Chase (Drive)

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

- Proto-Drive's pre-fight catchphrase

"I am Mashin Chaser, the guardian of the Roidmudes. Also known as...The Grim Reaper."

- Mashin Chaser introducting himself

Chase (チェイス) is one of the main characters in the series, Kamen Rider Drive. For a short time, Chase was the original Kamen Rider of the series, called by Krim Steinbelt himself Kamen Rider Proto-Drive (仮面ライダープロトドライブ) prior to the event known as Global Freeze. At this point in time, Drive was not fully operational and completely rendered Chase to only be capable of destroying a Roidmude's body rather destroying them entirely. Sometime during Global Freeze, Chase was incapacitated by Heart and was robbed of his memories.

Reborn with a new purpose, he was given equipment that was based on the original Drive's equipment using Viral Cores in place of Shift Cars allowing him to assume the form Roidmudes call Mashin Chaser (魔進チェイサー). In this form, he is able to rival the second Drive, Shinnosuke Tomari and with the ability to augment additional Viral Cores, he can fight evenly against the second Drive's additional forms granted by the Shift Cars.

As an enforcer sent by Heart and Brain to police the lower Roidmudes by destroying their bodies if they get out of line, Chase is notoriously known as the Grim Reaper (死神), a name he dislikes.

In truth, Chase is either a rejected Roidmude or the prototype of the modern Roidmudes and is classified as Proto-Zero (プロトゼロ) and is a Human-Type (人間型) Roidmude.

History
Chase was originally an assistant to Krim Steinbelt and the original user of the Drive Driver. Prior to Global Freeze, he and Krim tested out Drive's power, but shortly realized that Drive was still underpowered to fight against a Low-Class Bat Roidmude and is unable to destroy their cores. When Global Freeze is initiated, Chase mobilizes all available Shift Cars to aid him against the armada of Roidmudes, saving Kiriko Shijima, but was later defeated against Heart.

He eventually is re-programmed by Brain, taking the name Chase and receives powers based off Proto-Drive, assuming the identity of Mashin Chaser. He is then employed as an overseer/bounty hunter to Roidmudes and will destroy their bodies (but not their cores) in the events that they become a liability.

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.

Chase accompanies Heart and Brain as they confront Roidmude 051, a Roidmude whose recent actions risked their operation being compromised. Transforming into Mashin Chaser, he terminates 051's body leaving his Core to be absorbed by Brain, but not before the Roidmude suggested they investigate Paint. Chase later appears to confront Drive after he destroyed Roidmude 084. Engaging him in battle as Paint watches in hiding, Chaser attacks Drive who uses Massive Monster and then Dream Vegas to defend himself. Making note of Chaser's stoic manner and taunting him, while being overwhelmed by his power, Drive and Kiriko escape thanks to the arrival of Krim in the Tridoron car. Chaser later accompanies Heart and Brain as they confront Paint, with Brain telling Chase to keep an eye on the Advanced Roidmude as they allow him to continue his operations. While watching over Paint, Chase gets into a rematch with Drive, now armed with the Handle-Ken, who has come to defeat Paint. While still having the upper hand, the return of Dimension Cab allows Drive to escape aboard Tridoron to take Paint down. Chase pursues Drive on his Ride Chaser motorcycle, but Drive manages to use his driving skills to lose him. After Paint is destroyed by Drive, Chase vows to defeat the Kamen Rider to Heart and Brain before the three are met by the Crush Roidmude, who suggests that he will be the one to defeat Drive.

During a battle with Drive, Chase deals heavy damage to him, knocking him out of his transformation. As he is about to deal the final blow, Kiriko races forward and shields Shinnosuke. Chase orders her to move away, but she refuses to budge, despite Shinnosuke's and Mr. Belt's protests. Eventually Chase fires but misses. Later he questions himself as to why he was unable to shoot Kiriko.

Later, as Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Kusaka look for Takasugi, Chase interferes, and battles Drive. However, Chase is overpowered by Drive Type Wild Dump using the Door Gun. Both of them fire at each other, causing Drive to fall to the ground. Chase then has a vision of Kiriko standing in front of Drive, before escaping. This causes him to question Drive's and his own identity.

During the Dark Eve event, Chase failed to fulfill Brain's orders to defeat Drive and hence was poisoned by Brain. This caused him to reveal 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.

Chase was assigned to guard the Gunman Roidmude (018) and his 'little brother', Roidmude 017, who was on the road to achieving evolution. It was during this operation that Chase first encountered the new Kamen Rider, Go Shijima, who confronted the Roidmudes. Unfortunately, Chase was forced to fight Drive again when he arrived to back-up Go, who transformed into Mach and used the power of the Signal Bikes to defeat both 018 and 017 before destroying their Cores. Though ready to engage the new Rider, Chase was interrupted by the arrival of Medic, who spirited him away with her back home.

