Here ya are.
Ch2 - Getting Acquainted part 3
The Friend and The Zero
Gentarou woke from unconsciousness for the second time that day. This time though he was lying on a comfortable bed and he wasn't on fire. He rose slowly, wincing a little as he rubbed his sore head, and scanned his surroundings.
The room was quite spacious. Several white beds lined his side of the room separated by drawn-back curtains. The other side was a desk with some glass beakers, test tubes filed with some strange colored liquids, strange plants that Gentarou had never seen before, and a few opened books. A wooden bookcase stood next to the desk with stacks of books sitting around it, as the bookcase was already full.
"Looks kinda like the nurse's office." He mumbled to himself with a little laugh. He and Ryuusei ended up in Amanogawa High's version more times than he could count. They usually had to sneak in afterschool or else they had to find an excuse that the nurse would believe. Luckily, that ended when they got the Medical Switch to work. The Cosmic Energy filled syringe was as good as an entire hospital!
"You're awake!" A feminine voice next to him announced. Gentarou turned to source of the voice and saw a head of pink hair. He smiled.
"Louise! Hey!" he greeted with a little wave and a bright smile. "Uh, how long have I been out?"
"Only a few hours, luckily." She answered. "Wait right here, Sir Knight! I have to go tell the professors!" The girl stood up from her seat and made her way to the door. "They're just in the next room, so it won't be long!"
"Huh? Hey wait-!" But the girl had already gone from the room, her quick steps fading off. "Sir Knight?" Gentarou asked himself before shrugging, amused. Resolving to stretch his legs a little, he lifted the white blanket off his body and pushed himself off the bed and onto his feet. Stretching a little, Gentarou noticed that his body was pain-free aside from his slightly sore head, and even that was slowly fading.
"Whatever the nurse did sure worked great." Gentarou marveled as he placed his hands on his waist. That's when he noticed that a familiar weight feeling was missing. "The belt!" he exclaimed with panic, turning around several times as his eyes scanned the room.
"Something amiss, Sir Gentarou?" said a middle aged voice.
Snapping out of his short panic, Gentarou turned to the voice and was greeted by Louise, Colbert, a few other teachers, and, to his horror, the old man (now donning a full, flowing robe) who whacked him. Like any other sane man who had the displeasure of having something scary suddenly thrown into his face, he screamed and ducked under the nearest object he could find.
"... I told you he would do something like that when you came in, Headmaster." Colbert deadpanned, staring at the teen who peeked up fearfully from behind the bed with some sympathy. "You really should have thought before you acted..."
The Headmaster coughed into his hand. "Yes, well, how else would you react when you see over half of the Academy's treasures lying in flaming ruin?"
"I felt horrified," The professor admitted with frown. Oh, the delicious amount of research, studying, and discovery... all gone forever. It would have brought a tear to his eye had he not quickly dispelled the thoughts. "But I handled the situation with diplomacy and a sense of common decency."
"Bah! I'm willing to bet a few ecu that you were on the verge of turning your staff on him as well!"
"Now see here-!"
As the older men argued, much to the exasperation of the other teachers, Louise had slipped out of the group and walked behind Gentarou's hiding spot.
"Is he gonna hit me again?" the male student asked shakily as the girl stopped beside him.
"No, no." she replied, shaking her head, "we've explained that what happened with the tower was an accident and that you apologized." The girl crossed her arms and huffed and mumbled "Really, you would think that as the Headmaster, he would have handled the situation like a civilized member of nobility, not like some senile old man."
"... So it's safe to come out?"
The nod she gave him was reassuring and rested his fear of wooden staves and weird-bearded old men. Flashing his new friend a grateful smile, he stood up to his full height, an action that didn't go unnoticed by the teachers. Gentarou smiled his patented 'I wanna be friends with you' smile, though still wary of the Headmaster.
"Hi, uh, sorry about that scream," the male student laughed, "Oh, and thanks for carrying me over here after the... well, you know."
The Headmaster coughed shamefully into his hand. "I apologize profusely for my slight-" Colbert elbowed him. The older man gave the professor a glare who just shrugged before sighing. "Alright, my grave misunderstanding of the situation and coming to conclusions so quickly."
