Ryoutarou had thought things couldn't get any weirder than they had already. Apparently, he'd been wrong.
Dead wrong.
Ryuu had jumped in the second the weird girl in the black scarf had started making death threats, and they were hightailing it out of there before anyone could even protest.
Ryuu-chan, what – Ura started, just as Momo shrieked, What the hell is your problem, you little brat!
"Shut up," Ryuu hissed, still running as fast as Ryoutarou's body could go. The girl behind them was laughing, for some reason; she didn't even seem like she was going to try to follow them.
About five seconds later, they found out why, when a big metal claw struck out from nowhere and grabbed them by the collar. The Imagin it was attached to nonchalantly dragged them back, and it was either go along with it or choke to death.
The girl had stopped laughing by the time they reached her. Instead she frowned, reaching out and tilting their chin up so she could get a better look at them. She stared down into their face, her eyes driving right into Ryoutarou's soul, stripping it down and leaving it cold and bare in front of her.
"You make a better girl," she said finally, and looked back at the Imagin. "Well, I don't feel like wasting time today. Go ahead and –"
The sound of a train horn blaring drowned out the rest of what she was saying, and Ryoutarou could've melted in relief. But it wasn't DenLiner that appeared, streaking through the sky and down towards them –
"Oh, perfect," the girl said, and she was grinning again. Ryoutarou's heart sank as Yuuko jumped out of the train, not even waiting for it to come to a complete stop, followed by a panicked-looking Deneb.
Oh, come on, she always comes in just when we're getting to the good parts – Momo started, but Ryoutarou ignored her. Yuuko was running towards them, and there was a card in her hand –
"This is even better," the girl said, sounding pleased. "Hello, Sakurai Yuuko. Would you like to make a deal?"
Yuuko slowed down. She was still holding the card, but as long as all she did was hold it, Ryoutarou could deal with that.
Let me back, he said, but Ryuu was ignoring him. Let me back, we can't let her transform –
"Well?" Yuuko said tightly. The girl smiled.
"I'll trade you," she said. She snapped her fingers, and the lion Imagin pulled them up by the collar; Ryoutarou's body began to choke again, only this time there wasn't any way to stop it. Yuuko's grip on the card tightened, but she still held it up, away from her belt.
Ryoutarou was suddenly grateful that Ryuu was still in control; if he hadn't been possessed, he didn't think his body would be able to last much longer. As it was, if someone didn't do something soon, he didn't know what would happen – even if they didn't die, this couldn't be good for his throat…
"How about it?" the girl was saying, gesturing to their pathetic hanging body. The lion Imagin gave them a shake for good measure; Ryuu made a squeaking noise and clawed at their throat, trying to pull their collar away, but it didn't help any. "I'll let them go. I won't go after him or the girl-version ever again, and I'll even spare the traitors – even him," she continued, pointing to Deneb. Yuuko looked suddenly uncertain. "And in exchange…you'll let me kill you."
What?! Ryoutarou (and half the Imagin) shrieked. Even Ryuu made a surprised sound, although it didn't quite form a word.
"Yuuko," Deneb said, sounding worried, but Yuuko said nothing. She just stared at the girl, her eyes intense and brows furrowed and oh shit, there were little rainbow dots dancing in front of their vision now, this was not a good sign.
"I'm not picky," the girl said, when there was no response. "You could kill yourself, if that's how you want to do it. I'd have to make sure you're really dead, of course, but…"
Yuuko still wasn't saying anything, and the girl seemed to be getting impatient now. "I don't have all day," she snapped. "Do you know how long it takes a human to die of strangulation? Even a possessed one?"
Yuuko moved her hand, and for one horrible moment Ryoutarou thought she was going to transform – but no, instead she tucked the card into her pocket, and folded her arms across her chest.
"Yeah," she said, "Go fuck yourself, bitch."
There was a stunned silence. Ryoutarou probably would've appreciated it more if he weren't choking to death right then.
The girl regained her composure quickly enough, though, and just shrugged. "You're not making this easy on me," she said. "But we'll do it the hard way, then. Leo –"
And that was when she was suddenly knocked over by a screaming, flailing Yuuko.
The lion Imagin immediately dropped them and ran over to help its master – who looked like she needed it; Yuuko had gotten one of her shoes off and was attempting to pound the girl's face in with a spiked heel. Ryoutarou's body fell hard, gasping for breath, and Ryoutarou found himself suddenly back in control.
