Vandread Riders

(A/N: read the 'Other World Riders' prologue chapter)

Ch. 1: A New Universe Created From Lots

Kenzaki wakes in a daze. His vision is blurred and he couldn't see anything. He wanted to wipe his eyes but his muscles feel as stiff and as heavy as rock at the moment. He wants to move but his body doesn't seem to want to comply with his wishes. It's a big enough chore to just to breathe properly. Whatever that phenomenon had done to him was as pretty effective.

"My son," speaks a woman's voice familiar to Kenzaki in the darkness "Please pray that we'll meet again, for a new lives and fates await for us in the future."

"MOTHER!"

Finally Kenzaki's breathing returns to normal, following it is feeling throughout his entire body. Kenzaki's hearing seems to return and he hears the sound of a breeze carrying sand. It was a few more seconds before he could feel the temperature rise. His head buzzes with pain only matched by what his eyes were feeling at the moment. He could feel sand beneath him.

'Eh?' silently exclaims Kenzaki to himself 'Breeze, pebbles, sand, higher heat, marching, the voices of multiple men, and sounds that belong in a science fiction movie? Where the heck am I sent to?'

Deciding that lying on the ground not knowing where he is isn't the best idea in the world. With a small groan, he opened his eyes to see the blurry scenery and some kind of green blob surrounding him. Kenzaki took a moment to wipe his eyes and get them back in focus.

Whoever had said the last statement had been talking about Kenzaki as he moved his arm to begin standing up. The witnesses began to panic as they watched him push himself up to his knees. After a few more minutes of labored breathing, he managed to turn his head to check his surroundings.

He is in the middle of a desert, and of red-orange. Around him he sees bizarre rock formations. Nearby are a bunch of young men marching onward. Said other men are walking onto civilization, which is close by.

Looking back to ground level, Kenzaki can see that he isn't alone. Chousuke isn't far away from him, tossing and turning on the desert ground. Leaning behind against another rock formation nearby is Hana, who is waking up, and closer to her is Nami, who is still a little dazed. Luckily, none of them appear hurt. Around them are eight small rectangular metal chests and four slightly larger ones.

Chousuke groans out "Oohh… what am I lying on? It feels like sand." The younger boy gets up, opens his eyes, rubs them to get them back in focus, and gasps in shock and amazement "OMG! What planet did we end up on?" "Some of us like to know what too" agrees Kenzaki.

Nami mumbles in her unconsciousness "Oh… Mmm… Okaasan, it's too early." Chousuke groans, "Your mother isn't here, Nami-san." Nami opens her eyes, "Oh that's right." She struggles to her feet from the ground with what she would consider monumental effort. She then turns to Kenzaki with furious eyes, "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"Mou!" sighs Hana, "why do you always blame Kenzaki, Nami?" "How can you be so sure he didn't cause all those strange lights to disorient us and dragged us out here in the desert?" explains Nami. Calmly, Hana retorts with a simple question "Since when were there any deserts in a small if not mostly forested and mountainous island country like Japan?"

Nami reluctantly looks around, then gasps in shocking realization; even someone like Kenzaki couldn't have possibly placed them all in the middle of a mysterious desert and Japan is mostly forest and mountains but hardly any desert. She blanches and admits, "Okay, it's not Kenzaki's fault. I am sorry." Hana nods "Now that's more like it."

Nami asks "But why did he use those… sparkly phenomenon-like thingies that he used to lasso us with?" Hana stretches herself and says, "He probably noticed that those solid star-like objects were safe enough to hold and were holding onto each other like they were magnetized to only each other well enough to use as a rope at the moment. It's highly understandable." Kenzaki nods, "Thank you, Hana-nee."

Chousuke says, "The most important question is where we are and how it happened." Hana says, "Let's go with feeling first; to me it felt like we were falling through space. Last I saw, Kenzaki-kun was the last I've seen of us conscious. Can you tell us what you saw?" Kenzaki shakes his head, "No, I blacked out from all that ever-changing painful sensations of heat, electricity, and cold."

