Luka Urushibara

Luka Urushibara (漆原るか) is a close friend and classmate of Mayuri Shiina and so-called protégé of Rintaro Okabe. While feminine in appearance and personality, Luka is a male in most worldlines. Mayuri often attempts to coerce him into cosplaying. He works at the Yanabayashi Shrine as a shrine maiden.

Appearance
Although biologically male, Luka has an extremely feminine appearance, which causes him much trouble (and gets him a lot of attention) from men (even Daru was attracted to Luka's appearance at one point). He is very slim, has thin arms and a lanky body.

Personality
Luka is very sensitive and emotional. Even simple, sudden responses from Okabe can cause him to cry or tremble. He likes to wear girly clothing, which caused Kurisu to mistake him as a girl when the two met in Okabe's lab. However, he stil becomes embarrassed when wearing particularly revealing clothing. Okabe describes him as "More girly than any girl, more feminine than any female." in the game. Luka himself is bothered by his girlish tendencies as he views himself as a boy. He wants to act more according to his gender, becoming worried that liking cooking might make him seem girlish and that the gods might not be appeased by a male miko.

Luka harbors deep feelings for Okabe ever since their first encounter in Akihabara, when he was still a male. However, Luka felt that his feelings were taboo and kept them hidden. Later in the story, as Okabe attempts to save Mayuri by reversing the effects of the previously sent D-Mails, the female Luka tearfully agreed to allow her D-Mail to be undone under the condition of Okabe taking her out on a date. The date played out awkwardly, since Okabe was unable to be himself around her. He later visited her at the shrine and apologized for botching the date, and the two embraced. Luka said she would still love him even if she was no longer female. When Okabe asked a male Luka if he liked him, Luka avoided the question by saying that he respected Okabe.

Relationships
His father that he loves very much, who he even tries to "protect" from Kurisu's ostensible advances. At the same time as he loves him he is also troubled by his "strange" tendencies, such as encouraging him to act more girly and wearing female clothing. Luka once mentioned becoming fed up with him due to this.
 * Rintaro Okabe
 * Mayuri Shiina
 * Eisuke Urushibara

Background
During his childhood, his father made him act more like a girl and got him to help out at the shrine as a shrine maiden. With the help of Luka's older sister (who Luka could not say no to due to her boyish personality) his father often made him wear female clothing, which Luka still cries about when thinking about it. His older sister also made him cook dinner in her place, which became a hobby that he took a liking to. One day, while walking though Akihabara, Luka is accosted by two men seeking to take photos of him, mistaking him for a female cosplayer. Luka tries to leave, but the two are persistent until Rintaro Okabe, who happened to be nearby steps in and helps him, shaming the men for their rude behavior. Luka thanks him, but tearfully apologizes, revealing that he is a boy and expressing his feeling that Okabe should not be so kind to him. Okabe explains that he did not really care about Luka's gender and takes him to BladeWorks to buy him Samidare, a toy sword. Okabe then became Luka's unofficial swordsmanship instructor in order to help Luka build his self-confidence. This interaction led Luka to develop feelings for Okabe.

Steins;Gate
Luka was first introduced as an extremely feminine individual. Rintaro Okabe expressed his own confusion over this matter quite a few times throughout the game, and early on in the anime.

After learning of the existence of SERN and the IBN 5100 personal computer, Okabe discovered the computer being stored at Luka's family's shrine. However, later in the story in the worldlines where Luka has been changed to being female, Luka accidentally broke it when she was cleaning the storehouse on January 4, 2009.

In the anime later on, Luka overhears the lab members discussing the PhoneWave. When he reveals this to the group, Okabe hastily dubs him Lab Mem #6. In the Visual Novel, he visited the lab to test out a costume Mayuri had made and becomes appointed Lab Mem presumably to have him send a D-Mail for the sake of experimentation. Luka reveals that he actually wishes to use the PhoneWave to send a message to his mother that would result in him being born a girl. Luka tells the Future Gadget Lab members a Japanese urban legend: if a pregnant woman eats more meat during her pregnancy, then her baby will be a boy, and if she eats more vegetables, her baby will be a girl. The Future Gadget Lab, although skeptical of whether or not the urban legend is true, lets Luka send a D-Mail back to his pregnant mother's pager, telling her to eat more vegetables.

While it is initially unclear whether or not the D-Mail worked (because Luka still looked the same), in Episode 10 in the anime and in Chapter 4, it is revealed that the D-Mail has worked and the characters were transferred to a worldline where Luka was born a girl. This causes an extremely awkward situation in which Okabe does not realize this and gropes Luka's crotch in order to prove to the Future Gadget Lab that she is male. He quickly learns that he has been moved to a worldline where Luka is a girl and that he has been accidentally sexually harassing her while causing Luka heavy embarrassment. Later, when Okabe attempts to achieve 1% divergence, he was troubled by the thought of reversing Luka's wish. Luka agreed to it, though reluctantly, after confessing her love for him and requests that he takes her out on three dates (only one in the anime). The dates turned out awkwardly, since Okabe was unable to be himself around her. He came to see her at the shrine and apologizes for botching the date, and the two embrace. Luka then spends the rest of the day practicing with the sword Samidare along with Okabe; both of them feeling genuinely comfortable in each other's company.

