MASSIVE DISCLAIMER AND SPOILER BEFORE READING THIS PART!
As I said in the last chapter, this part was just a lengthy digression from me about what I want to share and express about the story that I came up with. For those readers who don't want a long ramble, you may just ignore this chapter. This digression also held several secrets, spoilers, and ideas that I had in my mind regarding the story of this Gotcard x Symphogear crossover. So, you might spoil yourself about the story that I have in store. But then again, I can't promise the continuity or longevity of this fic on consistent basis so you may take what I share here as a fuel for your imagination to continue the story in your head. For those who don't want to read this digression part, no problem and thank you if you read the last chapter corresponding to this digression. For those who don't mind reading a long ramble from me, I hope you to enjoy this long idea spat here. Hopefully, you all have a good fun reading or experiencing the story or digression that I share here.
Once again, I must thank you for you all readers who had read the story or the chapter before and still willing to read this part. Before, I elaborate even further in this digression, I must make a little celebration here:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! TSUKUYOMI SHIRABE!
For a little context here, I deliberately published that bonus chapter on Shirabe's birth date which on my time zone was already at February 16Th. You might take that bonus chapter as a birthday present for Shirabe here. If you just read the start of the chapter, you might think this was just a fun relaxing chapter, capturing the feeling of a Shirabe-meshi manga chapter. But, boy, if you read the chapter's title and what had transpired in relation to Shirabe in this chapter, it must be quite shocking and gut-punching experience to read the story. I'm pretty sure this was a rather ironic and twisted birthday present for Shirabe and I should've said to prepare some box of tissues or buckle up your heart in the last chapter. I also want to express that despite what I had done to Shirabe in the bonus chapter, I don't hate her and in fact, Shirabe is favourite Symphogear girl from the franchise, maybe behind Tsubasa but the two of them are interchangeable based on my moods and days. Shirabe being the center-focus of this chapter, along with her other friends, was the proof that she is my favourite Symphogear girl and how much I want her story to intertwine with other casts, especially to the Gotchard characters.
Speaking of Gotchard characters, I'm pretty sure if you read the whole chapter, you should know by now about how the story would progress from the pilot chapter to this bonus chapter. Again, it must be quite mental gymnastics to bridge an episode from season 1 and jumped into an episode from season 6. Several questions and theories that you might had in the pilot chapter, more or less they were answered in this chapter. Truth to be told, I already had in my minds a rough idea for how the story would progress and how long I intend the story to go if I was more consistent writing this fic. I already think of the fic to be divided into 6 or 7 seasons, with each season buckling around 13-15 chapters each.
5 seasons are bare minimum because I want Houtaro gaining access to his major power-ups in the series each in every season. Not to mention, I do also drop several info about unused forms in the series that I had included into the story in my mind along with some OG power ups that might come later. After counting up a bit, I can safely say that this bonus chapter took place at least in the final season or, in this case, the 6th season. I do have an inkling that this chapter should take place in the 7th season but for now I think labelling the chapter as a pilot episode of the 6th season is already suffice.
Now for the more meat info that I want to share… I'm pretty sure based on what you had read in the story, you can safely assume that the Zababies, or Shirabe and Kirika, as the main Symphogear girls in the story. Basically, they are the MCs of this fic and they would be the one who interacted with Houtaro and Rinne the most in the story. It must be puzzling to read a story of a Symphogear but without Hibiki or Miku to be founded in the story and even more puzzling to read Shirabe and Kirika held so much more significance to the narrative. Once again, I must preface this by saying the premise of this GotchardxSymphogear crossover was already full of twist and turn. To give a context of how I decided to pair Houtaro and Rinne along with Shirabe and Kirika, I'll share how I came up with the idea of this crossover.
The idea of me making my own GotchardXSymphogear crossover did get some influences from stories of other writers, like ZeroEnchiladas and Taiman215, but my main idea of the story revolved around combining the alchemy aspect of Symphogear(which was underutilized a bit IMO) along with Gotchard's own them with alchemy. Me focusing on Shirabe and Kirika as the front girls of the story was the byproduct of that idea. As I said previously, Shirabe was my favourite Symphogear girl, neck-to-neck with Tsubasa. To add a bit, Kirika was my third favourite Symphogear girl and, without Tsubasa, the Zababies are actually my favourite girls/characters in the franchise. Once I dived into the Symphogear's franchise, I decided to look up some fics or stories about the Zababies but they were few and far between. I'm pretty sure that there were little fics about a SymphogearxKamen Rider crossover that would heavily focus on the Zababies too.
