By the time one of Hokuto's police units, patrolling the quiet rural roads near the Sky Wall, arrived at the courtyard where teacher Katsuragi held her lessons, Sento, Ryuga, and the kids were already long gone, leaving behind only the fading traces of the battle's recent chaos.
"Ryuga Banjo and a Kamen Rider? Which way did they go!?"
The captain of this team couldn't help but look a little surprised upon hearing what the woman had to say.
When the explosions and sounds of battle had been heard earlier, he already knew they were dealing with something big.
His suspicions were confirmed when dispatch relayed the message to head to Mrs. Katsuragi's property, briefly explaining what she had called to report.
Apparently, she'd been caught between a monster, two Kamen Riders, and a famous fugitive—mid-fight. She was lucky to get away and wasted no time calling the authorities.
A flustered look appeared on her face as she pointed in the opposite direction from which the patrol unit had arrived.
"They went down that way, please, hurry and catch them!"
Her voice carried a strong sense of urgency, as if she couldn't wait for the officers to catch the two men and the other parties involved.
"Thank you for calling us. Go back inside where it's safe—we will handle this!"
With a sideways tilt of his head, the captain signaled for his men to start heading in the direction Mrs. Katsuragi had indicated. Some jumped into trucks, while others began walking down the road to search on foot.
Mrs. Katsuragi gave a polite bow and wished them well. "Thank you for coming!"
As soon as the patrol units were out of sight, she headed back into her property and approached the small wooden barn tucked away in the corner.
Inside were wooden workbenches, old tools hanging on the walls, scattered building supplies, and several ladders suspended from the rafters. Off to the side sat a small tractor—all of it coated in dust, as though untouched for decades.
She peered down at a pile of hay in the middle of the dirty floor and said, "It's okay, they're gone now. You can come out."
The formerly motionless pile suddenly shuddered, and two men appeared from underneath all of the hay.
Sento and Ryuga brushed themselves off, coughing from all the dust and chaff they had been forced to breathe in while hiding.
They approached Mrs. Katsuragi, and Sento bowed his head earnestly, simply saying, "Thank you." with a very grateful tone, bowing respectfully.
Ryuga shook his head in agreement, looking even funnier in his clown suit as bits of leftover straw tumbled from his still-messy hair.
Mrs. Katsuragi barely acknowledged their gratitude, skipping straight to the question she wanted to ask.
"Is what that monster said true?"
She instantly recalled Blood Stalk's words about Takumi Katsuragi, her son, being the founder of a terrorist group that turned people—including innocent children—into monsters, and carried out other experiments on them.
Ryuga and Build both met her sad-looking eyes at the same time but were unable to answer, not knowing what to say, and just sat there in uncomfortable silence.
...
Meanwhile, the Prime Ministers of Hokuto, Touto, and Seito were in a secret meeting, and Hokuto's leader, Yoshiko Tajimi, was more than a little worried—and most definitely NOT entertained.
"What the hell are the Kamen Rider and Smashes doing in Hokuto?"
Yoshiko pressed her Touto counterpart, Taizan Himuro, for answers, while his son Gentoku lounged against a nearby wall, half-hidden in shadow.
An obvious, ridiculing smirk was plastered on Gentoku's face, not hiding his disdain at all as he waited for his father to answer.
There was a brief pause, yet Taizan said nothing, just sitting still with a sour look of his own.
Yoshiko decided to keep pushing, seeing as Taizan was still silent.
"If we allow these abominations to run wild, they will spread panic among Hokuto citizens—sooner rather than later..."
Her eyes suddenly narrowed, like a fox up to no good. She then turned her head sharply and addressed another man who had been listening in silence the whole time.
"...Unless that was the point all along?!"
She tilted her head slightly and opened her eyes wide for a moment, then proceeded to glare back and forth between the two.
The man raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, not surprised at all that Yoshiko would try to tie him into whatever conspiracy this was by default.
"Sigh... Come on now. We certainly know it's the truth that Touto is the only place where those freaks tend to show up."
The man smiled calmly, the confident 'trust me' look of a politician was the mask Masakuni Mido, Prime Minister of Seito, had chosen. This was in fact his go to look.
Masakuni's smile took a slightly mischievous turn next. He glanced over at Taizan, then in a playful tone said, "It wouldn't surprise me if someone were to appropriate them for military use..."
Playful or not, Taizan couldn't just stay quiet after a remark like that, and he finally spoke up.
"That is an absolutely asinine accusation."
