Master of Kaidan
Chapter 295: Can’t Kick but Can Slash

Chapter 295: Chapter 295: Can’t Kick but Can Slash

"Damn it!" As the opponent’s arrogantly extreme lines rang out, the Outcast Knight - Face Stealer let out an angry shout. The countless white tentacles suddenly contracted, attempting to trip up Feng Xue, who was standing on top of them, while he himself, wielding a pair of rusty scissors enhanced by "Net Cutting" Power, charged toward Feng Xue.

"Leave your power behind!"

The scissors, which clearly had an [advantage against Faces], closed in with the Outcast Knight - Face Stealer’s sudden advance, but Feng Xue, now bolstered by multiple Meme Powers, was far stronger than an ordinary Masked Rider. He casually tapped the Transformation Device, which had no particular button mechanism—

"Evil spirits of the mountains and rivers~~"

"Spirits possessing evil~~"

Two extremely arrogant sound effects were emitted with a speed that seemed to freeze time, indeed fast yet appearing slow. The ukiyo-e style Kaidan then transformed into individual phantoms that flew out from his body.

They lined up in front of him.

By rights, at this moment, Feng Xue should have leapt up with a kick to deliver a standard Knight Kick to finish the combat, but he couldn’t.

Because, for him, powered by Meme Power, "Knight Kick must lose against Weapon."

However, this was of no particular concern. Feng Xue reached out toward the floating phantoms before him and grabbed them. A dozen or so spirits seemed to compress and converge into his hands.

"Attack Command~~"

"Master of the Night Parade of Hundred Demons~~!!!"

The countless phantoms turned into a Bladeless Piercing Sword, the round body of which was adorned with reliefs of Evil Ghosts that seemed to crawl from the handguard toward the point.

With book in hand, the distance is lengthened; without, it’s shortened. At this moment, the Outcast Knight - Face Stealer, armed with scissors, was less than three meters from Feng Xue, who had finally taken his first step after transforming, and with that step, he was already over ten meters away.

What exactly happened in that instant was beyond what the human eye could capture. As the piercing cry, reminiscent of the wailing of a hundred demons, dissipated along with the black luminescence, Feng Xue, holding the Piercing Sword, had already swapped places with Face Stealer. With the disappearance of the sword and armor, a tall and burly man with an ordinary face nonchalantly tossed the Transformation Device onto the Pineapple Rider, who had just regained his composure. Behind him lay the Outcast Knight - Face Stealer, whose head had already fallen to the ground.

"Who are you?!"

The Pineapple Rider, holding the noticeably different Transformation Device, let out a somewhat cracked inquiry toward Feng Xue.

"Didn’t I say? I’m just a passing Masked Rider."

Having said that, the tall and burly figure that should have stood out in the crowd took a step and vanished from everyone’s sight.

The Pineapple Rider wanted to follow but remembered his actual job. He immediately pulled out a somewhat cumbersome camera from his waist pouch and, aiming it at the decapitated "Outcast Knight - Face Stealer," pressed the shutter.

With a crisp click, Face Stealer’s body, along with the armor, transformed into a stream of data that entered the bulky camera.

...

"Wow, that was amazing! Yayuka, did you see that? The one who came to the rescue just now must be the main rider, right? It’s just like reality to love putting side riders in a pinch and having the main rider save the day! And it looks like the main rider and the side rider don’t even know each other; this sense of mystery... it’s just so spot-on!"

Watching the disheveled middle-aged man riding away on a motorcycle at the roadside, Rinko clutched Yayuka’s arm with great excitement, shouting and exclaiming. Yayuka, at this moment, was only overwhelmed by a strong sensation of hunger and exhaustion. If not for her rational mind telling her it would be too conspicuous to faint at this time, she truly wished she could just pass out.

"I’m so hungry! Let’s grab something to eat first," she suggested with an impressively composed tone. Rinko, who was known for her big appetite, immediately agreed, and the two found a fast-food restaurant by the street and began to feast.

After gobbling down a few hamburgers, Yayuka’s rationality finally triumphed over her hunger. She looked out the window towards where the fight had taken place and said with concern, "But is this really okay? A few Kaidan just died here; won’t we be revenged by other Kaidan later on?"

"If anyone’s to be revenged upon, it’d be Masked Rider, not us. Kaidan follow rules too. As long as we don’t break the Kaidan’s rule concerning murder, they won’t harm ordinary people. If we had run away when the Kaidan materialized, we would have broken the murder rule and would be attacked later. But since we stayed and watched, we should be safe!" Rinko confidently stated. However, Yayuka, knowing her friend well, detected a hint of uncertainty in her words.

"Can I trust Rinko’s information?" Yayuka asked herself internally, and Feng Xue’s inorganic voice offered the universal answer:

"I don’t know."

After saying this, she didn’t forget to add—

"Don’t forget, I am you. I can only know what you know."

"Alright then," Yayuka sighed helplessly. Looking at Rinko, who was still trembling slightly, she hesitated before speaking:

"How about I come over to your place tonight? Didn’t you say Kaidan only attack those who are alone?"

"Sure!" Rinko almost instantly accepted the offer, but Feng Xue’s voice sounded once again—

"Is this really a good idea?"

"At least, with me around, there’s a chance to fight back, right?"

...

On the other side, after conducting a round of checks, the dark-circled uncle finally entered the conference room back at the secret base. There, waiting for him, were only a few screens with code names written on them.

"Report the specific situation."

The voice from the screen labeled "A", clearly distorted, prompted him. The dark-circled uncle immediately recounted the incident of his mask being snatched and how an "Evil Rider" saved the day.

"What about the Transformation Device?" asked the letter "F", which immediately received a reply from "K"—

"It has been sent to the Maintenance Department, along with the Kaidan genes that were taken. We’re still experimenting, but preliminary inspections have confirmed that it has been modified in some way, enhancing all parameters and significantly changing the utilization rate of the Kaidan genes."

"This suggests that he’s not a Masked Rider from another country. It must be the power of Kaidan," F stated confidently. A also expressed agreement:

"The likelihood is high, but why would he use our Transformation Device? Considering he can modify and optimize the Transformation Device at will, he shouldn’t need to do that."

"Maybe he’s trying to help us? Since Kaidan strengthen themselves through notoriety, making wild Masked Riders like us stronger would help increase his Kaidan power, right?" K’s screen ventured a guess, to which A immediately responded:

"We can’t dismiss that possibility, but we can’t fully trust him either. Kaidan are still Kaidan after all. Plus, we’re not sure what his connection is to the original Masked Rider Orca. If we get rid of Hundred Tales only to have a bunch of Masked Riders show up, that would be a disaster."

"But we don’t have any other options, do we?" said K, pausing for a moment before continuing:

"The analysis results are in. There are three modifications. One is purely mechanical, which we can try to reproduce. The other two will require further study. We need more Kaidan genes. Also, the gene concentration of this ’Mask Snatcher’ Kaidan is far higher than any we’ve seen before. Making it into a one-time Transformation Card seems like a waste. Should we experiment with other options?"