Sakura's POV

As we walked through the door, we saw that my mother was waiting to welcome us home. She looked up from whatever she was doing, her smile fell as noticed the state we were all in. "What happened? Where is Tadashi?"

Unable to form an answer, I looked at Miyuki. She hung her head and said, "Something happened. We all need to talk."

My mother got to her feet at once and helped Tsukiko get off of Miyuki's back. "We should treat your injuries first."

She called for the kuroko to come and help with that, but Miyuki started to walk toward the exit leading toward the gardens.

I stopped her just before she could open the door. "Where do you think you're going?"

Miyuki put on a brave face and said, "You guys should get treated first. My injuries aren't too bad and I need a moment alone."

I looked at the burns on her arms and back, "Aren't that bad? You're kidding right?"

She slid open the door, making it clear that she had no interest in talking about what happened or hearing what I had to say. But before she could even make it out the door, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside.

She winced and yelled out in pain. "What did you do that for?!"

I looked at her like she was crazy, "Because you're being stupid!"

Unconsciously or not she slowly started making her way towards me. "Oh I am, am I?"

Miyuki had never acted this way towards me before and it scared me. Trying to stand my ground I said, "Yeah, you are. /lowers my voice so that only we could hear/ Tadashi didn't die protecting us just so you could risk your health. Think about us (your family), we're just worried about you. How do you think Tsukiko would feel if she woke up to find you still covered in burns?"

She tried to keep the anger out of her voice, but it showed on her face. "Don't you think I know that? All I wanted was a few minutes by myself, but whatever, I can do that later."

She pushed past me and started to walk toward the kuroko, but my mother stopped her. From the look on her face and the tears in her eyes, I could tell she heard us. She put her hand on Miyuki's shoulder and said, "Five minutes, go calm down."

She looked at my mom and nodded. Then turned around and walked past me closing the door on her way out.

I looked at my mom angrily, "Why did you let her out without bandaging her up?"

She hugged me from the side trying to comfort me. "Honey, I know you're worried about her, but she just lost her brother. Give her the time that she needs to sort everything out, okay?"

I sighed and nodded. "I hate when you're right."

She smiled a bit. "Well, I usually am. /breaks the hug to check on Tsukiko/ Make sure to apologize when she comes back inside."

I nodded and rested myself on the wall. "Yes mom."

The kuroko had just finished bandaging my tiny wounds as she opened the door. "They're done with me, it's your turn."

She nodded and sat down next to me. I could tell she didn't cry, but was trying her best not to. I put my hand on hers and started to apologize. "I'm so so-..."

Before I could get another word out, she cut me off and squeezed my hand. "Don't apologize. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be neglecting my health and I shouldn't have let my temper get the better of me."

I shook my head. "No, this is a delicate situation and I should've handled it better."

We sat in silence for a few minutes as they continued to clean her injuries and wrap them up. Finally, I broke the silence and asked her a question that we needed to address as a team. "So, what are you going to do?"

She looked at me confused. "About what?"

"Tsukiko doesn't want to be red anymore, right? What are you going to do?" I asked quietly.

She thought about it for a moment. "I'll have to step up. I'm not going to make her do something she doesn't want to do."

I smiled a bit. "I think you'll make a great shinken red."

Her face showed confidence, but you could see the doubt in her eyes. "Thank you."

We sat in silence a bit longer and before either one of us got up I said, "I really am sorry."

She turned to me and patted my back. "I know."

My mother came around the corner with Tsukiko as we stood up. She gave each of us a hug and then led us into the common area. The rest of our family was already there and I could feel Miyuki's body tense up.

Miyuki's POV

Sakura's mother must've noticed how tense my body became because she came over to me and tried her best to comfort me. "I know this is hard, but just say what you need to. You're the leader now, remember that."

My eyes widened. How does she know? She just chuckled and said, "I heard you and Sakura talking about it. Tsukiko also might've mentioned it to me. Don't worry, you'll be great. /hugs and releases/ You're still tense, want me to tell them?"

I shook my head. "No grandma, I have to do it."

She nodded and gestured for me to sit where the leader would normally sit. Trembling slightly from nerves I walked over, took a seat, and signaled that I wanted to start. "If everyone could be quiet, there are some things that need to be addressed."

Looking at the faces of my family, I could see the confusion on their faces, especially my dad's. But I took a breath and kept going. "As you can see I'm sitting in Tadashi's chair, he's nowhere to be found and Tsukiko, Sakura and I are injured. Earlier in the day, there was a situation where a gedoushuu set a building on fire."

Right after I said that Tsukiko locked eyes with me, questioning if I was telling the truth or lying to protect her. I couldn't deal with her internal emotional struggle, so I continued on. "All of us had gone to help the people out of the building and unfortunately Tadashi was unable to make it out alive. He's dead."

A rush of emotions hit everyone and I was trying my best to stay anchored. My mother was silently crying as she held the sobbing form of my sister. Sakura was with her parents (my grandparents) they too were crying. The only two people in the room who weren't crying were me and my father. I knew why I wasn't crying, but why wasn't he. When I got a better look at his face, the answer was imminent, everything about him screamed anger; his body, his eyes, even his face. When we finally locked eyes, I could feel the hatred and anger radiating from him. Finally, he opened his mouth and said, "Tell me exactly what happened and don't leave anything out."

I nodded and started the condensed version about what happened. "We thought Tsukiko might've accidentally started the fire when we were practicing character seals, but in reality it was just a gedoushuu luring us there. Tadashi and I discovered him when we went into the building to find a little girl. Before the building collapsed, Tadashi pushed me and the little girl out. There was nothing any of us could do."

My father lowered his head and asked darkly, "Tsukiko, why aren't you the one up there telling us this."

Looking over at my sister I could tell that she didn't want to answer so I answered for her. "After what happened she didn't want to be shinken red anymore, so I off-..."

"I wasn't asking you! Tsukiko answer me, now!" He yelled whipping his body around to face her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out but sobs. My father lost his patience and raised his hand to strike her. I got up so fast, blocking his hit just in time. Using his own power against him I sent him flying backward. "She obviously doesn't want to talk to you, so stop it!"

Pushing himself back up, he made his way over to where I was towering over me. "Fine, let's talk! /slaps me hard across the face/ One, you should know better than to practice character seals without supervision. /slap/ Two, I did not approve of the two of you switching positions. /slap/ Three, you shouldn't have gone back in to help Tadashi."

I wiped the blood from my face and stood there taking everything in silence. My mother was looking at us intently, shocked that my father was acting the way he was. My grandma on the other hand couldn't be silent any longer and said warningly, "Takeru."

But it was like my dad didn't hear her. "He did not give you a direct order to help him!"

This time she stood up, walked toward us and said a bit louder, "Takeru, stop."

My father paid no attention to her and struck my face again. "This is all your fault!"

My grandmother then made her way between me and my father and slammed him to the floor pinning him down. "I said that's enough!"

My eyes widened watching the scene play out before me. My dad was struggling to get out of my grandmother's grip, but she was holding her own; using her legs to weigh him down. "Sakura, get Miyuki and Tsukiko out of here!"

~Author's note: I assume most of you haven't seen the original Shinkengers, so I'll explain the grandma. In the original, the grandmother (Kaoru) is actually younger than their father (Takeru). She had to adopt him since she was unable to fight/lead the team and he had to take her place as head of the family. The kids just call her grandma because they thought it was funny growing up and it became a habit.~