Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Mighty Novel X

CR’s medical office.

Poppy and I returned from the virtual realm, but there was no one in the office.

When I peeked into the hospital room through the window of the medical office, I found the comatose Parad lying in bed. Hiiro-san and Kiriya-san were taking care of him. As long as those two are there, I’m not worried about Parad.

I have to clear Mighty Novel X before my symptoms worsen.

“Kurotopi said in the tutorial that the main character of Mighty Novel X is me, and the game field is the real city we’re in right now.”

“Yeah. He said there’s a novel spot somewhere in this town, right?”

“I have an idea.”

The fourth district of Seito City. On a street in a quiet residential area.

I was straddling the driver’s seat of a CR emergency bike and turning the gas pedal. Poppy, riding in the back seat, was holding on to me with her arms around my waist.

Memory is a strange thing.

Even though I hadn’t been to the town in years, I could still feel the familiarity of the place.

The route I took to school every day. 

Perhaps because of the unusually large number of hills, this area is not so commercially developed, and the majority of the town is residential. There are more single-family houses than condominiums, and stickers saying “Beware of Fierce Dogs” are placed all over the gates and telephone poles, and even people who are used to living here are startled by the sudden barking of large dogs. At the time, I used to think it was like the man-eating plants that suddenly jump out of clay pipes in action games.

The steep uphill slope, which was rather difficult for me to climb on my way to school after waking up from sleep, became a test for my thigh muscles and transformed into a devilish downhill slope that caused modest damage to my legs and back when I returned home. It’s like the damage floor in RPGs where you lose HP when you walk through it.

I’ve loved games since I was a kid, and I used to think of everyday scenes and events in this way.

Assuming that you have 100 HP, you can recover 20 HP by eating one of your favorite hamburgers. When walking on a tiled road, if you step on the tiles one by one in a regular pattern and keep walking, you will get a no-miss clear. When I saw old people lounging in the sun in front of the eaves of a building, I felt like they were NPCs who only speak the lines they are given. And so on.

People often say that if you only play games all the time, you’ll become a useless person, but I still think it wasn’t all bad for me.

The game logic added to the scenery of the town I was looking around stimulated my imagination, or rather, not just an immediate interpretation of what I saw, but an infinite number of imaginary stories. Maybe it’s because I liked it so much, but I lost track of time when I was thinking about games. It could make an hour become five minutes.

As I was thinking about it, we quickly reached our destination.

After stopping the first aid bike, Poppy and I took off our helmets and got off the bike.

In front of me, I could see a coin-operated parking lot with space for four cars. It was in such a residential area that I doubted whether anyone would use it, but there were three cars parked there. Two of them were family cars, and one was the company car of a nearby construction company.

“Is this an important place for you?”

“…Yeah.”

There were a number of familiar single-family houses standing alongside the coin-operated parking lot. The vending machine, which I have probably used more than any other in my life, was still there.

“This coin parking lot. This is where I used to live.”

“Oh, I see. This is your parents’ house?”

“Yes… It’s where I grew up.”

“Oh, this is where you…”

Poppy looked at the landscape of the city with a curious gaze, making sure she didn’t miss anything. Even though it was an ordinary residential area that was not particularly interesting, she looked at it as if she were looking at an amusement park attraction. Just because it was the place I grew up in.

Sometimes I feel a kindness in Poppy that is far from human.

No, she’s not human, though.

Of course, bugsters are born knowing only the world of their own game, so I think it’s possible that they find the outside world refreshing.

But that’s not all.

Poppy has the kindness to be curious about any kind of thing, like when she wanted to know more about Hiiro-san and Kiriya-san’s family. I like that about Poppy.

…Maybe it’s okay to confide in Poppy if she’s like that.

…Maybe Poppy will accept me.

…about my family.

…about my past.

Such thoughts flashed through my mind for a moment, but I quickly shook my head and brushed them away, as if I were erasing a freshly made adventure book.

I made up my mind and approached the coin parking lot.

As the protagonist of Mighty Novel X, one of the novel spots must be here if my event is to occur.

“…Nothing’s happening,” Poppy muttered.

“Maybe there’s some condition that triggers the event.”

“Conditions?”

“Mighty Novel X is a game that Kuroto-san has prepared for me. It’s possible that he’s doing something to keep uninvolved members of the public from getting involved in the game.”

“I see. If that’s the case, does that mean the requirement is something that Emu can do and the general public can’t?”

Something I can do that most people can’t. I took out my gamer driver and put it on my waist.

My hunch was right.

“Mighty Novel X! Event Start!”

The system voice announcing the start of the game event echoed out of nowhere.

I wondered what kind of story Kuroto-san was planning to show me by sending me this game.

The fate that this story leads to. Is it light? Or is it darkness?

Either way, I’m ready for it.

No matter what the story is, I will not turn my back on it, and I will see it all through.

