"Onyx and Vampire"
Chapter 14: "Riders and Vampires"
Disclaimer: Kamen Rider Dragon Knight belongs to Toei, Adness, and Steve and Michael Wang. Rosario + Vampire belongs to Akihisa Ikeda and VIZ Entertainment. I make no money whatsoever from this story and I am only doing it for fun.
Author's note: Enjoyed the last several chapters of awesomeness? Good, I'm glad you did, because there's a lot more where that came from! Will the Kamen Riders remain in the world of monsters to watch over Adam, and if they do, how will they avoid being revealed as humans? For that matter, what does Xaviax want and what will he do to get it? And just what's going to happen to Adam, the girls, and Gin from here, especially now that the Academy Enforcers have fallen at Adam's hand? For the answers to those questions and others, hang on for the ride!
Special note: All thanks to Kamen Rider Chrome and Kamen Rider Blaze for their aid in bouncing off ideas for this story.
"Eubulon . . ." a deep, ominous voice greeted from the shadows of the office, the only thing indicating its source being a pair of glowing eyes like the pits of hell itself. "I am quite worried for the future of your Rider here."
"As well you should be," Eubulon addressed. "You should also be worried about the future of your academy."
"And what makes you say that?" the voice asked.
"You and I agreed to this for the purpose of testing the readiness of yokai to coexist with humans," Eubulon explained. "The results aren't encouraging."
"Indeed," the voice admitted. If Eubulon didn't know better, he'd swear the man was smirking. "Which is why I have a suggestion."
"What would that be?" Eubulon inquired.
"You break it, you buy it," the voice answered. "It's a human saying indicating that the one who caused the damage has the responsibility of fixing it. Your Rider broke the Student Police. He exposed their corruption and vanquished them. I say, if there is still to be any hope of order within this academy, he should reorganize the Student Police – with himself at the head."
"Are you sure about this?" Eubulon asked.
"If he insists on brutalizing everyone who so much as lays a finger on his precious Miss Akashiya, then he ought to have some manner of official license to do it," the voice remarked dryly. "Besides, it's the only way I can protect him from being executed for killing Okuto Kotsubo, even if that despicable man had it coming for what he did to Miss Shirayuki."
"Executed?" Eubulon repeated incredulously. "Who exactly intends to execute him?"
"There are people on the board who think your Rider is more trouble than he's worth, even if he's limited his violence to people who actually were endangering the well-being of the student body," the voice explained. "Plus, the previous Student Police had some level of support among those who still have issues trusting humans – or even respecting their right to exist."
"Politics," Eubulon muttered with distaste.
"It permeates everything we do," the voice confessed. "The web of vested interests and agendas and ideologies that must be untangled before anything can be accomplished." The man seemed to cheer up, if the glint in his glowing eyes was any indication. "Of course, your Rider has the option of recruiting within the student body proper, and you have the option of sticking around to keep him on the straight and narrow path. We don't want another Kuyo, after all."
Eubulon nodded. He held a hand over his ear, as though processing something. "I must be going now. I will tell Adam the news."
"Good, and let him know that I will be having one of our faculty members help you keep an eye on him," the voice added. "It'll ease the minds of some people if they think we're not just letting our enforcement be completely handled by outsiders."
Eubulon spared a brief smirk before leaving the office. "You could always light this place. It would be a much more welcoming atmosphere."
"Where's the fun in that?" the voice asked sardonically.
Back in the infirmary, Adam woke up to find something very soft resting on his head like some warm, squishy pillow. Seeing yellow, he quickly realized that the soft, warm, squishy thing on his head was Kurumu's chest . . . and Kurumu was lying on his bed, partly next to him and partly on top of him.
His eyes widened with surprise, but that was nothing compared to what he found when he shifted his head a little, prompting a soft coo from Kurumu. Specifically, he found Moka lying on his other side, her hand resting on his chest. A closer look revealed Yukari with her arms around his waist and her head dangerously close to his groin.
Where's Mizore? Adam wondered. Then he answered himself. Under the bed, most likely.
