Chapter 181: The Future Seen in Time King State, the Performer

「.」

Toki Kyouzou fell silent for a moment.

It wasn’t that she felt panicked or overwhelmed—this situation was simply something she had never encountered before.

At that moment, the door was pushed open, and Tian Shu Bureau operatives surged in—but the leader made Zhang Tian visibly freeze.

“Sister Su? Why are you here?”

Standing at the front was a tall woman, her crisp black uniform outlining a sharp, efficient silhouette, her long hair tied into a ponytail, her gaze piercing yet composed.

Su Mengyao glanced at him, raising an eyebrow slightly:

“Naturally, to demonstrate the Tian Shu Bureau’s sincerity.”

“You’ve really come up in the world, haven’t you?”

“Getting visited by Toki Kyouzou.”

“If Toki Kyouzou’s fans knew you’d had this experience, they’d be insanely jealous.”

Lie.

She came because, as Ye Xuan’s Qiyuezhe , she had earned many points and used them to buy a “shield” from Zhong Lao that could be maintained daily.

Unless you were a fifth-rank like Zhong Lao, it was nearly impossible to kill her.

She leading the team was the safest option.

Of course, as a symbol of sincerity, no one could represent the Tian Shu Bureau’s intent better than her.

“Cough, cough—accident, accident.”

Zhang Tian awkwardly waved his hand; being visited by Toki Kyouzou outside the context of Go Shirogane rarely ended well.

Su Mengyao’s gaze passed over Zhang Tian and landed directly on Toki Kyouzou.

The instant their eyes met, Su Mengyao smiled.

“Pleasure to meet you, Miss Toki Kyouzou; I believe we can talk.”

Summit of Mount Kunlun

“Huh”

Shinken Shishi let out a heavy white breath; his Decade Driver felt warm from the intense battle.

He’d lost count of how many forms he’d switched through—Kuuga, Agito, Faiz—even tried the Time King card.

But the impostor across from him—had them ALL!

“Did you dig up Dai-Shocker’s grave, or did Dai-Shocker actually make more than one Kamen Rider Driver?”

He irritably shook his numb wrist; after all these years of fighting, he’d never felt so frustrated.

His gaze suddenly turned to the Time King, seated on the throne, watching their battle with clear amusement.

“He’s your opponent—aren’t you just going to sit there and watch the whole time?”

Shinken Shishi muttered bitterly.

Ye Xuan turned his head slightly, glancing at Shinken Shishi, who immediately raised both hands in surrender:

“If it weren’t so cold here, I’d have ended this already.”

That was the truth—he’d wanted to stop halfway, but his other self kept getting fiercer, forcing him to keep fighting.

But how could anyone break the moves of your own self?

Ye Xuan chuckled softly, and before Shinken Shishi could react, he snapped his fingers casually.

“Wait, you—”

The magenta rider remained frozen mid-sentence, then dissolved into a streak of light, flowing back into the watch in Ye Xuan’s hand.

Ye Xuan waved his hand again; the surrounding spacetime warped like ripples, the biting mountain wind vanished instantly, replaced by warm air and soft lighting inside the villa.

Shinken Shishi stumbled, finding himself standing in the center of Ye Xuan’s living room. He scowled, deactivated his transformation, and dropped unceremoniously onto the plush sofa.

“Now I understand why that woman called you the strongest human on Earth, the strongest in the world.”

“But are you sure your Time King armor is restricted? It doesn’t seem like it at all.”

Shinken Shishi gazed up at the ceiling, his tone half-teasing, half-serious.

Whether it was the earlier armor or the Time King armor just now, with these two armors, if Ye Xuan wasn’t the strongest in the world, he couldn’t imagine what power the true strongest possessed.

But when Ye Xuan said his Time King armor was weaker than Kamen Rider Toki’s, he simply didn’t believe it.

He could accept that it was weaker than the Old Demon King’s—after all, the power difference was clear—but in his youth, there should’ve been little difference.

Yet without the Time King’s power, it seemed impossible to transform into the true Time King.

Could it be… like him, he hacked the account?

If so, could he teach him? He’d really like to hack the Time King’s account too.

“It’s just that the gap between you and the Time King is too vast.”

Ye Xuan said calmly.

The power possessed by the Time King was unquestionably beyond any existing Kamen Rider; initially, some even believed his strength surpassed the Omni-King from Dragon Ball.

He didn’t truly believe that, but it showed just how terrifying the Time King’s power was.

“Sorry I’m so weak.”

Shinken Shishi rolled his eyes instantly, though inwardly he had no real rebuttal.

Compared to Ye Xuan’s power, he was indeed far behind.

He needed to find a way to restore his strength.

Come to think of it, since arriving in this world, something had been calling to him—he just never paid attention.

