Chase (Drive)

Chase (チェイス) is one of the main characters in the series, Kamen Rider Drive. He was the original Kamen Rider Drive, dubbed Kamen Rider Protodrive (仮面ライダープロトドライブ). However, he had his memories wiped and became the Grim Reaper to combat rogue Roidmudes and the second Drive, becoming Mashin Chaser (魔進チェイサー). After breaking free of his brainwashing with the help of the Mad Doctor Shift Car and Kiriko, he aligns himself once more to protect humanity from the Roidmudes, becoming Kamen Rider Chaser (仮面ライダーチェイサー).

Profile

 * Motif basis:
 * Low-Class: Human,
 * Advanced: Motorcycle, Grim Reaper, Virus
 * Human form/synchronize: Koichi Kano (狩野 洸一)
 * Destroyed by: Self-destruction (body and Core)

As Protodrive
Prior to the series, Chase was a unique Roidmude created by Krim Steinbelt that did not have any negative emotions implanted onto him by Tenjuro Banno like his fellow Roidmude brethren ranging from 001-108 but was implanted with an infallible sense of justice. His designation was labeled as Proto-Zero (プロトゼロ), with the number 000 on his numberplate. Due to him being a prototype, Proto-Zero was deactivated for a period of time. However, when the other 108 Roidmudes were awakened, Proto-Zero was reactivated again by Krim, now having become the Drive Driver. Proto-Zero was thus tasked to use the Drive Driver to become Protodrive, to protect the humans and destroy the Roidmudes.

As the first user of the Drive system, Proto-Zero took his days as a hero seriously, focusing only on the task at hand. As Protodrive, Proto-Zero was deployed to fight off Roidmude 005, crossing paths with Shinnosuke Tomari, who conveniently did not see him fight against the Roidmude menace. Despite Krim being upset that he and Chase could not destroy the core of a Roidmude, Proto-Zero took the damaged Viral Core of 005 and projected his memories, learning of the Roidmude's plan to start an all out attack on humanity

Protodrive, along with the rest of the completed Shift Cars at the time mobilized to fight. Despite being an unfinished prototype, Protodrive was able to destroy numerous Roidmude bodies, causing even Roidmude 002, the instigator and mastermind behind the attack to fall into despair. Proto-Zero would also save a policewoman from Roidmude 010. Proto-Zero's edge against the other Roidmude would come to a close thanks to Roidmude 009 evolving and gaining the ability to restore the Roidmude bodies, allowing Roidmude 002 to evolve into the Heart Roidmude. In his rematch against Roidmude 002, Proto-Zero was soundly defeated, stripped away from the Drive Driver and was operated on by Roidmudes 002, 001, and 003, destroying his memories and brainwashing him in the process. He is given a new name, Chase, and is given the Break Gunner, allowing him to transform into Mashin Chaser. Brain tells him that he should have a human disguise, so he copied the appearance of police officer Koichi Kano at a street.

As Mashin Chaser
Chase appears before Heart and Brain after the destruction of the Iron Roidmude at the hands of Shinnosuke Tomari, the new Kamen Rider Drive. He is sent to find the one who destroyed the Roidmude and eliminate him.

After he and his comrades incapacitate and gained the rogue Roidmude 051's Core, Chase face Drive for the first time, demonstrating his abilities which Mr. Belt noting it to that of Protodrive. Soon, he would face the Kamen Rider again during the incidents of the Paint, Crush, and Scooper Roidmudes. However, out of all the conflicts, Chase began to question himself ever since he saw Kiriko for the first time when she shielded an untransformed Shinnosuke from being killed, causing him to be fixated on her. Nonetheless, whenever he faced Drive, he was always defeated after Drive's arsenal grew over time.

During the Dark Eve event, Chase failed to fulfill Brain's orders to defeat Drive and hence was poisoned by Brain. This revealed his Roidmude form, bearing the number 000, which Chase notes that he has never seen it before. He questions Heart about this, only for Heart to answer that Chase was a great warrior, and that zero is a privileged number. Despite Chase's mental breakdown, the Roidmude's main goal was accomplished: to revive Medic. Mr. Belt, saw Chase's Roidmude form through the Shift Cars.

