Agito Chapter

Count: 3

This chapter starts place a day before the end of the last one—on the same evening that Yukina and Shouichi first fought the beetle Lord.

Cybernetically-enhanced hearing was at least all-purpose, but it didn't have the range of the Agito's laser-guided Lord sense. The Double Riders, en route to their rented rooms across town, did not initially detect that Shouichi had headed back out, or that he and Yukina were fighting again.

It would be hard, however, to miss when well over twenty Lords swarmed to the battlefield at once, the cacophony drifting across town to reach the veterans' ears, and a few seconds of silent focus gave them specifics.

With a quick nod to each other, they veered back around and drove to the rescue of their embattled allies, transforming as they rode.

Soon, a bridge loomed in the distance. Atop it, jets of flame rose occasionally as Yukina tore through the Lords. To save time, the Riders kicked against the ground, their superhuman muscles propelling their bikes into the air and over the railing, landing in the shallows of the river and driving on in a spray of dark water.

Then the world seemed to…invert. They fell up out of the water, disoriented, landing on the bank. The river was still. Their bikes were gone. No-one was on the bridge. Everything was silent.

They stood, staying alert.

"Welcome, Kamen Riders…to Mirror World."

Odin emerged from the shadows beneath the bridge, arms folded, gazing imperiously down at them.

"Who are you?" Ichimonji demanded.

"Kamen Rider Odin. Your executioner."

"Kamen Rider?" Hongo asked, taken aback. "You're no Rider I know of. Who gave you that name?"

"I'm a better class of Rider...one that will replace you, soon enough. I'm not sure if I exist yet in this time period, but it won't be long."

"Then…you're from another time?"

"I don't owe you any answers. All I require is for you to offer up your lives and energy…" One hand kept clenching and unclenching with a metallic grinding sound. "…so that I can create an immortal life."

"All right, we get it, you're mysterious and terrifying!" Ichimonji said, shaking his fingers in an exaggerated loosening-up motion. "Come at us already!"

"I have no intention of risking my life in battle." Odin sank into the solid-seeming water, becoming a rippling, moving reflection. "In case you haven't yet grasped the situation: I have just returned to the real world. The two of you remain in Mirror World. But you needn't feel lonely."

Something started to stir; from all directions, mechanical parodies of real-world animals twitched and shuddered their way into the dim light, patterned every colour of the rainbow and emitting a high-pitched, unending whine.

Surrounded by the things, the Riders stood back-to-back on the hardened river, waiting in guarding stances as the circle tightened around them.

Odin's voice echoed up to them. "Let me know how my Mirror Monsters measure up to the crude cyborgs your creators used to throw at y—"

"Rider Reversal!" The closest Monster, a bulky rhinoceros-shaped machine, had lunged, and Hongo's body seemed to flow under it, one foot whipping out as he found handholds and easily unbalanced it, dumping it right onto Ichimonji's rising fist, the impact tearing it in half.

"Not bad, I guess," Ichimonji said, kicking the remains away.

"Yes, we haven't had a real warm-up in a while." Hongo turned to face the next. "At you, then!"

Even the most thrilling of battles ceases to be so after the first few hours, and thus it was that things started to blur together as they passed the night fending off the seemingly-endless waves of Odin's Monsters, striking down one after another without respite. By sunrise, they were starting to tire, briefly sagging after each blow, leaning against each other for support.

"At this rate…" Ichimonji gasped. "We're going to run out…of energy before…he runs out of Mirror Monsters…we need to escape."

Hongo was about to reply, but something seemed to catch his attention. "Ah…I see."

"Huh? Got something?"

"More or less."

Up in the real world, Odin sauntered back down towards the river, having wandered off for a few hours. They should be dead now, or very soon…I can at least witness them.

He went to peer into the water—and it shuddered, a faint shockwave passing out and into the ground.

What…?

The solid 'water' had cracked, but held. The Mirror Monster horde pressed in from all sides.

"Once more!" Hongo yelled.

"Right!" They joined hands, their belts' turbines spinning to ever-greater speeds, twin energies joining into one.

"Rider Full Power!"

There came a noise as if a world of glass had shattered, and the Double Riders burst up out of the river, somersaulting over Odin's head and landing behind him, hand in hand and drenched in dirty water.

He stood frozen, dumbfounded, as they turned to him.

"Fatal mistake!" Ichimonji said with an overdramatic point.

"Telling us that place was called 'Mirror World'…" Hongo chuckled. "So of course we entered through a reflective surface—the water. All we had to do was break back through."

"But—there's no force on Earth that could break—" Odin spluttered, backing away.

"Prepare yourself!"

Odin barely had time to raise his staff before they were upon him with one of their great grasshopper-leaps, retreating further as their punches crashed against his guard.

He swung the weapon's back end out, putting distance between them and slotting a card into its ornate head. "Sword Vent," it read out, vanishing in a golden flash, replaced by a pair of slightly-curved blades. Not knowing about this capability of his, the Double Riders had rushed back in, only to each receive a clean strike across the chest from the materialising weapons. Odin moved in, singling out Hongo and landing another blow to his less-armoured side, raising both swords and bringing them down for a killing strike—but Hongo's hands shot up, grasping around Odin's and holding him back. They struggled back and forth, deadlocked.

