Running.

That was what the two people were doing, running for all they were worth through an area where a great danger was waiting to attack.

What kind of danger?

Energy was flowing through the entire landscape, she could see that much. It could take on any number of forms, living and non-living.

…but there were two sources connected to all that energy, each advancing a different goal.

One was clever, confident, hostile…experienced.

The other was smart, but unpolished, nervous…familiar.

Familiar to Kiiko's mind, at least

It was going to be a titanic struggle, between the veteran and the neophyte.

And Kiiko Mishiranu could see her only friend, and the doctor caring for both of them, were about to be caught in the middle. Even as she tossed and turned in her observation bed in the CR Ward.

XXX

Doku Dasao strained his already weak eyesight to try to see the label on the game plugged into Senjou Shuugouteki's gear.

All he could see of the label was the title: Block Panic. It was a newer one from Machina Vision. Doku was a little familiar with it; in the game the player was supposed to fill in holes in landscapes with different shapes made of little square tiles. It ran from easy cartoon-like puzzles for little kids all the way to gaps multiple screens high and wide to challenge the most advanced thinkers.

He'd never played Block Panic that much, though. Senjou was playing a game Doku didn't know well enough to be able to counter it effectively. Not a pleasant thought when he was about to start a match where his friends' lives were at stake.

Senjou smiled over at Doku, and he was sure there was a challenge behind the expression. Machina Vision had probably been looking forward to the chance to take on someone in an arena where they had the edge.

But Doku had been a gamer for a long time. Sometimes, they won. Sometimes, they lost. As long as they learned and kept getting better, though, there was always a rematch.

What that meant was never running away from a chance to learn the game better.

He certainly wasn't going to back down now, when Kensei and Emu were depending on him to give them an advantage against their rivals who could control the very battlefield where they were fighting. Kensei had given him a valuable spot in the group Hourakou'd given them, that could've gone to a powerful experienced Rider. Instead, he gave it to Doku.

Because Kensei was giving Doku a chance to prove his worth.

"Ready to take off the training wheels, kid?" Senjou asked.

Doku held tightly onto his controller.

"Let me show you my skills," he replied calmly.


Far ahead of them, Emu and Kensei stopped again and looked around for their pursuers.

There was no sign of any of the fighters from Machina Vision, which was fine with Kensei, whose hands were still shaking from the powerful shock he and Emu had both felt. Their failed attempt to spark life in those new games had been a painful one.

"Do you see it anywhere?"

"No, I don't," Kensei answered, scanning the horizon with his hand over his eyes. "If Kiiko was up and around yet, we'd have found it ages ago."

Emu nodded thoughtfully. "I'd like to see that sometime. It sounds really impressive."

"I don't know if it looks impressive," Kensei said. "I mean, the biggest thing we ever used it for was to try to find this bad guy down in the sewers once, and it let me see where he was, but not how to get through all the tunnels from where we were to where he was. Who knows what it might be able to if we keep practicing..." He stopped when he noticed Emu was chuckling into his hand. "…what?"

"You say that ability doesn't look that impressive, but you obviously thought pretty hard about how it works and what else you might be able to do with it," Emu answered. "You and she must work really well together."

Kensei laughed quietly. "We've…worked together a lot, I guess, yeah. It's been pretty crazy."

Emu nodded. "Sounds like you've been handling all those adventures pretty well. I'd like to see that sometime too."

"Look, Doctor Hojo?" Kensei suddenly cut in. "I mean…Emu. When we were trying to activate the games, you gave me this look like you were worried about something. I think that's why it zapped us both. What was that?"

"Is that what it looked like, Kensei-san?" Emu asked calmly in reply. "Because it looked to me like you were unsure about what we were doing. That was why I got concerned."

All of a sudden the ground underneath them erupted upward, knocking them both off their feet with the incredible force. Just as they were realizing what was happening, it stopped, and their bodies kept rising for a few seconds from all the momentum before they slammed back down onto the ground.

Ground that was now at least a hundred feet above the rest. Far below them the two Riders could see Suihei Shuugouteki, surrounded by his retinue of armored Auto Players, running past where they'd been.

"What's going on? Is this one of those games that lets you control the battlefield?" Emu asked.

Kensei nodded quickly. There was no time for detailed explanations. The longer they stayed up at the top of the cliff where they'd suddenly deposited, the more time Machina Vision's team had to get to the goal ahead of them. Things looked even worse, with Kensei the only one of them able to use his powers.

They weren't the only two with powers on this trip, though.

Almost as soon as he thought that, a pair of taloned feet clamped down around his shoulders. The pump of strong wings lifted him off the edge of the cliff. The green-scaled pterodactyl carrying him cawed down, seeming to smile to try to reassure him. A few feet away another pterodactyl was carrying Emu by the shoulders of his doctor's coat, waving a long tail with a glowing tip behind them.

"This is amazing!" Emu yelled over the rush of the wind around them.

"I…yeah, I guess so?" Kensei yelled back, not sure how to react. Wasn't this a race against time? To stop a dangerous enemy, too?

At the same time the wind was whipping by his face, the pterodactyl carrying him going faster and faster until Machina Vision's team disappeared out of the corner of his eye. Doku had clearly been the one who sent these creatures to help them, was it really so wrong to get a little distracted from their goal, and feel some pride at a friend for coming through?

Or even, Kensei asked himself, feeling excited at being on a mind-bending adventure?

Wasn't that the fun of a game?

"Good job, Doku!" Kensei yelled, unsure if the other one could hear him, but at his side Emu obviously did with the way he grinned at the younger Rider.

Ahead, in the middle of a ring of trees with cube-shaped leaves, they could see a familiar golden glimmer. It was the flower Hourakou had assigned them to find. It had to be.

Then there was a BOOM and a burst of smoke erupted in Kensei's face. Another BOOM, the monster carrying him shrieked in fear but it was suddenly cut off in the middle.

Kensei was falling.

Underneath him the ground suddenly split, the edges of the giant crack lined with evenly-cut blocky edges. The yawning darkness seemed to spread out even wider as he got closer and closer…

Then he bounced.

Kensei's stunned mind took a second process that he wasn't falling anymore. Instead he was laying on the strands of a wide net, stretched across the expanse of the huge crack in the ground. A furry blue spider was standing on one of the strands, smiling at him with a very human mouth.

"More help from your friend?" Emu asked behind him.

"I guess so," Kensei answered, but smiled in relief. While Kensei watched, the spider started to climb the wall, zigzagging and leaving a crooked trail behind himself. It looked like a ladder to Kensei, who started climbing back up. The walls were shaking and to his horror Kensei realized they were closing again, but he climbed even faster. When he got to the top Kensei laid on his side to grab Emu's hand and heave the doctor up onto the ground just before the ground slammed back together.

