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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

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Post Zi-O Concepts: Bringing the boy into the fold

Okay, so, we’re currently 11 hours away from the last episode of Zi-O airing, and I’ve got a whole lot of ideas for how to introduce Sougo into Riders ReUnited. I don’t know if I’ll use any of these, most of them are pretty out dated, but I really wanted to share them before I lost the chance.

Please keep in mind that when I wrote some of these, not only had I not quite finished Decade, but also we were in the middle of the Kiva arc, and thus I had no way of knowing that Tsukasa and Daiki were coming back. Nor did I have any clue that we were actually going to have Gou appear in-show. Er, in-movie. So, y’know. I was working off of what we had at the time. The later ones were from early June, between the Kabuto and Den-O arcs.

Also, these are largely un-edited, because I wrote them at work. I’ve fixed them up for formatting, but that’s about it. No content or contradiction fixes here. My apologies for the math or failures thereof. My additional apologies for Sougo being a bit out of character – I was doing my best, and my best wasn’t great at times.

(CIRCA MAY 19)

Sougo sighs, turning his fork over in his hand, again and again, not really seeing what’s on his plate. It’s a bit of an insult to his uncle – okay, a /lot/ of an insult, if he hadn’t wanted to fix clocks so bad he really could have been a professional chef – but.

But it’s just the two of them again.

…

It hasn’t been the two of them in a long time.

Heh, ‘time.’ That used to not matter. He could go anywhen he needed to.

But Geiz and Tsukuyomi and Woz aren’t here anymore. They don’t need to be here – he’s never going to be Oma Zi-o, not going to be a king. He still has the belt, and the watches, but.

He doesn’t need them now.

They’re done.

He doesn’t need the watches, but… he needs his friends.

He’d almost forgotten what loneliness was. It’s really hard to go back to, especially now that his uncle has called him out on it.

The door chimes.

“Oh, a customer this early? I’ll go get that.” His uncle gets up, but casts Sougo a worried glance. “Sougo-”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I just need to adjust a little.” He grins at his uncle – and he knows that they both know that it’s fake. “Go on ahead.”

“If you’re sure.” The old man heads out into the storefront.

“Hello, we’re not actually open just ye- Oh, you’re one of Sougo’s friends, aren’t you?!”

The uptick in his uncles voice is weird. Besides, he only had the three – Geiz, Tsukuyomi, and Woz – so he must mean it’s someone from school. Probably here to get something that’s definitely not a clock fixed-

“Ah, yes, I am. Mr. Tokiwa, was it?”

…Wait. He knows that voice.

“Yes, yes, right. You were- oh, what was it-”

“Takeru. Tenkuji Takeru. Is… is Sougo in?”

“Yes, but he’s not really in the mood to see anyone, his friends just moved out, you see-”

What is – what is Ghost doing here? He – okay, yes, he’s one of the few riders who came here, but why would he come to 9-to-5? And ask for Sougo? When he, by all rights, shouldn’t remember any of that happening?

“I know. I… heard, from Kadoya.”

Kado- that’s Decade. How-?

“I’m here to pick Sougo up, actually. There’s some people who want to see him again.”

…What on earth is going on out there?

Against his better judgement – not that his judgement’s that great to begin with – Sougo goes out into the lobby. “Takeru?”

The brunette beams at him. “Hey there, Sougo. It’s been a while. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

Takeru’s smile drops a bit. “Some of your information was a bit… off. We all know what was going on. Just… can you come with me? There’s a bit of a get-together, and it’d be a good time.”

Sougo doesn't reply.

In the end, it’s his uncle who decides for him. “I think it’d be a great idea. Sougo, you should go. Get out of the house for a bit. Okay?”

“…Mm-hm. Okay.”

“Great!” Takeru grins. “Do you still have your bike, or will you need a lift? It’s a bit of a distance, so…”

Sougo gives him a wary glance. “…Yeah? I’ve got a bike.”

“Good!”

He turns to his uncle. “I guess I’ll see you later, then.”

“Have fun!” The smile he gives Sougo is only about half forced.

Pocketing the bike watch, along with his belt and his personal ridewatch – just in case, he tells himself – Sougo follows his senior – who shouldn’t remember being his senior – out the door.

–––––

That. Is a really weird looking motorcycle.

Takeru must see the way Sougo pauses, because he laughs. “I know, right? It used to only look like this when I transformed. I got some help modifying it to look like this all the time about a year ago.”

“So, you-”

“We all remember being Riders, Sougo. We’re all still Riders.” He holds up a small ball. “We never stopped.” It looks like the shoulder pads when he used the Ghost armor, so-

“What are those, anyway?”

Takeru’s smile is a little more forced. “It’s called an Eyecon. They… well, it’s what I use to transform. Honestly, though, we should get going.”

“Where are we even heading?”

“My place. I’m close, I have room, and I was supposed to host last month, but then Eiji and Ankh showed up in Japan again, so Miss Chiyoko took over, so now the get together’s at the temple again.”

“Who are any of those people?!” The two start to drive off.

“You’ll meet Ankh soon enough, and you’ve already met Eiji. Hino Eiji, he’s Kamen Rider OOO.”

“Oh, right, the senator.”

Takeru seems to choke on air at that. “Oh my g- is that what he had to do?! Man, no wonder him and Hina refused to talk about it. …Well, that and who his ‘another rider’ was… Let’s just. Let’s just get to the temple, and explanations can happen there, okay?”

“…Sure.”

––––

There’s a lot of motorcycles outside the temple gate.

Like, a lot of them. And two cars.

There’s one that’s green and black, next to one of the cars. [Philip, Shotaro, Ryu, Akiko, Haruna]

Three identical bikes, all of them looking somehow both sleek and bulky at once. [Eiji (large), Ankh, Date, Gotou, Hina]

One that looks weirdly like a space shuttle, and one that’s blue with star patterns. [Gentaro, Kengo, Ryusei]

A red-and-black one, with a yellow front that looks like a cut gem. [Haruto]

Two that have cherry blossom patterns, and one with a rose. [Kouta, Micchy, Kaito, Mai]

Then the other car, a white bike with red stripes, and – what is with the purple one? Why are there skull designs on it?! [Shinnosuke, Kiriko, Eiji (small), Gou, Chase]

Takeru parks his – which looks like a spectral unicorn – next to one that’s blue with chains. [Takeru, Makoto, Alain, Akari, Onari, Kanon]

A bright yellow bike with pink spikes on the front, and a white one with… a hospital logo? That can’t be right, but… Nope, there it is. [Emu, Parad, Kiriya (not the pictured bike), Hiiro, Taiga, Nico, Poppy]

The last one looks like it has one of those bottles that Sento used to become Build sticking out of it. [Sento, Ryuuga]

There's an empty space to the side of it – and Sougo abruptly realizes… that spot is meant for him. [Sougo]

“How… many people are here?”

Takeru purses his lips. “Um… rider-wise… 25, 26 including you. Total people… er, additional 2 with Fuuto, 2 with Eiji and the Births, only one from the KRC, nobody from Haruto’s group, I think Mai came this time, two from Shinnosuke, three from here, another two from the university, because Poppy and Nico keep saying ‘they don’t count as riders’ which literally nobody else agrees with… so. Wow, 37 people all told, counting yourself.”

“That’s… a lot.”

“Yeah, it’s gonna be kinda crowded.” Takeru laughs. “Good thing the weathers supposed to hold up!” He nods to the empty spot. “Go ahead and leave your bike there – Gou said he wanted to get a picture of all the equipment together.”

“Who’s Gou?”

“Photographer, stuntman, and rider.”

–––––

Upon seeing the crowd, and the tables, and food, but most of all the crowd, Sougo balks. “Are… you sure you want me here?”

“We’re sure. You’ve finished, right? You may have noticed we never really retire, but… there’s less to worry about, now.” The look Takeru gives him is warm. “Wait here, there’s three folks in particular who wanted to be the first to see you.”

He leaves for a few minutes, and Sougo sits on a nearby bench. He feels… it’s not the eyes of everyone on him, they aren’t looking right at him. But it feels like they expect something. By all rights, they should be mad at him – he took their powers, after all, and even if they ‘entrusted’ them to him, it’s still not fair to them-

“Sougo? Sougo, breathe, okay?”

Someone’s- someone’s kneeling in front of him, with their hands on his shoulders – why can’t he see who – oh, he’s crying, why is he crying, that doesn’t make any sense-

“You don’t need to worry, we’re not mad at you. Like you said, we trusted you, and you did great.”

Oh, no, was he saying all that out loud, that’s- “I’m sorry, I caused so much trouble and it was my fault-”

“Hey, hey, none of that now. Here, use this, get cleaned up a little-” Whoever’s in front of him hands him a tissue, which he uses to wipe away most of the tears. “That better?”

It’s – what was his name… oh, right- “Doctor Hojo?”

‘Doctor Hojo’ sighs, as Takeru laughs somewhere behind him. “Not this again…” He still grins, though. “If we were at the hospital, yeah, it would be. Just ‘Emu’ is fine while we’re here, though. It’s nice to see you under better circumstances.”

“Uh- yeah, I guess. What is all of this?”

Two more people come up to the small group – that’s, oh man, Build and Cross-Z – no, Sento and Ryuuga. “Emu started it… what was it, a year and a half ago?” Sento looks to Emu, who nods. “Right then, a year and a half, now, give or take a few months.”

“I wanted all of the Kamen Riders to be able to get together, support each other, and all that. We weren’t allowed to tell you before – the time travel experts have said that it would ‘wreak havoc on the laws of causality’ and ‘no one could ever complete their journey if their seniors were guiding them every step of the way’.” Emu’s making sarcastic air quotes every so often, which – well, it does make Sougo smile, because clearly he’s ticked off about it, but understands the reasoning.

Actually, remembering when they met… making him smile was probably the goal.

Ryuuga snorts. “Yeah, like everyone didn’t wind up doing that this time around anyway.”

“Heh…” Sougo chuckles. “‘This time around.’ Because of the time travel. I get it.”

Both Ryuuga and Takeru look incredibly offended. “GOD F-” Ryuuga cuts himself off at Emu and Takerus matching glares. “I mean- Come on, I didn’t mean for that to-”

Takeru shakes his head. “Why with the puns… they just keep sneaking up on us…”

Emu rolls his eyes. “Anyway. This is us, wanting to actually get to know you. You’re one of us, after all.”

Sougo squints. “…Really?”

“Yup.” Sento ruffles his hair – he’d be offended if he weren’t already kind of in shock. “We're Kamen Riders. We help people. It’s what we do.”

“I’ll be back,” Takeru turns away. “I wanna get that photo taken, so we can get some of these bikes out of the front gate, at least.”

––––

“Gou” turns out to be Shijima Gou, Kamen Rider Mach, who is apparently, in addition to a photographer, some sort of absurdly skilled gymnast, given how he gets into a tree to set up his camera. He practically bounces to get up there. It’s impressive. Even more impressive is his use of little model bikes to adjust the camera, and-

“Are… those a dinosaur and a dragon?!”

One of the other riders, in a long sweater with binder clips in his hair, laughs. “Yeah, Fang and Cross. Ryuuga and I are loaning them out for this – they’re coming right back to us after.”

“Um... Sorry, I don't think we've met…”

“Nah, we didn't.” A man in a waistcoat settles his arm over the other. “Nice to finally meet you, kid. Shotaro and Philip Hidari, Kamen Rider Double. Both of us, at once. It's complicated.”

Sougo gapes.

“There's actually a lot of body sharing around here.” Sweater – Philip – scratches the side of his nose. “I did the research, last year. I still have the notes saved to my phone, I can show you if you want-”

“No, no! That’s! Fine! It's not actually anything new to me!”

““Oh?”” Philips eyes light up as the two speak in unison.

“Heh, well…” Sougos smile is wistful. “Me, Geiz and Woz… we got this one form, called Trinity, where they, er, got turned into giant watches, and then we were all basically swapping control of my body.”

A man in a leather jacket mumbles. “Kadoya was right... he is a mini-him.”

“Er?”

“Terui Ryu, Kamen Rider Accel. Don't worry about it. You're far and away less annoying than he is.”

“Who?”

“Decade.” Going by the shadow that crosses his face, Sougo decides not to ask why Trinity would remind him of Decade. As far as he remembers, there was something about ‘going between worlds’ and, of course, the form copying, but that was about it…

“Alright, places, come on, people, we don't have all day!” Gou yells from his perch. “First shot's riders only, second round, we add in the rest of- OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!”

Some of the senior-most riders have pulled out their belts, seemingly on instinct, at the appearance of a rippling wall of air. Sougo then realizes that he did the same. After all, the last few times he saw one of those, he’d been shot into the future, met his evil future self, and then the next time had all of his watches stolen.

Both of those two – Decade and Diend – step through, with their bikes in tow, as well as a man and woman, with yet another motorcycle… and a small robot bat, hovering at the woman's shoulder.

“No, no, NO!” Gou does a flip as he jumps down. "You're gonna throw off the composition! We don't have room for three more motorcycles!”

Terui and Drive – Shinnosuke – sigh. ““We'll move our cars.””

“If I still had the Tridoron…” Sougo hears Drive mumble. “But noooo, Krim had to go down to his depression garage and take it with him.”

Everyone has to move out of the way so the cars can pull out – Sougo's pretty sure he hears Accel mutter something about how it makes sense anyway because ‘he's his own bike’ – so that the three new motorcycles can be added in.

After directing everyone into new places, Gou climbs the tree again, to readjust the camera. “Okay, NOW we're ready, right?!”

A resounding chorus of affirmatives goes around the area.

“Great!” He leaps down – Shinnosuke and his wife tense every time he does this; apparently he’s her brother – and makes his way to his spot. “Okay, in three- two- one-”

The flash goes off in a series of bursts, before everyone relaxes from their poses. He heads up the tree again, to direct the relations into the area for the next shoot.

Sougo starts to tremble. “This isn't right…”

He feels a firm hand clasp his shoulder, and looks up to see Ryuuga smiling sadly at him. “‘Cuz the rest of your team can't be here, yeah?” Sougo nods. “I get it. Neither can ours. Back in December… that wasn't really them. Well, they were, but they aren't here. We're from a different world than this one, and it's… gone, and the versions of our friends here don't know us, were never riders. There's nothing for them to remember, because it never happened to them. So…” He sighs. “Do your best, okay? We can talk more after.”

Hesitantly, Sougo nods. “Okay.”

But before Gou can get very far in reorganizing the sections…

“TSUKASA, NO!” The woman who arrived with him yells, while the guy that isn’t Diend tries to pull him back.

“But have you considered, Tsukasa, YES?”

“Come on, Tsukasa, please don’t.” The mystery man tries to tug him away. “Don't ruin this for us, half the people here barely tolerate you as is, and this is my first real chance to meet anyone-”

“Aw, come on, I'm not that bad!”

Diend snorts. “At what, photography or backstabbing?”

“Pick one!” Tsukasa stops short. “Wait, no, I meant photography, but still! I've gotten better!”

“““No you haven't!!!”””

At this point, Diend is choking on his laughter, the small bat is now trying to bite Tsukasa's ear, and both the boy and girl are trying to drag Tsukasa from going toward the tree.

Everyone else is just watching.

“Tsukasa…” The woman – Natsumi, apparently – gives Decade a warning look, her thumb raised. “We’d agreed you wouldn’t take any of your shitty photos today. That you were going to be supportive of your junior this time.”

Decade, the self-professed Destroyer Of Worlds, backs away nervously. “N- Natsumikan- Natsumikan, no.”

She grins menacingly, as the other man with them – Yusuke, apparently – grabs Decades arms, holding them behind his back, and thus holding him in place.

“But have you considered, Natsumi, yes?”

The other Riders look on as she jabs her thumb into the side of his neck, and he collapses into uncontrolled laughter. Everyone else stares, dumbfounded, as the two give the same treatment to Diend.

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s always a relief to see that Tsukasa and Daiki aren’t nearly as big of assholes as they try to make themselves out to be.”

Hina – HINA! – nods. “Good thing they have Natsumi and Yusuke to be the sane ones.”

––––

In the end, they were not, in fact, able to stop Tsukasa from taking a photo of the group. He winds up taking several, actually, because apparently his camera can’t shoot wide enough to get the group at once. They resign themselves to allowing him a shoot of the fully assembled group, as well.

“I'll bring all of you the prints once i develop them.” He smirks.

“I apologize for everything he is going to do.” Natsumi sighs. “These two are the worst.” She juts her thumb at Decade and Diend to point at them.

Unsurprisingly, given the earlier display, they both step away nervously when she does that.

––––

Sougo… can't really bring himself to interact with anyone after that. He's still there, it's not that he's zoning out, but… well, he was never good at interacting with people before his parents died, or after he came to live with his uncle, or after he met-

He looks down at his lap, pulling out his ridewatch, and runs his thumb around the base. He doesn’t trigger it, that would just draw attention to him that he really doesn’t want right now.

“Hey, Sougo, you in there, bud?”

“Mm?” Looking up, there's a man with a… okay, wow, nobody here gets to get on him about his wardrobe, because this guy's in a plaid blazer with a pompadour. What the actual hell. “Um, and you are…?”

The man grins. “Gentaro Kisaragi, Kamen Rider Fourze – the guy who’s gonna befriend all the Kamen Riders!” He pulls Sougo to his feet. “Come 'ere, like this.” After guiding Sougo through a complicated handshake, he positively /beams/. “There. Now we're friends!”

“I don't… think that's how friendship works, though…”

“It is with Gentaro. Utahoshi Kengo. So, you're the latest, hm?” The man – Kengo – gives Sougo an appraising look, before sighing. “Well, at least you're older than we were.”

“Eh?”

‘Wow, Sougo, way to go, great first impression, tell the blatant friendship monster he's probably friending wrong, and then look like an idiot in front of this guy what's clearly a scientist-’

“We were 17.”

“EH?!”

––––

“Hey, Zi-O.”

Sougo turns, and. Oh. Okay. It’s Decade. That's great. “Yes?”

