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| User: | _ronin (885851) Ronin
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| Name: | Saito Kenichirou | ||||||||||
| E-mail: | untamable00@gmail.com | ||||||||||
| Bio: | Name: Kenichirou Saito (full name in the Japanese style: Saito Takasakinosuke Kenichirou Hiroyoshi) Age: 146 (44 at death) D.O.B.: October 21, 1862 Blood Type: B- Race: Vampire (Cogita Mori) Level: N/A Powers: Those typical to a vampire of the House of Cogita Mori Physical Description: Tall for his time and his race, Ken is 184 centimeters, which puts him at a little bit over 6 feet. His build is quite thick and a little heavy with some muscle from his samurai training, though he has a small gut from his age when he was turned. He weighs something close to 80 kg (or about 180 lbs). He has crow’s feet around his very dark brown eyes and his short black hair is always kept neat. He has stubble because he didn’t shave religiously in life. Another distinguishing mark is a mole an inch or two below his left eye. He still has a little bit of the limp he had in life, though it does not bother him anymore and he can fight like he was twenty-one again. His clothing style has changed dramatically since he first walked the streets of Japan in a kimono. More recently, however, he has taken to wearing suits primariliy because they had become the standard for several Japanese men beginning in the Meiji era and he was trying to blend in, though when he knows he is on a hunt, he usually changes into a kimono because the nature of his weapons requires the looseness and flexibility a kimono afford. His weapons are either the Japanese long bow with silver-tipped arrows or his daisho, which is composed of the uchigatana made for his uncle and the wakizashi he received on his genpuku. Something else significant about Ken’s appearance is the tattoo that covers most of his back. Written in Japanese, it reads Remember death. What is dead should remain dead. and then proceeds to list all those he sent back to their deaths. There is still space on his back for the remaining vampires he has to kill. Personality: Stoic is a good way to begin with a description of Ken’s personality. He is more of a samurai now than he ever was in life. Part of the reason why his Mori brothers and sisters are not always as young and beautiful as most vampires are is because skill takes time and experience. Patience is a virtue when it comes to being a Mori and most young people are impulsive. As an older human turned into a vampire, one already (hypothetically) has the necessary skills, the patience and calm that age brings and a well-lived life that you won’t mind ending. Ken fit this bill quite to the T. He is now calm under fire, having learned much from the manner of his turning and his first childe. His kills are methodical and non-personal. He doesn’t bother with seduction or trying to get close through deception. His silver-tipped arrows and his daisho get the job done quite efficiently. Having given up the Mori code for his own, he still follows his own code quite literally. He is strict with himself far more than he is with others. His children, for example, have been left to their own devices, after he helped them kill half of their necessary kill count. He does not hold them to the same values he holds himself to. Whatever path the choose to take, whether they choose to remain true to the Mori code or create their own or wait until their 400th death day, he doesn’t care. His only concern is that a person have a set of moral values and that he sticks to them. Right or wrong are not concerns for Ken but he values steadfastness and dedication. Ken doesn’t trust people and he never entertains at his home (when he has one). While he has chosen to allow certain vampires to live, he does not ever invite vampires into his home (burned me once sort of thing). While he naturally has a tendency to mistrust vampires (because every vampire wants him and his kind dead), he also does not trust anyone else. After Keiko tried to kill him with his own sword, he does not trust anyone. His final childe will be someone with significant fighting ability and nothing more. There will be no emotions involved this time. Once you break through his shell, however, as in the case of his brother-sire Angelo, who tried to kill himself by basking in the sun (and didn’t die) and his non-bastard child Sanjay, he cares deeply and truly. He is capable of great emotion and, in fact, when his strong outer armor is chipped at, he is like a dam holding back the flood. When he breaks, he breaks and it is never easy to watch. Sexuality: Heterosexual History: Kenichirou was born during Japan’s Edo period (also known as the Tokugawa era)...or more appropriately, during the Bakumatsu (the Late Tokugawa Era, during its decline). This was not a good time to have been born as Japan was in massive upheaval as it was forced to end its economic isolationist policy and the shogunate was quickly losing power. When Kenichirou’s mother found out she was