Disclaimer: Nothing in this fic belongs to me.
Journey Through Remnant
Chapter 20: What's Everyone Up To?
2020: World of ?, Unknown Location...
"Have the test subjects been prepared?"
"Yes, Overseer,"
"Bring them out. The Director is expecting our next report."
"What will we be using with this new batch?"
"Use samples of the Bugster Virus and Nebula Gas. We need more data regarding them. There are also some of the remaining GaiaMemories that need to be tested. Use them with the ones with animal traits."
"Affirmative. I'll make the necessary arrangements."
"Make haste. Regardless of whether they are defective or not, they will be part of the attack force the Dimensional Research Division is assembling."
"Understood."
With Tsukasa and Woz...
While the Eiji's and Sougo's groups were busy with their own problems, Tsukasa and Woz were doing their own thing. Now that he only had a fellow Rider that could take care of himself with him, Tsukasa took the chance to continue investigating his Another counterpart while waiting for Woz's book to change. In the roughly 4 days since they left Ozpin's office, the duo had visited the Worlds of Wizard, Kiva, and Ex-Aid and were now in Hibiki's. With the exception of Ex-Aid's World, it had been relatively peaceful there (Genm was making a ruckus in his World).
"That makes it 9 different Worlds now, right?" Woz asked.
"Yes, and I'm still not even close to finding out who he is," Tsukasa grumbled. He's already been to over half of the Heisei Rider Worlds by this point if one were to include the Worlds of Zi-O and Decade. He went to the Worlds of Double, Drive, Den-O, Build, and Gaim during his first investigation.
"Maybe you should get some rest. You've now been up for an entire day now," Woz reminded. The retainer, on the other hand, was feeling fine as he had taken some time to rest back in the World of Ex-Aid, "Houjou Emu even told you to do so."
"Later." The Destroyer simply waved off Woz's concern and tried to decide their next destination.
"Might I ask why you are so fixated on Another Decade?" Woz understood that it was mainly because the monster was Tsukasa's opposite, but he wanted to know why the magenta Rider was over-exhausting himself that much.
"...When we first encountered him in Beacon, there was something...familiar about Another Decade. And it was not because we shared the same power; I didn't feel like that when I fought Swartz." Tsukasa admitted.
"And that sense of familiarity is what's driving you?"
"Yes."
"I see."
"..." After a moment of contemplation, Tsukasa finally decided their next destination. "Woz, none of you met any of the Showa Riders, correct?"
"No, my lord didn't ever get the chance."
"Lucky you then." Tsukasa half-heartedly congratulated, opening a dimensional wall, "You'll be the first in your group to do so."
"Who are we meeting this time?" Woz, while never meeting any of them, knew the names of the Showa Riders
"Minami Kotaro, Black RX. He was the first Rider to be active during the Heisei era. Maybe there might be something there to help us. I've been to the World of RX once, maybe Another Decade's been there too," It was a very long stretch, but by this point, Tsukasa was desperate. "Come."
"Fine." Woz was doubtful of it, but he had nothing better to do. Following Decade into the wall to the next World...
World of Remnant, CCT Tower...
"You are Hino Eiji?" Jin eyed the other Kamen Rider. What was so important about this man if he was told to find him specifically?
"What?" On the other hand, Eiji was just plain confused, "I mean, yes, I'm Hino Eiji. And you're Kamen Rider..?"
"Jin." The Humagear repeated.
"Eh?" It took a couple of moments before Eiji understood what he meant, "Oh! Jin's also your Rider name! Got it. So...why were you looking for me?"
"I was sent to warn you... Something's coming here. And soon." Jin grimly answered, earning a puzzled look from not only Eiji but the entire crowd that had gathered.
"Hello! Over here!" Someone shouted from within the hoard of students, waving their hand in the air as to catch Jin's attention, "Yeah, what the hell are you talking about?!"
"Ignoring the swearing..." Eiji muttered, turning to the crimson Rider, "Can you explain a bit more? Who sent you here?"
"The Ark will arrive here soon, and when it does, we need to prepare for it. At least, that was what that man said." Jin said. Once again, he only got confused looks.
"The Ark?" "This is a Huntsman Academy. Who would try and invade this place?" "That's not really all that helpful, birdy!"
"Birdy?!" Whoever said that is about to be stabbed.
"Jin," Eiji said, directing attention back to himself, "I think it's best we go somewhere private."
"And where would that be?" Jin's eyes darted across the hoard, knowing full well that they'll most likely follow them.
