Disclaimer: I do not own either To Aru Majutsu No Index or Kamen Rider 555. Or Justifaiz.
I've done it! By all that is fanfiction I have done it! People, I am so sorry this chapter took as long as it did. To list all the things that hampered my progress would require another chapter by itself, so I'll spare you the details. As I write this, it is currently 4:56 AM and I have a martial arts class in roughly 7 hrs. but I stayed up anyway to finish this chapter, for you. I request you return the favor by leaving encouraging, helpful, and honest reviews. With that, enjoy.
A Certain Scientific Kamen Rider 555
Chapter 2: The Crimson Smash
Academy City: District 7-Backalley-July 5
Smart Brain employee Araragi Tetsou awoke with a startled jump, finding himself lying face down on cold, hard asphalt. 'What!' Quickly pushing himself up, the man looked around franticly to see that he was lying in the middle of an alleyway, the morning sun just starting to rise. "What's going on? What am I doing here? Augh, dame it! What the hell happened to my dame nose!" he asked out loud, trying desperately to remember how he ended up in his current situation.
Suddenly it all came back to him in a whirlwind of memories. He and his co-workers receiving the order to search for and retrieve both research director Oshino Kisuke as well as the equipment he had stolen, how they found and chased the scientist around Academy City for almost half the day, and finally cornering him under the monorail bridge. 'That's right… we had him, we were set. And then…' Tetsou clenched his teeth as his balled fist shook with anger.
Then that little bastard showed up out of nowhere, cell phone in hand as he claimed that he alerted Anti-Skill to their actions, and then proceeded to beat the living shit out of them, resulting in Tetsou's nose getting broken. The next thing he knew he was awakened by the terrified screams of his co-workers only to join them as he saw that… thing just as it grabbed Matsuda by the throat and snapped his neck. Then it proceeded to walk through a hail of stun rounds like they were pebbles before impaling Ikari on its spear. Tetsou suddenly felt sick as he couldn't help but remember the pitiful sounds his friend made as the life drained from in a matter of seconds. After that, his memory became fuzzy. He remembered running, terrified for his life, Arai not far behind him. At first Tetsou had thought they were in the clear when they didn't see the monster pursuing them, but just as they stated to slow down to catch their breath, the thing suddenly dropped down from the sky onto Arai, literally crushing the man beneath its weight. Screaming out in pure terror, Tetsou turned and ran down a dark alleyway in a last ditch effort to escape. Behind him, he heard the sickly, ripping sound of flesh being pierced as the grey monster finished off the last of his coworkers. Turning the corner, Tetsou ran as fast as his legs would carry him.
'Oh god, I don't wanna die!' he remembered thinking, scared out of his mind. 'I don't want to die!' Just as he reached the end of the ally, a dark shadow dropped down in front of him, blocking off his escape. The last thing Tetsou remembered was the feel of something heavy punching him right in the heart, fire exploding in his chest before everything went numb, and the world spinning as he felt himself fall.
The Smart Brain employee suddenly felt his stomach twist in a spasm of nausea as a realization struck him. Trembling, Tetsou slowly looked down at his chest to see a large hole torn into his suit right where his heart was. Before he could panic however, upon closer inspection he saw that the skin underneath was completely unharmed. Letting out a sigh of relief knowing that he was alright, Tetsou slowly stood up upright, his legs somewhat unsteady as he leaned against a wall for support. Then he froze as he caught sight of his hand, his blood running cold as he did. Running along the exposed skin of his arm was a series of strange, pulsing markings that formed a jagged pattern; the marking's growing deeper by the second. His breathing becoming unsteady as started to panic.
"Ah…Ahh!" he cried out as he franticly tried to rub the marking's from his skin with his hand, to no avail before realizing the same marking's had also spread down his other arm as well. Spotting a window nearby, Tetsou ran over to it as fast as his feet could carry him. It was fairly dark out, which made seeing his reflection rather difficult, but he saw it all the same. He now wished he hadn't. "What the… What the hell is this!" he screamed out loud. The marking's had spread to cover his face as well, his eyes turning white before suddenly, his body burst into white light. When the light died down Tetsou looked once again at his reflection. What he saw wasn't his face. It wasn't even human. 'Oh god…'
[Justifaiz]
Can you feel? Let us talk about a little planet
In the growing expanse of space
Tell me the truth, the future I believed in
Is falling apart
Sorrows come again and again
Where are we heading?
Deep inside each one of us
Open your eyes, it's the time to go
To Stay Strong
To fight and defend once more
There will be no end to this dilemma… even if we keep on running
(The) End justifaiz the means!
Academy City: District 7-Student Dorm-Inui Residence-July 6
Waking to the feel of sunlight on his face, Oshino groaned as he slowly sat up and pushed the covers of the futon Inui had dug out of his closet for him to use aside, being careful of his injured ribs from the previous night. Half awake, the scientist yawned as he gently stretched his arms above his neck. Twisting his head from left to right, Oshino noticed the bed resting to his right was vacant. 'That's right; the kid's got school today. Damn, after the night he had, I think most people would have just skipped' he thought, chuckling as he slowly rose to his feet. His grin faded though, as he recalled the previous day's events; his safe house being discovered resulting in him running all over Academy City with Smart Brains dogs right on his heels the entire time, getting caught and beat down by those four men, the kid appearing out of nowhere before saving him, that… thing attacking them, him giving the kid the Faiz Gear which saved their lives, and how they arrived at Inui's dorm room before they both almost immediately collapsed from exhaustion.
Wondering what time it was, Oshino grabbed his watch lying atop the coffee table next to him, the digital readout saying it was almost lunch time. Considering he'd barely slept more than a few hours in the last two days, it was hardly a surprise he had slept as long as he had. Standing up, the scientist looked around the room curiously, having been too tired last night to really do anything other than sleep. As dorm rooms went, it was fairly spacious, having enough room for a one-person bed as well as the previously mentioned coffee table and the futon Oshino had used. A small plasma-screen TV rested against the adjacent wall, along with a number of unorganized stacks of books and manga lying in the far corner of the room. Behind him, in the remaining space between the balcony and the coffee table was a punching bag, the heavy kind that hung from the ceiling by a metal chain. Aside from that, however, the room was rather empty; Oshino noticing most of the furniture was crammed towards the kitchen to make room for the space necessary to properly use the punching bag.
The kitchen was nothing unusual, fairly well kept and organized. As he rummaged through the teens refrigerator for something to eat, it occurred to Oshino that he had not had a shower in close to over 40 hours, and he reeked of the stench of sweat, understandable as he spent the majority of the previous day running. After making and rather quickly devouring a sandwich with whatever the scientist could find, he then made his way over to the door that led to the laundry room and the bathroom, intent on enjoying a quick shower and getting his clothes washed. He stopped, though, when he saw the torn and bloodied pair of shirts Inui was wearing last night laying in the sink, both soaked from an obvious attempt to wash the blood out. Oshino gazed at the blood stained shirts before looking himself in the mirror, a look of self-contempt plastered on his face.
'Damn it, I'm so pathetic. Not only did I lose all the evidence against Smart Brain, but I somehow managed to drag a kid into all this, who got injured fighting what should have been my battle for me' he thought bitterly, clenching his fist in frustration. Taking a deep breath, the man slowly released it as he pushed his negative thoughts to the back of his mind, realizing his immature angst would do nothing to improve his situation. If he was going to make it through this, he was going to need the kid's help. After tossing his clothes in the washing machine, Oshino proceeded to grab a nice, relaxing shower, the hot water working miracles for his injured ribs. Once his clothes were done washing, he moved them to the dryer before wrapping himself in a towel for modesty's sake as he kept himself busy with the news while his clothes dried. The scientist chuckled lightly to himself when he saw the news was covering the explosions at Smart Brain's labs, the explosions he was responsible for.
"Heh, what I wouldn't give to see that bitch Kugimiya's face right now. It's a shame I couldn't sneak a bomb into the Kaxia Gear testing labs as well. Her head probably would have exploded when she heard the news." As the news continued, he noticed there was no mention of his involvement in the incident, nor the fact that he was even missing. Oshino frowned, thinking 'So they're covering this up huh? Hanagata must really not want this to reach the public's eye.'
Hearing the dryer buzzer go off to signal that his clothes were dry, he stood up and went to retrieve his clothes. Once he was fully dressed, he turned off the TV before proceeding to walk back and forth across the dorm room, his mind lost in thought as he once again recounted the events of last night, primarily the grey monster that had attacked Inui and himself. 'That thing said it was after the Faiz Gear. How could it have possibly known that I even had it unless it worked for Smart Brain? And if it did, why did it kill those thugs?' Oshino's eyes furrowed in concentration as he remembered something the monster said.
"My master may still have some use for you, so your life is safe for now."
'Its master… could it mean the esper that created it?' he muttered to himself. It couldn't have been created by technological means, not even Academy City was so advanced it could rewrite the genetic code of a human being at such a level that it could create something like what he saw last night. From a scientist point of view, the monster was fascinating, displaying abilities such as transforming, flight, creating and shaping mass and disintegration, Oshino recalling the fate of the man that had been stabbed by the creature's weapon. It shrugged off high-voltage rounds like they were nothing, survived being rammed into by a van, and even managed to briefly put up a fight against the kid while wearing the Faiz Gear. 'Whatever it was, it was still no match for Faiz. Hell, I didn't even have time to hand the kid any of the weapons, he just kicked the thing to death!'
