Zi-O Prologue

Prologue – 20XX: Journey to the Past

 

In the end, that time was meaningless. 

 

That’s the thought that went through my head on that summer day of 2019. It’s been several days since my lord, Sougo Tokiwa, made that bold decision of his. 

To someone like me who exists outside of the concept of time, it is fully sufficient for me to perceive those events as being “several days ago”. However, the same cannot be said for my lord and those around him. 

On that day, Sougo Tokiwa created a new future. 

As a result, not only did all the battles he went through disappear from history, but so did the time he spent with his friends over that eventful year.  

My lord’s decision. 

He chose “creation”. 

But at the same time, one could see it as “destruction” as well. 

Creation and destruction. Two sides of the same coin.  

But several days later, Sougo Tokiwa, Geiz Myokoin, Tsukuyomi, and everyone else returned to that late summer day of 2018. Upon seeing my lord and his friends step foot into that new world, I was filled with a sense of accomplishment. 

And at the same time, I felt a twinge of loneliness. 

Was it because I wasn’t part of their circle? 

Was it because I didn’t exist in their memories? 

There might be some out there who’d feel that way. 

But unfortunately, I am not endowed with such sentimentalism. 

Take for example a prior incident. 

That time I fought against my other self—who my lord referred to as “White Woz”—with the survival of each other’s future at stake. When I recognized that I was at a disadvantage, I felt a thrilling excitement upon accepting my potential departure from life. 

And if you were to look even further to the past, or perhaps future, you could say… 

I had deceived my “comrades” and caused the deaths of many resistance warriors that fought against the current ruler of the world at the time, Ohma Zi-O. The average person might say that I am nothing but a cold-blooded and heartless demon, but to me, that is all meaningless. 

So then why? 

I used people, betrayed them, manipulated them. I’ve always had a lack of sensitivity that led me to act towards a greater cause without ever questioning the evil or righteousness behind the deeds made in the process. Loneliness is something that could only possibly exist within someone capable of such complicated and sensitive emotion. Could it really be that I experienced that feeling, even if for just a moment? 

I mulled over that thought. For a single night, I mulled over it. 

Although I’ve still yet to reach a conclusion, I’ve arrived at one possibility.  

 

2018, late summer. 

The day Sougo Tokiwa, everyday ordinary high schooler, was guided to the path of becoming Kamen Rider Zi-O, a looming threat to the future. Let’s refer to this day as the “day of origin”, for now. 

 

And then there’s the same day, but different. 

The day that was created when Sougo Tokiwa willingly sacrificed his dream of “becoming king” and gave the world a chance to start over. Let’s refer to this day as the “day of beginnings”. 

 

Having existed in both of these days, which had the same calendar date yet completely different meanings to them, I, in other words, Woz, must have had something change inside me. 

And I wanted to know what that was. 

I delved into thought once again. This time I thought about it for just a bit longer than one night. 

That period of one year that no longer existed within either my lord or those around him, residing only within my memories. Did I need to once again look back towards that time? 

What exactly was Ohma Zi-O? 

And what is Kamen Rider Zi-O? 

Perhaps I needed to take another look at the history carved alongside my lord and his partners, Geiz Myokoin and Tsukuyomi. Having fallen into that state of mind, I reached out towards the True Ohma Advent Calendar. 

Certain circumstances had led me to dispose of the Ohma Advent Calendar that I had kept with me ever since 2018’s “day of origin”. 

Furthermore, I had noticed the book contained slight discrepancies compared to the actual history Sougo Tokiwa walked along. I then corrected those mistakes and created the revised True Ohma Advent Calendar, and decided to refer to its contents as the “official history”. 

I opened the True Ohma Advent Calendar to the prologue’s pages for the first time since I revised them. 

 

It’s off. 

 

As faint as it was, I recognized it as someone’s voice. 

It sounded menacing, like the cry of a bird of prey heard from a distance in a hazy forest, and it was unclear, as if there was some kind of digital noise muffling it. 

“…Who’s there?” 

I tried responding to the voice, but there was no response. 

I called out to the voice several more times, but I received no answer. I couldn’t even tell if my voice was reaching them. 

I decided to put aside the matter of that voice for now, and once again opened up the pages of the True Ohma Advent Calendar. 

“What is this…?”

Those intricately recorded memories, starting from the prologue, the first episode consisting of the average high schooler Sougo Tokiwa obtaining the power of Kamen Rider Zi-O, all the way to that decisive battle against Swartz in the forty-ninth episode… 

Its final pages were in the process of disappearing. 

Suddenly, that voice once again called out to me. 

 

Return to the day of beginnings, then you’ll know. 

 

This time I heard it for sure. 

Although I still could not discern its owner. 

However, I could not help but react to its distinctive wording. 

What is the “day of beginnings”? 

If using my definition, then it would be the newly created day of summer 2018 that the demon king rewrote into history. 

“Is this the sign of something…? Or rather, is it already happening…?” 

The letters within the True Advent Ohma Calendar were disappearing ever so slowly one after the other, but they also looked to be disappearing at a steady rate. 

“Is someone… interfering with history…?” 

 

Those turns of events were what triggered me to delve into the mystery behind this time space disorder. 

I decided I’d go ahead and decipher this peculiar riddle. 

 

Just like how a small stream separated from civilization far in the mountains could one day grow into a large downstream river without anyone knowing, at that time, I failed to foresee the conclusion to the “future” in any way whatsoever.

 

Without having any way of knowing that the nonchalant step I made would serve as the trigger for something massive, I headed towards 2018’s “day of beginnings” that the past demon king rewrote.

 

This is a memorandum that I, Woz, Keeper of History, have left for the sake of my own recognition in my journey towards the compilation of a newly occurring history.