[AkibaSilver]

Chapter Four
“Do you actually have a name, beyond ‘The Boss’?” Gorou sat on a desk, throwing and catching a small piece of machinery in his hands. He was watching the engineer work as he examined the new gem with a strange piece of equipment, the results being fed into a computer.
“Do you have anything better to do?” He replied, switching to another scanner.
“Not really. Natsumi-chan is out for the day, and I’ve been ‘asked’ not to leave the building.” His voice went darker on the last part of the sentence, with him making it clear that he wanted to leave.
“Considering the last time you were let out, you stole this gem and almost killed yourself, I’m not surprised.” He replied slowly, focusing more on his work. “Although you didn’t listen then, so why are you listening now?”
“Considering they all but said I’d be shot if I stepped outside, I do have a reason to do what they say… for now.”
“All but said?”
“I don’t think they would have had any other reason to bring up the armed guards when they were speaking to me…” He trailed of as he missed the catch, the small metallic object falling to the ground with a large, resounding clang. The Engineer sighed loudly.
“I still think you should ignore them. I’m sure the great Kamen Rider will be unaffected by a few bullets.” He mocked Gorou, picking up the small object. “Oh, and thank you for messing about with this. I’m glad you asked me about playing with it, so I could warn you it was explosive.”
“So you’re saying I could have had my hands blown off?” Gorou shouted, his eyebrows shooting up.
“No, no. This thing is designed to be a bullet’s able to pierce a beast’s outer armour, so you’d probably have lost an arm. I was slightly hopeful.” The engineer said, not hinting if he was sarcastic or not.
“Nice to know you care for me so much.” Gorou shot back sarcastically.
“I thought you knew.” The Engineer said, disassembling the thing slowly
“You make me feel so safe, you know that?” Gorou asked, getting up.
“If you find someone who cares, please let me know.” He said, throwing a small bolt at Gorou. He caught it, and threw it away. “Although I should thank you for one thing; your arms remaining probably means that I probably need to improve the impact sensors.”
Gorou sighed. “Fine. I get it. You want me gone.”
“What tipped you off?” He said, pressing a button on his desk, opening the door. “The constant remarks, or my general attitude towards you?”
Gorou just walked out, ignoring him.
“Finally. Some peace.” The engineer said, just as an alarm sounded, indicating another attack. He sighed, keeping his head down as Gorou ran past him to the motorcycle garage. He wheeled his chair across to his larger desk, monitors booting up to track Gorou’s vital signs and Driver function. “I suppose I spoke too soon…”

