As a weirdo, I like being a Kamen Rider.

Chapter 73 News from Gills

At 1:27 a.m., two days had passed since he last explored Mount Hachioji with Ozawa, and he was assigned to night patrol duties.

Lin Chen pushed open the car door, and a blast of cold air rushed into his collar.

He had just finished patrolling a thicket in the Hachioji area, and his left jacket had several fresh thorn scratches. A white Toyota Hiace was parked at its usual spot at the alley entrance—under the streetlight numbered G3-02.

The G3 metal armband at the collar had worn a silvery-white finish against the corner of the wall. The faint sound of Takahiro Omuro typing on a keyboard drifted through the wired headset.

His right hand rested on the metal casing of the Orga phone at his waist; the cool touch kept him alert.

Pushing open the convenience store door, the copper bell rang.

The cold white fluorescent lights hummed and flickered, the shelves were mostly empty, and only two tuna bento boxes remained, with water droplets condensing on the plastic wrap.

Miho Kato was dozing off at the cashier, her face pressed against a worn-out arithmetic notebook.

Hearing the noise, she was suddenly awakened.

Seeing Lin Chen's G3 uniform jacket, she immediately sat up straight, her fingers gripping the corner of her arithmetic notebook tightly. This was the seventh time this month; this silent G3 player always bought only a bottle of room-temperature mineral water, paid, and left without saying a word.

Lin Chen walked straight to the innermost part of the refrigerator—where the mineral water was cooled the least by the compressor and kept the temperature the highest. He couldn't drink iced water because of his Orphnoch constitution. He picked up a Suntory bottle with a slightly wrinkled label, a 2001 limited edition featuring Mount Fuji, produced three days prior.

He placed down two 100-yen coins with worn edges.

Miho took the coin, inserted it into the cash register, and pressed the confirmation button with a "click".

Just as Lin Chen picked up the bottled water and was about to turn and leave, Miho suddenly called out to him in a low voice, "Um—please wait a moment."

Her voice trembled slightly, and she immediately lowered her head, not daring to look Lin Chen in the eye. She quickly turned and took a hot Americano and a tuna sandwich from the warmest spot in the back of the display case, reserved for night shift customers, and placed them in Lin Chen's hands. Her fingertips accidentally brushed against the back of his hand, and she recoiled as if electrocuted, her cheeks flushing red all the way to her ears.

Lin Chen's fingertips touched the warm paper cup, and he paused for half a second. He looked up at Miho, his pupils devoid of emotion, yet Miho's heart skipped a beat.

"Thank you and Officer Hikawa." Miho's voice was very low. "Last Wednesday, I was on my way home from my night shift at two in the morning when I was almost followed by a monster in the alley. It was your patrol car that drove up, and when the headlights shone on it, it ran away."

She paused, biting her lip until it turned pale. After a moment's hesitation, she pushed the arithmetic notebook she had been clutching for a long time in front of Lin Chen and turned to the last page. On it was a green figure with three sharp spikes on its back, drawn crookedly in pencil, with the words "Good Brother" written in hiragana next to it. There were eraser marks on the edges of the drawing, indicating that it had been drawn many times.

"There's one more thing." Miho's voice was trembling with tears, yet incredibly firm. "This was drawn by my younger brother, Yuta Kato."

He was eight years old. A month ago, he was attacked by a monster in the North City Park. A green monster rushed out and saved him, tearing the monster to pieces. Then the green monster turned into an older brother in black clothes, patted Yuuta on the head, and left.

"Yuta keeps asking to find that person, saying he wants to fight monsters together. I locked him in the house, and he climbed out the window and waited in the North City Park all day. I'm afraid he'll get into danger—" She looked up, her eyes pleading, "Could you please investigate? The person who saved Yuta, he must be a good person among the monsters."

After speaking, Miho lowered her head deeply, her shoulders trembling slightly. She dared not look at Lin Chen's reaction, afraid of hearing a rejection.

Lin Chen's pupils suddenly contracted.

Green, three backstabs, can transform into a human, close-range kills of the Unknown, avoids crowds—Kamen Rider Gills, Ryo Ashihara. Cursed by the power of light, misunderstood by humans, a lonely rider who hunts the Unknown alone—how could he have forgotten him?

He took the arithmetic notebook, and with a sharp flick of his fingertips, neatly tore off the page with GiIIs drawn on it, folded it into a small square, and put it into his inner pocket.

"We will investigate."

The voice was deep yet clear. Miho's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled down.

He nodded slightly to Miho and uttered two words: "Thank you."

Turning around, he walked out of the convenience store, the cold wind whipping fallen leaves against his face. Lin Chen leaned against the patrol car, unscrewed the bottle of mineral water, took a sip, and pressed the button on his headset.

"Ozawa, investigate someone. Ryo Ashihara, a student at Johoku University. Focus on investigating the green humanoid self-attack reports from the Shinjuku, Johoku, and Hachioji districts over the past month. I suspect he's the one who caused that unusual energy fluctuation in the Hachioji mountain area a couple of days ago."

The clattering sound of Ozawa Sumiko typing on an old-fashioned mechanical keyboard came through the headset. "Received."

Lin Chen hung up the call, took out a hot coffee from his shopping bag, and took a sip. The bitterness washed over his tongue, dispelling a slight chill.

He looked up towards the Hachioji Mountains. It was pitch black there, like a lurking beast.

Deep in the dense forests of the mountains, where no one could see, a green figure flashed by.

