Polychromatic App
[nick / name]: Athy
[personal LJ name]: awillowweeping
[other characters currently played]: -
[e-mail]: beast.priest.general@gmail.com
[AIM / messenger]: wolfpackgeneral
[series]: Ruouni Kenshin
[character]: Himura Kenji 緋村 剣路
[character history / background]: Kenji was born in 1879, the only child of Kenshin and Kaoru Himrua. They lived in Tokyo residing in a dojo where his mother would teach the Kamiya Kashin style of swordsmanship, known as the style that revitalizes life. Kenji himself started training the moment he was able to hold a sword.
When Kenji was a toddler, Kaoru's best student, Yahiko Myojin, came to the dojo to be tested. Not by his mother, but his father. Before then he'd never seen Kenshin unsheathe the strange sword he kept slung at his hip. From Kaoru's arms he watched the duel that consisted of one strike.
It was over in an instant, but even at that young age he managed to follow it. While Yahiko lost the duel, he passed the test. And for his reward for passing his genpuku -his coming of age- Kenshin passed on to him the sakabatou. Kenji saw the power and felt the strength in his father's skill and from that point onward, his goal in life was to gain power like that. Then to surpass it.
Growing up, between his immediate family and their friends in Kyoto, he heard tale after tale about his father and how he became a living legend in his pursuit to create a better Japan. Kenji wanted to be a legend just like his father. He wanted to be greater than his father ever was. He became fixated on stories about Hitokiri Battousai and the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. Kenji seemed unable to come to terms with why Kenshin gave all that up.
But Kenshin had no intention of ever passing on the secrets of Hiten Mitsurugi to anyone, not even his own son. It was meant to protect the new era, not create it. It was something he had learned only after soulbreaking tragedies tore his life apart, and that was the last thing he wanted to see happen to anyone, especially not his own son. But Kenji couldn't see that. From the stories it seemed that creating a new Japan was exactly what Hiten Mitsurugi did.
No matter how he begged, Kenshin would not teach him Hiten Mitsurugi, and he was just not happy gaining the legacy of a style of swordsmanship that wasn't meant to kill. He grew to resent his father because of this, and like any teenager he felt like his parents just didn't understand him. So he took those stories, dissected what he heard and managed to figure out how to perform a number of Hiten Mitsurugi techniques on his own.
Eventually, when he couldn't figure out anymore on his own, he left for Kyoto against his parents' wishes and sought out Hiko Seijiro, Kenshin's teacher, and demanded that he be trained as his father had been. Hiko took him in, and slowly began to test him for what he had already deciphered on his own. While it was something he'd never admit out loud to the boy for fear of increasing his already overbearing arrogance, Hiko felt that the boy was a genius, and that alone was going to end up being a great burden on him.
By request of Kaoru, Yahiko made his way up to the mountain to speak with Kenji, to try and convince him to return home to his family. Speaking to Hiko, Yahiko learns that he too has no desire to pass down the true secrets of Hiten Mitsurugi to anyone. He feels that in this new era it has become obsolete, and the secrets will die with he and Kenshin.
Yahiko was determined to make Kenji understand the true strength of his father's convictions. They dueled, and Yahiko was amazed and even jealous of Kenji's natural talent, but he knew that no amount of discipline or skill would ever be able to defeat him. Kenji lacked passion and reason, and with the single most basic move in all of kendo, Yahiko defeated Kenji, proving that it wasn't his father's ability to take lives that made him powerful, it was his respect for life and the desire to protect those around him that gave him the strength to defeat whatever hardship stood before him.
Yahiko presented Kenji with the sakabatou with the hopes that he could feel the spirit his father had instilled in it.
[character abilities]: Kenji, to put it simply, is godhaxgifted. He was trained in and mastered Kamiya Kashin Ryu at a very young age because of his ability to mimic what he sees with a shocking amount of ease. He was even able to figure out how to perform a number of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu techniques just by listening to stories about the things his father had done. He trained with Kenshin's master for a time, but had yet to be taught anything he hadn't already figured out for himself.
So Kenji runs with a good mix of a style that's primarily defensive and one that's primarily offensive. Among several of his Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū and battōjutsu skills, Kenji can utilize Shinsoku ("God-speed"), which allows him to quickly overpower and dispatch opponents before they have time to react.
