Irritated passengers crowded next to the subway tracks, waiting for the late subway. They walked around, talked to their friends, or angrily stared at their wristwatches while waiting for the subway that didn't come. One particular person waiting for the subway stood out amongst the heavily make-upped high-school girls, businessmen, and others that waited. This man walked among the crowd, coughing violently into his face mask. Men and women both stepped away the moment this man came walking by, afraid they might catch whatever he had. Nobody could see his face thanks to the mess of oily black hair that covered the top half of his face. They just simply made some distance away from the sickly man while he took off his facemask to blow his nose into a tissue.
The sickly man looked around the subway station until his eyes fell on two young men who looked like delinquents with their dyed hair and punk clothing. He walked to the two delinquents, receiving their glares once he got close.
"What do ya want, old man?" the taller delinquent with blond hair said standing up.
The pink haired delinquent grinned while his blond friend tried to intimidate the sickly man with his height and appearance. The sickly man, however, caught him off-guard when he took out a picture.
"I'm looking for the man in this picture," the sickly man said after he finished coughing into his face mask.
Neither of the delinquents recognized the man in the picture. The two still acted as if they recognized the man in the picture.
"Sure, we know him," the pink haired delinquent lied pointing to the bathrooms behind him with his thumb. "He needed to use the bathroom so we're waiting out here for him."
The blond delinquent slapped the sickly man's back. "He's been in there for a while so he's probably done right now," he said. "Let's go in together and see, alright?"
The sickly man nodded and followed the delinquents into the bathroom. He looked around the dirty bathroom to see that nobody was there. He looked underneath the doors of the stalls to see that he was alone in the bathroom with the two delinquents. He watched as the pink haired delinquent blocked the exit with his body while the his friend took out a switchblade. The blond delinquent licked his lips after pointing the blade of his weapon at the sickly man.
"Old man, me and my friend here only want all the money you have on you," he said smiling. "But we wouldn't mind hurting you to get it..."
The blond delinquent continued to laugh at the sickly man but stopped once he noticed that the man didn't take out his wallet.
"Didn't you listen, old man? Give us your money or..."
The blond delinquent stopped speaking. His whole body felt as if it was being squished by an enormous presence emanating from the sickly man. His friend felt the same pressure and unblocked the bathroom exit. The pink haired delinquent tried to run away but he found that his legs wouldn't listen to his brain.
"I knew you didn't know this man," the sickly man said stuffing the picture back into his coat. "But to think you would try to mug a sick man, I got to say that kids these days are a lot dumber than I thought. All bark and no bite. You freeze the moment you meet somebody with real power."
"Who are you, old man?" the blond delinquent yelled still trying to move his legs but failing. "What did you do to us!?"
"Nothing," the sickly man answered. "It's your own fault for touching me."
The blond delinquent opened his mouth to yell back but something viscous and heavy shot up through his throat and came spraying out of his mouth. Silver blood pooled down on the tile floor as the delinquent continued to vomit. His friend watched in horror as the silver blood he vomited rose up and enveloped the blond delinquent's body.
"You got to be careful around the sick," the sickly man chuckled.
"They're contagious..."
...
"ACHOO!"
Kenji jumped away the moment Aki sneezed. He kept his distance while Aki wiped her nose with a tissue she took from her friend Shiho's hand.
"Scared of germs, Kenji?" Aki chuckled after disposing of the dirty tissue.
"It's not that," Kenji said with his sleeve over his mouth. "I'm just uncomfortable around sick people."
"Aki just has a mild cold, Kenji," Shiho said giving her friend another tissue from her purse. "Even if you do catch it, you'll be through with it after a day of resting."
Aki teased Kenji by holding up her dirty tissue to his face, causing the young man to scream and jumped even farther away from the girl. Shiho slapped the chuckling Aki with her paper fan while Kenji hid behind a street lamp with both of his sleeves over his mouth.
"Stop being mean, Aki," Shiho said with a stern voice.
"I'm sorry," Aki said still smiling while wiping her nose. "It's just so fun to see him freak out like that."
"We came here to get Hana a present, Aki," Shiho said. "Not tease Kenji."
The two girls plus Kenji had come to the mall because of their friend's upcoming birthday. While they had no reason to bring the young man since all they were doing was finding Hana a birthday present, they wanted to know more about the mysterious man who could transform like Yukio. Other than his name and his powers, they knew next to nothing about Kenji and whether he could be trusted. Hana and Yukio both trusted him simply because he looked like a Kamen Rider but Aki and Shiho were still suspicious of him.
They decided to ask Kenji while they sat down at a table inside a fast-food restaurant.
Shiho was the first to speak since her friend was sick. "So Kenji, can you tell-"
"This is delicious!" Kenji yelled after taking a bite of his hamburger.
