Pikatwig: 2022 has been… a year so far. I don't even know what to say about it.
KKD: Well, it's quite the experience to say the least.
Pikatwig: I guess. *ends up spotting a toy Lightsaber nearby* Oh.
KKD: Yea… *picks up the lightsaber* A lot.
Pikatwig: Still… we've had our strides forward in some areas. And I think we should keep going with this story.
KKD: Ok. It's time for us to get back to this as best as we can.
Pikatwig: We'll be going back to the idea of stock-piling a few chapters and then releasing them over time. It's worked out so far. I think. We'll see.
KKD: Ok. Let's cue the disclaimers and get started.
Disclaimers: Neither KKD nor Pikatwig own the rights to anything in this story apart from original concepts, characters, and story elements they came up with. Credit to Kai Yuuto and Kasumi "Kassie" Yuuto belongs to Sylver Blaze, formerly known as Silver Maxus. The remaining concepts used within belong to their respective creators such as Toei, BandaiNamco, SEGA, Sonic Team, etc.
Yoko just sat and watched a video on her phone with an excited smile on her face, said video being a trailer for an upcoming video game release. Takeshi, currently washing a dish, ended up glancing towards her as she just kept her eyes on her phone.
"Whatcha watching?"
"Trailer for Tales of Arise," Yoko responded without looking up from her phone.
"Tales of Arise…?" he asked. Yoko paused the video and then looked up to his eye level.
"Uh… you remember that one Gamecube RPG that I used to play a lot when we were a bit younger. Symphonia?" Yoko asked.
"...game with the lead voiced by the same guy as Robin from Teen Titans?" Takeshi eventually responded.
"That one. This game is the newest in the Tales series and it's celebrating the franchise's 25th birthday," Yoko elaborated with a smile, "I'm so excited for it to be coming out!"
Takeshi gave a small nod before he went back to washing the dish.
-Hate to break it to you, Yoko, but that game's not coming out for another month, at best…- Hinatan soon chimed in.
"I know… but I'm still excited," Yoko said with a bit of a giddy smile on her face.
"I'll take your word for it…" Takeshi slightly shrugged as he got back to the dishes.
Yoko just giggled a little bit, then went back to her phone to watch some other things on it. Takeshi soon set some of the dishes out to dry and then went over to check on some baked goods, pulling out a tray of muffins and then setting them to cool off. He gently fanned them a little bit to make some of the heat disperse, soon being able to take them out of the tray and onto a cooling rack.
"Alright…" he muttered to himself. He was about to get to something else when he heard Yoko just crack out laughing at something on her phone, which startled him and he almost dropped the plate he had in his hands, "Gah!"
Yoko just kept laughing at her phone, clearly unaware of what Takeshi was doing. The bluenette sighed as he set the plate down and went over to see what got her laughing so much.
"What's so funny about that game?" Takeshi soon asked her.
The blonde gave him a motion to let her have a moment to calm down. He just waited a bit before Yoko finally calmed down a bit.
"S-sorry…" Yoko apologized, trying to get her laughter to stifle a little bit, "I-I just couldn't help but laugh at something I just heard…"
"...from that new game or…?"
"Something else," Yoko quickly told him, exhaling a bit to try to catch her breath a little bit, "Sorry if I startled you."
"It's one thing if you did it while I was expecting it, but please try and contain yourself while I'm dealing with the hot trays and stuff…" he calmly responded.
Yoko just nodded and then set her phone so that he could see what was so funny. Takeshi rolled his eyes a bit, but complied with her unspoken request. The video was of Duel Links, with Takeshi seeing one player was basically beaten before they could start.
"Alright… so…" Takeshi spoke, seeing the video rewind to explain it. The first turn player had managed to bring in a monster called 'Ally of Justice Decisive Armor' and the effect ended up discarding the entire hand of the other player and KOing them. He snickered a little bit, "Okay… so… that card deals effect damage based on attack points from all the Light monsters in their hand. Ultimate counter for Blue-Eyes."
"Yup."
Takeshi gave off a small snicker, "Wow. That's a lotta damage."
The two both laughed a little bit before Takeshi headed off to get back to work on some stuff.
"I hope they release that Rush Duel game soon…" Yoko chimed in, "I wanna play it!"
"Then import it…" Takeshi responded, "It's a Switch game, isn't it?"
"I… well… it is… but budget…" was all Yoko could respond with.
"Oh, of course. That and time are true banes…" Takeshi exhaled as he tried to take a breath and lean back.
Luna soon ended up walking in, confused by the expressions on the two, yet she didn't say much as she walked over.
(Cue Intro Theme: Dimension Tripper; Neptune the Animation Theme)
*As the opening melody played, images of Takeshi, Yoko, Luna, Daisuke, and Hana all flew by*
Imi fumei moji noraretsu (An incomprehensible code sequence) *Takeshi was seen running by as he tried to get into his school, with Yoko and Luna soon following after him*
Oshiete KONPAIRA (Tell me what what it means, Compiler!) *Luna smiled as she managed to help give them a ride before they got into class and took a moment to catch their breaths*
matomaranai BAINARI- TSURI- (I can't make sense of this binary tree) *Yoko gave the two a calm smile as she followed them out of the room after the bell rang.*
0 to 1 dake ja nanimo tsutaerannai yo ne… (Just 0s and 1s won't help you communicate) *Daisuke was working on something, with Hinatan monitoring his progress, only for Hana to somehow leap in and tackle Daisuke into a hug, with Hinatan's icon simply giving an annoyed sigh*
Pingurinku! tsunagaru KIMI to ATASHI-tashi ga (How nice it'd be if our hearts could connect.) *Payactions could be seen swarming outside the school. Yoko gave a look to her friends, and they quickly snuck outside.*
Hitto chekku! KIMERU nara ima (And we were on the same page.) *As they snuck out, people in the school could be seen mindlessly spending money on Impact of the Wild as if they were drones. Takeshi and Luna managed to get outside and both got their Drivers on*
Hapi furu pyua You're a dimenshon torippa-! (Eveything's pure. You're a Dimension tripper) *Takeshi and Luna stood side by side before they both transformed into their Rider forms.*
Jigen no tobira, kettobashi oide yo (Kick open the dimensional gates and get over here!) *The two Riders kicked the various Payactions and watched as they exploded into pixels*
KIRA KIRA no kocchi no sekai he (In this sparkling world) *SEGA and Playstation gave each-other a high five and then reverted back, with Yoko running over and hugging the two, making them both smile.*
Kizuna hyakubai no saikyou PA-TI- "KIMI MO NAKAMA DA" (We can just form the strongest party. And you'll be one of us!) *Takeshi, Luna, and Yoko stood together and then walked forward. The trio smiled at each-other as they continued forward. Daisuke and Hana watched from nearby, smiling as the trio walked off.*
Shin Kamen Rider SEGA
Shin Level 8: Tales of Products Not (Yet) Released
Yoko and Luna were soon in the living room while Takeshi was busy with the few customers in the bakery.
"So… what exactly were you two talking about when I got here?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Just random stuff," Yoko shrugged.
Luna just exhaled a bit, deciding to just take that answer and leave it be. She picked up her phone and began to flip through some things with a bit of a relaxed look on her face.
"By the way, Luna…" Yoko spoke up, making the curvy blonde turn her way, "Way~~~ back when semester started, you said if Take-kun and I dropped something, we could get to play around with your feet. You haven't let either of us cash in on that."
"Well that's because you haven't fully dropped it yet…" Luna responded as she looked at her phone, finding some notes on some video games she thought looked interesting.
"Well… are you gonna let us be able to do it? You don't back down on your word…"
Luna didn't say anything as she kept her eyes to her phone, monitoring some news sites for a handful of things. In spite of that, Yoko just kept speaking to her. It was clear Yoko was trying to get her attention.
"...Yoko."
"Yes?"
"...you're not gonna drop it, are you?" Luna asked.
"Not until you let us cash it in."
Luna's green eyes met Yoko's light blue eyes and it was clear to her now that Yoko was serious about this. Luna just let out a heavy exhale, setting her phone down before turning back to Yoko.
"Fi~ne…" she said with a slight groan.
"Yay!" Yoko beamed, "Oh! Hold on a moment."
Yoko quickly headed over to the bakery area, "Hey, Take-kun! You got some time for a break?"
"Hmm?" he spoke.
"You able to take a break?"
"Yeah. It's slowed down enough I can take my break," Takeshi responded, taking a moment to close the register, "What's going on?"
"Luna is finally going to let us cash in what she offered us at the start of the semester!"
Takeshi couldn't help but blush and smile a bit at that, getting a little flustered and excited as he followed Yoko over to the living room.
"When will I learn that using that foot fetish as a bribe is not a good idea…?" Luna said to herself.
"Go on," she heard Takeshi speak, making her turn to see both Takeshi and Yoko were there.
"Would you please not crowd me about this mess? I just… ugh… guess I know what I shouldn't use as motivation for you two in the future…" Luna spoke.
"Then you shouldn't have offered it up," Yoko said with a small shrug.
Luna just exhaled a bit as she took off her shoes and her socks, groaning internally as she wiggled her toes and propped up her bare feet for the two. Yoko just smiled happily as she took in the sight, while Takeshi kept a bit more neutral, though had a small smile himself.
"There. I'm barefoot. Go on and have your fun. …and I know what one of you is thinking, but you can't go any further than a massage," Luna told the two, with her eyes narrowing at Yoko.
"You're no fun…" Yoko responded with a bit of a pout.
"Yoko. Let's keep it cool, ok? We can't go overboard…" Takeshi chided calmly, Yoko mumbling a little as she pouted a bit more.
"Just start already…" Luna exhaled, "The benefit of this is, at the very least, I can relax a little."
Yoko just shrugged her shoulders, getting down and then starting to massage Luna's left foot with a bit of a grin on her face. She did it at a nice pace, making Luna smile and relax a little bit. Takeshi just slowly and gently massaged Luna's right foot. Luna seemed a little more happy as it kept going, almost starting to doze off at first as it went on.
