Sneaking around in the recycling plant at night was Yukiho. Everyone had gone home since the night shift was handled in a different plant. Too much trash somewhere and people complained so several plants were set up to spread it out. However, Yukiho was carrying a bag protectively and looking around for anyone who may have been there.
In truth, she was meeting with someone, someone that could help make Jimmy's dreams come true.
"I'm here," Yukiho said.
"Do you have the money?" a new voice spoke in the darkness, concealed by the shadows made by the machinery at night.
"Yes, and so please make Jimmy win," Yukiho pleaded.
"Of course."
LOVE HINA/DOUBLE TROUBLE
Chapter 21: Truths & Lies
By: Ten-Faced Paladin and Kamen Rider Chrome
"So, this is what you're up to," Coming out from his own nest of shadows was Keitaro, having followed Yukiho since she left the clinic.
"Detective-san!" Yukiho gasped.
"You were followed?" the voice hissed. Keitaro narrowed his eyes. Something was familiar about that voice.
"I'm sorry! I didn't know!" Yukiho cried to the voice.
"So, you're paying someone to make sure Jimmy wins," Keitaro reasoned. "It's not really fair for the other contestants, is it?"
"LIAR!"
Walking out of the shadows, the Liar Dopant simply chuckled as he replied, "Who cares about fair? It's all about winners and losers in this world."
"Of course, to a Dopant like you, that makes it alright," said Keitaro with a frown. "It's payback time." He put on the Double Driver. "Phillip!"
Phillip was having dinner with the others when his Double Driver appeared. "Looks like it's time," he said as he stood up with the girls watching. With his Cyclone Memory in hand he pressed the button.
"CYCLONE!"
"Henshin!" announced Phillip as he plugged the Cyclone Memory and sent it to Keitaro.
"Catch him!" cried out Shinobu as Phillip was falling over. Haruka caught him in her arms.
"METAL!"
"Henshin!" Keitaro called as he plugged in the Metal Memory, the Cyclone Memory plugged in at the same time. He spread the buckle apart.
"CYCLONE-METAL!"
A tornado whipped around Keitaro, forming his Kamen Rider Double Cyclone-Metal armor. This shocked Yukiho. "Now, time to count your crimes," said Double.
"Count this!" the Liar Dopant retorted as he spat his needles at Double. Double drew the Metal Shaft and used it to deflect the Liar Needles.
"This is the end for you!" Double charged at the Dopant and thrust with the Metal Shaft, jabbing it in the gut. He then whacked the Dopant in the chin before using a kick that dug into his gut, causing the Dopant to grunt.
"You're not getting away, Dopant!" declared Keitaro. "Not this time!"
"We'll see, Kamen Rider," the Liar Dopant jeered as he summoned his staff. The mouth fired energy blasts at Double, forcing him back as they exploded against him.
"Time for a change," said Phillip as he had Double's right hand take out the Cyclone Memory and switch it.
"LUNA-METAL!"
"Take this!" shouted Double as he swung. The Metal Shaft extended and became flexible like a whip. The Dopant staggered with each strike he took. He was then knocked to the ground.
"Alright, time for a Memory Break!" declared Keitaro as he prepared to perform a Maximum Drive.
"Wait!" Yukiho screamed, dashing between the pair and pushing against Double's chest. "Please, don't defeat him!"
"Huh? Why not?" Keitaro asked.
"I need him to help Jimmy win! Jimmy has to win on Nihon Idol! Because…Jimmy is so unbelievably untalented!" Yukiho shouted.
"Yukiho!"
The woman froze and turned her head to see Jimmy. He was standing near a corner agape with what he was seeing, but what he just heard was more shocking than seeing the Kamen Rider and the Dopant. "Jimmy!?"
"Jimmy?" gaped Double.
"Yukiho, what is this about?" Jimmy demanded as he approached her.
"Jimmy, what are you doing here?" Yukiho asked.