Wow, Momo commented, as Ryoutarou took big gulps of air. I still think she's insane, but at least she's badass insane.
We have got to get some of those shoes for Ryoko, said Ura. But why won't she transform? I'm sure that would make things easier…
"Only – one card," Ryoutarou wheezed, trying to get to his feet. Ura sighed.
Ah, she said. In that case, I suppose we'd better go save her before she gets her head bashed in.
There was a short pause.
Well, don't everyone all jump in at once, she muttered, and Ryoutarou sank gratefully down into disembodiment as Ura slipped in. She had the belt and Rider Pass out in one smooth movement, as though their body hadn't just been half-strangled, and a minute later they were in Rod Form and heading straight for the ensuing catfight.
It wasn't pretty. Deneb was shooting at the lion Imagin, but it didn't seem to be doing more than irritating it; as they ran forward, it grabbed Yuuko by the arm and flung her bodily away from the girl in the scarf. Deneb ran forward and she landed right on top of him, sending them both tumbling to the ground.
"Thank you for getting her out of the way," Ura said politely. The Imagin turned to stare at them – and then was unceremoniously whacked in the face with the DenGasher. It didn't do any visible damage, but Ura didn't let up, beating at it until it was forced to back away.
The individual smacks didn't seem to be hurting it much, but it was adding up. It was slow and couldn't move quickly enough to defend itself from all of her attacks, and it wasn't long at all before it had visibly weakened.
"Ah," Ura said, giving it one final crack across the face. It staggered this time, apparently stunned; she scanned the Pass almost lazily, tossing it off to the side as the belt Full Charged. "This body really isn't so bad, now that I'm used to it."
Show-off, Momo grumbled. Ura smirked underneath the helmet.
The lion had regained its composure, but it was too late. Ura's kick hit it full in the chest – and apparently she'd lied about being used to his body, because they tripped as they landed, and it was a miracle that she managed to regain their balance before they fell flat on their face. Momo burst into hysterical laughter, albeit half-drowned out by the noise of the Imagin exploding behind them.
"Drat," Ura realized suddenly. "I forgot to say my catchphrase."
That's all right, Ryoutarou managed, wondering for the millionth time why the Imagin were so obsessed with their catchphrases. It wasn't like this was a TV show. Is Yuuko okay?
Ura looked, and Ryoutarou was relieved to see that Deneb and Yuuko were both standing up. Yuuko was leaning against him, the arm she'd been thrown by hanging at an odd angle, but she was still alive and still present in the timestream, and that was the important part.
"Yuuko, your arm is broken," Deneb was saying, "we should really get you to a hospital –"
"I'm fine," Yuuko insisted, murder on her face as she stared at the girl in the black scarf, who was sitting on the ground where they'd left her, looking furious. "Just let me finish what I started – let go, Deneb –"
"Speaking of," Ura said, and they turned back to the girl. She glared up at them. "Are you the one behind all this?"
"Yes," she said, which threw Ryoutarou for a loop. She wasn't even going to make a few token protests? "So what? It's your own fault for sticking your pointy little nose where it doesn't belong. And I'm really very disappointed in you, Sakurai Yuuko," she continued, getting back to her feet; even though she was shorter than them, Ryoutarou felt suddenly disconcerted. "I bet I look like it, don't I? I gave you a chance to give yourself up, so just know that you're to blame for what happens after this –"
"Oh, shut up," Yuuko snapped. She probably would've launched herself at her again, except Deneb had his arm around her waist and pulled her back. "Just shut up! I know who you are, and I know what you're after, and I will kill you before I let you –"
"Yuuko," Deneb said in alarm, and Yuuko shut her mouth, although she was still shooting the girl a look of pure venom.
"I think," Ura said quietly, "that we need to have a very long, very thorough talk after this is over."
Yuuko started – she seemed to have forgotten they were there – and then she didn't seem to be able to look them in the face (or the mask, anyway). That pretty much confirmed it for Ryoutarou; that, and what she'd said earlier. She'd known about the girl the whole time, hadn't she? And did that mean that Yuuto, too –
"But first things first," Ura continued, and shook her head. "Would you like to do the honors, senpai?"
