The afternoon drifted by in its usual rhythm. Aoi stacked cans of mackerel, wiped down the checkout counter, and rang up purchases with quiet efficiency. The hum of the store's fluorescent lights was almost hypnotic, blending with the steady beeps of the register.
Around three o'clock, the glass doors slid open with a chime, and a familiar voice called out.
"Aoi!"
Aoi turned, her face brightening faintly. Standing near the entrance was her friend, Sayaka—her classmate from high school who often dropped by after work. Sayaka had always been more energetic than Aoi, her cheerful personality filling whatever space she entered. Today, though, she looked a little restless as she picked up a basket and headed toward the shelves.
"Hey," Aoi greeted softly, setting down the box she was unpacking. "What brings you here today?"
"Needed some snacks," Sayaka said, flashing a grin before tossing a bag of chips into her basket. Then her expression shifted, lowering her voice as she leaned closer. "But also… did you hear what happened in the next town over?"
Aoi blinked. "No. What happened?"
Sayaka glanced around as if to make sure no one else was listening. "A monster. People said it just appeared out of nowhere—like, right in the middle of the shopping street. Big, terrifying, and attacking everything."
Aoi froze, the words settling into her mind like drops of cold water. "A… monster?" she repeated, uncertain.
Sayaka nodded, her tone half excited, half uneasy. "But that's not all. Someone showed up. A man in armor—black and green, people said. He called himself Kamen Rider Cobra. He fought the monster and defeated it, right there in front of everyone."
Aoi stared at her friend, trying to picture such a scene: the calm, ordinary streets she knew suddenly shattered by something monstrous, only for a mysterious warrior to rise against it. It sounded like something out of the late-night shows she and her parents used to watch when she was a child.
"Do you… know what he looks like?" Aoi asked quietly.
Sayaka shook her head. "No one's really sure. Everyone's stories are different. Some said he had glowing eyes, others said his armor looked like the scales of a snake. But nobody seems to agree on the details. It's like… he came, fought, and then vanished before anyone could figure him out."
Aoi lowered her gaze, thoughtful. The words lingered in her mind, unsettling the quiet routine she had carefully built over the past year. Monsters. A warrior called Kamen Rider Cobra. It all felt so far away from her small grocery store life—yet, for the first time in months, her world no longer felt quite so predictable.
Sayaka gave a little laugh, brushing it off. "Anyway, that's just what I heard. Who knows if it's even true. Maybe it was just some rumor or a performance or something."
But Aoi wasn't so sure. Something about the way Sayaka had spoken, the uneasy flicker in her eyes, made her believe that whatever had happened in that nearby town was very real.
As the automatic doors slid shut behind Sayaka later, Aoi found herself staring at her reflection in the store's glass window. For the first time, the quiet streets outside seemed different—as though something strange and unknown was waiting just beyond the horizon.