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Hidari Shotaro rested his cup of coffee on the table. “So from what I understand, there's been a case of theft in this establishment?”
“Not exactly,” Ryotaro replied. “We would show you where the theft took place, but well, the thief stole it.”
“Oh. So are we referring to a stolen food truck or food cart of some sort?”
“Sort of. It's a stolen train car.” After seeing Shotoro's eyebrows furrow in confusion, Ryotaro decided “Maybe it would be easier to try to show you where the theft took place.”
“Good idea.” The detective followed Ryotaro to the entrance of the Milk Dipper cafe. “Where is the train?”
“Not too far. It's literally just outside.” Ryotaro opened the door, revealing a giant desert where the street was supposed to be.
Shotaro did a double-take between the desert outside the entrance, and the street outside the window right next to the door. “What in the—AAAH!”
A set of train tracks materialized right outside the entrance. A few seconds later, a train had parked right in front of the cafe, with the cafe entrance and the train door almost perfectly aligned.
Shotaro stood at the entrance, frozen in shock as Ryotaro stepped into the train. After a while, a red monster peeked out of the train door. “What'cha waiting for, you half-boiled egghead? We got a case to solve!”
“What did you just call me, you jerk?!” Shotaro chased Momotaros into the train, only to find a handful of other monsters alongside Ryotaro. Also in the train car was a woman wearing dozens of mismatching wristwatches and bright red gloves, with a hot pink streak in her dark hair. However, those bright colours contrasted with the silent worry on her face.
“Detective, this is Naomi. She usually runs the Denliner's dining car,” said Ryotaro. “Naomi, this is Shotaro Hidari, the detective from Futo.”
“It's been missing since last night, when I went to buy more coffee beans,” Naomi explained. She stood up, her hands slamming the table in front of her. “We need that coffee car back. And fast. The entire timeline is at risk.”
“I guarantee you that we will find the coffee car,” Shotaro reassured her. “But what was that about the timeline at risk?”
“Well, the coffee car is where the Denliner construction blueprints are hidden,” Ryotaro explained.
“Because nobody would expect that!” Ryuutaros chimed in.
“But it seems like the thief knew, or else there wouldn't have just stolen that part of the train, now would they?” added Urataros.
“And on an unrelated note,” said Momotaros, “the train owner would kill us if he found out about this.”
“And where exactly is the owner?” Shotaro asked.
Meanwhile, in a farmhouse restaurant not too far away, the Denliner train owner was ordering another plate of rice.
“Sir, this is the seventh plate of rice you have ordered in the past two hours,” the waiter told him.
“Indeed. The rice here at Jacaranda Cafe is quite delicious.”
“Then why have you barely eaten the last six plates?” The waiter gestured to half a dozen plates of rice that were already on the table, each one decorated with a colourful miniature flag that had fallen over.
“I cannot finish the plate of rice if that flag has fallen over. That is simply how it works.”
The waiter glared at the plates for a good ten seconds before replying. “Fine. Another plate of rice.” Continuing to face the unfinished plates, he walked backward into the kitchen.
Kohana, who had been watching the entire situation, turned to one of the other waiters. “Is everything gonna be alright here, Amane?”
“Yeah, don't worry,” Amane replied. “Hajime's dealt with worse.”
“Kohana has everything under control,” Kintaros reassured the detective.
“Alright then. The first thing we'll have to do is find some clues,” said Shotaro. “Let me just call my partner, Phillip.”
As if on cue, Shotaro's stag beetle phone began to ring. The detective heard Phillip's voice as soon as he picked the phone up. “Shotaro! I have some clues for that missing train car case.”
“Great work, Phillip! That was fast.”
“I made a list of restaurants and cafes that were linked to disturbances in time. These places would make a good starting point to find any suspects. There are three locations: Cafe Mal d'Amour, Nascita Cafe, and Bistro La Salle.”
Shotaro repeated the restaurant names as he wrote them into a small notebook. “Do any of these places sound familiar?” he asked everyone else on the train.
“I've heard of the Mal d'Amour cafe,” Ryotaro answered. “It's been a long time since I've been there, but I remember where it is.”