With the info above, I came into a conclusion of what characters that should go or be paired with the main Symphogear girls. Considering how the Gotchard emphasized of fulfilling or completing an uncomplete half of yourself with someone else, I came into the conclusion that the main duo Houtaro and Rinne should be paired with Shirabe and Kirika. Many people had said that Shirabe and Kirika are the two halves of each other and I apply the same logic to Houtaro and Rinne. Houtaro being paired with Shirabe was already a given and unchanging part of this story. I think Houtaro's energetic personality would match up perfectly with Shirabe's more reserved and level-headed personality. The same goes with Kirika and Rinne where Kirika's optimism and energy would balance well with Rinne's own reservedness and her being an introvert. Though, that doesn't mean Houtaro can't interact with Kirika or Shirabe can't interact with Rinne and as you read, Shirabe and Rinne's story was the main crux in the bonus chapter. There were still more that I can talk about the story that Houtaro and the girls had but that would be touched on later.
The next girls that I paired up with of course, Tsubasa and Chris. For Tsubasa… I'll touch on that later because she was being paired up with a rather 'interesting'/'unorthodox' character. For Chris, however, it was simpler and I easily came with a conclusion that she must be perfectly fit to be paired with Supana. Unlike Houtaro and Rinne's pairing with the Zababies, I want to make Supana and Chris's relationship to be rougher and conflicting than the other pairings in the story. You should have already read how conflicting their personalities with each other and that was more or less how they interacted on daily basis. Obviously, there were some big questions about how Supana ended up in Chris's place and how she and Stephan ended up making their own Garage business. For now, I'll let your imagination run amok on how these characters ended up with a splinter of the info that I had given in the bonus chapter.
The rest of the girls and other characters… Well, you might already get a gist of it if you read the ending sequence that I made for the bonus chapter. More or less, you know what characters that I had in my mind for the story along with those that already kicked the bucket off-screen before this chapter. That still brings up the questions, where are Hibiki and Miku? I must say it again; I truly hadn't gotten a good idea to bring either Hibiki or Miku in the story with how I already paired the characters with their own respective matchups. As I said previously, I did have a plan in my head to include them in a storyline if either Legend or Gotchard Daybreak appeared in the story but I still don't have grasp an idea of whether I should include Daybreak or Legend in the story. For that reason, I also exclude Future Houtaro and Kaguya in the ending too because I was too unsure whether I should include them into the story properly and the same goes for Hibiki and Miku. Again, it's not that I hate either of those characters but I'm already contend if this story didn't need to touch on all of those elements that I exclude.
Now, with all the preambles about the characters are done, let's talk about the big elephant of the room. Yes, that was the inclusion of a 'not-so' OC character of this story, Daiki Suzuya. If you thought that this character was an OC, that wasn't truly correct because that character did in fact appeared in Minato's past in the OG Gotchard series. So, it must be even more puzzling to read that a one-off character from a flashback of a character in the Gotchard series to get a huge spotlight and characterization in this story. The reason of his inclusion to Houtaro's story and team was because I want to give Houtaro an older-brother-like figure for him. Considering Houtaro already has an influx of girls surrounding him and his only best male friend was just Kajiki, I decide to even things up by giving him brother-like figure that he could count on. You could say that I could give that role to Supana but I prefer Supana as more of an opposition for Houtaro and not a character that would be supportive to him. The same goes for Minato and he's more fatherly toward Houtaro rather than brotherly to him so I cross him out too.
