What Happens When We Stop Chasing?

The Riders witnessed the explosion as a number floated up: 002. Chase couldn’t bare to watch the number explode like so many others. Gou, meanwhile, fell back and relaxed, shouting out in joy. Shinnosuke was the only one to have no reaction to the death of the last Roidmude. Krim shared that same sentiment, though the face on Shinnosuke’s belt just remained normal.

The Riders cancelled their transformation for what may be the last time. Chase looked down to the ground and held onto Heart’s earring. Shinnosuke walked up to Chase and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Chase. They had to be destroyed.” Krim told Chase.

“… Why?” He asked.

“…” Krim remained silent.

“Why must they be destroyed?” Chase asked.

“Because!” Gou got up. “They were the threats against humanity. Our job as Riders was to protect people, right?”

“Y-yeah. We did a good thing today, Chase.” Shinnosuke said. Chase simply looked at the earring.

----
A day passed since the final battle with the Roidmudes. The Special Unit worked around the clock to fix up a lot of the discussions regarding the destruction of the city during the fight, from Kyu quelling flame wars on the internet boards to Jun and Gen entertaining the brass to help cover up some of the destruction caused. Which left Rinna packing up in the Drive Pit.

“Maaaaaan… now that this thing’s over, there’s not really much to dooo…” She said upon dropping a box of concept drawings for weapons that she would have invented had the war with the Roidmudes lasted longer. She sat in a chair and stretched out her arms.

“Yeah… Still, do you think we’ll need these anymore?” Gou said to her as he held up his Mach Driver.

“I don’t see why not.” She said.

“… I never really imagined this day to come. You know? The day when we run out of Roidmudes to fight. I always just thought about destroying them.” Gou said. “Now what do we do?” That’s when Shinnosuke walked into the pit.

“I don’t think the case is far from over.” Shinnosuke held an open letter.

“Huh?” Gou asked. Shinnosuke dropped the letter. Gou picked it up and looked at it. He read the sender’s name: Hidari Shotaro.

“It seems this group that Dr. Banno got the funding to make his Roidmudes from has made a couple of loose ends. Loose ends that this person is familiar with tracking down.” Krim said.

“Turns out we’re not the only Kamen Riders. There are a couple of them around Japan. The letter says we should meet up around a place called Amanogawa High if we wanna handle this thing.” Shinnosuke said.

“More Kamen Riders? Well, looks like I’ll be holding onto this a little longer.” Gou put his Driver away. He then looked around. “Hey, anyone wonder where Kiriko went?”

“Now that you mention it, I heard she was trying to help Chase settle down.” Rinna said. The group heard a sigh, and all turned to see Krim with his LED lights making his solemn face.

“Chase had been through a lot this past while… There’s no telling if he’ll be able to live a normal life after all that. Especially since he’s not truly human.” Krim said. The group soon shared his solemn face, save for Gou, who just rolled his eyes.

----

Chase felt tense as he held the cone of ice-cream in his hand.

“Something wrong, Chase?” Kiriko asked as the two sat on a park bench.

“N…nothing.” Chase looked around. So much peace. So much quiet. As soon as his eyes saw a flash, he looked around as fast as he could and expected everything to slow to a crawl. Instead, it was just a guy taking a photo with the family. Chase began to breathe heavily as Kiriko patted him on the back.

“Relax… It’s over now.” She said.

“Right… Right…” Chase said as Kiriko’s cell phone began to ring.

“Hang on…” Kiriko picked up her phone. “Hey, what’s up, brother?” Chase drowned out her conversation by simply looking at the peacefulness of the park. He looked around. There was calm. The ice-cream began to melt onto his hand, but he didn’t seem to mind. Rather, he simply watched it as it slowly melted, at its own pace. He turned to look at the family; a husband, a wife, and a little son. He smiled.

“Chase?” He heard someone call to him. A muffled voice. His mind slowly went back to when he was Mashin Chaser. The many Roidmudes he fought to reset, the people he had allied with and the Riders he fought. He then remembered all of them dying at the hands of both himself and the Riders. Even if he had sworn to fight as Kamen Rider Chaser, there was that twinge of regret. That one voice in his head that asked ‘why…’ “Chase.” He felt Kiriko’s warm hand on his arm. He turned to her.

“Mr. Belt and the others getting ready to head off to investigate further in the organization that Dr. Banno mentioned in his log. He asked if you want to come with.” She said. Chase just looked at his ice-cream and proceeded to lick a bit of it. It took a while for his tongue to register the taste of strawberry, though it was a dozen seconds before he could register the cold temperature.

