“It’s actually quite faithful to the original work.” Louis looked at the belt in the mirror and muttered to himself.
In the world of Kamen Rider, Riders would enter the Hollow to fight.
The belt and card deck served as tickets to the inside of the mirror.
However, in this current world, the Mirror World probably didn’t exist.
It was just temporarily stored inside the mirror based on the belt’s characteristics…
a final act of stubbornness by the belt itself.
Besides that, there was one more thing.
Louis felt a slight ringing in his ears.
He knew exactly what it meant.
After leaving the mirror, he walked over to the two glass panes by the window.
At that moment, inside the semi-transparent glass, a deep red giant dragon was staring straight at him.
This was Dragreder, the contract beast of Kamen Rider Ryuki.
When Louis used to watch tokusatsu shows, he had always imagined Dragreder as enormous.
In reality, its total length was only a little over six meters.
Compared to other contract beasts, Dragreder’s size could indeed be called enormous.
At the very least, swallowing a child in one bite would be no problem.
“Let’s fight together, partner.” Louis smiled and reached out to touch the glass.
He hadn’t been the one who personally signed the contract with Dragreder, but since he had bought the card deck and the belt, he felt that Dragreder was, in a sense, his contract beast as well.
After all, as a huge tokusatsu fan, he had bought plenty of related merchandise besides the belt, such as the Dragreder figure and its reinforced motorcycle form.
“Roar!” Dragreder’s yellow eyes, bright like headlights, lit up as if responding to him.
Like the Zecters, it was a Rider partner with its own self-awareness.
Reminded by this, Louis placed the card deck in front of him and casually pulled out a card to take a look.
“No, no.
I don’t think I need this.” Louis’s expression turned slightly surprised.
He had drawn a gold card.
The card featured golden wings set against a background of burning flames.
The flames flickered as if they were real.
This was the Survive card, one of the rarest in the entire series.
It could enhance both the Kamen Rider and the contract beast, upgrading them to Survive Form.
While it granted greater power, its true strength lay more in its defensive capabilities.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called the Survive Form, but the Reckless Form.
Louis remembered the rational analysis the fans on the forums had made about the word “Survive” in the Survive Form.
After all, once Dragreder entered Survive Form, one of its new abilities was transforming into a motorcycle.
Didn’t that perfectly match the idea of survival?
If you couldn’t beat them, you could at least outrun them.
“No time to explain.
Get on!” Dragreder saw through Louis’s imagination.
The red dragon clearly disliked the idea of being used as an escape vehicle and roared at him a few more times.
Dragreder was a monster that existed for slaughter.
Before becoming a contract beast, it had often hunted monsters in the Mirror World and could be considered an overlord in its territory.
To it, it didn’t matter what it killed as long as there was something to slaughter.
The red dragon’s brutal, beastly nature could not be suppressed.
Its message was very clear.
‘Get me some living things to grind my teeth on.
There’s nothing I can’t beat.
If there is, then I’ll activate Survive Form.’
“I know you’re eager, but hold on for now.
There are plenty of monsters in this world, as long as I can enter a Hollow to carry out missions.” Louis soothed Dragreder’s irritable mood.
The inside of a Hollow made for an excellent hunting ground.
Any random Hollow would let Dragreder hunt to its heart’s content.
The only issue was that Louis still had to go to work and follow his superior’s orders.
He certainly wouldn’t do something as reckless as ignoring commands and rushing into a Hollow.
Dragreder nodded, then twisted its dragon body and swam up into the sky.
It still resided within the Mirror World.
When Louis needed it, he could use a summon card to temporarily open a passage to the Mirror World and release it to assist in battle.
After all, a Hollow could, in a sense, be considered a small world of its own.
In a pleasant mood, Louis finished getting ready and left home, heading toward the Security Bureau.
Outside, the sun was shining brightly.
It looked like another peaceful day.
When there were no Hollow missions, the members of the Criminal Investigation Special Response Team usually had quite a bit of free time.
At least, that was what Louis had originally thought…
until he saw three landline phones sitting on Zhu Yuan’s desk.
He frowned.
Things were clearly not that simple.
He still remembered the reputation of the Security Bureau’s best rookie and notorious workaholic, Zhu Yuan.
She could risk her life inside a Hollow one moment, then head out to the streets to deal with punks collecting protection money the next.
Louis didn’t quite understand it.
Was she the robot, or was Qingyi the robot?
Why did Qingyi always look like she was about to collapse from exhaustion while Zhu Yuan remained full of energy and never tired of anything?
Where did this superhuman civil servant from New Eridu come from?
Although Louis was willing to save the world, he was firmly against pointless office competition.
People who tried to outdo each other at work rarely had good endings.
So, like Qingyi, he preferred to stay on the sidelines.
He had considered helping Zhu Yuan with her workload, but her work efficiency was so high that ordinary people simply couldn’t keep up.
He was powerless to assist.
“Things are bad.” Qingyi suddenly walked over to Louis and said.
“Is there a Hollow crisis?”
“No.
Zhu Yuan is going out to catch a cat.”
“The cat you’re talking about…
is it a Thiren?”
“Of course not.
It’s just a house cat.”
“Are you saying that our Criminal Investigation Special Response Team’s ace, Captain Zhu Yuan, who has taken down thousands of Ethereals single-handedly, saved no fewer than a hundred people from Hollows, and fought notorious Ethereals alone, is going to catch a cat?” Louis tapped his ear and asked Qingyi with a serious expression.
Qingyi nodded, equally serious.
“Yes.
It is our Criminal Investigation Special Response Team’s ace, Captain Zhu Yuan, who has taken down thousands of Ethereals single-handedly, saved no fewer than a hundred people from Hollows, and fought notorious Ethereals alone, who is going to catch a cat.”
“Are you two performing a comedy routine?
Hurry up and get moving.” Hearing the exchange between Louis and Qingyi, Zhu Yuan felt her head throbbing.
She helplessly urged the two of them to stop fooling around and come with her.
“This doesn’t look like something we should be doing, does it?” After they got into the police car, Louis was still grumbling under his breath.
He hadn’t joined the Criminal Investigation Special Response Team to catch cats, but who could have expected Zhu Yuan to be such a workaholic superior?
“When citizens encounter difficulties, it is of course up to us to come forward and solve them.
No matter what the task is, this is the work of the Security Bureau.” Zhu Yuan answered while driving.
This belief had nothing to do with the specific nature of the mission.
It was simply part of who she was.
Louis could only sigh inwardly.
He had only heard of people with a personality like Zhu Yuan’s.
He hadn’t expected to actually encounter one.
She was a rare gem among civil servants, someone who worked neither for fame nor fortune, but truly to serve the people.