An Unhappy Reunion Part 2

Chiaki removed the gag from Genta's mouth and Ryunosuke used his Shinkenmaru to cut the bonds on his wrists and ankles. Once Genta was freed, the blue and green samurai helped their still groggy friend to his feet. It is unclear how long Genta had been in the sack, but from the way he was squinting from the brightness of the sunlight. When his eyes had properly adjusted to the light, Genta stood in surprise to see Chiaki and Ryunosuke who was now on his Shodo Phone.

"Ryunosuke. Chiaki. What…? Where…? How…?" The disoriented gold warrior said trying to get his bearings. "Where are we?"

Ryunosuke flipped his Shodo Phone and turned to Genta. "We are in Kyoto."

"Kyoto? How did I…" Genta paused as the memory of what happened to him.

"Those snake things." Genta said now fully remembering the events that brought him to where he is now. He began to tell his comrades his tale.

(Flashback)

Genta had parked the Gold Sushi cart outside a park and was busy tending to some costumers at his sushi cart along with his girlfriend Keade. Ebi and Ika Origami were relaxing in the fish tank as Daigoyou was hanging in his normal spot. Keade was serving as waitress and Genta himself was behind the cart making more sushi for some newly arrived costumers. As Keade turned from the table to walk to Genta when a spear whizzed passed her face and hit the ground about three yards away. Genta immediately ran to her side. She was okay but shaken at what had just happened. Genta turned to see where the spear originated from and saw The Vipers for the first time. There were about a dozen of them with two different ones. The two snakes that none of the other heroes had encountered were about a foot and a half taller then the Vipers. They were also more muscular and silver in color and their upper bodies resembled that of a cobra's.

The costumers ran from Gold Sushi in terror. Gent placed himself infront of Keade who gripped his shoulder in fear. Daigoyou flew off his hook and into Genta's hand.

"Keade, run. We'll take care of this." Genta instructed.

"Genta!" Keade said in shock. "There's to many of them. You can't…"

"Don't worry about me, just get yourself to safety when I tell you to."

"But Genta…"

"It'll be okay." Genta said reassuringly. "Besides, I have Daigoyou with me. Right."

"You know it Boss." Daigoyou responded.

Genta then turned his attention back to the snakes. "Who are you guys and what business do you have with us?" Genta demanded.

"We've come for you Shinken Gold." A voice said coming from behind the serpents. The snakes cleared a path at the center and revealed a cat like monster. He was wearing a black trench coat and his face was had some human like features to it. His hands had five fingers and all had a sharp golden tip at the end. "Our boss has chosen you to play a little game with us."

Genta was taken back by what the cat creator said. "Game? What kind of game?"

"It's a nice little game we've put together to challenge your skills." The cat creator said. "Now, if you'll be a good little boy, we can leave here without any conflict. But if you choose to get rough with us, then my friends here will have to sink their fangs into you." The Vipers and Kobras broke out into evil grins when the cat made his threat.

"Genta!" Keade said with a quiver as she clung tighter to Genta.

"Keade get back!" Genta ordered. He then turned his attention back to the monsters. "Sorry, but you guys seem a little too shady to me. So you'll understand if I decline."

"I was hoping you'd say that." The cat said gleefully.

"Vipers! Kobras! Attack!" He ordered. The snakes charged at the couple.

"Daigoyou!" Genta cried out.

"Got it Boss." Daigoyou responded flashing a giant light in the faces of the attackers. The light succeeded in not just blinding the snakes but the cat as well. When the flash vanished, the evil creators saw that their prey had run off on them.

"Don't just stand there," the cat hissed at the minions, "go find him."

The serpents went into the park following Genta and Keade's footprints in the snow. The hunters didn't go far as Genta jumped down from one of the trees. Genta henshined as he dropped to the ground. When he landed in the center of the villainous snakes he spun in a circle using his Sakanamaru to slash five of the fends. As Genta engaged the snakes in battle, Daigoyou was some hundred yards away, escorting Keade to safety. Even though he wanted to stay and help Genta, Daigoyou obeyed his boss's orders and went above and beyond his duty in protecting Keade.

