[AkibaSilver]

Chapter Three
“Gorou-kun? You awake?”
Gorou remained silent, hoping that Natsumi would leave if he pretended to be asleep. He didn’t know what time it was, but considering he was still tired, it must be early. There wasn’t an alarm, so there wasn’t a monster attack, so she probably just couldn’t sleep. It seemed like her to ruin his sleep if he didn’t get any.
His thought track of how to get her to leave quickly was ruined when she hit him in the head with a pillow. “Come on! You must be awake now!”
He grumbled something incoherent, so she hit him again, before gasping. “Sorry! That’s not hurting you, is it? I just meant to wake you…”
Gorou sat up, wiping his face. “You got me up the first time. What is it? Did your favourite anime get renewed for another season?” he asked, yawning. She hit him again.
“Now that I know you’re fine, you need to get dressed. We’re going somewhere.” Natsumi threw a shirt at him that had been draped over the end of his bed, Gorou catching it.
“Where would this somewhere be?” He said, slipping it on. “Downstairs.”
“A bit further afield than downstairs.” She smiled, leaving the room for him to get dressed.
After about five minutes, Gorou stumbled out of his room, wearing his usual black jacket- considering all he had was copies of that jacket, Natsumi though it was bad that she could tell it was the same one he’d worn for the last few days. “You know, you do have more than one set of clothes.”
Gorou waved her off, slowly walking to the kettle. “I don’t care. They’d be the wrong brand anyway…” Natsumi sighed, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the door. “Don’t I have time for tea?”
“No- they were expecting us ten minutes ago. Come on!” The pair made their way out of the door and into the elevator without Natsumi speaking again. “Did you have a good sleep?”
Gorou yawned to emphasize his point. “It would have been better if you had let it finish. What time is it anyway?”
“It’s three in the morning.”
Gorou looked at her smiling face. “And yet you are not exhausted. How?”
Natsumi just continued to smile. “I could tell you, but I don’t think you’re awake enough to understand.” She laughed slightly at the groan that followed. “Don’t worry- you can sleep on the way there.” She patted his head, still laughing, and he didn’t care enough to stop her.
The elevator stopped, and the two got out into the cold air of the night. “Did they just use all the spy movie clichés when they were making this place?” Gorou remarked, stepping out into the alley. “Secret elevators, an inventor in the basement, and a crazy ‘bodyguard’ to make sure you don’t sneak off.” He said ‘bodyguard’ differently, patting Natsumi on the head as he did, with her pushing his hand away, trying to keep her hair straight.
“I doubt you need a body guard, Gorou-kun. You do fight some evil monsters.”
“I’ve fought two, so far, and both times I’ve nearly died. Yes, I can handle myself so well.” Gorou said, obviously trying to be sarcastic.

