Kamen Rider War Side Stories Arc 1: The Chaos Insurgency

by maxpower02

Tie-in prequel with NecroGod's Kamen Rider War. The Chaos Insurgency has always been known as a dangerous mercenary group in Tokusat City, but how did these 5 people meet each other and fight together? And why did they fight? Find out the answers in this first arc of the Kamen Rider War Side Stories!

6. Chan and Sunny (Death of a Sisterhood)

A/N: 'Sup everyone? maxpower02 here, I'm done with my finals for the first quarter of fall semester, and I'm going to bring to you guys Chapter 6 of Kamen Rider War Side Stories Arc 1: The Chaos Insurgency! As usual, I'm going to start things off with replying the reviews my beloved readers has sent to me! I have three new reviews from Kamen rider Lord, Gadget the Critic, and AdamJY, and I'm really thankful for their positive reviews! For Kamen rider Lord, funny that you mention about Yutaka Kobayashi's Unperfected World being the ending theme for the planned OOO side story, since it is going to be the ending of this side story as well, what a coincidence lol. To Gadget, thank you once again for allowing me to use Nick Gishi and to show my gratitude I'm going to cameo two more of your OCs here…plus you mentioned about why Nick and his friends are rivals with the Chaos Insurgency and my friend, one of the reasons is going to be in this chapter (and the chapter after it!). To AdamJY, good luck with your Haila side story and I'm looking forward to reading it! Just tell me when it's done and where do you upload it and I'll spare some time to read it!

Now, regarding Chapter 6. Anyone saw Gaim Gaiden Knuckle? No one? Well I had and I can say that a few aspects on this chapter are going to be slightly similar to it, just to warn you guys before you sue me for being "unoriginal" lol xDD. After having a 3rd person point of view on Chapter 5, Chapter 6 will revert back into a first person point of view story, being told from the perspective of none other than Tran Ngo "Chan" Thuy Trang (with a slight switch to a 3rd person view in the middle of the story) and another slight warning from me – some of the action in this chapter are bloodier and gorier than the rest of the chapters in this story and be prepared for an emotional roller-coaster because I'm going to kill off a Rider in this chapter!

P.S. I strongly recommend you to read NecroGod's Kamen Rider War before you read this. Otherwise you wouldn't get the story :p

Alright, without further ado, here we go!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider or any other series that I crossover.

xxx

"Argh!"

A green armored warrior was thrown onto the ground, groaning in pain as it lands on its right shoulder on the cold pavement. The warrior had red accents on its green chest armor as well as its green gauntlets and shin-guards, while golden armor covers the shoulder pads, a red spike sticking out from right shoulder. A red loincloth is wrapped around the warrior's waist, while a green skirt with golden highlights is also worn around the warrior's waist, held together by a bronze belt. The belt's buckle was colored in a deep purple, circular in shape and with a pinkish symbol engraved to it, the symbol resembling three flower petals. The warrior's helmet is black in color, lacking any eyes, visor, or mouth-guard whatsoever, but with a two-toned ornamental decoration engraved on the facial area, colored green on the left and red on the right. A pair of curved horns are seen sticking out from the sides of the helmet, with the red left horn being significantly longer than the green right one, while a small bronze ornament resembling a demon's face is engraved on the warrior's forehead.

Kamen Rider Kabuki breathed heavily as it slowly stood up, despite lacking any eyes or visor, one can sense the angry glare that the warrior is giving out to its opponent who had just thrown it to the ground a few seconds ago.

"Jack!" a female voice called.

Kabuki slowly turned around to see another armored warrior running towards it, colored mostly aqua blue and themed after a grasshopper with silver and black patches on the armor and yellow eyes, a black belt with a circular silver buckle with an aqua blue center is present around the second warrior's waist.

"Lily," Kabuki spoke in a male voice as the second warrior, Kamen Rider Aqua, catches up to him, "This guy's one tough fish, huh?"

Aqua nodded, "Even with the two of us fighting together, he's still too strong for us, as expected from such an experienced fighter in this war."

"You losers done talking?"

Kabuki and Aqua turned their attention towards their opponent, a light blue shark-themed warrior with a large shark-shaped gauntlet on the left arm and a shark-themed helmet with multiple gill slit-like visors, a V-Buckle with a teal blue Advent Deck with a golden shark symbol on it is present around the warrior's waist.

"Can't believe I'm wasting 15 minutes fighting you losers," the warrior, Kamen Rider Abyss, continued, his tone condescending, "But then again…a slow and painful execution is better than a quick one."

Abyss slowly took out a card from his Advent Deck, chuckling maniacally as he displayed the card for both Kabuki and Aqua to see, the card depicting his shark symbol against a teal blue background.

"Time for you two to burn in Hell," Abyss said, inserting the card into his shark-shaped gauntlet, called the Abyss Visor.

FINAL VENT!

A huge splash was heard as a huge mechanical gunmetal and light blue shark jumped out of a large lake near the three Riders, its yellow eyes extending out from its sockets to reveal a pair of machine guns hidden within them, giving out an illusion of a hammerhead shark's head. The shark immediately flew towards Abyss, floating next to its master.

"Abyssodon, make sure to leave no remains," Abyss said to his Contract Monster.

Letting out a roar as a sign of obedience to its master, Abyssodon immediately opened fire at both Kabuki and Aqua, peppering the two Riders in heavy gunfire that covered them in a huge explosion. Abyss lets out a maniacal chuckle as he enjoyed the explosion in front of him, certain that Abyssodon's gunfire has finished off both Kabuki and Aqua. But as the flames died out, Abyss was taken aback by the sight in front of him.

"What the fuck?! It can't be!"

The flames died out to reveal a black Mercedes-AMG GT with blue TRON-style lines emblazoned all across its body, the vehicle relatively unscratched despite receiving the full brunt of Abyssodon's heavy gunfire. The car then slowly turned around, facing both Abyss and his Contract Monster as two holographic turrets materializes on its bonnet, before it proceeds to fire several electric blue laser blasts that successfully knock Abyss on his back while at the same time sending Abyssodon retreating back into the lake.

Both Kabuki and Aqua, both unharmed thanks to the Mercedes' sudden appearance, looked on in both disbelief and gratitude as the car's occupants slowly emerged out from the vehicle.

Nick Gishi stepped out from the car's passenger door, a Sengoku Driver present around his waist, its Rider Indicator being replaced by a rectangular indent similar to the ones found on Minh and Wind's Genesis Drivers.

Meanwhile, stepping out from the car's driver side is the bob-haired young woman; a determined look is displayed on her face while an equally determined Belt-san is secured on her waist.

"Hiro Matkuni!" Nick spoke out, pointing at the downed Abyss as he slowly stepped forward, "My name is Nick Gishi and this is my partner, Nguyen Minh Trang. We are from Nexus, an organization dedicated in eradicating the injustices in this world…and our clients would like to have your head."

"Fuck you," Abyss spat out as he slowly stood up, "You…you've interrupted my hunt. But it doesn't matter. I've had it with those losers and you guys looked strong. Entertain me and I promise you…you will savor your deaths."

"I'd take that challenge gladly," Nick smirked, taking out his pomegranate-themed Lockseed, the Zakuro Lockseed. But he didn't stop there – Nick's left hand then proceeds to take out another Lockseed from his pocket, this time themed after an orange. Colored blood red, it has the code L.S-07 emblazoned in black on it.

Grabbing a futuristic-looking toy car, colored black with electric blue lines on the front and yellow with red lines on the back from the car's dashboard, Minh Trang turned her attention towards both Kabuki and Aqua, who are still speechless at the sight of their saviors.

"Jack Hireshima and Lily Viffer, I presume?" Minh Trang asked, receiving two nods from both Kabuki and Aqua as a response, "You two can go now. We'll deal with this bully."

"Thank you so much for saving us." Aqua said in gratitude, before she and Kabuki made a quick getaway from the location.

With both Aqua and Kabuki safe and away from the battlefield, Minh Trang quickly twists her toy car, called the Shift Next Special, before inserting the car's black and blue front side on a silver and black brace wrapped on her left wrist by a red strap, the Shift Brace. At the same time, Nick unlocks both of his Lockseeds.

ZAKURO!

BLOOD ORANGE!

"Alright!" exclaimed Belt-san, eager to jump into battle as quickly as possible but still retaining his cool, "Start our mission!"

"Henshin!" both Nick and Minh Trang yelled, and while Nick places his Zakuro Lockseed on his Sengoku Driver and his Blood Orange Lockseed on the rectangular indent next to it, Minh Trang quickly pumped her Shift Next Special once.

LOCK ON!

DRIVE! TYPE…NEXT!

Orchestral rock music plays as an electric blue holographic cylinder appeared around Minh Trang, black armor pieces materializing within the cylinder before they attach themselves on the young woman's body.

Meanwhile, having secured his Lockseeds in place, Nick sliced his Zakuro Lockseed once with his Cutting Blade, opening both it and the Blood Orange Lockseed. Strangely enough, no music was heard when Nick installed his Lockseeds onto his Driver.

HA! ZAKURO ARMS! KURUIZAKI SACRIFICE! HA! BLOOD ORANGE ARMS! JA NO MICHI ON STAGE!

A black and silver Ride Wear was materialized around Nick's body as several blood red Armor Part fragments appeared around him, the fragments attaching themselves on the head, chest, and shoulders.

Minh Trang's own transformation has finished, the cylinder has disappeared to reveal a black Rider in Minh Trang's place, electric blue lines are emblazoned on her body while her helmet is completely black in color, with the exception of an electric blue circuit line running along the forehead to meet the silver R symbol on the forehead, a blue visor that resembled stylish sunglasses protecting the eyes. An energy tire was formed from the car behind the transformed Minh Trang, before it immediately flew towards her, resting on her upper torso in a diagonal manner with the tire's tread grooves highlighted in yellow and the word Type Next is inscribed on the black surface.

Nguyen Minh Trang has transformed into the enforcer from 2035, Kamen Rider Dark Drive!

Nick's armor resembled a disturbing mix between a European knight and a Japanese samurai, whilst the helmet resembled that of a knight's, its completely blood red coloration made it difficult to see its sinister-looking visor which is also blood red in color, blood red bandages are seen hanging from the mouth-guard. The right shoulder armor and chest armor resembled that of a European knight's with a slight similarity to Idunn's Ringo Arms armor, only dyed in a sinister blood red coloration with a few black spots on the chest. The left shoulder armor is radically different than the rest since it resembled a Japanese samurai's, colored blood red with black flame markings on it, and to finish off the Rider's look is a tattered blood red and black cloth hanging over the left thigh region. On Nick's right hand is a blood orange-themed scimitar called the Daidaimaru; while on his left hand is a black and red bow weapon called the Savior Arrow.

Nick Gishi has transformed into the sinister-looking Kamen Rider Savior, ready to dish out punishment to his opponent.

"Bastard!" Abyss cursed, charging forward with a punch only for Savior to welcome the incoming attack with a powerful slash with both of his weapons, sending Abyss stumbling back with a huge shower of sparks coming out from his chest where Savior's weapons had hit him.

Dark Drive took out her own personal weapon, a black dagger/gun hybrid with a silver and blue blade called the Blade Gunner, before charging into battle, firing several rounds that hit the dazed Abyss on the chest, before inflicting even more damage on the shark Rider by slashing him across the torso with the Blade Gunner's dagger blade.

Abys stumbled back, chuckling maniacally as he takes out another card from his Advent Deck with a metallic shark head firing off several bubbles etched on it.

"I have to admit you guys are better than those losers," Abyss chuckled as he inserted the card into his Abyss Visor, "But I'm still going to send you two to Hell!"

STRIKE VENT!

Now armed with a shark head-shaped gauntlet called the Abyssmash, Abyss lets loose with several blasts of explosive bubbles from the weapon, blasting the incoming Dark Drive on the chest and stunning the black and blue Rider. Seeing that his friend is in trouble, Savior quickly went towards Abyss, trying to land a slash with his Daidaimaru only for Abyss to fire a jet of pressurized water from the Abysssmash right on Savior's chest, sending the Armored Rider flying back.

"Hmph, is that what you got?" Abyss taunted as he slowly clamped the jaws of his Abyssmash onto Savior's right shoulder, forcing the Rider to his feet, before a punch from the Abyss Visor was delivered onto Savior's gut, earning a groan of pain from the pomegranate Rider, "Pathetic. I expected more from you."

Tossing Savior aside, Abyss then fired a jet of pressurized water at an incoming Dark Drive, stunning the Rider again before Abyss punched Dark Drive several times on the torso with both the Abyssmash and the Abyss Visor, a swift roundhouse kick to the head finishing off the combo.

Before Abyss could do anything else with the two Riders however, a flying kick suddenly struck Abyss on the head, knocking the shark Rider on the ground. Both Savior and Dark Drive smiled underneath their helmets as they knew that their third member has come to save them.

Kamen Rider Specter landed on the ground confidently, slowly standing up as she cracks her knuckles with Savior and Dark Drive joining her side.

"Ayano, you're late," Savior said.

"Sorry about that," Specter smirked underneath her helmet, "I had to go to Wajima District to deal with the crisis there and thankfully everything's under control. Now, what do we have here?"

"Hiro Matkuni, Kamen Rider Abyss," replied Dark Drive, "Before we were tasked to spy on Pham Vu To Quyen, we were tasked to take out this guy, remember?"

"Ah yes, how can I forgot about that," Specter lets out a brief chuckle, "That's one of our older missions, right? Guess I forgot all about it."

Abyss slowly stood up, an angry growl can be heard coming out of him. He quickly drew out another card from his Advent Deck and inserts it into his Abyss Visor.

ADVENT!

A pair of green shark humanoids jumped out from the lake where Abyssodon had come out earlier, one based on a great white while the other one is based on a hammerhead. The two humanoids then flanked Abyss, ready to serve their master.

"Evening out the odds, eh?" Savior commented, "Well, time for us to put our game faces on. Ladies, prepare your finishers."

Savior sliced his Lockseeds once, while Dark Drive pressed a button on her Shift Brace and Specter pulls the lever on her Ghost Driver once.

HA! ZAKURO SQUASH! HA! BLOOD ORANGE SQUASH!

HISSATSU!

DAI KAIGAN!

Dark Drive pumped her Shift Next Special once as Specter pushes the lever on her Ghost Driver.

FULL THROTTLE! NEXT!

SPECTER OMEGA DRIVE!

The three Riders jumped into the air, assuming flying side kick poses as energy slices of pomegranate and blood orange alternating with each other appearing in front of Savior's boot, while at the same time blue energy surged throughout Dark Drive and Specter's bodies, a huge blue eye insignia appearing from the back of the latter, before the energies were channeled towards the boots of Dark Drive and Specter.

Seeing the incoming Rider Kicks, Abyss immediately rallied his Contract Monsters to defend him from the attacks, hoping that they would lessen the damage that he would receive. And boy he was dead wrong.

Dark Drive's kick plowed through Abyssslasher (the great white-themed monster) while Specter's kick impacted against Abysshammer (the hammerhead-themed monster)'s chest, both Rider Kicks sending both Contract Monsters flying into the air much to Abyss' horror, before the two Contract Monsters crashed into the lake from which they came from in a huge splash.

Abyss didn't have time to react even further though, as Savior's kick came crashing down on his chest, sending him flying as well, but unlike his Contract Monsters, Abyss was thrown against a nearby tree by the impact of the kick, causing his Advent Deck to slide off his V-Buckle as he slumped to the ground, his armor breaking away revealing a 19-year old young man with brown hair and green eyes wearing a teal V-neck sweater underneath a hoodie with a wave pattern, black shorts, and a pair of red sneakers.

A bruised Hiro Matkuni lets out an angry glare at the three Riders standing in front of him as he picked up his Advent Deck, pocketing it as he struggled to stand up.

"I…I won't forget this you bastards!" Hiro cursed as he had finally managed to regain footing, before he proceeds to limp away from the battlefield, defeated and humiliated.

