The King canceled his transformation as he carried Eiji inside and gently placed him in a tub of water. A very sharp knife delicately shaved the stubble off of his face. Cool water was poured over his head, as if baptizing him. Aromatic oils to anoint him. Every bead of sweat, trace of dirt—everything that Eiji normally didn't mind because he'd worked hard and earned it—was washed away, purifying him.
The alchemists lifted him out of the tub and set him on the throne. They put the greaves and gauntlets on him, right over his clothes, to create the template for the new OOO. As he held Eiji's Driver, the King looked down at a drawing he'd made in one of his books—the new combo, draped in a long cape, wielding both sword and shield, and conquering an enemy. Yes, Eiji would be perfect.
"There is one last thing," he said as he walked forward. "I will need him awake to finish the elixir."
Khazim looked at Wang before carefully replying, "Your Majesty, there appears to be almost no spirit left in him."
"Yes," the King replied, placing the Driver on Eiji. "He spent most of his remaining energy trying to kill me."
They were hesitant to continue. The King was too calm about such a dramatic attempt on his life. If his own life mattered so little in comparison to the traveler's, what was equal? What was greater? And what else was less?
Finally, Khazim insisted, "There is not enough left in him to complete the Cores. He will die, with nothing to show for it."
"He needs life energy," the King insisted. "Just enough to revive him."
Khazim never saw it coming, and the sword plunged into his heart. Three Cell Medals were placed inside as he twitched, dying in place. Wang, however, leapt forward, removing a pouch from his belt. He grabbed a candle and held the pouch up to Eiji.
"Black powder," he explained. "My people created it in their search for the elixir of immortality, and they've used it for weapons against both living beings and spirits. Should I drop this candle, the powder will explode and kill Hino Eiji. Your plan will fail."
"Master Wang," the King said calmly, "you have always been wise and reasonable. There is no need to resort to such lengths."
He took Eiji's O-Scanner and ran it across the sword. Khazim's body was converted into energy, tearing in half before reconstituting into a single stream of energy—all absorbed into the Scanner. The King set down the sword and handed Wang the Scanner.
"There is only need for one life force," he insisted. "I have already lost Gara, and it appears I will soon lose Willeson. I would hate to lose you too, particularly in such a critical stage of this coronation."
Cautiously, Wang moved the candle away and took the Scanner. He placed it against Eiji's heart, and the energy—a slow, copper stream—flowed into him. Immediately, he took a deeper breath, though he was still asleep.
"He will rouse with stimulus," Wang determined, taking the gunpowder away.
"Then wake him," the King replied. "It is time for the coronation to begin."
As far as bad situations went, Solaris quite frankly had been through worse, but this was up there. The Cobra Inhumanoid constricting her was making it hard to breathe, and she couldn't produce her weapons, let alone do anything with the Cell Medals she'd grabbed. The villagers were fleeing toward the woods, Eiji had been taken, the fact that her body had been modified was the only reason she wasn't dead yet—it was hard to see how it could possibly get worse.
As if the universe was determined to prove her wrong, at that precise moment when she lost her grip on the Medals, the Greeed arrived.
"That aura is gone," Mezool noticed. "And so is OOO."
Uva looked at the fleeing villagers and blasted lightning toward them. "Doesn't mean we can't have a little fun, though."
"True," Kazari agreed. "But I thought we wanted to avenge Ankh and take down the King?"
Uva sighed in disappointment, but he turned and joined Kazari in attacking the castle, converging their powers to create lightning-infused cyclones. Mezool blasted water at high enough pressures to create holes in the castle walls, while Gamel started smashing whatever was in arm's reach.
The Cell Medals left on the ground from the battle distracted him suddenly, and he started gobbling them up. Getting an idea, Solaris shouted, "Hey, big guy!"
Gamel looked up in confusion. "Me?"
"I think there's more Medals in this thing," she said.
Gamel considered his options: smash the castle for...the sake of smashing, he guessed, or smash the giant snake for the chance of more Medals.
It was an easy choice, and he slammed his fists down on the Inhumanoid's tail. It hissed in pain, and Solaris pushed back, managing to get herself free. The Inhumanoid tried to grab at her with its mutating hands, but she held one of its arms straight and brought up her leg, bringing it down straight onto the arm. It wasn't enough to break it, but it caused a lot of pain—amplified by Gamel's attacks toward its tail. It backed its arms away from her, and she used the opening to make a spinning kick at its head. Furious, it batted her aside, knocking her to the ground.