Natsumi led him to the back of a black off-road car parked at the front of the building. From what Gorou could see, before he was pushed in, it looked battered and mud-covered, and had obviously been well used in the past. Natsumi got into the passenger’s seat, next to a man in a suit who sat in the driver’s seat.
“Would you like some tea?” Gorou turned to his right side to see Oshiro sitting there, sipping tea from a small china cup, a thermos tucked by his side.
Gorou nodded his head, smiling at the old man. “Thank you. It’s not going to knock me out, is it?”
Oshiro smiled. “I told you- I didn’t want to do that, but I got forced to. This, I promise you, is nothing but my own special blend of tea, designed to make you feel as awake as possible while still being a pleasure to drink.” He passed Gorou his own china cup while speaking, and poured him some of the brown tea.
Gorou bowed his head slightly, and started to sip at the liquid. It tasted fine- nice, even- and he drank a bit more. “Do you like it?” Oshiro asked, eyes twinkling even in the very dim light of the moon and the street-lights outside.
He took a large gulp of it- even as it burned the back of his throat; he had to admit it tasted good. “Yes, but at this point, I’d have been happy with pure caffeine to keep me awake.”
“Good- now, how much do you know about the Ruins of Joji?” Oshiro asked, sipping some of his own tea as they continued along the road.
“I’m going to guess that’s our destination?” Gorou asked, looking out the window to see them taking a road out of the city.
“You don’t know? Natsumi-chan was supposed to tell you…” He turned his head to stare at Natsumi, who simply answered, “I didn’t have time to tell him anything. It took him far too long to get up.”
“You mean you couldn’t tell me in the elevator?” Gorou asked, but Oshiro quieted him with a motion of his arm.
“It doesn’t matter- I can tell you myself. The place is an abandoned house in the forest. There are a series of strange rock formations that surround the house- we don’t know which came first, but we would guess the house, considering the state of the rocks. The house was considered to be haunted, and so the circle of rocks became known as a ‘gateway to another world’ by the locals of a nearby village. It used to be a tourist spot, but that’s dried up recently, since there isn’t much of a road to get there.”
“Which explains why we’re in an off-roader.” Gorou interrupted, but Oshiro just continued.
“Anyway, recently we’ve detected strange energy readings coming from it- recently meaning in the last week or so- so we’ve started excavation in the area, but we’re not sure what we’ll uncover. Which is why we need you.” Oshiro looked at Gorou while refilling his cup, his thermos running dry halfway through. “Oh dear.”
“You need me here in case you found a new monster, don’t you?” Oshiro nodded at this, which made Gorou think of another question. “Do most monsters come from ancient ruins? Are they aliens from another dimension?”
“Well…” Oshiro looked slightly embarrassed at this. “We don’t actually know where they come from. We know they are related to some form of anti-human group, but we don’t actually know how they create the monsters.”
Gorou hit his face with his empty hand. “It’s a good job I brought my driver then, if you’re about to release another monster on us.” He checked for it in his jacket pocket, and when he felt it with a single gem, the other being tested on further, he smiled. “See Natsumi. It helps to only have one set of clothes.”
Natsumi, unseen to the pair in the back, rolled her eyes, watching the outside world become even darker as they left the main road, driving onto a small forest road.
“You two might want to finish your tea before you spill it all over.” She said, feeling the car jolt to the side.
Gorou gulped down his tea, now feeling fully awake, while Oshiro just smiled. “Natsumi-chan, only an amateur would drop their tea from a simple shaking.” He sipped his tea, his hand keeping the cup steady.
“How long will it take to get there?” Gorou asked after a few minutes of silent driving, no-one wanting to break the spookiness of being on a lonely forest road.
“About five minutes, I think, and then a ten minute walk…” Natsumi said, sounding distant. “I remember coming here when I was a kid. It really wasn’t fun.”
This was followed by another silence, until the suited driver spoke up, his voice sounding the opposite of expected- fairly high and not-at-all threatening. “I hope you know the way, Oshiro-san. I’ve been told to head back to base after dropping you off.”
Oshiro nodded slowly, looking at the dark outdoors. “It will be fine. Nothing I say can you make you stop anyway, can it?”
“No sir.”
“I thought not.” The driver parked them in a small clearing that had been turned into a makeshift car park, in which they could see a few other vehicles, similar to theirs. Oshiro got out of the car, taking his empty thermos, followed by Gorou and Natsumi. The car drove off as soon as they closed all the doors, leaving them alone in the light of the moon.
The trio found a small dirt path leading through some forest that looked slightly less dense than the surrounding area, and started walking along it.
“Could you not have set up some lights along the way?” Gorou asked. “You know, in case the moon wasn’t out,” he added, rather quickly.
“This operation, Gorou-kun, is supposed to be secret. Lighting the path to it wouldn’t make it very secret, would it?” Oshiro said, walking rather quickly along the path.
Natsumi elbowed Gorou gently in the side, with them both falling slightly behind. “I didn’t think the Kamen Rider would be scared.” She said, sounding nervous herself.
He smiled slightly, not covering his fear at all. “Going to a haunted house early in the morning in pitch-black darkness? Possibly to face an evil monster that I might not be able to see that well, let alone fight? No, why would I be scared at all?”
They both smiled genuinely at that, only to be knocked back into normality by a scuffing sound up ahead.
“Oshiro-san, what was that?” Natsumi asked, stopping in her tracks.
“That… would be me.” A man’s voice rang through the forest. It sounded threatening and official. “Considering that you just mentioned Oshiro-san here, I presume you’re with him and are not some random tourists here to make out in the abandoned house.”
“No!” “Never!” The two shouted at him, suddenly splitting apart, Gorou hitting his head again and Natsumi starting to laugh.
“Come on through, Kamen Rider.” He said this curtly, with disguised malice in his voice. “And his assistant.”
As they went through, they noticed that the man was wearing a camouflage uniform, a gun is his hands. “Why do you have a gun?” Natsumi asked, tilting her head.
“In case of an attack. Because that worked out so well the first time.” He spat the words out, turning away from them. “Oshiro-san is waiting ahead. You shouldn’t leave him waiting. And perhaps I’ll get a break, now that the great Kamen Rider’s here.”
The pair hurried on, slightly confused. “Who is he?” Gorou asked, once he guessed they were out of earshot.
“I presume he’s a member of the combat division. They were originally planned to fight the monsters, but-“
“I know what happened... Oshiro-san told me last time I saw him.” Gorou remembered being told about the people that the spider-creature had killed before his first fight, how their weapons had stood no chance against it, how it had killed five of them…
“He may have been there… there was a full complement of twenty, so I think there were three uninjured.” Natsumi answered, sounding hollow.

