Author's Note: This one shot is inspired from Tony Stark's line from the first Iron Man film. This has nothing related to my crossover fic, Metroid: Kamen Rider Generations, but it foreshadows something in later chapters from my said crossover fic. It focuses on Micchy's fate two months after Kouta and Kaito's climatic battle. This is inspired from the "Demon in a Bottle" from the Iron Man comics.
This introduces Shinnosuke from Kamen Rider Drive, as it also takes place before the Global Freeze.
Disclaimer: All characters and elements belong to their respective owners.
(soundtrack: "Melting Sun" [vs. Rundas OST from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption] by Pyro Paper Planes Over Clocked Remix)
Zawame City, two months after the destruction of Helheim.
Not only Zawame itself has began to rebuild itself, but the whole world itself. People have began to stand up in the aftermath of the crisis since Helheim has been eradicated from Earth. Despite the human casualties, survivors of the long-month turmoil maintained their optimistic look in life.
With Kaito dead, Kouta and Mai have ascended to another world; there is someone who is left isolated from the rest of the earth - Mitsuzane Kureshima.
Two months after he supposedly killed Kouta, Mitsuzane is left alone with no one to ever acknowledge his mistakes.
Alone. Hopeless. Homeless. Broken.
Why am I still alive...? Mitsuzane thought to himself, all while hopelessly roaming around Zawame as if he lost the will to go on. Kouta and Mai are already dead, because of his selfish desires. I shouldn't be alive...
The business suit he worn since the first time he revealed to Mai about his alliance with the Overlords have tattered and torn. And most of the denizens of Zawame treated him as a stray dog, being humiliated in public in retribution for his actions knowing the fact that Yggdrasil Corporation itself is held responsible for the destruction that happened in the city. So then, Mitsuzane had forever isolated himself from the rest of the world.
Weeks later, he manages to return to his home, without his brother, Takatora; whom he also thought to be presumed dead. There, he starts to turn into the bottle. Mitsuzane began binge drinking, despite his young age. As a result of a depression, he continued drinking whiskey day and night, caring less of his health deteriorating because of the alcohol. The young Kureshima started thrashing on the maidservants on sight while in the state of intoxication.
Day after day, all while loathing everything related to his family's name; Mitsuzane went far as consuming eight bottles of whiskey and bourbon on the fridge. He thought to himself that alcohol dulls the brain, but it 'cleared' up real swell for him. Overtime, it got even worse, as Mitsuzane started to act erratically under the influence of liquor. Reasoning him is hopeless.
Mitsuzane then frequented in a bar, despite the guard warning him that a minor like him should not be allowed, but Mitsuzane lied to the guard that he's 18. Either way, he went in anyway, after consuming five glasses of scotch, he even instigated a fight with other bar patrons, only for him to be kicked out of the bar.
Again, homeless and broken; Mitsuzane continued wandering around the streets of Zawame as a broken and drunken mess of a boy, as he pondered that he'll die at this rate.
"At this rate, I'll be dead by now.", Mitsuzane mused about trying to get himself killed. "This Kureshima's family curse ends with me."
Holding a can of beer on his hand, he continues sipping the whole can despite it being empty. As rain started to fall, Mitsuzane continued roaming around searching hopelessly for nothing until he collapses.
The next day...
Mitsuzane somehow finds himself under someone's home.
"Who are...you?", Mitsuzane droned.
"Hey, kid. You're a complete mess.", said the mysterious man. "The name's Tomari Shinnosuke. I'm a cop."
Shinnosuke notices Mitsuzane's brooding nature, seeing the broken spirit of the youth. Shinnosuke feeds Mitsuzane with the meals he prepared to him.
"What happened to you, kid? You were also holding a can of beer... And you look too young to drink those."
Mitsuzane said nothing at all, noticing that he's too depressed to speak. As he began to eat the meals.
"Hey, kid. Where's your parents...?", clarified the policeman.
"My parents are dead, and so is my brother.", he said broodingly.