“Couple things I wanted to say. First… the day with the bus…” He hesitates – visibly hesitates, and that doesn't seem like him.

“What about it?”

“I was there. I was only able to save Tsukuyomi and myself, so… I’m sorry, I know your parents were on there, and a lot of other people, too, and… I wasn't able to save them, so. I'm sorry for that.”

“It's okay, it was a long time ago, so it doesn't really matter anymore-”

“Wasn't for me. World traveler, remember? Sometimes that includes jumping between points in time. A lot of the time it includes that, actually. So that was only a few months ago for me.”

“…Ah. …Thanks.”

“There's another thing, too. Less awful, though.” He pulls out a folder. “Probably still awful, but in a different way. I thought you ought to have these.” Passing the folder to Sougo, he looks slightly away. “I know I'm supernaturally terrible, but… well, the pictures that I take of Kamen Riders are about the best I can do.”

His forehead wrinkling, Sougo removes the papers from the folder.

They’re all photographs.

There's him, in the dining room – that'd be right after he came back from his deal with Gho- with Takeru.

Geiz, by a warehouse – when…? Wait, that might be the day he met Oma Zi-O.

Tsukuyomi, on a hilltop… “When was this one taken?”

“…The day of the bus accident. I brought her and myself to where that guy brought you and the other kids. This is outside that city.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Woz, giving one of his speeches. Looks like this is when he used Ghost armor for the first time.

“I normally don’t get to give these to the Riders I take them of, since I'm usually on my way out of that World by the time I get around to developing them. I hang onto 'em, though. Since you're ‘done’ now, I figured you should at least get to see them, if nothing else.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I mean, do whatever you want, I know I'm terrible-”

“Thank you.” Sougo rubs at his eyes, before looking up at Dec- at Tsukasa. “Thank you. You have no idea how much this means.”

––––––––

(June 6)

“So…” Looking around, Sougo pauses before continuing to speak. “Dr… Hojo?”

“Seriously, just call me Emu while we're here.”

“Okay then. I can't help but notice… Nobody here was a rider before 2009. How come more people aren't here?”

Emu grimaces a little, at that. “Well, we haven't really been able to contact anyone from then.” He hesitates, his brow furrowing, before continuing. “Well, okay, that's not entirely true. Gentaro’s met Amazon, but most of the riders from the 70's and 80's don't socialize that often.

“Takeru's met Ichigo – the first rider – but never heard back from him with regards to coming.” He shrugs. "We know he's still alive, because Takeru's friends with his grand-niece, and she'd have told us if he'd passed, but that's about all we know. The oldest riders tend to be off around the world. I met Blade, once, but he can't stay in Japan, because apparently his powers would-”

“-would make him have to fight his friend, right?” Sougo interrupts. “I… might have fixed that, actually. For him and his teammate, Chalice.”

Emu holds up a finger. “Hold that thought, please. I'll be right back.” He runs off.

“…What did I say?”

A few minutes later, Emu returns with a tablet. “Okay, I can't believe we didn't think of this.” He laughs. “You went around and met almost everyone – or people who know them – right?”

Sougo nods.

“Who can you reach again?!”

“Well, I can… kinda contact some of them. I know where they'd go back to, anyway.”

A small crowd has started to gather – people curious to see what's going on, people who'd heard Emu's shout and wondering just who they might meet.

Sougo pulls out his own smartphone, heading into the browser. “I bookmarked the site for the restaurant Kenzaki-san’s sorta-niece works at, hang on.” He pulls up the page. "Here, the Jacaranda Cafe. She can probably reach him, now, and Hajime. I kinda made them both human. Somehow. Not sure if that's good or not?” Sougo winces.

Kiriya stares. “Me'n the banana are gonna have /so/ much explaining to do. Do you have any idea how overpowered you are, kid?”

“There's also here, Restaurant Agito… Kamen Rider Agito owns that one.”

“Hrmph.” Kaito makes a noise. “A lot of explaining. Hope he was on good terms with Kino.”

Sougo looks at them, decides that either he’ll find out later, or that he probably doesn't want to know, and continues. “I’ve also got the numbers for Todoroki, and Gatack – although he might be Kabuto, now? It was a little weird… There's also this one dry cleaning place, where Faiz works-”

There's a loud sputtering sound from another side of the group. “Takumi is alive?!”

“Is he not supposed to be?”

Shinnosuke groans. “He's really not. There's a number of reasons I wasn't thrilled with your time-travel deal, Sougo.”

“Least he's got a better grip on the time thing than I do. His meddling actually works.” Kouta mumbles.

––––

(This one’s a different version of events, and I’m not sure when I wrote it anymore.)

“You look down, kid.”

Sougo looks up, as a man in a fedora leans against the tree next to him.

“You realize you did a damn good job, right? There’s zero grudges here.”

“That’s what everyone keeps telling me… but it’s not right… it’s not my celebration to get into.” Sougo squints. “Sorry, I don’t recognize you at all.”

“Hidari Shotaro, one half of Kamen Rider Double. The Joker half, specifically, since I heard your form only goes into our first.” He grins. “Sorry we couldn’t make it there in person. Your friend in the scarf kinda messed with Philip by going into the library when he wasn’t supposed to. We only got it together in time for that battle.”

Grimacing, Sougo flinches back. “Sorry. Woz basically did whatever he wanted back then, he was a bit… er. Cagey. Always was, really, but at least he… well, we worked together more easily, anyway.”

Shotaro lowers his hat to cover his face. “I heard mention that your friends went back to their time, is that right?”

“Yeah… but… their time was the one where I became overlord, and since we’ve stopped that from happening… I…” Sniffing, Sougo looks down. “I don’t even know if they exist anymore. Tsukuyomi, Geiz, and Woz are the first real friends I have ever had, and for all I know, they’ve been written out of the timeline, just – just been erased, like White Woz was when we first used Trinity,” he starts to tremble. “And it’ll be my fault because my being evil was what made it possible for them to exist in the first place, so if I never become evil, then they won’t exist-”

“Hey, hey, come on, calm down.” Shotaro puts a hand on Sougo’s shoulder. "You're gonna get dehydrated or something if you keep having crying fits, and then Emu’s gonna get on all our heads for letting that happen.” He gives a brief squeeze before letting go. “I’m not saying not to be upset, or to not worry or miss your friends. But breaking down… doesn’t help. Believe me, I get it. I’ve been there – Philip was ‘gone’ for a year, when all was said and done, and I… well, if he hadn’t been restored when he was, I probably wouldn’t have been even semi-functional for very much longer.” He sighs. “So, I’m not saying to forget, but don’t let it consume you. Things here turned out fine. You just have to have faith that they’ll turn up again. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. You’ll have a hard time beating out the record for longest wait – that’s Eiji and Ankh, at 9 years, followed by Gou and Chase at 5, Philip and myself at 1, Emu with Poppy and Parad at a month, and Gentaro and Kengo at about a week.”

“So… here's hoping for second or third, then?”

“Now you’re getting it. Gotta warn ya, the humor gets a little dark around here sometimes. It’s a coping mechanism. Just let someone know if that gets to be too much for you, at any point. Doesn’t matter if it was fine at a previous meeting. If it gets hard, we want to know, so we can help.”

Sougo rubs at his eye with his fist. “Still can’t believe you guys plan to invite me back…”

Shinnosuke sits down on his other side. “It’s an open invitation. Nobody’s required to come, but just so that you know, that invitation will never close, and neither do the communication lines. If you need time away, we get it. But… I’m not going to lie, that sounds like it’s a bad idea for you. Not talking, that is.”

“I’ve… I’ve had enough of being alone for one timeline. It was just me and my uncle for so long… and then they came barging in, and now they’re gone again…”

Shin: “Can you tell us about your uncle? Takeru’s the only one here whose met him, and only briefly.”

That gets Sougo to give a small smile. “Yeah, that… sure was a day. So, Takeru-san… is not a good liar, is he?”

““Not really, no.””

“He did seem like he got what I was dealing with way too much to not remember. But my uncle… he’s great. He took me in after my parents died, and he’s been the one constant since then. He fixes clocks for a living. Or, well, he fixes everything, really, but he prefers clocks. He even managed to fix a train one time.”

““The den-liner?””

“…Okay, yes, it's a time traveling train, and that was a really weird day, but still. Train. Though, gotta be honest, if he wasn’t fixing clocks? He’d be a really good chef. His first instinct whenever a rider came by was to make them something to eat.” His face darkens as he looks across the way. “Though the meal wasn't always intended for them…”

Shinnosuke follows his line of sight. “…What did Tsukasa do?”

“He stole my dinner. The first time I saw him out of suit, he stole. My dinner. When I had literally been a ghost all day.”

They both wince. Shotaro laughs nervously, adding “That’s a pretty good reason to hold a grudge against Kadoya. But your uncle’s a good repairman and cook?”

“Yeah! Yeah, he is! I mean, Agito-san said he could be professional, and he is a professional chef, so-”

“Wait!” Shotaro holds up a hand. “Agito?”

“Yeah.”

“Kamen Rider Agito?”

“Yeah.”

“Sougo, new question for you.” Shinnosuke looks at him, serious. “How many riders did you meet that aren’t here?”

“A lot of them. Why?”

“Do you have anyone’s contact information? This group isn’t supposed to just be the 2010s, it’s that we’re the ones who Emu was able to get in contact with.”

Shotaro puts his belt on. “Philip? Do you mind sending Emu over here?”

––––

(This one’s from August 22, before I remembered I should probably just wait until after the finale actually came out.)

“Sougo-kun?”

“Hm?”

“Are you feeling alright? You've barely touched your dinner.”

Sougo blinks, looking down at his plate. “…Oh. sorry. Your cooking deserves way better than that. I was just… distracted.”

His uncle sits down beside him. “You miss them, don't you?”

It's hard, he’d never admitted to being lonely to his uncle before, not in so many words, but now…

Now 9-to-5 feels so empty.

“Yeah. I do.” His vision blurs, just a little, before he blinks and it goes back to normal… or not, because he can feel something warm on his cheek. He's crying.

“Sougo…” Uncle pulls him into a one armed hug. It's nice. They've never really been this touchy-feely before, it always felt odd, but… they both need this. Now that Geiz, Tsukuyomi and Woz are… are gone. Are in their time, hopefully, because they were only ever supposed to be here until they were finished.

Until he was stopped.

But they were friends, and his uncle liked them, and they were always around…

Sougo had hoped that all of them – Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Woz, and his uncle – that they’d all be able to keep each other company after he was… gone. He wasn't supposed to make it back here, and they were, but they didn't. They got pulled back to the future (he hopes), and he didn't die like he was intended to, and now he doesn't know what to do with himself.

At least he's being given the time to decide.

Heh. Time. That didn't matter, for almost a year. He could, technically, go any when he wanted. He didn't, because that would have been an abuse of power, but he could.

But now there's no time mazines, no another riders, no riders at all, save for him.

He doesn't even know if the few watches he has still work.

Grand… he refuses to try. Doesn't want to risk it.

Trinity… same. If he finds out that it does work, if he pulls them to him through time and space again… that'd be awful, because he'd have to say goodbye all over again when the transformation ends. If it doesn't… then they're gone.

Zi-O II was always… touchy. It's powerful, but also he always felt odd using it – the future sight felt wrong, somehow.

So the only two watches he would dare try are Zi-O and the bike, and he hasn't touched them, save to keep them in his pockets, since the battle ended.

He keeps them with him, just in case.

Just in case.

The front door chimes, and uncle looks at him, concerned,

Shaking his head, Sougo gives a small smile. “Go on ahead. You've got a customer, maybe you'll even get a clock to fix this time, too.”

Uncle gives him a pat on the shoulder, and heads out front.

Sougo can't hear what they're saying, not really, but his uncle sounds… surprised, honestly. Like he didn't expect whoever it is. They must have actually had a clock.

About 10 minutes pass, with the indistinct voices from out front talking all the while, and Sougo's mind wanders.

––––

Sougo had told his uncle about being a Kamen Rider before he'd left… and then one and two made three, and he'd asked, when it was over, if Geiz and Woz were Kamen Riders too. He’d had to say yes, couldn't bring himself to lie and hide it. He'd also added that Tsukuyomi became a Rider, too, on that last day.

When he was asked if they survived… Sougo said they'd gone back to their time.

(He hopes they made it to a better one than they left.)

(Please.)

A week later, four and sixteen made twenty, and Uncle’d asked if the people who they'd brought through were Kamen Riders as well.

“…They were. Once upon a timeline.” Sougo smiled bitterly. “Until I became one. Then their pasts and powers all got stolen, and now half of the Kamen Riders never were in the first place, and the rest never can be again. All the watches, on that stand? Those were their powers, before I came along.” He tried to hold back the tears with a smile. “Some hero I was. Had to erase almost twenty years worth of other, better, heroes to be one.”

His uncle didn't have a reply for that. He just hugged him.

–––

They've been talking for a while, out there. Maybe it's a different clocksmith? There aren't any others in the area, as far as Sougo knows, since it's not exactly a big profession… oh well.

“Sougo-kun?” His uncle steps into the doorway. “You'd said that some of the other Kamen Riders didn't remember being such, right?”

Sougo looks away. “Yeah. Pretty much everyone I met before January, except for Kadoya Tsukasa. Most of them never came here.”

“One did, though, and he seems very intent on talking to you.”

“…Huh?” That gets him to look up. Why would- before January, they wouldn't remember being riders, and probably shouldn't remember he exists, much less remember having met him. “Did he say his name?”

“Ten… something.” Uncle grimaces. “Sorry, I'm bad with names, it's already slipped my mind…”

“Ten... Tenkuji, you mean? Tenkuji Takeru?”

Uncle beams. “That's it!”

He hadn't remembered. Couldn't have remembered, it was before the paradoxes started piling on top of each other so badly… Except…

When Tsukuyomi had taken off, for a while, she'd left her data pad, the one with the histories on it. Sougo'd copied them all down, each and every one. Even if they didn't remember, someone needed to.

He filled three notebooks with every detail he could, and then with what he'd done.

Miharu and Geiz had thought it was a terrible idea, but… someone needed to remember for them.

Tenkuji-sempai had been 'Kamen Rider Ghost'. He'd been 'Ghost' for a reason, and he'd seemed a little too familiar with what happened to Sougo that day.

Sougo goes to the storefront.

There he is, brown hair and a kimono hoodie, grinning nervously. “Hey, kouhai. Long time, no see.”

…Kouhai. Okay, yeah, he's older than Sougo, but.

What?!

“I, uh. hi. Yeah… that is…”

Tenkuji's grin loses a little of it's nervousness, and he looks like he's trying for reassurance. “We know. We all know. We're sorry, we had to let you think we forgot, because… ugh, something about cause and effect, and predetermined events and, honestly, Ryotaro and Yuuto's explanations went way over my head, and Tsukasa's weren't much better. But we never forgot, okay?”

“You – you remember. All of it?”

“We've always been Kamen Riders, and we always will be.” Takeru's smile is warm. “And we'd like to invite you to a thing.”

Uncle butts in. “So, you are one of them?”

Takeru nods, bowing formally for a proper introduction. “Tenkuji Takeru, Kamen Rider Ghost. I was mostly active from 2015 to 2016, and now it's whenever my juniors need help.” He smiles. “Nice to meet you again!”

“You said you wanted Sougo to come to something?”

“Mm-hm. We've started having gatherings, about a year and a half ago, now, and we'd appreciate it if you could come.” He says the last part to Sougo, before turning to both of them. “It's mostly riders and support, and families, too. But… it can get a little overwhelming, and we thought it'd be a better idea if you, er, Mr. Tokiwa, that is, would be willing to wait until the next one? If Sougo comes back – there's no obligation to, of course, but we'd at least like to fill him in, first.”

Uncle grins. “I'd love to.” He makes little shooing motions at Sougo and Takeru. “Go, have fun, stay safe. You know how I worry.”

Swallowing hard, Sougo nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

––––

“D'you still have your bike? Because you can ride along on mine if you need to, but it'll be easier if you have your own. The Ghostriker isn't really… made for two people.”

Sougo looks up and down the spectral-themed bike. “I'd say so. You really went all out with the theming, huh?”

“Well, it used to be possessed by a horse spirit, I think, whenever I transformed, but I had it modified a year ago to always look like this. If the eyes glow, it's haunted. Fair warning.”

“That's really cool. I've still got what was my bike, but… I don't know if it still works.” Sougo pulls out the watch, looking down at it. “Never really used it much, honestly. Mostly used the time machines to get places. That kinda felt like cheating when it wasn't that far away, but since we'd have to time travel half the time anyway…” He hesitates. “I haven't tried using it since we finished. I don't know if I can transform, anymore, either. Does that disqualify me?”

“Heck no. A lot of people don't, not if they can help it, or can't for one reason or another. So, don't worry about it.”

Nodding, Sougo turns the faceplate on the watch, and it springs to action. He grins at seeing it again, and then his face falls. …I don't actually have a helmet.”

Takeru breaks out laughing. “You were always Zi-O when you used it, huh? Here.” He tosses a second helmet to Sougo. “Didn't know if you had a bike or not, so I grabbed an extra before I left.”

#kamen rider zi o #kamen rider ghost #kamen rider build #kamen rider decade #kamen rider ex aid #non zi o tags are because those are the characters with the most interaction with sougo #oh gaim i really need to work on my sougo characterization...#riders reunited #i will ride this inspiration train until it runs out of track #sailorcressy says

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shewasanamericangirl · 5 years

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kamen rider OOO review

a young man, having dozed off a night on security guard detail, awakens to find an odd red coin engraved with a bird motif. assuming the coin is payment for his work, he goes to change into his civilian clothes and oh fuck there’s a giant hole in the wall.

after a quick police interview revealing that our hero 1. is thoroughly naive and 2. has an unusual fixation with underwear, he puts his clothes on and goes to spend his “payment” in a vending machine and--whoops, dropped the coin under the machine. fortunately, a very strong (and CUTE) young lady is nearby to help lift up the machine...and nearly drops it when they see the monstrous disembodied arm crawling out from beneath! then the arm, who can talk and has a terrible personality, starts giving underwear boy orders. oh yeah, and i totally forgot to mention the opera rendition of “happy birthday” played over a bunch of weird monsters terrorizing civilians as a snappily dressed executive decorates a birthday cake on his office desk.

welcome to the world of kamen rider OOO! (pronounced “ohs”--like cheeri”os”.)

