Disclaimer: Kamen Rider belongs to Toei and the Fate Series belongs to Type-Moon. All I own is a couple of KR figures.

Another man had wandered into this Lostbelt. Or was he dragged into it? Regardless, there was one more like that destroyer within this dead-end of a timeline.

From the way he fought the denizens of this world, it was clear he was experienced. But there was something about him that seemed odd. It was just a feeling he had gotten while observing him, but something was wrong with that man. He wasn't a Servant, that much was certain, but he didn't seem human either.

For now, he'll just wait and see…

Section 8: Past Differences

The trip down was uneventful but tense. The people native to this Lostbelt eyed them as they tried to find Hiden. Ritsuka knew that the people here weren't hostile to them, just suspicious. Why wouldn't they be? He and the others just rolled into this place one day and also just so happened to look identical to someone that had lived with them for probably years.

"Umm, excuse me." Still, Ritsuka tried to talk to one of them, "Can you tell me where Hiden is?"

"...He's down in his room." The man answered hesitantly. "He never stays up here with us for long."

"Oh, thank you."

Ritsuka put what that man had said about his counterpart as he and Mash went on to the lowest point of the camp. What greeted them… was an odd sight.

"Just give it to us already!" "Never!" The two watched from above as Hiden tried to stay away from Kadoc and Ophelia.

"Senpai? Should we… intervene?" Mash asked Ritsuka.

"We really should but…" Ritsuka trailed off, starting at the scene. A part of him was in disbelief that the three were running around each other even though there was a massive attack just a few hours ago. Granted, he wasn't one to talk. The number of times bad stuff happened and he pretended to be fine right after was higher than it should be.

They didn't watch for long, however, before something happened.

"I'm fighting with you guys and that's-Ahh!" Hiden tried to say before he suddenly screamed in pain and dropped to his knees, getting calls of worries from the others. Ritsuka and Mash immediately went down the last flight of stairs to check on him.

"Ow… Oh, it's you two." Hiden looked up at them and tried to put on a brave smile. "What's up?"

"Damn it, this is exactly why you shouldn't use that thing." Kadoc ignored the two's arrival and scolded Hiden. "Come on, let me help you get up."

As soon as Hiden straightened up, Ritsuka and Mash noticed what was wrong; the slightly blood-stained bandages around Hiden's waist.

"Those bandages are…" While Ritsuka didn't know what had caused the wounds, Mash did. "They're because of your belt, aren't they?"

"They are," Ophelia answered for Hiden. "That's why we're trying to take it from him."

"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine." Hiden tried to ease their concerns regarding his current condition. "I always am."

"'I'll be fine' is not a valid excuse." She chided him as she put her hand into Hiden's jacket.

"Hey-!" "Just be quiet, this is for your wellbeing." Ophelia found what she was looking for and confiscated the ForceRiser. "So, why are you two down here? I assume you were searching for us." She addressed the two Chaldeans.

"Well, more like him specifically." Ritsuka pointed to his other self. "Holmes and Da Vinci want to talk to him about some things but you guys could come too if you want."

"Well, someone has to help him walk." It was a flimsy excuse, Ritsuka and Mash could do that themselves. The real reason Kadoc wanted to follow was to keep an eye on him.

"You two go on without me. I have to hide this somewhere." Ophelia told them. "Besides, I have to help upstairs too."

"Got it. " "Fine…" Hiden silently pouted before stepping away from Kadoc, "And I can walk by myself just fine."

"Fine but if you collapse again then they're helping you, not me." Kadoc begrudgingly let him, only to get a glare from Ophelia.

"Vulcan." "What are you angry at me for? He's the one being stubborn." "Just go already."

"Right…" Ritsuka cleared his throat before leading the way. "Let's get going!"

Shortly later, inside the Shadow Border…

"Hmm…" "Umm…" Hiden fidgetted in the seat he was given. From the way Chaldea's Director was circling and looking at him, he thought that he was being interrogated.

"Director, leave him be." "When you two told me that another Fujimaru was here, I didn't think that he would look this identical." Goredolf defended himself as he stepped back.