Savior smirked underneath his helmet as Hiro limped away from his sight, pleased that for now Abyss has been dealt with, "I guess we can say…mission accomplished, eh?"

"That's right," replied Belt-san, "Now, let's shift our focus to our current mission at hand. We need to show the photographs that Nick took at the Daitenkuji to our client, to prove to him that his ex-girlfriend is still alive. Do you have any idea where our client is right now?"

"Well, he usually hangs out at…" Nick was about to finish his sentence when he was cut off by a loud clapping sound, attracting his, Dark Drive (Belt-san included), and Specter's attentions.

Emerging out from a nearby bush is a young woman, aged around 19. She has a medium build with white skin and shoulder length red hair as well as a pair of glasses on her face; right now she is wearing a beige sweater, a black skirt with dark brown leggings, and pink sneakers. Strapped around her waist is a Sengoku Driver, with a yellow belt as opposed to Nick's silver one, an image of a white Japanese samurai helmet is visible on the Rider Indicator.

"Otsukaresamadeshita (good job)," the woman said in fluent Japanese as she approaches the three Riders, a smirk can be seen on her face, "You've defeated Hiro Matkuni, one of the most ruthless Riders in this war. That means you three are strong…"

The young woman then took out a light green melon-themed Lockseed, coded L.S-04.

"…but are you strong enough to fight alongside me? Let me test your strength. Henshin," the woman said, hitting the switch on her Melon Lockseed.

MELON!

The woman threw her Lockseed into the air as a Crack opens up above her, a metallic light green muskmelon descending down from it. Quickly the woman catches her Lockseed and places it on her Sengoku Driver.

LOCK ON!

Japanese horagai music was played from the woman's Sengoku Driver as the metallic muskmelon slowly aligned itself with the woman's head, before the woman quickly slices her Lockseed open with her Cutting Blade.

SOIYA! MELON ARMS! TENKA GOMEN!

The metallic muskmelon dropped onto the woman's shoulders, creating a white Ride Wear with dull gold patches on the shoulder while at the same time a Japanese samurai-themed helmet was created within the muskmelon. The muskmelon then folds open, forming the chest, back, and shoulder armors as they snapped themselves onto place, creating a splash of light green energy as a green muskmelon-themed shield was formed on the woman's left hand, the woman's dull gold visor glowing for a few seconds to signal the transformation's completion.

Immediately taking out a black and yellow katana with a gun on its hilt from its holster on her left hip, the woman pointed the weapons at the three Riders in front of her, "I am the one who will slay the moon…Kamen Rider…Zangetsu!"

My name is Tran Ngo Thuy Trang, 19 years old. People around me call me Chan, but my best friends call me "Cow," probably because of my rather sizeable assets. I'm from Vietnam, the city of Da Nang to be exact, one of the country's most picturesque cities. Just a few days ago, my best friend and I are living the university student life in Japan, but in a matter of a few days, our lives changed forever. We were forced to fight to survive in this "war between Kamen Riders" and in the process…I lost my best friend because of my weakness. Now, I've been traveling around my new home, fighting a lot of Riders to seek the ones strong enough to fight alongside me to avenge my best friend's death, but unfortunately I haven't found any yet. Now, let me tell you the story of how my life has changed so far, all the way from that fateful day…

xxx

KAMEN RIDER WAR – THE SIDE STORIES

xxx

(Cue Opening: Virtue and Vice – Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas)

(Instrumentals) The screen opens to reveal a close-up of Kamen Rider Baron. As the guitar begins to riff, the screen alternates between shots of Baron's gauntlets, chest armor, shoulders, back, and Sengoku Driver, before the drum begins to play with the story title appearing in front of a silhouetted Baron, with silhouettes of Duke and Marika standing on Baron's right side, and silhouettes of Zangetsu and Sigurd standing on Baron's left side. A scream was heard as Baron's silhouette raises his Banaspear and slashes the title, rushing into battle with the other four Riders flanking him.

(Don't know what's being misunderstood, missiles flying children getting shot) Krishna kicked and punched several Elementary Inves at an empty stage, with white strobe lights flashing as he does so, before it ends with Krishna brandishing his Banana Lockseed at the screen.

(Swindles everywhere, people who should be the most loved ones, killing each other) Chan and Meika standing back to back with each other in front of an orange screen before they walked in opposite directions as a red line began to split the screen, focusing on the girls' stoic faces before focusing on the Melon Lockseed in Chan's hand and Cherry Energy Lockseed in Meika's, before the line slides itself in a diagonal position and splits the screen open to show Wind relaxing underneath a tree, playing the Peach Energy Lockseed in her hand.

(Once you keep an eye off, things get stolen) The scene shifts to Minh lying in a rather "suggestive" position in a pool of blood, the camera scrolling up from her legs towards her body before reaching her head, the scene then switches to a close-up of Minh's face, her expressionless eyes staring at the Lemon Energy Lockseed in her right hand, a few patches of blood tainting the object.

(The world is like this, the world that we don't know, the unknown world) The scene switches to an abandoned storage room, with an office table lying in the middle of the room. Two is seen tinkering with her laptop on the table, before she slowly looked up towards the camera, before the scene fades to Kamen Rider Idunn standing against a black background, with the camera filming Idunn's right side, before it switches towards Idunn's front side, with a shroud of grey covering her entire left side. The camera slowly zooms towards Idunn's head which was looking down, before she suddenly lifts up her head, her visor glowing.

(Out of our hands, it doesn't matter, covering up, acting like you don't see a thing) The scene then changes to Nozomi walking down an alleyway alone on the way to school, before it switches to Nozomi sitting idly as her friends chatted around her, looking out the window as she stared at the clear blue sky outside.

(If you think it's a different thing, you won't notice that the world you live in is) The scene then switched to the Chaos Insurgency's hideout, where Krishna is staring the clear blue sky from the window of the hideout, while his teammates are busy playing darts on the background. Suddenly an alert message flashed onto Krishna's Y-Gear, prompting everyone to run out of the hideout.

(Instrumentals) Shots of the Chaos Insurgency members running are shown frame by frame, each lit by a different color (red for Krishna, blue for Minh, pink for Wind, white for Chan, green for Meika, and yellow for Two).

(Look at it, oh yeah!) The scene switches to Kamen Rider Mars stepping out towards a large plaza, several Dark Riders are seen behind him.

(The world is all linked together) Krishna and the other Chaos Insurgency members ran up towards the incoming Dark Riders, with their Lockseeds in their hands and their Drivers on their waists. Krishna exchanged looks with his teammates, before he unlocks his Banana Lockseed as the screen fades into yellow.

(Save our loved ones and the world (hey hey because breaking)) Kamen Riders Sigurd and Gaoh clashed together as Kamen Rider Idunn takes on Kamen Rider Tyrant, both Riders using their Sonic Arrow and Sword Bringer respectively to counter their opponents' respective weapons.

((down the piled wood castle is easy) These peaceful days lasting is a wish) Kamen Rider Zangetsu defends herself with her Melon Defender from an incoming slash courtesy of Kamen Rider Yuuki, before slashing the skeleton Rider with her Musou Saber.

(hey hey these peaceful days, continuing is just like a wish) Kamen Rider Marika is engaged in a shootout with Kamen Rider Psyga, while Kamen Rider Duke takes on Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto in a melee brawl.

(Because I have no idea, how many tickets "to live today" are left) Kamen Riders Baron and Mars rushed towards each other, performing identical Rider Punches towards one another that sends them stumbling backwards.

(Even at the time when you were playing cards, somewhere in this world) As the Dark Riders falter back, the Chaos Insurgency Riders gather around, with the Genesis Riders huddling behind Baron, who uses his Banana Sparking to energize his Banaspear. He then stabs the Banaspear onto the ground, creating a series of energy bananas that skewers the Dark Riders as the screen fades into white.

(Somebody is crying) The scene flashes from white to show Kamen Rider Gaim Yami leading a group of Riders towards the Chaos Insurgency Riders. Baron slowly made his way towards Gaim Yami, the two Riders reaching their hands towards each other, before they finally touch as the scene fades into white and the song ends.

xxx

Arc I: The Chaos Insurgency

Chapter VI: Chan and Sunny ~Death of a Sisterhood~

As told from Chan's point of view (and a little bit of a 3rd person's point of view as well)

xxx

A week earlier…

"Ne, Sunny, do you think they will find Krishna and Two soon?"

It has been a few days since my classmates Krishna Sadhana and Nguyen Phuoc "Two" Khanh Linh has gone missing. That and the revelation that there were several other students in our university that went missing but got unreported prior to Krishna and Two's disappearance has made security around our campus tightened significantly and curfews being imposed on our dormitory's residents, myself included. Thanks to that curfew, my best friend Nguyen Duong "Sunny" Minh Anh and I are unable to go out to town to enjoy our girls' night out that we've been planning for days. Instead, Sunny and I are in our respective rooms, talking to each other via our iPhones to kill time.

"Dunno," replied Sunny's voice from the other side of the line, "But I hope they'll find them soon…man, this curfew sucks!"

"Totally," I said, "Can't believe our plan went down the drain just like that…but then again, we don't know exactly how those students disappeared, so probably the university folks are not taking their chances now."

"True, true…" Sunny said, before a slight sigh was heard, "Let's hope the authorities could find the missing students ASAP. This curfew thing is killing me. I wanna enjoy Beppu's nightlife scene, god damn it!"

"Hopefully," I chuckled a bit, "Otherwise they're going to face a really really pissed of Sunny."

My best friend laughed upon hearing that, "Alright Cow, it's getting kinda late now. I need to get some beauty sleep for my dance practice tomorrow. Good night!"

"Night too, Sunny," I playfully blew a kiss to my iPhone before I hung up.

Placing my iPhone on my desk, I slowly went over towards my laptop, scrolling through the folder before I found one with the name "Kamen Rider Movies." Yeah, you guessed it. I'm a sucker for things related to Kamen Rider, thanks to my Tokyo homestay host introducing me to it back when I was in 10th grade. At first I only watched the series for its cute guys. Come on, it's normal, okay? Don't judge me. My first Kamen Rider series happens to be the one with (in my opinion) the cutest protagonist ever – Shu Watanabe as Eiji Hino in Kamen Rider OOO. His cheerful personality and eagerness to sacrifice himself for the sake of others has left a lasting mark on my mind and instantly he became my favorite character.

Eventually over time I watched many other Kamen Rider series other than OOO and instead of checking out the ikemen-looking protagonists, I began to follow their respective plots. And I have to say…for a show aimed for children, the plots of many Kamen Rider series are quite deep, complex, and even dark. Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, and Gaim takes the cake for being some of the darkest Kamen Rider series that I've watched, standing out from the likes of Den-O which is completely aimed at children. While other girls back in Da Nang watched K-drama or Vietnamese soap operas, I instead collect Lockseeds and watched Kouta Kazuraba's transformation from a normal everyday guy to a physical god. Thankfully my friends didn't poke fun of me because of this – occasionally I watched K-dramas as well with them, but not as often as watching Kamen Rider shows on my laptop.

Alright, where was I? Oh yes. After finishing my night conversation with Sunny, I've decided to watch a Kamen Rider movie to close up my somewhat boring Saturday night. The Internet connection here in Japan is really fast compared to back home, which enabled me to download numerous movies by the dozen. It's only been a few months since I arrived in the land of the rising sun, and already I've downloaded almost all of the Heisei Kamen Rider movies, one of them is going to be watched by yours truly tonight.

'Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max…perfect,' I thought as I clicked on the file with the said title as its name, opening up the VLC Player app on my laptop before displaying the familiar Toei Productions logo.

As the movie enters its opening scenes, I lied myself on my bed, my mind slowly drifting away as I looked back at my life so far. This is my second visit to Japan after my 2 week homestay in Tokyo during my 10th grade years and frankly I have to thank my host family for teaching me so many things about Japan. My excellent Japanese skills have wowed both my teachers and my classmates and I've been brushing up on my Japanese history in the library during my spare time. My major is Japanese Economy and I have to say from the introductory course that I took; it's going to be one easy piece of cake.

With the movie now entering the OOO portion, I watched on from my bed as Eiji Hino shows up, fighting off several mummy-like kaijins before taking on an evil-looking Kamen Rider. The Rider wears a black bodysuit, while its helmet is cyan in color, based on a shark with a pair of yellow eyes. The shoulder pads and torso armor are navy blue in color, based on a whale with a whale's head on the right shoulder and a whale's fluke on the left. On the Rider's chest is an inverted triangle split into three sections, with a cyan shark on the right, a navy blue whale on the left, and a crimson wolf fish on the bottom. Around its waist was a silver belt, its buckle circular in shape and rimmed with gold while three colorful coin-like objects called Core Medals are embedded in it, arranged in the same way as the triangle on the Rider's chest with the cyan blue Core Medal on the right, the navy blue Medal on the left, and the crimson Medal on the bottom. Red armor decorates the Rider's hips, hanging down to its thighs, with the same armor covering the Rider's shins. Finally, on the Rider's right hand is a red, harpoon-like weapon. This is Kamen Rider Poseidon, one of the main antagonists of the movie. Wielding his Deepest Harpoon, the Rider slowly approaches Eiji.

"So, you're Kamen Rider OOO?" asked the Rider in a menacing tone. But before Eiji could say anything, Poseidon swung his Deepest Harpoon at the young man, sending him flying.

"Eiji!" I called out Eiji's name, only to slap myself on the forehead after I said that, realizing that I've just made a fool out of myself. He's a fictional character, Chan! There's no way he could have heard you!

Suddenly a beeping noise was heard from my laptop and a Skype dialog box suddenly popped up on the screen, obscuring the movie much to my frustration.

"Who is it this time," I sighed as I reached for my laptop, clicking on my VLC's pause button to pause the movie before clicking on the dialog box.

You see, ever since I arrived in Japan I've received a lot of "fan mail" from both my friends and anonymous accounts on Skype. Apparently life's tough if you have an attractive look and sizeable assets, as most of these "fan mails," especially from anonymous accounts, are guys trying to get into my pants. Please, this is 2015; girls like me won't fall easily for such cheap tricks like that from you guys.

As I suspect, the new Skype message that I got is from an anonymous account, but instead of the usual perverted messages that these creeps has been sending me lately (seriously, someone even sent me a picture of his d*ck. No kidding), I was surprised to find four words written in black plain font displayed in front of me.

You have been chosen.

Just those four words. No dirty texts. No disturbing images. No cheesy flirting. Just those four words.

'Must be a prank message, or someone trying to call the wrong person,' I thought, dismissing the Skype message immediately.

Closing my Skype for good in order to avoid any other disturbances, I resumed my movie, lying back on my bed as I enjoyed the action-packed fight between Poseidon against Eiji's Kamen Rider form, Kamen Rider OOO, and a cyan blue Kamen Rider named Aqua.

Slowly, as the fight went on, my eyes became heavy, a quiet yawn escaping my mouth before I closed my eyes, my mind drifting into sleep with OOO and Aqua finishing off Poseidon with their respective Rider Kicks being the last thing that I saw.

And indeed, that is the last thing that I saw, because the moment I opened my eyes the next day, my life as I know it will change forever.

xxx

"Cow, wake up. Cow, wake up! COW, WAKE UP!"

My eyes shot open immediately as I woke up from my slumber, with the first thing that I saw being a 19-year old young woman with a medium yet athletic built, black eyes and chin-length dark brown hair styled in a bob shaking my body in a successful attempt to wake me up. My mind instantly recognized the young woman in front of me, especially with that familiar black sleeveless shirt, blue torn-up denim jeans, and black sneakers that she's wearing right now.

"Sunny?" I asked, confused at her sudden appearance, "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass!" Sunny yelled, confusing me even further, "Now let's go! This place's surrounded!

"Surrounded?" My mind struggled to get a gist on whatever's happening right now, but to no avail, "Sunny, what are you talking about?"