"They are pretty…" Takeshi remarked as he could see the black nail polish Luna had, "The polish is nice. You get this done yourself?"
"Something like that…" Luna responded.
"It's super pretty. I can't help but stare at them," Yoko added on.
The massage kept going, Luna looking a little worried at the two, but it was just calm and relaxing. In spite of this, though, a thought ended up occurring to Luna as her green eyes glanced to Takeshi.
'I dread to imagine me and Takeshi fighting a female Vaijin based on a character that's barefoot. Cause I'm like… 80% sure I'd be fighting it on my own…' Luna thought.
Five minutes had passed before the two stopped and Luna just exhaled a little bit.
"You like it. Don't lie," Yoko spoke up.
"So? What's it matter?" Luna responded.
"We just want to confirm you're happy. Plus, I'd like to know it for future reference. Soon, you'll have your own little foot fetish and-" Yoko spoke, only for Takeshi to gently pinch her cheek.
"Thanks for bringing her to reality…"
"No problem," Takeshi told her as he let go.
"Ite… please don't…" Yoko winced.
Takeshi didn't respond as he headed over to check on the bakery, only to see it was empty at the moment. He was shocked before checking to see what he had to make and restock as the two blondes just kept talking.
"Yoko, I get it's your thing to like being barefoot and stuff… and I know you spread it to Takeshi… just… don't go overboard with it."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I feel like you'd be the sort to buy swimsuit DLC for the sake of having female characters be barefoot or at least close enough to it. …oh. Wait. You've done that before. More than once…" Luna spoke.
All Yoko did was giggle and shrug her shoulders, trying to just waltz over to the bakery to get a snack.
"I'm fairly certain you played through an entire Tales game with at least one girl in either a towel or a bathing suit because it left her barefoot…"
"You're not wrong…" Yoko shrugged, "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"I mean… who's the one who, in games with a character creator, makes the bust as big as the game will let her?" Takeshi soon countered Luna.
Luna just growled a little in response, with both Takeshi and Yoko snickering a little bit.
"You gotta admit it's cute to see you light up about that," Takeshi added on.
"Didn't you import the Japanese version of Xenoblade X so that you could do that or something?" Yoko asked.
"Can we just talk about something else please?"
"It's only fair if you poke me and Yoko, we poke you back," Takeshi said with a relaxed look.
All Luna could do was let out a heavy sigh in response to her two friends, pinching the bridge of her nose as Yoko gave off a smile.
"All's fair in care and war," Yoko giggled.
"Takeshi."
"Yeah?"
"Give me some kind of food…" the blonde exhaled as she walked to the front of the counter and then took a seat, "I'm hungry."
"Right away."
A few days went by with only a handful of Payactions instead of any Vaijin, so it was relatively calm times for the two Riders. It was now a school day and Takeshi saw Yoko was looking at her email account in between classes and when they got to lunch.
"...you expecting something?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Yeah."
"...care to say what?"
"Don't know if I can."
Takeshi blinked a bit, but then exhaled as he sat down at the lunch table and soon saw Luna was trying to relax and listen to her phone.
"Been oddly quiet lately…" Takeshi remarked.
"I'm just taking that as a relief…" Luna shrugged as she leaned back a bit, sighing as she glanced towards him, "Sometimes you just have to accept that you need to react to something."
"I guess…" he shrugged, "Uh… how you doing lately?"
"Hmm?"
"Just… in general."
Luna smiled a bit, "Alright. It's been quiet and I've just been keeping on top of other things so that, when it's not quiet, it won't be a big problem."
"Sounds smart," Takeshi shrugged as they heard someone walk over.
"Hey," Hana spoke up, sitting down and Daisuke soon joined her as well, "What's up with twinkle toes there?"
"...heck if I know…" Takeshi shrugged, "She wouldn't tell me."
Yoko refreshed her email and gasped upon seeing something. She moved her phone closer to herself so that nobody would be able to see it. Her eyes widened in joy and she just kept smiling at the news.
"...everything okay?" Takeshi asked her.
"Everything is great!" she beamed, quickly hugging Takeshi, then doing the same with Luna.
The trip back home later that day was mostly quiet, with Yoko still having an excited look on her face as she looked at her phone.
"...care to enlighten us about whatever is making you happy?" Luna asked.
"Can't."
"...why?"
"Just can't."
"...Yoko."
The car soon pulled up by the apartment the Mirais lived at and Yoko quickly headed out without another word.
"...one of you two is going to put a ring on it at some point, so you may as well get used to her being quirky…" Hana observed.
"...we're used to her being quirky. We've known her for how many years now?" Takeshi responded as he got the door closed and started the car up.
"Also, what's that about a ring?!" Luna added.
"Sorry. Both of you will put a ring on it."
"What does that have to do with anything?!" Luna proclaimed.
"Well it's clear you're all in love, so~..."
Takeshi just let out an exhale in response to this, clearly not wanting to deal with what his sister was talking about.
That evening, Yoko looked over an email she had gotten from Namco Bandai and saw the form attached to it. She made sure to read it over a few times, and properly signed her name onto it as carefully and calmly as she possibly could.
"Okay…" she nodded before hitting the reply button. She got up and started to pace around her small room, before she realized something and exhaled, "...gonna have to ask Luna to borrow a PS4. …again."
After about ten minutes, a reply came back with a confirmation. Yoko looked the email over and happily cheered about the confirmation.
"I GET A-" she was about to yell, only to quickly cover her mouth and then whisper it out, "review copy…"
"Hey, Luna?" Yoko spoke up the next day before the first period of class.
"Yeah?"
"Can I borrow that PS4 you let me borrow?"
"...you know, I can just let you have it. You borrow it so much, I can just let you permanently keep it."
"Can't. I kinda can't afford to owe you money."
"It can be a gift. It's not much of a loss to me to just gift it to you," Luna exhaled.
"No, I feel obligated to repay you for it…"
The two blondes ended up at an impasse, with the two just glancing at each-other without much to say. Takeshi just took out some chips and munched on them a little bit, which quickly made Luna turn towards him.
"Takeshi!" Luna spoke.
"...what?"
"Convince Yoko to just let me give her that PS4."
"How do you expect me to do that?"
"It's not much of a loss for me to just give it to her. She thinks she'd have to repay me."
"You've already helped me and my mom with a lot as is…" Yoko reminded.
"So what? You clearly should just take it."
"...why do you need it?" Takeshi asked.
"Reasons…" was all Yoko could nervously respond with.
"Ok…"
"...fine. You can 'borrow' it. How long?"
"...I don't know yet."
All Luna could do was sigh and bonk her head against her hands, clearly a little annoyed by this.
Yoko gently smiled as she looked over something on her phone, with Takeshi soon seeing her just staring at the small device. He was about to take a glance over to it, but Yoko quickly turned away from him so that he couldn't see her phone.
"Hmm? Is there a problem?" Takeshi asked.
"It's rude to look at someone else's phone…" Yoko responded.
"...we do it all the time…" Takeshi bluntly stated.
"Well we need to start not doing that…"
Takeshi just blinked a bit, a little confused by this. He ended up just exhaling a bit, trying to pace a little as Yoko just kept looking at her phone with a bit of a happy look on her face. Luna soon walked up to the two as Takeshi leaned against a wall, a little tired of the lack of info from their friend. Yoko adjusted her glasses a bit, making sure her phone screen was off before she did so, Takeshi shuffling back towards Luna as they saw Yoko tucking her phone away.
"...whatever she's hiding, she clearly doesn't want us to know…" Takeshi whispered to Luna.
"No kidding…"
"If only we had some way to know at least a little bit…"
"Well… she asked to borrow a PS4, so it may have something to do with that…"
"PS4? Hmm… could she be planning a secret stream?"
The group was soon sitting at lunch and Yoko was watching something on her phone and then gave off a small giggle at something.
"'Vow number 7, goodness and love will always win'," Yoko said to herself, smiling widely before she went back to the video.
The others just blankly stared at Yoko for a bit, but she was clearly in her own little world at the moment. Takeshi and Luna sighed as Daisuke and Hana just sat there and blinked a little bit.
"...okay, she's clearly focusing on something else, so let's just tune her out…" Hana suggested.
"If only it were that easy…" Daisuke ended up remarking.
"She'll keep to herself at this rate…" Luna shrugged, "So… uh… what shall we talk about now?"
"I don't exactly have any ideas…" Daisuke said with a small shrug, "Been focusing on editing some Smash related videos for my own channel when I haven't been terribly busy."
"...that would be a fun topic. Who do you hope the final fighter is?" Takeshi remarked.
The group briefly talked about it, spouting about various characters and the likelihood of their inclusion. Eventually…
"I honestly kind of hope Sora won't be in Smash…" Hana remarked.
"I have a feeling it's much more of a long shot than Banjo or Ridley were, but I'd love to see it happen. I mean, it's one of my favorite possibilities for Smash."
"I can name one good reason why Sora shouldn't be in Smash. Nomura would try to find a way to make his appearance canon to Kingdom Hearts."
Takeshi was about to speak up, but didn't say anything as the thought echoed in his mind. "Oi vey… why'd you have to say that?"
"...honestly? She might be right about that. Even more so given Melody of Memories said Sora was in a fictional reality…" Luna added on.
All Takeshi could do was let out a heavy sigh in response, clearly not sure how to respond without coming off as a whiner. All he ended up doing was rubbing his forehead a little bit, groaning soon after.
A few days went by and it was now the weekend. Luna walked out of the mansion with the PS4 she was set to hand over to Yoko in tow. She was about to go to her car, only to see two flat tires.
"...are you kidding me…?" she exhaled.
"Sorry Lunie… I accidentally popped them when I was trying to move it so Kuroi could pull out…" Mika apologized from the doorway.