Turning his head, he eyed the briefcase that contained the Faiz Gear lying on the coffee table next to him. Deciding he might as well inspect it to make sure everything was fully operational in case it was needed later, the scientist walked over to the side of Inui's bed, pulling the briefcase towards him as he sat down. 'I must admit though, the kid was impressive as well' Oshino thought, remembering how Inui had defeated those thugs almost effortlessly, fought against the grey monster and despite his injuries and his opponents inhuman advantage, the teen refused to give up. Flipping the metal case open, the scientist grabbed the metallic belt, called the Faiz Driver, from its slot, checking for any signs of damage it might have obtained during the fight last night. Seeing none, he returned the belt to its proper place as he moved on to the Faiz Phone. 'Wonder how the kid's doing right now.'
Academy City: District 7-A Certain Highschool-Year 1-Class 7
Inui blinked his tired eyes slowly as he packed his stuff away in his school bag, turning his head to gaze out at the sky as he resisted the urge to lay his head down on his desk and take a brief nap. Lunch period had just begun and most of his classmates had left for the lunch room or to find their own place to eat with their friends. Inui himself found that he wasn't feeling particularly hungry, his mind heavy with the events of last night. The teen recalled his fight's with the suits and the monster, actions that seemed remarkably stupid in hindsight. Feeling a chill run down his body, Inui shuddered. Last night was not the first time he had been in a fight; indeed, he had a number of encounters with the local street punks since he came to Academy City, though he tried to avoid such incidents when he could.
'Judgment's only going to buy the self defense line so many times before they start holding me responsible for the fights' Inui thought to himself dryly. But those fights were just street brawls, against teenagers with bad attitudes who barely knew how to throw a proper punch. But last night, Ayumu had almost lost his life, on more than one occasion. If not for the belt, he recalled Oshino calling it the Faiz Gear, he might very well have.
'And not everyone was as lucky as I was,' the teen thought grimly, recalling the corpse of the man who had his neck broken by the monster. Being unconscious at the time, Inui could only assume that a similar fate befell the other men as well, considering the blood that coated the monsters weapon. He suddenly released a long, pent up sigh, feeling very, very tired. They made the decisions that got them there, but they didn't deserve to die, and he may very well have been the reason they couldn't defend themselves. When he made his way to school earlier, he passed by the area under the monorail tracks where the incident took place last night. As he expected, Anti-Skill had sealed off the area, a unit still investigating the scene. Trying to avoid looking too interested, Inui only took a quick glance as he passed by. The first thing he noticed was the extensive damage to some of the support pillars as well as the large amount of broken glass, metal and concrete littering the ground. He also spotted a couple of Anti-Skill members in the process of loading up the crashed van that belonged to the thugs into one of MAR's large transport trucks. But what had really burned itself into the teen's mind, though, was the white outline where the dead thug's body had been last night, only a few feet away from where Inui himself had been lying unconscious after the monster sent him flying.
He was interrupted from his thoughts, however, when he noticed a figure standing next to him. Shoving his thoughts aside for later, Ayumu turned to look up lazily at one very displeased looking Fukiyose Seiri. She glared down at him for a moment with her arms crossed before making a disgusted noise.
"Inui, when I agreed to swap seats with you last month, it wasn't so you could have a nice view of the girl's tennis club while you ignored the entire lesson!" They had swapped seats the beginning of April when Inui, who had then been seated at the very front of the class, begged Fukiyose to swap seats with him. When she asked him what his reason for why he wanted to do so, he complained that Komoe-sensei reeked of cigarettes and alcohol, something the grey haired teen had vocally complained about numerous times to their child like teacher before in the school year, despite the fact none of the other students in the class could smell it. "You do know we have a major test coming up soon don't you? If you continue to act lazy and disinterested during lessons, it will infect the rest of the class like poison, causing them to fail the test resulting in our grade averages going down!" she said, her voice sounding very annoyed with the grey haired teen before her.
Inui let out a weary, exasperated sigh, saying "Give me a break, Fukiyose-san. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I'm not feeling well right now." He had hoped that would be enough to get well-endowed girl off his back, but that was a fool's hope. This was Fukiyose Seiri after all.
"I see, then what you need is caffeine to stimulate your central nervous system! Come on, the cafeteria should have some coffee milk to cure your lack of motivation!" she announced, grabbing the boy by the collar of his spare school uniform(his other one had been ruined during the fighting last night) and proceeded to drag him out of his seat towards the cafeteria.
"Oi, Let go! Fukiyose-san! Knock it off!" the teen protested, struggling in vain to escape his classmates iron like grip as she dragged him down the hallway. Several students' would stop and glance at the spectacle before going on about their business as if they never saw it. It wasn't unusual to see such sights when the students of class 7 were involved. In fact the only thing out of the ordinary was that it was Inui Ayumu who was being dragged down the hallway, Fukiyose's usual victims being one of the 'idiot trio' or 'Delta Force', consisting of Kamijou Touma, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, and Aogami Pierce. Said three were currently watching the event playing out.
Aogami chuckled to himself, commenting "I gotta say, it's really refreshing to see someone else on the receiving end of Fukiyose's …affection for a change."
"Ha ha, indeed! We should consider asking Inui if he'll handle her full time from now on, Nya~" added Tsuchimikado as he adjusted his sunglasses.
"Umm, don't you think we should go help him?" Kamijou asked, only to receive stares from his two friends. "Heh, sorry, don't know what I was thinking there" he said as they returned their attention to Ayumu getting his ass dragged down the hall. After a moment of thought, Kamijou said "Do you think we could pay him?"
Meanwhile Inui continued to search for a way out of his current predicament.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" he asked, still trying to pry open Fukiyose's grip on his collar with little success, despite his enhanced strength. 'Hell's Bells, what does this girl put in her cereal!' thought Inui.
"Shut up!" she snapped at him. "This is for the sake of your academic performance so you should just shut up and be thankful."
Inui gave a pitiful sigh. "You know Fukiyose-san; it's because of that attitude of yours that you'll never get a boyfriend. Even with those large "assets" of yours and-…Oi Fukiyose-san!" the teen exclaimed as he turned his head to see the rapidly approaching flight of stairs. "The stairs, not the stairs! Aaahhhhhhh!" he screamed as his classmate violently threw him down the stairs.
Academy City: District 7-A Certain Highschool Entrance
Inui sighed as he creaked his neck from side to side, still sore from his 'accident' at the stairs. This, by the way, did not stop Fukiyose from dragging him all the way to the cafeteria and shoving a couple of cartons of coffee milk down his throat. "Man, that girl is really something else" he muttered as he flipped his locker shut and exited the school building. It was an excellent day, the temperature was comfortably warm, and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue with only the occasional small fluffy white cloud dotting the sky. Once again, Academy City's weather forecast had been accurate to the letter.
'Better see how my guest is doing' the teen thought as he navigated his way through the crowd of students leaving school, flipping out his cell phone as he did. Spotting a bench next to a row of bushes that looked fairly deserted, Inui set his school bag down and sat down as he dialed the number for his dorm room. Obviously not expecting Oshino to answer the phone, the teen quickly switched to his answering machine before simply saying "Hey old man it's me, pick up the phone."
A moment later he heard the phone pick up. "Yeah, what is it kid?"
"Just checking in to see how you were fairing. How the ribs feeling?" he asked, eying a pair of pretty third-year sempai's walking by as he did.
He heard the older man grunt, saying "I'll live. What about you? You took a hell of a beating last night, frankly I'm surprised you went to school at all." Ayumu felt a shiver run down his spine thought about what Fukiyose might have done to him if he skipped school for anything less than life-threatening illness. An image of her busting his door down before gabbing him by his shirt and tossing him over the railing of his student dormitory's eighth floor came to mind.
"Eh heh heh, don't worry, I'm a fast healer" Inui answered nervously, absentmindedly feeling the back of his head where he had struck the support column last night, the skin already perfectly healed underneath his hair. "Anyway, I just got through with school, so I'll probably be back in while, about an hour or two at the most. We'll have that discussion of ours then." Not that took that long to actually get back to his dormitory, but the teen felt he was going to need to make some important decisions soon and walking had always helped him think.
For a moment there was silence, before Oshino simply replied "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. See you then" before hanging up. Tucking his cell phone back inside his pocket, Inui picked up his stuff and started heading towards the walkway that led down to the city streets.
Academy City: District 10 - Smart Brain Research Center- Head Office
"I see… and you're certain of this?" asked Ryuseiji Hanagata, Smart Brain's Chief CEO, as he turned to face his Chief of Security.
Takamiya Kouta nodded. "Yes sir, I confirmed it myself. The kid's name was Matsuda, one of my employees" the man answered, his face and tone serious as he read the report sent to him by one of his contacts within Anti-Skill. "His body was found late last night, along with one of our vans wreaked under the monorail in the seventh district. Autopsy reports the cause of death was a broken neck."
Hanagata nodded, his eyes distant. "What of the rest of the team? Any news on them?" he asked a moment later. Takamiya frowned. That question had been weighing heavily on his mind as well.
"No sir. Their bodies were not found at the scene, and not one of them has yet to contact me since their last check in yesterday night."
"Is it possible they might have turned on us? Perhaps gone to one of our competitors with Director Oshino and the Faiz Gear in the hopes of getting a better deal?"asked the head of Smart Brain.
"We cannot rule out the possibly, though I believe it is unlikely" answered Takamiya. He continued "I hired these men myself, sir, and none of them have the guts or intelligence to plan something like this. Also, Matsuda and Ikari were close friends, I doubt Ikari would murder his friend in such a brutal manner and then just leave his corpse in the open for everybody to find."
Hanagata considered this for a moment before nodding in agreement. "This could have been Oshino's doing. With the Faiz Gear in his possession, four armed men wouldn't have proved much of a challenge."
