Back in the hollow silence of the activity room, Mai Sakurajima sat alone. She toyed with her chopsticks, the wood clicking rhythmically against her teeth as she stared at the vacant seat across from her. The warmth of their shared lunch had evaporated the moment he left.
"That idiot... disappearing again," she murmured. Her voice felt small in the empty space, a faint tremor of abandonment coloring her words. He had anchored her to the world only to leave her drifting in the quiet of a lonely afternoon.
The man didn't turn around immediately. Instead, he raised a weathered, twin-lens reflex camera to his eye. He adjusted the focus on the glittering metropolis in the distance, the city lights shimmering like a sea of diamonds against the twilight.
Click.
The shutter snapped, capturing a distorted fragment of a world that shouldn't exist. Only then did the man lower the camera, his gaze still fixed on the horizon.
"I wonder," he mused, his voice smooth and detached, "if a world as tangled and broken as this one is even capable of producing a decent photograph."
Slowly, the man turned. His eyes were sharp, filled with the weary wisdom of a traveler who had seen a thousand ends.
"Destruction is merely the catalyst for creation," he stated, his tone matter-of-fact. He gestured toward the distant skyscrapers. "Everything must be broken before it can be truly connected. Don't you see it, King? This world is a mistake—a collision of realities that was never meant to be."
Rin Kuga knew exactly who stood before him. This was the Destroyer of Worlds, the Passing-Through Kamen Rider whose very existence was a paradox. In his past life, Rin had watched his journeys; now, he faced the man in the flesh.
"It's messy, I'll grant you that," Rin replied, his feet shifting as the ground beneath him cracked, reacting to the mounting pressure of his presence. "But even a mess has its own shape. This world has forged its own identity out of the chaos. And as its King, I find its current form... quite to my liking."
"Oh?" The man offered a thin, dangerous smile. "Then I take it you intend to stop me."
"Stopping you is a matter of administrative necessity," Rin said.
The air grew heavy, thick with the scent of ozone and the humming of unseen gears. There was no more room for diplomacy.
Rin reached into the void, and with a ripple of golden light, the Ziku-Driver materialized in his hands. He snapped it onto his waist with a metallic clank. He produced a Ridewatch, his thumb clicking the activation button.
ZI-O!
He slotted the watch into the right side of the driver, the device glowing with a fierce violet light. With a fluid, practiced motion, he gripped the housing and spun the driver 360 degrees.
"Henshin."
RIDER TIME! KAMEN RIDER ZI-O!
A cyclone of temporal energy erupted, obsidian and silver armor plating locking onto his body as the pink Kanji for "Rider" smashed into his visor.
The man —Tsukasa Kadoya—narrowed his eyes. "Zi-O? No... there's something different about your frequency. Interesting."
He didn't hesitate. He produced a shimmering pink Neo Decadriver, the device snapping onto his waist with a predatory mechanical hiss. He flicked a card from his deck, snapping it between two fingers before sliding it into the driver.
"Let's see if you can actually hold onto this throne of yours."
He slammed the driver shut.
KAMEN RIDE: DECADE!
Nineteen translucent cards manifested in a blur of motion, slamming into Tsukasa and merging into the magenta-and-black armor of the Great Destroyer