"These guys play for keeps," Emu panted. "You weren't kidding about them, were you?"

"I wouldn't think you'd be surprised," Kensei replied. "Weren't they really bad when you had to deal with their company too?"

Before Emu had a chance to answer the ground exploded in front of them and peppered them both with dirt. As they were spitting out clumps Kensei got up and snatched his Gamer Driver, already sure he knew who had attacked them.

Striding across the grass, holding a flintlock pistol so big the barrel was practically a cannon, was the familiar blue-armored figure of Kamen Rider Corsair. The Auto Players flanking him had cannons over their arms aimed at Kensei and Emu too.

"You're not coming back from this one," Corsair snapped. His finger tightened around the trigger of his weapon for emphasis.

"Seems to me I've heard that before," Kensei said before he twisted the knob on the front of the Dual Gashat in his hands. Bantering with the villain felt weird, but Emu was helpless the way things were. He had to keep the enemies' attention on him until he could get the advantage again. "Let's play."

"Aqua Beat!"

A deafening blast from the firing of Corsair's gun drowned out the rest of the game's activation call. Its power surrounded Kensei, who charged through the blast in the bright blue armor of his Aqua Beat form, his magnificent surfer's mane only slightly burnt. Utsura cupped both fists together and smashed them into Corsair's chest. His Level 50 forms lacked the pure offensive power of most other Riders', but Utsura was really just hoping to buy a few seconds to start his real offensive.

Corsair barely moved from the impact. In the blink of an eye his cutlass was in his other hand, the familiar barbs on the blade now shining with an evil red light. The weapon tore into Utsura's armor and left a huge smoking gash that was still glowing red when he finished staggering away from the force.

"You're getting a little better," Utsura said, wiping his hand across his mouthplate. The Rider threw his arms wide and his long torch weapons appeared in his hands.

"And you've gotten soft," Corsair retorted.

"Oh yeah? Check out my killer moves," Utsura said and spun the torches in his hands. A pounding beat started to play from everywhere around them, bubbles holding musical notes floating up out of the ground.

Corsair aimed and fired his flintlock but Utsura was already moving, swinging his torches through the bubbles and building up power as he danced out of the way of the bullet. It exploded in a massive blast of rock and soil a few hundred feet behind him.

The Auto Players joined in by firing their laser cannons at Utsura while he danced out of their way. Still the beams left frightening melted scars in Utsura's armor as they came just a hair shy of hitting him full on.

In his hands, Emu Hojo held the new linked Gashats they'd failed to activate. Watching Kamen Rider Utsura go somersaulting in midair out of the way of another of Corsair's exploding bullets just in time, Emu looked down at the games in desperation. He tried to hold onto both grips and focus on something about his favorite games, all the fun he'd had with them and all the joy he'd seen his patients have from playing. The resolve that had carried him to the end the war with the Bugsters and the heartless humans who would've exploited all that power.

Nothing.

There was no reaction at all from the two games. Not even the agonizing feedback from their failure before.

It really was as if Emu's infection was completely gone.

He faced the battle again in time to see Utsura spin his torches together, the tips glowing with stored energy. They crossed like an X and the energy was released. Two rumbling tidal waves formed out of nowhere and covered Kamen Rider Corsair and the Auto Players with him. For a few seconds Emu could see them being tossed around in the swirling mass of pixelated water. After a minute the water drained away, leaving the battered Machina Vision war party lying on the ground.

And almost immediately Corsair and his Auto Players sat up and all fired their guns straight at Utsura.

Emu could barely hear Utsura's cry of pain over the series of explosions that sent the Rider tumbling into the air before he slammed painfully to the ground again.

The ground. It was shaking again. Blocks of stone three times Utsura's height were rising out of it on both sides, no doubt thanks to more of Machina Vision's control over the area. Utsura got to his knees and desperately went into his finisher. "Aqua Critical Curl!"

A surfboard came spiraling through the air and stopped underneath Utsura's feet, a wave springing up out of nowhere underneath and lifting him off the ground. Corsair waved his Auto Players back as he set up his own attack. "High Seas Critical Barrage!"

Utsura surfed right at Corsair at blinding speed. Corsair's gun glowed as it gathered power for its finishing attack.

They collided. Emu held up his hand to shield his eyes from the awesome burst of energy of the two forces.

And Kamen Rider Utsura hit the ground next to where Emu, his armor shattering while the Driver on his waist ejected its Gashat.


Halfway across the city, Kiiko Mishiranu sat up in her bed in the CR Ward with a scream of panic. Patches of purple and blue static buzzed in and out of existence in the air around her. Even more disturbingly the same static flashed in and out in the corners of her eyes as she sucked in deep, gasping breaths.

While she sat there the door to the main room hissed open and Poppy Pipopapo ran in, nothing but a blur of pink, yellow and green stripes until she stopped next to Kiiko's best. Doctor Taiga Hanaya ran in after her, but stood back and watched as Poppy took the patient's hand in a supportive gesture. Taiga Hanaya had more good points than many people might be willing to admit, but his beside manner was still not his strong suit.

"Kiiko-chan, what's the matter?" Poppy asked. It was a little while before Kiiko turned to look her in the eye. When she did, Kiiko's face was still frozen in a mask of fear.

"Kensei's in trouble…he's dying," she said, almost to herself with the way her eyes were staring straight through Poppy.

Slowly Poppy stood up and let go of Kiiko's hand. She checked Kiiko's pulse and other vitals, then glanced up at the display screen over the bed for all the other results the observation room's scanners provided on the patient. All the readings seemed safe, if indicating someone under a lot of stress. Poppy turned and shrugged a little helplessly in Taiga's direction.

The doctor stepped forward and did what he did best: cut right to the heart of things. "How do you know? Tell us."

"Because I can feel it…" Kiiko whispered.


When he could see again, Kensei noticed Emu standing over in front of him, arms spread wide as if that might protect either of them from the next attack.

"You're really gonna try to stop us," the pirate Rider said with an unmistakable note of contempt.

"It's my job," Emu replied evenly.

"Emu, don't," Kensei grunted. "You're more valuable than I am."

"No-one is expendable," Emu retorted, his voice sharper than Kensei had ever heard from the doctor before. He almost crawled away in surprise.

Corsair shook his head and leveled his weapon. Emu planted his feet.

