Age: 28
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Height: Just under 6 feet.
Weight: 178 lbs.
Nationality: Cizokian
Occupation: Mercenary
Appearance: Kensaki Kashou is very tall for a Cizakian, with a muscular, athletic phsyique. Adding to his height are sandals, each with two three inch platforms, that upon close inspection are plated with steel on the underside. He is usually seen wearing a formal blue and white Haori with a Kanji symbol representing 'sword' on the back, but with one stroke made in what appears to be dried blood. The Haori has seen better days, showing signs of many slashes that have been somewhat shoddily mended, although it is generally kept impeccably clean. Kensaki has shoulder length dark brown hair, usually worn pulled back behind his head. He has dark eyes that appear hard and cold. His young seeming, often smirking facial features contrast sharply with this, adding an unsettling quality to his gaze. Kansaki carries a katana in an ornate blue and silver scabbard, usually preferring to carry it loose in his left hand rather than at his waist or on his back.
Demeanor: Kensaki's personality seems to waver between light-hearted amusement and frigid, deathly calm, although it is often difficult to tell what is real and what is feigned. Kensaki has shown himself to be a cold and calculating warrior at heart. He does not constrain himself with any particular code of ethics or conduct, and shows a willingness to sacrifice whatever is neccessary to achieve his goal. Perhaps Kensaki's most defining trait would be his unquenchable thirst for battle, to become stronger, to become the best.
History: Kensaki Kashou was born Ando Nagamuri, a poor farmers son in a wealthy Cizokian province. At an early age, he was sent to study at a renowned martial arts school, the Singing Palm dojo. Found by his teachers to be highly intelligent and extremely hard working, he excelled at his studies, quickly rising to be one of the venerable masters own top pupils. Over the course of his young life, Ando perfected the Singing Palm style, but was always overshadowed by another of his masters star pupils, Uno Nobaru. Uno always seemed one step ahead of Ando in school, becoming their masters favorite and receiving the larger share of personal training. Ando deeply resented him for this, redoubling his efforts to surpass his ability over a span of several years. During this time, he became aware of what he saw as an inherent flaw in the Singing Palm style, in that, by forbidding the use of any weaponry, it was inherently weak against their use. Ando tried several times to bring this point to his masters attention, always with the same polite but firm refusal, even pointing out that the Kanji for their style was but one stroke away from one symbol for 'sword'. Eventually, at the age of 18, Ando decided to prove his point to his master and accomplish his goal of surpassing Uno in one stroke. Ando had heard of a sword, currently possessed by a retired samurai who lived only a few short miles away, that had been forged from a ball of fiery metal that fell from the sky into a field. The samurai used this sword to great victory in service of the Shogun, earning many honors. Stories said that the sword seemed almost to sing in battle, leading Ando to believe that it was destined to be his, to further the Singing Palm style he had practiced all his life. He slipped out of the dojo, and painstakingly snuck into the manor house of the retired samurai, stealing the sword in its case from the armory. He then returned to show his prize to his master, expecting him to see the same strands of fate touching it that he saw. When his master, enraged that he would violate the creed of his school despite many warnings, ordered him out of the school, Ando vowed to show his master the error of his ways, unsheathing the sword and challenging Uno. The blade of the sword was jet black, so dark that it seemed almost to absorb the light around it, and when it was drawn, the vibration of the blade escalated into a hum that sounded eerily like singing. Despite his lack of training in the sword, by combining the lethal edge with the already powerful Singing Palm style, he was able to easily defeat and kill Uno. His grief stricken master ordered him out, but before he left, he bent to remove Uno's Haori. The Haori was blue and white in color, with the symbol for the Singing Palm emblazoned on the back; it had been a gift from the master in recognition of Uno's skill. Ando bent once more, daubing his thumb in Uno's blood and adding a stroke to the symbol on the back, creating the symbol for 'sword', and left.
Little is known about the next five years in Ando's life, other than that he took a new name for himself, Kensaki Kashou (The Blade that Sings), and began to work as a mercenary. At some point during this time, Kensaki encountered and was defeated by Shin Shiden, leading him to realize that he would need to become much stronger in order to realize his eventual goal: to become the greatest warrior and to gain honor for the Kensaki Kashou style. He lured several young practitioners of various martial arts styles to be his students and secluded himself in training, re-entering the world finally several years later to seek his fortune, and his revenge against Shin Shiden. Little is known about his training, although, when he emerged, it was without his students.
