Am I a Kamen Rider or the real young master who was switched at birth?

As Ye Yang was walking down the street, he suddenly felt a churning sensation in his stomach.

He leaned against the corridor wall with one hand and pressed his stomach with the other. He hadn't changed his expression when he fought Wang Yu in the arena, and he was calm and composed when he sang high notes in the rehearsal hall. But now, faced with a bowl of cold noodles that seemed a bit stale yesterday, Kamen Rider Decade had to bow his head.

"Um—where's the restroom here?" He turned to look at the three Lin sisters, trying to make his tone sound as normal as possible.

Lin Xingran pointed to the path next to her that was covered with low shrubs. Behind the shrubs, she could vaguely see a low building completely shaded by the trees.

"There's a public restroom over there. Just walk through this road and you'll see a small green building with a 'WC' sign. Hurry up, the light in that restroom isn't very bright, but it should be fine during the day."

Ye Yang said "Oh," and then moved towards the grove at a pace somewhere between brisk walking and jogging.

His gait was unnatural, as if he were using all his strength to control a valve that was about to go out of control.

Lin Ying stood there, watching Ye Yang's figure disappear behind the bushes.

She placed her hands together in front of her body, her fingers gently twisting the edge of her sleeves several times.

Her brows furrowed slightly, and her silvery-white eyelashes fluttered gently in the afternoon sunlight.

"He—he looked a little off just now—did he get food poisoning at the food street yesterday? Yesterday—I ate the grilled squid yesterday and it was fine, but he also ate grilled pig's trotters and drank cola."

"But... cola and roasted pig's trotters don't seem to go well together... Second Sister, do you think he might have an upset stomach? And... the way he was walking just now, it seemed like he was afraid to take big steps, his stomach must be hurting badly."

"Did he bring toilet paper? When he came out just now, he—he didn't seem to have a bag, just a camera and a driver. Is there toilet paper in the toilet? What if there are spider webs or something in there—"

"Lin Ying." Lin Xingran interrupted her with a meaningful tone, a smile that said, "I know everything."

She gently placed her hand on Lin Ying's shoulder, then leaned close to her ear, a mischievous smile on her face, and said:

"What's wrong? Do you want to go check on Ye Yang? I can show you the way. If you're worried he didn't bring any toilet paper, I can bring it in for you—he shouldn't be out yet anyway."

Lin Ying's face flushed red to her ears.

She frantically waved her hand, the movement so fast it was as if she were shooing away a swarm of tiny flying insects visible only to herself, and stammered:

"No, no, no—I—I was just saying—Second sister, don't make wild guesses—why would I go to see him—he went to the toilet—I'm not—"

She spoke in such a hurry that the last syllable of her voice trailed off into a very soft, muffled groan. Finally, she simply covered her face with her hands, burying her burning face in her palms.

Her long, silvery-white hair slipped through her fingers, gleaming softly in the sunlight, but her flushed ears betrayed all her thoughts at that moment.

Lin Xingran chuckled and reached out to poke her cheek, muttering, "Lin Ying, you're so cute! How come you're even worried about Ye Yang having diarrhea? Should we send him some tissues? Does he even know how much you care about him?"

Lin Ying covered her face even tighter, only revealing her two bright red ear tips.

Lin Yumin stood to the side, thoughtfully watching Lin Ying bury her face in her hands and refuse to lift it up, and then looked at the somewhat lewd smile on Lin Xingran's face.

She tilted her head slightly, and said thoughtfully, "You two—"

Lin Xingran grabbed her older sister's wrist and pulled her several steps to the side.

She pointed to a cluster of roses in full bloom by the roadside and called out in an extremely deliberate tone:

"It's alright, it's alright! Big sister, look over there—wow, what a beautiful flower! Look at the color of the petals, it looks just like the new variety that someone at our school crossbred!"

Lin Yumin glanced in the direction she was pointing, then turned back to look at Lin Xingran's face, which seemed to say, "Please, don't ask any more questions," and said calmly, "I beg you, please don't ask any more."

"What a terrible way to change the subject. This rose bush has been here for at least several years, and it blooms like this every summer."

"And during your last training session, you accidentally burned half of the clump with a flame, and I had to help you replant it."

But she looked in the direction Lin Xingran pointed for a few more moments and didn't ask any more questions.

Lin Xingran patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. She probably really thought that her older sister was going to expose Lin Ying's little scheme on the spot.

On the other side, in the public restroom deep in the grove, Ye Yang stood in front of the sink, his hands braced against the cold artificial stone countertop. Looking at his pale face in the mirror, he let out a sigh filled with a sense of relief at surviving a disaster.

"Ah—that feels much better. Was there something wrong with the cold noodles I ate at the food street yesterday? I felt that the crushed peanuts tasted a bit off, and I thought it was because there was too much seasoning."

He turned on the tap, filled his hands with cool water, splashed it on his face, and then brushed back the few wisps of hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. Water droplets slid down his jawline and dripped onto his shirt collar.

