Kenichi

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History

Yashinori Kenichi was born of Yashinori Genshin who was born of Yashinori Akira who was born of Goro, who had gained the right to bear a surname when he'd searved ambitiously and bravely at the side of a Lord who's regular Samurai deserted him, and who's conscripted peasant militia had all abandoned him when it seemed that the tides had turned in a teritorial dispute gone wrong. Lord Gongoro Kanakada had been struck and critically wounded in a volly of arrows, along with the first five ranks of his men. Goro, who had been a poor spearman, had been sent to the back ranks. Seeing his fellows run, and his lord fall, he rushed through the retreating mass, standing at his Lord's side faithfully, daring to take up his lord's swords to defend him.

This act of audacity and bravery impressed the opposing General, who ended the dispute as should have been done months earlier. He agreed to a game of Go with Kanakada once he had recovered. Before the game, however, Kanakada asked "Where is this brave man who saved our armies?" General Shinmoro Ichiwara chuckled as he said "We have detained him. He is due to be cut down by your blades once you may hold your swords once again." As weilding a Daisho is punishable by death to any but the Noble Class.

Kanakada was troubled, indeed. Law insisted that this commoner be sentanced to death. Honour insisted this as well, but honour also insisted that the brave man should be rewarded for such faithful service to a lord he had barely known in person. The month marched on, and Kanakada recovered from his wounds. He stood before an assembly of his men, his lord, as well as Ichiwara and his men, to oversee the execution of the one who had dared to stand for his lord, and the one who only accomplished the deed by doing the unthinkable.

A pair of long silk bundles in the deepest violet were handed to Kanakada with much cerimony by his son, Kanakada took these, their shape familiar to all: A Daisho, and he unwrapped them with a whispered prayer. Within was a master's work of the art of swordsmithing. But they were not Kanakada's weapons... They were placed at the knees of the knelt, bound Goro, who had been blindfolded, a gesture of mercy. The cloth was removed from his eyes, and before him lay the sheathed blades. A seven pleated hakama was then placed before him by a hidden servant. Goro was commanded to rise.

"For your service, Yashinori Goro, I will ask of you to become my Samurai. You have served me more faithfully than even my younger brother. You will be spared reguardless, however, I am in need of men such as yourself." Tears were in the Vulpine's eyes as he spoke. Not sadness, neither joy. None knows why he wept silently. Some say it was of a rare kind of love. Finding one's true brother, not in blood but in spirit.

Goro accepted the gift grasciously. Later that day, thirty men were hung in private behind Kanakada's home. Those Samurai who had deserted him that fated day. Such a story is one of legend now, Kenichi, descendant of Goro feels the burden of his ancestor's legacy. Taunted daily by himself and his peers, he has made up his mind to prove himself as worthy as Goro to hold the Noble title of his family. With the recent developments in Naipon, Kenichi's father has sent the boy away to the Shire to train himself in the ways of the Bushi. Some whisper in dark corners that Kenichi has been sent to the Shire to spare him an early death in the coming war...

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