This is the second issue of PyroHunter16's new Marvel Fanon-Made storyline called The Absconders: Seven Shinka. This is a side-story that will take place outside of the world and focuses on one of the main characters named Haruto Higashikata. For the previous issue, click here. This storyline is Role-played and made by me, Pyro, and these are the OCs that will be featured.
- Haruto Higashikata (Earth-2025)
- Caesar Novak (AKA Origin)
- The Arcana
- Fiamma
- Acqua
- Vento
- Terra
- Ombra
- Luce
- Shin
If you want to join this RP, please ask in the comments and you will need most of our approvals to RP in here. Also, you need to have a Marvel OC (Original Character) submitted to deviantART OR this wiki and must share it with us so we know who we are RPing with. Disclaimer: Any real-life or fictional brands are used in as a parody. Additionally, any references to existing works such as an anime or manga are meant solely as inspiration. No copyright infringement is intended with this. None of us are actually sponsored, nor do we care to be sponsored, Now let us begin the RP and enjoy :)
Key:
- Normal writing is the dialogue between the characters.
- Italic writing is a special writing type for characters with second personalities, long distance dialogue (telepathy or calls), or an emphasis on foreign languages.
- Bold and italic writing are the actions that characters do.
- Writing in between the *asterisk* means that the character is talking in their heads.
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Day 5: New System Part 1[]
Waking up the next day, Haruto felt refreshed and ready to go. A protein-heavy breakfast with coffee was left in his room, along with a note. After getting up and dressed, he read the note to himself while eating.
Note: Young Haruto, it is time to begin your search for the rest of the Dual Bottles. We've provided one more Bottle for you before you begin your journey. To use the Dual Bottles, shake them up and twist the caps, then insert the Bottles cap-down into the slots. From there, twist the lever counter-clockwise and let the belt take care of the rest of the transformation. Enjoy the first "Best Match" of Shin's power and the Assault Dual Bottle. Best Regards, the Arcana.
Just a reference for Haruto's new armor. Same general design, different colors and eye designs.
Haruto: Assault? As he reached to pick up the coffee, he grabbed something else instead. He looked from the note to what his hand had grabbed, and saw he was holding a dark silver Dual Bottle Oh... I guess this goes with Shin's bottle. He set down the note and drinks the coffee. As he finished his coffee, he thought over his decision about the names of his new equipment. *I'll keep Binary Driver. But Dual Bottle sounds... weird. I guess I'll keep the bottle part, but uh...* He drank the rest of his coffee and set everything aside before inspecting the dark silver bottle. What would I rename these to...? Maybe I'll just keep the Dual Bottle name for now... He got up and put the buckle to his waist, a black belt extended from one side of the buckle to the other, securing the Driver in place. After that, Haruto followed the steps as laid out in the note. He shook up the bottles for a few seconds, twisted the caps to reveal the tips, then inserted them into the belt. When the Shin Bottle was inserted into the belt, it announced "Shin Arcana!" and "Assault!" before proclaiming "Best match!" after. Techno music played as it waited for Haruto to twist the lever on the belt. Uh... Henshin! Once he had rotated it counter-clockwise upwards, the same voice stated "Mix!! Genjitsu no Attacking! Shin Assault!!" as a series of pipes appeared around his feet before the two streams of silver energy were released from the two bottles on the belt. These streams very quickly formed something resembling two sprues, one in front and one behind. From these sprues, the two halves of Haruto's armor were roughly formed. The one in front was a glistening silver, forming the right arm and the connecting portion to the chest, the left half of the mask, and the left leg. The back sprue formed the remainder of the armor in a charred silver, featuring the left arm and its connecting armor, the right leg, and the right half of the mask. From there, the two halves quickly combined with one another over Haruto, with a black bodysuit forming under and in between the armored components. Well... this is something...
With this new armor on him, Haruto left the room to discover he was all alone. Caesar's room had disappeared, and it seemed he was only on a barren rock. Sighing, he left the safety of his room and closed the door behind him, looking around. The inside of his mask displayed a red HUD for Haruto, including a targeting reticle that was moving around and examining his surroundings before saving the info to a database. As Haruto looked around, he almost stepped on a heavily modified smartphone and another Dual Bottle, this bottle featuring a layered color scheme of white, red, and black in that order.
Haruto: Hah? The hell is this? He picked up the Smartphone and bottle before booting up the phone. It started up relatively quickly, almost immediately bringing him to the lock screen. A phone...? But why? He examined the phone's apps and appearance, noting the back of it appeared to fit a Dual Bottle with additional gears left slightly exposed. He looked through all the apps before a notification popped up, stating that the phone was designed to work with the bottle left with it. "The Dual Bottle here is designed specifically for this phone, and is designated the "Mach" Dual Bottle. Enjoy your new vehicle." Vehicle? He locked the phone and flipped it around to show the slot for the Dual Bottle So... this turns into a motorcycle? Or something along those lines? Hm... He took the layered Dual Bottle, which he assumed to be the Mach bottle mentioned in the notification. After shaking it up and twisting the cap, he inserted it into the slot. A new notification appeared, prompting Haruto to unlock and check the notification. "Mach bottle detected. Engage Transformation to Ride Bottler?" The hell kind of name is Ride Bottler...? I'm changing that to Ride Dueler. That sounds so much better...
He tapped on the "OK" option for the notification, causing the gears on the phone to start rotating, slowly accelerating as cosmic energy surrounded the phone. The phone began to get heavier in Haruto's hand, so he decided to chuck the phone into the air. With that, Haruto's new bike appeared, a heavily customized version of his CBR1000RR back on Earth. It kept its black and red color scheme with the addition of some white, though it now sported custom fairings, a custom headlight and front fender, and the tail-light was modified to incorporate an enlarged Mach Dual Bottle embedded into the back, with additional exhaust pipes around it.
Haruto: Holy s-it... That's awesome... He got onto the bike, examining the electronics and the handle bars. It didn't seem that there was a key-based start system, just a simple use of the ignition switch and some revs of the throttle. Hm... Now I'm wondering if this bike responds to me alone... I really hope so, I don't want anyone hijacking this...
After some more revving, Haruto departed from the room, riding his new bike around the barren wasteland he had found himself in. It seemed that the Arcana had removed the room from its original place to this empty spot in the middle of nowhere that was already in the middle of nowhere. The only sound that could be heard was the tumbling of rocks and the roar of the bike's 998cc liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder engine. Haruto continually accelerated, shifting gears as necessary as he explored the empty lands surrounding him. As he sped up, he noticed the bike had electronic displays that showed the RPM, a gear indicator, the current speed, and various minor details that showed the current status of the bike. The base model CBR1000RR had a 175 MPH top speed, but the electronic speedometer currently showed a speed exceeding that greatly, around 215 or so MPH.
Haruto: I have no clue where the hell I'm going or where I should be headed... Dammit. Well, let's see if I can find the training locations. There might be a clue, or a Dual Bottle or two. Hopefully, I can get a Best Match out of it. He accelerated and shifted up another gear as he turned and looked around for any traces of volcanic rock, hoping to find the first training ground he had began his training on. Eventually, he found the volcanic rocks he was looking for, following the path that lead straight to the volcano he had previously encountered. Found you.
After stopping at the base of the Volcano, he saw the damage left behind from his training with Wrath. Lava flowed out of the giant slash through it. What appeared to be a pedestal made of solidified magma sat in the middle of the lava. Upon this pedestal sat two Dual Bottles, one colored crimson and the other appeared to be a silver-ish color. Haruto got off the Ride Dueler and looked at the pedestal, then to the bike.
