Kamen Rider Chaldea
Chapter 07 : Black Blossom
Author's Note : It didn't take 9 months this time, huzzah!
Disclaimer : I (obviously) don't own the Kamen Rider series, the Fate series, and My Hero Academia. They belong to their respective owners.
"With my Command Spell, I order you...!" = Normal talking.
'I wonder what's for dinner?' = Inner thoughts.
["Senpai!"] = Talking through an earpiece/radio.
An unfamiliar light-green ceiling... That's what Ritsuka Fujimaru saw when he finally opened his eyes.
"This isn't the usual infirmary..." He muttered, referring to Chaldea's very own infirmary, which was where he usually ended up, either after a rough training session, or after a reckless stunt that he pulled during a Rayshift.
Besides his own room, the infirmary is probably one of his most frequently visited place back in Chaldea. It can't be helped, they needed to make sure that the last available Master is always in prime condition, ready to be deployed anytime. They cannot let any wound or disease be left untreated, as those would be a hindrance during Rayshifts.
Still laying on the infirmary bed, he raised one of his hands, noticing that he doesn't feel any difficulty in raising them. He then opened and closed them several times to get a better feel for them.
"It's not injured anymore... It's as if the head nurse herself treated it..." Indeed, besides the intense fatigue that still lingers on his body, he doesn't feel any other discrepancy on it.
'Their medical knowledge must be quite advanced.' He looked around him, trying to see if he could find any advanced medical machinery. His search didn't yield any meaningful result, he only found stuff commonly found in a school infirmary, such as a simple medical cabinet. 'It's either that, or it's someone with a Quirk related to healing.' He concluded, once again comparing the situation to what he had gotten used to back in Chaldea, specifically the head nurse's ability.
His bed is surrounded by cubicle curtains, separating his bed and the other beds in this room. Through the curtain, he could vaguely see the silhouette of a person laying on the bed to his right.
'Huh, looks like someone else is unlucky enough to ends up here.'
"Nghh..."
Ritsuka could heard the sound of a groan from that other bed.
'Ah, what a coincidence. It seems he's waking up. I could use a chat partner, it's kinda lonely in here.'
"Where... am... I?" The person on the other bed muttered.
'Hm? This voice sounds familiar.' Ritsuka vaguely recognized the voice, he decided to simply talk to them to confirm the identity. "Heya, looks like we're in the infirmary."
"This voice... Fujimaru-kun? Is that you?"
'Ah, so that's why I recognized the voice.' Ritsuka finally remembered the identity of the voice. "Yup, that's me. So what's your story? How did you ends up here, Midoriya-kun?"
Midoriya clutched his head, feeling a little dizzy at the moment. "I... I think a zero-pointer did me in... Sorry, my head feels a little fuzzy right now."
"Ah, those things... I know how that feels, that's how I got sent here as well after all."
"Y-You too?"
"Yeah, it chased me around the whole time. I didn't get that much points because of it."
"I see..." Midoriya felt a little disheartened hearing that. Because even though he also ended up on the infirmary, he managed to rack up enough points to secure a safe spot (He hopes anyway). Hearing that his friend would potentially fail made him feel bad about it.
"If you're worried about me, don't be. Even if I fail this one, I could still try with the other academies."
"Fujimaru-kun..."
"Besides, I'm not down for the count yet. I could still save myself with the written exam tomorrow."
Midoriya perked up hearing that. "Ah, y-you're right! There's still a chance!" He sincerely hopes that his friend would get a satisfying score for the written exam.
"Yup, have a little faith in me, alright?"
"Okay... Let's do our best, tomorrow!"
Ritsuka gave him a small nod. "Anyway, what have you been up to lately?"
"Ah, it's... It's just the usual, just training in preparation for this exam."
As the two boys chatted away, they failed to notice someone else laying on the rightmost bed, near the corner of the room.
