Disclaimer: I own nothing about Super Heroine Chronicle, any of the represented series or Kamen Rider. The only original character I own is Sasaki Motoharu. All other original characters belong to their respective creators. Please note that the depiction of the Date of Destiny World in this chapter does not necessarily reflect Toa's future plot developments.
Twenty First Show – Path of Triumph
The altered IS floated in the middle of the arena with sprawls of defeated academy teachers scattered around her. She seemed inactive due to being unable to detect any enemies in the area. That didn't last long though as the Orimura Chifuyu imitation picked up a new target entering the arena's airspace. Upon zooming in, the visual feedback showed a flying girl with blonde hair, golden eyes, purple hakama pants and a white jacket over a small white top that allowed her midriff to be bared.
It took a moment to search the host's short term memory and recall that they had crossed paths before in battle. Without wasting any further time, the mock Mondo Grosso champion prepared to take off in pursuit but it suddenly stopped and deflected a few discharges from an energy pistol with its katana. One second later, it located the origin of the attack and spotted two more entrants in the arena, with their IS units fully deployed.
"Oi, you fake Chifuyu! That girl up there isn't your opponent!" announced Inui Takumi as he lowered his pistol.
"It's us!" Deep down, Orimura Ichika was incredibly thankful that he had run into that small girl named Yuri. Not only did she use that strange energy of hers to recharge his group's IS units and help locate his friend Takumi, she would even handle moving the defeated teachers to safety so that he and Takumi could focus on fighting. It did take some effort on his part to convince Houki and Charles to start searching through the rest of the Academy for any remaining wandering Orphenochs but they eventually agreed and split off from the group.
In all honesty, he seriously found that little girl amazing since she used actual real magic. Takumi didn't seem as blown away though. When Ichika asked him why he wasn't as amazed, the older student simply responded that he had his own encounters with a powerful magic user before, some guy named Haruto. It reminded the younger boy that he really didn't know a lot about Inui Takumi, despite spending a fair amount of time with him over the current semester. Maybe once all of this was over, he could get to know the Faiz pilot better. But first things first…
READY.
"Ichika, tell me something," began Faiz as he equipped himself with his own sword held in his left hand. "How do you feel about Laura?"
"Eh…?" Ichika turned his head in confusion.
"Well, she's pretty much had a hard hatred of you since day one. Technically both of us but she really zoomed in on you. She'll come at you with everything she has in addition to her IS having higher performance thanks to that program mimicking the former Mondo Grosso winner's moves. Knowing that-"
"I know the weight of a weapon that can end a person's life, Takumi," reassured the young boy while holding up the Yukihira Type 2. "I won't swing this recklessly."
"Still, you said that you hated that thing for having Chifuyu's data," pointed out Takumi.
"That doesn't extend to Laura if that's what you're concerned about. She's probably someone who had gotten caught up in all this by accident. Besides, I bet she wanted to beat me down with her own strength instead of using something like this."
This earned an amused snort from the other man. "That much I can agree with."
"What about you? What's your reason for wanting to fight her?" asked Ichika.
"Hmmmm… I guess it's because she has the look in her red eye. The same look I used to have when living without a dream. It's not a healthy way to live and there's no future in that." He flicked his right wrist once before he shifted the handle of his sword to his right hand. "At the least, I can protect this girl's future while she searches for her dream. And that can only happen when we get her out of there."
"Agree-" Ichika cut himself off as the enemy began shifting forms again with the thin katana shaping up more like a broadsword. The armour sections changed, giving the IS a form that made it look both menacing and elegant at the same time. Finally, the 'face' of the unit was replaced by a spiked helmet of sorts. "W-what the…?"
"Wait a second…!" Takumi was certain that he recognized the shape but he didn't have time to dwell further upon that as the enemy immediately summoned a large particle gun and aimed it at the two. They both took off to the air and split up just as it fired. The enemy then flew after Faiz and kept firing the particle gun while Ichika was left looking stunned.
"What's going on?! It isn't copying Chifuyu-nee's form anymore!"
"No, it's gotten worse!" roared Takumi as he desperately moved around to stay one step ahead of that copy's erratic firing. He had already put the pieces together when his enhanced sense of smell picked up her particular scent. It was just like the Golem battle all over again. Knowing her, she was probably unsatisfied with her observations she got then and she probably decided to hack into the Valkyrie Trace Program and upgrade the pre-programmed movements to a very familiar and infamous IS unit. "That's a copy of the White Knight!"
"No way!"
Seriously, this reminded Takumi of the time when he was only a kid playing an arcade game of Street Fighter Zero 2 and instead of fighting some CPU opponent, he had to fight the super powerful boss character Shin Gouki. And now, it was happening to him all over again except with the White Knight data replacing Chifuyu. All thanks to one crazy scientist.
