The sound of steel clashing echoed through the empty streets of Nagoya as Ryoshu and Ryoko exchanged blows without stopping.
Although the one standing before her possessed the appearance of a young girl with long black hair and crimson eyes, every movement was calm and deliberate, making it impossible for Ryoshu to lower her guard even for a moment.
Their blades collided once more.
A shower of sparks burst into the air as Ryoko raised Murasame in its sheath, using the scabbard itself to catch the descending strike from Ryoshu's massive odachi. The impact shook the pavement beneath their feet, but before Ryoshu could press the advantage, Ryoko shifted his footing and twisted his wrist.
Her blade slid off the lacquered sheath and slammed into the road instead, carving a long crack across the concrete.
Taking advantage of the opening, Ryoko stepped in and drove a kick toward her ribs.
Ryoshu reacted immediately. Her free hand shot out to intercept the blow.
The impact forced her backward several steps, her boots scraping across the broken pavement as she absorbed the force through her arm. She clenched her teeth slightly, feeling a dull ache spread from her forearm all the way to her shoulder.
"N.B." she said, sounding a little impressed despite the pain.
Even so, her brows furrowed when she noticed that her opponent had still not drawn his blade properly even once. To her, that felt less like caution and more like being looked down upon. It annoyed her almost immediately.
"What's the point in bringing a sword like that if you aren't even going to use it?" Ryoshu asked, clearly displeased.
Ryoko lowered his gaze to the Demon Sword Murasame in his hand, then looked back at his sister. He knew exactly what that sword could do. One cut was enough to kill a person, and that was not something he was reckless enough to test on her, of all people. Ryoshu was his sister. He was not stupid enough to risk accidentally killing her just because she wanted a proper duel.
"I.D.N.W.A.K.Y.S."
Instead of answering normally, Ryoko decided to speak in the same way his sister did, using her strange style of shortened speech. Succinct Abbreviation Naturally Germinates Rather Immaculate Art, or SANGRIA for short.
Ryoshu froze for a moment. "!!?"
She clearly had not expected him to respond in the same manner, and for the first time, the way she normally spoke suddenly felt irritating to her, because she could not immediately make out what he was trying to say.
"S.Y."
In the end, she gave up trying to understand it and rushed forward again with her blade in hand, deciding that she would get her answer by force instead.
Her odachi swept horizontally toward his waist with enough force to split a car in half.
Ryoko turned smoothly and swapped the Murasame in his hand with his Nameless. His form shifted back to normal at the same time, and Ryoshu's eyes widened slightly in surprise when she realized that the opponent she had been facing just a moment ago had suddenly become her younger brother.
His thumb pressed against the scanner on the Nameless's sheath, and with a clean motion, the blade was released. He raised it just in time to block the strike from her sword.
Sparks flew into the air as metal met metal.
Ryoshu's confusion only deepened when she saw what he was holding. In her eyes, it looked less like a proper sword and more like a hilt with a broken blade attached to it, nothing even close to the size of a real weapon. Yet it had still managed to stop her attack.
"Are you messing with me?" she asked, now even more annoyed than before.
Not only had the other party dared to use her brother's face, but they had also dared to meet her blade with something that looked like a broken sword. It was almost insulting.
"Yo, sis. Mind telling me why you're trying to kill me?" Ryoko asked, sounding entirely unbothered by the killing intent she was directing at him.
"Y.D.U.M.B.F?!" she hissed back in anger, shifting her hold on the blade and swinging at him again.
Ryoko stepped back just enough to avoid the slash. Ryoshu followed immediately with another strike, this one aiming for his neck, but at that exact moment, pieces of the Nameless burst out from the scabbard and formed the blade in full as the two weapons clashed once more.
"What do you mean, dare to use my face? Can't you recognize your little brother?" Ryoko said with a smirk, tilting his head slightly as her blade skimmed his cheek and drew a thin line of blood.
He leaped back before she could press the attack further.
Ryoshu frowned, narrowing her gaze at the blood on her blade. Her finger moved almost absently as she wiped it, then brought it to her lips and tasted it.
Her eyes widened just a little.
"Ryoko?"
The moment she realized that it really was her brother's blood, her anger and killing intent vanished almost instantly. That did not make things any less confusing, however. It would have been one thing if someone had simply copied his appearance, but the fact that it was actually him made the situation feel far more complicated than before.
"Why are you hesitating, Ryoshu?" A new voice suddenly called out from behind her, making both of them turn.
Standing there was a man in a red suit, his head shaped like a red clock.
"Dante..." Ryoshu said, her tone carrying a trace of irritation now. "You knew, didn't you? You knew this was my brother, didn't you!?"
"I only saw the version of him from the parallel worlds," Dante replied calmly, his tone unchanged despite lacking a mouth. "In the end, all versions of him ended up the same. So... you have to kill him before his existence causes the end of all worlds."
Hearing that, both siblings clicked their tongues in annoyance.
Tsutsumi Ryoko was irritated because he had not even used the Kamen Ride: Decade card yet, and somehow he was already being treated like someone who needed to be eliminated. That was annoying enough on its own.
Ryoshu, on the other hand, was annoyed for a completely different reason. She genuinely loved her little brother, whether he was the useless version from before or the one standing beside her now, and the idea of killing him for some vague world-ending nonsense was not something she was willing to accept.
Ryoshu's expression darkened. She stepped forward until she stood directly in front of Ryoko. Her odachi lowered slightly.
Like she was shielding him.
"Like hell I will." Her voice was firm. There wasn't even the slightest hesitation.
The Ryoko from yesterday.