pregnant, her husband sent her and his younger, unmarried brother to their country home in Gunma, which was completely landlocked and mostly mountainous. This meant it was away from the mess of the big cities and the scuffles common in port areas of the time. A year after Kenichirou’s birth, in 1863, the emperor of the time issued an “order to expel all barbarians,” a strong anti-foreigner movement in Japan. Shortly after this order, however, America, France and Britain all responded in kind to the attempts to shut Japan’s trading ports again. Ken’s father was a samurai for the Tokugawa shogunate and served those who wanted to keep the shoguns in power. As it was, Ken’s father perished during the Boshin War that effectively ended shogunate power. Ken was seven and blissfully unconcerned that his father had passed away. As far as he was concerned, his father was some great hero that had wanted him to learn the Bushido and become a samurai like him. With this intent in mind, Ken was a dutiful son and student under his grandfather, who taught him how to be scholarly, and his uncle, who taught him how to fight. When Kenichirou turned 13 in 1875, he was allowed to partake in genpuku and properly become a warrior. He was enlisted to the same man that his grandfather had been loyal to in Gunma. Through him, they heard rumor of a rebellion that was stirring in Kyushu. Ken and his uncle packed up and joined Saigo Takamori and his group of samurai. In 1877, they fought in the Satsuma Rebellion. Ken’s uncle lost use of his sword hand and Ken earned a limp. Luckily, they survived with their lives. They fled back to Gunma. The same year, Ken’s mother committed jigai without leaving any sort of explanation. Despite the fact that many samurai were actually given titles and land during the Meiji restoration, Kenichirou’s family knew they would not be on that list. Ken’s sense of duty to his family rapidly began to deteriorate, however, as he fell in with the wrong crowd and participated in a gambling ring. Disheartened that he was no true samurai and that he couldn’t even fight properly anymore with his bad leg, he focused instead on becoming rich and making money. Like many of the foolish youth of the time, Ken wore his daisho even after the Meiji government decreed that it was now illegal for samurai to wear weapons in public. He was put in prison a few times for wearing weapons in public and an even greater number of times for disrupting the peace by getting into physical altercations. It wasn’t until he crossed the wrong people that he finally got his act together. When Ken was 28, the daughter of a high-ranking member of the Meiji government caught his eye. He pursued her and she relented quickly enough. Her father didn’t believe it when he caught Ken and his daughter, however, and instead of throwing Ken in jail, he sent the kid packing home to this grandfather, uncle and his uncle’s wife (whom he married shortly after giving up his samurai life). Two days later, a group of policemen sent by the official arrived at Ken’s house. They seized the katana he still wore and made his entire family watch as they killed his uncle’s wife with Ken’s sword. His uncle followed a few short months later by committing seppuku. In that moment, Ken realized that even when he thought he had nothing to lose, the world would still find a way to take something from him. He took his grandfather, who was practically blind and lame at this point, to the Osaka prefecture, where they set up by the beach so his grandfather could die in peace. While he had given up his life as a samurai, Ken opened a dojo to train children and adults in the one thing he could still do: kyujutsu or, archery. It was fairly successful. His grandfather survived for a few more years before passing on when Ken was 35. Having always lived with someone, Ken married a fisherman’s daughter who had rough hands and a plain face (very different from the princess that had cost him the lives of his uncle and his wife). She bore him two sons and Ken raised them to be scholars, not samurai. The Meiji Era had assured them peace and the lack of need for a militia. He also did not want his children following in his footsteps, even if Ken still followed the code of Bushido. One night, as Ken was leaving a monetary offering at the Shinto temple in his town, he was visited by a dark-skinned foreigner. He had a strange accent that Ken didn’t recognize as British or American. He introduced himself as Sab and said he was Arabian. Ken had never heard of Arabia before, much less know where it was. In any case, Ken told Sab that he had to go and left the strange man by the temple. When he arrived at home, Sab was waiting for him by the gates with a Chinese woman, who was far too pale for words. Sab introduced the girl as Mei, his daughter, even if they seemed to be the same age and Ken older than both of them. Sab informed him that he had been watching Ken for some time and was pleased to see the progress with how far he’d come in life. From the I-wish-I-were samurai boy to the