When Shinnosuke hands a newspaper to Mitsuzane, he discovers that a body of a man was recovered in the sea. Only to realize that it is his brother, Takatora.
"Nii-san, he's alive?!", Mitsuzane was shocked to see what's said on the newspaper.
"Oh, I thought you said he's dead.", Shinnosuke remarked.
Mitsuzane makes haste after grooming himself to find his brother, as he leaves Shinnosuke's home.
Mitsuzane tries in vain to search for his brother. Until the next month, it was later revealed that he was taken to a hospital
Once he made it there, the doctors revealed that Takatora has an internal brain damage as they try their best to see that he's doing well.
While tending at his sleeping brother, Mitsuzane began to slightly open up, if there is a good side left within him. At the moment Takatora wakes up, Mitsuzane is slightly overjoyed. But, remained silent afterwards.
"Mitsuzane... Is something wrong?", for the first time, Takatora begins to show genuine concern to his brother. But, he quickly noticed his mentally broken state. But, the young Kureshima remained mute.
A few weeks later, Takatora is cleared from the hospital, and both brothers returned home.
As far as the brother's lives have becoming more peaceful, the older Kureshima eventually notice something unthinkable about his brother. He witnesses Mitsuzane drinking all four bottles of Jack Daniels right in front of him.
"Mitsuzane! You're too young to drink those!", Takatora shouted as for Mitsuzane's age, the latter is still going at it. But, he ignored his brother's warnings as he continued drinking out of isolation, as it's Mitsuzane's turn to turn his lights off.
I feel so responsible for turning him into this kind of mess... the older Kureshima felt guilty of what Mitsuzane became, not only making him a darker version of himself, but leaving him hopeless and broken, all while seeing him trying to kill the enemy within him with a bottle of liquor. Takatora couldn't help but curse himself for it, and so is his own father. But, it was thanks to Kouta's words of encouragement in his dream, Takatora begin to think to make Mitsuzane sober up.
"I feel so guilty seeing you like this... If only I knew that you walking your own path, you would have peaceful life with your friends.", said Takatora.
"I shouldn't be alive... Unless it was for a reason.", Mitsuzane broke his silence, as he said to his brother all while beginning to think about self-destructing. As Mitsuzane's life has becoming more stale since has been drinking so much alcohol to the point that he's completely deteriorating both mentally and physically. "I can't ever forgive myself for what I have done."
"It's never too late.", Takatora reassures, all while bringing up what Kouta said in his dream. "If you can't forgive that you are now, then become someone different. Mitsuzane, I want you to get off that weight of your shoulders before it breaks you. Come on, I think it's time we can reap the benefits of this destruction. With Kazuraba gone now, it seems you have to protect the people you put in harm's way."
By means of alcohol withdrawal, it was only a matter of time when Takatora managed to help Mitsuzane to quit his alcohol drinking.
Seven months later,
Mitsuzane eventually sobered up, as a result of the comfort from his brother. But still, he kept himself isolated from the rest of his friends, including the other Team Gaim members, and Zack.
"Mitsuzane, keep going at your heart's content if you are lost.", this is what Takatora said to him after he finally quit drinking. Back at his home, his Sengoku Driver and Budou Lockseed is still intact, he retrieves it. Seeing what will the future await him as a humbled and changed man. When the being named Kougane finally makes his presence known, perhaps it is Mitsuzane's time to protect what Kouta did months during the Helheim invasion.
The moment he faces Kougane, who is about to finish off an incapacitated Jounochi...
"It's true he was a hero.", Mitsuzane boasted. "But... Kouta-san isn't here right now. That's why we have to be the heroes! Henshin!"
*Budou!*
"Lock On!", the Sengoku Driver declared upon equipping the Lockseed. Upon pressing the knife-like mechanism of the belt, "Haii! Budou Arms! Ryuhou! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Upon transformation as Armored Rider Ryugen, he charges at Kougane and his grasshopper monster!
-end-