I thought you'd never ask, Momo said in delight. The next thing Ryoutarou knew, it was Momo up front and they were switched over to Sword Form – wait a minute, hadn't Ura tossed the Pass away? How had they done that? Actually, stuff like that seemed to happen a lot, now that he thought about it…
He didn't have much time to contemplate it, however, because Momo immediately fell into position with a loud, gleeful, "I'm HERE!" (which was then followed by a smug, "I don't forget," to which Ura very pointedly said nothing at all).
"Give me a break," the girl said. At some point she'd pulled out a small black book, and she was rifling through it almost absent-mindedly. "Look, I don't care about you. You can turn around and walk away right now –"
"She already said this," Momo sneered, "but go fuck yourself, bitch. I've been waiting forever for my chance to stab somebody in the face, and yours just happens to be prime stabbing material."
The girl shrugged. "Your funeral," she said simply, and snapped her fingers.
Sand poured out from her clothes – piles of sand, more than Ryoutarou had ever seen from a single person, and suddenly there were six Imagin standing there, all of them leering unpleasantly. (Well, the ones that had faces were, anyway. Some of them had mandibles, and one of them just had a long mass of weedy hair over its entire face.) Momo did a double-take.
"That's cheating!" she shouted, but the girl had turned and was walking away at this point. She was laughing again. "Hey, get back here and fight me, you –"
"Please," said a voice from directly behind them. It was a very familiar voice. "Don't embarrass yourself. Oh, and hold still, would you?"
Their head whipped around, and if Ryoutarou nearly fainted out of reflex before he remembered he was incorporal. The guy from his dream was standing there, arms folded, his expression so smug that the smarminess was practically dripping off his face.
"You're the freaky stalker guy!" Momo said in fury, but he didn't seem to be listening. Instead he was pulling out a card from the case on his belt – wait a minute, had he been wearing that belt a second ago…?
"Finally," he sighed. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to get you two to line up properly? Now – I told you to hold still, this is probably the best shot I'm going to get…henshin!"
He slid the card into the buckle and pushed in the wings, and the belt was saying something (and was that theme music?) but Ryoutarou couldn't hear it as Momo suddenly exploded.
"What the hell?" she demanded, and for once, Ryoutarou agreed wholeheartedly. "You're a Rider?! Why didn't you tell us this before, you dipshit, it would've saved us a ton of trouble – hey, I'm talking to you, here! Who the fuck do you think you are?!"
The newly-transformed Rider stared at them, and although his face was obscured by all that pink-and-black, Ryoutarou could still feel his condescending smile. Then he raised his arm and aimed his gun directly at their head.
"I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider," he said, and Momo screamed and ducked as he pulled the trigger. "Remember that!"
There was a horrible screech. It reverberated throughout the entire area, echoes flying back and forth like they were in a cave instead of an open shopping plaza, and Ryoutarou was just glad that any bystanders had long ago had the good sense to run away. This noise would drive him insane if it kept up much longer –
They'd detransformed at some point, falling down to their knees with their hands over their ears, but it wasn't helping any. The screaming just got louder, and just when he was convinced that it couldn't get any worse it did, breaking off into a long, unnatural shattering noise – or maybe that had been his eardrums bursting, it was hard to tell –
It was suddenly, magnificently silent. Momo took their hands off their ears and risked a glance upwards.
There was a girl kneeling in front of them, dressed in Ryoutarou's clothes, staring up at them with wide violet eyes.
"Oh," she said, in a small, surprised squeak. Then, in an instant, her purple-streaked pigtails had let themselves down and faded back into black, and she flung herself on top of them, screaming, "Momo!"
Ryoutarou was thrust unceremoniously back into control the second she touched him; that meant that he ended up flat on his back with Ryoko trying her best to hug him to death, and somehow this was not awkward at all despite that this was 1) the most contact he'd ever had with a girl and 2) it was a girl version of himself. Still, he found himself hugging her back, totally bewildered but just happy that the horrible noise was gone –
"As touching as this is," the Rider said, leaning over them, "I think you have more important things to worry about now. Also, your shorts are riding down, and you don't seem to be wearing any underwear –"
Ryoko shrieked and sat up quickly. Ryoutarou did, too – and as he did, a wonderfully, magnificently familiar voice in his head said, Oi! Ryoutarou!
