Fanfic / Kamen Rider Kage

This is a Kamen Rider fanfic done by Godzillawolf and co-written by a user named Kamen_Fanatic on the Bulbagarden Forums. It can be read here.

The tone is a mix of comical human characters and a darker storyline involving a race of demonic creatures called Akuma that have been sealed away in a sword for centuries. It is also written in an episode-like format, chapters called episodes and even a promo inspired by the ones airing before new Kamen Rider Series installments.

An ancient sword is dredged up from the depths of the ocean by fishing boat, believed to be from Feudal Japan and forged by the mythical swords smith Muramasa. However, as its being investigated, a seal is broken and it releases the Devil Kaijin Akuma. The Akuma's goal is to please the High Warrior, their deity that demands they prove their strength, by battle or just causing general destruction. They are lead by King Mao and his Omniscient Council of Vagueness, the Yoso Akuma Rozu.

However, during the first Akuma's attack, he kills the parents of a man named Jarrett Tsuchi. When Jarrett discovers this, he awakens a long dormant power inside him and becomes the Samurai Rider, Kamen Rider Kage. After killing the Akuma, he leaves for five months to train. In the meantime, a woman also met that night by Kage, Karin Akari, becomes the leader of the Anti-Akuma Division of the JSDF, along with her second in command, Eiji Takeo. When Kage returns, Karin is forced to decide whether to help him or follow orders and capture him.

The author canceled the fanfic because he'd come to find Jarrett's character flat and didn't know what to do with him, but has stated they'd move on to other projects. In 2013 they revived the fanfic.

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Tropes used:

• Action Girl: Karin, she might not fight all the time, but she's tough enough to make a grown man cower in terror.
  • Now Jarrett's cousin, Akari, who is Kamen Rider Akarui.
• Ascended Demon: Kaze-Hikaru-Michibashi eventually seeks to do this after being saved by a Tenshi. It's even symbolized with his Wind Tribe Tengu tattoo being replaced with a tattoo of angel wings. When he fills it with Soul Tears (the Tenshi's Blood Tears earned by good deeds), he begins transforming into a Tenshi.

• Badass Crew: This story takes the unusual tact of having its Riders act as a team (Once they've spent enough chapters fighting each other). When Eiji finally overloads the Taiga belt and puts himself in a coma, the characters even worry about having enough Riders to deal with the next Akuma.
• Badass Normal: Karin, and Eiji at first, until he gets promoted to Kamen Rider Taiga, though if he can't use the Taiga System, he's far from helpless.
• Badass Finger Snap: Akarui tends to snap her fingers when the Akuma she just finished off explodes.
• BFG: Eiji is given a hand held Minigun to wield, Karin keeps a Bazooka in her car.
• BFS: While normal sized to him, King Mao's sword is too big for the average person to hold.
• Big Bad: King Mao, the Elephant Beetle-like leader of the Akuma.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Taiga's Taiga Slayers. Unlike G3's, these are actually far more effective, as they extend directly from his wrists.
• Calling Your Attacks: Kage calls out the names of his finishers. Taiga and Akarui do as well.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Akuma are capable of this, but not only is it considered a taboo, it turns them into monsters called Orokana and lose control. An entire faction of Akuma once did this all at once, resulting in the Berserk Tribe. King Mao was forced to seal them away as a result.
• Can't Catch Up: Played with when it comes to Eiji/Taiga. While he doesn't get new forms like Kage and Akarui, the Taiga system is upgraded often. The problem is that its the Taiga System can't keep up with Eiji, who has a high compatibility with the Metal Element the System uses. Being a fully mechanical system, it can't evolve like Kage and Akarui can to keep up with his increasing power.
• Car Fu: Karin's first encounter with an Akuma ends with him getting hit by her police car.

