Two more clicks, and two little sprites appeared. A fighter jet, and a motorcycle colored a friendly yellow with giant eyes in place of its headlight. Jet-kun, and Buddy Bike.
"Okay, the Chibi Gamers are set to record," Kiiko said.
"You think they'll be able to keep up?" Kensei asked, a slight smirk on his face.
Kiiko smirked right back at him. "I'm kind of hoping they don't." She held out her hand for Kensei to take. He did, and a tingle traveled up his body as Kiiko disappeared and the light of another life started to glow in his eyes.
His Gamer Driver was already fastened around his waist. A tiny effort of will and the Mighty Hand appeared on his arm. "Henshin!" Kensei said in two voices, locking Mighty Fest Infinity into the back of the gauntlet before bringing that fist down on top of Sensou Chambara in his belt.
There was no chance to hear the noise their new game made as it game to life, and filled their combined being with its power. Kamen Rider Utsura's normal undersuit formed around his body before the heavy samurai armor of his Sensou Chambara form spun through the air and attached themselves over it, even the banners saying "Game Console Warrior".
But then Utsura jumped straight up off the hospital roof, much higher than he should've been able to with that form's emphasis on power, and sacrifice of mobility. The armor plating shattered, leaving Utsura hovering far above the ground, only a silhouette showing a starscape passing through his body.
The Rider didn't fall back to Earth. He drifted down with majestic slowness, arms held out at his sides with fingers open, basking in the incredible power of his new form. For two minutes the two Chibi Gamers just hovered around the rooftop. All they could do was watch the stars scroll by on the dark outline that was Utsura's new evolution.
And suddenly Kamen Rider Utsura became a black and white blur zipping across the hospital helipad and to the fence surrounding the roof, arced up over it and blurred out of sight as he dropped over the side.
Jet-kun was the first to take off after him, blasting to the edge of the roof and going into a power dive after Utsura. Buddy Bike wasn't as quick to start driving after their target. Jet-kun had him beat for maneuverability, but once he'd had a chance to build up some speed, there wasn't a Chibi Gamer in the country that could catch up to Buddy Bike.
The little sprite revved his adorable tiny motor and zipped up, over and down the fence and straight down the side of Seito University Hospital, leaving a sizzling rubbery trail from his little tires on the walls that was sure to get Kiiko and Kensei in trouble when they got back. Then he hopped over a row of cars to drop into the street and took off after the dark shape already fading into the distance.
What the Chibi Gamer was seeing wasn't actually Kamen Rider Utsura, however. It was just the tip of the long muffler stretching back almost a block behind the hero as he ran, and Buddy Bike was nowhere near as close to Utsura as his little AI thought it was. Stars spun along its length just like that rest of Utsura's body. He was almost nothing but a humanoid window into the depths of space.
Utsura easily outran a car, then another one, before turning and finding himself running alongside a train. He waved to a kid looking out the window, then passed the train with no trouble, running even faster.
With perfect precision he snaked around the road avoiding cars, trucks and people on their bicycles.
"How fast do you think we're going, Kiiko-chan?" Utsura asked, smiling at the amazing exhilaration and forgetting again he didn't have to talk out loud for her to hear him.
"FAST," Kiiko giggled.
He climbed a staircase next to the road at such speed Utsura literally went airborne when he got to the top, almost literally flying over the roofs of buildings and elevated train tracks. His muffler formed a gigantic arch behind him. At the top of his jump it was nearly half a mile high, and stretched even farther as gravity started pulling even the powerful Kamen Rider back to earth.
By then he'd left the Chibi Gamers far behind a long time ago, and finally stopped on the edge of an old factory in a part of town he'd never seen before. "Kiiko? How long were we running like that?"
"Ummm…," Kiiko's voice hummed faintly, as if coming down from the thrill of their amazing speed. "Ummm….I think…it says forty-three seconds."
"Damn…And how far did we go?" Utsura asked. He looked backward and could already see the red trail they'd taken. Leading from up in the air back over rooftops. It faded and instead Utsura saw a map of the city in his HUD, showing a little flashing arrow over Seito University Hospital, and a blinking image of his new form's face all the way across the city. Practically where it turned into countryside. The blinking faces of Jet-kun and Buddy Bike were heading their way on the map, but they were moving slowly at best.
