Within 15 minutes of walking distance from the MPD main building towards the Yurakucho District was the G3 Unit’s usual BBQ place.
Its bright neon signboard often attracted the eyes of passersby during the night.
Part-time workers busily ran about inside the restaurant, and sounds of laughter and sizzling meat could be heard from the private booths.
“I’ll have another beer!”
After chugging down her beer in one go after a toast, she ordered another serving for her empty mug to the part-time worker who then quickly left the booth.
In the center of the G3 Unit’s booth was a table with a gridiron meant for BBQ.
Sumiko wasn’t just a girl that loved meat. She was a carnivore through and through.
She ate BBQ practically every day.
Whenever she invited Hikawa or Omuro out to eat, it was always BBQ.
“I’ll have another beer!”
After finishing her 5th mug of beer and wiping off the froth on her mouth with a “Pwah~”, Sumiko went,
“I get what you’re trying to say. That’s interesting.”
and then proceeded to nod while looking at Hikawa.
There were two spoons along with a tennis ball on the table.
According to Hikawa, these items could very well explain the motives behind the Unknown’s serial murders.
The spoons were wildly bent in all kinds of directions, and their handles seemed to have fused together like they were welded together.
The tennis ball was even stranger. The inside and outside of it had been reversed.
Upon cutting it into two, its bright yellow-green fibrous felt could be seen on the inside.
Both the spoons and the tennis ball were items found in the rooms of the victims.
Ever since Hikawa got involved with the investigations regarding the Unsolvable Crimes, he always did everything he could to look into the victims.
With the incidents being as mysterious as they were, he wanted to find as many clues as possible.
“Okay, I see what you’re getting at,” Omuro said as he drank his Chu-hai.
“You think the Unknown are attacking psychics?”
“No, I’m not completely sure about that yet. But it’s true that these items were found in the victims’ houses, and there’ve been various odd testimonies as well.”
“Like what?” Sumiko asked.
“According to the testimony of a friend of one of the victims, the victim would sometimes pass through walls. Like while they’d be drinking tea at a cafe or something, the victim would just suddenly get outside by passing through a wall.”
Omuro spit out his Chu-hai with a “Pfft” and proceeds to roll over laughing.
“What the heck’s up with that? Passing through walls? There’s no way that could be possible!”
“Normally speaking, yes. But the Unknowns have achieved the impossible time and time again through their Unsolvable Crimes. Our world is currently coming to face with what we’ve always considered to be the impossible.”
“It’s not that impossible. In fact, it’s actually pretty plausible.”
“Ozawa, are you sure a scientist like you should be saying that?”
“I’m a scientist that hasn’t been brainwashed by science. Just like Newton, Galileo, Einstein, and Heisenberg.”
Sumiko Ozawa was born and raised in New York.
She was a genius with an IQ exceeding 180 that enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 12 and graduated from the doctoral course at the top of her class at 15 years old.
When she was 16, she came to Japan and studied state of the art robot engineering at numerous universities. At 17, she began teaching as a special lecturer, and at 18, she was recruited by the MPD in recognition of her genius.
To someone like Sumiko, she often felt like her life was extremely boring. If what Hikawa said was to be true, then it could mean that humanity’s intelligence was beginning to cross into a brand-new frontier. If that truly was the case, it would be extremely fascinating.
She had no idea how that had anything to do with the Unknown, however.
“Anyway, I’ll introduce you to someone I know that’s familiar with that field. Go ask him about it. He’s a professor that helped me a lot during my school days.”
“You went to eat a BBQ place again, didn’t you, Ozawa. You smell.”
The next day, as Sumiko was walking down the long hallway in the MPD towards the Unknown Counter-measure Headquarters, Tooru Houjou spoke out to her as they passed by each other.
“It’s my perfume. Got a problem with it?”
Sumiko stopped and retorted back.
Hikawa and Omuro who had been walking alongside her stopped and exchanged glances with each other that seemed to say “Again?” as they let out a sigh.
Houjou and Sumiko didn’t get along.
Omuro kept to himself that he felt that the two of them were a dog and a wolf in their past lives.