"...The Combat Arena?" That's a good shot as any (though not by much...)
2020: World of Double, Narumi Detective Agency...
Despite being blissfully unaware of what was transpiring back in her World, Blake Belladonna was unable to go to sleep. Instead, she sat by the window in the agency's main office, staring out at the intact moon. Ren and Sougo (along with Philip) were sleeping in the incredibly spacious backroom while she was supposed to stay in the bed that was out front. Shotaro, after making sure that the three of them would be fine staying at the agency for the night, had gone back to his own home.
She didn't quite know what was keeping her up, only that she was. With nothing left to do, she resorted to admiring the beauty of an unshattered moon while reflecting on the past few days. More importantly, the past few hours. Going through different universes, learning of the different heroes that protect it, and their reasons for doing so. She didn't mention it to anyone, but she was still thought of Doctor Oobleck's words from before the Mountain Glenn. Why did she want to become a Huntress? Maybe that was what kept her up.
Before she could continue pondering the thought, Blake heard a quiet clanking from behind the door connecting to the backroom. Shortly after, the door swung out slowly and silently, with Philip tiptoeing out. Clearly, he thought that Blake was asleep and didn't want to wake her up accidentally. The surprise on his face when he spotted the cat Faunus by the window confirmed it.
"Couldn't sleep?" The Rider asked as he sat on one of the chairs across from Blake.
"No. Not really," Blake told him, "You?"
"No. Yours and Sougo's arrival has me worried," Philip shook his head, "From what DiEnd said, something is going to happen here soon. I'm sure Shotaro is equally worried about it too."
"...What are you fighting for?" She asked from out the blue. "You and Shotaro."
"Simple. To make sure no one in the city cries," The right half of Double revealed without hesitation, "It's not as big as some of the others, but it's our reason."
"..."
"If I may ask, what is it that you and Ren do in your World? I'm curious as to what your World is like."
"It's...not as peaceful as this one or Sougo's," While monsters do run around and cause havoc in the Rider Worlds, it's not as terrible as on Remnant. "My World has monsters known as Grimm. Because of them, humanity hasn't expanded much outside of the Four Kingdoms minus a couple of cities." While some aspects of Remnant were more developed than the Rider Worlds (like technology), there were still more points in the latter's favor.
"Four Kingdoms? And what do you do?"
"I'm a Huntress. Although I'm still in training, it's my job to protect humanity and fight the Creatures of Grimm."
"Hmm... There's truly a lot of difference from the other Rider Worlds."
"'Other Rider Worlds'? Remnant doesn't have its own Kamen Rider like you and the professors."
"Really?" Now that was news to Philip, "Then what was Kadoya doing on your World? With no Riders, there really shouldn't be any reason for him to be there?" Philip tried to come up with a reason for the Destroyer's appearance on Remnant but couldn't come up with any.
"What is his reason? I mean, why did he even take Sougo, Ren, and I around in the first place?"
"For you and Ren, only Kadoya can answer that. As for Sougo... To put it simply, it is his job to help the Kamen Riders. No matter where he goes, in the end, Decade's role is to aid the Riders he meets."
"I see..." With nothing left to say, Blake fell quiet, looking outside again. Understanding the fact that she didn't want to talk anymore, Philip decided to take his leave.
"Best you get some sleep. Something might happen tomorrow." With that advice, the Rider retreated back to the backroom...
World of Remnant, Beacon Academy...
"So...Jin," Eiji was anxious, "What's exactly is the Ark? Why is it coming here?"
The two had moved to the Combat Arena and locked the door behind them to make sure no one tries to sneak in. While Tsukasa's room might have been a better idea, Eiji didn't have a key and was confident the room was locked up in the two months they were gone.
"The Ark...is an A.I.," Jin explained, leaning against the fence separating the seats and the arena, the SlashRiser still on his waist, "One that was corrupted and now seeks the extinction of humanity."
"That's...new." The A.I. part. Not the extinction.
"I don't know why it's coming here. Just that it is." That part is still a mystery to Jin. The man hadn't explained that to him.
"Okay then. And who sent you?"
"Some man in a white jacket. He told me to come to Beacon and look for OOO."
"White jacket?" There was only one man with a white jacket that can travel through Worlds, "What does Kaitou have to do with this..?"
"You are a Rider too, right?" Jin asked, "How strong are you?"
"Uh... Pretty strong, I guess?" Eiji answered both truthfully and humbly, "How strong is the Ark? I'm guessing that it's the one who injured you. Do you need to see a doctor?"
