Hikari Touno



"I don't really understand everything...but it all means there's a bad guy out there, right?"

Hikari Touno is a pilot in training at a mysteriously unnamed pilot school, working hard to get her robot license so she can save people and protect the Earth. Her mother died of space sickness and her father's whereabouts are unknown, but she still writes frequent letters to her older brother. When she began training, she showed exceptional talent as a pilot, and in only three days had nearly caught up to other trainees who had been practicing for a month. It wasn't long before she began showing signs of potential as a Psychodriver, sensing the distress of an endangered classmate and telepathically taking control of a superweapon called Dinagiga. Despite this, she still considers herself every bit as clumsy and inept as before, and still frequently breaks school property by accident.

Background Information
Hikari's mother died several years ago of space sickness. Not long after, her father went missing with no indication of what happened to him or where he went. Since then, Hikari lived alone with her older brother, who did his best to take care of her. Eventually, she headed off to pilot school so she could learn how to pilot a robot and save people from tragedies like the Hokkaido explosion.

On her fourth day there, it was discovered that she had an extremely high resonance rate with an old alien superweapon called Dinagiga, and when the only other student with such a high resonance was transformed into a giant monster, she became its main pilot. It was then that Hikari and her friends learned that the school was really training them to pilot Dinagiga, and that only Psychodrivers with something called the X-gene could even make it move, much less fight. Now Hikari continues her training, occasionally being sent out to help the Federation forces with her own personal super robot.

At least she gets to do what she always wanted to.

Personality Traits
Hikari is an idealistic young girl, despite the loss of both parents and the revelations regarding her school. She still believes that good will triumph over evil in the end, and that with the right application of guts, any odds can be overcome. On the other hand, she also has a massive inferiority complex, and is convinced that she doesn't have the guts to be that triumphant good. Even though she is among the most talented pilots in her class, even though she is the only one left who can pilot Dinagiga without her brain dribbling out through her ears, even though she has only been training for a few days while everyone else has been at it far longer, she still believes that she is just inherently inferior to everyone else. This may have something to do with the fact that she was put in an advanced class despite being a beginner pilot, but who really knows?

The implications of what happened to Marie are almost too terrifying for Hikari to think about. If any X-gene Psychodriver could turn into a monster like that at any time, what will she do if the rest of her friends change? And what will they do if she does? Whenever these thoughts surface, she tries her hardest to shove them back to the back of her mind. She has enough trouble convincing herself that she can save the world without worrying about eventually trying to destroy it on top of that. As long as her friends are her friends, things will be alright. She also may be a closet lesbian, but it's possible that when she said she 'loved' Marie, she meant in a sisterly sort of way. On the other hand, she's practically begging for yuri fics.

Overall, Hikari still acts very childish despite being a legal adult, and speaks in a manner more appropriate for a girl half her age. She still doesn't understand that this is a large part of why her friend 'Nana-chan' is constantly annoyed by her. Still, she likes helping people, and wants to save everyone she can in whatever way she can. Unfortunately, her understanding of motivations and morals is a little underdeveloped, which means she sees the world in black and white. When she sees a shade of gray, she usually has no clue what to think of it, leaving her very confused and unable to decide what to do. This is an issue that her instructors are trying to resolve as quickly as possible, because obviously it's going to be a pretty big problem down the line if they don't.

Talents & Abilities
Hikari's voice is annoying and high pitched and could probably be weaponized.

The X-gene is a mutation in some Psychodrivers which allows them to manipulate the X-particle used by Dinagiga. It also makes them susceptible to being used as the core of giant space monsters in a manner similar to Zondars, but that shouldn't be a problem for someone who's already the core of a giant space robot. Hopefully.

Friendship
All of her friends from school - Whether they like it or not.

Shirou Manora - Because he talked to her without yelling at her. The nosebleed she had during this conversation was caused by a bad fall, and most certainly not because she thought he was attractive.