#and the entirety of the kyoto arc to build up on why he was the way he was

[everyryuujisuguro]

[yeonchi]

Kisekae Insights #25: The last of Hiroki’s prototypes

Originally, I wasn’t planning on making an instalment of Kisekae Insights this month because I was planning on building a new PC, but then I suddenly got depressed because of stuff and that had to be put on hold, so I decided to write a couple more instalments. At the same time, I’m planning on ending the second run of Kisekae Insights after the next instalment to make way for the Doctor Who Series 13 reviews and also to focus on the last leg of my personal project. 9 instalments in 6 months isn’t bad compared to 16 in the first run, but that’s probably because a few instalments were filler and I have a job now so I don’t have as much time to work on new content. It will take me some time to prepare content for the third run (when I eventually get around to it), but I promise that we’ll go straight into the big stuff, namely My Little Pony, Gokaiger, Decade and Soulbound. I said back in #17 that I would hopefully cover it this year, but obviously things have changed.

Most of Hiroki’s prototypes that I’ve covered up to this point are OCs of animes that have had a significant influence on my personal project; this is not necessarily the case for the remaining ones, particularly because a couple of them are totally original characters. Let’s dive right in and cover the last of Hiroki’s prototypes.

Please note that there is a content warning for family/domestic violence and suicide.

Richard Yang: The First Prototype

Remember back in #6 when I said that Kyōko Izumi is the “Genesis Prototype”? Richard is the “first prototype” because chronologically, he is the first of Hiroki’s prototypes.

Bodyguards and Assassins (十月圍城), not to be mistaken for the namesake movie, is a series I created (or rather, conceptualised because I never really wrote out the series fully) in 2010 as a late-night drama on my totally real TV network after all the simulcasts of TVB dramas were done for the evening (we’ve really come far over the years). Richard Yang wasn’t written as Hiroki’s prototype until 2013 because I didn’t have that plot point back then.

In the drama, Richard is basically an explorer who has adventures. His style name is Samlin because at one point, he became sworn siblings with several other people who either resembled or were characters from Fifi and the Flowertots or Angelina Ballerina, one of them being Ms Mimi, who is like the elder sister or something. His timeline probably got cancelled out by the time he came onto Doctor Who.

Four series of Bodyguards and Assassins were made between 2010 and 2013. The second series involved Richard meeting his old primary school friends or something, the third series involved characters from K-On and the fourth series involved Richard meeting (a reincarnated version) of Yuri Nakamura from Angel Beats, who would go on to become his girlfriend. Richard began being featured on Doctor Who in 2012 with the Kikuchi Arc in Series 4 (he doesn’t do much in it though), but his origin wouldn’t be covered until the year after for the 50th Anniversary.

Speaking of Angel Beats, the series’ main characters, Kanade Tachibana and Yuzuru Otonashi, were also the Doctor’s companions for a few episodes at the end of Series 1 and 2 and the entirety of Series 3 and 4, making numerous reappearances over the years. Aside from Yuri, other characters from Angel Beats were also featured, but not given much focus.

In 2001, Hiroki was with his parents at Madame Tussaud’s in Hong Kong (the actual one, not the other one that we usually use to refer to Melbourne). While his father was trying to take a photo of his wife and son with the wax figures of The Beatles, Hiroki was too busy playing with George Harrison’s hair (I don’t exactly know which one is which so I might be wrong, like that matters anyway), causing him to be distracted. His mother slapped him, causing him to cry and regenerate into Richard. While Hiroki’s real body materialised later, he managed to swap places with Richard so that no one would get suspicious.

Following his birth, the 4-year-old Richard ended up living at an orphanage before he fell back in time to 1998 and ended up in Nagoya with no memories of his past. He was discovered by a local orphanage, but after no one adopted him for a period of three years, he was adopted by one of the female workers.

An unexpected invasion from the Oda Army in 2004 caused Richard to be separated from his adoptive mother. He was found by the Tongmenghui, who decided to take him in, considering his situation. Taking on the name Richard Yang, he became the leader of the Tongmenghui and led children in a rebellion against their parents. This would be known as the Dinghai-Wuzi Revolution of 2007.