“Great, we'll head there first. Who will look after the train while Ryotaro, Naomi and I find clues?”
Kintaros was fast asleep by now. “Oh, look who's volunteering!” Urataros exclaimed as he raised Kintaros' hand up.
“Yeah, right,” Momotaros said as he pushed Urataros away. “Ryotaro, can't we just ditch the rest of these guys here?”
“But I wanna go!” Ryuutaros pouted.
Shotaro rolled his eyes as he covered his face with his fedora. It was at this moment that he started realizing what kind of mess he got himself into.
Pretty soon Shotaro, Naomi, and Ryotaro arrived at the Mal d'Amour cafe... or at least, where it was supposed to be.
Shotaro took a close look at the signs on the building, which now read 'Cafe Aroma'. “Are you sure this is the place?” Shotaro asked. “Same address, same building, but the name is different.”
“Perhaps they rebranded?” Ryotaro suggested.
“Perhaps.” Shotaro looked back at the list of restaurants Phillip had told him about. “Something doesn't seem right, though.”
The trio entered the cafe and placed their order: two cups of coffee and one cup of milk, plus a bag of croissants to go. “Is that all?” the young cafe employee asked, handing Shotaro his coffee.
“Thank you, but we're actually here to solve a case of theft,” Shotaro explained. He nodded to Naomi, who was adding extra sugar to her caramel vanilla mocha with rainbow sprinkles. “This young lady used to run a cafe train car, until it got robbed recently.
The employee blinked in confusion. “Somebody stole a train?”
“Just the one car, not the whole train,” Naomi clarified.
“And you ran a cafe on that train car?”
“Mm-hm.” Naomi nodded as she took a sip of her coffee. “It's a big black and white train car with a bit of red, and it has hexagon-shaped windows. Have you seen it?”
The employee thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Nope, I haven't. Sorry.”
Before anyone could say anything else, another customer had entered the cafe, wearing a black leather jacket and large sunglasses. He sat at the empty seat next to Shotaro and slammed a fist on the table. “One large dark coffee, as usual,” he growled. “Don't mess it up like the last dozen times.”
“Uh, of course, sir,” the employee replied quickly, rushing toward the coffee machine.
Shotaro gave the other customer a look of disgust. “What's your problem? Go easy on the guy. He's like, a highschooler.”
“It isn't just him. Ever since the management changed, nobody here can make a single decent cup of coffee.”
“Then what are you even doing here?”
“I think the better question is this.” The customer took off his sunglasses and stood up. “What are you doing here?”
“None of your—”
“We're solving a mystery!” Naomi replied, interrupting Shotaro. “Somebody stole my cafe.”
The customer raised his eyebrows. “The one on the time-travelling train?
“Yeah.” Shotaro looked the customer in the eye. “How in the world do you know?”
“Irrelevant.” He shooed the detective away and took a step toward Naomi, leaning down to talk into her ear. “This guy's useless. You'll find your little coffee shop faster if I helped you instead. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?”
Shotaro shoved him away. “Here's a better idea: quit being a jerk.”
At this point, Ryotaro looked up from paying for the trio's orders. “Uh, guys? Now is not the time to figh—AAAH!”
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Naomi chanted, seemingly oblivious to how Ryotaro just tripped over his shoelaces.
This is exactly when the cafe employee returned. “Alright, one large coffee, as dark and bitter as— what the french vanilla latte is going on?”
Everyone froze, including the angry customer, who was currently holding Shotaro up by the collar of his jacket as Shotaro held his fists up.
“Well, that went spectacularly,” muttered Shotaro, right after getting kicked out of Cafe Aroma.
“I thought it was nice!” Naomi said cheerfully. “The smell of baked goods, the sweet delicious coffee, the fighting customers...” she sighed as her smile disappeared. “But it makes me miss my coffee car even more.”
“Don't worry. We'll find it soon.” Shotaro turned to Ryotaro and the Imajin. “How much time do we have until the Owner shows up?”
“Hold on, let me check,” Ryotaro answered, picking up his cell phone.