Sure enough, when he peered over the side of his bed, she was right there, smiling serenely at him from her crouching position. "Welcome back, Adam."
"Thanks, Mizore," Adam whispered.
Just then, the other girls woke up, too. "Adam!" they squealed happily, hugging him tighter.
"Kurumu!" Adam attempted to shout, but his cry was suffocated by her generous bust in his face.
"Let go of his face, boob girl," Mizore demanded, pointing an ice spike at Kurumu.
Just as a fight was about to break out, the five Kamen Riders that had accompanied Eubulon entered the room, followed by one more, a young-looking man with a shock of dark hair and eyes that seemed to constantly glitter with amusement. All six Riders were dressed in what appeared to be the standard uniform – black jackets with badges designed after their symbols on the upper left side and black pants with black boots and a black shirt underneath the jacket.
"Wow, I'd have never expected little Adam to get so popular with girls," the dark-haired man with a golden ox symbol on his jacket remarked.
"Chance?" Adam asked, having managed to liberate his face from Kurumu's breasts.
"Yeah, it's me, Adam," Chance confirmed, smiling. "I'd ask how you've been, but it seems to me you're all right."
Kurumu looked between Adam and Kit confusedly. "I will never get used to this! Two of you!"
"Uh, yeah," Kit said. "It's a bit confusing for us, too."
Len punched Kit in the shoulder affectionately. "I can tell you two apart."
"Who's he?" Yukari asked, looking at Chance.
"Kamen Rider Torque, at your service, little lady," Chance replied gallantly.
"Why does everyone keep calling me little?" Yukari asked.
"Because you are," Gin quipped. "Especially up top."
"Well, it's better than being so big you can't even see your feet!" Yukari protested.
"Hey!" Kurumu shouted. Yukari just stuck her tongue out at Kurumu, who seethed under the mocking gesture.
"No need to fight," the man known as Kamen Rider Wrath said, attempting to be the mediator. "The both of you have your appealing points." That calmed the two feuding girls down, but then Wrath spotted Mizore. "No need to hide down there. Any friend of Adam's is a friend of ours."
Mizore smiled. "But I like it here, Wrath-san."
"Call me Nolan," Wrath offered.
Moka looked up at them. "That reminds me. We don't really know your names."
"Kit."
"Len."
"Price."
"Kase."
"Nolan."
"Chance."
"And you're all Kamen Riders?" Moka asked.
"Yeah, just like Adam," Len replied.
Just then, Eubulon came back in. "I'm afraid we have trouble."
"What is it, Eubulon?" Kase asked.
"Xaviax managed to steal six blank Advent Decks," Eubulon replied. "I got word from Chance about that."
"And when were you gonna tell us this?" Kit asked Chance, giving him a sideways look.
"Very soon," Chance replied. "I just needed everybody's attention first."
"Blank Advent Decks?" Adam repeated. "You mean decks nobody's used to bond with an Advent Beast yet?"
"Actually, only five of the six were blank," Eubulon corrected. "One of them was already contracted, with one of the Firebird beasts. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
Adam sighed and sat up in the bed, forcing the girls to move off him. "During one of my outings as Dragon Knight, there was a particularly strong outbreak. I needed help, so I found Tobi, the guy you were training to be the new Advent Master before that fight with Xaviax, and I gave him a blank deck. He bonded with that firebird and became Kamen Rider Haze. We fought together to beat the outbreak, and you would not believe how good he was at it. Then . . ."
"Then what?" Price asked.
"One of those things got in a lucky shot," Adam concluded. "It wasn't enough to take him out, not at first, but then he took a hit that was meant for me . . . and he was vented. I never told anyone about it. I was too ashamed, ashamed that I'd gotten somebody else involved in this war and hadn't even been able to protect them properly. I locked his Advent Deck away, with the other eleven blanks, and kept my mouth shut about it for the next thirty or forty years."
"Thirty or forty years?" Moka asked. "But . . ."
