Across The Kaleidoscope

by Fireblitz113

Two and a half years ago, he awoke without any memories except one: his name. Now, he has to embark on a journey after the destruction of the world. With few allies and 19 worlds' worth of enemies, Fujimaru Ritsuka has to travel through the Rider Worlds to understand the meaning of his journey and figure out the greatest enemy waiting at the end of everyone's story.

15. The First and the Next

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything. Let's get with the story.

---

Previously on Across the Kaleidoscope

"I already told you my name earlier, didn't I? I'm Takaragi Yuu."

"But was there an Agito before Shouchi?"

"Not to my knowledge. The closest thing to Agito would've been Kuuga."

"I promise no harm will come to you even after Decade is dealt with…"

---

Chapter 15: The First and the Next

---

Decade was simultaneously having an easy time and a hard time. On one hand, the three Crow Lords only have numbers to their name to threaten him. In other words, fighting them was a snap.

On the other hand, the El of the Wind that was flying high above them was making things harder than they should be. His ranged capabilities were no joke and Decade found himself having to dodge an arrow to the head every time he tried to initiate his finisher.

He knew he had to deal with El Lord first before he could finish off his subordinates but he couldn't focus on one of them for too long without the other getting in the way.

Meanwhile, up in the tower's walkway, Ciel was engaged in speedy combat with the transformed Takaragi Yuu. He was deceptively fast on his feet, easily matching his fellow blue fighter in speed if not slightly faster.

"You know, it's not too late to back out now," Takaragi told Ciel, "Let me do what I'm doing, and you can forget that you've ever met Decade before."

"Sorry, but no thanks. Whatever you're planning, I can tell it won't be good," Ciel shot back along with her Black Keys at him. "What kind of servant of the Church would I be if I knowingly let someone commit a sin."

"Is it really a sin to try and kill the devil?" Takaragi questioned her with a huff.

'Again… What does he mean by the devil?' Obviously, Ciel knew he was referring to Ritsuka. She was actually confused as to why Takaragi was calling him the devil.

"Actually, it would be easier to just do this."

Takaragi took out a card from the black box on the side of his belt and inserted it into a slot on his cyan gun.

KAMEN RIDE:

He then pulled the front portion of his gun out, causing it to finish its announcement.

RIDEPLAYERS

Takaragi pointed his gun at Ciel and pulled the trigger. A multicolored blast shot out of the barrel straight at her. Before it hit her though, the blast split into several translucent silhouettes.

They quickly converged into three identical armored figures that can be easily described as a poor man's copy of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. Not that Ciel knew that, of course. She has never seen him before.

Regardless, the three summoned Riders all had brown armor and their helmet was basically just a smooth dome instead of the spiky pink hair of Ex-Aid. The chestplate of the three, unlike the normal Riders of Ex-Aid's world, was covered up. The three RidePlayers were also armed with short blades that had gun barrels in them.

As one, the RidePlayers raised their weapons and charged at Ciel as a distraction.

Takaragi let out an arrogant scoff and smirked underneath his helmet as he watched Ciel fight off the RidePlayers.

"Now then," he said as he looked back down at Decade and pointed his gun at the pink Rider. All it would take would be one accurate shot to knock him off his feet and leave him open to the El of the Wind.

He was just about to pull the trigger when, once again, his gun was knocked out of his hand by Ciel throwing one of her Black Keys.

"Stop that already!" The cyan Rider grumbled as he tried to go and pick up his weapon again.

This time though, Ciel was not going to let him and threw another Key through a gap in the RidePlayers' assault. It was not aimed at the Rider himself but rather, his shadow.

Just as he picked up his gun off the ground, Takaragi felt a strong force keeping him from moving.

Seeing him unable to move put Ciel at ease somewhat. Now all she had to do is defeat these RidePlayers as they were called before she could interrogate the Kamen Rider about his intentions.

Back down below, Decade just slashed one of the Crow Lords with his sword before he had to dodge another arrow from the flying El of the Wind.

If only he could get the Crow Lords off of his back, he could try shooting the El Lord out of the air.

"Fujimaru-san!" And luckily for him, someone who could help him with that just arrived.

Not too far away, Shouichi came riding on his bike and hopped off of it. After quickly taking his helmet off and putting it on the handlebars, he brought his hand over his waist and focused on summoning his belt.

With a loud hum, the Alter Ring appeared around his waist and it began to repeat a rhythmic whirr as Shouichi ran to join the battle.

"Henshin!" He exclaimed as he pressed the buttons on the side of his belt at the same time. The gem in his buckle shone a blindly light and in an instant, he transformed into Agito.

Leaping into the air, the yellow Rider kicked one of the Crow Lords away and landed gracefully in front of Decade.

"Good thing you're here," Decade told him, "Keep them busy and watch out for arrows."

"Got it." He did not completely understand what the magenta Rider was saying but he still nodded.

Decade left the Crow Lords to Agito and stepped away from the battle before taking out a KamenRide card.

"Henshin."

KAMEN RIDE: KUUGA

Transforming into Kuuga's Mighty Form, he wasted no time in taking out another card from the RideBooker. This one was the last FormRide Kuuga card he had that he had not used yet. Mainly because it was pretty situational in its abilities.

Now though, the situation called for those abilities.

FORM RIDE KUUGA: PEGASUS

As soon as he closed his Driver, his armor changed. As with the other Kuuga forms, the red turned into another color, this time being green. Additionally, his left shoulderpad disappeared while his right became pointed.

Finally, a gun appeared in Decade's hand. The weapon was a bit strangely shaped, with a small golden bow integrated into the front part of it.

Now in Kuuga Pegasus Form, Decade tuned out all noise and looked up to the sky. He had to find the El of the Wind fast, before the drawbacks of the form kicked in.

Agito, in the meantime, pressed the button on his right. A red light flashed this time as he changed forms. While Storm Form changed his left arm, Flame Form changed his right along with his chest. Reaching for the gem in his belt, the handle of a sword came out of it and Agito pulled it out.

The now yellow-and-red Rider immediately slashed two of the Crow Lords before thrusting his sword into the third.

Taking a deep breath and concentrating on his sword for a second, the golden horns of the hilt split open. Agito then ran towards the spear-wielding Crow Lord and slashed it across the waist.

The Crow Lord let out a pained cry as a halo appeared over its head before it exploded.

Agito did not stand around and waited though and continued fighting the remaining two Lords.

With Decade, he closed his eyes and continued focusing, trying to pick up the sound of wings flapping or something. In his mind's eye, he could see the darkening skies with only several moving dots.

'Deep breaths, deep breaths…' He thought as he tried to locate the El of the Wind. Normal birds were flying around too, making it harder for him to locate his target. What was making it worse was that a storm was starting to roll in and he could hear the distant sounds of thunder.

He could hear nothing, nothing at all… until he heard it; the sound of a bowstring being pulled. Moving quickly, he pulled on the back of the Pegasus Bowgun as he raised the weapon towards the flying El Lord. He pulled the trigger just as the El of the Wind released an arrow.

The two arrows hit each other and exploded in mid-air. Just as quickly as before, Decade shot another arrow at the El Lord. However, he was just as fast and flew out of the way before the second arrow could even get close.

Decade continued shooting at the El of the Wind without pause while, nearby, Agito managed to finish off a second Crow Lord. The sword-wielding Lord, like his ally a minute ago, let out a cry of pain before it exploded too.

The Rider turned towards the final Lord and raised his sword in preparation for another fight. The scythe-wielding monster let out a low growl as it also raised its weapon and stared down its species' sworn enemy.

Raindrops started to fall on them as they charged at each other.

Up in the walkway, Ciel had just defeated the RidePlayers who disappeared upon falling for the last time. Letting a quick sigh, she then turned her focus on the still frozen Takaragi.

"Now then, how should we do this?" Ciel asked as she walked in front of him. "I think a good question to start off with is why do you keep calling Fujimaru a devil."

"Well, to answer that would take the better part of an hour or two… or several." Despite being in a precarious situation, Takaragi still had a playful tone to his voice. "All you need to know for now is that Decade is not as he appears."

"And who are you to know that when not even he knows his own past?"

"Simple, I've met him before." There was now a hint of superiority in his voice. "In fact, I may be the only one left who does know him from before the incident."

'Incident?' "What do you mean, incide-"

"Anyway, I'm getting out of here before the weather gets too bad," Takaragi cut her off. "See ya!"

Before Ciel could react, an Aurora Curtain washed over the two of them. However, only Takaragi disappeared, leaving behind the Black Key that was implanted in the ground behind him.

"Damn it…" Ciel grumbled as she unconsciously looked around for the cyan Rider. The only thing she noticed though was that the storm was getting worse as raindrops fell with more intensity.

"That's odd…" she mumbled. She recalled that the weather forecast for today said that it was going to be clear skies all day. While it could be wrong, something was telling her that there was something wrong. Very wrong.