Discovered past and re-brainwashed
"I am...a Kamen Rider?"

- Chase learns his true identity.

Chase began to receive memories of rescuing Kiriko and the voice of Krim Steinbelt. As the Ride Macher and Ride Chaser combined into the Ride Crosser for the first time, Chase wondered why, until Brain came forward and explained that he was the warrior who fought the Roidmudes during the Global Freeze, Protodrive. With Chase's mind in ruins, Brain was going to dispose of him, however, Medic came up with a sinister plan: brainwashing Chase, making him robotic and emotionless. In this state, Chase became a ruthless killer, even to humans (a moral line that he would not cross).

Soon Medic reveals that instead of resetting Chase/Proto-Zero's memory, she altered his main programming code to defend Roidmudes rather than humans, given that Proto-Zero's base programming cannot be erased. The only downside was that Chase could no longer perform his original duty of a Grim Reaper, which is also the reason why Chase really cares about the Roidmudes. Due to this, Chase now only works on defending the Advanced Roidmudes while his Grim Reaper role being handed to Medic's latest division, Reaper Legion. In similar cases, Chase would even form a rivalry with Go Shijima/Kamen Rider Mach, a youth whom greatly bears a strong hatred for Roidmudes and their races, including Chase, regardless of his previous background as Protodrive.

In order to settle his rivalry with Drive, Chase had demonstrated another trick of his sleeve, such as triggering the Ride Crosser combination. Furthered by his remodeling by Medic, all of them (minus Brain) strike a plan to eliminate Drive. They first staged the "deaths" of human templates that past Roidmudes used as their human disguises, in order to lure Drive into mobilizing the Shift Cars for investigation. Once mobilized, they were quickly captured and enthralled by Medic to be Chase's assistants. After delaying Mach with Heart, Chase confronted Shinnosuke/Drive, overpowering him with the enslaved Shift Cars. Mashin Chaser later demonstrated his superiority by trapping the rider in Super Heavy Acceleration, bludgeoning Drive into submission, even leaving Type Dead Heat useless. Chaser later executed Triple Tune, attacking Drive with the enslaved Shift Cars rammed into him, until Drive revealed himself to have survived from the blaze and rose as Type Formula. Drive's new form easily counters the Super Heavy Acceleration, encapsulated all of the rogue Shift Cars and later cleared a path for escape through activating a Full Throttle finisher. Chase, irritated that he has been bested by Kamen Rider once again, agrees with Medic's plan to fight against Drive once more by kidnapping Kiriko to use as a hostage, revealing in the process that all the previously eliminated human templates were actually clone thralls of Medic. However, due to Mach's interference and with Brain's tampering of Medic's reprogramming, Chase temporarily regains his former self only to be reprogrammed again after rejecting the act of taking human hostages with disgust. This new round of brainwashing maximizes his destructive nature, allowing Chase to kill anyone without regret.

Chase draws out Shinnosuke by attacking the city, prompting Shinnosuke to fight Chase once more. However, thanks to the completed Trailer-Hou and Type Formula, Mashin Chaser is finally and truly defeated, as made apparent by his core's destruction. Yet later, Kiriko found Chase alive underneath a bridge on the way home.

At an abandoned building, Kiriko uses Shift Car Mad Doctor inside the Break Gunner to heal his wounds. The next day at night, Chase awakens and asks if she was the one who rescued him. Kiriko responds by saying she did, and that she owed him one. Later on, Chase leaves his bed and takes a stroll outside with the flower from Kiriko in hand. While wandering around, Kiriko sought his help for a sample of an Advanced Roidmude. Chase forced himself to fulfill her wish, leaving her a piece of Mashin Chaser's Violet Guard.

