Faiz 1

It’s so hot, Mari thought to herself.

It’s like the sun’s being put through a magnifying glass and burning humans alive. 

That reminds me. When I was a kid, I once burned ants alive using a magnifying glass before, but I’ll never do that again. I can totally relate to how they felt now. 

Sorry, ants. 

“Turn on the AC, Keitarou.” 

Mari finally voiced her distress from within Kikuchi Cleaning’s delivery van. She couldn’t bear it any longer. 

“That’s not good for the body, Mari. This heat isn’t that bad, you just gotta deal with it.” 

Keitarou Kikuchi’s response was completely expected. 

Is this guy even human? 

“At least turn off the radio, then.” 

A live coverage of a summer game being played in Koshien Stadium could be heard coming from the speakers. 

It made the van feel even more sweltering. 

“What are you saying, Mari? This is Koshien we’re talking about here, it’s pretty much the spirit of youth!” 

I mean, sure… Mari thought to herself. But… 

In exchange for letting the radio keep playing, she decided to turn on the AC herself. 

It was only fair, as her bra was starting to become visible from under her drenched t-shirt. 

She couldn’t afford to reveal any more of herself, even if Keitarou was the only one who’d be seeing anything. 

Well, I doubt Keitarou would have much interest in my bra, though… 

But Mari was wearing a special bra today. It was a fancy push-up bra. 

It was her first time wearing anything like it, since she usually always just wore old lady bargain store bras that were ten bucks apiece. To exaggerate a bit, it was almost like a once-in-a-lifetime experience for her. 

But she was embarrassed to have her push-up bra seen even if it was just Keitarou. In fact, she found the idea to be revolting. 

Upon Mari turning the AC on, Keitarou glanced to the side towards her face and turned the switch back off. But then Mari soon turned it back on again. 

Keitarou turned it off. Mari turned it on. 

The one to eventually give up was Keitarou. 

He knew just how scary Mari could be when losing her temper. 

I win, Mari thought to herself as she enjoyed her trivial victory. She tugged on her t-shirt that was stuck to her skin with sweat in order to let the cool air blow against her body. 

 

Mari had lost her temper in front of Keitarou multiple times. 

The first time was not very long after she first began living at Keitarou’s dry cleaner. It all started when she asked to help out with the place since she felt bad about staying over for free. 

She did as Keitarou asked and ironed the laundry, but it didn’t work out very well. Even when she thought she did it perfectly, Keitarou would complain about the most particular of things. 

He wouldn’t have it if the pants or shirts were folded incorrectly by even one millimeter off, for example. 

Mari finally lost her temper and slammed the iron onto the ironing board. She didn’t make a fuss, though. 

First, after putting the iron down, Mari stuck her tongue out and licked her upper lip. 

Keitarou would only realize this later on, but that was pretty much the sign for when Mari was losing her temper. 

Mari then headed up to her room on the second floor, changed from her skirt into jeans, and walked down into the courtyard with a somehow extremely calm look on her face. 

She then climbed up a cherry tree that was just a slight bit taller than the two-story Kikuchi building. 

She climbed with impressive skill resembling a monkey. 

But Keitarou wouldn’t stay impressed for long. 

Night came, and then morning came, and Mari had still yet to descend from the tree. 

Mari stayed sitting in the tree, peeling off the leaves. She folded up the leaves like origami into boats and then tossed them into the courtyard. Eventually, the cherry tree grew completely bare and the courtyard was filled with boats. 

Keitarou had absolutely no idea why she would do such a thing. 

First of all, the cherry tree had nothing to do with this. Poor tree. 

By the second night, Keitarou gave up on trying to comprehend Mari and decided to just try apologizing to her. 

I’m sorry, Mari. It was my fault, so please forgive me. Mari, please! 

With Keitarou practically on the verge of crying, Mari finally agreed to come down from the tree. 

But the incident didn’t just end there. 

After coming down from the tree, Mari displayed levels of concentration like never seen before and studied the dry cleaner work procedures with fervor. After studying for three days straight while barely sleeping, she perfectly mastered everything there was to know about the job. 

 

The second time Mari lost her temper was because of another man that was staying over at Kikuchi Cleaning. 

He complained about the dinner Mari made. 

In Mari’s eyes, it was one of the best chawanmushi she had ever made. 

But the man felt differently… 

“Too hot!” he cried. 

“There’s no way a person could eat this!” he complained. 

“You insensitive woman!” he shouted out while pointing at Mari. 

Essentially, this man had the greatest intolerance towards hot foods in the history of mankind. 