Following the end of the Revolution, Richard started studying Geography and Teaching at Tokyo University, eventually becoming a professor there by 2012. He also began working as a casual relief teacher at Camembert Academy and as a tutor in the Chipping Cheddar area, where he eventually decided to settle down with Yuri.

When the Superhero Project was being developed in 2017, Richard moved to Auckland and became the commander of the Superhero Project for UNIT NZ, tasked with looking after the Shinkengers and Go-Busters. After the Superhero Project was decommissioned in 2019 (Soulbound Series 3), Richard was recalled from UNIT NZ and sent to Minato-Sugaru Island to help investigate a minus energy phenomenon, going undercover as a teacher at Canterlot High School. He returned to his normal UNIT duties the year after, during which the Superhero Project was recommissioned.

Zhuge Qiao: Successor of the Guardians’ legacy

(Morina created on Chibi Maker by gen8)

Like with Richard, Zhuge Qiao is another character who was just introduced out of the blue and given an origin story later, the main difference being that Zhuge Qiao’s introduction and origin story was entirely contained within the main Doctor Who series instead of being introduced in a totally unrelated series. She did get a spinoff series though.

Shugo Chara, the series which Zhuge Qiao was created for, was featured in the project in 2012 and 2013. Aside from Zhuge Qiao, the Doctor, Parker, Hiroki and Akari received (multiple) Guardian Characters, but they were relegated to the dollhouse (or Hakushi’s mini-TARDIS) soon after their debut and written out some time after (with the exception of four who were travelling in Hakushi’s mini-TARDIS). The reason why Heart’s Eggs exist is because of a morphic field in the city that caused people to develop them in their hearts. The morphic field would later evolve to the point where visitors to the city could develop Heart’s Eggs and hatch Guardian Characters reflecting their personalities if their emotions were strong enough. However, Heart’s Eggs developed in this manner would disappear from the visitors’ hearts within days of leaving the city and even if a Guardian Character were to hatch from it, they wouldn’t last very long without the companionship of other Guardian Characters.

In 2005, Hiroki went to Honnōji in Kyoto to evade his former lovers, Kimia and Tiffany, who had joined forces and formed the Kurayami Alliance in an effort to assassinate him. He was then forced to commit suicide, resulting in him regenerating into a female prototype, who would come to be known as Zhuge Qiao. Before you ask, yes, she is named after the Three Kingdoms figure of the same name, just as Parker was named after Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Qiao was brought back to UNIT HQ, where she said a brief farewell to Hiroki before heading off to travel the world on her own, eventually going on to fight in the Parallax War as well. In the final days of the Parallax War, she was attacked by a group of X-Egg influenced humans in Handan on Popei Island and was saved by Amu Hinamori, who she became good friends with. After the Parallax War ended, she would go on to gain a Guardian Character named Morina and establish Torchwood North, an organisation for Guardians to continue their duties even after graduating from Seiyo Academy. Although her Character Change has not been shown in the stories I’ve written, Zhuge Qiao can Character Transform into Beautiful Dream, wielding the Marigold Saber Sword.

During her time in Torchwood North, Zhuge Qiao assisted the Guardians in protecting humanity, though she did slip away from Popei Island to help wherever she was needed. She also planned on making a system that would allow the Guardians to transform at will, but it was unfinished when the Daleks invaded Handan (during the events surrounding the Battle of Koshi Castle as covered in #15) and Amu and the Guardians sacrificed themselves to repel the fleet, resulting in them and their Guardian Characters being transported to the Road of Stars. Taking the remaining four Guardian Characters into consideration (because they had been travelling with Hakushi in his mini-TARDIS), Zhuge Qiao perfected her system into a belt named the Shugo Belt (similar to the Den-O Belt) and became Kamen Rider Shugo, an original Rider replacing Kamen Riders Den-O (because who needs the Den-Liner when we have the TARDIS) and Kiva (because I didn’t want to find a way around the Fangire requirement).

Sword Form – Morina (Zhuge Qiao’s Guardian Character) Analogous to Den-O Sword Form and Kiva Kiva Form, Shugo Sword Form utilises the Marigold Saber Sword (similar to the Momotarosword) as a carryover from Beautiful Dream. This form’s finisher is the Extreme Slash.

