Kamen Rider ZO, Rider Forever

Chapter 0

A New Threat

After his battle with Doras, Masaru decides he wishes to ride off aimlessly, hoping to find a place where he belongs.

Despite his bond with Hiroshi, he could not shake off the trauma and pain he experienced due to Hiroshi's father, Dr. Toshiro Mochizuki. As a parting gift, Masaru gives Hiroshi his jacket before riding off into the sunrise.

Masaru spent months riding around Japan, going from town to town, taking up errands to pay for his petrol, lodging and food.

The many months he spent as a wanderer were relatively uneventful, not a single trace of any stray Neonoid from Toshiro's experiments.

That would change when his faithful grasshopper companion telepathically alerts him to it's sighting of the Crab Neo Organism coming out of the ocean onto the shore of a seaside town as he is riding on a seaside road.

He watches from through the grasshopper to try and determine where the town was, however, it is suddenly swept away by a strong gust of wind into the home of an elderly resident, terrifying her. Before the telepathic link briefly breaks, Masaru catches a glimpse of the sky and determines that there's going to be a storm.

He feels a breeze blowing from the south and decides to turn back, following the direction of the wind.

Meanwhile, the elderly resident is petrified of the unusually large grasshopper that is now panicking and trying to fly out of her home.

Masaru sees the chaos and tries to get the grasshopper to calm down to hardly any avail, the chaos is finally settled when a deliverywoman comes to deliver the elderly lady's package. The elderly lady runs to her side

"Nanami!! There's a huge grasshopper, please help me!!"

Nanami places the package down and comforts the petrified old lady.

"Don't worry granny! Where is it? I'll catch it for you"

The old lady could barely speak as she points towards her living room

Masaru listens to this exchange as he continues making his way to the seaside town.

Nanami calmly steps into the living room before being shocked at it's unusual size the grasshopper was still erratically flying around before getting too exhausted and landing roughly on the tatami, hurting it's wing in the process.

It tries to get away from Nanami as Nanami approaches it, Masaru pacifies it again and it finally listens. Nanami finally manages to pick the grasshopper up.

"Oh? It's wing is broken"

Nanami looks out of the window at the dark clouds rolling in.

"Well, there's no way you'll survive a harsh storm with a broken wing. Don't worry, I'll try to treat your wing!"

The elderly lady peeks into the living room

"Is it safe now?"

"Don't worry, it was just scared, it didn't mean any harm. I'll make my way home now for the day"

"Thank goodness, please be safe my dear, the storm is going to be harsh!"

Nanami reassures the elderly lady before rushing home. Masaru smiles upon hearing the exchange, knowing that his little friend is in good hands.

Masaru manages to arrive at the town, rushing to the last position of the Crab Neo Organism only to find that it isn't there.

An epiphany hits him and he recalls that Nanami was running home, noticing that the townspeople were already locking themselves in for the approaching storm.

He realises that Nanami was the only one out and about. He links up telepathically with the grasshopper again to try and determine her location, he finds her and sure enough, the Crab Neo Organism was stalking her.

He waits for her to pass by before he becomes ZO and rushes to fight the Neo Organism, surprisingly he was able to defeat it with relative ease, a few punches in and it fell.

The Neo Organism then became a pile of sea foam on the grass. He checks through the grasshopper and determines that Nanami had arrived home safe and sound, much to his relief.

Nanami decides to set the grasshopper down into a large plastic tub she had in her kitchen, lined with paper towels, before covering the top with a barbecue grill mesh. Nanami places the large tub in the living room.

"Sorry! I don't have any better place to put you so this'll have to do for now"

Nanami goes to the kitchen and grabs some fruit from the fridge, hoping to cut them up to feed to the grasshopper, she stares out of her kitchen window as the storm rages on. She tenses up when she hears the distant thunder and decides against cutting the fruit.

She runs to her living room, clutching the fruits in her hands and awkwardly placing them onto her coffee table.

She switches the TV on to liven up her otherwise lonely surroundings, she uses her teeth to break a piece of apple off to give to the grasshopper, it very quickly ate the piece before looking at her expectantly.

"Wow, your appetite sure does match your size"

Nanami stares at her now half eaten apple and decides to give it to the grasshopper, opting to eat some bananas instead. Her eyes shift to her living room windows, and she catches sight of Masaru running back to his bike after he had defeated the Crab Neo Organism.

She hears water rushing and she turns to the glass door that leads to her garden and realises the sea level is rising.

Despite her crippling fear of storms, she decides to wear a raincoat and takes two umbrellas and rushes to him.

"Mister! The storm is heavy! Please take shelter at my place! The sea level is rising!"

Masaru is stunned for a moment, and turns to face the sea, it was rising fast.

"Could I at least get my bike first?"

Nanami runs to him and gives him an umbrella.

"Sure! But hurry!"

They run in the rain together, and manage to move the bike to the front of Nanami's home before they both rush into her home as the seawater floods the streets, and the storm intensifies.

prologue end