He could've cried in relief. A chorus of other voices echoed through the back of his mind – Ah, if only we'd had a few more minutes with Ryoko-chan and Ossu! and This means I get to see Oneechan again, right? Can't hear your answer! – and he was just so completely happy to have them back that it took him a minute before he even noticed the Imagin.
It had collapsed into a heap on the sidewalk, but it was undeniably the creature from the photograph. Except that it seemed bigger in real life, and the spikes on its body seemed sharper, and its claws much longer, and…he remembered seeing that big clawed hand on his head, and he felt suddenly faint.
"There," said the Rider, sticking his gun back into his belt. He dusted off his hands and turned around, flipping them a mocking little salute as he walked off. "Now it's your problem. Good luck with that."
"What?" Ryoutarou said intelligently, but his attention snapped back to the Imagin as it staggered to its feet – oh shit, it really was huge. And then there were the six Imagin that had been summoned earlier, and…wait, what?
There was the lion Imagin they'd just killed, standing beside a scowling boy in a familiar black scarf. Ryoutarou thought he might send it after them, or summon more Imagin, but no – he just stared at them for a moment, then shook his head and stalked off in disgust.
Oh, well, less for them to deal with now (but Yuuto sure as hell owed them a lot of answers after this). Ryoutarou and Ryoko both pulled themselves to their feet, and Ryoutarou fumbled for his Rider Pass again as the Imagin advanced –
Something shot it right in the face, and it screamed again, the same horrible scream he'd heard earlier, but this time it was quieter and didn't ring in his head – and fell back. Ryoutarou turned around –
"Nougami!" Zeronos shouted, though Ryoutarou almost didn't hear him over the roar of ZeroHorn's engine. He was holding the ZeroGasher bow in one hand, and as he drove up he fired off another shot into the crowd of Imagin, sending them scattering.
"Yuuto!" Ryoutarou said in relief – and so did Ryoko, who blushed when Ryoutarou looked at her in surprise. Zeronos pulled up and hopped off the bike, striding up to them as Deneb jogged up behind him.
"What happened here?" he demanded. "This is all your fault, somehow, I just know it – Nougami, what did you do?!"
"It really is you, Yuuto!" Ryoutarou beamed, and he had to resist the sudden horrible urge to give Zeronos a hug. Zeronos paused, stared at him, and then continued on as if he'd said nothing at all.
"You'd better transform," he said gruffly. "Both of you, if you can. I'll take out what I can while you –"
"Ryoko!"
Ryoutarou dropped his Pass in shock. That didn't make sense – wasn't he back?! But no, there was Yuuko, running up with Deneb in tow and immediately glomming herself onto Ryoko despite her broken arm – okay, what was it with girls and flinging themselves at people?
"Yuuko?" Ryoko said in shock, but Yuuko wasn't listening. She pulled back and began to inspect her, one hand still holding onto her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she demanded. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you? Any bruises? Did my boy-self treat you okay? He better have taken good care of you, or I'll –"
"Nougami," Zeronos said, and a small, spiteful part of Ryoutarou would have given anything just to see his face right then. "Nougami, what the hell is this."
Yuuko looked up and just stared at Zeronos. Her mouth fell open.
"You –" Zeronos started, but one of the Imagin leaped for them, and he turned around and shot it through the stomach before it landed. "Oh, fuck this, we don't have time! Explanations later! Deneb!"
Deneb had been goggling unashamedly at Yuuko – not to mention the other Deneb, who was goggling right back – but at the sound of Zeronos' voice he straightened up and dashed over, his body flying apart and reassembling as Zeronos switched into Vega Form. He didn't even wait for his cape to come swooshing out before he was running straight for the Imagin, firing randomly into them.
"Let me say this to start!" he bellowed – and then he turned back and bowed, and thank god he had the sense to stop firing while he was turned towards them. "IT IS AN HONOR TO MEET YOU!"
"Deneb, you idiot," Yuuko groaned, burying her face in her hands as Zeronos turned back to the battle. (Ryoutarou could only imagine what Yuuto was screaming at him mentally.) Then she looked guiltily back at her Deneb, who was standing behind her and waving happily at Zeronos (who was waving back between shots). "…No offense."
"None taken," he reassured her cheerfully. "What a charming fellow! I wonder if he has any good recipes for shiitake…"
Ryoutarou and Ryoko exchanged a glance…and them they both smiled, half in bemusement at Deneb and half in sheer, complete relief. Relief that they had their Imagin back, relief that there might be a chance to fix things – and although they'd never admit it, relief at finally getting to vent their frustration on the thing that had caused it in the first place.
