Agito Chapter
Part 4: God and the Machine
In my mind this story has a theme song and it's JAM Project's Transformers EVO, which is both awesome and responsible for me finally realising that it's entirely possible to make "transform" sound as cool as "henshin" with the right attitude and I should just bloody well translate everything that should be translated.
Mana sat opposite Koji, watching him eat. He was tiny, but sometimes it seemed like he never stopped eating. "So your dad was researching psychics?"
"Uh—yes. Before…"
He looked up. "You're lucky. Not having parents."
She wanted to be insulted but it was such a strange thing to say she could barely manage confused. "What? What is that?"
"I come from a long line of doctors," he said, stabbing at the scraps remaining on his plate. "So they were always pushing me to be the same, 'till I got out. Never wanted it. That's the way it is with parents, expectations. But you can do anything you want. You know how much training you need to be a doctor? You think I'm spending so many years of my life on something I got no interest in?"
"So what do you want to do?"
"Dunno," he admitted. "But that's okay. I'm young. I got time. Man," he said, waving his fork in her direction while wiping his mouth, "I wish my powers would develop already. Jealous of you for that, too." He sat back, looking dreamy. "When I awaken…I'm gonna go visit my folks. Show them what I can do. Something I'm good at."
"But you're not."
"I know I'm not psychic yet—"
"No, I mean…" She rolled the phrasing back and forth in her mind, trying to put her feeling into words. "Just because you or I or anyone else is psychic, that's not being good at something. That's just the way I happen to be. It's not like I worked for this. I didn't better myself, it just happened. So it's not like you'd be showing to them you made something out of yourself. Just that you got lucky."
Her words seemed to bother him, and he made a half-turn away, slouching over his chair. "You're a real buzzkill, aintcha…"
The door burst open and Masumi stumbled in, shoving Katsuhiko and Dr. Kino away as they rose to help. "They're all…"
The room fell silent, waiting for her to continue. She looked tired, dishevelled, haunted.
"All dead…the Unknown had already been there…the only survivors from that boat are in this room—" She trailed off, coming to a halt. Her body shuddered, then melted away with an all-too-brief shriek, blood and human remnants pooling on the floor. What remained, where she'd been standing, dripping with the last vestiges of what had once been a human woman, was the split-mouthed, dripping fish Unknown.
"Bastard…" Katsuhiko hissed, getting in front of the younger members and levitating the furniture between them and the Unknown as a barrier. "She didn't even know you were in there, right? This is how you've been picking us off…" As it started smashing through to reach them, he shouted across the room, "Dr. Kino, get behind me!"
Kino didn't acknowledge his words, instead looking at the Unknown. "So it's time? Very well."
"The hell are you—" There were bigger, or rather closer and sharper, things to worry about. "When I break for the door, stick with me!" Katsuhiko released his telekinetic hold on the furniture, now showering the Unknown with every piece of cutlery in the room. In the moment of confusion this brought on, he grabbed Mana and Koji and dashed for the exit. Something flashed by him as he passed the monster, but he was pretty sure he avoided it, the three of them bolting through the door and down the stairs towards the apartment complex's main door.
Back in the group's living space, the Unknown held up its bladed staff, observing for a moment the blood coating one of the tips. It turned to Kino, who gestured to the door.
"After you."
They made it barely ten paces out of the building before Katsuhiko collapsed, now feeling the gaping wound the Unknown had carved into him. He slapped their hands away as they tried to pull him up, propping himself against the roadside fence.
"Get on out of here."
"What?"
"You can't outrun them carrying me, go."
"We can't just leave you to them!" Mana insisted.
"You can and will," he growled, "or do I have to use my power to chase you off?"
The Unknown tore the front door off its hinges, emerging from the building, Kino strolling after it. Fear won out. With one last regretful glance back, Mana and Koji ran.
