Canon point: Immediately following the events of the TV series
Character history: In the history of Hajime's world, ten thousand years ago, the creatures of the Earth decided to fight for the right to rule over the planet. Their desire to fight for supremacy spawned the formation of an immortal life-form called Undead. Fifty-three Undead were created, and they were ranked in the same manner as a modern deck of playing cards. The Undead were to fight each other in a Battle Royale, and when defeated, they were sealed into playing cards. Fifty-two of the Undead fit nicely into suits and ranks, and each of these fifty-two Undead represented a species vying for control of the planet. If one of these Undead won the Battle Royale, then that species would win the right to rule Earth. The fifty-third Undead, the Joker, was different. If Joker won, then all life on Earth would be eradicated. Human Undead won that first Battle Royale, and the remaining Undead were safely sealed away for ten thousand years.
Scientists researching immortality unsealed many of the Undead, causing the Battle Royale to restart. Joker was among the unsealed Undead, and he was quick to hunt down and seal the Mantis Undead, the most skilled fighter among the Undead. He then used his abilities to take Mantis Undead's form and power by using the proper card. After that, Joker targeted Human Undead...but Human Undead allowed himself to be sealed willingly. The combination of the Mantis Undead's fighting spirit and Human Undead's compassion had an interesting effect upon Joker--he started to develop emotions and feelings beyond being a mindless force of destruction. He also became unwilling to return to his original form, even disgusted by it. For the first time, he found himself without a screaming desire to destroy, and he didn't know why. He no longer wished to be called Joker, and so he took on the human name of Hajime Aikawa.
He was still, however, drawn towards strong enemies and trying to win the Battle Royale, so he continued to wander the countryside and fight other Undead in Mantis Undead's form. When he wasn't fighting, he was spending his time in Human Undead's form and trying to make sense of suddenly having feelings and emotions. When Hajime fought the Giraffa Undead in the mountains, a human photographer was fatally wounded in the crossfire. Hajime assumed his human form and approached the man as he died, and he was shocked when the man was unconcerned about his own fate--he only wanted to make sure his family was taken care of. He gave Joker a photograph of his wife and daughter and begged him to make sure they were safe. This was too much for Hajime's growing curiosity regarding the humans, and so he took on the identity of freelance photographer. The camera would be a useful tool as he indulged his growing curiosity regarding the humans. After all, humans usually pay more attention to the camera than to the photographer himself.
Hajime found the photographer's family, the Kuriharas, and was able to rent a room in the basement of their restaurant, the Jacaranda. Nine-year-old Amane took a shine to him, and, despite himself, he started to return that affection. Hajime was starting to learn about familial love, even if he didn't want any emotional attachments. He was also approaching the point at which he could reliably pass as a normal human, albeit a shy one who was uncomfortable around crowds and prone to asking awkward questions about emotions and human relationships. Hajime's behavior around the Kuriharas was different from his behavior around others--he made more of an effort to emote like a normal human.
It wasn't long before humans affiliated with an organization known as B.O.A.R.D. started using technology and the power of sealed Undead to create Kamen Riders, warriors who could seal the Undead. Hajime's transformation into Chalice was mistaken for another Rider, and he soon came into conflict with Kazuma Kenzaki, Kamen Rider Blade, and Sakuya Tachibana, Kamen Rider Garren. Hajime was initially hostile towards the pair of them, and he still saw humans as weak and useless...though he still had that love for the Kurihara family that he tried so hard to deny. It did not help that the Riders were aware that certain high level Undead were capable of disguising themselves as human, and they assumed this was the case with Hajime. He made no efforts to tell them otherwise. Why admit to being Joker when he now hated that part of himself?
Hajime fought against both the other Undead and the Riders as Kamen Rider Chalice until he was badly wounded in a fight with Garren and left unconscious and badly wounded in the woods. Kenzaki found him and nursed him back to health. This raised a few new concepts for Hajime--he was starting to learn more about human compassion. He didn't understand why Kenzaki might help an enemy, even if he did appreciate the help. This marked a turn in Hajime and Kenzaki's relationship, with Kenzaki making efforts to befriend the secretive Hajime. Kenzaki's reasoning was that there was good in Hajime--he'd seen the way Hajime worked to protect Amane. Hajime didn't understand this, but he slowly started to warm up to Kenzaki. For the first time, he found himself with a friend who had an idea of what he really was.
