Work Text:
The crowd was growing impatient. There were so many people gathered around the stage to hear what the prosecutor had to say for himself. According to the latest news, Taizou Bokuzen just vanished without a trace, leaving a case he was working on completely unattended when the date of the trial was right around the corner.
In the middle of the crowd was Mondo Douan, the defense attorney who stood on the opposite side of the trial. He was aware that his partner had to deal with working under the orders of the Enigma, so he wanted to hear just what happened to him during these past few days. Usually, the somber yet sweet man would usually shoot him a message in advance before disappearing.
However, he could feel there was someone else in the crowd, someone who had nefarious intentions. Perhaps it was another Enigma, or a new foe.
Eventually, the curtains of the stage rustled and shifted around before the tired man walked out. He placed one of the roses he grew in his office on his breast pocket. He looked a little tense, like he was holding so many pent up emotions that were seconds away from burst out like a flowing torrent of water.
The prosecutor stood in front of the podium and turned on the microphone. He grabbed a few sheets for his explanation speech. Instead of reading from it, Taizou crumpled the papers and threw them away before yelling at the crowd: “I’ve come to make an announcement: Isuzu Daichi is a sneaky, aberrant thief, he stole my partner’s powers!”
The crowd gasped in surprise at the sudden outburst. Mondo knew exactly what the man on stage was talking about, but Quiz was terrified that he would just reveal all that information in public when the Perfect Enigma watched his every move. Not like that would stop him.
“That’s right! He took his flimsy, broken Driver out and he stole my partner’s powers, and he said his new form was just like his, and I said that’s disgusting, so I’m calling him out right now: Isuzu Daichi, your new form sucks. It’s just the Woz Quiz Armor except way too overelaborate. And guess what? Here’s what my new form looks like.”
Taizou reached behind him and pulled out the Enigma Driver. He placed the device on his waist and pointed down towards the floor, slowly raising his arm until he was pointing right at the crowd. He pressed the both handles at the same time, then moved his forearms to form a plus shape.
“Henshin!”
“Enforce! Envious! Endanger! Kamen Rider… Enigma!” The belt announced.
Shadows poured out of the belt and covered up the prosecutor’s body, rose petals fluttered around the swirling darkness and assembled at the center. Once the jet-clouds vanished, Taizou had transformed into the dreadful Kamen Rider Enigma.
“That’s right, baby! New pieces, cold and natural colors, original powers… Look at that, it looks like the Command Twin form and the Valvarad suit combined.”
This bold and damaging move absolutely took the crowd by storm, some started taking pictures of the scene while others were just shocked that the prosecutor revealed himself to be the Dark Rider. However, he still had a lot more to talk about.
“He stole my partner’s powers, so guess what, I’m gonna ruin everyone’s! That’s right, this is what you get, my own finishing move!”
Kamen Rider Enigma pressed the handles of his belt twice. “Final Enigma Flash!” The device said with a terrifying, sinister voice. Mondo had seen this form in battle, but the Rose Enigma had never seen him using this specific attack. Just what was he planning to do? The defense attorney thought to himself, fearing that the Perfect Enigma brought his friend to madness. He needed to do something, but what?
“Except I’m not just gonna ruin everyone’s powers. I’m gonna go higher: I’m destroying the ancient puzzle!” As if on cue, all of the put-together pieces that had turned civilians into monsters appeared in the air, floating while laid all in front of the prosecutor.
Taizou leaped high into the air and shadows gathered around his boot, swirling with a dreadful violet and green energy. It was like a relentless black hole concentrated entirely in his boot.
“Lucifer’s Impact!” Taizou yelled out before launching himself towards the puzzle, delivering a catastrophic, devastating kick to its surface. The blow would have been enough to pulverize an entire mountain, creating a shockwave that almost sent the crowd flying, but he followed the attack by delivering a series of bicycle kicks, one after another.
Each strike caused the pieces to crack and shatter until it became nothing but golden dust. Taizou flipped in the air and landed back on the stage, staring proudly at what he had just done from behind the visor of his helmet.
“How do you like that, Perfect Enigma?! I destroyed the ancient puzzle, you idiot!”
Mondo realized what all of this was. If Taizou was gonna reveal his plans to the world, then he might as well bring down the Enigma with him by ruining their goals. Still, he feared for what this move could do to his life, the secret organization would be after him and would not stop until he was dead. Kamen Rider Quiz couldn’t allow that to happen.
The Enigma Driver slowly turned into dust now that there were no other puzzle pieces to fuel its power, undoing the transformation in the process and preventing anyone from using the belt ever again.
“You have twenty-three hours before the civilians get their Enigma forms back! Now get outta my sight before I destroy you too!”