The Unknown stomped towards him, its wet feet making a hideous slapping on the pavement with every step. Then Kino put a hand on its shoulder, pointing to the fleeing pair. "I can deal with this one."
It gave a grunt of acknowledgement and ran straight past him, towards the others.
Sorry, girl…telekinesis wasn't ever one of your powers to begin with. The one who attacked your friends was me. Guess I just…wanted to get you to a place you could figure yourself out. Didn't work out. Most things don't. Katsuhiko gave a hollow laugh, blood coming up with the noise. "I don't have time left to ask what your reason is, so let's just get on with it. Wanna go?" He concentrated, mentally tearing free a few spokes from the fence. "Ever wonder which of us is better?"
"You want a duel?" Kino eyed the floating objects with disdain. "My apologies, but I've evolved beyond mere psychic power."
"Whatever you say," the defiant psychic gasped. "C'mon and come at me."
Crouched in his vegetable garden, Shouichi looked up, eyes dilating. This was—
Unknown.
For a moment, the world appeared grayscale, one shining point of colour in the distance showing the creature's location.
This used to signal the start of his trances, but these days he'd retaken the driver's seat. Now it was more a pointer he was willing to follow on his own.
Just please, don't be that one…be any Unknown but that one.
It was that one.
He stood rooted to the spot, staring on in terror as the creature that haunted his dreams advanced through the night-time construction site on Mana (and some other guy Shouichi barely noticed). He wanted to help. He had to. But his legs wouldn't move.
I guess I'm not some great warrior after all…heck, I'm just some gardener…
But…
But…!
Come on, Tsugami. This is something you can do.
"Mana!" he called, getting her attention and the Unknown's. Now they'd seen him. Put more pressure on myself…might be enough to get me over this…
Koji, meanwhile, eyed him suspiciously. Him again? He still doesn't remember, right?
"It's all right now," Shouichi said, kicking down the flimsy metal-mesh barricade between him and the rest of them and entering the construction site with slow, measured steps. He passed out of the shadows and into the moonlight, assuring Mana and himself, "there's nothing to be afraid of anymore."
Breathe in. Breathe out. Keeping the breathing calm and level, he'd learned, was very important for becoming Agito.
Arm down, up, in, out.
Breathe in.
"Transform!"
Agito.
Yukina, called by the same signal, arrived on the scene a couple minutes later, picking her way over the fallen fence. The Agito she'd met a couple times was already fighting the Unknown. He was badly outmatched, but that didn't seem to be his concern. He kept throwing himself at it, grabbing it around the waist and driving it back a few steps or straining to hold it back with both hands on its staff, enduring every blow it thudded into his body. Every time he was knocked down, he positioned himself back between the creature and two other humans, a terrified-looking young man and teenage girl.
He wasn't simply fighting to win. There was something he was fighting for.
At that…why am I fighting?
This was the first purely Yukina thought to break through the Agito trance since she'd been revived.
Because I'm compelled. But. What is accomplished? Have I even been paying attention to the ones under attack?
And…why do I feel like what he's doing is better?
And why do I feel like I've seen him before?
What was it he said to me? My head's so fuzzy…
"Leave him." Dr. Kino stood next to her, taking his sunglasses out of his pocket and slipping them on for some bizarre reason.
She looked quizzically over at him, mind still whirling with self-doubt.
"I do not believe it is healthy for Agito to coexist. In the end, only one is needed. That one will be the strongest. It may, however, be distasteful for you to kill him yourself, so…" He gestured towards the one-sided fight. "Leave things as they are, and the Unknown will do it."
She stared at him for a few seconds, before turning her gaze back to Shouichi, who fell back under another heavy swing, dazed and reeling, clawing at a nearby crate with both hands to stay upright. "You can't…have them…" he said, voice shaking. "Not one more step…"
Such a fierce voice…
…doesn't suit you, Yukina thought, out of the blue.
Kino looked concerned, seeing the tiniest point of recognition in her eyes, beginning to blossom.