distinguished young man before them. They requested to come in to discuss a proposal. That evening, Ken was offered the embrace from the House of Cogita Mori. He politely refused on account of his family. With a question as simple as what family? Sab rushed through the house and made short work of Ken’s wife and sons. Ken’s uncle’s katana proved to be more than a decorative item on the wall when it decapitated Sab in one motion. Mei offered him the embrace again and, this time, he accepted. The whole debacle was Sab’s and Mei’s versions of suicide. Sab had completed his forty while Mei only had twenty-nine but lacked one childe to make four. It was Sab’s way of taking his own life and Mei was punished by the council for being an accomplice to the murder of innocents. Mei’s body count was passed on to Ken, even if he was not the eldest to take the responsibility. The elders simply did not want to bother with trying to find Mei’s eldest childe when one was right there and so convenient. Assigned to some random Mori that just happened to be in the elders’ presence at the time, Ken learned that what his sire and her sire had done were completely unacceptable. They were not to harm humans. This Mori was only three decades old. His name was Angelo and he was Spanish, come to Asia seeking the vampire that had killed his mother, who was purportedly in Australia. Burdened at the beginning of his unlife with eleven extra deaths, Ken followed Angelo to Australia after he learned how to gorge and control his hunger. As they traveled, searching for Angelo’s mother’s killer, Angelo taught Ken the way of the Mori. The rules and so on. In very many ways, Angelo was Ken’s real sire. They eventually found the vampire Angelo had been searching for and while Ken had taken care of the other three in his “coven,” Angelo claimed all four kills and wrote to the council about it. Ken felt it would be immature to complain so he ignored it. After seven more adventures that ended the same way (with Angelo taking credit for all of Ken’s kills), Ken thanked his brother-sire and left because he wanted to start diminishing his own kill count, of which there were still 51 bodies to fill. He returned to Japan to study the vampire threat among his own people. He traveled eight years with nobody that caught his eye as a vampire. As he was starting to plan that perhaps it was time to move elsewhere, he fell madly in love. She was a geisha and as he watched her, he had to court her...but with what? He was poor. Even in life he was poor. And now that he was a vampire, he was even poorer. His first kill was lacking in the nobleness that he had hoped all his kills would have. The vampire was Japanese and spending all his money on prostitutes. He was too easy to kill, after he had drained a girl who was full of sake. Ken took all of his money after the vampire was decapitated and set off to win his the lady of his heart. It was easy to woo her. Surprisingly, it was easier to turn her. He taught her everything he thought she should know. She was a poisoner and well-versed in poisoned needles. As Ken would quickly find out, however, poisoned needles did not work against vampires. He lost Miyako as swiftly as he had found her. Reporting all these occurrences to the council, he was informed that his kill count was back up to 90. Returning to Gunma, he found that a new family had taken up residence in his old home. Considering he could not enter without being invited in, he simply watched the courtyard from a tree and saw that the family was composed two brothers that had decided to live together with their families. Both former samurai, both brothers had been elevated to high-ranking officers in the police force of Gunma. Posing as an archery instructor, he offered his skills to teaching the brothers’ sons. Considering he was also well-educated in reading and writing, he was hired to become a sort-of glorified nanny. Cutting the story of his time with the Takahashi brothers short, the younger Takahashi’s eldest daughter proved to be his best student. She was swift with her long bow and swifter with throwing knives. She confessed her secret dream was to be a ninja. She was also the first to notice he avoided direct contact with sunlight and did not take meals with them and disappeared during the nighttime. Keiko was his second childe. They fled Gunma shortly after her turning, leaving a note that they had eloped. Keiko wanted to leave Japan and travel. Ken obliged. Considering he had very little knowledge of the world, he took her to Australia, where he had been with his brother-sire Angelo. The slayings were easier in Australia, where society was less keep-to-yourself. They stayed in Australia while World War I raged, living peacefully in Queensland. Reporting all their kills as Keiko’s, Ken helped her get to twenty before telling her that he had to start diminishing his own record, which was still in the high 80s. Keiko agreed peacefully. By this time, it was the Great Depression and Keiko wanted to leave Australia for a place that was...well, less