With a casual flick of his wrist, Lin Xiao put away the imitation rhinoceros beetle offered as tribute by the Natives of Chiba Prefecture.
He simply stood there quietly, yet a gentle warmth naturally radiated from him, soothing as a spring breeze and nourishing rain.
There was nothing aggressive about that presence. It was like the first ray of dawn spilling onto the grass in early spring, pure and all-embracing.
Hiyori Kusakabe, who had been huddled in the corner with her nerves stretched taut, froze involuntarily the instant she felt it.
As a withdrawn girl who had shut off her heart since childhood, she was deeply sensitive to the malice and hypocrisy of every living thing around her.
But this black-haired boy before her...
To Hiyori, his presence felt as though the entire earth had opened its arms to gently shelter her.
Her heart, long frozen by loneliness and fear, miraculously thawed into a sense of peace and attachment unlike anything she had ever known.
Hiyori gently tugged at the hem of Tendou's Coat as he stood in front of her. Peeking half her delicate face out from behind his broad shoulder, she blinked her clear, wide eyes and murmured:
"Tendou... he's not a bad person."
"I don't know why... but looking at him makes me feel warm all over, like... the real sun."
The moment she said that.
Tendou Souji stiffened violently, as though struck by a bolt of lightning!
The sun?!
Like the real sun?!
Grandmother once said that he, Tendou Souji, was the man who walked the path of heaven and ruled over the sun!
Yet this guy who had appeared out of nowhere had not only stolen his signature transformation, his Rider Kick, and his grandmother's sayings,
*Now even his precious little sister was calling the