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“Is it done?”
Saeko’s head didn’t move as she spoke, staring down at the gradually-filling tank that held the King’s body. She took her time finishing her wine as she waited for the click of heels to ascend the stairs and reach her.
“Nearly,” came the reply at last. “One more infusion and he’ll wake right up!”
Saeko set down her glass, grinning without smiling. “You could’ve told me that from down there.”
Smart Lady pouted. “I wanted to see youuu.”
“Fair enough.” Saeko reached over and carefully smoothed out her collar, leaving her hand resting there for a second before pulling her subordinate in close. Her other hand gently ran through the blue-streaked hair. “It has been just us for a long time now…”
“You’re lucky little ol’ me likes you,” Smart Lady said, head tilting back.
“Am I a...how would you put it, ‘cutie’?”
“Well. Your other face is cuter.”
“This one?”
“That one.”
The orphanage locked up for the night, Rina finally let the exhaustion sink in, leaning against the doors and taking in the sounds of twilight.
Which unfortunately included Mihara yelling at her to hurry up.
“I’m coming already,” she grumbled, hefting her bag and jogging over. Being a good friend meant riding home together, apparently. Wasn’t like they even lived that near each other anymore.
They pulled out into the quiet road, riding along in silence until—
They were lucky they hadn’t been going any faster, or the monster lurking around the corner grabbing the bikes to hold them in place and launching the riders forward onto the concrete would’ve certainly been fatal.
“O-Orphenoc!” Rina gasped, as soon as she was able to grab the tiniest bit of air and focus her eyes. A familiar one, too—if she remembered right, the smartly-dressed woman who’d been a Lucky Clover mainstay all throughout that awful year.
Mihara had made it to his hands and knees, and was scrabbling over to tear his backpack open, revealing...Rina was surprised he still carried the belt. Looked like he was right to, though.
“That’s a pleasant surprise,” said the Orphenoc. “Those belts are what I’m looking for. They were originally created to protect the King, you see, and the time has come.”
“D-Don’t bullshit me!” Mihara stood, clutching the Delta Gear like a security blanket. “They killed him! Inui and Kiba…”
“The King is beyond your comprehension,” she said, shoving their bikes to the ground and pacing closer. “He wouldn’t die so easily.”
“Mihara!” Rina yelled, finding her feet. “If you’re gonna fight, fight now!”
“I...can’t,” he said, almost laughing. He wasn’t even outwardly trembling, but all he could think about was every horror he’d faced before, every blow he’d taken and every friend he’d lost, all at once. “I should, but...my body won’t…”
“That makes this easier then, doesn’t it?” The Lobster Orphenoc held out a hand. “Just be a good boy and hand it over. You’ll get to live a few more days, at least.”
Mihara froze, his own breathing filling his ears. There was no way, was there? But there was no other way, either. There was only the outstretched hand.
And then there were two.
Without thinking, moving on the sheer exhilaration of another option existing, he turned and threw the belt right into the new hand; into Rina’s grasp. Pushing everything but the moment from her mind, she snapped it into place and brought the speaker up to her mouth.
“Transform!”
The Orphenoc ground her teeth in frustration, turning to face the new Kamen Rider Delta. “I’ve had enough of you failed experiments...using what’s ours as you please.” She narrowly dodged the shot from Delta’s pistol that was the only reply she got, charging in as a narrow blade materialised in her hand.
At too short a distance to use the gun properly and having the sword to contend with, Rina was immediately on the defensive, ducking back step by step until she found herself against the wall. The next strike bored a hole through it, inches from her shoulder, showering the suit with plaster.
“I’m confused,” Saeko said. “Are you running, or are you fighting?”
Rina went for a stomach punch, then when it was caught suddenly leaned her full body-weight into it, shoving the Orphenoc away from the wall and disarming her, the sword remaining stuck where it had stabbed. “Hey now. I’m still breaking this in.”
