It was quarter to midnight in the town of Glistoria, the pitter-patter of rainfall hitting the roof echoing through Akira's apartment as the violinist lied down on his bed with his phone to his ear. His violin casing, motorbike helmet and luggage sitting in one corner of the small room, torn curtains covered the windows, a wooden table with a table lamp shining on an empty pitcher of water. The chair and table were both worn from age, and there was a musky odor permeating the air as an old, broken AC was built into the wall.
"So, how's it over there?" Getrud's husky voice could be barely be heard from the other end of the line due to the poor reception.
"It's quite fine. The apartment's rent isn't too high for my liking, and it's conveniently close to the Music Hall," Akira stared at the dirty ceiling of his room and added, "Though a little cleaning up may be in order before I start doing my usual business."
He heard a small groan from the Serpentium woman, "You know I sent you there because of the local hero running around, right? Just so for once you can just take it easy and leave the heroics to someone else."
"Ah, about that, Getrud," Akira sat up from his small bed and walked over to the torn curtains, pushing them aside to glance at the falling rain outside, "I've been looking into this 'local hero' lately, and I've been a bit confused."
"About what? Everything we've heard of pretty much says that it's another one of your Rider pals going around, right?"
"That's correct, but... may not be entirely true," the violinist leaned on the windowsill, the faint sound of the rainfall outside slightly audible, "From what I've looked up, I've managed to make a guess on this local hero's identity: Kamen Rider Axe. I may not have known her outside of hearing about her exploits during the One Year War, but Axe was a rather blood-thirsty fighter. Yet now, she seems to be doing nothing more than arresting criminals, and despite this, Glistoria is still teeming with underground crime," he reached one hand into his pockets and took out his purple earring, "I cannot ignore this. I must look into it, along with Axe's strange behavior as well."
For a few minutes, Akira didn't hear any reply from Getrud, until came a defeated sigh, "Fine. I guess I can't stop you from saving people. But, just be careful, alright? Maribelle and I have been... worried... about you," a grateful smile growing on his face from the woman's worry, he heard a faint stutter in her tone before it suddenly shifted, "But if I hear anything about Albert and his Music Hall getting into trouble cause of you, I'm gonna drive over there and shove that violin up your ass, you hear me?"
"I wouldn't mind you doing that at all, honestly," Akira slyly replied as he heard the bartender repeatedly cough on the other end of the line.
"Ugh! Anyway, I gotta go. It's late and I gotta close up the bar. The place still isn't fixed up after Fafnir and his goons came along," he heard the bartender take a loud swig of alcohol, along with the bottom of a bottle slamming back onto a table with a loud satisfied sigh from the woman, "Anyway, good night. Take care of yourself."
"Have a pleasant evening, Madam," Akira said with a smile before closing his cell phone shut.
Tossing the device back on his bed, Akira gazed out the window with crossed arms and saw the tall, half-constructed buildings outside that dwarfed his apartment block. The evening rainfall not looking like it was going to stop anytime soon, Akira couldn't help but wonder why Axe was suddenly playing hero all of a sudden. Though he had nothing against it, Axe's mercy was doing little to stem the rising crime rates in this town. He had to find her and get a clear answer for this, but first, he had to do what Axe had been not been able to, and that was to find the crime bosses in this city and eliminate them. Fafnir and his gang were easy to take out, and all it took for them were a few nights.
His footsteps echoing through the small room as Akira approached his luggage, the young man placed his musical note-shaped earring on one ear, changed out of the home clothes he wore into a warm, violet jacket with matching pants, and glanced over to the cell phone on his bed, "Forgive me, Getrud. But it seems that I will be too busy tonight to get some sleep," he picked up the helmet lying next to his luggage and went over to the door, giving one small glance back into his new room before he headed off with a small grin on his face.
In the far outskirts of the city where all you could see were the abandoned buildings that had yet to be renovated, the heavy rain fell upon the empty, trash-filled streets as light could be seen in a room of one of the many, many buildings. Inside the barren apartment, two men paced the halls, wearing casual clothing with guns hidden beneath. One of them carrying a paper clipboard in his hands, the two walked through a door at the end of the hall and entered a small, dark room where several women and children lied unconscious in cages. Bound, gagged and cuffed, the two men scanned the cages each while one of them ticked the clipboard in his hands.
