Profile
Tekuka is a cyborg who was formerly an experiment created by the company Ares. When he was found to contain the cure for the toxin plaguing the city, they wanted to force him to undergo a painful procedure to extract it, so he died to avoid that fate. As Ares still needed the cure, he was revived as a cyborg, and in exchange for his revival he requested three things: to charge with a cord instead of sleeping, to have his eye color changed, and to have all of his memories removed. However, Tekuka could still recall someone from the past, and he decided to seek out this person for help in a world newly unfamiliar to him where Ares still intended to get the cure at all costs, and the existence of its past self caused more trouble than amnesia could erase.
Contents [toggle]
Tekuka is tall, with a deathly pallor to his skin. It has empty purple eyes that display loading circle graphics when he is trying to access old memories, and there are two sky blue markings on its face. He has a power outlet on his neck, a feature which Kai lacked. His hair is long, loose, and a pale ashen gray color, with tufted layers on the sides of its head. It has many wounds and stitches on his abdomen, which bleed sky blue blood when they are carelessly reopened. Tekuka wears a grayish green cardigan, tight ivory pants, and purple dress shoes.
When damaged, Tekuka's wounds open to reveal a cavernous body with metal channels running through it to transport the power that sustains his life. Because these open, these metal parts bleed inside him and glow blue when such wounds occur. The blue circles on its face split to form a crack, and a blue ring of energy may occasionally surround him in this state.
Tekuka has a marking on his abdomen, reading [Property of Ares]. He defaced it with an injury, but parts of the words still remain visible.
Tekuka lives in a technologically advanced city called Myrios in the year 2025. While the city is crowded, it is also fairly bright, and blurs the line between crisp futurism (best seen in the 50 floor skyscraper at the center of the city) and old fashioned design (best seen in the cobblestones and stone fountain in the town square, and the small brick buildings in one of the shop districts). While most of the city is walkable, a richer part of town with large mansions is rather distant from the main city, and requires vehicle travel. As the city has focused its efforts on practical and convenient technology and medical progress, there aren't flashy symbols of advancement such as flying cars or hoverboards -- instead holograms, efficient control of information, and the development of experimental energies and procedures are prioritized, creating extra convenience to the average citizen at the expense of those who disrupt the plans of Ares, the company that runs the city.
He can most often be found in the hospital owned by Ares for use as a test subject, wandering the Myrios and the surrounding area at sunrise, or living with Kori Omoide and Phecda Shioto in a log cottage in the woods outside of Myrios.
Tekuka initially seems devoid of a personality of his own, instead first coming across as vacant and fretful. This gets worse when it is forcefully hospitalized so the cure inside him could be extracted; in this environment, Tekuka had the tendency to become overwhelmed, strike others, and accidentally hurt others without realizing the effects of his enhanced strength. In the future, Tekuka would continue to feel this sense of helplessness, but would begin to direct it inwardly and shut out the world during these moments.
Once Tekuka is out of the hospital and has the chance to feel a sense of security, it became much more gentle, still retaining his absentminded demeanor, but being able to appreciate the sense of calm that he never had before. At this point, Tekuka becomes understanding and supportive, and seems to approach difficult situations with a level of insight that greatly outweighs the disadvantage its lack of memories would suggest. There is still somewhat of a fretful nature present in Tekuka, but that fretfulness relates more to regret over the past than fear for the future.
In Poisoner's City
summary here
In Poisoned Memories
summary here
In Poison World
summary here
Tekuka has a few traits that distinguish it from his former self physically. These both help and hinder Tekuka, but as they are a result of his revival process, Tekuka has learned to accept the ramifications of these changes.
Beneficial Traits
- Enhanced Strength: Tekuka's strength was enhanced when his body was rebuilt as a cyborg. Due to this, Tekuka is able to carry other people without strain, and larger objects such as vehicles are more difficult but still managable to life for short periods of time. Unfortunately, it underestimates his strength, and sometimes hurts others unintentionally with this strength.
