A/N: Hehe... might as well post the continuation here too XD
In all of his two thousand years of life and death and rebirth, all he ever thought about and yearn for was to meet his mother and find out the purpose of his existence. It never crossed his mind about imagining what could've been in store for him once his quest was completed. He would meet his mother again and then—?
And then what?
.
"Ace! Wait for us... we will come to take you home!"
He turned around to see yet another empty space. Who was that? Who was calling for him just now?
He tried calling out again to see if the voice would speak again to him. But try as he might, he couldn't even muster the tiniest of cries.
But wait...
.
Who... was he again?
xxx
Keiwa let out a cry as he felt again the strange sensations that he usually felt when his old sealed memories from past DGP returned to him. He gave Tsumuri a tired smile before taking his Desire driver back from her.
"Hello again, Tsumuri-san."
.
Tsumuri gave Keiwa a worried look as the man continued to eat his tanuki soba. Usually after giving a chosen player their Desire driver and core ID, she would immediately leave to locate another chosen player and repeat the process. But she decided to stay for a while before continuing her task as the game navigator.
"Is it not hard, Keiwa? Just how many games already have you gone through so far until now? Perhaps you should—"
Keiwa glanced up momentarily at her before shaking his head rapidly, careful not to splash soba soup all over himself. He sighed.
"That's not it, Tsumuri-san." He smiled weakly at her. "This was not hard... compared to the things Ace had gone through all these times. Yet, he hadn't given up on his goals for even one moment... until near at the end. I can't be giving up on him so soon."
He shrugged. "Besides, I'm not doing this all by myself... unlike how Ace used to do. I had friends backing me up—I mean, Neon and Michinaga will still going to be joining the next round... right?"
Tsumuri nodded her head. "Yes, they will. Michinaga-san seemed quite angry enough at the Game Master too."
Keiwa snorted. "Of course, who wouldn't be... after the stunts the Game Master did to keep the three of us from truly grasping our win at the end of each game. But we wouldn't give up. Not so easily anyway."
He chuckled a bit forcefully. "That said, isn't this 'exciting' enough for the audience? Even when the three of us were still trying to put a true end to the DGP and save our world, the fact that our struggle against the admins and the other people who still strive to keep the game going should keep the 'audience' at the edge of their seats. Because they still wouldn't be sure when the 'show' will actually end. Or whether or not it would even have a happy ending."
Keiwa picked up his drink and took a few sips from it. "With this, even if the admins wanted to cut this world off and run the 'production' elsewhere, they can't. Because the 'audience' wouldn't allow them to. Nor would the 'sponsors' who got attached on their respective favourites."
"You've become quite a schemer... Keiwa."
He just shrugged. "Well, I have to... don't you think? Even if a tanuki couldn't quite be as cunning as a kitsune, it should still be able to accomplish something if it tried hard enough to get what it wants."
xxx
"So that one day—"
.
Michinaga picked up the Vision Driver that had been dropped to the ground after he blasted the Game Master away with his strongest attack. He turned around to call out towards Neon and Keiwa.
"Na-go! Tycoon! Hurry up... we don't have much time before the cavalry comes. We need to do this now!"
Keiwa and Neon hurriedly rushed over to his side as Michinaga took off his Desire Driver and put on the Vision Driver instead. Keiwa and Neon each put their arms around Michinaga's before he activated the driver to take the three of them into the Creation Deity's chamber...
.
"Whoa... what is this?"
Michinaga just snorted at his two 'friends' as Keiwa and Neon seemed taken aback at the sight of the unearthly chamber that housed the Creation Deity. After all, it didn't look like they were anywhere in their own world anymore. Not quite like the Desire Temple... but it was also not like 'rooms' where they can meet their sponsors in private. Not that he cared much about it.
Besides, it's not as if any of this was anything new to him... other than this one thing.
Michinaga glanced up towards the new marble statue that stood at the old spot the Goddess of Creation's statue used to be. Instead of the angel-like statue that once stood proudly here, there was a huge fox-like half-human statue here. It wasn't quite like the sight he used to see when he used to visit one of the Inari shrines back home, but it was close enough.
To think that inside this statue was where Ukiyo Ace had been sealed as the new Creation Deity. Who would've imagined that?
Keiwa walked up beside him as he too glanced up towards the giant marble statue.
"Hmm... we have to figure out how to get Ace out of this big thing."
Just at that moment, Neon called out towards the two of them from one corner of the room.
"Hey, what do you think this is?" she asked as she poked at a pillar with some kind of 'charm' attached to it. As she did so, Keiwa noticed some faint markings suddenly appear underneath the marble statue. He gasped before turning around to see if there were any other pillars around that looked similar to the one Neon had found. His eyes lighted up as he noted that there were a few more of said 'pillars'.
"Those things must be what had kept Ace sealed in this statue thing. So if we break it—!"
.
"—perhaps one day, the three of us would be able to recover the important treasure that we once lost."
.
Michinaga shove the Vision Driver onto Keiwa's hands as he put his Desire Driver back on and transformed into Kamen Rider Buffa. "So let's get working to saving the idiot and get back home. The cavalry's finally here..."
Keiwa turned around to see that Suel has arrived with a few other masked Game Masters and admins while Buffa had stepped out to face all of them by himself. Keiwa sent Neon a signal as both of them took out their Desire Drivers and transformed as well.
It's time for them to make their wishes come true...