Chapter Text
His feet padded through the alley, one foot making loud slapping sounds as his shoeless foot landed. He could nearly see the end of the alleyway.
“Hu- heeeyyyy!!” He shouted, waving his arms. “Help! Help m-” He was cut off by a hulking mass dropping down in front of him, cutting off his exit. He fumbled for his pockets, but something grabbed his arms and pulled them to the sides.
“I-I-I don-don't- I don't know anything I didn't see-see anything!!! Please lemme- let-let me go please!!!” He pleaded through the pain.
“Don't- care.” The mass growled, its face only illuminated by a pair of white slits where its eyes would be. “D-drown i-n dark-ness.”
A black miasma shot out and stabbed him through the chest, and everything faded to black
_
Rick fell back onto his chair, exhausted. He groaned, dragging a hand across his face. “It's official,” he called to no one in particular, “Physical therapy is worse than writer's block.”
“Really?” Hayley replied, walking into the PI office. “Try having to run 10 kilometers with a bullet through your thigh.”
“That… is definitely worse.” Rick replied. His phone buzzed, and he fished it out of his pocket to check. “Oh, text from Kate.” He waved the phone at Hayley. “We got a new case, it's in an alleyway off 9th ave.”
“Oh that sounds fun.” Hayley replied, disinterested. “You sure you don't need a ride?”
“No, no, I'll be fine.” He got up, grimacing, before bracing himself against the desk.
“See yah,” he called behind him, walking towards the door.
_
“Hey Castle, didn't think you'd be up and about.” Ryan called.
“Yeah, what with the physical therapy and the gunshot.” Esposito added on.
“Yeah, well you'd think, wouldn't you?” Rick replied, handing a coffee to each of them. “But I can't stay put for too long, I'm going stir crazy. I can't even write, it's… infuriating.”
Lanie approached the three. “Well prepare to get more mad, because this guy,” she pointed to the body bag, “makes no sense.”
She crouched down, unzipping the bag. “Our vic is 38 year old Kensei Crowe.”
“Kensei Crowe? Sounds badass, like some sort of disgraced samurai” Rick butt in, striking a pose, hand hovering over an invisible katana, “Kensei Crowe, say your prayers, and I will intercept them.”
Kate came up from behind him, “Not too far off, actually. From what I could figure out, Kensei here,” she gestured with her foot, “came here on a work visa, after his family business threw him out for drug abuse and attacking their rival business.”
Lanie nodded. “Right. Based off of lividity and body temperature, I'd put time of death at around 3 am this morning.”
“Ah, speaking of death, what was it, exactly?” Rick asked.
“I'm glad you asked Castle, because check this out.” Lanie drew the zipper back, down to his chest; or what should've been his chest.
“Oh! Jeez Lanie, a little warning??” Rick flinched back, repulsed. There was a hole, roughly half a foot in diameter, cleanly carved from his chest.
Kate gave him a look of disbelief. “Really? Barbecued victims, a man cut in half, industrial cake mixers, but this is where you draw the line?”
“I don't- it just kinda- it… it freaked me out, ok?” Rick excused, shuddering.
“Mm, yeah sure Castle, let's go with that.” Esposito teased, patting him on the shoulder. “Lanie, did you find anything that could've done this?”
“Yeah, I had some unis canvas the area, but we didn't find anything nearby, nor did we find a blood trail or anything that could indicate our killer walked off with the weapon.” Lanie said. “But look at this.” She opened the jacket on the body, revealing a square that was hanging off the inside.
“Ooh, secret pocket.” Rick said, crouching down for a closer look. “You know what was in here?”
“No, but obviously our killer wanted it bad, if they were willing to murder for it.” Esposito pointed out.
“Alright, what about witnesses, did anyone see anything?” Kate asked.
“Oh, I can answer that,” Ryan raised a finger, pointing to the mouth of the alley to a man sitting on the curb. “Says he's a “private streetside salesman”.”
“Ok, me and Castle'll go and question him, you two secure the area and try and find that murder weapon, or anything that could indicate what our killer was looking for.” Kate gestured to the mouth off the alley, leading Rick to the witness.
“Excuse me!” Rick called out to the witness. “We heard you knew about what happened to this guy over here?” Rick pointed back to the body.
“Ye-yeah, yeah I saw.” The man said, scratching the back of his head.
“We're gonna need you to tell us everything you remember from last night.” Kate said, pulling out a notepad.
“R-right. So, uhm, so I was across the street, mindin my own business, and then I heard that guy,” he nodded towards the body, “yell for help. Before I could do anything, some big guy dropped down, and then *BAM*!” He slapped the heels of his palms together, “the big thing shot something and killed him.”