"Isn't this heartwarming?!" exclaimed a man who suddenly formed out of the ground. Wearing overalls, work gloves and a wide-brimmed hat, all smeared with mud. He held flower pots in both hands, one with a tiny yellow flower and the other holding a tiny purple one, which he took turns gazing at thoughtfully. "Looks like I got here just in time," Hourakou Byougen chuckled.

"What do you want?" Kamen Rider Corsair demanded and swung his gun at the Corrupture instead.

Hourakou shrugged, looking even more ridiculous with a flower in each hand, not a bit bothered that someone was holding a huge gun on him. "Just to tell our heroes here that a random event seems to have occurred they might like to know about!"

Kensei coughed and hauled himself up as fast as he could. "What's that?"

"Oh, well, somehow it seems a couple civilians ended up trapped in the catacombs underneath our little battleground here," Hourakou explained. "I'd hate to think anything might happen to them with all the rearranging the landscape our friends from Machina Vision have been having so much fun doing…"

"Catacombs? Are you saying there's a way down there?" Kensei asked. Hourakou pointed into a stand of trees a ways away, and by straining his eyes Kensei could see an opening between them leading into darkness.

Not the same darkness he'd almost fallen into before, he hoped.

He leaned in and whispered to Emu, "Do we believe this?"

"Can we take the chance on not believing him?" Emu whispered back.

"Of course if we leave," Kensei said to everyone, "they'll just get the prize and win the contest."

"Really?" Hourakou giggled. "I only see the two of you."

Emu and Kensei exchanged an unsure look. Then both of them ran off toward the opening Hourakou had pointed out to them. Kensei picked something off the ground and stuck it through his belt. Another moment and they were totally out of sight.

As soon as they were gone, Kamen Rider Corsair's flintlock let out a menacing click as he tightened his finger on the trigger. Hourakou barely seemed to register that the huge weapon was pointed right at him. "What do you think you're doing, monster?" Corsair demanded.

"Keeping the game from ending too soon so you'll hate it and stop playing. Your people are afraid of making boring games, aren't they?" the gardener said casually. "And on that note…"

Hourakou suddenly tossed the flowers in his hands into the air. Corsair aimed his gun and blasted them out of the sky, clearly anticipating some kind of attack.

The only response was a shower of dirt onto Corsair's head and a mocking laugh from the gardener. He snapped his fingers even with his thick gloves on then melted into the ground again.

Corsair looked around suspiciously, then dashed to the golden flower he could already see in the distance. He'd only taken a few steps when the little circle of trees around it erupted out of the ground then suddenly stopped, a spike of rock now towering over Corsair.

"You're welcome, GENM!" Hourakou's voice echoed out of the ground, his words mingling with the last of the rumbling.

"Damn it…Senjou, what are you waiting for?!" Corsair cursed. The ground underneath his feet started rising as well. A chaotic tower of stone blocks pushed him and his entourage of Auto Players higher into the sky.

Without warning the ground trembled. With a grunt of annoyance Corsair looked over the side, where a pair of red-furred yeti creatures with long arms were pulling the blocks out from the bottom of the cliff where he stood.


It was with more than a little satisfaction that Doku watched the yetis pull out block after block from the plateau Corsair was standing on, then toss the blocks up to knock more off the side.

Below the surface more and more blocks were being shifted around by his opponent's power, trying to reinforce the plateau so Corsair could get to the golden flower and win the game. Doku shifted his concentration for a minute off of the yetis above ground, down to the furry centipedes who squirmed through the dirt, gripping blocks in their wide jaws and whisking them away before Machina Vision's party could use them.

Doku's head was starting to feel heavy from all the different locations he could see with his new Gashat. The players and game creatures on the ground, his flying monsters in the clouds above it, the people in the caves below it.

Including Kensei and Emu, who were getting close to where a couple of people were huddled trapped.

But Doku could see another presence in the caves.

Someone else was down there with them…

The block plateau made a menacing grinding, suddenly growing by another level.

Doku gasped low enough he was sure Senjou couldn't hear him, but mentally kicked himself. Focusing on multiple fields and directing everything the game creatures under his control was so distracting. If it had just been a game, if his friends' lives weren't at stake…

He saw Senjou smirking at him across the field then. The glow of the force field around him seemed to get even brighter from the smug look on his face. Senjou had been training in wielding power that required his concentration to go in so many directions, Doku knew that.

You never got as good as the other guy if you backed down when someone better was facing you across the table, though.

Slowly, Doku wrapped his fingers tighter around his controls and focused on keeping Machina Vision busy.


He wasn't the only one splitting his concentration.

Below them in the virtual caves of the Game Area, Kensei held a pair of Chibi Gashats in his hands. A small screen above both showed the view of the Chibi Gamer connected to it, but only empty brown tunnels played across the holographic displays.

"Those are really cool," Emu said as he looked over Kensei's shoulder. "Little super-deformed spies? I would've liked to get to use those before."

This was really the legendary Kamen Rider Ex-Aid? A video game fanboy practically squeeing over a thing like that?

Somehow it still seemed unbelievable to Kensei.

One of the screens flashed to get his attention. "Looks like Burger-chan found something," Kensei muttered.

"Burger-chan?" Emu asked. "Oh, like Ju Ju Burger!" he said quietly, but grinned.

Both of them looked down at the small screen, that showed a small truck from a laundry company: Inui Whites, said the writing on the sides. A pair of workers huddled in the cab and looking around frantically every few seconds. Circling the truck were Corrupture Cells in a variety of mismatched outfits, wielding improvised weapons from dull katanas to frying pans. Strangely, they just seemed to be staring at the truck. As if they were waiting for something to happen.

Like a pair of Kamen Riders to show up, Kensei was willing to bet.

"It's not far," Kensei reported.

"Then let's not waste any time," Emu replied. He jogged off down the tunnel ahead of Kensei. No powers, no weapons, nothing to protect him from the monsters waiting for them.

Kensei ran after him and a minute later the tunnel opened up into a wide cavern. The laundry truck was right in the middle like the Chibi Gamer had showed.

And Corrupture Cells spread out all over the area, like the Chibi Gamer had shown too.

In the truck, one of the trapped workers noticed Kensei and Emu. His face lit up with relief, and the Cells obviously noticed. Almost at the same time they all turned to face Emu and Kensei.

"Here, use these," Kensei said and passed the Chibi Gashats he'd been using to Emu. He pulled the long tree branch he'd been carrying out of the back of his belt. He gripped the bottom with both hands, automatically going into a dueling stance. The closest Cells—dressed like chefs of all things—rushed Kensei, waving their weapons of a wok, egg whisk and rolling pin. Kensei didn't budge until they were just a few feet away. Then with practiced ease he delivered a fast stroke that connected with the back of the first Cell's neck.

