Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Kamen Rider Aegis
Enter Aegis
Disclaimer – I do not own anything from either Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Kamen Rider. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07, 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Kamen Rider is the property of Shōtaro Ishinomori, Tōru Hirayama and Mainichi Broadcasting Systems Inc. Also anything based off characters, enemies etc. from other works or any characters from other works, the things that they're based on and those characters are the property of their respective creators, companies etc. Also this fic was inspired by the fic, Kamen Rider Shōwa, which is the property of Kamen Rider Chrome and following a similar setting. It is not my intention to plagiarise from him and after discussing the idea with him, I have permission to do this fic.
Hinamizawa, XX Prefecture, Japan – Friday, 15th June, 1984 (Roughly one month later)
It was another bright and sunny day in Hinamizawa. The sun shone down, bathing the village in its warm golden glow as birds chirped and cicadas sang. There was no breeze in the air, so the temperature outside was really high and anyone caught outside really would not have minded if they had a nice cold glass of lemonade, or some other cold drink. Many people out walking mainly stuck to the shade wherever they could find it and wore sunhats in an effort to create some shade whenever shade was not available.
Even the school was feeling the heat as class had just finished and the only ones in the classroom were the members of the Hinamizawa Gaming Club along with their newest friend, Hitoshi Daisuke. It had been about a month since the others had discovered Daisuke after Shion had crashed into him and in the short time he had been there, he had settled in quite well. He was currently staying at the Maebara Mansion with Keiichi and he still had not recovered his memories, and no one had answered the police report that the Maebaras had filed either. He found that to be quite disappointing, as he had been expecting someone to recognise him and come to reclaim him, but no one turned up. So, he remained in Hinamizawa with the Maebaras taking care of him.
He could not help but think back to his first day in Hinamizawa… well actually, it had technically been third day, since the Gaming Club had found him and he had slipped into unconsciousness after Shion collided with him, and had remained unconscious throughout the night before waking up the next day, in which he had introduced himself and his living arrangements had been sorted. However, the day after that, he had gone to the local school and learned a lot about the people who had found him, especially Rena, who had agreed to show him around after school and they ended up going "treasure hunting" in the nearby junkyard, and had stayed out till late into the night. It was during his time with Rena that he learned about Hōjō Satoshi, Satoko's older brother, and that he disappeared two years previously. He also learned a bit about Rena in that she and her parents had moved to Ibaraki and that her father and mother had gotten a divorce, which caused her and her father to move back to Hinamizawa. Despite Rena not mentioning it aloud, he could tell that much, and judging from the amount of hatred and venom Rena had had in her voice as she had mentioned her mother, it was clear that Rena obviously believed that the divorce had been her mother's fault.
Anyway, since then, he had not mentioned Satoshi to anyone and neither did he bring up Rena's past, since Rena had made it perfectly clear that it was something that she did not want to talk about. As far as he was concerned, none of that was his business anyway. In any case, Rena had fallen asleep in the junkyard and Daisuke had taken her home, though, he did fear that her father may have become overprotective and would have misunderstood Daisuke's intentions. Thankfully, he had been grateful, even after Daisuke had sworn to him that he had not "defiled" his little girl. However, the elder Ryūgū had just dismissed him, though, Daisuke could see that he had been really tired and probably too tired to chase him, or even think straight. Afterwards, he had returned to the Maebara Mansion and apologised to Ichirō and Aiko for being out so late; that he and Rena had had such a wonderful time together that they had lost track of time, which was true. They both had gotten so caught up in their "treasure hunt" that time just flown by.
Anyway, so as not to seem like he was freeloading off the Maebaras, Daisuke had managed to get a job as a paper delivery boy and did his paper route every day, borrowing Keiichi's bike, as he did not have enough money to go out and buy his own. He always brought the bike back before it was time to go to school and after spending so long living with Keiichi; he learned that Rena coming to pick them up and their meeting up with Mion by the watermill was their customary routine. Also, since he was now living in Hinamizawa, and with delivering everyone's papers in the mornings, the villagers had gotten used to him and had warmed up to him quite well. No longer did he detect auras of suspicion and uneasiness whenever he interacted with them. Even Oryō, who still had a low opinion of him, had warmed up somewhat, in that she tolerated him coming to the Sonozaki Estate to deliver everyone's newspapers, but she had made it clear that he was only to deliver the papers, and then, he was to vacate the premises. He was doing his part for the upkeep of the village, and with that in mind; the villagers saw no reason to be suspicious of him.
"Okay, everyone," Mion's voice came, bringing Daisuke out of his thoughts and back to reality, "Before we get Club Activities underway, I have a very special announcement to make."
Daisuke paid Mion no heed. He was not technically a member of the Gaming Club, despite staying behind. He was basically just an observer who watched as they played their games and went through Punishment Games. He had been offered a place multiple times, but he had politely declined each time, using the possibility of someone turning up to claim him and taking him away as an excuse, despite the fact that, even after all this time, no one had turned up who remembered him.
"I would formally like to welcome our newest member to the group, Hitoshi Daisuke," Mion went on, as she stood up and had her arms outstretched in Daisuke's direction.
"Huh, me?" Daisuke said, blinking in confusion as he did a double take.
"Of course, we're inducting you into the Club," Mion said with a nod.
"But…" Daisuke started to protest.
"Come on, Daisuke-kun, please…" Rena pleaded, as she clasped her hands in front of her and gave Daisuke a sad puppy-dog eye look in her eyes.
"How about it?" Shion asked, as she looked on, also eager for Daisuke to join.
"You do hang out with us a lot," Satoko pointed out.
"Hai, so you're already a member in all but name," Hanyū added with a nod.
"Besides, if you join, I'll no longer be the only guy here," Keiichi spoke up, adding in his two cents.
"Yeah, and don't bother saying that someone might turn up looking for you," Mion put in before he could reply with his usual excuse, "If someone was looking for you, I'm sure they would have come looking for you by now."
Daisuke sighed as he had to admit that the green-haired girl did have a point. It had almost been a month since Ichirō and Aiko had filed their police report, and so far, there had been no replies. No one had turned up looking for him and he had to admit that he felt somewhat deflated. He had initially anticipated that someone he knew would have come looking for him, but as time passed and no one came, he started to give up hope, and he could not help but wonder why no one had sought to claim him. Just who was he and where did he come from? He had originally thought that perhaps he could have been someone who had run away from home and had lost his memory upon falling into the Onigafuchi Swamp. However, judging from the state of his old clothes, if he had run away from home, then he had to have ran away quite some time ago, as when he had been found, his clothes had been old, tattered, dirty and he had been severely malnourished and stank of BO.
"If I really did run away from home, then I must've been on the run for quite a while before hand," he thought to himself.
Thankfully, he was now a lot healthier. He was no longer malnourished and at first, before leaving the Irie Clinic, he had taken a bath, but while staying with Keiichi and his parents, he frequently used their shower in an effort to battle his double-crown.
Anyway, as he thought about his past and why no one had turned up to claim him, a horrible thought suddenly entered his mind as he could not help but wonder, if he did indeed run away from home, were his parents glad that he was gone? Was it possible that they just did not care what happened to him now that he was out of their hair? Those thoughts buzzed about his mind and he could not wonder that, if true, what was it that he could have done that would cause his parents to hate him. Could he have been the result of an unwanted pregnancy or was it that he just did not live up to his parents' standards and they decided that they would be better off without him or could it be that he had been so disruptive and undisciplined that his parents had gotten rid of him? So many questions appeared in his mind and he had no answers. Heck, he did not even know if they were warranted or not. However, the fact that no one had turned up to claim him meant that he could not help but fear that either he had run away from home and his parents had abandoned him or even worse, his parents had kicked him out and left him to fend for himself.
"Hey, Dai-chan, are you alright?" Mion's voice came, bringing him back to reality, and he saw her staring at him with a concerned look on her face, "You're spacing out."
"Oh, gomen," Daisuke apologised as he shook his head, dispelling his thoughts for now, "So you all want me to join your little club, eh?"
Rika walked up beside him and tugged on his shirt and gave him a similar look that Rena had given him.
"Mī…" she said in a pleading tone, and then, suddenly, as if by magic, her expression transformed into a rather cheerfully carefree grin, "Nipā~."
"Heh, nipā~," he said with a nod as he came to his decision after thinking it over, "Alright then, if you all insist and since no one's turned up to answer to that police report, I don't see why not. I'm in."
The Gaming Club members' faces all lit up in excitement as their newest friend had just accepted their invitation to join, though, studying Mion's expression, Daisuke caught a gleam of arrogant smugness in her eyes and knew that she was probably happy with the prospect of having new meat to target. He had observed the members well enough to know what each one was like. Mion was the biggest winner and chose the games, since she was the leader, and normally won through cheating, though, given the club's rules in that members had to do whatever it took to win, it technically was not cheating. From what he had heard from Keiichi, Mion had taken great delight in putting him through the ringer when he first joined.
"You know, Kei," he said as he turned to focus on Keiichi, "Since you mainly hang around with girls, you could do with more boyfriends."
Keiichi's eyes widened in shock at hearing this, and so did Daisuke's, when he realised just what he had said and the girls were also stunned for a moment, but then Mion suddenly burst into laughter once she realised that Daisuke's comment had just come out the wrong way and then the other girls all followed suit, and Keiichi groaned as he turned to glare at Daisuke.
"Gomen, gomen," Daisuke said rather hurriedly in a panicked tone, "W-w-what I m-meant to s-say was, you really could really do with more friends who are guys."
Keiichi's expression became unreadable for a few seconds as he stared at Daisuke before a smile materialised on his face and the he nodded, accepting his friend's apology, and even let out a chuckle of his own since he had to admit that Daisuke was right; he was lacking male friends.
"Why's that so funny?" Satoko asked curiously, as she fought to regain her composure, sniggering all the while.
"You'll know when you're older, Satoko," Shion told the blonde-haired pre-teen.
"Anyway, let's see what game we'll be playing today," Mion said, as she walked over to her locker and after opening it, she shifted through the numerous items that she had stored there.
Daisuke had seen Mion do this countless times already and he honestly could not understand how the green-haired girl managed to fit so many things in such a small amount of space, and even more bizarre, he just could not understand how Mion was able to open it without everything spilling out onto the floor. He remembered that Mion had once told him to open her locker for her, since she had to do something important as the Class President and when he opened the locker, everything had come spilling out and he just could not seem to fit everything back in, even with the others helping him. It had taken Mion, herself; after she had returned to get everything back in correctly without everything falling out again. When he asked Mion how she did it, she explained that there was a certain knack to it, but did not go into detail as to what that "certain knack" was.
"Okay, let's see," Mion said excitedly, as she fished around her locker, "What sort of game would have Dai-chan at a great disadvantage?"
"Don't worry, she was like this with me as well," Keiichi whispered to his friend assuredly after hearing Mion's statement.
Daisuke just nodded since he had already seen how Mion had done things.
"Ah, here we go, how about a game of Old Geezer?" Mion said, as she pulled out a rather old and tattered deck of cards, "We haven't played this in a while. Not since before Dai-chan came here."
As she said the last part, she turned and shot Daisuke a really wicked and arrogant grin.
"So that's your game, eh, Mion-san?" Daisuke thought, as he studied the rather arrogant smirk on the green-haired girl's face, as he realised what Mion was doing.
Basically, since Daisuke had seen the club play other games, he had already gotten a feel on what to do and could easily come up with a game plan on how to handle the situation and so, with this in mind, Mion had obviously chosen a game that he had not seen before, and therefore, would have a more difficult time in forming a game plan. However, Keiichi had told him about this game, which was similar to the game, Old Maid, and Keiichi had also told him that the cards were so old and tattered that the girls had practically memorised them through the wear and tear markings on the back.
In fact, it was the first game Keiichi had ever played upon joining the club and it had taken him a long time before he managed to memorise the cards, despite realising beforehand that the wear and tear gave the girls an unfair advantage. However, he did manage to use that to his advantage when he memorised the markings on the back of the Two of Diamonds card, and then, he mimicked those markings, causing Mion to slip up, but because he had been in last place, he still had to go through a Punishment Game, in which, Mion had drawn on his face. However, Mion did admire Keiichi for his craftiness when he had created that new marking that had caused her to mistake Keiichi's card for the Two of Diamonds.
However, Daisuke just smirked, as he already had an ace up his sleeve. Well, actually, he had been intending on giving it to Keiichi for the next time they played Old Geezer, since he had not been expecting to join the Gaming Club. He had hoped that it would at least make the game more fair and take away Mion's advantage.
"Hold it right there, Mion-san," Daisuke said with a smug look on his face, "I know what you're planning. You're planning on having me play a game that I haven't seen so I won't be able to have an idea on what to do."
"My, my, you catch on quickly, Dai-chan," Mion said, as she raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat impressed that Daisuke figured her out, but her tone lost none of its smugness.
"And no doubt, those cards are so old that the wear and tear markings on the back tell you exactly which cards are which," Daisuke went on, not at all affected by Mion's boastful attitude, "And since I'm new, I won't know which cards are which."
"Once again, you're right, Dai-chan, but you'll learn as time goes on," Mion said dismissively with a wave of her hand.
"Now, hold on, who said I was done yet?" Daisuke said as his tone took on a smugness of its own.
"Oh, and what else do you have to contribute before we begin, Dai-chan?" Mion asked intently, as Daisuke reached into his left trouser pocket and pulled out a deck of cards that looked brand new.
"This, a new deck," Daisuke replied smugly, as he showed off the deck to the others and showed that they had no distinctive markings whatsoever, and then, Daisuke focused his attention on Mion and shot her a challenging look, "So how about it, Mion-san?"
Mion's eyes widened in surprise as she noticed the new deck and realised that Daisuke had practically one-upped her. A new deck meant that there were no markings and therefore, senior club members would not have the advantage and Mion knew that there was no possible way that she could cheat with this deck.
