"Are you sure you can't repair this?" asks Kaito desperately as she tries to push the charred remains of her moped at the mechanic.
"I'm sorry but the thing looks like a hunk of junk! Even if I repair it, you won't get much mileage out of this 30 year old thing. I'm not even equipped with the parts to repair it!" the mechanic says weakly. "Look, you'll just have to get a new one, this one won't do you any good!"
Kaito walks dejectedly out of the mechanic's shop while tugging her moped along. Even if the thing is useless, she still refuses to give up on it. The voice in her head now currently known as Tora scoffs a bit but since it has no say over what she does, it could not be helped. In any case the damage it had caused was pretty great to the extent where Kaito did not dare try to apologize for any of it. She however was at least able to salvage her coat and hat while returning the stolen clothes. While she wheels her broken down moped along the sidewalk, she stops by a vending machine in the park. Patting her pockets for change, she sighs when she finds out that she is in fact completely broke.
"Great… now what?" she groans.
"Get out of the way!" Tora shouts.
Kaito's arm acts on its own and punches the drink machine, her arm sinking elbow length into the machine before pulling out a can of coffee. Kaito stares in horror at what Tora had just made her do, although she did not drop the can of coffee as it was still something to drink. She quickly grabs her moped and wheels it to the far end of the park, well out of sight of the machine before finally sitting down and opening the can.
"That was wrong!" she shrilled. "Very wrong!"
"Nothing stopping you from drinking it." Tora muses.
"Well even I know that food should not be wasted!"
While she drinks from her can of coffee though, she notices another artist in the park, apparently engrossed in painting the landscape within it. Kaito angled her head so that she can observe this person, taking care to note her style, skill and tools. She unconsciously stood up and
walked behind the person until she was nearly tasting his hair. When he raises his brush again she spoke out.
"You use too much paint, it gets all blotchy." she comments.
The man jumps in surprise and his head smashes into her nose, making her fall back with both hands clutched over her nose. As he rubs his head, he turns around to find Kaito rolling on the floor in pain. Although she would not normally have this big of a reaction, she is also trying to fight back any reaction from Tora since it has currently exploded in spluttering rage. The young man quickly gets up tries to help her but by the time he has coordinated himself to do so, she was already pushing herself off the ground and digging up the remnant tissues from her coat pocket.
"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't notice you were there." the young man says sheepishly.
"No, no. It's fine, I should not have stepped behind you anyway." she replies.
"Dammit, punch the guy!" Tora groans.
"Ahahaha… I really am sorry." Kaito says before moving back to her moped. She looks at the pitiful wreckage and angles it back up so that she could wheel it away again. As she is going the young man inspects her before he registers something.
"Hey, what are those?" he asks pointing to the large flat box on the rear of the moped.
"Oh, those?" Kaito replies. "Just odds and ends. But they got screwed up when I crashed the moped."
However, he was already looking through them by time she was done speaking. Kaito tries to say something but apparently she is too shy to really do much so in the end, she just waited until he was finished. His eyes seem to glow as he moved through them before finally looking up with a gleam in his eyes.
"Are you by any chance the artist of this?" he asks as rummages through his bag.
He digs out a scrapbook and flips through it until he reaches a piece of work that she shows to him.
"Ah… that looks like my work… but I don't remember it…" Kaito replies as she gives it a short glance.
"That's great! I have always wanted to meet you!" he bursts out with glee. "I'm an aspiring artist and I am really interested in your artwork! Can you give me a few pointers?"
"I'd love to but…" she gives a slight shrug to direct a bit of attention to her moped.
The boy looks inside her moped and his glee slowly turns to concern. The art equipment inside is mostly trashed and the rest of her camping equipment are more or less usable, but stained with unknowable colors and chemicals. His look of concern is made even more sorrowful when he notices her bittersweet chuckle.
"I really can't work anymore. Not with things as they are now." she says before taking back her stuff. "Now if you don't mind, I'll be going now."
As she is turning around to leave, the young man calls out to her.
"Do you need help?" he asks.
…
Kaito is unsure what just happened. It seems like the young man is apparently living with his aunt and it just so happened that she had an open place to live in. It also happened that both of them are art enthusiasts also happy that she turned out to be someone they know about. The odds are very small so that in itself is the hard part to understand. Either way she ends up staying with them.
…
"Are you still working on that moped?" asks the young man as he watches Kaito attempt to replace some of the broken parts in the machine.
"I had this thing my entire life. I am not throwing it out." she grunts as she continues to tinker with it.
But she knew already that it was a lost cause. The major parts on it were damaged to the extent where they needed to be completely replaced. There was simply no way to keep the thing going. Even then she refused to stop working on it since it was her most prized possession. It slowly dawns on her that the moped is finally lost when it simply falls over, with her handiwork being completely undone. Dejected, she walks back into the house and plops back down on the couch, with a sorrowful glance back at the dying moped.
"Well, looks like it really is broken eh?" says the aunt as she walks into the room. "I'm sure you can find work here though, Taiki can help you if you want."
