Ruka Cooper

**Ruka Cooper** is one of the protagonists of Need For Speed: Hot Import Nights and the main character in Career Mode: Ruka Campaign. He's a very young professional driver who won the FIA Formula One World Championship after he left, then he starts in the middle of Bayview city to build a reputation across the cities of Bayview and Palmont.

## History (Ruka Campaign)

### Early life

When Ruka was 12 years old, he loved cars and he drove using his imagination. One day, a blue Ferrari FXX-K Evo passed by through the road as Ruka looked in the distance. Soon he wished to become a very young professional driver and drive the FXX-K Evo.

### Current Life

Ruka eventually entered the FIA Formula One World Championship as a substitute driver, and in the final lap, Ruka manages the overtake Gagne and his car, taking Ruka first place, but Gagne attempts to overtake Ruka, but suddenly, Gagne's tires blew up, causing Gagne's car to lose control and ends up flying to the wall and crashing, and almost colliding Ruka's car as he passes by, but Ruka manages to dodge the wrecked cars and win the race. After Ruka's victory in the FIA Formula One World Championship, he decided to move to another country to compete in another race.

### Bayview arc

Two years after Ruka's victory in the FIA Formula One World Championship, Ruka arrives in Bayview City. Samantha's friend, Rachel Teller, as well as Tommy help Ruka get to the racing scene in a similar bid to what Samantha did. Upon heading to Bayview, Ruka saw Rachel's Nissan 350Z waiting for him. He was instructed by Rachel through his phone to head to the parking lot and give her the car back.

Upon arriving at the parking lot, Ruka met up with Rachel, and she noticed that Ruka was a child driver. His first choice was the Nissan 240SX which was introduced to the Bayview street racing scene by Rachel. He also met with Rachel's friend and mechanic, Tommy, who instructed him on the racing events and gave him hints about hidden race events. Later in stage 3, Ruka arrives at the car lot for the second time and he is instructed by Rachel about the 3 car categories: Tuner, Muscle, and Exotic.

After completing a series of sponsor contracts, Ruka encounters a new boss rival name Damien, one of the newest boss rivals (he's not only the weakest but the easiest boss in the game). After winning 3 HIN Racing League races in stage 3, Ruka was challenged to a race by Damien and later defeated him in two consecutive races and he gets a new car the modified Eclipse as a pink slip reward. Then Afterwards he changes his Eclipse's color from green to blue, though he kept the Eclipse's vinyl and decal designs intact.

At halfway, through the Bayview arc Ruka becomes noticed by The Wraiths, led by Caleb Reece, who is revealed to be behind of Darius's plans. Rachel warns Ruka about his deals of manipulating their sponsorships to claim Bayview's racing scene for himself. As Ruka however, keeps winning for Rachel to prevent this from happening.

At the end of the Bayview arc, Ruka decided to leave Bayview city as he heads towards Palmont city for more race scenes, but Rachel warns Ruka about the new crew: the Mezzanotte Club (Midnight Club), which lurking any street racers who attempt to drive through the Infinity Highway, and they lose the race, they steal the car. So Ruka must be extreme care and leave the Bayview to the Infinity Highway.

### Palmont arc

Upon arriving at the Infinity Highway gas station, Ruka encountered a mysterious black and blue Cadillac CTS and met Neville, he noticed that Ruka was a child driver. And then he helps Ruka to take a tour of Palmont City.

On their way to Palmont City on the Infinity Highway, Ruka, and Neville are being chased by several Mezzanotte Club's BMW X6 Ms and the Dodge Challenger SRT8s and finally, they're stopped and being road blocked by the several Hummer H2s and Toyota Hiace vans forming a roadblock. Ruka's first stop was in the middle of the Infinity Highway, where he was confronted by Gagne, one of the FIA Formula One World Championship racers who lost to Ruka two years ago and while he lost his F1 career and became a street racer, he drives the devil gray Ferrari GTO to take revenge against Ruka. After a conversation meeting, Gagne and the rest of the Mezzanotte Club crews are left from Ruka and give him a few weeks to prepare for the race between Ruka and Gagne. Upon arriving in Palmont City, Ruka was taken to a safe house by Neville. He would use the safehouse as a home and a garage. He was also told about the crew wars in Palmont City between Bushido, 21st Street, T.F.K., Wraiths, and Mezzanotte Club.