^ oh, the sexual tension.

plot: there’s two other fictional worlds that OOO has brought to mind for me multiple times. the worldbuilding and unique magical elements of OOO combined with a heaping cupful of absurdity and a pinch of homoeroticism reminded me quite a bit of jojo’s bizarre adventure--crazy and ridiculous stuff happens, but it’s built up in such a way that you generally understand enough of what’s going on that it isn’t too confusing. furthermore, the themes of desire, evolution, beginnings, endings, and nihilism bring to mind the dilemmas at play in the shin megami tensei games--many of the platitudes expressed in OOO could’ve easily been quoted from lucifer...and others from smtiv’s white. you’ll want to learn the truths. you’ll want to see what happens next.

characters: despite what ankh may claim, this show is not about him, as evidenced by the fact that its title is not bird greed ankh. he sure is a Character, though. heisei kamen rider is great at giving its viewers morally iffy or outright bastardy characters so unique and interesting that you wind up cheering for as much as if not more than for the heroes, and ankh is a primo example of this.

i love him, but also fuck that guy.

eiji hino definitely fits into the tradition of himbo tokusatsu protagonists. he’s not a complete dumbass so much as he is a pollyanna. like others in said tradition, he’s endearing, and i believe in him. you learn a lot about him over the course of the story, and how you see him closer to the end may surprise you.

the cast is colorful and fun. hina izumi, the super strong girl from earlier, becomes inexorably entwined in this drama of medals and monsters when her beloved older brother shingo winds up possessed. shintaro gotou, a former police officer, now works on behalf of the mysterious kougami foundation with the aim of fighting evil and protecting the innocent--but isn’t so sure how he’s going to do so. akira date, a roguish bad boy doctor and self-professed slave to desire, takes on a very special job to fulfill his goal of earning 100,000,000 yen. more oddballs can be found in service of the kougami foundation as the story continues...

oh, and the greed. or greeed. i’ve seen it both ways. i believe i’ve said a bunch of times before that i like a toku series with good fucking villains--you learn who they are and what drives them, you get how what they’re doing fulfills those goals, and you see how they relate to those around them beyond the customary shit-talking of the heroes. not only that, but the greed are a novel concept with fascinating aesthetics. i greatly enjoyed learning their secrets.

fights: instrumental to every battle is the abilities OOO has access to, which are determined by the medals he has in his possession--ancient coins which act as the DNA of the greed, and grant OOO different animal-themed powers. he equips the cheetah medal, and he can move at great speeds. he equips the hawk medal, and he can see great distances. naturally, such powerful artifacts are in high demand--OOO and the greed are constantly stealing them from each other, meaning what he’s capable of can vary greatly from episode to episode. only being able to switch out different hands is so 1980.

abilities that change again and again throughout the series make for some awesomely unique fights. mix that up with the various greed and the unique monsters they create using the power of human desire--yummies--and the fights don’t get dull.

visuals: the fact that i started watching kamen rider w with @shylax while still watching OOO made me notice something interesting: OOO appears to be the point that neo-heisei kamen rider became the bright shiny lightshow we see today in zi-o. w, while not visually lacking, still has the sort of drab, overcast quality to it that i’ve also noticed in ryuki and decade. i don’t know the technical terms needed to describe this phenomenon more accurately--just that something changed in 2011, and kamen rider really brightened up.

OOO’s suit forms are colorful and bold. many of the characters are associated with color motifs. cous coussier, the eccentric costume cafe that becomes eiji’s base of operations, is constantly switching up its theme and outfits. and as always, toei provides lots of visually striking sets.

music: the unusual opening theme, “anything goes”, will definitely make an impression; i initially found it weird, but damn, it gets me fired up now. strong inserts and moving incidentals are included too. “anything goes”, along with inserts “time judged all” and “reverse re;birth” have their own music videos, the latter two featuring the characters singing.

if you actually read all that, it should come as no surprise that i had a blast watching kamen rider OOO and highly recommend it. kobayashi knocks it out of the goddamn park once again!

as for my next series...i’m looking at a few possibilities. kamen rider 555 is one, as it’s a series @shylax definitely enjoyed. i’m also curious about other yasuko kobayashi series, seeing as they’ve proven great investments of my time so far. i’ve also grown curious about metal hero after seeing the new space sheriff gavan on kyuranger, though i’m at a loss for where i’d start with it. in the meantime, however, i’m going to watch the OOO movies!

#kamen rider ooo #more like #kamen rider 👌👌👌

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tamersa · 5 years

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I’m thinking about W and OOO a lot lately (writing fics rewatching some parts etc) and I like OOO as a series more. Still I wanted to know why so I made this VS battle for my own amusement:

MAIN RIDER: Battle between Eiji And Shotaro: Its hard one, both are interesting, have good plot twists, their characterization so nicely made and they both likable. Yet it is Shotaro win here: so relatable, and his range of emotions is great to! The Thing is Eiji was made to be”dried up” and thats the reason why his mental and emotional behave is like it is. First round winner : W THE ONE NEAR MAIN RIDER (LOL): So now it is Ankh and Philip: This one is bit easier. Ankh has way more screen time and is it written so much better. They do have some similarities: both are mind power of the dynamic duo, have some issues with the previous families, crazy hair style and have doubts about their Rider ( or other half) intelligence. The thing is Eiji takes almost no shit form Ankh when he cross the line too much. The Birb man has to pay for his mistakes and sometime the price is huge. Philip on the other hand has his tragic background but his mistakes are sugarcoated by his partner and not addressed at all. Because of that with more modest screen time his character is not as fleshed out as it could be. Mor rant on Ankh below hehehe Second round winner: OOO FEMALE CAST: In OOO we have: Hina, Chiyako and Satonaka, while W give us: Akiko, Wakana and Saeko. I like Hina I really do, but they didn't use her gimmick as good as they could. She should have throw more barrels or something! Also bit too passive sometimes? Chiyako is spot of supporting chara, funny warm energetic. Yes, good. Satonaka has her good points too: taking no shit from anyone and treating her work as well, work and not some life mission. But then we go to W side and oh boy, Akiko, my love! She is just the best Rider lady I even saw! Funny, dorky, has more to do, has the slipper, is actually useful even if not have special powers. Well thats debatable too, that wand made from slippers did work lool. But yes even if she is mostly comic relief, because of her Xtreeme was possible! Also She found that devil's tail. And got that name in her dream. She has guts has flaws also but really. I love her to bits. Wakana is interesting too: spoiled princess who suddenly has responsibilities. And Saeko: the dark lady with twisted desires, helping her hated sister in the end. Undoubtedly this round has one Queen:

Third round winner: W SECONDARY RIDER Terui Ryu vs Date Akira and Gotou Shintaro. Well its two vs one and it shows. Terui has that tragic background, and his bitterness fades away so he could be true city defender. Yet for me it was done bit clunky. There could be put more emotions and struggle into it. He looks cool in the red leather tho. Also he and Akiko are cute together. On the other hand Date and Gotou dynamic is so pure. Also Date is hilarious as hell! Both him and Ryu use Rider suit for other purpose than defend others at the beginning ( well money and revenge), but Date is somehow nicer since the beginning. And Gotous is cute guy who has his own little expansion ark. So yes, sorry red boy, those housbandos win this one. Fourth round winner: OOO VILLAINS On one side we have Sonozaki's and X foundation, On the other well Greeeds. It looks like one side have more villain types so it would win but... Sonozaki family makes Gaia Memories to make super humans and then let only them to live on this planet because some Earth tears or something. Experiments, no one knows who will live. Ryubee is just laughing old man wit terror, his older daughter is psycho maniac with bad taste for men, younger one is spoiled and doesn't know whats going on at all. It works somehow but not as smooth at it should. Some things are not explained enough some are over explained. And then suddenly some X foundation. Bit messy. For OOO we have Greeeds : incomplete beings who want to be complete but it is impossible so they will destroy everything to try it anyway lool. They have different approach to it and later have Dr Maki as weird hybridish psycho who wanted to end the world while is still beautiful. Sounds as messy as W but it is so much better. It is more consistent, we see the twists and dynamics between Greeeds, and the m Maki. I don't like him as a chara but he is made that way to don't like him: sociopath who killed his sister while still a kid, but have issues with her, creep who talks to a doll on his shoulder. He is both comic relief and terrifying at the same time! What a wonderful blend! Also his and Date dynamics are so hilarious I just couldn't stop laughing. Psychodelic af XDXD So because he is consistent in his doing, is a creep is funny dangerous and interesting even if you want to kick him in the balls. Fifth round winner: OOO PLOT Both have interesting stories, not too complicated on the surface, with some twists, with some plot holes and mistakes. OOO has however less of the plot holes ( most of them are from the past stuff like from 800 years ago), the story is more fluent, so fluent that it is hard to see chara development without going 10 episodes behind for a moment and the realization hits you), also there are none “new villain at the end!” no, we know who will be the ultimate baddie and want to know how it goes. One of the main twists was Lost Ankh. It was interesting and heart breaking. In W main plot is Philip past, his connection to the Gaia Memories and Sonosakis. Plot twist can be predicted quite early but it is still fun. But because of little screen time for Philip and his actual development some moments feel weaker or bit rushed. Yet Shotaro reaction to those are top notch!Still, Eiji and Ankh dynamic story flow etc is just better in OOO for me. Sixth round winner: OOO OPENING Music is important too and opening is the most characteristic piece of audio for most series. Here you can be biased and I will be. W is more pleasant to the ear, I like the video for it more too. And I mean both what you see in the series and official one. The vocal is more clean in W opening for me too. What to say more? Seventh round winner: W FAVORITE CHARACTER A war between half-boiled and angry birb. I love them both character wise. Are complicated have their flaws as good sides fleshed out, are interesting... but the birb... ah the birb! His story ark! His struggle, his ambiguous state towards other up until the end. His mannerism (his bird like movements and way he eats lool, he drinks tea with soup spoon! XD), way of thinking and all the changes. They way he goes from treating Eiji as and accessory to fight to having him precious enough to help him fight Maki at costs own existence/life. And he is so relatable. Not for literal stuff ( I don't think any of you is greeed) but in general: the feeling of not fitting into a group etc. Shotaro is very relatable to don't get me wrong, but his character development is not as deep as Ankh. Both have great clothes yes! Eight round winner: OOO

SUIT AND MERCH ASCETICS As for looks of suits of the Riders and gimmicks it will be short: I like standard double more over TaToBa OOO, but I don't like Extreeme much but I love TaJaDor. Bike looks better in the W animal robots are cute here and here too. Second rider suit is good enough, but henshin gimmick is more interesting in OOO (the medals and mixing them) So a draw! ENDING

OOO doesn't have that 49th episode and it shows. But with that we have 2 very different vibes endings and both are so good. OOO is bittersweet but gives hope, W I just... god I'm so happy for Shotaro, this soft man deserved the ending. And somehow Eiji deserved his too: you should talk to your birb more Eiji! And shipping aside W should have proper hug and not that weird thing at the end. Both give satisfaction both are great and not disappoint! Another draw!! BONUS ROUND: BACKGROUND STORIES I could write about all support cast etc but those are equals and we don't need another draw. So I'll will do one more thing as a bonus: background of the charas. Especially our main Riders. In W we know a lot about Philip and what he did in the past yet some thing are presented in chaotic way, we are not sure about important things ( like if his family was dysfunctional before or after Philip's accident), but about Shotaro? Almost nothing. Just that he was bit deliquentish in high school (we are not even sure if it wasn't middle school lool) and that he was with boss some time before Begins Night. And thats sad because Shotaro is developed in interesting way and his past should be show more to understand better why he was like that. On the other hand we know what we should about Eiji, what made him as he was, why he is living this way. It wasn't long exposition but good enough to understand his ways. For Ankh its bit more messy (because what we hear and what we see on the screen doesn't add up well) but still it is all understandable. Winner of eleventh round : OOO So in all OOO won but not by that much. W is still very good series and both deserve to be watched (and then cried over, and made 1245643 chapters and one shots and drawings to them GAH)

#kamen rider ooo #kamen rider w #kamen rider double #my vs #my opinions #had to do this for my own pleasure

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firebirdsdaughter · 5 years

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Alright...

...I’m still cagey and frustrated and annoyed. But.

There was cute in episode 25.

So... Maybe I cans till have a shred of hope?

Short version?

No. But in no order:

Keisuke himself remains the only tolerable thing about either Woz.

Though I do appreciate Shiro Woz’s ‘I knew it’ reaction when the Revive Watch doesn’t activate.

Also, as over this part of the plot as I am already, I do have to give them kudos for having a sort of balance thing going on--Geiz’s power up doesn’t work the first time he tries to use it, either.

It occurs to me that is was actually Another Zi-O in that behind the scenes pic we saw a few weeks ago.

When Shiro Woz says that the Revive Watch won’t activate unless you’ve made a decision to kill Ouma Zi-O (actually, I think he says ‘the overlord’? Could this be a case of exact words?), Geiz just makes this ‘well, we’re fucked’, resigned face. Bc he DOESN’T WANT TO. And then later, when he tries to tell himself he does in order to use it, he CAN’T. Bc he can’t muster the will to kill Sougo anymore.

I really hope he finds it wanting to keep his promise to Sougo to keep him from becoming Ouma Zi-O at all rather than actually deciding to kill Sougo, but the preview doesn’t give me much hope for that bc Toei cannot make me happy w/ two shows at once for too long. Do they have a ‘Firebird is enjoying herself too much’ alarum in there or something?

The preview is also making me think Tsukuyomi caused the bus crash?

Does the show think I find the ‘relationship’ between Kuro Woz and Sougo cute or endearing? Bc... I really, really don’t. Junichiro, please do not let him go places w/ Kuro Woz unsupervised like that. Please.

Why haven’t we asked Kuro Woz why he’s so gung-ho for a future where half the human population is dead? Why do we want to be friends w/ a person who wants that?

Other great moments: Geiz and Sougo bickering like brothers, Geiz shoving Sougo away from Another Zi-O, which could come across as a very Geiz way of being like ‘since you’re not having any luck, stay over there so you’re not in the line of fire while we try,’ and Sougo stepping in to stop Another Zi-O from going after the other two Riders after he deHenshined them (though... I might have minded letting him off Shiro Woz...)

Oh yeah, and apparently Another Zi-O boy (I’ll learn his name if he sticks around, I’m bad w/ names) wants to defeat Sougo/I think blames Sougo for something? Maybe the crash? (Bc Tsukuyomi?)

Turns out the ‘fighting the water’ thing was a dream. Something about a star. Kuro Woz started talking about astronomy and the translator couldn’t keep up.

So my guess now is that the ‘fighting in the water’ will happen maybe ep 28-29, and is what ‘goes to meet Geiz’ entails? Which... Could give them enough time to work up some emotional tension, if they do it right (I have no expectations). Nothing can ever top Eiji and Ankh’s water fight, but they might be able to make it meaningful. Especially if they go w/ the same vein of ‘realising we don’t want to hurt each other.’ (I still have no expectations)

*stares pointedly at Toei HQ from the US east coast*

Honestly, was glad to see that several of the former Another Riders were doing well. Good for them. Until Another Zi-O, I guess.

I wish Geiz would go back to his gym clothes and sweats. I prefer them to his future outfit.

The tea and shirts are still on standby.

That’s all folks! It wasn’t actually that short, but it wasn’t as long as it coulda been, I guess. Sorry. I’m very tired. It snowed today and I’m the only one home she I shovelled the whole damn driveway. Anyway, virtual french toast for anyone who read all that. Or waffles.

I’m still frustrated about these plot choices bc they feel contrived and I don’t like the ‘Secondary and Primary fight to show off Secondary’s new form.’ Also just not a form of ‘betrayal’ plots in general, of any kind. I really hope they give Kuro Woz a proper arc that can make me like him. Right now the only reason I can tolerate either Woz on my screen is that Keisuke is such a joy to watch (his face game is on point). Otherwise I’d just be skipping them; manipulative people are a huge turn off for me.

Anyway, we’ll see where this goes. I’m curious how they’re gonna get from this to the thing we’re not meant to know about.

That meme needs to live forever now.

#Kamen Rider Zi-O #very tired #did much shovelling #not much else to say #going to freak out about Ryusoulger now #Zi-O Spoilers #Timey Wimey Rider

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morninkim · 6 years

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Kamen Rider OOO AU where the original OOO is the one revived, and then the Kougami Foundation artificially revive the Greeed, but a side effect means they'd need to be partnered with a human and lend their power to allow the human to transform and fight OOO's yummies.

Kazari's the first to be revived, and while he isn't very willing to cooperate at first, he does give in when he realises how he can use these people to get back at OOO. He's partnered with Goto, allowing Goto to tranform into Kamen Rider Leo and use the Feline Core Medals to access different forms (Lion for balanced attack, defence and the glowy light thing the head of Latoratah does, Tiger for attack power and slashing damage with the claws, and Cheetah for speed and kicking power, eventually he can use three of each to unlock an upgraded Trio Form version of the form). Goto accepts when he realises how much more he could do as a Rider (basically fulfilling his wish earlier than in OOO, and seeing where that does).

Uva's revived second, and partnered with Akira, letting him transform into Kamen Rider Stag and use the Insect Core Medals to access forms. (Stag Beetle for balance + electricity manipulation, Mantis for the scythes slashing power, Grasshopper for jumping and kicking power, three of each later on for upgraded forms) Kougami chooses Akira for Uva because he feels as though Uva's stubbornness can be offset by Akira's chilled out attitude. Plus their personalities clash sometimes and Kougami's That Bitch.