At this point in time, he really had three words in his mind.
'Tabane.
You.
Bitch.'
"It looks like the alarm level has escalated. There are a lot more barriers in place compared to before," noted Charles as he roamed the hallways with Houki.
"That means their movements will be restricted. The question is where are they now?" One second later after the Japanese girl voiced that question; the pair heard a commotion further down the corridor.
"That answers that question," remarked the French native dryly while deploying the Raphael Revive, keeping in mind that due to the smaller corridor space, moving around in the bulky unit would be trickier.
"Let's just go!" growled Houki, her mood souring at the reminder that she couldn't conserve her power supply by going into standby mode like Charles can. Then again, the Uchigane was only designed as a training IS unit and that standby functionality wasn't important for its purposes.
As they got closer to the source of the noise, they could hear signs of battle with weapons clashing along with some yelling.
"Noel, can you hurry it up over there?! We can't hold off these Orphenochs forever!"
"UMU!"
Houki paused upon hearing that. "Charles, was that you?"
Her companion tilted his head. "What are you talking about?"
"Maybe I'm hearing things but I swear that squeaking over there sounded like your voice."
"Houki!" The Japanese girl fought the urge to smirk. Geez, for a guy he can really whine like a girl.
Just as they rounded the corner, they could spot two of those monsters engaged against a person in golden armour and a black cape and some sort of black haired doll in a black jacket with a white star, for lack of a better word. There was also a girl in a pink outfit and a black top hat doing the hair of a tied up French girl. The hair had been done ridiculous hairstyle consisting of four 'drills' with no loose ends. "Sorry, Claude-kun! I just need to make sure she's bound up tight!"
"Uwaaahhh… I really should have gone with Sasaki back there." Charles noted that the girl's accent was French, much like his own.
"I don't know how you know Sasaki but you're not going anywhere, Butei Killer!"
"Just call me Riko!"
"Alright, fine!" The girl in the pink outfit then looked up and spotted the IS Academy students. "Oh, hi there!"
"Who are you?" demanded Houki while readying her Uchigane's katana.
"I'm Noel. That's Claude in the gold armour over there, Rock-chan's the little one and the tied up girl here is our main suspect for the one behind the monster appearances today! Basically, we're a group of world hopping heroic travelers searching for some lost friends!" chirped the magical show girl.
'That guy's suit does remind me of Takumi's IS unit,' thought Charles to himself as he took in this information.
"Heroic my ass! What's with this atrocious hairstyle?!" screeched the Butei Killer, causing the fight between Sorcerer and the Orphenochs to pause for a moment.
"Well, I mainly did it to prevent you from using your hair as extra limbs to reach for weapons and stuff. Besides, I find the hairstyle interesting! There's this girl I met at this Beatrice Academy during their school festival who had such a hairstyle that I had to find out more about it and-"
"Let's get a show of hands of everyone who feels they have better things to do than listen to that story," interrupted Riko rudely and much to Noel's dismay, Rock-chan's stubby arm and Claude's armoured arm went up.
"Ehh?!"
"To be honest, we're kinda occupied here," admitted Sorcerer before he turned around to the Orphenochs. "What about you two?"
"Oh, sorry!" The Slug Orphenoch raised its arm while the other Orphenoch looked startled that its partner actually did such a thing. This gave Claude the opportunity to land a powerful blow with the Dis Halberd.
"You moron! Why did you raise your hand?! Just my luck to be stuck with someone like you who couldn't even dodge that charging Rider's hover board earlier!" screeched the Mole Orphenoch as it stumbled back from that attack.
"You didn't dodge it either!" shot back the Slug Orphenoch.
While they bickered, Sorcerer turned back to the orange IS unit. "Hit them now, orange robot guy!"
"It's Charles!" complained the French native before unleashing the contents of the assault rifle's magazine on the two monsters who defended themselves as best as they could.
"I'll go too!" Houki was about to move forward when Charles shot her a stern look.
"Your combat style won't be effective since we're fighting in a smaller space. Let me, Claude and that Rock-chan handle it."
"Besides, you can keep a close eye on our suspect here!" chirped Noel while she kept a firm grip on Riko's shoulder.
"Che…!" While this did bother Houki, she could see the French pilot's reasoning. "Understood."
Things could be really going a lot better for Nagata right now.
It first started out simple enough to defeat the two Orphenochs that had been harassing Faiz earlier. While they are tougher than the average Orphenoch based on what Yuri said, he could manage his stamina properly and come out on top.
