As a weirdo, I like being a Kamen Rider

"What?" Shotaro's eyes widened. "He jumped in? Where is he?"

“It no longer exists.” Philip shook his head and continued, “This underground spring is no ordinary spring; it is a direct container of Earth’s memory, containing the most primal and purest will of Earth. Once a living person jumps in, their body and consciousness will be completely decomposed, becoming part of Earth’s memory, disappearing forever, never to be resurrected. He wanted to replicate the process of me becoming a child of Earth, but he clearly failed.”

He paused, then added, "There's no record of him still existing in the Earth Library. From the moment he jumped into the water, Sonozaki Ryubei vanished completely."

Silence fell over the secret room.

Teruji Ryu sheathed his engine sword and breathed a sigh of relief: "He deserved it. He harmed so many people; this is his end."

Looking at the calm well water, Wu Yan sighed softly. There was no hatred, no relief, only a complex emotion that was hard to define. The man who had spent his entire life chasing the will of the Earth had, in the end, merged with what he had pursued his whole life in this way.

Decade leaned against the wall and waved the camera in his hand: "It seems that the troubles in Futo are finally completely resolved."

Lin Chen also sheathed the Earth Emperor Sword and deactivated his transformation: "Perfect timing, Shotaro, hand over the Ultimate Memory to me. It's time to complete the final plan."

Shotaro knew what he was going to do, so he summoned the Ultimate Memory and handed it to Lin Chen.

Then he walked to the well. He thought of Narumi Shokichi, and everyone in Fuuto who had been hurt because of the Gaia Memory.

“It’s over,” he said softly. “Fengdu is finally free again.”

"Let's go, Tsukasa Kadoya. We'll need your help again," Lin Chen said to Tsukasa Kadoya.

"Honestly, I had no idea you were so bossy when we first met," Tsukasa Kadoya said with a hint of sarcasm.

A week later, the Narumi Detective Agency returned to its usual state. Akiko stood with her hands on her hips, scolding Shotaro for making another mess of the agency. Philip sat in front of the radio, listening to his sister Wakana Sonozaki's radio broadcast again. The long-lost Princess of Fuuto had finally returned to her favorite radio station.

As for Sherrard, he wanted to leave when it was all over, but he was persuaded to come back by Shotaro and Akiko.

Terui Ryu would occasionally drop by, but his little schemes couldn't escape Shotaro's notice; this guy had actually taken a liking to Akiko, this 'high school girl'.

Shotaro, thoroughly annoyed by Akiko's nagging, grabbed his hat and motorcycle helmet and went outside.

In the temporary detention center for superhuman criminals at the Fuuto Police Department, Kirihiko was engrossed in reading the morning newspaper, given his significant help in the final battle. Terui Ryu was initially inclined to turn a blind eye. However, Kirihiko voluntarily surrendered. He also brought along the escaped beast-doppelin couple.

When the battle in front of Fuuto Square ended, everyone only cared about Ryubei, the final boss, and completely forgot about Aya Kujo, Saeko Sonozaki, and the Beast Couple, who had lost their transformation abilities.

Fortunately, just as Sonozaki Saeko was about to escape, Kujo Aya, who had lost the influence of the Gaia Memory, remembered that she was still a police officer. Sonozaki Saeko happened to be one of the indirect murderers of Mizoguchi, so the two women started fighting. In the end, how could the young lady Sonozaki Saeko, who had lost her transformation ability, possibly be a match for Kujo Aya, a detective?

She begged the Beast Couple for help, but they were notorious thieves who had only worked for Ryūbei out of fear. Now that they had a chance, of course they wanted to run away. They had already gotten the huge sum of money they had robbed and could live comfortably anywhere.

Kirihiko's neighbor is Sonozaki Saeko, his ex-wife.

The keyhole on the iron gate made a crisp "click" sound, which was particularly jarring in the deathly silent prison area.

Saeko Sonozaki looked up. She was still wearing the black suit she had worn when she was arrested, but the hem of her skirt was covered in dust. Her usually meticulously combed long hair was now a little disheveled, but the arrogance that the eldest daughter of the Sonozaki family had etched into her bones still remained in her eyes.

She looked coldly at the two policemen who opened the cell door, a mocking smile playing on her lips: "What? You've finally decided to interrogate me? Or are you useless cowards who don't even dare to ask questions?"

The police ignored her provocation. One of them stepped forward, took out an interrogation form and waved it: "Saeko Sonozaki, come with us. Someone wants to see you."

"See me?" Saeko raised an eyebrow.

She straightened her collar, walked out of the cell with her head held high, and her high heels clicked crisply on the concrete floor.

Saeko walked casually, her eyes scanning the closed cell doors on either side, pondering how to clean up the mess after she got out. Then, as she passed the cell on her left, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye.

The man was sitting on the edge of the bed, his back to the corridor, holding a morning newspaper. Sunlight fell on his straight back, outlining a silhouette she once knew so well.

Saeko abruptly stopped, the tip of her high heel scraping a grating mark on the ground. Her pupils contracted sharply, as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.