The chef-Cell let out a gurgle of pain and went down. Right away the other two Cells jumped over their fellow Corrupture and swung their kitchen implements at Kensei's head. He deftly parried the rolling pin, the whisk, then brought both of the Cells down with quick knocks to their shiny purple heads.

"That's why you brought that!" Emu exclaimed.

"I haven't had to use kendo as a Rider in a while now," Kensei answered, whacking a Cell in the stomach with the branch and then finishing him off with a jump kick to the chin that knocked him flat on his back. "My weapons don't tie back to kendo anymore."

Emu triggered the Chibi Gashats Kensei had given him and two small sprites appeared on the ground in front of him. A hamburger with skinny arms and legs and a tiny version of Poppy Pipopapo, who blew a kiss to the closest charging Cell. Hearts erupted all over his virus-shaped head before he went down.

"You're into kendo? That's cool! Did you hear Hiiro calls his sword his 'scalpel'?" Emu asked casually.

"You guys really are just regular people…," Kensei thought out loud.

" 'Never meet your heroes,' huh?" Emu chuckled. "I'd rather be like a regular anyway. People need to be able to talk to their doctors."

Another group of Cells was rushing up to attack Emu, but Burger-chan split apart into his ingredient: top bun, tomato, cheese, pickles, onions, meat patty and bottom bun. All of them went spinning at the Cells, pummeling the virus-headed minions until they fell down in an untidy heap.

"Awesome!" Emu beamed. "These things really are fun!"

"…yeah," Kensei answered. "Didn't that seem kind of easy to you, though?"

"Look out!" Emu yelled and pointed over Kensei's head. Surprised by a reaction like that, Kensei looked up and saw a huge boulder coming down on top of him. Burger-chan and Poppy-chan ran over and tackled Kensei out of the way just in time, the sprites underneath the rock when it hit the floor of the cavern instead.

From out of the shadows, their attacker boldly stepped. The armor was unmistakably that of a Kamen Rider, dark red eyes glaring at them under a white headband with the kanji for "Blood Gang" written on it in red ink that dripped down across the fabric like it might have actually been blood.

Over his black undersuit were a red chestplate and pauldrons, with an oblong screen across the chest, scrolling the same "Blood Gang" kanji. His forearms were wrapped silver athletic tape. The greaves on his legs and trim on his suit's running shoes were a dull gold in color.

"…Buster," Kensei breathed, recognizing the silent Kamen Rider who'd fought to protect Machina Vision headquarters when the Corrupture had staged an all-out attack on it.

The towering Rider nodded, rumbling low in his throat, as he produced his weapon. A short tube-like shape with a heavy chain sticking out of both ends. He hoisted it over his head spun it in a circle with one end of the chain whipping out at Kensei who ducked, then had to flip back as the other side of the chain came at his throat.

"Demon Ninja!"

In a flash of indigo light Kamen Rider Utsura appeared again, ducking low in a cinematic ninja's run to avoid the swing of his enemy's chain as he closed the distance between himself and Kamen Rider Buster.

Utsura jumped high and detached the large shuriken from his chest armor. It split in two and he threw both of the deadly stars at Buster. A big HIT! Graphic popped out of the air as they sank into Buster's armor as if congratulating Utsura for landing an attack.

Buster spun the chain over his head even faster and wrapped it around Utsura's midriff. He yanked hard and Utsura crashed into the rock floor. Without a sound Buster brushed the two-foot-wide throwing stars out of his armor like he was removing annoying splinters. Then he pulled Utsura up to him and landed a vicious kick that knocked Utsura across the room.

When he hit the far wall it was with a hollow clattering like dried grass hitting something.

Which was exactly what happened. There was an empty set of armor stuffed with straw wrapped in Buster's chain.

Suddenly Utsura slashed Buster across the back with two sets of hooked claws attached to his forearms. Sparks flew. Thin gashes were left where he was hit. Buster snapped back and hit Utsura in the side of his head with one massive fist, not even seeming to notice the attack.

Emu held up his hand in horror as if he could reach out and do anything to stop the attack. Instead Utsura went rolling across the ground. His armor flickered all over his body while he tried to get back to his feet.

Kamen Rider Buster clearly didn't intend to give him the chance, turning and suddenly charging at him with piston-like pounding of his thick legs. Hard enough to leave imprints in the rock. He leaned to one side so his thick shoulder armor was aimed right at Utsura's torso. The ninja-Rider pulled his short sword, and in a move that froze Emu Hojo with horror, slashed the blade across one of his own arms.

"Kensei-san! DON'T!" Emu exclaimed.

It was too late. A wave of dark pixel-edged blood flowed from the wound and splashed right in Kamen Rider Buster's masked face. Automatically Buster slowed down. Enough for Utsura to somersault backward out of the way. Buster's moment kept him going but his feet thudded against the ground without leaving a mark. Utsura's Demon Blood attack had managed to weaken his enemy. But Emu knew using that power, it would drain Utsura's own health to work. In the shape he was already in…

"Ninja Critical Fission!" his Gamer Drive announced. Utsura split, a duplicate flowing out of his body in each direction. All three of them held a ninja-to in both hand and in perfect synch stabbed their energized blades into Kamen Rider Buster.

Who raised his fist and swatted the central Utsura away like a fly.


Again a pair of pterodactyls swooped out of the clouds, waving the glowing tails right in the face of one of the Auto Players. Another pair of the flying reptiles had just driven the android back to the edge of the plateau, and the collision with these two against his shoulders pushed him over the edge.

If only they were as successful against the real threat, Doku thought, but the game-creatures he controlled weren't meant for fighting. Monster Zoo was a kid's game about solving puzzles, not dueling teams of monsters against each other.

Kamen Rider Corsair aimed his enlarged gun to the heavens and destroyed a pair of the pterodactyls in a single billowing shot. While he'd been distracted with them the yetis at the bottom had knocked almost half the height of the column of blocks he stood on off, but Corsair tweaked the side of his visor and ran to the edge.

"High Seas Critical Broadside!"

Corsair's massive gun glowed and another just like it appeared in his other hand. Then, incredibly, a cannon formed sticking out of Corsair's chest. He fired all three with a BOOM that knocked chunks off the edge of the plateau with volume alone. The gigantic combined shot ripped down the column of blocks and blew the yetis Doku was controlling at the bottom into a storm of shiny pixels.

