The Undead of the sky were flying about chaotically, while the Undead of the land and sea could be seen jumping down from the ceiling.
The cries of the people could be heard from the center of the Domed City.
“Hajime!”
“Let’s meet up with Satsuki!”
Hajime couldn’t allow himself to leave by himself at this rate.
He prompted Azumi, and the two of them stealthily ran from cover to cover as to avoid getting spotted by the Undead in the sky.
However, before even moving thirty meters, they were attacked by three Undead that were on land, who had possibly detected their footsteps.
“Go on without me, Azumi!”
He set his sights on the Undead and positioned himself to transform.
“You’ll be coming, right, Hajime? You’ll fight together with us, right?”
“Yeah. So hurry up and go on without me!”
Azumi nodded and dashed off.
Hajime quickly stood in front of one of the Undead that was about to chase after her.
“Your opponent is me… Henshin!”
Upon transforming into Chalice, he defeated the Undead in one blow.
The other Undead bared their fangs as well and attacked him all at once.
“I’m about to become a beast. I’ll become the Joker. Every one of you will be reduced to ash in a mere three seconds from now. If that doesn’t scare you, then go ahead and come at me!”
Chalice’s body ominously transfigured into the form of Joker, opposing the Undead.
The disarmed Guardians were taken in by the Anti-Admiral Faction guerilla forces.
“Arrest me too! I’m their superior, your enemy!”
And I’m a traitor that isn’t on anyone’s side, Satsuki mentally added on.
“Satsuki!”
Azumi, who had made her way there, shouted out.
Are you okay with that? Are you sure you’re okay with that, her face asked.
Yeah, it’s fine, Satsuki nodded.
The guerilla troops exchanged glances of confusion, but right then, Undead from the sky and land came rushing in and swiped them into pieces with their claws of steel.
Azumi screamed.
The Guardians stood still in a daze as they were covered with the blood of the slaughtered.
Lying at their feet were the guns they had forfeited.
“What are you doing? Grab your weapons! We have to fight back!”
After shouting that, Satsuki began shooting at the Undead in front of him.
“We’re the Guardians! Let’s protect this city once and for all! Let’s protect the people! We won’t let you bastards do as you like! We’ll stop you no matter what!”
The Undead greatly drew back as their bodies absorbed the bullets, to which Satsuki quickly exchanged magazines and continued to fire without delay.
The metallic clinking of innumerable empty cartridges could be heard as they bounced across the ground.
Unable to keep up with regenerating their gunshot wounds, the Undead collapsed onto the ground and disintegrated.
After a moment of silence, the Guardians returned to their senses, picked up their weapons, and began firing at the Undead as well.
Their movements as well as their voices were different from usual.
“We’ll spread out to the right!”
“We’ll head to the left!”
“Watch the rear!”
“All clear!”
“Go!”
“Go go go go!”
They operated according to their own judgment without waiting for Satsuki’s orders, making for impressive coordination.
Their faces were all shining. They were fighting with their lives on the line for a cause they had discovered all on their own. They were shining because they had finally arrived at the answer they were looking for.
Satsuki fought as well, as one of them.
“Hide somewhere, Azumi!”
“No thanks!”
Azumi picked up a gun and fought alongside them.
They were all covered in the blue blood of their enemies as they took down a dozen or so Undead.
However, it did nothing to turn around the situation.
More and more Undead arrived, their numbers doubling, tripling those of the fallen.
Even if their supply from the hangar had not been cut off, the result would have most likely been the same. Against the overwhelming numbers of the Undead, it didn’t even take thirty minutes for nearly each of the Guardians to eventually fall in battle.
Satsuki continued to fire while drawing back, protecting Azumi who had ran out of bullets.
Eventually, Satsuki’s gun ran empty as well, and Undead came approaching them from all directions.
Azumi—who was clinging to his back—stiffened up, and Satsuki could sense her holding her breath.
Right when the Undead let out mighty roars and swung down their claws of steel, they were smothered by some kind of green liquid that burst out from the ground, causing them to collapse. When the liquid dispersed, blue blood spurt out from the torn opening in their throats as they violently convulsed.
“What are those things…?”
“Spiders…?”
What appeared to be liquid was actually an immense number of green spiders.
They spread around Satsuki and Azumi like a magic circle in order to protect them, grinding their poisonous fangs in a threatening manner towards the Undead.
They were nimble, managing to even evade the attacks from the Undead of the sky. They launched each other through the air by connecting to each other with their web, allowing them to intercept the Undead midair and tear apart their throats with extreme accuracy.
Satsuki and Azumi took this chance to take the guns and ammo from the fallen Guardians and resume their counter-attack against the Undead.
Just when they felt that they would turn the situation around for good this time, the fallen Guardians suddenly came back to life as Undead and attacked.
