...yea, I'm just going to go ahead and start doing these in advance. The next Debo Kyoryuger chapter hasn't even begun to be typed by the time I'm working on this.
I do have another thing I need to do, but I am trying to prioritize.
Random comment… doesn't this chapter's title, which is "Tales of the Greil Mercenaries", sound like some title for a Tales of game? ...I still need to watch Masae's LP of Symphonia. Let's go ahead and begin anyway.
Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, etc. Kamen Rider belongs to Toei, Bandai, etc. All OCs belong to their owners.
Previously on Kamen Rider Hero…
Roy: We need to find the Thunder Axe.
Takeshi: Two Kamen Riders leading a charge… I don't think the enemy would be able to hold off our side if they had to deal with two Riders at the front.
Hero: Robin… lend me your power!
Brunya: How about you join me?
Takeshi: ...you're dumb.
=FINAL ATTACK RIDE: ...RO-RO-RO-ROY!=
Hero: ...Man this is so cliche.
Takeshi and Tiki-chan now stood in a fort of some sort and were presently looking for something to identify the world they were in. After walking for a bit, they saw a symbol above a door that was of the Ragnell.
"That's the Ragnell…" Tiki-chan realized, with Takeshi blinking a tiny bit, "The Ragnell is the personal blade of Ike. And, from what I remember, was a symbol of-"
"The Greil Mercenaries…" Takeshi realized.
"So it's the Path of Radiance no Sekai now,"
Takeshi looked to the door and saw it was cracked open a tiny bit, so he slowly peeked inside and saw Ike speaking with two other people.
"Ah, due to Ike speaking with Greil and Titania-" Tiki-chan began as she pulled up Takeshi's phone to give him a visual reference.
"Heh… Ike knows the Fairy Queen," Takeshi joked, with Tiki-chan giving a confused look, "Uh, some manga this guy who's like my brother likes. Uh, carry on."
"Thank you," Tiki-chan began as she pulled up chibi-images of Ike, Greil, Mist and Boyd, "This takes place just after the prologue where Ike is made a full member of the Mercenary team, after training against his dad."
The chibi-images showed this training and how Ike got knocked back a bit.
"So, right now, he's being disciplined a bit about being late and the mission will soon begin," Tiki-chan informed.
Takeshi nodded as he peaked in a tiny bit and looked towards Ike, before smiling upon seeing Ike's belt. The belt itself being a slight recolor of the Alter Ring, with a red jewel in the center and a green waistband.
Kowashitai daijisou ni kakaeta watashi o zenbu (I'm breaking down all the walls I've built up around my lonely heart now) *Takeshi held his phone in his hand before he was seemingly absorbed into it.*
Kimi ga kono kodoku o itami o iyasu no (You're the one that takes it all away, my solitude and all my pain) *His phone was now attached onto his wrist and his Driver was in position.*
Reincarnation Realization *The Kamen Ride Hero card slipped out and into the phone insertion.*
Reincarnation kiete shimaitai (I want to disappear…) *Takeshi now stood on the ground as Kamen Rider Hero.*
Kamen Rider Hero
Nemuranai machi no zawameki aisouwarai no yuutsu (I walk alone through the city of lights, I see the same fake smiles every night) *Takeshi was now back in the real world and had his phone in his hand, playing Fire Emblem Heroes.*
Honne nante itsuka doko ka mienai furi (Cause everyone hides...they run and they hide from their real feelings.) *The game then had all of the characters seemingly vanish. Takeshi then took his phone and put it into position*
Dare datte fuan nante sonna (And everyone's got their stresses too, yeah I know) *Hero was seen punching and kicking various Risen foes, knocking them away, before he turned to see the fractured stained glassed windows of the nine worlds.*
Iwarenakutemo wakatteru (But I already get that's the status quo. I'm breaking down…) *Kamen Rider Marth, Ike, Robin, Micaiah, Roy and Lucina all stood and seemed fractured as well. Hero stood in the center of the six, glancing towards the three without representation.*
Kowashitai daijisou ni kakaeta tsuyogari nante (All the masks that I wear to hide my lonely heart now) *He took the six cards and loaded them into his card scanner, now being armed with the Fire Emblem itself. The cloaked woman walked over to him and simply smiled.*
Demo sunao ni narenai (But what if I'm just lying to myself?) *Takeshi stared at his phone for a moment before he was joined by Tiki-chan, who was initially in her distance form then in her normal form, who then smiled at him*
Mayottemo nayan demo kimi ga motomeru nara (If even now, you still want me when I am hurt,wandering lost in the rain) *Takeshi and the green orb both stood between the worlds, looking towards the six Riders and three silhouetted figures.