Over at the Jacaranda Cafe, the Owner was now on his thirteenth attempt of finishing a plate of rice. So far, the tiny flag on this plate hadn't moved a millimeter, and there were only about three spoons of rice left.
Amane stared at the rice. “Whoa, he's actually gonna finish it.”
Hajime also stared at the rice. “He's finally gonna finish it.”
Kohana also stared at the rice. “Oh no, he's gonna finish it.”
The owner reached his spoon toward the plate.
He carefully scooped up a spoonful of rice—
SLAM! “Guess who's now a New York Times bestselling author?” Shirai Kotaro exclaimed from the Jacaranda entrance.
The flag fell.
Hajime's giant angry eyes glared at Kotaro. “You're gonna pay for this!”
As Hajime chased Kotaro out, Kohana's phone began to ring. “Hello? Ryotaro? Yeah, everything is alright for now, but I don't know for how long. Yeah. Okay, bye.” She put her phone away and looked at all of the extra plates of rice, which now covered multiple tables. “What are we gonna do with all of this rice?”
As if on cue, a man sitting a few tables away looked up. He had just finished eating some kara-miso noodles, and placed the empty bowl right next to his Kamen Rider Garren transformation buckle. “Can I take them?”
Back at the Denliner, Ryotaro had just hung up the phone. “We don't have much time.”
“Perhaps we should split up,” Shotaro suggested. “Three of us at the bistro, three of us at Nascita, and one person guarding the train.”
“That sounds like an excellent strategy,” Kintaros agreed as he raised his hand. “In this case, the best person to guard the train would be—zzzzzzz...”
“Volunteering again, Kin? How thoughtful!” Urataros exclaimed. “Okay Ryotaro, let's go; there's not a moment to lose!”
“Actually, I think it would be best if you and Ryuutaros go to Nascita with Detective Shotaro. I'll head to the bistro with Momotaros and Naomi.”
“Ha!” Momotaros smirked. “take that, turtle!”
Shotaro adjusted his fedora. “Alright, we'll meet back at the Milk Dipper in two hours. Let's go!”
A few minutes later, Shotaro and the two Imajin arrived at the Nascita Cafe. However, the place was unusually empty.
“Where is everybody?” Ryuutaros wondered, skipping across the cafe in his Sherlock Holmes outfit and looking around with a magnifying glass. “Hello? Anyone here? I can't hear anyone.”
Urataros checked the pocket watch in his trenchcoat and read the sign with the cafe hours. “How peculiar. It should be open at this time.”
“Yeah. The lights are on, and the sign outside says 'Open'. So why is this place empty?” Shotaro wondered.
“Maybe everyone's about to have a surprise party, and they're all hiding!” Ryuutaros took a closer look behind the counter. “Anyone hiding here? Nope. What about the fridge?”
“No! Don't open the fridge!” a voice said, seemingly from inside the fridge.
Shotaro's eyes widened. “There's a voice inside that fridge!”
“What? No way, there totally isn't a voice in the fridge,” said the voice that was totally coming from the fridge. “You didn't hear anything.”
Ryuutaros thought for a moment. “Hmm... that's right! I didn't hear anything!”
“Exactly!”
“Which means I didn't hear anybody stop me from opening the fridge!”
“Wait, no—”
“Too late!” Ryuutaros yanked open the fridge door... only to find a few shelves of food. “Huh?”
The fridge said nothing. After a few moments, Urataros spoke up. “Well, it seems like nobody is here. Perhaps we should leave.”
Ryuutaros stomped his feet. “But we didn't find any clues!”
“Perhaps Phillip can help.” Shotaro took out his phone. “Phillip? We might need to search for something in the Gaia Library.”
“Of course, Shotaro!” Phillip replied. “Finally. I haven't heard from you since you left Futo to solve the case, so I was starting to get worried.”
Shotaro frowned in confusion. “Since then?”
“Yes. And when I tried to call you, it would never work.”
“But if you didn't call me earlier, then who told me to find clues at those three restaurants?”
“Three restaurants?”
“Yeah.” Shotaro pulled out his notebook. “Cafe Mal d'Amour, Cafe Nascita, and Bistro La Salle?”