Houjou belonged to the MPD Investigation Department 1st Section, and was a member of the elite who was known for his amazing brains and cool-headed decision making, with many believing that he’d make it pretty far.
His fair skin and pointed nose spoke of his immense pride.
“Oh, right, I heard that there was another victim to the Unknown. It truly pained me to hear that. It’s too bad to see the grand expectations made for the G3 System being betrayed. I suppose in the end it was nothing but a useless chunk of metal.”
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
Sumiko’s eyes formed triangles. It was clear that she was upset.
They legitimately turned into triangles.
“I simply spoke the truth. You can build up your strength all you want with all that meat you eat, but that’ll never change the fact that the G3 User himself is nothing but a weakling.”
Hikawa felt a twinge in his chest from Houjou’s words.
It was obvious that Houjou was blaming Hikawa.
And he wasn’t wrong.
He was unable to defeat the Unknown, and another victim was produced as a result.
If that mysterious life form known as Agito hadn’t appeared, he likely would not have still been standing here.
“You’re the weakling, if you ask me.”
Sumiko retorted as if she had picked up the pain in Hikawa’s heart.
“You’re just holding a grudge over not being chosen as the G3 User. You’re too small. You wouldn’t fit the G3’s size.”
“Say that while you can for now.”
Houjou lightly lifted his chin and looked down at Sumiko from past the tip of his nose.
“If the victims continue to increase, headquarters will no doubt assign me as the new User, as a replacement for Hikawa.”
“I doubt that’ll happen, but if it does, I’ll do whatever it takes to stop that. Besides, my policy is to not trust vegetarians.”
“Well then, I believe our chat has gone on for longer than intended. Any longer and that BBQ stench might get onto my suit, which would be quite bothersome. If you’ll excuse me, then.”
As Houjou left, leaving those words behind, Sumiko took a step towards Hikawa and looked up at him.
“Hey, Hikawa, why did you just keep quiet after hearing him say that about you? Don’t you think you should’ve said something back to him?”
“I’m sorry.”
Hikawa looked away from Sumiko’s straightforward gaze and bit his lips.
“But Houjou didn’t say anything wrong.”
“You silly. Who cares if it was right or wrong. Men make their judgments depending on whether they like something or not. Got it?”
If Hikawa were to judge based on what he liked or disliked, then he would have to say that Misugi was a good man.
Pretty much anyone would grow fond of someone with such a friendly smile and sincere way of talking.
But even so, he couldn’t accept what he was told.
After being introduced to a professor who was well versed in supernatural affairs by Sumiko, Hikawa visited his household.
And that house was none other than Misugi’s.
After concluding introductions and handing over the castella cake he brought as a gift, Hikawa sat on the sofa and immediately proceeded to bring out the articles he wished to discuss, only to be interrupted by Misugi beginning to talk about his time with Sumiko back in her school days.
At first he seemed to speak with her with nostalgic fondness, but his eyebrows gradually began to scrunch up.
By the time he began talking about how Sumiko riled up the other students and boycotted his seminars, his rambling became nothing more than a rant. There was something humorous about it. Hikawa couldn’t bring himself to deplore him for it.
Hikawa waited for a good chance and then brought out his spoons and tennis ball and began explaining his theory.
“I see. If I’m understanding this right, you’re saying that these items are a result of people’s supernatural abilities?”
“I’d like to hear your opinion on that.”
“As a scholar, I always tend to avoid outright denying any unknown possibilities I come across. There are still many mysteries to be solved when it comes to us humans. However-”
“Welcome.”
Shouichi came out of the kitchen with a tray in his hands.
He placed two teacups on the glass table in front of the two of them.
“It’s cheap tea, but please help yourself.”
“Thank you.”
“Drink up before it gets cold.”
“Hmm?”
After concluding his brief greeting, Shouichi returned to the kitchen.
Misugi picked up the articles and spoke with his shoulders somewhat slumped.
“Unfortunately, these won’t serve as evidence of supernatural activity. These are creations. Knicknacks, you could say. It’s the most logical explanation. Anyone could make something like these with the right tools, so you can’t really use these to prove anything. You understand what I’m getting at?”
