Disclaimer: The same as usual. I do not own anything.
Grand (Kamen) Rider in Chaldea
Chapter 4: Taste of Destruction
Ritsuka sighed in exhaustion as he strolled down the empty hallways of Novum Chaldea. With nearly everyone in the cafeteria, the chances of him bumping into someone else were minuscule, which is exactly what he needed.
Ever since he summoned Rider, it has just been one thing after another; getting chased by the new Servant, learning about said Servant's Stats and Parameters, and then being dragged into the Chaldea Cook-Off as a judge. All of which happened within a 30-minute time frame…
There was also Jaguar Warrior asking that stupid question in front of everybody… Not that it was bothered him, of course. Why would it bother him? He was definitely still single and was absolutely not in a relationship of any kind. Nope. Definitely not. 1000% single.
…Where was he? Oh, right. Rider. The magenta-clad Servant kept saying he was one of the Seven. Ritsuka was a bit torn on whether or not Rider was actually a Grand Servant. On one hand, he was definitely no ordinary Servant. On the other hand, how was a Grand Servant here? There are no Beasts in Chaldea (fully-fledged ones, at least), yet Rider appeared here of all places. There was also the fact that Ritsuka himself summoned the Servant and not the World itself. And that's not to mention how the Servant's behavior; constantly belittling everyone else, his insanely inflated ego, and, of course, chasing his Master across the facility and threatening to kill him. With an attitude like that, it was no wonder not many were willing to believe Rider's claims.
Holmes and Sion, being the geniuses they are, had similar reservations as Ritsuka did and elected to stay back and continue analyzing Rider's data.
"I'm back…" Ritsuka mumbled as he entered the Control Room again.
"Hmm? Oh, Fujimaru. Welcome back," Holmes said with a furrowed brow, "I take it you're here for more information on Rider?"
"Yup," That and to be left with his own thoughts for a while, "Got anything new on him?"
"A couple of things," Sion answered, "We're just making sure that it's accurate first."
"Why? Is there anything wrong with the data?"
"We're not sure. We did a more thorough scan on Rider's Saint Graph to see if he was truly a Grand Servant…"
"And? What did you two get?"
"It's like…" Sion tried to find the right word to explain the…conundrum, "He's both a Grand Servant and not one at the same time."
"…What?" Needless to say, Ritsuka was more than a little bit confused, "Can you repeat that?"
"When we looked into his Spirit Origin a bit further, we discover something odd," Holmes said, "His Saint Graph is on a level similar to a Grand Servant's, but it looked like it was tampered with, and very excessively at that."
"Tampered with? How?"
"It's hard to explain. We're still trying to understand it ourselves," Sion explained, "The best way to put it is that there are multiple other Spirit Origins grafted onto Rider's, and incomplete ones at that."
"Incomplete?" Ritsuka dreaded to hear what Sion meant by that.
"It just as it sounds like. The other Saint Graphs we detected are not fully formed and are dormant. All they're doing now is messing up Rider's and making it harder for us to completely analyze him. The data we got earlier is all we were able to get."
"…Who is he?" Ritsuka sighed.
"Until we see him fight, that is impossible to know."
"With how he acts, I'm just surprised he hasn't gotten into one already," Ritsuka nervously laughed, as Rider getting into an (actual) fight with one of the other Servants was something very likely to happen. He just hoped that the Servant in question would be sane and take the fight to the simulator.
Unfortunately, the World was not very kind.
"There's also something important you have to-"
"MASTER! WE HAVE A MASSIVE, MASSIVE PROBLEM!" The P.A. suddenly went live, broadcasting the distressed voice of Jaguar Warrior, "THEY'RE ATTACKING RIDER!"
"…Why did I have to say that…"
Back in the cafeteria…
*BANG*
"Hold still, you bastard!" Mordred screamed as she tried to hit Rider, who was still in his chef attire. Besides her, Nezha was doing her best to run Rider through her spear.
"An insult. Like that. Will not be. Tolerated." The Lancer Servant said, "Face your. Punishment. With dignity."
"Not interested," Rider retorted back, dodging another downward slash from Mordred, "I already just died. Why should I listen to you two?"
Before Rider could run away, however, another Servant blocked his way, "You're not going anywhere, you arrogant asshole!" Okada Izo had a crazed smile as he readied his katana.
"Eh… Looks like I'm surrounded." Despite his situation, Rider was not at all worried, "Do you think only three of you is enough for me?"
