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Daiki makes his presence known by taking Yuusuke’s food right off his plate. Yuusuke turns around.
“Hey!”
“Missed you too,” Daiki says. He pops it in his mouth. “Thanks for the snack.”
Yuusuke sighs. Luckily, there’s more than enough.
“So what have you been up to?” Daiki asks, perching himself on the table.
“The usual,” Yuusuke says. “And you?”
“Oh,” Daiki says, grinning. “The usual.”
“What did you get involved with this time?”
“Nothing important!” Daiki says. Yuusuke looks him over, and Daiki huffs. “Well, it’s no one important. Got a prize from Foundation X for giving a poor Rider his memories back.”
That feels like evasion, but Yuusuke just sighs. Trying to control Daiki is like trying to catch the wind with your hand.
“World of Heroes?”
“Does it really matter if it’s anywhere else?”
“Yes, actually,” Yuusuke says. “I’ve been busy too, and with the kids.”
“Do they miss me?” Daiki asks. Yuusuke just stares at him.
“Yes, Daiki,” he says. “They miss you. They always do.”
“I know,” Daiki says. “Just wanted to hear you say that.”
Yuusuke rolls his eyes and goes back to eating. Daiki steals another piece.
Yuusuke goes out, himself. Not often, but enough to remind himself. That he can find his way home. That he’s alive. That…
That he has a chance.
Today he’s on a barren world, sitting on a bench and considering his search. If it looks this, pristine and modern and empty, there’s probably very bad news for someone.
If there are survivors, Yuusuke will find them, and help them.
This has become his own personal bad habit over the years. They all have them, but his is at least not self destructive. It’s a chance to do good, to feel good about his work as a Rider, and to help people who may have already given up.
A sound from behind him, and Natsumi sits next to him.
“Is something wrong?” Yuusuke asks. Natsumi shakes her head.
“I just wanted to visit you,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” Yuusuke says. He usually feels better after these personal trips. “…but I don’t know what to do, here.”
Natsumi nods, thoughtfully.
“You’re amazing,” she says. “Being able to do this.”
And Yuusuke knows that. None of the others seek out broken down worlds. They help if they find them, but to walk directly into the pain of maybe being too late?
Well, it hurt Yuusuke too, but he can’t stand letting these tragedies stay. So he goes to fix them.
Still, he leans against Natsumi.
“I try,” he says.
Natsumi smiles, softly.
“I sense human life,” she says, “it’s a bit outside the city. North.”
Yuusuke grins back.
“And this is why I can do this,” he says. “I know I have help when I need it.”
He finds Tsukasa with the group - 20some humans and 30 odd Kaijin.
“Oh,” Tsukasa says. “Is this your project, Yuusuke?”
“Yeah…” Yuusuke says. “Why?”
“Because this is all that’s left of humanity,” Tsukasa says. “Pathetic, isn’t it?”
A boy glares at Tsukasa. Yuusuke sighs.
“He’s harmless, I promise,” he says. “Well, he won’t harm you .”
Tsukasa grins.
“You have a plan, beloved?”
“No,” Yuusuke says. “Not yet. 60 people… do you want to leave?”
“No!” The same boy glaring at Tsukasa says. “This is our home!”
“You’ll be dead from incest in 200 years at most,” Tsukasa says. Yuusuke hits him. Tsukasa pouts.
“I’m sure we can find more people.” Yuusuke says. “Or a good place for you all to settle. Is the problem over?”
“Yeah,” the boy says. “All of evil was erased from this earth.”
Oh this is not going to be fun.
They stay at a hotel, stealing keys. Yuusuke lays with Tsukasa, but Tsukasa sits just far enough away to make clear he doesn’t want to be touched - which is to say, anywhere not actively in Yuusuke’s bubble already. Is it the hotel room?
“I’ve gotten the first of it already… That boy has a wishing stone,” Tsukasa says. “It has one wish left. This world was overrun by monsters. They took over the world, but the humans responded with mass murder. He wanted it to end.”
“Well, that’s not a fair world.” Yuusuke says.
“Not a bit,” Tsukasa says. “They’ll fight over that stone. Many of them are mourning. He hasn’t told them.”
“So we get him to wish to fix it?”
“We get him to admit he ended the world,” Tsukasa says. “Or just send Kaitou into steal it.”
“Tsukasa!”
“It could work.”
Yuusuke shoves him off the bed.
A woman talks about how her son was conscripted. A monster explains they use slaves as soldiers. The ensuing fallout reveals the stone and soon becomes a brawl Yuusuke and Tsukasa have to quickly end. In that time, the stone splits into 4 and flies away.
A voice booms: one more chance, if you can unite .
“See?” Yuusuke says. “Fighting does no one any good.”
“Maybe we all should die,” the boy says.
“No,” Tsukasa says. “You all must live and put things right. Together.”
Uneasy looks.
“Alright,” says a Kaijin girl. “We’ll do it.”
“I suppose we need the stone back one way or another,” the boy says.
It’s a start.
They’re home and Yuusuke is awake at night. He looks at the old photo of the four of them, after the Rider War. Tsukasa’s hair isn’t shock-bleached and Yuusuke has no scars.
There is a photo next to it, the four of them and their family.
It’s just as happy, to Yuusuke.
Time passes. Things can be bad. But giving up is not the answer. It’s the stubborn choice to exist and protect others at any cost.
The Tsukasa in that photo would protect Yuusuke’s smile. The Tsukasa of today knows all the right ways to calm him from nightmares.
The Natsumi in that photo was terrified of herself and the worlds and the Natsumi of today has learned to accept the power and pain by choice, not circumstances.
The Daiki in that photo has barely begun to lean in and the Daiki of the day is skittish but safe .
Yuusuke wonders if he’s grown as much. He hopes so.
What a happy ending to a story that will never end.