A/N: Slight branching off the plot. What if... something else had happened before Tsumuri rushed over to stop those two from killing each other?

As they observed the fight from the holographic display, the two 'supporters' watched with bated breath as they waited for the moment when Sakurai Keiwa aka Kamen Rider Tycoon would finally cut down Ukiyo Ace.

After all, no other Kamen Riders so far had been able to fight toe to toe against Geats, let alone throw in enough damage on the fox rider to the point that they broke his transformation! Only Tycoon had been able to do it... so watching this should be a great pleasure to them.

.

...and then their excitement was cut short as Sakurai Keiwa swung the sword down—and stopped just inches above Ace's neck.

"What the f— is going on here, Sakurai Keiwa?" exclaimed Kekera in anger.

xxx

Ace let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding. As much as he had been prepared for his eventual death, he didn't intend to meet his end like this—especially at the hands of the one person he didn't want to carry the burden of taking his life.

He glanced up towards the man in front of him.

"Why—?"

Ace just shrugged at him.

"Why didn't you try to avoid my blade?" Keiwa asked as his eyes started to be filled with tears. "Did you want to die?"

He smiled weakly. Perhaps... but not like this, he could've said to Keiwa.

"I wanted to believe that you wouldn't really cut me down," said Ace instead as Keiwa scoffed at it.

"Are you an idiot?"

He shrugged. "I guess I am. I didn't trust you back then*, so this time... I wanted to put my faith in you until the end. I figured if I could regain your trust in me, we could figure out how to fix everything back to what it should be."

"I might not be able to give you your parents, but Sara-san—I might be able to do something to get her back!"

Keiwa let out a choked gasp. "Ace, I—!" Suddenly Keiwa's body started to jerk violently as Ace hastily caught his body mid-fall.

"T-Tycoon?" he gasped, placing one hand on Keiwa's back before realising that there was something wet on his hand. Ace lifted his hand to see that it was blood.

.

Michinaga and Neon immediately rushed over towards the attacker as they confronted Kamen Rider Da·Paan who had just fired a shot towards Keiwa a minute ago. He turned around to check on the two as he saw Ace frantically shaking Keiwa's body.

"What're you doing?" exclaimed Neon as Kanato started to laugh maniacally.

"I can't possibly allow Geats to gain—or in this case—regain his old ally, can I? Today's battle was supposed to be the highlight of this Apocalypse Game after all."

"What an annoying brat—!" exclaimed Michinaga before pulling out his Desire Driver and Zombie buckle. Both he and Neon transformed right away into Kamen Rider Buffa and Kamen Rider Na-go Fantasy.

Buffa turned around to call out towards Ace before letting out a cry of alarm...

xxx

"—coon! Tycoon, wake up!"

Keiwa opened his eyes slowly to find an alarmed Ace shaking his body rapidly. Relieved to see him awake, Ace pulled his body over into an embrace.

"Keiwa-sama—!"

Keiwa raised his head as he saw Tsumuri running over towards them from a distance. At the same time, he also saw something approaching her from behind...

.

It was happening way too quickly. For some reason, Keiwa suddenly grabbed his fallen blade and propelled himself off Ace's body to lunge towards Tsumuri. Ace turned around in alarm to see Keiwa running towards his sister with a blade in his hand—before pushing Tsumuri towards the ground and swinging his sword towards a 'familiar' drone. The sword missed the drone by an inch before Keiwa found himself crashing directly into the drone due to inertia. Immediately, Keiwa's body started to disappear in a flash of blue particles—!

"Tycoon!"/"Keiwa-sama!" exclaimed both Ace and Tsumuri before a third voice started to curse aloud. Both Ace and Tsumuri turned around towards the direction of the voice before their eyes began to lock onto a certain figure with light brown hair.

"Tch—" Jitt tutted disapprovingly at the situation. "Such an unnecessary action—" said the man again before sending a few more drones towards Tsumuri to recapture her.

But this time all of the drones were shot down by Ace as he pulled out his Magnum rifle. He rushed towards Tsumuri's side to protect her from the game master...

xxx

"Tsumu-chan! I'm glad to see you made it here safely—!"

"Win-san!" cried Tsumuri before rushing towards the man in alarm. "I'm sorry that you got hurt because of me—!"

Win immediately waved away the concern as Tsumuri took out a first aid kit to attempt to tend to Win's injury.

"It's alright... my skull is still pretty hard. I've survived having my head blown last time after all—" Win turned his attention towards Ace. "That aside, what about Tycoon—"

"About that—" Neon started to say before a holographic screen started to open up behind them.

All of them turned around to see what it was all about—before gasping out in alarm.

Displayed inside the holographic screen was a small podium with two tall poles. And chained in between those poles was none other than Sakurai Keiwa.

A/N2: In case people are worrying, I do love Keiwa a lot. I'm not bullying him because I hate him.

*Referring to the time during the Kick the Can game against the Saboten Knight Jyamato.