The two continued in peace, not really wanting to talk now, until they found a small excavation site. It was fairly well lit, but the lights were blocked by large boards placed opposite them, on the other side of the dig. Oshiro stood at the side, watching people work in the hole. A bearded head poked above the hole, holding onto the top rung of a ladder, and Gorou sighed. It was his favourite person that he knew.
The engineer sighed loudly too, making sure that Gorou heard. “Oshiro-kun, I told you to keep this boy away from me. Too much stupid hurts my workflow.”
Oshiro smiled, ignoring his complaint. “Have we found anything yet?”
The engineer rolled his eyes. “Natsumi-kun? I need your help, at least.”
“Coming boss!” She ran over, taking some equipment out of his hand as he pulled himself over the lip of the dig.
“It doesn’t appear to be a monster burial site, or spawning pool, or anything similar. The energy reading appears to be coming from a small, concentrated region, and considering it was powerful enough to transmit through several metres of solid rock, I’ve concluded that it is probably another gem.”
Oshiro broke into a massive smile at this news, laughing from happiness. “A third gem?”
“I hate to break up the happy news…” Gorou started to speak, but was cut off by the engineer.
“Then don’t. We don’t need you and your depressing news at the greatest discovery of the year.”
Gorou continued anyway. “But what are the chances that, only a week or two after the monsters start arriving and someone becomes a Kamen Rider, this gem starts sending out energy that you can pick up?”
“The gems can interact with each other.” The engineer began to speak, looking at readings on the equipment Natsumi was holding. “Presumably, your gems being active in the Driver caused a reaction in this one, causing it to become slightly active.” He turned back towards Oshiro-san, mind set on his mission. “We should have it extracted within the hour.”
“Can it be used with the Rider system?” Oshiro asked, looking around at the dark wood.
Sighing, the engineer stroked his beard. “Maybe after a few weeks of testing, perhaps, but not straight away. We don’t know exactly how powerful it is- if it shorts out the driver, your only weapon disappears, and we’re out on a massive limb. Plus, it may have some other use.”
Oshiro nodded, moving over to a small chair at the edge of the pitch. Gorou moved to stand next to him, keeping away from Natsumi and her boss. “And why am I here?”
“You, Gorou-kun, are here in case we are attacked. After all, if we can find this signal, then the other group presumably can too, especially if they possess advanced bio-engineering equipment.”
“And Natsumi-chan?” Gorou didn’t know why he was asking about the girl who annoyed him to no end, but at least this time he had a reason for why she was here constantly talking.
“She is here to help her boss with determining the readings of the gem.”
“She doesn’t seem to be helping very much,” Gorou noticed, watching her switch between meters as the engineer read the different results.
“It’s not my place to judge.” He took a sip of tea from his cup, a kettle beside him just having finished boiling. “Except with tea. This tea is not very good.”
Gorou looked away, watching the surroundings. “Are there many people with guns here? It seems kind of… pointless.”
Oshiro looked at him, smiling sadly. “It is necessary that we keep this a secret. And if human operatives are sent to intercept the gem, then we feel it better to leave the… removal of those to trained men, rather than you.”
“And if another creature shows up?”
Oshiro didn’t answer this time, only taking a sip of tea. “We have you now. And you can take care of it.” It sounded like he was trying to convince himself now, rather than answer Gorou.
After a few minutes, Natsumi came over, still carrying a few pieces of equipment. “The boss says we should have it out in about half an hour, considering the rock layers surrounding it.” The trio heard a large drill start up, and followed by its squeal as it started drilling into the rock.
“Really subtle…” Gorou said, as Natsumi dropped her head in exasperation, and Oshiro continued to drink his tea.