“First of all, that wasn't me. Second of all, I'm pretty sure that first place isn't even still—” Phillip's voice drowned in static.
Much to Shotaro's confusion and alarm, the call ended. “Phillip?”
“What about Phillip?”
“Oh, he's my partner who helps me solve mysteries. Together we are...” Shotaro turned around to face the person who asked the question: a dark-haired man wearing a giant beige jacket and a blue scarf. “Aaah! Sento, what are you doing here?”
“I live here, obviously,” Sento replied calmly. “What are you doing here? And why is there a guy in a Sherlock Holmes dragon costume raiding the fridge?”
Ryuutaros glanced at the fridge next to him, quickly closing it.
“It's a long story,” Shotaro replied. “We're looking for clues here to solve a case, but nobody is here.”
“Of course nobody is here. We closed the cafe early today.”
“Then why is the door unlocked?” Urataros asked. He pointed at the 'Open' sign. “And explain this.”
Sento rolled his eyes. “Which musclehead forgot to lock the entrance and switch the sign?”
“You said you were gonna do it,” answered the fridge.
“Oh.” Sento glanced at the fridge, then at everyone else. “Uh, that's just Artificial Intelligence Refrigerator, or AIR. My new invention.”
“Hey, did you just call me an airhead?”
Ryuutaros jumped excitedly. “Wow, this is the coolest fridge I've ever seen!”
“Ha! Even as a fridge I'm still super cool.”
Shotaro cleared his throat. “Anyway, have you heard about the Denliner situation?”
Sento scratched his head. “Den-O's train? What happened?”
“Well, Ryotaro hired the agency to find the Denliner's missing coffee car.”
“I see...”
“So since it's a time-travelling train, Phillip suggested we look for clues in any restaurants related to timeline disturbances. Apparently this cafe is one of them.”
“Really...”
“But he never explained exactly why, come to think of it. And after my last call with him just now, I'm starting to wonder who it really was telling me about those places.”
“What places did he mention exactly?”
“Well, one was a cafe named Mal d'Amour. But when we went there earlier today, we found out it rebranded a while back. It's Cafe Aroma now.”
Sento nodded for a moment before his eyes widened in alarm. “Oh, this is terrible.”
Shotaro and the Imajin looked at Sento. “What?” But before the scientist could reply, a 'CRASH' was heard just outside.
“What was that?!” Ryuutaros asked.
“That's the reason we closed early,” Sento answered, running to the entrance.
Shotaro followed him, the Imajin close behind. Outside the cafe was a mob of monsterous henchmen in fancy suits, rampaging across the street. “What's with all of the Masquerade Dopants?”
“I thought you would know!” Sento yelled over the commotion. He pulled two small bottles and a transformation belt out of his jacket. “Never mind. Time to henshin!”
Shotaro nodded as he put on his transformation belt and picked up his 'Joker' gaia memory USB. “Let's go, Phillip!”
“Shotaro, I can't—” A green 'Cyclone' USB stick appeared in the transformation belt before Phillip could finish. “What are you waiting for, Shotaro? Transform!”
Shotaro froze, the Joker gaia memory still in his hand. “Something's not right about this.”
“What do you mean—” “Shotaro, don't” “—hesitate, just transform already!”
A dopant threw a table into a car across the street, bringing Shotaro's attention back to the fight. By now, Sento had already transformed into Kamen Rider Build, and the two Imajin were helping him fight off the dopants. “We could use some help!” Urataros exclaimed.
Shotaro quickly transformed into Kamen Rider W, and ran into the fight to help Build and the Imajin.
He punched two dopants directly next to Build.
Then he tripped Build with his right foot.
“Whoa!” Build quickly regained his balance. “Watch your step!”
“I'm trying!” Shotaro shot back, holding back his right arm to stop it from punching Build in the face.
Build dodged W's kicks and punches. “Who's side are you on?”
Shotaro continued to struggle against the right side of his suit. “Phillip, what's going on?”
That's when he finally saw it.
In his head, there was not one, but two Phillips.
There was another Phillip, but he looked quite different. His hair was combed back and held in place with nothing but hair gel. He wore a crisp white suit that matched the uniforms of the evil Foundation X. His maniacal grin was much more sinister than normal.
