Love Live and Kamen Rider 36

Senba Gari shook his head rapidly as he spoke.

"Oh~ so that means you don't agree, right?"

As she said this, Kotori Minami's eyes narrowed slightly.

"No. I mean, Otonokizaka is an all-girls school, after all. Isn't it a bit... for a guy like me to go there as a teacher?"

Senba Gari looked at Kotori Minami and said, sounding a bit hesitant.

"Hehehe, is that so? I remember, I remember that I still have some 'photos' of someone from back then. Should I show them to Kotori when I get back?"

At this point, Kotori Minami looked at Senba Gari with a 'gentle' smile on her lips.

"I'll go! I'll go, okay? Just please, Aunt Minami, don't let anyone else know. (T＿T)"

Upon hearing Kotori Minami's words, Senba Gari gave a start and immediately caved, then said with a look of tearful frustration.

"That's a good boy. Come find me to report in when Otonokizaka starts in a few days. I'm leaving now."

With that, Kotori Minami stood up to leave, and Senba Gari covered his face with a miserable expression.

"Yes, I understand. Take care, Aunt Minami."

A few minutes after Kotori Minami left, Senba Gari also walked out of the shop and mounted the Silver Phantom, preparing to depart, when the voice of the Silver Phantom came through his earpiece.

〖Master, I am very curious about what photos that woman mentioned, to be able to make you so afraid.〗

"Don't bring it up, I really don't want to think about it! (T＿T)"

"BOOM"

Just as Senba Gari was about to leave, a nearby building suddenly collapsed right before their eyes.

〖Master! Detected the latest Mlortha signature!〗

The voice of the Silver Phantom suddenly came through the earpiece.

"Damn it! Phantom! Let's get there quickly!"

Senba Gari said angrily, then rode the Silver Phantom toward the collapsed building. However, he did not notice that an orange-yellow card in his pocket flashed with a burst of light.

Riding the Silver Phantom, Senba Gari asked the Silver Phantom.

"Phantom, where is that new Mlortha now?"

〖...Sorry, Master, I can no longer detect the Mlortha signature. The target seems to have left or reverted to human form.〗

"It's fine. The most important thing right now is the people in that collapsed building. Let's head there quickly."

He said to the Silver Phantom, then headed toward the location of the collapsed building. Suddenly remembering something, he took the Divine transformation card out of his pocket and said.

"Right, I almost forgot. My current identity isn't suitable for interfering, so I have to use my Divine identity."

"Appear!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of silver light swept across Senba Gari's waist, and the silver-white Beast Soul Driver appeared on his waist.

Next, Senba Gari inserted the card into the right side of the Beast Soul Driver. A pattern of a bird-faced, human-bodied Garuda appeared on the screen of the Beast God Driver, and then the Beast God Driver emitted several mechanical synthesized sounds.

〖Vehicle armour appear〗

After the first mechanical synthesized sound fell, a translucent image of fire-red armor appeared around various parts of Senba Gari's body.

〖Armed〗

Then, after the second mechanical synthesized sound fell, the translucent image of the fire-red armor equipped itself onto Senba Gari.

〖Divine Garuda〗

Following the third mechanical synthesized sound, Senba Gari appeared in the form of Divine Garuda.

Before long, Divine arrived at the site of the collapsed building on the Silver Phantom, but.

"Click, click, click."

Police officers raised their guns one by one, aiming their dark muzzles at Divine. Seeing this scene, Divine raised his hands to shoulder height, sweat beading on his forehead as he said.

"Hey, hey, calm down. Watch the guns, they might go off! I'm not a bad guy."

"Who are you! State your purpose! And! Did you do this to the building!"

One of the police officers raised his gun and questioned Divine loudly. There was no helping it; given Divine's strange appearance, anyone would treat him as a monster.

