"Tell me something... that creature back at school. What was it? Why would something that horrific be lurking in the halls?"
Mai Sakurajima adjusted her pace to match Rin's as they navigated the quiet evening streets. The neon hum of the city felt jarringly normal after the visceral nightmare of the corridor. Despite his earlier coldness, Rin had found himself drafted into walking her home—a demand Mai had made with a fierce, quiet intensity that left him little room to refuse.
He glanced at her out of the periphery of his vision. It was strange; his patience for her was significantly higher than it had been for Utaha Kasumigaoka. Perhaps it was the residual influence of the "Bunny Girl Senpai" story he remembered from his previous life, but the sharp, biting edge he usually reserved for others had softened into something resembling a weary tolerance.
He took a moment to let the question hang in the air.
"I honestly couldn't tell you," Rin finally replied, his voice a smooth, practiced mask of ignorance. "I'm just glad a 'Kamen Rider' happened to be in the area to pull me out of the fire. Talk about a stroke of luck, right?"
He punctuated the lie with a faint, self-deprecating chuckle. In the world of deception, a half-truth was the most resilient shield. By positioning himself as a lucky survivor and attributing the victory to a mysterious "Rider," he created a layer of separation between his student life and the golden shadow of the Demon King.
Mai's eyes narrowed, her intuition flaring like a warning beacon. "Kamen Rider? What is that supposed to be? Some kind of children's show hero? You're sure you aren't hiding something behind that smile of yours?"
Rin didn't flinch. He gave a firm, reassuring nod. "Really. It was like an urban legend came to life—some hero in high-tech armor. If he hadn't shown up, we'd both be stains on the tile right now."
Because the concept of Kamen Riders hadn't yet manifested in this reality's public consciousness, Mai seemed to struggle with the explanation. For a second, she looked at him as if he were a child who had watched too much late-night television. Yet, as she processed the impossible speed and the explosive force she had witnessed from a distance, the "Armored Hero" theory was the only thing that made sense.
Unless, a dangerous thought flickered in the back of her mind, the answer is much more interesting. Unless Rin Kuga is the one wearing the armor.
"Well, here we are." Rin said, stopping abruptly.
He gestured toward a sprawling, luxury apartment complex that screamed of high-end celebrity living. Mai, lost in her internal detective work, blinked as she realized they had already reached her doorstep. The walk had felt like seconds.
Knowing she couldn't let him vanish just yet, Mai reached into her bag and produced a smartphone encased in a distinct, velvet-textured bunny-ear cover.
"Here. Give me your Line," she commanded, her tone regaining its usual assertive edge. "I'm taking you out tomorrow. We need to talk about this properly."
Rin squinted at the screen, a wry smile tugging at his lips. Having a top-tier national idol practically demand his contact info was the fulfillment of a thousand high school fantasies, but for the King of Time, it was just another complication.
"Are you asking me out on a date, Bunny Girl Senpai?" he asked, his tone dryly teasing.
CRUNCH.
Mai's heel came down with pinpoint accuracy on the bridge of his foot. For any other high school boy, it would have been a bone-shattering disaster. Rin, however, merely watched the impact. To his heightened senses, the strike carried a strange, metaphysical weight—as if the laws of physics themselves had bent to ensure a beautiful woman's indignation always bypassed a man's defenses.
Even with the durability of a King, he found himself letting out a theatrical, muffled hiss of pain, hopping back more to save the scuff on his shoes than his actual flesh.
It's fascinating, Rin mused, his mind drifting into a cold, analytical space even as he played the part of the victim. I can survive a kinetic blast from a Gurongi that levels a concrete wall, yet I can still feel the spite behind a designer heel. Some things simply exist outside the reach of causality.
"Is the idea of a date with a beautiful actress that much of a burden for you?" Mai asked, her face set in a stern mask that didn't quite hide the faint pink dusting her cheeks.
Rin shook out his foot, a bitter laugh escaping him. "It's not that. It's just... my schedule is a bit of a nightmare. I'd hate to end up stood up by a King, or worse, have to stand you up."
"We'll see about that," Mai countered. Without giving him a chance to argue or decline, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the lobby, the glass doors sliding shut behind her with a soft, final hiss.
Rin watched her silhouette vanish into the elevator, letting out a long, heavy sigh.
And just like that, the ice queen returns, he thought. Once the danger fades, so does the vulnerability. She was almost intimidating there for a second.
He turned away from the luxury tower. The "normal" day was over. Tonight, the Demon King had a far more important hunt to conduct.
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