"Miss Noa, Sensei has arrived at the door."

"Thank you, I'll be greeting him."

Noa stood up from her seat and away from her seat. The white-haired girl saw three people, two students, and an armored man sitting down on the floor.

"Ha… ha… Why does this school have so many robots? I swear I even saw some really weird ones." Tokiko complained.

Kotori gave Tokiko a sheepish look. "Oh.. you mean, the vend-shooter? We actually scrapped that one because the dispenser was too powerful."

"Of course it was too powerful! That thing shot through metal!"

Ignoring the two students who were arguing, Ichigata decided to close his Cycloneriser and dismiss his transformation as Noa approached him.

The teacher stood up. "You must be the secretary that Kotori mentioned?"

Noa nodded with a smile. "Yes, I am Ushio Noa, secretary of the Seminar. I assume that you are Sendou Saito sensei?"

Saito nodded. "Sendou Saito. Nice to meet you, Noa."

After exchanging formalities, Noa asked the teacher to follow her to her workstation and then began to give him the details of their current situation as she pulled up a map of the school.

Noa began to explain the current situation. "In the past 30 minutes, everyone in Millenium had been defending against the robots in the school compound. While we had not made much progress, we had at least reoccupied some places like this tower and the power plant. Other than that… we haven't heard much from other areas."

"And the backups from GSC have also arrived, right? And has anyone found the Magia responsible for this?" Saito asked.

"Yes, sensei. In fact, they had arrived 4 minutes and 23 seconds before you entered this office." Noa answered the first question politely. But then the white-haired secretary then sighs in disappointment. "But sadly, we still could not find the Magia."

The blacked-haired Rider scratched his head in irritation. It seems that the Magia is better at hiding than they have thought.

Saito looked at the map and remembered which places were already cleared of robots. He figured that the Magia might not be too far away and there might be a limit as to how far they can control other robotic beings.

Then he looked at one particular place. "Noa, may I know what this place is?"

Noa curiously looked at where he pointed his finger. "That is our data center, sensei. This is the place where we store our public information and server. Why do you ask, sensei? Do you think the Magia might be there?"

Logically speaking, it might not be there as information is all public anyway.

"It won't hurt to see if it is possible there." Saito replied. He could help it, his instinct kept telling him that the enemy was there.

"Hmm…Sensei might be right since the Magia could potentially use the public server as a backdoor into our private server and take any sensitive information here." Noa mused. "I suppose we can make it the priority location to recapture."

Noa turned towards Kotori, who was explaining the history of the creation of the water dispenser to poor Tokiko, who looked like she was on the verge of having a mental breakdown and about to shoot Kotori's face. "Kotori, I would like you to help Sensei a little longer. We will be needing you to bring them to our data center through an underground shortcut, can you do that?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically, all the while Tokiko sighs and stood up from the floor, ready to go out of the room and fight once more.

But Saito has a different plan. "Tokiko, I have something else I need you to help me with. Call Mirei and tell her to secure the Power Plant."

Then the teacher turned his attention towards Noa. "Noa, since you are part of the Seminar, you know Yuuka, right?"

The white-haired girl tilted her head. "Yuuka? Oh, she was going to your office this morning, right?"

"Yeah. Can I ask you to call her? Tell her to pick up the Progrise Key. Don't worry about transport, I got that covered."

Noa nodded and immediately called Yuuka, while Saito and Tokiko walked out of the office. Saito then picked up his phone and called the 2nd person he had added to his contact list.

"Hey Styx, sorry to call you so suddenly. Can you make a round of the Schale Building again? There is someone I need you to help me pick up."


It took a few minutes, but Kotori was able to guide Saito to the entrance of the data center. The journey was, for the most part, uneventful. Outside of assisting students from both Millenium and GSC that are fighting against the robots that they came across, there are no other problems that ended up requiring Saito to transform again.

Ignoring Kotori's constant attempt to provide information that in all honesty, has no real help in their situation.

When Saito got close to the front of the data center, he noticed there were two girls standing in front of the entrance.

One of them is a tall pink-haired girl with a pink hexagonal halo and a pair of robotic wings on the side of the halo. She is also wearing a lab coat along with the standard Millenium uniform while holding a white-colored submachine gun. The most stand-out thing was a small white turret that she was leaning on as the turret made a monotonous beep.

The other girl that was standing at the entrance of the data center was a black-haired girl tied in a ponytail with dog ears on top of her head. Unlike any students that he had encountered so far, - maybe aside from Shun- this student was wearing a hoodie with a black and gray tank top and pants, webbed stockings, and a pair of boots with Millenium symbols on it. Like other students, she has a halo, which is just two yellow circles, one inside another one.

