Hey guys,
So, I know it's been a bit. Sorry about that, things got a bit... busy for me recently.
But enough about THAT, let's go over reviews!
To Revamped Persona: Who Knows ;)
To Beardonator: He's met: Build, Cross-Z, Drive, Decade, Fourze, W, Ex-Aid, Zero One (sorta), and Geiz. And he has the power of: Build, Cross-Z, Fourze, and Ex-Aid.
To Cross-Z Magma: First, yes. Second, Yes. Third, Yes. Lastly, you're about to find out.
Alright, thank you all for reading, and remember, Chapter 9 will be released a week from now.
Enjoy the chapter!
"...Alright, now that we're settled…" I began, opening my eyes as I sat on a chair in front of the four members of Team RWBY sitting in front of me. "Now's a good enough time as any I guess."
"You guess?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow.
I let out a sigh as I placed my head in my head for a moment before sitting back up straight. "I think it's time I start placing more… trust in the four of you. You're my teammates, something that while admittedly might not be true once I have a full team, is still a fact that won't change even when that happens. I need to have your backs and I need to know you guys will have mine. And that kind of trust can't be built upon lies, because then… well, then we have days like this weekend."
"Bryce-" Ruby spoke up, but I cut her off with a raise of my hand.
"Ruby." I said, turning to look at the Leader of the team before me. "Trust me."
"You're really going through with this, huh." Yang said, crossing her arms.
I gave a brief nod. "What exactly are you talking about, Bryce?" Blake asked, narrowing her yellow eyes at me.
"The truth is, and I know that I'm going to have a hard time convincing some of you, is that… Screw it-I'm not from Remnant." I said, pausing to gauge the reactions of everyone else in the room. The whole of Team RWBY was staring at me with varied expressions. Ruby's eyes were wide, less an indication of surprise and more shock of that I went along with it. Yang's normally free spirited expression had hardened slightly, a supportive smile on her face as she nodded at me. I glanced over at Blake, who was looking at me with firm eyes, she wasn't immediately speaking against what I just said, so that was good at least.
Weiss raised an eyebrow, confirming my thought that she was going to be the hardest to prove my story too. "I'm sorry, you're not from… Remnant? I hope you understand how ridiculous you sound right now."
"Hey, he's telling the truth!" Ruby spoke up, leaning forwards towards Weiss.
"I don't lie, not on purpose anyways and definitely not to friends." I said, my hands gripping my pants as I looked at Weiss, a calm expression forced on my face. "And I do understand how ridiculous I sound, but the truth of the matter here is that I'm not lying."
"...I think he should keep talking." Blake said, grabbing my attention as I turned to look at the Faunus, who hadn't broken her sightline with me since I first spoke up. I noticed the ribbon held in her hands, and the cat ears perched upon her head out in the open. "Jumping to conclusions is what got us here in the first place. That's what you said earlier, so it would be rude to not do the same for you as you did for me earlier."
I smiled lightly, before shaking my head lightly. "Thanks… Right, well… Bluntly speaking, I come from… Considering how things have been and turned out, better to say a parallel universe or an alternate dimension. My world wasn't called Remnant, just Earth, yes laugh up the fact we named our planet dirt." I said, turning to look at Ruby out of the corner of my eye.
"I-I w-wasn't!" Ruby tried to defend herself, though her slightly failed attempts to stifle her laughter proved the contrary.
"There's a bunch of differences I can start listing about how out of depth I was when I found myself here. The fact that there's a chunk of the moon blown open when there really shouldn't be. The fact that I didn't even know what the Grimm were until one tried to bite my head off, or the lack of an Aura. Hell, the Faunus weren't a real thing in my world. At most there was the concept but no actual people were Faunus."
"This is… the most insane thing I think I've ever heard." Weiss said, crossing her arms as she looked at me. "A world without Grimm? And you say you don't have an Aura, but it could just be you haven't had it unlocked. I can't believe what I'm hearing."
"I can." Blake spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "The first week of classes he kept doing double takes whenever he saw our Faunus classmates walking around. I can tell the difference between surprise at something unknown, and someone being…"
"Racist?" I spoke up, getting a nod from Blake.
"Alright fine, but what about his Aura, it could be he just didn't have it unlocked." Weiss pressed.
