Agito Chapter
Part 3: Rider-Action 24/7
Writing a story with so many Kamen Riders makes me realise how weird it is that all these people happen to be motorcyclists, but that they all have this method of transportation makes getting the cast places so much easier, so I'm not complaining.
Agito, the golden horned warrior—Yukina, his sister—flew at the split-mouthed Unknown, driving her first strike into it with all the momentum of her lunge. For a second, it seemed to be affected by the attack, then simply rocked back into place, the two grappling with each other, feet sliding back and forth on the hard pavement.
Now it wasn't coming any closer, Shouichi had managed to calm his panicked mind and focus on the scene before him, though his fingers still clung white-knuckled to the wall he was crouching behind. This Unknown, he now noticed, was leaking water, leaving a trail everywhere it walked. And though he still couldn't recall where he'd seen it before, his all-consuming fear of it seemed to be justified—despite Yukina's effortless defeat of the average Unknown he'd seen not long ago, this one was overpowering her. None of her blows made much of an impression, and soon the monster had raked a powerful sweep of its staff down her body, throwing off a shower of sparks and marking Agito's armour-plated exterior.
Have to help—maybe with both of us… Shouichi tried to stand, tried to summon his transformation belt, but his body didn't respond. He couldn't make himself. Not for the only family member he knew about in the world, as a heavy kick smacked against her helmet, he couldn't make himself move from that hiding-spot, and he hated himself for it.
Yukina was clearly fighting a losing battle, but the inhuman will that propelled her body cared not, her stance unwavering no matter how much damage she took, incapable of registering pain or injury.
Then a motorcycle helmet bounced off the Unknown's head, giving it pause. It sniffed the air, head slowly turning. "A-GI-TO," it croaked.
"Almost, buddy." Ashihara Ryou swaggered towards them, shaking his hands to loosen them up. The previous day he'd looked a mess after so long on the run, but today he was back on fine form, hair fully spiked up, jacket gleaming in the evening light. "Man, you Unknown really are a pain, all that buzzing in my head…can't ignore you."
"Ashihara!" Shouichi managed to vocalise. "This—this one's different! Be careful!"
"Yeah, never been good at careful," Ryou muttered, breaking into a run, each hand hovering over the opposite shoulder. "Transform!" he commanded, bringing them down, and there it was, the other him, clawing its way out of his mind, slithering out to engulf him, bursting into the world, transfiguring him into the 'incomplete Agito' Gills: An amphibious green thing of fangs and claws and spikes.
He charged, taking a flying leap into the Unknown, which jutted out an arm in his path, folding him over it and dumping him in front of it. Still on the ground, he managed to turn in time to block its staff by extending glistening bio-blades from his forearms, crossing them protectively in front of them. As the Unknown pressed down on his guard, he glanced back at the Agito behind him. Shouichi is over there somewhere, so from what he told me, this must be his sister…the hell's he doing not helping?
The Unknown reached down with its free hand, dragging him up to within easier striking reach. For a moment he ended up face to face with Yukina. Whenever he was Gills, unless he focused very hard anything he said tended to come out as an unintelligible growl, but he wondered, Any ideas?
As it turned out, she had one, but not with his best interests at heart—he dug his claws into the Unknown's forearm suddenly, loosening its grip for a second so he could duck just to avoid Yukina's two-handed swing as, now in Agito's red form, brought her sword to bear on the Unknown. The blade clashed against its staff, and she pushed it back while keeping up the lock, Ryou rolling away, retracting his blades in order to produce his other wrist-extension: Spined, prehensile tentacles. He hated using them, the sensation as they snaked out of his body was extremely unpleasant, but the situation was perfect here.
He sent both flying at once, wrapping them around one of the Unknown's arms and tugging it away from its weapon, leaving it with only a one-handed grip to push against Yukina with. Meanwhile she leaned in, her current form pumping extra strength into her heavier-armoured right arm, finally shoving the Unknown's weapon away and in the same stroke dealing a solid slash across its chest. It reeled for a moment—only a moment, such was its resilience—but in that moment, Ryou was already sailing through the air, the wicked curved blade extending from his heel angled down towards where its neck joined its shoulder, aimed to split the bone in two.
