Part 3
Kagami arrived at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok late at night.
He had entrusted his belt to the cargo hold since it was too much of a pain for him to explain its circumstances, and he was now on his way to pick it up, albeit with some slight unease.
Thankfully, the belt was still in his backpack. They must have just considered it to be some kind of toy.
Kagami headed to the information desk to ask for directions toward the hotel mentioned in the postcard, but there was no one there, possibly because they were on break.
“Konnichiwa!”
Upon suddenly hearing that Japanese, Kagami turned around to find himself facing a Thai man with a friendly look on his face. After talking for a bit in broken Japanese, the man mentioned that he had been studying abroad at a Japanese university up until just the previous day.
Kagami showed him the address of the hotel on his postcard and gestured to show that he wanted directions to it.
“Oh, that’s Khaosan!”
The man called the address Khaosan, and then told Kagami that he would give him a ride in his car.
Kagami found himself overcome with tears of happiness from having come across such a friendly person on his first time traveling to another country.
The man was cheerful as he drove as well.
“Akihabara, sushi, Fujiyama, Roppongi, otaku!”
The man rapidly chatted about those various topics and even gave Kagami canned juice and bread.
Kagami immediately partook in those gifts without any doubt or hesitation whatsoever.
The cream in the bread tasted a bit strange, but he couldn’t possibly refuse to eat the food given to him by such a kind man.
He pushed himself to completely consume both the juice and the bread. Eventually, he grew exhausted from responding to the man’s nonstop chatter, and as he began to gaze out the car window, he noticed that they were swerving left and right through a complicated route of multiple tiny roads.
Even so, Kagami held no suspicions whatsoever as the following thought crossed his mind:
“He’s probably pretty rich considering that he studied abroad in Japan, but his car’s surprisingly run-down.”
As he thought that, he suddenly found himself struck with drowsiness.
It was an intense drowsiness that he was completely powerless against.
Kagami tried to say something to the Thai driver, but his mouth couldn’t form anything other than an odd moan.
Even so, the Thai man looked back at him with the usual friendly smile on his face and continued to joke with him.
Even someone like Kagami was beginning to pick up on the subtle malice hidden behind that smile.
However, it was already far too late.
Struck with dejection, Kagami’s consciousness went completely dark.
The next day, Kagami found himself waking up on the roadside in the sweltering heat. He was covered in filth, surrounded by a pack of napping stray dogs.
The people walking by would give him disgusted looks as if they were looking at a drunk.
Kagami found their gazes uncomfortable and tried to change location, but the moment he tried to stand up, his vision would shake as if he was seasick, making him fall right back down to his backside.
With his mind still muddled, Kagami attempted to piece together what had happened.
And then he slowly but steadily came to a realization.
His watch, backpack, and wallet had all disappeared.
The answer was simple, no matter how much he didn’t want to believe it.
He had been utterly duped by that seemingly friendly Thai man.
There was most likely a powerful sleeping pill mixed in with the bread and drink that was given to him.
The worst thing about it was that even his Gattack belt had been stolen.
It was an incredibly dire situation, but perhaps because it was so dire, Kagami attempted to escape reality.
But he had no choice but to accept it.
He had lost his money, his belongings, Gattack, everything.
“Why am I such an idiot…”
Kagami couldn’t help but grow depressed.
After a while, his head eventually cleared up, and he decided to get up for now.
He noticed his passport was in his pocket.
He had no memory of putting his passport there, so he thought that maybe the Thai man shoved it in there as a small display of mercy.
In that passport was the good luck charm the old lady had given him.
Kagami found a police officer and tried to explain his situation to him.
But his broken English wasn’t of much use, and since he didn’t know a lick of Thai, he failed in explaining a single thing.
Just then, a passing-by Japanese person called out to him.
Kagami was overjoyed. And then he explained what had happened to him.
The man seemed to be experienced in travel, and he told Kagami that his only option was to borrow money from the embassy and head back to Japan.
“Just think of it as a slightly expensive tuition fee.”
After adding on that last bit, the man disappeared into the crowds of people.
After he was long gone, Kagami realized that he didn’t even know where the Embassy of Japan was.
The man was right.
He was completely ignorant.
He was all too ashamed of himself.
As he fell further and further into depression, he then understood the Thai man’s intention.
The only reason why he had stolen everything other than the passport was so that Kagami would quickly head back to Japan instead of making the problem even bigger.
Kagami had lost completely. He was frustrated.
The sun beyond the smog scorched his skin.
His dripping sweat and parched throat reminded him of the intense summer training he went through during his high-school ball player days.
Back then, Kagami was taught that the real practice began when he was exhausted to the limit.
Those memories encouraged Kagami.
“It’s not over yet. I’m just getting started. I can’t afford to back down yet. I have a goal. I have to save Hiyori. She’s waiting for me. Just hang on, Hiyori! I’m on my way!”
Kagami’s fighting spirit had finally been ignited.
The streets of Bangkok were quiet, with few people on the streets, probably due to the excessive heat.
Kagami began to move steadily forward, one step at a time, through the shimmer of that burning asphalt.
Part 4
Kagami decided to immediately search for the hotel Hiyori and Rin were staying at.
But he quickly found himself at a loss.
The postcard from Rin with the address of the hotel had also disappeared along with his backpack.
As ironic as it was, his only other clue was the words spoken to him by that Thai man who had deceived him.
“That’s Khaosan!”
He had no choice but to trust in the words of that thief.
Fortunately, the man had dumped him not too far away from Khaosan. Kagami couldn’t help but feel like he was weirdly considerate for a scammer.