He straightened up, preparing to walk back, when he suddenly stopped.

Deep in the grove behind the toilet, people were talking, interspersed with a few low chuckles and muffled thuds as bodies were pushed against tree trunks.

Ye Yang's expression changed in that instant. Without hesitation, he turned and walked towards the direction from which the sound came.

After walking around several sturdy camphor trees and parting a clump of low bushes, he saw a scene that made him very uncomfortable.

A boy in a school uniform was surrounded by three people under a camphor tree.

The boy was very thin and short. His school uniform looked baggy on him, and even with the sleeves rolled up several times, it still seemed too long.

His back was pressed against the rough bark of the tree, his head was bowed, and his hands hung limply at his sides, his fingers trembling slightly.

Three boys, all wearing school uniforms, stood in front of him; the one in front was rather chubby.

He braced himself against the tree trunk with one arm, trapping the skinny boy between himself and the trunk, a smile on his face that made you want to punch him.

The other two stood to the left and right, one of them poking the skinny boy's shoulder with his finger, asking a question with each poke.

"What's wrong? Say something! I asked you to buy me water at the convenience store yesterday, why did you run so fast? Do you think we can't do anything to you because you have the homeroom teacher backing you up?"

The boy who had poked the shoulder withdrew his finger, then reached out and pushed the thin boy's forehead, causing the back of his head to slam against the tree trunk with a soft thud.

Another boy kicked a pebble on the ground, crossed his arms, and added lazily:

"He might really be deaf. Every time I talk to him, he keeps his head down, like he doesn't hear me. Hey, are you deaf? Or do you think we'll let you off the hook if you just tattle on him to the teacher?"

The fat guy at the front pulled his arm back from the tree trunk, took a step back, and then kicked the skinny boy in the back of the knee.

The skinny boy's legs buckled, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground, leaving a thin bloodstain on his palm as he scraped it against the rough tree root.

He tried to stand up by bracing himself against the ground, but his knees hurt too much from hitting the ground. He tried several times but could not stand up. He could only kneel on the ground, head down, shoulders trembling slightly.

What they didn't notice was that the skinny boy's eyes were slowly turning red.

The red color was rapidly penetrating his entire eyeball, and something deep within his pupils was being ignited little by little by the fear and humiliation he had just experienced.

His fingers dug deep marks into the soil, and a power he had never experienced before was surging wildly within his body, ready to burst out at any moment from this suppressed body.

Just then, a voice came from behind them.

"I never imagined that the Federation's No. 1 Military Academy would have bullying like this. You guys, do you think no one will see you bullying someone behind the toilets?"

The three boys turned their heads at the same time. The slightly chubby boy's eyes swept over Ye Yang from head to toe, and then his pupils suddenly contracted.

He had just witnessed this person kick Wang Yu out of the energy barrier in a matter of seconds from the stands of the arena.

He quickly nudged his companion, who was still poking someone, with his elbow and said in an extremely flustered tone:

"Boss—this is Ye Yang. Ye Yang! He's become so famous at our school today, the forum is full of posts about him. Kamen Rider Decade, he single-handedly wiped out a mercenary squad, and just now in the arena, he used Kabuto King to kick Wang Yu so badly he's still lying in the infirmary. That's Ye Yang."

The fat on the face of the boy who was called the boss twitched noticeably.

He looked at Ye Yang, his lips twitching upwards several times before finally managing to force a very strained smile.

"Oh—it's Brother Ye Yang. Hello, brother. I watched your match in the arena today, it was amazing! That knight kick was a textbook example of a counterattack."

"Welcome to our school. It's an honor to have you here. We weren't teasing him just now—we were just playing a little joke on him. Ask him himself; we usually get along very well."

Another boy quickly bent down and pulled up the skinny boy who was still shivering on the ground, then casually patted the dirt off his shoulders.

He placed his hand heavily on his shoulder, his fingers subtly pressing down on his shoulder blade, and said in a smirking tone:

"Yes, we were just joking with him. You agree, right? Look, he's standing right here, perfectly fine. We're a few of us who hang out together all the time, we were just roughhousing, and we hit him a little too hard."

The skinny boy was pinned to the shoulder by his companion's hand, as if all his strength had been drained. His eyes still had a faint red tinge, but that color was slowly fading.

Ye Yang watched this scene, twisted his neck, and made two very crisp cracking sounds, which were particularly clear in the quiet grove.

Then he reached for his waist, and the Decade Driver automatically put on the device the moment his fingers touched it.

The white base had a matte finish in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees, while the crystal core glowed with a faint green light.

He put on the driver, raised his hand and gently patted the card case, then said in an extremely calm tone:

"Oh, I see—then I'll play along with you guys. How did you joke around with him just now? Pushing his shoulder, poking his forehead, kicking him to the ground—come on, teach me. I want to learn how to joke around with people too."