A/N:
Sorry guys a couple of personal issues had come up, but the next chapter is up. Let's hope I don't stall with the next one any longer.
I thank you for your support.
Hong Kong, Soujiro Teahouse
It was two days since Tsurugi and Yaguruma arrived in Hong Kong at Tendou's teahouse.
Tendou was nice enough to let them stay as honored guests, and over the following days, they were talking about their battle plans and what is going to go down.
"Kagami and his riders are already searching for me in Moscow, but they can't even locate the Bistro La Salle…" Tendou grumbled.
"It's smart how you manage a teahouse while they're searching for a restaurant," Tsurugi said.
"When do we head out?" Yaguruma asked.
"When Kagami finds us," Tendou replied.
"You think Kagami's forces are alright?" Tsurugi asked.
"They'll be fine, I know their capabilities," Tendou replied.
"Well then, what exactly is that key they are going to find?" Tsurugi pressed.
"Should I trust you with this information?" Tendou asked, also glancing at Yaguruma.
"You trust me don't you?" Tsurugi asked.
"I never said I did," Tendou replied, getting up.
"After all we've been through, all those worms and battles, you're not going to trust me with the info on how to save the world?" Tsurugi asked.
"He has a point," Yaguruma said, shrugging.
"How do you expect us to save the world if you're not going to trust anyone with this sacred info? You wanna do this alone? You got it then!" Tsurugi said angrily as he walked away.
"There are four locations," Tendou finally said as Tsurugi suddenly came back.
"Four locations, great, now fucking continue," Tsurugi growled.
"San Francisco, Sydney, South and North Poles," Tendou continued.
"And how the fuck are these places relevant?" Yaguruma asked.
"There are these ancient but powerful devices called Core Generators deep in the Earth, recently the ones in San Francisco and Sydney have been unearthed, and since the Core Generators can never be moved, both cities have built buildings around them, the Transamerica Building and the Concert Hall, respectively. The ones in the poles are guarded by ancient cyborgs built to protect them, which would kill anyone who tries to approach at any cost," Tendou explained.
"So the key is used to activate the generators?" Yaguruma asked.
"No, it's used to activate this," Tendou said, pulling out an ancient box.
"That? What the fuck is in that thing?" Tsurugi asked.
"Four coins that are required to activate the Core Generator," Tendou replied.
"Wait a minute, you never told us what the generators will do," Tsurugi pointed out.
"They can do a lot of things, but what we need them to do is wipe the Earth clear of any non-human or non-earth-native organisms," Tendou said.
"But then, the zombies were from Earth, therefore the generator won't do shit!" Yaguruma said.
"The zombies are part-worm, from my analysis. The worm has infected them with its own disease, which contains the worm's DNA, so the generator would pretty much wipe them clean," Tendou explained.
"Hold up, who made these core generators?" Tsurugi asked.
"The Natives in the teahouse," Tendou replied.
"WHAT?" Tsurugi yelled.
"I kept them here for their own protection," Tendou replied.
"Did they create the generators before the Zecters?" Yaguruma asked.
"Negative, while a majority of the worms helped create the Zecters, a fraction of them peeled off to create the Core Generators in case of an invading alien force," Tendou said.
"Then why wasn't it used against the worms?" Tsurugi asked.
"Nobody could activate it since the natives were held captive by worms and the key and box was hidden by them," Tendou said.
"So how are they here now?" Yaguruma asked.
"I saved them, they gave me the location of the box but the key was in Moscow, and since Kusakabe was there, I told him to task Kagami in finding the key, and in turn I would give Riku Kagami "my" location," Tendou explained.
"A smart move that would infuriate them later," Yaguruma smirked.
"Now all we can do is wait for them," Tendou said.
Moscow, Russia
"Man, this city is so damn large, how are we gonna find Kabuto?" a rider asked.
"Calm down, we'll find him eventually," James said.
The Moscow Police Force let the riders in after convincing them that ZECT had sent them, but they were afraid that the mass amount of riders would cause too much attention.
"We need them out! Too many riders would cause too many zombies!" the mayor had said.