Silently, both of their minds let the facts of their test run sink in. "We ran across most of the city in less than a minute," Utsura thought out loud.
"Yeah…"
"I could never go that fast even on one of the Cruisers! This new game's incredible!" Utsura exclaimed.
"Yeah…" Kiiko said again.
"Is something wrong?"
Suddenly her voice went silent, but Utsura could tell why. Just at the edges of their combined senses, he could feel a buried power. The longer they waited the more they could feel the burn of…whatever it was.
Then just as quickly it was gone. Utsura waited a few more minutes, expecting some sign that Hourakou Byougen or some other Corrupture was about to attack him. Wouldn't it make sense to do it now, before Utsura had a chance to get used to his new powers?
"I hear what you're saying, but that isn't how he really works, is it?" Kiiko's question interrupted his thoughts.
"No, it's not," Utsura admitted. "He'd wait until he set up some kind of really dramatic scene. I never thought about how weird all that stuff is in video games until it started happening to me in real life…"
"Hey, let's see how fast we can really go in this form, huh?" Kiiko said.
As soon as she said it Utsura was sure she was trying to distract him from his worried thoughts, but he went along with it anyway. "Yeah! I bet those Chibi Gamers you set up won't catch me even I along the edge of town back to the hospital."
"I bet we'll be back before Poppy-nee even notices you're gone before she said you could leave the hospital…" Kiiko teased him.
"If I get in trouble over this I'm bringing you down with me," Utsura snickered. "You're my trainer, after all!"
"What? That's not fair!" Kiiko protested.
Without any reply except a slightly mean chuckle, Utsura took off running again, his muffler stretching out behind him again even when he turned a corner at blazing speed.
He was gone so quickly he didn't even notice the bright purple insect on top of the old factory building. It watched Utsura go, then buzzed its wings and took to the air, soon disappearing into the sky.
It felt weird taking the train home from the hospital after feeling superspeed for the first time, but Kensei made himself do it. His new form was incredible, and he was sure when it was time to fight Hourakou with it, this war would finally be ending.
And eventually he'd just go back to being Kensei Hidenaga. Kamen Rider Utsura would be something he'd done once for a while when he needed to, but eventually he and the others would move on from all that.
Didn't it just make sense to hold onto who he was, so he wasn't left spending days or weeks or months trying to figure out how to be a regular person again?
"Tadaima!" Kensei called out when he opened the door to his mother's house. The lights were on in the kitchen, and a thick scent of spicy cooking wafted out and overpowered his senses. "Kaa-san? What are you making in there?"
His mother stuck her head around the corner, grinning like a demon. "Curry! To celebrate you coming home from the hospital! It's your favorite!"
"Well, yeah, but, I was only in the hospital for like one night," Kensei tried to reply, then gave up. There was no point in trying to talk his mom out of something she was excited about, he reminded himself. Something else to get used to again after his time as a Kamen Rider was over.
"By the way, Kensei-kun, do you know what this is about?" she asked suddenly, before she thrust a note into his hands. Curious, he opened the folded paper as his mom leaned back into the kitchen.
Kensei almost dropped it when he read what it said.
'Mom, how are you? It's been a long time, and I've got a few things to take care of first, but I can't wait to meet with you and Kensei-san! I hear he's gotten so strong, maybe I won't even recognize him anymore when I see him again! Boy, will I have some stories to tell you two!
-Love, Yuuma'
"Have you seen Yuuma?" Mrs. Hidenaga called from the kitchen. "If anyone had, it would've been you."
"…no, I haven't seen him. But I'll be sure to keep an eye out," Kensei said.
His mom was being awfully calm about her missing son supposedly reappearing, but then again, she'd probably been convinced in some part of her brain that sooner or later Yuuma would find a way back. He'd always been the hero of the family.
But her other son had actually lived as a hero for long time now, and the things he'd learned told him to be careful of a letter like this. The kinds of people who made heroes necessary—like Hourakou Byougen—to them, the truth was a plaything. And this note saying Kensei's older brother was going to meet with the rest of the family again, Kensei was sure it was a threat.
Sleep didn't come easy that night. Kensei knew Hourakou had to be up to something, but part of the youth's mind told him to wait a while before going after this. Hourakou got his sick little enjoyment out of watching people do whatever he told them to do, usually backed up by threats. That was just what the villains of video games did, after all.