"Why you little-!"
"What's going on here!?" For the fourth time that day, the door of the cafeteria burst open as Ritsuka rushed back in.
"Senpai! They are-!" Mash tried to say, only for Rider to interrupt her.
"Master! You'll have to take a raincheck on that Ace Lunch!" He shouted in between ducking the attacks of the three Servants, "You too, Arthur!"
"…" Altria, who was currently on the sidelines watching the fight, barely gave any indication of hearing what Rider said.
"I wasn't even gone that long!" Ritsuka complained, "What did you do this time Rider?!"
"Why does everyone always assume it's my fault?!" Rider grumbled as he lept out of the way of another jab from Nezha.
"What do you think happened, Master?" Emiya, holding an empty pan and spatula, grumbled, "Rider insulted the three of them. As you can see, they did not take it well."
"I really can't leave you for more than 5 minutes, can I Rider?!"
"Not at all."
"Don't look so smug about it!" Ritsuka knew Rider would be a challenge to deal with, but certainly not this challenging!
"Why did they have to this…?" Emiya sighed, "We were so close to being done…"
"And why is no one stopping this?!"
"Sorry, Master," One of the watching Servants apologized, "But this is much more entertaining than just now. A cooking contest is not that fun to watch in person."
"I'm right here, you know!" Emiya was getting much more annoyed. He was the one who thought of the idea in the first place!
"Altria?" Ritsuka turned to the observing Saber.
"Hmm? What's wrong Master?" Altria didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with…everything.
"You're not going to try and stop Mordred?"
"Why should I?" Altria grumbled, obviously upset at something.
"You're a terrible father, aren't you? Hey! Watch it." Rider took a moment to shout at Altria before having to dodge an overhead slash from Mordred.
"…Are you upset that we won't be getting that Ace Lunch?"
"…no…"
"It's a shame too dechi," Beni-Enma said, "From the way Rider was preparing it, it would have been a great meal."
"…"
"Don't feel so down, Altria," Ritsuka tried to comfort the downtrodden Servant, "Rider promised he'll make it for us next time."
Meanwhile, back with the ongoing 'fight', Rider was still avoiding all the jabs, thrusts, and slashes of the three Servants.
"I. Said. Hold still!"
"Fine then." Rider muttered in resignation, taking out a magenta belt buckle from…somewhere. He probably summoned it, "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."
"A belt buckle?"
"What do you think that'll do?!" Mordred taunted, preparing to strike again with Clarent.
"You… If there's anything I dislike more than sea cucumbers is children who disrespect their elders!" Rider grumbled as he placed the belt buckle on his waist. Immediately, a belt came out of the buckle and wrapped around Rider. Along with it, the gun that he was chasing Ritsuka with materialized on the left side of the belt.
"Rider?" Ritsuka turned his attention back to the 'battle', "What is that belt?"
"Master, look at this, my Henshin…" Rider solemnly said as he opened his belt buckle up by pulling on the sides, "…Or not, you can stay here if you want."
As he said that, Rider raised his hand and, behind him, a grey translucent curtain appeared.
"Come get me…if you dare." Rider stepped back and passed through the curtain with that taunt, but didn't appear on the other side.
"Don't think you can escape!" As impulsive as always, Mordred went after the (Grand) Servant and was quickly followed by Izo and Nezha. Like Rider, they disappeared upon passing through the curtain.
"Wait!" Without any hesitation, Ritsuka followed after his four Servants, disappearing as well.
"Senpai! Wait for m-Ow!" Along with several others, Mash tried to chase after the five, only to hit a brick wall. Well… A silver wall, "This is-!"
Somehow, the wall that was summoned by Rider was now not letting anyone else through…
On the other side of the curtain…
"Ah-Ow!" Ritsuka's scream was cut short as he found himself tumbling to the ground, "Ow…Where am I?"
For some reason, he had a splitting headache. Was that an effect of going through the wall? Regardless, he had to figure out just where he was. Taking a look around, Ritsuka realized that he was in a warehouse and a rather empty one at that.
"Where are the others?" He asked no one in particular. Despite being seconds behind his Servants, they were nowhere to be seen, "Izo?! Nezha?! Mordred?!"
No responses…
"…Rider?! Decade?! Where are you guys?!"
Still none…
Letting out a sigh, Ritsuka decided to try searching around for them.
*KABOOM* *BANG*
Well, he would have, had it not been for the sound of a massive explosion followed by Izo coming flying through the warehouse wall.