"Uh, well, I, I..." How am I supposed to explain this! Should I tell them I know what kind of thing did it, but I don't know where it is, so I came here to check the situation and look for clues? Whether they believe me or not is one thing, but I'll definitely be treated as a suspect, won't I?! (╯｀□′)╯~ ╧╧ (Actually, you are already being treated as a suspect. (;一_一))

Just as Divine was wondering how to explain, a familiar voice saved him.

"Everyone, put your guns down. I asked him to come. You all go check if there are any other clues first."

A middle-aged man walked over and said to his subordinates. Seeing their superior had spoken, the officers went off to do their jobs.

"Yes! Sir!"

"Uh, aren't you that uncle from Akihabara the other day?!"

Divine looked up and realized that this middle-aged man was the person he had saved when he first transformed into Divine.

"That's right. Thank you for that day. If it weren't for you, I might have died. Are you here today because those monsters did this?"

Then, the middle-aged man lowered his voice and spoke to Divine about the monsters.

"Yes, that's right. I'm also here to investigate for clues."

"I see. Actually, we've looked into it. This building belongs to a fairly well-known company. Since today happens to be a day off for the staff, there were no major casualties, but the boss of this company, a man named Inoue Ko, was cut in half by a falling stone pillar."

"Is that so? Could you take me to see the body of this boss Inoue that you found?"

Divine then asked the middle-aged man, and the man agreed.

"Certainly, please follow me."

Before long, Divine followed the middle-aged man to the spot where the body had been discovered, and the man pointed to the ruins beside them.

"It was right here. We found the lower half of Inoue's body, and the other half was not far away."

"Here, you say? Let me see. By the way, have there been any accidents similar to this one before?"

Divine looked at the blood trail dragged along the ground, as if Inoue had been trying to do something before he died, and then asked the middle-aged man.

"Oh, yes. Including this building, three buildings have collapsed already. However, hundreds of people died in the other two, and it was because their foundations were suddenly hollowed out, causing the floors to cave in."

"I see."

Upon hearing the middle-aged man's words, Divine's brow furrowed beneath his mask, and then the man seemed to remember something else.

"Oh! Right, there is one more thing. The owners of the three collapsed buildings all knew each other. Also, there was a man named Jiang Zhiliu who went missing, and he was acquainted with them as well."

"It seems things are getting a bit tricky, hmm."

Suddenly, Divine noticed some crooked, bloody characters on a piece of concrete at the end of the blood trail left by Inoue.

Suspicion abounds

Divine walked to the end of the blood trail, crouched down, and looked at the crooked, bloody characters. Looking closely, one could vaguely make out a few letters, which appeared to be English.

"Phase of Sich."

After Divine read the letters aloud, his brow furrowed even deeper beneath his mask. The middle-aged man nearby saw Divine's troubled expression and asked.

"Divine, what's wrong? Is there a problem?"

"Yes, there is. It seems this Inoue breathed his last before he could finish writing the English letters in blood. Besides, I've had a strange sense of unease since just now."

"A sense of unease?"

"Never mind, it's probably just me overthinking it."

Divine stood up and said to the middle-aged man.

"Well then, sir, I'll be taking my leave."

"Is that so? Well, I hope you can deal with those monsters. And thank you for saving my life last time!"

With that, the middle-aged man gave Divine a ninety-degree bow. Divine said nothing, simply waving his hand behind him as he walked away.

Struggling

On the way home, Senba Gari, having already deactivated his Divine form, was riding on Silver Phantom when a black sedan suddenly brushed past him.

"Screech—"

As the person sitting in the back of the black sedan passed by, Senba Gari stopped Silver Phantom on the road, opened his motorcycle helmet's visor, and looked back at the black sedan driving into the distance with a grave expression. Seeing Senba Gari's serious demeanor, Silver Phantom asked him in confusion.

〖Master, what is the matter?〗

Hearing Silver Phantom's voice, Senba Gari said with some suspicion.

"Nothing, it's just that I felt something strange about the person in that car just now."

