HUNTING CHAPTER PART 3: BITTERNESS

The ChronoLiner dropped the NEO-NUMBERS back at the bus stop. "Alright, guys," Shinichi said to his team mates, "Let's call it a night. See you later." They parted ways, with Shinichi headed home. He yawned. Rena would be happy to see him. She'd been worried when he told her he was going to Ibaraki, but now that he was done he was back in Hinamiwaza.

Earlier, they had stopped by the Terminal. Shinichi had reported that GIN-SHOCKER probably had some agents and set up a base in Ibaraki. Warren promised to send a few agents to check it out.

As he walked along the path to his house, GIN-SHOCKER soldiers suddenly jumped out of nowhere, ambushing him. Shinichi rubbed his eyes and then leered at the costumed foot soldiers of the organization he was fighting against. "Can we do this some other time, guys? I'm tired and I need to sleep." They advanced on him. "Guess not." He cracked his knuckles and his neck from side to side. "Let's play! Henshin!"

Nagazawa watched as Showa made short work of the GIN-SHOCKER soldiers. The foot soldiers were just cannon fodder anyway. The power they had was nothing compared to GIN-SHOCKER's own elite soldiers, which Showa was.

Showa knocked another soldier out and flicked his wrist. "OK, now to get home." He then heard footsteps and felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand. Cautiously, he turned around to see who was approaching. It was a man with a muscular build with a purple streak through his black hair and wearing a coat with white pants and Chinese sandals. He looked like a fighter. Showa tensed up. Something about this guy was making him break out in cold sweat.

"If you want something done right, do it yourself," muttered Nagazawa as he kicked a fallen soldier in the ribs.

Showa eyed the black-coated arrival suspiciously. There was something both discomforting and familiar about his presence. Showa kept his guard up.

"Now that you've dealt with the trash," said General Nagazawa, referring to the defeated GIN-SHOCKER troops, "I think it's time we got reacquainted, BLACK 13."

Showa demanded, "Who are you?"

"General Nagazawa of GIN-SHOCKER. Now, BLACK 13, it's time for you to meet your maker!" Nagazawa jumped to land a kick at Showa but the Rider rolled away. The kick smashed into the ground, causing it to cave into a crater on impact.

'He's tough. I better end this quickly!'' Showa realised. "Oni no Hone!"

Nagazawa watched as Showa was enveloped by wind, fire and lightning before revealing his new form.

"Take this! VOLCANO PUNCH!" Showa roared as he hurled a flaming fist at Nagazawa. Nagazawa didn't even attempt to dodge. He struck out with his hand and caught Showa's fist, putting out the flames in the process.

"Is that all you can do, BLACK 13? How disappointing," Nagazawa sneered. Showa was stunned. "THIS IS A PUNCH!" Nagazawa hurled his other fist into Showa, smashing his chest armor to pieces and sending Showa flying. The force of the punch forced Showa back into his default form, with a shattered chestplate. He fell to the ground and groaned in pain. The force of the punch could've shattered his ribs if it wasn't for his armor.

Showa struggled back to his feet, grunting in pain as Nagazawa yawned. Showa then charged, hurling fists at Nagazawa only for the GIN-SHOCKER general to dodge each of his blows. Nagazawa found an opening and slammed his fist across Showa's face, shattering the emerald eyepieces and cracking the helmet on the left side. Showa staggered backward and doubled over as Nagazawa drove his foot into Showa's stomach. Nagazawa then grabbed Showa by his antennae and shoved him to the ground.

"My God, this is pathetic," Nagazawa muttered, dissatisfied by the fight. He hauled Showa up and stared him in the eye.

"You…" Showa uttered weakly. He grabbed the hand holding him and pried it off. "I won't lose…I absolutely, positively, won't lose! Higurashi no Yaiba!" Nagazawa leapt backwards as the sword stabbed into the ground between them. Showa quickly took hold of his sword and commanded, "Sing!" In a flash of emerald light, accompanied by the song of a thousand cicadas, Showa was in his Higurashi Form, with his armor repaired.

