Kamen Rider Voyager

by maxpower02

The Demon King People, the Maojins. For 657 years they have lived among us, leaving behind a path of carnage and destruction at their wake. One man has dedicated his life to stop them with the power of Voyager, traveling around the world and fighting the Maojins wherever he go. Join him in his journey as he seeks to stop the Maojins from unsealing and reviving their leader!

5. Mariner, the Vengeful Rider of the Deep

A/N: Hey guys, it's maxpower02 here with the newest chapter of Kamen Rider Voyager! I have no noteworthy news of note, other than my part-time job's killing me and my final year of university will start soon. However, if I can keep my juices going, I believe I can finish this story with no continues!

Right, on to chapter 5, and we will witness the proper debut of our secondary Rider! Brace yourselves, this is going to be an emotional roller-coaster.

Disclaimers!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kamen Rider, TOEI does.

xxx

Previously, on Kamen Rider Voyager

At Leo's advice, Krishna and Karin moved into Steffi's apartment, before Steffi and her friends decided to show Krishna and Karin around the city the next day. Along the way, they encountered the Mole Maojin, who had been responsible for a series of disappearances where people were pulled underground, a case that the SIG has been investigating for a while. Krishna, not wanting to risk the safety of Steffi and her friends, decided to search for the Mole Maojin's victims by himself.

However, Steffi, Kim, and Vy decided to follow Krishna and Karin underground against the former's wishes and affirm to him that he doesn't have to worry about them and together they will resolve the Maojin crisis. Krishna and the SIG worked together in foiling the Mole Maojin's plot, with the former using his new Hurricane Form, granted to him by the Ace of Wands Maojin Card to defeat the Maojin once and for all with support from the returning MCU lieutenant Hako, and the latter rescuing the people who were captured by the Mole Maojin.

Meanwhile, in the sidelines, Star has been concocting a plan to eliminate Voyager once and for all, while a mysterious black and blue warrior named Mariner has made herself known to Voyager and his friends, accusing Voyager of murdering someone important to both her and Krishna…

xxx

Dong Tam Industrial Park

That fine Saturday morning, a black Toyota Corolla pulled itself into a stop next to a factory in the Dong Tam Industrial Park, located just outside Ho Chi Minh City in the neighboring province of Long An, still within the city's greater metropolitan area. Stepping out of the car was a sharply-dressed Indonesian man, aged around his late twenties and sporting both a slick haircut and a pair of sunglasses on his face that complimented his grey suit and trousers combination perfectly. The man stood in front of the factory, his eyes scanning for any special characteristics from the building in front of him. And seconds afterwards, he had found it.

The Lotus Industries logo, emblazoned on a sign perched on top of the building.

"Perfect," the man spoke to no-one, a malicious grin forming on his face.

xxx

Fifteen minutes later, the man found himself sitting inside the factory's security office, having being asked to be escorted there by the first security guard that he saw. Requesting to meet the factory's head of security, the man was asked to wait inside the security office whilst the security guard fetched his superior to meet the man.

The office's door flew open and a middle-aged Vietnamese man stepped inside, a gruff look on his face. The Vietnamese man immediately sat in front of the Indonesian, the two men exchanging handshakes.

"Pleasure to meet you, Sir. My name is Axeleander Juvilius Teguh," the Indonesian man introduced himself, "Just call me Axel. Thank you for giving your time in your busy schedule for me."

"Nguyen Phuong Nam, head of security of the Lotus Industries Dong Tam Computers Assembly Plant," the Vietnamese man replied, "Please, call me Alan. The pleasure's mine, Mr. Axel. What business that you have that required you to meet me?"

"I'm here representing my security camera firm, SecureGuard Cameras," Axel replied, "I heard that last night someone broke into this facility and disabled all the security cameras here…?"

A look of surprise suddenly made itself known on Alan's face, "How…how did you know that?!"

True to Alan's words, the security cameras at the factory were all disabled since this morning, either by internal short-circuiting or by the cameras being forcefully pried off their respective perches. The security guards at the factory were left baffled by this, and were discussing on how to repair them when Axel came.

"Let's just say," Axel said, a malicious grin on his face, "My gut told me that. So, why don't you show me around the factory so that I could help you guys replace them with new ones from my firm?"

xxx

Twenty minutes later

A huge explosion rocked the entire factory building, followed by a beeline of panicking workers fleeing the now burning factory.

Inside the factory, the bodies of Alan and the building's security guards were scattered on the floor, they were all killed with a single stab wound to the chest while burns were present on their bodies. Standing among the scattered dead bodies was a monstrous creature, humanoid in shape and lanky in build but with insectoid features. Colored black except for a colorful mix of purple, red, and milky white on the pair of wings that sprouted out from the creature's back, the creature had a swallowtail butterfly motif to it, as evident by the elegant-looking wings of the creature that resembled that of a swallowtail's.

The creature's head resembled that of helmets worn by fighter jet pilots, colored black like the rest of the creature's body except for a pair of huge purple compound eyes and a white, trunk-like proboscis. The creature's feet were pointed in design, somewhat resembling Arabian slippers, while a pair of purple, ornate-looking daggers were present on the creature's hands, the weapons' thin silver blades were soaked in the blood of the creature's victims. Last but not least was the familiar golden belt with the purple loincloth on the creature's waist, confirming its identity as a Maojin.

The Swallowtail Maojin lets out a loud screech as it flew out of the burning factory, hovering above it as its huge eyes scanned the ground for any signs of the factory's fleeing workers. Within seconds the Maojin had spotted its target, or targets to be specific, as its eyes detected two workers hobbling their way out of their doomed workplace.

"Bingo…" the Swallowtail Maojin muttered in a male voice, if he had a proper mouth, he would have smiled in delight right now.

Immediately the Swallowtail Maojin swooped down towards his targets, the two workers in question looking up to the sky a minute too late to see their doom heading straight towards them. The Swallowtail Maojin brandished his daggers, ready to end the lives of the two workers right here right now…

…only for a heavy object to suddenly came out of nowhere and smacked the Swallowtail Maojin out of the sky.

As the two workers breathed out sighs of relief, a red Mitsubishi Pajero pulled itself to a stop near them, having swatted the Swallowtail Maojin away on its arrival.

"That got him!" Minh exclaimed excitedly from the Pajero's passenger seat, "Glad to see you using your driving skills to good use, Thao."

"Don't mention it," Thao chuckled from behind the Pajero's wheel, "For me that was nothing. Now, I'll leave the rest to you."

Minh nodded, grabbing her ScanDriver and Marine Manta card from the car's glove compartment, before she stepped out of the Pajero much to the awe of the two workers nearby.

"You guys alright?" Minh asked the two workers, who were still awestruck at their boss saving their lives in front of their eyes.

"Ah, we're good," one of the workers replied, snapping himself back to reality long enough to say that.

"Good, now get yourselves to safety," Minh told the two workers, which they obliged immediately.

Suddenly a loud rustle was heard as the Swallowtail Maojin emerged out from a nearby pile of scrap metal. The kaijin was unhurt from the Pajero crashing into him, but that was more than enough to enrage him.

"You!" the Swallowtail Maojin growled, pointing at Minh accusingly, "Did you do that?!"

"So, you're the one who has been sabotaging my factories for the past week, huh?" Minh asked back, completely brushing off the Swallowtail Maojin's question, "Hmph, looks like I'm going to have to do some pest control again."

And with that Minh placed her ScanDriver on her waist, causing its straps to secure the device on place. She then opened the device's tab, prompting a computerized male voice, similar to that of Krishna's ScanDriver, to exclaim,

READY!

"That device!" the Swallowtail Maojin gawked in surprise, "Are you…Voyager?!"

"Voyager? Don't ever compare me with that man," Minh replied, her tone calm yet dark, menacing, and threatening.

"If you're not Voyager…that means you're…"

"Henshin," Minh calmly said, placing the Marine Manta card into her ScanDriver and slamming the device's tab shut.

ACE HENSHIN! MARINE MANTA!

Industrial metal began to play out from Minh's ScanDriver as it unleashed a blue ring of energy, splitting into two as they scanned Minh from head to toe, covering her in a black bodysuit that resembled Voyager's, only with a glowing yellow monoeye visor instead of Voyager's two glowing yellow eyes. Blue grid lines began to materialize around the bodysuit, forming armor pieces that configured themselves onto the bodysuit, before more of the blue grid lines appeared around the bodysuit's head, forming the helmet. Once the armor and helmet had finished forming, the bodysuit's visor flashed three times as navy blue lines began to appear on the bodysuit's arms, legs, thighs, legs, and the sides of the torso, completing Minh's transformation into Kamen Rider Mariner.

"You!" the Swallowtail Maojin growled, clenching his daggers tightly as he recognized the figure in front of him, "You're the one who defeated the Firefly! You're the one they call Mariner!"

"Let's do this," Mariner said, cracking her fists slowly as the Swallowtail Maojin charged at her, his daggers ready to inflict damage on her armor…

xxx

KAMEN RIDER VOYAGER

Episode 5: Mariner, The Vengeful Rider of the Deep

OP: Eiyuu no Uta – THE ALFEE

xxx

(Cue BGM: Agul Attack – Toshihiko Sahashi from the Ultraman Gaia OST)

Mariner kicked the Swallowtail Maojin several times on the chest, delivering each kick with both grace and power. The two combatants had been fighting for the past five minutes and despite the Swallowtail Maojin's best efforts in hand-to-hand combat, Mariner's kicking expertise had overwhelmed him.

"Damn it!" the Swallowtail Maojin cursed, clutching his chest in pain, "Looks like I'm gonna have to do this then!"

The Swallowtail Maojin took off to the skies, stretching his arms apart as purple glitter began to fall out from his wings. The glitter flew towards Mariner, latching onto her armor before sending a series of electric shocks throughout her body. Groaning in pain, Mariner was left stunned for a few minutes as purple electricity surged through her body, allowing the Swallowtail Maojin to deliver a pair of purple bolts of electricity from his fingers, the bolts striking Mariner right on her torso. Sparks flew as Mariner was brought down to her knees by the attack, much to the delight of the Swallowtail Maojin.

"Hah!" the Swallowtail Maojin exclaimed mockingly, "Is that what you've got?"

Mariner slowly stood up, writhing in pain slightly yet her determination remained undeterred. Slowly Mariner reached for the card holder on the back of her waist, taking out a Maojin Card from it. The card had an image of a pistol shrimp ambushing a fish in its coral reef home with a blue horizontal line on its left hand side, the words "HYDRO ALPHEID" emblazoned on said line in white. The back of the card was gunmetal gray in color, with a stylized 9 superimposed on a cup engraved on it. Chuckling underneath her helmet, Mariner quickly inserted the card into the slot on her left hip.

NINE EQUIP! HYDRO ALPHEID!

The royal blue biopunk-looking pistol shrimp-themed shotgun materialized itself in front of Mariner, which the Rider immediately grabbed with her right hand. Wasting no time, Mariner aimed the shotgun at the flying Swallowtail Maojin, before firing off a few shots from it. The Swallowtail Maojin easily flew around the first few blue energy blasts, but soon a trifecta of blasts struck the Swallowtail Maojin on his head, chest, and groin, sending him crashing out of the sky.

"My Hydro Gunner shall reunite you with your friend," Mariner said, taking out an Overcharge Card as she slowly approached the downed Swallowtail Maojin, "The finisher."

(BGM ends)

But before Mariner could insert her Overcharge Card, a black energy slash appeared out of nowhere and struck the ground between Mariner and the Swallowtail Maojin, creating a huge cloud of dust that startled the two combatants. As the dust settled away and both Mariner and the Swallowtail Maojin had coughed out the dust that they had inhaled, much to their surprise, they saw Star walking slowly towards them. Immediately the Swallowtail Maojin bowed respectfully at the presence of the Arcana Maojin, with Mariner following suit afterwards.

"At ease, both of you," Star said, which the two quickly obliged, "Now, explain yourselves."

"This Maojin had attacked several of my factories in the past week," Mariner said, "Must be a follow-up to when the Firefly Maojin sabotaged my company's smelting plant at Binh Duong Province a while ago."

"I was just following orders from my Arcanas!" the Swallowtail Maojin talked back.

Immediately Mariner pointed the Hydro Gunner at the Swallowtail Maoiin, prompting Star to brandish his Destruction Blade and pointed it at Mariner's neck.

"Don't do anything reckless, Le Thao Minh," Star told Mariner, "Remember our deal."

Sighing in defeat as she remembered the agreement that she had with Star, Mariner slowly lowered her weapon, with Star doing the same thing as he lets out an evil chuckle.

"Good girl," Star said, pleased at Mariner's obedience towards him.

"What are you doing here, Star of the Darkness Tribe?" the Swallowtail Maojin asked.

"I'm here to inform you two of a plan that I have," Star replied, "And it will involve both Mariner and you heavily, Three of Shields."

"And what plan is that?" Mariner asked, "And why do I have to work with a Maojin?!"

"And why should I work alongside someone who had threatened our kind's existence?!" added the Swallowtail Maojin.

Star lets out a calm chuckle in response, "I know that things between you two are not that…amicable, but I'm pretty sure that you two have the same thing in common."

"And that is?" the Swallowtail Maojin asked.

"It's simple. You two share a common hatred…for the one they call Voyager."

Upon hearing that, Mariner clenched her left fist tightly, while her right hand tightened her grip on her Hydro Gunner.

"What do you mean she hated Voyager?!" the Swallowtail Maojin asked out in surprise, "Last time I checked, you two were in the same side!"

"That good for nothing bastard killed my father," Mariner replied bitterly, "Remember when I told you to never compare me with him? That's why."

"In case you don't know, the power of Mariner has changed hands," Star added, "And the new Mariner…she has revoked her predecessor's partnership with Voyager, bearing a deep hatred towards him ever since he killed her father."