The horned monster was destroying a market stall with its fists, people fleeing in all directions when Gorou sped through the crowds, helmet on, heading straight towards it. Hearing the roar of the bike’s engine, the monster turned, only to be rammed by Gorou, hitting it through the shredded stall and into a brick wall, the creature roaring in pain and Gorou tumbling to the floor. He used the momentum to spin to his feet, rubbing his now-sore arm.
“That had seemed better in my head.” He said, pulling out his blue gem, and sliding it into his driver. ‘Water’, his driver announced.
“Henshin!” Gorou shouted, transforming into his blue armoured state. He summoned his gun from his belt, pointing and shooting at the creature as it rose to his feet, both of them closing in on each other. The creature roared loudly, suddenly rushing towards him, curled horns bared. Gorou tried to move out of the way, but the creature’s large, bulky arm grabbed him, and the beast slammed into a wall, Gorou first, crushing through into the small shop. Gorou fell back, coughing, the breath having been knocked from his lungs. That, unsurprisingly, had hurt.
Gorou moved back, warily. The creature eyed him, snorting. It looked ready to charge at any moment, and Gorou had dropped his weapon when he had been grappled. He didn’t think it would have worked anyway, considering the thick fur covering the creature’s body, and how it had charged him earlier. The pair froze for several seconds, staring at each other.
“Gorou-kun! Catch!” The beast spun in the direction of Natsumi’s voice and roared, a gun flying over its head as she started running, still shouting words Gorou wasn’t listening to. The beast charged, following her. Gorou reacted quickly, panicking slightly, catching the gun and shooting it in the back. It flinched slightly but didn’t veer from its course, charging after the young girl. Gorou started running after them, shooting wildly, unable to aim properly while running, yelling, and trying to distract the creature. “Over here, you dumb idiot! Get back!”
Gorou got lucky- one of his shots landed in the centre of the beast’s neck, where its fur was thinnest. It roared, turning around slowly to stare at the rider. Gorou quickly looked behind it- Natsumi had collapsed in a building, gasping for breath. He cursed quietly in his helmet, but didn’t say anything. He had to finish this monster first.
Slowly, keeping eye contact, he reached for his driver, pressing the bottom button. The gem glowed, and Gorou felt vapour start gathering around his left hand, swirling to form a solid mass of water, his hand glowing beneath it. “Torrent-“
The ram reacted to the noise, charging straight at Gorou, barrelling towards him, quickly closing the small distance between them.
“Punch!” Gorou shouted quickly, striking at the monster when it almost collided with him. He felt his arm pulse with energy from the backlash, the punch not having fully charged, throwing him backwards as the monster was forced the other way, a blue explosion occurring between them, smoke flooding the area.
After a few seconds, Gorou got to his feet, his arm still sore from the backlash. In his other hand, he held his gun, aiming in the general direction that the creature had been in, still unable to see it. As the smoke slowly cleared, he saw the creature lying on the ground, groaning animalistically and trying to rise to its feet. Gorou slowly began to walk over, being careful for once so he wasn’t caught unaware.
“Let’s try this again, shall we?” He said, fairly quietly. “Torrent-“
Before he could press the button on his belt, there was a loud screech from above, and as he looked up, Gorou was knocked backwards by an impact, throwing him away from the beast and towards Natsumi’s hiding spot. He braced for impact, hoping he wouldn’t hit her as he smashed through the thin wall, slamming to a stop in the other side, his armour shattering as his suit dissipated. By the time he could open his eyes, the pain low enough so that he could focus, the scene in front of him was different; the beast had been replaced by a small ring of fire, surrounding the area where it had collapsed. Gorou swore loudly, both from the failure and from the pain. He collapsed to his knees, then onto his back, his whole body aching.
Natsumi chose that time to start talking.

“Gorou-kun? What the heck was that?” she said, walking slowly over to him, looking over his injuries. His jacket had been torn from sliding down the wall, and his left arm was bruised, both from the impact and the backfiring attack.
“I have no freaking idea…” Gorou groaned out through gritted teeth. “You should have been able to see it…”
“There was just a shadow, like a bird or something, and then there was a burst of fire from the sky…” Natsumi said, looking at the now-empty scene.
“And how did that thing disappear? It didn’t look like it was going anywhere when I got there…”
“I would have been able to see, but I was too busy trying not to get hit in the face by you.” She said, sitting down next to him. “How do you feel?”
“Perfectly fine…” He said, the sarcasm biting through his words as he grimaced in pain.
“Sarcasm isn’t going to help you right now, Gorou-kun.” Natsumi said, moving his sleeve to look at the full extent of his injuries. Gorou groaned in pain, unable to push her away.
“You’d be surprised how it’s actually really useful, Natsumi-chan.” He groaned out, his vision going fuzzy. “Aren’t you going to phone for an ambulance or something?” He asked groggily.
“No need.” She mumbled. “The Boss has a monitor linked up to your vital signs back at headquarters, so he should notice you being injured like this, as well as you being forced out of the armour, and send some help.”
“You do realise how much he hates me, right?” He mumbled, starting to slip into unconsciousness.
Natsumi realised this, and started to talk loudly, wanting to keep him awake. “Why would he hate you?”
“He told me he did…”
“I’m sure he’s just joking. He doesn’t hate anyone else.”
“I’m pretty sure what you mean is that he doesn’t like anyone in general.” Gorou said, remembering their conversation earlier.
“He likes me,” Natsumi said, reaching over to her bag she had and taking out some bandages.
“I don’t believe you.” He replied, slightly perking up when he heard the sound of an engine outside, small sirens accompanying it.
“If he hates you, why would he send help?” Natsumi asked, grabbing his arm as he reached it out.
“Because…” Gorou slowly stood up, leaning heavily on her, watching as a pair of medic’s wandered over, “Oshiro-san would kill him if he let me die.” The medics smiled falsely, taking Gorou from Natsumi, carrying him over to the ambulance.
As they drove away, Natsumi noticed Gorou’s motorcycle at the edge of the clearing. She smiled slightly, remembering that she did technically have a bike licence.