'So his name is Fujimaru, huh?' Gudako noted inside her head, she had been eavesdropping on the conversation for a while now, she woke up after the two started talking. 'A name very similar to my own... What are the odds?' The only daughter of the Marufuji household smirked at the amusing outcome.
'A familiar voice... and a selfless attitude...' She recounted two of Fujimaru's most memorable traits to her. 'I'll be keeping an eye on you then...' Her mind shifted into the image of a certain masked hero as she made the promise.
"...And after that, I sent the both of them to the infirmary." Aizawa stated, finishing his explanation of what he saw on Area C.
Murmurs could be heard all around him. The other teachers were discussing about the other candidate that managed to destroy the infamous zero-pointer.
"No way! Another one?!"
"The candidates for this year sure are monstrous!"
"Aww man, I wanna see it!" Power Loader whined once again.
The principal stayed silent for a moment, thinking about the mysterious incidents in Area C. "Well, since we couldn't fully see what was happening on Area C, I leave the grading for those two students to you, Aizawa."
"Understood." Aizawa replied as he lazily slumped on his seat. Trying to take a nap despite the hectic situation in the room.
The other teachers surrounded the sleepy man, eager to know more about what he had witnessed in Area C in more detail. Aizawa ignored them all, covering his ears with his cloth-like capture weapon to reduce the noises.
The door of the room suddenly opened, revealing Chiyo Shuzenji, also known with her Hero identity, Recovery Girl.
"You called for me, principal?" She asked as she walked to the man in question, tapping her syringe-shaped cane on the floor with each steps.
"Yes, thank you for coming, Shuzenji-san." Nezu welcomed the old woman with a smile, gesturing for her to take a seat. After she sat down, he continued the conversation. "How were the students that got injured during the exams?"
Recovery Girl gave out a reassuring smile. "Oh, they're all fine. Youngsters these days are reckless, but they all have the vitality to match." she briefly chuckled. "Although the one with black hair, Fujimaru Ritsuka, I believe... The boy had suffered the worst injuries out of the bunch, yet he was the one with the fastest recovery rate." She reported to the principal, who took in the information with an analytical look.
True to her name, the old woman known as Recovery Girl is known for her ability to heal others, although it's not a simple instant recovery. Her Quirk revolves around boosting the patient's natural healing factors than outright instant recovery. This process requires a lot of stamina, proportionate to the patient's injuries.
Besides stamina, another factor played a part in determining the boost rate : the patient's very own will to live. An enormous amount of stamina would be wasted on someone who had no desire to live, where the healing factors inside their bodies responds accordingly, slowing down the healing process. This factor is related to the term known as a placebo effect.
"How is he compared to all the previous patients that you have handled before?" The principal asked.
"Even compared to the patients outside his age range, he is still one of the few patients with the fastest recovery rate. It's especially prominent, considering his injuries aren't exactly light either." She answered.
"I see..." The principal muttered, stroking his chin. "Nevertheless, I'm glad to hear that they're all fine."
"Indeed, once they have regained consciousness, they're allowed to leave immediately."
The principal nodded. "Good to hear. Thank you for your time today, Shuzenji-san."
With that being said, the principal allowed the kind old lady to resume her duties in the infirmary.
As he sat there, pondering about the candidates of this year, he briefly chuckled. "This year's candidates are indeed promising. I expect this year to be an interesting one."
A few hours later, Ritsuka is now standing in front of his apartment, ready to sleep the night away. The nice old lady from the infirmary allowed him to go home after making sure that he would be fine to take the written exam tomorrow. He was just about to unlock the door to his room when he heard a loud explosion quite some distance away from his location.
His half-closed eyes snapped open, his expression turning serious.
["Oh no you don't! You need to rest up for the exam tomorrow! Just leave it to some random Heroes! They'll take care of it!"]
He sprinted towards a nearby empty alley to get some privacy. He quickly took out his driver and placed it on his waist.
"It'll take too long for them to arrive, while I'm already here! I can't just let it happen without doing anything!"
