Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider or RWBY (and starting with this chapter, I have to say that I don't own Super Sentai either)
Journey Through Remnant
Chapter 21: The Warriors Sworn to Protect All Lives
With Tsukasa and Woz, Super Sentai World...
'Which team used that one…?' Tsukasa thought as he snapped some pictures of the stories-high robot. In his bid to try and go to the World of Black RX, Tsukasa had somehow accidentally ended up in a Sentai's World instead. One that he couldn't immediately recognize.
Tsukasa did not usually cross paths with the Super Sentai. When he does, there tends to be something more important than socializing with them. As such, he did not know which team had what outside of a couple he was acquainted with. Lion heads on the chest were not much to really go on. The Shinkengers' Shinken-Oh had one, and he was positive that the robot didn't belong to the Samurai Sentai. The rest of the body did not have many, if any, distinguishing features. At least any that Tsukasa could pick up on.
"The pilots are members of the Super Sentai, correct?" Woz, on the other hand, has never met a single member. He was only aware of them due to his book chronicling Riders' history and some of their interactions. "I wouldn't have been surprised if we ended up in a different Rider World in your current state, but how did you manage to get us in a World belonging to a completely different set of heroes?"
"...Let's just find out what our role here is and leave as soon as we can." Tsukasa didn't bother answering the retainer.
"You're avoiding the question."
"How we got here is not important. What matters is why we're here." The Destroyer was not willing to admit he has no idea either. Not helping matters was that, unlike the Rider Worlds, he does not gain any knowledge regarding the Sentai Worlds (if his time in the Shinkenger's World was anything to go by).
"And what exactly are you wearing?" Speaking of his role, his clothes had changed for the first time in a while. Now he was wearing a white button-up shirt with a black waistcoat and a pair of slacks. Additionally, he also had a tie and a pair of glasses. Despite his clothes changing, he still had his camera with him.
"This is..." Tsukasa looked down at his new attire before grabbing something from his pocket, "A pin?"
"You look like a salaryman," Woz noted.
"Hope not," Tsukasa said as he inspected the emblem pin. It was blue and was in the shape of a rocket with a golden planet orbiting it. Whatever he was, it was still better than being a kuroko, "Looks like they're about to finish things up."
Tsukasa took a few photos as the Sentai cut down the monster with a charged slash with their sword. Just like the monsters the Riders fight, it blew up in a massive explosion.
"Come, let's try finding them." This is going to be a long day.
World of Double, Narumi Detective Agency...
"Foundation X?" After calling Shotaro into the backroom (and subsequently filling him in), the two-in-one detectives began explaining to the trio.
"Yes," Philip nodded, "They're most definitely the ones behind the disappearances in your World."
"They are an organization that, above all, is interested in projects that would give them massive amounts of profits," Shotaro said.
"That's a rather big oversimplification of it, but he's correct."
"So what would they want with people from Blake and Ren's World?" Sougo asked.
"Foundation X usually involves themselves with experiments like GaiaMemories, Cosmic Energy, and the likes," Shotaro explained, but before he could say any more, Ren interrupted him.
"GaiaMemories? Does it have any relation to the Gaia Library you told us about?"
"Yes. As I said before, the Gaia Library contains the knowledge of everything that existed on this Earth. GaiaMemories are created and imbued with the knowledge of the subject it represents. For example..." Philip took a green USB drive with a C designed to look like a gust of wind imprinted on it from his pocket. Simultaneously, Shotaro took out a black one imprinted with a purple J from within his vest.
"My Cyclone Memory contains the knowledge of everything to do with the wind. Shotaro's Joker Memory has the knowledge of something more spiritual, victory."
"Cyclone and Joker?"
ARMOUR TIME! CYCLONE! JOKER! DOUBLE!
Two different memories of a green and black form came to Sougo. One where he fought who he was sure was Woz, and the other where he was fighting a white Rider with a white Kamen Rider with a red Driver that looks like it was missing its right side.
"And what do they do?" Blake asked the two.
"Humans who use GaiaMemories are turned into superhumans known as Dopants." Shotaro put his GaiaMemory back into his vest as he answered the Faunus' question, "Dopants used to be a major problem a few years back. Philip and I used our GaiaMemories to fight them as Kamen Rider Double."