Other Undead started trying to target Hajime through the Kuriharas, although they assumed he was simply the Mantis Undead, Chalice the Legendary, taking human form. Hajime told himself these human attachments were nothing but a weakness he'd developed...and then he left the Kuriharas in order to keep them safe. He encountered a young man named Jin who dreamed of sailing the world, and he thought that would both keep the Kuriharas safe and get him away from the other Undead and the Battle Royale. It was clear that he missed the Kuriharas terribly; he sent Jin to check up on them without giving Jin a reason. Jin looked upon Hajime as an older brother figure, but when the Shell Undead attacked and destroyed Jin's boat before he and Hajime could set sail, Jin blamed Hajime for the destruction of his dream. Hajime had made a friend, and he was hurt by the rejection. At the same time, other Undead had targeted and kidnapped the Kuriharas. Hajime rescued them, but he allowed Kenzaki to take all the credit--he didn't want them to know of the part he played. The damage was already done; the Kuriharas had been associated with him for too long. He returned home to the Jacaranda, vowing to keep them safe as best he could. After all, if he was right there, then he'd be better able to protect them. Each time they were threatened, it became very clear that Hajime cared for these people, and that attacking someone he cared for was a very good way to get on his bad side.
Life got complicated for Hajime. A new Rider, Leangle, entered the fray. Leangle, a high school student named Mutsuki Kamijou, was possessed by the improperly-sealed Spider Undead. Hajime was outed as Joker by the other Undead, and this caused Mutsuki to fixate upon him, desiring to take Joker's power for his own. Tachibana believed Hajime should be sealed, but Kenzaki steadfastly refused. He swore that if Hajime were to become a problem, he would seal Joker himself--which was a gesture Hajime greatly appreciated. Kenzaki kept insisting that Hajime was now a human, and becoming a human had, by this point, become everything Hajime possibly wanted. He was growing tired of the Battle Royale and being targeted by the other Undead. He didn't want to destroy the world, and he was determined that this would not happen if he were to win the Battle Royale.
A brush with the Caucasus Undead damaged Hajime's repression of Joker. The easiest way to enrage Hajime was to threaten the Kuriharas, and the Caucasus Undead did just that after separating Hajime from the bulk of his cards, which helped to keep Joker's power in check. When Kenzaki attained Blade's King form by simultaneously using the power of thirteen Undead, it was too much for Hajime to take. That surge of power, combined with Mutsuki possessing Hajime's stolen cards, unleashed Joker's full fury upon the world once more. It wasn't until Kenzaki retrieved the stolen cards and the only remaining card in the Suit of Hearts, the Evolution King, for Hajime that Hajime was able to bring his Joker self under control through attaining Chalice Wild Form. Joker was successfully sealed away once more, and Hajime was even more determined to live as a human. He was Hajime Aikawa--not Joker. Not anymore.
The power in Blade's King Form that had caused Hajime to run amok also came with its own price--using that form's power for too long ran the risk of turning Kenzaki into another Joker. Kenzaki was manipulated into fighting Leangle to the point where it seemed as though he would fall to the power--but Hajime was quick to help his friend overcome the Joker that was threatening to awaken, saying that it was his turn to return the favor. He was happy to be the one helping Kenzaki instead of the other way around for once.