“… Sure.” Chase said. Kiriko looked to Chase’s hand, more particularly, his wrist. She noticed a new accessory. A shoestring tied around to hold a silver earring… Heart’s Earring. Kiriko held Chase’s hand.

“Chase…” Kiriko said. Chase could only focus on the earring and think back to the time when he was fighting for the Roidmudes. Tears began to seep from his eyes. Kiriko held his hand tighter. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. You can live a normal life now! You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to!”

“It’s… not that.” Chase said.

“What is it then?” Kiriko asked.

“The Roidmudes…” Chase said.

“They’re gone now. They won’t hurt us anymore.” Kiriko said.

“No… It’s not that.” He remembered a time where, when he fought the Roidmudes, he was made to protect them. It wasn’t just when Medic messed with his programming neither.

“They call me Reaper, but I don't destroy Cores. I give Roidmudes the chance to start over.”

While he’s made his resolve in fighting the Roidmudes, part of him still felt something about them. One more look at the father told him everything.

“They were… They were… My f…” Then he saw a guy jacking the father in the face, taking a diamond ring from the wife’s hand, and running off after decking the kid in the face. Kiriko let go of Chase and got up. She readied her gun, only for the mugger to take out his own gun and shoot at Kiriko. The bullet entered Kiriko’s side and she recoiled in pain, landing onto the bench. She began to bleed out. Chase looked to her.

“Kiriko! Kiriko!” Chase looked to her, but she passed out. Chase looked at the running man and glared at him.

----

“There’s no response from Kiriko.” Shinnosuke looked at his cell.

“Ah well, let’s let the two lovebirds be alone.” Rinna said as she finished packing up some more of her stuff.

“Hmph…” Gou got up and stormed off.

“Huh, he’s still upset about that whole ‘Kiriko has the hots for Chase’ thing?” Rinna asked.

“Yeah… You’d think by now, he’d be used to it.” Shinnosuke said. That’s when Kyu ran down.

“Guys! Guys! I detected Density Shift particles over at the park!”

“Wait… How can that be… Unless…” Shinnosuke said. Right as he realized, Gou chuckled.

“Well, let’s do some clean up before we head out on that wild goose chase.” Gou tried to run off, but Shinnosuke stopped him.

“Wait! Let me handle it.” Shinnosuke said.

 “We stopped Chase before, remember? We can do it again.” Krim spoke up. Gou scoffed, then pulled Shinnosuke in by the collar.

“Very well then, big bro. But this time, stop him for good. For Kiriko’s sake.” He pushed Shinnosuke and headed up. “I’ll be at Amanogawa! Try not to be late!”

“… Let’s go, Mr. Belt.” Shinnosuke headed to the Tridoron.

----

The mugger tripped over, now at his wit’s end and out of breath. He could hear the scraping of metal against the ground as he saw what looked to be the Grim Reaper about to claim his soul.

Kamen Rider Chaser dragged his Shingo Axe towards the mugger. He lifted the axe. The familiar vroom of a car stopped him. He turned around and saw the Tridoron roll by. As it stopped, Shinnosuke got out. Chase looked as the mugger began to get away, only to activate Slowdown yet again.

“Chase! What the hell are you doing!?” Shinnosuke said. “You’re scaring him!”

“Remember when I told you long ago about how there’s evil intent in these men?” Chase asked.

“And do you remember when I told you that we’re not fighting for justice?” Shinnosuke said.

“Yes. I do. We fight to protect people. I haven’t forgotten my programming, Kamen Rider. I realized that was why we had to kill the Roidmudes.”

“W-what are you talking about!? This is nothing like our battles with them! You’re about to execute a human being!” Krim said.

“In order to protect humanity, we must destroy whatever threatens them, right? And right now, there’s no more Roidmudes, save for me.” Chase said.

“Chase, if this is about your programming, we found a lead on a potential threat to humanity!” Shinnosuke said.

“You mean Foundation X? I’ve watched Dr. Banno’s logs as well. A group of humans who fund and create weapons for other humans. When will it end, Kamen Rider? Our job is to protect humans, but that directive also becomes our brakes. When must you learn that in order to fulfill our drive, we have to push past those brakes? We must protect humanity from themselves now. Just like how we protected them from the Roidmudes.” Chase said. The two stared at each other for a moment, as if waiting for something.

“So why haven’t you made good on that and killed him already?” Shinnosuke asked.

“Because I know that you won’t approve of it, and I’m just waiting for you to transform.” Chase said.

“Heh… Right on.” Shinnosuke said.

“Damn it… Start your engine!” Krim said.

“HENSHIN!”

“DRIVE! TYPE… SPEED!”