"Ahh!" The Assassin Servant cried in pain as he landed on the ground in front of Ritsuka.
"Izo!" Ritsuka
"Wait! Don't-!" "Ahh!" Izo's warning came too late, however, as Ritsuka had touched him, for the Master's concern had only resulted in him getting an electric shock.
"Izo, what happened?!" Ritsuka asked as he shook his hand to get rid of the tingling feeling.
"Ow… Rider happened," Izo groaned in pain, unable to move, "Or rather, Caster."
"Caster?"
"Yeah…Ow… Thought I had the advantage over him. Turns out that asshole had a literal card up his sleeve. Several of them…" Izo winced in pain again, "Go ahead, Master. They're that way. I'm just…gonna rest here for a moment."
"I'll come back for you!" Ritsuka reassured the Assassin before taking off in the direction where Izo came from, "Don't move!"
"Yeah…Ow…No problem…" How many turns would this Stun last?
"Stay out of the way, you flying piece of cloth!" Ritsuka overheard the telltale sign of a certain Knight of the Round Table presence.
"A gun. Like that." This time, he heard Nezha's voice, "Why are you. A Caster?"
"Dunno," Rider's confident voice was easy for the Master to recognize, "Blame Edison, not me."
"Edison? What did he have to do with Rider?" Ritsuka whispered to himself as he entered the actual warehouse the battle was taking place in. And what a scene did he walked (read: ran) in on.
At one end of the warehouse, Mordred was wildly swinging Clarent around in an attempt to hit a group of three, flying, color-coded parkas that were flying around her. Meanwhile, in the center of the warehouse, Nezha was trading blows with a strangely armored man.
The man's armor covered his entire body. It was mainly black and had several orange lines running across it. Additionally, there was a strange, white eye symbol on his chest. The weirdest part, however, was the strange parka that was covering most of his upper body. The parka was mostly silver with yellow edges. Additionally, there were lightbulbs halves on his shoulders as well as two antennas on the hood. Finally, his mask bore the image of a yellow lightbulb and a horn attached to it. The man also wielded a rather big gun with the same eye symbol on it.
Around his waist was a familiar magenta belt buckle.
"That is…Rider?!" Ritsuka couldn't help but call out to the Servant, catching his attention.
"Hmm?" Rider(?) turned around to see who was calling him, "Oh, Master. You're finally here. A bit late, I must say. I already defeated that annoying Assassin."
"Rider? That armor is…" Ritsuka trailed off. For some reason, it reminded him of a certain lion-headed Caster.
"Wrong. At the moment, I'm not Rider-Class." Rider(?) corrected his Master, "Right now, I am a Caster."
"Caster… You can change your Class?"
"He can." Nezha answered for Ride…Caster, having stopped attacking when she spotted her Master, "When this. Battle started. He was a. Rider."
"But that Assassin kept getting in the way." R-Caster stated, "So I needed to switch up. Casters triumph over Assassins, right?"
"So that's your Noble Phantasm?" Ritsuka questioned his Servant, "Switching Classes?"
"Not exactly," R-Caster said, pulling open his belt buckle, "A Noble Phantasms are the symbols of heroes; their legends given form. This armor and all of its abilities, including the Class it gives, doesn't belong to me, so it's not my Noble Phantasm."
"A borrowed one?"
"My Noble Phantasm doesn't matter at the moment. You can talk it over with the detective later. So then," R-Caster turned back to Nezha as he took out a card from his first gun, the one that was attached to the side of his belt, "Shall we continue, Lancer?"
"We shall," Nezha stated as she took up a combat stance.
"Hmph. Musashi. Come!" R-Caster ordered as he inserted the card into his belt buckle. Hearing this, one of the parkas that were distracting Mordred parted from the others and flew towards R-Caster.
"Musashi?!"
FORM RIDE GHOST:
R-Caster then closed the buckle.
MUSASHI
Kaigan! Musashi! Kettou! Zubatto! Cho kengo!
The parka that R-Caster was wearing turned into light and was swiftly replaced by another one, a crimson red one. His new parka was sleeveless with silver light armor protecting him. Additionally, the hilt of a katana was now poking out the backside of the hood. Finally, his mask was now bearing the image of two, crossed katanas.
To complete the image of Miyamoto Musashi, R-Caster's gun split into and turned into a pair of one-sided swords.
"To use. Musashi's powers. You are. A Saber now?" Nezha muttered, now a bit more apprehensive of R-Cast…Saber.