Haruto: How do I get it to compact itself again...? He looked around the bike, then decided to press on the gas cap to see what it would do. With that, the bike was enveloped by a mass of cosmic energy before dispersing and leaving the smartphone it transformed from levitating in the air. Oh, the gas cap. That's nice. He takes the phone out of the air, removing the Bottle from the back of it. The hell do I put this? He looked around his suit, noticing a panel on the left side of the belt that had three slots for Dual Bottles on it. That's convenient... where did this come from?
He put the Mach Bottle in one of the slots and then looked at the phone, contemplating where to put the phone. Unlocking the phone, Haruto browsed through its apps to see if it had some sort of storage or inventory app. After some scrolling, he found what appeared to be an inventory app. Once he tapped on it, a red holographic display appeared showing an inventory-style menu. He held the phone to an empty square, and the phone was stored in the square. A red holographic panel appeared over his right forearm, allowing him to access the inventory without the phone. The only other items in the inventory was Mifune's sword and the Mach Bottle. He brought out the sword from the inventory, making it materialize in front of him.
Haruto: Let's see what I'll be facing to get those bottles... He grabbed the sheathed blade and waved away the inventory display, drawing the sword and holding the scabbard to his back so that it could be magnetically held across his back for him. Come on out! Whoever's guarding the treasures, show yourself!
A large humanoid made of a charred substance rose out of the lava, grabbing onto a nearby rock to support his rise. Its head featured just yellow eyes and cracks of magma, with the cracks continuing throughout the body. Once it had stood up fully, it walked out of the lava slowly, as if it were leaving a hot spring. After leaving the lava, it plunged its fist into the ground and pulled out a large greatsword of magma and volcanic substances.
Haruto: Oh great, a lava guardian... Or something like that... He tightened his grip on the sword as he took some controlled breaths, preparing a Wrath Flame Well, let's dance! He releases his attack, creating another flame that would have split the volcano entirely had the lava guardian not absorbed the Wrath Flame into his sword and imbued its power throughout the weapon Okay, probably shouldn't have started with that one...
The guardian slowly approached Haruto in a stance that appeared to favor heavy, powerful strikes. As Haruto and the guardian walked around in a circle, the former tried to further analyze the guardian's abilities. The HUD of his armor locked its targeting reticle on the guardian, calculating and storing the data of the lava humanoid before bringing up the most important data on it. Tiring of pacing around, the guardian charged at Haruto, starting with a downward slash that focused on damage. Haruto rolled to the side and used Bringer Light to boost himself right into the guardian's side, stabbing into it before charging a Greed Slash into the sword while it's still embedded. With his Bringer Light to augment his speed, Haruto unleashed a high-speed combo of sword attacks to cut down the guardian as quickly as possible. The guardian didn't seem to care, tanking all the attack as it slowly rose and prepared another powerful slash.
Haruto: Toki yo tomare! He stopped time before the guardian could attack, allowing him to continue his frenzy of attacks. However, the guardian began to move in stopped time, albeit slowly, as if time were slowed rather than stopped. This should have been expected... Alright, game on. He rolled out of the way and let off a storm of Lust Bullets that traveled like time hadn't stopped at all, detonating upon impact with the guardian and breaking it down within the stopped time. Ugh, just die already! Another notification appeared on his HUD, telling him to rotate the belt lever counter-clockwise again, then rotate it clockwise. The hell? Uh.. sure. He did as the HUD told him, causing the belt to announced "Shin Assault! Binary Finish!!" as brilliant silver energy and dark silver energy surrounded his sword blade Binary Finish...? Alright then. He used Bringer Light to boost himself forward and cut through the guardian as time restarted its flow. The guardian began crumbling into shards of rock before exploding into a mass of lava. Well, that happened... He approached the pedestal in the middle of the lava, using Bringer Light to walk on said lava to retrieve the two Dual Bottles lying on it. He picked them up inspected them. One's modeled after Fiamma, obviously... This next one... He inspected the other bottle, which appeared to be a white bottle with a sword-like motif. I guess it's a sword? I'll take what I can get. He put the bottles in the holster on his hip, then walked away and summoned his Ride Dueler once more. I can test this out later... And with that, Haruto rode off again, looking to find the beach where he trained after the volcano.
Day 5: New System Part 2[]
As Haruto rode to the beach, he noticed a sparkling to the side. Suddenly, he stopped and swerved the bike to face the source of the sparkling. It appeared to be a metallic ore embedded in some rocks. Haruto got off his bike and approached the ore, inspecting it with his armor's HUD. The data appeared in a compact, easy to understand window for him to read.
Haruto: An extra-dimensional metal with splendid durability and incredibly sharpness once forged into a bladed weapon. Didn't expect the Arcana's powers to expand beyond the reach of this universe... Or was it my supposed "overwriting" that brought this here...? I haven't spent any time investing training into overwriting, so there's no way I could have done this...
He continued to examine the ore, then grabbed onto the ore physically as he tried to yank it from the rock. It didn't budge whatsoever. He tried pulling harder, kicking it out, even using a punching barrage to try and break it out. Nothing happened.
Haruto: Oh, f--k off... Well, let's force this ore out with willpower. Haruto flexed his hand muscles, then grabbed onto the ore and imagined that the rock holding the ore was more of the ore and that it was loose enough for him to take it without effort. A red and silver aura surrounded his hand and the ore before Haruto pulled and a large chunk of ore came off the rock. ...I can't believe that actually worked...
He opened up his inventory and placed the ore in an empty slot before waving the displays away and getting to work extracting all the materials he could from this chunk of rock. Once he had turned the rock into a clump of extra-dimensional ore and stored it away, Haruto returned to the volcano via motorcycle, speeding away and arriving at the pedestal. Removing the mass of the material, Haruto got to work forging a sword for himself, eventually creating a crude katana that lacked a crossguard and a proper hilt wrapping. The sword was forged in the lava surrounding him, using his own fists to pound and shape the sword. Several hours passed as the sword was completed, which he compared to Mifune's sword for reference since they were both Katanas.
Haruto: Eh, close enough... I can touch it up later. He stared out at the sun that appeared to be in an afternoon setting, shining down on him in a not-so-intense manner. I need a gun to go with this.
After sheathing the recently hand-forged katana on his back alongside Mifune's, Haruto returned to his bike and sped off towards the beach. He had yet to discover the full potential of his Ride Dueler, but was able to reach sub-sonic speeds after some time, soon arriving at his destination. The waves of the ocean crashed upon each other, as expected of a beach. Haruto looked around and noticed that a cave was further down the beach, which had never seen prior to today. Knowing another guardian would be here, Haruto decided to test out the new pair of Dual Bottles he retrieved. When he removed the pair already set in the Driver, the lever rotated halfway in between its standby state and its active state, awaiting a new pair to be loaded in. After shaking, Haruto inserted the red bottle on the right slot before the whitish bottle on the left slot, causing the lever to return to its standby state.
Binary Driver: Pyro Arcana! Swordsman! Best Match! The techno standby music played once again before Haruto twisted the lever upwards. Mix!! Kasai no Blade Master! Pyro Swordsman!! The sprues appeared around him as the half replacing the Shin side was created out of a crimson red energy while the half replacing the Assault side was formed from white energy. The already-existing silver armor plating dissipated into the air, leaving behind the black bodysuit underneath and the base of the helmet, which left his eyes revealed while the rest of his head was essentially covered. From there, the two new armor halves moved onto Haruto and completed the transformation. With this, the left eye had a fiery design while the right featured a blade-like protrusion. The portions of his armor based off of Fiamma had a similar fire design that blended fairly well with the sharp, sleek motif of the Swordsman half.
