Reappearing in another world, Tsutsumi slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Neon signs painted the night sky in shifting hues of red and blue, and towering skyscrapers loomed over the restless city. The hum of cars, the chatter of crowds, the faint aroma of grilled food drifting from street vendors, all of it screamed one simple fact.
Tokyo, Japan.
"There better not be any giant dinosaur blasting a laser beam from its mouth here..." he muttered under his breath, recalling too many chaotic worlds he had visited before. Adjusting the strap of his camera, he began wandering the crowded streets, his eyes scanning for anything that stood out.
As he walked, the glowing screen on the massive television screen in the city flared, switching from an advertisement to the news.
GHOULS ATTACK IN CHIYODA WARD!
"Ghouls?" he murmured, eyebrows narrowing slightly.
Passing an ice cream stand, he casually swiped three popsicles, unwrapping one and crunching down as if he had all the time in the world. Finding a bench beneath a flickering lamppost, he sat down, legs stretched out, pulling out his phone and began scrolling for more info.
His expression remained unreadable as he learned. Ghouls were humanoid monsters that walked among humans unnoticed, their diets consisting of human flesh… and, disturbingly, sometimes even their own kind.
"Interesting..." he murmured again, voice low as the chaos of the city swirled around him.
An article from the CCG, the Commission of Counter Ghoul, listed names and faces of infamous predators, cataloged like trophies. One stood above the rest: The One-Eyed Owl. SSS rank. A creature feared even by its own kind. A blurred photograph showed the ghoul's mask, covered in a dark cloak, face covered with dirty bandages, leaving only some eye holes and a mouth, beside its name.
But as he scrolled further, another profile stopped him cold.
Kiva - Threat: S Rank.
The image showed a mask, a design that sent a ripple through his memory. His eyes sharpened for the first time that night.
Kiva. Identical in both name and mask to Kamen Rider Kiva.
From his own memories, he remembered Kiva as something in between, neither human nor monster, but a Fangire hybrid. A cursed existence of half-human, half-monster.
"Could I gain Kiva's ability by taking down this world's version of Kiva?" Tsutsumi murmured, his tone calm but carrying a dangerous undercurrent.
Finishing the popsicle, he snapped a photo of the cityscape with his camera before standing. His hunt had found a direction.
The days blurred into one another as he studied this world in silence. When the sun rose, he played the role of another face in the crowd. When the sun fell, he moved like a shadow, following patterns that only predators understood.
He pieced together the habits of ghouls by reading crime reports, CCG surveillance leaks, and whisper-rumors overheard in bars and alleys. He mapped out the hunting grounds where blood was most often spilled, the lonely parks, dim alleys, abandoned buildings on the edge of districts.
Like a ghost, Tsutsumi slipped into their rhythm. He walked the same routes serial killers once used to lure victims, blending that twisted logic with the CCG's reports of recent attacks. Each step brought him closer to his quarry.
By the time night fell again, the city lights had turned into a hunting ground.
In a Dark Alley
A man ran for his life, stumbling through a maze of shadows, his panicked cries echoing down the narrow alleyway. His breaths came ragged, his heart pounding harder than it ever had in his mundane existence. He wasn't special, just another cog in the machine of office life. Nine-to-five shifts, endless paperwork, awkward silences at the coffee machine. No friends, no social life, no reason for anyone to even remember his name.
Until today.
She appeared like something out of a dream. A girl with golden hair that shimmered under the café lights, pale skin like porcelain, and a smile so warm it melted the ice around his lonely heart. She laughed at his nervous jokes, entertained his stuttering attempts at conversation. When she agreed to meet him after work, he thought, finally. Finally, his life had meaning.
And she was waiting for him. Standing there with that same gentle smile, like she belonged in his world. They walked together, side by side, his chest swelling with something he hadn't felt in years: hope. He was so lost in it that he didn't notice the streets emptying, the neon glow fading, the night swallowing them whole until they stood in a forgotten alleyway.
