Chapter 4 – Undead Island
It was their first time stepping foot on that island.
Tougo and the rest had often sneaked off the Ark when it made stops at islands with ports big enough to accommodate it, but as the years passed, those kinds of islands had decreased in number.
On this island, surrounded by reefs and slightly submerged in the sea, boats were used to transport people from the anchored Ark to land, meaning it was difficult to actually reach the island without hitching a ride somehow.
Of course, there was the option of just jumping into the sea and swimming there, but the idea of potentially being left behind was too scary for anyone to even entertain that thought.
But this time around, Tougo and the rest were allowed to ride on the boats.
The captain and the chief engineer, followed by representatives of both of their factions totaling about ten people, got off the three boats and began making their way down the old, creaking, wooden pier. Following them were Tougo and the rest of the Rat Gang, consisting of Tougo, Takuho, Rikiya, as well as Ren who had Dai and Mei at her side. She brought them because she wanted to give them a chance at eating fresh ripe fruit.
Kenzaki and Kojirou came along as well.
“That island…”
Kenzaki muttered those words from the Ark’s deck that morning when he witnessed the silhouette of the island as smoke trailed out from its volcano. He then pleaded for them to take him with them.
“Did you remember something?”
Kenzaki shook his head with a pained face in response to Tougo’s question. He had apparently been suffering a headache trying to remember his past ever since he was rescued three days ago.
“But… I feel something from it… I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure that…”
His eyes lit up as he watched the approaching island.
“In that case, I’ll come, too!”
Kojirou raised his voice upon hearing those words.
Under the condition that he never drinks again, Kojirou had left the Disposal Area and was designated as an official record keeper of the Ark. He was recognized as the author of the story that had somehow predicted the Undead’s attack and Blade’s appearance. What made Kojirou write that story? What are the Undead? Where are they from? What is Blade? Just like Tougo, everyone shared those same questions.
“It’s like… a god has descended among us.”
Kojirou’s words were as incomprehensible to everyone as always, but needless to say, he was the one that wanted to know the truth behind all those questions more than anyone else. It was obvious that was the reason why he wanted to join the disembarkment team this time around, and it seemed like he felt that recording every single little thing that happened to Kenzaki from here on out would be the secret to the creation of his second story.
The burials at sea that took place for those lost in the Undead attack effectively brought the long-opposing Steering Area and Engine Area to a reconciliation.
Both the captain and the chief engineer had shaken hands while the funeral waltz—orchestrated by musicians selected from the salon that Kojirou frequented—played out.
They decided to disembark on the island and talk with the islanders to determine whether or not they should leave the Ark for good or if they should continue their voyage at sea.
Tougo and the rest were recognized as well for their assistance in taking out the fires and nursing the injured. Of course, they were taken in only under the condition that they gave up on stealing.
“I guess you kids ain’t that bad after all.”
“Sorry for hitting you so hard all those times.”
“Whatever, as long as you understand…”
Rikiya embarrassingly scratched his head as the captain and chief engineer apologized.
Takuho kept up his defiant “like hell I’d listen to what an adult has to say” attitude to the very end, but after some admonishing from Ren, he finally gave in and accepted their apology as well.
“As of today, the Rat Gang has disbanded. But don’t ever forget the spirit of the Rat Gang.”
“You got it, Takuho!”
“Of course, Takuho!”
Rikiya agreed, and Tougo greatly nodded.
They had disagreed with each other over what to do with Kenzaki.
But the fact was that if Kenzaki didn’t transform and fight off the Undead, the casualties would’ve been even greater. Worst-case scenario, the Ark might’ve even ended up sinking.
Dai, Mei, and Tougo and the rest wouldn’t even be standing if it weren’t for him.
But his amnesia caused unease in some of the adults.
Kenzaki had forgotten why he was able to transform into Blade, as well as why he was fighting with the Unknown.
If Kenzaki regained his memories, would he continue to fight and protect everyone, or would he turn on them and join the enemy’s side? There was just too much they didn’t know about his true identity.
