Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. That is not gonna change anytime soon.
Journey through Remnant
Chapter 16: Return
2019: Pseudo-World of Zi-O...
"Why did Kaitou kidnapped them?!" Eiji was panicking. Tsukasa had just returned to the house without Sougo, Blake and Ren. As he had told the Rider, along with the rest of the spatially displaced teens from Remnant, that the three had been abducted by Daiki Kaitou.
"Can you stop screaming in my face? You're giving me a headache," Tsukasa was annoyed by his companion's constant shouting. Having not slept for the past two days due to his investigation on Another Decade, Tsukasa was very tired and wasn't in the mood to listen to to everyone's screeching.
"Kadoya Tsukasa," Woz was acting strangely calm despite the situation, "Do you have any idea as to why DiEnd would kidnap my lord?"
"And Ren too?!" Nora added. She was clearly upset with her partner's abduction.
"How about Blake?! What does she have to do with this?!" Yang was basically screaming at this point.
"This day can't possibly get any worse..." Tsukasa muttered under his breath, another migraine making itself known to him, "Your friends were just in the wrong place in the wrong time. Kaitou probably just took them along for fun,"
"And what about my lord?"
"Kaitou said something about having his own plans to you, right Woz? That's most likely why he took Sougo,"
"How did he even found you guys? Where were you?" Eiji asked.
"We were in the World of Blade,"
"Kazuma's World? Why were you there?"
"Blade? Kazuma? Are you two talking about another Kamen Rider?" Ruby wondered, curious about the Rider her professors mentioned.
"Sougo met him and Hajime in his old World," Tsukasa answered Eiji, mostly ignoring Ruby's question, "I thought if he were to see some of the Riders he met, it would help jog his memory,"
"So that's what you were up to? Just going around introducing him to the others? Why couldn't you bring us along?" Eiji was slightly miffed that he couldn't visit some of their old allies.
"Hang on! Blake and Ren got the chance to meet more of you?!" Momentarily forgetting the fact that her friends were kidnapped, Ruby was both ecstatic and jealous at them.
"No. Shouting." Tsukasa repeated again.
"Sorry, sir,"
"Tsukasa, where could Kaitou have taken them to?" Eiji asked, turning the topic back to the missing students.
"Best case scenario, he's going to do the same thing I did," Tsukasa ventured a guessed, "According to Woz, Kaitou wanted Sougo to get his powers back,"
"And worst case?"
"He'll drop them where there are lots of monster. That might also force Sougo to recover some memories. I doubt that, though,"
"What?! But their weapons are here!" Ruby pointed to Ren's and Blake's weapons, which was still in the back of the room.
"Like I said, I doubt Kaitou will do that. And stop shouting,"
"Are there any way we can track them down?" Woz asked the Destroyer of World.
"No. Knowing Kaitou, he would have covered his tracks,"
"So there's nothing we can do?"
"I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to bed," Just like that, Tsukasa left the room in favor for going upstairs.
"...The professor doesn't seem that worried," Jaune noted.
"He is," Eiji refuted that comment, "Tsukasa just doesn't show it,"
"...Is there really nothing we can do?" Ruby asked the vagabond Kamen Rider.
"If Tsukasa says there nothing he can do about it, then chances are we can't do anything either,"
"I just hope they'll be alright..."
?: Unknown World...
'My true self?' That was the thought that had been running through Sougo's mind for the past few minutes. Something about that line disturbed him. It was familiar and alien at the same time.
He, along with Ren and Blake, had been left by themselves in who knows where with only that single clue. And wherever they end up in, there was one thing that was clear; It was not normal.
All the signs were backwards and, even if it was (probably) the dead of night, the city was empty save for the three teenagers.
"Why isn't there anybody around?" Ren wondered, trying to speculate a reason for that.
"...Sougo, did anything like this happen before?" Blake questioned the former King of Time.
"Anything like what?" Having been lost in his thoughts, Sougo didn't know what the secret Faunus was talking about exactly.
"An entire city turning into a ghost town," She elaborated a bit more.
"Not that I remember. Besides, I don't know when we are. For all we know, we might be in the future," That was most likely not the case, but Sougo was a bit preoccupied.
"The one in the mirror..." Ren mumbled, "All the writings are backwards..."
"Figured something out?"
"Maybe. Sougo, I know you don't remember much about your old life, but was there any Rider that have a connection with mirrors?"
"Hmm... A mirror Rider?"
