-Disclaimer: I do not own the Air gear series.
Chapter 2: People are obsessed with tech
"So the people who I attacked were part of a group called Skull Saders. They aren't KKK members instead they are gang members who just happen to dress similar to them. These types of gangs who use air treks are called Storm Riders."
"Yes. It's amazing how little you know of the world you stepped into." Kilik munched on an onigiri talking between bites.
"Well, it never really affected me before, and while I heard of AT's I never paid attention to them after hearing their price ranges so it never seemed like a good investment. Plus I get my job done pretty well with just running so I never bothered."
"I see, well with your capabilities I can understand your lack of interest in AT's." Finishing his onigiri, the silver-haired man stared at Tobi offering him some hand sanitizer wipes. "That was a good meal." Accepting the wipe the Kilk cleaned his hands.
"Sorry I can't offer you a more balanced meal."
"It's fine it's my own fault for skipping breakfast."
"It's an important meal of the day, so if you're going to skip it grab some nutrient bars or something."
"I'll do so in the future, so you eat your breakfast here?" Then a cup from a thermos was offered, Kilik looked at the contents before accepting it. It was a steaming metal container holding what he guessed with miso soup.
"Well, I like napping here so I come here 2 hours early and eat my breakfast then nap a bit before class." Munching happily on his own rice ball Tobi dangled his feet in the cool morning air.
"So you are relaxed in this type of environment."
"Yes, the wind feels nice here this season."
Nodding Kilik looked down at the school enjoying the view. The Noyamano sisters had long since left, to prepare for their own schools. He alongside Tobi Kaname was sitting on the water tower eating breakfast.
After seeing the video alongside Mikan's own reports on Tobi he needed to come to meet the boy. He had long since believed that even without an AT much less a regalia a normal person could fly. Now with the living proof of his belief was here he studied as much as he could on the individual before approaching him.
"But never had I imagined one would find their way to fly from reading manga." He was going to spend a lot of hours reading Shounen Jump. One piece in particular if Tobi was able to moonwalk from reading that series he wondered what other things he could learn from the series
Looking at the teen munching on his breakfast, Kilik was satisfied with the questions so far. Tobi was raised in an orphanage and his family name was given to him on a whim. The orphanage had no connection to any form of human experimentation and the teen himself had very little knowledge of the AT's aside from their existence. It felt too good to be true that Tobi possessed no desire to pursue a career as a storm rider.
The middle schooler ran his own delivery service ironically named Sky messenger by asking various shops to hire him which started his business. Keeping some of his pay before sending the rest to support his Orphanage. Only able to work outside of school hours with breaks to catch up on his studies, Tobi Kaname was content to just carry on with his life.
'Still though, the name sky messenger.'
Till now, Kilk found amusement in the name. An untold amount of money and the hard work of various scientists were spent on AT research for people to fly and yet the person who achieved it. Ran a simple delivery service and was more concerned with rent and exams. He wondered what reaction those scientists would have if they learned exactly how Tobi achieved flight.
'After they get over the shock... they will dissect him'
Pushing his dark conclusions away momentarily Kilk continued assessing Tobi, this was why he was here. To assess and try to find ways to protect the messenger. Normally he would have spent much longer gathering data on Tobi and the miracle within his legs before acting. However, the video of the battle was circulating around the world at a rapid pace, blowing up overnight. Thankfully the teen's identity was concealed by the mask and the poor quality of the video but it still meant a search was underway for him.
Sora and Nike would not allow this individual to roam free. Fate was cruel, here someone finally proved that mankind could fly under their own power but because of it, people were already clamoring to use or break him. Perhaps Kilk should invite the boy into the forest, but that option would mean forcing the teen into a life of imprisonment.
"Kilik-san thanks a lot for the warning. I'll stay clear from Storm Raiders. I don't normally do night deliveries and if I don't moonwalk I probably won't run into them again." Pausing with his meal, Tobi naively replied. Nodding to himself, the teen fully believed it would be the end of it.
"If only, Genesis will not rest till they find you and if they don't. The Takeuchi brothers won't mind tearing the city apart to call you out."
"By the way, do you have a sister?" Wait, what… Has Simca already make contact with him?
"Why do you ask?"