And then it hit me. I'm no longer in the comfort of my room, nor my dormitory. Instead, I found myself sitting inside a cave with Sunny crouching in front of me, a black and silver briefcase lying behind me with several vines surrounding it, a group of familiar purple, bell-shape fruits growing from those vines. And adding more to my surprise is the item now strapped on Sunny's waist.

With its silver belt and round gold buckle, complete with three circular slots in it, Sunny is wearing an exact copy of Kamen Rider Poseidon's belt from the movie that I saw last night, the Poseidon Driver.

"No time to explain!" Sunny yelled again, derailing my train of thought as she quickly stood up, taking out three familiar-looking Core Medals, colored cyan, navy blue, and red each, "Grab your Driver and let's fight our way out of this!"

At the same time, several loud meows were heard from the cave entrance as several cat-like humanoids, colored white and light brown, forced their way into the cave. As a Kamen Rider fan, I instantly recognize the cat-like humanoids rushing towards us.

"Bakenekos…" I gasped, knowing the cat-like Makamou all too well from my experiences watching Kamen Rider Hibiki.

"Shit! They're here already!" Sunny cursed, "Guess I have no choice then…Cow, quickly grab your Driver! I'll hold them off as much as I could! Henshin!"

And with that, Sunny quickly inserted her Core Medals into her Driver, prompting several energy projections of said Medals to appear around her. The projections blasted several Bakenekos approaching Sunny, before they converge into the familiar inverted triangle symbol in front of her.

SAME! KUJIRA! OOKAMIUO!

The inverted triangle slams itself onto Sunny's chest, forming her black bodysuit in a flash of bright light and a splash of blue energy, causing me to flinch a bit due to the massive outburst of energy. As the light dies out, I was left speechless as my best friend Sunny…has transformed into the Rider from my movie last night.

"I am Kamen Rider Poseidon!" Sunny…no, I mean Kamen Rider Poseidon, introduces herself, pointing her Deepest Harpoon at the Bakenekos in front of her, "I'll be your opponent!"

As Kamen Rider Poseidon uses her Deepest Harpoon to fend off the Bakenekos entering the cave, I immediately rushed towards the briefcase behind me, unlocking it before lifting it open. To my shock, I saw a device all too familiar to me resting inside the briefcase.

Rounded rectangle in shape and black in color, the device has a few silver accents to it, with a yellow cutting knife on its right side, an octagonal indent on the middle, and a blank plate of metal on the left side.

'I knew I've seen this thing before,' I thought as I slowly picked up the device, 'It's a Sengoku Driver…'

All of this is too surreal for me, really. Last night I was talking to Sunny by my iPhone and spent my Saturday night watching a Kamen Rider movie. Now I found myself stranded inside a mysterious cave with Sunny, who had transformed into the same villainous Kamen Rider that I saw from my movie last night, and holding the transformation device for the Armored Riders of Kamen Rider Gaim.

Just what the fuck is going on here?

But knowing that Sunny needs my help, I quickly slapped on my Sengoku Driver, the device's yellow straps securing the device around my waist as a white Japanese samurai helmet appears on the device's Rider Indicator. I instantly recognized the owner of that Rider Indicator.

"Zangetsu…" I muttered.

It was like a match made in heaven. Takatora Kureshima, played by the dashingly handsome Yuki Kubota, was my favorite Rider in Gaim, Kamen Rider Zangetsu. His cool attitude and badass fighting prowess has melt this fangirl's heart over and over again, and to become the white Armored Rider itself is a huge honor for me, even though I have no flipping idea on what is going on right now.

Knowing that my Sengoku Driver would need some Lockseeds, I picked up three of the bell-shaped fruits growing around the briefcase, the fruits glowing white for a few seconds before transforming into three Lockseeds, waiting for me to use them. The first one was based on a muskmelon, light green in color with the code L.S-04. This is the Melon Lockseed, Zangetsu's default Lockseed. The second one was based on a grape, colored purple with the code L.S-09. This is the Budou Lockseed, usually used by Zangetsu's brother Mitsuzane Kureshima/Kamen Rider Ryugen to access his default Budou Arms, a long-ranged specialist. The final Lockseed is based on a mango, colored in a nice gradient of red and yellow with the code L.S-11. This is the Mango Lockseed, usually used by Kaito Kumon/Kamen Rider Baron to access his heavy-hitting Mango Arms.

Pocketing the Budou and Mango Lockseeds, I immediately pushed on the switch on my Melon Lockseed, prompting a metallic zipper to appear above me, opening a circular tear with a metallic light green muskmelon coming out of it.

MELON!

From what I've learned from watching Gaim, these tears are called "Cracks," dimensional portals to an otherworldly forest called "Helheim" where the Lockseeds come from, while the metallic muskmelon is an "Armor Part," which would form my Rider form's armor.

Unable to contain the excitement of being able to transform into a Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Zangetsu no less, I let out a brief excited squeal before exclaiming, "Henshin!"

I placed my Melon Lockseed on my Sengoku Driver, securing it onto place.

LOCK ON!

Japanese horagai music echoed from my Sengoku Driver throughout the cave, increasing my excitement even more as the Melon Armor Part slowly descended upon me. Quickly I sliced my Lockseed open with my Cutting Blade, a huge grin on my face. I might not know what is happening here, but to fight as my favorite Rider alongside my best friend is something that I won't miss! Maybe I could get some answers once I get out of this cave.

SOIYA! MELON ARMS! TENKA GOMEN!

The Melon Armor Part dropped onto my shoulders, creating the white bodysuit that is the Ride Wear as the Armor Part folds open, revealing my majestic-looking samurai-themed helmet, complete with a pair of dull gold curved horns and a dull gold visor. The Armor Part forms the chest, back, and shoulder armors, emitting a splash of light green energy as they snapped onto place. The newly formed armors are all light green in color and based on a muskmelon, having the same texture as one no less. A holster is seen on my left hilt, a black and yellow katana with a gun on its hilt resting on said holster, while a light green muskmelon-themed shield is formed on my left hand.

Taking my Musou Saber out of its holster with my right hand and grabbing onto my Melon Defender with my left, I pointed my Musou Saber at the Bakenekos fighting Poseidon.

"I am the one who will slay the moon!" I declared as I slowly marched forward, "Kamen Rider…Zangetsu!"

Poseidon quickly performed a powerful slash with her Deepest Harpoon on three Bakenekos in front of her, their destruction allowing me to join the battle by slashing several more of the Makamous on Poseidon's right hand side with my Musou Saber.

"Glad you've finally decided to join, Cow," Poseidon said, standing next to me with her Deepest Harpoon ready.

"Of course," I chuckled, preparing to attack with my Musou Saber, "You needed my help, right? But I need to promise me one thing…"

"What is it?" Poseidon asked.

"After we finish fighting…can you tell me what in the name of Buddha is going on here?" I requested.

Poseidon nodded, "Yeah, I was about to explain that to you when these cats showed up. Guess we need to take care of these nuisances first, eh?"

"True, true," I replied, "Plus we needed to test our new powers, right? Don't tell me you had yours for a while…"

"I did," Poseidon laughed, "About 45 minutes earlier than you. You were out for quite a while."

I rolled my eyes underneath my helmet, "Let's just get this over with."

We immediately leapt into battle, slashing the Bakenekos around us with our respective weapons. Truth to be told, these cat-like creatures are mere cannon fodders, they're easily destroyed with a few slashes but made their weaknesses up with their numbers. But then again we did quite a good job in wiping the floor with them and within 5 minutes and several explosions later; we were out of the cave and found ourselves standing in a middle of a pine forest. And no finishing attacks are needed to take care of these Bakenekos. An easy fight for the both of us. Nope, that fight was too easy. Something tells me that this is the start of something huge.

"Cow!" Poseidon called me as she saw me zoning out in front of the cave, "Let's go!"

Nodding quickly, I joined Poseidon as the two of us made a mad dash into the trees in front of us, hoping that we would find our exit from the wilderness in no time.

xxx

"We've been chosen for what?!" I gasped out in shock.

"I didn't believe it at first too, Cow," Sunny replied, understanding the look of pure shock and horror etched onto my face, "But this is the truth."

"I still can't believe it," I shook my head in utter disbelief, "What do you mean we've been chosen to participate in this battle royale between Kamen Riders?"

It has been 45 minutes since we left the cave and after a brief trek through the pine forest; we've finally found a stretch of highway that divides the forest into two, a sign of civilization at last. Following the highway in hopes that we could reach the nearest city, Sunny decided to explain everything that has happened to us so far. Apparently we were both taken from our dorm rooms in our sleep by a black, dragon-themed Kamen Rider and were dropped off by him at that cave. The ride must have been rather bumpy as I was out for quite a while thanks to a rather sizeable bruise on the back of my head that I got from the rough landing. Sunny then told me how a blonde-haired girl sitting on a floating tome woke her up, introducing herself as Histoire and explaining everything that has happened to both me and Sunny…but not before healing the bruise on the back of my head. That explains why I didn't felt a thing when I woke up.

Histoire told Sunny that both she and myself has been chosen by a mysterious figure called "the Game Master," a mysterious figure referred as such by himself and the other "players" that he has chosen. These "players" are people from our world who have been taken by the black Kamen Rider into the realm where we're at right now and like us are given the transformation devices of the Kamen Riders from the Heisei and Neo-Heisei Era. Then, these "players" would fight each other to the death and the last one standing would take on the Game Master and defeat him to win this "Kamen Rider War," apparently the name of this battle royale as told by Histoire. But that's the least disturbing part of this…Histoire mentioned that some of the Riders participating in this war are actually our friends from our university, meaning that in some point, we have to fight our own friends who we've grown accustomed to in campus.

I'm starting to wonder if that's the explanation between the disappearances of Krishna, Two, and the other students of our university. Is it possible that the black Kamen Rider abducted them as well and they're now fighting in this war?

As I walked on with a worried look on my face, Sunny lets out a gentle chuckle. As my best friend, she knows all too well what I'm worried about.

"Don't worry, Cow. I won't fight ya," Sunny smiled at me, easing my mind for a bit, "In fact; I'm going to watch your back. Histoire told me that monsters like those cat-things and other Riders could ambush us at any moment, so we must stay vigilant together in order to survive."

"Thanks," I smiled back, "I know I could always count on you, Sunny. And don't worry. I got your back too."

Suddenly my stomach started to grumble, a clear sign that I was hungry. Well what do you expect? I didn't eat anything before I slept and I haven't even had breakfast because I woke up in a cave in the middle of nowhere for God's sake.

Thankfully Sunny knows this and she immediately took out a silver device made out of a thinned out pane of metal. She then runs her finger against its surface, causing a slight glow to appear from the device.

"This is a Y-Gear," Sunny explains as she browses through the apps on the device, "Histoire said that this thing replaces our iPhone in this place, I'm pretty sure yours has been changed to this as well. The Y-Gear has everything that we needed to survive here, including a GPS app, a Rider War Network where we can see the fights of the other Riders to study their strengths and weaknesses, an app that displays the stats of our Rider form, as well as acting as a universal wallet that stores our cash…fuck!"

"What is it?" I asked.

Sighing in dismay, Sunny showed me the screen of her Y-Gear, which displays the amount of money that she has right now…a pitiful zero.

"Don't tell me you didn't bring money with you when you came here," I chuckled.

"Hey, we were kidnapped from our rooms, remember?" Sunny pouted at me, "There's no way we had time to store up our cash for this."

"Let me see mine," I said, taking out a rose pink Y-Gear (what a touch, it actually has the same color scheme as my old iPhone) from my pocket. I scrolled through my apps to find the device's universal wallet app and much to my dismay; it also displayed a huge zero on my Y-Gear's screen, "Oh fuck. I'm broke as well. Now how are we supposed to survive here when we can't buy anything to eat?"

"We'll just eat anything that nature gives to us," Sunny replied, "Nuts, berries, fruits…insects even…and we'll drink our own urine while we're at it!"

"I think someone might have watched a little bit too much Bear Grylls last night," I commented.

Letting out a quick glare at me, Sunny was about to say something when suddenly she stopped walking, apparently something has caught her on the corner of her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked.

Sunny slowly pointed towards a medium-sized building standing proudly amongst the huge pine trees that surrounds it. At a glance the building seemed run-down, but the lights glowing from inside the building's windows indicate otherwise. A number of totem poles are seen standing in front of the building, along with a small, run-down Ferris wheel at the building's back yard. A huge sign that says "MYSTERY SHACK" is installed on the building's roof, the "S" dangling just precariously above the building's front porch.

"Ever seen Gravity Falls?" Sunny asked with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Nope," I shook my head, "Why do you ask that?"

"Histoire said that the realm where we're at now is a place where everything that is fictional in our real world comes to life," Sunny replied, "And if she's right; that means the building in front of us is a real life version of Gravity Falls' Mystery Shack! It's a tourist trap that overcharges unlucky tourists, complete with a gift shop inside it. And where there's a gift shop…there's money."

Grinning slyly, Sunny takes out a black Swiss army knife from her pocket, brandishing it at my face much to my surprise.

"Sunny…you're not suggesting that we're going to rob that place, right?!" I gasped in shock.

"Yup," Sunny replied quickly, before she quickly trotted her way towards the Mystery Shack, "Follow my lead, Cow."

I stood there speechless as Sunny made her way towards the building. I have known Sunny since we both set foot in Japan and from what I've known about her, she's a friendly and outgoing young woman with a rather laidback personality, not exactly the type of person who would do petty crimes like robbing a gift shop or something. But then again, we're both stranded in an unknown, alien world, with no money, no food, no water, and we're both quite hungry, so maybe she got desperate.

"Wait for me!" I exclaimed as I quickly tip-toed my way towards the Mystery Shack, joining Sunny who is now hiding near the building's gift shop entrance.

xxx

Wendy Corduroy lets out a sigh as she leans herself against her chair. It has been a slow day behind the Mystery Shack's cash register for the tall and skinny fair-skinned 15-year old, with the only customer for the day being a 16-year old man with short black hair, brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin wearing a black jacket with short sleeves over a long sleeved green T-shirt, black jeans and red running shoes who is now currently pacing back and forth at the Shack's gift shop.

As she watched the man struggling to choose the perfect souvenir for himself from the vast amount of paraphernalia that the gift shop offers, Wendy slowly took off her tan and dark brown lumberjack hat, exposing her long copper-red hair for the world to see as she wipes off the sweat from her forehead. Today's quite a hot day and with the Shack's only ceiling fan broken, Wendy had to rely on her plastic cup of Coca-Cola to cool herself down.

'Man, it's like a sauna in here,' Wendy thought as she sipped her cola, her jade plaid shirt drenched in sweat from the intense heat, 'When's my shift going to be over? Mabel promised me to take me to the river after my shift's over to cool ourselves down…'

Suddenly a chime was heard, sending Wendy back to her alert senses as two more people has entered the gift shop, specifically Sunny and myself. Delighted that two more potential customers has showed up, Wendy puts her hat back on, displaying the most cheerful smile that she could muster to greet both Sunny and me.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack!" Wendy greeted, "What can I do to…hey, what the?!"

Suddenly Wendy was pinned against the wall by Sunny, who had brandished her Swiss army knife at her much to both her and my shock.

"Give me all the dough that you have," Sunny threatened, pointing the knife's sharp edge at Wendy's left eye, "Or you'll wear an eye-patch for the rest of your life."

"Please don't hurt me," Wendy whimpered. I can't help to feel sorry for her, but then again, if we could not get some money as soon as possible to get ourselves something to eat, we might die of starvation.

'I'm sorry,' I thought as Sunny continues to intimidate Wendy with her Swiss army knife.

"Now be a good girl and open the register for us," Sunny said.

Wendy nodded, before she quickly inputted a few codes into her cash register machine, causing it to display all of its valuable contents. A huge smirk appeared on Sunny's face once she saw the huge amount of cash stored within the register.