Flaws: Battle Lust: Stemming from his desire to be the strongest, Kensaki is consumed with a desire to battle skilled opponents in order to test and extend his limits.
Madness: Over the years, possibly due to the incredible mental and physical strain he places upon himself while training, Kensaki has developed a somewhat complicated form of madness, manifested in an alternate personality that exists as a whispered voice inside of his head. The voice displays an almost childlike inability to control its emotions, contrasting sharply with Kensaki himself. Kensaki's original personality seems to be fully dominant, in that the alternate personality, whom Kensaki mistakenly believes is actually the presence of his otherworldly sword, Darkstar, seems to exert no direct control over the body. However, the childlike, yet often viciously violent, voice often influences Kensaki's behavior and decisions as it slowly integrates itself into his mind.
Battle Information: Kensaki Kashou's fighting style is a unique combination of the Singing Palm school of martial arts and the use of the sword, which is forbidden to practitioners of the school. The Singing Palm style focuses on using deceptive movements to set up opponents for single, incredibly swift blows often aimed at nerve centers and desiged to immobilize or stun in some way. The Kensaki Kashou fighting style takes this principle to a lethal level. While many elements of Singing Palm are seen, the primary focus is to kill, not merely defeat. The key principle of the Kensaki Kashou style is speed. Practitioners focus a large part of their training on increasing the speed of their movements, as well as their running speed, to almost superhuman levels. The training itself revolves around a method Kensaki refers to as 'forcing', which involves pushing ones body to its utmost limits, and then using particular motivations, usually pain, to 'force' the body beyond them.
Combat Abilities: Kensaki Kashou style
The Flame and the Void: This technique is more of a state of mind than a combat skill. The user imagines a single flame inside a vast, empty void. He then casts all emotion, uncertainty, and fear into that flame, leaving only awareness of himself and the area around him. While in the void, the user can ignore a great deal of pain and injury, although said injuries still affect him physically exactly as they would another.
Shinsoku: This technique allows the user to accelerate near instantly at close range. This technique is not suitable or effective for more than a short distance. True masters of the technique are able to use it to increase their speed to superhuman levels for short bursts. However, using Shinsoku in this way causes a great deal of stress on the body, as it pushes muscle and bone beyond its limits. Repeated use over a short time can cause severe damage, although continual use over a long period of time provides some resistance to this effect.
Nerve Strike: Practitioners of the style are knowledgable of all major nerve centers in the body. By striking a nerve bundle on the arm, leg, hand, foot, torso or muscle group, the attacker renders the affected area immobile.
Blind Fight: Practitioners of the style train in the ability to fight without the use of sight. In principle, this practice increases the users ability to use his other senses, making their reflexes more keen even when not deprived of sight.
Sixth Sense: Practioners of the style who train in blind fighting for long enough often develop this ability to 'sense' opponents chi; to effectively 'see' them even in complete darkness.
Star of Fate Stance: A defensive stance unique to the Kensaki Kashou style, the Star of Fate stance is a five point stance grounded over the back foot with the left palm outstretched ahead and the sword held rigid at a 45 degree angle behind. By pivoting on the rear foot, the warrior is able to utilize the sword defensively to create an opening, then pivot back in to lash out with a strike using knee, hand, or foot.
Falling Star Stance: An offensive stance unique to the Kensaki Kashou style, the Falling Star stance is a "walking stance." The swordsman maintains constant motion, sword held upraised torward the enemy and left hand held raised at chest level and ready for a strike. The stance is designed to be utilized when walking or running, and there are minor variations to account for the position of enemies. The key to the stance is a "liquid center of gravity", meaning that the swordsman is always ready to manipulate his center of gravity using posture, allowing him to change direction and speed near instantaneously for an attack. This stance is especially deadly when combined with Shinsoku.
