Disclaimer: Once again, I still do not own anything.
Grand (Kamen) Rider in Chaldea
Chapter 5: I'm Out of Interesting Titles at the Moment, Come Back Later
If there was one word Holmes could use to describe Rider, or Decade as he says his name was, it was 'contradicting'. Well, there was a multitude of other words he could use; 'arrogant', 'irritating', 'a total jackass'. Any of them could be used and he would still be correct but, at the moment, 'contradicting' fits the Servant best (plus that last one wasn't even a single word).
"He's supposed to help save humanity," Da Vinci stated.
"That is correct," Holmes nodded.
"But he's also able to end it."
"That is also correct."
"He tried to kill Fujimaru earlier."
"That is correct as well."
"And now Fujimaru is with Rider somewhere we can't see. Alone."
"Now, that is incorrect. He has three Servants with him."
"Oh, that makes it so much better," Da Vinci pretended to sigh in relief, "Almost makes me forget how he is a Grand Servant."
"He is quite the mysterious individual, right?" In sharp contrast to the artist, the detective had a pleased expression on his face, "A Grand Servant and a Threat to Humanity. Nearly completely opposite ends of the spectrum and yet, Rider is somehow both."
"Is that even possible?"
"Logically, no," Sion answered, "But with how messed up Rider's Saint Graph is, maybe he could be an exception."
"That doesn't make it any better."
"Regardless, until they return, the best thing we can do right now is to try and figure out more about Rider. I'll check LAPLACE to see if there are any records on 'Decade'." Sion instructed the other two before she went to work by herself.
"While Ms. Sokaris does that, we should start conducting some interviews with the other Servants." With that, Holmes left the Control Room, dragging Da Vinci by her collar.
"Ow! Hey, watch it! My back still hurts!"
*KABOOM* *BANG*
"Hmm…" R-Saber was quiet, silently staring at the hole in the wall made by a rocketing Nezha, "Was that one slash or two? Hey, Master! Was that one or two?!"
Ritsuka, however, was too busy hacking up a lung to answer R-Saber's question. The explosion caused by the Servant's finisher had the unintended side-effect of kicking up all the dust in the warehouse.
"No clue either? Whatever. All that matters is that Lancer is down and out." Rider shrugged before pointing his sword at the distracted Mordred, "Hey, Madrid, still raring to go?"
"It's Mordred! Get it right already!" R-Saber didn't seem to care about what she said, as he simply took out another card from his gun-cardholder and inserted it into his belt buckle-
FORM RIDE GHOST:
-and closed it.
ROBIN HOOD
Unlike what Ritsuka assumed to have been Edison's parka, Musashi didn't disappear. Instead, the red parka simply flew off of R…Rider, leaving the Servant defenseless.
"No, you don't!" Having gotten wise to Rider's powers, Mordred tried to strike in between his form changes. It might have worked too, had it not been for a pair of swords blocking the hit for Rider.
"Thank you, Musashi. Hold her for a moment." Rider showed his gratitude towards the piece of clothing. While the Knight of Treachery was busy locking blades with Musashi, one of the parkas that were distracting Mordred earlier flew into the battle and replaced the samurai's place on Rider's shoulders.
Kaigan! Robin Hood! Hello! Arrow! Mori-de aou!
If the pattern still held true, Rider's new Class would now be an Archer just like Robin Hood. As infuriating as Rider could be, it can't be denied that the Servant was being smart.
R-Archer's new 'armor' was a verdant-green, just like the Servant he was based on, along with yellow frills. Additionally, he had a yellow feather pinned to the hood and his mask now had the image of a bow and arrow pointed down.
"Archer versus Saber," R-Archer said as he changed the configuration for his weapon, turning it back into its gun mode again, "You really want to test that Luck of yours?"
"My Luck doesn't matter here!" Mordred (Luck D) shouted through gritted teeth and tried to kick Musashi, forcing him to fly away to avoid it. Now that Rider was left open again, Mordred followed through with her earlier plan and once again tried to bring Clarent down on R-Archer's head.
"CAW!"
What prevented her this time from doing so was a bird of all things, which had flown into the battle from out of nowhere. Well, a mechanical one with a rotary phone dial on its body to be more specific. If it weren't for the fact that Ritsuka knew what would happen if he did so, he would have laughed at the sight of Mordred trying to fend off a small bird.
"A big bad knight in shining armor and you can't handle a toy bird," R-Archer, on the other hand, didn't bother holding back and was laughing at Mordred, "For someone who talks big, you really don't have the bite to back it up."
Needless to say, Mordred was a little more than a bit angry at R-Archer's words.
"Why you-! Fine then! How 'bout this?!" Finally gotten fed up with her opponent's personality, Mordred decided to finally end him once and for all.