Oshiro sighed, looking at the smiling Natsumi across his desk. “Dare I ask why you were in the area, Natsumi-chan?”
“I was in the area, getting some food, when that monster showed up. I started getting people away from it when I heard Gorou-kun arrive. I thought he might need some help-“
“Despite me asking you not to interfere in his battles?” Oshiro asked, reading a piece of paper, and occasionally looking up at her. “For your own sake?”
“Oshiro-san, if I hadn’t interfered, Gorou-kun would have lost.” Natsumi said, her smile being lost as well.
“You don’t know that- he still had the Fire Gem, and perhaps that would have been more effective.”
“You didn’t see his situation- if he’d moved, the beast would have charged into him and had him against a wall before he would have been able to switch the gems.” Natsumi explained, sounding annoyed at the old man’s stubbornness.
“That still doesn’t excuse you getting involved.” Oshiro frowned and shook his head, patronisingly.
“Would you rather Gorou-kun die, then?” Natsumi shouted loudly, her voice becoming shrill and piercing. She swept her arm across Oshiro’s table, combing it free of papers. “I know you can’t find another rider, despite your claims otherwise, so you’d think you might care a little more about him!” She put her hands to her face, trying to calm down, gasping in panic.
Oshiro looked taken aback, an eyebrow raised at her sudden outburst. Despite this, he still waited for her to calm down, her breathing returning to normal after a few minutes. She looked around awkwardly, blushing slightly, her eyes betraying her actual sadness. “I-I’m sorry sir. I guess I should hand in my resignation now?” She asked, her voice hollow for once, rather that its usual perky tone.
Oshiro smiled slightly. “Why would I ask for that?” He said, collecting his papers from, the floor. Natsumi tried to help, but Oshiro pushed her away slightly, and she took a seat close to the door. When he was done, he stacked them up and put them in the corner of the desk. “A single, deserved tantrum against a rather obstinate old man shouldn’t lead to a promising young woman being left upon the street. Besides, I doubt human resources would let me fire you.” He beamed at Natsumi, her face unchanging.
“But sir-“
“When did I become ‘sir’, Natsumi-chan? You know I dislike the word, and if you feel the need to safeguard your job, I just told you I won’t fire you. I don’t even blame you for snapping.”
This time, Natsumi looked slightly taken aback, and when she spoke, a little of her usual tone slipped back in. “Why don’t you blame me? You seem to disagree with me about today…”
“Natsumi-chan, I wanted to see why you rushed to help him. If it was for simple egotism and heroism- so you could help save the day instead of the ‘Kamen Rider’- I would have asked you to leave my office. I don’t want someone so self-centred supporting the one person who risks himself so you don’t need to go into battle.”
“However, given the passion with which you defend your cause, I am satisfied that you only involved yourself so that Gorou-kun could formulate a plan to defeat the creature- not for self-gain, or for recognition, but because you saw no other option that didn’t result in his death. This means I have no reason to ask you to leave. The fact that you care so much for someone you have known for barely a month means that I should probably give you some form of bonus!” Oshiro smiled kindly at her, like a grandfather smiling fondly at a grandchild, and Natsumi, eventually, smiled slightly herself.

