I want to become a Kamen Rider

"If she only had ulterior motives towards me, that would be one thing, merely threatening my personal safety. The worst part is that she has an enormous appetite."

This threatens your wallet.

As they talked, the girl devoured the bread and meat in front of her, sauce still smeared on the corners of her mouth. Then she raised her hand high, her bright blue eyes sparkling as she looked at Fan Kang, her voice clear and slightly coquettish:

"Boss! I want another one! Bread! And that crispy meat!"

"Eat, eat, all you do is eat! You're going to eat me out of house and home! You're not allowed to..."

Just as Fan Kangban was about to refuse, Kewpie's bushy tail deftly curled up, producing a small stack of brand-new Danish kroner banknotes from who-knows-where:

'Never mind, let her eat. The child is so pitiful, her head is all damaged from the shock. Kangjun, I'll take the blame.'

"...You're making it seem like there's something wrong with me."

You shouldn't accept the money that Cupid offers.

Fan Kang took a deep breath, with the tragic and resolute determination of a warrior cutting off his own arm, and with tears in his eyes, he painstakingly pulled out a few crowns of the same denomination, but obviously much more crumpled, from his already pitifully empty wallet.

The wallet was so thin it looked like it had been stolen by someone from underground. He resignedly raised his hand to call for the waiter, his voice trembling almost imperceptibly:

"One more."

"Thank you, boss!"

The girl immediately cheered, her mouth still full of cream and bread crumbs, her eyes curving into crescents like a rewarded puppy. She excitedly jumped up from her chair, poised to pounce on Fan Kang.

Fan Kang swiftly pressed his finger against her forehead and expressionlessly pushed her back into her seat: "Sit still! If you lunge at me again, you'll have to pay the bill yourself."

The girl immediately sat up straight, placing her hands obediently on her knees, but her azure eyes remained strikingly bright, staring unblinkingly towards the kitchen, filled with boundless anticipation for the next dish.

The morning light streamed in through the window. She looked up at him and flashed a radiant, untroubled smile, a smile pure and warm, filled with complete trust and contentment.

"The eldest is the best!"

Chapter Sixty-Six Habits

Let's go back to late at night on that day.

The night outside the window was thick with darkness. Tina Hiiragi curled up in a corner of the sofa, her fingertips tracing across the screen of her phone, the cold blue light illuminating her slightly furrowed brows.

"It's snowing in Denmark! The minister probably didn't bring enough warm clothes. It must be very cold."

She checked the weather forecast on her phone.

"Pah, pah, pah, why should I worry about him? I hope he freezes to death there and never comes back."

Shaking her head to vent her inappropriate concern for the "devil," Hiiragi Tina turned off her phone and walked out of the room.

As agreed, she should leave the room. Kawasaki Saki would be there to pick her up soon, and then they should go together to complete the Knights Council's mission.

And so, with each task accumulated, he grew stronger little by little, slowly catching up with that person's back, and gradually standing shoulder to shoulder with him.

Saving the world is such a cool thing, there's no reason for him to have it all to himself.

Then, she took a step forward.

Falling flat on the ground.

She didn't miss a step, didn't trip; the floor was clearly flat, yet her body lost its balance without warning. She tumbled forward, her forehead hitting the floor with a light thud, seeing stars.

"Woo..."

Hiiragi Tina sat up, rubbing her forehead, looking a little dazed.

She asked herself if she was really that clumsy. Although that person always laughed at her for being clumsy, she couldn't possibly be so bad as to fall flat on her face empty-handed. Could it be that the minister had cursed her?

Then, the card that should have been carefully kept in her pocket fell out and scattered all over the ground. She hurriedly went to pick it up, but the one card that was missing was the most important one, the one that the club president had entrusted to Sakuta Azusagawa to give him... Kuuga.

She looked around, but there was nothing on the floor, under the bed, or in the gaps of the desk. Then she looked up and saw the blank sheet of paper in the sky.

This was a scene that looked like a ghost story, and she should have been terrified, but she wasn't.

That card belonged to the minister; it couldn't possibly be haunted by a ghost. Ghosts are more likely to be afraid of ministers, she firmly believed that.

The blank card floated silently, and she subconsciously reached out her hand towards it.

Then, to my surprise, I discovered that the white warrior on the card had vanished. The figure engraved on the card was neither red, nor cyan, nor blue; instead, it was a pitch-black figure.

Even her eyes, which should have shone like stars in the long night, were black.

.........

……

Hiiragi Tina was dreaming.

For the first time, she was acutely aware of this fact, because the last thing she saw before falling asleep was that the card flew straight toward her and knocked her unconscious. If she had waited until she woke up later, she would probably have seen a swollen bump on her forehead.

The scene in my dream was still a giant beast breaching the city.

A colossal beast, blotting out the sky, tore apart the city's fabric; steel and iron groaned and twisted under its terrifying trampling, turning to dust. The towering column of smoke was the dying lament of civilization.

And in the heart of this devastating torrent, what she saw was still that tragic knight.

Nothing changed, except for the addition of a background sound.

The voice was filled with regret, and even after the appearance of that sorrowful knight, there was still lingering affection.

A colossal beast destroys the world, and a hero steps forward—it's just a typical story, but this time, with the addition of background music, everything becomes different.

Hiiragi Tina watched all of this in silence.