The Swallowtail Maojin nodded in understanding, "I see. Times has indeed changed...so Mariner's now underneath your wing, huh?"

Star lets out a devilish smirk at that question, "You can say that. Now, enough chit-chat. I will tell you two about my plan…a plan that will surely end Voyager…once and for all."

Mariner took out her Marine Manta card from her ScanDriver, causing her entire armor to disappear into motes of blue light. An interested Minh stood in her place, clearly all ears in whatever Star's going to tell them.

"I'm listening," Minh said.

The Swallowtail Maojin's body glowed purple as he reverted into his human host, Axel. Dusting off the sparks of purple electricity from his body, Axel adjusted his suit, tie, and glasses, before letting out an interested smirk.

"I'm all ears," Axel said.

xxx

The next day

It has been a week since Krishna moved into Steffi's apartment and it has been a week as well that Steffi and her friends had got him accustomed with daily life in Ho Chi Minh City. They had showed Krishna around their neighborhood, took him to the local market where they usually bought their daily necessities, introduced him to the multitude of convenience stores scattered across their neighborhood, and last but not least, got Krishna up to speed with the local public transport system, just in case Krishna or Karin were unable to use the former's motorcycle to get around and at the same time Steffi and her friends were using the gang's car.

And with Kim taking Krishna's motorcycle for a routine checkup at the nearest Suzuki service center (something that Krishna should have done at least twice a year, much to his surprise) while at the same time Steffi and Vy were away to the bank to pay the monthly bills, Krishna was left with no option but to take the city's newly opened metro line to get to the local market for the day's grocery shopping. Since Karin was accompanying Kim to the service center, this was the first time in a while that Krishna's going out and about by himself.

Krishna had to admit that Steffi's apartment was quite strategically located – smack dab at the fringes of District 1, aka the city's central most district, one can easily go to anywhere in Ho Chi Minh City from there. The nearest metro station from Steffi's apartment was the Ba Son Metro Station, a short 5-minute walk from the apartment, which serves Line 1 of the city's metro system, linking the iconic Ben Thanh Market in the city center with the famous Suoi Tien Water Park in District 9. Steffi told Krishna that the station was opened in 2020 to much fanfare, meaning that it was still relatively new.

As he stepped into the underground entrance of the station, Krishna's thoughts reflected on what had happened in the past week since the Mole Maojin's defeat as well as the encounter with the mysterious Kamen Rider Mariner. There hasn't been any notable Maojin cases that the SIG had picked up ever since that day, with Voyager fighting and defeating only two Maojins during that period. The Hummingbird Maojin was responsible for a series of aerial divebomb attacks in District 6 and he was no match for Voyager's Hurricane Form, while the Chlamydosaurus Maojin (a Maojin based on the Australian frill-necked lizard) was responsible for a series of fires in the Cho Lon District, but Voyager's Inferno Form managed to put an end to the creature's rampage. With the Five of Wands and Seven of Swords safely in Krishna's possession, the young man was quite surprised that Mariner didn't show up to steal his cards again.

"But then again, there was this one case that the girls insisted me on helping with…" Krishna thought to himself as he bought his metro ticket and inserted it into the ticket gate.

The case was a string of mysterious attacks targeting factories owned by Lotus Industries across the Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area. The attacks followed the same pattern – the security cameras at the factories would be disabled first overnight, before an all-out massacre on the factories' security personnel and workers the following morning, both done by a Maojin based on eyewitness accounts. Steffi had been bugging Krishna to help her and her gang in investigating the case, but the young man's response has always been the same.

"Leave it to Leo and the guys at the MCU."

"But why?"

Krishna sighed as he remembered the conversation, leaning himself against the platform wall. His train was still five minutes away, giving Krishna enough time to immerse himself even deeper in his thoughts.

While Krishna didn't specify why he had refused to help the SIG with the Lotus Industries attacks, he had a very good reason on why he turned down their request.

Lotus Industries was Eric's old company.

And because of that, Krishna felt that it was the best for him to take some time off to himself, in order for him to fully understand what had happened.

"Eric…what did you do to deserve this?" Krishna wondered as his train rolled into view, stopping picture perfectly next to the platform.

A beeline of commuters made their way into the train cars, with Krishna among them. Being the morning train that departed from the city center, not too many people were inside the train, but that would be a different story once it had stopped in enough stations.

Settling onto his seat, Krishna slowly made himself comfortable there, before he once again drowned himself in his thoughts…

xxx

His name was Le Ngoc Duy, but people usually call him Eric. The last time Krishna saw him was five years ago, when he last visited Vietnam. He was in his early 40s the last time Krishna saw him, but his youthful looks and physiques made people often mistake his age to be around 29. Coming from a family with a strong military background that has fought in the Vietnam War, it was to no surprise that Eric decided to join in the family business by founding Lotus Industries, seeing that Vietnam needed a serious boost in both the security front and the technological front so that the nation contend with the other nations in both the Southeast Asian region and the world. As one of the top graduates of Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and combined with his military background, designing innovative new weapons for both the People's Army of Vietnam and Vietnam People's Public Security (the country's police force) was not a problem for Eric, and the company soon blossomed, having rose into prominence the last time Krishna saw him.

However, despite all his successes, Eric has one secret that he had tried his best in keeping during his lifetime.

He was also a Kamen Rider. Kamen Rider Mariner.

Eric's distant ancestor was one of the original users of the ScanDriver and had fought alongside Krishna during the era of the Majapahit Empire, which at the time included the Malay Peninsula. By the time Krishna left Majapahit in order to continue his fight against the Maojins that had spread their influence around the world, the great empire had fallen and Eric's ancestor moved from present day Kelantan in Malaysia (a vassal state underneath Majapahit in the Malay Peninsula) to Southern Vietnam, settling in an area located 85 kilometers away from present day Ho Chi Minh City in the Mekong Delta, which will be known as the present day city of Ben Tre. The story of Mariner had become a folk legend in the area, with descendants of Eric's ancestor donning the black and blue armor and keeping the people of Southern Vietnam safe from any otherworldly threats, however as time went by and people had started to leave their old, superstitious way of thinking, Mariner's story slowly become forgotten, disappearing into time itself.

Six years ago Krishna went to the south of Vietnam, investigating any signs of the Maojins there while at the same time pursuing a type of kaijin that has been rampaging throughout Asia at the time – mysterious creatures calling themselves "Dark Holes." Guided by an organization that specializes in fighting the Dark Holes, Krishna met Eric for the first time, the two striking up a quick partnership.

During the Dark Hole conflict of 2017, Krishna stayed at Eric's mansion in Ben Tre, staying there for the entire year. There Krishna got acquainted with Eric's oldest daughter, Le Thao Minh, who at the time was still attending middle school. Unfortunately, Krishna didn't get to meet Minh's sister, Le Hoai Kim Ngan, or Eric's wife, since the two of them were at Karlsruhe in Germany, having being told to stay there by Eric out of the fear for their safety.

In the year 2018, the Dark Hole conflict had ended with the creatures being driven out of the south of Vietnam, and Krishna must continue with his journey to track down the Maojins. Entrusting the safety of Ben Tre and the south of Vietnam to Eric, Krishna left to continue his adventures, occasionally communicating with Eric via mail. The two men kept contacting each other, such as when Eric and his family moved from Ben Tre to Ho Chi Minh City about a year after Krishna left and also when Eric's wife tragically passed away in a plane crash in 2020, with Krishna acting as the family's moral support. With the responsible of not only looking after his company and doing his Rider duties but also taking care of both Minh and Ngan, Eric's final mail to Krishna told the latter that he would not be able to message him as frequently as usual and that Eric hope that Krishna would understand.

Krishna did understand…however nothing prepared him for Eric's untimely demise…

xxx

"The train is now stopping at Van Thanh Metro Station. Please check your belongings before you exit the train. Thank you."

The train's soothing announcement slowly brought Krishna back to reality. Knowing that Van Thanh Metro Station was his stop, Krishna quickly alighted the train, making his way down the elevated station back to ground-level. However, as his mind was still adjusting itself back into place, Krishna was not alert enough to avoid a young man coming towards him.

"Watch out!"

But it was too late.

*CRASH*

Several sheets of paper were sent flying as the young man carrying them collided with the daydreaming Krishna, the collision sending the two men to their knees. As Krishna groggily shook his head, trying to comprehend what had just happened to him, the young man that he ran into looked around in dismay, sighing as he collected the sheets of paper around him.

"Next time watch where you're going, man!" the young man scolded as he picked up his papers, "Use your eyes!"

"Sorry," Krishna replied rather uneasily, clearly guilty on what had just happened, "My mistake. I had a lot of things going on in my mind…"

"Well me too! I just got my newest short story rejected by the sixth newspaper that I've sent my story to! Please…"

"A good friend of mine died."

The harshness on the man's eyes disappeared instantly, being replaced with that of sympathy. The 20-year old man quickly stacked his papers neatly, before coming to Krishna's side, placing a hand against the latter's shoulder.

"I'm sorry for your loss," the man told Krishna, "Clearly mine is nothing compared to yours…"

"Thanks," Krishna smiled slightly, "That really means a lot, you know."

As the man helped Krishna back to his feet, the latter couldn't help to notice about the man's appearance. Wearing a black tuxedo with matching boots and a red tie that matches his fair skin tone, the man's short black hair was neatly slicked to one side, while a pair of rounded glasses rested over his black eyes.

At a first glance, the man literally looked like that he had just stepped out of a boardroom meeting!

"Nice getup," Krishna commented.

"Thanks," the man chuckled slightly as he picked up his stack of papers, "Like I said, I just came back from a newspaper office. Do you know Tuoi Tre?"

"Ah, sorry, I'm new here, so I haven't heard about that yet."

"It's one of the biggest newspaper company here in Vietnam," the man explained, "And right now they're publishing short stories from aspiring writers who wanted to make it big in the literary scene! Sadly, I wasn't one of them…"

"I'm sorry to hear that…"

"It's okay. It's only the sixth time that I got rejected…I've submitted my story to all the big newspapers and publishers here, and so far, six of them have rejected my story. I'm now heading back to my university."

Krishna blinked, "But it's Sunday!"

"I'm meeting a friend there for coffee."

"I see," Krishna nodded, "By the way, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Can I bring your short story with me? I want to give it a read."

"Really?!" the man's face beamed with happiness, before he quickly regained his composure, "I mean, of course. It's not every day that someone actually wanted to read my stories."

"I've read a lot throughout my life," Krishna told the man, "And I wanted to see whether your talents have been wasted by those who has rejected you. Don't worry. You'll get my full support."

"Thank you," the man smiled, handing his stack of papers to Krishna, "Just take all of them. I still have digital copies of them on my computer, so I'll just print a new batch for the next publisher that I'm going to submit these to."

"Nice," Krishna said as he accepted the stack of papers, "By the way, what's your name?"

"Nguyen Van Duc Manh at your service," the man bowed politely in front of Krishna before handing the young man his name card, "Please, call me Rei. And how about you?"

"Call me Krishna," Krishna introduced himself, pocketing the name card he'd received from Rei, "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I'll be going now, otherwise I'm going to be late for my appointment."

"See you!" Krishna waved goodbye as Rei ran up towards the train platforms, disappearing from his sight within seconds.

xxx

Van Thanh Market

"Good morning! Oh, it's you, Krishna. Where's Steffi?"

Vu Hong Hanh was a diminutive and tomboyish-looking 35-year old woman who worked as a greengrocer at Binh Thanh District's Van Thanh Market, located a stone's throw away from the Van Thanh Metro Station. Shane, as she was called by the community, was Steffi's regular greengrocer and she knew the young woman quite well.

"Morning Shane," Krishna replied the greeting, a rather awkward smile on his face, "Steffi's away to pay the bills, so she sent me here."

"Ah, first time coming here by yourself, eh? Did Steffi ask you to bring a list of things that she wanted to buy?"

Krishna immediately dug into his jacket pocket, taking out a piece of folded green paper and handing it over to Shane. The greengrocer opened the paper, gave it a thorough look, before letting out a warm smile.

"Right. I'll get you everything that you need in five minutes."

As Shane prepared the groceries, Krishna was left all by himself, humming a tune to himself as he took out the first page of the stack of paper that Rei had given to him.

"The Chronicles of Maximilian Titan," Krishna silently read the title on the paper, "Part One: Framed. The year was 3017, mankind has finally reached space. Maximilian Titan was a police officer working at the Intergalactic Police Force until he was being framed for the murder of a famous politician. Working alongside the politician's daughter, Max must fight to clear his name from any wrongdoing…"

As Krishna was busy reading through the story's synopsis, a hand poked Krishna on the shoulder, startling him to the point of almost dropping the paper in his hands. Swiftly grabbing the paper in mid-air, Krishna turned around quickly to see Ngan smiling mischievously behind him.

"You!"

xxx

Five minutes later

With his groceries all packed and paid for, Krishna accompanied Ngan as she bought ice cream at a nearby stand, with the teen also buying one for Krishna. The two then sat on a bench near the ice cream stand, enjoying their sweet treats.

"Doing your morning shopping huh?" Krishna asked as he licked his ice cream.

"Yeah!" Ngan nodded excitedly, "We're buying some supplies for my school trip tomorrow."

"Sounds awesome. Where are you guys going?"

"We're going to the Saigon Hi-Tech Park to observe the companies there," Ngan replied, "It's for our Economics class. We're going to study how these companies influence the boost of economy in present day Vietnam!"

"Ah, Economics was never my strongest subject," Krishna chuckled, "But that does sound like a fun trip!"

"My sister's helping with funding and arranging for the trip by the way, as her company was one of the companies that we're going to visit. Ah, speaking of which, there she is!"

Looking up, Krishna's eyes went wide as he saw Minh standing in front of him, the young woman also looking surprised at Krishna's presence in front of her.

"You're…Le Thao Minh, right?" Krishna asked rather nervously.

