Kamen Rider, but with a wild start.

Finally, the auctioneer brought down the gavel!

The man sitting in the last row of the venue was also watching Kino's back, his eyes filled with doubt as if he were assessing Kino's qualifications.

……

After the auction, the two took their spoils to a deserted riverbank, awaiting a possible attack.

Hongyin opened the violin case and lovingly took out the pure black violin, carefully examining its strings in the sunlight.

“Thirty million yen is a bit of a waste,” Akane suddenly said.

"Oh."

Kino responded with a cold laugh, clearly displeased.

—Why couldn't I see that I wanted you to raise your price to create the illusion of fierce competition?

Feeling somewhat mocked, Hongyin glanced at him with a puzzled look, then said, "Now that we've obtained the Dark Star, that Fang Blood Demon should be coming after us soon, right?"

Kino, sitting in a lounge chair, casually said, "You don't have to wait that long. You can play a piece on this violin right now."

"To play with it?"

Hongyin's eyes flickered slightly, but she put down the pure black violin in her hand, and her expression became a little colder.

He said casually, "No way. The thought of the mastermind using it as bait to attack humans makes me have absolutely no desire to use it."

Kino looked at him with some surprise.

It seems that Akane only becomes serious when she touches on something she is passionate about, just as she does not allow others to interfere with her pursuit of music.

Suddenly, a smile appeared on Hongyin's lips again as she grabbed her violin and stretched it out over the railing onto the river.

“If that Blood Fang only attacks its owner, then destroying it should be enough to resolve this matter, right?” Akane said.

"...Then we should have been dealt with as well."

As Kino spoke, he looked toward the other side of the riverside path.

A strange man wearing a baseball cap had been following them for a long time and was now standing not far away, staring at them with a gloomy expression.

Akane also sensed something and turned around. She probably guessed the identity of the strange man, but she still had a fearless smile on her face and simply pointed her finger at Kino.

"Well, it's your turn to appear, Kamen Rider Mark!"

"It's Kamen Rider Mach!"

After Kino finished correcting him with an emphasizing tone, he continued, "Also, I forgot to tell you that I have temporarily lost the ability to transform, so we are all just ordinary people who are powerless right now."

Hongyin paused upon hearing this, and her arrogant smile slowly froze on her face.

The man finally spoke in a low voice: "It seems that you are not qualified to be the 'Dark Star' either!"

The patterns on the stained glass had slowly spread from his neck to his face; without a doubt, this was the prelude to the vampire about to reveal his true form.

Kino immediately stood up and raised both hands, then pointed with two fingers at Akane Otoya over there.

He said with a sincere expression, "Actually, this guy is called a once-in-four-thousand-years genius violinist, and he should be qualified, while I am just a high school student passing by."

Upon hearing this, the man seemed somewhat surprised. The fang-blood demon markings on his face quickly faded, and he looked at Akane with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.

In fact, judging from the fact that Akane always carries a violin case with her wherever she goes, you can guess that she must be a musician, but few people have ever seen her true talent.

After all, there are plenty of people who like to put on airs.

The "Black Star" is the culmination of Frog Fang Blood Demon's life's work, a masterpiece he created by imbuing it with his soul, so he wants to find someone he can truly entrust it to.

This man is indeed somewhat different now.

Seeing that the Blood Demon's attention had been successfully diverted, Kino moved away from the side amidst Akane's astonished gaze.

"and many more……"

Akane stepped forward to stop Kino from abandoning his teammates and running away, but the Blood Demon blocked the small fork in the road where he was leaving, his staring gaze making people uneasy.

It seems like if he can't prove his qualifications, they'll just throw him in to feed the fish...

Hongyin also smiled through gritted teeth, casually tossing the pure black violin onto its case, acting as if she were completely unfazed.

"I can't play!"

If you don't want to play, you don't have to. No one can force Akane to play, not even a monster!

The human-formed vampire sized up Akane Otoya, his expression completely calm. He glanced thoughtfully at the "Black Star" that had been set aside, and then at his own violin that Akane Otoya had taken out.

His eyes flickered, as if he had discovered something.

……

Kino squatted down a short distance away and watched for a while.

Seeing that the Blood Demon didn't attack directly, and even started talking to Akane, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned to leave.

This incident is easy to resolve. That tooth-blooded demon is tone-deaf in some ways, so we can just throw Akane out to perform as well!

Finally, as long as the vampire with the tooth stops attacking humans because of the "Dark Star," then his agreement with Chairman Shima will be fulfilled.

Kino planned to stroll around the motorcycle shop to see what kind of motorcycle he would be riding in the future.

But just as he was passing by the bridge, a water bullet suddenly flew out and hit him. Kino almost reflexively tilted his head to avoid it.

"Snapped!"

The water bomb exploded on the wall behind, splashing water everywhere, and several more water bombs followed closely behind—

been attacked!

……

Chapter 12 IXA Knight System

Vampire?

