Can’t keep running away, it’s gonna catch up someday: Ryuki 17-20
The Grieving Knight (Yasuko Kobayashi): Previously on Kamen Rider Ryuki: Two new Riders appeared, Raia and Gai, with very different outlooks on the Rider War; Shinji was tricked into thinking he’d killed Goro, which broke his will to live while Tezuka questioned Ren’s willingness to kill, and Knight fought with Gai, now holding him at swordpoint, ready to finish him off.
Ryuki and Raia arrive just as Knight is about to make the kill, but it turns out that they really didn’t need to stop him at all. I know it’s early in the review to start referring to another fandom, but back in September, I criticized a moment in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien where the hero said he would kill the bad guys if they threatened innocents, and I called his bluff. I called back to the previous season, where he’d made the same kind of claim, but that the ending was really left ambiguous whether or not he’d actually do it, that he’d managed to find another way. And I contrasted with Ren because Ren really got to explore whether or not he could kill somebody.
Here is the biggest difference, beyond no actual exploration of this question in Ben 10: Nobody has to stop Ren. In Ben 10, Ben’s cousin, Gwen, stops him from making or not making the killing blow. We never find out one way or another if he can do it, though it’s my personal belief that he can’t.
Here, nobody intervenes. Shinji and Tezuka arrive just as Ren has already stopped himself. His hands are shaking as he holds his sword-nobody’s provoked him. He’s thinking about Tezuka’s words, asking if he can kill, pointing out that he’s not cold the way he likes to think he is. And it’s at that moment, that all four Riders on the scene know that Ren Akiyama is incapable of taking another person’s life. That is how you show soul-searching and self-doubt.
Realizing this, Gai kicks Knight away and counterattacks. It’s set up to look exactly like Tezuka’s vision (down to the location), but he picks Strike Vent instead of Final Vent. Without hesitation, Ryuki runs in and shoves Knight out of the way of the attack, preventing the Strike Vent from piercing his heart. Which is pure Shinji-he runs into the situation without thinking, just because he knows it’s wrong. He and Knight are thrown into a column by the force of the attack, and Knight collapses from his injuries, but Shinji did what he set out to do: he saved Ren from dying. Even if they both got their asses kicked in the meantime and Ren isn’t happy with him. Pure Shinji.
Shinji and Tezuka pretty much have to carry Ren home, though he tries to break away from them, but he’s so hurt that he falls to the ground in pain before he can even take a step. As Shinji tries to help him, Shibaura shows up to mock him for his “cowardice” and his inability to kill. Ren doesn’t take this well, looking away in shame, and Shinji and Tezuka jump to his defense. Well, Shinji jumps faster than Tezuka, pointing out that it’s perfectly human for Ren not to be able to kill. Shibaura’s a cynic about that, and as he leaves, Tezuka predicts trouble for him. Don’t worry about the little shit: he’s promptly arrested for the attacks at Meirin University and the hacking of ORE Journal. Unfortunately, he’s being represented by Kitaoka. That’ll be fun.
Shinji tries to offer support to Ren, telling him that he’s not wrong and that Shinji has a much higher opinion of him now that he’s seen that Ren’s not a killer. Unfortunately, this only results in Ren…well, for lack of a better term, he throws a tantrum. He starts screaming and pounding the pavement before collapsing in tears. Remember what I said about him having immature coping mechanisms? He might just be the only Rider who ever had an honest-to-god temper tantrum, exactly the way a two-year-old would. No surprise, Shinji and Tezuka are disturbed and try to help him.
At Atori after Sanako’s left, Yui calls Nakamura (from episode 12) for more answers. He hangs up and disconnects his phone in response. But I’ve got to hand it to Yui-she’s persistent as hell, determined to make things right, and she makes sure that he knows this. Shinji and Tezuka arrive with a now calm Ren, and they have to drag him upstairs to bed. Now that his emotions have been burnt out in one go, he’s in a near-catatonic state, mutely staring at the ceiling while he lies in bed. This emotional shutdown is pretty typical of his defense mechanisms, and we’re going to see an even worse case of it later on. He’s closed himself off more than ever before, even from Yui, who he’s known longer and can usually open up to about his problems. When she checks on him and sees that he hasn’t touched his dinner, he turns away and pretends to sleep, and he won’t answer when she asks what’s wrong. Despite all of this, Shinji is optimistic about Ren’s changing nature. But Tezuka is worried that Ren is at a destructive crossroads of destiny, and he asks Shinji if he knows why Ren fights, though after 17 episodes, Ren still hasn’t told Shinji a damn thing. The crossroads that Tezuka sees Ren at is a painful choice: to fight and thus face destruction because he can’t do what needs to be done and kill another Rider, or to give up the fight and by extension, his reason to fight, and that failure will destroy him. But Shinji refuses to accept that Ren’s destiny is only to die, and that it’s the same fate for Tezuka. He believes that Tezuka is fixated on destiny, and he argues that he’s going to choose his own destiny instead of relying on prophecies. Surprisingly, Tezuka suddenly turns, asking if Shinji has ever once worried about his own death. Shinji argues no, then points out that Tezuka didn’t say that he thought he was wrong. That night, all three room together, ostensibly to keep an eye on Ren, with Shinji on the floor so Tezuka can take his bed. Not one of them can sleep: Tezuka is focused on his vision and on Ren’s promise to Eri, Ren is still in shock, and Shinji is watching over both of his friends.
The next day, Shinji visits Tezuka to apologize for mocking his predictions. He tells him that Ren is still shutting him out, and that he doesn’t know why Ren’s taking this whole “not killing someone” thing so hard. Tezuka says that someone who only stumbled into becoming a Rider wouldn’t understand, having picked up that Shinji doesn’t have any intent to win, no reason to fight. He does pick up that Shinji’s got some kind of debt, which Shinji nervously denies. This gets Shinji curious, and he asks why Tezuka became a Rider. While Tezuka evades the question someone, he reveals that all Riders have a common reason to fight: to grant a wish. Madoka fans, go ahead.