Takamiya thought this unlikely as well, thinking Oshino was not the type to break another man's neck in cold blood, but chose not to say anything for lack of a better theory. And the level of damage to the monorail was well within the Faiz Gear's ability. But that still didn't explain what happened to the rest of the search team. Hanagata sighed before turning to his computer, his fingers dancing across the keyboard with speed and precision that only come from a lifetime of practice.
"Continue your search for the Faiz Gear and Oshino. And deal with this" he said dismissively, gesturing at the report on his desk concerning the dead employee.
"Yes sir."
Academy City: District 7-Park
"Ha ha, you'll never catch me, slowpokes!"
"Get back here!"
"Tag, your it!"
"Hey that's mine!"
"I don't see your name on it!"
"Why would I write my name on a sandwich!"
Inui chuckled as he walked past a group of kids running around one of the park's playgrounds, shaking his head his head as he did. 'Kids' he thought as walked down one of the park's trails, no real destination in mind, other than the general direction of his dormitory. The park, as always, looked lush and green, the grass cleanly cut and the paths clean and litter free thanks to the relentless efforts of Academy's City's cleaning robots. Taking a right where the path's split, the teen returned his thoughts to what he was going to do regarding the source of his troubles, Kisuke Oshino.
The man had clearly made some powerful enemies, enemies who weren't overly concerned with civilian casualties, it seemed. The men in suits Inui had fought last night hadn't hesitated to try and zap him after he announced his presence to them, and had they succeeded, he had little doubt he'd have become a picture on a missing persons picture before the end of the week. And then there was the man who transformed into the grey monster before proceeding to murder the thugs, and then tried to do the same to Inui. The teen recalled Oshino saying something about it being "one of Smart Brain's lackeys", only to be completely shocked when the man changed forms, indicating he had no idea what the thing was. 'Which means' the student thought, 'that he's in more trouble than even he realized.'
Inui frowned. Smart Brain… one of the largest and most influential multinational corporations on the planet, it had its hand's in almost every industry sector on the market; technology, electronics, automotive, medical, industrial, and those were just the ones Inui knew about. 'It wouldn't be impossible that it had an interest in weapon's either,' he thought as he recalled the Smart Brain logo on the Faiz Gear's case. The corporation established their head research center in Academy City some time after the city was established, though the teen knew little else in the way of details. What he did know, however, was that if Oshino had picked a fight with an enemy like Smart Brain, then the situation was a grave deal worse than he had originally had thought.
Inui suddenly released a heavy sigh he didn't know he had been holding. 'Relax' he mentally told himself as he flicked his wrist absentmindedly 'Panicking accomplishes nothing. Let Oshino explain the situation first. Then panic.' Turning a corner, Inui spotted a juice vending machine up ahead. 'Eh, what the heck, it's pretty warm out here, I could use a drink to help me cool off and relax' he thought as he fished out his wallet. Approaching the machine, Inui looked through the selection of drinks available and, seeing a lemon drink he liked, inserted the appropriate amount of yen into the machine and pressed the select button. And nothing happened. The teen blinked. He pressed the button again. Again, nothing happened. Inui stared hard the machine before him, his face unmoving.
"Aw, what the hell? Has someone been kicking this thing!" the teen yelled, jabbing the button repeatedly before throwing his arms up in frustration. He had had a very stressful night the previous day, and today had done little to help ease his pent up stress. Glaring at the broken piece of machinery in defeat, Inui pressed the return button to get his money back, muttering "Stupid piece of outdated scrap metal" as he did. Only for nothing to happen. Feeling his frustration rising to the breaking point, the grey haired student was about to vent his anger out on the rebellious vending machine when suddenly he heard the tell tale sound of something banging around inside the machine before a can popped out.
"Huh, took a while, but I guess that'll work" Inui said as he retrieved his drink. Only to freeze when he saw the contents of the can. Coffee milk. The teen couldn't help but feel that somehow the vending machine had utterly defeated him. Sighing, the teen begrudgingly drank the bitter tasting liquid before setting the can down on the ground as a cleaning robot rolled by, the trashcan-like machine sweeping up the can without stopping as it continued on its patrol, Inui patting the thing on the "head" as it did saying "Keep up the good work, little buddy."
Turning around, Inui started to make his way towards his dorm when he noticed a girl sitting alone at one of the park benches, wearing his schools uniform. Inui recognized her by her shoulder length brown hair that ended in short twin pigtails resting on her shoulders to be his classmate Hiramatsu Taeko, her face looking very tired from what the teen imagined being several hours spent sobbing. An image of the girl crying as she quickly excused herself from the classroom the other day flashed through his mind as he continued walking down the park path towards his dormitory.
Inui decided to just walk by since he didn't really know Hiramatsu, their only relation being that they were in the same class. Not because she wasn't social, she hung out with her friends all the time, and as far as he knew, was well liked by the rest of the class, but rather because he himself didn't go out of his way to socialize very often with his classmates. But the closer he got to his depressed classmate, the harder he found it was for him to ignore her, an empty, uncomfortable pit forming in his stomach. 'It's none of my business, it's not my problem, I'm not involved, I'm not involved, I'm not involved,' he repeated to himself over and over as he approached the bench, trying to avoid looking at Hiramatsu as he got closer. 'I'm not involved, I'm not involved, I'm not…Damn it' he thought in defeat, stopping just as he was about to pass by. Taking a quick glance at the depressed highschool girl, who had not yet noticed his presence; a concerned smile formed on his face before he quickly turned around and ran back the way he came.
A moment later a loud clang could be heard echoing throughout the park as something slammed violently into metal, startling Hiramatsu. "What was that?" wondered Taeko aloud as she looked around for the cause of the noise that had broken her out of her deep thoughts.
"Yo" greeted a friendly voice. Taeko looked up to see a teen with grey hair and topaz colored eyes smiling down at her. In each hand he was holding what looked like juice cans, his school bag hanging by its shoulder strap at his side. Taeko realized a moment later the boy was one of her classmates, Inui Ayumu.
"Ah, Inui-san!" she said softly, surprised by her classmates sudden greeting, having only barely spoken to him for the majority of the school year. While Inui wasn't someone she would call anti-social, he tended to keep to himself and didn't really talk much, especially in comparison to the other male students in class seven. She was surprised yet again when the boy extended one of his hands, holding out one of the juice cans in offering.
"Thought you might be thirsty" Inui explained, grinning sheepishly.
Taeko stared at him for a moment in surprise before smiling, accepting the can with a quiet "Thank you." She had always been soft-spoken.
"Mind if I sit down?" he asked, opening his can of what looked to be lemon juice. Taeko nodded, having forgotten all about the reason she was sitting alone to begin with.
"Ah, that's better. I needed to get off my feet for a moment" Inui said as he made a show of stretching his legs out, exaggerating the gesture as he took a swing of his drink… only to suddenly spit it out and hide the can behind his back, looking off to the side nervously in a desperate attempt to look innocent as a group of security robots rolled by.
"Vending machine #7116 damaged. Vandalism suspected. Vandalism suspected."
"What was that about?" Taeko asked as the robots rolled out of sight.
"W-Who knows? Probably just some dumb punk messing with one of the vending machines, heh heh" Inui chuckled nervously. Taeko blinked.
"But why did you-"
"So how bout this weather!" the boy asked loudly, almost yelling, as he quickly tried to change the subject. 'Oh god, did I just ask that? Get it together Inui! You're better than that!' he mentally berated himself.
"Oh, it's lovely today. The weather report said it was going to be like this for the rest of the week, isn't that nice?" she said pleasantly. Inui slammed his head into the bench. 'Hell's Bell's, that actually worked!' he thought to himself as he sat up in his seat.
"Yeah, sure" he answered somewhat dryly, rubbing his head. Taeko nodded, taking a sip of her drink before making a sound of approval.
"This tastes great! How did you know I liked strawberry Inui-san?"
'Huh, is that what that was? I just grabbed the first two things that fell out. Lucky me!' "Just a lucky guess" he responded as he took another swing of his own drink. Fortunately for him the other drink that had fallen out was lemon flavored, Inui's favorite. Feeling his neck was somewhat stiff, he raised one hand to his neck before sharply jerking it from one side to the other, resulting in two noticeable popping/cracking noises before he released a groan of comfort as his classmate glanced at him with a look of concern.
"Are you alright, Inui-san? Was that from what happened at school earlier?"
"Probably" he admitted, laughing "Fukiyose-san likes to play rough."
"She can be rather … passionate about her ideals" Taeko agreed, before adding "She means well, though."
Inui nodded. "Yes she does. Though I gotta say, I think I've discovered new found respect for those three idiots. To receive that level of punishment on a weekly basis and still posses that kind of energy they show, those three are truly impressive" he said in an exaggerated fashion, causing his classmate to burst into giggles. He would be lying if he said she didn't look incredibly cute while doing so.
"So Hiramatsu-san, what'cha doing out here by yourself?" he asked.
"Oh, um, nothing much. Just thinking" she answered uncomfortably, looking down at the ground.
"I see. Mind me asking what about?"
For a moment, Taeko didn't say anything as she continued to gaze down at the ground. Just as Inui was about to apologize and tell her it was okay if she didn't want to talk about it, she said "My friends died recently." She spoke quietly, in a tone that suggested she still didn't quite believe the words herself.
'Or that she doesn't want to' he thought to himself solemnly.
Inui nodded his face serious. "I'm sorry" he said sincerely. Taeko continued staring down at the ground, her bangs hiding her face from view. "Do you want to talk about it? Trust me, it helps, and I'm a good listener" he offered.