But Kensei didn't feel like giving the Corrupture the idea that they had that kind of power over people. Yes, Kensei would face this little threat, but he'd do it when he had a plan. When he knew the Corrupture wouldn't be able to force him into doing something stupid and dangerous on their terms.
He wasn't going to dance when Hourakou told him to dance anymore.
Unless…
…unless, just maybe, that note really had been from Yuuma. And it wasn't a trap from their enemies.
His brother was always his hero, after all. If anyone could escape from Corrupture control through sheer willpower, wouldn't it be Yuuma Hidenaga?
Or was that just what the optimistic side of Kensei's mind wanted to believe?
All those questions were still spinning through his brain when he finally drifted off to sleep. A strange dream formed, where he and Yuuma were standing on opposite sides of a stage, playing in a rock concert. Kensei had never touched a guitar in his life, but somehow the crowd screaming out from the darkened area beyond the stage seemed to be screaming in excitement.
A quick observation showed him he and Yuuma weren't actually a stage, however: they were standing on blocks bobbing up and down while a drummer pounded away on their own instrument, ignoring the brothers. Other blocks drifted by with symbols on them. Out of instinct, Kensei pointed the head of his guitar at one showing a Yen symbol and played a loud chord. The block exploded and Kensei was showered with coins.
"That one shot doesn't mean you win!" Yuuma called over to him.
"I'm dreaming of another stupid minigame," Kensei said realized. "Does that mean I'm stuck thinking about things like this forever?"
"Maybe it means you're dedicated to your duty," Yuuma called back and blasted a few more blocks. "Ever think of that?"
Kensei grunted but fired at several blocks too. Hearts floated up out of most. A bodiless oni head made a face at him. "You're not really my brother, you're just something I'm imagining. What do you know?"
"Everything you do! Including the stuff you might be afraid to admit. Something to think about, hmmm?"
Blocks flew by Kensei that he didn't bother firing at, leaving them free to be shot down by Yuuma instead. Something inside Kensei flared up, and he blasted at blocks that were closer to Yuuma to make hearts float up and coins fall down on his side. He could hear Yuuma making a smug little laugh even over the noise of the drummer and the crowd.
Dream-Yuuma didn't nothing anything that Kensei didn't know. But Dream-Yuuma had a point all the same.
He was getting tired of the war. But the war wasn't over yet.
And it was time for him to figure out how to deal with this new threat.
"I don't think I like this," Yoshoku mumbled while the elevator took them down to the secret room under the hospital.
"Oh?" Rei asked. "You seemed pretty worried about your friend before. You know, back when he was dying? Now he's better and he as a plan."
"I know," Yoshoku said. "He called and told me that."
Doku shoved his shoulder. "So what don't you think you like about this, Yo-chan?"
Yoshoku shoved his shoulder back at that. "You don't call me that, Dasao. Got it?"
"Got it…Yo-chan," Doku sniggered. Yoshoku was about to slap him on the back of the head, but stopped when he heard Rei giggling softly too.
Their little exchange ended as the elevator stopped and the doors slid opened with a quiet hiss of air. Yoshoku realized he couldn't remember if it had ever done that before or not. How long had they been coming down here, anywhere?
What had Yoshoku been so busy thinking about instead? He couldn't even remember, now.
How long had they been doing this?
"Hey," Rei said. "Is something on your mind?"
"Just kind of wondering. About how it seems like we've always been fighting monsters," Yoshoku answered. "I guess Hidenaga was onto something after all."
"How about you ask him about that after the meeting?" Doku suggested before he slid by the two and went down the hall to the CR Ward.
After a little bit Rei and Yoshoku entered the meeting room too. It seemed everyone else was already waiting for them. Emu Hojo and Hiiro Kagami, exchanging patient but curious looks with Poppy sort of dancing slowly back and forth behind them waiting to hear what Kensei had called them all together to hear. Parado was leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest, looking indifferent like always. Kiriya Kujo was unmissable in a bright orange Hawaiian shirt decorated with small sunsets over an island.
The only doctor Rider who Yoshoku didn't see there was Taiga Hanaya. What was he doing at a time like this?
Kensei and Kiiko were sitting on the other side of the meeting table, Kensei seeming to rest his hand over one of the Gashat-shaped scorch marks on the table on purpose. Doku was standing next to him, waiting patiently for Kensei to address the rest of the group.