Semete kono kodoku o itami o kowashite (The at least help me destroy it all… My solitude, and all my pain) *Takeshi now stood as Kamen Rider Hero and reached out to them, trying to save them.*
Reincarnation Realization *Takeshi was now back in his base and held out the Kamen Rider Hero card.*
Reincarnation umarekawaritai (I want to be reborn) *He then turned towards the reader and gave a simple smile, showing off the Hero card.*
Emblem 06: Tales of the Greil Mercenaries
"So, what's my first job?" Ike asked.
"I'm talking with Titania right now. Wait outside until we're done," Greil told Ike.
Takeshi moved out of the way of the doors as Ike walked on out, "Hey."
"Hmm?" Ike blinked as he turned to face Takeshi, "Oh, hey. You a trainee or a new full-fledged member?"
"Uh… full-fledged member…" Takeshi figured.
"Alright," Ike nodded, "I'm Ike. What's your name?"
"Takeshi,"
Ike gave a small nod before he turned to look at Tiki-chan, "Oh. Who's that?"
"I'm Tiki-chan," she smiled.
"Hmm… Tiki… name rings a bell, but I don't know why…" Ike admitted.
Tiki-chan shrugged as Ike sat down and proceeded to wait for any further instructions.
"Is Ike a descendant of Marth?" Takeshi whispered.
"If he is, he ain't part of royal family. Path of Radiance does happen several generations after Shadow Dragon," Tiki-chan responded, "The order of the games, as far as I know, is Shadow Dragon, Blazing Blade, Binding Blade, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn and Awakening,"
"...what about Echoes and Fates? And all the other games?"
"As I mentioned, 'as far as I know',"
"Ah,"
Titania walked out and turned to Ike, "Come on, Ike. Let's get you set up."
She was about to walk out, but noticed Takeshi was there, "Oh. I forgot that there were two new guys. Uh… Takeshi, right?"
"Yep," Takeshi nodded.
"Alright," she nodded.
"Neat belt," Takeshi commented as he looked at her belt, which looked like the belt of Kamen Rider ZX (the green in the center being red instead).
"Oh. ...thank you," she responded as she turned to face him and saw Tiki-chan, "Oh, hello."
"Hi," Tiki-chan smiled before she got wide-eyed, "Wait, you can see me?!"
"You can see her?!"
"So you're a Kamen Rider as well, huh?" she realized, before she slowly moved her hand towards her axe, "You're not the world traveler, are you? I was warned of sme Kamen Rider entering from another reality to damage ours…"
"No! No! No!" Takeshi quickly responded.
"Then how come you aren't wearing your belt like me and Ike are?"
"Uh… I can remove mine? It's a special sort of belt,"
Titania looked at him for a moment before she slowly backed off. Once she left, Takeshi took a moment to sigh in relief before he followed her outside, the group soon being joined by Ike.
The group arrived outside an an aid informed Titania that preparations were completed, with banter between Ike and Boyd soon following. Ike took a deep breath while Takeshi simply kept a neutral expression on his face.
"Your first campaign at last. I know you've wanted this for a while. Are you nervous, Ike?" the aid, named Oscar, inquired.
