The figure stared calmly at Nian. Under that gaze, a chill ran down her spine—so intense it overpowered her instinct—and she took a cautious step back.
"Found you, Nian."
The being who called itself "Xi" met Nian's frozen face with eyes full of eerie warmth. As Nian's alarm deepened, the eight-edged Han sword in Xi's hand melted into ink and vanished. She opened her arms in greeting, her lips curling into a gentle smile that only made things worse.
"Come over to my side, jie-jie."
Nian's skin erupted in goosebumps from toe to scalp. That voice. That look. That gesture.
No way in hell this thing was her bratty little sister. Whatever stood before her now had possessed Xi.
"What the hell are you? Some monster that hijacked my sister's body? Get out of her, now!"
Nian summoned her shield—the massive slab emblazoned with the Branded Year's Beast—and held it before her. Her crimson greatsword crackled with heat, distorting the very air around it. Yet behind the fury in her posture, her eyes shimmered with something dangerously close to fear. Even Amiya noticed it: Nian hadn't looked this shaken when they first heard a Year Beast proxy had infiltrated Lungmen.
"Why so scared of me, jie-jie? Aren't I still your little sister?"
Xi's smile widened, confused and hurt, but with a twisted playfulness that felt entirely alien.
"Don't joke like that. The real Xi—my sister—would rather swallow a sword than call me jie-jie."
Nian raised her blade, pointing it at Xi and the swarm of shapeless horrors that loomed behind her.
Xi only smiled.
"That doesn't matter, jie-jie. Maybe I called you something else before—but that was a long time ago. Now, I hold nothing but the deepest respect for you. Because soon, we'll be whole again."
Nian's face darkened with understanding.
So that's what this was. A merger. That... thing wanted to reabsorb her.
Which could only mean—it really was that bastard.
Even as her mind scrambled, Xi seemed to read her hesitation and sighed. The eight-edged Han sword reformed in her grip and slashed through the air. The shadows behind her roared to life, charging.
"Damn brat! I don't care who's whispering in your ear or what junk they've fed you—but if we fuse again and that old bastard comes back, it won't just be different. We won't be us anymore!"
Nian's greatsword blazed red. With one wide swing, she cleaved through a possessed mailbox creature, turning it to black mist.
Behind her, flashes of pink, gold, and blue lit the street. Amiya, Talulah, and Ch'en had transformed, weapons drawn, and flanked Nian without hesitation.
"Nian!" Amiya called out. "I can see it now!"
Her power—Preserver of Civilization—let her glimpse the chaotic storm inside Xi.
"Her mind's fractured. She has... twelve voices inside her. Including Xi herself."
"Twelve? That's—"
Nian's eyes shot to Xi, stunned. The girl's smile widened, but it radiated only cold.
"So why do we need to stay apart?" Xi purred. "There's an old Yan proverb: 'A family must be united and whole.' If we rejoin, we can live together again—big brother, big sisters, little siblings... No more separations. No more 'you' or 'me'."
Black ink twisted like snakes through the air, swallowing lesser ink beasts and turning their mass into long lashes of liquid shadow. One whip struck Amiya and her team dead on.
Armor sparked and sizzled. Amiya was hurled across the asphalt, rolling until she barely regained her footing. Talulah and Ch'en fared no better—Talulah's knight armor flickered, glitching under the ink's unnatural pressure.
The ink monsters surged forward. Amiya stood and unclasped the blazing red driver from her wrist.
"Balorg!"
Fire roared to life. Her Infernal Armor ignited, incinerating a dozen ink shades. Her time-bending sword split a mutated garbage bin beast in half before she rolled clear of a jet of venomous ink that melted the asphalt in seconds.
"Dragon!"
Talulah's driver flared. The dragon tattoo on her arm grew jagged, forming a blazing crimson dragon head. It breathed fire that forced the monsters back.
"Red Dawn—draw blade!"
Ch'en's sword slashed through the air, sending crimson arcs like stormfronts. Everything in their path was cut down.
The remaining ink beasts shrieked and melted, pooling together into a massive, dragon-shaped entity made entirely of shadow.
"RRRAAAAAHHH!"
"Righteous Thunder!"
A bolt of white lightning split the sky, blasting straight through the ink-dragon's chest.
"Ha!"
A huge figure in red barreled onto the scene—every step making the ground quake. He leapt forward, palm glowing with a dull yellow light.
Taihe.
His palm slammed into the ink dragon's head. A sickening splatter followed as the creature collapsed into a flood of ink that drenched both ground and man alike.
"Miss Jingzhe! Taihe!" Amiya cried in relief.
The two nodded grimly, not wasting words. Their eyes locked on Xi.
"Xi," Jingzhe declared, voice steely. "By order of the Grand Justice Office, acting under the Sui Platform's authority: you have abandoned your post at Mount Huiqi, attacked a Yan stronghold, endangered the city of Lungmen, and violated the agreement between the Year Beast proxies and Great Yan. Surrender now and return with us to the capital to face judgment!"
Her words carried thunderous weight. To ordinary ears, they would shake the soul.
But Xi looked entirely unmoved. Her smile twisted into a sneer.
"The Sui Platform. And the Kamen Riders... Heh. I've heard of you—villains who want to tear families apart."
She slashed her sword.
Nothing happened.
Except that the last of the remaining monsters vanished into black smoke.
"I don't have time to deal with you," Xi said flatly. "My priority is jie-jie."
Her blade turned. Without so much as a motion, the red robes on Jingzhe and Taihe twisted into living shadows—snarling like ghouls and wrapping around them, pinning them tight. Even Jingzhe's thunder arts and Taihe's brute strength couldn't break free.
Amiya and the others tried to act—but stalks of golden rice surged from the ground, encircling them. Whenever one of them tried to break free of the field, a moment of spatial distortion blinked them right back to its center.
"This... this is space manipulation!" Amiya gasped.
She had seen it. For just a heartbeat—the twisting of space itself.
This rice field... was a warped, sealed dimensional zone.
"Wait! Nian! Nian!!" Amiya shouted.
She realized who Xi's true target was—but they could only watch, helpless beyond the barrier.
Within the field, white cloth unraveled from Nian's robe like living tendrils, binding her like a silkworm in a cocoon. She couldn't move.
"Xi, what the hell are you?" Nian growled. "How are you using other people's powers?"
Xi's answer came with a radiant smile—gentler now, almost nostalgic.
"Would you believe it's all thanks to that little sketch I once made of you all?" she said. "Back then, I just wanted to remember you... keep you close. I never dreamed that idle little drawing would become the key."
She held something up.
Everyone's eyes widened in horror.
A dark golden driver, crowned with the snarling head of a Year Beast—its twisted shape reeked of corruption.
"That's... an Aberrant Driver," Amiya whispered.
"Come, jie-jie," Xi said. "Let's relive our history."
"Happy New Year!"
The character for "Year" boomed like a divine edict. Violet-black energy, streaked with gold, surged into Xi's body.
"AaaaaaAAHHHH!"
Her scream was sharp, otherworldly. Her body twisted—and when the storm of energy cleared, what stood before Nian was no longer human.
A gray-and-white monster, crowned with grotesque horns, stared her down.
It blurred—then was suddenly in front of Nian, hand clamped around her throat.
"Now," the creature crooned. "Let us become one, jie-jie."