Index of Refraction noiƚɔɒɿʇɘЯ ʇo xɘbnI
The afternoon sun shone overhead as Tsukasa caught up to the others, joining in to the line with Rainbow Dash, that other guy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy in front of a long window front. They held up their Advent Decks and colored electricity snaked down and generated silver belts as Tsukasa strapped on the Decadriver.
“Who’s this Sunset?” Yusuke asked. The visitors were already starting to head to the door.
“She was our friend and another Rider,” answered Applejack, “but she got captured.”
“A few days ago, me and her went after a monster alarm like any other,” Rainbow picked up. “We expected to find one, maybe two, but we got mobbed by a small army of gazelle monsters. One knocked her Advent Deck out of her belt and before I could get to her she got dragged off through a mirror.”
“We all arrived just in time to keep them from getting Rainbow, too,” Applejack resumed, holding the front door open for the others as they started to file out, “but they scattered and disappeared in seconds.”
Tsukasa held up his card as the others pulled their Decks back. Rainbow pointed forward, the other guy held his Deck out to the side, Applejack held hers in place, Pinkie spun around left, Rarity spun her Deck up with a flourish of her wrist, and Fluttershy simply lowered her Deck.
“Kamen Rider!” they called.
“Henshin!” Tsukasa said, flipping his card around.
The others slid their Decks into the belts, which clamped shut on them. Tsukasa slotted his card in his Driver and pushed it closed.
Kamen Ride: Decade
The Decks moved back into the belts and began rapidly flipping over.
“And just now?” asked Yusuke.
Last in line, Pinkie stopped at the door and held up her phone to them. “Sunset says she just now managed to escape where she was being held, but only just, and there are monsters hot on her tail. She gave us an address in the Mirror World to meet her and cut them off at.” Pinkie and Applejack slipped out, letting the door close.
Natsumi turned to Tsukasa with her thumb out again. “Tsukasa-kun…”
“Yes, boss,” Tsukasa said, quickly following after the group.
Colored energy rings shot out of the others’ belts, beginning to spin as an array of circles in front of Tsukasa grew into silhouettes, sliding around onto him to form a suit as the rings printed armor onto the others. Cards flew into his helmet and sent a wave down his suit turning it magenta as the rings faded out. The seven Kamen Riders stood: Decade, Talon, Cavalier, Vault, Dynamo, Grace, and Monarch.
Rainbow stepped forward. “Let’s get Sunset back.”
Natsumi had sat back down to wait for Tsukasa to sort everything out like he always did, but she noticed the intense look on Yusuke’s face. “Yusuke?”
He clenched his fist and stood up.
As the Riders prepared to depart, someone came running up from the right.
“Hold on!” called Yusuke. As he ran, he held his hands over his waist and a silver belt with a circular red stone at the center faded in with a hollow humming sound, pointing his right arm forward, up, and out with his left hand resting on the belt’s left side as he shouted, “Henshin!” He brought his right hand down onto his left, triggering a revving pulse from his belt, before spreading his arms wide, a suit growing onto his chest, limbs, then head: a base of black bearing a shiny red torso shell with round shoulder pads and a golden collar, red forearm sleeves, gold cuffs on his wrists and ankles, and a black helmet with a silver mouth cover, large red bug eyes, and a three-pronged gold forehead crown; Kamen Rider Kuuga, Mighty Form. As he reached the group, he said, “I want to help, too—”
Before Yusuke could finish, Tsukasa pulled out Ryuki’s card and pointed it into Yusuke’s face, Yusuke skidding to a stop an inch away from the card.
“Can you travel through mirrors?” Tsukasa asked simply.
“Um,” Yusuke muttered, “well…”
Without needing to elaborate, Tsukasa turned back to the window and slotted the card.
Kamen Ride: Ryuki
Three shiny silhouettes spun in and overlapped over Tsukasa, changing his armor to Ryuki. “Ikuzo—er, let’s go,” he said to the other Riders, stepping forward through the window. Rainbow and Cavalier followed him, Applejack shrugging to Yusuke as she, Rarity, and Fluttershy trailed after. Yusuke sighed and looked down, but then a hand rested on his shoulder.
“Actually…,” Pinkie said. As Yusuke looked up, Pinkie shoved him at the window and jumped through with him. Yusuke watched the glass warp as he fell through, the reflection stretching and twisting around itself, ending up back right again as he landed in the Mirror World next to Pinkie, swaying to stay on his feet. Pinkie gave him a thumbs up, which he instinctively returned. As Pinkie walked up to the others, Yusuke looked at his hand, wondering why that action had come so naturally to him.
The Riders had arrived in the highest level of a mall’s outside terraced cement courtyard spotted with tables, and surrounded on two sides by buildings and on the other two by stairs leading down to a larger lower level. They’d yet to check the entire area, but it seemed up front to be empty besides them.
“So, you said this was the place, huh?” Tsukasa said, wandering to the edge of the square floor. “Doesn’t seem too much like…,” he started as he looked down one of the staircases, but trailed off when he saw them.
Ten white humanoid figures, Sheerghosts, were making their way up the stairs towards him, swaying as they walked and chanting a chorus of mumbles. “Hib-ib-hib-hib…” He turned to see lines of them suddenly standing on the roofs of the buildings surrounding the courtyard, the other Riders also taking notice. “Hib-bib-bib-ib-hib…”
“So that’s how it is,” Tsukasa muttered, unfolding the Ride Booker into sword mode.
“The call is on,” said Pinkie. “Their force is getting strong, but they’ll have to brave the weather. Kamen Riders, stand together!” {Ride the Wind}
“Does she always do that?” asked Tsukasa.
“Yep,” Applejack called back.
Tsukasa shrugged, then he turned and jumped into the crowd below him, sword raised.
More Sheerghosts had bled into the courtyard from the alleys and windows—“Hib-bib-hibib.”—their numbers easily exceeding several dozen, and the Riders quickly slotted cards to fight back.
Sword Vent
Strike Vent
Strike Vent
Flutter Vent
A swarm of pink butterflies appeared around Fluttershy, glowing and turning to metal, and she threw her hand up at the roof behind the group to send the butterflies shooting at the Sheerghosts. The barrage hit in a flurry of sparks and miniature explosions, destroying several monsters—“Eh-rher-rer!”—but the others leapt down and joined the flood rushing in at the Riders, their mumbled chants filling the air. “Bib-ibibhib-ib-hib…”
Applejack ran up and rammed a leading Sheerghost with her shoulder, knocking it back into the crowd. She grabbed two others and held them back, but the rest swarmed around her. “Did we land in the middle of a hive or somethin’?”
