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1
“What are you doing?”
Nada blinks and turns around as Bamba returns to their room. Towa giggles and runs to hug his older brother.
“Oh,” he says. “Back from your one on one session?”
“Why was Towa running around with your sword?” Bamba asks, taking it from a now frowning Towa’s hand and tossing it over.
Nada catches it and shrugs.
“He wanted it,” he says simply. “I’m watching him, don’t worry.”
“He’s my little brother,” Bamba says. Nada smiles lazily at his friend.
“And I’m taking care of it,” he says. “In case you haven’t noticed, he’s also fed and dressed for bed.”
“Don’t give him your sword again,” Bamba threatens, but it fails. Bamba’s really not that intimidating once you get to know him. Nonetheless, Nada raises his hands in surrender.
“I won’t,” he says. “Probably.”
Bamba glares but let’s it be.
“Can I have the sword?” Towa asks, when Nada watches him again a week later. Nada hesitates, it will probably be fine, but Bamba would be worried, and yeah, Towa could get hurt.
…Whatever, it’ll be fine.
Towa accidentally trips and stabs himself through the leg, and Nada has never felt more guilty.
2
When Towa asks to learn sword fighting at age 83, Nada finds wooden practice ones. He’s fast, which is good, but it’s all flirting.
Which is fine, he’s a kid.
“I’m glad you’re teaching me,” Towa says. “Nii-san’s scared to, I think.”
“Oh is that right?” Nada asks. “Well he shouldn’t be, as long as we use practice swords.”
“You’re a good teacher, too,” Towa says. “Will you keep teaching me?”
“Of course,” Nada replies. “Long as you like.”
And Towa smiles it him, and Nada means it.
(“And you’re leaving Towa too?” Bamba asks as Nada walks away.
It almost gives him pause.)
3
He’s following them, ironically, when he finds the armor, though he doesn’t get there until everyone has left.
He stares at the helmet in his hands, it’s all he ever wanted, the power to fight, to fight as, to fight with.
But he knows, he knows how terrifying this power is, it could consume him if he isn’t careful. Maybe he shouldn’t do it, this whole quest was just… something selfish.
And then he thinks…
Had he gotten here sooner, perhaps he might have helped the people here, including Towa and Bamba.
And isn’t that the point? The reason he started this?
(He puts the helmet on and suddenly he realized that 50 years of preparation wasn’t enough.)
4
It’s advice, it’s all he can do. The armor wants to fight and if that’s what it wants he’ll have to do something else.
He advises because it’s all he can do, and it seems most every card the heroes have is down.
( “Will you keep teaching me?”)
Towa wouldn’t recognize him, even if he took the armor off. Or at least that’s his excuse. The current Green Ranger had only been 109 when he’d left, maybe younger.
He does fight, of course. Towa is fast, always has been, and that’s something he’s honed over the past 50, maybe 60 years.
But not honed enough.
Nada speaks without thinking.
“Don’t use your ability as a crutch,” he says.
He isn’t strong enough, he doesn’t think. The armor will consume him eventually.
He pushes back, anyways. Because this Knight before him used to be a boy he cared for,
At least, he thinks, he can give some modicum of help.
“I’ll give you one piece of advice,” he says, turning away with all of his strength.
( Fight , the armor whispers.)
“Don’t become dependent on your strengths… bring them to life.”
He turns back one more time.
I’m sorry.
5
Well, all the cards are down again, Nada thinks, panting under the armor which for once doesn’t want to consume him. For once, he thinks, because he isn’t quite sure this is a fight he can win.
This armor is his now, but he doesn’t think he’s really up to par with the team. And all of them are gone.
He thinks about a lot of things in this moment; he thinks of how Koh had believed in him despite everything, the way Asuna and Melto and the Tatsuis had welcomed him in, the complex old former friendship he has with Bamba that will never get any more resolution.
He thinks about the resolve to put on the helmet that first time because he thought of helping a boy he’d taught and an old friend he’d failed away from.
He thinks about a boy in his 80s with a wooden sword and a boy in his 40s and 160s both with a metal one.
(He thinks about Koh, a lot.)
He thinks he can save them all and then some more.
And he’s glad.
+1
Koh had brought him back. Trials and patience had won out and Koh had given him this chance to do it.
It’s a heady feeling in Nada’s soul as they climb down the mountain.
“I should call everyone,” Koh says. “Tell them you did it. Is there someone you want to call first?”
Nada smiles.
“You know,” he says. “I think there is…”