I haven’t gotten this close to drowning ever since my last swimming competition at college.
Back then, the coach had to jump in and save me after pain attacked my entire body and I lost consciousness.
But this time it’s different.
If I lose consciousness, then I’m a goner for sure.
There’s nobody around to save me.
Not a single person…
-One hour earlier-
Ryou was crouching down on his bed when suddenly he heard an annoying ringing sound in his head.
He was somehow able to instinctively sense the activities of another one of those monsters that he had previously defeated.
If my body’s telling me to fight, then I’ll fight!
Not like I have any other idea on what to do!
Ryou got on his off-road bike and sped off into the darkness of the night.
Upon stopping at a park and walking around a bit, he noticed a collapsed homeless-looking man in the bushes.
He attempted to help him, but upon grabbing his arm, he noticed that his entire body was soaking wet.
The man was already dead, his face purple and puffed up.
Wait, I know this…
He had seen corpses like this numerous times back when he lived on the island.
Even now, Ryou could vividly recall the balloon-like faces of the fished up corpses of kids that played near the shore or fisherman that fell off their boats.
It was a classic characteristic of someone that had drowned to death.
But there wasn’t anywhere a man could drown in the park.
There weren’t any ponds or fountains or anything of the like.
Ryou cautiously looked around him.
He could faintly make out the sound of bubbling water.
Upon turning around, the ground that he had just walked over had water slowly rising up from it.
The moment he realized that he wasn’t safe there, suddenly the ground around him shook and sunk in.
What the… What’s going on here…?!
Ryou lowered his knees to prevent his body from falling down due to the now inclined surface of the ground and then observed the changes around him.
Large amounts of water began rising up from the center of the mortar-shaped depression.
Ryou’s body submerged into water, and upon looking up, he could see the moonlit surface of the water about 3 meters above his head.
Ryou began swimming up towards the moon.
The very next moment, he felt a numbing pain around his neck.
He could see an Unknown, the Octopus Lord, at the bottom of the water.
There’s the bastard…!
The Octopus Lord stretched out its tentacles and held Ryou’s neck captive.
Ryou built up his fighting spirit and shouted out inside his heart.
Henshin!
Muscles all over his body began wriggling as bubbles floated up from the water boiling around him.
His skin grew into a deep green.
Ryou’s body had transfigured into one of a grotesque beast, Gills.
Upon focusing his strength into his heels, the claws on his feet extended out as sharp blades and sliced off the tentacles in an instant.
Large bubbles flew out of the Octopus Lord as it seemed to cry in pain.
As Gills delved deeper into the water towards the Octopus Lord, his enemy once again stretched out numerous tentacles towards him.
If those tentacles grabbed hold of his body, his life would be forfeit.
It would only be a matter of either dying by strangulation or drowning.
There’s no way I’d die in the water!
Gills extended the claws on his wrists and heels.
His body spun around like a top, instantly slicing off any tentacles that got near him.
Numerous pieces of severed tentacles sank down as Gills impaled the Octopus Lord’s head from above with the claw on his heel.
The blade sank through with no resistance whatsoever as if stabbing a piece of tofu.
His claw penetrated all the way through the Octopus Lord’s chin.
The very next moment, an enormous column of water erupted from the water’s surface with a roar.
The Octopus Lord had exploded.
The pond-like body of water immediately was absorbed by the earth, leaving behind Ryou who had returned to his human appearance.
With not even 30 minutes passed, Ryou had returned to his room and let out a sigh upon sitting on his bed.
He looked at his hands with caution.
The aging phenomenon from earlier wasn’t occurring.
The pain of his muscles tearing apart wasn’t there either.
Ryou turned his eyes to his desk.
Laying on it was a cellphone strap depicting some kind of piglet character.
He found it on his bed after Mana left.
He looked up her high school based on what he remembered about her school uniform.
It wasn’t that far away by bike.
He could easily go return it at any moment.
But Ryou wasn’t sure if he should be involving himself with others with the way he was right now.
The next day.
Mana was among the students heading out from the Midorigaoka Academy’s senior department.
She ended up apologizing and turning down the offer from the two girls who invited her to join the tennis club.
They told her they didn’t mind, but Mana still felt bad because she could still see a little disappointment mixed in with the bright smiles on their faces.
I’m just too different from everyone else…
My origami boxes are always empty, anyway…
As she walked with her face down, she heard the sound of a bike engine approaching from behind her.
After the bike stopped next to her, Mana came to a stop and looked at Ryou.
It wasn’t all that surprising.
She always felt that she’d meet him again.
Ryou thrust out the piglet cellphone strap towards Mana’s face without saying a word.
“Oh…!”
It was a prize Shouichi won at a lottery in the shopping district.
