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.
Twenty Eighth Show - The Story of the Stone City
When the light died down from Claude's Teleport Ring moving them to their destination, the group took note of their surroundings which consisted of a pathway leading up to a large gate that housed several regal looking buildings on top. "Where are we?"
Yuri answered Noel's question. "We're right now at the Meridian Gate, the Southern gate of the Forbidden City."
"Unreal..." The majestic Chinese buildings definitely convinced Kan'u that this was indeed the Emperor's residence.
Sachiko looked around a bit. "Odd... shouldn't there be guards around here?"
"That's true," agreed Nagata. "I thought there would be guards stationed around the Forbidden City's perimeter."
"Maybe they all went to sleep?" suggested Claude.
Yuri shook her head. "That can't be right. There would be a night shift active if it was really late at night. Besides, China is only one hour behind Japan in terms of time zone so it would be early evening for them as well."
"Then perhaps a meal break," speculated Sachiko.
"No, they would be more disciplined than that." Motoharu continued to look around before spotting something out of the ordinary. "Looks like I found a possible explanation."
Just tucked away behind the corner of the gate was an open portal between this world and what looked like a corridor of an office building infested with the vegetation of Helheim forest. The portal itself was in the form of an open zipper which alarmed Nagata. 'A Crack?! That means we weren't able to repel the Forest in our life time?!'
"We better go investigate," said Yuri. "It's possible the guards wandered in there by accident."
"Then we should suit up." Nagata quickly took out his Sengoku Driver and while Motoharu swapped out the Mars Rider Indicator for Bujin Gaim's on his own belt. "Yuri, do you have something that can help protect yourself and the others from the Forest's allure?"
"What about you?" asked Noel.
"Our Rider forms will be enough to protect us," answered the Shoku leader.
"One moment..." In a brief second, she cast a mental block on herself along with Kan'u, Sachiko and Noel so that the fruit would not tempt them. "Done!"
DRIVER ON, NOW!
Immediately, Claude activated his own belt and placed the ring on needed to transform into Kamen Rider Sorcerer while the other two males strapped on their Drivers and activated their respective Lockseeds.
SHABADOOBI TOUCH HENSHIN! SHABADOOBI TOUCH HENSHIN!
ORANGE!
BLOOD ORANGE!
"Henshin!" At once, Claude brought his ring on the sculpted hand in the centre of his buckle while Sasaki and Nagata secured their Lockseeds.
CHANGE NOW!
LOCK ON!
One tap of the Cutting Blade later...
SOIYA! ORANGE ARMS! HANAMICHI ON STAGE!
BLOOD ORANGE ARMS! JA NO MICHI ON STAGE!
Once the transformations were complete, Sasaki noticed Nagata's posture. It was if he was ready to defend himself from an attack. "You okay there?"
"Y-yeah..." Honestly, Gaim wished that the other Japanese man would have stuck to the Mars armour. Now he would have to focus on reminding himself that the Bujin Gaim beside him is not the same as the one from the Sengoku Wars movie or the one that attacked him during the tournament finale in his home world.
Upon the party stepping to the other side of the Crack into the empty corridor, Yuri prepared a search spell. "Let me see if I can pick up any life signs."
"Man, this place reminds me of my own office building. Except not as creepy," grumbled Sasaki.
"I picked up someone over there!" Yuri went ahead and entered an open door on the left which showed multiple cubicles all around the area. "It should be at the end!"
While making their way over, they could hear someone's movements close by. By the time they reached the man dressed in Imperial Guard robes, they saw him stumbling towards a window close to a dusty printer, with traces of fruit over his face and a dropped Helheim fruit nearby.
"He took a bite?!" Gaim already saw where this was going.
"H-help...!" It was all the man could get out before vines erupted from his chest, morphing him into a monster. Similar to Yuuya and Hase's mutations, his body consisted of mainly a green upper torso, a large set of fingernail claws on the right hand and legs covered with a grey shell. As for his head, it somewhat resembled a dragon but with whiskers and a rather large set of horns. The head also looked like it was on fire.
"Holy crap! That man just turned into a monster?!" exclaimed Bujin Gaim in a totally surprised tone.
"That Inves... the head shape reminds me of a qilin," remarked Kan'u.
"Kirin...?" The newly dubbed Kirin Inves took the opportunity to tackle Gaim before anyone could react. Judging from its movements, it was trying to reach for the Lockseeds dangling by the side. "Whoa, boy!"
"Let's help him out!" But just as Noel said that, the wall behind Nagata and the Inves burst open thanks to a pair of large flying dragon creatures outside the building who seemed to be battling against each other, not caring about the damage they were doing to the surroundings.
