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Monday, February 26, 2080. 4:30 PM
Somewhere in Japan, there is a building. It's about as wide and as long as the average skyscraper, and it's got 80 floors. There's a restaurant on floor 36 that sells ramen. There's a few offices on floor 57, where salarymen without any purpose in life anymore sell stocks for companies that will likely die within the next few years.
But the most important place lies on floor…56. Not 13, the people there already expected you to think that. It seems like an empty floor. Something still in construction. Dust is kicked up, you'll see some concrete drying on the floor, the works. But if you take a look on the back end of that floor, you'll find a very… special place. That's where our story today will start.
The man walked through the dusty floor 56. Brushing back his messy brown hair, he looked around. If he didn't know better, he'd really have been confused going to this floor, but knowing what he knew…
He shook his head. Not the time to think about that. Just like how he could never think about-
No. No, he would not go down that path today.
Walking forward, he took a left turn, a right turn, and then stopped for exactly five seconds. He turned around, and there it was. A black door.
The man put a hand on the doorknob, looked back to make sure nobody was following him (while keeping that hand on the knob to make sure the door wouldn't vanish) before opening the door.
And the second he did that, the door began screaming and he was pulled in.
The Unemptied Ending
4:30 $%^&?!M
For a good few seconds, the man had to cover his eyes, to protect himself from the horrors he knew he would see inside eternity otherwise. A bleak wind passed him, and in ten seconds he moved ten thousand miles away.
The man moved his hand away, dusted off his suit, and looked forward. The base of Umbra, also known as the Ending, was the same as always. Strange, gray alien platforms floated through the completely empty air. Some of them cubes, some of them strange holes and spirals.
He walked forward a bit, right off the cube he had started on and through the Void. Despite the fact that there was no ground below his feet, he walked on the air.
Or space. It was unclear.
Eventually, he walked exactly the amount of space he needed to. And he turned around.
There were two people behind him, sitting on average chairs. One of them, a man in a sharp black suit similar to the one he had on. Another, a man in old brown and black robes. On his head was a large hat. One that looked a bit like an old fashioned wizard's hat-- but he'd never say that out loud, at least not while he valued his life for now.
The man in the suit looked at him, and the man boy had to shudder involuntarily. The man's eyes were still completely empty, after all. That was not something to look at lightly.
"General Dokuro. Explain the purpose of your visit."
Dokuro bit his tongue. How would he be able to say this without risking instant death…?
After some internal deliberation, he decided to just say it bluntly. It wasn't like he valued his own life that highly. "Great Leader. I have somebody I want to hunt down."
The man in the wizardly robes shook his head. The Great Leader tilted his. "Young man, don't you remember? Operation Reversal of Awakening is still in preparation. We still have so much to do, and so little time. Why are you giving us a meaningless diversion?"
Dokuro took a deep breath. The Great Leader was saying that in a very concerning (read: say something quickly or you die here) tone. "The Rider who intercepted my squad, while I was in my Masked Warrior form and locked in on the Void energies. A while back, during my operation in Akihabara. She managed to come back from one of our Sacrifice Glyphs. And then she killed my entire team."
Dokuro gestured to the lapel of his suit. On it were six flowers. Red spider lilies, that he had been wearing for weeks now. "Katsu was going to cook for us on Friday. Kyou's brother won't have enough to pay for his student loans now. Emiko had a ballet meeting she was going to have enough to pay for. They were my brothers and sisters. And that girl took them from me."
He had to grab at his suit to stop himself from clawing at his own neck. Someone had taken the fall for him. Again.
The man in the robes finally raised his hat, revealing a graying and wrinkled head from underneath his shadowed brim. "Ok. Is there any other reason we should be concerned about another Kamen Rider? Or is there something else that you deem important to come and tell us?"