Nakamura finally visits Yui, giving her his documents from Ejima Lab before asking her to leave him alone. I’m sure we’ll never see him again. The packet includes an address book of all the students, and Yui notices a post-it note beside the name of Eri Ogawa, listing her residence as the hospital. TV Nihon translates it this time as Sei Central, but later, it’s Saint Central, so I honestly have no clue which is correct, though Sei would make sense if it’s near Seimeiin University. Anyway, Ren goes to visit Eri, but he can’t make himself open the door. Ashamed, he leaves. A Monster attacks nearby, and he’s about to henshin, but he stops himself. His hands are shaking again as he remembers both his promise and his hesitance. He tells himself that he doesn’t have the “right” to be reluctant, and in his internal conflict he hallucinates Eri telling him, “That’s enough,” and he collapses to a bench, breaking down. Or maybe she really was communicating with him. It’s Ryuki; every time you think it’s firmly based in hard science, a touch of the supernatural comes over to beat it with an aluminum bat.
Luckily, Shinji and Tezuka were set up not far from the hospital, and they henshin to fight. And we see something interesting about their fighting styles. Raia tries to predict his opponent’s next move, while Ryuki makes it up on the fly. When Raia can’t predict attacks, Ryuki tells him not to. Just before kicking himself off Raia so he can leap into the air to attack. Shinji’s a little crazy, you see. At this point, Raia realizes that Ryuki himself is impossible to predict-which I think is a big deal and explains more of why he’s the wrench in all of Kanzaki’s plans; he’s a wild card when it comes to destiny. Ryuki argues that the Riders’ fate is just as unpredictable. Though they fail to destroy the Monster, Ryuki insists that he doesn’t believe in Raia’s predictions after all, including Ren’s destiny. But he admits to himself that the reason why is that if he did believe, that would be the end.
And finally, Kitaoka has one last client to visit before Shibaura, a dangerous and violent man in Kanto Prison named Takeshi Asakura…
Jailbreak Rider (Yasuko Kobayashi): A little background before we begin: In 2009, as part of the Heisei Rider Series 10th Anniversary, Toei consented to a second attempt at an adaptation of Kamen Rider for American audiences, after the disaster that was Saban’s series in the ‘90s. Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, created by Steve and Michael Wang, was very loosely based on Ryuki. To justify the changes in plot, the Wang Brothers explained that there were elements of Ryuki that just wouldn’t fly on an American network aiming for 6-11 year-old boys on Saturday mornings, and cited one episode in particular.
This is that episode.
Kitaoka goes to meet with Asakura, and we see that this is apparently a recent case. Asakura is serving ten years for murder, which is a reduced sentence from what the judge originally wanted. Kitaoka, the man who can make anyone innocent, has his first failure, but he had little to work with; Asakura’s entire defense was that he killed someone because he was “vexed.” Yes. He murdered someone because he was annoyed. Nice guy. As a note, this is the most popular Kamen Rider in the series. Go figure. Kitaoka washes his hands of Asakura, outright telling him to find another lawyer if he wants an appeal. Yeah, you know somebody’s trouble if this dick thinks he’s a dick. I’ve seen people refer to Asakura as “insane,” and I myself admit that the guy is totally guano loco, but given that insanity is a legal rather than clinical term, I’m hesitant to apply it. I’ll expand on it more in my endpoint analysis, but the short of it is that while Asakura has no self-control and fails the “policeman at the elbow” test horribly, he acts with a measure of planning and cunning that suggests his cognitive abilities aren’t impaired by mental illness. I do, however, feel perfectly safe calling him a sociopath, so let’s go with that. As Kitaoka leaves, he momentarily senses something from the Mirror World, but when it vanishes, he assumes it’s his imagination, not noticing Kanzaki.
This next set of events could really be called “Everybody worries about Ren.” While Shinji’s at work, Tezuka helps out at Atori in place of the MIA Ren and Yui, and he reflects on Shinji’s refusal to believe in his predictions. We see a scene that hadn’t been included in the previous episode but had taken place during their talk by the hospital, after Shinji had apologized. Tezuka made Shinji promise to keep Ren from fighting other Riders, if he wanted to prevent his death. Shinji would have made that promise even if it wasn’t Ren at stake, and he asks if Ren’s not going to act rashly now that he knows he can’t kill. Unfortunately, Tezuka believes that Ren can’t forgive himself for this. Meanwhile, we see that Yui has followed her lead and visited Eri in the hospital. She’s devastated to see the end result of her brother’s actions, and it’s implied that she leaves behind roses for Eri. As she leaves, she just misses Ren walking past, unaware that he’s about to visit the same person. And during all of this, Shinji struggles at work over why Ren fights. He wonders if learning that reason might help him stop Ren from fighting.
Kitaoka is easily able to get Shibaura acquitted, and he points out that he noticed a deck among his confiscated possessions. Shibaura realizes that Kitaoka is a Rider too, but he turns down a fight, saying he needs to wash the stink of police off him. Even Kitaoka points out he’s a dick and wonders why he can’t deal with decent people just once. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you regularly blow up those decent people and trick them into thinking that they killed other people. Treat Shinji better and then come back and complain that you’re not dealing with enough nice people.
While this is going on, Kanzaki enters the prison, passing through bars like a ghost and apparently invisible, though it’s later shown that he’s traveling via the Mirror World. He appears suddenly in Asakura’s cell, picking up that the prisoner has a lot of hatred in him and considers everyone in the world an enemy. So, naturally, the unhinged sociopath is perfect Rider material! Kanzaki, your standards are pathetically low. Hell, Asakura even tries to punch him, but Kanzaki avoids his fist at lightning speeds. I’m guessing this is supposed to make you think that he’s going to turn out to be Odin, but it’s a definite hint that he’s not human. He gives Asakura the Ouja deck, and apparently the guy makes a contract on the spot and breaks out of jail. He manages to procure clothes from a military surplus store, apparently killing the owner. Unsurprisingly, he chooses snakeskin. Before working on Ryuki, Kobayashi had done work on Super Sentai, notably Gingaman and Timeranger, so there’s almost a Sentai-like element to costuming choices for the characters in Ryuki and the later OOO (plus Den-O to some extent, mostly with Yuto). Shinji dresses casually, if a little too casual, sometimes just wearing some ugly looking shirts, and his color scheme is mostly reds and pinks (the exception being his bright blue jacket). Ren also dresses casually, with a T-shirt (in winter, a sweater) and jeans, all in neutral or dark colors. Kitaoka and Tezuka dress up, always looking sharp, though where Kitaoka wears a lot of white (white represents death in Asian cultures), Tezuka uses more colors, including red. So, if everybody else goes for themes in costuming, why shouldn’t the snake-themed Rider wear snakeskin patterns?