"Yoshoku…Rei, right?" Kensei called out to them and smiled lightly. "Thanks for coming, I have kind of a big problem. But I've also kind of got an idea how to deal with it."
"What's your plan?" Kiriya asked. "Bet it'll be fun."
"Hold on," Hiiro interrupted him. "What's this 'kind of big problem' you have, first?"
Kensei took a breath get this all out in one go. "My mother got a note from my brother that he's back and looking forward to seeing us all. But the thing is, my brother's one of the people who disappeared back in Kamen Rider Chronicle. If he's back, I don't think it could be for any other reason except the Corrupture's planning to attack my family. Maybe to force me to walk into a trap so they can get rid of me and not have to worry about what I can do with Mighty Fest."
"You're suggesting we secretly gang up on him to help you? That's where this is going, right?" Yoshoku said, sounding very tired. "He's going to be expecting us to try that, Hidenaga. You know he is. And what about how the other Riders who were outside his little area and couldn't get in after the fight started, no matter what they did?"
Doku and Kiiko shot him harsh looks. Poppy's jaw actually dropped at hearing Yoshoku sounding so dismissive. Kensei, on the other hand, smiled a little in Yoshoku's direction. "Yeah, but if we don't look like we're trying to spring a trap on him before he springs one on us, he'll get suspicious," Kensei explained. "My idea is to make sure he's looking one way, so he doesn't see what we really have coming."
Emu chuckled, and a second later Kiriya joined in too. Hiiro looked at them, said nothing, but laid his elbows on the table and concealed his mouth behind his hands.
Doku was giggling, but looked away when Yoshoku looked over at him. Even Rei nodded along with what Kensei was saying. Kiiko only raised one eyebrow, looking at her oldest friend in curiosity.
It was Yoshoku who broke the silence, and he had the feeling Kensei had been expecting that. There was a knowing smile on Kensei's face when Yoshoku started talking.
"And what do you plan on doing when Hourakou's looking away?"
Kensei smirked wickedly. Such a weird look on him, Yoshoku thought with a shake of his head.
The next day seemed like a very uneventful one. Kiiko and Kensei met up near the park where she'd hidden her little house, then went to a coffee shop a couple of blocks over.
"I don't know, Kensei," Kiiko whispered, looking down at the tea she hadn't touched. "I know we talked about this, but you're taking a really big risk. A really big risk."
"That's what heroes have to do, Kiiko-chan," Kensei replied, but his expression was grave too. He managed a smile and said, "Didn't you always used to say the hero's not allowed to doubt himself when there's trouble, and things like that?"
"Heroes are just people," Kiiko said. "I don't like seeing my friends getting hurt. You're the first friend I ever had, Kensei-san…and you almost died a lot of times by now."
He shook his head, but his smile remained. "The hero has to lose a few times on his quest. Otherwise, it's no big deal when he beats the villains, right?"
"…I didn't used to talk like that."
"You're right. You were a lot more energetic than I am. Please don't forget how that felt, I'd hate to lose my old friend." Kiiko looked surprised to hear him say that, but smiled a little and nodded. Meanwhile Kensei looked around, finished his coffee and stood up. "Let's go. It's time to start looking for our target."
A minute later Kensei walked out of the coffee shop.
Alone.
He started a casual walk down the street. Trying not to look like he was looking for anybody, Kensei scanned the people walking, biking, even driving by for the familiar strong features of his brother.
Foot traffic came to a street crossing. When the signal changed, Kensei went across to the opposite corner.
Two young thugs who looked kind of Emu and Parado in black leather jackets and latex scars attached to their cheeks watched him go.
More blocks passed, and Kensei was just part of the crowd as it squirmed past buildings and alongside full streets. A young couple who looked like Yoshoku and Rei watched him go as he passed the outdoor dining area where they sat. One young man who looked an awful lot like Doku Dasao in a trench coat passed him with only the slightest nod before slipping past into the crowd again.
Kensei didn't spare the passerby much attention; he'd spotted a familiar face step into the stream of pedestrians and start walking the same way he was going. Instincts took over when he recognized the face.
It belonged to his older brother, Yuuma.