Gamel gets revived third and partners with Hina, thinking her strength is fun. Hina's accepts when Gamel (and Gotou as Leo) shows her how her strength could be given a purpose beyond an inconvenience, to help people. This decision is made without Kougami's approval, but he's okay with it when he sees Hina effectively use the Rhino Core Medal's abilities. She becomes Kamen Rider Sai, and uses Gamel's Heavy Animal Core Medals to transform (Rhino for charging power, Gorilla for punching power and the chest beating shockwave thing, and Elephant for stomping/kicking power and quake manipulation, three of each for upgraded forms).

Ankh was revived prior to Kazari, but wasn't as keen as the others to partner up with a human. Eventually Shingou finds out Hina is Sai, and confronts Kougami about it. This is where we get the reveal that the partnering can't be undone and is permanent until either the human or Greeed is killed, at which point the partner will most likely die too, as the connection sustains them both. Ankh takes advantage of Shingou's worry for his sister to manipulate him into becoming Kamen Rider Hawx. The transformation weakens Shingou, allowing Ankh full control of his body for the duration. Shingou is severely drained after any transformation into Hawx, akin to Eiji using Tajador combo in the main series. (Hawk, Peafowl and Condor medals are all used in one transformation, giving Hawx one powerhouse form)

Mezool is revived accidentally, and takes a liking to Satonaka, and asks that she be her partner. Kougami is hesitant to let his secretary go, but agrees eventually. Satonaka flat out refuses. She's fine where she is. She does become Kamen Rider Orza a bit later, seeing it as neccessary. Plus she's the only one who's unfazed by Mezool in general, so the two are a natural fit. Orza is specialized for undersea combat, so isn't as powerful as the other Riders while on land. (Orca Medal for water spouting and echolocation, Eel for electric whips and agility, Octopus for wall-climbing and tentacle based attacks, three of each for upgraded forms)

Dr. Maki eventually uses the Dinosaur Core Medals to become a Greeed himself, allying himself with OOO and giving him the Putotyra Combo. He and OOO also destroy some of the Rider's/Greeed's Core Medals, restricting their selection of forms.

Kougami then reveals the Birth System, which will allow one Rider at a time to access a Birth Form, more powerful than a Trio Form, using Cell Medals. Goto and Akira use it more often than the others, but it's very much a universal Super Form.

Events then differ more drastically than in the original show, in ways I haven't really thought of yet.

Other changes include:

All Riders work at Cous Coussier, because I just think that'd be funny. Also gives them all a reason to be in the same place when they need to be for story reasons.

Eiji is still a live-in employee at the restaurant, but is a supporting character who is later revealed to have been possessed by OOO since the beginning.

Gamel's puppy love devotion is shifted from Mezool to Hina, mostly to aid story and development.

Chiyoko becomes aware her employees are Kamen Riders much earlier, but Eiji is kept in the dark until Satonaka becomes Orza, where he starts working for Kougami as his replacement secretary so she can be in the field more often. (This is also a way for OOO to get closer to Kougami, fueling Kougami's eventual breakdown to handing over his vast collection of Cell Medals to OOO)

Akira gets Uva's name wrong, instead of Ankh.

Uva is the one to reveal Akira's brain injury, having grown concerned for his "friend" (by this point he's actually started to give a shit about his partner)

Maki reveals the Dinosaur Medals earlier, because there are no Greeed available as Medal Container for him to experiment on, so he decides to use them as leverage to get OOO on his side.

Each of the Greeed sacrifice themselves to save their partners one by one at around the same time as their deaths in the original show (final deaths for Mezool, Gamel and Uva)

Goto and Akira's relationship is the same as in the show, but they have more time to develop it, with Akira being introduced around episode 6-7.

OOO has the ability to make any kind of Yummy he wants, so attacks are sometimes made by several Yummies at once.

No idea how Wonderful: The Shogun And The 21 Core Medals goes, please don't ask me at this point lmao

Please Ask Me About This AU I'm Crying Over It Already

#stfuspeeds #kamen rider ooo #ive had this idea for like......... since i started the show lmao #originally the riders were just gonna be the greeeds human forms as ocs but then i went 'wait why arent i using what i already have ????'#also partly spawned from me just.............really wanting Satonaka to become a Rider #also they can all use the Ride Vender's but only Goto uses the Toride Vender #long post

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bukistar · 6 years

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Q: First, please tell us your impressions when it was announced you would be working together again.

Watanabe: I haven’t appeared together again with Ryo-kun (Miura’s nickname) since Fourze and OOO Movie Battle Mega Mix in 2011. I was happy. Because in the following year Wizard & Fourze MOVIE Taisen Ultimatum in 2012, it was just me, alone. Miura: I played Ankh for the first time in six or seven years. I worked with the staff who had been waiting for me since then, including staff who were still working since OOO. I was happy.

Q :Please tell us what led to you two appearing in this film together.

Watanabe: Actually, I was the one who offered it to Ryu-kun. Miura: That’s right. Watanabe: There were a lot of fateful events that led to this. Teruaki Sugihara, who was Assistant Director at that time, got married. His wife was a big fan of OOO. I was going to take a video of me and Ryu-kun to the celebration. We decided to take a photo together during dinner. At this point, we didn’t get to see each other for 1 or 2 years. I stayed in touch, but it was hard to meet in person. By chance, that day I was offered a role by Toei to appear in Heisei Generations FINAL and I thought this was so timely. I was talking about that story to Teruaki. I thought that this wasn’t just going to be a revival for Eiji (laughs). Miura: I was just eating grilled meat (laughs) Watanabe: At that time, I called not expecting much. I thought it was not possible to do this. That night, I thought about it a lot “I want to think positively…” I emailed Takahashi at midnight and asked “Didn’t you talk about the appearance once?” It was proposed. After that, I met up with Takahashi, exchanged emails, and gradually increased my story

Miura: I didn’t expect anything at the beginning, like an “Ankh Revival”. Although there was a story like “I want to make an episode where Ankh reappears” at an early stage ever since OOO ended, I was thinking I wanted to leave Ankh and refused every role because I wanted to be serious. Because the character of Ankh I played for one year was so strong, I couldn’t get any other work. But six or seven years have passed since then and I turned 30 years old this year. So, there are things to think about, and I got a good opportunity. So, I felt like, “I should go all out.” Watanabe: It was destiny. Miura: Speaking of fate, Kazuya Kamihoriuchi was the Assistant Director of OOO with Teruaki Sugihara, is now the Director of this film. Watanabe: They’re all connected. Kamihoriuchi was the second Assistant Director of OOO at that time, and so I thought we were all friends coming together after such a long time. Then I heard he was actually going to be the Director and I was deeply embarrassed. Miura: I think so (laugh). He entered the scene earlier than anyone else and was waiting for us. Watanabe: Sometimes I got upset (laughs) Miura: Even if we fail, I always felt protected since we were all the same age.

Q: How did you feel entering the Toei studio shooting center?

Watanabe: The atmosphere at the entrace was different. After all, it’s been a few years, and the Riders have changed. I thought there was a new atmosphere. However, as I had to repeat scenes, I felt “Oh, the familiar feelings have returned.” About half of the staff is still from that time, and our relationship has not changed since then. Miura: There was an impressive world to shoot. One of the staff said “You’re still going to settle down.” Also, shooting went smoothly. I was happy. At the time, OOO was fighting as well, and I felt that we all overcame the difficult schedule. Watanabe: There was a desire to make content that show how Eiji and Ankh were revived after so long. I want to be able to convince fans about the part how Ankh can be revived, and I wanted to make the best of the atmosphere around both people. Since the completed script contained all of these elements, I was enthusiastic about performing with all my power.

Q: What was the most moving scene for you in the movie?

Miura: All the scenes were the best. Shooting started in early morning and lasted until the next morning for about 24 hours. In the last scene, there’s a moment when Eiji and Anhk meet again. I turn in the harness and became suspended upside-down, which isn’t really done in my usual dramas and movies. The action staff helped me, and it was all timed perfectly when I reached out my hand. This scene was very good. Watanabe: The encounter scene was the last scene to shoot. There was a great typhoon on the last day of shooting. Miura: Yes. I actually wanted to go to the shooting location anyway, but I couldn’t go outside. Watanabe: I think of the scenes when Anhk says “Today’s ice popsicle is good” to Eiji at the decisive battle. In short interactions, the relationship between Eiji and Anhk is outstanding. I requested that ice popsicle exchange, which is Anhk’s weakness. He doesn’t want to cooperate, but has a sort of hateful cuteness. It’s often Anhk’s personality.

Compared to the tv series, have many things changed?

Miura: He was reluctant to eat Popeye’s onigiri in the morning. I used to say “Popeye, Popeye”. Watanabe: You said that (laughs) Miura: I have breakfast onigiri when I leave for the shooting location. Watanabe: That’s right. Two onigiri with karage. Miura: I was wondering if you’d like some of that. Watanabe: It’s delicious! Miura: Since I didn’t make much of it this time, I thought “Oh, I’ve grown up.” (laugh) Watanabe: At that time, Popeye’s onigiri were the best feast… Miura: I told you “Give me a piece of Popeye.” (laugh) Watanabe: Oh yeah, it was “Today’s Popeye!” (laugh). After playing for so long with Ryo-kun, if anything changed… Miura: I may not have changed. Watanabe: Both of us were wearing costumes this time, but Ryo-kun asked “Are you going to fit in properly”, and you were concerned about your figure. Miura: At that time I was already too thin, so I was worried if I could fit in the costumes now. Watanabe: But, I guess I entered it properly. That won’t change. I was calm at that time and acted like an adult. Now I’m the age Ryu-kun was then. Having said that, I may not have changed much. I think Ryo-kun became less troublesome than that time (laugh), everyone might think so. Miura: I was very careful at that time since I was an adult anyway. In that sense, after a year, I felt more comfortable on the set of OOO. But I’m not the same. I was very careful at that time. Watanabe: Everything was painful (laugh) like it was covered in thorns. But, as the final moments came closer, there were no thorns, and the ball was smooth. Miura: The thorns are completely gone (laughs).

Q: When shooting the TV series, were there any opportunities to be friendly?

Miura: When it was time to travel around the region for the movie campaign. I’ve never been to a local event before, so I didn’t know what to say there or on the radio. Shu was always there to help me, and he helped me. It hasn’t changed now. If I get stuck in my words, he helped me. After filming with Shu-kun, I was very friendly. I thought if I let him do everything, I’d get spoiled. Watanabe: What I was thinking was that I want to do any kind of work and have fun. But I want to have the feeling that I can do everything happily for a long time. I didn’t think deeply into it (laughs). Miura: Even in this movie, there are several opportunities for two people to talk somewhere. I’m glad we have help again! Watanabe: Hopefully you won’t be neglectful this time (laughs). Miura: Well, then I’ll try hard to talk (laughs). I didn’t really talk then, but recently I’ve talked live as a MC for 30 to 40 minutes. Watanabe: Great! You could a have a talk show. Miura: I guess (laughs).

Q: Although it was Eiji and Anhk who reunited in this movie, what if you could make a movie about the two around 2020, which would mark the 10th anniversary of broadcasting. Do you have any big dreams or goals?

Miura: There are things that can come true if you hope they will. If you said you wanted to make a live performance with the OOO team and it happened. But I can’t say such a thing (laugh) Watanabe: Yes, if you say such flashy things, you’ll have to do it (laugh). However, if you wanted to do it, I would like to gather all the performers like Riho Takada (Hina). It would be fun if everyone got together to talk or have a drinking party at least once. Miura: Then next year at Halloween, everyone can make their own cosplay and gather. Watanabe: Everyone will wear a costume on that day, right? (laughs). If I did that kind of thing, there would definitely be cameras (laughs). To watch eleven people in costumes is something you’d do, Ryu-kun. Your talking skills are improving. Miura: No, no, thank you (laughs).

Q: So, in the end, can you please give a message to fans who loved OOO?

Watanabe: Seven years ago, people who were children or students watching the show are now becoming members of society. It’s not more common to say they were watching older series. Even when I went to Kamen Rider events, I heard staff say “I watched when I was a Junior High School student.” I heard that it happened in the past few years. This time, as a Legend Rider, I can be revived with Ankh. I’m very happy and proud. If you’re a fan of OOO, please go to the theater to watch. Miura: We appreciate the help of the staff and the performers. Of course, I am grateful to the fans who have always supported me and waited for this. Although the world is unclear, I thought it was always a good idea to have a new dream, and to have the opportunity to proceed without giving up hope, and worked on this movie. Everyone, please look forward to the day the movie is released to the public.

Article Sources: MyNavi

#Miura Ryosuke #Ryosuke Miura #Kamen Rider OOO #Kamen rider #Shu Watanabe #watanabe shu

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radicalapollo · 7 years

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I was thinking about getting into Kamen Rider, wheres the best place to start ?

I’ve always said that it’s kind of up to taste, because like… Different peeps find different things to love in Kamen Rider, and each show is pretty different from each other.

What I can do is tell you some of the best shows to start off with, and give you a little taste of what they’re about, and you can go from there with what looks interesting, and if ya need anymore help, I’m happy to give it to ya!

Kamen Rider OOO

Why to watch it: This series is usually seen as like… THE one to watch if you want to get into Kamen Rider because it has a good balance of a lot of the story telling techniques and such that you’d find in other series, it has a really strong story and the characters are all loveable, even the villains. It also has arguably the best soundtrack in Kamen Rider

The story: Eiji Hino is a vagabond that’s swinging from job to job who happens to find himself in just the right place at just the right time to be present for the reawakening of a group of animal themed super beings called The Greeed, The Greeed are monsters that feed off the greed of man and they need to do so to get back to their full power. One of the Greeed, a floating hand named Ankh, finds Eiji and uses him to try and take down the others so that he can get his full body back at their expense. The two of them have to work together even if their relationship is trying at times.

Kamen Rider Den-O

Why to watch it: This show has some of the best and most fun character acting in Kamen Rider as far as I’m concerned. The tone of it is fun and funny, but it regularly has a lot of touching and legit tear jerking moments. The biggest problem with Den-O is the plot, in that it doesn’t really have much of one. It’s a very situational and character driven series rather than one based on plot progression. Also, it was my first series.

The Story: Ryotaro Nogamiis the man with the worst luck in the world. He ends up in situations that shouldn’t even be possible thanks to his rotten luck. This comes to a head when a bunch of monsters called the Imagin time travel to the year 2007 to start their plan of destroying time itself. They do that by granting wishes for people, and using their memories that made them want said wish to jump further into the past and retroactively destroy shit. One such Imagin is a Momotaros, an Oni looking monster that couldn’t care less about the actual plan and would rather just fight. Ryotaro gets possessed by Momotaros, and though a bit of a rocky contract, the two work together to stop the other Imagin from destroying time. Ryotaro keeps everything working and Momotaros gets to fight. It’s a win win.

Kamen Rider Ghost

Why to watch it: This show has it’s ups and downs admittedly, and the pacing can be a bit rough, but I still consider this show to be one of my favorites, and it had one of my favorite casts in a Rider show yet. The themes of this show are pretty uplifting and it has a general positive vibe. It also has some of the best suits in the series to this point, and one of the best redemption stories as well.

The Story: Takeru Tenkuji reserves a package from his late father for his birthday. Inside is an eye-like orb. Before he can look too much further into it, he and his friends are attacked by two spirits, who, after not much of a fight, legit kill Takeru. A strange old man greets him in the afterlife and promises that he can bring him back to life, but only if he is able to collect the 15 souls of the most heroic people from throughout history. With that, he’s brought back to life… sorta… as a ghost, and now he has 99 days [Citation Needed] collect the 15 heroic souls and come back to life, or he’ll be dead for good!

#myusernamemayormaynotbejay

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

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Riders ReUnited: During Zi-O

Hey there! So, Zi-O is ending soon. We’ve only got a few episodes left, and at this point, I have absolutely no idea where the endgame is going, if people are going to get their histories back, or anything of the sort.

I have plans for what I want to do in the Riders ReUnited storyline with regards to adapting Zi-O, since at this point I can’t ignore it like I had intended to.

But with no real way of knowing how it’s going to end, I don’t know if any of the segments I’ve been working on since October are going to still work. I might wind up using them anyway, but it’s up to chance right now.

So, I figured that I ought to put these up somewhere, instead of potentially letting them go to waste.

I’ve repeatedly stated my preference for the riders who ‘forgot’ to have been pretending, and this mostly deals with that.

As such, here are my plans for the events of Zi-O, as they happen to the rest of Phase Two. (Keep in mind, I know next to nothing about Den-O, and half of the ones that involve Decade were written before I had, in fact, seen Decade.)

Hey, so, about the new kid...

It’s a full house at the meetup this month – nearly everyone who was active starting with Double and Accel is present. It’s impressive, really.

The problem starts when the sound of a train carries into the park.

There’s no train station nearby. Or tracks, for that matter. The station’s across the city.

Another train horn sounds, from a slightly different direction.

At this point, both Eiji and Shinnosuke have grown considerably pale.

Takeru looks at them. “Officer Tomari, Eiji, what’s the problem?”

“Remember the first reason I said I hate time travel? Zeronos was stuck in the loop with me.” Shinnosuke gulps.

Eiji’s chanting under his breath. “Please don't be another Shocker timeline please don’t be another Shocker timeline…”

As the trains pull through – slightly distressing everyone who hasn’t seen them before – it’s apparent that something is going on. There’s a large number of imajins with the two riders and…

“We didn’t do it!” Ankh shrieks defensively. “Whatever the hell happened, it wasn’t us!”

The conductor is there.

“I understand your apprehension-”

“I mean it! I’ve only been back a few months! I haven’t done a damned thing wrong and they're all witnesses!” He wildly points at the group.

“We know it wasn’t you, don't worry.”

Zeronos speaks up. “The new guy’s the one causing the problem. Or well, ‘is-slash-will be-slash-has been’ causing the problem. So… older guys, remember Tsukasa?”