"Cow, take all the money from the register, will you?" Sunny asked.

I nodded rather reluctantly, before making a mad dash towards the register. Since in this world everything's mobile and electronic, I linked up my Y-Gear with the cash register, before downloading the register's contents into my Y-Gear much to Wendy's horror.

"Don't worry," Sunny said in a reassuring yet sinister tone, "If you stay still and quiet, you will not get hurt."

"Hey! Step away from the register!"

Sunny and I were surprised to hear that male voice, while a slight look of relief can be seen on Wendy's otherwise terrified expression. A 16-year old man slowly steps out from the gift shop's display counter towards us, a laidback yet furious expression on his face.

"What do you think are you two doing?!" the man asked, pointing at both Sunny and me.

"Scoring ourselves some pocket money, what else?" Sunny replied, surprisingly calm despite being subjected with an intimidating glare from the man, "We just got here and we don't have any money to buy any food. Can't you see that we're starving?"

"But that doesn't justify what you two are doing!" the man retorted, "Listen, I knew the family who runs this place, the Pines. They worked so hard in maintaining this establishment, sacrificing their blood, tears, and sweat for this place, and even though they're going through hard times right now, they still kept on going! And now you two have to show up and take away all of their years' hard work!"

Immediately Sunny pointed her knife at the young man, launching out a death glare at him that terrified both me and Wendy.

"Listen here you little punk," Sunny said, grabbing the man by the collar as she pointed her knife against the man's neck, "My knife here can take away your life in a blink of an eye. You wouldn't dare to go up against someone who has the power to inflict a painful death on you, right?"

Instead of being intimidated by Sunny's threat, the man casually shoves Sunny away from him, taking out a rounded rectangle-shaped device from his pocket, with a black, push-able slot decorated with green accents on the device's right hand side, while the left hand side is colored silver with a red section that can be split apart. I instantly recognized the device on the man's possession, knowing that he's not someone to be taken lightly.

'That's…!' my thoughts screamed in my mind.

"You want a fight?" the man asked, brandishing the device in front of Sunny, "You'll get one. Let's take this outside."

xxx

Outside the Mystery Shack, Sunny and I as well as the man stood face-to-face, my Sengoku Driver already strapped around my waist while Sunny has already placed her Poseidon Driver around hers. On the other hand, the man takes out a card from his jacket pocket, placing the card on his device's slot before pushing the slot in. He then places the device against his waist, creating a belt of cards that secured the device on his body.

"Two against one, eh?" the man lets out a brief smirk, "Sounds kinda unfair…but I don't get to fight often, so this is quite the challenge for me."

"Before we wipe that smirk off that pretty face, can you tell us your name?" Sunny asked, taking out her Core Medals as I prepped up my Melon Lockseed.

"My name is Jovany Abro," the man introduced himself as he places his right hand over his buckle, "And I will ensure that your crimes will not go unpunished. Henshin!"

Jovany swung his right arm, opening up his belt buckle to reveal a green A etched on a red background.

OPEN UP!

A green projection appeared with a three-headed dog etched on its center, the field flew back towards Jovany and went through him, fading away to reveal his armor.

Jovany's armor consist of a black bodysuit underneath a chest plate with black shoulder pads decorated with green linings, the chest had a large green A with red in the middle. His helmet was green with decorations on the side with a red jewel that resembled a suit of diamonds on the center, while on his right hand is a black and green spear; a card holder is present on his right hip.

"Kamen Rider Lance…" I muttered, recognizing Jovany's armor from the Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace movie.

"We better transform too, Cow," Sunny said, inserting her Core Medals into her Driver, "Henshin!"

SAME! KUJIRA! OOKAMIUO!

With a splash of blue energy, Sunny transforms into Kamen Rider Poseidon, pointing her Deepest Harpoon at her opponent.

With Sunny transformed, I decided to transform as well to back her up, because something tells me that this is not going to be an easy battle.

MELON!

The Melon Armor Part descended down from the Crack above me as I secured my Melon Lockseed in place.

LOCK ON!

"Henshin!" I yelled, before slicing the Melon Lockseed quickly with my Cutting Blade.

SOIYA! MELON ARMS! TENKA GOMEN!

Transforming into Kamen Rider Zangetsu, I took out my Musou Saber with my right hand as my left hand gripped onto my Melon Defender tightly, pointing the Musou Saber at Lance.

"I am the one who will slay the moon!" I shouted, "Kamen Rider…Zangetsu!"

"I'm going to slay you two instead!" Lance exclaimed, gripping onto his spear, the Lance Rouzer, tightly as he charged into battle.

Seeing this, Poseidon immediately slashed her Deepest Harpoon at the incoming Lance's chest, landing a direct hit that startled him, allowing me to bash my Melon Defender onto Lance's chest, before a vertical slash with my Musou Saber followed suit. Gritting his teeth in pain, Lance swung his Lance Rouzer at me, which I countered immediately with my Melon Defender, before another slash to the chest with the Musou Saber stuns Lance yet again.

"Huh, lucky strikes," Lance scoffed as he recovered himself, "But I'm not done yet!"

Lance made a quick jump onto the air, thrusting his spear against my chest armor much to my surprise, creating a huge shower of sparks as the weapon impacted against its target. Pain racked through my body as I stumbled back, never before had someone hit me that hard before.

"Cow!" Poseidon called out, before she proceeds to slash a pair of blue energy slashes from her Deepest Harpoon.

Lance managed to nimbly jump over the first slash before neutralizing the second one with a swing of his Lance Rouzer, only for a third energy slash to caught him off guard, hitting him on the chest and sending him flying to the air, crashing to the ground with a loud thud.

xxx

As we continued to fight, a black Toyota Crown limousine slowly pulls itself to a stop at the Mystery Shack's parking space, neither of us is aware of the car's presence. The car's rear passenger window slowly rolls open, allowing a pair of eyes to watch our unfolding battle with interest.

xxx

By now both Lance and Poseidon had ditched their respective weapons and are now exchanging fisticuffs, with Lance hitting Poseidon several times with a number of perfectly timed jabs onto her torso, before Poseidon retaliates with a sharp hook onto Lance's right cheek. I decided to join in the fun as well, ditching my Melon Defender as I holstered the Musou Saber once again before delivering a flying kick onto Lance's chest, an uppercut to the black and green Rider's chin ensues. Lance was sent stumbling by those quick attacks, but something tells me he's not down and out yet.

"Nice shot," Lance commented, regaining his stance as he cracked his neck, "For a pair of newcomers. Let me show you the power of a Rider who has actual experience in this thing!"

Lance rushed forward, swinging a jab with his right fist at Poseidon, only for my best friend to quickly counter it with a jab from her left fist. Both punches made contact with their respective opponent's cheeks, causing both Lance and Poseidon to let out groans of pain.

"Sunny!" I called out for my best friend.

Thankfully Poseidon responded well, kicking the still stunned Lance on the chest before performing a pin-point spinning kick onto his head, knocking him down to the ground.

xxx

"Interesting…" said a male voice from inside the limousine, a brief smile appearing on his face as he observes our fight, "Perfect candidates for our ring, eh, Eki?"

"Agreed," replied a female voice next to the man, "I think they could keep up with most if not all of our fighters."

xxx

Letting out an angry yell, Lance took out a card from his card holder and swiped it against a slot on his Lance Rouzer.

MIGHTY!

A projection was launched from the card before it was quickly absorbed by the blade of the Lance Rouzer, as Lance quickly charged towards both Poseidon and me, ready to finish the battle once and for all.

But unfortunately for him, we didn't come unprepared.

Poseidon gripped onto her Deepest Harpoon tightly as blue energy starts to surge on its blade, as I detached my Lockseed from my Sengoku Driver and installs it onto an indent on the Musou Saber's hilt.

LOCK ON! 1! 10! 100! 1,000! 10,000!

Lance swung his energized Lance Rouzer towards us, only for us to quickly parry the incoming attack with our respective weapons, much to his dismay.

"What the?!" Lance gasped at the failure of his special attack.

With a lift, we managed to disarm Lance of his Lance Rouzer, while at the same time exposing his torso, before we charged forward, performing a simultaneous slash with our charged weapons onto Lance's sides, with Poseidon attacking his right side with her energized Deepest Harpoon and me slashing through his left side with my energized Musou Saber, an energy projection of a melon slice appearing briefly as my weapon made contact with Lance's bodysuit.

MELON CHARGE!

Energy surged throughout Lance's body as he knelt to the ground in pain; the same green projection that appeared during his transformation was released from his belt buckle and phased through his body once again, erasing his armor as he reverted back to Jovany.

Immediately as Jovany collapsed to the ground, Poseidon took off her Medals from her Driver, reverting back to Sunny as she quickly restrained Jovany's arms.

"Now, Cow! Drain this man dry!" Sunny yelled at me.

I nodded, closing up my Lockseed to cancel my transformation in motes of green light, before I proceed to hurry over towards the restrained Jovany, taking out his Y-Gear from his pocket before linking it with my own.

"You bitch! What do you think you're doing?" Jovany cursed as he struggled in Sunny's restraints.

Quickly Sunny pinned Jovany against the ground, a terrifying glare coming out from her eyes as she made contact with Jovany's own, "Like we said earlier, we're scoring ourselves some pocket money. Only this time it's from your wallet instead of the cash register!" And with that Sunny punched Jovany on the head once, knocking the man out.

At the same time, the download of Jovany's money has been completed and now my universal wallet is packed with money taken straight from Jovany's Y-Gear. Casting aside Jovany's drained Y-Gear, I let out a delighted smile as Sunny catches up with me, a smile appearing on her face as well as she saw my loot.

"My God, we did it, Cow!" Sunny exclaimed, pumping her fists in delight, "Now what shall we eat? Steak? Sushi? Pizza? Ramen? Or some good old Pho?"

"Nice job, you two."

A male voice startled the two of us, sending us into high alert. We turned around, my Melon Lockseed in my hand as Sunny takes out the Same, Kujira, and Ookamiuo Medals, the two of us ready to fight whoever's coming towards us.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down. I don't want to fight you guys."

Walking up to us is a young man, around 17 years of age. He has a tall and athletic build, brown skin, black eyes, curly and messy black hair with slight hints of a goatee. The man wears a blue polo shirt, torn up navy blue jeans, and a pair of black sneakers. The man lets out a smile as we slowly lowered our transformation devices down.

"I saw your fight earlier. And I have to say, I'm impressed," the man said again, "I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Raksa Jufriyanto Ikhsan and I have an eye in spotting talented Riders like you."

"Are you a Rider as well?" I asked.

Raksa chuckled, "No my dear, I'm not a Kamen Rider…but my girlfriend is. Eki, why don't you come over here and say hi to these nice people?"

Emerging from behind Raksa is a young woman, aged around 16, who immediately made her way next to the young man. The young woman has a tall, slightly muscular, and athletic build, light brown skin, chin-length black hair styled in a bob cut, and amber eyes. Currently she is wearing a white Tottenham Hotspur T-shirt, brown cargo pants, and black sneakers.

"You called?" the woman asked in a cold, stoic tone to Raksa.

Raksa smiled, "Girls, this is Eki Novianda, my beloved girlfriend. But she's better known as…"

Eki took out something from her pocket and showed it to us. It was a black, rectangular object with several faint bronze linings on it.

"…Kamen Rider Yuuki," Raksa finished.

"Nice to meet you," I said, letting out a smile as I offered my hand to Eki. But much to my surprise, Eki refuses my hand, glaring coldly at both me and Sunny as she pockets the rectangular object again.

"You must forgive her, Eki's not that good with people," Raksa said sheepishly, before he turned his attention towards Eki, "Now Eki, go back to the car and wait. I'm going to have a little chat with these two."

"Yes, Raksa," Eki said, still in that chilling stoic tone that seriously creep me out. But thankfully she's not there for long, as she immediately left the area, leaving us with just Raksa.

"What do you want with us, by the way?" Sunny asked.

"Glad you asked," Raksa replied, once again flashing that charismatic smile of his, "Eki and I are running a fighting ring at Tokusat City, the area's largest city and we've been traveling around the region to search for the strongest Kamen Rider to fight in our ring. And we believe, you two have some potential."

"What's in it for us?" Sunny asked again.

"Our fighters are paid with a reasonable sum of money for each of their fights," Raksa answered, "The money earned from one fight is enough for a simple, two-course meal."

Holy mother of God. Just by fighting one round, we will get enough money for a two-course meal? This offer is definitely too good to be refused.

As if knowing what's going through my mind, Raksa said this to entice us even further, "And if you manage to beat all of the Riders in our ring, we would ensure to the winning Rider…no, Riders, that they will lead a very luxurious life in Tokusat City, living at the city's premier penthouse apartment with riches that would left the likes of Donald Trump green with envy. What do you say about that?"

It's official. That is the sweetest offer that we could get. Not only we can hone our fighting skills in the ring, but we're actually paid to do so and if we do well enough, we will go from rags to riches in no time! What could possibly go wrong?

"Are you two interested with our proposition?" Raksa asked again.

"Hell yeah we do!" both Sunny and I exclaimed in unison.

"Excellent," Raksa smiled, "Now, if you just follow me to my limo, I'll explain more about what you're going to do…"

xxx

It took us around two hours to get to Tokusat City from the Mystery Shack, and I have to say, the city that we entered looked nothing like the cities that we've been to before. Tokusat City is a literal city from the future, with a multitude of high-rise buildings, each of them looking hi-tech as fuck. In the heart of the city is an exact replica of Gaim's Yggdrasil Tower, which is really huge once you've seen it up close and personal. But unfortunately for us, our destination is not in the futuristic-looking heart of the city.

Raksa's limo has taken us to a run-down, slum district of the city located west of the Yggdrasil Tower replica, called "Crackton," judging by the aging sign that we passed by a few minutes ago. Slowly I began to feel uneasy. What if all of Raksa's offers to us are too good to be true? What if there's something much more sinister behind this? What if…

"We're here," Raksa said, breaking my thoughts.

As we stepped out from Raksa's limo, I could now clearly see where Raksa had taken us. It was a steampunk-looking building, with a sign consisting of the words "SALTY SPITOON" in neon red being displayed at the building's entrance.

'A bar?' I thought as we were being lead into the building by one of Raksa's bodyguards.

The interior of the building looked like a hybrid between a bar and a nightclub, complete with a counter, a wide space that is used as a dance floor, and a DJ stand. But behind the DJ stand lies a small door, which we were lead to by the bodyguard.

What lies behind the door surprises us completely.

It is a huge, spacious room complete with a wide space on the middle, similar to the dance floor that we saw earlier, only this time bigger. A small stage is seen on the heart of the room, with a pair of cushioned chairs and a small table on it, while several iron railings are seen in front of the wide space, forming a series of elevated platforms.

And then it hits us. We're standing inside an indoor coliseum, where we would probably fight our opponents.

But what struck our attention the most is the contents of the table on the stage. Stacked on top of the table are several bars of gold, arranged in such a manner that it forms into a medium-sized triangle. If a 400oz bar of gold is worth $800,000 in the current economy, imagine how much money those bars of gold in that stack are worth. It would make whoever owns them unimaginably rich!

And that's not all. Lying idly next to the stack is a pair of devices that is really familiar to the eyes of someone who has watched a lot of Gaim like yours truly. The first device is red in color, with a silver compressor-type lever on the right hand side of the objects, an octagonal indent on the center of the objects, and a transparent cup-like apparatus on the bottom of the objects, just below the indent, while the second device is a crystal blue Lockseed with a light green cantaloupe on it, coded E.L.S-04.

"A Genesis Driver and a Melon Energy Lockseed…" I muttered underneath my breath upon seeing the two devices.