"Don't focus on driving us out! The real problem is out there!" Kagami had countered.
Eventually, the mayor agreed to let them stay for a short while, after Haku Kamijo had convinced him about their mission.
"I heard that Hiyori and Yumiko-san moved the restaurant to this place, maybe that's why Kabuto's here," Kagami suggested.
"That narrows down our search list, let's find that restaurant," Haku said. As he tried locating the restaurant on his computer, he heard Alex and some others talk about The Big Guy, a deceased rider.
"He was a jerk to me most of the time," a rider said to Alex.
"Acts like he is the toughest one," joked another rider.
"Well, he does have muscles on his muscles. And those muscles have muscles, and those other muscles have muscles on them," Alex said, another trio of riders laughed at the joke.
"What? It's the truth," Alex said indignantly.
All while they talked, Draco walked over to Kagami.
"Wouldn't the Red Shoes effect be taking place by now? Or like months ago?" he asked.
In case you didn't know, the Kabuto and Gatack Zecters were created to endlessly fight the worms, even if they were all destroyed. If not, the Zecters would make the wearer insane.
"Recently after the worms were all gone, my dad and some natives fixed both Zecters, removing the red shoes effect," Kagami said.
"Well then," Draco replied.
"How do you know of the Red Shoes? It was only me, Tendou, and my dad that knew?" Kagami asked.
"Your dad told me and Bruce, since we were his right-hand men," Draco explained.
"Well then, and look we found the restroom," Haku said, walking to the two riders.
"A restroom?" Draco asked.
"I meant restaurant," Haku grumbled.
"Well, I'm sure they don't want a large crowd in a small restaurant," Draco said.
"Everyone, go patrol the city for any threats, check the borders if you must, we're gonna ask for Kabuto's location," Kagami ordered. Most of the riders started walking away, talking to each other.
"I need Alex and James as well," Kagami added, the two walked over.
Kagami nodded to the two, and also nodded to Haku and Draco. They walked in, finding a full house of customers.
"Well, no line at least," Draco said.
"We need to find someone remember?" Haku reminded.
"Yeah, French food later," Draco mumbled.
Kagami walked over to the counter, finding a regular waiter.
"Hello stranger, how can I help you today?" he asked.
"I need to speak to Yumiko-san," Kagami said.
"I'll get her," the waiter said.
"Yumiko-san! Some stranger's looking for you?" Kagami heard him yell.
"I'm coming!" the restaurant manager said. Kagami was relieved to hear his former boss's voice.
As Yumiko came over, she looked up and gave him a surprised look.
"Kagami!?" she cried.
"Yumiko-san!" Kagami cried, giving her a hug.
"I thought you would never come see us again! Hiyori! It's Kagami!" Yumiko said.
Hiyori walked over slowly, eyeing her old friend cautiously.
"Kagami," she said.
"Hey…" Kagami said.
"Well hello ladies, I think you know some bozo named Tendou Souji, you know where he is?" Haku said, walking over.
"Well, let me get Mirai-kun," Hiyori said, walking away.
A few moments later, a well-built man walked over and immediately recognized Kagami.
"Well, I haven't seen you in a very long time," Mirai said.
"Um…I don't know who you are," Kagami said confusingly.
"Come with me and I'll tell you everything," Mirai said, ignoring Kagami's remark. Kagami shrugged and told the rest of them to follow.
As they walked up the stairs to a large weapons room, Mirai grinned at the riders.
"I used to be Kusakabe Souji, but I changed my identity to Mirai Kusakabe, brother of Hiroyi and Tendou," Mirai said.
"You mean Dark Kabuto?" Alex asked.
"I don't like to go by that name? It reminded me of all the trouble I caused everyone back then," Mirai said.
"Oh, then let's try to remember this information," James said rolling his eyes.
"You're funny, but let's talk," Mirai answered. They entered the room and they all sat down.
"So, before we start I'll tell you this, Kabuto is not in Moscow," Mirai said.
"What the hell!?" James shouted.
"You gotta be bullshitting," Draco said.
"I'm not, Kabuto told me himself he's not here," Mirai said.