He retrieved his Pass and Ryoko held up hers, and Momo's ecstatic whooping echoed through his mind as he pulled out his belt –
"No," Yuuko said firmly. Both of them stopped in mid-belting and stared at her; she was glaring at Ryoko with an expression that Ryoutarou recognized as Yuuto's stubborn face. In her hand, he realized with a jolt, was her last Zero Card.
"Yuuko –" he started, but she was ignoring him. Instead she advanced on Ryoko again.
"You're not doing this," she told her. Ryoko started to protest, but she just got louder, speaking over her until she was practically yelling. "You're not, Ryoko! Just let me take care of this – this thing pulled you right out of this dimension, I'm not going to let you –"
"Yuuko!" Ryoko shouted, and even she looked surprised at herself. Less loudly, she said again, "Yuuko. I'll be fine."
"But you –"
Ryoko just looked at her, and Yuuko's voice broke off. She looked over her shoulder at Deneb – whether she was looking to him for backup or just to tell her what to do, Ryoutarou didn't know, but Deneb just shook his head.
Yuuko wilted slightly. Then she said, very quietly, "All right."
Ryoko smiled at her, and Yuuko's resolve seemed to tighten. "All right," she continued, "but for god's sake be careful! And you – I mean you, Momo – don't you dare let her get hurt!"
Ryoko paused for a moment. "Um," she said finally, "I don't think I can repeat what Momo just called you. But she said okay."
Enough of this mushy crap, Momo grumbled, and then once again Ryoutarou found himself pushed into the background. The other Momo seemed to have the same idea, because when they looked over again, Ryoko's hair was tousled and there was a pink braid hanging past her ear.
The two Momos eyed each other speculatively – Ryoutarou had the sudden awful thought that they might start fighting; after all, it was Momo, now twice as bad – but they just grinned at each other and, in unison, swiped their Passes.
"All right," Momo laughed, and he posed outrageously as the armor covered them. "All right, I'm HERE!"
"I'm – hey, who do you think you are?!" the other Momo demanded, in the same pose. "That's my catchphrase! I'm the star of this show, who said you could go before me –"
On second thought, maybe this had been a bad idea after all.
"Guys!" Yuuko said, staring at them in disbelief. "Why are you fighting with each other? Go kill things! Kill lots of things! Kill them dead!"
Momo stared at her, then back to his female counterpart. "Hey," he said, "can we trade Zeronoses? I like her."
"Men," the other Momo sighed. She left it at that, dashing right off into the fray, swinging the DenGasher just in time to keep Zeronos from being beheaded by a three-foot-long talon. Momo flailed and ran after her, screeching about being left behind when he was the real star, here.
It'd only been two days, but he'd almost forgotten how much easier it was fighting with an Imagin who was used to his body. The girls had been accustomed to hitting quick and light, and he could see why; Ryoko's body could zip right through the Imagin, striking fast before the monsters even had a chance to touch her. But his body –
"I FUCKING LOVE BEING A DUDE!!" Momo screamed, hacking right through an Imagin's face with one wild swing. Ryoutarou would not have put it in precisely these terms, but…
Their combined efforts had already cut down four of the Imagin, and Zeronos was finishing them off with his sabre. Ryoutarou was starting to feel pretty good about this –
– until a giant clawed hand grabbed them by the head and flung them, full-force, right into Milk Dipper's door.
They went right through it, glass shattering and ripping through the suit fabric, finally landing in a pile of tables and glass shards. They got the air knocked out of them and then some; Ryoutarou could hear Momo cursing as he landed back in the dining car, but he was too busy trying to get his breath back to care.
The pointy-eared Imagin stuck its head in through the broken door and grinned when it saw him – well, he thought it might be a grin; it looked more like it wanted to bite his head off and eat his brains. …Which it probably did, come to think of it…
He scrambled up – oh fuck, was Airi okay? Or Ashiri, or whoever was in whatever dimension this was? But the store was completely deserted, no customers and no Airi behind the counter. Nobody was even rushing to see what the noise had been. That was strange –
The Imagin ducked down, bending itself almost in half to get inside (oh god it was so huge). Ryoutarou stopped wondering about stupid things and instead focused on not getting hit as it lunged for him again, and then he was being pushed back again oh thank god…
Ryuu laughed and twisted out of the way, landing them neatly on their feet behind the monster. "Stupid, stupid, stuuuupid," he chanted, "you couldn't catch me in a hundred-million-zillion-squillion years!"