"You conniving bastard, Dai-chan," Mion thought, as she continued to stare at the new deck, and then, she burst into a smile, as she had to admit that Daisuke was already acting like a club member should, since the rules stated that one must do whatever it took to win and by taking away the others' advantage, he was reducing their chances of winning so that he would have a fairer shot, and with that in mind, Mion knew that she could not complain since it would label her a hypocrite.
"Of course, if you're too scared of losing with this new deck, I understand," Daisuke goaded confidently, knowing that Mion would accept regardless, since she would not tolerate an assault on her pride.
"Fine, you're on, Dai-chan," Mion said, despite knowing that she was undoubtedly walking straight into Daisuke's trap, but at the same time, she did not care, "I never back down from a challenge."
"Now we'll see just how good you really are," Daisuke said tauntingly as Mion growled.
"My, my, onē, now you have to play by the rules," Shion added teasingly, "No more cheating for you."
"Shut up," Mion grumbled with a huff, not happy at having her advantage taken away from her, but at the same time, she did admire Daisuke for his craftiness.
Later, everyone aside from Mion and Daisuke had all been eliminated and it was Mion's turn to pick. She knew that she had to think this over carefully since if she picked the right card, she would win, but if she picked the wrong card, then she knew that it was game over for her, since Daisuke would pick her other card when his turn came round.
After a tense few minutes, Mion reached out and pretty much snatched the card on Daisuke's right out of his hand and looked at it.
"Ha, I win!" she proclaimed before she studied the card completely, but after looking at the card and realising that the card she had was not the one she wanted, her face blanched as she realised that she lost.
Daisuke, upon noticing her change in reaction, calmly reached out and took the card that Mion already had in her hand before she made her choice on which of his cards to take, and upon looking at the card, just to be sure that it was the right one, he threw the cards on the table and shot Mion a rather smug and arrogant look, similar to the one he had constantly seen on her face whenever she won.
"Well, Mion-san, read 'em 'n' weep," he said rather smugly, "I'm out. Looks like I win."
Mion just stared at the cards on the table with wide eyes of shock and disbelief, unable to believe that she had lost, and to a newbie.
"Beaten by a newbie," she finally crocked with disbelief evident in her tone.
"Gomen, Mī-chan, but this newbie just proved his worth," Rena said in admiration, as she stared dreamingly at Daisuke, as she had to admit that she had grown to admire him ever since he had accompanied her to the junkyard to go "treasure hunting" with her and had taken her home after she had fallen asleep next to him.
"And now, as per the rules, you must suffer a Punishment Game," Daisuke said excitedly, causing Mion to glare at him as she came out of her stupor.
"Okay then, Dai-chan, what have I to do?" she said, not all that happy that she had lost to the new guy, and on the first day of him joining the club at that; it was indeed a rather humiliating experience.
Daisuke just chuckled as he pondered on how to punish the green-haired girl. However, like Keiichi, he knew that there was a line that must not be crossed and despite several fantasies rushing through his head with Mion in rather awkward and compromising scenarios, he knew that to implement them would certainly cross the line and Mion may end up becoming a psychologically emotional wreck in the end. Like Keiichi before him, Daisuke knew that his Punishment Game had to be proportionate to the Punishment Games that the girls themselves dished out. After all, despite Mion's attitude leading one to believe so, Daisuke knew that her Punishment Games were not mean-spirited and were just for fun. Mion may come across as mean, but she really did not want to seriously humiliate the losers to the point of suffering emotional breakdowns. The purpose of the Punishment Games were to motivate the losers into trying harder to win come the next game.
"Well, I'm waiting," Mion said impatiently, as she stood up and tapped her foot on the floor.
"Well, Mion-san, you are a tomboy, aren't you?" Daisuke said as he looked up at Mion as she glared down at him.
"Uh huh, so?" Mion said simply, not really understanding what he was getting at.
"And the annual Watanagashi Festival's coming up this Sunday, isn't it?" Daisuke went on as Mion growled.
"Just get to the point!" she snapped, unable to take any more suspense, "What does me being a tomboy have to do with the Watanagashi Festival?"
Daisuke then smirked and folded his arms across his chest and placed his right leg on top of his left.
"Well, Mion-san, since you're a tomboy, you will go to Okinomiya, to that clothing store we were in the other day and buy the most beautiful and extravagant dress in the store, and then, my dear, you will wear that dress to the Watanagashi Festival come Sunday."
"What?" Mion spluttered in pure disbelief.
"As I said, you'll be attending the Watanagashi Festival wearing a rather glamorous looking dress," Daisuke said, as he repeated his instructions, though, using different words, "As a tomboy, I'm sure that you don't do dresses. So, as your punishment, you'll be wearing one to the Watanagashi Festival this year. I'm sure to you; it's the equivalent of forcing a guy to dress up in girls' clothing."
Mion huffed as she grumbled under her breath, knowing that Daisuke was right. As a tomboy, she really hated wearing dresses and being forced to wear one did make her feel as if she was a guy that had been forced to wear girls' clothing. In fact, it was just as humiliating as the Punishment Games she had come up with on a regular basis
"Haū~, Mī-chan in a dress, kawaī, omochikaerī~," Rena said, as she envisioned Mion in a dress and fantasised how beautifully cute she looked.
"Like I said before, onē, Punishment Games are fun," Shion laughed, clearly enjoying her sister's predicament, "Unless of course, you happen to be on the receiving end."
"Oh, shut up, Shion," Mion grumbled as she resisted the urge to slug her sister over the head.
"Mion in a dress," Keiichi said, closing his eyes as he envisioned Mion wearing a rather beautiful and revealing dress, "Dai, I freakin' love you, man!"
Mion just groaned at Keiichi's antics.
"Pervert," she grumbled.
"Well, Mion-san, you're also a pervert for bringing up such a vulgar topic when Daisuke-san first came here," Satoko pointed out, apparently having overheard her, "What was it? Something about something standing at attention or something like that?"
"You'll know what it is when you're older, Satoko," Shion said, even as Mion groaned.
"You just had to go and bring that up," the green-haired girl moaned, as she remembered that time and also remembered how Rena had lashed out and given her a huge welt across her left cheek, "I'm just glad that I avoided a broken jaw. That Rena really packs quite a punch."
"Well, you were being insensitive and inconsiderate, Mī-chan," Rena said, speaking up in her own defence, "There were children present and they were too young to know about that sort of thing."
"Yeah, yeah, gomen, I totally forgot about that," Mion grumbled with a huff.
Daisuke did, of course, know about the Watanagashi Festival. He had learned about it from Rena during her tour of the village. She had explained that the Watanagashi Festival was held every year on the third Sunday in the month of June. Basically, what happened was that the villagers would contribute their old coats, furniture and anything else that had cotton, and they would be gutted for their cotton, and then, the cotton would be sown together, making a large futon and on the night of the third Sunday of June, the priest or miko would perform a dance with a specialised hoe, and then, they would use the hoe to cut and gouge out the cotton, and then, the villagers would each take a small piece of cotton, and then, they would set it adrift in the river and it was believed that in doing so, the villagers were casting off their sins. It was a ritual intended to praise the local Shrine God, Oyashiro-sama and thank him for watching over the village.
However, Rena had explained that in the beginning the Watanagashi Festival had used human sacrifices instead of an oversized futon. Originally the intended sacrifice was strapped down to a table and the "dance" back then had been nothing more than a procedural torture session that ended with the sacrifice's stomach and intestines being ripped out by the specialised hoe and afterwards the corpse and the severed intestines were thrown into the river and that was meant to symbolise the "drifting away" of the people's sins. However, thankfully in these modern times, the original Watanagashi Ritual had come to be seen as too cruel and barbaric, and so, they adopted the use of cotton, based on the alternative meaning for the word, "wata", which could mean either, intestines or cotton.
He also learned that Rika was the local miko, being part of the Furude Family, which was one of the Three Great Houses along with the Sonozaki and Kimiyoshi Families. That had surprised him; that Rika, who was only eleven-years-old, was part of the three main families that were in charge of the village. He could not help but wonder what happened to her parents, since it was fairly obvious that they were both dead; either that or they were away, but Daisuke doubted that very much since if they had been away, then they would have returned by now. Anyway, the Furude Family were basically the spiritual and religious leaders of the village, and their job was to see to the religious side of things. Whenever there was a religious ceremony in the village, a Furude was almost certainly guaranteed to be the one who was conducting it. Since Rika was a Furude and the only Furude in the village sans Hanyū, she had a seat on the Village Council, but very rarely did she attend due to her age and it was also due to her age, plus the fact that everyone in the village seemed to revere her that the rest of the Village Council were pretty much prepared to turn a blind eye to her absence.
Later, Daisuke was walking back to the Maebara Mansion with Keiichi, Rena and Mion. The sun had already started to set and the hue in the sky had turned a bright orange colour and the outside temperature had started to cool down. Nonetheless, Mion was grumbling to herself, still not pleased at having lost to Daisuke. What angered her the most was that not only did she lose to the newest member of the club on the first day of his participation, which was really humiliating in itself; it was also the fact that he had totally ruined her plan with that new deck of his, and to make matters worse, he had goaded her into accepting, knowing full well that her pride would not let her refuse, despite knowing that it was a trap and now she had to do something that; to her was far worse than being forced to wear any of her Punishment Game outfits; she had to wear a really beautiful dress to the Watanagashi Festival, and as a tomboy, she had always told herself that she did not do dresses. They were too girly and high society for her tastes.
However, she did have to admire Daisuke at the same time. Already he was thinking like a club member, and so, she could not fault him since he technically did not break the rules that she had set down. Do whatever it takes to win, that was the rule that Daisuke had followed when he offered that new deck. Doing whatever it took to win meant one had to strive for advantages over the competition, even if the advantage in question was unfair, and also, if the competition had an advantage over you, then you had to strive to take that advantage away from them, which was what Daisuke had done. He did not break the rules and Mion knew that if she was to complain, then she would end up coming off as a hypocrite. It was not fair, but that was the point. Mion only found things fair whenever they were going her way, but the moment someone else gained the upper hand, it was no longer fair to her, but she could live with that since it was in the spirit of fun.
"An eye for an eye, I suppose," she thought with a sigh.
So despite not being too happy that she had lost, she could honestly say that she most definitely respected Daisuke for his devious thinking. He had taken away her advantage and had beaten her fair and square. Sure, the new deck did not give him an advantage since he was as blind as everyone else, but it definitely evened the playing field, which had dramatically reduced the others' odds of winning.
"Hey, Mion-san, do you mind if I ask you a question?" Daisuke's voice came, bringing her back to reality.
"Huh, what?" she said as she looked around and saw that they had reached the watermill, which was also her "drop-off point".
She also saw Daisuke staring at her with an inquiring look and Keiichi and Rena were further along the path.
"Hey, Dai, what's the hold up?" Keiichi called out, upon noticing that Daisuke was no longer with them.
"Oh, you and Rena-san go on ahead, I'd like to speak with Mion-san alone, if that's alright!" Daisuke called back with a wave.
Keiichi and Rena both looked surprised for a moment and Mion's eyes widened as she wondered just what it was that Daisuke wanted to talk to her about.
"It won't take all that long… I hope," Daisuke went on, sounding unsure about the last part.
"Well, okay!" Keiichi called back, as he returned Daisuke's wave and Rena nodded.
Once both of them turned and left, Daisuke waited till he was sure that they were both out of earshot before his look turned serious and Mion knew that he was not intending to taunt her further on her Punishment Game.
"Okay, Dai-chan, what's up?" she asked as she leaned against the wall of the house by the watermill and folded her arms, "What do you want to ask me about?"
"Hōjō Satoshi," Daisuke said simply, and he noticed Mion's eyes widening in shock as she tensed up.
"Rena-san told me," Daisuke went on as he explained himself, "That day that she gave me a tour of the village on my first day of school, I asked her about him since I overheard you and Shion-san mentioning him while you were arguing."
Mion looked unsure for a moment, but then she nodded, accepting Daisuke's explanation.
"How much do you know?" Mion inquired as she gave Daisuke an inquiring look of her own.
"I know that I'm missing a few things, but Rena-san told me about the Dam Project and how Satoshi-san and Satoko-san's gifu was the leader of the pro-dam movement and how after the project was abandoned, Hōjō-san and his whole family were persecuted," Daisuke explained with obvious bitterness entered his voice, as he mentioned the last part, "I also know that Hōjō-san and his tsuma both fell to their deaths four years ago and that Satoshi-san and Satoko-san went to live with their oji and oba who were both abusive to them and that you founded your little club as a means of trying to help them. I also know that Satoshi-san disappeared after his oba was murdered two years ago and that Shion-san had fallen in love with him."
Mion nodded with a sigh.
"Hai, that's right," she said in a rather deflated tone, "Everything you just said is true."
"Of course, if you'd rather not talk about it, that's cool," Daisuke said, repeating what he had told Rena, "I'm just curious, but if you'd rather not talk about it, fair enough."
Mion sighed as she moved her back off the wall.
"Okay, Rena told you her side, so I might as well tell you mine," she said as she shot him a serious "don't interrupt me" look, causing him to nod, "Yes, the Nipponseifu were planning on building a dam near here and had it gone ahead, this whole area would have been submerged underwater. However, most of the villagers weren't too happy about that and resisted."
"Yes, Rena-san told me as much," Daisuke said, letting Mion know that he knew this already, "But there was a group that supported the dam, and Hōjō-san, Satoshi-san and Satoko-san's gifu was their leader, wasn't he?"
Mion nodded.
"Hai, that's correct," she confirmed simply, "Hōjō-san and the group wanted to leave the village and blamed the anti-dam movement; bā-chan in particular of interfering. The Kokudokōtsūshō sent round a representative to try and persuade the anti-dam movement to reconsider, but they were not having any of it, and to make matters worse, Hōjō-san and the pro-dam supporters turned up as well and Hōjō-san actually had the balls to stand up to bā-chan and tell her exactly what he thought of her to her face and bā-chan responded by telling him to "watch his back" as it was. Anyway, Hōjō-san continued his tirade and when someone got between him and bā-chan and Hōjō-san lashed out at him and the meeting had erupted into violence. That was six years ago."