Minh nodded, clearly as nervous as Krishna, "Y-yes. Are you…Krishna?"

As both Minh and Krishna looked at each other rather uneasily, Ngan blinked at the two of them in utter surprise, "You two knew each other?!"

xxx

A few minutes later the trio had moved to the banks of Saigon River, where Ngan soon found herself occupied by a set of swings placed at a playground there. This allowed Krishna and Minh to have their private conversation by the river, leaning themselves against the iron fence that separates the walkway from the river's edge.

"I knew when I saw you the other day that you look awfully familiar to me," Krishna said, opening the conversation, "Man, you sure grew up fast…took me a while to recognize you!"

"Speak for yourself," Minh giggled, "You haven't changed at all in five years! Except for your hairstyle, that is. I remembered that you looked like some soldier the last time I saw you!"

"That look's way too old-fashioned for me," Krishna chuckled, "I've decided to adopt a look that's more…modern, so to speak."

"When did you came here?"

"A few weeks ago. Had a few errands that I had to do here and ended up staying here for a long-term basis…so yeah, I think we'll be seeing each other a lot."

"I see. Where are you staying? Maybe I should come over sometime."

"I'm staying with a friend of mine at District 1, near the former site of the Ba Son Shipyard. It's a really nice place, you should check it out."

Krishna then glanced at Ngan, who was still enjoying herself on the swings. Despite her age, Ngan looked like that she's really enjoying herself on it.

"So…your sister, huh?"

"Yes," Minh nodded, "She's a second-year student at Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted, my alma mater. Again, thank you for helping her the other day. I would be worried sick if she had lost her purse…"

"Nah, it's okay. Just being my helpful self, that all. To be honest that's the first time I've seen her."

"Yeah, she came from Karlsruhe two years after you left. At first, she was staying here for the summer vacation, but then Mom had to go back to Germany for some urgent business…and that happened."

Minh sighed somberly, remembering the time where she discovered the news of her mother's death.

"Ever since that day, Ngan had stayed with us. She attended both middle and high schools here, until…God…how can I say this…I think you've already heard about it, right? It was everywhere in the news."

"I did," Krishna nodded solemnly, acting as if he had known about Eric's death for a long time while in truth he has no knowledge about it until Mariner told him on that day in the sewers, "I'm sorry for your loss, Minh. Your father was an incredible man, his legacy will indeed last forever."

"Thanks," Minh nodded sadly, "They said that he died in a traffic accident…but I'm not that convinced. Something about his death to me feels…suspicious."

"Eh?" Krishna raised his eyebrows, apparently intrigued by what Minh had just told him.

"Ah, never mind," Minh quickly shook her head, "But one thing's for certain. Ever since that day, our lives have changed forever. I had to juggle both Lotus Industries and my university life, while I had to send Ngan away to a good friend of mine since I couldn't take care of her 24/7. I still got time to accompany Ngan in the weekends though, so she could still have some quality time with her family..."

Both Krishna and Minh looked at Ngan sadly, the teenager apparently still enjoying herself on the swings.

"Poor kid," Krishna said, "Having to spend her adolescence without both a mother and a father figure…must be tough for both you and her, huh?"

"It is," Minh nodded, "But at least things are looking rosy for the two of us. Ngan's doing her second-year studies quite fine despite everything that has happened, while as for me, the future of Lotus Industries has never looked better."

"You're just like your old man, you know that, right?" Krishna smiled.

"The apple never fell far from its tree," Minh replied, an optimistic smile on her face as well, "I've learned a lot from my father, you know? And after he's gone, I applied everything that he taught to me in taking care of my company. I'm still struggling to take care of Ngan though, but I'm lucky to have friends around me who are willing to give their hand to me."

"Ah, speaking about friends, how's Thao?"

"She's doing fine, thanks for asking. Always there for both me and Ngan."

"That's nice. You're lucky to have such a loyal person by your side."

"Thanks. I'll make sure to let Thao know that you said that…she would be really pleased to hear it."

"Man, I can't wait to see her again. It's been a while! Anyway, how's the mansion?"

"We're no longer living in that mansion anymore," Minh smiled, before she pointed at the LIT towering over them in the background, "We're now living there."

"Holy shit!" Krishna gawked upon seeing the LIT, "That's one huge tower!"

"My father had started building it during his passing, and I oversaw its completion," Minh said, clearly proud of her family's achievements, "Krishna, let me introduce you to the second tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City, the Lotus Industries Tower."

"Awesome. Can I visit you when I have the time?"

"We would be more than happy to welcome you to the LIT," Minh smiled warmly.

"Right. Thanks for the talk, but I need to go back. My friend would be worried sick that I haven't brought her groceries home yet! But before I go…"

Krishna slowly went over towards Minh, whispering something to her ear.

"Regarding your father…I promise that I'll get to the bottom of this. If what you've said about your father's death is true…I'll lend you my hand in helping you find out the truth about it. I'll make sure that I'll do my best in finding out what had actually happened to your father."

And with that Krishna was on his way, his groceries in one hand and Rei's story in another. As Krishna walked away, unknown to him Minh was shooting out a hateful glare at him, her breathing going up and down as her fists were clenched tightly, the young woman clearly struggling to control her emotions.

"That sneaky bastard," Minh growled in her thoughts, "Why did he act like he cared about my family when he was the one who had killed my father in the first place! Typical…criminals always do their best in covering up their acts. I'm pretty sure that Krishna's doing that right now!"

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan! Are you alright?"

Minh's thoughts were suddenly thrown back to reality as she saw Ngan holding her hand, the teenager clearly looking concerned at her wellbeing. Realizing that, Minh quickly lets out a sheepish chuckle.

"Ah, Ngan. Sorry about that…some office work came to my mind. So, where shall we go next?"

xxx

"I'm back!"

"Welcome back!" Steffi greeted back as Krishna stepped into the apartment, the young man immediately handing the bag of groceries to her, "Wow, they actually got everything in my list spot on. As expected from Shane."

"Where's Vy?" Krishna asked as he sat on the dining chair, placing the paper stack that Rei had given to him on the table while at the same time Steffi went towards the refrigerator, placing the groceries that Krishna had bought for her there.

"She's locked herself in her room again. Probably working on another invention."

Krishna took a glance at Vy's room and true to Steffi's words, the room's door has been slammed shut and a thin wisp of smoke can be seen coming out from underneath it, the words "DANGER – DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT AUTORIZATION" were emblazoned in red on the door.

"Sometimes I'm surprised that with all the things that she's doing in the room, she has never set off the apartment's fire alarms," Steffi added.

"Uh-huh," Krishna nodded, "And where's Kim and Karin?"

"Still at the service center, they won't be back until lunchtime."

"I see."

After she had finished sorting out the groceries, Steffi made two cups of warm milk coffee for both herself and Krishna. Serving the cup of coffee to Krishna, Steffi sat in front of the young man, sipping her own cup of coffee.

As he took a quick sip of his coffee, Krishna said, "I met an old friend today."

"Really?" came the reply from Steffi, the young woman stirring her cup of coffee.

"Really," Krishna affirmed, drinking his coffee once again, "It's the girl that we saw at District 5 the other day."

"District 5? The other day?" Steffi pondered, her mind trying to figure out what Krishna had told her, before suddenly she realized it, "You mean…Le Thao Minh?!"

Krishna nodded.

"Oh my God!" Steffi exclaimed in surprise, "You actually knew Le Thao Minh! The Le Thao Minh! No wonder you spaced out after we met her the other day!"

"Heh, I haven't seen her in 5 years, that's why my memory needed some adjustment first," Krishna chuckled as he sipped his coffee again.

"You cannot believe how much I admired her!" Steffi exclaimed as she began her fangirling, "Becoming such a successful billionaire in such a young age but at the same time refusing to forget the humble roots from where she came from…to be honest I was really excited to hear her company's partnership with my brother's taskforce! Bro, I tell ya, she's an amazing role model for young women everywhere in this country! How did you know her?"

Krishna lets out a wry smile, "I was once close with her family…"

"Once close?" Steffi blinked, but then she realized it once she saw the sadness in Krishna's face, "Krishna…what happened?"

"I think it's time for me to reveal the reason why I turned down your requests to help you with the Lotus Industries case," Krishna replied, "Have you ever heard of Le Ngoc Duy?"

"I think I have heard of him," Steffi nodded, "He's the founder and the first chairman of Lotus Industries, right? They said that he was killed in a traffic accident just outside Ho Chi Minh City two years ago and his position in the company was succeeded by Minh soon after."

"Le Ngoc Duy was my close friend," Krishna sipped his coffee once again before continuing, "Remember when I mentioned Eric in the sewers a few days back?"

xxx

"Who's that guy?" Steffi asked.

"No…" Voyager gasped as he slowly regained his footing, "It can't be…"

"What are you talking about?" Kim asked.

"I know this guy…" Voyager replied, "He's what you call a Kamen Rider as well, just like me, an armored warrior fighting against the Maojins. And his name is…"

"…Mariner," the warrior replied with a female voice, which strangely sounded like Minh's, "Kamen Rider Mariner huh? If that's what the people call you nowadays, guess I'll take it. It sounds better than just Mariner, to be honest."

"Wait, why on Earth are you a woman?" Voyager asked, "Did something happened to Eric?"

"You…" Mariner growled, tightening her grip on her shotgun before aiming it at Voyager in an accusing manner, much to the shock and horror of Steffi, Kim, and Vy, "…you dare to speak of his name…even after you've betrayed him and killed him?!"

"What?!" Voyager gawked in disbelief, "You mean…you mean…"

"Eric is dead, Voyager!" Mariner exclaimed in anguish, "Because YOU killed him!"

Steffi, Kim, and Vy gasped in unison, while Voyager remained silent in utter shock and disbelief.

"He trusted you, Voyager!" Mariner cried once again, "And this is how you repay his trust?! By striking him down when he least suspect?!"

xxx

"I think I remember," Steffi nodded, before she realized something, "Wait, does it mean…"

"Le Ngoc Duy's nickname is Eric," Krishna continued, "And he was the previous bearer of the Mariner title…and his death…wasn't accidental."

"Wait, hang on a second. You're saying that Le Ngoc Duy, the previous chairman of Lotus Industries, was a Kamen Rider like you?"

Krishna nodded.

"And you've met him before?"

"Yes. I've fought alongside him during one of my journeys. Remember the Dark Hole incidents that happened throughout the south of Vietnam between 2017 and 2018?"

"Of course! Those incidents are what made the traffic on the SIG website going up the roof for an entire year! Wait….you're saying…"

"I was involved in that incident, fighting off the Dark Holes with Eric and an organization that specializes in fighting them," Krishna told Steffi, "I didn't operate in Ho Chi Minh City though, but I did operate in the cities of Ben Tre, Can Tho, and My Tho in the Mekong Delta if memory serves me right."

"Ah, I see. But you said in the sewers that you had no idea on why this Mariner suddenly turned on you and accused you of killing Eric?"

"That's true. Which is why I don't want to involve myself in the Lotus Industries cases…I need time to comprehend everything," Krishna replied, "Eric and I used to send messages to each other a lot during my journeys, but after his wife died in 2020, he told me that he won't be messaging me frequently because he's busy with taking care of both Lotus Industries and his family. I thought that he was still occupied with his work when I came here…I did not expect him to have already passed away…"

Steffi went silent, nodding understandingly and solemnly as Krishna finished up his cup of coffee.

"I'm not a murderer, Steffi," Krishna said again, "I wasn't even in Vietnam two years ago…but I doubt the new Mariner would understand."

"So do you have any idea on who's the new Mariner is?" Steffi asked.

Krishna shook his head, "That I don't know. The ScanDrivers, despite their sheer power and importance, are objects that could be used by anyone. Just have a ScanDriver and a Maojin Card, and you can have a portion of the Maojins' powers in your fingertips. Should one of the Drivers fall into the wrong hands, things can be quite troublesome."

"I see. Why didn't they put a lock or something on those things?"

"At first we thought of that. But we also considered what if the user of that Driver doesn't have any descendants to inherit the Driver to? What if they get killed and no one else could use the Driver? That's why we've decided that as long as that person has a strong sense of justice and righteousness, he or she could freely use a ScanDriver and give the Driver to someone with the same criteria."

"Fair enough."

"The new Mariner could be anyone. There's even a possibility that the new Mariner could be the one who had killed Eric and ordered his death to be covered up as an accident. But we won't know until we investigate, right?"

"That's true. Speaking of investigation…what made you interested in the Lotus Industries cases all of a sudden?"

"I don't know if you've already known about this…but Le Thao Minh is Eric's daughter. His eldest daughter to be exact," Krishna told Steffi.

"Dude. It was all over the news when she was appointed. Of course I know that Le Thao Minh is Le Ngoc Duy's daughter," Steffi chuckled.

"Ah, makes my explanation easier. When I talked to Minh earlier…she told me that she felt there's something suspicious about Eric's death…and I kinda owe her one. I wasn't there when she lost Eric, so helping her in uncovering the truth about Eric's death would hopefully make up for it."

"That's sweet of you, Krishna."

"Like I said, Eric was a close friend of mine and I cared for both him and his family. Besides, if we investigate the Lotus Industries attacks, we might uncover what they had been covering up about Eric as well as uncover the identity of the new Mariner…since she's all hell bent in avenging Eric by targeting my head, I'm guessing that Eric had influenced her life somehow and knew about his connection with me. That's the beauty of investigating things...you get to find new things and connect them together, right?"

"Spoken like a true SIG member," Steffi chuckled, "I'll go fetch the Lotus Industries files."

Krishna gave Steffi the thumbs up as she headed towards her room, returning shortly with two large plastic folders. Setting aside the stack of papers given to Krishna by Rei, both Krishna and Steffi unloaded the folders' contents onto the table and started to read through them one by one.

xxx

Later that evening

Go Vap District

A 20-year old young woman was seen planting flowers in the front garden of a minimalistic-looking house located in the border between the Binh Thanh and Go Vap Districts. Wearing a pink T-shirt with matching black vest and black trousers, the woman has an average build, light brown skin with a few freckles on the cheeks, shoulder-length straight black hair and black eyes.