"Cast Off!"
CAST OFF
CHANGE STAG BEETLE
The image of a blue Rider with a stag beetle motif flashed through Sougo's head, although he had a feeling that that Rider was not connected to their situation, "Nothing comes to mind,"
"What about reflections? Kaitou Daiki implied that 'the one in the mirror' is important somewhat,"
"Sorry, but I can't remember anything," Sougo apologized.
"You," Someone called out, "Why are you here? No one should be able to come to this World,"
"Who's there?!" That voice was familiar to Sougo, and as always, he didn't know why, "Come out!"
From out of the shadows, a dark-haired man stepped out. He had a dark-blue checkered coat and a red shirt.
"Tokiwa Sougo, I ask again, why are you in the Mirror World?" The man questioned.
2019: Pseudo-World of Zi-O...
Night had fallen and things were no longer as quiet as it was before at Tsukasa's hideaway. Mainly because Nora and Yang had both been very unrestful since the news of their partners' kidnapping. Although the fact that Tsukasa was upstairs resting had reined them in a very tiny bit.
"Urgh... Just how long will he be sleeping?!" Yang half-yelled, ticked off at the professor's irresponsible attitude, "And where did that brown guy go?! He just took off by himself!"
"Yang, can you please calm down? You heard the professor, Blake and Ren will be fine..." Ruby tried to console her sister, to no avail.
"We don't know that for sure! He only said that he doubted that the one who kidnapped them would drop them in a pile of monsters!"
"Hey, Professor Hino?" Pyrrha addressed the vagabond Rider, "Do you have any idea where they might be?"
"Hmm... Tsukasa said that he was trying to get Sougo to remember his old World, and that meeting the other Riders was the best way to do so," Eiji was unaware that they only were watching from a distance and not actually coming face to face with the past Riders, but was mostly right, "But that still leaves at least 16 possibilities,"
Eiji was excluding his own and Kazuma's World. He already knew that the four were in the latter's World and, not knowing that they were also travelling through time or that they already have been there, didn't think that they would be in the World of OOO. Sougo's and Tsukasa's World were already out by default.
"At least 16?! Just how many of you guys are out there?!" Nora had overheard them talking, and was not taking that fact well at all.
"That's... I have no idea,"
"So it could be more then 16?!" Yang was the one who was shouting this time.
"No, no. It's definitely just 16 Worlds," Eiji tried his best to calm them down, only to fail as well.
"And how can you be sure of that?!"
"Well, there's just 20 Heisei Rider Worlds and I'm sure they're not in 4 of them," Technically, there were only 19 Rider Worlds at the moment as the one they were in doesn't count, but that didn't matter.
Fortunately for Eiji, before the two could continue shouting at him, the door opened up, revealing Woz.
"Woz! Where were you?" Eiji was quick to change the subject, not wanting to get shouted at.
"I was at my lord's residence," Woz was as formal and calm as always, "I had to inform his uncle that he would be away for some time,"
"And that took hours?!" Yang was still a bit agitated.
"I apologize for taking some time, but Junichirou had invited me for dinner. I couldn't refuse his offer,"
"So while we're here worrying about our teammates and your lord getting abducted, you've been out eating?!" How Tsukasa had not woken up by now was beyond Eiji.
"Correct,"
"..."
?: Mirror World...
"Who are you? How do I know you?" Sougo knew the man who appeared before him and the others. But his name escaped the King of Time.
"Sougo, is he a Kamen Rider too?" Ren whispered, not sure what to make of the man.
"I...don't know,"
"Well, he clearly knows you,"
"You two are normal humans," The man stared at Blake and Ren, "It's best you leave before it's too late,"
"Too late for what?" Blake asked, only to be ignored as the man had turned to Sougo again.
"What did you do? Why does he no longer accept me?" There was a hint of anger in the man's voice.
"Wait a minute. First, I don't know what exactly you think I did. Secondly, I don't even know who you are," It was clear to Sougo that the man had something against him.
"Is that so?" Sougo couldn't tell if the man believed or not, "Then I should jog your memories,"
The man took a thin black box with a black emblem with the shape of a dragon's head. Holding the box out, the emblem glowed before a belt appeared on his waist. The belt was mainly silver with the buckle having a large slot large enough to fit the box.
"Uhh... I think we should run," It was obvious to Blake that the man was hostile. The fact that he had a belt, and seeing as all the people with strange belt she had met in the past few weeks were incredibly powerful, made their situation worse.
