Rider Time Zi-O: Roze from Remnant
Chapter 09.5 – A Rose Filled Issue
Woz stood in his dark void, not having his book open as he held it up, "Normally written in this book, average high schooler Tokiwa Sougo embarks on a path which leads him to become the overlord of time, Oma Zi-O. However this story is not about him in particular, as the days go on, other smaller but significant stories between the battles of Another Riders take place. This is one of them…"
Earth – Early October 2018:
A few days after the Another Wizard Incident
Sento Kiryu was a genius physicist, or rather he is, but given the current state of the world there wasn't much of a need to go insanely overboard on inventions. He was currently in his warehouse working on a pet project of sorts. It did make him long for days past however, simply giving a soft sigh as he was creating something new with his equipment.
Currently he was finishing up his latest project, or rather product, a silver plated mechanical stag beetle shaped object with four wheels. It was going to be his newest offering that he'd have Ryuga try and sell at one of the usual plaza's where a marketplace was usually set up by various small sellers.
"Sometimes I wish there was an actual project I could work on…" Sento muttered as he finished it up. "Hmm, how about Rolling Stag?"
The sound of a door opening alongside the usual voices snapped Sento out of his thoughts, "Sento!"
Sento couldn't help but wince slightly at how loud the voice was before setting his tools down, "Ah the Musclebrain," He turned to see his partner with a blue duffel bag slung over his shoulder. "How went the selling today?"
"Terrible, I don't get why you think that people want this junk," Ryuga grumbled as he went over to set the bag down in its usual spot.
"Hmm, well this one is sure to be a hit!" Sento called as he presented the new product. "I'm thinking of calling it the Rolling Pet Stag Robo."
"Huh, well at least it rolls, unlike that weird coffee maker thing you want me to sell," Ryuga remarked.
"Hey now it is not a weird coffee maker thing, it is a fully patented by me hydro warmer sprayer," Sento explained proudly. "You pour water in, flip the bottom switch, make sure you're wearing protective gloves and then push the pump down to load the water. Press the trigger and boom, boiling hot water in less than a minute."
"That sounds even stupider…" Ryuga deadpanned.
"I don't know, super fast boiled water sound cool," A voice called from the door, both Sento and Ryuga turning to see Ruby peaking through the left open entrance.
Sento suddenly slapped his face before giving a glare at Ryuga, "What did I say about coming back and not closing the door…"
"It's not my fault you make me carry a huge bag man!" Ryuga argued as he finally put the bag down in the corner where it usually rested. "I was going to close it once I was done anyway. What about that time you let Sawa in doing the same thing?"
"First you say that every single time and yet never do it," Sento huffed before rolling his eyes. "Second I think you're forgetting she let herself in and pretended that Owner and I slipped up?"
"Oh…" Ryuga stopped when he realized Sento was right. He quickly held his hand up before Sento could get another word in, "I know, I know!"
Ruby couldn't help but giggle a bit as she let herself in and closed the door, "So what's with the weird inventions?"
"First they're not weird," Sento defended with a pointed finger, "Second they're the products I have Ryuga sell."
"Attempt," Ryuga corrected. "Attempt to sell."
"Hmm…" Ruby soon saw the Rolling Pet Stag Robo that Sento had built and hurried over before snatching it from him. Her eyes began to sparkle as she looked it over. While it seemed simple on the outside she could tell how long Sento spent engineering it, "Wow, who wouldn't want this?" She began looking over in a rapid fashion, "It rolls, stag beetles are a bit gross but that's countered by the fact it's in an adorable robot form!"
Sento had to sniffle a bit as he quickly rubbed his nose with one finger, "Finally, someone who acknowledges it."
"…Maybe I should take Ruby with me next time I sell," Ryuga trailed.
"Hey if you need a spokeswoman then I'm your girl," Ruby pointed at herself with a grin.
"Well you'd probably have a 75% better success rate I feel," Sento admitted as he was handed his invention back to him from Ruby. He then went to put it by his work table when he realized something, "Huh, Ruby, why are you here?"
"I mean can't she visit?" Ryuga asked.