"Phew!" the woman sighed, wiping away the sweat from her forehead once she had finished planting the flower in front of her, "That's another one down, and three more to go…"

But before the young woman continue with her planting, a black BMW X5 pulled itself into a stop in front of her house, with Minh and Ngan emerging out of the vehicle.

"Auntie Wind!" Ngan called out, running immediately towards the young woman and giving her a hug.

Wind rolled her eyes in dismay as Ngan released her hug on her, "Ngan, how many times have I told you to stop calling me an auntie? We're only three years apart!"

"Sorry." Ngan giggled, "I was just joking, you know."

"Yare-yare," Wind sighed, shaking her head slightly.

Tran Bao Quyen, affectionately called Wind by her friends and family, was Minh's best friend from high school, and the one Minh entrusted with the task of looking after Ngan in the weekdays, whenever Minh's busy with her work at Lotus Industries. A university student by occupation, Wind's love for children made her aspire to open her own kindergarten once she's graduated, and she's currently looking for a part-time job that would allow her to practice her skills with them.

"Hey Wind," Minh greeted, before she noticed the packets of flower saplings lying nearby, "Doing some gardening I see?"

Wind giggled, "Yeah, gotta do something to pass the time. Weekends can be such a bore, you know? How's your day with your sister, by the way?"

"We had a good day, right, Ngan?" Minh said, to which Ngan responded with an enthusiastic nod, "We went to the market, had lunch together, and went clothes shopping at Vincom Center. Overall, we had a great day."

"Lucky you, all I had to do for today was sit on my couch and watch some afternoon drama," Wind sighed, "Sometimes I wish that I had something to do to keep myself busy…"

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, how's the part-time job hunting going on?"

Wind shrugged, "No luck so far. I haven't found any daycare center or kindergarten who needed new teachers, but keep your fingers crossed, I think I'll find one soon. I've been crossing my fingers for two months now!"

"You know, Lotus Industries has opened a number of daycare centers throughout the city as part of its CSR program. If you want to I could pull some strings to have you…"

"Don't sweat yourself, Minh. I would be pleased if you could give me a job, but I prefer to find my own job. But yeah, I'll take your offer into consideration."

"Just text me if you need anything. I'll always be ready to help you. What are best friends for, right?"

"True," Wind chuckled, "How's Tran doing by the way?"

"She's stable, but her latest rounds of treatment haven't yielded any significant results," Minh replied, "We'll try again later tonight."

"I sure hope she'll recover soon enough."

"Hope so. I believe she's almost in remission, it's the matter of the small push that's needed to reach it."

Minh then took a quick glance at her white wristwatch, before she realized something.

"Wind, I've gotta go. I have a conference call with my colleague from Russia in half an hour. Ngan, take care of yourself and Wind, okay? Be a good girl."

Ngan nodded, letting out a smile as she does so, "Don't worry, I will. You can count on me!"

"That's my sister," Minh smiled, "See you next week, okay?"

Both Wind and Ngan bid Minh goodbye as the latter entered the X5, the vehicle leaving the premises soon afterwards.

"Ngan, feel free to take some rest, I think you had quite a day. But if you want to, you can help me out in the garden," Wind told Ngan.

"Sure thing!" Ngan replied, "I'll just take a shower first."

As Wind continued her work in the garden, Ngan went into the house, going straight for her room. Ngan's room was a medium-sized one, with a small study desk, a closet for her clothes, and a single bed. Ngan's laptop was resting nicely on the desk, with her textbooks stacked neatly around it and her backpack lying next to her chair. However, there's one thing that made Ngan's room stood out from the rest.

Littered on the walls of Ngan's room were posters of various Kamen Riders, all of them Voyager's predecessors. From Kamen Riders Ichigo and Nigo to Kamen Riders Ex-Aid and Build, an assortment of the masked heroes was present on the walls of Ngan's room. Figures of Kamen Riders Kuuga Rising Mighty Form, Gaim Orange Arms, Drive Type Speed, Ex-Aid Action Gamer Level 2, Genm Zombie Gamer Level X and Build RabbitTank Form were present on a small glass shelf located above Ngan's study desk, while super deformed figures of Kamen Riders V3, BLACK RX, and Fourze were present next to her laptop. Last but not least were news cutouts from various newspapers that were placed on a small bulletin board beneath the glass shelf, all of them depicting the various exploits of Kamen Rider Voyager in Ho Chi Minh City so far.

Chucking her purse into her closet, Ngan immediately sat in front of her laptop, turning it on and opening its internet browser. For a long time, she has been a fan of the Kamen Riders and their various heroic exploits, and when news broke that Ho Chi Minh City has its own Kamen Rider, she was excited beyond belief. Quickly Ngan started to idolize Voyager, while at the same time wondering about his true identity. Before finding out about Voyager's exploits in Ho Chi Minh City, she had been a regular visitor to the SIG website to the point of making it her browser's homepage, but her drive to find out more about Voyager made her visit the website even more frequently.

"One day…one day I'll find out who you really are!" Ngan thought as she read through the new articles on the SIG website's homepage.

xxx

Later that night

Saigon Hi-Tech Park, District 9

It was a quiet night at Saigon Hi-Tech Park, Ho Chi Minh City's center of high technology enterprises. Security guards were seen patrolling around the numerous facilities there, one of which was the Lotus Industries' Artificial Intelligence Research Center (AIRC), where the company was currently developing artificial intelligence for unmanned robots that will be deployed to either war zones, disaster-stricken areas, or places that were too dangerous for mankind to visit.

The same black Toyota Corolla from the Dong Tam Industrial Park attack rolled up into the Hi-Tech Park's security outpost, its driver displaying his ID at the security personnel stationed there. Once granted access, the Corolla went into the park, navigating itself through the many facilities built there before finally stopping at the AIRC.

Rolling down the window of his car, Axel took a peek out of it, his eyes relishing on the sight of the AIRC in front of him while a malicious grin was formed on his mouth.

"Let's get the party started."

xxx

The next day

The excitement in the air was palpable as buses carrying 11th grade students of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted arrived at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park for the day of their school trip. It was a typical field trip study – students from different classes were to observe the activity in different facilities situated within the Hi-Tech Park as well as listening to speeches from the representatives from the companies in charge of those facilities. The advancement of technology for the economical purposes in Vietnam has been quite booming for the past few years and as Vietnam braces itself to become a new superpower of the Southeast Asian region, future generations were to study how this advancement in technology would benefit Vietnam's economy in the long run, which is why school trips to Hi-Tech Park like this one were organized.

The bus carrying Ngan's class pulled itself into a stop at a parking lot adjacent to the Lotus Industries AIRC facility, the vehicle's occupants stepping out of it shortly afterwards. The students were looking eager as they chatted with one another while their teacher took their attendance, before the group proceeded to head towards the AIRC facility, their pens and notebooks in hand.

"Oh my God!" exclaimed a female student, stretching her arms excitedly above her head, "I'm sooo excited for this trip! I can't believe we're actually going to see your sister giving a speech for us!"

"Keep it cool, Ponyo," Ngan chuckled, "Remember, we're here for a school trip, not to fangirl over my sister."

"But she's such an amazing person! I would sell myself to be in her presence!"

Ngan laughed at her classmate's antics as they entered the AIRC facility, where they were immediately guided to the facility's main lobby. There, a makeshift podium has been set up rather hastily yet neatly, as the first agenda of the day was an opening speech by none other than Minh herself, as the chairwoman of Lotus Industries.

xxx

As the facility's staffs were busy gathering Ngan and her classmates at the lobby, elsewhere at the facility's supervisor's office, Minh and Thao were busy preparing themselves for the former's speech, the two young women clad in their formal black and white blazers.

"How do I look?" Minh asked as she looked at herself in front of a mirror, her hands busy combing her shoulder-length hair.

"You look fabulous, Minh," Thao replied.

"You think so?"

"I've been your closest friend since the beginning of time, Minh. Of course, I wouldn't lie."

"You sure about that?"

Thao sighed, "Fine, maybe I've sugarcoated it too much. Get rid of those Hello Kitty hairclips, they look tacky."

Minh grinned, taking off her hairclips and placing them on the table in front of her.

"Thanks for being honest," Minh said, taking out a bottle of perfume and spraying it twice into her mouth, before exhaling her breath twice, "How is it?"

Sniffing the air in front of her, Thao replied, "Maybe one more spray."

Minh nodded, spraying the perfume into her mouth once again, before placing the bottle on the table.

"Phew…can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm feeling really nervous today."

"Why so?" Thao asked, "You've done this kind of speech many times."

"Yeah, but never in front of my own sister and her friends! It'll be a huge disaster for her if I screw up…"

Thao placed a hand on Minh's shoulder, "Don't worry. Just do what you usually do and believe in your own abilities. You can do this!"

Minh smiled, "Thanks Thao. You're as always are a reliable friend."

"Don't mention it. Now go out there and impress them all!"

xxx

"To open today's field study event, I would like to invite the chairwoman of Lotus Industries onto the stage. To Miss Le Thao Minh, the time is yours."

Ngan's class broke into applauses as Minh stepped onto the podium, her face beaming confidence. Amongst the students in front of the podium, Ngan was seen smiling from ear-to-ear, proud at her sister in front of her.

"Good morning, students of Le Hong Phong High School of the Gifted Class 11C," Minh opened her speech, "It was my greatest pleasure to welcome you all here at the Lotus Industries Artificial Intelligence Research Center, or AIRC for short. With the advancement of time and technology, the involvement of machines in our lives has become unavoidable, and with wars, conflicts, and disasters occurring around us, more and more tasks that are hazardous to man have made themselves known. Which is why we at Lotus Industries are taking the research of artificial intelligence very seriously. Here in this very building, we are developing artificial intelligence for robots designed to aid mankind in performing tasks that are…"

*KABOOM*

Suddenly Minh was interrupted by a large explosion that rocked the entire facility, shocking everyone in the lobby. Before everyone could figure out what's going on, the bloodied body of a security guard was thrown from the facility's second floor, the man's corpse landing right between the podium and the students sitting in front of it. Immediately the entire lobby was thrown into chaos, with the facility staffs trying to calm down the now panicking students. Amidst the chaos, Thao quickly escorted Minh away from the podium and into safety.

"What's going on?!" Minh asked as Thao guided her towards the nearest emergency exit.

"I don't know," Thao replied, "But whatever's going on, it's bad. I'm calling the police…but what about your sister?"

"The facility's staffs are with her. I'm pretty sure that they're going to take good care of her and her classmates."

Back to the facility's lobby, the students of Ngan's class were being ushered towards the exit by the facility's staffs, when suddenly the Swallowtail Maojin descended from the second floor, blocking the exit door with his daggers ready.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Swallowtail Maojin said, pointing his daggers at the group of people in front of him.

The facility's remaining security guards rallied up around the group, pointing their weapons at the Maojin. Immediately the Swallowtail Maojin fired his finger bolts, striking, piercing through, and killing the security guards much to everyone's horror in a spectacular show of sparks.

"Like I said, I wouldn't do that if I were you," the Swallowtail Maojin repeated himself, before he proceeded to swoop down towards the group, grabbing the class' homeroom teacher by his neck before flying up once again, hovering above the group with his hostage in tow.

"Teacher!" cried the frightened students, Ngan included.

The Swallowtail Maojin chuckled, brandishing his dagger and pointing it at the frightened teacher's head, "This is a hostage situation. Bring me Kamen Rider Voyager in one hour, or…"

The Swallowtail Maojin quickly threw his dagger at an unsuspecting facility staff, striking the poor man right on his heart and killing him instantly. As horrified gasps filled the room, the facility staff slowly collapses to his back, blood coming out from both his mouth and the wound on his chest.

"…all of you, your precious teacher here included, will end up like him," the Swallowtail Maojin continued, pointing at the staff's dead body to emphasize his point.

As everyone listened to the Swallowtail Maojin's threat in shock, horror, and fear, Ngan slowly and silently knelt to her knees, closing her eyes as she started to pray.

"Please…come and save us…Kamen Rider!"

xxx

Steffi's apartment

"Behold, my newest invention!"

Beaming proudly, Vy took out a large, bazooka-like object from inside a black golf bag, surprising Krishna, Steffi, Kim, and Karin, who were all sitting at the dining table. The object was black in color, with silver highlighting and a number of multi-colored wires sticking out of it.

"Holy shit!" Krishna gawked, "Is that the thing that you were working on yesterday?!"

Vy nodded, "Yeap!"

"And where did you get that?" Kim asked.

"From Leo," Vy replied, causing Steffi to cough out in surprise, "It's an old tear gas gun used to clear riots."

"Since when did my brother decided to dump his workplace's old weapons to you?" Steffi asked.

"Since last week," Vy replied nonchalantly, "Anyway, witness the glory of Vy's Net Shooter!"

Aiming the Net Shooter at a nearby jar, Vy immediately fired the weapon, shooting a black ball of adhesives at the jar. The adhesives soon configured itself into a net, which wrapped itself around the jar much to the amazement of everyone.

"What do you think?" Vy asked.

Immediately everyone broke into applauses, much to Vy's satisfaction.

"That's quite impressive for a home-made weapon," Steffi commented.

"With that, we can capture cryptids easily now!" Kim added.

"An unorthodox weapon indeed," Karin added her comments, "But an interesting one, in my opinion. Great job, Vy."

"Welp, I have to admit that that thing could help us in the long run," Krishna gave his comments, "I'm impressed."

"Thanks guys," Vy smiled at her friends' comments, placing the Net Shooter back in its golf bag, "That really means a lot to me."

