On Fire (Power Rangers Samurai)

110 - Identical / Direction

Startled, Mia stumbled backward, her hand immediately cupping her inflicted cheek. She would have fallen if Mai did not grab onto her wrist.

"Mayumi!" Daisuke's angry voice appeared on the scene as if he had always been there.

"Mia?" Jayden noticed how Mai was holding onto Mia and assumed that she felt ill. Worried, he came to her side.

"Kaa-san..?" Mia was still stunned, especially since so many people appeared before her at once.

"Kaa-san??" Jayden's eyes widened as he looked at the mystery woman then Mia, noticing the resemblance.

"Are you okay?" Mai asked Mia. "It looked like it hurt."

"Mayumi, you must not leave." Daisuke noticed her beginning to wheel away.

"You got hurt?" Jayden just realized after seeing how red Mia's face was once she lifted her hand off of it.

"Wait!" Mia called out as Mayumi wheeled further.

Mayumi stopped and turned her chair around, glaring into Mia's watery eyes, identical to her own.

"Why?" Mia demanded a reason for the sudden attack but was only met with a spiteful glare.

Mayumi turned and wheeled away.

"Could you get some ice?" Daisuke asked Mai. She immediately scurried off, leaving him alone with the two flabbergasted rangers.

"I'm sorry Mia, I d-" Daisuke began, until he was startled by her tears. He sighed before taking a hold of her hands. "Your mother doesn't handle her emotions well. She doesn't know how. She shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Mia nodded and sniffled, with tears racing down both of her eyes. Still she was speechless.

Jayden frowned, picking up on what just happened between the mother and daughter. He placed his hand on Mia's shoulder.

"Daisuke san, we saw that a part of the house collapsed." Jayden mentioned as they moved towards a different room. "Did anyone get hurt?"

"Thankfully, no one was hurt in the accident. Lauren and Kevin did a great job at protecting everyone as we had some issues controlling Terry."

~~~

*Flashback to after Ch 99 at the Watanabe House*

"You've been here for some time, Ms. Lauren." Mai peered into Terry's room to find Lauren's face buried in a book.

It was a book she had read many times throughout her childhood, all about the workings of symbol power.

It was filled with things she and the rangers already knew. But she read it attentively, unaware of how it gave her a bittersweet of feeling of nostalgia. The same feeling as watching an old show or visiting a place from childhood.

"It's just Lauren. There's no Ms. before it." Lauren wasn't so sure how honorifics worked.

"Oh.. Pardon me, Lauren." Mai's smile plumped her freckled cheeks. "Would you like anything? Food? Water?"

"No," Lauren spoke before she considered her needs.

"Oh..." Mai's long brunette braid followed her as she turned away.