Shouka Hira: Masters of the style are able to create a powerful vibration of fighting energy in their body, channeling it into a strike made with the palm and targeted at the opponents chest, directly over the heart. The strike disrupts the opponents central nervous system, causing short term full body paralysis and possibly rendering them unconscious. The technique has been known to cause the heart to stop in weaker foes.
Combat Abilities: Darkstar
In addition to being a master of the Kensaki Kashou style, Kensaki also has various abilities that stem from his unique sword, which he has named Darkstar. The case that contained the sword when it was stolen (see History) also contained five tuning forks of varying size, forged from the same strange jet black metal as the sword. Through experimentation, Kensaki discovered that these tuning forks produce strange and powerful abilities when struck against another object of the same metal. The abilities vary incredibly in power seemingly in relation to the size of the fork, increasing as the forks become smaller.
Large Fork: Mekura (Blindness): When struck against the sword, this fork produces a low pitched, slow oscillating vibration. After a moment, a pinpoint of black so dark it seems the absence of light itself appears in the center of the vision of anyone who hears the strange sound, quickly growing until complete and absolute darkness engulfs them. The ability lasts until the fork is stilled or the vibration stops naturally (about two minutes). Note that the wielder is also affected by Mekura.
Medium Large Fork: Tsunbo (Deafness): When struck against the sword, this fork produces a low pitched, slow oscillating vibration that quickly begins to pick up speed and raise in pitch until it becomes uncomfortable, even painful for those in its radius. After a short time, the brain compensates by 'tuning out' all sound, thus rendering sense of hearing useless. The ability lasts until the fork is stilled or the vibration stops naturally (about two minutes). Note that the wielder is also affected by Tsunbo.
Medium Fork: Shindou Nami (Shockwave): When struck against the sword, this fork produces a quickly oscillating vibration that gathers intensity as it sings. When struck agaist the sword again in an outward swing, the vibration is channeled to the tip of the sword and released outward in the form of a shockwave. The shockwave can be directly targeted at an oppenent or used to create a siesmic shock that is capable of traveling a short distance through the ground. The ability increases in power the longer the wielder allows the vibration to increase in intensity before releasing it, although it becomes painful and even dangerous if left for too long.
Medium Small Fork: Shouten (Death): When struck against the sword, this fork produces a wildly oscillating vibration that seems to have either no pitch or possibly every pitch at once. If held for more than a few seconds, the vibrating fork will become painful for the wielder. If held for longer, it begins to damage the bone structure of their hand. When struck against the sword, the vibration transfers into the blade, causing it to 'sing' in the same wild, awful way, but amplified more than tenfold. When a strike is preformed with the blade, the vibration is amplified by the same factor as it transfers, creating a powerful resonence in the object or person struck generated from the point of contact that causes enormous damage on a cellular level. Should the attack be blocked, the resonence is transferred into the blocking object, and through it, into the wielder; the resonance, although weakened by the transfer through an object that is not made of the mysterious black metal, is still powerful enough to eviscerate an opponent. However, when the blade makes contact, either with a direct hit or a blocked attack, a powerful backlash of vibration flows through the wielders swordarm, causing similar cellular damage but on a smaller scale and rendering the arm useless until it heals.
Small Fork: Jikai (Obliteration): Kensaki is still mastering the use of this fork. The first time he attempted its use, while experimenting, ended in disaster. The instant he struck this tiny tuning fork to his sword, an incredibly strong backlash of vibration struck him, rendering him unconscious. When he awoke, it was to find himself so injured that he could barely crawl to find help.
After some time, it occured to Kensaki to strike this fork against one of the other forks instead of against the sword, and mustering his courage, he attempted it with the largest, and so far seemingly weakest, fork. Through more experimentation, it appears that when struck against another fork, two separate but harmonic vibrations are created, which seem to work together to cancel the destructive backlash Kensaki experienced before. In essence, the vibration from the larger fork dampens the effect of the smallest. When Jikai is then touched to an object, it falls silent immediately, as the resonance is transferred into the object. So long as the song of the larger fork rings, the resonance seems to stay in check, but if it grows distant or falls silent, the resonance vibrates out of control, literally shaking the affected object to dust, seemingly without regard for its size, with the exception that objects insufficiently large to fully absorb the resonance cause a backlash during the transfer similar to the one Kensaki experienced during his first attempt.