"However, the Dam Project was abandoned, wasn't it?" Daisuke said and Mion nodded.
"Hai, that's correct, and it was abandoned because someone had kidnapped Inukai-daijin's mago," Mion went on, as Daisuke's eyes widened as he realised that this was something Rena had not told him, "Inukai-daijin was the Daijin for the Kokudokōtsūshō back then, and as such, was the one who that the overall authority to call off the Dam Project."
"That's something Rena-san didn't tell me," Daisuke said, as his eyes narrowed, unable to believe that someone would go as far as to kidnap someone's relative just to force them into complying with them, "Who was it?"
"Even to this day, no one really knows," Mion said with a sigh, "Anyone outside the Hinamizawa Go-Ikenban would tell you that we Sonozakis were responsible, but that's not true. Sure, we Sonozakis were among the most open and vehement among the anti-dam movement, but we never kidnapped Inukai-daijin's mago. However, upon hearing of the kidnapping and that we were suspects, bā-chan decided to go along with it and fool everyone into believing that we were responsible."
Daisuke opened his mouth, but Mion noticed and knowing what he was going to say, she shot him a look that silenced him immediately.
"Bā-chan's getting old and doesn't have much longer to live," Mion explained with another sigh, "She's really frail and weak and believed that by taking credit for the kidnapping, that it would make others fear the Sonozakis. Basically, she wanted to use that to made our family look tougher than we actually were in order to intimidate our enemies, and as a Yakuza Family, we do have a lot of enemies, including rival Yakuza Families and a group of Triads from China, to name a few."
Daisuke nodded in understanding.
"Of course, with a policy like that, it's bound to bite you in the ass sooner or later," he pointed out simply.
"It hasn't yet, though, I do have to agree with you there," Mion replied, admitting that Daisuke did have a point, "Anyway, the ransom was paid and Inukai-san was released and the Dam Project was abandoned. However, either due to a breakdown in communications or the fact that the construction site had to be cleaned up, the Dam Construction Manager and his team stayed behind."
"And afterwards, the pro-dam supporters were persecuted, weren't they?" Daisuke said and Mion nodded.
"Hai, they were seen as traitors, especially Hōjō-san and his tsuma," Mion confirmed, as she trembled just remembering it, "However, it wasn't just them; it was their kodomo as well. That was something that bā-chan, as hard as it is to believe, had not intended. Satoshi and Satoko were persecuted along with their ryōshin despite having nothing to do with the dam."
Daisuke could not help but notice the rising anger in Mion's voice as she spoke and her eyes were fixed on the ground as they emitted a rather hateful glare. It was just the same as Rena. She had a similar feeling.
"I'll admit that I was part of the anti-dam movement and that during the "Dam War", I was one of those who attacked the Construction Manager on a daily basis, and I was angry at Hōjō-san for what he said to bā-chan, but Satoshi and Satoko are not their gifu. Heck they're not even biologically related to him."
Daisuke blinked upon hearing this.
"Despite my opposition to the dam, I was smart enough to know that neither Satoshi nor Satoko had anything to do with it," Mion said upon noticing his reaction.
"You're smarter than most," Daisuke said in acknowledgement, "And braver to. Usually hanging around with someone that has a stigma attached to them gets you branded with the same stigma."
"I don't care!" Mion snapped, causing Daisuke to jump in surprise, as she looked up at him, but then calmed down and sighed, "Anyway, the year after the dam was cancelled, during the Watanagashi Festival, the Dam Construction Manager, like I said before, either through a breakdown in communications or he simply stayed to clean up, but anyway; he apparently went into a deranged state and attacked six of his colleagues, who killed him in self-defence."
"Huh?" Daisuke said in confusion, as he believed that Mion was getting off-topic, "What's that got to do what Satoshi-san?"
"Just listen, I'm getting to that," Mion said, sounding a bit agitated, "I know it seems unrelated, but believe me, as I go on, you'll discover that this ties in with Satoshi's disappearance."
"Gomen, if it's too painful for you…" Daisuke started to say.
"No, it's okay," Mion said, interrupting him, "Rena told you her version, so I might as well tell you mine."
Daisuke just nodded, signalling her to continue.
"Anyway, the Dam Construction Manager was killed after he attacked six of his colleagues, apparently being in a deranged state," Mion went on, "Afterwards, they then cut up his body into six different pieces and divided the pieces among them. I believe that their leader was an ex-convict who was scared of going back to prison, so he forced the others into complying with him. The others, from what I heard, wanted to turn themselves in, but their leader was not having any of it. However, one of the men went to a nearby hospital to get his wounds seen to and his piece of the body was discovered, and so, he then turned himself in and four of the others were rounded up after they turned themselves in. However, the leader was never caught and remains at large, even to this day, and the thing is, no one's seen or heard from him since."
"Maybe he saw that his plan was falling apart and fled the country," Daisuke suggested as he pondered probable scenarios.
"Probable, but there's no evidence to suggest that," Mion replied with a sigh, though, Daisuke got the distinct impression that she was not being entirely truthful with him, but decided that she had her reasons for lying and let it slide, "Anyway, I'm sure Rena's told you about Hōjō-san and his tsuma falling to their deaths, right?"
"Uh huh," Daisuke said, as he suddenly started to realise that the Dam Construction Manager's death and Satoshi were somehow connected.
"Well, that incident happened during the Watanagashi Festival, one year after the Dam Construction Manager was murdered and one of the murderers disappeared," Mion stated with a nod as she confirmed Daisuke's realisation, "During the Watanagashi of 1980, the villagers were celebrating what they perceived as their victory over the dam and the Hōjōs, knowing that they were not welcome were in the nearby Shirakawa Park."
"Yeah, and they leaned too far over the edge of an observation balcony and the guardrail gave way, possibly due to a lack of maintenance," Daisuke added and Mion nodded in confirmation.
"That's right, they both fell into a muddy river below," she said, as she continued to explain, "Hōjō-san's body was found, but his tsuma's body disappeared. It was never found and still hasn't been found even to this day."
"Rivers eventually flow out into the sea, so the chances are that her body was swept out to sea," Daisuke summarised as he thought about it, "Either that or her body ended up in an area of the river that's difficult to get to."
"I also find that plausible," Mion admitted with a nod, but then her expression became rather downcast, "And afterwards, Satoshi and Satoko when to live with Hōjō-san's otōto, Hōjō Teppei and his tsuma, Hōjō Tamae. However, Teppei and Tamae weren't too happy at taking in the kodomo of the village traitors, and so, they abused them frequently, though, as I understand it, Teppei was having an affair behind his tsuma's back and Tamae suspected her otto's infidelity, and she regularly took it out on Satoshi and Satoko."
Daisuke listened intently, since Rena had not told him this, but then again, Rena had not been in the village during the Dam War and was not as resourceful as Mion was, so he could understand that Rena, perhaps, did not know everything about the situation. Mion by contrast was the heiress to a very wealthy family with ties to the Yakuza and had been present in the village during the Dam War, and therefore, it was only natural that she had more knowledge than Rena did.
"And to help them out, you established the school as a safe zone of sorts and set up the club, is that right?" Daisuke asked and Mion nodded.
"Yep, that's right," she confirmed, and then, let out a rather depressed sigh, "Bā-chan never intended the hatred of the Hōjōs to extend to their kodomo. Once you get by bā-chan's cold exterior, you'll find that she's actually quite a nice person. However, the Sonozaki Family, and by extension, the Three Great Houses are all very strict when it comes to tradition, and as such, bā-chan only appears to be cold and cruel for the sake of appearances. You see, the Sonozaki Family are very strict and bā-chan can't afford to look weak. Letting one's feelings get in the way of what needs to be done is seen as weakness, and unfortunately, there are those within the Sonozaki Family that aren't happy with bā-chan being the Head and would likely seek to undermine her leadership at the first available opportunity."
"I take it, this has something to do why she told you not to do anything," Daisuke said, as he recalled Rena telling him that Oryō had told Mion not to interfere with the villagers' treatment of the Hōjōs.
Mion just nodded, as Daisuke noticed tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"If bā-chan had her way, she would have cleared it all up back then," she went on, as she wiped her eyes with her hand, "Unfortunately with the feelings of the villagers so strong, to have done so would have played right into the hands of those who are seeking to undermine her, since as the leader of the village, everyone was expecting her to feel the same way, and so, she went with the flow and instructed me to leave them alone, not wanting her enemies to use me as a means of usurping her leadership, and so, I decided to exercise what little power I had and established the school at a safe zone, in which no one was allowed to bring their resentment of Satoshi and Satoko, and to keep them away from Teppei and Tamae for as long as possible, I established the Club."
Daisuke nodded, remembering that Rena told him that.
"However, before the Hōjōs died, they sought shelter and the Head of the Furude Family, Rika-chan's chichi, had agreed to shelter them from the villagers," Mion went on to explain, and Daisuke's eyes widened as he realised that there were more, "As far as the Dam War went, Furude-san was rather passive about the whole affair and took a neutral stance. Unfortunately, this angered some of the villagers, who had a black and white view of the whole dam affair. In other words, you either supported it or you didn't, and despite telling the villagers of his neutrality, they refused to accept it, and since he sheltered the Hōjōs, they believed that he supported the dam. This was excruciatingly infuriating, since as the religious leaders of the village and caretakers of the Furude Shrine, the Furude Shrine and the local deity, Oyashiro-sama were seen at the main symbols for the anti-dam movement. To have the head priest supporting the dam… such a thing was considered an insult."
"Something happened to him, didn't it?" Daisuke said, as he summed up where Mion was going with what she was saying.
"Yes, you're right," Mion confirmed with a nod, "On the day of the Watanagashi Festival in 1981, a year after Hōjō-san and his tsuma died, at a Go-Ikenban Meeting, Furude-san collapsed and was admitted to hospital, and at first, it seemed as if he would recover, but then, all of a sudden, he suffered a relapse and died."
"What, he died, what happened to him?" Daisuke asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"Officially, it was said to be heart trouble," Mion stated, though it was clear that she was not all that convinced, "Though, I think that he may have been poisoned, but then, his tsuma, Rika-chan's haha apparently committed suicide after jumping into the Onigafuchi Swamp."
Daisuke could not help but shudder as he remembered that he had ended up in the Onigafuchi Swamp and had somehow managed to free himself, though, he honestly did not know how he did that. However, thinking over everything Mion had said, he suddenly realised a pattern emerging, and then, remembering what Rena told him about Satoshi and how he disappeared not long after his aunt was murdered, suddenly, everything Mion told him started to make sense and he understood why she had told him about the Dam Construction Manager as well as Rika's parents, despite them seeming to be unrelated topics.
"All those deaths and disappearances; they all happened on the day of the Watanagashi Festival," he said, as realisation washed over him, "Satoshi-san's oba was murdered on the day of the Festival two years ago, and then, Satoshi-san disappeared."
"Yes, that's right," Mion said with a sad sigh, "After his tsuma was murdered, Teppei, fearing that he was going to disappear, fled to Okinomiya to live with his aijin, a woman by the name of Ritsuko, and Satoko then went to live with Rika-chan, who was living alone, though, legally Kimiyoshi-ojīchan's her guardian, and despite Satoko being a Hōjō, he let her live with Rika-chan because Rika-chan insisted. She was like me, she knew that Satoko and Satoshi had nothing to do with the dam and so joined the club to help out, plus, Satoko was already her shinyu."
Daisuke nodded as he had seen how close Rika and Satoko had been, even during club activities. If any club activities involved pairings or teams, Satoko and Rika were almost certainly together, and sometimes Hanyū as well.
"Anyway, all those murders and disappearances were all afflicted to Oyashiro-sama's Curse," Mion said, as she decided to tell him more.
"What, so everyone thinks that Oyashiro-sama did it?" Daisuke asked in shock, unable to believe what he had just heard, "Are they serious?"
"That's what was initially thought," Mion said, as she levelled Daisuke a stare that told him that she was not messing around, "However, in truth, it was just a series of contrived coincidences. However, the fact that all the victims were either supporters of the Dam Project or were associated with dam supporters in some way, it's easy to see how people would initially come to the conclusion that Oyashiro-sama was punishing them."
Daisuke nodded as he had to admit that Mion did have a point, and being round the village, he knew that quite a few of them were rather superstitious and believed in the supernatural. He had heard of Oyashiro-sama from Rena and from what he had learned from Rena, Oyashiro-sama was a very vicious, cruel and vengeful deity who watched over the village and punished anyone who angered him, apparently by cursing them with madness and insanity. It was Oyashiro-sama's teachings that the villagers adhered to, and that by violating those teachings, they would be cursed. The rules were as followed, No one was to talk about Oyashiro-sama, no one was to let outsiders into the village, no one was to leave the village, or even think about leaving the village, no one was to defy Oyashiro-sama in any way, and the Dam Project was a great example of that, no one aside from the members of the Furude Family, Oyashiro-sama's supposed chosen guardians, were allowed to enter the Saiguden without permission from the Head Priest or Head Miko, and judging from what happened to Rika's parents, Daisuke figured that many people had come to believe that the Furude Family were not exempt from this curse.
In any case, Daisuke had also learned that Rena was a devout believer in Oyashiro-sama. In fact, the way Rena spoke about him had crept him out, and so, he had changed the subject. When Rena had spoken of Oyashiro-sama, her expression had become rather emotionless and her tone matched her look and from the looks of it, it seemed as if Rena was actually frightened of Oyashiro-sama; that she had some experience in the past, and had somehow afflicted her experience to be the work of Oyashiro-sama, but he did not pry since Rena had really freaked him out back then and he feared that prying would set her off, and so, he changed the subject by reminding her they were not supposed to speak of him and once he changed the subject, Rena had come back to her old self again.
"And those who don't believe in the curse came to suspect the Sonozaki Family," Mion went on, bringing him back to reality, "I can name one, Ōishi Kuraudo, an old police detective, who's now retired."
