Tenkuji Takeru is alive – and he is so, so grateful for that.

He had died – on his birthday, talk about irony – and then he had died three more times while trying to come back to life.

But he made it – one hundred and ninety-eight days later, at the very last minute. He had given up his chance, on that last day, so that everyone who had died during that last battle could come back, because that was more than fair, they had never asked to be involved and it would have been selfish to spend a wish on himself when he could save so many others. The Great Eye threw his revival in – he really and truly had not expected that. Maybe he should have – there was precedent, after all. It had revived the greatest foes of some of his predecessors just to have a set of powers available for later.

He had died, and then died even more times before coming back to life, but he's alive now, and that's what matters.

Although… there might be a few… residual side effects from his time as a ghost.

Ever since he was eight, ever since his father died, Takeru had always had the urge to help. That feeling of "go and help them, they're in trouble, go help." That has been there for ten and a half years, and it is part of who he is, and it isn't going away.

Being able to help, having the strength and ability to help people through so many different problems now… that's a blessing in and of itself. He can help, and whenever he can, he will.

It does prove problematic with regards to his new pain tolerance.

Namely, how messed up it is.

In fairness, taking damage couldn't kill him while he was dead. So, yeah, he got used to taking hits that if he were corporeal, would definitely have destroyed him. (Being slammed through walls. Electrocution. Dropping a city on himself. Entering the upper atmosphere. All that just as he was starting out, before being dead was a normal fact of life.) He took so many risks, and they were all worth it to save everyone that he did.

And each and every hit hurt, still, even with the armor and powers, even though he was a ghost. Each and every hit still hurt. So he learned to tune it out – he had to, if he was going to continue. First the severe blows, the ones that would have crippled him at minimum, or more likely would have killed him if he weren't already dead. Those had to go. Then the larger blows, that should have left him reeling in pain. They didn't help, and he didn't need to really worry about staying injured, so it was fine. Eventually he became more-or-less numb to even the smaller amounts of pain.

Now that he's alive, well… Normal, every-day injuries don't really register as much, not in the right ways. It's not like he's the only one, though! Alain's senses are too active, because being flesh and blood is still new to him. Makoto varies between 'too much' and 'not enough', because while he spent years as an Eyecon, which made him lose some of his edge to sensation, he also has a habit of ignoring how heavily injured he may or may not be.

So Takeru's not alone.

He is, however, the worst offender.

So, when they're having a cookout, he gets caught up in chopping wood for the campfire. And doesn't notice for a half an hour that his hands are raw and bleeding from not wearing gloves. The antiseptic Onari uses as he's bandaging them stings more than the cuts did.

His resistance to pain is even higher when he's suited up, and that's true for Makoto and Alain too. (The two of them were projections from eyecons for much longer than he was, and have been dealing with a lot of the same adjustments.) And all three of them are still Kamen Riders, can still transform, are still Ghost and Spectre and Necrom, and they still have to fight sometimes.

When he was dead he could levitate as a Rider, and that hasn't changed, even though he's in his own body now. He lands wrong in a fight and keeps fighting. He can't balance properly on his feet, so he switches fighting styles and floats until the enemy goes down. Takeru drops his transformation and goes back to normal – and lands on the ankle he twisted.

Akari was pissed at him. She lectured him, while stomping around the library/lab/makeshift med-bay. Makoto wrapped his ankle, giving the both of them judgmental looks before telling Akari to "Quit pacing, already. Neither of us can stop watching you, and you're making this a lot harder."

Well, maybe the looks Makoto was shooting at them were less judgmental and more concerned. But it's not like he has any room to talk. He was running off to fight his doppelgangers constantly as the conflict escalated, and he was completely physical at the time.

At least when Takeru screws up, he does it in plain sight. So, really, Makoto doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Heh. "Leg to stand on." Pun totally unintended, but also totally appropriate, and definitely not to be said out loud right now. Or probably ever. …Okay, maybe keep it in reserve for a better time, but not right now.

Still, though. Accidental injuries aside, Takeru is… working on it. He'll be fine, he just needs get used to a new baseline for fighting. Just needs to re-learn how to tell when he needs to stop fighting and fall back.

All told, Akari and Onari are completely justified in frequently reminding him that he has an actual body now.