Genta cut down the Vipers with lighting fast speed and precision and in no time all of the Vipers fell to Genta's blade. The Kobras however didn't fall so easily. Their thicker hides were able to take all of Genta's slashes without even being scratched. You would think that being bigger and thinker then the Vipers would also make the Kobras slower, but that isn't the case. Genta tried to use he super powered speed to out maneuver them, but quickly found out that the Kobras are deceivingly fast. The two behemoths picked Genta up over their heads and through him across the park. Genta flew for about fifty yards before hitting a tree. The Kobras through Genta with such force that when he hit the tree, the tree up rooted and fell over. Genta was groggy but wasn't out of the fight just yet. Putting the Sushi Disc on his Sakanamaru, he charged the Kobras using his 100 Fillets attack. The Kobras, being cocky after man handling the Gold Samurai, stood with their hands on their hips and waited for Genta to attack them. That proved to be fatal for the Kobras and Genta was able to cut through them. The Kobras collapsed to the ground and exploded behind Genta. As Genta got to his feet he was blind sided by the cat monster. The creator planted his right knee into Genta's stomach and with one right handed chop to the back of the neck, Genta was out cold.

(End Flashback)

"Next thing I know," Genta continuing his explanation to Ryunosuke and Chiaki "I'm being lifted out of a potato sack by the two of you. By the way." Genta began to ask his friends, "How did you guys know I was captured?"

"We didn't." Chiaki said with a sad expression on his face. "We thought you were Kotoha."

"WHAT?" Genta's eyes widening in shock. "Those things have Kotoah-chan!"

"Yeah." Chiaki answered. "I was out with my dad and when we got back to her house we found the place ransacked. That Quest Master asshole left me a note to come here, and lead me to believe that you were Kotoha."

"That bastard!" Genta said furiously. "How could someone be so sick? Threatening people's lives and using them in a bate and switch just for his own amusement." Genta then turned to his attention to his friends. "Anyway, thanks for saving me. Even if I'm not who you guys were trying to save."

"That reminds me." Chiaki said now turning to Ryunosuke. "I thought you were in Tokyo Ryunosuke? How did you know I was coming here to rescue Kotoha?"

"I arrived here not long after you left Kotoha's house." The Blue Samurai responded. "Your father told me everything and I rushed here to help you."

"That's good and all but what are you doing here?" Chiaki asked.

"I came to bring you to the Shiba house. Hime-sama's been poisoned."

Chiaki and Genta's eyes were bugging out of their heads. "WHAT?!" They cried out at the same time.

"Hime-sama was attacked and poisoned by a gang of monsters no one has ever seen before," Ryunosuke continued. "and the two of you could probably guess the description Tanba gave of the villains."

Chiaki couldn't believe what he had just heard. First Kotoha is kidnapped. When he goes to save her he finds Genta in her place. And now Kaoru has been attacked. Chiaki thought about all that had transpired this afternoon and none of it made any sense. Who is this Quest Master person and what could the Shinkengers have possibly done to this guy to make him do this to them? Then a horrible thought crossed his mind. Could the Quest Master have also have gotten Takeru and Mako? Chiaki asked Ryunosuke if he had heard from the newly weds and took great comfort in learning that they were okay and on their back. Hikoma had called and notified them about the princess and they left for Japan immediately.

Just then a swooping sound came thundering over the pond. It started low and grow louder and louder. All of a sudden a helicopter came flying over the trees. It was a white helicopter that barred the Shiba clan's emblem upon it and was piloted by a Kuroko. This was how Ryunosuke was able to get to Kyoto as soon as he did. Takeru had bought the helicopter right after the Legend War in case he had to travel a great distance to do battle again. As the Kuroko set the chopper to hover over the pond, another Kuroko opened the hatch to let the three samurai enter. Once inside the vehicle, the three were pleased to find that the Kuroko had picked up Kurando and Mitsuba. Kurando and Mitsuba were surprise to see that Genta was with them at the same time wondering where Kotoha was. It broke Chiaki's heart to tell Mitsuba that she was still missing and that they were tricked into saving Genta. When everyone was situated, the Kuroko took the chopper back to the air and headed back to Tokyo. They arrived at the Shiba mansion in about 45 minutes. Hikoma was outside waiting for them with a few Kuroko.

