The Innocent Runaway

Night had fallen at the café, and Soichi was bidding farewell to the last patrons, folding up their chairs. 

The distinctive hum of Sento's motorcycle reached his ears, prompting him to quickly finish his tasks. 

Believing he had a moment to spare, Soichi dashed to the restroom. Meanwhile, the sound of the motorcycle drew nearer until it halted right outside; the engine was switched off, and the café's front door was unlocked and swung open.

Soichi was about to call out to Sento from the toilet but stopped when he heard more than one set of footsteps.

"Owner? Hmmm, must be out. Come on idiot, go into that fridge over there."

"Huh? Whose the idiot? You want me to go into a fridge?"

'Don't tell me...' 

Soichi immediately deduced who was with Sento. He quickly wrapped up his business, dashed out, and was at the fridge in no time, barely finishing zipping up his pants. Flinging the fridge door open, he chased after the boys downstairs!

It was as he feared, when Soichi reached the bottom of the stairs, both Sento and Ryuga were staring back at him!

Sento looked sorry and Ryuga looked confused.

Soichi walked up to Sento and shook his shoulders while shooting disapproving looks back and forth between him and Ryuga.

"Hang on, just...hang on a sec...Do you realize what you've done!"

Ryuga lost interest and started wandering around the lab, playing with random things.

Soichi grasped Sento's chin, pushing his head away as he awaited a response. The thought of Ryuga being in the lab downstairs was unsettling, and he was far from pleased about harboring a wanted man in his café.

Sento's head jerked back, and he met Soichi's gaze squarely.

"I didn't have a choice! If I didn't do something, he was just going to end up where he started...back in prison..."

Sento moved his firm gaze over to Ryuga, who was trying to make sense of the equations on the blackboard.

"...and then he would just be a guinea pig again..."

Sento looked troubled while he said that and Soichi grew concerned.

"What do you mean by 'being a guinea pig again'?" He pushed his glassed higher up the bridge of his nose and glanced over at Ryuga before focusing back on Sento.

"Ryuga is a best match with my memories...which means I was one of their test subjects, too."

Soichi thought about what he had just heard and then voiced the first, most obvious problem with that theory.

"But if they did something to the two of you...shouldn't you both be monsters right now?"

He pointed over to Ryuga, who was busy playing with a magnifying glass in the corner.

"Besides, that guy still has his memories..."

Soichi's eyes went wide with realization!

"...Wait! Since he doesn't have memory loss, it means he should know where their base is, right!?"

He started smacking Sento on the back repeatedly in excitement!

"Except he doesn't remember where it is...the first thing I asked about was exactly that. He ran away so fast he didn't even think to remember how to get back."

Ryuga had been listening in a little at this point and gave Sento a dirty look before going back to the wires he was pulling out of a device on Sento's work bench.

Sento held onto his chin while deep in thought.

"I wonder...If we looked into the murder that Ryuga was framed for..."

He held up a finger suddenly as he started to get excited.

"...We might find a lead on the bat man and his group of scientist bastards!"

Both walked over to Ryuga, Sento put his hand on his shoulder and spun him around.

"Hey!" 

Both Sento and Soichi addressed Ryuga at the same time. He looked back and forth between the two.

Ryuga was now wearing a set of lab goggles, preventing Sento from looking him in the eyes. Sento removed the goggles from Ryuga's head while shaking his own and flung them onto the adjacent worktable. Then, he turned his gaze back to Ryuga.

"For now, just tell us about yourself."

Ryuga looked a bit surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"Everything...tell us."

Ryuga thought he understood what Sento wanted and accepted the mission.

"Got it...I was born on an ON/GYN clinic in Yokohama...I was a healthy 7 pounds..."

Ryuga's eyes got distant, he was having a flashback about his birth and early childhood. 

Sento and Soichi both rolled their eyes and looked at each other. Sento waved a hand in front of Ryuga's face and poked him in the gut.

"Nobody said to start that far back!"

Ryuga brushed Sento's hand away and retorted. 

"Hey...You totally said you wanted me to tell you guys everything!"

Sento rolled his eyes and turned around.

"Pick up on context clues every now and then, you super big idiot."

This time it was Ryuga's hand that reached out and turned Sento back around. He grabbed his shoulders and started to shake them while his eyes betrayed how badly he wanted to punch Sento right now!

"Who are you calling an idiot, man?"

"Stop worrying about me calling you an idiot every time you idiot...lets start with when you were arrested."

Sento slipped out of Ryuga's grip while Soichi took a seat close to the stairs.

Ryuga glared at Sento for a few more moments until his look softened and he agreed.

"Ok...I was told about this scientist who was supposed to hook me up with a job..."

Ryuga also took a chance to find a seat, he had been on his feet non stop, with the exception of when he was being knocked down by the Smash earlier, he was truly exhausted!

"...I went to his place and looked around but when I found him, he was already laying on the floor, dead! Then the cops showed up..."

Soichi extended one hand out, interrupting the story.

"Objection!"

Sento played along with him and he pointed and Soichi.

"Go ahead, Owner."

Soichi winked one eye and made a gun with his finger and thumb, aiming them at Ryuga.

"Doesn't that seem way too convenient...For the police to show up at a fresh murder scene, with that kind of timing..."

Ryuga stood up in protest and looked offended. He doubled down with his story.

"Well they did show up just like that!"

