After retrieving his motorcycle from New Eridu Public Security, Louis rode all the way back to Sixth Street.
As he passed the video store, he realized he had nothing waiting for him at home and figured he might as well watch a movie.
He parked his bike by the storefront window and walked inside.
The video store was empty, with only two Bangboo working at the counter.
That was normal for most shops around here.
Buying a few Bangboo to run the register cost far less than hiring actual staff.
The shelves were lined with paper boxes full of movies.
To Louis, a guy from the modern world, the films in this place felt a little retro.
They still came on actual videotape.
Even though this near-future world had technology straight out of fantasy, the movie industry had somehow stayed old-school, probably because most of it was recovered from the previous civilization.
“Hey, Louis.
Here to rent some restricted tapes again today?”
A head poked out from the side door beside the counter.
It was a young-looking woman with blue hair who seemed no older than seventeen or eighteen.
Louis had already confirmed with her that she was a full adult in her twenties.
Her name was Belle, one of the owners of the store.
The other owner was her brother, Wise.
The two siblings ran the place together and always looked like they were one bad week away from starving.
The reason was simple: business was terrible.
Louis had no idea why, but the people on Sixth Street just didn’t seem to care about movies.
Every time he dropped by, the store was dead.
The Bangboo only needed recharging once every six months, yet he had done the math once.
The siblings’ monthly income barely covered four bowls of ramen a day.
He still didn’t know how they survived.
“Don’t make fun of me.
I just made the mistake every guy makes.” Louis said helplessly.
Belle had been teasing him ever since he started coming here.
Luckily she was a grown woman, so there was zero risk of anything inappropriate.
It had all started about a month after Louis arrived in this world. The source of this chapter is g.com.
He might have Kamen Rider powers, but he was still human.
Humans had emotions and desires.
After a particularly intense battle, the adrenaline was still pumping.
That was just proof of a healthy body, right?
That was the subjective side.
The objective side was simpler: this world had beast-eared girls.
As a normal guy with normal curiosity, Louis really wanted to know whether their physiology matched humans in every way.
He used to think the idea was unique to him.
Then he realized any young person his age who landed in this world—male, straight, or just plain curious—would have the exact same thought.
No arguments accepted.
Louis considered himself clean and self-disciplined.
He hadn’t gone looking for shady places, so he turned to videotapes instead.
He knew that kind of business was well established back on Earth, and it just so happened there was a video store right downstairs from the coffee shop where he lived.
He had no clue about other shops, but movie-related stores on Earth always had some gray-area stock.
That was common knowledge.
So that day he walked in full of excitement, politely confirmed the siblings were both in their twenties, and confidently stated what he was looking for.
He still remembered the looks on their faces.
It wasn’t the usual “you’re trash” glare.
It was something far more special, like they were staring at an alien.
Belle laughed so hard she nearly passed out, while Wise could only offer a helpless smile.
Once they finally stopped laughing, they explained that the store didn’t carry that kind of thing.
Louis listened with a completely lost expression.
In this world, restricted videotapes were treated as serious contraband, on the same level as smuggling weapons.
He felt like the ground had dropped out from under him.
After more explanation, everything clicked.
It was all to protect the Thiren.
Thiren came in two main types.
One had partial animal features, like the shark girl Louis had seen before.
The other looked completely beast-like: imagine a three-meter-tall brown bear strolling down the street in clothes, walking upright, and casually greeting people.
That was the second type.
If films like the ones Louis wanted weren’t strictly controlled, some rare Thiren species could end up captured and forced into all sorts of things.
After all, he wasn’t the only curious person out there.
Others would want answers too, and that curiosity could quickly turn into persecution.
To Louis it sounded unbelievable.
He came from Earth, where beast-eared girls didn’t exist.
In this post-apocalyptic wasteland, gangs already kidnapped ordinary people and sold them into Hollow labor.
There was nothing they wouldn’t do.
Ninety-nine percent of the Old Capital was crawling with criminals, and even New Eridu Public Security couldn’t keep it under control.
The danger was real.
New Eridu’s official stance was harsh: anyone caught filming or selling those kinds of movies faced twenty years to life in prison.
If the main culprit was proven to have abused Thiren, the sentence was death.
The tough laws had worked.
They never fully wiped out the underground industry, but the operations stayed small and scattered, never forming a real chain.
That alone had protected countless rare Thiren.
“Is your brother not home?” Louis asked as he picked out a few decent-looking movies and handed them to the cashier Bangboo.
Belle pointed at the ceiling.
“He’s resting upstairs.
Louis, is that uniform from Public Security?
Did you actually get in?”
The video store had two floors.
Louis wasn’t sure whether the building had belonged to their parents or if the siblings had bought it themselves.
Given how broke they always seemed, he doubted they had purchased the place on their own.