"Hey, Jin. Whatcha thinking of?"

The half-foreigner looked at his mentor, shrugging while holding the picture frame in his hands. "Just remembering our journey so far, you know?"

"It has been pretty wild," Shujin Kouri agreed, sitting down in front of his mentee. "We met in the wildest of circumstances."

"I stole the Kokokaito Driver from you and then accidentally released the Impulls when I was stealing from a recently abandoned house," He said while laughing. "The Driver undid the seal in the backyard by just being around."

"That and Little Albert's mechanisms."

"Yeah. He was the other thing required to unseal those things. I didn't want to transform at first, though. You told me I was a Kamen Rider and immediately I went, 'Nope, nada, nilch. You had that thing so you deal with it.'"

"You tried to hand it back to me until you saw an Impull come out of someone who was being bullied for having schizophrenia. Resonated with ya, huh?"

"I mean, my entire family killed themselves cause everyone around us thought we deserved to be locked away in an asylum," He said, blue eyes looking out the window of their shared home. "I barely managed to escape the mob from that but it left me scarred. I hadn't even known my sister had survived until she showed up as Lil Albert's reincarnation. Had to... Kill her in order to save her from the pain the Impull had put her through. From the darkness Lil Albert had nurtured in her so he could ressurrect himself."

Kouri flinched. "I... Know that it was my fault-"

"Sensei, you created me as a coping mechanism right?" Jin looked at him, blue orbs meeting black. "You grew up without knowing your family whatsoever... Yet you helped me learn how to empathise with people, and that's how I finally embraced my role as a Kamen Rider and got the SeiDriver."

"Becoming Kamen Rider Healer after we had to endure a literal witch hunt for all the asylums to be blown up," Kouri agreed. "That was no easy feat."

"My sister had to be killed in order to save everyone... Even now, I remember her final words..." He closed his eyes. "Telling me to move forward as myself and to never give up."

"Jin..."

"Of course, accepting all of that wasn't easy," He said while getting up, adjusting his hooded jacket. "But you were there for me. Even if you didn't think you were worthy of it. You still fought and tried. It's something I would have never been able to do. Being able to save others... I would have never thought of it. But you taught me how to do that and more. So... I'm glad that I can keep learning under you, Sensei."

"Hey, I just have a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology that's gone to waste anyway. I just used it as a basis for the Impulls."

"Monsters that manifest when the heart begins breaking down, created by the wounds society inflicts onto those different from them... I remember I used to let them manifest, even at the cost of the host by insulting them... I... Feel horrible for that but now I know better." He closed his eyes.

"You do know better now. After all, you defeated Little Albert and stopped the Impulls. You took down his descendant, his reincarnation, and his revived self. A pretty solid job," Kouri smiled while getting up, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your growth is clear to those around you. You used to call me the naïve scientist, then the psychopathic writer, then it's just Sensei."

"Alright, I get it, I get it. I don't insult people I care for anymore," Jin muttered while covering his face with his hands. "You're embarrassing me here."

"Always the creative type with those insults," He said with a snort.

Jin grumbled, but the smile on his face was undeniable.

He was pretty content with the life he had right now. A former phantom thief had somehow managed to survive everything bad in his life, and he was happy about that.

Little did he know, though...

In a dimly lit room, a man looked out the window, making a birthday cake as a woman walked up to him, her heels clicking against the marble floor.

"Are our preparations complete?"

"Yes, Master. We will soon be able to bring the person you desire to you."

"Beautiful! Let us prepare for our final plan! Bring out...!"

"The Shapeshifter Impull."