Ruka's second stop was Downtown with his Eclipse, where he was confronted by Takashi, one of the rival bosses as well as the leader of the Bushido crew. After completing two races in Downtown Palmont city, Ruka saw another green Nissan GT-R with the same Bushido livery and he meets Kenji Yagami, the heroic counterpart of NFS Carbon Kenji, and then he helps Ruka a hint to win against Takashi and how to perform drifts perfectly in drift races. After defeating members of the Bushido crew and taking over the territories of Downtown, Ruka was challenged to a race by Takashi and later defeated him in 3 consecutive races, circuit race, drift race in the Infinity Highway, and finally sprint race from Infinity Highway to Downtown.

Upon defeating Takashi, Kenji arrived at the winning scene Ruka and congratulate him for winning against Takashi. He then headed to Kempton, where he was confronted by Jayna and her 21st Street Crew. After completing two races in the Kempton, Ruka saw an orange and brown Dodge Viper with the same livery design as one from 21st Street Crew, and then he meets Angie Gonzales, the heroic counterpart of NFS Carbon Angie, and then she helps Ruka a hint to win against Jayna as well as how to perform a perfect shift in a drag race. Upon defeating members of her crew and taking over territories of Kempton, Ruka raced against Jayna and defeated her in 3 races: circuit race, drag race in the Infinity Highway, and finally sprint race from Infinity Highway to Kempton.

Upon defeating Jayna, Ruka headed towards the Footy Diner to visit Angie one last time for celebration before Ruka then headed to Fortuna, where Ruka confronted Carter and his T.F.K. crew. After completing two races in the Fortuna, and upon arriving at Palmont University, Ruka saw a pink Lotus Elise with the same T.F.K. livery while from behind him was the blue Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG, and he meets the Wilson siblings, Elise and Riche (Riche's appearance is similar to Ruka except with glasses). Elise gives Ruka a tip for finding Fortuna's shortcuts, while Riche, however, gives Ruka the truth about Darius's plans and Ruka must stop him. After defeating his crew and taking over Fortuna's territories, Ruka defeated Carter in a series of races to win the territory, circuit race, first sprint race from Fortuna to Infinity Highway north, and finally second sprint race from Infinity Highway south to Fortuna.

Upon defeating Carter, Ruka head towards the Ocean View to visit the Wilson siblings once more for celebration before heading back to Infinity Highway north, where Ruka is confronted by Gagne and his Mezzanotte Club once again. After defeating his crew and taking over both north and south Infinity Highways, Ruka was challenged to a race by Gagne again as from two years ago and later defeated him once again in three races: circuit race, speed trap race, and sprint race from the north and south Infinity Highway.

After Ruka defeats him, Gagne gives a 2,300,000 cash check as well as a Ferrari Voucher to Ruka to buy a expensive and the fastest hypercar in order to defeat Darius, then he heads back to Palmont Garage to ask Neville, and then the next day heads back to Bayview because something is in trouble while Ruka was left Bayview.

### Returning to Bayview

Upon arriving in Bayview City, Ruka confronted Caleb and his crew, telling Ruka "where have you been?". And the Bayview Coal Harbor area is now a territory for his crew. Ruka proceeds to challenge The Wraiths and defeats them, including Nikki Morris, who decided to join Ruka. After defeating his crew and taking over Coal Harbor, due to his crew's poor performance, Caleb loses his sponsors and challenges Ruka in 4 races: circuit race (two laps only unlike NFS Underground 2), sprint race from Coal Harbor west to Jackson Heights and another circuit race in the north Infinity Highway and finally sprint race from Infinity Highway to Bayview.

Upon defeating Caleb, all of the people in Bayview rejoiced and applause Ruka's winning. However, there is only one boss crew remaining in Palmont City, and that is Darius.