"And this Foundation X are kidnapping people from Remnant and using them for experiments with GaiaMemories?"
"That's most likely the case. Although I don't know why they would want to do that." Shotaro said, "They used to sponsor the production of GaiaMemories but stopped after... never mind, that'll just confuse you more."
"If they wanted to use Dopants again, Foundation X would just create Dummy Kaijins," Philip said, "There must be a reason why they would be taking people from your World. You mentioned something about 'Aura,' right? That everyone in Remnant has the ability to unlock it?"
"Aura?" "Aura?" Shotaro and Sougo, who haven't hear about it before, simultaneously said.
"Yes, but we're sure that it doesn't work away from Remnant."
"What made you two come to this conclusion?"
"Ren and the other found that out, not me."
"Psst, are you understanding what they're talking about?" Sougo whispered to his senior as they listened to the other three.
"Not at all."
"Uh... After we ended up in Sougo's World, we discovered that our Aura wasn't working as it should be. We knew that Dust that loses its power once it leaves Remnant's atmosphere and assumed Aura was the same."
"How long does it take for Aura to recharge once broken?" Philip asked looked as he looked through Shotaro's shelf of detective novels.
"It really depends... What are you doing?" Ren watched as the genius pick one out and inspect the cover. Shotaro, on the other hand, already realized what his partner was about to do.
"Wait, no! Philip, Not that one!" Despite Shotaro's protesting, Philip threw the book at Ren without as if he didn't hear him."Hey!" However, the book didn't hurt as much as Ren would have thought it would. Right before it hit him, a pink barrier briefly appeared and seemed to have absorbed the shock of the blow.
"So that's what Aura looks like. It's completely different than the Maskman's Aura." Philip noted while the others were shocked. When he first heard of Aura, he was reminded of the Sentai that he and Shotaro once fought alongside years back during the Kamen Riders and Super Sentais' fake war.
"That was..."
"Assuming both humans and the Faunus you've mentioned were taken, then Aura must be the reason."
"Wait a minute," Sougo was most definitely not following anything, "You just said Aura doesn't work, but now it does?"
"I'm just as confused as you are," Ren said as he picked up the book before Shotaro snatched it out of the teen's hand.
"Hey, Philip! Be careful with this! Do you know how much it costs to buy a first edition of The Long Goodbye?! I thought you of all people would care about keeping books in good condition." Shotaro grumbled as he returned the book back to his shelf.
"You barely even read it much in the first place."
"Still!"
While the two detectives were arguing, the three dimensionally displaced teens were talking amongst themselves.
"So how does this Aura even work?" Sougo was poking Ren to see if it would activate again, "Why did you even think it wouldn't work in the first place?"
"As I said, when we were in your World, it wouldn't work for some reason. We thought it was because we were in another universe." Ren explained as he tried to stop the former King of Time from poking him.
"They others assumed. I just followed them." Blake said.
"Guess you were wrong about that." Sougo snickered, "And you didn't notice that it when we were traveling through the Worlds with Kadoya?"
"Not really. In our defense, we were moving pretty quickly and didn't have much time to rest."
"So why did your Aura didn't work when we were in that house?"
"Hmm... We were beaten up badly by that Another Decade. Nearly all of our Auras were broken in the fight."
"I don't think we can really call it a fight. None of us even came close to scratching it."
"The exhaustion probably kicked in when we got away. That's most likely why we fainted in the first place." Ren theorized.
"So... You thought that you didn't have your Aura was because you were in another World and not because of that beating we had?" In hindsight, that was a much better explanation than 'Other universe = No Aura.'
"It seemed like a plausible explanation at the time."
World of Remnant, Beacon Academy...
"Another one of them just showed up...and now we can't even talk to him." Ruby sighed as she, along with Team RWBY, JNPR, half of SSSN, and Penny, gathered in the academy's cafeteria. After the two Riders had gone into the Combat Arena to talk in private, most of the crowd had dissipated. They were one of the last few that left the area.