Asakura gets Kitaoka’s address from a phonebook, but the police have already warned Kitaoka, and he’s expecting him. The doorbell rings, but it turns out only to be Reiko, who wants more answers, given that Kitaoka was Asakura’s lawyer. As Kitaoka closes the door to undo the chain lock, they hear her scream. He hurries to open the door, and Asakura tries to attack him, but Goro holds him off. The police arrive, which scares Asakura off. In an awesome moment, Reiko chews out Kitaoka for not doing anything and chases after Asakura herself. Shibaura watches with interest, seeing the grudge that Takeshi the Homicidal Maniac has against Kitaoka.
Reiko calls Shinji, who had been sent to Shibuya to interview witnesses, to get him to intercept Asakura. But as he heads off on his first real assignment as a journalist, the Monster from last episode appears at a nearby restaurant, and he’s forced to go fight. While Ryuki fights, Asakura approaches the restaurant and senses the Monster. Shibaura realizes that he’s a new Rider and when Asakura insists on fighting him, offers to make the game more interesting by offering an alliance against the Riders who won’t fight each other. Kind of hypocritical, isn’t it? He tells Asakura that Kitaoka is a Rider before going to help Ryuki briefly, luring him out into the open while he fights the Monster. For some reason, they swapped out the usual end theme, “Hatenaki Inochi” (which translates to “A Boundless Life,” with inochi, life, being the alternative reading for the kanji for kibou, hope) for RIDER CHIPS’ “Hateshinai Honou no Naka e” (“Into the Eternal Flame”). The song is okay, but it doesn’t fit a fight scene as well as “Hatenaki Inochi.” This battle gives Asakura a glimpse of Ryuki, but before he can fight, he’s cornered by police. He beats up an officer, then takes his fallen gun and holds a little girl hostage (see why the Wang Brothers were hesitant to do a direct adaptation of this series?). When Shinji returns, he finds the entire restaurant held hostage, surrounded by police, and he’s the only one inside that Asakura doesn’t know about…
Rider Gathering (Yasuko Kobayashi): Shinji texts Reiko to let her know that he’s inside the restaurant and okay. He’s appalled that Asakura has gotten a child involved, and he’s worried so much about how much longer she’ll be able to handle this situation that he decides he needs to rescue her even more than the rest of them. And this is just pure Shinji. He finds a display of stuffed toys and grabs one of the dolls, using it to catch her attention and mouth to her not to give up. This little bit of kindness gives her enough hope to smile. Moreso than his kindness, Shinji’s heroism takes center stage this episode, juxtaposed against the decidedly unheroic actions of some of the other cast members.
While this is going on, Yui manages to make it home, and Sanako expresses her worry about her because of the jailbreak. That doesn’t stop her from leaving herself, taking a vase to defend herself with. We’ll check back in on Yui in a moment, but also during the crisis, Tezuka confronts Ren, insisting he’s got to give up on Eri. He apologizes to a shocked Ren for following him, but promises that he kept his secret. He then insists that nobody would blame Ren if he gave up on Eri, but instead of getting mad, like you’d expect, Ren just sinks further into his depression. It’s clear this isn’t the first time he’s had to consider this, and he just doesn’t know what to do. Tezuka just urges him not to keep walking the path of destruction.
Asakura finally calls the police negotiators, demanding Kitaoka in a hostage exchange. Realizing that now, including himself, four Riders are involved in this debacle, Shibaura leaves to target the other two. Meanwhile, Okubo and Shimada arrive, arguing with the police to be let past the barricade. Off-screen, Reiko’s able to explain the whole situation, that they’ve got a man on the inside. They text Shinji to let him know that they’re cooperating with police, but they need him to get intel on the hostages. Shinji manages to get a photo, but while doing so, he inadvertently activates the doll’s speech function. Asakura catches him, but even at gunpoint, Shinji manages to send the photo to the police. Let me remind you: Shinji has no clue this is a Rider. As far as he knows, this is an uninvolved man who is a dangerous sociopath. Shinji fucking stands up to him, knowing he can’t use his Rider powers against him. Shinji’s badassness is not appreciated enough. Asakura hits him, knocking him toward the other hostages, and the little girl, Chika, runs over to him, but he insists he’s okay.
Ren and Tezuka return to Atori, only to find Shibaura waiting for them. He reveals that he kidnapped Yui to force Ren to fight, and worried over Yui’s safety, Ren immediately starts to follow him to the battle. Tezuka tries to stop him, warning that he’ll lose, but Ren insists that his life has no meaning if he doesn’t fight, and he doubts that it has any meaning anyway. And this is a very important part of Ren’s characterization, something that will come up later: he doesn’t think very much of himself. Like I said in episode 12, he defines himself by his relationship to Eri, so he’ll give up everything for her sake. Sounds romantic, right? Not when it comes to the pathological level Ren puts takes it to. He sees no value in his own life, so he’s fine with throwing it away for her. He’ll deny himself his own happiness just because he doesn’t feel worthy to have it if she can’t. It’s extremely self-destructive, and even Tezuka starts to worry that Ren is trying to get himself killed, and chases after him to prevent what he thinks is a suicide-in-progress.
Kitaoka agrees to the hostage exchange, but don’t worry-it’s not because he’s a decent human being or anything. He just wants to improve his image and preserve his reputation. But Goro is extremely worried about his decision, which hints that there’s more to this relationship than just employer and employee. And yeah, go ahead and take that any way you want-god knows that they seem to encourage it here!-but you really start to wonder why Goro is so emotionally attached to Kitaoka. There’s something deeper here than just the worry that your boss is going to get himself killed, and that’ll be very important for both of them later on. When Kitaoka arrives, the police plan on following him in once the hostages are safe, to prevent him from getting hurt. Asakura agrees to the exchange, but he keeps Chika behind for insurance. And in another pure Shinji moment, Shinji steadfastly refuses to leave her side. He offers himself instead, and when Asakura doesn’t understand why he’s willing to do this, he holds her tight and insists that he’s staying as long as she is.
The police hurry the other hostages out as Kitaoka enters. Once Kitaoka’s inside, Asakura challenges him to a Rider battle, shocking both him and Shinji. Shinji’s horrified to realize that this whole thing was just another part of the Rider War, and that everyone involved was just an innocent victim caught in the crossfire. In a moment that’s pure crazy, Shinji goes into a flying leap and tackles Asakura, freeing Chika, who’s knocked out. Asakura punches Shinji and throws him aside, causing him to smack his head, and the police fire canisters of tear gas into the restaurant. Before passing out from his head injury, Shinji moves toward the unconscious Chika and holds her hand. Kitaoka and Asakura go to fight in the Mirror World, and the police enter, confused as to how Asakura apparently escaped. Shinji and Chika are wheeled out on the same stretcher, and his coworkers cheer on his heroism.
