Kamen Rider Shinwa

The Forbidden Thunderbird

Kamen Rider Shinwa
仮面ライダー神話

- The Forbidden Thunderbird -
- 禁断のサンダーバード -
- Kindan no Sandābādo -

< - o - >

Once upon a time, there existed an eon of fantasy in an unknown corner of Earth's history. A time when people believed in the fantasy-like stories of old, written down in books and told through stories from generation to generation, where beasts of mystical proportions lived on the Earth's surface, co-existing alongside ancient animals of lore. The prime example of this story? The tale of the phoenix, an avian of flame that was said to be immortal, to the point where its tears were considered to be sacred, used for various religious purposes back in its era of existence.

While most people genuinely believe nowadays that those stories were nothing more than myths, tales intended to instil hope and fantasy into the minds of little boys and girls of old, others believe in the other end of the spectrum, that those tales were not myth or legend, but reality. For it balances out the scales of belief. For one belief, there will always be a direct opposite to it. Light and dark, myth and truth, sky and sea. With most beliefs, there is only black and white, with no grey area in between.

And this is where my story begins. For I am the host of the power of myths reincarnated into the modern world, the masked warrior that fights for justice with the power of ancient beings. My name is Kamen Rider Shinwa, and let me tell you how this all began...

This story all began on the third Tuesday of the seventh month of 2019, on a morning like any other. Today was supposed to be my first official day of classes, since the second week of the month was spent on my university's induction week. I admit, going to classes after adapting to a different environment definitely felt weird, but I knew it was something I was going to have to get used to eventually.

Waking up that morning, I hopped off my bunk bed, landing on the ladder steps, as I slowly made my descent. It also didn't help that my dormitory situation was very much different compared to my previous school; since my dormitory was a very old one, it mainly had rooms of eight, with minimal rooms of two that normally went to the dormitory council members. So here I was, in what was basically a foreign environment.

As I walked over to my study table, I noticed something there that definitely was off compared to the rest of the stuff on my table, or everybody's tables for that matter. On it, was what seemed to be a neon yellow cartridge-like device which looked like it came out of a Kamen Rider show. Picking it up, I looked at it, trying to figure out what it was. It definitely didn't seem like it came out of any of the previous shows I had seen, nor did it look like anything I've seen in any rumours for the series after the current one.

I read the label on the thing, trying to see if it gave any answers. "Storming Thunderbird," I read out, as I read the second line, "Ability, Storm?" I was definitely confused. For that matter, who the hell put this here? It sure wasn't me, because I have never purchased anything like that before, nor do I know anybody besides me who has the fascination with that sort of thing. But since it's on my table, I'll just assume it's a gift from whoever it was.

It might bite me back in the ass sometime in the future, but for now, I can't be bothered to give two damns about the thing, as I pocketed it, keeping it in my book bag. As I took my toiletries, I looked out of the window. Before checking my pocket watch. Considering it was barely past six in the morning, it made sense that the skies seemed to still be dark, the moon slowly making its descent into the horizon, never to be seen for the next few hours.

After taking a five-minute shower, I put on some proper clothes, before I prepared my books, picking out some new exercise books from my collection, before I placed them into my bag, before I immediately headed to the bus stop that was near my dormitory, as I took another glance at the mysterious object I had with me, as I fiddled with it. And then I accidentally pressed what appeared to be a button on it as I walked to the bus stop, as it made a noise.