"Then where is he?" Haku asked.
"He told me not to say, but he did have something for you to do," Mirai responded.
"I can't believe he would start bullshitting us," Kagami said, referring to Tendou.
"He wants you to find a key, something that would help save the world," Mirai continued.
"A key, for what?" Haku asked.
"Something Tendou has in his possession, but we can't tell you until we get that key," Mirai said, fidgeting a bit.
"Where is the key?" Draco asked.
"After a long while, me and the Russian police found the location of it. It's in an abandoned building about five miles from the eastern side of the border. Afterwards, we have to climb to the top," Mirai replied.
"Great. Climbing," Alex growled, rolling her eyes.
"Once we get that box I'll reveal the location of Kabuto, otherwise no," Mirai said.
"Wait," Kagami called.
"What?" Mirai asked.
"Are there zombies there?" Kagami asked.
"I cannot say that there aren't," Mirai said, walking out of the room.
Later that night…
Haku eventually gave in to the offer and walked to Mirai, who was looking at the bright night sky.
"You finally gonna accept Kabuto's offer?" Mirai asked without looking at him.
"We have to, what other choice do we have?" Haku asked.
"Why are you speaking to me alone?" Mirai asked. Both Mirai and Haku were in the weapons room, the rest of the riders were eating downstairs.
"I came to ask a question," Haku said.
"What question do you have to ask?" Mirai asked.
"What did it feel like, when you were locked up by ZECT?" Haku asked.
"Why are you asking such a question?" Mirai asked in a more irritated voice.
"Just during Kabuto and Gatack's first defeat from the Cassis Worm, a figure that most looked like Souji Kusakabe-"
"It could've been another worm," Mirai countered.
"I was working with ZECT as a lead scientist that located worms worldwide. As the cassis worm was rampaging, a native broke out of Area Z and adopted the form of Souji Tendou, do you have anything to do with this?" Haku asked.
"Are you sure you checked correctly?" Mirai asked.
"I'm not wrong, back then I was one of the only ones that knew that you were held captive by ZECT, but the details were murky…" Haku stopped and Mirai hushed him.
"I'm a clone of the real Souji Kusakabe worm," Mirai admitted.
"Wait. What?" Haku asked, with a mixture of confusion and nervousness.
"After ZECT captured "the first me", they found some remarkable discovery that they never told us about, after the first me died, ZECT decided to create clones like me so that they could continue the tests. Tendou and Kagami only found one of the clones, me, and I soon got out and became what I am, the rest of the clones were shut down, as I found out after the worms," Mirai explained.
"Maybe we can find out about this clone mystery at wherever we are going," Haku suggested.
"We could," Mirai said hopefully.
"So we should rally the others, I suggest that we head out as soon as possible, right at dawn," Haku added.
"Good, see you tomorrow," Mirai said, walking to his room.
"You too," Haku said, staying outside.
Morning
"Alright guys, I'll explain where we are going, if you are all actually in for it," Mirai started after everyone gathered near a large table in the restaurant. The Bistro La Salle was closed for the day.
"Back in the worm days, Riku Kagami had another one of his crazy-ass bunkers built in an isolated spot near this city, Area M," Mirai said.
"We had Area Z in Japan, and that was where the Zecters were built, what did Area M do?" James asked.
"According to these papers, they were responsible for building the arsenal for the newer Zecters and weaponry for the ZECTroopers," Mirai answered.
"But then on this map," Kagami pointed to a highlighted dot, "What's in there?"
"I think it's their main power source for all the weapons or some storage chamber," Mirai said.
"Even if it's an isolated spot, the zombies would've already trampled the place," Haku reasoned.
"The bunker is partially underground, with just part of the roof visible. The roof is made of this strange metal not from Earth, and as far as I can tell, it could withstand many of the zombies' attacks," Mirai said.
"The zombies are probably not smart enough to pry open the doors or open it," Alex added.
"But worms could," Haku countered, everyone glanced at him.
"If any worms survived, alien or native, that would be the first place to go, since many natives and worms probably knew the location of the bunker. Area Z is already deemed too dangerous and crawling with too many zombies, even if there are still some inhabitants in there," Haku explained.
