Hearing the way the two of them spoke about their lives being in his hands, Tsutsumi didn't deny it. There was no point in doing so. At the same time, he didn't look particularly pleased by it either.
This situation, having two powerful women who could easily stand on the battlefield now treating themselves as his responsibility, stirred up a faint sense of familiarity. Something distant. Someone he hadn't thought about in a long time.
Saber: I'm hungry.
A...
That useless Saber of his.
A Servant with the mindset of an office worker doing the bare minimum to meet her KPIs before clocking out, perfectly content to freeload off her Master whenever possible.
What kind of Servant would step back and casually let their Master clash blades with a demi-god?
Saber: What kind of normal Master casually takes two lives from that same demi-god?
Tsutsumi exhaled quietly. Compared to that, this situation was hardly new.
These two weren't his first "servants," and honestly, he didn't feel strongly about the title itself. He didn't feel pride, authority, or satisfaction from it. If anything, it was more trouble than it was worth.
Still, he wasn't heartless enough to leave them sitting injured in a corner indefinitely.
His ship was large, far larger than it needed to be for a single traveler and a companion; it had more than enough rooms meant for rest and recovery. So without making a big deal out of it, he simply told them to take one of the vacant rooms for themselves.
Even so, despite having a private room available to them, Jingliu and Feixiao, along with Acheron, ended up remaining in the cockpit.
Tsutsumi stayed seated at the controls, his legs resting casually against the panel, his gaze fixed forward. At the very least, he wanted to see Penacony with his own eyes before deciding whether he would stay or continue hopping from world to world like he always had.
Den-O. Gaim. Drive. Zi-O.
Just four more. Then he will complete his set of all twenty Heisei Riders.
From what he remembered, Kadoya Tsukasa eventually gained some degree of control over the passive that caused the destruction of worlds, or at least learned how to delay it. That much was clear.
Tsutsumi hadn't had any dreams showing Tsukasa's journey beyond that point. He never witnessed his final ending. But he knew one thing for certain: Kadoya Tsukasa never truly died.
As long as someone remembered him, even death wasn't permanent. He would return, fully restored, as if nothing had ever happened.
It was after that final dream that everything stopped. There are no more visions nor more fragmented journeys. That was also when Tsutsumi finally understood the nature of his Quirk.
He couldn't recall every detail from those dreams anymore. What remained were impressions and memories of the different Kamen Riders Tsukasa encountered along his journey.
Back then, Tsutsumi hadn't bothered committing everything to memory. To him, those dreams had simply been entertainment. A way to pass the time. Stories of masked heroes across worlds, each one strange and interesting in its own way.
He never imagined they were real.
Now, sitting in the cockpit with Penacony drawing closer, Tsutsumi found himself hoping, quietly, without expectation, that once he collected all twenty Heisei Riders, he might finally learn how to control the passive destruction he carried simply by existing.
In the quiet cockpit, Tsutsumi remained seated, feet resting casually against the control panel while Azu handled the ship's navigation. The vessel moved steadily through space, its hum low and constant, almost background noise at this point.
Acheron sat directly on his lap, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Her back leaned against his arm and the side of the chair, her weight resting comfortably there, while her legs hung loosely over the opposite armrest.
She leaned back on him, enjoying the feeling of her senses returning to her.
Behind them, Feixiao had taken to doing push-ups on the metal floor, her movements steady and controlled despite her injuries.
In the corner of the cockpit, Jingliu sat with her knees drawn slightly inward, her hands clenched as she hugged her knees. Her breathing was shallow, uneven. A faint tremor ran through her body, subtle but unmistakable.
All three of them noticed it.
Feixiao was the first to speak, pausing mid-motion and turning her head toward the corner. "Jingliu," she said, voice cautious. "Is your Mara Struck acting up?"
They weren't close. They had never been. At best, they were allies brought together by circumstance, Xianzhou natives of different ships, different paths. Most of what Feixiao knew about Jingliu came secondhand, usually through Jing Yuan.
