A/N: Hehe... another super LONG one.


They managed to somehow find their way to the outer corridors before Grandpa Tanba collapsed to the floor. Keiwa immediately cried out towards the old man as both he and Neon tried to check if there was any other injury on the old man that they'd overlooked.

Keiwa glanced up towards Ace as Neon let out a soft sigh when Grandpa Tanba reassured them that he was just exhausted and only needed to catch his breath.

"Can't we head to that big gate again? Surely there must be a way for us to get that thing to open and escape from here, we need to treat Gramps for his injuries—"

Ace nodded at him and acknowledged the concern before shrugging. "But before that, we still needed to solve the puzzle required for us to get that big gate to open." He frowned before noticing another building that looked like a church of some kind. "How about we head over there? It didn't look like the Jyamato was anywhere near that place, and we might be able to take a bit of refuge there—"

Neon raised her head as she noted the things that Ace had just said.

"Let's go, that idea sounds like the best we've got so far... and I bet there's some other hints being hidden over there—"

xxx

Half an hour earlier...

"Why do you people do these kinds of things?"

Ace turned his attention towards Keiwa as the young man knelt beside old Keilow. The look of pain on Keiwa's face reminded him so much of Tycoon's back when the two of them first met.

"Several times already this fact has been repeated—that all of this was part of some game—but such dangerous things... why are you people in this when you could so easily lose your lives just by being part of this unbelievable situation?" Keiwa glanced up towards Ace and for a brief moment, he thought he saw the old Tycoon inside Keiwa.

"Aren't you afraid at all about your lives? Those monsters were bad, weren't they—? Those weren't just people in costumes, you could really die if those things got to you, right?"

Ace just shrugged at him. "Would you believe me if I told you that those Jyamato still scare me?" He smiled at him. "But even then, for me to keep on surviving... I'll continue fighting them as long as I'm alive. I bet even you could do it if you had something important you want to protect."

Keiwa just let out a soft snort at him. "How could I fight all those monsters like you do, Ace? I don't think I'm capable of the kind of things you did earlier—"

Ace just smiled at him fondly.

"You might actually surprise yourself, you know... of the kinds of thing only you would be capable of."

.

"You may be right, Keiwa," Neon suddenly spoke out as Keiwa turned to look at her. "Something so scary like this, why would anyone want to go through something as dangerous as this for fun?"

She sighed before smiling weakly at him. "But I have a wish that I want to have it fulfilled. So to make sure that I can make that wish come true, I'll fight with all the strength I have to be able to reach that goal!"

xxx

Neon walked up to Ace's side as she eyed the portrait that Ace was staring at.

"Have you cracked the code?" she asked as Ace just shrugged at her.

"We need the password to open the door and escape this place..." Ace spoke simply as Neon took out her phone again and took a picture of the frame and the Jyamato inscription under it...

.

Keiwa frowned as he continued watching Grandpa Tanba's condition helplessly. The old man looked very weak and frail now... yet there was nothing he could do about it to fix it. If only there's something around here for them to find to drink or eat, then perhaps Gramps can replenish his energy or something to keep him going.

His ears caught the sounds of Ace and Neon's footsteps as the two started walking towards him. Yoshiki and Kozue also knelt beside Grandpa Tanba to try to ease the old man's pain. Keiwa glanced up towards Ace.

.

"Ace, I beg of you..."

Grandpa Tanba suddenly spoke as Keiwa turned his attention back towards the old man. "Can you... also take care of this young man?"

Keiwa immediately frowned at the old man. Grandpa Tanba let out another long sigh. "I can no longer fight so..." The old man smiled at Keiwa. "I could see that you seemed to know this young man as well, so in my place... I'm sure that you could keep him safe as well..."

"I just don't want to be a burden to you kids—"

A sudden cold dread rushed into his heart as Keiwa's eyes went wide at the realisation of what the old man was trying to say. "We can't just leave you behind!" he cried out immediately.

Grandpa Tanba just sighed weakly at him. "You kids still have a lot waiting for you. You still have all the time to do everything that you wanted to do... all of the potential. You still have a lot in your life to pursue after this. You shouldn't give up yet—"

Keiwa held out his breath as something in the old man's words stirred something inside of him. But before he could figure out what it was, Keiwa suddenly felt the vines around his neck tightening again—"

xxx

"Stay back! Get away from my sister!"

Suddenly Keiwa was reminded about Sara, and how much he used to want to protect his older sister—and not wanting to see his older sister cry.

He stared at Yoshiki—still a small child himself and literally half the size of an average 'Jyamato'. Yet, for Kozue's sake, the boy wouldn't think twice—Keiwa glanced up to see a Jyamato maid raising a scythe towards the kid. At this rate, the kid and his sister will be—!