Taking off in a sprint, she tried to make her way down to the two Riders as fast as she could.

Sparks flew in the rain as Agito's Flame Saber scraped against the scythe blade, having blocked it. The Rider stood his ground as the last remaining Crow Lord pushed his weapon down onto his head.

Agito grunted as he tried to push back while Decade was still engaged in a ranged duel with the El of the Wind. For every shot they made, the other either shot their arrow out of the air or simply dodged it, extending the fight more… which was bad for Decade.

Even now, he can start to hear the distant sounds of car honks as well as people running in an effort to get out of the rain. His vision started to get blurry from the flashes of lightning and a strong migraine plagued his head.

'I have to finish this fast…' He mentally groaned as he shot another arrow which missed again. 'Why does he have to be so fast?!'

Even in the rain, the El Lord was moving as fast as the wind… Which probably explained why he was called that.

However, within a moment, everything fell apart. A timely combination of lightning and thunder covered up the El of the Wind's next attack. Decade barely noticed the arrow in time and tried, and failed, to dodge it. The arrow hit him in his side. It did not pierce through his armor but had enough force to knock him clear off his feet, making him revert back to his original form with a raging headache.

A third explosion shook the area again at the same time as Agito managed to overpower the final Crow Lord and, with a single slash, end its life.

"Fujimaru-san!" Agito shouted when he noticed his ally sprawled on the ground and groaning in pain. He tried to run over to his side but as soon as he took a single step, the ground below him blew out and sent him flying.

He barely managed to tuck and roll before his instincts told him to bring his sword up. He listened to it, of course, and it may have saved his life at a cost. The blade of the Flame Saber snapped off from the sudden attack from a Lord with a lion motif.

"Shoui-" Decade tried to say as he got back up but he was interrupted as he had to dodge a spear thrust. The spearhead barely managed to graze his armor as he stepped out of the way.

He put some distance between himself and the spear-wielding Lord just as Agito was sent rolling back from a kick to the chest.

"You okay?"

"Ow…" Agito groaned out, answering Decade's question.

The two Riders looked up to see the two new Lords standing side-by-side in the rain. A moment later, the El of the Wind landed next to them, joining the lineup.

"We finally meet, Agito, Decade, " the middle Lord with the lion theme stated. The latter Rider immediately got a bad feeling about the two new Lords with the way they said that. "I am the El of the Ground."

"And I am the El of the Water," the spear-wielding Lord… Well, El Lord continued.

'I hate being right…' They already had a problem dealing with one El Lord, now that there were three of them, Decade knew that they had to retreat if they wanted to live. They were simply not strong enough to fight them yet.

Agito, on the other hand, could not help but feel like he has met the El of the Water before.

"Fujimaru!" Decade heard Ciel shouting in the distance over the rain. The weather had gotten so bad he had a hard time seeing the tower, only a shadow in the rain.

"Decade, surrender yourself to us," the El of the Water said.

"If you do so, we will make your death swift and painless," continued the El of the Wind.

"And your friends will be released safe," finished the El of the Ground.

'Wait, what?' What did they mean by that?

"And you, Agito." The three El Lords turned to offer him their proposition. "We ask that you no longer involve yourself with Decade. Even if you are our sworn enemy, allying yourself with him is nothing more than a death sentence."

Great, that was just what he needed. More cryptic references about him. As if he did not have enough of that going around at the moment. Still, that would have to wait. He and the others needed to get out of there.

"So, Decade. What is your answer?" One of the El Lords asked.

"My answer is… No." In a split second, the magenta Rider turned his weapon into its gun mode and shot a hail of bullets at the three monsters.

Not expecting a move like that, the three El Lords were sent stumbling back. Decade quickly grabbed Agito's arm and dragged him away towards the tower where Ciel was waiting.

"What's going on out there?!" She shouted over the storm.

"Long story short, we need to get out now." Decade replied as they met up. "Please say you got some sort of teleportation magic or something."

"Sorry, but teleportation is out of my wheelhouse." Well, that wasn't good. "But Fujimaru, there's something you need to know!"

"Later!"

He could really go for a portal to open up and send him home again. Actually, now that he thought about It, other than the note that was left on his bicycle seat, that guy has not contacted him in any way yet.

"Move!" Ciel pushed Decade out of the way while he was busy wondering where that guy was. A split second later, an arrow whizzed right past his head. All three of them immediately looked towards the plains to see that the three El Lords had recovered; the El of the Wind aiming his longbow at them – Decade, in particular – while the other two were dashing towards the tower.

'I turn my back for ten minutes and you already got yourself into this much trouble?!' A very irritated voice grumbled in the magenta Kamen Rider's head before a second later, an Aurora Curtain washed over the three humans and deposited them in the living room of Ritsuka's house.

"This is…?" "Wasn't that-?!" Agito, not knowing what just happened, and Ciel, who realized that the silver wall was the same as the one Takaragi summoned, both blurted out.

Ritsuka, meanwhile, just let out a loud sigh of relief and detransformed. Once again, he was (begrudgingly) grateful that that guy had intervened to save him. But he cannot talk to him yet, there was something more important at the moment.

The teen in disguise walked past the others as Shouichi also canceled his transformation. His clothes, like Ritsuka's, were still dry since they both had transformed before the storm came in.

Ciel, on the other hand…

"Why do I have to be the only one with wet clothes?" She grumbled to herself while Shouichi gave her an apologetic look. After sighing in frustration, her body glowed for a brief second, forcing the Rider to shut his eyes. A moment later, Shouichi opened them again to see Ciel had changed into her high schooler disguise. Her blue hair was still damp though. "Fujimaru-kun, do you have a towel I can borrow?"

Her request may have gone unheard by Ritsuka though as he had already left the room and was on his way up the stairs.

"Tetsuya?! Ryoko?!" He called out to his friends but got no response. Poking into their respective rooms and the bathroom, Ritsuka saw that they were empty and went back downstairs.

"What's wrong?" Ciel questioned Ritsuka when she noticed the slightly bigger than usual frown he had.

"They're not here," he simply answered as he tossed her a towel he grabbed from the bathroom before looking at Shouichi. "When did you last see them?"

"Less than twenty minutes ago," Shouichi estimated. "We were cleaning up when I felt a Lord's presence. After that, I ran out and they followed me outside. I got on my bike and eventually found you fighting those Lords at the tower."

"Twenty minutes…" Ritsuka muttered. "How did they grab them so fast? Were they waiting for you to leave?"

"You don't mean…"

"That's precisely what I mean," he grimly confirmed Shouichi's suspicion.

"What are you talking about? Where are your friends?" Ciel asked, concern evident in her voice. However, while she did not hear what the El Lords had said, she had the sinking feeling she knew what happened.

"Gone; the Lords kidnapped them."

---

After making sure that Ryoko and Tetsuya were really not in the house, they checked outside and concluded that they were abducted. The large hole in the garden that Ritsuka assumed was made by the El of the Ground was proof enough.

"Okay, let's think long and hard about this." Shouichi took a deep breath to calm himself down as he walked back and forth. "First, why would they want to abduct them?"

"Why wouldn't they want to abduct them," Ritsuka calmly corrected his question. "The Lords are after me; why not target those two to get to me? And that's not to mention how Tetsuya may or may not be an alternate version of you."

"Right, they have every reason to want to abduct them." That admission did nothing to calm Shouichi, however.

Meanwhile, Ciel found Shouichi's anxious walking, while understandable, not helpful in the slightest. "Can you sit down? Watching you is making me worried."

"Sorry, sorry…" Shouichi apologized as he sat down and let out an exhausted and worried sigh.

Ciel then glanced at Ritsuka and remarked on his attitude. "You know, for someone whose friends have been kidnapped, you're oddly calm about all this."

"Don't mistake me for not punching a wall in frustration for me not caring," the teen replied. "I am worried. It's just that I know flying off the handle wouldn't do us any good."

"Rather callous of you."

"You're probably right," Ritsuka admitted. Being all calm about this would have given off a not-completely wrong impression of him.

Shouichi, on the other hand, was much more panicky about this than Ritsuka was. "This is my fault, I shouldn't have left them alone," he muttered to himself.

However, he was still overheard by the other two. "Hey, don't go beating yourself up for not being here." Ciel tried to comfort him.

"What she said, if you were here when the Lords came, they would've just killed you since you're Agito," Ritsuka added, "The El of the Ground managed to shatter your sword in a single slash; if you've been here, you wouldn't have stood a chance."

And he did not need to go into how helpful Shouichi was when he arrived at the battle site. Ritsuka would not have been able to fight the El of the Wind had he not come.

"Right… I guess you've got a point," Shouichi conceded. Taking another deep breath, this time actually managing to calm down, he then asked, "So where could the Lords have taken them too?"

