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Taki had seen this all before. He'd seen Hongo take bad hits. He'd seen Hongo fall from great heights. He'd seen the man vanish underwater for far longer than a human could. He'd seen the man burn.
Something was different this time.
He watched the flaming bodies hit the water and his heart sank. He couldn't place it, but he just didn't feel the confidence he usually did. He stared at the spot where Hongo landed, waiting for him to re-emerge, but nothing happened.
It couldn't be true. Hongo couldn't just be dead. It'd all happened so fast. The battle had only been building and then... over. Over in one explosion.
No, Hongo wasn't dead. It was far too early to say that. He'd come back from far worse fights than this. It would just take time for him to get back to shore.
That's what Taki convinced himself of as he went back to the others. Hongo would be fine. He would never go down so easily. They were being too hasty, all of them. There was no reason to think this battle was different than any other. Hongo would come back. Hongo always came back.
It was hard to keep convincing himself as they drove back to headquarters. He talked and joked, but the girls barely responded. Every time he turned the check on them they were silent, staring into space. Tachibana was equally quiet, his eyes fixed on the road, his jaw clenched.
"He'll be there," he said in the silent car, "When we get back. You know what he's like. He's always running off to go fix things by himself. We'll find him in the lab running tests or something."
Tachibana's glanced at him and Taki's felt his heart sink further. Pity. Tachibana was pitying him. He didn't need pity, he was right. Kamen Rider couldn't die.
He stopped trying to convince the others of that. It wasn't worth it. They would see.
If only he didn't have to convince. If only he had the connection Hongo and Hayato had. He could call upon Hongo and ask the man where he was. He'd asked, asked many times, but it was impossible without turning him into a cyborg like them. Which he'd considered, of course, but he saw the weight their condition put on them, and decided against asking. Maybe that'd been a mistake. If he'd brought it up, if he'd pushed Hongo past the fear and guilt, maybe...
As soon as they got back to HQ, he scrambled out of the car. The main room was dark, but that was no reason to panic. Taki flipped on the lights and searched the room for any sign that Hongo had returned. Nothing. The whole place was exactly as he'd left it.
Not time to panic yet. There were a hundred reasons Hongo wouldn't return immediately. He was following the monster. His bike had broken down. He'd washed up on an unfamiliar shore and it was taking him a while for him to find his bike.
The phone rang and Taki lunged for it.
"Where are you?" he snapped into the receiver.
"Taki?"
It wasn't Hongo on the line, it was Hayato. Taki's chest ached, and his vision blurred with tears. He rubbed his eyes. It didn't mean anything. Hayato calling didn't mean...
"What happened?" Hayato was scared. "What happened to Hongo?"
"I..." Taki's voice broke and he bit his lip. "What do you know?"
"The connection, it's gone." Hayato's voice shook. "Gone. Entirely gone. Like the line's been cut."
Taki swallowed the huge lump in his throat. He'd never heard Hayato's voice shake like that. Never seen the man anything less than fully confident. But still, no reason to panic, to jump to conclusions.
"There was a fight," Taki explained, "And he... he fell in the water, but... but that wouldn't be enough to..."
The door opened behind Taki and Tachibana shuffled in, staring at his feet.
"No, of course not." Hayato laughed hollowly. "Just because he's damaged the transmitter doesn't mean..."
"Of course." Taki laughed too. "He's probably stuck somewhere trying to fix himself up."
Tachibana sighed and Taki shot him a look. The old man didn't react. Walking up to the phone, he took it from Taki's hand. "He's gone," he said into the phone, staring at Taki with that same look of pity he'd had in the car.
"You don't know that," Taki grabbed at the phone, but Tachibana kept it away from him.
"The explosion was too powerful," Tachibana continued, "He didn't make it."
Tachibana's face blurred and Taki wiped more tears from his eyes. "He's made it out of worse situations."
"Taki..." Hayato's voice came from the phone, soft and gentle. The same voice he used for the children made orphans by Shocker.
"No!" Taki stormed away from the phone. "He's not dead! He can't die!"
Tachibana's head tilted towards the phone, listening to words Taki couldn't hear. He didn't want to hear them. They were wrong, both of them. Hongo would come back, any minute now, he'd...
A sob tore out of his throat. He clutched his chest as pain stabbed through his heart. No. He wasn't giving up hope. Hongo wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead.
"I'll take care of him," Tachibana said and hung up the phone. He walked over to Taki with a dark expression.
It wasn't pity this time. Tears formed in Tachibana's eyes. He didn't wipe them away as he put a hand on Taki's shoulder. "I know," he said softly, "I loved him too. He was my son."
"Is," Taki whispered.
Tachibana chuckled brokenly. Tears fell down his cheeks. His face blurred again, but Taki didn't wipe his tears away this time. He let them fall.
Tachibana nodded. With a sad smile, he put a hand on Taki's cheek. "That's it. Let it out."
"You're holding up well, old man," Taki choked through the tears.
"He's not my only son." Tachibana sighed deeply, "I've got other kids to stay strong for."
In that moment Taki saw how both how old and how young Tachibana was. Old enough to have seen things Taki couldn't understand, but young enough that he wasn't truly ready for any of it. Tachibana was too young to have lost so much, too young to be holding up everyone around him.
Another sob tore out of Taki's throat. Every wall he'd put up collapsed all at once and he curled in on himself. Tachibana caught him, holding him tight as he cried.
"I'm sorry," Taki sobbed into Tachibana's shoulder.
"It's okay," Tachibana clung to Taki, hands shaking as the man bit back sobs of his own, "We'll get through it together."