Chapter 32
Currently at the Shiba household Nariko was in the vegetable garden, picking some food and also observing Kevin and Mike as they practiced. Mike had picked up an apple from a bowl and bit into it, then turned to Kevin.
"Bet I can beat you using only one arm!" declared the green ranger
Kevin smirked and nodded, accepting the challenge. The two rangers got into their stances and began sparring with their spin swords. Mike gave a cocky smirk as he stopped Kevin's sword and bit into his apple. Taking this small opportunity the blue ranger knocked Mike's sword out of his hand.
As the spin sword fell to the ground with a loud clang, Kevin positioned his sword right at Mike's neck. Though to his surprise and confusion, Mike stabbed his apple right into the tip of Kevin's sword. While the blue ranger was distracted by this, Mike quickly picked up his spin sword and positioned it at Kevin's neck.
"I win and you got served!" Mike proudly declared
"That doesn't count!" exclaimed Kevin
Nariko rolled her eyes at this and began making her way to the household, carrying a basket of vegetables "Here we go again…When will those two be on the same page?"
Mike scoffed a bit and brush pass Kevin while studying his sword, "Hey I can't compete with your technique so I have no choice but to outwit you."
Kevin stopped for a moment and looked to his fellow ranger, "Was that a compliment?"
Mike who was drinking water at this time, stopped and looked to his teammate, "Me? Compliment you? Ha, no way!"
Nariko stopped at the front door and looked at the two rangers, "If you two could work together as well as you compete against each other, you both would be twice as strong."
Jayden happened to be watching this from the doorway and joined his fiancé's side, wrapping his arm around her waist, "Nariko is right you two, it's best that you take her advice."
Suddenly the gap sensor went off making the guys look at the blinking symbol. Jayden gave a quick kiss to Nariko on the cheek before running inside. Before Kevin could follow after his leader, Mike put his arm out in front of him stopping the blue ranger, "Wait…It looks like it's our chance to show Nariko just how well we work together!"
With that being said Mike slightly push Kevin back and ran inside, though as he did Mike bumped into Nariko making her throw up the basket of vegetables. Kevin rushed forward and caught the falling basket, along with the vegetables.
He handed the basket to the Yamada princess, "Here you go Nariko."
"Thank you Kevin…" Nariko looked into the household, "Mike!"
"Sorry Nariko!" Mike faintly said since he was already inside the household
Nariko shook her head and looked to the blue ranger, "You better get going."
Kevin smiled a bit and quickly joined is team inside the Shiba household.
At the city the ranger team met up with the nighlok named Epoxor who was sticking people together with a special glue of his. The rangers did their best to get rid of the nighlok but to their dismay and to Epoxor's delight Kevin and Mike were hit by the nighlok's glue. This made the two unable to fight since they were too busy trying break out of the glue.
Seeing how they were completely distracted Epoxor quickly made his back to the netherworld and prepare for another attack later. Once the nighlok was gone, both Kevin and Mike powered down, still struggling against the glue that was on their wrists, bounding the two together.
"Did you hear what he said?" questioned Mike, "Unless we defeat him I think we'll be stuck like this forever!"
"Forever?" exclaimed Kevin
The rangers soon made their way back to the household and currently were gathered in the living room, along with Nariko and Ji. Jayden had Kevin and Mike sit down on the ground, bringing out his spin sword.
"Ready guys?" asked Jayden
Mike bravely nodded at his question, "Go for it Jayden, we're ready as we'll ever be."
Kevin couldn't help but look at his leader warily as the red ranger positioned his sword at the glue bounding their wrists. Jayden then raised his sword and quickly brought it down, to everyone's surprise the strike bounced off and forced Jayden to fall back into the chair.
Kevin sighed in disappointment, "I'm sorry guys…"
Emily quickly went the guys' side, "It wasn't your fault, you guys didn't do anything wrong!"
"We let that nighlok get away!" the blue ranger exclaimed
"And we could be like this forever!" reminded Mike
"We'll fix this as soon as the nighlok comes back." Told Mia
Mike scoffed and looked to the pink ranger, "And what if he doesn't? Then what?
"He'll come back…They always do." Assured Jayden
Ji paced for a bit and looked to his two students, "And when he does, you two will be in no condition to face him."
The two rangers looked at their samurai mentor in shock, "What? No!"
Nariko sighed a bit and nodded, "Ji is right…Jayden and the others will have to handle it."