"I called him," admitted the Liar Dopant, standing up and dusting himself off. "You were late in your payment."
"No, but you promised!" Yukiho exclaimed.
"I lied," the Liar Dopant laughed. He then jumped over to Jimmy and grabbed him. "You see, Jimmy, this girl paid me to make sure you won Nihon Idol. She wanted you to win so much. I don't know why, though. You don't deserve to win, but she was so desperate so she paid me a whole lot of money to brainwash the judges, and you. If I hadn't, then you might've noticed that the whole audience was booing you, not cheering for you."
"No…" Jimmy felt weak in the knees. "No!!!" His world was crumbling as tears fell from his eyes.
"Ah, you're crying," the Liar Dopant smiled. Taking out a slip of litmus paper, he allowed Jimmy's tears to drop onto the paper and the Dopant admired the water marking it created. "Ah…the tears of a broken heart. Wonderful! Simply wonderful!"
"Oi, get away from him!" Double shouted at the Dopant and swung with the Metal Shaft. The Dopant ducked.
"Bye-bye!" he waved before he ran away, vanishing into the shadows.
"Hey!" Double gave chase but lost him. "Kuso!" Keitaro cursed. He dismissed his transformation. "Phillip, looks like the competition really is rigged."
Back at Hinata-Sou, Phillip regained consciousness as he replied, "Yes, looks like we were right. Nihon Idol is fixed."
"The competition really was rigged?" asked Naru.
"Yes," the bookworm nodded. "Yukiho-san was paying the Liar Dopant to use his needles on the judges so that they would believe Jimmy was such a good singer. He also used them on Jimmy so that he wouldn't notice how much the crowd was booing at him."
"I though that Yukiho was his fan. If she liked his music so much why did she use the Dopant to fix the competition?" asked Kanako.
"Most likely she lied about liking it so to support Jimmy," Phillip shrugged. "We will have to see after Keitaro comes back."
Keitaro returned, yawning and his stomach grumbling. He'd missed dinner. Yukiho had ran off, probably back home. He wasn't going to chase after her anymore. He already got enough info from her. It was the Liar Dopant he was worried about, and Jimmy. The young musician had learnt the god-awful truth. Sure, he would need to face facts that his music was horrible, but the way the Liar Dopant had done it was harsh.
Oddly enough, the Dopant was collecting Jimmy's tears. That was a vital clue towards discovering the Liar Dopant's identities. Small characteristic traits like that were vital pieces of information that Phillip could use to run his search.
Things between Yukiho and Jimmy were definitely not going to be okay. After the Liar Dopant ran off, Jimmy rejected Yukiho, breaking her heart. Keitaro hated seeing people cry but Yukiho deserved to be treated like that after what she did. Keitaro could tell that Yukiho had done it all for his sakes, but for a serious musician like Jimmy, no matter how bad he was, he felt cheated. He felt like a fraud.
Coming up the stairs, Keitaro walked to the door and greeted, "Tadaima…"
"Sempai!" Shinobu called out, racing to the main hall as she heard the detective's voice. "Are you okay? Phillip-sempai told us what happened."
"Oh, I'm fine," Keitaro reassured the junior high girl as he removed his shoes. "Jimmy and Yukiho probably won't be though. He's pretty hurt and mad at Yukiho for what she did."
"But…now that Jimmy knows he'll get better, won't he?" asked Shinobu.
"Jimmy's dedicated to music so he probably would get better if someone critiqued him in the proper way," Keitaro nodded. "The problem is that his only fan lied to him about his music. He's been going on for a long time with music that absolutely no one likes and the one person he trusted to be honest with him couldn't tell him what he needed to know; a critique. Even worse, she rigged the competition in his favour, making him look like a fool on television with the whole country hating his music. He probably feels like everyone is laughing at him."
"So, what will you do now?" Shinobu asked.
"We're gonna have to find the Dopant and catch him," said Keitaro.
