Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.
The Happy Spa, currently empty due to its owners (and a certain surprise visitor) going on a day trip, was silent. While usually the place was full of laughter, lively conversation, splashing baths, squeaky rubber ducks, siblings screaming at each other over who used up the last of the hot water, heavy metal, a mad scientist blowing things up that he really shouldn't, and uncomfortably loud moans of ecstasy due to unfortunately thin walls, all was still and quiet. It was a little uncanny, really.
And then the door was kicked off its hinges and smashed against the far wall, the bell jangling loudly as it impacted against the wall, fell off, and rolled across the floor, its jingles growing fainter and fainter until it vanished beneath the couch.
"Door's open!" Olteca yelled unnecessarily as he bounded into the bathhouse, exulting in the strength in his new legs.
"You didn't need to do that," Daiji protested, following after the former Deadmans leader. "I have a key!"
"They probably changed the locks as soon as you moved out for good and joined the winning team, my folks certainly did," Olteca said dismissively.
"They wouldn't do that!" Daiji insisted, wishing he sounded more certain of that. "They… They wouldn't…"
Akaishi entered behind him, glanced around, and frowned upon seeing the bathhouse was empty. "Nobody's here. Daiji, where would your family have gone? Is today anything special?"
Daiji frowned and shook his head. "No, I don't think so. It's a business day, I have no idea why the bathhouse would be closed. Hey, cut that out!" He yelled at Olteca, who was taking pictures off the wall, glancing at them with contempt, then dropping them on the floor and spitefully crushing them beneath his grasshopper feet.
"Why do you care? It's not like you live here anymore, or your family would welcome you back," Olteca said dismissively.
"That's not true! They keep trying to convince me to come back all the time!" Daiji insisted.
Olteca raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? Why haven't you taken them up on it yet?"
"I… Because…" Daiji stammered.
"Just kidding, I don't actually care," Olteca said, going out of his way to knock over furniture, break tchotchkes Daiji's parents had been collecting for years, and tear down more pictures. He paused to examine one more carefully. "Huh, weird. I would have thought you would be persona non grata around here, but you seem to be showing up in a lot more pictures than your brother."
"What? Give me that," Daiji insisted, grabbing the picture from Olteca's hands and taking a good long look at it. His brow furrowed in confusion. He remembered this picture, they had taken it just before he got accepted into Fenix. The whole family had gotten their photo taken, and they needed to do multiple takes because they kept laughing hysterically at some stupid thing his father had said.
(… What was it? It had seemed so trivial, so stupid at the time, but now he couldn't think of anything he wanted to hear more. When was the last time he heard one of his father's jokes?)
There was something wrong with this picture, though. A gap where a person should have been.
Where was Ikki?
Confused, Daichi gently put the picture down and examined some of the other photos Olteca had dropped on the ground. Almost all of them were of his family. There were plenty of his father, of his mother, of his sister, of himself…
And almost none of Ikki. There was almost always a void where he should've been, leaving many of the pictures looking strangely incomplete.
"The hell?" He murmured, confused.
"Hey boss, I think I found something!"
Daiji glanced up as Akaishi walked over to Olteca, who was standing in front of a calendar. The current date was circled, the words "Family Trip to Hiden Land" written on it in his mother's hand, a Post-it note beneath it saying "Don't forget to invite Daiji!"
Akaishi and Olteca slowly turned to Daiji, who paled. "… Daiji. When is the last time you checked your phone?" Akaishi asked with deceptive calm.
Flustered, Daiji fumbled in his pockets before producing his Gundephone50. Unlocking the screen, he discovered several notifications waiting for him. His mother had called…
And texted…
And sent an email…
His face turned ashen as he checked all his messages, including several of the more recent ones, many of which had pictures attached to them of the family and – Was that Giff? – Having fun at the amusement park, often with the tag, "Wish you were here!"
He slowly looked up into Akaishi's blank face. "I… She keeps trying to reach out to me, asking me to come home… So I… I just started ignoring her-"
Akaishi slapped him so hard his Giff Jr. mask was knocked off and he was flung to the ground. "Congratulations. You may have just doomed the entire human race," Akaishi said slowly, clearly holding back tremendous rage.
He turned and started for the exit. "Let's go. Lord Giff and crowded places with lots of people never ends well."
Olteca gave Daiji a curious look as Akaishi left. "If you didn't want to hear from your mother, why didn't you just block her?"