In the end, he ended up saying things like “you aren’t human”, or “you’re a demon”, or “get out of this place right now”(even though he was a freeloader too), and then Mari finally stuck her tongue out and licked her upper lip. 

Starting from the next day, Mari began making food specially made for that cat-tongued man.  

Food that was all frozen solid.

Miso soup, rice, ramen, sukiyaki, toast, salad, and so on. Basically, each dish was frozen in the freezer. Dishes that were supposed to be piping hot with steam rising out of them now exhibited cold white vapor that could make anyone feel cold just from looking at them. 

But the cat-tongued man was stubborn. Rather than apologizing to Mari, he chose to shove each of those frozen dishes down into his stomach. 

He used an ice pick to crush the frozen dishes into pieces and loudly chewed them down. 

By the second day of their inexplicable fight, even Keitarou, who had nothing to do with any of this, began to feel uncomfortable. Or rather, to be more precise, he was scared. He felt as if the very providence of nature within his home was about to go askew. 

Keitarou didn’t have a choice but to apologize to Mari in the cat-tongued man’s stead. 

I’m sorry, Mari. It was my fault, so please forgive me. Mari, please! 

 

The delivery van continued to drive under the scorching sun. 

Keitarou always respected the speed limit. If it was 30km/h then he’d stay at 30km/h and not a single kilometer over.  

Even though it was the rule, there were hardly any cars that actually followed the speed limit. 

The other cars on the road all zoomed past Keitarou. 

The live baseball coverage was still coming from the radio. 

As she listened to the broadcast, she recalled something Keitarou mentioned earlier. 

The spirit of youth… 

Mari didn’t like those words. They sounded sweaty, contrived, and fake. 

But wait… maybe I’m just prejudiced… 

Under normal circumstances, the sixteen-year-old Mari would’ve been in high school right now. She would’ve been wearing a sailor uniform while being in a lovey-dovey relationship with a hot boyfriend, and maybe she would’ve been a baseball club manager or something of the like. 

And yet here I am… 

No matter how you looked at it, Mari’s youth was not normal. It was quite abnormal. 

But Mari quickly shook her head to shake off the negative feelings before Keitarou could notice. 

Who cares if I’m not going to school. I still have my own dreams… 

I’m wearing a push-up bra, too. And I haven’t told anyone yet, but I have a really cool boyfriend, too. 

“Hey, Mari.” 

Keitarou called out to her. “I’m starting to have second thoughts about just bringing a melon for visiting Mr. Nakasone.” 

Mari was reminded of something negative again. 

Mr. Nakasone… I’d rather be reminded about that dumb youth nonsense again than him… 

 

While they might have been in a delivery van at that moment, it wasn’t that they were actually on a delivery job. They were visiting one of their big regulars that always brought their dirty laundry to Kikuchi Cleaning. Mari wasn’t really comfortable around Mr. Nakasone. She had a feeling that he was into her. 

But it was part of the job, so she always interacted with him amiably. 

“Welcome,” she would say with a smile. 

“Thank you very much. We’d love to see you again,” she would say while adorably tilting her head down. But it was all part of the job. Customer service and all. 

But Mr. Nakasone didn’t see it that way. 

 

Every time Mr. Nakasone showed up at Kikuchi Cleaning, Mari would internally mutter the words “The red sea lion’s here…” His extremely obese body was always covered with a red jersey, and on top of that, he’d always have a red scarf wrapped around his neck despite it being the summer. 

She couldn’t understand why he wore such a ridiculous outfit. 

Mr. Nakasone was on a diet. He rode around the town on his bicycle in those clothes. 

In a sense, he was pretty famous around town.  

The dirty laundry he brought to the dry cleaning was always the jersey and scarf he used for exercise. Since they were completely absorbed with his sweat, they let off an awful stench that pierced noses. 

At one point, Mr. Nakasone began bringing Mari presents. 

Those presents being fruit milk in glass bottles. 

Fruit milk? 

Why? 

And since he needed to bring the glass bottles back to the dairy, he’d always asked her to drink it on the spot. 

In order to escape from Mr. Nakasone’s clutches as soon as possible, Mari always instantly chugged down the milk. All while having the red sea lion’s lecherous eyes scan up and down her body. 

If he wasn’t a customer, she would’ve knocked him out right then and there.  

 

But one day, Mr. Nakasone suddenly stopped showing up. 

Mari was incredibly relieved, but Keitarou happened to hear about what happened to him. 

Apparently, the scarf he always wore with his jersey got caught up in his wheels while he was on his bicycle and he fell, resulting in a severe injury that got him hospitalized. 

Mari couldn’t help but feel at least a little sympathetic. 