"Henshin," The man simply said and inserted the box into his buckle.
Like the belt, three translucent images of a person in armor appear around him. One by one, the images converge on the man. When the last image covered him, a dim light covered the man and, once it died down, he was wearing the armor.
The man now had a black undersuit and the armor itself was rather sparse. The chestpiece was mostly dark silvery grey with a yellow outline while the breastplate being black. The shoulderpieces, gauntlets and greaves were similarly silver-grey with yellow outlines and each had a strange circular parts on them. Similarly, his knees also had a circular parts on them. His helmet had a black armor plating and had multiple grooves on them with glowing red bug eyes under them. The helmet also had a larger version of the dragon emblem on top of it. Finally, on his left arm, was a gauntlet in the shape of a dragon's head.
"That is-Ah!" Sougo called out before another headache caused him to flinch. An image of a monstrous version of the Rider before him appeared in his head, "You are- I remember now..."
Sougo could see the image clearly. Written in reverse on the monster's chest in yellow were the words '2002' along with the Rider's name, "Kamen Rider... Ryuga, the mirror Kido Shinji..."
"Mirror Kido Shinji?" Ren muttered, "Does that mean we're really in-"
"So you remember now?" The man, now known as Shinji, said, taking a step towards Sougo and company. "Now tell me, why doesn't he accept me anymore?"
"'He'? Do you mean the true Kido Shinji?" Sougo remembered the man now, the red dragon Kamen Rider known as Ryuki. However, the semi-amnesiac teen only piss Ryuga off more.
"I am the true Kido Shinji!" He shouted for the first time, very much angry now, "I'm the part of him he hides away. The part of him that he never lets anyone see. The part of him that he hides from even himself. His anger. His darkness. I'm as real as he is!"
"So you're Kido Shinji's true self?" Blake recalled Kaitou Daiki's words when he dropped them there.
"Correct," Ryuga growled out, still angry at Sougo's words, "So long as he continues to keep his anger hidden from himself, I'll continue to exist. Which is why I want know why I am still here,"
"What to you mean?" Ren asked.
"Kido Shinji should've accepted me. He-" Ryuga pointed at Sougo, "-saw to that. But now, for the past year, I've been my own being. Kido Shinji no longer knows that I exist!"
"And you're blaming me?!" Sougo stammered out, still not knowing why the mirror Shinji was hostile towards him.
"Yes. But why have you returned here? Especially with two normal humans,"
"This... 'Mirror World' as called it, why is it bad for people like Blake and I not supposed to be here?" Ren asked, that was the one thing not clear to him.
"Because, should you spend too much time here, you'll disappear," Ryuga answered.
"Disappear? What do you mean by that?" That question went unanswered, as the mirror Rider turned to Sougo again.
"You remember me now. So I ask again, why are the two of us separate again?"
"Well... I think I have an idea, but I may be wron-" "Tell me!"
"Okay, okay," Sougo jumped at the Rider's shout, "Woz told me that my World restarted from September 2018. I think the rea- I mean, Kido Shinji no longer accepts you is because, for him, it no longer happened,"
"Explain," Ryuga commanded.
"I mean, the events that led to him accepting you no longer occurred. So he no longer knows you exist," Sougo let out a fake smile, somewhat terrified at how the Dark Rider would react.
"...So it was you're fault,"
"See ya!" With that, Sougo took off running and dragging the other two with him, not interested in sticking around.
2019: Pseudo-World of Zi-O...
"What time is it now?"
"About... 11:45,"
Their worry over their teammates kidnapping had kept the teens from Remnant awake. All they could do was wait for their professor to wake up and find the three. The remaining two Riders (mostly Eiji though), in the meantime, had taken to trying to narrow down in which World where the three might be.
"Think Eiji," Said Rider was smacking himself in the head, "Think of how Kaitou would act. Where would he take them,"
He wasn't getting too far.
"What would Tsukasa do?" Eiji groaned.
"Apparently, he would go sleep instead of searching for them," Yang was still pissed off at that.
As if on cue, the doors opened, revealing the Destroyer of Worlds.
"Finally!" Yang exclaimed as Tsukasa walked into the room.
"Get your things," He ordered the group, "We're going back to Remnant,"
"Wait, you mean now?!" Ruby shouted, surprised at what Tsukasa said.
"What's wrong? Isn't that what you want?" Tsukasa asked.