"And let me guess, like with the kidnapping of Inukai-daijin's mago, your sobo decided to take credit for it in a bid to intimidate everyone; even though they really had nothing to do with it," Daisuke said, knowing where this was going and Mion nodded in confirmation.
"And where does your shimai come in?" Daisuke asked curiously, as he also remembered Rena telling him that Shion had fallen in love with Satoshi, "I also heard that Shion-san fell in love with him."
Mion nodded with a sigh as she remembered the incident, in which, Shion been discovered after her escape from St. Lucia Gakuen their grandmother had confronted her over her relationship with Satoshi and how she had to intervene and side with Oryō when she saw that the situation was close to getting out of hand, and Shion was on the verge of physically lashing out at their grandmother. It had ended up with Shion having three of her fingernails ripped out and Shion had freaked out after ripping out the first one and two henchmen had to rip out the other two because Shion had become overwhelmed with fright, and afterwards, after Satoshi had disappeared, Shion had ended up almost strangling her to death after she had unwittingly mentioned an off-hand comment about Satoshi.
"That's something you're going to have to ask Shion about," she said after a while of remaining, silent and Daisuke knew that she must have been recalling painful memories as tears started to well up in her eyes again, "You see, as you know, Shion and bā-chan don't get along that much and her relationship with Satoshi only served to complicate matters between them."
Daisuke nodded, as he did know that Oryō and Shion did not see eye to eye, but Oryō did manage to put up with her, probably because she was her granddaughter. In any case, it was clear that Mion did not want to talk about this anymore, and so, he decided that it was time to take his leave, despite having more questions. He knew it would be insensitive if he started to pry and force answers out of Mion, and so, like with Rena when she had gotten into a similar state, he dropped the subject.
"Okay, arigatō, Mion-san," he said with a nod of satisfaction, "I'll admit, I do have more questions, but since you look as if you don't want to talk about this anymore, I'll drop it."
Mion just nodded in acceptance and let out a big massive sigh of relief, glad that Daisuke was not wanting to pry any longer.
"If only I could have done something more," Daisuke heard Mion whisper to herself, as he started to walk away, "Then maybe I could've prevented his disappearance."
Daisuke sighed and shook his head, feeling really guilty at having Mion dig up painful memories; memories that she had probably worked hard to bury in her mind. He really hated it when people were sad and depressed, and he equally hated it when it was him that was the cause of it. However, he had been curious and Mion had offered to tell him what she knew… or at least some of what she knew.
However, while listening to Mion, he could not get the feeling that there were some things that she had not been completely honest about. He did get the distinct feeling that she had been either lying or withholding information from him, and that did slightly anger him a bit, but he decided that Mion must have a perfectly good reason for lying and withholding information. He was her friend, and naturally, he was not pleased that she was keeping secrets and lying to cover them up, but he knew that everyone had their share of secrets that they did not want to tell even the people closest to them. He probably had his own share of secrets that he would not want anyone to know about, even if those people were his closest friends, but since he was an amnesic, even he did not know what they were.
Not far away, unbeknownst to both Mion and Daisuke, a sinister figure clad in a black trenchcoat and fedora watched the scene unfold until Daisuke had started to walk away. However, his gaze followed Daisuke as he continued down the path towards the Maebara Mansion. The figure stood behind a tree, using it as cover, so as not to be seen and he was lucky that Mion failed to notice him as she started to make her own way home, but the figure paid her no heed. He was solely fixated on Daisuke.
"So this is what you've been up to, Shishigō," the figure mused to himself, "Such behaviour is not befitting of a soldier. When I finally reclaim you, I'll have to see to it that you are properly disciplined."
He then paused as he looked around to see if there was anyone else on the pathway, and seeing that the coast was clear, he started walking after Daisuke, maintaining a safe distance so as not to alert him.
"Watanagashi," the figured went on, as the edges of his mouth slowly curved upwards and formed a rather sadistically sinister smile, "Yes, the Watanagashi Festival. That'll be the perfect time to initiate my plan. Now then, Shishigō, we shall soon see whether or not being on the run for almost two years has damped your skills any."
Sunday, 17th June, 1984 (two days later)
Mion huffed as she made her way through the crowds, following her friends. The Gaming Club were all in the main area in which the Watanagashi Festival normally took place right by the Furude Shrine, and Mion was currently wearing a rather elegant blue one-piece dress that appeared to glitter and sparkle in the light. The dress itself had two thin straps that slung over Mion's shoulders and was backless with the edge of the dress curving just above her buttocks and at the front at the top were two triangular coverings over her breasts that exposed her cleavage. The bottom of the dress was cut at either side, just below her hips, exposing the sides of her legs and to complete the look, she also wore a pair of matching blue high-heeled shoes. However, she still had her hair in her usual pony tail.
"I so hate you for this, Dai-chan," she mumbled grumpily, as she noticed people staring at her since they were more familiar with her usual attire.
She did notice a few men blushing and some were even drooling as the stared, much to the annoyance of their wives or girlfriends, and it only caused her to groan in annoyance. She still could not believe how she ended up in this predicament, and the fact that she had lost to a newbie still irked her. This may not be a standard Punishment Game, since normally, Punishment Games revolved around wearing rather girly and frilly clothing, but as a tomboy, being forced to wear a dress was just as humiliating as a Punishment Game. It was indeed an embarrassing experience and the fact that the dress did nothing to conceal her cleavage only served to embarrass her further. However, this was the most beautiful dress Daisuke could find for her.
She remembered a few days back that the Gaming Club had visited a clothing store in Okinomiya along with Daisuke. In truth, Mion had been hunting for more Punishment Game outfits, and even back then, she had been planning on inducting Daisuke into the club and had been scouting for outfits that were his size. Daisuke had tagged along and Mion had practically bribed a few of the store employees into taking his measurements, under the guise of getting him new clothes in case he grew bored wearing his old ones, but Mion had listened in as Daisuke was being measured up and took note of each measurement as the employees voiced them out loud; just as she had instructed them to do.
However, the previous day, following on from her discussion with Daisuke about Satoshi and the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances, Daisuke had accompanied her to the clothing store to make sure that she did not try to weasel out of her Punishment Game and purposefully chose the dress for her since he anticipated that she may have ended up choosing a lesser dress.
Anyway, as for Daisuke, he had used the money he had saved up from his paper route to buy himself a new jacket, practically the same jacket as the one the Gaming Club had bought for him, only in red, like his old and tattered one. However, he still held onto the blue one and wore it every second day, so as not to disappoint Mion, who had been the one who had bought him the jacket. Anyway, Daisuke stood, dressed in his red jacket.
"You look absolutely ravishing in that dress, Mion-san," he said with a rather perverted smile, as he looked her up and down.
"Pervert," Mion grumbled in response.
"That's right, Mī-chan, you do look gorgeous," Rena spoke up, as she also studied Mion's look as her cheeks lit up in a faint blush.
"Who would have thought it, eh?" Shion said in a boastful tone, as she shot her sister a rather teasing grin, "My big, tough and boyish onē being forced to wear something befitting of her gender."
"Shut up, Shion," Mion growled, as she shot her sister a glare.
"What's the matter, onē?" Shion taunted playfully, as she shot her sister a rather arrogant smirk, "Upset because you can't fantasise about being a guy?"
"I'm warning you, Shion!" Mion warned threateningly, as she felt her right hand ball into a fist as she felt as if she was going to punch Shion across the face.
The last thing she was in the mood for was having her sister tease her.
"Quite an unusual Punishment Game," Satoko noted, as she looked Mion's dress up and down, "There's nothing that suggests it's embarrassing. In fact I've seen lots of girls wear similar dresses on TV."
"Mī's a tomboy," Rika said, as she explained the situation to Satoko, since it was clear that she could not understand why Mion was so embarrassed, "A tomboy is a girl who acts like a boy and who wears clothes that's usually reserved for boys. Since Mī is used to wearing such boyish clothes, being forced into girls' clothing is something that she finds embarrassing. Like she says, she doesn't do dresses."
"Huh?" Satoko said, clearly not getting it.
"In other words, Mion feels like a guy being forced to wear girls' clothing," Keiichi said before going back to stare at Mion, who looked absolutely stunning, though, his stare was firmly fixated on her breasts and he could not help but drool as a rather intimate fantasy entered his head.
"I'll get you for this if it's the last thing I ever do, Dai-chan," Mion grumbled upon noticing Keiichi's expression and the saliva running down the sides of his mouth, and then, she turned her glare on Daisuke.
Daisuke just shrugged in response, causing Mion to growl.
"Au-au-au!" Hanyū suddenly said in an alarmed tone, as her eyes widened in fear, causing the others to be on the alert.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" a new voice came; causing the members of the Gaming Club to glare in the direction the voice had come from.
Standing not far from them, a few feet behind them, flanked by two men in police uniforms, was a man with short neatly combed black hair with two short strands on either side of the centre of his forehead curving towards one another. He also had cold and cruel teal-coloured eyes that seemed to ooze with hatred, disgust, revulsion, anger and contempt. He wore a pair of newly polished black shoes, a pair of dark brown trousers with black lines running both vertical and horizontal creating squares, a black leather belt running round his waist, which had a golden buckle at the front with the kanji symbols that read "Tainted Justice" carved into it. He also wore a dark grey short-sleeved shirt and a dark grey tie that was a slightly lighter shade than his shirt. He also had a pair of black brace straps attached to the front of his trousers that ran up and over his shoulders and met up at the centre of his back, held in place by a black leather triangle with straight ends and third brace strap ran down the centre of his back over his spine and was attached to the back of his trousers.
"Yūkimoto-san," Mion said in an emotionless tone.
Daisuke groaned as he knew who this was. This was Yūkimoto Ginjurō, a detective at the Okinomiya Keisatsusho who seemed to have it in for Mion because of her family's links to the Yakuza. He had seen him around Okinomiya a few times and he could honestly say that he had never met such a miserable sourpuss in all his life… well, since he was suffering from amnesia, he had no idea if that was true, but Yūkimoto did seem to have a massive chip on his shoulder. From what Daisuke had seen, Yūkimoto was not that well liked around Okinomiya either and he seemed to hate everyone and everything around him. Daisuke had never seen him smile, not even once, unless of course things went his way, but his smile was hardly a friendly sort of smile, but most of the time, his expression seemed unchangeable from that hateful scowl it always had; as if it was permanently etched onto his face and most times he had seen Yūkimoto, Yūkimoto always seemed to be harassing Mion and sometimes the other members of the Gaming Club as well. From what Daisuke could see, it was like he was trying to goad them into lashing out at him just so he could have a perfectly valid excuse to arrest them.
"My, my, Sonozaki-san," Yūkimoto said as he looked Mion up and down, as he took in her dress, though, everyone could detect the disgust and revulsion in his tone, "What lovely attire you're wearing this fine evening."
Mion groaned as Yūkimoto then snorted in contempt.
"Gee, you must feel rather lucky being an over-privileged slut and all," he went on to goad, causing Mion to flinch as she fought the urge to lash out at the detective.
"Just what are you doing here, Yūkimoto-san?" Mion asked, still maintaining her emotionless tone.
To Shion, it was like being back down in the Sonozaki Torture Chamber that time she had discovered after escaping from St. Lucia Gakuen. It had been the day after the Watanagashi Festival, back in 1982, when Ōishi Kuraudo had come and confronted Satoshi about his possible involvement in his aunt's murder and Shion had provided a false alibi for him, but since she was posing as Mion and Mion had been seen during the Watanagashi Festival, Shion had to come clean about who she really was. However, the police had contracted the Sonozaki Estate to see if she was who she said she was, and after being released, she was taken to the Sonozaki Torture Chamber and Oryō was not happy with her due to her relationship with Satoshi, but Shion decided to take advantage of the situation and had stood up to her and told her exactly how she felt about her to her face.
The situation had gotten close to getting out of hand, and in truth, Shion was really considering punching her grandmother across the face and she would have done just that, had Mion not intervened and sided with their grandmother. Mion's tone, back then, was the same tone she was using right now while addressing Yūkimoto; it was, what Shion had secretly dubbed, "Clan Heiress Mode". Mion was in "Clan Heiress Mode" right now. It was the personality she adapted while dealing with Sonozaki Family Matters and when she was dealing with her responsibilities to the Sonozaki Family, and she had also adopted it for dealing with Yūkimoto, since she did not like him and he only saw her as a Sonozaki.
"Why, I'm here to keep the peace, of course," Yūkimoto replied to Mion's question, sounding rather smug and then he noticed Daisuke, "Ah, the new guy. The one who's suffering from amnesia and doesn't have a clue as to who he is, or so you say."
"That is the truth, Yūkimoto-san," Daisuke said in a rather calm tone, though, he maintained a glare, letting his true feelings be known.
"Whatever," Yūkimoto dismissed uncaringly with a shrug, "But if I were you, kid, I'd get the hell out of this disease-ridden village while I still can. After all, it's just full of disgusting, superstitious lowlife riffraff."
"That's not a very nice thing to say," Daisuke pointed out, as he noticed that their conversation had caught the attention of the crowd, who were all glaring hatefully towards Yūkimoto. Heck, even the two police officers flanking him were glaring at him, making it clear that they just could not stand him as much as the villagers could, but Yūkimoto just ignored them, not really caring what others thought of him.
"To be perfectly honest with you, I could care less what those country-dwelling rejects think," Yūkimoto proclaimed loudly, only causing the onlookers to intensify their combining glares, as Yūkimoto placed his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest as if he were trying to portray importance.
However, Daisuke could see what he was doing. He was basically taunting the villagers and trying to goad them into attacking him so he could arrest them. That seemed to be one of Yūkimoto's favourite hobbies. If there was one thing that Daisuke could say that he had learned about Yūkimoto, it was that he seemed to have this nasty habit of goading people into attacking him just so he could have them arrested. He liked to arrest folk regardless of whether they did anything or not. True, he had not seen Yūkimoto actually arrest someone, but the way he interacted with others, it was clear that he just wanted to arrest them.