Keitarou then dragged her along to go visit Mr. Nakasone with him at the hospital. 

“Hey, Mari, you listening?” 

Keitarou was still calling out to her. “Hey, hey, hey!” 

He was incessantly worrying about whether a melon was good enough for a visit to the hospital. 

God, would you just shut up already… 

“It’ll be fine, Keitarou.” 

Mari responded. “I’m sure he’ll be overjoyed.” 

Who cares about what we bring, Mari thought. 

A melon, tea, a bucket, a broken watch, whatever… 

In the end, he’ll be happy just to see me there… 

 

The Koshien match being broadcasted that had been playing for ages finally seemed like it was ending soon. 

The roaring cheers from the fans of the winning team could be heard. A moving finale. 

Mari suddenly felt herself struck by a strange feeling. 

Were the people sending over their hot-blooded spirit of youth from over the radio actually people that were in the same world as her? They seemed to live on a completely different spectrum.  

“Hey, by the way, Mari, things have been pretty peaceful lately, huh?” 

He’s nagging me with his hey’s, again… 

But she understood what he was saying. 

They hadn’t been running into those things lately. Those monsters that were even more atrocious than Mr. Nakasone. 

All those people sweating and crying over at Koshien Stadium probably had yet to know about their existence. 

 

When they arrived at the hospital, Mr. Nakasone was sitting cross-legged on his bed in his red jersey, much to their surprise. 

His neck brace looked rather uncomfortable, but he seemed to be doing fine. He wouldn’t be able to wear a scarf for a while, though. 

Next to Mari, Keitarou was holding onto his 10000 yen Yubari melon for dear life. 

The young nurse that had guided them to his room was thoroughly taking care of Mr. Nakasone. 

She fixed his messy blanket and checked up on his neck brace. 

Did he get fatter? 

Mari couldn’t help but think that as she looked at him. 

His excess fat could be seen poking out from the hem of his red jersey. A mole about the size of an almond could be seen on that fat, and Mr. Nakasone was fiddling with a single black hair that was growing out of it.  

The moment Keitarou was about to hand over the melon, the white laced curtain that covered the window shook from some wind.

Mari rubbed her eyes to get rid of some dust that flew into them. Keitarou ended up putting up a hand to his eyes, too. 

A thud could be heard, and the nurse’s body turned into ashes and crumbled apart. 

It wasn’t dust that got into their eyes. 

It was the ash particles of the nurse’s body. 

The nurse’s body had completely disintegrated at this point and the room was filled with the ash that the wind had blown into the air.  

Keitarou said that things had been peaceful lately earlier in the delivery van. 

Mari knew it was because those things hadn’t been appearing. 

But that peace completely disappeared in a single moment as Keitarou shouted out the name of those things. 

“There’s an Orphnoch here!” 

There was an Orphnoch somewhere within the hospital. 

They normally assumed the forms of humans, so detecting them proved to be difficult. 

In any case, they needed to get Mr. Nakasone out of the building. 

It wasn’t the time to be nitpicking over anything. 

Mari grabbed Mr. Nakasone’s hand and dragged him off the bed. 

Mr. Nakasone shook off that hand and grabbed a paper bag from under the bed. After making sure it was secured under his armpit, he once again grabbed Mari’s hand. 

Inside the bag were multiple empty fruit milk glass bottles. 

Don’t tell me those were the bottles I drank from… 

Ugh, that’s disgusting… What the heck is this guy thinking… 

Even so, Mari continued to rush out of the hospital with his hand in her grasp. 

Keitarou, running behind them, put his cell phone up to his ear. 

“T-This is bad! We have an Orphnoch on our hands!” 

Mari knew who he was talking to. 

It was that cat-tongued man. He was an insufferable guy, but he was the only person that could be counted on at times like these. 

 

Upon exiting the hospital, the harsh rays of the summer sun slammed into them like a wall. 

But they didn’t have the time to be fussing over the heat. 

Mari and Keitarou ran across the asphalt along with Mr. Nakasone. 

The empty glass bottles clinking together in the paper bag Nakasone was holding on to could be heard. 

As they ran, Mari felt something strange in her hand. She should’ve been holding onto Mr. Nakasone’s hand, but something felt off. It felt slimy and sticky. 

Still running, Mari nervously turned around. She then screamed and let go of his hand.  

It wasn’t Mr. Nakasone that was behind her. 

It was an Orphnoch. 

At some point, Mr. Nakasone had transfigured into an Orphnoch. 

A human needs to experience death in order to become an Orphnoch. Some humans revive from their death and become Orphnoch. It was likely that Mr. Nakasone had died in the accident that caused his hospitalization.  