“…Yes. You have a point. Then do you deny the so-called existence of supernatural powers in humans?”
Hikawa inquired with a slightly disappointed tone.
“No, it’s the opposite. I’m sure people that like that exist out there. Investigations of many such peculiar incidents in the past typically turn out to have about 98% of them proven to be complete bogus, but the leftover 2% actually have validity behind them. However, I believe in the abominable snowman, Nessie, fairies, and even heaven and hell.”
“…I see.”
Slightly confused, Hikawa made a vague reply.
“So you see, I’m probably not the best reference to go off of. I’m a gullible, honest man. Even people in the academic realm see me as strange. As I mentioned before, Sumiko would often ridicule my classes.”
“……”
“The reason she introduced you to me was… most likely to encourage you. She likely wanted you to have confidence in yourself. In other words, Sumiko Ozawa acknowledges you. That’s an impressive thing. She’s not the type to often acknowledge others. So the best thing I can say to you right now… is to have more confidence in yourself.”
“…T-Thank you.”
The direction the conversation took was a bit strange, but he felt obligated to show gratitude at least.
Being cheered on by someone who wasn’t entirely reliable was an odd, yet still grateful feeling.
In the end, what should I make of this whole supernatural thing?
Should I believe it or not?
As Hikawa thought about that…
“Do you like pickled daikon?”
Shouichi once again came in with a tray, speaking with a quite cheerful tone.
“I actually harvested these from my own garden.”
“Um… well I can’t say I dislike them…”
“Please help yourself, then.”
Shouichi flashed a bright smile.
“……”
“Go on.”
A blindingly bright smile.
“…I-I’ll take you up on that offer, then.”
Hikawa decided he might as well try a slice.
“How is it?”
“It’s good.”
His response had a rather neutral tone, but that actually was his honest opinion.
“How about some simmered daikon, then? I also have some spinach with sesame sauce. There’s also this spinach with vinegar dish, but both of the spinach dishes are honestly still experimental.”
Shouichi layed out numerous small plates as he spoke.
It looked like he truly enjoyed himself when it came to treating people to his cooking.
Misugi had enough of it and spoke out to Shouichi.
“All right, that’s enough, you can leave now.”
After seeing that Shouichi had returned to the kitchen, he continued his conversation with Hikawa.
However, this time Misugi went straight for the initiative.
“You were a detective, weren’t you?”
“…Yes, but… what of it?”
Misugi made a much more sincere face compared to when they were talking about supernatural powers.
“You see, Shouichi actually has amnesia.”
Misugi then proceeded to talk about Shouichi for over an hour.
After finishing what he had to say, he asked Hikawa to notify him if he found any information that could serve as clues to Shouichi’s memory.
From beginning to end, it was clear that he was worried about him.
“Take care, then.”
After closing the front door to the Misugi household and turning around, Hikawa unconsciously began rubbing at the back of his neck.
He had practically forgotten why he even came here in the first place.
He came to talk about supernatural matters, and now he’s leaving after being asked to help with Tsugami Shouichi’s amnesia.
In either case, Hikawa didn’t feel satisfied with the whole encounter.
Hikawa opened the entrance gate and headed out, somewhat frustrated.
It was then that Mana, coming home from school in her uniform, stopped her bicycle before him.
The two of them stood in place for a moment after meeting eyes.
“You’re…”
Before Hikawa could finish, Mana broke eye contact and quickly headed into the house.
Hikawa quickly turned around as if to catch her afterimage and stood still for a bit.
That girl… There’s no doubt about it.
She was that girl from back then.
She’s gotten big, he thought to himself.
He had heard that she was taken in by her father’s brother-in-law.
Hikawa couldn’t hide his surprise over the fact that he had just coincidentally visited the household of that very brother-in-law.
He returned to his seat in the Sedan parked on the road in front of the house and took a breather.
He began to turn the key to his engine when he heard knocking on his window.
Mana was leaning down and peeking in.
Hikawa rolled down the window, to which Mana apologetically lowered her head.
“I’m really sorry for earlier… It just brought back bad memories…”
Afterwards, the nervous Mana brought Hikawa to a nearby cafe.
