An SUV and a moving truck trailed behind it were navigating through the vast, grand expressway. The vehicles hummed steadily as they cut through the early morning mist, the sun beginning to rise over the horizon.
Inside the SUV at the front, the Midoriya family settled in for what promised to be a long journey. The gentle hum of the engine mixed with occasional murmurs of conversation, creating a serene atmosphere.
"Mom, are we there yet?" inquired Chisa, the youngest member of the family, from her seat beside her mother in the middle row.
Hearing her daughter's impatient question, Inko giggled at how cute she sounded. "No, dear~. We just left Shizuoka. It's going to be a long drive from here on out."
"Really...? Where is Grandpa and Grandma's place anyway?" Chisa asked, her curiosity piqued.
Hearing her granddaughter's question, Grandma Midoriya turned from the front passenger seat, a soft smile on her face. "Hehe~, are you curious, Chisa-chan? Our place is in Aso Prefecture."
"Aso...?" Chisa echoed, her curiosity growing even if her expression didn't fully show it.
"That's right. Aso Prefecture..." Grandma Midoriya realized that Chisa might not be familiar with that specific region of southern Japan. She quickly thought of a better way to explain. "Do you know what the third largest island in Japan is, Chisa?"
"Huh?" Chisa was surprised by her grandmother's sudden quiz. "Hmm... Ah! It's Kyushu, isn't it!"
"That's right! Way to go!" Grandma Midoriya praised Chisa, who smiled in response. "Aso is on Kyushu Island~!"
"Ah, I see...!" Chisa, again, didn't have much of a reaction when praised or excited, but her eyes sparkled a bit.
Inko, watching their interaction, couldn't help but smile at how adorable Chisa was with her grandmother.
Meanwhile, Grandpa Midoriya focused on the road ahead. Though when no one could see his expression, he secretly smiled at the sound of his family bonding with each other.
The only one not in the mood for family bonding... was Izuku, who sat in the back row seat of the SUV. He was still contemplating the box he was holding, labeled 'tokusatsu.'
He was still conflicted about the revelation... that his late father had also been a hero fanatic like he had been... or rather, like he had used to be.
'...What is actually inside this box anyway?' he thought, now realizing he hadn't actually seen what was inside his late father's prized possession. His mother had told him it was a vintage superhero show collection. 'Was that actually a thing? Did people really make fictional superhero shows?'
Izuku's mind swirled with these thoughts as the SUV continued its journey along the long expressway road.
Izuku kept thinking about how strange it was for a fictional superhero show to exist when real superheroes were now a dime a dozen... but then, suddenly, he realized something. "Tokusatsu...!" he exclaimed quietly to himself as the term finally clicked in his mind. He had read it once while browsing a superhero forum...!
Without wasting any time, Izuku quickly opened his personal bag, which had been sitting beside him in the back row seat, and rummaged through it to pull out his personal laptop. He swiftly powered it on and opened a web browser, typing in the term 'tokusatsu.' Within moments, he found what he was looking for on a wiki page.
Tokusatsu... it was the term for live-action shows that heavily utilized special effects... but more specifically, it referred to shows that focused on transforming heroes who used gadgets and sci-fi technologies to transform from normal humans into said heroes...
One prominent franchise of this tokusatsu genre... was the Kamen Rider series.
Izuku's eyes widened as he read about Kamen Rider.
A masked hero who used a transformation belt to become the hero. These riders were known for their iconic motorcycles, which they used as their main mode of transportation. The example picture on the wiki showed the first Kamen Rider: a green, lightly-armored figure with a helmet resembling a grasshopper. The helmet seemed to strike a balance between cool and grotesque.
The first few generations of Kamen Riders looked incredibly rustic... but Izuku learned that the show had a significant run, spanning roughly 50 years. Over the decades, newer seasons introduced sleeker and more modern designs for the Kamen Riders.
However, the franchise, along with other tokusatsu shows, did not continue to flourish for long... According to the wiki, while the tokusatsu genre thrived during the early 2000s, the emergence of quirks and real superheroes led to a decline in popularity.
The reason was clear: 'Why care for the fictional when the real thing exists?' This sentiment had resonated earlier with Izuku as he was reflecting on his own thoughts. The tokusatsu genre and superhero genre in general had been overshadowed by the reality of living among actual heroes... and the fictional media lost its charm and relevance in a world where superpowers were part of everyday life.
Izuku began to feel skeptical about all this 'tokusatsu' stuff. He wasn't sure why his father had been so obsessed with it. While he and his late father both liked superheroes, the fundamental difference between their preferences was significant.
Izuku preferred real superheroes, while his father was into the fictional ones...
'No... don't badmouth your dad, Izuku,' he quickly chastised himself for thinking such negative thoughts about his late father. Even if he found it a bit strange, it wasn't taboo to like this fictional stuff.
His father had been a great father to both him and Chisa, even if he had spent his last years working overseas. Izuku had always cherished the times whenever his late father came home from work... just like his mother and little sister did.
He then looked at the box belonging to his late father again... the box labeled 'tokusatsu.' He stared at it for a moment... before opening it.
Inside, he found a whole bunch of memory drives labeled with the names of various tokusatsu franchises. Not just Kamen Rider, but also other notable ones like Super Sentai and Ultraman.
Genuinely curious about the appeal of these shows, he picked up one of the memory drives, naturally gravitating towards the one labeled 'Kamen Rider.'
Izuku plugged the memory drive into his laptop. He checked his laptop... and saw access to the files inside the drive... and there was a whole bunch of folders...! Each folder was named after different seasons of Kamen Rider, each seemingly with its own unique Kamen Rider protagonist...!
Seeing so many choices made Izuku quite confused and bewildered. He wasn't sure which show to choose or where to begin.
He could choose the first one... but the appearance of the first season didn't really strike him, especially after seeing a snapshot of the show from reading its franchise's wiki.
He grumbled a bit, contemplating where to start. From what he had read earlier, each season of Kamen Rider existed in its own universe, with self-contained plots, so he could pick any season without worrying about missing context...
Izuku then decided: he would start with the more "modern" seasons, where the designs were more contemporary and visually more appealing for him.
Taking a deep breath... he chose a random folder from the list of seasons in the latter half. His cursor landed on the supposedly 32nd season of Kamen Rider: Kamen Rider Build. He opened said folder labeled with the same name on his laptop's display and scrolled through the episodes.
There were... 49 episodes in total, and the folder even had a sub-folder for movies...!
Izuku was bewildered, not just by the sheer number of episodes but also by the fact that the show was popular enough to warrant its own movies.
Pulling out his headphones from his bag, Izuku plugged them into his laptop and put them on. He clicked on the first episode, his heart pounding slightly with anticipation.
As the screen lit up, a long prologue sequence unfolded, showcasing a fictional alternate universe of Japan hit by an incident where an ancient alien artifact from Mars was forcefully activated, causing a wall to split Japan into three regions.
Izuku was honestly confused by what he was watching. He had expected the actual Kamen Rider hero to appear soon during the prologue sequence... but he was only met with this strange prologue sequence.
But eventually, the masked hero did appear, saving a damsel in distress from being killed by a humanoid monster.
This... was where the show finally began.