Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, moving on.
Previously on Across the Kaleidoscope
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, my name is Fujimaru Ritsuka."
"And since then, I've been protecting this school and my friends as Kamen Rider Fourze!"
"There is something I need you to do tomorrow while the others deal with Decade."
"Rejoice, Decade. You get the privilege of getting sent to the Dark Nebula."
"Hey, guys. I'm back."
Up high above Japan, a satellite remained in orbit above the country. All was quiet within the space base when, suddenly, a vortex appeared within the central room. It disappeared after a second, revealing the Virgo Zodiarts. She then took out a dark Astroswitch, unlike the ones Fourze used, and pressed the big red button on top. Her body was quickly enveloped in a black cloud as she turned back to her human form.
Unexpectedly, however, he wore a metal mask with glowing yellow eyes that concealed his face along with a blue jumpsuit with black gloves and boots. On the right side of his chest were the words M.B.U.S. while on his left was a logo of a shooting star.
"Back here…" The Virgo Zodiarts muttered in a distinctly male voice. He knew he should not whine about it since it was his penance and he was able to leave whenever he wanted, but it sometimes got lonely in space. Still, he had to make sure of several things first. As he had not turned on the artificial gravity, the masked man floated over to one of the consoles and pressed a couple of buttons.
"Ryuusei, can you hear me?" He said, trying to get into contact with someone down on the Earth. A moment later, he got a reply.
"Wait a minute, I'm in class." It was a short whispering reply but it was all the masked man needed. After a couple of minutes of waiting, the student named Ryuusei spoke again. "What is it, Tachibana-san?"
"It's about Decade. Getting his help is impossible."
"Why?"
"The Horoscopes has killed him," the masked man named Tachibana informed his ally, omitting the fact he was involved in the murder.
"What?! How do you-?!"
Tachibana knew what Ryuusei would ask– how did he know about it? –and interrupted him. "It was a coordinated attack. Even if you and Fourze had been there, I doubt much would've changed."
"So what now? Weren't you planning to get his help?"
"Plans changed. For now, I want you to pretend that you don't know anything about Fujimaru Ritsuka's disappearance. I'll get in touch when I think of something," the masked man told Ryuusei.
"Understood…" the student on the other end of the call muttered before Tachibana cut communications.
"Now then…" The spaceman muttered to himself before floating over to a wall panel at the other end of the room. Putting his hand on the panel next to it, Tachibana pressed the hidden wall button that caused the first panel to slide back and out of the way to reveal a secret compartment.
Entering it, he briefly glanced at the unconscious woman in the corner and apologized to her even though she cannot hear him. "Sorry again, Scorpio. This is the best I could do."
Tachibana then looked around for someone but made a confused sound when he did not see him. "...Where is he?"
He should be here, there was nowhere else Decade could be. Tachibana knew he sent the destroyer here, he consciously chose to do so.
But he wasn't, so where was he?
Chapter 17: A Day in the Life of Fujimaru Ritsuka
"Hi, everyone. I'm back."
"...Ritsu?"
"Yeah?" Fujimaru(?) turned towards Ryoko, the large smile he had was slightly unsettling to the girl as she was unused to seeing him with one. "Um… What are you doing here? Ciel said you still had classes."
"Oh, don't worry about that," he waved off their concerns. "Ciel here can cover for me."
"No, I won't. Just because I can alter memories doesn't mean I'll help you skip out on school," the girl in question refused while eyeing Fujimaru with suspicion. Despite only knowing him for a few days, Ciel could tell Ritsuka was not the cheerful type. Not to that extent, anyway.
Fujimaru, meanwhile, took her refusal rather well. "Then I'll just figure something else by tomorrow," he shrugged. "I'll just say– *cough*"
He was interrupted by a sudden and rough coughing fit, causing the others suspicious looks the others had to turn into worry.
"You okay dude?"
"Yeah," Fujimaru said after he stopped coughing and rubbed his neck. "Just a sore throat, that's all."
'From what?' That was the thought that was going three their minds, especially Ciel. Having been with him for the past hour, she did not notice any signs of him having a sore throat, not even a single cough or complaint. The only doubt she or the others had about the Fujimaru Ritsuka before them was an imposter was that he was such an exceptionally terrible one, he might as well not bother impersonating Ritsuka in the first place.
Without a single word with each other, they all agreed they needed to figure out if this Fujimaru was the real deal.
"Hey, Ritsu."
"Yeah?"
"Can you do us a favor for a sec?" Ryoko asked as she took out her phone.
"What sort of favor?" Fujimaru asked as she tossed him her phone.
"I forgot yesterday, why don't we celebrate Ciel joining us with a photo?" Ryoko told him with a small smile. "Us first then I'll take one of you and Ciel."
"...Okay." His smile did not disappear but did get smaller. "But why me? Wouldn't it be easier to set a timer or something? You know, since I'm bad at taking photos."
"Just a single photo. Come on, you two. Let's use this background."
Ciel did not know what angle Ryoko was playing but went along with it since they knew Ritsuka better than she does. The three of them posed a bit as Fujimaru counted down.
"On 3. 1, 2, 3. Say cheese!"
"Cheese!" A quick flash blinded them before Fujimaru passed Ryoko's phone back to her, who immediately opened it up. As expected had it been the real Ritsuka, the photo had turned out terrible.
"Didn't Ryoko say you were in the photography club?" Ciel asked with a questioning look. It was her first time seeing a photo he had taken and her first thought was how could anybody take a photo as bad as the one she was looking at.
