It was raining that day. It matched the mood and feelings of all the girls. At a bus stop were five girls, all of them did not seem to mind being soaked to the bone. However two of them who had bothered to carry an umbrella was a 15 year old girl with short dirty green hair and aquamarine eyes, and a 17 year old tall girl with long fluffy red hair that fell down to her waist and red eyes. This was Kohinata Miku and Amou Kanade.
The girl that Miku was looking at right now was a girl, the same age as Miku, with short cream colored hair fastened with two red clips on either side of her head and dark orange eyes. This was Tachibana Hibiki. Right now, she was holding a bouquet of flowers. Miku was looking at Hibiki because she looked like someone who looked like they had their soul ripped out of her. To be fair, they all feel like their souls were ripped out of them. Back to the other two.
The first was a 16 year old short girl with long pale purple hair that fell to her knees, separated into six large strands, three on both side, and dark purple eyes. Instead of the uniforms of some school the rest of the girls were wearing, she was wearing a maroon dress with short puffed out sleeves, a sheer light red-violet panel exposing some of her chest and upper back with detached sleeves and black accents on the ends of the dress and sleeves. This was Chris Yukine.
The last one, who was the same age as Kanade, was a girl with blue hair and dark blue eyes. She has a side pony-tail on the left side of her head that is longer than the rest of her hair, which falls to just above her waist and cut straight. This was Kazanari Tsubasa. Kanade didn't bother to look, knowing full well how Tsubasa felt at this time.
A bus pulls over and all of them get on.
'With eight-thousand cries, The lil' cuckoo's blood red tongue, Like a flame singing. The saying has it that the little bird keeps singing even as it coughs up blood. This saying would have applied to me and my friends; it was almost for Kanade-san, if it weren't for him. He clearly saw that if we kept singing, then we would have paid in blood. He told us that there are times when we have to stop and take a break.'
The bus stops and they all get off and enter a cemetery filled with tons of grave stones, showing that a lot of people died from something for the number of stones were surprising, but the girls weren't surprised. They walked until they came upon the one they were here for. On the grave stone read the name: Hoshida Akira, Our Brightest Star. Lying on the grave stone was probably the picture of the person. The person in the picture had a smile so bright and filled with life and warmth that it heavily affected those around him. His smile was brighter than the star itself and it held their light but now...that star was no more.
Just from seeing the picture, Hibiki, Chris, and Tsubasa all fell to their knees, crying.
"Minna!"
Miku cried out in worry.
"Why...why did you do it!?"
Hibiki said between sobs as she stared at the picture.
"Why...did you have...to go die for us!?"
Both Tsubasa and Chris were too sad and broken to speak words, but they felt the same way as Hibiki. Kanade brought Tsubasa into a hug as Tsubasa cried into her chest. Miku did the same for Hibiki though right now she herself had tears flowing freely from her eyes as well.
"You gave us all a purposed...and meaning...you gave us light...why did you have to go somewhere we can't reached you..."
Hibiki said before shouting up into the sky.
"AKIRA-KUN!"
You all are probably lost right now. Well, it seems these people have lost someone important to them. How did this come to pass? Well, we have to go back, three years in fact, to see how all this came to be. To listen to the song that the Valkyries will sing. A story and song of a warrior, a hero, but most of all an important friend. This is the story of Hiroshi Akira and of how the Valkyries sang his song.
Prologue: How It Began
3 Years Ago
A young man around the age of 15 with bright blond hair that was slightly messy and a bit spiky with bright green eyes and bright facial expression was walking down the street with groceries on his hand was walking to a nearby orphanage where he use his other hand to knocked on the door. The door open to reveal a woman in her early thirty looking at the young man and smile warmly at him.
"Akira-kun. Welcome back."
The young teen merely smile back and greeted her,
"I brought the supplies, Izumi-san."
This was day to day occurrence for the young teen, Hoshida Akira. Like his namesake, he was as bright as the star. For one, he was very friendly, kind and caring but above all else helpful and can be seen selfless at the time. People around town love his optimistic and enthusiastic view on life so much. The children at the orphanage even sees him as an older brother figure and he was more than happy to obliged to his big family. He usually goes out doing part time job and usually the money he got from any of the job he undertook would be used for the children. Izumi was a widowed and had no children of her own but she built this orphanage specifically to house children that have no family of their own and Akira happens to be one of their oldest orphans.