BB sighed briefly, she hesitantly relented. ["Yeah... I know trying to convince you is a waste of breath, but at the very least, I'm obligated to try first."]
Ritsuka lets out a chuckle as he slotted the Shielder card inside the Chaldriver. "I'm glad that I have such an understanding Kouhai."
SHIELDER, STANDBY!
["Hmph, just promise to use my card this time, okay?"] She gave him a pout as she spoke the words.
"I'll think about it... Henshin!"
A few blocks away, a lone small-time crook was having an easy time breaking into a jewelry store. Having chosen this place simply because it's far away from the downtown area, where most of the big time Heroes went on patrol.
This particular crook goes by the name of Machina. The name refers to her love for machinery. It's her one and only passion in life, and tonight she's here to fuel said passion, consequences be damned!
At a glance, her clothing is quite simple, it consists of an unbuttoned blue denim jacket, allowing the black tanktop underneath to be visible. The lower half is covered by a brown cargo pants, adorned by two waist pouches on her rears. Simple enough clothing for a casual night walk. But what's not so simple is the various mechanical contraption that she brought.
She wore a metal plated mask that covers her mouth. While a brown googles with green visor rests atop her spiky dark-green hair. Her hands are covered by sleek mechanical gauntlets, completing the mechanical set are the two mechanical boots on her feet. Lastly, on her back is a strange backpack with two crane claws on each side.
One of those claws is currently grabbing the face of an unconscious security guard, lifting the man as if he were a ragdoll.
"Ahem...! Attention please!" Her voice is distorted by some kind of modulator on the mask, the monotone tone frightened the store clerks and a few unlucky customers who got roped into this situation. "I'm making my debut here today! The name's Machina, nice to meet you all!" She casually greeted them with a two-fingered salute.
Another security guard who was hiding behind the counter prepared his pistol. Sure, his buddy went down easily, but that's because that she-devil suddenly crashed into the store without warning, knocking the man with a single punch using that strange contraption on her back.
Strange contraption aside, the girl doesn't look too intimidating. Surely a security guard armed with a gun could take care of her.
With that resolution on his mind, he stood up from his hiding position and fired his guns at the girl several times. "Go down!" He shouted. Of course, he wouldn't use lethal bullets against a girl that look no older than his own high-schooler daughter. He used paralyzing darts specifically developed to apprehended criminals non-lethally.
At first, the darts were about to land their mark, until they were suddenly swatted away by the other claws, as the other one was still holding on to the unconscious security guard. The claws were so fast and precise, that it even managed to grab a dart by the tip, dangling it in front of the girl's face.
"What the...?"
The girl briefly examined the dart caught by one of her claws. "Hee, non-lethal ammunition, huh? You sure are soft." She snapped her fingers once. "GR-01, take care of this for me, 'kay?" After she said the words, movements could be briefly seen on one of the pouches on her rear, a small figure suddenly jumped out from it and landed on the floor. Revealing itself to be a miniature one-pointer robot, the very same one used by UA for their entrance exam.
Not taking any chance with whatever that is, the security guard switched to real bullets and opened fire at it before it could do anything. Unfortunately, the machine's small size allowed it to easily dodge the shots. It nimbly dashed through the hail of bullets before it jumped and punched the guard on the face.
The scene of a small toy-like robot punching a grown man might be a funny sight... had it not sent the man skidding on the floor, knocking him out with one blow.
Machina lets out a chuckle. "A compact size, yet with a power exceeding the original model several times over. A beautiful and artistic improvement if I do say so myself." The small robot returned to its owner and went inside the pouch once again. She then ordered her claws to throw the unconscious guard that it was holding to the other side of the room.
"P-Please don't hurt us! Just take what you want and leave!" The store manager pleaded from behind the counter.
"Hurt you? Now why would I do that? I'm not some barbaric buffoon who relish in violence." She jumped on a counter and sat on it, crossing her legs. "I'm on a hunt for a certain target. And I heard some rumors that he'd appear around here whenever there's trouble."
