Friday, November 4, 2016

Kamen Rider Hime Vol. 2

After a cult following somehow cropped up, the writer of Kamen Rider Hime was convinced to get the right to the series back and has self-published Volume 2 in an all-digital format. Somebody is equally convinced this is a bad idea, but is keeping shut.

~

Volume 2 begins in a small convenience store in the middle of the city and its blond-haired, green-eyed clerk, Parsee. Wearing a smart vest, she eagerly sits there trying not to stare at the customers who walk around the store, be bored, or fall asleep. She takes a moment to clean up something behind the counter, silently complaining about how boring her job is when someone enters: her best friend Yuugi (a short brunette for some reason) and Yuugi's friend Suika. The two wave hello and run to the back, leaving Parsee to wonder if they're just here on a beer run.

They are.

Two more customers enter, the Shine Maidens, and they ask for directions to a local landmark, the Reiuji Nuclear Power Plant. The ever-helpful Parsee jots down a note while Raymu wants a coffee. The Shine Maidens have no money though so Raymu blasts another customer and takes money from them. They leave after giving an incredulous Parsee money for the drink.

Parsee wonders about them, finding something odd about the pair. Not blasting a customer; people here did that frequently. No, what was really odd was...how round their ears were. She gasps as she realizes the problem: humans! In Bridge City!

Someone ought to do something about that.

But not her.

Parsee begins sweeping the floor, leaves for a moment, and then returns as Kamen Rider Hime rides past outside on Envy Driver, her motorcycle.

The two Shine Maidens are slowly causing havoc as Raymu gets annoyed easily walking through the city. Sunae makes a joke about buying myTunes and heXBOX cards as they zap Youkai passerby. Eventually they reach the power plant, which looks like a giant nest with an egg in it.

The two Shine Maidens raise their palms and fire some kind of beam, but Kamen Rider Hime arrives and blocks the shot with her FIST.

She fans her scorched hand and curses. Then she looks at the two and asks why they're trying to destroy a nuclear power plant. Sunae replies with a brief speech about environmentalism and how the power plant is bad for nature.

Kamen Rider Hime counters by saying destroying the power plant will irradiate Bridge City.

Raymu answers by saying they only care about the surface environment and starts a fight.

Kamen Rider Hime manages to go toe-to-toe with Raymu, trading blows like it's nothing, but then Sunae joins in and hits the Rider in the kidneys with a mystic staff. It's a dicey fight with two managing to overpower one until Hime manages to slug them both in the gut, knocking them back long enough to use another special attack, the Cedar Ashes attack which causes a pillar of flower danmaku to burst from the ground.

The Shine Maidens fall to the ground. Raymu stands up, sighs, and picks up Sunae to leave. With a shrug, Kamen Rider Hime lets them go and drives back to the convenience store. Aside from reliable clerk Parsee, the store is empty. The Rider changes back into Parsee, asks how the store was, and absorbs the Parsee behind the counter with a wink before she starts cleaning the floor.

Just in time for a handsome, dark-haired stranger with antennae to enter.

~

The last page of this volume is a 4-koma comic: http://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/2166455?pool_id=10027

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