"Aim for the head," she instructed.
"Okay," he agreed.
He slammed on the ground, increasing the gravitational pull on the Inhumanoid until it collapsed. With a mighty slam, he brought his fists down on its head, and the Inhumanoid was engulfed in flames, hissing to the last. And of course, left behind were the Cell Medals Solaris had dropped.
Gamel got to work collecting them, absorbing half and bringing the rest over to Mezool.
"Look, Mezool!" he cried. "Medals!"
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I..." he started, holding out the Medals.
She took them, but admonished, "We've broken through. This is no time to worry about Medals."
"Oh," he answered. "Okay."
Still confused, he looked back for Solaris, but she had gone. Why had that human waited until now to run away? Why did she help him get Medals? It was all very strange, but he really wasn't about to spend the time trying to figure it out. Maybe Mezool would help him later.
"Wait for me!" he insisted, running after them into the castle.
There were no dreams, for the first time in days. Eiji didn't have the energy for them.
He was beginning to hear something—two voices talking around him, sometimes calling his name. He could smell fragrant oils, feel something hard underneath him. He could tell he was sitting, and that he was wet, and that something was on his arms and legs. He could feel the proto-Cores in his body pulsing gently in rhythm with his heart. But he didn't wake until he felt the crown being lowered onto his head.
He opened his eyes. He was in a lab he didn't recognize, full of windows that had been fitted with glass. He was sitting in a throne of Cell Medals, with unfamiliar armor pieces on his arms and legs. Someone had washed and shaved him while he was unconscious, and the fact that he hadn't been harmed when he was at his most vulnerable scared him more than anything else already had. The feeling cemented when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in a window. A heavy crown just as gold as his eyes was sitting on his head.
He barely had time to take it all in when Wang forced his head back, placing another red goblet to his mouth. The shock caused him to inhale some of the elixir instead of swallowing it, and he gagged and coughed helplessly, the elixir burning worse than ever as it was absorbed into the lining of his windpipe.
"Master Wang, please," the King said. "Let him breathe."
A cup of cool water now, and Eiji sipped it carefully as he caught his breath.
"The others," he gasped out.
"The villagers are free to escape, as was our deal," the King replied. "Your so-called master, however—I cannot say how well she will survive against poor Willeson. I must say, I did not expect his transformation to go quite that way."
Wang held the chalice of elixir to Eiji's lips again, tilting it back. He wanted to run, to fight his way out if he had to, but he didn't have any strength left in his body to move, let alone run. He held his breath, trying not to drink it, desperate to hold on a little longer, but Wang pinched his nose closed, forcing him to open his mouth when he ran out of breath. Again, he choked on the elixir, taking it in instead of air.
"It will be easier if you drink it, rather than inhale it," the King advised. "Either way, you will take it."
There was no choice but to submit, and Eiji drank the elixir. The burn was worse than ever—it hadn't been diluted in wine and spices this time, and he choked back a scream as it tore its way down his throat. He tried to muster the energy to lift his arms and push the cup away, but he could only manage a few tremors—tremors that became much more violent the more his body absorbed the elixir. His heart was pounding, the proto-Cores pulsing at the same rate, and in the glass, he could see his eyes were flashing.
Wang pulled back as Eiji convulsed in the throne, shaking some of the Medals to the floor. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and his heart tried to keep up pace, while the proto-Medals drew more and more energy away from it. The crown pushed his head down, forcing him to watch as the King took his O-Scanner and ran it over the empty Driver, then placed the silk over his body.
Despite there being no Medals in the Driver, the transformation sequence began just as it normally would. Energy started to swirl around Eiji, but the Cell Medals were caught up in it. The King backed out of the way just as the Medals started flying in circles before ignoring the silk and passing through Eiji's skin.
He screamed in agony. It was worse than the purple Medals had been—at least then, he'd passed out quickly. He didn't have the luxury here; the energy was keeping him conscious, the pain keeping him grounded in the moment. His skin was a barrier at first, but the Medals still forced their way through without leaving a mark, his energy becoming too much like theirs to keep them out. They were fusing with the Core Medals—there was no point in calling them proto-anything now; the matter was there; all that was left was to absorb Eiji's energy—and drew more and more life energy from him. The silk over him was becoming gold, signaling the end of his existence as a normal human. His body was faintly glowing, slowly fading. He couldn't scream anymore and barely felt himself breathing or his heart beating.