They haphazardly grabbed at the green spiders and tore them apart. Even when getting bitten, they bit back, destroying them one after the other.
“What’s wrong, guys…?”
“No way…!”
They were immortal beings, Undead in the truest sense.
It seemed that similar phenomenas were occurring elsewhere as well.
Cries such as “What are you doing, Dad?”, or “Stop, Mom!”, could be heard from all around.
“Stay back… Stay back!”
Satsuki stepped back, pointing his gun out while acting as a shield for Azumi.
Among the living corpses, there were some that seemed to still retain their souls despite their bodies having been viciously torn apart.
“Kill me, Captain…!”
“Please, Captain…!”
“Captain…!”
He couldn’t find it in himself to shoot.
They had finally found their own will, only to end up losing it again by being forced to kill their comrades.
“Why… Why?!”
Satsuki shouted out, unable to contain his anger.
Suddenly, a wind blew through them.
The transformed Hajime had changed his form even further. The sinister beast tore apart Satsuki’s former Guardian subordinates one after the other.
“Hajime…!”
Upon Azumi’s cry, the beast undid his transformation and returned to his form as Hajime, who crumpled to his knees.
Satsuki then aimed his gun towards him.
“You bastard… Why did you kill them?”
But Hajime did not respond as he continued to wheeze with pain.
He could tell that he suffered great damage from taking on that form.
“Answer me! Why?!”
Azumi stopped him.
“They were all already dead, Satsuki. Look…”
Voices could be heard from all around them.
“Dad turned back to normal…”
“He’s back to normal, but he’s dead now…”
“But I’m glad, Mom…”
“Now you can rest in peace…”
Azumi’s voice was filled with pain.
“They were probably just temporarily being controlled by the Undead. There’s no way they could have possibly been alive…”
Satsuki lowered his gun.
Yeah, that’s probably what it was.
But even then, I still didn’t shoot. Even if they were dead, I can’t forgive someone who would tear apart the bodies of my subordinates.
Hajime, just what in the world are you?
Just then, the roaring sound of support beams getting bent could be heard, and the hanging garden fell.
The Domed City that had persisted for three hundred years was coming to an end.
A tremendous trail of smoke rose up, and at the same time, the crack in the dome began to seal itself automatically.
“Wow…!”
Azumi’s eyes were glued to the spectacle, while the cheers of the people could be heard.
“The Admiral told me about this once. The dome is built with a living system composed of nano-cells… If it were to ever tear, it would fix itself all on its own.”
Thanks to that, the Undead couldn’t invade any further.
“Then why didn’t it happen faster…? Why did so many lives have to be lost…”
Azumi couldn’t keep her anger from spilling out.
“Maybe it was divine providence…”
Satsuki found himself muttering those words.
“Huh?”
“Sorry, it’s nothing…”
The cheers grew louder.
The people hiding in their houses timidly emerged, realizing what had happened. For the first time in three hundred years, they laughed and danced of their own will.
Their true human-like emotions overflowed, blending together.
“In any case, the Admiral’s reign is finally over.”
“Yeah…”
The rubble of the hanging garden had piled up in a way that partly sealed the Hole. Thankfully, it didn’t have any effect on the Geothermal Device at the bottom of the Hole, nor did it affect the workers and civilians in the residential quarters.
Satsuki returned his eyes to Hajime, who was still sitting down.
“…It’s this way. You want to go outside, right?”
Hajime slowly lifted his face.
Three days had passed since the storm leaving, and they had yet to reunite with the boats they lost sight of.
Tougo and the rest had no idea which direction to head for, and they were about to run out of food and water as well.
Every once in a while, Blade would search for land by flying around in his Jack Form, but he would always return without managing to find anything.
Everyone’s reactions to his reports grew duller and duller over time. Their exhausted brains and hearts had abandoned the concept of thinking and feeling.
But there was one person who continued to laugh like a little girl, which was Ren.
She would innocently play various kinds of games with Dai and Mei such as beanbag juggling. The children most likely picked up on Ren’s change in behavior, but they never made it apparent.
Rikiya, who would watch Ren with a sad look in his eyes, hadn’t smiled ever since her change.
Kojirou, who ran out of alcohol, had been crouched down against the boat’s floorboards all day long like a dried-up monkey that had lost every ounce of its vigor.
Five or six people from the other Areas were the same way. They had all had their mouths closed, never showing any sign of movement.
Tougo thought to himself. Even after disembarking the Ark, is there really nothing waiting out there for us other than a voyage of despair?
There was a waterway and a dock underneath the training grounds.
It was apparently built by an admiral from generations ago as an emergency escape route, and had been sealed off ever since.
