Masaki demonstrating his enhanced strength by grappling Derzerb, one of the Hyper Zoanoids of Team Five.
Masaki Murakami is a 29 year old freelance reporter in Guyver. Temporarily allied with the Guyvers themselves, he has since become a part of Chronos.
Known History
Working as a reporter for an unnamed news magazine, Masaki first came to the attention of Chronos when he and his team went to New Guinea to research the culture there. When they decided to investigate the rumors of monsters in the deep forests of an as-yet-unknown portion of the island, they inadvertently stumbled upon one of the sites where Chronos tested their Zoanoids.
Masaki Murakami, preparing to face down Hyper Zoanoids.
The other reporters with him were all killed for one reason or another, but Masaki himself was spared; reasons for this have not been stated in canon, but speculation tends to be that Masaki was determined to be compatible with Chronos' processing methods. How this was accomplished has still not been stated in canon sources.
What is known, is that Masaki was taken to Chronos' main headquarters in Arizona, to be part of the processing experiments that they were conducting. The ultimate aim of these experiments was the testing of the abilities and needed genetic-modifications to one Richard Guyot, who was to be the final member of Chronos' Council of Twelve. The test subjects used, Masaki among them, were slated for immediate disposal once the end of their usefulness had been reached.
However, this was not to be.
One of the scientists who had been put to work on the project, a man named Shinichiro Yamamura - having long ago decided that he would oppose Chronos in any way that he could - released Masaki and the three other Zoalord prototypes from their tanks. With the knowledge that possessed on Chronos and their operating procedures, Yamamura was able to advise them on the best places to strike. However, their primary target was Richard Guyot, the Zoalord who their lives were being sacrificed to create.
The prototype Zoalords making, what will be for most of them, their last stand.
However, not one of the Proto-Zoalords present would manage to kill him.
The appearance of the Council of Twelve put a permanent stop to Yamamura's plans, and the good doctor himself was killed not soon after. The Proto-Zoalords themselves, save for Masaki, were rounded up and disposed of as well. Masaki, who had the least injuries out of the three, was aided in his escape by Yamamura, and likely the other prototypes as well.
Leaving the Arizona base through as-yet unknown means, Masaki returned to Japan. Taking on the guise of a reporter, his job before he had encountered Chronos in the first place, he kept watch on them from the sidelines. Likely knowing a great deal about what they were planning, Masaki was determined to stop them them by any means he could. Though he knew that being processed into a Proto-Zoalord had drastically reduced his lifespan.
He also knew that utilizing the battleform he had been granted would shorten it even more.
Masaki in the Manga/12 part OAV
Masaki, driving Tetsuro and Sho away from the site of a recent battle.
Masaki first appears before Sho when the latter has been cornered by a group of Zoanoids. The Zoanoids manage to capture the young Guyver by deceiving him into thinking that they had managed to capture Mizuki. Sho, unable to hurt someone wearing the face of a person he cared deeply for, was fully prepared to go along with them to ensure that they wouldn't harm her.
However, given his ability to sense the presence of Zoanoids, Masaki was not so easily fooled. Revealing the subterfuge to Sho, Masake left the boy to deal with his enemies while he drew one of them off. Intending to interrogate the creature, Masaki was surprised and dismayed to see Sho slaughter it before he could find out what he wanted.
After having escaped the main headquarters of Chronos, Masaki went into hiding in Japan, biding his time until he could get his hands on one of the Units stored there. These plans of his, however, came to naught. The three Units had already found hosts, and Lisker was long dead at that point.
Masaki in the 2005 TV series
Masaki, on his first appearance before Sho, protecting the young Guyver from the Hyper Zoanoid Panadyne.
Masaki, seeing that he would never have the opportunity to gain a Unit of his own, decided instead that he would help those people who did have them. When he first encountered Sho, it was during a fight with Aptom and his fellow Lost Numbers. Masaki lent his aid to the young Guyver, acting to distract Dyme from an attack on the boy, but inadvertently getting captured himself.
With another person to protect, however, Sho found new resolve and was able to successfully fight off the Lost Numbers attacking him.
After he had done that, Masaki was quick to support him in his endeavor, Sho having been shocked by the revelation that his friends - not just his father, as he had initially been lead to believe - had been the targets of Chronos' forces, was all but ready to give in to their demands for his surrender. Stepping in just as Sho was at his lowest, Masaki reassured him, then explained to him that Chronos was not just a threat to his own family, but to every human being on Earth.
