Chapter Text
I do not own Kamen Rider Zi - O or Claymore, all of the characters belong to their respective creators.
"We've already upheld our part of the bargain by letting you help us, Mr. Sougo; now it's time for you to keep yours by answering our questions," demanded Flora.
Right now, Sougo is stationed in a large cabin with 24 Claymores surrounding him, each pointing their inquisitive gaze towards Sougo. In the past, Sougo has never been surrounded by such a large number of women, with his only close female friend being Tsukuyomi. Stuck in this situation, Sougo cannot help but think that this would have been heaven for some of the boys his age if it weren't for the emotionless silver eyes of the Claymores and the giant weapons on their backs. "I'm ready to answer any of your questions," claimed Sougo.
"Before we start, I want to be honest with you about the enemies that we are fighting right now," admitted Miria, "they are called Awakened Ones, powerful Yomas that have lived for so long and got so strong that some of them can even kill single numbers. That's why we Claymores have to focus here with such a large number. If you want to retreat, now it's the perfect time to do it."
"I also had my fair share of adventures and monsters fighting in the past, so I won't retreat. For a Kamen Rider must protect the peace of humanity," replied Sougo.
"If you insist, then let's start our conversation. What is a Kamen Rider?" asked Miria.
"A Kamen Rider is a weapon," Sougo answers without hesitation.
"Please elaborate, Mr. Sougo," continued Miria, trying to hide the surprise she shares with other Claymores.
"50 years ago, in our land, an organization called Shocker invented a way to create "The Ultimate Warriors" that will help them conquer the world. By modifying the human body, they would create Cyborgs, soldiers that were much stronger, more intelligent than a normal human, but have no free will, and could perform any missions without hesitation," replied Sougo.
"So they are more or less like us," the Claymores talk among themselves.
"However, eventually, two of their soldiers began to realize the wrong ways of Shocker and were able to put a stop to the organization before the soldiers could be mass produced. They are still lauded in our land as Kamen Rider Ichigo and Nigo, the first to ever exist." Sougo continues without being bothered by the Claymores.
"This means that many Kamen Riders will also come into being after those two, am I correct?" asked Miria.
"Yes, however, not all Kamen Riders are the same. Each of them has their own backstory, powers, and motivations. There are even Dark Riders, Kamen Riders that turned evil and no longer fight for the peace of our land, and Kamen Riders that are not even human," elaborated Sougo.
"I've never heard other species fighting for humanity besides humans. Can you tell me more about them?" Miria asks with a curious look.
"There are Kamen Rider Faiz, who is an Orphnoc; Kamen Rider Sasword, a Worm; Kamen Rider Chalice, a Joker Undead; Kamen Rider Amazon Omega, an Amazon, and many more" Sougo counts using his finger, "One common thing about non-human Riders is that they can more or less disguise themselves as humans and live among us just fine." Added Sougo, which surprises all of the Claymores in the room.
"Now, it's my turn." Helen steps up with a grin on her face, "How the hell were you able to follow us for 3 days straight without resting even though you are a human?"
"I tracked you guys, of course." Sougo deadpans. "Let me show you," Sougo says as he pulls out a gadget that the Claymores have never seen before. It was a circle object with a ring outer rim, a red center with 3 Os, and the number 2011 on it. "OOO," the gadget rings out as Sougo presses it, and small cylinders appear in the room. As Sougo grabs a green one, and inserts in it a silver coin, the cylinder jumps to life as it turns into a shape resembling a grasshopper "Batta Can."
The thing jumps around the room and then lands on Helen's shoulder. "WOAH! What is this thing?" Helen exclaims, followed by the widened eyes of many Claymores.
"It is a Candroid, a gadget that can help me with reconnaissance if I'm far away from the target. With a bunch of these things, I can know the position of my target and even the way to reach them." Sougo says with a proud face, "Besides, this is not my first rodeo either; I still have a lot of experience traveling with my friends in the past."
"As for why you guys couldn't detect me, one of my armors allows me to blend into the environment around me and masks it according to the environment," Sougo comes up with a feasible explanation, albeit slightly incorrect for how Diend's Invisible and OOO's SeiShiroGuin combo works, "Until I got too close and was detected by your leader."
