And while she was crying and making a scene, Shiraishi Shin, who was also only seven years old at the time, suddenly appeared.
To this day, Shiina Mahiru still remembers it vividly; she remembers him telling her not to cry with a sunny smile, using a handkerchief to bind her scraped knee, and even carrying her on his back out of the forest and back to the camp.
During the seven days of the summer camp that followed, she stuck to him constantly, following him around like a little shadow while calling him 'Big Brother Shin' at every turn, and even cried during their farewell after the camp ended.
Now, those playful memories of that time have become somewhat blurred, but the memory of Shiraishi Shin is etched into her heart. For all these years, he has been one of Shiina Mahiru's few sources of happiness.
She had thought the probability of meeting again after that childhood parting was basically zero. Although Japan is small—just an island—it still has a population of over a hundred million. Plus, after eleven years, they probably wouldn't even recognize each other if they met.
But what Shiina Mahiru didn't expect was that because she had to attend school, she chose to move into an apartment closer to the campus, and the neighbor she encountered turned out to be that very same Big Brother Shin from the past.
She recognized him at a single glance. Although he didn't recognize her and she didn't take the initiative to say anything, it was enough as long as she remembered.
"Big Brother Shin should take some time to shower; I need to quickly make some new dishes for him to eat."
Shiina Mahiru casually placed the money her mother had just given her on the table and quickly took some fresh ingredients out of the refrigerator. She couldn't actually let Big Brother Shin eat her leftovers; that would be far too improper.
"Phew, that's refreshing."
Inside Shiraishi Shin's home, it was a perfect picture of a handsome man emerging from a bath. He rose naked from the tub, shook the water from his hair, dried himself off with a towel, and then took out a hair dryer.
"The ones I've taken down over the past two months have all been Monsters from dimensional rifts—Gulang Tribe Members, Fangires, and the like. According to the system, it seems other Rider plotlines exist in this world too, it's just that the stories haven't started yet. I'm actually looking forward to it."
"Monsters, come out quickly. Let me have a satisfying killing spree all at once."
Shiraishi Shin thought to himself. As a Kamen Rider, he naturally harbored a deep hatred for Monsters and was determined to never coexist with evil. He would let these Monsters know that he was a BOSS-level enemy they couldn't defeat even with all their might!
After drying his hair, Shiraishi Shin put on a set of casual clothes and then went to the door of his neighbor, Shiina Mahiru, and rang the doorbell.
"Shin, come in quickly. However, you'll need to wait a bit for dinner because it's not ready yet."
Hearing the doorbell, Shiina Mahiru came to the door wearing an apron and opened it directly, then let Shiraishi Shin in.
Shiraishi Shin looked into Shiina Mahiru's eyes in surprise and said, "Are you making a portion specifically for me? Why go to all that trouble? Leftovers are fine, I'm not picky."
Shiina Mahiru blinked a couple of times and said seriously, "That would be too rude. How could I let you eat my leftovers, Shin? Don't worry, I'm very fast. It'll be ready in another five minutes."
After saying that, she turned around to go check on the kitchen, but before she could take a single step, Shiraishi Shin reached out and grabbed Shiina Mahiru's small hand.
"Sh... Shin?"
Shiina Mahiru was stunned for a moment, then instantly became bashful, her cheeks turning a bit rosy. Aside from Shiraishi Shin holding her hand when they were little, no other boy had ever held her hand.
Now, being held by the same boy after eleven years, she didn't feel any dislike in her heart; instead, she felt a bit excited.
Shiraishi Shin gave a smile that made Shiina Mahiru's heart flutter. He gave a thumbs up and said, "Thank you, Mahiru. You truly are the angel of the campus and the goddess everyone chases after. You're so gentle. If I could catch a girlfriend as beautiful, gentle, cute, quiet, and capable of cooking as you in the future, life would definitely be happy."
Shiina Mahiru was extremely embarrassed by Shiraishi Shin's praise; her face turned so red it looked like it might bleed, and her heart was beating exceptionally fast. By the end, she even felt a bit lightheaded. She hurriedly shook her head and said, "I'm... I'm not as good as you say. I'm just an ordinary person, not an angel. I, I'll go to the kitchen first. Make yourself at home."
Then she ran toward the kitchen as if escaping.
The corners of Shiraishi Shin's mouth curled up slightly. In the end, it really came down to character modeling. After all, his handsomeness combined the strengths of the four great heartthrobs: Hu, Huo, Peng, and Yan. There were simply too many things a good-looking face could accomplish. Being handsome is a lifelong matter—though, of course, he was still slightly lacking compared to those of you in front of the screen.
He sat down on the sofa and started scrolling through his phone. He was originally quite bored, but he scrolled past some news about people going missing and some mutilated corpses.
"Amazons, huh."
Shiraishi Shin couldn't help but think of Amazons, because over these past two months, he had also killed a few of them. He was very surprised when he first encountered them; he hadn't expected the world he was in to actually have man-eating Amazons. They didn't come from dimensional rifts but were native to this world.
Having these kinds of man-eating Monsters around was truly somewhat nauseating.
Later, he also scrolled to a news piece saying that a convenience store had been robbed by Shocker Combatmen.
There was no surveillance footage inside the store, but a passerby had captured photos of the robbers. While they were called Shocker Combatmen, they were actually just a few robbers wearing similar hoods.
"Shocker Combatmen... it's just cosplay. They're not the real deal. I wonder what the real Shocker would think if they knew these guys were using their name to commit robberies. That's pretty bad."
Shiraishi Shin sighed with emotion after reading it. Ordinary people didn't know, but he knew that Kamen Riders weren't urban legends; they were real.
As for the Kamen Rider tokusatsu shows in this world, they were likely produced because some people had encountered the real Kamen Rider Ichigo and the others, and filmed them after hearing about their experiences.
However, those tokusatsu shows were already over forty years old. Aside from that original generation, people nowadays probably wouldn't watch them much. After all, they were from a long time ago, and by today's standards, the image quality and color grading were far inferior, not fitting the aesthetic of contemporary young people.
Before long, Shiina Mahiru's dishes were finished. It wasn't a lavish spread, but it was enough for Shiraishi Shin. Most importantly, the taste suited his palate perfectly.
After eating a few bites, Shiraishi Shin praised, "Not bad, it's delicious. I could eat Mahiru's cooking for a lifetime."
His casual, seemingly joking words fell upon Shiina Mahiru's ears like a thunderclap.
Eat for a lifetime?
That means... mar... marriage!
This made her lower her head in embarrassment, looking very innocent. She was completely on a different level than Shiraishi Shin. Her voice trembled slightly as she said, "As... as long as you think it's delicious, that's fine."
Shiraishi Shin suddenly asked, "By the way, I remember seeing a woman when I was coming up earlier, and then I saw you standing at the door looking completely dazed. Do you know each other?"
Hearing this, Shiina Mahiru's heart suddenly calmed down. The shy flush on her face receded like the tide. She nodded somewhat dejectedly and said, "Yes, she is my mother. She came today to give me my living expenses."