"No we won't let the team down again! We'll learn how to fight like this!" told Kevin
Mike nodded in agreement, "All right let's do this!"
The two rangers struggled to stand together but once they did, the two stumbled into the hallway and made their way outside.
"Now this should be interesting." Said Antonio, as he along with the other rangers and Nariko made their way outside.
There Mike and Kevin held a practice sword as they faced Mia who volunteered to help the two. The blue ranger looked to his teammate as they got ready to fight, "All right let's start with basic Kesigiri."
Though as they lifted the sword together Mike lost his balance for a bit and stepped on Kevin's foot. This made the blue ranger cry out in pain and looked to his teammate, "Ah! My foot!"
"You pulled me that way!" told Mike
Kevin grunted and shook off the pain, "Come on Mike focus!"
The two soon got back into their stance and Mia took this as a sign to begin, she charged forward and attacked the two rangers head on. They managed to block her first attack but Mia quickly smacked Mike hard in the butt.
"Ow!" yelped Mike, he then looked to Kevin, "That was your fault! You keep pulling me around!"
"Come on! Left to right, left to right!"
"I was doing that!"
"Oh do it the other way!"
"Oh come on!"
Emily sighed a bit and took a seat next to Antonio, "This is awful…"
Nariko who was sitting on the other side of the gold ranger, was gently rubbing her temples, "I'll say…I think I'm starting to get a headache from their arguing."
Jayden who stood by his fiance, heard this rubbed her back and laid a kiss on her head before making his way over to Kevin and Mike, "Look…I know you can pull this off but first you'll have to get in sync!"
"Tell it to this guy!" exclaimed Mike, he jerked to the side a little bit too hard causing him and Kevin to fall to the ground with a loud thud.
The red ranger shook his head and knelt by his two teammates, "You think you guys are fighting this glue but you're really fighting yourselves more."
Later on that day Mike and Kevin were still fighting with each other when they attempted to practice their symbol powers and taking out the trash. Currently Ji was in the living room with the two rangers taking in the mess that they made with the trash."
"If you two can't work together, then try to make yourselves useful! Go…Go get some groceries and bring Nariko along with you!" told Ji
"Got it…" said Mike
"Sorry Mentor…" said Kevin
Meanwhile with the Yamada princess she was in the gardens, sitting upon the stone bench playing with her necklace.
She sighed in frustration and ceased playing with her jewelry thinking to herself, "Keeping this secret about me being the hooded figure from the others and Jayden is getting harder…My conscience is getting the better of me…I want to tell Jayden but…I know he's going to be really upset with me if I do tell him…Not only that he's been suspicious of me ever since that day at the concert…I need to be careful with what I do or else my actions will give me away…"
"Nariko?"
Being brought out of her thoughts she looked up to find her red ranger standing there, "Oh Jayden…When did you get here?"
"Just now…I thought you would at least see me approach you…"
"Sorry…I was just thinking about something…"
Jayden took a seat next to Nariko, holding her hand, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Uh…No…It's nothing anyway…"
"You sure?"
"Uh…Yeah…"
At this time Kevin and Mike approached the couple, startling them a bit. They stumbled a bit but quickly balanced themselves out. "Hope we're not interrupting you two." Said Kevin
"No you're not, what is it you need?" asked Jayden
"You don't mind if we take Nariko off your hands for a bit Jayden? Ji wanted her to go with us to get some groceries." Told Mike
"No I don't mind…" the red ranger looked to his princess, "I'll see you when you get back."
"Ok…" but as she got up and started to follow after Kevin and Mike, Nariko stopped in her tracks and turned to her red ranger, "Jayden?"
"Yeah what is it?"
She soon hesitated but then said, "I wanted to tell you…Tell you that I…"
"Tell me what?"
Nariko bit her lip for a bit before saying, "That I-I…I love you Jayden…"
He smiled at this, "Love you too Nariko."
She returned the smile and quickly followed after Kevin and Mike, though Nariko can't help but mutter to herself, "You idiot! What were you thinking? About to tell your secret right then and there! Stupid conscience for making me feel so guilty about keeping a secret from my fiance!"
Later at the grocery store Kevin, Mike and Nariko had just finished purchasing the food and were currently making their leave from the store. Before Nariko could grab the two bags, Kevin and Mike quickly grabbed them before she could.
"Don't worry Nariko we'll carry the bags!" told Mike
"Are you two sure, you can do that?" asked the princess
"It'll make good practice for us." Said Kevin
With that being said the two rangers stumbled out of the store with the Yamada princess closely following behind. To her dismay the two guys fell to the ground after Kevin jerked to the side too hard.
