Upon returning to Kikuchi Cleaning, Mari explained everything that happened to Takumi and Keitarou.
She was still trembling and her head was in a mess.
She had no idea if they even fully understood what she was trying to tell them.
Keitarou had his eyes wide open as he listened to her.
Takumi looked surprisingly serious as well.
The two of them didn’t say a single word until Mari finished talking.
They knew about how Mari grew up in an orphanage called Ryusei School.
Even so, Mari’s story was extremely bizarre.
If what Mr. Ishibashi told Mari was true, then there must have been some kind of outrageous secret going on with Ryusei School.
There was also the question of why an Orphnoch suddenly attacked them.
Did Ryusei School have some kind of connection with the Orphnochs?
“All right, let’s do everything we can to look into it.”
After the brief moment of silence that followed Mari’s explanation, Takumi spoke out.
Mari laid the list of the students at Ryusei School who got adopted onto the table.
It was the list that Mr. Ishibashi showed her before he turned into ash.
When Mari picked up the list from his remains, she was filled with grief and confusion, but she knew what she had to do. She had an obligation to solve the mystery.
She may very well have had unknowingly stumbled upon a dark secret of Ryusei School.
Keitarou insisted that he come along, but Takumi turned him down, saying that he would get in the way if something happened.
Fortunately, it was at that moment when Keitarou’s cell phone received a message. It was from “CloudyThenSunny”.
Takumi and Mari took advantage of this and disappeared while he was still busy typing out a reply.
Mari decided to visit Saya Kimura first.
She was the girl she was closest with during her time at Ryusei School.
“But what kind of relationship could the Orphnoch possibly have with Ryusei School? Are you sure you don’t have any kind of clue?” Takumi asked Mari as he drove the delivery van.
“Nope, none at all.”
Don’t ask me, I’m the one that’s dying to know.
“Whatever, we’ll just investigate what we can.”
The reason why that lazy Takumi is taking such a strong initiative right now is probably because the Orphnochs might be involved, huh… Mari thought to herself.
Of course, it could have just been a coincidence.
Mr. Ishibashi and Shouji Inukai could have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
But the timing was just too perfect. It was only natural to think that the Orphnochs were related somehow.
Takumi and Mari had yet to even learn much about the Orphnochs at all in the first place.
What exactly are they?
Why is it that there are people coming back from the dead occasionally?
It was strange that there was nothing about them being publicly announced by the police and the media as well.
However, there had been all kinds of rumors and speculations over the Orphnoch being made over the internet for quite some time now.
Things like “Oh, it’s just some urban legend,” or, “No, this is the real thing,” and so on…
The name “Orphnoch” was actually something thought up of by someone on one of those sites.
It was a combination of the two names “Orpheus” and “Enoch”.
“Orpheus” is a poet that appeared in ancient Greek legends, often depicted as a master of the harp.
According to the legends, Orpheus descended into the underworld in search of his deceased wife. Upon reuniting with his wife there, he made a deal with the king of the underworld, Hades. Until he passed all the way through the forest of the underworld, he was not to turn around to look at his wife under any circumstances. If he succeeded in not looking at his wife, then she would return to the world of the living.
However, Orpheus lost to temptation. Upon looking back at his wife, he lost her forever.
“Enoch” is the name of a saint that appeared in the Book of Genesis.
It is said that after living for 365 years, Cain’s son Enoch was chosen by God and ascended to heaven alive, becoming the archangel Metatron.
What kind of dumb name is “Orphnoch” anyway… Mari thought to herself.
Combining the names of a bard and an angel? That’s gotta be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
Saya Kimura lived in a multistoried apartment complex in a boom town that had a view of the ocean.
Upon Mari ringing the doorbell, a voice rang out from the speaker.
“Who is it?”
There was no doubt that it was Saya’s voice.
“Sorry for showing up out of nowhere, it’s Mari Sonoda.”
The very next moment, the front door flew open and Saya jumped into Mari’s arms.
Takumi and Mari sat at a table decorated with sunflowers as they partook of the barley tea and cookies Saya brought for them.
“You really don’t have to go this far, just sit down already Saya.”
“Okay, okay, just let me go get one more thing. I have this really good cake.”
Right after the cookies came a chocolate cake.
“Sorry, all I have are sweets.”
“Nah, I love sweets actually,” Takumi responded to Saya.
Takumi appeared to be a little nervous.
That’s kinda surprising, but I guess it’s only natural, thought Mari. Saya, who was two years older than Mari, was the prettiest girl back at Ryusei School, and she had only gotten even more beautiful over the years.
She had a kind of mature charm that even Mari understood. She had a clean and calming aura about her.
Yuka Osada was beautiful too, but that kind of beauty was more mystical while Saya’s beauty felt friendly in a way.
