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"I'm fine, really—I'm fine."
Despite Kenji's protests, he was hoisted by medical personnel and loaded into an ambulance. He didn't have much of a choice; of the three, he was technically the "casualty." While Zhu Yuan had been swarmed, her fighting style was built on high-speed evasion, and the only blow that might have actually landed was the one Kenji intercepted.
As for Qingyi, she didn't need a doctor—ella needed a mechanic and a fresh coat of high-grade lubricant.
Near the Hollow's exit, a team of investigators lingered, scanning the perimeter for residual Ether-waves. Suddenly, something dark scuttled past an investigator's boots. He looked down, but the object had already blurred into an afterimage and vanished.
"Did you catch that?" Investigator A asked, blinking.
"Yeah," Investigator B replied, looking unimpressed. "Black, slimy, antennae on its head. It was a cockroach. What do you expect in this district?"
"A cockroach that big?"
"Then what was it? An Ethereal? Don't be stupid—Ethereals can't breach the perimeter."
The two continued their debate, oblivious to the fact that the "cockroach" was actually Substitute Cloth. Kenji's Bangboo had been fitted with several specialized camouflage routines for exactly this purpose. If seen, most people would just recoil in disgust rather than investigate, fearing the "insect" might suddenly spread its wings and fly at their face.
The terrifying part? Sub-Bot actually could fly. It had a propulsion unit in its lower back, allowing it to become a high-velocity airborne nightmare in an emergency—a move even Zhu Yuan would struggle to parry.
Kenji was whisked away to the hospital. After a battery of tests, the doctors concluded he had suffered nothing more than soft-tissue contusions. The physician shook his head; the injuries were so minor they didn't even warrant a bandage, let alone a bed. However, the PSB was the hospital's biggest corporate client, so Kenji was tucked into a quiet private room for "recuperation."
He lay in bed, lazily scrolling through the Inter-Knot on his phone. The PSB isn't half bad, he thought. Back on Earth, if I weren't bleeding from my eyes, my boss would've had me back in my cubicle before the anesthesia wore off.
What Kenji didn't realize was that the PSB valued its Special Task Force members—especially Zhu Yuan's team—above almost everything else. Zhu Yuan was famously protective of her subordinates. Her superiors could order her into the mouth of hell, but they knew better than to mistreat the people she led. Besides, Kenji had just survived a mission into a Great Hollow's companion distortion. The Bureau saw potential; they weren't about to let their next rising star burn out on day one.
Eventually, the exertion of the battle caught up with him. Using a Rider Belt took a toll, and combined with his physical injuries, a deep sleep was inevitable.
He was startled awake by the sound of the door creaking open. Since gaining his powers, Kenji had developed a lingering sense of "protagonist paranoia"—the feeling that there was always a secret organization or a treacherous villain lurking in the shadows.
"Kenji, are you awake?"
Zhu Yuan's voice acted like a soothing balm. He sat up to see her and Qingyi standing at the door. They looked like they had just clocked out.
"I'm perfectly fine, Seniors. You didn't have to come all this way," Kenji said, offering a sincere smile.
He felt a genuine warmth for these two. In his previous life, your coworkers only visited you if they needed you to sign off on a spreadsheet. Here, despite the grit of New Eridu, he had found a team that actually cared.
"You were injured in the line of duty," Zhu Yuan said, stepping into the room with a bag of fruit. "Of course we were worried."
"What's the status of the mission?" Kenji asked. He remembered the chaos of the Hollow—they'd rescued the survivors and killed the Durahan, but they hadn't found the stolen research data.
"The recovery has been handed off to other departments," Zhu Yuan explained. She sat in a chair by the bed, pulled out an apple, and began to meticulously peel it with a fruit knife. Kenji watched her, mesmerized. Having been single since his first day on Earth, the sight of a beautiful woman hand-peeling an apple for him felt like a localized miracle.
"The Hollow Investigation Bureau took over the search," she continued. "Without the Durahan's influence, the danger level has plummeted. They're professionals; they'll find it."
She handed him a slice of the apple. "After we returned, we filed a report on the 'Kamen Rider.' The higher-ups are in an uproar. Our body cams recorded the entire fight, and the footage has the top brass sweating."
"Are they worried he's a threat?" Kenji asked, munching on the apple.
"They're mostly shocked," Qingyi interjected. "The theories are flying: bio-engineered soldier, secret corporate weapon, an advanced AI construct... take your pick. But because the Rider was friendly toward us, the official stance is 'recruitment.' They want him on the PSB payroll before another faction—like one of the megacorps—gets their hands on him."
Kenji nearly choked on his apple. They want to hire me... as a Rider? He struggled to keep his expression neutral. The idea of getting paid twice for the same job was almost too good to be true.
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