Kotori immediately rushed up to the two girls and joined up with them. "Hibiki! Utaha, you're here!"

The pink-haired girl smiled. "Kotori, there you are. You had us worried about going out to get Sensei by yourself."

Kotori just gave her a nervous chuckle while the dog girl began to speak up. "So I guess this person is Sensei?"

The orange-haired girl gave them an enthusiastic nod before running back to Sensei, eagerly introducing him to her friends. "Yup! This is Sendou Saito sensei! Sensei, these two are my friends from the same club, Utaha and Hibiki."

Then the two girls introduce themselves to him. The pink-haired girl starts first. "Nice to meet you, Sensei. As Kotori mentioned, I am Shiraishi Utaha, the Head of the Engineering Department."

Then the dog girl continues. "My name is Nekozuka Hibiki, a First Year student in Millenium, also a member of the Engineering Department. Nice to meet you too, Sensei."

"Nice to meet you all." Saito replied. "So this is the data center? Actually, how long were you girls here?"

Utaha answered his questions. "Yes, and we were here not too long ago… although, when we reached here, it was rather empty outside of 5 robots in front of the entrance that we had to destroy."

Saito walked to the front door of the data center. He wondered if there were more enemies in the server rooms. He looked at Utaha, asking her another question. "What does the data center look like on the inside?"

"Right inside here is a reception for students to check in on using a computer room that we set up. Going in deeper, that is where the servers are stored. Only authorized members of Millenium can enter the room, which is us since Miss Noa gave us the authorization."

Processing the information given, Saito concluded that their main target was in the server room, somehow able to hack the security, and entered the room. For what reason they want to use the room, everyone has no clue.

Regardless, now they know that there is a chance that they will be encountering the second Magia in Kivotos, the Engineering Department students double-checked if they are prepared for the next fight.

Utaha then took point standing in front of the door before she opened the door and looked out for any ambushes that might happen. Once she double-confirmed that there might not be any enemies in the reception hall, everyone moved in and began to move deeper into the data center, until they reached the server room, which has no lights on.

Hibiki pulled out a flashlight to illuminate the room, finding out that all the servers had been shut down.

This was the first sign that something was very wrong.

Looking at the situation, Hibiki suggested that they should turn back and request more backups. But when they wanted to turn back, they noticed that the door was automatically closed, even the shutter door shut the only entrance. Kotori was not even able to make a call, as there were no signals at all.

That was the second sign.

They could try to break the door open, but Sensei suggested that their enemy might have already been aware of their presence the moment they entered the data center.

So they continued forward, but now they are even more cautious than before. They kept their weapon ready and looked around every corner to make sure there were no enemies ambushing them.

Once again, nothing happened, but as they kept going deeper into the building, the more uneased they were until eventually…

"This is the last room…" Utaha said. "It might be in here. So, we have to be prepared."

Saito nodded and quickly transformed into Ichigata before he looked back at his students. The students all nodded before he walked forward and opened the door.

Everyone froze at the sight. The whole room was filled with small robots the size of a person's head all moving about in the tight space of the room, and in the middle is a silver hunchback robot with the head and body of an ant, with glowing red lines pulsing around its body, and wires connecting from the body to the main console in the room.

Needless to say, it is a very freaky sight.

"AHHHH!" Kotori shouted and immediately started shooting everything in the room in panic. Then Utaha deployed her turret, but she heard sounds coming out behind them.

She turned her head behind her and saw even smaller robots crawling out behind the servers and from the ceiling.

"We're surrounded!" Utaha shouted. Then she backed up Kotori with her SMG, making sure any stragglers were taken out.

Hibiki pulled out a pistol and began to shoot the robots away, as her mortar launcher might cause unnecessary damage.

As for Ichigata, he began to punch away the robots that were clumping together while stomping the ones that were crawling on the ground.

They continued to keep fighting on the ground. However, like what happened outside of the data center, no matter how many enemies they take down, they are all simply replaced by any missing number.

"We can't keep going like this, Sensei. What should we do?" Hibiki asked, clearly getting more exhausted as they kept going in the fight.

Kotori quickly made her suggestion in panic. "Get us out of here! I don't want to be in the same space as these mechanical nightmares!"

"I agree with her, Sensei." Utaha agreed, breathing harder from getting more exhausted from the fight. "Even if we want to fight against the main leader, I don't think the minions will allow us to get close to them."

Thinking quickly, Ichigata formulates a plan in order to escape from the data center.

"Hibiki, I need you to use your mortar on the doors." Ichigata ordered.