“So what are you up to now? You hanging in there?” Saya asked Mari.
“Well, yeah, I guess.”
Mari explained her current living situation. She avoided bringing up the incident with Mr. Ishibashi for now.
She was a friend that she hadn’t met for so long. She wanted to have a normal chat with her for a little longer.
When Saya said that she was working as a model, Mari raised her voice in surprise, but Saya then downplayed it by saying she was just a hand model.
“Oh, so that’s what those gloves are for.”
“Yep.” Saya smiled as she spread her hands that were dressed in white gloves.
That makes sense, Mari thought.
At first, she was thinking that she was wearing them because she got hurt, but it was actually for her job.
She wouldn’t want to damage the tools she made a living with, so she protected them with gloves.
Saya then mentioned that she did volunteer work during her free time, going around to various orphanages in the area and doing storytelling for them.
Apparently, she always loved it when people came to do storytelling during her time at Ryusei School, so she decided to do the same thing.
Saya really is amazing, Mari thought to herself. She always looked up to Saya when she was a child.
She was beautiful, thoughtful, filled with positivity, and always aimed to improve herself.
Mari was always the one that stood up for Masato Kusaka when he got bullied, but Saya was always the one Masato went to when he needed someone to talk to.
Mari was annoyed at him for doing that at the time, but she understood why that was the case now.
She was then reminded of the time she gave Saya a homemade necklace as a birthday present.
It was a really crude necklace made up of pull tabs from canned drinks, colored with magic markers and strung together with string. As embarrassing of a necklace it was, Saya still happily put it on.
Takumi suddenly kicked Mari’s foot from under the table. He was signaling her to hurry up and get to the main point.
I know, calm down, geez…
After finishing their barley tea and chocolate cake, Mari apologetically began explaining the actual reason why she came to visit her.
She kept quiet about Mr. Ishibashi and Shouji Inukai’s deaths. She didn’t want to make Saya sad and confuse her. In other words, she basically just wanted to hear about what happened when Saya got adopted.
Did the foster parents that adopted children from Ryusei School really all get murdered?
“Killed? Mr. Ishibashi said that?” Saya was understandably shocked after hearing what Mari had to say.
“Yeah, and that’s what’s got me curious.”
“…It’s probably just some kind of misunderstanding,” Saya said after thinking for a little bit.
“Then why did you come back to Ryusei School after getting adopted?”
“It’s actually rather simple in my case. I never said anything about it because Mr. Ishibashi told me not to, but…”
Saya was adopted by a couple that didn’t have children. However, the wife found out she was pregnant soon afterward.
That’s why Saya was brought back to Ryusei School.
That was everything Saya had to say. It really was quite simple.
Just as Mari was about to leave the apartment, she noticed a photo on top of a cabinet in the hallway.
It was a photo of Saya and a man with their arms entwined.
“Who’s this? Your boyfriend?”
“Hey now, don’t look!”
Mari drew closer to get a better look, but Saya quickly hid the photo out of embarrassment.
“What about you, looks like you’ve been plenty lovey-dovey yourself,” Saya whispered into Mari’s ear as a retort.
“He’s your boyfriend, right? How nice.”
She was obviously talking about Takumi.
“Oh, no no no. There is no way in hell I’d go out with a guy like him.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be caught dead going out with this chick.”
It was only at times like these where Mari and Takumi agreed.
“What the heck’s going on? Was this really just all that Ishibashi guy’s misunderstanding?”
Takumi spoke out to Mari on the way back in the delivery van.
“I’m not sure. What do you think?”
“At the very least I’d say it didn’t seem like Saya Kimura was lying.”
“Yeah.”
There’s no way Saya would lie. Did Mr. Ishibashi really just come to the wrong conclusion? But it seems kind of off to just come to that conclusion so easily. What did Mr. Ishibashi exactly misunderstand in the first place?
As Mari thought about that, she began to grow depressed.
She was reminded of how her teacher turned into ash.
“Anyway, how’ve things been going for you lately? You getting along with that hypocrite Yuuji Kiba?”
Takumi suddenly changed topics.
Ever since that barbeque party, Takumi had been referring to Yuuji as “the hypocrite”.
He really didn’t like him.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
She responded coldly.
“Yeah, I bet it’s ‘cause of your nasty personality. He probably hates you, huh?”
Maybe, Mari thought.
Maybe he really does hate me. Ugh, it’s like nothing’s been going right for me at all lately!
“Idiot!” Mari tried shouting that out to release her stress.
“What the, that came out of nowhere,” said Takumi as he glared back at Mari from behind the steering wheel.
Mari continued.
“Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot!”
“You’re the idiot. Idiot, idiot idiot, idiot!”
Takumi responded exactly how Mari predicted.
Sometimes these childish fights were just what she needed. It helped take her mind off things, if only just for a moment.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 