“You little—” The next threat was cut off as Rina darted back out of frenzied-swiping range, letting loose a whole volley of shots and throwing Saeko onto her back.
Again she commanded the device’s speaker: “Check!”
EXCEED CHARGE
“Like hell…!” Saeko flung out an arm, sending a fireball into the ground between them before the finishing blow came and vanishing by the time the smoke had cleared.
Rina slowed her breathing to normal, deactivating the suit and heading back over to Mihara. “She might come back. I’m gonna be holding onto this.”
He looked indignant for a moment, but it passed. “I—yeah. Makes sense. Let’s, uh...get the bikes.”
They’d picked them up and were checking them for damage on the deserted pavement before she thought to ask: “Are you, uh, okay?”
“I think so.” He sighed, frowning at the clouded-over sky. “I’ve just tried to avoid talking about it all for so long...so it all came rushing back at once. I might be able to transform, next time. I don’t know. But, are you okay?”
“Huh? Ah...I’m fine.” She gave a reassuring smile. “I should’ve been more willing to use Delta, back then, when you didn’t want to. It just seemed important to you, like you were trying to overcome something in yourself.”
“Thank you, though.” He continued, when she gave a confused look. “It’s just nice to hear something other than ‘you have to fight!’.” His face turned apologetic. “Not that I don’t want to help, of course!”
“Well, you’re right,” she said, standing up and leaning against her bike. “There’s nothing that says you have to. But someone has to. So just...stay ready. Don’t know what’ll happen.”
“Right. Anyway, she said she was after the belts. The only other one that’s still around is…”
Rina nodded. “Let’s get moving.”
“The King, though? Are you sure she said—”
“Yes!” Rina snapped. “How many times do you need to ask?”
“Right.” Mari sank back into her chair. “I just…”
They were huddled around the launderette’s kitchen table, clutching hot drinks—Rina, Mihara, Mari and Keitaro.
“Just what?” Mihara asked, flinching back as Mari leapt up.
“He can’t be! He can’t be, because...everything we went through...in the end, it was to save humanity from the King! If he’s back, then everyone...Osada and Yuji, Kusaka...and…” She covered her eyes with a sleeve. “ Then what did Takumi die for? ”
“I’m sorry,” Rina said, her voice flat. “That’s just what she said. I can’t change it. It’s not something we can run from. Listen—like I said, she was searching for the belts. Do you still have it?”
Keitaro nodded, running off upstairs as Mari let herself sit down and be guided back to her drink. After a few deep breaths and a few deep draughts, she was able to face their visitors again.
“After this, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Mihara admitted. “For now, get the belt away from here where she might find it. You guys should probably relocate for a few days too, in case she comes looking for it. My place might be a little small…” He caught the awkward atmosphere approaching. “Uh, but of course you can use it! Desperate times. Heh.”
Keitaro came bounding back downstairs, laying the Faiz Gear’s suitcase on the table. “Here you go! It was, uh, buried pretty deep in all your junk, Mari—ah! Never mind! Never mind.”
Rina put a hand on it. “ I know what I’m doing.”
Keitaro’s face fell. “You don’t mean…”
She smiled weakly. “The belts will help them, but they aren’t the main thing. If the Orphenoc King returns, running away won’t be enough, unless all you want to do is survive. It sounds dramatic, but he is humanity’s destruction.”
“But!” Mari’s hands clenched up. “Us three Ryusei survivors, we’re only alive because we didn’t overuse the belts. There’s no way of knowing how much Orphenoc DNA you have left—if you keep transforming…”
“I know.” Rina slid the case over and into her bag. “Yeah. I know.”
Keitaro leaned forward. “I was expecting, I don’t know, a ‘but’. ‘I know, but!’ A reason not to be worried, you know…”
“I don’t have any to give you.” Rina stood up, shouldering her bag. “I’m going to fight the King. If he kills me, or this borrowed life runs out, I won’t have wasted it.”
“Because that’s what they all did?” Mihara asked.
“Because that’s what I should do. You all be safe.”