"But it's odd…" quietly says Kenzaki, "what happened to us back there felt just like how my mother disappeared 9 years ago." Nami asks, "Then how come you were with us back home?" "I was six years old and I was frightened," answers Kenzaki. Nami widens her eyes and nods, "Makes perfect sense."

Going to the sign, Hana says, "Well, at least there's human life around here and we can comprehend their language from here, judging by the way they speak from here."

Kenzaki walks toward in the trees, Nami asks "What are you doing, Kenzaki?" Kenzaki replies, "I was going to ask a few questions." Nami shakes her head lightly "At least it doesn't hurt to ask."

Chousuke says "Hopefully it won't be stupid, he's got a way with animals better than with people. Do you remember the chaos that befell the city when a circus elephant was rampaging because of it panicking? Well, aniki was the one who calmed him." Nami gasps, "That boy was him?" Hana nods "That was him."

Kenzaki asks the older men, "Can you please tell me where I am?" One of the men blinks at him and asks him "Had you hit your head on something? We're on Cairo's Path to the mineral mining and weapons manufacturing facilities." "Weapons facilities? Are we at war with somebody?" Another young man said to him "No, not now. But we are going to be in 19 months; against those evil women of Mejere."

Nami gasps, then she clasps a hand over her mouth, 'OMG! Men at war with women?! This is hell!'

Hana mentally gasps, 'Mejere?!'

Just like that, realization hits Hana like a load of bricks out of a dump truck. Now she knows why the text on the sign resembled something she's seen before. She almost blows a fuse when he realizes it.

Before Kenzaki could raise an argument, Hana picks up a rock and chucks it at Kenzaki's head, knocking him out. Luckily, none of the men take notice of that. She then signals Chousuke to fetch the unconscious Kenzaki…

Later, Kenzaki comes to in a strange corridor, like that inside a small spaceship, and groans out "Where the heck are we?"

"I'm sorry that I had to throw a rock at your head, Kenzaki-kun," says Hana to him. He turns his gaze to her, seeing her dress herself in a makeshift sarashi and trousers. Nearby her are Nami and Chosuke.

She then turns to him, continuing "But I had to do something to prevent you from saying something like 'women aren't evil, they're just different' or the like; the men of Taraak have believed the horrid propaganda that women are evil monsters that eat their innards for almost a century. From what we've heard from your conversation with those guys, in 19 months the men will wage interstellar war against the women."

Nami asks, "Now the most important question is why those guys are doing that and how you seem to know so much about them, Hana-san. Now please, if you can, please tell us where we are."

She tells her companions "We may very well be in a world known in an anime series called 'Vandread'!"

Her three younger companions exclaim in unison "Anime?!" Then they ask in unison "What is 'Vandread'?"

"Kenzaki-kun," says Hana "Remember 'Star Wars'?" Kenzaki nods, "Who wouldn't?" "Well, the 'Vandread' series is set in a universe where men and women are 100 percent separated from each other and on two completely different planets; the men onto the desert planet of Taraak and women onto the Mejere, the gender wars have become wholly more than just a metaphor. From what we found out from Chousuke while you were unconscious is that they're currently building mecha called the Tsukumo Van-Type Fighters, or simply Vanguard, and also building newer sections onto the former space colonization ship called the Ikazuchi, making it a battleship during precisely the next 19 months and then a week before it launches."

(A/N: 'Ikazuchi' is Japanese for 'Thunder')

Nami's eyes widen in horror, "Wait! They're also planning on using that ship to kill who used to be their females?" "They don't know that truth, and if we were to get the word out that they'll lock us up as prisoners and torture us, possibly to show me and you, Nami, to what they think of our kind just to prove their manliness" replies Hana.