“I dunno,” said Pinkie as she spun, slashing two down with her clawed web-foot gauntlets shaped like paper fans, giving the sound of a motorized saw blade, “maybe it’s just a convention.”
Tsukasa grabbed a Sheerghost and threw it stumbling up the stairs. Running up after it, he knocked its legs out from under it with his sword before slashing down and hitting it in the gut. The Sheerghost fizzled and evaporated into smoke. Tsukasa turned to the rest on the stairs as he folded the Booker into gun mode and slotted a card—
Attack Ride: Blast
—sending a shower of large energy bolts down the stairs and pummeling the Sheerghosts. The monsters collapsed and evaporated into smoke.
Rarity paced backwards as she tried to fence against several Sheerghosts with a thick conical sword that was gold on the front side and silver on the back. Rainbow and a Sheerghost grabbed each other’s shoulders and ran off to the side, Rainbow ramming the Sheerghost into a table and flipping it over the other side.
Nearby, Yusuke hit the back of his fist into his palm. “I didn’t get to do anything to help in Ryuki’s Mirror World,” he said, staring down another group of Sheerghosts slowly approaching him. “I’ll make up for that right now!”
A surge of golden electricity shot from his belt’s red stone down his right leg to his foot, lighting its sole ablaze. He ran at the lead Sheerghost, jumping forward and kicking it square in the chest, launching it back into the middle of the pack with a flaming symbol on its chest. Yusuke landed as the Sheerghost blew up, the explosion destroying the rest of the group; smoke drifted from the sole of his foot.
“Yoshah!” Yusuke shouted, pumping his fist.
Arc Vent
Cavalier caught a pair of golden horseshoes as they fell from the sky, throwing them one-two at a Sheerghost approaching him. They slashed it in the shoulders as they passed one after the other, the Sheerghost swaying but keeping upright. It kept approaching him but he didn’t react, instead watching as the spinning horseshoes arced around and flew back at the Sheerghost from behind, cutting through its torso at once; it exploded before it could hit the ground. Cavalier caught the horseshoes and, on a suspicious instinct, turned around and threw one of them, hitting another Sheerghost trying to sneak up on him and embedding in its chest. He ran up and grabbed the horseshoe, pulling it out as he slashed the Sheerghost with the other one, the monster collapsing and evaporating into smoke.
Snare Vent
A Sheerghost swatted at Fluttershy, but she knocked its hand away with the end of a 4-foot butterfly net, notably featuring a mesh tied more like a tennis racket than any normal net. She rammed the middle of the net’s shaft into the Sheerghost’s face before stepping back and swinging the net by just short of it. The Sheerghost looked confused at the miss, as the mesh had instead expanded like a layer of liquid soap on a bubble wand, a “bubble of net” detaching and floating towards it. It reached out slowly and poked the bubble, which burst open into a net that threw itself onto the Sheerghost and wrapped tight, zapping it with electricity. Fluttershy ran up and kicked the Sheerghost over, and it evaporated inside the net.
Using her gryphon talon gauntlets, Rainbow was easily fighting a Sheerghost towards the edge of the courtyard with a series of quick jabs. She dashed up and slashed it upside the face, knocking it tumbling down the steps to the level below. It pushed itself up onto its knees and elbows, putting its head into its hands and breathing heavily, its back rising and falling with each breath. “Hibur… ibur… ibur…”
Rainbow walked down the steps towards it, raising her clawed gauntlet. “What are you crying for?” she taunted. “Did I hurt you?”
She took another step forward, but on the next breath its back cracked into segments, something inside starting to push through. Rainbow stopped.
The Sheerghost’s back split open as a blue metal figure with spiny legs stood up from within it, a dragonfly tail trailing from the back of its head. Standing in the empty shell of the Sheerghost, the new Raydragoon turned to Rainbow with its gray face covered in red spot eyes. “Ibur-gib-bibur.”
“Oh c—,” Rainbow let out, throwing up her gauntlets in defense as a pair of dragonfly wings sprouted from the sides of the Raydragoon’s head and it zipped forward, ramming her over as it flew back up the steps.
Tsukasa walked back up onto the upper level, casually shooting nearby Sheerghosts from behind as they tried fighting the other Riders. However numerous, these monsters were pushovers. He heard a buzzing sound quickly approaching, but as he turned the Raydragoon flew by, slashing him with one of its wrist blades and sending him careening back down the steps.
A wave of red reverted his Ryuki armor to Decade as he came to a stop on the level below, and he slammed his wrist onto the ground in frustration. Seeing the Raydragoon landing a short distance away, he spat, “Why, you…” He stood up and took a card from the Booker, switching it to a sword, and flicked the card down into his Driver.
Final Attack Ride: D-D-D-Decade
A row of ten large projections of the card, featuring a gold emblem of the lines on his face in the middle of a barcode, slid into place between them, startling the Raydragoon. Tsukasa charged into the face of the first card, disappearing but coming out the back of the second before disappearing into the third, a pattern continuing down the line. As the Raydragoon turned to the cards, the last one featured an image of a running Decade about to slash. Then Tsukasa leapt out of the card and slashed the Raydragoon as he passed, the monster wailing as it fell down behind him and exploded.
Satisfied by his act of petty vengeance, Tsukasa heard more buzzing, looking up to see a steadily growing swarm of Raydragoons molting from Sheerghosts as several of the other Riders were forced down the stairs by them and a new influx of Sheerghosts.
He slashed at a Raydragoon that flew overhead, turning to find a pair of Sheerghosts. Three more Sheerghosts and a pair of Raydragoons quickly joined them, and Tsukasa backed away, running into something. He spun around with his sword raised only to see Applejack with her orange Pound Vent sledgehammer raised at him. The two quickly spun back around to face the monsters forming a ring around them.
“If I didn’t know better,” Tsukasa said, “I’d say that this was some kind of ambush.” A Sheerghost stepped forward at him, and he slotted a card. “Henshin.”
Kamen Ride: Blade
A large blue screen with a beetle image flew spinning out of his Driver, knocking the Sheerghost away before stopping, sliding back, and passing over him, changing his armor to a navy blue suit with bulky silver chest, shoulder, and lower leg plates, a spade suit emblem in his chest armor, and a silver faceplate with red bug eyes and a tall spike up the front that curved over backwards; Kamen Rider Blade, a warrior who defended humanity from a battle raging between monsters who saw all people as opponents.
“How well do you know your friend, again?” he added.
“What!” said Applejack. As a Raydragoon flew at her, she swung her sledgehammer and slammed it out of the air with a burst of sparks; it rolled across the ground and exploded. “She did say she was bein’ chased, remember?” she said.
