Dead of night. A pale, bone-white moon hung suspended in the abyss, casting a sickly radiance over the jagged wilderness. Far from the neon hum of the city, the silence of the deep forest was absolute—until the rhythmic crunch of boots on dry earth began to echo through the timber.
Rin Kuga walked alone. He came to a halt in the center of a small, shadowed clearing, the silver moonlight spilling over his shoulders. Around him, the darkness seemed to breathe. It was a subtle, wet sound: the rhythmic click of mandibles, the rasp of heavy throats swallowing, and the grinding of obsidian teeth against bone.
"Come out," Rin said, his voice cutting through the stillness like a blade. "Your breathing is disgusting."
For a heartbeat, the woods remained silent. Then, the canopy erupted with the sound of snapping branches and the frantic rustling of dead leaves. From the blackness between the ancient trees, they emerged—a swarm of low-ranking Gurongi. Their forms were a grotesque patchwork of insectile plates and leathery hide, their beastly eyes glowing with a feral, mindless hunger.
Rin watched the circle close around him, a thin, dangerous smile playing on his lips.
I knew it, he thought, his golden aura humming just beneath his skin. The moment I engaged that bat, I felt the ripples. The anomalies weren't isolated. They're gathering.
The creatures hissed, their crude, gutteral Linto—the human tongue—sounding like gravel being crushed in a meat grinder.
"Hrk... look... a Linto. A bold one," one hissed, spittle flying from its fangs.
"He came to us," another cackled, its body twitching with excitement. "Let us make it a game... a race! Whoever carves his heart out first wins the point!"
A chorus of bloodthirsty roars erupted. To these creatures, killing wasn't just survival; it was the Gegiru—the game. They lunged simultaneously, a blur of claws and raw malice, all vying to be the first to taste the blood of the human who had dared to intrude upon their nest.
"Hmph. Just a pile of trash after all," Rin murmured.
He showed no fear; instead, a spark of genuine amusement flickered in his eyes. Individually, they were nothing, but en masse, they might actually provide a momentary distraction.
With a fluid motion, he summoned the Ziku-Driver to his waist. The mechanical chime echoed through the clearing as it locked into place.
ZIKU-DRIVER!
This time, he didn't reach for the standard Ridewatch. He pulled out a specialized device—the gold-and-black Zi-O II Ridewatch. It was a dual-faced chronometer, a relic that held the power to see into the future and overwrite reality itself.
"Let's see how you handle the second evolution," Rin said.
He split the watch in two, the metallic snick of the mechanism sharp in the night air. He slotted both halves into the Driver, the golden gears within the device beginning to spin at impossible speeds. He gripped the center and gave it a violent, full rotation.
BOOM.
A shockwave of pure chronal energy erupted from Rin's position. Giant, silver watchbands manifested in the air, spinning with enough force to shatter the atmosphere. The Gurongi caught in the initial blast were sent flying like ragdolls; those unlucky enough to be near the trees were smashed through the trunks, the ancient wood snapping like dry kindling under the pressure of his transformation.
"Henshin."
The silver bands whipped back toward him, encasing his body in a new, more aggressive layer of silver-and-pink plating. The chest piece was more ornate, and the shoulder pads flared with the authority of a ruler.
RIDER TIME! KAMEN RIDER! RIDER! ZI-O, ZI-O, ZI-O II!
The pink "Rider" katakana snapped onto his visor, glowing with a fierce, neon intensity. Rin—now Kamen Rider Zi-O II—stood in the center of the devastation, his cape fluttering in the wind of his own power. He rolled his neck, the armor clicking in perfect synchronization with his movements.
"Now, come. This is my third battle." he said, the vocoder of his helmet deepening his voice into a regal, terrifying bass. "Don't disappoint me."
-------------
If you want to read ahead, head over to: [email protected]/HappyCrow
As always, thank you for the support, the comments, and those precious power stones!