Ryoto Hikawa

"It's my hope that every push forward in machine design can find new ways to preserve life, instead of destroying it."

Formerly a grunt pilot for the DC, Ryoto was rescued from an experiment of Adler Koch's. Although initially distrusted by the EFA, he has, with the help of a contract at Mao Industries, developed into a far more confident individual. A gifted designer of machines and equipment, he has pioneered several reverse-enginnering projects which have started to result in new machines and weapons for the EFA. Although he remains somewhat shy and is soft-spoken, he is happy with his life and protective of his best friend and partner, Rio Mei Long.

Background Information
It's a funny story, really. You would think that typically in a patriarchal Japanese sort of society, you'd want, if you were the owner of a karate dojo, presumably a manly male son to inherit the family legacy. Ryoto Hikawa, therefore, began his life as a colossal failure, seeing as his parents had been trying for a very long time to get that son and had only succeeded in getting daughters. As the youngest son in a family of a lot of sisters, his life was almost over before it began. All of his siblings were in a far better position to be grown up than him, and unfortunately he got the short end of the stick.

His childhood was terrible. He got picked on all the time by his sisters, many of whom due to the important combination of girl+karate were all ferocious tomboys. And for some reason, as all of them leeched his masculinity away in five different directions, Ryoto got the femininity. He became a very weak and girly sort of girly man. He spent such a long time up in his room, avoiding his sisters, avoiding... well, life, really, concentrating on books and computers. He kept fit, of course, because he was in for the karate as much as anyone else. However, despite the fact that he was at the top of his classes and immensely physically fit and capable, he didn't fit into his parents' overall schemes. His birth was too little, too late.

As a result, Ryoto's personality was shaped by these things. He was a very sad and sort of depressed chap. Emotionally stunted and disliked, he hated himself for being who he was. He began to get involved in all sorts of things to try and redirect the anger he was feeling as he grew up- one of which was the Burning PT video game. Because of his natural intelligence and talent, he was incredibly capable in terms of playing the video game, which gave him a way to use his fighting skills and his keen mind- and his developing psychodriver powers- to become a very well known game celebrity.

And this is how he got the attention of the DC. The game, of course, being developed as a tool to discover and train the next generation of PT pilots was relaying data to all sorts of people- and although the EFA acted in time to scoop up Ryusei Date, the DC got to Ryoto first. They expected very good things of him- Hikawa was physically fit and capable of being a PT pilot, intelligent, and very good at the game. Unfortunately for them, as soon as all of these things were taken out of the game and into real life, Ryoto fell flat on his face.

A game and real AM piloting were two completely different things. Ryoto was not at all cut out to be an actual soldier, at least not under the teaching of certain DC luminaries like Thomas, Tempest and Adler. Merciful, non-confrontational and kind, opinion was split on what in the world to do with him. That's why Adler screwed up his memories and tried to make him into a suicidal attacker, an attempt that was fixed rather decisively by being rescued by Rio Meilong.

Ryoto muddled along in the EFA for a while, sort of being teased and made fun of, mostly cloistering himself away in non-combat work. He was judged to actually have an intelligence level far beyond what anyone had ever considered, and began making use of it for the EFA. He was able to replicate and miniaturise the Tesla Drive it came with, and from there on out he proliferated the design. The majority of tesla drives in the EFA exist because of him, although he can't claim the same for the Lions.

He wasn't taken too seriously until he came across the attentions of Ring Mao, who offered him employment at Mao Industries. Ryoto came into his own here and achieved a lot of independance and self-confidence, and built his mech the Armorlion. Ring trusted him to work on the original Vanishing Trooper Huckebein, and when the DC invaded Mao Industries, he went into hiding. He was able to replicate and produce a second Huckebein MkII which he gave to Rio. Over the last two years he has been working on producing the mass produced Huckebein MkII-M, and was beginning work on the Huckebein MkIII and related frames until Ring, due to business-related concerns, transferred him to the employment of Jonathan Kazahara. He is now working in the super robot side of the field.

Personality Traits
Ryoto Hikawa is many things. A Nice Guy. An engineer. So full of mercy.

Ryoto has deep-seated family issues, and retains quite a bit of angst. As mentioned before, he was supposed to be the inheritor of a karate dojo from his parents. However, many, many sisters were born before him, and growing up in such an estrogen-charged environment as the baby of the family really didn't do well for him. Oh, he learned the karate, that's true. Physically, Ryoto could do a number on a lot of people, Gundam Fight comeptitors perhaps notwithstanding. But he just didn't want to. Growing up among the girls, neglected by his parents, Ryoto was a non-confrontational sort of person. Furthermore, he knows a lot about tea ceremony, cleaning the house, cooking the dinner and generally just not at all being manly.

He knows his parents don't like him. He has more or less disowned them- Ryoto no longer really wants his parents to respect him, he wants to be someone completely different. He is proud to have found a place making machinery and robots, and is determined that his designs will help the EFA succeed in the war. His successes have not made him overconfident, merely happy- glad that he is able to make a big difference.

In many ways, Ryoto is a very Japanese sort of person. He is primarily concerned with family honor and respect, and it's the deep inability he has to earn this that keeps him troubled to some degree. He has never and will never really get over the fact that he has failed his family, but the respect and appreciation of other people who recognise his intelligence has gone a long way towards repairing this.

Ryoto's not very good at interacting with other people socially although he can fully defend himself and has self-confidence he lacked before. He's still antisocial and has to be coaxed into doing things, and he just cannot talk to girls very well except Rio.

Ryoto's dreams now extend to helping create the best possible machines to help the EFA. Rather than A-Laws he prefers to keep his designs.

Talents & Abilities
As mentioned before, Ryoto is a black belt in kung fu. However, his primary talent is his prodigious intelligence, partially improved by his psychodriver powers. He has a genius-level intellect which, once properly harnessed by the EFA, sent him running off doing amazing things. He extracted and replicated the tesla drive and is responsible for its proliferation all over the place, and also personally designed the Armorlion and Huckebein MkII-M. He's developed a strong business sense and an understanding of how the various mecha design companies work, and is constantly improving.

Logs
Logs go here.