• Character Catchphrase:
  • Kage has "Evil will fall by my blade!" at the start of the fight and typically says "Your Journey Ends Here." after killing the Akuma.
  • Taiga has two, "You fight with honor, I just fight." and "This Hunt is Over" after killing an Akuma, though the latter is used more often. Akarui also has "Crash and burn" after defeating an Akuma.
• Co-Dragons: The Yoso Akuma Rozu to King Mao.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Once his turn comes, Hi-Anga-Doragon begins making his own plans. These include uncovering another Sealed Evil in a Can called the Berserk Tribe and teaming up with Kyo.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Akari has a Manchild personality and also has a habit of vanishing into thin air the moment you turn your back on her, reappearing doing something rather childish.
• Combat Pragmatist: Taiga tends to fight in this fashion, being rather brutal and resorting to a Groin Attack or two.
  Taiga: You fight with honor, I just fight.
• Cool Sword: King Mao's Muramasa Blade and Kage's Terra Shredder.
• Crazy-Prepared: Karin after the five month time jump. She keeps a bazooka in her car. Justified by the fact she lives in a world under attack by monsters.
• Crossover: Tachibana and Mutsuki show up in episode 18. Mutsuki ends the chapter by turning into Leangle to face the Monster of the Week and assists in fighting the Akuma chapter and offering to hang around until Eiji is back on his feet.
• Curbstomp Battle: Suzuku, Akari and Jarrett's Spirit Advisor, fights three Akuma to protect Akari in her first fight following her awakening. Two are destroyed in one slash each and the last is Diagonal Cut into a dozen pieces in a matter of seconds.
  • Kamen Rider Leangle dishes out a few to the Monsters of the Week, due to being a veteran Rider and thus far more skilled than Kage, Taiga, and Akarui. He gets thrashed around by an Orokana but ultimately defeats it by accessing Jack Form and returning the favor.
• Cute Bruiser: Akari, who acts like a young child, has Super-Strength and shows it the first time by throwing a mugger into a tree. However, Akarui is more of a Lightning Bruiser.
• Dead Fic: However, it was ultimately revived over a year later.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Akuma explode into elemental energy when killed. Justified, as that energy is literally their blood and when mortally wounded, their body's ability to contain it destabilizes, causing it to escape explosively upon death.
  • This allows Sora to realize ahead of General Kyo that Prometheus I isn't dead after Kyo hitting its self destruct; since it has Akuma biology, it should've exploded like one. She's right.
• Death by Origin Story: Jarrett's parents are killed by the first Akuma. Eiji's family apparently also suffered this fate offscreen.
  • Akari has the same background as Jarrett.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Kage's Earth Form gives him the power of Earth.
• Distracted by the Shiny: If you're not watching her, Akari will likely be distracted by something and disappear, unless she's in Let's Get Dangerous! mode or Akarui. However, this is more due to her Manchild personality than anything else.
• The Dreaded: The Akuma seem to have some fear of Kage. However, Suzuku is even more feared by them, as recognizing his spirit reduces one to complete terror.
  • The Orokana are this to the Akuma and Tenshi due to the Berserk Tribe amounting to a Zombie Apocalypse from their perspective. The fact the first one released was powerful enough to defeat Kamen Rider Leangle until he broke out Jack Form was seen (keep in mind, in this series, veteran Riders are not treated as So Last Season) and sucked an Akuma dry in seconds shows there's good reason for it.
• Elemental Powers: There are four Tribes of Akuma, Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. Kage also has the elemental power of Earth. He gains the power of Fire with his Inferno Form. Akarui has Wind and Water so far and Taiga has Metal.
  • The Orokana seem to have different Elements, one of which is Poison.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: When facing a Water Akuma, Kage had an advantage, but when the Wind Tribe Akuma came around, he was then put at a disadvantage so he has to master his Inferno Form to counter.