"Dunno, I'm an outsider, remember?" Ritsuka shrugged. "Ciel, you got any idea?"

"No, not at all," she answered. However, she then remembered something, or rather someone, who could have known. "Wait, Takaragi Yuu."

"What about him?" Ritsuka asked with a frown.

"He was at the tower watching us," Ciel revealed to them. "When the storm came rolling in, he ran away like he knew what was going to happen."

"Great, that's just great," Ritsuka grumbled. Their hope in locating Ryoko and Tetsuya lied on the only other guy he cannot stand being in a room with. Speaking of which, he (unfortunately) needed to talk with the cloaked man again.

"Actually, there are several things you need to know about him." That did not sound too good. "Fujimaru-kun, did you know he was the same as you and Shouichi?"

"...What?"

"What do you mean, like me?" Shouichi was also confused for a few seconds before he understood what Ciel was talking about. "You mean he can transform like us?"

"Yes," she nodded. "He could even summon more of you guys too but they were rather weak. Resilient, but weak."

'Summon more… Then Takaragi must be the one who summoned Gaim and Chalice earlier,' Ritsuka correctly guessed. "How does he do that? Summon, I mean."

"With a gun and some cards like yours," Ciel answered.

"A gun that could summon other Riders…" He muttered, feeling a sense of familiarity with the description. "What color was the gun?"

"Mostly blue. Cyan, to be specific."

"Cyan…" A cyan gun. That definitely felt familiar to Ritsuka. Has he come across something like that in his past? If so, then why did he not feel like he had met Takaragi before?

"He… well…" Ciel tried to say something but looked hesitant in actually saying it.

"What is it, Ciel?"

"Takaragi said that you've met him before some kind of incident and that he was probably the only one left who knew you," she told Ritsuka. "He also kept calling you the devil and that killing you would not be sinful."

"Well, that sounds delightful," Ritsuka snarked. However, he was very confused, intrigued, and basically focused on trying to understand what Ciel had said. Incident? Devil? Just what was that supposed to mean?

Just why did the only people who seemed to know his past have to also be the ones he could not stand being around?

Speaking of which, he needed to talk to the masked man and, luckily, he had an excuse to be alone. "I'm gonna get changed. This uniform is starting to stink," he truthfully said as he sat up. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Sure, we'll try to figure out where they could be."

Ritsuka went back upstairs and into his room, making sure to lock the door. He quickly changed out of his uniform and tossed it onto his bed, deciding to put it in the laundry basket later, and put on a normal attire.

With fresh clothes on, Ritsuka turned around to see you-know-who sitting by the table, back turned to him.

"Nice of you to not look."

"Why so surprised?" The cloaked man spun around on the swivel chair. "I'm polite y'know, like back in Ex-Aid's world."

"So, who is he?" Ritsuka did not need to say much more than that for the masked man to understand what he was talking about.

"Honestly, no clue at all," the masked man shrugged. "Whoever this new Diend is, he's a complete mystery to me too."

"New… Diend?" Ritsuka raised an eyebrow at his choice of words.

"Right, you haven't seen nor heard of his name yet. If that nun is correct, then Takaragi Yuu is Kamen Rider Diend," the masked man explained.

"No, I got that part but… what do you mean new Diend?"

"...Nothing." The young man in black realized that he had said more than he should have and it showed. Through the small eyeholes of his mask, Ritsuka saw his eyes widening a bit. "An-anyway, let's forget about Takaragi for a bit, you have a bigger problem right now, don't you? The Overlord of Darkness kidnapped your friends."

Again, that guy kept saying friends in a strange way. But as he said, Ritsuka had a bigger problem right now. "Actually, that reminds me of something." He went over to his uniform and searched through the pockets before pulling out the piece of paper from earlier. "You left this for me, didn't you?"

"I did, yes." The young man sitting down nodded. "Needed a way to push you towards the heart of this world's problems without being too obvious."

"Yeah, 'cause nothing screams obvious like a cloaked man with a mask taping a piece of paper to a policeman's bike," Ritsuka retorted in a snarky tone to which the masked man only laughed in response.

"What? You think I wear this 24/7?" The young man asked in a mocking tone. "I do take this off, usually against my will, but I don't wear this all the time."

"Then why do you always wear that when you talk to me?" Ritsuka questioned him. "In fact, why do you even bother hiding your identity in the first place?"

"I have my reasons," the masked man answered cryptically. "Not that it matters to you."

"Of course, it matters to me. You've been foll-"

"Alright, let's not get into that whole topic again," he cut Ritsuka off. "Or do you consider my identity a bigger problem than your friends' kidnapping?"

Ritsuka only grumbled in response at being checkmated. "Fine then, back to this note. I assume that the Darkness mentioned in it is the Overlord."

"You're absolutely correct, but can you guess who the Light is?"

"The Darkness' brother…" Ritsuka thought that he understood what it meant now. "So there is an Overlord of Light too?"

"Was," the young man corrected. "There was an Overlord of Light. He's long dead by this point in Agito's story."

"Right." The note did say that the Overlord of Light did something with his dying breath. Then the Seed that was mentioned must be…

"But his actions still have ramifications today, as you obviously already figured out by now."

"The Seed is Agito's powers," Ritsuka stated. "And the Overlord of Darkness is hunting down anyone who has the potential of becoming Agito."

"That's correct," the young man started clapping which annoyed Ritsuka. "But do you want the rest of the story? The meaning behind the picture you have hung downstairs?"

His curiosity was piqued, Ritsuka would admit that much. But did he want to listen to that guy yapping for who knows how long?

"Doesn't matter, I don't really care for your opinion." Well, looks like the choice had been made for him.

"Honestly, I would say yes, but in case you forgot, I'm pretty busy at the moment," Ritsuka said.

"Fine, fine. I'm pretty busy with other things too." There was that too; what was that guy up to here? "So take this instead."

The young man opened another, smaller Aurora Curtain and quickly reached inside and pulled out a small book. "It's missing a lot of stuff but the important parts are fine."

He then tossed the book at Ritsuka who easily caught it. The amnesiac teen read the name on the cover of the book and his eyes widened in shock. "What…?" He reread the title again to make sure that he did not make a mistake. "Where did you get this?!" Ritsuka demanded, looking back up.

However, the masked man was already gone.

"Dammit…" Ritsuka quietly cursed as he glanced at the book's cover again. "How…? Why…?"

Too many questions ran through Ritsuka's mind as he read the title for the third time.

"Kamen Rider Agito…"

On the bottom half of the book, written in stylized katakana on top of Agito's symbol, was Kamen Rider Agito and right below it in English was Masked Rider Agito.

Ritsuka cracked the book open and immediately understood what that guy had meant by the book missing a lot of stuff. Most, if not all, of the pages were ripped with the damages being more severe in the back half of the book. After the halfway point, there were no pages to speak of anymore.

The first few pages, meanwhile, were only slightly torn and no words were missing. Ritsuka, after taking a deep breath, read the first passage.

"In the beginning, there was Teos."

---

"Maybe we can go to the police?"

"Normally, that's the sensible course of action but nothing about this is sensible," Ciel shot down that option. She and Shouichi had been discussing what they could do to rescue Ritsuka's friends but that had not gone too well.

She had entertained the thought of asking help from some of her co-workers but decided against it. Getting the church involved would just make things spiral further out of control.

"I'm back…" Ritsuka unenergetically announced as he entered the living room.

"About time, you were gone for half an hour," Ciel said before she noticed the far-off look Ritsuka had. "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah…"

That was a dumb question, Ciel thought. His friends were just kidnapped, he should not be fine. But he had been fine earlier so why was he acting odd now?

RItsuka glanced at the mural in the back of the room. He now knew the story behind the painting and did not know what to make about it. Not only that, the very existence of the book was mind-numbing and brought on a whole slew of questions that were not going to be answered anytime soon.

"Okay, before we even make a plan to rescue those two, we need to know where they are," Ciel said to try and (somewhat) change the subject.

"Well, they know this place," Shouichi pointed out. "Maybe the Lords will make their demands soon."

"We know what their demands are: me." The El Lords made that fact clear earlier. "We just have to wait for them to give us a location to meet or something like that."

"So… you're going to give yourself up?" Shouichi asked, his concern evident in his voice.

"Obviously not, we're saving them and I'm going to walk away with my life," Ritsuka said with so much confidence that Shouichi and Ciel could not help but believe that was what was going to happen.

"Then what do you propose we do?"

"For now, we have no choice but to sit back and wait for the Overlord of Darkness to make the first move," he answered while glancing towards the figure representing said Overlord on his painting. "Other than that, there's nothing else we can do."

He admittedly had a point so they put a pin on the discussion for now. As for what was next…

---

Meanwhile…

Somewhere in the city, two teenagers lay unconscious in an abandoned warehouse. No sounds came from them for some time except for their shallow breathing, until…

"Urgh…" Tetsuya groaned as he woke up with a raging headache. "Where am I?"