"No. I don't need doctors," Being a robot, there wasn't much a doctor can really do for him. Taking a glance at the arena below him, Jin asked another question, "This place is for training, right?" One of the students earlier mentioned that Beacon was a Huntsman Academy.
"Yeah. Why?"
"..."
"...Jin?"
Without warning, Jin suddenly grabbed Eiji by his shirt and threw him over the fence.
"OW! Jin, what are you doing!?" Rubbing the back of his head, Eiji pushed himself up as the Humagear jumped down onto the arena as well.
"Before I tell you more, I need to know how strong you are," Jin told the other Rider, "If you're not strong enough, I can't fight alongside you against the Ark."
"Is the Ark really that powerful?" Eiji didn't know it yet, but the Ark had already killed six of the eight Riders of the World of Zero-One. Jin didn't want to end up leading Eiji to his death.
"Yes." The Humagear was blunt, taking his ProgriseKey from the chain.
INFERNO WING!
BURN RISE! Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider.
"Henshin!"
SLASH RISE! BURNING FALCON!
The strongest wings bearing the fires of hell.
Transforming into his Rider form, Jin watched as Eiji relented and took out his own Driver.
"Fine, fine," Realizing that Jin was serious about all this and wouldn't reveal anything more, Eiji put on the O-Driver, "Fire, right? Then these medals would be best for you."
Eiji took out three new Core Medals, this set being blue. The first Medal depicted a killer whale, the second an eel, and the last showing an octopus. Inserting the three into the slots, Eiji tilted the Driver before scanning them with the O Scanner.
"Henshin!"
Shachi! Unagi! Tako! Sha-Sha-ShaUTa! Sha-Sha-Shauta!
Utilizing a completely new form, Eiji transformed into his own Rider form. His helmet had yellow visors, was in the shape of a killer whale, and colored blue and white. His arms, like his helmet, were blue and white as well, with the addition of most of his arms being black. Additionally, attached to his wrists and shoulders were blue whips. Finally, his legs were mostly blue and had the design of suction cups of an octopus. On his chest, the three new images were depicted. This was OOO's ShaUTa Form. While it didn't have that many water abilities, Eiji still thought it would be a good fit to fight Jin.
"Let's go, Jin!"
World of Double, Narumi Detective Agency...
"-ke!" "..."
"-lake!" "..."
"Blake!" Someone shouted into her ear, finally waking her up.
"What?!" The cat Faunus was irritated. She took a look at the clock that hung on the wall, learning that it was only 15 minutes past 7. Normally, it was around this time when she would get up back in Beacon, but she didn't get as much sleep as she usually did.
"Shotaro bought us some breakfast." Sougo, who was the one who woke her up, pointed at the fedora-wearing detective that was taking out several containers from a bag on the other side of the room.
"..."
"Come on, get up already." With that, Sougo went off to get something to eat.
"...Fine," Blake sighed, getting out of the bed.
Sometime later...
A couple of hours passed without much happening. Nobody had come by the office, leaving Shotaro and company to do their own thing. The head detective was typing on an old-school typewriter, Philip was out back questioning Ren and Blake about Remnant, Mick was snoozing away, and Sougo...
"What's the agenda for today? Any cases for us today?" The former King of Time was busy distracting Shotaro from his work.
"'Us'?" A baffled Shotaro repeated, briefly stopping typing, "No offense, kid, but you don't work here."
"Come on," Sougo pleaded, "There's got to be something we can do to pass the time!"
"As much as I also want a more...eventful case," Shotaro grumbled, typing away, "It's better that there isn't. Much peaceful that way."
"Then what cases do you usually get?" The teen asked.
"Important ones. Now go out back or something; I want to finish this report."
"If you say so..." With no other choice, Sougo walked away to the other side of the room. Coming face-to-face with a wooden door that doubled as a hat rack, the student pulled it open and entered the enormous room.
The backroom wasn't brightly lit, and the walls were a shade of grey. Metal walkways lined up on opposite sides of the room with several whiteboards hanging on the side away from the entrance, along with some commodities such as couches and a desk. In between the two walkways, below on the ground, was a steel stage. On the wall on the same side as the door, a large circular contraption was connected to the stage. Opposite to it was a huge garage door.
Blake, Ren, and Phillip were discussing something at the couches, presumably about Remnant.
Sougo carefully walked down the spiral staircase before making his way up to the walkway to check up on the three.
"-tresting. And every Huntsman and Huntress study at the four Academies you speak of?" Philip questioned.
