Love Live and Kamen Rider

It was only because his daughter, Maki Nishikino, and her tightly closed eyes and cold, stiff body were constant reminders that his daughter was already dead!

His wife had just fainted, unable to accept the scene before her, and he, at this moment, felt the same urge to faint just like his wife to escape this reality. But he didn't, because he couldn't; he had to find the murderer and make them pay the price for his daughter's death!

"...I don't know," Senba Gari said with difficulty.

He knew this incident had caused great harm to Mari Nishikino, and that she only wanted to vent the grief and indignation in her heart, so Senba Gari simply let her keep clutching him.

In the distance, Geki Takai watched Senba Gari, whose collar was being gripped by Mari Nishikino, his own fists clenched until they trembled, saying nothing. Maki Nishikino had been murdered, and he had volunteered to take on the case, not only because the victim was someone both he and Senba Gari knew, but also because—

My master, according to the size of the wound on Maki's chest, it was caused by a long-range weapon. Furthermore, the fact that the victim didn't notice until it was too late suggests that the weapon used by the murderer was likely a firearm equipped with a silencer or a crossbow-type weapon.

Through the Bluetooth earpiece in his ear, Golden Firmament relayed the data it had analyzed to Geki Takai. This wasn't the first time they had done this; before Geki Takai had even arrived in Japan, they had solved cases repeatedly in this manner, eventually rising to their positions as Interpol agents.

After listening to Golden Firmament's analysis, Geki Takai squatted down to carefully examine the small blood hole in Maki Nishikino's left chest. Judging by the wound, it was indeed a long-range weapon as Golden Firmament had suggested, but there was a problem.

That was, according to the state of the body, Maki Nishikino should not have noticed or even known she was being assassinated, which meant that at the time, she was still moving. Therefore, the murderer, who could use a long-range weapon to hit the left chest of a moving target for an instant kill, must have possessed extremely high dynamic visual acuity.

As for the weapon, it should have been something like a sniper rifle. After all, this was a park, and the only place to hide without being discovered was the small grove hundreds of meters away. Crossbows lacked the range and were difficult to aim, so a sniper rifle was the only possibility. But... why? Why would the other party want to kill Maki Nishikino?

"How is it going, Geki?"

While Geki Takai was still deep in thought, Senba Gari's voice came from beside him.

"Hmm... there are still many suspicious points I haven't figured out," Geki Takai said, not looking up at Senba Gari, but continuing to observe while speaking.

"What suspicious points?" Senba Gari asked.

"First is the murderer's weapon. I think they used a sniper rifle or something similar, but the wound on Maki feels wrong. It doesn't feel like it was caused by a firearm. Then there's the motive—why kill Maki? If it were for money, it should have been a kidnapping, not a murder. If it involved the grudges of her parents' generation, that doesn't fit either. As you've told me before, Maki's parents were upright and honorable people, so that possibility is very small. So, what exactly is the murderer's motivation? Secondly..." At this point, Geki Takai took a few deep breaths and said, "To be able to hit the heart of a moving person with such precision, this murderer is definitely no ordinary person."

"..." After listening to Geki Takai's analysis, Senba Gari lowered his head in deep thought. "The murder weapon, the motive, and the murderer themselves—those three points of suspicion, huh..."

"Officer!"

At this moment, a policeman walked over and interrupted their train of thought.

"Regarding the body, we would like to transport it back for an autopsy first."

"Hmm, that's fine, but you must inform the victim's family first," Geki Takai said, glancing at Senba Gari before turning to the officer.

"Understood."

Senba Gari, who had been standing to the side with his head down, lost in thought, regained his focus. As he looked up and prepared to walk toward Geki Takai, he noticed something out of place.

"Geki, come here for a second."

"What's wrong?" Hearing the call, Geki Takai walked over to Senba Gari and asked, puzzled.

"Look at this," Senba Gari said, pointing ahead.

"Hmm? This is..." Following the direction Senba Gari was pointing, Geki Takai's pupils suddenly constricted.

In front of him was a very ordinary tree used for landscaping, but this tree had something different from the others—a hole the size of a finger, stained with a bit of red.