Haruto: Swordsman? Then... Haruto held out his hand and a dark red hole appeared in front of it, large enough for him to reach into and extract a weapon I bet this has a few weapons for me! He reached in and pulled out a katana that resembled the sword he had recently made, though it was much more refined and elegant.
Binary Driver: Kurenaiiii Katana!! The blade ignited with flames as Haruto inspected the weapon
Haruto: This is pretty cool, actually... I wonder... He held out his other hand and created another dark red opening, this one significantly larger than the first. He reached in and pulled out a greatsword about three-quarters of his height and Wait, why the hell does this thing feel weightless?! He returned the Katana through the opening where he retrieved the greatsword.
Binary Driver: Kurenaiiii Odachi!!
Haruto: How convenient the belt announces the weapon's name... He returned the greatsword through a larger opening before using both his arms to pull out a sword that was literally 1.5 times his own size This is just as weightless as the other one! The f--k!?
Binary Driver: Kurenaiiii Zanbatou!!!
Haruto: F--king hell... He tossed the ultra greatsword back into the opening and grasped onto a pair of Kurenai Katanas before slashing away the opening. Where's the guardian? A danger warning popped up on his HUD, which he caught on to. He stepped forward and, in slow motion to emphasize the badassery of this, cut through a bullet made entirely of ice. The heat of his sword melted straight through the ice projectile and even caused the bullet and the blade to emit steam as the two halves flew to his sides and hit the ground beside him It's a sniper. Gureato daze.
Haruto readied himself with a defensive sword stance as more bullets flew at him from a different angle. He cut them down easily with both blades, and turned around to where they had flown from. From behind him, more bullets were fired, which hit him directly in the back. Grunting from the pain, he realized that the bullets that hit his Fiamma-based armor melted post-impact while the ones that hit his Swordsman armor were cleaved through almost instantly after hurting him. He spun around and began walking in circles, waiting for the next round of bullets as he channeled pink energy into his swords, readying a pair of Lust Bullet storms for the next wave. When the HUD picked up on the next few rounds, Haruto released one Lust Bullet to diffuse the projectiles and released the other at where he believed the source of the attack to be. The second attack missed as the guardian rose out of the ocean, a being made of ice with vein-like streams of water within it. It held an anti-materiel rifle in its hands, with a pair of what appeared to be compacted sniper rifles holstered on its waist.
Haruto: There you are... Are they in the cave? The being nodded its confirmation before chambering another round into its rifle. Well... fire versus ice it is... And to top it off, melee against ranged combat...
Haruto smiled as he used Bringer Light to dash at the guardian as it brought its rifle up to aim. It looked all around itself before being impaled through the chest with the ultra greatsword that Haruto had found earlier. If the guardian could smile, it would have then and there as it put the barrel to Haruto's head and pulled the trigger. Only barely able to stop time quick enough to avoid severe damage from the ice bullet, Haruto abandoned the Zanbatou and dashed away from the guardian as it and its projectile moved in slow motion to chamber another round. Haruto summoned two of the Odachi swords before dashing behind the guardian and impaling it from behind before summoning katanas from several openings, doing his best to pierce and utterly destroy the guardian with swords of fire before taking the rifle from the guardian. After that, he turned around, chambered a round into the rifle, then put the barrel to the guardian's face and resumed the flow of time before pulling the trigger and blowing apart its head. Haruto tossed aside the rifle and summoned another Zanbatou before rotating the belt's lever to charge his finisher.
Binary Driver: Pyro Blade! Binary Finish!! Red and white energy swirled around the Zanbatou's blade as Haruto rotated the lever to the active state, causing the energy to condense greatly around the sword before he proceeded to bisect the decapitated guardian lengthwise. The moment the blade smashed into the ground, an explosion of fire and sword-like energy projections erupted from the sands of the beach upwards at the guardian, essentially destroying whatever was left of it.
Haruto: Kore de kimari da. He removed the Zanbatou from the ground and swung it so that he could rest it on his shoulder, panting heavily before tossing the sword aside and letting it fade away as he returned to his bike and compressed it, storing the bottle on the side panel as he used the phone as a flashlight so he could find his way around the cave. A pedestal with two Dual Bottles on it was easily found, one bottle featured an icy-blue color and the other featured an arctic camouflage design on it. One's based of Acqua, I bet the other one's a sniper or something similar, given that camo pattern... He took the bottles and put them in his inventory before looking out and seeing that the sun was now setting. Let's see if the room is still there... A beeping inside his helmet signaled that the armor was about to disappear Wait, what?! The armor has a time limit?! The beeping died down as the armor turned back into energy, which then flowed back into their respective bottles before the lever returned to its standby state and the bottles were slightly ejected from their slots, just enough for easy removal. Gureato daze... Hopefully I can get a helmet or something... He looked back at the pedestal and noticed his motorcycle helmet was resting on it. ...The hell? Whatever, better than nothing...
He grabbed his helmet and put it on as he walked out of the cave, placing all his Dual Bottles in his inventory save for his Shin Assault combo and the Mach bottle, which he used to summon his bike and head back for the day. After several hours, he returned to where he began that day, thankful his room was still there. Once he had put away all his equipment, Haruto prepared himself to sleep and put the phone on the night stand, quickly falling asleep. As he slept, the Arcana and Caesar reviewed his progress for the day from their table.
Shin: He progressed very quickly today. He's gotten use to transforming and swapping to another form, and it seems he's taken a liking to the bike.
Acqua: His name for the bike was way cooler than yours!!
Caesar: I told you "Ride Bottler" wasn't a good name...
Shin: I concede to your point...
Fiamma: He did well with my Match, he's a proficient swordsman.
Caesar: He learned it all from anime... How did you manage to reduce the weight on that ultra greatsword?
Shin: We didn't do that...
Caesar: So then... He's starting to overwrite?
Shin: He demonstrated it with the ore extraction. It seems that extra-dimensional materials and objects are easier to rewrite than materials found in this universe...
Caesar: Well, you're bringing foreign materials into this universe. That substance wasn't meant to exist in this universe, but you had to rewrite the universe so that it could exist here. Not that hard to overwrite something that's already been rewritten. So, there's that.
Shin: Fair enough...
Caesar: Regardless, kid's on the path to successfully completing this, and quick. This'll be fun.
Shin: I am eager to see tomorrow's progress. And with that, they began planning the next day's training, creating the guardians, modifying the terrain, placing the Dual Bottles, and then relocating Haruto's room.
Day 6: New System Part 3[]
Haruto woke up with another hot breakfast awaiting him in his room, this time consisting of pancakes, eggs, assorted breakfast meats, and plenty of bacon with butter, syrup and a cappuccino. After getting ready for the day and dressed, Haruto ate the meal and pondered the reasons about the current "Best Matches" he had. Perhaps the matches weren't limited to the best possible matches, so Haruto thought about potentially mixing one elemental bottle with the other bottles and find out how well the resulting form would work, if it formed to begin with. He also noticed a pattern of "elemental effect" bottles being infused with a "role" bottle, seeing that Assault would be in reference to a member of an assault team, and Swordsman was self-explanatory. With breakfast done, Haruto stepped out and summoned forth his Ride Dueler after putting his motorcycle helmet on. The terrain was close to where he remembered training for his second to last day with the sin attacks, so he maneuvered his way around to find the cliff-side that he had trained at prior.
Haruto: Here we are, the... uh... Whatever the hell this place is called. Let's try out this new form... He got out the new pair of bottles and activated them before placing them in the belt and beginning the transformation sequence.
Binary Driver: Cryo Arcana! Sniper! Best Match! The standby music played as Haruto wondered about the elemental effect this time around.