"Oh right," Ruby realized, having completely been lost in the banter between both of them. "Sento you're a Genius Physicist and fellow inventor/tinkerer, I need to pick your brain."
Sento quickly smiled, "Ah, if it is for a fellow inventor then I can't just say no!" He called proudly as he walked over. "What exactly do you need?"
"Well… I'm trying to figure out if my motorcycle's broken," Ruby admitted.
"Wait, you have a motorcycle?" Ryuga asked as he scratched his head. "I don't remember that."
"Just got it a few days ago," Ruby admitted before flashing her Rose Attacker in its inactive lock form. "It's pretty compact though."
Sento couldn't help but ponder it a bit, he was sure he had seen something remotely similar to that device before, but wasn't able to figure it out off the top of his head.
"Ruby…" Ryuga trailed.
Ruby tilted her head, "Yeah?"
"I think you got scammed," Ryuga admitted as he stared at the Rose Attacker's inactive state.
"Wait, what?" Ruby blinked a few times.
"Ruby that isn't a motorcycle," Ryuga pointed out.
"Um… yes it is."
"No it is clearly a padlock with a rose decal on it."
"Ryuga, it's really a motorcycle, I'd show you here but I don't want to make Sento mad."
"How can a motorcycle just be that tiny?"
"I'm not the one who decides these design choices!"
"Okay, okay you two," Sento called out as he quickly got between them, "We're not getting anywhere like this."
Ruby gave a sigh, "Okay, can we head outside and let me prove Ryuga wrong?"
"I'd love to honestly," Sento gave a grin as he walked out the door with Ruby, Ryuga just staring at the door for a bit before hurrying after them.
Once the three were outside Ruby clicked the button to open up the padlock, unlocking it. She then held her hand out before the padlock began to shift and change shape into the Rose Attacker motorcycle that Ruby would use.
Ryuga could only blink in surprise, "Oh."
"Dummy," Sento remarked as he took out his phone and Lion Fullbottle. "Did you forget that I have something that can do the same thing?"
[BUILD CHANGE!]
The Build Phone was tossed towards the grou, growing and transforming into the Machine Builder before landing next to the Rose Attacker.
"Transforming Bikes for ease of access," Sento called out.
Ruby slid over and crossed her arms before holding her hand out, "Yeah!"
Sento gave a smirk as he low-fived Ruby, clearly amused by Ryuga's stupefied reaction, "Now then." He turned to Ruby. "What seems to be the issue?"
"Okay so when I look at the main dashboard," Ruby went over and pointed at the Rose Attackers display, "It looks like certain features are missing and it doesn't seem to be operating at peak performance."
"Hmm," Sento trailed before looking over the motorcycle, looking over the dashboard and what he could without having to dismantle anything, "Well it's hard to really say what could be wrong."
"Think there's a way to find out?" Ruby asked.
"There might be," Sento gave a nod. "Do you have your Driver and Ridewatch on you?"
"Always do," Ruby grinned as she took out both objects, "Can't exactly be too careless."
"Good, let me just grab some equipment," Sento said before heading back inside.
"Okay so why are we here again?" Ryuga asked.
Ruby and Ryuga had waited for Sento to grab some equipment before the genius physicist had told them that they'd be taking a short fieldtrip. The trio then rode off to an old winding road that rarely anyone used.
"I need to get proper data from the motorcycle," Sento explained as he attached several devices to the Rose Attacker and connected them via wires. "We're going to be doing some speed testing."
"Sounds pretty simple," Ruby remarked.
"When I was creating and modifying the Machine Builder and Build Phone I made sure to have this testing equipment built as well," Sento explained as he worked on getting everything full set up. "I needed accurate results so I made my own. It helped me complete and perfect the Machine Builder into what it is today. It only really works by getting field data."
"Oh I get it," Ryuga soon realized. "You're going to have the bike running and going as fast as it can do get data and stuff, right?"
"I suppose that's how good this equipment is," Ruby said as she looked her motorcycle over.
"I'll be riding alongside you just to make sure the equipment doesn't go haywire," Sento explained as he finished the prep work.