Once again, she didn't speak right away, but Inui was patient, knowing this was not an easy thing to talk about. After some time, she began; her voice so quiet that Inui would not have heard it if not for his advanced hearing. "It happened so fast. We had just finished hanging out at Macronall's, and were heading back to the dormitories. It was only just starting to get dark out, but it wasn't like we were in a dangerous area. We were laughing, talking about the upcoming System Scan, club activities, what boys we liked, things like that. And then…" Taeko stopped, her voice momentarily failing her. "And then… this, this monster leapt out at us from an ally way." Inui felt his blood run cold at his classmate's last statement.
'Monster? It couldn't be the same thing I killed last night, could it?' he thought as Taeko continued, her voice rising.
"It… oh god, it … it hit Yukki and she fell over and hit her head on the sidewalk… there was blood, and she wouldn't get up… and then it attacked Kana." Taeko shuddered, her breathing becoming noticeably unsteady, but she continued, fingers trembling. "God, the screaming… I saw my friends suffering and in danger and I… and I-I didn't… I couldn't… all I did was run! I was… I was so scared, I couldn't do anything but run!" she cried, breaking down into uncontrolled sobs as she suddenly turned and buried her head into Inui's chest, her hands gripping his shirt tightly as she shook violently.
Inui was taken aback by this, but didn't hesitate to gently wrap his arm around his distraught classmate in a comforting hug, keeping careful to make sure he kept the embrace appropriate, while his other hand came up to gently pat his classmate on the back of the head. "Its okay, what happened wasn't your fault" he murmured gently and without drama "It's okay."
"No it isn't! I abandoned them! They were my friends and I… I …" she stuttered, unable to finish as her voice failed her before she once more broke into uncontrolled sobs, burying her head into the boy's chest. "I'm so ashamed…"
"There was nothing you could do, Hiramatsu-san. They were your friend's right? I'm sure they don't blame you for what happened" he said gently. "We all get scared sometimes. It's okay, it wasn't your fault."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" she sobbed quietly, her grip on his shirt slowly loosening.
"There's nothing to be sorry about" he said simply.
"… I miss them so much" she whispered into his chest.
"I know."
After a while her sobs began to steadily die down, until at last she slowly pulled away from the boy, quickly bringing her hands to her face as she attempted to clean off her face. Inui kindly turned to look away, giving her some privacy as she cleaned up.
"You okay?" he asked over his shoulder. Taeko nodded, lowering her hands as she looked up at him. Her face was red and her eyes were blood shot and swollen, but somehow, in a way Inui couldn't explain but just knew, she looked better, the great weight she had been carrying no longer there.
"Yes, I'm okay" she answered as he turned back around to face her, before suddenly turning red in the face, looking down as she stuttered "S-sorry."
Inui frowned, puzzled. "Didn't I just tell you? There's nothing to be sorry about, it wasn't your fault."
The brunette shook her head sharply, saying "N-no not about that. I meant your shirt" she explained, feeling like she was about to die from embarrassment.
"Hmm?" Still confused, the grey haired teen looked down at his school shirt. The entire chest area was soaked wet with tears. "Oh~, that. I hadn't actually noticed that, heh heh" he said, his face turning slightly red at his assumption. Taeko started to giggle, looking incredibly cute despite having just moments before been crying her eyes out. Inui chuckled, asking "So are you feeling any better?"
His classmate smiled at him sweetly. "Yes, I'm actually feeling much better. Thank you, Inui-san."
"Don't mention it, I'm just doing what anyone in our class would have done" he said as he flipped out his cell phone to check the time. 'Yikes, that took more time than I thought.' Looking up at Taeko he gave an apologetic smile as he said "Sorry Hiramatsu-san, but I just remembered I have to go meet up with someone." As he explained this, the teen quickly got up off the bench, grabbing his school bag as he did.
"Oh, um alright" she said surprised at the boy's sudden announcement.
"See you at school tomorrow" he said as he readied to leave.
"Alright" she said as he started to leave. Suddenly Inui froze as he remembered something.
"And then… this, this monster leapt out at us from an ally way."
'Could it really have been the same thing that attacked me?' He then recalled something one of his classmates had said the other day.
"I heard that one of the victims claimed he was attacked by some kind of monster."
The grey haired teen couldn't help but feel a sense of dread come over him as a horrifying possibility struck him. 'Could there be more than one of these things?'
"Hey, Hiramatsu-san" Inui said, turning around.
"Yes?" she responded, wondering why he had suddenly stopped. Inui felt one of his hands curl tightly into a fist. He didn't want to ask her the question and risk pouring salt on her wounds. A part of him didn't even want to know the answer, feeling he'd be better off not knowing. But he needed to know. Running from the truth never did anything.
"The thing that attacked your friends… What did it look like? Could you describe it?"
To Inui's surprise, Hiramatsu took the question fairly well. Looking down, she took a deep breath to calm herself, recalling what details she could. "To be honest, I didn't really get a good look at it" she admitted "It was dark, and it came out of nowhere so fast. It wasn't human, I'm sure of that much. It was too big, and the sounds it made" she shuddered before continuing "It had grey skin, like it was made out of stone or something."
Inui nodded, feeling his fist tighten till his knuckles turned white. That sounded like what saw last night, alright. "Did it kind of look like a fish with large shoulder pads?" He knew he shouldn't ask such a revealing question, but with his nerves on edge he wasn't thinking quite clearly. Taeko frowned, shaking her head.
"A fish? No, in fact if I had to say I think it resembled a cat, or a tiger, if it was grey and could walk on two legs." Looking up at her classmate, she asked "Why did you ask Inui-san?" He didn't respond, his mind racing.
'So there's more than one of these things running around Academy City attacking people and there after the old man and the Faiz Gear… I don't get it, what's the connection?'
"Inui-san?" he heard his classmate repeat, breaking his train of thought.
"Hmm? Oh, just for safety reasons." He lied badly. 'Need to change the subject!' "Oh yeah, you reported this to Anti-Skill right?"
She nodded, saying "I did, but they haven't told me anything yet." Inui nodded.
"Alright, thanks for the info Hiramatsu-san! See you at school tomorrow! Don't stay out past dark!" he yelled, taking off down the park path, heading in the direction of his dorm.
"Ah, wait! Inui-san!" she called out after him as she stood up, watching as the boy ran around the corner past a row of trees and out of out of sight. Bringing a hand up to her hair she absentmindedly played with a one of her pigtails as she whispered "Thank you... Inui-kun."
Academy City: District 7-Near Park Exit
Running down a park path that led through a row of tall trees, Inui had almost reached the park exit when his senses suddenly screamed DANGER! Before the teen had time react he felt something slam into his side knocking him off his feet through the air off the park path into the grove of trees. Without thinking, Inui reflexively held his arm out in front of him as he hit the ground, rolling with the impact on to one knee. Quickly rising to his feet, the student angrily looked up to see a man in a black suit standing a few feet away on the path, now effectively blocking off the teen off from the trail. The man had a dirty, disheveled appearance, to say the least. His dark black hair was greasy and unkempt, parts of it jutting up in random spots. The suit he wore was dirty and torn, with his face sporting a dried up bloody nose, like the man had been in a fight and lost. The man himself stared at Inui with a hateful, murderous gaze as he slowly took a single step towards him, followed by another, then another.
Ayumu watched the man cautiously, taking a step back for every step the man took forward, his hands hanging ready at his side in case his attacker decided to make any sudden movements. Looking at him, the teen couldn't shake a nagging suspicion that he'd seen this man before somewhere. Then it came to him. It had been dark when he had saw the man last, and he couldn't recall his name, but he recognized him all the same.
"You" Inui said, eyes widening in recognition "You're alive?" It was the suit that had given the orders to the other three from last night. Inui himself had given the guy the broken nose. For just a brief instant, the teen felt a surge of relief flood through him, the knowledge that his actions hadn't killed all of the men from last night. Then the situation struck him, and his mind went serious. 'He must be after the old man! Damn it, how the hell did I let him sneak up on me?'
"…all your fault. Yes, it's your fault" muttered the man whose name was Araragi Tetsou, seemingly having not heard Inui, or not caring. He continued "We had him, we were set. You ruined it, ruined everything, you brought that thing with you." The man released a sudden sob, tears beginning to fall freely from his eyes. The teen could only stare in confusion, baffled by the deranged man's ramblings. "Matsuda…Ikari…Arai, oh god, their gone. My friends are dead! Me becoming… I didn't deserve this! It's all your fault!" the man roared, spit flying from his mouth as he suddenly charged forward and leapt at the teen with speed Inui wouldn't have believed the man was capable of if he hadn't witnessed it himself. Unprepared for such an attack, the student raised his arms in a defensive gesture as the man slammed into him, driving him backwards into one of the surrounding trees. Inui gasped as the impact drove the air from his lungs, pain igniting across his back from where his back met bark. Taking advantage of the teen's disorientation, Tetsou seized him by his neck with both hands, lifting the student off his feet into the air in a shocking display of strength as he began to slowly crush the boy's wind pipe, grinning manically as he did.
"Where's Kisuke Oshino and the belt? Tell me, and maybe I'll make it quick" the man snarled menacingly through his teeth. Grunting, Inui grabbed his attacker's hands as he desperately tried to break the man's iron-like grip around his throat to no avail, feeling his strength start to fade as the man continued to choke the life out of him. Just as his vision started to blur, Inui gritted his teeth and raised his knee back before driving it forward into his attacker's groin. Tetsou never even saw it coming.
Feeling the man's grip on his neck loosen considerably as his attacker doubled over in pain, the teen quickly slipped his arms inside Tetsou's hold, battering his arms aside before furiously delivering a vicious blow to the man's gut and following it up with a swift strike to the man's jaw, sending him stumbling backwards before collapsing to the ground a few feet away. The student's first instinct was to run over and jump on the man's neck, knowing better than to give his opponent a chance to recover, but found he was unable to move as his legs buckled under his weight, forcing him to support himself against the tree behind him as he gasped for air. 'What the hell is going on?' Inui thought as he forced himself upright, his mind racing. 'Did I just get lucky before? No, there was no way in hell this lunatic was that fast or that strong last night. Something's not right.' Turning to face his attacker, the teen saw the man had slowly risen to his knees, his whole body noticeably trembling.
