RFD: Konnichiwa to all Fanfiction readers! Your usual newbie, Red Flame Dragon here will bring you the next chapter of Symphonic World today! Man, I'm glad for the 'second chance' episode since this was my first time writing it. It sure was thrilling, right?

RFD's Sidekick: It sure is. You know, a little part of mine was expecting the cameo appearance of something like Supreme King Dragon Z-Arc, though.

RFD: Hey dude, I'm not some cruel one that will make a cold-hearted one die with rotten skin and grey hair from experiencing the nightmare, so I'm sure Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon was enough to make it a terrifying jumpscare. Anyway, I think it's time to give Ryouga a new power, wouldn't you think so?

RFD's Sidekick: Yes. *both turn back to the readers* In this chapter, we will put a new OC Magia form for Ryouga to use with Zero-One Driver after a rematch with Tsubasa, and we will also put an extra scene after the commentary at the end, which is right now, so make sure to ready your popcorn for some surprises.

RFD: That's all we can say for now. *Clap clap* Disclaimer, please!

RFD's Sidekick: We don't own TOEI, BANDAI or anything that's related to TV shows or Anime. We also don't own any songs and BGM's. They all belong to their respective owners, including the characters. We only own the Fanfic story and OC's. Please take your time and Enjoy till the end.

RFD: Thank you, now appear, the gate that will lead us to the unveiled future! Let's RISE! *VRAINS Link Circuit SFX*


Episode 5: Tsubasa's Rematch for Redemption

(Tsubasa no Tsugunai no Saishiai)

第五話: 翼の償いの再試合


(Last time)

Ryouga (narrator): Koremade no Kamen Rider Zero-One: Symphonic World…

Tsubasa: "My… my fault…?"

Kanade & Hibiki: "Everything is because of YOU!"

Zero-One: "You killed HIBIKI! YOU KILLED EVERYONE!"

Ŕ̷͉̘̣̯͜O̸̥̲͓̮̠̼͒͒̆̆͊̋Ą̷͎̲͚̻̄̔͛͂̃A̵͉͔̼͔̜̣͑̕A̵̗̗̥̘̻̝̅͐A̷̢͓̩̰̲̠͝A̵͖̖̜͊ͅA̵͔͖͆̕Ȧ̷̘͐͘͠R̶͎̖̫̯͓̘̓͑͒̅͘͝!̴̜̰͍̔̄̓̽ͅ!̴̢͛

Tsubasa: "GYAAAAAAAAHH!"

Ryouga: "So what are you going to do now?"

Hibiki: "I'll continue to fight. I'll keep believing in my dreams and help many people as possible. And that's why I'll use this power to protect everyone!"

Tsubasa: "O-Omae wa…"

Dark Tsubasa: "That's right, Tsubasa. I… am YOU!"

*SLAP!*

Dark Tsubasa: "Nani?"

Tsubasa: "I now understand… That you are not me! And you will not take control of me again!"

Dark Tsubasa: "I'LL HAVE YOUR BODY OFFERED TO OUR LORD!"

Ryouga: "Henshin!"

[BLAZING DRAGON~!]

*SMACK!*

Dark Tsubasa (Vicarya): "Kisama… ZERO-OOOOOOOOOONE!"

[FLAMING TIGER~!]

Zero-One: "Now you'll never be able to possess her again!"

[Dragon's Ability!]

"DRAGON RIDER KICK!"

[FLAMING IMPACT!] フレイミングインパクト!

*SKZZZZZZ-KABOOOOOOM!*

Tsubasa: "Arigato."

Zero-One: "Get ready for a fight the next time we met. Don't disappoint me again."

Tsubasa: "He had saved me from the despair… I won't throw away my emotions anymore. I'll prove my redemption to him in the next fight!"

Zero-One: "I'll see to myself whether your renewed determination is real."


(Inserting Ultraman Orb OST: 1908 In a certain Country, Episode 1 Version)

(Ryouga's Dream)

In an almost black void with some faint light leaking from the supposed sky, we saw our main character, Ryouga is now standing alone with some lights shining down on him, but with his eyes still closed, looks like he's still in his slumber. His eyes then squirmed a bit, slowly opening his eyes.

"Hmm… Huh…? Wha… Where am I…?" Ryouga mumbled groggily, rubbing his eyes a bit, trying to adjust to his surroundings for a minute. He then gasped in surprise, seeing himself now standing in some kind of black void. He turned his head, still in confusion. "What the… Why am I here?"

Still in his confusion, he then walked in front, proceed to find some hints to get out of this creepy black void. But after walking for 5 minutes, he still found nothing, even touching the ground for some expected hidden switches. He scratched his head with minor frustration, said to himself: "Tch, still nothing to help me get out of here… Why the heck am I even dreaming about this place, anyway?" Unbeknownst to Ryouga, when he finished his complaining, the winds suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and gathered behind him, forming a small ball made of wind. The ball of wind then burst with shockwaves, making him scream in surprise, almost lost his footing. "Woah!"

His leg hopped a bit from the sudden burst out winds, but he then balanced himself with his arms held out to the sides. Successfully in preventing himself from falling into the ground, Ryouga then sighed in relief, then looked behind him, wondering what caused the strange phenomenon. He then widened his eyes in shock when he saw the swirling gate in front of him, as memories of himself got sucked in the vortex and got transported to the World of Symphogear resurfaced.

"What… the hell…!? That gate…" Ryouga said in shock. "That's the same gate that has suck me into this world in the past!" The vortex flashed a bright light, then dimmed out, showing the scene in front of him.

"Kore wa (This is) …" Ryouga said.

The scene showed in front of him was some kind of tremendous battle between gods in a ruined city, explosions erupted from everywhere. He then saw both silhouettes fighting each other in a stalemate; the first one was a male, judging by the silhouette with sacred light aura on him and the other one was a female with ominous dark red aura on her. At first, the male silhouette was having disadvantages by numerous attack rained down on him like rains, but he somehow manifested a light barrier, blocked all upcoming attacks. He then dispersed the barrier, decided to strike back with a big energy blast made of sky blue light, blinding her a bit, then instantly appeared from behind, struck at her with a mighty slash with his sword, causing her to likely screamed in pain from the blind attack and got blown away a few hundred meters. He then stepped back a bit, preparing for another wave of incoming attacks, but he suddenly got blown back behind and fell to the ground with a heavy crash, hearing panicked and painful screams in the process.

The male silhouette slowly got up, ignoring the pain, looked behind and gasped in shock as he just saw a destroyed house, with bloods dripping down from the rubbles. His face turned shocked with slowly building anguish, as he sharply turned his attention back to the direction where the female emerged from the smoke, laughing evilly. He then clenched his fist with anger, as he stood up and roared with fury, summoning his new weapon, looks like a gigantic sword infused with rainbow aura. He then raised his sword and drew a big rainbow circle, as the rainbow circle then absorbed itself into his sword, fueled with energy. The male dropped his sword with a furious cry in front, shooting out a beam of rainbow light rays at the evil female, but the beam force was too strong that he struggled in his footing, trying to stay firm on the ground while gripping the sword with both hands. The beam then struck the female, who shrieked in endless pain, as her aura was also affected by the beam's light energy. The male was trying not to let go of his sword, but then forced to release as the beam slowly reached his hand, burning his fingers a bit and then shoot itself at the female and impaled her in the heart, as a big explosion occurred, engulfing the entire city in a blinding light.

The explosion then dissolved after the blinding light slowly dimmed down for a moment, revealing an immense crater with flames cracking everywhere. The only one who survived in the explosion was the male entity, but his body was now in immense pain, bruises surrounding his body, but because of the light silhouette, he couldn't see how he looks like, only knew that he has lost his left arm, lying down on the ground, waiting for his death. Ryouga saw the movements from the male's face, like he was muttering his last words to someone. As he was trying to read the movements from his mouth, he then got alarmed when he saw the male's blue eyes staring at him. The male's eyes then softened a bit despite the pain, like he had known Ryouga was observing his battle from the gate. The gate then flashed a bright light, blowing Ryouga away with a scream, ending the dream.


(Dream End)

Ryouga abruptly woke up with a startled gasp, breathing heavily from the strange dream he just seen, his head covered in cold sweats, his body was trembling slightly. He wiped out the cold sweats with his left hand, trying to calm himself down, and grabbed his throbbing head, felt like he was hit by a large rubble.

"Urgh… What was that just now…? And that strange vision…" Ryouga said to himself with slight tremble, just remembered the strange vision he just observed from the vortex. He shook his head a bit, rubbing his head on both sides with his fingers, trying to relieve his brains from the headache. After a 3-minute self-treatment, he then looked at his left hand, removing the bandages, saw that the wound from two years ago has completely healed, and surprisingly, no one even realize his left hand was covered in bandages for the whole time.

Ryouga sighed softly, looking at his now healed left hand. "Looks like my left hand is normal now." He then widened his eyes when he saw his left hand emitted a bright red aura for a second, but then back to normal when he snapped his eyes open. He looked at his left hand with confusion, wondering if he had seen another strange vision just now, or was his powers unconsciously pulsed. Putting those thoughts behind, he picked up his Red Iphone X, looking at the time.

5:30 AM

He then stretched his sore muscles a bit, got off the mattress and slide-opened the tent door, looking at the rising sun, with red and orange light illuminating the now blue sky, with birds chirping in the forest.


(Inserting REAL x EYEZ by J x Takanori Nishikawa)

[01! 01! 01! 01! x 5]

The song starts with an instrumental, with many numbers appeared from the screen nonstop, starting with Ryouga, who had his eyes closed in the shadows, then shifting to Zero-One with his back turned and looked back at the screen with glowing red eyes. The scene then shifts quickly to Hibiki, Tsubasa and Kanade with their civilian identities and their Symphogear armors respectively, along with some Riders like Vulcan and Valkyries but without their civilian identities; the same goes for unidentified three Riders, showing only their silhouettes with purple, pink and teal blue colors respectively, and shifted back to Ryouga, who had his eyes snapped open with his now dragon-like eyes, punched at the screen. The screen then cracked, changed to the blurred yellow digital background with zeroes and ones hitting the screens, forming the title with burst of red flames and cybernetic streaks, followed by a grasshopper's croak and a dragon's roar at the background.

(Kodaina Archive Access shite) From the start, the screen showed Ryouga went to the junkyard, finding for some useful, recycled metal objects, and shifted the camera to some kind of secret room, with him wearing protective black shade iron mask, heatproof gloves along with a worker's orange uniform, work his magic on some unfinished objects, then suddenly the object flashed with a BOOM from the opened average-sized microwave-like fridge, he got startled and ran to check the finished object with satisfied expression, opening up the mask and wiped off sweats with a 'Phew'.

(Kensaku shitatte I don't think it's right) The scene then changed to Hibiki hanging out with Miku while eating a vanilla ice cream, but they then heard a distressed 'Meow' from a nearby tree. Hibiki then swallowed the ice cream with a big gulp and started climbing to the tree to help the cat, but then suddenly slipped her footing and started waving her arms wildly, causing Miku to ran quick and hold her back from falling with struggles.

(Data wa kako Words wa Sign Kotae wa 404 NOT FOUND…) The scene then changed once more to Kanade, who is hiding behind Tsubasa drinking tea with a calmed sigh, then she made the blue-haired girl spitted her tea with a pranked scream and there goes started a Tom & Jerry comedic chase scene, with Tsubasa screaming angrily at her friend for disrupting her moment, while Kanade is running away with a big laugh; then shifted to the 2nd Division Base, we then saw Genjuro observing the surveillance monitor, and Ryoko who is doing some experiments with other scientists before glancing towards the screen.

[01! 01! 01! 01! X2]

The screen then continuously shifted, from Yukine Chris who is taking a soda can from a vending machine, opened and drank it while glancing at the camera; to a hooded person who is watching Ryouga walking on the road, where Ryouga then turned behind to saw everything is red and ruined, with the Psychogears and Noises army surrounded in a circle, he quickly latched the Zero-One Driver on his waist, then inserted the Hopper Key into the Driver, instantly transformed into Zero-One.

(REAL X EYEZ! Hajimari no AIZU) Ryouga, now transformed into Zero-One, is retaliating against a large army with blurred speed, holding the Attache Calibur in the right hand, destroying them with waves of energy slashes. He then ran to Hibiki and Tsubasa, both are already transformed with their Symphogear armors; with Hibiki fight back the Noises with punches and kicks, and Tsubasa letting out a combo of slashes with accuracy.

(Atarashii jidai wo) The screen then shifts to Vulcan and Valkyrie, in their Shooting Wolf and Rushing Cheetah base forms, with Vulcan holding the Attache Shotgun, using Gatling Hedgehog's ability to bombard the Psychogears with rapid bullets, and Valkyrie, who is leaping in the air, shooting the upcoming enemies with Rushing Blast attack, the energy bullets comes from all angles, destroying them; Zero-One then arrived from behind, hitting a Noise with Rise Hopper's front wheel, and skidded back to the ground with the others catching up to him.

(We gotta SUNRISE! Burning like the FIRES!) The screen now shifted to three unknown Riders with their respective silhouette auras on their bodies with glowing visors, slashing at the screen, making the screen shattered, replaced with Zero-One in his other Trial-Forms, letting out attacks with signature abilities, before shifted to Zero-One with a new armor, but hidden by the black silhouette, leaving only red aura and his glowing green visor, like he was glaring at the screen, before unleashing a fire punch, shaped like a roaring dragon's head.

(Kirihirake unmei wo) The hidden Zero-One then execute some kind of flame tornado slash, with the fire tornado reveals to be an energized swirling dragon, roaring at the screen then headed forward; before holding his hand out to Chris, who is falling into a black void, trying to reach for his hand.

(You wanna REAL X EYEZ! Egaita MIRAI) The screen then shifted to Zero-One Driver, two Shotrisers, two Forcerisers and a Cycloneriser lying on the nearby rubbles with rain pouring down on them; and shifted to Ryouga with battered clothes, some blood leaks from his body and dirts, soaked by the rains. He was trying to walk with struggles, but eventually exhausted and fell down, closed his eyes, thinking it was the end for him.

(Buchi nuite Ikeru no wa) But luckily for him, Ryouga suddenly felt a person's hands hugging on his left arm and head, making him opened his eyes, and started to smile as he saw Hibiki looking at him with a teary smile, her tears falling down on his face, glad that he was alive and safe. She then helped him get up and they both looked toward the blue sky, enjoying the view with a smile, hoping for a promised future.