Yoshiko hardly let Taizan get his words out before knitting her brows and throwing down the challenge she'd been waiting for.
With a smile that was less than friendly, she said, "If that's the stance you're taking, perhaps it's time we look into this matter ourselves."
The fourth member of the meeting, who had been a literal wallflower, suddenly pushed himself off the wall and moved into the line of sight of the three Prime Ministers.
"I am the Touto Prime Minister's aide, Himuro."
He slowly turned in a circle, eyeing each of the three in turn, hands buried in his pockets like a delinquent. Gentoku still wore that same smug grin, radiating confidence like a slick used-car salesman.
"We will deal with the creatures for you immediately..." His tone deepened as he glanced between Yoshiko and Masakuni. "…I won't let you use this as an excuse to crush Touto."
"Hahahahah!"
Yoshiko burst out laughing, looking at Gentoku like he was a madman uttering crazy words.
"What are you talking about?! Hahaha! Of course I have no intention of—"
Gentoku cut her off mid-sentence, gritting his teeth as he raised his hand and pressed his thumb against a small device he was holding.
Before either Yoshiko or Masakuni could say another word, their seated figures blurred, turned blue, and vanished. They'd been meeting through remote holographic projection, as they usually did, but Gentoku had simply cut the connection, leaving him alone in the room with his father, Taizan.
Taizan turned to look at his son with surprise and confusion on his face, asking immediately, "Gentoku! Why? Why would you say that?"
The look on Gentoku's face sharpened. Narrowing his eyes, he turned to his still-sitting father, raising his voice in anger, nearly shouting.
"Why won't you open your eyes?!"
His hands finally left his pockets, thrown to the side for effect as he lectured his dad. "They have every intention of taking Touto over! Why can't you see that?!"
Gentoku stepped closer to Taizan until just two feet separated them. The younger man crouched slightly, reining in his temper, and said plainly, "We need to put together a military response—now."
The older man shook his head in annoyed disagreement, as if he had heard this way too many times before.
He rolled his eyes with exaggerated flair and waved dismissively. "Ugh, you're still going on about that?" Gentoku's irritation flared again; the gesture and Taizan's expression pushed him to snap, his mind flashing back to the day Pandora's Box was opened.
"Idiot! You have no idea! If you had been affected by that light, you'd take this more seriously, Dad."
"Yoshiko Tajimi and Masakuni Mido were both there... They changed after that light hit them!"
At this point, Taizan's face grew ugly. He had also become frustrated. "You're the one who's changed!"
Taizan quickly calmed himself, choosing to give orders instead of fighting with his son—Gentoku was his subordinate, after all.
"Enough. Focus on keeping the economy stable, instead of worrying about military development."
With that, the Prime Minister of Touto stood up and gestured toward the door, with an unquestionable look on his face.
Gentoku grit his teeth but knew better than to continue. He hid the fact that his fists were balling in anger by shoving his hands into his pockets again.
He left the room without looking back at his dad, heading directly to the secret Faust laboratory to take out his anger on Blood Stalk.
Sure enough, Blood Stalk was there, leaning on a railing and watching the whitecoats record data mid-experiment.
"Hey, what's up, man?"
Before Gentoku could lose his cool, Blood Stalk dropped this casual line, diffusing him and causing him to shift from pissed off to just annoyed.
Gentoku shook his head and spat on the floor, throwing a small temper tantrum instead of starting a fight as he had planned.
"Why did you cause that mess in Hokuto?!"
Blood Stalk leaned back and got into an even more comfortable position, as if he had no care in the world.
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, man... You're just bent out of shape because you don't recognize my genius, like always! This is a good thing. It might help us find what we're looking for."
Gentoku sighed, feeling a migraine creeping in. He was beyond anger now, starting to grow numb to this joker's nonsense.
"Are you serious?"
Gentoku blinked rapidly, on the verge of turning around and heading home for the day, when Blood Stalk suddenly sprang to life.
Pushing off from his spot on the railing, he stepped closer to Gentoku, his voice brimming with excitement, while starting to pat Gentoku on the shoulder.
"If we find it... once it's in our hands... The military applications of the Rider System will advance far beyond what we ever imagined!"
Blood Stalk's voice—finally free of sarcasm and condescension—held a genuine sincerity, laced with that earlier excitement.
Seeing, or rather hearing, this rare change, Gentoku thought it might just actually be worth putting in a few extra hours at the "office" tonight after all...
With that, they leaned against the railing together, watching their minions play with the green Nebula Gas, pumping more and more of it into a large, familiar glass container...