The story we started

【"Um."】

【Hikigaya nodded slightly and responded to him calmly. 】

【"……where are you going?"】

[Even though he had already guessed the answer, Zaimokuza asked again with a bitter expression.]

【“…”】

[Hikigaya did not answer immediately this time, but turned his head to look at the small town under the slope in front of him, especially focusing on a small and inconspicuous house, with a flash of nostalgia in his eyes.]

[That was his home. Hikigaya Hachiman had spent the best seventeen years of his life in that house, leaving behind indelible memories.]

【"go home."】

【“——”】

【Zaimokuza's palms slowly clenched into fists, and then loosened.】

[The bitter expression on his face disappeared, and he forced a smile on his face, and replied cautiously.]

[“Aren’t you going to go back to the Service Club? Everyone… the captain, and Yuigahama, they miss you so much!”]

【“…”】

【Hikigaya said nothing more, but just looked at Zaimokuza quietly, watching his smile gradually become stiff.】

[“…Well, didn’t you say you were going home? Then can you take me with you? I haven’t been to your house for a long time! I also want to go see the general…”]

[Zaimokuza smiled dryly, but the forced smile on his face had already faltered at some point, and the tone of his questioning voice had turned into a trembling plea by the end.]

[“——Just this once, I can’t take you with me.”]

[However, facing his sincere request, Hikigaya rejected it without hesitation, which completely froze Zaimokuza's smile.]

[The two looked at each other and found that they had nothing to say to each other, because they had already said everything they needed to say during the previous journey, and now they had reached the end of the journey.]

[The moment of farewell has come. ]

【“…”】

[Zaimokuza's twitching facial features could no longer maintain his smile, he lowered his head, his whole body trembling slightly.]

【"sorry."】

[In the silence, Zaimokuza's trembling voice echoed over the snowy plain before dawn.]

[Tick--]

[Transparent water drops drip onto the snow at my feet, and the opposite temperature melts the snow quietly, leaving depressions on the smooth snow surface.]

[Clear tears flowed from his eyes, and in the scene blurred by tears, Zaimokuza spoke with a trembling voice and choking sobs.]

[“I failed to fulfill our original promise. I was unable to write a story that you would approve of before the last minute... I am really sorry.”]

[“I broke my promise, and… I failed to protect your smile. Is that really—!?”]

[“…Raise your head.”]

[A pair of black shoes appeared in front of him, and a hand patted Zaimokuza's shoulder, forcing him to raise his head.]

【Zaimokuza involuntarily raised his head in response to the force on his shoulder, and in his vision blurred by tears and sadness, the face of Hikigaya Hachiman appeared before his eyes.】

【Hikigaya looked at Zaimokuza who was crying and shook his head gently.】

[“Don’t take all the blame for other people’s misfortunes on yourself. It was never your fault. I chose the path I took later, and I deserved this fate… And I never blamed you, and you have no reason to be responsible for me, so you don’t need to worry about my ending.”]

【“——How could I not mind!”】

【Zaimokuza grabbed Hikigaya's arm and shouted excitedly.】

[“I could see the pain hidden in your heart at that time! But in the end, I couldn’t do anything… So I can’t forgive myself, forgive myself for being helpless and despairing towards my friend.”]

[“If I had tried harder at that time, I would have at least fulfilled our promise…”]

[“What are you talking about?”]

[Listening to Zaimokuza's self-blaming words, Hikigaya smiled for the first time, a very helpless and amusing smile.]

[“Didn’t you already fulfill our agreement?”]

【"……well?"】

[Hearing Hikigaya's words, Zaimokuza looked up at him blankly, not understanding why he said that.]

[“Maybe you have forgotten, but I always remember it.”]

[Facing Zaimokuza's confused look, Hikigaya said with a smile. 】

[“I’ll always remember what you said to me that day…”]

……

[“Wait! Hachiman!”]

[Faced with Zaimokuza's entreaty, Hikigaya walked up the stairs to the second floor without stopping.]

[“Perhaps, the story I wrote now still cannot make you agree! But——”]

[Even though Hikigaya's back had disappeared around the corner, Zaimokuza still did not stop talking. He continued to speak stubbornly, with a look of unprecedented determination in his eyes.]

[“I don’t think what you said is correct, but stories are powerful, that’s the only thing that’s absolutely true!”]

[“The reason you think this way now is only because the story I wrote did not make you feel the power it contained, but I will not give up, I will continue to write!”]

[“No matter how long it takes, one year, ten years, twenty years, fifty years, or even a lifetime - I will continue to write this story until one day I write a story that you will approve of!”]

[“But if…”]

【Zaimokuza gritted his teeth and continued to speak loudly.】

[“…If you still can’t feel the truth in my story and think it’s a fake that doesn’t exist in reality, then I will write my own story!”]

[“I will become the protagonist of my story, I will embark on the same journey as him, I will become a person like him, I will abide by the promises like him, and protect the smiles of everyone I meet during the journey, without any reason, just because I want to do it.”]

[“It may be clumsy, and I may encounter endless difficulties and obstacles, but I will not give up! I will personally turn this story I wrote into reality, so that it will no longer be a fictional fantasy. I will turn it into the ‘real thing’ in your mouth!”]

[“I make a promise with you, Hachiman. Even if it’s just my wishful thinking, one day, I will give you the story I wrote with myself as the protagonist, and let you be its first reader—”]

[“I swear!”]

[Zaimokuza's voice echoed in the empty house, even creating an echo, as if he was repeating his determination over and over again. His words were so resolute that even the mirrors hanging around the living room seemed to vibrate slightly.]

[But after a long time, there was still no sound coming from the direction of the stairs. Hikigaya Hachiman continued to walk upstairs without giving any response to Zaimokuza's promise.]