"If his Aura could've been unlocked I would've been a lot happier a while ago…" Yang said, glaring at Weiss.
"Huh?" Weiss blinked in shock at her blonde teammate, leaning back at the force behind the glare.
"Before I got into Beacon, Yang and I were doing some hand to hand practice. Of course there was an…" I paused as I looked over at Yang before looking back at Weiss. "Accident that had me sent to the ER. If it wasn't for a skilled surgeon there I would've probably died. In situations like mine I believe it's common practice to unlock the aura of the patient to minimize the chances of losing said patient, but unfortunately, I didn't have an aura to be unlocked."
"...But what about those Riders you and Ruby keep talking about? How do you know so much about them if you're not from our world?" Weiss asked.
"Well, because in my world they existed there too." I said, watching as Blake and Weiss looked at me in surprise. "Well, not exactly… Their… Legends did at the very least."
"Legends?" Blake asked.
"Right, so… to say this with a bit of… I forget the word, but basically to put things in a more… welcoming light or something along those lines," I began, rubbing my hands together lightly. "My world is… special. On Earth, it wouldn't be wrong to, uh… think of us as… sorta similar to that of curators, in a sense. Though I don't know what kind of means we have to do so, we are able to… convert different legends and history of different realities and turn them into stories. The legends of the different Kamen Riders were one of many of these legends."
"In my world, Kamen Rider is a Super Hero Television show for kids in Japan, a country that's… more or less on the other side of the world from my own. It never officially got localized, but Fan subtitles were what I mainly used to watch the different seasons." I said, shrugging lightly.
Weiss took a deep breath in as she closed her eyes. "Alright, let's say I believe you for a moment, because there's a lot you're spouting up that's too specific overall to come out as off the sleeve. But if you're from a different world like you're saying, then how did you get here to begin with?"
I pulled the Zi-O Ride Watch off the Ride Watch Holder strapped to my left arm, lightly tossing it into the air. "This thing here, or at least I assume it's what dragged me here." I said, catching the Ride Watch and lightly tossing it over to Weiss, who slightly stumbled when she caught the Watch. "Of course, it hasn't done anything like that since I arrived, unless you count it teleporting onto my person when I will it to or something, but no extra-dimensional travel."
"...This is ridiculous." Weiss said bluntly.
"It is." I nodded, crossing my arms to hide the fact I was almost breaking skin with how much my hands were clenching together.
"...I believe him." Ruby spoke up, grabbing the attention of the room onto himself. "...I… Don't remember it really, but just before I found him, I saw a bright flash of light from the clearing before Grimm began to appear."
I blinked, looking at Ruby with surprise. That… I wasn't aware of that, though I guess it wasn't really necessary to be said earlier since she believed my story to begin with, though I guess in retrospect the apparent light show might have had something to do with that.
"...I've never seen someone so thoroughly terrified." Ruby said after a moment, breaking eye contact as she turned to look at Weiss. "He was also spouting off a lot of crazy talk as well after the fight…"
"He did just go through a life threatening experience…" Blake reasoned.
"Do you know what the first thing he said once he was safe?" Ruby asked, leaning forward with a grin. "He asked why the first thing I took notice of was him not knowing what Grimm were instead of how the moon is the moon."
"The moon is in pieces, Ruby. I think asking why a complete sphere of space rock was suddenly blown open by a cannon or something was much more important than some angry wolves." I said, with a roll of my eyes as I looked off to the side.
"Look, what I'm trying to say is that I believe him. He's one of the weirdest guys I know, and not in the normal kind of weird you'd expect!" Ruby said, waving her arms at me.
"Oi…" I glared at the Red Hooded huntress with a deadpan.
"She has a point, Bryce." Yang said with a chuckle. "Someone like… who was the girl we ran into earlier today?"
"Oh, Penny!" Ruby said.
"Yeah, someone like Penny, while weird, at least fits in better than you do in some aspects." Yang said with a shrug. "You're like a physical manifestation of the Uncanny Valley, there's nothing outwardly wrong, but there's something slightly off about it all."
"Oh, you guys have that concept too?" I asked.
"We have since you taught me it." Yang said with a smirk. "And besides, Rubes and I both believe him. I mean, just look at him."
I raised an eyebrow at Yang, trying to give my best look of 'Thoroughly unimpressed' I could to the Blonde Brawler.