"By the way, boy, have you heard of the series of mysterious deaths and disappearances that plagued the Watanagashi Festival for four years?" Yūkimoto went on, causing the members of the Gaming Club, aside from Mion's eyes to widen in shock.
"As a matter of fact, I have," Daisuke said in a tone similar to Mion's, causing the others to turn and stare at him in surprise, since aside from Mion, none of them knew that Daisuke had been told, "And as I understand it, that was just a series of contrived coincidences and not the work of Oyashiro-sama, like the villagers believed and I also know that the Sonozaki Family claimed credit for it all to look more intimidating than they actually were."
Yūkimoto's eyes widened in surprise and shock and it became clear that he obviously had not considered the possibility that anyone would have told him, and Daisuke could tell that Yūkimoto was obviously intending to drive a wedge between him and the others.
"Sure, that's what they want you to think," Yūkimoto said after he calmed down and regained his composure, "Or maybe you're right. Maybe they were all just coincidence."
He then paused and turned to face Satoko and a rather sinisterly cruel and sadistic smile crept onto his face that made Satoko's skin crawl and she found herself taking a few steps back..
"After all," the cruel detective went on, still talking to Daisuke, despite not looking at him, "I find it interesting, Satoko-san, that you were with your ryōshin when they perished."
Satoko's eyes widened in alarm, as did Rika's and Hanyū's and the others turned to look at her. Daisuke was also surprised, since neither Reno nor Mion told him that, but he immediately dismissed it as either, they did not know or they probably felt that it was not their place to tell him.
"You claimed that you were asleep in their car," Yūkimoto went on, as he spoke to Satoko in a rather cruelly excited tone, "And yet, there's eyewitness testimony that places you with them right before they fell to their deaths. Now why would you lie? The answer; because you murdered them. They didn't fall off that balcony, they were pushed. You pushed them off; therefore you are guilty of murder."
"No, no, no!" Satoko said in an increasingly panicked tone, "That's not true, that's not true, I thought…"
"There, you see, she admits it!" Yūkimoto stated, as he pointed an accusing finger at Satoko, who dropped to her knees, shaking her head and brought her hands up to the sides of her head, "Murderer, she murdered her ryōshin, the last part of her statement proves it. I know because I did a background check on you Satoko-san. You never did get on with your haha or any of the men she married. In fact, you also filed false abuse reports to social services against Hōjō-san, didn't you?"
"That's enough, Yūkimoto!" Rika warned, surprising Daisuke, as she spoke, not in a child-like voice, but a voice that sounded as if it belonged to someone older and more mature.
However, Yūkimoto just ignored her and then turned to face Rena, still with his sickeningly sadistic smile.
"And you, Ryūgū-san, I also know about that incident in Ibaraki," he then went on to proclaim as Rena's eyes widened in shock, "Oh yes, I know that at one of Ibaraki's chūgakkō, you attacked three of your classmates and then smashed all the windows with a baseball bat. I can understand though, your ryōshin were going through a rather bitter divorce and you were resorting to violence as a coping mechanism, weren't you? I heard that you were hospitalised afterwards. Unfortunately though, the three boys that you attacked had been traumatised and were too afraid to come forward and oress charges against you, so you ended up getting away with it."
Daisuke glared at Yūkimoto as he went on, apparently taking great pleasure in tormenting his friends and reducing them to emotional wrecks. Sure, he would admit that he did not know any of this. He had guessed that Rena's parents were divorced, but he did not know that Rena had gone into a deranged state and attacked people, neither did he know that Satoko had killed her parents… at least according to Yūkimoto, but he understood why Rena had not mentioned that to him. It had obviously been a difficult time she had been going through and was painful to talk about.
Rena's eyes widened in shock as Yūkimoto continued to sadistically taunt her.
"I also heard that you moved back to Hinamizawa because you claimed that Oyashiro-sama told you to," he went on, as Rena fell to her knees and stared in shock.
"She did," Rena said simply, "She told me that if I wanted to be safe, then I had to return to Hinamizawa. She was punishing me because I left the village."
"Huh, she, I was under the impression that Oyashiro-sama was male," Yūkimoto said in surprise over the fact that Rena addressed Oyashiro-sama as female.
Hanyū flinched at hearing Rena's comment and Daisuke noticed that she had a rather guilty expression on her face as she stared at Rena.
"It's true," Rena spoke up, as she stood up, overcoming her shock and glared at Yūkimoto, "Oyashiro-sama is female; I heard her voice as she spoke to me."
"Such a thing could be seen as blasphemous round here," Yūkimoto noted, as he looked around and saw that the crowd were all shocked and surprised at hearing Rena's declaration of Oyashiro-sama's gender.
He then turned his attention to Keiichi.
"And you, Maebara-san, don't think I don't know that you used to go round assaulting children with a BB gun," he proclaimed, as he continued to maintain his cruel smile, "Oh yes, you were a genius, but you grew bored of studying and purchased a BB gun, and then, you terrorised the neighbourhood by attacking children, but then you turned yourself in once your conscience caught up with you when you shot a poor unsuspecting girl in the eye."
Keiichi sighed as he hung his head down and stared at the ground as he remembered that incident. In truth, he had been planning to go home, but he noticed the girl and seeing that she was one her own, he found that it was just too good an opportunity to pass up, and so, he decided to target her, but unfortunately she had noticed him and in his surprise, he had pulled the trigger and his movements had altered the gun's trajectory and the girl got hit in the eye. It was that incident that had caused him to turn himself in, since he knew that he had gone too far and going over the warnings about the BB gun, it had stated that shots to the eyes could cause blindness and it was only then that he turned himself in. He had really not meant to seriously hurt anyone. He just thought that it was fun, but seeing the girl clutch her eye in pain, all of a sudden, it just was not fun anymore.
"Just so you know; that girl ended up becoming permanently blind in her right eye," Yūkimoto went on in a gleeful tone, clearly enjoying it.
Keiichi just flinched, unable to say anything in his defence. What could he say?
Yūkimoto then focussed on Shion.
"You escaped from St. Lucia Gakuen two years ago," he went on as his expression transformed into one of pure contempt, "Not really much I can say about you, is there?"
He then focused on Hanyū who immediately jumped behind Rika and looked out from her side.
"And you… I don't have much on you," Yūkimoto went on as he noted Hanyū's horns on the sides of her head, "Furude Hanyū, eh, is that even your real name, I wonder and those horns, what's with those horns?"
"Au-au-au-au!" Hanyū cried, upset that Yūkimoto was commenting on her horns.
"And what's with that stupid verbal tic?" the cruel detective went on, as he snorted at Hanyū, giving her a look of disgust and contempt, "You're just a freak of nature."
He then focused on Rika and his look turned into a repulsed glare.
"And you're the biggest freak of them all," he practically spat in disgust, "Must feel really good, having a whole community bowing down and kissing your ass, doesn't it, Furude-san?"
"Yūkimoto-san, that's rude," the police officer to his right said in alarm, "Using such language in front of minors…"
"I could care less for these piles of filth," Yūkimoto replied with a look of contempt before focusing his attention back on Rika, "Anyway, before being assigned to replace that repulsively fat old geezer, Ōishi, I was part of the Keishichō and it was there I overheard quite an interesting conversation between one, Akasaka Mamoru and his tsuma, Yukie."
Rika's eyes widened in shock as she remembered who Akasaka was. Akasaka Mamoru had been a junior member of the Keishichō, who had been sent to send to investigate the kidnapping of Inukai Toshiki, the Kokudokōtsūshō Daijin's grandson, because the authorities suspected that the anti-dam movement in Hinamizawa was responsible due to their opposition of the dam back in 1978. Anyway, Rika remembered that she had first met him at the bus stop after he had gotten off the bus and he had been worried that she believed that he had sinister intentions, but Rika had just dismissed him with a friendly smile. Later, Rika had been alone with Akasaka and she had told him the events that she remembered from previous worlds, which were going to happen in the future; including her death in the June of 1983, and then, she told him to go back to Tōkyō, otherwise he would regret it.
The reason she had told him to go back to Tōkyō was because, his wife, Akasaka Yukie was in hospital, expecting their baby daughter, and she often ventured onto the hospital roof. However, during Akasaka's time in Hinamizawa, Yukie had been on her way back to her room when she slipped and fell down a flight of stairs. They had managed to safe her baby, but Yukie died, and Akasaka had been living a life of regret since in most worlds, Akasaka did not heed her warning, but then in the second-last world, somehow Akasaka did heed Rika's warning and Yukie survived, since she did not go up to the roof. Instead, one of the hospital's janitors had slipped and fell instead. That had been one of the factors that had inspired her to fight on when she had all but given up in trying to avert her fate and in this current world, it was Akasaka who convinced Dr. Irie, Tomitake and Ōishi to take her word for it when they were sceptical about her accusations against Takano.
"Oh yes, I know of Akasaka-san and how you told him to go back to Tōkyō when he was here six years ago," Yūkimoto went on, as he snarled contemptuously at the purplish blue-haired girl, "And I also heard that you recounted each individual incident that would occur before they happened; like you knew that they would happen and you know what, they did happen just as you said."
Rika's eyes widened in fear as Yūkimoto told her of what he knew and Yūkimoto noticed this.
"Now, I don't believe in soothsayers, since precognitive vision is impossible, and yet, you accurately predicted the future and the people round this hellhole think you're Oyashiro-sama reincarnated," Yūkimoto went on as his tone became filled with more and more hatred and contempt as he spoke, "But you know what I think?"
He then paused and walked right up to Rika, who tried to back away, but had become rooted to the spot with petrifying fear, since she feared that her friends may start asking questions that she was not prepared to answer. Due to the repeated worlds, her soul had aged and Rika was become wise beyond her years, understanding subjects that were mostly beyond anyone else of her age's comprehension. However, she kept this hidden from the others and acted as if she was still an eleven-year-old girl, for fear that revealing her true personality would frighten them. However, now Yūkimoto, without realising it, was threatening to blow away her façade, and just to satisfy his own twisted sense of fun.
"I think you're a freak of nature," Yūkimoto said, as he violently slammed his knee right into Rika's face, causing everyone to gasp in shock as Rika fell to the ground, clutching her face.
"Oops, gomenasai," Yūkimoto laughed, making it clear that he was not really sorry at all, "That was an accident."
"Hey, that was completely uncalled for," Daisuke spoke up, having heard enough, "If you have nothing good to say, then leave us alone! I'll admit that I don't know everything, but then again, it's none of my business!"
"But you're hanging out with them, surely you have a right to know their darkest secrets," Yūkimoto said, as he grinned at Daisuke.
"They only revealed to me, what they were comfortable with revealing," Daisuke said, as he glowered at Yūkimoto, "Everyone has secrets that they don't want anyone; not even the people closest to them to know about. Sure, I'll admit that I've probably been kept in the dark about a few things, but hey, how's what happened in the past my business, eh? They have their reasons for keeping things from me and even if they sound ridiculous to anyone else, they are sincere to them. If being friends with someone means that your life has to be an open book to them, then I'd rather be alone and friendless."
"Dai-chan…" Mion said in surprise, unable to believe that despite what Yūkimoto revealed, Daisuke was standing up for them.
However, what he had just said… or at least the last sentence of his statement filled her with a sense of déjà vu. She could not remember all that well, but somehow she remembered saying something similar to Keiichi, but unfortunately, she just could not recall the incident clearly. All she knew that Keiichi had decided to come clean about his past when Rena had somehow gone missing, but she could not remember when that was.
"That's the talk of someone who has something to hide," Yūkimoto stated, as he looked at Daisuke, and suddenly, his expression burst out into a really sinister grin that sent shivers down Daisuke's spine, as he could not help but get a sense of déjà vu as he somehow remembered someone giving him a similar smile, "You have amnesia, right? Well, maybe you have amnesia because you've done something horrible, yourself, and you know what, uncovering what that is will be a joy."
Daisuke's eyes widened as he started to tremble. Somehow, Yūkimoto's words filled him with a sense of foreboding dread and he felt as if his blood had run cold. He did not know why, but something about what Yūkimoto had just said did not sit too well with him, and thinking about it, he could not help but wonder if that indeed rang true. What if he really had done something horrible? Such a notion terrified him, as he honestly could not see himself doing something so terrible that he would need to have his memories erased.
"Yūkimoto-san, I suggest you leave us alone," Mion said in the same emotionless tone as before, and Yūkimoto noted that there was also an added coldness that had not been there before, "You're not well liked here and I think it would be in your best interests to leave! After all, you can never quite be sure when someone decides to take matters into their own hands and you end up with a dagger in your back."
"Is that a threat?" Yūkimoto challenged, as he glared at Mion, who remained calm and emotionless, and not only met his glare, but returned it with even more intensity.
"That is a warning, now leave!" Mion said in a tone that suggested that this was the final warning.
"Heh, fine," Yūkimoto said with a shrug, as he turned and started to walk away, but then stopped and turned his head back to stare at Mion, "But know this, Sonozaki-san, someday, I swear, I will see you and the rest of your rotten family swinging at the end of a rope."
He then stormed off with the two officers flanking him giving everyone apologetic looks.
Meanwhile, out in the nearby forest, not far from where the festival was taking place, in a clearing, the figure that had been watching Daisuke two days previously was busy pouring bags of an unidentified white substance into an oil drum. At first glance, this substance resembled sugar or salt, but was neither. It was the substance that the figure needed to enact his plan.
"There, that should about do it," he said with a sinister smile on his face, as he filled the oil drum to the top, "Now, Shishigō, you've been inactive for far too long. It's about time that you were put through your paces. We shall soon see how much being on the run has caused your skills to diminish."
He then took out a matchbox from the inside of his trenchcoat and upon opening it, took out a match and lit it, and was about to drop it on top of the white substance when he heard footsteps coming towards him.
"Hey, you, just what do you think you're doing?" a voice came, and the figure noticed a man dressed in a police uniform walking out into the clearing.