"What made you think that? He-" Da Vinci pointed at Kadoc, who was watching them from the corner of the room, "-looks the same as the one we know!"

"It's just that-" "So anyway," Da Vinci didn't wait for Goredolf to finish before getting straight to the subject, "I'm sure you know by now but we need some parts to fix up our vehicle. Would you mind if we take some of the robot parts outside for ourselves?"

"Not at all," Hiden answered, "You helped us out a lot already so feel free to take whatever you want."

"Good, good." Da Vinci nodded before saying to Holmes, "Your turn."

"I apologize in advance but I want to ask a rather sensitive question," The Ruler told Hiden and, to some extent, Kadoc.

"Umm, sure…" Hiden had an idea of where this was going but knew that he had to repay them somehow.

"What exactly happened in this world that led to its current state? We want to know how and when your world's history diverged from ours." "Geez, Holmes. Couldn't you sound a bit more sympathetic?" "I apologized, didn't I?"

"Nah, it's fine." Hiden didn't actually take offense to that and was fine with telling them. "Where and when is easy, ask anyone here and they can tell you; December 12th, 2007 in Daybreak Town. Nearly 14 years ago."

"As we thought, it happened recently," Holmes hummed in himself. By recent, he meant the change was only over a decade prior compared to the hundreds of years in other Lostbelt.

"What's Daybreak Town? That place exists in our world." Ritsuka can be confident about that fact.

"Of course that place isn't in your world," Kadoc spoke up from his corner. "HumaGears don't exist in your world."

"So Daybreak was made by HumaGears?" A city made by robots wasn't really as farfetched as say… beastmen living in a post-apocalyptic Russia.

"Not exactly," Hiden told them, "Daybreak was made for HumaGears."

"Oh…" "You see, Daybreak Town's purpose was to make an urban area where HumaGears and humans can live together," Hiden explained further. "It was sort of a test run before they could be fully integrated into society. The town was a deal between the government and the company that built HumaGears, along with a few other technology companies."

"The guys must really be regretting their decisions to make those robots," Da Vinci off-handedly commented, not realizing how badly it would affect Hiden.

"Yeah…" He muttered, sounding down, something that they immediately picked up on.

"What's wrong?" Mash asked in concern.

"Nothing, just remembering some things." It wasn't a total lie but he knew he didn't convince them. Even though he couldn't see him, Hiden could feel Kadoc staring at him. "Anyway, Daybreak Town actually worked great for a couple of years. Until that day, when the Ark was launched."

"You mentioned the Ark earlier." "Right. The Ark is an A.I. that was installed into a satellite. It connects every HumaGear that was and will be built." Hiden described the Ark's purpose. "I don't know what was wrong with it but when it was launched, most of the HumaGears that were present in Daybreak went rogue and things escalated from there. About six months later, Japan was completely taken over."

"And what of other countries?" "We don't know exactly how they reacted but HumaGears took complete control of the world a few years later," Hiden answered.

"And 14 years later, humanity is all but extinct," Kadoc finally added gruffly.

"That's about it, I guess." Hiden finished. "Does that answer your question?"

"It does, thank you," said Holmes. Silently, he thought of all the other questions he had from Hiden's explanation. However, before he could bring them up, Da Vinci had beaten him to the punch.

"If you don't mind me asking, how have you all survived for this long?" She asked. "And I don't mean fighting those robots off. Food and such, robots wouldn't be producing them so how do you guys get it?" Da Vinci clarified.

"Well, I did say most of the HumaGears were affected by the Ark," Hiden told them, "Even to this day, there are some who try to help humans instead."

"Really?" "Yeah, Kadoc was saved by one of them a few years ago." He gestured to the now scowling man, annoyed at that topic being brought up again. "Since then, that HumaGear has been helping us as much as they can without being found out. Those that help humans are… decommissioned if they are discovered." Hiden closed his eyes as he remembered some of the HumaGears that helped them over the years.

"So you managed to last this long because of HumaGears, even though it's because of them that you live in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere?" "Ironic, isn't it?"

"But why would they help you?" Ritsuka asked.