Once the helicopter had landed, two of the Kuroko that were waiting outside on the snow-covered ground helped Mitsuba out and rushed her inside for medical attention. Genta was going to take this time to call Keade to see if she was safe when he made a horrifying discovery.

"My Sushi Charger is gone!" he exclaimed in a panic. "Those vile snakes must have swiped it after I was knocked out!"

"Oh this day just keeps getting better." Chiaki said sarcastically.

"Jii-san," Ryunosuke turned to Hikoma. "have Tono and Milady returned from Hawaii yet?"

"No, not yet." "Hikoma answered. Before Hikoma could say more, a strange sound caught everyone's attention. The sound was coming from the southern part of the mansion. Hikoma ran to investigate the noise with the three young samurai following in suit. When they turned to where the sound came from, the group could see several arrows flying over the outer walls of the mansion. Naturally the protection symbols around the household stopped the arrows from going any further but when the arrows made contact with the protection seals, the seals caught fire and vanished. When the seals had completely vanished from the south wall, a black figure jumped up on top of the wall. It was the cat creator.

"Shinkengers." It announced. "My name is Jaguarriar, and I have come to reunite you with your Yellow cohort. Vipers! Kobras! To battle!" With that order a squad of Vipers and Kobras leaped over the wall and began their attack. As the serpents touched ground, the four men turned on their heels and ran back to the mansion with the snakes following. This however was a tactic to deceive the enemy as Ryunosuke and Chiaki took out their Shodo Phones and henshinned. Genta and Hikoma continued to run for the house as Chiaki and Ryunosuke drew their swords and engaged the attackers.

As with before, when their blades cut the Vipers, the serpents fell. But the two quickly found out that what Genta said about the Kobras was true. Simple attacks were not effective enough to scratch them and they were very strong indeed. Ryunosuke found this out when he turned around to slash one of them. The Kobra caught the Shinkenmaru and sent the blue warrior falling overhead with one hand. Jaguarriar took this opportunity to slash the air-born samurai with his claws. When Ryunosuke hit the ground, Chiaki tried to get his side. The green samurai barely went a yard before finding out that the Kobras truly were deceivingly fast. One sucker punched the bewildered Chiaki allowing another to kick him in the chest sending him flying back. A few Vipers took the shafts of their spears and pinned Chiaki down.

Then all of a sudden, Genta appeared from the mansion. "Wait, wait, wait, wait!" he yelled out as he cut down the Vipers that pinned Chiaki down with one of Takeru's spare Shinkenmarus.

"Gen-chan" Chiaki said both surprised and relieved.

"Genta!" Ryunosuke cried out to his comrade. "Get back in the mansion. This is too dangerous."

"That doesn't matter Ryunosuke." Genta said as he parried the blades of three more Vipers. "What's important is that we keep everyone in the mansion safe."

Ryunosuke would have argued more, but their enemies were too great and too many at the time so all three samurai had to focus their energy in defeating the snakes. The three samurai continued to fight valiantly, cutting down one Viper at a time. Though it wasn't their most difficult battle, the serpents did put up one hell of a fight. The numbers of the Vipers were dwindling fast, but the Kobras stood strong. Ryunosuke engaged Jaguarriar one-on-one and found the cat monster to be the most formidable of the monsters. Jaguarriar's reflexes were unreal and Ryunosuke quickly found himself out classed. When Ryunosuke went to stab Jaguarriar in the chest, the cat flipped over the samurai and with lightning speed slashed the kabuki dancer fifteen times sending him spiraling to the ground. About twenty yards away, Genta had cut down two Vipers when a Kobra came up behind him and lifted him up in the air. The Kobra positioned Genta to break his back over its knee. Seeing this, Chiaki did a spinning slash cutting down five Vipers and then leaped into the air and would have kicked the Kobra in the face had another Kobra not appeared. This Kobra grabbed Chiaki's ankle spun around and through the green warrior over to Ryunosuke. When Chiaki landed, Jaguarriar took out the Demorping Gun and aimed for the two samurai. But before he could squeeze the trigger, a white blur came whizzing pass him. A pink light slashed the sinister cat, not just cutting him but also cutting the gun in half. The blur then flew up to the air, turned around and with a backward stroke motion, sent several pink waves that took out nine Kobras.