"Most of them," Ren answered, "There are some that are self-taught, but they would still need to get registered as official Huntsman before they could legally be hired."
"How've you guys been doing?" Sougo sighed, slumping onto the couch.
"It's been great," Philip grinned, "It's refreshing to learn about something completely new without the Gaia Library."
"Nice to see that someone has been enjoying themselves…" Sougo muttered/sighed.
Turning back to the two interviewees, Philip continued to ask them about their World, "How about these Faunus you mentioned? Do they get a similar training as humans?"
"Faunus?" Sougo was pretty sure that this was the first time he's heard that term.
Blake was the one who answered Philip's question, "Most of them do. I know several Faunus in training to be Huntsman in the academies. There's even a Faunus Headmaster."
"Uh... Hey Ren? What exactly is a Faunus?"
"They are people back in Remnant with animal traits," Ren was kind enough to answer the teen's question, "Unfortunately, there are some humans that don't look at them fondly."
"Oh... Got it," Realizing that it was a sensitive topic, Sougo moved away from the topic, "So, Philip. Do you have any idea why Kaitou wanted us here?"
"No, not yet. All I have to go on is that Remnant is related somehow," The veteran Rider shook his head and turned to the other two, "Did anything happening in your World after Kadoya appeared?"
"There was." Blake answered, "Before we left, there were people going missing appearing around the world."
"That and there were new types of monsters seen. Professor Kadoya even fought two of them that attacked a village." Ren explained further.
"I see..." Philip hummed, "Did either of you found out what was behind them?"
"Kind of. The professor and I saw them, but he never told me their names."
"What did they look like?"
"They were dressed in white suits and opened a purple vortex. My teammates said that the monsters Professor Kadoya fought afterward came out a purple vortex too."
The type of clothes Ren saw them wearing, and the fact that they sent monsters were all Philip needed to know who they were, "Foundation X?"
With Tsukasa and Woz...
"What exactly are we looking for in this World?" Woz asked. Granted, he wasn't sure what they were looking for in the other Worlds either. The two were starting their search in Tokyo, as Tsukasa had assumed that there was where they would have the best shot at finding clues. As Tsukasa liked to do, they had first appeared on top of a building. The retainer wasn't sure that letting a sleep-deprived man be the one to plot their course was a sound idea. For all he knew, they might be in a completely different World.
From a distance, Woz was sure he heard the rumbling and explosions.
"Anything really," Tsukasa said, shaking his head to get rid of the drowsiness. With his luck, there should be something happening soon. In his exhaustion, he didn't hear the distant explosions.
"Are you sure that this is even the World of RX?" Over the city skylines, Woz spotted two large figures fighting.
"Even if we're in the wrong World, as long as we're in a Rider World, it'll be fine." Tsukasa wasn't facing the same direction as Woz and didn't see the two figures.
"And if we are not in a Rider World?"
"I'll take a nap, then."
"Then you better get some rest. I do not think any Riders, Showa or Heisei, have a giant robot the size of a building." Woz said with a neutral expression. In the distance, an unfamiliar giant robot with a sword and shield was fighting an equally large monster. The most immediate detail Tsukasa noticed in his drowsy state was the large lion head on its chest.
"..." Of course they would be in a Sentai World. Why wouldn't they be?
Destroy Everything!
Connect Everything!
A/N: Managed to get chapter 20 before February! And it's all over the place. Why? I don't know. I just write whatever I feel like might be good. Is it good? No idea.
Forgot to mention the last chapter about the whole banana gag. I added it in simply as a reference to the other Kaitou of the franchise and as a call back to episode 47 of Zi-O. That's it. I didn't mean Cross-Z to be referenced as well.
Anyway, some stuff happened in this chapter. Jin challenged OOO because he didn't want to drag Eiji into the fight with Ark unless he's proven himself. Remember, this Jin had watched all the other Zero-One Riders die and didn't want to see another one dead.
Another thing that happened is that the W Riders are now aware that Foundation X is experimenting in Remnant. Does this mean they'll go to Remnant? Not sure yet.
Finally, Tsukasa and Woz have ended up in a Sentai World by accident. Which Sentai is it? That, I do know. So let me know which one you think it is.
As always, leave a review saying what you think I'm doing wrong or what's bad about the story. See ya next chapter.
EDIT:
I, like an idiot, forgot to add the title at the top of the chapter. That's been remedied. I also added a couple of additional detail of the Sentai robot (Granted, you guys probably didn't notice this small update unless you're on mobile or something...)