"Okay that's well and good but… why do I have this?" Ryuga was currently confused by the white and black checkered flag he was holding.
"You're the referee, we'll be racing our way back to you once we complete the first phase," Sento explained as if it were a matter of fact.
"Why am I the referee?!" Ryuga called out.
"Because I don't trust you with riding this bike," Sento crossed his arms. "Last time you used it for an extended period I had to put it under extensive repairs."
"It's not my fault you and Emu were fighting on top of a pair of giant floating hands!" Ryuga pointed out.
Ruby recalled something similar to that back in December of 2017, she blinked a few times, "Wait what?"
"It's nothing too important," Sento waved it off before mounting the Machine Builder. "We're wasting a lot of daylight so let's get going."
"Sure," Ruby gave a nod as the mounted the Rose Attacker.
"Alright," Ryuga quickly got in front of them standing in the center, pointing between them. "Let's get going, on your mark! Get-"
"We're not racing now Musclebrain!" Sento shouted as he put his helmet on. "Let's go."
"Right," Ruby gave a nod as she revved her engine before taking off along with Sento. The two sped past Ryuga who coughed due to the fumes from the motorcycles.
The two inventors/riders road their motorcycles for a good distance, when Ruby saw Sento began to slow she did the same, the two crossing past each other and turning around.
"Okay, so you said next is the race part right?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, but with a twist," Sento said. "Remember how I asked you if you had your gear?"
"Yeah," Ruby gave a nod.
"We're going to transform and ride our bikes," Sento explained. "It's hard to explain but I believe our Rider Forms manage to push the performance of the bikes just a bit further than usual. So I need Rider Riding data as well."
"Well if it's for trying to figure out what's wrong then I'll do it," Ruby gave a nod as she prepped her transformation.
"Perfect," Sento smiled as he did the same.
[ROZE!]
[RABBIT! TANK! BEST MATCH!]
[ARE YOU READY?]
"Henshin!"
[RIDER TIME! KAMEN RIDER ROZE!]
[HAGANE NO MOONSAULT! RABBITTANK! YEAHHH!]
Both Sento and Ruby allowed their transformation to take shape, Build and Roze forming as the two gripped the handles of their motorcycles. The two both hunched forward as they began to get ready to take off, the revving of their respective motors being the only sound they could hear.
Ruby stared forward, "Ready…"
Sento readied himself, "Set…"
"GO!"
Back at the warehouse, Ryuga was currently giving a light groan as he was bandaged up by Ruby. The two racing Riders had ended up getting too caught up in their race, and Ryuga hadn't had the common sense to move from the center of the road so he ended up getting in the crossfire when the two arrived at the finish line.
"Sorry Ryuga, but you really should have just been on the side," Ruby gave a nervous chuckle as she finished patching him up.
"Whatever," Ryuga gave a light groan.
Sento meanwhile was on his computer, typing away and getting the data he had received from the machinery he attached to the Rose Attacker.
"So I was thinking on why Sento's items might not sell," Ruby admitted.
"You're back on that huh?" Ryuga asked.
"Well they're all silver and pretty basic looking," Ruby explained as she handed Ryuga back his jacket. "Add a bit of paint and that'll flash them up for sure!"
"Huh… you know now that you mention it they are all silver," Ryuga realized as he put his jacket back over his shirt.
"Like the Rolling Pet Stag Robo, I think it would be cool in a blue color," Ruby pointed her finger up as if stating a fact.
"Blue?" Ryuga asked. "Why not orange to make it closer to a bug?"
"Because a blue stag beetle would be cool," Ruby replied.
"Here we go!" Sento called out.
"Oh, did we get a hit?" Ryuga asked.
"What's the deal?" Ruby asked.
Sento pushed his wheeled chair back and spun to address the two, hands clasped as he sat in a relaxed position, "Well you see, Ruby was right, her bike isn't operating at max potential."
"So I was right?" Ruby realized before pumping a fist, "Nice, I was right!"
"Think you can fix it?" Ryuga asked.
