school," I remind him.

He eyes me looking annoyed. He's been avoiding talking to me since our fight and he doesn't seem to be pleased that I'm talking to him.

"Come straight after," he replies stating the obvious which makes me feel a bit stupid.

"Yes, Chief," I mutter.

We're on the training ground as usual, it's been nearly a week now. Our stamina finally adjusts to the rigorous excercises we're put through.

Akama still doesn't talk to me unless he absolutely has to. I somehow feel like I should apologise. Kuroda tried to explain to me how I completely misunderstood him. Apparently he meant that as a girl, I actually have an advantage. Because I'm small, I can easily escape and I should, in theory, be able to move faster. In other words, he actually meant well.

But he's still annoying though, so I don't want to apologise. If he doesn't want to talk to me that's fine. Probably better for me as whatever he says is mainly nag nag nag.

Beep beep beep! Suddenly our braces beep at the same time.

"Deathdark's attacking! Deathdark's attacking! Goggle V, time to fight!" We hear the kids speaking to us. Apparently they just blow up a building! Nobody survived. They need to be stopped before they kill more people.

I cringe at the image in my head. Human's life is so vulnerable in the hands of evil. We look at each other. There's determination in everyone's eyes. "Let's do this!" Akama yells out. We put our hands together and yell "GO!"

Deathdark, here we come.

As Professor's predicted, Deathdark didn't expect us. Their ugly Mozu certainly didn't.

I finally know what Akama means by creepy robots wearing army suits. They're the mozu's footmen called Madaramen. They're pretty stupid and easy to fool. I can't believe this but they repeatedly fall for my charm. I can flirt a little bit and they would fall for it leaving them vulnerable to my attack. This is too easy. Akama was right, I have an advantage being a girl.

We easily defeats the Madaramen but the Mozu is a different story. He keeps causing explosion after explosion.

"Pink, use Goggle Ribbon!" Suddenly Akama yells out. What? Did he just tell me to lead a group attack? This is our first fight and he wants me to lead it? But I don't have time to analyse his behaviour right now.

"Okay!" I yell back and summon five ribbons. I throw them in the air for the boys to catch.

"Go!" I instruct them when I see everyone has a good grip on their ribbon. We jump in the air, land into our formation and together we aim the ribbons to the Mozu. "Ribbon Spark!" We electrocute the mozu and that works! It weakens him significantly. When Mozu manages to get up, it wasn't happy. It blows canons on us but Akama wastes no time.

"Goggle Rope! Attack!" Now we're using his weapons. Mozu once again gets weakened. Yosh!

Now the sabres are out. "Goggle Victory Flash!" We finish him for good!

"We won!" We couldn't hide our excitement! We actually won! We high five each other but suddenly we hear buzzing in the sky.

"What a gigantic robot!" Aoyama exclaims. Akama looks concerns. The giant robot suddenly emits lights and brings the mozu back to life! What the heck!

"He's back and now he's in a robot?" The robot pulls the mozu inside it and now the mozu is driving the robot!

"What kind of evil science is this?"

We're all dumbfounded with this evil presence. How are we supposed to defeat this giant thing now?

We choke on this air it emits. Panic washes over me. What do we do now?

"Goggle Caesar, launch!" Akama commands. Oh our jet! We've been told about Caesar. Apparently it can turn into a robot.

After what feels like forever, it finally arrives.

"Incredible," Akama mutters. It is actually a huge flying ortress. It looks so mighty and powerful. Everyone looks significantly relieved. Maybe we can do this after all.

With the guide from the computer kids, we manage to operate the jets. I'm glad they put me to pilot the Caesar with Kuroda because there's no way I have the confidence to fly anything alone. Red, Blue, and Yellow have to pilot their own jets which later would transform into a robot and fight with the giant mozu. This is all so futuristic. Professor is a genius. How he managed to built all these is beyond me.

Red's jet is the first to come out. Akama launchs misiles to the enemy giving Blue and Yellow a chance to launch. Giant Mozu isn't happy with Akama's attack. It's now attacking Aoyama's tank. On no, it's targetting Caesar too.

Kuroda and I look at each other. He tries to steer Caesar away. Akane instructs me to fire some missiles. "Fire missile!" I command.

From the mouth of Caesar, two misssiles launch and cause explosions which create some chaos on the enemy line.

Yellow and Blue then attack simultanously bringing the enemy down giving them a chance to combine into a Robo.

My jaw literally drop. This Goggle Robo is huge. As big as the enemy. It easily slices the giant monster with its powerful swords. This is it. We won. We really won!

Kuroda and I high-fived each other. I would even hug Akama right now. I'm in that good of a mood.

"We did it!" The five of us literally skips and hops into the lab. The kids were equally happy and we hug each other.

Professor looks pleased. I'm beaming with pride. Even the usually grumpy Akama can't hide his happiness. He looks around and smile at everyone.

We receive news that Deathopia has retreated. Because of us. Damn, this feels so good. I think being a sentai isn't so bad after all.

Professor reminds us this isn't the end though. This is just the beginning. We need to be alert and keep training.

Everyone is in high spirit and we want to keep celebrating but Professor tells us to go home and rest. We never know what's waiting for us tomorrow.

"Akama wait!" I run after him at the parking lot. He has just put on his helmet and about to get on his motorbike.

He looks behind his shoulder and sees me. "Wait!" I tell him again.

He looks confused, probably because I'm talking to him. He takes his helmet out again and stands there. He doesn't say anything but he patiently waits for me to catch my breath.

"Hi." I give him a little wave. I suddenly feel so nervous. This is probably the first time I'm talking to him without anyone else around.

He frowns at me. "Yes?"

Sheesh. Can't he be a bit friendlier? But I decide not to let his attitude ruins my mood.

"Um...I just want to say thank you," I blurt. This is it. It's now or never.

"For what?"

"For...um...you know trusting me..."

"I don't understand."

"You know today...you trusted me to lead the group attack." I truly was surprised. Out of all the boys, he asked me to lead on our very first attack. It shows that he doesn't think of me as bad as I thought he does. Maybe I indeed misunderstood him like Kuroda said. So I really want to make mends with him. After all we're a team and from now on we'll be together a lot.

"Oh." It was all his response. I can't help but feel a little dissapointed. Ah well, at least I tried.

"Yeah...well...okay. I'll...um...go now. Bye." I turn around and walk away as fast as I can. My face feels hot. I don't know why but Akama makes me nervous as hell!

"Miki!" I freeze at my track. Did he just call me by my firstname? Usually he would either call me Momozono or Pink.

I slowly turn around to find him looking straight at me. I look down avoiding his gaze. He has that habit of looking right into people's eyes. It makes me uneasy and I don't know where to look.

"Miki," he calls again. Okay, I have to look at him now.

A smile breaks on his face. A real smile. And it's directed towards me. Gosh he's hotter when he's not cranky.

"You did good," he tells me. "Well done."

I break into a grin. "Thank you."

He grins back. "Rest well tonight. I'll see you tomorrow."

I nod firmly. I stand there and watch him put his helmet back on and drives away.

I can't stop smiling now. I literally skip to the subway station. Somehow getting Akama's approval feels even better than defeating Deathdark. It's crazy and doesn't make sense. But for now, I will just enjoy these feelings.