She quickly went to the two rangers helping them up, "Are you guys ok?"
"I'm sorry." Said Kevin
Mike shook his head at this, "Forget it, we have bigger things to worry about…Like how we're going to get the grocery home?"
Nariko took the bags from them, "Which is probably why Ji wanted me to go, I'll take the bags from here."
Mike sighed a bit and looked around, his eyes soon landed on the shopping carts and immediately he came up with an idea. The green ranger got in front of the princess before she began walking away, "Wait Nariko I've got an idea!"
15 minutes later the three of them were walking through a park, Mike was currently riding in the shopping cart with the grocery bags while Kevin pushed the cart and Nariko following behind.
"You know Mike…I gotta say…" started Kevin
"If you're going to ask to switch places, forget it."
"No, I was going to tell you how impressed I am with this idea! You're always so creative."
"Oh…Well I have to be I don't have your mad skills."
"Hey…Was that a compliment?"
Nariko giggled a bit while Mike cracked a small smile and pointed his finger at Kevin, "Hey you tricked me.
Suddenly the blue ranger stopped in his tracks and began to look around, this caused Nariko to look around also "What is it Kevin? Is something wrong?"
His gaze soon landed on something having Nariko and Mike look too, to find that the blue ranger was staring at a park restroom.
"I drank a lot of juice this morning…" told Kevin
Immediately knowing what that meant Mike quickly asked, "Now tell me you're just kidding!" to his dismay Kevin quickly began pushing the cart to the public restroom causing the green ranger to groan "No not the bathroom!"
Nariko couldn't help but burst out laughing at the whole thing while patiently waiting for the blue ranger to be done with his business.
5 more minutes passed and the three were still making their way back to the Shiba household. Though to their surprise they spotted Jayden and the other rangers quickly running pass them which only meant one thing; that Epoxor was back and creating more trouble with his glue.
Mike and Kevin looked to Nariko who nodded, "Go on and I'll see you two back at the house and remember you need to work in sync if you have any hope to defeat the nighlok."
"Don't worry you can count on us Nariko!" told Mike
And thus Kevin began quickly pushing the cart off to the area where Jayden and the others went to. Nariko stayed for a bit and watched as Kevin and Mike made their leave before thinking to herself, "I think it's best to stay out of this one fight…I don't want to rouse Jayden's suspicion even more…Besides I think Mike and Kevin got this covered."
And it just so happens the Yamada princess was right, when Jayden and the others were stuck in Epoxor's glue Kevin and Mike stepped up to deal with the nighlok. The two used some creative techniques together which landed successful blows on the nighlok. Combining the powers together, Kevin and Mike defeated Expoxor with the forest spear and hydro bow.
Though to their surprise Epoxor came back as a nighlok giant and was about to take care of the two when Jayden and Antonio came to their rescue in the samurai megazord and light megazord. With these two zords' powers, both Jayden and Antonio successfully defeated Epoxor once and for all.
Back at the Shiba household, Kevin and Mike were currently in the kitchen putting away the groceries. Ji, Mia, Emily and Jayden were there too watching their fellow rangers as they passed each other different groceries in complete sync with one another.
"It looks like they found their synchronicity." Said Mia
"Eggs." Said Mike to Kevin, the blue ranger looked to his teammate in surprise as he tossed them, "Wait Mike no!"
To their dismay the egg carton fell to the floor and all of the eggs cracked, spilling yolk all over the ground. Ji and the others began to laugh a little while Nariko walked into the kitchen at this time. She looked at the mess on the kitchen floor then to Kevin and Mike who were looking sheepishly at her.
The Yamada princess snapped her fingers at the two and pointed to the mess, "You two clean this mess up now."
"Sorry Nariko…" muttered the two rangers
Ji and the others laughed a bit more at the two, Kevin and Mike looked at each other before grabbing a dust pan and a brush thus beginning to clean the mess up. Jayden took this time to go over to his fiance, wrapping his arms around her.
He then noticed the far off look on her face and immediately asked, "Something wrong Nariko?"
She looked at the red ranger in wonder, "Huh?"
"I said is something wrong?"
"O-Oh it's nothing."
"You sure it's not something else?"
"Nope…"
Not completely convinced by her answer, Jayden simply let it go and kissed her head while thinking to himself, "Nariko is definitely hiding something from me…I intend to find out what it is."