After sitting down opposite of each other at a table for four, Mana looked at Hikawa with her face down and spoke out.
“Um… I’m sorry I didn’t properly thank you… I’m really grateful for you saving me during that incident.”
She spoke while deeply bowing her head.
“Not at all, I just did my job as a police officer.”
Silence filled the air between them for a bit.
Mana continued to look down onto the table.
She really has gotten big.
He thought that to himself again as he looked at Mana.
She was so, so much smaller back then.
She had trembled like an injured baby bird.
It was during the end of August three years ago.
At the time, Hikawa was stationed at a small station in a region surrounded by rivers and mountains.
It was a beautiful place, with wild plants flourishing during the spring, sweetfish being caught during the summer, and the leaves turning into an explosive red during the autumn.
All the villagers knew each other well, comfortable enough to come into each other’s houses to enjoy some tea together without even ringing the doorbell.
It was that kind of heartwarming place.
Ever since he was appointed to that area, not a single incident had taken place.
On that day, an almost disgustingly blue sky spread out above the town.
As Hikawa patrolled the mountain roads while listening to the cicadas, he hit the brakes after noticing some odd clouds in the skies before him.
There were like clouds of darkness.
The clouds spreading out were as dark as night even though it was the middle of the day.
There was a small settlement of a few hundred people there.
This was a quiet region surrounded by mountains from all four directions that people rarely ever visited.
Worried about the villagers, Hikawa got out of his police car and walked towards the settlement with a flashlight in hand.
The clouds looming in the sky grew thicker and the voices of the cicadas grew farther away.
It was almost as if the clouds were alive.
They began to surround Hikawa’s surroundings and rub against his face.
Hikawa felt himself step on something soft and stopped himself.
Illuminated by the flashlight, laying down on the gravel road was the corpse of an adult man.
He had no head.
His head was rolling down the road as a wild dog played with it, its front paws dyed red.
“!”
A surge of unease ran down his spine.
It’d be best if I headed back to the car and contacted the station.
But the clouds didn’t allow for that.
Almost like tentacles, the clouds drifted around Hikawa and pushed him forward.
He stepped on more and more corpses, occasionally tripping on them.
There were both men and women.
Both young and old.
It was insane.
Strangely enough, Hikawa grew calmer the more corpses he passed by.
This can’t be real, he thought to himself.
It was like he was witnessing a nightmare, or as if he had found himself in another world after slipping into another dimension.
The clouds grew thin, and Hikawa began investigating the village’s homes.
The residents of every house were dead.
Be it the entrance hall, the living room, the kitchen, the bath, the toilet, the closet, there were slaughtered corpses lying about all over the houses.
He then happened to notice a shed in the premises of a certain house.
White and without windows, its sturdy-looking wooden doors were held together by an iron lock.
Hikawa fired upon the lock to break it and shoved the heavy doors open.
Musty air covered his face.
He paid no mind to it as he illuminated the insides of the shed with his flashlight.
He saw drifting dust, tightly packed household belongings, and a little girl in pajamas on the floor.
Hikawa prayed that the girl was okay as she approached her.
She was breathing.
He could audibly hear her breathing, and no apparent injuries could be found.
A wave of relief washed over Hikawa as he felt as if his very own self had just been saved.
Picking up the girl and heading out of the shed, the clouds had disappeared as if they were never there in the first place.
In their place were the countless corpses lying about the village, bathed in the summer sun’s rays. The stench drifting through the area slapped his face along with the shimmer of hot air.
Hikawa headed across the corpses and took the little girl to the hospital via his police car.
After contacting the station at the hospital and getting ready to head back to the scene, a doctor notified him that the girl had regained consciousness.
Hikawa quietly opened the doors to the hospital room.
The room was lightly dyed red from the evening sun leaking past the curtains.
The girl was sitting upright on the bed next to the window.
Her long hair obstructed her face, hiding her expression.
She was silently crying with her hands covering her mouth.
“Could you tell me what happened at your village?”
In the end, she didn’t talk to him about it until his visit the next day.