The Imagin didn't seem to know how to respond to this, so instead, it just crashed after them again. They had the advantage, though, of not being a trillion feet tall and in an enclosed space, and Ryuu danced easily out of the way.
"Ha!" He shot wildly, hitting it dead-on; the shots seemed to irritate it, but not do much beyond that. "You're a big stupid ugly-face, and you smell like AUUUUUGH!"
It had thrown a table at them. Ryuu's quick reflexes kept them from being completely crushed, but they were still knocked sideways, the DenGasher flying out of their hands and skidding across the floor.
Oh, nice one, Momo growled. You went and made it angry. Why don't you just go sit in a corner and let a real man take care of this –
At your service! Kin declared, and they were in Axe Form before Momo had even gotten out a few token curses. Ryoutarou was starting to wonder why he'd missed them so much.
Ryuu must have really upset the Imagin, though, because it just charged right at them with apparently no care to how tight a squeeze the shop was. It crashed right into Kin, who grabbed it by its stupid pointy ears and tried to flip it over. It was too heavy, though, even for him, and all he managed to do was lurch it to the side; it jerked back, and although Kin dug their feet in, they still ended up being dragged along –
– until they were grabbed from behind once again. This time, though, they were hauled up and away from the Imagin by a familiar black-gloved hand.
"Cute little boys shouldn't play with dangerous animals," Ryoko – or Ura, rather – said, shaking her head. Kin stared up at her – and then back at the Imagin, which was trying to struggle back to its feet again. It wasn't doing a very good job; the ceiling kept getting in the way.
"It's pretty strong, huh?" Ura said. Kin eyed it contemptuously.
"Not that strong," he muttered, and Ura laughed – well, chuckled might've been more accurate; Ryoutarou wasn't sure that Ura was physically capable of outright laughing. "I shall make it weep at my unbridled –"
Ura chuckled again and held up the K-Taros, holding it flippantly between her thumb and index finger. "Well, it's not going to wait for us forever. Shall we?"
Kin grunted. That seemed to be enough for her, though, because she flipped it open and began to type – ah, his Ura commented, now that I have a chance to look properly…she looks good in spandex, doesn't she?
Please never say that again, Ryoutarou said, totally traumatized; Ura just sighed longingly, which was even worse. He was really never going to be clean again, was he?
Whatever! Momo snarled, and Ryoutarou could practically hear him hopping up and down in impatience. I'm not gonna let some stupid girl steal all my glory! Hurry up!
Ryoko's transformation had finished by the time they started, and her Momo – Ryoutarou decided to just think of her as girl-Momo to save his poor befuddled brain – huffed at them, hands on her hips. They ignored her, though, in favor of Momo stretching gleefully.
"I fucking love being a dude," he said again. Their right arm snickered.
"Oh, senpai," it said, "we all know you secretly enjoyed being a girl. Why, the things you did with Ryoko-chan's body –"
"Excuse me?!" girl-Momo shrieked, and she was echoed by three other voices from various parts of her body. Momo flailed and swore, which should've made it worse, but apparently Ryoko was making a hasty intervention; girl-Momo relaxed after a moment, muttering something obscene under her breath.
Please, Ryoutarou begged his own Imagin, let's just fight the monster, not each other. For once?
Momo grumbled, but he hefted the DenGasher anyway. "All right," he said, in his friendliest snarl, "you ready, girl? Just try and keep up with me."
"You got that backwards," girl-Momo said smugly. "You keep up with me."
They both lunged at the same moment. The pointy-eared Imagin had only just gotten to its feet when it was knocked off of them again, and then alternatively sliced and diced from two directions at once.
Girl-Momo was dashing around, hitting any bit of Imagin she could reach; this turned out to be a good thing, since the Imagin was too distracted by her to go after them. Momo was chopping wildly, but they weren't doing a very good job; Ryuu kept trying to move their legs in opposite directions, and their arms weren't cooperating at all.
"I said left!" Momo screeched, as their sword dragged across the Imagin's face. "Left, you stupid bear, do you have shit for brains –"
"You did not specify my left or your left," Kin said staunchly. Momo screamed in frustration, and then again as Ryuu did a complicated dance step that nearly got them decapitated by a wildly-swinging claw.