The trio sat there for the time, occasionally moving to see how the drill was progressing, Gorou getting dirt thrown at him whenever he went to see, though he couldn’t see where it was coming from. When the half hour was up, they heard the drill power down, an eerie silence settling over the area. “Did we find the crystal?” Oshiro asked, moving over to the hole, the bottom of which was dark- even though the drill had been moved from the bottom, there was no way of seeing past it, except for the occasional flash of torchlight.
“I said-“
“I know what you said. It’s a tiny gem in the middle of a fairly large crater.” The Boss shouted upwards, his voice echoing off the sides of the tunnel.
“Don’t they glow?” Gorou asked, looking at his own red gem.
“Not enough to see through the inch-or-so of solid rock we left so we didn’t shatter the end of the drill,” was the reply given.
“Can’t you locate it from the energy pulses?” Natsumi asked, looking down uneasily.
“The scanner isn’t that precise, otherwise-“ He suddenly stopped talking, and the three heard frantic digging.
“Would that be the gem?” Oshiro asked patiently.
No answer came in words, but the ladder to the bottom of the tunnel started shaking, obviously showing someone climbing up. After a few seconds, the engineer reached the top, holding a green gem, slightly smeared in dirt. “Oshiro-san, ladies,” he said, nodding his head at Gorou on the ladies, “we now have a third crystal in our possession.”
The momentous occasion was ruined when the group heard gunshots coming from the perimeter. They looked in the direction, unable to see what was happening.
Gorou reacted first, grabbing the green crystal and running in the direction of the shots. “Get back here!” The Boss shouted, not bothering to follow him. Oshiro watched him run, and Natsumi ran after him, but was stopped by Oshiro grabbing her shoulder.
“It’s not safe for you to go with him, Natsumi-chan. All we can do for now is watch.” He sounded sad, watching him run.

Gorou ran towards the sound, seeing the man he had met earlier fire at a target that was slowly approaching. The man was shouting loudly, screaming at the approaching monster, the light on the front of his gun showing a lanky figure take all the bullets, direct to the chest. Despite this, it didn’t seem to be faltering.
“I’ve got this!” He shouted, putting on his driver. This seemed to alert the monster more than any of the shots had, with it starting to run towards the two, squawking like a chicken. Gorou laughed slightly- if he died this time, at least it would be a good story to tell at his funeral. ‘He died to a giant chicken.’
The man, meanwhile, had ran out of bullets, and was changing his clip. “No you don’t. Stay back, I don’t want to shoot you.” He shouted at Gorou, who was still approaching, the monster quickly closing in on them.
“Get back! It’ll kill you!”
“But not you?” He shouted back, looking up from changing the gun to see the monster barely two metres away. He raised his gun, but was pushed out of the way by Gorou, who had barrelled into him, barely missing the monster’s strike with its hand talons.
“Stay back.” Gorou said, pushing him as he stood up, slotting his red gem into the slot of his driver, the beast staying back, trying to think of a plan of attack. “Fire” The driver announced.
“Henshin!” He shouted, closing the driver’s bay, making a red sphere appear around him, accompanied by his usual black suit. Red pieces of armour attached to his suit, and the sphere faded, leaving Gorou standing there, ready to fight.
The chicken rushed at him as soon as the transformation was done, slashing at his chest. Gorou blocked them, and swung around, but the minster dodged it, aiming a punch at his.
Gorou attempted to block, but the monster was strong, and his arms were simply pushed back, his chest feeling pained from the attack. He tried to punch back, but the chicken leapt into the air, wings unfolding from its back, and it landed a short distance away. Gorou ran at it, intending to punch it, but it jumped again, making him run into a tree.
“It really doesn’t help that I can’t see very well…” He said out loud, seeing the monster land a small distance away. Suddenly, he felt blinded as a light pointed straight at him from the site- it was still obscured somewhat by the trees, but he could see much better. “I guess I owe them one for that.”
His attention was dragged back to the fight by the loud squawk of the monster, shielding its face with its huge claws. Gorou took his chance- he ran at it, punching it in its pale, feathered chest. It fell backwards, and Gorou struck at it again, this time swinging at its arm, knocking it to the side. The monster clawed at him as it moved, catching his left arm. He grimaced in pain, dodging as the creature stuck at him with its feet, the talons on those looking just as sharp as the ones on its hands. It flapped its way into the sky again, landing in a tree, heading towards the others.

