Task. 23: The Dangerous Partner

The Ring of Solomon is the twenty-second episode of GoGo Sentai Boukenger.

Plot
At SGS, Sakura and Akashi are trying to contact Shouta, where communication are cut off. Natsuki and Masumi are asking strangers if they saw him with a picture out in the city. Eiji puts his hand on a wooden bridge to track. The others ask if he found anything, he tells them he did. He picks up a Bouken Chip from his back pocket and drops it in a crevasse in the bridge. He takes out the Survibuster and the two believe it's from Shouta and run to SGS to report to Akashi per Eiji's suggestion. At a warehouse, Shouta smiles as his old friend cancels a dinner with a woman on his cell phone. Shouta tells the man, Toba he hasn't changed. Toba asks Shouta is doing, he tells him he's fine... The camera then pans down to Shouta's hands and feet tied up. The garage-like door lowers as Toba uses the remote. He tells him he is sorry he had him wait even though he was the one who invited him. He tells him that the country that hired him want the Pearl of the Empire, for the designs for an ultimate tank. He found out SGS has it. He knew SGS and Boukenger exist but was surprised to find out his old partner was part of them. He holds Blue's Acellular. Toba tells him he has ways for him to talk... the Questers enter and greet Shouta. When Akashi arrives, Eiji is still with his hand on his ground. He asks what Eiji is up to, he just answers back with a quesiton. Akashi tosses him back to the Bouken Chip telling him that Souta's fingerprints were not even on the chip. Akashi believes the Questers are involved. Eiji is indeed trying to sense them. Akashi tells him that since the Questers are now part of the Negative Syndicate, they are the enemies of all of Boukenger; that they should fight them together. When he sees he is not getting through to him, he shouts to stop being stuck in the past. Eiji won't budge. Akashi leaves, saying if he finds them, they will go together. Rei sets up a projection device. The Questers wants to know where the SGS Precious storage place is. Toba explains they offered him the Pearl of the Empire and he doesn't care who they are. Rei grabs unto Shouta's shoulder. Gai reminds Shouta that Rei can draw memories out from people. Shouta thinks back to when Rei spit out smoke and Gai took the shape of Akashi's friend. Shouta believes that probably Toba is an illusion. Rei's device can projects thoughts. They ask for the storage facility. Instead of the Precious storage house, the projection shows a girl in a bikini playing with a beach ball near a pool. Gai is shocked. Toba smiles as the woman tosses the ball in the pool Shouta says she is Miss SGS, Juka-chan. Raki berates and Waki, the SGS receptionist appears but Shouta says alas, she has a boyfriend. Rei says he has control of his own mind. Rei then suggests to create an opening, if they scatter his thoughts, perhaps what they want will appear. Toba and Shouta continue smiling. Eiji opens his eyes and stands up. Akashi turns around and approaches him, asking if he found them. Eiji punches him. He says in his mind that "Sorry but I have deal with the Ashu by myself." He races away. The next images they see is of Sakura and Natsuki in party dresses. Gai gets his face, saying that he has a one track mind and asks if that is all his brain. Shouta offers, "What about this?" He then shows Masumi and Akashi in swimming trunks pumping up. Rei is angry and lifts Shouta up, telling him to stop screwing around. He punches his gut and then punches him to the ground.Gai approaches where he landed, Toba stops him, reminding him they need him. Toba picks Shouta up and puts him back, telling him he got good taste in women when they met in training. Shouta tells him he doesn't make women cry like he does. This intrigues Toba, asking him "Didn't that girl cry? The little princess." Rei shows the projection of Shouta's memories, of an overthrowing of a foreign kingdom. The information Shouta had gathered created it, seperating the ten year old princess from her country. Toba asks him how many people have they made cry? Meanwhile, Eiji runs and Akashi tells the others that when Eiji transforms, to back trace his transformation call. Toba continues, "We knew we would be rewarded in exchange for all those tears." Eiji suffers as he watches images of people being shot. Toba has him think about his current life, images flash of hsi friends and SGS. Then what they wanted apepars, the SGS Precious Storage facility. Rei is excited because he finally gets to use that. Toba tells him they have poor taste because they are going to use it. Gai lifts the curtain to reveal Quester Robo Turbo (Rapidly), different from Gaja's. Gai then points his gun at Shouta's face, saying goodbye to him. Shouta lifts from the air, kicks him, flips in the air and shows them the handcuffs. He runs off. Gai and Rei run after him. Toba picks back the handcuffs and thinks back he had picked Shouta up and they were hugging. Shouta grabbed the key from Toba's jacket pocket. He chuckles and comments