Ren manages to catch up to Shibaura, who’s watching the battle play out. He insists that he’ll fight and that Shibaura didn’t have to take a hostage. Shibaura refuses to tell him where Yui is and threatens him by saying he’d better not hesitate to kill him this time. Tezuka arrives and tries to talk Ren down, but Ren tells him to go find Yui while he fights. As the dual fights commence, Tezuka finds Yui and promises her that he’ll help Ren, arriving to the battle just in time to prevent Knight from taking a hit. Yui watches the battle between Knight, Raia, and Gai in despair, wishing she could stop the fighting. Kanzaki appears and tells her that the battle has nothing to do with her. He insists that the Riders chose to fight themselves, to satisfy their own desires, and that “No one has the right to stop that.” This is a very important issue for Shinji’s character development later on, and it’s really a theme throughout Kobayashi’s Kamen Rider series to date, especially OOO. But Yui’s not convinced and asks why he’s doing it, but he vanishes.
Knight and Raia are losing badly to Gai’s Confine Vent cards, which null any card they scan. As Gai prepares to use his Final Vent on Knight, Raia is haunted by his vision of Ren’s death and tries to warn him off, but Knight won’t move. Fortunately, Ryuki arrives, blocking the attack with his Guard Vent. Furious about the fighting, he refuses to accept that this is their destiny and fights off Gai, making Raia realize that he might be the one who can stop all of this. The battles converge, and Zolda’s Final Vent devastates the battlefield. While Knight, Raia, and Ryuki are injured, Ouja used Gai as a human shield, then finishes him off. Horrified at the senseless killing, Ryuki, and Dragreder, is about to face off against Ouja and Venosnaker…
The Traitorous Ren (Yasuko Kobayashi): Let me get this out of my system now: Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! The CG artists have a field day animating the battle between Dragreder and Venosnaker while Ryuki is forced to engage Ouja. Knight looks over to the remains of Gai’s deck, reflecting on how Ouja didn’t think twice about killing him. Ryuki demands to know how Ouja can kill someone so casually and demands to know if he feels nothing. This leads Ouja to realize that Ryuki is the idiot from the restaurant. As Ouja reveals he’s getting a high from the violence, Ryuki fights back more fiercely, insisting he’ll never be able to forgive him. So Ouja puts him on his hit list, but Ryuki’s spared by the time limit.
Shinji starts to ride home when the police catch up to Asakura. Tezuka joins Shinji during the shootout, as someone hijacks a patrol car. God, the police in Kamen Rider have gone downhill since Ichijou. Asakura’s able to escape, thanks to the driver of that patrol car-Ren. With Shinji in disbelief over Ren’s incredibly stupid and seemingly nonsensical action, Tezuka is shocked to realize that the new Rider is Asakura, hinting at a history between them. A chase breaks out, and Ren decides to introduce himself to Asakura by displaying his deck. He won’t explain why he’s helping Asakura, his enemy, but Asakura doesn’t really care. Reiko witnesses the chase and calls Okubo to say it looks like Asakura had hidden inside the restaurant somehow, but she’s suspicious that none of the police could find him. This will come up repeatedly later on.
Tezuka gets over his shock as Shinji becomes increasingly more pissed off with Ren, who won’t answer his phone. Tezuka explains that Ren did this because Asakura killed Gai; Ren is trying to adopt a cold lack of regard for life like Asakura’s in order to replace his broken mask-Shinji wasn’t able to change Ren’s fate. Shinji’s frustrated that Ren can only think of fighting, and Tezuka explains that Kanzaki specifically chose people who were fighters at heart and told them that the last survivor would gain power. Shinji can’t believe that the other Riders are joining of their own free will, but Tezuka gets defensive about his criticism. He warns Shinji to be careful not to get himself involved in the Rider War too, pointing out that for a moment, he’d put serious thought into killing Asakura. He says that it’s no coincidence that Kanzaki picked the homicidal maniac. Tezuka decides that if he’s going to change fate, then he has to get closer to Kanzaki, but Shinji is still frustrated that Ren is fighting like Kanzaki’s puppet.
In the sideplots, Kanzaki visits Kitaoka to let him know of Gai’s death, impatient that it’s taking so long for the Riders to off each other. Kitaoka’s confident that Asakura will speed things up, and he insists to be left to do things his own way. However, Kanzaki reminds Kitaoka that he doesn’t have much time left, so he shouldn’t take too long to act. Also, Metalgelas is attacking white cars with drivers who even vaguely resemble Asakura, showing that some contract Monsters remain loyal to their contract holders even after the Riders’ deaths. Shinji and Ren must have gotten stiffed on partners.
Yui is still sure that her brother’s actions are wrong, and she’s worried when Shinji and Tezuka come home without Ren. Shinji evasively says that Ren’s out before going upstairs and failing to call him again, and Tezuka realizes that Yui is Kanzaki’s younger sister. The next day, as Yui looks into her information from Nakamura, she drops a photo negative, that shows a house. Meanwhile, Tezuka tries to predict her fortune, and he’s badly frightened when he sees nothing at all from her.
ORE tries to look into more info about Asakura, but when they have no leads, Okubo suggests looking into the mysterious getaway driver. Shinji asks if there’s any info, but Okubo doesn’t know. Somehow, Shinji was the only person who saw Ren’s face. Okubo tosses out the idea that Asakura might have had a relative come pick him up, since no one related to him is alive. For now, there’s just the mystery. Reiko calls to let them know that the police found Asakura heading for his hometown of Kanagawa, and Shinji takes off. Asakura drives through the police barricade, heading for the coast. Ren catches up to him on his bike, giving him a view of his mirror as he overtakes the car. The car then goes off a cliff and explodes. Shinji hurries over to find Ren standing by, watching. He sees Ouja in the Mirror World and realizes that Ren helped him escape again. Ren still won’t explain himself, and when Venosnaker tries to attack Shinji, Shinji henshins and enters the Mirror World. He demands to know if Ouja coerced Ren, insisting he still can’t forgive Ouja.
Yui gets the photo developed and faintly recognizes the house. She remembers two children running and playing inside, before she has an image of the windows exploding-similar to what happened at Ejima Lab. The memory becomes physically painful for her, and she begins to fear what she remembers.