The figure stood still and remained silent.
"Hey, I'm talking to you," the policeman said, as he started to walk towards the figure, but suddenly a thick long purple spike suddenly shot out from the figure's direction and the policeman's eyes widened in disbelief just as the spike shot through his throat, and sent him flying into a tree that was situated behind him. The spike then penetrated the tree and pinned the officer in place as he hung from his throat.
"Do not interrupt the experiment," the figure said before turning his attention back to the oil drum, and frowned once he noticed that his match had already burnt out.
However, he just threw it to the side and took out another one and lit it before dropping it into the oil drum. Once the burning match fell on top of the white substance, the contents of the oil drum erupted in flames creating a fire that climbed to at least two storeys high.
"And now, my dear Shishigō, your first test begins," the figure said, as he stared up at the flames, completely mesmerised and awe struck by their beauty and a sinister smile suddenly materialised on his face, "Let the death and destruction begin."
Back with the Gaming Club, Rika was wincing in pain; her face still sore from Yūkimoto's assault. Satoko had suffered a complete emotional breakdown after Yūkimoto's tirade of accusations.
"Gomenasai, gomenasai, gomenasai," she was currently repeating over and over, as if it was a mantra.
Daisuke looked at the scene and could not help but sympathise with Satoko. He had heard what Yūkimoto had said and from the way Satoko was reacting, it was clear to him that his accusations rang true. Shion was currently seeing to Satoko and was trying her best to snap her out of her depressed state.
"Damn that Yūkimoto," he cursed as, he brought his hands to his sides and balled them into fists, "He totally ruined the good mood."
"I'll say," Keiichi said, feeling as infuriated as Daisuke was.
"What the hell's that guy's problem?" Daisuke asked no one in particular, "It's like he's out to deliberately make other people's lives a living hell."
"He's a monster," Mion said dismissively, as she saw to Rika, "I suddenly get the feeling that he doesn't really care whether or not we Sonozakis are guilty or innocent of the Watanagashi Murders and Disappearances; he just wants to arrest us all anyway."
"Yeah, I get that feeling to," Daisuke said, as he looked at Satoko with a look of concern, "And he really shook Satoko-san up."
Mion then looked towards Satoko, who continued to repeat the word, "gomenasai" over and over again.
"Daisuke-kun," Rena said, catching Daisuke's attention and he turned to see Rena looking at him with a hopeful look in her eyes, "About what Yūkimoto-san said…"
"You mean about what happened in Ibaraki?" Daisuke said, interrupted her, "Don't worry about it, Rena-san. I'm not angry at you or anything."
"B-b-b-but," Rena stuttered as tears started to well up in her eyes.
"You kept it from me," Daisuke said simply in a dismissive tone, "I won't pretend that I understand your situation, but I can understand why you'd be reluctant to tell me. I told you before, if there's anything you're not comfortable talking about, then don't."
"Daisuke-kun…" Rena said before bursting into tears, and then, she wrapped her arms round Daisuke and buried her face in his chest and Daisuke brought his arms round her to comfort her.
"Dai-chan, arigatō," Mion said, feeling rather relieved that Daisuke had stood up for them, despite Yūkimoto revealing too much.
She had been somewhat rather afraid that Daisuke would abandon them, feeling rather infuriated that they had not been completely open with him, but from what she saw, he still stood by them and even gave Yūkimoto a piece of his mind, and it seemed that he understood that they were not comfortable with telling him everything. She recalled back to their conversation two days ago that once Daisuke saw that she was getting uncomfortable, he had decided to end the conversation and not pry further.
"Like I said before, if having friends means having to tell them every aspect of your life, then I'd rather be alone and friendless," Daisuke said with a shrug before turning his attention back towards Satoko.
"How is she?" he asked, showing concern for her.
Sure he had to admit that from the way she acted, it was clear that Yūkimoto had been right and she had killed her parents, which meant that at least one of the mysteries had been solved, but from the way Satoko was right now, he knew that there had to be more to it and Daisuke was not a person who took sides until he had heard all sides of a story. He knew that Satoko probably had her reasons for killing her parents, and from how she was acting, it was clear that it was probably an accident; a rather tragic accident.
Shion opened her mouth to reply, but a woman's scream interrupted her before she could say anything and everyone turned their heads in the direction of the scream and their eyes widened in shock and disbelief when they saw Yūkimoto lying face down on the ground, apparently dead with a grey dart like dagger lodged in his back. The area of his back round the impact zone was already stained with blood and not too far away from where Yūkimoto lay, standing with an outstretched arm was what appeared to be a dark grey wooden human-sized puppet. It soon became pretty obvious that this puppet was the culprit behind Yūkimoto's murder.
The puppet itself was a dark grey colour that wore baggy trousers that went down to its knees and was a darker shade of grey than the wood. It also wore a short-sleeved shirt with very short baggy sleeves that only covered its shoulders and was a lighter shade of grey than its trousers, but still a darker shade than the wood that made up its "skin". On its face was a light grey mask that covered its upper face that was designed similarly to the mask worn by the Phantom of the Opera and atop its head was a small, strapless black capotain-style hat.
"What in the…?" Mion started to say in disbelieve, as she suddenly noticed a second puppet being lowered down from the sky and into the centre of their midst, "There's another one!"
She pointed up to the second puppet that landed in the centre of the Gaming Club and then came to life as it raised its hands and a pair of curved blades appeared in its hands out of thin air. Thinking quickly, Mion lunged towards the puppet, which looked identical to the first and brought her knee up, slamming it into the puppet's face before it had a change to attack. The puppet stumbled back, being momentarily stunned, but recovered fairly quickly.
"Make a run for it!" Keiichi shouted out, as the Gaming Club all scattered.
"What sorcery is this?" an old man that was identified as Kimiyoshi Kiichirō said, as he started in disbelief, as more puppets started to appear; some armed with dart-like daggers identical to the one that killed Yūkimoto, some armed with metal curved blades like the ones the second puppet produced and some armed with old-fashioned shotguns.
As for the puppets themselves, they all mostly looked identical in appearance, aside from the headgear, and the fact that some had dark brownish red shirts instead of grey. Some wore capotain hats, some wore jester-style hats and some wore no hats at all.
However, before Kimiyoshi could contemplate further, one of the puppets threw its curved blades at him. The first one missed, but the second one sailed cleanly right through his neck, causing his head to fall right off his shoulders.
"Kimiyoshi-ojīchan!" Mion called out in absolute horror, as she witnessed what had just happened.
"What the heck is going on?" Shion said in disbelief, as she stood with Satoko in her arms, looking around in horror and disbelief.
People were screaming as they tried to flee the oncoming life-sized puppets. However, the puppets went on the attack, throwing their daggers and curved blades, killing people as they went. The ones armed with shotguns twirled their wrists before taking aim with their shotguns and then firing, mowing more people down.
"Demons!" someone shouted out, "It's the work of demons; those puppets are bewitched!"
"Enemies of Oyashiro-sama!" another person claimed, only to be shot by a shotgun-wielding puppet.
One brave man took a butcher's knife and ran towards the nearest puppet, a dagger-wielding puppet.
"Get outta our village!" he screamed, as he thrust the knife into the centre of the puppet's forehead, but the puppet just took both daggers in its left hand and then brought its right hand up and pulled the knife out of its head, and then, threw it at a fleeing woman, hitting her right in the head.
The puppet then took one dagger back in its right hand and the man backed away in fear.
"No way," he said in a panicked tone, "How in the hell are we supposed to kill these things?"
The puppet hissed as it advanced on him, and he tried to turn and run, but the puppet caught him by the shoulders and jumped up onto his shoulders in a sitting position and crossed its legs behind him, ensuring that it would not fall off. It then started repeatedly stabbing the sides of the man's head till he fell to the ground, dead.
However, just as the puppet was about to hunt down more victims, Rena came running up behind it, armed with her trademark clever with the fang-like spike near the end of the blade and noticing that the puppets were being held up by really thin black strings, she took a swipe at the strings above the puppet. Unfortunately for the puppet, it had been caught off guard and only noticed the clever-wielding girl just as she made her move, cutting through the strings as easily as cutting through butter. With its strings severed, the puppet fell to the ground, limp, and then, it suddenly transformed into a black mist before dissipating.
"That's it," Rena said after she saw what had happened, "Their strings, that's their weakness."
She then looked around for the other members of the Gaming Club.
"Guys, I know how to kill them!" she called out, "Their strings, cut their strings!"
Unfortunately the puppets also heard her, and suddenly moved around frantically in alarm, realising that one of their number had been "cut down".
"Way ahead of you, Rena-san," a green-haired woman wielding a katana that Rena recognised as Sonozaki Akane, Mion and Shion's mother, said, as she lunged towards the puppet nearest to her and slashed at the strings.
The puppet did not have time to react as Akane's katana sliced through its strings, and like the one Rena had defeated, it fell limp to the ground and transformed into a black mist, and then, it dissipated, causing the others to look around frantically as they realised that their weakness had been discovered.
They were in such a panic that they failed to notice Rena as she snuck up behind two of them, and like before, she went for their strings with her clever, killing them. A third puppet moved in to slash her with its curved blades, but a katana passed by above it, severing its strings before it had the change to strike.
"Need a hand, Rena?" the katana's wielder, who turned out to be Mion, still in her dress said as she landed on the ground on one knee.
"Mī-chan… arigatō," Rena said in relief, since she had noticed the puppet, but it had been too late to do anything.
"Don't mention it," Mion said with a smirk, as she stood up, and then, she and Rena went off to cut down more puppets.
As for Daisuke, he spent his time dodging the puppets' projectiles as he tried to make sense of the situation. Just what were those puppets? However, as he continued to think about it, he could not help but feel a sudden sense of familiarity with those creatures; like he had encountered them before and the more he thought about it, a name suddenly popped into his mind.
"Sh… Sha… Shad… Shadirā!" he said aloud, as he suddenly found himself remembering what they were called, despite not remembering any previous encounters with them.
However, he did know that they were a species of demons known as the Shadirā and as he continued to think, his eyes widened as he remembered something else.
"They're just Shadirā foot soldiers, Shadorujā," he went on, as he continued to dodge projectiles and studying the Shadirā puppets further, he also was able to put a name to the Shadorujā type, "Marionetto, they're just one type of Shadorujā."
He really could not explain just how the knowledge suddenly became available to him, but he did know, even if he could not remember anything, that he had encountered Shadirā before. It was like their sudden appearance had sparked something inside him. He did not have his memories, but the knowledge of the Shadirā had been unlocked somehow.
Looking around, he saw that the Marionetto were all starting to panic as he witnessed Mion, Rena, Akane and several members of the Sonozaki Family wielding katana swords move in to cut them down. He nodded, knowing that the Marionetto's weakness was their strings. Cutting their strings was an effective method in dealing with them. Once their strings were cut, they could no longer function. He saw that Shion and Keiichi had taken shelter in one of the stalls and Shion was hugging Satoko close to her, and from the looks of it, Satoko was still in her state of shock from when Yūkimoto had made his accusations. Rika and Hanyū had sought shelter in another stall, and Hanyū was occasionally poking her head out from underneath the table to see what was going on.
"Right, that's everyone accounted for," he said to himself.
Watching the Marionetto move, he saw that when chasing after people, instead of running, they had been lifted up by their strings and were gliding after their prey at an incredibly quick rate.
"Bring it on, you theatre rejects!" Keiichi said challengingly, as he suddenly jumped over the table of the stall he was hiding under, armed with Satoshi's baseball bat.
He then charged the nearest Marionetto, which turned round in surprise, being caught off guard, and then, he slammed the end of the bat in the Marionetto's face. The impact caused the Marionetto to stumble backwards, but Keiichi continued to lunge forward and repeated the process, causing the Marionetto to stumble backwards yet again.
"Kei-chan, get something sharp and severe their strings!" he heard Shion call out.
"I don't have anything sharp!" Keiichi called back, taking his attention away from the Marionetto, which was a mistake since it gave it plenty of time to recover.
However, before it could move to attack, Daisuke came running and brought his knee up and viciously slammed it into the side of the Marionetto's head with such force that its head came right off its shoulders and then the head and the body both transformed into black mist and dissipated.
"Of course, smashing them apart also kills them," Daisuke said, as he remembered something else.
"I'm sorry, what?" Keiichi said in confusion.
However Daisuke turned round and glared at Keiichi.
"Kei, you idiot, what were you thinking, attacking them like that?" he said in a scolding tone, "You could've been killed."
Keiichi opened his mouth to protest, but Daisuke's glare only intensified.
"If you don't have some sort of bladed weapon, then don't bother!" Daisuke went on with a sigh.
"You don't have one either," Keiichi pointed out with a defiant glare of his own, though, he was trying to find some excuse to defend himself.
"Well, I happen to be looking for one," Daisuke said, a bit surprised as he had to admit that Keiichi had a point, but he then quickly regained his composure, "Either look for one or go back with Shion-san and Satoko-san."
He then went off before Keiichi could reply.
"Humph, I was only trying to help," he huffed, as he glared after his friend, "Just where does he get off scolding me like that?"
Meanwhile, Rena and Mion stood back to back with their backs pressed against each other as they glared around at the Marionetto as they advanced on them.
"Gee, where the hell are they all coming from?" Mion said in frustration, "It doesn't seem to matter how many we take down, more seem to just come up and take their place."
"Search me, Mī-chan," Rena said, as she lunged towards a shotgun-wielding Marionetto and severed its strings.
Mion lunged towards a dagger-wielding Marionetto and cut its strings.
A blade-wielding Marionetto came up behind Mion as she was getting up and moved to attack.
"MĪ-CHAN!" Rena called out in warning, causing Mion to turn and notice the Marionetto with its hand raised, ready to bring its blade down, but then, Daisuke jumped into Mion's field of vision, delivering a ferocious kick to the side of the Marionetto's torso with such force that the Marionetto, itself, broke apart and then vanished in a black mist.