Nagazawa stared as Showa raised his blade. "Higurash…ZAN!" He lunged forward and swung his blade down…

…Only for Nagazawa to catch it in his hand.

"What?" Showa gawked.

"An impressive weapon like this is wasted on you!" Nagazawa said and with a single punch he sent Showa flying. Showa was sent tumbling and the force of the blow shattered his armor forced him back to human form, heavily injured. The Higurashi no Yaiba was still clutched in his hand.

Shinichi groaned as he tried to get up. Nagazawa grabbed him by the hair and hauled him up.

After all the reports, the footage he'd seen and witnessing BLACK 13's power for himself, he thought for sure that BLACK 13 was almost a threat to GIN-SHOCKER. However, now he just thought that he'd overestimated the young Rider. "Pathetic. Who would've thought that such a weakling like you could have caused such a fuss? Ah well." He clenched his fists ready to bash Shinichi's head to a bloody splatter until a blast of sound hit him in the back making him drop Shinichi more out of surprise than pain.

Smoke immediately covered the area. "Tsk, an illusion. How annoying," Nagazawa muttered. He then punched the ground, causing fragments of it to fly around and it dispelled the illusion. He looked around and noticed Shinichi to be gone.

"Another time then," Nagazawa said to himself before walking away.

Shinichi was being carried by Chiaki on his back as Michiru and Daichi ran alongside him.

"Come on, Chiaki! We gotta get him to the clinic!"

Chiaki nodded. While he was now able to talk he still wasn't much of a talker.

"Damn, a general," grumbled Daichi. "What is a general doing here?" What had Shinichi gotten himself into now?

In the Irie Clinic, Shinichi was lying in a bed. He had bandages around his head and torso. He'd received some bad bruising and also cracked ribs from Nagazawa's attack.

Shinichi questioned, "Who was that guy?"

"An elite member of GIN-SHOCKER," answered Hana, "General Nagazawa. He ranks higher than Gebok and because of that he is stronger."

"He beat me..." said Shinichi, "And he didn't even transform."

"That's the true strength of an executive. If he'd changed into his Cyborg Mutant form, you'd be dead," Hana warned.

The door opened and Shinichi saw Rena, Rika, Hanyuu and Shiori enter. Their faces held worried expressions.

Shinichi sighed. He was going to explain to them what had happened. It was only fair. It was the least he could do.

"Nice going, genius!" Rui scolded, slapping her boyfriend upside the head. "You had us show up while everyone is asleep!"

"Hey, it's no trouble, Rui," said Hitomi. "We can just crash in that shrine in the village. Or maybe we can rough it by camping."

"Just get us out of this forest, dumbass."

Rui and Hitomi, friends of Shinichi's from out of town (ie: another world) had again appeared in Hinamizawa. However, the rift Hitomia and Rui had used had bought them to Hinamizawa when it was late at night and in the middle of the forest. Hitomi was navigating them out. However, they were not alone…

"So you're friends of BLACK 13," Nagazawa stated, eyes on Hitomi and Rui. The two offworlders stared back at Nagazawa.

"Who're you suppose to be?" Hitomi ask grabbing his hammer. He didn't know how, but he knew this man was bad news. He could see it in his eyes.

"I am Nagazawa, but you may call me your killer!" Nagazawa shouted, charging towards them. Hitomi lifted his hammer and swung. However, Nagazawa lifted his left arm which started mutating. Hitomi squawked in shock as a large crack appeared on his hammer.

"My hammer!" Hitomi screamed.

"Hmm…impressive," Nagazawa said. His left hand was now completely green with elongated fingers and sharp red nails. Wrapped around his wrist were vines covered in thorns. Shocked, Hitomi jumped back and assumed a defensive stance, holding his now cracked hammer.

"Now, now, don't try to run away," Nagazawa said as he lifted his mutated hand. His fingers became thorny vines and suddenly extended before shooting towards the two.