And almost a mile away from that battlefield, Doku forced himself to blink, something he hadn't done for almost the last five minutes while he'd been doing everything he could think of to keep Machina Vision from taking the lead.

It had just been Doku against both of them and his mind was reeling like he'd been getting punched in the brain. For just a few seconds Doku let himself forget about Machina Vision and shifted his awareness to where Kensei and Emu had gone.

Doku was just in time to see Kamen Rider Utsura splat against the cavern wall and revert back to Kensei. Emu was running to his side even before he hit the wall. A massive Rider with a barbed chain whip was stomping closer to finish Kensei off.

All of Doku's attention was ripped away from slowing down Corsair and his group. In a way, he felt freed as he called out to just one group of the game-creatures, in just one place…


Emu was already falling into habit.

He let Kensei slide off his shoulder in a small alcove in the tunnel where he'd stopped running. The world around him seemed to take a step back to give him room to work. He checked Kensei's pulse, cupped the teenager's face and looked into his eyes. "Kensei-san, can you feel everything?" Emu asked.

"I can feel everything, and it hurts," Kensei groaned.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"What?"

Emu leaned away. "What were you thinking about when we tried to activate the Gashats before?"

"You're asking about that now?"

"Yes," Emu answered patiently. "I'd like to know."

He looked up at the young doctor, and Kensei seemed to find the question sharpened his focus on exactly what he'd been thinking. "I was afraid I was doing it wrong. I was sure you already knew what to do, but I'd pick a stupid a game what would drag us down, or I wouldn't be able to keep up and I'd just slow you down. You already saved the world for crying out loud!"

"You were worried about that, huh?" Emu chuckled.

"What?"

"Sounds like you were taking the 'game heroes' thing a little too seriously," Emu explained. "Me and the other doctor Riders aren't legendary heroes who automatically knew the right thing to do every single time. We failed sometimes, and it took so long before we could work together. Even that fell apart a couple times."

"Wait a minute, what's that noise?" Kensei interrupted.


Dust fell from the roof of the cavern. A group of large furry centipedes stuck their faces out of a hole they'd chewed through the rock. They pulled blocks of stone out of the ceiling with their mouths and started spitting them at Buster. He easily smashed them to pebbles with his chain, but, for the moment, Kamen Rider Buster had other things on his mind than coming after his rivals.


"Damn it…it's him. It has to be him. What does Doku think he's doing?" Kensei grunted.

"He's saving lives, just like you were trying to do when you came down," said a familiar feminine voice in his ear. Kensei's head turned and he recognized a small ball of light with tiny shimmering wings on the top.

"Poppy? Is that you and Kiiko-chan?" Emu asked, looking at the ball of light in gentle wonder. "Wow!"

"You're amazed by all this after everything we went through?" Poppy Pipopapo's voice came from it, with a tone of light exasperation. "You're still like a kid sometimes, Emu."

Emu smirked over his shoulder at Kensei. "Hear that?" he asked. "Kensei-san, how about we try those new games again?"

"No, wait," Kensei said. "Kiiko, I think I need your help for this. You said my condition's only partial, right, Doctor Hojo—"

The doctor gently shoved his shoulder. "Emu," he reminded Kensei with a teasing smile. He sure did that a lot.

Smile.

"…and I think I need the rest to be there for this to work," Kensei finished.

Without another word, the ball of light flew into Kensei's forehead and disappeared through his skin. He blinked and his eyes seemed deeper, as if an awareness that hadn't been there a second ago now present.

"Awesome," Emu said. "I knew that would be cool to see." He held out the linked Gashats they'd been carrying around all day for Kensei to take the other end. "Ready?"

"What should I do?" Kensei asked.

"Get ready to play the game," was all Emu said.

In their hands the games were already starting to shake with energy again. It flowed into Kensei and his hand tingled for an instant but the sensation seemed to split, channeled into the other mind inside his body besides his own. The familiar reassuring warmth of Kiiko's touch was there, in his head instead of against his body.

A bright glow gathered in the palm of Kensei's hand and another in Emu's. The light surged up the grip into the two games and then rippled outward until it covered the entire cavern.

And he couldn't see anything but a rippling whiteness, but Kensei's were wide open until the light and the feeling of power in his hand finally faded.

"It worked!" Emu exclaimed as he looked at his hand before he turned it around and showed Kensei the pink Gashat he was holding. On the label was the name: Mighty All-Stars DX. Kensei looked down at his own, which now had a dull silver case and a label saying Wighty Classics XXX over an image of a white version of Mighty, wearing a safari hat and holding a green cartoon bomb is his hand.

Kensei recognized him right away: it was Mighty's humorous treasure-hunting, bomb-obsessed evil twin, Wighty.

"It worked!" Kiiko and Poppy's voices echoed together around Kensei.

"I knew it would," Emu said.


Above, the plateau where the flower was waiting for him inched closer and closer as more blocks pushed themselves onto the bottom of the column where Corsair was standing.

"Are you good for anything, Senjou?" Corsair muttered. "Even when I get rid of everything slowing you down, you're still slow."

Instead of waiting any longer, he crouched and launched himself up at the edge of the other plateau, sword in hand. The blade sank into the rock. Corsair swung his legs back, then forward like a gymnast, building up momentum. After three swings he let go, curled himself into a somersault and went spinning up to the top. As soon as he was at the top of his swing Corsair jabbed his fingers into the dirt and pulled himself up.

The golden flower was right there in the middle of the trees, giving off soft waves of power as if it was beckoning someone to come and take it.

Corsair didn't need any more invitation.

He got to the clearing in three long steps, bent over and picked the flower.

And he lifted it over his head triumphantly.

In the back of his mind, Corsair was fuming. Understandably, he thought.

Machina Vision had claimed victory.

But only because the maniac running the game had deliberately gotten rid of his opposition.

Hourakou Byougen would pay for that.

Yes, he would pay for that…


Kamen Rider Buster gripped his chian weapon, energy flowing from his powerful hands and into the grip, then down the chains until every link was glowing with power. He swung the chains up at the ceiling and they doubled in length, going right through the block-spitting monsters who'd been holding him off.

With them taken care of, he turned and found himself face to face Emu and Kensei. They'd returned, and were ready to fight.

At least Kensei hoped so. "Sure you're ready for this?" Kensei asked Emu.

"You sure change directions fast, huh?" Emu smirked. "A minute ago you sounded like you thought you were talking to some kind of legend."

"Weren't you trying to get me to stop doing that?" Kensei replied.

Emu nodded. "I was!" He went into a pose where he held his new Gashat parallel to his face with his other arm out behind him.

"Let's play," Kensei declared.