And then it was recovered, and he knew he'd been too slow, and its hand flicked up and caught him by the ankle and swung him down into the ground, cracking the concrete; and Yukina pressed in again, but the staff flashed and sparks flew once more, and she fell next to him.
Five minutes ago…
The newly-enlarged G3 Unit scrambled for the parking lot, where the armoured G-Trailer squatted in its enormous designated space. Ozawa jumped in, then Ichijou, then Hikawa…
"Where's…?" the last of the three began, before Omura ran up behind them, arms waving frantically.
"Hold it! Hold up! Wait! Trouble! Guys!" he wheezed, skidding to a halt and leaning a hand on the vehicle. "Second…Unknown…" He tossed a printout with the two locations at them, Ozawa reaching down and snatching it out of the air.
"One by the waterfront, one at the festival downtown…" She bit her lip. "We don't have the manpower for both at once…"
"Maybe." Ichijou clambered over them and out onto the tarmac, shoving Omura into the passenger seat. "The waterfront's further, so you head out for that one now. I'll take the festival."
"How?" she called down. "With the Unknown, even the anti-Unidentified-Life-Form bullets don't—"
"No time to talk! You get going!" he replied, tapping his watch and heading back into the police station. He had something in mind, something he'd been shown on his tour of the place before meeting the unit. After a few awkward questions and odd looks, he found the right storage cupboard, tearing open a taped-shut cardboard box to reveal an array of neatly-arranged pieces of silver and blue armour. The faceplate stared up at him; two horns, joined by a smaller central spike. Like Godai.
They'd told him the original-model G3 suit was decommissioned, lacking the power to oppose the Unknown, replaced by the upgraded G3-X that Hikawa now wore.
Well, better than nothing.
As he began digging the pieces of the suit out of their box he dug his phone out of his pocket, quickly dialling his most-called number.
"Godai? Where are you right now?"
"…gotcha. I'll meet you there. Stay safe." Godai, who had been waiting outside Shouichi's house for him to come home, hung up and turned to Hongo, who had been watching him expectantly.
"Shall I come with you?" the veteran Rider asked, standing away from the fence he'd been resting against.
"No," Godai said, "with both of us it should be fine. But there's another one by the docks—can you go there and make sure the other police guy is okay?"
"Will do." Just before helmets lowered onto heads, they exchanged a quick thumbs-up.
Now…
Before the Unknown could get any closer to Yukina and Ryou, heavy projectile impacts raked across its back. Across the road, Hikawa advanced implacably, clad in the heavy-set G3-X powersuit, keeping its two-handed gatling gun steady and firing in controlled bursts. After taking a few more rounds, without seeming to care much, the Unknown started deflecting the shots with quick strokes of its staff, emitting another thin-voiced hiss in his direction.
Hikawa quickly surveyed the situation. If Agito and… He'd seen Gills before, but had always thought of it as an adversary. Here it seemed to be on Agito's side, though, and there was nobody and nothing in the world, not even Ichijou, that Hikawa idolised as much as Agito. Also, the two of them seemed to be protecting his good friend Tsugami Shouichi, which was nice. …if Agito and that thing together couldn't beat it, I'm not going to have much of a chance…
But, he reminded himself, the Unknown had never seemed too interested in killing him. He wasn't a 'chosen one'. If it's just me here, it might not fight with killing intent.
Using the helmet's built-in headset to magnify his voice, he broadcasted to those before him, "Agito! Tsugami! …green thing! I'm going to buy you a few seconds to get away!" He brought up something from the suit's internal storage, attaching it to the end of the gatling gun: A miniaturised rocket warhead.
This time, when the Unknown blocked, it simply caused an early detonation, blasting itself with heat and fury, vanishing in the mighty conflagration.