Luna just exhaled a little before she walked over to her motorcycle. She proceeded to secure the PS4 into place, strapping it tightly, "Gotta get this to Yoko's place; I'll be back in a few hours."
"Be care~ful~ Lunie~..." Mika called out.
She nodded a bit as put on her helmet, muttering something to herself before she finished putting on some protective gear. She then got on, revved it up, and rode off to deliver it.
Yoko quietly and quickly brought a box up to her room and put it on her bed. She couldn't help but smile as she opened it up and saw a bunch of items related to Tales of Arise, including the game, a DLC code for the advance copy, an artbook, and a few plushies. She smiled as she prepared to continue unpacking it when…
"Yoko~~~!"
The glasses wearing blonde smiled, only to put some of the stuff back into the box just to be safe, then headed over to the stairs. She opened the door and Luna had the PS4 in a box.
"Hiya," Yoko smiled.
"Hey Yoko. Sorry I took so long. Flat tires on my car, so I had to use my motorcycle…" Luna informed as she walked in, "Need help getting it upstairs?"
"Thank you," Yoko responded as they headed up, "I really appreciate you."
"No problem. Just… can you please just keep this dang thing? This whole thing of me needing to physically bring it to you and help you set it up is such a pain. My moms can easily get me a new one as needed and you keep borrowing this one anyway…"
Yoko was silent as Luna helped bring it into the room, and the two got the console hooked up. Yoko gave a happy smile as Luna simply made sure it was able to turn on and off and things were set.
"Alright. Should be good. See you later?"
"Thanks Luna," Yoko smiled.
"You're welcome…"
"...everything okay?"
"I guess Takeshi is getting to me a little since… well… we really don't know what you're up to. You're not usually closed off like that."
"...I have my reasons."
"That is just starting to make it even harder to not want to poke around…" Luna admitted with a bit of a nervous smile.
"I promise I'll explain it later. For now, let me be."
Luna eventually gave a nod and headed out of the house. Yoko quickly closed and locked the door, panting a little to herself as she took a calming breath. She ended up waiting a bit before she gave off a small smile as she worked to make sure a camera she had set up was ready. She soon set aside a notebook and pencil with a label reading 'notes for review' on the top of it. After a little bit, she seemed happy with the set up she had, then glanced over to some plushies that were nearby her bed. She ended up placing the one of Sailor Moon and the pink seal plushie she had gotten from the carnival nearby so that they were both in view of the camera, but would be able to be edited out in post.
"Time for Tales of Arise…" Yoko whispered to herself as she started recording the game footage and herself.
"...so difficult to not know…" Luna exhaled as she got her helmet back on. She was about to start heading off, but then heard her stomach growl a bit. She gave off a sigh, then took a look around before deciding to try and get somewhere for food. She rode the motorcycle off in relative silence, occasionally glancing around when she came to a stop.
Luna soon glanced over to a house and could see some police cars were nearby. She was about to pull away, but ended up looking for any major signs of trouble. A few glances later and there were no signs of any monster attacks, so Luna proceeded to head off without another word.
'No signs of monsters, so it's really not my problem…' Luna thought.
The motorcycle soon slowed down in front of the Narumi bakery and she parked it in front before getting off and wiping it off a little bit just to make sure it was still clean.
"Ok… let's see…" she soon heard Takeshi say.
"Hey."
Takeshi blinked a bit and then turned to her, "Hey. You get the thing over to Yoko?"
"Yeah. Car wheels were busted, hence this."
Takeshi just nodded a bit as Luna checked over part of the motorcycle a bit, making sure it was secure and the tires were still ok, and it appeared that it was fine.
"You know… we have a teleporter…" Takeshi spoke as Luna kept wiping the motorcycle off a little bit, "Why is it you have a motorcycle when we can teleport?"
"I'm a Kamen Rider. I have to ride something…"
"Considering the whole 'Kamen Walker' meme…" Takeshi added in.
"...you don't even have a bike or anything yet either…" Luna ended up reminding.
"...eh…" Takeshi spoke, sort of shrugging, "I don't know how I would even use one. At best… maybe a motorcycle that hovers like an Extreme Gear?"
Luna simply nodded her head, while Takeshi just remained nearby her for a bit.
"...saw the police by some house when I was on my way over," Luna informed as she got up.
"Why?"
"Heck if I know. I checked, but there weren't any signs of any Payactions or Vaijins. So… not my problem," Luna eventually shrugged, only to look towards Takeshi, "And before you hit me with the whole Spider-Man thing, I know. However, my primary duties as a Rider are defending the public from monstrous forces and making sure the Alliance can't do… whatever they want to do. But, if they aren't there, then it's business I don't think I should poke into unless I have to or if I'm asked to. …does that make sense?"
"I… I mean, I guess… it does? …I won't be saying anything further to avoid any sort of jinxing…"
"Good idea. Now… I'm kinda hungry…"
That evening, a couple ended up being held in police custody and remained there. There was a man and a woman that were in fairly regular looking clothes, but their expressions both indicated they hadn't slept in a while and their eyes were a bit bloodshot.
"So… what are we holding them for?" one officer asked another, "Sorry. Had a bit of a family emergency, so I got in late."
"No worries. Everything alright?" the other officer asked.
"Yeah. So… what's up with them?"
"They both overdrew on their cards by at least a couple thousand bucks and their house was taken from them. Bank's looking for other ways for respiration…"
"...why did that happen?"
"They overspent on some gatcha game or something…"
The couple just growled a little bit, but the cops just remained at their post for the time being.
By the following afternoon, the couple ended up being allowed to leave police custody. Neither of them really seemed to be at any kind of ease or relaxed state of mind, both seeming to be antsy and frustrated by a lot of things.
"We'll show them…" the wife muttered as she pulled out her cellphone and managed to get it on…
Over at the bakery, Takeshi and Luna were both just enjoying a bit of quiet time. Takeshi did end up texting Yoko to see if she would be able to join them, but there ended up not being a response from her.
"Well… she's probably busy with whatever she's doing…"
"...you wanna go check on her and make sure she's alright?" Luna ended up asking.
"...you just wanna know what she's up to, don't you?" Takeshi asked back.
"A little bit, but I just want to make sure she's alright more so than that. Y'know, because of all the stuff she's gone through. …I know she's not a damsel in distress, but… just…"
"Yeah, I get it," Takeshi nodded.
"Good. Now then, why don't we go see her?"
The two were about to head off, when Takeshi's head shot up upon hearing some sort of noise.
"...there was an explosion, wasn't there?" Luna asked.
"Yup…" Takeshi remarked as he could see the smoke rising up, Luna turning around and giving off a small sigh.
"Dangit. Let's move…"
The two ended up teleporting over to the scene of the blast, nearby a police station, and they could see several Payactions attacking some of the fleeing civilians.
"Well, at least we know that whoever we're dealing with has a beef with the cops…" Takeshi remarked.
"I swear, if we have to deal with those dumb brothers again, I'm going to figure out a Smash reference to make them shut up…" Luna added.
The Payactions soon headed towards the spot where the explosion occured as some Vaijin started to walk out from them. The still settling smoke made them hard to make out, but Takeshi and Luna both got their Drivers ready and disks out.
"See that you continue on in that vein."
"Uh… yes, my lady?"
"...something you wanted to say?"
Takeshi and Luna glanced towards the figures emerging from the hoard of Payactions.
The male one appeared to be in some sort of white and blue hide with brown gauntlets, boots, a mask that covered his right eye, white hair poking out from part of the mask, and what looked like a fairly regular sword at first glance. Beside the male one was a feminine Vaijin with a whitish/pinkish dress with red skin under it, red horns akin to a crown/tiara on top its head, a pair of visible blue eyes, and what appeared to be tarnished golden armor on top, what appeared to be stockings on both the arms and legs, and a pair of golden high heels.
"...who the heck are they supposed to be…?" Takeshi eventually asked.
"I was just about to ask you that question…" Luna admitted.
The two Vaijin turned towards both of them, seemingly smirked and then prepared to take action.
"Let's dispose of this trash…" the female Vaijin spoke as she ended up summoning some sort of a sniper rifle.
The male Vaijin reached towards the female one, grabbing some sort of an orb of fire from her. The orb of fire then transformed into a sword that was made of fire, with his hands and gauntlets catching fire as well. Her eyes started to glow a light blue as this happened, indicating some sort of magic was being used.
"...the heck…?" Takeshi questioned.
"No time. Let's get going!" Luna yelled.
The male Vaijin swung the fire sword down and unleashed a wave of fire, followed up by the female Vaijin opening fire at the two. Takeshi leaped out of the way as Luna followed suit. Both quickly got out of the way of the follow-up attack, rolling behind a car and then…
"Henshin!"
=INTO THE ADVENTURE!/INTO THE DRAGON!=
The blast from another attack quickly faded, revealing the two Riders in their armored states.
"Let's blast through with sonic speed! Kamen Rider SEGA!"
"Goshōwa kudasai atashi no na o… Kamen Rider… Playstation!"
The two Vaijins just stared a bit, but then the female one opened fire at them both, clearly not caring as the Riders just dodged the blasts and tried to look for an opening. However, the male Vaijin dashed towards them with fairly quick reflexes and swung both swords at them both. SEGA managed to dodge many of the strikes thanks to his own super speed, though it was a bit closer with some of the fire that came out of the literal fire sword.
"Ok, this is crazy. Do you remember anyone like that?" SEGA asked.
"...nope."
The two Riders managed to dodge another blast and took a moment to just look at both of the Vaijins, the two heroes taking a moment to try to form some ideas.
"We've never seen either of them…" SEGA muttered.
"Daisuke?" Playstation questioned.
-I'm as blind as you two…- he admitted.
"This is bad…" SEGA exhaled, quickly evading another attack, "We're fighting blind. We've never fought blinde before. Granted, those siblings were in disguise, but we eventually figured them out. Heck, we knew more about the Vaijin based on Travis flippin' Touchdown!"
