Even with the sun beginning to set, the heat didn’t cool down even a bit.
Kikuchi Cleaning’s workplace was practically a sauna with all the ironing equipment, press machines, and other such devices that naturally raised the room temperature. Even turning the air conditioning to max had virtually no effect.
Mari thought about pretending to go use the bathroom and instead shower her body with cool water, but she already used that idea three times that day. If Keitarou caught her doing that again, there was no doubt that he’d barrage her with complaints. After all, she was a freeloader. She had to do what she was supposed to do.
Keitarou, Mari, and Takumi had been stuck in the workplace since the morning. A huge load of uniforms was sent in from a regular customer’s factory, and they were told that they needed to be taken care of ASAP.
After having them washed and gone through the dryer, Keitarou handled the most difficult process of ironing them, while Mari neatly folded the shirts up and handed them to Takumi.
Takumi then put the shirts in plastic bags, finishing things up.
Keitarou continued to iron silently with a serious look on his face. Whenever the sweat on his face began to drip onto the laundry, he’d rush to wipe his face with a towel.
Mari looked at the side of his face, thinking about how he only ever looked competent during moments like these.
He looked pretty good while working. He had a manly face on. Keitarou truly loved his job.
And then a low snore could be heard…
It was Takumi.
He had surprisingly been working without complaining for a while now, but it turned out he was just sleeping. There were still piles of shirts in front of him that needed to be put into plastic bags.
This guy is probably getting a little too ahead of himself just ‘cause he can transform into Faiz…
Mari picked up an empty plastic bag and slowly covered the snoring Takumi’s face with it. Takumi continued to sleep without noticing.
Pfft…
Mari desperately tried to stifle her laughter.
The plastic bag began to cloud up from the inside from Takumi’s snores.
Every time Takumi breathed in, the bag would slightly shrink. Eventually, the bag stuck onto his nose and blocked his nostrils.
“Whoa!”
Takumi’s eyes flew open as he raised his voice. “You tryin’ to kill me, Mari?!”
He scrambled to take off the plastic bag and quickly stood up to yell at Mari.
“Don’t worry, there’s no way you of all people would die that easily. It’s a real shame, to be honest.”
“Ugly! Idiot!”
“How old are you? Can’t you think of any better insults than those?”
“Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!” Takumi continued to run his mouth with the same words regardless.
“What’re you gonna do, you idiot, idiot, idiot!”
Mari eventually snapped and ended up talking back.
“Idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot!”
“Idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot!”
“Stop it, you two!” Keitarou eventually cut in. “The person that calls someone an idiot is the real idiot, just so you know.”
Takumi and Mari closed their eyes.
Ugh… How did I let myself get caught up in such a petty fight… Mari thought to herself. And Keitarou’s childish comeback made me realize just how dumb I was acting… Damn it, Takumi.
After finishing their workload, Keitarou made some shaved ice for them.
The three of them surrounded the dining table as they ate their lemon syrup shaved ice.
Takumi added some condensed milk in addition to the syrup. On top of being cat-tongued with a huge preference towards cold things, he was also a sweet-tooth. His face loosened as he happily began to chew on his shaved ice.
He’s so easy to read…
Mari once again decided that she’d never let herself get caught up in a childish fight with a guy like that ever again.
“Oh yeah, we still have some deliveries left to do, huh?” said Keitarou. Kikuchi Cleaning had grown to the point where they’d deliver the finished laundry to their client’s houses.
Takumi’s good mood instantly dissolved.
“I’m not going. I’ve already worked enough.”
“Who worked enough?” Mari responded sarcastically.
“Me, I’ve done a whole ton.”
“The same goes for everyone else, though. Let’s settle this with rock paper scissors, then.”
“I don’t wanna.” Takumi instantly turned down Mari’s suggestion.
After all, he was terribly awful at rock paper scissor.
“Aww, you’re scared.”
“Who’s scared?! Fine, rock paper scissors!”
It was the usual development.
What a simple guy.
“Hey! You threw yours out late!”
As usual, Takumi was the one that lost their three-way rock paper scissors, but this time he had a fight to pick with Mari.
