Silver Samurai

Andrew Koji as Keniuchio Harada

Name: Keniuchio Harada Codename: Silver Samurai Faction: N/A Position: N/A Age: 26 Hometown: N/A Gender: Male Height: 5'9" Build: Toned Skin: Pale Hair: Black Eyes: Brown

Details

Background

Born the mutant bastard son of the head of Clan Yashida in Japan, Kenouichio was blessed or possibly cursed with the power to produce an incredibly potent cutting field around hand-held objects. From his youth he was shaped and molded into a warrior. He studied the skills, art, and history of the samurai at the behest of his father, and came of age with a blade in his hand.

Life was eventful for Kenouichio. Even from his late teens he moonlighted as a Yakuza enforcer at the behest of his father who himself had many connections there. One year into University studying business he dropped out - earning his family's ire - and joined HYDRA under the name Silver Samurai.

That did not last long. The rashness of youth led to his capture by the Japanese government where he was offered a chance to serve on behalf of the people rather than go to prison. Shaken by his defeat and capture, he took that chance and a short time later joined the Big Hero Six. His time with them was quite eventful. It earned him a lot of stories and scars and - notably - the cursed Black Blade of Muramasa.

At age 23, Kenuicho decided that his debt to Japan was paid and the Silver Samurai retired to help the Yashida clan attend to their own affairs, and to go back to school and finish his degree. At that time the family was attempting to renew itself and extricate it from its longstanding Yakuza associations - connections Ken had once helped forge and maintain. Out of a sense of shame and duty, Ken threw himself into this effort but the more he dug the more he heard persistent whispers of other criminal groups - shadowy forces with more than human powers that pulled the strings even of groups like the Yakuza.

A year later Ken had seen and heard enough to be convinced that this was a problem that had to be addressed more directly. He petitioned for and was granted permission to journey to America and oversee the family's holdings there while he pursued his own projects. Thus did he make his way to New York, the very place where the rot seemed to be coming. Honor demanded no less.

Powers

• Tachyonic Field: Ken is a mutant with the ability to wrap any object he holds in a field of cutting 'tachyonic' energy. The object in question must be one he is able to physically hold and lift - just putting his hand on something very large doesn't count. The field itself is able to slice through conventional materials, but exotic materials - such as vibranium or adamantium - can resist it.

Skills

• Way of the Sword and Bow: Ken has trained from a very young age in the arts of traditional Japanese warriors. He is extremely proficient with all manner of weaponry associated with the Samurai, but he is a virtuoso with the blade in particular and the number of people at his level with a blade is low indeed - though they assuredly exist.

• Criminal Minds: Thanks to what can be charitably called a 'misspent youth', Ken is extremely knowledgeable about criminal enterprise, criminal methods in general and HYDRA and the Yakuza specifically.

• Ridership: Part of learning to be a samurai is learning the art of riding a horse, and indeed Ken can ride a horse quite well - if not quite at competition levels. He's taken the initiative to transfer many of these skills to a more modern form of mount - the motorcycle - and is capable of competently trick riding on both.

• Educated: Even the bastard son of a great and proud clan has to have something of an education if he is to be of use. Ken managed - somehow - to complete a bachelors in business and finance in between his various episodes of misspent youth and atoning for that misspent youth. It's not his forte, but he has the knowledge and is just about qualified to make use of it.

• Lingua Franca: Ken is fluent in English and his native Japanese, and can get by well enough for business in Mandarin and Russian.

Advantages

• The Black Blade: One of two blades made by the legendary swordsmith Muramasa, the Black Blade grants the user inhuman strength and resilience while wielding it (equivalent to a 5 ton lift strength and the durability to withstand hits from the same), and the blade itself is durable on the level of exotic materials (adamantium, vibranium and the like). It does however come with some downsides. (See Curse of the Black Blade).

• Checkered Contacts: Kenuichio knows a lot of people. People in the Yakuza. People in the Japanese government. People in international organizations (not all of them legal ones). A lot of them don't especially want to talk to him, but if he's willing to risk it he can get in to see some moderately important people. None of them are likely to give him much beyond information or the odd small favor (transportation, limited access to an organization's resources) - slightly bigger favors if he happens to be working in their interests - but it's something.