"This should be enough for our quota today," the taller man with several scars on his face said, looking at the kids lying in the cages, "Ya think we're getting paid extra for a bunch of brats this time?"
"Kamoshida, the boss doesn't give a damn about how old they are," the one with the clipboard casually answered, "As long as we do things quiet, we're getting paid our bonus. It helps that the man in the mask still hasn't even found out about what we do."
Laughing a little, Kamoshida pulled out a cigarette from his pockets and flicked his lighter, the glow of his stick casting a small glow on his scarred face, "Whatever. As long as those lizard freaks pay us on time, then it's fine by me. Let's go. This place reeks," turning back to the door, the two man walked out of the room and shut it closed behind them, locking it with a key this time before heading to a different part of the building.
Entering a large room with little to no light, Kamoshida went over to a switch on the wall while his friend pulled over a chair and lit a stick of his own. Running his hand along the wall to find the switch, Kamoshida felt it and flicked it on, but no light came into the room, "The fuck?" he switched it on and off repeatedly before smacking his fist into the thing, "Piece of shit. Yo, Madarame, go find some candles, will ya?"
Using his lighter as a source of light, Madarame tossed his clipboard onto a small table in the room and started rummaging through the several crates of junk placed around a few beds. Tossing aside things such as a deck of cards, empty food containers and toilet paper, Madarame scratched his head as Kamoshida waited for him, "Damn it. Where the hell did I put it?"
Kamoshida tapped his foot on the floor, his patience running thin, "Can you hurry up already?"
"I'm trying, alright?! I swear I-"
"Looking for something?" the two heard an unfamiliar, smug voice and their attention snapped to a candle sparking to life in a corner of the room.
There, casting a soft glow on the person that had lit it, the two men were taken aback by the sudden appearance of a masked man covered in black. The violet lines travelling around his tuxedo-like armor allowing them to see his form clearly, a pair of violet compound eyes shaped like Quarter notes glared at them as the two pulled out their guns and aimed at the masked man in the corner. There, around his waist, the two recognized the large Treble Clef symbol sitting at the front of his ornate belt.
"Well, well, look what we have here," Kamoshida gave a small laugh, switching off the safety of his gun, "Looks like the man in the mask got a complete makeover! Remember me, bud?" he pointed to the scars on his face, "Last time I saw you, you ruined my pretty face. I've been meaning to get some payback, but it looks like I don't have to wait all that long anymore!"
While his partner was busy mocking him, Madarame couldn't help but stare at the masked man with sweaty hands, "Kamoshida, there's something not right about him..."
The masked man's shoulders shook as he gave an eerie chuckle, one that got the two feeling uneasy as the masked man's hands reached for two buttons on the sides of his belt, "You two are hilarious."
"Says the guy who just walked in on us without a weapon," Kamoshida spat back, "Let's pop his skull!"
Within seconds, several gunshots blared throughout the air, and following it were a thousand ear-piercing violin screeches as the two men screamed in pain. Their guns dropping to the floor, the two mobsters now gripped their bleeding ears while lying on the ground, their eardrums practically destroyed as the masked man they shot at held up a violin-shaped shield. With little to no scratches on its surface, the masked man's shield disappeared into musical notes as quickly as he had summoned it, before walking over the bent bullets at his feet and towards the two men on the floor.
Kicking Kamoshida in the stomach and sending him rolling into the crate behind him, the masked man grabbed Madarame by the neck and slammed him against the wall, holding him up with his feet dangling centimeters from the floor as the masked man's gloved fingers tightened around his neck. All the while, Kamoshida couldn't do anything but squirm in pain from the blow to his cracked ribs as the masked man gave an eerie chuckle.
"Now then, would you care to tell me the location of your boss?" the masked man spoke with a faux-polite tone in his voice, "I'm in a bit of a hurry, you see."
His gloved fingers around his neck loosening to allow the man to speak, Madarame gasped for air before glaring at the masked man with a grin, "Sorry, but you won't get anything out of me! Beat us up and send us to jail like you always do, but we're never gonna spill!"