It got worse not too long after with two more Orphenochs jumping in the fray, pretty much wanting to clobber him as payback for a Rider wearing a similar belt running over them with a hover board. At least that was what he heard since the ranting of those new arrivals was a bit hard to make out. The situation had still looked manageable in his view although he would need to be more careful about his stamina management.
The problem came when he got tossed out to the stadium stands and crashed against a railing. This allowed him to get a good look at the arena where he could spot Yuri below diligently dragging unconscious teachers in robotic units to safety. He could see Faiz and some other friendly white unit battling an enemy that kept attacking recklessly with its broadsword and particle gun. Finally, he could see all the way to the other side of the stadium where Kan'u was facing a similar situation as him to fend off four Orphenochs. While she was certainly skilled with her weapon and could hold out, all they needed was one good hit and she didn't have any protective armour on her.
'Aisha!' That sight was more than enough to break any focus he had on his own battle as he barely dodged one strike only to run into the attack of another Orphenoch which was powerful enough to send him tumbling over the railing and down below to the next level of seats. Seeing the enemy disoriented, the four Orphenochs leapt over the railing themselves to pounce on him and finish him off when a mechanical voice echoed throughout the area.
ATTACK RIDE: BARRIER
A speck of light shot out towards Nagata moments before the monsters would have reached him. As a result, they instead bounced off of it and right into the air space of the IS arena. Due to their momentum from earlier, they ended up flailing around in the air helplessly before being blown up by a stray charged shot from the particle gun of the White Knight copy.
"T-that's…"
"Oi, Nagata! Are you okay?" Gaim turned his head back in time to see Sasaki in his Mars suit behind him with familiar barcode armour and the Diendriver.
"Where did you…" His mind snapped back to what he saw earlier and he frantically scanned the last place that he saw her.
"What are you looking for?" asked Sasaki.
"Kan'u! I saw her fighting four Orphenochs by herself…!" It didn't take him long to find her again, using the Green Dragon Crescent Blade to keep her distance but at the same time, she was running out of room to safely maneuver around the stands. In fact, she was getting dangerously close against a damaged section where the balcony had been destroyed for a long drop below.
"She's fighting them all by herself?!" Motoharu couldn't believe what he was seeing while Nagata felt furious at himself. Honestly, her situation could have been avoided if he hadn't gone to investigate the source of the battle noises he heard earlier and split up from her to go investigate and eventually aid Faiz. If anything happened to her, it would be his fault.
"I need to get over there quickly! I have to help her!" Gaim's body wasn't fully responsive as he still needed time to recover his stamina from the earlier battle. Even in that state though, he frantically searched his body for something. "Dammit, where's my Sakura Hurricane Lockseed?!"
"Sakura what?"
"My motorcycle!" snapped Nagata.
"Even if you got it out, can you really drive through this rough terrain and get to her on time? Hell, even with the Tornad-" Motoharu paused for a moment as something came to him. "Wait a second… I got an idea."
The younger Rider was about to snap again when he heard the loading of a card into the Diendriver along with three familiar words.
FINAL FORM RIDE!
'… Oh, hell…' Nagata slowly turned around in time to see the barrel of the Diendriver right in his face, while the standby siren continued playing from the device. If this were an episode of Decade, he figured that the climactic theme would be playing right about now. "Are you freaking kidding me?!"
"No, I am not. Now bite your tongue because this might sting a bit." Sasaki shoved Nagata back around before firing the Diendriver right into his back.
G-G-G-GAIM!
At once, it seemed like each of Nagata's limbs shrunk deeper inside as the armour pieces expanded out before inverting, forming a gigantic orange, with some black marks on the outside.
"Now get over there and save your girl!" One roundhouse kick from Sasaki later, the giant orange flew towards Kan'u just as one of the stray shots from the White Knight blasted the general area where she had been fighting in, causing her to lose her weapon and get sent flying into the opening. But as she got within a few feet of the ground, the giant orange caught up to her and enveloped her in a flash of light.
When it faded, Kan'u slowly landed on the ground unharmed and transformed. A golden head crest was on her head that was a combination of Gaim's usual sword crest and an additional decoration similar to a crest seen on a general's helmet. Her usual wardrobe had vanished with a basic sports bra (which allowed her midriff to be bared like Chouhi to her embarassment) and skirt combination forming the undergarments and protected by orange armour, consisting of a breast plate, shoulder pads and full skirt armour. The breast armour had Gaim's symbol in the central section while the orange flags on her back had the Shoku character sewn into a circle with a green background. Her arms were covered with dark blue gloves which had additional guard plating on the top of the arm. Finally, her right hand wielded a weapon which had a handle like the Musou Saber but was attached to a black device somewhat short in length which had a DJ Table on the surface.
Kan'u looked around at herself and gawked. "W-what is this?"