The Core Medals were intent on taking every bit of him, and he could barely hold onto his sense of self. He was becoming the Medals themselves, his body and consciousness converting into energy and the source of godhood. The only thing left that he could feel was a terrible burning sensation around his right wrist. He couldn't think of what it was—his ability to think was almost gone. The sensation became more solid, like a hand gripping his wrist tightly. Red patterns appeared on the silk, and a translucent, multicolored wing appeared in his field of vision.
The wing tore the silk off of him, and a solid form appeared in the Cell Medals, slowly taking the appearance of a young man with blonde hair, swept into curls on one side—or so it seemed like he was human. The phantom wings that retreated into his body and the red, monstrous, right hand that held Eiji's wrist as he supported him among the ever-shrinking pile of Medals—they proved he was a Greeed.
Eiji's head fell back so that he could see his rescuer. Barely aware, he breathed, "Ankh?"
The revived Greeed looked down at him with a trace of a smirk. "Eiji."
The King stared in shock. How was this even possible? Beyond the Greeed taking a human form, beyond the way he'd simply manifested from the time-traveler's bracelet, Ankh had been loyal to him; OOO or not, how could Eiji possibly have his loyalty?
Wang, meanwhile, prepared to throw his pouch of gunpowder. Ankh saw it immediately and blasted fire at him. Wang screamed as he got caught in the explosion, the shockwave taking out the King as well.
"That won't be enough to kill him," Ankh judged.
Eiji was only just beginning to realize what was going on. He looked up at his friend in disbelief, grief, and relief. "Ankh!" Trying to get in enough breath, he gasped, "I tried. I wanted to fix your Medal, and..."
"I borrowed some of the energy going into you," Ankh explained. "This body will only last as long as this reaction is going on. We have to hurry and get those Medals out of you."
Eiji shook his head, struggling to withstand the energy conversion. "If I can hold on a little longer, maybe it'll..."
"Idiot!" Ankh shouted. "It's killing you—you think I want that? To come back to life, just for you to die? I'm a Greeed, remember; if I have to give up something to get what I want, then it's not worth it!"
"I..." Eiji protested.
"If you want to bring me back, fine," Ankh said. "But not like this. Find a different way."
Finally, Eiji nodded. "I will. Even if it takes forty years, I'll save you."
"Good," Ankh replied, holding up his hand.
Eiji braced himself. "Get these things out of me."
He placed his hand over Eiji's chest and warned, "The Medals are close to your heart. It'll be tough getting them out."
"Do what you can," Eiji insisted.
"This'll hurt," Ankh warned before plunging his hand in.
Eiji bit back a scream. Ankh wasn't kidding; while his hand had passed through Eiji's skin far easier than it should have, there was enough living tissue still there for it to hurt as badly as the Medals had. Ankh was careful, but Eiji felt the pressure on his heart as he tried to grab the Medals. They were emitting pulses to try to block him, and the energy was interfering with his heart's rhythm. Ankh was tense, barely moving and completely open as the King rose behind him, lifting his sword. Eiji found the strength to lift an arm and channeled the pulse into an energy blast that threw the King through the wall.
"That did it," Ankh said, taking hold of the Medals.
Eiji did scream this time, as Ankh pulled the Medals out of his body. The energy discharge had done enough to keep them from preventing removal, but they were still desperate to cling to his life force, and tearing them free hurt worse than everything else. The Cell Medals still suspended in energy around him started to shake, and all at once, they fell to the ground. Eiji had the last glimpse of a relieved smile on Ankh's face before he too fell apart, into a cascade of Cell Medals.
There were four Medals left on Eiji's chest: the Human Cores and Ankh's—in one piece, but deeply scarred. Ignoring his weakness and pain, Eiji lifted his arm and clutched all of them tightly.
A window near the top of the dovecote shattered, and Solaris leapt in. She scooped up Eiji and the silk still half-covering him, and leapt back out.
Eiji couldn't help but wonder how long she'd been there, watching him suffer.
The King, meanwhile, picked himself up from the rubble, furious. First, Gara had sealed his Reptile Medals. Now, a future Ankh had betrayed him, and Eiji had taken the Human Medals from him. He would not let this indignation stand.
The Greeed found him and surrounded him just as they had in the village.
"Looks like we found the source of that weird power," Kazari noted.
