Itaru Hashida

Daru is laid-back, sarcastic and deeply immersed in otaku culture. He constantly uses internet slang and turns innocent remarks into suggestive jokes, often prompting immediate criticism from the people around him. Unlike Okabe, he rarely commits fully to theatrical role-playing and frequently acts as the dry counterpoint to his friend's Hououin Kyouma persona.

His casual attitude disappears when a technical problem genuinely interests him. Daru takes considerable pride in his programming and hacking ability and reacts strongly to Okabe's deliberate mispronunciation of "hacker" as "haker."

He is also more dependable than his complaints suggest. Daru frequently grumbles about Okabe's requests but completes difficult technical work anyway, reflecting the trust beneath their constant banter.

Daru has no supernatural abilities, but he is an exceptional programmer, hacker and computer engineer. He can penetrate highly protected systems, analyze unfamiliar software and modify complicated hardware assembled from the lab's collection of electronics.

His skills become critical to the PhoneWave experiments. Working with Kurisu Makise and Okabe, he helps develop the laboratory's understanding of D-Mails and the system that eventually allows memories to be transmitted into the past.

Daru also understands the architecture of SERN's systems well enough to investigate its classified time-travel research. His technical ability later becomes crucial to the development and repair of time-machine technology used in future world lines.

Daru begins as one of the Future Gadget Laboratory's three original members alongside Okabe and Mayuri Shiina. His hacking exposes SERN's secret experiments, turning the lab's accidental discovery into evidence that another organization has already pursued human time travel.

As Kurisu joins the group, Daru supplies the engineering and programming expertise needed to transform theories into functioning technology. He remains involved as the laboratory experiments with D-Mails and eventually develops a means of sending human memories backward through time.

Daru's importance extends far beyond the summer of 2010. Suzuha Amane is his future daughter with Yuki Amane, making the hacker she knows as "Barrel Titor" the same father she travels into the past seeking. In the Beta future, Daru becomes one of the central members of the resistance against the dystopian world created by World War III.

Rintarou Okabe has been Daru's friend since high school and later makes him Lab Member 003. Their conversations are filled with insults and jokes, but Daru repeatedly trusts Okabe enough to participate in increasingly dangerous experiments.

Mayuri Shiina is Daru's fellow founding Lab Member and friend. Their shared enthusiasm for otaku culture gives them interests outside the lab's scientific work.

Kurisu Makise works closely with Daru on the technical side of the lab's time-travel experiments, combining her theoretical knowledge with his engineering and programming expertise.

Suzuha Amane initially fascinates Daru as the unusual part-time worker downstairs. She is actually his daughter from the future.

Yuki Amane becomes Daru's wife and Suzuha's mother in the future.