He looked around the deserted warehouse and saw nothing else except for- "Ryoko?!"

Tetsuya tried to shake her awake which she did not too long later.

"Ow…" She groaned, holding her head. "Tetsu? What happened?"

She could not remember much after they followed Shouichi outside. The Rider then drove off and…

"Oh, right. Those bastards came out of nowhere." Underground can be considered "out of nowhere", right? "Where did they take us?"

"No clue," answered Tetsuya as he took another look around. There seemed to be nobody around other than them and the entrances were unguarded. "Come on, let's get out of here."

The two got onto their feet and, after getting their balance, tried to head for one of the exits. Before they could take five steps though, somebody stopped them, stepping in their path from out of nowhere.

"Stop." It was a simple command, but something about the man who said it made them obey him without question.

"You are… Who are you?" Tetsuya asked. His voice sounded vaguely familiar.

The man did not answer him and only gave him a look that made it clear that he was going to be asking the questions here, not them. "Why do you follow him? What about him commands such loyalty from you?"

"Him?" Ryoko asked without thought before she figured out who he was talking about.

The man, while not sounding annoyed, clarified what he meant before the two can say anything else. "Decade. Why do you trust him after everything he has done?"

This time, neither of them had any idea what he meant by that.

"We don't know what you mean," Tetsuya spoke for the both of them. "Ritsuka hasn't done anything wrong."

Other than, of course, initially siding with the Fangire King but how was the man supposed to know about that?

"So he has not told you of what happened," the man said, earning more confused looks from the two teens. "That is not a surprise; I doubt he wants to remember."

"Hang on, you know what happened to Ritsu?"

"So, what is it?" The man ignored their questions again. "What about him makes you trust him without question?"

"He's…" Honestly, there should not be a good reason for how Ritsuka acted in the past few (or every) world so far.

"So neither of you know the answer yourselves," the man remarked, taking their inability to answer as ignorance. "That is all I needed to know." The man then tried to take his leave but not without making one last comment. "If you still choose to believe in him, do so with caution. Decade is a devil; everything he touches will be destroyed."

The man disappeared before either of the teens could make so much as a peep, leaving them with a burning question.

'Decade… is a devil?'

---

Midnight…

Ritsuka walked down the staircase in relative quiet. At this time of the night, he assumed that his two guests were fast asleep and he was able to sneak into the kitchen without any trouble.

That plan was soon dashed as he quietly opened the door and entered the living room.

"Oh, you're still awake," he heard someone's voice coming from the windows. Looking towards the source of the voice, Ritsuka saw Ciel sitting next to one of them, illuminated by the moonlight peering in.

Shouichi, meanwhile, was quietly snoozing on one of the sofa's nearby. Like Ciel, he had decided to stick around for the night in case the Lords paid Ritsuka a nighttime visit. He had already called his home and told them he was staying over to help a friend.

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked.

"Just got hungry," Ritsuka answered as he continued on his way to the kitchen. After a minute of searching for and eating a snack, Ritsuka came out to see Ciel still looking up at the moon. '...I should probably say something.'

"What's on your mind?" he asked, grabbing a nearby chair and sitting next to her.

"Nothing really." The distant tone in her voice indicated otherwise. "What about you? I doubt you're awake now just 'cause you were hungry."

"I'm not going to deny that," Ritsuka admitted, "But it's not what you think."

"So you're really not worried about your friends?"

"Had it been any other group of monsters, I would be," he said, "But since this is the Lords we're talking about, I'm not that worried."

"Even if you have a point, that's still callous of you," Ciel called Ritsuka out on his lack of concern again.

"You're probably right," he repeated what he said earlier. He has long since admitted to himself that the fact he was not as worried as he should be was a bad sign.

"If it's not your friends, then what are you thinking of?" The Executor asked.

"You work for the Church so getting your opinion would be helpful…" Ritsuka muttered to himself before asking Ciel, "What do you think about gods and all that stuff?"

"Oh, theological questions. My favorites," Ciel sarcastically replied before she realized that Ritsuka was serious. "Well, despite appearances, I'm not really that religious as you would expect considering my occupation."

"Still, I would like your thoughts on it."

"I… don't really know," she admitted both to him and herself. "I don't want to go into it now but my life's been rather… terrible, and that's a massive understatement. With all this about the Overlord and his emissaries, talks about God get difficult. I admit I'm not that zealous, but the existence of the Lords is hard to wrap your head around."

"Can you explain a bit more?"

"The Burial Agency and Executors, which I'm a member of, their purpose is to "execute the Lord's will as His proxy". That's what I've been told my role is and that's what I believed in for a long time," Ciel explained. "But then more… problematic things happened in recent times. Again, I don't want to get into things now but when the Unidentified Lifeforms first appeared, it was hard."

"Why?"

"The Unidentified Lifeforms were different than what I usually hunt in several aspects. For starters, they gave no care in keeping their existence a secret from the world and killed humans out in the open and in large numbers. The Holy Church, on the other hand, had to work in secret and that made it hard for us to deal with them."

"I thought you said that only a co-worker of yours was dealing with the Gur- Unidentified Lifeforms?" Ritsuka hoped that Ciel did not pick up on his slip-up.

If she did, she did not show it and continued telling her recollections from five years ago. "He did, at first. But things started to get harder and harder for him and several more were sent to help, including me. Admittedly, I did not do much back then but I remember how many people were being murdered that year. Nothing was sacred to the Unidentified Lifeforms; men, women, children, anything goes for them."

"...What about Kuuga?"

"Kuuga… was a strange one. At first, we believed that he was an Unidentified Lifeform but he was different. He helped humanity and fought the rest of his species. But we're getting distracted," Ciel caught herself before she could continue talking about Kuuga. The reason they were talking was about the Lords. "At some point, they started appearing, the Lords."

"Right, you mentioned that they helped five years ago."

Ciel nodded, "They claimed that they were emissaries of the Overlord and will protect humanity from anything that seeks to harm them, just like us Executors. Our superiors, after some discussion, concluded that the Lords were truly on humanity's side and that we are not to attack them in any way."

"But then they started to attack normal humans."

"Yes… Our doctrine says to only destroy heretical beings like demons and such, so I… we could do nothing but watch as the Lords murdered innocent humans saying that it was the Overlord's will," Ciel sighed. "I normally don't put much stock in religious things like that but even I have my limits when it comes to… y'know."

"Yeah, I get it."

"Anyway, eventually, Kuuga managed to destroy all the Unidentified Lifeforms and soon disappeared. After that, the Lords stuck around and continued their job in hunting down those that threaten humanity. Many of us started to believe that they were the Lord's emissaries but I always had my doubts since…"

"The innocent human-hunting bit."

"Yeah, that."

"But… do you really believe he exists?"

"That's… I don't know."

"I see…" Ritsuka hummed, glancing at the painting he has.

"Why do even want to know in the first place anyway? I don't think you were just curious to the point of having a moonlit conversation about it."

"It's… I'm just thinking about the Overlord of Darkness," Ritsuka told her after a moment. "The El Lords said that he was the one who has my friends so I've been wondering why a god want with them or me."

"The Overlord of Darkness…" Ciel mumbled. "That was what the El of the Wind said, right?"

"Yup."

"That's another thing altogether. We only knew that the Lords served an Overlord but that was the first time I'm hearing of anything about 'the Darkness'."

"Well, if you think it means he's evil, you don't need to worry about it," Ritsuka told her which only confused Ciel. "The Darkness part apparently only means void or nothingness, not evil."

"How do you know that?"

"...No reason." Alright, that was suspicious beyond all belief. "Anyway, the Overlord of Darkness wants my head for some reason so I've been wondering why that is."

"You backtracking a bit."

"Am I?"

"Yes, you are," Ciel sighed at his attempt to change the subject. However, he had a point and his concern was legitimate. Why would a god have any interest in him? "Maybe it's because you're from another world?"

"I would believe that was just it but that doesn't explain why the Lords invaded another world just to kill me."

"They what?" That was the first time Ciel has heard about that.

"Oh, right… Now that's a long story I don't want to get into."

"That's fair, I guess." Since she said there was stuff she would rather not get into, Ciel thought she had no right to pry further. "Well, it's already late. You should get some sleep for tomorrow. Who knows what would be in store for you."

"You're probably right," Ritsuka said as he got up. "But you should take your own advice. Staying up all night staring and thinking about the moon is not good for your health."

He then left the room to go back to bed as Ciel watched him. Once the doors closed and she heard light footsteps walking away, she mumbled, "It's not the moon I'm thinking of…"

---

When Ritsuka entered his room, there was nobody inside. When he turned back after locking the door, someone was once again sitting in his chair.

