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They don’t move for long moments, arms barely brushing each other’s. The multiverse shifts and reforms, something on the edge of his consciousness, and when it snaps into place, Tsukasa finally lets himself lean against Daiki’s shoulder, so he doesn’t fall.
Another barrier lifted, he thinks. Another happy ending, he hopes.
It feels… odd in its own way, to bear witness to this moment, even after the golden clocks fade from the air in the World of Heroes.
“It’s over,” Daiki speaks first. Tsukasa’s glad of that, as he turns towards the thief. He feels his smile grow larger as he meets his eyes.
He knows there’ll be more Worlds, more hopes and tragedies, but in this moment he feels…
Free .
He doesn’t think, which is probably good because he still feels strange after whatever had happened, he just pulls Daiki to him, kissing him deeply.
“My Kaitou,” he says.
“Tsukasa,” Daiki replies. “Shall we investigate?”
Tsukasa nods, taking a step back and once again catching himself by grabbing Daiki’s hand.
“Tomorrow,” he says, opening a Veil to Daiki’s nearest safehouse.
(For some reason, he gets the feeling they shouldn’t return home quite yet.)
Tsukasa wakes late, the next morning. He isn’t surprised, his body has never worked on even or human times. It had been odd as a kid, but he’d grown out of the nocturnalism of his parent’s race. Now, of course, he’s just a being of the rippling dimensions themselves.
And the Worlds, which make up his form, have certainly been altered.
“You slept less than I expected,” Daiki says then, from the doorway. Tsukasa turns to him after getting up, glad to find himself steadier than before.
“And what would that mean?” He challenges. Daiki laughs.
“Absolutely nothing,” he replies.
(He doesn’t need to say the “I was worried”. Tsukasa could read that with ease.)
Woz stops them, when they return to World of Heroes.
“I am afraid I cannot allow you to speak to Waga Maoh,” he says. “He does not want us.”
Tsukasa analyzes the man before him. There’s something almost vulnerable in his eyes, in the second before the prophet looks away.
“And why would that be?” Tsukasa asks.
“My Demon King…” Woz says slowly. “Has chosen to erase Ohma Zi-O. He has no memories of the past year, and the others in our story live happily beside him.”
“But not you,” it’s Daiki who says that. Old wounds more healed than they once were but not forgotten.
“I exist outside of time,” Woz says. “It is my nature, and it was my choice.” He sighs. “All I ask is that you not disrupt my Demon King’s happiness.”
Tsukasa turns to Daiki.
They did it , Tsukasa says again, silently.
But at what cost? Woz is annoying, perhaps. Obviously worked for his own ends until near the very end, but he was a Rider, he was a hero, and now he’s alone, watching his friends go about their daily lives in blissful ignorance.
It’s not a happy ending.
“You can come—” He starts only to be cut off, and there is a sad smile on Woz’s face as he speaks.
“I am satisfied with this ending,” he says. “For them to be happy and Ohma Zi-O to be no more, for my Demon King to have a chance to become who he wishes… I will chronicle his story, even still.”
“You don’t know what you’re choosing,” Daiki says, and Woz shakes his head.
“I know exactly what I’m choosing,” he says. “I chose Tokiwa Sougo, average high schooler with the potential to become king.”
Tsukasa once again takes in the younger Rider.
“Who are you, Kamen Rider Woz?” He asks. Woz smiles.
“An impossibility,” he says. “Who is simply glad he still exists.”
That’s not worrying at all. But Tsukasa supposes that it’s time to let these Riders take care of their own Stories.
“We’ll be back,” he says. “If there’s trouble.”
“Or treasure,” Daiki adds.
“I’m sure,” Woz said, snark and evident, and then he turned away from them.
“I would suggest the two of you go home, now,” he continues. “You might find something waiting.”
And then he teleports away. Daiki tilts his head at Tsukasa.
“Well,” he says. “Shall we?”
It could possibly be a trap, not that anyone could match Tsukasa’s fury if they desecrate his home, but neither care.
And they step into the future together…
Two more veils open beside theirs, and…
Natsumi.
Yuusuke.