"Y-You don't mean...!"
Before he could ask about it, another miniature one-pointer drone was suddenly thrown inside the store through the broken window, it skidded on the floor before exploding.
"Aww man. I spent half an hour making that..." She turned around to face a figure standing on the entrance. She smirked underneath the metal mask when she saw the figure. "Lucky me! Got 'em on the first try!"
l===l===l===l
Arriving in his armored Shielder form, Ritsuka didn't expect the one causing the commotion to do it solo, let alone a girl his age.
He was a little shocked when he encountered a small one-pointer robot outside the store, but he didn't let it bother him too much. It went down as easily as any other one-pointer, a single shield-bash was all it took.
"Now then, let them go and we could make this easy for the both of us!" Ritsuka said, pointing at the girl.
"...Sure, I don't need them anymore anyway."
Total silence filled the room, no one expected the criminal to let the hostages out so easily, causing them to stare dumbfoundedly at her.
She clapped her hands a few times. "Chop-chop! Didn't you guys hear what I said? Leave now before I change my mind!" She shouted at them, giving them the cue to leave immediately. They fearfully stood up and left through the open door, leaving the two alone inside the store.
"You're... surprisingly reasonable."
"Aww shucks, you're gonna make me blush." She said, rubbing the back of her head. "Call me Machina!" She gave out a confident peace sign at him, grinning behind the mask. "Now then, back to business… I'm not here for them, I'm here for you, metal man!" She pointed at the aforementioned man.
"Me? Why me specifically?"
Ritsuka could've sworn that he saw the girl's eyes lights up briefly when he asked the question.
"Why, it's because of your armor, of course!" She exclaimed with starry eyes. "I've heard rumors about it, but it looked even greater in person!"
'Ah, she sounds really troublesome...' Ritsuka sighed.
"What's it made of? How strong is it? Who made it? When? How?!" Questions after questions started pouring out from her mouth. "I want to know... No... I NEED to know!"
["She might be your biggest fan yet, Senpai."] BB remarked with an accompanying giggle.
"No thanks, I don't need a stalker after me." Ritsuka said the words to BB, but Machina thought he meant the words were for her instead.
"Don't worry, I'm not a stalker or anything..." She assured. "...Just as long as I could take that armor from you!" She suddenly leapt into action, firing a suspicious canister from the underside of her gauntlet.
Seeing that canister, Ritsuka immediately covered his front with the small cross-shaped shield on his right arm.
He expected the canister to be some sort of grenade, either explosive or the smoke variety. It turned out to be the former. The explosion wasn't massive, but it certainly would be enough to take someone out. A normal human that is.
The dusts cleared, and it could be seen clearly that the explosion caused no damage whatsoever to the armor.
"Ah, how wonderful! Your durability exceeds my expectation!" She fired another canister from her gauntlet. "How about this one?!"
The canister started releasing some kind of green gas. Machina smirked, not worried one bit, because her metal mask has already provided her with the protection from said gas.
'Gas? should I avoid it?' His survivalist mindset asked, while his curiosity told him not to avoid it. As a result, he simply stood there, covered in the gas. His armor filtering the toxic substances.
["Didn't expect you to just stand there and took it head on, Senpai. Usually, you'd be avoiding something like that immediately."]
"I wanted to test out the armor. Plus, if it fails, I believe the resistance I got from Mash would be sufficient to counteract it." He said in a low voice so only BB could hear.
["Still... Please don't start taking unnecessary risks like that more often."] BB pleaded in a surprisingly sincere tone, briefly surprising Ritsuka.
"N-No promise!" He stuttered for a bit after that display from BB.
"Ooh! It seems that armor is also airtight! How fascinating!" Machina noted. "Man, I really wanna know how it works!"
["Senpai, now would be a good time to use my card."] BB suggested, ["Let's give her a show!"]