"Why was that bird guy even looking for Professor Hino in the first place?" Yang grumbled, annoyed that she could not find out what the two were up to.
"It is most likely that Jin was searching for Professor Hino because they are both Kamen Riders." Penny, not completely getting the question, answered as cheerful as always.
"..." The others only stared at her blankly.
"Am I wrong?" The robot girl tilted her head quizzically.
"Well... no..." Ruby half-heartedly chuckled at her friend's answer.
"You know what was odd?" Sun, while not usually very perceptive, had noticed something during the two Riders' interaction back at the CCT Tower, "The two of them didn't recognize the other."
"I noticed that too." Weiss agreed with the monkey Faunus, "Professor Hino didn't know who this new Kamen Rider was, and this Jin asked the Professor to confirm he was who he was looking for."
"Where did that guy even come from!? The professor said that Remnant didn't ha-hmph!" Before Nora could finish, Jaune had covered her mouth.
"Remnant didn't have what?" Neptune was starting to get suspicious of the others. They seem to know much more of the Riders than everyone else. And that's not even going into the two months that they were missing.
"Nothing, nothing." Jaune nervously tried to cover for his teammate's near slip-up as Nora tried to pull Jaune's hand off her mouth.
"Hmm..." The two teenagers from Shade narrowed their eyes at the blonde boy as Sun asked them a question, "Now that we're not so busy, where were you guys? I heard that General Ironwood had sent lots of men all over Remnant to look for you? And why did you all disappear? Where are Blake and Ren?"
"We were... Uh..." The two teams (plus Penny) had not come up with a good cover story for any of what Sun just asked.
"Should we tell them?" Nora (loudly) whispered to Ruby.
"Not here." Realizing there was no escaping the two, Ruby resigned herself to explain to them, "Is there anywhere we can talk in private?"
"I would say the Combat Arena, but that's already taken."
"HAAAH!" Jin shouted as he tried to slash the other Rider, only for Eiji to sidestep the attack.
"Jin, I know this is a test and all, but try not to be so serious about this." Eiji still did not know how terrible the Ark was and didn't know why the red falcon Rider acted the way he was.
"I have to be," Jin simply said as he tried to kick OOO, "A better question is why you are not."
"To be honest, I never really got the idea why Riders should always fight each other when they meet. That's why I'm not fighting you seriously." Eiji dodged another blow from the Humagear. The fact that there was a whole war between the Riders still confused him. And then there was the fake war with the Sentai. Why didn't Tsukasa and Gokai Red at least tell them that there was a secret plan? He seriously thought that he, along with the Births, had died.
"What?"
"As Kamen Riders, we are supposed to save people's lives. For justice, right?" Under his mask, Eiji smiled, reminiscing of his first fight, "That was why I put on this belt and fight."
"..." Jin stood still as he listened to OOO.
"To protect people no matter who or where they are is why I became Kamen Rider OOO. Even now that I'm in another World, I'll still fight, even if it will cost me my life. To reach out my hand to anyone in need. Especially to another Kamen Rider like you." Eiji took of his Driver and smiled at the Humagear.
"...You're just like him, aren't you?" The other Rider's optimism reminded Jin of someone.
"If Zea can't help us, then there's nothing that can defeat Ark!"
"Leave it to me. Until now, I've been able to fight...all thanks to the company and technology that my grandpa left for me. But I don't work for Hiden Intelligence anymore... I need to find a way to succeed my grandpa on my own."
"What will you do?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm gonna come up with a Kamen Rider so awesome that Ark would never expect it!"
"Even when things were dire, he still smiled," Jin remembered Zero-One's smile when he said that. It was identical to the smile that Eiji had.
"He? Was he another Kamen Rider from your World?" Eiji asked.
"Yes, even when the Ark was unbeatable, he was confident that we would win. Despite me giving up hope, he never stopped fighting. None of the others did."
"If you had given up hope, then why are you still fighting now?" Eiji asked.
"..."
"Why were you fighting back then?"
"It was to defeat the Ark. Before we knew that it was unstoppable. Once we did, I stopped trying."
"Then why are you fighting it now? To protect the people of your World?" Eiji asked Jin again.
"No... There's nothing left in my World now."