"Arigatō, Dai-chan," Mion thanked, as she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't let up yet," Daisuke said in a serious tone, as he shot Mion a stern look, "It's not over yet."
Looking around, Daisuke saw that more and more people were becoming braver as they witnessed the Marionetto being cut down and they came out wielding bladed weapons, and he saw that even Keiichi had managed to find a knife, and was in the process of cutting a Marionetto's strings as he had jumped onto its shoulders from behind, and the Marionetto was thrashing around wildly trying to shake him off, and the remaining Marionetto were looking increasingly panicked as the tide was slowly starting to turn against them.
"Nice," Daisuke thought with a smirk, "Looks like this village's inhabitants are smarter than I originally thought. Not only have they discovered the Marionetto's weakness, but they're even starting to hold their own and win."
However, just as he started to feel at ease, another thing about the Marionetto suddenly made itself known in his mind and his eyes widened in alarm as he realised that the Marionetto still had one last trick up their sleeves, a trump card.
"Mion-san, Rena-san, mina, be careful!" he shouted in warning, but even as he shouted his warning, the Marionetto all, in desperation let out a rather terrifying ear-piercing shriek that briefly distorted their image and all of a sudden, everyone found themselves being hoisted into the air as demonic blood-red puppet strings held them in place.
"Damn it, their warcry!" Daisuke grumbled aloud.
This was their Immobilisation Warcry, which they normally reserved for desperate situations. Since they only tended to resort to it whenever they were desperate, Daisuke had labelled it, their trump card, since it did indeed work like a trump card.
Anyway, Daisuke hung between Rena and Mion and witnessed one dark brownish red coated Marionetto directing a group of shotgun-wielding Marionetto in front of them and the Marionetto were all lined up perfectly.
"Death by firing squad, real nice to know that you Shadirā have a sense of humour," Daisuke said aloud to the Marionetto in a sarcastic tone.
The lead Marionetto; the one directing traffic just hissed at Daisuke in response after briefly turning to face him, acknowledging that it had heard him.
"I can't believe that it's going to end like this; killed by a pack of puppet theatre rejects," Daisuke said as he shut his eyes, bracing himself for the end, but then, all of a sudden, his vision burst into a sea of white.
Unknown location, Unknown Prefecture, Japan – Unknown Day, Unknown Month and Unknown Year
Daisuke found himself standing alone, facing down a group of hideously deformed black creatures with burning red eyes that looked a bit like dogs. One of the things Daisuke did notice though, was that he was just child round about Rika, Satoko and Hanyū's age, and yet, he was not afraid of these creatures. He knew that they were another type of Shadorujā, different from the Marionetto, but in the same classification of Shadirā as them. Despite his age, he shot all of them a determined glare as they all snarled and gnashed at him.
"Okay," child-Daisuke said, as he brought his hands to either side of the buckle of his belt and pushed the black oval inwards and then he took the silver outlining in both hands and flicked it round so that it was spinning, "Let's go, Henshin!"
Present
Daisuke's eyes opened wide as he realised that he had just recalled a previous memory, though, he could not remember the name of the Shadirā that he had been facing off against, but he did remember what he had done and with newfound determination he started struggling, which caused the Marionetto to hesitate since anyone caught by their Immobilisation Warcry were usually paralysed and unable to move. Nonetheless, Daisuke managed to fight the paralysis effect and with a few almighty yanks, he was able to free himself, causing the Marionetto to all take a step back in shock, as they were unable to comprehend just how Daisuke managed to overpower their spell.
"Alright, guys, this ends here!" Daisuke said in a tone of determination, as he leveled a glare at the Marionetto who all stood there, feeling rather nervous.
Bringing his hands to either side of his belt buckle, he mimicked his younger self in his memory by pushing the black oval inwards towards him and then flicked the silver outlining, causing it to spin.
"Let's go, Henshin!" he said, as the silver outlining's spinning sped up dramatically till it was a blur
"Rōtā Beruto, Sutātoappu," a computerised voice announced, speaking Japanese-accented English, and what it announced, translated into proper English meant was, "Rotor Belt, Start-up".
The spinning outlining suddenly emitted a bright white light that caused both Rena and Mion to shut their eyes as they looked on, and since they were both completely paralysed, they could not cover their eyes. As the buckle outlining continued to spin and gathered speed, Daisuke felt his body being clad in armour and saw that it was coming from the buckle, the armour started at his waist and then moved in both directions till it covered his entire body, including his head.
Once the light faded, Rena and Mion hesitated for a moment, and then, they opened their eyes and upon seeing Daisuke, their eyes widened in shock at what they saw.
"D-D-Dai-chan?" Mion stuttered in complete disbelief.
"Daisuke-kun?" Rena said in equal disbelief, "What happened to you?"
Daisuke was clad in white boots that went up to just below his knees and at the front of the boots at the top in the centre were two diamond shaped protrusions that acted as knee guards since they covered his knees. He also wore a dark brown bodysuit that was so dark that it could easily be mistaken for black and it was also just as hard as the rest of his armour and had white armour over his upper torso that covered his pectoral muscles at the front and upper back muscles at the back and also covered his shoulders. On his forearms he wore white gauntlets that ran from just below his elbows to his wrists and attached to the gauntlets were white gloves, giving the appearance of elbow-length gloves. His neck area was covered by the same dark brown colour as his bodysuit and his helmet was also dark brown at the sides and back and was designed to resemble a cicada insect's head. At the front were two big crimson red eyes and beneath that where Daisuke's mouth was supposed to be was a silver mouthpiece with horizontal dark brown stripes, two at either side, and at the top of the helmet at the front were two silver antennae that made a V shape and a silver vertical line ran down the centre of the front of the helmet between the eyes and ended just above the mouthpiece. However, if that was not enough, then clad at the front of his bodysuit just beneath his white armour was the kanji symbol for death in white and on the back, also in white beneath his armour was the kanji symbol for the number, four and on his the side of his right shoulder in the same dark brown colour as his bodysuit was the kanji symbol for death and on the side of his left shoulder was the kanji symbol for four in the same dark brown colour. Also, the black oval at the centre of the buckle had also turned a bright green colour.
The shotgun-wielding Marionetto suddenly twirled the wrists of their shotgun-wielding hands and then opened fire, all of them aiming for the armour-clad Daisuke, but Daisuke jumped into the air and then summersaulted behind them while in the air. The Marionetto all started to panic as Daisuke delivered an uppercut to one of them with enough force to decapitate it, causing it to turn into black mist and dissipate, and then, he backhanded another, decapitating it as well. He then brought his knuckles together and the outer sides of his gauntlets produced really long blades that ran the length of the gauntlets and he then got to work, slashing his arms around as he severed the Marionetto's strings The lead Marionetto, which was clad in a dark brownish red shirt tried its Immobilisation Warcry, but Daisuke jumped a good distance away since he knew that it was only effective while within a certain range. He then charged forward and brought his fist forward, ready to slam into the Marionetto's face, but to his surprise, the Marionetto brought both its daggers up in an X formation, blocking his punch.
"Gee, I wasn't expecting that," he groaned in dissatisfaction.
The Marionetto, seeing that he was briefly distracted, brought its left dagger forward, slashing him across the chest, but the impact only caused him to stumble backwards briefly, but otherwise, he was unhurt, but the green light at the centre of his belt buckle became slightly lighter as it started to turn yellow. However, seeing that Daisuke was barely affected by its attack, the Marionetto took a step back, apparently in fear.
"I never thought that your kind were ones for experiencing fear," Daisuke said, as he stepped towards the Marionetto, "A Burādi Mari, of course, your tainted shirts make you a tad bit stronger than the regular Marionetto."
He then grabbed the frightened Burādi Mari and threw it up into the air.
"RIDER THROW!" he shouted, as he then brought his feet together and then moved to stand up on his tiptoes, but was propelled into the air.
"RIDER JUMP!" he announced, as he chased after the Burādi Mari and once level with it, he clasped his hands firmly together above his head and then brought them down in front of himself, slamming them into the Burādi Mari.
"RIDER PLUMMETING SMASH!" he shouted, as the Burādi Mari went plummeting to the ground, and upon slamming into the ground, the momentum from the fall caused it to smash to pieces upon impact.
Once Daisuke landed on the ground again, he quickly stood up as he heard projectiles coming towards him and reached out his hands, grabbing a curved blade in each one, and then, he spun round and threw them right back at the Marionetto that threw them, with the first decapitating it and the second cutting through the waist.
He then lunged towards Mion and Rena who were still suspended in mid-air and cut the strings holding them in place.
"Are you girls alright?" he asked with concern evident in his voice, as the two girls fell to the ground.
"Dai-chan, is that really you under there?" Mion asked in shocked astonishment, as both she and Rena picked themselves up, and she was unable to believe that this was really the boy she and her Gaming Club had found over a month ago.
"Huh?" Daisuke said in confusion, "What're you talking about Mion-san? Of course it's me."
However, with the adrenaline from the battle with the Marionetto coming down, he suddenly noticed that something was indeed different as he found himself seeing the world in a variety of red shades and looking down at her hands as he brought them up in front of him, he found himself astonished at seeing the armour he was wearing.
"Wow, this is… wow…" Daisuke said, unable to comprehend what had happened, "So that's what my belt does, I knew that it would give me the power to turn this around."
"Daisuke-kun, are you alright?" Rena asked, looking unsure on whether or not she wanted to approach him, "What are you?"
"I don't…" Daisuke started to say, but then he suddenly found himself remembering something else as a name for what he was entered his mind, "Okay, scratch that, I'm a Kamen Rider, whatever that is."
"Huh?" Mion and Rena both said in unison, as they gave Daisuke confused looks.
"Look, I'm not really sure what's going on or how this happened myself," Daisuke explained, as he raised his hand, telling Mion and Rena to let him speak, "Ever since the Shadirā attacked, I found myself remembering things that I couldn't remember before. However, though, I can't remember any individual encounters, I seem to remember the knowledge I gained from them."
"Okay, Dai-chan, we'll drop this for now," Mion said with a nod, as she decided to drop the subject for now, since there were more pressing matters to attend to; like dealing with the remaining Marionetto.
"I believe you, Daisuke-kun," Rena said with a nod before going off to hunt down Marionetto.
"I don't know quite what this power is or how I got it," Daisuke said to himself, "But I might as well use it while it's available to me. Okay, let's go, Kamen Rider…"
He then paused as he realised that he had not thought of a name for his Kamen Rider persona. He then started to think of a name, something that matched what he wanted to do right at that very moment.
"Kamen Rider Power, nah, sounds too ambitious," he went on, as he folded his arms and started to ponder, "Kamen Rider Protector… nah, too simple and boring, something that's to do with protection would be nice, but what?"
He then went through a list of things that had to do with protection, but which did not sound so blatantly obvious and he then thought about Greek Mythology, specifically Zeus and the goddess, Athena and what they both shared.
"That's it," he said triumphantly, as he got ready to fight, "Let's go, Kamen Rider Aegis."
He then shot off towards the nearest group of Marionetto, and then, he started picking them apart as he freed those who had been caught with their Immobilisation Warcry.
With Daisuke, now Aegis's help, it did not take long for the remaining Marionetto to fall as Daisuke and the teenage members of the Gaming Club sans Shion, who was looking after Satoko, were mostly responsible for their downfall, though, a few lucky villagers managed to take down a few.
However, just as everyone was starting to relax, and Rika, Hanyū, Shion and Satoko emerged from their hiding places, a rather deep laugh echoed throughout the air.
"What now, I thought we defeated all those demonic puppets," Mion said in frustration.
"Look!" Satoko said, pointing up at the sky, having recovered from her emotional breakdown.
Aegis looked up and his eyes narrowed from inside his helmet as he saw something descend, and to everyone's confused surprise, it was not another Marionetto, in fact it did not look like a puppet at all, but instead, a legless spectre clad in a black, dark green-tinted cloak with only its hands and face visible. Its hands were the same shade of dark grey as the wood the Marionetto were made from, as was its face. It had black painted eyelids and glowing yellow eyes along with two rows of jagged white teeth that were visible from its mouth. It also had two bushes of messy black hair on either side of its head that ran round the back and wore a black conical pointed hat with a dark glowing red orb situated at the top.
"What the heck is that?" someone asked in confusion.
"Maybe he's their leader," a woman suggested, as she thought back to the Marionetto rampage.
"A Shadevā!" Aegis growled dangerously, causing everyone to look at him.
This was no ordinary Shadirā like the Marionetto, this was a Shadevā, the next stage in the Shadirā ranking system and unlike the Shadorujā, they were not as easy to defeat. Behind every Shadorujā group was a Shadevā, and they normally functioned as commanders; like that woman had said, this was the Marionetto's leader and the Shadevā behind them and he managed to identify it as a Papettiā, the Shadevā that were usually behind Marionetto.
Looking down at Aegis and the villagers, the Papettiā snarled at them, clearly infuriated at the demise of its underlings. How dare these pathetic wastrels kill its underlings, they were just pathetic and weak humans. How they managed to defeat the Marionetto was simply beyond its comprehension. Humans were not meant to fight back and triumph, they were supposed to tremble in fear as they were mowed down. Those thoughts passed through the Papettiā's mind and the more it tried to comprehend how things had gone so terribly wrong, the angrier it became, and its glare became fixated on Aegis, as it decided that he must have been the one who was ultimately responsible for the defeat of the Marionetto and let out a loud roar at him.
"Yeah, bring it on, you overrated hack," Aegis taunted in response as he shook his fist at it, "I'm waiting for ya."
In response the Papettiā reached into its cloak, and pulled out a torso-shaped puppet, clad in black samurai-style armour along with the strings and threw it down to the ground while still holding onto the strings and the threw the strings up into the air. The strings held the puppet up as arms popped out from the sides; also clad in black armour and legs popped out from the bottom and the head popped out from the top, clad in a black samurai-style helmet and mask. In all, it looked like a human-sized samurai puppet and the Papettiā reached into its cloak once again and pulled out a katana sword and threw it down to the samurai puppet, which came to life as it reached out its hand and grabbed the sword, and then, the Papettiā pointed to the villagers and the samurai nodded as it looked up at its master.