"Two Evolved Seiryu Inves...? What are they doing here?!" Sachiko thought about it for a moment. "Is this a fight over territory? Maybe a mating dance?"
"Did we really need to know that last part?" asked Sorcerer, trying to get that mental image out of his head.
"This is dangerous. I need to finish checking the rest of the building with my search spells to see if there are any other guards inside!" exclaimed Yuri.
"So that means we gotta handle those two first and drive them away so that they don't bring this whole place down!" Bujin Gaim readied his Daidaimaru. "Claude, Noel, you two come with me to subdue those monsters! Yuri, you continue your search while Kan'u and Sachiko look after you! Nagata, try and restrain that monster in the meantime until we get back to you!"
"You can't be serious! Why?!"
"So we can try and change him back!" shot back Bujin Gaim before Noel busted out her hoverboard and hopped out of the freshly made hole courtesy of the evolved Seiryu Inves. Once Claude and Motoharu were on, they flew towards the two large dragons.
"This is nuts!" The brief lapse in concentration allowed the Category H Inves to tackle him out the big opening to the open flat roof of the low rise building below the building they had initially entered through the Crack. "WHOA!"
"Dad!" And to make things a little more tense, two Elementary Inves burst out of the ceiling from above, having picked up the scent of a Lockseed earlier and eager to search for it.
"Sachiko, stay focused!" Kan'u would have to worry about her Master later and focus on keeping these creatures away from Yuri so she could devote her full efforts towards scanning the rest of this building.
The battle had gone on for a few minutes but now, the Inves were all gathered together in one spot in an open space located at the settlement's centre. Just the way Shun wanted it. His free hand moved towards the Cutting Blade and tapped it thrice.
COME ON! BANANA SPARKING!
"And time for the finish!" shouted Baron as he stabbed the Banaspear into the ground, causing multiple banana projectiles to burst up from the ground, surrounding the Inves. Then in one simultaneous motion, the bananas all slammed to the ground to crush the monsters, enveloping them in a giant explosion that caused some collateral damage to some of the nearby buildings. Fortunately, the commoners had evacuated and nobody was injured.
'So this is the power that Sasaki uses.' Already, plans were in Riko's mind to obtain a similar Driver for herself since she could use it when she returned to her home world. The key was finding a blank one that hadn't been DNA locked to the first user. Riko recalled that when she swung by at DIVA's workshop prior to getting out of there, there were only a few Lockseeds lying about in the area along with a partially assembled Sengoku Driver.
"You two girls okay? No scratches?" asked the red knight as he lowered his weapon.
"We're fine," answered Houki. "My name is…"
"Let me guess…" The Japanese girl started becoming uncomfortable by the way that Baron examined her. Sure, he wasn't physically touching her but she swore that his eyes behind that helmet were stripping her bare. "… That bust line, that hairstyle and that pilot suit. There's no doubt about it! You're cosplaying Shinonono Houki from Infinite Stratos!"
"H-how did you know? I never told you my name!" She paused as her brain picked up on a key word he said. "W-wait… cosplay?"
"Wow, you can even pull off Yoko-chan's vocals so well! Full A+ portrayal!" He then turned to the blonde girl. "Judging by that uniform and that hair colour, you were aiming to portray Riko-chan but what is with that hairstyle?"
"An idiot did my hair." And that was all she would say about it as she tried to undo the weird braids done on her hair by Noel.
"Okay, fine…" Shun trailed off as he spotted a male cosplayer approaching them in a familiar black and red uniform. "And looks like we have a third cosplayer here! You two ladies know him?"
"No, this is the first time I saw him," answered Houki.
"Ditto for me," said Riko.
"Alrighty then." Baron quickly observed the young male. "Great wardrobe but the hairstyle's a bit too spiky for my taste so I will grade you as a B."
The other young man came to a full stop in front of Baron with his eyes glaring strongly at the red armoured figure. "Why…?"
"Hm?"
"Why does an idiot like you have that armour?! You mock everything that Baron is about!" shouted Souji.
There was a pause for a moment before Shun lightly tapped his right fist into his open left palm as he experienced his 'Eureka!' moment. "Oh, now I get it! You're just ticked that your Sengoku Driver and Lockseed toys didn't come to life like mine!"
"… What?"
"Yeah, life is like that sometimes and throws you some sour lemons. But you have to face the facts that my toy Lockseeds came to life while yours didn't. Tough break there, Kaito cosplay guy."
'Who the hell's Kaito?' Souji shook that thought out of his head and focused on the one positive development to come out of this which was in regards to replacing two of his rusted Lockseeds. "Whatever. Just hand over your Lockseeds."
