Agito Chapter:

Count Zero

Yukina had found her way back to the docks, sitting with her legs over the lip of the wall, barely a metre above the water. The sea was calming. It didn't have to worry about where it was going. As soon as it got here, it'd start heading right back, a path it had taken countless thousands of times.

"Yo."

Godai came up almost silently and sat cross-legged beside her, a small box of something under one arm. There was something slightly off about his movements, she noticed now he was this close. A certainty that wasn't quite human.

"How'd you find me?" She turned away, pulling up the coat she didn't remember buying around her.

"Kuuga tells me things. Heightened senses. It's only really on the surface when I transform, but it's always there, like background noise." He looked at her with a sad understanding. "Sorrow has a…flavour, I guess, is the closest word we have for it?" There was probably a Linto word describing the sensation more accurately. "I wish I didn't recognise it so instantly, but last year was…" He tried to finish the sentence, but the words wouldn't come. "Last night was crazy for all of us, I think."

She gave something close enough to a laugh to satisfy him, and he held out the box—fresh bread rolls. "A change from Shouichi's vegetables, right?"

"Tetsuya," she barely said.

"I think he's still deciding on that…anyway." He set the box down between them. "You seem pretty lost."

She looked out at the sea for a while before finding the words. "Why was I brought back?"

"Because you shouldn't have died."

"No, I…what reason did he have?"

"It's cruel, but to fight the Lords, I guess."

"Okay. Let's say we win. Then what?"

"Live. Like you were gonna."

"I tried!" There was a snarl behind the words. "I tried to make myself. It's not the same. It's—something's gone."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I came." He sat back. "Because you're a person who's lost their smile.

"Like…I found my way back. To how it was, more or less. I'm not the same, but I can live quietly, sometimes. I have to leave more than I used to, find new things to keep busy with, but…I can go back. But that's easy for me to say, right? What I went through's not what you went through."

"Not unless you died for a while, no."

"I meeeean…" He shrugged. "Medically, technically, for a couple hours? Not really."

She didn't feel like pressing the issue, accepted it as part of his strangeness. "You sounded like you were building to somewhere."

"Yeah. I got sidetracked," he admitted, smiling. "What I wanna say is, I want you to be able to go back. If you could manage a peaceful life, somehow, I think that'd make you happiest. But if you can't…I know some people like that.

"They lost everything, or they couldn't face going back to what they had. So they went forwards, alone. But now there's enough of them that they're never really alone. They're out there right now, giving up their happiness for everyone else's."

She chewed the coat's collar, fidgeting where she sat, one hand unconsciously reaching for the offered food. "That sounds nice. I'm glad people like that exist."

"I think, if you wanted, you could be like that. It might be the path forward you're looking for." He looked over at her, tried to read her expression without success. "It's not an easy life. I'm not gonna force it on you. But if you do make that choice…'Kamen Rider Agito' sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?"

The distinctive Cyclone engine sound briefly preceded Ichimonji swerving to a halt around the corner, waving to them. "Oi! Seen Shouichi?"

"Not since yesterday!" Godai called back, while Yukina shook her head, not looking around.

"Damn…he's not at the Professor's house, and no-one's seen him…and if there was a Lord around, Yukina would have sensed it." He nodded to her, then looked back the way he came. "He's got to be doing something stupid…that guy's such a pain." He went to knock away the kickstand, then stopped, his face twisting up in sudden agony. He almost fell off his bike, gasping and clinging to it.

"Mr. Ichimonji!" Godai jumped up and ran over; Yukina turned and watched with an impassive expression. "Are you all right? What happened?" Godai asked, helping Ichimonji back into a riding position.

"Thanks…I'm fine…I just need a…" the Rider forced air through his system, flipping his visor up to get more of the breeze on his sweat-drenched face. "It happens sometimes. Especially after tough fights like last night. It's a side-effect of being made of machinery that hasn't been properly maintained in thirty years. Like Hongo's appearance ageing like a normal human's. I stay looking young…" He patted his chest. "The breakdown's all in here." Something was vaguely fading into view on his face; a pattern of jagged lines…scars?...spidering out from his eyes. He shook his head, and they vanished. "I'm fine now. I'll be fine."

"Does Hongo—"

"No. It's the only secret I have from him. Don't tell him."

"I think it's important!"

"He'll worry. He'll start covering for me. He'll put himself at risk. I can't let him…we have to be equal partners. We'd be dead a hundred times over by now if it wasn't for that." He slapped himself in the face, slamming his visor down. "Forget about it. We have to find Shouichi."

Kino crept into the warehouse, the old, still air dense in his lungs. "Tsugami!" He kept to the shadows for now, moving as soon as he spoke. He didn't suspect the simple-minded Tsugami of any duplicity, but couldn't say the same of most of his comrades.

"I'm here!" came the reply. A pair of waving arms, the only movement in the dusty building, were easy to instantly spot. Kino swept his whole field of vision for any lurking ambushers before finally advancing towards the centre of the spacious area.

