Chapter 5

It was a calm morning at the samurai household, everyone was wide awake and currently Jayden, Nariko, Mike and Emily were in the living room having their breakfast. While Jayden, Mike and Emily were eating their bowl of cereal and Nariko eating a rice ball, the four of them couldn't help but watch as Kevin was carefully putting different kinds of cereal into his bowl. The blue ranger stopped once he noticed they were watching him.

"What are you doing?" questioned Mike, "Just eat already!"

"There's a right way to do everything in the samurai code." declared Kevin

"Wow you're so round up I'm not surprise you can't digest you food." the blue ranger simply rolled his eyes at Mike's remark.

Mia soon joined up with the others holding a tray with the dish being covered, "I came up with a new recipe everybody loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right?" She placed the tray on the table and pulled off the lid revealing the food "So for breakfast, what could be better than a PB&J omelet?"

Everyone's eyes widen as they saw Mia's cooking, Mike began rubbing his stomach. "Oh darn I'm stuff I just ate! Rain check?"

Kevin quickly poured milk into his cereal bowl and quickly began eating his breakfast causing Mike turned to his friend. "Precision and discipline huh?"

Mentor Ji then entered the room looking all excited, "Everyone I have excellent news! The missing Swordfish Zord has been spotted at Limitor Beach."

Mia confusedly looked at the samurai mentor, "A swordfish?"

"A zord that went missing in action years ago, if we don't catch it now who knows when we'll have another chance." told Ji

Jayden stood up and paced for a bit, soon turning to the blue ranger. "Kevin."

"Yes?"

"I want you to go capture that Swordfish zord. Are you up for a solo mission?"

"Up for it? I've been waiting my whole life for it!"

"With your mastery of symbol power over water I'm confident you'll capture that zord."

Once Kevin had left the household and to the beach to capture the Swordfish zord Mentor Ji, Mia, Mike, Emily and Jayden were in the living room simply just sitting there waiting. While they waited Nariko came walking in, carrying a lot of scrolls in her arms though she was struggling a bit just to hold them. To her dismay a lot of scrolls fell out of her arms and onto the floor. The beauty softly sighed and was about to pick them up until Mentor Ji, Mike, Emily and Mia got up to help her.

"Here let me take those from you Nariko." said Mike

He gathered the rest of the scrolls that were still in her arms causing Nariko to protest a bit, "But you don't-"

"Nariko we'll take care of these scrolls from here besides I want you to go to your bedroom and get some rest, I'll give you your medicine in a little bit." said Ji

Not liking where this was going at all, Nariko angrily sighed a bit and stormed out of the room. Jayden who had witnessed her reaction got up from his seat and quickly followed after his fiancé. The red ranger soon found Nariko sitting by her favorite pond garden and made his way over to her. He found that she was staring at her hands which were clenching her kimono tightly. Jayden took this time to sit right next to Nariko and turned to her, "Nariko…What's wrong?"

She gently bit her lip and simply shook her head. Not pleased with her lack of answer, the red ranger gently placed his hand over Nariko's. "I don't like the fact that you're not willing to talk to me about things that bother you...Please Nariko tell me what's wrong?"

The beauty hesitated for a moment before snapping, "I hate how everyone here is treating me! That's what's wrong!"

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since I've fallen ill from Master Xandred's powers, I can barely do anything without having the others and Mentor Ji babying me all the time! And since Ji is doing it a lot lately it's making me angry that they think since I'm ill I need to be taken care of 24/7 which I don't need!"

"Nariko they're only doing that because they care for you dearly."

"I know but it's getting to the point where I feel they consider me weak and defenseless which I'm not!"

"And I know that…" Jayden placed his finger under Nariko's chin and made her turn her head to look at him, "Look I'll talk to Ji and the others about this, in the meantime I want you to calm down and try to relax ok?"

Nariko softly sighed and nodded, "Ok…"

"Jayden!"

The couple look behind them to see Mike standing a few feet away, "Jayden, a Nighlok has a appeared in the city we gotta go!"

"All right!" the red ranger then look back at his fiancé "Remember what I said."

"Be careful Jayden."

"I'll be back as soon as I can." In turn he kissed Nariko's forehead and departed with Mike to deal with the current Nighlok attacking the city.