“I don’t know if you understand why I chose you for this job, Natsumi-chan. I asked you to be Gorou-kun’s partner because I knew that you would be able to absorb his many, many criticisms without snapping his neck.” Natsumi chuckled slightly at this. “And because I have no doubt that, eventually, he’ll have to make a terrible choice, or he’ll fail to save someone, and he’ll need someone.”
“And you think I’ll help?” Natsumi asked, smiling slightly. “When he seems to find me and my happy attitude just as annoying as everything else?”
“I think he likes you more than he lets on. Even if he doesn’t, he has someone to vent his emotions to, someone more personal than anyone else that he knows will listen. Or at least, talk over him.”
“I just hope he’s alright. He seemed to be in a bad way when they took him away…”
“He’ll be fine. A stay in hospital might be good for him- just to make sure that the battles aren’t taking too much out of him.” Oshiro paused for a few seconds, before coughing slightly. “Natsumi-chan? I have to ask- where did you see the information you mentioned earlier?”
“What information?”
“About Gorou being the only candidate… the only person able to use the driver?” Oshiro looked down at his desk, his eyes giving off a sad feel, his face suddenly taking on ten years.
Natsumi looked embarrassed suddenly, but still stared straight at Oshiro, determined not to let it show much. It wasn’t working very well. “Boss left his DNA scan out with some annotations once. His DNA matches near precisely with a perfect user, and it says less than 1 in several million people has that link. It’s not just a matter of him having no-one to miss him if he goes; it’s a matter of him being the only person we know of that can use the driver.”
Oshiro looked up, frowning, his eyes serious, his face still looking older than it should. “We can’t let him know. We need him to focus on the mission, not worry about how doomed we are if he fails.”
“I don’t understand how making him feel expendable makes it better though.” Natsumi asked, nodding slowly.
“It means he isn’t as stressed as he rightfully should be, which makes it easier for him to fight.” Oshiro sighed, and suddenly, instead of looking like an extremely old man with glaring eyes, he looked like a regular old man with kind eyes again. A communication panel buzzed on the corner of his desk, and Oshiro looked at it, smiling. “And I suggest you go and see him, considering he’s just been finished with.”
“Agreed!” Natsumi smiled as brightly as she could, getting up to leave, but she turned around before she did, a slight frown putting a dent in her otherwise bright mood. “I just have one more question, Oshiro-san. What was that thing that occurred at the end of the fight?”
Oshiro-san spun on his chair, so he was facing the other way. Natsumi, therefore, couldn’t tell his facial expression when he spoke. “We have no idea, Natsumi-chan. The ground appears to be scorched, but for now, we have no idea what actually occurred that removed the monster from the field.”
“You must have a theory-“
“I could say the same of you.” Oshiro’s voice was spoken in a calm and measured way, so Natsumi had no idea what he was feeling. “What do you think happened?”
Natsumi thought for a moment before speaking. “Maybe it was another anti-beast group. Given that this is the fourth such public attack, maybe someone else has figured out a way to kill them that we haven’t considered.”
“We would know if another such group exists, Natsumi-chan. Part of our organisation monitors the social media sites for those being formed, and there appears to be no such sign.”
“Because I’m sure no groups ever existed before twitter,” Natsumi smiled slightly at her own joke, walking halfway out the door before Oshiro spoke.
“I also have one more question for you, Natsumi-chan.” He spun around in his chair, his face still blank. Natsumi paused, unsure of his tone. “How did you not trigger any of the bike’s special ‘modifications’ while you were riding it here?” Oshiro smiled, obviously teasing her for her small amount of snark earlier. She laughed and left the office, heading for the medical bay.