“Then where is she?” countered Tsukasa. Another Raydragoon made a beeline at him, and he slotted another card.
Attack Ride: Metal
A small blue square showing a trilobite popped out of his Driver and absorbed into his chest, and his Blade armor became covered in a shining silver coating. He simply stood still. The Raydragoon rammed into him but bounced off, rolling away.
“I don’t know!” Applejack shouted back. She pulled out and held over her shoulder a card showing shockwaves spreading out over a cracked ground. “Let’s clear the field so we can look.”
Tsukasa held up a card with a golden spade suit symbol in response, and the two slotted their cards, AJ putting hers in a vertical tray that had sprung up from a second orange belt atop her silver one and shoving it down closed.
Quake Vent
Final Attack Ride: B-B-B-Blade
Applejack stomped her left foot, sending several shockwaves pulsing out across the ground that knocked the Sheerghosts off their feet and made the Raydragoons take to the air. Tsukasa stood firm thanks to Metal and raised the Booker sword as its blade electrified. Then Applejack stomped her right foot down, sending a second, condensed round of shockwaves that hit and “popped” the downed Sheerghosts as an electrified energy projection expanded from Tsukasa’s sword. He swung it through several of the Raydragoons, lightning jumping from them to the rest of the group and destroying them all.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Pinkie spun and slashed back another Raydragoon with her clawed fan gauntlets, but though it staggered back, it remained standing, moaning. “Hibib… bribib…”
“Oh, what now?” Pinkie asked.
The Raydragoon grabbed at its chest and stomach before letting out a, “Hrrer-rer!” as its front burst open and a large blue dragonfly-shaped monster spilled out of it. The new Hydragoon had a red disk around its head to serve as its eyes, silver mandibles, and a pair of arms with double-sided claw harpoons held in more red disks. A single pair of thick blue wings opened to lift it into the air as its 10-foot tail snaked out of the Raydragoon, leaving it behind as another empty shell.
“I just had to ask, didn’t I?” moaned Pinkie as she watched the Hydragoon fly over to Tsukasa and Applejack. “Heads up, guys, air raid!”
Tsukasa and Applejack looked up as the Hydragoon shot the harpoons from its arms, hitting the ground between them, throwing up a cloud of cement chips and knocking them flying aside. A wave of red reverted Tsukasa’s Blade armor back to Decade as he landed. He looked up as the Hydragoon closed down on them, new harpoons generating.
Attack Vent
A loud eagle screech made the Hydragoon divert to the side, Rainbow’s large gunmetal and teal gryphon monster Aquileo flying after it a second later. As Aquileo chased the Hydragoon into the sky, two more Hydragoons rose up from elsewhere in the battlefield and closed in behind it. They fired harpoons at Aquileo, hitting his metal scale-feather wings, bouncing off but shaking him. He screeched back at them, but the three began circling him.
“Aquileo’s getting swarmed up there!” said Rainbow. “Rarity, get your Advent Beast in the air to help him!”
“I’m a little occupied at the moment!” Rarity shouted back, standing in the middle of several Sheerghosts. She jabbed her sword into one of their mouths, and as it tried biting the blade, she slashed down, cutting it open. It collapsed and evaporated into white smoke.
Rainbow looked around desperately, her eyes briefly landing on Fluttershy but quickly diverting to Tsukasa as he brushed himself off.
“New guy!” she called. “You wouldn’t happen to have any sort of flying monster that can help, would you?”
“Ah?” he replied. He thought for a second. “Hmm…Yusuke!”
Now in Kuuga’s blue Dragon Form, Yusuke leapt down from the upper level at a Raydragoon, thrusting forward with his blue and gold Dragon Rod, a polearm weapon he can transmute any rod-like object into. The Rod rammed into the Raydragoon’s chest and sent it flying back, exploding in midair as Yusuke landed. He turned to Tsukasa.
“We have something like that, don’t we?” Tsukasa asked, taking out a card.
“Huh?” replied Yusuke.
Tsukasa tossed the card into his Driver and started walking over.
Final Form Ride:
Yusuke immediately tried backing away. “N-n-n-no.”
Tsukasa spun the Driver closed.
Ku-Ku-Ku-Kuuga
“Come on,” he said.
Yusuke looked down in surprise as his armor was automatically shifted back into red Mighty Form, the Dragon Rod reverting to its original object in his hand. “D-don’t you have Ryuki’s dragon—?”
“{This may tickle a bit},” Tsukasa said as he reached Yusuke. He grabbed Yusuke’s head and pulled it down against his back, a pair of black and gold beetle wing casings sprouting from his back and covering it as he was flipped into the air. His arms and legs reshaped themselves into insect legs and pincers, another pair of legs wrapping around his belt as the casings expanded into a head. Hovering there now was the stag beetle-shaped Kuuga Gouram. It shot off like a jet up to the sky battle.
Rainbow looked up after it. “That’s…new…”
One of the Hydragoons broke off to intercept the new arrival, shooting its harpoons, but Kuuga Gouram flipped out of the way of the harpoons and sliced past the monster with a shower of sparks, the Hydragoon falling spiraling from the sky with one less wing.
Taking his chance, Aquileo lunged at the Hydragoon in front of him, grabbing it in his talons and beak and ripping it apart, its pieces falling and exploding. The final Hydragoon, however, sprung at Aquileo, biting into the back of his neck and latching the small metal legs on its body onto his shoulders. Aquileo cried out as the Hydragoon stabbed its pointed tail into his back.
“Aquileo!” Rainbow called. Tsukasa slotted another card.
Final Attack Ride: Ku-Ku-Ku-Kuuga
Kuuga Gouram’s wing casings sprang open to reveal red energy insect wings. He sped in and snared the Hydragoon in his large pincers, tearing it off of Aquileo and flying it back down towards the Riders. Tsukasa brushed his hands and ran up to meet them, leaping up at Kuuga Gouram as he flew past and kicking through the Hydragoon, destroying it in a fiery explosion.
Tsukasa landed and turned back to Rainbow as he brushed his hands again. “Problem solved.”
Nearby, a circle of five Sheerghosts jumped in at Rarity and spat silk strands to tie around her neck. As she tried shoving them away, she heard a humming sound and saw something flying towards them. She quickly ducked, and Kuuga Gouram streaked by at head level, knocking the Sheerghosts aside.
Rarity grabbed up all of the strands of the silk “scarf” still stretching back to the Sheerghosts’ mouths and sliced the bundle with her sword. After pulling the silk off her neck, she flipped open the white wing slotter on her left forearm and slotted a card.