The girl, Mana Kazaya, softly began muttering with her face to the window.
Hikawa patiently listened to what she had to say as he did everything he could to scoop up the small drops of words that fell from her mouth.
But the information he got out of her was much too small.
That only made the incident all the more mysterious.
On the morning of the incident, Mana was having breakfast with her father, Nobuyuki.
After finishing eating and washing the dishes, white fog filling the air could be seen from outside the windows.
It was extremely rare for clouds to appear in this area.
These unnatural clouds quickly grew thicker and the windows became foggy enough to look like frosted glass.
Mana found herself to grow excited.
It was like it was snowing.
Maybe I can go for a walk with Daddy after this, she thought. It looks like it’d be fun to play hide-and-seek in this.
She turned around to say “Hey, Daddy!” only to find Nobuhiko panicking in fear.
She never saw her father like this before.
His pale face was breaking out in cold sweat and his body wouldn’t stop trembling.
Nobuhiko grabbed Mana’s hand and rushed outside.
Mana couldn’t get a response out of him no matter what she asked him.
Eventually Nobuhiko stopped in front of the shed and tightly squeezed Mana.
It was strong enough that she could barely breathe.
His stubble prickled against her cheek.
“Hide here until help comes… Understand, Mana?”
Nobuhiko then shoved Mana into the shed and locked the doors.
She had no idea what was going on, but she had no choice but to do as he said.
Mana wrapped her arms around her knees in the darkness and occasionally cried out for her father in fear.
“Daddy? Daddy!”
She then eventually lost consciousness from the heat inside the shed.
After rescuing Mana, an investigation was taken place in the settlement by the police, but no other survivors were found.
In fact, the corpse of every single villager other than Mana was found.
While her real name and face were hidden, the mass media was making a big deal out of Mana being the last survivor, touting her as a tragic heroine.
With the culprit never being caught even to this day, the unsolved incident took on the name of the “Akatsuki Village Incident.”
“How’s it like here? Have you gotten used to it already?”
Hikawa inquired as he took a small sip of the espresso and returned it to the saucer.
Still unable to get rid of her nervousness, Mana awkwardly talked about her recent situation.
She then began blowing at her hot chocolate to cool it down.
As he watched her doing so, he found her to look just like that same little girl from back then.
He was no longer able to see any lingering effects of the Akatsuki Village Incident on her anymore.
“I’m glad to hear you’ve been living comfortably.”
“It’s because Uncle’s really nice to me…”
Mana lifted her eyes from the hot chocolate and looked at Hikawa.
“You look happy.”
Hikawa continued.
Compared to how I was right after that incident, anyone would say that, Mana thought.
I was probably the most unfortunate person in the world at that very moment.
In that case, I don’t know if I’m confident that I’m really happy or not right now.
“It might not be my place to say this, but if there’s anything you ever want to talk about, I’m here for you.”
Mana was glad to hear that he was truly speaking from his heart, and not out of just courtesy.
She couldn’t really tell on the day of the incident, but now that she was talking to him like this, for the first time she was able to tell that Hikawa was a serious and honest person.
Unlike Shouichi, he seemed really dependable.
After finishing their drinks, the two of them left the cafe.
Right as they were about to say their farewells in front of the cafe, Shouichi came passing by with a vinyl bag from the fish shop.
“What’s this? What are you two doing together?”
Shouichi inquired with a curious look.
“Um, well…”
Mana struggled to figure out how to explain.
She didn’t want him to find out that she was the sole survivor of the Akatsuki Village Incident.
“It’s not like it matters. It’s none of your business, anyway.”
“Oh, could this be productive custody? Well yeah, I know you’ve been kind of a delinquent lately.”
“Delinquent?!”
Hikawa turned her eyes to Mana in surprise.
Mana corrected Shouichi with a frustrated look on her face.
“Don’t mind him… It might be hard to tell, but he’s making a pun off of ‘going home from school’…” [T/L Note: I couldn’t think of a pun for this. 非行(hodou): delinquency rhymes with 下校(gekou): going home from school]
Hikawa scratched his head while staring at Shouichi, thinking about how that was going a little too far for just a pun.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 