"Oh, is that so?" the masked man tilting his head to one side, his free hand reached for a button on the ornate belt he wore, "Well then, if you're not keen on giving me anything useful..."
He smacked a button on the right side of his belt, causing the large, compound eyes of his mask to glow with violet energy as the lines travelling around his body did the same. The Treble Clef at the front of his belt glowing with energy, Madarame's grin slowly disappeared as the masked man's free hand curled up into a fist, glowing musical notes swirling around his forearm to form a burning gauntlet of violet flames, "Finale: REQUIEM," the belt's deep voice echoed through the room like that of a demon, followed by the whimsical strings of a violin.
"Then let this melody guide you towards the afterlife."
Madarame only had a second to scream before his entire chest cavity was caved in with a sickening crunch that rang in Kamoshida's ears, another subsequent crunch coming as the masked man's burning fist exited out of the mobster's back with ease. As Kamoshida held back the urge to hurl, the masked man retracted his forearm from Madarame's chest, blood now dripping from his limb, and let the man's body drop to the floor like garbage before turning to the other mobster who froze with fear. The masked man now strolling over to him, Kamoshida curled up against the wall, shaking and uttering barely coherent words.
"P-Please! I swear the boss never tells us anything! W-We just do what he tells-" the masked man drove his leg into the mobster's shoulder and pinned him against the wall. Digging his boot heels into the man's shoulder, tears flowed from Kamoshida's eyes as he felt his bones threaten to snap underneath the masked man's strength, "I-I'm telling the truth! Please! W-Why are you even doing this in the first place?! I thought you never did this kind of shit!"
"It seems to me that there's been a misunderstanding," the masked man said with a wag of his finger, blood still dripping from his forearm, "First of all, I am not the local hero. Do you understand me?" he emphasized his words by driving his heel deeper into the man's shoulder, Kamoshida's screams of pain echoing through the building, "And second of all, to make things clear for you..." he smacked the button on the right side of his belt again, his compound eyes shimmering as violet energy traveled through the lines around his body and into the leg that pinned the mobster against the wall. With Kamoshida now whimpering for his life, the masked man gave one last, eerie chuckle, "This... is my idea of justice."
Suppressing a long yawn with one hand before rubbing his eyes, Reynard sighed as he continued sweeping the checkered floors of the Galleria Music Hall. Having just arrived for his morning shift, the numerous tables of the Music Hall were filled with little to no people, the large stage in the middle completely unlit. The only other worker in sight was tending to the bar in the corner, and even then he was just nonchalantly swiping through an app on his phone. Placing the broom in a corner, Reynard heard a ring from the kitchen line and hurried over to pick up a cup of coffee for one of the few customers they had.
After he had passed the drink with a friendly smile to an elderly man in the corner, the Serpentium teen walked over to the bar and leaned on the counter while watching for any customer that needed his attention. The Music Hall was always quiet this early in the morning, even though he could hear the honking of cars stuck in traffic jams outside, and since the school holidays had started, Reynard had no homework or anything to keep himself busy during this boring time.
Reynard then sneezed into his clawed hands, the bartender handing him a tissue as he took it with a grateful nod.
Even though the place's temperature was moderately cold to a human, it was already low enough to give the reptilian teen a decent shiver. Reynard tightened up the collar of his uniform and breathed into his hands before rubbing his scaly tail behind him for warmth, "Goddamit, there's barely anything to do..." sitting down on one of the bar chairs, Reynard tapped his foot as his tail weakly wagged behind him.
The loud shattering of a ceramic cup suddenly breaking the silence, Reynard looked over to one of the few occupied tables where a nervous-looking woman with a missing hand sat, the elderly Serpentium man in front of her shooting her a cold glare as Reynard calmly got up to assess the situation. As he approached the table with care taken to the shards of ceramic on the floor, the few other customers in the Music Hall simply chose to mind their own business.
"Excuse me, but can I help you two?" the blonde teen speaking up to get their attention, the nervous woman only grew more uneasy when she noticed the scaly tail and pointed ears Reynard had.