Shiho and Aki watched as Kenji wolfed down his entire meal, barely waiting a moment to savor the fried food before stuffing his mouth again.
"This the first time you ever had a hamburger?" Aki asked since her friend was still amazed at the amount of fried food Kenji could stuff into his mouth.
"I had some when I was a kid but it's been so long that I forgot the taste," Kenji answered after taking a drink of his soda.
"That long? Wow, you must've had some strict parents," Shiho said.
"Not really," Kenji replied. "They gave me whatever I wanted. It's just that I couldn't eat foods with this much fat back then."
"So you were really sick as a kid?" Aki said suddenly feeling guilty about teasing Kenji earlier.
Kenji placed his empty soft drink down before he continued. "If you mind, I'd rather not talk about my past," he said. "I got the treatment I needed and now I'm fully cured. I can eat whatever I want."
Kenji stood up with his trash in his hands. "I'm going to buy another," he said.
The two girls watched the young man throw his trash into a recycling bin and walk back to the depressed-looking cashier to order another meal. An atmosphere of guilt floated over the two girl's head as they looked at the other.
"We can't ask him anything now, can we?" Shiho asked her friend.
"We'll look like complete bitches if we do," Aki answered.
The two girls sighed together. They would feel too bad if they asked Kenji a question about who he is and simply accepted that they couldn't get anything out of him at the moment. They instead focused on getting their friend a gift for her birthday. While coming with ideas, Shiho remembered that Yukio didn't go with them for some reason.
"You know what? I wonder what happened to Yukio," Shiho said. "He didn't answer his phone when I called and he wasn't at Seiji's apartment."
...
"Stop! Give me back my phone!"
Yukio chased after a golden retriever in the middle of the park. While Yukio wouldn't normally chase after animals, this particular dog had snatched his phone out of the young man's hand and was currently trying to flee with the smartphone in between its teeth. Despite being stronger and faster than the normal human male, Yukio still couldn't lessen the distance between him and the dog with his phone. He was sure that his stamina was far higher than the dog's but it would still be a while before the dog tires out. He was forced to chase after the dog for the last hour or so.
Until the dog suddenly came to a stop in front of a man in a double-breasted suit sitting down on one of the park benches. Yukio stopped and looked up to see his big brother Yukiteru take his smartphone out of the golden retriever's mouth. Yukiteru took out a tissue and wiped off the spit covering Yukio's smartphone. Despite cleaning it, he still held the phone with the sleeve of his suit. He told the dog to go back to its master before he gave the smartphone a closer look.
"So this is the tool you use to transform into Vitaz," Yukiteru said intrigued by the phone he held.
"Yukiteru! Don't even try to do anything to my phone!" Yukio yelled at his brother.
Yukiteru glared at his brother. "And what can you do to me?" he asked. "You can't transform without this phone, Yukio. All I have to do is use my Corruption program and this cycle of us infecting people and you curing them will end."
To the surprise of Yukio, his brother tossed his smartphone back to him. Yukio caught the smartphone, staring at it and his brother. Confused by why Yukiteru gave him his phone back, Yukio opened his mouth to ask a question.
"Why?" Yukio asked.
Yukiteru adjusted one of the pins on his collar. "I don't feel like fighting today," Yukiteru answered. "What I want though, is an answer to a question that's been plaguing me ever since you brought it up."
His brother gestured Yukio to sit down next to him and while he was reluctant, the young man sat down on the park bench with Yukiteru. Once he was sitting next to him, Yukiteru told his little brother about his predicament.
"Ever since you said we had a mother, all I've been doing was looking for whoever this person you call mother," Yukiteru told his brother. "After a month of looking, I finally found the woman you call mother but..."
"But?"
Yukiteru continued adjusting his pins while he spoke. "But she doesn't exist!" he said. "I was lucky to find a lab report that had her name on it but once I found out her name, I found out nothing else. Yuki Kikaido doesn't exist anywhere in this world, Yukio. How can she be our mother?"
Something was different about his brother, Yukio noticed. His clothes were messier than usual and he kept adjusting his pins even though each one was perfectly straight. The question plagued Yukiteru so much that Yukio suspected that his brother knew something was wrong with what their father told them.
"Because our dad erased her, Yukiteru," Yukio responded. "He killed her and used his connections and money to erase her from almost everything."
"But I don't understand," Yukiteru said. "Why would Father do that? If we had a mother, why would he kill her?"
"Because Mom wouldn't let him experiment on us," Yukio answered. "He wanted to use us as weapons but Mom sacrificed herself to make sure he could never create anymore androids like us. He wanted soldiers with no free-will and Mom wanted us to be humans. Dad killed her after he injected the Element Viruses into us, Yukiteru."