Gorou was currently trying to leave, a pair of nurses blocking of the exit. His arm was in a bandage, and he wasn’t wearing a top.
“You need to sit back down; you aren’t fully checked over yet!” One of the nurses shouted at him as he tried to push past. Natsumi chose to put her head through the door at this moment, only to be elbowed in the face by the other nurse as they attempted to block his exit. She pulled back, groaning slightly from the pain.
The pair turned to look at her, the guilty one blushing, and Gorou took the opportunity, walking straight past them and out into the corridor, Natsumi following, apologising to the nurses for getting in their way. The nurses just looked at each other, sighing and agreeing it wasn’t worth it.
“How are you feeling?” Natsumi asked, still rubbing her face
“Better.” He said, looking at his arm. “I guess I should say thanks.” He quietly grumbled as they reached the lift, pausing.
“Thanks for what?”
“Thanks for keeping me awake after that attack. Apparently, it really helped, or so say those ‘doctors’ back there.” He smiled slightly at her, and she beamed back.
“You’re welcome! I’m just glad you’re not mad that-“
“Oh, I’m annoyed that you got between me and that monster, but you saved me, so I guess we’re even.” Gorou shrugged at her as the lift arrived, the pair getting in, Natsumi looking bemusedly at him.
“I saved you twice.” Natsumi said. “Once with the distraction, and once with not letting you go unconscious. So I guess you owe me one!”
“I’ll owe you one if you tell me that that Boss of yours has figured out where that Beast ended up.”
Natsumi frowned. “Not yet…”

Gorou sighed loudly, rubbing his bandaged arm, trying to stifle the pain. “As long as it doesn’t come back any time soon.” Internally, they both grimaced. They knew that the alarm was about to sound just because they had said that.
Waiting in an awkward silence, Natsumi decided, inadvertently, to make it more awkward. “So, Gorou-kun! What’s you plan now that your jacket got shredded?” Her friendly teasing was met with stone cold silence from Gorou, and she stopped the talking, the two going into their separate rooms when they reached their apartment, and watched TV in silence for the rest of the day, with the show occasionally being interrupted by a news bulletin for an ‘underground explosion’ in the marketplace. They both went to bed early, Gorou because he was tired, and Natsumi because she was sick of replaying the conversation with Oshiro over and over in her head. At least if she dreamed about it, she wouldn’t remember it after.
Waking up the next morning, they realised that, perhaps they had both been wrong. This feeling only got stronger over the next week or so, as the two went about their business; Gorou mostly training, despite being told not to exert his arm, and Natsumi working on her usual job in engineering. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement not to talk to each other between them, despite the lack of anger or bad blood between them.
After five days, the pair were sat in their apartment, watching a new movie. Gorou rubbed his arm- the bandages had been removed earlier, but they had told him not to do anything more with it, even though he had been ignoring them all week. Natsumi looked at him and smiled, unable to keep quiet anymore.
“I see you’ve got a new jacket…” She smiled. Gorou turned to look at her, and smiled slightly.
“Yeah. It’s identical to the last one I had…” He passed Natsumi some popcorn, and she ate it, both of the smiling.
“I’ve been busy all week. The Boss has me working on this new project by myself, which is good.” Natsumi began to speak quickly, but Gorou cut her off by throwing a piece of popcorn at her.
“Calm down! I’m sure he won’t be happy if you start telling me all about his secrets.” Natsumi ate the popcorn, and then went back to talking.
“Good point. He doesn’t like sharing all his secrets...” She said, thinking back to Oshiro’s secret, considering whether to tell him. However, as if Oshiro could tell what she was thinking about, the alarm sounded, drowning out the film and making Gorou jump to his feet and run out of the door, Natsumi following.
When they entered the laboratory, the Boss already had his monitors set up, watching a CCTV feed from the area. It was grainy, but the ram monster from earlier was easily noticed, as it was rapidly moving around, as if it were trying to destroy several of the buildings at once.
“Did we see how it got there?” Nastumi asked, sitting at a table across the lab as Gorou ran onto his bike.
“No. We just picked it up a few moments ago. Then again, we have no idea where they usually come from, so there’s no difference there.” He said, both of them listening to the motorcycle to depart. “Now, let’s see how he copes without you trying to get yourself killed.” He said, turning to glare at her.