Splash Vent
Tendrils of water rose and swirled around her. She threw her hand at the Sheerghosts as they got back to their feet, and the tendrils shot off and stabbed into them, inflating them until they burst apart, the remnant water raining down.
Kuuga Gouram circled back around before flipping over and aiming down, reverting to Kuuga. Yusuke staggered for a second as he rubbed his neck, pointing over at Tsukasa. “You shouldn’t just go and do that. It does a lot more than just tickle, y’know.”
“Baby,” Tsukasa brushed off. He looked around to see a number of Sheerghosts and Raydragoons still hanging around, Cavalier, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy still fighting them back. “Do you have something to finish them off, or should I?” he called, opening the Ride Booker to search for a card.
Suddenly something slammed into him, knocking the Booker out of his hands and squeezing him. A Hydragoon claw harpoon had grabbed him around the gut, and an invisible force started pulling it back, yanking him off his feet as he tried and failed to grab the Booker. He looked up and saw the fallen Hydragoon a distance away amidst the other monsters, dragging itself along as its remaining wing slapped the ground uselessly, and snapping its mandibles at him. It was somehow towing him over with the harpoon.
“Oi, don’t make it look like I need saving,” he said to the Hydragoon, clawing at the ground as he was pulled across it.
Attack Vent
A large shadow fell across the patio as a large butterfly monster with sail-sized wings moved overhead. With every flap of its transparent pink wings, a cloud of sparkling pink dust floated to the ground.
“Everyone back to the steps!” Fluttershy shouted. The other girls and Cavalier immediately disengaged the monsters and headed for higher ground. Yusuke hesitated in confusion before Pinkie grabbed his arm and pulled him along.
“What, am I some noble sacrifice now?” said Tsukasa. It was then that he noticed the pink dust cloud was beginning to build up, already reaching across the patio and rising above his head.
Wing Vent
Fluttershy, now with a pair of pink butterfly wings on her back, ran up beside him and swung her net, sending a net bubble at the Hydragoon, which popped and ensnared it, shocking it. The harpoon stopped pulling and let go of Tsukasa, dropping to the ground. Fluttershy pointed at the Hydragoon, and her butterfly monster Dustwinger flapped its wings hard at it, sending a large pink dust cloud its way.
“Hold on,” Fluttershy said as she grabbed Tsukasa and kicked off into the air, gliding away from the monsters as the dust cloud settled onto the Hydragoon.
“Are you forgetting something?” Tsukasa said. The net’s electricity began crackling.
“Picky, picky,” sighed Fluttershy. She dropped down and let Tsukasa snatch up the Ride Booker, rising with him again as a spark of electricity jumped from the net into the sparkling dust cloud and ignited it. Within a second, a fa-whoosh of flames cascaded across the entire patio, a wall of air pushing the two forward. The flash of fire had been replaced a second later by a cloud of smoke, getting stirred around by the rush of air back into the area.
Fluttershy landed them on the steps with the others, and when they looked back, only scorch marks on the cement were left of the monsters. Tsukasa stared at Fluttershy, then quickly looked away when she turned to him, opening the Ride Booker again and pretending to look through it.
The others walked back out into the courtyard’s lower level, looking around.
“Sunset?” Rainbow called.
“You think maybe they caught up to her before she got here?” asked Applejack.
“And still showed up to get creamed by every other Rider?” replied Rainbow. “They shouldn’t’ve known where we were meeting, they would’ve stopped and gone back if they found her. If they made it here, then that means she did, too.”
“I had this same discussion with the new guy,” Applejack said. “Where?”
A shop window at the far end of the courtyard began rippling and everyone turned to it, preparing for another wave of monsters. Instead, a single figure stepped out and slowly began approaching them. She was recognized instantly.
“Sunset!” Rainbow said, running over. “You’re all right!” The others started over as well. “What happened? Where were you, how’d you get out?”
Sunset stopped, not responding, and looked up at her. Rainbow slowed to a stop. There was something about the look in her eye. Something…off.
“Sunset?” she said, taking a cautious step forward.
“Don’t lie,” Sunset said with an edge. “I know you didn’t miss me.”
Sunset raised a deep purple Advent Deck bearing the gold silhouette of a top-down view of a raven with folded wings, beak at the bottom; purple lightning reached down from it and to her waist, generating a silver belt. Everyone stopped in their tracks with shocked gasps.
“Where the heck did you get that from?” Rainbow let out, stepping back.
“Sunset, you’re scaring us,” came Pinkie.
Sunset held the Deck over by her right shoulder, tilting its right end up slightly as she made a fist with her right hand. “Kamen Rider.” She pulled the Deck back and slid it into the belt. It slid back and spun, a pair of purple energy rings sweeping around her and giving her a suit of armor. She now wore a dark purple undersuit with slim and smooth deep purple armor plates with thin gold rims; on top of her dark purple helmet was a silver copy of the raven symbol, its beak sticking out between her eyes, merging into the silver faceplate below it bearing V-shaped slits with a pair of large red eyes glowing behind them; Kamen Rider Nightshade.
“How could you miss me?” she asked, sliding out a card. “I’ve barely been here.”
She reached over to her left wrist and a black attachment the shape of and bearing the gold raven symbol. Yusuke noticed that its eyes were glowing red and seemed to be faintly trailing green smoke. Sunset pulled up on the symbol’s beak and its head tilted to look up, springing its wings open and revealing a card tray. She slid in the card, a very dark purple and showing a pair of black bird wings wrapping around forward, and pushed the head back down, the wings snapping shut. A gleam passed over the gold symbol.
Shadow Vent
A dark haze began accumulating in the air around Sunset and spreading, the courtyard quickly dimming from afternoon to evening.
Tsukasa jumped into action, rushing at Sunset from across the courtyard as he slotted a card to use her own strategy against her.
Attack Ride: Invisible
Tsukasa’s armor was covered in a pixelated white glow before splitting apart into red, blue, and green copies that quickly faded away, rendering him invisible. As he ran, however, the courtyard darkened further to night and then past it into an unnatural total pitch-blackness. Unable to see right in front of himself, Tsukasa tripped over the square cement rim of the nearest tree planter. He rolled himself back up from the ground, pointing in the direction he thought he’d been going and charging again.
“So what if I disappeared again?” Sunset continued. “I made so little an impact, you wouldn’t realize I’d gone. I bet you didn’t even try saving me, did you?”
“What?” snapped Rainbow. She was lost in an empty sea of darkness, barely able to keep her balance and unable to even see her clawed gauntlets, but that didn’t matter right now. “Of course I did, but there were too many monsters.”
