[AkibaSilver]

Chapter One
A motorbike rode up to a small building in the outskirts of a town, and the rider dismounted, looking around. He took the note out of his pocket, checking the address. “Well, this is it. Whatever it is.” There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary- it was just an ordinary suburb, as far as he could tell. Not caring much, he knocked on the door of the house, not really expecting an answer. It swung open at his contact, obviously unlocked, and he entered, walking into the dusty corridor.

“It’s me. Gorou-san. You invited me here?” He wasn’t sure why he was asking- the house looked like it hadn’t been disturbed in months. He passed into the kitchen, where all the cupboards were open, and were empty. “Is there actually anyone here?” His legs took him into the living room, where there was a single sofa, black and forlorn, in a fairly large room. The curtains were closed on the windows, casting the room in shadow. He rolled his eyes and started walking out of the house, having obviously been pranked by an idiot. But before he could leave, something caught his attention.

There was a door in the wall that had been closed when he had entered, but was now swinging on its hinges. “Oh, you thing this is funny?” Gorou laughed angrily. “Do you have nothing better to do?” He walked quickly at the open door, entering the room. It was small and dark, feeling like a cellar, with only a single feature- a set of stairs leading into a basement. “Obviously not…” He muttered to himself, walking into the basement.

The basement was dank and dark, with no light. Gorou pulled out his phone, switching on the light to see a room made of stone. While Gorou didn’t know much about buildings, he could guess that the room he was in was much older than the rest of the house, possibly by hundreds of years.

“So you actually arrived? The Boss was not expecting that!” Gorou heard a small female voice speak out before he felt a pain in the back of his head. He fell to the floor, groaning in pain. “Sorry! I was told to surprise you with the knock-out gas. I guess I should have listened. Maybe now?” She knelt down, spraying his face with a gas that smelt vaguely of cinnamon, but mostly of chloroform. The room faded quickly as he lunged for her, his now unconscious body hitting the floor with a large thud.

Gorou’s dreams were mostly filled with strange cinnamon flavoured women constantly hitting him in the back of the head, but he was rudely (in his opinion) pulled from them by a spray that smelt differently- this time of mint. He found himself sitting in a comfy chair across a desk from an old man, with grey hair and a wrinkled face, wearing a navy tuxedo jacket. “Did you have a comfortable sleep?” The man asked, kindness in his eyes.

Gorou just stared at his eyes. “You- or rather, your incompetent sidekick- knocked me out after trying to shatter my skull. And now you want to know if I’m comfortable?” His voice was monotone, obviously full of hatred for the old man, who just stirred his tea.

“Well, we had to get to you. It was easier to kidnap you than to wait and see if you would come voluntarily.” He picked up his tea and drank it, but frowned and put it down. “Cold. Shame.”

“Why would you go and bother to kidnap me? Hell, why kidnap anyone?” Gorou started shouting, getting up, which was where he realised he wasn’t actually chained there, like he had assumed. “And then why not bother to chain me up?” He looked around, ready to leave, but he noticed that there was no door anywhere on the four walls of the small, normal looking office. “… I have no idea how I got here…” He said aloud, more for himself than the old man.

“I should introduce myself. I am Oshiro, the leader of this organisation, founded a century ago to research the mystical jewels discovered by my ancestors.” He was about to continue, but Gorou interrupted.

“Have I walked into a society of lunatics? This sounds like something you’ve dreamed up while on some pretty serious drugs.” Oshiro cut him off by tapping his cup gently, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small red crystal sphere, sparkling like ruby, with the inside swirling.

“This is one of them. We don’t know where they come from, nor why they exist, but we have out theories. But what we do know is made up of two things.” He smiled pausing, slightly annoying Gorou.

“And these two things are?”

“I was hoping you would ask that. We know that they can be used as an immense power source by certain people, and we know that something is after them.” He put the crystal on the table, which despite its spherical shape, did not roll away.

“And this involves me how?” Gorou was still slightly confused- while the old man’s story was interesting, he had still been kidnapped. “Unless you go around kidnapping people to tell them this, what use am I?”

Oshiro’s smile turned to a frown. “Did you not listen, young boy? An immense power source by certain people?”

Gorou’s brain slowly worked through what he had said, before coming out with the only reasonable answer. “Me? You think I can make some sort of magic power from a pool ball?”

