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Banding together never lasted. Not really. By 5 years in, Natsumi knows better.
Spreading out worked better. An information network of fighters who never Sta together for long. She’s one of them.
It all changes, though. Once the fated Decade comes.
The one she heard of was a selfish monster, ruled by his vices. Capable of endless power. The only way to leave this World.
That’s why he’s the key. Only those touched by him, personally, can make a way out.
(She’s tried. She can make the portals. She can leave.
She no longer wants to.)
The one she met was a hero.
Kamen Rider is a term of fear, here. She hears, from some who could listen closer to the invaders running her World, that these are evil ones.
Meaning there are heroes.
Decade is a hero.
Natsumi is not even a Kamen Rider, at all.
…but she’d like to fight.
She tells everyone. The Kamen Riders are dead.
Not all of them, but enough. She hears as resistance begins to form. As some monsters come to their side. They say the Woman Of The Negatives say these things.
That was not intentional.
“Agh!”
Natsumi jumps, and so does the man in one of her favorite hide-y holes. His hair is loose and messy, but his clothes are surprisingly clean and bright. She knows how to pick out monsters, so she knows he is human.
“You’re from the rings, aren’t you?” She asks.
The man pauses. Blinks.
“Yeah,” he says. “Let me tell you, it was a hell of a time getting out.”
“You’re even more likely to die, out here.”
“I’d rather die on my terms,” the man says. “I don’t want to bow my head again. I don’t want to hurt people who had no choice.”
The rings: not everyone were killed. Early on, large groups were captured. Human fight rings. Human races. Human tournaments of all kind.
Most were survive or die. Natsumi assumes this man has killed people, but she’s far too tired to care.
“I want my World back,” he says, and Natsumi suddenly meets his gaze.
Oh.
He understands.
“Resistance is forming,” she says. “They’re going to need leaders.”
The man smiles.
“I can do that,” he says. “And you?”
“I don’t think I have a choice,” Natsumi admits. “Ever heard of the Woman Of The Negatives?”
The man laughs.
“Oh, even better,” he says. “Onodera Yuusuke. Many times champion. Rebel. Friend of the Woman Of The Negatives, perhaps?”
He offers his hand, and Natsumi takes it.
(She is so tired of being alone.)
A World in Negative is hard to save. Perhaps impossible. Natsumi isn’t quite sure.
She’s lost everything before, after all. She doesn’t have it in her to hope. Maybe that’s why things progress so much faster, when she meets Yuusuke.
He’s a fighter. He wants things, still.
“Okay,” he says, in the first makeshift meeting ever done. “So, if we can block off some private areas for our own use, we can start gathering survivors.”
“The mountains,” Natsumi offers, immediately. “There’s some very secret areas. Never patrolled. No one cares.”
Yuusuke nods.
“Exactly,” he says.
“Won’t that just put us all in danger?” One of Natsumi’s main contacts asks. Natsumi shakes her head.
“We already thought of that,” she says. “But some of the monsters are on our side, now. And…”
She opens a Veil. Her secret trump card.
Everyone’s eyes widen.
“We aren’t trapped,” someone says.
“No, we’re not,” Yuusuke says simply. “We’re taking what’s ours.”
“And more than that,” Natsumi says. “We’re not alone. Not every monster agrees. Many were just refugees. There are people on our side.”
There is hope.