On that day, after finishing cleaning up Mana’s room, Shouichi noticed Misugi sitting on the sofa on his way back down to the living room.
“Oh, you’re still here? Isn’t about time for you to be heading to the university?”
Misugi seemed to be staring at nothing in particular with a hollow look in his eyes.
He turned to Shouichi with a heavy expression as if he just came back to reality after seeing a bad dream.
“Did Mana already leave?”
Even his voice sounded serious.
“Yes, just earlier. Oh yeah, I was thinking of taking Mana’s winter uniform to the dry cleaner, is there anything else you want cleaned, too?”
“No, never mind that…”
Misugi picked up the teacup in front of him and sipped his tea.
All that was left in his cup was the scent of tea.
“…Shouichi, I want to talk to you about Mana.”
Shouichi could feel the heavy atmosphere as he sat down diagonally opposite from Misugi.
“Mana? What about her?”
“Don’t you think that lately she’s been coming home pretty late?”
Now that I think about it… Shouichi thought to himself.
“She often doesn’t come home until past 7. It’s not like she’s involved with any club activities or anything. You know, I’m a little worried that she might be hanging out with a bad influence.”
“Mana? There’s no way.”
“That’s why I have a favor to ask of you.”
“What is it?”
“I want you to investigate what Mana’s doing after school.”
“You want me to follow her?”
He spoke with a quiet voice as if he was an accomplice to a crime.
Misugi deeply nodded.
“I wonder if I’d be able to…”
“And if by the off chance the person happens to be a boy, I want you to investigate the boy as well.”
“I-I dunno…”
Misugi picked up on Shouichi’s unsure expression.
“Are you saying you won’t listen to my request?”
Misugi slammed the table.
“I’ve fed you and given you a roof to sleep under for how many days now?! Well?! If you won’t do this for me, then I’m going to drink from now on! I’ll get drunk every night!”
“A-All right, I understand, I’ll do it.”
He had no choice but to respond with that.
Houjou approached from the opposite direction of the hallway.
As usual, Hikawa continued down the hallway with Sumiko’s shoulders at the edge of his field of view.
Hikawa braced himself for the insults he was about to hear from Houjou.
However, instead, Houjou simply walked past them without a word or even a glance.
After slightly bowing to him in acknowledgment, Hikawa felt a wave of relief wash over him.
But that only lasted a moment. “Oh, right, there’s something I have to tell you three.”
Hikawa reflexively came to a stop upon hearing his words.
Houjou turned around and approached them.
“I have an excellent proposition for you all in regards to the G3 System, or rather, the G3 Unit as a whole.”
“An excellent proposition…?”
Sumiko responded with her eyebrows furrowed.
“It’s simple. Hand over the position of commanding officer to me. I’m sure everything will start moving towards a better direction once that happens.”
Sumiko let out an exhausting sigh.
“I know what you’re after. You’re probably going to try and find some kind of fault with Hikawa, use that to get him dismissed, and then take his place as the G3 operator.”
“Who can say? That’ll depend on how well Hikawa does his job.”
“It seems you still have some kind of grudge, but let me tell you this right now. Hikawa can’t be replaced as the operator. You failed at the final examination, didn’t you?”
“I’ve certainly heard that Hikawa has great potential, but that’s only according to you. I’m not sure how credible that claim is.”
“That’s not it, it’s because Hikawa’s cute.”
“C-Cute…?”
Even Houjou couldn’t find a way to respond to that.
“That’s an important factor.”
Sumiko responded confidently.
“I understand the situation fully now, Ozawa.”
Houjou began running his mouth quickly.
“You drink while on duty, you devour countless cows day after day, and you decide a person’s worth based on ridiculous factors such as how ‘cute’ they are. There is clearly something wrong with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have mad cow disease. You’re cursed by the cow. You should quit the police force immediately. If you refuse, then I’ll do everything in my power to become the Superintendent General and get you fired.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Sumiko barely entertained his rant.
“What exactly do you mean by ‘cute’, Ozawa?”
This time it was Hikawa who questioned her.
“T-That’s why you chose me to be the G3 operator?”
“Yes. It’s an important factor.”