"But why do only you remember her, Yukio? Why can't I or the others remember her?" Yukiteru asked.
"Dad erased Mom from your memories but I ran away before he could get me," Yukio told his brother.
Yukio looked at his brother and saw that he was far more stressed than he thought. Yukiteru was trying to remember his mother but every time he tried, something prevented him. It was as if his memories of his mother was locked behind a bank vault that wouldn't open no matter what he did. Trying to remember had an effect on his appearance, making him look far more exhausted than he should be.
"I'm going back to my room, Yukio," Yukiteru told his brother. "I need time to process this."
"I understand," Yukio said. "But you need to remember, Yukiteru. Nothing Dad says is the truth and if he knows you're starting to remember our Mom, then he will do his best to make sure you forget."
Yukiteru nodded and struggled to stand up. Yukio tried to help him but the young man slapped away his hand.
"I don't want to owe you, Yukio," Yukiteru said. "So I'm going to tell what my Matter Virus has planned."
Yukio jumped to his feet after hearing what Yukiteru said.
"Hurry over to your friends, Yukio," Yukiteru warned his brother. "Before my Matter Virus gets his hands on them. One touch and its all over..."
...
Men and women screamed as Incomplete Androids stomped through the streets behind two tall and silver monsters. The two monsters were like a human-shaped cactus thanks to the sharp spikes that protruded out of their skin. Their faces were blank except for the spikes that covered them. Despite having no mouth, the monsters moaned while they stomped the streets with the Incomplete Android's.
Kenji and the two girls felt the shaking ground caused by the monster's march through the streets. The young man immediately took out his Driver belt and ran out of the mall onto the streets outside. He weaved through the fleeing crowd of people while he swung the belt around his waist, making the snake wrapped around his belt bite down on its own tail.
"Begin preparation of the Mediz Program!" Kenji ordered his belt.
"Yes, Doctor!" his belt responded.
A spinning silver ring came out of his belt and rose to its place above the young man. Ignoring the panic around him, Kenji swung his left hand into the air while his right hand grasped the snake head of his Driver. The young man then swung his left hand down to strike the snake's head, making it bite down further into its own tail.
"Henshin!" Kenji yelled.
A curtain made out of silver energy fell from the ring floating above Kenji. Silver energy transformed Kenji while the curtain kept it hidden from the outside. Steam bellowed out from underneath the curtain. The steam stopped the moment the transformation finished and a silver hand grabbed the curtain. With one swung, Kenji dispelled the curtain into a shower of sparks, revealing his Mediz suit.
The streets had become empty except for Kenji and the small army of Incomplete Androids led by the cactus-like monsters. Kenji turned to the small army and held up his hands like a surgeon prepared for surgery.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'll be the cure for your disease."
Immediately after he spoke, the Incomplete Androids charged towards Kenji. The first android that got close to the young man got its decapitated instantly. Kenji moved and attacked with the precision of a surgeon, slicing apart the androids that attacked him. Either cutting off their joints, heads, or power cords, Kenji used his scalpel-like hands to utterly slash the Incomplete Android army apart. By the time Kenji sliced the last android in half, there was a large pile of android parts that released a shower of sparks every now and then.
"Is that all you-"
One of the cactus-like monster swung an enlarged fist at the young man, sending him crashing into a nearby building. The monster moaned louder as it and the other monster stomped the ground on its way to continue attacking Kenji. The young man fell out of the building and landed on his feet.
"That thing hits hard," Kenji said shaking his head. "Better watch-"
Kenji looked up to see that again, the monster had appeared in front of him, swinging one of its enlarged fists at him. This time, however, Kenji dodged the fist and slashed the arm with his scalpel-like hands. His hand went straight through the monster's arm, feeling no resistance whatsoever from the monster's skin. He looked up and saw that the monster's arm had turned into a gas-like state.
"What the hell!?"
The monsters moaned as it smashed Kenji into the cement sidewalk, its arm turning back into a solid. Both of the monsters moaned while beating the young man down into the ground.
"Steroids!"
"Yes, Doctor!"
Kenji stood up and stopped both monster's from beating on him by grabbing the fist of one monster and throwing its entire body into the other. The two monsters instantly morphed into a liquid-like state, surprising Kenji yet again. The two monsters separated and turned back into solid monsters towering over the shorter Kenji.
"Turn into a gas if I hit them and into a liquid if they hit each other," Kenji whispered to himself. "How are you going to get out of this, Kenji?"
Kenji laughed at himself as the two monsters swung both of theirs down at the young man below. Kenji flexed his arms, ready to catch their hands, but a yell from the distance ruined his focus.
"Kamen Rider Vitaz has arrived!"