"This is..." Geki Takai frowned slightly as he looked at the 'red mark' around the small hole that had pierced through the tree.

Senba Gari carefully scraped a bit of the red-stained wood debris from around the small hole and placed it into the slot on the right side of his Shadow Dog, which he had released earlier. It was just like the time with Wako Hirota, though this time it was slightly different.

Master, according to the data from Shadow Dog, I have analyzed that the substance attached to the wood debris is human blood, and according to the DNA, it is Maki's.

Silver Phantom's voice came through Senba Gari's earpiece, bringing with it a key piece of information.

"Hmm, I understand. Thank you for your hard work, Phantom." After ending the connection with Silver Phantom, Senba Gari reached out and rubbed the area around the small hole.

"Geki, what kind of weapon do you think could pierce through a human body and then still pierce a small hole through a tree?" Squinting his eyes, Senba Gari asked Geki Takai.

"While a crossbow might be possible—after all, this tree isn't particularly thick or thin—if we assume it passed through a human body first, considering the distance, only a sniper rifle or something similar could manage that," Geki Takai analyzed.

"That's true, but the edges of this hole are so smooth. I can't tell at all that this was caused by a bullet from a gun."

"You mean to say...?"

"If it's neither a crossbow nor a firearm, then it can only be..."

Vaguely, Geki Takai seemed to have guessed what Senba Gari was going to say next, and so, the two spoke in unison.

"Mlortha!" ×2

"If that's the case, everything makes sense, but... why do I still feel like there's something strange about this?" Geki Takai said, troubled.

It was strange—it was far too strange. No matter how he thought about it, everything was very bizarre, and he had a vague feeling that this was only the beginning.

The next day, at the Nishikino residence—

At the black-and-white funeral, Mari Nishikino and Zuifei Nishikino looked blankly at the colorless, black-and-white photograph before them. They kept thinking, if only this were just a dream, how good that would be...

Unfortunately, reality is always cruel; it does not show favoritism to anyone...

"Aren't you going over to talk to them, Gari?" Watching her good friend, her daughter, and her friends crying so sorrowfully in front of Maki Nishikino's photo, Kotori Minami felt a constant pang in her heart.

Senba Gari, addressed by Kotori Minami, silently watched the heavy scene before them with her. After a while, he spoke slowly.

"I don't know what to say, because no matter what I say, they will still be this sad. Rather than that, it's better to let them have a good cry and accept the facts."

"If you say that, they'll call you cold-blooded, and it doesn't sound like something you would say."

"Is that so... I don't know either. These past few days, I really don't know what to do... Everything was so happy during the day, so how could this..." As he said this, Senba Gari clenched his hands into fists, his trembling knuckles speaking for his inner state at that moment.

Looking at Senba Gari's somewhat dark and lifeless eyes, Kotori Minami sighed with discomfort and said, "Don't push yourself too hard."

"...Ah, I will..." A strange glint flashed within those dull, lifeless black eyes...

"I'm home..."

At dusk, having just experienced a tragedy in her life, Honoka Kosaka, who should have been full of energy, now hung her head powerlessly like a sunflower with a snapped stem as she opened the front door.

--Drip.

A drop of crimson liquid slid slowly down Honoka Kosaka's forehead, traced across her face, and landed on the floor, forming a tiny red dot.

Looking at the familiar yet gloomy hallway before her, a sliver of fear rose in Honoka Kosaka's heart.

--Drip.

Another drop of crimson liquid fell onto her, this time landing on her long eyelashes. Unable to bear the weight of the liquid, her eyelashes grew damp and drooped, and the red color obscured her vision.

Instinctively, she looked up, trembling, as a voice both familiar and strange reached her ears.

"Oh my, welcome home, Honoka~"

"A... aaaa..." She looked at her family members hanging from the ceiling, her body already stained with their blood.

Dad... Mom... Yukiho...

Red. In her field of vision, there was nothing but red, and a black shadow that felt completely out of place against the red in her eyes.

"A... aaaaaaa..."