“Vividly.” Shotaro darkly answers. “What’s he doing this time?”

“No, no, it's not him – well. Mostly not him. He’s involved. Ish. Actually, we’re all involved.”

“Everyone since Kuuga, actually.” (Den-O) winces. “Apparently, the powers that decide all our fates-”

“I knew someone had to be screwing with us!”

“Meteor, not now. Apparently they’ve decided that just about every ten years is ‘time to have someone go around and screw with all their predecessors’ time. And I’m being really literal here – he’s a time traveler. An annoying one.”

“No. No, no, NO!” Shinnosuke yells. “I’m not doing that again! Ever! You hear?”

“No, so far you don’t seem to have to worry about that…” A distortion appears in the air, Tsukasa walking through, his nose in a book. “Looks like as far as the new kid’s info goes, you don’t meet him… a lot of you don’t, actually, but.” He frowns. “Hey, spooky kid. You can use those forcefields to push things, right?”

“Kind of? Why?”

“Cause you’re going to need to do that. A couple times. It’s pretty impressive to see, actually; I just came from there.” He waves the book. “That’s how I got this. The kid’s stealing my whole gimmick. He’s basically ripping off my ability to copy people, and I just had to give him the ability to copy me copying other people. It’s absurd, and I’m basically stuck playing the bad guy again. But essentially…

“As far as he and his group know, their enemies are turning people into versions of riders that replace the actual riders. But they’re basically monsters, half of them seem to lose their sense of self, certain others go mad with power…” He glances briefly at the doctor group “And basically the powers of the rider they’re copying leave the rider, and go to the monster.”

“Hang on.” Haruto interjects. “If they’re taking our powers, what else…”

“Our memories go with them – but only for the chronological synchronization of when the ‘Another Rider’ exists.” Zeronos shrugs. “Also, our enemies are erased for that period of ‘time’ as well.”

Ankh skips directly from inarticulate protests straight into a flurry of swears. It’s an impressive selection of languages, actually. Japanese, modern German, middle German, a variety of slightly-broken phrases from regions Eiji traveled to in the past handful of years…

Parad lets out a scream of rage. “So, we’re just not going to exist? What the hell?!”

Den-O laughs awkwardly. “Kind of? It’s temporary. You’re temporarily ‘retconned’ out of existence, until the ‘Another Rider’ is defeated. Then everything’s back the way it is supposed to be. Thing is, these guys? The new guys? They think that once they do this, nobody existed. They think that everyone’s past as a rider is completely gone.

“For some reason, they’re convinced we all wind up with amnesia since ‘none of it ever happened’, so just. Just play along, it’ll be over with soon enough.”

“Question!”

“Yes, Hojo?”

“What if they meet us in the past? You’re kind of implying that’s a thing.”

“We’re actively warning the people we have on record having met them. Also, uh, we. Might be gettin g a few people back from the dead because of all this?” Tsukasa shakes his head as he turns a page. “Gonna have to double check some of this information… Some guys going by Kaixa and Baron might be back to stay? It’s unclear.”

“Huh.” Micchy bites at his lip. “Kaito wasn’t too pleased about being brought back when the Megahex invaded.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t that thrilled at that stunt Genm pulled, either.” Kiriya mutters. “Pretty sure he’s gonna ask to go right back to the afterlife.”

---

I KNEW we were forgetting something!

“Look.” Shinnosuke jabs at the table. “I hate time travel. I don’t like this whole ‘we have to fake amnesia’ situation. But as long as this doesn’t land us in yet another Shocker timeline, we can probably make it through this alright.”

Humming uncertainly, Eiji shakes his head. “I dunno. I mean, I trust Den-O-”

“That’s not even the one we met, where was the purple guy?”

“Pretty sure it was the same conductor, though, so we’re not escaping that triple-consecutive lifetime ban anytime soon.”

“Tch.”

“Anyway.” Eiji continues. “I trust Den-O and that team to not get us into a Shocker timeline. Decade, though?” He laughs incredulously. “We are all. Going. To die.”

“Aw, come on.” Gentaro frowns. “He isn’t that bad.”

Shotaro looks over. “Gen. When you met him? That wasn’t the first time he lead a version of Shocker. Or the first time he erased all of the other Riders.”

“Can I ask a question here? For some context?” Embarrassed, Ryuuga raises his hand, Sento snorting in the background. “Hey, shut up! So, I get that this Decade guy is another Rider, and you’re all sick of him for some reason. But who is this ‘Shocker’ you keep mentioning every now and then?”

The assorted conversations around the room rapidly die down.

Kiriya shrugs. “Gotta admit, I was wondering, too.”

“I don’t know what Shocker is, and at this point I was too afraid to ask…” Parad admits, looking away.

“They had… something to do with that Hero Taisen game? I think?” Biting his lip, Emu rubs the back of his neck. “Maybe? I was ‘busy’ for most of that, so…”

“Oh.” Shinnosuke’s face falls. “Did we… did we never actually tell you guys?”

Shoving his chair back, Gou turns and storms out of the room. “Not it. Not reliving that. Count me out. See ya. Bye.”

Holding his head in his hands, Takeru whimpers. “Mister Hongo is going to be so disappointed in me. Again.”

“No, no, nonono, you’re coming at this wrong, man.” Gentarou shakes his head, grinning wildly. “Takeru. Bud. This? This is our time to shine. We just need to get some things together-”

“Please don’t wear the Stronger costume.”

“Aw, come on, Ryuusei! You weren’t even here for my Stronger costume!”

“I’ve seen the Stronger costume, and I’m telling you. Don’t.”

--- ---

Episodes 03&04, Version One

When the time mazines take off, headed back to 2018, Emu has to hide the sigh of relief… and the burgeoning headache.

He brings the father and his son to Seito university hospital, and the boy is admitted. So they were able to fix something, at least.

It’s not until he leaves, sneaking out a back entrance, and makes it to a nearby park, that he can finally sit down, and it’s just barely in time for him to avoid collapsing.

“Emu?”

It’s really hard to look up, but he has to. “…Hey, Hiiro. This is a heck of a plan we’re carrying out, isn’t it?”

Nodding, Hiiro carefully makes his way to sit next to his coworker. His manager, at least at CR. At least, in their own time. “It certainly is. Are you all right?”

After hesitating, Emu shakes his head. “No… not yet. Probably will be once we’re home. Did you get your end of everything done?”

“Yes. A whole slate of those blank watches, hidden amongst everyone’s personal possessions, with none of us the wiser. Getting the two for Kuroto and Parad into the Genm offices was difficult.” He looks at Emu with a critical eye. “You are certain you’ll be back to normal once we’re in 2018, aren’t you?”

Emu makes a noncommittal hand gesture. “Pretty sure. That’s what Team Den-O told us, anyway. I don’t think this is why Shinnosuke and Takeru hate time travel, but it’s a pretty good reason in my book. Though, they haven’t had to deal with having part of themselves unwritten.” He sags, as if he’s having trouble staying upright, before Hiiro carefully pushes at his shoulder to guide him to lean against the back of the bench. “This temporary erasure thing hurts so much… Sento and Ryuuga are on the same ride as us, right? Gonna have to make sure Ryuuga’s okay…”

Hiiro grumbles. “There you go again, worrying about other people more than yourself.”

Emu manages a weak smile as a set of train tracks unfolds in front of them. “I mean, it’s part of the job description.” He receives a sharp glare. “The Rider one, Hiiro. Besides, we couldn’t avoid this for him or myself, so at least they let us get it out of the way.”

“Come on, you two, get a move on!” (choose an imajin here) yells. “We don’t have all day, if ya don’t want ta be spotted!”

“Right, right…” Emu stands up- or, tries to, anyway. His legs almost immediately give way before he can take more than two steps.

“Emu!” Hiiro catches him around the waist.

“Sorry…”

“Come here, let me help you, alright?” Hiiro’s face softens. “I’m sorry you’re dealing with this.”

“It’s fine, really. History fixes itself once we get back, right?” Emu looks up at (the imajin) with concern. “If the bugsters don’t come back, what do we do then?”

“I dunno. Save that existential stuff for my boss, kiddo. Up ya get.” Grabbing him under the shoulders, he hoists the uncharacteristically limp Emu up onto the train. “Geez, what’s with you, anyway? Ya didn’t look this awful when we dropped ya off. Thought you weren’t one of those bug guys.”

“I’m technically not. ‘m kinda part-way, though.” (Imagin) and Hiiro manage to get him to one of the seats. “It’s complicated.”

“Now leaving 2016, now leaving 2016. Next stop, 2017. Next stop, 2017.”

Slowly, he slumps down, so that he’s laying on the bench. “Let me know when we’re back in the present…” He drifts into an exhausted slumber.

---

“Now arriving in 2018, now arriving in 2018. Please watch your step as you disembark the train.”

Emu stirs, cracking his eyes open. “Are we done?”

(Some rider, whichever den-o's here) nods, offering an arm to help Emu get up. “Right, that’s the four of you set. I’m sorry that you two-” he nods to Ryuuga and Emu “-had to take so much of the side effects-”

Ryuuga, a blanket wrapped around him, waves it off. “Eh, not the first time I’ve taken a hit for someone else. Only difference is that I’m taking it for past me.” He shivers. “Freakin’ cold on this train, though.”

“It’s not, actually, you’re just not used to feeling temperatures like the rest of us do.” Sento rubs his partners shoulder.

“The… er, biology issues should start to repair themselves when you’re off the train. The re-written timeline should insert itself into your respective memories then, as well.” (Den-o) winces. “The first one might be kind of painful, though. This isn’t exactly… a normal situation.”

“Been there, done that, forced it back into existence one time by punching a jackass.” Ryuuga shrugs. “I’ll cope.”

“As long as everyone else is okay…” Emu stumbles a little as he gets to his feet. “It’s the real bugsters I’m more worried about.”

As the quartet disembark, there’s a handful of people waiting for them. “Geez, ace, you get into a fight back there?” Kiriya whistles as he helps Emu step down.

“…A small one. My powers fizzled out partway through it, so I got sidelined.”

“How are the four of you faring?” Hiiro steps down.

“Eh.” Kiriya shrugs. “Some static for me ‘n Genm, nothing serious. Stung like a son of a bitch, though. Parad and Poppy came through fine.” He grins at the two sighs of relief. “Poppy got hit a little worse, prolly because she doesn’t have a back-up human.”

Emu squints. “That’s rude. And possibly speciesist.” Flinching, he rubs at his forehead. “I… need to sit back down…” Once on a bench, he buries his face in his hands. “You know, if we hadn’t already done enough tests to prove that my genetics have been altered by the virus, this would be a whole lot more terrifying. Is there anything else we have to do?” He directs the last part towards the train.

“Yeah, seriously.” Ryuuga leans heavily on Sento. “I got experience with this regrowing shit, but it sucks way more this time around.” He glances at Emu. “Had that extra bit of time off the train, so I’m already more caught up, but…”

(Train boi) shakes his head. “Nope, that book Tsukasa nicked/duplicated/duped/copied says that you’re set. Genm’s got a trip coming up, though.” He flips through a copy of the ‘Oma Advent Calendar,’ before biting his lip. “How do he and Hino get along?”

“Eh, Eiji’s not exactly fond, but neither is anyone else, so… Zeronos took them a half hour ago, said something about ‘getting there before the first set of revisions kicked in.’” Kiriya gives him an odd look. “You guys said that Fake Fourze and Faiz were the same guy, is there a fake GENM, too?”

“I wish.”

Hiiro rubs his forehead. “Eiji became OOO in 2010, didn’t he?”

“Yup."

“And, technically speaking, we had business in 2010.” Emu half-whimpers. “Or, well, Kuroto and I did. If you guys are taking a human Kuroto back to then, in a time plane that doesn’t have the bugster virus at all, he’d be in a completely different situation.” He looks up imploringly. “Please tell me that he’s not Another OOO.”

“I mean, I could tell you that, but…”

All three of them groan.

---

(Earlier)

“Hey, Lazer, bad news. Gonna need you to warn Ex-Aid when he gets back.” Yuuto/Zeronos/green-train-boy comes up. “I gotta take the next batch down now, before the repairs for your team come through. Turns out I need Genm for a thing with OOO.”

“Eh?” Kiriya looks up from trying to knead away his headache. “Fine, fine. What’s the warning?”

“Since he’s leaving the time plane for a reason, and one tied to the current situation at that, it’s going to take longer for your group to recover. I’m really sorry, but what’s supposed to happen requires Dan Kuroto to be human, and that means lifting him from a point when that’s possible.”

“Meaning, now?”

“Meaning now.”

“Damn.”

--- ---

I wrote a lot of these out of order

Den-o curses. “Guys, we’re going to have to make a detour.” The four passengers look up – well, three look up. Ryuuga seems to be catching back up to normal, but Emu is a wreck. He’s barely awake, and doesn’t spend the energy to do more than open his eyes.

“Build, Cross-Z, I need to set you guys a few weeks earlier than we left from.”

Sento purses his lips. “We have to meet with them again?”

“Rookie has to get the finished watches at some point. And, uh, sorry, here’s your script-”

Reading it, Sento’s face falls. “…Oh, right… because the so-called ‘past’ us took him to Nascita…”

“Course he’d go looking for us there. Damn.” ryuuga grimaces – partly from the headache, partly from the situation. “Fine, fine, if ya say we have ta, we will. Are…” he bites his lip. “Are Misora and-”

“Nobody else is there. They’re actually closed that day – I guess you’ll be faking the place being open.”

“…Fine. As long as the others aren’t there.” Sento stares at the floor.

Hiiro gives them a stern look. “You know how we all feel about this ‘not allowing them to see you’ thing, right?”

“Yeah, and we’ll all just have to agree ta disagree.” Ryuuga huffs.

---

As Ryuuga and Sento re-disembark, Den-o pulls Hiiro aside. “Hey. I should tell you, and I would tell Hojo, too, but he’s still out. You two are going to be on here a while longer. There’s some shenanigans going on, and someone’s getting dragged back and forth to a bunch of different points, and… well, the ‘game disease’ thing needs to be cut off from existence for longer than we thought.”

Hiiro glances at Emu, who’s looking rather pale, actually, which is concerning. “Since the focal point of the timeline alteration is Ex-Aid, Emu has to stay isolated from said timeline, correct?” Den-o nods. “Damn. Being here is supposed to… if not shield him from, at least take off the worst of the effects from the changes, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but… you said that he’s not just using the powers, he’s technically part of where it originates from. Since the real form of the Another Riders is that of the ‘enemies’ – your bugsters, Build’s smash, OOO’s greeed, etc, that is what is being removed from the timeline. No enemy, no riders. But removing the enemy is done by removing their origin – and the origin for you all is the virus he… well, helped form, I suppose.”

“…Hey…” Den-o and Hiiro both startle at hearing the bleary voice from the bench. “Really sick of people talking about me like I’m not around. At least go to the other side of the car to do it.” Emu rolls his eyes, continuing. “The other riders aren’t gonna have to deal with this type of thing, right? Because that’s just cruel. I can understand it happening on my end… but it wouldn't be fair to them.”

“No, no, they should all be fine.” Den-o looks aside. “Well, I mean, Ghost might have some problems, but I’ve looked ahead, and his might be more flashback related than whatever’s happening to you.”

Hiiro crouches down next to Emu. “Are you doing alright? I can’t imagine this is easy.”

“…” Emu hesitates before answering. “…Don’t want to worry you…”

“Which means you’re not alright.”

“…It hurts. It shouldn’t, I can tell it shouldn’t, but whatever is going on hurts so badly…” He shivers a little before continuing. “It feels like having part of me torn out, and like when my infection flares out of control, and it doesn't make sense!” He chokes off a small cry. “But if it’s this bad for me… I can’t help worry more for Poppy and Parad, because they might- they might not even exist right now, and that’s- that’s awful, it’s too-”

Hiiro places his hand on Emus, cutting him off. “You need to listen to me, okay? You’re getting caught in a spiral, and have to get out of it. Just calm down for me.”

It’s a few moments before Emu can respond. “…Right… thanks… When did you learn to talk to people again?”

Hiiro allows himself a smile. “Well, my manager has repeatedly shown that his methods are more suited to certain situations. I’ve simply learned from the best, that’s all.”

“…Wait… was that a compliment?”

“He has excellent powers of observation, as well,” is the dry reply. “A bit lacking in self-awareness sometimes, however.”

“Okay, see, that’s just rude.”

--- ---

Episodes 01 through 04, Version Two

Gingerly lowering himself to the bench, Emu closes his eyes against the quickly growing headache. It makes sense – the time travel at work is rewriting some aspects of history, after all. …He hopes that in the slightly altered future they’re making, that they save Keisuke.

But this was going to happen, and he went in knowing that full well. The changes can only take effect once their enemies have… vanished, and although the time travelers reassured everyone that they come back after… what, an hour? Two? Well, not long, anyway.

Knowing that they’ll be fine doesn’t make this any easier, though.

Not when part of having the bugsters semi-vanishing means part of him is in flux, too.

It feels like… well, he usually hates to use this analogy, but it’s almost as though he’s been hit by a car. And seeing as he has experience with that, it really means something.

…This might count as worse, actually, because he doesn’t get to be unconscious for this.

“How are you holding up?”

The only reply he gives Hiiro is a groan.

“Hey, I need you to answer me, Emu.”

Yeaaah, true. He doesn’t need to look up to picture the cross expression that must be on Hiiro’s face.

“Can’t let myself think about it. If I think about it, that’ll just make it worse.” Against his will, a pained whimper manages to escape him. “This hurts so much, Hiiro. I need a distraction. Something, anything, right now…”

“What type?” Hiiro’s voice is… gentle, almost. That’s nice. He’s learning how to socialize.

“Just… help me stay awake, and not thinking about this whole thing.” Emu makes a distracted, floaty gesture at himself that he hopes is enough to indicate his infection and the assorted issues it’s bringing up right now. “If I think about it too much, it’ll get more potent, and we can’t afford that right now. If I fall asleep or pass out – which sound really appealing right now – then odds are we’re going to get called in on ourselves, and that’s just a whole mess of trouble that I don’t think we want to get into.”