But to be fair, falling back was not an option.

Not when they were the only two Riders available to fight.

Not when two of his best friends have already been left unconscious in a hospital.

(When none of them have really learned how not to overdo it yet.)

Not when it's really, truly life or death.

He can't retreat.

Not when he's fighting for Akari's life.

So.

As he gets thrown through walls, he gets back up.

When he gets knocked out of his transformation, he goes back into the fight.

When he gets knocked out of Boost, he goes back in.

When he gets knocked out of Grateful.

Out of Infinite.

He goes in with a brand new form – one that just barely kept him from getting hit, one that is three luminaries in one, one that is based on connections.

Emu is in danger. And Takeru can't – won't – let him die.

Takeru grabs the madman attacking him.

And…

Oh. Oh no.

It's been a while since he's picked up on someone's memories. Not since he was revived, in fact.

(In retrospect, that really should have clued him in that something was going very wrong.)

Even after seeing that, and seeing what this madman is willing to do for revenge, Takeru still fights.

Even as his overwhelming need to help outweighs the fact that every fiber of his now very mortal body is screaming in pain.

He has to keep going.

He's had worse, after all.

Right?

Ghost and Ex-Aid – mostly Ex-Aid, although he doesn't remember doing it – win the fight, and Takeru is very definitely not going to tell his successor about either of the things he saw in that warehouse.

They walk out, and honestly? The student who was almost turned into a monster seems to be in better shape right now than either of the people who saved him.

And there's all of his friends, and they're battered but Makoto and Alain are awake and they're walking and they're okay. And there's–

There's Akari, she's alright, they did it, she's fine, she's alive and–

And the next thing Takeru knows he's on his back, on the ground, his friends tear-stained faces looking down at him.

Every fiber of his very, very mortal body is screaming in pain, especially his chest, what happ-

Oh. OH.

He is in so much trouble.

…Well, at least this time he's not the only one getting lectured.

(Takeru considers making some sort of "small miracles" joke, but this is. Not the time.)

Everyone is getting several lectures, actually.

The first comes from one Kagami Hiiro, Kamen Rider Brave. It's mostly about "knowing your limits" and "know when to withdraw" and things like that.

That's fair. Although the impact of this particular lecture is diminished slightly as soon as Hiiro steps out of the three-bed hospital room. He doesn't even have the chance to fully close the door before he starts receiving the exact same lecture from Taiga – Kamen Rider Snipe.

And why is it a three-bed room?

That is part of lecture number two, given by a rather heavily bandaged Doctor Emu.

Apparently Makoto and Alain had not, in fact, been discharged from the hospital before taking off with everyone else to go find Takeru.

So, along with another discussion on "not overdoing it," lecture number two was mostly about what was going to happen for the next few days.

Makoto and Alain were being kept over the next day for observation. Originally, they were only going to be there overnight, but then they busted themselves out and potentially (probably) aggravated their injuries.

Takeru, on the other hand, was going to be here for several days, on account of the whole 'cardiac arrest' thing.

Yeah… that makes sense.

As for them all being in one room, they are also all considered flight risks, and it will be considerably simpler to keep an eye on the three of them if they're in one place to start with.

That also make sense, and it's also a bit of a recurring problem, so it's fair.

Granted, Doctor Emu gets pulled right into lecture number three along with Takeru, which comes from Officer Tomari. This one is about asking for help when you need it.

"There were three veteran riders right outside and we were already done, you kids were in over your head and we could have helped you!"

(It sounds like he's blaming himself for how this fight ended, but he really shouldn't. This was all on Ghost and Ex-Aid. Drive and Gaim and Wizard had no way of knowing what was going on in that warehouse.)

Doctor Emu tries to point out that Officer Tomari is apparently only two years older than him, and is met with a very stern glare.

Lecture number three-and-a-half comes the next morning when Officer Tomari returns with a very guilty looking Onari and Akari in tow. That one winds up being more of an interrogation about what exactly happened during that six and a half month period.

(This man is going to be a great father, if his assorted disappointed, concerned, and proud dad-friend lectures and expressions are anything to go by. Takeru's starting to think that he was being practiced on last year, even before the whole 'time capsule proposal' thing.)