"No...it can't be..." she murmured to herself, "This can't be...I clearly killed you with my own hands..."

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sudo Kirihiko seemed to hear her voice and slowly turned his head.

He was still the same as she remembered, his eyes still gentle, but those eyes, once overflowing with love for her, were now as calm as a bottomless lake. He saw the look of terror on Saeko's face, placed the newspaper he was holding on the small table beside him, stood up, and walked step by step to the iron bars on the window.

His movements remained elegant, as if he were strolling in his own garden, even while imprisoned. Through the cold iron bars, he looked at the woman before him, the woman he had once loved so much he would give up everything, and a faint smile played on his lips.

"I never expected to see you again, my dear."

His voice was soft, like the wind brushing across a lake, yet it struck Saeko's heart like a heavy hammer.

"it's all over."

Saeko opened her mouth, but her throat felt like it was blocked by something, and she couldn't make a sound.

"Let's go!" The escorting policeman shoved her hard, interrupting her dazed state.

Saeko stumbled and was dragged forward by the police, who held her arms.

The footsteps faded into the distance, and the prison area returned to silence.

At the other end of the corridor, Shotaro pulled down his hat brim and stepped aside to let the escort pass. His gaze lingered for a moment on Saeko's distraught face, taking in all the emotions in her eyes, but he said nothing. He put his hands in his trench coat pockets and continued walking, heading straight for Kirihiko's cell.

He raised his hand and knocked on the cold iron railing, making two soft "thump-thump" sounds.

“I’ve come to see you, Sudo Kirihiko.” Shotaro looked up at the man behind the iron bars, grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, “I’m so glad you’re still alive.”

Everyone thought that the story of Sonozaki Rubei had come to a complete end.

The first anomaly occurred on Wednesday night.

Akiko woke up screaming from a nightmare, covered in cold sweat. She said she dreamt of an old man with white hair wearing a black trench coat, standing in an endless black fog, staring at her with cold eyes, repeatedly saying, "Be afraid."

Shotaro Zuo assumed she had watched a horror movie during the day, smiled and offered a few words of comfort, and didn't take it to heart.

But the next day, the detective agency received its first strange client.

He was a young office worker, pale-faced, with sunken eyes, and his hands trembling incessantly. He said he always saw a strange old man in the mirror, and wherever he went, he could hear someone whispering in his ear. He was afraid to sleep, afraid to look in the mirror, and even afraid to talk to others, because the feeling of being watched would become even stronger whenever he brought it up.

“His eyes… were red.” The client’s voice trembled with tears. “He said he wanted to make everyone taste fear.”

Shotaro and Philip exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of seriousness in each other's eyes.

In the following days, similar requests flooded into the detective agency like snowflakes.

Some say they hear heavy footsteps behind them when they walk in an empty alley, but when they turn around, there's nothing there; some say their home appliances turn on by themselves, and the screen always shows the same white-haired old man's face; others say they've started to fear sunlight, fear sound, fear everything that's alive, and just want to hide in a dark corner.

Panic spread like a plague through the city.

What started as isolated incidents quickly escalated into a regional phenomenon of collective hallucinations. In a primary school in the south of the city, dozens of students simultaneously saw a dark figure in the corridor and burst into tears in terror; in a shopping mall in the city center, hundreds of people suddenly fell into inexplicable panic, pushing and trampling each other, resulting in multiple injuries.

The hospital was overflowing with mentally unstable patients, and the doctors were at a loss. All the tests showed that there was nothing wrong with their bodies, but their minds were trapped in endless fear.

"Something's not right." Philip's expression was more serious than ever before.

"Is it a new dopant?" Shotaro clenched his fist. "Could it be someone from the X Foundation?"

“No.” Philip shook his head. “I’ve searched through all the records about the Gaia Memory, and there’s no active signal at all. The source this time… isn’t a physical entity.”

Just then, Terui Ryu burst through the door, his face extremely grim. His police uniform was covered in dust.

“Left, right, something’s happened,” Terui Ryu said, panting. “The police station is in chaos too. More than a dozen police officers are hallucinating at the same time; they all say they saw Sonozaki Ryubei. And…”

He paused, his voice becoming even lower: "And then there's Sudo Kirihiko."

“Sudo Kirihiko?” Shotaro was taken aback. “Isn’t he locked up in the police station’s hardened criminal cell?”

“That’s him.” Terui Ryu nodded. “The prison guards just reported that he suddenly went mad, shouting incessantly in his cell: ‘Don’t hurt my sister!’ Then he transformed into a winged monster and escaped!”

Shotaro Sato pulled his hat down over his head, turned around, and rushed out of the detective agency.

The roar of the Tough Guy's engine pierced the afternoon air in the windy city, and the usually bustling streets seemed to have been emptied of their souls. The roller shutters facing the street were pulled shut tightly, and the windows were boarded up. Only a few intermittent sobs and screams occasionally escaped from the gaps—sounds that were very soft, but painfully piercing to the eardrums.

