Character Base

• Character Name: Hayato Ichimonji
• Age: Appears early 20's, actually in his late 30’s
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Kamen Rider (1971)/Kamen Rider Spirits (2001 - Ongoing) / The fight with Black Shogun in Kyoto where he almost got all his blood sucked out. Because I'm funny. The year Spirits takes place is not clearly stated, but due to some math, I've put it at around 1985.
• Items Coming Along:

- his camera, a Pentax Spotmatic with a few different lenses
- five rolls of film
- His motorcycle, a 1970 Suzuki GT380
- One hideous outfit from his closet
- A photo of him and a gaggle of orphans using him as a jungle gym

• Content Warnings for Character: Experimentation, Body Horror, bleak wartime situations, death, mind control, terrorism. References to Nazi-like organizations

Character Background

• History: Hayato Ichimonji and Kamen Rider Spirits

Note: There will be many references to an organization called Shocker, which is an evil terrorist organization bent on world domination and the subjugation of humanity. They have their hands in human experimentation, biochemical warfare, conspiracy, and several other nefarious schemes.

Hayato is one of those characters who has GOBS of canon. He's from the original series of a franchise that's been running for literally 50 years. He's made cameo appearances in some form or another, consistently through this time. Because of that, he's passed through many writers and lots of details are contradictory or ...uh. Weird.

So here is what I am doing with him: Hayato is directly being pulled from the Kamen Rider Spirits manga. Spirits takes place after the events of Kamen Rider Super-1, circa 1980. Super-1 is the 7th series in the rider franchise. Spirits is meant to be a sort of alternate sequel, expanding on the story of Kamen Rider ZX which originally didn't get his own series, just a little TV special.

This makes the events of Hayato's orginal series (Kamen Rider 1971) canon for him, as well as his few assorted cameos in the next handful of series up until Super-1, and then after that, he diverts from live action canon into Spirits canon. Spirits is what I use as a guideline for a lot of details for him, including how certain powers of his work, certain quirks, and history. A good example of this is: When Spirits Hayato is extremely pissed off, red scars show up on his face. Live Action Hayato did not have this quirk. I defer to Spirits Hayato for this detail. Spirits also is what brought up the implication of the cyborgs not aging, where this is directly contradicted in Live Action canon. Again, I defer to Spirits.

• Core Relationships:

Hongo Takeshi

Hayato has many things to owe to Hongo. Hongo is his partner, and they have fought together for years. Hongo is also the one that saved him from the operating table just before they were able to brainwash him, saving him from becoming a monster, while at the same time dooming him to a life of fighting a war that will never end.

Hayato thinks the world of Hongo and he is relentlessly dedicated to standing by his side. Hayato considers it something of his duty to make sure Hongo remembers his humanity, even in the bleakest of circumstances.

Kazuya Taki

Though originally one of Hongo's friends, Taki did not waste much time accepting Hayato as both a friend and as Kamen Rider, and offered Hayato his help in fighting Shocker. Taki is an FBI agent with many connections and resources, and a skilled martial artist in his own right, making him invaluable as an ally despite being a squishy human.

As both a sidekick and a friend, Hayato wouldn't trade him for the world.

Tachibana Tobei

Affectionately called "Pops" by pretty much everyone, Tachibana was a beloved mentor, not just to him, but to many of the other Kamen Riders that would eventually follow in his and Hongo's footsteps. He is a kind but strict man, who is relentlessly supportive while being blunt and honest to help push them forward.

The Other Riders

Other than he and his partner, there are eight more Kamen Riders currently fighting the same fight. Hayato is closer to some more than others, but regardless of that, he looks at them all fondly as an older brother figure, and there's little he wouldn't do for them, should they require his help. Regardless of circumstance, to him, they are all family.

Mami

Mami is a Japanese doctor Hayato met in the war-torn fictional country of Gamon. He spent a lot of time there, helping her run the makeshift clinic and safehouse they'd set up in an abandoned buddist temple. Mami is hardworking, strict and very compassionate and Hayato admires her tireless efforts in caring for the people frequently caught in the crossfire of the nation's civil war. Mami also regarded him as just another person, regardless of his background, and did not needle into his past, allowing him to truly be Hayato, rather than Kamen Rider for quite some time. When he did have to reveal himself, she accepted him regardless, and he couldn't have been more thankful for her friendship, even after he left Gamon.

Character Personality Through Key Moments

(2+) Positive Experiences:

Hayato has an indomitable sense of Justice. Despite the fact that he initially has no personal stake in investigating Shocker, the fact that he heard they were doing horrible things to other people was enough to ignite his fires, and he threw himself into trying to uncover who and what Shocker was with little restraint. This all comes to a head when he learns that some of the survivors he'd spoken to had gone off on their own to try and confront a Shocker operation, only for it to be a trap. Despite whatever he was currently doing (getting juicy footage of Kamen Rider in action, which he'd been hunting for AGES), Hayato drops it all and runs to go save them.

This leads to his capture by Shocker, and eventually being turned into a cyborg, but before doing so he single-handedly took on something like 6 or 7 highly advanced monsters, fighting them for just the slightest chance that the sole two remaining survivors of the trap could get away. As they're trying to escape, Hayato expresses disgust in how he can't really do a lot against them, and how its likely they'll end up killed anyway, and it's those two survivors that reaffirm his resolve. That he made the choice to come and save them despite barely knowing them, because it was the right thing to do, even if they had a snowballs chance in hell of surviving.

