Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-32932951-20180813011734/@comment-26892768-20180817030747

On an endless road to god-knows-where, a young man slowly awakens, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. His expression quickly turns to confusion as he looks at himself, patting himself down for a bit before getting up to continue the process, and finally, he touches the ground, and his eyes widen in shock. This...was far from what he expected. After all, he's supposed to be dead.

Perhaps a bit of backstory is in order.

Kaito Kumon lived a pretty good life when he was young, playing in the fields of the suburban Zawame. It was a small town, really, nothing spectacular, but for young Kaito, it was perfect...then along came Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil was looking to make Zawame into a bustling city to rival Tokyo or America's New York (for reasons Kaito would only learn many years after the fact), and they were rather determined to do so - and they did do so, at the expense of all the residents who lived there before. And when Yggdrasil both literally and metaphorically tore his life away from him, Kaito learned a harsh lesson of reality: the world revolves around power. The weak are trampled underfoot as the strong make way for their own victory. He didn't like it, but it didn't matter - he wasn't strong enough to make any difference. So, from that day forward, Kaito sought out power and strength; enough, perhaps, to challenge Yggdrasil on his own terms, and the system of the world that cost him and so many others everything.

It started out with the Beat Riders and the Inves Game, as Kaito formed Team Baron and quickly rose to the top of the ranks, gaining influence and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of fans. Then the Armored Riders came into the picture and things started to get out of hand. Kaito ended up becoming an armored rider himself, along with several others, only to find out later that everything - the Inves Game, the Sengoku Drivers, everything - was all set up by Yggdrasil, using the unsuspecting youths on the street as guinea pigs to develop the technology needed to save humanity and give them a few years of happiness before the invasion of the Helheim Forest. As if humanity was worth saving. And several at Yggdrasil shared the same thoughts as him, albeit for different reasons. And so, Kaito went from hating Yggdrasil, to working with them (well a secret sect of them but still), going out into the Helheim forest to find the Overlords and interrogate them on the location of the Golden Fruit that would allow one to evolve beyond humanity. Funny - that never did work out...but it did get the Overlord's attention.

They set their sights on Zawame and quickly turned it into an apocalyptic wasteland, taking down Yggdrasil with ease and swarming the city with Inves. Kaito now had to work with the other Beat Riders to evacuate the city and stop the invasion...but during that, he got wounded by one of the Overlords, and from that wound, the poison of Helheim entered. He kept it at bay with the Genesis Driver, but it wasn't a permanent solution, and he knew that. In the end, he ended up embracing the poison of Helheim - he ate one of the fruits of Helheim, and having built up an immunity to the poison, became an Overlord himself - a being with complete control over the invading forest. It was just what he needed. And with his new form, it came down to him and Kouta. He who wished to destroy the world and make a new one in it's place, where the weak would not be trampled, and he who wished to preserve the world he fought so hard to protect and bring Helheim and the Inves to a new world, where the weak would not be trampled. In the end, Kaito lost - Kouta gained the golden fruit, became the Man of the Beginning, and made his new world, leaving Earth behind. It wasn't quite what he wanted, but...Mai assured him that humanity would learn. He was happy. He was satisfied. He passed into the afterlife...

Which brings us to the present day, where Kaito is, for whatever reason, still alive. And human, at that.

He looks to his right, and sees a familiar sight on the ground - his old Sengoku Driver and Genesis Driver - the latter completely unharmed even though the kill switch within was triggered - along with the Banana, Mango, and Lemon Energy Lockseeds. No Rose vehicle, though. A shame. Kaito would've liked a motorcycle right now.

He leans down and picks them up, putting them in a pocket in his jacket. He starts to look around, when out of the blue, he sees fireballs flying through the sky. Kaito's eyes widen. That...that's probably worth investigating.

Kaito heads over to the site, and is greeted with an area that looks like a warzone. Several craters, scorch marks, and torn up pavement litter the place. Kaito would normally suspect a rampaging sect of Inves, but...no. He can see who's behind all this. A giant, eight or nine feet tall turtle-dragon thing with a spiky shell, black bands with spikes going around his arms, and a flock of red hair overlooking the furious expression on his face. Looks like he's having a bit of a tantrum.

"-Where are my troops!? Where's my castle!? Who brought me to this dump!? I WANT ANSWERS!" The beast roars, sending another burst of flames into the sky. Eyes wide, Kaito cautiously backs up, trying to get as far away as possible. Which would be fine if the angry beast didn't happen to notice him.

"Hey! You! Pretty boy!" As the beast points to him - and starts charging a second later - Kaito bursts into a sprint, trying to get far enough so that he could become Baron and stand a solid chance against the thing. This doesn't work, because the beast curls into his shell, forming a spiky ball that rolls after Kaito up until he unfolds, grabs Kaito in a clawed hand, and slams him against the ground hard. Kaito ends up coughing up blood as the beast lets go, only to pin the youth down with his foot.

"Alright, you little punk, do you know who I am?" Kaito doesn't respond, so the beast continues. "Name's Bowser, King of the Koopas - grade A final boss material right here, you get me? Now, thing is...I just woke up here without any idea how I got here or where I am. So, naturally, I'm a bit...cranky at the moment. So, here's the deal - start talking before I burn you alive."