"And Jimmy?"
"Let's just hope he doesn't do anything crazy. Right now I'm starving. Fighting a Dopant always gives me an appetite."
The following day, Naru received a call. The rerecording of the Nihon Idol contest ruined by the Dopant would be done on that day. Already Naru was getting ready to go on stage and sing. Jimmy would no doubt not show up after what he'd learnt. How could he dare show his face after realizing he'd been making a fool out of himself?
Said musician was sitting on a beach, his guitar tossed into a trashcan. "What am I gonna do now?"
"Keep on playing,"
Jimmy blinked and turned to see Keitaro as he picked up the guitar Jimmy had discarded. Jimmy quickly scrambled to his feet and ran off. "Oi! Oi! Get back here!" Keitaro shouted as he gave chase. "Hey, don't you know how weird it is for two guys to be chasing each other on the beach!? Oi!"
"Keep that thing away from me!" Jimmy wailed. "I'll never play music again!"
"So, you're just gonna give up after this?" Keitaro shot back.
"Wouldn't you!? I was lied to by my 'biggest fan'! I'm nothing but a joke to them! Why should I play when I'm unbelievably untalented!?" Jimmy cried as he collapsed into the sand.
"Nnn," Keitaro muttered. "Listen kid, how about I give you some free advice and a little criticism about your music that Yukiho was too afraid to give?" Keitaro took a seat with Jimmy's guitar still in his hand. "First of all, having the guts to go out and do what you did is pretty amazing compared to a lot of people. Despite some of the negativity you received you still went and did it. You definitely have the ambition to go far. You didn't give up before, so why are you giving up now?"
Jimmy sighed and scratched his head. True, he had been given some negative reviews but since he had Yukiho he could stand it. Without her now, it seemed a whole lot harder. "And that criticism?"
"Your voice isn't bad, but you keep sticking it with high notes and making it sound like screeching, no offence," Keitaro explained. "Besides, do you know how much experience the people who created music had before they actually created those new sounds? Lemme guess, your knowledge on folk music, rap, and rock only goes so far as to the collection you have, right?"
Jimmy flushed slightly but nodded.
"Well if I were you I'd study it a bit more. Head to music school for vocal lessons," Keitaro continued. "You only look talentless because your inexperience shows through. You managed to learn guitar pretty well, even if the songs you wrote say otherwise. There's more to making music than just making the right sounds."
Keitaro trailed off as he and Jimmy looked out to the water. Finally, Jimmy spoke up, "That's the kind of thing I need to hear now and then. I'm not afraid of criticism like Yukiho thought. I just thought that I managed to get lucky. That monster telling me what was going on was a bit of a shock. I am pretty good at singing the songs which make up Spilk and I thought since all three were so popular putting them together would make something better."
"A good idea on paper, but you'd need a deep understanding of those styles to make it work," Keitaro smiled. "Once you have that, you could find a way to do it."
"Yeah," Jimmy smiled. "So Detective-san, any more wise advice?"
"Well, this coming recording of Nihon Idol will bring you your CD if you win," Keitaro replied. "If you're going to play fair then I say go with something you know and can play really well. If you win this then you know you'll have earned that CD."
"Sounds good," Jimmy nodded. Standing up, he grabbed his guitar. "Well, I'd better get ready then. Hopefully Ms. Narusegawa and those Kamen Singers will show up again. I liked their music."
"I'm…pretty sure they will," Keitaro snickered.
Sonozaki Manor
"Piece of advice, Wakana-neechan," advised Ryuji. "Wear earplugs."
"OK, I will," smiled Wakana. Her cell phone began to ring. "Excuse me." She picked it up and spoke into it. "Hello? Who is this?" She gasped. "Phillip, is that you?"
Phillip and Wakana had 'met' a while back during the Violence Dopant incident. She was being stalked and said stalker was destroying things in the city based on his warped admiration for her. However, it was revealed that the Violence Dopant was her manager at the time and that one of her co-workers was the one who'd bought the Violence Memory.