“Hey!” From within the crowd, the suspicious person that the defense attorney felt made its appearance by calling out to the prosecutor. It was Daichi Isuzu, the former Kamen Rider Nadge-Sparrow. “I saved your relationship!”
Taizou immediately responded, pointing at him from the podium. “You didn’t save my relationship! You ruined my break up, that’s what you did!”
“You ungrateful bastard!” Something crawled around beneath Daichi’s skin and bursted out out of him. From the bottom of his feet. all the way to the top of his head, his figure was covered in brown leaves and twisted roots. An orange flash of light expelled from his body and revealed a monstrous, plant-like form. He turned into the Marella Jyamato.
The crowd ran away in fear at the sudden appearance of a dangerous creature, all while the Quiz King of 2022 fired red energy beams from his hands at the person on stage.
Taizou still had an ace up his sleeve and grabbed the Rose Enigma puzzle piece from his pocket, quickly turning into his monster form and jumping over the incoming projectiles. He pulled his fist back and thorns flourished from his arm.
The plant-like monster from 2040 delivered an overhead strike as gravity pulled him back to the ground. The Marella Jyamato phased the lower half of his body through the floor and slid away from the blow, barely getting out of the way of the crater created by the grotesque attack.
Both of the monsters engaged in combat, keeping each other occupied while the civilians retreated to safety. Mondo took this opportunity to hide behind the long curtains of the stage to transform into Kamen Rider Quiz without being seen by anybody.
“Henshin!”
“Fashion! Passion! Question! Quiz!”
The bicolor hero ran back out, jumped into the air and landed a well-placed kick on the Marella Jyamato’s head, joining the battle alongside his trusted partner.
“Mondo…” The prosecutor muttered, staring at the defense attorney in awe and admiration.
“I don’t know what’s happening right now, but I will be helping you out here, Taizou.”
“To think that a Kamen Rider and an Enigma would work together like this.” He let out a soft chuckle. “Very well, let’s do this!”
“Isuzu Daichi! Your internalized misogyny is gonna become externalized pain!”
Mondo and Taizou put their right and left arms together, respectively. The Rose Enigma wrapped his thorn whip around their limbs, and Kamen Rider Quiz pulled out the Quiz Topper out of his Driver, but placing it back in once it took an exclamation mark shape. Their fists charged up with passionate orange and red energy.
“Final Quiz Flash!”
“Lovely Cyclone Finish!” They both yelled before delivering a dual punch directly at where Daichi’s nose should be. As soon as the destructive attack connected, a powerful gust of wind fired from their fists, trapping the Jyamato in a small tornado of combined energy.
The college student spun around like a ballerina as he was thrashed around, crashing into the empty seats gathered around the stage. Not only did he have to endure the strike, but he also had to endure the dizzying twister while his body was smashed into the chairs. Once the attack was finally over, Daichi slid across the concrete, turning back into his human form.
Mondo and Taizou undid their transformations, but kept their hands close to one another. Instead of walking away, they held onto each other’s hands.
“Now what?” Mondo asked. “You destroyed the one objective of your boss, and he’s gonna go on a rampage after finding out about this.”
“Mondo, please… Allow me to join your fight against the Enigma. I know I went past the point of no return, but I want to make things right and battle alongside you.”
“Are you sure you want this, Taizou? You lost a lot of your powers in that stunt you pulled…”
“I wouldn’t want anything else but to be at your side.”
Both men stared longingly into each other’s eyes with a bright and sweet smile on their faces.
---
“And then they kissed and made out for like an hour!” Seijirou proudly finished his story with a confident grin.
“That didn’t happen.” Usagi interrupted, bringing the mood down with her answer.
“What do you mean that didn’t happen? I just told you it did…”
“Seijirou… Mr. Douan and Mr. Bokuzen spent the whole day on the same trial because it dragged on for too long due to some new evidence popping out in the middle of it. I know this because Jan was assigned to investigate the same case.”
“Then why do I remember it all differently?” He was so confused, he remembered it all so clearly.
“It’s fine, maybe you just had a very vivid dream and thought it was real.” She answered, trying to comfort her friend from college.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right. That story sounded dumb to begin with… Why would Mondo and Mr. Bokuzen have feelings for each other?” He let out an awkward chuckle.
“...”
“...”
They both stare at each other.
“Anyways, don’t feel bad! Hmmm… Wanna go drink something before work? Jan showed me this really sweet place… I think it was called Hanamichi Cafe.”
“Sure, that sounds comfy!”
They could investigate it later if it was truly bothering him. But for now, Seijirou just brushed off the thought and went on with his day.