No more. He would not let these creatures lay claim to the godhood that was rightfully his.
He took the Super Medals and placed them into his Driver and scanned them. It wasn't God, but right now, it was the next best thing.
Solaris carried Eiji out through the courtyard, past the devastation. The sound of the Greeed fighting was in the background, and she noted, "If we're lucky, that'll slow him down."
Nausea washed over him suddenly. He pushed himself out of her arms and dropped to his hands and knees, vomiting gold liquid. The Medals had absorbed most of the solutes, but there were still the solvents and remaining traces of the various chemicals. The transmutation had finished, but it left him a completely frail human.
His arms were beginning to shake, his strength giving out again. To his surprise, Solaris held him up, keeping the silk wrapped around his shoulders like a cape.
"Your fever's spiked again," she said when he finally stopped retching.
He nodded, hoarsely answering, "Whatever was in that elixir made it worse. They kept me from throwing up before so they could get the Medals finished."
There was something in the way she looked at him; it wasn't quite kindness—he didn't think she was even capable of that. Maybe it was humanity. Calmly, she said, "Stay by me. I'm going after your Medals and the sword."
He shook his head. "The King's too strong."
"I know," she answered. "But if I can hold him off long enough to get you what you need to get home..." He was still shaking his head. "Listen. I'm asking you this time. Go to Foundation X—they're the only ones who can save you. This was a suicide mission from the start for me. The Foundation never trusted me, and if I come back without you, do you know what they'll do to me?" He was silent. "They'll save you, at least. They need you. Kougami might have the technology to filter the poisons from your bloodstream, but those Medals did a lot of damage to your body. Foundation X can modify you, restore your strength..."
Eiji kept shaking his head. "I'd rather take my chances this way."
"You'll die," she insisted. "You're dying now. This is the only way."
He forced himself to stand, swaying. "My grandfather said..." He stopped for a second, struggling to stay straight. "He said, 'A man never knows when he'll die. So he should always have underwear for tomorrow.'"
Solaris held him still. "Your grandfather was insane."
"Maybe," he admitted. "But if I live to see tomorrow, at least I've got underwear for then." He held out the Human Core Medals. "These were made from my energy. Maybe, if I transform with them, it'll give me enough strength to hold out a little longer."
"Or it'll kill you right away," she pointed out.
He grinned. Even in the face of everything, he could still do that—even if with a morbid sense of humor. "Then I guess Foundation X won't have any use for me, right?"
She sighed in frustration. "If we come out of this alive, I'm going to study this strange power you have to ignore your self-preservation instincts and convince others to do the same."
The wall exploded out, and they saw Super TaToBa crouching, holding his sword. Solaris transformed and took up her own sword.
"Make it count."
Eiji nodded, slid the Medals into place, and scanned them.
"King! Noble! Vagabond!"
Even he couldn't deny how appropriate it was as he cried out, in comforting, familiar Japanese, "Henshin!"
The energy started to rush back into him, the way combos always did. Once, the energy would overload his body, exhausting him quickly and causing damage, but he'd grown used to it and mitigated the damage. This was his own energy, anyway, and his body welcomed it back for the short time it would be there. His head felt clearer, his muscles stronger, his heartbeat a little steadier than it had been. Even the pain from his illness and injuries was lessened. He could do this, even if just for a little while.
The base color of the armor was white, with copper lines running down his legs until they fully covered his shins and feet. Silver lines ran along his arms, forming strong bracers and gloves. The silk clung to his back, like a cape, and gold formed a mask on his face, in a sweeping pattern the same as the crown had been, with his eyes a lighter shade of gold.
The shield emblazoned on his chest showed the three symbols of the coronation: the gold crown of the King, the silver gauntlets of the Noble, and the copper greaves of the Vagabond. All three were Eiji's symbols, and he pressed his hand against his chest, removing the shield so it would rest on his arm—a weapon to protect, rather than destroy.
But the King was fast, using the Super Medals' temporal abilities to speed past Solaris and hit Eiji before he had a chance to block. He hit the ground, feeling the sword strike him just as he rolled to avoid it. Solaris tried to take advantage of him holding still for a second, but he whirled around and struck her. Eiji only had the time to block against the next strike coming his way.
"These Medals are the finest I've seen," the King noted. "But I will have all of them."
Eiji kept under the shield, taking more hits than he needed to while hiding his own movements. The King didn't see him scanning the Driver, but he heard it as it activated, allowing him to back away just in time as a blast of energy shot out of the shield.