"I'm not sure either. I guess that they might not be connected to the Ark like normal HumaGears and aren't as driven to kill humans as they are." Hiden shrugged. He was just grateful that there were some good HumaGears out there, he wasn't going to question it. "At any rate, we sometimes get messages from them to pick up enough supplies to tie us over till the next one. Although this last one didn't turn out so well."

"Today's, you mean," Holmes said.

"Yeah, today's…" Not turning out well was kind of an understatement. "What else do you want to know?"

"How about the other part of what I asked? The actual fighting bit, I mean," Da Vinci said. "You two, Ophelia and those MetsubouJinrai guys can transform like Decade. I'm rather interested in that."

"You mean this?" Kadoc decided that now he was the subject of the conversation, he might as well join in. For that purpose, he took out the ShotRiser complete with its belt.

"...Where were you keeping that?" Ritsuka couldn't help but ask. Kadoc did just pulled it out from his back.

"Well, neither of us know too much about the ShotRisers. Ophelia understands them better than us." Hiden told them, ignoring his other self's justified question.

"What can you tell us about it?" "It was made by some corporation in Daybreak before the incident," Kadoc answered, placing the gun on the table. "It's a prototype and only two of them were made. At least that's what Ophelia said when she gave this one to me."

"Wait, how does Ophelia know that?" Mash inquired. "And how did she even get it in the first place?"

"She lived in Daybreak when the Ark was launched as I did. She said that her family only moved there a few months before and was in another part of town. I guess that's why I never met her."

"That doesn't really explain why she had it though." Ritsuka pointed out.

"All these years you've known her and you never brought it up?" "You didn't let me finish, I was just about to get to that part," Hiden complained, "Lots of the people who lived in Daybreak were involved with the companies that were a part of the project. Her family was connected to the one that made the ShotRisers."

"So she just happened to get them when the end happened?" "Yes." He answered bluntly. "She didn't want to get into detail about it so we didn't pry." "Okay then…"

"What about your belt, Hiden? It's the same as Horobi's and Ikazuchi's." Mash had put that fact in the back of her mind earlier, but now that she had the opportunity, she wanted to know more.

"Honestly, I don't know too much about it," Hiden admitted. "It's made for HumaGear use which is why this happened." He pointed to his bandages.

"This idiot-" "Hey!" "-picked one of ForceRiser up two years ago, continued being an idiot-" "I'm sitting right here!" "-and kept using it. It was only about a year ago when Horobi got a lucky shot and damaged it beyond repair."

"If it hurt him to use him, why did you let him use it?" Holmes asked.

"Because he's both stubborn, that's why," Kadoc grumbled while Hiden just innocently whistled at his description. "He kept finding it every time we hid it."

"And you never thought to destroy it? Before Horobi, that is." "We did but-" "But they're hypocrites and thought the ForceRiser would be a good backup in case their ShotRiser breaks in the middle of a battle," Hiden answered for him, obviously mad at Kadoc over it.

"Hey, that's not why we kept it!" Kadoc shouted, offended at that accusation.

"You sure about that? Cause you two were certainly not holding onto it for me!" "We-!" "Okay, okay! Break it up, you two!" Da Vinci stopped the argument from going any further, "No fighting in my Shadow Border."

"...He started it." "Stop it. Besides, there's still a bunch of stuff we need to ask you."

"Tch, you go tell them what they want, I'm heading out." Before they could stop him, Kadoc had already stormed off in a huff.

"Let him go, we'll talk it over later." Hiden sighed as the door closed behind Kadoc.

"O-Okay… If you say so." Ritsuka didn't quite know how to react to the short argument that happened right before his eyes so he just… moved on. "This one's a bit of a weird question. It's about Decade."

"Uh… Shouldn't you guys know more about him than me?"

"Not really but that's not what I meant," Ritsuka told him. "Has anyone warned you about him about what he's up to here?"

"You mean other than Decade himself? He's been plotting to kill us since he got here," Hiden reminded them. "He is aiming to destroy this world, remember?"