"Its not that I have to move… but that thing means more to me than anything." Kaito replies. "I can't just throw it out."
"I can understand that." the woman replies.
Both of their attentions are drawn to the television which is telling about the events of a few days before where there were numerous sightings of monsters popping up after the mysterious rain of fire.
"What is going on about that?" asks the Aunt to no one in particular.
Kaito said nothing but she watches the broadcast intently, wondering what had just happened. Her hand slowly inches up to her waist where the belt had formed before. The monsters being shown on the news all had belts on them just as the first monster did. She tries not to think about it and instead heads outside to get some fresh air. While she is outside, she wonders about just what is happening.
"Hey Tora… you've never told me what you are?" Kaito asks. "Aren't you a monster?"
"Me? No! I'm not a monster!" Tora barks back. "How dare you! How…"
It stops and then growls audibly. Kaito is visibly out of it before resurfacing into Tora's personality. With it on, she begins to peer around suspiciously, looking for a particular source or threat.
"What's going on?" asks Kaito.
"Shh… I can smell it… one of them is here…" Tora growls.
"Where?"
A scream makes Kaito suddenly run towards the location of the voice. As she turns the corner, she sees that a monster is baring down on Taiki. This one was completely different from the first one, being humongous and beastlike, as if it was a boar. It had four cloven feet in addition to the huge upper limbs, making it look like a monstrous centaur. Kaito hesitates slightly, but Tora's personality breaks through anyway.
"Hurry up and transform!" shouts Tora as it shifts back into Kaito so that she can transform. "You have to get angry! Come on!"
Kaito gulps and then moves a hand down to her waist and scrunches her eyes. It seems her willpower does not have much to make her angry so Tora had to kick start her anyway.
"If you don't go, he will die! Now get moving!" Tora screeches.
Kaito's eyes open immediately and the belt forms around her waist. She moves a hand down to the belt before uncertainly pushing down on one half of the belt, making it open up. The aura once again encroaches around her as the armor takes form. Then she rushes up to the creature and kicks it aside, sending it crashing into the side. As the monster turns around to glare at her, she stands languidly, before raising her right hand.
"Let me say this to start, once I start, I do not stop until I kill." she says while making a gesture across her neck.
Then both wrists click as the swords once again come into existence before she rushes at it with both swords. She delivers to clean strokes at its body but she is surprised at its tenacity. This one is very much sturdier than the last. Combining her swords, she jumps back and whirls the swords to build momentum so that she can throw another strike at it. The monster barrels past her and out into the streets where it has an open area. Unduanted by its movement, Kaito is able to land on its back and stab it. However, her strike is barely even enough to sink into the skin and she loses her balance, causing her to be dragged around by it.
"Hey, hey, hey! Time out! Time out!" Kaito yelps as she is being dragged around by it.
She succeeds in freeing her weapon from it but by the time she is able to get back up, the monster had turned around, ready to have a go at her again.
"That's not right…" Kaito groans. "I'm still not completely tuned up yet. Why is that?"
Her thoughts are cut short when the monster charges at her again. She raises her weapon like a shield and braces herself for the impact as the monster crashes into it, making her begin to skid back as the force of the monster is greater than her ability to stop it. Even as she is fighting, she could tell that even if she tries her best, it still is not yet enough. At this point is knocked over as the monster overpowers her and crashes into the stone fencing of a house.
"Hey, get back here!" Kaito shouts and runs up the side of a fence before leaping back onto the monster's back and slamming her weapon down on it, trying to deter it from attacking. It remedies it by slamming again onto the wall, dislodging her into someone's garden. She slowly gets back up again and rubs her head.
"Gawd, this is annoying. Okay then, try this."
She pulls out the card Andromeda: Kick and Slots it into a panel on her belt.
Change: Panther
Suddenly, her feet gain a newly shaped armor, with a newly shaped armor piece on her back.
"Nice… This is what I am talking about." she sneers as she leaps up.
Instead of being a leap, the legs bunch up and make her shoot into the air before finally coming back down and crashing down where the monster would have been had it not evaded in time. Down on one knee, she looks at it before using her hand to brace herself before pouncing at it again to deliver a flying kick. Her attack crashes into its arm, making the hide literally crack from the impact. As it moves to charge again, she kicks it a few times to keep it off balance before jumping up and giving it a good kick to the head. As it sways from the impact, she scythes the legs from under it and stomps down on it.
"Yah, hah! This is what I'm looking for!" Kaito shouts with glee.
The monster in turns swipes at her legs, making her fall down too. Then it staggers back up and turns tail to run.
"Oh no you don't!" Kaito began, but to her astonishment, even with her new leg attachments, she definitely could not keep up with it especially since it has four legs. "No way!"
She finally stops huffing in exhaustion. The monster was large, but it definitely could run like nothing else.
"Gawd, I need something fast. But damn…" Kaito groans.
...