"Let's clear this with super co-op play!" Emu added.

"What?!" Kensei asked, voice loud with disbelief.

But he was chortling at the same time like he couldn't believe the ridiculous joke a friend had just made.

That wasn't so far off though, was it?

"That's the way a patient's face is supposed to look," Emu said. "Henshin!"

"Henshin!" Kensei echoed. At the same time both of them triggered their new Gashats.

"Mighty All-Stars Dee-Ex!" Emu's new game chirped. "Best and Brighest! Pinkest and whitest! Newer and faster! Old and remastered!"

Kensei's new game was even louder. "Wighty Classic TUH-RIPPLE EXXX! Come for the crazy, stay for the bombs! Training! Tombs! Treasure! Trouble! Tricycle! It's ALL here!"

Feeling excited and scared at the same time, Kensei locked the game into both slots on his belt. Emu did the same.

Right away, the feeling that Kensei had company in his own body was even stronger. The familiar one, that Kiiko and Poppy were in his head with him, was still there thanks to the merge. Somehow through the extra awareness that gave him, he could see what looked like a silver thread running from his Gamer Driver over to Emu's.

Then in perfect synch, they pulled open the levers on their Drivers.

"It's working!" Kiiko squealed into Kensei's mind.

"It is?" Poppy asked, not quite believing.

In a burst of light, she got her answer.

The two stood up slowly, looking down at their hands through the oversized eyes of a Kamen Rider's mask. "Emu-san! It did work!" Kensei exclaimed and pointed at the veteran Rider.

"It did!" Emu exclaimed right back at him. He was clad, for the first time in a long time, in the armor of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. Bright pink from the curved quills on his forehead down to the green cuffs on his thighs, silver armor over black covering his shins and bright green running shoes on his feet. Over his chest was silver pectoral armor with the familiar colorful buttons on the left, and icons of a sword and a mallet under his health bar.

Utsura was wearing new armor that was very similar, but stark white instead of pink. His eyes were a light amber color, and the icons on his pectoral armor showed a cartoon bomb with a lit fuse, next to another icon of a pickaxe. On his back was a heavy white backpack made of hard plastic with a hatch on top.

Buster stopped right where he was and looked across at them, looking at Ex-Aid and Utsura in his new form. "Back off and we'll make this easy," Utsura said.

He got his answer as Kamen Rider Buster threw one end of his chain whip at the two of them. The two Riders vaulted backward in different directions to avoid Buster's chain whip as it cracked the rock instead of the two of them.

Buster lashed out with one length of chain at Ex-Aid. Utsura wasn't surprised, their opponent probably figured on the veteran Rider being the bigger threat. Ex-Aid held up his own signature weapon: the Gashacon Breaker, a white hammer with a green disc on the front of the head, pink and green buttons on the side. He smacked it into the incoming gigantic chain and knocked it spinning the other way. The end actually tied around Buster's arm.

He looked down at it, as if he didn't believe Ex-Aid had not only stopped his attack, but rebounded it.

Ex-Aid charged, jumped, turned a somersault in the air and smashed the Gashacon Breaker down right on top of Kamen Rider Buster's head. Cartoony stars jumped from where the Breaker connected and danced in a circle around Buster's helmet. A veteran of more than a few battles, real and virtual, Ex-Aid repeatedly bashed the Gashacon Breaker into his enemy's chest.

Kamen Rider Buster actually stumbled back one step.

Before he whipped the chain at Ex-Aid's neck.


Meanwhile Utsura stood in front of the laundry truck. The drivers were leaning back in their seats and laughing. Utsura hoped it was to see a Rider who actually wanted to help. He gazed around the cavern with his own eyes, but actually seeing with Kiiko's layered on top of them. He stopped as he saw a hint of light behind a wall…

"There!" It was only after a beat that Kensei hadn't thought that, it was Kiiko's in his mind. "That wall looks thin!"

"So let's break through," Utsura said and held out his hand. The hatch on top of his backpack popped open, and a round object came out with a literal pop. It arced into his hand, a fuse at the top sizzling.

It was a bomb.

Wighty's trademark weapon.

He wound up and lobbed the bomb over the roof of the laundry truck. Kiiko giggled in his mind as he did. The bomb lodged in a nook in the wall and exploded.

A giant cloud of dust spread across the cavern, covering the laundry truck and Utsura in a coating of brown.

There was a crater in the wall. But no opening.

Across the cavern, Buster held the bar of his weapon vertically and swung both chains at Ex-Aid, high and low at the same time. Ex-Aid went diving between the chains, a spike on one cutting into his pectoral armor, but landed and rolled unhurt. He jumped and somersaulted over Buster's head then quickly turned and pounded on Buster's back at furious speed. HIT! graphics erupted everywhere. Buster staggered and dropped his weapon.

"Let those people go," Ex-Aid said. "You haven't seen half of what Genius Gamer M can do."

Kamen Rider Buster looked back at him, only giving a low growl in response.

And as he looked over Ex-Aid's shoulder he saw Utsura catch another bomb out of his backpack and went into a pitch.

Buster roared and yanked the Gashat out of his visor. He twisted the knob the other direction. "10 Count Wrestling!" it said. "The ring awaits! Hear the fans! Be the champions! Pin 'em for the BIG TEN COUNT!"

The armor over Buster's black undersuit burned away with a dark orange flame that was sucked in, leaving a flame design stretching all across his chestplate and leg armor. The bandanna around his forehead burned away from the fire. A crown of flaming spikes ringed Buster's head, balls of flame dancing around his knuckles. The oblong screen on his chest changed to show a countdown from 10 to 1 in green numbers.

That was the least of Kamen Ridder Buster's transformation, though. He growled and held his arms out wide, his whole body swelling. His height expanded another two feet, biceps and legs ballooning with muscles and grotesque veins bulging out even through his black undersuit.

And he charged, shouldering Ex-Aid out of his way as if he barely noticed the smaller Rider at all.

Utsura looked up just before Buster tackled him with the force of a runaway freight train.

Half of Utsura's health bar disappeared when they hit the ground. The bomb rolled out of his hand and exploded somewhere on the far side of the cavern. Inside the laundry truck the driver's faces gaped in fear.

Buster stood up, joined his fists and brought them down with a sound like an earthquake on Utsura's stomach. More marks disappeared from Utsura's health bar. Next he grabbed Utsura around the neck in a choke hold. Utsura clawed at his attacker's arms in a feeble attempt to free himself.

Buster didn't hear the little pop.

But there was no missing the gigantic explosion that threw the two of them apart.