"Shut up!" Tetsou yelled suddenly, slamming his fist into the ground violently. "I said shut up! I'll get the dame belt and that bastard scientist, so just get out of my head!"
'What?' Inui thought, watching the man closely as he pushed himself off the tree, having regained his strength. 'What on earth happened to this guy?'
Suddenly the man sprung up to his feet, whirling around to face the teen with murder in his eyes.
Eyes that quickly lost all trace of color as the irises turn silver.
Inui felt his blood run cold, his eyes widening in both recognition and fear as dark, grayish markings appeared over Tetsou's face and hands, the man suddenly letting out a roar as white light enveloped his body, its shape molding and twisting into its new form. A moment later the man known as Araragi Tetsou was gone, replaced by a large ash grey skinned creature similar to the one Inui had faced last night, but with a number of distinct differences. First was the creatures build, tall and thin though the teen didn't doubt for a second that this creature wasn't any less strong than the one he fought before. Appearance wise, it instantly reminded Inui of a Mantis, due to its head bearing a helmet that sported large bug eyes and two tiny antennas, as well as the large curved blades sprouting from its forearms. It wasn't armored like the monster from last night, though it did have large disk-like shoulder pads protruding from its shoulder blades, but rather it wore a strange duster like coat that came down to its feet.
"No way" Ayumu stated in frightened disbelief "… your one of those things too… but… how?"
Looking at the grey haired teen before him, the monster that was once the man named Tetsou spoke, the voice emanating from the monster's entire being rather than its unmoving mouth.
"What's the matter brat? You look scared. What happened to all that confidence you showed last night?" asked the monster mockingly in a distorted, echoing version of Araragi Tetsou's voice.
'Damn Right I'm scared!' Inui thought as he took a nervous step backwards; clenching his fist tightly as sweat began to form along his forehead. 'It hasn't been a whole day yet and already I'm getting attacked by another one of these thing!' Tightening the strap on his school bag securely to his person, Inui mentally shoved his fears aside as he slowly spread his feet to a fighting position while putting on his best cocky grin.
"You said you wanted the belt, right?" he asked, thankful his voice didn't crack, making a show of not-so-subtly shifting his school bag to his back. Raising his hand he gave a come-hither gesture as told the monster "Come and get it."
"Y-you little!" Tetsou yelled furiously before charging straight towards the teen with the intent of ripping into oh-so-many bloody pieces.
'Is there anyone in this city with luck worse than mine?' Inui thought, flicking his wrist just as the grey monster reached him, swinging its fist right at his head. 'If there is, I think I'd like to meet him…'
Academy City: District 15-Street
Kamijou Touma hummed happily to himself as he strolled merrily down the street with his school bag slung over his shoulder, making his way back towards his dormitory in the seventh district. Today had been a good day for him, nay, almost a perfect day. He managed to get to class on time, remembered to bring his lunch and his wallet, and made it through the whole school day without incurring Fukiyose's wrath. And the good fortune didn't end at school apparently, seeing how he had yet to; injure himself or anyone else, damage any property public or otherwise, anger the local delinquent population, and best of all, had yet to encounter a certain hostile Level 5 middle school student. Truly, his long awaited day of good fortune had arrive-.
"LOOK OUT!" a voice cried out desperately, causing Kamijou to turn around just in time to see an out of control bicycler barreling straight towards him. Letting out a startled yelp, the boy cursed with misfortune quickly jumped to the side, just barely avoiding the bike as it rushed by. "Ha ha! Not today! This day Kamijou Touma will not be touched by misfortuneeeEEYAAAA!" He screamed as he suddenly slipped on a glass bottle lying on its side next to a cart/dolly that was being used by a construction team up ahead. As a result this sent the spiky haired student stumbling forward as he tried desperately to regain his footing, causing him to trip onto the cart as he caught himself on its handle, jolting it forward suddenly as it began to roll down the steep hill before it.
"WHOOOO LEFT THIS HERE~!" cried out Kamijou as he hung onto the railing for dear life as the cart flew down the hill at break neck speed towards the rapidly approaching constriction site at the intersection up ahead. Three construction workers carrying a large steel beam paused as they heard rather undignified screaming, looking up to see the source of the noise rushing straight at them.
"What the hell is that?" asked one of the men, tilting his helmet up out of his eyes.
"Looks like some crazy kid surfing a dolly down the hill" answered another worker lazily.
"He's coming right at us!" yelled the last man, wide eyed. Setting down the beam, the men quickly scattered, the one who yelled actually diving into a roll to safety.
'Oh you have got to be kidding me!' thought Kamijou as he tried to brace himself just as the cart slammed into the abandoned support beam, launching the teen off the cart and several feet into the air, flipping head over heels several times as he soared above the heads of stunned construction workers, all the while screaming at the top of his lungs "SUCH MISFORTUNE!" before finally diving head first through an open manhole into the sewers below Academy City.
Silence filled the air before finally one of the workers turned to his friends and said "What just happened?"
Academy City: District 7-Park
Inui swiftly ducked under the monster's arm as its fist sailed over his head, smashing through the tree behind him effortlessly, sending splinters of wood and bark flying through the air. Moving behind to his opponent's backside, the teen turned and, with a shout, kicked it straight squarely in the back, knocking the creature off balance. It stumbled forward a couple of steps before spinning around on its heel, lashing out angrily with its arm as it did, the blade protruding from it missing Inui's face by millimeters as he leaned back just barely in time to avoid it. 'To close! Way to close!' He exclaimed mentally, before quickly sidestepping backwards to avoid another slash as the Mantis began to unleash a frenzied barrage of punches and slashes, forcing the teen to retreat further back.
Inui leaned sharply to the left to avoid one strike before ducking under a fast, if rather sloppy, hook, delivering two swift, solid blows of his own to the creatures abdomen as he did to no apparent effect before raising his arm up to block an oncoming fist, the ridiculous force of the Mantis monsters blow sending the teen reeling backwards, only barely managing to keep his footing as his attacker continued its assault. 'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!' thought Inui frantically as he sidestepped, dodged and weaved his way through the onslaught of attacks, unable to block due to the grey monsters inhuman strength. One of the Mantis blades slipped through his defenses, however, the blade licking swiftly across his right arm, resulting in a snarl bubbling from the teen's throat at the long, though fortunately shallow, cut along his upper arm, blood instantly rushing to the open wound. Despite the flash of pain that burst from his arm telling him otherwise, Inui knew he had been lucky. If his arm had been placed just a little differently, he could very well have lost his arm altogether, instead of just a large scratch.
Shifting his body, the teen dropped low to the ground to avoid one the creatures arm blades before lashing out with a upwards sidekick, striking the Mantis monster's chest just below the neck. Once again, however, his attack seemed mostly ineffectual as the monster simply seized his leg and proceeded to fling him through the air across the grove, his face crashing against the ground violently, the soft park grass doing little to soften the landing as the teen rolled to a stop, his arms now scrapped and bruised in addition to the large cut he received, and his school uniform stained with dirt and grass.
"Augh… dame it, that's two gone…ugh… in less than a week" the teen muttered slowly, shoving the pain he felt aside as he pushed himself angrily to his feet, turning to glare at the thing that was once the man known as Tetsou as it slowly approached him. "The school makes us pay for these shirts asshole!" he growled, spitting out a wad of blood as he did in the offenders direction. The monster took two short steps forward before bursting into a sudden dash, slashing down at the teen as it did. Inui quickly shifted to the side to avoid the attack before stepping backwards to avoid the following uppercut, the curved arm blade just barely missing him as it sailed up into the air harmlessly. The Mantis monster then lashed out with a fast cross straight towards the student's face, its deceptively long arm surprising Inui as he instinctively leaned backwards sharply to avoid the large grey fist before launching into a back hand spring away from his surprised attacker.
Landing firmly on his feet, Inui took two running steps forward before leaping into the air in a jump spin hook kick, the action catching the monster off guard as he struck the monster directly in the jaw, knocking it right off its feet and on to its back. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he grabbed his chance and took off running, hearing the Mantis monster let out an enraged roar behind him as he fled the area as fast as his terrified legs would carry him. The teen made sure to stay away from the park trails, less he risk bringing anyone else into harm's way. Pulling out his cell phone, he began dialing his dorm room's number, stopping only to gather energy in his legs before leaping effortlessly over a five feet tall row of bushes in his path. Behind him he could hear the telltale sounds of Mantis-Tetsou giving chase not far behind, apparently lacking his predecessor from last night's ability to fly.
"Dame it all Inui, this is what happens when you stick your neck out for strangers! You end up getting attacked and chased through the park by big grey crazy bug monsters!" he yelled at himself as he dodged left and right through the park foliage, using every trick he could imagine to shake off his pursuer stopping once he spotted a large tree. Moving to hide behind it, Inui raised the phone to his ear as it began dialing, glancing out from behind his cover every few seconds to keep an eye out for the grey skinned humanoid mantis monster, his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest. Seeing no sign of it, the student quickly sent his call over to the answering machine as he spoke quietly into the phone. "Old man, don't pick up the phone, just listen. One of those men I beat up from last night just ambushed me in the District 7 Park near the student dorms. The guy's totally nuts and the best part is he just turned into a monster a lot like the one I killed last night. I think I've lost him for the moment so I'll try to get out of here and make it back to the dorm but if I don't then you should-!"
