Lying in the tent, I closed my eyes, trying to sleep but it wouldn't come. Who would have thought that a single question from me would turn into Isadora pouring her heart out?
Still, maybe that was exactly what she needed. If nothing else, I hoped it helped her feel even a little lighter.
As her partner, I'll do everything I can to support her—physically and emotionally—whatever it takes.
And as the current holder of the belt, I can't afford to be a letdown to my predecessor. The second one, I mean. There's no way in hell I'd ever follow in the footsteps of the first.
The original OOO.
Just hearing about how ruthless he was to his fellow humans makes my stomach churn. He used the power of the Medals to bring destruction upon the world.
His endless greed.
His endless hunger for more power became his undoing, the very reason he was sealed away.
I hope I never become that. A power-hungry demon, forever unsatisfied, always craving more.
"I'll just sleep," I groaned. Thinking about all this somehow made my eyelids heavy.
Like Isadora said, I should enjoy this quiet moment while it lasts.
Even though she's told me countless times before, my future is bound to get messy and full of uncertainty.
I may not have any Greeed to worry about, but I do have an army of Shuukis on my tail. And that's not even counting those stalkers of ours, the ones who might try to force me into using a Combo in a direct, head-on fight.
As the calm atmosphere of the tent lulled a certain Kamen Rider into slumber, Isadora remained seated outside, watching the campfire as its flames slowly died on their own.
She closed her eyes and hummed softly, snapping her fingers in rhythm, a faint smile on her lips. The crackling of burning wood and the whisper of the wind became instruments that accompanied her melody.
When she opened her eyes, she stopped.
Slowly, she opened her palm.
A Hawk Core Medal appeared.
She stared at it for a moment before lifting it, positioning it so it blended with the fading flame before her.
"I don't know why this particular version of the Medals can't revive the Greeed," Isadora said to no one. "At the very least, I could have met Ankh."
His Medal was the reason she existed in the first place.
Through Eiji's memories, she caught fleeting glimpses of who Ankh was and through the projection shown by the hooded man as well.
She even has a fragment of Ankh's own memories.
But all of that paled in comparison to actually meeting the real Ankh.
She flipped the Medal into the air, watching it spin before it fell back down, catching it neatly in her palm.
She let out a deep sigh.
"I should apologize in advance for not telling you, partner," Isadora said with a wry smile. "Our souls being connected isn't the reason your body is like that."
It wasn't harming him.
For now, whatever lay within him was dormant, sleeping inside his body.
During the process of assimilating her soul with Hideo's, she had done more than she'd let on.
She had inserted a set of Core Medals into him.
They wouldn't turn him into a Greeed—he would remain human until the very end. But those Medals were among the strongest… and the most dangerous.
Even now, she didn't fully understand why she'd been instructed to place them inside him. Though they strengthened his body, they also carried the risk of driving him berserk.
Eiji was a proof of that.
"Still, it'll be a very long time before those Medals awaken," she muttered, standing up to grab a popsicle from the icebox. "Using a Combo would slowly accelerate it, especially if rage and other uncontrollable emotions are involved."
She tore open the wrapper and brought the popsicle to her mouth.
Then her eyes flashed red.
Her gaze snapped toward the forest. In the distance, a boy was screaming as he ran for his life, something unseen toying with him just beyond the firelight.
"…Looks like this camping trip won't be that relaxing after all," she said.
In one swift motion, she swallowed the popsicle whole and tossed the stick into the dying flames.
========
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I was lucid dreaming.
Smiling, I stood inside a giant mech.
A massive machine controlled by two people.
Our minds merged into one to endure the strain.
Ahead of us, a colossal gorilla wielding a banana-shaped sword clashed violently with a towering lizard, the two kaiju locked in brutal combat.
"Hideo-sama!!" a girl's voice cried out over the comms. "Please—be safe!"
I will, my dear.
I glanced at my partner beside me, and we nodded to each other. Mechs from China, Australia, and Russia stood with us, forming a united front against the monsters.
"Thundercloud formation!" the Chinese pilots shouted as their mech's hands transformed into spinning saw blades.
The Russian mech bellowed a deafening horn, its tank-like frame radiating raw power as it slammed its fists together in a warm-up punch.
No more waiting.
All of us charged toward the battling kaiju.
The lizard turned its massive head toward me and roared.
"Eat this, you bastard!!" I shouted, activating the rocket boosters on my back and launching myself high into the air.