Certain things are left out, and thankfully the others pick up on Takeru's reluctance to touch on certain topics – how he got Infinite, giving up those two chances, his connecting with peoples souls. Makoto and Alain are leaving out things of their own, as well – Makoto's going against his doppelgangers, and some of the more callous actions Alain took among them.

But through all of the examinations and lectures and discussions and debriefings… there was no chance to talk to anyone about what Takeru saw in the warehouse.

And since they left it out of what they told everyone else, there was no good time to tell his friends about the soul-connection ability coming back, either.

So Takeru just. Doesn't tell anyone.

And the real problem with not telling anyone is that it apparently wasn't a one-off thing.

There are still occasional fights for Ghost, Specter, and Necrom, and the connections start kicking in for a short time after battles.

After the times he uses his soul as a suit of armor and as a shield and as a weapon, bringing everything about himself into battle and exposing it-and-him to so much risk.

(They'd asked how they were still able to transform, shortly after everything else about the Eyecon system shut down and stopped. Edith – the sage and magistrate and conspirator – had absolutely no idea. Well, it's not like they hadn't gone off the script of what was supposed to be possible before.)

For a while, Takeru was only picking up on other's memories after battle. But then it started happening during battle. And then a few hours before battle actually broke out.

He started using it as a warning system, and called it 'intuition' and 'just a hunch.'

And that went okay for a while. Well. For certain definitions of okay.

Then, one year after death number five and revival number two, another Earth appears in the sky.

One year of seeing into peoples minds.

Takeru still hasn't told anyone.

It wasn't their battle – none of their enemies were involved – but they had been there, so they helped. It's what Kamen Riders do. They – OOO and Fourze and Gaim and Ghost – were stalling for time, so that their successors could take down the two madmen that were trying to become a god.

So, strictly speaking, Takeru hadn't needed to go into Infinite. Even Grateful was probably overkill – he could have stopped powering up by the time he used Boost.

Takeru was showing off, and he knew it. The other veteran Riders were showing off too, and each and every one of them is well aware of that fact.

They had fought hard to get to where they are now, and showboating… it happens.

Getting to go all out on a nigh-endless horde of robots was incredibly cathartic, though. Takeru could get his mind off of the past year of seeing into so many other minds.

Except, uh. It seems that using Infinite again, after so long of not needing to, has resulted in his touch-telepathy-memory-viewing kicking into overdrive.

It keeps happening, and grows more frequent, and now it has nothing to do with battle or transforming.

And it's not something that would never come up in conversation normally, so what's the point of bringing it up?

Takeru does not tell anyone.

Summer, 2018.

Eventually, at a get together, things get worse. Or, more obviously wrong, anyway.

Build and Cross-Z – Sento and Ryuuga – are brought to them, by Officer Tomari, no less.

Kiriya knocks them over, and Takeru goes to help them get up, but doesn't quite make it.

When the two newest Riders start summarizing their struggles, it's so, so hard to listen to.

Sento is tearing himself to pieces over what happened and he'd… oh, wow, he actually killed someone, that's- and he thinks that-

'Sento thinks he should have died as penance.'

That's – no.

Before he can think better of it, Takeru is halfway across the room.

"Stop that!"

The sound of his palm connecting with his successors cheek silences the room.

"Gagh!" Arcs of electricity shoot from the driver, dropping Sento to the ground. A rough hand picks it up. "This belt's bad news, right?"

"How many times? How many more times did you pull things like that?"

Takeru shakes, and everyone is looking at him now, they have to know something's up…

The memory keeps playing as he goes to sit back down.

"If you died, it'd make Misora sad. But me?"

"How many times did you try to throw yourselves away?"

"Nobody's gonna care if I live or die."

"Both of you?"

Ryuuga starts to list off times Sento tried to 'leave.' Times he tried to give everything. But he's not mentioning whatever happened with that driver. Still hasn't mentioned how he and Doctor Emu met Eiji – how he was perfectly willing to fall so the senior Rider didn't. He clearly hasn't told Sento about that, either.

"…You're both idiots." Ohh, no, now he's really shaking, someone's going to realize that he knows more than they do… "You can't fix anything – can't help anyone if you're not around to do it. Just. Stop it." Something hurts- Ah. His nails are digging into his palms. Whoops. "That's enough."

