Itaru Hashida

Itaru Hashida (橋田 至, Hashida Itaru?), also known by his nickname Daru, his online handle DaSH ("Daru the Super Hacker") and Barrel Titor, is a main character in Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0 and Robotics;Notes DaSH. He is an experienced hacker and a hardcore otaku, a member of the Future Gadget Lab and a close friend of Rintaro Okabe who eventually becomes the husband of Yuki Amane and the father of Suzuha Amane. he communicates via the in-universe Twitter (Twipo) in Robotics;Notes Elite.

Appearance
Daru is a short and overweight guy who needs glasses to see.

He always wears a dark green/olive t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans along with his signature yellow cap. In one of the anime adaptation's episodes, Daru is seen wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt.

His cosplay outfit with the Cosplay mode activated resembles Jotaro Kujo's appearance in Part 3 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (see Gallery).

Personality
Daru is obsessed and extremely talented with programs and computers, capable of hacking into the mainframes of top-secret organizations and processing complex computer codes.

Like Rintaro Okabe, Daru enjoys making Future Gadgets, but he is not nearly as enthusiastic about it as Okabe is. Daru also has a very particular naming sense for his creations, usually adding serial and version number even if unnecessary.

One of Itaru's most prominent characteristics is his obsession over moe culture, as well as his perverted tendencies, often to the annoyance of those around him. He describes himself as a "Perverted Gentleman". He is also a big fan of Faris. While he might not act like it, Daru is fully aware of how he comes off to other people. During his date with Yuki, he was incredibly self-conscious of being seen as little more then a fat pervert.

Background
Sometime he started hacking and under his net alias, DaSH, he became known as one of the best hackers on the Internet, calling himself a "super hacker".

While Rintaro Okabe and Itaru had known one another since high school, their friendship only really began from the moment they entered university. Itaru joined the Future Gadget Lab some time after Mayuri Shiina, his reasoning for doing so being that MayQueen+Nyan² was fairly close to the lab.

Steins;Gate
While Okabe and Mayuri are off to attend Dr. Nakabachi's seminar on time travel, Itaru stays in the lab to try to find out what the problem with the PhoneWave (name subject to change) was, the lab's latest Future Gadget. As he experiments with it, a message from Okabe, informing him of the murder of Kurisu Makise arrived and is sent to the past through the PhoneWave, shifting the worldline towards the Alpha Attractor Field.

Alpha Attractor Field
In the Alpha Attractor Field, his phone had received an odd message from Okabe a week prior, containing only part of the message Okabe had sent to him in the Beta worldline the same day.

He helps Rintaro Okabe understand the PhoneWave (name subject to change) better by hacking into SERN, which took him multiple days, which results in him, Okabe and Kurisu Makise finding out that SERN has been conducting time travel experiments by using hundres of human subjects for nine years (2001). Later, he tries to attend a meeting about time travelling, the same one Suzuha Amane was going to attend, but is stopped by Okabe to help out with the party for Suzuha. On another worldline, he attempts to fix Suzuha's broken time machine but does not repair it fully and Suzuha becomes amnesiac after having used it to travel to 1975, which resulted in her suicide. Right before sending Suzuha off with the others, when he finds out that he is her dad, he first reacts with perverted comments but soon after becomes awkward and emotional at seeing his future daughter.

Irreversible Reboot (Suzuha ending)
On Okabe's countless time leaps, Itaru follows along with Suzuha, Okabe, Kurisu and Mayuri on their cycling session, but struggles keeping up and complains the whole way. He stops once to rest on a guardrail and is almost hit by a truck every time (depending on the time leap, Okabe pulls him away from guardrail). They then arrive at Big Sight (where ComiMa is held) and Itaru is excited at finally being at their destination point. He then proceeds to look for a family restaurant with Kurisu and Mayuri. On the very last worldline in the time loop, Itaru finishes the time machine and is called to a Future Gadget Lab meeting by Okabe. On these worldlines, Itaru does not know that Suzuha is his daughter.

Steins;Gate 0
During the events of Steins;Gate 0 in the Beta Attractor Field, Daru helped Maho Hiyajo with building a new Time Leap Machine and often helped retrieve Amadeus' data by hacking. He also recommended Moeka Kiryu to Okabe when they needed someone who could find Kagari Shiina. He was contracted by someone anonymous, later finding out that it was Maho, to hack into Kurisu Makise's laptop.

Pandora's box
Short summary: Maho takes Okabe to the anonymous hacker she had contracted, and hence took him to Daru's secret hideout. Daru is surprised that his contractor was Maho and also at seeing Okabe. Okabe tells him that he should stop trying to hack into it. They then get a call from Amadeus [Kurisu]. Depending on if Okabe picks it up or not, the story leads into a different route.

Gehenna's Stigma
Okabe picks up the call. Amadeus tells them that someone had raided the office in Wako City and Maho's room. As they realise that this someone was after the laptop, they see several men beginning to surround the building through security cameras. Daru leads them through his secret exit and they manage to get out from the back of the building. Shocked, they escape just in time.

Presage or Recognize
Okabe does not pick up the call. Daru shows them the laptop and the hard drive. Okabe, Daru and Maho bicker and Daru advises Okabe to tell Maho about the time machine and time travelling. Okabe suggests destroying the laptop to which Daru protests that he was nearly done with it and that he would not get his pay, which he had used some of already, that way. They get interrupted by a beep from the security monitor that alerts them that multiple men have surrounded and infiltrated the building. They leave through Daru's secret exit but become cornered in an alley with Maho getting captured. At Okabe's demand the one holding Maho takes off their helmet and reveales themself to be Moeka to their shock. Okabe instructs Daru to give him the backpack containing Kurisu's laptop, which he would then give Moeka in exchange for Maho. Okabe tries stalling for time which makes the Rounders impatient and Moeka threaten to kill one of them. Suddenly, a black van pulls up at the end of the alley from which multiple armed people jump out and start shooting at the assailants. Okabe, Daru and Maho managed to duck out of the way just in time. In the gunfire the laptop is destroyed. The Rounders flee, the armed men take what remains of the laptop with them and Okabe, Daru and Maho get back to the lab, all being shaken.

Trivia

 * Itaru's favorite drink is Coca Cola Zero.
 * Itaru is one of few characters in the Science Adventure Series to have impacted the plot of every main entry in the series since his introduction.
 * He is mentioned in Chaos;Child.
 * He appears on the Twipo social media app in Robotics;Notes
 * He appears as a main character in Robotics;Notes DaSH.
 * Itaru's main personal computer appears to be a Sharp X68000. Given the computer's outdated processor architecture, it is likely a sleeper PC build.
 * Itaru considers himself a "Super Hacker", though Okabe often mispronounces this as "Super Hacka", much to Itaru's annoyance.

Etymology

 * The name Itaru means "of, this, climax, arrive, proceed, reach, attain, result in" (至).
 * Itaru's surname Hashida means "bridge" (橋) (hashi) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).
 * Barell Titor. Titor from saying Hasida Itaru quickly repeatedly and Barrel from taru(たる) in Itaru meaning Barrel.