Kenzaki sighs, "Good thing you've stopped me." Then he realizes, "Hey, wait a minute! How did you get such information?" Chousuke speaks up, "Well, the teachers at the training and education facilities here couldn't distinguish me from the other kids. How I was able to get is was pretty easy, despite the odd clothes. Besides, both like to gossip on the so-called 'good news' and I had to do something while you were out cold again for 10 hours now."

Kenzaki then asks, "Hey, wait! I've just got to ask; if you knocked me out and if the Taraakean men don't know about women, where on their planet are we and why does this corridor look familiar?" "Good eyes, Kenzaki" says Hana "we're in the main corridor of what I believe could be a fresh new copy of the Millennium Falcon."

(Millennium Falcon— starship class: light freighter; length: 34.75m; width: 25.61m; height/depth: 8.27m; maximum atmosphere speed: 1050km/h; hyperdrive speed: 80MGLT (34.9761726 Parsecs per hour); crew: 2-4; passengers: 6; cargo capacity: 100 metric tons)

"How did we get this?" asks Kenzaki, "how did the Taraak dudes acquire this?" Hana explains, "I've seen this appear in this chamber when we've fell into this universe. I've also checked the site, but thankfully no man on this planet save for you and Chousuke know about this place."

Kenzaki gets up and looks at the cockpit, "For some strange reason, possibly by the Force, I seem to know how to fly this." Hana nods "Yeah, I look at this and I suddenly have the information too." "Good, because we have got to get out of here!" exclaims Nami.

The boys sigh and lie down against one of the mysterious chests. "Have you imagined that it would end like this?" sighs Chousuke. Kenzaki says, "The literal sex wars in space are a surprise." Nami sighs "More like a stupid inconvenience."

Looking at the metal boxes curiously, Chousuke asks, "Where did these metal boxes come from?" Hana answers, "Remember those solid star phenomena? These chests were some of those." They look to her in confusion and she answers, "I woke up some time before we landed here and found the solid star-like phenomena fuse and change into the four chests. One of those chests had some of the items from back home, which are either upgraded or turned into items suitable for this universe to make our lives much more bearable."

The boys excitedly exclaim in unison, "Then we can make it here!"

The four open the four chests and inside they find a great deal many items!

Hana pulls out a black hilt, then after taking a firm grasp on it a long silvery blade unfolds from it. "Do you see this Kenzaki-kun?" asks Hana. Kenzaki nods, "At least we have weapons!" "In more ways than one," says Chosuke as he pulls out a metal tube, a folded bow-shaped weapon without a string, a melon-sized tan pod, a big black gun with a circular set dial/display of some kind, , and .

Hana pulls out the big black gun that calls out "DNA confirmed." Hana gasps, "I've got a Lawgiver II gun? Only the Judges in 'Judge Dredd' get this! It also deems me as its worthy wielder?"

The tube opens up into a pike. Chousuke gasps, "What is this?" "That's also a Minbari Fighting Pike from 'Babylon 5'!" answers Hana.

The tan pod opens into a ranged weapon, Hana identifies it "Oh dear… a ZF-1 gun from 'The Fifth Element'? I don't want to start a war on Taraak and alter anything."

Kenzaki asks about the gun she picked up "What does it do?" Hana gets the ZF-1 to close and explains about it "It can break down into four pieces that are undetectable by x-rays. It's good for left or right-handers. It comes with 3000-round magazines. Plus it has a 'replay button' that sends all shots to the same location. Additionally it comes with a rocket launcher, a poison/explosive-tipped arrow launcher, a net launcher, a flamethrower, and an Ice Cube System freezing spray. Oh, and finally it'll self-destruct if you push the little red button on the bottom of the gun." Chousuke blinks in amazement, "Whoa… not bad." Nami gulps "Overkill is more like it." Hana nods, "It's much too dangerous in the hands of a Taraak soldier."

They also pull out their transformed belongings, Chousuke finds a handheld compass-shaped device and says "This reminds me of my old camping compass, it must've been turned into a miniaturized super-computer with a stellar mapping system, now we'll know where we are!" Kenzaki takes out his personal sketchbook from back home, "Wow! My sketchbook!"