Luka, who still remembered her first meeting when Okabe saved Luka from being harassed on the street, even though this memory is from a worldline where she was born male, revealed to Okabe that she had been in love with him since that first encounter that she should not be able to remember, and that she will still love him no matter what happens, female or not. Okabe smiles and sends the D-Mail, reverting Luka back to being a male.

Luka's Ending In this route of the visual novel, Rintaro Okabe decides in the end to not send the D-Mail that would make Luka return to being a boy again. He convinces himself that Mayuri Shiina will still die no matter what he does and he does not want to sacrifice Luka's happiness.

This ending starts by Luka confessing to Rintaro Okabe and swearing to give him her mother's pager number on the condition that the two go on a date together once. The two's date is deeply awkward and contrived, so much that Luka cuts it off abruptly, leaving Okabe to guilt over it. He realizes that it was not truly a date because he was trying too hard to impress her by not being himself, and rushes over to the shrine where the two spend genuine bonding time together. After which, Luka gives Okabe her mother's pager number in order to send another D-Mail to Luka's pregnant mother. This will cause Luka's mother to believe that the first D-Mail she received -the one sent by Luka in order to turn into a girl- was spam, ignore it, and continuing on eating more meat, thus giving birth to a male Luka. Because Okabe does not want to turn Luka back into a boy, stating that he does not want to wipe out any memories anymore, the timeline goes on and Mayuri still dies.

Realizing the devastation she has wrought, Luka feels guilty about Mayuri's death. Remembering that Mayuri wanted Luka to cosplay in the next convention, Luka with the help of Okabe leaps back in time to give Mayuri at least some happiness. The plan was a success, as in that worldline Luka, Mayuri and Okabe went to the convention together but left Mayuri's fate ultimately unchanged. The scene closes with Luka producing the pictures they took together with Mayuri at the convention and with Okabe at peace now that he has given Mayuri some happiness. After the credits, Okabe is shown to have fathered a child with Luka.

After Okabe sends the D-Mail, changing Luka back to male, Okabe asks him if he liked him. However, Luka avoids the question by saying that he respects Okabe.

Steins;Gate 0
Like the rest of Okabe's friends, Luka is concerned with him giving up with Hououin Kyouma persona, but is unsure how to help him.

Stray Sheep
As Okabe searches for Kagari around the Diet building, he runs into Luka and Faris. He ends up telling them about his search and they agree to help him. He then helps Luka cary his supplies back to the shrine. Part way through the story, an amnesiac woman named Kana comes to the shrine for assistance. Luka attempts to talk to Okabe about her multiple times, but Okabe, too focused on finding Kagari, never has a good opportunity to talk to him. Luka ends up taking her to the lab where it is revealed that the woman is Kagari Shiina, the woman they had been looking for.

Orbital Eclipse
Luka is one of the shrine maidens present during the New Years festival. He is also present when the armed DURPA agents attack the lab.

2036
After Okabe is recovered from Stratfor, he is left in a catatonic state. While Daru announces that Okabe is dead, he puts Luka in charge of taking care of his body.

When Okabe's past self time leaps into his future, body, Luka is in the middle of a fire fight with Stratfor agents after being led into a trap. Luka is injured, but Okabe manages to reach him before he dies. Luka expresses his happiness at seeing Okabe awake before dying. This gives Okabe the resolve to go back in time and prevent this future.

Quotes

 * "If I go back to becoming a guy, I'm going to forget all about today, that the two of us went on a date, that the two of us trained, that I was able to touch you this way... If I knew I had to suffer like this, I would never have wished to become a girl..."

Trivia

 * Although being feminine, Luka always uses the term "boku" to address him/herself. "Boku" is a male form of addressing oneself in Japanese, so it is unusual that a person like Luka would use it in the world lines where she is biologically female.
 * Luka has an older sister in college who, according to Luka, is the polar opposite (in terms of gender attraction) of him. She is only mentioned in the visual novel.
 * Rintaro Okabe's nickname for Luka regardless of gender is "Lukako". The "-ko" is typical ender of many female given names in Japanese.
 * Luka's ending is the only outcome of the game in that Mayuri Shiina's death is definite as Okabe gave up on his attempts and decides to make Mayuri happy one last time instead. Mayuri also dies of natural causes (heart attack) in this ending.
 * Through "investigation", Okabe realizes that Luka's genitals are larger than his own on Luka's route in "My Darling's Embrace".
 * Luka frequently mispronounces Okabe's motto of "El Psy Kongroo".
 * Luka learned English in order to interact with tourists.

Etymology

 * Luka's surname Urushibara means "lacquer/lacker, varnish" (漆) (urushi) and "field, plain" (原) (hara/bara).