Work Text:
Junichiro
Kaitou Daiki is painfully human.
He knows this, had known it since… perhaps the first time Tsukasa turned to him with a form almost rippling with power and something More. The moment he learned what a Kuuga fully represented. The moment he watched power meant only for demons effortlessly surround Natsumi in white and silver armor.
But, no. The first time he knew was the day he saw a Roach take someone away.
His brother had sat him down, after, when he was young and shaken, and he’d explained that the Roaches worked for Fourteen, who had taken them in. They took away people who were unkind to teach them how to do better, and they needed to be scary or people not like Daiki and his brother would be even more rude, even cruel.
And Daiki had nodded his little head and thought that made perfect sense. He said that, if so, then he’d help them keep people in order one day.
Oh, the ironies.
There are worse monsters than the Roaches, after all, and Daiki…
He is many things, but orderly is not one of them, nor is kind.
But, somehow, he is utterly ordinary in nature.
And back then he hadn’t known to check and see if his brother, or Thirteenth, were Worse than the visible monsters.
But he’s learned notice.
Tsukasa
“Thinking too hard about something?” Tsukasa asks, sitting on top of Daiki and bringing him back to the present.
“Too heavy,” Daiki says.
“Rude,” Tsukasa replies. “And here I was being thoughtful.”
He means it, Despite the teasing. Daiki thinks about a single photo in Tsukasa’s room, twisted, unnatural, and terrifying creatures. A woman smiling. A small boy. A smaller girl.
Externally, he just rolls his eyes.
“Besides,” Tsukasa adds. “You do it to me often enough.”
“Good point,” Daiki snarks, pulling the other into a kiss. “But you shove me off.”
Tsukasa just smirks.
“You are heavy,” he says. “Also, I like your pout.”
Daiki… definitely does not pout, at that. Tsukasa laughs.
Yuusuke
After the Rider War, death still hung in the air. It wasn’t something they would openly speak of. It was something mentioned in not-words.
Natsumi knows Tsukasa had given his life to her a time and a half over. Yuusuke and Tsukasa both know they had planned going down together in completely different ways. Daiki knows that when he went to shoot Tsukasa in the head, Tsukasa raised his hand, and the blast went through two Veils and straight into Daiki himself. Walked closer, took a hold of Daiki’s gun and took away the part that made it the tool of a Kamen Rider.
Kept Daiki out of it until Daiki was cradling a corpse in his arms and mourning a man he would always have too complicated a relationship with to simply love.
They all know that whatever happened in those months, it broke things in Yuusuke and Tsukasa both that they’ve only mostly regained.
Yuusuke is outside, staring at the stars. Daiki is watching him, wondering how he’d come to love a man too perfect to exist.
“Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we never met Tsukasa?” He asks. “Or… if nothing else, I wonder. What I’d be.”
“Why do you ask?” Daiki asks. Yuusuke continues looking up, looking away.
“I didn’t start fighting for others,” he says. “I fought for myself. I didn’t realize how terrible it was, though, until I lost…”
He trails off. And Daiki wasn’t there for this part.
Yuusuke finally turns to him.
“Sorry,” he says. “I guess I just keep thinking about death, and fate, and how happy I am that I am right here, right now. I mean, I don’t always fight. I’ve been used to hurt others. So what if—”
“You’d figure it out,” Daiki says. Yuusuke blinks.
(Daiki does not think about how he’s never had to fight Kuuga. It’s better that way, really.)
“What?”
“Even without Tsukasa,” Daiki says. “You’d be a good person. It’s what you chose, which is more in your bones than what surrounds you.”
Daiki chose to be awful. A choice far too late to undo.
Yuusuke chose better.
Yuusuke looks at him, consideringly.
“I… thank you,” he says.
Daiki nods. Yuusuke takes his hand, leans closer.
They stay like that, just thinking, for a while.
Natsumi
Natsumi doesn’t realize it, and perhaps it’s the most unique thing about her. She seem normal until she notices the way plants wilt slightly away from her, moves a frame out of synch with reality. Yuusuke knows what Kuuga means. Tsukasa is casually aware of how he exists with one step in the uncanny valley.
Natsumi has no idea.
The others don’t even notice, either. Because to them, it’s a little too close to normal.
Daiki can’t say it - he’s seen the pain the ugly truth can cause. It hurts no one.
Still, though, he’s not one for too much stealth. He can be manipulative or secretive but it never fails to leave a bad taste in his mouth.
And unfortunately, Natsumi knows him. Unfortunately, when things go wrong, he finds himself seeking her out, just to not be alone.
It’s just a normal world and they’re hiding from some monsters. They were all separated, and yet…
“Is something wrong?” Natsumi asks quietly. “Besides…”
She gestures. Daiki shakes his head.
“It’s nothing,” he says. “And not the time.”
Natsumi hmms.
“Been a while since it was the two of us like this, though,” Daiki quickly redirects. “Natsumelon~”
“It has,” Natsumi replies. “This time, at least… we can find the others. Can you watch my back?”
“For now,” Daiki replies.
When she transforms with Kivala, it feels… wrong. But oh, it is nice to fight by her side.
Daiki
He’s going through his collection. That one needs to be modified for human use, still. That one needs to be modified to not make him inhuman.
That one he stole from some asshole. That one he stole from some hero and had an hour long fight with his partners over (the guy hadn’t actually needed the sword).
That one belonged to a god.
That one was made by some idiot with a god complex.
Daiki sighs.
He senses a veil behind him.
“…so this is where you run off to,” Tsukasa says.
“Sometimes,” Daiki replies, turning to face Tsukasa… and Natsumi and Yuusuke. “I’m running low on space, though.” He catches Yuusuke grab at something he hasn’t gotten uncursed, yet. “I wouldn’t risk touching that, Yuusuke.”
Yuusuke hastily moves his hand.
“It’s an incredible collection,” Yuusuke says honestly.
“I know,” Daiki says. “I’m a treasure hunter, after all.”
Natsumi picks up another item.
“If you need more space, I’m sure the studio has some.”
“I’d rather keep this to myself,” Daiki says. “How did you even find this place?”
“It’s been two weeks,” Natsumi says.
“We were worried,” Yuusuke adds.
Tsukasa looks over at his belt wall.
“…Though maybe we shouldn’t be,” he says. “You might be the strongest man in the multiverse, if you ever used this stuff.”
“I find it more fun to collect,” Daiki replies.
(He doesn’t say that he doubts he has anything that could match them.)
He does let them take him home, all the same.
Kaitou Daiki is painfully human… and he wouldn’t want it any other way.