It all started within the first 10 days of April, not long after the school entrance ceremony.
It happened in Bunkyo City Public Junior High School’s schoolyard.
The first witness was a second-year girl that attended the school.
During break time, the girl was playing ball with her classmates, and she ended up chasing after a ball that failed to flip her uniform skirt.
The ball flew farther than expected.
After picking up the grass-covered ball that reached all the way to the cherry tree in the far corner of the schoolyard, she felt a stare.
The cherry tree was looking at her.
There was an open eye in one of the tree’s small cavities.
Laying at the bottom of the tree was a pair of dark-green glasses.
She recognized those glasses.
The largest boy in her class with an acne-covered face wore the same glasses.
That boy died inside the cavity of that cherry tree.
Right now the area surrounding the cherry tree was surrounded with “DO NOT ENTER” tape and was under inspection.
As Hikawa looked up at the corpse in the cavity, his fearless face stiffened.
Out of the four years he’s worked as a police officer, he’s never seen anything like this before.
It felt unreal, as if this was all an illusion.
It was as if a ferocious cherry tree had devoured someone, with that person’s flesh and blood traveling up the tree to its flowers, changing each of the petals to a light crimson color one by one.
Suddenly the sound of a chainsaw began tearing through his ears.
One of his associates was chopping down the tree to take out the corpse.
This is impossible!
Hikawa thought to himself again.
There was a corpse stuffed in a cavity about the size of a coffee cup.
There was no way this was possible.
It was by no doubt another one of those Unsolvable Crimes.
Finished with inspecting the scene, Hikawa parked his car in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department(MPD) Central Headquarters’ parking lot.
He got out of the car and entered the elevator.
He slid his keycard into one of the panels, and the elevator began taking him to an area reserved for authorized personnel only.
It was where the Large Scale Transport Vehicle was stationed. The G-Trailer.
There were red siren lamps on its roof, an intermodal container which could be considered the core of the vehicle on the back, and shining on the front was the police department’s symbol, the cherry blossom flower.
“Welcome back. So, how was it?”
Upon entering the intermodal container where the computer terminal was installed, Sumiko Ozawa stopped typing at the keyboard and turned around to greet Hikawa.
Upon being stared at with Sumiko’s wide black eyes, Hikawa felt his body tighten up.
Hikawa had always felt comforted and encouraged by those straightforward eyes of hers.
Flowing through that small 150 centimeters tall body of hers was an energy more lively than anyone else.
She was a woman that was the most suitable person to be the supervisor for the G3 Unit.
“In regards to the incident at the public junior high school, it was-”
“Was it another Unsolvable Crime?”
The person who interrupted Hikawa was Takahiro Omuro.
Sumiko flicked her finger at Omuro’s forehead.
“Quiet!”
“S-Sorry.”
Omuro had an average height of around 170 centimeters, and for better or worse, he had a rather average energy flowing through him. Pretty much everything about him was average.
Sumiko had always told Hikawa that it was that average quality of his that was one of his better traits.
There aren’t many guys out there who are average in just about anything they do.
“Now, continue, Hikawa.”
Gently urged on by Sumiko, Hikawa continued his report on the incident.
It was impossible to shove a corpse into a small hole inside a tree.
Unless it was somehow transported there through an interdimensional portal, it was inconceivable.
“So it’s an Unsolvable Crime.”
Sumiko muttered those words with a tired tone.
“There’s already been dozens of these unbelievable incidents… What is this world coming to?”
Sumiko let out a sigh as she thought about the numerous reports on the Unsolvable Crimes.
Burning to death from internal spontaneous combustion, corpses inside walls, starving to death right after a meal, they were all incidents that made one doubt what they were hearing.
“Unknown…”
Hikawa whispered that word.
“I believe we can safely assume this is the work of an Unknown.”
“Right. Those unidentifiable things appear out of nowhere and attack people for seemingly no clear reason. They couldn’t have chosen a better name for them.”
They were called Unknown. Practically nothing could be figured out about them.
It was a term originally used for aircrafts of unknown nationality.
The police referred to the creatures that were causing these Unsolvable Crimes as the Unknown.