Mari insisted she did no such thing, but Takumi wouldn’t back off.
“You definitely threw yours out late. It was late by a tenth of a second.”
“Are you being serious?”
“Dead serious. I’m Faiz, after all. There’s nothing my superhuman vision can’t miss.”
“You liar.”
Keitarou decided to cut in.
“You aren’t even transformed right now, Takkun.”
Takumi glared at Keitarou.
“Fine. I just have to transform then, right?!”
Mari suddenly had a bad feeling about this. Something even pettier than that petty fight they were having earlier was about to start.
Mari’s prediction was right on the point.
Takumi went straight to his room to grab the transformation equipment and wrapped the belt around his waist.
“Hen…”
Before he could say “shin”, Keitarou stopped him.
“O-Okay, I get it, I get it! We can do rock paper scissors again! Right, Mari?”
“…Fine.” Mari replied with a sigh.
Ugh, this is so idiotic… Might as well just do whatever he wants at this point…
Mari first discovered Takumi’s weakness at rock paper scissors not too long before the three of them began their bizarre communal life within Kikuchi Cleaning.
Takumi lost at rock paper scissors back then.
As a result, he was forced to help Keitarou out with his work.
At the time, Mari was all alone.
After graduating from Ryusei School, she worked part-time at a live-in job as a waitress for about 10 months.
During the time she worked, she also attended a training institute for two-wheeled vehicles and eventually bought a red 250cc bike with the money she saved up.
She then set out on a trip.
For someone like Mari who had grown up stuck in the tiny closed-off world known as Ryusei School for so long, it was an exciting adventure. An incredible sense of freedom danced in her heart as she continued riding further and further south towards nowhere in particular.
Why was she heading south?
Because that was the direction the sun rose from, and she was filled with expectations towards what could be found there.
Plus, it was probably snowing up north…
A case containing the Faiz tools was attached to her bike cargo.
It had originally belonged to Mari.
Certain circumstances had led her to be given the transformation belt and the cellphone-shaped device, but Mari had no idea what they were at the time. Upon reading the instruction manual later on, she found herself struck with disbelief.
Is this some kind of joke?
They were supposedly tools meant to transform someone into something called Faiz that surpassed humanity… It sounded like complete nonsense.
Even so, she followed the instructions by putting on the belt and inserting the cellphone-shaped device into it.
The very next moment, sparks flew out as the belt flew off her, with the force causing Mari to be blown backwards. It was as if the belt was rejecting her.
The reason why Mari kept the Faiz kit close to her even after experiencing that was because it was a keepsake from someone extremely precious to her.
At some point, Mari began to think of the transformation kit as a slightly inconvenient-to-carry good luck charm. And in a sense, that interpretation ended up being a somewhat accurate one.
Mari was hit on countless times during her travels.
“Hey girl, wanna go out for some tea?”
Nope.
“Hey girl, where’d you come from?”
Somewhere far.
“It’s dangerous for a girl to be by herself. I’ll show you around.”
You’re the dangerous one.
It was a little annoying at times, but Mari did somewhat enjoy being hit on.
Once she reached a certain age at Ryuusei School, she began to think about how she might be considered to be a “cute girl”, and she was happy to find out that she was right.
Even when she ran out of money and struggled with food, she always refused to accept the countless advances from the men that followed her around.
The idea of using her womanly side to rely on men felt dirty to her.
In order to save on money during her trip, she slept in a sleeping bag during the night, but if she still needed more money, she’d end up working part-time jobs. She actually met Keitarou while she was working in a gold-digging part-time job. It was a fishy job that awarded money for finding gold-dense rocks among the countless number of rocks in the riverside area. Finding a rock like that would supposedly serve as a hint for gold digging.
Sitting on a large boulder in the riverside with his hands around his knees, Keitarou had his head hung like a withered plant while he sobbed.
“Hey, what happened?” Mari couldn’t help but call out to him in worry.
He told her he had an accident on his bike. He got hurt from getting flown off the bike and was in the middle of washing his wounded knees with the river water.