"It's not like you," she whispered.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "You'll gain nothing in helping him. In his condition—"
She shoved him away, striding towards the fight, materialising her belt. "That's…my brother…" Transforming light washed over her. Her eyes narrowed, and she made herself say it with more confidence. "That's my brother!"
The Unknown's head turned, slightly too late as a second Agito dive-tackled it, heaving with all her might to shove it back from its battered opponent.
Hunched over from his latest beating, Shouichi looked up to see his saviour. "Yukina…you…"
"Stay behind me." Her head snapped around to focus directly on the Unknown, clenched fists shaking at her sides. "And you…" Every injury, every beatdown and cruel slash she'd blankly witnessed her brother receive earlier played through her mind with a new horror. "Don't you ever…touch him again." Her belt seemed to twist in on itself, the light it emitted fading to a sickly purple, vibrations running out from it through her whole body—Agito's golden shine deepened to crimson, and in a burst of flames, her form changed completely.
Gone was the metallic smoothness, replaced by a jagged, bulky appearance, a trio of blades jutting out from each forearm. Her armour was cracked in places, and beneath it flowed something like magma, little jets of fire escaping constantly.
The Unknown lunged—she ducked under it, with a roar concentrating the wild flames around one fist and driving home a punch into its ribs, feeling them crack against her knuckles. It fell away, flailing in pain, and she carried on towards it.
With a flash from her belt, a double-ended, curved shortsword was summoned, and she raised it two-handed as she reached her target.
The Unknown surged to its feet, striking with its own weapon, but Yukina struck at the same time; the staff was sliced clean in two and a great burning gash carved across the Unknown's chest. She turned, stabbing forwards and impaling it from behind. It gargled, twitching, its kind's signature pre-death halo shining above its head for a moment before, still transfixed on Yukina's weapon, it exploded, the powered-up Agito stalking out of the flames back towards those she'd saved.
Shouichi stared in disbelief. He knew about two alternate forms Agito could take, but those were 'sideways' adjustments in ability, a tradeoff, none better than the other. This, though…this blew away every form before it. This is…an evolution.
"Do you remember me?" he asked, still cautious.
She came to a stop. "It's…distant. But I think so." She looked intently at him, or at least appeared to through the enormous yellow compound eyes. "You're a fool, always trying to meddle and 'help' every little thing. And…" A tiny laugh. "You love your vegetables. Can't stop you putting them in every meal."
Mana was certain, on hearing this. That's Shouichi, yeah…then this really is his sister.
"It's hard for me to remember, too," he said, barely restraining the overflowing joy in his voice, holding her hands in his. "But I know you. You were such a happy person, breezing through life at a hundred miles an hour…I hope you can find that part of you again."
"I…was like that…?"
Their reunion was broken up by a slow clap; Dr. Kino, kicking the fallen fence out of his way as he sauntered towards them. "That was no ordinary Unknown—or Lord, as they call themselves—you just killed. That was the El Lord of Water." He shot a regretful look at its scattered remains. "One of his personal attendants."
"His?" Yukina asked, her and Shouichi moving to put themselves in front of Mana and Koji again.
Kino ignored the question. "There are two more El—and this one's power is as nothing to them. They would slaughter you or me. There is no point in you progressing any further."
"Did you kill Katsuhiko?" Koji shouted, feeling defiant, then a little less brave for doing so from over the shoulders of a pair of Agito.
"Of course. That was the only purpose in keeping you all together like that."
"Damn it, what the hell d'you want us dead for?"
"What he wants is for humans to stay as they are. Those who are something more, and those who will someday become more…all those carrying the Seed of Agito must be destroyed. That was the deal I struck with him. Those who are still uncorrupted can live, and I will be rewarded." He clenched both hands into fists in front of him, then crossed them over down by his waist, the familiar mystic belt shining into existence. "I am the only one that needs to exist…all other Agito will be destroyed, to save humanity. Transform!"
