From his spot on the ground, still lounging on Pandora's Box like a park bench, Ryuga blinked at the sudden thud—a blur of red falling from the sky and crashing onto the pavement nearby.
There lay Stalk, the mighty BloodStalk, unmorphed and bruised, groaning in defeat.
"Yo! Fancy seeing you here, boss," Ryuga said casually, as if greeting a neighbor. He subtly slid the black metal panel he'd been studying back onto the ground beside him.
Thankfully, the boss was too disoriented—and too caught up in his own inner crisis—to notice.
"Can't believe I lost…" Soichi muttered, struggling to sit upright.
Moments later, War Rabbit landed nearby, also ending his transformation.
"The weight in my chest… finally lifted," he said solemnly, wiping the rain from his eyes.
"You're so damn direct…" Soichi chuckled, glancing at the Sparkling Bottle in Sento's hand. "You even managed to complete that thing."
"But really, if it were anyone else, I wouldn't believe it," he admitted, a strange mix of pride and resignation in his voice.
Sento looked confused. "That thing?"
"If you dig into Katsuragi's old files, you'll find it listed under something called 'Sclash'," Soichi answered with a grin. "Also… word of advice. Watch out for Gentoku Himuro. He's the real Night Rogue."
"…What?!"
Before Sento could process that, Soichi turned to glance at Pandora's Box, now slightly indented from Ryuga's backside.
"…You guys hold onto the box for now," he said casually. "I can always get it back when I need it."
He stood fully, patted his coat, and gave Sento a final grin.
"More important than the box is your growth. Keep pushing forward… and don't stop getting stronger."
Then, without warning, he ascended. Literally.
"Ciao~" he waved as he lifted into the sky, levitating like some absurdly charismatic deity.
"Wife! Come outside and see—God is flying!"
"…Wait, I don't even have a wife," Ryuga mumbled to himself, now completely dumbfounded.
"…And you," Sento finally growled, glancing back at Ryuga, "you just sat there the whole time?! No umbrella, no help, nothing?!"
Ryuga shrugged. "Bro, you threw your umbrella away. What do you want from me, a love confession?"
Sento groaned, snatched his fallen umbrella, and stormed off after Ryuga.
"You made me look cool and stupid at the same time! Do you know how hard that is?!"
Back at base, Sento followed the boss's lead and dove into Katsuragi's encrypted research files. There, nestled deep within old blueprints and rejected designs, he found it—"Sclash System".
It was a new kind of belt. A squeeze-type driver, designed for brute force.
Sento stayed up all night completing the schematics and 3D printing the prototype.
But when he tested its activation requirements, his face fell.
"Minimum danger level… 4.0?!"
Neither he nor Ryuga had officially been measured that high, though Ryuga likely exceeded it naturally.
And that posed a problem.
Ryuga didn't need this belt—he already rivaled or surpassed Build's capabilities using just the regular driver. And Sento? The belt would reject him. Worse, it came with side effects. Mental instability. Aggression spikes. Unpredictable transformations.
"No wonder Gentoku went off the deep end…"
In the end, Sento had to admit the truth. The Sclash Driver was powerful, but not for him. He sealed away the research files, knowing full well that someone—most likely Soichi—would come to steal them eventually.
Let him.Maybe without that dumb belt, we'll be spared one more lunatic with unresolved father issues…
As Sento quietly sealed the Sclash system, Gentoku Himuro—"Honest Man," former Night Rogue, current walking contradiction—was preparing his next move.
Predictably, Soichi found him first.
"I'm here to offer advice," Soichi said cheerfully.
Gentoku, ever the gullible opportunist, bought the act without hesitation—again.
If you betray someone three times, and they still believe you, is it even betrayal anymore?
With Soichi's encouragement, Gentoku contacted his father—Prime Minister Himuro Taizan—and lured Sento out with a faked emergency.
Naturally, Ryuga tagged along.
"Wait, you wanted to come?" Sento asked, surprised.
"Don't overthink it," Ryuga grunted. "You're not exactly crowd control material."
It was a trap.
As they arrived at the Prime Minister's office, Gentoku ambushed them with two soldiers and a unit of mechanical Smash defenders.
After Sento made quick work of the defenders, Gentoku smirked.
"It's working just as we planned. The Knight System we created is a success!"
He then pulled out his smoke gun, transformed in front of his bewildered men into Night Rogue, and without hesitation, converted the two soldiers into Smash using Nebula Gas.
"They're not part of the future I envision," he muttered coldly. "Send them to find Banjou. As for you—Build—we finish this now."
Sento braced himself.
"You're not going anywhere, Gentoku. This isn't your stage anymore."
Rogue lunged, repeating the same hollow words he'd clung to since Faust's founding.
"This country needs an iron rule. You once believed that too!"
"Awaken the real Kiryu Sento—the ruthless genius! Reclaim your madness!"
Sento sighed.
"…God, you talk too much."
He transformed immediately into Sparkling Form, and after a brief but brutal exchange, delivered a single explosive Rider Kick that shattered Rogue's mask and dropped him like a sack of shame.
And then…
"So… you were part of Faust after all."
The voice came from behind them.
Prime Minister Himuro Taizan, dressed in a raincoat and seated in a wheelchair, had witnessed the entire confrontation.
"Father?!" Gentoku gasped, dazed and half-conscious.
Taizan looked down at his son with deep disappointment.
"What have you done?" he asked, his voice trembling. "I trusted you…"
"You will be held accountable. For the lives lost. For the lies you've told. For your betrayal."
Gentoku fell silent. There was nothing to say.
Prime Minister Himuro turned to Sento and bowed his head respectfully.
"Kiryu Sento… I'm sorry my son deceived you. Pandora's Box is government property. I would like to reclaim it."
Sento nodded slowly, and relinquished the box. But as Gentoku was being led away, Sento raised a hand.
"Wait."