【“…”】

[After waiting for a long time and still getting no response, Zaimokuza lowered his head with an expression of disappointment. ]

[He silently bent down to pick up the story he had been describing for half a year on the floor, and walked towards the exit of the living room, intending to leave here.]

【——】

[But when he passed by the door of the living room, the wall-mounted mirror that reflected his figure suddenly had a faint ripple spreading in the center of the mirror, and the ripples gradually became clearer, distorting the reflection of Zaimokuza in it——]

【"……Can."】

【“——!”】

[The calm voice coming from behind made the somewhat depressed Zaimokuza look up in astonishment, and then turned around and looked behind him with a look of surprise. ]

[Hikigaya Hachiman, who had already walked up to the second floor, reappeared at the staircase again at some point. He leaned on the handrail of the stairs with one hand, and his deep eyes calmly stared at Zaimokuza.]

[Zaimokuza, who had just turned around, did not notice that the ripples on the mirror beside him had calmed down at an extremely fast speed after Hikigaya appeared and spoke, and the mirror reflection returned to normal in an instant.]

["Hachiman...!?"]

[“Since you’ve said that, I don’t mind taking a look… Anyway, the only thing I have the most right now is time.”]

[Hikigaya glanced at the mirror expressionlessly, then spoke to Zaimokuza in a calm voice.]

[“As a way to relieve stress, let me see… whether you can finish what you said, write your own story, and turn the story from a ‘fake’ into a ‘real thing’.”]

【“…I’ll wait.”】

……

【“——This is actually the promise we made in the beginning.”】

[Facing Zaimokuza's stunned expression, Hikigaya Hachiman spoke softly. ]

[“I’ve been watching you ever since… and you really did it.”]

[“You didn’t break your promise, Zaimokuza.”]

[After the words were spoken, the warm light around them illuminated the world still shrouded in the night, as well as the figures of the two people.]

[Countless mirrors with faint light appeared around the two people and slowly rotated, and a different scene appeared in each mirror.]

【“——”】

【Zaimokuza stared blankly at the mirrors that appeared around him, and as he looked at the scenes that appeared in the mirrors, his eyes slowly widened.】

[He was so familiar with the scenes in those mirrors... because each one was everything he had witnessed during his journey over the years, as well as the people and events he had met.]

[Zaimokuza in the mirror had once stood on the top of the mountain representing the highest peak in the world wearing a mountaineering suit; he had also once crossed the wall that connected thousands of miles with a backpack on his back; he had once crossed the most dangerous Amazon rainforest in the world wearing an expedition suit; he had once walked alone and barefoot on the salt lake that reflected the other side of the sky, and the sky and the earth merged into one at the end of the horizon...]

【But more importantly, it’s the people he met. 】

[Countless crying people appeared in the mirror. They may have different reasons, but they all shed tears because of similar pain.]

[But when that smiling white-haired young man appeared in the mirror, no matter how tortuous the process was, in the end, everyone was always able to burst into laughter, with that dazzling smile blooming on their faces.]

[Zaimokuza even saw the figures of Yuigahama Yui, Hiratsuka Shizuka, and Kousaka Kyosuke in it... The smiles they had lost in the past but regained in the end on their painful faces shone like stars in the mirror, illuminating Zaimokuza's trembling eyes.]

[“I have witnessed your journey. In this story, you have protected the smiles of countless people and kept the promise we made.”]

[“You proved to me that stories are powerful. This power is strong enough to turn falsehood into reality, and even change the fate of everyone... Whether it’s Yuigahama, Hiratsuka-sensei, or Kousaka Kyosuke, the path you followed changed those who met you and protected their smiles.”]

[“You are no longer a ‘fake’ now, Zaimokuza Yoshiteru.”]

[Hikigaya looked at Zaimokuza, reached into his arms, pulled out the familiar brown-covered book and handed it to him.]

[“You define the story in your own way, creating a story that is authentic and unique to you.”]

[“You who have accomplished this——are already the real thing.”]

【“…”】

[Zaimokuza stretched out his hands to take the book handed to him by Hikigaya, turned the book over, and stared at the name written on the cover of the book in his hand in a daze.]

[Although the cover style and texture are exactly the same as the previous "The Smiling Man", the title on the front has been replaced by a new English title. 】

[《KAMEN RIDER KUUGA》, this is the name of the book now, the kanji translation is——]

【"Kamen Rider Kuuga". 】

“This is the story you create now.”

[“I created this story, it’s my story…”]

[Zaimokuza held the book in his hands with trembling hands, and slowly turned the first page of the book, revealing the first page's table of contents, chapter titles, and volume one: The Man Who Guards a Smile, with a total of eighty-three chapters.]

[As he flipped through the book, countless words appeared on the book in front of Zaimokuza. Every page was written with his own past, and every word was transformed by his experience.]

[Volume 2 - In the name of "Hero", a total of thirty-four chapters. ]

[Volume 3: The story that exists because of you, total ? ? ? chapters. ]

[After Zaimokuza read to the 29th chapter of the third volume, he looked at the last line of text in the story with a dull expression.]

[——This is the story you are creating now. ]

[——I created this story, it belongs to me…]

[The last paragraph of the last page is exactly what he just said to Hikigaya, without any deviation.]

[And after this passage, brand new words are being born in the golden light, writing the next development of the story. ]

【This represents...】

[“…You understand now.”]

【Hikigaya's words made Zaimokuza look up at him, and he saw the pair of dead fish eyes disappear and become peaceful, looking at him with relief.】

[“——Your story is not over yet.”]

[“There are still people who believe in you, waiting for you.”]