- Curian Energy: Tekuka's power system is powered by energy from the land of Curiah, a world that uses energy to revive, restore, and reincarnate life. This energy is the reason that Tekuka is able to remain alive after being rebuilt, and since it has an abundance of this energy, he can use it for limited potential outside its own body. One of these uses is as a cure for the toxin -- as the energy can force a new body to grow around a sickened one, it can purge the toxin from someone's body. This process creates a blue ring of light around Tekuka, reopens its wounds, and puts him into a near-death state, so it only uses this ability initially for those it cares about. He later uses this ability when Ares owner Soru Omoide orders it in the absence of light to illuminate the area, but whether Tekuka agreed due to his self-sacrificial nature or because he felt it had to follow Soru's orders is unclear. Although not related to his ability, it is worth noting that Tekuka was targeted by the Curian protector goddess Aven Shika for retrival and dismantling as the Curian energy it holds was stolen by Ares and Aven was tasked with bringing it back to Curiah.
Harmful Traits
- Amnesia: Tekuka has amnesia as a result of the bargain a newly revived Kai made with Ares scientist Garu Orochi. It was induced through a memory hard drive device built by Ares, which has two main functions. First, it holds memories as data, storing them in the case that someone's mind can't retain memories on its own. Second, it can induce retrograde amnesia through a countdown period that depends on the frequency of the signal that initates it. Once that countdown runs out, the amnesia is permanent and old memories cannot be recovered, so Tekuka only has access to its memories of Marun Ookami, which were not successfully erased, although they were significantly deteriorated. This device, being a hasty build, is not efficient at allowing Tekuka easy access to its memories, so Tekuka's processing speed has been lowered as a result. A loading circle displays in Tekuka's eyes when he is trying to access memories. This amnesia is retrograde, although the poor quality of its memory hard drive leads to some anterograde amnesia at times as well.
- Inability to Sleep: Tekuka is unable to sleep due to its request. Because of this, he charges with a cord, and the process is uncomfortable for Tekuka. When he is low on power, it becomes overwhelmed and weak until plugged in again. When undergoing procedures in the hospital, anesthetic or inducing unconsciousness leaves him in almost a sleep paralysis state, where it is aware but unable to react, and sedatives leave it disoriented and lethargic, but unable to sleep off the drugs. This state causes Tekuka significant distress. Although the result of Kai's request upon being rebuilt, Tekuka was unaware of how a lack of needing to sleep would be implemented.
- Mechanical Components: Tekuka's components are prone to damage internally, as well as from wet or cold environments.
Kai Teiriku (X62)
Kai Teiriku, or X62, is the person Kai used to be. He was created in 2003 and kept in a test chamber until December 31, 2023, where he was used for medical testing and then transferred to the Floor Nine team at Ares. He worked there under supervision by Ares, unable to leave the building for 2 years until Goodwin Arcana brought him out of the building temporarily, where he started working at the cafe in Myrios as well. Kai died from falling from 50 floors up, and didn't know he would become Tekuka. When his body was recovered and revived, Kai asked Garu that if he was forced to live again, to get rid of certain features that made him who he was, including his memories. Tekuka resents Kai for asking things that went so wrong for it, and for the fact that everyone who trusts him knew Kai first. As Kai's existence as an experiment was used to institutionalize Tekuka, Tekuka sees being likened to Kai as a form of removing his autonomy. Eventually he starts to see Kai as an old part of itself, but he never does recover the memories or personality that Kai had, nor does it want to.
Marun Ookami
When Kai's memory was removed, he clung to the memories of Marun. Therefore, Marun is the only person Tekuka remembers, although the memories were fuzzy at first. After injuring Marun in the hospital when Marun called him Kai, and realizing he hurt the only person he knew, Tekuka promised never to hurt Marun again (a promise which ended up causing more harm than good). Tekuka and Marun became each other's closest friends with a uniquely deep understanding of each other. Tekuka has a crush on Marun (which Marun found out while looking through Tekuka's memory files), but Marun has never commented on this, although Marun remains supportive of Tekuka and helps him break away from Ares' will.
Kori Omoide
Kori is the first person Tekuka met after escaping the hospital for the first time. Determining that this person must be Marun because it kept thinking of her, he followed Kori and emotionally attached himself to her. At first she was upset with him for lacking everything that Kai was, but when he hurt her in the hospital and she realized comparing him to Kai was hurting him, she understood him and the two started to become close. Tekuka cared for Kori enough to keep restoring her body with his power supply each time the toxin deteriorated her body, and Kori cared for Tekuka enough to undergo painful procedures to make sure Tekuka would be kept safe. They know well how to help each other through the specific difficulties that they share in common. However, there is a slight imbalance in their closeness, as Tekuka has a guilt complex about Kori's addiction to the toxin, and Kori has been willing to push Tekuka too far out of its comfort zone in ways that would break his promise to itself.
Soru Omoide
Soru is the owner of the company that created Tekuka, and he is also Kori's older brother. This has caused Soru to dismiss Tekuka's autonomy since his use as an experiment was required to prevent Kori from dying from the toxin. Soru often had Tekuka sedated and drugged to keep it chemically restrained, and treated Tekuka like company property, even agreeing to let Tekuka be dismantled to save the company trouble. Tekuka is distrusting of Soru, and is wary around him. They eventually form a truce when confronted with the reprogramming machine, a device that has affected them both, and Soru eventually learns to see Tekuka as its own person. Tekuka is deferential to Soru, but eventually no longer fears him as long as Kori is present, knowing Kori has kept Soru from dismantling him multiple times in the past.
Garu Orochi
Garu is the scientist who revived Kai into Tekuka. He honored Kai's requests for amnesia and physical changes, and somewhat pitied Tekuka, although he didn't want anyone (including Tekuka) to notice this. While he was responsible for drugging Tekuka at multiple points, Tekuka never feared him. Garu pretends to be inconvenienced by having to service Tekuka's mechanics, although he puts effort into making sure Tekuka is as safe as it can be while in the presence of Ares staff. Tekuka is somewhat confused about Garu's intentions but generally trusts him slightly more than others do because of the exceptions of policies that Garu has made to keep it alive.
Aven Shika
Although Tekuka originally thought Aven was a friend, Aven wanted Tekuka to be dismantled so the energy in his power system could be returned to Curiah. Aven sees Tekuka as an inconvenient object, and has tried to push multiple people (including Kori and Garu) to dismantle it through threats and her formidable abilities. Aven reinforced Tekuka's guilt complex through others getting hurt to protect him from her.
- Tekuka's voice is breathy and somewhat spacey, while maintaining an overall monotone. He is the only one in the series who speaks with many ellipsis in his dialogue, as it pauses a lot while speaking due to his low processing speed and difficulty accessing data from the hard drive in its head.
- Tekuka was created in March 2015. Its design was mostly the same, except with bolder greens and brighter whites. He had a hoodie instead of a thinner sweater back then.
- Tekuka's name is a combination of parts of Kai's surname and first name. When Tekuka was revived, it saw his test chamber which originally read TEIRIKU, KAI. As some of the letters had faded, Tekuka saw only a few letters and assumed that whatever TE KU KA was, it must have been him.
- Tekuka's favorite clouds are cumulus clouds.
- Tekuka has a crush on Marun. He doesn't try to hide it, and Marun knows. They're kind of at a stalemate, as Marun is married, but in the end he, Tekuka, and Phecda all seem to work more as a group than a couple and the cyborg living in their house.
- Tekuka usually takes an approach to situations that might seem unusual, such as using its strength to get through a subway crowd, piling cars into a homemade collission to keep them from hitting someone on a crosswalk, or poisoning Kori to deteriorate her body when a memory hard drive was stuck in her head. Because of this, people don't often take Tekuka's solutions seriously, but they're rather effective.
- Tekuka's memories are stored as image files, video files, and executable files. Recollections are usually the former two, while emotions are the latter. If someone hacks into Tekuka or plugs him into a computer with an adapter, they can access, delete, or run these files however they wish. Physical actions are also done this way, and this exploit was used by Sho when he hacked Tekuka and controlled his body.
- If Tekuka gets a virus, it gets a fever. Whether this is from the computer parts overheating or the organic ones reacting is unknown. He can see any pop-ups in his field of vision.