Then she turned to face him. That sweet smile still lingered, but her eyes, her pupils bled crimson, her sclerae sank into black voids.
His heart dropped.
The girl he had fallen for wasn't a girl at all. She was a ghoul.
He screamed as the kagune burst from her back, grotesque, blood-red tentacles lined with jagged bone spikes. They lunged toward his chest like spears.
And then.
Kamen Ride: Ghost!
A blinding white eye opened at the mouth of the alley. An orange specter shot forward, slamming into the kagune and knocking it aside before it could pierce flesh. The glowing apparition circled the ghoul like a predator, striking again and again, forcing her off balance. She hissed in fury as the man was lifted by the phantom, carried to safety near the alley's entrance where a swirling black mist gathered.
Let's Go! Kakugo! Go Go Go! Ghost! Go! Go! Go! Go!
From within the cloud, the outline of a human figure glowed in fiery orange lines, traced against the void. A single massive blue eye pulsed from the chest, and a horned orange mask gleamed in the darkness.
The mist peeled away, revealing the Rider's form, a black bodysuit marked with sharp streaks of orange, a hooded jacket with white trim, a belt shining at his waist. His mask stared forward with two vast black lenses, inhuman, glowing with the aura of the dead.
The man's terrified mind snapped. He screamed louder, urine staining his trousers as he collapsed against the wall, unable to process whether this was salvation or another nightmare come to life.
The female ghoul snarled, glaring at the intruder who had ruined her meal. "Who the hell are you!?" she spat, her hunger twisting her face into something monstrous.
"Just a passing-through Rider," Tsutsumi's voice echoed, layered with a chilling echo that made him sound less man and more phantom.
She roared, launching forward, kagune slicing the air. He drifted aside effortlessly, leaving behind an ominous trail of black-and-orange light. She struck again, faster this time, he blurred upward, hovering above her like a wraith, her claws swiping uselessly at empty space.
Her frustration mounted, madness gnawing at her reason. "STAY STILL!"
But when she swung again, he simply vanished.
Her eyes widened. He was gone. No sound, no presence, only the cold stillness of the alley.
A chill crawled down her spine. Her body stiffened, instincts screaming at her far too late.
His voice whispered directly in her ear. "Tell me..."
She froze. His head was resting on her shoulder, his masked face close enough for her to feel the chill of death itself. A ghostly hand phased through her back, intangible yet all too real, its fingers wrapped around her racing heart.
"Where can I find Kiva?" Tsutsumi's voice dripped like ice, his grip squeezing just enough for her pulse to spike in terror.
"I-I don't know!" she shrieked, panic breaking her voice. "I don't know where he is!"
"Is that so?" His tone was deliberate, slow, merciless. His grip tightened. She convulsed, choking on her own breath.
"Th-The 10th Ward! The Chiyoda Ward! His base is there!" she screamed, desperation spilling with every word.
A silence followed.
"...Good."
Her scream broke into a wet gasp as Tsutsumi crushed her heart in his hand. Blood sprayed from her lips as she collapsed, her wide, horrified eyes fixed on him in disbelief.
"Y-Y-You lied… to me…"
Her body trembled, failing, before finally collapsing into lifelessness.
"I never said I would let you live," Tsutsumi said coldly, his hand sliding free through her body, fading back into shadow. He didn't even glance at her corpse as it hit the ground with a dull thud.
Without another word, he dissolved into the night, disappearing like the ghost he had become.
The alley fell silent again.
Only the broken man remained, staring at the lifeless body of his once-dream girl.
...
The next few days turned Chiyoda Ward into a nightmare. The streets whispered with fear as bodies began appearing one after another, piled in lonely parks, sprawled in dim alleyways, and abandoned in crumbling buildings on the district's edge.
The most disturbing detail wasn't the number of corpses, it was who they belonged to. Every victim was a ghoul.
