So here's my third chapter, fresh from the oven. I'm already working on the fourth chapter, so it'll probably only take me a few more weeks for me to post the next chapter. Stay tuned until then. Finally, thank you to all my readers and subscribers.
-CHAPTER 3-
-THE HELHEIM PALACE-
Kinji stared at the man who was Bravo, Kurusu Jin. Nobody knew who he was, yet he had simply told Kinji.
"Now, if you're wondering why I told you who I am…" Kurusu said, as if reading Kinji's mind, "I want to take you in as my disciple."
Kinji stared agape at the man.
"Don't look at me like I'm an alien, I'm your teacher. Now let's get to my house for training." Kurusu said, heading off somewhere.
"B-b-but… that…" Kinji stammered, at a loss for words, eventually letting his legs go on auto pilot to follow Kurusu.
Kurusu led him to a flat, and the inside was rather roomy, but less extravagant than his expectation.
"What? Thought I'd be younger? 'Cause old guys don't normally call themselves 'Bravo'? Sorry to disappoint anyway!" Kurusu joked, to which Kinji shook his head. Kurusu invited Kinji to sit and Kinji did just that.
"So I've noticed that your fighting style is like that of an overly caffeinated baboon. I really don't like seeing noobs fight, so I've decided to train you, otherwise you'd be defeated in an instant in this battle." Kurusu said, which made Kinji's expression sour.
"By the way… I want to ask you… Zangetsu said something about a survival game. What is it?" Kinji asked.
Kurusu walked to the kitchen and returned with a cup of coffee, and he nonchalantly took a long sip, then spoke.
"The forest we were in is called Helheim. The fruits, as you can see, convert into Lock Seeds when they are picked. However, there's this sick bastard somewhere in Helheim, the ruler. He decided to look for a successor, so he made this stupid game to do that. So back to the main topic. The battle is simple. When the Riders battle, they have to eliminate the opponent by smashing their Sengoku Driver. I see that you got yours in a Chinese temple." Kurusu explained.
"How'd you know?" Kinji asked.
"C'mon, your rider is a Chinese themed one. Of course you'd find your one in a Chinese temple. Of course, I'm sidetracking, and I love it. I found mine in a Spartan gladiator arena." Kurusu revealed.
Kinji laughed.
"Anyway, back to important stuff. So your accuracy with the Budou Ryu-Gun obviously needs much more work, so follow me!" Kurusu said as he finished his coffee.
Kurusu led him to a wide field.
"Let's test your accuracy. I'll be shooting discs from here. Use your Budou Ryu-gun to shoot these discs!" Kurusu said.
Kinji took out his Lock Seed and transformed.
[BU-DOU]
[LOCK ON]
[HAIII! BU-DOU AARMS! RYU! HOU! HAHAHA!]
He pulled out his gun and fired. For every disc he shot, almost three others escaped unharmed.
Kurusu shook his head.
"This won't do. You need to be fast and accurate. For example, using moving targets. But I think we'll stick with static targets now." Kurusu said, still looking disappointed.
Kinji was brought to another long room with a paper target in the shape on a common Inves at the end of the room.
"How many rooms do you have? And why are they all for shooting?" Kinji asked.
"You ask too much, kid. But ah well, I'll tell you anyway. I'm a huge fan of guns. Honestly, I had hoped to get a weapon like yours. A gun. But no, I HAD to get the Durinokos!" Kurusu said sarcastically, referring to his twin blades.
Kurusu gestured and Kinji took aim. Firing several shots, he hit the paper Inves in the head, stomach and another shot at its chest.
Kurusu nodded.
"Say, why can't you do that with moving targets?" He asked, to which Kinji shrugged.
After a few hours of such training, he moved on to training with his Kiwi Geki-Rin, and was brought to the forest.
"Hey, why do you seem to know where there zips are?" Kinji asked curiously.
"You mean the Cracks? They're everywhere, but you just need to see a glow nearby that only is Riders can see. Anyway, the Crack is hidden from human view, so that makes it more convenient and we won't attract a crowd when battling." Kurusu said.
They entered a Crack they found and Kinji activated his Kiwi Arms.
[KIWI]
[LOCK ON]
[HAIII! KIWI ARMS! GEKI! RIN! SEI-YA HA!]
At the same time, Kurusu activated his Durian Lock Seed and transformed.
[DURIAN]
[LOCK ON]
[DURIAN ARMS! MISTEEER… DAANGEROUS!]
"Alright, come at me," Bravo declared, crossing his Durinokos in front of him.
Kinji approached Bravo, swinging his Gekirin at waist level. The durian Rider easily avoided his strikes. With one last parry, Bravo raised a hand o stop him.
"The problem with the Kiwi Arms is the fact that your arm motion is restricted by your shoulder pads. Try lifting your arms," Bravo instructed.
Kinji did as told, but couldn't raise them beyond seventy degrees.
