Mai Takatsukasa

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This article is about an ally in Kamen Rider Gaim.

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"You've protected this world with the power you believed in. You've guided them towards a future full of hope. So keep on believing, create a miracle, and bring everyone's feelings together."

―Mai guiding Kouta during his final fight against Maja.^[src]

Mai Takatsukasa (高司舞, Takatsukasa Mai) is an aspiring pro dancer, a childhood friend of Kaito, and one of Kouta's closest friends. Considered the second-in-command of Team Gaim, she has a strong desire for their team to reach the top rankings of the Inves Games in order to earn the right to dance the way they want to. After the segregation of the Beat Riders, she leads her own team that consists of members from Team Invitto and Team Gaim. Later, she encounters a future version of herself and succeeds the Over Lord Queen as the new Woman of the Beginning alongside Kouta as her king.

History

Pre-Invasion

In her childhood, Mai was the daughter of a priest at a shrine that was known to have housed a great tree. Mai would normally perform ceremonial dances as a child, but ultimately the tree was lost when the Yggdrasill Corporation started to oversee Zawame and made it undergo rapid urbanization. Mai in her young adulthood found a similar passion like those of her childhood, through street dancing and joins Team Gaim. She became close friends to particularly their leader, Yuya Sumii and was Mitsuzane's crush. Mai also became extremely close to Kouta to the point where other Team Gaim members paired them as a couple, upsetting Mitsuzane as his feelings for her are non-mutual, nor are they known.

Mai takes the status of the leader of Team Gaim alongside Kouta when Yuya disappears entirely. She manages the group and is thrown into the Yggdrasill conspiracy with Kouta, learning of the Sengoku Driver, the Helheim Forest, and numerous other things that have left Kouta traumatized. Mai eventually discovers a crack that leads back into the Helheim Forest with the intention of finding Yuya, but she is attacked by numerous Inves. Kaito, who coincidentally was in the forest, saves Mai, and the two reminisce about the past with Kaito realizing that Mai is the girl from his past that he looked up to.

Mai encounters a blonde girl, who resembles her and warns her that she can choose a different route than staying in Zawame. Mai gives it some thought before deciding to stay in Zawame for her friends. During a Beat Riders Royale tournament hosted by Sagara, the Nephenthes Inhumanoid confuses her for the Priestess of Fate (運命の巫女, Unmei no Miko), her future counterpart. She is kidnapped and taken to the Sengoku Period World and is targeted by Bujin Gaim. Her future counterpart interferes in the cross-dimensional battle, aiding Wizard, Beast, and the other Armored Riders to defeat Bujin Gaim and the Nephenthes Inhumanoid. Mai, alongside Kouta, Kaito, and Mitsuzane return back to Zawame.

Eventually, Mai and the rest of the Beat Riders are blamed for the Inves attacks that occur throughout the city and eventually has the Beat Riders quit the Inves Games, allowing her to resume her passion for dancing while making the Beat Riders unrelated to the Inves attacks. Mai would later return to the site where Yuya disappeared and notices Kouta, who attempts to tell her something important, but backs away when Mitsuzane stops him.

After confronting Kouta, she learns about Kouta's burden and comforts him by telling him that he doesn't need to suffer alone and that she's there for him. Being more concerned for Kouta, she puts herself in danger's way by trying to reveal to Zawame that Yggdrasill and the Inves are related. However, when Mitsuzane thwarts this attempt and tries to blame Kouta for putting her in harm's way, Mai retaliates and slaps Mitsuzane, breaking his spirit and causes him to lose focus from saving humanity to keeping Kouta away from Mai as much as possible.

Post-Invasion

During the Helheim Invasion by Demushu and later by Redyue, Mai stays at the Team Gaim garage to take care of Kouta, who had been critically injured by the combined efforts of Yggdrasill and Demushu. She quickly realizes that Sagara, who attempts to allure Kouta to obtain the Kiwami Lockseed, is using Kouta for his own goals. She tries to break free of his paralysis, but is freed when Kouta reaches the Kiwami Lockseed. Kouta leaves Mai at the garage as he enters the battlefield once more.

With Zawame completely destroyed, Mai and the others spread out to destroy any Inves and help get any survivors to safety. Mai stays within the Team Gaim garage as the leader who converses with numerous people such as Kaito. In a conversation with Kaito, he tells her that she's strong and she'll be able to pull off her leadership. She also is still concerned for Kouta's health as he starts to lose his appetite and discovers that he doesn't eat human food anymore and only resorts to using Lockseeds for nutrition via the Sengoku Driver.

MaiPostInvasionv2 — Mai was kidnapped by Mitsuzane and taken to Rosyuo for protection.

While trying to figure out what Kouta has in mind for his future, she tags along with Peko to the abandoned grocery stores in Zawame to get food for the remaining Beat Riders. However, she is kidnapped by Mitsuzane as she watches him have outbursts to his brother's "ghost". She is taken to Rosyuo for protection when Redyue hints to Mitsuzane that she wants to use her. Mai comforts Rosyuo saying that even though his castle is hollow, he tried his best to save his civilization, and her innocence and honesty wins over Rosyuo. Rosyuo implants the Golden Fruit into her, causing her body to have sporadic spasms and pain. Mai is taken by Ryoma Sengoku after Rosyuo's death and he dissects Mai alive, killing her and leaving her lifeless body on the operating table and obtains the Golden Fruit.