depressed. They traveled west. They were in Singapore when Keiko informed Ken that she had absolutely no intention of dying after her fortieth kill. When Ken told her that he couldn’t support that decision, she left him. Ken found himself in India towards the end of the British Raj, in 1940. A year later, he would hear the news of how his people had bombed Pearl Harbor, some port in a country called the United States. As things continued to get heated in India due to the war, Ken met Sanjay, who would be his third childe. Sanjay was beautiful beyond compare, but he was a dancer and hardly fit for turning at the time. When Gandhi launched the Quit India movement in 1942, Ken stole Sanjay away and they moved to Egypt, where Sanjay ran errands for Ken while he slept during the day. It was in Egypt that Sanjay discovered fae blood for Ken and began his sword training. Sanjay took to a pistol far easier, however, and while silver bullets cost an arm and a leg, they were effective. In his typical, rather giving way, Ken helped Sanjay get to twenty, putting his own list on hold. By the time his childe was trained and his kill count cut in half, it was 1972. Ken traveled to Spain even if he was certain Angelo would be dead by now, considering he had used Ken to slash his kill count down to the single digits. Nevertheless, he wanted to see the country his brother-sire had been raised in. A few years in Spain, Sanjay wanted to move again. To go to America. Ken wanted to stay in Spain. Sanjay left his sire in Spain and darted off to the United States, promising to keep in contact with his sire. Until 2000, when everything they held true was shattered. By this point, Ken was down to thirty-something kills and he didn’t know what to do. Deciding reuniting with Sanjay might be a smart move, he travelled to the United States to find his childe, except that his childe was nowhere to be found, at least not at the address he had been writing to Ken from. Eight years in America was like shooting fish in a barrel for Ken. America was overflowing with vampires and he approached zero in his kill count. That is, until Tamara. Ken had discovered a so-called coven of vampires living near New Orleans. He was studying their habits to ensure he would get in there and make short, clean work of them. One of the vampires was a Creole vampire who saved puppies in her spare time. And only drank from bad people. She discovered Ken one night while he was stalking her and got too close - close enough for her to smell him. Tamara, that evening, changed Ken’s mind on the idea that all vampires were evil. After that, Ken vowed to only eliminate wrongdoers. Vampires who killed humans, not those who lived in a relatively peaceful coexistence with them. Tamara even gave him a puppy. Since the Light of May: After the Light of May hit, Ken was sure his job was finished and he could join his family and Miyako in the afterlife. He was thrown a curveball, however, when humans actually decided they were going to give vampires rights. To live. Like citizens. Ken, despite believing that some vampires weren’t necessarily evil, expected humans to start a vampire genocide. He would have done so had he been human. After all, humans didn’t like not being at the top of the food chain. Ken had no choice but to continue on his mission. This got harder after the Light of May, however. Since vampires no longer had to deal in hiding, they were out and Ken found that he could not simply kill someone in the middle of the street and expect no repercussions. His job also got harder in that it was more difficult to stalk someone and ambush them from behind before they caught his scent because vampires now traveled in well-lit places with no fear of discovery. Shortly after this, Ken realized that he wasn’t alone in his mission to eliminate all vampires. There were others like him, except they were human. Joining forces with human hunters was precarious because they were as likely to turn on him as his brothers but there were those who understood and accepted the vows he had taken to help them and then kill himself after he finished the rest of his thirty-four kills. He joined forces with Troy Murphy, a vampire hunter two weeks after the Light of May. He worked with Troy and managed to cut his kill count down to twenty-one. That is, until Troy told him they were hunting something special one night. It turned out to not be a vampire but a lamia. Not understanding right away, Ken helped Troy kill the snake-woman and only realized afterwards that Troy was after its pelt for sale. He had no choice but to uphold his own standards of moral and slice Troy’s head off. He buried both bodies quietly in the little Kansas town and returned to their hotel room. There, he found where Troy had planned on going next: Scarlet Oak. And so he followed. And realized that there was far more to Scarlet Oak than simple hunting grounds. Special Skills/Abilities: Highly skilled with katana, wakizashi and Japanese long bow. Speaks Japanese fluently. Personal Weaknesses: 