"No, that's not what I meant either." Ritsuka nervously laughed at his failed attempt at explaining to his alternate self. "Did a man in a fisher hat ever came to you?"

Hiden thought about his words for a moment before his eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh! You're talking about that Naruki guy, aren't you?" Hiden asked, accidentally misnaming the man, which was quickly corrected by Holmes.

"It's Narutaki." "Yeah, that guy. But I don't know what he has to do with anything." Hiden shrugged. "He just told us what we already knew."

"So just as helpful a warning as Fujimaru's." "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" "Nothing."

"Well, if it helps you, he did tell me about you guys too," Hiden added. "That Chaldea would arrive to bring about this world's end and that Decade would help."

"So that man was familiar with what we do?" Holmes was intrigued by that revelation. "Was there anything else this Narutaki mentioned?"

"Nope. Nothing else."

"You seem to be taking this a bit too well." Da Vinci remarked about Hiden's character. "I mean, you know why we're here but you're still friendly to us."

"I suppose you're right," Hiden admitted. "Guess it's just in my nature to be friendly."

"Right, exactly like this guy." Da Vinci slapped Ritsuka's back, who let out a loud 'ow'.

"There's one last thing I would like to ask," Holmes stated. It was the most important question he had and had been bumping around in his head ever since he learned this world's Ritsuka's name.

"Sure, ask away." Hiden smiled.

"What is Hiden Intelligence?" The room immediately went quiet minus the soft droning of the various equipment.

"Oh… that." All trace of emotion left Hiden's face the second he heard that name again. "Hiden Intelligence is…"

"Hiden Intelligence…?" Ritsuka muttered. He knew he heard that before, he just didn't know from where.

"Oh, that President Will guy from the announcement." On the other hand, Da Vinci immediately remembered where she heard that company before. "The one who ordered the HumaGears to attack those two."

"Exactly, whoever this President Will is, he has a lot of authority," Holmes informed the others. "And he is the leader of Hiden Intelligence, which just so happen to be your family name, Hiden Ritsuka."

"..." Hiden remained quiet, mainly because he was thinking about how to break the news to them. "I…"

"If you don't want to say now, then you don't need to." Ritsuka quickly said to his other self, noticing his discomfort.

"No, it's fine. I did say that I'll tell you whatever you want." He sighed, pushing the bad memories into the back of his head for now. "As you can probably tell, I am connected to Hiden Intelligence. It is… was Grandad's company."

"Grandad?" Ritsuka raised an eyebrow at that reveal. "But…" he quietly muttered, unheard by everyone else.

"It was one of the companies that were involved with Daybreak Town. No, that's not just it." Hidden sighed before admitting the complete truth. "It was the company involved with Daybreak."

"You mean…?" "Yes. Hiden Intelligence was the company behind the creation of the HumaGear's and the Ark…" Hiden looked down in shame, not wanting to see their reactions. He didn't want to mention it at all and hoped they wouldn't question who created the HumaGears.

The world was not kind enough to grant him that wish.

"Then, it's because of your grandfather that…" "Yeah, it was." He confirmed their suspicion. "Humanity is practically extinct because of him, because of what he created."

"I'm…" "You don't need to say anything. I'm over it." It was a very obvious lie. The look on his face made it apparent. "That was all you needed, right?"

"It was, thank you for your cooperation." Holmes, unlike the others, wasn't as surprised as they were.

"You're welcome. I should go and help Ophelia with what she's doing." Hiden came up with an excuse and left the command room of the Border.

"Damn it, Holmes, couldn't you be a bit more subtle? Like just ease into the topic and not ask him about his killer-robot-making grandad outright?" Da Vinci groaned.

"I'd have to agree with Da Vinci." Goredolf let his thoughts known to the others, "It's obvious he has issues with the subject."

"That may be, but it's easier and simpler to just ask." Holmes defended himself.

While those two (and Goredolf) were arguing with each other, Ritsuka was quietly sorting his thoughts.

"Senpai?" Mash cautiously called out to him, snapping him out of his trance. "Are you alright?" She asked, worry in her voice.