There’s a sigh, and a shifting of fabric, and then something drops onto Emu’s head. “Wha-”

“I borrowed one of Nico’s hats before we left. I know how you tend to get light-sensitive when your infection acts up.”

“…Oh. Thanks.”

“It’s not a problem.” There’s a pause before Hiiro starts speaking again. “Those two… what were their names, again?”

“Sougo and Geiz.”

“They’re… they’re just children, aren’t they?” There’s a noticeable waver to Hiiro’s voice. “I know, intellectually, that they’re not the youngest to have gotten involved, but…” he trails off.

“I get where you’re going with this. It was one thing when we met Takeru, when he was already done. It was another when we heard about Philip and Gentaro, and how young they were. But seeing people so young coming after us?” Emu frowns. “It doesn’t feel right. I hate that this is all we can do to help them. What’s the point of the group if we’re not allowed to-” he cuts himself off. “New topic. Please. Something else.”

“Our ride’s here.”

Emu huffs. “Good. It’s about time.”

He doesn’t need to look up to see the glare he’s definitely getting from the time joke. Worth it. “Do you think you can walk?”

Emu twitches his legs experimentally. “…I don’t know. Definitely not on my own, maybe not even with help.”

“All right then, hold on.”

Emu opens his eyes a little – enough to see where they’re going, but not enough to let too much light in. Hiiro has him sling one arm over his shoulder, helping support most of Emu’s weight.

It’s not quite enough, though. They make it up to the train before Emu’s knees refuse to hold him up any longer.

“Geez, thought you new riders were made of sterner stuff than this!” A strong, pointy pair of arms hoists Emu up. “A little time distortion never hurt anyone.”

“Shut it, peachy…”

---

“What the hell was that?”

“Look, I panicked, okay?”

“You said you were Katsuragi. Dude.”

“Well! They said that in the ‘altered timeline’ none of us ‘ever became riders,’ so if that were the case, then ‘I’ wouldn’t exist, now would I?” Sento throws his hands in the air, before dropping them back down to cover his face. “Ugh. Let’s just get to the meeting point and get home already.”

“Y-yeah…” Ryuuga stumbles a bit. “Right.”

Freezing, Sento turns back around. “Ryuuga?”

“Just… feelin’ off. That’s all. Prolly the whole ‘time taking out the bad guys’ deal.” He waves Sento off. “Stupid space… Just gotta power through this. I’ll live.”

Sento’s expression goes soft. “Hang on, here…”

“Wha-”

“Here, you can lean on me until we get there, then you can sit down.”

“…Thanks, man.”

“So, feeling ‘off’ how?” Ryuuga glares at his partner. “Well, they’re picking Emu and Hiiro back up first, aren’t they? Better to figure out what to say now.”

“…‘kay, you’re not wrong…” Ryuuga slumps down, letting his head hang. “Kinda… sick to my stomach, I guess? It’s… I mean, last time I got the space junk pulled out, I kind of had that happen, too, but. I dunno, I guess I chalked it up ta being disgusted that the bastard would use you like… like that.”

“Hmmm…” Sento nods. “That’s fair, I suppose, but he wasn’t able to remove those genetics from your body all the way back then. This time, it’s the fabric of the universe itself trying to delete them. It stands to reason that any side effects would hit you harder.”

“Existing has it out for me, gotcha.”

“That is not what I meant, and you know it.”

---

(on the train ride back)

Sento sighs, turning the cup of coffee around in his hands. “You know…”

“Mnuh?”

“I don’t like it. That they’re so young, I mean.”

“Dude, is this the ‘feeling old’ thing again, cause let me tell ya, that’s-”

“That’s not it. It’s that those three… they’re practically children. Intellectually, I know that a lot of our friends here were even younger, but still…”

“It’s messed up, isn’t it?” An exhausted voice comes from the bench across the aisle.

“Hey, thought you were sleeping.”

“Tried. Can’t. Everything hurts too much.” Emu lifts himself up a little, enough to look at Sento and Ryuuga, staunchly ignoring Hiiro’s stern look. “It’s just wrong that teenagers keep getting dragged into these things.” He winces, and leans back down. “Ow… wow, I hope we can get this over with soon. Another thing is… I told one of them, Geiz, that he was kind of cold, but… that’s not it, really. It’s that he’s hardened. The look in his eyes…” Biting his lip, Emu seems to be trying to choose his words carefully.

“It was like the one you two had, when you arrived here for good.” Hiiro runs with the idea. “I… suppose I noticed it too, but I was trying to focus on the task at hand… I didn’t even think to say anything.”

“…Which look?” Ryuuga huffs. “The ‘super lost’ one? The ‘tired of the nightmares’ one?”

Emu shakes his head, flapping a hand in the air loosely to give the message, in case they can’t see him. “No, not those. The same one that the Zawame contingent gets sometimes, and Eiji, too. The one where…” he hesitates. “The one that says you’ve been in a war.”

Ryuuga breaths out a curse. “Didn’t see ‘im long enough to catch that. He’s the one with the red suit, yeah? That Sougo kid was pretty peppy, though, so I doubt he has.”

Sento absently fidgets with the hem of his shirt. “I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say this is terrible, right?”

--- ---

HeiGen Forever

When the crowd of riders detransform, Zi-O and Geiz are nowhere to be seen. Several people look over at Sento and Ryuuga.

Ryuuga spreads his hands defensively. “What?! We’re not in charge of ‘em! If they’re gonna run off and do whatever, I’m not gonna try and stop the kids!”

Shotaro scoffs. “Hey, didn’t we mention something about taking responsibility for guiding the next- ugh…” Cutting himself off, he rubs at his head. “…The hell?” Leaning on the Hardboilder, he squeezes his eyes shut. “The hell is all this…?”

“Shotaro?!” Emu goes over, helping his senior sit down. “Are you alright?”

Sento looks nervous. “Ah. They. Uh. Zi-O used the Double watch earlier. I think this is you getting hit.” He winces. “But you’re not nearly as tied into your power source as certain other people are-”

Shotaro grits his teeth. “KADOYA! Can you get me to where Philip is?!”

“Uuuugh.” Tsukasa rolls his eyes. “I wanted to see the sights, but noooo-”

“Get. Me. To. Him.”

“Alright, alright, already. I’ll be back for everyone else in a little while, seeing how the Denliner’s up and left us behind.”

A wave of rippling air moves past him, Shotaro, and Emu, and they vanish through it.

Wataru shudders. “Think we can find a different way home? I hate those things.”

Haruto glances at him. “You mean you hate him.”

“He’s a complete tool! Just because you met him later-”

“It’s called growth!”

“It’s called ‘dying barely taught him his damned lesson!’”

“I’m sure he’s better about the whole world-ending thing than he was when you met him.”

“You weren’t there for the third Daishocker stunt, either!”

“Wait, hey, third Shocker ‘stunt’?!” Takeru pipes up.

Kazuma scoffs. “Yeah, Decade’s a real winner. Guy led a branch of Shocker, got the shit kicked out of him and lost his memory, and then immediately went back to leading it when he got his memory back. Not to mention his literal existence was disintegrating the multiverse.”

---

“PHILIP!”

“Sh-Shotaro? I can’t – what’s going on, the library, I can't get there-” Philip looks briefly up, wide-eyed and panicked, before focusing back down on his book. “If- if I try harder, maybe I can just-”

Shotaro grabs him around the shoulders. “Philip, hey, it’s okay, you can stop, it’s…” he flinches. “This sucks so much.”

“What’s going on, I’d look it up but I can’t, I-”

Emu kneels down in front of them. “Hey, focus, okay? It’s going to be a little while. I can’t say for how long, but this is the history alterations in effect. It’s just for a short time.”

“The- what? From- from Zi-O?”

Emu nods. “Yeah. Sento and Ryuuga said that he used your watch for the first time today. Sometimes it takes a while for the effects to kick in. I guess since reality needed you two to be Double shortly after, it took a bit longer than it did with Ryuuga and myself.”

Shotaro groans. “Why am I getting hit, too? It didn’t hit anyone else’s teammates.”

Philip answers quietly. “Sorry. Since we’re so closely tied together, it might be from that – from our connection. So, it’s my fault…”

“Okay, neither of you should start with the blame-game, because I already went down that path when he got mine.” Emu carefully reaches for the book, resting a hand on one side. “May I? if you aren’t as tempted, it’ll probably help you cope better with not having access.”

Slowly, Philip nods, and Emu gently closes the book, setting it next to the pair. “I hear people are doing sightseeing while we wait for the time train team to give us the all-clear to head home. Think you two are up for it?”

--- ---

Episodes 13&14

(some time after the events, once people are back together.)

“Where’s. Decade.”

That simple statement has multiple people back away from Takeru as he stalks up to Tsukasa. The steely glint in his eye doesn’t help matters.

“You-! You could have given me a better warning than that! ‘Oh, hey, might wanna get to perfecting that force push’ is not the same!”

“Look, kid-”

“I barely had time to- Sougo could have died! Damnit, Kadoya, this isn’t-argh!” Infuriated, Takeru rears back

And decks Kadoya Tsukasa across the jaw.

Tsukasa falls to the ground, but Takeru freezes. his breath hitching for a moment.

--- ---

Episodes 9&10

“I don’t like this plan. I don’t like it at all.” Hina frowns. “You hate your father, and politics, and now you have to masquerade as… as what, his successor?”

Eiji shrugs minutely as he straightens his tie. “It’s fine. It’s to keep up appearances. Our names are similar enough that it’ll work, and I can can get this over with that much sooner.” His shoulders sag as he looks at himself in the mirror.

The suit fits perfectly – he wouldn't expect any less from Hina having chosen it. He managed to talk her into letting him wear a tie that matches his aesthetic, at least. But still.

Hina matches his slightly confused expression. “This doesn’t feel finished. Something’s missing, but I can’t figure out what.”

“Hey!” Ankh calls out from where he’s been watching. “As far as this kid knows, none of our stuff ever happened, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“That means that I never existed in his so-called past.” Stepping forward, he unfurls his wings, a small shower of curled red feathers fluttering with them. He bends down to pick one up, his wings fading back out of sight. “And you guys are supposed to have been ‘drawn together even without the original history’ or whatever BS they’re sticking us with feeding him, so…”

He turns Eiji around, a little gentler than would be expected. “Here’s your finishing touch.” Quietly, he carefully sticks the feather into one of the suits button holes. “There. Hina, what do you think?”

She grins. “I think it’s perfect. Mind if I get a picture?”

“Aw, Hina, come on-” Eiji winces.

---

Hina has uploaded a picture to “Nice Looks”

Hina: Turns out Eiji looks good in a suit!

Date: :thumbs up emoji:

Akiko: I love it <3

Shinnosuke: Very nice!

Ryuuga: Is that a feather?

Hina: It was Ankhs’s idea. Really pulls it together, don’t you think?

Date: :eyes emoji:

Eiji: Come on, guys…

Yuuto: As much as I am, in fact, liking this outfit, we’ve got places to be, you two.

Eiji: Coming

Hina: coming!

---

Chat: EiAn pool

Gouto: So. Ankh suggested the feather.

Akiko: I knew they’d get it together.

Hina: Wanna know what’s better? His reasoning for it.

Hina: He said that since on record, he never existed, but me and Eiji were still somehow drawn to meeting, it only makes sense for him to have something to represent himself.

Sento: relatable.

Emu: Can I move my date up by a week?

Emu: I want to move my date up by a week.

Gouto: That is one of the single most saccharine things I have ever heard someone say.

Date: and with the hidaris and teruis around, that’s saying something.

Akiko: I’d be insulted if it weren’t true

Shotaro: and it’s coming from Ankh

Shotaro: I’m raising my bet

Yuuto: Same. This is tooth-rottingly sweet.

#kamen rider zi o #kamen rider ex aid #kamen rider build #kamen rider ooo #riders reunited #i will ride this inspiration train until it runs out of track #sailorcressy says #:)#we've got two episodes left and i needed these out here asap #it's an hour and a half until episode 48 airs

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des-shinta · 7 years

Note

What would you rate each movie wars from good to bad(or from most to least favorite) and why?

Not yet seen Heisei Generations so that’s not on the list. Heard good things, but I’m waiting on a translation that doesn’t localize the dialogue when you are not supposed to perform a localization on Freaking subtitles.This is also pretty brief as..well, it’s a tumblr reply, so doesn’t get all my feelings on the films or every single thing I find good or wrong with them, just a general impression and a few things that make me like/dislike what’s in it.

Buuuut I’ll be releasing reviews on movie war 2010 and Core later this year as part of my all-encompassing coverage of W that I’m actually working on editing this month. my words on them are pretty consistent with what’s going to be said on that, just expanded there as opposed to here.1: Movie war megamax.The thing here is…I like everybody in this, and it ADVANCES everybody in this in some way, either from W calling back to when he met OOO, or the Fourze gang making reference to what Fourze originally was going to be about, or, for the ONLY time in Heisei Kamen Rider do the Original showa Riders come back, and not end up crapped on by a shitty event. Plus, they all get to show themselves as competent fighters in this modern age too, against a modern fan-favorite antagonist organization that is shown that Even the Showa riders, who decimated every incarnation of Shocker (Outside of chatastrophically bad idiot plots) are having difficulty with Foundation X’s cells. EIji, Ankh and Hina get good moments in the OOO’s portion that cap their relationship and put Eiji on his journey to mend Ankh that he now knows he will succeed in if he perseveres, Gentaro’s interaction with nadeshiko is sheer adorableness, and I Nadeshiko became the second Female kamen Rider to Actuall survive. Yeah, she was captures to the movies’ villain could use her power and had to lose her physical form for a while, but at least we knew she wasn’t actually dead, which was only later confirmed by utlimatum…as bad a movie that Ultimatum actually is.2: Sengoku movie warThis one is good again for reasons similar to Megamax, proper closure for the returning hero group of Wizard (And an actual moral to it about letting go, fuck Kamen Rider Taisen), while the Gaim half has an interesting adventure playing into Gaim’s long game; so when you look back on this movie you realize there was a lot of narrative foreshadowing present in it. Plus, Bujin gaim as a central antagonist for the teamup was a good one due to his dark mirror aspects of what Kouta could become on accident, especially since he facilitated interaction between Kouta and Haruto in the downtime of the movie, which even Megamax didn’t really allow to happen, as the one scene with Shotaro, Phillip, Eiji and Gentaro as more business talk than really getting to know one-another. And Haruto Getting his new infinity ring fixed another narrative screwup from the end of Wizard itself.Hell, speaking of Wizard’s side…SHUNPEI ACTUALLY FREAKING DID SOMETHING!3: Movie war Full throttleI find it the weakest of the ‘good’ Movie wars due to some narrative hiccups and Drive’s portion and it’s ‘ultimate’ mystery being kind of weak, but Drive’s side is heavy on backstory for Krim and his pre-drive actions, while seeding a few later things seen in the series; plus Lupin is kind of a fun antagonist. Gaim’s side? The first signs of Mitzuzane actually having worked towards the redemption the exact end of Gaim set him on, Dragon energy arms Ryouma is glorious and good closure for a conflict Gaim again didn’t resolve between him and TakaTora(Batta), and we get to see that even with the powers of a god, Kouta is not all-powerful as the borg/Reaper-like machinoid threat is enourmous. While there aren’t as good interactions in the downtime of the film as the Sengoku movie war, at least they gave Shonisuke and Kouta two moments to interact, one in the midst of the final battle that was naturally precipitated from both early stories (”I’m a Space god…I think.”), and the finalizing gratitude once it’s all done were good endcaps, alongside the implication at the end of the film of Kouta and Mai, Despite their Divine state and duty to watch over the helheim so it doesn’t run rampant again doesn’t mean they can’t visit their friends and loved-ones.The only real bullshit moment of it then, is the movie powerup cross-state forms coming the hell out of nowhere. Just…why? You already had the Lupin Gunner and Dragon energy arms as new collectibles to sell, Type fruits and Drive arms were kind of dumb.4: movie war 2010First movie has problems, but W’s half and it’s importance in culminating the first arc of W’s story and how that plays into the greater series hold it up immensely, whereas Decade’s side…feel’s like a rush job since we know they cannibalized what was originally going to be decade episode final into something completely different. I think it’s okay, as it does give proper closure to Decade’s story that the TV show should have done, but there’s a lot wrong with Decade’s side.I’ll give it this, The final movie war portion where Decade teams with W? That is the first Time Tsukasa has encountered a Rider that doesn’t want to or Tries to kill him. it really informs why character-wise that Tsukasa would prefer to work with the Neo-heisei Rider’s after this; they weren’t necessarily jackasses to him, character-assassination being behind the cause or no.Ultiamtely Movie war 2010, when both sides are accounted for isn’t actually bad, but with Decade holding it back it’s not particularly good either. Watch for W’s side.5: movie war Core.ALL of the bad movie wars have the same problem; a lack of involvement from the writers of the show involved in the event. While Riku Sanjou AGAIN salvages this movie with W’s half and it’s exploration of Soukichi Narumi, OOO’s portion and the actual teamup are utter write-offs as they’re by Toshiki Inoue…and they make absolutely no damn sense. While there is a way to Fir the Nobunaga story into OOO’s timeline by setting it’s events to occur in the background of majority of the series–starting in the single digit episodes and then concluding in the late 30′s continuity-wise–it’s an extreme headache to even try and figure that, since it has to sync with W’s timeline, and That can only be allowed to happen approximately a year after the final battle, since Phillip was effectively dead for around 9 months. Setting it over a extended length of time to conclude near OOO’s end then also answers how the hell the Dinosaur Greeed and his Yummy are active, but you really shouldn’t need to do that kind of ‘it’ll make sense later’ kind of thing in a story that out-of-nowhere introduces those things. Which was kind of the same damn problem with Ryuki Episode final, to show that Inoue when writing something for a Kobayashi series has learned nothing. Or maybe it was done to spite her since the two don’t like each-other and she’s derisive of His father’s body of work. (Inoue’s Dad wrote a majority of Showa Kamen Rider)Not helped that Eiji Spends the majoirty of the film out-of-character, acting like a dumbass, and shoved to the side in what was supposed to be his own story, so Toshiki Inoue can write a ‘what-if’ story about Nobunaga Oda being resurrected in the modern era…and it’s in no way interesting. And the final teamup is just…dumb, as things seem to happen in it for no reason.6: Movie war UltimatumHi, we’re introducing a modernized depiction of former heroes, and have set them up as the ulimate villains of this entire event. To anyone who was a fan of these characters, Fuck you! This was written by the guy behind Carranger that means it’s going to sell!…No seriously, the guy who wrote Carranger wrote this movie, no-one on the main shows was involved, and it SUUUUUCKS as a result as the guy is a TERRIBLE writer. The ‘villains’ are all characters he wrote for too their original shows, which makes that all the more egregious. The Poitrine plot of Wizards half was utterly stupid and a waste of time, and while the Fourze part isn’t entirely dumb, it showcased a series of actions that no-one at toei is going to respect or Acknowledge (Outside of this one scene in Taisen Z Where NEW!Inazuman inexplicably shows up) since they destroy the Fourze Driver in that sect of the film, but Since Fourze KEEPS APPEARING in Heisei stuff since it’s past the point in time of that destruction, no-one’s going to acknowledge that. They intentionally put into place a contradiction that no-one is ever going to answer. And the end-of-film teamup is just magnitudes of bullshit.7: Movie war Genesis:RETCONNED OUT OF EXISTENCE! IT NEVER HAPPENED. It suffers the same problem as Ultimatum, the guy behind it DIDN’T WORK ON OR WATCH either series involved. Once again it’s a time travel plot, but things here all just fall into the heroes laps even though it outright contradicts material in the series. All of the Drive gear was locked up By Krim? Oh, suddenly Gou has not only his bike and Mach Driver, but a spare and deadheat so Shinosuke can transform. Oh, they got sent back to the past? They find Krim in a Bush. Krim? What are YOU doing here? The rationale for the Roidmude resurrection? never explained as they are FREAKING ROBOTS. At least when Drive Saga 2 did that, they explained it as recovering Scattered roidmude data from their remains. The renaissance Ganma? their existence and plan contradicts what’s later explained about the Ganma? Toucon Boost, and the way Takeru’s Dad Died? Contradiction. Drive Type zero? Contradiction, and a big one due to how Protodrive functions. The Shinosuke/Kiriko Wedding? Contradiction and then later RETCONNED in the Mach Saga novels, as you don’t go from dating to wedding in the span of less than two freaking months. Oh, we see sight of Nekrom at the end of the film? Alan didn’t finish building that gear until around episode 16. Just…FUCK THIS MOVIE! AS Bad as Ghost Got due to it being screwed over, it struggled to get this bad in any individual episode that this one just had happen naturally.