1) Holier-than-thou complex ;; So he has a strong moral code and whatnot and follows that code to a T, right? But what makes him think that he has any right whatsoever to judge who is ‘good’ and who is ‘evil’? That’s right, say hello to Ken’s little friend called his god complex. He thinks that his own judgement is sufficient enough to label a vampire as one that should die or as one that should live. He also views himself as better than other vampires because he is aware of his own shortcomings and full of the knowledge that he should die. Almost like Socrates who knew because he knew he did not, Ken thinks he’s better because he knows he’s not. 2) I’m not your friend ;; Ken doesn’t trust other vampires. Even if he won’t kill them, he’s not going to befriend them. Tamara wasn’t his friend. She was just another vampire who was not necessarily evil, but it’s not like he’s going to be her best friend forever. It would compromise his mission. Like...Todd and Copper. He also stays away from humans as a general rule because, well, he’s a vampire. And when he allowed himself to be turned into a vampire, he gave up his rights to be around humans. 3) Children ;; Not like that, sicko. Having lost his own, Ken has a soft spot for kids and will go to lengths to protect them. It can interfere with a lot of things because he will stop his vampire slaying to go help Tommy who’s trapped in the well. He’s also bared fangs and nearly killed abusive parents. On Japanese New Year every year, he goes back to Japan to visit the graves of his family, who are now buried together in their Gunma estate, which he bought back and has a family of caretakers watch the house. 4) Biological clock ;; He’s ticking and he knows it. He still has twenty-one kills to accomplish and one childe to embrace. It’s getting harder and harder considering all the laws against murder and how easy it is to trace back to him nowadays. The childe is even harder because he doesn’t let anyone in anymore and no one knows how to fight these days. He doesn’t like guns because they’re loud and don’t have any finesse, no matter what James Bond does. Despite nothing really compelling him to do it anymore, he still feels the need to accomplish what he’d set out to do. 5) Hunters & being hated ;; Ken works with hunters when they’ll work with him. Even the unfortunate incident with Troy hasn’t deterred him from working with his kind. Nevertheless, it’s hard to convince a hunter of your species that you’re going to help them and not betray them. On the other side of the spectrum, vampires don’t like him either because his family kills them. Ken finds that he doesn’t really have many friends because no one likes him. So sad. 6) Family cons ;; Even if the formal structure of his family no longer exists, he is still susceptible to the weaknesses that come with his family. He needs his rest, he is allergic to all forms of elemental blood (he found this out the hard way) and he still keeps a record of his his children and his kills whenever applicable, just in case the council comes back. 7) Unaware ;; Ken is not up to date with current news with regards to things that aren’t relevant to vampires and such. He kept out of all the wars that occurred during his lifetime and his computer search engine is set up to filter vampire news and send those back to him but not much of anything else. When asked, he probably couldn’t tell you who the current president of the United States was, even if he was in DC for the inauguration. Personal Strengths: 1) Moral code of honor ;; Ken has a personal code of honor that no one can break. Not even him. While certain amendments may be made to his general code of ethics because he knows that nothing should be set in stone, it’s not like he’s going to flip-flop on an issue. If he’s going to adjust his moral code to allow for something, there has to be excessively compelling evidence. Like Tamara. 2) Willing donors ;; Ken hasn’t adopted the bottled blood craze because he thinks it’s unnatural and buying into the problem of making vampires more mainstream. Which means that he does have to actually go around and ask people for nibbles. The good thing is he’s not picky (with the exception of elemental blood) so he’ll pay a prostitute for her blood if she’s willing to give it. Family: Saito Kenichi, father, deceased Saito Satomi, mother, deceased Saito Kenji, uncle, deceasedT Saito Hiroyoshi, grandfather, deceased Saito Tomoe, wife, deceased Saito Masaru, son, deceased Saito Yoshirou, son, deceased Mei, sire, deceased Miyako, childe, deceased Takahashi Keiko, childe, status unknown Sanjay Mohapatra, childe, status unknown Living Conditions: Room at Budget Lodge, temporarily Career/Job: Vampire hunter Preferred PB: Ken Watanabe ETC: He still travels with Tamara’s present, an American Pit Bull Terrier mix named Kaida. | ||||||||||
| Schools: | None listed | ||||||||||
| Friends: | |||||||||||
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| Member of: | 2: light_of_may, lightofmay_ooc | ||||||||||
| Account type: | Free Patient | ||||||||||