"This morning, I'm feeling pretty good. It's the calm before the storm," Ike commented.
"You should try to relax. You're not going to be out there alone."
"Yeah, you're right," Ike nodded as he took a calming breath.
"Everyone ready? Let's go," Titania commanded.
The group arrived outside of a village known as Caldea and the mission objective was made clear to the team, being defeat the brute holding the building in the center of town. Ike proceeded forward to battle an axe knight, Oscar proceeded to strike at a sword knight, while Titania headed forward and dealt with a few lance knights. Boyd proceeded to strike at a few lance knights that Titania missed, while Takeshi had a sword ready, but had to wait as Ike was cleaning up anybody who he would be of use against.
Takeshi, in order to keep himself busy, spoke with some of the locals and got some items for the team. He then began to help evacuate people before their homes could get destroyed, but paused and watched as Ike was slowly getting overwhelmed by lance users.
"Is he gonna…?" Takeshi whispered as he watched.
Ike's arms and legs slowly had armor similar to Brave Level 50's armor attached onto him, but a blast from an axe being used as a boomerang had sent the lance users tumbling away. Ike's arms and legs were then turned back to normal as Takeshi turned to see Titania in her Rider form, which was her normal armor, with the helmet of Kamen Rider Idunn, with her hair as a sort of armor as well, similar to Olivia's Rider form, and she had an axe similar to the Dest Visor, minus anything that would connect it to the Mirror Monster.
"Wow…" Takeshi gawked.
She headed forward and proceeded to do battle against the guy in charge, with Ike delivering the final blow. The group began to rest as they all convened at the building.
"That's the end of it. Ike, Takeshi, are you both alright?" Titania checked.
"I'm fine. ...hardly fought anything, so I'm fine," Takeshi informed.
"I'll be fine," Ike assured.
"You know, you surprised me. To think you've come so far,"
"Look at my father, though. I've still got such a long way to go."
"There's nothing you can do about that. After all, Commander Greil is-"
"Ike's a Kamen Rider and his dad doesn't seem to be one," Takeshi commented.
Ike gave a soft growl as he walked off, leaving Takeshi to get glared at and the bluenette simply shrugging in response.
Some days had passed since Takeshi's arrival in Ike's world and it had been a slow wait to try and get the Rider Cards unlocked. Takeshi simply stared at the blank cards one early morning as Mist ran on into the barracks with a gleeful look on her face.
"Ike! Ike! I've got to tell you something!" Mist yelled as she got her brother awake.
"Settle down, Mist…" Ike groaned a bit as he sat up, "It's to early for you to be yelling like that. What's going on?"
"Soren's back! He just arrived."
Takeshi gave a glance to Tiki-chan.
"Soren's a good buddy of Ike. They met one day, but he didn't know how to talk much. Soren eventually remet with Ike at some point and I guess they're meeting back up again," Tiki-chan informed.
"Think Soren might be a Kamen Rider?" Takeshi couldn't help but ponder.
Tiki-chan shrugged as Takeshi turned to see that Ike and Mist were both gone, "They're likely in the mess hall looking for Soren."
"Thanks Tiki-chan," Takeshi smiled as he got up.
"One other thing, small spoiler," Tiki-chan began, "He's a Branded."
"...what's that?"
"Ok…" Tiki-chan began as she floated down to his side, "In the world of Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, humans are called Beroc. Then there are the Laguz, who are people who can shift into animal forms."
"Like Kamui and the Manakete?"
"Something along those lines," Tiki-chan nodded, "And then the Branded are kids of the Beroc and Laguz. They lack the ability to turn into an animal form, but have these symbols that show them as… well… branded."
Takeshi gave a nod, before he was dragged out of the room by Ike and into a meeting room.
"So… Crimea and Daein have gone to war…" Takeshi began, "And when Soren went to Crimea's capital to do some research, a wyvern attacked the capital and a black knight was seen on top of it. Did I get all of that correct?"
"Indeed," Soren nodded.