"I don't look older than twenty?" Adam filled in. "That's suspended animation. We were each supposed to come out once every twelve years on rotation. One of us would guard Ventara while the others slept for a year, and after that year was up, another one of us would wake up and take over from there. The only way all twelve of us could be awakened would be if there was a particularly dangerous threat – like Xaviax entering our base."
The girls looked at the Riders with confusion. "So . . . you're all . . . like eighty?" Kurumu surmised.
"Kind of," Len admitted. "That was what the suspended animation was for. We couldn't separate from our decks without Master Eubulon, and since he was gone, we couldn't take the chance of getting too old to fight and not being able to recruit new blood for the job."
"Oh," Moka remarked.
"What happens from here?" Adam asked.
"Xaviax will most likely do what he did before," Eubulon replied. "Use the Advent Decks he stole to recruit an army for himself, picking those who are likely to be receptive to his goals and ideology. With the exception of the Haze Deck, the decks he stole are blanks with no previous DNA bonds, so he can recruit who he wants instead of being constrained by finding doppelgangers of previous Riders."
"That's gonna be trouble," Chance remarked.
"Is there a chance he could go after the Riders he recruited before?" Kit wondered.
"No chance," Eubulon denied. "Xaviax won't tap that well again, considering how poorly they all fared against you and Len." He looked at Adam. "There is something I wish to address, though."
"What's that?" Adam wondered.
"I talked with the Board Chairman," Eubulon explained. "He's willing to give you another chance, but under one condition, namely that you take over leadership of the Academy Enforcers."
"He wants me to be an Enforcer?" Adam asked, flabbergasted.
"Yes," Eubulon confirmed. "Who better to lead the Enforcers than the man who bested them?"
"No, wait a minute, there's gotta be some kind of mistake," Adam said. "Why should I lead the Enforcers? Especially after what they did to our Newspaper Club? Especially after what they've done to this school?"
"It's the only way the Board Chairman will let you stay here as a student," Eubulon stated. "And it's the only protection you have from the tender mercies of certain members of the school's administrative body."
"If somebody's after Adam, let me at them!" Kurumu yelled, clutching Adam to her bosom protectively. "I won't let anyone hurt my Destined One!"
"Anyone who hurts Adam will die," Mizore stated, forming another ice spike.
Moka and Yukari were similarly determined, judging by the looks on their faces.
"That's the way it has to be," Eubulon said. "Adam's presence has been quite troublesome to certain highly placed persons, and even the Board Chairman can only do so much to protect him. It's either become an Enforcer . . . or an iron maiden where you'll be slowly bled out before you die."
"What's an iron maiden?" Kurumu asked.
"It's a torture device, like a coffin but with spikes on the inside," Mizore replied. "It's very painful."
The girls shivered. "That sounds awful!" Yukari exclaimed.
"It is," Mizore answered.
"Fine, I'll do it," Adam said, prompting the girls and Gin to look at him confusedly. "But under the condition that I'm allowed to recruit from scratch."
"You won't be retaining anyone?" Nolan asked.
"No," Adam stated tersely. "Not after what they've done. The only way I can ensure there'll be no more corruption in the ranks is if I wipe the slate clean. Tell the chairman that."
"He's willing to oblige you there," Eubulon said. "But that doesn't mean you won't be carefully observed. That's why I'll be staying here. I start my teaching job next semester."
"Teaching what?" Adam asked.
"Gym class," Eubulon replied wryly. "And speaking of being carefully observed, the chairman wants someone from the faculty to join me in supervising you; that way he can go to the board and honestly tell them that he's not just giving everything away to outsiders."
"I guess that means you won't be in the Newspaper Club anymore," Gin remarked sadly. "I mean, you can't be a reporter and a cop at the same time; it's a conflict of interests."
"I know," Adam admitted just as sadly. "I'm gonna miss you."
"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you, too," Gin confessed.
The two young men gave each other a manful hug before parting. "It's been great, man."
"Aw, that's so sweet!" Yukari beamed. "The love between two men, comrades, brothers-in-arms – it's just so beautiful!"
Len scowled slightly, which prompted Kase to nudge him and smirk. "Jealous?" she asked.
"No," Len replied stoically.