No! This method is obvious.

"Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!"

The water bullets fired in rapid succession formed a continuous barrage behind him. Kino quickly rushed behind a bridge pier, and then the attack stopped.

"Huh~?"

A surprised voice came from the river.

It's like a child's innocent and inquisitive question: "Hey, hey, why are you so quick to react?"

Something crawled up from the river. Kino peeked out from behind the bridge pier and saw a monster with emerald green body and fins and scales—a fish-man.

"Brother, are you just human? Hey~"

The merman obediently questioned him, as if it hadn't been the one who attacked him just now, revealing a cruel naiveté.

Kino then said kindly, "You're a fish that's hundreds of years old, how can you call me brother?"

"Huh?" The fish-man was taken aback.

“You have to call me Dad!” Kino said earnestly.

"..."

The merfolk were completely stunned.

Kino continued, "So, your sudden attack on me wasn't sent by that werewolf to test me, was it?"

Upon hearing this, the merman's eyes seemed to light up, and he hopped a few steps closer to him: "Wow! You really know everything, huh? Why is that?"

"Did the wolf tell you that if you lay a hand on me, I would reveal your whereabouts to the King of the Fang Vampires?" Kino said, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Huh?"

The fish-men stopped in their tracks, and even instinctively took a step back in fear.

After all, in terms of strength, he was probably the weakest of the surviving demons and the most afraid of being hunted down by the Blood Demons.

Kino stared at it: "Want to give it a try?"

The merman quickly shook his head, then scurried off towards the river, saying, "Never mind, just pretend you never saw me!"

wow-

After saying this, the merman jumped into the river and left. On the overpass not far away, Cilang, who had been watching this scene with narrowed eyes, rubbed his temples in annoyance.

Kino also let out a soft sigh.

This is what happens when you don't finish speaking to the wolf.

……

When Kino returned to the small building that evening, she saw Akane sitting in the attic with an unusually deep expression.

The attic was dimly lit by only a warm yellow lamp. The white curtains faintly reflected the moonlight from outside, but this only made him, whose figure was indistinct, look even more like a bloodthirsty demon.

"What?" Kino looked at him, puzzled.

"You...did you already know about that Blood Fang Demon, which is why you made me play back then?" Hongyin said cryptically.

"..."

The same situation applies if you haven't finished explaining things to Akane.

Kino turned on the attic light and then threw himself onto the sofa where he had been staying for some time.

"Kurenai, do you know that there are actually thirteen demons living in this world?" Kino asked, looking at the ceiling.

"What?" Hongyin was also slightly taken aback.

"Moreover, humans can also be considered a type of demon."

"what?"

Even Akane, who had originally intended to maintain her composed demeanor, was stunned by this information.

Of the thirteen demon races, the human race, which currently has the largest population, openly controls the entire world. The small number of Fangblood Demons, however, possess the strongest individual strength and directly annihilated the other eleven demon races. They then secretly nurtured humans as a reservoir of "life energy."

Because other demons can enhance their strength by absorbing human "life energy," which can also suppress their thirst for energy and ferocity.

Humanity's situation can be described as being surrounded by wolves.

Currently, there is one survivor from each of the werewolf, fishman, and Frankenstein tribes.

"The second wolf is a survivor of the werewolf clan."

"???"

Thinking that he might live here for a long time in the future—buying a car was already the limit, buying a house was impossible—Kino explained the whole world background in order to keep the fickle landlord in check.

Akane was incredulous before listening, but completely lost interest afterward.

"So that's how it is, the demons~"

He sat on the office chair next to him, opened his violin case, took out the light brown violin, and casually examined it.

At this moment, Hongyin also casually said, "So, the reason why that Fang Blood Demon specifically attacked the holder of the 'Dark Star' today was also to absorb the life energy of humans?"

“Some vampires and demons are picky about their tastes. The wolf’s taste is Mald’amour coffee. However, the ‘Violin Vampire’ is probably just looking for a home for the Dark Star and, incidentally, sucking up unsuitable people to suppress his instincts,” Kino said.

"He said his name was Takeo Ōmura."

"Oh, Omura Yagami, the vampire."

"So, all that time before, you were always inexplicably messing with customers who had just left the coffee shop, was it to prevent the wolves from attacking them?" Akane also thought of this.

"Your choice of words is so presumptuous," Kino retorted.

"Because that's what you did."

Hongyin shrugged dismissively.

It's no wonder that the wolf approached Kino with a fierce look today; it turns out that he had been constantly being interfered with by the wolf.

He smirked and said, "Looks like you've got some guts, kid. You still dare to go against monsters even though you've lost your ability to transform?"

"How can you be a Kamen Rider if you're afraid to face monsters?" Kino said matter-of-factly.

"Kamen Rider?"

Akane was also very curious about what Kino meant by "Kamen Rider." He had a feeling that the "Kamen Rider" Kino thought of might not just be someone who could transform into that kind of warrior.