"Hey, Ritsuka-kun." Instead of the annoying guy he hoped to see, it was the other annoying guy he did not want to see.

"What are you doing here, Takaragi?" Ritsuka questioned the young man with a grumble.

"I just wanted to pop in for a quick chat," Takaragi smirked at him before raising his hand and showing something to Ritsuka. "Imagine my surprise when I saw this on your bed."

It was the book about Kamen Rider Agito. Why would Takaragi have an interest in it?

…Wait, scratch that. Anybody would have an interest in it.

"Put that down, that doesn't belong to you." While it also did not belong to Ritsuka himself, he did not want Takaragi to be touching it.

"Well, it's a good thing my job is to take whatever I want then," Takaragi let out a short laugh before putting the book inside his jacket, earning him a glare from Ritsuka. "I don't think we've formally introduced ourselves yet. I mean, really introduced ourselves."

"...Who are you then? I know we've never met before."

"Firstly, that hurts a bit that you don't remember the second time we've met," the young man feigned heartbreak at Ritsuka's words. "But I digress. I am not lying when I say my name is Takaragi Yuu, I just never told you I am Kamen Rider Diend."

"Diend… Why do you have that gun then?" Ritsuka asked. He has not seen the Diendriver yet, but he knew what it was and its abilities thanks to Ciel.

"Oh, you mean this?" Taking it out of nowhere, Takaragi twirled the cyan gun Driver in his hand. "Let's just say I inherited it."

"So there was another Diend." Ritsuka assumed so from what that guy had said. Of course, that led him to question how and why the masked man knew that but that was for later.

"Maybe there was, maybe there wasn't. Who knows? But for all intents and purpose, I am the only Diend running around right now. Just like how you're the only Decade."

'Wait, what?' "Only Decade?" Ritsuka said, his confusion very evident in his voice.

Hearing his confusion though only caused Takaragi to have a wide grin on his face. "The incident really did put a dent in your memories, didn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, you might want to keep an eye out. Who knows if either of them decides to surface again. We'll be in big trouble if that happens." With another short laugh, Takaragi Yuu disappeared with the help of an Aurora Curtain, leaving Ritsuka with more questions than answers… again.

Really, he should keep a list of the unanswered questions he had.

---

?

'Where am I?' All he tell was that he was on a boat out in the sea. A heavy storm sent great waves that kept rocking the boat. However, he noticed in his daze that every time a wave was actually going to hit the boat itself, something stop it; either a repelling gust of wind, a fire slash, or both.

He tried to see where the opposing force protecting the boat was and he eventually saw it, or rather, him. Standing at the bow of the ship was a yellow Kamen Rider with a red, right arm and a blue, left arm. In his respective hands were familiar-looking weapons; a red sword and a blue halberd. With those two weapons, the Rider did his best to protect the boat from the storm.

'Then that is-'

"Agito." He heard a voice coming from behind him.

Turning around, he saw a young man in bright clothes smiling at him. For some reason, he was entranced by the man's appearance and did not so much as lift a finger even when the angelic-looking man was walking towards him.

The young man stopped in front of him and raised his hand, putting his palm against the dreamer's chest.

"I cannot do much anymore… but this will help you in your coming fight."

The dreamer felt something warm in his chest, right where the man was touching him.

"Agito. You must show him, make him understand," the young man tasked him. "Even if all seems lost, you must be true to your conviction and make him trust in humanity again."

His eyelids soon felt heavy and he could not keep his eyes open for long. Before he knew it, he was asleep once more and the sounds of the storm disappeared…

---

The next morning…

"Urgh…" Shouichi woke up with a groan. His head felt strange, like he had a headache but it also felt so clear.

"Wakey, wakey."

"Wha-?" He looked to see Ritsuka standing over him.

"You're a really heavy sleeper, you know. Come on, breakfast is ready." Ritsuka then walked away towards the kitchen as Shouichi tiredly got off the couch.

'That dream…' He thought before his eyes wandered on the nearby mural. Specifically, he was drawn towards the boat near the center of the painting from which humans were walking away from.

He then noticed the red figure on it and recalled what he heard Ritsuka and Ciel were talking about the day before.

"Agito…" Shouichi mumbled. He had thought that those two were right and that the red figure was a past Agito. With only his right arm being red, he assumed that it must be Flame Form. 'I prefer Storm more. A spear is cooler than a sword,' he mindlessly thought before looking away.

Walking into the kitchen and dining room, he saw that Ritsuka and Ciel were just finishing up breakfast themselves.

"Did anything happen while I was asleep?" Shouichi asked as he sat down at the table.

Both of them shook their head and Ciel said, "Nothing, not even a note yet."

"Well, they want me so they'll get into contact soon," Ritsuka said, "If not then I'll just walk around until they attack me again."

"You're really full of dumb ideas, aren't you?"

"I did not hear you say no, to this or yesterday's plan."

Ciel did not reply and just took another bite of her meal.

"Anyway, if we don't hear anything till say… 12, I'll go looking for them. If you want to come with, be my guest."

"That's awfully stupid of you if you think we aren't coming with. Somebody has to make sure you don't do anything dumber with those two not here," Ciel said which Shouichi agreed with.

"I don't want to be that guy, but chances are those special Lords will be there, right?" Shouichi asked. "What would we do if we run into them?"

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it."

"Fujimaru-kun, the term is "we'll cross that bridge"."

"I'd rather burn the Lords rather than cross them."

"I… don't know how I'm supposed to respond to that."

Shouichi, on the other hand, did know. "Wouldn't burning them also cross them in the process?"

"By burning, I meant exploding," Ritsuka clarified. "Exploding bridges doesn't roll off the tongue as much."

"I have serious concerns about your mental health," Ciel sighed at hearing Ritsuka's reply.

"My mental health is as fine as- Ah!" He spoke too soon as a sudden migraine hit both his and Shouichi's head.

"What's wrong?! Fujimaru?! Igarashi?!" Ciel's words fell on deaf ears as a voice familiar to both Riders filled their heads.

"Decade, Agito. I know you can hear me."

"You are… the Overlord of Darkness," Ritsuka said, recognizing the voice from back in Ryoko's and Tetsuya's world. Shouichi, meanwhile, recognized the voice from his dream.

"I am. If you wish for your friends' safety, you will meet me at-" The Overlord of Darkness proceeded to tell them the location for them to meet up. "You have one hour to get here. I urge that you move with haste."

The presence in their head disappeared, leaving them with a massive headache.

"What happened?" Ciel asked.

"...We're going, now."

---

Less than an hour later…

"How did we end up in this situation?" Ryoko said in a rather calm tone that was completely at odds with what was going on.

She and Tetsuya were currently tied up together and left hanging over a bed of sharp, metal pipes and broken glass. Nearby, the young man that was keeping them trapped looked up at them with a neutral expression.

"Do not worry. If Decade decides you are worth saving, you will be released."

"So long as we aren't released from up here…"

"Why do you even want with him?!" Tetsuya questioned the Overlord of Darkness, "You even went so far as to hold us hostages just to get to him!"

"Simple, his journey will spell the end of us all," he repeated what the Bull Lord had said all the way from the start of their journey, "If left to his own devices, all of our worlds will be destroyed."

"And who told you that?!"

"...That is none of your concern." The Overlord refused to answer.

"Oh, come on!"

"Milord," Before the two captured teens could say anything more, one of the El Lords, the El of the Wind, dropped in from one of the many open holes in the roof of the warehouse. "They have arrived."

"Good," the Overlord nodded and turned to the central entrance of the warehouse.

A minute or so later, Ritsuka and Shouichi walked in.

"Ritsuka!" "Ritsu!"

Ritsuka only gave the two a short nod before turning his eyes towards the biggest threat in the room. "Teos."

For the first time, The Overlord of Darkness' neutral expression disappeared upon hearing the name. It was for a brief moment, however, and he put on his mask again.

"So you know my True Name," the Overlord remarked. "However, that will do nothing to help you, Decade."

"Fujimaru-san, how do you know that?" Shouichi whispered to Ritsuka, who only gave him a look that says that they will talk about it later.

"You know what we are after," the Overlord continued, "Surrender yourself and my emissaries will grant you a quick death."

"About that, can I ask why you and all the others want me dead?" Ritsuka tried to wring out at least one answer before he would surrender.

"As I've told your friends, you are a danger to this world and the others." It was nothing that he did not already know. "The coalition against you was made out of fear of what will happen if you gain your powers and memories."

"And what will happen?"

"The destruction of all the worlds," the Overlord answered with a straight face. "Now, what do you say? Will you surrender or will you let your friends fall to your death?"

Next to him, the El of the Wind notched an arrow, aimed for the rope that kept the two teens suspended over certain death.

"Don't do it Ritsu!"

"Yeah, we're not worth it!" Worth what exactly was not explicitly clear but Tetsuya did not want to see his (best) friend die to save them.