As of right now, the existence of the Unknowns has not yet been revealed to the public.
However there have been several witnesses among the civilians, and rumors of bizarre murderers had been gradually spreading throughout the locals and the internet.
The existence of the Unknowns was first confirmed during the first Unsolvable Crime, back in October of last year.
One day, in an office building in the center of Tokyo, there was an inexplicable death by falling.
Someone on the 20th floor at the very top of the building had somehow fallen all the way down to the first floor.
It wasn’t as if she had jumped off the roof.
The female employee had slipped through numerous floors and ceilings before finally falling onto the lobby floor.
The employees working on each of those floors witnessed the woman falling from the ceiling and disappearing into the floor.
They said that her expression didn’t show any fear. As she fell down looking like a flower bud as she wrapped her skirt around her legs, her bewildered face seemed to show that she had no idea what was happening.
This physically impossible death by falling was the start of many frequent Unsolvable Crimes, along with the first confirmation of the creatures known as Unknown.
There were many witness reports, and security cameras had captured footage as well.
They weren’t human. They weren’t animals, either. They were strange creatures that felt as if they were straight out of a fantasy.
The police seeked out scientists to analyze the footage.
They wanted to find out where these creatures were coming from, why they were killing people, and whether or not they were actually living things in the first place.
Not a single person was able to give a clear answer.
They were recognized as creatures deviating from any kind of biology since the dawn of history.
They had no choice but to refer to them as “Unknowns”.
As long as they continue to murder people, they could not be allowed to run rampant.
After recognizing this, the higher-ups at the police department devised a clear-cut decision.
The Unknowns were to be considered an enemy to mankind and must be eliminated.
And thus, they began developing the G3 System.
“We, the police, have yet to take down even a single one of those Unknowns… At this rate, we’re only going to see more and more deaths on our hands…!”
Hikawa spoke with a serious face.
“Without the proper equipment, there’s not a single person that could do anything against them. We need the proper equipment…”
The ends of Sumko’s mouth slightly upturned into a smile.
“We won’t be letting the Unknown do as they like any longer. It’s finally time for the G3 Unit to make its appearance!”
Hikawa reflexively stood up and raised his voice.
“S-So you mean the G3 System is finally completed?!”
“Sorry to have kept you waiting, Hikawa. It’s been planned to rollout tomorrow. The rest will all be up to you… I have high expectations for you, Makoto Hikawa!”
“……”
Hikawa looked down wordlessly with his fists clenched. He was displaying his determination, and those clenched fists were as hard as stone.
Makoto Hikawa became a police officer to carry on his father’s will.
When he was younger, his father had worked as a patrol officer at the local station.
Hikawa had always admired the sight of his father dressed in the police officer uniform doing his work and would watch him work at the local station from the sidelines every day.
He was nothing short of a hero to Hikawa.
But that father of his met with misfortune.
After receiving a report of a robbery at a convenience store in the middle of the night, his father entered close-combat with a criminal who was wearing a full-face helmet and ended up getting stabbed between his ribs by a 20 centimeter long knife.
The knife ripped into his chest and went straight into his heart. He died instantly.
Upon one of his fellow officers arresting the criminal and taking off his helmet, his face was revealed to be quite juvenile. In reality, he was actually a young boy who had just entered junior high school.
Throughout the entire arrest and interrogation, the boy had something gripped in his hand.
After a detective forced him to let go, the sound of several coins landing on the floor could be heard. It was the money stolen from the convenience store.
Hikawa’s father had been killed over not even a thousand yen. ($10 USD)
At the same time, Hikawa, who was in his second year of junior high school at the time, began to hate the criminal, but grew to eventually let go of that hate.
The reason he finally let go of it was when one of his father’s associates that attended the funeral talked to him about the gun his father had in his possession when he died.
There weren’t any bullets loaded in his father’s gun. That could have been considered a declaration of his trust as a police officer. No matter how violent the people he dealt with might have been, there was no doubt that he held immense respect for their lives. Hikawa’s hatred disappeared as if it was sucked into the empty cylinder, and he became determined to become a police officer to carry on his father’s will.
Hikawa started with fixing his body.