"Great! First zombies now we gotta deal with the worms again, what is this bull?" a rider exclaimed indiginantly.
Mirai ignored the loud rider. "If you think there are worms inside, then we're gonna have to kill them." Many of the riders nodded.
"Then let's head out," Mirai stood up, and the riders walked outside to an empty clearing. Mirai then put on his Rider Belt, called for the Dark Kabuto Zecter, and soon stuck the Zecter into the belt.
"HENSHIN!" the Zecter announced as the rider armor formed around Mirai, who soon cast off after transforming. Many other riders followed suit, calling forth their Zecters and attaching them to their transforming devices. They all soon pressed the clock-up pad and followed Dark Kabuto.
Area M
"Well we've arrived," Dark Kabuto said as the riders stopped near a large, locked door.
"Well, do we knock?" Drago asked.
A robotic camera appeared out of a hidden hatch.
"Passcode required," the camera announced.
"We're looking for certain item that may be instrumental to the zombies' defeat," Kagami called, ignoring the passcode.
"Passcode required," the camera announced.
"*3505," Dark Kabuto said.
"Passcode required," the camera announced.
"That's strange, that was the most recent passcode," Dark Kabuto frowned behind his mask.
"I told you, worms," the loud rider said.
"*0849," Dark Kabuto continued, hoping that this other passcode would work.
"Passcode required," the camera announced.
"I had enough of this bullshit," Haku growled as he threw a mini-bomb at the camera.
Inside the bunker, a couple of disguised alien worms grabbed some weapons, ready to defend the bunker from the riders.
"They didn't get the passcode, and since they are humans, they must be destroyed," a worm said.
"Yes sir!" the other worms called.
"Haku, see if you can hack the door," Kagami commanded.
"Already done," Haku pressed a few buttons on his tablet, and the doors opened, the riders soon streamed in.
"Alex, scan for invaders," Kagami commanded.
Drake nodded, and put her Drake Grip in Scope Mode, which is also able to identify incoming threats.
"I see about a dozen worms heading our way, disguised with weapons I can't identify, there could be more inside as well," Drake said.
"Get your weapons ready and blast those sons of bitches!" James called, grabbing a Kunai Gun from the floor.
Before someone else could utter a word, a green energy blast exploded the bullet-proof glass that trapped them, knocking some away.
"What the hell was that?!" a rider called.
"The worms have some serious tech in their hands, going Clock Up is not a wise option," Bat decided as he ran towards the worms, smoke bombs in hand.
"Mirai! The key! That is our focus!" Drago shouted.
"Drago, you, Drake, TheBee, and Gatack go fend off the worms while me and Bat find the key!" Dark Kabuto ordered.
"Understood, find that damn key!" Drago shouted as he pressed "2" on his staff, blasting a worm. Two more came from a door to the right.
"That's our exit," Bat said as he and Dark Kabuto clocked up, attempting to reach the doors. Bat threw some smoke bombs near the worms, preventing them from chasing the riders.
Drake soon appeared from behind.
"I thought we told you to stay with Drago!" Bat called.
"You need extra firepower, the other riders can handle the worms," Drake reasoned.
"Can't go back now, follow me!" Dark Kabuto yelled as they kept running, but they were somehow stopped by an electric barrier. The three riders were flown backwards.
"There must be a barrier that doesn't allow us to clock up," Bat said as he walked through the same area just fine.
"We'll walk then, keep cautious of worms," Dark Kabuto said, getting his Kunai Gun out.
The three riders walked quietly through the many doors and hallways of Area M, but all of the rooms didn't have any signs of life. The riders went into each door, checking for worms, but it seemed as if…
"Looks like most of the worms are fighting, which means we can pretty much find the key without trouble," Drake sighed.
"There's a possibility that there are even more worms waiting for us and guarding the key, we have to stay cautious," Dark Kabuto reminded.
"What if the worms don't even know the key is there?" Bat asked curiously.
"Possible, we have to keep searching," Dark Kabuto said. The three riders walked on quietly, they went down a flight of stairs, reaching a room that said "S.O.U.J.I."
