“Hey, Mari.”
One day, Yuusuke asked Mari a question at the dinner table.
“How’s Keitarou doing right now?”
“He’s probably cheerfully living it up like an idiot over in Africa or something, considering the kind of guy he is.”
“Keitarou’s an idiot?”
“Well, yeah, but not in a bad way.”
Mari quickly added that on as they ate the stir-fry she had hastily cooked up after coming home from the beauty parlor.
Yuusuke had a tendency to take anything said to him at face value.
She couldn’t say anything strange.
“I guess it’s almost idiotic how optimistic he is.”
“Why did Keitarou go to Africa? Did he stop liking me?”
Yuusuke set down his chopsticks in the middle of his meal.
He never showed much interest in eating.
He never gave any opinion on the food Mari cooked for him.
“That’s not true.”
Mari quickly waved her hand side to side while still holding her chopsticks, denying Yuusuke’s words.
“Keitarou just has his own things he has to take care of. I’m sure he’s still thinking about you even back in Africa. After all, he’s still washing your laundry and sending it back here, right?”
“That’s true.”
Yuusuke let out a small sigh.
“I’m lonely.”
Hearing that, Mari felt a twinge of guilt.
She felt pathetic over the contradicting feelings of love and fear she had for him.
Takumi was an Orphnoch too, you know? she’d tell herself.
And then she’d start hating herself even more.
Even though Takumi was an Orphnoch, he was the kindest person she knew. But then why couldn’t she interact with Yuusuke the same way she did with Takumi?
I miss Takumi, Mari thought.
Mari first learned of Yuusuke’s true identity when she was heading home on her bike late at night after being held up at the beauty parlor for longer than usual.
The ground suddenly shook violently, causing the bike to fall onto its side.
Mari’s body flew off the bike, her helmet falling off and rolling across the asphalt.
Just when she suspected that an earthquake might have occurred, the very next moment the trees around her collapsed, and the giant Elephant Orphnoch revealed itself.
The tense tingling atmosphere prickled Mari’s skin like needles as the Orphnoch roared with its long nose and tusks raised to the sky.
The fallen Mari looked up at the Elephant Orphnoch, unable to move whatsoever.
One of the Elephant Orphnoch’s tusks was already piercing through the corpse of a person it killed, and that corpse was slowly disintegrating into dusk.
After letting out one more roar, the Elephant Orphnoch rose its drum oil-like foot above Mari.
Mari raised a voiceless cry with her eyes closed shut, but after a few seconds of silence, she opened her eyes to see the shining light of Yuusuke’s back in front of her.
He had stopped the Elephant Orphnoch’s stomp with one hand. His body looked like it was made of a transparent yellow diamond with a golden light illuminating it from within, but Mari instantly recognized it was Yuusuke.
Despite the rapid growth he had undergone, he was still the same Yuusuke she had given baths to and slept together with. It was completely obvious to her.
Yuusuke slammed a golden fist into the Elephant Orphenoch’s stomach.
The shockwave from the impact quickly pierced through its back, and the Elephant Orphnoch burst into blue flames and disintegrated into ashes.
The sound of a trickling river could be heard not too far away in the direction of the darkness.
“Are you all right, Mari?”
The shining being turned back into his normal form as Yuusuke and asked her.
For the first time ever, Yuusuke felt proud of his power. It had allowed him to save Mari.
Yuusuke walked up to Mari and held out his hand to help her up.
“Yuusuke…”
Mari reflexively stood up and backed away.
She wouldn’t hold Yuusuke’s hand.
The next day, the Anti-Orphnoch Committee came to visit Mari.
She set a cardboard box on top of the counter in the dry cleaner she used to work at and began stuffing it with Yuusuke’s clothes to be sent to Africa.
Kikuchi Cleaning had been closed ever since Keitarou left for Africa.
She felt horribly nostalgic, recalling the loud rambunctious times of Takumi and Naoya goofing off at the workplace.
That morning, after finishing breakfast, Mari cut Yuusuke’s hair.
She wrapped newspaper around his neck and cut his hair in a corner of the yard.
It was his first time having his hair cut since his rapid growth.
He had always cut his hair on his own, saying that it tickled him to have other people touch his hair, but for some reason when Mari asked to cut his hair this morning, he obediently answered with an “Okay”.
Mari thought of it as the least she could do to apologize.
At first, her hands holding the comb and scissors trembled slightly.