Redemption and Rebirth as Kamen Rider
Despite regaining his memories, Chase was still lost: He's torn between the Roidmudes and the Kamen Rider sides of his nature. Shinnosuke attacked Heart with Drive Type Dead Heat for interfering with their talk. Just when Shinnosuke was about to win, Chaser transformed and attacked Shinnosuke, injuring him critically on his right hand. However, Chase started to shake for his regret of harming a human, the only thing he wanted to avoid due to his programming. He became frustrated because he couldn't decide what is the best for him since not only does he not want to injure humans, he also can't take seeing Heart being killed. Heart noticed the confusion that Chase was showing, deeming him useless as he cannot decide his own path. Distraught, Heart returns Chase's Speed Prototype Shift Car, leaving him. Soon, while Chase was still wandering around near the river, Ride Chaser came to him and brought him a small briefcase which contained a Mach Driver Honoh and the Signal Chaser. With that, Chase finally decided to redeem himself once more as Kamen Rider Chaser, rescuing Kiriko and destroyed the Sword Roidmude without killing its host. Afterwards, unknown to him not all people are glad to learn of his return, though only Go still hates him. He is later wandering around the city still wondering if this is for the best.

The Beginning Duel of the Bike Riders and Regaining Lost Memories
Chase, being called in by Kiriko to save her brother, rushes to his aid with the Ride Booster. However, despite saving the latter, Go attacks Chase. Despite this, Chase, refusing to fight against a fellow Rider, undoes his transformation causing Shinnosuke to intervene to stop Go.

Later, Chase aids Shinnosuke in an operation that will remove his suspension on becoming Kamen Rider Drive, accepting the role gladly for saving him from Go in their previous encounter. Chase infiltrates the Special Investigation Office and attacks Nira in an attempt to allow Shinnosuke to transform to save the latter's life. Though Nira allows for Shinnosuke to transform, Nira faints. Chase would later face against Go once more and continues to refuse to fight against him, questioning if his mission is more important than his family. After Shinnosuke defeats Roidmude 050, Chase ponders to himself the importance of a family.

During the case where the killer of Shinnosuke's father, Negishi, is brought up, Chase intervenes in a fight where Shinnosuke's desire for revenge clouds his judgment to protect people. Though the Roidmude gets away thanks to the interference of Go who attacks both the Riders, Shinnosuke thanks Chase for helping him realize once more on what it's like to be a Kamen Rider. Helping out at the Special Investigation Unit office, he realizes that Roidmude 001's ability to alter memories is not permanent and quickly concludes that Go must also be under the influence of him. Encountering Go once more, Chase swiftly defeats him and confirms his suspicion that Go is being influenced (being his memories was altered by 001). After aiding to defeat Negishi and the Open Roidmude, Chase alerts Kiriko on the situation of Go and receives back his Proto Speed Shift Car. Upon inserting it to the Break Gunner, Chase overloads and displays a projection of his last moments before being forcefully tortured and retooled, revealing the identity of 001 to Shinnosuke and Kiriko.

The Mysterious Super Evolution
Chase later tried to learn the plot of 001 by re-reading his past memory and learned that they were planning to create another new evolution. He soon arrived to halt the Reaper Legion from interfering Shinnosuke's battle with 001, who would later evolve into Freeze. After defeating them, he was attacked from behind by a still-manipulated Go as Mach.

After the death of Shinnosuke, he proceeds to go to try and save Go, but also doubles as more or less a suicide mission to take down the Roidmude commanders to avenge his fallen ally. The container with the substance to fix those with altered memories is destroyed (and notable during this, the hand Freeze blasted, Chase is seen bleeding from it). Despite his best efforts, Freeze is easily able to overwhelm him along with assistance from Mach.

Luckily for him, Go reveals he faked having his memories re-written and gives himself and Chase cover to escape.

Chase is assigned for a driver's license, which is also part of his undercover mission to capture Tornado. When he saw Banno in Drive's Pit, he seems to remember how he got re-brainwashed all over again by him, knowing he is up to something no good.

After Banno kidnaps Krim to create his of evil version of the Drive Driver as a new body, Chase began to chase after him as a revenge for brainwashing him all over a time. Chase learned that behind Heart's madness towards humans was because of Banno torturing him in the past.

