Work Text:
It wasn’t frequent that Tsukasa was the first to arrive back at the studio. He had peeled off early, leaving the others at Cous Coussier. He knew Yusuke was particularly fond of Eiji, they’d keep talking for hours. A wanderer of worlds, and a wanderer of the world. It made sense in that framing.
(Even though Tsukasa didn’t dislike Eiji, he couldn’t stand to spend as long with him as Yusuke could. That wasn’t meant to sound bad.)
Anyways. That was Yusuke, and Natsumi had stayed behind with him as well. Even Eijiro had also gone separately for shopping. And he really had no clue where Daiki was right now- by his last impression, he was still preparing some annoying sneak thief plot that hadn’t triggered yet.
Nobody had locked the door when the shop had been left empty? Geez, that was sloppy. That had never been his job, though, so he’d just have to scold the others later. There wasn’t much use in an “I’m back,” right now, but Tsukasa still muttered it to the empty main hall. Maybe he was meant to be the ‘Welcome home” when the others returned this time.
Huh. Was there muttering beyond his own, coming from further inside?
...What. How were those two sitting in the studio.
Sento rose at Tsukasa’s entrance, immediately breaking whatever conversation he had been having with his partner. “Tsukasa! Glad to see you!”
Banjo, in comparison, only barely turned towards him, and gave a short wave. “Yo.”
Eh? This wasn’t the World of Build, was it? Probably not, he hadn’t been put back in the uniform it had placed him in, and hadn’t there been some ominous architecture blocking the horizon? And besides, the World of Build…
(He didn’t know what had happened to the World of Build, only that whatever it was happened while he was traveling elsewhere. And when he was in the area again and tried to take a shortcut through a space it should have been, he had tripped, nearly sprained his ankle getting it caught in a void. He knew what that had to mean, but hadn’t wanted to develop those thoughts further.)
But… that was Sento and Banjo, and they had recognized him first, so they were ones he had met, not other alternates. In the World of Heroes, where they hadn’t been.
“Hey, this photostudio is in a different place then last time, right? Weren’t you in a barbershop before?”
“...It’s always in a new place in a new world.”
“Ehehehe… y’know... funny you should mention a New World…”
...That was the kind of tone that turned a generic term into a proper noun. Which was concerning!
~
It took awhile for them to sum up everything. Tsukasa at least already had some of the background from when he had passed through their world, but the line between point ‘A’ and point ‘Interdimensional DIY’ was still overcrowded to lay out. They spent a lot of time talking over each other to crack jokes as well. It was at odds with the grim circumstances they conveyed, but they treated said circumstances with casualness that indicated having lived with them for too long.
Eventually Tsukasa just cut them off. “...I get the gist.”
For someone interrupted mid-ramble, Sento looked relieved. “Oh, you do? Man, I’m glad. What do you think of our work, then? Y’know, construction-wise, I guess?”
On the New World itself? ...Was he being treated as expert testimony here? Well, that was flattering, and frankly, correct. Of course, there were all sorts of problems that could come from worlds merging, ones he had direct experience with. But this new world felt more… cohesive than others he had dealt with, not like the clashing panic of some unanswered existential question. Would things be okay, then? Things had been okay for a month, at least, from what he had heard.
If he was right about what world the world of Build had merged with, they might have made a smart choice there as well. This world had already naturally had a few different versions of riders coexisting. A world without riders might reject their addition, a world with only one strain might react badly to the competition, but if there were already multiple and things hadn’t blown up from the contradiction already...
(There was always the chance the world was waiting for him to show up to fall apart. They did like to do that. But when that started happening was when he’d worry about it.)
...Possibly, this was the kind of thing you could only get right if you were truly ignorant of how wrong it could go.
Tsukasa looked out the window, still mulling it over. “It seems… fine.”
“...Fine?” Banjo was leaning forward, chin resting on a hand. “Dude, you don’t seem very sure of that.”