After pulling out her own building kit, Hana smiles and says "Alright! This was my experimental computerized book after reading the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series!"

Nami pulls out a pink brassiere, which she seems to recognize due to the nervous blush on her face, she quickly hides it and asks herself out loud "Of all the clothes to be transformed into clothes period with this world, why didn't the clothes on our backs?"

"Hey, my small telescope!" smiles a thankful Chousuke. Pulling out a new red tunic with apparently reprogrammable ID tags, Kenzaki says to his comrades "Man, there's nothing these chests haven't got." Hana says "Whatever brought us here knew what we needed for adapting to this universe."

Kenzaki opens the other eight metal chests and finds them all containing more supposedly fictional items made real; including four platinum buckles similar to that of the Garren and Blay Buckles, Rouze Cards, several Oni Transformation Items (tuning forks, whistles, & string braces), Disc Animals, a complete G3 armor, one Arcle, etc.

The two young males and pre-adult woman look over the formerly fictional gear they now have with them to see if they're authentic. Kenzaki picks up the Arcle, but Hana pull it away from him "You know, you need to consider the dangers that could come with it. I know for sure that it's not plastic nor any other material I've felt before, so it could be the real deal. Check the Rouze Cards to see if the pictures move on their own."

Kenzaki looks over the Rouze Cards and spots them moving, he then shows them to Hana, who is fully recovered from the pain and gasps, "They're all real." Kenzaki jumps around happily, "Awesome!" Chousuke exclaims "They're not just Kamen Rider gear, but also 'Super Sentai' pieces of equipment, and yet they're better than nothing if we can't depend on the other bits of equipment forever!" Hana joins in the excitement with the young males.

Nami, however, is not pleased with Kenzaki's current behavior——

"Some of our belongings from back home that would be helpful on travel are converted to adapt to this sci-fi world, we're trapped in an environment where men and women are enemies in a stupid space war, and the three of you are more interested with toys for young men and little boys that are not fictional anymore?!" exclaims a frustrated Nami.

Kenzaki excitedly exclaims "These surfaces, the material of the cards and buckles, the feeling from the Rouze Cards—— I shouldn't believe it's true, but it is; these items are genuine fiction-to-fact equipment, including some of the Kamen Rider gear!"

They're in the 'Vandread' universe and holding various genuine versions of the fictional counterparts, plus some possibly upgraded ones, so how farfetched was being in a popular anime anyway?

After a moment's pause, Nami asks "Those star thingies struck the three of you in the head too, didn't they?"

"Well, come on!" says Kenzaki, "I'm liking this new life a little already. Even if we could go home somehow, which to me is doubtful, does anybody here really want to go home, do our homework, go to work, go to school, feed our pets, sit in front of the TV and miss out on all of this? Look about you, you three; we're living the fantasy of every fan to be part of the action. This could be the role of a lifetime."

"Not a chance in hell!" shouts Nami, "I won't go doing any real-life Dungeons and Dragons for a billion yen! I'd rather go home where Dan-kun is waiting for my presence!" "How about… something more exciting than just Dan-kun ?" persuasively asks Chousuke. Nami freezes a tad, "What… did you say?"

Hana plays along, "We've just thought that since adventures make one stronger in mind and body, and you can experience new people up close." "What's your point?" asks Nami.

"You know;" smiles Hana, "excitement, adventure, making friends along the way and building a living here in this world with them, in case we may never need to go back to our boring old lives. Besides, there's a chance for Kenzaki-kun to be reunited with his long lost mother, etc. But you don't want this, so good luck surviving and operating the Falcon on your own."

"Wait, wait!" says a successfully persuaded Nami, "I've got an idea: we disguise ourselves as citizens of this planet, practice and train a little while here, we find some new allies, we talk them into joining us, and share their future adventures with us." Hana adds in, "And if we are transported back home, we can show everyone how much we've changed!" Nami nods "Yeah!" The boys cheer "YATTA!"