Haruto: Cryo? Ice is related to water, yeah, but... Well, it goes with the sniper thing a bit better, I guess. And the arctic camo makes much more sense now... He turned the lever from standby to active mode to create the armor.
Binary Driver: Mix!! Kotetsu no marksman! Cryo Sniper!! Two sprues appeared from energy streams leaving the belt. One with icy blue armor forming the right arm, right portion of the chest armor, left eye cover, and left leg armor. The other sprue held the left arm, left chest armor components, right eye cover, and right leg in an arctic camouflage design. Both sprues moved in on Haruto and left the armor on him as a black bodysuit appeared underneath to hold it all in place, as well as black armor plating forming to combine and hold the rest of the armor together.
Haruto: Let's see what we got. He held out his arm and a hole colored ice-blue opened up in the space in front of his hand, about big enough for a small rifle. Reaching in, he felt around and pulled out a pistol-sized rifle, with a dark grey coloring and a holographic sight. This looks... kinda similar to that guardian's sidearms...
Binary Driver: Konjou... Blaster!!
Haruto: Blaster is it? Hm... He chambered a round into the gun, using a slide-based mechanism instead of a bolt, then pulled the trigger and fired a bullet made entirely of ice from the barrel. The caliber appeared large relative to a pistol, seemingly similar to the .50 Action Express round, though elongated to make it similar to a rifle bullet. Not much of a blaster... Guess a compact Sniper rifle would make more sense... Uh... Konjou Rifle Compact maybe?
He returned the gun through the opening and pulled out what appeared to be a sniper rifle with a dark grey color and some silver detailing in the shape of ice with pale blue highlights. It had a traditional sniper scope, though its body was very futuristic and sleek in general. ...Except the barrel was basically non-existent at the moment and what appeared to be an angled foregrip was folded into the gun's frame.
Haruto: Uh... what? He looked it over, then flipped out the foregrip, which caused ice vapor to waft into the air as it sounded like something was starting to thaw or freeze. Well, there's step one... He extended the foregrip straight forward from the rifle body, thus freezing the barrel of the gun into existence. Though he only extended the foregrip a small amount, a full rifle-sized barrel appeared, with the grip following the barrel's formation and locking itself into a comfortable position for holding
BD: Konjou... Rifle!!
Haruto: This is more like it. He shouldered the weapon and looked through the scope, seeing that the scope was also a high-tech holographic scope which then synchronized itself to the targeting system of Haruto's HUD. Oh, even better. Do we have variable zoom on this? The scope then proceeded to zoom and enhance itself onto a rock in the distance, showing it as if it were right in front of him. Damn, that's some high-definition zoom... A warning sign flashed before the system and suit then forced him to aim at something. The zoom decreased to allow Haruto to see the full target, which appeared to be a large golem made of solid stone and had pulsing, dark orange energy coursing throughout it like veins. Ah, mitsukedaze.
He held the rifle over his shoulder and compacted his bike for safety, not sure how durable it was and not in the mood to test it. From here, Haruto used Bringer Light to teleport to the top of the cliff as he heard the golem guardian approaching him with loud thuds that were most definitely its footsteps. Setting up to snipe the guardian, Haruto shouldered the rifle and aimed. The HUD automatically began trying to find weak points in the golem to target. Nothing showed up from his angle, so he dashed forward to find weak spots from its back. The HUD showed one single weak point, the nape of the guardian's neck.
Haruto: *The nape of the neck? What is this, Shingeki no Kyojin?* He had the system run calculations on which angle dealt the most damage, as well as how big of a bullet to fire into the nape. After several seconds, the system configured the rifle to fire a 4 millimeter round and placed a way-point for Haruto to get to. Yoshi... Kari, Kaishi.
Haruto stopped time and dashed to the way-point designated. It seemed that the guardians had a degree of resistance to the time stop, instead being slowed down in their movements instead of completely stopped. Shouldering the rifle yet again, Haruto aimed and fired the ice bullet along the projected angle and managed to hit the mark. Since the guardian hadn't noticed the damage yet, the system prompted Haruto to continue firing at the weak point, eventually emptying the magazine and needing to replace it. At this point, the guardian had noticed it was under fire, and appeared to be making a stomping motion. After reloading, Haruto discarded the rifle and reached into the weapon wormhole, pulling out an anti-materiel rifle version of the Konjou Rifle.
BD: Konjou... Destroyer!!!
Haruto: Huh... better do its job... Haruto aimed and saw the same scope as the one from the previous rifle, allowing him to continue sniping using the .50 caliber rounds this rifle provided. He aimed for the golem's calf and hit it, piercing into the lower leg from behind and freezing it in place with heavy amounts of sturdy ice. Hm... This works good... Let's go interrogate. Haruto dashed in front of the guardian, shot its other limbs to immobilize it with ice, then resumed the flow of time. Alright, guardian golem. Got a couple of questions. Is there a cave somewhere around here? The golem nodded yes Is it nearby here? A shake of the head to indicate no Damn... Is it holding the Dual Bottles I'm looking for? A nod for yes Good, good... To the east? It shook its head no West? Another shake for no Hm... Is it in the cliff? It shook its head yes. Up ahead to the north? Nod of yes Is the combo I'm getting, by chance, called "Geo Smasher?" It shook no Damn... I'll find it when I get there. He charged up a Binary Finish with the rifle.
BD: Cryo Sniper! Binary Finish!! Pale blue and white energy swirled around the barrel of the rifle as Haruto took a firing stance and aimed for a headshot while ice appeared around his legs to stabilize him. Once he pulled the trigger, he felt a heavy wave of recoil that managed to break through the ice stabilizers and push him back about a foot or so. The mass of energy that left the barrel of the rifle traveled into the head of the golem and smashed it entirely before exploding into a mass of ice protrusions that destroyed the rest of its body.
Haruto: Kore de kimari da. He returned the Konjou Destroyer to his pocket dimension arsenal, or so he assumed it to be, before releasing his bike and getting on it and traveling along the direction that the guardian indicated. Soon, he arrived at the cave, riding the Ride Dueler into the cave and switching the headlights on to see the Dual Bottles resting on a pedestal-shaped stalagmite. There you are. He got off his bike and grabbed the two, placed them in his inventory, and drove out of the cave quickly to avoid any potential traps. Fortunately, none were triggered, and Haruto was allowed to drive out of the cave in peace. He stopped a few feet from the entrance before analyzing the bottles he acquired. One's themed after Terra, and the other... seems a bit heavier than the rest. Like it's packing some heavy equipment with it. He had the system analyze the bottles, producing two data files which labeled the burnt orange bottle as the "Terra"Dual Bottle and the heavier, more weapon-like bottle as the "Artillery" Dual Bottle. Artillery? What's the point of having a sniper bottle then? Or maybe "Sniper" is for precise, long-range targeting... This one must be for heavier weapons and more damage, at the cost of precision, speed, and all that. I guess "Terra" adds heavier armor, so I won't need to worry about defense... Maybe...
After some thinking about the next "Best Match" and its possibilities from name alone, Haruto inventorized them and drove off in search of the last training spot he went to, only to realize that he was literally in the sky when he finished his Sin attack training. With that thought, he drove off to the highest point in the area, which happened to be the top of the cliff-side from earlier. There, he found another Dual Bottle, this one identified as "Air Force" by Haruto's HUD.
Haruto: Air force? Well then.. He picked it up and returned his bike to phone form, removing the "Mach" bottle and replacing it with the "Air Force" bottle. A notification popped up afterwards.
Phone: "Air Force bottle detected. Initiate 'Ride Dueler: Flight formation'?"