### Final Challenge against Darius

Once all 6 of the crew bosses were beaten, Ruka received a phone call from Darius to meet up with him at the Infinity Highway south to congratulate him. However, upon arriving there along with Rachel driving her 350Z, they quickly realized that it was just a setup: Rachel tells Darius about Caleb being Darius's bodyguard of the Stacked Deck crew. Darius give him an invitation card for a final challenge called the Silverton Grand Prix to Ruka, and then he has a condition, when he lose the race in the Silverton, they'll strip away their Sponsors. However, if Ruka keeps winning, they never stop challenging against him until the Stacked Deck crew disbanded. Then he left to say to Ruka "I wish you best of luck, Formula 1 champion."

Just as Darius left, Ruka realizes his Eclipse is not fast enough against other tier 3 cars, including Darius's car, and when he loses once in the race in Silverton, it instantly loses all sponsorships they made and all hopes lost forever. There is only one way to keep winning. Rachel helps him in a winning mood and decided to join Ruka.

To defeat Darius, Ruka finds a better powerful car as he saw in his childhood, Rachel got 2,300,000 cash in the bank and gives it to Ruka, then he sells the Eclipse to buy the blue FXX-K Evo using Ferrari Voucher and spending 2,300,000 cash, and then modify it with a powerful performance and added with dark and light blue custom vinyl with cyan line strokes and several decals which based on Eclipse's livery. Upon buying his childhood-based car, his wish has finally come true to drive the FXX-K EVO, and then Ruka along with Rachel headed to Silverton with the Silverton Grand Prix invitation card, where he was challenged by the game's final boss Darius along with his boss rivals, who were determined to take revenge against Ruka and regain their territories.

After defeating his crew and taking over the Silverton, Ruka faced the 6 boss rivals in the 3 races in HIN Racing League. After defeating the 6 boss rivals in HIN Racing League, Ruka then confronted Darius on the main street of Silverton, where faced a series of 5 races similar to the final race against Razor: circuit race (same as NFS Carbon), drag race in the Infinity Highway north, speed trap race in the Infinity Highway south, another circuit race in the Infinity Highway north and south, and finally sprint race from Infinity Highway south, across Bayview city, Infinity Highway north to Silverton (This is the longest track in the game, much like the NFS World loop, Final race against Darius is the longest, but not hardest in the Need For Speed franchise. Rebooting the game at any point will waste many minutes of game time). Afterward, Ruka finally defeated Darius, taking over the Silverton territory.

Following Ruka's victory in the Silverton all people in the Silverton Grand Prix applause and cheered in joy on Ruka's winning, Darius handed the keys to his Hennessey Venom F5 to Ruka and warned him that there will be always someone faster than him and that he will catch up with him. After Darius left town, Ruka became the best racer in Bayview and Palmont, thus, the end of Ruka Campaign.

At the end of Ruka Campaign, the Hennessey Venom F5 was eventually sold worth 6,000,000 cash, high enough to give the poor other people.

## Character Info

### Appearance

Ruka is a 14-year-old boy, younger than most Need for Speed characters. He has short blue hair, the same color as his eyes, and is of average height.

He always wears a school uniform-like outfit on any occasion, even during driving, which consists of a white long-sleeved shirt and blue blazer jacket with three buttons on each side which is similar to Darius's jacket that he wears, and while unbuttoned shows off his light blue necktie and indigo vest, a dark aqua color long pants, black socks and a pair of brown shoes. Also, he has a Ferrari emblem on the left side of his jacket, representing the Ferrari team who won the FIA Formula One World Championship.

### Personality

Ruka is a stereotypical "good guy", who often puts his life at risk to save others and is an energetic kid with a burning passion. This characterization is inconsistent and hilarious, sometimes with reality seemingly warping around Ruka for him to stay morally in the right. He can be mischievous from time to time, though. Once he gets the FXX-K EVO that he saw from his childhood wish, Ruka becomes exited and very happy person with a smile on his face, while repeatedly exclaiming the reasoning behind his excitement ("GAS! GAS! GAS!") similar to a normal child.

Ruka has a passion for racing and cars and has the ambition of becoming the best racer ever. This leads him to do increasingly more and more things in his pursuit of gaining racing knowledge and personal growth, to the point he simply shows up because the plot needs him to be there. He also dreams to become the new GPX champion as well as the next Street King.