"Oh, and for a little bit of a friendly touch, Kit's going to be on duty here, too," Eubulon added.
Adam and Kit looked at Eubulon with identical confused expressions on identical faces. "What?"
"Yes," Eubulon confirmed. "I was talking with the chairman when I remembered that you never exactly finished your formal schooling, and being a Rider hasn't given you much opportunity to do that. Therefore, I convinced him to enroll you as a student here. You'll start next semester."
Kit and Adam looked at each other. "Looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of each other," Kit remarked.
"How are we supposed to tell you apart?" Kurumu asked, puzzled. "You look exactly alike!"
"We'll just comb our hair differently," Adam replied.
"Really?" Yukari deadpanned. "You think that's all it takes?"
"Yeah," Kit replied. "Why not?"
Just then, a curvaceous redhead in a well-fitting nurse's uniform greeted them. "Excuse me, but it's time for you all to go now. The patient needs his rest if he's to finish recovering from the ordeal he had."
"It's all right," Eubulon said. "We'll show ourselves out. Thank you."
"No problem," the nurse replied, smiling winsomely at Eubulon before spinning on her heel to leave.
"I think she digs you, Master Eubulon," Chance remarked.
"Yes, her aura speaks very strongly of attraction," Price added.
"She is right, though; Adam needs his rest," Eubulon admitted.
The Riders went to leave through the mirror, but Kase turned back for a moment and gave Adam a sisterly kiss on the forehead. "Get better, Adam," she whispered. "Besides, Sarah misses you."
"She does?" Adam wondered, but Kase had gone with Len and Kit and the other Riders, leaving him with Moka, Kurumu, Yukari, Mizore, and Gin.
"Guess it's time for us to go," Gin said. "Come on, ladies, the man needs his recovery time."
Reluctantly, the girls left with Gin, but not before Mizore left an ice rose by Adam's bedside. "Think of me, Adam," she whispered softly, leaving a cool kiss on his cheek before departing, leaving Adam to sleep – and perchance, to dream.
Moka found Eubulon meditating on the roof of the academy. She had a lot of questions about the Kamen Riders and rather than asking Adam she decided to go to the source of the Kamen Riders, Master Eubulon himself.
"Excuse me, Mister Eubulon, sir?" Moka asked. Eubulon cracked an eye open and smiled before standing up.
"Yes, Miss Akashiya?" Eubulon responded. "Is there something you want?"
"I just want to know more about the Riders," said Moka. "From what Adam has told us, Ventara is no different from Earth, so how exactly could you create something as amazing as the Advent Decks and the Kamen Riders?"
Eubulon recalled Maya and Kit making a similar inquiry a while ago but then spoke, "You four can come out now. If you wanted to hear there is no need to hide."
Moka blinked but then saw Mizore, Kurumu, Yukari and Gin coming out of their hiding place. "Everyone?" Moka blinked.
"We want to know about the history of the Riders too," said Mizore.
"That's right," nodded Yukari.
"I, however, came because I couldn't leave all these lovely ladies unattended," said Gin.
"We actually caught him peeping and dragged him over with us," said Kurumu. Gin growled at her.
"So, you wish to know how I created the Kamen Riders, right?" Eubulon asked. They all nodded.
"Like Moka said, Ventara's technology is just like Earth's," Gin said. "And since Adam said that you chose them decades ago, like forty years ago, we really want to know."
Eubulon sighed and said, "Prepare yourselves, then." His entire face rippled and the teens were taken aback when Eubulon's handsome visage was replaced by a bald grey head with bulbous black eyes, a narrow slit for a mouth and thin nostrils. His face then reverted back to his human form.
"You're a monster, too!" Yukari let out.
"Extraterrestrial, actually," admitted Eubulon, "from the planet Karsh, the same planet Xaviax came from."
"You and Xaviax came from the same planet!?" Kurumu yelled out.
"Yes, and Xaviax was my leader," Eubulon admitted, shamefully. "He was the leader of our Northern Army. Our world had a civil war between the North and South and while the North won, it left our planet decimated. Xaviax discovered Ventara and so he had me create transporters that would transport a large number of people from Ventara to Karsh to be used as slave labor."