Now that he thought about it, could it be related to him?

The Kouten and Kamen Rider Insect Devices appeared in the real world, and he himself came here—so why couldn’t his own power appear too?

Thinking this, he sprang up from the sofa with a “whoosh,” ready to test his theory.

“I’m leaving.”

“Mm.”

Ye Xuan didn’t look up, responding absently; already de-transformed, he was slowly pouring himself black tea, his slender fingers gripping the teapot handle as amber liquid swirled in the bone china cup.

He showed no reaction to Shinken Shishi’s sudden departure—as if he’d expected it all along.

Shinken Shishi scowled.

He looks so young—why is his personality like an old man’s?

Can’t you learn from your Kamen Rider brother?

But he said nothing more.

A dimensional wall appeared beside him, like a water curtain engulfing his body, and in an instant, he vanished into it.

The living room fell silent again.

Ye Xuan calmly set down the teapot, his gaze shifting to the darkening sky outside the window.

“The second Qi tide is coming soon.”

In his Time King state, he hadn’t merely watched the two Shinken Shishis fight; even without deliberately peering, as the King of Time, he had glimpsed fragments of the future in his normal state.

Though possibly limited by the world itself—or perhaps the Time King armor under the Rat Talisman had restrictions—he could only see a short future, one among countless possibilities.

But in all these future fragments, one image was common: the outbreak of the second Qi tide.

This Qi tide wouldn’t just push Earth’s Qi concentration to a new height—it would further weaken the barriers between dimensions, allowing many characters from other worlds to descend.

In that future fragment, he saw many familiar figures.

A Mao Shan Daoist surrounded by lightning, a time-controlling spirit, a girl wielding magic, a god holding a trident.

Ye Xuan’s lips curled slightly, a glimmer of anticipation flashing in his eyes.

Invincibility wasn’t bad—he had the Rat Talisman and no shortage of strong opponents—but compared to the characters manifested by the Talisman, he found the real arrival of these beings from other worlds far more thrilling.

“The world is going to get interesting.”

Time passed quietly; Shinken Shishi’s appearance, and the news that he had cured the leukemia-stricken child in Sakura, spread across nations.

Almost everyone now knew of the “World Destroyer,” Kamen Rider Shinken Shishi, who traveled across different Kamen Rider timelines, had come to their world.

This sparked massive excitement among Kamen Rider fans.

If Shen Xuan’s acceptance of the Kouten Insect Device and his transformation into a Kamen Rider had made them excited, convinced them Kamen Riders were real, and made them believe they too could become one;

then Shinken Shishi’s arrival not only further confirmed Kamen Riders were real, but also told every Kamen Rider fan that the characters they loved would truly step out of fantasy and appear before them.

And in all this, the most touching moment was the message posted by Ueno Masahiro.

The actor who portrayed “Shinken Shishi” wrote on social media:

“As I stepped out of the apartment after visiting the child, I saw ‘him.’”

“To be honest, I didn’t believe it was really Shinken Shishi—but perhaps out of inner longing, or some intuition, I walked up and begged him, as Shinken Shishi, to save the child’s life.”

“Now I realize—it really was him.”

Behind these simple words lay a strange encounter between actor and character.

As the performer of Shinken Shishi, Ueno Masahiro reunited with his own creation in the most extraordinary way.

Perhaps, for every Kamen Rider actor, this was the encounter they most longed for.

In the comment section, warm messages surged like tides:

“This is the best reunion.”

“Mr. Shishi must have approved your performance.”

“The passing Kamen Rider has finally come to the real world.”

“This time, it’s not just passing by—it came here specially for you.”

"The mutual devotion between actor and character—that’s why we love Kamen Rider."

"Kamen Rider has arrived in reality—when will my beloved Kiriya Senku appear? 😢.jpg"

"Kiriya Senku has already come, hasn’t he?"

"."

This simple dialogue holds the purest hope of every Rider fan.

Bearing the world and future forward, fighting not for hollow justice but solely to protect humanity’s most precious freedom—that is the meaning of Kamen Rider’s existence.

If one day all the Riders they deeply love truly descend into reality, it should not be because of their love for Kamen Rider, but because they have come to protect humanity in this world.

If one expects reward in return, one cannot be called a Kamen Rider.

In comparison, Tokiwa Kyouko’s appearance did not cause much stir, primarily because most people did not even know Tokiwa Kyouko had appeared in reality.

What Zhang Tian, Su Mengyao, and others saw at the time was not Tokiwa Kyouko’s true form, but merely one of her clones.

Both Zhang Tian and Su Mengyao found this perfectly natural.

After all, given Tokiwa Kyouko’s nature, how could she possibly move about in her true form in a completely unfamiliar world?

(End of Chapter)