Chapter Text
“Onii-Chan?”
“Sayo.”
It’s just them. An odd feeling. Queen was an ensemble. Most meetings are. After all, Tsukasa never leaves his new family behind.
(…most of Sayo’s bitterness has died, but a tiny piece still remains.
She reminds herself that this Tsukasa is not the one who left her, this Tsukasa saved another innocent girl, now Sayo’s friend, because he remembered nothing at all, but he remembered he had a sister to protect.
This is the Tsukasa who helped her finally fly.)
Sayo herself travels solo, but she has her friends. They Journey with her, sometimes.
(Except that they aren’t like her, or like Tsukasa’s new family. They do not live in the Journey.)
“What are you doing here?” Sayo asks. Tsukasa hmms.
“What if I told you this World was a key point?” He asks. Sayo blinks.
“I could tell that much,” she says. They may both wield the powers inherited from their parents, now, and Tsukasa may be more power than person, but the Worlds were still hers first. “How do you know?”
Tsukasa hmms.
“There’s two of them,” he says. “Or something. One over in what most called Germany… I think. This one’s in North America. From Shocker Japan, though.”
“ They have Shocker here? ”
Tsukasa shrugs.
The Citystate they’ve arrived in is called Fuuto, a Japanese refugee area founded by a corporation, when Shocker took over Japan properly. How it got so successful and self sustaining? Sayo doesn’t know.
What she does know is people keep staring at the white suit her brother has been diagnosed with, today.
“Where’s the studio?” She asks. “Something tells me we need somewhere private. Or at least. You do.”
Unless they want to be jumped in the street, or something.
Tsukasa pauses.
“It’s not on this World,” he says.
“WHAT?”
Well, now people are definitely staring at them. Sayo sighs.
“Sorry,” she says. “Did you… get lost, somehow?”
“We both know that isn’t possible.”
“Well what other reason would you have?” Sayo asks. “You’d never leave them—”
“You’re right,” Tsukasa says. “Let’s find somewhere private.”
Sayo sighs. Never before has Tsukasa acted so much like the version who raised her.
She doesn’t exactly like it—
“You need somewhere private?”
Sayo jumps, turning towards the voice. A girl a year or two her senior waves, her wavy blonde hair dyed a soft green and tied into a loose ponytail. There’s a scar across one eye, and as Sayo examines, she sees a spark in the other girl’s eyes like the unholy pools of endless Worlds hidden in her brother’s, and, to some extent, herself.
“Yeah,” Sayo says, because letting random girls take her home has yet to end in anything but friendship.
“If you’re offering,” Tsukasa adds.
Sayo turns and glares at him. The looks are his own fault, after all. He doesn’t even have the sense to look embarrassed.
“Marlowe!” Says a woman’s shrill voice as they get to their location. Sayo stares.
They’re in the local warehouse district, or so Tsukasa has said with casual derision. Sayo feels out of her depth. With Dai-Shocker seeming to show back up, with Tsukasa being the hero…
“Akiko,” says the girl with them. “Any luck finding her?”
“No,” says a tiny woman in a suit. “She’s still fucked off to who knows where for a stupid fucking reason, thank you very much.”
Marlowe huffs.
“It’s not my fault,” she says. “I’m not a good partner, but she—”
“Who are these?” Akiko asks. Sayo blinks. “And how dare you dress like that?”
“…I’m Sayo,” Sayo says. “This is my brother, Tsu—”
“Decade,” Tsukasa says. “Why shouldn’t I dress this stylish?”
“This is why I brought them,” Marlowe says. “The only record Decade has of even existing is over in Germany, helping Eiji save something.”
“WHAT?” Akiko asks.
“It was closer to a some one , actually,” Tsukasa says unhelpfully.
“…Maybe he can help,” Marlowe says, seemingly ignoring him.
Akiko frowns.
“This is why Shouko ran away,” she says.
With some questions, they ascertain that this is a joke of a citystate, run very publicly by Museum and the crime family, Sonozakis. Using some twisted drug-weapon.
Well, if it’s a crime ridden failed state, that explains how it’s working. Sayo had wondered.
“And we had a protector,” Akiko says. “But now the useful half ran off! And Marlowe here won’t tell me why.”
“I didn’t expect her to react like that!” Marlowe says. “Fucking baby.”
Tsukasa hmms.
“Seems like you really are the useless one,” he says. “The both of you. I’ve never seen it done worse, in fact.”
“And what does that mean?” Marlowe asks. “We’ve managed just fine, for years. ”
“Apparently not,” Tsukasa says blankly. Sayo grabs him.
“Onii-Chan!” She exclaims.
“It’s true,” Tsukasa says.
Akiko sighs.
“I’ve got work to do,” she says. “Just bring them inside. A friend of Eiji is a friend of ours.”
Tsukasa doesn’t do anything except look around, and get into three more fights with Marlowe.
“What is your problem, Tsukasa?” Sayo asks.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen them,” Tsukasa says. “It’s embarrassing.”
He sounds like he did Before. Sayo hates it.
“I’ve met Kamen Rider W before,” Tsukasa says. “They actually Liked each other.”
“Well, these aren’t the same people,” Sayo says. “So stop causing us problems.”
“You can leave,” Tsukasa says.
“No!” Sayo exclaims. “I saw the Dai-Shocker symbols everywhere, too.”
Not in big numbers, but in small things. Stickers, jackets, shoes.
Brand new. Too new.
“I know there’s a reason we were called here,” Sayo says. “So, I’m staying.”
Tsukasa looks at her strangely. Is that pride on his face?
“Then I wish you luck,” he says. “In whatever mission you make for yourself.”
Sayo sighs.
“Just stop fighting her,” she says.
“That I can’t do.”
She finds Akiko outside the warehouse, on her phone.
“Baby, please… I miss you. Whatever they have over you, I promise— no, I won’t join you! If you don’t come home soon— we’re fine without you! Bye!”
She slams her phone shut, then looks up, jumping into the air.
“Who was that?” Sayo asks.
“…my husband,” Akiko says. “He used to be our second protector, then he joined Museum.”
“Ah,” Sayo says.
Akiko sighs, chucking her phone against the wall.
“I don’t know what I’m fucking doing,” she says. “I’m just a scared little girl who didn’t talk to my dad when he was the only protector then started some half baked revolution-conspiracy when he died. What am I even doing?”
“What you think is right,” Sayo says. “Everyone does.”
“Not everyone,” Akiko says. “Marlowe and Shouko - they used to be the partners. But now they just won’t stop fighting. And my husband fucked off.”
“Sometimes people are wrong about the right thing,” Sayo says.
Akiko sighs.
“Yeah,” she says. “I know.”