"Then why?" Momentarily disregarding that Jin just said that his World was dead, Eiji continued pressing Jin on.
"To save someone and to avenge those he killed."
"That's not just it, isn't it? How about the people here? Even if you wanted to fight the Ark, then why did you come to me? I had nothing to do with this, but you still did."
"I was told to. I knew that I needed help."
"If you just needed help, then why are you fighting me now? You know that the Ark is unbeatable, but you still sought me out. Why would you think my help would matter?"
"I...don't know."
"If you don't know, then you'll never win."
"I know that!"
"Then tell me why you fight."
"..." Now knowing that Eiji would not continue their fight, Jin turned away and took out the Burning Falcon ProgriseKey from his Driver, de-transforming.
"Where are you going?" Eiji, however, already knew what Jin was about to say.
"I need to think about this." Jin softly said, walking up the stairs up.
"Once you do, come look for me again! I'll be around campus!" Jin heard as he unlocked the doors and left.
With Tsukasa and Woz...
"Do you know where that Sentai hang around?" Tsukasa was blunt about it. He had asked around town about this World's Sentai and had obviously gotten no good answers. Woz wasn't really much help as the retainer had simply sat back and watched the Destroyer do things on his own. After a couple of hours wasted (along with a quick trip to a pizza shop for lunch), he decided to change things up and started asking about the pin he had. It was then when he finally got something.
"Isn't that the emblem for that academy?" A man that Tsukasa had approached on the streets had recognized the pin.
"Academy?"
"I heard it decimated a few months back."
"Interesting..." Continuing to ask around all led to the same conclusion. His role was that of a school professor of a destroyed academy.
After that, the two of them had walked off and eventually found themselves in a deserted park. Woz, for the first time in some time, had broken his silence.
"Not that our search is over; when will we be leaving?"
"Why would we be leaving?" Tsukasa asked as he took a seat on a bench while taking some pictures.
"Why wouldn't we?" Woz retorted.
"Even if we leave, where would we be going? The others did not know anything. Why would we try going somewhere only to come up empty-handed?" Tsukasa finally admitted that his current course of action wasn't working, "Besides, if we just leave, we're likely to extend the wait for Sougo to get his powers back."
"And it's just as likely that it would shorten it."
"Yes, that's how 50-50 chances work."
"So what are we going to do with our followers?" The retainer had noticed it earlier in their (really, it was Tsukasa's) search.
"Let them do what they want. They haven't done anything. Why should we worry?" Tsukasa brushed up Woz's...to be honest; the green Kamen Rider did not sound concerned at all.
"Do you know why they're following us?"
"Of course I do. We've made it obvious that we're looking for the Super Sentai here. They would've heard about it eventually. Isn't that right?!" Suddenly shouting to someone behind him, Tsukasa closed the flap of his camera as he got up from the bench. Behind him, five people appeared. Four of them were men, while the last being a woman. While they all wore radically different clothes, they had the same twin black braces on their wrists. The only difference between them was that each of their right braces had different colored icons of an animal.
"So then, who are you, and why are you looking for us?" The one in the middle of the group, a young man, dressed in a white shirt and a light blue blazer and white slacks, questioned.
"And how did you get that pin? Only those from Academia Island have them." Another guy, wearing a yellow and black striped shirt with a white blazer.
"I don't know, you tell me." Tsukasa, as always, was not taking the confrontation all too seriously.
"You did all that, and you didn't know what you were doing?" They looked at him with disbelieve on their face.
"I knew what I was doing. I just didn't know why." On the other hand, the Destroyer looked passive about it before turning to Woz, "Hey, deal with them for me, will you?"
"What?" The retainer was clearly confused by what Tsukasa said and received a hard shove as a result.
"Just do it. I want to see how good they are." Hearing that, the five took defensive stances, preparing for an imminent fight.
"-sigh- What did I do deserve this?" Woz complained as he took out and put on his BeyonDriver.
"You are...Who are you?"
"Me? I'm just a retainer of the one true King. Not that it would matter to you."
WOZ!
ACTION!
"Henshin!"
TOEI! Future Time! Sugoi! Jidai! MIRAI! Kamen Rider Woz! WOZ!