“Not you exactly.” Oshiro reached under his tuxedo jacket and pulled out a mechanical device. It was circular and silver, with a small black dent in the middle, the same size of the gem, with a glass shell over it. On the top right corner of the circle, a small lever poked out. Three buttons were grouped around the left side of the device. And jutting out from behind it was a belt strap. “You and this.”

Gorou was, to put it lightly, not impressed. “It’s a belt. A cool looking belt, sure, but a belt.”

“This belt is the result of 100 years of research. A miracle of technology from some of the best minds that live today… well, one slightly impressive mind and his apprentice, who’ve you’ve already met.” Oshiro put the belt on the table, pushing it towards Gorou along with the jewel. “It’s designed to let the jewels we have, and a suitable person, combine to form a powerful warrior, able to fight the approaching evil.”

“Wait, fight evil? You said something about people wanting them earlier…” Gorou said aloud, having not talked in a while, and Oshiro smiled.

“Ah. So you were listening. Yes, an evil force is after the jewels, presumably for the immense power inside them. Normal weapons do not affect them, as we found out last week…”

Gorou looked at him, his interest piqued. “Last week? You mean… that gas explosion?”

“Wasn’t a gas explosion. It was us realising how much we needed to finish this device. And, as far as we are aware, it is not even an abnormally powerful monster.” Oshiro explained, his eyes losing all kindness and becoming extremely focused.

“That thing killed five people and put twelve in hospital, and you expect me to fight it?” Gorou was annoyed now- the man could be lying, but one of his friends had been suspicious of the news reports, claiming that ‘something about it didn’t seem right’. “You said suitable people- why me? Why not someone else?”

“You, Gorou Sanagai, are an orphan with no siblings, very few friends, and no employment or notable occasions soon.” Oshiro said, looking at him sadly.
“So you mean I’m expendable? I’m sure there are better people for that, as bad as it sounds.” Gorou looked at him, annoyed once more at his lack of friends.

“Not entirely- you are fit enough to make a decent fighter, and, most importantly, your DNA synchronises well with the Jewels. The three variables overlapped, and you were the resultant person.” He was about to continue when an alarm went off, the lights flashing red. Oshiro looked Gorou straight in the eyes, and pressed a button on his desk. A hidden door behind him slid open, revealing Gorou’s motorcycle. He grabbed the jewel and the belt and forced it into Gorou’s hands. “You must go. That beast has returned, and if you don’t deal with it, more people will die.”

Gorou looked at him, not really understanding, but Oshiro just nodded, pushing him around the desk towards the motorcycle. Gorou got onto his bike quickly, putting on his belt, the strap locking around his waist perfectly. He put the jewel in his pocket, and revved the engine, a metal door opening in front of him, revealing a long metallic corridor. “Where does this go?” He asked, realising he had no idea where he was.

“Where you need to go.” Oshiro walked back into his office, offhandedly saying, “We’ll talk about your salary if… when you return,” just before his door slid shut. Gorou ignored him, speeding down the metal chamber until he reached the end, exiting through a hole in a wall that closed when he had left.


He stopped when he found what he had been looking for- it hadn’t been hard, looking for the destroyed buildings and listening for screams. He stopped his motorcycle and dismounted, the vaguely-humanoid creature turning to face him, staring at him, confused. It was covered in black armour, with hairs along the legs, of which there were eight- two used as regular legs, two being used as arms, and four along its back. Its head was taken up by eight red eyes, which didn’t blink as Gorou stared back into them. It only growled at him, not seeming to possess any sign of intelligence.

Gorou grimaced. He couldn’t see any dead bodies, but that didn’t mean people weren’t in danger. He moved his hand to his belt, sliding the lever upwards and pulling the glass chamber open. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the red jewel. The creature hissed at this, starting to edge closer. Gorou snarled back at it, slotting the crystal forcibly into the belt, with it announcing ‘Fire’. It beeped, lights in the buttons activating, and the jewel started glowing brightly. Gorou, reminded of a show he had watched once, long ago, spoke a word, preparing to fight.

“Henshin!”

His right hand pushed the lever down with a quick flick, stopping halfway as the glass cover closed up, sealing the jewel. He continued, pushing the lever all the way down, the jewel glowing as the Spider-Creature made a move, rushing at him. It was pushed back by a red sphere that formed around him, flickering like fire. Inside the sphere, Gorou stood there, not sure what was happening. He watched as red crystal fragments formed on the skin of the sphere, which quickly moved into to cover his chest, shoulders and thighs. Black armour formed between the red pieces, with a larger piece attaching to the back of his head, with pieces of it sliding out to form a red and black helmet with large eyes. He moved his hand up, dissipating the sphere into a bust of flames.