"Photography is the only thing I'm not good at." That was all Fujimaru had to say about it, earning him a deadpan look from the others. At the very least, they knew it was not an imposter as nobody could imitate his lack of ability to take a single photo. "It's my turn now, right?"
"Oh, yeah. But take off that stupid camera, it clashes with your uniform," Ryoko told him as she and Fujimaru swapped places while Tetsuya stepped out of the shot.
"Come on, it was a gift…" Fujimaru mumbled but still took it off and tossed it on the nearby couch.
"Okay. 3, 2, 1. Cheese!"
"Cheese!" Another flash and Ryoko looked at the resulting photo. There was nothing off she could notice from a moment's glance other than the fact that Fujimaru was smiling. Again, a big red flag that they need to address but not with him in the room. "Good, now go get changed. You stink."
"All I did was sit in a cold room all day and go to space, how could I possibly stink?" Fujimaru whined.
"Still, shower… Wait, what?"
"Me and Ciel went to the moon," he elaborated as if it was something normal. Both Tetsuya and Ryoko glanced at Ciel for confirmation who nodded.
"So let me get this straight."
'Nothing good ever comes from a statement starting with that,' Fujimaru thought what he did the day before when Ciel said the same thing. This time though, it was directed at him.
"While we were checking out our old school, you and Ciel went to the moon? The freakin' moon?!"
"Yup!" Fujimaru nodded enthusiastically while Ciel just laughed nervously.
"...Alright, we're following you to Amanogawa tomorrow," Tetsuya declared coldly. How dare their best friend leave them behind to go to the moon with a girl he had just met; that was a betrayal of the bro code, wasn't it?!
"I think you're forgetting the fact that we went to the moon and back in a couple of hours," Ciel said with an exasperated sigh, "Or the fact that we even went to the moon is pretty unbelievable.
"Hey, we were in a digital world for a couple of days. It's pretty much the same thing."
"...I'm not going to ask."
"Good, that's kind of a long story," Fujimaru told her. "Anyway, I really should get changed. I'll be back soon."
With a cheerful hum, Fujimaru left the living room to go upstairs, making sure to pick up his camera. As soon as the door closed and they heard him walk away, the three gave each other a look.
"I think we can all agree that there's something wrong with Fujimaru-kun," Ciel spoke first to which the other two nodded.
"Right, we've known him for over two years, and never once has Ritsuka smiled like that of his own volition."
"That's kinda sad."
"Exactly, Ritsu's the broody type that doesn't smile much," Ryoko described. "Whoever that is, that isn't Ritsu."
"But how did he take that pic? The only person who could do that is Ritsuka," Tetsuya pointed out. The out-of-focus, multiple-exposure photo was something no one else but Ritsuka could do.
"So was that Fujimaru-kun or not?"
"I… Unsure…" Ryoko sighed. "We need more evidence than just him taking a photo."
"So we ask things only Ritsuka would know, that's all I'm hearing."
"...Please don't tell me all your ideas about figuring out who's a doppelganger come from TV," Ciel stared at Tetsuya in particular while Ryoko silently scooted out of her eyesight.
"Uh…" His lack of a response coupled with the embarrassed blush Tetsuya had just made Ciel sigh in exasperation.
"You guys are really lucky that I came along." Maybe it was a bit arrogant of her to say that when something potentially had happened to their friends but she could not help but smirk a bit. "I know some tricks that might help us."
"And if all else fails, we pull the "I know who you are and I can prove it" trick," Ryoko declared, earning her a nod from Tetsuya and another exasperated sigh from Ciel.
"First things first then, is there anything else Fujimaru-kun can do that no one else can besides taking a terrible photo?"
"Hmm…" Both Tetsuya and Ryoko hummed as they tried to recall any unique skills their friend had. After several moments of thinking, a lightbulb lit above both their heads. "Well, there is that."
"Oh, that," Ryoko replied, getting a confused look from Ciel who did not know what they were talking about.
"What? What's that?"
"Ciel, what do you know about the club fiasco?"
"Club fiasco? I heard something about the "Club Day Incident" but that's about it."
"That's good enough. Maybe we could pull it off tomorrow," Tetsuya said, "To put it as simply as possible, we'll see if he can do everything Ritsuka could do."
Upstairs, Fujimaru closed the door of "his" room and locked it just in case. Leaning his back against the door, he remained quiet for a couple of seconds before, finally, bursting into laughter. It ended quickly though as his laughter turned into another coughing fit.
"Ow…" He groaned as he rubbed his throat again. After two-and-a-half years of faking his voice, it hurt him to use his natural voice.
'Now, what to do…?' Fujimaru deliberated on his next move as he went to rest on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He had been planning on just letting that stubborn idiot deal with Fourze and Meteor but then he just had to walk alone without Ciel. At that point, Ritsuka was just asking to be ambushed.
That did not mean he (Fujimaru) was angry at him (Ritsuka) though. Annoyed, definitely, but not angry. That idiot's blunder just meant that he could take control of the story for a bit and speed things along. Multi-tasking is essential for him if he wants to reach his desired ending as fast as he can.
Of course, there was the fact he was not doing his best impersonation of Ritsuka. He knew that the three downstairs had already figured him out as not the "real" Ritsuka and were thinking up a plan to expose him. While it did sting, he frankly did not care all that much. In his mind, they were strangers and nothing more.
The first issue he had was that the thief had taken the white Decadriver; if he wanted to complete the illusion he needed that one. The second issue was that he was that the Horoscopes believed him dead and walking back to Amanogawa was a death trap (which was why he went back home first). There was a way he could trick them but that would require him being extremely lucky.