Ritsuka sighed, before finally caving in. "Fine, I'll show you!" He grabbed the Moon Cancer card from the holster, and held it in front of him.
For Machina, she could only see the backing of the card, which only showed the image of some sort of cube. "A card...?"
With a swift motion, Ritsuka inserted the card inside the Driver.
MOON CANCER, STANDBY!
Next, he pressed the C-shaped section.
SUMMONING INITIALIZE, MOON CANCER!
A line of bright blue light started enveloping the armored figure, forcing Machina to use her googles to cover her eyes.
As the light died down, she could hear another announcement.
SUMMONING COMPLETE
THE MENACE OF THE MOON! BLACK BLOSSOM!
What stood before her was not the shield wielding armored figure anymore. Sure, it's still armored, but compared to the previous one, this one is less armored.
The armor is mainly white with black and purple accents. The armor is also covered by a stylish black longcoat. The helmet didn't change much, with only small red accents appearing on the side of it. The visor however, changed into one with deeper purple tint.
["Kyaa! You look so cool, Senpai! I'm falling for you all over again!"] BB complimented with a teasing smirk.
"You're only saying that because I'm basically wearing an armored version of your outfit..." He sighed once more.
["Hehe, I don't mind giving a compliment to myself~"]
Clapping sound suddenly echoed around the room, causing the two to focus at the source.
"Magnificent!" Machina giddily praised. "It happened right in front of my eyes, yet I couldn't even explain what happened!" She raised the googles covering her eyes, letting it lay around her hair once more. Her excitement could be read just from looking at her eyes.
Ritsuka was about to move to apprehend her, wasting no more time with idle banters, until his body suddenly stopped moving.
"Huh?"
The purple visor on his helmet turned deep red. His body moved by itself, clenching his right fist, and then slugging himself in the face several times, the impact managed to knock him out cold.
Machina stared at the scene with raised eyebrows. "Uh... you okay there, bud?"
Even though Ritsuka is now unconscious. The armored figure still stood tall. Brief static sound could be heard from it.
"Ahem... sorry about that. I need to put him to sleep first. I keep telling him to go take a rest, but he insisted to come here anyway. What a handful." A feminine voiced answered instead.
"Y-You're not the same guy from before?! What the hell?!"
"Ah, about that... I've decided to take over for my Senpai for tonight. He must've been terribly tired if that was all it took for me to knock him out." She chuckled, while testing the armor's movement by closing and opening the hand.
"Knock him... out...?" Machina trailed, before she gasped in realization. "No way! You're controlling the armor remotely while the actual user went out of commission?!"
"Bingo! You're one smart cookie, Machina-san."
"Now I want that armor even more! I'm not leaving without taking it with me!" Machina snapped her fingers several times. Half a dozen of mini one-pointers burst forth from her two waist pouches. They rushed at the armored figure.
The figure lazily raised her hand in front of her. "How rude... I haven't even introduced myself yet." She then suddenly closed her open hand.
All of the robots instantly stopped moving, their optics glowed in an eerie red light.
"Uh oh! Something tells me that I'm in trouble now..." Machina muttered, a sense of dread started welling up inside her.
"Heh, right you are! Here's a sudden betrayal to spice things up!"
A one-pointers suddenly lunged at Machina, forcing her to catch it with her claw-like contraption on her backpack. It savagely tried gnashing at her face.
"This is... you hacked them?!" That was a total surprise for her, because the machines that she deployed were equipped with her own custom-made anti-hacking protection. The machines turning against her were supposed to be an impossibility.
"Yup! It was disappointingly easy. I expected more out of you too. I guess that was on me for setting my hope too high."
Machina gritted her teeth. She crushed the mini one-pointer with her claw. "Are you looking down on me!?" If there's one thing that she hated, it would be being underestimated.
"Oh, don't misunderstand. You're good... like, really good. But you're still not on MY level yet."