Trying as hard as he could not to look like he was hurrying through the crowd not to lose sight of his brother, Kensei hurried through the crowed not to lose sight of his brother. Some people gave him sharp looks as they were nudged out of the way. If they knew what was going on, they'd have thanked him, Kensei justified it to himself.
Yuuma kept ahead of him, almost as if he knew Kensei was there, following. He never showed it. Didn't look back, didn't stop. Especially didn't threaten anyone. But as Kensei followed the crowds thinned out, cars disappeared until they'd reached the loading dock behind an old warehouse.
By then Kensei was sure Yuuma knew he was being followed, and probably who it was. He stopped and very slowly turned around to face Kensei. "Hello, little brother," Yuuma said.
"Hello, Hourakou Byougen," Kensei replied. "You've been sending notes to my family, huh? Probably trying to goad me into a trap."
"Why not?" Yuuma said with a sneer, now speaking in Hourakou's voice. "It worked: here you are!" He raised a finger to the sky and a blast of purple surged from it, and formed a dome around the pair.
Water started seeping out the ground at their feet. Within seconds it was past Kensei's ankles. It was like the ground inside the Game Area was draining into a lake.
Or maybe, as Kensei thought when he watched his brother's body begin deforming into something monstrous, maybe more like an ocean.
An ocean for the deformed purple squid-like sea monster that was sneering down at Kensei with its skull-like face from almost twice his height. The water was up to his knees by then.
"What game will you put out in some desperate attempt to fight back?" the Corrupture asked, his voice not distorted by his transformation. "Maybe you'll give up, knowing there's no way out of this one before you drown. I kind of hope not, though…seeing you fight to the end would make this all worth it."
Kensei didn't answer the monster's gloating. Instead he just locked his Driver around his waist and in a flash the Mighty Hand appeared on his arm. The skull serving for Hourakou's face seemed to spread into a grin. "Oh, good!" he purred. "I get a fight to the finish after all! I'll be sure to let Ex-Aid know whether he puts up a better fight than you do."
The water had gotten up to Kensei's waist and he felt the ground fall away under his feet. He got Mighty Fest Infinity out. When he saw it, Hourakou made a horrible bubbling laugh that kicked up waves all over around him, almost knocking the game out of Kensei's hand.
"Either you're joking," the monster giggled, "or you've gone—" He stopped short when he saw something else in Kensei's other hand.
A purple Bug Visor.
With the familiar face of Kiiko Mishiranu on the screen.
And when Kensei hit a button on the side a pink stream of matter swirled out of the end twisted around Kensei's head a few times before being absorbed into his body and giving him a soft glow.
"Henshin!"
Hourakou was already trying to bring a giant purple tentacle down on Kensei's head before the word was out of his mouth. The appendage smashed down and sent huge waves of water ripping out in both directions, but he was already too late.
Kamen Rider Utsura was nowhere near the water. Instead Hourakou noticed a dark speck in the sky, leaving a dark trail behind it. It ran—he could see it taking long, blindingly quick steps—down the sky in a wide arc that went to the very edge of the Game Area. An arc that was bringing it right up to Hourakou's face.
The Corrupture tried to throw up its thick tentacles in front of itself to try and block the fist it saw coming. It didn't make much difference; the shockwave from Utsura's punch threw him all the way back through the Game Area where he crashed into the wall with a wet splat.
This Rider's new form…it was powerful.
Already the Rider was coming in for another attack, reaching into the void of the scarf trailing from his shoulders and producing a weapon with a long handle like a spear. "Gashacon Omni: Harpoon!"
Its neon green handle and the pink of its point doing nothing to convince Hourakou Byougen it wasn't as deadly as any other weapon a Kamen Rider had wielded.
A tentacle lashed out and coiled around the handle of the harpoon. "Got you now, haven't I? This didn't last nearly as long as I hoped." Hourakou grinned with his skeletal face and tried to rip the weapon out of the Rider's hand.
"Since you're in a hurry, I'll try to end it fast," Utsura answered.
A weird glow came from Utsura's eyes as they wrestled for his weapon. Suddenly Hourakou noticed that Utsura was bracing himself; but how could he possibly do that standing on water?!
And out of the water rose an alligator whose scaly back Utsura was standing on.
Just before Hourakou felt three more bite into the tips of his tentacles under the water.