Daiji stared at him. The idea had honestly never occurred to him. "I… I don't know."
Olteca snorted, kicked him lightly in the ribs, then followed Akaishi. "Whatever."
Stifling a sob, Daichi fumbled on the floor for his mask-
"You're pathetic."
Startled, Daiji glanced up to see his own face looking back at him, a look of utter disgust on his features.
Daiji blinked, and realized he was looking into a mirror. "Kagerou?" He whispered.
There was no response. Of course there wasn't. Kagerou had died at his hands, this was just his reflection and nothing more.
Sometimes he wondered if the wrong one of them had died that day.
Pushing down his disappointment, he put his mask on and got back up, only to hesitate and glance back at the mirror. He took off his mask again to examine his reflection.
He still had the scar from when Akaishi accidentally threw coffee at his face.
Had his reflection had that scar a minute ago, though?
"Kagerou?"
Nothing happened.
Daiji waited another minute, then finally gave up, put his mask on, and left.
"What took you so long?" Olteca asked when Daiji finally rejoined Akaishi and himself.
"I thought I saw something-" Daiji started.
"I don't actually care. So, we're heading to Hiden Land, boss?" Olteca asked Akaishi. "You know, I'm not sure I've ever been. Well. Not for pleasure, that is." He tapped his chin in thought. "Then again, if you love what you do, can you really call it work?"
Akaishi scowled, lines of worry on his face as he scrolled through several feeds on his phone. "This is bad. There've already been several fires at the park, at least one woman is in the infirmary, a gorilla is on the loose, and… A Hell Gifftarian has been given a job?" He frowned in confusion, then put away his phone. "We have to get to Hiden Land immediately, before things get any worse. Those imbeciles have no idea what they've done, taking Lord Giff there! We must get him back at once!"
"AKAISHI!"
Startled, the trio turned to see a furious Hikaru racing towards them. "Hikaru?" Daiji murmured.
"Who is this guy?" Olteca wondered.
Akaishi frowned. "I… Have absolutely no idea."
"Hideo Akaishi! When the silent alarm at the Igarashi bathhouse went off, I knew something was up, but I never expected to run into you of all people!" Hikaru cried.
Akaishi glared at Olteca and Daiji in exasperation. "Neither of you thought to check for alarms?!"
"Neither did you!" Olteca protested.
"Today is the day you pay for your crimes wait, holy shit, is that Olteca? I thought he was dead!" Hikaru exclaimed.
"No, I was hibernating in Lord Giff's dimension the whole time," Olteca explained.
Hikaru frowned. "Really? That seems rather contrived."
"That's what I said," Daiji grumbled.
"Young man, I'm sorry, but who are you and why are you angry with me?" Akaishi asked.
"… Are you serious? You really don't know who I am?!" Hikaru yelled angrily. "My name is Hikaru Ushijima, and you killed my father!"
Akaishi stared at him blankly. "I'm afraid you're going to need to be more specific, you've no idea how little that narrows it down."
"My father was Tasuke Ushijima!"
Akaishi gave him an apologetic look. "Doesn't ring a bell."
"He was one of the leaders of Weekend!"
Akaishi shrugged.
"He had GLASSES!"
Akaishi gasped, recognition dawning. "Oh. Oh! HIM! I remember now! Which means you must be Kamen Rider Over Demons, right?"
Olteca blinked. "There's an OVER Demons now? Wow, I really missed out on a lot, didn't I?"
"Hikaru, we don't have time for this," Daiji said desperately, not wanting a fight. "We have to get to Hiden Land, my family has done something tremendously stupid-"
"What, bringing Giff there? Yeah, I know, but to be honest, your family does have a tendency to pull off miracles," Hikaru admitted.
Daiji gawked. "You knew?!"
Hikaru nodded. "Of course, they let everyone at Weekend know before going to the park so we wouldn't hear about it on the news, leap to the wrong conclusions, and do something stupid. I admit their plan to try and rehabilitate Giff is a long shot, but honestly, if anyone can pull it off, it just might be them."
"Re… Rehabilitate… Do you have any idea what you're talking about?!" Akaishi yelled incredulously. "Lord Giff is not a misunderstood entity who can simply change his ways! He is a superior being beyond our comprehension, his mind utterly unknowable, as beyond us as we are beyond ants!"
"Does that explain his fashion sense?" Olteca wondered, looking up pictures of "cousin Giffrey" at the park on social media and making all sorts of disgusted expressions.