The spider monster wasted no time rushing at him, punching him in his chest. Gorou fell backwards, but dodged the next punch, and threw his own one into the beast’s face. One of its eyes exploded into goo, the creature screaming in pain and slicing at Gorou with its back arms, spinning him backwards and drawing sparks from his armour. Gorou rolled under the spider’s flailing arms and pulled its legs, dropping it to the ground. He stood up quickly as the monster stumbled to its feet and kicked it, forcing it into a nearby wall.

“Had enough yet?” Gorou taunted, feeling confident. He regretted this two second later, when he was hit by a large blob of web, tying him to a nearby building, unable to move as the spider monster slowly ambled towards him, hissing angrily. It slashed at him with its legs, drawing more sparks and causing Gorou to yell in pain- numbed pain, sure, but still pain. Gorou struggled against the bonds, only being freed when the monster misaimed one of his blows and sliced through the webbing. He swerved around the monster and punched it in the back before grabbing one of the arms and attempting to bring the monster to the ground. He only succeeded in ripping its arm off, making it scream more and strike at his face.

“Let’s see what this does.” Gorou muttered, stepping away and pressing the middle button. The driver beeped, with a red portal coming from the jewel, despite the glass casing surrounding it. The hilt of a weapon jutted out, and Gorou grabbed it and pulled, revealing a large blade with a red hilt. “I like this…” He grinned, swinging the sword at the spider monster as it lunged at him, cutting of another arm, green goo gushing from its stump. The creature stopped running, seeming to catch its breath. “Now, what do I name this nice piece of equipment?”

“Would you focus on the fight?” He heard someone shout at him from somewhere. Gorou ignored him, starting to examine the weapon as the creature lunged around. He opened a hatch on the back of the blade hilt, revealing a space for the jewel. He opened the section on his belt, letting him take out the jewel and place it in his sword. The crystal glowed brightly, the weapon starting to cover itself in fire. He ran at the creature, which turned to face him, staring blankly. Gorou, still slightly annoyed by that comment, had an idea of how to show he was really taking this seriously.

“Inferno Slash!” He shouted, slicing the creature in half, his sword blazing with hot fire. The spider creature fell to the ground, set alight. Gorou started walking away from the corpse when it exploded, making him spin around in shock. “And that takes care of that, I guess.” He muttered to himself, looking around. While there seemed to be some damage, there didn’t seem to be anything permanent done to the buildings.

He got back on his bike, before realising he wasn’t sure where to go. “Just go back the way you came… we’ll open the exit up.” The strange voice came from nowhere again, and this time, annoyance aside, Gorou decided to listen to it. He closed the glass section again, de-transforming, the sword fading back into energy and the crystal dropping back into his hand, where it was moved into his pocket. He revved his bike, driving back the way he had come.


“So, this is how much you think I’m worth? ¥50,000 a year? I may not have a job, but I know that’s not pretty good.”

Gorou was sat back in Oshiro’s office, where he had been sitting, drinking tea, while Gorou had been fighting the creature. He had quickly moved onto the issue of money, seemingly uninterested in how the fight had gone.

“Oh, sorry. I believe that is in American Dollars. It comes from various sponsors of ours. According to the conversion rate, it is around…” He looked at his computer screen, which resembled a wreck dragged from a 90’s technology fair. “¥6.08 million.”

Gorou stared at him, mouth agape. “I will do whatever you tell me to do for that money. Literally anything. But don’t you want to know how the fight went…” He asked, wanting to move on from the amount of money now that he realised just how much it was, and not wanting to lose any of it.

Oshiro waved his hand. “You must have won, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Now, you may want to get some sleep before we move you to your new quarters, if you want them.”

Gorou thought- anywhere would have to be better than his leaky-roofed single-room flat owned by a mate of a mate of a cousin. “I’ll take it.”

Oshiro sighed. “I’ve been informed I’ll have to use this on you before the move.” He pulled out a small silver canister, which resembled a deodorant spray.

Gorou only saw it for a moment before he was sprayed with a gas that smelled mostly of chloroform, but had a small hint of cinnamon. He swore, the word fading into nothing as he fell onto the floor, blacking out.

So, welcome! This is my new story, posted both on here and fanfic.net. If you enjoyed it, please recommend it to other people. Hope you like it!