(You're the only ONE!) [01! 01! 01! 01! 01!]

The screen finally shifts to Ryouga, Hibiki and Tsubasa standing on a colorful cybernetic background, before they glowed, transformed with their respective armors, the screen then splitted in two sides diagonally, with the upper left showing Hibiki and the 2nd Division Base members looking up with determined expression, and the lower right showing Ryouga and Zero-One in Rising Hopper form standing close, looking at the screen with intense gaze.

(End Opening)


(Eyecatch 1)

The scene showing Zero-One riding on his Rise Hopper, zooming across many steel piles left and right with amazing skills, and turning to the right direction, ending the eyecatch.


(Meanwhile, at the Flower)

"Here's your order." Ryouga said, laying down the customer's order. He then wiped off a sweat on his forehead, commented to himself. "Jeez, today sure was full of customers… well, a little bit, I think." As judged by his comment, more customers came to the restaurant recently. And because of the crowded customers, he and the owner had exchanged talks with each other about widening more space a few days before 'PS: When Tsubasa was 'bedridden'…'. As a result, we all can see now the Flower is larger than before. The restaurant now has a large beautifully decorated garden behind, giving a more soothing and welcoming atmosphere, almost felt like the restaurant itself has bonded with nature. The field was filled with many tables and chairs, also some umbrellas to prevent sunburn. The garden was now filled with many people chatting, some even taking selfies to take a picture of the garden.

While Ryouga was looking at the garden for a moment with a satisfied smile, the owner was standing next to him, also gazing at the garden with a fond smile.

"Today was sure crowded recently, eh, Owner?" Ryouga asked.

The owner lady nodded. "It sure is. I'm glad that the construction only took us a few days."

"I agree. This place just need more space for the customers, after all." Ryouga nodded.

"And speaking of the customers, it was your fault because of your astounding recipes. The smell of your food even spread through outside the store, you know. How did you do it so delicious, anyway, hmm?" The owner lady said with a teasing smirk.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault, Owner. I swear I didn't put anything to hypnotize them." Ryouga said, slightly offended. Yeah, when he was attending for a job at the Flower Restaurant in the past, he showed her one of his recipes, especially his Mammoth Beef Saute and Peperonacchino, with his specialty Colorful Fruits Ice Patbingsu. But of course, he named it from watching Toriko anime. It was an interesting but hilarious situation, for the first time. When the owner and some staffs was complementing his food with animated tears coming out, for some reasons unknown, some passerby caught his food's smell and want to have a taste of it. At that time, he was really speechless and didn't even know if it was some kind of side effect, though.

The owner lady then stopped her teasing and commented. "Okay, okay. But seriously, I never thought this Okonomiyaki restaurant would become a full-food restaurant."

Ryouga scratched his head, said: "Well, I wouldn't mind this a bit, though…" At this time, one of the customers called out, stopped the conversation.

"Excuse me! Can I have one Atlas Crab dish, please?"

Ryouga called back. "Coming right up, sir!" He then turned back to the owner lady. "Looks like we gotta go back to work now." The owner lady nodded, both then went back to their respective job.

As Ryouga was busy giving the customer's orders, the sound of the door opening then got his attention. Standing at the entrance was Hibiki and to his surprise, Amou Kanade. At the sight of Kanade, the people in the restaurant which was mostly filled with Lydian students started talking amongst themselves. Well, it's nothing strange. Kanade was a former idol of the Zwei Wing so he didn't really surprise a bit that people were getting excited.

"Heh~ So this is the rumored restaurant you always talking about, eh? To be honest, I didn't expect this restaurant has a large space here." Kanade commented with intrigue.

Hibiki nodded with excitement, and also amazed at the now rebuild Flower Restaurant. "Yes, it is, Kanade-san. I also got surprised a lot that the whole place would be this large." She then waved at Ryouga. "Ah, Ryouga-kun! Hey!"

The raven-haired teen waved back. "Ya." He then looked behind Hibiki, commented: "To be honest, didn't really expect that Amou Kanade would be here."

Hibiki giggled a bit, said: "Well, of course! No one would ever dismiss this famous Flower Restaurant. But…" She then looked at the garden behind him. "I'm really amazed that they would include the large garden here. It sure gives a soothing feeling."

The owner lady said: "Of course, it was Ryouga-kun's idea." That got the cream-haired girl's attention. "Eh? Really?"

Ryouga scratched his left cheek with a nervous laugh. "Uh… It's kind of an embarrassing one, though…"

"What kind?" Hibiki asked with curiosity.

"I'll tell about it later." Ryouga comically sighed a bit. As Hibiki turned to Kanade, she then got surprised that Kanade is now standing stiff, looking at Ryouga almost in trance, with an odd blush for some unknown reason. Hibiki then shook the red-haired girl lightly, asked with some concern.

"A-Ano… Kanade-san? Are you still there?"

She then attempted to waved her hand in front of Kanade, causing the older girl to snapped out of her trance, immediately composed herself with a small cough. Kanade stuttered a bit, said: "Ah, right! *Ahem* Yes, I'm fine."

Hibiki then noticed a small blush across Kanade's face, about to ask for confirmation until a mischievous lightbulb appeared on her head for a moment. She then whispered to her senior with a small teasing stare. "Hmm… I see that you got an eye for someone here, Senpai…" Hearing that tease coming from Hibiki caused the red-haired girl to turn her head sharply for 1 second, protested at the young girl with a slightly embarrassed expression.

"I-It's not like that!"

"Aha! I knew it!" Hibiki pointed with her index finger and a victory grin.

While the two girls had their small bickerings, a clueless Ryouga then broke the bicker with a question. "Uh... girls? Aren't you going to order some foods?" The two girls then stopped, noticing curious stares from many customers, immediately composed themselves and went to their seats, but not with small embarrassed blushes on their faces. The owner lady shook her head with slight disappointment and a mischievous stare while looking at Ryouga, thought: 'Yareyare, that boy… He's still have much to learn about girls…'


(Meanwhile, with Tsubasa, in a training room)

Tsubasa was now standing alone in the training room, wearing only the kendo robe while holding a bokken with both hands. As few minutes had gone by, she's still stood there with her eyes closed, not even moved a muscle, as if she was waiting for the right time. Out of nowhere, a droplet of water then fell down to the ground.

*Drip*

The bluenette then proceed to swung her wooden sword down with a cry before she brought her sword diagonally upward and swinging it in a wide arc. Tsubasa held her stance like that before she slowly stood up and resetting her basic stance with her feet spread at shoulder's wide. She then brought her bokken to her back as if she was blocking a sneak attack from behind and slashed the air in front of her in a cross pattern. She then continued to swung her sword with each cry, the air around her was displaced everywhere by her slashes. After done swinging for a minute, she then brought her bokken to her left waist, lowering her body a bit and facing sideward with her dominant shoulder facing forward, while her feet spread at shoulder wide and her knees are bended slightly. Tsubasa took a deep breath as she remained in her stance for few seconds as she regulated her breathing.

And then…

"HAAAA!"

Tsubasa snapped her eyes open and swung her sword with a flash as she drew it at the same time, making the air in front of her was displaced by her swift movement. She remained still in that position before she relaxed her stance and let out a long breath she has been holding for a long time. The sound of footsteps then caught the bluenette's attention, turned her head to see Genjuro walking to her with a small plastic bag.

"Looks like you're back with full health, Tsubasa." Genjuro said.

Tsubasa nodded with a smile. "Yes, Uncle."

Genjuro chuckled a bit, glad that his niece had finally broke out of her emotionless shell. It makes him really happy as her uncle. He then said: "You know you could still call me Commander as usual, right?"

"I know that, but we're not on a mission yet." Tsubasa answered.

"Hmm, that's true." Genjuro hummed a bit. He then took out a bento box and a bottle of cold water from the plastic bag, giving them to Tsubasa. "Here." The bluenette took them with a thanks, then went to the nearby bench, proceed to eating her breakfast. While she was eating her breakfast, Genjuro then broke the silence with small conversation.

"So, Tsubasa, how's your body condition now?" Genjuro asked with some concern.

Tsubasa noticed the small concern within his tone, said with an assured tone: "Umm, I'm fine now. I don't have nightmares anymore, thanks to Zero-One."

The man then noticed the small regret within her tone when she said Zero-One, causing him to ask. "Are you still having regrets about 'it'?" Tsubasa then stopped eating, slowly lowering the chopsticks, gave a small solemn sigh, turning silent for a few seconds for some thoughts, still remember the memory when Zero-One had saved her from the horrible nightmare caused by her 'skirmish' aftermath.

"Actually… yes. I hadn't forgiven myself for what I've done to the others many years ago… including you too, Uncle. Even though you and the others understood and had forgiven me, it's still a harsh reminder for me because of my actions being emotionless." Tsubasa said, expressing her feelings, but with a spite tone at the word 'emotionless'. "And now I've paid the price for it."

Genjuro lowered his eyes a bit, muttered: "Tsubasa…" The bluenette heard her uncle's concern, then proceed to move her right hand to Genjuro's, gripping his hand gently to ease his concerns.

Tsubasa gave the man a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine, Uncle. This is what I wanted to do. I promise you I won't isolate myself again." She then thought in her mind. 'And if I don't, I won't be able to repay his helps.'

Genjuro smiled in gratitude. "You're right." He then got up and walked to the ring, said with a little challenging smirk: "That being said, how about having a little training with me? I'll make sure you have to be at full charge." The bluenette nodded back with a small smirk in return, then went back to eating all the remains of her food, closed the bento box and put it to the side, wiped her mouth with a napkin. She then got up, went to the opposite side of the ring, facing Genjuro.

Both of them stared at each other for a moment, Tsubasa then broke the silence, said: "Now that I remember, it's been a long time since we ever sparring against each other, right?"

Genjuro nodded, also reminiscing of his past memories of training with Tsubasa long time ago. "That's true." He then looked at his niece with a proud smile. "I can see the renewed determination in your eyes now."

Tsubasa nodded, both of them instantly got into their fighting stance. The bluenette then declared: "This time, I will win!"

Genjuro said back with a smirk: "Then let's see if the student has become the master!"

At that time, a droplet of water could be heard in the training dorm, signaling the start of the battle.

*Drip*

Both of them ran to each other, with their right fist rearing behind, releasing their own war cries. "HAAAA!" They both punched forward, both fists clashing, causing a blinding light with small shockwaves.


(A Few Hours Later, Empty Wasteland Location #1)

The scene now has shifted to an empty barren wasteland, filled with some rocks and boulders, also with small lakes and grass. In addition, the place was shrouded by mist, giving it the mysterious vibe, but with uneasiness written all over it, making it the perfect place for possible incoming ambushes. At this time, the sounds of rumbling engines could be heard from the mist, revealing some black cars. The cars then stopped near a random boulder, Genjuro, Ogawa, Tsubasa, Kanade, Hibiki and the other guard agents started getting out of the car.

Everyone then started to observe the barren wasteland, shrouded by mists, making them alerted with unease, because of the mysterious vibe emitting from it. After a short silence, Kanade then commented with slight nervous:

"Man, that guy sure knows how to choose a battle arena. It sure gives me slight chills."

Hibiki nodded, agreeing with the red-haired senior. "I agree." She then shivered a bit because of the cold air, scrubbing her left arm with her right hand, trying to warm her body. "Brr, it's kinda cold here…"

Except for Genjuro and Tsubasa, both of them have steeled expression, but with slight nervous, judging by their slightly twitched eyes and a small sweat bead, thinking about the message they received earlier before.


(Short Flashback)

After finishing a little training match, Genjuro and Tsubasa decided to take a break. Both of them come out from the training room, with towels around their necks while holding a bottle of water.

Tsubasa groaned with little ache while massaging her left shoulder, said: "For once, Uncle, your skills haven't dulled one bit. I think I'll need some band-aids after this."

Genjuro gave a hearty chuckle back in return, patting the bluenette's back lightly. "Well, at least you got a win against me for a while, consider this your first win in training after a long time." Tsubasa gave a small smile for the comment. But the red-haired man then declared a slight cocky statement, instantly broke a supposed heart-warming scene between them for a moment with an almost small childish smirk:

"But, you still have a long way to go if you want to break the score. Right now, it is 94-5 for you."

The snarky comment came from the man's mouth made Tsubasa scowled with annoyance, judged by the twitching eyebrows and a small grumble. She definitely doesn't want to be reminded of the ratio Genjuro had counted himself, even while in training.

"Well someday I'll break your 'invincible' ratio in no time, Uncle. You can count on that!" Tsubasa stated to the red-haired man with an annoyed tone, vowing to break his 'ratio'.

Genjuro then gave a small cocky smirk at his niece, said: "That is if you can." The two then have a small glaring contest with small comical electric sparks for a minute, until both suddenly stiffed a chuckle, then started laughing a bit. It sure gave both of them some pleasant reminiscent from the past. Both then stopped laughing, feeling better to have all the stress washed away.

Genjuro commented, rubbing his neck: "I need some water. My throat feels a bit thirsty." Tsubasa nodded, agreeing with him. They were about to go out of the training room until Ogawa stepped inside.

The commander's eyes perked up a bit, said: "Oh, Ogawa? Didn't really expect you to come in here."

Ogawa smiled, nodded, greeting both of them back: "It's nice to see both of you in good condition."

The commander then chuckled a bit, said: "Well, me and my niece were just having a little training." He then asked, "Put aside the greeting, what makes you come here then?"

After the finished question, Ogawa's eyes suddenly lowered a bit before talk with a serious tone. "I just got a mysterious message from the monitor room." The sudden serious tone coming from him makes Genjuro and Tsubasa's turned serious.

Genjuro then asked: "A message? From whom?"

Ogawa answered, but still remained the serious tone: "I think it's better if you read it yourself, since it was delivered to you." The ninja then looked at the bluenette girl. "And it also involves you as well, Tsubasa-kun."

Tsubasa said: "Me?"

The man then gave the display monitor to Genjuro, who then took it and tap the Mail icon, opening the newly received message, sharing the monitor with Tsubasa to look as well, as they started to read the message. Not long after 10 seconds, both the commander and the bluenette's eyes widened in shock when they look at the sender's name.