Mihara stopped her outside, as she was sliding her helmet on. “I should come, shouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. Can you fight?”
He grimaced. “Probably not. I want to say ‘I’ll manage’, but when I actually think about what you’re doing, I get that feeling again.”
“It’s okay. Get those two somewhere safe.” She tossed him the Delta belt. “If you change your mind, or if you need to protect yourself, it’s safer if you have it at least.”
He nodded. “Hey...survive, okay? Survive and come back to us.
“I barely have any friends left.”
“Can’t promise anything.” She slammed down the visor, bike roaring to life.
“Saeko, sweetie! What happened to you?” Smart Lady scampered over to help her collapsed partner up, just about supporting her larger frame over to a chair and fussing over her, kissing around the cuts and bruises.
Saeko cast an eye at the door leading up from the laboratory chamber to the surface. She should close it, but...in a minute. So tired… “I was trying to recover the belts. So the two of us could protect the King, properly.”
“Aww, how sweet of you. Looks like we’ll just have to manage as-is!”
“For now, yes.” Saeko leaned back. “He’s about to awaken, so we need to focus on multiplying our numbers for now. Friends, comrades...to replace humanity together. It’s the only way for us to survive. And we will survive.”
“Sorry.” A weary-looking woman in a white jacket stood in the doorway, carefully buckling on the Faiz Gear. “None of that. Good job hiding this place, though...you probably got your pick of all the Smart Brain stuff when its old offices upstairs got bought out.”
“You damn small-minded human,” Saeko hissed. “You’re destroying your own evolution!”
“We’re all just science experiments,” Rina said, keying in 5-5-5 and talking on over the phone’s STANDING BY declaration. “You’re just deciding that’s evolution. Transform. ”
COMPLETE
Saeko seethed at the familiar red latticework, the heavy metal footsteps making their way down the stairs towards the dormant King. “Faiz… Faiz! ” She surged out of her chair, but her strength left her again and she fell, one arm stretched out over the observation platform’s edge.
“Oh no, oh dear, oh noooo,” Smart Lady whined without much sincerity, hands pressed to her cheeks and rocking left and right.
Keeping an eye on the platform above, Rina descended to the dark-shrouded floor, approaching the coffin-length tank. The Orphenoc King lay, that beautifully-wrought form the same as ever, completely submerged in the green liquid, enormous eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.
She reached down and tore the lid off, the rejuvenating fluid splashing out onto the floor and over her boots. Without a word, she removed the Faiz Phone from her belt, switching to its pistol configuration, keying in the combination for burst mode, and pressing it to the sleeping King’s forehead.
She fired, and fired, and fired again, and again until there was nothing above its neck but a concave mess of pulp, and its ichor spattered across her visor.
And that was how the world was saved.
As she headed for the exit, she got close enough to hear Saeko whispering, “How dare you,” over and over. “How dare you...how dare you…”
“You’re a ‘perfected Orphenoc’, right?” Rina said. “Your body won’t break down. Live among humans however you want.” She reached the door, but paused. The whispers had become laughter.
“Yes. I am a ‘perfected existence’.” Saeko rose to her feet, swaying uncannily. “The only one to ever receive the King’s blessing. We are connected.” Her voice was slurring, too. Something was wrong. “And I can feel that power fading. It’s leaving this world, right now.” She threw out her arms. “Come to me instead! Your one perfect creation! That ambition won’t die so easily!”
A shaft of light erupted from the King’s corpse, striking Saeko head-on and bursting out from her from every angle. She turned to Rina, and—
Faiz erupted from the ground into the midnight air, landing in the deserted plaza that had once served as a courtyard for Smart Brain’s headquarters. She shook her head, trying to lose the grogginess, already hearing the thunderous footsteps as the creature emerged into the open air.
It looked like the Lobster Orphenoc was wearing the King, like an ill-fitting suit. Parts of her flickered back and forth from one to the other. That same cold light trailed from her limbs, pooling around her footsteps.