"We interrupt this programming to bring you this breaking news," a female newscaster's voice announced from the apartment's TV, attracting everyone's attention towards it, "We have received news of a hostage situation at the Lotus Industries Artificial Intelligence Research Center…"

"Lotus Industries?" Krishna raised his eyebrows, "Can't it be…"

"Another attack?" Steffi added, "But I don't know…the pattern doesn't seem to fit the previous ones. The ones that we're investigating were smash-and-grab sabotage attacks, there were no hostages taken during those attacks…"

"…as we speak from the information that we had gathered, Class 11C of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted has been taken hostage by an unidentified hostage taker here at the Lotus Industries AIRC. We are unable to understand the hostage taker's demands, as he did not ask for any money or valuable items, but for the masked hero identified as Kamen Rider Voyager to be brought upon him…"

"It's a Maojin," Krishna concluded, standing up immediately as he glanced at Karin. Understanding what the glance meant, Karin nodded, transforming herself into her Maojin Card form and flying into Krishna's trouser pocket, "I'm going there."

"How do you know that it's a Maojin?" Steffi asked.

Krishna didn't answer, instead he immediately went out of the apartment much to the surprise of everyone.

"Krishna, wait!" Steffi called out, only for her phone to ring. Immediately Steffi picked it up, "Hello?"

"Sis, have you seen the news?" Leo's voice was heard from the other side of the line.

"Yeah, we did," Steffi replied.

"The higher-ups have decided to mobilize the MCU to the Hi-Tech Park. They're really not taking any chances here and are sending out the big guns to resolve this hostage crisis. Is Krishna there?"

"He just went out a few seconds ago. If I'm correct, he's going to the Hi-Tech Park as well."

"If that's the case…I'll see you at the Hi-Tech Park."

"Wait, what?! What happened to the Leo who scolded us every time we do something reckless and dangerous?"

Leo chuckled, "You've got us and Krishna. Whatever happens, we'll do our best to keep you girls safe. Besides, it's a Lotus Industries-related case. I think if we've managed to bring this hostage taker to custody, he or she could be helpful in your ongoing investigation."

xxx

Saigon Hi-Tech Park

"That idiot!"

Minh and Thao had evacuated themselves out of the AIRC and were now taking shelter unnoticed at a nearby biochemical laboratory. The owner of the lab was a business friend of Minh's and he had allowed the two to seek refuge in his laboratory until things at the AIRC were resolved. As they waited for the police to sort out the situation at the AIRC, Minh had asked Thao to link up the former's iPhone with the surveillance cameras at the AIRC, only to discover that they were all sabotaged.

And Minh knew all too well someone who has a knack of doing that.

"You okay?" Thao asked.

"I'm good," Minh nodded, taking out her ScanDriver, "It's just I've just found out who had compromised the AIRC…it's the same Maojin that has been messing with my factories for the past week."

Quickly Minh placed the ScanDriver against her waist, securing the device into place.

"And I'm going to teach him a lesson. Henshin!"

ACE HENSHIN! MARINE MANTA!

Fully transformed in her armor, Kamen Rider Mariner glanced at Thao for a moment.

"Stay here. I'll handle things at the AIRC."

Thao nodded as Mariner ran off, confident that her friend would be able to do what she had told her.

"That damn Maojin…taking my sister and her class hostage was not part of the plan!" Mariner cursed in her thoughts as she leapt over the laboratory's fence, making no hesitation as she headed back towards the AIRC.

xxx

At the same time, Krishna had arrived at the AIRC, parking his motorcycle among the numerous police cars stationed near the facility. The AIRC building was swarmed with both policemen and members of the press, with a police officer explaining to the journalists on what's going on inside the AIRC. Other police officers were seen with their standard pistols and riot shields, moving back and forth the AIRC's proximity in high alert. No one has entered the AIRC building yet – Leo had specifically instructed the officers to stand guard around the building, fearing that if the policemen acted rashly by breaking into the AIRC, they might risk agitating the hostage taker that would lead to civilian casualties.

Speaking about Leo, the MCU leader was seen instructing a couple of officers near his police car when Krishna came up to him. Seeing Krishna coming towards him, Leo immediately dismissed the two officers, greeting the young man with a salute afterwards.

"How's the situation?" Krishna asked.

"I've sent Thy and Hako to the west and east sides of the building with small platoons of MCU officers as their escorts," Leo replied, "They haven't gone in yet, but they're still surveying the premises."

"How much time did the hostage taker give to us?"

"One hour."

"How much time do we have left?"

"Ten minutes."

Krishna bit his lower lip rather anxiously, knowing that if they did not act now, the lives of the hostages inside the AIRC will surely be placed in danger.

"Have you sent a negotiator yet?" Krishna asked.

"Not yet…since we still have no idea on what's going on inside."

"What's with the delay?"

"The AIRC building isn't exactly the most straightforward of buildings," Leo explained, "It was built with safeguarding Lotus Industries' artificial intelligence research in mind. There were not many windows in the building that we could peek from and the heat map readings from inside the building indicated that the hostage taker had taken the hostages into the heart of the building, where we couldn't look at them from either the doors or the windows without making our presence known to the hostage taker."

"Damn," Krishna bit his lower lip once again.

"Luckily, we've got a surveillance drone with us," Leo told Krishna, "However we need to find the right moment and angle to fly it without the hostage taker noticing the drone. If he or she saw the drone, they'll know that we're here and the evacuation process will be difficult."

"I see."

xxx

At the east side of the building, Thy with three Kevlar-garbed police officers were scouring the premises, looking for an opening for Thy to fly the MCU's surveillance drone. Likewise, at the west side of the building, Hako and her three officers were doing the same thing as well.

"Hako, do you read me, over?" Thy spoke to her walkie-talkie.

"Loud and clear, Thy, over," came Hako's reply.

"Do you see an opening for your drone, over?" Thy asked.

"Nope, over," Hako replied, "We could only find an emergency exit here at the east side, over. How about you?"

"No luck either here at the west side, over," Thy answered, before she noticed something nearby, "Hang on…"

"What is it, over?"

"I think I saw an opening, over."

The opening that Thy meant was a small air vent, located right above her head. It's high enough for the drone to fly to and small enough for the drone to peek to unnoticed, making it the perfect viewing point for the group to see what's going on inside the AIRC building.

Immediately one of the Kevlar-garbed officers placed a black briefcase onto the ground, before entering a combination code to unlock it. Another officer picked up a black drone and a small camera from the briefcase, installing the camera onto the drone's underside before handing it over towards the third officer. The first officer then proceeded to take out a remote-control device that somewhat resembled a gaming joypad from the briefcase and gave the device to Thy.

"Right, the drone is up and running," Thy said after activating the remote-control, which at the same time activated the drone, "Let's do this."

Thy slowly moved the device's D-pad as the third officer let go of the drone, causing it to float away from the third officer's hands. The drone hovered above the group's heads for a few seconds, before Thy guided the drone towards the air vent.

"Leo, have you got visual, over?" Thy asked to her walkie-talkie.

xxx

"Positive, over," Leo replied to his own walkie-talkie.

Both Leo and Krishna were now sitting in front of the opened boot of Leo's police car, where the former had placed his laptop. The laptop's screen displayed a live video feed of what the drone's recording right now, a view of the AIRC building's interior from the air vent. The video feed showed the Swallowtail Maojin circling menacingly around his now sitting hostages, the hostages were all cowering in fear as the Swallowtail Maojin twirled his daggers in his hands in a taunting manner.

"HQ, are you seeing this too, over?" Leo asked his walkie-talkie.

xxx

Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Headquarters, District 1

A large LCD TV was set up rather hastily inside the MCU's temporary war room, with the screen being split into 7 parts, six smaller screens sandwiching one large one. The large one was broadcasting the video feed from the drone, while the other six ones were news broadcasts of the current hostage situation.

Standing in front of the TV was Khanh Linh, a walkie-talkie on her hand, while sitting next to her was Professor Truoc, the older man's eyes were fixated on the larger screen on the TV.

"We're seeing the drone's video feed clearly here in HQ, over," Khanh Linh told her walkie-talkie, before turning her attention towards Professor Truoc, "What do you think?"

"The details of the person in the video feed are quite sketchy, due to the low quality of the video. However, from the wing-like structures on the person's back, I can safe to say that it's an Unrecorded Lifeform, based on either a bird, a bat, or a butterfly," Professor Truoc replied.

Khanh Linh nodded, before speaking to her walkie-talkie once again, "The Professor has confirmed it, the hostage taker is an Unrecorded Lifeform. What should we do next, over?"

xxx

Saigon Hi-Tech Park, just outside the AIRC building, District 9

"We'll slip in Lieutenants Thy and Hako with their platoon through the emergency exits, and quietly extract the hostages from there. We'll secretly add more armed officers as the evacuation process, in case the Unrecorded Lifeform…"

Suddenly Krishna placed his hand on Leo's shoulder, "Leo, don't bother with that plan. I'll go in. By myself."

"Krishna?" Leo blinked in surprise, "Why?"

"The Maojin clearly wants me," Krishna replied, "It is safe to say, our best bet is having me go in there and engage the Maojin directly."

"But it's too risky! What if…"

"Which one do you prefer, me getting a broken leg or us losing those hostages?" Krishna asked.

Leo went silent for a few seconds, before letting out a reluctant sigh.

"Fine. But the moment you're getting in trouble, we're sending the troops in."

Saluting Leo in gratitude, Krishna immediately made a dash towards the AIRC's main entrance. As the young man disappeared from his sight, Leo took out his walkie-talkie and contacted HQ once again.

"Change of plans. We're sending Voyager in as a negotiator, over."

xxx

Inside the AIRC building, the Swallowtail Maojin patrolled around his cowering hostages, making sure that no one's having any funny ideas. The monstrous creature then took a glance at a nearby clock, which showed him the time remaining for the authorities to hand Voyager over to him.

"Two more minutes," the Swallowtail Maojin muttered, "Better sound my urgency to them."

Quickly the Swallowtail Maojin made his way towards a cowering Ngan, grabbing the teen by her collar much to her shock and horror. Brandishing his dagger, the Swallowtail Maojin quickly pointed it threateningly at a squirming Ngan's neck.

"You only have two minutes left!" the Swallowtail Maojin yelled, his voice was loud enough to be heard by everyone outside the AIRC, "Hand Kamen Rider Voyager over to me or I'll start my killing spree! Starting…with this lovely young lady."

"Let go of her."

The Swallowtail Maojin turned around to see Krishna standing in front of him, the young man glaring at the Maojin. A relieved yet surprised look washed itself over Ngan's face as she saw Krishna.

"Krishna!" Ngan called out.

"And who are you supposed to be?" the Swallowtail Maojin asked.

Krishna responded by taking out his ScanDriver and placing it on his waist.

READY!

"Ah, so you're Voyager," the Swallowtail Maojin said, causing Ngan's eyes to go wide in disbelief, "Finally you've showed up."

"Taking hostages of the defenseless? That's pretty low, even for a Maojin," Krishna said, taking out his Thunder Kabuto card, "Henshin!"

ACE HENSHIN! THUNDER KABUTO!

As Krishna transformed into Voyager, the Swallowtail Maojin let go of Ngan, before preparing his daggers, twirling them in his hands in delight.

"Let's take this outside," Voyager told the Swallowtail Maojin, to which the Maojin agreed to.

Immediately the two combatants jumped out of a nearest window, as Ngan and her class watched on.

"Krishna…is Kamen Rider Voyager?" Ngan's thoughts went wild as she watched Voyager and the Swallowtail Maojin's fight, "No wonder he was able to return my purse with ease the other day…he's truly a hero, both as himself and as a Kamen Rider!"

xxx

(Cue BGM: eternal traveller – Project DMM)

The battle between Voyager and the Swallowtail Maojin was an equal one, neither one gaining the upper-hand over each other. Charging purple electricity into his fists, Voyager landed a couple of blows onto the Swallowtail Maojin's chest, before the kaijin retaliated by slashing Voyager across the torso twice with his daggers. The two then grappled with each other, rolling onto the ground as they wailed punches after punches to each other's face.

Seeing the commotion between Voyager and the Swallowtail Maojin nearby, Leo felt that the opportunity to save the hostages has presented itself.

"Hako, Thy, now's your chance! Move into the building and save the hostages, over!" Leo commanded.

"Copy that, over!" replied both Hako and Thy in unison.

Immediately Hako and Thy, along with their officers, stormed the AIRC building through the emergency exits and safely evacuated the hostages there, Ngan included. They were then taken to a makeshift shelter located near the parked police cars, safe and sound from any danger.

TWO EQUIP! THUNDER CENTAURUS!

Arming himself with the Kaminari Blade to counter the Swallowtail Maojin's daggers, Voyager quickly clashed his weapon with the kaijin's, the two going back and forth at it. Despite the size of his daggers, the Swallowtail Maojin's skills with them enabled him to go toe-to-toe with Voyager's Kaminari Blade, matching the Rider's swordsmanship easily. Charging purple electricity into his daggers, the Swallowtail Maojin fired a couple of energy slashes, which were quickly nullified by an energy slash from Voyager's Kaminari Blade.

As the Rider and Maojin battled on, Hako and Thy were busy handling the evacuated hostages. They were mostly unharmed, apart from the single facility staff that was killed by the Swallowtail Maojin's dagger early into the hostage crisis, but they clearly looked shaken from the ordeal. Thy was busy handing out water bottles to the hostages when suddenly she noticed a blue blur rushing into the nearby battlefield.

"Eh?" Thy blinked her eyes twice, making sure that she hasn't seen things, "What was that?"

Their weapons energized, both Voyager and the Swallowtail Maojin charged at each other…only for the blue blur to suddenly show up between them. Voyager was kicked on the stomach by the blur, while the Swallowtail Maojin received a solid punch to the head by it.

(BGM ends)

Clearly surprised by what had just hit him, Voyager groggily stood up, clutching his stomach and using the Kaminari Blade as support. The Swallowtail Maojin stood up as well, shaking his head groggily as he was also caught off-guard by that attack.