“But what if Houjou might actually be better at handling the G3 System?”
Omuro suddenly joined in on the conversation.
“Hikawa’s pretty clumsy, after all.”
“Oh?”
Houjou shifted his eyes towards Hikawa.
“So Hikawa’s clumsy?”
“Well, yes. Very.”
Omuro responded.
He found himself extremely overjoyed at the fact that Houjou saw interest in his remark.
“Hikawa, can you do this?”
Houjou placed a coin on the back of his hand and made it spin around with a flick of his finger.
“Ohhh!”
Sumiko and Omuro ended up clapping their hands.
“S-So what? I can do that, too!”
But Hikawa was unable to even take a coin out.
Countless coins spilled out from his wallet onto the floor, causing Hikawa to bend down and collect them in a hurry.
After seeing off Sugita and finishing lunch, Shouichi began weeding the garden.
He pulled them out by their roots one by one.
Weeds come back in no time if their roots remain, so he couldn’t afford to be careless.
Shouichi brushed his hands against his hips as he worked while crouched down.
After wiping off the sweat from his forehead with those hands, he looked over the garden.
Still only halfway done…
Upon tightening the towel around his head and pumping himself with a “Let’s do this!”, he heard an “Excuse me” from the direction of the front of the house.
Hikawa had gone through the entrance gate and headed towards the garden.
“Oh, hello there, Hino.”
“That’s not my name.”
“Yukawa?”
“So close, just one character off.”
“Oh, right, Kongouji!”
“…Tsugami, are you toying with me right now?”
Hikawa responded with a cold look in his eyes.
Shouichi scratched his head while laughing.
Yeah, I’m really just not good with this guy, Hikawa thought to himself.
“So what brings you here today? The professor already went to the university.”
“Well, I was just wondering how Mana’s been doing lately.”
Shouichi grinned.
“What a strange day. The professor was talking to me about Mana earlier today as well.”
“That’s a coincidence. So how is she? Has anything changed much about her?”
“Let’s see… Well, it looks like she enjoys her meals more lately. Maybe something good’s happened to her.”
“She enjoys her meals more…?”
Hikawa had been a bit concerned since he hadn’t seen any new reports of Unknown attacks lately, so he let out a sigh of relief.
“Oh, I know, how about you help me out with this weeding? You came all the way here, might as well.”
“Weeding…? Why me?”
Upon Hikawa responding reluctantly, Shouichi squatted down with his back turned and spoke with a lonely tone.
“I did tell you about how Mana’s doing, after all…”
“…F-Fine, I’ll help you out with your weeding.”
Hikawa squatted down with his suit taken off and began to help weed.
“Thank you very much.”
Shouichi responded with a smile and resumed his weeding.
“But why are you curious about Mana?”
“Well… I saved Mana from an incident in the past… so I can’t help but worry about how she’s doing now…”
“An incident?”
Shouichi’s hands paused.
“What kind of inci-”
Shouichi’s question stopped midway once he looked towards Hikawa.
All the weeds Hikawa pulled still had their roots intact.
Shouichi spoke with a disappointed tone.
“Geez, Hikawa… You’re so clumsy~”
“Clumsy…?”
Hikawa grew upset upon hearing that trigger word.
“Hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph.”
He began tearing out the weeds one after the other while breathing through his nose heavily.
But they all still had their roots intact.
“A-All right, that’s enough, you don’t need to do anymore…!”
Shouichi grabbed his back in a hurry.
But Hikawa continued to hmph hmph away.
Hikawa’s troubles did not end there.
After finishing weeding, Hikawa sat on the sofa in the living room to catch a breather.
Shouichi came out of the kitchen with a light meal on a plate.
He placed the cold tofu dish onto the glass table, cut up into bite-sized pieces.
Hikawa happened to be feeling a bit peckish, so he went ahead and picked up the chopsticks.
However, the cold tofu, unfortunately, slid off his chopsticks and landed on the table.
Shouichi couldn’t help but voice his honest reaction.
“Hikawa, you really are clumsy~”
Hikawa was about to get upset again from having Shouichi touch a sore spot, but instead, he collected himself and carefully, very carefully, picked up the cold tofu with his chopsticks.