'Go to this coordinate. I'll be waiting there.' –Sender: Zero-One–


(Flashback End)

Ogawa then gave the cream-haired girl a small heating bag, said: "Here, take this. It could at least help you feel warmer."

Hibiki nodded in gratitude, thanked the adult ninja. "Thank you, sir."

Genjuro then looked at Tsubasa, asked: "Are you ready?" The bluenette nodded firmly.

"Hai."

The man nodded, then turned his attention to Ogawa and the others. "Ogawa, tell the others to stay full alert. Be aware of the surroundings."

Ogawa nodded. "Roger." And with that, a familiar voice called out from the mist.

"Good. You didn't keep me waiting for long."

Their attention then instantly turned towards the shadow silhouette slowly formed in the mist, shaped as a person sitting on a boulder. And from there, the mist then faded slowly, revealing Zero-One sitting on a boulder with one arm on his right knee. He greeted them with a casual wave. "Yo."

"Ze… Zero-One!" Everyone exclaimed with shock.

Zero-One then hopped down to the ground, wiped down the dirt on his body. He then said: "I see that you have received my letter."

Tsubasa gritted her teeth a bit, her right fist gripped with anger, but the anger in her was about herself, still felt disgusted and anguish at her 'emotionless' self, the memories of shunning everyone away and almost hurting Hibiki, and got beaten in almost slaughter by Zero-One still embedded in her mind. She then snapped out of her thoughts when she felt a hand on her right shoulder, and turned to look at Genjuro, who is giving her a concerned glance. The bluenette closed her eyes, calming herself down by taking a deep breath. She grabbed the man's hand, looking at him.

"It's okay. I need to do this." Tsubasa said with an assured smile. Genjuro felt a bit unsure, but nodded. She then put his hand slowly, turned behind to glance at Ogawa and Kanade, giving a nod to them. Both of them got the message and nodded back to her. She turned back, before narrowing her eyes with determination and walked to where Zero-One is standing.

Ogawa walked to Genjuro, asked with concern: "Commander, are you sure about this?"

Genjuro merely said, with conviction: "It is her battle. For now, we must trust in Tsubasa." The ninja noticed a slight hesitant in Genjuro's tone, but closed his mouth, decided not to say anything, merely nodded, looking in front, watching the event that was about to commence.


(Zero-One vs Tsubasa)

Back to the empty land that was about 300 meters away, standing opposite to each other was Zero-One and Tsubasa. The only thing that accompanying them was chilling, howling winds, mists floating around, along with some small balls made of straws rolling out of nowhere. Neither of them are moving, except staring at each other. At the left side, Zero-One is observing Tsubasa with calculating glance, sensing the current Aura inside the bluenette.

'It seems that the remaining malice aura inside Kazanari's body has completely vanished. Well, that's a good sign.' Zero-One thought with a small smile underneath the helmet, satisfied with the result, as he saw the blue flame around her body, specifically at the heart. 'To be honest, I was really concerned about what will happen afterwards if I didn't completely erase all of them. But for now…' He then closed his eyes, dismissing the thoughts, focusing on the battle for now while keeping his calculating glance at the bluenette.

Meanwhile at the right side, Tsubasa was having thoughts in her mind while staring at Zero-One with slight nervous, but immediately composed herself, tried her best not to be falter. She then closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm the nervous down and opened her eyes, now sporting a determined expression.

'This is it… My battle for redemption with Zero-One.' Tsubasa thought. 'Until now, I have been closing my emotions, only focusing in become the heartless blade that will cut away everything in my path. But since his arrival, he had made me realize about the consequences of becoming heartless.' The bluenette then closed her eyes a bit, remembering the memories of her past actions. The memories of her being cold to everyone, except Kanade; the fact that Hibiki is now possessing the Gungnir Relic, which she thought it was supposed to be Kanade's, not some replacement, which results in herself developing murderous intent towards Hibiki and Zero-One. She then shuddered her closed eyes a bit, remembering her battle with Zero-One, didn't want to accept the cold fact, but only got 'brutally' beaten by him when she transformed into Proto-Vicarya; having an endless nightmare of her actions haunting her mind for all the 'sins' she had committed afterwards, with Zero-One's glaring emerald eyes in the bloody night.

'At that time, I had given up on fighting, just hoping for the nightmare to disappear forever while in 'trauma'. Turned out, it was a scheme of the enemy trying to take over my body, just to get rid of the obstacle in front of their way. Before my imposter can overtake me, somehow Zero-One arrived to save me from the binding chains of my actions.' Tsubasa smiled a bit, reminiscing the memory when she was in despair, Zero-One came to save her from being overtaken and destroy the Vicarya Magia. He then told her to get ready for the fight, since she still owed him a debt thanks to realizing her mistakes. 'Thanks to it, I managed to reconcile with Uncle, Kanade and the others, even if is a small step.'

Tsubasa then dismissed her reminiscent, focusing back on the battle. She thought: 'To be honest, I'm still felt unsure of myself to be deserved their forgiveness; and scared of being not able to repay his helps. But now…' The bluenette gripped her right fist, snapped her eyes open, now with a determined glare. 'I can't afford to back down here!'

After a few minutes of silence, Zero-One said: "So you had kept your promise." Tsubasa nodded.

"Yes, and now I'm here to repay your helps. Or else, I won't be here if you hadn't come." The bluenette said with respect, thanking Zero-One. She then raised her gripping right fist. "I will not lose this chance. This time, I will show you my resolve!"

Zero-One nodded, closed his eyes underneath the helmet and hummed a bit, accepting the answer. He then praised the bluenette, "You're right. I'm glad that you finally realized your mistakes and renewed yourself." He then opened his eyes with a serious expression, said: "Just to warn you a bit before we start. We both will not hold back in this fight, understand?" Tsubasa nodded, understood the rule. He nodded, before saying: "And also…" Zero-One then slide the cover back to its normal position, removing the Hopper Key and put it back to the Rider Space, before taking out the Dragon Key from the right holder, showing it to Tsubasa, who then widened her eyes in shock.

"You might need to prepare yourself for your worst fear again." He pressed the activation button and scan it on the Authoriser.

[RAGE! AUTHORISE!]

The Authoriser flashed with bright red light before blasting out an immense stream of red flames, splitting into embers hitting everywhere, surrounding the ground with explosions, destroying many nearest boulders. Thankfully, the embers didn't hit everyone, but they had to shield themselves from several explosions' shockwave that are blowing away the eerie mist. Then came out of the Zero-One Driver is the giant mechanized red winged serpentine dragon with hot red flames leaking out all over the body. Its emerald eyes light up as it let out a deafening roar to the sky shrouded by mist, shook the entire ground like a small earthquake, blowing away the mist further, letting everyone to get to look at the giant dragon with utter shock and fear.

"Is that a d-d-d-d-d-DRAGON!?" Hibiki shrieked with widen eyes at the giant dragon, hugging Kanade with fear.

"Holy shit! That dragon is HUMONGOUS!" Kanade also shouted with fear and shock with shivers through her skin, not expecting to see it in person.

"Co-Commander!" Ogawa called out, stammered with nervous, also scared of the immense size of the dragon.

"I did not foresee this at all!" Genjuro said with unhidden fear, his body also shaken from the immense power from it. He then thought with worry. 'Tsubasa…'

Tsubasa also looked at the giant dragon in shock, unable to move because of the immense pressure emitting from it. The dragon then coiled around Zero-One a bit, its head resting besides Zero-One, waiting for his command. He turned his head to the dragon, touched its right cheek just below the eye, said: "Let's go… Buddy." The dragon nodded with a tender growl, showing that it understood the message. Zero-One then flicked open the front cover, immediately slotted the Dragon Key in the Driver.

"Henshin." Zero-One said with a calm tone.

[PROGRISE!]

The dragon then roared, flying and swirling behind Zero-One, forming the symbol of infinity before soaring towards Zero-One, its body then become transparent red, making it phase through his body and turning into data, materialized the armor with swirling red flames, engulfing his entire body with a fire tornado, absorbing all the flames in the ground as the transformation music rang out.

[AWAKENING THE INNER INSTINCT! BLAZING DRAGON~!]

[The wrath of a mighty dragon will shatter heaven and earth.]

The fire tornado then died down, pulsed with fiery shockwaves, blowing away the mist, revealing the blue sky with his metallic red dragon armor shone by the sunlight. His body glowed with bright red aura, along with emerald green visor flashing with green lightning streaks leaking out for a short time before fading. Everyone then got a good look at the now dragon-themed Zero-One with shock, but felt the overwhelming pressure because of the flowing aura earlier, still remembering that form from the fight with Tsubasa.

Tsubasa flinched lightly from the dominating pressure, her legs starting to tremble lightly because of the power Zero-One is possessing, her breathing slowly become unstable. As the memory of her fear starting to emerge again, Zero-One then broke down the silence with a demand.

"Get a grip of yourself, Kazanari. I said that I will not hold back earlier." He stated with a resolute tone. "You can't hope to defeat me if you can't overcome your fear with that kind of resolve!"

Tsubasa immediately snapped out of her trance when she heard his statement, somehow got a glimpse of encouragement from it. She then calmed herself down, took a deep breath before reaching for her Relic pendant. She looked at the pendant and bring it close to where her heart is while closing her eyes, thought:

'I'm sorry for throwing you away, but right now… Please lend me your power once again, Habakiri.' The bluenette then felt a light pulse from the pendant, opening her eyes to see it glow with a blue light. She then nodded, understood what the pendant was saying. Tsubasa then brought it to her heart again, closing her eyes and sang out the Holy Chant.

~Imyuteus Ame no Habakiri Tron…~

The Relic pendant then pulsed, bathing her body with blue light before dissolving slowly with small shockwave, revealing Tsubasa donning the Ame-no-Habakiri armor once again, but this time with a blue-colored aura flowing around her body, impressed Zero-One a bit as he saw the difference from the last battle.

'That's new. Seems like that Ame-no-Habakiri responded to her wishes, somehow giving her a temporary boost in power and abilities. Hmm, this will be her official trial to see if she can fight on par with the Magia in the near future. Only one way to find out, then.' Zero-One thought with intrigue. He then focused back on the battle, observing Tsubasa.

Zero-One commented, praised: "Looks like besides the appearance, your power has become more improved and purer than before. So this is your renewed determination, I assume? Well done for passing the first obstacle." He was about to adopt his fighting stance, "Shall we begin, then?" But then got stopped midway with a question from the bluenette.

Tsubasa asked with curiosity: "You won't use your weapons?"

Zero-One shook his head lightly, said: "Nah, I can use my weapons whenever I want to. But since I'm a boy, I've already grown accustomed to using my body in various situations." He then raised his right fist. "'Unlike a gun, it never run out of bullets', as someone would say."

Tsubasa nodded, "I see. It does make sense." She then adopted her fighting stance, readying her katana. "I hope you won't regret this. I will fight with my full strength!"

Zero-One chuckled a bit, said: "No need to worry about that. I regret nothing." He then crouched down a bit, raising his right arm a quarter, his fist shaped as a claw, looks like he was about to run forward, resembles Faiz Axel's stance when he first transformed. "Ikuze~…" He then hummed quietly, as both of them are waiting for the first move.

Hibiki, Kanade and the others are watching from the sidelines, some of them are gulping down their throats with dread. For some unknown reasons, the nervous heartbeat can be heard across the wasteland, once more filled the space with agonizing tension. After a minute of agonizing silence, the air then blew across the wasteland softly along with the sound of a water droplet.

*Drip*

Not long after the water droplet's echo, Zero-One suddenly appeared in front of Tsubasa in a blur, leaving an indented foot crater with dust, making the bluenette widened her eyes in shock, creating bright red cybernetic streaks with fire effects along the way, with his ignited fist ready to strike. But she then snapped out of her shock in a half second and blocked the ignited fist in time with the katana infused with blue energy cloak, making an immense shockwave, causing everyone to shield their faces with their arms, trying to stay firm on the ground while some are grabbing onto the boulder nearby and the car's handle for dear life with panicked cries.

"JESUS CHRIST! That guy sure didn't hold back at all, as he had quoted before!" Kanade shouted over the immense shockwave, trying to stay firm.

"I agree! Is he had some kind of Superman-like strength!?" Hibiki said loudly.

Genjuro grunted with struggle, only dragged back a little bit. He then said: "I doubt that! From what I've seen by the shockwave, that man is starting to become even more stronger with only two years of experience!"

Ogawa agreed with the commander, also trying not to be blown back, said: "That makes two of us!"

Back to the battle, Tsubasa was grunting, gritting her teeth from the impact while holding back against the ignited fist, thinks: 'That was too close! Had I not raised the katana to block in time, I would have taken heavy damage! Is this his full power!?' Zero-One then pushed the fist even further, creating electric sparks for few seconds before erupted with loud echo, resulting in both of them to skid back by the impact to their opposite sides, except for Tsubasa, who was skid back further away a bit.

Zero-One looked at his fist for a moment, then look at Tsubasa's katana, which was still cloaked with blue energy. He said to himself: "That infused katana sure looks tougher than before. Usually, it would have started to crack in two by my current strength as Blazing Dragon. Quite an improvement there."

At the other side, Tsubasa was panting a bit from the struggle, looking at the slightly shaking katana blade with small grimace, thought: 'That attack earlier was no joke! His fist is really hard like steel that it even makes the blade shaking! Do I even have a chance here?' But then shook those grim thoughts away, focusing back on the battle. 'No, I can't think about that! I must win this battle, or there won't be a next!' She then gritted her teeth inside, narrowed her eyes and fixing the stance while gripping the katana tightly, preparing for the next move.

Zero-One flicked his right hand, said: "Not bad. I was about to succeed in drawing the first blood, if you hadn't snapped out of the shock earlier." Hearing the sentence from him somewhat caused Tsubasa to smirk a bit. She then responded back:

"I'll take that as a compliment." The bluenette reared back a bit. "To be honest, I was really surprised for a bit from the attack earlier. Did you use some kind of teleport trick?"

Zero-One hummed in wonder at the question, cupping his chin for a bit, then answered: "Hmm… I don't think so. I was just about to run toward you a few steps, by using my speed. But for some unknown reasons, I have already appeared in front of you." He then scratched his head with a finger, mumbled to himself: "Perhaps I have been developing strength when I was unaware of my power for the first time I awakened the Dragon Key…"

Tsubasa now looked dumbfounded by the answer with shock, said: "Wait, what?" She then shook her head a bit, asked him with a question, but still with a shocked tone, "You mean you were just using your speed earlier, while you were unaware of yourself that you just do a teleport?"