“I’m on my way, Hiyori!”
But blindly scouring the entirety of Khaosan would be all too inefficient.
According to a Japanese tourist he spoke with, there were at least 500 hotels within Khaosan.
And Kagami’s crude English was of hardly any help in explaining his situation.
Reality was cruel.
The heat and exhaustion, combined with his thirst and hunger, made quick work of the motivation that had fueled him not too long ago.
Without money, he couldn’t even be granted a sip of water.
He had decided to not drink raw water no matter what, but he found himself tempted by even the water in the puddles around him.
Running out of strength, Kagami entered a temple in search of shade and a place to sit.
Unlike in Japan, anyone could enter the main hall as long as they took off their shoes.
A huge, gilded Buddha statue sat in the cool main hall, looking down on Kagami.
Unlike Japanese Buddhist statues, it had a funny-looking face with a wide smile, but as Kagami looked at it, he felt like it could completely see through him, and his hands naturally clasped together.
He simply bowed his head down without praying about anything in particular.
Various Thai people were coming in and taking turns praying.
Kagami leaned against a pillar in the corner of the main hall and eventually managed to fall asleep.
Hunger and thirst.
He was at his limit.
A cool breeze passed through.
The scent of incense soothed his soul.
The history of Buddha from his birth was painted on the wall where the setting sun shone through.
Upon learning that the country was Buddhist, Kagami was reminded of the good luck charm given to him by the old lady at Tendou’s house.
When he took it out and took a closer look, he noticed there was a strange bulge.
Upon opening it, he found a 10,000 yen bill contained inside.
The old lady had given him a parting gift along with the good luck charm.
Kagami looked at the Buddha statue.
The smiling face looked like it was saying “What did I tell you?”
“All right!”
Before he realized it, he found himself shouting at the top of his lungs within the temple.
Kagami immediately ran to one of the exchange counters in Khaosan and converted the 10,000 yen into Thai baht.
He received 3,335 baht.
He felt incredibly rich from having just a single bill turn into a dozen or so bills and coins.
Kagami entered an air-conditioned convenience store.
He bought the cheapest water available for 5 baht. Around 15 yen in Japanese currency.
After exiting the store, he found it too much of a pain to take the lid off and just drank and drank as if showering himself with the water.
Outside the convenience store was a food stall grilling yakisoba. The price was 20 baht.
Kagami immediately ordered a serving and completely devoured it.
It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted.
Upon finishing his meal, his appetite immediately washed over him like a wave. He piled grilled corn, skewers, and various other side dishes onto a plate of rice and dug in.
He ate until his stomach was about to burst, and after finally settling down, Kagami proceeded to think about his next course of action as he sat at the food stall table.
“I can beg the embassy for money after I’m sure I’m absolutely broke. Right now I should prioritize looking for the hotel Hiyori’s staying at.’
Kagami muttered those words to himself.
It was getting late, so Kagami decided he had to look for a hotel to stay at.
Kagami continued to ask around about Hiyori and Rin while he looked for a cheap hotel to save on money.
He wasn’t able to learn anything about them, but he did get a better understanding of the town’s situation.
He was on Khaosan Road, which was known as a “backpacker ghetto” for those wanting to travel on the cheaper side.
There were a wide variety of cheap hotels, with the cheapest ones being dormitories, which had shared rooms with beds for about six people per room.
But even further down at the lowest level where the constant stench of drainage channels and exhaust fumes permeated the area, there was a hotel that was only 80 baht for a single night.
What’s more, the Thai Chinese owner of the hotel was willing to make each night only 70 baht if a week’s worth was paid in advance, which would be around 210 yen, even cheaper than the dormitories.
Upon being shown his room, he found himself in a tiny space unlike a jail cell, containing a sheetless and blanketless bed exuding the putrid stench of the sweat it had culminated from all the different kinds of travelers that had slept on it.
Needless to say, there was no air conditioning, nor a toilet or shower. The windows were covered with iron bars for anti-theft purposes, but at the same time, it felt as if they were there to prevent anyone from getting out as well.
The Thai Chinese owner ensured that he would not pry into Kagami’s business as long as he paid the money, but at the same time, he made it clear that he would not guarantee his safety. However, Kagami’s money situation meant that he didn’t have much of a choice.
The guests staying at the hotel were all the desperate kind.
There were those who were so drugged up that they couldn’t move, those that were too exhausted from travel to return to their country, those that were regularly staying at the hotel because of shady business, and so on. It seemed to be an unspoken rule that the guests stayed out of each other’s businesses, but their situations weren’t that hard to pick up on.
They were all completely penniless, and a good-natured Japanese person like himself would make for an easy target for them.
“They’ll take advantage of me if I let my guard down!”
The tension managed to somewhat wake up his weary spirit.
That night, he had horrible diarrhea, possibly because of all the eating he did.
However, he still preferred it to having an empty stomach and a dry throat.
On the next day, he once again resumed his search for Hiyori and Rin.
But he wasn’t able to find any notable leads.
To penniless travelers such as himself, Khaosan was like a gateway to southeast Asia, with all kinds of facilities lined up next to each other, like travel agencies, currency exchange counters, cheap restaurants, net cafes, and shops selling everything from souvenirs to even fake student ID cards. Despite that, he couldn’t find a single lead regarding Hiyori or Rin.
On the third day, Kagami noticed someone standing in the crowds of people in front of the convenience store. It was the Thai man that had deceived Kagami.
“Hey, you! Give me back my stuff!”
Blood rushed to his head, and the next thing he knew, Kagami was throwing his fist toward the man.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 