"See?" Yang said, motioning to me once again.
I let out a sigh as I shook my head. "...I believe him." I blinked and looked towards Blake. "There's too much evidence pointing towards him telling the truth. Besides, he gave me the benefit of the doubt, so why shouldn't I repay that kindness?"
I felt the edges of my lips tilt upwards slightly as I looked at the faunus. "...Thanks." I said, before I turned to look at Weiss.
The Heiress let out a sigh. "It's not that I don't want to believe it…"
"It's just too insane to really believe, yeah?" I asked.
"Not how I would've worded it, but correct." Weiss nodded.
I let out a sigh as I looked down at my hands, before a thought crossed my mind as I fished for my phone from one of my pockets. "One second…" I said, before pulling out my phone.
"I've seen that a few times before…" Weiss noted, looking at the object in my hand. "What is it?"
"It's a Smart Phone." I said, turning the display on, showing an image of Build on my lockscreen. "It's sort of like a scroll, but there's a bit… more to it than a scroll, though there's some things the scroll has that this doesn't, but that's not the point of this whole thing." I said, looking down at the screen as I searched through my files before I paused as I looked back up at the girls in front of me.
"Interesting…" Weiss said, looking at the device in my hand.
"...Actually, I think I might have something here that might help me prove something." I said, opening up my gallery. I scrolled down a bit before I tapped my screen and turned the phone towards Team RWBY. "This right here is a photo I took a few years ago."
While I couldn't see the photo at the moment, I knew what it showed. The CN tower all lit up with the full moon hanging overhead as the cityscape of Toronto shined in the background.
"The tower you see lit up is known as the CN Tower. It's one of my world's tallest buildings, at one point holding the record for tallest building on the planet, but it hasn't held that record in… well, I think a little under a decade at this point." I said, shrugging. "The city it resides in is Toronto, the capital city of the Province of Ontario. I was down seeing relatives when I took the photo."
"Wow…" Ruby looked at the photo with what might've been stars in her eyes if I didn't realize the lights to be the reflection of the photo.
"You were holding back on us, man." Yang said, looking up at me with a smirk. "How come you never showed us any of this earlier?"
"...Well…" I paused, before shrugging. "In retrospect, it probably wouldn't really help me get my grips on things, maybe even make things worse. Though I can't say for certain."
"...The moon's whole." Weiss noted, her eyes narrowing as she stared at my phone.
Blake sat up straight. "I believe we found some hard proof then." She said, looking over at me.
"Very well. At this point if I argued against it, I'd just be acting petty." Weiss said, brushing her white hair over her shoulder.
I let out a long of relief as I let my shoulders drop slightly. "Thank god…" I muttered under my breath as I shook my head and spoke up. "Well, now that that's been taken care of, there's something else I need to talk about."
I turned my phone around and switched over to the video app on my phone, before turning on a video and turning the screen to face Team RWBY. "Please watch this, and save all questions to the end."
The video began slowly, pulling out to the backs of multiple statues of different Heisei Riders, as music began to play from the phone speakers. Soon, a statue of a man in front of a recreation of the Zi-O holographic clock used during the henshin stood at the front of the strange encirclement of rider statues. The man's face was different, unknown to the viewers.
The ground beneath the gold plated foot, as a man in gold and black armour stepped forward, slowly coming to a stop in front of the stone statue. In english on the front of the statue sat a plaque.
'Commemorating the first transformation of Tokiwa Sougo'.
The camera moved, slowly panning up to show the side profile of the armoured figure. It was similar in design and concept to the Zi-O suit, but there was something almost regal about it, in a twisted sort of way. The armoured figure's helmet tilted upwards, his red visor shining lightly as the cries of men and women surged towards him in some form of battle cry. He stood firm, as the army drew closer and closer with each passing moment.
"Charge!" Exclaimed one of the Soldiers, as a torrent of ammunition ripped through the air, slamming into an invisible shield a few feet away from the man in gold.
The man raised his hand up slowly, before flicking it open upwards, as a large shockwave surged out around him, knocking back the soldiers as the air around them combusted, exploding outwards and decimating the army's forces.
The man looked up, watching as countless missiles closed in on him, before raising his hand once more, stopping them in their tracks. He gave a passive look to the right, watching as a giant robot lifted it's foot, bringing it down to stomp on the man.