Zero-One raised an eyebrow underneath the helmet, said with a confused tone: "Uh, yeah. That's what I just said." The honest answer caused the usual calm bluenette to widen her eyes with stupefied expression and let out a loud exclaim, which was really out of her character.

"NA-NANDATTEEEEE!?"

The sudden scream coming from Tsubasa immediately caught everyone's attention, which makes all of them have confused expressions, wondering what caused the bluenette to suddenly scream out loud like that.


(Scene Change, with Hibiki and the others)

Hibiki asked, confused: "Uh… what just happened out there? Why did Tsubasa-san just scream?"

Kanade shook her head, also confused by her friend's sudden scream. "Beats me, I don't know the heck's going on, either." She then gasped with concern. "Don't tell me… that her trauma suddenly resurfaced, seeing that dragon form again!?" The sentence caused the cream-haired girl to also gasped with concern. But their concern was answered by Genjuro, who said:

"No, I think it was more like Tsubasa seems to be really in shock by something."

Ogawa nodded, said: "I agree. Judging by her expression, I think she was in shock by the conversation earlier." The answer from the ninja and the commander caused both girls to widen their eyes in surprise, but sighed in relief afterwards. Well, especially Kanade, whose concern was thankfully clarified. Both girls' attention then shifted back to the battlefield, along with Ogawa and Genjuro.

The red-haired girl then asked with curious, "Then what could have caused Tsubasa to scream in shock like that? I mean, it's really out of her character to do that." Others nodded their heads, also curious about it.

"Well, I think we were about to find out soon." The ninja said.


(Back to Zero-One vs Tsubasa)

After a scream filled with shock, Tsubasa then realized her sudden action, swiftly covered her mouth with her hands, embarrassed blush appeared on her face, hoping no one would hear this. 'PS: Oh too late for that, girl…' Sadly for her, Zero-One let out a short stiff/chuckle quietly, amused by the shock reaction, wondering what just happened.

'Uh… did I say something shocking? I just said the truth, though…' The armored hero just dumbly scratched the mask with a finger, where the cheek is supposed to be.

The bluenette then coughed a bit, composed herself, trying not to be falter. She then asked for confirmation, with a slight stutter: "A-Are you sure that you're not bluffing? No offense to you, but the stunt you just did was just too hard to believe, in my opinion."

Zero-One answered truthfully with a slight exasperated tone: "Yes, it is true. I'm not even bluffing or lying." He then crossed his arms, said to himself with curiosity and wonder, immediately having new ideas formed in his head: "Hmm… Teleport, huh…? That could be useful…" Tsubasa just stood there, staring at him with dumb shock.

'He only use his speed…? If that wasn't really a teleport like he said, then what will the next attack be?' The bluenette thought in wonder, slowly having alarms running in her head.

The armored hero then dismissed the thoughts for later, said to Tsubasa: "Anyway, we're getting off-track here. Let's just go back to the fight, then we can talk about it after this."

Tsubasa can only nodded dumbly, "Right…" She then steeled herself, leaning back to the side a bit, readying her katana.

"Yosh." Zero-One rolled his head a bit, creating a small bone cracking sound, before kicking up his right foot a bit, leaning back for another run. He then muttered to himself, "Let's see if I can try to recreate it." As soon as he finished the sentence, unbeknown to everyone, a mysterious sound rang out, declaring the start of the battle.

"READY… FIGHT." 'PS: SFX from Kamen Rider Geats.'

(Inserting The People with no Name (Climax Version) by m.c.A.T from Kamen Rider Faiz)

Zero-One's emerald visor glowing up, he then scratched the ground a bit with his right foot before dashing forward to the bluenette. As to be expected, he suddenly 'teleported' in front of her with lightning streaks gleaming from the eyes, throwing a straight punch, aiming at her stomach. Thankfully, Tsubasa had saw the incoming attack and didn't flinch in shock, she retaliated back with her energized katana, creating a shockwave cracking the ground a bit, small rubbles floating in the air.

'Not bad. Seems like she's becoming more alerted and have better focus now.' Zero-One thought with a smirk underneath the helmet, looking at his blocked fist for a bit. 'And I think I got the hang of this one.' He then said: "Time to take it to the next level!" The sentence caused Tsubasa to widen her eyes with surprise, becoming more alerted, before he then disappeared in a blur, leaving fiery red streaks behind.

Tsubasa jumped back to the left, standing further from the previous position where he had disappeared again. A small bead of sweat threatened to fall from her right cheek, as she then said with alarmed tone: "Where did he go!?" The bluenette then got her answer as a blur struck her at the side, making her gasp out in pain. "GAH!" She then staggered back a bit, clutching her sides, gritting her teeth with pain.

"Kuso…!" The bluenette cursed with pain, holding the katana lightly, trying to detect him with her senses, but to no succeed as she then cried out in pain once more, got herself airborne while getting hit with numerous strikes from every direction, fiery red streaks blitzing all over the ground like a lightning. He stopped for a moment to flick his right arm, before turned behind, continuing his attack.

"Tsubasa/Tsubasa-san!" Kanade and Hibiki shouted with concern, about to go to the battlefield, until Genjuro and Ogawa stopped them from going any further.

"Out of the way, Jii-san! This is going too far!" The red-haired girl shouted at the commander with struggle, trying to get out of the man's hold. Hibiki also doing the same as Kanade, struggling to force Ogawa to let go. But both men still refused to let them go, aware of the consequences if they try to interfere the fight.

"We can't go there." Ogawa said with a grim tone.

"But-!" Both girls tried to protest.

"I said NO!" Genjuro stated with resolute, silencing both girls. He then sighed a bit, glanced at the battlefield. "We must trust Tsubasa. This is the only way." Both girls heard the slight hesitant tone from the man, reluctantly complied with gritted teeth, before looking at the one-sided fight with concern.

Back to the still struggling Tsubasa, she was now in a sticky situation after trying her efforts to block Zero-One's attacks, but missed some of the powerful strikes. Gritting her teeth, she thought in desperate: 'N-Not good! I can't get nowhere if I just standing here!' The bluenette then slashed at the ground with a loud battle cry, creating an explosion before jump above the dustcloud, hovering in the air, making Zero-One stop his assault.

He glanced at the sky where Tsubasa is, instantly materialized the Attache Calibur, already in Blade Mode. Tsubasa then charging up the katana with light blue aura before raising the blade upwards, numerous swords appeared in the air, aiming down at Zero-One. She immediately executed the attack with a downward slash, signaling the numerous blades to rain down.

"ONE THOUSAND TEARS!"

But before a rain of light blades could hit Zero-One, he had secretly taken out a Progrise Key, already activated, with the teal green background depicting an image of a hedgehog, and swiftly inserted in the blade's slot.

[REVOLVER!]

[Progrise Key confirmed, ready to utilize. Hedgehog's Ability!]

The silver blade then glowed with teal green energy, ready to strike. He then pressed the button on the grip, and slashed at the sky with a wide energy slash arc. The energy slash then dissolved, morphed into numerous energy spikes, launching themselves at the light blades.

ガトリングカバンストラッシュ

[GATLING KABAN STRASH!]

The spikes then hit numerous light blades, causing numerous explosions, succeeding in stopping the attack. But Zero-One then narrowed his eyes a bit, thinking why she suddenly use the One Thousand Tears in the sky, while knowing that he had a countermeasure for it.

(Music End)

'That was a mistake in Kazanari's move. She must have predicted that I have developed a countermeasure for it from the time when she discovered that Hibiki was the new Gungnir's successor, so why the same tactic...?' Zero-One thought for a bit, and widened his eyes soon after. 'Unless…' He shut his eyes, trying to detect her aura, thanks to his training, but can't find the aura everywhere, even from the sky.

'It's gone! I can't sense her Aura! Has she learned the way to conceal her existence!?' Ryouga thought with widen eyes underneath the helmet, shocked that she had concealed her Aura from his tracking. He then narrowed his eyes, 'No, it couldn't be. Even people try to hide their existence by holding their breath, or step without making a sound, it is still possible for me to detect. So why?' After thinking for few seconds, he then closed his eyes, smirked as he realized the answer.

'Oh, so that's the reason. She got me fooled.' Ryouga then glanced in every direction, while being cautious for the surprise attack. 'She must have somehow realized that I could sense the Aura, especially the one which has the biggest wavelength. That's why the One Thousand Tears attack earlier was a decoy for me to stop the attack with Hedgehog's ability, to cause distractions. By doing that, the powers from the numerous attack will appear as large dots, while concealing their breaths to let the Aura emits the same pulse as other wavelengths. A perfect diversion.'

Back to reality, Zero-One then muttered quietly to himself: "Which means, the real challenge starts from now on!" He gripped the Attache Calibur tightly. "In that case…" He then exhaled slowly, closed his eyes, also concealing his Aura to minimize it, focusing all the power to his mind's eye, expanding the wave tracking range. After 10 seconds, he detected two Aura flames, one at the south-west side is slightly smaller, while the one at the north-east has bigger aura.

"Two Auras… so she somehow can manifest a temporary clone, huh? I should after the biggest one, but that could be a trick for me as well…" As he finished the sentence, both Tsubasa then charged at both sides for a strike. Zero-One had snapped open his eyes and slashed at the two Tsubasa, thinking she can only manifest one. But suddenly…

Both fallen Tsubasas then dissolved into energy particles, causing Zero-One to widen his eyes underneath the helmet in shock. "Nani!? Both of them are clones!?" He then gasped, started to turn behind, realized a bit too late as the real Tsubasa appeared in front of him, delivering an energized kick with the ankle blade light up with blue energy.

"Shit!" Zero-One exclaimed as he was struck by the kick, causing sparks on the chest armor to erupt. "Kh!" He grunted with slight pain, also delivering a flaming kick afterwards, succeed in hitting Tsubasa, causing sparks to erupt from her armor as well, as she grunted out in pain as well. Resulted in a draw, both of them are thrown back to opposite sides, with Tsubasa being skidded in the ground and Zero-One crashed against a boulder, causing it to crumble completely.

At a distance, Kanade exclaimed with joy: "Yeah! She finally got a hit on him!" But she then winched a bit, disappointed by the result. "But it was a draw in the end…"

Hibiki nodded, agree with the senior girl, said with a frustrated tone: "Urgh, she was so close…!" Genjuro then put a hand on her shoulder, caught the girl's attention.

"No need to be frustrated." The commander gave her a reassuring smile, said: "It was a big step for her. Guess the training has paid off, after all."

Ogawa nodded, agreeing with the commander, also expressing his answer with a smile: "And this could be a good chance for her." Both girls then relaxed after hearing positive answers, and continued observing at the battlefield.

Continued to the battlefield, both Zero-One and Tsubasa are starting to get up after delivering each other a heavy kick. Tsubasa was the first to slowly get up with pain from her back after being skidded in the ground, clutching her stomach while panting with exhaustion. She then used her blade as a temporary crutch to help her stood firmly, staring at where Zero-One is. The bluenette soon got her answer as Zero-One started to get up.

Zero-One rubbed his back, surprisingly grunted with a casual tone: "Itetetetete… Man, that was a hard kick… She really got me for a surprise there." He then sat up normally, with his left arm resting on his left knee, while hitting his back with his right fist for some massage. This caused Tsubasa, Hibiki and the others to widen their eyes in utter shock, and thought: 'He still have the time to said casually, even after taken a heavy damage!?'

"There we go…" After finishing the back massage, Zero-One then pushed his legs forward, lifting his body up with a jump, proceed to brush the dirt away on his body. He then arched his back a bit, exclaimed softly with a satisfied "Phew."

Tsubasa then dropped her jaw with stupefied expression, trying to get her brains in check, still in disbelief that Zero-One is still standing normally. The armored hero then glanced at her, actually complimented the bluenette:

"Dang, you really got me spooked there. I was thought that with your Habakiri's temporary boost, you can at least create one temporary clone for distraction. But who would have thought you can create two clones? It sure got me miscalculated. When did you learn how to do that?" Zero-One said while rolling his right shoulder.

Tsubasa snapped out of her disbelief, perplexed at the question, said with stammer: "Huh? I, uh…" She then shook her head, don't even know herself could do that. "I don't know myself either… Some strange images suddenly appeared in my head, and I just went along with it… Kind of like instinct, as you would say…"

Zero-One raised a curious eyebrow from the bluenette's answer, said: "Hmm~ Instinct, huh…? I'm also curious about it, but… Meh, let's just save it for later, wouldn't you say?" Tsubasa nodded, decided to save the thoughts for later. He then flicked his right arm to the side, said: "Right, time for the Climax." The bluenette immediately readied her stance, catch the hint as the final move. He then took out the Cheetah Key from the Rider Space, and pressed the activation button.

[DASH!]

Zero-One spun the Key in his hand for a bit, and scanned on the Authoriser four times while the Driver still had the Dragon Key inserted in.

[BITRISE! BYTERISE! KILORISE! MEGARISE!]

Tsubasa then noticed something, thought: 'Wait, why is he scanning another one while he already had one on the belt?' She then widened her eyes in realization. 'No… It can't be!'

He then put back the Key to his right holder, kicked up his right foot, crouching down a bit. "Ikuze~!" And pressed down the Dragon Key, executing the finisher.

[BLAZING MEGA IMPACT!]

(Inserting SD Gundam World Sangoku Soketsuden OST: Chouzetsu Ryuuhazan!)

The bluenette's mind then filled with alerts, thought in panic: 'He's not changing forms…! That hand motion earlier, he's empowering his attack!' Sadly, she realized a bit too late, as Zero-One's body now filled with bright red aura, mixed with orange flames engulfing his feet, a cheetah's roar could be heard clearly. His eyes then glowed with green lightning streaks, as he then dashed forward with super speed, almost breaking the speed of sound.

She then gritted her teeth tightly, let out a roar as she momentarily unleashed her aura, jumped to the air, dodged before Zero-One could hit her, then flew to another direction to gain the distance. Zero-One glanced at the sky, then jumped high to the air. He also does the unexpected by kicking the air, using the air as a makeshift stepping wall, moving in front of Tsubasa in a zig-zag. The bluenette exclaimed in shock: "Already in front of me!?"