"You like 'em, eh?" Raksa commented as he approaches us, patting us on the shoulders as we kept on looking at the stack of gold and the Genesis Driver set in pure awe, "Those are some of the prizes that the ultimate fighter of this ring would win. The gold bars are courtesy of my girlfriend, who acquired them in…well…barely legal manners if you can say it from the Bank of Tokusat City. The Genesis Driver set is a gift from the Game Master himself to us, and whoever has the power of that set will have the ability to change the world, if the Game Master is correct. Right, my bodyguard will take you to your waiting rooms."

"Follow me, Miss," Raksa's bodyguard said, gesturing to me and Sunny to follow him as he headed towards the back of the stage.

xxx

Raksa's bodyguard led us to a small, barely-lit room and left us there, telling us to wait there for around an hour or so. The room is like your typical sports team's changing room, complete with the benches and lockers. There's also a small TV at the corner of the room, which was turned off. We sat there for a full twenty minutes, neither of us talking to each other as we're trying to process what is going on right now.

"Ne, Sunny," I spoke first, breaking the silence, "Do you think that this is a good idea?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Cow," Sunny scoffed, "Can't you see what's in store for us? A chance to earn ourselves some cold hard cash while at the same time improving our fighting skills! Granted what we did earlier this morning is good, but still, I don't feel like we're doing well enough. If we're going to survive this war, we need to up the ante, Cow. We need to be better than everyone else if we want to come out of this alive!"

"Good point," I nodded.

"Plus those gold bars!" Sunny added, "Man, if we could get our hands on them…all of our problems would be solved! No matter how long we're going to be stuck in this place, we'll always have enough money to sustain ourselves!"

'Then again, there's the prospect of upgrading myself into Zangetsu Shin…' I thought. Zangetsu's a strong Rider, but Zangetsu Shin's even much stronger. With its stats being vastly improved from the old Zangetsu, Zangetsu Shin curbs-stomps Riders left and right in Gaim in the hands of whoever's wearing them. Getting an upgrade of my Rider form from Zangetsu to Zangetsu Shin is equivalent of replacing my old Windows laptop with a Mac, the difference and improvements are significant!

That's it! I'm going to do well in this fighting ring to get that Driver!

Suddenly we heard muffled cheering noises from outside the room, coupled with the sound of weapons clashing. Immediately we knew that a fight is going on at the indoor coliseum behind the walls of our waiting room.

"Is it starting?" I asked.

Sunny nodded, "Seems so. But we don't know who's facing who since Raksa didn't give us the full list of competitors…"

I noticed the TV lying on the room's corner and immediately a thought came into my head, "Hey, why don't we check out that TV? Maybe the video footage of the fight is being streamed into it."

"Can't hurt to try," Sunny said, reaching for the TV's power cable and plugging it into the nearest electrical outlet, before switching the TV on with a push of a button.

And my hunch was quickly proven, as the TV displayed a live video feed of what's happening at the indoor coliseum.

"Looks like your prediction is spot on, Cow," Sunny commented.

"It's nothing," I grinned, "I remembered that during my friend's theatre performance back home, a live video feed of the play was streamed to the actors in their backstage changing rooms, so that they could know when they should come out or not."

xxx

(3rd person POV)

Surrounded by a wild crowd that continuously chanted their names, two Kamen Riders are battling it out at the indoor coliseum. The first Kamen Rider was themed after a Chinese warrior with a yellow-belted Sengoku Driver around its waist, its crimson and bronze helmet is based on a kiwi complete with green, spiky kiwi slices on the sides of the helmet as well as a pair of green eyes. Its chest and shoulder armors are based on grapes, colored a deep crimson for the shoulder pads while its bronze chest armor has green circles that resembled a group of grapes stacked together, black flame markings can be seen in these circles. The Rider's Ride Wear is colored crimson and black with some bronze accents on the wrists, knees, and shin-guards, while a tattered crimson and bronze loincloth hangs from the Sengoku Driver at the groin area. A crimson Lockseed that resembled grapes was sliced on the Sengoku Driver, while the Rider Indicator has a crimson Chinese warrior helmet on it.

This is the sinister Rider of the Underworld, Kamen Rider Ryugen Yomi Yomotsuheguri Arms.

Facing off against Ryugen Yomi is another Sengoku Driver-using Kamen Rider, the belts on its Driver also colored yellow while it's Ride Wear is navy blue with dull gold bracers and shin-guards. Its chest and shoulder armors are blood red in color, themed after a blood orange with black flame markings etched on them for an intimidating effect. The Rider's helmet is also navy blue in color with a blood red and dull gold curved sword-like decoration on the forehead, its visor shaped like an orange slice and like the chest and shoulder armors, the visor is also blood red in color, with black flame markings on the lower corners of the visor, while a black mouth-guard completes the look. A blood red sliced Lockseed that resembled an orange is present on the Rider's Sengoku Driver, while it's Rider Indicator has a navy blue Japanese samurai helmet with a blood red visor.

This is Kamen Rider Bujin Gaim Blood Orange Arms, the power-hungry warlord who seeks to rule the World of the Sengoku Period.

"You're going down, Anjani," taunted Bujin Gaim with a deep, threatening male voice, wielding a blood red orange slice-themed scimitar that is the Daidaimaru on his right hand and an exact replica of Chan's Musou Saber on his left, "I'm going to walk away with that money!"

"Not on my watch, Mikhail," replied Ryugen Yomi in a raspy female voice, taking out an ornate-looking halberd that is the Dau.

"ANJANI! MIKHAIL! ANJANI! MIKHAIL!" the crowd chanted the two Riders' true identities, eager to give their respective favorites a morale boost in this battle.

Sitting on the stage behind the two fighting Riders are Raksa and Eki, the stack of gold as well as the Genesis Driver set are present on the table between them. As Eki watches the battle with her usual cold, stoic expression, Raksa slowly glances at his wristwatch, mentally counting down the remaining time of the battle unfolding in front of him.

Ryugen Yomi sliced her Lockseed once.

HAI! YOMOTSUHEGURI SQUASH!

As Ryugen Yomi charges several purple grape-shaped energy balls onto the blade of her Dau, Bujin Gaim combines the hilts of his Daidaimaru and Musou Saber, before detaching his Lockseed off his Sengoku Driver and installs it onto his Musou Saber.

LOCK ON! 1! 10! 100! 1,000!

Ryugen Yomi jumped into the air, her energized Dau pointing downwards as she attempts to skewer Bujin Gaim, only for the latter to have other ideas. As Ryugen Yomi descended down rapidly upon him, Bujin Gaim spun his combined weapon together, blood red energy charging into the blade of his Daidaimaru. With a mighty slash, Bujin Gaim struck the incoming Ryugen Yomi with his combined weapon, creating an energy blood orange slice as Daidaimaru's energized blade sliced Ryugen Yomi right across the chest in a diagonal manner.

BLOOD ORANGE CHARGE!

Groaning in pain, Ryugen Yomi landed on her back as her armor disintegrated in crimson motes of light, revealing a young woman in her place. The young woman was around 17 years of age, with a short build, pale skin, reddish eyes, shoulder-length dark brown hair, a small mole on the upper right corner of her lip, and huge bloody gashes on her wrists. She is now wearing a white T-shirt with blood stains on it with a gray skirt and black sneakers.

Humiliated and defeated, Anjani lets out a glare at the victorious Bujin Gaim, who is gloating in victory with his supporters.

"And the winner for today's battle!" announced a pudgy, white-skinned man in a black suit and a dark brown bowler hat who suddenly rushed into the arena and lifted Bujin Gaim's right arm, "Is Reza…"

"Wimpy!" Bujin Gaim shot out, glaring underneath his visor at the man next to him.

"Ah, sorry," whispered the man, Wimpy, before he continued in his enthusiastic tone, "I mean Mikhail! Kamen Rider Bujin Gaim!"

As the crowd around the arena burst into cheers praising Bujin Gaim, Wimpy retreated back into the stage while at the same time both Raksa and Eki came off it, the duo approaching Bujin Gaim as he closes up his Lockseed, canceling his transformation in blood red motes of light.

The 20-year old man underneath the Bujin Gaim armor has a tall, rather muscular and athletic build with light brown skin, black eyes, and short, slick black hair. He is currently wearing a blood red T-shirt underneath a black leather jacket with golden accents on them, blue denim jeans, and black sneakers, as well as a navy blue sweatband with a red Gaim symbol on his left wrist.

Reza "Mikhail" Bimasakti lets out a stoic smile as both Raksa and Eki came up to him, the former bringing up a white Y-Gear towards him.

"Congratulations for your fine win, Mikhail," Raksa said, "Now, for your reward…"

Mikhail nodded, taking out a blood red Y-Gear and linking it up with Raksa's white one. Within seconds, the prize money that Mikhail has earned was transferred into the man's universal wallet, much to his delight.

"It's an honor fighting in this ring, Raksa," Mikhail bowed politely as both Raksa and Eki retreated back to the stage.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen!" exclaimed Wimpy from the stage as both Raksa and Eki returned to their respective seats, a silver microphone on his hand, "Put your hands together for the ring's newest fighters!"

xxx

(back to Chan's POV)

"That was some battle," I commented after watching Bujin Gaim's crushing victory, "That Rider played his opponent like it was nothing!"

"More the reason on why we should up our game, Cow," added Sunny, before a knock on the door attracted our attention, "Come in!"

"Miss Chan and Miss Sunny?" Raksa's bodyguard greeted as he enters the room, "Master Raksa would like to see you now."

xxx

The bodyguard escorted us out from the waiting room and into the indoor coliseum, where we were greeted by a huge crowd cheering at our arrival. Raksa and Eki are present on the coliseum's stage, the stack of gold and the Genesis Driver set on the table between them, meanwhile on the edge of the stage there's a pudgy man wearing a bowler hat who is holding a silver microphone, sheer enthusiasm can be seen on his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the man exclaimed as we were led onto the coliseum arena, "Give a huge round of applause for our newest fighters, Chan and Sunny!"

The entire arena erupted instantly, greeting us with a thunderous roar that is beyond our imagination. Sunny immediately got into the moment, lifting her arms as she closes her eyes, enjoying the warm welcome that she's receiving. I, on the other hand, could not get my eyes off the pudgy man, who is now jumping up and down wildly on the stage to the rhythm of the cheering audience. I immediately asked Raksa's bodyguard,

"Who's that man?"

"That's J. Wellington Wimpy," the bodyguard replied, "He's the announcer of this ring. Used to be famous in this city, doing boxing matches, wrestling matches, you name it. But somehow he ended up doing an underground fighting ring. No one knows why, even me!"

"I see," I nodded, before thinking, 'Maybe Raksa paid a huge amount of money to get such a famous announcer to appear in his ring.'

"Chan! Sunny!" Raksa's charismatic voice greeted us as the man himself got off from the stage, with Eki following obediently behind him, "So glad to see you all pumped up for today! Are you ready for your first matches?"

"You bet we are!" Sunny exclaimed, an enthusiastic grin appearing on her face, "Who's our opponent?"

"Well, in our ring, you can freely choose your opponent," Raksa replied, before showing both Sunny and I the audience around us, "We have a variety of fighters waiting to take you on in the audience today, and they're placed strategically on the stands' stairways so that you can easily choose them. Choose wisely."

Sunny looked at the audience around her, noticing a few men and women standing or sitting separately from the other audiences, with Raksa's bodyguards standing by around them. After looking at the crowd around her for a few seconds, Sunny lets out a nod, a sign that she's chosen her opponent.

"I'd take the strongest guy that you have here."

What the fuck, Sunny?! Your first fight and already you've picked out the strongest of the bunch?! Are you fucking insane?!

"Oooh, intriguing!" Raksa commented, "In her first fight, Sunny has chosen to fight against our ring's toughest fighter! That means Xavier, you're up!"

A 22-year old man stood up from his seat, he has short natural grey hair, thin framed glasses over his green eyes, and wears a full black suit. He turned his attention towards the man next to him, a 19-year old Latino man with an average yet slightly muscular build, dark brown skin, slick black hair, and green eyes wearing a black and bronze leather jacket and torn up black denim jeans, with a pair of black military boots.

"Wish me luck, David!" the man, Xavier, told his friend, David.

"Good luck, ese!" David replied as Xavier leapt down into the arena, lifting his arms up into the air as the crowd cheered loudly around him.

Upon seeing her opponent, a brief chuckle escaped Sunny's mouth, which caused me to worry even further. Now's not the time to underestimate your opponent, Sunny…

"This is the strongest guy that you've got?" Sunny laughed, "He looked like a nerd!"

"But Xavier Herde is not just your average nerd!" suddenly Wimpy's enthusiastic voice boomed across the coliseum, "He is the leader of the fighters of this ring, the man entrusted with the future of our establishment, the father of his own men! Can Sunny defeat our great leader in her debut fight?"

"Don't underestimate me, girl," Xavier said, cracking his fists as he took off his suit, revealing a well-toned body, "I will make sure that your debut will end in nightmares."

"We'll see about that," Sunny replied, taking off her shirt as well (much to the surprise and obvious amazement of the male audience), leaving her in a grey sports bra, "Let's do this!"

"Alright, gather round," Wimpy signaled or both Xavier and Sunny to approach him, "You've got five minutes to fight and you may fight untransformed or transformed. If you choose to go all the way untransformed, the one who knocks out his or her opponent wins. If you choose to transform, the one who causes the other to de-transform wins. Got it?"

"Got it!" both Sunny and Xavier replied in unison.

"Alright! Here we go!" Wimpy exclaimed, taking out a bell as he rings it to the audience, "Let's get ready to rumble!"

I watched uneasily from the sidelines with Raksa's bodyguard watching over me, as both Xavier and Sunny assumed their fighting stances.

Xavier went in first, performing a straight jab towards Sunny which she nimbly avoids. The man went on with his punches, but much to everyone's surprise, Sunny just waltzes around them, her movements graceful and nimble, it's like she's dancing instead of fighting!

"Hold…still!" Xavier grunted as he kept on punching, only to hit the air instead of my best friend.

"My turn," Sunny winked playfully, avoiding two more punches before she jumped to the air, performing a spinning kick that hit Xavier on the chest, knocking the man to the ground much to the shock of the audience.

'Guess those hours of street dancing pays off after all, eh?' I thought, now realizing how Sunny got her moves.

"God damn it," Xavier cursed as he stood up, "You're a tough one, aren't you? Alright, let's see how you can beat me when I'm all armored up!"

Xavier snapped his fingers, prompting several of Raksa's bodyguards to swarm him. Each bodyguard carries a container with black armor pieces in them, which they immediately took out and attach onto Xavier's body. Sunny watched on attentively as the bodyguards stuck the armor pieces one by one onto Xavier's body, before the last bodyguard secures a helmet on Xavier's head.

As the bodyguards retreated away from the arena, Xavier's newly equipped armor lets out a jet of steam, signaling its completion. The bulky black suit of armor has a stag beetle theme to it, with a pair of curved silver horns on the helmet, accompanied by a pair of blue compound eyes. The black torso armor had golden trims on them, with a G symbol emblazoned on the left chest. Silver trimming accompanies the black armor on the shoulder pads, gauntlets, bracers, grieves, and shin-guards, with the code G4 emblazoned in yellow on the left shoulder pad. On the armor's waist area lies a silver, rectangular belt buckle, a set of glowing red lights visible on the midsection of the buckle, while a red battery pack makes up the armor's back.

Cracking his fists, Xavier's armored form, Kamen Rider G4, stepped forward, unclipping a black modular magnum pistol from its holster on the right hip before brandishing it at Sunny.

"Try to beat me in this form!" G4 taunted.

"Gladly," Sunny snickered, taking out her Poseidon Driver and placing it against her waist. She then proceeds to take out her Same, Kujira, and Ookamiuo Medals, installing them into the Driver's slots, "Henshin!"

SAME! KUJIRA! OOKAMIUO!

Kamen Rider Poseidon twirls her Deepest Harpoon around her, before pointing its blade at G4 in an attempt to intimidate the heavily armored Rider. G4 replied the challenge by blasting Poseidon on the chest with his pistol, sparks flying as the projectiles impacted against Poseidon's inverted triangle symbol.