The Serpentium man with a wrinkly face and white hair on the other hand, simply waved off his concerns. Wearing the tattered coat of the old Serpentium military from the One Year War, the badges and insignia on it worn and damaged. There was even what appeared to be some sort of kill-count marked onto one of the sleeves, "Sorry about the trouble, lad, but this woman here just got on my nerves," the older man explained with a small scowl, "At first she was glaring at me for a few minutes, then I heard her call me something along the lines of 'scaled murderer'. Got a little ticked off from that, you see?" he gestured to his own scaly tail which he had used to smack the woman's drink to the floor, his tail's tip dripping with coffee.
"I-It's not my fault this happened," the woman avoided eye contact with either of them, her shaking hand caressing the stump at the end of her other arm. There were a few visible scars on her face, and Reynard noticed that one of her eyes was even completely blind, "I've seen that badge before. I heard they once gassed an entire city-"
"Now, now, can you two calm down for just one minute?" Reynard cut in before things could get worse and the two held back anymore words. Scratching a scale dyed in gold on his neck, Reynard snapped his fingers as he came to a quick conclusion, "Anyway, Miss, I'll get you another cup of coffee - on the house," he looked at the older Serpentium man with a cheeky smile, handing him a tissue for that coffee-stained tail of his, "I'll do same for you, Mister. Ya see, I don't want any trouble here, so if you two just let things slide, we can all go back to our business all hunky-dory. Alright?"
Taking the tissue from the teen, the Serpentium man gave a measly shrug as he wiped the tip of his tail, "Sure."
As for the one-handed woman, she gave a silent, but understanding nod.
With the situation done, the elderly Serpentium went back over to his table a few meters away while Reynard crouched down and started picking up the bits of ceramic from the coffee-stained floor. As he gingerly picked up the shards, he heard the woman muttered a small, "Thank you" before finishing up the remains of her breakfast. Reynard didn't reply, he only gave her a friendly smile and nod. The Serpentium teen then disposed off the shards in a nearby dust bin before ordering up the free drinks he had promised.
Heading back to the bar counter, Reynard rolled a sore shoulder when he suddenly spotted none other than that new worker, Murasaki Akira, sitting on one of the chairs with an amused grin. Having not noticed him come in just a few minutes ago, Reynard dusted his hands and gave a friendly wave, "Yo! 'Murasaki Akira', right? I thought your shift was in the afternoon?"
"It is. But since I was free, I thought I could relax around here in the meantime. A way of getting used to my new surroundings, you could call it," crossing his legs with his chin resting one one hand, the older musician gazed around at the hundreds of posters and artistry that covered the walls, visibly amazed by the sheer amount of effort that had been put into the Music Hall's decor. At his feet, Reynard noticed the violin casing sitting underneath his chair.
Looking back at the few customers of the Music Hall, most of them had already left in the minutes that had already passed, and with nothing to do, the Serpentium teen sat down next to the violinist, his legs kicking the air while his tail behind him flickered left and right. There was a moment of silence as Reynard couldn't find anything to bring up as a topic to talk about with the new worker, but the silence was broken regardless by Akira himself.
"The way you handled that man and woman just now," Akira spoke up, one finger tapping on the counter, "That was pretty impressive, actually, managing to get them both to settle down while acting calm yourself."
"D-Did I act calm?" Reynard gave a meek chuckle while scratching a scale on his cheeks, "Honestly, I was pretty nervous over there. The man looked super scary after all, and I thought I was gonna mess up talking to that lady," looking at the two people in question over his shoulder, he saw another waiter pass them their promised drinks and smiled, "Still, little things like that helps Serpentium and humans get along, ya know? A good deed a day makes a good... lead... today?" wincing at that painful rhyme, Akira chuckled regardless while Reynard thought it would be a better idea to shut up right now.
Looking over the counter, Reynard reached his hand over it and picked up the TV remote, switching on the television hanging on the wall to listen to the morning news. There, Reynard's attention was immediately taken by the newest reports on crime.
"This just in: A few hours ago, the police have discovered the bodies of numerous men in several areas of the Glistorian outskirts. Suspected of human trafficking, the police have also found several women and children that were likely in the custody of these men. From police reports and witness accounts, all of them said to have been saved by none other than a man in a mask. At first, the police suspected this to be the act of the local hero of Glistoria, 'White Mask', but all descriptions regarding their savior points to a new vigilante in this city. One that, from all the evidence provided, does not hesitate to take the lives of criminals-"
The television was abruptly switched off and Reynard placed down the remote, his tail limp behind him as Akira noticed that the teen's eyes were now as wide as dinner plates.