Reference design for Haruto's Ride Dueler Flight formation, though on a smaller scale as stated.
Haruto: Flight formation...? At least they changed the name... He tapped OK on the notification and threw it in front of him. Just like the transformation into the normal Ride Dueler, the phone enlarged itself with cosmic energy before transforming itself into a relatively small, single-seat jet-like vehicle That's pretty damn impressive. He looked around at the jet, analyzing its single jet thruster in the back, its sleek and sharp wings, its aerodynamic design in general. The cockpit opened and slid forward for Haruto to enter, closing and sealing itself after he had entered. Clear for take off! He grabbed onto the controls of the vehicle, initiating a VTOL-style take off as the thruster rotated into position before supplementary micro-thrusters opened up from the wings and back to allow him to take off from his spot and head towards the clouds Let's do this.
Day 6: New System Part 4[]
As Haruto cruised along the skyline of the Arcana planet, he took this opportunity to familiarize himself with the jet's systems. His HUD gave him a quick tutorial of the vehicle's equipment, capabilities, statistics, and how to pilot it. Just as he finished up the tutorial, a warning flashed signalling an approaching enemy. He looked around and spotted another jet around the same size as his, flying side by side with him. The other jet deployed what appeared to be a set of machine guns before fading out of sight, seemingly blending in with its surroundings. Again, the warning signal appeared, though it was not accompanied with any noise.
Haruto: This is the guardian? Guess it's an aerial dog fight this time! He deployed the weapons on his Ride Dueler, a pair of 20 millimeter machine guns, a set of 50 millimeter heavy cannons, missile racks, a directed energy weapon, and a railgun. Let's see how this handles! Before he could advance, his armor indicated it was running low on energy. What? Goddammit... He quickly switched out the "Cryo Sniper" configuration for his default "Shin Assault" form, restoring the energy and causing the energy gauge to display an infinity symbol over it Ok...? I guess there's something about the "Shin Arcana" match that has infinite energy. I wonder... He got out the "Mach" bottle, then looked around the cockpit, finding a slot for a Dual Bottle right under the console. Ohoho. Let's see what this does...! He inserted the "Mach" bottle after activating it, causing cosmic energy to surround the craft and upgrade its size closer to that of a normal fighter jet. Mach Air Force mode? I'll take it.
Haruto accelerated forward, easily reaching transonic speeds. The warning window remained displayed, but out of sight. It appeared that the jet had a near-silent engine, using cosmic energy propulsion methods to fly. As Haruto looked around, he saw a visible distortion in the clouds. Immediately, he targeted the distortion, and began following the assumed flight path from distortion. Though he anticipated an attack from behind him, he was met with gunfire from in front of him. Immediately, he launched some missiles to take the heat of the gunfire before countering with a blast from the Directed Energy Weapon. Something distorted the beam, confirming that the enemy craft was in front of him and that he had managed to at least scratch the fighter in some way. After getting a target lock, he fire more missiles, followed by a suppressive barrage of machine gun fire. A few of the missiles hit, causing the cloaking mechanism to automatically disable from too much damage. The machine gun fire managed to cut down on portions of the enemy fighter's body, though it was diverted with missiles, which also managed to shoot down his own missiles.
Haruto: Well, there's that. C'mon... get another lock...
He continued to fly after his enemy, using his guns to lay down a suppressive barrage and missiles to deal more damage. Surprisingly, the enemy jet turned around and began flying backwards so that it could fire directly at Haruto's craft. Using evasive maneuvers, Haruto dodged the projectiles and deployed cosmic energy-empowered flares which acted as diversions for the missiles fired at him. From there, Haruto boosted forward, reaching the limits of supersonic speeds as he rushed past the supposed guardian several meters ahead before executing a full 180-degree turn on the horizontal axis so that he was behind the other ship. Instead of flying backwards as the guardian was, he flew forwards and fired his railgun and machine guns at it. The railgun projectile shot through the thruster as the machine gun fire managed to cut down the rest of the wings.
Haruto: Mission complete! He flew towards the falling remains of his enemy, landing near the crash site with the VTOL system of his jet. It hovered in place as Haruto exited the vehicle and approached the trashed vehicle. Interesting stealth mechanism. Reminds of that one Stark tech thing... The retro-reflective whatevers. He walked around the jet, reaching to his thigh as if drawing a pistol. A mass of silver cosmic energy formed at his thigh before transforming into a pistol for him to wield. To make sure there's nothing in there... He aimed the gun at the heavily-tinted cockpit canopy, then fired several shots into it before removing the canopy and tossing it aside. Alright, cool. A case. He opened the case to reveal two Dual bottles. One was colored green, and the other was colored dark silver, almost black, and featured a scythe-like design on it. Looks like Vento's bottle and... a scythe? Maybe a reaper?
He shrugged as he picked the bottles up and stored them away before getting back in his jet and flying off to where his room was placed. From his aerial view, he saw his room was literally placed in the ground out of nowhere, though he noticed there was a helipad-like structure on top of it. After landing on said structure, Haruto reset the Ride Dueler to its phone form and storing it away before dropping down in front of the door and removing his armor. After entering the room, he checked his inventory, and made a list of his current bottles.
Haruto: So we've got Shin, Pyro, Cryo, Terra, and... Aero? I'm guessing it's Aero. Those are my elements... Then we've got Assault, Swordsman, Sniper, Artillery, and... I think this is a Reaper? Probably. Those are the current roles. With that, there should be... 25 possible combinations. I guess that ends today's hunting. With that, Haruto went to sleep for the night as the Arcana and Caesar relocated his room to its original position as he slept.
Shin: He's collected the current base series of Dual Bottles. Luce, Ombra, how goes your Dual Bottle?
Luce: We're working on it. She offered a smile to her superior before handing a Dual Bottle to Ombra. This Dual Bottle was, in essence, two Dual Bottles fused together. One bottle was filled with a silver energy, with the other half full with a golden energy. Just need Ombra's energy.
Ombra: On it. He held the bottle cap of the half-filled side to his left arm, as if drawing blood for a blood drive. Once he pressed it to his arm, purple energy began to fill up the remaining space until it was completely full with a half gold, half purple energy. Here you are. He handed Shin the Dual Bottle hybrid
Shin: Excellent. With this, we have the first of the upgrade Dual Bottles. Solar and Lunar Impact.
Ombra: He still needs to adjust to the base series first. He hasn't even tested out the random matches.
Luce: Well, he's wrapped up the collecting. We'll work on the Impact bottle while he adapts to the current system. Perhaps we should hold onto this one a bit longer... this one has a very volatile combination at the moment, so we should take our time regulating this one.
Ombra: Indeed. Having the opposing powers of darkness and light in one container is dangerous enough as is. If this isn't properly stabilized, dangerous events will occur in the future. What we can do is hold on to this until it's ready, then have Origin deliver it to Override when the time comes.
Caesar: I didn't sign up to be your errand boy, but I can't really do anything about it... He sighed as he sat down and watched the Arcana tinker with the hybrid bottle, stabilizing and analyzing it.
Day 7: Armaments[]
Haruto woke up the following morning anticipating another hunt for bottle pairs. When he finish getting ready for the day, he noticed there wasn't a breakfast for him. Instead, there was a knocking on the door as he went to grab his equipment and the phone.
Haruto: Odd... who's there?
Caesar: It's me, kid. He said on the other side of the door You're done with collecting, time to start training with the new stuff.
Haruto: Got it. Be out in a moment.