Ritsuka understood what she was about to do, especially when red lightning started crackling from Clarent, and immediately moved out of the path of the coming Noble Phantasm.
"This is the demonic sword that destroyed my father!" Mordred chanted. R-Archer, meanwhile, stood there passively.
"Trying to finish this in a single blow, huh?"
"Clarent-!"
"But-"
"-Blood-!"
"-that won't be enough…"
"Ow… I'm here-"
"-Arthur!" With a swing of her weapon, Mordred unleashed her Noble Phantasm, shooting a blood-red beam from her sword aimed at R-Archer. Despite that, he remained rooted on his spot and took the attack head-on.
Mordred's Noble Phantasm, meanwhile, was doing a good job in destroying everything in its path, including but not limited to; random barrels, random crates, a couple of support beam, the entrance, and an Assassin that had, unfortunately, chose the wrong moment to walk in.
"...Was that Izo?" Ritsuka could have sworn that he heard the Assassin's voice just before Mordred used her NP. Nah, it couldn't be. He told Izo to wait for him to come back.
"Phew, finally took that bastard down," Mordred let out a sigh, pleased with herself, "Master, let's go-"
"Hey, don't go celebrating just yet," R-Archer's smug voice interrupted Mordred. As the dust settled, R-Archer stood in the same spot looking no worse for wear.
Seeing this, Mordred reacted rather appropriately.
"You-! How-? How the hell are you still standing?!"
"I evaded it," R-Archer answered.
"No, you didn't!"
"I evaded it," he repeated.
"You did not!"
"You need to get your eyes checked. I evaded it," R-Archer insisted, "Right, Master?"
"No, I'm with Mordred on this one." Ritsuka disagreed with R-Archer.
"Then you need to get your eyes too 'cause I clearly evaded it." Without waiting for a response from either of them, R-Archer let out a whistle.
Hearing this, the mechanical bird from earlier flew back into the fray. This time, instead of pecking Mordred, it instead flew straight for R-Archer's weapon and combining with it, turning the gun into a bow-gun combo.
"If you wanted to end this in one shot, then I'll do the same," The two could basically see the smirk that was under R-Archer's helmet as he took out his final card.
FINAL ATTACK RIDE:
"Fine! But don't think-"
GHO-GHO-GHOST
"-that's...enough…" Unlike R-Archer, who had trailed off to be mysterious, Mordred did so because she suddenly found herself surrounded by duplicates of R-Archer, all aiming their weapons at her and all ready to let lose a green energy arrow.
"Hang on, that doesn't seem right." Ritsuka was sure that Robin had nothing like that.
"This isn't a singl-!" *KABOOM*
Back in Chaldea's cafeteria…
As they had decided to do earlier, Holmes and Da Vinci were interrogating the other Servant on what had transpired throughout the last few hours.
"-and then bang! Before any of us knew what was happening, they were all gone!" Jaguar Warrior waved her arms around wildly as she finished telling her story to Holmes, "And none of us could pass through that thing over there!"
"...Why are we interrogating her again?" Da Vinci wondered exactly why they went to the Lancer Servant instead of, say, Merlin, who apparently already met Rider before either of them came to Chaldea.
Earlier, when they had asked him first, Emiya had told them some rather useless information, or rather information that they already knew about. All the Archer talked about was how annoying and irritating the new Servant was and that was about it, he had no idea either.
The best they got was some speculation from the Knights of the Round Table, and even that offered little to discovering Rider's identity. Even if he was actually a Foreigner-Class Servant in disguise (which now that they knew about that Trait, may or may not be true) it still didn't help them much.
"Was there anything of note about him?" Holmes elected to ignore Da Vinci's question and instead continued with the interrogation, "Maybe a scar or any other distinguishing features?" It was not the first time he's asked that question, and every time he got a big fat zero from the other questioned Servants.
"Hmm…" Jaguar Warrior had a serious expression as she thought about what had happened a few hours earlier. Suddenly, she brightened up as a memory flashed in her mind, "Oh, wait! There that!"
"What is it?" Da Vinci perked up.
"He…"
"Yes?"
"...has a pretty deep voice," Jaguar Warrior finished with a confident nod, thinking that it was important enough information.
"...That's it?! All of us knew that already!" If Da Vinci wasn't frustrated before, she was definitely now.
"Oh, yeah. He also didn't like it when I called him pink," Jaguar Warrior added after another second of thought.
"Thank you for your help. You may go now." Holmes practically shooed her away, having gotten everything he could have out of the Lancer.
"Still nothing?" Mash came over to the table with a worried expression.
"Yeah. Nothing helpful yet." Sighed Da Vinci, "Guess all we can do now is wait for them to come back. For all that talk of being a Grand Servant, he sure likes to take his time."