Jingliu didn't answer right away.
Tsutsumi watched her for a moment before shifting his attention slightly. "Azu," he said calmly. "What is Mara Struck?"
Azu responded immediately, her tone unchanged as a translucent screen briefly flickered into existence beside her. "Mara Struck is an inevitable state of physical and mental decay that afflicts long-life species, particularly those of the Xianzhou Alliance. While Xianzhou natives were granted immortality by Yaoshi, the Aeon of Abundance, their minds were not designed to last forever. Mara is the 'price' for this eternal life, a form of 'aging' that cannot be cured."
She paused briefly, then added, "A leading theory suggests that after centuries, a person's brain runs out of 'storage'. Positive memories fade, while traumatic and intense negative emotions persist, eventually driving the person into madness."
"So," Tsutsumi murmured, "it's a curse that affects long-life species."
"It's not exactly a curse, just the side effect from the Aeon of Abundance's blessing. It's more of a failure of the biological 'standard' that governs the bodies of Xianzhou natives." She quickly corrected his mistake.
Then she added. "Mara occurs when this 'standard' is finally overwritten or collapses after centuries. The cells, which normally switch perfectly between differentiated and stem cells, begin to mutate uncontrollably."
"I see, so the mara struck is more related to their genetics than curses..." Tsutsumi murmurs.
He shifted slightly, lifting Acheron with both arms, stood up, and set her back down onto the seat. She didn't resist, only adjusting herself as he stood. Without another word, he walked toward Jingliu.
"I'll be fine..." Jingliu managed to mutter out before pushing herself up, body still trembling.
"I just need to rest and clear my mind."
She said before trying to run off into her room to try to calm herself and avoid causing more trouble for her new 'Master'. Her trembling worsened as she sensed him approaching.
But before she could leave, Tsutsumi's foot crashed into the metal wall beside her, stopping her on her track.
"Stay, I want to test something."
He said, causing her to pause before reluctantly nodding.
"As you wish..." She muttered as a dark aura began to leak off her body.
Tsutsumi raised his right hand.
A strange weapon materialized in his palm, part sword, part axe, part firearm. Buttons lined its body, and a trigger sat neatly at the handle.
Gashacon Key Slasher.
With his other hand, Tsutsumi pulls out a card.
Final Kamen Ride: Build! Genius Form!
His appearance shifted instantly. White clothes formed over his body, traced with gold lines, while colorful Full Bottles attached themselves along his head, shoulders, back, arms, and legs. The Full Build Reactor at his chest began to glow softly.
He placed two fingers against the side of his head, his posture still relaxed as his cognitive processing accelerated. Genius Form compressed information, observation, calculation, and execution into fractions of a second.
Tsutsumi lowered the blade, its tip pointing directly at Jingliu.
Colorful flowed from his clothes into the weapon, then he pulled the trigger.
A focused beam fired outward, striking Jingliu squarely.
Her body convulsed as she collapsed onto the floor, a cry escaping her despite herself. Pain wasn't the right word; it felt more like something inside her was being torn away, rewritten, forced into a shape it had never known.
Build Genius allowed interaction on a molecular level. Ex-Aid's Gashacon Key Slasher allowed genetic reprogramming.
Although both previous Riders, Build and Ex-Aid, only use this ability on the enemies they are facing, such as Smash and Bugster, these abilities also affect human beings.
Tsutsumi looked directly into Jingliu's genetic structure, isolating the anomaly labeled Mara Struck. He directly rewrote it from 'active' to 'inactive', before adding another set of code to her genetics that would prevent it from ever acting up again.
It was precise, controlled, and finished in under a minute.
Jingliu lie on the floor, gasping, tears soaking into her blindfold as her breathing slowly steadied. Her body felt weak, empty like a part of her missing, but also lighter, and her mind felt clearer in a way she didn't have words for.
"…What did you do to me?" she asked hoarsely, pushing herself up with shaking arms.