He looked at his phone, then patted himself down and pulled out his old phone, the one from earth that didn't transform. Noting that they were more or less the same design, Haruto looked around in his nightstand's drawers to see if there were any cables, so he could transfer the old phone's data over to the new one. After finding the cable he needed, he began the transfer process, which was only a few seconds as everything was automatically saved over. Once he had the data fully transferred, a notification popped on his phone, a text from Katie.
Haruto: Hm? He opened it and read the message.
Katie: I don't know if you're still alive or not, but I swear to god. If you come back alive, I will scold the living hell out of you then bear-hug you to death!!!! And the message was followed by a red heart emoji, a skull and crossbones emoji, and a winking emoji.
Haruto: You have to be kidding me... When was this? He checked the date of the message, only to see nothing. Well then... He returned to the home screen and left the room, greeted by the sight of Caesar leaning against the wall and holding a paper bag in his hand.
Caesar: There you are. Here's breakfast. He tossed Haruto the bag before getting off the wall and walking away Follow me.
Haruto: Sure... He opened the bag and took a sandwich out of the bag. It was a breakfast sandwich of some kind, still warm. As he followed Caesar, he ate and listened to what he had to say.
Caesar: So, you've collected the 5 base Best Matches, with the addition of the two bottles that work with your phone. Not sure if those Dual Bottles work in the belt, but it's possible. It'll be weird, but possible. Aside from that, we've got some stuff for you to put together, so put on that default suit and let's go.
Haruto: Sure thing. He finished the sandwich and transformed into his Shin Assault armor as he walked, the sprues moving so it could match up with Haruto's moving figure before the black undersuit appeared and solidified around him to keep all the armor in place Alright, now what?
Caesar: This. He kicked down a door, which lead to what appeared to be a blacksmith's forge of some kind. Welcome to the weapon's forge, I'm Caesar and I'll be your instructor today. What will you be looking for? He turned around and presented himself in a mocking manner.
Haruto: That's a lot of weapons...
Caesar: We've got guns too! Guns! Swords! Knives! Axes! Whatever you're looking for, we've got it! He walked further into the forge, gesturing to the racks of the weapons that he mentioned.
Haruto: Well, I guess we should start with... Hold on. He switched out his Shin Assault bottles for the Terra Artillery set.
BD: Terra Arcana! Artillery! Best Match! Haruto pulled the lever to complete the transition Mix!! Chikyu no Ordnance! Terra Artillery!! A more heavily armored version of Haruto's usual armor appeared, the elemental portions colored just like the "Terra" bottle while bronze armor replaced the "Assault" bottle's armor. When the two combined and replaced the Shin Assault set, his forearms and shins gained shield-like armor, his chestplate was more heavy-duty than the other sets, and there were holsters for pistol-like weapons already installed on his thigh armor
Haruto: Well this is new...
Caesar: Terra always was a fan of heavy artillery weapons...
Haruto: I see... He removed the pseudo-pistols from their holsters, looking at them Uh... Do these even shoot?
Terra: Not yet, they don't. She walked into the forge, followed by the other Arcana save for Shin. That's why we're all here. Two birds with one stone. Well, more than two birds right now, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Haruto: Ah, welcome, Terra.
Terra: I should be the one welcoming you. This forge is rarely ever accessed, even by us. But hey, we're here to get you some weapons for this Best Match, young Haruto.
Haruto: What happened to the whole "Override" thing?
Fiamma: You're not there just yet, kiddo. Which is why we're going to start working towards that now. First up, some simple stuff. You've got that sword you forged a few days ago, right?
Haruto: Yeah, here. He opened up the inventory and brought out his sword, though to everyone else, it looked like he was tapping at the air before summoning the sword. Is there a reason for that?
Fiamma: Time to forge a real sword, kiddo. No pounding it out with your fists, we're going to use hammers, anvils, bevels, sanders, all that. And we'll be here to help. He gave Haruto a confident smile as the forge began to heat up First, getting some materials. You remember what that sword is made of?
Haruto: Some... extra-dimensional ore?
Fiamma: Mhm. Think you can bring some in?
Haruto: Uh... maybe? I might need a different armor for this.
Fiamma: Go ahead and choose the best match for this situation, not the best match of armor capabilities.
Haruto: Uh... right. He took out the "Shin" bottle, then took out the "Swordsman" bottle. Let's see how this works... He removed the "Terra Artillery" combo from the driver and put in the two bottles he got out.
BD: Shin Arcana! Swordsman! Random Match! The same techno music standby sound played as the Terra Artillery armor pieces disappeared into a mist of their respective colors and leaving behind the black body armor. After twisting the lever again, the sprues appeared of the Shin armor and Swordsman armor appeared Mix!! Shin Swordsman!! The armors merged together over Haruto's body armor, the silver of the Shin Arcana and the white of the Swordsman.
Haruto: No special title for it?
Fiamma: Reserved for our pre-programmed "Best Matches." Shin's bottle is special, allowing you to use the other half to its full potential, as if it were a Best Match.
Haruto: Interesting... So, I'm guessing Shin has the highest compatibility with my dormant overwriting potential?
Fiamma: Correct. Let's make a simple longsword or two, then go onto Katanas from there. Let's start by pulling some materials from alternate universes.
Haruto: Longswords? Let's go with something abstract. Do you think we can turn a phoenix into a weapon?
Fiamma: You're the one learning to overwrite here. If that's what you want, let's bring a phoenix into this world first.
Haruto: In here?
Fiamma: Nowhere else to go at the moment, so yes. He shrugged his Shoulders as Haruto decided to take out the Pyro bottle
Forging: Fiamma-series[]
Haruto: The higher the fire affinity, the better. He removed the Swordsman bottle then inserted the Pyro bottle into the empty slot.
BD: Shin Arcana! Pyro Arcana! Dual Arcana Match!
Fiamma: That works...? *That'll be good to know for later... I'll have to tell Shin about this...*
Haruto: Interesting...The Swordsman half of his armor disappeared as the sprue for the Pyro armor appeared, this time designed to go on the places missing armor; in essence, appearing as a reverse of its usual self. Then, he turned the lever.
BD: Mix!! Shin and Pyro! Fusion complete!! The sprue approached and combined with Haruto, placing the reversed Pyro armor onto him.
Haruto: This is cool! He held out his hand and began concentrating on summoning a phoenix, gathering the strongest mental images he could of a powerful phoenix, not caring about its size or age. Small flames began to flicker in the space in front of him. One by one, until more began to flicker, and then a small bird began to appear in the space. Slowly, but surely, a small phoenix began to manifest in front of them.
Fiamma: He's doing really well. *Considering the limits we placed on him after the modifications made...*
Haruto: You can do it... He began to intensify his concentration, focusing harder on the power within the phoenix and its personality. He wanted the bird to be a powerful, friendly creature that would be willing to assist and protect him. C'mon... He concentrated as hard as he could on the phoenix he wanted, and it finally appeared in a ball of fire. Yes! C'mere you! He reached to the phoenix to embrace it, only to have it fly away Aww... Then, it returned and curled up in his arms Aww, you're adorable~! Yes, you are! He began patting its head, nuzzling it through his armor
Acqua: I'm starting to feel a little jealous... She pouted as she observed Haruto's interactions with the entity he just summoned.
Fiamma: Don't get too attached to it now. Besides, you'll be able to recreate it at any time.
Haruto: Really? He stopped nuzzling the fire-bird to look at it, seeing his Armor's HUD analyzing and saving its data into its database. Oh right... He began slowly patting the bird as it cooed softly No hard feeling, buddy... It squawked at Haruto before flying onto the forge and shook itself up Right, I did create you to help me out. With your data saved, I can bring you back anytime! The phoenix offered Haruto its own rendition of a smile with its bird body Thanks, Engetsu.