"Yeah, but what about Blake and Ren? And Sougo?"
"I'm sending you all back first, then I'll go find them," He explained.
"Wait, Tsukasa," Eiji said, "Do you know where they might be?"
"No, which is why Woz be coming with me,"
"Me?" That caught Woz's attention, as he had been looking around the room to pass the time.
"That book of yours, it details the rise of Zi-O, right?"
"I see where you're going with that, but it has barely change since the reset. We won't be able to find them that way," Woz said.
"But we will. Kaitou wants Sougo's memories and powers to return, and when that happens..."
"...and when that happens, the book will change, and we'll know where and when my Lord regains his powers," Woz finished.
"I have no idea what's going anymore..." Jaune muttered, not following what the two were saying.
"I don't think we really even knew in the first place," Pyrrha said.
"Regardless, I'm dropping you all back at Beacon. You've been away long enough," Tsukasa told the Beacon students (plus Penny), "How about you Eiji?"
"What about me?" A confused Eiji asked.
"You want me to send you back to your World, or do you want to stay in Remnant for a while?"
"Oh, Remnant. Don't forget, we promised Ozpin that we'll help him," Eiji answered.
"You promised, I didn't. You dragged me into that," Tsukasa corrected, "Now, are you all ready?"
Without waiting for an answer, he opened a dimensional wall...
2020: Mirror World of Ryuki...
"Sougo, what exactly did you do to anger that Rider?" Blake asked as the three were catching their breath from running away from the mirror Shinji. However, the Dark Rider was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, I did something to help the Kido Shinji in the real World and that calm downed the evil one," Sougo explained, a bit winded from running, "But when the Worlds were restored to normal, things went back to how it was before and the evil one is now trying to kill me,"
"I think killing you is a bit out there," Ren gave his own opinion.
"Oh come on, that guy was all black and red eyes and angry. How was he not about to kill me?"
"Still, I'm worried. What did he mean by 'disappear' if we stay in this World for too long?" Blake asked.
"I don't know, I've never heard anything about that," Sougo shrugged.
"But you now remember what happened when you got the Zi-O II RideWatch, right?" Kaitou asked the tired teen.
"Yeah, kind off. Still a blur though... Wait a minute,"
"Where did you come from?!" The man in white had appeared from out of nowhere next to them.
"Doesn't matter. We better get out of here before Ryuga finds us," Kaitou answered before opening a dimensional wall that envolpes them, taking them into another World.
World of Remnant...
Ozpin had not been having a good day, or to be more accurate a good past two month. It all started with the disappearance of Tsukasa Kadoya along with several others. Since then, things had been getting worse and worse. The number of people going missing had progressively been getting higher and there were also some disappearing from within the Four Kingdoms themselves. That had unsettled most of Remnant. And with that, there had been more and more Grimm attacks as of late.
Even now, a couple days before the Vytal Festival is to begin, the Council of Vale were still in discussion on whether or not to cancel it.
Taking a sip from his mug, Ozpin mentally prepared himself before reading the new set of reports that had been sent to him. That was until a sight he had been hoping to see for the past two month appeared before him. The silver walls that the substitute Combat Instructor of Beacon summons.
Shortly after, a familiar group of people came through them, led by a familiar face.
"Tsukasa Kadoya?" Ozpin smiled...
Destroy Everything!
Connect Everything!
A/N: I LIVE!
I'm back with the next train wreck of a chapter of JTR. And right before the new year! What horrors would 2021 bring with it? I'm in the same boat as you all are, so I don't know.
Anyway, the timeskip. I always wanted to skip ahead to Volume 3 and, after reading (old,reddit,com r RWBY comments 7mvyr5 the_shows_timeline_thus_far ) [replace the , with . and the space with /], apparently the timeskip from Volume 2 to 3 was about 2 months. I swear I didn't plan this at all. I don't really plan anything that well. (And for those who forgot or are reading in the future, Chapter 15 went up on 31st October and I'm uploading this on 31st December.)
The reason this chapter was taking so long was because I was really struggling with the Ryuki/Ryuga part. Intially I wanted to take the trio to the events of Episode Final, but nothing good came out of it. So instead I had them meet Dark Shinji, and I don't know if I did him that well. That's for you guys to decide.
Anyway, as always, leave a review telling me what you like and hate about this story and what you think I could do to improve it! See ya next year!
(In unrelated news, Ultraman Z's finale was awesome!)