Higa Takeru

Higa Takeru (比嘉タケル) is the Chief Developer of the «Soul Translator». He works under Kikuoka Seijirou in Rath, using «Underworld» as a means to create a «Bottom-Up-AI», by nurturing a mass number of Artificial Fluctlights, in order to further advance Japan's military force.

Appearance
Takeru has whitened hair that stands up like a hill of swords. He wears a T-shirt that is faded in colour, three-quarter length jeans and sneakers with damaged soles. He also wears round, rimmed spectacles.

Background
Higa went to university with Kayaba Akihiko and Koujiro Rinko. He was the last student of the Shigemura lab in the «Touto University of Electrical and Electronic Engineering» which had two prodigious figures: Kayaba Akihiko and Sugou Nobuyuki.

Versus
In April 2026, before one of Kirigaya Kazuto's test dives using a new FullDive machine, Takeru had a conversation with him, during which he told Kazuto about the ghost that other users of the machine had seen.

Alicization Running
On July 5, 2026, Koujiro Rinko and her assistant Mayumi Reynolds met Takeru after arriving at the Ocean Turtle. After Mayumi was revealed to be Yuuki Asuna in disguise, who demanded to know what had they done with Kazuto, Seijirou and Takeru explained what Project Alicization was. Takeru also demonstrated what would happen to a copy of a soul by using his own as an example.

Alicization Turning
On July 6, 2026, Asuna encountered Takeru and Rinko following a robot, named Ichiemon, through a set of spiraling stairs that connected different floors of the «Ocean Turtle». He later explained to Asuna some aspects of Project Alicization and what the robot he was making was needed for.

Alicization Uniting
After Kirito defeated Quinella and accessed a terminal that connected to the real world and allowed disabling the Fluctlight Acceleration (FLA), while the Ocean Turtle was under attack, Takeru discovered that Kirito was trying to communicate. He and Seijirou told Kirito to find a girl named Alice, who was actually right next to him, and to go to the World End's Altar, planning to accelerate time in Underworld to its maximum to give them time. But, before the the FLA could be changed to its maximum value, the attackers cut through the main power supply, causing a power surge to Kirito's Soul Translator, thus halting all of his mental capacities within Project Alicization.

Gallery

 * See: Higa Takeru/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * Takeru usually uses the first person pronoun boku (ボク) to address himself.
 * Takeru joined Rath due to a friend of his dying in a war.
 * Takeru's hair description is a reference to the character Archer from the visual novel Fate/stay night written by Kinoko Nasu.

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