When Mitsuzane uncovers the truth, he attempts to kill Ryoma, but the latter short-circuited the former's Genesis Driver and strangles the boy. The Golden Fruit that Ryoma stole erupts as she obtains a new body that imbues her with superhuman abilities, allowing her to transcend through space and time. As the Woman of the Beginning, she travels back in time with Sagara following her and warns her that time itself will alter her messages and that even attempting to change the fates by changing the past is uncertain for even the bearer of the Golden Fruit. When Mai reaches the point at Yggdrasill Tower when Kouta obtained the Kachidoki Lockseed, Sagara (of the past) reveals that it was because of the Woman of the Beginning contacting Kouta, Kaito, Mitsuzane and her past self that gave him a vague idea that those four are the ones that are chosen to cross paths for the Golden Fruit.

Mai is lost in a different time stream and only returns back to her own timeline in the present when a victor of the fight for the Golden Fruit emerges. Ultimately, Kouta defeats Kaito, bringing Mai back to her proper timeline and reunited with Kouta. Kouta, now the Man of the Beginning sends all of Helheim flora and the Inves into a desolate world alongside Mai, who intends to make the world habitable for Helheim's beings and the newly "evolved" human race. Mai also helps replant the seed that was the Zawame City Great Tree in its original location, acting as a gateway to their new world.

In Kamen Rider Gaim: Final Stage, Mai speaks to Kouta, who had nearly fully regained his memory following being defeated and stripped of his powers by Maja. Telling Kouta that he has mastered fate, protecting the world with the power he believed in and guiding to a future full of hope, Mai encourages him to make a miracle.

Mai in Movie War Throttle — Mai captured in Megahex' spaceship in *Movie War Full Throttle*.

Kouta and Mai Movie War Full Throttle End

In Movie War Full Throttle, when a mechanical life form named Megahex invades the Planet of Helheim, Mai is kidnapped by Megahex, at the same time she is reverted into her human form, and then he fights Kouta. Mai also appeared in Mitsuzane's dream asking for his help, at the same time, after he wakes up, he, Takatora and others find one of the Helheim fruits in which it turns into a Melon Lockseed, intended for Takatora. Mitsuzane, as Ryugen, then fights of the army of Plain Roidmudes (Lost Number), until he rescues her. When Megahex is about to kill Mai and the Kureshima brothers, Kouta revives and emerges from the Kiwami Lockseed, at the same time Mai reverts herself back into her Woman of the Beginning form. She later gives both Gaim and Drive the idea of combining their powers, producing the Shift Fruits Car and the Drive Lockseed, allowing the two Riders to use each other's powers and destroy ZZZ Megahex's body. After Megahex's destruction, Kouta and Mai are about to return to their planet when they are approached by their friends, who appear to give them a proper farewell.

She, as the Woman of the Beginning, is seen standing with the Man of the Beginning on the Planet of Helheim in the credit scene of Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Rider.

Personality

She has a friendship with Kaito Kumon, though the two aren't particularly fond of each other at first, the two learn to respect each other and value each other's assets such as their strengths. Like Kouta, Mai refuses to believe that Mitsuzane has been backstabbing them the entire time, unaware of Mitsuzane's feelings for her. Though, because Mitsuzane is in love with Mai, he forces her to bend to his will after he initiates a pre-emptive attack that brutally injures Peko. It is hinted early in the show that she has feelings for Kouta. She later puts herself into harm's way, sharing his ideals of hope.^[1]

As the Woman of the Beginning, she tried hard to stop the conflict amongst Kouta, Kaito, and Mitsuzane. She even went back through time to warn the three of them about this future, but ultimately the future is already set as time itself altered her words.

Power and Abilities

File:Mai Takatsukasa Woman of the Beginning.png

Woman of the Beginning

As the Woman of the Beginning, Mai has the ability to appear before people, almost like a phantom. Her right eye shines and glows when she appears and disappears. She also can create Helheim Fruits that follow behind her which is activated by her right eye, which also shines and glows just like when she appears and disappears before people. The Woman of the Beginning is able to traverse time and space allowing her to go to certain parts in time but whenever she tries to speak, her messages become cryptic due to interference from time.

She is never seen to engage in battle, so it's unknown how much physical power she has.

The Woman of the Beginning's role is like a container for the Fruit of Knowledge, she is entitled to grant the fruit to a man she deemed worthy. Also, she can do anything because of the Fruit's power, such as traveling through time.

Godlike Powers

Telepathy: She can enter anyone's subconscious to communicate with them.
Time travel: She can enter the time stream and travel to the past. However, the time stream is so complex that not even the golden fruit can control traveling through it properly, therefore the traveler may get lost in parallel timelines until the timelines are synchronized.
Regeneration: Even after her mortal death, she was able to regenerate into a godlike form.
Mediumship: She can see and communicate with souls.
Imagination: Being one of the few adults possessing imagination, she can see the Ressha of the ToQgers. ^{[Ressha Sentai ToQger Vs. Kamen Rider Gaim Spring Vacation Combining Special]}

Behind the scenes

Portrayal

Mai Takatsukasa is portrayed by Yuumi Shida (志田友美, Shida Yuumi). As a child, Mai is portrayed by Shiori Saeki (佐伯栞, Saeki Shiori).

Etymology

Her surname, Takatsukasa (高司, Takatsukasa), is formed from the kanji for high (高, taka) and ruler (司, tsukasa), while her first name Mai (舞, Mai) can be translated to dance. Her surname represents her father being a shrine priest, while at the same time also foreshadowing her becoming the Woman of the Beginning, ruling a distant planet alongside Kouta.