His did everything he could to do something about his weak constitution that made him prone to catching colds and upsetting his stomach.
After studying nutritional science, he developed a diet plan that consisted of nutrients he was most likely able to absorb, and had his mother make it for him to eat everyday.
After class he’d often frequent the gym and trained with consultation from a bodybuilder.
His efforts showed enormous results. By the time he got out of high school, he had overcome his weak constitution and gained a robust muscular body.
Hikawa never slacked off in anything he did, and his report card was lined with A’s.
He had a handsome face as well, so he definitely was fairly popular with the girls, but there were a good amount of those girls who had grown to resent him a bit.
Seeing as he often felt that he didn’t have any free time to spend on a relationship, he would always return any love letters he received right on the spot.
He didn’t have anyone he could call a friend. The boys generally kept their distance from him.
It was because he would get serious over every little thing.
For example, in one of the PE rugby sessions, despite the fact that everyone was moderately holding back, Hikawa would get really into it and tackle with all his strength.
But Hikawa actually felt proud over everyone labelling him as “the guy that’s boring to hang out with because he’s too serious.”
He didn’t have any special talent, so he had to work twice as hard as a regular person.
That’s always how he thought.
Upon graduating high school, Hikawa enrolled in a police boarding school.
There were many students that would quit after being unable to bare the harsh training day after day, but Hikawa was the opposite. It was to the point where he even found the curriculum to not be enough for him, and he’d spend his free time studying law or training his muscles.
Even in school Hikawa was serious. He was so serious that he instilled fear in others.
Even during the practice sessions for arresting techniques, he’d treat it as if he was truly arresting a violent criminal, suppressing them without showing any mercy with a demon-like expression on his face.
After graduating, Hikawa began working as a patrol officer.
His attitude during work was so serious that the other officers often felt as if he was acting like he was reaching the retirement age, especially with how he was never late or absent from work even once.
One day, a large-scale hurricane caused a sediment disaster.
Hikawa was assisting in evacuating the citizens when he saw an old couple that was falling behind in running from their house.
The tsunami-like landslide of earth chasing after them was just about to swallow them.
Hikawa dived towards their direction and saved them at the very last moment.
He was a man that showed no fear in the face of danger if someone’s life was at stake.
That was the kind of hero Hikawa’s fellow officers recognized him as.
His achievements were received by even the top brass, which led to Hikawa being transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Investigation Department Section 1.
And not long after the project regarding the counter-measures against the Unknown went under development, November of the previous year, there were many who suggested that Hikawa be a candidate for the user of the G3 System.
Hikawa immediately volunteered to be the user.
Not long after that, the compatibility examination for the volunteers took place.
Physical ability, learning ability, decision making ability, and many other areas were tested to determine which of the volunteers would be most suitable as they went through screening after screening.
By the end, Hikawa was the last remaining volunteer.
As the final examination, he was to engage in a combat simulation.
He was equipped with gear about as heavy as the G3 System and fought with a computer-operated virtual hologram of an Unknown.
And that was the end of the examination.
The following day, Hikawa was called to meet with the higher-ups of the police department, and he was then appointed as the G3 System User right there and then.
Hikawa made a declaration in response.
He declared that he felt pride in being selected, and that he would fight as hard as he could to make up for the volunteers that weren’t selected.
Leaning against the driver’s seat, Hikawa pulled the tab on his canned coffee.
With a single gulp, warmth travelled down his throat throughout his body.
It may have been the middle of April, but the inside of a car with the engine off during the night was still quite chilly.
Hikawa returned his gaze to the house in front of his windshield.
It was a two-storied house in one of Tokyo’s residential towns. Light from the living room was leaking out from one of the windows facing the garden.
Hikawa was currently being assigned guard duty to the father of the male student that was seemingly devoured by the cherry tree in a junior high school’s courtyard a few days ago. He was 42 years old and an office worker.
The victims to the Unknown incidents so far have all targeted blood relatives. To be more precise, it’s been determined that they targeted relatives at least within the second-degree realm.
The deceased male student’s mother was also murdered via the same means on the following day after his death.