A fact that Sho had come to realize some time ago, but which had been almost completely forgotten by the boy in his anguish over his missing friends and family.
Taking Sho under his wing, Masaki told the boy about another Chronos base in Japan, one hidden deep underground and stretching for miles in several directions: Mt. Minakami. With the help of the young Guyver, Masaki was able to find a way to infiltrate that Mt. Minakami facility. However, that would come later; for the moment, Sho's focus was on rescuing his friends and his father.
Masaki, maintaining the Zoanoid Buster that allows him to kill Zoanoids without transforming.
With Masaki's help, Sho was able to trace the mental signals from the third Guyver - who was, unknown to him at this point Agito Makishima - to Mt. Minakami itself.
Transformation into Imakarum
When Guyot destroyed his dummy Zoacrystal, Masaki was left either dead or in a deathlike state, at the bottom of an erupting Mt. Minakami. Luckily - or unluckily, depending on how one looks at things - he landed at the feet of Alkanphel, just after the Supreme Zoalord had finished disposing of the traitor Richard Guyot.
With Guyot's Zoacrystal still clutched in his hand, and a dying Proto-Zoalord at his feet, Alkanphel was not slow about taking the opportunity that had been presented to him. Bringing the comatose Proto-Zoalord with him, likely to the Dead Sea Plant with the Relic remains, Alkanphel, Dr. Balkus, and an unknown number of other scientists and laboratory technicians began the process of transforming him into a full Zoalord and ensuring his loyalty to Alkanphel.
Imakarum Mirabilis, on his first appearance; Arizona Base One.
What this entailed, how long it took, and the specifics of the alterations made, are all completely unknown at this time.
However, Imakarum is completely loyal to Alkanphel's cause and the ideals of Chronos, even attempting to recruit Sho on their first meeting, when Sho and Agito had attempted to invade Cloud Gate.
Needless to say, this offer was firmly - or in Sho's case, not quite so firmly - rejected, and Imakarum, with what seemed almost like genuine regret, turned his power to the task of eliminating the threat that the two Guyvers posed to Chronos and its master, Alkanphel. Attacking the two Guyvers in his human form, Imakarum would have likely been able to kill at least Sho, if not for the timely intervention of Aptom. The Lost Number was adamant that the life of the young Guyver belonged to him. Imakarum, not caring for the peculiarities of a mere Lost Number - and having heard of Aptom before - attacked them both.
Aptom barraged him with missiles, but Imakarum's barrier repelled the attack, causing the missiles to detonate against it rather than doing any harm to Imakarum himself. The next one to make an attempt on the Zoalord's life was Agito, who had been hiding in the building that he had been blown into after Imakarum's initial attack. His attempt on Imakarum's life ended in the same failure that Aptom's had, but he did manage to destroy the Zoalord's visor, letting all of the combatants see the most obvious signs of Imakarum's re-processing: his yellow, slitted eyes.
Imakarum's eyes, revealed for the first time.
After this change had been revealed, Imakarum quickly transformed into his battleform. Sho, still anguished over the fact that he was being forced to fight someone that he still cared about - someone who had in fact died in his arms - was unable to fight him at first. Sho even tried to reason with Imakarum at the beginning, attempting to remind the Zoalord of all that they had been through together in the hope of bringing him back around to their side.
It was completely for naught, however; Imakarum remembered everything about who he had once been, he simply didn't care.
Attacking Sho all the more ferocity for the time he had taken to listen to Sho, Imakarum drove both Guyvers toward Tokyo bay, while Fried'rich van Purg'stall watched calmly from his post in Chronos' Cloud Gate.
Being far more powerful than his previous incarnation, and wearing the face of someone Sho had trusted with his life, Imakarum truly only had to concern himself with the attacks that Guyver III made against his person. Sho Fukamachi was far from a threat at that time. Even with the Gigantic at his disposal, the boy could not muster the will to fight Imakarum.
Imakarum knew this, and intended to take full advantage of it.
Fanon's View
Masaki in Warrior Guyver
Masaki in Son of Mine ('verse)
Masaki contemplates the path his life has taken.
Masaki is the father of the titular character in Son of Mine, as well as retaining his career and characteristics from the manga, OAV, and TV series. He is, however, somewhat softer and more approachable than in canon, especially during those times when he talks about his son, and doubly so if the boy himself happens to be present.