Obscured from all by the heat haze and smoke, Ryou took the chance to return to human form, hauling Shouichi to his feet and roughly dragging him off, hissing at the pain shooting through his own body.
Yukina glanced for a moment over at the G3-X suit, then down at her own body, finally registering her injuries. The light of Agito fading, the swept away, vanishing down a backstreet.
Hikawa, meanwhile, stood his ground, waiting as the Unknown stalked unharmed out of the flames towards him, rasping wordlessly. Beating fear back from his mind, he kept himself rooted to the spot, raising his gun.
Cheers turned to screams as a hard-shelled, claw-armed Unknown stalked towards the festival proceedings, rows upon rows of teeth parting, swaying back forth, scanning the fleeing crowds of partygoers. Finally, its gaze came to rest on an infant being carried in her mother's arms. This one, though still small, was already changing; if left alive, it would become something more. This could not be allowed.
The Unknown made a quick praying motion with its hands, then picked up the pace and made a beeline straight for them, shoving aside slower humans and overturning parked vehicles to reach them faster.
Just as one of the great, jagged crab-claws reached out for its victim, a red blur smacked into it from the side, dragging it away. A sharp blow beat it back, and Kuuga settled his stance, keeping himself between the monstrous creature and anyone else around.
Their run halted as they craned to get a better view, they whispered, hoping—It's No.4! From the news! It's come back to protect us! I saw it on TV! It saved my cousin once—
"It's not safe here!" Godai called back to them. "Everyone please, get out of here!" This simple urging was all it took, and the crowds quickly dispersed, leaving him alone with the Unknown.
If only it were that simple; it was as strong as the others he'd seen, and quickly began to take the upper hand on him. His first solid hit on it sent a jarring pain up his arm as his fist struck against its unyielding shell, and he drew back, hissing; it took this moment to latch its wicked pincers around his throat, lifting him off the ground as both his hands pulled desperately at its grip, trying to loosen it.
"This is sad."
A man of depth and shadows stood before him; at least, some indefinite distance in front of him, not seeming confined to one particular physical spot. His face was very young, his eyes incomprehensibly old.
"You are Kuuga. You are the most powerful being on this Earth, after me. Yet you are about to fall to one of my common warriors. How can you restrict yourself like this?"
Godai found that he was at once both with himself and not. He was still fighting for his life, straining two-handed to try and stop the Unknown pressing in and decapitating him. But at the same time he was somewhere else, somewhere indistinct, talking to the young man of shadows.
In this other place, he said, "I'm right in the middle of town. If I fight in a higher form, everyone living nearby will be in danger."
"And what matters that?" the man asked, seeming genuinely confused. "There are so many of them. There is only one Kuuga. You must consider yourself more important, no? Humans are all the same. By what logic do you value their lives above your own?"
"This logic." Godai held out a thumbs-up.
"What?"
"I made a promise. A lot of promises, actually, over the years." He gave an earnest smile. "They all come back to this—'I will protect everyone's smile'."
"That's childish."
"Sure is. But when you say that, you mean 'impossible', right? Too unlikely…too out there…just a dream." He lifted his gaze to the sky. "But imagine doing everything you wanted to do as a kid. Wouldn't that be great?" His arm extended further, almost shoving the thumbs-up in the other man's face. "Do you know what this is?"
"…"
"From ancient Rome, my teacher told me. Affirmation. A sign for those who have done the proper thing. The reason I'm always doing it is to remind myself. 'Become someone worthy of this. Become someone who can protect everyone's smiles.' That was his challenge to me. 'Don't you think that's a truly wonderful thing?'
"And I do."
"You…I don't think I like you." The ethereal man gave a disappointed, fatherly sigh. "I love all my children, but your existence…it bothers me."
He snapped his fingers and was gone, and Godai was back with himself, the Unknown's claws biting in, struggling to survive.