Machina clicked her tongue, and rushed forward, intending to electrocute her opponent with the hidden feature on her gauntlet. The remaining mini one-pointers tried getting in her way, but she ignored them, trusting her claws to handle them. Some got swatted away, while the rest got crushed by the claws.
As she got close, she aimed the gauntlet at her opponent's chest, while the claws were getting ready to grab said opponent. Just as the claws were about to make contact with the armored figure, she felt a sudden pressure from her opponent.
Machina could instantly feel that everything was starting to fall apart. Her gauntlets stopped emitting electricity, and the claws suddenly stopped moving.
"Machina-san, I will have to stop you there. Hurting MY Senpai is a serious offense. You wouldn't want to get ripped apart by your own little contraptions, right?" The red visor on the helmet glowed ominously as she said the words. Machina's claws started moving around without her input, their loyalty taken away from her.
They both stared each other down. For a moment it seems no one wanted to back away... until Machina lets out a defeated sigh as she pressed a button on her gauntlet, turning her claws off and letting them go limp. "There, happy now?" Gone was the jovial tone that she used earlier, leaving only a bitter tone.
"Good girl. Now then, I'm giving you a chance to leave with your pretty little face intact. Why? Because you've intrigued me."
"...What do you want from me?"
"Nothing much, I just want to see you develop. You have the potential to grow into something interesting, I believe I could see that unfold if I let you leave this time."
Machina said nothing, she only walked to the exit, gripping her hand tightly as she did so. She was beyond livid right now. Though she quickly repressed it to ask one final question. She stopped in front of the exit, her curiosity peaked. "Who... the hell are you?"
"Me? I'm..." She was about to say something, before she shook her head. "No... I'll just introduce my sleepy Senpai over here instead. He called himself a Kamen Rider... Kamen Rider Chaldea!"
"Chaldea..." Machina whispered the name. "I will remember this! Next time, it won't be so easy!" Her boots suddenly lights up, lifting her slightly and allowing her to hover. "We shall meet again, Chaldea... and you too, Black Blossom!" She boosted herself towards the darkness of the night, disappearing from sight.
"Heh, so she was paying attention to those noisy announcements from the belts." BB chuckled as she monitored the surrounding area, all she could see around her is the ruined store. "What a mess! I better skedaddle before the Pro Heroes started accusing me of things!"
She quickly went outside and jumped into a nearby building to make her escape, the armor's enhanced strength allowing her to do so.
"This form is definitely the best one in his arsenal, nothing else would ever come close!" She assured herself, as she hugged her 'own' body. "I'll keep you safe, Senpai... I promise... So just enjoy your sleep, regain your strength, and ace the exam tomorrow." The night wind blows gently, the coattails of her black longcoat danced to its tune. The only sound that could be heard were the approaching sirens of the police cars several blocks away.
"Sweet dreams, Senpai..." BB wished him a good night sleep, promising to always be there for the reckless boy. After all, it's the job of a capable Kouhai like her to look after her hopeless Senpai.
"I just wish I could see your adorable sleeping face right now though..." She pouted at the missed opportunity.
An OC Villain and a new form based on BB is here! Plus, this chapter was a little bit longer than usual.
Machina's looks were partially based on a certain green-haired gremlin. I loved the design, and couldn't resist basing this new OC after it. Machina is Quirkless by the way, she relies on her techs to fight her battles, so someone like BB who can easily disable them would be her worst matchup. It took me about 5 seconds to think off for a name for her, another example of my laziness lol. Do keep in mind that I'm inexperienced with OCs and have no real idea on how to write one.
The Moon Cancer form is simply BB, but as an armor. The visor is usually purple, like her eyes, but it could turn red whenever she's in control. This is exactly like Drive Type Tridoron, where the yellow eyes would turn red whenever Mr. Belt is in control. This form is handy when facing opponent relying on machinery, but otherwise unremarkable in other areas.
As for the story, perhaps I will simply skip to the exam results next chapter, I just wanna be done with the exams and write the school shenanigans. Sounds more fun that way.
I'll see you next time.
