Sougo and Gates, who had rushed out first, quickly caught up with Kaito. Or rather, Kaito didn't even bother to run.
"Who the hell are you?!" Gates shouted.
"Whoa, calm down." Kaito casually spun the blue pistol in his hand—his transformation device, the Neo Diend Driver. It was the updated version of the driver, much like Tsukasa's pink belt, but truthfully... just a recolor and skin change.
He flicked the pistol toward the ground. As expected of someone from Knight World—well-versed in "gun kata." A few shots landed at Sougo's feet. Was this the infamous "physical method of calming people down"?
"How can I calm down like this?!" Sougo snapped.
He and Gates hurriedly equipped their belts, instinctively performing a rather awkward and silent transformation pose... and then—
The sudden silence was deafening.
Indeed, without their Rider Watches, nothing happened. No lights, no sound effects, no transformation. Just… silence and two very confused Riders.
"Ahhh! Where are our watches?!" Sougo shouted, staring at his empty palms.
"How the hell are we supposed to transform without them?!" Gates growled in frustration.
"Looking for these?" Kaito smirked, pulling out two familiar watches and shaking them in his hand.
"You really did steal them!" Gates roared.
"Who even is this guy?!" Sougo demanded, baffled.
"That's Kamen Rider Diend," came the voice of Woz, finally arriving. "He's an accomplice of Kamen Rider Decade—Tsukasa."
"You could put it that way," Kaito replied nonchalantly.
"Woz, get the watches back from him!" Gates barked. "You're the only one here who can still transform!"
"And why exactly should I listen to you?" Woz said coldly.
"Just go!" Sougo waved impatiently.
"Tch… I'm not your servant," Woz muttered. "You really do like bossing people around."
King of All Demons: Huh?!
Woz: "Transform."
[Woz!]
[Action!]
[Projection! Future Time!]
[Great! Era! Future!]
[Kamen Rider Woz! Woz!]
"If you want to fight, then I suppose I'll entertain you," Kaito said as he raised his Neo Diend Driver and slotted a card into the gun.
[KamenRide!]
"Transform!"
[Diend!]
The transformation sequence was flashy, with cards flying in and forming his armor—eerily similar to Tsukasa's style. Brutal, over-the-top, and completely impractical.
Once fully transformed, Kamen Rider Diend did the unexpected for a marksman—he charged into melee combat.
Despite the mismatch, Diend was no slouch. With precision and brute force, he knocked away Woz's long weapons, forcing Woz to change tactics. Woz powered up into Kamen Rider Woz Kikai Armor, regaining ground and managing to knock loose several Rider Watches from Kaito's possession.
The scattered Rider Watches clattered to the ground—at least a dozen of them. Who knew Kaito had stashed so many?
[KamenRide!]
[Knight!]
[KamenRide!]
[Baron!]
Frustrated by the loss, Kaito summoned two Riders to stall for time—Kamen Rider Knight and Kamen Rider Baron.
"Fine, keep those. They weren't the valuable ones anyway," Kaito said.
[AttackRide!]
[Invisible!]
With the summoned Riders distracting Woz, Kaito vanished into thin air, his two allies dissipating shortly after.
The trio gathered what they could. But upon counting, they realized a serious problem: Sougo's Zi-O II watch and Gates' Base and Resurrection watches were still missing.
"Where's my watch?!" Gates snapped. "I told you to get it back!"
"Why should I take orders from you?" Woz said with a smug grin. "I used to be the one giving the orders."
"What's this 'used to' you keep saying? It's clearly from the future!" Sougo cut in.
"Your Majesty, please… let's not confuse the timeline even more," Woz replied wearily.
Just then, Tsukuyomi arrived, panting. "A new Another Rider just showed up!"
The team rushed to respond, but without the missing watches, they were unable to defeat the creature, and it escaped.
Later, the group split into two teams. Sougo paired Gates with Woz—hoping to force cooperation between the two—and assigned them to track Kaito and recover the remaining watches. He and Tsukuyomi would go after the Another Blade to prevent more damage.
"Sougo, this is a terrible idea," Tsukuyomi said while walking. "Those two will never work together."
"But we're all living together. Even if they hate each other, they'll have to learn to get along."
"I'm telling you—it's hopeless." Tsukuyomi rolled her eyes.
"What even happened between them?" Sougo asked.
Tsukuyomi hesitated before answering. "Woz used to be like us. He was the captain of our resistance unit fighting against the Demon King."
"Until he was ordered to infiltrate them as a spy. But for some reason… he fed us false intel. We nearly got wiped out."
Sougo's expression hardened. "Then there's only one explanation!"
"My charisma won him over. Clearly, he saw the light and pledged his loyalty to me!" he laughed smugly.
Tsukuyomi's face turned dark. "Shut up."
Just then, Another Blade appeared again, attacking civilians. Sougo immediately transformed, taking on a crab-themed armor form to intercept it.
"Stop!" someone shouted. A man stepped between Sougo and the creature.
"Hajime!" the Another Blade called out.
"You are…?" Sougo asked cautiously.
"Don't hurt that boy!" the man said. He pulled out a card and swiped it across a belt that materialized on his waist.
"Transform!"
[Change!]
Kamen Rider Chalice—Hajime Aikawa.
"A Kamen Rider?!"
Before Sougo could process what was happening, Chalice attacked with his bow—though it was clearly designed for close combat. Sougo, confused and caught off guard, was quickly overwhelmed.
Then Hajime activated three cards in sequence:
[Float — Floating Dragonfly!]
[Drill — Drilling Conch!]
[Tornado — Hurricane Eagle!]
[Spinning Dance!]
Surrounded by a dark-purple whirlwind, Chalice performed a spinning airborne kick that sent Sougo flying, de-transforming him back to base form.
"What the hell is going on?!" Sougo shouted after tumbling across the ground.
Before Chalice could finish him, he froze—his attention diverted.
"Kenzaki…" Hajime muttered.
"Hajime! You're using your power again!" shouted Kazuma Kenzaki, the original Kamen Rider Blade. "I sealed mine to stop you—but you broke yours!"
Both of them were Undead Jokers, destined to fight endlessly. If one triumphed over the other, the world would end. They had both given up their powers to prevent that future.
"Why, Hajime?!"
Kenzaki's Blay Buckle shot into the air and locked around his waist.
"Transform!"
[Turn Up!]
"We meet again… Is this fate truly unavoidable?" Kenzaki said, transforming into Kamen Rider Blade and readying his sword and Blay Rouzer.