Being that the G3 System was not ready to dispatch at the time, instead of being on guard duty, Hikawa focused on training his body to be ready for when the time came where he would have to equip it.
But right now, the higher-ups and the rest of the police department had high expectations for this current mission.
Hikawa could feel his muscles gradually burning up from the fighting spirit and tension that was building up inside him.
It might appear tonight…
Hikawa had a vague feeling about that.
The worn-out man he was watching over began softly playing on the piano in the living room.
Hikawa recognized the on-and-off clumsy melody.
It was “Fur Elise”. Perhaps the murdered son or mother was fond of the song.
The man continued to play the song again and again as if possessed.
Hikawa maintained his watch over the surroundings as he sat in the vehicle parked on the road.
Suddenly, he caught sight of something red in the darkness.
There was a deep crimson scarf more than a meter long fluttering in the shadow of one of the roadside trees.
Several detectives ran out of their cars and pointed their guns at the scarf.
Following the red scarf were a pair of red eyes glowing in the darkness. It’s appearance brought to mind a fusion of a human and a jaguar. It was the Unknown – Jaguar Lord.
Hikawa rushed to get out of his car as well and brought out his gun.
This was his first time seeing an Unknown right in front of him.
“Nu.”
It made a sound that reached about 5 meters around it through its heavy breathing. The air felt tingly as Hikawa faced the presence of this creature that felt as if it had no right of existing.
Hikawa’s instincts were telling him to run. Do not engage and run.
Hikawa squashed those instincts that were making his teeth chatter. For the first time ever, he realized that squashing his instincts was, in a sense, one of his jobs as a police officer.
It was then that the Unknown suddenly began making a peculiar gesture. It drew what resembled a crushed pentagon on the back of its right hand with its left hand. It was a sign that an Unknown would make no matter what when it was about to kill someone, a symbol of darkness.
The detectives all began shooting at the spotted Jaguar Lord simultaneously.
The red scarf wrapped around its neck fluttered in the wind.
As Hikawa pulled the trigger, the image of his father appeared in his head. The thought that maybe his father was happy was in his mind. His father was able to carry an unloaded gun with him. That was something that Hikawa himself wasn’t able to accept. He then fired the gun for the sake of protecting the lives of the people.
However, the countless bullets that flew towards the Jaguar Lord all dissipated before they even reached it. They were all silently reduced to dust and blown away by the wind.
“Fur Elise” continued to play.
“Hikawa, I’m counting on you!”
Hikawa understood the meaning behind those words that his senior detective gave him.
He had to protect the target.
Hikawa swiftly jumped into the house through the window and dragged the man away from the piano and into the car, and then started the engine.
He contacted Sumiko over the radio and requested that she send out the G-Trailer.
The man who had lost his wife and son was mysteriously calm. The humming tune of “Fur Elise” was coming out from his lips.
As his car raced forward, he could hear the cries and shrieks coming from his fellow detectives.
He was able to see flashes of light from bullets being shot and numerous red scarves waving about from his back mirror.
It was then that he realized that those weren’t scarves.
They were trails of the detectives’ blood.
By the time Hikawa hit the brakes without thinking, the characteristic siren of the G-Trailer could be heard.
The red siren lamp flashed as the G-Trailer speeded forward before coming to a stop in front of Hikawa’s car.
Hikawa quickly got into the trailer and began putting on the equipment inside the container.
The 3rd Generation Reinforcement Exoskeleton and Outer Muscle Reinforcement System, otherwise known as the G3 System.
Hikawa began equipping each unit of the system onto his body, the chest piece, the leg pieces, the arm pieces, and so on.
Finally, Sumiko set the head unit onto Hikawa.
Omuro confirmed that there were no issues with the equipment using the monitor.
“Equipment Complete.”
Hikawa had transformed into the high tech armored blue warrior, G3.
Sumiko inputted commands into the keyboard to open the container hatch and declared initiation for combat.
“0132, G3 System, begin combat operations!”
Hikawa, now as G3, set out on his personal-use white bike, the Guard Chaser.
The red patrol light in the center of its front cowl rotated with sirens ringing as the Guard Chaser raced down the road at a distance of 200 kilometers in 5 seconds, and charged straight into the Jaguar Lord.