It was a meager miracle.
The cold tofu stayed in the chopsticks the whole time on its way to his mouth.
“There. I did it perfectly.”
“You’re lucky that was firm tofu. Soft tofu would’ve slipped right through those chopsticks if you picked it up in the same way.”
“Then bring out some soft tofu.”
“We don’t have any here.”
Hikawa quickly stood up.
“All right, then I’ll go buy some!”
Not even 5 minutes after rushing out of the house, Hikawa came back with a plastic bag full of soft tofu.
The bell for round 2 rang.
The soft tofu was an exceptionally formidable opponent.
It slipped and fell and easily crumbled into pieces.
Before long, all 10 packs were empty.
Shouichi decided to use firm tofu for the day’s dinner.
“Sorry, I have something I have to get to.”
Even after Shouichi headed off, Hikawa continued his fight against the soft tofu.
Evening came.
Upon coming back home and opening the door to the living room, Misugi was greeted by the sight of a mountain of soft tofu and a dejected man with his head hung down.
Ryou headed towards his apartment on his bike with its headlights illuminating the night road.
Today he had once again met up with Mana after school, given her a ride on his bike, and saw her back home.
Nothing had happened between them other than that, that really was all there was to it.
But even so, Ryou treasured the relaxing time he spent with Mana like this.
Upon turning the corner, Ryou stopped in front of the familiar apartment complex.
He then immediately got off his bike and hid behind a telephone pole.
Ever since Mana got on his bike, he had noticed somebody reflected on the side mirror.
Someone’s following me.
That person was none other than Shouichi.
Shouichi stopped his bike in front of Ryou’s.
He looked at the apartment after getting off and taking his helmet off.
“Hey!”
Ryou violently rushed towards Shouichi while yelling out.
Upon turning around, Shouichi’s left cheek was met with a right straight.
Shouichi was launched down towards the hard pavement.
“Owww…”
Ryou immediately picked him up by the collar and roared out.
“Who are you?! Why are you following me?! I doubt you’re trying to steal anything!”
“Y-You’ve got it wrong… I was asked by Mana’s uncle to do this…”
“Mana’s uncle?”
“I’m telling the truth… Let me explain myself, just give me some room to breathe here…”
“……”
Ryou loosened his grip.
After hearing Shouichi out and learning that he was the whole reason behind this, Ryou brought Shouichi to his room to patch him up.
He opened up the first-aid kit and disinfected the wound he inflicted.
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
He smiled while receiving the first-aid.
He said it hurt, but it honestly wasn’t that bad.
“Sorry.”
Ryou apologized to Shouichi while feeling irritation towards his somehow unhateable face.
How is he smiling after someone just punched him in the face?
“Don’t worry about it.”
Shouichi responded.
“I feel bad for causing Mana’s uncle to worry,” Ryou continued.
“…Tell him I’ll make sure she doesn’t get home too late.”
“All right. Oh, and could you not tell Mana about any of this?”
“Sure.”
“Also…”
“What is it?”
Shouichi spoke with an incredibly serious face.
“Tell me, um… sorry, what’s your name?”
“Ryou Ashihara.”
“Tell me, Ashihara. Are you and Mana dating? What do you think of Mana?”
Ryou grew silent upon hearing such a straightforward question.
After a while, he responded with a sincere gaze.
“We aren’t in a relationship… but Mana is someone very important to me right now.”
Shouichi made a wide grin upon hearing that.
He was happy that Ryou felt strongly about Mana.
He ended up letting out a laugh.
“What, is that weird?”
“No, not at all. More importantly, have you had dinner yet, Ashihara?”
“Not yet, why?”
“Then let me make you dinner!”
Shouichi inquired while looking at the contents in Ashihara’s fridge.
“What’s your favorite food, Ashihara? Is there anything you don’t like to eat?”
Ryou responded incredulously.
“Make whatever you want.”
“Got it.”
Ryou let out a sigh.
Shouichi Tsugami, huh… What a strange guy…
He let out a small chuckle.
That irritation he felt earlier had disappeared completely.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 