He could think of the latter problem later though; now, he needed to find that annoying thief– whatever his name was –and take the Decadriver back. But first!
"*sniff sniff* Dammit, she was right." His armpits were starting to smell. Guess he really did need a shower. Forcing himself to sit up, he went to his closet and picked out some clothes.
Shortly after…
Stepping out of his room, Fujimaru stretched his arms as he sighed in contentment. It felt nice to freshen up after technically doing absolutely nothing the entire day. Hearing footsteps coming from the other end of the hallway, Ritsuka looked to see Ciel walking up the stairs.
"Oh, hey Ciel," he waved at her still with a warm smile, "What are you doing up here?"
"Actually, I came upstairs to see you, Fujimaru-kun," the blue-haired girl replied while returning his smile. "Can we speak in private? There are some things I want to ask you."
"Sure," Fujimaru said with a shrug. He did not particularly mind answering any questions so he agreed. "My room or yours?"
"Well…" Ciel glanced at the nearest door, Ritsuka's room, "I think the answer's obvious."
"Oh, right…" He looked back and opened the door for her. "Come on in then."
Taking the invitation, Ciel walked in and looked around. There was nothing really odd about the room that she noticed at a glance beside the picture frame on the desk. But that was not what she was here for; she was here to ask questions that only Ritsuka would know.
It was a plan they had cooked up downstairs. As Ciel was new, she was free to ask Ritsuka some personal questions without arousing much suspicion. In her pocket– assuming her moving around did not accidentally close it –was her phone that was currently on a phone call with Ryoko's. It was muted on the other end, of course, and the two downstairs would be listening in on the coming conversation.
"So what do you wanna ask?" Fujimaru had a friendly smile on as he sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him. It was really strange to see him smiling like that after only seeing him with a neutral look practically 24/7 (although she silently admitted to herself that he had a nice smile).
Sitting down next to him, she put on her best high school girl impression, just like old times. "I'm still a bit… confused about this whole journey. Admittedly, I don't really know you or the others that well so I want to fix that."
They had decided on some questions that only Ritsuka and at least one of the others could know that Ciel would bring up.
"Okay then." Fujimaru seemed to be alright with that. "Go ahead, ask away."
"I know it's a bit harsh of me to bring it up but you don't have memories from before two and a half years ago, right?" The nod she got prompted her to continue. "What's the first thing you remember? I'm curious as to how you were found."
"Easy, I woke up in a garbage pile beside my old school's dorms." While it was strange how carefreely he answered the question, Ryoko and Tetsuya had told her Ritsuka did not particularly care much about his amnesia. "All I had was some ripped-up clothes and that camera."
"And the person who found you…?"
"That would be the dorm mother. She was throwing out the trash when she found me and took me inside," Fujimaru answered. "She made Tetsuya give me some of his clothes and brought me upstairs to rest while the ambulance was on the way."
"I see…" That was the first question. Whether it was completely correct, she did not know yet as they had not told her the complete sequence of events. "So how did you manage to get into that school with Tsunogai-kun and Ryoko-san?"
"Sumida pulled some strings. She had been working for the school for a long time and had friends in the places that mattered," said Fujimaru, "All it took was for me to take a couple of tests and they let me enroll."
That question Tetsuya and Ryoko did tell her the answer and Fujimaru was right.
"Any more questions?" Fujimaru asked her.
"Yeah, I was wondering…"
And so, she spent the next half-hour interrogating Fujimaru to see if he was a real deal. The short answers she got (like how he first met Ryoko) were all correct so it was up to the two downstairs to see if the longer ones were also right.
"Is that all?" Despite all her questions, he did not at all sound tired or annoyed with her.
Truthfully, there was still one more question Ciel has yet to ask. She had avoided it simply for the fact it might give Ritsuka the wrong idea but she had to get it over wish. "Last one, have you been in a relationship before?"
"Re… Relationship? You mean a girlfriend?" Yeah… The look he told Ciel that he had gotten the wrong idea. That, or he was just embarrassed that she had asked. Hopefully, it was the former and not the latter.
Regardless, if she were to bring up that, she would just be digging her own grave. So she just pretended that it was a normal question one would ask a friend (which he was). "Yeah, you didn't bring up anybody you were close with before you went on this journey. I mean besides those two, of course."
"To be honest, not really," Fujimaru admitted with a small blush, "I was never really in the right place or time for a romantic relationship."
"Why? From what I learned about your school life, it didn't sound like there was nobody interested in you."
"Just because I was popular doesn't mean I wanted to be, unlike you."
"Hey, I told you that was just natural; I did not purposefully make myself popular because I wanted to," Ciel denied again. "Need I remind you, I did nothing to you and you still couldn't resist looking."
"Hmm… I admit you're right."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night," Ciel repeated with a smirk… that disappeared and was replaced with a small blush as soon as she realized what Fujimaru just said. "Wait, what did you say?!"
"I said that I admit I was looking," Fujimaru repeated with a smile, only slightly embarrassed to be saying that. "Really that surprising to hear?"
Ciel did not answer as she was still trying to process that unexpected answer. She was so prepared for Fujimaru to deny it that she was completely caught off-guard that he told the truth.
"...Ciel? You still in there?" Fujimaru waved his hands in front of her frozen face. "Hm… Looks like I broke her."
"Huh?" Ciel voiced as she got out of her stupor. "Sorry, sorry. I just… really didn't expect you to admit that."