“That didn’t bother you this time,” replied Sunset’s voice from the darkness.
“But this time I wasn’t alone.”
“So, you were alone last time even though you were with me, is it? I knew I didn’t count.”
“Huh?” Rainbow stuttered. “N-no, that’s not…Sunset, what’s going on? What is this?” After several seconds of silence, the answer came.
Steal Vent
With a shrill whir, Rainbow’s clawed gauntlets disappeared from over her hands, throwing her off balance. Before she’d regained her footing and could question what had happened, something slashed across chest plate with a clang, probably spraying sparks had they been visible, and knocking her to the ground.
“This is me,” came Sunset’s voice, “exposing the truth.”
Rainbow pushed herself up to an elbow. “Ahrrg…what?”
“You know why you all came here?” Sunset continued, walking past Rainbow to the rest of the group. “Because you’re all gullible fools.”
“No,” Rarity said, “it’s because we care ab—”
Steal Vent
Rarity’s sword disappeared from her hand with a shrill whir. A second later, something jabbed her in the chest before slashing down on her shoulder, sending her down.
“You say you care?” said Sunset. “Forgive me if I find that insincere.”
“Of course we care,” Fluttershy said.
“If you don’t believe us, that’s your problem!” Rainbow shouted over from the ground. “It doesn’t change anything.” A kick to the gut shut her up again.
“Why are you doing this, Sunset,” pleaded Fluttershy, “we’re your friends!”
“You only say that,” Sunset hissed. “We all know I was just a pity vote! You only took me in because Twilight told you to.”
Steal Vent
The butterfly net vanished from Fluttershy’s hands. Though scared, she gripped them into fists. “It’s because we care that we’re not going to attack our friend,” she said with conviction.
“Too bad for you, then.”
A net grabbed and tightened around Fluttershy, shocking her as she fell over.
Tsukasa slowed to a jog, a wave of white pixels making him visible again, not that it mattered in this darkness. He’d expected Sunset to still be able to see, hence Invisible for a sneak attack, but after running for this long and coming across nothing at all, he figured that by now he may possibly be going the wrong way. Just a chance.
Then, he heard a disturbingly familiar shrill whoosh in front of him. Immediately he ran into something that grabbed him, giving a high-pitched cackle. Twisting this way and that, Tsukasa punched at the figure until he’d slipped its arms off of his and then kicked it back. He heard several entities fall to the ground, one of which let out a feline hiss.
Sunset continued pacing through the group. “And how about you, secret boy?” she asked. There was no response from Cavalier. “Hhmp. At least someone knows not to try convincing me.”
Steal Vent
With a whir, clang, and clatter, Cavalier was sent to the ground by his own sword.
“There’s no need to add injury to insult!” Pinkie called out.
Steal Vent
Pinkie’s webbed fan gauntlets disappeared.
“You can just shut up in general,” snapped Sunset.
Pinkie let out a yipe as her gauntlets slashed her down with a buzz. Yusuke took a step forward in the darkness, clenching a fist. He felt helpless to stop this, but then realized that he was still holding something.
“Shouldn’t you all be trying to friendship lesson me back into my old self?” Sunset taunted. “I know why you’re not. You don’t even know enough about me to do that, do you?”
“That’s not true!” called Applejack.
“Then I’m waiting.”
“Well…y-you…,” Applejack started. She tried to finish. But nothing came.
“Thought so,” said Sunset.
Steal Vent
Applejack’s sledgehammer disappeared from her hands. She tensed but it did no good, the solid blow to her back taking her to the ground.
Tsukasa swung the Booker sword back and forth in front of him to keep the unseen enemies back, with cackles, mrrows, and grunts voicing their frustration. He flipped open the holder, taking out a card. “Time to get a better view of things. Henshin.”
Form Ride: Kiva Dogga
Amidst a whooping whistle, ripples spread from his belt and turned his armor silver, which shattered away to reveal a new suit: muscular black with a silver torso shell that opened to show a blood red chest plate, chains draping from his shoulders and wrapped around a silver greave on his lower right leg, and tall pointed yellow eyes that formed the shape of a bat’s wings; Kamen Rider Kiva, a warrior who protected humanity from a vampiric race of monsters living hidden among them.
A red cloud emerged from his belt and formed the Dogga Hammer, a large purple mallet shaped like a clenched fist mounted on a 4-foot stick at the wrist. He grabbed its handle with both hands, chains coiling over his arms and chest and shattering away with a hollow metal clang as his eyes flashed to purple, revealing new bulky square purple plates with silver borders forming a blocky chest plate, flared shoulder pads, and long forearm sheaths.
Yusuke turned to the sound of Applejack going down. “They don’t need to know you to help you!” he called into the darkness.
“And you!” Sunset shouted back.
Yusuke heard something whizzing through the air before what felt like a wrecking ball slammed into his chest, knocking him to his back as what had to have been Applejack’s sledgehammer clattered to the ground beside him. He groaned in pain as he grabbed at the leaking crack running across his chest’s armor shell.
“Just—just, you!” came Sunset’s voice. “This fight isn’t even yours! {Just who are you, anyway?}”
Yusuke grabbed his belt. “Chou Henshin!” he shouted, a surge of energy washing over him, repairing and changing his armor’s color and form. He climbed back to his feet, standing still and breathing steadily to focus. “I…am a man…,” he said slowly, “…who fights for the sake…of everyone’s smiles…” He heard Sunset’s footsteps as she circled around him, probably looking for a better angle. “…whoever or wherever they may be…even when they don’t ask for it…” She cracked her knuckles. “…because usually…that’s when they need it the most.”
Tsukasa slammed the end of the hammer’s handle to the ground, pulling a panel on the back. The curled fingers of the purple fist lifted up to reveal a bloodshot eye that released a series of purple energy waves. As the waves rolled over the area in front of Tsukasa, three monsters appeared in flashes before freezing in place: a mottled blue-plated insect monster, a gray-furred cat monster with seven tails, and a gun-wielding white squid monster with golden suction cups across its body. A warping silvery screen behind them—a stray dimensional rift—told him they didn’t belong here.
He pulled out another card. “No uninvited guests.”
“It doesn’t matter how well you know someone,” Yusuke continued, “you can still reach out your hand and be their light of hope.” Sunset smirked. This display was actually a bit cute. Like a kitten swatting at a sleeping St. Bernard. “But if you won’t let them save you,” he continued, “then I will. I plan on seeing a smile on everyone’s face.” He turned his head to the right to stare directly at Sunset. “Even yours.”
Sunset stopped. Wait, was she seeing this right? But I have Shadow Vent active—I’m the only one who can see in this darkness. How could him making his suit green change that?