As Ryuki gains the upper hand against Ouja, Knight suddenly attacks him. Ryuki tries to reason with him, but Knight won’t listen and demands that he fight…
Ryuki and Raia arrive just as Knight is about to make the kill, but it turns out that they really didn’t need to stop him at all. I know it’s early in the review to start referring to another fandom, but back in September, I criticized a moment in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien where the hero said he would kill the bad guys if they threatened innocents, and I called his bluff. I called back to the previous season, where he’d made the same kind of claim, but that the ending was really left ambiguous whether or not he’d actually do it, that he’d managed to find another way. And I contrasted with Ren because Ren really got to explore whether or not he could kill somebody.
Here is the biggest difference, beyond no actual exploration of this question in Ben 10: Nobody has to stop Ren. In Ben 10, Ben’s cousin, Gwen, stops him from making or not making the killing blow. We never find out one way or another if he can do it, though it’s my personal belief that he can’t.
Here, nobody intervenes. Shinji and Tezuka arrive just as Ren has already stopped himself. His hands are shaking as he holds his sword-nobody’s provoked him. He’s thinking about Tezuka’s words, asking if he can kill, pointing out that he’s not cold the way he likes to think he is. And it’s at that moment, that all four Riders on the scene know that Ren Akiyama is incapable of taking another person’s life. That is how you show soul-searching and self-doubt.
Realizing this, Gai kicks Knight away and counterattacks. It’s set up to look exactly like Tezuka’s vision (down to the location), but he picks Strike Vent instead of Final Vent. Without hesitation, Ryuki runs in and shoves Knight out of the way of the attack, preventing the Strike Vent from piercing his heart. Which is pure Shinji-he runs into the situation without thinking, just because he knows it’s wrong. He and Knight are thrown into a column by the force of the attack, and Knight collapses from his injuries, but Shinji did what he set out to do: he saved Ren from dying. Even if they both got their asses kicked in the meantime and Ren isn’t happy with him. Pure Shinji.
Shinji and Tezuka pretty much have to carry Ren home, though he tries to break away from them, but he’s so hurt that he falls to the ground in pain before he can even take a step. As Shinji tries to help him, Shibaura shows up to mock him for his “cowardice” and his inability to kill. Ren doesn’t take this well, looking away in shame, and Shinji and Tezuka jump to his defense. Well, Shinji jumps faster than Tezuka, pointing out that it’s perfectly human for Ren not to be able to kill. Shibaura’s a cynic about that, and as he leaves, Tezuka predicts trouble for him. Don’t worry about the little shit: he’s promptly arrested for the attacks at Meirin University and the hacking of ORE Journal. Unfortunately, he’s being represented by Kitaoka. That’ll be fun.
Shinji tries to offer support to Ren, telling him that he’s not wrong and that Shinji has a much higher opinion of him now that he’s seen that Ren’s not a killer. Unfortunately, this only results in Ren…well, for lack of a better term, he throws a tantrum. He starts screaming and pounding the pavement before collapsing in tears. Remember what I said about him having immature coping mechanisms? He might just be the only Rider who ever had an honest-to-god temper tantrum, exactly the way a two-year-old would. No surprise, Shinji and Tezuka are disturbed and try to help him.
At Atori after Sanako’s left, Yui calls Nakamura (from episode 12) for more answers. He hangs up and disconnects his phone in response. But I’ve got to hand it to Yui-she’s persistent as hell, determined to make things right, and she makes sure that he knows this. Shinji and Tezuka arrive with a now calm Ren, and they have to drag him upstairs to bed. Now that his emotions have been burnt out in one go, he’s in a near-catatonic state, mutely staring at the ceiling while he lies in bed. This emotional shutdown is pretty typical of his defense mechanisms, and we’re going to see an even worse case of it later on. He’s closed himself off more than ever before, even from Yui, who he’s known longer and can usually open up to about his problems. When she checks on him and sees that he hasn’t touched his dinner, he turns away and pretends to sleep, and he won’t answer when she asks what’s wrong. Despite all of this, Shinji is optimistic about Ren’s changing nature. But Tezuka is worried that Ren is at a destructive crossroads of destiny, and he asks Shinji if he knows why Ren fights, though after 17 episodes, Ren still hasn’t told Shinji a damn thing. The crossroads that Tezuka sees Ren at is a painful choice: to fight and thus face destruction because he can’t do what needs to be done and kill another Rider, or to give up the fight and by extension, his reason to fight, and that failure will destroy him. But Shinji refuses to accept that Ren’s destiny is only to die, and that it’s the same fate for Tezuka. He believes that Tezuka is fixated on destiny, and he argues that he’s going to choose his own destiny instead of relying on prophecies. Surprisingly, Tezuka suddenly turns, asking if Shinji has ever once worried about his own death. Shinji argues no, then points out that Tezuka didn’t say that he thought he was wrong. That night, all three room together, ostensibly to keep an eye on Ren, with Shinji on the floor so Tezuka can take his bed. Not one of them can sleep: Tezuka is focused on his vision and on Ren’s promise to Eri, Ren is still in shock, and Shinji is watching over both of his friends.
The next day, Shinji visits Tezuka to apologize for mocking his predictions. He tells him that Ren is still shutting him out, and that he doesn’t know why Ren’s taking this whole “not killing someone” thing so hard. Tezuka says that someone who only stumbled into becoming a Rider wouldn’t understand, having picked up that Shinji doesn’t have any intent to win, no reason to fight. He does pick up that Shinji’s got some kind of debt, which Shinji nervously denies. This gets Shinji curious, and he asks why Tezuka became a Rider. While Tezuka evades the question someone, he reveals that all Riders have a common reason to fight: to grant a wish. Madoka fans, go ahead.
Nakamura finally visits Yui, giving her his documents from Ejima Lab before asking her to leave him alone. I’m sure we’ll never see him again. The packet includes an address book of all the students, and Yui notices a post-it note beside the name of Eri Ogawa, listing her residence as the hospital. TV Nihon translates it this time as Sei Central, but later, it’s Saint Central, so I honestly have no clue which is correct, though Sei would make sense if it’s near Seimeiin University. Anyway, Ren goes to visit Eri, but he can’t make himself open the door. Ashamed, he leaves. A Monster attacks nearby, and he’s about to henshin, but he stops himself. His hands are shaking again as he remembers both his promise and his hesitance. He tells himself that he doesn’t have the “right” to be reluctant, and in his internal conflict he hallucinates Eri telling him, “That’s enough,” and he collapses to a bench, breaking down. Or maybe she really was communicating with him. It’s Ryuki; every time you think it’s firmly based in hard science, a touch of the supernatural comes over to beat it with an aluminum bat.