"Is something wrong?" the violinist spoke up and caused the Serpentium teen to snap out of the small daze he was in.
"Huh? O-Oh, it's nothing," Reynard gave a sharp-toothed grin and attempted to give a forced yawn, "I just... didn't catch any sleep last night, is all. Yeah, that's it."
Tilting his head to one side, the violinist then took out his phone to check the time before picking himself up from his chair, "If nothing's wrong, then I will be on my way then. I'll be exploring a bit of this city before work, so I'll see you later then, Reynard."
"R-Right," Reynard chuckled, "See ya, Mr. Mura-"
"'Akira's' just fine. I'm not that old compared to you. Either way, I'll see you later," giving a small bow of the head, the violinist picked up his violin casing from the floor and left the Music Hall with no more words, leaving the guitarist on the bar chair as Reynard's lips pursed.
Hearing about that new vigilante in town did nothing but knock him out of the rhythm he was in today, and as he let out a frustrated sigh, Reynard went back to doing his job as always.
An hour after he had returned home from work, Reynard and his brother sat in front of the living room table, the silence between the two filled by the sound of Arvin's hands typing away on his laptop while they slurped on some fried noodles Reynard had bought for dinner. The eldest of the siblings blankly staring at the floor while he ate, Reynard thought of nothing else but the news of that new vigilante that had been killing criminals around town. At first, he tried to brush it off as some nonsense of the day, but over at work, as more customers came in, he heard murmurs among them about this masked man.
A few of them were uneasy about hearing a new masked vigilante arrive in town, one that had no qualms about ending the lives of others. But despite that, he had heard a plentiful number of them going out of their way to support his actions, all the while insisting that his own work as a Kamen Rider was simply not enough.
He just couldn't stand it.
Glancing up from the floor, he could see that his brother's eyes were practically glued to his laptop's screen screen, one hand typing while the other hand grasped his chopsticks. He had been like that ever since he had gotten home, "What are you even looking at over there? Your food is gonna get cold, ya know?"
"I know, I know," Arvin said whilst slurping on his noodles, "It's just that the news about this new masked man in town is being talked by practically everyone in school. In just one night, a crime group the police haven't been able to catch for months had a most of their hideouts completely busted!" Arvin turned his laptop around and showed the screen to his brother. There, multiple news reports had stated that a number of people who had reportedly gone missing over the weeks had been found and rescued by the police, "It's amazing, isn't it? This new masked man is-"
Reynard placed down his food container on the table, his meal only half-finished, and got up to head back to his room while his brother raised a curious brow.
"What's wrong?"
"Lost my appetite."
Opening up the door to his room, Reynard closed it behind him and locked it shut before dropping face-first onto his bed with a muffled groan. His scaly tail completely still, Reynard turned his head and looked to the hundreds of rock posters and decor that covered every single inch of his walls. His electric guitar sat on a stand right next to his bed, a framed picture of his mother and father placed on the bedside drawer as Reynard sat upright and picked up his instrument to ease his mind.
Carefully caressing the neck of his guitar, Reynard closed his eyes, held his pick between his sharp fingers, and gently strummed the strings of his instrument with little care for anything else.
Letting the vibrant, meaty melody of his guitar fill his room, Reynard's fingers plucked and strummed the strings with the discipline and care that his mother had always taught him. It was a firm but gentle rhythm, one that slowly leaked out of his room and into the rest of the household as Reynard's eyes remained shut. His tail wagging behind him, Reynard could still remember the times when his mother would teach him the ways of the guitar and how to spread the joy of music to others. A rhythm that would bind together both humans and Serpentium alike. That, and how as an inheritor of the Symphony Gear, that he had a duty to inspire hope within others as both a vanquisher of evil, and a savior of the helpless.
As his fingers began to strum with guitar with an increased sense of vigor, the melody only grew in power. He remembered it all. The words that gave him the will to don the belt and become the next Kamen Rider Axe. The last words that he would ever hear from his mother before her passing. The words he had practically engraved into his mind.