"You remind me of this pink-haired girl working at this shop, now that I think about it. It's an AT shop, her manager orders lunch from a ramen shop I do deliveries for. So I see her occasionally but we never talked."
That was good, throughout their conversation, there was a sense of normalcy to the youth. If he was not told this was the individual in the video he would not have believed it. The same should apply to his sister. Otherwise, Simca would have jumped him and used whatever means necessary to make him join Genesis if she had known.
"Ah, yes that is my sister Simca."
"Oh so is she part of your sleeping forest group?" A painful memory came to mind of her and his friends, the original members but he did not let it show.
For storm riders, the strongest individuals were known as kings.
Once Sleeping forest was the strongest team, they had 8 kings and since then not another team had been able to replicate that feat. They were legendary and he was the Gem King who co-led the group alongside Sora Takeuchi the wind king. Each king used personal Air Treks called Regalia, the peak of AT technology.
But they eventually clashed, Trophaeum Tower the base of sleeping forest. Hosed the strongest regalia in existence, the Sky Regalia. While he wanted to protect their base from people who saught the Sky Regalia with ill intent. Sora and the other members wanted to obtain it for themselves.
"She and a few others left the group after some personal disagreement."
Kilk was forced to cripple them so they would never do so again and took their regalias. SpitFire at least was able to regain his regalia and title but he and the others are bound to still hold a grudge for what he and the older members current Sleeping Forest did to them.
"Ah… so do you want to make up with them?"
"Why would you say that Tobi-san."
"I just got the feeling that you want to see them again when I brought it up, that's all. Are they still alive?" He needed to change the subject the conversation was getting a bit too personal.
"Yes, but our paths have already diverged there is no meaning to meeting them once more."
"I feel like I'm prying too much into your personal issue. My apologies." Standing up Tobi packed his lunch box and did a few stretches. "Hey, Kilk-san do you want to fly?"
"Why do you ask?" Kilk stared at Tobi's offered hand.
"As an apology for earlier plus, you talked about how everyone who used AT's wanted to fly."
Despite being somewhat cautious, Kilik grasped onto the hand firmly. "Hold on tight, this is my first time doing this with a passenger."
The next moment, they were off. The air rushed against his body as he ascended into the sky.
"Is there anywhere you want to go, we have 30 minutes to spend before this place gets crowded."
The air grew colder as they kept ascending till the school below them became dots from their height. The wind here was a new experience for Kilik but his eyes were not focused on that.
They were focused on the golden dawn filled sky. It was not the same sky he once saw when he and the other gravity children escaped but once more he was captivated by it. Turning away towards Tobi, for a brief moment, he saw an image of Sora overlapping with the teenager.
"No, this new wind is nothing like Sora."
"Anywhere, wherever the wind takes us."
It had been years since Kilik smiled so brightly, he was once again free from gravity.
"100 points."
"Master please take this lowly crow as your disciple."
"Um Ikki-san, I don't think you need to learn from me to carry out deliveries."
"I'm not talking about that Master. I'm talking about being a Kamen Rider."
"I really should have expected this."
Ever since school started, Tobi felt Ikki's gaze on him throughout the class. Watching his every movement, he tried his best to ignore it until lunch started. Then Tobi disappeared from his class and relaxed, he was now back on the school's rooftop. The delivery worker assumed it would be the end of it.
Only it was not and now he was staring at Ikki kneeling before him asking to be his disciple. Behind him were Kazuma Mikura, known as Kazu among their classmates, a light brown haired student who wore a white beanie, and Onigiri, an overweight student who was known as the perverted pig around the school.
"... Ikki san I don't know how to perform an operation to turn you into a cyborg." He did not mind teaching someone moonwalk, but he would rather not have too much attention on him right now.
"Wait I'm not talking about-"
"Drop it, I don't see how Kaname san could teach you how to fly, bird brain." Kazuma shook his head and sighed into his palm. "There's no way he's the Kamen Rider that appeared and took on the Skull Saders"
"Goddammit, how many people did you tell?"
"Yeah, he's too much of a squeaky clean boy to even go about doing that."
"Why thank you Onigiri, I shall ignore that porn book you've got stuffed in your shirt."