## Cars

Ruka drives three modified cars in between Need For Speed Underground 2 and Need For Speed Carbon and all of the three are unique widebody kits and colored liveries blue which fitted for Ruka's character. His first car was a Nissan 240SX during the Bayview arc on the first half of Ruka Campaign until he gets the Eclipse. His next car was the modified 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse with the color blue instead of green which fits his character and was used during the second quarter of Ruka Campaign as the pink slip reward car until was sold to get more parts for his FXX-K EVO to race even tougher opponents and their cars. And the third and final car was the Ferrari FXX-K Evo with a unique widebody kit and unique spoiler which appears to look like a jet and his childhood memory toy and was used during the Silverton races until the end of the game.

Like the player from other Need For Speed games, Ruka can also drives the Player's chosen car instead of his three default cars (Tuner, Exotic and Muscle cars), but his default cars are the 240SX, the 2G Eclipse and the FXX-K EVO during the cutscenes.

## As a Non-Playable character crewmate in Need For Speed: Carbon

If the player is not played as Ruka, the role of Ruka himself will be taken over as an optional crew member. He appears as an ally crew member after he asked the police officers including Cross for safety street racing as part of the Hot Import Nights' racing game show.

### Crew Specialty

**Scout**: Ruka's role as Scout is locating shortcuts along a track. Shortcuts taken are highlighted on the minimap by dotted green lines.

* Career Effect: Doubles cash reward to the player when winning.
* Race Effect: Traffic and cops will not spawn and appear anywhere on the track during the race (ignoring infractions, except Free Roam).

### Vehicles in Need For Speed: Carbon

Ruka drives three cars in between Need For Speed Underground 2 and Need For Speed Carbon and switches his current vehicle when the player purchases a car with a higher tier rating. After the player has defeated Angie, Wolf, and Kenji, he'll always drive the FXX-K EVO, even if the player's car has a lower-tier rank.

* Tier 1: Drives the modified blue Nissan 240SX with NFSU2 style.
* Tier 2: Drives the blue 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
* Tier 3: Drives the modified blue FXX-K EVO just like the playable version.

## Eurobeat Soundtracks with Ruka's driving

* Night Of Fire by Niko (driving his 240sx)
* Speed Boy by Marco Polo (driving his Mitsubishi Eclipse)
* Gas Gas Gas by Manuel (driving his FXX-K EVO)
* Let's Go, Come On by Manuel (During drift events)
* Don't turn it off by Go2 (Racing against the NFS Carbon Kenji)
* Limousine by Manuel (During Fortuna racing events)
* Nitrofire by Kaioh (Racing against the NFS Carbon Wolf)
* READY STEADY GO! by Manuel (During Kempton racing events)
* Heartbeat by Nathalie (Racing against the NFS Carbon Angie)
* Warriors On The Road by Manuel (During Infinity Highway racing events)
* Gas Gas Gas mashup by Manuel (Racing against Gagne)
* Spitfire by Manuel (During Caleb's Coal Harbor territory racing events)
* T-RRex by Maximum Power (Racing against Caleb, driving his FXX-K EVO)
* SUPERSONIC FIRE by Manuel (Racing against Caleb)
* Never Say Never by Manuel (During Silverton racing events)
* The Top 2022 ver. By Ken Blast (During the final race against the Stacked Deck racers in the final HINRL)
* The Top by Ken Blast climax ver. (during the final race against Darius with his red Audi Le Mans Quattro)

## Trivia

* Ruka is the youngest character in the Need For Speed franchise, and he can drive cars even though he's only 14 years old, which is often pointed out by many in the story. As such, he's commonly nicknamed a "child prodigy".
* Ruka's personality is similar to Speed's personality from Speed Racer.
* Unlike the regular FXX-K EVO despite the same car model, Ruka's FXX-K EVO is unique with different car stats which is faster than the regular FXX-K EVO when unupgraded, and at fully upgraded, it is capable to overtake tier 4 cars and even Darius's Venom F5, but it cannot be sold or trade to the car lot by the player and also not found in any car lots. However still possible to create Ruka's FXX-K EVO with unique livery.
* His voice actors include:
	+ Griffin Burns (English)
	+ Ayumu Murase (Japanese)