Brush Form – Miki (Amu Hinamori’s Guardian Character) Analogous to Den-O Rod Form and Kiva Garulu Form, Shugo Brush Form utilises the Canvas Brush Revolver as a giant brush to attack with brush strokes or blobs of ink (similar to Amu as Amulet Spade or Ma Dai’s moveset in Dynasty Warriors 7 and 8). This form’s finisher is the Solid Attack followed by the Open Heart Kick.

Sonic Form – Hakushi (The Doctor’s Guardian Character) Analogous to Den-O Ax Form and Kiva Dogga Form, Shugo Sonic Form utilises the Sonic Hammer (similar to the Dogga Hammer) for powerful short-range attacks. The Sonic Hammer also incorporates technology used in sonic screwdrivers to disrupt enemies at a medium range. This form’s finisher is the Dynamic Smash.

Gun Form – Mubo (Parker’s Guardian Character) Analogous to Den-O Gun Form and Kiva Basshaa Form, Shugo Gun Form utilises the Magnum Revolver (similar to the Ryuvolver) for powerful attacks at any range, however this form’s marksmanship may not be the best at times as Mubo represents Parker’s recklessness.

Climax Form Analogous to Den-O Climax Form and Kiva DoGaBaKi Form, Shugo Climax Form is activated with the K-Chara phone attached on the Shugo Belt. This final form combines the powers of all four Guardian Characters and though it is technically able to use all four aforementioned weapons, Shugo mainly uses the Marigold Saber Sword out of preference. This form’s finishers are the same as that of Den-O Climax Form, namely the Boisterous Kick/Punch/Shout/Slash.

Decade’s Final Form Ride card for Shugo summons the Guardian Sword (similar to the Evil-Crushing Hundred-Beast Sword from Gaoranger), allowing him to perform the Decade Guardian Slash together with Shugo. I had thought about using or modifying it and giving Shugo an “actual” final form stronger than Climax Form, but I decided not to.

Hayato Kisaichi: The Forgotten Prototype

There have been two special cases where one of Hiroki’s incarnations have gone on to become their own prototypes. One of them was Momoka Mizutani, Hiroki’s only female incarnation influenced by Walpurgisnacht, and the other is Hayato Kisaichi, aka the Ice King, an initially forgotten incarnation similar to the War Doctor. I should point out that due to the nature of his regeneration, this incarnation did not use up a pocket of regeneration energy; you’ll find out why soon.

Hayato’s design is modelled off a genderbent version of Elsa from Frozen. He was introduced in the opening two-parter of Series 9, which was released in August 2014, the same time as the BBC Series 8. After that, he was shelved until the 5115 Specials in November of that year.

(Genderbent Elsa art, the basis for Hayato Kisaichi/the Ice King. Art by juhaihai and Awen Ng)

After Zhuge Qiao was found and taken back to UNIT HQ, Hiroki’s next incarnation manifested naked where he fell before he stood up and metamorphosed his residual regeneration energy into ice, allowing him to become the Ice King and build Nijō Castle out of ice. He then built a machine and sent a signal for assistance, which was answered by the Nestene Consciousness, the Ice Warriors and the Weeping Angels.

Though they were not summoned by the signal, the Doctor, Hiroki and his companions from 2014 also came to 2005 in an effort to secure the foundations of Nijō Castle before it falls apart in fifteen years due to it being made out of regeneration energy. During their adventure, they joined forces with the Ice King and helped him and his army fight off the Kurayami Alliance at nearby Yamazaki, but Tiffany and Kimia manage to slip past them and head for Nijō Castle, leading to them having to head back.

Back at Nijō Castle, the Ice King ambushes the Kurayami Alliance with the Weeping Angels, who can move outside of their quantum lock due to them being under the Ice King’s control. Despite this, however, the Kurayami Alliance manage to set Nijō Castle on fire and the Ice King is killed by Kimia after a battle with Tiffany. The Ice King’s ice powers change back into regeneration energy, allowing the past Hiroki to regenerate into his next incarnation without using another regeneration in the process.