"Who did that?" Voyager asked.

The Rider's question was answered seconds afterwards, with the blur coming to a stop in front of both Voyager and the Swallowtail Maojin, revealing itself to be Kamen Rider Mariner.

"You!" Voyager gasped.

"Ah, the very two people that I wanted to meet," Mariner said, before she proceeded to grab the Swallowtail Maojin by the throat to his surprise, "You fucking idiot. Taking my sister hostage like that…that was not part of the plan!"

"Sister? Plan?" Voyager wondered, "What's going on?"

"B-but…I..m-mu-s-t…do..a-a-any-thing..to..d-r-aw…ou-t…Vo-ya-ger…" the Swallowtail Maojin stammered as Mariner tightened her grip on his windpipe.

"By taking my sister and her friends hostage? That's disgusting," Mariner growled, before she proceeded to toss the Swallowtail Maojin like a dirty ragdoll to the ground, "Now buzz off! You're lucky that you're not my priority right now. But if we cross paths once again…I will deliver the judgement that you deserved."

"You…I won't forget this!" a clearly humiliated Swallowtail Maojin coughed out, before the kaijin quickly flew away from the battlefield.

"Wait!" Voyager called out, only for Mariner to deliver a solid jab to his face.

"Your opponent is me," Mariner told Voyager, "Voyager…your crimes against my father shall be paid by your blood!"

"Crimes? Father?" Voyager blinked underneath his helmet as he rubbed his face in pain, before the realization came to him, "It can't be…"

xxx

"Eric is dead, Voyager! Because YOU killed him!"

"They said that he died in a traffic accident…but I'm not that convinced. Something about his death to me feels…suspicious."

"Le Ngoc Duy's nickname is Eric."

"I don't know if you've already known about this…but Le Thao Minh is Eric's daughter."

xxx

"No…" Voyager gasped as the realization dawned upon him, "Not you…"

"I have taken my father's proud armor and I will use it to avenge his undeserved death," Mariner said, before she pointed at Voyager accusingly, "Even though it means that I must kill the man who I have considered as a brother to me for all these years!"

"Minh…" Voyager muttered in disbelief, realizing that his opponent in front of him was in fact his dear old friend, "Is that really you?"

"Yes, I'm Minh," Mariner replied, "And as the successor of the Mariner title and armor, I will destroy you for what you've done to my father, Krishna!"

Leo blinked his eyes in shock as Mariner began her assault on Voyager. Not only the fact that there's another Rider in Ho Chi Minh City other than Voyager, but also the fact that this new Rider has decided to announce its presence to the world by outright attacking Voyager had shocked Leo to the core.

"Another Rider…but why is that Rider attacking Voyager?" Leo wondered, before a swooshing noise from above snapped him back to reality.

Flying above Leo's head was the Swallowtail Maojin, flying away from the battlefield. Immediately Leo reached for his walkie-talkie.

"Hako, Thy, the hostage taker is on the run. Grab your biggest sticks and go after him, over!"

(Cue BGM: Agul Attack – Toshihiko Sahashi from the Ultraman Gaia OST)

Mariner attacked Voyager relentlessly, landing punch after punch onto the latter's face. Still shocked by the fact that Minh had been Mariner all along, Voyager was unable to defend himself, leaving himself open for a roundhouse kick to the neck that sends him flying.

Not wanting to lose her momentum, Mariner took out a Maojin Card from her card holder. It was a Water Tribe card, judging by its blue coloration and the familiar swirling blue icon. The card depicted a barracuda chasing a group of fishes through the open ocean, with the words "PELAGIC BARRACUDA" emblazoned in white on the card's blue line. The backside of the card was gunmetal gray in color, with a stylized 10 superimposed on a cup engraved on it. Wasting no time, Mariner inserted the card into the slot on her right hip.

TEN ABILITY! PELAGIC BARRACUDA!

A bluish aura overtook Mariner's body before she started to run, her entire body turning into the same blue blur that had entered the battlefield earlier. Voyager slowly stood up from Mariner's initial attack, only for Mariner's blur form to crash onto him several times. The black and blue Rider's speed was so great, Voyager did not have the time to pinpoint Mariner's exact location for him to launch a counter. Sparks flew from where Mariner's blur had struck Voyager, and within seconds the black and purple Rider was on his knees again.

(BGM ends)

"Krishna!" Karin called out as Voyager collapses on his back, "Krishna! Are you okay? Hang in there!"

"I'm good," Voyager groaned, "It's just…"

"Get your head in the game, man!" Karin urged, "Keep this up and you'll be turned into pulp in no time!"

"I know," Voyager nodded weakly, "But I don't want to hurt her…"

"I know that Minh has some sentimental value to you, but for the love of God, she's trying to kill you!" Karin scolded, "Could you at least do something so that you could at least survive this battle?"

"True," Voyager sighed, slowly reaching for his card holder and taking out the Hurricane Eagle card from there, "I don't want to do this…but at least I could tire her out and use that opportunity to retreat…"

ACE HENSHIN! HURRICANE EAGLE!

(Cue BGM: Hurricane Slash no Theme – Takao Konishi from the Ultraman Orb OST)

Standing up as he assumed his Hurricane Form, Voyager slowly took a deep breath, his eagle-enhanced senses trying their best in locating Mariner. Seeing that Voyager had become stationary, Mariner seized the chance, heading straight towards the black, green, and sky blue Rider with her fists ready. However, that was exactly what Voyager had planned for.

"Now!"

Quickly Voyager used his enhanced speed and reflexes to jump out of the way, before using the jump's momentum to launch himself for an impromptu flying side kick that struck Mariner on the head, kicking her out of her blur form. As Mariner tumbled on the ground, Voyager landed gracefully, regaining his composure to perform his catchphrase.

"I cut apart darkness faster than the speed of light!"

"Darkness?" Mariner chuckled sarcastically as she stood up, "Don't joke around!"

A bluish aura once again enveloped Mariner as the Pelagic Barracuda card's properties were still in effect, as a greenish one enveloped Voyager, the Rider having tapped his enhanced speed to its full potential. Within seconds the two Riders had become blurs of blue and green, the two blurs clashing with each other repeatedly.

"My father's blood is in your hands, Krishna!" Mariner exclaimed, "You will pay for what you've done to my family two years ago!"

"I wasn't even in Vietnam two years ago!" Voyager protested.

"Liar!"

"I'm not lying, Minh! Can we just stop this nonsense and talk this through like grownups?"

"I won't stop until you've received your judgement!"

Both Voyager and Mariner performed side-kicks onto one another's torsos, which pushed the two Riders apart as their respective auras died out. The two combatants panted heavily, the intensity of the battle clearly taking a toll at them, but neither of them showing any signs of stopping soon.

(BGM ends)

Suddenly Mariner went for her card holder, taking out a card that was all too familiar for Voyager.

"That's!"

"The Tectonic Mole card," Mariner said, showing the card that she had stolen from Voyager a while ago, "You're not the only one capable of fighting using different elements, Voyager."

And with that Mariner inserted the Tectonic Mole card into the slot on the trilobite-like device planted on her right gauntlet, the device's "eyes" flashing orange once the card had been inserted into it, prompting a computerized male voice, similar to that of the ScanDrivers, to yell out,

NINE ARMTRANS! TECTONIC MOLE!

Voyager's eyes went wide in shock as a yellow glow overtook Mariner's right forearm, the forearm configuring itself into something. Seconds later the glow died out, revealing that Mariner's entire right forearm has been covered in a dense orange armor with silver highlights, complete with a card slot on the back of a small mole's head attached to Mariner's gauntlet. However, what stood out from Mariner's brand new power-up was her right hand…or the lack of it. Gone was the Rider's right hand, being replaced with a silver drill with orange highlights, ready to pierce through the bodies of Mariner's opponents.

"Holy shit…" Voyager gasped upon the sight of Mariner's drill hand.

"Meet the Mole Driller," Mariner introduced her new weapon, "Now, feel the might of my ArmTrans ability, Voyager!"

Unknown to the two battling Riders, Ngan had been watching them from the sidelines for quite a while, a look of both awe and disbelief on her face. A few minutes ago Thy and Hako had left the shelter where she was at in order to go after the Swallowtail Maojin, enabling Ngan to slip her way out of the shelter and into the battlefield's sidelines undetected, giving herself front row seats to the clash between the Riders. And so far, what she had saw had blown her mind completely.

"Why…" Ngan muttered quietly as Mariner attacked Voyager once again, bashing him mercilessly with her Mole Driller, "Why do Riders have to fight each other?"

xxx

Meanwhile, not far from the AIRC, the Swallowtail Maojin had hightailed himself out of the battlefield, utterly humiliated from what Mariner had done to him.

"That wench!" the Swallowtail Maojin growled in his thoughts, "After all that I did to help her with Star's plan to defeat Voyager once and for all…and she treated me like trash in return! I swear that I won't forget this humiliation…Mariner, you must pay for what you've done to me!"

Unfortunately for the Swallowtail Maojin, he was too busy grumbling in his thoughts that he didn't care to pay attention to watch where his going. A familiar yellow Suzuki Swift came into view, coming straight towards the Swallowtail Maojin, but the kaijin saw the incoming vehicle a few seconds too late. The car smacked the Swallowtail Maojin's body out of the air, sending him flying back to a nearby pile of garbage.

"What the Hell was that?!" Kim gawked as she, Vy, and Steffi stepped out of the Swift, with Kim checking her car for any sign of damage, "Goddamnit, my car's all dented and shit!"

"That's the least of our concerns," Steffi said, pointing at the Swallowtail Maojin shaking off trash from his body nearby, "A cryptid!"

"Getting smacked by a car twice in the past three days, some luck do I have," the Swallowtail Maojin muttered, before he noticed the three SIG members standing warily near him, "Well hello there."

Slowly the Swallowtail Maojin approached Steffi and her friends, his daggers ready in his hands.

"You three were the ones who had crashed into me, huh?" the Swallowtail Maojin asked, pointing his dagger intimidatingly at the trio, "Well then, I've had a frustrating day and you three are the perfect outlet for my frustration!"

Immediately the Swallowtail Maojin jumped towards Steffi and her friends, purple electricity surging into his daggers with the weapons poised to tear the three young women into pieces. However…

"Vy, now!"

Taking out her black golf bag from the car's back seat, Vy took out the Net Shooter from it and fired the weapon without hesitation, landing a direct hit onto the Swallowtail Maojin's chest. Within seconds the Swallowtail Maojin was covered in a net of black adhesive, the kaijin squirming back-and-forth in a futile attempt to escape from it.

"Thank God you brought that thing with us, Vy," Steffi said as she, Kim, and Vy stood over the immobilized Maojin's body, "Without it we're toast!"

"I'm just glad that the Net Shooter works on cryptids," Vy lets out a relieved sigh, "I've never tested this on living creatures before!"

As the SIG members reveled in their victory, Leo, Thy, and Hako came into the scene, the three MCU members carrying their Buster grenade launchers with them.

"Hey sis," Leo greeted, "Have you seen an Unrecorded Lifeform near here?"

"You mean this guy?" Steffi asked back, pointing at the captured Swallowtail Maojin.

"Oh my God!" Leo gawked, signaling Hako and Thy to come closer to him as he inspected the captured Maojin, "You girls did this by yourselves?"

"Pretty much," Kim replied, "Vy's newest invention has saved our bacon."

Vy lets out a slight blush after hearing that, proud at her own invention's usefulness.

"Can we see it?" Hako asked.

"Sure!" Vy nodded, passing the Net Shooter to Hako.

Hako inspected the Net Shooter for a moment, before passing it to Thy. Thy checked out the weapon in her hands and was instantly awestruck by it, before finally giving it to Leo, who instantly recognized the weapon's original form.

"Vy, isn't this the tear gas gun that I've given to you last week?" Leo asked.

Vy nodded.

"No wonder I felt that I've seen this weapon somewhere before," Hako said, "So what did you do to it?"

"I converted it into a weapon that shoots out an adhesive net that capture targets," Vy explained, "I'm calling it the Net Shooter…I think it could be useful in our battle against the Maojins."

"From the looks of it, I think it is!" Leo said, glancing at the captured Swallowtail Maojin, "Now what should we do about our friend here?"

Steffi was about to give a reply when suddenly she noticed a black energy slash heading towards them.

"Duck!" Steffi yelled, prompting everyone to duck and cover as the black energy slash hits the ground, sending a cloud of dust that obscured everyone's vision.

Coughing out the dust from him, Leo looked around to make sure that everyone's alright.

"Is everyone okay?" Leo asked.

"We're good," came the reply from Steffi, with Vy coughing out dust and Kim clearing her throat.

"Same here," came Thy's reply, with Hako dusting off her uniform.

As the dust settles, Leo noticed a black humanoid slowly walking towards them. Immediately Leo grabbed his Buster, gesturing Hako and Thy to do the same thing as well.

"Who are you?" Leo asked, pointing the Buster towards the humanoid's direction, "Show yourself!"

Walking out from the cloud of dust was Star, his Destruction Blade in his right hand, while his left hand was carrying the captured Swallowtail Maojin.

"You!" Leo called out, "You're that black Unrecorded Lifeform from the other day!"

Star chuckled, brushing off the fact that Leo, Hako, and Thy were pointing their Busters at him, with Vy preparing her Net Shooter as well.

"At ease, humans. I'm not here to fight you," Star said, "I'm here to pick up my subordinate, that's all."

"And why should we believe you?" Thy asked.

"As much as I wanted to lay waste on each and every one of you, I think you have a much more important battle to see," Star replied, "A battle…where Voyager will meet his end!"

"Voyager…shit!" Leo cursed, realizing that due to the pursuit of the Swallowtail Maojin, he had forgotten about the battle between Voyager and Mariner, "Guys, let's go back to the AIRC! Voyager's in trouble!"

