An... Anonymous J...?

Suspicious as a shadow under carnival lights.

The mechanical voice kept humming, cold and smooth. "Looks like you're planning to help Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, huh?"

"Yeah... I am. So what? You gonna stop me?"

She called Roze "Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon." That didn't sound like a random nickname tossed to the wind. So she's from over there too?

It's not just Roze and Jiang Bailu crossing time?

Ling Yi swallowed, heat tight in her throat, slid the cassette into the transfer box, and still readied the Blade Armor.

"I don't recommend it."

"Why?"

"In our worldline, Yekase chose you in the end. So Flashblade Red existing will agitate that thing's mind. Any crazy move wouldn't be surprising. It's packed with people here, right? Dangerous."

Anonymous J hid head to toe inside a red teddy-bear mascot. That chubby, ever-smiling face threw out a frost-edged warning, like carving the two of them out of the park's cheerful glow.

"...Is she Jiang Bailu?"

"Yes, and no."

"...?"

"You'll get it once you touch her."

Great. A riddler.

Ling Yi felt the prickly numbness creep in. Aside from the costume screaming suspect, Anonymous J spoke clean and rational. And her advice… wasn't nonsense.

"Uh... but..."

"I don't have Roze's near-perpetual Infinite Power. Even as a True Ancestor, I spent all my Sorcery getting here. A pity I can't see the me who fought alongside the Doctor..."

Ling Yi tugged the brim of her military cap to shade her eyes, and forced the words out.

"But this Magical Girl form... I don't actually know what it does?"

...

...

"Go, blue dragon!" "Robots are cooler! Yeah, crush it!" "No, the dragon's cooler!"

Her confession melted into the messy shouting like sugar into hot tea.

"...Huh?"

It made a puzzled sound—mystic machine voice, a beat late, as if gears slipped.

"You don't know your abilities? You actually don't know what you can do?"

"Is that so weird?!" Ling Yi stamped her foot, pulse quick, then threw the action aside. "If you told me to suit up the Blade Armor, I'd charge without a word. 'Engage' or 'Linkage,' whatever. But this form? It's only my second time!"

"What?! How many forms do you have in this worldline?!"

"Basic four, one upgrade, one upgrade branch, two transition, one upgraded transition, one final... plus a side branch, giant dragon form."

Base Keys are Kagari, Gale, Dew, and Gauntlet.

Unified as Zeros (00).

External Luciferin as Edens Zero.

Basic pairs as Engage.

Two-person combine as Linkage.

Last is Access.

I think I didn't miss any.

"That many?!"

"Reiwa-era Kamen Riders are all like that!"

Anonymous J was so stunned her words fell apart.

"Forms... isn't one upgrade near the final battle enough...?"

"This 'Magical Girl Lushi' form is a temporary rig to borrow a senior's strength. Not knowing the abilities—having none at all—sounds normal to me." Ling Yi said it without shame, pride glinting like a blade.

"?????"

Anonymous J froze, a statue under a winter sun.

"But since the Sky Striker's still in my hand, I'll go paint the sky a bit. Thanks, Whi— Anonymous J."

"...Ha. That's more like you."

The teddy-bear suit seemed to lose its frame all at once and fell hollow to the ground.

Ling Yi dipped her head, then—

Whoosh. The black, military-styled silhouette vanished.

On the roller coaster track.

She landed on a covered car, borrowed its swing, then sprang to the lowest arc of the rails and sprinted up, feet drumming like rain on iron.

She dragged the Sky Striker one-handed behind her. The blade's caged energy burned like a red tailflame. She didn't waste strength flying. With Mind Energy fueling a wild body's grace, she made the curved steel her path, light-footed and sure.

Above her, Jiang Bailu (?) had become ROZE, and Roze had become Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. They were locked in white-hot combat.

All Ling Yi's fighting so far was launching energy. Either "dump it in a rush" or "send it with skill." Becoming Lushi meant no blasting, and her whole flow jammed.

She raised her eyes. Dragon and mech spun through 360 degrees, fierce as storm hawks. Yet they knew each other's styles too well. The ferocity left little real damage. Most strikes melted into each other's counters.

Down below, more and more park-goers spread across the plaza like a tide, stopping to watch the "pop-up show." Who gets to see a dragon fight this close?

Boom!

ROZE reconfigured. Armor on shoulder and belly folded into an extra pair of mechanical arms, which she windmilled and smacked Roze flying.

The silver-blue dragon tumbled twice in the air, found balance, then cracked the back of its head on an iron gate frame and hit the ground hard.

"Roze!"

Ling Yi glanced around. Then an idea bloomed like a spark under paper. She vaulted a valve and reached the drop tower just booting up.

