Kamen Rider Zi-O, Dimensional Descent

After clearing the things from the doorway, he stared at the two people in the room and remained silent for a moment.

"Who are you?"

"...You are the people who were captured by Finnis, aren't you?"

The man walked in slowly, looking at them with an expression that was hard to decipher.

"Who exactly are you...?"

"Heavenly Dao General Manager".

What? Naju was slightly taken aback, because she felt that she seemed to have heard this name before in the village.

"Please call me that for now... I have something important to ask you."

"What do you mean by 'important matters'?"

Before them, the man who called himself Tendou Souji squatted down directly in front of them.

Naju remained vigilant in the slightest.

Who knows who this guy who suddenly appeared is? What if he's also one of Finnis's men?

"Is the person who captured you named Shinji Kido?"

"I don't know the name, but... the person who captured us was a strange man who was all black and looked a lot like a dragon."

"..."

Upon hearing Naju's description, Tendou Souji's expression became complicated.

"Did he directly cause damage to your village?"

“Of course… Our village was destroyed, the warriors in charge of the battle were all defeated, and then… they captured us along with that woman, making us her subordinates…”

"Damn it... they actually... toyed with us to this extent!"

Eh?

Tendou Souji slammed his fist into the ground, and at that moment, Naju blinked in surprise.

What's going on here?

"Aren't you that woman named Phineas's partner...?"

"She could never consider us as partners. In her eyes, we are nothing more than tools to be used and discarded, devoid of any humanity...!"

"That strange black man—"

"He's been controlled, his mind has been forcibly taken over, just like those Kamen Riders and monsters you see..."

Perhaps one day even Phineas will control my nerves—Tendou Souji couldn't help but think this.

"Once we're controlled by that woman, even we Dark Knights can't escape that manipulation. Our consciousness will be completely controlled... All that talk about granting my wishes, it was all just a lie, wasn't it?!"

"Complete control...? But I remember that strange black figure I saw back then seemed to have struggled for a long time..."

"What did you say?!"

Upon hearing what Naju said, Tendou Souji looked at her in surprise.

"You mean Kido... uh, that strange black guy broke free from the white-clad woman's control over him using his own willpower?"

"I don't remember the details very clearly, but..."

"Ania remembers!"

Just then, Anya, who was standing behind Naju, hurriedly called out.

“Ania heard what the black man was saying at that time.”

"You heard me...?"

"I don't want to be controlled, I want to reclaim myself. Rather than living a wretched life as someone else's lackey, I'd rather live as my true self!" These were the words in that person's heart at that moment, and Anya heard them all!

To live as one's true self...

Tendou Souji's expression froze for a moment, and then he seemed to weaken as he straddled the ground.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?!"

"Is that so... Kido, even when you're being controlled by that person, you're still doing everything you can to resist her?"

Among these people, Shinji Kido... was the only one with whom he had had a deep conversation.

After their conversation, Tendou Souji discovered that the two of them had very similarities.

They all live under someone else's skin, but they all want to gain their own meaning of existence.

Now, Shinji Kido has been ruthlessly controlled by Phineas, who has even completely taken away his mind.

Even so, he continued to fight on with all his might...

Having fully grasped this point, Tendou Souji couldn't help but clench his fist.

"I…"

His eyes trembled, and he held his head in his hands.

Should we continue to help Finnis? Persecute the people of this world for her sake, and then obtain what we call our own lives from her?

Or should we do, right now, what we truly want to do as the "Heavenly Path Chief"?

"What...what should I do?!"

He roared like a madman, even grabbing his hair haphazardly with both hands.

This exaggerated behavior prompted Naju to quickly protect Anya behind her.

"It's alright, Sister Nazhu..."

"Ania? What do you mean nothing's wrong! This person looks dangerous no matter how you look at him—?!"

"No, that won't happen."

Anya, however, shook her head.

Ignoring Naju's attempts to protect her, she walked directly towards the other person.

“Because Anya can see that this person’s heart… has been struggling.”

Although, even she herself probably doesn't know the more profound things.

But the more innocent and naive a child is, the more practical their words tend to be.

"Brother...why don't you follow your heart?"

"Varied…"

"Brother Yanming and Anya once said that as a person, you should do what you think in your heart and never... do anything against your conscience."

Going against... one's true nature...

Tendou Souji's eyes trembled again.

What exactly is my inner self, my true nature...?

he does not know.

But... he no longer wanted to... have his self-esteem trampled on by others.

"Ah, so that's where it is."

An annoying, familiar voice is in my ear.

Finnis stood at the doorway, arms crossed, looking into the room.

"Since you're here, there's no need to trouble Another Dragon Fang. Just pull that little girl over here, and throw the other woman into the monster creation room. She's useless here; just turn her into a monster—"

"I refuse..."

"…ha?"

Finis frowned and looked at the other person in surprise.

Tendou Souji, however, stood up without hesitation.

"I said I refuse! Didn't you hear me?! You piece of shit woman—!!"

Tendou Souji stared at Finis with wide eyes, his gaze filled with hostility.

(Please vote for me! Please give me monthly tickets, and please send me your best wishes and donations! I hope you can continue to support the author. Thank you so much!!)

Volume 4: Knights' War: Chapter 113 You will definitely... succeed!

"…Hey."

It was as if I had seen something extraordinary.

Finis smiled at Tendou Souji's reaction.

"Are you implying that you've betrayed us with these words?"

"...I never said I wanted to work as your partner or your subordinate."

Tendou Souji clenched his five fingers tightly.

"The reason I'm helping you is because you said you would fulfill my wish and give me an independent life in the future...that's why I'm helping you."

"Yes, so if you do this now, do you think I'll still help you fulfill this wish in the future?"

"I don't need you to help me achieve this anymore."

Finnis looked at the other person again with great interest.

"I... want to be myself."

Tendou Souji... or rather, someone beneath that skin.

"I don't need you to help me achieve this, and I don't want to stay under your wing like a slave just to accomplish something, or even have my most basic ability to think taken away!"

"Well, to put it bluntly, aren't they still planning to betray us?"

Finnis casually fiddled with his nails.

"But what can you possibly do all by yourself?"

"Are you planning to save them? Or go further and defeat me? Save the people in this world who are suffering from dire straits? Oh, it seems you want to be a hero, a great hero who saves the world, right? Only a good child would have such thoughts."

"That's enough, I don't want to waste any more words on someone like you!"

A black beetle then flew towards Phineas's cheek.

She glanced at him briefly and flicked away the beetle of the Heavenly Dao General with some invisible force.

"Transform!"

"Henshin!"

His entire body was covered in black and silver armor.

"You two, hide behind me!"

"You...you really intend to save us?!"

“I don’t want this guy to get away with this anymore, and I don’t want to keep doing what he says… so I’m going to save you, not only to fight back against him, but also to prevent you from being manipulated by such a disgusting person!”

This is really... quite troublesome.

Phineas sighed calmly, and then—

Under the watchful gaze of Tendou Souji, a strange change occurred inside the glass on the right.

A shadow shot out from the ground in an instant, growing larger than it had been.

"Well--!"

The pitch-black knight monster is the alien Dragon Fang.

He charged out of the Mirror World and smashed into the Heavenly Dao Souji with his body.

"Kido... wake up!"

"Unfortunately, that guy can no longer regain his self-awareness."

The alien dragon tooth remained unmoved by Tendou Souji's words.

It casually raised its arm, and the deep black flames transformed into six paths, shooting directly towards the Heavenly Dao Souji.