"Something must have changed if you decided to rebel," said Mizore.
"Yes," Eubulon nodded. "I fell ill on Ventara and a Ventaran family found me and nursed me back to health. It was the first time I was treated with unconditional kindness from another race. They didn't even care that I wasn't human. So, I contacted Ventara's leaders and created the Advent Decks. Then, I chose twelve of their best and brightest to become my Kamen Riders and protect Ventara from Xaviax."
"What about the blank Advent Decks you were talking about before?" Gin asked.
"I did not intend for the original Kamen Riders to be Kamen Riders forever," Eubulon explained. "I knew that someday the war would be over and they would desire to return to their normal lives, so I had plans to let them retire after a certain period and select new Riders. The twelve blanks I created were part of that plan, but when I was lost on Earth . . . the original Riders were forced into the plan they outlined to you to ensure that Ventara would still be protected. That is my greatest regret, not being there to guide them."
"Xaviax said you had a son," Kurumu remembered.
"Yes, I did," Eubulon confirmed. "By Karsh's standards, he was an aberration; he did not view war as a sport or a game, but a tragedy, a failure of what he believed to be the noble spirit of our people. Not that he was unwilling to fight; he merely took no pleasure in it unlike most of our people. I never quite understood him, at least not until it was too late."
"And Adam reminded you of him," Moka mused aloud.
"Yes," Eubulon admitted. He smiled wistfully. "It's time I took my leave for now. We all need our rest after this night, especially for the battles ahead. Sleep well, everyone." With that farewell, he jumped off the rooftop and disappeared into the night. Even Moka's and Gin's senses couldn't pick him up.
"How'd he do that?" Gin asked. All he got for an answer were shrugs from all the girls. "Whatever."
Somewhere on campus, Kuyo was busy licking his wounds, in a manner of speaking. "Disgraceful punk! Who does he think he is? I'll kill him. I'll kill him if it's the last thing I do. He defiles this academy with his presence!"
"You want him taken out?" a voice asked. "You're gonna need help."
"And what makes you say that?" Kuyo asked, glaring into the darkness. "Show yourself! Face me!"
"So angry . . . I like that," the voice commented. "I can use that."
Kuyo growled. "I am not to be used."
"Then consider it a partnership, one where we can both get what we want," the voice amended. A black hand stretched out of the shadows, holding a magenta card case marked by a golden firebird symbol. "Take this, if you want to even the odds a little bit."
Kuyo stared at the card case in recognition. "You want me to use his weapon?"
"Yes," the voice confirmed. "It's an Advent Deck, the same as the one used by the man that bested you. It'll give you even more power than you could imagine, enough power to beat him."
Kuyo grabbed the Advent Deck, and it glowed briefly as it touched his hands. "What?"
"It's responding to you," the voice said. "It knows it belongs to you."
Kuyo smirked. "So it does."
"I have others to recruit to our cause," the voice stated as the arm began to fade back into the shadows. "I'll be seeing you soon, Kuyo."
"And I'll be seeing you, Adam Taylor," Kuyo whispered ominously, clutching the Haze Advent Deck.
A handsome young man named Hokuto Kaneshiro rested in his dorm room, specially granted to him since he headed the Yokai Academy Student Council. Just then, his window rippled like a calm lake that had just had a stone dropped in it and something stepped out of the ripple. It resembled a shadow, only made out of something that vaguely resembled flesh and something definitely not, and it was distinguished by the malevolent red eyes that stared into his.
"Who are you?" Hokuto asked.
"Hokuto Kaneshiro," the shadow greeted almost amiably. "I'm quite pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm General Xaviax, and a little birdie told me you want this academy – and both this world and the human one – wiped out. Funnily enough, I happen to be perfectly amenable to those goals and I think you and I could be very good for one another."
"Who is this 'little birdie'?" Hokuto asked.
"Little birdie?" Xaviax echoed. "Your right hand, Kiriya Yoshii – but he was only willing to tell me so long as he believed I wasn't a danger to you and your interests. I appreciate that kind of loyalty, so I'll be generous and offer you my support."