In his head, the two Phillips were fighting. And the other Phillip was winning.
“Phillip!” Shotaro called out.
“Shotaro!” Phillip replied, trying to dodge his evil clone's attacks. “Duck!”
Shotaro ducked, letting a hundred books about ducks fly across his head and topple over the other Phillip. “Who is this other guy?”
“Not sure, but he has a gaia memory,” Phillip managed to say while narrowly avoiding a flying bookshelf. “He's trying to destroy the other Kamen Riders. De-transform!”
Shotaro nodded and transformed back into civilian form.
Shotaro looked around at the street outside Nascita Cafe.
The good news was that, while the detective was distracted by his own mind, a handful of Kamen Riders had appeared and defeated the mob of Masquerade Dopants.
The bad news was that they were all still in battle stances, and they were facing Shotaro.
“Uh, guys? What's going on?” Shotaro took a step back, only to realize he was surrounded.
“He's playing dumb!” one of the IXA riders said, raising his gun.
The other IXA blocked the first one's way with her arm. “Cool it, Nago.”
Decade spoke up. “Alright, let's make this quick: Where's Ryotaro?”
“Ryotaro? He's at the Bistro La Salle with a few of the other people from the Denliner. It's a long story.”
Kiva relaxed a bit. “So he's alright?”
“Of course he's alright; why wouldn't he be?” Shotaro asked.
“Because early this morning, a bunch of us got this text from his number,” Decade replied, showing Shotaro his cellphone.
On the phone was a photo of the interior of the Denliner coffee car. This was accompanied by a text reading 'I have kidnapped Kamen Rider Den-O. If you want to see him ever again, send me 1 billion yen by tomorrow. I'll be visiting Mal d'Amour, Nascita, and Bistro La Salle tomorrow, in order, to receive the cash. If I don't get the money, I will ambush each place with Masquerade Dopants. So give me my money as soon as possible or else. — Raito Sonozaki.'
Shotaro yelled. “Raito Sonozaki?!”
Kamen Rider Tsuku turned to Geiz. “He seems genuinely shocked,” she noticed. “I don't think he's working with the kidnapper.”
“Exactly,” Build agreed.
“But that doesn't explain why one half of W tried to attack Sento!” said Cross-Z.
“Hang on: this actually does explain something,” Shotaro realized. “This whole day, it seemed like Phillip was acting weird. Then when I transformed, I noticed two different Phillips. One of them is probably an imposter or evil clone.”
“So there's some sort of alternate universe Phillip?” Kivala wondered.
IXA raised his gun again. “I'm not buying it until we see proof that Nogami Ryotaro is—”
He was interrupted by the Denliner flying into view and parking right behind him. Ryotaro jumped out of the train, followed by the Imajin. “I'm alright, everybody!”
“Ryotaro!” Kiva exclaimed.
“Yeah, he's here in the flesh,” said Momotaros. “Some show-off at the bistro thought he was kidnapped or something. Then Ura and Ryuuta show up to say there's a giant fight going on, so of course we came. Now where's the fight?”
“I think it's over,” Ryotaro answered. “But that's probably a good thing. See, we saw Sougo and Woz at the bistro as well. They're sure they saw the coffee car near an abandoned radio station in Futo.”
“Ah yes, the coffee car!” Shotaro remembered. “Sorry everyone, but there's an urgent case we have to solve.”
“But what if that other Phillip sends more dopants to attack the bistro?” Tsuku asked.
Decade shrugged. “Something tells me they already have everything under control.”
Meanwhile, outside Bistro La Salle, Kabuto, Zi-O, Woz, Gattack, Chalice, Garren, and Kohana had already defeated half of the Masquerade Dopants that attempted to attack the place.
Hiyori peeked out of the bistro entrance. “Bro, the train owner ordered a fourth plate of rice,” she said as Kabuto defeated a couple dozen dopants. “He didn't finish the last plate either.”
Kabuto froze for a few seconds. Then he roundhouse-kicked the handful of dopants right behind him. “Make him order the special rice dish.”
“The special rice dish?”