Why are you still hesitating now, Keiwa scolded himself as he rammed his body towards the Jyamato maid and pushed them towards the exit; both Neon and Ace also did the same with the remaining Jyamato and closed the door in front of them. Keiwa immediately grabbed a chain lying nearby as he tried to secure the door handle to keep the doors closed.

.

His heart continued to race inside his chest but surprisingly, Keiwa realised that he wasn't actually feeling fear against the Jyamato at the moment. Not exactly. In fact, this feeling he had at the moment... felt familiar for some reason.

He thought about the odd things he heard Ace talk about with Neon prior, as well as the things Ace said when he was fighting the armoured Jyamato and the other maids and butlers.

"Don't brace yourself for the inevitable death yet—"

"Believe that you will win this battle instead!"

Keiwa bit his lips as he realised what was it that he truly wanted to do right now...

"What should I do for me to be able to protect everyone?"

.

Keiwa glanced up towards the fox rider as both Ace and Neon turned to look at him expectantly. He bit his lips.

"Ace... tell me the truth. Before we met at that park from before, you already knew who I was... didn't you?" Keiwa started fidgeting with himself as he tried to connect all the bits and pieces that he knew and found out so far. "Earlier, the things you said about forgetting something after being eliminated—you're talking about me, weren't you? This game... I used to participate in this game before, right? That's why everyone seemed to know me earlier... and that's why you chose that particular theme for my idol image—"

Neon nodded her head as she listened attentively at Keiwa trying to piece everything together—before pausing and turning back towards Keiwa. "Wait, what's this about being an idol—!"

Keiwa just waved at Neon idly as he kept staring at Ace. "Am I right so far, Ace?"

Ace smiled at him weakly before tapping on the centre of his belt buckle where a small round thing with a fox symbol was attached.

"Touch this... and you might remember something. And perhaps you'd turned back to the Tycoon that I used to know..."

.

Tycoon...

Now that he thought about it, much earlier than this... Ace had almost called him by that monicker instead of his own name. So that must mean... Ace must be telling him the truth.

Keiwa took a long breath as he held out his hand to touch that small thing on Ace's 'driver'—and immediately Keiwa felt his whole body jerk as if someone had just jabbed a live wire on the back of his head...

xxx

"If this is truly a game to protect the world, then you had no reason to refuse this. Unless, there's something more to this that you're not telling us..."

As expected of Ace to anticipate something like this to happen. Yet...

Keiwa glanced down at the Spider phone he borrowed from Ace earlier. From the GPS signal shown on the map inside the phone, the drop-off location for his Desire Driver should be nearby. He snuck a peek at the courtyard outside and saw something like the familiar box Tsumuri used to bring to him last time. That should be his item.

He touched the vines coiled around his neck as they hung loose with no signs of tightening up. That should mean that those Jyamato Riders were nowhere nearby. This should be his chance. It shouldn't be a big deal for him to deal with the normal Jyamato...

.

Keiwa glanced down at the Magnum buckle he was holding as he tried to retrace his way back towards the church. Now that he had the buckle on hand it just occurred to him that Ace didn't have Magnum with him already from the start of this round. That was peculiar. He wondered if he could try to use Magnum to fight this time, though if he was given a choice... he'd rather have his trusty Ninja buckle with him...

As if answering his own prayers, Keiwa found Ninja buckle lying on the floor at the next corridor he entered before picking it up and rushing towards the direction of the church...

.

"Aah!"

Ace turned around in alarm as he saw Na-Go on the floor with Keilow and the kids. Several other Jyamato also had slipped past him as Ace frantically tried to slash down the remaining Jyamato in front of him. He needed to hang on a bit longer, until Tycoon came back. Yet they still needed to keep their 'civilians' safe or else they'll still fail this round—!

"Transform!"

Ace turned around again as the four Jyamato that had been trying to kill Na-Go and the others were immediately pushed back violently. And emerging from beyond those monsters was the familiar light-green warrior that he had sorely missed seeing. Ace found himself grinning at the sight.

Here comes his old lucky charm. Back from the land of forgetfulness. 💖

xxx

"Are you going to wish for world peace again—?"

.

Ace turned around and smiled widely. Honestly, it finally felt right to him—to see Tycoon be his old self, always so kind and selfless. And still love to dream big as well...

"Again with your big dreams... huh?" he started to say before walking over towards the man. "Well, it doesn't really matter... because I'll still win in the end."

He thought that he could take this chance and escape first—but then Ace felt a firm grip on his wrist before turning around to see Tycoon smiling at him very widely. "Have you been forgetting something important... A—Ace?", asked the man very sweetly. Ace nervously swallowed the lump that suddenly started to form inside his throat.

Without missing a beat, Tycoon turned his attention towards Tsumuri. "Anyway, there's nothing else for us to do now for the rest of the day, right Tsumuri-san? All of us can do whatever and go wherever we want now, right?"

