Eiji, Use This!

Perhaps because the Herrscher of Death Core from this era was inside her, Xing found White Flower especially easy to use. Green vegetation sprouted throughout the gymnasium, bringing a sliver of reassurance to the terrified people.

Xing wiped nonexistent sweat from her forehead. "Phew, the last one." She looked at the simply dressed young man sitting unconscious in the corner, his body covered in wounds, then raised White Flower and unleashed the power of creation. For some reason, she found him incredibly familiar, as though she had seen him somewhere before.

One minute later—

The young man showed no sign of waking. Xing paid it no mind and continued channeling power.

Two minutes later—

The young man still showed no sign of waking. Xing frowned and increased her output.

Ten minutes later—

The young man still had not woken up. Panting heavily, Xing planted White Flower in the ground to keep herself from collapsing.

Xing stared at him, gasping for breath in utter confusion. "Is this guy about to die? No, if he were dying, pumping this much into him should have saved him."

The young man's body suddenly twitched. Then he opened his eyes, stood up under Xing's astonished gaze, and stretched lazily. "That was such a comfortable sleep! My body feels like I just soaked in a hot spring, all soft and limp. It's been so long since I felt like this!"

Xing's mouth twitched wildly. "So you were asleep. No wonder no amount of healing did anything."

The young man noticed Xing standing before him. "What a cute girl! Huh, why do you look so exhausted? Want me to help you over there to rest?"

"No need. Sigh, you were sleeping so deeply that I thought my healing wasn't enough. By the way, how did you get hurt so badly?" Xing was deeply curious about why his body bore so many wounds.

A passing Valkyrie happened to hear them and explained, "This gentleman is incredible. He saved many people here from the monsters. When we found him, he was still protecting a little girl. Good thing we arrived in time, or he might have died there."

Xing's respect rose at once. "This gentleman is a hero."

The young man scratched his head sheepishly. "Calling me a hero is too much. I just wanted my hands to reach a little farther. Oh, right, you're the one who healed me, aren't you? Thank you so much! My name is... Huh? It's gone!" Just as he was about to introduce himself, his hand slipped into his pocket out of habit, but he failed to feel that familiar touch. He immediately panicked.

The young man anxiously asked the two of them, "Excuse me, have either of you seen a red coin broken in half? Please, it's very important to me!"

The passing Valkyrie thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Sorry, I haven't seen what you described. Maybe it fell somewhere while we were bringing you back, or perhaps you lost it earlier by accident. In any case, it's dangerous outside right now. Please stay here patiently. Life is the most important thing."

The young man hurried toward the exit. "No, I have to find it right away, otherwise..." The Valkyrie stopped him. "Didn't you hear what I said? It's dangerous outside! If you go out there, you'll die! No matter how precious something is, it can't compare to your life!"

Something seemed to set the young man off, and he shouted at her, "He's not some thing!"

The Valkyrie jumped at his expression, her voice instantly lowering. "But it really is dangerous outside. Those monsters have evolved from their original humanoid forms into all kinds of dangerous shapes. Even we don't dare go out."

The young man wanted to say more, but a hand landed on his shoulder. "Is it really important to you?" Xing asked.

The young man nodded hard. "Yes, very important!"

Xing felt helpless. Since when had she started liking to help strangers? "All right, then. I'll go out and look with you."

The Valkyrie was shocked. "Huh? You're going personally?"

Xing removed the Judas Bracelet, restored it to its original form, and poured power into it. A cherry-pink barrier enveloped the entire stadium. "Judging from its remaining energy, maintaining it for a day shouldn't be a problem. All right, I'll accompany this gentleman to find his lost item, and while I'm at it, help Durandal clear out the monsters outside. You all stay here and hold the line. Understood?"

"Amazing! Just as expected of the person the captain entrusted this to!"

Xing pulled the bewildered young man out of the stadium. He asked in surprise, "Miss, are you the commander here?"

Xing corrected him, "Acting commander. You can call me K.K."

The young man was immensely grateful. "Miss K, thank you so much! My name is Hino Eiji. Please take care of me!"

"Mm, likewise. Hino... What did you say your name was?" Xing only realized halfway through. She stared fixedly at his face, finally remembering why he had looked so familiar. Wasn't this the man who transformed into Kamen Rider OOO—Hino Eiji?!

Eiji felt a little creeped out by her stare. "Miss K, do you know me?"

Xing looked away. "No, you just feel familiar." If it was something precious to Eiji, then it could only be that, right?

Activating Honkai Vision, she saw several faint streaks of red in the black-and-white world, just as expected. "Let's go, Mr. Eiji. I asked them where you were found earlier. We need to hurry and look..."

They had to find it before King OOO returned, or things would get dangerous.

Kiana held her twin pistols and fired constantly in all directions. "Damn it, how are these mummies still evolving?" In a moment of distraction, she felt a chill at her neck. A grasshopper-type Yummy had somehow circled behind her and raised the blade in its hand.

"Kiana, watch out!" A katana severed the monster's head, and Mei saved her friend in time. "Thanks, Mei!" Kiana thanked her before throwing herself back into the battle with even greater focus.

Elsewhere, Wendy, wearing an exoskeleton that had restored some of her ability to walk, also joined the fight with a spare weapon from the Fire Moth squad. The combat power she displayed was no less than that of the other three. "I may have been in a wheelchair for a long time, but I'm still an A-rank Valkyrie!"