"Keep on smiling, and continue to bring hope to both Serpentium and humans alike. Even when your strings are broken and your hands are bleeding, keep on playing that melody to bring the people you care about together. A musician doesn't retire; they only stop when they're dead or there's nothing left inside of them."
His fingers finally coming to a complete stop, Reynard looked back at the picture of his parents again and held a tightened fist to his chest. He couldn't let this new masked vigilante do as he pleased in this town. Not after he had spent years as its protector. Even if he sought to bring out justice to criminals, he couldn't just sit on the sidelines and let him go free.
Placing his electric guitar back on its stand, Reynard wiped his sweaty hands with a towel nearby and sighed before reaching over to a small, antique radio on his bedside drawer.
Switching it on, Reynard was about to change into a pair of fresh clothes when suddenly, he heard the reports of a stolen armored truck speeding towards the outskirts of town. His pointed ears twitching at this news, Reynard knew what he had to do.
The outskirts of Glistoria rang with police sirens in the distance and the roar of a smoking engine as an armored truck sped through the empty, trash-filled streets with little regard for anything in its path. Ramming past numerous police blockades and barriers in an attempt to reach the borders of the city, the police had all but lost track of this retreating vehicle, leaving its drivers to reach towards the outskirts unchallenged. That is, until the armored truck discovered that the police were not the only one in pursuit.
The golden chains on Kamen Rider Axe's trench-coat rattled in the winds as the masked vigilante zipped through the streets of Glistoria like a blur of gold and white. Riding on his armored steed, the Gold Presley, Axe's bike made a sharp turn into the very street where his target vehicle was and sped towards the armored truck, the revving of his machine sounding akin to the strings of an electric guitar being shredded.
As soon as the truck's drivers heard the guitar-like engine roar of this lone pursuer, one of them poked his head out the window and saw the armored motorcycle with gold chains wrapped around its white body. Covered in thick armor with markings shaped as gold musical notes, the man pulled out a rifle and began firing upon Axe, something that did little more than annoy him as the rounds bounced off his armor and vehicle like pebbles.
Accelerating towards them to close the distance, Axe then saw his targets switch out their rifle-fire for none other than a grenade launcher of all things, "Oh boy."
Grenades soared through the air and Axe swerved left and right, explosions blowing apart craters in the road as bits of debris showered his bike. The armored truck slowly widening the distance between it and the Gold Presley, the deafening roar of grenades made Axe's pointed ears ring. But with the 7th grenade that was launched, the shell detonated a meter too close to the Axe's machine, searing the armored vehicle's paint job.
"Alright, now you're just pissing me off!" squeezing a trigger built into the grips of his bike, a pair of short barrels arose from the sides of his vehicle and fired multiple canisters that exploded into several bright lights.
With his attacker blinded, Axe stretched out one hand and in his grip formed the Axe-guitar Gun. Solidifying out of golden musical notes, Axe aimed the neck of his weapon straight at the wheels of his target, one hand still steering his bike. In the distance, he could see that they were already reaching the borders of the city, there were no civilians in sight, and as he heard the ringing of his weapon telling him that he had now locked onto his target, he heard the whimsical strings of a violin suddenly echo through the air.
A violet energy bolt suddenly shot out from the corner of his eye and tore into the wheels of the armored truck, sending it veering out of control as he heard the two drivers scream at the top of their lungs. Within moments, the truck crashed onto one side with a loud metallic screech and skid to a complete stop on the side of road.
Braking a few meters away from the wrecked vehicle, Axe scanned his surroundings, but saw no signs of any other pursuer in the area, "Where the hell did that come from...?" kicking up his bike stand, Axe got off his ride and held onto one of the bike's grips tight before twisting it counter-clockwise thrice. In an instant, the Gold Presley began breaking down into mere bits of gold musical notes, the entire armored vehicle vanishing until it was no more than a pair of bike grips that joined together into a single baton.
Storing the baton on the back of his belt's strap, Axe heard the clattering of metal from the wrecked truck and saw its two inhabitants run out of the vehicle as soon as they had spotted him. They limped into a small alley and Axe pursued his injured targets with haste, his Axe-guitar Gun held in both hands.