"And what happened to Elincia-hime?" Ike inquired.
Greil and Soren exchanged worried looks before Titania brought in an injured and barely alive Elincia.
"Elicina-hime, are you ok?" Ike asked in worry, trying to hold in any major anger and worry he could.
"Help…" she weakly muttered before Takeshi looked and noticed something on her right cheek.
"Uh… guys… what's that red dot?" Takeshi inquired.
"What red dot?" Ink blinked.
Takeshi walked over and then pointed to said red dot, which seemed to have a very tiny 'beep' sound, and he was quickly pulled back by Greil and Mist.
"It's a magic tracking system!" Mist gasped.
"A what?"
Greil quickly got the red dot off of Elicina and tossed it out of the fort, "...whoever did it… knows where she is and can attack us."
"What should we do?" Takeshi asked.
"There's a castle within Gallia that can be a new stronghold for us, but it will take a while to get there…" Greil stated as he began to think, "We will send Elicina there first and foremost. If the enemy attacks, we'll need our two Kamen Riders to give the rest of us time to get out,"
"Sir yes sir," Titania nodded.
"Yea," Takeshi nodded.
"Things are… certainly going a bit differently…" Tiki-chan noted as Takeshi was helping to get emergency supplies sent on the way to Gallia.
"What does that mean?" Takeshi asked.
"This has been condensing various chapters worth of plot into a few days… it's kinda making my head spin…"
Takeshi simply nodded as he got the supplies in place.
Meanwhile, Ike saw his dad standing outside and simply staring at the skies, "Father!"
"Ike? What are you doing still awake?"
"I couldn't sleep, so I was lying there staring outside and I saw you leave the fort," Ike informed, "Where are you going at this hour?"
"It's nothing to do with you, boy. Go back inside and get to sleep."
Ike growled a tiny bit at his father before he took a breath and calmly responded, "Will you stop treating me like a child? I'll do as I please, got it?"
"Hmph. You always were a stubborn pup… what say we take a walk and chat a bit?" Greil offered.
"...yeah," Ike nodded.
Thus, the two began to roam around outside the for a bit.
"Tell me, Ike, are you getting used to the ins and outs of the mercenary life? The way we approach combat?"
"I'm definitely a better fighter," Ike admitted.
"And you can be a good leader…" Greil added.
"...really? Why would you put a recruit like me in charge?"
"Why would you complain? You have a problem with authority?"
"...I've only just started. I'm barely able to handle my own duties around here," Ike commented, "I shouldn't be in charge of anyone."
"And you say something similar about being a Kamen Rider…"
Ike gave an annoyed glare at his belt and scoffed a bit, before he turned to his dad and was ready to ask him something, but a war horn blowing interrupted that. The two exchanged nods and headed to the front of the fort…
"Ikuzo," Takeshi told Tiki-chan as they headed to meet with the others.
Greil, Ike, Titania and Takeshi all stood ready for battle as a man in body concealing black knight armor approached. Greil growled a tiny bit as he stood ready.
"Hand over the princess…" he commanded of the four.
"Not gonna happen," Greil responded.
The black knight simply scoffed as he revealed a belt buckle of his own.
"Wait… that's Agito A's belt…" Takeshi muttered, getting a confused blink from Tiki-chan, "The belt of Another Agito… the Ank Point..."
"Henshin…" the knight growled as he glowed with energy. The knight then stood in a black version of True Brave Level 50's armor, with the eye-part of True Brave's helmet having the visor of Duke Lemon Energy Arms.
"Hen-" Titania began to yell as Ike ran forward to slash at the knight.
"You'll pay for hurting Elincia-hime!" Ike yelled as he slashed at the Rider. He continued to slash, which caused parts of Ike's Rider form to begin to appear, including the arms, legs, thighs and body were all covered in armor, but Ike was slashed away. Titania quickly ran over, transformed, and caught Ike, "...I'll make him pay…"
"Leave it to me," she responded as she readied her axe.