"What? The truth?" She really had a hard time figuring out whether he was just teasing her or was serious. That smile, that stupid smile, was really throwing her for a loop.
"...I don't believe you." There was no doubt about it; this smiley and flirty Fujimaru Ritsuka was a fake. There was absolutely no way Ritsuka would actually say that.
"What's hard to believe? That I genuinely find you attractive?"
'Stop smiling already, I can't tell if you're being serious!' Ciel was very much regretting asking that question now that it led to this. In the short time she has known him, Ritsuka had always had a way with words but this was different, very different.
"I-" She could not find the right words to respond which he seemed to interpret as a go-ahead to keep talking.
"Oh, right. I just remembered I still haven't really thanked you for helping me last time," Fujimaru said, "Both in Agito's and Kiva's."
"Kiva's…?" It took Ciel a moment to figure out that he was talking about the other her he had run into and subsequently fought. "You don't need to thank me for anything, especially not for something I didn't even do," She told her, now calmed and not as flustered anymore.
"But I still need to make it up to you somehow. Especially since I ended up dragging you along with me… us," Fujimaru quickly corrected himself as he leaned closer to Ciel's face.
"Ur… Fujimaru-kun?"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?" She asked, realizing just how close their faces were now.
"What do you think I'm doing?" He said back not in an accusing tone, but rather an inquisitive one. Fujimaru did not pull back and stared deeply into her eyes. "Well? What do you think?"
"...Fujimaru, don't." Ciel said with a serious tone that surprised him somewhat. She was no longer flustered and put on her more reserved Executor mask, "You and I, we're… I should leave."
"..." Fujimaru silently watched Ciel as she stood up and quickly exited the room. Once he heard her footsteps disappear, he could not help but smirk to himself. 'Surprised that she didn't leave earlier,' he thought, having expected Ciel to peace out to leave when he said she was attractive, 'Then again, wasn't expecting her to ask that in the first place.'
He, of course, knew the intent of that interrogation and was not concerned at all. The only thing separating him from that idiot was their blatantly opposite personality. Even if he had not been with Ritsuka the entire time they were in that world, he would have still been able to answer those questions with no problems.
Now though, he was not sure what to do. He was about to head down and hang around downstairs but Ciel had shot that down with their talk. Fujimaru did not doubt that they would be talking about the conversation and he would rather not disturb them. Let them go back and forth on whether he was Fujimaru Ritsuka.
'Hmm… I should go look for that thief.' That was a solid next step, he needed to get the Decadriver back anyway. Fujimaru knew that Takaragi was mostly after those "relics" if the stuff he had stolen in this world and the last were of any indication. Opening an Aurora Curtain, he stepped through it to start his search for that annoying thief.
"Alright!" Ciel shouted as she entered the living room and sat on the couch, "That was definitely not Fujimaru. There was no way he would've actually flirt with me."
"Well…" Tetsuya said in a higher pitch, making Ciel raise an eyebrow at him.
"What? You guys were listening; has he ever said something like that before?"
"Normally, the answer would be no and I would've laughed if anyone told me Ritsu flirted with somebody," Ryoko answered, "But!"
"...But what?" Ciel did not get a good feeling with that but.
"Like I just said, Ritsu doesn't flirt… Until we ran into someone a few worlds back."
"...Please don't say it's Kiva's world." Ciel had a sinking suspicion as to who they may be referring to.
"It was Kiva's world," Ryoko said it anyway despite her pleas.
"I… have no idea how I should feel about that." The information that Ritsuka had flirted with another version of her was… Well, as she said, she did not know what to think.
"Flirting was kind of an understatement, really," Tetsuya added which just made Ciel even more distressed.
"How bad was it?"
"Well, it was not bad per se… It was just the type of flirting that one does not want to hear."
"...Like?" She was going to regret asking, won't she?
"Uh… Ryoko, she's already planning to kill you so you might as well be the one to tell her."
"Me?" Ryoko asked incredulously before flinching under Ciel's stare. "Well… Compared to what Ritsu and that other you were talking about, what whoever's up there said is pretty tame."
"...Please tell me they didn't do anything." If they said that something happened between those two, Ciel would have no idea how she could look at Ritsuka's face after this.
"No, nothing happened." She sighed in relief upon hearing Ryoko's answer. "...I think."
"What do you mean you think?"
"I mean we were there for three days doing nothing, anything could've happened in that time," Ryoko said.
"So what you're saying is-?!"
"Okay, let's leave the topic of whether or not they did it on the side. We still have a major problem here," Tetsuya spoke up and interrupted Ciel. He did not want to say the word sex since he knew saying it to her face was probably suicidal. "We're still not 100% sure the Ritsuka upstairs is a fake. He answered all the questions correctly; the only thing off about him is his personality."
"So we go with plan C then," Ryoko said, nodding. "Let's see how skilled the Ritsu upstairs is tomorrow."
"Urgh… In that case, we should head over to Amanogawa. See if we can get the leaders of the more popular clubs to be willing to check him out," Ciel said with a flustered face. The possibility they had brought up regarding Ritsuka and that other her doing that will never leave her mind. "I don't want to leave you here with that guy alone so you'll have to come with me."
"Okay, but two questions; one, how do we get into the school? Neither me nor Ryoko are students there. Two, what about that guy?"
"Just leave that first one to me, I have my ways," Ciel told them. "As for that guy… Leave a message for him or something."
Honestly, Ciel felt that whoever that was, he does not have any ill intentions. It mainly came from the fact he did not do anything when he and she were alone but that might just have been him not thinking he could take her alone. Plus, if he did not want to be discovered as a fake, he would have made a better attempt at being broody.