Lin Chen breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving news from Ashihara Ryo; it turned out there was another person capable of evolving into Agito.

He started the patrol car, its white headlights piercing the darkness, and drove towards the Metropolitan Police Department. He was about to relieve Hikawa.

On the streets of Tokyo late at night, the only sounds besides the engine noise are the wind and the rustling of falling leaves.

After successfully handing over the glacier, Lin Chen got on his motorcycle and prepared to return to Sato's noodle shop.

Driving through the streets of Shinjuku, most of the shops were closed, with only a few izakayas (Japanese pubs) lit up with warm yellow lights. Those lights were warm and distant, like a scene from another world.

The car gradually slowed down and finally stopped in front of Sato's noodle shop. The roller shutter door was already drawn, leaving only a small window with a faint light shining through—a light that Grandpa Sato had specially left on for him. He knew there would always be a light on when he returned from his late-night patrol.

Lin Chen turned off the engine and leaned back in his seat in silence for a moment. He touched his inside pocket; the five-cent coin and the drawing paper lay there quietly. The hot coffee had gone cold, but he felt something slowly melting in his heart.

He walked to the entrance of the noodle shop and gently knocked on the roller shutter. After a short while, he heard the slow footsteps of Grandpa Sato inside, and then the small window was opened, revealing the old man's kind face in the light.

"You're back?" The old man's voice was gentle, tinged with sleepiness, but without a trace of impatience. "There's miso soup warming in the pot. Would you like a bowl before you go to sleep?"

Lin Chen gently shook his head and said in a low voice, "No need, Grandpa, you should get some rest."

"Okay." The old man nodded, without asking any further questions, and simply opened the side door. "You must be tired too, get some rest."

Lin Chen walked into the noodle shop. Only one light was on, casting a warm yellow glow over the small space. On the wall hung a faded family photo; in the picture, Xiaoxue was still an infant in swaddling clothes.

He gently closed the side door, paused at the top of the stairs, and glanced up at the second floor. Xiaoxue's room door was closed, and the sound of her even, soft breathing came from inside.

Go upstairs and into the room.

He drifted off to sleep, his nerves, which had been tense all night, finally relaxing.

The next afternoon, the aroma of miso soup and fried pork cutlet wafted from Sato's noodle shop. Lin Chen finished dinner and picked up his G3 uniform jacket draped over the back of his chair. Sato Genji, clearing away the dishes, nodded slightly—a tacit understanding between them.

As I stepped out of the noodle shop, the setting sun cast long shadows. Just as I reached the alley entrance, a small figure rushed towards me holding a soft vinyl figure of Ultraman Tiga. It was Takuma Matsumoto, the child of Kana Matsumoto whom he had rescued at the East City Shopping Center.

"Big brother!"

Lin Chen stopped and gently touched Takuma's hair. Matsumoto Kana caught up, wearing a beige trench coat, and bowed deeply: "I'm sorry, this child talks about you every day. We just arrived at Grandma's house today, what a coincidence."

Lin Chen nodded slightly, turned around, and mounted the old Honda CB400 at the alley entrance. He put on his helmet and twisted the throttle. Takuma waved his little hand behind him and shouted, "Goodbye, big brother!"

Lin Chen didn't turn around, he just waved his hand gently.

19:30 PM, G3 underground base main control room. Sumiko Ozawa is hunched over an old CRT monitor, typing away on a keyboard. Makoto Hikawa stands beside her, a cup of instant coffee in hand, his forehead still glistening with sweat from training.

"Found it." Ozawa pressed Enter, and the monitor showed Ashihara Ryo's student photo. He had gloomy eyes, short hair, and no smile on his lips.

"Ashihara Ryo, a 21-year-old third-year student in the Department of Biology at Johoku University. He suddenly disappeared three months ago. He was a key member of the school's swimming team and had just won the 100-meter freestyle championship at the National University Swimming Championships a week before his disappearance."

Hikawa Makoto took a sip of coffee: "I went to Johoku University today to find his swimming coach, who only said that he had taken leave to go back to his hometown. I checked, and there is no record of him going back to his hometown in Hokkaido, nor is there any information about him purchasing tickets."

"Furthermore," Ozawa pulled up a medical record, "about two weeks before he went missing, he went to the hospital because of a persistent high fever and body aches. His temperature remained around 38 degrees Celsius for a whole week, and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong, only saying it was due to overwork."

Lin Chen stared at the photo on the screen, his fingers lightly tapping the table. Three months ago, the Unknown attacks began to erupt on a large scale. High fever and excruciating body pain were common characteristics of all inheritors of the power of light.

"In addition, there have been many reports of green humanoid sightings in the past month, all concentrated in the Hachioji mountain area and near the North Park.

Lin Chen took out the torn drawing from his inside pocket and placed it on the table: "This is a drawing of the monster by the younger brother of an eyewitness."

Ozawa's eyes lit up, and he picked up the drawing to examine it carefully: "Ooshimura, scan it immediately, generate a composite image, and send it to the police stations in each district."

"Received!" Takahiro Omuro took the drawing and walked towards the scanner.

Bingchuan Cheng looked at the green figure in the painting, lost in thought: "He is hunting the Unknown, doing the same thing as us."

Why look for him?

"Because he's dangerous." Ozawa became serious. "Also, regarding the matter of the power of light you mentioned the other day, Lin Chen, Hojo has already made some progress in his investigation, and it's pretty much what you said. Thank you very much for the information you provided."

Lin Chen simply smiled and nodded without saying a word.