The Dark Scheme of Envy, TOKUJO's Crisis
Later, when Kiriko was attacked by Brain while Shinnosuke as Drive Type Formula was fighting against Heart, he prevented Brain from harming Kiriko and suggested that since their target, Captain Shiguta, was nowhere to be found, they should retreat and focus on their mission instead of fighting Heart.

The next day, Chase accompanied Shinnosuke to look after Yukari, the primary target of Nira after his dark truth had been revealed. Right on Shinnosuke's deduction, she was attacked by Nira as the Thief Roidmude. Working together, they were almost defeated until Go as Mach came to help. After Nira's escape, Go warned Chase for not telling Kiriko about their father and also stated that they were not buddies, which is another emotional thing of humans that Chase didn't know about.

Later on the same day, Yukari thanked Chase for accompanying her and left by herself. However, he noticed something strange inside her right arm. Without her knowing, he sent the Shift Speed Prototype Car to follow her to make sure. When the time of TOKUJO's crisis was happening, she was watching the news on a big screen outside on the streets and suddenly fainted due to Brain's poison. Afterwards, the Shift Speed Prototype Car saw this and begin to return to Chase, which he got defeated and lied on the ground during his fight with Brain, yet he opened his eyes once his Shift Car came to him and told him what happened.

After arriving where Yukari was at with his Shift Car, he went over and tried to heal her by inserting Mad Doctor in his Break Gunner, which is the same method that Kiriko done to him before. However, because Brain has already obtained Super Evolution, the poison has become stronger than before, thus the healing progress became a failure. Frustrated, he moved her arm around to reveal a countdown clock that Brain set up, which he realized that's her time limit of being alive with Brain's poison. Confused and nervous, he doesn't know what to do.

Suddenly, he thought of an idea. He took Yukari with him on his bike and raced to Go. Chase stated that they may not be buddies, but he knows that Go will help him. Afterwards, Go lets Banno to use his powers and help her. With only 8 minutes left, Chase knew they're running out of time and kept asking Go questions about the current state their in, which Go didn't know either. Banno then tells them to calm down and believe in his power. Chase immediately recognizes Banno, even he's an AI.

The Beginning of Banno's Ultimate Darkness
After Banno tries to take over Medic's body, Chase tries to convince Heart that they should all work together to defeat Banno, but Heart refused stating he would stay by his convictions to crush all that stand in the way of his goals, be it Banno or the Riders.

During Banno's assault on the Special Investigation Unit, Chase tries to save an injured Go only to have his Mach Driver Honoh destroyed, and was forced to transform into Mashin Chaser once again. He was mortally wounded with the Shingou-Ax, surviving long enough to give Go his driver's license and Signal Bike along with the desire to be a free will human, before trying a suicidal attack on Gold Drive. However, Gold Drive survived this suicide attack, and as a result Chase's death appeared to be in vain.

Post-mortem
Go, finally acknowledging Chase as a comrade, proceeds to avenge his death by defeating Banno as Chaser Mach. When Kiriko catches up with him, Go confides with his sister as she sees Chase's remains around them, joining Go in weeping for their friend. Kiriko then calls Shinnosuke to inform him of Chase's death, with Heart and Medic learning this from Shinnosuke's reaction. Heart then commends Chase, noting that he was a formidable warrior both as a friend, and as a foe. As the Sigma Circular starts the second Global Freeze, Go takes it upon himself to destroy the damaged Banno Driver, killing Banno. The Sigma Circular is eventually destroyed, though this resulted in the deaths of Medic and Heart, thus making the Roidmudes extinct. As a result, the Special Investigation Unit is retired. Following this, Shinnosuke and Kiriko were amused to finally meet the man whose appearance was taken by Chase, the traffic officer, Koichi Kano. Meanwhile, Go, having kept the Signal Chaser along with Chase's driver's license before the Core Driviar arsenal was sealed away beneath the Drive Pit, set off to resume his life as a photographer while aspiring to one day restore Chase's Core and bring his friend back.

Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie War Full Throttle
NOTE: The following events take place between episodes 9 and 10 When both Zoruku Tojo and Megahex arise, Chase as well as other Roidmudes are surprised that their powers fell into the hands of more powerful figures. Believing that their technology only fits for the Roidmude race, Chase (and eventually other Roidmudes as well) was forced to form an alliance with Drive to stop the threat.

NOTE: The following events take place after the  Chase also becomes one of the victims of the alterations to time made by Shocker, permanently making him Mashin Chaser. He intruded and attacked Drive and other Riders during the Rider Grand Prix, only to be defeated by Kamen Rider Black RX and the Ridoron.

Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future
NOTE: The following events take place between episode 40 and Drive Saga: Chaser Chase (as Kamen Rider Chaser), alongside Go (as Mach), joined forces to defeat Kamen Rider Dark Drive, an apparent Drive from the future. However, they can't defeat Dark Drive in an instant way. Later, he uses the Ride Crosser combining with the Ride Booster Set to destroy the Astaco. Shinnosuke borrowed Chase's Mach Driver to transform into Super Dead Heat Drive before returning the Driver back to him.

Kamen Rider Drive: Final Stage
Chase returns as Mashin Chaser in the Final Stage and was brain-washed by Roidmude 108. He later regain his memory, and gain power from Shift Cars then transformed into Kamen Rider Drive Type Wild.

Super Movie War Genesis
In crossover between Ghost and Drive, Chase is temporarily revived with the other Roidmudes as a result of the time distortion caused by the Da Vinci Gamma. Chase aligns himself with Go Shijima and Makoto Fukami. He disappears with the others after the Michelangelo Gamma was defeated. He assures Go that he was glad to have fought side by side with him as friends.

Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser
NOTE: The following events take place between Surprise Future and episode 41 "Your solution is not peace. It is invalidation."

- Chase rejects Angel's idea of peace.

Chase, wanting to experience human emotions, is approached by Angel, who gives him the Feather Circuit, allowing him to experience human emotions. Soon, Chase realizes he is unable to transform into Kamen Rider Chaser and has no choice but to transform into Super Mashin Chaser using the Rhino Super Viral Core given to him by Angel. The Feather Circuit soon renders Chase unable to fight. As a last resort, he forcefully removes the feather from his body, at the cost of his emotions, while later managing to defeat Angel.

Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Mach
"Make sure you protect them...your new family."

- Chase to Go in his brief appearance

He appears briefly to assist Go by possessing his human template Koichi Kano through the Ride Crosser Shift Car.

Personality
Protodrive="Those who are about to die do not need to know my name."

- Protodrive's pre-battle catchphrase

Chaser="What are you doing? Isn't it a Kamen Rider's job to protect humans?!"

- Chaser reminding Drive of his duty.

Sometime after the Global Freeze, Chase synchronized with Koichi Kano, choosing not to gain human emotions as it interfered with his base programming of having an infallible sense of justice.

Chase, initially in his limited days as Protodrive portrayed himself as a servant and an ally to Krim Steinbelt. Stoic and almost emotionless, he disliked answering his enemy's questions. Chase was also confident and was completely serious and risked his life along with his partner Krim Steinbelt to prevent the Roidmude from subjugating humanity.

Upon being reset and modified into the Roidmude's guardian as Mashin Chaser, like his time with Protodrive, he portrayed himself as a servant, blaming himself and not fighting back against Brain who calls him a "reject" when the former started to receive spasms about his past memories as Protodrive.

During his rampage when Medic was modified to go berserk, he was forcefully reset through combat against the second Drive and was revived and healed by the Mad Doctor Shift Car and Kiriko. This act of selflessness and her constant attempts to realign Chase to humanity is the ultimate factor to make him restart and become Kamen Rider Chaser.

As a result, Chase prioritizes Kiriko's happiness and well being, developing feelings for her. Along the way of reintegrating back with humans, his sense of heroism snapped Shinnosuke back to his senses to not prioritize vengeance over protecting humans. Chase, initially confused about the idea of love, family, and friendships, learns that they're something to be protected. As Chase slowly learns more about humans, he takes the first step of accepting Shinnosuke's friendship by calling him by his first name and confronted him later if he had feelings for Kiriko. Upon learning that Kiriko and Shinnosuke both have feelings for each other, Chase considers his heartbreak as a sign of becoming more human.

