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"In every step of the way, I'm gonna dedicate my heart to you..." ~From the English song "Now That I Found You" by Michael Bolton
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Chiaki could only watch Kotoha while she played her flute that one night. He couldn't sleep for some reason so he decided to get up for a while and perhaps, talking a walk around the mansion could help him. But to his surprise, he saw Kotoha by the garden staring at the moon for a while before she decided to play her flute.
And all the while, the only thing he did was to watch her do those things. Something must have been bothering her. At least on that part, he was sure of it. But what could be bothering her that made her get up from her bed and stay outside the mansion?
Though he wanted to approach her, he couldn't find himself doing so for some reason.
It has been days since that last fight they had with the Ayakashi who took Kotoha's soul. Until now, he could still recall the hopelessness he felt because of it. Being a samurai and a Shinkenger, he knew it was a normal thing for them to deal with such situation. It wasn't a win all the time.
But that event was something that made him nearly gave up his humanity just to save her.
"Chiaki... What are you doing here?"
That voice interrupted his flow of thoughts and made him raise his head. Chiaki then saw Kotoha looking at him with such innocent and curious eyes. They might not have any meaning to her, but not for Chiaki who was currently feeling something different with just that.
Inwardly, he shrugged off the thoughts invading his mind and cleared his throat before deciding to approach Kotoha.
"I should be the one asking you that," Chiaki said as calmly as he could despite his heart reacting otherwise.
But instead of giving more thoughts to his heart's reaction, he tried his best to focus on what he thought was a more important issue. "Seriously speaking, Kotoha, what made you come out here at this time of the night?"
Kotoha remained silent even after a minute had already passed. Chiaki couldn't help thinking that perhaps he might have crossed the line by asking that question. He was thinking of something else to say to change the topic of the conversation when all of a sudden, Kotoha spoke.
"I had a bad dream."
It had stiffened Chiaki somehow and soon shifted his focus to her. He frowned at the sight of the melancholic and slightly fearful look on her face, though. Was her dream disturbing enough to make her feel like that?
"Kotoha?"
"I couldn't help crying and feeling scared when I saw all of you got killed in front of me in that dream. You all protected me, entrusting me to defeat the enemy when Tono-sama should be the one doing that since he's a part of the Shiba clan--the very clan fated to defy the Gedoushu."
"Why are you still degrading yourself when you've done everything to prove to everyone that you're also a capable samurai? That Takeru isn't the only one who's strong among the six of us," Chiaki couldn't help blurting that out when he heard Kotoha's tone.
Upon realizing his mistake, he was ready to apologize to her but she soon spoke that made him stop.
"But is my skill enough to prevent that from happening? I know it's just a dream and the possibility of it even happening is low. But..." Kotoha's voice trailed off not long after.
Now Chiaki understood why she was letting off a dejected aura as soon as he saw her. But being a Shinkenger could increase the possibility of her dream ever happening. And yet, because of that...
"That's why you have us, right?" Chiaki said soon after that made Kotoha's focus turn to her. "We entrusted our lives to Takeru that one time and we trust Takeru to do what he could for us to remain alive until we could defeat the Gedoushu. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do what we can as well to stay alive until the end. If we do that, I think the possiblity you were fearing to happen would always remain low. If not, it will disappear completely... as long as we are there for each other."
After that, Chiaki stayed staring at Kotoha who soon returned the gesture. But this time, he didn't pay attention to his heart beating fast at the moment. He just wanted to let Kotoha know that what he told her was the truth.
"Is that enough, Kotoha?" For some reason, he asked that quite warily.
As few moments had passed that Kotoha just stared at him. It was the kind of stare that seemed to study and weigh everything he said to her. Before he knew it, the innocent yet charming smile she would usually show had appeared on her face at the moment. She nodded not long after, as if to answer his question.
That had made Chiaki smile, as well. At least, it was enough to make her feel relieved.
That's right. As long as he would be there for her, that fear would soon vanish from her heart. At that moment, he made that one firm promise.
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...and for the first time, I was able to write a fanfic for my first Shinkenger OTP. Sorry for taking so long to post a one-shot here. I know it's not much but I still hope you like it. I've been busy doing other things and also writing other stories that had been in pending for quite a while now, that's why it took me this long before I managed to write another SS one-shot. Besides that, I've been feeling really bummed for a while now because of some issues with regards to the manuscript I passed.