20 minutes have passed at the household and Nariko was currently napping in her room when she felt someone shaking her shoulder. "Nariko! Wake up Nariko I need you!"

The Yamada girl groaned and opened her eyes to find Mentor Ji standing over her, "Ugh…Ji? What's going on? Couldn't you see I was sleeping?"

"I know and I'm sorry but the rangers…" once he mentioned the rangers, Nariko quickly sat up in bed "What? What's wrong?"

"Come see for yourself."

She quickly got out of bed and followed Ji out to the healing room to find Jayden, Emily, Mia and Mike lying in bed. The four rangers painfully groaned and coughed as they lay upon their beds. Nariko quickly went to Emily who was the closest to her, "Oh dear…Are you guys ok?" none answered her as they continued their groaning and coughing. Nariko then felt the yellow ranger's forehead, "A fever…"

She thus checked on Mia and Mike to see they also have fevers, "I'm not liking the look of this…" Nariko then went over to her fiancé's side "Oh Jayden…All of you have exactly the same sickness…"

Mentor Ji stood by her side, "Nariko, go get them ice packs and try to cool down their fevers. I'll contact Kevin tell him what has happened." The beauty nodded and quickly left the room to retrieve the packs.

5 minutes later, all four rangers were holding an ice pack to their heads, but it didn't help with their fever at all. Nariko was kneeling by Jayden's bed and held his hand, worriedly watching him as he continued to cough and groan in pain. She then overheard Ji who was on the phone with Kevin in the living room "Kevin…The rangers have been poisoned…Yes they all inhaled the Nighlok's stench their fevers are next to impossible to recover from…No! The archives say they can only be saved by a purifying power I think the oceanic powers of the Swordfish zord could do it. Kevin you must catch it and bring it back here fast I fear it maybe our only hope."

Nariko couldn't help but grip Jayden's hand a bit tighter, angered at the thought of not being any help to everyone right now. Soon Mentor Ji returned to the room and much to his dismay the Gap Sensor went off. The samurai mentor look to the blinking sensor on top of the wall, "Oh no not now!"

He then stepped out of the room to contact Kevin just as Jayden got up from his bed. Nariko stared at her fiance in surprise, "Jayden! You shouldn't be up!"

"But the Gap sensor...Nariko…That Nighlok is back…"

The beauty helplessly watched as her fiancé leave the room with clear signs that the poison was still affecting him. Not able to take it anymore, Nariko sneaked out of the room without Ji and Jayden seeing her and quickly ran to her room. She pulled out a wooden case from underneath her bed and opened it. From within the case Nariko pulled out a beautiful naginata that had a handcrafted blade. She then headed towards the front door of the household and soon spotted Jayden leaning against the wall with Mentor Ji trying to convince him not to go. Nariko stopped and stared at the two for a moment before slamming the doors open and running off. Both Jayden and Ji looked to the doors once hearing them slam just in time to see Nariko leaving form.

"Nariko! I've got to stop her!" exclaimed Jayden, he then ran out of the household with Ji calling after him "No wait Jayden!"

Nariko soon reached a parking garage where the Nighlok: Yamiror was terrorizing innocent people. As the Nighlok had its back turned Nariko took this as an opportunity to strike with her naginata. Yamiror stumbled a bit before turning to the Yamada, "What in the? And just who are you little girl?"

"The one who's going to defeat you!"

"Lets see you try girly!" the two charged at each other and began their fight, though while they fought Nariko was able to get more blows on Yamiror which began angering the nighlok "How could a human like you be able to hurt me so much?"

"That's because you underestimate me!" but once Nariko landed another attack on the Nighlok, she immediately stopped in her tracks and began to have a coughing fit causing her to fall to her knees. Yamiror began approaching her, feeling very pleased at what he was seeing, "Aw…What's the matter? Feeling under the weather? Too bad because now I can finish you off!"

Before the Nighlok could even lay a hand on her, Jayden arrived and attacked Yamiror with his sword. "Oh no you don't!" The Nighlok stumbled backwards and fell upon its back from the sudden blow.

Jayden then turned to his fiancé and knelt by her side, "Nariko! Are you all right?" she continued to cough, not able to answer his question at all.