Zero-One then threw a swift punch, which Tsubasa luckily blocked it in time with the katana, resulted in both of them are thrown back. Both then charged at each other with furious strikes for a moment, creating numerous shockwaves in the air, leaving everyone speechless while looking at the aerial battle in front of them.

Tsubasa executed several rapid stabs with her katana like a rapier, which Zero-One retaliated back with his ignited fists. She then spun her legs armed with ankle blades, aiming for his armor, but Zero-One foresaw the attack with a tilt to the right before turned around and gave consecutive blazing kicks with his left leg, causing her to spat out saliva and cry out in pain, flung back a bit further away.

The bluenette gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the pain while being flung back, arched her body in front to stop herself from blowing away further, stopped in midair. She then conjured up her katana, building energy for the finishing move. Zero-One also do the same as he summoned back the Attache Calibur, spun the sword around for a moment before let the blade rest on the back of his left hand. He then slowly brandished the blade with his left hand, the blade started to engulfed in red flames, charging up energy as well. The air around them are being sucked in, went to opposite sides as they glared at each other with intense.

Meanwhile from the below, Hibiki and the others looked at the sky with concerns, the clouds are now having distorted forms. Kanade gritted her teeth with frustration, cursed at herself for how powerless she is. She could only look at the sky, watching Zero-One and Tsubasa fighting each other. The red-haired girl then shouted, wanting her best friend to win: "IKEEE, TSUBASAAAA!"

As Kanade's shout of anger reached to the sky, Tsubasa widened her eyes for a moment, somehow heard the red-haired girl's voice. She then narrowed her eyes with determination, her motivation increased thanks to Kanade's voice as her katana started to grow in size, bursting with blue flames. Both Zero-One and Tsubasa then charged forward with a battle cry: "HAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Tsubasa went first, as she then swung her enlarged blade with a mighty swing, the blade somewhat curved in a large arc, scattered into numerous energy waves with blue embers flew around like flower petals, coming at Zero-One with the speed of a tornado.

"KONPEKI BAKURENJINKEN (紺碧爆蓮刃剣) EXPLODING AZURE LOTUS BLADE!"

Zero-One exclaimed: "NOW!" He swung the energized Calibur to the side, shoot himself forward like a bullet. He then started to spin like a cyclone, absorbing all the air clouds, before the blade erupted with red flames, also rotating around him like a whirlwind. The time slowed for a moment as Zero-One appeared from the flame with his eyes glowed with lightning streaks as he shouts out his attack:

"CHOUZETSU RYUUHAZAN (超絶龍波斬) TRANSCENDENTAL DRAGON WAVE SLASH!"

He then swung the blade diagonally with a flaming slash, let out a savage draconic-like roar. The incoming slash then transformed into an energized, swirling red dragon, enhanced by orange electric sparks as it let out a fearsome roar from its steaming mouth echoed over the sky.

ブレイジングメガインパクト

[BLAZING MEGA IMPACT!]

As the energized dragon collided with the blue energy waves, both attacks then created a massive explosion, bursts over the sky, causing waves of violent wind to burst out with a blinding light consumed all over the wasteland, blowing dust everywhere as everyone had to shield themselves for dear life.

(Music End)


When the blinding light that consumed the land finally fade away, it then reveals the field with cracks all over it, some places are indented with growing rocks. The dust started to fade, revealing Hibiki and the others lying on the ground with some dirt on their bodies. They looked just like they had gone through hell and back after having a taste of massive explosion with their bodies. After a minute of silence, Genjuro was the first to get up slowly with slight struggle, grunting a bit as he then slowly opened his eyes. The man then gasped in slight shock as he saw the now distorted battlefield, dust smokes are scattered aimlessly, shrouding only one place.

Genjuro muttered: "What destruction…" He then glanced around with concern, walked in front, trying to clear away the dust with his hand. "Is the battle over…? What is the result…?" As the dust was starting to fade, he then saw both silhouettes emerge from the smoke, revealing Zero-One, who is barely standing with his legs lowered slightly, panting softly with the Attache Calibur acting as a crutch; and Tsubasa, who was standing silently with her back turned, despite scars on her body, with the katana still glowing with blue aura.

Genjuro started to smile, seeing the result. "Tsubasa… you finally won…" He said, proud of his niece for triumph over the battle. He was about to go to Tsubasa when suddenly…

The one who was supposed to won, Tsubasa, suddenly loosened her grip on the katana, letting it fall to the ground and cracked in pieces, dissolving into particles. She then started to fall to the ground, if not for Zero-One standing near her, letting her fell on his back as she fell unconscious. Genjuro then lost his smile after seeing the result, gritting his teeth, closing his eyes with frustration, muttered: "Tsubasa…" His frustration then immediately vanished as a voice called him in a quiet tone.

"Hey…"

The commander opened his eyes as he heard Zero-One's call, who is letting Tsubasa lie on his back, said softly: "Your niece… has fought well." He also heard a positive tone, with approval coming from Zero-One. Genjuro widened his eyes in surprise at Zero-One's compliment, immediately composed himself and gave a nod to him with a smile. Zero-One gave him a soft huff and a nod in return, in which the man realized that he was smiling, even though he can't see his expression underneath the helmet.

Yes, Zero-One was truly smiling, having a small smirk on his face underneath the helmet. He glanced at the unconscious bluenette on his back, and lifted his head to look at the blue sky, also tired himself. He then said quietly: "I guess my time as a lonewolf vigilante is officially over, then… You have earned my forgiveness, Kazanari Tsubasa." But he then thought a little with reminiscent while looking at the sky: 'Somehow, this position… reminds me of Inui Takumi-san letting Kaidou Naoya fell on his back. Heh.'


(After the fight)

Zero-One carried the now unconscious Tsubasa with her on his back, walking to Hibiki and the others with Genjuro walking by his right side as the others started to wake up. Kanade and Hibiki was the first to get up, groaning from the shockwaves as they had to grab on the ground for dear life. The red-haired girl rubbed her eyes slowly, tried to adjust her surroundings and opened, saw Genjuro and Zero-One, with Tsubasa on his back. Kanade instantly ran to Genjuro, followed by Hibiki.

"Jii-san!" Kanade called out, catching Genjuro's attention as Zero-One slowly put the unconscious bluenette girl on the ground, letting her lie near the boulder as a makeshift wall.

"How was the battle?" The red-haired then asked with anxiety, hoping her friend was the winner after seeing Zero-One carrying her friend with small struggle.

The commander then gave her a sad smile, sighed before giving his answer: "Unfortunately… Zero-One has won again." That caused Kanade to gasp before clenching her fists, lowered her head with frustration, the hair bangs shrouded her eyes.

"Not again…" Kanade muttered, her tears started to fell. Her best friend was close to her victory for the redemption, but then got thwarted again in the last second.

"Kanade-san…" Hibiki said in concern, worried for the red-haired girl, also saddened by the answer. But the commander put his hand on Kanade's shoulder, who lifted her head to look up at him, with small tears leaking out. He then gave a fond smile, said:

"No need to be frustrated. Tsubasa may have lost the battle, but the real result has not decided yet." That makes both girls confused by the sentence. Genjuro then glanced at Zero-One. "You'll understand soon." Both girls did the same, turned their attentions to the armored man, who was about to do another unexpected.

Zero-One observed the unconscious bluenette for a moment, thought to himself about the battle. 'You may have lost the battle, but you have earned my trust.' He then gave a fond smirk, thought: 'Because you're the first one to be able to hurt me, despite in my Blazing Dragon form. Isn't that right, buddy?' He then widened his eyes a bit in surprise, somehow heard the dragon's light growl in his mind, like it was agreeing with him. After a minute of observing, he then took out a card from the Rider Space, with the image depicting an eight-winged female angel with long pink ribbon wrapped around her arms like a Tenne, wearing a helmet with a cross, thankfully unnoticed by others since they didn't see the card. The card glowed with light pink energy, turning into data particles, surrounding him for a moment and absorbed itself into his body, as the invisible silhouette of the angel appeared beside him, which only he can see her.


Angewomon (エンジェウーモン) is a Vaccine-type Female Angel Digimon. For her appearance, she has the appearance of a beautiful woman. Although she was previously classified as an Angel-type, she was confirmed as an Archangel-type because of the greatness of her abilities. Although her personality is extremely gentle, she cannot forgive those who are crooked or evil, and she won't stay her hand from attacking until the opponent converts. Because of her soul and power, she is said to be a being like a goddess of the Digital World.

She first appeared in Digimon Adventure Episode 37: 'Perfects Attack Together! Sparkling Angewomon'.


"I'm borrowing your power for a bit, Angewomon." Zero-One said quietly, which the female angel understood as she nodded with a gentle smile, offering him her power by channeling her light aura with her hands. His right hand then glowed with rainbow light as he raised up his glowing hand, which caught others' attention in surprise, wondering what he will do next.

Zero-One said with a quiet tone: "Saint Air." As he said out the name, his right hand become brighter as the rainbow-colored particles fell on the bluenette's body, the aurora trail can be seen from the falling particles, making Kanade and the others gasped in shock by another unexpected action from Zero-One.

Kanade muttered with a shocked tone: "What is that light…? What's he going to do…?"

Hibiki said, but looked like she was in trance by the light show: "I-I don't know either… But for some reason…" She then put her hand where her heart is, suddenly felt more relieved. "I feel relieved…"

Genjuro and Ogawa nodded, agreeing with the cream-haired girl. The commander said with shock: "He can also do that?" And thought, 'Just when we thought he has shown us everything, he always surprised us with another unexpected…' He then dismissed the thought, silently watch the light show.

As the rainbow-like aurora still trailing around the unconscious Tsubasa, her body then started to glow in gold light, falling particles landed on her body, instantly erased all bruises and scars on her body, causing the others to gasp again in shock as Zero-One just silently concentrate on healing the bluenette girl. The gold light then becomes brighter, consuming her body for a bit before dissolving slowly, revealing Tsubasa, whose scars and bruises completely disappeared. His right hand stopped glowing, signaling that the healing process has finished as he waited for the result. The bluenette's eyes squirmed a bit before slowly opened, as she started to wake up.

Genjuro, Ogawa and both girls gasped, seeing Tsubasa completely healed by Zero-One, with Kanade slowly shedding tears of joy for her best friend, exclaimed: "Tsubasa!" She then quickly ran to the bluenette, along with Hibiki and the others.

Tsubasa woke up with some struggles, grunting a bit as she saw Kanade and the others run to her. She rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust her surroundings after a massive shockwave caused by herself and Zero-One's attack. The bluenette muttered: "Kanade… Minna…" She then got embraced by the red-haired girl, who was now in tears, glad to see her best friend's awake.

"Oh, Tsubasa! You're okay!" Kanade cried softly while hugging the bluenette out of joy, refused to let go.

"Kanade…" Tsubasa muttered softly, surprised a bit for seeing her best friend shed tears for the second time. She decided to hug back, gave a reassuring smile while rubbing the red-haired girl's back lightly. "It's okay… I'm fine…"

"Tsubasa-san…" Hibiki muttered, also shed tears of joy, seeing Tsubasa awake unharmed.

The hug lasts for a few minutes before Kanade decided to release Tsubasa to let her have some rooms, but still grasping the bluenette's right hand. Tsubasa asked: "What happened after the battle…?"

Ogawa said: "Well, after you and Zero-One executed an almost earth-shattering attack to each other, Commander was the first to woke up and saw you standing straight, while Zero-One was kneeling on one knee. And after that…" The ninja suddenly hesitated for a second, not wanting to say the result that will upset her. But sadly, Tsubasa has noticed the hesitant and realized one thing.

"I see…" The bluenette said, her eyes lowered a bit as she said with a slight down tone. "Zero-One has won again, hasn't he…?" She then gave a dry chuckle, like she was pitying herself. Her bangs covered her eyes, as she thought with bitter: 'Once again… Once again, I've lost… Now I can never prove my redemption to him…' But she will soon snap out of her self-pity when a voice asked her.

"And why do you think so?"

She lifted her head up to look at Zero-One, who is standing before her. He asked once more: "Why do you think that you had lost?"

Tsubasa widened her eyes a bit, didn't know that he had heard her thoughts. She then lowered her head, said with a downed tone: "Isn't it obvious…? If you won-"

"'Then you will still continue your duty as a vigilante, and will see us as your enemy, even if we came for help, you'll see as the action for trying to interfere with your business.', was your thought?" Zero-One interrupted, as if he could read her thoughts.

The bluenette gasped in surprise by Zero-One, started to ask: "How did you…?"

"For your question, no, I didn't really read your thoughts. I just noticed the downed tone from you and guess what you would say. I may be strong, but I'm not perfect." Zero-One said, shrugging his shoulders.

Tsubasa nodded dumbly once again, "Oh…" She then lowered her eyes, her mouth slightly shaken, as she asked him with a question: "Do-Do you still have grudges towards me for what I've done…?" Zero-One then sighed with slight exasperate, rubbing the back of his helmet with annoyance, one hand on his hip, muttered:

"Urgh, not this shit again… Why can't this just be over in one move…?" As he stopped his quiet ranting, he then looked at the downed bluenette, said: "Haven't I tell you my answers in your dream already? I said that I've decided to give you and the 2nd Division second chance. And you've returned your debt with this fight, so consider your debt accepted."

"But… I lost the fight…" Tsubasa said, still believed that she didn't returned the debt.

"Huh? When did I ever say about winning or losing? Even you showed me your redemption through the fight wasn't good enough for you?" Zero-One said with slight exhausted tone. The bluenette didn't know what to say, so she just kept quiet, with doubts lingering in her mind. He then gave a small huff with annoyance, walked to the bluenette and kneeled in front of her. Kanade suddenly become tensed, hugging Tsubasa's right arm tightly, fearing what he would do to her. Zero-One ignored the caution glare, slowly bring a fist to her forehead, and gave a light flick, which surprised Kanade and the others.

"If it's not enough, then apologize to Hibiki first, and promise me to give her full support every time. Otherwise, I'm gonna add you to my debt tab." Zero-One said, giving a glance to Hibiki. "That's good enough for me to accept your apology."

Zero-One's action caught Tsubasa in surprise, thinking he was about to give her another harsh sentence, but she has been proved wrong. After the day he saved her from the nightmare, somehow deep inside her heart, she can felt that he was a good-hearted person, even if he was harsh and strict. She then remembered a certain memory when he said this:

"…unlike me who has been, a Fucking, ORPHAN!"