"Well, honestly…"

Hang on, wait a minute. He was not really thinking of letting them fall, was he?!

"I choose… C, neither of them."

Before anyone could react, the El of the Wind's weapon was sniped out of his hands. On top of a nearby roof, Ciel let out a sigh as she tried to remember what Ritsuka had said to convince her to do this.

Back with the warehouse, in the resulting seconds of confusion, Ritsuka and Shouichi put on/summoned their belts and quickly transformed.

"Henshin!"

KAMEN RIDE: DECADE

"Milord!" The El of the Wind cried as he abandoned his bow in favor of protecting his creator. The Overlord, meanwhile, quickly moved out of the way of the battle as the Riders engaged the El Lord.

Thanks to a combination of the surprising change in confusion as well as fighting off two Riders, the El of the Wind could only fight defensively.

Watching one of his servants getting pushed back, the Overlord of Darkness let out a deep breath and focused his energy into summoning more of his El Lords. Two flashes of light came out of his body and turned into the Els of the Ground and Water in a split second.

"You know what to do," he told the two El Lords, "You are allowed to kill them."

"Yes, milord," The two El Lords nodded before joining to help their brethren with fighting the Riders.

---

Meanwhile, elsewhere…

"This should be all I need," Takaragi Yuu smirked as he put the treasure he had collected in this world in a pile in front of him. "Now, where did I put it?"

He searched through his pocket but found nothing, much to his confusion.

"Looking for this?" A voice called out from behind him. A deep voice that obviously sound like it was being faked.

Takaragi looked around and saw the last person he wanted to see, the masked man in the black cloak. In his hand was what he was looking for, a blank Ridewatch.

"...What are you doing here?" Takaragi lowered his voice in anger and narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

"Oh, I'm done with my task in this world. Somebody had to help out Gills and Another Agito while he was busy with Igarashi Shouichi," the young man in disguise answered. "Unfortunately, I did not get anything out of them but oh well. A better question is what are you doing, Diend?"

"So you know who I am?"

"Thanks to a certain battle nun that you ran into," he clarified. "Now then, answer me. And while you're at that, tell me where you got the Diendriver?"

"...I'm doing what I want, finding and searching for pieces of the past," Takaragi cryptically replied, "Now, will you please throw that over? I need it; makes it easier to carry these things around."

"Oh, you mean like these?" The masked man then took more Ridewatches out of his pocket, holding three (including the blank Watch) in each hand. "Faiz, Ryuki, Build, and Drive. And these are just the ones you had on you. You've been rather busy, haven't you?"

"How did you-?!"

"Oh, please. Don't you go underestimating me," he said with a hint of arrogance in his voice. "If you did not know, I was trained by the first Diend. Against my will, but he still trained nonetheless."

"Why do you want? You want to return them to their worlds or something?" Takaragi's suggestion only made him laugh.

"Don't mistake me taking these for wanting them," he said after he stopped laughing before, to Takaragi's surprise, tossing them all back. "I just stole these to make a point."

"..." Takaragi remained quiet as he picked up the Ridewatches off the ground under the watchful gaze of the masked man. After picking up the blank Ridewatch, he turned back to the pile of stolen artifacts and one book before pressing the button over it.

As with what happened with the cloaked man, a holographic clock projected over the Ridewatch's face. Only this time, it had both an hour and a minute (or second) hand. Once it made a single revolution, the Ridewatch glowed brightly and changed form.

Agito!

The gray watch turned mostly yellow and a twistable faceplate appeared over it. Takaragi glanced at the watch face and read the number on the bottom part, "2001."

"My job here is done now," Takaragi heard the masked man say. Turning around again, he saw that the disguised young man was about to leave through an Aurora Curtain. "But one last thing; I don't know who you are or where you got the Diendriver from, but you are still a Rider and that means I have to at least give you one piece of advice."

"And that is?"

"Riders help each other out. Whether you care about that or not, that's something you have to know." The man then stepped through the wall and disappeared.

"...Dammit," Takaragi cursed/sighed as he recalled a piece of similar advice that was once told to him by someone.

"It's fun to mess with him but always try to make it up. Trust me, you don't want to annoy someone like him too much. Help him fight some monsters or something."

"Why do I have to remember that now?" He grumbled to himself, having been content with letting Ritsuka face off the El Lords but now he has to help somehow. As he did not want to show his face around him at the moment, he tried to think of another way to aide him.

After a couple of minutes, a lightbulb lit over his head as he came upon a genius idea. Opening an Aurora Curtain, he stepped through it and hoped it worked out.

---

Back with Decade and Agito…

With the arrival of the other two El Lords, the tides quickly turned against the two Riders.

'Well, this plan had gone downhill…' Decade thought as he tried to parry a slash from the El of the Ground. However, the El Lord was still more powerful and the magenta Rider was pushed back.

Agito, in the meantime, was in his Storm Form again as he fought off the other two El Lords but was having as much of a good time as Decade was; i.e. not at all. With a thrust of the spear, the El of the Water forced him back into his Ground Form.

"This… this isn't looking good," Ryoko commented with a gulp as she and Tetsuya watched while still swaying above the deathbed.

The Riders were simply outnumbered and outgunned. If they could at least make the battle more even somehow, they would not get their ass handed as much. However, unless the G3 Unit somehow heard of this and are on their way, they were not going to even the odds.

'Not that G3 could help as he is now,' Decade could not help but think about that. Unless the policeman Rider had upgraded since yesterday afternoon, his arrival would not matter at all.

As for outgunned, there was not much either he or Agito could do about that. Decade only had three usable KamenRide cards to his name and Agito only had access to Flame and Storm Form which had been proven to not be that useful.

That left one option left. "Shouichi," Decade called out to the yellow-and-blue Kamen Rider. "Why do you think that the Overlord of Darkness wants you dead?"

"Eh?" Was this really the best time to ask? When they were already fighting for their lives? "Um… It's because I'm Agito, right?"

"Yes, but do you know why?" Decade continued to ask as he and Agito stepped back to avoid getting hit by a sword slash.

"No, I don't."

"Agito's powers are truly a distant fragment of his own powers," he quickly explained, "The Seed of Agito is all that's left of the Overlord of Light, the Overlord's opposite."

"What?" Agito was caught off-guard by that revelation but now that he thought of it, that explains that dream and why he always knew when a Lord was on the attack. 'Then that was…'

"Even if all seems lost, you must be true to your conviction and make him trust in humanity's future."

That must have been him, the Overlord of Light.

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Agito's powers can evolve further than those two Forms, it could even match the Overlord's own power one day," Decade said as they dodged arrows from the El of the Wind. "I'm telling you this now since you need to power up if we want to survive."

"I see…" The Overlord of Light did say he granted Shouichi something to help him in the coming fight. Assuming that this was that coming fight, then there must be something new.

As he thought about that though, something flashing in his belt caught his attention. Looking down, he saw that the lights to the sides of the gem that would flash when he switches form were glowing.

"That's right, that Agito had-!"

Standing up, Agito took a deep breath before he pressed both buttons on the sides of the Alter Ring simultaneously. Both a red and blue light flashed from his belt as the air around him swirled. In a second, he transformed into a new but familiar-looking form.

While his chest remained yellow, Agito's right arm turned into his red Flame Form's while his left was his Storm Form's arm. From the gem in his belt, the Storm Halberd and Flame Saber flew out and into their respective hands.

"...Alright, I was expecting something else but this could work." Decade sincerely hoped that his ally did not only just realize he could press both buttons at the same time. If so, then they're doomed.

Still, the confidence boost from gaining a new form was enough for Agito Trinity Form to bravely charge at the El of the Water while Decade was once again left to deal with the El of the Ground. That, however, left the El of the Wind free to notch another arrow and aim at one of the Riders.

Before he could do so though, a blue blur leaped down from above and prevented the hawk monster from firing.

"Oh no, you don't!" Ciel exclaimed as she brought down an enormous blade down on the El Lord.

"Ciel!"

"Thank god you're here!"

'Now that's much better.' Decade did not know how strong or skilled Ciel truly was but just having her around will be enough to make the battle easier. So long as the Overlord does nothing to screw them over, they had a chance of beating them.

"Making me exhaust more of my power, Decade?"

…He really should just stop thinking.

The Overlord of Darkness once again tried to focus and summon more of his servants. If all of them were together, then Decade's defeat was assured. However, before he could though, someone unexpected interrupted.

The revving of an engine was heard for a brief second before the thin, metal wall behind the Overlord burst open and a motorcyclist came riding in. The Overlord was forced to duck out of the way as the motorcycle flew over his head. Whoever was riding the motorcycle did not stop though and rammed his bike into the El of the Ground.

The unexpected collision sent the El Lord rolling back as the motorcycle screeched to a halt in front of Decade.