Then a long red and blue blade then came from another location and cut down seven more Kobras. The blade shrunk down to normal size and its wielder lunged forward and cut the Kobra that held Genta overhead in half from the waste. All eye were now on the figure that saved Genta. Placing the Kyoryumaru over his shoulder, Takeru stood in Hyper Mode ready to fight. Landing next to him, Mako in Super Mode, Heaven Fan in hand, ready to fight by her husband's side.

Angered by their blindsided attack, Jaguarriar ordered the remaining snakes to attack the Shibas. The serpents hissed in malice as they charged the husband and wife duo. The lord and lady took to a ready stance. When the serpents were close enough, they broke their formation and counter attacked. Within seconds, Mako and Takeru had completely wiped out the last of the Vipers. The Kobras tried to use their superior speed and strength against the two, but with the added power of Super and Hyper Modes proved to be more then a match for the snakes. In one great explosion, all of the serpents were destroyed and the lord and lady stood tall turning their attention to Jaguarriar. The feline extended his claws and pounced at the pair. He was intercepted half way by Takeru who cut the beast three times that caused the cat to fall backward. Jaguarriar sprang back to his feet ready to attack the red warrior, but Takeru jumped into the air. Jaguarriar's focus was solely on Takeru and was completely unaware that Mako had the Mougyu Bazooka armed and aimed at him. Firing the blaster, Mako hit the cat dead in the chest and sent him flying back to the wall. Takeru landed right behind his wife. This was not at all the end result Jaguarriar had in mind. He and the Quest Master had severely underestimated the power of the Shinkengers. Wounded in both body and pride, the cat warrior disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Once Jaguarriar was gone, the lord and lady demorphed and turned to their friends.

"Tono! Milady!" A now demorphed Ryunosuke yelled out in glee bowing down on all fours. "Thank goodness for your speed. We are very sorry that your honeymoon was cut short do to this horrible incident."

"Milady?" Mako said with a puzzled look on her face.

"How did you two get here so fast?" asked Genta.

"We combined our Mojikara into the Kame Origami." Mako answered. "You'd be amazed by how fast an Origami can move with double the Mojikara surging through it."

"How is mother?" Takeru asked changing the subject. "Genta," turning his attention to his friend "why were you not transformed and where is Kotoha?" Now realizing that their youngest member was not present.

"Those snakes attacked us when we had arrived so we don't know about Kaoru-sama." Chiaki responded. His face sadden as he looked down "Kotoha…"

"Chiaki," Mako began putting her hand on his shoulder, "what happen?"

"It's a long story." Genta responded. "Come on, its too cold out here, we'll talk inside." Everyone nodded and went into the mansion.

Once inside, the lord and lady were greeted warmly by Hikoma. Mako waited in the sitting room with the others as Takeru was lead by a Kuroko to where Kaoru was being nursed. Kazumi, Ryunosuke's girlfriend, hugged the blue samurai as he walked through the entrance to the room and Genta was pleasantly surprised to find that both Keade and Daigoyou had been picked up by the Kuroko and brought to the mansion. A few minutes had passed when Takeru returned with news of Kaoru's condition.

"How is she?" Mako asked.

"She's going to be just fine." Takeru answered. "The Kuroko have drained out most of the poison and she should be back to normal in a few days." Everyone in the room smiled in relief. "Now then." Takeru said now turning his attention to the others. "Does any one now why this snake monsters have targeted us? And WHERE is Kotoha?"

"Take a seat." Chiaki responded. "It's a long story."

Takeru took his seat on the podium. His pillow was moved over to make room for Mako to sit next to him. Mako sat on Takeru's left on a pink pillow with white lodes flowers on it. The lord and lady listened intently as Genta and Chiaki told their stories of their earlier encounters with their newfound enemies. Genta began with his story, as it was a short one. Then Chiaki told his story of how he was lead to the pond believing that it would be Kotoha he would be rescuing from the Quest Master.