He went to Chengnan Elementary School first. The principal was blocking the school gate, holding an iron rod, his face as white as paper. “It’s not a uniform hallucination,” the principal’s voice trembled so much it was almost inaudible, “Some children said they saw giant spiders, some said they saw dogs drowning themselves, and one… he said his deceased mother was standing at the end of the corridor reaching out to him, saying she wanted to take him away.”

Shotaro's heart sank. He had thought everyone was only seeing the shadow of Sonozaki Ryubei, but now it seemed things were far more complicated than that.

He rushed to the municipal hospital. The psychiatric corridor was packed with people, and the nurses were surrounded. A man in a suit huddled in a corner, covering his ears, muttering over and over, "Don't fire me, I haven't paid off the mortgage yet"; a young girl kowtowed against the wall until her forehead bled, crying, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you"; an old man in a wheelchair stared blankly at the ceiling, his lips moving, "Don't take me with you... my grandson isn't grown up yet."

Shotaro leaned against the wall of the corridor, a sudden chill creeping up his spine. In a daze, Narumi Shokichi stood before him, covered in blood, his eyes filled with disappointment: "Shotaro, you still couldn't protect Fuuto."

He shook his head violently. The illusion dissipated, but his heart clenched so tightly he could hardly breathe.

“I see,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not about making everyone afraid of the same thing, it’s about throwing everyone into their own deepest pit.”

When he returned to the detective agency, Terui Ryu was already there. His face was even more somber than in the morning, and he threw a report on the table: "It's the same at the police station. Some are afraid of guns, some are afraid of the dark, and a veteran detective who has worked for twenty years suddenly can't bear to look at a corpse."

Inside the base, Philip was searching through the Earth Library for all the hidden records related to the Fear Memory and the Underground Spring.

Time passed slowly, and Shotaro took off his hat.

"found it."

Philip suddenly looked up, his face deathly pale: "I found the original data for the Terror Memory. The essence of the Terror Memory has never been to create uniform terrifying illusions, but to amplify the most hidden fears in the subconscious. Sonozaki Ryubei has always known this."

He pulled up an encrypted record and projected it onto the wall.

"When he jumped into the underground spring, his body was disintegrated by the Earth's memory, but his consciousness merged with the fragments of fear memory floating in the Earth's will. He did not create new fear; he simply became a switch—as long as someone thinks of 'fear,' as long as there is a trace of unease in their heart, he can follow that emotion and infinitely expand the nightmare deepest in that person's heart."

"So not everyone saw Ryubei?" Shotaro asked.

“Only those who have had direct contact with him, or those who are afraid of him, can see what he looks like.” Philip shook his head. “To others, he is the pressure of unemployment, the pain of losing loved ones, the shadow of childhood, unspoken regrets, and unpaid guilt. Each person is his own abyss.”

Terujiro clenched his fist tightly, his knuckles cracking: "There's no solution to this. Every human being has fear. He's exploiting humanity's most fundamental weakness."

Philip nodded, his voice deepening: "That's the most terrifying thing about meme contamination. It has no physical form, it can't be destroyed, and it only gets stronger with each spread. Now the entire Fengdu has become its culture medium, and everyone who gets caught up in it is supplying it with energy. Before long, even those with strong wills will be dragged in."

Shotaro was silent for a moment. He walked to the window. It was completely dark outside, and the scattered lights in the city looked like lonely embers that could be swallowed up at any moment. The sounds of sirens and ambulances could be heard intermittently in the distance.

He recalled what Narumi Shokichi had said: "Tough guys get scared too, but they keep going even when they're scared."

“No, there is a solution.” Shotaro turned around and looked at Philip and Terui Ryu. “Fear is instinct, but so is courage. Ryubei can amplify fear, but he can’t take away our determination to stand here.”

After he finished speaking, Philip suddenly sat up from his chair: "Wait a minute. If the foundation of fear is 'personal memory,' then theoretically—" He walked quickly to Shotaro, "as long as we can help someone awaken a memory anchor stronger than fear, we might be able to sever Ryubei's thread."

Teruji's eyes lit up: "Give it a try."

Their agency recently found a patient at a clinic, curled up on the floor, terrified of drowning as a child. Shotaro crouched down and pressed down on the man's shoulder: "Hey, can you hear me? When you were drowning as a child, who pulled you out?"

The man's eyes flickered, and his lips trembled as he uttered two words: "...Sister."

"Where is she?"

"She...she runs a noodle shop on the next street."

Without a word, Shotaro picked him up. Philip and Terui Ryu flanked him, and the three of them dragged the trembling man through the fear-filled street into the noodle shop that was still lit by a dim yellow light.

The woman behind the counter froze, then rushed out and hugged her younger brother. The man's body went from stiff to trembling violently, then gradually loosened, and finally he clutched his sister's sleeve and cried out.

The surrounding air seemed to crack open. The swirling black aura dissipated for a moment.

But it only lasted for three seconds.

The next second, the man's pupils contracted sharply again—he saw his sister's face suddenly transform into the blurry, lifeless face of someone drowning. He screamed and pushed her away.

The lights went out. All the lights on the street went out at once.