Star smirked as everyone hastily boarded Kim's car, with the driver flooring the vehicle immediately towards the AIRC. As the vehicle disappeared from sight, Star waved his Destruction Blade in a circular manner, creating a black portal of pure darkness large enough for him to go through. Star stepped into the portal, with the captured Swallowtail Maojin in tow, before the portal closed itself up.

xxx

(Cue BGM: Hell March 3 – Frank Klepacki from the Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 OST)

Screaming in pure rage, Mariner slammed her Mole Driller repeatedly into Voyager's chest, sparks flying from where the drill had hit the latter's chest armor. Not contend in stopping there, Mariner slashed Voyager's shoulders twice, dislodging the Rider's left shoulder armor, before Mariner proceeded to stab her drill onto Voyager's helmet. More sparks flew out as a portion of Voyager's right eye fell to the ground, smoke billowing out from both the eyepiece and the damaged shoulder armor.

Clutching his damaged helmet and with pain racking throughout his body, Voyager stumbled back, his Hurricane Form armor was mangled badly on the chest while his aforementioned left shoulder had lost its pauldron.

"Damn…" Voyager thought as he tried to regroup himself, "Minh's really taking advantage of the fact that my Hurricane Form armor has the weakest defense out of all of my forms! Why the fuck did I assume this form…oh right, her super speed. Forgot about it."

"Any last words?" Mariner asked, pointing her Mole Driller at Voyager, the latter's right eye clearly bloodied from Mariner's assault.

Voyager shook his head, "Not yet…the fight's not over yet!"

Voyager quickly took out a Maojin Card from his card holder. It was a Wind Tribe card, judging by the green line on the card's left hand side and the swirling symbol icon. The card depicted a hummingbird drinking nectar out of its favorite flower, with the words "HOVER HUMMINGBIRD" being emblazoned in white on the card's green line. The backside of the card was gunmetal gray in color, with a stylized 5 superimposed on a wand engraved on it.

Wasting no time, Voyager inserted the Hover Hummingbird card into his right hip slot.

FIVE ABILITY! HOVER HUMMINGBIRD!

A pair of green holographic wings of energy appeared in above Voyager, prompting the Rider to jump up towards it. The wings attached themselves onto Voyager's back before they started to flap rapidly, granting Voyager the hovering power of a hummingbird.

Seeing that Voyager has taken to the skies, Mariner quickly took out the Lighting Firefly card from her card holder and inserted it into the slot on her right gauntlet.

NINE ARMTRANS! LIGHTNING FIREFLY!

A purple glow overtook Mariner's entire right arm as it changed shape, the glow dying out seconds afterwards to reveal a large gunmetal gray blaster cannon that had replaced Mariner's entire right forearm, with a group of purple and gunmetal gray Oudin coils being implanted into Mariner's right shoulder, with a diagonal card slot being placed nicely among them. Purple circuit-like lines adorn the blaster cannon's surface, with a purple image of a firefly being emblazoned on the cannon's surface as well. The cannon itself was a double-barreled one.

Voyager's eyes went wide in shock at the sight of Mariner's new weapon, realizing that no matter what kind of maneuver that he has, Mariner has a trick of her own designed to counter it.

"Voyager, meet my Firefly Buster," Mariner introduced her newly formed weapon at the airborne Voyager, "I will shoot you out of the sky in no time!"

"Not if I have something to say about it!" Voyager exclaimed, taking out an Overcharge Card and inserting it into his right hip slot.

HURRICANE OVERCHARGE!

Realizing that Voyager's about to pull off an Overcharge on her, Mariner took out her own Overcharge Card, tossing it into the card slot on her right shoulder.

LIGHTNING ARMTRANS OVERCHARGE!

"Hurricane Hover Smash!" Voyager exclaimed, performing a diving flying side kick that was enhanced by the rapidly beating wings on his back, his right foot charged with swirling green energy.

"Firefly Lightning Bomber!" Mariner exclaimed, aiming her Firefly Buster at the incoming Voyager. Purple electricity surged throughout the Oudin coils on her shoulder, before being transmitted through the lines on the blaster cannon towards the weapon's muzzle. Purple electricity cackled in front of the Firefly Buster's double barrels, before Mariner fired a concentrated stream of purple electricity from them.

Within seconds the stream of electricity struck the incoming Voyager, striking the Rider down in a shower of sparks and multiple explosions. His energy wings shattered from the attack, Voyager landed back-first onto the cold hard ground with a loud thud, smoke billowing out from his heavily damaged Hurricane Form armor.

(BGM ends)

Mariner slowly walked up towards the downed Voyager, her Firefly Buster disappearing into motes of purple light as it reverted back into her normal right arm. But just as she was about to pull out another Overcharge Card to finish off Voyager, suddenly Mariner was shocked by her opponent pulling himself back together, fighting through the pain barrier as he stood up.

"You're still alive after that?!" Mariner gawked in surprise.

"Minh…like I said…the fight is not over yet," Voyager said, the Thunder Kabuto card in his hand.

ACE HENSHIN! THUNDER KABUTO!

Resisting the pain racking throughout his body, Voyager, back in his default Thunder Form, took out his Overcharge Card, prompting Mariner to quickly step back, taking out her own Overcharge Card in the process.

"Krishna, are you insane?!" Karin asked out in both shock and panic, "You're too injured to continue!"

"I know," Voyager nodded, "This is my final attack…it won't damage her too much, but it'll disorient her long enough for us to make our escape."

"Krishna…"

"It's a gamble…but one that I'm hoping to pull off successfully."

Ngan watched on silently and anxiously from the sidelines, as the two Kamen Riders prepared to pull off their final attacks on one another. Clasping her hands together, Ngan slowly closed her eyes, praying that the battle unfolding in front of her would end quickly. The battle itself has been a horrendous one and Ngan doesn't want to watch even more.

Voyager inserted his Overcharge Card into his right hip slot.

THUNDER OVERCHARGE!

Purple electricity surged and cackled from Voyager's ScanDriver, the energies being channeled into Voyager's right boot, a purple glow coming out of it.

At the same time, Mariner inserted her Overcharge Card into her right hip slot.

MARINE OVERCHARGE!

Blue energy surged from Mariner's ScanDriver, being channeled through the blue lines on the Rider's bodysuit into her legs. Both of Mariner's boots glowed blue, the lines on her legs glowing blue as well.

The two Riders immediately began their run-up after they had gathered enough energy, with Voyager leaving behind purple footprints of his energized right boot and Mariner leaving behind blue footprints from her energized boots. Midway through their run-up, the two Riders jumped, with Voyager somersaulting in mid-air to assume a flying side kick position, while Mariner assumed a dropkick position, being propelled forward by jets of water bursting out from her heels.

"Lightning Smash!" Voyager exclaimed, launching himself towards Mariner with his energized right boot ready.

"Marine Crusher!" Mariner announced, the jets of water from her heels propelling her towards the incoming Voyager, her energized boots going straight for the kill.

Letting out yells of determination, the two Riders performed their Rider Kicks on each other, creating a huge explosion in mid-air the moment the Riders' boots made contact with their respective targets. Ngan had to duck and cover as the shockwave of the explosion almost blew her off her feet, while the same shockwave shattered the windows of not only the AIRC, but also the buildings surrounding the facilities. Car alarms were set off as their windows were shattered by the aftereffects of the explosion, while the cameras of the news crew covering both the hostage situation and the subsequent battle were rendered offline.

As the smoke and fire from the explosion died out, the aftermath of the Rider Kick clash was revealed to the world to see. Voyager was on his back, writhing in pain as his armor disintegrated away involuntarily, while Mariner was standing firmly on both feet a few meters in front of him. Ngan slowly crawled up towards the two, trying her best to be unseen by them.

"I'm not happy," Mariner suddenly spoke, "I'm not happy with this battle at all."

"W-why?" Krishna asked, wincing in pain as he struggled to sit up.

"You were holding back," Mariner replied, "You're not fighting at your full potential…and fighting an opponent who is not 100% into the battle is not honorable at all. Why are you holding yourself back, Krishna? Is it because you're fighting someone who you had known for a long time? Someone that you've already considered as family?"

"Minh…"

"I know, Krishna. It's never easy to fight someone who you grew close with…even I have to admit that. But still…justice still needs to be served and you must pay for what you've done."

"But I didn't…"

"Not another word, Krishna."

Mariner slowly turned around, taking out her Marine Manta card from her ScanDriver in the process. Mariner's armor lets off a blue glow, before it disintegrated into blue motes of light, revealing Minh, slightly bruised in a few places, her lower lip cut, and a slightly bloodied wound was seen on her forehead.

"No way!" Ngan's eyes went wide in shock as she saw her sister standing over the badly injured Krishna, "Nee-chan…nee-chan is a Kamen Rider like Krishna?!"

With her ScanDriver still on her waist, Minh took out her Hydro Alpheid card from her card holder, before inserting the card into the slot on her left hip.

NINE EQUIP! HYDRO ALPHEID!

The Hydro Gunner materializes itself in Minh's hands, before the young woman proceeded to point the shotgun at Krishna. Ngan lets out an inaudible gasp at this sight, however Krishna remained calm and composed underneath gunpoint, despite still writhing in pain from his injuries.

"You know, I would have easily finish you off right here and right now," Minh said, lowering the Hydro Gunner much to Ngan's relief from the sidelines, "But doing that would not be an honorable thing to do. As heinous as your crimes were…you're too injured and weakened to fight back. Finishing you off now would be a cowardly thing to do and it'll bring shame to my late father's legacy."

"I see that you've inherited your father's sense of honor," Krishna chuckled through his pain, "I'm glad that he had taught you well."

"I'm more than determined to avenge my father's death, but I'm also determined to do it in an honorable way. What that Maojin did to my sister and her class and your inability to focus on the battle at hand had made this battle a complete mockery to my standards."

"Wait…so when you said plan earlier…that means…"

"I've used that Maojin as bait to lure you in for our battle. However, seeing that those bastards are sneaky as Hell, I've decided to take matters into my own hands and arrange our future battle by myself. The last thing that I wanted is innocent blood being spilled to the ground because of our fight."

"Making sure that there's no collateral damage…Minh, you sure held your pride and honor really highly, huh?"

"Three days, Krishna. I'm giving you three days to fix your mind and your body, and then we can finally settle things once and for all, in a duel to the death, one-on-one, just between us, no holds barred. Meet me at Quach Thi Trang roundabout in front of Ben Thanh Market at 10am three days from now. I'll have Thao write a formal letter regarding our duel where I will tell you where we will have our battle. I hope that by that time, you'll be more than prepared for our second round."

And after saying that, Minh slowly turned her back on Krishna, walking away from the injured young man without saying another word. In the sidelines, Ngan was left speechless from everything that she had seen.

"Nee-chan…why are you and Krishna fighting? I thought you two knew each other? You two looked like good friends when you two talked yesterday…why fight like this? Don't tell me…nee-chan…"

Suddenly the sound of footsteps quickly heading Ngan's way was heard, prompting the teenager to quickly take her leave. Ngan doesn't want anyone to know that she had sneaked out of the shelter and fearing that she might get caught, she decided that it was for the best that she leave the place as soon as possible.

"Krishna!"

Leo and Steffi ran up towards the injured Krishna, the two of them clearly looking concerned.

"Krishna! Are you okay?"

"Hang in there!"

As Leo and Steffi picked Krishna up, they were joined by Hako, Thy, Kim, and Vy. Leo told Kim to fetch her car quickly, which the young woman complied almost immediately. After Kim had parked her car near the group, Leo and Steffi loaded Krishna into the back seat of the car, with Hako taking care of Krishna's motorcycle and Thy taking the wheel of Leo's police car. The three vehicles then left the AIRC, heading straight towards the nearest hospital.

xxx

Xich Quy Joint Stock Company Headquarters, Phu My Hung Urban Area, District 7

A satisfied smirk was seen on Rin's face as she turned off her flat screen TV in her office. Along with Tower and Justice by her side, Rin had just finished watching the news coverage of the hostage crisis at the AIRC, along with the battle between Voyager and Mariner that followed afterwards. The coverage was cut short the moment the explosion from the two Riders' respective Rider Kicks clashing disabled the news cameras stationed there, but for Rin, she had already seen enough. And she was enjoying every single moment of it.

"Star, you magnificent bastard," Rin lets out a slight chuckle, "By using the Swallowtail Maojin as bait to lure Voyager into a fight with Mariner and having the two going after each other's throats…it's quite sneaky, but ingenious nonetheless."

"I think that explosion was strong enough to put both of them out of action for a while," Tower commented, "What should we do next, Madam?"

"Just do what your kind is best in doing," Rin replied simply as she stood up from her sofa, "Create as much mayhem as possible."

"Oh yes, we will most definitely take advantage of both Voyager and Mariner's absences to the fullest," Justice lets out an excited smile, "Don't worry. We won't waste time in terrorizing city into bowing underneath you and His Almightiness The World. The Kamikiri, our next agent, is ready in the wings. Heck, when the Swallowtail's back, maybe we'll ask him to join him as well."

"Excellent," Rin nodded, an evil smile appearing on her face, "I'll be taking a shower for a while. After that, we're going out for lunch."

Both Tower and Justice nodded in unison, as Rin left her office, whistling a tune to herself along the way…

xxx

Ho Chi Minh City Police Department Headquarters, District 1

Professor Truoc has been holed up in his personal office the moment Khanh Linh has dismissed everyone after the hostage situation at the AIRC was resolved. Located above the MCU's temporary headquarters, it was a small and neat room, painted in a neutral white. A Macbook Pro was present on the room's desk, while several whiteboards were plastered across the room's walls, all of them littered with a variety of mathematical equations. The words "Maojins? Who are they? What they really are? How do they work?" were also written on the whiteboards, along with a larger "MAOJIN CARDS?" written in capital letters on the whiteboard above Professor Truoc's Macbook.