"I knew it. The Kiwi Gekirin also come in as an issue, since they're so big. So what you'll want to do is to slice diagonally downwards to increase the force of slicing and to compensate for a lack of arm mobility. You could also try using them as a thrusting weapon," Bravo advised. "Now let's try that again."
Kinji advanced on the battle-ready Bravo again, this time lifting the Gekirin in his right hand to his left shoulder and swinging it downwards. The force of the strike was enough to unbalance Bravo, who stumbled backwards slightly. Kinji took the opening and thrusted the Gekirin his left hand at Bravo's torso. Though Bravo dodged the strike, the wheel plunged deeply into the tree behind Bravo. Indicating to Kinji to stop, Bravo stabbed his dual saws into the ground and applauded Kinji.
"Great! So turns out, your physical fighting is good, your accuracy with the gun is horrible!" He said, making Kinji frown.
"Well, I think we should work on your accuracy more. So get back to using the Budou Lock Seed.
Kinji nodded and switched Arms.
[BU-DOU]
[LOCK ON]
[HAIII! BU-DOU AARMS! RYU! HOU! HAHAHA!]
He twirled his gun in his hand and shot the fruits off the tree. Unfortunately, he mostly shot the fruit instead of the stem, and juicy, succulent, translucent flesh oozed out of the fruit.
"Ooh, if that didn't turn me into an Inves, I'd totally be pigging out on those." Kurusu said.
Kinji spun on the spot.
"Wait, WHAT!?" He shouted.
Kurusu looked at him, mildly surprised that Kinji raised his voice so suddenly.
"They turn you into Inves!?" Kinji demanded.
"Well, yeah. You didn't know?"
"I almost ate one of those!"
"Well, you have to have experience to be able to perform best."
"You could have told me while you were explaining Helheim!"
Kurusu laughed, but stopped and looked down meekly when Kinji glared at him.
"Well, it turned into a Lock Seed, but it still was risky." Kinji said, which made Kurusu double over with laughter.
"The Sengoku Drivers instantly mature the Lock Seed Flowers, so they turn into Lock Seeds immediately. We can't have the Riders turning into feral Inves, after all." Kurusu explained.
They continued training, and Kinji killed passing by Inves occasionally, so his aim improved greatly. After a while, Kinji noticed himself glowing.
"What the!" He called, and looked over to Kurusu for an explanation. Kurusu grinned cynically and a flash of light blinded Kinji momentarily.
He opened his eyes and found himself seated on a deep purple throne, and there were more thrones around the table. around a golden table and spotted Kurusu, in his Rider form, sitting on a pale yellow throne and was about to call his name out when Kurusu placed a finger to his lips.
Kinji looked around and noticed other Riders sitting.
Figures materialised on the thrones, and it took Kinji a while to realise that they were all Riders as well.
There was a samurai-themed rider with orange-coloured armour and a gold, diagonally tilted blade on his forehead. He had a Musou Saber hanging off his waist and had an Ichigo Lock Seed hanging off the other side of his waist on a hook of sorts. He also had a sword with the blade shaped like a wedge of orange, pulp and all. His bodysuit was dark blue, segmented in rhombus shapes. He sat on a metallic orange throne.
There was another that looked like a Western knight, and his armour, funnily, seemed to be a metal banana, with each end sticking out as shoulder pads. His visor was yellow, with fine metal pieces acting as grilles in the helmet, covering the visor itself. He had two small halves of a banana curving upwards on either side of his head. His bodysuit was mainly red, with silver along his sides and on his chest, encircling his thighs and acting as Y-shaped shin guards. His throne was metallic yellow, which looked ridiculous, or so Kinji thought.
Zangetsu sat arrogantly on a shiny white throne, and observed Kinji with amusement.
There were two more riders, standing at the door, but they weren't sitting down on thrones.
The first was brown, with a glistening yellow visor separated in half by a sharp silver tip. His bodysuit was the same as the banana rider, with the red replaced with brown. His shoulder guards were the hard top shell of an acorn and the bottom tip was on his chest. He held a hammer with a short shaft, the head being an acorn.
Another one was black, and his visor looked like a half oval. His bodysuit was black, as was his armour, which was rather compact. He held a spear, and top had a pinecone with a blade extending out of it.
Kinji noticed that they were standing completely still, as if they were suspended in place, and that they weren't wearing a Sengoku Driver.
A figure with silky black robes glided into the room. Kinji tried looking in his hood, which looked like it was made of shadows, but he only saw black nothingness. As he entered, the Riders at the door bowed deeply. He went and sat at a large, shiny black throne.
"I now welcome you all back to the Helheim Palace. However, this is not the case for everyone. We have a newcomer, the next participant of the game, the wielder of the Budou Lock Seed. Have you chosen a name yet, warrior?" He spoke, and asked Kinji.
"M-me? I… well… haven't really thought of it, but there's always been one that's been on my mind." He said.
"Go on." The man urged.