"And what's in it for you?" Hokuto inquired, not at all convinced.
"Revenge," Xaviax replied. "That's what we both want, don't we? You want revenge on the worlds that left you to suffer on your own, with nobody to count on – and I want revenge on the worlds that defied and betrayed me. Our goals overlap enough that I find it more profitable to work with you than against you. The right hand should know what the left hand is doing; after all, it makes things far less complicated."
"You're not lying," Hokuto stated bluntly.
"Good, because I don't need to," Xaviax remarked almost glibly. "Not right now, anyway. Sometimes the truth is the best bait of all. Do we have a deal?"
Hokuto glared into Xaviax's lurid red eyes. "We do."
"Congratulations, Mr. Kaneshiro – you've just guaranteed success . . . provided you're willing to follow my lead," Xaviax said, his tone turning ominous on the last seven words, and Hokuto couldn't help but shudder in primal terror.
Next: Blood of the Dragon
End Notes: Well, this was a quiet chapter compared to the recent chapters before, but it sets the foundation for what will happen in future chapters. Xaviax is back, and he's recruiting his own Riders once again to stand against the Riders who fight for justice. Not only that, he's recruiting from an organization those of you who read the original Rosario + Vampire manga should know very well. Who are these new Dark Riders, and how will they challenge Adam and his friends and allies? For the answers to those questions and others, read on!
Rider Fashion Check!
"And we're back!" Kurumu shouted. "I'm Kurumu Kurono . . ."
". . . And I'm Yukari Sendou, and this is . . ."
The two girls announced it together: "Rider Fashion Check!"
"Today, we're checking Kamen Rider Torque, the Riders' gunslinger!" Kurumu announced, and the screen behind them showed a picture of Kamen Rider Torque.
"First off, that color really brings out his eyes!" Yukari declared, pointing out the green color that dominated Torque's armor.
"How can you even see his eyes behind that mask?" Kurumu asked.
"Oh . . ." Yukari said. Then she brightened up. "Never mind! Check out that chest armor; it's really thick! Even thicker than Adam's!"
"You sure?" Kurumu teased.
"Get your mind out of the gutter!" Yukari shouted. "Anyway, Torque's chest and shoulders are very well-armored, better than most of the other Kamen Riders. That's a good thing, given what Kamen Riders go up against."
"As pointed out to you already, the Advent Belt and the Advent Deck in its center form and power the Kamen Rider's armor!" Kurumu observed, pointing at Torque's Advent Deck. "Wait a minute. That's an ox, right?"
"Yeah?" Yukari responded.
"So why doesn't his helmet look more like that?" Kurumu asked.
"You'd have to take it up with Magnugiga," Chance replied, causing the girls to jump into each other's arms out of shock.
"What are you doing here?!" they shouted at him.
"Just came to check in and this looked like fun," Chance answered. "Mind if I take over?"
"Uh, you can give it a try," Yukari replied hesitantly.
"Thanks," Chance said. "See this gun?" He pointed at the Magna Visor in the picture of his armored form. "That's my Visor, and I can use it to attack my enemies up close, or I can slot my Advent Cards into it to summon bigger guns for the situation."
"And what's the biggest gun you've got?" Kurumu asked.
Chance smiled wickedly. "Magnugiga. When I go in for my Final Vent . . . let's just say unless you're fast enough or armored up enough, you've got no chance of surviving it. Nothing in the area does."
"Nothing in the area?" Yukari repeated. "Are you trying to say that your Final Vent destroys everything?"
"It's called 'End of World' for a reason," Chance stated coolly.
Kurumu and Yukari imagined that for a moment. "Uhhhhh . . . we'll get out of your way now," Kurumu said, before turning to face the camera. "That's it for Rider Fashion Check!"
"Tune in next time for the lancer with the most 'oomph,' Kamen Rider Wing Knight!" Yukari added. "Bye now!" She and Kurumu beat a hasty retreat, leaving Chance puzzled.
"Was it something I said?"