"Okay, you got me there," Poseidon said, twirling her Deepest Harpoon again, "But can you take this?!"

Poseidon charged forward, waltzing her way through G4's continuous pistol fire, before bashing her Deepest Harpoon onto G4's right shoulder. Much to her surprise, the black Rider barely budged. Letting out a yell, Poseidon swung her Deepest Harpoon and struck G4's left shoulder, a shower of sparks coming out from where the harpoon's blade had impacted. But G4 remained unmoved, his sturdy armor managed to withstand the attack.

As Poseidon lifted her Deepest Harpoon to perform another attack, G4 quickly grabbed the incoming weapon, tossing it aside before he proceeds to perform a straight jab onto Poseidon's chest, stunning the Rider for a moment, allowing G4 to grab Poseidon by the right arm. As my best friend groaned in pain, G4 tossed Poseidon around like a ragdoll several times, before throwing the cyan-navy blue-red Rider at the audience. A small crowd retreated immediately as Poseidon crashed against the stands, landing just a few inches next to me.

"Sunny! Don't give up!" I yelled, hoping to give my best friend some encouragement.

Standing up groggily, Poseidon shook her head for a few seconds, trying to clear out the severe headache that struck her the moment she landed on the stands. Once she had regained her senses, Poseidon quickly jumped back into the arena, prompting G4 to fire his pistol once again. But this time Poseidon was ready and like before, she danced her way through the bullets. But she doesn't stop there – Poseidon performed several backflips, rolls, and jumps as she tries her best to set G4's aim off balance. From what I've known, G4 has a state-of-the-art AI that helped him in his battles and if I'm not mistaken, Poseidon's constant movement will cause the AI to crash at any moment from the overload of analyzing my best friend's every move.

Something that came to reality seconds afterwards.

A spark of electricity appeared from G4's helmet, causing the black Rider to drop his pistol as he clutches his head in pain.

"Damn it!" G4 cursed, "Not now! Don't die on me, god damn it!"

"Now!" Poseidon quickly grabs her Deepest Harpoon and swiped it repeatedly at the now immobile G4; sparks flying as the harpoon's blade slowly chipped away the black Rider's armor.

Finished with her swipes, Poseidon planted the Deepest Harpoon on the ground, using it as a launching pad for her to propel herself towards G4, wrapping her legs around the Rider's neck as she topples G4 underneath her weight. Poseidon pounded her fists onto G4's helmet several times, fracturing his compound eyes after several hits before a final punch broke G4's left eye completely, before G4 sluggishly shook Poseidon off him. But with his AI already frozen up, G4 could not do anything as Poseidon grabbed her Deepest Harpoon once again, firing off a blue energy slash that slices through G4's helmet, breaking it completely to reveal a shocked and stunned Xavier underneath it.

"I…I forfeit…" Xavier muttered as he collapsed onto his back from shock and fatigue.

Immediately the coliseum erupted in cheers, with the crowd celebrating Poseidon's shock win over G4. As Poseidon reverted back into Sunny, an ecstatic Wimpy went towards her, lifting her left arm in jubilation.

"And the winner is…" Wimpy said excitedly, "Sunny! Kamen Rider Poseidon has stunned Kamen Rider G4 in her debut fight!"

I smiled from the stands, clapping my hands slowly at my best friend's shock victory. I hope my own fight goes well too!

A jubilant Raksa came off from the stage and embraced the clearly weary yet happy Sunny, taking out his white Y-Gear as he showed its screen at my best friend.

"Your prize money," Raksa said, a smile appearing on his face, "Congratulations on your debut victory. Your win over Xavier is definitely one of the biggest shocks that our ring has seen so far and from those loud cheering; I can say that the audience has a new fan favorite now!"

"Thanks," Sunny replied in gratitude, taking out her own Y-Gear as she links it up with Raksa's to download her prize, "Looks like I'm going to get used to this."

As both Raksa and Eki returned back to the stage, Sunny took a moment to immerse herself at the crowd chanting her name, savoring every second of her sweet victory. Her eyes glanced at the gold stack and the Genesis Driver set for a few seconds, a brief grin forming on her face.

I know that grin all too well…it's exactly the same grin that she did before we tried to rob the Mystery Shack a few hours ago. Sunny, just what are you thinking right now?

"And now!" Wimpy announced once again, the sheer enthusiasm still audible in his voice, "Our second newest fighter will have her debut fight! Chan, you may choose your opponent."

Raksa's bodyguard led me off the stands and into the arena, before he gestured me to choose my opponent from the fighters who are waiting amongst the audience. My eyes immediately scanned the stands, in search for my perfect opponent, before I came across someone who I think I might be able to beat.

The person in question is a 16-year old Japanese boy, with white shoulder length hair and blue eyes, with a scar running down his left eye. He is now wearing a school uniform consisting of a black blazer, white button up, black slacks, and black sneakers. A white cloak and a white cross necklace around his neck completed the man's look.

A brief smile escaped my mouth as I saw that man. 'This is going to be easy,' I thought.

"I chose that man over there to be my opponent!" I exclaimed, pointing at man who obviously looked startled at my sudden decision to choose him.

The crowd erupted into cheers upon hearing my exclamation, while Wimpy showed off that excited smile of his yet again as he grabbed his microphone.

"And Chan has chosen her opponent! Today she will face Kaito Fukumine, one of your youngest fighters, in her debut match!" Wimpy exclaimed.

The boy, Kaito, exchanged nods with an older man sitting next to him, before he made his way into the arena. The crowd chanted Kaito's name as he leapt over the railings separating the stands and the arena, before he went face-to-face with me.

"Two young fighters with equal strengths are going head to head on our arena today!" Wimpy announced again, "This is going to be a tight one, but one will surely come on top!"

"Thanks for choosing me as your first opponent," Kaito said as he shook hands with me, allowing me to see two, ornate-looking rings on his ring fingers, "I may be one of the arena's youngest fighters, but you should not underestimate you."

"Don't worry," I smirked, "I won't take you lightly."

"Alright, gather round," Wimpy signaled or both me and Kaito to approach him, "You two know the drill. You've got five minutes to fight and you may fight untransformed or transformed. If you choose to go all the way untransformed, the one who knocks out his or her opponent wins. If you choose to transform, the one who causes the other to de-transform wins. Got it?"

"Crystal clear," I said, while Kaito just nodded.

"Good," Wimpy nodded, before he grabbed his microphone again as he faced the audience around him, "Now let's get ready to rumble!"

"Let's just cut to the chase, okay?" Kaito said, placing his right hand against his waist, "I have a school meeting later this evening."

Kaito's right hand has a silver ring on his ring finger, the ring colored silver with a black stone on its center, the stone engraved in a shape of a hand with red trimmings on the fingers. The moment Kaito places his right ring finger against his waist, a white glow appeared from the ring as a silver and black belt materializes around Kaito's waist, it's hand-shaped buckle colored black with red trimmings.

DRIVER ON, NOW!

"Going straight into the Rider fight, eh?" I said, placing my Sengoku Driver against my waist, the straps securing the device nicely, "The pleasure's mine."

I took out my Melon Lockseed and clicked it open, as Kaito turned two handles on his belt to turn its hand-shaped buckle towards the left.

MELON!

SHABADOOBI TOUCH TO HENSHIN! SHABADOOBI TOUCH TO HENSHIN!

Kaito showed me his ornate black and gold ring on his left ring finger, flicking down the ring's visor attachment so that the ring's stone now resembles a black and gold helmet, "Henshin."

"Henshin!" I exclaimed, throwing my Melon Lockseed into the air before catching it as the Melon Armor Part slowly descended down the Crack above my head. I then swiftly installs the Melon Lockseed into my Sengoku Driver, before locking it in place.

LOCK ON!

As Japanese horagai music was played from my Driver, Kaito swiped his left hand against his belt buckle, while at the same time I sliced open my Lockseed with my Cutting Blade.

CHANGE, NOW!

SOIYA! MELON ARMS! TENKA GOMEN!

Kaito swung his left hand into the air, prompting a huge golden magic circle to appear above the boy. The magic circle then descended down on him, transforming Kaito into his Rider form.

Kaito's Rider form resembles an armored magician, colored gold and black with an ornate-looking golden visor and a helmet that resembled a pointed hat. This is Kamen Rider Sorcerer, the main villain of the movie Kamen Rider Wizard in Magic Land. When Kaito said to me to not to underestimate him, he's not kidding – Sorcerer's one of the most powerful Riders that I've seen and a force to be reckoned with!

As my Zangetsu armor snaps itself into place around me, I took a chance to give Sorcerer's armor a look, trying to find the guy's weak spots. With my visor glowing to signal the completion of my transformation, I saw Sorcerer taking out another ring, placing it on his right hand, and shifted his hand-shaped buckle to the right, before scanning the ring on the buckle.

CONNECT, NOW!

Another golden magical circle appeared on Sorcerer's right, which the Rider plunges his right hand into. He then pulls out an axe that resembled a sorcerer's staff from the magical circle, the Dis Halberd. Spinning the golden-bladed weapon as the circle disappeared; Sorcerer immediately pointed the weapon at me.

"Your move, Chan-san," Sorcerer said.

No time to find this guy's weakness; let's just bash my way through him in hopes that he'll reveal it to me by himself!

I immediately grabbed my Musou Saber and Melon Defender, the two of us charging at each other with our weapons ready. Sorcerer went in first, slashing his Dis Halberd towards my chest, but I immediately used my Melon Defender to protect myself. But before I could even have the single chance to pull out my Musou Saber for the offensive, Sorcerer kept on banging onto my Melon Defender with his Dis Halberd, apparently hoping that I would drop my guard for him to take advantage.

"C'mon, Chan-san. Don't play turtle," Sorcerer said as he kept on attacking my Melon Defender, before he lets out a bored sigh as he took out yet another ring, "Man, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you kept on defending throughout the fight, when will you attack?"

BLAST, NOW!

A wave of golden energy washed over the Melon Defender, swiftly dislodging it from my hand before the wave struck my body completely, sending my flying backwards.

As I tried my best to land on my feet, I started to think on what Sorcerer had just said. Don't play turtle. Even though this man is one of the most powerful Riders out there, I should not be afraid to land an attack. I'm using the powers of one of the strongest Armored Riders out there for God's sake! I should prove to the world that I can do my own battles and not just rely on Sunny!

I glanced at my fallen Melon Defender, pondering on whether I should get it or not, but I decided to screw it and went towards Sorcerer with only my Musou Saber in hand.

(Cue BGM: -unfinished- - KOTOKO)

"So, you've decided to attack?" Sorcerer asked, scanning his ring on his belt once again, "Then take this!"

BLAST, NOW!

The golden energy wave came towards me once again, but this time I was prepared. Letting out a loud yell, I slashed my Musou Saber at the incoming wave, literally splitting it into two much to the surprise of Sorcerer and the audience! As a pair of explosions erupted between me, I kept moving forward, undeterred by the continuous energy waves that Sorcerer had fired at me as I deflected them away with the blade of my Musou Saber.

The audience cheered me on despite having explosions from Sorcerer's attack rocking the area from all directions, adding more fuel to my already burning spirit. The moment I found myself close to Sorcerer, I immediately slashed the golden Rider repeatedly much to his surprise, sparks flying from where the Musou Saber had hit Sorcerer.

Sorcerer, seeing that I've already upped my ante, decided to take immediate action by grabbing his Dis Halberd in hopes that he would match my swordplay. For a good 30 seconds we clashed our weapons, before the Dis Halberd emerged victorious due to its humongous size, easily disarming me of my Musou Saber. But I didn't stop there; I kept on going with my fists as I landed a couple of good punches onto Sorcerer's chest. The golden magician retaliates by swinging his Dis Halberd at me, but I somehow managed to catch it by its blade, much to Sorcerer's clear shock.

"You said that I should attack, right?" I taunted as I gripped the blade of the Dis Halberd even tighter, "Let me show you the power of the one who will slay the moon!"

With a loud yell, I tossed the Dis Halberd aside, allowing us to fight evenly with our bare hands. I punched Sorcerer twice on the helmet, before kicking the gold and black Rider on the chest. Coughing in pain, Sorcerer slowly backed away, taking out another ring before scanning it on his Driver.

DUPE, NOW!

Several copies of Sorcerer were materialized from golden magical circles around Sorcerer, each of them eager to have a piece of me. But I won't let Sorcerer have his way easily.

Dodging the clones' energy attacks, I quickly grabbed my Melon Defender and tossed it at the clones, the weapon slicing through each clone like butter, before it hit the real Sorcerer on his chest, sending him flying from the sheer force.

"The finisher!" I exclaimed, slicing my Lockseed three times before leaping to the air.

SOIYA! MELON SPARKING!

Assuming a bicycle kick pose, I let out a yell as green energy began to accumulate on my right boot, ready to smash the daylights out of Sorcerer.

"Mujin Kick!" I yelled, landing my Rider Kick right onto Sorcerer's chest, sending the golden magician flying into the stands.

(BGM ends)

I landed gracefully on the arena as Sorcerer groggily stood up on the stands, his armor shattering away to reveal a battered Kaito, who passed out immediately to the wild cheers of the audience around him.

"And we have a winner!" Wimpy yelled excitedly as he came towards me, lifting my left arm, "The winner of this match…Chan!"

I let out a small smirk as the arena erupted into celebrations around me, I could easily see Sunny clapping for me on the stands, a pleased smile on my best friend's face.

"CHAN! SUNNY! CHAN! SUNNY!"

The audience chanted our names, cheering over our victories in our respective battles. It feels so good to hear them saying out your name like that, especially after all that you've been through. The fact that we've beaten opponents who are much more experienced than us adds more to that great winning feeling, that ecstasy that you've feel when you've been crowned champions.

Yeah, I think that we could get used to this.

xxx

It's been four days since Sunny and I have arrived at Tokusat City and it has also been four days since we started fighting in Raksa's arena. Over time we honed our skills with each fight and we earned a lot of money from our winnings, even more than our usual monthly allowance! But after every fight that she won, Sunny always gave that lustful look towards the pile of gold and the Genesis Driver set that Raksa has placed on his table overlooking the coliseum arena for the overall winners, as if she's plotting something. Could it be my best friend's plotting to steal all of those for herself? Only God knows what's going on inside her head.

Today we're having a tag battle against David Hernandez and Ethan Roanoke, better known as Kamen Riders Dark Kabuto and Tyrant. They're both decent fighters, with Dark Kabuto pulling off his Clock Up stunts whenever we had an opening and Tyrant utilizing his brute strength over anything else, but our teamwork and days of practicing and fighting together gave us the edge over the two Riders and now we're ready to finish them off.

Blue energy swirled into Poseidon's Deepest Harpoon as she leapt into the air, before she thrusts her weapon at the weakened Dark Kabuto's abdomen, sparks flying into the air as the black Rider was forced to his knees, his Dark Kabuto Zecter flying off from his belt as he reverts back into David.

At the same time, Tyrant presses on his Genesis Driver's lever once, causing a surge of red energy to leave his Dragonfruit Energy Lockseed and into his right fist. At the same time, I sliced my Lockseed twice, green energy surging from my Sengoku Driver to my left fist.

SODA! DRAGONFRUIT ENERGY SQUASH!

SOIYA! MELON AU LAIT!

The two of us threw identical punches at each other with our energized fists, both of them hitting our respective targets as sparks flew from where our arms crossed. A brief yet tense silence ensues, before suddenly Tyrant's armor disappeared in motes of red light, reverting back into the African American man that is Ethan Roanoke. Whilst his punch had missed my cheek by mere millimeters, mine had struck him right on his jaw, knocking Ethan out.

"And your winners!" Wimpy announced enthusiastically, "Kamen Riders Poseidon and Zangetsu! Sunny and Chan!"

xxx

"That was some fight that we had, right Sunny?" I asked my best friend as the two of us had our dinner in our locker room. Raksa's bodyguard had bought us two packets of Indonesian-styled fried rice for our dinner and I have to admit, they're quite tasty.