Bronya controlled Heavy Cannon Rabbit, providing fire support for her teammates on the front lines.

With the four working together, they finally cleared the Yummy from this area.

Mei was deeply worried. "These are only the enemies in the outer area. If we go deeper inside, it's impossible to imagine what powerful enemies we might encounter. Xing is nowhere to be found, and Miss Sakura has vanished too. What should we do?"

Wendy was worried about Xing. "Brother Xing will be okay, right? Judah is with him. Who could hurt him with a Divine Key protecting him?"

Bronya shook her head. "That cannot be said for certain. Bronya has detected no Honkai Energy reaction in these monsters. Combined with their almost bizarre evolutionary patterns, we may be facing an unprecedented opponent. We should have listened to Xing from the beginning and not entered."

"What are you talking about, Bronya? Even if we hadn't come, wouldn't we still have to fight them after they broke out of this city? Running away for the moment won't solve anything!" Kiana forcefully refuted Bronya's view. Then her expression changed as she took out something she had picked up earlier. "Here, I found this up ahead. It looks like a broken coin, and there's even a bird printed on it. Based on this young lady's intuition, it must be something important."

Bronya looked at her as though she were an idiot. "Idiot Kiana, throw away that filthy toy coin already. Stop embarrassing yourself."

Watching the two bicker, Wendy could not help laughing. Kiana and Bronya stopped arguing when they heard her. "What's so funny?" Kiana asked with a hostile expression.

Wendy hurriedly apologized. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you. It's just that seeing you two reminded me of when I was still at St. Freya Academy. I think I used to argue with my teammates like this too."

Kiana's tone immediately deflated. "Sorry, I didn't know."

Wendy hurriedly waved her hands. "It's okay, it's okay. I stopped caring about those things long ago. We should hurry and find Brother Xing now."

Mei watched the little troublemakers fool around with helplessness, shook her head, and prepared to move on. Then several Red Feathers suddenly drifted down around them. The four instinctively looked up. A red figure hovered in the air, two brilliant wings spreading behind it as the bird-type Greeed fixed its cold gaze on Kiana.

"Mine. Give it back." It spoke for the first time.

Flames rained down from the sky, sweeping toward the bewildered Fire Moth squad.

"Full force field!" Bronya raised the Yamabuki Shield to its maximum output, protecting them from the blazing flames. But the rapidly draining energy showed that they could not remain on the defensive forever.

Within the black-and-white vision, the sparse red abruptly became dense. Xing's pupils contracted as she thought of a very bad possibility. Summoning Red Cross, she grabbed Eiji, who had no idea what was about to happen, and leaped aboard.

"It's an emergency. Hold on to me, Mr. Eiji!"

"What happened? Whoa!" Before Eiji could react, Red Cross carried them into the sky and sped forward. Fortunately, he had adapted to high-altitude flight while transformed in the bird-type Combo, so apart from his initial cry of surprise, he did not lose his composure.

Very quickly, they saw the Greeed continuously pouring flames and feathers down upon the ground.

Eiji froze. "Ankh?" Then he immediately realized, "No, that guy's a fake!"

More than the Greeed, what Xing noticed first were the four girls curled up beneath the shield on the ground.

Xing's heart skipped a beat. Kiana?! Didn't I tell them not to come? And where did Sakura run off to now? But the current situation gave her no time to think further. After quickly setting Eiji down, Xing lashed out with a chain.

The chain was intercepted by the bird-type Greeed's wings while still some distance away, but it had already noticed her. Seeing what Xing held in her hand, it stopped attacking the Fire Moth squad.

Xing landed on the ground, took out the three Core Medals, and held them up provocatively. "Hey, ugly! What you want is with me. Come at me!" She immediately threw the TaToBa Combo to Eiji. "Eiji, use this! Give me a hand!"

For a moment, Eiji seemed to see Ankh's figure.

Looking at the familiar red, yellow, and green Combo, Hino Eiji was briefly stunned. He caught it instinctively as memories of the past surfaced in his mind. When he came back to himself, the OOO Driver was already fastened around his waist.

"I don't know what's going on, or why Miss K has Core Medals, but none of that matters. Because Miss K and I—" Eiji skillfully inserted the three Core Medals into the belt. Before the bird-type Greeed could approach, he removed the disk from the right side of the belt and scanned the medals to transform. "Because Miss K and I are old friends who only met today!"

"Taka, Tora, Batta! TaToBa, Taka Tora Batta, TaToBa!"

The cheerful sound effect rang out once more, but this time, the one who appeared was the Kamen Rider OOO Xing knew well.

His red head, yellow torso, and green legs housed the powers of the hawk, tiger, and grasshopper respectively.

The Rider raised both hands into tiger claws and assumed his usual opening stance, carrying a hint of tiger-style kung fu.

Kamen Rider OOO, TaToBa Combo, has arrived.

Author's Note—

Let me explain how Durandal managed to take out King OOO and the Greeed in the previous chapter. They illegally crossed over from another world. If the medium they used to log in is compared to a server, and they are internet users, then the clash between Clumsy Goose and King OOO crashed the server, temporarily disconnecting them.

As for why Eiji did not disappear, he logged in legally.

Early on, while Xing's normal state had not yet developed, he would generally choose Kallen's transformation or rely on the power of Bonded Weaponry when facing strong enemies. Later, once the kid grew up, he mostly fought on his own.

Ankh will be restored, so don't worry, everyone. After all, the eternal marriage bird is seriously strong.