Kamen Rider from the ancient times

Tsukasa Kadoya really can cook.

There's nothing in this world he can't do!

"Looks amazing!"

Looking at the curry rice that seemed to gleam in the sunlight on the dining table, Hikari Natsumi exclaimed in genuine amazement.

Tsukasa Kadoya curled his lips into a smile: "It's alright, I haven't cooked in a long time either."

Hikari nodded seriously: "Oh yeah! Shi used to eat instant noodles every day and didn't even clean up. It was awful!"

Tsukasa Kadoya: "..."

He picked up a spoon, scooped a spoonful of curry rice, and brought it to Mitsuha's lips. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, he shoved the rice into her mouth, and then saw the girl's pouty cheeks become even rounder and cuter.

"Alright! Go ahead and try it!"

Hikari Natsumi, who was about to get angry, suddenly brightened up and took the spoon handle that Tsukasa Kadoya had let go of. While chewing, she gave the person in front of her a thumbs up.

"It's delicious! Shi, you really know how to cook!"

"I'm a five-star chef."

Tsukasa Kadoya raised his chin without any modesty.

Although he had no special training, when he arrived in the world of Blade, he was given the identity of a senior chef at the Human Foundation History Research Institute Group.

The world must have recognized his exceptional culinary talent to give him this identity!

Tsukasa Kadoya sat sideways at the dining table, his elbow resting on the edge of the table, leaning back slightly with one leg crossed, his relaxed posture looking lazy yet confident.

While sitting on the other side, Hikari Natsumi was focused on finishing the golden curry rice on her plate, but after noticing Tsukasa Kadoya across from her, she suddenly tilted her head and stared at him closely.

Seeing this, Tsukasa Kadoya, who was propping his head up and watching her eat, raised an eyebrow and asked, "What's wrong?"

Hikari Natsumi smiled and said, "It's nothing, I just think this kind of taxi is awesome!"

Tsukasa Kadoya lowered his arm, frowned, and leaned back slightly.

Hikari Natsumi continued with a smile, "I always felt that Shi was different in this world than in the outside world. It's really great to see that you've cheered yourself up again!"

"Oh? Is there something different?" Tsukasa Kadoya asked with great interest.

"I can't quite describe that feeling..."

Hikari smiled with a somewhat complicated expression: "Although this is the world of warriors, warriors probably prefer to travel to other worlds, so they always look listless when they come back here."

After saying this, before Tsukasa Kadoya could speak, Hikari Natsumi immediately added, as if to make amends, "However—"

An encouraging smile appeared on her face: "Now the taxi driver has finally become the same taxi driver he was on the road, confident and strong again! Although it feels like only a short time has passed, he seems to have matured even more than before. The taxi driver has become an increasingly reliable savior!"

Although Tsukasa Kadoya did not respond to these words, the slight upturn of his lips became more and more obvious, and his smugness was self-evident.

Only when he heard the last part did he let out a faint, ambiguous sneer.

"Savior……"

“That’s right! Shi is not only the savior of every world, but also my savior. I’m very happy when I’m with Shi!” Hikari Natsumi said with a cheerful smile.

"..."

Tsukasa Kadoya looked at Hikari Natsumi like this.

When they met in another world, Tsukasa Kadoya, who accidentally transformed into "Kamen Rider Decade," saved Hikari Natsumi from being attacked by a monster. From then on, the girl worshipped him as a "savior" and followed him.

Because Hikari Natsumi is very passionate about helping everyone, and Tsukasa Kadoya happens to possess that power.

So they started their journey together.

The two can travel to different worlds through the [Photo Studio], which usually contain other Kamen Riders and monsters they've never heard of before, much like a fixed game instance.

Tsukasa Kadoya used Decade's power to help the Kamen Riders solve one incident after another.

The world we live in now is the "world of warriors," which was originally an ordinary real world, but for some reason it has also begun to have urban legends about monsters.

--vampire.

"Now that we've bounced back, shouldn't we also face these issues squarely, Shi?"

After a slight hesitation, Hikari Natsumi put down the curry rice she was eating, picked up the newspaper information she had collected over the past few days, and looked at Tsukasa Kadoya with a hint of probing.

She had previously mentioned wanting to deal with the vampire issue, but Tsukasa Kadoya reacted strangely to it.

From the taxi driver who returned to this world, Hikari keenly sensed a familiar feeling of "escape," but she didn't know how to deal with the situation and was even a little flustered and helpless, so she could only try to gather information on her own.

Now that she sees Tsukasa Kadoya back to his usual travel-like self, she couldn't wait to bring it up.

