Gastrea – a mysterious virus that suddenly appeared before mankind. This virus enters the human body through bodily fluids causing infection. It alters the victim's DNA and form. Because of its contagiousness, it immediately spread throughout the entire world. After its breakout, Gastrea quickly took mankind's spot at the top of the food chain.

Disclaimer: I own nothing about Black Bullet or Kamen Rider.

Fourth Shot – Devil with an Angel's Smile

'Great… so instead of a typical intruder, I have a skilled mercenary right here in my living room.'

After all, the existence of Project IXA still remained hidden from the general public and even the IISO for the time being. The elder Tendo had stated that announcing the existence of such a weapon prematurely could bring in unwanted attention. Masao figured that there was more at play here and had opted not to dig his nose into it. But now, the political power play had landed right at his doorstep.

"Well, what's there to know about that project? It's only another tool being developed for Promoters. It's no different than the Black Bullets made from Varanium."

"Oh, I beg to differ." The masked man got up from the couch. "According to my sources, Project IXA is essentially a combat suit designed to enhance a Promoter's strength and speed and improve combat performance to the point where they can fight in the field like Initiators."

Okay, this is getting disturbing. What type of network did this guy have?

"This got me interested. I had to look more into this and when I found out that you were the one heading the project, I just had to come see you in person. Now, about the suit…"

Masao stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room. "There's nothing to say right now. We've only begun field tests and it'll take some time to analyze the results and compile the report together."

Just as he said that though, he felt something ram hard into him and pin him to the ground. When he looked up, he saw a girl with short blue hair and red eyes, wielding a pair of short swords with the blades made out of Varanium. Her attire consisted of a small dress with many intricate designs in the middle areas, connected to a bottom skirt that covers her entire lower body. The blouse displayed a set of lighter color edges on either side of the loose shoulder garments. Around her neck, with lighter outlines visible as well, the blouse is gifted with a hole revealing a small portion of her chest. Further; her stomach is covered by a slightly thicker adornment that spots a display of complex artwork. On her back was a piece of clothing that allowed her to sheath her double blades. Finally, the bottom of the dress that covered her lower regions seems to have two layers of clothing, resembling petals, and being of a light color.

"Papa, I think he's lying," said the blue haired girl with her tone reflecting her eagerness to kill while lowering the blades to mere millimeters above his neck. "Can I cut him?"

"Kohina, wait," ordered the elder man sternly which caused the small girl to pout.

"Awww…"

'She's obviously an Initiator… and her name is Kohina?' It took only a moment for Masao to put the pieces together and deduce the identity of the masked man. "That must make you Hiruko Kagetane."

"You're well informed." Kagetane tipped his hat slightly, a small gesture of acknowledgement.

"Well, when researching and developing new weapons for Promoters, I had to familiarize myself with the number of active pairs to see who would be suitable for field testing my prototype equipment." He paused for a bit, feeling a certain someone shift in his pocket before inching his bare left hand closer to it. "If my memory serves me right, you were a real high ranking pair before you had your license revoked for excessive killing. My guess is that you've decided to go into mercenary work and that whoever hired you is looking to get their hands on Project IXA. How am I doing?"

"That's not a bad guess but if we're going to continue playing this game, then we might as well relocate to a more secure location." Upon hearing what her father said, Kohina flipped one of her swords around so that she would knock Masao out with the handle but just as she started to bring the handle down on his skull…

"GABU!"

... a high pitched sound erupted and forced the pair to back off and cover their ears. Out of the corner of her right red eye, she spotted some red belt form on the man's waist before a small orange cartoon bat flew out of his pocket and took position in the centre of the belt.

"Henshin!"

"No, you don't!" Kohina fought the pain ringing in her ears and tried to bring her blades down on the man's chest only for the weapons to bounce off red pectoral armour. "Eh?!"

Before she could fully register what was happening, New Kiva's hands moved to take a hold of the blades and snap them in half with a good twist of the wrist. He then got up to his full height while keeping his yellow lens on Kagetane. "Kid, go take a timeout while I chat with your dad."

"Papa! He broke them! Those were my favourite swords!" whined the small girl, sounding a lot more like a normal child compared to the bloodthirsty tone she had earlier.