The Ice King remanifested himself as a prototype under Nijō Castle, where he laid in hibernation for the next nine years along with his army. Hiroki would begin reawakening the Ice King later during “the Day of Retribution”, but he never got to unleash him or his army. However, Hiroki did summon the Ice King and his army in Heaven when he and the Doctor confront God for rapturing millions of people. They later joined the big battle in Yokohama alongside the angels.

After the battle ended and Girl Power was defeated thanks to the intervention of Jesus Christ, the Ice King was left in the care of UNIT. He was given the name Hayato Kisaichi and offered a job in the canteen at UNIT HQ, allowing him to find a new purpose in life. Later in 2018, Hayato joined UNIT NZ and became Blue Buster. Despite no longer being the Ice King, I like to think that Hayato maintained some level of it (even if only a little). I didn’t put the Go-Busters’ weaknesses into consideration when writing Gokaiger, but I suppose that Hayato could have a tendency to overheat and go out of control, like in the Sentai.

In 2019, Hayato joined the Arima Group on invitation from its CEO, Teppei Arima, and became the development director of its subsidiary, Arima Property Development, helping develop regional towns and bringing more people to them (oh my god, he’s a developer, he works in real estate now lol). For a time, he also became the temporary host of Ultraman Dyna. The year after, he was called back to rejoin the Go-Busters.

I also like to think that Hayato befriended his teammate, Yui Ichii of the Data Processing Club, but I never showed any relationship between them because given his origin, I wanted him to stand out and be more independent instead of being reliant on intimate relationships.

(more genderbent Elsa art from an unknown artist – if anyone knows the source please feel free to contact me)

Terry Mizukoshi: The Parallel Prototype

Unlike every other prototype introduced in my personal project, Terry is unique in that he was spawned from a parallel universe counterpart of Hiroki, which was shown during his debut in 2012’s Series 4. When circumstances led him to the Doctor’s universe, he became a part of the Zhuge family like everyone else.

In a parallel universe named Destination One, Hiroki was being forcefully wed to Hideko Kimihara (a girl with Asperger syndrome that he didn’t love) thanks to the machinations of his high school friends and the Kikuchi Clan from the Doctor’s universe (Girl Power from the Doctor’s universe were pulling some strings behind the scenes as well). When the Fifth Doctor, the Eleventh Doctor (from another universe), Doctor Whooves, the Pony Doctor and their companions intervene, a battle ensues and the Kikuchi Clan lead the Doctor and his allies into Popei Castle, which is a trap that scatters everyone to different places where they confront different enemies.

While the Hiroki from Destination One doesn’t confront an enemy per se, he does see two of his crushes (one of them being Akari) with their boyfriends, causing him to regenerate as his heart breaks. Terry was the resulting prototype while the Destination One Hiroki just manifested somewhere else (namely in front of the Fifth Doctor when he came back with Hiroki and the others from 2014). After the battle ended, Terry was taken to Destination Two, where he took the place of a Hiroki who was being forcefully wed to another girl (not Hideko). The Hiroki of Destination Two would take the place of Destination One Hiroki before presumably making his way back to his own universe. As for Destination Three Hiroki, he got married to the Akari of his universe with no dramas. Gee, it’s almost as if I put in characters that ended up doing nothing at all in the story.

After a while, Terry left his wife to find his own happiness. Upon seeing the stars in his universe going out, he stole a dimension cannon (presumably from the Torchwood there) and transported to the Doctor’s universe to warn him of what was going on, but he forgot about it. Instead, he joined the Doctor in preventing the Daleks from invading Equestria, which resulted in even more chaos as the Cybermen and Sontarans were also involved. During this adventure, he met Saki Mizukoshi and her friends, who had ended up in Equestria through the use of an enchanted rock in Shimoda, Shizuoka. Following the adventure, Terry decided to stay with Saki, having found his one true love. He also decided to change his last name to Mizukoshi for “naturalisation purposes” (as if that isn’t creepy at all).