He then revived in the hospital and transfigured into an Orphnoch. 

Mr. Nakasone now took the form of a sea cucumber-type Orphnoch. 

The slimy exterior of his body glistened under the summer sun’s rays while his round eyeballs poking out from the two antennas on his head shone like marbles. The eyeballs rolled towards Mari’s direction. 

“H-Hey, you! Stop!” 

Keitarou shouted out. 

Seriously? Mari thought. You’re not going to sound really intimidating when you shout that while on your butt and practically pissing your pants… 

And how long is he going to keep carrying that melon… 

Even as an Orphnoch, Mr. Nakasone continued to hold on to the paper bag. 

He took out one of the empty glass bottles and began licking the inside of it with his long tongue. 

A-All right, I get it! 

Mari internally screamed. 

If you like the empty glass bottles I drank out of that much, then you can lick them all you want. 

Just stay away! 

But the Orphnoch threw the glass bottle down and stomped on it with its giant legs. 

His saliva-dripping purple tongue then proceeded to approach Mari’s body. 

I guess in the end the milk bottles weren’t enough for him… 

Mari clenched her eyes shut as if to suppress the overwhelming fear that was rising up from within her. 

Humans that were attacked by Orphnoch dissolved into ashes. Just like that nurse from earlier. 

No, I don’t want to die… 

The moment the Orphnoch’s tongue was about to touch Mari’s body, the roar of a bike could be heard. 

It was the cat-tongued man.  

Upon putting the bike into a screeching halt, the young man took off his full-face helmet and shook his brown hair.  

The cat-tongued man’s name was Takumi Inui 

“Takkun!” Keitarou finally got back up. 

“You’re late, Takumi! What the heck were you doing?!” Mari raised her voice in protest. 

“I can’t help it, it’s hot. It makes it hard to get outside.” 

Takumi unapologetically responded with a nonchalant tone. 

“Wait, were you just chilling with the AC on?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You were doing that while our lives were pretty much in danger?! I can’t believe you! You should learn something from those baseball players at Koshien Stadium!” 

“And did you even get any work done? Like the ironing? The pressing? Did you just slack off the whole time?!” 

“Shut your whining already. What, did you call me here just to complain?” 

The Orphnoch glared at Takumi. He let out bizarre noises that couldn’t be discerned between talking or breathing as he slowly approached him. 

“No, you didn’t. You called me here… so that I could do something about this guy.” 

Takumi stared right back at the Orphnoch as he took out his cellphone-shaped tool and inputted the code. 

555.  

“Henshin!” 

He slammed the cellphone-shaped tool into the center of the mechanical belt that was around his waist. The very next moment, Takumi’s body was covered by the diamond-hard Sol Metal. 

A masked superhuman was born in a blink of an eye. 

The supermetal knight, Faiz. 

That was Takumi Inui’s other name. 

The Orphnoch sent out numerous whip-like tentacles from its body towards Faiz. 

They wrapped around his arms and legs, sealing Faiz’s movements. 

“Takumi!” 

“Takkun!” 

Mari and Keitarou shouted out at the same time. 

With Faiz in his grasp, the Orphnoch’s mouth twisted as he made a low-pitched laugh. 

He then shot out pink saliva towards Faiz while still laughing. 

Faiz stooped down to dodge, with the saliva landing behind him and melting the asphalt. 

“What the hell, that’s nasty!”  

Even while transformed, Takumi’s voice was still the same. 

“What kind of guy spits their saliva at other people?!” 

Takumi’s anger, or rather Faiz’s anger, grew to a boiling point. 

Faiz jumped towards the summer sky as high as he could. 

The force of his jump easily snapped off the Orphnoch’s tentacles that were grabbing his limbs. 

Faiz’s body overlapped with the sun, the sight being so bright that Mari was forced to shut her eyes. 

Faiz flew down from the sky while aiming his finishing kick, the Crimson Smash, towards the Orphnoch. The enormous impact sent him straight through the enemy’s body. 

The Orphnoch suddenly stopped moving and began erupting into blue flames. 

The 500 kilograms worth of flesh then crumbled into ash amidst the flames. 

Witnessing the victory, Keitarou and Mari came rushing to Faiz while cheering. 

Takumi took off the cellphone-shaped tool that was affixed to his belt and undid his transformation. 

“All right, let’s get back.” 

But Takumi retorted. “Ugh… but it’s so hot… I don’t even want to move…” 

Takumi was complaining. 

This guy… 

Mari thought to herself. 

On second thought, he really is insufferable. 

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