"Come on, we should get going as soon as possible."
Takaragi Yuu kept his eyes peeled as he continued looking through the broken-down satellite deep underground.
"Hmm… Guess that Astroswitch was really the only thing here…" Takaragi muttered to himself as he gave up his search, confident that there was nothing else left he wanted to take. Well, there was the satellite itself but he had no idea how he could take this entire thing since he knew it would not be stolen by the Fourze Ridewatch.
Stopping to think about his next move, Takaragi unconsciously reached into his jacket and pulled out the Fusion Astroswitch that he found here. Other than that, there was no treasure in this world that was related to Fourze or Meteor. "...There was a third, wasn't there?"
He then put the Astroswitch away before pulling out three cards. They were the KamenRide cards for Fourze, Meteor, and one more Rider that had a similar helmet to Fourze. Instead of the fins on the side of the helmet though, this one had theirs on the top of their head along with blue eyes. Interestingly, the latter two cards had white backgrounds rather than the black one Fourze had.
However, whatever plan he had in his head was immediately forgotten as he heard clapping from behind him. Quickly taking his Diendriver out and turning around, he aimed his gun at whoever was behind him.
"You know, I'm very impressed that you managed to find this place." Congratulatory applause came from the young man standing before Takaragi. The thief stared down the sights of his gun at the other person but his eyes soon widened once he recognized who it was.
"Ritsuka-kun, what are-?!" 'Wait, no. That's not him.' The smile that Fujimaru Ritsuka had was a big red flag. A moment later, Takaragi realized that there was no way that Ritsuka would know about this place so that meant…
"What are you doing here, devil?" Takaragi glared at him as he tightened his grip on his gun.
"Simple, I'm here for the Decadriver," Fujimaru answered with a smile, "I know you have it so hand it over."
"..." Takaragi continued to keep his weapon on the young man but he could feel his fingers shaking. It was not like when they met in Agito's world, this time Fujimaru announced his attention to taking back what was his.
"Look, personally, I don't want to fight. Annoying as you are, I'd rather not leave you here unconscious underneath this mountain," Fujimaru seemed to noticed his fear and said that to calm him down.
"...Then I'll trade for it," Takaragi declared bravely despite his shaking. "You were the one who gave that Forbidden Book about Agito to Ritsuka, right? You probably have something with equal worth as the belt."
"Ooh, trying to make a deal with the devil? Those never go well," Fujimaru replied with an amused tone. "But fine, I'll give you something."
With a snap of his finger, an Aurora Curtain opened and washed over Fujimaru. Now though, there was something in his hand: a Fourze Driver. Its lever was gone along with the four Astroswitches that were in its slot but other than that, it looked fine.
"Would this suffice?" He asked with a smirk. "It doesn't work anymore, but this is still a treasure, correct?"
"...Yes, that would do," Takaragi nodded before taking out the Decadriver. "On three."
"3."
"2."
"1."
Simultaneously, they tossed the Drivers at the other and easily caught them. They both also inspected the belt buckles for a few seconds before putting them away.
"And that's step one down…" Fujimaru muttered with a satisfied smile. Now for step two, go back to Amanogawa and befriend Fourze to get his powers. That should be easy since this was Fourze they were talking about. "Now then, I should take my leave."
He opened a larger dimensional wall and was about to step through when he heard Takaragi say something.
"You… Do you really don't remember who I am…?" It was barely above a whisper, but he heard it.
"No, should I?" Despite asking, Fujimaru did not stick around for an answer and stepped through his portal.
"...Dammit!" Takaragi cursed loudly and slammed his fist into the wall next to him which echoed through the empty hallways and rooms. It was different than when Ritsuka said he did not remember him since that one had amnesia but him? That just angered him even if there was nothing justifying it.
With a small growl, Takaragi opened his own wall and left the satellite to do something else to calm himself…
Amanogawa High School…
"Well… I did hear some rumors about Fujimaru-san being good but my club's full enough as it is, I might have to bench one of the others…"
"Please, Takawa-kun? Maybe Fujimaru-kun could help push the team to the nationals?" Ciel pleaded to the captain of the track team.
"Hmm… Alright, I'll ask him to join the team. But can I ask why are you so interested in him anyway?" The club leader could not help but ask to which Ciel just responded with a smile.
"I just have known Fujimaru-kun for such a long time that I want to help him get used to Amanogawa," she replied before adjusting her glasses and looking the captain in the eyes. A second later, she said. "That was all you wanted to know about Fujimaru-kun, right Takawa-kun?"
"Huh?" Takawa said upon coming out of his second-long daze. "Oh, yeah. Sorry to have disturbed you."
"It's not a problem, see you next time," Ciel told him before waving goodbye and walking away while Takawa turned around and went off in search of Fujimaru Ritsuka to get him to join the track team.
Ciel, meanwhile, went off to an empty classroom and met up with Ryoko and Tetsuya. "Alright, that's the Track, Swimming, and Tennis Clubs done."
"Hmm…" Tetsuya hummed as he read the next names on the list of clubs in Amanogawa. "There's the Volleyball Club for sports. Or do you want to go with a cultural club?"
"I'm fine with either but which one is closer or on the way?" It was less about preference and more about how many she could convince before everyone goes home for the day.
The plan was (relatively) simple; after easily convincing the leaders of the various club to ask Fujimaru to join them, she would alter their memories a little bit as to cover her tracks. While it would be quicker to just outright add a couple of fake memories, doing it that way was slightly less morally dubious and would explain why she was seen talking to the club leaders. That was also on top of adding a couple of memories of Ritsuka's friends so that they can walk around later or tomorrow.