Soon, the scene around us became distorted into a mosaic.

We were lured into the special space of Mighty Novel X.

An ordinary house.

White exterior walls with a dark red tile roof. A three-bedroom house with a two-story parking lot. The living room occupies most of the space on the first floor of the house. Poppy and I were standing in a dustless room with only the bare minimum of wooden furniture.

From the inconsistently designed dishes in the kitchen cupboard to the large grain of wood that stood out in the middle of the tabletop, it was unmistakably the house I had lived in, to the extent that I wondered how Kuroto-san had managed to recreate such details.

Although it was a special space, I felt like I could smell the room I was living in at the time because I missed it so much. The smell of the cypress used to make the furnishings. The smell of leftover food from the dishes in the kitchen sink. I don’t know what it was, but the whole house smelled familiar. All of these smells blended together to create the smell of the Hojo family and occupied the room.

But in reality, the smell was not recreated in the special space. It’s just a smell that has been dormant in the depths of my memory, with some of my own prejudices and exaggerations about the past added in.

Without saying a word, I left the living room and headed up the wooden stairs, which were a bit too high, to the second floor.

Poppy followed me without saying a word, as if she had guessed from my expression what this place was.

As I ascended the stairs, three doors leading to three different rooms awaited me, like the gates to a cave of trials.

The farthest back door from the stairs is the parents’ bedroom. The door in front of it is my father’s study. I seldom set foot in either of them. It was a devil’s room for me.

The door closest to the stairs further ahead. I put my hand on the handle. It seemed lower than I had expected.

When I opened the door, I found myself in a nostalgic six-tatami room.

A single wooden bed and a simple, plain set of bedding. A fifteen-inch television. A small window that lets in the afternoon’s bright western sun. And there was a boy sitting at a study desk that I could barely remember sitting at.

The boy, unaware of our presence, was absorbed in writing something on a notepaper.

I approached the boy and looked at the letter.

My faded memories gradually came back to me like the answers to a riddle game.

On the paper was written in poorly written letters that looked like ancient hieroglyphics:

Poppy, who had seen the letter from my side, blurted out in a tense tone of voice.

“Emu… -kun?”

There were many sheets of the same stationery stacked on top of each other on my study desk. On the top one, there is an illustration of two heroes in orange and green, and a red square robot-like object with the caption “The never-before-seen game that I thought of”. 

I don’t know why I wrote “game” in hiragana in the letter I was just writing, when I could write “game” in katakana on the letter with illustrations. I wasn’t very good at this.

As he finished writing the letter, the boy turned to us, as if he had finally noticed our presence.

He didn’t seem to be afraid of us, his sudden visitors.

That’s just as well. This boy is just another character reproduced by Mighty Novel X, just like this house.

“What were you writing?” I asked the boy in a voice that was surprisingly calmer than I thought it would be.

“A fan letter. I’m sending it to Genmu Corporeshion.” 

What came out of the boy’s small mouth was a young voice that sounded almost entirely like hiragana.

Having a conversation with my former self was a situation that would be forbidden even in a B-grade science fiction movie about time travel, but actually experiencing it in this way was surprisingly not a bad feeling. I felt a strange sense of embarrassment, as if I had found a toy that had been sealed away in the depths of a closet.

“Do you like games?”

“Yeah.”

“What kind of games do you like?”

“I like all of them. But I like Akshon.”

He’s using “but” incorrectly. He’s really a child.

“You’re a fan of Genm Corporation.”

“Yes. That’s why I was wondering if they could make a game based on my idea.”

“Do you think they can do that?”

“…dunno.”

Emu-kun fell silent at the slightly nasty question.

Poppy immediately followed up from the side.

“I’m sure they’ll make it.”

“Really!”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Hey, Emu-kun. Tell me about the game.”

“You know what? There’s an action and puzzle game that I want to play. The protagonists are a pair of siblings who use their own powers, and when the town they live in is attacked by beefsteaks, they go out to defeat them.”

Emu-kun took small breaths, perhaps because of his young lung capacity, and punctuated his words, speaking with a great deal of confidence about his game idea.

This time, it sounded as if there were katakana mixed in with the rest of the words. Perhaps it was because he was used to using game terms, but his pronunciation was sharp. I realized once again how much I really liked the game, despite myself.

“Wow, that looks really interesting! I want to play too!” Poppy smiled.

“But it’s hard. It’s not an easy game to complete. You have to ride a robot and use star actions to become invincible and defeat him.”

Poppy looked at Emu-kun with a gentle smile on her face.

“I see. If you become invincible, you’ll be the strongest.”

“Yeah. Super strongest.”

I stared again at the illustration Emu-kun had drawn on the fan letter. Now that I think about it, a lot of the gashats I used as Ex-Aid’s powers were based on this idea.

The orange and green brothers are Mighty Brothers XX.