Satsuki had happened to come across it while inspecting the training grounds’ security system, but he never reported it to anyone. He didn’t understand why himself. Back then, he of course never thought that anyone would end up using it.
Two speedboats of the same type were floating in the water.
“I’ve already performed the necessary maintenance. You’ll be able to set off at any time.”
He had never checked to see for himself, but the sea breeze that flowed in made it apparent that the waterway lead to the ocean.
Hajime nodded to Satsuki’s explanation, but then Azumi grabbed at his sleeve.
“Wait, Hajime! Don’t go! We need you!”
Hajime looked at Azumi and removed her arm.
“I’m sorry…”
He boarded one of the speedboats and turned on the engine.
“Wait… Wait, Hajime!”
Just as Azumi was about to chase after him, a bandaged old woman stood in her way. She was one of the survivors of the Guardians’ raid.
“Azumi, you’re the one that we need. This place can’t go on without you.”
“Granny…!”
Azumi stopped, and Hajime’s speedboat took off. Azumi could do nothing but dumbfoundedly gaze after the white wake of his boat as it grew farther and farther away.
Satsuki then suddenly noticed something.
There was an unfamiliar briefcase lying in the other speedboat.
Filled with suspicion, Satsuki boarded the speedboat and opened it up.
“This is…!”
Inside was a belt and some cards. It heavily resembled what Hajime used to transform.
A voice echoed through Satsuki’s head.
“Fight, Satsuki… Fight, Leangle…!”
Who are you?
Who the hell is Leangle?
Is that me?
The moment he understood that, he felt the dark stainless steel walls that had surrounded him burst open.
And then he saw a giant pitch-black stone slab in his mind.
“The Stone of Sealing…”
He didn’t know why those words came out of his mouth.
Driven by the impulse that ran through him, Satsuki turned on the speedboat.
“Satsuki! Even you too…?!”
Azumi’s voice behind him grew smaller and smaller.
“Lame-tsuki… You idiot!”
Light tore through the darkness, and the white waves split apart.
Hajime continued to move forward through the twisting waterway on his speedboat.
A tiny point of light appeared in front of him, which continued to grow larger and larger.
After about a second, the speedboat finally leaped out into the ocean of the South Pole.
The blizzard had settled, and the natural sunlight hurt his eyes.
Hajime slowed down, and he took out the ashes of the old man from his chest pocket, spreading it across the ocean.
“…Sorry it took so long.”
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The remains disappeared into the tranquil sea.
Hajime wanted to think of it as a final farewell to his past, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be that easy.
And his feeling was right on the mark.
When he resumed accelerating, the boat suddenly swerved in another direction all on its own. As if it was heading towards a predetermined fate that couldn’t be avoided.
And then Hajime saw a stone slab in his mind.
“So it’s appeared… The Stone of Sealing!”
The map on the portable terminal hadn’t been updated for quite a while, and it most likely wouldn’t be reliable, but Tougo would still look at it from time to time for the sake of peace of mind.
But then suddenly, the voice of a girl could be heard from it.
It seemed that he had accidentally activated some kind of function. Instead of a map, an icon representing a radio broadcast was being displayed.
“…The Domed City has fallen… Those of you listening to this from all over the world… The South Pole welcomes you… Domed City has fallen… Those of you listening to this from all over the world… The South Pole welcomes you…!”
The girl’s voice continued to repeat itself, cutting off from time to time.
Everyone gradually began to react to it.
“The South Pole…”
“The Domed City…”
“Welcomes us…?”
Kojirou bounced up to his feet.
“Let’s go to the South Pole!”
He screamed out while shaking the boat. Thanks to that, everyone instantly snapped awake.
“You’re kidding, right? Do you have any idea how long that would take?!”
But despite Rikiya’s words, there was hope glimmering in his eyes.
“Let’s go!”
Tougo shouted as well, and so did everyone else.
“Let’s go to the South Pole!”
Ren was the same as always, but Dai and Mei laughed without understanding what was going on.
That’s right. If we go to the South Pole, we might be able to cure Ren.
Let’s go to the South Pole.
The boat that had been floating aimlessly for so long finally made a large turn.
If it was just towards the South Pole, then even an old map would prove plenty useful.
Yeah. Let’s go to the South Pole.
Let’s turn this voyage of despair into one of hope.
Just then, Tougo could hear that mocking laugh in his head again.
At the same time, Kojirou, who was steering the boat, let out a scream.
“What’s going on?! The boat’s moving on its own… I can’t control it!”
The mocking laughter in his head grew louder.
Tougo checked the map to figure out where this course was leading them.
“Prisoner Island…?”
Kenzaki shouted as he looked up at the sky.
As if he could see something out there.
“The Stone of Sealing… Or should I say, the Master!”
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 