“Banjo!” Sento side-glared over at his partner, before returning to an amicable tone. “I’m sure if Tsukasa thinks it’s fine, it’s fine.”
Okay, it was fine, then. He’d definitely be able to tell these sorts of things, after all.
...Relative stability of everything that had happened aside, there was something odd. No one besides these two were aware of the merge; from their story that even included their friends. That decision bugged Tsukasa. “...If you were trying to give your world a fresh start, it’s interesting you would leave yourselves out.”
Sento was quick to reply. “Oh, to be clear, I didn’t know that would happen! I first assumed that I wouldn’t exist at all afterwards, at first.” A small stutter as Sento realized something. “Er, that I’d exist as Katsuragi Takumi, really.”
(Right, the Devil’s Scientist or whoever that had been. Not that he’d ever been on Tsukasa’s payroll.)
“Ugh, that’s still such bullshit.” Banjo grimaced with all the strength of an already well trodden complaint. “I mean, sacrificing yourself for that guy?”
“Hey, he’s fine here, he lived a life without becoming the Devil’s Scientist… I’m as glad he got a second chance as I am for everyone else. It wasn’t really relevant in the end, anyways. It was only because Banjo and I turned out to have been people who only could have existed in the old world that we ended up being the exception and didn’t merge with our counterparts.”
Huh. Their current state being accidental did feel more reasonable to Tsukasa. It still felt like… questionable luck for them to have to bear the full brunt of those memories instead, but at least it was shared between them.
It wasn’t intentional, but there was a bit of a silence after that. For whatever reason the duo had canned coffees with them; they must have been drinking them as they waited for Tsukasa? Weird. It was after Sento tilted back, finishing his off, that he spoke again. “Wait... Tsukasa, there was actually something I wanted to ask about. You were taking photos as you passed through, right? ...Did you ever get the roll from back then developed?”
It was phrased casually, and Tsukasa was dismayed he knew it wasn't. It was awkward this way, for Sento to want to cloak it only for Tsukasa to immediately spot the need underneath. Unfortunately, how could he not? It’s a need Tsukasa recognized, felt the same roots of in himself.
The purpose such an archive could have-- to confirm memory you had doubt in, for whatever reason.
It was rooted too close to home, enough that Tsukasa felt the need to do… Something about it. But at the same time... if casual was the level of investment Sento was safe expressing, it would be the best level for Tsukasa to meet him at. So he needed a different approach...
Oh, here was a thought: “So we’re comparing work, now?” Sento wanted his opinion on the New World, now in exchange he could get Sento’s opinion on his photography. The exchange made sense. He decided to hold on to that thought, settled his concern into ‘what they’ll think of his photos’, and was ready to continue.
“Ehhh? Is that really a comparison?” Banjo stretched out the disbelief in his tone wide enough he could have held it up as a banner. “I mean, you took photos, we made a world, those seem like apples and oranges.”
In being questioned, it just became clearer to Tsukasa how much sense the exchange made. One medium was just the other in compressed format. He ignored Banjo. “Wait.”
No point in grabbing the photo albums. The only shot that had really come out (in a way that earned it a spot in one of them) was--
”It’s gotta be Love and Peace~!” Sento’s tone was cheesy, even posing with his fingers up in a peace sign.
“Oh, yeah, love and peace.” Banjo was less theatriatric, but he still joined with a second peace sign, flung out in a more reflexive, thoughtless way.
--click--
--Of course, that photo wouldn't be what they wanted to see. Tsukasa was proud of how tame the warping was, the relative clarity of the features, but. A better representation of his talent or no, it only depicted what they had already recovered, not who they were looking for.
The rest would be somewhere in the unsorted stack of his ‘bad’ photos. Which meant finding them would be a bit of a pain, but hopefully they’d still mostly be together. Unless Eijiro had raided them for art supplies again recently.