• Enemy Without: Hi-Mamoru-Kamereon decides to rebuke the High Warrior and perform a Heel–Face Turn. Unfortunately, he's a Fire Tribe Akuma, so the parts of him that didn't want to split off and form his blue half, whose still evil.
• Engineered Public Confession: Used on General Kyo Takashi. Karin has his gloating about his Mix-and-Match Critter Prometheus recorded and when it Goes Horribly Wrong, threatens to email the clip to every news station in the country and the Prime Minister's office if he doesn't do as she says. Considering he performed likely illegal genetic experments on sentient beings and his creation is presently tearing Tokyo apart, he's left with no option but to do as she says.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The High Warrior makes the Akuma who worship him literally incapable of telling that their actions are wrong.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Akuma may be evil, genocidal monsters whose name literally means devil, but they have an honor code. In episode 7, an Akuma breaks one of the sacred taboos and has his wings taken away, forcing him to fight Taiga to the death. And Venti was being kind, he had every right to kill him on the spot by their laws. They're also sickened by Kyo's Prometheus Project, though mainly due to it tearing the souls of their dead out of the afterlife and trapping them in a manmade weapon.
• Finishing Move: Kage and Akarui have the Element Breaks, supercharged elemental attacks used as a kill move. Kamen Rider Taiga uses more machine-based finishing moves utilizing cards called Metal Cards.
  • Suzuku, Kage and Akarui's Spirit Advisor, seems to have one called 'Roaring Wind Slash', which Diagonal Cut an Akuma into pieces in the blink of an eye. Given he'd just slain two with simple slashes, it's more likely he was just showing off than that he needed the move to kill him.
• Full-Potential Upgrade: Eiji's problems with the Taiga system amount to it simply not being able to keep up with his compatibility with it's artificial Metal Element, necessitating frequent upgrades. This eventually requires plans for a completely knew Rider System for him to replace it.
• General Ripper: General Kyo Takashi REALLY wants to capture Kage and destroy the Akuma, even if he has to create something even the Akuma consider an abomination and work with Foundation X.
• God of Evil: The Akuma worship an entity called the High Warrior as their God...who compels them to murder innocent people and cause mindless destruction to prove themselves to him. On the other hand, his rewards are nothing to sneeze at.
  • At least according to the Tenshi, he's only doing this for his own selfish reasons and doesn't even care about the Akuma themselves.
• Good Counterpart: The Tenshi appear to be this to the Akuma. They're very simular to the Akuma but where white armor and are more angelic in nature. They also redeemed Hikaru and gave him a chance to make up for what he did.
• Heel–Face Turn: Hikaru, the Roadrunner Akuma, comes to realize that the Akuma's beliefs are false and, after being given a second chance by a mysterious woman, tries to redeem himself for his sins.
  • Hi-Mamoru-Kamereon, an Akuma who acted as a Serial-Killer Killer, performs one as well.
• Heel Realization: After being mortally wounded by Kage's Finishing Move and left to die in peace, Hikaru comes to see that his views may be wrong and that Kage's statement that true power came from protecting others may be correct. He then resolves that if he gets the chance. Once he's given the chance, he completely regrets his actions.
  Hikarui: We tested our beliefs on the battlefield and he won…so does that mean he's in the right and I'm in the wrong? I must know…what does it feel like? What does it feel like to be a hero? What does true power feel like?
• Homage: The Akuma and Kage themselves have several homage's to Kuuga and the Grongi.
  • Taiga is a homage to G3 and G3-X to some degree. His suit announcing the type of attack he's just activated is one to the Kabuto Riders.
  • Hi-Mamoru-Kamereon is modeled after Kamen Rider Amazon, who Word of God says was their favorite Showa Era Kamen Rider.