The change was very brief, his new form sweeping over him almost instantly. It was like a twisted, mutant parody of an Agito. Tiny teeth lined the faceplate. The carapace lacked a metallic shine, simply glistening as if slightly wet, a patchwork of dark browns and greens. A single jagged blade swept back from each forearm, and some kind of miniature cape hung from each shoulderblade.
"You have strayed from God's path," his rumbling voice intoned. "I will destroy you, and save the world."
"Hey now, there's no—" Shouichi began, but he was rushing them already. He swung off Shouichi with both hands, using him as a platform to swing a two-footed kick into Yukina; she managed to get a cross-armed block up, sliding back through a cluster of steel barrels.
Shouichi, meanwhile, went down in one punch, gurgling as his mind reeled to understand what had even happened, taking a while to register the terrifyingly-powerful Agito assaulting them.
Kino turned his attention to Yukina, who was already charging back at him, clouds of fire swirling around her. In this new form, she's by far the stronger of the two…I can ignore him for now.
He dodged back as she swung at him, left, right, left, heavy punches sailing past him. Not that fast, but the strength in those fists is terrifying…if I block with my own hands, it won't end well for me… He darted around to the left, waiting for her to angle back around at him, swinging his leg up into a kick straight upwards into her arcing fist. This, though—!
They met with a blaze of flame from Yukina's hand; after struggling for a moment, Kino's foot broke through, shoving through her guard and into her face. As she staggered away, he leapt in and hammered both fists into her gut, toppling her over.
Then he heard the unmistakeable hum of energy behind him—Shouichi had taken the time Yukina had bought him to bring the mystical energies flowing through him to their highest point, preparing to throw them all into one attack. His two horns split into four for a second as swirls of golden light decorated the floor around him, spiralling inwards until they'd all focused into his foot. Then he jumped.
"Still want to test me?" Kino whirled towards Shouichi as the younger man came rocketing down towards him, all-out flying kick meeting Kino's effortless standing kick, sparks flying as the unearthly powers within them clashed. "I require no evolution!" Kino bellowed suddenly. "I am the strongest Agito!" They broke away at once, Kino returning to his standing stance as Shouichi backflipped away to the ground, kneeling.
The beating he'd taken from the Water El was really catching up with him, though, so he stayed there a moment too long, catching his breath. By the time he looked up, Kino's knuckles were filling his vision, and the vicious backfist knocked him all the way over to Mana. Kino was already engaging Yukina again, ducking under her deadly fists to shove his elbow in, hauling her past him as she flinched from the pain and kicking her to the ground next to her brother. The body-changing light washed over them both, forcibly returning them to their human bodies as their stamina just about hit zero.
Kino made his way over to them, spreading his arms as if in welcome. "Rejoice," he said. "The four of you will die for the sake of humanity. This is God's will."
Can't even stand up… Yukina desperately searched for some solution, some way around the implacable force advancing on them. Shouichi's even worse…damn it, what—
Everything blazed white for a moment, Kino flinching and covering his insectoid eyes, before turning his attention over to the source: A camera flash, from the other side of the construction site.
A scrawny, indistinct figure was picking its way towards them, finally becoming visible in the faint starlight as he drew near, pushing a wheelbarrow out of his way and waving a greeting. "Yo there!" Ichimonji Hayato called. "I'm not really a religious guy, but that whole God's-will thing sounds a little off to me…you sure about all that?"
"You bastard, who the hell are you?" Kino was incensed at his hunt being interrupted.
The cover on Ichimonji's belt's central turbine popped open, the fan beginning to spin, drawing the nearby air through it and emitting a faint glow. "Just a human who dropped by."
(More accurately, someone had spotted the Water El tearing through the streets to get here and phoned the police, and the G3 Unit had rushed out before Ichimonji could finish talking to them; and he'd decided that sounded like trouble, and a Cyclone is faster than the G-Trailer, and thus, here he was.)