"We're on the second floor so… there are the art clubs like drama, rakugo, and music. It says here they all use the theater so that's another three in one fell swoop."
"Good, that would speed things along," Ciel nodded, before letting out a sigh. Admittedly, walking all over the school was a bit tiring. Not as tiring as fighting the undead, of course, but tiring nonetheless. "Which way is the theater?"
"Give me a moment…" Ryoko asked as she checked the rather large school map. "It's not too far from the utility building which is-"
"Oh, I know where that is. That's where the entrance to the moon base is." Wow, she never thought she could ever say that with a straight face, or say that period. "Huh, that reminds me…"
Gentaro said that he and Kengo were part of the Kamen Rider Club. With all this effort to expose Fujimaru as a fake, she had forgotten about why they were here in this world in the first place.
"I think I've added enough memories of you guys so you should be safe now," Ciel told them.
"Still surprised you can do that…"
"But there's something I need you guys to do. There's a student here, Tsukinari Gentaro, he's Kamen Rider Fourze."
"The Rider of this world?" Tetsuya said before adding, "Let me guess, you want us to find him?"
"Yeah, to help Fujimaru-kun a bit." It went unspoken that she meant the real one. "It would be easy to spot him, he's not wearing the school uniform."
"That's convenient."
"Then it's settled. I'll head to the arts clubs while you guys look for Fourze." With Ritsuka (most likely) gone, it was up to them to pull their own weights.
With a plan in mind, they went towards the door and opened it… Just to see a student standing there.
"Oh! Um… hi?" The student in the brown uniform said with a sheepish smile as a result of being caught. "I wasn't listening to you guys or anything."
"And you are…?" Ciel was the first to say anything.
"Oh, I'm Yuzuki Ryuusei from Class 3-B," the student introduced himself. "The same class as Tsukinari-san."
"..." Well, that wasn't good and would have been a problem… had it not been for a slight adjustment of her glasses.
"Oh, I remember now. What are you doing here, Yuzuki-kun?" Ciel asked with a large smile. Behind her back though, she was gesturing for the other two to play along.
"I was just wondering what you were doing, Ciel-senpai." Ryuusei, now without any memories of overhearing what they were talking about along with a rather heavy suggestion spell, answered.
"That's a secret, Yuzuki-kun," she winked at him, "But it's fortunate that you're here. Can you take them to Tsukinari-kun? If you're not busy, that is."
"Of course, I don't mind helping you out," Ryuusei nodded with a smile before looking at Ryoko and Tetsuya. "Jindai-san, Tsunogai-san, please follow me."
"Why do you get to be senpai?" Ryoko muttered as she and Tetsuya walked past to follow after Ryuusei.
Ciel remained behind for a few seconds before quietly sighing at the close call. That could have gone terribly.
Now then, to the theater!
Meanwhile, up on the moon…
"So let me get this straight, you just… told them everything?!" If noise could travel through the vacuum of space, anybody standing outside the Rabbit Hatch could have easily heard the shouting from within the moon base.
"Ow…" Gentaro groaned as he rubbed his ears in pain. "I didn't tell them everything, Yuuki. Just the important bits."
"I don't have a problem with Ciel-san, she's more reliable than Sayaka-san, but we barely know Fujimaru-san!" The girl named Yuuki exclaimed. "...No offense."
"None taken, Yuuki-san," Fujimaru just smiled in response. "I did just transfer here and haven't even met you guys before I came sneaking in."
He was currently in the Rabbit Hatch along with Gentaro and Kengo, the latter still in the lab analyzing the Dragon Zodiarts as well as the previously mentioned battles. Now though, they were joined by a few more members of the so-called Kamen Rider Club.
"Still though, the fact that the Ginseisora prodigy managed to find this place was pretty lucky of him," another boy dressed rather colorfully said as he moved to sit down next to Fujimaru, "Stumbling into one of the coolest places in the entire school on your first day! What are the chances of that?!"
"Ryuusei-san did it too, you know…" A girl dressed rather darkly as she could while wearing the school uniform muttered as she knitted a black scarf.
"Yeah, but we knew nothing about Ryuusei-kun back then. Him, on the other hand, I've heard lots of rumors about you, Fujimaru-kun," the boy had a goofy grin on his face. "Now that Yuuki-chan is done venting, can we take a few pics now?"
"Sure, sure. I don't mind at all," Fujimaru said, prompting the boy to take out his phone and passed it to Gentaro.
"Gentaro, here. Can you take the photos?"
"Sure thing, JK," Gentaro nodded and gave them a thumbs up.
"I should probably take this off too," Fujimaru said as he took off his camera and put it on the table.
As the three went around the room to take some pictures, Yuuki just crashed at the table and buried her face in her hands.
"What are you so upset about, Yuuki-san?" The goth girl asked as she sat next to her. "I thought you would be fine with Fujimaru-san joining us." While he had not said he would be joining the Kamen Rider Club, her point got across clearly to Yuuki.
"It's not that, Nozoma-san. It's just that Miu-senpai will rub it in my face that the one day she isn't around, someone discovers the Rabbit Hatch," Yuuki complained to her friend and fellow member.
"There, there. If you want me to, I can erase his memories and leave him in a back alley somewhere," Nozoma said with a completely straight face that somehow convinced Yuuki that she could do something (not so) absurd.