The girl was shocked when she heard her teacher's order, wondering why he would want her to cause heavy collateral damage in a confined space such as this. In addition, what Sensei asked of her is to use her mortar no in its intended way. She wanted to ask her teacher why, but he quickly interrupted her thoughts. "We can't get out of here the conventional way, so we need to make our own exit. Can you do that?"

Hearing his reasoning, Hibiki nodded and loaded up her mortar. "Cover me, everyone."

It took a little bit of time, but Hibiki was able to quickly load her mortar and prepared to aim at the door. "Move away, everyone."

Quickly, Ichigata moved out of the way, and Hibiki fired her mortar, successfully breaking open the door.

"Retreat, everyone!" Everyone began to move towards the now-destroyed door as soon as possible.

"Nice job, Hibiki, but we still have a few doors to take down. So be ready." Ichigata complimented Hibiki.

But at the same time, the large hunchback Magia noticed that its enemy was retreating. So it disconnected the wires from its body and began to move deeper into the room, deciding not to chase after its prey.

Hibiki looked at the door and nodded, knowing that she needed to get ready for the next breach.

Regardless, everyone in the room had one thought as they repeated the same formation as they fought away the smaller robot.

"This will be a tough one."


"Thanks for bringing me here, Mr. Styx."

"No problem there, Miss Hayase. Just doing the job that Sensei asked of me."

"I don't think speeding down the road is part of your job." Yuuka nervously chuckled as she looked away from the taxi driver.

After the call with Noa, Yuuka asked Arona to increase the manufacturing speed of the new Progrise Key. The AI heeded the request and tried her best to reduce the amount of time needed to complete the Progrise Key from 7 minutes to 4 Minutes.

Just in time too, as she walked out of the Schale Building (with Arona in hand), she saw a taxi parked right in front of the entrance. Turns out Sensei had called Styx to pick her and Arona up while Millenium deals with the new Magia.

Despite this, Yuuka noted that it will take them half an hour to make it to Millennium.

So Styx gave his solution.

"I'll just drive faster. Nothing I have never done before."

Yuuka then had to experience 10 minutes of a taxi moving at 170 to 180 km/h, completely ignoring the traffic with a driver who somehow was skillful enough to dodge every person and vehicle on the road.

Poor Yuuka had her life flashed before her eyes more times than she wanted it to happen.

Regardless, she is now back at her school, and she sees that the vice president of GSC is also at the front gate walking towards Yuuka.

"Good to see you safe." Rin greeted her. "And I see that you also brought Arona along."

Yuuka absently nodded. "Thanks, and yeah I did, she seems to be not responsive right now." Then she shook her head. "But how are things going right now? I wasn't updated on the situation."

Rin then asked Yuuka to walk with her to the temporary base set up by the Valkyrie Police as she began to update the happenings when the treasurer of Millennium was absent.

While Rin was explaining the situation, Yuuka was looking around at the destruction of her school. The treasurer frowned at the amount of destruction that had been done. Just one Magia and the whole school needs more repair than how much damage the Engineering Club and Cleaning and Clearing did combine.

The first Magia was able to wreck a street by itself, and now another one that can control robots is able to turn a large educational institution into a warzone.

"- and that's all there is so far." Rin concluded. "Right now, we still don't know what kind of Magia we are dealing with, but now we had been informed that there is no sign of the Magia in the power plant."

"I see," Yuuka replied. "So I assume that Sensei is now in the data center?"

Rin nodded. "Yes, Miss Ushio mentioned it to one of my colleagues, Mirei, when we were gathering up to capture the power plant. Although, I do hope both he and the students with him are enough to end this terrible raid."

Right when Rin finished her sentence, a loud explosion echoed and the whole ground shook. Everyone ran in the direction of the sound and saw black smoke coming out of the data center.

Then from the smoke, students from the Engineering Department were running out of the building coughing, with the now armored Kamen Rider running backward towards the girls before he kicked a robot that jumped out of the smoke back into the building.

"Are you girls alright?" Ichigata asked.

All of them nod back as they continue to cough out any smoke that enters their system. The three girls then kept in their minds that the next time they entered a closed building, they needed to have a sledgehammer.

"Never use my mortar to escape a building. Never again." Hibiki thought.

While both the teacher and the students were regaining their bearings, Rin immediately ordered the Valkyrie Police to bring them to the medical tent to patch up their injuries. Meanwhile, Yuuka quickly walked towards the teacher while holding his tablet and the Progrise Key.

"Sensei, are you alright?" Yuuka asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Well, a little." He replied. "Turns out the Magia is in this building. It actually turned the whole place into their own hive, ceilings and all."