"Hey Mirai, could that be…" Drake asked.
"This could be one of the places you were at," Bat added.
"Did they ever tell you about this place?" Dark Kabuto asked.
"We knew there was a bunker in Moscow, but this room must be underground," Bat replied.
"If so, then the key could be underground here as well," Drake said. The three shrugged and decided to keep walking.
As they walked into the room, they saw a few human corpses on the ground along with devices still partially running. Dozens of weapons were littered on the floor along with a worm tore in half. Far right there was a door, which was labelled "C.L.O.N.E.". The door was sealed shut with a passcode lock, but Drake shot the door open.
"Even further in?" Drake asked with a puzzled voice.
As they kept walking in the dark hallway, they heard explosions from above, courtesy to the ensuing battle upstairs. After finding a light switch, the three riders were shocked of what they saw.
"Holy mother of…" Bat said.
What they saw was a long row of inactive worm, some even looked half human, probably some sort of ZECT experiment.
"This is confusing, ZECT used to fight the worm with all means necessary but also experimented them like crazy," Bat grumbled.
"Can't blame them," Drake said. "I'm gonna start calling these things experiments."
Just then, a couple of stray worm stopped the riders.
"Let's kick some ass," Bat yelled as he got out a batarang. Drake shot at a worm as it tried to swipe at her face.
Dark Kabuto got out his kunai and threw it at one of the worms, making it explode. He grabbed the kunai and then started slashing the other worms, making them bleed. He then pressed his "Clock-Up" pad, and in less than a second the worms were nothing but dust.
Drake kept backing up and shot at the worms, having found that she was not used to fighting worms. A worm brought its alien hand up as if it was going to smack her, but she dodged and hit the worm in the back with the back of her fist. She continued shooting at the worms, who couldn't hit her.
Bat was hopping around the whole place, confusing the worms and making them hit each other. His strategy worked as the worms all surrounded him, and ran towards him, but he left a grenade on the floor and jumped high into the air. The worm exploded as they ran to where he originally was.
"Now that that is done, let's find that damn key," Drake said, shooting the last worm until it burst into flames. The two riders nodded as they continued their search.
They continued walking through the hallway, examining each of the worm experiments, some worm had remained the same, others had been drastically changed from their original structure and shape. At the end of the hall, a huge metal door, one similar to the tunnel door back in the supply building at Shibuya, was locked with the letters H, T, K, E, Y, H.
"What could this be?" Bat asked.
"The key, the six letters are merely scrambled," Dark Kabuto said as he shot the door open. And what they were looking for, was only a few feet away.
"Well, let's snatch that thing and get the hell outta here," Bat grumbled, getting a batarang just to be safe. Drake pointed her gun near the door.
Dark Kabuto walked up to the large container where the key was, and shot the glass. The key, an ancient-looking object with glowing gems and a spiky handle soon fell into Dark Kabuto's hands. At that moment, an alarm started to blare. The reinforced glass holding the worm experiments shattered into pieces and the experiments came to life and stalked slowly towards the three riders.
"We're screwed," Drake yelled, shooting at an experiment which went down in one shot. Bat threw three exploding batarangs, killing a cluster of experiments. Dark Kabuto pressed his Clock Up pad, and weaved around the experiments and started slashing them. He was intercepted by a worm which was slightly faster than him. As he fell on the ground, a couple of other worms started kicking and slashing him.
"Shit!" Bat yelled as he pressed a few buttons on his gauntlets, as well as grabbing six batarangs.
"RIDER EXPLOSION" the Bat Zecter announced as Bat threw the batarangs, which destroyed more experiments and blew Dark Kabuto off towards a computer screen.
"Shit!" Bat yelled again as he dodged a worm attack and kicked it in the back.
Drake covered Dark Kabuto as she roundhouse kicked an experiment in the "face", then dove under an experiment's long spider-like legs and shot it in the back a couple of times and threw the corpse at a couple of other experiments. Drake then ducked under an experiment's arm and shot it in its wide, gaping mouth, making the experiment scream in pain. She pressed her Clock Up pad, slowing down time and pulling the throttle on the Drake Zecter.
