#oh gaim i really need to work on my sougo characterization...

[sailor-cresselia]

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.”