"Oh yeah, I changed the game a little. This one's called 'Gator Skater'," Utsura explained. Was there a teasing little laugh behind his words? "It's where you ride around the lake on an alligator's back."
Hourakou had no chance to come up with a biting retort. More alligators were swimming up and biting him, pulling him underwater and letting Utsura wrench his new weapon out of the Corrupture's grip. As Hourakou turned into a dark shape under the cover of the water, Utsura spun his harpoon over his head once, took quick aim and threw it with all his strength.
If he hadn't been too busy flinging away the alligators Utsura had somehow called to help him, Hourakou might have seen the weapon coming in time to do something about it. Utsura's harpoon slammed into his rubbery body and pushed him down until he hit the bottom of the digitized water he'd created for this battle.
"That's right," Hourakou reminded himself. "I created this Game Area. How can the Rider change things about it?"
What passed for blood in the virus's body ran cold.
Raw strength was one thing. There were ways around that. But if Hourakou's control over the battlefield was taken away…
…he didn't let the thought finish.
Instead he pushed down with all his tentacles and launched himself back up to the surface. Hourakou wasn't surprised to see a dark shape coming back down at him the other way.
Utsura was wielding a weapon in both hands, but not a harpoon like he had before. Instead there was a cone with what looked like a fan inside on the end of the handle. A fan almost half as tall as Utsura was.
A fan that spun to life and whipped a whirlpool down at Hourakou. Again the squid-like Corrupture braced himself with tentacles out in front of his rubbery body.
This time, it worked.
He was pushed back. A little. Slowly. But Hourakou gathered his numerous arms behind him and pushed against the Rider's whirlpool with all his monstrous strength. A grin formed on his skeletal face as he came shooting up, holding out his tentacles to grab the Rider and crush the life out of him.
The Rider who suddenly flipped his weapon around, the other end suddenly having a net on the end that Utsura used to snare Hourakou, and fling him over his head. Hourakou's grin faded rapidly as he was catapulted out of the water.
Coming down right in the middle of a crowd of grinning alligators.
Hourakou threw his tentacles wide to grab Kamen Rider Utsura's scaly little friends before they had a chance to grab him. Tentacles looped around most of the alligators and threw them into the distance, but a few sank their teeth into his tentacles and more of them were rising out of the water to snap at Hourakou's arms. The ones who managed to get a bite down on his arms pulled in all different direction. It didn't hurt much, but Hourakou was sure that wasn't the intent; they were just trying to keep him busy until Kamen Rider Utsura could catch up to him again.
A glance over Hourakou's shoulder told him that wouldn't be long. Utsura was zooming in his direction, riding on the back of another alligator. It even sounded like an outboard motor.
"Play with one of your own friends, Rider!" Hourakou snarled. He whipped two of his tentacles in Utsura's direction, snapping the alligators loose and sending them spinning wildly in Utsura's direction.
The Rider batted the scaly predators away with no trouble at all. "You're not just gonna be able to play your little games this time, Hourakou!" Utsura yelled. "This time, you're gonna lose! You're gonna see what real people do when you threaten them, not people in a stupid video game!"
"You think they're stupid with all the time you put into learning how they work to be a better Kamen Rider?!" Hourakou sneered and whipped all the rest of the alligators clinging to his body at Utsura in a storm of green missiles.
The very ground seemed to quiver as Kamen Rider Ex-Aid stomped up to the edge of the Game Area in his heavy mech-suit. Last time even all of its power hadn't been enough to get through the walls of such a battlefield.
Kamen Rider Brave said exactly what he was thinking. "We're doctors. We have to try, don't we? We can't get in, but we have to try anyway." He turned his head toward his old comrade. "That's what you were going to say. Wasn't it?"
"I guess you know me pretty well, Hiiro-san," Ex-Aid chuckled weakly. He stared through the wall into the expanse of ocean inside, and inside could make out what looked like an endless ocean. Far in the distance a huge tentacled creature, colored an evil shade of purple, flinging what looked like alligators at something small and black.
"Wait…isn't that Kensei-san's new form?" Ex-Aid asked, pointing with a giant pink finger.
"It sure is," said Kamen Riders Sling and Rune at the same time. The two exchanged a sharp look before focusing on the battle unfolding inside the ocean again.