He looked over at Sento and started marching in his direction. 

"You saying I'm lying?!" As he was reaching out to grab Sento's shoulders again, presumably for a good shake, the door on the machine producing bottles with Misora's help popped open with a loud sound!

Ding!

"AAGGGHH!" 

Ryuga didn't expect the loud noise and stumbled forward into Sento's arms while he shrieked! Sento rolled his eyes, pushed Ryuga off of himself and started jogging over to said machine while getting excited.

"OOOOOOO sweet, it's done..."

He snagged the orange colored bottle and closed the door quickly so that he could examine it.

"...So that Smash resulted in a gorilla, huh?"

He rubbed the door where Misora entered and exited the machine from.

"Good Work."

While he rubbed, it started to open and Sento almost tripped into the exiting Misora! 

"You meant to say, 'Good work that Misora did.' right? Now move."

She pointed at herself while locking eyes onto the fugitive she had seen on the computer before earlier. She nimbly side stepped Sento and headed towards the confused Ryuga.

"WHO ARE YOU!"

Ryuga shouted at Misora while stretching his arm out and pointing at the approaching cutie that had just mysteriously popped out of the machine from earlier, smoke rolling out of the greenlit room she had been occupying for who knows how long. He was totally frazzled!

Misora arrived in front of Ryuga and threw up her hands into a boxers stance with surprising speed!

Ryuga hadn't been expecting this and was barely able to get his guard up in time to match her! The look of surprise on his face was almost comical!

Misora gave him a sideways glance from behind her fist and narrowed her eyes.

"I could ask you the same question..."

She then dropped her fists as quickly as she had raised them, looked away from him and started walking past Ryuga without another glance, as if he had never been there in the first place.

While Misora was finding a place to lean on the wall, a toned set of legs in high heels moved gracefully down the stairs, a short black skirt was the next thing attached to those legs that would have came into view but no one noticed as they were busy discussing Ryuga's situation now.

Sento looked around at the three others that were around him. "Look, in any case, if the murder and the escape were both a set up, there should be something that both have in common...We'll have to dig into that."

Sento scratched his head and didn't have an immediate answer for once and he started pacing.

"The real question is where to begin."

"I can help there!"

A crisp, feminine voice answered from the base of the stairs, surprising everyone!

They all swiveled to see who had infiltrated their base! 

Soichi was the most panicked!

"Who the hell is there!?"

The woman at the foot of the stairs, sporting a mischievous smile, was the very reporter whom Sento had rescued at the docks just the night before!

She waved to the group and advanced to engage them in conversation.

Sento and Soichi exchanged a look of surprise as Misora approached and delivered a punch to Soichi's shoulder.

Smack!

"Why was the door left open?"

"Ouch!" Soichi massaged his arm and began his explanation.

"I had locked it!...Then Sento returned with this guy...I was like, 'Don't just invite people over to our secret hideout!'...And then I opened the door...followed you guys inside..."

He mimed the action of opening the door, then halted abruptly.

"...I forgot to close it."

A grimace crossed his face as he acknowledged his mistake.

"Hey!"

Sento lightly smacked Soichi on the chest, giving him a questioning look.

Soichi clasped his hands in a pleading gesture.

"My apologies, my friend!"

"So this is the Kamen Rider's hideout!"

The reporter brushed past them, her eyes scanning the lab's contents with a grin!

They chased after her, and Sento circled around to face her, asking, "How do you know that?" She arched an eyebrow and retorted mockingly, "Have you forgotten about last night? At. The. Pier?"

Sento appeared puzzled. "But how did you know to look here?"

With a charming smile, the reporter produced a sleeve of matches bearing the 'Café Nascita' emblem. "You dropped this."

She had seen the matches fall from his pocket as he walked away, having just reverted from his transformation as Build!

"Hey!" Soichi returned Sento's questioning look, and in response, Sento mimicked Soichi's apologetic gesture from before and folded his hands! "Sorry!" 

The reporter raised her hands and waved them as she stepped between Sento and Soichi. "Don't worry! I'm simply here to express my thanks! My name is Sawa Takigawa, nice to meet you."

She turned around, her gaze sweeping over the lab again, as her charming grin took on a hint of mischief.

"Although... it would be absolutely wonderful if you allowed me to write a story on Kamen Rider..."

Sento turned away from her and started walking towards the stairs. "Not happening."

This time she chased after him. "Please! I'm freelance, and barely making it!.." She grasped his hands with hers and tried to convince him.

"I need some kind of scoop! You don't want me to go hungry right?" 

Sento remained silent and forcefully lowered his arms, breaking free from her grasp. Not getting her was, she switched tactics. "If you don't let me cover this story up close and personal, I'll expose you!"

Suddenly, Misora appeared beside the reporter, her expression a mix of surprise and mild approval. "Quite the bold move!"

Soichi interjected, "Alright, I get it."

"Stop getting it!" Misora shot a glare at her father.

"We're out of options!..." He faced the reporter, pointing a finger at her with a stern condition. "But you must keep our identities secret, understood?"

She nodded in agreement. Raising her hands, she formed a 'V' with her pointer and middle fingers, then joined them to create a 'W', attempting to look as charming as possible. "Looks like it's a win-win situation!...Right?!"

Turning, she gave Sento a wink, who was already ascending the stairs.

He spared her a brief glance, pondering the potential complications ahead.

"This sucks"