"I'll get you some new ones later. Right now…"

She got the message and moved out of the way just as her father made the first move, throwing out a quick punch. His fist moved at a speed faster than the average human can see and even Masao had a tough time keeping track of it, only managing to deflect it partially so that it landed against a heavier armour section to minimize damage. If it were any other type of armour, Kagetane's punch would have either torn through it or at the least put a huge dent in it. So he was actually fairly surprised that his blow didn't seem to have much of an effect on his opponent's armour integrity.

While the former Promoter was occupied with those thoughts, New Kiva retaliated with his own punch. On reaction, Kagetane put up his Repulsion Shield and while the Rider's fist bounced off of it, he was startled at how his barrier reacted when intercepting the enemy's attack, rattling slightly which was rather unusal. His technique, the Repulsion Shield is able to block off any and all attacks coming from any direction and can also return attacks and projectiles such as bullets from the original opposing side. The defensive power of this move allowed the user to become capable of blocking incoming attacks from Stage IV Gastrea, earning its title as the "strongest shield".

"So an entire set of power armour constructed out of Varanium?" mused the masked man.

"Good guess but not quite." Masao brought up his chained leg to try and land a kick but Kagetane flipped backwards, whipping out one of his pistols before landing and unloading the entire round at the Rider, causing a few sparks to fly from his chest armour. Otherwise, he wasn't really affected and kept running towards the former Promoter but his swift speed allowed him to stay out of reach.

"And your armour's able to ignore Black Bullets as well. How interesting." A cool chuckle came from Kagetane. "If you had more skill as a fighter, I might be a little worried."

"Hey, I admit that I'm not the best of fighters. First and foremost, I consider myself an engineer. You know… someone who solves practical problems by inventing ways to deal with them." New Kiva reset his stance. "If you want, I can show you how I deal with rogue Mechanical Soldiers if you decide to continue this little game."

"…?!"

Masao smiled underneath his mask upon seeing the way his opponent stiffened. "I'm sure you heard of them. Originating from the New Human Creation Plan, selected individuals had their internal organs fused with Varanium in order to develop superhuman abilities to combat the Gastrea. When the Cursed Children were discovered, this plan was abandoned. And judging by the way you fought, I can tell that you're one of them which makes you an ideal guinea pig. Interested in sticking around? I mean… it's not like you're inexperienced at being a guinea pig."

With a whole new box of mysteries opened about the figure in bat armour in front of him and a feeling of uncertainty in terms of what that man knew and had up his sleeve, Kagetane decided that it was best to retreat for now. "Kohina, we're leaving."

The pair quickly made their leave by blasting an opening through one of the apartment walls to leap into the outside and out into the night. Masao waited for a full minute before sighing in relief, thankful for Sumire sharing some stories of that project with him. Otherwise, he likely wouldn't have been able to make such a convincing bluff.

After deactivating his armour, he moved to make some phone calls. First call would be to the elder Tendo's office to let him know that his location was compromised and that he needed to be moved. And the second would be to get a place for the night. He could go get a hotel but he would rather save those funds in case more supplies were needed for the Cursed Children under Matsuzaki's care. With that in mind, he made his second call to Satomi Rentaro.

"Hello?"

"It's me, Masao. Sorry for the late call but my apartment got trashed by an unwanted intruder. Can I spend the night at your place?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll have a guest futon out for you when you get here."

"Thanks!" He heard a bit of shuffling as the phone was taken away from Rentaro before a little girl's voice shouted right into his ear.

"My plans for the evening are ruined! You are the worst, you… you cockblocker!"

Click. The phone line went dead.

As Masao replaced the receiver, only one thought came to mind. "I really don't want to know how she knows such a word."

"Masao's a cockblocker! Masao's a cockblocker!" chirped the orange bat cheerfully as he flew around his master's head.

"Shut up, Kivat."

"Good morning!"

A chorus of 'Mornings' from the other division members greeted the young man as he arrived at the Special Investigation Unit's office and got to his workstation.

"Tomari, there's a visitor here to see you. He's waiting in the briefing room."

"Hm?" Curious at what the Chief meant, he headed to the room at the end of the hallway and poked his head in, seeing another young Japanese man with his short black hair somewhat curled up at the ends. His attire consisted of a sharp police dress uniform with a tie. Upon spotting the person at the door, the dressed officer stood up.

"Detective Tomari Eiji of the Special Investigation Unit?"

"Yes, that's me."

"G-Men Division Chief, Kurosaki Reiji," came the quick introduction. "I'll cut to the chase. How familiar are you with Kurenai Masao?"

Eiji paused for a moment. "Er… if I recall, he's the one who inherited the title of Kiva and vanished about five years ago."