"That's the problem," Sento admitted before hunching forward. "It seems someone's purposely disabled specific features, and I've yet to figure out how to un-disable it."
"But can you get the speed back to max?" Ruby asked.
"That's… sort of the issue," Sento admitted as he sat back and rubbed his head. "It turns out one of the disabled features is locked to the speed of the bike. Going a certain speed activates it."
"What kind of feature activates via speed?" Ryuga rubbed his head.
"Well, and I know this might be a lot for you to handle," Sento looked at Ruby specifically, "But supposedly dimensional travel, to where? No clue."
Ruby's eyes widened as she quickly hurried over and grabbed Sento's hands, "Please Sento! You need to figure out a way to unlock it!"
Sento was taken aback by Ruby's sudden action, not sure on what to say.
Ryuga though managed to speak up, "Hey what's the matter?"
"This… this feature may have a chance at helping me out with what I'm trying to do," Ruby tried to explain but she still wasn't sure. But this was her one chance to possibly get a lead on getting back to Remnant. She gave a sigh and let go before walking a few steps away and rubbing her hair, "I just… and this is going to sound so weird."
"Weird?" Ryuga asked.
"Try us," Sento said, noticing Ruby's reaction.
"I uh… I'm not from this world actually," Ruby admitted as she turned with a wistful smile. "I'm from a world called Remnant, and I've only been in Japan for about a year now. I'm trying to find a way back." She then looked down and relaxed a bit before kicking at the floor. Getting something like that off her chest was relieving for a bit.
Sento and Ryuga's expressions softened a bit when they heard the explanation, the two looked at each other before nodding.
Sento gave a grunt as he stood up before putting his hands in his pockets, smiling as he walked over, "I'll try my best to help then."
Ruby looked up in surprise, "Wait, seriously? You believe me?"
"Of course I do," Sento smiled. "What if I told you that Ryuga and I also came from a different world? While it's not this Remnant we existed in an Earth that wasn't this one."
Ruby soon realized before pointing at Sento, "Wait, then that explains the weird wall in 2017 when we first met!"
Sento chuckled as he grabbed her hand to lower it, "Yep, I suppose since you shared about yourself we might as well share our story before you go into further detail." He looked over to his partner. "Okay Musclebrain, start from the beginning."
"Right," Ryuga cleared his throat. "I was born on an ob/gyn clinic in Yokohama…"
~Chapter 1: Birth~
"I was a healthy 3.203 kilos…"
*SMACK*
Sento had smacked Ryuga out of his speech, "You're doing this on purpose aren't you?" He questioned. "I said at the beginning, not your birth!"
Ryuga gave an annoyed huff, "But it's an important plot point!"
"That isn't relevant until Episode 30!" Sento pointed out. "We start with Episode 1 first… or rather the recap!"
"Wait are we going to do the whole bit again?" Ryuga asked.
"Nonsense, I've managed to find time to edit together a first draft via video footage from the Rider Gear alongside the voice actor's parts," Sento explained as he hurried over to find a USB drive. "To which we'll be watching that for the first… dozen or so episodes."
"Huh, okay," Ryuga gave a nod.
Ruby meanwhile had grabbed a nearby stool to sit down, while she wasn't sure on what they were talking about, she realized this would take a bit.
Watching Ruby's interactions from the cracked open door of the warehouse was Woz who gave a smile before walking off, "And thus this small chapter comes to a close… by revealing her origin she has grown closer to two Riders as a result. Why am I chronicling this you may ask? Well… there is no particular reason." He gave a chuckle before walking off.
To Be Continued…
Next Time: Chapter 10 – Count the Medals 2010
Author's Note: So sudden sort of, I guess you could say Omake or if you prefer, Side Chapter/Interlude. When I get the inspiration I'll write up shorter than normal chapters with the characters. This one was mostly just to get a bit more friendship between Ruby, Sento and Ryuga. Plus some bike shenanigans and to get both parties on the level regarding them not really being from this particular Earth.
Note that these may come whenever I please, and will usually be released a week after an arc if I do. But there's no guarantee every arc will have an Interlude after it.