"I insist that you come with us," Imakarum said, stepping forward to wrap his arm back around the young Guyver’s body and then subtly tightening his grip on the boy’s shoulders. "Sho," he said, switching effortlessly back into his native Japanese, "have you used this telepathic power of yours to contact Agito in the past?"

"Yes," Sho said, nodding as Imakarum cursed inwardly. "It’s what we used to coordinate our attacks on those large Chronos bases, back before…" he looked mildly uncomfortable. "Everything happened."

Problems on top of other problems, Imakarum mused, concealing his irritation with long practice. Dealing with Atkins was less taxing than this. Of course, all of their latest exchanges had happened over the phone. There was no need for Imakarum to worry over what his face displayed when he was speaking to someone who couldn’t see him. He only had to make sure his tone of voice and choice of words didn’t hint at what he was now.

Noticing that Ryan Crouger was no longer with them and wondering for a moment just how the Fifth Guyver had managed to slip out of his hold when he had been sure that he had a very tight grip on the boy, Imakarum saw that he was heading for the miniature motorcycle-esque vehicle that he had ridden to escape from the Zoanoids that had been sent after him. Incensed, Imakarum fired a Gravity Bullet at his back. Stealth be damned; that brat would die for defying him.

The fact that the boy managed to dodge was annoying, but the fact that the Gravity Bullet he’d fired ended up hitting the very thing that the young Guyver had been interested in at the outset was something of a consolation. There was now no reason for young Ryan Crouger to want to leave. For a few moments, the boy who was the Fifth Guyver – though not for much longer if Imakarum had any say in the matter – stood staring at the wreckage of what had once been his vehicle.

His fists were clenched, and his posture radiated rage; Imakarum could not have cared less. There was nothing that a mere human could do to harm a Zoalord, and if the boy had learned to utilize the power of his Guyver Unit, he would not have been trying to flee from Chronos’ forces on such a flimsy vehicle in the first place.

When the young Guyver turned to look at him once again, his expression a mask of determined anger, Imakarum offered him a tight smile. The boy was weak, and Sho would never attack his old friend Murakami; there was nothing that he could do. Ryan Crouger was helpless. That was what made it so very amusing to watch the boy as he stalked back toward their little group.

"So, are you prepared to come along quietly now?" he asked.

When Mr. Murakami had fired that strange blast – something that almost looked like the Guyver’s Pressure Cannon – at Ryan’s back, Sho hadn’t known what to do. He was glad that Ryan had managed to dodge, but seeing his dirtbike get blown up – blown up by Mr. Murakami and why had he even done that? – had obviously made him very angry. It hadn’t sounded very much like an apology, what Mr. Murakami had said to Ryan, and the look on Ryan’s face was still one of anger.

What was going on? Why had Mr. Murakami tried to attack Ryan the way he had?

When Ryan punched Mr. Murakami, first in… a particularly sensitive area that made Sho wince in sympathy, and again under the chin when Mr. Murakami doubled over in pain, Sho was torn between rushing to help Mr. Murakami and helping Ryan. Mr. Murakami was his friend, but Ryan was a fellow Guyver, and he’d helped them both to escape from the Zoanoids that had been pursuing them.

Now that he thought about it, Sho realized that Mr. Murakami had never worn a visor like that. Even back when he’d been wearing those green sunglasses, he’d still taken them off. And Mr. Murakami’s eyes had looked just like every other pair of dark eyes that Sho had seen in his life.

Turning to look from Mr. Murakami to Ryan, Sho watched in shock and growing horror as Mr. Murakami – the one who had helped him and Agito in their early battles against Chronos and taught them what it took to fight against them – fired another of those strange blasts at Ryan’s feet. Ryan managed to leap out of the way, thank God, but the fact that Mr. Murakami had even attacked him in the first place was terrifying to Sho.

What had happened to Mr. Murakami that he would do this?!

+Sho, when I asked for your help, I kinda meant today!+

Ryan was still up and dodging the blasts that Mr. Murakami was firing at him, but then the doors of the trucks – the trucks that Sho had almost forgotten were even there in the first place – burst open as a small army of Zoanoids flooded out onto the roadway. As the mass of Zoanoids started to gather around Mr. Murakami, Sho got the feeling that things were still not right. The Zoanoids didn’t seem to be ready to attack Mr. Murakami the way they always seemed to do; in fact, if Sho didn’t know better, he’d almost say that these Zoanoids were looking to Mr. Murakami for orders.

But that couldn’t be true; Mr. Murakami was an enemy of Chronos. He had been helping them to fight against the Zoanoids ever since they had first met.

But all of the Zoanoids were gathering around Mr. Murakami, and they weren’t moving in to attack him. It even sounded like one of them was asking him for orders, but that was even more impossible. But then, that seemed to be just what was happening: Mr. Murakami pointed at Ryan, his manner suggesting that he was even glaring at Ryan, and said something in English that Sho didn’t understand.

The fact that all of the Zoanoids leapt at Ryan while Mr. Murakami stood back and watched—watched, with a disturbingly gleeful expression on his face – made Sho wonder what on earth had happened to Mr. Murakami. Whatever it was, he was beginning to doubt it was anything good.

"Mr. Murakami!" Sho ran at the laughing—Why was he laughing?! – form of his old friend. "Mr. Murakami, what are you doing?!"

Even running as fast as he could – in human form, at least – Sho could still see Mr. Murakami turning to face him. Mr. Murakami still had that disturbing smile on his face, and then he fired another of those strange Pressure Cannon-like blasts. This time, Sho could see that the blast was aimed at him. More than that, he could see what Ryan had been talking about: Mr. Murakami’s eyes were bright yellow, but from the distance he was at, Sho couldn’t see if the pupils really were catlike the way Ryan had said.

"Mr. Murakami!? What are you doing?!"

"That should be obvious, Sho," Mr. Murakami said, grinning in a very unnerving way. "Die!"

A volley of those strange blasts ripped into the place where Sho had been standing just half a minute ago, and he covered his face with his arms to shield himself from the flying debris that had once been part of the street.

"Mr. Murakami, please stop!"

"Never!"

This time, Sho could see Mr. Murakami’s Incision Wave – the same one that he had used to kill those Enzyme IIs in the forest according to Tetsuro – heading straight for his torso. Diving to the ground, knowing that that attack would split him in half if it connected, Sho looked up at the strangely dressed form of his old friend. Come to think of it, Mr. Murakami’s never worn anything like this before. And… he seems stronger than before…

A flash of strong emotion – annoyance mixed with a healthy amount of fear – came through to him over the link he shared with Ryan, and Sho turned. Seeing Ryan go down, buried beneath a veritable pile of rushing Zoanoids, Sho felt his heart seize up for a moment. While it was true that he hadn’t known Ryan for very long at all, the other boy was still a fellow Guyver, and to see him die like that…

But then there came an explosion from the center of the group of Zoanoids that had enveloped Ryan—a kind of explosion that Sho was very familiar with. It was the same kind of explosion that he had been witness to – and at the epicenter of – more times than he could remember. When the dead Zoanoids had all collapsed to the ground, Sho saw Ryan’s Guyver form for the very first time.

It wasn’t really all that much different from his own, but the coloring made it seem so—that and the strange armored collar. Ryan’s Guyver was a smoky gray, the coiled tendrils between the plates giving an interesting contrast with their bright red-orange color. In fact, with its combination of colors, Ryan’s Guyver armor almost gave the impression of being a paler version of Agito’s. All except for the head—that looked more like his than any other Guyver Sho had seen.