Chapter 26: The Testimony Will Be Zero! 4

Café Nascita.

Soichi was busy cleaning up the inside of his building. He was about to turn around when he heard footsteps behind him.

He turned and, upon noticing Sento, he appeared surprised to see him home from work so early.

"Well, that was fast. You're back home already."

He smiled and started to walk past the younger man. "Well, I'm off to do some work of my own."

Sento turned to observe Soichi as he almost opened the door to leave, and called out just before he could step out.

"Hey, by the way Soichi..."

"Hmm?" Soichi stopped and turned around, releasing his grip on the door handle.

Sento walked to the bar counter, continuing his speech. He took a seat on one of the stools facing the counter.

"...One year ago when you found me...You told me to become Build, and I started fighting like you suggested."

He turned his head half way around as if he was trying to peer at Soichi, even though he still couldn't see the man.

"But to be frank, I don't really know anything about you at all."

When he finished speaking, he swiveled the rest of the way around on his seat and looked the man in his eyes, trying to see what his reaction looked like.

Soichi paused before responding. He smiled and then chuckled before walking towards Sento. "What brought this on suddenly?"

He stopped a few feet away from Sento. "Come on kid, you know I don't eat pasta, and that I'm way too scared to use bidets, don't you?"

Soichi adopted a more serious expression and a less amused tone. "You focus too much on the past."

He clapped Sento on the shoulder and gave him some advice. "The present's what's most important."

Soichi regained the smile he had on before and turned away from Sento, he started to head back towards the door to leave before he paused and pointed a finger at the younger man. "Oh yeah, don't forget to lock up if you go anywhere, I've gotta go. Ciao!"

Sento sat there in thought before pulling out his custom cell phone and looking at some of the old security footage he had shown to Gentoku before.

Displayed on the screen was the man who had been conversing with him. Soichi stood in the photograph, clad in an astronaut uniform identical to that worn by the man who had activated Pandora's Box.

He stared at the screen for several moments until his name broke the silence.

"Sento!"

The refrigerator door swung open, and Misora emerged from the hidden laboratory beneath.

Rising to her feet, she strode over to Sento and leaned on the counter before him, holding up a tablet that displayed some information. Misora propped it up casually with one hand, her half closed eyes giving the impression she had just roused from a nap.

"There's a Smash on the loose."

Sento's eyes went wide for a moment and he took the device from Misora, taking a closer look at the screen.

Misora yawned and scratched her head. "The tip on this one is kinda weird though."

Sento read the message written on the screen. It was addressed to Misora's alter ego, Miitan.

It read, 'A Smash has appeared in the park in area C4. He's been experimented on twice, so if you don't take his essence soon he'll die. Think he'll last about three hours. Fight hard! - Blood Stalk'

Misora had no idea who Blood Stalk was, and neither did Sento. "It's talking about experiments, and essences, not the usual kinda tips you get about the Smash."

"Blood Stalk..." Sento whispered the name at the bottom of the screen that the messenger had left.

Sento got up and left the café. Moments later he was racing off on his motorcycle towards area C4.

...

In area C4, in a park with lots of trees, the transformed Nabeshima was thrashing around wildly, his body wasn't handling the second dose of Nebula gas very well.

The sound of bottles could be heard shaking. The Smash stopped thrashing around and turned when it heard the noise.

Sento was walking towards him, shaking the bottles and as he did, many equation like constructs could be seen flowing beside him. Sento meant business.

Normally Sento would have a grin on his face at this point, but this time he was clearly in much more serious mood. He looked at the Smash in front of him grimly.

"Now, let's begin the experiment."

GORILLA! DIAMOND!

Sento plunged the bottles into his Build driver.

BEST MATCH!

Sento clutched the driver in his left hand and the crank in his right, beginning to furiously turn the lever. As he did so, the runners transporting the orange and light blue armor materials departed from his driver, commencing the formation of his two armor pieces.

ARE YOU READY?!

The driver called out in its familiar tone, as it did, Sento adopted his fighting pose for a moment before matching his body to the shape of the armor pieces as they headed his way. "Henshin!"

THE DAZZLING DESTROYER!

GORILLAMOND! YEAH!

Sento, now Kamen Rider Build, stood there transformed, staring at his enemy.

He left his static pose and rushed towards the Smash.

Build started off with a heavy overhead right swing, followed by a quick jab with his left hand. The Smash dodged the first attack and blocked the second punch with the sword attachment it had on its right arm.