Hongo seemed to falter, but it was a feint, and as Odin moved to press his apparent advantage, he failed to notice the rising kick that shoved against his chestplate, breaking the lock and pushing him out of striking distance.

"Seems we're about even," Hongo said, his stance slumping again after the wearisome struggle.

Ichimonji strode forward. "Only that strong?" He spread his arms wide as he approached, inviting attack, and Odin obliged, making two vertical slashes at neck level. Ichimonji held his hands out, the jagged blades glancing along his gloved palms, leaving steaming trails of blackened metal but not penetrating through.

Hissing and shaking his hands, Ichimonji lunged with a foot, catching the side of Odin's knee and dragging it to the ground. The veteran Rider quickly followed up, stepping in and taking hold of his downed opponent by the waist and neck, and—

"Rider Jump!" In an instant they were cresting the arc of an enormous jump, high above the river. With a shove, Odin found himself plummeting into the river first, rising with a gasp just as Rider #2 descended from above with a "Rider Chop!"

However, Odin was no longer there when he landed, his chop channelling a shockwave into the river instead, parting it from one shore to the other for an instant.

Odin appeared between them in a cloud of golden feathers, raising his swords again. "Very well. I underestimated you. I'll fight seriously, then."

He became a blur, appearing just to land a blow or two then vanishing, coming from every direction, wearing down their defences then laying into them from all sides, leaving their armour cracked and chipped. The whole riverbank was covered with slowly-fading feather-trails.

As they leaned against each other to stay standing, he let himself reappear before them, levelling a sword at them. "Do you see now? We are on a different level."

-Ichimonji, do you read?-

Ichimonji made no outward sign he'd received the electronic signal. If his partner was contacting him via the O-Ring when they were right next to each other, it meant he had something he didn't want Odin to hear.

-I copy. Tell me you've got a plan.-

-I have…an idea.-

-It'll do.-

After relaying this idea, they simply waited for his next move. It wasn't long in coming. He came from the right this time, swinging both blades together. Instantly, Hongo leapt straight up, and Ichimonji gave him a two-handed shove upwards with all his famed strength.

-Can you be strong one more time?- had come the question, a moment ago.

-Always,- had been the answer.

Hongo turned a slow backflip, aiming to land more or less where he'd jumped from, letting him stand protectively over Ichimonji, who was laid out groaning on the floor after taking both swords head-on. Odin had already vanished, startled by the sudden escape.

And if he's worried, he'll attack me from the safest possible place, Hongo reasoned. Which is— He thrust his elbow backwards, right as Odin appeared directly behind him, catching the mystery Rider in the gut and drawing a bellow of surprise and pain. With his arm already back there, Hongo swung his forearm up, his fist smashing against Odin's visor. At this point, Odin wisely chose to teleport again, but Hongo was already turning to deliver a spin-kick that knocked the weapons out of the materialising Odin's hands.

"The more frustrated you get, the more predictable you become!" Hongo declared, drawing back as Odin lunged at him and receiving the charge.

In hindsight, Odin would later decide, rushing an enemy whose specialty was hand-to-hand combat, unarmed and in a blind fury, was quite a poor decision. Neither of his punches came anywhere close to landing, his leg was caught before his kick had really even begun, and from that unbalanced position he was unceremoniously dumped on his back.

He rose quickly…directly into a Rider Punch. By the time he picked himself up from that, he was filled with a new apprehension. The Double Riders were getting closer, each supporting the other with an arm around the shoulder, walking in time.

When I heard all they could do was punches and kicks…I never expected anything like this… He scrambled away, swapping back to his staff. #1 of skill…#2 of power…I underestimated them both.

"Got anything else?" Ichimonji joked.

"As it happens…" Odin planted his staff in the sandy soil, holding out a card in each hand. One read Final Vent. The other, Survive. "Either of these would let me kill you in moments. However…the collateral damage caused by using either could be incalculable." He stowed them away, drawing a different card. "I cannot risk altering the timeline so drastically this far back, or I might cease to exist.

"This will be your only lucky escape. The next time we meet, I will hold nothing back." He slotted in the card, snapping the staff-head shut around it.

"Time Vent," the reader declared, and he vanished.

The Riders finally let themselves relax, powering down and finding their discarded bikes among the 'dunes'. The sun was properly up by now, and whatever had been happening at the bridge had long since finished.

"We should find Shouichi," Ichimonji said, hauling his Cyclone upright. "He could still need help."

Hongo stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "We're no use to anyone right now. Come on, we heal fast; as soon as we've rested a while, we'll head back and see if he's home yet. I think I heard Yukina when we were on the way, too. With any luck, she'll be with him."

And that does it for these guys during these two days! Next, we'll see how Ryou fared (and then finally, the G3 unit, and then it'll be just about time for the arc finale).