“Who am I?” Yusuke said, turning to her and bringing out a gun-like black and gold weapon from behind his back in his left hand. “Just a passing-through Kamen Rider!” He grabbed the gold ‘T’ handle at the back and pulled it as he raised the Pegasus Bowgun, the vertical gold crescent at the front folding back, aiming at the only thing he could see, a pair of faintly glowing red eyes. “Remember that.” He pulled the trigger. The crescent sprang back open as a glowing white bolt flew from the tip, streaking over at Sunset…’s wrist, hitting the Nightshade slotter with the glowing red eyes Yusuke had noticed earlier. Glowing cracks ran across it and it blasted apart with a cry from Sunset, pieces of it clattering to the ground. The surrounding darkness began dissipating.
“Oi, Yusuke!” Tsukasa called over. “That’s my line!” As the darkness began clearing around him, he slotted his card.
Final Attack Ride: Ki-Ki-Ki-Kiva
He raised the hammer high, a large purple energy fist appearing over it connected by purple electricity, and swung it down. The energy fist slammed into the paralyzed monsters, destroying them in a large explosion and shattering the dimensional rift.
“Wait your turn in your own worlds,” he said, “I’ll be there to destroy you soon enough.”
Sunset dropped to her knees, grabbing her head with a moan. What had she been doing? Why did she want to do any of that? She heard a fizzling next to her, looking to see that scattered among the debris of her slotter were shards of red crystal. One of the glowing eyes of the slotter’s raven symbol was still in the broken-off head part, green smoke evaporating from it as its glow faded. Siren gems. Figures.
The clouds in her mind beginning to clear up, she looked up to Yusuke, standing in Kuuga’s green Pegasus Form, with sensory perception 1,000 times that of a normal human. “Y-you…you saved me.”
Yusuke’s armor shifted back to Mighty Form. “No,” he said. The Pegasus Bowgun revered back to its original gun-shaped object, a rolled up and bent over piece of paper. He unfolded it and turned it to her. It was a photo of Sunset and the others, the one Pinkie had given him back in the studio. “Your friends did.”
Sunset sighed, chuckling, “Wow that’s sappy.”
Yusuke shrugged. “I guess that’s just what I’m like.”
“Well, thanks, mystery Rider number two.”
“Yusuke.”
The other Riders were beginning to recover, and Sunset went over to help them up. Pinkie gave Yusuke a thumbs up from the ground.
“So, are we good now?” Rainbow asked, reaching out as Sunset came over. “Are you a good guy again?”
Sunset pulled her to her feet. “Yeah, sorry about all that.”
“No need to apologize,” said Rarity, “we were sure all along it was some sort of corruptive influence.” She looked around to the others. “Weren’t we?” she pressed.
“Yep,” Rainbow said, “no doubt. None at all that you totally didn’t mean a word of it you said in any way.”
“Okay, okay,” Sunset said, walking back over to her broken slotter. “So maybe let’s just call it…my deepest, darkest opinions taking the front seat for a while.” She kicked at a gem shard. “Probably should’ve made sure we’d cleaned up all of these.”
“Did you find anything out when you were captured?” Cavalier asked.
“At least wait a full minute,” Applejack protested.
Sunset turned back to the group. “Yes. I don’t know his whole game, but I know who’s controlling the Mirror Monsters, and it absolutely has everything to do with the Portal—”
“Excuse me,” said a sinister voice, “but am I interrupting something?”
The Nightshade Deck was suddenly yanked out of Sunset’s belt by an invisible force, purple glows running across her armor’s outlines before a ring sprung out around her and split sideways, dragging and disintegrating the armor away. Everyone watched as the Deck flew off to the sidelines and into the waiting hand of a man. With grayed skin and smooth spiky black hair, he wore a brown suit with one sleeve tan and one yellow. His eyes were squinted and red.
“Guys, that’s him,” Sunset said. “That’s who’s behind all this.”
“Alright, buster, start talking,” Rainbow said. “Who are you?”
“At first I had no interest in you,” the man said. “I only wanted you all to stay out of my way. But now…if you insist…” The gold raven symbol on the Deck turned black and jagged, a wave spreading out from it and turning the Deck to a darker, sickly grayish purple. “Disappear,” he hissed.
He squeezed the Deck, dark purple electricity sparking across it. A cloud of oily shadow seeped out of it, reaching down his arm and encompassing him. The shadow cloud rose off the ground and expanded into an amorphous mass, growing two large wings, clawed feet, and several long tail feathers. A pair of strands shot from a forming head and arced over its back as a pointed beak emerged, a pair of glowing pink eyes flaring open. The phoenix form made from the flowing shadow glinted dusty blue, red, purple, and green, flaring its 30-foot-spanning wings and letting out a shrill call. Terrorsoarer had arrived.
Still standing separate from the group, Tsukasa looked up at Terrorsoarer, and the hammer’s handle clattered to the ground. His Driver opened and spit a card out, reverting his armor to Decade. He caught the card and returned it to the Booker on the side of his belt, but as he went to close it, a pair of cards ejected out of it.
“Whoa!” he let out as he snatched them from the air, the Booker snapping itself shut. This only happened when he’d unlocked another Rider’s cards, but no one here matched cards he had, so what was this about? As usual, the cards were blank, but images washed onto them a second later: a gold lion face silhouette on a Final Attack Ride and a pair of Riders across a diagonal split on a Final Form Ride, the one on the top left having red armor and gold shoulder pads on a black suit and the bottom right one having gold armor on a red suit. “What? These cards weren’t in there before.” He flipped the cards over to see the white symbol in the circle on the backs was that of a horseshoe with two arches like the top of a heart. “Were they?”
With Terrorsoarer looming above, the Riders crowded together.
“Did you know he could do that?” Pinkie asked.
“Nope,” Sunset squeaked. She cleared her throat. “But it doesn’t matter, we’re still gonna beat him. Just hand me my Advent Deck.” No one spoke. “Guys?”
“Well, y’see,” Rainbow said, “in addition to you, the gazelle guys also took your Deck.”
“What?” replied Sunset.
Terrorsoarer flapped its wings, sending a spray of shadow feathers down at them. One of the feathers hit the ground in front of them, sending out a 2-foot-wide disk of shadow from which shadow smoke began swirling, sending a geyser of shadow energy shooting to the sky. As they staggered back, the other feathers hit, shadow geysers erupting everywhere around them.
One feather flew down into the center of the group, but a puddle of liquid mirror welled up under Sunset and she sank in before it drained away again as the feather landed, the erupting shadow geyser knocked the Riders aside. The puddle reappeared a safe distance away, Sunset getting pushed out of it as a pink and silver platypus monster leapt up onto the edge after her. Pinkrhynch nodded at her before slipping back into the pool as it vanished.