Shouichi gave it to her because he had no cellphone to use it with anyway.
Mana liked the strap.
The surprised-looking face on the pig was really cute.
She had no idea what it was supposed to be surprised of, though.
“Is this not yours?”
“I-It is…”
Mana took her cellphone out of her bag and fixed the strap to it so that she wouldn’t lose it again.
“Thank goodness I got it back… Thank you.”
“…See you, then.”
Ending the conversation just like that, Ryou then immediately made a U-turn and sped off.
Mana, feeling bad that she didn’t get to say goodbye back, watched him as he drove away. Once she couldn’t see him anymore, she turned around and continued heading back home.
She felt that they could’ve at least talked some more.
She was able to talk to Ryou without having to put up any walls between them.
Shouichi and Misugi were the only other people she could do that with.
Her uncle because he played with her since she was little.
Shouichi because he just had that kind of personality.
And Ashihara-san because… he’s the same as me…
“Hey.”
Mana jumped and turned around from the voice of someone calling out to her.
Ryou had come back and once again stopped his bike next to her.
“I forgot to thank you.”
“Huh?”
“My arms healed thanks to you… The pain in my body and the voice in my head’s all gone, too… My transformation doesn’t have any after-effects anymore, either…”
You helped me just as much, Mana thought to herself.
You saved me when my life was in danger.
“I owe you now, so I need to repay you.”
“Then I have a favor to ask.”
The words came to her mouth just like that.
It was her first time.
She’s never even asked Shouichi for this before.
She thought it’d be scary at first, but it actually felt pretty good.
Mana was riding alongside Ryou on his bike.
The scenery zoomed past her.
The sound of the engine that she always found noisy now had a nice rhythm to it.
She was going at a speed where her body could fly off, but she felt such a sense of calm upon looking at Ryou’s back like this.
It felt like all of her fears were far away now.
They arrived at a harborside park and got off the bike for a bit.
Tokyo Bay could be seen beyond the railing from the bench they sat on.
The sky was growing red, and that red was mixing together with the dark-blue canvas of the water’s surface.
With no one else near the bench, it was quite quiet.
Mana peered her eyes to the side, seeing that Ryou was silently watching the ocean.
It was somewhat difficult to say anything with him like that.
The silence continued the whole time since they sat on the bench.
Eventually, Mana finally opened her mouth.
“I’m glad you let me on your bike. I feel really relaxed now.”
Ryou turned to face Mana.
“Ever since I got attacked by those Unknown things, I’ve been having really bad dreams every night…”
“……”
“Oh, sorry, I never mentioned my name, huh? I’m-”
“Mana Kazaya…”
Ryou responded before her with a murmur.
“…Oh, so you knew?”
Ryou turned his eyes down with a troubled face, and then once again turned back to Mana.
“Sorry, there’s something I have to apologize to you about.”
“Huh?”
“Those bad dreams you mentioned… I know about them.”
Mana listened to him with a puzzled look on her face. She didn’t understand.
“When you were unconscious on my bed that day, I was able to see your dreams. It’s hard to explain, but it was like a video was being played in my head. I saw you hiding alone in that shed, the horrible state of the village… your dad, and the face of his murderer…”
Mana simply looked at Ryou’s face in surprise as she listened to him.
“I don’t know if it’s because you gave me your power, or if I already had this power, but regardless of the reason, the fact is that I peeked into your memories without permission. I’m sorry.”
Ryou apologized with his head lowered.
“…I’m sorry, too.”
Mana responded.
“I’ve… done the same.”
She confessed how she unintentionally saw fragmented pieces of Ryou’s memory upon touching him.
Ryou made a thin smile as he looked up to the sky.
“I see, so we’re in the same boat. Same with how we’ve both had to deal with some really horrible stuff.”
The two of them then remained in silence for a while.
The steam whistle of a boat could be heard from a distance.
“One day, out of nowhere, I had suddenly stopped being myself…”
Mana stared at Ryou’s face that was looking at the ocean.
“That was when I lost everything… Once my body grew strange, everyone left me… Aren’t you scared of me?”
“…I’m not a normal person, either.”
Mana smiled in self-mockery.
Ryou’s lips curled up as well.
After a little bit, Mana spoke.
“Um…”
“What is it?”
“Do you think you could let me on your bike every once in a while from now on, like today?”
“Yeah, I don’t mind.”
“Promise?”
Mana spoke cheerfully as she hesitantly brought out her pinky towards Ryou.
After making a small nod Ryou gently overlapped his own pinky with hers.
Mana felt that he had pretty fingers.
Ryou felt like the warmth from her finger was loosening his stiffened heart.
Their fingers entwined together.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 