"Borrowing this!"

She gripped the jutting safety rail with one hand and stepped onto the circular rider platform.

People in the seats stared, surprised and delighted.

"Little miss, what show is this?"

"It's not a show. It's an incident!"

A staffer saw the extra hanger-on and sprinted over, shouting. Ling Yi waved him off, and a compressing force clamped her legs—the drop tower had started.

The platform shot up along the hundred-meter steel column, pinning everyone into their seats like leaves pressed under glass. Ling Yi let go of the rail right then.

She flashed a goodbye over her shoulder and jumped.

Like she's done it a hundred times—

She lifted the Sky Striker high.

Jiang Bailu (?) was right below.

"Split the mountain—!"

The blade pierced between armor seams, and with gravity's blessing sliced straight through an entire arm, clean as cutting tofu. Ling Yi let the last thread of metal be her swing point, then arced toward Roze, landed steady, and ran to her.

"You okay?! Ro—"

Ling Yi halted.

In the crater Roze had made, amid signs, lamps, and steel frames, didn't stand a silver-blue dragon. It was something else she knew too well.

Something that shouldn't be here.

The mech, Luciferin.

"Wh—why..."

Roze didn't turn into a dragon? That posture was just Soul Power mimicking around Luciferin's shell?

But Ling Yi saw her become white light, then this form. There were no armory transfer traces—how do you transfer cross-worldline anyway?!

Luciferin's ocular sensors flashed twin red bars, and the speaker carried Roze's voice.

"Ah... so you noticed."

"Roze, you’re actually...!"

"I'm Mom's daughter... Her and you, leaning on each other, cheering each other, facing endless fights—I've watched from the side in silence, until the cosmos went dark and every star went out. So I thought, if the galaxy we lost could live inside me..."

"I'm not Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Roze is just... a false soul born from algorithms within the mech."

Ling Yi bit down on her lip. She closed her eyes for a heartbeat, then turned back, raised the Sky Striker, and kept Jiang Bailu (?) in her guard. Roze sheltered behind her, small as a candle under rain.

That mech, shaped by a Flashblade Key from another worldline, still hovered above. Its black frame was wrapped in scarlet Flash Energy lightning, staring down like a demon-god arriving on earth.

That thing’s truth was just like Anonymous J said. One cut told the story.

The severed limb port fountained silver light. A brand-new, identical arm knitted itself in place. The light didn't fade. It pooled in the chest, then radiated in all directions.

"Hindrance Ripples!"

She couldn't let the blast wash over the park-goers—without summoning the Blade Armor, Ling Yi trusted the feeling and forced a Blade Spell to life. Flash Energy, imitating Spiral Force, unfolded from her palm and formed an energy rail between them, catching every surge and funneling it into Ling Yi herself.

Kra-koom!

"Then you're my daughter too."

Smoke peeled back. Ling Yi braced on the Sky Striker, one knee to the ground. Her military cap was gone like a leaf in wind, but she didn't step back.

"Whether you're a mech core or an AI, a ghost from some ruined future or whatever—it's a mother's duty to protect her daughter!"

"...?!"

"The me in that world died too, right? And Lu Yao, and Jiang Bailu, and... maybe even Yaya... Becoming Longlifers, still fighting across a hundred thousand years, and ending like that. I'm not stupid... Even I can guess that."

...

"But I don't think it's sad. Because then countless noble souls would weep at our grave."

"Because then—"

"You're the daughter of all of us. You're not a fake soul. You're the continuation of our lives!"

That cassette... what voices does it hold?

Is it a last message from one of Yekase's possibilities? Is it for Ling Yi or Roze? Or, true to her style, is it a key tucked away for another her?

Let's hear it.

Ling Yi planted her left hand on the Sky Striker and snatched a metal piece from the ground with her right. It used to be the "You" character from the iron "Welcome You" sign. Under Flash Energy it reshaped fast, becoming a simple loudhailer.

She pressed the horn to her mouth and shouted.

"Hey, bouncing tiger over there, bring the speaker!"

The striped mascot at the spinning teacups entrance looked down at the standalone speaker playing announcements at his feet. He hoisted it to his shoulder and strode toward the battlefield.

He held out the top handle to Ling Yi.

A tape slot... Big-brand standalone speaker. Compatibility nailed. Ling Yi breathed relief, slid the cassette into the slot, and shut the plastic lid.

Then, from inside the tiger suit, a woman's voice came.

"I'm Anonymous G. I'll help you this once. After this is over, I have questions."

...

Ling Yi's eyes flew wide. "Gu—"

"I'm Anonymous G."