He ended his sentence abruptly as something big suddenly crashed through the tree branches overhead. Without thinking Inui dived into a forward roll, turning as he came up to see the area he stood a mere instant before now occupied by the large grey mantis looking monster, its arm blade sunk to the hilt in tree bark. Exactly where Inui's head had been a moment ago.
"Kid!" an alarmed voice suddenly called out from his cell phone, the teen recognizing it to be that of Kisuke Oshino's "Kid, you there? What's going on?"
Inui ignored the scientist's frantic questions as he rose cautiously to his feet, his eyes not losing sight of his attacker for a second before pivoting on his heel and taking off into a dead sprint. Unfortunately for him, however, Mantis-Tetsou was faster, leaping to cut off the teens escape almost instantly. 'Shit!' Inui exclaimed in his head as he lashed out with a right roundhouse kick towards the monsters ribs, the creature intercepting the blow with its arm, resulting in a loud impact sound as the students shin struck the monsters skin.
"Tch, bastard!" the grey haired teen yelled angrily as he quickly retracted his leg, throwing a swift left cross straight at the monsters face only for the Mantis to simply catch his fist before slamming its own into the students gut, the blow knocking the air from of the teen's lungs and sending him flying back half a room's distance before he hit the ground, rolling to a stop as he coughed violently, clutching the area of his stomach where he got punched. Blinking the blurriness from his eyes, Inui absently realized he was no longer holding his cell phone, having dropped the device after getting the wind knocked out of him. With a grunt of effort he weakly pushed himself up onto one knee, looking up to spot his open cell phone lying a few feet away in front of him… just before it was smashed violently underneath a large grey foot.
"So~," the monster began, speaking in that same distorted, warped version of Tetsou's voice it had used before "You do know where Oshino is after all. Well this presents a problem. I can't very well kill you until you tell me where he's hiding, and I doubt you plan to be very cooperative. Quite a riddle, what to do?" he asked in mock puzzlement, making a thinking gesture with his arms as he did. Inui slowly rose unsteadily to his feet, his hands moving to his collar as he began systematically undoing the buttons on his white school shirt as he watched the monster prattle on with angry, burning eyes.
"Ah, I know," the Mantis monster said, turning to look at the grey haired teen sinisterly, "How's about I peel the flesh from your bones, strip… by… strip. Perhaps after that you'll be willing to talk" the creature remarked as it started to walk towards him. Only to be suddenly struck by what looked like a miniature sun, albeit not even close to half as bright as the real thing. Immediately upon impact, the red-orange energy sphere detonated violently, resulting in a van sized explosion, the blast kicking up a cloud of dust that blanketed the area.
"Ugh!" Inui grunted as he shielded his eyes from the dirt particles flying at him, his now unbuttoned white over shirt blowing backwards from the force of the explosion.
"Um, I think you might have overdone it a little that time, Sempai" he heard a female voice comment semi-seriously.
"Heh heh, you think so?" a male voice responded, chuckling to himself nervously.
Turning to his right, he quickly spotted the source of the attack. Standing roughly an apartments length away from him were two students. The first was a tall young man that looked to be a year or two Inui's senior, wearing a black school uniform he didn't recognize with a white under shirt and a black baseball cap on his head, covering most of his short spiky hair. The teen had his right hand extended out in front of him, palm open. 'Guess he's the one responsible for that attack just now' Inui observed as he turn his attention to the teen's companion. The second was a much younger girl with short brown hair, wearing a uniform Inui distantly remembered belonged to Sakugawa Middle School. Both students wore matching green stripped armbands with the shield symbol pinned to their right sleeves, indicating they were both members of Academy City's junior security force, Judgment.
"Judgment!" the two announced, holding out their right arms in front of them at a downwards angle, their other hand holding the armband out flat.
'Well… that's one way to make an entrance, I guess' Inui thought dryly to himself, wondering if they taught that pose at the Judgment Training Center as the two quickly approached him.
"You alright?" the older boy asked, shifting his gaze back and forth between the injured grey haired student and the slowly dissipating dust cloud.
"I'm fine" Inui answered gruffly, keeping his wary eyes on the cloud as well, remembering how irritatingly tough these things were. "Thanks for the help. Nice trick by the way. How did you know I was in trouble?"
"We heard all the noise while we happened to be on patrol" answered the girl readily as she inspected the teen's injuries, especially his arm, while ignoring his attempts to wave her away as he protested the need for first aid. "After that, a student quickly came to us and reported seeing you being chased by a 'large grey thing' and told us the direction you ran off in."
"Not that that thing would have been hard to miss for long" the tall, baseball cap wearing Judgment member commented as the smoke started to clear, "Now let's see-"
"Look out!" Inui yelled suddenly, ripping his arm from the brown haired girls grasp before dashing to the side to ram his shoulder into the older teen, knocking him aside to safety as a large grey figure leapt from the smoke, slamming into the grey haired student as its hands each seized a handful of the black t-shirt he wore under his school uniform that day. As the monster began to push him back with the intent of crushing him against the tree behind him, Inui grabbed both the creatures' arms before letting himself fall backwards to the ground, taking his attacker with him by using its own momentum against it. Planting his foot squarely against the monsters abdomen, the teen gave a grunt of effort as he used both their momentum and his own power to hurl the monster off himself and through the air until it slammed back first into the very tree it had planned to drive him into before falling to the ground on its head. Jumping to his feet, Inui spun to face the Mantis as it quickly moved to push itself off the ground. The student moved to continue his attack when suddenly he found himself being yanked back by a hand on his shoulder. "Oi! What's the big idea?" the teen shouted angrily as he shoved the offending hand from his shoulder, only for the cap wearing Judgment esper to ignore him as he moved to stand a couple of feet in front of him.
"Izumi, get him out of here. I'll handle this" he said to the girl as he raised his hand towards the now standing Mantis monster, orange energy gathering into the shape of a sphere in front of his palm before launching towards the creature. The monster brought its right arm up across its chest as the energy blast raced towards it, blue fire engulfing its clenched fist before; with a roar of challenge it slammed its fist into the orb of psychic energy, battering it away as if it were a rubber ball, the sphere detonating against a park tree a fair distance away. "What!" the esper exclaimed in shock, taking a nervous step backwards. 'What the hell is this thing?' Suddenly the monster was a blur, covering the distance between it and the students in a second, slashing its arm blade down at the energy slinging esper that had tried to destroy it twice now. The teen, unable to use his powers at close range without risk of injury to himself, fell back to his Judgment CQC training as he expertly ducked under the monsters arm while snapping his shin into the creature's stomach in a well executed Muay Thai kick, unfortunately to no effect before the Mantis viciously slammed the back of its fist into his protecting arm, the inhuman force of the blow knocking the teen through the air spinning before colliding with the nearby tree, slumping to the ground, unconscious.
"Sempai!" Izumi cried out as she rushed past Ayumu while reaching into her skirt pocket and quickly whipped out a collapsible steel baton, the inertia of the swing extending and locking the segments into place.
"Wait!" Inui called out, knowing the baton wielding Judgment girl didn't stand a chance in hell against the large grey Mantis-like monster in a fight, armed or not. Running after her, he was surprised to see the Sakugawa student wield the baton with a surprising amount of skill as she attacked the creature, using fast, controlled strikes, focusing all the power in her strikes to the solid tip of the innermost shaft to maximize the damage done. Despite her best efforts, however, her attacks did little more than annoy the monster as it raised its arm to block the steel rod before kicking the girl in the stomach, the blow cracking one or two of Izumi's ribs as she flew to the ground, her baton rolling from her hand as she lay gasping on her side, unable to move due to the pain, but conscious.
"BASTARD!" Inui roared, charging at full speed towards the grey-skinned being, dropping into a sweep kick once he was within range, his foot knocking the creatures feet right out from under it, as it feel to the ground with a frustrated roar. Rolling out of reach of its arm blades, the student quickly rushed over to where Izumi lay, quickly dragging (as gently as he could afford to be given the circumstances, which admittedly wasn't a whole lot) her over to where her companion lied face down on the ground. Placing her against the tree, Inui quickly checked the older Judgment member's condition. He was alive, much to the teen's immense relief, though both of them would need medical treatment. Behind him, he could sense the monster rising to its feet, no doubt furious at once again being made a fool of by the grey haired teen. Turning to Izumi, he hastily said "Stay here; I'll lead this thing away from here. Once you're clear, call for help on your phone."
"B-but…" she protested weakly, her breathing irregular due to her injured ribs. Izumi couldn't allow a civilian to put himself in danger for them. Judgment existed to protect civilians, not the other way around. Behind him, the Mantis began charging towards them, murder on its mind.
"Don't worry, it'll be okay" he interrupted her, not really believing his own words himself as he turned, took two short steps and shouted in challenge before tackling into the creatures torso, driving it back a couple of steps before it easily flung him off. Hitting the ground on his hands and feet, Inui looked up to see the girl's baton lying a few feet away in front of him. Scrambling to his feet, the teen dived into a forward roll just as the monster made a grab for the back of the student's shirt, missing him by barely half an inch. Snatching up the weapon as he rolled to his feet, Inui immediately took off running, hoping the monster would forget the incapacitated Judgment members in favor of chasing him, remembering how Tetsou went on about Oshino and the Faiz Gear. 'Please be chasing me, please be chasing me, please be chasing me' Inui prayed repeatedly, dodging past trees and leaping over bushes, before taking a glance over his shoulder to see a pursuing grey Mantis monster running after him, rapidly gaining ground on the teen as it tore through the park foliage with ease. 'Woo who~! It worked! It's chasing me; it's… chasing… me… OH SHIT! IT"S CHASING ME!' he screamed mentally, realizing he was right back where he started before the Judgment members had intervened.