"Ritsuka-san!" The motorcyclist shouted in a familiar voice before he took his helmet. "It's been a while!"

"You are-?!" Underneath his helmet, Ritsuka's eyes widened as he recognized the person who rode in, as did the still-hanging teens.

"Yuusuke?!" Tetsuya shouted in surprise.

"What are you doing here?!"

"Who's he?" Ciel asked as she glanced over.

Toshigami Yuusuke, however, just scratched the back of his head and said, "I don't really know really. I was just driving and then I-"

"Later, later," Decade interrupted Yuusuke, "We need your help."

"Got it," Yuusuke nodded, needing no more explanation, before getting off his bike.

Standing firm, Yuusuke brought his hands to his waist and summoned the Arcle. The ancient belt started humming as he moved his hand on top of it before crying, "Henshin!" and putting his hands together.

The Arcle hummed again as Yuusuke transformed into Kamen Rider Kuuga.

"Eh?! He's Kuuga?!" Ciel exclaimed in shock at the sudden appearance of the one who fought the Unidentified Lifeforms five years ago.

Meanwhile, Agito let out a wow upon seeing the red Kamen Rider. He obviously had no recollection of the events five years prior but he has heard lots of tales regarding Unidentified Lifeform #4.

Getting into a combat stance, Kuuga felt a slap on his back as he heard Decade say, "Deal with that one will you?"

"Yes!" He let out a deep breath before running at the recovering El of the Ground.

A moment later, Decade turned his attention towards what needed to be dealt with now; the Overlord of Darkness.

The Overlord was just getting to his feet when somebody grabbed the collar of his turtleneck and pulled him up.

"Teos."

"Decade." He still kept his air of neutrality and fearlessness. "Now that you have me in your grasp, what will you do?"

"...Leave," Decade ordered, much to the Overlord's surprise. "Leave this place and let whatever happens, happen."

"Why? I am the Overlord, this world's creator. I-"

"I don't mean the world, I meant this warehouse," Decade clarified with a slight grumble. "This fight is not just between humans and Lords anymore."

"...How much do you know of what happened all those millennia ago?"

"Enough," he replied, "Your anger at humanity is justified, I'll admit that. But now, you have to learn that humanity needs to grow on its own."

"...I'll leave this battle to my servants and I will no longer intervene with your journey for now," the Overlord of Darkness responded after a few moments. "But once you leave this world, what happens here does not matter to you."

All Decade cared about was that the Overlord was going to leave which was enough for him. The magenta Rider let go of the god of Agito's world and stepped back.

Before he left, however, the Overlord looked at the hanging teens and raised his hand. The two teens could not help but let out a scream as they started swinging quickly. As they reached the peak of a swing, the rope snapped and they were thrown to the ground a few feet from the bed of death.

"You-?" Decade looked to the Overlord but saw nothing but air. "...Whatever then."

With two of his biggest concerns dealt with, he turned towards the El of the Wind and dashed towards him. The El Lord did not know that he was about to kick in the back until it was too late and he was sent rolling to the ground.

"I was handling this," Ciel told Decade.

"I know, I just have a bone to pick with him after yesterday."

"That's fair. Together then?"

"Whatever you say," Decade waved his hand but Ciel knew he liked the idea… maybe.

With Agito, now that he was fighting one-on-one and had a power boost, he was having a (somewhat) easier time fighting the El of the Water. At the very least, he was not getting as trounced as he was earlier. Maybe it was the Flame Saber that was making things easier.

"Ha!" The triple-colored Rider cried as he stabbed the El of the Water with both weapons, sending the monster rolling and sparking. "Time to finish this."

Stabbing both weapons into the ground, Agito took a deep breath as his symbol glowed below him as his horns split open. It swirled as it was absorbed into both of his feet.

Leaping into the air, Agito's feet glowed red and blue before he dropkicked the El of the Water. The monster was sent flying back by the blow and, a moment later, exploded as per the norm. However, as the dust settled, Agito gasped in surprise as he saw that the El Lord was still standing.

"Agito… You've grown stronger since that time…" He heard the El of the Water say, "We'll meet again, someday."

Before Agito could react, the El Lord somehow disappeared without a trace. "What… Did he know me?"

"Take this!" Kuuga shouted nearby as he kicked the El of the Ground in the stomach. The El Lord, however, just simply swung his sword in response, making the red Rider duck to avoid it and kicking him again.

This blow was strong enough to force the lion-themed monster to stumble back and drop his sword which Kuuga quickly took advantage of. He picked it up and cried, "Chou Henshin!"

With another hum from the Arcle, Kuuga's armor turned purple and the sword changed its shape. Now, he was in his Titan Form, wielding the Titan Sword, and was slowly walking towards the El Lord.

The El Lord only just stood up when he felt something stab him in the stomach before realizing that it was Kuuga.

"Kuuga…" The El of the Ground croaked out as three Rinto symbols appeared on his body. "Why…?"

The El Lord then exploded on Kuuga's sword before he could say any more. Once the fire disappeared, the Rider remained still, unharmed by the explosion at all, before turning back into his Mighty Form.

"...Ritsuka-san!"

Decade and Ciel, meanwhile, were easily fighting off the El of the Wind. Whoever was carrying the battle was unclear as the El Lord was unable to fight back due to one of them attacking once the other pulled back.

ATTACK RIDE: SLASH

"Ha!" The two cried as they slashed the El Lord at the same time, forcing the hawk monster to stumble back as sparks flew off of his body. The El Lord barely had time to recover before a combined kick from the remaining two Riders came from behind pushed him back towards the first two fighters, letting them stab the monster again.

The El of the Wind knew that continuing the fight was useless since his Overlord had chosen to leave. Not only that, the El of the Water had retreated while the El of the Ground was destroyed by Kuuga. Seeing that the four fighters were now standing side-by-side, he knew that he had to escape too.

With a huff, the El of the Wind took off to the skies, leaving the four to watch as he left… or so he hoped.

"Yuusuke," Decade said as he took a card from the RideBooker and showed it to him.

"That again?" Kuuga sighed but knew that it was needed to stop the El Lord from escaping, "Fine, let's do this."

FINAL FORM RIDE: KU-KU-KUUGA

Upon activating the card, the red Rider quickly jerked upwards and turned into the Gouram again, much to the surprise of the other two and Ryoko and Tetsuya, who had been watching from nearby.

"Wha-?"

"Don't ask," Decade quickly said before looking at the transformed Decade, "Go!"

"Got it!" His beetle wings opened as the Rider zoomed after the flying El of the Wind.

"Now then," the magenta Rider muttered as he took out several more cards from his weapon, "Does this work now?"

Just as he had hoped, the three cards glowed as their powers were restored. When Agito saw the cards, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he guessed what would happen next. "Hang on one second!"

"No, you're not running away." Decade quickly grabbed Agito by his golden collar and dragged him in front. "This will only tickle for a second."

FINAL FORM RIDE: A-A-AGITΩ

After using the card, Decade reached into Agito's back and a bright light shone from him. Something came out of the yellow Rider's back before he mindlessly leaped into the air and transformed like Kuuga did. However, his Final Form was not a beetle was rather a sleek, red, black, and golden-yellow hoverboard.

"...You can only do that to your people, right?" Ciel said with a slightly worried look at what Decade did.

"Yes… probably." Should she be worried by his response? "Come on."

"Hang on, wait!" Ciel's protest fell on deaf ears as the magenta Rider dragged her along with her absurdly large sword as he jumped onto Agito's back. The thrusters that were once Agito's arms flared up as they took off. At the other end of the warehouse, the roof burst as Kuuga came flying back in with the El of the Wind in his mandibles.

"The finisher!"

FINAL ATTACK RIDE: A-A-AGITΩ

The front of Agito Tornador glowed before the image of his symbol appeared over him and his passengers. Taking out his RideBooker in its sword mode, Decade, as well as Ciel, readied their blades as they flew towards Kuuga, who was flying at full speed towards them in return.

"Haa!" With a final cry, they made one last slash as they crossed paths, cutting the El of the Wind across the waist as Kuuga let go of him.

The last El Lord fell to the ground as electricity sparked all over his body while Decade and Ciel jumped off of Agito. The two transformed Riders then reverted back to their humanoid forms and landed next to them.

With a loud cry, the El of the Wind exploded, ending the battle once and for all…

---

Sometime later…

"Ahh…!" Ryoko let out a long sigh as she stretched on the couch. "Now I can finally cross "getting captured by monsters" off the list of things I never wanted to do."

"You sound way upbeat for somebody who, in your own words, got captured by monsters," Tetsuya sighed while sitting in the chair next to her.

As the two were discussing their recent kidnapping, Ritsuka was busy explaining what was going on to the (probably) dimensionally and temporally displaced Yuusuke.