Jikan DESPEAR! YARUSUGI!
Summoning his spear, the herald of Oma Zi-O prepared for his first fight against the Super Sentai members.
"Everyone! Let's go!" The man in the center cried out, rallying his allies.
"Yeah!"
The five crossed their braces together with a single cry.
"LIVEMAN!"
The braces shone brightly, enveloping the five in white light. After a few moments, the light died down, revealing that the five were now wearing near-identical suits. The suits were different colors and matched those of their braces. Red, blue, yellow, black, and green. Similarly, on their chest was the same logo on each brace with their helmets designed after their respective animals.
"Red Falcon!"
"Blue Dolphin!"
"Yellow Lion!"
"Black Bison!"
"Green Sai!"
"Choujuu Sentai! Liveman!"
"...Was the rollcall really necessary?"
Destroy Everything!
Connect Everything!
A/N: Surprise! It was not the Shinkengers like everybody thought, but it's instead the 12th Sentai. There were several reasons why I chose them over the more obvious and understandable option. First off, I wanted to use a Sentai that had similarities to RWBY, or else this would just turn into a Kamen Rider fic with some RWBY elements. The Shinkengers, while they do have some parallels with RWBY, like the main villain being an ancient enemy and one of the antagonists having a thing against the main lead, didn't have much as the Liveman did.
For example, the heroes went to a prestigious academy that had students from all over the world and was working for the future of humanity. Two friends of the heroes were killed due to three others that attended the academy that was aligned with an enemy that was hundreds of years old (though Cinder and co. weren't really students in the first place). The academy was eventually destroyed by said trio of students, and one of the professors that supported the heroes died. Later on, the heroes meet people who were relatives to the two friends that died (On RWBY's side, Jaune met Pyrrha's mother in Argus, and all of them met Penny's father/creator. On Liveman's side, there's Black Bison and Green Sai). The heroes were eventually joined by those related to those who died (the aforementioned Black Bison and Green Sai, and for RWBY were Oscar, who had Ozpin's soul, and Penny if one was to stretch it a bit). Both sides also had robot allies.
Of course, there had to be some relations to the two main Rider seasons of the story as well. To Decade, one really needs to know some rather obscure facts regarding Liveman. Mainly that, when Liveman first aired, they were counted as the 10th Super Sentai as Goranger and JAQK weren't considered part of the franchise back then, making Battle Fever J the first. This was apparently the reason why Black Bison and Green Sai were added to the lineup halfway through the series. To Zi-O, both series aired through two different eras (Liveman aired in both Showa and Heisei, Zi-O was both Heisei and Reiwa). Also, despite being the 10th and 20th seasons, the following seasons would be the ones that actually aired decade(s) after the first one (Turboranger aired 10 years after Battle Fever J, Zero-One aired 20 years after Kuuga).
I know that this explanation is super long, but I know there will be people that would be upset that the Shinkengers weren't used. Hopefully, this would lessen the dislike by a bit.
Another thing that happened was that I retconned the fact that Aura doesn't work in other Worlds. Good thing for me was that some conditions made it make a bit more sense. The RWBY cast was just tired and wasn't thinking straight.
And now, about Decade VS Zi-O and Zi-O VS Decade. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen the first episode yet.
For DVZ, I thought it was good. It's nice to see A.R. Yuusuke again, and the characters were good. The only nitpick I have with it is that Tsukasa only showed up in the last 20 seconds of the episode. It's just a minor one 'cause the episode was only 10ish minutes, excluding the credit + preview, and it was cool that Tsukasa just showed up out of nowhere and standing over a dead body.
For ZVD...Holy hell, was it dark. I thought it would be more lighthearted than the spin-off that literally has 'Death Game' in its title, but nope. I was wrong. Dead wrong. I was definitely not expecting a student to commit suicide and throw himself to the Inves. Or that people were getting eaten by Inves onscreen in the first place. It doesn't mean I didn't like the episode, just that it was completely different from what I thought it would be. Can't wait for tomorrow's episodes.
With all that said, let me know what you guys think of the chapter and what you think I did wrong. See you guys next chapter!