Shiraishi Shin invited her. "Since we're going the same way, why don't we walk together?"
"Mm, sure."
Megumi Kato naturally wouldn't refuse—not just because he'd returned her cap, and not only because Shiraishi Shin was handsome, but because he was one of the rare people her age who could actually talk to her.
"Um, I'm Megumi Kato," she introduced herself.
"Shiraishi Shin," he replied. "I just finished my morning run and I'm heading home. Where are you off to?"
"I'm going to—"
Megumi answered him. Conversations like this were everyday fare for most girls, but for her they happened fewer than three times a semester.
Thanks to her almost non-existent presence, most classmates didn't even know she existed, and teachers often forgot her as well.
"Once we part ways, he'll probably forget me in the blink of an eye," she thought.
Megumi sighed inwardly; her naturally low presence made life difficult.
"Ah!"
Suddenly a scream came from the slope ahead. Shiraishi Shin and Megumi exchanged glances, and he sprinted forward.
He'd sensed a monster at the same moment he heard the cry.
After seven or eight strides he reached the top of the slope and looked down. A bicycle lay on the ground, and beside it something horrific was happening.
An eagle-like monster was frenziedly devouring a human. The victim was still conscious, shrieking as he watched the creature tear into his flesh, terror at its peak—tears, snot, urine, everything flowing.
"Help! Help… aahh!!"
Tomoya Aki kept screaming; it was hell on earth.(Why every time I read a Chinese fanfic, Tomoya Aki dies? Why?)
(Image Tomoya Aki)
Aki had been an ordinary sophomore at Seirei Academy, delivering papers by bike as usual, when a black shadow lunged and knocked him down, instantly starting to rip him apart.
"Amazon!"
Shiraishi Shin recognized the eagle Amazon. Among monster, only Amazons were this savage—eating people alive.
"Ah!"
Megumi, arriving behind him, shrieked at the bloody sight.
Shiraishi Shin glanced at the terrified girl; even a grown man's blood would run cold at this scene, let alone a slender teenager.
[Kamen Rider Chronicle!]
"Henshin!"
He whipped out his driver and Gashat and transformed.
"This is the ultimate moment!"
A green HUD descended, emerald arcs crackled over his body, and a golden clock face briefly appeared behind him before fading.
"That's Kamen Rider Cronus?"
Megumi, already stunned by the monster, now saw the boy she'd just met become a Kamen Rider.
She'd seen a Rider battle monster at school a few days ago at noon, so she recognized him.
Ignoring the Amazon that kept feeding, Chronos strode forward.
"Save… save me!"
Aki didn't know why fate had chosen him. He didn't want to die—only nineteen, still in school, with years of games, anime, and love left to explore.
Yet his body was numb, only his mind clinging to life, refusing to let go.
Spotting a stranger, he instinctively cried for help.
"Hmph!"
The eagle Amazon rose, furious that someone dared interrupt breakfast.
"Die!"
It lunged, talons slashing—but in the next instant Chronos blurred into green light, reappearing behind the creature.
"Drip, drip…"
A thick dripping sounded. The Amazon felt a chill in its chest; looking down, it saw its heart gone, black blood pooling on the ground.
Behind it, Chronos held a translucent organ in his left hand—the Amazon's heart.
He hadn't used time-stop; pure speed had done it.
"Pop!"
He crushed the heart, and the Amazon dissolved into black sludge, splattering across the pavement.
"What…?"
Megumi, hand over her mouth, walked down the slope, unable to believe what she was seeing.
"Kamen… you're Kamen Rider Cronus,"
the dying Aki managed to say, recognizing the Rider from recent videos and campus rumors.
Instead of gratitude, resentment filled him. "Why didn't you come sooner? Look at me! You're a Kamen Rider—save me!"
To him, Riders were superheroes; surely they could fix this.
Megumi frowned, pity mingling with disgust at his tone.
She defended Shiraishi Shin. "No one could predict this. Riders aren't gods. You didn't dare shout at the monster, but you yell at the one who saved you?"
Chronos spoke coldly, "Ignore him. His organs are shredded, he's lost too much blood; only a shred of consciousness remains. He'll be dead in under a minute. Not even the God of Time could save him—I said it."
He'd already guessed the cyclist's identity: glasses, plain looks, bike, and Megumi on the same slope—who else could it be but Tomoya Aki?