"… Excuse me?" It was the first time Shun's voice didn't sound so casual ever since defeating those Inves.
"You heard me. Because you know nothing of what it means to carry the name Baron, you don't deserve those Lockseeds."
"Who died and made you Lord Baron?" shot back the red knight. "Seriously, you're not going to get far in life with a stuck up attitude like that."
"To get far in life requires power. Attitude is irrelevant," replied Souji bluntly.
"If you actually believe in the philosophy of 'Might makes right', then I'm truly glad that your Driver and Lockseeds are still toys. Being a Kamen Rider means using your power responsibly to protect innocent people from evil. That power is not to be used for personal gain!" Shun paused for a moment before shooting back the other youth's words from earlier. "Because you know nothing of what it means to carry the title of Kamen Rider, you don't deserve those Lockseeds."
"You…!"
Deciding not to waste any more energy on that jerk, Baron turned around and focused his attention on the two girls. "I'll take you two somewhere safe where you can settle down. You are seriously not going to believe where and when you ended up."
"Let me clarify a few things for you." Shun really just wanted to ignore Souji at this point. "First of all, I don't care about the title Kamen Rider. The only name that means anything to me is Baron. Second, the only reason why I want your Lockseeds is so I don't overwhelm weaklings with the Lockseeds I have on my possession now."
'That guy actually has real Lockseeds on him?!' While this thought ran through Baron's mind, Souji reached inside his uniform to retrieve something.
"And speaking of weaklings, I don't normally like beating them into the ground since I would rather use my time for more important things but for a smartass like you, I'll make an exception!"
This was followed up by a few sounds that chilled Shun to the core. The first was the sound of a Driver being strapped on. The second was the activation of a Lockseed…
LEMON ENERGY!
… An Energy Lockseed of all things, accompanied by the zipping sound of a localized Crack forming to summon the armour to be dropped.
Baron turned back to see Souji, now equipped with a Genesis Driver on his waist, securing the Lemon Energy Lockseed into the belt while a metallic lemon hovered over his head. 'A Genesis Driver?!'
LOCK ON!
"Watch closely, you fake! This is the difference between you and a real Baron! Henshin!" Souji pushed the lever in to open the Energy Lockseed and have the 'juice' extracted into the Driver's pod below.
SODA!
In a split second, the lemon dropped on Souji's head while his body was covered in the same red and silver Rider base suit that Shun wore. The lemon unfolded, forming the same cape, yellow chest plate which had a different crest at the forefront and the same head accessories as Kamen Rider Duke. In his right hand was a miniature red bow.
LEMON ENERGY ARMS! FIGHT POWER!
For Shun, he was certainly dreading the idea of having to go up against a New Generation Rider all by himself with his current power set. 'Shit…'
FIGHT POWER!
And if he recalled correctly, didn't Duke have the hardest punching and kicking power overall out of all the New Generation Riders? Would that be the same with this New Generation Baron? 'Shit!'
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT F-F-F-FIGHT!
Once the transformation announcement finished playing, Souji swiftly moved first, using one of the Sonic Arrow's bladed edges to damage Shun's pectoral plate armour. As the young man was sent airborne thanks to the initial blow, only one thought ran through the flying Red Knight of Gi's head.
'SHIT!'
"No tricks or gadgets up my sleeve~!" With that said, Noel made a pass by the monsters before she took off her top hat and allowed several playing cards to scatter out of it which transformed into grenades and exploded in front of the two Evolved Seiryu Inves.
"They're disoriented! Now's our chance, Claude!" Taking the Blood Orange Lockseed, Bujin Gaim inserted it into his connected naginata consisting of the Daidaimaru and Musou Saber.
LOCK ON! 1, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000!
"Okay!" Sorcerer whipped out a Ring for his Finishing Move and scanned it on his buckle.
YES! FINAL STRIKE! UNDERSTAND?
In one synchronous movement, the two Riders leaped off the hoverboard to perform their respective attacks, Claude with his Rider Kick and Motoharu with a Rider Slash attack.
BLOOD ORANGE CHARGE!
The powerful kick from Sorcerer and the energy wave in the shape of a Blood Orange slice were enough to send the monsters crashing to the ground below before exploding into nothing. And just before the two Riders hit the ground, Noel swooped by on her hoverboard to pick them up. "Good work! Let's get back to the others!"
They eventually found Nagata alone on one big open rooftop belonging to a low rise building positioned beneath the office window where he and the Category H Inves had crashed out of earlier. Noel directed her hoverboard to land near the site while Yuri brought Kan'u and Sachiko over as well from above.