G3 stuck his leg onto the ground to turn the Guard Chaser around by 180 degrees as the Jaguar Lord who had dodged his charge stared at him.
An angel-like ring of light appeared above the Jaguar Lord’s head.
What kind of joke is this?, Hikawa thought to himself. You are in no way an angel.
G3 drew his personal handgun, the GM-01, from the trunk on the side cowl and readied it.
“GM-01, active. Permission to fire granted.”
Sumiko’s voice rang from the small speaker installed within his head unit, signaling that the safety had been turned off via remote control.
He pulled the trigger and fired a shot.
Over 10 of these shots that seemed to shake his insides with each round rang out.
The Jaguar Lord was given no time to dodge as the shots landed onto the back of its head and its spine.
Did I do it?
The moment after he thought that, every bullet that had made its mark fell onto the asphalt and scattered with the sound of metal.
The Jaguar Lord’s red eyes stared at G3 without blinking.
It didn’t work! How…?!
The very next moment, the Jaguar Lord’s body flew through the body and landed a heavy kick onto G3’s chest.
G3 was blown far away as he hit and rolled onto the road’s surface. The impact caused his consciousness to begin fading at an incredible rate.
This can’t be happening, he screamed in his heart. I’ve only just started!
Hikawa reached his hand out towards his distancing consciousness and forcefully dragged it back into his body.
I’m my father’s bullet, the bullet my father didn’t put into his gun. If an Unknown had appeared before my father, I’m sure he would have loaded his gun with bullets and shot at it. I’m my father’s bullet, so I can’t give up no matter what. I need to keep moving forward just like a bullet.
G3 slowly rose up, and then charged towards the Jaguar Lord.
“Hikawa!”
Sumiko, who had been watching the whole thing from the monitor, shouted out without thinking.
On the final day of the G3 System’s final examination, Sumiko saw the clearest blue sky she had ever seen. As she looked up at it for a long time, the blue sky felt like it was practically sucking her in.
It feels like something good’s going to happen today, Sumiko thought to herself as she stepped her feet into the examination hall that was surrounded by thick concrete.
Sumiko sat onto the examinator seat along with the other police executives as they scrutinized the performance of the final 15 candidates.
Each of the 15 young candidates were to wear a special full-face helmet and leather suit while they fought a virtual Unknown one by one.
The visuals being fed into the helmet were displaying the image of a computer-controlled Unknown, and the leather suit simulated the sensation of any impacts that might be received.
It was a combat simulator that was very close to the real thing.
Sumiko observed the candidates from a room partitioned away with reinforced glass.
Some fought gracefully, some fought with power, some fought with flexibility, some fought intelligently.
Sumiko was honestly bored out of her mind.
None of them really felt like that fit the mark.
Good grief, Sumiko thought to herself. If she knew it was going to be like this, she would have taken a walk under that blue sky and taken an afternoon nap at the park.
In Sumiko’s opinion, what the G3 System user needed wasn’t strength or intelligence.
Of course, those traits would be nice to have, but there was something more important needed.
Man, I want to eat some barbecue… As those thoughts went through her head, Makoto Hikawa appeared before her eyes.
At the start of the examination, he pumped himself up with a shout as he charged towards the virtual Unknown.
Sumiko watched with attention.
What’s with this kid…?! He’s getting destroyed…
Hikawa was easily taken out.
But each time he was knocked down, he quickly got up and charged forward again. He was like a mass of persistency. It was reminiscent of how drops of water could eventually corrode bedrock after taking as long as what could be considered to be eternity.
Sumiko couldn’t take her eyes off of that reckless earnesty.
Eventually Hikawa landed an unexpected hit onto the virtual Unknown’s face.
Sumiko narrowed her eyes.
“That’s an interesting kid.”
It was with those words that she elected for Hikawa.
Right now, Makoto Hikawa was fighting with the same earnesty from that final examination.
He’d get up no matter how many times he was knocked down, and he’d get knocked down right after getting up again.
G3 turned his resentment towards himself into power and slammed his head into the Jaguar Lord.
However it had barely any effect.
The Jaguar Lord landed a knee kick to G3’s face.