"Maybe," R-Saber taunted before calling out to the other parkas that were still flying around, "Robin! Billy! Keep Madrid busy!"
"It's Mordred! Damn it! Stop moving!"
"Robin…? Billy…?" Now Ritsuka definitely had a headache.
Back in Chaldea…
"Hmm?" A pair of 3-Star Archers stopped in their tracks as they felt a strange chill go down their back. All they were doing was helping clean up the mess in the cafeteria caused by the trio of Servants that tried to attack the new Rider.
"What was that?" Robin Hood wondered, "You felt that too, right?"
"Yeah, it felt weird," Billy the Kid couldn't help but shiver as the feeling left them.
"Robin? Billy? What's wrong?" Mash, who was also helping around, asked the duo.
"Not sure. It's just…" Robin struggled to find the right word for it, "Strange."
"Agreed." Billy nodded at Robin's words, "So, to change the topic a bit, how much longer do you think Master'll be gone?"
"Not sure…" The Demi-Servant answered, completely worried about her Senpai. Looking at the wall that was summoned by Rider earlier, Mash couldn't help but mumble under her breath, "They've been gone for a few hours now…"
On the other side…
To say that Ritsuka recognized the techniques R-Saber was utilizing would be a bit of an understatement. The Master had seen Musashi fight enough times to easily identify the two-sword fighting style the latter used. The very same fighting style that R-Saber was using.
"Edison. And Musashi." Nezha tried to block a strike from her opponent, "How many. Others?"
"That's a secret," R-Saber said as he parried a counterattack, "Not a good idea to show my hand yet."
"Stop that!" Nearby, Mordred was struggling to get the so-called Robin and Billy parka-things off of her, "Just get out of the way already!"
"Eh… Looks like Madrid is getting impatient," R-Saber noted before turning back to Nezha while taking out another card from his side, "Master, keep your head down."
After inserting the card into his belt buckle, R-Saber proceeded to close it and activate his finisher.
FINAL ATTACK RIDE: GHO-GHO-GHOST
Upon closing his buckle, the eye symbol on R-Saber's chest glowed brightly as another one appeared in front of the Servant. The second eye symbol then flowed through R-Saber, turning red in the process as additional symbols appeared around it and began gathering energy within it.
As R-Saber took a stance, the eye symbol charged the two blades and making them glow a crimson red color.
"One slice should do it," R-Saber chuckled to himself before charging the Lancer.
"Hmm…" Da Vinci furrowed her brow as she read the data presented to her. After finally waking up hours after her run-in with Rider, she dragged herself to the Control Room in search of him and Ritsuka. What she found instead was Sion and Holmes analyzing the new Servant's data, "His Saint Graph is changing on its own?"
"It'll be more accurate to say parts of his Saint Graph is activating," Holmes corrected her, "It did so two times since he and Fujimaru disappeared."
"And that wall he summoned?"
"We still haven't gotten anything from it," Sion told her, "Wherever is on the other side is a complete mystery to us."
"So he can hide from Chaldea too." Da Vinci felt like she was starting to get a headache. Unfortunately for her, it was about to get worse.
"That's not all, unfortunately."
"What is it this time?"
"We meant to tell Fujimaru earlier but he had to leave because of Rider," Holmes had a serious look on his face, "We managed to discover what his Traits are."
"And?"
"Rider is a Threat to Humanity."
A/N: I recently did a rewatch of the entirety of Decade to make sure I get some facts right and so that I don't make a tiny bit of continuity error and not as a way to procrastinate at all. Definitely not that!
…I really do need to get started on C27 of JTR.
Also, to the guest who left that helpful review about Second and Fifth Magic, thank you. All I can say to excuse myself for that mistake is that it's been a while since I last read up on True Magic and all I remembered was Second Magic = Parallel Worlds and Fifth Magic = Something with Time Travel. I really do need to remember better seeing as that's pretty important in the Nasuverse. The description for Traveler of Worlds has since been corrected.
With this chapter, a running gag is starting. Decade cannot spend 5 minutes without a chaperone without getting into trouble. Technically it started in C2 but whatever. I only put what I can remember in these A/Ns.
Ghost being the first Rider Decade uses is probably one of the best ideas I ever had (which is not saying much) and ideas as to an eventual Singularity-ish arc are starting to come to me. Whether or not that idea would pan out is undetermined.
As always, leave a review and what you want to see next.