Sunny didn't say a word at all, she instead continued on with eating her fried rice. Ever since we've won our tag battle, she has been silent, not like her usual talkative self. As her best friend, I knew that something's going on in her mind, especially after she gave yet another look at the gold and Genesis Driver set that Raksa has kept for the winners. Sunny's plotting something with them and I knew it!

"Cow, do you want to get the Hell out of here?" Sunny asked suddenly.

"Why?" I asked back as I munched on my fried rice.

"I don't think Raksa's keeping his word on us," Sunny replied, her expression serious, "I mean, look at this, Cow. If this is a normal fighting tournament, the ones that we've beaten are sure to be eliminated. But not this one. Yes, we are allowed to choose our opponents, but what's the point of having a tournament when those who we have defeated are thrown back into the stands for us to choose again? Didn't we beat Dark Kabuto and Tyrant individually before today? I took G4 out in my debut fight, but why the heck did I fought him again earlier today? It's like after we've beaten the ones that we've fought, we have no choice but to take on the Riders that we've defeated all over again."

"And you're implying?" I lifted up my eyebrows.

"Raksa's keeping all those gold and that Genesis Driver set for himself," Sunny said, "But not for long, Cow. 'Cause tonight, we're going to steal it."

I choked on my fried rice; apparently Sunny's last few words are too much for my mind to comprehend.

"We're going to do what?!" I gasped.

"Steal those gold bars and that Driver," Sunny smirked, "I've calculated that if we trade those gold for the money equal to their value, we would be filthy rich! And also we'll become more powerful with that Genesis Driver! I'm fed up in waiting for those sweet promises that Raksa gave to us. Aren't you fed up as well, Cow?"

I sighed, "Well, that's true…even though we've been earning quite a lot lately, but the longer I fought in this arena, I feel that things are getting…well boring. I mean we literally won all of our fights against the other Riders here. We've established ourselves as elites in this ring. But I wanted more…I wanted to challenge myself even further."

"Then feel free to hop onboard, Cow," Sunny patted me on the shoulder, "Meet me here in three hours, okay?"

Little that I know, in three hours, I was about to lose my best friend…forever.

xxx

Later that night, I reluctantly waited for Sunny outside our locker room. A significant part of my mind is telling me to bail out of this plan, that Sunny's being completely driven crazy by those gold bars and Driver set, and I should stay in Raksa's fighting ring for my own safety. But on the other hand, I can't just let my best friend pull off a stunt like that alone; I need to watch her back in case something happens. That, and a hidden desire to challenge myself outside this ring, got me into this scheme of Sunny's.

"Hey."

I swiftly turned around and saw Sunny slowly walking towards me. She's now dressed in black from head to toe, black shoes, black trousers, a black long-sleeved sweater, and a black wool cap on her head. Slung on her shoulder was a black duffel bag, which I presume is where she's going to place all of her loot.

"You ready, Cow?" Sunny asked me, "You know, if you wanted to stay out of this, you can bail now and return back to our room. But if you're going to get the Hell out of here with me, I'm more than happy to let you go with me. It's your choice, Cow."

I thought for a few seconds, before I gave Sunny a nod, "I'll go with you, Sunny. You're my best friend, right? I'll stick with you until the very end."

"Good choice," Sunny smiled at me, patting me twice on the back, "Now let's go!"

xxx

A few minutes later, we've sneaked our way into the coliseum arena. As I suspected, Raksa's bodyguards were nowhere to be found, as they are now sleeping in their respective rooms, leaving behind the gold pile and the Genesis Driver set lying idly on its table. Everything was quiet in the arena, with no soul other than ours in there.

I tried to made my way into the empty arena, only for Sunny to block my path, surprising me. Before I could ask anything, Sunny made a silent hush towards me, before she takes out a can of deodorant from her duffle bag. Sunny then sprayed the deodorant can on the arena in front of her, revealing a complex set of laser wires standing between us and our prize.

"Holy fuck!" I cursed underneath my breath.

"Thank God I stopped you," Sunny whispered, "You could have triggered the alarm if you marched on recklessly like that."

Silently we tip-toed our way across the arena, trying our best in avoiding the laser wires from making any contact with our body. As an experienced street dancer, Sunny had no problem making her way through the wires with her flexible body, but I had a different story. I wasn't as trained in flexibility as Sunny does, meaning that I had a slight struggle with the wires. But thankfully my best friend managed to help me several times through them and before we know it, we're now face to face with our prize.

"Amazing…" Sunny muttered as she gazed upon the gold pile in front of her, her eyes beaming in joy as she imagined them in her possession, "This is it, Cow! Our ticket out of here! Now help me hold this bag for me."

I obliged and took Sunny's duffel bag from her, quickly opening it up and holding it open. Without any hesitation Sunny immediately dived into the gold pile, chucking the gold bars one by one into the awaiting duffel bag while I acted as a lookout just in case someone sees us. For a full five minutes Sunny placed the gold bars into the duffel bag, before finally placing both the Genesis Driver and the Melon Energy Lockseed into it, which I zipped shut immediately afterwards.

xxx

After sneaking our way through the arena once again, both Sunny and I immediately left the coliseum, using a pair of bolt cutters to pry open the door separating the coliseum from the Salty Spittoon, before making a dash towards freedom.

"We did it!" I grinned in jubilation, but at the same time trying to hold myself from shouting, "We're gettin' out of here!"

"We're not out of the woods yet, Cow," Sunny reminded, "We need to get out of this spittoon first, before navigating our way through the slums around this place. Once we've done those, then we can consider ourselves free."

"And where do you bitches think you're going?"

Our blood froze once we saw that our only exit out of this entire fighting ring madness is being blocked by a familiar female figure, who immediately slapped on a black belt around her waist the moment she saw us. The belt's buckle was rectangular in shape, vertical in position with a black center and rimmed with rusty gold metal. A deep-pitched disco tuned echoed immediately from the belt buckle the moment the belt has secured itself around the figure's body.

The figure was Eki, Raksa's bodyguard and girlfriend. And she looked unimaginably furious, unlike her usual cold self. Streaks of white hair are seen on her head, while her amber eyes are glowing eerily in the darkness of the room.

"You two think that you can steal Raksa's gold and get away with it, don't you?" Eki asked us again, her voice slowly distorting into that of a male's, "You do realize that I have the power to watch everything that has happened in this place? Why do you think Raksa made me his bodyguard at the first place?"

"Watch everything? What are you talking about?" I asked, before suddenly it hits me, "You're not human, aren't you? Just…who are you?"

"Your judge, jury, and most importantly…executioner," Eki said slowly, taking out her black and bronze rectangular object that she had showed us when we first met, before uttering this in a very dark tone, "Henshin."

SKULL FORM!

Once Eki swiped the rectangular object across her belt buckle, the object lets out a pale yellow glow before exploding into a series of black and bronze particles, which stuck onto her body. The particles formed a black and silver bodysuit on Eki's body, with rusty black armor on the chest, gauntlets, and shin-guards, while a black and bronze skirt hung low from her belt and around her legs. Ghostly blue flames began to appear around Eki's transformed form, which materializes into black and bronze armor pieces that snapped themselves onto Eki's bodysuit. The chest armor is now covered in a pair of black armor with rusted grey accents, a bronze zipper-like construct sealing the pieces together in place. The black shoulder-pads are emblazoned with the same bronze zipper constructs, making them look like a pair of rusted crocodile heads that stuck out from the shoulders. Last but not least, two large black armor pieces assembled themselves onto the bodysuit's head region, forming a large, black visor that resembled a huge pair of sunglasses, with an eerie skull-themed jewel embedded on the forehead, a pair of ghostly horns coming out from the skull and forming the helmet's antennas. And as a final touch, a rusty bronze scarf themed after a railroad is wrapped around the neck region.

Eki has transformed into her Rider form, Kamen Rider Yuuki, Skull Form!

"This is bad," I muttered, biting my lower lip as I took out my Sengoku Driver, "Guess we need to fight our way out of here, eh?"

"Yeah," Sunny nodded, taking out her Poseidon Driver, "Let's just waste her and get the fuck out of here!"

MELON!

SAME! KUJIRA! OOKAMIUO!

SOIYA! MELON ARMS! TENKA GOMEN!

Transforming into our Rider forms, we faced Yuuki with our weapons in hand, the Melon Defender and Musou Saber for me, and the Deepest Harpoon for Poseidon. Yuuki, on the other hand, took out her own weapon – a rusty-looking machete with a jagged blade.

"Let's go," Yuuki said coldly, before she went straight towards us.

Poseidon took the first initiative by attempting to stab her Deepest Harpoon onto Yuuki's chest, but the black and bronze Rider easily parries away the incoming weapon with her machete, leaving her open for me to perform a surprise jumping slash with my Musou Saber. But much to my surprise, before my Musou Saber's blade even made contact, Yuuki quickly parries my incoming attack with her machete. Her speed was completely inhuman!

"Child's play," Yuuki cracked her neck, "Go on, try me once again. Dish out your best attacks at me!"

"With pleasure!" Poseidon replied, rushing towards Yuuki with her Deepest Harpoon in hand.

Poseidon lets out a loud yell as she slammed her Deepest Harpoon's blade against Yuuki's shoulder twice, only to have her attacks shrugged off easily by Yuuki. Not giving up, my best friend executed more slashes with her Deepest Harpoon, but all of them ending in failure as Yuuki remained on her feet, she didn't even moved an inch despite all the attacks that she'd received!

"My turn," Yuuki said darkly.

Before Poseidon could react, Yuuki landed a powerful punch on her chest that sends her stumbling back, before a devastating diagonal slash to her right shoulder ensues. As I looked on in horror, Poseidon yelled out in pain as she clutches her now injured shoulder. Such devastating power is stored within Yuuki's machete and I think that weapon could easily smash through my Melon Defender with ease!

"Your turn, melon brat," Yuuki said, pointing her machete at me.

Undeterred by what I just saw, I immediately charged into battle, yelling loudly with my weapons in hand. Quickly I swung my Musou Saber towards the now standing Yuuki, only for my weapon to be easily parried away by Yuuki's machete. Pushing me away from her, Yuuki quickly landed a couple of slashes with her machete at me, prompting me to quickly protect myself with my Melon Defender. Sparks flew out each time Yuuki's machete made contact with my Melon Defender, coupled with a series of deafening bangs that caused pain in both my and Poseidon's heads. Strangely enough Yuuki was unaffected by all of this.

What is she anyway? A robot? An alien? A monster? Not only that her moves are inhumanly quick, the strength of her slashes are also unimaginable by human standards and she doesn't seem to be affected by all the sparks and noises around her. It's like we're literally fighting a juggernaut here!

My train of thought was soon derailed abruptly when a bang, louder than the earlier ones, was heard, and I could feel a huge chunk of my Melon Defender slowly falling off into the floor below me.

Oh snap.

Letting out an inhuman roar, Yuuki slashed her machete several times at me, chipping off chunks of my chest armor each time she does so. Pain racked throughout my body with each slash, while blood slowly seeped out from the places where Yuuki had slashed her machete at my chest armor. Damn Rider actually slashed through my Ride Wear with each attack!

Yuuki finished her onslaught on my with a straight jab on my face, sending me flying into a nearby pillar. The black and bronze Rider lets out an evil laugh as I struggled to stand up, groaning in pain as I coughed up some blood. My right visor cracked a bit before shattering away, revealing my bloody right eye. When will this brutal beat-down end?

"And now, the finisher," Yuuki said, her machete on her right hand as her left hand is now holding the rectangular object from before. She then proceeds to scan the rectangular object against her belt buckle.

FULL CHARGE!

A burst of pale yellow energy surged from the belt buckle and into Yuuki's machete, the weapon's jagged blade glowing pale yellow seconds afterwards. As I regained my footing, I could see Yuuki slowly advancing towards me, raising her machete up into the air as she's more than ready to finish me off once and for all. I slowly closed my eyes, ready to accept my fate as Yuuki stood right in front of me, lowering her machete quickly towards my helmet.

"Cow!"

I heard my best friend's voice calling out for me, before a large object pushed me off my feet. A loud clang was heard, with a loud cry of agony following seconds afterwards.

Slowly I opened my eyes and I was soon treated with the most horrifying sight that I've ever seen.

Kamen Rider Poseidon had pushed me out of the machete's way, receiving the full brunt of Yuuki's finisher as the machete is now embedded on her chest armor. Blood can be seen trickling down from the weapon's blade, dripping on the floor slowly.

Yuuki let out yet another inhuman roar as she grabbed onto her machete tightly, before performing a final slash that sliced through both Poseidon's torso and her Poseidon Driver, destroying it instantly. As I watched on in horror, Yuuki pulls out her machete before giving Poseidon a solid kick. Before my own eyes, I saw my best friend tumbling down on the floor, her armor disintegrating away to reveal a mortally wounded Sunny, with a deep vertical slash wound that runs from her chest towards her waist.

"Sunny!" I called as I rushed to my dying best friend's side, reverting back into my badly injured civilian form as I does so, "Sunny, hang in there!"

"No…C…o..w….it's…too…l-late…" Sunny stammered, her breathing becoming shorter and shorter with each word, "G-grab…the…g-go-ld…a-nd…th-e…D…ri…v..e…r…se…t…a…n..d…get…the…Hell…ou-t…of…he-re…"

"Not without you, Sunny!" I cried, grabbing onto my best friend's hand, "We're best friends, remember? We've gotten ourselves into this mess together, and we're getting out of it together!"

"It's…o…kay…C-ow…" Sunny lets out a weak smile as she releases my grip on her hand, "You…can…sur-vive…I…kn…ow…you…c-an…"

I then notice Yuuki slowly walking over towards us, her machete still in hand. Sunny weakly pointed towards the abandoned duffel bag on the floor, motioning me to pick it up. Realizing that I don't have much time, I immediately grabbed the bag and slung it over my shoulders.

"Be strong…Cow…" Sunny said weakly as she gestured me to get out of the premises as soon as possible, "Find…some…one…as…strong…as…you…and…fight…along..side…them…stop…this…war…be-fore…more…innocent…victims…fall…"

I could only give out a weak nod; a huge part of me is unwilling to leave my best friend behind. But with the direness of the situation, I realize that Sunny was right. I need to save myself. As I made my way towards the exit, I watched on in horror as Yuuki slowly picked up Sunny's dying body, before proceeding to hack her arms off with that dreaded machete. I cringed in horror and sorrow as Sunny lets out an agonizing yell, before a quick slash silenced her…forever. A loud splatter of blood splashed against a nearby wall as Sunny's now lifeless head rolled slowly on the floor.

"You're terminated," Yuuki muttered, before she turned her attention towards the exit, only to find that no one's there, "So melon brat has decided to run, huh? I'll deal with her later…"

xxx

I ran as quickly as I could away from the Salty Spittoon, trying to fight off the pain raging throughout my body as I made my way towards the Crackton district border, feeling that I would be safe outside the slums. My Sengoku Driver is still wrapped around my waist, with the Melon Lockseed there as well, while the duffel bag is safely in my possession.

Once I felt that I've ran far enough, I slowly slip into a dark alleyway, learned myself against a wall, before burying my face into my hands and crying my heart out. I've just witnessed my best friend sacrificing her life to save me, before seeing with my own eyes how Kamen Rider Yuuki brutally ended my best friend's life. Sadness, sorrow, and rage all went wild inside of me, and I instantly know what I need to do next.