"Looks like it's ol' trial and error time," Playstation shrugged, quickly inputting Up five times and then X on her Command Module. The wings on the back of her suit unfolded, flapping a little bit.
"...you can fly?" SEGA blinked.
"Limited amount," Playstation responded before she took up to the air, "I am a dragon!"
"It seems crazy, but… go for it!"
Playstation then got a bit higher into the air, which both Vaijins quickly noticed.
"We've got flyers!" the male Vaijin suddenly shouted.
"I've got this! Let a marksman handle it!" the female Vaijin quickly responded.
"All yours!"
SEGA dashed forward to try to lead the fire away from Playstation, but the bait wasn't working as the male Vaijin managed to keep swinging and forcing him to focus on dodging. The blue Rider attempted to kick the kaijin, but ended up getting shot away by the female Vaijin quickly firing a powerful attack right towards him. Playstation gave a small growl, quickly inputted another code, and then let the wings fold back up.
"Here goes!" she yelled, her hands glowing with fire as she flew down. The fiery punch managed to connect right against the male Vaijin's neck… and he didn't even so much as flinch. It was as if the punch didn't even hurt him in any capacity.
"...you've gotta be kidding me…" Playstation muttered.
The male Vaijin briefly glowed, before parts of the relatively normal and animal hide looking clothes faded and became some sort of a bulky black armor with a blue scarf that floated down. Unbeknownst to both, the other Vaijin's hands briefly glowed and a small bit of magic flowed towards the male Vaijin.
"...I hate this…" Playstation spoke, not noticing the other Vaijin's actions.
"This is just ridiculous. Come on!" SEGA yelled as he managed to get back up and then did a Homing Attack right into the male Vaijin. While it did bounce him back a little bit, he didn't seem too phased by the attack, "...what?"
"It's like he can't even feel pain!" Playstation shouted in irritation.
"Well, maybe we should mix it up…"
=DISK READY! NOW LOADING… SPACE CHANNEL 5!/PERSONA 5!=
The two Riders shifted their disks around and, after dodging as much as they could, switched their forms.
=INTO THE BROADCAST!/MASQUERADE!=
The two Riders stood ready for action. Playstation was about to charge forward when…
"This just in, two new Vaijin have blinked on the scene from unknown sources. We gotta swing down low and hit them with the right groove," SEGA spoke, causing both Vaijin to stop in their tracks and just stare in confusion.
"...can you not…?" Playstation asked.
SEGA just sighed before getting a rhythm going and walking forward, scoping out some of the area, "Getting onto the scene to get some ideas on how we can make this fight rock out in our favor."
Playstation just stood completely still at how her partner was acting, letting out an audible sigh. The Vaijin both looked fairly confused about what was happening as well, only for the male one to notice the other Rider not doing anything.
"It would appear the new creeps are countering everything that's thrown at them," SEGA continued, "But these two groovy Riders will-"
"Hey, news flash! HELP ME!" Playstation yelled out loud as she kept dodging slashes from the male Vaijin.
"...just in. Help coming," SEGA responded quickly, rapidly inputting a code into the Command Module.
=DOWNLOAD NOW COMPLETE! BROADCAST SHOT, READY!=
SEGA fired off a few beams from the gun, letting off a 'chu' as he did so. The male Vaijin took the attacks, but glanced over the spots where they landed as if he didn't even feel it.
"...breaking news, starting to think your joke about him not being able to feel pain may actually be on point…" SEGA admitted, only to need to quickly dodge out of the way from the female Vaijin, "...more breaking news. Gotta focus on this one."
Playstation just let out a groan as she managed to dodge the attacks from the male Vaijin as best she could, yet the sword swings were getting harder and harder to evade with the fire that was coming out from the other one. She managed to dodge out of the way of one swing, then quickly moved her hand to her mask.
"Orpheus, Tetrakarn!" she called out.
With a brief flash of blue light, a Persona briefly appeared then disappeared. Her form briefly glowed, as did SEGA's briefly, and after she was able to avoid another attack, she did the same thing again.
"Makarakarn!"
Another brief glow flowed over both of them, with SEGA just turning towards Playstation in confusion, which the other Rider noticed quickly
"Just avoid getting hit as much as you can!" Playstation yelled out, dodging more sword swings, barely managing to dodge them.
"...context please?"
"First skill defends against physical, second skill defends against magic!"
"Could've been more helpful to tell me that before you used them…"
"Hush up!"
SEGA just took aim with the Broadcast Shot towards the female Vaijin, but all of his attacks were countered with almost surgeon like precision by the female Vaijin's own sniper rifle. He then got hit in the head by a magical blast, shattering the first barrier layer. Playstation turned towards him, only to get distracted long enough to get struck by the male Vaijin and flung right towards SEGA in the process.
"Ouch…" SEGA muttered.
"Now, while they're reeling!" the male Vaijin yelled out.
"Take them down!" the female one shouted as they both closed in.
The Riders looked confused only for the female Vaijin to blast them a little bit in order to make sure they couldn't move.
"This ends now!" she proclaimed, her eyes glowing blue.
The male Vaijin spun forward, with the fiery sword in hand and creating almost a small vortex of fire, "Consider yourselves finished!"
When the sword collided with the ground, an eruption of fire struck both of them. Both Riders yelled out in pain from the attack and were sent flying. The two heroes crashing into a wall, as their armors dropped, revealing their human forms. While they were both alive, they both had some cuts and a few burn marks.
The heroes panted as Luna tried to stand back up, but both soon disappeared in a flash of light. Both Vaijins just stared a little before they dismissed their weapons.
"Barely a blip on our radar," the female Vaijin spoke as the two walked off.
A little over an hour later, Takeshi and Luna were bandaged up by Luna's mothers, while Daisuke was trying his best to find any info on either of the Vaijin that would be useful.
"We need to get back out there…" Luna eventually spoke, trying to stand back up.
"You two aren't in any condition to go right back out there, even more so considering we don't know what those Vaijin are even supposed to be based on!" Daisuke yelled.
"...I hate to say it, but he's not wrong…" Kuroi added.
"Yea… you two need to at least let the Driver magic heal you up a little bit and try to form a plan…" Mika spoke, wiping off a bit of blood from Luna's cheek, the blonde wincing a little as this happened.
Takeshi gave off a small sigh, trying to take breaths to help him calm down a little bit from the pain. Luna winced a little bit in pain as she sat down, realizing her family had a point about the situation.
"Just try to figure out a plan…" Kuroi ended up saying.
"Right…" Takeshi and Luna nodded.
The next ten minutes were in relative silence, with both Takeshi and Luna having their Drivers nearby. Both of their Drivers briefly glowed and were slowly healing up some of the injuries and the burn marks, Daisuke running several diagnostics programs to try to find anything about the game the Vaijins were based on. However, most of what he found seemed to come up empty.
"So…" Takeshi eventually spoke up, turning towards Luna.
"Okay… I have to ask, what's with the news reporter thing when you use the Space Channel 5 form?! It's funny in small doses, but it made it really hard to focus on fighting…"
"I just feel… compelled to talk like that. I don't really know why. It just… happens. I tried stopping myself at one point, but it's just something I can't help but do…"
"Right…" Luna sighed, moving some of her hair out of her face, clearly trying to stay calm, "Still… those freaks were tough. That dude didn't even seem to feel anything no matter how hard we hit him!"
"Yea… seriously… I mean, how is that even possible. These guys clearly are not final boss material. If anything, they look like they could be protagonists. …but from what kind of a game? Not a clue…"
"Daisuke, any luck?" Luna eventually asked.
All Daisuke could do was let out a loud and frustrated groan in response.
"I'll take that as a big fat nope…" Takeshi chimed in.
"I've found a few images of them… but there's basically no context. There's only a few videos, but nothing helpful. Heck, there's not even any game name from what I've been able to find, simply 'Project Arise'."
"Arise?" Luna asked.
"I'm guessing it's connected to the name of the game, but I've found nothing useful since a lot of it, for some strange reason, got geoblocked!"
"Of all the times for that to be a problem…" Luna groaned.
"Super computer provided by goddesses… I'm assuming… yet can't get around geoblocking?" Takeshi ended up asking, although he ended up starting to snicker a bit, "Man, that's silly…"
"Hey, the goddesses know better than to let loose lips leak the info like that…" Daisuke responded, "...major issue for us right now…"
Takeshi soon ended up typing out 'Arise' in katakana on his phone and was able to see some news articles that were Japanese. He gave a brief skim over them and soon saw a series name, then typed in 'Tales of Arise' on it.
"...try Tales of Arise."
"...huh?" Daisuke blinked.
"See if that gets us anywhere."
Daisuke blinked a bit, but complied with the request. While there were some visible trailers, none of it was of any content other than some trailers.
"Well… it IS a Tales game…" Luna remarked.
"'Alphen' and 'Shionne', huh?" Daisuke added on.
"Well… we at least know someone who can at least give us some nudge in the right direction…" Takeshi smiled as he ended up sending a text to Yoko. However, after a few minutes, there was no response, "...right. We were gonna go check on her before those Vaijins attacked…"
"This is going to be quite the long ride."
Yoko was still in her room, plugging away at the review copy of the game she had. She walked towards a town and spoke with an NPC, then let out a heavy sigh. All the NPC ended up saying was 'Alright! I know what I want! Now to just go out and find it!'.
"...really? You're still not ready to accept the items?" Yoko complained to the game, then she let out a heavy sigh and wrote something down in her notebook, "Dumb NPC. If I can't finish a questline reasonably soon, then don't give me the option to take it…"
She then looked over some of the notes she had, briefly twirling the pencil in her hand, "Alright… um… should grind a little bit, just make sure I'm ready for the next world segment… should also get some more items before I forget to do it…"
She picked up the controller and roamed a little bit to make sure she was set, when…
"YOKO!"