"RIDER SHOOTING" the Drake Zecter announced as energy formed around the Zecter. Drake pulled the trigger and a giant ball of blue energy split into fifteen smaller energy balls and decimated a large portion of the experiments.
Meanwhile, Dark Kabuto was still reeling from the batarang explosion, and struggled to get his head out of a flaming computer screen.
"Next time tell me to move," Dark Kabuto thought as he scrambled up.
A human-like experiment lunged at Dark Kabuto, who grabbed the broken computer screen and shoved it onto the experiments' head, then was thrown into a row of weapons stacked onto the wall. After Dark Kabuto dealt a finishing blow, he noticed a small door.
"What the hell could this be," Dark Kabuto said to himself.
Checking if the key was in his hands, Dark Kabuto put it in a small pouch slung over his back and pushed the remains of the weapons rack. The door was guarded by a large layer of chains, which Dark Kabuto had easily sliced up, but there was a lot of dust on the letters. Dark Kabuto brushed it away and read the letters.
"T, E, N, Tendou?" he said in a shocked voice. A couple of experiments heard him and ran towards him, but Dark Kabuto closed the door before they could come in.
"Where the hell did he go?" Drake asked as she blasted an experiment.
"Some hidden room, maybe it has more information, but we gotta hold off these things!" Bat replied as he threw an experiment into a stack of cardboard boxes filled with experimental blood.
T.E.N.D.O.U.
As Dark Kabuto had made sure that there was no one in there, he decided to de-transform.
"If Tendou's name is on the door this must be a damn place of importance they didn't want anyone knowing about," Mirai thought as he glanced at countless folders that lined the shelves, then shuffled through a stack of papers, hoping to get some information. All he found was files about Mirai's clone brothers. As Mirai accidentally dropped a paper, it drifted towards a computer screen, then hit the keyboard, turning the computer on. Mirai shrugged and sat down on a chair.
"Let's see, documents…weapons…Skype…Internet Explorer…ZECT…I think I found it, Project Clone," Mirai said as he looked at the icons on the screen.
He opened the folder, and clicked on "Cloning", Mirai got a long list of videos with dates on them. Mirai clicked on the bottom one, the oldest one.
"April 1st, 1989?" Mirai exclaimed, he clicked on the video.
The video started showing a young Tendou with his parents, being attacked by natives. A native captures Tendou and the video shifts to a room where Tendou is strapped to a pod, which several wires attached to the pod. A scientist activates it, with a small Tendou screaming as another individual appears in a separate pod, an exact clone of Tendou.
"Holy mother of…" Mirai gasped.
"Souji Kusakabe, also known as Test Subject 001, has successfully made a clone, 002, we will be releasing him out on the streets for the main time, as we have other plans for Test Subject 001," a voice says. Mirai then recognizes the room he is in as the room in the video.
"If this is the room, then there must be a pod with a clone," Mirai thought.
He looked around the room, then back at the video, searching for the spot the pod was possibly located at. He found the spot, but there was no pod, but he did find a hatch underground.
"What could this be?" Mirai asked himself as he tried to open it, no good. He opened the door using a lever, which brought the pod to view. Inside the pod, was Tendou, but half of Tendou, literally.
"What the hell…that means this is the real Tendou, and the one everyone has known their whole life is…a clone?" Mirai asked to himself, stepping back in complete horror until he fell on the floor.
"Tendou's a clone…" Mirai murmured, "I can't let him or the others know."
Just then, the door opened, revealing Bat and Drake's faces.
"You all right? You look like you've seen a ghost," Drake remarked.
"Bat! This place is rigged to blow!" Gatack shouted via intercom.
"We gotta get the hell outta here," Bat said as Drake helped Mirai up, who put back the Dark Kabuto Zecter onto his belt.
"Why did they need Tendou? Why not some other ordinary person?" Dark Kabuto thought, but he put aside what he learned at the secret room, all he worried about now was getting out.
"What of the worms?" Drake asked Gatack as they went back to the riders.