But in the end, they accepted Kenzaki.
After all, they were too scared about what would happen if the Undead attacked again without him.
What worried Tougo more was that during all their discussions, not a single person from the Guest Cabin Area participated. They were the people that were so against Kenzaki’s rescue. They of course wouldn’t agree in keeping him on board. Even now, they had yet to break their silence on the matter.
Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?
On one hand, Tougo was more happy than anyone else that they accepted Kenzaki.
If it weren’t for the fact that he lost his memories, he would’ve had a plethora of questions to ask him. Of course, he wanted to know about Blade, the Undead, and the story about him, but he also wanted to learn about what he had seen through his travels. About the unknown world out there.
Tougo was dying to know what the outside world was like.
“Sorry, Tougo. I really can’t remember anything.”
Kenzaki apologized with a truly apologetic face.
“It’s okay. Just being next to you makes me think about the outside world for some reason, even though I’ve never thought about it until now.”
Kenzaki looked at Tougo with a curious look in his eyes.
“…You’re a pretty interesting kid, Tougo.”
“Weird is what he is, you mean.”
Rikiya butted in.
“He’s always reading books and trying to use complicated words. What’s so fun about flipping those pages that’s got nothing but words on them?’
“But… that’s what let me meet Kenzaki.”
“Huh? That makes no sense.”
“That’s okay, you don’t have to understand. But anyway, Kenzaki…”
But then Dai and Mei came running screaming “Keeenzakiiii!”
“What, no ‘Mr. Kenzaki’ at least?”
He smiled as he picked the two of them up. The little kids were giggling nonstop.
“Sorry, they just love to copy everyone else.”
Ren showed up and bowed her head to Kenzaki.
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Ren. Kenzaki’s Kenzaki. We’re the ones who rescued him, anyway.”
Rikiya butted in again, trying to act mature.
“It’s not like you’re the one who saved him, Rikiya. Besides, he rescued us too, remember? Now apologize.”
But Kenzaki had already started playing a game of tag with Dai and Mei. Kenzaki had invited some children from another Area to join in as well, making the whole place loud with clamour.
The deck was filled with laughter that had never been heard before. It wasn’t just the children that were laughing, the adults watching them were laughing as well.
But Tougo realized something.
While Takuho and Ren and Tougo were all bursting into laughter from seeing Kenzaki topple over from all the kids swarming over him, only Rikiya was facing away.
And then something happened that night.
“Why are you making food for that guy, Ren?!”
Rikiya’s yelling could be heard.
Tougo, who had just gotten out of the bath while Takuho was still washing Dai and Mei, suddenly came to a stop upon reaching the door to their living quarters.
The room in the Steering Area given to Tougo and the rest wasn’t very big, but it was still extremely luxurious compared to the secret base they were living in previously. And most of all, there were clean beds, furniture, and a small simple kitchen.
Tougo knew about how Ren had been making dinner for Kenzaki, who was using another room. She had been patching up Kenzaki’s clothes for him, so she thought that she’d might as well bring some food for him as well. That was what Rikiya was probably referring to.
“Ren… Don’t you belong to us?!”
“Wha-?! Hey, what do you think you’re doing, Rikiya?! Stop that!”
Upon peeking through the gap in the door, Tougo saw Rikiya push Ren onto the bed.
“Ow!”
Rikiya violently grasped at Ren’s chest.
Tougo’s body began burning up in anger, but just as he was about to kick open the door, he noticed that Rikiya was crying.
“Please, Ren… Just let me stay like this for a while…”
He buried his crying face into Ren’s chest.
“…Mom…”
Ren stopped resisting and began gently stroking Rikiya’s head.
Tougo then suddenly remembered.
He recalled the adults mentioning something about how Rikiya’s mother drowned when she jumped off the Ark in a suicide attempt with the still young Rikiya in her arms. Rikiya was next to Tougo back when the adults were talking about it, but Tougo couldn’t see what kind of reaction he had made.