The ram monster was roaring, and the people in the buildings were screaming in panicked terror. It hadn’t broken through yet, as it kept switching between them, but they all looked cracked and damaged. In a final roar, it readied its head, preparing a final assault, when it heard a motorcycle noise. Its not-very-intelligent brain remembered the noise vaguely, and it turned to face it, only to come face first with a motorcycle impact in the face, knocking it along the wall, into an open space slightly away from the buildings. Gorou ran up, pulling out his red gem.
“Are you trying to destroy your bike?” The Boss asked through the driver, sounding annoyed.
“At least that time I wasn’t on it.” Gorou opened the chamber, slotted in the gem, and pushed down the lever. “Henshin!”
His armour forming in the red sphere, the ram watched with anger, waiting for him to be defenceless. When it faded, the ram charged quickly, its horns starting to glow with energy. Gorou moved out of the way, and it charged straight past him, but it turned sharply, turning back around to face him. There was no chance to move this time, as it was far too close, and he was knocked backwards by a large burst upon impact. His armour survived, though, and he stumbled to his feet. He had landed on his injured arm, and it was hurting, though it didn’t appear to be broken.
He summoned his sword from his belt, and held it in a defensive position. It didn’t deter the beast, which started charging again, its horns lighting up the late-evening street. Gorou didn’t try to dodge, knowing it was somehow faster than before. Instead, he just moved to the side at the last second, holding out his blade. The creature ran into it, pulling Gorou with him, the blade’s blow being dampened by the wool of the creature. Gorou dug his heels in, and the blade cut through to the skin, the creature roaring in pain. It stumbled as Gorou’s blade hit a more solid part, and spun to the ground. Its horns cut through the pavement easily, chunks flying everywhere. Gorou moved towards it, aiming his sword at a bare patch on its back, but it swung at his foot with a large paw, knocking him to his knees as it stood up, trying to kick at him. Gorou rolled away, spinning to his feet, only to be met with the creature charging again. He dived, but the creature, as before, spun in place, keeping its momentum and deadliness, It charged straight towards Gorou, who was pressing the bottom button on his driver. Which meant that it was charging at Gorou’s blade. Gorou’s very powerful, flaming blade. The creature ran straight into the blade, Gorou digging his heels in so he wasn’t dragged along. “Inferno Slash!” The creature was sliced in half by the blade, its fur setting on fire, the street suddenly becoming much brighter as its entire body was set aflame. Gorou started walking away as it exploded.

All the people watching started screaming at the explosion, and Gorou realised that he should probably get out of there before the actual police arrived. He got back on his motorbike and rode away, not seeing the figure standing on top of one of the roofs, shrouded in darkness. No-one noticed when it flew away into the dark night.
When he got back, Natsumi was the only one there to greet him. “The Boss disappeared when you killed it. Said he had better things to do than listen to you get interviewed by some low grade police officers.”
Gorou smiled slightly, removing the gem from his driver and returning to normal, cradling his arm. “I’m just glad he’s not here to know I hurt my arm again. Maybe I should have listened to those medical people…”
Natsumi laughed slightly, and Gorou glared at her before smiling. “We should go see if they’ll still treat you. And if not, go get Oshiro-san so he can force them to.”
The two walked out, talking quietly.

Meanwhile, not in the city, a humanoid creature walked through a maze of caverns and caves, until they reached a large chamber. It was shaped like a circle, with a domed roof or black rock. The only light came from a small glow in the floor, surrounding a pedestal. On the pedestal was a statue, sat upon it. The statue seemed like a person at first glance, but upon closer inspection, problems began to arise with it. The hair appeared to be sculpted from quills and spikes. The skin was pitted, with small holes across the surface. Of the ragged clothes moulded into the rock, they appeared to be made from leather- thin, flaky leather, cut from a sickly cow. Its eye sockets were hollowed out, absorbing all light that came near them, despite the harsh glow from beneath them.
The creature moved closer to the statue’s right flank, like a wary person approaching a threatening lion. It stood there, still. Minutes passed. Until, almost imperceptibly, the head began to turn. It sped up, the sound of grating rock filling the room, until the sockets were staring. A small glow began to fill them, green and sickly, until the statue was staring at the creature. The creature began to laugh. It was rough, and harsh, and inhuman. But it was a laugh.

Oh look, two updates in one day. Mostly because I forgot last time. I hope you all enjoy, all two of you who read this!