The entire time, B.O.A.R.D. scientists were still researching the Undead--the head of the organization, Tennouji, had been authorizing experiments on the Undead and was behind the Battle Royale restarting itself. Tennouji also wanted the Riders dead--they had outlived their usefulness in helping him weed out the weak Undead and collect Undead power. Tennouji unleashed a fused Undead that could both turn invisible and take the form of others. This Undead wreaked havoc among the Riders, causing Hajime and the now-in-possession-of-his-own-reason (following a sequence of events in which Hajime was not involved) Mutsuki to believe that Tachibana and Kenzaki were possessed by Undead. After being a creeper and unsubtly following Kenzaki around for a while, Hajime figured out what was going on, and he orchestrated a plan to trap this fused Undead. He faked a relapse into his Joker state, which caused the Undead to reveal itself in the hopes of defeating Joker. For the moment, it seemed as though everything was going well for Hajime--he had demonstrated that he had Joker fully under control, Tennouji's machinations had seemingly been stopped, and there was only one other Undead, the Giraffa Undead, left. He'd worked with all of the other Riders, and Giraffa didn't seem like he would be a problem under those circumstances. The Battle Royale wasn't yet complete, but he was feeling better about things than he had in a long time.
Tennouji had one last card up his sleeve, and he fused with the artificially created Kerberos Undead. The Riders, including Hajime, defeated him. At this point, Hajime and the Giraffa Undead were definitely the only ones left, and at one point, it seemed as though Tachibana was about to seal Hajime himself...but Tachibana decided to follow Kenzaki's lead and place his faith in Hajime's humanity. He almost died sealing the Giraffa Undead, leaving him incapacitated for what was to come.
With Giraffa sealed, Joker was the last remaining Undead--and the winner of the Battle Royale. As much as he tried to fight his fate, Hajime found himself once more trapped in his Joker form, and the uncontrollable army of Darkroaches spawned from the Undead Sealing Stone that governed the Battle Royale set about trying to end the world. Hajime had his reason and a bit of self-control, but his body was moving on its own to a certain degree. If anything attacked him, Hajime would be unable to stop himself from fighting back. He attempted to kill himself so he couldn't destroy the humans he had come to care so deeply about, but as an Undead, it didn't take. All he could do was hope Kenzaki would be able to seal him.
Mutsuki attempted to seal Hajime by himself, but Hajime warned him against it--he knew that Kenzaki was the only one with a prayer of sealing him. Hajime sent Mutsuki to the hospital, and, soon enough, Kenzaki came to put an end to the Battle Royale--though not in the way Hajime expected. Instead of sealing Hajime, Kenzaki fought Hajime using Blade King Form. King Form still came with the risk of becoming Joker, and Kenzaki used that. He willingly allowed himself to become an Undead, sacrificing his own humanity so that Hajime could keep his. Two unsealed Undead meant that the Battle Royale was restarted, and there was no winner. Because their Undead instincts would drive them to fight each other until only one remained, Kenzaki went far away, telling Hajime that he should stay and live with the humans--and that he would fight the Undead's fate.
Character world: Hajime's world is largely the world of the early 2000's. The biggest divergence is the existence of the Undead--not reanimated corpses, but immortal undying monsters who exist only to fight. Ten thousand years ago, the Undead came into existence to partake in a Battle Fight for control of the Earth. (Canon lore claims that they sprang into existence thanks to the will of the planets' creatures to fight. ) The Undead would fight, with the winners continuing to exist and the losers getting sealed into playing cards. There were fifty-three Undead, all sorted in the same way as a deck of playing cards. Fifty-two of those Undead represented a particular species--the Undead who won the Battle Fight would secure the Earth for whichever species that Undead represented. The fifty-third Undead, the Joker, represented the apocalypse. If the Joker was the last Undead standing in the Battle Fight, then the Earth would be destroyed. The Human Undead won that first Battle Fight and secured the Earth for the humans.
In the then-modern-day of the early 2000's, the Undead were unsealed by researchers working for an organization called B.O.A.R.D. who were seeking to harness the power of the Undead's immortality. This restarted the Battle Fight and leads B.O.A.R.D. to make use of Rider Systems in order to create Kamen Riders to send out and fight and reseal the freed Undead. The series starts a couple of years after the Undead have been unsealed. The Undead and the Kamen Riders are largely regarded as urban legends, and B.O.A.R.D. is just another unremarkable research company to the general public.