The weak Ryoko from before.
The Ryoko standing behind her now.
It didn't matter.
They were all her little brother, and she accepted him, every version of him.
It's normal for an older sibling to protect their little brother.
"I shouldn't be surprised..." Dante let out a quiet sigh before pulling out a driver and placing it on his waist.
ENTRY!
"No matter the world..." Dante said calmly as he pulled out a device and separated it into two parts. "...you loved your brother in every dimension."
MARK IX
He slotted the two pieces into his driver.
SET IGNITION
A mechanical white fox appeared beside him, and behind Dante, a massive white circle began to loom into existence like some kind of cold, artificial moon.
REVOLVE ON
Ryoko immediately recognized the shift in atmosphere and opened his Decadriver, pulling out a card of his own.
"Henshin!" At the same time, both of them transformed, their voices overlapping as the change began.
Form Ride:
DYNAMITE BOOST
A white fox circled Dante as grey afterimages of Ryoko in Decade's clothing flickered around him. The fox merged into Dante, and a pillar of white light burst upward into the sky like a beacon. At the same time, the afterimages around Tsutsumi Ryoko converged into his body all at once, each one folding into the next until his form was completely overwritten.
Decade!
GEATS IX!
Geats's golden fox eyes opened fully, and the long nine-tailed cape behind him swayed as if moved by a wind that only existed around him. Magenta light filled the gray outfit Decade had been wearing, and a pair of horns formed on the top of his head as the transformation settled in completely.
Neither side wasted time.
Geats raised his hand, and white chains of light burst up from the ground around Decade and Ryoshu, trying to trap them in place before they could react. Decade moved immediately, scooping Ryoshu up into a princess carry without hesitation before leaping away from the chains. The movement was quick enough to avoid being caught, but the situation itself was already becoming more troublesome by the second.
Geats swung his blade once, and a massive slash of energy tore forward through the air, aimed directly at the two of them. Decade shifted to the side just in time, and the attack carved through the massive building behind them instead, splitting it apart with a force that made the whole structure begin to collapse.
Having Ryoshu in his arms meant he could not freely use his cards, so for the moment he was forced to rely on the abilities he could still use directly. That alone was already annoying, but he did not have much time to complain about it.
The building came crashing down on them.
For a brief moment, it looked as though both of them were going to be buried beneath the falling rubble, but then their bodies glitched and flickered in place before reappearing on a different building at a safer distance. The two of them turned around just in time to see the massive structure crash to the ground and tear apart part of the city with it.
Ryoshu clicked her tongue and frowned.
"Tch. The bastard is really going to kill us?"
She sounded more annoyed than frightened, but even she could tell that Geats was not holding back. She had not expected her boss to be so decisive when it came to trying to kill her brother.
"Dismantle!"
Decade sent an invisible slash straight toward Geats, but Geats answered with another swing of his blade, releasing yet another massive slash of energy. The two attacks met, and Geats's energy slash shattered the invisible cut before continuing forward. It came straight toward Decade and Ryoshu, but Decade had already realized his usual techniques were not going to be enough here.
He tossed Ryoshu upward into the air, then clapped his hands and used Boogie Woogie to switch her position with Geats.
The sudden spatial shift caught Geats off guard for only a moment, but that moment was enough. His own attack kept moving, crashing into the two of them and destroying the building they were standing on. The structure broke apart and fell to the ground, causing even more damage to the surrounding city, until Geats's reality-warping power suddenly reversed everything and restored the ruined area as though the destruction had never happened.
Decade had already stood back up by then, now in Blade King Form.
The transformation made him effectively immortal, and that was the only reason he had not been cut in half by the previous attack. Even with RCT, healing from something that directly severed the body in two was still more than the current him could comfortably deal with. It was the kind of damage that would have been annoying even in a better situation, and right now it would have been outright fatal if not for the form he had taken.
"Immortal, huh?" Geats said as he walked down from the air, his weapon still in hand. "That won't do."
He raised his free hand, and a massive wave of energy spread outward, crashing into Decade and forcing him back to his base form.
"What the...?" Decade murmured, realizing that he had been returned to his original state.
Geats tilted his head slightly, visibly surprised that his attack had not completely erased him. "Oh? So your base resists my reality warping?"
Decade did not answer immediately. Instead, he drew another card and slid it into his Decadriver.
Final Kamen Ride: Ex-Aid! Muteki Gamer!
A burst of sparkling golden light erupted around him, and his clothes shifted into the radiant gold of Ex-Aid Hyper Muteki.
Geats moved forward again, clearly intending to suppress him before he could adjust, but this time his attack failed completely. His reality-warping power could not affect the invincibility granted by Hyper Muteki, and that alone made the next exchange even more troublesome.
Their blades clashed, and the impact sent a massive shockwave rippling through the surrounding area. Buildings cracked, streets split apart, and the damaged environment around them shattered under the force of the collision. Yet before the destruction could fully settle, the surrounding area suddenly shifted back to normal again, as if Geats had simply overwritten the damage the instant it happened.
The two of them continued fighting, but neither could properly harm the other.
Hyper Muteki gave Decade invincibility, but it did not give him the right weapon for fighting a god-level opponent like this. Geats IX, on the other hand, as a Creator God, possessed enough reality-warping power to reshape the battlefield itself, but even that was not enough to affect Decade in the way he wanted. Not when Decade's power operated on a scale that could cross dimensions, and not when Hyper Muteki's invincibility made direct damage impossible.
So the battle continued like that, with neither side able to finish the other, each clash shaking the city while the destroyed surroundings kept shifting back and forth under Geats's power.