"Kensei-san!" Ex-Aid screamed. Utsura didn't hear it. He was too busy hearing something else.

"—bakabakabakabakabakabakabakabakabakaBAKA! What were you thinking?! You could've killed yourself!" Kiiko chewed him.

"He was in a desperate situation—" Poppy tried to intervene.

"That's right," Utsura interrupted. "And maybe underneath, Kamen Riders are all regular guys. I'm still a Kamen Rider, and they have to be ready for anything."

A hand clamped onto his shoulder. The hand on the other end gave him a playfully gentle knock on the head with the Gashacon Breaker. "They also don't have to do everything themselves. Not anymore," Ex-Aid said.

"Emu…" Poppy whispered.

"Doku, can you get through that wall for us?" Utsura called up at the ceiling, not sure he could even get an answer. "We'll take care of Kamen Rider Buster." Punctuating his statement for him, Buster jumped back up from where he'd stopped after Utsura's bomb went off in his face. He landed a few feet away and stomped closer, dust and pebbles falling from the cavern ceiling with every step.

"If he gets his hands on us, we're in trouble," Utsura said.

"So let's not do that," Ex-Aid said. "What's your favorite Mighty game?"

"How about Mighty Kart X?"

"That's a great one!" Ex-Aid said as if a giant enemy wasn't barreling down on them. Together the two Riders turned the roller on the front of their Gashats to a slot showing a race car. Light flashes from the games. Buster held up a giant hand in front of his face to shield his eyes.

He lowered it as soon as it started to fade, but by then the job had been done. Ex-Aid and Utsura were both sitting in adorable tiny race cars, pink and white like their armor.

They gunned their engines and zipped around Buster, spraying comically thick trails of smoke from their cars' exhaust pipes. Buster reached out to grab Utsura's tailfin but was just a second too late.

Tires squealed and the cars zoomed all over the cavern. Ex-Aid got a banana peel from somewhere and threw it in front of Buster as he chased after Utsura's gleaming white car. Buster's foot came down on it and he skidded a couple feet before he slammed down his other boot and stopped himself.

Utsura got a blue virus-shaped object and tossed it onto the ground behind Buster. Like a homing missile it shot across the ground and up into Kamen Rider Buster's back. It exploded and shattered into a cloud of blue dust all over his shoulders and head.

Grunting, Buster got up to his full height and launched himself into the air, turning onto his side and aiming his elbow at where Utsura would be speeding by in just a few seconds.

When suddenly Ex-Aid swerved by and sprayed a cloud of burning black exhaust smoke right into Buster's face. "We're getting ahead of you! Catch up, slowpoke!" Ex-Aid yelled. "Catch up, slowpike!" Buster went falling through it and hit the rocky floor instead of the back of Utsura's neck.

Buster growled in frustration, but over that and the noise of squealing tires, he heard another sound that he wouldn't make the mistake of missing a second time. It was the soft pop of Utsura's backpack in his new form. The one right before it armed him with some large explosives.

Which Utsura held in both hands as he came speeding up from the left and tossed both right into Buster's face. "Here's a present!" Utsura yelled.

It seemed Buster was ready for it, raising his arms to shield himself from the worst of the blast. The fireball from both bombs spread around Buster and stretched up to the ceiling. Utsura dropped back into the seat of his race car and grabbed the wheel.

Just as Buster's gigantic shape dove out of the explosion and ripped the rear wheel off his car with one hand. Utsura lurched forward and smacked his head on the steering wheel, then fell back in a daze.

Ex-Aid turned his car and sped right at Kamen Rider Buster. He almost let go of the wheel in surprise when he was distracted for a split-second by a beam of light stabbing through the rock wall, but turned back when he saw a pack of walking mole digging through with the laundry truck waiting just behind them. The problem was being taken care of. He needed to take care of Buster, who was lifting Utsura's car off the ground with a dazed Utsura still in the seat.

A pink gloved hand went into a compartment in the narrow driver's seat of Ex-Aid's car. He pulled out a can labeled Itching Powder, and threw it Buster before steering sharply out of the way. It exploded against Buster just before giant hands finished closing around Utsura's shiny white race car, mashing it into a ball of twisted metal. Utsura himself fell back out of his car just before he would've become a permanent part of it.

Buster scraped at his body through his thick armor with his heavy gauntlets, and dropped to the ground and started rolling back and forth over the uneven ground trying to scratch off the burning tingle all over him. Ex-Aid's trick had taken down the gigantic Rider.

For the moment.

Utsura managed to get back up and saw Ex-Aid turning his race car around to come in for another attack. A thought came into his mind at the same time, through the thin link anchored by their new Gashats. Ex-Aid was going into a finisher, and was hoping for Utsura to do the same.

Linked by their powers, he and Kamen Rider Ex-Aid shared a mind.

No, that wasn't right.

With their new games, he and Emu Hojo were two parts of a whole.

And that was probably even cooler.

Buster got to his knees, grunting in anger, was welcomed by a deafening call: "All-Stars Critical Checker!" Utsura's backpack opened on top and launched a stream of round bombs, all different colors, arced out and landed in a neat circle around Kamen Rider Buster.

Next Ex-Aid zoomed in a circle, his Gashacon Breaker now sporting a tall pink blade out of the top. He dragged it across the fuses of Utsura's bombs and sparked one fuse after another with the edge.

The pink car sped across the room, slowed down as he got near Utsura. "Jump on!" Ex-Aid shouted, something Utsura didn't need to be told twice and grabbed the car's tailfin. They steered toward the opening in the wall that the laundry truck they'd come down there to rescue was finally getting drive out through.

When Ex-Aid drove out into the sun again their bombs went off, covering Kamen Rider Buster in an explosion that spread to the edges of the enormous cavern.


Again, Kensei lifted a hand to scratch the sore spot on his back where he'd blown himself up to get out of Buster's choke hold.

Again, Kiiko slapped his hand away and made his wrist even more so.

Then again, the pain wasn't much compared to the iodine she scrubbed all over his sore skin with a handful of cotton.

"Eh…Kiiko-chan, you're rubbing awfully hard…" Poppy gently tried to caution her.

Again.

"It's fine. I'm his angel of mercy, right Kensei-chan?" Kiiko retorted with a smile.

"Can we agree to go with what the actual nurse says?" Kensei muttered.

Doku snickered and shook his head. "You might be saving yourself more pain not fighting it," he advised.

Emu slapped him between the shoulders, and Kensei winced. "I'll say this: you'll probably be sore for a few days but it looks to me like you're doing just fine after all that."