Events in the end of the series meant that the general populace had to deal with hordes of rampaging cockroach monsters, though they wouldn't necessarily know what these monsters were or why this was happening.
no subject
Character name: Hajime Aikawa
Character canon: Kamen Rider Blade
Canon point: Immediately following the events of the TV series
Character history: In the history of Hajime's world, ten thousand years ago, the creatures of the Earth decided to fight for the right to rule over the planet. Their desire to fight for supremacy spawned the formation of an immortal life-form called Undead. Fifty-three Undead were created, and they were ranked in the same manner as a modern deck of playing cards. The Undead were to fight each other in a Battle Royale, and when defeated, they were sealed into playing cards. Fifty-two of the Undead fit nicely into suits and ranks, and each of these fifty-two Undead represented a species vying for control of the planet. If one of these Undead won the Battle Royale, then that species would win the right to rule Earth. The fifty-third Undead, the Joker, was different. If Joker won, then all life on Earth would be eradicated. Human Undead won that first Battle Royale, and the remaining Undead were safely sealed away for ten thousand years.
Scientists researching immortality unsealed many of the Undead, causing the Battle Royale to restart. Joker was among the unsealed Undead, and he was quick to hunt down and seal the Mantis Undead, the most skilled fighter among the Undead. He then used his abilities to take Mantis Undead's form and power by using the proper card. After that, Joker targeted Human Undead...but Human Undead allowed himself to be sealed willingly. The combination of the Mantis Undead's fighting spirit and Human Undead's compassion had an interesting effect upon Joker--he started to develop emotions and feelings beyond being a mindless force of destruction. He also became unwilling to return to his original form, even disgusted by it. For the first time, he found himself without a screaming desire to destroy, and he didn't know why. He no longer wished to be called Joker, and so he took on the human name of Hajime Aikawa.
He was still, however, drawn towards strong enemies and trying to win the Battle Royale, so he continued to wander the countryside and fight other Undead in Mantis Undead's form. When he wasn't fighting, he was spending his time in Human Undead's form and trying to make sense of suddenly having feelings and emotions. When Hajime fought the Giraffa Undead in the mountains, a human photographer was fatally wounded in the crossfire. Hajime assumed his human form and approached the man as he died, and he was shocked when the man was unconcerned about his own fate--he only wanted to make sure his family was taken care of. He gave Joker a photograph of his wife and daughter and begged him to make sure they were safe. This was too much for Hajime's growing curiosity regarding the humans, and so he took on the identity of freelance photographer. The camera would be a useful tool as he indulged his growing curiosity regarding the humans. After all, humans usually pay more attention to the camera than to the photographer himself.
Hajime found the photographer's family, the Kuriharas, and was able to rent a room in the basement of their restaurant, the Jacaranda. Nine-year-old Amane took a shine to him, and, despite himself, he started to return that affection. Hajime was starting to learn about familial love, even if he didn't want any emotional attachments. He was also approaching the point at which he could reliably pass as a normal human, albeit a shy one who was uncomfortable around crowds and prone to asking awkward questions about emotions and human relationships. Hajime's behavior around the Kuriharas was different from his behavior around others--he made more of an effort to emote like a normal human.
It wasn't long before humans affiliated with an organization known as B.O.A.R.D. started using technology and the power of sealed Undead to create Kamen Riders, warriors who could seal the Undead. Hajime's transformation into Chalice was mistaken for another Rider, and he soon came into conflict with Kazuma Kenzaki, Kamen Rider Blade, and Sakuya Tachibana, Kamen Rider Garren. Hajime was initially hostile towards the pair of them, and he still saw humans as weak and useless...though he still had that love for the Kurihara family that he tried so hard to deny. It did not help that the Riders were aware that certain high level Undead were capable of disguising themselves as human, and they assumed this was the case with Hajime. He made no efforts to tell them otherwise. Why admit to being Joker when he now hated that part of himself?
Hajime fought against both the other Undead and the Riders as Kamen Rider Chalice until he was badly wounded in a fight with Garren and left unconscious and badly wounded in the woods. Kenzaki found him and nursed him back to health. This raised a few new concepts for Hajime--he was starting to learn more about human compassion. He didn't understand why Kenzaki might help an enemy, even if he did appreciate the help. This marked a turn in Hajime and Kenzaki's relationship, with Kenzaki making efforts to befriend the secretive Hajime. Kenzaki's reasoning was that there was good in Hajime--he'd seen the way Hajime worked to protect Amane. Hajime didn't understand this, but he slowly started to warm up to Kenzaki. For the first time, he found himself with a friend who had an idea of what he really was.