"Really?!" She shot up from her seat and looked down at Nozoma. Seeing the other girl's small smirk though made her realize that she was just joking. "Don't mess with me like that…" Yuuki sighed as she collapsed back into the seat.
Nozoma, meanwhile, glanced at the boys (minus Kengo) taking pictures with Gentaro and JK sometimes switching places. "Where's Ryuusei-san?" She noticed that the last member of their club was not here yet.
"Oh, he said there was something he wanted to do before joining us," Yuuki answered, "Something about asking Ciel-san about something."
"Ciel-senpai huh…" Nozoma muttered, pouting a bit and putting her knitting on the table and unconsciously picking up Fujimaru's camera.
Luckily for her though, it was right then when the door back to Earth opened and the person in question stepped. "Hey, everyone," Ryuusei waved as he entered the room.
"Oh. Hey, Ryuus-"
"So this is the moon!" Yuuki was cut off by two strangers walking in after him.
"And it's on the other side of a school locker…" the boy of the duo added to his friend's statement.
"Ryuusei, who're they?" Yuuki heard Gentaro ask. He did not sound angry or annoyed, just curious.
"Ritsu?! How did you get here before us?!"
"Oh, hey guys."
"...Why?!"
Meanwhile…
Ciel stared at the side door of the theater for a few seconds before she tried to open it. Again, she found that it was locked, just like the front door.
After a minute or so of looking around, she found another door and tried to open it only to find it was also locked.
"Hmm…" She hummed to herself. Normally, she would not think about it and just assume that the theater was locked for the day. However, with three clubs using it, at least one of them must be using it, right? Moreover, this whole school was not normal when a monster could appear out of nowhere, summon a bunch of ninjas after them, and then disappear without a trace. There was also the dragon monster that appeared earlier.
All in all, something could be happening in the theater and she needed to investigate further.
It did not take much effort for Ciel to open the locked door to what she learned to be right next to a backstage staircase. She could hear faint talking somewhere inside so she snuck in and went up the stairs thinking she could get a better view of whatever was going on.
She ended up on a catwalk above the main stage and looked down. Had it not been the gravity of the situation, she would have cracked a smirk at being correct that something was going on.
"Hey, hey… Can none of you make a good joke?" The crab monster– Zodiarts –complained as he sat in one of the front seats near the stage. In his right hand were several large white rings, some of which had been cut. More importantly, though, was the few seemingly dead students that were laid out on the stage while a few more were frozen in fear. "Karagi-san, aren't you part of the Language Club or something? Not even a foreign joke or something?"
"I-!"
"Save it, it's too late now." Ciel watched as the crab Zodiarts used his left pincer-hand to cut one of the rings in his other hand. As soon as he did, the student named Karagi dropped like a sack of rocks, making the other students that were still standing scream.
'Hmph, looks like I have to do something about this.' Putting on her cold-hearted Executor persona again, she changed into her combat attire with a snap of her fingers. She pulled out her Black Keys and manifested their blades, ready to sneak attack the crustacean monster. 'Have to be careful with this, if I hit those…'
Those halos seemed to be a curse tied to the students on stage. If they're cut, they drop; it was as simple as that. She did not know if it was killing them but she still had to be careful regardless.
However, just as she was about to spring into action.
"What are you doing, Cancer?" A feminine voice echoed throughout the theater hall as a portal appeared next to the sitting Zodiarts. Another Zodiarts appeared out of the vortex, forcing Ciel to stay up in the catwalks to watch.
"Oh, Virgo, I thought you said you were busy with other stuff," Cancer told his compatriot. "I was just having some fun. That so-called fight was completely boring so this is making up for that."
'Fight?'
"To be forcing your peers to make a joke to save their souls, you really embody what I said during yesterday's meeting, haven't you?" Virgo said while glancing at the stage of frightened students.
"You have a problem with it?"
"No," the pink Zodiarts replied bluntly. "I'm here because I need to ask you something."
"And that is?"
"Have you seen Libra since yesterday's meeting?"
'Libra…' It did not escape Ciel's notice that their names were based on the Western Zodiacs. 'Was Libra the one who attacked us?'
"Hmm…" Cancer thought about it for a moment before realizing he had not. "No, not even in his real form."
"I see…"
"Maybe he's running errands for the boss," the crab suggested before continuing when he heard the confused noise from Virgo, "You left before us so you wouldn't have heard. He asked Libra to stay after the meeting."
"Did you hear what it was about?"
"I think Libra's supposed to do something while we dispose of Decade."
Ciel's eyes shot open at what Cancer said, her grip on her weapons tightening. 'What?!'
"I did not hear much else though, Leo forced me out," the crab finished.
"Would those errands be impersonating our recently departed friend?" Virgo asked as Ciel paid much more attention to what they were talking about.
Cancer, meanwhile, seemed equally confused as she was at the suggestion. "What are you talking about?"
"Since you've been entertaining yourself in here since the battle, I'm not surprised you haven't heard yet."
"Heard what?"
'Heard what?!' Ciel had a sinking feeling as to what Virgo was talking about and she hoped she was wrong.
"After we murdered Decade, it seems Libra had taken his identity and been posing as him since then. You would've known had you actually gone to class."
"Oh, come on! Don't pin that on me, I got distracted on the way to class!" Cancer fumed, "Tsk, whatever then. If it's the boss's orders that he imitates Decade, why should I care?"
"Because we're both going to speak to him, just in case."
"Hey, wai-" Virgo did not wait and pulled Cancer up before summoning another vortex and dragging him into it.