"KACHIDOKI ARMS!"
The Chinese girl looked down at the Driver. "Gaim-sama?! Why does your voice come from my waist?!"
"IZA SHUTSUJIN! EI, EI… … EEEEEHHHHHHH?!"
"Um… Gaim-sama?"
Nagata's panicked voice continued to come out from the belt. "What's this?! I can feel every inch of your body against mine!"
"Quite an interesting transformation." She looked up to see Kamen Rider Mars who had covered the distance quite quickly thanks to his Tesla Bands.
"Please explain this at once, Sasaki-san!"
"This is merely a form of Gaim that he took to personally protect you. It also allows you to use his power," explained Sasaki which caused the young lady to calm down a bit.
"I see… indeed, I can feel an enhancement in my physical strength." Kan'u flexed her arms briefly before looking at her weapon and running her hand along the length, causing some strange noises to come from the belt. "The length on this sword does seem a bit short compared to the average steel dao…"
"Well, equipment length is only part of the equation in close combat. Skill is a factor too," argued the golden Rider.
"That's true…" She looked down at her waist again where the noise kept coming from. "Gaim-sama, are you okay?"
"M-me? I'm…" Nagata's strained voice was cut off as the four Orphenoch from earlier dropped in from above to attempt a sneak attack. Fortunately, the pair got out of the way and readied themselves.
"First things first…" Sasaki held the Diendriver ready and reached for a card while Kan'u held up her Arms weapon in her usual grip.
"Understood." Kan'u glanced down at her waist briefly. "Gaim-sama, let's fight against these monstrosities together!"
"W-wait…!"
"HAAAAAA!" With a battle cry, she charged the first monster head on, not even hearing Nagata's cry of…
"AISHA, PLEASE BE GENTLE!"
'Origami's change… is this because of Kotaro's disappearance?' Those were the thoughts that plagued Zangetsu as he drove his Sakura Hurricane down the streets. He had transformed using the Sengoku Driver since he didn't want to use the Genesis Driver against someone he had considered as a friend of sorts. 'So many questions… it would be nice if some answers dropped in.'
A mere two seconds after that thought popped up in his head, he spotted a flailing green figure with brown shoulder pads and chest armour coming from above and about to collide on the road just ahead of him. Mihashi only needed a second to recognize who that was. 'That's… Ryugen?!'
Ryugen in his Kiwi Arms form crashed hard on the paving just ahead of Zangetsu which forced him to react quickly. He made a hard left lane change just in time to avoid running over the green Rider with his motorcycle before coming to a stop and rushing over to his injured comrade who reverted back to human form and sported some blood coming out of the corner of his lips. "Gai, are you okay?! Speak to me!"
"O-oh… hey, Mihashi," weakly greeted the other boy while he slowly got up, supported by the Melon Samurai.
"Don't 'Hey, Mihashi' me! Who did this to you? Was it… Origami?" He had to know the truth, even if he didn't want to. If she truly damaged Gai to this extent, he had to consider her as a real enemy.
"No… it was that other guy," wheezed Gai painfully while recalling what happened earlier. "He was the one who reminded Origami of her purpose. Once she listened to him and thought things over to herself, she chose to revert back to her original mindset of destroying all Spirits."
"Another guy…?" Mihashi grew even more confused. What other enemy could have done this?
"Y-yeah. He pretty much snatched me out from the skirmish quickly and relocated us elsewhere far away from the fight before the twins could react. Now Origami could focus on them without me interrupting." The boy paused to catch his breath. "He's damn fast and strong too…"
"Who are we talking about? An Overlord?"
Gai looked up into Mihashi's visor square in the eye. "A Rider…"
At that moment, Zangetsu heard soft footsteps approaching the area and stood up, materializing the Melon Defender and reaching for his Musou Saber. In the distance, he could see an armoured figure coming closer. He couldn't tell who that Rider was due to the light fog obscuring the features of the new arrival.
"That's… him! That's the guy who I fought with earlier!"
After hearing Gai confirm what he suspected, Mihashi focused his attention on the approaching figure. "Who are you? Which Armoured Rider are you?"
"Armoured Rider? That's how you Riders label yourselves in this world? Interesting…" The voice sounded like a young man around Mihashi's age.
"Identify yourself now!"
The figure merely chuckled as he got closer. "As you wish, O Demanding One. I am…"
ROUTE SPLIT:
A. "Kamen Rider Maja." (from Kamen Rider Gaim Stage Show)
B. "Ganbarider Acuto." (from Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbarizing)
Long time no see, Mr. Route Split! As usual, thanks for reading and I wish you a Merry Christmas! In the event that I don't get an update out before 2014 ends, I might as well leave a Happy New Year here too.