Tsukasa Kadoya pressed his finger on the newspaper on the table, dragged it over to take a look, then glanced at Hikari Natsumi's expectant face, and then put the newspaper back behind him with his fingertips.

Guang Xiahai was taken aback when he saw this.

But before she could feel disappointed, Tsukasa Kadoya said, "Then you just wait here. I'll go take care of it now."

"Huh?" Hikari Natsumi looked at him in surprise.

Tsukasa Kadoya lowered his crossed legs, stood up, and slowly straightened the hem of his brown trench coat. Then, he raised the magenta camera on his chest and pressed the shutter on Natsumi in the light.

click-

With a look of astonishment in her eyes, Guang Xiahai's rosy cheeks appeared even fuller, and the image was frozen in time.

The light and shadow on the screen appeared somewhat distorted, but even Tsukasa Kadoya had no idea what the final image of the photograph would look like until it was developed.

"Why did you suddenly take a picture of someone...?"

Hikari Natsumi smoothed her hair a little embarrassedly, not realizing for a moment that Tsukasa Kadoya's instant camera did not immediately eject the photographic paper this time.

"I just thought it was cute of Natsumi to ask me that, but next time you'd better smile~"

Tsukasa Kadoya curled his lips into a smile, put down his camera, made a teasing gesture at her, and turned to walk out.

"what……"

Hikari Natsumi pressed her cheek.

When she came to her senses, she saw that Tsukasa Kadoya had already left the house, so she quickly got up and ran out as well.

"Wait! I'll join you too—"

When Guangxia Hai arrived at the door, she looked outside, but the guy was nowhere to be seen.

Such a proactive approach was somewhat unexpected.

She paused for a moment, then had no choice but to turn back. Seeing the unfinished golden curry rice on the table, she sat back down, picked up her spoon, and continued eating.

When she first arrived in "Tsukasa's World," Hikari Natsumi couldn't stand Tsukasa's instant noodles and messy hygiene, so she took it upon herself to do the housework. However, the food she cooked was criticized by Tsukasa as "only suitable for weirdos' tastes"...

In response to such a blunt evaluation, Guang Xiahai naturally rewarded him with a secret Guang family technique, the Laughing Point Finger!
However, after eating the curry rice made by Tsukasa Kadoya himself, Hikari Natsumi suddenly realized that her cooking skills were actually not that great.

But no matter what, being evaluated like that is still too much!
As Guang Xiahai angrily finished the last bite of curry rice and was about to clear the dishes, a loud noise suddenly came from the doorway, followed by a somewhat disheveled young man running in, leaning against the doorframe.

"Tsukasa?!" Hikari Natsumi stared at him in astonishment. The man in front of her, Tsukasa Kadoya, was still dressed as he had left home, except that his brown trench coat was covered in dust, his hair was messy, and he was panting heavily as he glared around menacingly, looking as if he had fallen into some kind of trap and was extremely wary.

Hikari Natsumi said in a daze, "You came back so fast—wait, what happened to you?!"

Hearing this, Tsukasa Kadoya looked at her and paused slightly: "Natsumikan? Hey, are you alright?"

Tsukasa Kadoya quickly took a few steps and grabbed her arm.

His strange and intense reaction startled Guang Xia Hai, who involuntarily shrank her shoulders and looked at him with worry and uncertainty.

"What? I'm fine?"

"Because you left with that guy, didn't you! Honestly, you have no sense of caution at all. Xia Mikan is just too trusting!"

"That guy? Shi, what are you talking about?"

"So that guy isn't here?"

"and many more……"

Hikari Natsumi was completely bewildered by his words, while Kadoya Tsukasa, who seemed somewhat incoherent, nervously looked around the room before leaving her behind.

However, as he reached the door, Tsukasa Kadoya suddenly turned back and solemnly said, "Natsumikan, just stay here. Don't believe anything anyone says, not even my words, until I come back to you!"

"what?"

After saying this, Tsukasa Kadoya disappeared, leaving Hikari Natsumi standing in the room with a blank expression.

It took her a while to come to her senses. She looked at the doorway with a string of messy footprints, then looked back at the plate of curry rice on the table that had been eaten.

Guangxia sat down, looking somewhat dazed.

It seems like I felt it again...

The taxi driver, who suddenly became anxious and uneasy, was almost like a different person, but in fact, Hikari Natsumi had always known and firmly believed in what a real taxi driver was like.

That was her savior!
……

……

After the rain stopped.

The air gradually became humid and stuffy again.