"I want to say yes, but I just learned an alternate version of my grandfather accidentally ended the world so…" He tried to hide his shock with a joke but only got an even more concerned look from Mash. "I'm fine, honest."

"You don't sound fine." Mash remarked.

"Well, I never knew him so I don't know how to feel," Ritsuka confessed. "My grandparents died before I was born, I didn't know what they were like."

"Senpai…" "Right, I don't really talk about my family much." Ritsuka noticed the look of sympathy Mash was giving him. "Just forget what I said, Mash."

She just continued to look at him sympathetically.

"I'm going to go check up on the others," Ritsuka told her, coming up with an excuse just like how Hiden did not even 3 minutes ago.

Sometime later, Hiden Intelligence…

"What's taking so long?! He's the one who called us here!" Ikazuchi loudly complained as he impatiently tapped his feet.

The four members of were waiting in the CEO's office for the President of Hiden Intelligence to arrive.

"Settle down, Ikazuchi," Naki, ever the level-headed one of the group, advised him. "President Will has other issues that take priority over us."

"I'm with Ikazuchi on this one," Jin grumbled as he eyed the Attache weapons and ZetsumeRisers that populated the shelves of the office. "We also have more important stuff to do than waiting around for him."

"By 'important stuff', do you mean the opening night of a detective film starring Enji Matsuda?"

"I pre-ordered tickets months ago!" Jin shouted, defending himself.

"All of you be quiet." Horobi finally spoke up. "The President rarely calls on us. Whatever he wants us for, it is important."

"But not important enough to-" "Ikazuchi." "Fine, fine." Ikazuchi backed down and followed Horobi's orders. "But if he's not here in five minutes, I'm leaving." "Same." Jin nodded.

Thankfully for them, they didn't need to wait for long before the door opened and a pair of HumaGears entered the office. A well-dressed HumaGear followed closely by a female HumaGear, his secretary.

"Finally! Ow-!"

"Thank you for coming, I'm sure the four of you have a very busy schedule," CEO of Hiden Intelligence, Will stated, taking his seat at his desk.

"Why have you summoned us?" Horobi, as the de-facto leader of the group, led the meeting.

"Izu," Will turned to his secretary, who nodded before pulling out a RisePhone and using it. A screen then appeared on one of the walls showing a video. "While the four of you were on your… expedition, that human appeared in the city," he explained the nature of the footage.

The video showed a Kamen Rider fighting several Magias before fleeing as he was quickly overrun by the growing number of enemies.

"That is-!" Jin immediately recognized the new Rider fighting his friends. "Why is Decade there?!"

"No, Jin, that is not Decade." Horobi corrected him. "His Driver is different."

As Horobi said, instead of the magenta-and-black, circular belt buckle, this Rider's Driver was mostly silver and blocky.

"After that, this Kamen Rider disappeared," Will informed them. "Presumably, he is still in the city. You four are to search the area he fled to and search for this Rider."

"And eliminate him?" Naki asked.

"Eliminate him," Will confirmed.

"Understood." While they don't take orders from Will, Horobi knew the urgency of this mission. For now, he and MetsubouJinrai will follow him.

"Izu will be accompanying you for this mission and will inform me of what happens," Will told them, earning a surprised look from most of them, including Izu herself.

"President Will, are you certain? I would be much more of use to you by your side." Izu asked.

"Shesta will be my secretary while you work with them," Will told her with a trace of care in his voice. "The five of you may leave now."

"Y-Yes." Izu reluctantly gave in to the orders. Jin, meanwhile, excitedly grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the exit.

"C'mon, it'll be fun!" He said to her.

"We will inform you if we find anything." Horobi respectively said to Will before he and the remaining three followed Jin and Izu.

Outside…

"Jin, you fly ahead and will be searching from above while the rest of us will be on the ground," Horobi ordered, getting an eager nod from Jin.

"Got it!" "And no sneaking off." "I won't!"

Horobi then turned to the others and gave them their orders. "The rest of us will split up once we arrive at our destination. Izu."

"Yes, Horobi?" "Where was this Rider last seen?"