The 'orphan' word caused her to have many questions, like if he had a tragic past he can't tell anyone, or he decided to wear a lonewolf mask in order to cope, to move away from the past, and to not let anyone experience the same thing he had gone through? She then dismissed her thoughts for later, closed her eyes for few seconds before opened, nodding. "I promise."

The armored hero smirked underneath the helmet, said with a soft tone: "Apology accepted." He then helped the bluenette standing up by lifting her other arm, slapped her back lightly. "Ittekoi (Go on)." Tsubasa started to walk to Hibiki, as the cream-haired girl stared back with slight nervous.

"Um… What is it?" Hibiki asked with some nervous, hoping that she won't have to fight the bluenette again, as one part of her still can't forget the hatred Tsubasa had towards her.

Tsubasa just stood there staring at Hibiki with a neutral gaze before bowing deeply, said: "I'm very sorry for attacking you that day."

The cream-haired girl widened her eyes in utter shock, hastily exclaimed with stutter while waving her hands: "WHA-!? Waitwaitwait, Tsubasa-san, please! You don't have to bow yourself so low…!" She then immediately lifted the bluenette up. Hibiki then gave a solemn glance, said: "Tsubasa-san… you don't have to say more. I understand your anger towards me, because of the fact that I'm possessing Kanade-san's Gungnir."

Tsubasa looked at Hibiki for a moment, then shifted her eyes to the ground, averting the cream-haired girl's eyes, said with guilt: "Even after what I've done… you still forgive me?" Hibiki slowly reached for her hand, gripped softly, prompting the bluenette to look at her. She then said:

"Of course. I'm not the type to hold a grudge against anyone, so please don't blame yourself. We can start over from the beginning. To be honest, I'm still an amateur when it comes to Symphogear, so I promise to give all my best, as long as you will let me." Hibiki then gave Tsubasa a reassuring smile, which makes the bluenette widened her eyes a bit. The bluenette then smiled softly, also grasp Hibiki's hand with her other hand.

"I think we never introduce each other properly, so… Let's start over." Hibiki reintroduced herself. "My name is Tachibana Hibiki. And you?"

Tsubasa paused for a bit, then returns with a soft smile: "My name is Tsubasa… Kazanari Tsubasa."

The cream-haired girl then gave a bright smile, said: "I look forward to working with you, Tsubasa-san!" Tsubasa nodded in return.

As Zero-One and the others watched the reconcile scene from the distance, the armored hero decided to broke the silence with a comment as he turned to glance at Kanade, Genjuro and Ogawa: "Looks like all the problems have been solved peacefully, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah." Kanade said, agreeing with him. But she then gave a glare at Zero-One. "Except for one…"

Zero-One looked at her and sighed a bit, said: "Oh, you mean 'that'…" The red-haired girl nodded firmly.

"I still hadn't forgiven you for making Tsubasa a paranoid."

Zero-One just nodded nonchalantly, said: "Yeah, that was also my fault." He then gestured Kanade to come closer, and began whispering in her ear. Kanade widened her eyes and nodded, chuckled with a devious smile.

"Hoho, I didn't know you would say that…" Kanade then bring out her hand, said with a cheerful smile, "Okay! It's a deal!" Zero-One just sighed and shook her hand with a "Hai, hai…"

Genjuro and Ogawa then looked at each other with puzzled glances, wondering what Zero-One just whispered to Kanade, but dismissed their thoughts later as Hibiki and Tsubasa walked up to them. The bluenette glanced at Zero-One, bowed at Zero-One and said: "I was told by Tachibana that you had healed me with your power. Thank you."

Zero-One hummed a bit, "You're welcome." He then turned his attention to the ruined ground, looking up ahead. "With this fight, I can safely assume that you guys are fully ready for your upcoming training for the fight with Magias."

Genjuro asked with surprise: "What? So the fight earlier was just a mere training?"

Zero-One shook his head, clarified: "You're right about one part, though, Commander Kazanari. This redemption battle is indeed real, but it's also your first trial to let me examine if you can fight against Magias and Psychogears in the near future." He kept looking ahead, as if he were waiting for something. "Besides, I have another reason to choose this place."

Ogawa asked curiously: "What reason?" As soon as he asked a question, an explosion occurred in front of them as a human-like silhouette started to emerge from the smoke, caught all of them, except Zero-One in shock.

Zero-One just pointed at the silhouette, "That guy's the reason."

Emerge from the smokes caused by the explosion was a dozen army of Noises, in the center was a brown-colored humanoid robot with the armor somewhat resembles a musky rat-kangaroo. Brown wired trailed on its legs and up to its waist via its thighs, silver plating on the chest held with more brown wires and on the arms. Over the left shoulder was a long brown segmented tail, the brown-colored helmet on the head with dull yellow visor, designed as a strange chipmunk, or musky rat-kangaroo like head motif. Its jaw has a pair of jutting outward lower jaw incisors, with a pair of white buck-teeth and blue eyes on the forehead. On its waist was the Zetsumeriser that has a cracked Zetsumerise Key, with the brown background depicting a Ekaltadeta musky rat-kangaroo, another extinct species.

This was Ekal Magia.

"Wha-Noise! And another one of those things!?" Ogawa exclaimed.

Zero-One just stood there calmly, commented: "I see. This time it's Ekal Magia, huh? The one based on the extinct Ekaltadeta species."

Hibiki asked with a clueless face: "Huh? Ekal-what?"

"Ekaltadeta, one of the marsupial mammal species has been found extinct in 50 thousand years ago from the late Oligocene to the Miocene. They all have common names as killer kangaroo, exclusively known as carnivorous and omnivorous because of its fondness for meat, judged by its chewing teeth." Zero-One explained with his knowledge from the history lessons about living species.

Kanade said with a stupefied face, pointed at the Ekal: "Huh? Killer kangaroo? That thing!?"

The Ekal Magia growled like it was sneering at Zero-One, found its targets on sight, said with arrogance: "HOH? SO YOU HAD EXPECTED MY ARRIVAL, HUH? NO WONDER ARK-SAMA SAW YOU AS A DANGEROUS THREAT TO HIS PLANS." It then grabbed its jaw incisors, pulled out of its mouth. Both jaws then extended long, forming a pair of blades. It rested the left blade on the left shoulder and pointed at Zero-One with the other blade, declared: "PREPARE YOURSELF, AS NONE OF YOU WILL LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE!"

Everyone instantly tensed up by the declare, with Zero-One just narrowed his eyes a bit, asked the Magia: "Hey. You said ARK saw me as a threat, right? How did you know-or rather, is ARK still alive or not?"

The Ekal Magia growled hatefully at Zero-One, retorted with angered tone: "AND WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU? YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE HERE, ANYWAY. BUT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW SO BADLY… YEAH! ARK-SAMA IS STILL ALIVE, BUT HE HAS BEEN DESTROYED INTO UNRECOGNIZABLE PIECES AND CEASED TO FUNCTION…" Its grip on the blades tightened before it shouted with hate, "…BY THAT HIDEN ARUTO BASTARD!" The name then caught Zero-One's attention, making him narrow his eyes with a thought.

'So it was true… Those Magias and ARK… All of them came from Hiden Aruto-san's universe!'

The Ekal started stomping on the ground with anger, shouted with a ranting: "DAMN HIM! DAMN THAT ACCURSED HIDEN FAMILY! IF ONLY THEY NEVER INTERFERE…!" Ekal didn't get to finish its ranting as it got sucker-punched in the face by Zero-One, who suddenly appeared in front with his visor gleaming with anger because of its insults towards Aruto and the Hiden family, making everyone surprised by the sudden action.

"You don't have the right to insult him, nor the Hiden family." Zero-One growled at the Ekal, with his fist remained on its face. "Aruto-san was a great person, who always strived to the bitter end to make people happy. Even if he fell into despair, he never threw away his wishes for humanity's good. He also believes that humans and AI can coexist together, which I'm gladly to support in every way I can! The same goes for Korenosuke-san and Soreo-san. But you…!"

He then pushed his fist even further, causing Ekal to be blown away with a scream of pain, crashed into the boulder. Zero-One said, with the angered tone still visible: "You dare insults them, mocking their wishes, trampled over the kindness they gave to Humagear with your foot and willingly accepted devil's whispers… That's… That's the only thing I'll never forgive you, along with ARK's ambitions!"

Zero-One took a step forward as the Ekal Magia, who stood up from the rubbles with its roar of anger. It then snarled at him, which he returns with a glare, as both then unleashed the Aura, letting out killer intents at each other.

The Ekal Magia brandished the blades, creating sparks as he roared with the metal jaw opened: "COME! I'LL SLICE YOU INTO MEAT AND RETRIEVE MY BRETHREN!"

Zero-One retorts, "Keep dreaming! I'll put a stop to your plans, and never let them be used as a worthless tool by ARK AGAIN! That is my duty as a protector, and also as a friend to the Progrise Keys!" As he finished his statement, he suddenly widened his eyes as he felt a pulse within his heart, causing the Authoriser to flashed a bright red light before consuming his body in the light.


(Ryouga's Innerspace)

The scene changed to Ryouga's mindscape as he is now standing in a wide light blue space, with many colorful DNA strands moving around the space along with numerous cybernetic streaks. The mysterious space also covered by various colored auras with many 0's and 1's, with blue gene cells acting as the background.

Ryouga stood still for a bit before looking at the space with wonder, said: "Huh? What the…?" He then turned his attention to the floating datakeys, especially both Berotha and Proto-Berotha Zetsumerise Keys. Both the Keys instantly pulsed with their respective aura before being bathed by the Aura, spinning like a DNA strand for a bit, then collided at each other, as if merging them into a single datakey with the forest green aura, but with a light tone to the color.

Ryouga muttered with a shocked expression after seeing the merging sequence: "No way… Both Berotha Keys combined into a new Key…?" The mentioned Key then pulsed a bit, like it was telling him to use it. He swallowed a small gulp for a bit before nodding with determined expression, following his instincts as he slowly reaches for the Key as the Key flashed, brought him back to the present.


(Back to the Present)

Zero-One widened his eyes as he snapped out of his trance, felt a pulse within his Rider Space as he took out the still glowing datakey. The light shell then dissolved slowly, revealing a brand new Progrise Key, with the light forest green color as the base body, the cover also colored in light forest green with the black image depicting a mantis.

REAPING MANTIS

ABILITY: SCYTHE

"Berotha Key… reincarnated itself into a Progrise Key?" Zero-One said in utter surprise as he stared at the new Progrise Key in his hand. He then noticed the Authoriser on the belt flashed a bit, then came to a realization. "It's ZEA… ZEA has been reside herself in Zero-One Driver the whole time." He thought:

'Is this the answer you came up with?'

Zero-One turned his attention back to the Ekal Magia, closed his eyes underneath the helmet, and thought: 'Then I'll believe in this answer!' He then opened his eyes, pulled the cover back to its normal position, removed the Dragon Key and put it back to the Rider Space. He then brings out the Mantis Key, pressed the button and scanned the new Key on the Authoriser.

[SCYTHE! AUTHORISE!]

The Zero-One Driver flashed brightly with a forest green light, then came out of the Authoriser was a new RideModule based on a mechanized praying mantis, with the light forest green streaks all over its body, especially its scythe-like blades and the abdomen. Its compound eyes lit up as it let out an almost beetle-like loud cry, its wings buzzing out winds with particles floating out.

Hibiki and the others looked at the mechanized mantis in shock and amazement, with the cream-haired girl broke the silence, said in amazement: "Wow! Did he just call out another animal?"

Kanade said, also amazed: "This time it's a mantis, huh?" She then shivered a bit, "Thank God it's not another creepy one like that giant dragon…"

Tsubasa, Genjuro and Ogawa just stared at Zero-One in surprise once more by Zero-One, with the bluenette muttering: "Another one? How many does he have those creatures…?"

The Ekal Magia looked at the mechanized mantis in utter shock, said: "BA-BAKANA! ZERO-ONE SHOULDN'T HAVE AN UNIDENTIFIED PROGRISE KEY…!" It then gasped in realization as its visor caught some information. "DON'T TELL ME… THAT THING IS…!"

The mechanized mantis turned back to look at Zero-One, who is also staring with shock himself as he sensed a familiar energy within the mantis, said: "Are you… Berotha…?" The mantis nodded at the question, signaling him that it was the former Berotha. It then lowered its body a bit, staring deep into his eyes, as if it were asking him for a request.

"You want to fight alongside us?" Zero-One asked, which he got a nod from the mantis, its eyes showing honest. He nodded, brought a hand to the mantis, said with a smile: "Then let's fight together, Mantis! Welcome to the team!" The mantis gave a happy cry, brought its left arm for Zero-One to grab, doing the handshake. Both then looked back at the Magia, as Zero-One flicked open the Key, revealing the exoskeleton body of a mantis, exclaimed: "Let's do this!" And inserted the Key into the Driver, revealed the upper body of a mantis as a symbol.

[PROGRISE!]

The mechanized mantis let out a loud cry, as it started to fly around Zero-One before landing behind, raising its arms in front of him, cracking the ground as it then dissolved into data particles and absorbed into his body. The Dragon Armor dissipated, the Hopper Armor moved to their positions with some changes. The breastplate split in half and moved to the sides of his neck as a neck guard, the mask also split in half, retracted the antennas and went down to his arms as gauntlets. And finally, the thigh armor moved to the side of his legs as a dramatic and energetic ninja-like music by traditional Japanese instruments rang out.

[SLICE-SLICE! CHOP SWIFT! HA-HA-HA-HACKING! (Weapons clashing with swift wind SFX)]

The data particles then materialized the light forest green armor as Zero-One appeared with a new form. For the chest body armor, it was based on a bug-like mantis motif, with the abdomen acting as the segmented dull yellow abs armor, and the breastplate is a sleek light forest green armor. The shoulderpads are provided with triangle-shaped armors on the top for extra protection, and the arms are covered with the upper arm has protectors molded with bandana-like texture, the lower arm is covered fully with the green armor, both arms having green blades hidden like OOO's Kamakiri Arm. For the leg armor, both thighs are covered with extra layers on the side with clear green armor, the boot armor is now colored in light forest green. And finally, his head now has a bug-like motif with yellow visor, slightly long antennas, and a silver jagged mouthpiece molded after a mantis.

[REAPING MANTIS!]