〖Strange?〗

"I suppose I'm just being paranoid."

Secretly memorizing the license plate number of the black sedan, Senba Gari restarted Silver Phantom and said to the bike.

"Phantom, help me look into who Inoue Ko met with before he died."

〖I understand, Master.〗

At night, in Senba Gari's home.

"Phantom, did you find what I asked for earlier?"

Sitting on the sofa, Senba Gari spoke to Silver Phantom, who was also sitting on the sofa. Silver Phantom's eyes projected an image as it spoke.

〖Master, I just looked into the relationships between the owners of the three collapsed buildings. I discovered that they, along with the missing Jiang Zhiliu and the owner of a current Department Store, Ainosuke, had all gathered together before the incidents occurred. The next morning, the building collapses happened. Furthermore, except for the missing Jiang Zhiliu and Ainosuke, who has yet to be involved in an incident, the bodies of the others were all found one by one in the ruins. Therefore, I have a hypothesis: the culprit might be the missing Jiang Zhiliu.〗

"Hmm, that is a possibility. But we don't even know where the other party is, so how are we supposed to find him?"

Senba Gari pressed one hand to his temple, saying in distress. At this moment, Silver Phantom spoke up.

〖Master, actually, if the other party intends to kill those people, then his next target might be the current owner of the Department Store, Ainosuke. If we keep a secret watch on him, we might be able to find the culprit.〗

"Sigh~ It seems that's the only way. Today has been truly exhausting. Time to sleep."

Having said that, Senba Gari returned to his room.

Late at night, in Senba Gari's dream, there was a vast plain of rubble. In the dream, Senba Gari saw a giant Diamond with orange-yellow fur standing in the center of the plain. Just as the Senba Gari in the dream was about to reach out his hand, the surroundings suddenly plunged into darkness, and the plain of rubble and the Diamond disappeared. Yet, in the darkness, he could vaguely hear two words: Earth.

Senba Gari then sat up from the bed and looked out the window. The sun was already hanging high in the sky, and sunlight streamed into the room through the gaps in the curtains. Because he had just woken up, his eyes had not yet adjusted to the brightness, so he squinted slightly.

After a while, once his eyes had grown accustomed to the light, Senba Gari got out of bed. After walking out of the room, he saw Silver Phantom still watching television on the sofa as usual. He then walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face, and upon coming out, he said to Silver Phantom.

"Phantom, it's time to go."

〖Understood, master.〗

Just as Senba Gari was riding Silver Phantom on the way to the Department Store, inside the Department Store, a girl with long purple hair tied into low twin tails and emerald green eyes, Nozomi Tojo, was looking at a pair of sisters in front of her with a smile on her face.

The older sister, Eli Ayase, had golden hair tied into a high ponytail at the back and pale blue eyes, while the younger sister, Arisa, had soft golden shoulder-length hair and the same pale blue eyes as her sister.

Then Arisa looked up and asked her sister.

"Big sister, why did we have to come here?"

"That's because Arisa is going to be living here from now on, so we have to buy your daily necessities."

Eli Ayase said, dotingly ruffling her younger sister's hair.

"Ara, you two sisters are showing off your affection like this; my eyes are almost going blind, you know~"

Standing to the side, Nozomi Tojo looked at the sisters before her and said helplessly.

"Honestly, it was Nozomi herself who insisted on coming along, so you can't blame me for that."

"Yes, yes. There's a women's clothing store right next to us; shall we go in and take a look?"

"Mm, let's go, Arisa. Let's go buy a few outfits."

Then Eli Ayase took her sister's hand and followed Nozomi Tojo into a clothing store. At the same time, a boy with black hair and black eyes, wearing a silver-white Bluetooth headset on his left ear—our protagonist, Senba Gari—happened to pass by the three girls as they entered the clothing store.

He is the culprit.

Walking through the Department Store, Senba Gari said to Silver Phantom on the other end of the headset.