The sun hung overhead like a sticker, but instead of a beautiful rainbow after the rain, a suffocating, humid atmosphere settled above people's heads, making it difficult to breathe and creating a suffocating atmosphere.

A faint musty smell wafted over, and houses in the distance were faintly visible in the misty sunlight.

Tsukasa Kadoya squinted at the house.

He walked into the desolate and dilapidated Guangzhao Photo Studio, his gaze fixed on the camera standing upright in the center of the studio, his eyes filled with confident certainty.

"This world originally had no Kamen Riders or monsters. The so-called vampires must have come from another world using this photo studio!"

After arriving in this world, Tsukasa Kadoya roughly understood the matter of vampires attacking people at night.

He casually raised his hand and moved the black curtain covering the camera, and at that moment, the sound of rubble being trampled came from the messy floor.

Just as Tsukasa Kadoya turned his head after hearing the noise, a dark gun barrel was pressed against his forehead.

This is no ordinary gun, but a uniquely designed Diend Driver with blue stripes, and the owner of this gun is, unsurprisingly, a familiar face.

Tsukasa Kadoya stared at the other person with an unchanged expression.

"Haidong..."

"Yeah, yeah~"

Compared to his previous impression, Hai Dong Daiki, who now appeared even more unpredictable, sinister, and ruthless, smiled, his eyes revealing a hint of madness.

"How did you suddenly become so perceptive? Or perhaps you've always been like this, only you've always pretended not to care, while secretly investigating this matter?" Daiki Kaito said with a smile.

"Kaito, are you connected to the vampires who came to this world?" Tsukasa Kadoya asked instead of answering.

These are all necessary sacrifices!

Kaito Daiki's expression suddenly filled with hatred: "Only Mr. Narutaki can understand my pain! So I must gather the power of the Kamen Riders from the nine worlds, so that Mr. Narutaki can create a correct world where there is absolutely no sadness or pain!"

Tsukasa Kadoya's eyes flickered slightly: "Narutaki..."

Kaito Daiki glared at him fiercely, gripping the Diend gun tightly and pushing it forward, forcing Kadoya Tsukasa, with the gun pointed at him, to the wall where he had nowhere to retreat.

"So, Shi, your existence is an obstacle to Mr. Narutaki, so let me kill you right here!"

"Whatever the reason, you've wanted to kill me for a long time, haven't you, Kaito?" Tsukasa Kadoya said calmly.

"That's right! That's exactly it—"

Kaito Daiki gave a strange, bitter smile: "From the very beginning, I came to this real world for you because I didn't want to miss any opportunity to kill Shi. But in the end, I ended up living leisurely in your house and even playing a buddy game with you..."

Tsukasa Kadoya silently gazed at the large Kaito tree. No matter which world he was in, this guy's obsession seemed to remain almost the same.

Will he be the same?
“You must be so lonely,” Tsukasa Kadoya said.

"What a joke!"

Kaito Daiki suddenly became fierce: "I don't need these things at all. Only a perfect and correct world is my lifelong pursuit, and the one who destroys all of this is the biggest obstacle for me and Mr. Narutaki! Before, Natsumi was always sticking to your side, making it impossible for me to find an opportunity to make a move, but now—this is the perfect time!"

Kaito Daiki, who uttered these words, straightened his arm and stared intently at Kadoya Tsukasa, his eyes brimming with rising killing intent!
At this moment, in this real world, Tsukasa Kadoya, who cannot possess the power of Decade as he does during his travels, absolutely cannot dodge Diend's attack!
Hikari Natsumi, who came to this world as a guest, was unaware of this problem, only noticing that the taxis in this world were quite lazy.

However, during this time, Kaito Daiki, who had also moved into Shi's house without permission, vaguely discovered this secret—Shi, who was so confident and arrogant during his travels, was actually just an ordinary person with no power to resist in the real world.

Even Daiki Kaito, who collaborated with Mr. Narutaki, knew more about the secrets of "Kuji Photo Studio".

Only those who want to escape their own world can find the Light Photo Studio.

A taxi driver on a journey is just like them!

……

Behind this wall.

In the desolate courtyard scattered with broken bricks and rubble, a young man, covered in grime from being rubbed by the peeling paint on the gray walls, leaned against a corner, his eyes wide with astonishment and his face blank.

It seemed to be quiet inside for quite a while.

He also lost his sense of time, only feeling a chilling coldness coming from the humid, sweltering air that had almost drowned him.

And then at this time.

He heard another voice from himself, still that unpleasantly light and airy tone, even with a hint of ambiguous seductiveness.

Like a real demon.

"Then go ahead and shoot."

...(End of chapter)