Izumi don't know the full story but apparently Akira was abandoned by his parents after owing a huge sum of debt from loan sharks and now Akira had to pay the price for their action. Since then, he had been living by himself on the street. It just so happen a few years ago, Izumi was on her way back from visiting her late husband when he saw the young Akira curled up, freezing out in the alleyway. He would have been on death's door if Izumi didn't bring him back to her orphanage. Izumi from her experience seeing a child go through that would have great trauma and distrust towards other especially adult but to her surprise, Akira just smile when Izumi offered him something to eat.
Not only was he smiling but he was also happy and grateful. A feat no child should express not after what happen to him. Since then Izumi had seen how Akira was really a special child. He really did live up to his name. The Brightest Star. A star that shines and give warmth and light for others. And now years later, Akira continues to live and help out in the orphanage in whatever he can. Izumi is just grateful for that. Akira for the most part, had what he always wished for, a home and a family he could protect. But not all of this were to last.
The next day,
Akira was on his way back from work as he brought the usual groceries for the orphanage. He greeted people around him and they were more than happy to obliged the same. Just then, he saw a little tripped after trying to catch her ball. Akira saw this and quickly rushed to her side. The girl was already sniffing from falling. Akira, like the caring older brother figure he is, quickly help the little girl up and saw that she scrape her knee.
"Don't worry. It's just a scratch. Here, let me help, oujou-chan."
Akira took out a band aid and a tiny bottle of antiseptic and applied it on the little girl's knee. She hissed a bit from the pain but it quickly receded. Akira then gently place the band aid on the affected area and properly held in its place.
"There. All better. Now, that didn't hurt too much wasn't it?"
Akira smile at the little girl that can't help but feel better when she saw that smile and so she too smile and nodded her head and said,
"Uhm. It doesn't hurt anymore. Arigatou, Onii-chan!"
"You're welcome. Here's your ball but don't play it near the street okay? It's dangerous. Now run along and please be careful next time."
The little girl nodded enthusiastically before moving towards the other direction. Akira can't help but feel happy that he was able to help another person today. And so feeling that was done, he picked up his groceries and was about to walk back to the orphanage when,
Suddenly the world felt like it was moving in slow motion. Akira looks around, worriedly.
"What happen? Why is the world slowing down?"
"We are currently stuck between time and space. Now we can at least converse, Dark Decade."
Akira looks behind him to follow the sound of the person. To his front was a young man who has dark brown hair and was wearing black coat and black leather pants while he was carrying a pink looking camera. Akira, feeling the need to find answer, quickly move towards the person in front of him and said,
"Who are you? Why is everything slowing down around us but most importantly…why do you call me Dark Decade?"
The person in front of him made a mock smirk before taking a picture and simply said,
"Because that is what you are. You are Dark Decade. But most importantly, a Destroyer…though I don't think we have that much time exploring why I called you that. But in time you will know."
The person in front of him suddenly started to leave as silvery veil start to form behind him. Akira seeing this wanted to stop him to find more answer to the riddle.
"Wait! What do you mean I am a Destroyer!? And who are you!?"
The person didn't bother to turn around but he answer instead,
"Ore ga torisume no Kamen Rider da. Oboitoke. Hoshida Akira."
With that, the veil completely engulfed him and the surrounding started to move back to normal. Akira look around again to see if he was just imagining things but turns out that whole ordeal was just too real to be a dream.
"What…just happen?"
The suddenly out of nowhere,
"LOOK OUT!"
The sound of metal hitting and crumbling along with the screams of people attracted Akira's attention. He look back and then up and saw that a bunch of metal pillars were just barely hanging on when three of them started falling towards the street.
"AHHH! THERE'S A LITTLE GIRL!"
"GET OUT OF THERE!"
"What?!"
Akira saw that it was the little girl he just helped. She was standing there, too afraid to run. Then, four more pillars fell and was about to hit the girl. Crowds were screaming, thinking it was too late until,
CLANGx4
The sound of metals hit the earth and dust started to rise from the accident. Nearby crowds rushed towards the location thinking the worse happen to the girl. But then they got there, they found that she was fine albeit shaken from the whole ordeal. How did she move in time?
"Look! It's the boy!"
Indeed, the reason why the girl got out of the way in time was because Akira moved her seconds before being crushed but now…Akira was the one crushed under the weight of the pillars. His back facing the ground. His head bleeding profusely and he was coughing off blood, no doubt from internal injuries.
"Call an ambulance! Quick! Help me get this off him!"
The little girl just now was carried away by one of the crowds to prevent her from seeing the horror in front of her. All the while, Akira was in a daze. His world feels nothing but pain.
