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Shoutaro typically buys his books from a local bookstore. It’s the same one he’d frequented his entire life, and it always has what he needs.
But of course, he still has a library card.
(It’s still where he’d had to get most of his books, back then. And it’s been useful, once or twice.)
This was Philip’s idea, though. Because he got in wondering about libraries, because he kind of is a library, and now they’re here.
Well. It’s fine. As long as Shoutaro keeps his eye on his partner, this outing won’t be a problem at all.
Which is probably why he ends up browsing the same collection of detective novels he’d browsed as a kid.
It’s almost cartoonish in its coincidence, after that.
He looks through the shelf after picking a book, and he sees a flash of a magenta camera. It could be nothing, just a coincidence, but no true hard boiled detective ignores his instinct.
And somehow he knows at a glance that something is off about the man he sees for mere moments.
So he investigates, and he finds the man still looking at…
“Photography?”
The man turns.
“Oh, the Rider,” he says, calmly, and Shoutaro definitely does not jump. “I was going to look for you later.”
Shoutaro resists the urge to react, at that one. He has an image to maintain, after all.
“What are you doing here?” He asks instead, quietly and as he approaches the stranger.
“Just passing through,” the man says, snapping his book shut. He returns it neatly. Man, does this guy not know how to support a library or does he just not care? “And you?”
“My partner got overexcited,” Shoutaro says with a shrug, gesturing over to where Akiko was watching said partner ask increasingly strange questions about libraries to what at least seemed to be a very nice librarian. “I wandered off to browse.”
“I see,” the other Rider says, and then “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a library before.”
“Seriously?” Shoutaro asks. The man shrugs.
“Doubt I’d ever have wanted to, before I lost my memory,” he says. “Haven’t had a chance since.”
…wait.
“You lost your memories, too?”
The man blinks, a strange simultaneous confusion and boredom in his eyes.
“Did you?”
“Nah, but my partner has,” Shoutaro says.
The man hmms.
“I get the gist of it,” he says. “Maybe this world will still be okay after…”
He trails off. Shoutaro considers him.
“Who exactly are you?” He asks. “Philip tried to find you but came up blank.”
“I’m Kamen Rider Decade,” the man says. “That means many things.”
“How about a name,” Shoutaro says. Something sharpens in the other Rider’s gaze, at that.
“Kadoya Tsukasa,” the man, Kadoya, says. “And you?”
Shoutaro smiles charmingly, tipping his head as he says “Hidari Shoutaro, private dete—”
“Shoutaro!”
… damn Akiko, ruining his moment. Shoutaro curses and turns to find her by the entrance with Phillip, waving wildly.
“You were saying,” Kadoya says. Shoutaro sighs.
“We really should head back to our base,” he says.
“Then I guess it’s my time to finish passing through.”
…this is a terrible idea.
“Any man with real pride would invite an equal to their abode, if you’d like to accompany us.
Conclusion about Kadoya Tsukasa: he is weird , and he is kind of an asshole. He answers all of Philip’s questions noncommittally yet also adequately enough for Philip to move on. He barely seems to care about anything.
He’s… well, he’s hard boiled, but he’s also annoying , and kinda an asshole. And yet…
“You lost your memories,” Kadoya asks, though it’s more like a statement. Philip blinks.
“Yeah,” he says. “It’s the only thing I don’t know.”
“I… understand that.”
“Ah yes. Do you have any theories about…”
Shoutaro leaves the secret part of the agency, then, and finds Akiko staring at the door holding a slipper that reads “demon?”
“Oi,” he says. “What’s that for?”
“Shoutaro, why did you let him in there?” Akiko asks. “Idiot!”
“He’s another Rider, isn’t he?” Shoutaro asks. Akiko huffs.
“I tried to tell you no,” she says. “You’re in for it later!”
“We met him for five minutes, and he helped us,” Shoutaro points out.
“He’s weird .”
Shoutaro replies with absolutely nothing, to that. His own instincts say something is off about Kadoya, and no doubt that man is an asshole, and yet…
About an hour later, a man and a woman walk in. Also both feeling… a little off, though not to the extent of Kadoya.
“Excuse me,” the man says. “You wouldn’t happen to know where a tall man with a magenta camera went, would you?”
“We’re his partners,” the woman adds. “I’m Natsumi, and this is Yuusuke. Tsukasa’s growing a habit of wandering off on his own and let’s just say we aren’t impressed.”
Shoutaro turns to Akiko, who shrugs.
“I’ll go get him,” he says.
…okay, so there might be a reason to like Kadoya besides instinct. No one other than a good hearted person could make their partner smile like this Yuusuke does.
The next day, Kadoya returns to the agency, alone once more. Philip is researching something, and Akiko is out, and so it’s just the two of them.
“What do you want?” Shoutaro asks. Kadoya shrugs, sitting on the edge of Shoutaro’s desk.
“Nothing in particular,” he says. “Just wondering why you became a Rider.”
“To help my city,” Shoutaro says, and it’s then that Kadoya gives him the most piercing look he has ever experienced. “And… to make up for my sins.”
Kadoya hmms, looking away.
“Maybe we’re more alike than I thought,” he says. “But my sins can never be fully undone. This world proves it.”
Shoutaro considers him, in turn, though he doubts his gaze is nearly as piercing.
“You’re an interesting man,” he says.
“Or so I hear.”
“Feel free to stop by when you want.”
Kadoya turns to him.
“Why?” He asks. Shoutaro shrugs.
“The world can always use more good people in it,” he says. “And I’d say you fit the bill.”
“I see…” Kadoya stands then. “Thank you, detective.”
Shoutaro takes a second to reply to that because… thank you for what? Oh he’s probably supposed to know. Damn it!
“…Any time, as I said,” he says, far too late. Tsukasa actually smiles, at that.
…well, who expected a chance meeting in a library to end with a new interdimensional ally.