Mari remembered Takumi.
She had often cut Takumi’s hair just like this back then.
“Watch it, you’re cutting too much. You suck at this.”
After remembering his voice, Mari’s trembling subsided.
“You don’t have to force yourself, Mari.”
Once the haircut was over, Yuusuke headed to his room on the second floor after leaving those words.
There wasn’t any point in that.
Mari thought to herself as she stuffed the cardboard box.
It was pointless to have cut his hair while thinking about Takumi.
That didn’t amount to any apology whatsoever.
Just as Mari let out a large sigh after finishing packing the cardboard box, the doorbell rang. Upon opening the door, there were three men standing there all wearing the same grey jackets and open-necked white shirts.
After they introduced themselves as members of the Anti-Orphnoch Committee, Mari guided them into the living room. They said they had something important to talk to her about.
Mari immediately grew worried, and the contents of what the men had to say confirmed her suspicions.
The Anti-Orphnoch Committee knew of Yuusuke’s existence.
According to them, Yuusuke was a hybrid between human and Orphnoch just as Mari believed him to be, and they claimed he was an extremely valuable being.
“What do you mean by that?”
Mari questioned them while looking at their necks.
The three men all had something like a pearl-shaped piercing embedded in their necks.
She recalled the rumors she heard of the Anti-Orphnoch Committee’s executioners.
They were all capable of transforming into Kaixas, but in order to fully take advantage of that power, two thirds of their blood were apparently replaced with a special kind of energy solution.
As a result, their blood wasn’t red.
It was black, like crude oil.
The men explained that Yuusuke could prove to become the bridge between humans and Orphnochs.
Mari was surprised to hear them tell her that there had actually been previous cases of humans having children with Orphnoch before.
However, those hybrids always had unstable vitality, leading them to die mere moments after coming into this world.
That was why Yuusuke was extremely special.
“So if you understand, we’d like for you to hand Yuusuke over to us.”
It was the exact conclusion that Mari had expected.
At some point, Yuusuke had showed up at the entrance to the living room and was listening to their conversation.
“This will be for your benefit, too.”
The men turned around to Yuusuke and began persuading him as well.
“We assure you that we’ll treat you well. You’re someone extremely important who just might become humanity’s hope. As you are right now, you might not live for much longer, but if you come to our facility, there will be all kinds of possibilities in store for you.”
As they spoke to him, Yuusuke looked at Mari.
“I’ll let Mari decide.”
Yuusuke’s eyes felt like a blow to Mari’s heart.
But Mari didn’t know how she should respond.
If the Orphnoch crisis were to somehow be solved if she handed over Yuusuke, that would most certainly be a positive thing. And if the committee was capable of protecting Yuusuke’s life, then…
“All right. I’ll come with you.”
Yuusuke spoke without waiting for Mari’s response.
Mari’s silence was more than enough of an answer for him.
One of the men who was wearing a black vinyl glove on one hand grabbed Yuusuke’s wrist.
After letting go, part of the vinyl had peeled off the glove and remained on his wrist.
That vinyl then turned into liquid and seeped into his skin, which caused Yuusuke to grow dizzy.
“What did you do to him?!” shouted Mari.
“There’s no need for concern. I suppose you could think of it as a heart stabilizer,” responded the man.
They supported Yuusuke from both sides and left the house.
Mari stood still in a daze.
She then finally realized that she forgot to ask the most important questions, such as where Yuusuke was being brought to and how she would be able to meet with him.
But still, she told herself this was for the best.
She didn’t have any choice but to tell herself that.
This is for the best. This is for Yuusuke’s sake. This is for humanity’s sake.
Mari then suddenly lifted her face and listened around her.
She could hear the sound of a guitar.
I know that sound, she thought.
It was Takumi’s guitar.
Mari rushed up the stairs to Takumi’s room.
“Takumi?”
But Takumi wasn’t there.
The wind from the open window was simply blowing against the strings of the guitar standing against the wall.
But Mari still felt like she heard Takumi’s voice.
She remembered the promise she made with him.
To live strong, to live justly.
Just when did she forget the promise she made with him? People always end up forgetting the most important things as the days pass.
They forget about the meaning behind the promises they make. Perhaps the act of living itself is just an illusion that hides what truly happens day after day.
Perhaps the passage of time is nothing but a burial for oneself.
But that wasn’t right.
Mari dashed out of the house and started up her bike.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 