Yuuka shudders, not liking the image that is conjured in her mind from what little Ichigata said.

Moving from the horrifying thought, she decided to ask him another question. "So did you defeat the Magai already?"

Ichigata shook his head. "No, there are just too many small robots in there, so we can't exactly get close to it. I think it is still-"

Another loud explosion sound came out from the data center. However, the smoke came out from the side of the building. Then from the hole that was created from the explosion, the small robots that Ichigata had to fight began to rush out and swarm the open field rapidly, charging toward the students.

Immediately, all the Valkyrie Police present began to open fire against the robots. Ichigata was also going to join the rest, but Yuuka stopped him and showed him the newly made Progrise Key.

"This Progrise Key…"

"It was finished around 2 minutes after you left. Seems like this Key focuses on explosives from what the name implies."

Ichigata looks at the Progrise Key a little closer. While the shape is similar to his Rocking Hopper Key and the word "Type: Zetsumetsu" was also printed on it, that is where the similarity ends. This Progrise Key has a dark-green color with the silhouette of a frog with the word "Blasting Frog" On the right side of the Progrise Key.

Arona then finally talked.

Well, there is no point in not using it now, Ichigata thought. "Arona, Yuuka, thanks. I'll put this Key to good use."

Yuuka gave him a "Humph" and muttered to him "You better."

The Kamen Rider moved away from Yuuka without saying more words. Looking at the new Progrise Key one more time, he pressed down the Key.

NAPALM!

Closing his Driver once more, Ichigata quickly pulled out his Rocking Hopper and replaced it with Blasting Frog.

The same dark blue-green wind that protects him from harm began to form once again, but now a large black frog leaps out from his back, jumping around to prevent enemies from getting close to him.

"Henshin!"

Cyclonerise!

Pulling open his Driver again, the Frog jumped on top of Ichigata and burst into smaller parts, all being pulled by green thick wires to his undersuit.

Blasting Frog!

Burning blast that turns evil to ashes. Type-1

The head now has a green sandogasa, while the mask has changed from a grasshopper mask to a green frog mask with a pair of black eyes. Meanwhile, the other parts of the body had been replaced too. The chest plate had changed from a turquoise chest plate to a square black one with no shoulder pads, and the legs also changed to look similar to a hakama and now also sporting black boots.

The most standout change to the armor is the gauntlets. While the left arm is similar to Rocking Hopper's gauntlet but in black color with 40 mm grenades, the right arm now has revolver cylinders on the forearm all converge to the hand that is replaced with a gun barrel.

Ichigata looked at his transformation, astonished by the huge change from his new form. Looking at his new form, he quickly put two and two together on the purpose of this new form.

Looking down at the sight, Ichigata took aim, using his left arm to hold the trigger on his right arm.

"Clear the way!" He shouted. The students quickly move away, with the small robots none the wiser.

Ichigata pressed the trigger, and a pill-shaped grenade ejected out of the gun barrel. When it hits a robot, an explosion covers all of the enemies and burns all of them.

But the explosion did not cover all the enemy. So, he quickly moves his arms in another direction and continues to blow up the enemies, quickly turning the tide of the battle. Despite being on fire, the robots simply do not care and keep charging forward until their internal functions cease to continue.

The rest of the students then change their formation to support Sensei, taking advantage of shooting down the burning and scattered robots while also using whatever explosive weapons are on hand to blast them down too.

After 6 shoots, Ichigata noticed that his weapon ran out of ammo. He stretched his right arm a little, and the grenades on his left arm began to move quickly into each cylinder from his back.

"Seems like I am limited to 12 shoots." Ichigata noted, realizing the ammos did not arbitrarily refill. Regardless, it should be enough to end the current fight, seeing as the enemies become lesser and lesser.

"Still, where is Queen Ant Magia?" Ichigata muttered. Looking around the field one more time, he did not see a single sighting of the Magai that he saw in the Data Center.

Perhaps it escaped? If that is the case, what was it that it was trying to find in the public server? Or what was it trying to do on the server?

Too many questions, yet none can be answered now.

How irritating.


Report from Magia: Aneuret: Infiltration to Millenium Science School: completed.

Information retrieval on "Nameless" and "Z*****": progress halted within 53.17% during operation due to confrontation with Type: Melanoplus Spretus.

Suggested action: retreat with the retrieved information.

Response to Magia Aneuret: Mission considered a success. Retreat to Location Z-2 and await the next order.

New information from observation on the Zetsumetsu system. Updating to the current Magia creation system. Magai: Jackal will use a new prototype system: Raidriser.