The blonde let out a loud yell in shock and fear from her name being yelled out, as well as her door suddenly being slammed out, and it caused her glasses and controller falling away from her. The controller clattered against a table and made the PS4 go back to the main menu, the blonde stammering to herself before she turned around.
"...there wasn't a need to yell…" Takeshi commented as he walked over to Luna's side.
"Sorry for the scare, but-" Luna began to apologize, only to notice the TV screen had ended up going back to the main menu and revealed the name of the game that Yoko had been playing, "...you actually have that? Perfect."
Yoko ended up shaking a bit, still trying to calm down from the sudden yelling, slightly stammering out a bit. Takeshi walked to her side and gently moved a hand along her shoulders, helping her to keep calm as he handed her her glasses back.
"You're okay. It's going to be okay… it's just us…" Takeshi calmly assured her.
"...thank you…" Yoko managed to speak, finally managing to calm down a bit.
"Alright. Again, I'm sorry for scaring you. You just hadn't responded to any texts, so we had to rush over to talk to you. Thankfully, you have the new game we needed to talk to you about."
Yoko was about to speak, only for her eyes to widen and for her to instantly turn off the TV, "What new game? I don't have a new game. Nope. Nothing new at all."
"...Yoko, you're many things. Skilled at lying is not one of them," Luna responded.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Takeshi glanced over to the box with the various things she had gotten and could see it was from Bandai Namco, leaving him to raise an eyebrow as Luna spoke with Yoko a bit. He ended up walking towards it, while Yoko's attention was on Luna.
"You have that game, somehow. We need to know everything we can about it. It's very important."
"I have no idea what-"
"Yoko…" Luna spoke, sitting down and pulling off one of her shoes, "I'll let you massage my feet for a week if you let us have that info."
This ended up making the shorter haired blonde blush a bit and stop talking. Luna simply had a bit of a relaxed smile on her face, Yoko looking close to cracking, when…
"...I can't."
Luna's eyes widened out of pure shock at this, "I'm sorry, what?!"
"I can't."
"You… you're actually saying no to foot treatment? What kind of insanity is this?!"
"Is this a review copy?" Takeshi ended up asking.
Yoko and Luna both glanced over to Takeshi as he had found the box that Yoko had been sent, reaching in to pull out the shipping info.
"Please don't look at my things!" Yoko nearly yelled, clearly in a panic, scrambling over to get him away from the box.
"I didn't take anything out. All I saw was the shipping info," Takeshi informed as he handed her the paper, "But… is this a review copy?"
Yoko fell totally silent before she sighed, "...yes. They sent me a review copy of the game. I begged them for it and I got it."
"Game's not out yet?" Luna asked.
"Original release date was delayed for reasons unknown," Yoko informed, "Part of the reason I wanted a review copy was because I wanted to play this game. And I got it."
"Well… is there anything you can tell us about it?" Takeshi asked.
This mere question made Yoko fall silent once more, she sat down in her seat with a look of fear on her face.
"What? It's not like you're the only person in all of the islands who got a review copy…" Takeshi remarked, only to see Yoko nervously pale and twiddle her fingers, "...oh goodness, you're the only person on all of the islands who got a review copy…"
"Yup…" Yoko nodded nervously, "...and I'm under an NDA. If something leaks about the game, and they know it came from the island… I'm in a lot of trouble…"
"Of all the lousy times for this to be a problem…" Takeshi muttered.
"Look, Yoko. This is serious. Two Vaijin appeared not long ago and kicked our butts fierce. The only clues we got were that their monster forms were based off characters from that game, and Daisuke found squat about them because several trailers were geoblocked and there was just too little for him to find," Luna proceeded to explain, making Yoko's eyes widen in shock and concern, "You're our only hope. If there is any way to work around the NDA and give us some, any, info that can help us… we need it."
"I… I… I…" Yoko nervously stammered, flapping her hands as if to try to calm down.
Luna was about to speak again, but saw how scared and worried Yoko was looking from the questions. The curvier blonde took a moment to inhale, then exhale, and got down to Yoko's eye-level, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have barged in and just started questioning you. Honestly? I was just thinking that, since you've played Tales games before, you'd just have general info that could help us. This… was something I didn't expect. I really am sorry, Yoko."
Yoko took a deep breath and gently smiled at Luna, the two blondes managing to just exchange smiles. Suddenly, there was a phone buzzing and they turned to their bluentte friend. Takeshi quickly fished out his phone and saw a message from Daisuke.
"We gotta move…" Takeshi realized, "You feeling able to fight?"
"As much as I can…" Luna nodded.
"Promise we'll keep this secret. Not a soul will know you got that review copy until you can post the review," Takeshi assured Yoko really quick before he and Luna teleported away.
Yoko was silent as she let what happened sink in and then checked her notebook of things about the game she had written down to have a physical reminder of certain elements.
A bank had people fleeing in fear and panic as the two Vaijins scooped up some money that came from the resulting blasts from their attacks. The two ended up walking towards a large vault with a large door that blocked the path forward.
"Cut them apart to your heart's content," the female Vaijin spoke.
"Uh… yes ma'am…"
The male Vaijin then used the sword of fire to melt the door out of their way. The female Vaijin simply grinned, before proceeding to cast some sort of magic that healed away some burns from the male Vaijin's arms. Before they could get any further, though…
"HA~!"
A wave of ice flew towards them. The icicles created glaciers out of the two at first before they struck the two. The both got hit by the attack, struggling to get out of the way from the raining ice shards. Kamen Rider Playstation landed, her Spyro Fan in her left hand. The Vaijins growled before SEGA sped from behind her and did a Homing Attack right behind them to send both Vaijins sailing out of the bank.
"Well… that'll hopefully minimize collateral…" SEGA spoke.
"Just gotta trial and error this as best we can…" Playstation muttered, having her weapon at the ready.
"Roger that. Let's do our best…" SEGA replied, quickly inputting a code into his Module to start channeling the Red Burst Wisp.
The Vaijin scoffed as SEGA zoomed over, blasting the two back a fair bit. The male Vaijin used this chance to close the distance and send SEGA tumbling away. Playstation quickly started to channel earth energy from the fan and threw out boulders from it. The female Vaijin just quickly fired at the stones that were getting close to her and her partner. The male one then swung his sword to send the smaller stones right back, now with a bit of fire around them.
"Shoot…" SEGA muttered, dashing over to Playstation and grabbing onto her before finishing inputting a code.
=GHOST!=
With a brief jade glow, both Riders became intangible and invisible for a bit.
"...I'm so glad Colors Ultimate is a thing so I can have this…" SEGA muttered.
Playstation just nodded as the two made their way behind the two Vaijins, trying to see if they could get any ideas.
"They're just so tough… plus they have such synergy…" Playstation exhaled, "...got an idea I want to try… let me go."
SEGA nervously nodded and did so, causing the dragon themed Rider to reappear. She charged forward and then latched onto the backside of the male Vaijin as best she could before unleashing a powerful electric attack. The male Vaijin seemed almost unphased by it, even though he was getting injured from the attack.
"...progress…" Playstation muttered, only to get shot off the male Vaijin quickly and sent tumbling back. The male Vaijin charged towards her, while the female one remained still for a bit.
"This is getting ridiculous… we just can't harm them," SEGA spoke to himself, only for his communicator in his helmet to go off, "...Daisuke? We need a plan…"
-Hi.-
"Yoko?" SEGA whispered.
-Yeah. Um… I got some ideas to help you… but… I'll have to be vague…-
"At this rate, any help is better than no help…" SEGA nodded.
-Right off the bat I can say that the male Vaijin is called Alphen and the female Vaijin is called Shionne. …don't know if you two already knew that, but… it'll help you two follow what I can say.-
"As long as you get to the points, I'm sure we can figure it out…" SEGA muttered. He then reappeared, but quickly inputted the Jade Ghost code again and then grabbed Playstation and pulled her back.
"What?"
-Hi. I think I can try to help a bit…-
"Really? That's great!"
-So… the game is part of the Tales series. It's a series of RPGs, isn't it? And what's important in RPGs?-
"...what?" SEGA blinked.
"Can you just be clear?" Playstation nearly shouted.
-...it's health.-
"Okay…" SEGA nodded before he looked up, "What about health?"
-Watch the Shionne Vaijin closely. You'll see how they can heal…-
The two looked at the Vaijins a bit more closely. The male Vaijin, the Alphen Vaijin, walked towards the female one, the Shionne Vaijin, who was muttering something with a bit of magic in her hands and her eyes glowing blue. As she kept muttering, the few injuries that the Alphen Vaijin had started to heal, gaining a brief white aura around him as the two Riders' eyes widened under their helmets.
"The girl!" SEGA shouted in realization, "She's a healer!"
With that in mind, the two Riders reappeared and SEGA quickly inputted another code.
=DOWNLOAD NOW COMPLETE! SEGA YO-YO, READY!=
Now with his yo-yo in hand, he dashed towards the Shionne Vaijin and wrapped the yo-yo around her sniper rifle. The Vaijin managed to grasp onto it as SEGA focused on trying to yank it away from her.
"They're changing tactics!" the Alphen Vaijin yelled.
"There's no telling what they'll do, stay focused!" the Shionne Vaijin responded, trying to pull her gun free from the yo-yo.
"...are they usually chatty like that?" Playstation ended up asking.
-...I can neither confirm nor deny that…-
"Less talking, more whacking," SEGA replied, darting around the battlefield to distract the Alphen Vaijin, while trying to get the sniper rifle away from the Shionne Vaijin.
-So… he can't feel pain. At all…- Yoko informed.
"So basically hitting him is useless?"
-I… think… it'll be explained why? I'm not totally sure. But, yeah.-
"Well… that explains a lot…" Playstation muttered, "Can't believe I guessed that as a joke…"
-It's a double-edged sword, though. Cause of the Blaz-... er… the fire sword. Yeah, fire sword.-
"...how?"