"Although this is without saying, I would like you to show us what you can do to fight Yoma." Flora says, "If we want to work with each other, at least we have to know each other's fighting style."
"You beat me to the punch there, Miss Flora. Then, let's show you guys what I can do." Sougo replies cheerfully.
As Sougo and 24 Claymores walk outside the cabin and into the snow, the people of Pieta aim their attention toward Sougo, not understanding what will happen. "Since I'm the warrior with the lowest number here, I will be the one to challenge you first, Mr. Sougo," said Clare as she pulled her sword out, aiming it at the Kamen Rider.
"It's a pleasure to duel with you, Miss Clare," said Sougo as he pulled out the OOO Riderwatch. "OOO," said the Riderwatch as a belt appeared on Sougo's hip, "OOO's Driver."
Sougo then takes out 3 metal coins like before, inserts them one by one into the Driver, bends the coin holder, and uses the OOO scanner to sweep through them. "Seiuchi, Shirokuma, Penguin. Sei! Shiroguin! Sei! Shiroguin!" 3 carvings begin to appear in front of Sougo, then merge with his body to form armor. Instead of just melting the snow like red armor, this armor produces more snow and causes the water vapor surrounding it to freeze into ice. It has a gray headpiece with 2 horns turning down and red eyes. The arms are covered with white claws, while the legs are blue and white with flippers like a duck's. "This is the armor that I used to follow you into this place, able to handle even the most terrible blizzards," claimed Sougo.
"Here I come." With a stoic face, Clare leaps forward with her sword and performs a side sweep. A loud "Clang" rings as the sword meets Sougo's fist. Sougo then moves his other hand, slashing at Clare, but she dodges it and jumps back. Now, it's time for Sougo to retaliate as he rushes forward and punches the ground, causing many ice spikes to poke out from the ground toward Clare. She dodges again and moves to the side of the Kamen Rider, trying to thrust him, but a thick ice wall appears as Sougo raises his other hand, blocking her sword from touching the armor.
The battle happens under the surprising gazes of other Claymores, especially Miria and Flora. "Even for a human, he is still able to keep up with her in that armor, while he is unable to touch Clare, neither can she," commented Flora. "Then that just means that she is weak," spat Undine, "That human is too slow; even without releasing Yoki, we can still see his movement; the only thing that saves his ass is that magic of him." A human who can keep up with a Claymore sure is surprising, but Miria knows that Clare hasn't released 100% of her power yet and decides to keep watching silently.
After a while of dodging and running around, Clare decides to wrap this duel up by releasing 10% of her Yoki, making her eyes turn gold with cat-like irises. She also becomes faster and stronger, cracking through Sougo's ice walls with less effort. "So, you guys can choose how much power to release, then I must not fall behind."
As Clare breaks through an ice wall and is about to hit Sougo's head with her sweep, her sword meets with his glowing white palm instead. "What? It wasn't like that before!" thought Clare as she tried to break off but could not as her sword was stuck entirely in Sougo's palm. "No, not only that the sword stuck to the fist, but I also can no longer feel my arms and legs," thought Clare as she saw ice form on her sword and limbs, "He is freezing the air around faster to reduce my speed, I'm starting to feel very cold right now." Before Clare can escape Sougo's clutch, a glowing white fist impacts her stomach, sending her back without her sword as other Claymores look in amazement.
"I think that is enough, Mr. Sougo." Said Miria as she moved forward to examine Clare. There is ice all over Clare's body, with a large layer over where Sougo has impacted her with his fist. "You don't need to release your Yoki anymore, Clare; this duel has reached its conclusion."
"You were right, Miria; this is magic beyond our understanding. When his fists glowed, it was the first time I felt cold ever since becoming a Claymore," Clare stands up as Sougo walks toward her in his armor and hands her sword back with 2 hands. "It was a fantastic duel, Miss Clare," said Sougo with a smile behind his armor.
"Before we can rest, Mr. Sougo, I want to have a duel with you," Miria offers, "but you can't use your armor."
"You want to see what I can do without my armor, don't you?" replied Sougo.