"Oh, wait!" realizes Hana "I've just remembered something; since we're taking up residence here on Taraak, if we do anything contrary to what the characters know in currently, we could affect the fabric of this universe terribly. So we should act like we're a part of them while getting to work, even eat the supposedly foul-tasting food pellets they eat here for 19 months. Also, we don't know if we're possibly the only ones from our universe here."

Everyone look at each other and say in unison, "Adapt."

Later, the four then take turns to change into Taraak-acceptable clothes and return to display.

Kenzaki dresses into a white tunic with red trousers, a utility belt, a blue baldric, a headband with his name written in five languages including English and Japanese (by Hana), sturdy black boots, and a black backpack. He shrugs

Chousuke is now clothed in a sturdy boots, tan breeches, a tan tunic with red lapels, a belt with a couple of pouches, a beret, and a satchel. "I don't believe it," gapes Chousuke in surprise "I'm placed in the military? Must be military school."

Putting on red-orange trousers with a sky-blue tunic, Nami groans out "If we ever get back home soon, my mother will never let me live it down. But thankfully, this outfit is better than nothing and it will cover certain parts I don't want people to see." "I can name a couple things about you, Nami-chan, that we shouldn't get the men to notice" replies the older woman amongst them.

Hana is in a white shirt, black pants, dark-brown vest, black leather boots, and a black utility belt, trying to make herself look almost like Han Solo from 'Star Wars'.

"Remember," states Hana, as she reads the transformed language translations book "the longer we stay here, we may as well unintentionally build some sort of reputation, so please make good impressions as best as you good. So as of now, we will be considered 3rd class citizens of Taraak."

Nami points out "I don't know about you, but how are we going to keep up with disguising our female voices?" "Which is why you and I are going to wear these without worrying for ruining our voices in the future" says Hana, holding out strange flesh-toned chokers.

Chousuke snaps his fingers, "Voice changers! Great idea!"

Nami shrugs unenthusiastically, "It couldn't hurt."

The girls put on their chokers. Nami speaks up, but with a young male voice "How are these supposed to work?" then she notices the change "Whoa! I sound like a real man my age!"

Harrison Ford's voice is heard in Japanese, "This really could save our necks if we play our cards right." Everyone turns toward the direction of the voice; Hana.

With the Han Solo voice, Hana asks "Don't you think this is impressive?" Nami sighs "This is going to be a long 19 months."

"Okay," says Hana "let's start our adventure together!"

"YEAH!" exclaim the two young men. Nami unenthusiastically says, "Yay."

Then the four began along the road to the start of their appointed next adventures.

However, these four don't realize they're not the only ones in this universe——

In a few places at the same moment, within the Mejere and Taraak spaces, several other groups from the Kenzaki's groups original world are experiencing similar circumstances.

Also…

Approximately 6 Parsecs away from Taraak, in a starship, that appears to be like the starship U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (length: 288.6m; width: 127.1m; height: 72.6m; mass: 1.900 million kg; armaments: 6 ball-turret phaser banks, 6 photon torpedo launchers; command crew: 7; total crew number: 430; maximum speed: Warp Factor 9.65 (1.91 Parsecs per day))

A middle-aged man with bushy white hair in a ponytail that reaches down to his posterior and dressed in a golden yellow uniform sitting in the main command chair opens his eyes, "Someone familiar to our original universe has arrived… and he has friends with him."

A middle-aged woman with blonde hair in a ponytail that reaches her waist and dressed in green looks to the captain and says "In what direction, sir?"