She shook her head in disbelief, like someone on the verge of madness. Her mouth had been hanging open since just a moment ago, but she hadn't managed to utter a single complete word, and it was impossible to tell what she wanted to say.

"Are you surprised? But it doesn't matter, because it seems your family has come to pick you up~"

The red in her eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by an endless, bottomless darkness...

--Woo--woo--woo--

The originally noisy street was now even noisier, and the raging fire illuminated the dim surroundings.

This was no bonfire party; a house was being consumed by a massive blaze.

Takai Geki watched the burning mansion with a complex expression. Suddenly, a figure darted past him. With his sharp eyes, he reached out without a second thought and grabbed the figure—Senba Gari.

"Geki, let me go!" Senba Gari shouted anxiously at Takai Geki. "I'm begging you, let me go! I have to save Aunt Ruifei and Uncle Nishikino!"

Watching Senba Gari's anxious state, Takai Geki shook his head silently and said.

"It's no use, it's too late, Gari. By the time we got the news, the fire had already been burning for an hour. It's too late."

Trembling, his clenched fists turned white, and he gritted his teeth as if he were about to shatter them. Powerlessness, rage, sorrow... these emotions completely filled Senba Gari's heart.

"Gari? You idiot, Gari!"

"What!"

Interrupted by Takai Geki, Senba Gari responded with irritation.

"Do you have any idea how terrifying your eyes looked just now?" Takai Geki said, frowning.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he had seen Senba Gari's eyes turn red! But now they were back to that deep black; perhaps it had just been a trick of the light.

--Ring-ring!

"Hmm?" The sound of a cell phone suddenly interrupted his train of thought. Takai Geki didn't relax his furrowed brows as he answered the call, but the voice on the other end made his face turn instantly grim.

Takai Geki tremblingly hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket, then looked at Senba Gari with a complex expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Gari... I think you need to prepare yourself mentally." As if having made up his mind, Takai Geki said with difficulty.

--Bang!

A fist landed heavily on a charred pillar, and the pillar collapsed to the ground as if it had lost all support.

Silently lowering his trembling fist from the air, Senba Gari didn't know what kind of look to wear as he stared at the ruins that had been exposed to his eyes under the light of the dawn.

In his mind, he recalled what Takai Geki had told him earlier.

"Gari... we just received notice that two more places are on fire. One is Hanayo Koizumi's house, and the other is Homura... Honoka's house."

Now, Takai Geki had already run off to Hanayo Koizumi's house, but he had still brought news that filled him with fury.

Maki Nishikino and her parents, Hanayo Koizumi and her parents, as well as Rin Hoshizora who happened to be visiting Hanayo's house, and the entire family of Honoka Kosaka...

Unknowingly... so many people had died right in front of him...

"Why... must you push me...!"

He had lost count of how many times he had clenched his fists. At this moment, Senba Gari had only one thought—

"Then come at me!"

--Ring-ring.

As he thought this, Senba Gari's train of thought was pulled back by the sudden ringing of his phone. With a grim face, he answered the call, his voice low and hoarse.

"What is it, Geki?"

"...Come over here for a moment. I have no idea what is going on anymore." Takai Geki's weary voice came through the phone.

"What happened?"

"Umi Sonoda jumped off a building and committed suicide."

"..."

"We found an arrow stained with blood in her room, along with... a half-used bucket of gasoline and a lighter..."

"..."

Silently hanging up the phone, Senba Gari sat down on the floor, not caring about the ashes scattered across it.

He was tired; he was truly exhausted. He didn't know what else he could do. He pulled the five Divine transformation cards he had kept in his pocket out.

If I can't even protect the people right in front of me... what exactly... am I...

--Clatter

The five cards drifted lightly into the air...

"There is... no going back..."

"Class... is dismissed."

"Goodbye, teacher."

Amidst the voices of the girls, Senba Gari walked out of the classroom from the podium without a word.

"Teacher Senba hasn't seemed to be in a good state of mind lately."

"It can't be helped... after all..."

"Sigh... I suppose so."

"Eli, is Kotori going to be okay?" Amidst the gossiping group of girls, Nozomi Tojo asked Eli Ayase with a worried expression.

"Sigh..."