"I wonder…" Holmes whispered to himself.
"What is it, Holmes?"
"Nothing, just a stray thought."
"So we won't be hearing about it for years? Got it." Da Vinci sighed again. "Why don't we go see what Sion is up to. Maybe she found something out already."
"I'll stay here and wait," Mash told the two. With the clean-upAs done, there really wasn't much for her to do in the cafeteria. There were a few others still around. Maybe she could talk with them while waiting? Or maybe she could go into the kitchen and help around inside?
Luckily for her, it seemed that the World itself was listening to her and decided to cut her wait short.
"-ust saying, did you really have to go that hard on them?" Ritsuka emerged from the wall, carrying Nezha on his back. Shortly thereafter, Rider, still in his chef attire, came through dragging an unconscious Izo and Mordred along with him, the latter by her scuffed up jacket and the former by his white scarf-collar thingy (what's that thing called? Really, I want to know). Once both came through, the silver wall disappeared.
"Senpai!" "Fujimaru!" "Master!"
"Huh? Oh, everyone!" A smile instantly appeared on Ritsuka's face as he laid his eyes on his friends.
Rider, meanwhile, took the chance to snark again, "What? No welcome for me?"
"Screw off!"
"That's good enough for me." Rider smirked as he let go of the two he was dragging, letting their heads hit the floor with a loud bang.
"Hey! Be careful with them!" Ritsuka turned around and scolded him.
"Eh...a hit to the head might actually do them some good. Maybe that'll make them realize that I'm better than them." Rider was unaffected by it and just walked past Ritsuka.
"Wow. Dick." Another Servant insulted Rider once again.
"Come up with something new already, I've heard that one a lot of times already." Once again, Rider remained unaffected.
"Senpai, are you okay?" Mash expressed her concern for him, "Where were you? You've been gone for hours."
"We were in- Huh?" Ritsuka began before realizing what Mash had just said, "Hours?"
"Oh, I should have told you that." Rider said as he was about to leave, "Time was moving differently back there."
"Wait! Cast- Rider!" Ritsuka corrected himself as he tried to call out to his new Servant.
"If you're that confused, just call me Decade. Makes it easier for yourself and everyone else." With that, Decade left the cafeteria.
"...Fujimaru, what was he talking about?" Holmes questioned the Master of Chaldea, who simply sighed. This was going to be a long day…
Later…
After bringing the three defeated Servants to the infirmary, Ritsuka told the others what had transpired on the other side of the wall.
"And that's about it," he finished.
"So he uses the powers of other Servants and can change his Class in doing so," Holmes noted. That would certainly be useful in finding out his identity.
"Hmm… Musashi, Edison, and Robin," Da Vinci hummed, "And he had Billy the Kid as well?"
"Yeah," Ritsuka confirmed, "I'm pretty sure it was Billy."
"There isn't a clear connection between the four of them." The resident detective began talking, mostly to himself, "All from different times, and only Thomas Edison and Billy the Kid are from the same country…"
"Decade mentioned that changing Classes wasn't his Noble Phantasm, correct?"
"He said it was technically not his because that armor doesn't actually belong to him," Ritsuka told them.
"A borrowed Noble Phantasm then. Those types aren't common."
"But whose Noble Phantasm did he borrow? Fujimaru, do you have any ideas?"
"Hmm…" Ritsuka thought about it for a few seconds before answering, "His...belt…kept saying 'Ghost'. Maybe that's who that armor belongs to?"
"Ghost?"
"And who is this 'Ghost'?" Holmes asked.
"I don't know." Another mystery to the already high pile Rider...Decade had.
"Let's try solving something else first," Holmes changed the subject, "Where exactly did Decade bring the four of you too? Was it a Reality Marble?"
"I'm not sure about that either," Ritsuka sighed, "I didn't get the chance to look around."
"This isn't going anywhere at all," Da Vinci grumbled.
"Why don't we take a break then?" Holmes suggested, "We should reconvene tomorrow once we're all rested up. Besides, Fujimaru, shouldn't you be looking for our mysterious new Servant? He's made it clear he shouldn't be by himself for long."
"You don't need to remind me…" Ritsuka couldn't help but wonder exactly who Decade would get into a fight with next...
Meanwhile, with Decade…
"So did you ever manage to find that lost friend of yours?" Merlin asked Decade as they walked the halls of Novum Chaldea. After walking off and wandering for some time, the Rider-Class Servant had bumped into the Caster, who in turn invited Decade to walk with him.
"Eventually. Took way too long that stupid sword though," Decade replied truthfully, "...Which one were you?"
"Number 7. The one whose tower you turned upside down."