Fiamma: Engetsu?
Haruto: Scathing Moon in English. I figured the phoenix needed a name.
Fiamma: Fair enough. And the name of the sword?
Haruto: Hm... Crimson Phoenix Sword. Engetsu squawked in approval of the name, stretching out its wings a bit.
Fiamma: Basic naming scheme. Get to forging, kiddo.
Haruto: Alright, Engetsu. Let's do this, buddy. He grabbed a blacksmithing hammer from the rack as Engetsu hopped over to the furnace and let out a triumphant screech before transforming itself into a billet of crimson metal with a tang already welded onto it from the same material. Thanks, bud, I appreciate all this. Haruto could hear Engetsu chirp proudly as he picked up the billet by the tang and began pounding it into shape with the hammer, the ingot itself maintaining its heat so that Haruto could easily shape it into the longsword form he wanted. After that, he began the rest of the sword-smithing process, quenching it in an extra-dimensional fluid before placing it in a heat-treating oven to temper. It's working pretty well.
Fiamma: Did you learn how to do this from the internet?
Haruto: Pretty much. He removed the sword from the heat-treating oven and began polishing it up with the belt grinders in the shop, grinding in and sharpening the edge onto the weapon. Almost there. Just need the hilt assembly and some minor detailing
Fiamma: I got it. He held out his hand, igniting a relatively medium-sized flame in his hand. We'll make the hilt out of flames. You can overwrite some extra details onto it after.
Haruto: Yes sir. He held the sword blade before tossing it into the air and holding it in the air with cosmic energy, moving the tang over the flame and forcing the cosmic energy to bond with the flames around the tang before overwriting their existences into a dark red hilt with pale gold detailing and a pointed, hexagonal pommel with intricate pale gold designs. Alright, hilt's done. The sword levitated towards Haruto's hand, allowing him to grab onto the grip and admiring his work Ladies and Gentlemen of transcendental powers, I present the completed Crimson Phoenix Sword. He took up a sword stance with it, smiling as the Pyro half of his armor resonated with the sword by emanating a red aura around its parts and the sword.
Fiamma: Looks like my Dual Bottle is resonating with your sword. Good work, kiddo. You're on the fast track to becoming Override alright.
Haruto: Thank you, Fiamma. Haruto sheathed his sword on his back, the scabbard appearing in a cloud of pixelation as it hadn't existed prior. This is going to be interesting. Where am I going to store all this?
Fiamma: Overwriting is your job. Figure it out.
Haruto: Can I make a pocket dimension?
Fiamma: Only thing stopping you is your own body. We had to set some limits for you so this power doesn't overwhelm you. Besides, all your "Best Match" weapons like the Kurenai-series of swords are stored in a pocket dimension. Why not store it there?
Haruto: Don't know where it is, but I can try and find out. He waved his hand and opened up a portal to the pocket dimension storing his weapons. Hope this is it... He placed the sword into the portal before turning his attention back to the Arcana. What's next?
Forging: Acqua-series[]
Acqua: My turn~!! Acqua made her way forward, pushing Fiamma and the rest slightly to get to the front Now, Haruto-kun, it's time for the two of us to make something together!
Haruto and Fiamma: Phrasing, Acqua. They both look at each other and nod in agreement before Haruto turns his attention back to Acqua, who is giggling to herself
Acqua: Never mind that, you two! Haruto-kun! It's time to make a sword!
Haruto: I'm gonna keep the abstract stuff going and make a sword out of ice. And maybe add a flower to it. I don't feel like risking another mythological entity's life for this. Let's make it a bit simpler. Acqua, I need a block of water. We're gonna freeze it and then I'm going to warp it into a decent sword. Now then.. He swapped the Pyro bottle for the Cryo bottle in the Driver
BD: Shin Arcana! Cryo Arcana! Dual Arcana Match! A reversed version of the Cryo armor's sprue appeared as the Pyro half dissipated before Haruto activated the transformation Mix!! Shin and Cryo! Fusion Complete!!
Haruto: Let's get the item I want for this sword... He held out his hand, which held a lotus flower of ethereal beauty
Acqua: That's it...? She sighed and formed a block of water. Haruto put the flower in the water, which Acqua then froze into a more rectangular block before freezing.
Haruto: With this... I create... Haruto held his hands to the block and tilted it so it was like he was drawing a sword from its sheathe. The Cobalt Lotus Sword! The ice near his hand began to melt off into the shape of a sword hilt, with a crystal-like pommel, before Haruto grabbed the rest of the ice and pulled. The remaining ice shattered as a brilliant, pale cobalt blade emerged from within, the lotus flower placed inside appearing as decoration on the diamond-like crossguard.
Acqua: Wooooooow... It's beautiful...
Haruto: A fine sword, indeed. He sheathed the sword in his hand, the blade forming a scabbard around itself as it passed through the gap in his hand This'll be nice. As with the previous sword, the Cryo half of Haruto's armor began glowing as a pale blue aura surrounded itself and the sword, signalling the resonance between them.
Acqua: As expected of me! She put her fists to her hips and made a triumphant chest puff, then pat Haruto on the back. Enjoy your new weapon!
Haruto: Thanks. He put away this sword and turned his attention back to the Arcana Next up is...?
Forging: Vento-series[]
Vento: That would be me! Vento stepped up next to Acqua with a cheery smile. Now, the question here is if you want another sword. Or something else?
Haruto: I guess... we can go with paired sickles. But not just any sickles! He held out his hand to display a pair of Japanese-style sickles connected to a chain with weights at the opposite end of the chains. Kusarigama! They're just sickles on a chain, really.
Vento: Interesting... Keeping the abstract construction method too, I imagine.
Haruto: Yeap. Let's get a tempest in here... Haruto proceeded to form a "Dual Arcana Match" with the Shin and Aero bottles, allowing him greater control over wind.
Vento: Hey, man... I don't think that's the best idea... As he said this, Haruto began to create a tempest in the workshop, causing all the shelves and the equipment around them to start shaking. A relatively small tempest appeared in the workshop before Haruto held his hands around it and clapped once, creating a large emerald with a storm swirling within it.
Haruto: I've contained it. He proceeded to expand the shape of the emerald and the storm within it before placing it in the forge and melting it down into a liquid so that he could forge it into the weapons he wanted. Soon enough, Haruto had the sickle-scythes he wanted, using the chains to spin them around and see how well they performed. With this... the Emerald Storms are complete. He reeled in the chains and caught the shafts of the weapons. This'll be fun.
Vento: No doubt about that! Have fun, bro!
Haruto: Thanks. So... the next?
Arsenal Building 101[]
Terra: And last will be with me. We're going to make your personal weapon with my power, and make the weapons for your Artillery bottle.
Haruto: Yes ma'am. But why aren't Luce and Ombra assisting me in making a weapon after...?
Ombra: Kind of hard to weaponize light and darkness, kiddo.
Haruto: But I'm learning how to overwrite reality.
Ombra: Yes, you're learning, which means you've still got stuff to do before you can go weaponizing our elements.
Luce: Ombra is correct, young Haruto. At your current level, you won't be able to handle our powers.
Haruto: Sounds like an excuse for an upgrade later...
Luce: If that's what you wish to believe, that's fine. We'll let Terra take over from here. With that, everyone but Terra, Haruto, and Shin left the workshop.
Haruto: Is there a reason you're staying, Shin?
Shin: I'd like to see what you can think of, young Haruto. And assist you if need be.
Haruto: Ah, I see. I appreciate it. He removed his armor and returned to his normal appearance, taking the Driver off and tucking it away in one of his jacket pockets, which evidently was a portal to a pocket dimension that stored his equipment.