Yamiror soon got back on his feet and charged at the couple, "That's it! I'm getting very annoyed and so I'm going to finish you off here and now!" though he was stopped by Mike appearing and giving the Nighlok a hard kick to the chest.

As Emily and Mia arrived and joined the couple, Jayden chastised his teammates. "You shouldn't be here! You're sick!"

"Oh yeah? And you're fit as a fiddle?" questioned Mike

The red ranger was about to reply when he noticed that the Nighlok was going to attack their group, "Look out!" while Mike, Emily and Mia began to shield themselves, Jayden pulled Nariko; who was now unconscious due to her sickness, close to him, preparing to protect her with his body. Once Yamiror shot lasers at the rangers, the attack was blocked by a robotic blue dragon. The rangers looked and much to their delight found their fellow blue ranger standing there. Jayden smiled at him in relief, "Kevin!"

The blue ranger then pulled out his Hydro bow and attached the power disk he captured the Swordfish zord in. Kevin thus aimed the bow to the sky and shot an arrow, in turn it began to rain.

Once the rain fell upon the rangers, they were immediately healed from the poison. "It worked! That swordfish healed us!" exclaimed Mia

"That fish is off the hook!" declared Mike

Jayden immediately looked at his fiancé once hearing her groan in pain. "Nariko? Nariko what's wrong?"

Suddenly a dark purple cloud slowly emerged from her body. The rangers watched as the cloud began to disperse right before their eyes. Though Jayden was surprised once seeing the dark purple cloud, "Was that what I think it was?" he then looked back at Nariko gently shaking her. "Nariko! Nariko wake up! Please wake up for me!"

She softly groaned before slowly opening her eyes and stared at the red ranger in wonder, "Jayden?"

"Nariko how are you feeling?"

"Like…A huge weight has been lifted from my body…" realizing she hadn't had this kind of feeling in a long time, Nariko gently gripped the front of Jayden's shirt "Jayden…A-Am I?"

"Yes…Since you were exposed to the Swordfish zord's healing powers it completely healed you from Master Xandred's curse." this brought tears to Nariko's eyes and she wrapped her arms around Jayden's neck hugging him tightly.

"Uh..Sorry to break up this little happy moment but we've still got a Nighlok to deal with." said Mike

As the couple stood up together, Jayden asked his fiance. "You think you'll be fine heading back to the household?"

"Definitely and do me a favor teach that Nighlok a lesson!"

"With pleasure." Thus Nariko retrieved her weapon from the ground and dashed off, leaving the rangers to deal with Yamiror once and for all.

Later at the beach Mia, Emily, Mike, Kevin, Jayden and Nariko were taking a stroll along the shore. While they were walking, Kevin couldn't help but stare at the Swordfish disk in his hands. Mike took a big whiff of the air "Ah! The sweet smell of success!"

Both Mia and Emily then grabbed the green ranger's arms and dragged him off towards the water to get wet. As the trio played, Kevin stopped and watched them along with Jayden and Nariko. The red ranger then turned to his companion, "So how does it feel to see all that training pay off?"

"It feels great but it wasn't just my training…You know all the practice and dedication in the world doesn't mean much unless you truly believe in yourself too."

Nariko turned to the blue ranger, "I want to thank you Kevin, without you catching the Swordfish zord and using its powers I would have never been cured of my illness and for that I'm forever grateful to you."

"You're welcome Nariko, and I'm very glad you're now back to your old self."

She smiled and gave the blue ranger a kiss on the cheek before turning to Jayden "Ji and I had a talk earlier…"

"And?"

"We sorted things out and both apologized to each other…But he's really happy and relieved that I'm no longer ill."

"Everyone is…Especially me."

"Hey you guys!" called Mia, the three looked at her and she continued "Next time we have a day off we should come back and spend a whole day at the beach!"

"Only if you promise to bring some sunscreen! Man I'd fry out here!" said Kevin

They all chuckled and before Jayden could do anything, he was soon dragged towards the water by Nariko. "Come on Jay I wanna see you get wet!" "Not if I get you wet first!" all of them soon had a blast playing in the water and getting their clothes very drenched from all their playing.