Just as I was about to slam into its face, it opened its jaws and fired—
—but instead of an energy blast, Isadora's voice burst out.
"HIDEO!!"
Huh? Why do I feel like I'm shaking?
"Wake up, Hideo!" Isadora shouted urgently. "We've got company!"
My eyes snapped open as the dream shattered. The first thing I saw was her face, tense and alert.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Someone's being attacked!"
I shot up and burst out of the tent.
We ran straight for the woods without any sense of hesitation. As we moved, Isadora's hair grew longer, turning pitch-black as it flowed behind her. She tossed the belt toward me.
I caught it midair and fastened it around my waist.
She threw three Medals upward.
Catching them, I inserted them into the slots of the belt and scanned them.
"Henshin!"
[𝕋𝕒𝕜𝕒]
[𝕋𝕠𝕣𝕒]
[𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒]
[𝕋𝕒-𝕋𝕠-𝔹𝕒! 𝕋𝕒𝕥𝕠𝕓𝕒 𝕋𝕒-𝕋𝕠-𝔹𝕒!]
Fully suited up, my speed surged as I raced toward our destination.
Whatever it was that Isadora mentioned.
Whatever was toying with that young man.
Based on the characteristics she told me.
It definitely wasn't human.
========
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An innocent young man ran.
His feet pounded the earth as fast as they could carry him, lungs burning, breath tearing from his chest. Nothing mattered now except escaping and getting away from that thing crashing through the tree branches behind him.
"What did I do to deserve this?" he gasped, his voice breaking as tears streamed down his face.
The flashlight clutched in his hand was his only saving grace, its narrow beam slicing through the darkness and barely revealing the path ahead.
"SOMEONE HELP ME!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
All he had wanted was to see it—to photograph the rare yellow spider rumored to appear in this forest at night.
That was it. Nothing more.
So why was he being hunted?
The howl came again, close enough to feel, warped and mocking, as if the creature were laughing at his fear. That was when the truth struck him.
It was playing with him.
Whatever followed him was fast—fast enough to catch him without effort. Yet it didn't. It let him run, amused by his terror, savoring it.
People had gone missing from the village this past few days. Only scattered belongings were ever found.
This must be the thing that took them.
He had come here so confidently, convinced nothing would happen. Those incidents were on the far side of the village, nowhere near this place. He hadn't given it another thought—his mind filled only with the spider.
His pace faltered.
His body finally reached its limit. His legs buckled, and he collapsed to his knees.
"Move… please," he sobbed. "I'm begging you."
Tears blurred his vision as his legs refused to obey, his pleas echoing uselessly through the dark.
Leaning against a tree, he struggled to catch his breath. His chest heaved as he tilted his head upward.
The thing that had been following him stood silently on a branch above, unmoving—watching him, as though looking down on prey already claimed.
Without warning, smoke began to seep through the air.
It poured from the creature itself, thick and unnatural, spreading through the forest in slow, suffocating waves.
The young man trembled. He crouched low and squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for whatever horror was about to be inflicted upon him.
He didn't realize his breathing had grown shallow and erratic, panic robbing him of clarity. Dizziness crept in, his consciousness slipping, leaving him more vulnerable than ever.
Then came the howl.
With a violent motion, the creature leapt from the branch, descending toward him, its arm stretching out to seize the helpless young man.
But it grasped nothing.
"Oh… oh… oh?"
The sound it made was oddly primate-like, confused, almost offended. The creature straightened and glanced upward.
An unknown individual in a suit stood on a higher branch, holding the young man securely in his arms. His gaze was locked onto the creature below.
Still dazed, the boy forced himself to look at his rescuer. For a brief, terrified moment, he thought the monster had taken him after all.
Instead, he saw someone clad in a suit.
Someone whose head resembled that of a bird.
"You still alive, kid?" the figure asked.
"Y-yes…" the boy answered weakly.
Fear still clung to his face as the smoke thickened around them, the forest holding its breath.
"Don't worry. You're now safe, alright?"
The man's voice reached the boy's ears—steady, reassuring, impossible to fully explain. Somehow, it cut through the fear with ease.
The boy believed him instantly.
Summoning what little strength he had left, he parted his lips and asked, "Who… who are you, mister?"
Behind the mask, the man chuckled softly, as if the question stirred a sense of déjà vu.
Then he spoke, not leaving the boy in the dark.
"I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider."