The wind howled past his ears as Hikigaya Hachiman pedaled the bicycle so hard the pedals nearly spat sparks.
The teacher’s words echoed relentlessly in his mind—”thugs and gangsters,” “paying particular attention to his route home”—along with that searing phrase from the system’s options: “tragedy could occur at any moment.” He didn’t dare imagine what scene might await if he arrived too late.
Using the address from Hiratsuka’s email and his phone’s navigation, he finally tore into an old residential district and located the apartment building.
He didn’t even have time to lock the bicycle.
He tossed it carelessly against the wall and charged up the stairs, taking them three at a time.
Just as he neared the target floor, he heard noise spilling from a door left slightly ajar—a clamor laced with vulgar curses and threats.
Hikigaya’s heart clenched.
He softened his footsteps and crept closer, peering through the gap in the door.
Inside the cramped living room, a man with a face full of hostility and deeply sunken eyes was roughly dragging a small, thin boy.
Standing nearby were two more men—thuggish, ill-intentioned, their eyes roving over the boy as they spoke with filthy mouths.
“Tsuyoshi, quit stalling!
They’re waiting over there!”
“Yeah, this little brat’s soft and tender—bound to fetch a good price.
Enough to cover your debts for a long while!”
Hikigaya’s heart sank to the bottom.
The worst-case scenario had indeed unfolded!
He forced himself to stay calm and rapidly scanned the environment.
Three adults.
One of them looked puffy and weak, but the other two thugs were clearly not to be trifled with.
A head-on fight was the worst possible option.
Just then, he remembered the choice reward—the [Emergency Rescue Signal].
The system description said it could emit a loud alarm to attract attention.
Perhaps…
he could use it to create chaos and take them out one by one?
He recalled how, forced by his father as a child, he had studied aikido for several years at the same dojo as Yukinoshita—who had similarly been made by her family to learn self-defense.
Though it had been a long time, some basic joint locks and throwing techniques should still be remembered.
…
Aikawa Ren felt as though he had fallen into an ice pit.
His whole body was freezing cold, trembling uncontrollably.
His father’s rough hands clamped painfully around his arm, and the way those two strange men looked at him filled him with indescribable disgust and terror.
They said they were going to “sell him off”…
He clutched tightly at the Kuuga soft-vinyl figure in his pocket.
It was the only thing his mother had left behind, and the last faint glimmer of a “hero” in his heart.
‘Kamen Rider…
save me…’ he cried out silently within.
Despair surged over him like a tide.
So, after all, there really were no heroes in this world?
Just as he was about to give up all hope, his vision blurred by tears—
BWAAAA—!!!
An earsplitting alarm, piercing enough to reverberate through the entire hallway, exploded without any warning!
The source of the sound seemed to be right outside the door!
Everyone inside the room was startled by the sudden, thunderous noise.
They instinctively covered their ears, their movements freezing for an instant.
“The hell?!
What’s going on?!” One of the thugs cursed and headed toward the door to see what was happening.
The moment he pulled the door open and stuck his head out—
Hikigaya, lying in ambush beside the door, moved!
He used aikido’s “irimi” technique, instantly closing in on the inside of the man’s body.
One hand seized the man’s outstretched arm while his body pivoted with the motion, driving power from his waist!
Bam!
A clean, crisp “koshi-guruma” hip throw!
Before the thug even understood what was happening, the world spun around him.
His entire body was flung outward by a skillful application of force, slamming heavily against the hallway wall.
He let out a muffled groan and, for the moment, couldn’t get back up.
Hikigaya, having landed the blow, didn’t pause for an instant.
He immediately slipped inside the room, shutting the door behind him with a backhand motion.
His back pressed against the door panel, blocking the only exit.
Panting slightly, his sharp gaze swept over the two remaining men inside—Aikawa Tsuyoshi, stupefied, and the other thug, shocked and furious.
“Who the hell are you?!” The remaining thug, both startled and enraged, pulled a switchblade from his waist and pointed it viciously at Hikigaya.
Aikawa Ren stared blankly at this strange high school boy who had suddenly appeared.
He didn’t look especially strong—even somewhat lean—and his eyes held a somewhat gloomy cast.
But right now, his figure blocking the doorway seemed, in the boy’s eyes, as if bathed in light.
‘Is he…
a Kamen Rider?’
Hikigaya ignored the thug’s blustering.
His gaze landed directly on Ren, and in the calmest tone he could manage, he said, “Aikawa Ren?
I’m here on behalf of your teacher.
Don’t be afraid.
The police have already been called.”
His voice seemed to carry a strangely soothing power, and the boy’s violently trembling body settled slightly.
“You little punk!
Sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong!” Aikawa Tsuyoshi came to his senses, roaring as he lunged forward and swung a wild punch.
Hikigaya sidestepped, evading the utterly uncoordinated blow.
