Just as the man was about to lay his filthy hands on Amamiya Iori, something rolled to a stop at his feet with a clunk.
It was a white baseball.
"A baseball?"
The man shifted his gaze toward it and bent down to pick it up — but before he could even touch it, a figure shot toward him like a bullet.
"Wh-What?!"
Before he could react, a baseball bat smashed into his shoulder with a loud crack, sending the fruit knife in his hand clattering to the floor.
"You little punk! Who the hell are you?! Mind your damn business!"
The searing pain in his shoulder threw the man into a rage. He screamed at the "frog" who had suddenly attacked him.
"Stay down! The police are already at the next station!"
The voice came from beneath the frog-faced mask — it was Shimizu Jian.
He had prepared this in advance and packed it in his bag just in case.
From the beginning, Shimizu Jian had planned for the worst. If a situation like this forced him to act, then at least he could do so without Amamiya Iori recognizing him. That way, he could save her without derailing the game's storyline.
"You little shit, I'll kill you!"
The man roared and dove to retrieve the fruit knife — but his hand froze in midair.
The bat came crashing down once more — this time right into his face. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"Iori, are you okay?!" cried her mother, rushing over to pull her into a trembling embrace.
From the deep remorse on her face, it was obvious she was blaming herself for not protecting her daughter.
"I'm fine, Mom."
As Iori reassured her mother, her gaze remained sharply focused on the masked man standing before her.
Having just escaped a knife-wielding criminal, it was only natural she'd be on guard.
"Who are you?"
"Just a passing Kamen Rider in a frog mask. Nothing to worry about."
Shimizu Jian blurted the words out without thinking.
The moment they left his mouth, he winced with secondhand embarrassment. If he could bury himself in a hole, he would've done it then and there.
But surprisingly, the effect wasn't so bad.
Hearing that, Amamiya Iori's tense shoulders relaxed. She couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.
That familiar, gentle smile made Shimizu Jian freeze for a moment.
"Uh… maybe button up first."
He had inadvertently caught a glimpse of the pale curve peeking out beneath the two undone buttons of her blouse. Embarrassed, he quickly looked away and motioned for her to fix it.
Seeing his flustered reaction, Iori's smile deepened.
Shortly afterward, the train pulled into the next station, and the police arrested the man. Fortunately, neither Iori nor her mother was injured — a small mercy in a terrible situation.
The next day.
Because of the train hijacking incident, both Shimizu Jian and Amamiya Iori had to stay behind for police questioning and follow-up investigation, so neither of them went to school.
Luckily, they were interviewed separately, so Iori never saw his real face.
"Please… tell me your name…"
"Please, just once… let me see your face…"
Back then, Iori had reached out to him like a drowning girl grabbing for a floating log. And although he felt a little sorry, Shimizu Jian still walked away.
What could he say? He saw something in her eyes — a look that told him if he took off his mask, everything would spiral back into the same pattern as before.
That wasn't the future he wanted.
And so, Shimizu Jian welcomed the morning of his second day.
On the way to school, the sound of approaching footsteps through the crisp morning air made him turn around.
Coming into view was a boy and a girl.
They were scanning the surroundings until they spotted him, then began walking in his direction.
"Morning, Jian."
It was Kondou Yuuichi, whose frail tone and gloomy aura gave him the impression of someone perpetually tired.
Beside him stood the beautiful Amamiya Iori.
"I'm sorry I'm late, Shimizu-kun."
Iori bowed slightly as she apologized, clutching her schoolbag with both hands.
Her long black hair flowed behind her like something out of a fairy tale. Her delicate features and elegant beauty carried the soft, graceful charm of a classic Japanese heroine.
Back in the first playthrough, Shimizu Jian had once wondered if all those anime and manga heroines had been drawn based on her.
But thinking about it… this was a fictional game world, after all.
Shimizu Jian and Kondou Yuuichi had been close friends for a long time. Through him, he met Iori — and this year, the three of them just happened to be placed in the same class.
Judging from Iori's behavior, she still hadn't realized that the frog-masked rescuer was him.
"It's fine. I just got here too."
Perhaps still shaken from the incident, Iori had asked them both to walk to school together today.
Unsurprisingly, yesterday's train hijacking made it into the news. The media didn't gloss over the event — it was all over television.
Still, Shimizu Jian had thought it wouldn't cause much of a stir.
He was dead wrong.
That morning, he checked his phone and saw that practically every social media platform and news feed was flooded with reports of the incident.
Photos of Amamiya Iori from her interview had gone viral — her stunning appearance shocked the internet.
And just like that, she became an overnight sensation.
Netizens even gave her a nickname:
"The Once-in-Three-Millennia Beauty."
Allegedly, people were so touched by Iori's pure-hearted courage that they began frantically searching for the masked hero who saved her — the "Froggy Rider," a.k.a. Shimizu Jian.
Granted, he had been wearing his school uniform at the time, so some figured out which school he might be from. But even the best internet sleuths couldn't track him down with that little information.
"Yuuichi, I still can't believe you didn't help me yesterday! Reddo bean paste ni kawaru beki!"
Suddenly, Amamiya Iori turned to Yuuichi with a pout, clearly displeased.