The Smash lunged forward with a slash aimed at Build, who deftly blocked it using the large orange fist on his right side. He then punched the sword aside and swiftly brought his hand back up to strike the monster on its broad, square head, sending sparks scattering in all directions.

After reeling back for a moment, the Smash snapped itself forward quickly, it tried to take two more swipes at Build which were dodged. Build threw a kick at the back of the Smashes head and it connected. A bright blue light flashed, Build's diamond essence was added into the attack.

The Smash was sent to the ground and caught itself with both hands right before it touched the grass with its face. It pushed the ground hard and launched itself back upright, swiveling to face Build again as it did.

Yet another swing was taken but Build was faster. That large Orange fist came screaming towards the Smash, aimed for its gut.

Bang!

This time, the Smash soared through the air, heading towards a playground populated with numerous life-sized plastic dinosaur statues, before landing and carving a small trench into the earth.

Instead of rushing back towards Build again, it plunged its sword arm into the side of one of the dinosaurs. It swiftly cut many perfect, twelve inch wide cubes out of the fake dinosaurs, they floated in the air for a moment before being sent hurtling towards the Kamen Rider.

Build dodged the many incoming projectiles, the ones that weren't avoidable were smashed away and deflected with his large fist.

Eventually, so many came hurtling at him that he was forced to brace himself with both arms crossed in front of his chest. The cubes all exploded on impact, veiling the area with smoke and sparks. The Smash cut a square shape in the air in front of itself and hoped inside. It disappeared from view before popping out behind the blinded Build.

The Smash seemed to be able to teleport by cutting out a channel through the air.

It lifted its head back and headbutted the surprised Rider.

"Ugh!" Build cried out as he was knocked to the ground, he rolled several times as he grunted in pain.

Nearby, on a bench, lay another Rider clad in a red-pink suit. He had been watching the fight and now stood up.

He stared to head towards the two combatants. It was the dark Rider, Blood Stalk.

He stopped around fifty meters away from the two and started to load up his weapon.

It was a large caliber custom firearm.

"Guess it's about time..."

After preparing the gun, he turned a bright red wheel on the side of it. The weapon let out some mist and a voice similar to the one that Build's driver had spoke. The only difference between the two was that this ones tone was much lower.

DEVIL STEAM!

BANG!

A bright pink and blue energy projectile, trailed by dense smoke, whizzed out of the weapon. Instead of a straight trajectory, it zigzagged towards its target.

Instead of hitting Build, it crashed into the back of the cube headed Smash!

"Huh!?" Build was confused; he had no idea where the shot had come from. Sparks and smoke were emitting from the Smash's arm and back where it had been struck.

Thick smoke covered the Smash but not for long.

"What the hell!?"

Before Build had a chance to wonder what was going on, the Smash started growing rapidly, it's head and body shot out of the smoke and a giant fist headed in Build's direction.

The Kamen Rider narrowly dodged the incoming blow, rolling out of the way. It seemed that Blood Stalk had not missed his shot at all.

"Whoa!"

Build pulled out two different bottles and slotted them into his driver.

RABBIT! GATLING!

He turned the lever quickly and assumed a new form. He choose the rabbit bottle for speed and the gatling bottle so that he could use ranged attacks.

Build leapt up the arm of the now huge Smash while firing away at the Smash with both his gatling gun and his drill like firearm, he kited the Smash while bullets bounced off the monsters armor from many different angles. He dodged ten consecutive times until his luck ran out.

Bang!

"Oooof!" Build was struck by a wild backhand from the giant, causing him to roll across the ground before finally coming to a stop.

He was about to rush back into the fray until a voice in the distance stopped him in his tracks.

"That Smash received a new type of gas treatment..."

Build looked around him in all directions, trying to pin-point where the voice was coming from.

"Where are you? Who are you!?"

The voice kept talking without answering his questions. "Even if the Smash survives, there's going to be side effects...Do what you can."

Whoosh!

The sound of something massive moving through the air snapped the Rider's focus back to the battle at hand. The Smash's colossal hand descended like a sledgehammer, aiming to crush Build into the earth.

With just moments to spare, Build dropped his weapons and hoisted his arms into a protective stance, bracing for impact. The collision was met without yielding, yet the overwhelming power drove Build's feet deep into the ground, burying them up to his ankles.

BOOM!

The Smash kicked Build while he was struggling to hold its huge arm up, sending Build rocketing away through the air!