Gentarou beamed. "Nah, it's cool. It was kinda my fault your room got busted, anyway. Besides, I have a hard head!" He knocked his fist on his temple for emphasis. "I'm already fine, see!"
The Headmaster raised an eyebrow, amused. It was as Colbert and the teachers said; this... Kiserragi Gentah-roo was indeed an honest and magnanimous man, a breath of fresh air compared to many nobles of Tristain with their political manipulations and self serving attitudes. As a knight from a kingdom, country, or continent called 'Japan', he could have escalated this into a diplomatic incident and either force Tristain to pay for their slight or use it to break the fragile state of peace in Halkeginia, where any number of possibilities could rise. He didn't know how powerful this 'Japan' was, but if they could produce a Square Class Mage as young as this man before him, then they were a force he did not want to instigate. "So you are willing to forget this entire incident?"
"No, of course not!" Gentarou replied eagerly as the Headmaster's, as well as the other teachers' and Louise's, face fell.
'Damn, I knew it wouldn't be easy. I guess Colbert was wrong.' The Headmaster thought worriedly. With a sigh, he said, "Well, what is -"
"I mean, I broke the tower, least I could do is help fix it." Gentarou continued with a contemplative look.
The Headmaster's words fell from his mouth.
Realizing that he interrupted him, Gentarou asked, "Oh! Sorry, were you saying something?"
The headmaster quickly shook his head, waving his hand in the negative, "Oh, n-no, it's nothing, just an old man mumbling." A nod and a shrug were his reply. The Headmaster coughed into his hand again. "You say you want to help with the rebuilding?"
The student nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'm pretty good with fixing up bikes back home. Laying down some brick shouldn't be too hard."
Deciding to ask what a 'bike' was later, Colbert piped in, "While we appreciate the gesture, Sir Gentarou, but as a noble knight, we simply cannot allow you to lower yourself to using your magic for construction work."
Gentarou laughed, blushing a little at being addressed as a 'noble knight'. "Well, I don't know about that knight part, but I am pretty noble. Noble in both heart and spirit, man!" He pumped his fist onto his chest for emphasis. "Cause of that, I can't just let this whole thing go! It's my mess, I'll help fix it!" He pursed his lips when a thought came to him. "Actually, I guess you could say that I am a knight; we Kamen Riders are kinda like 'em, I guess."
Whispers of 'Kamen Rider' were heard between the teachers. Colbert had taken out a notepad and pencil from his robes and wrote the words neatly at the top of the page.
"Kamen... Rider?" Louise whispered, testing the foreign words on her lips. She didn't know what it was, but somehow, the words held... power.
"Kamen Rider... I am not familiar with this rank." The Headmaster admitted. "And I've lived and seen many things in my day. If you don't mind me asking, what is a Kamen Rider?"
At the question, Gentarou smiled widely, a shine sparkling in his eyes. "Kamen Riders are protectors of everyone, especially their friends! We're warriors of justice who beat up bad guys that try to hurt people!"
Some of the teachers traded confused looks with each other. The description was rather... childish. Warriors of justice who beat up bad guys? Really?
But the Headmaster wasn't affected like the teachers were. In fact, the statement only caused him to chuckle. There was a nostalgic twinkle in his eye. "A warrior of justice? Ah, that brings me back to my youth. The good old days..." Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the Headmaster re-focused on Gentarou. "Judging by your words, I assume Kamen Riders are some kind of special faction of knights dedicated to keeping your country safe?"
"Not just the country," Gentarou replied, his grin widening, "but the whole world too, if it comes down to it."
This time the Headmaster was as dumfounded as the teachers.
"... Surely that's an exaggeration, Sir Gentarou," Colbert managed to get out.
Gentarou shook his head. "I wouldn't kid about something like that. Like I said, I was about to stop my old school chairman from destroying the world. Before that we had trouble with two Space Ironmen who took over a giant satellite and held the whole world hostage. And before that, there was a guy that wanted to take over the world with an army of replicated monsters. And before that, there was this alchemist, snake, person that also wanted to take over the world and did it by putting parts of several different cities in the past. Oh, those last two, I had help from some of my Rider buddies! Anyway, and then there was the time-"
The Headmaster quickly raised a hand. "I think we get the picture, Sir Gentarou."