Kinji swallowed, and spoke.
"I'm… Ryugen."
The man spread his arms and spoke again.
"So we have it: the current players in the game now are…" he gestured to all of them.
"Gaim!" He said, indicating the orange Rider with the Musou Saber.
"Baron!" He said, gesturing to the banana Rider, and Kinji figured Baron wouldn't be too pleased to be heard being called the 'banana Rider'.
"Zangetsu!" The man continued, facing Zangetsu.
"Bravo!" He proclaimed yet again, waving a robe sleeve towards Bravo.
"And finally… RYUGEN!" He yelled, towering behind Kinji.
The other Riders clapped, and settled down.
"Since Ryugen is new, I shall explain the battle yet again for his sake. This is a survival game, to determine who will be the next ruler of Helheim. Namely, my successor. To win, you must either kill the other combatants, or smash their Drivers. You may battle anywhere you want. hat's basically the battle. I have high hopes for you, Ryugen. You've got potential. Good luck. Meeting adjourned!" He exclaimed.
"Wait a minute!" A loud voice echoed through the hall. Heads turned slightly to stare at the source of the protest. The banana Rider, Baron, stood up.
"How do we know he's competent enough for this battle? There's no thrill in hunting easy prey." Baron asked.
"Baron, not everyone sitting in this room is here simply as your prey," Gaim pointed out, crossing his arms.
"I'm in this to kill, you're in this for whatever you're in this for, I think you'd agree that we don't need a pansy dragging this out for us," Baron retorted.
Gaim seemed like he was about to make another argument, when the man let out an echoing laugh.
"Interesting! If that is the case, so be it!" The man proclaimed, and the room disappeared.
Ryugen reappeared in the forest, but he realised that he was in a gigantic glass cube.
"W-wha-" Ryugen stammered, but he noticed that the floor was littered with many Acorn and Pinecone Lock Seeds. Suddenly, the Lock Seeds flashed and they were replaced with several copies of the two Riders he saw in the previous room. He did a quick count and counted around 25 of each Rider. 50 in all. Just great.
"AAAAHHHH!" He screamed, pulling out his gun and shooting. He realised that it was futile, being pummelled by the brown Rider's hammer every time he rammed his gun close and shot a Rider. He tried to slice once on his Sengoku Driver, but one of the Riders blocked him and another jabbed its spear into Kinji's thigh when he tried to roll to the side. He gasped silently in pure shock and at first there was only numbness, but that numbness blossomed into flaring pain, intensifying with each passing moment, which became even more painful as the spear was twisted while in his thigh, causing warm, sticky blood to spray out. For a moment, he blacked out, but he saw light again and swiftly sliced on his Sengoku Driver before he could be stopped.
[BU-DOU SQUASH!]
Purple spheres materialised and crashed point-blank into the other Riders. When they stumbled back, Ryugen stumbled past them and limped out of range. He then pulled out his Kiwi Lock Seed.
[KIWI]
[LOCK ON]
[HAIII! KIWI ARMS! GEKI! RIN! SEI-YA HA!]
His Kiwi armour unfolded and he brandished his Kiwi Geki-Rin, then dashed towards the horde of Riders, cleaving through them with improved efficiency compared to last time, having been trained by Kurusu, but he figured he'd fight better if he didn't have a ragged, bloody gash in his thigh.
"And here I thought the suit was indestructible…" Kinji muttered to himself.
From the room, Baron was watching intently while Kurusu stared and his jaw tightened under his helmet.
Kinji took the head of another Rider, and flicked his wrist and the one of the Geki-Rin buried itself in one of the heads of a Rider.
Slash, stab, rip, fling. That was Kinji's strategy.
He planted his foot firmly on the body of the Rider with his Geki-Rin and yanked, pulling the Geki-Rin out. It was clean, no blood, like the others. He laid waste to the Riders, and he stood among heaps of dead, lifeless shells. But then again, they were lifeless shells from the start.
"So we have now seen Ryugen's competence. I say, this has increased my expectations of you once again!" The man laughed.
"King-sama! Why do you so vehemently praise this Rider!?" Zangetsu protested, referring to the man in the robes.
"I have no obligation to answer that. Now, if there are no questions, this meeting is adjourned." The man called King said, then glided out of the room.
"So, you're the one I'm gonna be killing? You look like a fun target." Baron chuckled, then disappeared when the air spiralled around himself like rapid wisps of white air.
"Don't worry. It'll be alright. I'll protect you." Gaim assured Kinji, before disappearing in the same fashion.
"I'm gonna get revenge for last time. I don't care what Baron says, I'm beating him to killing you!" Zangetsu growled, before disappearing.
"This is bad…" Bravo mused, before disappearing as well.
Kinji felt himself getting lighter, and the scene changed from the Palace to Kurusu's home. He fell to his knees, Kurusu closing his Lock Seed.
"This is bad. This is very, very bad." Kurusu said, a grim expression on his face.