"Am…I…dying…? I don't want to die…I still…need to go…back to the others…they are waiting…it's Mika's…birthday today…she will be sad if I don't get home in time…I still haven't taught…Kaoru…to play the guitar yet…I still…don't know anything…about that person…and what he said…'
Time seems to slow down as Akira keep hearing noises of the people in his head but they were slowly fading and his vision was becoming blurry. His breathing heavy and his body cold.
"Even still…I manage to save that little girl…I'm just glad she's alright…But…if there is one thing…I regret…I can't see everyone at the orphanage anymore…Izumi-san…I'm sorry that I couldn't stick around longer…I just hope that you can watch over the others for me…I'm sorry…once…agai…"
The last thing that Akira saw and felt was darkness
"Ohhhhhhhh, that hurt so much…"
Akira mutters as he gets back up on his feet. He looks around and found himself in an alleyway.
"How did I get here? I remember dying after saving a little girl…is this Heaven or Hell…? My head hurt to think about this too much…"
He looks around again and notices there was a weird looking device on the ground. It centers were dark bluish and its overall shape was either rectangular or oval like shape and there was this note book that was purely made out of metal. He picked it up and examines it.
"Doesn't look like a toy and it's certainly made of metal…what is this thing?"
Not getting anything in his mind, Akira decided,
"Well, sitting around here and asking too much will get me nowhere. Better see where I am."
Akira said as he gather his things and walk out of the alleyway only to receive a surprising sight.
"What the goodness?!"
He shouted as he looked at the sight around him. It was like he was sent into the future. Oddly shaped buildings, upside-down trains, hologram build boards, and other high tech stuff.
"Ok, either I hit my head so hard that I'm hallucinating, which is unlikely, or I'm dreaming."
Akira decided to go around checking out the place. Everywhere he looks, he sees buildings that he didn't recognize. It's like he's in a whole new world. After a few hours of looking around, Akira got hungry and decided to stop by a restaurant, lucky for him, where ever he was; they still accept yen as money. Once he got the food, he took a seat at a nearby bench and watched a nearby TV, hoping that he might learn something about his new environment.
"And the weather looks like it's going to be nothing but sun for a week. Now on to the other topic for today..."
It looks like the TV won't give him any new information so he decided to focus on his food. He then heard something that caught his interest.
"We now move on the topic about Noise."
"Noise?"
Akira mutter, confused.
"Noise, the alien creatures that have been a threat to humanity for 13 years."
They then show footage of weird glowing, alien creatures killing people. When they touched someone, that person turned into carbon before dissolving. The thought of that made Akira shudder as he come towards one simple conclusion thus far about what they news explain about the Noise.
"It seems that whatever this Noise are, their sole pattern and purposed is to cause death and destruction wherever they go….the thought of that just made my blood boil for some reason...still if there is such thing like that….is it possible I'm in a different world? That sounds possible enough…"
Akira thought as he took another bite out of his food.
Then, suddenly...
BOOM!
"What the!?"
Akira got up from his seat and run towards the sound of the explosion to see what was going on. Once he reached the designated area; he was met with chaos and scattered around the ground were piles of carbon. Around the city were people running away from those things they call Noise. Akira saw people screaming some were killed in the fray. Akira saw at the corner, a woman trying to run with her child but the child tripped and one of the Noise tried to pounce on them.
"Hiyahhh!"
Akira suddenly got in the way and kicked the Noise, hard. Sending it flying towards a wall and as it hit, turn into dust.
"It all felt like a total rushed. How was I able to touched Noise without getting killed? No time!"
Akira dismissed his thought and look at the two mother and child and said,
"I got this! Please get to somewhere safe!"
The woman nodded while now carrying her child and run there as fast as she could. Now leaving Akira to his own.
"I said that but I don't what to do now…that kicked was just out of sheer luck…"
The suddenly he heard a voice in his head.
'You have the power to fight this thing!'
"A voice?"
'Quickly! Place the Driver on your waist! It's your only chance!'
Akira was confused. First there was that mysterious person. Then him dying only to end up in this strange new world. Now there is this girl's voice in his head!
"What the goodness is going on around here!?"
'No time! Please just use the metal object you're holding and henshin now!'
The Noises were getting closer and Akira quickly did as told. He places the strange device on his waist and it suddenly forms a belt around him.
"Okay, that happens. Now what?"
'Open the Rider Booker and a card will fly to your hand.'
Akira did as told and opens the metal notebook and true to the voice's word, there was a single card that automatically flew to his arm. It shone before showing a masked figure that his visors were blue in colors and his entire head armor was black.
"This is…"
Akira instinctively went and opens the device on his waist and it made a mechanical sound before he slide the card down backward.