The red robot is Maximum Mighty X.

The star action is Hyper Muteki.

Ah… I see.

Kuroto-san used this idea as the basis for the development of Hyper Muteki. That’s why I was the only one who could use the gashat for an unlimited amount of time. When I think about it like that, I feel really deeply moved. This poorly written and illustrated fan letter is like a prophecy that hints at my own future…

I’m sure the Emu-kun in front of me wouldn’t believe me.

Even if I told him that in the future, he would become the hero of his own game and fight in the real world.

Even if I told him that in the future, he can be the only hero who’s able to use the game he thought of.

As I thought about this, I came to my senses. I had been so absorbed in my feelings that I had kept silent. The Emu in front of me was staring at me curiously.

I thought I should chain some sort of conversation together, but I didn’t know what to say to my boy self, so I searched for words for a while.

It was the boy who broke the silence, as casually as if he were talking about tomorrow’s weather. And yet, it was an important statement that got to the heart of the matter.

“Hey. My future dream. What do you think it is?”

As he said this, Emu-kun’s movements stopped and he became motionless like an elaborate mannequin.

A holographic monitor appeared in front of him, displaying three choices.

《Doctor》 《Pro Gamer》 《Other》

I took a deep breath to clear my mind and opened my mouth.

“It’s a turning point.”

“Huh?”

“You remember what Kurotopi said? In the world of Mighty Novel X, we are both bystanders and keepers of our own fate. Every event that occurs has a fork in the road, and by choosing our fate correctly, the story will progress.”

“Oh, I see! Then, in order to clear Mighty Novel X, it’s important to answer the current Emu-kun’s question!?”

“I think so.”

“Emu, you should answer very carefully.”

“…I already know the answer.”

Of course. Because the protagonist of this story is none other than myself.

My childhood memories are faded, but I know this much.

The Emu in front of me is my old self. This child’s life is my own life.

This child’s future is… my current self.

“Emu. Your future is…”

For a moment, I swallowed the next words I was about to say.

The answer was clear, but why didn’t the words come out right away?

It was as if my body reflexively rejected the word, despite my will. It was as if I had forbidden a word from the air. At that time, I still didn’t understand the reason.

Or maybe I was just pretending not to understand.

Poppy was looking at me with a puzzled look.

Nothing is wrong. I already know the answer.

The choices I was given were 《Doctor》 《Pro Gamer》 《Other》.

My answer is….

“Emu. You’re going to be a doctor in the future.”

The boy in front of me blinked slowly once, as if he was confused by hearing a katakana that wasn’t a game term for the first time.

“A doctor…?”

Yes, a doctor.

When I was eight years old, I was involved in a traffic accident. It was then that I realized what “death” really was.

I knew in my head that people would die someday. I was accustomed to seeing characters dying in games, as it was a common storyline.

However, when I had the accident, I experienced firsthand the fact that people really do die.

What happens to us when we die? Does the body remain in pain forever? Or does the pain disappear and we become ghosts? If we become ghosts, do we stay in this world? Or do we go to the other world? Or do we never become a ghost, but just stay in the dark as if we were sleeping?

I don’t know anything. The first thing I was afraid of was not knowing. What scared me more was that the whole world would forget about my existence and I would be alone. I was alone in the pitch black. Even if I shouted out, no one would notice. Forever, in the dark, alone.

It was then that I realized for the first time my fear of death. And at the same time, I learned that there was a real hero in this world who could save us.

Paramedics. Nurses. And doctors.

Dr. Kyotaro, who was a pediatrician at the time, operated on me and saved my life. It wasn’t just my body that he saved. He gave me a game console as a gift, and brought back a smile to my face when I couldn’t get over the fear of death.

I admired Dr. Kyotaro and wanted to become a doctor like him.

I wanted to save people who feel the same way I do.

I wanted to be a hero who could bring smiles back to the faces of those who were alone in the eternal darkness.

I looked at the boy in front of me and muttered in my mind once again, Your dream is to be a doctor.

A short sound effect was played that echoed throughout the special space. It was a minor melody with an ironic rhythm, but not a happy or positive one. Then, the system voice announcing the end of the game sounded out of nowhere.

“Game over.”

My mind went blank, and I was stunned. I thought I heard Poppy shouting something next to me, but it didn’t register with me at all.

The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by darkness.

Poppy and Emu-kun had disappeared, and there was no bed, no study desk, no TV, no small window with the western sun shining in.

I was standing there in complete darkness. I don’t even know if “standing” is the right word.

I didn’t even feel like I was standing.

Complete darkness. Nothingness.

It seemed as if this was the world beyond death that I had feared as a child.

Forever, in the dark, alone.

But strangely, I didn’t feel scared. Or, to be more precise, I had no time to feel scared.

Before I could realize the fate that had befallen me, my consciousness vanished.