Then, I decide, let's just make that one guy in Minato's flashback into a full-fledge character in the story. Considering that guy was pretty similar to Houtaro in terms of personality and characters, I think he would be a better choice to be a dependable figure for Houtaro in the story. That was how I decided to include Daiki as a member of the core team in the story. Again, this might be quite a divisive action and decision that I made, but I hope you all enjoy his inclusion to the story along with how he supported Houtaro and the rest of the group in the bonus chapter. In fact, I already foreshadowed his appearance in the pilot chapter if you read carefully the line and read the cast list in the Post Pilot Chapter's digression. So, Daiki's inclusion in the story was actually firmer that you might think and he won't be a one-off character for the story moving forward.
While I said that Daiki isn't an OC per se, I actually based on his antics and Rider powers from a character in the Yugioh Go Rush series. If you know the song that I used at the ending, that song is from that Yugioh series. Based on that info, I based on Daiki from Manabu Sougetsu from the Go Rush series. So, if you have a hard time imagining how Daiki looked or acted in the story, you can assume he was more or less similar to Manabu from Go Rush. Even his equipment and Rider form are based on Manabu's cards in that series. Several words, like Heat Salamander, Maximumdriver, the Volcalize Blade, etc. For those who have watched Yugioh Go Rush, those names should ring a bell to you, right? If you want to visualize Daiki's Rider Form, Kamen Rider Volcard, you can easily look up one of Manabu's Aces, Volcalizing Salamandeus, and you can picture that monster in a Rider Form for this character.
Since we already talk about Daiki's inclusion here, you should know that he was the guy who I paired him up with Tsubasa. Again, this must be a bizarre choice to pair Tsubasa up with basically a nothing character from the OG series. The intricate details about their relationship might make this digression turned into an essay so I'll concise it by saying that you could figure out how their relationship were based on Gigist's words in the bonus chapter. Considering that I based on Daiki from Manabu, a character not unlike Tsubasa who was defined by their lineage, you can imagine the same thing goes for Daiki's story and past in relation to Tsubasa's own pasts too. To give a little scrub of info, Daiki and Tsubasa's story more or less also paralleled Houtaro and Shirabe's story in their childhoods too, their friendship being severed, but they ended up together nicely once everything was resolved. While it was obviously bizarre to read Daiki's inclusion in the chapter, I hope everyone enjoy reading his screen time and support on what little I have given in the last chapter.
Speaking of Houtaro and Shirabe's friendship, I think it was already obvious that Shirabe was Houtaro's childhood friend in that flashback. This was even more obvious since I deliberately easily gave out that Kirika was Rinne's friend in the flashback. So, if you put two and two together, it was easy to trace out that Shirabe was connected with Houtaro in the same way Kirika was with Rinne. If you read carefully throughout the fic, you can also guess and assume that I did expand on Shirabe's background that was teased or entailed in AZX ep 9. That ep was single-handedly my favourite ep in the entire franchise, considering how it focused on my two favourite girls and giving us not-to-the-face backstory for Shirabe too. Knowing that, I decided to expand on that background for Shirabe in the fic and that was how I crafted the circumstances of Houtaro meeting Shirabe in the story. Due to that background, this gave me a leeway to incorporate both Houtaro's side of the story with Shirabe's in a much more organic way. There were some plot points here and there that I dropped in the ending and that was the reason why I gave a massive disclaimer or spoiler because more or less, you can imagine how the story progressed based on what I dropped in the ending sequence in particular.
There're also several tidbits that I want to touch on too and that was how each character calls the other characters. Obviously, the most egregious one was Chris calling Daiki as 'Yakitori' which might give a little chuckle or head-scratching for some readers. But that aside, you should know that Houtaro and Rinne actually referred themselves with their given names and not their surnames just like in the pilot chapter. What I want to do here was I want to show the progression of Houtaro and Rinne's relationship with the change of how they refer each other in the story. In the pilot chapter, Rinne called Houtaro as 'Ichinose-kun' and not even the plain 'Ichinose' to signify that while she had befriended Houtaro, they weren't close enough yet at that point. Obviously, these will change gradually and I already plan to have Rinne call Houtaro as 'Ichinose-kun' to 'Ichinose' to finally 'Houtaro' later on.