Tougo felt something arise inside him for a second when he remembered that, but he wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
Takuho then came barging past Tougo into the room with a fearsome look on his face.
“Rikiya, you little…!”
He tore Rikiya away from Ren and began punching and kicking him.
“Now you’ve done it!”
Rikiya quickly rose up and counterattacked by wildly flailing around his arms and legs.
“Stop, Takuho! Rikiya!”
Ren screamed, and Tougo tried to enter the room, but the tension from the two fighting was too much for him to handle.
A hand then grabbed onto Tougo’s shoulder. Upon turning around in surprise, he witnessed a grim look that he had never seen on Kenzaki’s face before.
“Take them somewhere else.”
After receiving Dai and Mei, who had been dangling from Kenzaki’s arms, Tougo once again stopped moving.
“Stop this!’
Kenzaki shouted as he entered the room, unsurprisingly causing the two of them to come to a stop, filling the room with their ragged breathing.
“What’s going on here? Explain yourselves, Takuho! Rikiya!”
The two of them clenched their fists in silence.
Kenzaki’s tone then suddenly changed.
“…Is it me? Am I what’s causing this?”
“No!”
“You aren’t!”
Takuho and Ren screamed at the same time.
Upon noticing Rikiya biting his lip, a sad expression clouded Kenzaki’s face.
“…If you don’t like me, then I’ll leave. I’ll get off the boat. So please don’t fight with your friends… No matter what… you shouldn’t ever fight with your friends!”
Partway through, Kenzaki’s eyes began to look as if they were looking somewhere far away.
Something like that must have happened in that faraway past he can’t remember. Tougo somehow felt sure of that.
After silence returned to the room, Rikiya yelled once again. He cried and screamed as if he was spitting out all of the emotions that had been hiding deep inside his heart.
Kenzaki then embraced Rikiya. He cried as he held him in his arms.
Upon seeing that, Dai and Mei were unable to hold back their tears either, bursting into sobs. Takuho, Ren, and even Tougo were crying as well.
The calm sea reflecting the three moons could be seen from the round window. It was a strange night.
The geothermal heat of the volcano made the humidity and temperature of the island feel subtropical.
Tougo and the rest were already covered with sweat after having barely even walked.
Furthermore, in order to reach the village that had been moved to higher ground in case of the island’s submersion, they had to spend at least thirty minutes climbing up a steep slope.
But in contrast to the heavily breathing adults who were only getting more and more quiet, Tougo and the rest’s spirits continued to rise.
The feel of the earth beneath their feet and the strong smell of nature were sensations that they had sorely missed.
Ren fed Dai and Mei the fresh fruit she had picked from the trees.
Takuho and Rikiya filled up their bug cages with rare beetles they found, while Tougo walked around with his beloved picture book in hand and jotted down memos about the plants and rocks in the area.
Rikiya had an unbelievably refreshing look on his face. No one mentioned what happened yesterday as they smiled together like always.
On the other hand, Kenzaki, who was trying to jog his memory with the sights around him, was visibly growing more and more troubled.
“Still having trouble remembering, huh? Well, I guess it wouldn’t be that easy.”
The sweat that had been cascading down Kojirou’s face had subsided, and he was now walking along with Kenzaki, looking like a dried-up snail.
“Kojirou was probably sneaking off somewhere to drink again…”
Rikiya muttered while holding back his laughter. Yeah, there’s no doubt about it.
“Hey, Kenzaki, haven’t you ever thought it strange?”
Kojirou spoke to him as if peering into him, but Kenzaki hardly displayed any reaction whatsoever.
“It might be weird for me of all people to be saying this, but I never started thinking about it until I wrote that story. I’ve just always taken it for granted how almost everything in this world is categorized in three’s.”
Tougo raised his face from his picture book.
It was because he was somewhat able to relate with what Kojirou was saying. And it was something that Tougo had been curious about for a while, as well. “Earth, heaven, and hell. Politics, economics, and law. Red, blue, and yellow, the three primary colors. Rock, paper, scissors. Three-beat music. Heart, diamond, and club, the playing card suits. And even the three moons…”
The pale white moons were floating high up in the afternoon sky like always.