Solaris took over from there, grabbing the King's arms and twisting them around his back the moment he backed away, holding on tightly so that he couldn't escape. It bought Eiji the time he needed to get up, dizzy; it looked like he wasn't completely safe from this combo's energy either.
Solaris tried to tear the sword out of the King's hands, but he clawed at her leg, forcing her to loosen her grip just enough for him to pull free. He slashed at her, then turned toward Eiji, who was still trying to clear his head. A sharp blow with the sword helped bring him back in the moment, and as the King approached again, he spun in quickly to elbow him. To his surprise, the King didn't have a chance to dodge—Eiji had just been too close for him to see his movements in time.
Solaris charged at the same time Eiji tried to get in close again, but the King was on to their plan and sped out of the way, scooping up some of the remaining Cell Medals and scanning the sword, releasing the energy wave. They ducked and pressed on, the wave missing and taking out a tower.
"He has to stop to use that attack," she noticed. "It gives us a chance to dodge."
"So we're out of range if we're too far or too close," he agreed. "He won't want to keep us there."
"Exactly. Move!"
She tried to push him out of the way, but the King cut into the both of them. His attempt to escape, though, was slightly hampered by her sword in the way. He hit it as he ran in, and as he ran back out, blood dripped down his side. He stopped for only a moment, staring in shock—gods were not supposed to bleed—and Eiji charged in.
Bleeding meant vulnerability, and vulnerability right now meant victory. The King sped back, stopping to release another energy wave from the sword, but Eiji had already scanned his Driver. An energy blast of his own surged out of the shield and collided with the wave from the sword, exploding in midair. The shock of his own mortality and the explosion stunned the King into one place long enough for Eiji to draw on the greatest physical abilities of humanity, running and jumping through the flames, then twisting to land right in front of the King. The King tried to block him, tried to get away, but Eiji kept one hand moving as he reached for his scanner, making the same open-palmed strikes he'd once seen Kamen Rider Aqua use—powerful and graceful, covering more area as he poured energy into them. Solaris got behind the King and held him in place with the sword, giving Eiji the chance to scan.
The energy poured into his feet now, and he backed up just enough to deliver a crescent kick, moving from inside to the outside. Once that foot landed, he followed it up with a crescent kick with the other foot, moving in the opposite direction. He landed with his back facing the King, then finished the attack off with a back kick, striking him directly in the chest. Solaris let go, and the King fell.
So did Eiji, his body completely worn out, and that was all the King needed. Recovering, he sped over, picking up the sword, and though Solaris tried to catch it, the sword hit Eiji in the chest, where the shield had come from, leaving a gaping weakness. Eiji clung to the hilt, trying to hold the sword off of him any further while trying to pry it out of the King's hands. Solaris got behind him, trying to do the same with one hand as she supported him with the other, but the King was ready for the finisher.
There was no time to reach for Cell Medals, not in this precarious situation. He took the Super Medals, loaded them into the sword, and scanned. The energy wave formed, threatening to engulf Eiji.
Eiji felt a sudden sharp pain in his back and realized he'd been stabbed. Instinctually, his body jerked forward, catching the blade and its energy. The King seemed just as shocked as Eiji was, and that gave Solaris the chance to wrench the sword out of his hands as everything turned white.
And they were gone.
Without the Super Medals, the King's transformation canceled again. There was no trace that Eiji and Solaris had been there, other than the rampant destruction left in their wake. He stood in shock, hearing the Greeed recover.
Ankh was there now, grabbing at his arm.
"Kazari and the others are awake," he warned.
He hadn't seen the time-travelers, hadn't learned of his future betrayal. Fury replaced shock, and the King made his decision.
"I'll lure them into the chapel," he said. "You'll know when to arrive."
Ankh nodded, never suspecting the betrayal ahead as the King transformed into TaToBa and made his way to finish off the Greeed once and for all.
History continued as it was written.
The Greeed thought they'd cornered the King in the chapel, only to be taken down by Ankh.
The King betrayed Ankh and took his Cores, along with all the others'. Scanning them made him lose control, and he froze as their tomb.
Ankh placed his consciousness in a single Core and tried to retrieve his stolen Medals, his body left behind and inert for eight-hundred years. The rest were sealed.
The orange Medals made their way to Japan and ended up in the hands of the Tokugawa clan, who kept them as a family treasure without knowing just what they were for.
