I want to become a Kamen Rider

Her gaze swept across the distance, towards the neighborhood where Komachi's relatives lived.

"Perhaps, you need a special kind of... 'motivation'?" A cruel yet playful smile curved the woman's lips. "For example, letting you watch with your own eyes how your sister, the only survivor of the car accident you risked your life to protect, slowly... turns to ashes right before your eyes?"

This sentence was like the last spark that ignited a barrel of dynamite.

Komachi!

Within Hachiman Hikigaya's ravaged body, a violent energy, a mixture of unparalleled fear and raging fury, erupted. He was no longer the desperate seeker of death, but a beast whose absolute taboo had been touched.

"Roar--!!"

A deafening roar echoed through the ruins, and a grayish-white light instantly enveloped his mangled humanoid body, his bones cracking and his muscles swelling wildly.

The ferocious lion-shaped Orphnoch reappeared. Although its body still bore horrific wounds that were not fully healed and oozed thick, inhuman bodily fluids, its scarlet compound eyes burned with an unprecedented, almost insane ferocity.

It wasn't to join them, nor to become a monster. It was simply to protect Komachi, to protect his only, last, and final bond in this world.

With his battered body, he unleashed a speed beyond his limits, charging towards the red-eyed woman with unstoppable momentum. His claws tore through the air, carrying a resolute determination to perish together with her.

A flicker of surprise crossed the woman's eyes, quickly turning into a chilling mockery. She deftly sidestepped the enraged attack, dodging it like a ghost, and struck the lion's ribs with a powerful backhand.

"boom!"

The sound of bones shattering was clearly audible as the lion's massive body was violently sent flying, crashing into a crumbling wall and burying him in rubble and dust.

It started to rain.

The icy rain poured down again, relentlessly washing over his battered, gray body.

He struggled and roared, trying to rise from the ruins, his mud-covered claws reaching futilely towards the elegant figure, towards the direction where Komachi was.

The woman stood in the rain, raindrops streaming down her perfect face, her eyes devoid of any emotion, only utter contempt. She looked at the lion-like monster struggling in the mud, barely able to stand, as if it were a wild dog wallowing in a puddle.

“Hachiman Hikigaya,” her voice pierced the rain, each word like a poisoned icicle, stabbing deep into his remaining consciousness, “those who lack courage and resolve, whether as humans or as Orphnochs…”

She paused, the curve of her lips cruel and cold.

"...can't do anything right."

……

……

Rainwater washed over the ruins, mixing with the thick, asphalt-like inhuman blood flowing from the lion's wounds, spreading a murky, dark color in the mud.

Words were more piercing than physical pain. The woman's words, "Those who lack courage and awareness, whether as humans or as Orphnochs...can do nothing well," were like a red-hot branding iron, deeply imprinted on his shattered consciousness, bringing pain a hundred times greater than physical trauma.

I can't do anything right...

Yes, his life was a sum of failures. Known as the "self-destructing solution" in the Service Club, his terrible academic performance, awful interpersonal relationships, even his courage to protect his sister ultimately turned him into this monstrous, inhuman creature. In the end, he couldn't even manage a clean and tidy death.

But... he's a Chiba specialty, a siscon with the ninth-ranked "Sister Power," perhaps the real Hachiman Hikigaya already died in that car accident, and the survivor is just a monster with the same memories, but, but...

He's also Komachi's older brother!

"Roar--!!"

Instead of the desperate wails, what now came out of his throat was a ferocious lion's roar, originating from his bloodline and the deepest obsession of his soul.

The lion's scarlet eyes flashed with a terrifying glint once more, ignoring the excruciating pain that was almost tearing him apart, ignoring the tingling and agonizing sensation of his broken ribs and shattered internal organs frantically regenerating, like a thousand ants gnawing at his heart.

With his remaining claws, stained with mud and his own blood, he dug them into the rubble and steel bars beneath him, forcefully pulling his heavy, ashen body out of the rubble.

Instead of attacking, it charged forward like a cannonball, using all four limbs to madly rush toward the elegant yet deadly threat.

There is only one goal: to stop her, to prevent her from turning her gaze toward Komachi.

"Tsk."

A flicker of impatience flashed in the woman's eyes, as if shooing away an annoying fly. Without moving her feet, she casually raised her foot, clad in an exquisite high heel, and with precise, immense force, kicked Hachiman Hikigaya's open, gaping jaws, as if trying to tear him apart.