Luckily, Shinji and Tezuka were set up not far from the hospital, and they henshin to fight. And we see something interesting about their fighting styles. Raia tries to predict his opponent’s next move, while Ryuki makes it up on the fly. When Raia can’t predict attacks, Ryuki tells him not to. Just before kicking himself off Raia so he can leap into the air to attack. Shinji’s a little crazy, you see. At this point, Raia realizes that Ryuki himself is impossible to predict-which I think is a big deal and explains more of why he’s the wrench in all of Kanzaki’s plans; he’s a wild card when it comes to destiny. Ryuki argues that the Riders’ fate is just as unpredictable. Though they fail to destroy the Monster, Ryuki insists that he doesn’t believe in Raia’s predictions after all, including Ren’s destiny. But he admits to himself that the reason why is that if he did believe, that would be the end.
And finally, Kitaoka has one last client to visit before Shibaura, a dangerous and violent man in Kanto Prison named Takeshi Asakura…
Jailbreak Rider (Yasuko Kobayashi): A little background before we begin: In 2009, as part of the Heisei Rider Series 10th Anniversary, Toei consented to a second attempt at an adaptation of Kamen Rider for American audiences, after the disaster that was Saban’s series in the ‘90s. Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, created by Steve and Michael Wang, was very loosely based on Ryuki. To justify the changes in plot, the Wang Brothers explained that there were elements of Ryuki that just wouldn’t fly on an American network aiming for 6-11 year-old boys on Saturday mornings, and cited one episode in particular.
This is that episode.
Kitaoka goes to meet with Asakura, and we see that this is apparently a recent case. Asakura is serving ten years for murder, which is a reduced sentence from what the judge originally wanted. Kitaoka, the man who can make anyone innocent, has his first failure, but he had little to work with; Asakura’s entire defense was that he killed someone because he was “vexed.” Yes. He murdered someone because he was annoyed. Nice guy. As a note, this is the most popular Kamen Rider in the series. Go figure. Kitaoka washes his hands of Asakura, outright telling him to find another lawyer if he wants an appeal. Yeah, you know somebody’s trouble if this dick thinks he’s a dick. I’ve seen people refer to Asakura as “insane,” and I myself admit that the guy is totally guano loco, but given that insanity is a legal rather than clinical term, I’m hesitant to apply it. I’ll expand on it more in my endpoint analysis, but the short of it is that while Asakura has no self-control and fails the “policeman at the elbow” test horribly, he acts with a measure of planning and cunning that suggests his cognitive abilities aren’t impaired by mental illness. I do, however, feel perfectly safe calling him a sociopath, so let’s go with that. As Kitaoka leaves, he momentarily senses something from the Mirror World, but when it vanishes, he assumes it’s his imagination, not noticing Kanzaki.
This next set of events could really be called “Everybody worries about Ren.” While Shinji’s at work, Tezuka helps out at Atori in place of the MIA Ren and Yui, and he reflects on Shinji’s refusal to believe in his predictions. We see a scene that hadn’t been included in the previous episode but had taken place during their talk by the hospital, after Shinji had apologized. Tezuka made Shinji promise to keep Ren from fighting other Riders, if he wanted to prevent his death. Shinji would have made that promise even if it wasn’t Ren at stake, and he asks if Ren’s not going to act rashly now that he knows he can’t kill. Unfortunately, Tezuka believes that Ren can’t forgive himself for this. Meanwhile, we see that Yui has followed her lead and visited Eri in the hospital. She’s devastated to see the end result of her brother’s actions, and it’s implied that she leaves behind roses for Eri. As she leaves, she just misses Ren walking past, unaware that he’s about to visit the same person. And during all of this, Shinji struggles at work over why Ren fights. He wonders if learning that reason might help him stop Ren from fighting.
Kitaoka is easily able to get Shibaura acquitted, and he points out that he noticed a deck among his confiscated possessions. Shibaura realizes that Kitaoka is a Rider too, but he turns down a fight, saying he needs to wash the stink of police off him. Even Kitaoka points out he’s a dick and wonders why he can’t deal with decent people just once. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you regularly blow up those decent people and trick them into thinking that they killed other people. Treat Shinji better and then come back and complain that you’re not dealing with enough nice people.
While this is going on, Kanzaki enters the prison, passing through bars like a ghost and apparently invisible, though it’s later shown that he’s traveling via the Mirror World. He appears suddenly in Asakura’s cell, picking up that the prisoner has a lot of hatred in him and considers everyone in the world an enemy. So, naturally, the unhinged sociopath is perfect Rider material! Kanzaki, your standards are pathetically low. Hell, Asakura even tries to punch him, but Kanzaki avoids his fist at lightning speeds. I’m guessing this is supposed to make you think that he’s going to turn out to be Odin, but it’s a definite hint that he’s not human. He gives Asakura the Ouja deck, and apparently the guy makes a contract on the spot and breaks out of jail. He manages to procure clothes from a military surplus store, apparently killing the owner. Unsurprisingly, he chooses snakeskin. Before working on Ryuki, Kobayashi had done work on Super Sentai, notably Gingaman and Timeranger, so there’s almost a Sentai-like element to costuming choices for the characters in Ryuki and the later OOO (plus Den-O to some extent, mostly with Yuto). Shinji dresses casually, if a little too casual, sometimes just wearing some ugly looking shirts, and his color scheme is mostly reds and pinks (the exception being his bright blue jacket). Ren also dresses casually, with a T-shirt (in winter, a sweater) and jeans, all in neutral or dark colors. Kitaoka and Tezuka dress up, always looking sharp, though where Kitaoka wears a lot of white (white represents death in Asian cultures), Tezuka uses more colors, including red. So, if everybody else goes for themes in costuming, why shouldn’t the snake-themed Rider wear snakeskin patterns?
Asakura gets Kitaoka’s address from a phonebook, but the police have already warned Kitaoka, and he’s expecting him. The doorbell rings, but it turns out only to be Reiko, who wants more answers, given that Kitaoka was Asakura’s lawyer. As Kitaoka closes the door to undo the chain lock, they hear her scream. He hurries to open the door, and Asakura tries to attack him, but Goro holds him off. The police arrive, which scares Asakura off. In an awesome moment, Reiko chews out Kitaoka for not doing anything and chases after Asakura herself. Shibaura watches with interest, seeing the grudge that Takeshi the Homicidal Maniac has against Kitaoka.
