I almost fell forward, but thankfully I managed to regain my balance.
"Why do you keep kicking me?" I asked as I brushed off the suit.
"Just 'cause." She shrugged, saying it like it was obvious.
What kind of answer is that?
Though… that is just like her. I'm already used to it. But that doesn't mean it doesn't piss me off.
I tilted the belt and undid my transformation. I had way too many questions right now, and part of me wanted to rush her immediately and interrogate her for answers.
I handed her the belt. She took it, her palm ate the medals and the belt.
…Okay. That was kind of uncanny.
Deciding to call it a day, we started walking back along the path we'd taken earlier. My energy was pretty much spent, not gonna lie.
"Let's just go home," I said.
"Let's go to a convenience store," she replied.
We stared at each other straight in the eyes.
"No, we're going home," I said.
"I want convenience store," she said.
I raised my hand. She read my mind and raised hers too.
"Rock, paper, sci—"
========
"Thanks for your purchase," the cashier said with a smile.
Once outside the store, we sat on a nearby bench. Isadora tore open her popsicles, three of them, and started licking them without a care in the world.
"So…" I said, unwrapping my own popsicle and finally deciding to break the silence. "Mind If I want it now?"
I looked at her. She continued enjoying her icy snacks as if nothing else in the world mattered, only glancing at me after a few moments.
"You remember when I said I'm a being foreign to this planet, right?" she asked. "Well, the one who made you wear the bracelet, the bracelet which was me in disguise, is the reason I'm basically trespassing on this version of Earth."
I nodded, listening closely. Finally, no dodging and no vague nonsense.
"You know, I'm not even human," she said with a small smile. "In fact, I'm just a manifestation of desire."
She paused.
Eventually, she began straight to the beginning. Explaining the history and the origin of OOO.
Centuries ago, there was a king. One so thirsty for power that it consumed him entirely. He gathered alchemists, people who studied forbidden arts, and through them he created the Core Medals.
The same medals I used earlier.
The ones that let me transform into a Kamen Rider.
The same power that made me strong enough to defeat those bastards from Mato.
The king abused that power and committed atrocities, burning villages, conquering territories, and killing people without distinction between the innocent and the guilty.
Each set contained ten medals. The original OOO took one from each set, leaving nine behind. That absence created an overwhelming desire to become whole again, giving birth to beings known as the Greeed.
They lacked the emotions and compassion humans possess. Their instincts drove them to consume human desires just to feel complete, just to feel something.
The Greeed even rebelled against their creator, only to discover that one of the Greeed, Ankh, was secretly on the king's side. Shortly afterward though, Ankh was backstabbed by the king as well.
The king's own selfish unparalleled greed eventually turned on him.
He attempted to assimilate all thirty Core Medals at once. Not being able to hande it, he and the rest of the greeed was sealed for many centuries as stones.
Even I knew how absurd that was. I had felt how powerful I became with just three. I could not fathom how my body would survive that kind of insanity.
The idea of Combos caught my attention instead. Using three medals from the same set resulted in a stronger form than the non-combo ones due to synergy, with Combos even granting unique abilities to the user.
"No, no. You are not allowed to use a Combo yet, Hideo," she said in an uncharacteristically serious tone, as if she had read my mind.
"Your body might be stronger than that of a normal human right now, but the burden will not be a joke."
Why, though? She said the last user was using Combos left and right. To be fair, he was already a semi-Greeed with those ominous dinosaur medals she mentioned. He also kept using them despite the consequences. Maybe he had built some kind of resistance.
She scolded me and firmly said no. The medals I was using right now were stronger versions than the ones that existed on her world, which meant I had to be careful when using them.
According to Isadora, I was the third user of OOO.
"Wait a minute," I said, frowning. "Why didn't I hear your name among the Greeed?"
I remembered names like Ankh, Uva, and Kazari, but not hers.
She looked down, her expression turning melancholic. With a quiet sigh, she finished her last popsicle.
"I'm not even a proper Greeed like them," she said with a wry smile. "I can't create a Yummy. I don't even have my own proper medals."
She clenched the empty stick in her fingers.
"I was just a girl born from a broken Core Medal, manifested through a man's desperate desire to see his old friend brought back to life."
Alright. Now I was starting to feel bad after seeing her face. Still, a broken medal?
"Aren't you curious about why I was acting that way during our first meeting?" she asked, clearly dodging my unspoken question about the broken medal.
"Curious does not even cover it," I replied, not mentioning it out of respect and choosing not to cross that line.
Grinning, she tapped me on the shoulder.
"To be honest, I was skeptical about why he chose you to be next in line as OOO," she said bluntly. "You look like an average guy you would see on the street. No redeeming qualities, not someone destined to do anything great."
Ouch. That one hurt.
"Do not take it to heart. Let me finish," she said, flicking my forehead.
In her eyes, I was normal. She had deliberately acted the way she did to lower my guard. She even admitted she wanted to cringe when she first started calling me Master during our initial meeting. The guy who gave me the bracelet told her to behave and treat me with respect, though I still did not understand why calling me Master was part of that instruction.
Her opinion of me began to change after she saw how I treated people.
I helped anyone I could, as long as it was not something wrong. I pushed an old man's car even though I did not know him and never asked for compensation. I calmed a crying boy at the playground after he fought with his mother. I did small things, but I always tried to give off a positive presence to people around me.
Despite not being blessed by fate or fortune, and despite constantly complaining about how unfair society was, I never showed that bitterness to others. I simply did what I could without dragging people down with me.
She said my eyes reminded her of the man who once changed a certain bird Greeed's outlook on life.
From that point on, the way she treated me was genuine. Her banter, her teasing, and even the shenanigans that annoyed me throughout the week were things she never had the luxury of experiencing before.
"I did not show you the belt yet because I was still deciding if you deserved it or not," she said. I remembered how silly that getup looked during her tutorial, but it had actually been useful when I used the Kamen Rider suit earlier. "That surprise thing was just me being stubborn."
"I know you're worthy after seeing you transform into OOO earlier, so stand proud."
She gave me a light hit on the arm and chuckled.
"I admit it," she said softly. "You are already a hero in my book even without being a Kamen Rider."
Rising from her seat, she gazed up at the moon above us, lifting her hands toward it as if she could grasp it between her fingers.
"May we have a great journey together," she said, looking back at me. "Partner."
Bathed in moonlight, her face looked like something straight out of an artist's masterpiece.
So still, so beautiful, it almost felt unreal.
Smiling to myself, I stood up from the bench and raised my fist toward her for a bump.
"Well, you better not change your attitude after this," I teased.
She simply shrugged and snorted, then raised her fist and met mine.
___________________
Author's Note:
I might make two chapters tomorrow if my calculus professor doesn't give us another annoying work.