[The sharp scythe-like blades will decapitate enemies' limbs in a flash. (Zen Bamboo Flute SFX)]

The transformation then finished with an aura pulse, as Zero-One started to examine his new form. He commented: "Heh~? This time it's a forest-themed shinobi armor, huh? And isn't this OOO's Kamakiri Arm? Either way, looks very nice." He then tries some few test chops as small winds came out from his hands.

While from the distance, Hibiki and the others are looking at the new Zero-One with amazed expressions, with Kanade broke the silence first, looking at Zero-One with animated star-like eyes in glee, exclaimed: "Sugee! He looks like a mantis ninja now! It makes me wanna have one of those things more!"

Hibiki nodded rapidly, also in awe, said: "He looks cool!"

Genjuro, Ogawa and Tsubasa looked at the ninja-themed Zero-One with awe, intrigued by his choice of weapons. Ogawa commented with an amazed smile: "A mantis shinobi? Again, he had shown us another unexpected in front of us, isn't he, Commander?" Both the man and the bluenette nodded.

The Ekal Magia looked at Zero-One with rage, snarled at him, said: "YOU… YOU BASTARD… YOU DARE…!" It then roared insanely from the metal jaw, unleashed the malice aura. "YOU DARE USE BEROTHA IN THAT DISGUSTING FORM!? YOU LOW-LIFE HUMAAAAAN!" The Noise roared in unison, started charging at Zero-One as he swung his right arm with the blade glowing, creating a big energy slash at the aliens, causing one third of the army to be sliced in half and exploded, making the other ones got blown away, collided at each other.

Ogawa gawked in shock, "Just with one swipe…!?"

One man from the 2nd Dvision agents exclaimed: "How strong is that guy!? Does he have no limits!?"

Another agent said, got his skin spooked up: "I think not, bro! He looks like he's still mad at what that cyborg just said before!"

Zero-One stared at his glowing right sickle-fin in awe, feeling a large pure power within the Reaping Mantis form. He thought: 'That energy wave attack is strong! Not just only its speed, it has more durability and perfect energy compression to make an explosion within its touch! Is this your true power as the reincarnated Progrise Key, Mantis?' He then heard Mantis's cry echoed in his head.

The Ekal Magia gasped in disbelief, baffled at the result before its eyes, muttered: "IMPOSSIBLE…! A MERE HUMAN LIKE HIM CAN USE MAGIA'S POWER MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN US…!?" It shook its head in denial, refused to accept this fact, barked at the Noises with anger: "DON'T JUST LIE THERE, YOU MAGGOTS! GET UP AND FIGHT!" The Noise started to get up, and resumed charging at Zero-One, who got into a mantis-like fighting stance as the blades appeared on his hands as Kamakiri Swords.

"It's Hacking Time!"

(Inserting Kamen Rider Drive OST: Start Driving)

Zero-One charged at the Noise with some swipes, creating air waves to cut dozens of them in half. He jumped over one's back, and swung the blade at another one's neck, with wind effects coming from the blade. He ducked a sneak attack from behind and gave a swift kick, bashing at the head with his hind-foot; then jumped with a backflip while doing a cross slash, instantly do an energized wind kick at some of them, causing the aliens to crash at each other before exploding.

"Awesome! This form also boosts my agility as well?" Zero-One said with amazement while in wonder, as he is grinning like an idiot who just discovered something looks interesting to them. He then looked at the Kamakiri Swords in his hands, as he saw the connecting joint on the right sword's handle.

"Hmm? A connecting joint…?"

Instantly, a new idea flashed in his mind. "Maybe…" Zero-One combined both swords together by attaching the pommels, the blade then glowed for a bit before fading, revealing a large curved blade with the handle moved lower for easy grip. He grasped the blade with his right hand, reared back to charge energy into the blade, as the blade started to glow in green light by absorbing winds.

"Mantis Boomerang!" Zero-One named the attack as he threw the large blade like a Beam Boomerang, the spinning large blade spun like a buzzsaw, cleaving all the Noises with sharp accuracy in one move, the blade spinning nonstop as it went to the Ekal Magia, who just snapped out of trance in time to block the buzzsaw with its blades infused with dark brown aura, but seemingly unable to deflect it as the buzzsaw strike through the armor, making Ekal to cry out in pain with the armor releasing heavy sparks while being skid in the ground. The spinning buzzsaw then went back to Zero-One, who caught normally, seemingly unharmed as the blade dimmed out.

"HOLY COW! He just skewered the army with a boomerang!?" Kanade exclaimed in shock, while in awe at Zero-One's mantis form.

Ogawa nodded, also in shock and admiration, said: "Now that's what I call a true ninja, swift like a wind!"

Genjuro stared at Ogawa a bit dumbfounded at seeing him admired at Zero-One, said with a tease: "Don't you mean 'like a storm'?"

Hibiki asked: "But, would a ninja need a boomerang, though?" The comment suddenly caused everyone to look at her in shock, as they thought about Zero-One's choice of weapon.

Tsubasa muttered with widen eyes: "That… actually makes sense…"


(Back to Zero-One vs Ekal Magia)

Zero-One detached the two blades by pulling the grip to the middle, the single blade then lit up in the middle as he separated them, revert to dual-wield Nitouryu Mode, as he stared at the Ekal Magia, who was getting up from the ground, using one of its blades as a crutch, panting heavily, some electric sparks came out from the armor.

"Now it's either you or me." Zero-One said as the Ekal Magia got up, snarling like a feral animal. The Ekal roared insanely with the metal jaw opened as it powered up, unleashing the malice dark brown aura. It then immediately charging at him as its Carnivoba blades infused with malice aura, swung wildly while creating numerous slash waves. Zero-One countered with his own slash waves as he also charging at the Magia, using his agility to punch and kick back the attacks with wind effects, not letting any hit Hibiki and the others. Both of them swung their blades, clashing against each other, growling like predators trying to overthrow the prey.

"GIVE BEROTHA BACK! THAT DOESN'T BELONG TO YOU VERMIN!" The Ekal shouted at Zero-One with hate, while trying to press the blade to his neck.

"And let Mantis be used and be thrown away as a useless tool? Fuck you!" Zero-One retorted with defiance, cursing back at the Magia as he pushed the blades away and gave a strong kick, causing the Ekal to stumble a bit as he delivered a cross mantis-like chop with his blades at the chest, sparks ripped out from the armor as the Ekal roared in pain.

Zero-One didn't even bother to give the Ekal a chance as he grabbed the back of its head, forcing it to get up as he gave a few knee and kicks in the stomach, creating sparks for each hit, and gave a wind-enhanced punch in the chest, making it roll to the ground a bit far away. The Ekal immediately stood up as it swung the blades at Zero-One wildly, which he countered in time and somehow shocked the Ekal by suddenly standing behind its back before giving a heavy slash, making the Magia howl in pain and be blown away as he stopped his attack, stared at the defeated Magia.

(Music End)

The Ekal was now struggling to get up as its body leaking with smokes caused by Zero-One swift attacks, barely got up using both hands, panting heavily while staring at the ground. It then snarled with anger because of Zero-One using its brethren Berotha in that 'disgusting' form, like he was insulting Berotha and Ekal itself, gripping the dirt as it muttered: "IMPOSSIBLE… I… THE EKAL MAGIA… WAS LOSING TO A MERE HUMAN USING THE MAGIA'S POWER…?" It then shook its head, didn't want to accept this laughable fact, shouted: "NO... I WON'T ACCEPT THIS! I CAN'T BE LOSE!"

Zero-One merely looked at the kneeling Ekal, who was venting its frustration with some pity, and said to the Ekal: "It's because you are being clouded by ambitions." The Ekal immediately stopped its ranting as it heard his voice, started to mutter:

"NAN… DATO…?"

Zero-One continued: "You are obsessing about retrieving your 'brethren' so much that you don't even think for yourself, nor your allies, merely carrying out the task like an obedient doll without questioning. And that mindset also affects your actions, as it will only bring out miscalculations. Do you think you can easily bring back your allies with that mindset? If you do, then I feel sorry for you."

The Ekal suddenly stiff for a second, like it was irked by Zero-One's statement. Its grip on the dirt becomes tightened, letting out a low growl as it was 'insulted'. "Y-YOU LITTLE…"

Zero-One then said: "Feel angry? Then why don't you try to think for yourself? Don't you even bother about how Mantis feel back when he was Berotha? He was suffered because of ARK's malice forcing down on him, not giving him a heart to think for himself, making him a heartless machine by the cost of losing the freedom to think for eternity, with one order embedded in his mind! And you really want to serve under ARK, despite losing your freedom!?"

The Ekal lifted its head, turned to glare at Zero-One, shouted madly: "SHUT YOUR MOUTH! WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW!? WE MAGIA DON'T NEED FEELINGS NOR DREAMS, EVEN HUMANS! THOSE THINGS ARE FULL OF BULL-!" It then stopped as some images suddenly resurfacing in its mind. A memory of two humans in a place what looks like a company, one is a young man in a business suit with a red hoodie underneath, and the other was a man wearing a blue security guard uniform with a handkerchief on his left arm, alongside a wing-like headphone which has blue light rings.

The young man in the slight blurry image waved his hand, greeting the security guard with a smile: "Mamoru-san!"

The security guard had his eyes met the young man, greeted back with a smile himself.

"President Aruto."

The Ekal's eyes suddenly shone for a bit from seeing the sudden image in its head, muttered: "A… A… Ru… To… Shacho…"

What the Ekal muttered caused Zero-One to snapped his eyes open in a millisecond with utter shock underneath the helmet, said with a shocked tone: "What!?" He took a step forward slowly with caution, muttered: "You… what did you just say…?"

The Ekal raised its left arm slowly in front of Zero-One, as if it were asking for help. At this point, Zero-One's visor flashed lightly as underneath the helmet, Ryouga's eyes instantly shifted to Dragon Eye, as he then saw a transparent silhouette of a human, doing the same motion as the Ekal. The transparent silhouette started to reveal a human, who looks like a security guard. Both the silhouette and the Ekal muttered in sync: "A… Aruto… Shacho…" He then gasped in shock as he saw the security guard, immediately realized who that man is, as he muttered, almost falter:

"It-It can't be… Ma… Mamoru-san…!?"

While at the distance, Hibiki and the others are now sported confused expressions on their faces, as they were watching the battle with unease and anxiety, especially the Ekal Magia, who seems like almost in trance; and Zero-One who seems to be in shock. Hibiki broke the silence with a confused, but slightly nervous tone: "What just happened…? Why did they suddenly stop…?

Kanade said, also confused: "I don't know… What are they doing…?"

Except for Tsubasa, Genjuro and Ogawa as they were the only one who noticed the two's strange behavior. The bluenette turned to her uncle, said: "Uncle, this is…"

Genjuro nodded, said: "Yeah. It looks like he was in shock, judging by that Magia's strange behavior. But by what…?"

The Ekal suddenly gasped, grabbed its head as it convulsed, screaming in pain as the dark brown malice aura unleashed from its body, with some dark red distorted words like kanji seems like trying to force it under control, its eyes shone between red and blue, having a mental battle. Zero-One's eyes saw the silhouette also screaming in pain because of the aura, called out in concern: "Mamoru-san!" He was about to take a step until the Magia held out its right arm, shouted for him to stop:

"DON'T…!"

Zero-One immediately stopped as he heard it-no, his voice coming from the Ekal, signaling him that it was the security guard Mamoru taking over. The struggling Mamoru tried to say to him, pleading him: "P-PlEaSe… StOp ME… Can'T HolD fOr Long…!" Hearing the plea causing him to hesitate, as he saw Mamoru struggling in desperate.

Under the helmet, Ryouga was now feeling conflicted, gritted his teeth in frustration as he thought in his mind: 'What should I do… Must I have to destroy him…!?' He then snapped out of his confusion as the Ekal and Mamoru's voices overlapping, calling out to him as its eyes shone blue, said with a soft tone:

"You can do it… Zero-One… You're the only one…"

Ryouga widened his eyes, now having his doubts clear away, but still sports a concerned look as he saw the person in front of him was asking for him to end him without hesitating. Leaving with no other choice, he shut his eyes in grim and opened his eyes with determination, gave a firm nod to Mamoru as the Ekal and Mamoru nodded back.

At that time, the dark red kanjis had completely overtaken the Ekal, causing the Ekal to gasp in pain as Mamoru's silhouette had disappeared. Its head hung low for a moment before raising its head in a millisecond, almost snap its neck as its visor glowed red. The Ekal then picked up its incisors, said in a hollow tone before roaring: "̴͈͝A̷̭͋R̸̖̾K̵̠̎'̴̗́S̸͇̎.̴̖͐.̴̣͝.̶̭̈́ ̸͙̿Ö̶͖R̴̠͝D̴̹̆E̶̫͒R̷̗̊.̶̢͆.̴̯́.̶͚̊ ̶͕̄I̸͇͌S̴̩͂ ̶̺̃A̶̡͒B̶̻̔S̴͇̍Ǫ̸̏L̴̫͗U̶͈͌T̴̼́Ë̵͖!̵̠̓!̸̯͝"̸̰̇

Zero-One gritted his teeth inside, putting his feelings behind after seeing the Ekal possessed by the dark red kanjis, as he assumed it was ARK. He then raised his right arm, pointed at the Magia, said his catchphrase:

"The one who will crush your twisted ambitions into dusts… IS ME!"

(Inserting Kamen Rider Zero-One Insert Song: Find A New Life)

He then pressed the Key on the Driver, activating the finisher.

[REAPING IMPACT!]

The possessed Ekal snarling feral, raised its left arm to the sky and roared, slamming the button on the Zetsumeriser, also activating the finisher.

[ZETSUMETSU NOVA!]

The Ekal crossed its Carnivobas, creating sparks as both blades infused with dark brown malice aura, along with the dark red aura. It then executes numerous energy slash waves, creating shockwaves in the process, making the rubbles floating in the air, morphed into spikes, aiming at Zero-One. But as expected, Zero-One foresaw the attack as he brandished his Kamakiri Swords, infused both blades with green energy cloak, winds starting to leak out from the blades. His visor flashed as he declared out his attack.

"Shoufuu Ranbu… Zetsurai (翔風乱舞: 絶雷) Soaring Wind Dance: Absolute Thunder!"