"Poor Kotoha." Mako said placing a hand over her mouth fearing for her surrogate little sister. Takeru took hold of her other hand and began to rub her fingers with his thumb.

"So you have no idea where Kotoha is being held?" Takeru asked Chiaki.

"No." Chiaki answered. "I figured that-" Chiaki was stopped by Hikoma. The Kuroko had reported to Hikoma about the sudden appearance of a small black cube that fell from the sky by the front door of the mansion. The five samurai along with Kazumi, Keade and Hikoma made their way to the front door to investigate the cube. Once they were all outside, the top of the cube opened and the Quest Master appeared via hologram.

"YOU!" Chiaki shouted preparing to attack the hologram but was restrained by Ryunosuke and Genta. "WHERE IS KOTOHA YOU SON OF A BITCH?!"

"It's good to see you again too Shinken Green." The Quest Master said sarcastically. He then turned his attention to Takeru and Mako. "Lord and Lady Shiba. It's an honor to finally meet the two of you. Though I must say, you both arrived sooner then I expected."

"So you are the Quest Master." Takeru stated. "Who are you and why are doing this to us?"

"Well since you already know what I like to be called you already know who I am." The Quest Master said in a smug voice. "As to why I poisoned the princess and kidnapped the yellow samurai, well, let's just say I wanted to have a little fun."

"Fun?" Mako said in disgust. "You think attacking and kidnapping people is fun?"

"Well yes," the Quest Master answered. "I've really been enjoying myself today."

"Oh you won't be the only one having fun pal." Chiaki began. "I'm going to have some real fun ripping your-" Genta covered Chiaki's mouth as he could only imagine what the enraged young man would have said.

"There is something I want to know." Takeru said bring the Quest Master's attention back to him. "How did your men manage to penetrate our defenses? The entire mansion is shielded with protection kanjis. How could they have gotten past them."

"You'd be surprised what modern technology can do against such primitive arts." The Quest Master said smugly.

"Our arts my be primitive but they are powerful." Takeru stated.

"Not that powerful." The Quest Master answered.

"Powerful enough for my husband and I to send that cat of your running with his tail between his legs." Mako added.

"That was a minor miscalculation!" The Quest Master snapped. "Enjoy that little victory Lord Shiba, as it will not happen again." The Quest Master does not like it when people point out his failures.

"Enough of this small talk. You want the yellow one back, correct?" Takeru and the others nodded. "Good. There is a map inside this cube. Simple flip the cube upside down and the bottom will open for you."

"And why should we trust you?" Ryunosuke asked. "You left Chiaki a note that Kotoha would be at the pond and she wasn't there. Why would Tono or Milady take anything from you?"

"Because you have no other choice Shinken Blue." The Quest Master answered. "Just follow the map and it will lead you right to her. Oh, before I forget, remember that life helped Ebizo grow. Perhaps the same action will awaken her." With that said, the hologram vanished leaving all that heard his parting words in a state of confusion.

"What the hell does that even mean?" Chiaki shouted breaking the silence.

Takeru picked up the cube and turned it upside down. The bottom opened up showing a folded up piece of paper. Takeru unfolded the paper and, true to his word, The Quest Master had given them a map.

"Darling." Mako said. Takeru turned his attention to her. "Do you really think we can trust this man."

"I don't trust him at all." Takeru answered. "But it is as he said. We have no choice on the matter." He then turned to the others. "Right now our main priority is to get Kotoha back. Once we know that she is safe, we will deal with this Quest Master." Takeru looked at the faces of his comrades and they all nodded. "Genta, you should stay here. Without your Sushi Charger you put yourself in greater danger."

"That doesn't matter Take-chan." Genta responded. "I'm coming with you to safe Kotoha-chan. Besides, she wouldn't let something like being unable to henshin stop her from saving any of us."

Takeru smiled and nodded at his childhood buddy. After everyone said their good-byes the five Shinkengers ran pass the mansion gates, going forth to rescue Kotoha.