Then something bit into its shoulder with a flash and a puff of smoke, its arm twitching. Then three more somethings. Its arm spasmed and it dropped Godai. He quickly put some distance between them, eyes alighting on his saviour; G3, advancing with its pistol levelled, keeping up a steady rate of fire.
I guess this is that guy Shouichi was talking about? Godai decided. Uh…what was it… "Mr…Hikawa?"
"You should be so lucky," came a much more familiar voice.
"Kaoru!"
Ichijou kept his weapon trained on the Unknown as Godai ran to his side. "This is an outdated G3, sorry. Too weak to fight the Unknown, apparently."
"Well, so's this form, and I can't take it any higher in a place like this."
"This will be interesting, then."
"Yeah, but…" Godai put a hand on Ichijou's shoulder. "Just once, we get to really fight together."
"I mean, sure. Try not to die and it might even be a nice memory someday."
They ran in together, Ichijou firing off another burst of shots to let Godai duck around behind the Unknown, and they struck from opposite sides. It blocked both, spinning a half-turn and scoring a slash on each of them, taking them off their feet. It moved forward and drove a stamp down onto G3's chestplate, warning lights blaring in Ichijou's face as the armour's energy supply rapidly drained; the Unknown was already turning again, raking both claws down Godai's body as he rushed in from behind. He fell back with a pained cry, crashing through parade stands. Pursuing him, it raised its arm to strike again, but was stopped by a sharp pain in its side: Ichijou had snapped on another of G3's armaments, a high-frequency vibrating blade, mounted on his left arm, digging it in and cracking the shell.
The Unknown growled and smacked him away, but by the time it turned its attention back to Godai, he was already laying into it, slamming a side-kick into the weak spot Ichijou had made, sending it stumbling away with a screech of pain.
They regrouped, standing side-by-side again, supporting each other. The creature attacked two-handed, and they each caught one, heels digging tracks into the earth as they shoved it back. Two voices yelling in unison, they charged after it.
By the time Hongo pulled up, two streets down from the waterfront, it was over. The Agito and the fearsome Unknown had gone, and all he saw was the G3 Unit, the other two helping a dazed and bruised Hikawa out of his armour and carrying him back towards the truck.
Too late… Admonishing himself for his slowness, he turned and headed back for Shouichi's house.
A small fire flickered at the top of the hill, lighting up the deserted festival-grounds: The only remnant of the crab Unknown. At the bottom, the lines of flattened grass above them marking their slide down here, Godai and Ichijou lay in opposite directions, the tops of their heads almost touching, both taking heaving breaths; Godai had returned to human and was grinning an idiot grin, and Ichijou had levered the dented and cracked G3 helmet off.
"That was fun."
"Sure. Let's never do it again."
"Aww."
Omura flitted back and forth between the two injured officers while Ozawa glared over her desk at both of them. "Ichijou, I appreciate you taking swift action but you should have consulted me!"
"There wasn't time," he grumbled.
"There would have been if you'd had the idea sooner! And Hikawa, try not to lose next time. You'll make us look bad."
"Yes'm," Hikawa mumbled, face turned towards the ceiling with his eyes closed.
She paused. "…I'm glad you're both alive. I'll put together a report."
The door rattled and someone pushed in, ducking past a frustrated pair of officers who were trying in vain to keep him out. "It'll just be for a minute," he assured them with a wink, closing the door in their faces and turning to the four within. He was a round-faced little man who permanently looked like there was a joke you weren't getting, wearing a sand-coloured flat-cap and matching button-up jacket, a bright red scarf between them. "Sorry to intrude, just hoping I could get a few pictures? My magazine would love it if we could do a piece on the G3 unit that's always protecting us."
Did he just…walk in past security? "And you are?" Ozawa studied him carefully, sure there was more to him than the amused expression. Something in that tiny twitch as he crossed the room. It reminded her of old soldiers she'd seen.
He gave a little grin. "Ichimonji Hayato. Pleasure to meetcha."