She had cried countless times for the figure in her dreams, but this time, she could only weep silently.

Because she knew all too well that the voice was her own.

She once bet three comic books on a gamble, which she lost to the minister and was forced to record a song. From then on, the most wicked bastard in the world would play in front of him from time to time, so she knew it all too well.

"The minister said he's the most, most, most powerful Kamen Rider."

"No matter what kind of enemy we face, or what kind of danger we encounter, we will not back down, and we will definitely come back alive."

"The minister is the most deceitful minister in the world, the minister who doesn't keep his word, the minister who would swallow a thousand needles... He only accomplished half of his mission."

As she had seen countless times before, the knight climbed to the top.

The dream would usually end here, but...

This time, she finally saw that face clearly.

The man who never doubted himself, never felt lost, and whose face always wore a smile because of bullying her, was crying.

He was crying.

Even so, he did not doubt himself, nor did he feel lost.

He just kept crying.

"Without the captain, I probably wouldn't have become a Kamen Rider."

"Nor would all those subsequent events have occurred."

"Kyube later told me that it was the first time it had ever seen a knight like that. Unique in its lifetime, absolutely one of a kind, only once in a lifetime. In the cosmos, from the perspective of time and space, the minister wasn't the strongest knight; there were countless others far more powerful than him."

"But, there is only one who will fight relentlessly, even if it means abandoning everything and giving up all others."

"A cataclysm that would have killed tens of thousands of people became a minor, obscure farce in his hands. Naturally, almost no one knew how much he had sacrificed, nor how many battles he had fought. Even Kyubey couldn't count them all."

"Perhaps his wish wasn't to become a Kamen Rider at all, but to save... the most people possible. It's just that Kamen Rider was the hero he trusted most, which is why he became Kamen Rider."

Boundless waves crashed in, only to vanish with the flames.

It looked just like a heavy snowfall.

Standing in the mist, the knight turned around and glanced at her.

The interesting thing is that he wasn't looking at the city behind him or the people he was protecting, but at... her.

Look at her now, dreaming, gazing at him from afar.

But only once.

One, two, three, four... countless colossal beasts, too numerous to count with the naked eye, stepped onto the land, only to be stopped by a single person.

[“I asked Kyubey, ‘Why did the minister fight and fight until his eyes turned black?’”]

[“Cupid said, ‘Anti-King was never such a great hero; his heart was neither gentle nor did he hate fighting because of noble character; he was simply afraid.’”]

"Then why, why is it that even with his eyes turned completely black, he can still stand there, blocking all the giant beasts?"

The breath was blocked, the behemoth was slain, the sky was set ablaze, and the long night was dispelled. The red-eyed hero did no different after turning black.

He stood there, illuminating the entire world.

"Maybe it's just a habit."

【"'Habit?'"】

"Yes, he's used to it, protecting you all."

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Embers of a Long Dream (4K)

"That wasn't something that could be overcome by the darkness within one's heart; it was a man's entire life for the rest of his days."

Hiiragi Tina woke up with tears streaming down her face and grabbed the card in her hand.

She hugged the card tightly to her chest.

He held it tightly in his arms, as if trying to embed it into his own body, as if in this way he could preserve that figure that had dissipated into dust in his dreams.

Then, the grief that had been building up to its peak finally broke through the blockage in her throat.

"Woo…Wa ...

No longer the silent stillness in a dream, no longer the suppressed sobs.

He burst into tears.

Wailing.

Her shoulders trembled violently, and her whole body curled up as if bearing an unimaginable weight. Hot tears quickly soaked through her pajamas and the card pressed against her chest.

It was just a dream. The minister wasn't dead yet. Nothing had happened. It was just a distant future, distinct from the past and present.

She shouldn't be crying like this; she shouldn't be this sad in the first place.

But here's the irony: someone gained power from the future, traversing thirty years to become an enemy of humanity; while all she received from her future self was this unfathomable sorrow.

We only realize the value of many things after we lose them.

However, the voice in the dream lost that person, lost for who knows how many years.

From then on, no one bullied her anymore, no one stole her comics, no one chopped her on the head, and she could enjoy the comics and drinks she bought all by herself without worrying about being exploited. It sounded like a wonderful ending, except...

No one will volunteer to help her make friends, no one will squat in a corner with her, smoking cigarettes and candy, no one will despicably use her as a shield to avoid the battlefield, and no one will stand there anymore, in front of her.

From then on, she had to learn to fight alone, to become stronger alone, to endure loneliness, to suppress sadness, and to swallow her tears, because she was a Kamen Rider, and because there was no longer that figure standing before everyone else in front of her.

That's why I feel such longing for it.

With tears welling in her eyes, the girl clutched the card engraved with the image of a black warrior, then suddenly realized that this was not hers, not the one the captain had asked Sakuta Azusagawa to give her.

This one is all crumpled.

She recognized this feel; it was the feeling she got after the comic book she had painstakingly bought was snatched away by the department head, and then that bastard carelessly spilled cola on it.

The wrinkles on this sheet suggest it's been washed with cola hundreds of times by the minister.

Thinking of the lingering affection expressed by the voice in the dream after the mournful knight appeared, one can probably picture a scene.

Days, months, years, decades—like her right now, she's holding a card and crying for someone who will never come back.

……

……

Time returns to the present.

late at night.