Masaki, in his Proto-Zoalord form, rescuing Kenji from the fire that consumed their family home.
He tends toward over-protectiveness, not wanting his son to be placed in any more danger than he has been over the time that the two of them have been struggling to survive against Chronos. He also displayed a pronounced slowness to trust even the people who were on his side, seeming to prefer to keep Kenji out of sight rather than to risk taking him back out into the world and having him potentially spotted by Chronos.
Kenji is clearly his father's son.
The life that they have lived, one of constant threats and overarching danger, has lead Masaki to develop a finely tuned paranoia about his son's safety. This has lead, in turn, to him believing that he is the only one who can take care of Kenji. It has also lead him to surmise that the best way to protect his son is to keep anyone else from knowing of his son's continued survival, even those who would be the most likely to be more easily able to protect him such as Sho and the ACTF.
This, in turn, lead to Kenji being isolated from other people, and to develop something of an unhealthy fear of the same.
Masaki and Kenji, in the tent where the latter was hidden from Chronos.
It also lead, though in a somewhat more indirect fashion, to Kenji's kidnapping at the hands of Guyot. Kenji, who had been so isolated from other people that he was almost desperate for any kind of company - though not quite at the point where he was ready to openly disobey his father to obtain it - went all too readily with Guyot, once the Zoalord had made the right gestures of friendship and concern, false as they ultimately were.
Masaki returned, having told the rest of the people staying in Agito's safehouse about his son, only to find that the boy himself had been taken.
Masaki finds Kaji in the remains of Kenji's tent.
He was, naturally, distraught and enraged by such an occurrence. And this only hardened his resolve to take bloody revenge on Chronos, and Richard Guyot in particular, for all they've done to him and his family. Knowing that Kenji was not likely to be fully human the next time he and his son met - from his own past encounters with Chronos' usual methods - Masaki made a personal vow that he would kill his son, rather than see him used by the likes of Guyot and Balkus.
The only memento that he managed to recover from the destruction of his son's former refuge was an old plush tiger. Masaki had bought the thing a long time ago, and Kenji had treasured it during his time in the tent, calling it Kaji. From that point on, Masaki kept Kaji with him; a reminder of his lost son.
Masaki and Kenji, separating for what - unknown to them - will be a rather long time.
He, like the others in their small rebel group, left the cabin to avoid the further notice of Chronos and their Zoanoids. Masaki, along with Agito, Tetsuro, Yohei and Shizu, were separated from Sho and Mizuki when Guyot attacked them on their way out of Takeshiro village. The Zoalord did all he could to provoke a fight between the two of them, knowing that Masaki's Proto-Zoalord transformation sapped his life energy, and he would be helpless once he had used up his limited time in his battleform. However, Masaki knew himself well enough not to fall for Guyot's taunts, however hurtful or close to home they were.
Masaki speaks to Kenji about the people the former met during his battles with Chronos.
Instead, Masaki relied on his strength - enhanced to the same levels as a full Zoalord - to throw the parked cars on the street at Guyot's head.
This tactic, inventive as it was, ultimately proved futile in the long-run. Guyot was able to force Masaki and Guyver III into a retreat, after using the Zoanoids - Sleepers and regular agents - stationed in Takeshiro to drive off Guyver I. Later, in a fight with Guyot himself, Masaki was knocked unconscious and forced to take refuge in Relic's Point alongside Sho's remaining companions.
As Imakarum
Far from being indifferent towards his son, as he is toward almost anyone other than Alkanphel, Imakarum is far more protective of the boy than even his previous incarnation. There are very few things that will draw his full attention faster than a request from his son, save for an order from his master.
However, Imakarum is far from the ideal father.
He is, for the most part, far more overprotective of Kenji than he was when he was when the boy was human and they were both being hunted by Chronos. Imakarum is also a great deal more indulgent than Masaki ever was, even when he lived with Miaka and had never heard of Chronos. Imakarum will do whatever he deems is necessary to protect his son and keep him happy.
Masaki in Darkest Hour
The history of this version of Masaki Murakami is quite different from canon, and even most other fanfics.
In the version of events depicted in this story, Masaki Murakami was originally the son of Alkanphel himself, as well as an unknown woman who worked for Chronos in some capacity.