"Please don't misunderstand my intention, Mr. Sougo. I've already known that you have the power to handle regular Yomas, but we are not them," Miria explains," allow me to demonstrate with one of our teammates. Flora, if you don't mind?"
As Flora steps forward, a circle begins to form around her and blows all the snow away without her even moving a finger. "Amazing, her hand movements are so fast that I can barely see them through these eyes," Sougo exclaims.
"That is why her name is "Windcutter Flora," the Claymore with the fastest sword drawing speed," Miria explains, "Even without releasing her Yoki, her speed has already exceeded many Claymores, including many higher-ranking single numbers."
"I understand; without my armor, I cannot even react before she slices me up into bits if I were to fight her," Sougo nods, "then I guess you want to know if I can address the weaknesses of my human form?"
"Correct, Mr. Sougo, to win a war, you must know the weakness of your allies and enemies," replied Miria.
As Clare retreats and Miria steps toward replacing her, Sougo returns to his human form, with both of them going to their respective positions.
"Here I come," said Miria as she instantly releases 10% of her Yoma and rushes towards Sougo with an insane speed, while leaving behind many of her mirages. However, before she can reach him, a wave of energy is released from Sougo, causing everything and everyone in this world to slow down until they reach a total stop. When Miria stops completely, Sougo can see that in just 1 second, she has already breached the gap between them and is right in front of his face with her right fist only a few centimeters from his body.
"So that is why she is called "Phantom Miria," even many Kaijins back at home cannot hope to outmatch her speed," surprised Sougo as he pulled out another Riderwatch; this one had a red color with a yellow rim. At the center of it is the Kuuga symbol with the year 2000 plastered on it. "Sorry, Miria, but I must hide my trump card from you."
"Kuuga," the Riderwatch rings out as a golden rectangle with the number 2000 on it appears and opens up; coming from the other side is Kamen Rider Kuuga in his Rising Titan form. Standing taller than Miria herself, the purple Rider is stationed by Sougo to stand between him and the advancing Miria. Sougo then moves away from his original position and emits another wave of energy, causing time to advance normally again. As time begins to flow, Miria's fist flies towards what she thought was the position of Sougo's stomach, but it instead comes into contact with a hardened surface. Looking up, Miria begins to wear the surprised expression of many of her comrades. Standing as tall as a Yoma is a warrior with 3 horns on his head, purple eyes, and armor with a golden belt at the hip. When Miria puts her hands down, she notices that the warrior is just like a statue, not responding to her punch or presence. Looking behind the warrior, Miria sees that Sougo is waving at her.
"What is this, Mr. Sougo?" asked Miria.
"It's my answer to your question, Miss Miria." Replied Sougo as he began to advance towards Miria.
Sougo then puts his hand on Kamen Rider Kuuga, "This is Kamen Rider Kuuga, or at least, a puppet based on him. One of my abilities is to summon puppets of my predecessors to help me if I ever encounter an enemy that moves as fast as you."
"This is definitely convenient if you are stuck in a pinch," commented Miria, "then based on what you say, this thing doesn't have any sentience and only follows your orders?"
"Correct, Miss Miria, that's why I prefer to fight for myself instead of just relying on these puppets since they can only perform a single task without any adaptation to the situation," lied Sougo.
"Then this concludes our sparring session today. Do you have any more opinions on working with Mr. Sougo, everyone?" asked Miria.
"Even with all this magic crap, I still don't feel like working with him, but if this is what others agree on, even our chief, then who am I to question?" admitted Undine.
As the remaining Claymores stay silent, Miria concludes: "Then it is decided, Mr. Sougo will become a part of our team in this mission of hunting Awakened Ones."
"Now, it's time to formulate our own teams," shouted Miria, "We will divide into 5 teams with the highest-ranking numbers as captains. Number 8, Jean; Number 11, Undine; Number 13, Veronica; please step forward. You guys will be the captains; each team will have 5 people, including Mr. Sougo here."
After each team has been formed, every Claymore returns to their quarters, except for 5 of their comrades. While walking through the city and getting to know each Claymore, Sougo spots Clare and Jean, leaves the city's vicinity, and enters the woods. Curious, he produces a Taka Can from OOO's Riderwatch and lets it follow them while he watches from behind.