"Is everyone alright?" asked Gaim as he turned around to address the others.
"We're fine. I couldn't detect any other guards. It's possible they were already killed off," reported Yuri. "Also had a run in with a few more monsters but Kan'u and Sachiko managed to drive them away."
"What about that Inves that tackled you out here, Dad?"
The Rider briefly glanced at his future child. "I took care of it. Don't worry about it."
"You took care of that monster?" Noel looked around for a moment. "But I don't see it anywhere!"
It didn't take long for Sasaki to put it together. "You… finished it?"
"The only option available was to put him down," said Gaim quietly while placing his Musou Saber away. "There's absolutely no way to change them back once they consume a fruit."
"How do you know for sure?" asked Claude.
"In the original story around episode 14, Kouta attempted to save Hase who just ate a Helheim fruit. Despite briefly returning to human form, his mind was completely under the fruit's effects. Eventually, it was Sid who put him down in the end. And during my travels in China, my first trip into Helheim was with a Rinrinshi. It ate one of the fruits and transformed before my very eyes, losing any rational thought."
Bujin Gaim paced around a bit after hearing the other youth's story. "Okay there… in regards to the series, how far did you get?"
Nagata paused for a moment. "I recall the last episode that aired before my trip to the museum was episode 20."
"So basically, you didn't get a chance to watch the second half of a season plus any other movies or DVD specials that could have shown an in-universe method of reversing this mutation. Your canon knowledge of Gaim isn't complete. Alright, fine." The Japanese accountant took a moment to gather his thoughts. "Considering all we've been through so far, did the possibility of being able to save that man ever seriously cross your mind?"
"Sempai, I told you that there's absolutely no way to change them back once they consume a fruit! I know this bugs you-"
"What bugs me is that you failed to consider making use of unique assets that are accompanying you right now. I can understand your choice if there was absolutely no other alternative to handle the situation." The Toei employee took a deep breath before resuming, this time letting a little bit of his disappointment reflect in his voice tone. "But there were options available. Seriously, just think about it for a second."
"What do you mean?"
Motoharu gave a frustrated grunt before giving out some directions to some of the other party members. "Noel, can you stand over there for a few seconds? Claude, stand right behind her. Yuri, please crouch down in front of the pair."
"What is he doing?" whispered Sachiko to her mother.
"I don't know," admitted Kan'u.
While Claude, Noel and Yuri did look a bit confused at this, they all followed his instructions so that they could all be seen together in one spot. Then Motoharu got to the front and spread out his hand towards the trio. "Nagata, what do you see?"
"A guy using a villain's Rider powers for good and a pair of females who should be dressed a little bit more conservatively," answered Gaim while Yuri and Noel flushed a bit at his comments about their current attire.
"Now what do they all have in common? Specifically… what is the common theme about their power set?"
'Claude uses magic rings for his powers and those girls use…' The pieces finally fell in place in Nagata's head. "Magic?"
"Ding dong! Count up the magic users! One, two and three!" exclaimed Bujin Gaim loudly while Sachiko shot her father a puzzled look.
"Dad, why do you sound so surprised? You and Mom had your fair share of magic encounters before I was even born!"
"Magic isn't exactly something commonly seen in China though," answered Kan'u. "That's likely why the thought didn't cross Gaim-sama's mind!"
"Kan'u-san, your loyalty is admirable but please don't make excuses for your Master," reprimanded the accountant sharply.
"You thought their magic could have cured his condition? How do you know?" challenged Gaim.
"It's true that we don't know for sure but that's why I asked you to restrain the monster! We could have run experiments and see how their magic would have interacted with the fruit's power. Perhaps the rules that their magic runs on could have allowed them to completely reverse the genetic mutation! But you pretty much wrote that man off as a lost cause almost immediately!" Now that he got that anger out of his system, Motoharu gave one last tired sigh. "For a leader who claims to protect the hope of people, it's a bit sad seeing how you gave up hope on saving that man so quickly."
'Geez, did some of Kuon's attitude rub off on him?' pondered Noel.
"…!" As for Nagata, he couldn't argue with Sasaki's point there. After all, the memory of that episode pretty much burned itself in his mind to the point that his default course of action for a human who ate a fruit of Helheim would be to put them down quickly. Other alternative courses of action had never crossed his mind.
"Sasaki-san, you're being unfair! Things escalated so quickly!" protested Kan'u.
"I've said my piece on this so let's move on." Motoharu looked around the area, seeing nothing but empty commercial buildings and plants growing all around. "Does anyone know where we are?"
"It's like one big urban forest with the vegetation growing in and around all these buildings," murmured Yuri while preparing another Wide Area Search spell. "Let me see if I can find another one of those open portals to take us out of here."