• Yashida Corporation West: The Yashida Corporation has a few small, moderately profitable tech companies under its umbrella in the New York and as a representative of the family, Kenuoichi has access to those resources, in the form of expense accounts worthy of the moderately well to do and research and fabrication facilities, as well as the latest in whatever tech they're working on these days. While not a rival for the big players in the tech field, they do well in the field of consumer and military grade electronics, as well as specialized ablatives for industrial use.

• Dojo: While Kenuichio is qualified to help set his family's western holdings in order, his real talent is in the martial arts. He maintains a small dojo where he teaches kendo, amongst other things, in an exceedingly traditional manner. To go with it, he has a rather complete collection of traditional samurai weapons and armor.

Flaws

• Curse of the Black Blade: The Black Blade is tainted by evil and madness and will tend to drive it's wielders toward the same, based on their strength of will. Ken is protected somewhat from this being the blade's fated wielder, but every time he draws it he has to battle the forces within it as they stoke his own bloodlust throughout the course of a fight. And in the aftermath of every fight in which it spilled blood he has to constantly question if his actions were really his own, or if he is finally starting to slip and let the madness creep in. He'd get rid of it, really, but it'd corrupt most anyone else in a New York minute.

• Dishonored Past: Kenuichio spent a fair amount of time in his youth and young adulthood associating with the likes of the Yakuza and HYDRA. While he has since worked in other more legitimate capacities, such stains do not easily come off. In the eyes of many who know of his past he occupies a grey area at best and suspicion of him even in light of his efforts to atone is sadly justifiable. It doesn't help that he is known to maintain contacts in some less than legitimate spheres.

• Enemies: Over the course of a rather energetic life, Ken has crossed a LOT of people. He's got enemies in government and law enforcement from his time in the Yakuza and HYDRA, enemies in criminal and villainous circles from his time working with the Japanese Government and enemies who dislike the Yashida clan for any of several reasons. Some of these people just want to make his life difficult. Some want to kill him. All are regularly problematic.

• Vicious: One of the reasons that Ken gets along so well with the Black Blade is that he's got a vicious streak. If he has an opportunity to hurt an enemy he will and once a fight is begun all bets are off. It's not sadism, but rather a calculated brutality that treats any application of force like a math problem - optimized to produce maximum effect and damn the consequences to the other side. After all, if they're fighting him he figures they probably deserve it.

• Way of the Warrior: Honor - both his own and his family's - figures very high in Kenuichio's calculations. It makes him take more direct routes when being circumspect would serve him better, and sometimes compels him to act against what would otherwise be his own interest when honor is at stake. This isn't as much a problem back East where the prevailing cultures very much support this - but out west and particularly when dealing with western criminals, it has the potential to be a huge liability.

• Grey Hat: While it's entirely fair to describe Kenuichio as 'reformed' it is perhaps not quite so easy to describe him as 'good'. From retraining shady contacts to the ruthlessness with which he pursues his goals, Ken walks in a shades of grey world - the twilight between good and evil. Sometimes that causes problems with or for would be allies. And sometimes the 'by any means necessary' mentality brings blowback of its own.

• Open Secret: The Silver Samurai and Kenuichio are known to be one and the same in Japan. In the West it's not a dead ringer that he'll be recognized - mostly in fact he is not. But if anyone has a reason to suspect he might be unusual it isn't hard to figure out with a few minutes and Google.

• The One That Got Away: The Yashida Clan used to owe much to the Yakuza and be closely tied to it. That is no longer the case in part thanks to Ken Harada (though granted he was part of the problem before that). Still, the Yakuza would love to have the Yashida back in the fold and will take any opportunity to induce or coerce its leaders, Ken included, to make it so.

• I Am Retired (Two Words): Kenuoichi retired from the Big Hero Six. They kept his armor when he did, which made sense. It had been redesigned, rebuilt and upgraded at taxpayer expense by that point. If he wanted it back he'd probably have to do the Japanese some big favors, or find a way to make his own. Neither would be easy.

Contacts

• Contact 1: Something about them.
• Contact 2: Something about them.

Gallery

Logs

2019-09-10 - Ancient Orders
Summary: A rag tag group of Bats investigate another site. Log Info: Storyteller: None Date: Tue Sep...
(barbara-gordon cassandra-cain gorgon ken-harada phobos plot)

2019-09-09 - The Man With The Sword
Summary: On a training patrol, Zeal and Batgirl encounter a Samurai. Or is it a Ronin. Log Info:...
(avery-aaronson barbara-gordon gorgon ken-harada plot)

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