Kenji Kikuta's Tale

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Lonesome as the road may be, he walks it alone.. for now.

Kenji Kikuta is a warrior from the Kozakura province of Kara-Tur. For now, little is known of his background except that the Lord he served was killed in battle.

This left Kikuta masterless. Instead of living his life in dishonour as a Ronin he sought to travel to the West and learn of it's culture. Taking a ship from Masakado, he arrived in the East of Faerun and made his way through several lands to Cormyr, including a war-stricken Damara.

Unlike most Kozakurans, Kikuta is somewhat welcoming to some of the Westerners. He still regards some of their ways "dishonourable" or "savage", but tries to maintain good relations with them.

(More to come later)

Portrait: radium.somatika.net/ninja.rar

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(Much of Kenji's tale is left told either in his recent letter to his sister Yuki, but here is some other background information which may be revelant to understanding his character and motivations.)

Kenji is the only son to a rice farmer of the island of Kozakura, Shigeru Kikuta. He has a younger sister, Yuki, who takes care of Shigeru's household and business. Their sister who was a young adult whilst they were still infants, Kaede Kikuta, died after a plague outbreak when Kenji was very young. Kenji's mother, Maruyama Kikuta, also died in the same plague. Kenji has only a brief recollection of his mother and Kaede.

Kenji was learning the sword by the age of five, and has used his family clan's ancestral blades, Juto (Katana - long blade) and Muto (Wakizashi - short blade), since he reached eighteen years of age.

At the age of sixteen, Kenji's skill with the blades was noticed and he was assigned a position within a the guard of a local Lord named Otori.

Kenji served Lord Otori for eight years, sucessfully rising up the ranks until he was one of Otori's most trusted men. Lord Otori was known to be a kind man, with a gentle hand for calligraphy but also a steady and strong hand for the sword. Lord Otori in his rule sought to unite some of the local provinces of Kozakura under one rule as a daiymo.

Lord Otori was loved by peasants for the security he promised, as he took a particular hatred for bandits, who often raided farms or demanded a tribute of rice and goods each year.

At the age of twenty-four, Kenji Kikuta had become a promising samurai and was very loyal to Lord Otori. However, his good fortune was to end. An infamous Bandit Lord, Kotaro Washida, secretly held a meeting with Clan Hanzo ninja - assassins of the foulest nature - and planned the demise of Lord Otori.

One night whilst Kenji was off-duty visiting his father at his farm - a wish that Lord Otori had urged him to do, with blessings - a messenger arrived with urgent news. Lord Otori was dead. He had been violently gutted by ninja as he slept peacefully. They had come into the keep of Otori without warning, leaving many poisoned, injured or dead. The personal bodyguard of Lord Otori was also dead by their hands.

The shame was too great to bear for Kenji. Taking his swords at once, he gave Juto to his father, and took Muto himself, ready to commit seppuku, the ritual self-disembowelment of a defeated and shamed samurai. He only hoped his father would give him the honour of decapitation as well. But at the last moment, his father spoke.

"This is not the way Kenji," said Shigeru. "Not only will you leave us without a Lord, but you will leave me a poor scrap of a man with no son."

The words struck true to Kenji. Heaving aside the shame in his heart, he left Kozakura with a vow to return to avenge Lord Otori's death.

He left from Kara-Tur.

Later, while spending time in Cormyr after being apprenticed to Master Manshin the Wind Walker, Kenji learned that the assassins were sent by Kotaro Washida. He returned to Kozakura, and rallies a band of other ronin, samurai left masterless by Otori's death. They strike through the country, leaving no bandit alive.

Washida heard of Kenji's return, and with most of his army dead, fleed the Isle of Kozakura. After a period of two months of returning to Kara-Tur, Kotaro Washida lay dead by Kenji's hand.

Yuki Kikuta has rumoured to have married, and one of the band Kenji led, Arai, becomes Lord of their local province. Honour restored to the Kikuta clan, and feeling shame removed from his shoulders, Kenji returns to Cormyr in order to learn total mastery of his two blade style, and with a vow to protect the innocent who cannot protect themselves.

[Post edited for formatting.]