On Fire (Power Rangers Samurai)

100 - Scroll / Sever

"This is the monk's sanctuary," Mia told Antonio as they entered. "The place where the monks carry out the rituals to regulate the waters of the Sansu."

"It's pretty..." Antonio appreciated its geometric inner structure, with intersecting beams of aged wood. It was wonderous until he noticed dark stains on the floor.

After he silently pointed them out to Mia, they both kneeled over it for a closer look. They came to a simultaneous conclusion, looking into each other's eyes with the same dread.

There was no reason for blood to be spilled in the monk's sanctuary.

Of course, this was a sign to be cautious and search for more clues. So the two of them split up and scoured the open room until they found an odd door on the floor which led underground.

As silently as possible, they cracked the door open, peering down at the stairs which ended in uncertain darkness. The unknowns of its cold, dank atmosphere gave them chills.

"Is it smart for both of us to go down there?" Mia asked, knowing her reluctance was reciprocated.

"I don't know." Though Antonio was obviously repelled by the suspicious basement, they obviously had to check it out.

But if it was a trap, would it be better for only one of them to go down and be caught?

Then again, if they remained together they would have better odds of making it through a trap.

"I guess it would be worse if we split up." Mia took a step down into the darkness, recalling Antonio's flighty behavior.

"Right." Antonio nervously followed, sealing the door shut behind him, slowly diminishing all of the light in the space.

"I have the light zord here." Antonio accidentally shoved it into Mia's stomach in the darkness.

"Heh, sorry." Antonio contained his amusement as Mia yanked it from him out of irritation. "I don't have my samuraizer..."

"Right." Mia was reminded that he had no special powers without his samuraizer, making him unable to activate the light zord.

As Mia took a hold of the light zord, it filled the room with light.

"Are you scared?" Antonio asked as they moved  forward.

"Yeah, of course.." Mia admitted.

"Oh.." Antonio was glad he wasn't alone.

The two ventured until they reached a library with shelves of scrolls.

"I assume this is where they store sacred scrolls for safekeeping." Mia shone the light zord towards the vast wall of scrolls.

There were vast columns of scrolls, tucked into slots of the wide shelves. Next to each slot, there was a small label carved into the wood, which was written in Japanese kanji.

"Wow." Antonio picked a random scroll and slipped it out of the shelf. But after carefully rolling it open, he realized he couldn't read a single word on it. "What language is this?"

"It's Japanese." Mia replied. "The knowledge that we have in the archives were translated from these scrolls so that we can read them. But as you can see there are many scrolls here. We only have the translations that were deemed necessary."

"Can you read this at all?" Antonio showed Mia the scroll he was holding.

"Like the other rangers, I know how to read a bit of kanji and hiragana, but not enough to understand." Mia couldn't read nor understand the scroll well.

"I think this symbol means black... kuro (黒)..." Mia pointed at a different label on the shelf. "I don't know the symbol next to it."

"Like the Kuro clan?" Antonio opened it, assuming it could be about the black ranger.

"Do you understand anything?" Antonio faced it towards Mia.

"Not really, but wait... isn't this is a drawing of the black box?" Mia pointed to a drawing at the bottom right of the scroll, surrounded by the Japanese text. "Then this scroll is probably about the bla-"

A cold hand clenched Mia's arm, yanking her so suddenly and harshly that she dropped the light zord. The moment the light zord left her fingertips, it began to dim and the room started to darken.

Somehow, she felt the breath being knocked out of her and noticed Antonio's startled reaction, all in a matter of seconds.

As the light zord was landing, its final light reflected off of a silver blade that glistened in Antonio's face and awakened his survival instincts.

Antonio extended his arm like lightning, with his fingers wrapping around the falling light zord's handle by a miracle.

Another great sense of urgency hit him as the blade soared towards Mia's wrist, which was twisted into an uncomfortable position.

With a heavy swing of the light zord, a great clash rang between blade and zord that repelled each towards their own direction.

"Mia!" Antonio quickly kneeled by Mia before quickly handing her the light zord.

As she took a hold of it, a light shined upon their attacker.

"Mentor Ito?" Mia was alarmed to see a familiar face, considering that he was trying to sever her hand off as quickly as possible.

"You know him?" Antonio's heart pounded wildly from the fright he just faced. He didn't even notice that his hands were still holding onto Mia's shoulder and wrist.

Mentor Ito was someone who mentored helped teach the rangers when they were young. Also, he was one of the many mentors who spent time training Lauren.

Now Ito's face demonstrated no human expression. He had not a single word to say. Just one objective.

The moment Ito got onto his feet, he adjusted his blade in his grip and charged straight at the rangers.