He is also capable of studying and predicting his opponent's movements in battle, reacting as though he has some sort of sixth sense. He has an incredible natural talent for swordsmanship, as well as a quick mind for tactical planning. (In other words, he is definitely his father's son.)
[character personality]: Watsuki described Kenji as an adult as someone who is cynical and narcissistic, always searching for a way to become stronger. He resents Kenshin, believing him to have been neglectful of his mother and himself, feeling abandoned when he went to find Sanosuke and making his mother worry.
A lot of the resentment came from the fact that he wanted to be as powerful as his father, to surpass him even, but Kenshin had no intention of ever passing along the teachings of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu beyond its philosophies and would never teach him. Watsuki also goes on to say that Kenji learns to imitate Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu moves just by hearing about them in stories, referring to him as a sort of 'twisted genius."
Kenji is very ambitious as well as very practical. If there was something he wanted he would discern the best course of action to attain said goal. Though, sometimes his methods might not be something that his father would agree with. He can seem spoiled at times, entitled. Because of his intelligence and natural skill he's never really had to work as hard as others to attain high goals, nor has he ever needed to make any great sacrifices.
From what we saw of him as a child, he had definitely picked up his fathers flair for goofiness, to the point where Yahiko thought of him as a dimwit rather then the genius he was. He was also a bit of a brat where is father was concerned (he is very much a mama's boy) and it's easy enough to infer by his actions that he had a bit of his mother's hotheadedness and temper, as well as her penchant for getting in trouble for not always thinking things through.
In short, Kenji is an egotistical, megalomaniac jerk, but there is a lovable side to him that needs to be pried out with a crowbar.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Seishouhen OVA - After he receives Kenshin's sakabatou from Yahiko.
[journal post]:
=screen blinks on as it sails through the air, the picture of a carousel horse growing closer and closer before CRACK! There is a moment of static and then everything is jumbled until it falls still against the ground, image on it's side=-
-on't give a damn about the fucking box!
-=red-headed teen in a green yukata, clutching a sheathed katana in his hand sends a poor, unsuspecting person running for their lives=-
SOMEONE better give me a straight answer or so help me I'll make you regret getting out of bed this morning!
Who do you think you are, bringing me here like this! Show your face! I am Himura Kenji of Tokyo, master of the Kamiya Kashin style and the Hiten Mitsurugi style of swordsmanship, and I am NOT TO BE TAKEN SO LIGHTLY!
[third person / log sample]:
((written before he went to train with Hiko))
Ever since he saw that flash of blade as Kenshin had tested Yahiko for his genpuku, he'd wanted nothing more then to be like him. More importantly, who he had been. Hitokiri Battousai had changed the course of an era, practically won that war on his own. That was what he wanted. To be like that, to be better then that. He didn't understand why everyone was so obsessed with what Kenshin had done after he'd given all that up, or why he'd given it up. He just had no scope of the sort of scars his father carried. The ones that marred his body were evident, and Kenji saw them almost as badges of honor. Maybe one day he'll learn that scars go far deeper then mere flesh.
His father acted as though he would turn into some simple minded murderer if he learned Hiten Mitsurugi. Why wouldn't he understand that he wanted it for the same reasons Battousai had during the Bakumatsu? So there was no war. He didn't need a war. He just needed to be smart, and he needed to be powerful. The legacy of a sword technique that doesn't kill wasn't going to help him return Japan to it's former glory, before those damn westerners came and started taking away their traditions.
Their very culture was teetering on the brink of an empty void and he planned on pulling it back before it was lost forever.
Kenji was starting to care less and less that Kenshin refused to teach him. Like any child he kept secrets from his parents, hidden things that they would never approve of having in their household. The katana was a heavy weight it his hands, so much different then a bokken or shinai. It felt real, like he could actually forge a destiny with it. This was no toy, and he was determined to wield it with as much ease as the Hitokiri Battousai.
The logs never knew what hit them.
They had been set up in various places around the clearing, most of which look like they had some pretty hefty chunks taken out of them already. In his frustration he had what one might call an epiphany, recalling a specific moment in one of his father's stories and that's all it took.
He stood bone still as tiny splinters of wood rained around him like a cloud, arms out in a perfect follow through. Or as perfect as it could be without ever seeing such a thing in person. The scabbard was ruined, but that was fine. He could get a new one. A proper one. A metal one. So you don't want to teach me father? That's fine.
I don't need you.