You could say that the appearance of Shirabe, who already had an established relationship with Houtaro beforehand, along with Kirika, who is just friendly to everyone else, also forced Rinne to express herself more boldly toward Houtaro and you can say this was the reason why Rinne already called Houtaro with his name faster than even in the main series. Obviously, Shirabe and Kirika referred Houtaro by his name so there was an obvious reason that Rinne should catchup with them too. After all, Rinne's unsorted feelings for Houtaro was the crux of the conflict in the bonus chapter that I had laid out. I did have plan to have Shirabe call Houtaro with a nickname just like how she calls Kirika as 'Kiri-chan'. Maybe for Houtaro as 'Ichi-kun' or 'Hou-kun' or somewhere along those lines, but I settle with her calling Houtaro normally because Houtaro was so special to her that I don't think Shirabe needs to call him by a nickname like with Kirika and Rinne.
The last thing that I want to talk about is the ending theme or sequence that I wrote at the end. Yes, that ending sequence was also inspired by the latest Yugioh Go Rush's ending and I think the song and the mood of the ending perfectly encapsulated what I wanted in the last season of this fic in my mind. I'm pretty sure the ending also gave a huge mental gymnastic too because of how much info I had dropped inside the ending. The most egregious one was obviously the flashback of Shirabe's moments in the series that spoiled everything I want to give out in the story. I must prefix this by saying since this was a rather test water chapter, even if I end up writing the fic to its completion, don't expect everything that I laid out in the ending will appear later and there might be some changes here and there. For now, you may just use your imagination to fill out the space about everything that had happened off-screen based on the description that I had given out.
I'm pretty sure the line up in the ending sequence along with the info that I had given out might be quite surprising to you too, especially regarding characters that still survived and those who unfortunately had passed away. Like, I'm sure at least one of the readers were scratching the head on WTH Glion was still alive out of all people and why I made him a bit more somber in the ending. Obviously, there was an even bigger question regarding Houtaro's mother, Tamami, and how I dropped the info that she was actually 'her'. I actually foreshadowed this fact back in the pilot chapter if you read the scene between Houtaro and his mother carefully. Now, the situation was reversed where Houtaro's mother had more questions to be asked than Houtaro's father, unlike in the OG series. I hope all the spices and trickles of info that I shared in the ending sequence may give an even more fuel for your imagination and inspirations for those who had read the story.
Lastly, I want to reply to some people who had commented in the previous second part of the pilot chapter:
- Tenzalucard123 : Obviously, this is a story about Kamen Rider Gotchard. It would be so bold of me to make the pilot chapter revolving around a character that would only transform for the first and last time, lol. Well, if you were surprised like this, I can't imagine your surprise if you happen to read the bonus chapter that I just released.
- Brolyk445v2 : Thanks for correction. It just flew into my head about Gotchardriver's finisher sound and it felt like a Mandela effect for me for my misremember. Unfortunately, I still made the same mistakes in the bonus chapter but thanks for the correction.
- merendinoemiliano : Thanks for the words. As I said, I can't guarantee the continuation of the story 100% but I hope you have a fun time enjoying the bonus chapter that I published if you happen to read it.
Well, that was more or less I could give out about the creation of the story and how it all leaded up to the bonus chapter that I gave out previously. I must inform that I'll take a break here and don't expect for newer contents appearing up at all later. Once again, I can't promise the story at consistent basis but when I do, I hope the story could inspire all the readers or writers out there. Considering that I had laid out the foundation for Houtaro's strongest power up here, I do have plan to at least continue this bonus until that form appears. However, once again, no promises for that. These three chapters (or two chapters) are the best I could come up with for the last half a year so don't expect newer stories to come up so soon at regular basis. I do want to ask for those willing readers out there if there is a particular chapter that you want me to write about for an idea later. Maybe, I can write a specific chapter for an important moment if anyone of the readers out there want. For example, maybe the debut of Rinne as Majade, Supana's debut as Valvarad, Daiki's debut as Volcard, the Symphogear's advent to the stories, a particular episode or chapter about a Rider and Symphogear(like Houtaro and Shirabe's formal team-up that I teased in the ending) or anything that you want. I may not know if I can write it so soon but more inputs from every reader out there would be appreciated for me. Thanks for reading this lengthy ramble or digression from mine and I hope you all have a good day out there. Hopefully, what I had written here would be able to give some inspirations or imagination to every one out there. Hope to see you all soon when the time comes!