"Wait…" Takeshi stared as he saw Ike growl a bit, "Ike can't transform…"
"He's had that belt since birth, but he's never been able to harness its power…" Greil informed.
Titania slashed at the Rider with her axe, managing to knock him around a bit, but the Rider waited and grabbed her axe a bit, "Who are you…?"
"Kamen Rider… Black Knight…" he smirked as he flung her aside, reverting her back to normal, and then turned to see the transport for Elincia hurrying off, "Perfect…"
Ike attempted to stand to stop Kamen Rider Black Knight, but he saw that the Rider dashed towards the transport… only for Greil to stop the attack of the evil Rider. Ike gasped in horror as his dad simply stood there. Ike growled as he took his sword and attempted to stand.
"Ike… stay back…" Griel said weakly, "Titania… Takeshi… take him and run."
"He's… not… going… anywhere!" Ike yelled as he attempted to stand.
Takeshi took out his card and looked at it for a moment.
"Wait!" Tiki-chan told him.
Taleshi loaded the card into his phone, "Henshin!"
=KAMEN RIDE: ...HERO!=
He transformed into Hero before punching Black Knight… only for it to do nothing to the Rider. Black Knight shook Griel off his blade and allowed Ike to weakly get over to him as Black Knight focused on slashing Hero around like a ragdoll.
"I-Ike…" Griel whispered.
"Father? You're awake!"
"I… there's something… I need to tell you…"
"Tell me later," Ike said quickly, "Right now, I'm getting you back into the fort!"
"Forget about revenge… leave that Rider alone… stay away…"
Ike stared a bit in confusion.
"Stay with the king of Gallia… live there… live in peace…" he whispered with his final breath, leaving Ike to stare a bit.
Meanwhile, Hero attempted to load in an Attack Ride Card, but Black Knight sent out a magic blast to scatter the cards away from him.
"Take Ike's father's advice!" Tiki-chan yelled.
Hero then took out Robin's card and loaded it in.
=KAMEN RIDE: ...ROBIN!=
Hero-Robin took a moment to catch his breath as he loaded in another card.
=ATTACK RIDE: ...ARCTHUNDER!=
The red electrical blast flew forward and managed to stun Black Knight. Hero-Robin smirked as he quickly got behind him and loaded in another card.
=ATTACK RIDE: ...NOSFERATU!=
Hero-Robin put his hand on Black Knight's shoulder and began to drain his energy. Kamen Rider Black Knight screamed in pain as Hero-Robin stole his energy, which went noticed by the mercenaries that had yet to flee, and Hero-Robin eventually managed to force Kamen Rider Black Knight to teleport away. Hero-Robin reverted back to normal and was cheered on by the mercenaries.
"Uh… ok… uh… let's get to our new base," Takeshi encouraged them.
The group continued forward to their new base, before Tiki-chan flew up to Takeshi.
"Something up?" Takeshi asked before she began to tug on his ear, "Ow! Ow! OW! What?!"
"You just messed up… big time…"
"...how?" Takeshi blinked.
"You beat the Black Knight,"
"...was I supposed to let him kill people?"
"He was supposed to get away and Ike would then become the leader of the Greil Mercenaries."
Takeshi stared for a bit as he realized that he botched up.
*As the instrumentals slowly began, Takeshi stared at the dark room with the inactive portal.*
Embrace the dark you call a home, *Takeshi held out the Hero card and was joined by Tiki-chan.*
Gaze upon an empty, white throne *They looked to the portal, which was inactive and then slowly showed Ike's image*
A legacy of lies, *The two were being watched by something in the shadows*
A familiar disguise *Takeshi turned and then saw the mysterious woman before he was again shoved into the portal.*
Sing with me a song of conquest and fate *Takeshi, now Kamen Rider Hero, was standing in between various worlds and seeing the fractures to all nine of them.*
The black pillar cracks beneath its weight *He could see the nine Riders all facing away from him before they faded as if they weren't even there.*
Night breaks through the day, hard as a stone *Hero and Tiki-chan stood in a dark room in confusion before they slowly walked out of it*
Lost in thoughts all alone *The two simply continued forward.*
"This is… where I would be talking about the new Emblem Rider, but… Ike can't turn into a Kamen Rider, so…" Tiki-chan began as she thought of something to speak of. Tiki-chan did a hand stand, floated a bit, meditated, stared at a wall, and eventually was looking back over the script for ideas, "Hmm… uh… eh. Might as well talk a bit more about the Beroc and the Laguz."