Upon noticing that his knee wounds were just scratches, Mari dragged Keitarou up and had him bring her to where his bike was.
But Mari wasn’t good with machines. There was no way she’d be able to repair a bike. So she tried kicking it. She slammed the sole of her boot against the side of the bike with everything she had.
Upon turning on the engine to see if it did anything, it miraculously came back to life.
Keitarou was so moved that he said that he’d treat Mari to lunch.
He wasn’t hitting on her. He was just showing his gratitude.
Mari happened to be hungry at the time, so she decided to take him up on his offer.
Plus, she didn’t sense even a shred of manliness coming from Keitarou.
Even I’d probably beat him in a fistfight.
The two of them then headed to a ramen place.
While they were waiting for the ramen, Mari learned that Keitarou was on a trip of his own as well. She realized that this was probably the first time she ever had a relaxed open conversation with anyone ever since her time at Ryuusei School.
There was something about Keitarou that put Mari at ease. Plus, he made her laugh.
“I want to become a stronger person.” That was the purpose of Keitarou’s journey.
“A stronger person? What for?” Mari asked.
“I want to make people all over the world happy.” Keitarou bashfully replied.
“Don’t you think there’s something really nice about pure white laundry? You see, I want to make people all over the world happy just like making the laundry all over the world pure white.”
“………”
Mari took a good look at Keitarou’s face.
This guy’s serious…
Keitarou continued by telling her that he’d be taking over his family’s dry cleaning company once his journey was over.
His parents apparently opened up a dry cleaner in Africa and were washing people’s clothes for practically no charge.
Seriously?
This guy’s weird. So weird that it’s funny, Mana thought.
He’s talking about this huge dream and all even though he was whining like a baby while cuddling his knees not too long ago…
“What about you? What’s your dream?” This time Keitarou asked about her.
It was the first time anyone had asked about her dream.
“I want to be a hairstylist,” Mari responded. It was a little embarrassing for her to talk about her dream.
Mari suddenly remembered her mother.
Her mother was a hairstylist.
She was reminded of her mother’s smile and her elegant motions when she got her hair cut as a child.
“Here’s your food… Ow, hot!”
The sound of something shattering brought Mari back to reality.
The employee that brought the ramen had dropped it onto the floor.
It was Mari’s shio ramen with extra butter corn.
Mari couldn’t help but find the employee to be a little rude.
He wasn’t apologizing, simply staring at Mari’s face.
“Hey.”
Eventually the employee opened his mouth. “You got a pimple on your nose.”
A pimple? No.
I just ended up bumping my nose into a rock when I rolled over while sleeping at the riverside area.
“Okay, seriously, what’s with your attitude?! Don’t you think you should apologize?!” Mari shouted.
That was Mari’s first encounter with not only Keitarou, but Takumi as well.
The rock paper scissors was still ongoing within Kikuchi Cleaning.
Takumi was surprisingly hanging in by consistently throwing out draws. The loser would have to do the delivery.
The only reason Takumi was trying so hard was because he hated doing work.
But Mari had a reason why she couldn’t let herself lose no matter what.
She had somewhere important to go soon. She was going to meet up with someone.
That’s why she bought that push-up bra.
Takumi Inui had been working at that ramen place because he ate without paying.
During his trip, he ran out of money, but he entered the ramen place and gorged himself on chilled Chinese noodles without realizing that fact. He was forced to work at the restaurant, but the cat-tongued Takumi even had thin-skinned hands, so he wasn’t able to hold hot things. That’s why he dropped that bowl.
Upon learning about Takumi’s situation from the manager who came bowing his head apologetically, Keitarou paid off the chilled Chinese noodles Takumi ate and set the rude man free.
At the very least, it seemed that it was true that he wanted to make people all over the world happy.
After exiting the ramen place, the three of them headed to their bikes in the parking lot.
Takumi had still yet to apologize to Mari. Neither did he thank Keitarou for what he did for him.
Just as Mari was about to blow up over Takumi’s attitude, the manager of the ramen place came out.
He had accidentally given Keitarou the wrong change.