Reiko calls Shinji, who had been sent to Shibuya to interview witnesses, to get him to intercept Asakura. But as he heads off on his first real assignment as a journalist, the Monster from last episode appears at a nearby restaurant, and he’s forced to go fight. While Ryuki fights, Asakura approaches the restaurant and senses the Monster. Shibaura realizes that he’s a new Rider and when Asakura insists on fighting him, offers to make the game more interesting by offering an alliance against the Riders who won’t fight each other. Kind of hypocritical, isn’t it? He tells Asakura that Kitaoka is a Rider before going to help Ryuki briefly, luring him out into the open while he fights the Monster. For some reason, they swapped out the usual end theme, “Hatenaki Inochi” (which translates to “A Boundless Life,” with inochi, life, being the alternative reading for the kanji for kibou, hope) for RIDER CHIPS’ “Hateshinai Honou no Naka e” (“Into the Eternal Flame”). The song is okay, but it doesn’t fit a fight scene as well as “Hatenaki Inochi.” This battle gives Asakura a glimpse of Ryuki, but before he can fight, he’s cornered by police. He beats up an officer, then takes his fallen gun and holds a little girl hostage (see why the Wang Brothers were hesitant to do a direct adaptation of this series?). When Shinji returns, he finds the entire restaurant held hostage, surrounded by police, and he’s the only one inside that Asakura doesn’t know about…
Rider Gathering (Yasuko Kobayashi): Shinji texts Reiko to let her know that he’s inside the restaurant and okay. He’s appalled that Asakura has gotten a child involved, and he’s worried so much about how much longer she’ll be able to handle this situation that he decides he needs to rescue her even more than the rest of them. And this is just pure Shinji. He finds a display of stuffed toys and grabs one of the dolls, using it to catch her attention and mouth to her not to give up. This little bit of kindness gives her enough hope to smile. Moreso than his kindness, Shinji’s heroism takes center stage this episode, juxtaposed against the decidedly unheroic actions of some of the other cast members.
While this is going on, Yui manages to make it home, and Sanako expresses her worry about her because of the jailbreak. That doesn’t stop her from leaving herself, taking a vase to defend herself with. We’ll check back in on Yui in a moment, but also during the crisis, Tezuka confronts Ren, insisting he’s got to give up on Eri. He apologizes to a shocked Ren for following him, but promises that he kept his secret. He then insists that nobody would blame Ren if he gave up on Eri, but instead of getting mad, like you’d expect, Ren just sinks further into his depression. It’s clear this isn’t the first time he’s had to consider this, and he just doesn’t know what to do. Tezuka just urges him not to keep walking the path of destruction.
Asakura finally calls the police negotiators, demanding Kitaoka in a hostage exchange. Realizing that now, including himself, four Riders are involved in this debacle, Shibaura leaves to target the other two. Meanwhile, Okubo and Shimada arrive, arguing with the police to be let past the barricade. Off-screen, Reiko’s able to explain the whole situation, that they’ve got a man on the inside. They text Shinji to let him know that they’re cooperating with police, but they need him to get intel on the hostages. Shinji manages to get a photo, but while doing so, he inadvertently activates the doll’s speech function. Asakura catches him, but even at gunpoint, Shinji manages to send the photo to the police. Let me remind you: Shinji has no clue this is a Rider. As far as he knows, this is an uninvolved man who is a dangerous sociopath. Shinji fucking stands up to him, knowing he can’t use his Rider powers against him. Shinji’s badassness is not appreciated enough. Asakura hits him, knocking him toward the other hostages, and the little girl, Chika, runs over to him, but he insists he’s okay.
Ren and Tezuka return to Atori, only to find Shibaura waiting for them. He reveals that he kidnapped Yui to force Ren to fight, and worried over Yui’s safety, Ren immediately starts to follow him to the battle. Tezuka tries to stop him, warning that he’ll lose, but Ren insists that his life has no meaning if he doesn’t fight, and he doubts that it has any meaning anyway. And this is a very important part of Ren’s characterization, something that will come up later: he doesn’t think very much of himself. Like I said in episode 12, he defines himself by his relationship to Eri, so he’ll give up everything for her sake. Sounds romantic, right? Not when it comes to the pathological level Ren puts takes it to. He sees no value in his own life, so he’s fine with throwing it away for her. He’ll deny himself his own happiness just because he doesn’t feel worthy to have it if she can’t. It’s extremely self-destructive, and even Tezuka starts to worry that Ren is trying to get himself killed, and chases after him to prevent what he thinks is a suicide-in-progress.
Kitaoka agrees to the hostage exchange, but don’t worry-it’s not because he’s a decent human being or anything. He just wants to improve his image and preserve his reputation. But Goro is extremely worried about his decision, which hints that there’s more to this relationship than just employer and employee. And yeah, go ahead and take that any way you want-god knows that they seem to encourage it here!-but you really start to wonder why Goro is so emotionally attached to Kitaoka. There’s something deeper here than just the worry that your boss is going to get himself killed, and that’ll be very important for both of them later on. When Kitaoka arrives, the police plan on following him in once the hostages are safe, to prevent him from getting hurt. Asakura agrees to the exchange, but he keeps Chika behind for insurance. And in another pure Shinji moment, Shinji steadfastly refuses to leave her side. He offers himself instead, and when Asakura doesn’t understand why he’s willing to do this, he holds her tight and insists that he’s staying as long as she is.
The police hurry the other hostages out as Kitaoka enters. Once Kitaoka’s inside, Asakura challenges him to a Rider battle, shocking both him and Shinji. Shinji’s horrified to realize that this whole thing was just another part of the Rider War, and that everyone involved was just an innocent victim caught in the crossfire. In a moment that’s pure crazy, Shinji goes into a flying leap and tackles Asakura, freeing Chika, who’s knocked out. Asakura punches Shinji and throws him aside, causing him to smack his head, and the police fire canisters of tear gas into the restaurant. Before passing out from his head injury, Shinji moves toward the unconscious Chika and holds her hand. Kitaoka and Asakura go to fight in the Mirror World, and the police enter, confused as to how Asakura apparently escaped. Shinji and Chika are wheeled out on the same stretcher, and his coworkers cheer on his heroism.