After roughly half a minute of running, Inui realized he was running out of area to run to, seeing a park trail ahead of him past a line of trees; he could even see a pair of female students sitting at a park bench with their backs to him, chatting happily whilst oblivious to the life or death situation occurring not too far behind them. Not willing to risk getting them or anyone else involved, the teen pivoted on his heel as he rounded a tree, planning to try and lose the monster somewhere else in the park. Only to see the large, insect like humanoid drop down from the sky directly in front of him. While it lacked the ability to fly, Inui had to admit, the thing could seriously jump. Using his momentum the student jumped forward into a front kick, striking the monster in the chest before bringing the steel baton down upon its head, the blow causing at least some discomfort to the creature as it reeled its head back from the strike.
Inui, applying his Silat adapted Eskrima training, followed that up with a series of rapid, precise strikes, hitting the Mantis high and low, the steel rod blazing like silver fire in the afternoon light. Dodging to the side as its fist sailed past his head; the teen brought the baton up between him and the monster's arm, shoving it to the side before quickly bashing the thing across the temple with the tip of the rod, then slamming the grip end directly into its face. The monster snarled in pain before kicking the student in the shoulder, the blow driving him right into the tree, smashing his arm painfully between his body and the tree bark. Gritting his teeth, Inui took a shaky step backwards before leaning sharply to the side to avoid having his arm severed from his body, only for the monster to deck him across the face, sending the teen spinning as he the ground hard, his mind and vision hazy from the pain.
As he struggled to push himself up off the ground, the monster took three short steps before kicking him in the ribs suddenly, knocking the air out of him and sending rolling across the ground, coming to a stop as he rolled onto his side, reflexively curling into a ball because of the pain while gasping for air. In his hand he still held the extendable baton, griping the handle so hard his knuckles turned white. 'Okay, that hurt. God, that really hurt.' Over his pained breathing Inui could hear the monster slowly approaching him, its heavy footsteps echoing like thunder against his ears as the grey insect monster stopped a few feet away, laughter bubbling from its throat.
"Stupid brat, this is what you get for sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong" Tetsou mocked, as it looked down on him in what the teen thought looked to be disgust. "Before I start cutting on you, I wanted to know something. Why did you try to fight me? You had to have realized that a useless Level 0 like you didn't stand a chance against me, even with all your fancy karate tricks, so why did you do it? Was it to protect that shitty scientist?"
Gritting his teeth, Inui pushed himself up with one arm to glare up at the Mantis. "Pretty much, yeah" he answered plainly.
The monster snorted. "How idiotic, why would you risk your life for someone you just met? Do you think your some kind of hero, Level 0?" the creature asked before breaking out into a fit of laughter.
"Not really, too much work. I just don't like seeing people suffer, ruins my peace of mind" Inui explained as he slowly rose to his feet, cradling his injured ribs which, luckily, none of seemed to be broken. "You see, ugh…, I'm the kind of guy who can't relax and be happy unless everyone around him is happy" he stated, loosening his school bag's strap before pulling it off. "But I don't want to die so…" he trailed off, tossing the bag over to Mantis-Tetsou who caught it with one hand.
"Humph, smart move" it said as it eagerly ripped the bag open, "Unfortunately it won't be enough to save… you…" it stopped as it looked inside the bag, only to see no sign of the Faiz Gear. Feeling a surge of rage spike through him, the monster threw the bag to the ground as it looked up just in time to see the steel baton flying towards it before it bashed into the side of its face. However, unlike the previous hits, this one actually hurt the grey monster, its head jerking violently to the side from the force of the blow. In shock from the pain, the Mantis stumbled back two steps before it was struck once again by the steel rod, this time against in the temple on the opposite side of the head. The assault ended with a fast, solid kick to the creature's torso, the unnatural strength behind the attack knocking the grey humanoid to the ground with a heavy thud. Pushing itself off the ground, it looked up to see the teen glaring down at it with furious, blazing, feral, topaz-colored eyes. "You… How did y-?"
"When exactly" Inui interrupted, growling, "did I ever say I was a Level 0? My ability's simply harder to control than most."
The monster snarled before throwing out its left leg in a sweep kick to take the students legs out from under him. Seeing this, Inui quickly jumped over the sweep in a jump snap kick, planting his shoe against the creatures face as he sent it rolling backwards, unfortunately allowing it to rise to its feet. Bending its legs, the Mantis leapt at the teen while bringing its right arm down in a downward slash. Sidestepping out of the way, Inui twisted on his heel as swung the baton down in a diagonal slash using both hands as if it were a katana, while at the same time the monster reversed its momentum and lashed out with its other blade. A loud metallic noise could be heard ringing through the air as the ash grey blade severed the baton in two, the top half bouncing off the park grass off to their side quietly.
Realizing what had happened, the teen instinctively leapt backwards just as the Mantis's left blade sliced through the air that had just been occupied by his stomach a fraction of a second earlier, hurling the now useless grip end of the baton at his attackers head as he did, who instinctively battered the metal rod out of the air with its forearm, despite the fact that it couldn't possibly hurt the creature. What it did do, however, was cause the monster to leave itself open for Inui to kick it straight in the chest, his enhanced strength knocking it back a fair distance. Pressing the attack, the teen dashed forward as he brought his right fist back before throwing it as hard as he could, putting as much strength behind it as he could afford to without risking losing his control of himself… only for the mantis monster to catch his fist effortlessly in its hand before bending it painfully at an upward angle. Inui snarled in pain as he tried to push back, sweat building up along his brow from the effort, but to no avail. Even with his enhanced strength, he was simply no match for the creature's inhuman power. As Mantis-Tetsou began to laugh again, Inui could only think one thing. 'Aww crap.'
(A moment later)
"So are you ready for the System Scan next week?" one of the girl's sitting at the park bench asked casually, oblivious to the life-or-death situation occurring just a matter of feet behind them.
The other girl shook her head as she answered "Not really, how about you?"
"Eh, I don't know. I think I might have a shot this time-!" she was interrupted suddenly as a shadow suddenly passed just over their heads before something landed hard on the concrete in front of them, startling the highschool girls greatly as they screamed. Lying with his back against the pavement in front of them was a teenage boy with light grey hair, his eyes clenched shut and his teeth gritted in pain as he held his right shoulder, which had taken the blunt of the landing, tightly in his hand. Despite not understanding what was going on, the two students quickly rushed to the injured teen's side, gently helping him up as the older of the two asked him if he was okay and what had happened to him. Instead of answering her, Inui grit his teeth as he gripped his shoulder tightly, and with a burst of force, shoved his dislocated shoulder back into place with a gasp of pain. Before anyone could say anything, however, a heavy thud echoed from behind them. Turning their heads, the girls screamed in terror as they saw the large grey skinned humanoid mantis monster approaching them menacingly.
Knowing what he had to do; Inui seized both of the girls by their shoulders and pushed them behind him, yelling "Run!" before charging straight towards, ducking under one of its arms as it tried to knock his head off before driving his fist into its solar plexus, his enhanced strength causing his foe to stagger somewhat which allowed him to slam his left elbow into the thing's jaw before dancing out of its reach to safety. Noticing the girl's hesitance to leave despite their fear, he once again yelled at them to run before sliding away from a wild punch, returning the favor with a kick of his own. This time the older girl got his message as she took her friends hand in her own and quickly led her away from the area to safety, planning to call Anti-Skill as soon as she was able too. Inui continued to duck and slide his way past his opponents attacks while snaking in a few of his own, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle, his body tired and sore from the fight and his assortment of injuries which even he would be unable to ignore for much longer. Shortly later he was proven correct when the monster caught him with an open hand strike to the chest, knocking him to the pavement painfully. At the teen struggled desperately to rise to his feet the thing that had once been the man known as Araragi Tetsou stood over him, raising its blade as it prepared to finally finish the student off.
"Play times over, brat" he said victoriously, repeating the words that he'd said to the grey haired teen the night before, this time with no meddling scientist to get in his way.
Or so he thought.
Just as the monster was about to bring the blade down on the beaten and bloodied student, three bursts of orange light flew over the teen's head and struck the creature in the chest in rapid succession, each shot erupting into shower of sparks, sending it reeling backwards before tumbling to the ground, its body convulsing in pain. Inui looked around to see his savior was none other than Kisuke Oshino standing several feet away, wearing the same clothes he wore from the previous night (since he understandably had nothing else to wear at the moment). In his right hand the scientist held what looked like some kind of gun, though not one of any design Inui had ever seen before, while his other hand carried what the teen recognized to be the Faiz Gear at his side. The student also spotted the metal case that carried the equipment lying open on the ground next to the man's feet.
"Catch Kid!" Oshino yelled out as he tossed the metallic belt underhand style to Inui, the teen snatching the transformation device out of the air with both hands before strapping it around his waist with a quick fluid motion, the ends of the belt snapping together with a metallic click. Noticing the monster was rising to its feet, roaring wildly in rage, Inui turned and shouted "Phone!"
Oshino grabbed the 'barrel' of the 'gun' he was holding and with a jerk snapped it straight and flipped it closed before tossing it at as well to the teen as well. Catching it in his hand, Inui realized he was holding the phone from last night that activated the Faiz Gear's transformation sequence. "This thing's a gun?" he asked in disbelief.
"The transformation code's 5-5-5 Enter!" the scientist told him as he flipped the cell phone open and began dialing in the code, the device making a techno beep noise with each press of a button.
'I don't know what these bastards are or what their after, but I do know this much.' He thought as he pressed the enter button with a look of resolute determination on his face as he stared down the grey being that had attempted to brutally kill him.
"Standing By" the phone announced in its computerized voice before Inui slammed it shut. 'I will not allow these monsters to hurt anyone ever again!' he swore as he thrust his right hand that held the phone up towards the sky, his left held out at his side, fist clenched.