"Sasaki-san, I'm not done with you yet!" But before the Shoku general could do anything, Sachiko stepped in front of her.
"Mom, we have other things to worry about. You can argue with him later."
"But-!"
"Aisha, she's right. This isn't the ideal location for a debate," said Nagata, who seemed to have shaken off that earlier criticism. He could come to terms with it later.
"… Very well. I will wait until we have left the forest and are back in the other world."
With that little incident temporarily resolved, Yuri began receiving images of the ruined city and displayed them before the party. "I haven't found anything so far…"
"Can't we just use Claude's Teleport Ring?" asked Noel.
"Well, I don't know if that would work. The only times it worked to transport between worlds is when we kept departing the Antique Shop. I'll give it a shot though." Sorcerer was about to slip the ring on when Gaim spotted something very familiar.
"Stop that image! Please magnify the object in the background."
Yuri did as Nagata requested while Noel sighed. "Looks like this is becoming a repeat of last time."
"… I don't believe this!" The magnified image showed a tower, covered by the vegetation of Helheim forest. The base resembled that of a tree trunk with branches supporting a large dome which had a ring attached around it. It was an image that Gaim recognized virtually immediately. "Yggdrasil Tower!"
This did not ring a bell for Claude but then again, very little resonated with him considering his lack of memories. "What's the significance of that tower?
Nagata's mind was running rather quickly at the implications of this world but he managed to answer the question. "In the original TV story, that tower served as the headquarters of Yggdrasil Corporation. It's where the Sengoku Drivers and Genesis Drivers were created and manufactured."
"Then this used to be Heaven? How could this happen?" A great feeling of dread rose in Kan'u's heart.
"Heaven had its own share of problems too. But the fact that human world on the other side is still standing is a testament to our resilience. Helheim won't consume Earth so easily." Gaim paused before turning to Sachiko. "I presume that you were heavily involved in repelling the forest's invasion before you got transported suddenly to the IS Academy?"
"That's correct," confirmed the young girl.
'Still... me and the others have made plenty of trips into Helheim forest. Why did we not stumble on this earlier?' This truly puzzled Gaim. 'Was it really that well hidden? Seriously, it's a freaking huge tower!'
"If that's true, then I say we should pay that tower a visit. Nagata said that the tower is where the Sengoku Driver came from so we might as well see if we can pick up some upgrades for you two," suggested Noel. "Heck, maybe we can pick up a spare Driver for Sachiko and Kan'u."
Sasaki chipped in his thoughts. "Considering that we know there is someone out there causing dimensional distortions, we might need every edge we can get if a direct confrontation arises."
"I think it might be worth a trip. If there is data in there about the Drivers you use, then I should download it for safe keeping so that in the event that it gets heavily damaged, I can help fix it," said Yuri.
"Wait! If that place is where the Armoured War God belts were created, then we cannot trespass on those sacred grounds!" argued Kan'u before turning to her Lord. "Do you agree, Gaim-sama?"
He thought about it for a moment before speaking. "I can understand that it's a good opportunity to scavenge around but I don't think it's really necessary to break in the tower and possibly trigger a metric ton of defense mechanisms to make life difficult for us."
"Really? You would pass up the chance to get upgrades?" asked Motoharu.
"Yggdrasil Tower's a grave at this point. Let the dead rest in peace, Sempai," said Nagata quietly. "Besides, there are plenty of fruits around here which means plenty of Lockseeds we can stock up on."
"And honestly, while I wouldn't mind getting a weapon upgrade or even a new Driver, I would rather do it in a way that doesn't have everybody putting themselves at risk for my sake." Considering how Sachiko had been brought up in her world, her sense of selflessness wasn't surprising.
"So we have three votes for and three against." Bujin Gaim then looked to Claude. "Looks like you have the tie breaking vote. What's it going to be?"
All eyes turned towards Kamen Rider Sorcerer while he pondered on what to do. After some thought, he made up his mind.
ROUTE SPLIT:
A. "Let's make a trip to that Yggdrasil Tower and look around."
B. "Let's not make any unnecessary trouble for us and leave the tower alone."
Hot damn, that took a long time to get out and Mr. Route Split comes back again! I actually knew what I wanted to write for this chapter but it just took more words than I expected to get all the scenes decently written up.
So yeah, the Sengoku Koihime world here is actually VR's story timeline around 1,300 years after Yamato's story would have ended in the Three Kingdoms era. This idea actually came to me when I noticed the Sengoku Koihime vote picking up steam so I decided to combine this with the VR story route. Seemed to have worked out decently.