• Katanas Are Just Better: Kage and Mao both have katanas as their main weapon.
• Literal Split Personality: Fire Tribe Akuma have the ability to split off a blue version of themselves with the prefex Ao (blue) added to the name. The two aren't clones and tend to have varying personalities.
• Legacy Character: According to the Akuma, Kage isn't the first one to carry his mantle. In fact, the first two Akuma mistook him for the original Kage. May double as a Continuity Nod, Mythology Gag, and/or Shout-Out to Kamen Rider Kuuga, who is also not the first to have that power. Kamen Rider OOO might be getting a nod here too, as there was a previous OOO before Eiji broke the seal that unleashed the Greeed.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Apparently a Tsuchi Family trait. Both Jarrett and Akari get very serious when they see someone needing help. According to Akari, this is normal in their family and dates back to at least 800 years ago when they were samurai.
  • Kamen Rider Joker in the movie war. Once Shotaro transforms, he's all business. He proceeds to demolish Kamen Rider Oblivion's The Dragon with ease.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The release of the first Orokana of the Berserk Tribe results in this, even scaring the Yoso Akuma Rozu (King Mao is more annoyed than anything). According to Word of God, this is because the Berserk Tribe was pretty much a Zombie Apocalypse from the Akuma's perspective, leaving them with a deep fear of the things.
• Manchild: Akari has a very childish personality and is easily distracted (at least not when she goes to Let's Get Dangerous! mode).
• Meaningful Name: Akuma means Devil, Kage means Shadow (his mysterious aspect), Tsuchi means Earth and Takeo means warrior. The Fire Yoso Akuma Rozu is named Anga, and yes, he's very angry. Taiga's name means Tiger in Japanese, and he's a Tiger based Rider. Akarui means bright and Akarui has the ability to project powerful bursts of light from her wings. Tenshi is Japanese for Angel and the Tenshi are pretty much the anti-Akuma.
• Megaton Punch: Taiga's Rider Punch normally launches the victim so hard they're imbeded into something.
• The Mentor: Suzuku, a mysterious samurai spirit who trained both Jarret and Akari.
  • Tachibana becomes this to them when he and Mutsuki arrive to help develop an upgraded version of the Taiga system.
• Mighty Glacier: Taiga. He's not as fast or agile as Kage, but makes up for it with higher defense and greater power. While not excessively slow, he's still not fast enough to be a Lightning Bruiser.
• Mix-and-Match Critter: General Kyo Takeshi's Project Prometheus aims to create these to fight the Akuma, out of the Akuma's DNA.
• Mooks: The Anti-Akuma Division use armored troops called Masked Troopers to fight the Akuma, but once Taiga is perfected, they prefer using him to cut down on deaths.
  • Akuma have Vassal Akuma, larval Akuma who have yet to become full warriors. Anga is presently the only one to use them due to honor.
• My God, What Have I Done??: Hikaru gets this after being liberated from the High Warrior, realizing he'd killed and destroyed for a deity that doesn't even care about his own people. He personally visits the graves of his victims to apologize for what he's done to them.
  • Hi-Mamoru-Kamereon follows suit after rebuking the High Warrior. Though it also causes him to lose the fight that ensues with Ao-Mamoru.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Bull Shark Akuma kills Jarrett's parents, triggering his transformation into Kage.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Akari tends to do this whenever someone's attention isn't on her.
• Oh, Crap!: General Kyo Takeshi gets one when his Mix-and-Match Critter survives the failsafe, litterally saying Oh, Crap!.
  • A mugger gets another when Akari reveals her Cute Bruiser statis and lifts him off the ground with one arm.
• Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Yoso Akuma Rozu seem to fit this role.
  • Now Rao and Avalon Industries seems is another.
• One-Winged Angel: Akuma can earn a second life by exchanging enough Blood Tears to the High Warrior, causing them to revive upon death as powerful Dai-Akuma based off mythical creatures. Once they fill up their Blood Tears again, they can transform into Ascended Akuma, more powerful versions of their base form, in exchange for the Blood Tears and the second life.
  • In the W portion of the Movie War, Kamen Rider Oblivion turns into his demonic Infernal Oblivion form by performing a Triple Maximum Drive. This, however, comes with him going completely Ax-Crazy and insane.
• Only Sane Man: Anga demands that the Riders be taken seriously and destroyed while they still have a chance before they get too powerful. And no one listens.
• Orcus on His Throne: King Mao and the Yoso Akuma Rozu spend most of their time sitting on their thrones in the bowels of Mt. Fuji. Justified in that Akuma are supposed to go by level of strength when attacking.
• Our Angels Are Different: The Tenshi's name means angel and they have many qualities in common with their namesake, including being hidden among humans and helpping Hikari redeem himself. It's also implied Hikari is being reborn as one.
• Our Demons Are Different: The Akuma's name means Devil and they're supernatural monsters from another universe. However, they don't have a lot in common with them.
• Playing with Fire: The Fire Elemental Akuma. Kage's Inferno Form also gets has the power of fire.