Taking a deep breath, Gentarou gave the older man a relieved look, "Awesome, because I was running out of breath there."
If the teachers and Louise were confused before, then they were absolutely dumfounded now. Everything the knight said bordered on delusional fantasy from a novel! Regardless of how honest the young man was, there was no way this was all true! A single school chairman threatened to destroy the world? Two beings who somehow managed to take the entire world hostage? A man who had an army of monsters? Such things were just too ludicrous to believe. And surely, if there was some kind of event that threatened the whole world, Halkeginia would know about it!
And more importantly, there was no way that these Kamen Riders were powerful enough to stop threats on the level the young man was describing if they were somehow actually true.
"Yeah, at first I had a bit of a tough time believing all that too," Gentarou said aloud, crossing his arms with a thoughtful furrow of his brow. Everyone looked at him. Did he know they didn't believe him? "But you know," he continued, "that's how crazy my life's been ever since I put on my belt and- AH!"
Everyone's hearts leapt to their throats at the male student's scream.
"That's right! My belt! Where is it!?" Everyone watched worriedly with slight amusement as the young man spun in place, head turning everywhere. He placed his hands and Louise's shoulders and shook frantically. "Louise!? Have you seen it!?"
"W-A-AA-A-A-A-AAH!" Louise yelled, her own hands trying, and failing, to pry him off.
"It's right there, Sir Gentarou." The Headmaster said blandly, his finger pointing to the object.
The young man stopped and released Louise, the girl shakily trying to get her bearings. Gentarou followed the Headmaster's finger and found the Fourze Driver sitting on the small desk right next to his bed. His face lit up as he moved past the off-balance Louise, grabbed the belt, and strapped it around his waist. He patted the clunky thing happily, feeling like himself again. "Thanks! I wouldn't know what I would've done if I lost this thing!"
Everyone stared at him with deadpan expressions. 'It was right there...' their faces said.
The Headmaster pointed to the belt and said, "That is a curious looking belt, Sir Gentarou. And with the way you reacted to missing it, I assume that it holds significant value?"
"Heck yeah! The Fourze Driver and I have been through a heck of a lot of stuff together." He exclaimed, patting the belt again. "Oh, and call me Gentarou. I'm gonna make everyone here my friends eventually, so let's start on the first name basis stuff now rather than later!"
The headmaster raised his eyebrows. "Gentarou is your first name? I was informed that it was Kisser-agi."
"It's Kisaragi, sir." Gentarou corrected. "In Japan, we say our family names first, then our given names."
"I see. Very well, Gentarou," the Headmaster replied, chuckling a bit before focusing on the belt once more. "So it's called the Fourze Driver... judging by how it looks, it's not just any ordinary belt, is it?"
Gentarou nodded. "It's what I use to become Kamen Rider Fourze!"
"You mean that armor that you had on?" Colbert piped in, an academic glint in the corner of his eye. At the teen's nod, the professor stepped forward, scribbling in his notebook furiously. "Fascinating! So you are saying that your armor comes from the belt? How is that possible?"
Gentarou shrugged. "I don't really know all the fancy, high-tech stuff about how the belt works. I just flip the Switches and transform."
"Ah yes, Switches. You mentioned them back in the tower. They're those things there, yes?" the professor asked, pointing at the four trinkets slotted into the belt.
Smiling, Gentarou removed the orange-colored one from the belt and held it up for the professor to see. "This one's called the Rocket Switch. It gives me this huge orange rocket on my arm and lets me fly." Everyone marveled at the device, the bespectacled man making rough sketches of it in his notebook.
"Rocket Switch... allows you to fly? Amazing!" Colbert said. "What of the other three? Wait, no, there was one that encased your leg, may we see that one?"
Nodding, Gentarou removed the yellow and black Switch. "This one's the Drill Switch. It-" an odd rumbling sound interrupted him, wet and gurgling. Gentarou placed a hand on his stomach. "Uh... Wow. Thanks to that I just realized how hungry I was... I only had some soup for lunch, I think..."
The Headmaster smiled mirthfully. "Luckily for you, it's nearing dinner time." Turning to the teachers, he said, "We shall continue this discussion at a later date. For now, shall we head to the dining hall?"
As always, please leave some reviews or critique on your way out.