Gorou grimaced. He couldn’t hit it from here, and if he tried to get up the tree, he’d be vulnerable. He pressed the top button on his driver, summoning a ball of flame into his hand. He shot it at the creature, but it just moved out of the way a small amount, the fireball dissipating in the air behind it. It was at this point that he wished he had his blue gem- a gun could come in useful here. But instead, he had this new green one. He pulled it out, keeping a watch on the creature though, making sure it didn’t move. “May as well try it…” He said, opening his driver with the lever, and switching out the red gem with the untested, unused green one. “Wind,” it announced, telling Gorou what element he could use. Glancing up, he saw the creature move to another tree, towards his friends.

“Not going to happen.” Gorou shouted, quickly slamming the core shut, not caring about the consequences. A green sphere surrounded him, his red armour shattering as usual. New, green armour formed from the skin of the sphere, giving him new, more lightweight armour around his shoulders and chest. The sphere faded, leaving Gorou watching the creature, it unmoving, confused by Gorou’s new change.

He pressed the top button on his driver, hoping that he could blow the creature out from the tree and into arms reach. “Wind,” it announced again, and he felt a swirling sensation at his feet, feeling himself float into the air slightly. “This could work…” He muttered, sending a pulse of air through his feet to push him towards the chicken, at high speed. He held out his fists, aiming at the creature’s body. It squawked loudly, trying to dodge, but couldn’t move, one of its talons caught on a branch. Both of his fists hit it, knocking it out of the tree and to the ground. Gorou dropped down next to it, landing slightly more gracefully on his hands and knees. He stood up, moving to punch the creature as it tried to stand up- it was obviously weaker, as it couldn’t push him away this time. It did get him, however, when it sliced at him with one of its legs, the talon catching his leg and pushing him backwards. The creature started stumbling away, slowly trying to move to the ruins. He fell back, watching the chicken stand back up, spreading its wings. He ran at it, despite his pain, and punched it in the back, it spinning round to slice at him. He dodged it, feeling more agile that with his other forms, and pushed the creature, it falling from its own momentum. He kicked it backwards, and it was pushed back with a squawk.
Gorou grinned in his helmet, despite his pain. He knew that it was nearly over. He pressed the lowest button on his driver, feeling the air gather around his feet in a swirling vortex. He ran at the chicken creature, jumping into the air at the right time, feeling the vortex pushing him high up.

“Cyclone Kick!” He shouted, hoping that the Boss would hear him. The air pushed him faster as fell through the air, gravity propelling him to high speeds. He aimed at the monster with his right foot, and collided with it as hit foot started to glow with energy, exploding it almost instantly.
At the ruins, the three people watched as they saw the explosion, with Gorou directly in the centre. Natsumi closed her eyes, Gorou looked away, and the Boss crossed his fingers, then remembered that the gems were there, uncrossing his fingers. Then he remembered that they were indestructible, and he re-crossed them.
Natsumi flicked her eyes open to see what had happened, and smiled, opening them fully, watching Gorou walk towards them, unharmed. He looked around, and then returned to normal, his armour shattering. He ran back to the group, holding the green gem towards the Boss.
“I believe this is yours.” He said, smiling. “By the way, I should tell you that it holds the ‘power of the wind’, and all that other stuff.” The Boss took it, frowning.
“Congratulations. You could have easily blown yourself to pieces by using this untested gem with your driver. You were lucky it was at the same power level as your current ones.” He said, turning away to return to the drill, where it was being packed up by some of the other people at the site.
“I’m glad you’re alright!” Natsumi hugged him, Gorou pushing her away, not really wanting it.
“Me too.” He said, smiling as she let go. She was smiling as well.
He watched as the soldier from earlier walked past them, checking his dismantled gun. “You alright?” He asked, but the soldier ignored him, continuing along his path. Gorou sighed- he obviously had his own issues.
Natsumi smiled at him. “Oshiro-san, this has been very interesting, but do you mind if we get back home? I’m fine, but I think Gorou-kun’s getting tired.”
The old man nodded, starting to walk away. “That’s a good idea. Even though the sun is rising, so you shouldn’t really be tired.” He pointed at the horizon, and Gorou sighed again. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Very much, but I’m tired.” Gorou yawned as if to express his point.
“Very well then. I believe we’re finished here anyway.” Oshiro started walking away, and the pair followed him, walking directly into the sunset.