The manager handed Keitarou a 10 yen coin.
Mari could clearly remember everything up to the point when Keitarou held onto that coin.
But everything after that was vague and foggy for her.
It’s said that when people experience traumatizing situations, they subconsciously try to block out those memories as a means of self defense. That might have been why Mari’s memories after that point were a blur.
The very moment after Keitarou held onto that 10 yen coin, Mari encountered an Orphnoch for the very first time in her life. The manager in front of them transformed into an Orphnoch right there on the spot.
Keitarou later on told her what she did at that moment, but for some reason she couldn’t remember any of it herself.
Mari instantly proceeded to wrap the transformation belt around Takumi’s waist.
Woman’s intuition was the only thing that could explain why she did what she did.
It was at that moment that Takumi transformed into Faiz for the very first time.
The point where Mari’s memories were clear again was right before the battle between Faiz and the Orphnoch ended, when Faiz’s Crimson Smash penetrated the Orphenoch’s body.
Standing next to the burning Orphenoch’s body that was crumbling into ashes was Takumi in his form as Faiz, seemingly entirely unfazed by the situation. He simply appeared to be a little annoyed and disgruntled.
It was like he was a child who was forced by his mother to go shopping.
“All right, we’re never going to do rock paper scissors ever again, okay?”
Takumi spoke to Mari within the delivery van.
In the end, he still lost and he was forced to do the delivery.
Mari was sitting in the passenger seat so that she could be dropped off somewhere along the way in order to get ready to meet up with that certain person.
“Hey, you listening?!”
Mari ended up chuckling.
On that day when Takumi became Faiz for the very first time and defeated that Orphnoch, he got on his bike right after undoing the transformation in order to get away as soon as possible.
Mari happened to recall that moment. Takumi wasn’t able to escape from Mari.
Why was Takumi able to transform into Faiz when she couldn’t? What was the identity of that monster that suddenly appeared? She felt that she needed Takumi in order to find the answers to those questions.
Of course, Takumi tried to run away.
He didn’t want to involve himself with anything that sounded bothersome.
“Okay, then how about we settle this with rock paper scissors?” Mari decided to try stopping him with that.
If Takumi won, he’d be free. If Mari won, Takumi would have to travel with Mari until they at least reached Tokyo.
And then Takumi lost.
Takumi agonized over the loss, but Mari felt that Takumi now might’ve been secretly happy that he lost back then.
There was no doubt that Takumi didn’t have a single friend until that moment. He had an awful personality, after all.
But since he lost at rock paper scissors, he was able to become friends with Mari and Keitarou.
If Takumi didn’t see Mari and Keitarou as his friends, then he wouldn’t have accepted Keitarou’s offer to live with him since he didn’t have a home to return to.
“Anyway, where should I drop you off.”
Takumi curtly questioned Mari within the delivery van.
“Um… the station’s probably good enough.”
“What, not the hair salon?”
Since Mari’s dream was to become a hairstylist, she’d occasionally stop by a certain hair salon to work part-time.
Mari’s current plan was to save up enough money to attend a hairstylist school.
But her destination today wasn’t the hair salon.
“By the way, how’s Keitarou been doing with that girlfriend of his?”
Mari tried forcibly changing the subject.
“Huh? I’m pretty sure that’s a penpal of his. I dunno if you’d call that his girlfriend.”
“What about you then, Takumi? It’s obvious you don’t have one right now. What’s your type?”
“Dunno.”
This guy never talks about himself. Always a mystery.
That sometimes irritated Mari.
“Hey, what are your plans for the future? Do you have any dreams?”
Mari knew the answer, but she asked anyway.
“Dunno.”
I knew it.
It was an obvious answer.
“Oh, right here’s good. Thanks.”
Mari eventually was dropped off where she was going to meet up with that certain person.
The delivery van violently spat out exhaust fumes as it sped off.
The man who she was meeting with arrived right on time.
“Sorry, Sonoda. Looks like you got here first again.”
The man responded with a gentle smile.
She was going to have a date tonight. Mari’s chest thumped with excitement from behind her push-up bra.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 