When Saki and her family moved to Hachijō-jima, Terry stayed in Tokyo to complete his schooling while occasionally visiting his girlfriend on the island. He also began working at a ramen restaurant in an effort to support both Saki and himself in the years to come. By 2019, Terry and Saki got married while the latter was studying for her doctor’s degree. In fact, at the time of writing this instalment, Saki would still be studying right now. I can’t imagine it would be easy given the coronavirus pandemic (not that medical school would be easy for anyone in the first place).

Marco Wong: The Dual-Wielding Prince

When I was writing Block 6 of the 50th Anniversary Series in 2013, I had to find a way to use up all of Hiroki’s regenerations so that I could get that out of the way (in preparation for the Next Gen Series). Marco is one of the prototypes that was created as a result. I’ll explain the circumstances behind his regeneration later.

The Doctor had visited the Magical Kingdom of Parris Island (named after the military base of the same name in South Carolina) and somehow ended up in an arranged marriage to the queen’s daughter, Pixel Maritan. After discovering the existence of Marco’s prototype, he was whisked off to Parris Island in order to take the Doctor’s place, leading him to become the prince of Parris Island. Soon after, Marco and Maritan joined the Doctor as they took part in the Battle of Koshi Castle and teamed up with the Fourth Doctor to investigate Momoka Mizutani and find Hiroki.

In the four years after that, Marco trained himself to be an elite swordsman, specialising in a dual-wielding technique that could equal the likes of the legendary Musashi Miyamoto. At the same time, he also became the commander of Parris Island’s military before stepping down and joining the Gokaigers when he was selected to become GokaiBlue. Although he spends a lot of time with the Gokaigers, I like to think he maintains contact with Maritan now and again even though I haven’t emphasised their relationship.

Yamato/Daichi/Nagi Kurosawa: The Spun-off Prototypes

I was going to put images of them in but I won’t bother because they’re so insignificant. In Block 6, I introduced Yamato, Daichi and Nagi Kurosawa with the intent of spinning them off into the anime Say I Love You, but like I said, I forgot about them because they were insignificant. I kind of regret this decision now, but that was because at the time, I had intended on ending my personal project after the 50th Anniversary Series. Some time after, I decided to commission the Next Gen Series and it all just went from there.

In Block 6 of the 50th Anniversary Series, all the Doctors, their companions and some others (including Hiroki and Parker) were gathered at Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff to help UNIT and Torchwood investigate numerous anomalies, but they were suddenly scattered to different places. Hiroki and Akari confronted the ghosts of Hiroki’s past, future and present (in that order) before suddenly ending up at the former’s house, where his parents forcibly separate the couple, throwing Akari out the back door and locking Hiroki in a secret room that they found in his bedroom.

Hiroki regenerates into Yamato Kurosawa before he blows up the kitchen and takes his archetype self outside to be reunited with Akari. Yamato heads to Yokohama and manages to teleport himself away somewhere (probably interfering in other peoples’ stories) before ending up in Cardiff again.

Parker decides to head to the Voidstation, a building that links every universe in the Void to each other. Hiroki and Akari decide to head there as well and with the power of their Guardian Characters, they rescue Parker and bring him back to Earth. Because of the power overdrive, Hiroki regenerated three times and spawned three prototypes, namely Daichi, Nagi and Marco Wong (see above). After returning to Earth, Yamato was sent away to live with Daichi and Nagi and they were never seen again.

Well, not quite. Yamato did return in Soulbound Series 3 for a tribute to Say I Love You. Becoming the temporary host of Astra, Yamato helped Hikaru Tomokaze fight Doragory, one of Yapool’s Terrible-Monsters, while also training him on Ultraman Leo’s Space Martial Arts in an effort to help Hikaru rely less on his weapons and beams (because Ultramen didn’t have flashy, collectible-centric items and weapons back in the day). At the end of the episode, Yamato gives Astra’s Spark Doll to Hikaru before leaving (for his own universe) with his wife, Mei and son, Ken.

With this, all of Hiroki’s prototypes have been covered. While Hiroki’s prototypes act as the representatives of the different series incorporated in my personal project (before being homogenised as Power Rangers or Kamen Riders), they also have distinct characteristics of their own even though they’re essentially self-inserts and extensions to other self-inserts.