Shouta' skills have dulled. The Questers get out of the warehouse and look for Shouta, to no resolve. Eiji calls their attentio and jumps down. He transforms and they fight. Sakura find Silver on the laptop using a program device for tracing a change signal. Akashi and the others run off from their respective areas. Shouta hides behind some boxes and says he better tell Akashi that the location of the Precious storage place has been found out. He gets up to find Toba pointing a gun to his face. Toba comments his moves haven't changed. He asks him to let him go or the world will be destroyed.Toba is amused he has become a superhero. He turns away, thinking he is trying to run from his past. Shouta stands up, only to get the gun in his face again. Toba continues saying he is tyring to make up the excuses from the past, still self-satisfaction. Just then, Gai and Silver dive in as they are fighting. Silver tells Shouta that don't he let Toba fool him because he is the one trying to suppress the past. Toba laughs saying it happens. Silver beleives you must settle things with your past. They run off, Shouta moves up and Toba points the gun at him yet again. They fight. Shouta manages to get the gun from him and kicks Toba down. He rushes toward Shouta and stops when Blue starts shooting at his feet. He then aims it at him saying, "Trying to deal with your past is not an excuse. You can call it self- satisficaiton if you like." He continues to say that as long as he lives, he will to keep going forward. He gets close to him, saying enduring all the tears from his past, he will protect those before his own whims. He throws away his gun and grabs his Accellular from Toba's jacket's inside pocket. He leaves Toba and runs past Silver fighting the Questers outside the warehouse. Silver asks if he finish what he had to, with no answer. The Questers decide to leave, which leads Silver to say, "Aren't you going to finish things with me?" They tell him they don't care about their rivalry, all they care about is the Precious. The Questers streak away. Toba approaches Eiji, telling him that as long as you're alive, you have to keep going forward and that you can't stay in the same place forever. Silver is startled by this. Stubbornly and perhaps insightfully, Silver says if everyone keeps moving forward without him makes him look stupid. The five Boukenger join up again and transform to protect the storage house. The Quester Robo lands in front of the SGS storage place, analyzing inside with the Robo's computer. They aim to pick the building up when GoGo Gyro shoots them off. The Boukenger form DaiBouken. The Questers form arm blades on their Robo and fight them. They then knock them away in the air. BoukenSilver arrives and has Police and Aider shoot the Robo. Silver then forms SirenBuilder. Silver wants to handle it, to move on. They all fight together.Toba watches from a building. DaiBouken is knocked backwards and SirenBuilder is thrown on top of them. Yellow asks Silver to get off, but of course he can't. The Robo aims to send a final blow, when Toba presses buttons rapidly on his mobile phone. Explosions are set off on the Quester Robo. The Quesers are quite shocked, the Boukenger take the opening and both DaiBouken and SirenBuilder double punch Quester Robo down. Ultimate DaiBouken is formed. SirenBuilder and UDB both do their finishers on the Robo and it explodes in orange fire. The questers leap out. UDB lands amongst the fire. Red says somehow they protected the Precious. Blue wonders about the detonation. A screen pops up before Blue with surveillance of Toba walking away. Shouta catches up with Toba. Toba tells him not to thank him, because spies don't trust each other. He set up the detonation device just in case. Toba tells Shouta to consider it a parting gift, because he is no longer from his world and that his meeting with Shouta has propelled thoughts of moving forwardfrom his job. Shouta encourages him. Toba sheepishly admits that he saved him. But he has too much to bear. He says that saving him is his own self-satisfaction. He says he will hide before 'they' find him and proceeds to talk to a girl as he leaves and a plane passes by. Shouta says, "Partner." Shouta arrives at SGS to get the news from Natsuki that the Precious sorage was a decoy location. Sakura tells Voice it is unforgivable. Voice is coy. Eiji reminds Voice that they are working together. Akashi is happy and surprised he said it. Eiji tries to play it cool. Masumi believes SGS doesn't trust them. Natsuki demands to know the true location. Everyone's attention is drawn to Shouta playing his guitar, he says "Not obtaining one's goal, that is the tears of spies, isn't it?

Trivia

 * Quester Robo Turbo (Rapidly) is based on Dynaman's DynaRobo and is the first legitimate Quester Robo.
 * SGS' trust issues with the Boukenger is lightly raised t the end of this episode, but is mostly downplayed in the rest of series.
 * The Pearl of the Empire from Episode 5 is mentioned but not obtained. This will not be the last time Precious from the past will turn up again.