Ren manages to catch up to Shibaura, who’s watching the battle play out. He insists that he’ll fight and that Shibaura didn’t have to take a hostage. Shibaura refuses to tell him where Yui is and threatens him by saying he’d better not hesitate to kill him this time. Tezuka arrives and tries to talk Ren down, but Ren tells him to go find Yui while he fights. As the dual fights commence, Tezuka finds Yui and promises her that he’ll help Ren, arriving to the battle just in time to prevent Knight from taking a hit. Yui watches the battle between Knight, Raia, and Gai in despair, wishing she could stop the fighting. Kanzaki appears and tells her that the battle has nothing to do with her. He insists that the Riders chose to fight themselves, to satisfy their own desires, and that “No one has the right to stop that.” This is a very important issue for Shinji’s character development later on, and it’s really a theme throughout Kobayashi’s Kamen Rider series to date, especially OOO. But Yui’s not convinced and asks why he’s doing it, but he vanishes.
Knight and Raia are losing badly to Gai’s Confine Vent cards, which null any card they scan. As Gai prepares to use his Final Vent on Knight, Raia is haunted by his vision of Ren’s death and tries to warn him off, but Knight won’t move. Fortunately, Ryuki arrives, blocking the attack with his Guard Vent. Furious about the fighting, he refuses to accept that this is their destiny and fights off Gai, making Raia realize that he might be the one who can stop all of this. The battles converge, and Zolda’s Final Vent devastates the battlefield. While Knight, Raia, and Ryuki are injured, Ouja used Gai as a human shield, then finishes him off. Horrified at the senseless killing, Ryuki, and Dragreder, is about to face off against Ouja and Venosnaker…
The Traitorous Ren (Yasuko Kobayashi): Let me get this out of my system now: Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! The CG artists have a field day animating the battle between Dragreder and Venosnaker while Ryuki is forced to engage Ouja. Knight looks over to the remains of Gai’s deck, reflecting on how Ouja didn’t think twice about killing him. Ryuki demands to know how Ouja can kill someone so casually and demands to know if he feels nothing. This leads Ouja to realize that Ryuki is the idiot from the restaurant. As Ouja reveals he’s getting a high from the violence, Ryuki fights back more fiercely, insisting he’ll never be able to forgive him. So Ouja puts him on his hit list, but Ryuki’s spared by the time limit.
Shinji starts to ride home when the police catch up to Asakura. Tezuka joins Shinji during the shootout, as someone hijacks a patrol car. God, the police in Kamen Rider have gone downhill since Ichijou. Asakura’s able to escape, thanks to the driver of that patrol car-Ren. With Shinji in disbelief over Ren’s incredibly stupid and seemingly nonsensical action, Tezuka is shocked to realize that the new Rider is Asakura, hinting at a history between them. A chase breaks out, and Ren decides to introduce himself to Asakura by displaying his deck. He won’t explain why he’s helping Asakura, his enemy, but Asakura doesn’t really care. Reiko witnesses the chase and calls Okubo to say it looks like Asakura had hidden inside the restaurant somehow, but she’s suspicious that none of the police could find him. This will come up repeatedly later on.
Tezuka gets over his shock as Shinji becomes increasingly more pissed off with Ren, who won’t answer his phone. Tezuka explains that Ren did this because Asakura killed Gai; Ren is trying to adopt a cold lack of regard for life like Asakura’s in order to replace his broken mask-Shinji wasn’t able to change Ren’s fate. Shinji’s frustrated that Ren can only think of fighting, and Tezuka explains that Kanzaki specifically chose people who were fighters at heart and told them that the last survivor would gain power. Shinji can’t believe that the other Riders are joining of their own free will, but Tezuka gets defensive about his criticism. He warns Shinji to be careful not to get himself involved in the Rider War too, pointing out that for a moment, he’d put serious thought into killing Asakura. He says that it’s no coincidence that Kanzaki picked the homicidal maniac. Tezuka decides that if he’s going to change fate, then he has to get closer to Kanzaki, but Shinji is still frustrated that Ren is fighting like Kanzaki’s puppet.
In the sideplots, Kanzaki visits Kitaoka to let him know of Gai’s death, impatient that it’s taking so long for the Riders to off each other. Kitaoka’s confident that Asakura will speed things up, and he insists to be left to do things his own way. However, Kanzaki reminds Kitaoka that he doesn’t have much time left, so he shouldn’t take too long to act. Also, Metalgelas is attacking white cars with drivers who even vaguely resemble Asakura, showing that some contract Monsters remain loyal to their contract holders even after the Riders’ deaths. Shinji and Ren must have gotten stiffed on partners.
Yui is still sure that her brother’s actions are wrong, and she’s worried when Shinji and Tezuka come home without Ren. Shinji evasively says that Ren’s out before going upstairs and failing to call him again, and Tezuka realizes that Yui is Kanzaki’s younger sister. The next day, as Yui looks into her information from Nakamura, she drops a photo negative, that shows a house. Meanwhile, Tezuka tries to predict her fortune, and he’s badly frightened when he sees nothing at all from her.
ORE tries to look into more info about Asakura, but when they have no leads, Okubo suggests looking into the mysterious getaway driver. Shinji asks if there’s any info, but Okubo doesn’t know. Somehow, Shinji was the only person who saw Ren’s face. Okubo tosses out the idea that Asakura might have had a relative come pick him up, since no one related to him is alive. For now, there’s just the mystery. Reiko calls to let them know that the police found Asakura heading for his hometown of Kanagawa, and Shinji takes off. Asakura drives through the police barricade, heading for the coast. Ren catches up to him on his bike, giving him a view of his mirror as he overtakes the car. The car then goes off a cliff and explodes. Shinji hurries over to find Ren standing by, watching. He sees Ouja in the Mirror World and realizes that Ren helped him escape again. Ren still won’t explain himself, and when Venosnaker tries to attack Shinji, Shinji henshins and enters the Mirror World. He demands to know if Ouja coerced Ren, insisting he still can’t forgive Ouja.
Yui gets the photo developed and faintly recognizes the house. She remembers two children running and playing inside, before she has an image of the windows exploding-similar to what happened at Ejima Lab. The memory becomes physically painful for her, and she begins to fear what she remembers.
As Ryuki gains the upper hand against Ouja, Knight suddenly attacks him. Ryuki tries to reason with him, but Knight won’t listen and demands that he fight…