Yukio came shooting through the air, slicing both the monsters in half with the wings that came with his Overblow form. Kenji held his ground when a powerful burst of wind blew in after Yukio came. The wind blew away everything not bolted to the street except for Kenji and Yukio. The two monsters had turned into liquid again and only turned back to normal when the wind stopped.
Yukio pointed his finger at the two monster while floating in the air thanks to the turbine on his back.
"I'll show you..."
"The power of my new form!" Yukio yelled.
Green wind blasted out of the turbine on Yukio's back, sending him shooting towards the two monsters. The monster's tried to attack Yukio but he was too fast. The young man flew around the two monsters, grabbing their arms faster than they could turn into gas. With a grip on their wrists, Yukio spun his whole body in mid-air, creating a powerful tornado. The two monsters couldn't turn into gas or liquid while they were trapped inside the tornado. Yukio released his grip on one of the monsters, sending it spiraling upwards with the tornado. Using his free hand, he tapped an icon on his phone's screen.
"Executing Overcharge App!" his phone announced in its normal voice.
Electricity and wind exploded out of Yukio's body. All the energy focused into the arm holding the one cactus-like monster. It moaned louder as electricity shocked it and wind sliced its body open.
"Tornado Rider Crash!" Yukio yelled.
Yukio threw the remaining monster upwards as hard as he could. It spiraled into the air, surrounded by sharp green wind and powerful lightning. The monsters collided and thanks to the wind and lightning, neither one could turn into gas or liquid to soften the attack. The wind separated the two monsters only to smash them together again farther up the tornado. The cycle of the monsters smashing into the other and separating only to collide again continued until the lightning sent the order for the nano-machines to turn the two monsters back into humans.
Yukio's tornado dispersed as two unconscious delinquents fell through the air until Yukio caught them. He flew back down to the ground and laid the two delinquents against a wall. The young man placed his hands on both the delinquents and gave them a harmless shock that rendered the nano-machines in their blood useless.
"This is the first time I saw two people infected with the same Virus," Yukio said after curing the delinquents.
Yukio knew that the Virus he just fought was the Matter Virus, one of Yukiteru's Knowledge Viruses. He knew that its powers included the ability to switch between any one of the three states of matter but that battle was too easy. These monsters had the same ability as the Matter Virus but it was like they were a watered-down version of it.
"What happened to Kenji?" Yukio heard Shiho say.
Yukio looked up and away from the two delinquents to see that his partner Rider had disappeared during Yukio's finishing attack.
"Kenji?" Yukio said continuing to look around for his friend.
...
Kenji punched a brick wall, causing it to explode from his strength. The young man continued to walk down the alley, either slicing or punching everything that ended up in his path. He walked in such a way that he left behind foot-prints in the ground.
"Again! Again that assistant took my patient!" Kenji yelled stomping the ground. "I have to get stronger! Strong enough so I won't need that Yukio anymore!"
Kenji stopped and looked down at his belt. He grabbed it and with one pull, slipped the belt off his waist. His transformation undid itself with Kenji still staring at the belt.
"I don't want to go back to my bed..."
...
The conversation Yukiteru had with his younger brother still exhausted him hours after he spoke with Yukio. The young man did his usual stress-relieving exercises. Making shapes with his water, reading the most complex books he had, or simply adjusting the pins on his suit. None of the exercises relieved much of the exhaustion that came with trying to remember his mother. He only had her name and what Yukio told him but the young man wanted to remember his mother.
"What's got you so focused?" Yukino said appearing in the chair across from Yukiteru. "Don't tell me it has something to do with that obsession you have with the project that created us."
"Sorry but it's something different this time, Yukino," Yukiteru chuckled.
"Oh well, I don't care anymore," Yukino told her brother. "I got much more interesting news."
"News?" Yukiteru said looking up.
"Yeah, apparently Yukiya succeeded in that experiment he had Yukiko and her Magician Virus help him with," Yukino said waving her hand around, creating a trail of flames.
Yukiteru's eyes opened wide. "He succeeded!? But it's impossible to inject more than two Viruses into a human! Any more than two Viruses and the infected human's immune system will kill the host."
"Yukiko's Virus found a human who's immune system is different," Yukino said. "His body can hold three Viruses, Yukiya's Emotion Viruses even, and not experience any side-effects. He's currently in the lab, having his blood taken to see if we can do the same to other humans."
"Anything else?"
"Hmmm?" Yukino said taking her eyes away from her fingernails.
"Do you know anything else about this human, Yukino?" Yukiteru asked.
"Yukiya and Yukiko said something about him," Yukino said. "Something about his weird personality..."
"And I think they said he's a police officer."
End of 'Viral Memory'