Dokuro practically had to stop himself from growling or showing any emotion that either one of the leaders would pounce on. "Before I tactically retreated from the area, I noticed the way she sized my team up, how she moved and jumped around. She's a Guild Member, and she's clearly an ex-member, if I had to make a guess. Our occasional partners won't be happy that one of their own gained the powers of a Rider."
The two men looked at each other, emotions completely unreadable as always, and they scooted their chairs back. They began to whisper, and Dokuro tapped his foot nervously. His chances of death were beginning to look somewhat concerning…
Eventually, the two leaders of Umbra looked back at him, and the Great Leader began to fade into shadow. As he did, the wizardly man looked towards him. "Wait here for a minute. We have contacted another of our high-level operatives to... let's say help, you."
The sound of footsteps echoed from behind Dokuro. He turned around, to see a non-descript woman. Her black hair was pulled into a ponytail, she had circular glasses, and a sensible jacket and shirt on. She seemed like the pinnacle of... a mob. A generic person, so boring that if she hadn't gotten into this secret space, he would have sworn that he was looking at a civilian. "Hello."
"Hey. I hear you're the oh-so-famed Dokurokan everyone here's been talking about. Where's that mask that everyone talked so highly about?"
He groaned. "It's not that interesting. Simply a partial manifestation of my Contract's transformation. Now. Who're you?"
"Oh, I'm just a regular girl. I simply don't like this country very much."
Dokuro took a look behind, there was nothing, just empty blackness. Both of the leaders had vanished into another part of the Ending. How predictable, if sad. "Nobody in this organization does," he said, "now who. Are. You."
She giggled. "Geez, you're such a bore. I'm just a girl. I just have a vendetta." she said, with an unnerving grin on her face, "Y'know, like the one I think you have. I want my revenge on Awakening Day. So do you. We are the same."
Dokuro took a step back. "...and how exactly are you going to try and search through Japan and find that target? There's a lot of people on this terrible floating trainwreck of a place."
"Well, since we'll likely be doing a few things together, we can filter through the info I need together. As for how I'll get my revenge? Well."
The woman reached into her jacket's right pocket, and pulled out- a revolver? But how? It was too large, the jacket wouldn't have been able to hide it. Only years of experience and well-honed reflexes allowed Dokuro to dodge what came next.
BANG!
The sound of the gun echoed throughout the empty space. Dokuro had just barely managed to dodge the bullet by twisting his head. "The hell was that for?!"
The woman just pointed behind him. "Look."
A gray platform had floated behind Dokuro, with an indent in it in the shape of the spiral. Dokuro squinted to see what was there, and then-
The bullet returned from the spiral, clipping his shoulder. He bit his tongue, stifling a scream. He glanced at his shoulder, expecting it to quickly heal already. It would heal soon enough.
There was nothing like that. Just a wound, wherein he couldn't see the flesh. It almost looked like a smudge of black on his shoulder. "You controlled that bullet's trajectory. And I can't heal this wound, either..." he blurted out.
"Yup! You do the field work, and I'll be able to get into position and- bang! I'll get rid of both of our worst nightmares. All you have to do is work with me right up until we get to Awakening Day. Won't that be so much fun?"
The woman held out her hand and grinned deviously, and it was at that moment that Dokuro knew.
He wasn't going to have a happy ending anymore. His chances of that faraway dream, where he had a family that wouldn't leave… the chances of that happening had just gone down the drain. But it was fine.
"Call me Senkesha. It's nice to meet ya, partner."
Dokuro leaned in, and took the handshake. He had already accepted that making a deal like this was going to come with its consequences. If this woman was the newest manifestation of those consequences? Then so be it.
"It's good to meet you. Let's make some chaos happen together."
Author's Note:
Every good anime has a compelling starting villain. But we haven't actually gotten to see much of the Dokurokan yet, aside from him shooting Rei. Also, I don't write in 3rd person enough. This sidestory was a way for me to fix that.
Remember to vote, yadda yadda, have a nice weekend.
