[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER SABER EPISODE 44 - “OPEN THE BOOK, TO THE LAST PAGE”



There once was a group of friends.

Touma’s story of a childhood shattered by the loss of Luna, memories diverted and regained, has haunted him as much as it empowered him. His drive to find her was the guiding light in his darkest days, but it’s also an original sin that can never be expunged. Finding Luna was its own penalty, because every visit with this unchanged girl was a reminder that he’d broken a promise. There’s no Getting Her Back, because Touma isn’t that little boy anymore. He’s an adult, just like Kento. The group of friends that existed as children can’t ever be returned to how they were, because that story’s over – no matter how much Touma would rather write it differently.

There will always be a group of friends.

The benefit of a story being over is the chance to start a brand new story. The old one was tragic, and its resolution bittersweet. An eternal child was keeping Touma lost in his past, endlessly suffering for his error. But that’s Touma’s story. Luna can write a new one: a story about a young woman who brings light to her friends’ dark days, and allows the mistakes of the past to become just a tale shared between old companions. This story is one of clean slates, and better endings.

Everything in this episode’s post-Kamen Rider Storious fight was as emotional and beautiful as you’d assume, with a cast this exceptional. We’re in the last good day before a climactic battle, and we get to see all of our heroes at their best, their most vulnerable. It’s all them connecting with the world, and the people within it, since everything’s at stake. Daishinji works on swords. Rintaro and Mei share a sweet moment on the Brooding Roof. Ren declines Kento’s offer to rejoin the team, but agrees to show up to the fight for his own sense of justice. The Shindai Siblings train together. Ogami spends time with his wife (!!!) and son. And Kento meets Touma at Promise Park, because there’s no other location these two would spend their last moments at.

There’s a fight at the beginning of the episode, and a brand-new(-ish) suit for Storious, but I don’t really care about that. The Divine Sages and Kamen Rider Storious are what’s next for our heroes, unavoidably, and I don’t want to taint their last chance for emotional closure with something as tawdry as supervillainy. There are battles to come, but I don’t want to think about that right now. I want to remember them all in their happiness, and in their bond with each other. I want to remember them walking together at dawn, towards the last battle, as a group.

A group of friends, perhaps. That'd be a nice story.

—

THE TIME BEFORE THE LAST TIME



She’d miss this roof. God, how she’d miss it.

Everything was ending soon. There was no avoiding it. Storious was practically a god now, and he didn’t seem to be a particularly forgiving or kind one. The guild was readying for a final strike against him, and no matter the outcome, this time in her life would be over.

It was strange to think about it, as a time that could be past tense. The insanity had never become routine, but it had ceased feeling new and unusual some months back. There was a rhythm to it all, the sword stuff, that allowed for some slight complacency. Touma and his friends would find a monster, or a book, and within a couple of weeks, it’d all be wrapped up. Every new challenge was assessed and dispatched, with a commitment and expedience that Mei wished Touma could apply to his writing.

(That was a little mean. He’d certainly been distracted this past year, but… it had been a year! No new book! He’d said he was writing it six months ago, and she hadn’t seen even the hint of a first draft! Her job was maybe at stake!)

This all felt different, though. The tension was palpable; the finality as unmistakable as the red skies that hung over the city. She’d assumed the end of this adventure would come in a rush, or by surprise. Instead, she felt herself lurching towards it, slowly pulled along with her friends into an ending that felt impossibly distant just a few days earlier. She couldn’t believe she had this one last day before the ending arrived.

She came to this roof, surprising herself. She thought she’d go to her favorite cafe, or spend time at her office. None of that felt right, though. Her world had grown so much as a part of the Sword of Logos, and yet it felt like it had shrunk down to nothing. The Northern Base. Touma’s bookshop. This roof. That was her world these days.

She gripped the railing tightly. It was her world. It was worth protecting. She’d have today to remember it all, before the finale was inescapable. She was happy to be on this roof, one last time. To remember this year, and take that with her into the ending.