"I deactivate Mara Struck in your genetic code," Tsutsumi replied simply.
There was a faint hint of interest in his voice, not pride, nor satisfaction, but curiosity. To be able to directly observe and alter a living being's genetic structure at will was… useful. Dangerous, yes, but efficient.
One wrong change could have destroyed her entirely. Genetic experimentation was taboo for a reason.
But with his accelerated thought process and execution into near-instantaneous action, there was no time for errors to propagate.
"T-That should be impossible," Jingliu murmured, disbelief clear in her voice as she finally managed to push herself upright. Her bare back pressed against the cold metal wall, the chill grounding her. "Mara Struck is bound to the power of an Aeon. It cannot be cured by medicine, nor by any conventional science."
Her words weren't an argument. They were a statement of fact, something she had lived with for her entire life; the medication she took can't cure it, just suppress it.
Tsutsumi didn't answer right away.
After all, he didn't exactly get rid of the Mara-Struck; he just deactivated it and made it so that it can't activate again.
Then a subtle pressure brushed against all of them, faint but unmistakable. It wasn't hostile. It wasn't warm either. It was simply there, like a gaze resting on the cockpit from somewhere far beyond it.
Feixiao stopped moving entirely, muscles tensing. Jingliu's head lifted slightly beneath her blindfold. Even Acheron straightened, her unfocused eyes narrowing just a fraction.
They all looked around, instinctively trying to locate the source. Tsutsumi, on the other hand, just turned in the opposite direction.
His gaze settled on empty space near the cockpit window, his posture unchanged, but his attention clearly fixed on something only he could see.
There stood a figure shaped like a woman.
Six arms extended from her sides, pale skin marked with countless slits of red eyes, each with dark sclera staring in different directions. Branch-like antlers, reminiscent of a deer's, rose from her head, spreading outward like living growths. Her presence felt vast, yet oddly restrained, as though she were compressing herself to fit within the confines of perception.
"Your methods are quite fascinating," the being spoke, her voice gentle and layered, as if echoing from several places at once. "Rather than eliminating the symptom, you removed the cause that triggers it."
Tsutsumi's hand had already moved, another card appearing between his fingers.
"And you are?" he asked calmly.
Feixiao swallowed. "Is he…?"
"…Talking to Yaoshi?" Jingliu finished quietly, her voice steady despite the implication.
Acheron stared at the empty space Tsutsumi was facing. "Most likely."
There was something there. She could feel it, not clearly, but enough to recognize the weight of an Aeon's presence. To anyone who had never stood before one, it would be indistinguishable from an especially powerful being walking the same Path.
The figure inclined her head slightly, the many eyes blinking at different intervals.
"You may call me Yaoshi," she said. "Abundance will suffice as well, if you prefer."
"What do you want?" Tsutsumi asked without hesitation.
Yaoshi paused, as though considering him more carefully. Then she smiled, a soft, almost fond expression.
"Straightforward. I appreciate that," she replied. "Since you ask so plainly, I will answer just as plainly."
One of her arms extended toward him, palm open. "I hope that, in the future, you will use this method, one I have never witnessed before, to bring blessings to more people, to clear this unwanted side effect, to clear all disease."
Then, slowly, she spread all six arms wide, antlers casting faint, branching shadows that didn't quite align with the cockpit's lighting.
"Abandon the Path of Finality," Yaoshi said gently. "And become an Emanator of Abundance."
Tsutsumi showed no visible reaction.
Not because he was unmoved, but because he didn't fully grasp the weight of what she was offering.
He wasn't a native of this world. He didn't know that Aeons rarely spoke directly to mortals, much less extended invitations directly. He didn't know that an Aeon could bestow their gaze, grant their Path, or elevate someone into an Emanator through sheer acknowledgment alone.
And he certainly didn't know how unprecedented this was.
For the first time in this world's history, an Aeon was openly attempting to take an Emanator from another Aeon.