He paid it no mind, moving his hand to catch the metal foot in some kind of energy field, as he sent it flying back, before quickly moving onto the next robot that had advanced. He waved his arm, the missiles hanging in the air flew outwards, exploding on contact with the armada of robots, knocking them down.
The man paused for a moment, before extending his right hand to the side forcefully. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, before everything around him froze. He looked out at the soldiers he chose to leave movable in the frozen time, his voice sending chills down each of their spines.
"You fools could never defeat me." He said, tilting his head a bit. "And do you know why?"
The man brought his right hand to his chest, a pulse of energy ripped through the air, disintegrating everything in its path, the soldiers unable to even scream before they were dust in the wind.
"Tsukuyomi!" One man shouted, before throwing someone backwards into a ditch behind him, before he succumbed to his fate as well, turning to dust.
I paused the video, bringing the phone out in front of me before I rewinded it so it showed Ohma Zi-O with his hand outstretched. It had been a while since I saw him in some form or another, either from picture or dream. I narrowed my eyes, it was a foreboding sight, especially since you knew that this was the dark future awaiting you someday.
I turned the phone around and showed the image to Team RWBY once more. "I'm sure some of you can see the resemblance." I said, watching as Weiss pulled the Zi-O Ride Watch up and twisted the dial, before holding it up next to my phone. "This right here… This is Ohma Zi-O. He, or at least some version of him, is apparently… Me, 50 odd years in the future."
I closed my eyes with a sigh. "Ohma Zi-O… The king of time and heir to the power of all riders. The most reviled overlord of all time…"
I huffed turning the phone around to glare at the screen. "How messed up is that, right?" I asked, closing my phone with a huff as I looked up at Team RWBY.
"Bryce… you…" Ruby began.
"I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time believing this. You… become an evil overlord in the future?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow. "You… of ALL people? You're pulling my leg here."
"And I thought I was having a hard enough time believing you to be from another world… but then you come around with this?" Weiss asked.
"...Why show us this?" Blake asked, crossing her arms.
"...Because I'm scared, honestly." I said, leaning back. "Woz is apparently my attendant or something from the future, you know, the one where I'm full blown evil and all that? And he's doing his best to get me to walk down this… Path of Ohma or something."
"Not a bad name." Yang said.
"Ignoring the things I came up with on the spot to explain details." I said, ignoring Yang's comment. "I just… I don't understand how I could possibly be this guy… Like, what the hell happens that makes me go this out of character?"
I let out a sigh as I rubbed a hand through my hair. "I guess what I'm asking is that… Well…" I pursed my lips as I stared at the floor. "...I'm worried… Worried that at one point, I'm going to do something that… that I won't be able to turn back on, something that'll make me him… and not me."
"...So I guess what I want to say is… If anything ever happens to me, and I ever seem to look like I'll end up like Ohma Zi-O… I want to know you guys will help pull me back." I said, looking up at the four before me. I let out a sigh as I stood up. "Look… This is a lot to take in, and I think for now we've had enough revelations for today… I'm gonna go out and get some air. We can talk more tomorrow."
"Bryce." Weiss spoke up as I turned around. I paused, looking over my shoulder at the Schnee Heiress. "...You might be crazy, but you're our teammate. And I'd be rude to go back on my word so easily."
"Huh, 'If something big comes up, you go to your teammates', right?" I asked, turning around slightly to face her.
"Correct." Weiss said with a nod.
"I think we all agree when we say that we're more than willing to help you, Bryce." Ruby said, looking over at her teammates. "We have your back!"
I smiled, before turning around and walking towards the door. "Thanks, guys… Right, I need some air… Night." I said, opening the door and closing it behind me. I let out a long sigh as I walked down the hallway, slowly making my way towards the roof.
I opened the door to the rooftop, the crisp night air passing over me as I let out another sigh as I looked out at the city of Vale that sat off in the distance.
"Hm… you really are different from him…"
My eyes widened as I spun around, turning towards the source of the voice. I blinked as I looked out at the empty rooftop, whoever had just spoken long gone.
"What the… Who…?" I turned around once more, narrowing my eyes slightly as I looked to the side. "...He… Where have I heard his voice before?"
"Uhr… I see things are going well!" Sougo said, walking up to the Time Jacker in question.