It occurred to him, as he rifled through the stack, to be nervous that he’d find them blank, for a world disappeared. But then he located what were probably them in the stack, images intact. So maybe that’s another sign that enough of that world still lingers on in this new one. There were at least a decent amount of the photos, although from what he remembered a portion of them just cataloged some of that world’s unique architectural features. He was unsure of how recognizable the figures were, but. Maybe if you knew who they depicted better, they’d be moreso.
He gathered them, and let them unceremoniously spill on the table in front of the pair. “Here.”
Banjo looked briefly at the photos, then back up at Tsukasa. “...These suck.”
“Banjo,” Sento muttered, elbowing his partner in the side, and interrupting whatever offense Tsukasa was about to take.
“Okay, but they--”
Sento quickly shook his head. “Let’s at least look through them, first.”
...Sento intervening on his partner’s rudeness aside, they both looked apprehensive as they shuffled through the stack. Their occasional comments were quiet enough that they were clearly directed between themselves, and not at Tsukasa.
“That’s the skywall… right?”
“I think that’s Gen-san…”
“Look at this one of Misora, she’s totally green!”
“Oh, damn, for real? That’s kinda spooky...”
“Yeah, freaky…”
All this time and Tsukasa still wished he was better at reading expressions. The two kept muttering to each other, but the back and forth was vague. They might as well just say what they really thought, right? Even if it was… well, yeah.
He fiddled with his camera in the meantime, instead.
...
Sento let out a half cut-off laugh. “...Pfft. These are stupid.”
Okay, well. Maybe so. But that was still rude, wasn’t it?
“Nonononono,” Sento waved his arm frantically, like clearing something out of the air, “Sorry, I mean. I mean, they’re stupid, but so were they. They’re just like them, it’s perfect. They’re terrific.”
...Eh…? That was a mixed(?) collection of feedback, but it was the ‘terrific’ that stuck, ringing in his ears. They appreciated his style after all? Of course, Sento was someone who appreciated flair. It made sense he’d understand Tsukasa’s work.
...A thought. Tsukasa positioned his camera, and snapped a candid shot.
“Oh, more? Wait, no let me--” Sento struck a goofy pose. Tsukasa obligingly took another shot.
“This makes that archive incomplete, you know.”
Sento looked thoughtful, if a little confused. “Huh… yeah, I guess, for now.”
Tsukasa ran his fingers over the ridges around his camera’s lenses, without looking down at it. “We take photographs to capture a moment in time. But when we keep taking them we can capture something alive, too, I think. What we want to preserve… we can preserve how it changes and how it persists, as well. Even when you start a new roll of film…”
This New World… it couldn’t be the same as the World of Build, but it could continue from it, with those two to preserve in their memories both how it was then, and how it is now.
He thought that made sense. The two looked happy, so maybe it did.
~
Sento had his coat on, ready to leave, but was taking a moment to lean back, hands in his pockets. “I’m glad we got the chance to catch up. And hey, Banjo’s warming up to you at least!”
Warming? What, a metal stick to scald him with? “Ah… is that what that was…”
“Yeah, whatever dude…” From his eye roll, that must have just been Sento needling Banjo. Understood. Banjo then grimaced at Tsukasa. ...Was there an upwards turn to that expression? “...Uh. We’ll see you again sometime, right?”
...Wait, was he actually…!?
Any consideration was interrupted by a sudden interjection from Sento. “Oh wait, that’s a point! We should exchange numbers, so we don’t have to rely on coincidence to meet again.”
“I don’t have a phone.” He didn’t need one. And even if he did, cell service wouldn’t be continuous between worlds.
“Aw, damn… Wait. No?” Sento’s expression changed from frustrated to puzzled in a snap. “You had that really complex looking form from last time, right? Wasn’t what you used to transform into it a phone?”
...The K-Touch?
(After testing, it did, indeed, turn out to function as a phone. In the end, Sento left him with his number scrawled out on a loose receipt.)
(“Whoa, Natsumi, check this out, Tsukasa actually got someone’s digits!”
“Huh? Really?”
It wasn’t until the others reacted that it occurred to Tsukasa to preen about it.)