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

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Zi-O 39: Team Den-O... has arrived!

Insert Den-O Shenanagins here~~!

Zi-O Episode 39 liveblog under the cut~

So, Grand Zi-O can just. Summon the Legend Riders themselves out of some point in time by pressing their statues. This is fine.

And it’s almost definitely summoning them, because while Build and Kuuga had their general Rider Kicks going… OOO was lifted directly from Episode 3, one of the few times he used the Tatoba Scanning Charge Kick. You can tell because of the broken columns that showed up with him – he kicked straight through them in the episode, and they’re here again.

… Actually… That was the moment that the OOO arc showed Eiji losing his powers. Him landing on the ground after that specific kick, without the yummy in sight.

HUH.

Also, pressing the statues to trigger the summon makes their emblems show up, which is a nice touch.

Hi Deneb! Hi Yuuto! I’m only just starting Den-O, so it’s going to be a while before I get to you, but I liked you in the Rider 4 special, so I’ll probably like you back in your home series, and here!

I can’t say I blame you for being concerned about that power, either. Grand sure is something.

We have a Woz Speech! IWAE! For he is now UNSTOPPABLE!

Wait. Unstoppable?

WOZ, DON’T TEMPT FATE LIKE THAT! You have just triggered the flag that will make this go very, very poorly!

Either Sougo starts going Bad because of this, or…

Well.

Final Forms in Phase Two Rider usually come about after a very specific circumstance. A very unpleasant circumstance.

…dying. I’m saying they usually come into existence after/because the rider dies.

I can’t even exclude Wizard and OOO from that, either. Haruto got Infinity after basically forcing his phantom back to life after it had been killed. And Eiji… well, I hold that his final form as OOO is Tajador, because screw the dinosaur medals, but Tajador is inherently a boyfriend form when he teams up with Ankh. And we can’t have that happen unless we get Ankh BACK.

(I HAVE seen this episode raw, as it aired, but Zi-O IS an arc-based show, so we don’t know what’s gonna happen in two weeks to keep the pattern going~)

Woz has officially skipped from accidentally spoiling by reading a sentence ahead, and is just showing us the spoilers now. Time travel, man.

Woz: “Oh, whoops, were you reading over my shoulder? Never mind all that.”

Woz: “Anyway, let’s go back a few days, to when we’ve still got two watches left...”

Me: “When’s the Drive Arc?!”

Poor Geiz and Tsukuyomi. First they come across this random train, crashed in a construction lot. Then four monsters come out – and start arguing with eachother. You know, as Imajins are prone to doing. And then they go to ‘ask the locals for help.’ Because that’s such a good idea, Urataros.

HEY. URATAROS.

DO NOT HIT ON TSUKUYOMI.

BAD TURTLE.

YOU’RE GROUNDED.

(I have literally two episodes with you under my belt and I’m already fed up with the constant flirting and lying. This does not bode well for my Den-O experience.)

Woz: (stops time to recap)

Woz: “And then there’s these assholes.”

… You know, intellectually, I knew that the clock in Woz’s Recap Vault was the one they used for Cronus back in Ex-Aid. But knowing that, and finally seeing that they didn’t even bother filling in the weapon icons that are in the ‘interior’ circle…

Toei, please. I know that usually Woz is in front of that side, so it would usually go unnoticed, but… come ON. If you’re going to repaint the thing, at least put something over that very distinctive part of the face.

Aw, drat, there isn’t enough of OOO visible in the opening of the OP to see if the columns are there. If we could tell, then that Twenty Years of Rider Kicks Vault could be the ‘and you thought this was just a flashy part of the opening’ callback at the end of the season.

(Can’t see him in the ‘everyone completes their frozen kicks after Zi-O and Geiz go by’ segment, either, at the “we’ll slip through the raindrops of time, together” line. DRAT.)

UNCLE TOKIWA. You need to start questioning things more. Although him assuming that the Imajin are Oni because of Sougo’s ‘important oni friend’ is actually really clever.

Geiz and Tsukuyomi are just so tired, they must have had to wrangle these four dorks over here… and said dorks want Uncle Tokiwa to repair the Den-Liner.

The train.

This poor old man. He just wanted to fix clocks for a living, is that so wrong?

...Well, Urataros isn’t quite lying, I guess? I mean, a time traveling train is clock… adjacent. Technically.

AND THEN RYUTAROS IGNORES HIS PROTESTS. BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE PURPLE DRAGON KID DOES, APPARENTLY.

AND JUST HOPS ON IN.

THIS IS FINE.

And proceeds to literally lead the imajin in a conga line out of the shop.

This is a thing that is actually happening.

Nobody knows what to think, least of all Sougo.

Woz: “…I’m really sorry… these four idiots are our lead to the next watch…”

Sougo: “I have more pRESSING CONCERNS RIGHT NOW!”

Geiz and Tsukuyomi: (are exhausted)

Okay, first off, Heure, Hora, you didn’t actually need to stop time for this conversation. There wasn’t anyone around as it was.

Second, thank you for reiterating the ‘two watches left’ comment. It’s a bit redundant, but my reiterating my “where’s my Drive Arc” comment is too, so. Y’know.

Third…

I’m really glad that Heure, at least, is noticing that this is too easy. That something is leading the other riders to him.

(It’s Swartz. I’m telling you, he’s got ulterior motives, that nobody is going to like. It’s Swartz.)

Pity that Hora doesn’t seem to care.

(You two need to GET AWAY FROM THE MAN IN PURPLE. He has nobody’s best interests in mind, including yours! GET OUT OF THERE!)

Victim of the week time!

Coming up to a grave… Angry guy in hoodie says that the guy in a button-up shouldn’t be there. That he’s the reason his (hoodies) sister is dead. So, Button-up’s probably the late sister’s boyfriend, then.

Hoodie chases Button-up off, and is approached by Hora, who offers him a chance at revenge. She promptly shoves a watch in him, turning him into Another Den-O.

…So, since we’re getting a proper Den-O arc, with Another Den-O and everything… does this mean we can get proper arcs for W and Kuuga, too, or are they just stuck in the movie? Because I really want to know if Another Double was actually two guys, the way he sounded like he was. And Another Double’s design is SO cool, I just really want to see it actually interact with people.

Hora: “Come with me, we’re stealing a time-train.”

Another Den-O: just goes along with this

Button-up: TAKUYA’S A MONSTER WHAT DO?!

Small floating orb of light: it’s free real estate!

Button-up: sand everywhere

Back on the train…

It. Really does have more similarities to a clock than a train?!

This shouldn’t surprise me, but somehow it still does. It definitely confuses the heck out of Sougo, despite it being his clocksmith uncle saying that he can definitely do this.

...Said uncle then proceeds to imitate Ryuta’s dance moves. This is fine.

And then everything starts shaking, because OF COURSE Another Den-O is outside. Kudos on the train-track patterns to the energy projections in his attacks, though. That’s a nice attention to detail.

… his name and year are on his butt. On the little half-skirt he has, actually, but right over the butt.

This is ‘fine’.

Sougo: “Another Den-O? Okay, Trinity time, then, since we still don’t have this watch!”

At least he gave them a little warning. Not MUCH, but the guys WERE transformed this time, at least!

...Sougo, I know that the name and year are usually on the back, but were you actively checking out Another Den-O’s butt?

Sougo?

Sougo, I’m waiting for an answer.

Oh, no? Just gonna go fight? Okay then…

Except the Zeroliner says no, you’re not, because here it comes, cutting you off and dropping off Yuuto and Deneb!

:giggling: THEY DID THE ACTOR THING AGAIN!

Sougo: “?!?! Kiriya Kyosuke?”

(flashback with Hibiki sounds)

Yuuto: “Whomst?”

Sougo: ‘Have they started forgetting, again?’

So, Deneb brings a whole new meaning to ‘finger guns’, huh? Fair play isn’t exactly going to cut it with someone as potentially overpowered as Zi-O, especially when you’re trying to prevent him from becoming a terrible overlord.

Ooo! So the others CAN see out of their shoulderpads! Otherwise, Geiz wouldn’t have been able to key Sougo and Co in that Another Den-O was about to make a break for the train! (Yuuto, please stop distracting the boys, they do actually have a job to do outside of yoinking everyone’s powers)

Okay, good, Yuuto does agree that stopping the evil doppleganger from getting the magic train is probably a good idea. Pity that Hora then warps a de-transformed Takuya back out of there.

So… Deneb’s basically The Mom Friend to Yuuto, right? That’s the impression I’m getting, anyway. “Please make friends with Yuuto, he’s so lonely. He does it to himself, but I’ve been trying to break him of it since 2007. Here, have a candy!”

(MOM. FRIEND.)

Yuuto’s trying to stop Sougo from becoming Oma Zi-O – and we have confirmation once again that Geiz knows that this Zi-O never could. That Geiz still says he’ll take him out if he does.

Yuuto, much like me, doesn’t think he can, and is also determined to Stop Zi-O From Obtaining Grand.

(IT’S SO GAUDY someone PLEASE teach Sougo how to dress himself I BEG you)

(HE’S STILL WEARING AN OVERSIZED BELT UNDER HIS SHIRT. SOUGO PLEASE.)

Sougo has zero intentions of becoming anything but a beloved overlord… and Yuuto’s not having any of it.

Deneb: “I’m sorry about Yuuto, he has trouble interacting with people sometimes, gets a bit rude, please stay friends with him!” hands Sougo the basket of candy ‘Okay, bye~!”

Momo: “HI THERE! I’M HIJACKING YOUR FRIEND, DON’T MIND ME!”

That feeling when you realize that even if he were changing outfits, Momotaros wouldn’t have to do much of anything to make Geiz fit his aesthetic…

Uncle’s almost done fixing the train! He’s not so sure about it being a clock, but… well, he’s almost done! And. Is lifting. A giant gear. The width of his torso…

KINTAROS! He is an old man, and you’re always going on about how strong you are, aren’t you?! HELP HIM LIFT THAT!

Also, the picture Ryutaros drew is adorable and I hope that he lets Uncle Tokiwa keep it.

Momotaros: “Anyway, I’m here to take care of that little copycat problem. I’m insulted, he’s doing a terrible job of copying my look – ooh, some of Deneb’s candy? Thanks!”

Tsukuyomi runs off in hot pursuit – somehow not realizing that it’s not Geiz speaking. Momotaros, you should have actually used your name, for crying out loud. I get you’ve got an ego, but really.

Sougo… looks really hesitant and broody.

He’s not sure about doing this anymore.

Meanwhile, apparently Button-up didn’t move in the last, like, hour since he was hit by that Imajin… who’s just a generic Mole Imajin. Lame, but fine. He asks him to help save Takuya. That’s so sweet of him! I mean, it’s going to backfire horribly, because Imajin, but still!

Sougo’s really quiet as he asks if Yuuto’s right – if getting all the RideWatches will grant him ultimate power. When Woz says it will, that he’ll be undefeatable…

Sougo just wants it so he can defeat Oma Zi-O. That’s the only reason he’s still gathering the watches.

Thanks for the flashback the completely brutal beating that Sougo took in episode 15! That didn’t hurt to watch again at all!

Woz: “To have power equal to Oma Zi-O’s would mean you can stand on equal ground with him. Only you are capable of that, my overlord.”

Sougo: “So I don’t have to have any doubt. I’m going to obtain that power.”

Sougo, you are raising all sorts of death flags here! Death of personality, death of moral compass, normal death, any one of these could happen! Please don’t do this to us.

Another Den-O is even carrying his sword like Momotaros does! Nice touch!

…Tsukuyomi, you need to start researching people as soon as you guys meet them. You saw Ryutaros take over Uncle Tokiwa, and apparently Momo’s told you he was Momotaros. And yet you still look super confused when he tells you again.

...and then she has to do Geiz’s transformation for Momotaros. This is shenanigans, pure and simple. And I love it.

MOMOTAROS. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PUNCH YOUR PALM WHEN YOU ARE HOLDING A BUZZ SAW.

And then here we go, Let’s Us And Them Fight time! We’ve got… Four teams, this time around? Another Den-O, the Mole Imajin, Team Zi-O (currently with special guest Momotaros), and Team Zeronos.

:rubs hands together:

LET’S DO THIS.

Trinity Time~!

Except for the part where Geiz isn’t home right now~ I guess it’s been a while since Momotaros has run into Tsukasa, because now he’s super confused about going through a form change again. To be fair, usually he’s just getting his own form – not getting turned into a watch and dropped into a Psychic Sentai Cockpit.

Momotaros, externally: “Aw, man, it was just getting good!”

Momotaros, internally: “Why can’t the reality warpers let us not feel these changes?!”

(I will never be over Final Form Rides, and neither will ANYONE who got pushed into them.)

So, in the Trinity Team Chat, Sougo and Woz are incredibly confused. Momotaros is there. Geiz is also there, and apparently Sougo’s subconscious psychic powers have given him a chair so that he’s not out cold on the floor.

…Well, at least Momo’s used to bodysharing? In more ways than one? Because there’s Climax form, and that’s the four main Imajin.

This is too many people in one body – mOMO NO YOUR FIGHTING STYLE DOES NOT MESH WITH THIS SKINNY NOODLE THAT FORMS THE BASE!

Oh no, Yuuto and Deneb are just so confused. “Why is the red asshole in the cataclysm asshole?! WHATEVER! Deneb, let’s go!”

Deneb’s still mom-friending on main, even in Vega form, much to Yuuto’s despair.

Ohh noooo. Takuya – Another Den-O – wanted the powers so he could save his sister. HNG! MY HEART!

And there’s the Denliner, right on time! So Uncle Tokiwa managed to fix it, after all!

…Oh my Gaim. Oh. My. Gaim.

The Imajin let him drive the train.

OKAY, OKAY, YOU WIN.

Junichiro, you’ve got name privileges back! That’s just TOO COOL.

Woz: “Guys, wasn’t Another Den-O after the Denliner?!”

Sougo: “OH NO! YOU’RE RIGHT! GUYS! WE HAVE TO FINISH THIS UP!”

Why are you guys attacking ZERONOS?

BOYS.

that’s the wrong person.

See? Now look at what you’ve done! Another Den-O just hijacked the Denliner!

And since Button-Up’s contract was to help Takuya… well, he meant ‘help’ as in ‘save’, but Be Careful What You Wish For. The Mole Imajin takes off into the past.

So, Trinity breaks up for now. At least Geiz is awake again! And goes immediately to try and beat up Momotaros. He has it coming.

Woz mentions that if they had the Den-O watch, they might be able to find out where they went…

And Momotaros, aka the Main Imajin who fights as Den-O, tries to tap out from the choke hold Geiz has him in, holding up a red-and-white watch.

He already trusts Sougo, after all. Has since HeiGen Forever.

… … …

nani the fuck?

The Den-O watch starts glowing.

The watches back at the shop start glowing… and warp themselves over to Sougo, coalescing into one large, gold, gaudy-as-all-get-out watch.

Grand Zi-O~

“So this is supreme power...”

Sougo, I don’t think you should be excited about that…

Also, that Drive watch is the one that Geiz brought back in time, so. Um. That one shouldn’t count towards Grand. (WHERE’S THE DRIVE ARC, TOEI?!)