-What does fire cause?-
"...burning?" Playstation asked, before her eyes fell to the gauntlets on the Alphen Vaijin, which had a few burn marks that spread up his arms, "OOH!"
"You see if you can deal with this guy, I'll try to keep the girl from focusing on him!" SEGA yelled, finally managing to yank away the sniper rifle, "Yosha!"
SEGA made sure the sniper rifle was away from her range, then started to fling his yoyo at the Shionne Vaijin as rapidly as he could.
"Take out the healer and take her out fast!" SEGA yelled.
"Got it!" Playstation nodded, only to need to quickly dodge a few sword swings from the Alphen Vaijin.
"Got any tips on how to slow him down?" SEGA ended up asking as he struck the other Vaijin with the yo-yo a bit.
-I think you'd need to take them one at a time.-
"Got it."
Playstation dodged out of the way of a fire sword swing, using her fan to ready some cover. She quickly swung her hand fan with ice magic to try to impede the Alphen Vaijin as best she could, following it up with some earth magic to further impede him. With some room to breath, she sent a lightning bolt at him to at least stun him a little bit. Playstation then glanced towards the Shionne Vaijin and noticed the pink hair she had, and how she was using a few limited magic attacks. A thought then occurred to her as she slightly paled under her helmet.
"You okay?" SEGA quickly asked, managing to knock the Vaijin back a bit.
"Please tell me that she can't use the OHKO spell…" Playstation asked Yoko.
-I don't know.-
"Yoko. Seriously."
-I seriously don't know. I haven't seen anyone use it yet and it's not mentioned anywhere yet.-
"Alright… fair…" Playstation exhaled.
"OHKO spell…?" SEGA nervously asked.
"Indignation…" Playstation reminded.
"Oh, right. I actually remember that a little bit…"
The Shionne Vaijin growled a bit as she ended up summoning what appeared to be electrically charged vines, making the blue-blur Rider gulp and both Riders managed to dodge.
-...okay, I sincerely have no idea what THAT'S all about. I know she can't be touched because of self-proclaimed 'thorns' that hurt people, but she can't use them as a weapon. …as far as I'm aware…-
"Can you at least tell us what we need to watch out for? That OHKO spell? What's a warning for it?" SEGA soon asked as he evaded an attack.
-If you hear either of them say 'Tenkou mitsuru tokoro ni ware wa ari', then that is your cue to immediately focus all your firepower on whoever is talking.-
"Do they seriously leave themselves wide open like that?" SEGA asked incredulously.
-...usually there's a cinematic if it's a player character using it, or a lot of energy discharging if an enemy is using it.-
"Then there better not be any invincibility frames for them while that happens…"
"Less talking, more fighting!" Playstation proclaimed, swinging a fiery energy wave from her handfan towards the vines, "Gotta stagger her a little bit…"
It was almost as if a lightbulb went off in her mind when she said that.
"Got an idea. Cover me a second!" Playstation yelled.
"Gotcha!" SEGA nodded, quickly inputting down-down-down-down-A-X into his Command Module.
=CUBE!=
With a quick smack to the ground, a few blue boxes generated a very small barrier between the two Riders and the Shionne Vaijin.
"...how…?" Playstation muttered, but she quickly shrugged it off as she swapped disks and got out the Persona 5 one once more.
=DISK READY! NOW LOADING… PERSONA 5!=
=INTO THE MASQUERADE!=
"We'll have to tag team her… just gotta get an opening…" Playstation whispered, quickly putting in the code for her weapon.
=DOWNLOAD NOW COMPLETE! ARCANA BLASTER, READY!=
"I don't know how long I can keep this up if they try blasting these down…" SEGA admitted.
"Just drop them and jump up. Ok?"
"Gotcha…"
The Shionne Vaijin growled and generated what seemed almost like magical bullet, quickly flinging them towards the Riders as the barrier vanished. SEGA, however, quickly kicked them… suddenly causing the bullets to ignite and bounce right back towards the Vaijin. Playstation quickly fired as rapidly as she could, managing to stagger the Vaijin. The vines vanished in the process, leaving her wide open.
"Chance! Let's go!" Playstation yelled, putting in a code as fast as she possibly could.
=HISSATSU! PLAYSTATION SHOWTIME!=
"Let's get em!" SEGA shouted out.
Both Riders rapidly struck the staggered Vaijin as quickly as they were able to do, before they both landed by the ground and Playstation struck a pose as the Vaijin ended up exploding and reverting back to a human form.
"Alright… one down, one to go…"
"Get away from my friend!" the Alphen Vaijin nearly roared as he charged forward, his one visible eye starting to glow a bit as the fiery sword gained a bit more power.
-I think he's going for a Mystic Arte! Take cover!-
"What does that even me-?!" SEGA started to question.
-Super move!-
"Oh shoot!" SEGA gasped.
The Alphen Vaijin dragged the fire sword along the ground, causing more fire to flare up from below as he swung towards both Riders, "Now! SCARLET INFERNO!"
He swung the sword back towards the ground, forming a blazing X along the ground. Both Riders narrowly managed to get out of the way in time, ducking behind some debris. However, when they landed, they noticed more and more burn marks along the Vaijin's body.
-Without Shionne to heal him, all of those recoil moves will… uh… um… there's recoil from fire sword attacks! Keep attacking.-
"Got it!" SEGA nodded, rushing behind the Alphen Vaijin and going for a few attacks as rapidly as he possibly could.
Playstation kept at a bit of a distance, yet was able to keep some pace by rapidly firing the Arcana Blaster as much as she could, forcing the Vaijin to block with his blade and not focus on the actual area that she was aiming for.
The Alphen Vaijin began to pant a little bit, clearly getting a bit tired from all of the fighting. Playstation quickly unleashed a couple of blasts towards the ground that knocked the Vaijin into the air, before SEGA quickly revved up, glowed a bit of blue, and struck at the Vaijin with the Light Speed Attack. The Vaijin was knocked further into the air, which gave SEGA an opening to quickly ready a finisher.
=HISSATSU! SEGA STRIKE!=
SEGA quickly used some of the debris to launch himself upwards before unleashing a rapidly volley of Homing Attacks right towards the Vaijin, then soaring downwards for a Rider Kick that brought the Vaijin back to the ground. The Alphen Vaijin then blew up, with the man who had turned into him passing out on the ground.
"Victory… player one and player two…" Playstation proclaimed.
SEGA gave off a whistle and gave a small pose, "That was tight!"
About an hour or so later, the two people who were turned into the Vaijins were sent back to jail for what had happened. Takeshi, Daisuke, and Yoko watched this from the base's monitor and then Takeshi gave off a happy exhale.
"Well, they were already crazy criminals, so it's a good thing they're going back. Who even gives a crook a cell phone in prison, anyway?" Takeshi asked.
"Turns out, these two… Derans, their last name was, were in holding for the game that corrupts people, and they were just let out to sell things to try to make money. The phone was going to be sold off…" Daisuke explained, "...why these two got to be characters from a game that's not even out yet… who knows…?"
Takeshi glanced towards Yoko, who simply offered a shrug in response.
"Anyway… we'll make sure to not say anything, Yoko. Thank you for your help," Daisuke added, the blonde girl smiling with a sigh of relief.
Takeshi simply smiled at Yoko, before Daisuke ended up getting up, "Where you going?"
"I'm gonna go take a breather. This was incredibly stressful and I want to go lay down for a little while…"
"...yea, sorry about that. You go ahead and take it."
With that, Daisuke teleported away, leaving only Takeshi and Yoko in the base for the time being.
"Well… that went well…" Yoko smiled as she took a seat and then exhaled, "Not how I was expecting this Sunday to go, but it is what it is."
Takeshi soon sat down next to her and just smiled at her a bit. The duo of friends taking a moment to relax a bit and just breathe easy.
"So… without saying anything that could violate your NDA, what are you thinking of the game?" Takeshi ended up asking Yoko.
"Having fun. …can't really say why, but I'm having fun."
"I'll leave this to you, Yoko. Can't wait to see the finished review."
The two just smiled a bit before Yoko blinked and glanced around a little bit around the base.
-Everything ok?- Hinatan soon asked.
"Um… where's Luna?" Yoko soon questioned.
"Oh, she said she wanted to go do something really quick before she showed up here. She promised she'd keep the secret as well, though," Takeshi answered.
-All she said is that it'd make you happy,- Hinatan added in.
"Ok… hopefully it won't-"
Luna soon appeared with a flash from the teleporter and gently flipped her hair a little bit before walking towards Takeshi and Yoko. They were about to speak, when they both saw Luna was in sandals that left a decent amount of her feet exposed and had her toenails painted black with some splashes of yellow. Both ended up heavily blushing, the blonde girl especially as they just watched her. Luna saw this, then giggled a bit, putting some of her modeling work to use as she strutted forward, clearly getting a bit of a kick out of this.
"What do you think?" Luna asked.
"Beautiful…" Yoko remarked.
"Wow… this is… stunning…" Takeshi muttered.
"Thank you," Luna smiled as she sat down across from the two.
"...um… wh-why?" Yoko inquired.
"I know you didn't really agree to it and all that, but you did end up helping us in the end. I offered you a chance to massage my feet for a week earlier… and well… I'm a woman of my own word," Luna explained as she ended up propping up her feet a bit, seeing both Yoko and Takeshi blushing, "May not get the whole fetish thing, but it makes you both happy. So, I promise to let you go ahead and have the fun."
Takeshi smiled at this as he turned to Yoko.
"Well? What do you think?"
"...I say we take advantage of this as much as we can!" Yoko beamed.
Luna gave a soft giggle as she took off the sandals, taking a seat with her feet up before Yoko started to massage her feet a bit. Luna gave off a small giggle, smiling as the trio took the rest of the day to just relax and be happy.