When given a golden feather by Angel, Chase becomes a full human, which affected his core and became unable to use the Mach Driver. His humanity worried his friends and he eventually discarded his humanity once more to become a Kamen Rider.

Despite not accepting his human counterpart's emotions when he first synchronized with him. Chase turned out to be like Koichi Kano in regards to taking his role seriously.

Chase, despite not being able to obtain human emotions, considered his teammates as friends, cherishing his driver's license and Signal Chaser as mementos that his friends gave him based on the concept of friendship rather than feeling it. He also considered, Go Shijima, as his friend due to the two working together. It isn't until Chase's death does Go acknowledge him as a friend, keeping his driver's license and Signal Chaser Bike in memory of Chase.

Equipment

 * Core Driviars: Kamen Rider Protodrive/(Mashin) Chaser's power source
 * Core Driviar-0: Protodrive/Mashin Chaser's power source, a prototype of the Core Driviars
 * Core Driviar-ONE: Kamen Rider Chaser's power source, which enable him to create Super Heavy Acceleration based on his Roidmude form's upgrade

Devices

 * Kamen Rider Protodrive
 * Drive Driver: Belt-based transformation device
 * Shift Brace: Bracelet-based transformation device
 * Mashin Chaser
 * Break Gunner: Transformation device and personal weapon. Used as weapon only, when reborn as Kamen Rider Chaser.
 * Viral Cores: Gives access to Mashin Chaser's forms and powers, depending on which car is used. As Protodrive, it allowed him to read the memories of the Roidmude the Core came from, provided it wasn't severely damaged.
 * Shift Cars: As he was formerly the previous Drive, he can use them in his Break Gunner and upgrade his projectiles with their powers. He temporarily gained possession of the Tire Exchange Shift Cars after Medic brainwashed them, but can also simply grab them from the air if Drive summons them first.
 * Kamen Rider Chaser
 * Mach Driver Honoh: Transformation device, created by Rinna via reverse-engineering from the original one
 * Signal Bikes: Gives access to Kamen Rider Chaser's forms and powers, depending on which bike is used
 * Shift Cars: Gives access to Kamen Rider Chaser's powers, depending on which car is used

Weapons

 * Mashin Chaser
 * E-Circular: Mashin Chaser's tire in his Tune Chaser forms, unfolding into an animal-based weapon.
 * Fang Spidey: Tune Chaser Spider's fang-based weapon via the Chaser Spider Viral Core
 * Tail Whipper: Tune Chaser Cobra's tail-based weapon via the Chaser Cobra Viral Core
 * Wing Sniper: Tune Chaser Bat's wing-based weapon via the Chaser Bat Viral Core
 * Dead Liberation: Tune Chaser Triple Tune's crossbow weapon via hybrid three Chaser Viral Cores
 * Kamen Rider Chaser
 * Shingou-Ax: Chaser's primary weapon
 * Break Gunner: Chaser's secondary weapon, taken from his previous form.

Vehicles

 * Ride Chaser: Protodrive/(Mashin) Chaser's primary Rider Machine
 * Ride Crosser: Ride Chaser combined with the Ride Macher
 * Ride Booster Blue: Chaser's Rider Machine
 * Tridoron: Borrowed from Drive after finally passing his driving test

Portrayal
Chase is portrayed by Taiko Katono (上遠野 太洸). As Mashin Chaser, Kamen Rider Protodrive, and Kamen Rider Chaser, his suit actor is Yasuhiko Imai (今井 靖彦), who was previously the suit actor for Kamen Riders Bravo and Kurokage (Ryoji Hase) in Kamen Rider Gaim.

Proto-Zero, before assuming a human appearance as Chase, was voiced by Daichi Endo (遠藤 大智) in Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser.

Conception
Proto-Zero/Roidmude 000 was designed by Takayuki Takeya, who designed all of the Roidmudes in Kamen Rider Drive.