G3 began letting out a relentless flurry of punches, but he was countered with a single hit to his abdomen.
Sparks began flying out from G3’s blue metallic body like spurts of blood.
“Abdomen unit damaged!”
“Posture control unit heavily damaged!”
“G3 System is unable to continue combat…!”
Omuro looked up at Sumiko with a panicked face.
Sumiko shouted out with a controlled voice.
“Operation suspended! Hikawa, you need to retreat! Hikawa!”
The Jaguar Lord stepped onto the collapsed G3’s abdomen unit again and again.
Grasping onto his fading consciousness, Hikawa stood up and fell back against a roadside tree.
From within the G3’s head unit, Hikawa’s eyes went wide open.
A man’s face was peeking out from within the cavity inside the roadside tree.
It was the face of the same middle-aged man Hikawa had just been protecting. His lips and fingers were no longer playing to the tune of “Fur Elise”.
Impossible!, Hikawa thought as he bit his lips. When could this have possibly happened?!
Hikawa then once again understood just how capable the Unknown were. The Jaguar Lord must have had murdered him during the few seconds Hikawa was unconscious.
There wasn’t just one cavity with a face in it.
Faces of the detectives could be seen from the cavities of numerous trees alongside the road. Each one of them looked like they were large flowers floating in the darkness.
“Uwoooooh!”
Hikawa let out a blood-curdling cry and grabbed onto the Jaguar Lord. There was no longer any technique in what he was doing. He was simply relentlessly charging at it and swinging his arms and legs.
G3 was full of openings. He was taking each and every one of the Jaguar Lords kicks and punches at full force.
Eventually the light from the gauge lamp at his buckle completely disappeared.
Each of the units ceased functioning.
Sumiko’s cries rang out silently.
Hikawa was nothing more than a man wearing a suit of armor at this point.
Even so…
I must… I must defeat the Unknown…!
his heart was not yet broken.
It was then that the rain of attacks came to a stop.
Within this short lapse of silence, the Jaguar Lord whispered with a low groaning voice.
“AGITΩ…”
Agito.
Hikawa clearly made out what he said.
Hikawa was surprised at hearing the Unknown speak, but he was then struck frozen the very next moment from something even more surprising he saw.
A golden life form had appeared in the darkness, and it was facing the Jaguar Lord.
Its red compound eyes were reminiscent of an insect, two shining golden horns rested on its head, and a blinding light was continuously spilling out from the buckle on its belt.
What… is that…? Is that an Unknown…?
Hikawa retained his consciousness while withstanding the pain that shot throughout his entire body.
No… That’s not it…
The golden creature had a more human-like silhouette cut in the darkness compared to the Jaguar Lord.
The Jaguar Lord let out a roar as it charged towards the golden opponent it called Agito.
Hikawa’s eyes widened with surprise.
Agito’s fighting skills were unbelievable.
Agito stopped the Jaguar Lord’s fist with the palm of its hand, and then proceeded to throw its opponent’s body into the air. The Jaguar Lord’s body flew through the moonlit sky in a seemingly perfect half-circle arch before landing onto the ground.
At the same time, the two horns on Agito’s head shifted and expanded into six horns.
A dragon-like emblem appeared on the earth beneath Agito’s feet, and the earth’s energy began to concentrate at its feet.
Agito then leaped towards the moon.
Bathed in the moonlight, Agito’s appearance was like a rising dragon of legends. The very next moment, it let out a kick from high up in the sky covered with light.
The Jaguar Lord’s chest was hit with a shockwave that eventually travelled to pierce its back, leaving a hole straight through its body.
A thunderous roar rang out along with an explosion, and the Jaguar Lord disappeared without even a trace left.
Agito, having nimbly landed onto the ground without a sound, then turned around and began walking away.
“Wait… Wait…!”
Hikawa had finally managed to get himself up by grabbing onto a guard rail, and reached out his hand as if to chase after Agito who was leaving the scene.
The sparks flying from his leg units reached his thighs. He wasn’t able to take another step.
The moment before he lost consciousness, he saw a glimpse of Agito turning its head around before its back finally disappeared into the darkness.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 