Izu put her hand to her HumaGear Modules before the lights on them glowed blue. "I've sent you four the relevant data."

"Thank you."

"It's starting to get late," Naki noted as they realized that it was now nearly sunset. "We better move quickly."

"Eh, it'll be fine." Ikazuchi waved his hands, unconcerned about the time. "It's not like that guy would find a place to stay for the night."

The door to the building flew open as Inui Takumi, now detransformed, stepped inside.

After some time riding the Auto Vajin around, he spotted a building that he knew was related to the dimension-hopping Kamen Rider.

"Hey, Kadoya!" He shouted into the empty photo studio.

He walked further in, making sure to lock the entrance behind him, and loudly called out for Decade.

"Kadoya!" No response. "...Tsukasa!" Still no response. After a moment, he shouted what may be his final words. "Pink devil!"

The jury's out on whether it was good that there was no reply.

"Guess he's not here," Takumi grumbled as he went further into the photo studio. First things first, he went into the main room of the studio.

Upon entering the room and switching on the lights, his eyes were immediately drawn to the current background art in between the two pillars at the back of the room.

The illustration was that of two spiral skyscrapers Takumi had seen on the horizon. After a moment, as well as seeing the sign on the building, he realized that it was Hiden Intelligence's tower and giving him proof that he was indeed in Zero-One's world.

"Just what is Decade up to…?" Takumi sighed as he sat down on one of the various couches, one that was right next to a window. Taking a glance outside, he noticed that it was starting to get dark.

"...I'm sure he won't mind if I stay here for the night…" Takumi muttered to himself as he shut the blinders. Besides, that pink guy would return to his house sooner or later.

Nighttime…

While it wasn't exactly that late, with how packed the day had been, Ritsuka was tired and tried to turn in. Tried.

Laying on his bed onboard the Shadow Border, he was getting increasingly restless and unable to go to sleep. He didn't even know why he was so restless. Was what he learned for his alternate self weighing on his mind that much?

After a couple more minutes of tossing and turning in his bed, he shot up with a frustrated look. "You know what? I'm going for a walk!" He announced to nobody. Getting off his bed, Ritsuka grabbed a coat and went out.

The cool air in the middle of the night did wonders to calm him. He was no longer thinking about what he learned earlier. Helps that the place was mostly empty. There were some guards about, mostly near the new hole in the fence caused by his Servant, but they didn't bother him.

Eventually, Ritsuka found himself in the upper level of the warehouse they were parked in. If he remembers right, then someone was on lookout duty for the night. Maybe he could hang out with them for a bit.

"Huh? What are you doing up here?" Of course, who else but Hiden Ritsuka was up here. He really shouldn't be that surprised.

"I wanted to clear my head a bit." He confessed to Hiden. "So you're on lookout tonight?"

"Yeah, it's punishment for what I did…" Hiden sheepishly admitted. "Well, it's not just because I took a ForceRiser." What he said to Kadoc was probably (read: definitely) also a factor. "So how do you find our humble abode?"

"It's…" What was the right word for it? "Rustic?"

"...What does that even mean?" "I have no clue either." Ritsuka lightly laughed at his own confusion. After a moment, he was joined by his other self. For a few seconds, the light laughter of two people who normally shouldn't have met echoed in the empty building.

"How about you? I never did get your opinion on the Border." "Hmm, it's advanced." Hiden thought, "Of course it was. I mean, you guys are from an alternate universe."

"Yeah…" It was more like an alternate timeline but he'd give him that. "Anyhow, how did Decade treat you before we came here? Truth be told, I don't really know that much about him."

"Better than I thought he would. When… Narutaki, was it? When he warned about Decade, he said that he would destroy this world by killing all Kamen Riders here." Hiden divulged more about Narutaki's warning. "So when Decade did appear, I thought he would do just that."

"And did he?" Ritsuka jokingly asked. He knew the answer, of course. Hiden and the others would obviously not be here if Decade did destroy the world.

"No, but we did have to deal with constant complaints from Kadoc for letting him stay here. He was probably just salty over getting his butt whooped though." Hiden reminisced about the events from two weeks ago. "Ophelia was much happier that there was someone who could help out fight MetsubouJinrai."