Speaking about the good professor, he was now fixed in front of his Macbook, researching screenshots from the news broadcast of the battle between Voyager and Mariner that he had taken earlier. The screenshots depicted the two Riders using a variety of Maojin Cards to unlock their power, Mariner's Pelagic Barracuda which gives her super speed, Voyager's Hurricane Eagle that enabled him to shift into his Hurricane Form, as well as the two cards that Mariner used for her ArmTrans.

Professor Truoc's Macbook also contained footages of Voyager's battles downloaded from the SIG website, which the professor had spent time watching and re-watching them in order to understand how Voyager tick. So far, Professor Truoc has concluded that the Maojin Cards were the source of Voyager's powers, and that his ScanDriver was an important device to channel those cards' powers. However, the professor still needed to know what's the secret behind a Maojin Card, other than being the sealed form of a Maojin, that is. Professor Truoc felt that acquiring a Maojin Card for his research is the closest thing that he would get in researching a body of a Maojin itself, as it would help him greatly in his greater goal of helping the MCU in understanding what they're going up against, as well as developing anti-Maojin weapons that'll surely allow the MCU to gain equal footing with both the Maojins and the Kamen Riders.

"Fascinating, these cards whenever inserted into a slot on the bodies of these Riders, they'll either grant them with a new form, a new weapon, or a new ability, thus enabling them to have an advantage over an opponent…" Professor Truoc wondered aloud as he inspected the screenshots thoroughly, "I wonder where could I get one of these for my research…"

Suddenly an idea struck Professor Truoc's head. Quickly he grabbed his iPhone and dialed Leo's number.

"Lieutenant Leo, it's Professor Truoc," Professor Truoc said, "Do you have a moment? I needed your help with something…"

xxx

Steffi's apartment

"Are you sure you can walk your way into the apartment?"

"I'm sure. I've been through worse."

"You have broken ribs, internal bruising on your back, and your right leg's quite jacked up. Are you sure?"

"Like I said, I've been through worse."

The checkup at the hospital revealed that despite all the beating that Krishna received from Mariner, he only escaped with slight injuries, and he was sent home with a packet of prescription meds and was told to not force himself for a couple of days. Leo, Hako, and Thy all went back to the HCMCPD, so Steffi, Kim, and Vy took Krishna back home, with Karin taking care of the young man's motorcycle.

Krishna limped slightly out of Kim's car with Steffi and Vy following him, before Kim set off to park her car in the apartment's parking lot.

"I still can't believe that Le Thao Minh is the new Mariner," Steffi said, causing a look of sadness to overtook Krishna's face, "But then again, she probably had inherited Mariner's powers from her late father…"

"Neither do I," Krishna replied rather somberly, "And now she's out there trying to kill me…"

Looking upwards and closing his eyes, Krishna reminiscence the better times that he had with Minh and her family. The time he teased her every morning over breakfast. The time he had beaten her in Monopoly. The time he told her about his stories from around the world before bedtime. The time he helped her with her homework. And the time they watched a Premier League match between Chelsea and Newcastle United together, with Krishna supporting Chelsea and Minh supporting Newcastle. Without him realizing it, a drop of tear rolled out from Krishna's left eye.

"Krishna?" Steffi called, "You okay?"

"I've lost her, have I?" Krishna suddenly said, wiping away his tears as he said so, "Minh was like a dear little sister that I never had…and we shared so many great memories together. And now…she no longer thought of me as a brother…but as some cold-blooded murderer who had ruined her family…"

And with that, Krishna quickly went inside the apartment, sobbing quietly as he slammed the door shut. Steffi and Vy were left speechless, but deeply concerned for their friend's wellbeing.

"His physical injuries were the least of his problems…" Steffi said, "It's his state of mind that needed some patching up. To believe, someone who Krishna had cared deeply for…is out to murder him…I don't think I could live with that fact if I were him."

"True," Vy nodded, "I too would spiral into depression if my family and best friends suddenly decided that they wanted me dead…it's up to us to fix him, huh?"

"Yeah. How about we have a pizza party tomorrow morning?"

"That's a good idea!" Vy exclaimed, "Pizza is the cure to almost everything."

"Who doesn't love pizza," Steffi chuckled, "C'mon, let's go inside and plan the whole damn thing! Let's make this as cheerful as possible to brighten up Krishna's mood, shall we?"

Both Steffi and Vy went into the apartment, the two of them buzzing in planning the perfect pizza party to cheer up Krishna. Unknown to them, perched on the apartment's mailbox, was a peculiar-looking crow with three legs, a letter attached to its right talon…

xxx

The next morning

Steffi, Vy, and Kim were busy preparing for the morning's pizza party at the apartment's dining room, with Karin even pitching in to help. Krishna was nowhere to be seen though, as the young man had practically shut himself in his room ever since they came back yesterday. While Steffi was ordering pizza on the phone, Kim was busy arranging the plates and glasses, having bought a large bottle of Coca-Cola yesterday. Vy was hanging up decorations on the ceiling, while Karin blew and created a number of balloon animals. The Arcana Maojin was surprisingly good with them, as within five minutes she had created a giraffe, an elephant, a dog, and a cat, much to the amazement of everyone else.

"So, what did you ordered?" Kim asked after Steffi had finished ordering the pizza.

"One large Super Supreme and one large Meat Lovers," Steffi replied as she helped Kim with the plates, "Apparently they're having a buy one get one free promo there, so we've gotten ourselves two pizza for the price of one, a free salad, and a large bottle of Coke."

"Shit," Kim cursed, slapping her forehead in dismay, "Should I've known such a promo exist, I wouldn't have gone out and bought ourselves a large bottle of Coke yesterday!"

Steffi chuckled, "Nah, it's alright. Krishna's a huge drinker anyway, so we'll probably need that second bottle."

Around half an hour later, the preparation was complete. Multicolored streamers and pennants were placed on the walls of the room, with Karin's balloon animals being scattered all over the dining table, the kitchen, and the living room. The dining table was neatly set-up with plates being arranged neatly on top of a pearly white tablecloth that Steffi had washed for the occasion, glasses standing perfectly near the plates, and the cutlery being arranged with such precision next to the plates. And last but not least, the complete 9 seasons of How I Met Your Mother DVD set was laid out on the living room's coffee table, the disc for the first season of the sitcom already inside the apartment's DVD player with the TV displaying the disc's main menu.

All that's left was the pizza.

A chime was heard from the door, prompting Steffi to open it. Standing outside the apartment was a young man clad in the familiar red and black uniform of Pizza Hut, a large plastic bag on his person.

"What's poppin', dudettes?" the young man greeted in a stereotypical surfer dude's accent, "Is this like, the residence of Pham Vu To Quyen?"

"I'm Pham Vu To Quyen," Steffi replied.

"Radical, dudette. Here's your one Super Supreme, one Meat Lovers, one salad, and one large bottle of Coca-Cola."

"Thanks," Steffi said as she accepted the plastic bag from the pizza delivery man, "How much is it?"

"Like, 150.000 Vietnamese Dong," the delivery man replied.

"Here you go," Steffi said, paying the man 200.000 Vietnamese Dong that she had prepared earlier.

"Gnarly. The change would be like, 50.000 Vietnamese Dong," the man said, handing Steffi the change, "And like, one last thing, dudettes."

"What is it?"

"Can you like; get rid of that crow on your mailbox? It's like, been staring at me ever since I came here. Not gnarly at all, dudette, that crow's like, creeping me out, I mean like, it has three legs, totally creepy. Can you like, at least shoo it away? That would be extremely radical."

"What three-legged crow?" suddenly Krishna came out of his room, having heard the conversation from inside it, "Can I see it?"

"Whoa dude, like chill. Sure thing."

Immediately Krishna rushed towards the apartment's mailbox, with Steffi, Kim, Vy, and Karin following him. The pizza delivery man, clueless on whatever's happening, shrugged his shoulders as he nonchalantly left the apartment.

True to the pizza delivery man's words, there was a crow perched on top of the apartment's mailbox. Unlike most crows, it has three legs, with the one on the right having a small letter attached to it. Immediately Krishna recognized the crow upon seeing it.

"The Yatagarasu!" Krishna exclaimed, "It's been a while."

"You idiot, I've been standing here for hours and you've just came out to see me now?!" the crow, named Yatagarasu, scolded Krishna almost immediately out of irritation.

"Sorry, I have a lot of things in my mind right now," Krishna chuckled sheepishly, just as Steffi, Kim, Vy, and Karin came.

"Holy shit, a talking crow!" Steffi gawked, "Is it a cryptid? And why is Krishna talking to it?"

"That's no ordinary crow," Karin said, surprising the three young women, "It's the Yatagarasu."

"Yata…what?" Kim blinked.

"The Yatagarasu," Karin replied, "In Japanese mythology, his appearance signals the arrival of divine intervention in the lives of mankind. The Yatagarasu was revered as a god of guidance by the Japanese. But if he's here, that means…"

"Again, sorry!" Krishna said sheepishly after he had taken the letter from the Yatagarasu's right talon, the three-legged crow flying off afterwards.

"What was that about?" Kim asked.

"I've got a letter from an old friend of mine," Krishna answered, opening the letter before reading the letter's opening greeting aloud, "Dear Krishna, why haven't you written to me in 80 years! Okay, what the fuck."

Krishna proceeded to silently read the letter, before his eyes went wider than a hippo's mouth when it's yawning.

"What's wrong?" Vy asked.

"Karin, we need to go to the airport. ASAP," Krishna said as he ran into the apartment, before coming out seconds afterwards with his leather jacket over his pajamas.

"Are you sure you want to go to Tan Son Nhat looking like that?" Steffi asked, "And are you sure you want to go there now? We've bought you pizza for breakfast."

"Yes, I'm sure," Krishna replied, "And it's because I'm horribly late. A friend of mine's coming to Ho Chi Minh City and her flight had probably arrived here! Shit, I should have noticed the Yatagarasu earlier! Karin, let's go!"

Karin nodded, transforming herself into her card form as she flew into Krishna's jacket pocket. Wasting no time, Krishna immediately ran out towards the apartment's parking lot, surprising both Leo and Professor Truoc who were coming to Steffi's apartment at the same time.

"What's got into him?" Leo asked, which Professor Truoc replied with a shrug.

"Bro? What are you doing here?" Steffi asked as she saw Leo and Professor Truoc in front of them.

"Ah, good morning girls," Leo greeted, "There's someone who would like to meet you all."

Leo then gestured to Professor Truoc to introduce himself, which the professor replied with a nod.

"Good morning. My name is Professor Pham Van Truoc, I'm working for the Maojin Counter Unit as their main researcher. And I was wondering whether you girls could do me a favor."

"What favor?" Steffi asked.

"I would like you girls to borrow one of Kamen Rider Voyager's Maojin Cards for me."

Immediately Steffi, Kim, and Vy gasped out in surprise, "What?"

xxx

TO BE CONTINUED…

xxx

Next time, on Kamen Rider Voyager, episode 6 – Showdown! Voyager vs. Mariner

Minh has given Krishna three days to prepare himself for round two of Voyager vs. Mariner, hoping that the young man would give her the fair and honorable fight that she desired. However, the fact that Minh was the new Kamen Rider Mariner has weighed on Krishna considerably, with the young man still unable to accept that the young girl that he had considered as his own beloved sister had grown up into a vengeful young woman out for his blood. This period of depression has lead Krishna to spend his time reading Rei's short story instead of preparing himself for the upcoming duel. Will the arrival of Krishna's old friend from Japan and Rei's short story give him the morale boost that he needed the most in time for the duel? Kamen Rider Voyager vs. Kamen Rider Mariner, it's time to settle things once and for all!

Part of a mini crossover event with RdfAng's Kamen Rider Kagura

xxx

Maojin Card of the Day

Hover Hummingbird

Class: Five of Wands

Tribe: Wind

Properties: Enables Voyager to summon a pair of green holographic wings made out of energy, which will attach on the Rider's back. These wings will give Voyager the ability to hover in the sky for an unlimited amount of time just like a hummingbird, enabling him to evade attacks while at the same time plan out and execute new ones from an extreme altitude. When used in conjunction with an Overcharge Card, this will enable Voyager to perform Overcharges from high altitudes, which will increase the damage inflicted considerably.

Maojin of the Day

Swallowtail Maojin

Class: Three of Shields

Tribe: Thunder

Motif: Swallowtail butterfly

Host: Axeleander Juvilius Teguh (Axel)

Abilities: flight, firing purple bolts of electricity from his fingers, and spreading purple glitter from his wings that would electrocute anyone that the glitter came into contact with. He is also armed with a pair of daggers, which he could charge with purple electricity to enhance his slashes with them. When fully charged, these daggers can be used to fire off purple energy slashes.

Destroyed by: Kamen Rider Kagura Rain Form's Rain Rending and the Jet Maobarracuda's Rage of the Imperial Tsunami (Voyager Chapter 6)

xxx

A/N: And that's it for chapter 5 of Kamen Rider Voyager! In case you were wondering, TBA means To Be Announced, and I will fill in on how that Maojin will be destroyed once I've written the story that has the Maojin's defeat in it along with the chapter where the Maojin was defeated in brackets, for example:

Destroyed by: Kamen Rider Voyager Thunder Form's Lightning Smash (insert chapter in which the Maojin was defeated here)

I'll be doing this for Maojins of the Days who were part of a two or multi-parter arc.

Anyway, quick news – I'm currently writing a mini-crossover with RdfAng, the author of Kamen Rider Kagura! Check out his story – it's amazing. Basically Kagura chapter 10 and Voyager chapter 5 serve as the build-up to the mini-crossover event. Keep your eyes peeled for both stories to catch up with this incredible event!

Anyway, don't forget to leave your kind reviews and as usual, no flames! I would really appreciate it if you also add this story to your favorites and your following list :D

maxpower02, signing out!