His foot subtly hooked, tripping, while his palm simultaneously pushed against Tsuyoshi’s back in a smooth follow-through—
“Oof!” Unable to stop his own momentum, Tsuyoshi crashed face-first into the floor in a spectacular pratfall, groaning where he lay.
“You bastard!
Asking for it!” Seeing this, the knife-wielding thug’s eyes turned vicious.
He thrust the blade straight at Hikigaya!
Fully focused, Hikigaya was just preparing to use aikido’s “tenkan” technique to evade and subdue the man.
But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Ren, who had been huddled in the corner.
Worried for him, the boy had unconsciously shuffled forward a tiny step!
That tiny step placed him squarely in the thug’s line of attack!
“Watch out!” Hikigaya’s pupils constricted.
There was no time to think.
Instinct outpaced reason.
He twisted his body sharply—not backward, but forward—using his own left arm to meet the incoming blade!
Shhk—!
The razor-sharp knife tip slashed through the sleeve of his school uniform, carving a bloody gash across his forearm.
Blood instantly welled up, staining the fabric red.
The searing pain made Hikigaya suck in a sharp breath, but he clenched his jaw.
Almost at the same instant he took the wound, his right leg lashed out like a whip.
A side kick smashed brutally into the thug’s knife-hand wrist!
“Agh!” The thug screamed in agony.
The switchblade flew from his grip, clattering to the floor.
Enduring the intense pain in his arm, Hikigaya stepped forward.
With his uninjured right hand, he seized the arm the thug had left wide open in his pain.
A textbook “ude-garami” joint lock pinned the man hard against the ground, utterly immobilized.
Everything had happened in a flash of lightning.
From the moment the alarm sounded to all three adult men being taken down—barely a minute or two had passed.
Ren looked at the older boy who had been hurt protecting him, yet still stood tall, having subdued the bad men.
He looked at the blood seeping from that arm, and at that face—frowning slightly from the pain, yet still resolute.
The boy’s tears flowed once more.
But this time, it was no longer despair.
It was emotion, and disbelief.
He clutched the soft figure tightly in his hand, as if he were truly witnessing a Kamen Rider descended upon the world.
“It’s…
it’s okay now.” Hikigaya panted, forcing a somewhat strained smile at the boy.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead from the pain.
Just then, the urgent wail of police sirens rose from downstairs, along with the sound of hurried footsteps.
“Police!
Freeze!”
Several officers burst in and swiftly brought the scene under control.
Right behind them were Yukinoshita Yukino, Yuigahama Yui, and Hiratsuka Shizuka, her face grim.
“Hikki!”
The moment Yuigahama stepped through the door, her gaze instantly locked onto Hikigaya.
When she saw the glaring crimson on his left arm, her face went pale as paper, all color draining away in an instant.
Her tears burst forth like a broken dam.
She cried out and rushed toward him.
“You’re bleeding!
So much blood!
What do we do, what do we do?!”
She hovered helplessly around the wound, wanting to touch it but not daring to, spinning in frantic circles.
Her tears fell like beads from a severed string.
The instant Yukinoshita saw the wound on Hikigaya’s arm, her ice-blue pupils contracted sharply.
Her heart felt as though it had been seized by an invisible hand, squeezed so tight it nearly stopped beating.
She rushed forward, her movements even swifter than Yuigahama’s.
She caught hold of Hikigaya, her voice losing its usual composure and carrying a faint, barely perceptible tremor.
“Hikigaya-kun!
Your arm…”
She quickly examined the wound.
Seeing it was only a flesh wound, not having struck an artery, she let out a small, subtle breath of relief—though her brow remained tightly furrowed.
Without the slightest hesitation, she tore a strip from the relatively clean inner lining of her own uniform blouse.
Her movements were practiced and gentle as she began emergency bandaging to stop the bleeding.
The focused, worried expression on her face was one Hikigaya had never seen before.
“I’m fine…
just a scratch…” Hikigaya tried to reassure them, but his pale face and the cold sweat on his forehead betrayed him.
“Be quiet!” Yukinoshita cut him off with a rare tone of utter finality, though her bandaging motions remained meticulously careful.
“You must go to the hospital for treatment immediately, to prevent infection!”
Hiratsuka took in the scene before her, then looked at Aikawa Tsuyoshi and the two thugs being handcuffed by the police, and at Aikawa Ren, who was being comforted by a female officer and had finally shown an expression of relief.
She let out a sigh and cast Hikigaya a complex look—a mixture of reproach and admiration.
Then she spoke to the three of them.
“Leave things here to the police.
You lot, come with me to the hospital first!
We’ll handle the statements after you’ve been treated.”
The officers expressed their understanding and indicated they should attend to the injury first.
Yukinoshita supported Hikigaya.
Yuigahama, eyes still red, stuck close to his other side.
The three of them, under the concerned gazes of everyone present, hurriedly left that apartment steeped in the stench of violence and despair, heading for the hospital.
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