The headlights of the moped glows. An aura is slowly emitted from it, making the machine look like it is on fire. Slowly the aura consumes the metal of the machine, its flames slowly coalescing into a solid frame. The machine begins to whir again, not with the mechanical sputtering it did before, but a hum that resembled a growling beast. The frame of it is no longer a moped, but a sturdy and lean cruiser motorcycle with an elongated frontal section. Taiki is already wary of it and is now backing away from it like the plague. Even as it is still forming, it revs up and drives out of the back lot, leaving behind white flames.
…
Kaito heard the sound of a running motor and to her surprise, a motorcycle appears, stopping right next to her. She only stares at it since it does not have a driver. But peering at the license plate, she is shocked to see that the machine is her moped.
"Er… Kaito, isn't this your moped?" asks Kaito as she tries to talk to her inner self.
"Why is it like that?" The inner Kaito replies as she also looks at it.
"I don't know but this could help. Come on, we are losing it!" Kaito shouts.
She swings a leg over the motorbike and blazes on after the monster. From the side of the street, Taiki looks on, with a wide open mouth.
"That's Kaito?" he mouths.
…
The monster turns its head as it notices the motoring sound grow louder and louder. If there was a way to show shock it is obviously shocked now because a giant motorcycle suddenly runs up a car, flying through the air, baring down on it like hell on wheels. As the wheel smashes into it, the monster tips over and lands on its side. Kaito leans over the handlebars. If she as smirking, her helmet obviously did not show it, but a faint trembling makes it all the more obvious that she is obviously chuckling now.
"You aren't getting away THIS time." she chuckles as she taps her belt.
The belt glows and an aura streams flows down the left leg armor, making it erupt in white flames. She hops onto the motorcycle seat before leaping high up into the sky, the back armor boosting her even higher by expelling white aura jets. At the height of her jump, the jets reverse, sending her blazing into the monster's abdomen. The monster gives a loud howl before it explodes into white flames, the form dissolving until it turns into a dog. The belt on it crystallizes and shatters, forming into a card that Kaito catches.
"Pleiades: Beast." she says before her Rider form dissolves into white flames.
Kaito continues to examine the card until it finally dissolves. Then she turns and inspects the new motorbike, a stark contrast from her original moped. As she inspects it, she looks at the rear chassis before she finally smiles and begins to wheel it back home instead of riding it.
"What's so important about the seat?" asks Tora.
"Nothing." she chuckles.
As the sun shines on it, strange markings seem to refract light in different ways then the smoother parts of the bike, making a few words appear on them as the light passes through.
"You know… I was wondering… if we were to continue doing this what are we going to call ourselves?" asks Tora.
"I have no intention of calling myself anything." replies Kaito. "I don't even know what you are."
"Well I was supposed to be a beast. But now the most I can do is hide you in a mask so lets just call that even." Tora grumbles.
"Mask… that's a funny way to put it." Kaito giggles.
She gives the bike a final admiring glance before swinging a leg over it and driving it back up to the house. When she gets off the bike, she notices that Taiki is still standing there. He cringes as he sees the bike but when he notices that Kaito is riding it, he snaps back to reality.
"Damn… what are you Kaito?" he asks.
"Me? I'm just an artist." she replies.
"But I just saw you… ride after that monster…" he whispers. "What happened to it?"
"I guess you could say I beat it. But don't tell anyone about it." Kaito replies sheepishly.
"So those monsters…"
"They'll keep coming I guess. But a little voice tells me I should fight them."
"Why do you do that?"
"Because the little voice tells me that I should protect people like you from them. I really don't want to though because it seems like too much of a hassle."
As Kaito wheels the bike back into the lot, Taiki turns around.
"So do you have a name?" he asks.
Kaito smiles back at him.
"Well. I'm a masked rider you could say." She says before thinking a bit. "If you need anything, just call Kamen Rider Akatsuki."
…
NEXT CHAPTER!
Kaito gets a job!
The connection of the Rider!
Advent from the Sky, rise Kamen Rider Akatsuki!
…
Rider Statistics
Kamen Rider Akatsuki: Blank Form
Punch- 4T
Kick- 7T
Jump- 8m
Run- 4.0s/100m
Defense Rating- 4
Aura Dance- 25T
Kamen Rider Akatsuki's default form, it is a relatively open ended form, where it emphasizes flexibility over any particular strength. However, the form is still incomplete thus its full power cannot be exercised yet. The final attack Aura Dance concentrates aura into her sword to perform a final attack that concentrates aura force to deliver a high power cutting edge.
Kamen Rider Akatsuki: Panther Form
Punch- 6T
Kick- 13T
Jump- 30m
Run- 7.5s/100m
Defense Rating- 3
Rising Kick- 40T
Kamen Rider Akatsuki's secondary form, assumed by using the Andromeda: Kick card. This form increases her combat power by leaps and bounds (literally) and allows her to jump to an incredible height. However, the awkwardness of the armor combined with the relaive increase in weight makes this form slower than Blank form. The final attack Rising Kick makes Kamen Rider Akatsuki charge at the target with great force to deal concussive damage.