"We're in the same body! It's the same fucking direction!" he shouted. "And you, you brat, who said you could go that way –"
"Having some trouble?" girl-Momo laughed, peering at them over the Imagin's back. Momo glared at her.
"I'm fine," he muttered. Then, more quietly, "You idiots, you're making me look bad in front of a girl!"
"Oh, senpai," Ura started gleefully, but Momo cut him off with a loud gurgling, "AUGH!"
Girl-Momo was still watching them, and Ryoutarou could just picture the look on her face. "You boys don't know how to share, do you?" she sighed, although she didn't sound too broken up about it. She hopped up onto the Imagin's back, treading deliberately onto its face in the process, and wiggled her fingers at them. "Ha! Guess we know who's better now, don't we? You really suck at being Den-O, you know that?"
"Is she calling us stupid?" Ryuu asked. Momo grit their teeth, their grip tightening on the DenGasher. Ryoutarou really hoped they were not about to do something insane.
"I believe that could be implied, yes," said Ura, just as girl-Momo made a very rude gesture. Ryoutarou realized that hoping for Momo to not do something insane was about as futile as hoping for the sun not to rise, and instead prayed that they would just make it out of this without needing too many stitches.
Momo ran at the Imagin, the DenGasher held high above their head, screaming incoherently. The other Imagin all shrieked at him, and Ryuu tried to do something fancy with their feet, but he kept going forward anyway; it was obvious that whoever had decided to give Momo main control over Climax Form was either a fucking idiot or really wanted Ryoutarou to die.
The sword went right into the Imagin's eye (which was disgusting, thank you); it screamed that horrible brain-breaking shriek again, flailing wildly with its eight-million-foot-long claws, and their legs were trying to go one way and their arms in two opposite directions and Momo was laughing like a crazy lunatic, and Ryoutarou was absolutely, utterly certain that this was the end for him –
And then something just clicked, and instead of dying a horrible death, they swung up and out of the way of the Imagin's talons, with a happy "WHEE!" emenating from their chest plate.
The DenGasher made a squishing noise as it dislodged itself from the eye (oh ew, that was a noise he'd be hearing in his nightmares), but it slid out easily enough, and they landed neatly on their feet, away from the Imagin. Girl-Momo stood next to them, hands on her hips.
"Okay," she said finally, "you're not that bad at being Den-O. …For a bunch of boys."
"What are you talking about, I am awesome," Momo declared. He grinned and mimicked her pose, exaggerating the tilt of her hips, and Ryoutarou was sure that they looked really stupid right about now. "I guess you're not that bad either, Den-Ko!"
There was a collective groan from their armor. "That was baaaad," Ryuu whined. (Ryoutarou silently agreed.)
"And anyway," girl-Ura's voice said primly, from Ryoko's shoulder, "properly it would be Den-Jou, although the title of Den-O really doesn't seem to be gender-specific –"
"WE ARE THE KING OF STRENGTH!!" girl-Kin shouted. There was a short pause; Momo and his female counterpart exchanged a glance, and then appeared to simultaneously decide to ignore her.
"Enough of this," girl-Momo said, and she and Momo both took out their Passes. It was eerie, how similarly they moved, scanning them almost in unison; the Charge and Up voices were almost in perfect stereo (although theirs appeared to have a slightly higher voice).
The rails on their bodies turned and shifted, bits of armor rearranging itself until Kin's face was on the end of their fist, girl-Ura's at Ryoko's foot. Ryoutarou could feel the rush of power, the sudden boost of adrenaline, like someone had just shot him full of pure strength and focused it all in his hand –
They both jumped at the Imagin at the same time. Ryoko's kick hit at the same moment as Ryoutarou's punch, and there was a loud crack, and then –
Bits of Imagin were going everywhere. Ryoutarou thought that he was probably the one who was going to have to clean this up, but he didn't care anymore; Momo was cackling in victory, still hyped up from the finisher's power surge, and the laughter and cheering was echoing around the room from various bits of his and Ryoko's anatomy.
"That was fun," girl-Momo said, when the flaming pieces of monster had cooled down a little. "Let's never do this again."
Momo snorted and grinned at her, apparently having forgotten that she couldn't see him. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, okay."