During the incident, Phillip and Wakana had become good friends since he somehow reminded her of the little brother she'd lost. They'd bonded. Even though they had never met face-to-face, they cared about each other. Ryuji wouldn't admit it, but he was slightly jealous of this Phillip guy who Wakana would go 'gushy-older-sister' mode on when she usually reserved it for him. Still, he had Kotonoha so it didn't bother him as much as it could have.
"Wakana-hime, I need your help," requested Phillip.
Hinata Radio
Fans were all crowded in front of the radio station, waiting for Wakana to come out as part of the usual day at the radio station. They held up signs, bouquets of flowers and gifts to show their appreciation for the famous DJ. They all looked up at the window and saw her waving at them. They screamed and cheered and then grew louder as she disappeared from the window. Of course, the whole crowd was in their adoring frenzy, waiting for their idol to come out.
Suddenly, one of the fans shouted and pointed, "She's over there!!!"
Immediately, all the fans turned and saw Wakana heading inside a van that they hadn't noticed pull up to the station. Cheering, they began running for it in hopes that they could get autographs or give her gifts. Her driver quickly entered the vehicle and drove off.
Among those fans was the Liar Dopant.
The van carrying Wakana was headed towards one of the theatres. Wakana earlier announced that she had received an invitation from the Radio Wave Clown earlier to meet here. The Liar Dopant had followed her inside, hoping to talk to her. He was, of course, a big fan of hers. Whoever this fake clown was made Wakana leave her usually guarded schedule so maybe the Liar Dopant wouldn't do anything to him for creating this chance to actually meet Wakana.
As he hid among the seats, the Dopant saw Wakana standing in front of the stage. That was when he saw something that made his blood boil.
"Wakana-hime!!!" a man in a black unitard, baggy shorts, big shoes and feathers in his hat waddled onto stage. "The Radio Wave Clown is here to grant your wish!" The 'Radio Wave Clown' waddled about. "Are you a good girl or a bad girl, hm? If you're a bad girl you should be punished!" He pointed at Wakana, wiggling his butt. "But…if you're a good girl then I'll make your wishes come true!" He hopped in place, "So, good girl, or bad girl?"
"Hey, stop that!" the Liar Dopant cried out in anger. Completely forgoing stealth, he started stomping down the aisle intent on hurting the fool who dared usurp his title. "I'm the real Radio Wave Clown! Who the heck are you!?"
"Who am I?" the 'Radio Wave Clown' said seriously. "You know who I am and we know who you are."Removing his hat so his face could be seen, the clown was revealed to be Keitaro!
Tatsuma rose up from one of the seats and declared, "You are Sachio Sawada, the street calligrapher!" He was dressed as the black-suited driver who'd brought Wakana to the meeting place.
The Liar Dopant froze. His cover was blown.
"Phillip figured out who you were when I told him about the type of paper you used to collect Jimmy's tears," said Keitaro. "Japanese paper. Only one person connected to Jimmy uses Japanese paper, a calligrapher on the art street. That is you, Sachio Sawada." Privately, Keitaro was pleased that the Dopant turned out to be the calligrapher ever since his stunt with the 'it's okay to be half-boiled' sheet of paper.
The Liar Dopant ran towards Wakana to grab her. "But at least I get Wakana-OOF!" the Dopant grunted as he was elbowed in the face by 'Wakana'.
"Sorry, but you're wrong again," said 'Wakana' as she ripped off her 'face' to reveal that she was none other than Kanako Urashima.
"What is this!?" the Liar Dopant demanded.
"Simple, a trap," said Phillip as he walked onto the stage. He was dressed as the fan who'd told everyone that Wakana was going on the van earlier. "There's no way I would put the real Wakana-hime in danger."
"That's right," said Tatsuma as he took out his Accel Memory.