We’re going to get Momo-Woz in the next episode! Whooooo! This oughta be FUN!

Also, more Zeronos Altair form, Den-O CLIMAX FORM, and…

Uh-oh.

That’s Oma Zi-O. Not just in appearance – he’s talking to Sougo, too.

Uh-oh.

This episode was a RIDE you guys!

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

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Zi-O 25 and 26: Oh boy is this arc a doozy!

So, over in Black Woz’s Storytime vault? That clock just advanced again.

Regulus is unseasonably bright… it’s early. Just like the Dai Mazines.

The Day of Oma is drawing near… and it seems to be closer than it would have been if the timeline wasn’t being mucked around with.

Hn. We closed the last episode with Swartz pulling out the Another Zi-O watch. And now we have… Another OOO? What are you doing here?

And why are you recreating the Another Build watch from that poor, abused, basketball player?

And using it?

And becoming Another Build?

… So Another Zi-O is, by his nature of being an Another Rider, a bootleg. Meaning he’s ripping off Zi-O’s ability to copy other riders powers.

… It’s a good thing that Tsukasa made his own watch somehow, because if we had to deal with an Another Decade? That would be a nightmare. (Will be a nightmare? There’s no saying what this season’s going to do.)

Black Woz: “Okay, I thought we’d be better off with Geiz and Tsukuyomi being around you, but I just realized that it means I have to actually let you know things are going down, without being cagey about it, so. Whoops.”

We cut to the apartment where the former Another Ex-Aid lives. In an eerie synchronicity with his initial creation, he’s being wheeled into an ambulance, as unconscious as the former Another Build.

‘Another Build’ is defeated, revealing ‘Another Ex-Aid’, and Black Woz realizes that they can’t win this right now.

Whoever this man is, the one who was just Another Build/Ex-Aid? Well, aside from presumably really being Another Zi-O, he also seems to know Sougo. By his full name. No, that’s not ominous at all.

!!! We’ve finally got a location for where those stairs from Episodes 2 and 21 are! They lead down from a shrine, which appears to be where Geiz and Tsukuyomi are currently staying. And apparently there’s an Another Woz? I think you messed up your translation there, O-T. I think that you might have meant ‘Another OOO’.

(Yeah, that’s an error on O-T’s part. I’m starting to use their MKVs at this point, instead of the 720’s, so they didn’t catch that until after that was encoded.)

Geiz goes to stop the casualties from piling up, but Tsukuyomi doesn’t seem to think that he’ll be able to do what he has to if he encounters Sougo. Doesn’t think that he’ll be able to defeat Zi-O. She says that, specifically: he’d encounter Sougo, but have to defeat Zi-O.

And I’ve noticed that Geiz still hasn’t used Sougo’s name… even in the last arc, he sort of just… dodged referring to Sougo by any name.

That is some poor green-screening to put Sougo against the night sky, there. Granted, it’s one of his dream sequences, so that doesn’t help matters.

A dream sequence with Regulus shining brightly overhead, as Zi-O II has a very one-sided fight against Rider!Geiz.

(Have we found where our ‘into the drink’ battle is going to take place?)

Sougo’s not wrong when he says that the fight was ‘peaceful’, though, is he? It seemed a little more like they were putting on an act than, say, whatever The Day of Oma is actually supposed to be.

Although, the first thing it reminded me of was the Eiji vs Ankh fight towards the end of OOO… remember? When Eiji was quickly losing himself to PuToTyra, and Ankh, in one of his rare Full Greeed appearances, was essentially trying to bring him back?

A purple rider, at risk of becoming his own enemy, fighting a red ally-of-convenience turned friend, huh?

… D’ya think they were trying to get at least some people to draw that apparel – er, parallel, by using Another OOO specifically as the first copy to show up in the episode?

Ohhh. Another Fourze/Faiz is working at an observatory now. That’s so fitting… especially since it lets us know that other people are noticing the strange happenings in the night sky. And that Another Riders don’t remember being Another Riders, either, much like the Real Riders.

(Which I’m still basically praying isn’t actually true, mind you, but regardless. Not actually the topic at hand. Yet.)

Man, the CG in this episode so far is not good! There’s the blatant haloing around Sougo in that dream sequence, around Geiz in his transformation here, and base form Zi-O was painfully obviously CG when he was putting on the Build Armor earlier.

Sougo: “Geiz, wait, the finisher won’t work, he’s not actually-”

Geiz: “Shut up and give me the watch!”

Poor communication gets people knocked out of their transformations.

White Woz’s attacks are as brutal as ever – including somehow using Kikai’s powers to make satellite dishes fire lasers at ‘Another Ex-Aid.’ His battle theme does not help in the slightest. It’s creepy and ominous and I always get nervous when it plays.

Kakogawa Hiryuu. He definitely knows Sougo from somewhere, but the question is where?

Or, maybe that’s not the question. Because while he says that he and Sougo are fated to cross paths over and over… Sougo doesn’t recognize him.

Sougo doesn’t seem to be able to keep Hiryuu, as a person, in his mind as soon as he leaves the area.

Not if his reaction when Geiz asks if Sougo knows who he is is any indication.

“Uh, who?”

Hm. The Geiz Revive form is designed to defeat ‘the overlord.’ It won’t awaken unless Geiz shows the will to do that.

…Can that refer to just ‘defeat Oma Zi-O, the evil ruler’, or does it have to refer to ‘defeat Kamen Rider Zi-O, civilian alias Tokiwa Sougo’?

Aw, Another Wizard is performing magic still, in the fixed timeline! Good for him! I mean, less good than usual, since Hiryuu’s on his way, but still!

GASP.

Uncle Junichiro Tokiwa is going to tell us the forbidden Sougo Backstory!

(I’m so pumped about this I actually bothered to look up his name for once.)

Sougo’s been living with his uncle for ten years, since 2009. His parents are ‘no longer with us.’

The piano version of Over Quartzer just started up again.

At the magic restaurant, Sougo admits that he’s kind of looking forward to the Another Rider appearing, because he might get to see Geiz and Tsukuyomi again. He’s lonely, and he knows that’s an awful way to think. Black Woz is encouraging of thinking that way though.

Sougo is the only one on his own side. Everyone else has an agenda for or against him.

There was a bus accident in 2009, and the newspaper article that Tsukuyomi pulls up mentions something about ‘unknown number of families’ being missing. Sougo and Hiryuu were the survivors. Going into a quick ‘camera based google translate’ look at the article… Looks like there was a large bus fire, something about a tunnel, black smoke obscuring everything, geez, this is brutal.

The piano version of Over Quartzer stopped when the shot changed from ‘Geiz and Tsukuyomi talking’ to a shot showing the article.

Oooh, the ‘tense atmosphere’ music noticeably cut out immediately after White Woz asked Geiz what they were going to do. With a discordant beat and everything. There was a silent shot of Geiz, and then the scene changed to Sougo and Black Woz in the restaurant.

Welp, Hiryuu’s after Another Wizard, and might have gotten his powers? Or at least a portion of them. He seems disappointed, but not surprised that Sougo doesn’t remember him. He’s already got Another Gaim, as well.

So that accounts for Build, Ex-Aid, Faiz, Wizard, OOO, and Gaim. Notably, we only saw the Faiz watch appear, not Fourze. That leaves Fourze (maybe), Ghost, and Ryuga completely unaccounted for. ...Ryuga’s a bit tricky, sir, I don’t think that’s a ‘remnant of power’ that you’ll be able to get your hands on.

Toei: “Look, we had to cut down the budget for the transformations this week, since we’ve had just SO MANY in this one episode.”

(AKA, the Woz and Geiz transformations are both poorly greenscreened.)

OKAY THEN. The Quiz finisher failed explosively, leading to ‘Another Gaim’… dissolving into four black, smoky, parka ghosts, which fuse into ‘Another Ghost’. So that leaves Fourze and Ryuga… and possibly the three future riders, but I can’t be sure there.

I still really like Another Ghost’s appearance.

OOF. ‘Another Ghost’ became… well, Another Zi-O by placing his personal Another Watch near where Ghost’s driver would have read an Eyecon… at which point he becomes Another Zi-O, with a barely corrupted version of the Ziku Driver. His watch is still visible. Just like Actual Zi-O’s.

The teeth are creepy, as is the fact his face looks like it’s showing muscles. But what’s most unsettling is that I don’t see the lenses/dials/gadgety bits that, thus far, each and every single Another Rider has had as eyes.

He’s the closest we’ve had to the real thing, actually. And, true to the Zi-O design labeling everything? He’s got 2019 written three times. One on his right eye, one in the center of his chest, and one on his belt. You know, where the real Zi-O has it. (The name Zi-O is on his right eye, for the record.)

Heure sees the two Zi-O’s about to face off… and seems to be booking it the heck out of there. Don’t blame ya, kid, run! Before Swartz and Hora use you again!

Nope, wait, never mind, he’s running straight to them. (Please develop some self preservation instincts. You may be a slightly sadistic little punk, but I’d prefer you not have to die.)

Ohhh. That ‘getting the others out of the ring’ theory I had for Swartz’s motive wasn’t quite right, but the ‘choosing the new king’ motive he gave wasn’t quite true, either.

It looks like he’s long since picked his horse for the race – Kakogawa Hiryuu, alias Another Zi-O, alias “The one to unite all Another Riders.”

He can’t take powers that didn’t exist, after all. What better way to create a Dark counter to someone who uses his predecessors powers… than to make someone who does the exact same thing?

Heure and Hora didn’t know that was the plan.

Geez, Another Zi-O has the ‘label ALL the things’ aesthetic down to a tee. ‘2019’ is on his left shoulder blade, and ‘Zi-O’ is on his right. And the year is on his forehead, where for Zi-O it has ‘Kamen.’

And, uh, Sougo, buddy. I don’t think you’ve thought through this ‘I can see your future’ announcement? I mean, nobody else has been able to do the same before now, but maybe don’t let people know you’re predicting their movements? Just as a general rule?

Especially when they’re copping your skillset?

But! As a bit of fodder for ‘power copying doesn’t actually work the way they’ve been told’?

We have Another Zi-O right here, and Regular Zi-O isn’t having any of the issues that Build, Cross-z, and Ex-Aid did with regards to sparking and losing their transformation while fighting their duplicates.

Oooh, but we do have it happening to his watch in the closing screen. It goes from Ex-Aid and Geiz on the sides, and Zi-O in the center… to the glitching effect of a rider losing their powers happening to the Zi-O watch, replacing it with the Another Zi-O version.

SPOOKY.

… ON TO EPISODE 26!!!

...Black Woz? Why do you have a copy of the Orange Geiz Revive armor in your storytime vault? (The clock continues advancing visibly)

Oh. Wow. Sougo got knocked out of his transformation. By a copy of his own finisher, and the person who dealt it is nowhere to be found.

White Woz continues to be awful… “The Revive watch not activating is all the proof I need that you’ve lost the will to fight. You’d better hurry and find it… how else could you face Tsukuyomi again?”

(The OP still refuses to give music spoilers, but I get the feeling I’m going to be hearing “Future Soldier” toward the end of this episode.)

(Spoiler alert from 8:30 am Sam to 7 am Sam: You did not get to hear “Future Soldier.”)

Hm. While Sougo’s propped himself up on the lamppost, incredibly passed out, he has the ‘premonition’ of that fight on the beach again. It seems like more of an actual fight this time… but the biggest difference is that the first time hew as there, the sky was crystal clear. This time, there’s a thin cloud cover forming over the stars… including Regulus.

The Time Jackers are watching while Tsukuyomi heads to April 24, 2009. But, um, completely off topic question… Are those three just, like, renting a penthouse apartment? Because I’m starting to get the impression they live there, with the chairs and such on this roof, and Hora and Swartz relaxing inside last episode.

See? SEE?! Heure’s with me! Swartz hasn’t told them everything. Maybe hasn’t told them anything.

He has a whole other motive here… but what is it?

(History is told by the winners, and nobody has won yet.)

But why does Black Woz recognize Hiryuu’s name?

OH NO, IT’S BABBY SOUGO IN DINOSAUR PAJAMAS.

Oh… Jeez, the bus accident happened literally days before his 9th birthday. The accident is April 24th, and he was born April 28th. (Thanks, episode one! Now we have ~two~ main Neo-Heisei riders with exact canonical birthdays!)

Oh, this is incredibly painful to watch. Junichiro said he’d take Sougo in pretty much immediately, and Sougo came out of that accident a lot better off than Hiryuu did.

(Yeah, fine, Uncle Junichiro’s earned his name. I still don’t entirely trust him, but I’ll start using his name.)

The Piano version of Over Quartzer starts up when 8!Sougo says his parents are dead… and Hiryuu’s looking out his hospital room at the whole conversation. The part that would be the lyrics kicks in when the nurse starts talking to a fuming Hiyruu. It continues through to when Geiz and Tusukyomi hang up the phone from updating each other.

I just like that Tsukuyomi parked her Time Mazine in a regular garage. That’s just one of those little touches that’s really cute.

On the less cute, more worrying side… we didn’t see her reactions to Geiz saying he couldn’t use the Geiz Revive watch.

Geiz, justifiably, doesn’t tell the clearly anxious, clearly scared Heure where Tsukuyomi went. That’s fair – Hora played everyone like a fiddle just last arc… including Heure.

I really do think that Heure wants out… but I was thinking the same about Hora, so, maybe he doesn’t? But I don’t think he’s nearly as good of a liar as she is, so this is more likely to be real concern. Heure doesn’t know all of the details, but he wants to.

He’s sick of all of the misdirection.

Ohhh. Hayase quite Magic Cafe Aqua, and went to go see Magic House… the theatre he used to work at. The one he became Another Wizard to save. And now he’s starting to remember his days as Another Wizard.

(Also, it’s really sad to see this place abandoned like it is now.)

Another Wizard… is now accounted for.

Okay, so Hiryuu is flat out planning to kill Sougo. That’s… ‘nice.’ Even ‘nicer’ is his reason.

They were both on the bus – apparently a field trip, judging by the number of small children in the other seats. They were sitting near each other. “A woman in white shouted his name, and pulled the trigger.” The visuals are a Faiz Phone X, a white sleeve, and Tsukuyomi’s voice shouting ‘Sougo’. The hand holding the phone has nail polish, though… does Tsukuyomi wear nail polish? It’s a dark color…

Him telling Sougo about this is intercut with Geiz traveling to 2009. “What if it wasn’t an accident?”

What if it was a pre-emptive assassination attempt?

He’s no stranger to those, after all.

Geiz pulls up along the wildy swerving bus… and Tsukuyomi is on it. Holding a Faiz Phone X, yelling Sougo’s name… and pulling the trigger. The back corner of the bus is on fire as it enters the tunnel.

… Geiz doesn’t catch up before the bus seemingly hits the wall and explodes.

… there were two survivors of the bus accident. Two eight-year-old boys.

There was no mention in the article of an 18-year-old woman.

I think we’ve just found Geiz’s driving force to use Geiz Revive.

How does he interrupt the Zi-O vs Zi-O battle? A flying punch to Another Zi-O’s shoulder. Which stops him from attacking a downed (albeit still transformed) Zi-O II. But this is while Geiz isn’t transformed.

That punch had the ‘superpower force’ effect, too. The one that we usually only see when the two boys are suited up… or that one time, after Quiz, when they were finally explaining exactly (approximately) what the Day of Oma is, with the chess metaphor.

Oooh, those studded shoulderpads left Geiz’s knuckles bloody. Ick.

A Woz is a Woz, and they both just love to soliloquize their announcements. IWAE.

Geiz Revive Fury is scary. A tranquil rage, and he just used a buzzsaw (!) to punch Another Zi-O through at least four (!!) stacks of construction materials – the heavy cement kind. (!!!)

Swartz gets his candidate out of the way of another blast from that buzzsaw. “We’ll see you on the Day of Oma.”

So now, it’s Geiz Revive versus Zi-O II.

Geiz: “I’m going to beat you. That’s the future we’re heading towards.”

Sougo: “...Okay.”

Geiz Revive Fury is the Mighty Glacier trope in action – High offense, High defense, low speed.

Geiz Revive Typhoon, on the other hand… High offense, ludicrous speed, and I can’t tell what his defense is, but it doesn’t really matter if you can’t see him long enough to hit him. Could be Fragile Speedster meets Glass Cannon, or it could be Lighting Bruiser, but without knowing how well Typhoon can take a hit, I can’t say.

So, while Sougo’s getting his ass handed to him by a rapidly form-switching Geiz, Black Woz is off investigating the accident… by having sent everyone in the bus companies office to dreamland, so he can get into their records.

Clever. I like it.

Casual reminder that the Wizard arc told us that Woz has a Faiz Phone X as well… and. Wait. Those things are a stun gun. They knock people out. When Tsukuyomi was using hers to stop Another Build’s attacks, it paused them. But the first time we saw her use it?

Was against Ryuuga, Sento, and Sougo in Cafe nascita. As a knock-out gun. They all fell asleep.

Unless that thing has other settings that we haven’t seen… it shouldn’t be able to blow up the end of a bus.

That news article… looking again, the google translation isn’t great, but I think it’s trying to say that the two kids were the only ones who were found.

Why do I mention that? Because Woz goes straight to the passenger list. Kakogawa Hiryuu and his parents are there, as expected… and… Well then. So is one Kadoya Tsukasa.

2009 was his year, too, after all.

And how exactly does he travel between worlds? He makes his own portals, which look like walls.

After all, nobody could see anything through the smoke covering the tunnel, including Geiz and the television audience at home.

Decade, you tricky little bastard.

… I’m just going to stick this little snippet from a potential fic in here, since it seems to have just become incredibly relevant.

“The kid’s stealing my whole gimmick. He’s basically ripping off my ability to copy people, and I just had to give him the ability to copy me copying other people. It’s absurd, and I’m basically stuck playing the bad guy again.”

#kamen rider zi o #sailorcressy says #seriously zi-o got good you guys

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