Terra: Oi, these weapons aren't gonna forge themselves unless you want to prove otherwise!
Haruto: Right, right. First up, guns! He held out his hand and immediately summoned a Colt M1911 pistol, then a Desert Eagle, and then some exotic matter from other universes in containment fields I'm gonna make my sidearm. So... yeah. I'll be at the crafting bench.
He walked over to the crafting bench and began tinkering, summoning a pair of headphones over his ears to play music while he worked. The guns were completely disassembled in a short time before Haruto began grabbing corresponding parts on both guns and merging them together by simply pushing the two items together. From there, he began tapping all around him, as if interacting with holographic displays. As he did so, the designs of the guns began to change slightly or drastically depending on the interactions. Once the shells were completed, Haruto began working with the exotic matters, shaping them into specific components to replace on the guns. After a couple of minutes, Haruto had assembled a futuristic-looking pistol and had turned around in the chair to show Terra and Shin.
Terra: Impressive. But does it work the way it should?
Haruto: Yes. He aimed the gun above him and pulled the trigger. The projectile that left the weapon appeared to be the same color as Shin's Dual Bottle, though it seemed to fragment partially so that two shards of energy streaked diagonally off the bullet's trajectory It's designed to fire extra-dimensional energy that I based off of Shin. Perfect all-rounded sidearm, since it's also modular.
Terra: Interesting. Well, let's get an arsenal built. And so, the rest of the day was spent making weapons. Energy mortars, rocket and missile pods, rail-guns, anti-tank and anti-air weapons, and so much more. By the end of the day, Haruto had an arsenal capable of annihilating existences with a single shot, and had weapons to deal with basically any contingency he could think of. Terra and Shin were lying on the ground, exhausted Phew... I'd say that's a job very well done. Good work, Haruto. She gave him a thumbs up, but he couldn't see it since he was still tinkering.
Haruto: Thank you for the help, Shin and Terra. I really appreciate it. He said to them as he was putting together what looked like a pair of pistols. However, they appeared to have a proper barrel, instead housing several triggers and mechanisms within it Just finishing up the modular controls...
Terra: You going to sleep, Haruto?
Haruto: Yeah. I'll test these tomorrow when I have the time.
Shin: A wise decision, Haruto. If you'll excuse us... He got up and helped Terra up as well before they dusted themselves off We'll be off.
Haruto: Have a safe trip. He called to them as he finished up the controls he was talking about. They left just as he had finished adding the final screw to hold it all together With this, the Artillery unit is complete. Just need to sync it... He yawned before putting the Controls next to the Artillery bottle and tapping some things. Once the controls had turned into a mass of energy that was then stored in the bottle, Haruto yawned again before falling off the chair. Unconsciously, he teleported himself onto his bed as he fell, landing on it and bouncing a bit before drifting off to sleep.
Day 8: Relaxation[]
Haruto was up and about quite early in the morning, in his Shin Assault armor. He used his Ride Dueler to travel to a random area on the planet. Sighing as he hopped his bike, Haruto took out the Terra bottle and the Artillery bottle before shaking them up and twisting the caps to activate them. The Shin and Assault bottles teleport onto the carrier plate on the side of his belt to make room for the next pair.
BD: Terra Arcana! Artillery! Best Match! Haruto quickly turned the lever upwards, thus bypassing the standby music. Mix!! Chikyu no Ordnance! Terra Artillery!!
Haruto: Dual up! The sprues appeared, and attached the brown-orange Terra half of his armor to the bronze Artillery half of the armor over the black bodysuit he was already wearing. Alright then. Let's test these out. The holsters on his waist held pistol-like weapons in there Controls, deploy. He removed the pseudo-pistols from the holsters and aimed them forward Let's see... Multi-Railgun platform, deploy. A portal opened behind him, flinging out several metallic objects that combined together and formed 10 rail-guns. They were all pointed the same direction. Haruto pointed the left Control to the left of him, moving the 5 rail-guns on the left in the same direction Left Control movement, check. He moved the right Control to the right, moving the remaining 5 rail-guns in to the right Right Control movement, check. Firing test, initiate. He aimed the two Controllers at a boulder in front of him, then pulled the trigger on both Controllers. A railgun from each side fired once, penetrating cleanly and punching straight through it and several other boulders behind it. Firing test, complete. I think these will work just fine. He pressed a red button at the tops of the Controllers, causing the portal to reappear and take back the rail-guns before disappearing. An incoming voice call from Terra appeared on his HUD, so he holstered the Controllers and answered Hello?
Terra: Hey, Haruto. We figured you could use some rest, so we whipped up some hot springs for you.
Haruto: Ah, alright. I'll be there soon. He hung up and summoned his Ride Dueler again, removing his armor and putting on his motorcycle helmet before riding off to meet up with everyone else. On his way back, he found himself on a highway much similar to the Interstate-5 in California. He continued ride, thoroughly confused about the scenery, though glad to see Earth again despite most likely not being on Earth at the moment. He decided to ask what was happening, so he tried to call Shin. There was no response, so he tried the other 6 Arcana, and even Caesar, but none of them responded either. *This can't be good...*
Only one exit showed up ahead of him, with a street sign above it saying "Hot Springs off this exit." Seeing no other options, Haruto took the exit and found himself now on a forest road towards what appeared to be a Japanese-style hot springs. He parked his bike at the front and removed his helmet.
Haruto: The way I got here concerns me a bit... but hopefully, it's for the best... He entered the hot springs and found Acqua attending the register Acqua...?
Acqua: Hello, sir! Just one?
Haruto: Uh... yeah, just me. *She's acting like she doesn't know me...* He signed all the papers he needed before Acqua gave him a key to his room. This is already incredible bizarre... As he walked to his room, he looked out the window and saw two girls already bathing in there. Wait, is this mixed bathing...?
He continued to walk by, the two girls playfully splashing each other as he passed. From the corner of his eye, he could've sworn it was Katie and Clarabelle in the hot springs, but wasn't too sure. Eagerly, he rushed to his room to get changed, then showered off before entering the hot springs with just a towel wrapped around his waist. When he got in, he saw all the Arcana casually lounging about in the hot springs.
Haruto: Huh. Could've sworn I saw Katie and Clarabelle in here earlier... He entered the water and folded up the towel, placing it on his head before sitting by a rock inside the water.
Luce: Oh? Who are they? Luce suddenly appeared right beside Haruto, who freaked out and fell into the water away from her.
Haruto: Well... He resurfaced and dried his face with the towel They're two girls I knew on Earth. Katie's an old friend of mine, and Clarabelle is her roommate.
Luce: Is that so? Were you, perhaps, in love with one of them?
Haruto: I, uh... He blushed lightly from the question, then sighed Yeah. I liked Katie a lot. She helped me through some dark times in my life, and I'm grateful to her for that.
Luce: How curious. She pat Haruto's head and gave him a reassuring smile
Haruto: How so?
Luce: It's strange. You say you "liked" her, implying past tense.
Haruto: We agreed to not stay together out of emotional commitment to each other, and we decided to move on from each other. So that's why.
Luce: Interesting. How's the hot spring?
Haruto: Fine. It's making me a bit sleepy though... He yawned to prove his point
Luce: *How cute.* You're free to sleep now if you'd like. You've been hard at work training, young Haruto.
Haruto: Thanks... He fell asleep in the bath, to which Luce responded with a giggle. She took him out of the bath, drying and clothing him with her powers as an Arcana before placing him back in his room's bed and let the night pass away.
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Join us next time at: The Absconders: Seven Shinka: Issue 3