Tsugami Shouichi was sitting at a picnic table he'd set up, holding out a huge basket of vegetables, his usual gormless smile adorning his face. "I'm glad you came!"

"What…is this?"

"Uh…a present. Since we've fought before. I thought if I apologised for trying to hit you back then, it might help." He snapped his fingers, putting the basket down. "Oh, the table, right? Just in case you were hungry and decided to eat some of it here."

Kino almost wanted to yell at the sheer ridiculousness of it, but decided this was simply how some people were. And he was still rather tired. So he sat, with a little reluctance. "I was the aggressor. Why are you apologising?"

Shouichi sat too, folding his arms and looking self-important. "Someone has to, and you're the grumpy serious type. You're not apologising, right?"

"Of course not! I serve a higher—"

"Right, you're not. So I gotta. Awful selfish of you."

Kino swept the basket off the table, leaning forward, Shouichi's reflection distorting in the black lenses. "What do you hope to achieve here?"

"I guess…I wanted to know if there's any way I can make you stop targeting us. Whatever this Overlord guy offered you, it's not worth killing people over."

"Don't say that like you know anything!"

"So tell me and I will know!"

Kino slammed his hands onto the table to push himself up, rolling up his sleeve and showing off the scar on his arm. "This is my brother's. The storm that took mine, took him." The Overlord will bring him back. It didn't need to be said.

"Man…" Shouichi said after a while. "You kinda piss me off, actually. People like you are the reason the Overlord is so down on humans."

Kino's fists clenched. "What was that?!"

"Sacrificing all those lives for the sake of one…that's just selfish, no matter how you look at it."

"I thought you came to make peace!"

"I might have got a little off-track…"

"Enough of this stupidity!" Kino stepped back, crossing his arms in front of him. "I will complete my mission, and receive my reward."

Shouichi held up a cautioning hand. "Please, don't do that. I just got this new, uh, evolution. You won't win this time."

Kino's mouth set into a grim line. "Transform." His corrupted Agito form burst forth from his human body, his clawed hands flexing in preparation for the kill.

"Also," Shouichi said as Kino vaulted over the table at him, a sudden blinding flash lighting the young man from behind, "you smashed the vegetables I spent so much time growing all over the floor. I don't think I can make myself pull my punches after that…"

And then Kino was face-down on the floor, a shining silver Agito standing over him. The pain slowly separated out into three distinct points. What kind of speed was that…?

Shouichi released his held breath, powering down as Kino's injuries forced him out of Agito form too. "I told you not to do that." He crouched in front of Kino. "I do understand, actually. I lost my sister."

"And you wouldn't—"

"I don't know! Maybe I'd be just as bad as you, in that situation. I don't know. But the point is, she came back. I got what you're reaching for. And look, it's hard enough for her to readjust already. How do you think she'd feel if I'd killed a bunch of people to get her back? How would either of us feel, every time we saw each other? When people are in a dark place…they do stupid things. It's not their fault, but they do. She…they hurt themselves…" He held out a hand to Kino, his face pleading. "They hurt other people. Please, stop."

"You're saying…" Kino rolled over onto his back, his shades falling off. "If he comes back, knowing what I did…"

"You've already hurt plenty of people. Are you going to add yourself and your brother to that list?"

Could I make you carry that burden, Masato?

His grafted arm twitched, and finally relaxed.

"What should I do?"

"Whatever you want. Live for yourself for once. Enjoy life." Shouichi grinned, helping the bulky doctor up off the floor. "Maybe come by for dinner sometime."

"You're not going to ask me to fight with you?"

"Well, it's not like it wouldn't be helpful. But that'd be too cruel. There's probably things you want to do, and I can't suddenly ask you to risk your life for us like that."

Kino straightened his coat, almost smiling. "You're truly naïve, Tsugami."

"Sure," Shouichi said. "But I think I'm finally strong enough to get away with it."

There was a long pause. A slow shift in posture. "Before he made the offer, what I was originally doing with this power...was protecting humanity from the Lords, with my own hands. I will never stray from that path again."

Shouichi's eyes sparkled. "Mr. Kino, you—"

"What is this?"

The Overlord was there, in the doorway. "You turn from my light, Kino? What has he promised you?"

"It is only as you have seen. He has shown me the way out of the circle I was running in…the path to the future."

"Nothing? Ridiculous. Never have I met a human whose 'nobility' was more than a sham."

"Your children grew up when you weren't looking." Kino was already transformed and leaping for the Overlord—who snapped his fingers, a lean spine-covered Lord tackling Kino out of the air, the two of them rolling off to the side as the Overlord paced towards Shouichi.

"You have caused me far too much trouble, Agito."

"Good!" Shouichi brought his hands out in front to transform—and froze, back arching as a wave of pain shot through his body, focusing in his stomach, from which emerged a dazzling sphere of white light. It flew through the air and alighted in the Overlord's outstretched hand, sinking beneath his skin.

The pale, deep-eyed man shuddered as he absorbed the Seed of Agito, holding his head and breathing through gritted teeth. "I had no desire to…come into contact with part of him…but you forced my hand."