Tsumuri started blinking in confusion before nodding her head. "Umm... yeah. Until the next round, the rest of you can go back to your daily activities until summoned again later."

"Ah, good..."

It didn't miss his attention that Keiwa started to interlace their fingers with his to keep a stronger grip on his hand.

.

"Oh, just in case... Big Sis! Don't wait for me to come home tonight... okay?"

Keiwa paused for a moment and stared at Ace strangely. "What did you mean by that, Ace? And why are you calling Tsumuri as your older sister?"

"I know, right? It was horrible!"

Suddenly Tsumuri grabbed a hold of Keiwa's arm before pouting at him miserably. "Do you know, Keiwa-sama? Ace-sama's wish from the last game had been the worst one he had made to date! And there's nothing that I could do to change it!"

Keiwa blinked back at her before exchanging glances between Tsumuri and Ace. "W-wait! Don't tell me... during the last game, Ace wished for you to be part of his family or something?" he asked without thinking as Tsumuri nodded her head sadly. The main culprit, on the other hand, was grinning by himself ear to ear.

"Yeah! And now I have a new dad and a big sister!"

Keiwa gaped at him. "Wait! Girori-san too?"

He whistled to himself. Whoa... this was a lot to take, but still... there were some other matters that Keiwa needed to settle at the moment that were more pressing. So with yet another plastered smile, Keiwa excused himself politely to Tsumuri and Neon as he and Ace had another business to attend to.

"Wait a minute—!"

Keiwa turned his attention towards Neon as the girl made a face at him. "What was that earlier about some idol business? Keiwa, have you become an idol or something? Come to think..." Neon started eyeing him up and down. "You did look slightly different than the last time I remembered you."

Keiwa cast a knowing look towards Ace's direction (who somehow now started looking a bit self-conscious) before shrugging at her. It was about time someone else started noticing and commenting about his sudden change of dress style. "Ah, it's kind of a bit of a long story that I first needed to straighten up with someone."

He turned his glance again towards Ace as both Tsumuri and Neon stared at them in confusion.

"I'm sure there's a better explanation to this than just a simple mischievous prank."

xxx

They managed to find a secluded enough alley and far enough from the others to avoid being spotted before Keiwa dragged Ace towards a wall and hmm... attempt to talk to him. Well, it would have helped if he was slightly taller than Ace, rather than shorter. It's hard to actually kabedon someone when you don't have the height advantage...

"So what's your ulterior motive, Ace?"

Ace gave Keiwa an innocent look before shrugging. "What motive?" asked the sly fox as Keiwa fumed at him.

"Ace! Why did you pick me as your idol apprentice? And why did you... th-th-that time—? That k-k-k—!"

Ace started to grin again as Keiwa's face started to go red. Without warning, Ace suddenly tripped Keiwa on the leg and turned the situation around. Now the one pushed against the wall was Keiwa and the one trapping him was Ace.

The fox rider leaned over towards Keiwa, before stopping himself inches away from the other man. Ace let out another grin as Keiwa barely felt the other man's breath brushing over his face.

"The what—?" Ace asked Keiwa again as the man's lips ghosted over Keiwa's. Keiwa felt himself blushing all over again as he growled towards the other man.

.

Keiwa tried to push Ace away from him.

"Enough games... Ace—!" Keiwa immediately yelped as he felt Ace's knee rubbing against his crotch. Ace just rolled their eyes at him mischievously.

"What? I thought that you're also enjoying all those things that we've done together—"

Keiwa sighed exasperatedly at him. "You're so incorrigible—!" he gasped before Keiwa pulled on Ace's neck and both of them started kissing each other passionately and hungrily.

.

"Ne, Keiwa... how about we head to my place—" Ace started to say before being reminded of something and shook his head right away. "—ah, no... forget that. How about we head to your place? Given our current relationship with each other, it shouldn't be too strange for me to come visit—"

"Ah, no... why—?" Keiwa exclaimed as Ace took out his Spider phone instead and started punching something...

"So I guess we're doing this then—" Ace continued to chatter idly as the two of them were suddenly transported to a very empty Lounge, and Keiwa found himself stumbling back onto one of the couches as Ace fell on top of him.

.

"What're you trying to do—" Keiwa gasped as Ace silenced him with another kiss.

Ace grinned widely. "You asked me that before... right? My ulterior motive. I'm showing you THAT right now—"

Keiwa immediately stared at him in horror as he started looking around the room in case there was anyone else around.

"Right now? What if someone walked in suddenly—!"

Ace just shrugged at him before nodding his head towards the direction of the bar. "There's always the back room—"

.

Before Keiwa could even voice his protest, Ace had carried him in his arms and rushed towards the back room happily. And minutes later, Keiwa started squealing aloud as Ace unabashedly began molesting the poor tanuki in his grasp to his heart's content.


A/N2: 😤😤😤

About time this idol AU reached the 'other' side theme of this piece. www