Tears to Shed

II: 19-5-1 19-1-12-20

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."

-Isak Dinesen

"I'm hungry."

Kengo turned to see Jiro Inseki clutching his stomach. Once a corpse, Gentaro and Ophiuchus spread their mercy and grace to give him new life and a new name, the Serpent of Obsidian Knives. Currently, this serpent was resting on the couch, a hand on his stomach. This made Kengo question something: if Jiro was already dead, why did he proclaim that he needed food?

"Have you been eating anything prior to Master Ophiuchus bringing you back to life?" asked Kengo, tracing the golden snake necklace around his neck with a finger.

"No, I was in a goddamn coma for who knows how fucking long," Jiro spat out. He sat up and snarled. "No thanks to Ryusei Sakuta and his 'I had to kill someone in order to save you, but I really didn't care about whether you lived or not' mentality. Fuck Ryusei; fuck him so much."

"Sakuta," Kengo repeated, curling his fists. That was the name of the one who killed the Serpent-bearer and brought so much strife to him. However, at the same time, he brought Ophiuchus into existence, bringing both Jiro and Kengo himself into worshiping their new lord. It was still a hassle to mention that name though—just thinking about Ryusei made the Serpent-bearer's blood boil having to remember the man who instigated this madness.

"Is there anything I can eat in this place?" asked Jiro, standing up. "It feels like I can eat a horse."

"How about a Pegasus or some fresh and frozen crab legs?"

"That sounds delicious! Do you have any of those things in your fridge?"

"No. But maybe some roast swan will fill your appetite until tomorrow. Then you'll probably be able to wash it down with some cockroach consommé and melon soda. Nah, that soup would probably be pretty crunchy and filled with dirt and grime and give you an aftertaste of 'jerkass principal' for the next couple of days."

Jiro just laughed and tackled Kengo onto the floor with a grin on his face. Their noses lightly touched as he added, "Did I mention that you have a wicked sense of humor?"

"Do I?" Kengo smirked, tugging onto Jiro's hair. "Maybe I can make you laugh in a different way?"

"And how is the Serpent of Chaos going to make the Serpent of Obsidian Knives laugh?"

"Well," Kengo rose onto his knees and then pushed Jiro onto the floor. "Why don't you give me your knives and let's see if I can tickle you when I start stabbing your fingers one by one?"

Jiro let out another laugh and sat up, wrapping his arms around Kengo's neck and stroking his hair. "You are so evil when you say things like that. I love you."

"Love you back."

The sound of a loud hiss caught their attention. In a plume of shadows, Gentaro stepped forward, his face covered by the hood of his black jacket. From the looks of things, he looked as if he had been crying for quite some time.

"Serpent-bearer," said Kengo, kneeling in front of Gentaro. "How was your trip to the cemetery?"

"Depressing," Gentaro replied wiping a stray tear in his eye. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh high and mighty Serpent-bearer," Jiro went to Gentaro's side and wrapped his arms around his neck. "You don't need to cry anymore. Apep and I are here to ensure your well-being. However...I am feeling quite peckish."

"Ah, that's right. You were dead when I found you." Gentaro lightly removed Jiro's hands off of him as he sat down on the couch. He lazily looked at his two...accomplices staring back at him and asked, "What would you like to eat?"

"What would our master desire?" asked Kengo. "Is there a place that sparks a memory in your mind? Something that would make you feel happy inside knowing that you had something precious within your grasp?"

Gentaro hesitated and felt something pound in his head. It was another memory, but this concerned his mother and him. They were eating bowls of ramen, all dressed up for the winter holidays and their cheeks rosy with laughter and merriment. Painted onto the white bowls were little striped lambs dozing off. He felt the tears fall down his eyes...

"Stripe Sheep..." He murmured, resisting the urge to let the tears fall. "I...remember..."

"The comfort of food and the memories it brings can always make one cry..." Ophiuchus hissed within Gentaro's mind. "It's amazing how a simple roll of bread and butter can make even the strongest man weep tears of joy. However, you're not eating to make you feel happy; you're eating because it allows you to survive. If you have attachment to a simple bowl of rice or a glass of water that touches your lips, then you are clearly labeled insane, Serpent-bearer."

Gentaro slowly nodded his head, blinking to let the tears fall onto the ground. He wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve and stood up.

"Come," he told Kengo and Jiro. "We're heading off to eat; I'll pay for us."

"Really, Serpent-bearer? Dressed as we are?" Jiro stared at the red and yellow scales covering his hands and then to the Egyptian attire Kengo had on him. "Are you sure?"

"Don't worry," Gentaro smiled as he crossed his arms into an 'x'. "All you have to do is say the magic word. Let's get ready, my fellow serpents. It's feeding time."

0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Look at those three..."

"They're so handsome!"