All the feathers having landed, the others scrambled over to Sunset. Terrorsoarer screeched at them through the shadow geysers as they slowly weakened and fizzled out.
“Next time, Pinkie,” Rainbow said, “tell your Beast to grab all of us.”
“We’ll need everyone’s power to beat that thing,” said Sunset.
“You want in on the wallop,” said Rainbow, “we get it.”
“It’s not that,” Sunset said. “Well, of course it is, but it’s more. One short and we won’t cut it, and we’ll never be able to fight at full strength if I can’t become—”
“Leona,” Tsukasa said. Everyone turned to see him standing behind the group.
“Yeah,” Sunset said. “How did you…?”
Tsukasa looked down at his new cards and the name on them. “Figures.” He walked into the group with a card in each hand, slotting one.
Final Form Ride:
“This may tickle a bit,” he said, closing the Driver.
L-L-L-Leona
He walked up to Sunset, holding up his hand, but paused. Reconsidering his normal method of jabbing Riders in the back, he merely put his hand on her shoulder. {Enter the Next Stage.}
A burst of flames wrapped around Sunset’s waist, forming a gold Advent Belt with her red Leona Deck sitting in it, bearing a lion symbol. It slid back and began spinning, a red energy sphere and pair of flaming red rings expanding from the belt. The rings spun around her, whipping up cascades of swirling flames that forced everyone back. After their orbit, the rings burst out with a wave of heat and faded, leaving Sunset standing in a new fully bright red undersuit with all gold armor, a new gold and red lion head slotter on her left wrist with her hand sticking out through its mouth and a trans-red cover in the middle of its mane, and a gold-rimmed silver faceplate on a helmet bordered by a flared red and gold full lion mane: Kamen Rider Leona, Survive Mode.
“Whoa!” Rainbow and Pinkie said in unison as Sunset looked over her new armor.
“Aaaand how did you do that?” Sunset asked.
“Kamen Rider Decade, traveler of worlds and collector of Rider powers,” Tsukasa said. “It’s just one of the things I do.”
Terrorsoarer glared down at the new Rider, flapping its wings down hard and unleashing a storm of shadow feathers at the group before spreading its wings again and shooting down an array of purple energy streams from them. The feathers and streams hit the ground and spread into a raging shadow tsunami rushing at the group.
In a burst of flames, a pair of thick silver swords appeared in Sunset’s hands, each as tall as her with real fire in the wide gaps within their blades appeared in Sunset’s hands. On instinct, she flipped one upside down, slammed their edges together into a tall shield board, and spun it. A spinning fire dome erupted around the group, the shadows sweeping over it before she split the board apart and swung the swords down, the dome bursting outwards, vaporizing the shadows.
“Okay, that was wow,” Sunset said.
“It gets better,” said Tsukasa. He slotted his other card.
Final Attack Ride: L-L-L-Leona
The swords pulled themselves together again to form a surfboard shape, dropping from Sunset’s hands and hovering a foot off the ground on a layer of heat. With a silent “whoa”, she stepped onto it, a new pair of thin gold swords that had been latched onto her back flipping up from behind her shoulders.
“Guys,” she said, grabbing these new swords, “let’s do this.” The other Riders nodded, some pumped fists. With a burst of the silver swords’ flames, the board shot up to the sky.
Terrorsoarer flew higher and flapped its wings to send a tornado of shadow feathers at her, but she swung her golden swords to deflect them with waves of heat as she rose up to it. Finally leveling with Terrorsoarer, she slashed it, leaving golden streaks across its chest. After a second, the streaks faded, being swept over by more flowing shadow. It glared at her.
“The lost one has returned,” it said in a disembodied voice. “Escape if you wish. Run back to your home to savor it before I pass through, the destroyer of worlds. Feel love for your home the way I can feel only hate for mine, while it lasts to be felt for. Even with your new power, a stand here will be your last, you know you can’t defeat me.”
Sunset smirked. “Alone,” she added. She raised the swords and slashed down and across, leaving an X-pattern of streaks across Terrorsoarer’s torso. It let out a shrill caw as it prepared a response. “Even without my awesome new form,” Sunset continued, “we found the universal key to victory ages ago.”
A card with a gold horse head silhouette over an indigo starburst background was slid into the slot under a golden horseshoe’s bent arc before the arc was pushed back into place.
Final Vent
Sitting on his horse Advent Beast Caballkhan below, Cavalier flipped a banded indigo lance around in his hand and threw it like a javelin up at Terrorsoarer. An energy pulse ran up it, and as the lance impaled Terrorsoarer at the center of the X, the pulse reached the tip, an explosion knocking a stunned Terrorsoarer back and making it drop a bit. It shook its head in annoyance.
An eagle talon cover slid closed over a card with a gold gryphon symbol over a light blue starburst background.
Final Vent
Terrorsoarer looked up as Aquileo flew in, holding Rainbow’s arms in its talons before throwing her forward in a kick too fast to react to. The rainbow shockwave from the impact knocked Terrorsoarer farther back and down.
Holding a card with a gold kangaroo silhouette over an orange starburst, an orange tray was pushed down into a belt.
Final Vent
With Applejack thrown into the air wearing a set of orange metal boots, her kangaroo Beast Hyperboxer jumped up behind her and kicked her out, and she delivered a double flat-footed kick to Terrorsoarer to knock it even farther down and into a cloud of sparkling pink dust.
A card with a gold butterfly silhouette over a yellow starburst was slid into a holder, a transparent pink butterfly wing sliding back over it like a sheath.
Final Vent
Fluttershy floated on pink butterfly wings as Dustwinger flapped a stream of dust over her from behind, one final beat propelling her down at Terrorsoarer with a kick in a glowing streak of dust. On impact, the dust cloud burst into fire, dropping Terrorsoarer to the ground. It shrieked angrily, flaring its wings and looking for a target.
A card with a gold egret silhouette with arched spiky wings on a purple starburst was slid into the tray inside the outer half of a wing before it was spun back around to the inner half.
Final Vent
A large white egret Beast with purple streaks flew in behind Rarity, floating with her sword in a column of spiraling water tendrils. The Beast, Elegrence, skidded to a stop and flapped its wings, sending Rarity shooting forward, spinning sword first and surrounded by pointed spiraling water tendrils. Water and sword stabbed into Terrorsoarer, drilling through it and sending her out its back.
A card with a gold platypus head and webbed claws on a pink starburst was slid into a slot before a silver platypus bill was closed over it.