Elsewhere, Hana was looking at her phone and seeing some of the news report about the latest Vaijin attack and the two Riders who had appeared to stop them. She soon flipped back to the few times the Vaijins had attacked the school and were stopped by the same duo of Riders. She held her hand to her chin as she thought about it, the proverbial gears in her mind starting to turn…
S-O-N-I-C, GO! *The scene showed Takeshi, Luna, Yoko, Daisuke and Hana in rapid succession*
S-O-N-I-C, GO! *A group of five Payactions were shown in rapid succession, with one of them holding a bomb that then exploded.*
Go, go, go go, LET'S GO! *Takeshi managed to kick one of the Payactions, then stood as Kamen Rider Sega*
Kinō made no rūru (Yesterday's rules) *The Rider managed to protect his friends and beat back the remaining grunts.*
Kyō wa tada no rūzu (are simply loose today) *He then reverted back… only to get dumped with a lot of papers of homework. He popped his head out and then sighed a little.*
Kowashite dantotsu gōru (The best goal is to break them) *Takeshi then just laughed alongside Yoko and Luna, the three high fiving together*
Hashiritsuzu ketenai to (If I don't keep running) *Takeshi and Hana were then shown helping out in the bakery and talking with their parents as Yoko and Luna walked in.*
Hokani imi wa naito (There's no other meaning) *Takeshi began to talk to the two girls, then Hana made some sort of remark about them being a couple and the trio blushed.*
Panku na tetsugaku nanda (It's a punk philosophy) *Hana jokingly laughed wickedly before running off. The unit housing Hinatan just rolled her eyes, the group soon sighed at the red-head's antics*
Baiorizumu wa (Biorhythm is...) *Takeshi let out a sigh as both Luna and Yoko hugged his arms, the trio blushing a little as both the girls cuddled up with him*
Tsūbai rizumu de (a two-time rhythm) *Something got Takeshi's and Luna's attention, making them both nod and hurry off.*
Fūkei wa shunkan ni musū no sen (The scenery instantly becomes countless lines...) *Kamen Rider Sega and Kamen Rider Playstation were then both shown on motorcycles, then both quickly sped up*
Ore wo torimaku kaze (The wind envelops me!) *Yoko, Daisuke, and Hana all watched from the monitor in the base, while Hinatan just smiled*
INSIDE OUTSIDE, semete (Inside Outside, attack) *Sega and Playstation stood against a horde of Payactions, both punching and kicking the grunts like crazy as they exploded into dust that resembled cash*
Issai gassai nuite (Surpass everything altogether) *The monsters were then gone and the two reverted back. Once Takeshi turned around, Luna had disappeared and the area started to have rain.*
Dare hitorimo nani hitotsumo... (I won't let anyone...) *Takeshi was standing alone in the dark, with his eyes being purple instead of green…*
Maewo ikasetaku wa nai! (or anything get ahead of me!) *His eyes returned back to green and then he transformed once more. The rain was now gone and the sun was shining.*
INSIDE OUTSIDE GO, SONIC! (Inside Outside GO, SONIC!) *SEGA zipped around on foot, appearing as just a blue blur of light. He just kept going and going, passing by cars of all kinds.*
Issai gassai! YEA, SONIC! (Everything altogether! Yea, Sonic!) *He skidded to a stop and turned back to Takeshi. He smiled as he witnessed some people going into a dance hall and joined them.*
"Abunaiyo" to "HAVE A NICE" wa niteru ("Watch out" and "Have a nice" are similar) *Takeshi danced alongside Luna and Yoko, though he was clearly less skilled than either of the girls. Yoko turned to him and guided him through some motions, making sure he managed to understand her.*
Sō dochiramo kamihitoe nanosa (That's right – both are by the skin of your teeth) *Soon, all three were dancing a kind of tango together, all smiling as they managed tob keep a steady pace.*
Taikutsu nugisu tete (Throw boredom away…) *The disks for Sonic Adventure, Spyro the Dragon, and Persona 5 were all shown, before they were set away. The discs slotted into a case as Purple Heart's image glowed, but then faded away to a clear day*
Ima sugu kakedase (And start running!) *Takeshi, Luna, Yoko, Daisuke, and Hana all started running together, before they reached the top of a hill and jumped in the air, seeming suspended mid-jump.*
S-O-N-I-C, GO! *Hana was shown bothering Daisuke as he tried to work, but he just chuckled a bit at her*
S-O-N-I-C, GO! *Hinatan was shown looking at lights that were purple, black, white, and green, then down at the transformation disks.*
Go, go, go go, LET'S GO! *Takeshi, Luna, and Yoko were all sitting together and playing video games together. The group laughing happily as they finished playing and smiled a bit at each-other*
Kamen Rider: Game Corner!
"Konichiwa!" Yoko waved happily, "Well, it's time to talk about a game today. While it's not out in our world yet, it is in yours as of this coming out. The Tales series is a long running Namco franchise that has gone on since 1995 in both our worlds, but the series didn't really see popularity outside of Japan for many years. While the very original Tales game, Tales of Phantasia, did come out outside of Japan in our reality, it tanked pretty badly. The series was shelved outside of Japan until the iconic Tales of Symphonia in 2003 in both our worlds. It ended up remaining the most successful and best reviewed game in the whole series until the new one, Tales of Arise."
-Wait, wouldn't this break your NDA?- Hinatan inquired, popping up quickly upon the mention of the game in question.
"This is out of continuity and we break the fourth wall all the time here, so no biggie," Yoko assured.
-Oh yea. Sorry.-
"So… I only know of this series cause you played it once after you got a Gamecube and you brought it up to us…" Takeshi admitted, "I only remember Lloyd being voiced by the same guy as Robin from Teen Titans, and even then it was very vague how much you mentioned it."
"I've dabbled with the series, but I'm not super duper big on it. It's why we turned to Yoko for help in the chapter proper," Luna added on.
"Well, Tales of Arise released in early September of 2021 in the world of the audience, and mid September of the same year for our world. The game was meant for a 2020 release in both worlds, but was delayed for differing reasons. In the audience's world, it was because of some pandemic or something. In our world, it was delayed for quality control and to make sure the game would be amazing. They were confident in the game, but they just wanted to make sure it was as good as they could possibly make it," Yoko continued on, "...that and there was mention of a change in engines in our world, so~..."
"Yea… that was a big pain. In our world, they do that quite a bit. And they ended up geoblocking trailers that ended up showing earlier builds of the game because they wanted to make sure quality was good," Daisuke added on.
"Covering the plot… as much as I can because I'm still playing it, there are two worlds in this reality. The world of the Renans, who are more technologically advanced, and the world of the Dahnans, which was a bit more spiritual in nature. Rena ended up invading Dahnan and enslaving basically the entire planet, which sent them back in technological advancement to about the stone age," Yoko started to explain.
"That's… a lot of words…" Takeshi remarked, "But I got the last part, at least."
"...Right… I'm surprised you got into RPGs when you give reactions like that…" Luna added on.
All Takeshi could do was shrug his shoulders, not sure what to say in response.
"Our focus goes to a guy with a literal mask of iron over his entire face that ends up causing him to not remember anything. As a result, he's nicknamed 'Iron Mask'. During one day, there was a train going through a particular land that was carrying Shionne as a prisoner. She was freed by the rebel group-"
"Wait, Luke and Han ended up in the wrong cell," Takeshi joked.
"And, because of various events, Iron Mask, who's real name is Alphen, ends up able to use the Blazing Sword that Shionne carries in some sort of mystical sphere. It's the name of the fiery sword the Vaijin used against you two."
"Oh. Ok."
"And, as you also found out, Alphen is immune to pain. While not really shown, Shionne is not able to be touched without causing a lot of pain to other people. It's a curse she calls 'thorns'. And, even more of a problem, Shionne is incapable of actually using the Blazing Sword because, while she can summon it, it doesn't come with immunity to burns."
"Well that's lousy. Why can she summon a weapon that she can't even use?!" Takeshi questioned.
Yoko simply shrugged her shoulders, not sure how to answer as she didn't know.
"So… Alphen's immune to pain and Shionne unintentionally causes it. …what luck."
Yoko then got out a clip from the game and let it play.
-A sword that sears the hand of he who wields it, and a healing arte to mend. A man numb to pain, and a woman whose very touch deals nothing but.-
"...You've GOT to be kidding me…"
Luna giggled a bit, trying to cover her mouth and not react.
"However… I can't really say much more than that because, as I said, still playing it. I am having fun and I think the VAs for the characters are great. Thus far, only the Japanese cast has been revealed in our world, but I have a few guesses as to the English VAs," Yoko admitted, "Not checking the other world because I think that would be unfair."
"Might be for the best, but then again, we can't tell for sure how different ours are going to be…" Luna added.
"Alphen is voiced by Takuya Sato," Yoko began.
"He's voiced by flippin' Vroon?!" Takeshi almost yelled, "You're kidding me!"
"Yeah. I think he's Ray Chase in English, but I'm not sure…" Yoko added, "Next is the most obvious one. Shionne is voiced by Shino Shimoji in Japanese, and she's the voice of Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade 2."
"Oh, she's both? I never knew that," Takeshi admitted, "Then again, I wasn't aware it was the same case in English either."
"Speaks to the range of the VA that you couldn't tell," Luna added.
"And then, the more obvious one, she's voiced by Erica Lindbeck in English," Yoko added, "I knew that the instant I saw the first trailer that had English voice acting."
"Yea, I'm not surprised," Luna added.
"Oh, and the guy from the clip I played is voiced by, should be obvious, Patrick Seitz," Yoko continued.
"Yeah… that was obvious…" Takeshi chuckled.
"Next is the only other party member I got as of the events of the chapter unfolding. Her name is Rinwell. In Japanese in both worlds, she's voiced by Sayuri Hara. She's voiced a few characters in one of the greatest Nintendo mobile games in existence, Dragalia Lost," Yoko continued.