"All dead and accounted for," a rider answered for him.
"How much longer until this place blows?" Bat asked.
"30 seconds," another rider reported.
"Clock up and meet up at the restaurant roof," Kagami ordered, the riders nodded, and then escaped.
Within 10 seconds, they were on the roof of the Bistro La Salle, watching as the bunker exploded.
"At least now no one is gonna find out about Tendou," Dark Kabuto said.
"What?" a rider asked.
"No nothing," Dark Kabuto replied, thinking "Did I just say that out loud?"
Many of the riders took their Zecters out, letting them fly away.
"You have the key right Mirai?" Kagami asked.
"Yeah, it's right here," Mirai said, giving the key to him.
"After we rest up, we'll meet up with Tendou," Kagami ordered. The riders nodded in acknowledgement and began climbing down the fire escape.
"Hey Mirai, what did you see in there?" Haku asked as they went to the ground.
Mirai breathed the fresh air in relief, but experienced a chill on his spine, like there was something telling him to not reveal the secret.
"It was nothing, old information that doesn't seem important now," Mirai lied.
"Okay I guess, but I swear it was like you saw a ghost," Haku replied.
"Some images took me aback, that's all," Mirai concluded.
"Well, at least we got what we needed, all we have to do is go to Tendou now," Haku replied, walking away.
"Mirai, do we have any place to sleep?" Draco asked.
"I'll book a hotel for you guys and send you the coordinates," Mirai said without looking at him.
"Great, catch you tomorrow," Draco said, meeting up with two other riders.
Mirai then sighed and went into the restaurant, and found Hiyori cleaning a couple of plates.
"How was it?" she asked.
Since she was Tendou's sister, Mirai wanted to tell her, but he didn't want her feeling depressed or anything.
"Everything's fine, just tired," Mirai replied.
"Alright then," Hiyori said, completely ignoring Mirai afterward.
"You have a knack of knowing who a rider really is, like you just stumble upon something or someone and you just know that the person is a rider," Mirai joked.
"I noticed," Hiyori said with the same voice.
"You're usually not like this," Mirai said.
"After the zombies came, a lot of loved ones had died. I got over my grief, as well as most emotions, it's hard to feel happy or sad," Hiyori explained.
"I see," Mirai said, walking up to his sleeping quarters.
As he went in and went face-first onto his bed, he began thinking about what he had just saw.
"Is there something more behind this zombie thing?"
Hong Kong, Soujiro Teahouse
The phone rings.
"Hello?" Tendou asked.
"We got the damn key, now what?" Haku asked in a menacing voice.
"Great, now you come to Hong Kong," Tendou replied, unfazed.
"That's it? No thank you?" Haku asked.
"I can thank you later, but it should be me who you are thanking," Tendou said calmly.
"What the hell are you blabbering about?" Haku growled.
"We need the key for opening the coins that will be inputted into the core generators, you did a good job for retrieving it, and after a short rest I recommend you start journeying here," Tendou said, pulling a splinter out of his finger.
"Alright then, we'll meet you later," Haku replied, hanging up. Yaguruma ran next to him a moment after.
"Zombie attacks are getting increasingly high in the last few days," he reported.
"It looks like your arrival has motivated them, the next few days shall be interesting," Tendou said, crossing his arms.
Unknown Area
"So one of the Tendou clones has found out about his origins," a deep voice boomed.
"Yes sire, but our Moscow bunker has been obliterated by the implanted bombs we put ages ago," a minion said.
"A bold move I should say," another minion said.
"We wouldn't want outsiders finding out about this piece of info," the deep voice said.
"It is a good thing that the clone decided not to reveal anything," a third minion said.
"And he better keep his mouth shut about it," the deep voice growled.
"Sire! One of the masked demons has raided an outpost, all efforts to destroy him have failed," a soldier said, rushing to the tall building the three minions and the deep voice were in.
"Not all efforts, let the demon go with his business, whatever he does he can't destroy me," the deep voice boomed once again. "Minions, leave me."
As the minions had left, the deep voice then looked at the map and chuckled a bit.
"Everything is going as planned."