"Him…?" Shouichi knew, instinctively, what was gone. "Now you mention it…on the boat, there was a guy who looked like you, dressed in white. He made me Agito—he changed everyone there."

"His Agito Seed is what infects mankind. It turns you into more." The Overlord scowled. "Even after I defeated him, he's still trying to pull you away from me…return to me." Shouichi wasn't sure if the Overlord was talking specifically to him, or as if to all of humanity. "Return and live as I intended."

"Too late for that." Ryou strolled in the doorway, tossing his coat away behind him. "Even before becoming Agito, humans are so much more than you think." He looked a little smug, doing his best not to smile. "Even the lowest washed-up jerk like me." His attention now turned to Shouichi. "Damn it, Tsugami, I came to give the doc another kickin' and you've already got him on-side? Eh, guess I'll have to settle for beating on…I dunno, god, or whoever you are," he said, Gills bursting forth as he ran at the Overlord.

The ethereal man's hand flicked out and he dragged out Ryou's Agito Seed as well, forcing it into himself and gasping at the effort of containing two at once. Ryou, meanwhile, lost a lot of speed and tumbled onto his face, cursing loudly.

"Aw, c'mon!" Shouichi groaned, running over to him and pulling him off the ground. "You made such a cool entrance and you lost already?"

"You didn't tell me he could do that!" Ryou spluttered.

"Oh yeah…"

The Lord across the room got an unoccupied moment and swung to face them, firing off a volley of six-inch spines—Kino slid into their path just in time, smacking most of them away, a few digging into his arms which he promptly tore out, ignoring the trickles of black blood hitting the dusty floor.

"Consider us even," he growled, flexing his arms and widening his stance, a green glow swirling around his feet as his power built to its maximum. He leapt and threw his full-force kick into the over-extended Lord, launching it back into the far wall, its explosion blowing a huge hole open and letting the sunlight stream in.

He turned to the Overlord. "You seem to be having trouble holding in two Agito Seeds at once. Can you manage thr—" The words died in his throat, his Agito form vanishing as his Seed too was ripped out of him, vanishing into the Overlord, who staggered, choked, shuddered, but endured.

"Do not speak to me so lightly," he said. "I am older and greater than you can conceive…I have seen things beyond your comprehension…the Century Kings, the Fog Mother, the Grongi death-games, the Sealing Stone, worlds outside…" He seemed to be babbling, throwing words out to distract himself from the pain.

He drew himself up. "There is no further need for us to fight. Now you cannot become Agito, there is no problem." He turned—

—to find himself staring straight down the barrel of the G3-X suit's pistol.

"There's no need to explain the situation," Ozawa said. "My helmet's audio range is 15 kilometres. I heard everything. And you're going to return what you took from them."

His face became a mask of cold fury. "Do not think you can say such things, human. I am your creator."

"Sure. And you're under arrest." She dropped her aim to his legs and fired, but the rounds glanced off an invisible barrier.

"Your tools will not avail you." He snapped his fingers and she was flung back, rolling upright and speaking over her radio. "Commence simultaneous attack."

"What was—" Another wall collapsed as the G-Trailer smashed its way in, Hikawa leaping out and rolling away as the truck ploughed directly into the Overlord, sending him reeling away as he wildly lashed out with his mental power, tearing it apart. There was a visible ripple in the air around him after the impact his shield had taken, and Ozawa didn't waste the moment. She moved up in his blind-spot and right as he turned to face her shoved the missile—meant to clip onto one of the suit's guns for ranged use—right into his shield, hitting the manual detonator then immediately releasing that arm of the suit and throwing herself back as the explosive went off, disintegrating the armour-piece she'd abandoned. The Overlord appeared, stern-faced and unmoved, but there—there—a tiny crack in his shield. She rose again, bringing the high-speed vibrating knife to bear and ramming it into the crack, feeling a tiny bit of give. Then a lot of give. Then he took on a horrified expression as she drove it through, the barrier shattering entirely.

"What power is this? What are you?" he demanded, splaying out both hands, the wildly-aimed wave of mental force catching a glancing hit to her still-armoured shoulder and spinning her halfway around, forcing her to eject the rest of the suit's upper body as it was shunted back across the warehouse or risk have an arm go with it.

"We're…just human," Hikawa coughed, sitting up.

"Damn right." Ozawa took one step in, spun the Overlord towards her and punched him clean in the nose.

He shrieked, falling away holding his face, body shuddering this way and that—and, stress limit reached, three Seeds of Agito emerged, flying back into their respective owners, who felt their own vitality returning.

There was no actual motion; simply, between one heartbeat and the next, the Overlord was standing again, and back in the centre of the room. "You have made me very angry."

"Good," Ryou said. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" Shouichi said, jumping to his side. Kino made his way over without a word, the three forming a line.

From outside, Sawaki Tetsuya—the other Tsugami Shouichi—watched with a resigned expression as the three Agito adopted their individual poses, calling out a unified "Transform!"

Next chapter, the conclusion of the Agito arc, and then on to Ryuki.