“I am the culmination,” she mumbled, head twitching. “The ultimate body, incarnated in this perfect vessel. The Orphenoc Queen!”
“That consciousness is gone, though. No more perfect Orphenocs will be born.” Rina pushed herself off the ground. “You’re just wearing a corpse. Waving around empty power. There’s no point anymore.”
“You’re mostly right.” Saeko stalked closer, fists gradually raising. “I can at least put down the one who stole our future.” She broke into a run, blue fire leaping from her hands as she closed the distance, a single blow slamming Rina back a good thirty feet, cracking the Faiz chestplate from end to end. If she hadn’t clamped a hand over the belt, it definitely would’ve come loose.
“All right...all right. If you want someone to die so badly…”
AWAKENING
The strength, at least, was the real thing. The Queen slapped Blaster Mode’s shots out of the air, a growling backhand knocking the weapon itself away. In this form Rina could at least somewhat stand against her, but it was clearly a losing battle. She was getting more battered by the second, but she managed to grab an arm. Another punch cracked her visor. The flames threatened to worm their way inside. She caught the other, holding both arms back with desperate tenacity.
For just a moment, they were still, and she saw it.
Then the Queen broke her hold, tore the belt from her body and threw her to the ground again, the Faiz suit dissipating. “I’m sick of you experiments. Getting so above your station you use Smart Brain weapons—Orphenoc weapons—to strike against us. They were built to make the strong stronger. Lament your weakness and die, human.”
Cupping a pillar of fire between her hands, she strode forwards, raised both arms for the finishing blow and—
BLADE MODE
—came to a shuddering halt, transfixed on the energy blade extending from the Faiz Blaster in Rina’s unarmoured hands. She’d barely made it to one knee in time, and now leaned her weight on the weapon, gasping for oxygen.
“Yes. It’s all yours. Even this life, you took and gave back. But I get to decide how to use it.” She looked up, into the colourless face, managing a smile.
The Orphenoc form dropped away, first the King’s husk and then the rest of it, leaving Saeko to stagger back off the weapon, grasping uselessly at the hole through her abdomen. “This...isn’t possible…”
“You didn’t finish reviving the King,” Rina said, letting herself sit back. “And you took on that incomplete body. I saw where to strike when we grappled—the wound Inui Takumi gave him.”
Saeko fell to her knees, then onto her back, little fires breaking out all over her failing body. “Miserable...crawling creatures…”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rina gathered everything up, slinging her bag over one shoulder. She glanced back, once, just before she left. “You could’ve lived a full life, you know?”
Then she was gone, and Saeko was left alone for her final moments—or so she thought, until there came the rhythmic clicking of those heels.
“Helloooo!” Smart Lady crouched daintily before her, gently poking her nose. “Poor little you couldn’t handle Faiz in the end, huh?”
“What are you—”
“What? You want me to get revenge? Carry on your work? Sorry!” She giggled. “We both know your time is up.”
“This...can’t be ha—”
“Shh.” She gently took Saeko’s head between her hands, leaning down and kissing her until the last Orphenoc’s lips turned to dust and blew away on the wind.
Suddenly full of spirit again, Smart Lady sprung upright, beaming. It was past midnight, so tomorrow was already today, and today would be a good day. There was always someone who needed her help.
Rina brought the bike to a halt on the edge of town, just as the sun crept over the horizon. She’d been riding aimlessly for a while now. She should go home. She would, eventually. She’d at least call her friends, tell them not to worry.
The dawn gleamed off one skyscraper after another. There it was, she supposed. The world you saved. Don’t expect a thank y—
She fell against a fence, a sudden sharp pain digging into her forehead.
That was that, then. The belts were killing her. She gripped the fence and dragged herself up by both hands. Not this time. Maybe next time, or the time after. Maybe. Maybe there wouldn’t need to be a next time. That’d be nice.
Well, that was how to not die.
Abe Rina watched the sunrise, and started thinking about how to live.