"You're trapped, you lying rat," said Kanako, smirking with her Skull Memory in hand.
"Minna, ikuzo! Phillip, Tatsuma, Kanako!" Keitaro called.
"CYCLONE!"
"JOKER!"
"ACCEL!"
"SKULL!"
"Henshin!" the four of them called out as they plugged in their respective Gaia Memories.
"CYCLONE-JOKER!"
"ACCEL!"
"SKULL!"
Naru wrung her fingers as he tried not to feel nervous. Again! She was going to sing on live television again! Well, this time she would have a fair shot at winning since that Liar Dopant wasn't there to influence the judges anymore.
Jimmy had even come, but almost too late. Naru couldn't help but cringe when she saw him, remembering his awful performance from before. Hearing him talk to the to the director, he let them know that he wasn't playing an original song and instead did what Naru was doing, sing one which was already made with his own vocals. It was slightly surprising for her, but the director and crew were visibly quite relieved, having had to go through Jimmy's music twice before.
Listening to the audience and the announcer, Naru prepped herself as she heard her name being called.
The fight was now on the rooftops as the Liar Dopant tried to fight off the three Kamen Riders. Using his staff, he fired energy blasts at them. The Riders dodged. Accel rushed forward to slash him in the chest while Skull used her Skull Magnum on him.
"CYCLONE-METAL!"
Double then put the Spider Shock onto the Metal Shaft.
"SPIDER!"
With a swing he threw a string of webbing that tied around the Liar Dopant's mouth, completely incapacitating his needles. "What!?"
"Sorry, but you're not going to lie your way out of this one," said Double before joining in the fray. Accel sent the Dopant staggering back with a kick and Double jabbed the Dopant in the side. Skull ran in and bashed the back of her fist across his face, causing him to stumble.
"HYAH!" the three Riders punched the Dopant at the same time in he face, knocking him backwards.
"Kuso!!!" the Dopant cursed. "TIME FOR MY ULTIMATE POWER!"
The Riders tensed. Did this guy have another power that they didn't know about?
"Just lying…" the Dopant mocked. Producing his battle staff again, he fired at the Riders. Double was hit and sent falling off the roof.
"Onii-chan!" Skull cried out.
"I got them!" Accel shouted as he ran towards the edge and transformed into Bike Mode. He raced down the side of the building and reached Double. "Grab on!"
"OK!" Double grabbed onto the handlebars as Accel descended. When he reached the ground he raced up the side of the adjacent building.
The Liar Dopant was blasting at Skull who blasted back and did not notice the motorcycle Rider and the two-in-one Rider coming back up.
"CYCLONE-TRIGGER!"
Accel and Double flew and spun into the air. With the Trigger Magnum, Double fired at the Dopant, sending him staggering backwards. Skull's own Skull Magnum's burst also dealt some damage.
Accel was still hovering as Double activated his next form.
"CYCLONE-JOKER!"
"Now, time to count your crimes!" yelled out Double as put the Joker Memory into the Maximum Slot.
"JOKER: MAXIMUM DRIVE!"
Jumping off Accel, Accel straightened up his body with the back wheel pointing up. Double bounced off the back wheel and got some air before he descended with his revised signature move.
"Accel Joker Extreme!"
Double split down the middle and both halves came crashing down on the Dopant with explosive force. He was knocked right off the rooftop and down to the ground below where he exploded.
Sachio Sawada cried as he laid facedown on the ground, the Liar Memory now useless shattered pieces.
Meanwhile, at Nihon Idol
Jimmy just finished his song and waited for the judges' words, but he didn't have very high hopes. Naru had gotten about the same reviews as the last time and it just made a smile on her face. When Jimmy came onto the stage, the crowd was rather vocal about him in a negative sense. Shrugging it off, he strummed his guitar and quickly began his song.