“Exactly,” Kabuto replied, now dressed as a chef and holding a notebook labelled 'Grandma Tendou's Best Recipes and Cooking Tips'. Then he went to the kitchen so begin cooking.
“Alright then,” Hiyori said, completely unbothered. “Is everything under control out here?”
“Yeah,” Kohana replied as she punched a dopant in the gut. “I wonder how Ryotaro and the rest are doing.”
Pretty soon Ryotaro, Shotaro, Naomi, and the Imajin were on their way to Futo on the Denliner.
“Are we finally going to find the coffee car?” Naomi asked.
“I sure hope so,” Shotaro answered. “But we're gonna check on Phillip at the detective agency first.”
“Why don't you just call him instead?” Urataros asked as he ate a croissant.
“Because whoever is behind all of this seems to be an expert hacker,” the detective replied.
“Hold up: are we still talking about the coffee car, or that whole 'imposter guy pretending to kidnap Ryotaro' situation?” Momotaros wondered. Then he gasped. “Are you saying it's the same jerks behind all of this?!”
“It sure seems like it,” Shotaro answered. “They stole the coffee car last night. Knowing the Denliner staff would try to solve the case as soon as possible, they decided to cause a diversion. So they hacked Ryotaro's phone number and made it seem like he was kidnapped. And to get the detective out of the way, he framed—”
“Zzzzzz...” Kintaros' snoring interrupted Shotaro's monologue. “Zzz.. huh? It seems like I fell asleep again. My apologies.”
Ryuutaros put down his crayons and stared at the chart he drew, which illustrated the mystery. “Makes sense to me.”
Ryotaro nodded, then looked outside. “Oh look, we're here!”
“Fantastic!” Shotaro ran out of the train and into the Naomi Detective Agency. “Phillip, I'm back! Are you alrigh— OW! Akiko!”
Akiko lowered her slipper. “Sorry, Shotaro. I had to make sure you weren't another impersonator.”
“Another impersonator? So the fake Phillip was here?” Shotaro asked.
Akiko nodded. “Ryu and the other cops are trying to figure out where he went.”
“We might have a lead on that. But where's Phillip?”
Akiko took a deep breath. “The impersonator kidnapped him, Shotaro.”
Minutes later, the Denliner broke into the abandoned radio station... literally.
Ryotaro glanced out the window at the debris from the destroyed wall of the building. “This isn't good.”
“If it makes you feel better, this building was meant to be demolished a month ago,” said Terui Ryu as he got out of the train.
“Besides,” Ryuutaros added as he followed the other Imagin and hopped out of the train, “maybe the thief didn't hear us.”
That's when a bunch of Masquerade dopants appeared, surrounding the Denliner crew and the detectives.
Ryu picked up his transformation belt and his 'Accel' gaia memory. “Seems like we spoke too soon. Hen...”
Shotaro prepared to transform into Kamen Rider Joker. “Henshin.”
Ryotaro nodded to Momotaros and began to transform. “Henshin.”
“—shin!” Ryu, Shotaro, and Ryotaro transformed and began fighting the dopants.
Akiko and the Imagin helped as well. As Akiko slapped one of the dopants with a slipper, she noticed a giant door, big enough to fit an entire train through. “The coffee car is probably in here! But the door won't budge. How do we unlock it?”
“Allow me,” Kintaros volunteered before crashing through the door.
The Denliner crew and the Kamen Riders followed Kintaros and Akiko into the large room. Sure enough, the Denliner coffee car was there, surrounded by Masquerade dopants. At the other side of the room, Phillip was trapped in a cage next to some wooden crates. Right outside of that cage was a giant dopant, with eyes the same colour as the Windows blue screen of death, and USB wires for fingers.
The giant dopant turned to the Kamen Riders. “You... How did you get here?!” he said in a voice that matched Phillip. He pointed a finger at Kamen Rider Joker. “Especially you. Your half-boiled brain should have been drop-kicked to smithereens by now!”
“The only one getting drop-kicked today is gonna be you!” Shotaro shot back. “Everybody, let's go!”
The other Kamen Riders nodded. The three of them ran at the dopant and jumped.