“Wait, what did you just say?”
Kenzaki stopped walking, causing Kojirou to stumble forward.
“Um, you know, the three moons…”
“No, before that, something about playing card suits…”
“Heart, diamond, and club?”
“What about spade?”
“Huh?”
“And by three-beat, you mean…”
“Waltz. You know how it’s like ‘one, two, three’, right?”
“What about four-beat? Or eight-beat?”
“Huh?”
“There isn’t anything like that? There isn’t, is there?”
“Um, I mean…”
“What’s going on… I don’t understand…!”
Kenzaki’s face twisted in pain as he held his head.
“What’s wrong? Does your head hurt again?”
Ren noticed his pain and ran up to him.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean! That’s what I’ve been trying to say!”
Kojirou’s voice grew excited.
“In the story I wrote, there was a scene where you… or rather, Blade, looked up at the sky, and there was a single moon floating up there. At first I didn’t think much of it since it was just fiction, but I can’t help but think about how I had thought up such a creative setting. Just think about it, a world with only one moon… But it’s not just that. There was also that playing card suit you mentioned… Spade, was it? That showed up in my story, too. And waltz wasn’t the only kind of music, either. There were things like ‘rock and roll and ‘blues’ as well, I believe…”
That’s right. Tougo remembered that as well. That was why he thought the story was so amazing.
A story about a world completely different from our own.
“I know it’s weird for me to be saying this, but to be honest, it feels more like someone else made me write the story rather than it being a work of my own.”
The captain and the rest, who had been walking far ahead of the others, came to a stop and turned around upon noticing the commotion.
“Not to mention, the Undead that appeared in our world could be categorized as three different types, too…”
True, Tougo thought to himself.
The Undead that came from the sky, the Undead that came from the sea, and the Undead that seemed like they crawled up from the ground.
“And then you, Blade, defeated them for us. While there may have been some small differences here and there, there’s no doubt that the story I wrote became reality. But you know, there’s another way you could think about this… What if that story is actually reality, and the world we’re in right now is actually fiction?”
A moment of silence fell.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t get it.”
Ren and Rikiya tilted their heads in confusion.
“No way. So you’re saying that… this is all made-up?”
Takuho lifted his head and looked around him. Everyone else must have thought the same thing, that it was complete nonsense. It was unbelievable.
Those words repeated themselves within Tougo.
A world completely different from our own.
Kojirou continued.
“Also, in the story, Blade’s supposed to be able to seal the Undead he defeats… but you weren’t able to do that, right, Kenzaki? I wonder what that’s supposed to mean.”
Tougo recalled how the card Blade threw made a U-turn back towards him. In the story, that card was supposed to seal the Undead.
“I don’t know… I can’t remember…”
Kenzaki groaned painfully.
“One more thing. In the story, there were three other Masked Riders that appeared. Would you happen to know anything about them?”
Chalice, Garren, and Leangle.
Tougo internally whispered those names that he had memorized after reading the story so many times, but Kenzaki continued to gasp with ragged breaths.
“Are you all right? Do you want to take a little break”
Rikiya followed up to Ren’s words with a howl.
“This is all your fault, Kojirou! Besides, how is it that you can’t understand your story even though you’re the one who wrote it?! You say someone else made you write it? Yeah, right!”
Despite having rejected Kenzaki so much not too long ago, he was now 100% his ally.
Upon receiving glares from even Dai and Mei, Kojirou scratched his head.
“Sorry, my bad…”
“No, it’s fine… I’m doing all right, just a little confused right now…”
Kenzaki shook his head and took a deep breath. His pained expression was fading.
It was then that the captain and chief engineer called out to them.
“Hey, what are you guys doing? We’re almost at the village!”
“We’re gonna leave you behind!”
Tougo and the others came back to their senses and started walking again.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 