Jackal received a new instruction: Moving to Location Z-5 to retrieve a new prototype system: Raidriser.

Glory to Decagramattion.


A few days after the attack on Millenium…

"Sensei, there is another supply request from Hyakkiyako."

"Tell them we will arrange a courier delivery by tomorrow. We still have Millenium to focus our supply on."

After destroying the remaining rampage robots, Rin and Mirei issued an order to search for Queen Ant Magia. Unfortunately, after a few hours of searching, Rin concluded that the Magai had escaped. But Rin made a promise to Saito that she will issue an order later to search all over Kivotos for the Magai.

Afterward, Noa, Yuuka, and Rin met up, discussing whatever they might need to fix the whole school and gathering up whatever items that were not destroyed that they can use to make a quick fix.

Speaking of Yuuka…

"I thought you were busy with the reconstruction of your school, Yuuka. Why are you helping me?"

Sitting across from him, the treasurer of the Seminar was busy looking over a stack of paper with a cup of coffee right next to her. The girl was rapidly typing down numbers on her phone, all the while writing on the paper.

"Well, these papers," she gestured at the stack of papers. "Are all papers for approval, request, and receipts related to my school. So you can technically say I am helping with the reconstruction."

Saito looked at her, before deciding to let her do her thing. "Well, I guess this is also helping me since I was supposed to look at them too." He said. "Thanks for the help. Just leave the signing to me later."

Yuuka nodded before she asked another question. "By the way, Sensei. What do you think about the new Progrise Key?"

The teacher answered. "Blasting Frog? I haven't tested it out since the attack. But so far as what both Arona told me and from what little time I used it, seems like a very heavily limited form.

It has tons of firepower with the grenade launcher. Arona confirmed that I can use normal 40mm grenades in this form, that's why I couldn't reload. And the legs weigh me down so I don't move too much when I shoot, but I can't move much."

"So basically, this is more of a situational form?" Yuuka summarized.

"Yeah, that basically sums up." Saito answered. "But this is a learning process for us. The next Progrise Key we made, we can make a more versatile one."

He smiled and continued. "And this time, I want you to suggest a keyword."

"Eh?" The treasurer squicked. "W-wait, what are you saying?"

"Exactly what I said. I want you to be the contributing factor in making the new Progrise Key, Yuuka."

The poor girl was not able to form any words and just stuttered until she stopped talking.

"You don't have to tell me right now though." He continued. "I am just offering you the chance to make a new power."

"... I'll take up your offer then." She replied. "Now, let's continue our work. We have papers to finish."

He nods in agreement and decides to continue his work.

Not before he made a cheeky comment.

"How many papers do we have without rounding it off?"

"How many papers do you want to be thrown on your face, Sensei?"


Err… Hi.

Lots of things had happened…

I got a full-time job that took me a while to adjust to, so that is good news.

On the other hand, I got into a bit of a slump with both my original writings and this, which is pretty obvious by the sudden hit in writing quality.

The part that made me really struggle was the whole battle. It was supposed to be longer, but I just could not figure out what I wanted to do, so I resorted to making Queen Ant Magia live for another day. Y'know like the Man Spider in Kamen Rider.

We will see more of that Magia soon, as I made a small note on what to do with it.

Speaking of things I have a plan for: the new Progrise Key.

I know it was not very clear just what this Progrise Key is supposed to be based on, it's actually based on one of Zero One's Magia, the Gaeru Magia. In the show, it was shown that it had the ability to literally shoot its head as bombs, so I was thinking "Why not use it as a second form?" We will be seeing more of that form later down the line.

I guess I should get this out of the way and say that almost all of Ichigata's forms will be based on the Magias in the actual show. The keyword here being almost.

So yeah, now that we are done with this transitional arc, I will begin the REAL next arc with Volume 1 of the game. Some things will stay the same, but some things will change.

Nothing more to say from me, so stay tuned and enjoy the small Momotalk section.


Momo talk #2: Joining Schale

Saito: Say Yuuka.

Saito: Why were you actually in the Schale Building?

Yuuka: I wanted to join Schale.

Saito: Oh. Well, welcome to Schale then.

Yuuka: Wait, that's it? No paperwork, no interview, just like that?

Saito: Well, I can recruit or allow people to join this Club as the club advisor. So yeah, you're in.

Yuuka: You better have a plan to make documents and requirements for joining Schale, Sensei. You can't just let people come in and out this freely.

Saito: Guess I can rely on you or Rin to make a sensible recruitment paper then?

Yuuka: Fine, I'll help you just this once. Any further changes to the clauses will be done by yourself, got it?

Saito: Sure.