“Shot… “something”?” Kate asked. “What was it?”
“That's the thing!” The guy said, “I don't know! It was like… literally nothing. Like- like darkness or something. And then it- the darkness spike thing- it disappeared and the big guy looted the dude and then- then he saw me,” the man drew a shaky breath, “he… it came at me, but… but it stopped, just before it reached the- the curb. It growled at me and then it… left.”
“It left?” Rick repeated, “Like it ran off or…”
“It just… disappeared. Like it wasn't even there.” The man replied.
“Thank you for your cooperation, sir, you're free to go.” Kate turned to Rick, nodding her head to the side. He turned to follow her, walking down the sidewalk with her.
“So… a monster.” Kate said. “You think he's dipping into his own supply?”
“Maybe.” Rick shrugged. “Or, hear me out.” He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, turning around to look at Kate. “A man, disgraced from his family, in a new land, a monster, and some sort of an energy blast? Kate, this is an anime plot.”
Kate stared at him in disbelief. “An anime plot. Really?” She shook her head, walking off.
“Wha- Ka- Kate!!” He cried. “C'mon in being seriou-” His phone buzzed. He stopped to look down at it while Kate continued to walk off, seeing a text from Alexis. “Oh, Kate, I got a text from Alexis! There's some guys at the PI office looking for m- I'll see you at the precinct!” He called after her.
_
Rick walked into the lobby area of the PI office, seeing to men standing by the desk.
“Oh, dad!” Alexis walked up to him. “These are some detectives from Japan, they wanted to speak with you.”
“Right, sure,” Rick said, gesturing the two into his office, “let's talk in my office”
“Hello Richard Castle,” one of the men said in accented English, holding out his hand. He wore a white long sleeve shirt with pale green stripes going across it horizontally, and a long blue vest that reached past his waist. Olive green fingerless gloves covered his hands, and his pale green hair was swept to the left. “My name is Philip, and this is Shotaro Hidari.” He gestured to the other man.
The other man, Shotaro Hidari, wore a white dress shirt with lavender pinstripes, and a black vest with a red tie. A black fedora covered his brown hair.
“We are from the Narumi Detective Agency in Futo, Mr. Castle.” Shotaro said, also in accented English. “A case we're working, Kensei Crowe’s murder, seems to have fallen in your lap.”
“And… how would you know that?” Rick asked
“I figured it out using my hard-boiled investigation skil-”
“Half-boiled, Shotaro. And we found out through… trade secrets.” Philip cut Shotaro off, smiling at Rick.
“... alright. You gonna tell me that “trade secret”?” Rick asked.
“Well if we told you, it wouldn't be a secret, now would it?” Philip sent Rick an innocent but knowing smile.
Rick's phone started ringing, and he grabbed his phone out of his pocket, seeing it was a call from Esposito.
“Hold on just one second guys, I gotta take this.” He turned around, answering the call. “Yo, Espo. You got something?”
“Yeah, the perp's jacket. You know what a “Windscale” is?”
“Well aside from being a term for the measurement of wind force, it's a luxury clothing brand stationed in Japan. Why?” Rick replied.
“Because the perp's jacket is branded with it. What even is Windscale anyways?”
“You don't know what Windscale is??” Rick asked in disbelief. “They make quality luxury items for a fraction of the price. They are, to the luxury world, what the… the NSX was to the sportscar world.”
“... ok so what does that mean?” Esposito asked exasperated.
“Well, for one, it means our guy has some impeccable taste, but it also means he's gonna be looking to replace his lost outfit. Espo, you guys monitor every Windscale shipment coming into the city; they privately ship their stuff. Our guy's gotta be ordering something.” He hung up, turning back around.
“Sorry about that guys, you needed some-” The two were gone, with no trace left behind.
He poked his head out of his office, not seeing the men outside either. “Hey, Alexis, you didn't happen to see those two guys when they left, did you?”
Alexis looked up. “What? Yeah they just left, they were talking about a breakthrough in their case or something. Are you alright?”
Rick cocked his head to the side, “Y- yeah…” He headed for the door. “Yeah, I just gotta head down to the precinct. Let me know if you get anything from those guys or anything about the case, ok?”
She nodded, waving him off, “Alright dad, see you.”
_
Heyo!! Ashes here, I just finished Castle… 4 months ago jeez. And I obv wanted to do a crossover with Kamen Rider, mostly to start a series of crossovers where I put riders in non-rider situations.
I plan for this to be a long form fic, so put the pitchforks down, I plan to update this.
Onto misc stuff! I don't plan to have this be a main fic, so don't expect constant updates, this is just a side project for me to get a breath of fresh air and so I can focus on my other fics and wips.