"All of the towers I visited turned upside down," Decade said, "Don't think you're that special."
"And what happened after that?" Merlin was not at all disturb by the slight at his character.
"Nothing much, I didn't even manage to get a new card because that thief stole it from me," Decade complained before grinning, "At least I managed to get my payback."
"You stole something from him?"
"I borrowed them," Decade corrected Merlin, "And besides, they belonged to me first."
"Are talking about the card or-"
"Both the card and something else." Decade answered, "As I said, they belonged to me first. He should have known I would borrow them at some point."
"You mean steal," Merlin corrected.
"Borrow," Decade corrected in turn.
"Steal."
"Borrow."
"Steal."
"Borrow."
"Steal."
And the two continued the cycle of correcting the other for some time until they come across a familiar face.
"Steal."
"Borrow."
"Stea- Oh, my King," Merlin interrupted himself to bow to a passing-by Altria.
"Hmm? Merlin, and…" Altria had an unreadable expression when she saw who was accompanying her court wizard.
"On your way to visit Madrid?" Decade asked, "And he meant 'borrow'."
"What?" Neither of those two sentences made sense to her.
"Don't mind him, my King. And he meant 'Mordred' and 'steal'." Merlin corrected again.
"No, I have other more important matters to attend to. I don't have time for Mordred," Altria shook her head before leaving the two.
"...You really are a terrible father…and it's 'borrow'."
"Steal."
"Borrow."
Even later…
Ritsuka wasn't sure where he was. The best he could say was that he was in a quarry if the nearby excavators and other large drilling equipment were of any indication. Another thing worth noting was that he was on top of one of said equipment for some reason.
'Is this a dream?' He thought to himself. He tried to look around but couldn't. However, what did happen was him taking a few steps forward, completely unable to control himself.
After a couple of seconds of his body continuing to move on its own, Ritsuka sat down and peered over the side of the equipment to see… two armored figures fighting a bunch of black-cloaked humanoid monsters? What?
As the two, one black and the other red, continued fighting on the ground below, he heard someone talking behind him. Because he was unable to move, Ritsuka couldn't see who was behind him.
"Aren't you going to join the battle?" The person asked him.
"I've got the gist of those guys," He replied, although not with his voice, but Decade's. It was also then when he realized that he was wearing the Rider Servant's clothes. The ones he was wearing when he was summoned, that is, "So I might as well observe from high up."
So this was Decade's memories.
"Zi-O, try using this!" He heard one of the two fighting below, the red one, shout before throwing something magenta at the black one.
Catching whatever the thing was, the black-armored one expressed some confusion, "Eh? What's this?"
"It's the watch that Rider had," The red one explained as he punched one of the cloaked monsters away.
'Rider…'
"That Rider? Alright." The black one stared at the magenta watch(?) in his hands for a moment before pressing a button on it-
De-De-Decade!
-and inserting it into his belt buckle.
'Decade…'
The black one then pressed a button on top of his belt and spun the buckle.
Kamen Ride. Wow!Decade. Decade. Decade!
He wouldn't say he woke up with a start. Rather, Ritsuka groaned as he slowly opened his eyes to his dark and cold bedroom, still wearing his pajamas.
Of course, it was a dream. It wasn't the first time he experienced something like this and chances are it won't be the last.
"Decade…" He mumbled drowsily. There were a lot of questions in his mind now but two stuck out. Who were those two, and why was Decade watching that battle.
Once again, another mystery was added to the pile.
Before he could ponder any further, Ritsuka shivered as he felt a rush of cold air. At least there was one mystery that didn't involve Decade. Why was it colder than usual? While Novum Chaldea was in the middle of the ocean, it wasn't normally this cold.
It took him a few moments to find out the reason for that.
"Hey...you're hogging the blanket…"
A/N: And C5 is done. Was it good? Was it bad? Was it somewhere in between? That's for you to decide!
In FGO news, Lostbelt 4 is coming out in a few days! Are you going to try your hand on the gacha and try getting Arjuna Over God? I sure am not because I blew all my SQ trying to get Jeanne Alter and only managed to get my Salieri to NP5! …No, I didn't even manage to get a single 'how sad' boi either. Regardless, prepare yourself for slightly slower updates as I try and complete the Indian Lostbelt in between procrastination!
And in Rider news, the final boss of Saber is here (well, last week actually but I forgot to bring it up) and it's...Kamen Rider Sushiman! Wait, no. It's Solomon, my bad. And next week, it's the debut of Saber's Final Form, and I have absolutely no clue how I feel about it. While blue is my favorite color, I don't think Saber is pulling it off too well. But we all know that the true Final Form revealed in the final episode will be Almighty Dragon or whatever they'll call the base form.
As always, leave a review and all that stuff.