Kamen Ride!
"Okay, how do you do this? Like this?"
He pushed the side of the device thus closing it and then suddenly the masked figure insignia came out from the center of the device and the belt announces.
Dark Decade!
Suddenly the symbols of the nine other Heisei Riders appeared in clockwise around him before they became grey silhouettes of his armor before merging into Akira as energy card appeared in front of him before they collided into Akira's mask giving the armor its color.
The armor was black and silver. A dark and yellow X was on his chest connecting to his shoulder. The lens on his mask was deep blue as some of the cards were coming out of the mask like fins and the signal pointer on the mask flashed blue. This form was none other than Kamen Rider Dark Decade.
"What is this?"
Akira was utterly confused. He felt power coursing through him but it gave him somewhat a wrong vibe.
"Can't think of that now."
He shakes his head both ways before looking at the Noises that finally got him cornered. Though Akira felt new to this in his mind but his body somehow knows what to do. The Rider Booker by the side of his waist turns to Sword mode. He picks it up the hilt before once again instinctively running the sword towards the back of his wrist that creates spark before suddenly charging towards the many Noises that were there.
Many of the Noise did the same and some even turn into projectiles but Akira saw their movement proceed to slash through the bullets like they were nothing. Another group decided to simply take it up close. Akira seeing this ducked when one of the Noises nearly clawed him at the back. Using that chance, Akira cut through the Noise then proceed to hack in a X motion towards the group that was lining up to attack him thus turning their remain to dust.
More were coming. Seeing his situation, Akira thought there has to be a faster way to deal with this and as if calling to his prayer, the Rider Booker that was in Sword mode change into Gun mode where Akira wasted no time and fire energy bullets upon energy bullets at the Noises and even manage to shoots the Noises that were shot like bullets. There were not many left and thinking it was time; a card suddenly flew out from the Rider Booker and into his hand. It shows the insignia of Dark Decade in gold.
"Let's try this out."
Pulling the Decadriver, Dark Decade quickly slots the card into his belt.
Final Attack Ride!
He then pushed the side of the belt, closing it.
D-D-D-D-Dark Decade!
Copies of the card in holograms lined up in front of Dark Decade.
"Haahhhhh!"
Dark Decade yelled as he jumped into the air with the cards forming a ramp straight toward the enemies. Akira descended with a flying kick passing through each one getting more power in his kick before passing through the last one making contact with the Noises causing an explosion from the powered up kick that all Kamen Rider finishers are known for. Akira was slightly crouching before he looks back at the flame that was still burning from the kick he just did. Standing up, Akira opened up the Driver powering down in the process. He suddenly felt nausea and tired but he quickly regains his bearing and thought what had just happen.
"A voice in my head spoke to me and then this strange power….what is happening to me?"
'What happen here today will decide your path and future, Akira.'
Akira slightly stiffens when he heard the female voice again.
"Hey, who are you and how do you know my name? Please answer me! I don't know what is going on anymore."
'I am afraid I cannot answer all of your question, Akira but know that you are Dark Decade. What you do now will determine if you are a savior….or a destroyer. Only time will tell. I pray that you choose the right path. May we meet again, Akira.'
And with that, the voice fades way into his mind. Akira was left to hang over his situation but right now, he got bigger things to do. After finding a bag of plastic nearby, he started collecting all the dust that was left behind by the people he didn't manage to safe.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save all of you in time but at least I will make a proper burial."
Akira muttered sadly while gripping the numerous plastic bag in his hand as he made an oath that whatever power he has now…he will use it to protect the people here…even if he is not of this world, he will not let people die…not as long as he still breath.
Meanwhile, not far from where the battle took place, a silhouette of a figure stood on top one of the building.
"You have finally shown yourself…Dark Decade. Let see where this will go."
He then disappears as if he was never there.
Author's Note
I know some of you are feeling why I write this story. Well, one I find it entertaining and two, this is something that I like to try and get out from my chest for a while. Even when I said this, know that this is not the only focus of my work. Also if any of you notice, this is a reboot of the other story that I tried to make but couldn't find it working so I decided to go with this route. Now some of the older readers have been wondering if my other stories are dead. Well, rest assures. They are still alive and kicking but know that reality sometimes can be a bit of an obstacle but nevertheless, I will try my utmost best to deliver sometime in the future. For now, I hope you all enjoy this story as it is my first ever attempt on this two crossover series. Lots of twist here and there so expect them. Leave a review to help me find inspiration and also to fix any errors I have and flames will not be tolerated however, critical reviews are acceptable. This is your writer, Crimson. Peace out!