"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, Proto-Drive. He received this news with shock. He was soon to be disposed by Brain as he was no longer of use, however, Medic came up with a sinister plan to brainwash Chase, causing him to become robot-like and presumably without any emotion, allowing him to be able to kill Kiriko without any hard feelings.

While investigating a series of marriage scams, Shinnosuke and Kiriko are confronted by Chase, who jumps in front of Tridoron and battles Drive. Even with Mach's assistance, the two were easily outmatched. Heart appeared, as Mr. Belt expressed his anger for turning Proto-Zero into a killing machine but Chaser thought it as "freedom" from being used as humanity's tool. Just as Heart was about to transform, Deco Traveler comes in and keeps Chaser busy for the Riders to escape.

Soon, without Chase realizing, Medic reveals that instead of resetting Chase/Proto-Zero's memory like Brain, she altered his main programming code to defend Roidmudes rather than humans, given that Proto-Zero's memory code is difficult to erase. The only downside was that Chase could no longer perform his original duty of eliminating unruly Roidmudes whilst preserving their cores, which is the reason why Chase really cares about the Roidmudes. Later he fights Kamen Rider Mach to allow the Voice Roidmude to escape. Their battle comes to a draw when their Mach Arabull and Chaser Bat Rider Kicks collide.

Personality
During his early days as Proto-Drive, Chase portrayed himself as a servant to Drive Driver, though he dislikes answering his enemies' questions. After being rebooted as Mashin Chaser, he adopted an enforcer-like persona, protecting Roidmudes and eliminate those who disobeyed orders. Due to his job, he is feared by all Roidmudes, thus granted the title Grim Reaper which he believes unfit since he can't destroy their Cores. Since Brain's reprogramming on him is incomplete, he struggled with several portions of his old memories that nearly drives him insane which furthered when Brain reveal the whole truth. After Medic rebooted him, Chase had become more sinister than before. Despite retaining his memories, he believed that he had finally "freed" from becoming humanity's tool, but only to be revealed that he has no such thing in mind as it was the manipulation from Medic.

Equipment

 * Core Driviars - Chase's power source as Proto-Drive, while his power source as Mashin Chaser is the prototype Core Driviar-0

Devices

 * Kamen Rider Proto-Drive
 * Drive Driver - Belt-based transformation device
 * Shift Brace - Bracelet-based transformation device
 * Mashin Chaser
 * Break Gunner - Transformation device and personal weapon
 * Viral Cores - Gives access to Mashin Chaser's forms and powers, depending on which car is used. As Proto-Drive, 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
 * Kamen Rider Chaser
 * Mach Driver Honoh - Transformation device
 * Signal Bikes - Gives access to Kamen Rider Chaser's forms and powers, depending on which bike is used

Weapons

 * Mashin Chaser
 * E-Circular - Mashin Chaser's tire in his Tune forms, unfolding into a form-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
 * Kamen Rider Chaser
 * Shingo Ax - Chaser's primary weapon

Vehicles

 * Ride Chaser - Proto-Drive/(Mashin) Chaser's Rider Machine
 * Ride Crosser - Ride Chaser combined with the Ride Macher
 * Ride Booster Blue - Chaser's go-kart Rider Machine

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

Appearances

 * Kamen Rider Drive
 * Episode 0: Countdown to Global Freeze
 * Episode 1: Why Did My Time Stop?
 * Episode 2: What is a Kamen Rider?
 * Episode 3: Who Stole the Woman's Smile?
 * Episode 4: What is That Prideful Chaser Thinking?
 * Episode 5: What Are the Steel Robbers After?
 * Episode 6: Who Does the Warrior Fight For?
 * Episode 7: How Was That Decisive Moment Captured?
 * Episode 8: What is the Secret That Dwells in the Heart?
 * Episode 9: How Can I Get Used to the Cool Body?
 * Episode 10: What Is in the Belt's Past?
 * Episode 11: Who Can Prevent the Dark Christmas Eve?
 * Episode 12: Where Did That White Kamen Rider Come From?
 * Episode 13: Why Won't My Brother Put On the Brakes?
 * Episode 14: Who Is the Black Shadow Chasing Her?
 * Episode 15: When Will These Feelings Reach You?
 * Episode 16: Why is Rinna Sawagami Nervous?
 * Episode 17: Who Will Control Deadheat?
 * Episode 18: Why is Lt. Otta Following That Guy?
 * Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie War Full Throttle