Inside the alley, dumpsters filled with trash bags and numerous bits of garbage were everywhere in sight, the chains on Axe's coat jingling with each step he took as the two injured men found themselves cornered in a dead end. The head of his weapon resting on his shoulder, Axe scanned the two frightened men before barking at them, "I'm in a really bad mood right now, so if you two come along nicely, I won't have to break a few bones."
"Don't k-kill us! We'll tell you anything, I swear!" one of the men begged as he gripped his bleeding, twisted arm.
Axe furrowed his brow underneath his armored mask, his tail whipping behind him, "The hell are you guys talking about?"
The other injured man, already to the point of tears, proceeded to get on all fours, pleading, "W-We're telling the truth! Our boss' hideout is in the Mayleaf District! He's been paying off people so nobody would find out! P-Please! Just don't kill us!"
Tightly gripping the neck of his Axe-guitar Gun, Axe finally realized that the two had mistaken him for none other than that new vigilante that had been making runs in town. The sheer thought of it made his tail behind him only lash around in anger as the two cowered against the dead end they were stuck in. Still, while it brought bitter annoyance to the gold Rider, Axe had to wonder why they would confuse the new vigilante for him of all people?
Axe took a step forward, intending to get some answers out of the two, but before he could even take another step, once more he could hear the whimsical strings of a violin fill the air. It was a sound that was both pleasant and unnerving to hear, as the moment the two men heard it as well, they began shrieking in fright.
"What the-?"
In an instant, a pair of violet energy bolts surged through the air and cleaved the two men's heads clean from their shoulders. The two never saw it coming. Their heads dropping onto a puddle of water at their feet, their faces were stuck in perpetual fright as Axe froze right in front of their fallen bodies. Blood from their stumps began to pool beneath their corpses, and as Axe shot his attention towards the rooftops where the attack had originated, in half a second, Axe's boiling rage turned into eye-widening shock at the sight of none other than a Kamen Rider.
Clad in black with violet lines traveling around his tuxedo-like armor, gloved hands of white wielded a shield and cutlass styled after a violin and its accompanying bow. A pair of violet compound eyes staring down on Axe, the gold and white Rider's hands begun to shake while his tail completely froze. There was no mistaking it. The sight of a Symphony Gear made it clear as day.
"Greetings, Kamen Rider Axe," the violet Rider spoke in a voice that was both polite and disguised with a voice changer, "I know that was sudden, but they were-"
"Who the hell are you?!" Axe suddenly bellowed, causing the violet Rider to visibly flinch at his voice. One hand tightening into a fist, Axe pointed the head of his weapon straight at the violet Rider, "You...! You didn't have to kill those two! They already gave up, for God's sake!"
Completely silent at his words, the violet Rider turned his gaze away from Axe as his cutlass and shield vanished into violet musical notes, "I see. No wonder you were acting strangely. You... You're not who I thought you were after all," giving him one last glance, the violet Rider then stepped out of Axe's sight, leaving the gold Rider completely alone as the blood of two men reached his feet.
Dropping onto his knees, Axe threw his weapon against the concrete where it vanished into musical particles, the gold Rider gritting his teeth under his mask. He couldn't believe or even fathom was he had just witnessed. In all his years of protecting this town, this marked the very first encounter he had with another Kamen Rider. It was like a dream, or rather, a nightmare. Not only was there now another vigilante running through this town in the name of justice, but it was a Kamen Rider, just like him. One that did not hesitate to draw the blood of others.
Technology Behind the Rider Belts:
Though the story behind the creation of the Kamen Riders and their musical-themed belts remain a mystery to all but a few, their equipment, known as the Symphony Gears, are high-tech devices of unimaginable technology. With built-in Biometric scanners to prevent usage by anyone other than its registered users, the Symphony Gears are bound to their users and enhance their capabilities when not removed.
The earrings that the Riders don dictate the state of their Musical Forms. Without a Musical Note earring, a Rider would simply enter an emergency Blank Form as the earrings store the data of the Rider Form, the Symphony Gear being the device that projects said data into a solid form. Aside from suit of armor, the Gears of all Riders are able to summon a baton that can be separated in order to summon a vehicle tuned specifically to the Rider parameters stored within the earrings. Without an earring, the vehicle will instead be a simple motorcycle with balanced stats.