"boom!"

The immense force sent Hachiman Hikigaya's head flying backward, several broken fangs mixed with viscous bodily fluids splattering out. His massive body was sent flying again, crashing heavily into another pile of rubble, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Deeper than pain is despair.

"Uh... ah..."

He struggled, his vision blurred, his gray paws scratching futilely in the mud. He couldn't stop, he absolutely couldn't stop; if he gave up here, Komachi would…!

Get up.

An unknown force compelled him to stand up again, albeit unsteadily.

The broken ribs pierced his internal organs, each step felt like walking on a knife's edge, every limb and bone was in pain, yet he roared, dragging his broken body, moving slower and more disheveled, his fierceness burning even more intensely, and once again, he charged towards the woman without hesitation.

"boring."

The woman's voice turned utterly cold, like ice. This time, she abandoned using her feet and instead casually waved her pale hand, sending an invisible, massive shockwave slamming into the lion's chest.

"Crack!" A clear sound of bone breaking.

"Pfft—!" Thick bodily fluid spurted from his mouth.

Hachiman Hikigaya, like a kite with a broken string, was once again violently slapped away, crashing into half of a crumbling load-bearing wall and being buried even deeper beneath the rubble. Dust filled the air, and rubble rolled down.

This time, it seems to be truly over.

Beneath the ruins, only faint, labored breathing could be heard, like a bellows leaking air.

The greyish-white lion was buried in the rubble, with only one bloodstained paw protruding weakly, twitching slightly. Even the red light in the lion's eyes had dimmed to the extreme.

The woman elegantly dusted off non-existent dust from her suit, her ruby-like eyes completely losing interest, replaced by pure coldness and a hint of annoyance at dealing with trouble. She turned her gaze back to the distance, her killing intent rekindling.

"It seems it's time to end this farce. Let's use that girl..."

Just as her killing intent locked onto her target, and she was about to take a step...

"Ok?"

Her raised foot abruptly stopped in mid-air.

An indescribable, overwhelming, and suffocating sense of oppression, like an invisible tsunami, swept across the entire ruins without warning. It was neither cold nor pure, nor did it possess any inhuman divinity that looked down upon all living beings; it was simply a calm and ordinary expression of human anger.

It locked onto her precisely, causing a look of seriousness, even... a hint of surprise, to appear on her otherwise perfect, expressionless face for the first time.

In the ruins, Hachiman Hikigaya's faint breathing abruptly ceased. A chilling sensation, originating from the Orphnoch and penetrating to the very marrow of his bones, gripped his broken body. It was the most primal fear of facing a predator above him. Though the fear had seeped into his very bones, and reason told him to be terrified and tremble, his emotions stirred within him a sense of joy and... anticipation.

With his last ounce of strength, he laboriously and inchingly lifted his head from the cracks in the rubble, gazing towards the source of that chilling aura that seemed to freeze his very soul—

At the edge of the ruins, atop the crumbling walls of a multi-story building that has not yet completely collapsed.

A figure was quietly crouching there.

The rain seemed to evaporate and dissipate automatically a few meters away from him, as if in fear. The dim streetlights were also swallowed up by the spirit stone at his waist. It was still the same knight, still the same posture, still standing there, standing before everyone, his eyes as red as blood, blending into the night, like... starlight in the long night.

The knight stood in the rain, not a drop of moisture on him. He slowly rose, shouldering the weight of the entire world on his shoulders.

He said.

"found it."

Chapter 84 Committing a Crime

The battle was neither in doubt nor should it have been.

Everything seemed to have been destined from the moment the knight rose.

It wasn't a difference in strength, but a disparity in something deeper and more essential. The woman's domineering confidence, like fragile glass, cracked quietly under the knight's gaze.

He simply raised his hand.

The rain stopped.

It wasn't that the clouds in the sky had dispersed, but rather that the torrential rain, which had been pouring down, eerily stopped the moment he raised his hand. No, it didn't stop. The rain continued to fall, but the downpour was evaporated, the hissing white vapor rising wildly, forming a distorted vacuum.

The woman's meticulously crafted, almost perfect smile was replaced by an instinctive, uncontrollable pallor. Beneath that pallor lay a deep-seated fear.