The captain stands and points forward "I plan for us to be warped forward until we reach 0.0000001 Parsecs to the nearest planet and then commence to slow." A young boy of 15 looks from the navigations console says "But the closest planet in that vicinity is the militant all-men planet of Taraak, should they suspect——"

"There's someone on that planet that I haven't felt since we arrived in this universe over 15 years ago and although it's exactly near the territories belonging to the all-women planet of Mejere, that someone concerns me a whole lot more at the moment" interjected the captain "Tell all female crewmembers with image generators prepped and prepare for anything." Then he sits back down, "and pray to every deity possible that those lost children are survive upon retrieval."

Back on Tarak, during the beginning of those long 19 months time…

Hana, currently under the Taraakean alias of Han Kagami, and Chousuke were recruited and upgraded to First Class. Surprisingly, their wealth in Taraakean credits was the same as the wealth Chousuke had back in the original universe. They went into the industries and school respectively. Hana would take some materials and parts no one's going to miss to modify the Millennium Falcon a bit.

While Nami, as Nam Akimura to pose as a man, and Kenzaki remain in disguise as Third Class citizens. Nami would've complained about the Taraak food pills, but she keeps her mouth shut since that would've run the risk of attracting the wrong crowd. Kenzaki doesn't mind the awful flavor, when he was out on the streets as a toddler before being picked up he ate from out of the garbage.

One day, in the 3rd class mess hall, Kenzaki meets up with a young man with wild and long hair of dark blue and clad in an orange tunic with black breeches and a striped bandana——

"Hey," nods Kenzaki to the head-banded one. The young man looks at Kenzaki with curiosity and some security, "Hello…"

"STAY OUT OF MY WAY, JERKS!" yells Nami at other First Class men in line trying to get their food pellets. She knocks several men in the line closest to her out cold with one punch each. As she pours the food pills onto her tray, she grumbles out quietly "It's bad enough that this food is so damn awful."

The men kept away from her, commenting; "Man! If he was a woman, I'd be glad to still be alive." "No kidding! He's the scariest Third Class citizen I've ever laid eyes on Taraak all my life!" "And the Prime Minister doesn't come as scary as that, ever!"

"Han has all the luck!" whispers Nami to herself as she looks for an empty seat away from the other men, "he and the other boys get to endure the flavor of this god-awful food, he gets First Class citizenship so easily, with better quarters and occupations for the time being. While I'm stuck babysitting the little nuisance, Kenzaki, and given such low class in medicine. These Third Class morons should be lucky in case I throw up on them."

One of the men, who isn't sitting anywhere near Kenzaki nor his new friend, asks "Who the hell is that guy?" Kenzaki answers, making it up as he goes to cover "That's Nam Akimura, he's a person who has incredibly high standards when it comes to relationships. He's really smart but doesn't warm up nicely to people he doesn't know. He is also living through a difficult time on his own with me. He prefers to be left alone as of now."

The young man next to Kenzaki sighs "Sounds like real piece of work." Kenzaki sighs "Isn't there anything that I can do to improve us?" The young man says to him "Since you don't seem to remember, there's the traditional baptism trial of Taraak known as the Test of Manhood."

"The Test of Manhood?"

"It's where you, when you're at least 6 to 24 years old, are tested for your stamina, courage, and resourcefulness on a 100-mile journey, you're given only two day's worth of water and rations, a beacon, a staff, and a knife to arm yourself with while you endure the blistering heat, the sand storms, occasional winds, violent desert beasts while trying to reach Grand Pa's Spring, the first of the few discovered oases and sources of water on this planet."

Nami overhears the description of the baptism trial of Taraak and blinks in shock, 'They have such harsh and barbaric trials here.' Kenzaki gulps, "Why didn't you go on it, sir?" The wild-haired man sighs "My grandfather kept asking me not to, I couldn't go against his will. Besides, there were also military morons coming to draft Third Class men like me into it when I was 9 years old. They didn't get a hold of me, to say the least. Now all I've got are my junk."

After he took a few more bites of his food rations, he turns to Kenzaki and introduces himself "My name is Hibiki Tokai." "I am Kenzaki Aono" says Kenzaki as he shakes hands with Hibiki.

To be continued…