"The Beroc are the humans within Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, using the typical weapons that players of the Fire Emblem games would recognize," Tiki-chan began, "The Laguz used mainly claws, fangs, talons, among other things. As I mentioned earlier, they're like the Manaketes from Binding Blade and Kamui from Fates,"
Tiki-chan then turned through history books that had the logos for Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn printed on them, "Apparently… the Laguz were used as slaves to the Beroc until laws were passed to prevent that. There were still racist issues, with Berocs calling the other 'sub-human' and the Laguz calling the other… 'human'. ...real creative there."
"Ike is overall very much… not racist. The one time he did call a Laguz a 'sub-human' was because he honestly didn't know what else to call them and did apologize when the Laguz he was speaking to took offense to it," Tiki-chan continued before she turned to the camera, "And uh… yea. That's it. We'll be talking about the Branded in the future so… bye…"
Jikai, Kamen Rider Hero…
Takeshi: They want me to be their leader now…
Ike: Honestly… I'm not sure if I'm cut out for this anymore…
Tiki-chan: We gotta fix this, fast!
Takeshi: I'll help Ike become a Kamen Rider!
Titania: How? We've been trying for years to get him to turn into a Rider.
Takeshi: How about having him fight a foe on the same level as him...
Emblem 07: On the Path of Radiance...
Gabutyra roared as the Kyoryugers posed, showing the Brave Sisters fighting Hayfear, followed up by Kyoryuzin Sister doing the same.
Hero: A new Kyoryuzin combo never before seen! Suge!
Hero posed with Tiki-chan and Ike before they slashed the screen to show Kamen Rider Hero-Robin fighting Kamen Rider Black Knight.
Torin: While you may have accidentally caused some issues, that was a rather impressive battle with that evil Rider.
All the heroes came together, KyoryuRed and Hero shaking hands before posing
SUPER HERO TIME! SEE YOU NEXT TIME!
So… this one was a bit more complicated than expected. I remembered reading somewhere that Elincia and the Black Knight debuted in the same chapter, but I don't know if I'm mis-remembering that, I misinterpreted something, what I read was incorrect… so… this took a bit to modify what was shown in the preview of the previous chapter to work around this one. Then there was a difficulty of finding how to include the death scene of Ike's dad during the battle between Takeshi and the Black Knight.
Speaking of that battle, I honestly tried to make sure that Hero didn't come off as 'perfect' and stuff, as he got his butt kicked and only managed to win due to stunning his foe and giving him a nice energy drain, so… yea.
Titania being a Rider came to me upon seeing some Path of Radiance videos and I saw how similar she looked to Erza from Fairy Tail. ...no, seriously. They honestly look really similar… am I the only one who sees that? Look it up and tell me if you see it to. Another thing that brought the comparison to mind was a nickname that Erza had in the original Japanese, being 'Titania' and… ...huh. So… yea… her nickname, which in English is loosely 'Fairy Queen', is the same as the character name.
The reason the Black Knight Rider's suit looked like True Brave will be explained next time. Trust me.
Personal favorite part is when Takeshi is battling Kamen Rider Black Knight… and when Takeshi is lying right to Titania's face about not being the Rider she was warned about. I don't know why I find that amusing, I just do.
Well… another chapter completed. ...if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna head to bed now. I'm kinda tired… Just Live More. *plops down in bed*