To the shock of the audience, he was good! He had a nice and even voice which handled the song fluently and now that he could concentrate on a single type of sound it was able to come out much better. The audience definitely enjoyed it much better than his Spilk.
"Hmm, a little different than what you played before, but it's very smooth and it shows versatility in your music. Very cool!" Aya smiled.
"Ah, not as good as before, but the audience enjoyed it much more and in our business the audience is just as important as the officials," Takuya nodded.
"Very nice!" Wakana smiled, her ears were very soothed by the real music Jimmy could play rather than the noise he called Spilk. "A good way to get yourself established is by going with what people like before trying to find something new!"
"Compared to his other performances, it was a grand disappointment!" Mizuki huffed. Jimmy flinched at the words, but knew it was better that the judges didn't hear his actual Spilk.
"OKAY EVERYONE!" the announcer cheered as Naru stepped out onto the stage and both aspiring artists. As per the rules, when an artist won twice, it was the audience who decided who would win after the judges made their observations. After all, the judges had the advanced taste to officially call music good or not, but it was the people who knew what they liked. "NOW IT'S UP TO YOU, THE AUDIENCE MEMBERS, TO DECIDE WHO SHALL WIN TODAY'S COMPETITION! TWO TIME WINNER JIMMY NIKATA OR OUR NEW CONTESTANT NARU NARUSEGAWA?"
Later, in Hinata-Sou…
"You forfeited!?" Kitsune cried out. "Why?" Both she and Naru were in the latter's room having some drinks.
"Well, I don't think I want the stress of being in the lime-light," said Naru humbly, "Plus I got school. Being an idol would take too much of my time."
"Still, you could've won, you know," Kitsune frowned.
"I think it's better if someone else had the chance," said Naru. Elizabeth and Queen had also gotten a chance to sing at Nihon Idol again for their third win, which they so deserved, and got their CD recorded. "Queen and Elizabeth deserve it. They actually want this. So does Jimmy."
"I still say you should've gone for it," stated Kitsune. "I mean I could've been your manager and…"
"Hold it right there," said Naru. "Sorry, Kitsune, but I'd rather be a student than an idol now."
"Hey, Naru," said Kitsune, smirking. "If you don't want to be an idol, can I take your place?"
Urashima Detective Agency Office
While the twins were happy with their latest CD, Love Wars, as they came to thank Urashima Detectives for their help, there was something still bothering them. It was in the entertainment magazine. There was an article about the Kamen Singers with a huge picture of them. In the bottom left corner of the page was a small picture of Queen and Elizabeth.
"Why did you to get more press than us, huh?" asked Queen.
"Yeah! Your song didn't even hit the air!" nodded Elizabeth.
"Don't blame me! I didn't write the article!" Keitaro cried out.
"Keitaro! We have to enter again!" Phillip cried as he entered the room with the Kamen Singers masks. "My research into singing and performances has been so interesting thus far. Practical experience might be what I need to complete it!"
"What?!" Keitaro cried out.
Dear Granny Hina
We solved the case and Sachio Sawada was arrested for fixing the Nihon Idol contest. Naru gave up becoming an idol because it just wasn't her thing. As for Jimmy and Yukiho, last I heard they reconciled. Yukiho really did like Jimmy's music, or was it his determination that she liked? I wasn't sure but right now they are working in the same recycling pant. Jimmy can't make money out of singing forever, can he? Elizabeth and Queen got to record their CD. As for Keitaro-niichan and Phillip-niichan, they gained some notoriety as the Kamen Singers. You were right, Granny. It's never dull here in Hinata-Sou. Then again, I don't think life as detectives will ever be dull.
Love: Kanako
I think I'm gonna take up on Phillip-niichan's offer. Three Kamen Singers is better than two, right?
A/N
Ten-Faced Paladin: Well, that wraps up our homage to the Double series. Now we're going to do something original!
Kamen Rider Chrome: Yeah, just something fun to write. Check again for the next update.