"What do you want?" Uhr asked, crossing his arms as he glared at the masked figure in front him. "In case you didn't notice, I'm looking for someone that fits the Den-O criteria."
"Ah yes, the whole 'Super Bad Luck' thing." Sougo nodded, crossing his arms. "I imagine that must really be making things tough. I've counted, what, 3? 4 people the Ride Watch has rejected so far?"
Uhr looked over at Sougo with a fierce glare. "You've been following me?"
"Yeah, I have." Sougo nodded, placing his hands in his pockets. "I know your last attempt didn't go so well, and I wanted to help out. Least I can do for one of my teammates."
The Time Jacker narrowed his eyes at the masked man. "What's your game here?"
"Honestly, nothing. I just want Another Den-O out in the wild. And if I have to help you to get that happening faster, well… that's two birds with one stone right there." Sougo said with a shrug.
"More like one bird using me as the stone…" Uhr mumbled under his breath as he walked off.
"Hey, don't be like that…" Sougo called out, staying put as the other Time Jacker walked off. "Well, whatever. Might want to keep watch just in case there…" Sougo snapped his fingers, time resuming around him as he blended in with the moving crowd, slowly following Uhr into an alley off to the side. "But man… is it bright out or what?"
Sougo paused as he looked ahead, watching Uhr stand before a brown haired man with a red plaid scarf around his neck. "...Where have I seen that scarf before?"
"I don't think I've ever seen someone with that much bad luck before." Uhr spoke up, as he walked towards the man. "How about we strike a deal then? I can get rid of that bad luck, and you become King for me?" Uhr pulled out the Another Ride Watch, shaking it lightly as he looked up at the man.
"That watch…" The man said, his voice slightly quiet as he looked at the object in Uhr's hand. "Are you a Time Jacker?"
Sougo's eyes widened in realization, as he almost opened his mouth to speak before he stopped talking, as a thought wormed its way into his mind. "...That… that could work nicely…" He muttered to himself.
"W-what the-!?" Uhr took a step back. "How did you-!?"
"Looks like we found them, then." The man said, pulling out a silver belt before placing it on his waist. He pulled out a black train pass of some sort and pulled his arm back. "Momotaros, let's go! Henshin!" He shouted, swinging his arm down before his body froze in place as Sougo took a step forward.
"Well, I sure am glad I followed you now…" Sougo said, walking over to Uhr. "And what a find you had… Ryotaro, or otherwise known as Kamen Rider Den-O…"
"Dammit, we need to go!" Uhr said.
"Or, we can do something else." Sougo said, taking the Den-O Another Ride Watch out of Uhr's hands.
"Hey!"
"Just watch." Sougo said, turning back to face Ryotaro. "Hate to say it buddy, but it looks like your bad luck decided to strike again. No harm no foul though, happens to the best of us."
Sougo's eyes turned slightly to the left, before he jumped backwards, avoiding a punch from a red demon looking figure. "Ryotaro! Teme…! What did you do to him!?" The red oni looking creature asked as he ran forward. Sougo let out a sigh, before ducking back and extending his free hand outwards quickly, pausing time once more as the demon stood still.
"And Momotaros too! Oh, this is better than I was expecting!" Sougo said, taking a step back as he stood up straight.
"Kono Yaro… Let me out of this!" The red demon looking figure shouted, his head whipping around wildly. "I'll make you regret doing this to Ryotaro!"
"Momotaros, you're great and I love what you do, but unfortunately, I have other things I have to do and get done, so I'm gonna need to to shut up for now." Sougo said, waving his hand idly as he turned to face Ryotaro. "Now then, here's how this is going to work."
Sougo pressed down on the Another Ride Watch, activating it as he smiled behind the mask.
{DEN-O!}
"Whenever you see Kamen Rider Zi-O, this will activate, and you will become Another Den-O, and your sole purpose will be to destroy that Kamen RIder." Sougo said, before thrusting the Ride Watch into Ryotaro's chest, before he turned around and faced Uhr, as Ryotaro transformed behind him. "Now then, shall we get going. I can explain my reasoning as we walk if that would make things better?"
"Yes, explain." Uhr said with a glare.
"Gladly." Sougo said, snapping his fingers as time resumed behind him. "Though best we do it away from prying eyes…"