I need to seek my revenge.

xxx

From there on, I explored Tokusat City by myself, but not after selling a bar of gold to sustain myself for the following week. I went from district to district, fighting a variety of monsters and Riders, all for the sake of making myself stronger in case I need to take on Yuuki once again. I also tried my best to test the strength of my fellow Riders, to see if they're strong enough to join me in my quest for vengeance. Thankfully my Y-Gear has an app called the Rider War Network, which helped me in tracking down the Riders that I seek. But unfortunately, none of them has met my satisfaction.

xxx

"Let's go, Momotaros!" called a young man, aged around 16 years old with messy grey hair, light green eyes, a healthy tan, and a not-so muscular build. He is now wearing a light blue trench hoodie with grey shirt, green camo pants, pair of brown fingerless gloves and white sneakers.

Standing next to the young man is a red horned male humanoid, resembling a Japanese demon of some sorts. Black flame markings are seen all over the humanoid's body, while his black eyes gleamed underneath the sunlight. A permanent grin was etched onto his face, which suits the humanoid's hot-blooded, prideful, and unpredictable personality.

"Yosh, ikuze ikuze ikuze! Let's do this Altze-kun!" Momotaros clapped his hands in delight.

Altze, the young man, lets out a nod, before taking out a black, rectangular object from his hoodie pocket. Momotaros transformed himself into a red glow that entered into the object, before Altze takes out a white belt with a red, square-shaped buckle. Altze secured the belt on his waist, before turning his attention towards his opponents – a group of green, pupa-shaped creatures called Worms.

"Henshin!" Altze exclaimed, swiping the rectangular object against his belt buckle.

SWORD FORM!

As a group of red particles appeared around Altze, I slowly snuck up on him, hiding myself within the bushes growing behind the young man. Taking out my Y-Gear, I took a glance on Altze's Rider data.

"Altze Yumehashi, Kamen Rider Den-O…" I muttered as I switched my glances back and forth from my Y-Gear to the newly transformed Kamen Rider Den-O in his default Sword Form, bearing that iconic red and white peach-themed armor over that black bodysuit of his, "He uses the same system as Yuuki's. Wonder if he's as strong as that monster…"

xxx

15 minutes later

LOCK ON! 1! 10! 100! 1,000! MELON CHARGE!

"AAAAAKH!"

Den-O was thrown across the battlefield after receiving the full force of my Musou Saber's charged slash, his armor disintegrating the moment he touched the ground.

"How weak," I shook my head in dismay as I slowly ran my fingers on the blade of my Musou Saber, "You don't deserve to fight alongside me."

"Who would want to fight with a bully like you?!" Altze asked angrily as he went towards me, his now red eyes glaring daggers with mine. His messy grey hair is now styled in a spike with red streaks in them.

"Should I remind you that this is a war?" I asked back with a stern tone, returning Altze's glare with a glare of my own, "If you don't fight, you won't survive. Now beat it. I don't want you in my sight."

Muttering in anger, Altze stormed off from the area, defeated and utterly humiliated by my superior fighting skills.

xxx

Day after day, I searched for Riders through the Rider News Network and challenged them for a fight with me. But all of my fights with them ended in the same way – me curb-stomping them to the ground.

xxx

A blue, dragonfly themed Rider fired its dragonfly-themed gun at me in desperation, but much to its dismay, I easily sliced up the incoming bullets with my Musou Saber. And before the dragonfly Rider could react any further, I threw my Melon Defender at the Rider's head, knocking the Rider to the ground. A mechanical dragonfly flew away from the Rider's gun, causing the Rider's armor to broke away in a series of blue hexagons, revealing an unconscious 21-year old young Thai woman, with an average yet athletic build with light brown skin, black eyes and shoulder length chocolate brown hair. She is now wearing a pink shirt underneath a cyan and black jacket with an insignia on the right shoulder, along with blue denim jeans, sandals, and a black glove over her right hand.

"Ma Yeen Mintty, Kamen Rider Drake," I said as I stood over Mintty's unconscious body, "Team leader of the newly formed Celestial Being faction…but an utter disgrace by my standards."

"You bastard!"

I turned around to see a silver Hercules beetle-themed Rider with red eyes standing behind me, with an axe weapon on its right hand. A silver, mechanical Hercules beetle is perched on a black brace strapped on the right wrist.

"Arthima 'Nan' Chavananttinant," I said, "Better known as Kamen Rider Hercus, Celestial Being's rescue expert. Do you think you have what it takes to beat me? I just wrecked your leader a few seconds ago."

Hercus didn't say anything; instead she immediately grabbed her axe tightly and charged towards me. Letting out a sigh, I sliced my Lockseed once.

SOIYA! MELON SQUASH!

Hercus swung her axe at me, but I swiftly ducked underneath it, allowing green energy to accumulate on the blade of my Musou Saber.

"Melon Musou Zan!" I exclaimed, slashing my Musou Saber onto Hercus' abdomen.

Hercus backed away from me, clutching her abdomen in pain as she knelt down on the ground. The mechanical Hercules beetle flew away from her brace, causing her armor to disintegrate into silver hexagons. In Hercus' place is a 19-year old young Thai woman, her face contorted in pain from the injury that I had inflicted a few seconds earlier. The woman is rather chubby with a short build with white skin, brown eyes, and shoulder length dark brown hair that is usually tied into a ponytail. She is now wearing a white shirt underneath a silver and black jacket with an insignia on the right shoulder, along with black trousers, sandals, and a small pin of the flag of Thailand over her right chest pocket.

"Yet another disgrace," I muttered, ignoring the fact that Nan is glaring daggers at me, "I'm wasting my time here."

Nan tried to speak, but the pain raging through her body had overwhelmed her to the point of her collapsing to the ground as I slowly left the two Thai women to their own devices.

xxx

Disgraces, utter disgraces. I don't know whether it was my skills that have skyrocketed thanks to my time in Raksa's ring of Hell, or the Riders are holding themselves back against me. But every time I fought a Rider, I couldn't feel their strength equaling that of Sunny's. They may say that I've set the bar too high, but personally, I need someone who is at least as strong as the late Sunny and me, or even stronger, because I can't bear to face Yuuki again all by myself.

Which brings us to today, where even though I'm pitted three against one, I've managed to hold the upper-hand against the Riders of Nexus.

xxx

SOIYA! MELON SQUASH!

"Melon Musou Zan!"

After parrying Savior's weapons with my Melon Defender, I immediately went in for the kill, slashing my Musou Saber vertically across the black and blood red Rider's chest armor. Sparks flew from where I had hit Savior with my weapon, as my opponent stumbled back in pain before falling on his back, his armor disappearing in motes of blood red light.

But it's no time for me to relax, as Dark Drive attempted to slash me with her Blade Gunner. Using the Melon Defender once again to protect myself, I immediately sliced my Lockseed twice.

SOIYA! MELON AU LAIT!

"Melou Blast!" I exclaimed, throwing my Melon Defender at Dark Drive, stunning her for a few seconds, allowing me to deliver a powerful charged vertical slash with my Musou Saber. A faint image of a melon slice appeared briefly on Dark Drive before it exploded, knocking Dark Drive to the ground and forcefully cancelling her transformation.

DAI KAIGAN!

GAN GAN MIRO! GAN GAN MIRO! GAN GAN MIRO!

Having changed into her warlord-themed Nobunaga Damashii a few minutes into our fight, Specter aimed her Gan Gun Hand in its Rifle Mode configuration at me, a number of energy duplicates of the weapon flanking the Rider. Seeing that I had briefly dropped my guard, Specter immediately pressed her weapon's trigger.

OMEGA SPARK!

The Gan Gun Hand and its duplicates fired several blue energy blasts at me in unison, but unknown to Specter, I was prepared for such a thing. Immediately I set up my Melon Defender, protecting myself from the salvo of blasts, and allowing me to slice my Lockseed three times.

SOIYA! MELON SPARKING!

Tossing aside my Melon Defender and Musou Saber, I leaped into the air, assuming a bicycle kick pose with green energy surging into my right boot.

"Mujin Kick!" I exclaimed.

Specter had no time to retaliate as my kick smashed onto her chest, sending my opponent flying into a nearby tree, her transformation canceled the moment she touched the ground.

I landed gracefully after executing my Rider Kick, letting out a victorious yet disappointed smirk as I looked at each and every Nexus member sprawled helplessly around me.

"Nick Gishi. Nguyen Minh Trang. Ayano Hirano," I said, shrugging off the glares that the Nexus members are giving me, "You three are the members of Nexus, an organization of three powerful Riders operating to eradicate the injustices in Tokusat City. But you are no match to the standards that I've set up. Now fuck off! I don't want to see you scum hanging around me."

"We won't forget this humiliation!" Nick growled as he stood up, before helping Minh Trang and Ayano back to their feet, "I promise you…Nexus will give you a much deserved retribution!"

And with that the members of Nexus retreated away from the battlefield, defeated, utterly humiliated, and bearing a grudge against me.

Great, just great. What have you gotten yourself into this time, Chan? You've made a lot of Rider enemies in your journey. Pretty sure that right now in the Rider War Network, there's a lot of Riders planning for my downfall.

Not wanting to have the prospect of Nexus or any other Riders that I've defeated exacting revenge on me bothering my mind and since it's already late, I slowly made my way towards a park bench on a nearby fountain, and slept there.

xxx

The next day

I was awoken the next morning by the sound of weapons clashing and arrows flying through the air. It all lasted for a good five seconds, before a series of explosions prompted me to investigate.

Slowly rising up from my bench, I saw four Riders standing near the fountain, several scorch marks can be seen clearly on the ground. I can guess that these Riders had just finished fighting off some kaijins in the area and they had come across my resting place by accident. Taking out my Y-Gear, I immediately went for the Rider War Network app to identify the Riders in front of me.

Since their armors were based on fruits, I can tell that they're Riders from Gaim and they're using both Driver models shown in the series. Two Riders, colored red and based on a banana and an apple, are using Sengoku Drivers, while the other two, colored blue and pink and based on a lemon and a peach respectively, are using Genesis Drivers. I could easily identify three of the four Riders – the banana-themed one as Kamen Rider Baron, the lemon-themed one as Kamen Rider Duke, and the peach-themed one as Kamen Rider Marika. A quick check into my apps tells me that the apple-themed Rider's name is Kamen Rider Idunn. I've only watched Gaim Gaiden a few times, that's why I've forgotten about the apple Rider's name even though I've saw that Rider before.

As I silently approached the four Riders to investigate them, I could slightly overhear their conversation.

"No signs of Linh," Baron said in a male voice that is somewhat familiar to me.

"That's strange," added Duke in a female voice, which also struck a chord of familiarity in my mind, "Nozomi said that her friend saw her in this very park…"

"Maybe she's living the nomadic lifestyle here?" asked Marika, her voice also familiar to my mind, "I mean, she could be moving from place to place here in search of somewhere that is safe."

"In a world filled with monsters and warring Riders, I think that sounds quite logical," Idunn said with yet another familiar female voice, "But at least we got to kill some Inves to train ourselves."

The four Riders closed up their Lockseeds, causing their armor to fade away in motes of light. And immediately my eyes are treated with a sight that is beyond my belief.

Standing in the four Riders' places are my friends that went missing from my university before my arrival in Tokusat City, three of them are even my Japanese classmates!

Standing in Baron's place is my Indonesian classmate Krishna Sadhana, while my fellow Vietnamese classmates Le Thao Minh and Nguyen Phuoc "Two" Khanh Linh are Kamen Riders Duke and Idunn, respectively. I didn't know Tran Bao "Wind" Quyen that much, but from what I've known so far, the identity of Kamen Rider Marika is Minh's best friend.

Overwhelmed by shock, surprise, the feeling of seeing some familiar faces after quite a while, and also the desire to test these Riders' strengths, I slowly made my way towards them, trying to hide my overwhelming feelings from the four. And boy, do they look surprised at my sudden appearance!

"Chan?" Krishna gasped as he saw me, "Is that you?!"

"What are you doing here?" Minh asked, "Are you a part of this as well?"

"Are you okay?" this time it was Two asking that question at me, "Did anyone hurt you? You kinda looked weary."

I immediately gestured them to stop talking, before proceeding to ask my own questions as well, "My questions first. What are you guys doing here? And since when are you Riders?"

"Isn't that obvious? We've been dragged here from our home to fight in this war between Kamen Riders," answered Krishna, "And judging by the looks of it…you're a Rider too, right?"

I nodded slowly, "Yes I am. And so was my best friend."

"Sunny?" Two gasped, "She's here too?"

"Was here," I replied sadly, "I arrived here with her and spent my first few days here with her. But unfortunately…she sacrificed her life to save me from another Rider. She was brutally killed."

Krishna, Minh, Wind, and Two went silent after hearing that. Minh and Wind looked down in solemnness, closing their eyes as they pay their respects to my best friend, while Krishna and Two looked at me in disbelief.

"It can't be…" Two said, struggling to say anything, "Sunny's…dead?"

"So this war has claimed its first victim…" Krishna muttered sadly, "Chan…we're sorry for your loss."

"And that's exactly why I've been traveling around this city, looking for strong Riders to fight alongside me to stop this senseless war," I told my friends, clenching my right fist in determination as my burning vengeance against Kamen Rider Yuuki started to surface, "And also…I wanted to avenge her death by defeating the Rider who killed her, once and for all!"

"And what are you going to do?" Krishna asked.

Immediately I pointed at Krishna, "I'm going to challenge you on a one-on-one fight! Are you strong enough to fight alongside me?"

Krishna chuckled, taking out his Banana Lockseed from his Sengoku Driver before twirling it on his index finger, "Let's see about that, Chan."

"I've gotta warn ya," I said, slapping on my own Sengoku Driver before taking out my Melon Lockseed, "I've spent the last few days traveling around this city, fighting a number of Riders and defeating all of them easily. Can you give me a fight that is worth my time?"

"Challenge accepted," Krishna smirked, "You're looking for a strong Rider to fight, right? Then I'll grant you your wish."

Two, Minh, and Wind immediately backed away from me and Krishna, allowing us to have our battle without any interruption.

MELON!

BANANA!

As we unlocked our Lockseeds, our respective Armor Parts came out from their respective Cracks, hovering above our heads as we installed our Lockseeds onto our Sengoku Drivers.

LOCK ON!

LOCK ON!

Krishna's Sengoku Driver played its triumphant European fanfare music, while my Sengoku Driver played its Japanese horagai music. Both Krishna and I looked at each other, determination flaring up from our eyes as we prepared to battle.

"Henshin!" we yelled in unison, slicing our Lockseeds at the same time, prompting our Armor Parts to fall onto us.

Our battle….has started.

xxx

TO BE CONTINUED…

xxx

A/N: In the words of the legendary KSIOlajidebt at the end of his Football Rap Battles…IT…IS…DONE! The sixth chapter of the first arc of the Kamen Rider War Side Stories. I hope you guys enjoyed it! And many apologies for the lengthy delay – as usual college assignments and a slight writer's block has prevented me from working on this as soon as possible, but being the longest, most action-packed chapter that I've written so far (the action's so good I didn't even bother to split it like before lol), I really hope that this is worth the wait (yes, Chapter 6 has overthrown Chapter 5 as the longest chapter of this story by a huge mile lol). I've also brought up a lot of OCs for this chapter! Kudos to NecroGodYami for letting me use Jovany/Lance, Xavier/G4, and Kaito/Sorcerer, Gadget the Critic for Nick/Savior, Lily/Aqua, and Jack/Kabuki, Dash master 48 for Hiro/Abyss, as well as Unicorn 359 for Altze/Den-O. And we got to see more of my own OCs in action as well – Anjani/Ryugen Yomi, Reza aka. Mikhail/Bujin Gaim, Eki/Yuuki, Mintty/Drake, Nan/Hercus, and last but not least, our co-star Sunny/Poseidon. Our next chapter will be solely focused on the battle between Krishna and Chan, who will prevail in the battle between the Armored Riders? Plus Nexus will make their return with a vengeance! Expect lots of action as the two Rider groups will have their first clash with one another! Just a head's up, I'm going to have my finals from the end of January until the beginning of February, so I won't be making Chapter 7 until then. As usual, leave your kind reviews!

This is maxpower02 signing off!^_^