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Hayato is also passionate and strong-willed. During his first fight as Kamen Rider he was barely even on his feet, and instead stubbornly took his place at Hongo's side to fight a battle that was heavily stacked against them. Despite the fact that his body should not even be functional, he not only unlocks his transformation, but he and Hongo are actually victorious. As Hongo is carrying his dead-weight almost-corpse out of the building, Hayato says to him that even though he can't feel pain or anything else, he doesn't feel like he's less than human at heart, and even if this is the first time he's had to kill, he's resolved to stay by his side and continue, because the world kind of needs them.

Once Hayato feels strongly about something, he sticks to it until the bitter end. By being a force of nature, Hayato endured a fight he had no chance to winning, and managed to monologue at his partner while suffering from gunshot wounds full of corrosive bullets that were melting his insides. The son of a bitch still lived.

(2+) Negative Experiences:

Despite coming to terms with his nature as a cyborg, Hayato still struggles with acceptance of his body. When we meet him in Spirits, which is a good 15 years after being remodeled, he accidentally scares the crap out of a bunch of frightened orphan kids with the appearance of his scars. This actually fucks him up pretty bad, and as he's fleeing from the building on his motorcycle, he refers to himself as a demon filled with machines. That even if he is some kind of monster, he still wants the kids to see him as an ally and protector.

It's extremely significant that he came out to Gamon, this war-torn country, not as Kamen Rider, but as Hayato Ichimonji, and spent most of his time there helping out Doctor Mami's clinic, caring for those orphans without any of them realizing he was anything other than a simple photographer. The truth of it is after so many years, even his resolve is not exempt from the weight of his duty, and for a sort, selfish period of time, he clung to the good he could do as himself rather than Kamen Rider.

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At heart, Hayato is a pacifist, who wants nothing more than peaceful world. Despite being a high ranking martial artist, he's utilized his desire for truth and justice as a photojournalist instead, claiming the pen far more mightier than the sword. He writes an extremely cutting article at some point before his origin story, where he documented his time with a riot squad dealing with a bomber situation. The article was praised both as insightful and smart, and it is signed very simply at the end with "I wish for a world without conflict or strife."

However, the harsh reality of his situation is that he's had to push those ideals aside for the greater good. As someone with the power to fight back against Shocker, he's had to come to terms with the fact that he will have to kill in order to save lives. In his very first fight as Kamen Rider, he proclaims loudly to the small army of cyborgs, brainwashed victims that were once human, that in the end, there's only one thing you can do with an evil like Shocker, and that's to destroy it. Hayato's hands are stained for the greater good, and it's a burden he has long carried and accepted.

Deer Country Attributes

• Canon Powers: Disclaimers note: Hayato's canon has been running for 50 years and his character has passed hands hundreds of times. I am only listing below what I plan to use, going off two very specific forms of his canon as my guideline.

Hayato is a cyborg. He is an altered human who was captured by an evil terrorist organization bent on world domination, experimented on, and made into what was supposed to be an extremely powerful weapon for taking down their biggest enemy, Kamen Rider. As such, that means he was built to be extremely similar, but more powerful than the Rider, and has a lot of similar abilities. I am going to make this into a bullet point list for my own sanity. It's a lot of nonsense. I'll be nerfing a good handful of this.

- Superhuman strength. Hayato can do stuff like pick up tanks and throw them. He can punch through walls and kick enemy monsters clean in half. Hayato's strength is his chief ability, and it exceeds his partner's by a decent margin.

- His motif is a grasshopper so obviously, the man can fucking jump. He's been capable of leaping up several stories, even outside of his Rider form.

- Sharper hearing and eyesight.

- Superhuman durability. It is extremely hard to kill him. He's had buildings dropped on him, been thrown off cliffs, gotten run through, and usually he can walk away, albeit bloodier than before. It's important to note that in addition to this, Hayato's sense of touch is extremely muted, and he does not feel pain in the normal way.

- Kamen Rider form. When stuff gets serious, Hayato can transform into the Rider, where his body undergoes a dramatic transformation into something much further from human than he already was. With this form, his abilities get much stronger. He is also capable of using a number of special moves including the Rider Kick and Rider Punch, which are super charged melee attacks that straight up make shit explode when he makes contact.

I won't go into detail of any of the NUMEROUS special attacks he's used in canon, though there is more, and his canon is rarely consistent with what his EXACT power levels are and sometimes will straight up contradict itself episode to episode. I pull 90% of Hayato's abilities straight from the Spirits manga and generally use it as a sturdy guideline for how I play him. I'll go into detail how I plan to nerf him in the Blood Manifestation section.

It is also important to note, that he has a weakness, and it's the transformation belt. If you take out his belt, you take him out, it's just also extremely difficult to do.

• Blood Type: Vileblood.
• Omen: Grasshopper friend
• Blessed Day: July 11th
• Patron Pthumerian: The Reckoning. Hayato's sense of justice is one of the most important and enduring things about him. It's what drives him forward as Kamen Rider.
• Blood Power Manifestation:

Oddly enough, Hayato's blood seems to do the opposite of give him powers, if anything, it's responsible for the lesser state his body is in. However, that's a feature, not a bug.

Hayato's previously weird, inorganic cyborg blood being replaced with Vileblood is going to introduce an interesting balance between the cyborg bits and human bits in his body. So while Vileblood, specifically, usually makes more normal people kind of tanky and prone to not feeling much, it's actually a step up from his cyborg blood, and is actually going to give him back a number of things he lost when he got altered.

His sense of touch is going to come back just enough for it to freak him out. He will also start to feel pain again. It means he won't be able to be as careless with his body as he's gotten used to. Getting injured internally will have disastrous results on all the metal parts of his body His blood could actually corrode and melt him from the inside out! Yikes!

This blood brings him closer to being human, and such, his powers are not up to the level they were back home. He's still really strong, but he's not going to be able to just pick up a tank and flip it over. He will also have a time limit on his Rider form, because I just think that kind of drama is fun.