"The truth is that he wasn't supposed to disappear. He should have returned safely to the year 2030 once the Neo Fangire mess got cleaned up in 2008. It's likely that during his trip through time, a temporal wrinkle occurred and shifted him to another timeline."

"Temporal wrinkle?"

"It's how we define minor aftershocks in the timeline that keep occurring thanks to the damage caused by Shocker's History Modifying Machine over twenty years ago," explained Reiji. "These have been showing up all over the place. My group's been running ragged trying to smooth these out. Same goes to the Liner crews. We don't have any spare personnel to investigate this case."

Eiji nodded once. "I see. I'll be happy to help but I admit that the Time Road's not quite as sturdy compared to a Liner."

"That shouldn't be a problem. You're still capable of travelling through time with it." Reiji straightened his uniform. "We're counting on you to resolve this swiftly as a favour to the current Fangire King. He would be deeply grateful if we were to recover his family member quickly."

"Understood!"

As Masao felt Kivat's nudging to help him wake up, he could hear Enju complaining at the kitchen table while the morning news was on TV. "Honestly, you pass up an offer from a lady and open your home to let a man in? Are you into men?!"

"First off, there's no big deal about helping a friend. Second, ladies are prudent, modest and are not supposed to be as flat as a board," replied Rentaro flatly, causing Enju to cover her chest by reflex.

"T-they'll get bigger soon enough!"

"Seriously, it's important to know when to give up." The boy noticed Masao yawning from his spot on the couch. "Morning."

"Morning. Got any coffee around here?"

"Sorry, just tea. I'll fix you a cup. There's some toast on the table already." Rentaro moved to retrieve some hot water while Masao took a spot, grabbing a slice of spare toast and spreading some margarine over it. His eyes darted to the TV, seeing the crowd get riled up with a reporter directing the cameraman to point to a specific figure at the top of a balcony of some fancy building, likely a government structure.

The figure turned out to be a young female with pale skin and a small frame. She is gifted with thin, white eyebrows and thick, superlative white eyelashes surrounding round eyes that encompass light irises. Her white hair covered her forehead, leaving only several portions visible. It is kept in messy standard; moving to the centre of her face. A pack of hair fell directly to her small nose, in between her eyes. It looked like her ears are hidden under her white hair.

She had on a fancy white dress. The upper piece is designed with several objects donning swirling circles all over. On either side of her shoulders, there are two ribbons and a thick emblem in the middle. The bottom of the dress, covering her thighs, displayed an opening which revealed part of her legs, which are covered by white tights. The end piece of the dress is intricately shaped to resemble cherry blossoms. Finally, her head is covered by a white hat that has roses-like objects attached at the side.

She was known as Seitenshi, the ruler and protector of the Tokyo Area.

"She's arrived! Seitenshi-sama has just shown up on the balcony! She has appeared beside her advisor Tendo Kikunojyo!" came the report from the news crew at the scene.

Enju swallowed the last bit of her breakfast. "Isn't that old man Rentaro's….?"

"Enju, go get ready for school," interrupted the Promoter.

"Kay!" Once she left to get her school bag for the day, Rentaro placed the tea down by Masao's side and turned off the TV.

"So… who attacked you last night?"

After taking a sip of the tea, the other man recalled the appearance of the attacker. "He looked like a magician with a top hat and a white mask with a smiley face."

"You met that guy too?!"

"Where did you meet him?" asked Masao.

"It was at the apartment of the victim from yesterday's call. He's crazy strong and took out some of Inspector Tadashima's men without any real effort. He said he planned to destroy the world and that nobody could stop him," said Rentaro quietly.

"Rentaro, be careful out there. He knows about the Ixa armour and if he gets his hands on it…"

The Promoter gave a glum nod of understanding. "Yeah, I gotcha. I'm guessing the only reason why you got out of that mess is because of your own armour."

"Now that he's seen it, he'll probably be able to be ready for it next time. Which means I gotta hustle on finishing my own personal upgrades," said Masao before downing the rest of his tea.

"What upgrades?"

"Don't worry about it. You have other things to focus on. I'll see you around." As he got up and prepared to leave for work, his thoughts drifted towards how he can get his Fuestles working again since he was in a different world all together.

'Looks like I have to give those specialized Gastrea viral strains a try…'

TO BE CONTINUED…

Wow, I came back to this. Anyways, hope you enjoyed and I'll see you around.