"So he's been helpful to you guys…" "Well, somewhat. Saying that he was a handful is being too nice." He sighed. "He's not more trouble than he's worth, we need a lot of help here, but…"

"I get what you mean." When trying to save humanity and the World, he would accept anyone's help… Except for Columbus. He can stay in the Second Archive.

"The fact that he's helping us in the first place is a miracle after what we did." "What… you did?"

Realizing how bad that might have sounded, Hiden quickly explained, "You see, we sort of attacked him when he first got here. By we, I mean Kadoc and Ophelia but still." "Because of what Narutaki said?" "Yes, Narutaki warned all of us, even MetsubouJinrai, so when Decade came here, we all attacked him… and lost."

"Wow. Just wow." Ritsuka didn't know what he was more surprised about; the fact that Decade beat all of them or them teaming up to fight Decade.

"After that, Decade joined us, saying that he wants to know if this world truly deserves to be destroyed," Hiden said. "After spending 10 minutes laughing at me when he learned my name." "Right, that's probably because of me." "I figured that."

A short silence fell on the two as they tried to come up with something to talk about. Actually, there was something they each wanted to bring up but were trying to figure out how to bring it up.

"You know," Hiden found the confidence to speak first, "When Decade came here, he asked us something. Well, he was asking Kadoc and Ophelia but I think he was asking me too."

"What did he ask?"

"What does the title 'Kamen Rider' mean to you." He repeated Decade's words.

'Kamen Rider…' Ritsuka heard that word multiple times now. First, it was in Decade's memories of that clocked-faced warrior. Thinking back, those two were probably Kamen Riders themselves. And ever since they got here, that name has been thrown around so many times. "So? What does it mean to you?" He asked, hoping to learn more.

"Honestly… I don't know." Hiden confessed. "For a long time, that name scared everyone here because that was what MetsubouJinrai called themselves. Earlier on, they rarely ever showed up but when they did…" He trailed off, getting a concerned look from Ritsuka. After a moment, Hiden shook his head, dispelling whatever thoughts he had. "Anyway, it was a long time before Ophelia and Kadoc took that name. For me, I only took it because that was what all of them were calling themselves. I honestly didn't think too much about that name until Decade asked me about it."

"And now?" "Like I said, I don't know." Hiden sighed in frustration. Not at Ritsuka, but himself. "That name means something, that for sure. It's just… before me, there were six others that carried that name and four of them basically killed off most of humanity." "And the last two?" "... They protected what was left." He answered. "And I admire them for that. That's why I want to do whatever I can to help them."

It was a feeling Ritsuka could understand.

"What about you? You get what I'm talking about, right?" Hiden suddenly asked, surprising him.

"Huh?" "I was there when you came back." Hiden reminded him. "Mash was protecting you as much as she can even in her condition. Even when you were missing, your friends were doing their best to protect this place. Haven't you ever wanted to fight by their side?"

"I have…" Ritsuka admitted. While does to some extent, mainly giving commands and all that, he always wanted to do more than that. He had his wish granted several times, in the Final Singularity and other moments, but that was neither here nor there.

"For years, I watched people die to what Grandad created," Hiden continued to tell him, his eyes shut as he thought of his past. "And the HumaGears who continued to do what he had envisioned get scrapped for helping us. I just wish… that I could be more like him. Someone who could leap towards their dreams without fear."

"Him?" Ritsuka raised an eyebrow at that. He doubted that Hiden was talking about their grandfather, "Who's 'him'?"

"...Someone that doesn't exist here. Kamen Rider Zero-One."

A/N: A new chapter within a week, that's faster than usual, right? Anyway, more worldbuilding, the appearance of everybody's favorite robot secretary, Takumi's freeloading in Tsukasa's house, and the name drop of a certain someone.

Nothing new in Rider yet, but Summer 6 is here! I mean, summers are always good for DW and there are lots of incentives for people this year *cough* Kama *cough*

As always, please leave a review, it really does help me get better at writing. Not by much, but it helps.