"The one in the middle is their leader, right?"

The female patrons of the Stripe Sheep Ramen Restaurant looked in awe as the three male guests sat down. One had light brown hair and black eyes, dressed in a white striped blouse, black jacket, pants and a snake-like bracelet on his right wrist. Another had short brown hair and was dressed in white, wearing a shirt designed with red spider lily flowers and a golden snake necklace wrapped around his neck. The last male had black hair streaked with red and yellow along with a red jacket and pants, adorned with a fur trim. It was if the restaurant was greeted by three teen idols.

"Are you sure this was necessary?" asked Kengo. He looked at the white jacket with disgust. "I look so sleazy in this suit."

"It's not like you're going to be dressed like this all the time," Jiro laughed, twirling a strand of red hair around his little finger. "All the girls would love to get into your pants, Utahoshi. Be glad; I highly doubt you had that type of reaction back at school, right? Right?."

"Well, there was this one time a girl gave me a letter. I tossed it aside without even opening it."

"Ooh, Apep's a heart-breaker," Jiro giggled. "What do you think, Serpent-bearer? Do you think Apep's one to have girls swoon over him with delight?"

"I wouldn't know that for certain," Gentaro answered, reading from the menu. The bowls of ramen and other assorted bowls of noodle soups were appetizing, but he just flipped through the menu with a hint of boredom. "I just retrieved that letter from the water, acting like such a complete and utter idiot about how guys like Apep shouldn't disregard someone else's feelings."

A waitress came to their table, handing the trio some chopsticks, glasses of ice water, a couple of napkins, and a bowl of salted soybeans. She blushed when she looked into Gentaro's eyes and quickly walked back into the kitchen, nearly tripping on herself. Gentaro didn't react as he took one of the soybean pods and began to eat. Jiro just leaned back and let out a sigh while Kengo just strummed his fingers on the table. The female patrons kept their eyes on the three from time to time, but the three basically ignored them. In about three minutes, the bowl of soybeans was halfway from being finished and Jiro was starting to fold his napkins into origami cranes. Kengo just groaned.

"This is boring," He noted. "Shouldn't we be worried about what our enemies are planning, Serpent-bearer? They're going to work overtime in order to kill us."

"And there's those stupid old guys trying to take away our fun," Jiro noted. "Man, they killed that stupid cockroach without even busting out the kicks and everything! You should've seen the look on his face when he got gutted like a fish by that Amazon."

"I can't wait to see what happens when he finally goes under. That principal made my life a living hell these past few weeks."

"At the rate this is going, Hayami will gladly give up all of his will to us in a few days," Gentaro replied, popping a soybean into his mouth. "And besides, we already went over the plan before we commanded Nonomura to send our little Odette back into her cage. There will be one or two hiccups—no thanks to my former...friends." He grimaced at the word. "But other than that, everything will go exactly as we planned."

"Does this mean I can squash Ryusei Sakuta like the little bug he is?" asked Jiro, a wide grin on his face. "Because I'd love to do so! That son of a bitch is gonna pay when I grind him to dust and-"

"Excuse me," Jiro, Kengo and Gentaro stared at the waitress who just arrived at their table. "Um...can I get your order?"

"One tonkatsu ramen for Jiro, one shoyu ramen for Kengo and a shio ramen for me," Gentaro answered. He piled up the menus and handed it to the waitress. "Thank you."

The waitress, having scribbled down Gentaro's orders, took the menus under her arm and walked off. Gentaro sighed and stirred his water in his glass with a straw in hand.

"The Kamen Rider Club won't know what hit them," he said. "No, they won't notice a thing at all."

0-0-0-0-0-

Fifteen minutes later, the three boys had their meals served. Jiro licked his lips in hunger before diving into his meal. Kengo just stirred the soup around with a spoon, watching the ingredients become blended with each rotation. Gentaro just took his time, slowly sipping his soup and concentrating on what he was tasting.

"It's too salty..." he replied, pushing the ramen away from him. "It's like drinking in my sorrow."

"It's the sodium," said Kengo, lightly tasting the shio ramen. "Salt has been used since the beginning of time for preservation. It was used from drying basic meats to ensuring that the people in their sarcophagi wouldn't rot away so easily. Ancient Romans were allegedly paid with salt and there have been many wars that were waged over this little thing-" Kengo picked up the salt shaker and lightly sprinkled the salt into his bowl of ramen. "Isn't that so amazing?"

"So I guess we should take life with a grain of salt?" Jiro laughed as he knocked the salt shaker out of Kengo's hand, grains of salt spilling over the table top. "Oops...that's bad luck, isn't it?"