"That's a fun one. I'd love to get on and play for free," Luna smiled as Takeshi just held up a sign that read 'shameless plug', only for Luna to turn to him, "You do realize us talking about these games are shameless plugs in and of themselves."
Takeshi just lowered the sign and motioned for Yoko to talk.
"However… Rinwell's the one English VA I can't pin down. My best guesses for both our worlds are either Cassandra Lee Morris or Christine Marie Cabanos. Hard to tell," Yoko admitted with a bit of a shrug.
"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Takeshi assured her.
"Then there is one other character in the game who has announced they're in it in both worlds, but the English VA has yet to announce it in our world. Law. I don't know if he's going to be playable yet. The trailers really only showed the first three party members. Law, in Japanese, is voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka. He voices several characters, but his most well known one is Kirito from SAO."
Takeshi simply gave a small nod before seeing Yoko giggle a bit, "...what?"
"If I'm right about who his English voice is, it's the silliest coincidence ever. I think, in English, Law's VA is Bryce Papenbrook."
"...isn't that the English VA for Kirito?" Takeshi asked, earning a nod from Yoko, who just broke out in a fit of giggling. Takeshi then chuckled a little, "Yeah, that'd be a wild coincidence. But man, that's very funny if it is the case."
The group laughed a little bit before they calmed down so Yoko could continue.
"One other thing I wanna mention about the game in terms of gameplay is that there are costumes. In fact, part of one early questline is Shionne taking Alphen to go find some new clothes to wear that would be more suitable for combat instead of the fairly simple clothes she starts the game with. She does rock her look and, even though Alphen's face is totally obscured by his mask, it's clear even he was a bit smitten by her outfit," Yoko continued.
"Huh… that's one way to establish a girl's love of fashion."
"Then, there are these little owl things you can find in various parts of the world that give you either new weapons or, more commonly, accessories for your outfits. I found this part of cat ears and glasses that I put on Shionne and it oddly works. …and then I gave Alphen a monocle on the one visible eye he has. It's hilarious," Yoko remarked with a bit of a laugh.
"I can't imagine this guy being smart enough to warrant that, but it is kinda funny…" Takeshi admitted, "Uh… did you have a point with this?"
"My review copy came with some of the DLC for the game," Yoko added, "Wanna take a wild guess what I did with it as soon I saw there were DLC outfits that I could put the characters in?"
"Put Shionne in the outfit that gets her the closest to being barefoot as you can get?" Luna asked.
Yoko just grinned and then let out a giggle, happy for this as she took out an image from her playtime to show Shionne in a swimsuit outfit that had a pair of sandals.
"I mean…" Luna spoke up, taking off the footwear on her right foot and then propping it up, "Considering it's you and this?
Yoko glanced over and almost swooned, smiling widely as Takeshi looked and tried his best to not blush.
"I can easily see why Yoko does it…" Takeshi commented, "It's clearly something she enjoys seeing and stuff."
Luna took off the rest of her footwear and Takeshi just blushed more as he saw her barefoot. He began to stutter a little as Yoko walked over to Luna and smiled.
-Yoko… the game corner… please?- Hinatan chimed in.
"I was about to wrap it up since I don't have anything else to really say other than the game has really great music. For now, we'll see you guys in the future and talk about more games. In the meantime…" Yoko concluded as she got by Luna, "May I massage them?"
"Yes. Go ahead," Luna responded, leaning back into her seat.
Yoko just gave off a happy smile before the focus went over to the console where Hinatan was.
-...this ended in a weird way,- Hinatan admitted.
Jikai, Shin Kamen Rider SEGA
Hana: There's… something going on around here.
Daisuke: What do you mean?
Hana: Takeshi and Luna disappear, then these Riders appear.
Takeshi: I thought magic was supposed to protect us!
Luna: It can only help so much!
Yoko: Oh boy…
Shin Level 9: Secrets (Maybe) are Revealed
Takeshi, Luna, and Yoko: Get your game on!
Pikatwig: Certainly been a little bit, but it is what it is sometimes.
KKD: Yea. Sorry about that, folks, but we're finally starting to get back on track with this series.
Pikatwig: So, to get the whole massage thing addressed, I had wanted to have it come up since Luna did agree to it during the first chapter, and then Luna's attempt to get info out of Yoko was written by KKD. I just think it sort of goes to show how close the trio is when they just know the ways to get each-other to tick.
KKD: Well… yea, you hit that nail on the head.
Pikatwig: Anyway, part of the idea for this chapter was that I thought it would be interesting to see how the Rider duo we have would end up going up against a foe they basically can't get any info on and the justification ended up being "game's not out yet". Seemed clever.
KKD: Considering the nature of video games today, it does make sense.
Pikatwig: They did luck out with Yoko getting that review copy, but had that luck not gone in their favor… they'd be up a creek without a paddle.
KKD: Even then it was still risky given Yoko's nondisclosure agreement.
Pikatwig: Yup. I thought it was clever stuff.
KKD: For sure.
Pikatwig: And, I'll admit, I did ask KKD if he wanted to know about the game the Vaijins were based on, but he said he thought it would help the reactions of Takeshi and Luna if he didn't know and the info was explained as we worked on the chapter.
KKD: I think it helped, though some things had to be dropped for the sake of references.
Pikatwig: Side note, it took me a bit to find reference artwork for the Vaijins of Alphen and Shionne that wouldn't contain spoilers. Granted, KKD wouldn't have the context of the spoilers, I just thought it would be better.
KKD: Sorry about the hassle regardless.
Pikatwig: As for how I found out about the game? Our buddy Sean streamed it and he actually got the platinum for the game.
KKD: You're kidding me. He got Platinum?
Pikatwig: He did.
KKD: As in the platinum trophy for all the achievements, or the platinum edition?
Pikatwig: Former.
KKD: Dang…
Pikatwig: And I was really hoping that we'd get to see this game's cast in the gatcha game Tales of Crestoria. I was saving up my summoning supplies for them to show up. The reason for that was because Crestoria was an AU that reimagined the veteran characters in so many interesting ways, and I was curious to see how they would translate. …then the end of service announcement came. Honestly… I'm saying this sincerely, exercise caution when you get into gatcha games. If they shut down, all that money spent on them is down the drain. Granted, I didn't spend money on it, but it's just a general warning.
KKD: Ok…
Pikatwig: And, as of us writing this, there ended up being new DLC for Tales of Arise in the form of a crossover with Scarlet Nexus. …that ended up working out oddly well for this chapter.
KKD: Weird timing on our part.
Pikatwig: And to bring this up before we get comments, yeah, Law is voiced by the same guys as Kirito in both English and Japanese. Part of me thinks that's what lead to Arise's first crossover DLC being with SAO. Helps that Namco makes the SAO games in the first place.
KKD: Makes it easier when you get similar cast members and staff that worked on other projects, I guess.
Pikatwig: And it's actually the very first time that the English VAs for Kirito and Asuna got to voice them in a video game, since every other SAO game or game they appeared in was never dubbed.
KKD: Huh. Ok.
Pikatwig: And then Rinwell is voiced by Cabanos. When Sean was streaming the game around when it launched last year, there weren't too many announcements about the English VA cast and I found something claiming that Lee Morris was the voice of Rinwell when that was incorrect. I did apologize for that slip up.
KKD: I admit, I know very little of what you're talking about, but that's cool, I guess.
Hinata: …talk about chapter please.
Pikatwig: Right, right. So… what did you think of it, KKD? Just curious given your limited knowledge on the game that the Vaijin were chosen from.
KKD: I mean… it's cool, I guess. Nothing much else to say on my end.
Pikatwig: I had fun with it and I thought the premise behind it was pretty unique given the story concept.
KKD: This really was more of Pika's writing, I'm sorry about that, but I didn't really feel like I was able to contribute nearly as much.
Pikatwig: You did, though. Promise that we'll have Vaijins from games you know about.
KKD: Though, I did like the little reference to Sonic Heroes. That was cool.
Pikatwig: Favorite part?
KKD: Hmm… not sure. If I had to choose, I guess just the final fight scene? Again, not really much for me to say about this one.
Pikatwig: I liked the scene between Takeshi, Luna, and Yoko towards the end. Just cute stuff that really shows how close they are with each-other.
KKD: Ok. That's fine.
Pikatwig: Although, Hana's on a trail. Hmm…
KKD: A trail of what is the question.
Pikatwig: You'll just need to tune in to the next chapter to see where that goes.
KKD: I'm definitely curious.
Pikatwig: Also, before we get asked this, Donbrothers is… not great. There are really only two characters we like, and the fact Haruka is basically the one getting the brunt of the, massive air quotes here, "comic relief slapstick" just isn't funny to me. …not help by how Taro just keeps singling her out. …I mean… I get she's the oni, who was the villain of the story, but it just isn't funny.
KKD: Oi… I was lucky to drop out after episode 1. The majority of this is just… *groans loudly* I got a headache after one episode.
Pikatwig: Just… oi.
Hinata: I want to hug Haruka.
Pikatwig: Over to Revice stuff really quick, George becoming Kamen Rider Demons is clever. I will say I can just imagine one scene from that episode with him saying "I'm not just something of a scientist myself."
KKD: Well… uh… that's… something?
Pikatwig: Also, Thunder Gale is awesome.
KKD: Wha?
Pikatwig: New form.
KKD: Alright.
*The trio went silent as they thought of what else to say before Pika checked a calendar about something*
Pikatwig: …also, Kamen Rider Hero is turning five later this month. *just exhales* I thought I'd be done with the story by this time when I originally started it, but, well, here we are. *shrugs* Is what it is.
KKD: And here I am behind on other things, now needing to work on an art piece for this special milestone. But nobody's perfect.
Pikatwig: Promise I got something for the fifth in the works.
KKD: Same.
Pikatwig: …well, I think that's enough here.
KKD: Jaa ne.
Pikatwig: Just Live More.