Other Undead started trying to target Hajime through the Kuriharas, although they assumed he was simply the Mantis Undead, Chalice the Legendary, taking human form. Hajime told himself these human attachments were nothing but a weakness he'd developed...and then he left the Kuriharas in order to keep them safe. He encountered a young man named Jin who dreamed of sailing the world, and he thought that would both keep the Kuriharas safe and get him away from the other Undead and the Battle Royale. It was clear that he missed the Kuriharas terribly; he sent Jin to check up on them without giving Jin a reason. Jin looked upon Hajime as an older brother figure, but when the Shell Undead attacked and destroyed Jin's boat before he and Hajime could set sail, Jin blamed Hajime for the destruction of his dream. Hajime had made a friend, and he was hurt by the rejection. At the same time, other Undead had targeted and kidnapped the Kuriharas. Hajime rescued them, but he allowed Kenzaki to take all the credit--he didn't want them to know of the part he played. The damage was already done; the Kuriharas had been associated with him for too long. He returned home to the Jacaranda, vowing to keep them safe as best he could. After all, if he was right there, then he'd be better able to protect them. Each time they were threatened, it became very clear that Hajime cared for these people, and that attacking someone he cared for was a very good way to get on his bad side.
Life got complicated for Hajime. A new Rider, Leangle, entered the fray. Leangle, a high school student named Mutsuki Kamijou, was possessed by the improperly-sealed Spider Undead. Hajime was outed as Joker by the other Undead, and this caused Mutsuki to fixate upon him, desiring to take Joker's power for his own. Tachibana believed Hajime should be sealed, but Kenzaki steadfastly refused. He swore that if Hajime were to become a problem, he would seal Joker himself--which was a gesture Hajime greatly appreciated. Kenzaki kept insisting that Hajime was now a human, and becoming a human had, by this point, become everything Hajime possibly wanted. He was growing tired of the Battle Royale and being targeted by the other Undead. He didn't want to destroy the world, and he was determined that this would not happen if he were to win the Battle Royale.
A brush with the Caucasus Undead damaged Hajime's repression of Joker. The easiest way to enrage Hajime was to threaten the Kuriharas, and the Caucasus Undead did just that after separating Hajime from the bulk of his cards, which helped to keep Joker's power in check. When Kenzaki attained Blade's King form by simultaneously using the power of thirteen Undead, it was too much for Hajime to take. That surge of power, combined with Mutsuki possessing Hajime's stolen cards, unleashed Joker's full fury upon the world once more. It wasn't until Kenzaki retrieved the stolen cards and the only remaining card in the Suit of Hearts, the Evolution King, for Hajime that Hajime was able to bring his Joker self under control through attaining Chalice Wild Form. Joker was successfully sealed away once more, and Hajime was even more determined to live as a human. He was Hajime Aikawa--not Joker. Not anymore.
The power in Blade's King Form that had caused Hajime to run amok also came with its own price--using that form's power for too long ran the risk of turning Kenzaki into another Joker. Kenzaki was manipulated into fighting Leangle to the point where it seemed as though he would fall to the power--but Hajime was quick to help his friend overcome the Joker that was threatening to awaken, saying that it was his turn to return the favor. He was happy to be the one helping Kenzaki instead of the other way around for once.
