Oren was momentarily stunned after hearing Raven's challenge.
Is this guy out of his mind? he wondered. Or is he genuinely that confident?
Yet, he refused to believe that he could ever fail in the field of sweets.
He immediately burst out laughing. "Hahaha, quite the spirit you have, young man. And what is your name?" Oren asked, genuinely curious.
"Raven," he replied calmly. "The owner of the Amazon Café."
"Raven, I'll remember that name." Oren nodded, then continued, "So, how do you want to compete? I'm ready to oblige whenever." While he had temporarily conceded defeat in the fighting arena, he was utterly fearless when it came to making desserts.
That line of work couldn't be mastered by talent alone; it required years of absolute, sufficient experience. No matter how much of a genius Raven was, he couldn't possibly be compared to someone who had been in the sweets business for over a decade and had received France's highest culinary honor.
"How about this: I'm not a fan of trouble, so you set the time and place. Whenever you've got it figured out, just have someone inform me." Raven casually pushed all the arrangements onto Oren.
He then deactivated his transformation and walked away, leaving a crowd of boys and girls, now turned fanboys and fangirls, to stare intently at his retreating figure.
"That was so cool... Wait, does anyone know his contest name?" Many passersby wanted to know Raven's Rider designation. Like Kouta's Rider being Gaim, Oren's being Bravo, and the arrogant Banana's being Baron.
However, no one on the scene currently knew anything about Raven.
"Kouta, you must know something!" At that moment, members of Team Gaim rushed up and grabbed Kouta, eager to ask about Raven's story. Mai Takatsukasa was the most interested, her face full of anticipation.
"Well... I only know the café owner's name is Raven. Aside from that, I'm completely in the dark, too." Kouta scratched his head in embarrassment.
"In that case, why don't we just call him Raven?" Someone suggested, giving the Melon-armored Rider, who transformed using a Sengoku Driver, this phonetic designation as his codename.
"Raven! That name's powerful, the 'Plunderer'!" Someone understood the meaning of the word.
Moreover, Raven's fighting style was clean, swift, and highly aggressive. In a sense, it was quite fitting for him. After all, hasn't his journey been one of constantly plundering the abilities of the Kaijin?
....
As the battle drew to a close, everything that happened at the scene today was recorded by onlookers and posted online.
Thus, discussions about the new Rider, Raven, grew increasingly widespread. DJ Sagara immediately started his radio show.
"Hello, Zawame City!"
"What's the amazing, breaking news from the streets today? Take a look at the following footage!"
On the screen, Raven's powerful debut, effortlessly crushing the previously undefeated Bravo in his Melon Arms form, attracted countless eyes. The girls of Zawame City were utterly captivated.
"This new competitor, Raven, like Bravo, is not a street dancer, but he possesses strength even greater than Bravo's!"
"Let's look forward to his future performances!"
As DJ Sagara excitedly announced the addition of a new contestant to the Inves Game, Raven's competition name was officially registered as Raven.
....
At this time, in a conference room in the Yggdrasill Tower, DJ Sagara, Takatora Kureshima, and others were once again on a video call.
"What's with that Driver? Sid, you better explain yourself." Takatora was very displeased.
First, Oren appeared, and now, so soon after, another unknown Sengoku Driver has been leaked to a non-street-dancer Rider.
"I recall that the initial set of Drivers had already been distributed. There shouldn't be any mistakes," Sid said, looking confused himself.
So far, there were only seven initial Sengoku Drivers used for testing. The users were Kouta Kazuraba, Kaito Kumon, Mitsuzane Kureshima, Ryoji Hase, Hideyasu Jonouchi, Oren, and Takatora Kureshima.
Where did this new one come from?
Meanwhile, Ryoma Sengoku in his lab also looked perplexed. All Sengoku Drivers had to pass through his hands. It should be impossible for an outside Driver to appear.
Everyone's questions now focused on Ryoma. He was the one who knew the most about the Drivers.
Takatora, especially, was losing his patience. The consequences of an unregistered Driver being lost were far more serious than losing a single Lockseed.
Ryoma naturally noticed the trouble. To avoid taking responsibility, he quickly shifted his gaze and said, "This belt and Lockseed were indeed leaked by me in secret. I apologize for concealing this from everyone."
"Lately, the rate of Helheim's erosion has accelerated, and I needed to obtain more aggressive testing data. I had no choice."
Seeing Ryoma speak, everyone's confusion was finally resolved.
Only DJ Sagara maintained a knowing expression. Although he didn't know where Raven's Sengoku Driver and Forbidden Apple Lockseed originated, he was certain they definitely did not come from Ryoma.
Things are starting to get interesting.
Takatora gave Ryoma a deep look. He had things he wanted to say, but held his tongue.
So far, aside from the initial Melon Lockseed he first tested, the data for all other Lockseeds had been deliberately scaled down, limiting their power. This was for safety concerns. He himself had once been severely injured during a test. Since then, the process of acquiring data for the belts had become very conservative and slow.
It seemed this was the very reason Ryoma had secretly released the unrestricted Driver and Lockseed, hoping to obtain test data this way.
"This time, I'll let it go. Don't let there be a next time." Takatora ultimately chose to compromise. After all, with the erosion of Helheim, the hope of all humanity rested on Ryoma's research. He couldn't be overly critical, even if the man made a significant mistake.