While Jiro tossed the spilled salt over his left shoulder and Kengo admonished his fellow serpent for knocking the salt shaker in the first place, Gentaro began to eat his ramen once more. As he took in the taste of the salty broth, a memory came to mind. It was him, standing in the secret clubhouse of the Kamen Rider Club, the Rabbit Hatch. There, he was with other people—his 'friends'. There was a girl with short brown hair, Miu Kazashiro, a boy with a neon hoodie and his hair pulled back with three rubber bands, JK, and a girl with long black hair doodling away at the far corner of the Rabbit Hatch, Tomoko Nozama. In that memory, he gave the suggestion about them heading off for Ramen since they were not needed for club duties.

"Ramen?" asked Miu, looking a bit surprised. "Is that of any good?"

"You've never had ramen before in your life?" JK exclaimed a hand on Miu's shoulder. "Just what type of rich girl are you, Club Chairman? Isn't that a little—ow ow ow ow!"

Miu had placed JK in a choke-hold as Gentaro began to speak: "If tears are the seasoning of youth, then the soy sauce flavor of youth is ramen! Let's go Kamen Rider Club! We hunt...for RAMEN!"

The soup spoon in Gentaro's hands clattered onto the floor. He then slammed fists onto the table and yelled, "ENOUGH!" The restaurant patrons turned to see Gentaro snarling for breath as he looked into his bowl of ramen. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration before fishing out slices of seaweed from the soup bowl and swallowing them quickly before he had a chance to taste its saltiness. He felt the tears falling down his eyes as he forced himself to eat his meal.

"Serpent-bearer," said Jiro, handing Gentaro a napkin. "Use these to wipe your tears. It's unlike the Serpent-bearer to openly weep in the public."

Gentaro took the napkin and dabbed his eyes to wipe the tears away. He crushed the napkin in his hand and placed another hand on his forehead.

"I hate crying," He whispered,, blinking his eyes to let the tears fall. "It's making me remember...it's making me feel human again."

"It has only been at most a week since you were revived into this world," said Kengo. "You are still adjusting to being something not human. Your emotions will not go away overnight. It takes time for you to let go of everything."

"That's right," said Jiro. He bit deep into his tonkatsu before speaking once more. "Apep is saying that you'll need to work on crying everything out. Master Ophiuchus is helping you out, but you have to make that first step into letting go. Only through your actions will you eventually find inner peace."

"You're right," Gentaro lifted the bowl into his hands and raised it near his lips. Tipping it forward, he poured the broth into his mouth. This time, he didn't feel any sort of memory respond from the overflow of salty flavor touching his tastebuds. With a loud gulp, he set the bowl down, seeing that he drank at least three-fourths of the bowl's contents. Taking the napkin in Jiro's hand, he wiped the corners of his mouth before staring at the remaining noodles and chicken left at the bottom of the bowl.

"Even after all that, I'm still hungry," he replied. "It feels as if I want to pour my tears into this bowl and drink them all down."

Jiro and Kengo just smiled as they handed pushed their bowls to their master's side. Gentaro saw this and looked back at his serpents.

"Your happiness comes first, Serpent-bearer," said Kengo. "Do not worry about us. If you must drown in your sorrow, at least fill your stomach with food."

"And what about you, Jiro?" asked Gentaro. "You barely even touched your meal. You'll be hungry until tomorrow evening."

"I always have these," Jiro pushed the bowl of soybeans to his side of the table and took a pod into his mouth. "Just do what you need to do, Serpent-bearer. Everything will go according to plan."

For a sliver of a moment, a smile graced Gentaro's lips. He then nodded his head, said a quick prayer in thanks, and began to eat in silence.

Types of Ramen:

Shoyu-A ramen known for its soy-sauce flavored broth.

Shio-Ramen mostly flavored with salt.

Tonkatsu-Deep fried pork cutlet (note, there's a ramen known as Tonkotsu, which is pork-flavored broth)

After some decision, I decided to create these little shorts as a way of answering a question: "What's Gentaro's character outside of Horseshoes and Hand-grenades?" I wanted to write scenarios as Gentaro struggled with his past and how he gives into the darkness of his heart and to Ophiuchus's will. I don't know if people are going to like this or not, but I'm going to play it by ear. I hope people get interested in this.

Anyway, a bit of an explanation as here: Stripe Sheep is actually the name of a 10 episode drama that Gentaro's actor (Sota Fukushi) starred in prior to Kamen Rider Fourze. Stripe Sheep is the show of a sleeping companion group that a woman named Shio runs with four men helping female clients to easily fall asleep. Gentaro played one of the main characters named Matthew, who dreams of becoming a screenwriter. Pretty nifty, hun?

Next time: What did Gentaro feel before he brainwashed his friends into forgetting him? Was that the real Gentaro Kisaragi inside talking? Did he, for that single moment, feel sorry for what he was about to do to his best friends?

Tears to Shed 3: Betrayal.

Gentaro still has his tears to shed, and many more emotions to let go.