Michinaga stared down at the Ninja buckle in his hand. For some reason, he couldn't help thinking about the man whom he mostly associated with the buckle.
If you're still alive, Tycoon... what would you do about this current game?
Michinaga never considered himself to be somewhat of a sentimental person, let alone a very thoughtful person. As much as he didn't think of himself as a weak person, he couldn't help feeling a bit lacking compared to the two people who were no longer present by their side.
Strange how he started to reminisce more about those two when he could no longer see them alive when he scarcely bothered to get along too well with those two when 'they' were still alive. It's the kind of life's lessons he never managed to learn from it. 'Treasure the things you have before you lose them forever' - he didn't appreciate it when his mother was still alive, he didn't appreciate the times when his relationship with his father used to still be on good terms. He took his time spent with Tohru foregranted, and later begrudgingly missing his friend's presence to the point of delusion. He failed to appreciate the times he had with Ace and Keiwa as fellow rivals and friends—heck, he even had killed them at least once!—yet now, he missed those two dreadfully.
Somehow he wondered if those two ever hated him for killing them that one time... not that he ever bothered to ask them for their forgiveness. But knowing those two, they might have forgiven him... even though he barely thinks he deserved it.
He thought about the old games he used to be part of, fifteen years ago and he wondered if he could've achieved the same thing as he used to do in the past. He thought about Ace again...
Something about the DGP that had never changed, was that aside from the winner or the Desaity... your participation in the game was never guaranteed. If you lost and then retired from the game, there's no guarantee that you'd be able to rejoin the next DGP for sure. Unless you had someone backing you or gotten recommended by the audience who wants to see you again in the next DGP, it's unlikely for anyone to be able to constantly be able to participate in the DGP every time. It's really a once-in-a-lifetime thing. So if he failed to become the Desaity this time, unlike last time... he might not have another chance to have a go at challenging the DGP.
That is... provided he had any power to even do that. Not like he'd still have someone like Beroba to back him up now.
He wondered if he could really do that, challenging the management. Back then they had Ace on their side... as well as Tycoon, but this time—! He wasn't even sure if he still had the power he got when he 'won' the last JGP, what power could he even borrow this time to challenge Suel again?
Michinaga sighed.
Times like this he really missed the sight of that 'annoying fox'...
xxx
Keisuke looked down on the list of groceries in his hand. "Is that it?" he asked as he turned around towards his twin brother. Eisuke kept checking on the content of the basket he was holding before nodding his head at his brother.
"Yeah, this should be it..."
Keisuke took out the money from his wallet before passing it to his brother. "All right then, so you go and pay for the groceries."
Eisuke blinked at the big notes he was holding before grabbing his brother's arm. "Where are you going, Big bro?" asked the younger one as Keisuke shrugged at him.
"I'm going to another shop for a bit. Mom seemed to be unable to sleep much lately so I wanted to get something for her—"
Keisuke immediately left his brother behind to head towards the grocery store exit. But just as he stepped away he suddenly remembered something he had forgotten to tell his brother so he turned around to call his on Ace, before he noticed that something seemed to be out of place...
"Anyway Ace—!" he started to say before finding himself in an unfamiliar place. How did this happen? Where did the grocery store and everyone else go? Ace?
Just as he was about to call out for his brother, Keisuke heard something coming towards him and immediately went to hide himself. Not long after, he found that his instinct to hide was the right choice as a small group of monsters suddenly came into view.
It was the monsters that he used to see in his dreams!
.
A zombie game... she never thought that she'd come back to play one of these rounds again. It left such a bad taste in her mouth as she recalled her first time joining the DGP last time. Neon let out a slight shiver at the memory. She didn't even want to remember the feeling of being zombified that one time!
A shriek, and Neon turned around to find the girl who had been tagging along with her not present by her side. Just as she was telling the younger girl to stay close!
Kaho reminded her a lot of herself. Young, vulnerable and a bit too trusting... there's no way that she could ignore someone like her in this game. While she had no idea what kind of wish such a girl would want that caused her to end up being picked up by the DGP, she had no plans of letting the girl to end up just being cannon fodder in this game.
She had rushed towards one of the abandoned buildings as she saw Kaho being surrounded by several Zombie Jyamato. The girl managed to hit some of the zombies on the head like Neon had thought her during the earlier wave with her raise propeller; before one of the remaining Jyamato caused Kaho to drop her weapon. Neon immediately cursed aloud as she tried to run over to help the younger girl. That's one of the reasons she started to hate that propeller buckle. At first glance that buckle and the weapon you get from it seemed so useful, but a lot of times it wasn't so reliable in battle...
She sent a few shots towards the remaining Jyamato that tried to chase after the timid rider with her Magnum Shooter. Half of her almost regretted not taking the chance to use the Magnum buckle in the past when Ace was still with them. She could have learnt some of his tricks while using the buckle. Fighting with unfamiliar buckles was really quite a disadvantage—Kaho let out a scream as she tripped on her foot while trying to escape from the zombies.
"Ah! No—!" Neon cried out as suddenly sparks flew over the few Zombie Jyamato that had tried to attack Kaho. The zombies fell over and exploded into nothing...
Did Kaho somehow manage to pull her weight together? Considering how timid the young girl was and the mousy helmet her kamen rider form took, she hadn't really placed much hope that Kaho could really learn to fight well. But if the girl could somehow gather some courage to fight back, perhaps she wouldn't have to worry too much about the girl's safety. As long as Kaho didn't get killed in this game, then it should be fine...
As the smoke cleared, a single figure stood over the clearing... holding the raise propeller weapon. But instead of a white mouse rider that she saw, it was a lone boy with a very familiar face. The boy turned to check on Kaho who had disarmed her armour.
"Are you all right?" asked the young boy...
.
"K-Keiwa—?"
Keisuke turned around in surprise as an older lady slowly walked up towards him. He frowned as the lady seemed to look familiar to him.
"Sorry? I'm not—!"
Before he could ask any more about the weird monsters and people with strange armour, the lady started to usher all of them to run again as more monsters started to appear again. As Keisuke continued to follow the two ladies, he couldn't help noticing how the cat lady kept holding his arm tightly in a protective gesture...