The entire time, B.O.A.R.D. scientists were still researching the Undead--the head of the organization, Tennouji, had been authorizing experiments on the Undead and was behind the Battle Royale restarting itself. Tennouji also wanted the Riders dead--they had outlived their usefulness in helping him weed out the weak Undead and collect Undead power. Tennouji unleashed a fused Undead that could both turn invisible and take the form of others. This Undead wreaked havoc among the Riders, causing Hajime and the now-in-possession-of-his-own-reason (following a sequence of events in which Hajime was not involved) Mutsuki to believe that Tachibana and Kenzaki were possessed by Undead. After being a creeper and unsubtly following Kenzaki around for a while, Hajime figured out what was going on, and he orchestrated a plan to trap this fused Undead. He faked a relapse into his Joker state, which caused the Undead to reveal itself in the hopes of defeating Joker. For the moment, it seemed as though everything was going well for Hajime--he had demonstrated that he had Joker fully under control, Tennouji's machinations had seemingly been stopped, and there was only one other Undead, the Giraffa Undead, left. He'd worked with all of the other Riders, and Giraffa didn't seem like he would be a problem under those circumstances. The Battle Royale wasn't yet complete, but he was feeling better about things than he had in a long time.
Tennouji had one last card up his sleeve, and he fused with the artificially created Kerberos Undead. The Riders, including Hajime, defeated him. At this point, Hajime and the Giraffa Undead were definitely the only ones left, and at one point, it seemed as though Tachibana was about to seal Hajime himself...but Tachibana decided to follow Kenzaki's lead and place his faith in Hajime's humanity. He almost died sealing the Giraffa Undead, leaving him incapacitated for what was to come.
With Giraffa sealed, Joker was the last remaining Undead--and the winner of the Battle Royale. As much as he tried to fight his fate, Hajime found himself once more trapped in his Joker form, and the uncontrollable army of Darkroaches spawned from the Undead Sealing Stone that governed the Battle Royale set about trying to end the world. Hajime had his reason and a bit of self-control, but his body was moving on its own to a certain degree. If anything attacked him, Hajime would be unable to stop himself from fighting back. He attempted to kill himself so he couldn't destroy the humans he had come to care so deeply about, but as an Undead, it didn't take. All he could do was hope Kenzaki would be able to seal him.
Mutsuki attempted to seal Hajime by himself, but Hajime warned him against it--he knew that Kenzaki was the only one with a prayer of sealing him. Hajime sent Mutsuki to the hospital, and, soon enough, Kenzaki came to put an end to the Battle Royale--though not in the way Hajime expected. Instead of sealing Hajime, Kenzaki fought Hajime using Blade King Form. King Form still came with the risk of becoming Joker, and Kenzaki used that. He willingly allowed himself to become an Undead, sacrificing his own humanity so that Hajime could keep his. Two unsealed Undead meant that the Battle Royale was restarted, and there was no winner. Because their Undead instincts would drive them to fight each other until only one remained, Kenzaki went far away, telling Hajime that he should stay and live with the humans--and that he would fight the Undead's fate.
Character world: Hajime's world is largely the world of the early 2000's. The biggest divergence is the existence of the Undead--not reanimated corpses, but immortal undying monsters who exist only to fight. Ten thousand years ago, the Undead came into existence to partake in a Battle Fight for control of the Earth. (Canon lore claims that they sprang into existence thanks to the will of the planets' creatures to fight. ) The Undead would fight, with the winners continuing to exist and the losers getting sealed into playing cards. There were fifty-three Undead, all sorted in the same way as a deck of playing cards. Fifty-two of those Undead represented a particular species--the Undead who won the Battle Fight would secure the Earth for whichever species that Undead represented. The fifty-third Undead, the Joker, represented the apocalypse. If the Joker was the last Undead standing in the Battle Fight, then the Earth would be destroyed. The Human Undead won that first Battle Fight and secured the Earth for the humans.
In the then-modern-day of the early 2000's, the Undead were unsealed by researchers working for an organization called B.O.A.R.D. who were seeking to harness the power of the Undead's immortality. This restarted the Battle Fight and leads B.O.A.R.D. to make use of Rider Systems in order to create Kamen Riders to send out and fight and reseal the freed Undead. The series starts a couple of years after the Undead have been unsealed. The Undead and the Kamen Riders are largely regarded as urban legends, and B.O.A.R.D. is just another unremarkable research company to the general public.
Events in the end of the series meant that the general populace had to deal with hordes of rampaging cockroach monsters, though they wouldn't necessarily know what these monsters were or why this was happening.