Run, Cruiser! X-Rider!!

Run, Cruiser! X-Rider!! (走れクルーザー！Xライダー！！) is the second episode of Kamen Rider X.

Synopsis
As Keisuke Jin is troubled by no longer being human, a mysterious sound causes everyone who hears it to become violently homicidal. Why is one child not affected? And what links him and the newly-born X-Rider?

Plot
After the events of the previous episode, Keisuke is troubled by many things - the death of his father, the betrayal of his lover, Ryoko, and the mysterious woman who appeared to him. For now, he can only ride his motorcycle to keep his mind at peace. This is interrupted when he comes across a crowd chasing Ryoko. Driving after her on Cruiser, they stop at a forest, where he asks why she acted the way she did. She laughs at him, and disappears. Keisuke is despondant, only to be joined by the mysterious woman from before; Kiriko Mizuki. She admonishes him for focusing on his own troubles, telling him that his life as Keisuke Jin had been left behind. Now, he is X-Rider, and should fight for justice. Specifically, he drove past an entire group of homicidal people just to focus on one woman. Keisuke turns around and drives back into the town to take care of his mistake.

He finds the crowd fighting, but when he breaks them up, they snap out of it, wondering why they're all holding weapons. He asks them to focus, and the last thing they all remember is hearing a flute. The crowd turns around to see Susumu, a young orphan, playing his flute, which causes them to blame him, but Yaokichi defends the child. Keisuke also isn't convinced, as the crowd heard the flute at the appartment block, nowhere near Susumu. He drives over, spotting something on a rooftop. He jumps up, and a group of G.O.D. Warfare Agents reveal themselves. He defeats a couple, and the rest retreat.

Keisuke then goes to find Susumu, asking him if he misses his father. Susumu reveals that, while they quarreled a lot, he still loved him, and wishes he was around, and Keisuke can't help but be reminded of his own father, which he admits to the young boy. The flute Susumu plays is an old possession, handed down to him after his father's death. In the distance, however, Ryoko is watching.

A message from the General of G.O.D. is delivered to Pannic via a talking chicken, telling him that X-Rider is on the move, and to kill him as soon as possible, as well as everyone else in Japan. Pannic begins to play his panpipes, once again putting everyone into a rage, but this time, Keisuke sees him in the distance, and changes into X-Rider to fight him. The two fight, but his horn missiles keep X-Rider at bay, and he disappears, causing the crowd to stop raging. This time, however, they're sure Susumu is behind it, and as he wanders past, they decide to do something about him. They chase him down, with Yakoichi doing nothing to stop them this time. Instead, he goes to the empty market place, where another chicken awaits. He tells the General of G.O.D. that his plan is progressing well, pulling out Pannic's pan pipes to reveal himself as a Cyborg of G.O.D. However, three women walk past, and notice the pipes, wondering if he is behind the strange music. To ensure he isn't found out by anyone else, he transforms, and murders them.

Meanwhile, the crowd chases Susumu, but Keisuke puts himself between them, urging the child to run while he calms them. The crowd is having none of it, however, and one member tries to stab him. He puts out his hand to defend himself, but the blade of the knife is bent sideways, and the crowd gasps, now terrified of Keisuke for being not human. They run away, and as Keisuke turns around, Susumu walks out, calling him a liar. He reasons that no human could bend a knife like that, which means Keisuke is a robot, and robots don't have fathers, so all of Keisuke's attempts to connect with him about dead dads were lies. He runs off, and Keisuke despairs over his humanity - or rather, lack of.

He drives Cruiser into the ocean, intending to talk to his father's roboticised mind in the Jin Cave about it, but his father is unwilling to hear Keisuke's moping about children not accepting him. He thinks Keisuke should take pride in being a modified human. After all, without it, he would have fallen under Pannic's spell like the rest of the crowd. He concudes building the cave was a mistake, in that it would stifle Keisuke's belief in himself and ability to fight by his son seeing him as an easy answer. Bidding a final farewell to Keisuke, who understandingly agrees, he detonates the underwater base as Keisuke returns to the shore, ready to put his own feelings aside and fight for justice.

Back in the town, Susumu is captured in a net by the crowd, who drag him away. Yakoichi takes the flute off him, and examines it, saying that it seems to be a normal flute. This, of course, means that the power lies within Susumu, and he urges the crowd to kill the child. Terrified, Susumu tries to run, and as the crowd chases, Yakoichi pulls out his pipes, once again playing the tune that sends the crowd into a homicidal rage. Just as one of them prepares to go for the killing strike, Keisuke shoots a blowdart into their hand, making them drop their knife and snapping the crowd out of their stupor. They turn to see Yakoichi, pipes in hand, and the cyborg reveals himself, turning into Pannic. Keisuke has the crowd run, and transforms into X-Rider to fight.

He first fights the G.O.D Soldiers, but this gives time for Pannic to take Susumu hostage, declaring that if X-Rider tries to move, he'll kill the child. X-Rider dodges his way past missiles and blows as Pannic tries to run, but when they reach the road, he summons Cruiser, which crashes into Pannic, distracting hi, long enough for Susumu to run away. X-Rider then hits Pannic with a Cruiser Attack, killing him.

Susumu goes to find his flute, but it was bent out of shape by the crowd rushing after him in their rage. Keisuke, however, finds him, and uses his Kaizorg strength to bend the flute back, playing a few notes. He explains how Susumu was able to avoid Pannic's control - after spending so long playing the flute, he was accustomed to its tune, and thus was unaffected by the mind controlling version. He smiles, saying there are some good things to come out of no longer being human, and Susumu thanks him.

Cast

 * Keisuke Jin (神 敬介): Ryo Hayami (速水 亮)
 * Ryoko Mizuki, Kiriko Mizuki (水城 涼子, 水城 霧子): Naoko Miyama (美山 尚子)
 * Keitaro Jin (神 敬太郎): Jun Tazaki (田崎 潤)
 * General of G.O.D. (GOD総司令): Osamu Saka (阪 脩)
 * Narrator (ナレーター): Shinji Nakae (中江 真司)

Guest cast

 * Susumu (ススム): Yotaro Komatsu (小松陽太郎)

DVD Release
Kamen Rider X Volume 1 features episodes 1-11.