"So… When we first met, you, Tetsuya-san, and Ryoko-san were from a different world? And now I'm also in a different world?" Yuusuke asked, making sure that he was understanding things correctly.

"That's the gist of it," answered Ritsuka. "Although, I don't know how to get you back." Mainly because he had no idea how Yuusuke got here in the first place.

After asking him that question, Yuusuke told Ritsuka and the others what happened, "Well, I was driving around on my bike, waiting for a report of an Unidentified Lifeform, when I just went through this weird wall that appeared in front of me. Next thing I knew, I was right next to that warehouse and heard you guys fighting from outside."

"So you have no idea either huh…?" Ritsuka sighed. Maybe it was just happenstance and nobody brought Yuusuke to Agito's world on purpose.

Ciel, meanwhile, was staring at Yuusuke and tried to recall where she had seen him before.

"Um… Can I help you?" Yuusuke asked when he noticed her staring.

"...What's your name again?"

"Toshigami. Toshigami Yuusuke."

"Hmm…" Ciel narrowed her eyes for a few seconds before she remembered him. "Oh, right! You're that guy who was hanging around-!" She named the person who was the first Executor sent to fight the Unidentified Lifeforms five years back, which Yuusuke recognized.

"Oh, you know him?" Yuusuke asked.

"He's a… co-worker."

"If that's so, can you please get him off my back?" Yuusuke pleaded, "He's been hounding me for the past three months!"

"Um… Sorry, but I'm not from your world," Ciel apologized with a small, nervous laugh. That is also not to mention the fact that, for her, it was in the past.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that…"

"At any rate, we need to find out how to get you home," Ritsuka interrupted the conversation, "Problem is, I doubt we'll arrive in your world again."

"Meh, don't worry about it." Yuusuke waved his hand, "If I wander around, I'm sure I can get back somehow."

"You say that with such confidence…" Ritsuka sighed again but decided to just leave it to Yuusuke.

"I'm back!" Shouichi announced as he came from the kitchen carrying a tray of tea and snacks.

"Ooh! Finally a decent drink," Ryoko cheered as she sat up, "Thanks, Igarashi."

"Anytime." It was the least he could do them since they were (probably) tired from getting kidnapped by the Lords. He poured a cup for each of them before picking one up and handing it over to Ryoko.

With another thanks, Ryoko tried to take the cup out of his hands but as soon as she touched it, she let out a loud shriek of pain at how hot the cup was. The scream was sudden enough that it caused Shouichi to lose his grip on the cup and drop it with a loud bang.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry." Both of them started to apologize as they tried to clean up the spilled tea in front of the painting, Tetsuya deciding to help them as well.

Ritsuka, however, just ignored them and continued talking with Yuusuke and Ciel. "You sure you don't want to follow us, Yuusuke? It's better than just wandering around and hoping for another wall to open up."

"Normally, I would say yes but, as you said, there's no guarantee that we'd return to my world. I still have to protect it, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Anyway, I better get going," Yuusuke said, "It's best I start looking as fast as I can."

"Well, it was nice running into you again, Yuusuke."

"Same," the first Rider Ritsuka encountered raised his hand for a handshake which he took. "Maybe we'll meet again soon. Who knows? And you…"

"Ciel," the blue-haired girl introduced herself, "And thanks for helping out with the Unidentified Lifeforms. You were… are… You're helpful in the fight against them."

"Thanks, I think…?" Yuusuke did not really get what she was saying but accepted the gratitude regardless. "And you're Agito, right?"

"Huh?" Shouichi stood up upon hearing his name being called. "Oh, yes. I'm Kamen Rider Agito."

"Anyway, it was fun fighting alongside you earlier, however brief it was."

"L…Likewise," Shouichi sheepishly replied. "It was an honor."

"Hey, don't oversell me like that. I'm just a Rider like you," Yuusuke smiled as they shook hands. "And of course, it's nice seeing you two again."

"Same. Thanks for helping us out, Yuusuke," Tetsuya said as he got to his feet. Ryoko, meanwhile, just smiled at Yuusuke who smile back.

"See you all next time!" Yuusuke exclaimed before he left the room.

"And speaking of leaving, shouldn't you be somewhere else, Shouichi?" Ritsuka said after a moment. "Don't you have to go back to your family soon?"

"They're not my family, they're just the people who took me in and clothed me and gave me shelter," Shouichi tried to deny but they knew that he was just joking. "But you're right, I should go back. After I clean up, at least."

"Hey, it was me who underestimated how hot it was," Ryoko spoke up, "Just go back, you've helped around enough already."

"But-"

"Don't argue with her, you won't win," Tetsuya advised his older counterpart and lightly pushed him towards the door. "And she's right, you've helped plenty already."

"...Then I'll be taking my leave too," Shouichi relented after a few seconds. "It was nice meeting you all and I wish you the best on your journey."

"Thanks…" Ritsuka replied as Shouichi also left. Once the doors closed, he turned to Ciel.

"Well, I should also be leaving," she said with a small smile, "I must say though, it was an interesting 24 hours. Definitely the most fun I've had in the past few years."

"Really? I thought that hunting down vampires would be more fun than this whole debacle."

"Sometimes, but it's mainly fun since nobody died… Well, except for the Lords and that guy in the tree yesterday."

"What guy in a tree?"

"Later, Ryoko," Ritsuka replied before talking to Ciel again, "Anyway, it was fun working with you… again?" Technically, this was the second time for him.

"Yeah, yeah…" A small silence fell on the two as they did not know what to say next.

"Ahh!"

BANG!

Fortunately, Ryoko shrieking again followed by another bang broke the silence. Unfortunately, however, a bright light filled the room as the painting was replaced by another photo background.

"Ow…" Ryoko groaned as she walked out from the side, her forehead red from slipping face-first into the background. "Sorry, I slipped…"

That was the least of their concern however as both Ritsuka and Tetsuya glanced over at Ciel, who had an unreadable expression.

"Please tell me what I think just happened did not happen."

"Uh oh…" Tetsuya was already starting to feel bad for Ciel and sorry for Ryoko for what the battle nun would do to her.

Ritsuka, on the other hand, looked back at the new background and studied it to try and figure out which world they had accidentally abducted Ciel to.

It did not take him too long as the image of the Rider's face was plastered in the center of the white background. The Kamen Rider's helmet, while deformed, was distinctly rocket-shaped and had bright orange eyes. Below the head was the acronym KRC and below that was the name Amanogawa High School.

"So now it's Fourze's turn…"

"Um… Sorry…"

"I suggest you run and hide right now, before I fully process what just happened."

Yeah… That's going to be a problem…

---

Next time on Across the Kaleidoscope

"3rd Year, Fujimaru Ritsuka."

"Amanogawa is a school dedicated to finding those who will shine in the night sky."

"Welcome… to the Kamen Rider Club!"

"Hey, everyone, I'm back."

Chapter 16: Unstopping, Growing, Thrilling School Days!

---

A/N: And done with this chapter! No post preview scene 'cause I can't think of one. Anyway, there's one thing I'm only going to say once. I'm okay with any criticism towards this story and its characters, especially the OCs. I can understand that fact and appreciate you guys telling me what you take issue with. What I don't appreciate is if you go to my other fic and complain about it there in addition to asking if I'm taking time out of this fic to write that one. Keep issues you have with this fic only in the review of this fic. I will ignore any issues you have if you complain about it in a completely unrelated fic. Not only is it unnecessary after the first time, but it's also just plain rude.

Alright, with that off of my chest, let's talk about what happened this time. The main kicker, in my opinion, was Yuusuke's return. That was for one important thing that's going to happen, past characters will have a chance of returning in future arcs. Not every arc will have a returning character but more returns will happen. And before you say anything; yes, Hakunon will be returning to make up for me underutilizing her in her home arc. Not in the next arc (which would make total sense and was the original plan), but it will be happening.

Next thing of note is Takaragi Yuu. I know from the start that there will be complaints that he's not Kaitou Daiki, especially since I styled his personality too much like him. There's a reason for that and it'll be revealed in time. I just ask for more patience. How much longer? Hard to say really.

Third thing is Ciel, I asked if you wanted her permanently and there was not a no. That means "go ahead" in my book and you guys can't complain since I outright ask and nobody said no. You also can't complain that her coming along by accident came out of nowhere since I sort of foreshadowed it back in Kiva's arc.

Final thing I can remember is that lots of people assume that a certain someone was going to appear in this arc after I mentioned him in part 1. Firstly, I think I can understand it, but I did say in the A/N his mention was to set up a future arc (which, side note, I'm done with half of part 1). Did you guys all miss that or something?

Now that this arc is done, I think I'm going to do 2-3 chapters of my shorts since I've got a bunch of requests I need to do. Can't be too sure if there will be a chapter next week so word of warning.

As always, please leave a review and all that stuff and see ya next time!