"Are you the King of Orphnoch this year?"

"..."

The knight asked a question, but received no answer.

She simply retreated in fear, step by step, and step by step.

As the saying goes, countless people believe that gaining power makes them strong, but little do they know that power that is only boasted to those weaker than themselves, no matter how powerful or how exaggerated, is nothing but... falsehood.

Flames swirled around the knight, like the master of flames surrounding him. At the same time, the woman shed her human form, revealing the form of an Orphnoch. Her body swelled and deformed violently with a shriek, her skin hardened into pale keratin, her fangs pierced her lips and teeth, and her sharp claws tore through her gloves—a ferocious, death-radiating pale wolf, the Orphnoch, replaced her original graceful figure.

The knight took a step forward and, in the next instant, was standing in front of the gray wolf.

Just one step away is the ends of the earth.

Before the afterimage of his vision had faded, he was already standing there, as if space itself had lost its meaning beneath his feet.

Then, throw a punch.

It wasn't some fancy technique; it was just the simplest, purest straight punch, brimming with immense power and intense energy.

boom--! !

The deafening roar echoed across the surrounding area. Not only the target, but also the massive, already crumbling ruins behind her, collapsed completely from the point of contact, like a sandcastle thrown into a furnace.

A massive cloud of smoke, mixed with gravel and lingering rain and mist, shot into the sky like volcanic ash from an explosion, forming a brief but terrifying mushroom cloud.

The shockwave swept outwards, scattering the rainwater further away.

As the smoke and dust slowly settled, the center was revealed. The enormous wolf-shaped Orphnoch lay pitifully embedded at the edge of the massive crater, its pale carapace riddled with spiderweb-like cracks, and a huge hole in its chest slowly releasing ash. Its life force rapidly faded, and its eerie green wolf eyes, filled with deep-seated resentment and bitterness, were fixed, unwaveringly, on the dark figure that stood there like a demon god.

The dying wolf looked at the knight with resentment:

"Are you going to stop the wolf from eating the sheep?"

"..."

She spoke in a hoarse voice, blood and foam gushing from between her fangs, only to be washed away by the cold rain.

"You're nothing but a monster, Kuuga."

"..."

"You used your justice to protect the sheep from the wolves, but to the wolves, your justice means destruction. Your justice is not justice to the wolves. This world is like this: either the sheep or the wolves die; either the weak wolves starve to death, or the weak sheep are bitten to death."

"..."

I remained silent.

Rainwater streamed down the edges of his mask, like cold tear stains.

Seeing that I hadn't answered, she coughed up blood and screamed hysterically:

"Does the Orphnoch not deserve to live?! Should the Orphnoch, as the next evolutionary direction for humanity, be abandoned?"

"...Sorry, I was a little distracted just now."

Finally, the knight moved. He shook his head, clenched his fist, and his knuckles made a slight grinding sound under his armor. He walked step by step toward the dying wolf at the bottom of the pit.

"Any last words?"

The wolf's green eyes contracted sharply, and the shadow of death completely enveloped her.

She abandoned her questioning and instead uttered a final curse, her voice like a broken bellows:

"Ha...ha...you're just using your own sense of justice to judge other lives...this kind of justice isn't justice at all! Humanity is insatiably greedy, seizing everything on Earth, yet never reflecting on its actions...they are destroying this planet, and sooner or later they will bring about true destruction and calamity. What you've done is nothing but one sin after another. There's no justice to speak of; you're nothing more than an executioner who has committed crimes!"

"Then let's commit sins for humanity."

The knight remained unmoved in the face of the King of Orphnoch's final accusations.

"And then on the day of the end?"

"I am willing to commit sins again for the sake of humanity."

As soon as he finished speaking, he thrust out his fist.

There was no more earth-shattering noise, only a soft "crack" sound, like porcelain shattering.

The fist pierced precisely into the core of the wolf Orphnoch. A burst of intense energy erupted, causing the pale wolf's body to tremble violently before, like tinder being ignited, crimson flames burst forth from within.

The flames spread rapidly, engulfing its massive body. Within seconds, it was reduced to a pile of ashes scattered by the wind in the flames, washed into the mud by the rain.

Hachiman Hikigaya has only ever met one person who has no desire to argue, is unwilling to even proclaim his own "justice," and would never call himself "just."