"Samurai Shōgun Papetto," Aegis noted as he witnessed the samurai puppet advance on the villagers.
This was what the Papettiā did and how it fought, it created puppets in the likeness of ancient samurai to do its bidding, which was how they got their name. However, it was basically a different type of Marionetto and shared the same weaknesses and was just as strong as a Marionetto, despite it not being officially classed as a Shadirā type.
Looking up, Aegis saw the Papettiā repeat the process two more times, creating two more Samurai Shōgun Papetto before turning its attention towards him before reaching into its cloak yet again and pulled out two sets of puppet strings that were not attached to any puppets and Aegis knew that this was how the Papettiā fought whenever it decided to fight personally. It used puppet strings as whips and the Papettiā brought its right hand forward and Aegis was forced to dodge the strings as they touched the ground, causing the impact area to explode. However, it then brought its left hand forward, lashing out as Aegis dodged yet again, this time, the strings hit a stall, causing it to explode.
Rena and Mion got ready as the three Samurai Shōguns advanced on them.
"So, Rena, do you think those guys share the same weakness as those other puppets?" Mion asked, as she and Rena both back away from them.
"I don't see why not," Rena said, as she noted that the strings did look identical to the ones that held up the Marionetto.
"Do you wanna risk testing it?" Mion asked, as she looked at her friend, who just smiled arrogantly back to her.
"Let's do it, Mī-chan," Rena said with a nod, and both girls lunged towards the three Samurai Shōguns.
The Samurai Shōguns, upon noticing that the two girls were rushing towards them, suddenly burst into a run, and unlike the Marionetto, they were running on the ground and not gliding. This was something that separated the Samurai Shōguns from the Marionetto; they may share the same weaknesses and may be just as strong, but they were also a lot quicker, which made them more dangerous, and unfortunately, their speed caught both girls off-guard as they both stopped running and were only barely able to bring their weapons up to block the Samurai's slashes. With Rena and Mion occupied with two of them, the third moved behind them and prepared to deliver a killing slash at their backs, but before the blade could connect, another blade blocked its path, causing Rena and Mion to look and their eyes widened as they saw Akane holding her own katana in a horizontal position.
"Okā-sama?" Mion said, surprised to see her mother.
"Never mind me, you two, just concentrate on your own opponents, I'll deal with the third," Akane replied, giving both girls a stern look and they both nodded both turned their attention back to their opponents.
Meanwhile, Aegis continued to jump, zip and weave as he dodged the Papettiā's exploding puppet string whips. Unfortunately, he could not find an opening, and he just could not mount an offence. All he could do was dodge as the Papettiā seemed determined to kill him and avenge the loss of its underlings.
"Damn, it sure is determined," Aegis noted, as he jumped away from the top of the Furude Shrine as the Papettiā's strings came down on the roof, "I just can't seem to mount an offence."
The Papettiā snarled as it lashed out yet again, but Aegis dodged yet again, only this time, he followed it up with a lunge forward, catching it by surprise and jumped into the air and delivered a punch, right into its cloak, but to his astonishment, his punch just went through the cloak. Unfortunately, this provided an opening for the Papettiā as it moved away from Aegis and brought up its hand and lashed out with the strings hitting Aegis in the back, causing an explosion that propelled him into the ground. However, somehow, he managed to recover and land on his feet, but the light in the centre of his belt buckle had gotten more yellow and was now starting to turn orange.
"Gotta make sure that it doesn't turn red," Aegis said to himself, as he took note of it, "If it does, I'm going to have to retreat and if I do that, the Shadirā win."
Luckily his armour was able to absorb most of the damage caused by the explosion, but he did feel a slight pain in his back, causing him to wince.
"Man, you are seriously going to pay for that," he went on, glaring up at the Papettiā as it unleashed a new attack, which Aegis dodged.
"Of course, it's cloak is only an illusion," he noted, as he cursed himself for making that mistake, "If I want to destroy it, I'm going to have to attack the face, but the problem is, its face is too well guarded, and I doubt it'll give me another opening like that last one again."
However, as it went on the attack, Aegis observed it, looking for a potential weakness to exploit. Dodging another attack, his eyes widened as he observed the strings. Anything they touched exploded, but during the explosion, they were harmless.
"Of course, it has to recoil them before it can use them again," he noted as he remembered more of the Papettiā Shadevā.
He then glanced towards the villagers and was relieved to see Rena, Mion and Akane dealing with the Samurai Shōguns. Despite being only armed with a clever, Rena sure managed to hold her own. However, the speed of the Samurai Shōguns did pose a massive problem, as they just would not stay in one place long enough to have their strings cut.
"Gotta wrap this up, now!" he said to himself, as he stared down the Papettiā with a determined look on his face.
Meanwhile, Mion, Rena and Akane could not help but feel rather frustrated as the three Samurai Shōguns seemed to dance around and just would not stay still.
"Gotta stay calm," Mion thought, as she felt her composure slipping and she parried a slash from her opponent, "If I give in, then I'll no doubt slip up and make a mistake and if I make a mistake, that'll be the end of me."
She then parried a few more slashes.
As for Rena, she was thinking something similar, but armed with a clever; she was having a harder time than either of the Sonozakis. It was harder for her to parry the Samurai's strikes and she found herself dodging more often than naught. Currently however, she found herself stuck in place as she had her clever in front of her, blocking the Samurai's katana as it tried to bring it down on her.
"No, I won't lose," she thought to herself, "I can't lose; I have to help Daisuke-kun."
However, somehow she managed to summon the strength to step to the side, causing the Samurai Shōgun to stumble forwards, since there was nothing holding his sword in place anymore, and seeing it in trouble, Rena quickly swung her clever, slicing through the strings, causing it to fall to the ground limp and like the Marionetto before it, it then transformed into a black mist and then dissipated.
"Yatta, I did it!" she said happily as she jumped up and down excitedly in celebration, "I won!"
"Huh, Rena won?" Mion said in surprise.
However, upon hearing Rena's celebration, the Samurai Shōgun she had been fighting tensed up and hesitated for a moment, and that was all Mion needed, because by the time it had recovered, it was too late. Mion took her katana and cleanly cut through the strings and the Samurai Shōgun followed its companion in falling to the ground and transforming into a back mist before dissipating.
"Gotcha," Mion said with a rather arrogant smirk, "There's no way that you can beat oji-san."
She then looked over at Rena.
"Hey Rena, let's go and help okā-sama," she called out.
"Right behind you, Mī-chan!" Rena called back, as both she and Mion rushed in Akane's general direction.
Meanwhile, Akane had not been fairing any better than her daughter or her friend. Both she and the Samurai Shōgun danced circles round one another as each of them tried to land a blow. However, basically, most of their fight had involved them both parrying each other's attacks and neither could find an opening.
"A feisty thing, aren't you?" Akane said with a smirk, "I haven't had this much of a workout in such a long time. If it wasn't for the fact that you were a demon hell-bent on destroying my home, I may even have gone as far as to say that I was having fun."
Her expression then became deathly serious as she levelled a glare at her opponent.
"However, you and your kind have invaded our village, killed many of our people and that is something I just cannot forgive," she went on, as she caught her opponent's katana with her own, and then, she pushed forward, stunning the Samurai Shōgun for a moment, "And on behalf of my okā-sama and the people of the Village of Hinamizawa, I'm here to tell you that you're not welcome here!"
She then took her katana and quickly sliced through the Samurai Shōgun's strings, causing it to fall limp to the ground.
"Okā-sama!" Mion's voice came, as Akane turned to see her daughter and Rena running towards her.
"Akane-san!" Rena shouted in concern.
Upon noticing that Akane's opponent was nowhere to be seen, both girls sighed in relief.
"Hey girls, what kept ya?" Akane said in a joking tone, as she let out a chuckle and gave her daughter a loving look, as she studied her attire, "You did well, Mion, it seems that hanging out with your friends and participating in those strange club games hasn't dampened your skills any."
"Okā-sama!" Mion said in embarrassment, her face turning a shade of beat red, as she realised that she was still wearing the dress that Daisuke had picked out for her.
Back with Aegis and the Papettiā, the Papettiā unleashed another attack and Aegis moved to dodge, but after the resulting explosion, before the Papettiā could recoil its strings, Aegis suddenly reached out and grabbed them, shocking the Papettiā as it had not expected such a move, and before it could recover, Aegis gave the strings one big almighty yank, causing the Papettiā to come hurling towards him and he lunged forwards and slammed his knee right into its face, and then, he crouched down, and jumped into the air, delivering a vicious uppercut.
"RIDER UPPERCUT PUNCH!" he shouted, as he then brought his feet together and performed a Rider Jump.
"RIDER JUMP!" he screamed, as he flew into the air after the Papettiā and brought his leg up in front of him as he ascended higher than the Papettiā.
"This is it, this is the end!" he said in a tone of finality before he brought his leg down on the Papettiā, striking it with the sole of his foot, "RIDER AXE KICK!"
As the name suggested, the Rider Axe Kick somehow went straight through the Papettiā, cutting it in half and it let out a rather loud furious roar as the two halves transformed into black mist and dissipated just as the Marionetto had done.
"Game, set and match!" Aegis declared after landing on the ground and followed each individual word up with an action; as he said, "game" he pointed to where the Papettiā had been; as he said "set", he stuck out his thumb to the side and as he said "and match", he turned his thumb towards the ground in a thumbs-down gesture and thrust his hand downwards with a brief jerk.
He then brought both of his hands to the centre of his belt buckle, and pushed it inwards yet again, but this time, he took the outlining and rotated it three hundred and sixty degrees anti-clockwise.
"Return to the Past, now!" he stated as everything suddenly erupted into a sea of white.
Monday, 18th June, 1984
Daisuke was currently sitting in the classroom of the Hinamizawa School along with the Gaming Club as he thought about what had just happened the previous day. He and his friends had been at the Watanagashi Festival and after a tense meeting with the police detective, Yūkimoto Ginjurō, a species of demon that Daisuke identified as Shadirā attacked with the Marionetto Shadorujā type being the main culprits, along with their Shadevā commander, the Papettiā. However, after getting caught in the Marionetto's Immobilisation Warcry, he had a brief memory flash back to a previous Shadirā encounter and from that, he learned that he was what was called a Kamen Rider, and upon noticing this, he had adopted the name, Aegis as a symbol, since he wanted to protect the village. In any case, the Shadirā had been defeated, though, Daisuke had been surprised that he had help from Rena, Mion, Akane and some more villagers who got lucky.
Anyway, afterwards, he had managed to reset everything by returning everything to the past. Everyone had travelled twenty-four hours backwards in time and those who had died were revived, and no one had any memory of the Shadirā attack, and come the Watanagashi Festival, it had gone off without a hitch, though, unfortunately, Yūkimoto had also been revived, but thankfully, Daisuke managed to avert the encounter with him by moving the Gaming Club to another area and he did get to see Rika perform the Watanagashi Ritual and he had to admit that for someone her age, she was a rather talented and experienced miko. It was like she had been practicing non-stop for years and he had found himself fascinated as he watched her and he had to admit that her miko outfit did make her look cute.
"Hey, hello, Earth to Dai," Keiichi's voice came, and Daisuke noticed Keiichi waving his hand in front of his face as he came back to reality
"Huh, I'm sorry, Kei, did you say something?" Daisuke said, as he shook his head to dispel his thoughts.
"So Dai-chan," Mion said, as she turned to look at him, "We were wondering if you feel like explaining to us what happened yesterday."
"Huh, what do you mean?" Daisuke said in confusion.
"What Mī-chan means is, how come those puppet things attacked, and then, afterwards we found ourselves back to the previous day, and then, we lived through the Watanagashi Festival again?" Rena asked curiously.
"And just what was with that armour anyway?" Keiichi asked, also interested in what Daisuke had to say, "Are you some sort of manga superhero or something?"
Daisuke's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he heard this. This should not happen. They remembered the Shadirā encounter, but just how was that possible? He had to admit that without his memories, he could not remember the previous times he had returned everything to the past, but he did remember the knowledge of how it worked. Whenever he reset the timeline, everyone he came across had no memories of what had happened after the point in which he had returned to, and yet, here these people were who were apparently immune. Sure, he knew that there were those who were immune, but that was only due to certain circumstances that he could not remember, but he did know, for an absolute fact, that none of these people met those circumstances.
However, unbeknownst to him, he was not the only one who was surprised. Rika and Hanyū were also surprised as well. Due to them being the main players in the "Eternal June" as Rika had dubbed it, both girls had developed immunity to time-resets, due to Hanyū's power, but none of the others had ever shown signs of similar immunity, though, Rika did admit that Keiichi did once remember that time when he went insane with paranoia and ended up beating Rena and Mion to death, which was unusual since the Keiichi that remembered the incident was not the same Keiichi of that world, which Rika had called the Onikakushi-hen World. The Keiichi that remembered was the "Tsumihoroboshi-hen" Keiichi. Both of them were Maebara Keiichi, and yet, they were two different people at the same time.
"Just what the heck is going on here?" Rika thought in confusion, "How is it that the others are immune to Daisuke's time-reset ability?"
Author's Notes – Another chapter done and I must say that it took me longer than expected. If I had gotten this completed when I planned, it would have come out on Christmas Day and world have been a Christmas Present for you all. Anyway, a few things to note. The Shadirā, as you probably already have guessed are based off the Marionettes from the first Devil May Cry game and the Papettiā Shadevā was partially based off the Sin/Death enemies from the same game and the Puppeteer (Mari in the Japanese Version) mini-boss in the Dynamite Headdy Sega Mega-Drive game. I do realise that some of this chapter resembles Kamen Rider Chrome's Kamen Rider Shōwa's introduction chapter and I apologise if it looks like plagiarising, but I've been over it with him and he approves (actually called the paper-route job a shout-out to his character).