Final Vent
As Terrorsoarer was recovering from the previous hit, Pinkrhynch leapt at it from a mirror puddle and rammed it back into a spinning saw blade formed by Pinkie rapidly pirouetting like a spinning top with her clawed web gauntlets outstretched. The rapid slashes sprayed sparks before Terrorsoarer was knocked forward again, falling flat.
A hand held up a card with a gold face hidden in a barcode over a purple background of circular barcodes. A black foot with a gold ankle band twisted as a spurt of flame came from its sole.
Final Attack Ride: D-D-D-Decade
Terrorsoarer propped itself up to see a line of large cards leading to it as Tsukasa and Yusuke ran at it and leapt into a duel Rider Kick. Tsukasa phased into and out of every other card as Yusuke let out, “Oreeya!”
The kicks hit with a wave of pixels and a burst of flame, a pair of explosions sending Terrorsoarer back again, its flowing shadow form rippling all over. Tsukasa and Yusuke stood as Rainbow, Cavalier, Applejack, and Rarity grouped around them, Fluttershy floating down and Pinkie spinning over.
Terrorsoarer pushed itself back up again, panting heavily, the first X slash still glowing on its chest. As it glared up at them, the long feather strands trailing from its head beginning to rise, a gargled hiss of rage slowly rose in the air around the Riders, sounding like it was coming from everywhere. The edges of Terrorsoarer began to fray and blur, a pale silhouette of itself slowly expanding out from it. It stepped its clawed shadow feet out, rearing up and spreading its wings wide as its eyes flared open—
Sunset dropped down in front of it with a glowing slash from her golden swords, slicing down through the X to make it a 6-pointed star, a wave of energy bursting away Terrorsoarer’s extra silhouette. “Friendship is magic,” she said. “Remember that.”
Terrorsoarer stumbled back, its golden scars glowing brightly. An indigo beam of light shot out of the center, then a light blue beam from the first star point clockwise from the top. Circling around, orange, yellow, purple, and pink light beams shot from the other points, a red beam shooting from the top one. Terrorsoarer’s surface rippled with pink pixel waves and surges of flame as its swirling shadowy form began boiling. As a wave of rainbow energy swept over it, Terrorsoarer flared its wings and screeched to the sky. It burst apart into a spray of dark droplets and smoke, the corrupted Nightshade Deck flying out from the center. The spray evaporated in midair, and the Deck fell and shattered against the ground into an array of smoking fragments. Nothing else was left behind.
A silence fell over the group. Then a collective sigh of relief. Surprisingly, it was Fluttershy who broke the silence.
“We did it,” she said.
“Told ya,” Sunset replied.
“Yeah!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Now that’s how you defeat a villain!”
The Riders left the Mirror World, Yusuke dragged out by Pinkie, and de-armored. Sunset reached into her pocket to find that her new Deck had stayed.
As Ryuki, Tsukasa pulled the Decadriver open, and his armor glowed and split apart left and right into a row of fading silhouettes. He paused, looking down at the Driver. That’s not what he’d expected to happen.
“Eh?” he said, holding the Driver upside down over his head, looking up into the slot and shaking it. “Where did those two new cards go?”
Sunset looked to her Deck and slid out a pair of Advent Cards. “I, uh, think these might be them,” she said, holding up the cards. One said ‘Survive’ and showed a gold lion paw with a red jewel on it reaching up from the bottom over a fire swirl background, and the other was a Final Vent card with her gold Lion symbol fanned by gold blades over a red starburst background and labeled with Attack 9000, both cards with gold rims and a row of red bars along the tops.
“Tsk,” Tsukasa sighed. “Keep ’em, they aren’t compatible with my Driver anymore.” He pushed the Driver closed again.
* * *
Shortly afterward, everyone had gathered back in the Hikari Studio.
“Well,” Yusuke explained, “since I knew you all were friends, when you refused to listen to anything they were saying I figured it had to be something external. That’s when I remembered how odd the glowing eyes on the card slotter had been.”
“Oh yeah,” said Rainbow, “I guess I did notice that. Wouldn’t’ve helped much in total darkness, though.”
“Not without that super hearing of yours,” Applejack added.
“Speaking of which,” Sunset said, “since you didn’t know about the Siren gems to recognize them, how did you know that they were the reason for me being evil?”
“I, uh…,” Yusuke hesitated, “honestly, it was a guess.”
Sunset crossed her arms. “Really?”
“So,” Rainbow said, “your logic was, ‘if it glows, it’s a weak point’? Makes sense, but bit of a risk, much?”
“Well, I didn’t have anything else to go on,” Yusuke countered. “I just did my dramatic speech and then hoped I didn’t make a fool of myself by breaking something that didn’t matter.”
“Lucky for you, it did,” Sunset said.
“Well,” Tsukasa said, getting up, “it’s actually time for us to leave now, unless anyone knows of another big problem Natsumikan’s gonna make me solve.” Natsumi punched his arm. “Now get lost, I’m serious about the getting dragged along with us part.”
“New group photo to replace the one that Yusuke folded and bent!” Pinkie shouted.
“Eh?” protested Yusuke.
“Well if it’s Yusuke’s fault, then alright,” Tsukasa said.
“Tsukasa,” Yusuke moaned.
The group of Riders gathered together around Yusuke as Tsukasa wound up his camera.
“Come on, new guy,” said Rainbow, “get in.”
“You’ve already got the hero of the day,” Tsukasa replied as he raised the camera. “Besides. There’s one person who’s never in a photograph.” He snapped the photo, then opened the back of the camera and tossed the roll of film to Sunset. “Develop it yourselves, we’re off.”
As the guests filed out, Pinkie turned back and exchanged a thumps up with Yusuke before leaving. Kivaara floated up next to him.
“Oo~ooh,” she cooed. Yusuke swatted her away. “Yipe!” She flew over and landed on a nearby post, softly giggling.
“It’s good to know that some Riders can get along without our help,” Natsumi said, looking after the others.
“It’s good to know that I can actually be a part of the solution sometimes,” Yusuke added.
“It’s good to know that side quests still don’t help us along, switch the painting already, gramps,” Tsukasa badgered.
Eijiro sighed. “It’s good to know that no matter the detour,” he said to himself, “you three will never change. Oh…or is that really a good thing?” He shrugged and pulled the chain.
With the sliding of chains and cranking of gears, a new painted backdrop slid down over the one with the horse statue. This one showed a desertscape under a blue and orange sky, with a white bullet train riding along a set of tracks, bearing a black roof and a pair of long orange eye-like front windows. The painting flashed with a hum.