Rune muttered, "Looks like we're stuck waiting on Hidenaga again…"
The Kamen Rider jumped over them easily, trailing his muffler and leaving a door into space the alligators disappeared into.
Kamen Rider Utsura threw a series of lightning-fast punches that rebounded off the monster's body. Utsura ran into him next, looping the end of his muffler around a tentacle without Hourakou noticing; the Corrupture was lifting up his arms to try to crush Utsura.
But the Rider was too fast. He became a dark blur interrupted only by the stars streaking by inside his outline, running in circles across the water without sinking. How could anyone, even a Kamen Rider, be so fast on foot?
Hourakou didn't have long to think about that; in less than two seconds Utsura had completely tied his muffler around Hourakou's arms and pulled them painfully tight against the monster's body.
And with his muffler still stretching out to an impossible length, Utsura jumped. With his fist outstretched.
Jumped until he was high enough to hit the very top of the Game Area' dome.
Utsura's knuckles hit the top of the area.
And it cracked.
Hourakou choked.
The cracks Utsura's punch had made ran all the way down to the ground, and strangely with no sound at all, the dome fell apart.
Ex-Aid and the other Kamen Riders outside the dome flinched as the transparent wall came down. They expected the water inside to come out in a giant tidal wave, but as soon as it spilled past the edge Hourakou had created, the water just disappeared into thin air.
"Hidenaga, you bastard," Sling muttered, but there was a laugh behind his words. He was the first one to rush forward and join the fight, only partly thanks to the jetpack built into his new armor. Hourakou was flopping around trying to stand, but with no water anymore and tied up by Utsura's muffler, his suction-cupped limbs kept sliding on the flat surface of the street.
But it was Rune who struck the first blow. A laughing fireball shot from the jewel of his staff. Halfway to Hourakou it suddenly doubled in size before it exploded on the side of Hourakou's head, leaving a huge burn scar.
It was like a bullseye waiting for another attack to hit it, and Kamen Rider Ex-Aid supplied one with a powerful punch from his extending fist. Kamen Rider Brave summoned glowing arrows that pelted into Hourakou's body, glowing twice as bright as usual. Kamen Rider Sling turned his twin Vulcan cannons on the giant purple fish out of water. They seemed to spin twice as fast, the shells growing bigger in the air and exploding all over Hourakou's bound body.
But it was Kamen Rider Utsura himself who finished the job. His long muffler wrapped around his body as he came down, forming itself into a spinning drill. It crashed through Hourakou with a pixelated explosion, its billowing clouds tinged purple.
For once, the Corrupture leader didn't even have a smug look or crack to make. His virus essence flowed away into the sky as always.
And the battle was over.
Utsura pulled Mighty Fest Infinity out of his gauntlet and switched back to Kensei Hidenaga and Kiiko Mishiranu standing side-by-side. The other four had switched out of their own armor by the time they'd finished running up to the duo.
"Why am I not surprised that Hidenaga gets most of the glory, even though he had us watching out for him?" Yoshoku asked.
Nobody answered him. "That jump you did to break the barrier…that was amazing, Kensei-san!" Emu grinned at him, looking like a full-on fanboy who'd just seen somebody do something amazing in his favorite game.
Kensei smiled, but shrugged. "Well, it was because of two amazing people," he said and put his arm around Kiiko's shoulders.
"I don't think that was all," Doku said, looking up at the sky and tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Did you guys notice that too? How when we all attacked together, everyone's attacks got more powerful?"
Hiiro snapped his fingers. "That game of yours…it's supposed to join with other players, isn't it?" he asked. "Utsura's new game is extremely powerful, but it can add its power to other Kamen Riders' games."
"Cooooooooool," Doku breathed. "If we go into battle with you now, Hidenaga, we can't lose!"
Kiiko made a horrified face at what Doku said, but stayed silent.
At least, about Kensei going into battle. She turned back to the rest of the group, an eerie look in her eyes. Everyone else went quiet when they saw it. "I…I think that wasn't the only thing that happened. When everyone was connected, my senses felt stronger than ever, and…" she trailed off, as if she was afraid of saying what she had to say.
Kensei prompted her gently, "Go ahead, Kiiko. We'll believe you."
"I saw where the Hyper Muteki Gashat's hidden."
Stage Five: Tournament Play, Clear
Stage Six: Final Dungeon, Start
see you next game