2022-11-17: A King I Don't Recognize
- Log: 2022-11-17: A King I Don't Recognize
- Cast: Celebro, Riku Asakura
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- Date: U.C. 0096 11 17
- Summary: So what was that appointment Namiko and Hass had to run off to, anyway?
He hadn't been here in a while. With everything going on - everywhere - he'd had to leave in a hurry, before.
Still, Riku was glad to be back in Tsutsujidai. He could practically feel the town's need resonating in him. People were hurting, here. He looked forward to lending a hand. He stepped out from the alley Pega had dropped him off in, expecting a leisurely day while he got his bearings again in this Earth's climate.
That lasted not very long at all before an unfamiliar short-haired girl in the local high school uniform ran up to him, squealing and laughing and grabbing his hands with a great big smile. "Hey!" she sing-songed. "You're one of Yuta's friends, right?"
Oh, is that all? Why had he felt danger... "Oh, you know him?" Riku laughed. "Yeah! We stayed together for a while, actually. I've been out of town for a bit." Wow, aggressive.
Why wasn't she...letting go.
"Yeah," she said, with a big smile. "Hass said she'd been looking for you."
Something was wrong. "Yeah?" he said, a chill in his spine. He looked up, past her, to the girl she'd been with. A little taller. Sea-blue hair tied up in a green scrunchy, a medical mask over her face. Bundled up in a blanket. Should she be out in that health?
No. Not that. Something else. In the back of his head, a connection like a sound. Warbling and circling, like a bug in his brain.
The second girl stared at him with a ferocity he'd only ever felt from his enemies before. He stared back, and finally mustered the strength to pull his hands free.
Which is when a pair of men in security jumpsuits swept in from somewhere he didn't see and looped his arms into theirs, holding him. "Hey! What is this!?"
The first girl smiled, and reached out to one of the men, who handed her something that his gut told him looked MUCH too much like Valis tech.
"Hass has some questions about your dad," she said, and then attached it to his chest, and his vision and thoughts disappeared in a phasing red.
--
When he came to, it was in darkness. Was he underground, or had time passed? He felt like it must be both.
But the memories came back to him, and he tried to rush to his feet, only to then realize he was shackled. Wrists, ankles, even his shoulders and head. And something was attached to him, wrapped around his head. No. Plugged into it. He could feel something leaving him. Not blood. But something akin to it.
"What...is this!? What are you doing!?" he yelled in the darkness. Someone would be here. He could all but feel them.
She emerged. That second girl from earlier, he dimly recalled. Her eye hadn't been glowing red, then. She breathed, "You're his son. What do you think I want?"
Ice and heat burned his thoughts at once. "The Belial Factors?! How could you--No! Let him rest! He's had enough pain!"
She stepped forward again, a single finger reaching over to push a glowing button at the edge of his vision. "Kehehe. Kiete karekareta. How like an Ultraman to think I care," she rasped.
And then he could do nothing but scream, as something reached into him on layers more than physical, scraping for samples of even his soul.