'That means-!' She had to find those two fast. Oh, she hated that she was right that Fujimaru was a fake…
Meanwhile, Rabbit Hatch…
After some much-deserved scolding from Kengo for bringing those two non-students here, Ryuusei sat in the small compartment slightly above the others as they talked, his legs resting on the yellow ladder leading to it.
'Why did I bring them here…?' He thought to himself. He cannot remember why he agreed to do so at Ciel's behest. All she did was ask and he followed.
'That woman, who is she? And who is he?' Ryuusei had absolutely no clue what was going on. Firstly, what was up with the blue-haired third-year(?). He had memories of meeting her from a while back… but he also knew for a fact that she was with Fujimaru Ritsuka in the library yesterday. More importantly though, he had overheard that she was not from Amanogawa.
After returning to the library after somehow losing Libra, he clearly heard what their principal said, "We at Amanogawa encourage our students to enjoy their school days. Building strong relationships, even with students outside of our school, is a valuable part of growing up."
Ciel was a student here, he knew that for sure, but she was also not a student here. And that was not even going into Fujimaru Ritsuka himself.
Tachibana said that Fujimaru Ritsuka had been killed by the Zodiarts so how was the new transfer student sitting ten feet away from him? His friends (the ones he brought to the Rabbit Hatch) seemed strangely wary of him too. What was going on?
"Ryuusei-san?" He heard someone whisper, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Hmm?" Ryuusei looked down to see Nozoma with a strange camera. "What is it, Tomoda-san?"
"Um…" Nozoma briefly glanced back at the group talking at the table to see if anyone was listening. After confirming that no one was, she looked back up at Ryuusei and quickly passed the camera to him. "Look through this."
Taking the camera, Ryuusei had no clue what Nozama was after. After doing what she said, he immediately understood.
"Eh?" He quietly mouthed. He looked through the camera again to make sure what he saw was real. "Eh?"
'How-?' Ryuusei could not form complete trains of thoughts as he looked into the camera.
There were seven people at the table: Gentaro, Kengo, Yuuki, JK, Ryoko, Tetsuya, and Fujimaru.
As he looked through the camera's mirrors, however, all Ryuusei saw was six.
?
Ritsuka groaned as he opened his eyes to the roof of a… tent? What?
He faintly heard the sound of flowing water outside his tent which somewhat calmed him down. 'What happened?' He asked himself.
A moment later, memories of the "fight" (he's never gonna live that down) came flooding in. Now he had a second question in his mind, 'Is this the Dark Nebula?'
While the tent was black, that was about it and some light was poking through the fabric a bit. Something told Ritsuka that the Dark Nebula probably did not have a sun.
He tried to get out of what he now realized was a sleeping bag and stumbled out of the tent. On first look, it was… peaceful.
Unlike the school he was in, where he was now was filled with nature. His new tent was next to a large river in the middle of a forest at the base of a mountain. However, he noticed that there was a second tent set up next to his along with a campfire and a small portable chair.
"Oh, kid! You're finally awake!" Ritsuka heard a man's voice shout in a friendly but frantic tone. Turning his head down the river, he saw an older man currently fishing. And it looked like he caught something big. "If you don't mind, would you lend me a hand?!"
The man did not need to say anything more as Ritsuka rushed to his side and helped him reel in the fish. It was a short but hard battle but the two managed to reel in a large one and the man quickly threw it in the bucket next to him.
"Woo! Looks like we'll be eating good tonight," the man chuckled while wiping a sweat (or river water) off his brow before turning to Ritsuka. "Nice to see you finally awake, kid. You have been sleeping like a log since yesterday."
"Yesterday?" Was that how long it has been since he was ambushed by the Horoscopes? "What happened…?" Ritsuka muttered, not expecting the man to answer him.
"You tell me, I just found you unconscious by the river so I have no clue either," the man shrugged.
"You…" There was something familiar about the man that Ritsuka could not place his finger on. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I should probably introduce myself, shouldn't I?" The man laughed for a second before he finally told Ritsuka his name.
"You can just call me Hibiki."
Next time on Across the Kaleidoscope
"Why must people automatically assume I'm the fake one?"
"I'm just up here to train, kid. Nothing more than that."
"Pure sound… Ongekibou…"
"After all, I am the true Fujimaru Ritsuka, no matter how much he wants to deny it."
Chapter 18: The Well-Trained Man
A/N: And done! Two very major things happened in this chapter. The reveal that this is actually a fusion arc with Hibiki, and that we finally learn exactly who the cloaked man is. If you know your Riders (or at least Ryuki), you'll know exactly what he is.
If you look back through his appearance, you'd notice just how much foreshadowing I put into it. I'll only pick out the two I (remember I) put in the first chapter. One, after Ritsuka leaves the clubroom. Two, whose words did he think of when the world was ending. There are plenty more than that *cough* left-handed *cough*but I'll leave that for you guys to figure out.
Next thing is Hibiki. The problem with doing Phase 2 Riders is that at this point in the story, they mostly could be counted as filler than anything since Ritsuka doesn't walk away with anything useful. To alleviate that just this once, we get Fourze mixed with Hibiki. Why Hibiki? Because the others have their own plots already so yeah.
It also seems that everyone was okay with the Ritsuka/Ciel idea so Imma plan that out more. Luckily, there are some things that would work in a quiet scene, mainly their backstories so yay!
This arc will definitely be a 4-parter rather than 3 so yay for that too (I think)! Title also ended up being not-so-well in the process though. It was supposed to skip to the next day, but I wanted to end the Fourze part with that scene
As always, please leave a review and all that stuff and see you next time!