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He hates himself more for still doing exactly what Tsukasa made him into, but he doesn’t have the strength for that to hold. He tries to say he left for himself, to get out of the blast radius, but he knows the truth. It sits in his hand as more than a means of defense.
DiEnd, made to kill Tsukasa. Stolen as he escaped.
He takes hold of the new treasure in his hands, smiling.
Well, at least he’s good at it.
(He hates himself the most for abandoning his world for the second time.)
“You know, there’s a lot of people here who’d love to kill you,” Daiki says, lightly. As unafraid as you possibly can be of a man who doesn’t comprehend empathy and has the power over monstrous armies and of the fabric of reality in his hands.
“Oh?” Tsukasa says. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Plenty of people might want to kill me, but I’ll destroy them, instead.”
His words are sure. Too sure. Too… too ignorant, too innocent in the oddest fashion. Tsukasa hasn’t had his reality shattered in the way Daiki has. And Tsukasa maybe isn’t a horrible person, even if he’s simultaneously so capable of horrors, he doesn’t deserve to see his reality shattered with no warnings.
But he doesn’t listen, of course not.
And it terrifies Daiki more than he could put into words.
“Are you so sure you can?” He challenges, instead. Truly, Tsukasa shouldn’t look so in control even half asleep and naked, because his casual shrug exudes his own surety.
It’s unfounded, perhaps. Daiki can’t help but feel like whatever’s brewing is uniquely dangerous. Not just another defector or attempted coup that ends with the remains of those who challenged Dai-Shocker and their Great Leader.
It’s maybe too fitting to have this conversation when Tsukasa is arguably physically vulnerable.
“Of course I can,” Tsukasa says. “I’m the Great Leader.” He pulls Daiki closer. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
Daiki wishes he knew how to say “I’m here for you.”
He’s just wandering, and he realizes that one of the reasons he accepted Dai-Shocker was the purpose it gave him. The freedom of an illusion of choice with the comfort of control.
As always, it reminds himself of his past. He hates the reminder.
He decides to embrace the changes. Pass through the worlds, a thief and a Kamen Rider.
That’s who he’ll be now, on his own terms.
“Kamen Riders are heroes, you know,” Tsukasa says. There’s something in his eyes as he says those words. “It’s dangerous to visit their worlds because they were made to fight darkness because they’re born of the same.”
It’s the first time Daiki thinks he’s ever seen Tsukasa interested in his work.
“Are you interested in them, regardless?” He asks.
“I’m a Kamen Rider,” Tsukasa replies. “Decade is a Kamen Rider.”
There’s a look in his eyes at the words, similar to the one when he’d first dragged Daiki away with him into this strange world of monsters and villains and freedom. Interest, but more.
Oh. The Great Leader of Dai-Shocker likes heroes .
Daiki wishes he knew what to do with that. He wishes it hadn’t taken him so long to find out.
He wishes and yet by now he’s plotting a way to escape.
“Of course, not all Riders are heroes,” Tsukasa continues. “It’s almost a shame.”
Daiki thinks about what he’s planning, thinks about the longing hidden in Tsukasa’s expression, and wishes this world’s horror could be simply upfront instead of simultaneously insidious.
His first fully successful heist on his own, completely undetected from start to finish and without help from anyone, leaves him excited and lonely in equal measure. He likes being a thief. He likes throwing around this priceless treasure, up and down in the air, from hand to hand.
He likes having food, but really that’s secondary.
Stealing something worth money is minor. Stealing something worth protection is part of the fun.
He supposes he really can get used to this life.
Maybe one day he’ll find a way to locate and liberate his world, visit without the physical nausion and shuddering that had overtaken him for longer than the five seconds it took for someone to recognize him and see his new Rider form.
He cooks Tsukasa a meal before he goes. He doesn’t know why. It’s a warning, and it puts him in danger, but he can’t make himself go without saying goodbye.
It’s just another way he can’t escape him, even if he has to escape.
He memorized all of his favorites because it’s the only way he knows how to cook. That’s what you do in his world and it’s such a small habitual thing he hadn’t realized he’d done until he did.
It pays off, and he escapes in the night.
But for some reason, leaving without taking something feels… empty.
He’s heard talk of a new Driver. What’s it called, DiEnd?
Equal in power to Decade. Undoubtedly made to kill Tsukasa.
Daiki could use some protection out in the Worlds, shouldn’t he? And after all, he is a thief.
“Running from me, Kaitou?”
Of course Tsukasa catches him. He turns.
“Tsukasa,” he says. It’s too personal. Normally, he might fear Tsukasa’s anger at addressing him as such in public, but not today.
“I meant for you to have it.”
“I don’t think you’d get the choice.”
Tsukasa cocks his head. It truly reveals how ignorant he is.
“Where will you go?”
“Don’t know.”
“You have my permission.”
Daiki laughs. The irony of permission for running away. From someone so close to a fall that he’s too scared to stay for.
He doesn’t know what else to say.
He leaves.
He gets word of Kamen Rider Decade, hero, and he can’t help but be interested. He tracks down Decade, and he wears Tsukasa’s face.
Daiki wishes he knew how to feel about that fact.
But he doesn’t.
So he does what he does best, and he runs.