Phillip watched in horror. “Guys, don't!”
The giant dopant's hand began to glow blue, and the Kamen Riders were suddenly back in civilian form.
“Ryu!” Akiko caught Ryu as he fell, while the Imagin caught Ryotaro and Momotaros. Shotaro was still stuck in midair, however, held up by the dopant's extension-cord arms.
“Bold of you to assume any of your Kamen Rider technology could defeat my Malware Dopant powers,” the monster taunted. “With this power, and the ability to control time once I find the Denliner blueprints, I could take over the multiverse!”
“The multiverse?” Shotaro exclaimed. “So you're some alternate universe Phillip?”
“Alternate universe Raito, thank you very much,” Malware Dopant corrected him. He turned his head to Phillip. “Anyway, how about you tell me where the blueprints are before I destroy your little friend here?”
“Let Shotaro go!” yelled Phillip.
“Not until I get those blueprints!”
“Wait!”
Everybody turned to Naomi, who was standing at the back of the group.
“Wait,” Naomi repeated. “If you want the blueprints, I'll show you where they are. Just give back my coffee car and free the detectives.”
Malware Dopant thought for a moment.
Ryuutaros tried to protest. “Naomi, don't listen to—”
Urataros stopped him. “Shh.”
Naomi took a few steps forward. “Better yet, I can help you time-travel without needing a giant train. You'll be able to turn anything into a time-travel machine.”
After considering this offer for a minute, the dopant put Shotaro back on the ground. “I'll free the other one after I get the time-travel powers.” He shooed the other dopants away from the train. “Don't try to escape, or else I'll destroy him instead.”
Naomi nodded cautiously as she walked to the train car. She stepped inside, looked around, took a deep breath, and smiled. Then she walked to the counter and began to brew some coffee.
Everyone else peeked through the door. “What the heck is she up to?” Momotaros wondered.
“Perhaps we shouldn't question it,” Ryu replied.
Malware Dopant transformed back into Raito and barged into the train car. “Where are the blueprints? Why are you wasting time making coffee?!”
“It's not just any coffee,” Naomi answered, pouring the coffee into a cup. “This coffee allows the one drinking it to time-travel whenever they want. All you need to do is add a train pass.”
“Wait, I have to put a train pass into the coffee?”
“Well, it doesn't have to be a train pass. Just something portable. It will absorb the time-travel powers from the coffee, and then you can use it to time-travel. Like that scary-looking USB stick you have there,” Naomi explained, pointing at the 'Malware' gaia memory. “In fact, somebody tried using a USB stick before. If I remember it right, it gave the USB the power to turn any tech into a time machine.”
Raito gasped. “Fascinating! I'll take one cup of this coffee right now!” He handed the Malware memory to Naomi, who put it into the coffee. Then she added colourful frosting on top, and handed the coffee to Raito.
“How does it taste?” Naomi asked cheerfully.
Raito chugged the entire cup of coffee. “Not too bad. Way too sweet, but it has a nice aftertaste. It kind of tastes like, like... zzzzz...” Raito's head fell onto the counter as he fell asleep.
“Thanks!” Naomi replied with a smile. “It's just regular Denliner coffee, really. I added a few ingredients to it though, so you might feel some weird side effects, like falling asleep.”
“What about the time-travel powers?” Shotaro asked.
“Oh, I made that up,” Naomi replied, lifting the Malware memory out of the coffee cup. “Nothing wreaks a USB stick faster than a fresh hot cup of coffee. Also, you should probably arrest that guy before he wakes up in an hour or two.”
Ryu nodded and handcuffed Raito while Akiko called the cops. Meanwhile, the Imagin defeated the last few Masquerade dopants and freed Phillip.
“Phillip, you're alright!” Shotaro exclaimed.
“Yeah! I'm glad that we don't need to worry about the alternate universe Raito now,” said Phillip.
“And I finally have my coffee car back!” Naomi cheered.
Ryotaro nodded. “And all without the Owner noticing.”
“Without me noticing what?” the Owner asked.
Everybody turned around to look at the Owner, who had just entered the train car. “Uh-oh.”