As the video conference ended, Ryoma in the lab showed a look of intense interest. He constantly searched his computer for information about Raven but found no clues. He seemed to be a perfectly ordinary person.
Ryoma watched the footage of Raven easily beating Bravo over and over. Such skill, capable of easily overwhelming a battle-hardened military man, could not possibly belong to a normal person.
"This is truly puzzling. I really want his data," Ryoma murmured, resting his head on his hand as he leaned on the desk.
....
Meanwhile, in the Amazon Café.
Raven had naturally caught DJ Sagara's radio program from today.
"Raven, huh? Sounds pretty good," Raven said, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Boss! I can't believe you're the new Rider Raven! That's incredible, I'm your fan!" Just then, a customer in the shop, watching the radio program on their phone, realized the Melon Rider in the video was the café owner.
"It really is him!"
"I didn't notice before!"
The customers immediately crowded around the counter, many of them being energetic young girls. They all tried to get a photo with Raven.
Yuka was dumbfounded. What has Mr. Raven been up to these last few days to become so famous?
Seeing that a few girls, wearing short skirts and black stockings, were leaning very close to Raven, Yuka instantly felt a pang of jealousy. She thought, Mr. Raven is popular with girls no matter where he goes.
"Alright, alright, everyone calm down. One at a time." Facing the requests for photos from his beautiful fans, Raven naturally did his best to oblige, enjoying his moment of fame.
....
During dinner, Saya returned from the Faiz world to join them.
"Mr. Raven, are you really going to compete against the owner of Charmant in a dessert-making contest?" Saya was surprised to learn Raven was planning to compete with the famous pastry chef of this world.
"Yep. It'll probably be in about three days. They'll let me know when they've finalized the details. You two have to come be my cheerleaders then." Raven said, opening his arms and embracing both Saya and Yuka simultaneously.
"Who else would we cheer for but you?" Yuka immediately gave him a kiss on one cheek. Saya, shedding her usual shyness, kissed him on the other.
"With your encouragement, my win rate against that big baldie has gone from one hundred percent to two hundred percent!" Raven declared.
"Then let me encourage you some more." Yuka picked up a piece of meat with her mouth and used a different method to feed it to Raven.
Raven's eyes lit up; he thought Yuka was definitely the more playful one. He opened his mouth expectantly for the feeding.
Saya, watching from the side, blushed fiercely, but not wanting to lose out, she imitated Yuka. She put a piece of meat in her mouth, waiting for Raven to take it.
After dinner, Raven impatiently led them both away, preparing for bed.
The next day, Raven was going about his daily routine at the shop. Unlike the café in the Faiz world, this shop's location was excellent, bringing in many customers daily. Since both shops in both worlds had to be open, if Raven didn't help, Yuka alone couldn't manage.
So, Raven was thinking about whether he should quickly hire a manager and some staff to handle things here, allowing Yuka to return and help Saya.
An ideal candidate quickly came to mind: Kouta Kazuraba's sister, Akira Kazuraba. Although he hadn't met her, Raven was generally aware of their family situation and knew Akira's salary was unstable and that she was always worried about living expenses.
"Boss, I've finished handing out the flyers for the day." Speak of the devil; Kouta, sweating heavily from a morning of distributing flyers, returned to the shop.
Seeing how hard he'd worked, Raven took a cold drink from the fridge behind him and handed it to Kouta. He then started making small talk with him, which naturally led to the topic of his sister, Akira.
"Eh?"
"B-boss? You want my sister to be the manager?" Kouta's mind struggled to catch up. He stared at Raven, completely bewildered.
Ding dong~
Just then, his phone received a text message from Mai.
"A crack?" Kouta's face changed after reading the message. He quickly said, "Uh... Boss, I have to leave!"
Kouta rushed out in a flurry. Raven was momentarily stunned. Then he remembered the other person mentioning a "crack." It must be something related to Helheim.
He followed suit.
....
Upon reaching the scene, Kouta and the later-arriving Mitsuzane didn't find the "crack" mentioned in the text, but there were Helheim plants growing nearby.
"Oh no, Mai must have gone in!" Kouta was burning with anxiety; that strange forest was full of dangers. He didn't hesitate, quickly pulled out his Driver to transform, and then summoned his Sakura Hurricane with a Lockseed.
As his motorcycle rapidly accelerated, a fleeting space rift quickly opened up ahead, and Kouta's figure plunged into it and vanished.
Seeing this, Mitsuzane also wanted to get a motorcycle. He conveniently received a text message from his team members that the Lockseed dealer, Sid, had come to Team Gaim's base to look for him.
From a distance, Raven saw Mitsuzane leave. He calmly pulled out his Melon Lockseed, completed his transformation, and turned into Kamen Rider Raven. He casually tore open a space rift and walked right through it.
....
Inside the Helheim forest, Raven wandered about. After a long time, he still hadn't encountered the Over Lord he'd hoped for, but he did hear the familiar sound of fighting in the distance.
"Don't tell me... it really is him... again." Raven guessed who was currently fighting in the distance.
Sure enough.
After walking just a few steps, he noticed Mai Takatsukasa and Kaito Kumon, who had transformed into Baron, together. Kaito was clearly injured and currently losing the fight against the invading Inves.
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