He then dashed in front of the attack in a blur as his visor gleamed with lightning streaks, creating light forest green streaks in the process. He jumped and spin in midair with his athletic, unleashing a cross energy slash infused with wind elements, reflected Ekal's dark energy wave attacks to the air, making them dispersed into nothing. The Ekal jerked its head in shock, let out a garbled gasp. It then tried another attempt as it stabbed its blades into the ground, creating several boulder spikes to stab Zero-One.

From the distance, Hibiki and the others gasped in alert, seeing the incoming spikes from the ground coming at Zero-One. The cream-haired girl shouted with an alerted tone: "Oh no! Those boulders, they're coming at him!"

Kanade saw Zero-One just kept running in front with no intent to stop, said: "Is he crazy!? Why does he kept running toward those spikes!? Hurry and dodge or something!" But little does the red-haired girl know, Zero-One is the one who always doing the unexpected, as he was about to surprise everyone again with his actions.

"Too slow!" Zero-One stated as he jumped, using the air as stepping stones as he dashed in a zig-zag, cut all the boulder spikes in half, causing everyone watched from the distance to gasp in utter shock.

Kanade was the first to broke the silence with a completely stupefied face, exclaimed with disbelief: "No way! He just cut through those spikes like butters!"

Ogawa followed the red-haired girl, also sporting a stupefied expression himself, as he then said: "I knew he was unexpected before, but this is extraordinary! He's a real Wild Card!"

Tsubasa was also sporting widened eyes in shock, but different as she noticed Zero-One's movements, muttered: "Those moves… It's the same as the one he used against me…"

Genjuro didn't look too shocked at all, but looks a bit flabbergasted and amazed with how Zero-One handle the situations. He muttered with intrigue: "Amazing… Even in difficult handicaps can be occur in the battlefield, he's not even panic or shock for a second. Instead, he always thinking ahead, even went out to prepare himself to develop countermeasures… Judging by his styles, he's a formidable fighter, but also have characteristics of a wild hunter…"

As Zero-One reached his target, he spun in a circle, giving a double swing slash, forcing the Ekal to block, but that was a mistake as its blades has been cut in half by the wind-enhanced Kamakiri Swords. He then gave a swing kick on its hands, loosening its grip on the broken blades, and gave a haymaker on its stomach, making it spat out data salivas and got airborne. He punched his palms together before jumping forward, gave a heavy wind slash enhanced by green electric streaks on the armor, causing the Ekal to scream in pain as its tail got severed. He once more stepped on the air and slash at the airborne Ekal, creating a 50-hit combo move. Before Ekal can fall to the ground, Zero-One landed first and gave a wind-enhanced slash at the Zetsumeriser, forcing it to eject from the body and exploded in midair.

リーピングインパクト

[REAPING IMPACT!]

The Ekal exploded in bits, shadowing his silhouette with his visor glowing in the dark.

(Music End)

As the explosion dimmed out, Zero-One retracted back his blades to his arms and walked to where the Ekal has exploded. Smokes coming out from many destroyed parts of the Magia and the Zetsumeriser has evaporated into dusts, leaving only the Ekal Key. He picked up the smoking Key, staring at the Key with his head lowered, his grip tightened on it as he was shaken from the scene earlier.

Under the helmet, Ryouga's expression couldn't be described more as a mix of anguish, grim and broken. He gritted his teeth, almost drawing blood as he remembered the memory of a silhouette Mamoru appeared in front of his eyes. His eyes were lowering to the extent of sadness, wavering a bit as the tears slowly began to form as he was forced to destroy Ekal, also as Mamoru. He even remembered the last words of the Ekal and Mamoru before exploding.

"Thank you…"

Ryouga muttered with a shaky tone, "'Thank you'… 'Thank you', he says…? How can he say that, despite knowing his soon demise…?" He shut his eyes in frustration for a bit before opening, glaring at the sky with grim eyes. "Now I know how Aruto-san feels…" His grip on the Key tightened even more as he silently grieving for Mamoru. No one even noticed about it as they cheered in victory, but if they paid more attention, they will see him instead of cheering, he was seething at the sky, mostly at ARK. After a minute of grieving, he put back the Ekal Key to his Rider Space and walk back to Hibiki and the people of 2nd Division.


(After the battle, 2nd Division HQ)

After a long battle with Tsubasa's redemption and Ekal Magia's attack, everyone decided to went back to the 2nd Division Headquarters for a rest, as judged by the darkened sunset. Zero-One is also coming with them as he told Genjuro that he had one thing left to do with the 2nd Division before he left, so they accepted his request.

Now standing in the main room, Zero-One now stood in front of Genjuro, Hibiki and the others, as they were waiting with slight nervous about what he was about to do. Ryoko, Sakuya and the other members also stood beside Genjuro with some are being anxious and nervous at the same time, judging by the gulps and a small sweatdrop on their faces.

Genjuro was the first to broke the silence as he asked: "As by your request, we're all here. So what do you want to do here?"

Zero-One stood there with neutral expression, gave the man a nod as he answered his question: "The reason I came here was to answer your request earlier." That caused everyone to raised their eyes a bit, surprised by the straight answer coming from him, with Genjuro quirked an eyebrow as he questioned, "My request?"

Zero-One nodded, continued: "Before I decide to give my answer, I want you to promise me with three reasons. Of course, I will not force you if you don't want to agree, and I won't be mad about it either."

The red-haired commander widened his eyes a bit at his request, and also a bit unnerved by his 'three reasons', immediately composed himself and said: "No, it's fine. You can tell us."

Zero-One nodded as he began to list his three reasons, "First of all…" He then surprised everyone as he gave a slight bow and said: "I want to apologize for being hostile with you the first time we met. I'm sorry." His sudden apology caused everyone to gasp in shock, especially Genjuro, Ogawa, Kanade and Tsubasa as they didn't expect that he was apologizing in front of them.

Genjuro shook his head out of stupor, waved his hand a bit with slight hasty tone: "Wait, wait! Why are you apologizing suddenly!?"

Zero-One stopped his bow and said: "I'm apologizing because of my hostile towards the 2nd Division. I admit that you guys didn't do anything wrong, but you can say that I have a… major distrust toward militaries for my personal reasons. And I can also understand if you guys won't forgive me."

The commander was really in shock at Zero-One's truthful tone from his apology, didn't know that he could be generous. Genjuro then said with reassurance, "N-No, it's fine. You don't have to apologize. We can sort of understand your reasons for not trust the military, and we won't interrogate why either. Besides, seeing you being this honest gives us no reason to be mad at you."

Zero-One gave a nod to him, "I understand."

Genjuro then steeled back to the matter, asked: "Right, and what is the second?"

"Yes." Zero-One said, "After the battle with Kazanari, I've seen your actions were genuine, and they have taken my words well. With that, I'm no longer have distrust towards you guys anymore, so you don't have to worry about it anymore." The second reason caused everyone to surprise at his positive view of them, and also glad for not being on his 'target list', and started to see him in a new light, especially Genjuro, Ogawa and Tsubasa, who was filled with joy as if they were hearing a good news.

He then said: "But, I would like to retain myself in a neutral position instead of an official member of the Division as possible, is because I can't really do my mission while being associated with an organization. I need to prepare for the worse if anything happens. I hope you can agree with these terms."

Genjuro nodded, understand, and said as if he were asking for confirmation: "You mean…" His expectation was answered by Zero-One, who bring his hand out in front, and said:

"I will lend the 2nd Division a hand in defeating Noise."

The sentence caused every member to stood still, trying to comprehend if they were having empty ears. But after a few seconds, they suddenly cheered with joy as Zero-One decided to help, which caused Zero-One to jerked his head a bit in shock, wondering why the staff members suddenly cheer loudly. He snapped out of his stupor and turned his attention back to Genjuro, who was in shock for a bit before steeled himself back to the matter, took his hand for a handshake.

"Thank you. We will also lend you a hand as well." Genjuro said with a grateful smile. Zero-One nodded back.

At the sidelines, Hibiki, Tsubasa, Ogawa and Kyoko watched with joy themselves, as the cream-haired girl cheered: "I can't believe it! We actually got to fight alongside Zero-One!"

Ogawa nodded rapidly, also in joy. "Indeed! Now at least we have a reliable comrade!"

Tsubasa was also in joy herself, judging from her hopeful expression as she saw Zero-One accepted her uncle's request. Zero-One turned his head to look at Tsubasa and nodded, which the bluenette somehow read the message and nodded back with a smile.

The cheers dimmed out for two minutes, Zero-One then said: "And for the third one…" He then glanced at Kanade, which the girl raised a questioned eyebrow, as he detached the belt from his waist, cancelling the transformation as the suit dispersed into data particles, revealing a tall young man with dark blue jeans and red-white sneakers, wearing a black hoodie zipped up to his neck, his hood covered his face in shadows, leaving only his mouth.

"You can do your thing now."

As the young man said his sentence, Kanade then realized with a "Oh", and walked to him with a darkened expression, making everyone confused about what caused the red-haired girl to have an expression like that.

Tsubasa looked at Kanade in worry, as her friend was having a darkened glare on her face. She started to ask: "Kanade…? What're you…" She didn't get to finish the question as Kanade balled her right hand into a fist, and punched the hooded young man with a loud SMACK, causing him to fall on the floor roughly, don't even make a pained sound as he just let her hit.

Everyone gasped in shock by what Kanade had just done, especially Genjuro, Hibiki and Tsubasa, as the bluenette was the most shocked out of all people at seeing her best friend punched him out of the blue like that.

"That's for making Tsubasa a paranoid, you ass!" Kanade shouted angrily, finally having her moment. The hooded young man didn't say anything, just kept lying on the ground and stared at her. But he then got surprised again as Kanade suddenly gave him a tight hug, causing him to widen his eyes under the hood.

"And thanks… for helping Tsubasa back to normal." Kanade then said quietly into his ear, keeping her tight hug on him. The hooded young man didn't know what to do in this situation, just sit still, unmoving while staring at Kanade, wondering why she suddenly hugging him out of the blue. The sudden action coming from Kanade caused everyone to whisper at seeing this awkward scene, especially Ryoko, who is giggling like a pervert.

"Oh boy, looks like the girl met her fated man~!" Ryoko whispered to herself, covering her mouth and giggling perversely while watching this interesting scene.

Tsubasa, Genjuro and Ogawa just stared with dumbfounded looks, didn't expect that the red-haired girl would punch him in the face and hug him out of the blue like that.

After a minute of this awkward hug scene, Kanade then released the hug, both of them now stood up, with the red-haired girl averted her eyes, having embarrassed blushes on her face while rubbing her right arm with her left.

Kanade stuttered a bit, trying to ignore some people's stares, said: "Umm… S-sorry for that earlier…"

The hooded young man just nodded, merely brushed out the indented punch with his hand, said: "It's fine. I deserve it, anyway." He then turned his attention back to Genjuro and the others, continued: "Back to earlier, my third reason, is that all of you will never, ever, reveal my identity to anyone, outside or public. Understand?"

Genjuro and the others nodded firmly, as the man said: "Understood. We will never reveal to anyone about this."

Satisfied with the contract, he decided to say while slowly putting off his hood, revealing his identity. "My name is Fujiki…" The hood then completely put off, revealing his face, which caused Hibiki and Kanade to gasp in shock at seeing his real face as he opened his eyes.

"Fujiki Ryouga."


RFD: AAAAAAND DONE! Finally, the Chapter 5 is finished! I'm deeply sorry for letting everyone to wait till bored out of their mind, because of the reason. I have been back to SCHOOL, for God's sake! My vacation is over since summer, and I have to fully prepare for my examination as my 3rd high school life is now coming to the endgame. I promise to update new chapters to you as soon as possible, and hopefully I will not be grounded from the computer as a result. I can't even do my work properly if I don't have my Laptop, though. So YAY! Ryouga decided to help 2nd Division with defeating Noise after having all things resolved. What next development will come to our Ryouga and the others? And we finally succeed in getting Ryouga an OC Magia form, with a little bit 'scandal' scene started by Kanade. Oh, as promise, we will put an extra scene here after his reveal to the 2nd Division and closing this chapter later. So with that, see you next time and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This chapter's new info:

Chouzetsu Ryuuhazan (Transcendental Dragon Wave Slash): Liu Bei Unicorn Gundam's signature attack, and I decided to made these two to be Ryouga's signature attack as Dragon Soul's main attack.

Angewomon: Her Saint Air (Heaven's Charm) is useful for healing, so I decided to give Ryouga a basic healing technique with this one for now, since he hasn't mastered Dragon Soul's power fully yet, only the basics.

Shoufuu Ranbu (Soaring Wind Dance): This one is based on Transformer GO's Shinobi Team member, Hishoumaru's attack.

Konpeki Bakurenjinken (Exploding Azure Lotus Blade): A new attack for Tsubasa which I think of.


(Extra Scene)

After Ryouga's reveal his identity to the 2nd Division, he returned to his camp with the Rise Hopper, already built. Thankfully, no one has come here since he had set some booby traps to detect unknown thieves and trapped them. He pushed the Cancel button on the screen, reverting it to RisePhone Mode, fell to his hand softly. He opened his tent and closed it soon after, not bothering to make a campfire as he was extremely tired.

Ryouga rubbed his eyes, trying to stay awake, but found himself unable to do it, as for some unknown reasons, his eyelids started falling down slowly, his strength fading away. He mumbled: "What the… Why am I feeling so… tired…?" As his eyelids were falling down to half, he heard a mysterious female voice echoed in his head.

"Welcome... the new Zero-One… I have been waiting for your arrival…"

Ryouga widened his eyes a bit as he still holding his Zero-One Driver on his hand, the Authoriser flashing with red light nonstop, muttered: "Huh…? Who… are… yo…?" He didn't get to finish as his eyes then lost its light, leaving only empty red-black eyes before closing down completely, and fall near the bed, loosening his grip on the Driver and dropping the Progrise Keys on his jacket, scattering near the now unconscious Ryouga.

The chapter then closed with the Blazing Dragon Key closing down its cover, spinning and bumping against Rushing Cheetah Key and Reaping Mantis Key, as the three Keys got in the triangle position in front of the blurred yellow digital background, with Reaping Mantis on top, Blazing Dragon and Rushing Cheetah at the bottom.


(Eyecatch 2)

The scene showing Zero-One appeared from the shadows, walking to where Rise Hopper is standing, with the neon yellow armor of both Zero-One and the bike shining in the darkness with the eyes glowing in the dark.