The CCG scrambled, their ranks on edge, unsure whether to treat this mysterious figure as an ally or a greater threat. Ordinary citizens, who should have felt relieved, instead grew uneasy. If someone could slaughter ghouls so methodically, what would stop them from turning on humans next?
But Tsutsumi had no interest in killing blindly. His targets were precise, ghouls who had given in to their hunger, those moments away from tearing into innocent living humans. He tracked their dens, uncovered their bases, but never launched an open war.
He knew well enough: not all ghouls were monsters. Many had once been human, raised with human hearts, human families, human dreams. Some clung to that humanity even as hunger gnawed at them endlessly. To Tsutsumi, their restraint was its own kind of courage. A sacrifice he would not punish.
He spared those who fought against their nature. But for the ones who embraced it, he didn't hesitate to put them out of their misery.
And then, at last, the night arrived.
"So you're the bastard who's been hunting my kin?"
The voice was cold, sharp as broken glass. Kiva stood in the moonlight, glaring at Tsutsumi across the ruined street, his aura radiating menace.
Tsutsumi's eyes narrowed beneath his mask. "Didn't expect you to join them... hunting humans like prey."
Kiva sneered, fangs flashing under the pale light. "What else do you expect us to do, huh!? We tried peace. We tried coexistence. And what did your kind give us? Hatred. Fear. Chains. Do you expect us to just lay down our lives so you humans can thrive?"
For the first time, Tsutsumi's expression faltered. Disappointment flashed across his face, not anger, not hatred, just the weariness of someone who had seen too much.
As a Kamen Rider, he understood better than anyone: their power wasn't a gift. It was a curse, a burden that demanded sacrifice, loss, and endless battles. He could not condemn this version of Kiva for giving in to despair.
"I understand..." Tsutsumi said softly, pulling out a card, his voice low, heavy with resolve. "I'll make this as painless and quick as I can."
Form Ride: Decade!
Light burst around him, gray silhouettes of himself appeared around his body before they all came together, altering his form. The magenta coat flared in the night wind, his magenta bandana snapping like a banner of war. The yellow gem in his horn blazed like a star.
Kiva roared, charging, his fists and kicks striking with the force to crumple steel and shatter concrete. But Tsutsumi moved like water, parrying each strike with effortless precision. Then came his counterattack, fast, brutal.
A sickening crack rang out.
Kiva staggered back, clutching his chest, stunned to feel several ribs broken. His eyes widened. "What!?"
Tsutsumi gave no quarter. His fists hammered into Kiva again and again, each blow landing with surgical precision, breaking bones, stealing breath. A magenta glow enveloped his fist as he drove a final strike into Kiva's chest, sending him flying through the wall of an abandoned building. Dust and rubble rained down.
Tsutsumi stepped forward calmly, the night air growing still as the dark clouds broke apart, revealing a swollen full moon overhead.
A whistle cut through the silence.
From the wreckage, Kiva burst forth. Chains shattered around his leg as crimson bat-like wings unfolded, gleaming in the moonlight like bloodied fangs. His power surged as he descended upon Tsutsumi with his Rider Kick.
Another card slid into his Driver.
Final Attack Ride: De-De-De-Decade!
He wiped the blade in his hand using his open palm as he spun in a perfect circle, releasing a powerful magenta slash that tore through the night. The wave met Kiva's Rider Kick head-on, breaking it before consuming Kiva in a devastating explosion of light and force.
When the dust cleared, silence reigned.
Tsutsumi walked forward, his steps deliberate. Among the ruins, where Kiva had fallen, a single card glimmered faintly. He bent down and picked it up.
Kamen Ride: Kiva
Tsutsumi studied it for a moment, his voice dropping to a quiet murmur. "Remember... who you are. And why you fight..."
He was no hero. He was the Destroyer. The one burdened to maintain balance, to keep the worlds from colliding and merging.
And yet, he refused to let that destiny strip him of his reason, his identity, his humanity.
An Aurora Curtain shimmered into existence before him. Without hesitation, Tsutsumi stepped into the light and faded away, leaving this world behind.