• Powered Armor: While Kage and Akarui physically transform, Kamen Rider Taiga wears one of these.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Kamen Rider Leangle is referred to as Sempai by Kage and Akarui due to being their senor Rider. He barely breaks a sweat beating down an Akuma it'd normally take them two chapters to beat.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Eiji to Arata:
  Eiji: You're a monster. Even as far as you devils go you're a monster! The others do it for the same reason I fight Kage! It's their job! I may hate every last one of them, but at least they don't savor the suffering and innocents! You're a sadistic demon and you're going back where you belong! My only regret is my armor is still damaged from earlier and I can't send you to oblivion myself...
• Religion of Evil: The Akuma's religion requires dieing in battle to get to the afterlife, not so bad, but to please their God, you have to cause senseless death and destruction on a regular basis.
• The Rival: Eiji/ Kamen Rider Taiga to Kage. He doesn't have a personal grudge against him or is seeking a worthy opponent, he's just following orders.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Akuma were imprisoned for 800 years inside Mao's Muramasa Blade until the sword was pulled out of the ocean and they were accidentally unleashed.
  • The Berserk Tribe, a group of Akuma who became out of control monsters called Orokana by cannibalizing their own kind, and their leader the Berserker King were sealed beneath what is now Tokyo Bay inside sealed caskets within a vault by King Mao. Anga unearths several as part of his own plans, and sets one free on the Riders for his own reasons which takes Leangle finally using his Jack Form to defeat.
• Second Rider: Eiji/Taiga becomes this. Akarui eventually joins in.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Kaze-Arata-Gorudoiguru begins insulting Kage and enjoying how far under his skin he's gotten:
  Arata: Attacking from behind? That's not like you. (Kage just continues for him without any words) What? No threat? No witty banter about how you're going to stop my rampage in its tracks? Have I gotten to y- (Kage shuts him up with a punch to the face)
  Kage: Oh you've gotten to me alright...and you'll soon be wishing you hadn't!
• Smelly Skunk: Sora has one named Sally for a pet. She's not descented, but well trained.
• So Last Season: Word of God has stated he's trying hard to avert this when it comes to veteran Riders, because in his opinion, their experience edge should make them tougher than the current ones. Kamen Rider Leangle actually has a considerably easier time dealing with Akuma than the Kage Riders for this reason and even an Orokana simply requires the use of his Jack Form to dispatch and the characters point out that simply meant said enemy would've been a nightmare to deal with if he wasn't there.
• Spirit Advisor: Suzuku, a mysterious samurai spirit who trains both Akari and Jarrett.
• Super-Strength: Akari has this. First shown by throwing a full grown man 15 feet into a tree. She Handwaved it by saying she was used to heavy lifting back home.
• Take Your Time: After becoming Kage, Jarrett takes five months to return to fight the Akuma, leaving the Anti-Akuma forces to pick up the slack. Justified in that there was a mysterious voice training him the whole time so he'd be ready for the fight and he barely beat the Shark Akuma (who given the Akuma's manner of deploying Akuma, was likely the weakest one).
• The Atoner: Hikaru, the Roadrunner Akuma, spends all his time after his Heel–Face Turn trying to make up for the senseless death and destruction he caused while evil.
• Theme Naming: Japanese words, all the Riders names are based off Japanese words. The Akuma's first name is their tribe, their middle name is simply a given name, and their last name is the Japanese version of the animal they're based on.
• The Unreveal: Kamen Rider Oblivion's true identity is never revealed.
• Villainous Breakdown: In the W portion of The Movie War Kamen Rider Oblivion has one starting when Kamen Rider Cyclone arrives to fight him and getting progressively more unhinged after that, going off the deep end by performing a Triple Maximum Drive. He goes from a rather composed Smug Snake to screaming "Die! Die! Die! Die!" while raining energy balls down at W.
  • General Kyo has one after he's tricked and humiliated by Karin, throwing a tantrum and flipping over a table in an outright childish display of anger.
• Villain Team-Up: Anga teams up with General Kyo.
• The Voice: A mysterious voice tells Jarrett he needs to train and perfect his Earth element in episode 3, then provides him with the equipment to do so.
  • We later discover his name is Suzuku and he's a samurai spirit of some sort who also trained Akarui.
• Wham Episode: Episode 17. Hi-Anga-Doragon, one of the Yoso Akuma Rozu, descends from Mt. Fuji and begins making his plans, the Gecko Akuma reaches level four, Eiji finds out who Kage and Akarui really are, Kage's Torrent Form is revealed, and Eiji pushes the Taiga system so far past it's limits, it's destroyed and puts him in a coma.
• What Measure Is A Nonhuman: Averted after Hikaru and Tao Takashi appear, after which the Akuma are treated with the same respect in death as a human, even getting a hall in the Anti-Akuma HQ dedicated to remembering them.
• Worthy Opponent: One of the main goals of the Akuma is the search for a worthy opponent. Good thing Kage came along.
• You're Insane!: Said by Kamen Rider Joker when Kamen Rider Oblivion does a Triple Maximum Drive in The Movie. He has a point as if Oblivion wasn't already insane, the resulting One-Winged Angel transformation drove him there. Also, Shotaro had already tried a Twin Maximum before in the show and it didn't end well.