Chapter 4: Yuka Osada

Kacha...

"Ah... it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much!"

"I'm sorry, big brother!"

The man felt the bones in his fingers about to crack under Raven's grip. A piercing pain shot through him.

"I gave you a chance."

Raven shook his head slightly, then reached out his other hand and grasped the man's neck.

With a snap, he ruthlessly twisted the neck, breaking it.

The man's eyes bulged, and he collapsed onto the ground, completely silent.

The gaudily dressed woman who witnessed the scene instantly turned ashen.

"You... you killed him..."

Raven stripped the clothes off the man's body, put them on, and said, "He just passed out."

"R-really?"

"I was kidding."

The glamorous woman immediately fell silent, not daring to say another word.

She was terrified that another utterance would prompt him to kill her, too.

She just hoped Raven would let her go next.

"As repayment for saving you, I have a few questions," Raven said, walking up to the woman after getting dressed, squatting down, and speaking to her.

"Where in Japan is this?"

"Tokyo..." the woman answered honestly.

"Who was this man, what was your relationship with him, and does he have any family?"

"He... he was a regular customer at our establishment. He lived alone, but he recently ran up a mountain of debt and hadn't come by for a long time. I ran into him on the street today, and he forcefully dragged me here." The woman answered everything readily.

"I see."

Raven rubbed his chin, his mind racing.

He was essentially undocumented in this world, with no ID and no money. Renting a place was impossible.

He might as well temporarily occupy this man's apartment as a temporary base.

"Do you know where his house is?" Raven continued to ask.

The woman nodded nervously.

That night.

After Raven disposed of the man's body, permanently sinking him into the ocean, he followed the woman to the man's apartment.

It was an old apartment building, the kind of single-room apartment common in Tokyo.

Raven fumbled a key out of the man's clothing and used it to unlock the door.

Upon entering, there were no strange smells as he might have expected, and his first impression was that it was relatively clean.

The furniture and amenities inside were quite complete.

It seemed the man had been living fairly well before falling into debt.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have had the spare cash to visit the establishment every few days.

"The environment is decent enough. I can stay here for a while," Raven nodded in satisfaction.

Just as he was about to lie down and rest, his stomach suddenly protested.

A fierce sense of hunger surged into his brain.

"Damn it, I have to find some protein to eat, and fast. Right, eggs... let me see if there are any eggs."

Raven hurried to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, only to find it completely empty.

"Sigh."

He had no choice but to take out the man's wallet.

It contained a few bank cards and a single 10,000 yen note.

Converted, that was only around 70 USD.

However, it should be enough for him to go to the supermarket to buy some eggs and meat.

Raven then left the apartment impatiently.

He planned to make a quick trip to a nearby supermarket before it got too late.

It was the dead of winter.

A cold wind swept through the streets of Tokyo, and snowflakes began to drift down from the sky.

The city was draped in a silver-white blanket.

Raven, fighting off the hunger, left the supermarket, carrying two large bags of groceries and some daily necessities, and headed back to the apartment.

Just then, as he passed a park, he suddenly heard a sound of sobbing.

Looking closer, he saw a girl in a Japanese school uniform (sailor-fuku) sitting there.

She had her face buried between her knees and seemed very upset.

Raven saw this and decided not to pry.

But the girl seemed to notice someone passing by and suddenly looked up at Raven.

There was a look of panic in her eyes.

Raven's gaze met hers.

This look instantly startled him.

A memory flashed through his mind.

Wasn't this Yuka Osada from Kamen Rider 555?

Judging by her appearance, crying alone here so late, she had likely been driven out of her home.

More importantly, Raven could sense that the aura around her was different from that of a normal human.

She must have awakened as an Orphnoch.

"Hey, little girl, it's late. Why are you out here all alone instead of at home? It's very cold now; it's snowing," Raven paused, but still asked.

He tried not to sound too strange.

"I don't have anywhere to go anymore," Yuka shook her head.

Her birth parents had died long ago, and she was living with her uncle's family, where she was constantly mistreated.

She had just been falsely accused of harming her sister.

That was why she had been thrown out of the house.

"If you don't mind, come with me. It's too dangerous out here alone this late," Raven extended his hand to her.

Yuka Osada looked at Raven.

Although it was dark, her vision, which had evolved after becoming an Orphnoch, allowed her to see Raven's face clearly.

He was a very handsome man.

Even better-looking than the male idols on TV.

A person like him must be popular; would he really be so kind to a stranger like her...

For a moment, Yuka was at a loss.

"Don't worry, I'm not some weird guy." No sooner had Raven said this than he couldn't help but be self-deprecating.

Strictly speaking, he was incredibly weird right now, having just killed a man and taken over his apartment.

However, the inherently kind and simple Yuka didn't overthink it at the moment. She just felt Raven was a good person, and his handsome looks easily won the trust of a high school girl like her. She stood up and hesitantly walked over to Raven.

"Thank you for the trouble..." Yuka said gratefully, lowering her head.

Because she had been constantly bullied and abused all her life, she had very low self-confidence and self-esteem.

Raven saw this and felt a wave of sympathy for her.

How unfair fate was.

In the Kamen Rider 555 series, Yuka's final fate could only be described as utterly miserable.

Since he had met her, he would change her destiny.