This is- this is all getting to be too much. "Sorry. I'll be back in a little. Just need some air."

Ryuuga grimaces. "Ah, man, how bad did we just screw up?"

Takeru shakes his head. "You just hit some sore spots, that's all."

'A couple more than I can actually say, but there's enough that people already know…'

"Just give me a few minutes, okay?"

Partially closing the door behind him, he stops in the hallway, before slowly lowering himself to the floor.

Takeru still doesn't tell anyone, but… he can't keep this up much longer.

He's not lying when he says his hand still stings. But that's because he was clenching his fist so hard last night his nails nearly drew blood. He's rubbing at it because it's a dirty rotten traitor. He was supposed to be fine for the next few days, he'd run into someone on the bus up here 'accidentally'.

He should have been fine.

It's fall 2018, and legally and officially speaking, Takeru is turning 21 soon. Unofficially speaking, they don't really celebrate his birthday in October anymore. They save it for April – save the celebrations for when he was finally able to truly be "eighteen and one day."

Enigma was almost a year ago, and Takeru has been seeing memories again for almost two years. Maybe he should say that it's still, instead of again. Maybe the months between April and December, back in 2016, were just a temporary lull, and this is here to stay.

It's been happening at least once every three days for months now.

But that's… that's not important, there's things to do!

The temple is hosting this month's get-together. Makoto and Alain are here, visiting from over in Alain's world. They – Makoto, Kanon, and Alain – spend about half their time in either world now, now that it's going much better over there. Sometimes Alia even joins them when they come over. It's really nice when everyone from those days can get together – it's been harder to all hang out as time moves onward.

The weather is starting to get cold, and since there are more people in the residence part of the temple than usual, Takeru's had to set up some space heaters around the various rooms.

And yes, those are still kicking in, but this is. This is just odd.

"Would you two like some blankets, or something? It's really no problem for me to go get some."

Sento shakes his head. "No, that's okay. We're set."

To be blunt, this is one of the oddest things Takeru has ever seen. And he had Yurusen floating around the house for the better part of six months. She's still here, actually, just furrier and not nearly as able to communicate with them. Even after Edith had moved back to the Ganma realm, once they had fixed the atmosphere, Yurusen refused to go with him. Everyone's pretty sure she's still giving them grief constantly, but since she's a cat again and no longer speaking Japanese, they can't tell what she's saying.

Ryuuga is wearing a t-shirt, and looks perfectly fine with the temperature. He also has the single most put-upon, long-suffering, and 'secretly' affectionate expression. The reason why is pretty clear.

Sento is apparently far less okay with the cold in general. His heavy tan coat is draped over one half of his body, and the rest of him is sitting next to Ryuuga as close as he can without straight-up clinging to him like a koala.

It's… to be honest, it's kind of adorable. Takeru makes a mental note to see if he can move up his date in the pool for when those two officially become a couple. (The furthest out anyone has is February. A lot of people think they already are together, but haven't announced it yet. He didn't think they were yet, but seeing this? Takeru's reconsidering it.)

It's adorable, but it also raises a whole different set of questions.

"Any chance you guys could elaborate?" Makoto chuckles from where he's reading.

"He makes a good personal heater." Sento says, an expression of near-bliss on his face.

Ryuuga sighs. "I run really warm." He curls the arm that's not currently being held captive. "Wanna see?"

It's fine. It's probably fine. He's careful before getting together with other Riders. He'd made sure to 'read' someone 'normal' today, by 'accidentally' bumping into a store clerk. That should take care of it for the next day or two. Right? Right.

He puts a hand on Ryuuga's offered bicep.

A tower over a burning red landscape. A city is dissolving as someone laughs – it sounds like it's whoever's memory this is but it's definitely not Ryuuga, so who is that?

"What is that what happened why-"

"-eru? Takeru!"

Something hits the back of Takeru's shins. He blinks, and realizes he's backed up into the kotatsu, and has also started crying. Also, that he'd been speaking out loud. Makoto had called out to him to snap him out of it.

"Oh, come on, I don't run that hot!"

"No, it's, uh, I have to, uh, I'll be back," Takeru stammers, before turning and running.

Makoto yells after him as he retreats.

"Takeru!"