Both arms shot out to one side, rotating in a precisely-controlled arc over his head to the other side, folding at the last moment as he made fists.
"Transform."
The glow grew into a dazzling burst of rainbow brilliance, covering his form; when it was swept away, he'd taken on a Rider form near-identical to Hongo's, but for a differing colour scheme, most notably his vivid red gloves and boots.
Kino paused for a second, then threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, is that all? I've heard about you. There's two of you, right?" He swaggered up closer to Ichimonji. "You're just a human with some metal in you. Another joke like that tin can G3. Honestly, bringing such mundane weapons to a battleground of divine beings…" He patted the unmoving Rider's shoulder disparagingly. "And at least G3 is new technology. You're, what, 20 years out of date? 30? I'm surprised you haven't fallen apart yet!" He gave a hearty laugh, going to slap Ichimonji's shoulder again. "You're so far out of your league it's not even—"
A red-gloved hand caught him before he made contact. Finally, Ichimonji looked at him directly. "I think you've said enough."
"H-Hey…" Kino tried to pull his hand free, but the grip was unbreakable. What the hell… "Disappear!" His other hand shot in, landing a clean punch to Ichimonji's face.
After a moment, Ichimonji bent his head back into place, his sheer neck strength sufficient to push Kino's fist back.
"You talk pretty big, dontcha."
"Wh—that was—" Kino spluttered.
"No, no, it's okay. That was a good hit. Here, now I'll do one." He released Kino's hand, then immediately slammed a straight punch into the Agito's stomach.
It was the most devastatingly-hard impact Kino had ever felt. He staggered back three steps, clutching at his stomach, bent almost double, gasping raggedly and failing to form words.
"What? What? What was that?" Ichimonji cupped a hand to where his ear would be under his helmet. "Man, ten times normal human hearing and I still can't make it out. Not gonna take your turn? Guess I'm up again, then!" He took a running start, kicking high, his foot cracking into the side of Kino's head and flooring him instantly.
Even once Kino's head stopped ringing, he didn't seem to be under attack for the moment, giving him time to think—What the hell was that strength just now? I can barely think straight…how could I be reduced to this…in two hits?!
"Oi." Kamen Rider #2 pointed down at him. "Get up."
"Wh…?"
"You piss me off something fierce, but I'm not gonna hit you while you're down. So." He cracked his knuckles with an added mechanical clunk. "Get up so I can beat you some more."
Bastard… Kino's claws dug into the dirt, his whole body trembling. Don't get cocky! Drawing on all his strength, he suddenly lunged up off the ground, reaching with both hands—which Ichimonji's own arms slipped between, shoving them away and leaving Kino wide open.
"There we go. Thought I was gonna have to drag you up myself." Kino had the briefest pause to regret the course that had lead him to this moment before the pain began. Trapped in a barrage of fists, pummelled this way and that, his breath forced out of him.
This power—! What is he?! What kind of monster… After almost a solid minute of the relentless barrage, a spinning kick flung him back through the air, a pillar in the construction behind him 'catching' him with a heavy thud.
"I give," Kino croaked, sliding down the pillar.
"That's cute." Ichimonji's hands clenched in that same stance he'd transformed with, a burst of light flowing down his arms from his Typhoon belt, and he leapt after Kino, his right fist flying out, blazing red. Kino shut his eyes—
"RIDER PUNCH!"
And—I'm…not dead? Slowly, the Agito reopened his eyes. Ichimonji stood over him, one arm extended past him, buried up to the wrist in the pillar.
"Just kidding." Ichimonji leaned down, looking him dead in the eyes, and whispered, "Boom." At that exact moment, some kind of delayed reaction from his punch took place, and the entire pillar, along with the floor and ceiling for several feet around, crumbled to dust around them.
"Now…" Ichimonji stood up and back, brushing the grey stone-dust off him. "Start running."
Kino did so, and did not stop until he was half a city away.