"Thanks, Doctor…Emu," Kensei replied. "It was kind of amazing, working as a team with someone who'd been doing this before I was."

As always, it seemed, Emu smiled at him in reply. "Sounds like we'll be working together that way until we can find out how to save Parado. Glad to hear you were having a good experience," the doctor said, then headed over to the elevator.

Doku twirled the Monster Zoo game around his fingers until it thumped against the groove of his thumb. "Hey, Hidenaga?" he said. "Thanks for bringing me along. Even if we didn't win."

"Sure we did," Kensei answered. Doku squinted at him in surprise, but Kensei finished the thought. "You kept that Machina Vision Rider busy long enough for us to figure out how to transform. Then you sent those mole guys to dig a way out for us and the people in the truck."

"I don't think Hourakou's gonna count that."

"Bet the guys we saved today do," Kensei said.

Doku looked down at the ground, and chuckled. "Yeah, I guess they would. Hey, get better quick, all right?" he said as he stood up then headed out of the meeting room. Before he stepped into the elevator he looked back over his shoulder one more time, and said, "Thanks."

Kensei feel quite ready to leave yet, himself. He glanced over at one of the monitors, where instead of the usual CR screensaver it was showing a replay of a news story on the aftermath of the recent battle. The game area was still there even though the "game" had ended, like some of the others from the past several weeks. Kensei wondered if it was some side effect of the game virus, or if Hourakou was doing it on purpose.

But the display shifted to show two Kamen Riders, one in pink armor and the other in white, waving to the cameras as the drivers of the laundry truck bowed to them over and over. For once, somebody had been grateful to Kamen Rider Utsura, and for once, the world had gotten to hear about it.

That wasn't really why he was supposed to be fighting, though, was it?

"Hey, Kiiko-chan?" he asked.

"Mmm?"

"Why did you hurry down to where we were fighting like you did? Were that really worried I couldn't handle it, or something?"

Kiiko put down the wad of cotton in her hand—to Kensei's silent relief—and her expression turned thoughtful. "Well, it was kind of like…I just saw you were in trouble. I could kind of see in my dream you and Hojo-san in the Game Area there."

"You could see us?" Kensei asked. Kiiko had plenty of weird powers, but being able to see him from so far away, and while she was asleep, was new…

"And she demanded we combine and fly there so fast she almost pulled my arm off," Poppy muttered rather loudly.

"You would've done the same thing if you were the one who saw it, onee," Kiiko retorted.

Kensei reached over and stroked the back of a finger across Kiiko's cheek, figuring something like that was guaranteed to get her attention. He was right, as she turned and started at him in surprise. "Hey, thanks for coming to help. You really saved our butts today, girls. I didn't know your power was that strong, but if it is…I'm glad it made you want to come help like you did."

"…of course I would," Kiiko replied softly. "You're the first friend I ever had. The best friend I ever had."

Poppy excused herself from the room.


A million things to say jumped around in Yoshoku Kasuga's head, competing to be the magical phrase that would smooth over all the uncomfortable tension between the two of them.

He'd been thinking of his opening move the whole way over. In the end, he picked a simple, tried and true approach.

He reached out his hand, and knocked twice on the door.

It was a minute before there was any response. When the door opened, the girl's face peeking through the crack was totally blank.

"What are you doing here?" Rei asked.

"Trying to help," Yoshoku answered.

"The guard at the gate isn't supposed to let people in," Rei sighed as she stepped away and walked back into her room, probably resigned to not being able to get rid of him easily.

"He was pretty resistant, but someone told me he's a big hot spring fan and I told him he and his wife won a contest for a free vacation," Yoshoku answered and followed her inside.

Rei mumbled something that sounded to his ears like "damn it, dad, will you tell anybody." He didn't press the point, but Rei asked, "He did?"

"He will after I've made a few calls," Yoshoku answered, "Your dad tipped me off when I asked to meet you…he thought me coming over unannounced would be romantic or something."

She didn't answer, and Yoshoku idly glanced around her bedroom. There was almost nothing in the way of personal touches. Bed. Desk. Closet. Shelves with a few books that looked like academic texts. All of it shiny and free of dust, but the only thing that stood out was a picture frame tipped to hide it. Yoshoku surreptitiously leaned it back, seeing a picture of Rei looking a few years younger and wrapping her arms behind a boy with glasses from behind.

She was smiling.

It struck Yoshoku he hadn't really thought about her doing that before.

What a weird thing to stand out about somebody.

"What are you doing?" Rei asked, facing away from him with arms folded. Yoshoku quickly put the picture down like he'd found it and stepped away before she could see for herself.

"I'm offering to help," Yoshoku replied patiently. "That Dai Gakusha guy your old friend talked about…you think Machina Vision kidnapped him, I bet. That's why you were trying to break in before, or kidnap Corsair so you could hold him for ransom."

She sighed and turned toward the window. "Maybe I don't want help."

He leaned back against the wall and folded his arms, looking at her shoulders and the back of her head. This was not the Kamen Rider Zero he'd seen before, the implacable hunter. Maybe that was how it was for everyone like that; after you learned their real drives, the powerful figure they'd tried to seem like before never quite came back.

"I didn't want help either, when I started being a Rider," Yoshoku supplied her. "When I got my gun, the only thing on my mind was doing something more important than my big sports hero brother. Fighting with Hidenaga and Dasao, that…I dunno, kind of made me see how stupid I was being."

"It's not about ego with me," Rei answered. She paused, then followed up with another question, "…are you doing this because you're trying to save me or something?"

He shook his head. "I'm doing this because you're trying something really dangerous to save your friend—" Rei cleared her throat loudly at the word, and Yoshoku just left it alone. "—and I don't think anyone should have to try to take on a corporation like Machina Vision by themselves. That's why you were trying to break in there before, right?"

She didn't answer, so Yoshoku tried to change tactics. "If you need a simpler reason, let's say I think it'd be easier to take down Machina Vision from inside and you can probably get in there the easiest."

Silence fell over Rei's bedroom again. Yoshoku stuck his hands in his pockets and let it sit. Rei had devoted herself to freeing a person held prisoner by a powerful organization, and that had taken a big commitment, he already knew. Asking to let someone share that secret, and the commitment that came with it, was even bigger.

"Kibi never should've opened his big mouth…but we never could stop him," she hissed in frustration. Finally she turned around to face Yoshoku. "Doesn't your little group need you?"

He shook his head, got out his phone and showed an image from that afternoon's big news story, showing Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Utsura next to him waving to the cameras. "Hidenaga's got enough people backing him up already…he can spare one to somebody else who needs it."

See you neXt gaMe