"Shut it, you idiots." Wait didn't they have one more friend that hung around them. Was he called Fox or something, he might have been injured last night.
"Anyway Ikki-san, I need to eat my lunch before the next class."
"I'm going to have to ask Kilik-san to help me… I might even have to transfer schools or something at this rate."
"Please teach me how to fly." Looking down at the Ikki, Tobi could not bring himself to say now at the earnest request. Then he looked over at the two other people.
"How many people did you tell me about?"
"These two idiots nosed into my business." Ikki pointed towards his classmates.
"Nosed in you were the one shouting it out last night. Then tried to break into the school." Kazuma yelled right back.
"What happened last night?"
"The crow here was looking for you and had the bright idea of breaking into the school. To find your address." Kazuma explained.
"... Did he make it in?"
"No Ringo's sister Mikan smacked him in the head and dragged his ass back home." Ah, Tobi should get her something nice. Maybe more meat in her next order from the place she likes or some fish he could catch.
"So it's just you three."
"Ikki." Tobi's voice gained a serious tone and looked directly at Ikki. "Can these two keep a secret?"
"Wait… you're not saying." Kazuma and Onigiri started to get nervous.
"Yes, Master."
"Sigh. Meet me at the base of the mountain area at this time. Let me give you the directions." Taking a note out Tobi wrote down directions and a set time.
"Awesome, I'll be the best disciple you ever had!" As Ikki cheered Tobi walked towards his two friends.
"You're joking right Kaname san" Before they could say more a vice-like grip was on their shoulders.
"I am terrible at lying and I like to live a peaceful life so can you both just keep this quiet." Feeling a presence weighing down upon them the two nodded.
"Good, you three have a good day. I need to finish my lunch." The next moment he disappeared. Kazuma and Onigiri gasped and looked around them for Tobi but not Ikki. His eyes were trained upon his master, above the water tower. Tobi was sitting, slowly eating some bread.
Unlike last night, Ikki saw it much clearer in the day. It was much slower as well, Tobi jumped into the air above the two than the air shook as if it was an invisible platform that was kicked.
Ikki had always wanted to fly, the wind called to him and he answered it like a bird spreading its wings. He wanted to soar freely in the sky, that was why as a child he climbed up the tallest tower nearby before jumping off it to experience flight.
If it was not for that giant crow, he might have died but he did not regret it. For that was his first taste and he would do anything to experience it again.
In a small one-room apartment, filled with piles of dishes sat an overweight dark-skinned young man. On his bald head were three scratch marks and black headphones. Despite his large size befitting that of a sumo wrestler, he was a middle school student Issa Mihotoke otherwise known as Buccha.
By day he was an ordinary student of the school, by night he was the night king. The leader of the AT team Yaooo!. Which ruled the school at night. The entire school compound was his territory.
Right now he was sitting in his darkroom slurping down ramen. At the door of his room stood another person. With orange hair that resembled flames, he had equally colored eyes. Wearing a large black jacket with fur lining.
"Have you seen the video?" The flame-haired person spoke first.
"Of course I did, everyone in the AT world has seen it, Spitfire." The person named Spitfire smiled, he was the flame king of Genesis. One of the original 8 kings of Sleeping forest but that was all in the past now. After recovering from his injuries he ran three teams now teaching and protecting those who gathered around him.
"Wanted to be sure, so what do you think about it?"
"The Kamen Rider is either an actual cyborg or possibly wearing some AT tech in his suit?"
"That's what everyone is thinking but I thought you should be warmed since he saved students from your school"
"The rider only appeared after the Skull shit heads were busting up normies. I think my team will be safe if he's going for the hero image. Attacking without provocation will be a bad thing."
"If you say so, a certain swallow has been making us all comb the city to search for him."
"Any luck?"
"It's just been a day but we have already found fakers and false leads."
"Hahaha, the idiots don't know what trouble they are getting in."
"The video caused a great stir in our world after all, but who knows fate may just drop him in o-" Their conversation was cut as the doorbell rang.
"Issa-san It's Tobi from Sky messenger delivery services your order has arrived"
Author notes: Hope you like reading the story so far. I'm trying to change the flow of the story so far, if there are any inconsistencies or mistakes feel free to tell me.