"Oh crap…!" Hitomi and Rui gawked as the thorny vines charged forward, ripping up the ground. Before long they reached Rui who tried to leap out of the way, but this only managed to get her a deep cut nearly a meter wide from her hip to her shoulder.

"Argh!" Rui cried out as blood spilt out from her cut.

"Rui!" He roared at Nagazawa, "DAMN YOU!" He began bashing the vines with his hammer, but this only further aggravated the vines as they pierced his arms and legs.

"Oh God! Hitomi!" Rui yelled out. She was still alive, but wounded.

Hitomi felt pain wash over him as he felt the thorny vines digging deeper into his limbs. Suddenly, Orga appeared. She rushed forward and slashed the vines in half with her Orga Stylanzer.

"Another Rider," Nagazawa muttered as the cut vines changed back into his fingers. "No matter, my rage at BLACK 13 for abandoning our fight has been somewhat sated. I bid you adieu." He then teleported away.

Orga frowned and then turned to Hitomi and Rui. They were hurt, but Rui looked worst off. She would bleed to death if nothing was done. Fortunately, Orga came prepared. She walked up to them and knelt down, presenting a pair of capsules to them. "Swallow these," she instructed. Hitomi stared back at the black Rider's red visor suspiciously. "You can trust me," Orga assured him. "Now, take one and give one to her, or else she'll die."

Hitomi nodded and took the capsules. He popped one in his mouth and swallowed. He then put one in Rui's mouth and had her swallow as well.

The capsules were an invention by a certain Demon Emperor. He was a master potion maker and had put a very powerful healing potion into those capsules. Warren had asked for a large supply of the capsules to be distributed to his ARMOR agents. The Demon Emperor was only happy to oblige. Each agent was given a set of ten capsules. On their missions, the likelihood of mortal and life threatening injuries was high, so they had to be prepared.

The wounds on both Hitomi and Rui were healing up. Orga was glad.

Orga/Lucy had originally come to give the NEO-NUMBERS their own healing capsules. However, she'd missed them and had arrived shortly after they'd left for their mission. She had been wondering around for a bit when she spotted Nagazawa attacking Hitomi and Rui. Acting quickly, she'd transformed and driven the man away.

"Better tell Papa about this," Orga muttered.

Nagazawa glared at Gebok who cowered under his gaze. "If that is all what BLACK 13 is capable of, then we wasted a lot of resources in the project."

Gebok weakly argued, "That's only because he is restricted and holding back his true potential."

"GIN-SHOCKER has no need for weak soldiers," Nagazawa frowned, "I don't understand why you even want that failure back. Your obsession is taking up too much of GIN-SHOCKER's time and resources. Just focus on your latest project with that H-Syndrome."

"I will, sir," nodded Gebok, gritting his teeth.

"Also, I think it's best if we eliminate BLACK 13 and his fellow traitors," said Nagazawa. "My own elite group of soldiers will be the one to eliminate them. You just stay in your lab and let real warriors handle things from now on."

The following morning, Shinichi invited all his friends over to tell them about what he'd done and what'd happened the previous night.

"So, you finally killed that Misato girl," said Mion.

"It had to be done. She was dangerous," said Shinichi, with a tone that said that it was over and done with. "There's this GIN-SHOCKER general, Nagazawa, and he beat me. I even used the Higurashi no Yaiba and Oni no Hone and he still beat me. He didn't even transform. He did it in human form."

The group looked at him agape.

"He's really that strong?" Keiichi asked, recovering from the shock.

"I could've died last night if Michiru, Chiaki and Daichi hadn't saved me. I owe them my life," said Shinichi. 'Like I owe them theirs…'

"Shin-chan, what will you do now?" asked Shion.

"I'm going to have to train harder. I won't be taken by surprise again. I won't let myself be defeated again," said Shinichi firmly.

Kamen Rider Chrome: Nagazawa defeats Showa, showing the difference in power between them. Shinichi is going to train harder.