"It does, actually. Parts of the park are already in ruins!" Akaishi continued.
"Actually, I think most of that is because of the Igarashi family. Daiji, your family is insane," Olteca told Daiji.
He sighed wearily. "I'm well aware."
"We must retrieve Lord Giff before someone says or does something to set him off, and take his wrath out on humanity!" Akaishi insisted. "If anything, you should be helping us, Ushijima!"
Hikaru narrowed his eyes. "I have no intention of doing that, Akaishi. First of all, I have faith in the Igarashis. I have no doubt that they'll find a way to pull this off. Daiji, you should believe in them too! They're your family, after all… And they still believe in you!"
Daiji clenched his fists and glanced away.
"And second… I cannot let my father and everyone else whom you've harmed go unavenged!" Hikaru declared, producing his Demons Driver and personal Vistamp. "To paraphrase Mr. Kadota… Even if it means laying down my life, I will stop you, and keep you from interfering with the Igarashi's plans!"
DEMONS DRIVER!
STAG BEETLE!
"Henshin!"
DEAL. DELETE UP! UNKNOWN! UNREST! UNLIMITED! KAMEN. RIDER. OVER DEMONS!
Olteca frowned as he took in Hikaru's outfit. "Meh. It looked better on me."
"It absolutely did not!" Daiji snapped.
"Now," Hikaru declared, swishing his O Wingal Shade. "In the name of my father, I will-"
Abruptly, something shot through the air and slammed into the back of his head before ricocheting off and smashing through the windshield of a nearby parked car, causing its alarm to go off, triggering the alarms on every other car in the block, much to everyone's consternation.
Hikaru stood there for a minute, then keeled over, his suit dissolving around him as he collapsed to the ground.
"I never went down that easily, either," Olteca sneered.
"Yes you did-"
"SHUT UP."
"What was that?" A disturbed Akaishi wondered.
Daiji retrieved the object from the screaming car. "It… Looks like Kamen Rider Zero-One?" He said, baffled. "Wait, I think I recognize this… I think it was the puck at the high striker at Hiden Land! Sakura was always trying to win the grand prize on it. She always got a lot closer than Ikki or I did. Or dad. He almost threw out his back one time…"
"And it came this far?! We have to get over there immediately!" Akaishi cried.
"Sure, just a sec," Olteca said, crouching over Hikaru's body.
"What are you doing?" Daiji asked in alarm.
"Taking his Driver. And wallet. And everything else in his pockets," Olteca replied. "Then I'm going to kill him."
"What? You can't!" Daiji protested, horrified.
"I think you'll find that I can," Olteca said, giving him a raised eyebrow. "Not only that, I should. He is an enemy, after all."
"Well… Yes, but… He'll be of no threat to us without his Driver!" Daiji pleaded, turning to Akaishi. "We don't need to kill him! You said yourself, we don't have time for distractions!"
"I can make it really fast," Olteca promised. "A kick to the throat from one of my new legs should do the trick."
Akaishi hesitated for a minute, then shook his head. "No, Daiji is right, we have to get going, and Ushijima should be no threat to us without a Driver. Actually, I'm not sure he was much of a threat to us even with a Driver. And… I already killed his father, it would be a shame for the son to die as well. Leave him be."
Olteca groaned, rolled his eyes, but reluctantly got up, stowing his new prizes in his pockets. "Ugh, fine."
As the three of them started off, Daiji hesitated and glanced back over his shoulder at the unconscious Hikaru. "… Sorry," he said quietly, knowing it was nowhere near adequate.
"I cannot believe those imbeciles would do something this foolish," Akaishi growled, looking at more social media images of Giff and the Igarashi family at the park. "If they had kept him at the bathhouse, out of the public eye, this might not be so bad, but… Attractions have been destroyed! People have been hurt! I can only shudder at whatever chaos they are no doubt causing right now!"
Giff and the Igarashi family watched in awe as the members of MetsubouJinrai dot net struggled against their former comrade Little Assassin, who had been reborn and made into the new Kamen Rider Ark-Zero as dramatic music played and colored spotlights swept across the stage.
"Okay, just so you know, none of this is real, those are just guys in costumes up there, nobody's actually fighting and getting hurt, and it's all just special-effects-" Tamaki whispered into Giff's ear.
"I know what a play is, Tamaki," Giff snapped.
Everyone shushed them, and they immediately quieted down to continue enjoying the stage show with everyone else.