Kougami recovered the tomb and kept it in his art museum, where the Greeed remained sealed until two robbers broke them free.
Eiji came across one of Ankh's Medals, met Shingo, fought to save Ankh. Ankh possessed Shingo, and they had to reveal everything to Hina.
Eiji fought as OOO, devoid of desire until he was overwhelmed by the void. Ankh found the desire to live.
Their friends helped Eiji find his own desire. Ankh died.
Eiji tried to find a way to bring him back, which brought him to Thuringia, where he fought Solaris.
And the circle found its own way of completing.
But now, as the circle's loop was still unapparent, the people once ruled by the King of all greed found their way to a deserted village at dawn and rested.
When they finally woke up, it was time to decide what to do. Not all of the children's parents, adoptive or otherwise, had made it out alive. Some had died in the Greeed's attack on the village, some had died as Uva attacked them during their escape, and some had died from their injuries on the journey. Older children were taken in by the other villagers. The youngest orphans, though, Gerhild took.
"We can't stay here," a woman insisted, feeding her baby.
"We can try to make it to one of the towns still controlled by the Landgrave," a man insisted, naming the Thuringian ruler their King had ousted from the territory. "If we explain the situation, they may show mercy."
"Or we can start over," Gerhild said, keeping the box Eiji had given her hidden. "Do like Eiji said and continue east."
"Where to?" another woman challenged. "No one will survive such a long journey."
Gerhild looked at the twice-orphaned royal children she'd taken in. They weren't her lost friend, or the man who'd given her hope again, but they were her duty, and that was enough.
"You don't have to follow me," she replied. "But I'm going to continue, just like he asked—myself, and these children."
"Gerhild," the man said, having become the de facto leader, "you don't need to do this."
"There's something he asked me to do," she said, "and as long as I'm alive, I'm going to try to do it. Maybe I won't get as far as his land, but they might. Their children might. Until then, I have to try."
They were silent a moment before the man said, "We'll follow until we reach some kind of settlement. From there, we part ways."
"That's fine," she answered. "Until then."
Until then, until the day the Medals reached Japan and Eiji used them to fight Gara once more.
Until then, the circle would continue.
If this was death, it wasn't so bad.
Eiji could hear voices on the very fringes of his awareness. He couldn't pick out a word they were saying, but it didn't matter; he was in no state to think. He just lay there, consumed in sleep, as if in a dream.
And then a familiar voice, right next to him:
"Idiot."
Dead or dreaming, Eiji picked it out, recognized words as he heard, "You'd think you want to die, with all the risks you take."
You're one to talk, he wanted to say. I wasn't the one who used my Medal in battle despite knowing it was breaking.
He couldn't manage the strength to talk—which was strange, if he was dead or dreaming, since strength didn't matter in either case.
"I can already imagine what you'd say," the voice said. "You always try to argue it, but you're still an idiot. A useful one, but an idiot all the same."
It wasn't a dream. That voice was too close to him, too close to the voice he'd heard in the fight. It wasn't the half-remembered voice he tried to pick out of Shingo while applying words and tones he'd never use.
The thought hit Eiji faster than pain: It wasn't a dream.
He had to find his strength now, had to reach. His arms felt like lead, but he called on everything within him and reached up, grasping the first hand he could. He felt human skin—something solid, something real. If he could manage that, he could manage anything.
"Ankh."
It was barely speech, more like a breath. But there was a sound, something that almost sounded like a laugh, and it was the way Ankh was. The skin became rough, almost scaly, and armored—a Greeed.
"Thought I told you a long time ago you didn't need me to hold your hand anymore," Ankh said.
Eiji didn't care as tears started to form at the corner of his eyes. He couldn't open them—couldn't manage anything other than this grip on Ankh's hand, and even that gave out on him. His hand slipped and fell back to lie with the rest of him.
Ankh placed a Medal in his hand and closed his fingers around it. He didn't say anything more as Eiji fell back to sleep, but he didn't need to. The gesture alone spoke volumes.
Chapter title from the song "Kingdoms Come and Castles Fall" by Eyeshine. Inspiration for the coronation came from a scene in the final episode, where Eiji sat on an apparent throne in Kougami's OOO shrine and heard him out on becoming the Medal vessel. Inspiration for the Human Combo's shield weapon, however, was inspired by Dukemon's Final Elysion (Gallantmon's Shield of the Just) in Digimon Tamers.