"Henshin!" he yelled out before slamming the phone into the slot on the belt and snapping it sideways.
"Complete" the voice reported as Inui moved his right arm to mirror his left, red beams of light spreading from the belt to cover the his entire body before with a flash of crimson light he was incased from head to toe in the high tech power suit. Dropping his arms to his sides the teen flicked his wrist before charging right at the mantis monster, it doing the same with a growl. Tetsou attacked first, throwing a right haymaker which Inui blocked with his left arm before deflecting its other fist to the side with his forearm as he delivered a solid left cross of his own to the monsters jaw, sending it reeling backwards. He followed that up with a right roundhouse kick to the creatures head, which it blocked using both its arms as shields, but this left its solar plexus open for him to drive his fist into. As the monster doubled over in pain he punched it once across the jaw with a left hook, softening it up for his second punch as he slammed his armored fist directly into its face, knocking it to the pavement.
Inui ran after the monster as it rolled too its knees, lashing out with a low right roundhouse kick aimed for the monsters head and neck area. But Mantis-Tetsou wasn't out of the fight yet, slashing with its left arm blade in front of it. A shower of sparks flew through the air as the blade connected with the metal greave that encased the teen's foot, knocking his leg back and him off balance as the monster quickly sprung to its feet while raising its fist up in an uppercut, its blade vertically slashing the armor's chest plate, sending up another burst of sparks as the strike caused the teen to stagger back in pain. The mantis monster then stepped forward as it raised its knee up and struck the armored student in the chest with a vicious side kick, sending the teen flying through the air off the park trail to crash against a tree on the edge of the path.
"Ugh…err, that hurt" the teen muttered as he slowly pushed himself off the ground, his body aching.
"Watch out, kid! It's above you!" Oshino called out warningly. Taking the scientist's warning, Inui didn't waste time looking for his attacker as he quickly threw himself to the side just as the grey humanoid came crashing down on the spot he had just occupied in an attempt to crush him under its weight. The teen quickly leapt up to his feet as the monster charged towards him and twisted into a reverse roundhouse kick, which he swiftly ducked under before raising his left arm to block an overhand punch as he retaliated with a shovel hook to the creature's body and haymaker to its temple, the punch sending the monster stumbling backwards into the same tree it had knocked him into just a moment ago. Dashing forward, Inui lashed out with his leg in a side kick, the armored heel of his foot striking the monster directly in the chest, the force of the kick actually driving the mantis into the tree and through it, the top half of the tree falling to the ground towards the park trail with a loud crash.
"Uhh, timber? Oops" the student said as he observed the damage he had unintentionally caused, having underestimated the Faiz Gear's power. Noticing the grey skinned insect monster rising to its feet behind the fallen tree trunk, Inui flicked his wrist and ran towards the monster before jumping up onto the tree and kicked off it into the air, throwing his leg out in a jumping roundhouse kick, sending the monster spinning back onto the park path. Following after it, the teen struck his opponent across the face with an armored back fist, knocking the monster to its knees on the pavement. He then moved in with a right overhand punch which the mantis dodged to the side to avoid before moving to the teens backside, but was once again struck by a back fist as the teen spun on his heel and continued his assault. Inui then laid the beat down on the monster, unleashing punch after bone-breaking punch upon the grey skinned monstrosity. A left reverse punch to the solar plexus followed by right cross to sternum and three devastating haymakers to the head that sent it staggering. It tried to retaliate with a left hook, but the armored teen ducked under the blow before turning and hitting the monster with an overhand punch then jumped forward into a jump kick to the monsters torso that sent it flying back a fair distance before crashing to the pavement.
"Inui!" Oshino called out from behind him.
Hearing his name, the teen turned to see the scientist throw something to him that he promptly caught in his hands. The object looked to be some kind of metallic scope or flashlight, the Smart Brain logo and the designation "SB-555L" engraved on its side. On one end was a slot of some kind. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" the student asked.
"Take the Faiz Mission Memory, the card key on the front of the phone, and insert it into the slot! Then connect it to the Energy Holster on your right leg, open the phone and press Enter!"
Inui wanted to question the scientist further but realized as he noticed the monster slowly starting to rise to its feet that he didn't have time to play Twenty Questions. Looking down at his belt, the teen did as Oshino instructed and reached down to the phone to discover that the front of it that had the Faiz symbol on it was indeed removable as he pulled the card key free from its slot and inserted it into the slot on the flashlight.
[Dead or Alive]
"Ready" the Faiz Gear announced as the device, which he would later learn was called the Faiz Pointer, extended. Squatting down, the student reached down and connected the flashlight looking device to the "Energy Holster" on his leg sideways before twisting it up so it locked into place, now hanging parallel to his leg. Standing up straight, Inui turned to face towards the Mantis monster as he opened up the phone and pressed the Enter button.
"Exceed Charge."
Snapping the phone shut, the teen watched as the red lines on the front of the belt flashed bright crimson before the surge of energy began to travel down the red line from the belt to his right leg before reaching the Energy Holster, the Faiz Pointer's barrel lighting up with red light as it gathered the energy inside it. Ahead of him, the monster had finally managed to stand upright as it roared furiously before charging straight for the Faiz Gears wielder in a berserkers rage. Deciding to wing it, Inui squatted down once more as he gathered energy in his legs before taking off into a dead sprint towards his inhuman adversary before leaping up several feet into the air. Somersaulting head over heels forward, the teen instinctively brought his legs together as he pointed them directly at the approaching creature, the Faiz Pointer suddenly firing a beam of red energy straight at the monsters chest. However, instead of impacting against the target, the beam suddenly expanded into a crimson energy drill that hovered just above the monster, immobilizing it completely. Extending his right leg (the sole of which possessing a flashing red Faiz symbol) while tucking in his left, the Ayumu let out a shout as he kicked directly into the construct made entirely of red energy which began to spin at a very high speed as it drilled violently into the creatures chest, whitish blue light erupting from the point of impact.
Suddenly the Faiz Suit vanished within the vortex of energy as it drilled straight through the mantis monsters body, Faiz actually becoming energy as its deathblow was executed, the feeling completely indescribable for Inui, though later he would wonder if this was how the characters of Star Trek felt when they teleported. Interestingly, as the energy drill vanished into the creature's body, it left no visible damage. A second later the teen reappeared in midair behind his opponent, still in his flying kick position before landing squarely on both feet. Behind him, the thing that had once been Araragi Tetsou screamed as its body exploded into azure flames, a finely detailed red Faiz symbol hovering in the air above the body as it disintegrated into dust.
Inui slowly turned to gaze at the pile of dust solemnly. Though the kill had been made in self-defense, and despite his attacker's monstrous new form, the teen couldn't escape the reality that he had just ended the life of another human being.
'Again' a voice from the deepest recesses of his own mind mocked him, causing his fist to clench tightly. Knowing they didn't have much time before Anti-Skill arrived, the student sighed as he began walking to where Oshino stood waiting; not sparing the monsters remains a second glance as he walked past them.
'Faiz Pointer worked like charm' Kisuke thought to himself as he observed the approaching teen. 'And the kid preformed the Crimson Smash perfectly, and without any instructions or training at that! Guess my hunch was right after all, this kid… he just may be the perfect candidate for Faiz! ' he thought as the teen removed the Faiz Phone from the its slot and flipped it open to press the End Call button, stopping in front of the scientist as the Faiz Armor disappeared in a flash of red light to reveal a scowling Inui Ayumu in its place.
"WHAT THE F#K TOOK YOU SO LONG!"
Open your eyes, for the next Faiz!
Ending notes: I'll make this quick and get a few things out of the way that you all might be wondering.
First-Index characters will appear in this story more often as it develops. I'm just laying down the ground work for the story first.
Second-If Inui seems a little too strong or resilient in his fight against the Orphenoch, don't worry, there is a reason for that. Also, I'm going to avoid un-morphed fights with them from now on, they take too much time.
My OC Taeko Hiramatsu(s) name and appearance was inspired/borrowed/copyied from a charater in the anime Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?. For that matter, Ayumu's first name and appearance was also inspired from the anime.
That's all for now.
Until next time, Ryvius reporting out.
Omake: "Hey kid" Oshino said as he turned to look at Ayumu.
"Yeah?" the teen replied.
"What was with the 'Henshin' thing? You trying to act like a manga character or something?" the scientist mocked, snickering to himself.
Ayumu's face flushed red with embarrassment as he yelled back "Shut up! It's just that... right before I activated the Faiz Gear..."
(Flashback)
The teen slammed the phone shut and was about to put it into the slot on the belt when suddenly everything in the world suddenly stopped, frozen in time. "What the... what's going on? What's happening?" Ayumu asked in alarm as he looked around wildly.
"Do not panic Ayumu. Time has merely stopped momentarily. It will begin again shortly" said a booming voice from nowhere.
"Who are you?" the student asked warily.
"I am Ryviu- ahh, I mean God! Yes, this is God" the voice babbled in reply.
"... are you lying to me?" Ayumu asked distrustfully.
"No."
"Oh, okay then. What do you want?"
"Whenever you transform from now on, you need to shout or say 'Henshin' before you do" the voice told him.
"What? Why?" the teen asked in confusion.
"Because it'll make you look totally bad ass!"
"But-"
"Look just do what I say or I'll drop a lighting bolt on your head and end this fanfiction right now!"
"Huh?"
"JUST DO IT!"
"Okay, okay!" the teen agreed as he raised his hand's in surrender.
(End flashback)
"... and that's what happened" the teen finished.
"..."
"..."
"... you are one strange, messed up teen, Kid."
"Bite me."
