[indent][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CY84i9T.png[/img]
[hider=Mood Music][youtube]https://youtu.be/F0tamp9XdqU[/youtube][/hider][/center][right][h1][color=7B81B3]Kenshiro[/color][/h1][/right][right][sub][hr][color=7B81B3]Mentions: [color=ffffff]Kari Wilson[/color] |[/color] [color=7B81B3]Direct Dialogue: [color=3874f4]Drake Blackmore,[/color] [color=ffffff]Auri Auclair/[@Punished GN],[/color] [color=00BFFF]Aryin Thorne/[@NoriWasHere][/color] |[/color] [color=7B81B3]Location:[/color] Kari's Grave > Kari's House [/sub][/right][hr]
[/indent] The last few days had been Ken spending time with Jack and a few others to discuss ongoing plans. Many people in the Coven were classically unprepared for just about every way for any kind of conflict, and it consistently amazed Ken that they managed to do what they did at the age they did it. Even if his clan had trusted him to be a man at that age, knowing what he knew now, he was still a child. It was a problem now, as they were being grounded in batches it seemed, but there were over a hundred of them back in the day, and sixty losses had a decade of mourning and a victory under their belt to soften the blow.

It wasn't all for naught. But this was different. Kenshiro Murakin had experienced loss upon loss stacked high on top of one another like salted pillars that sucked the moisture and warmth from everything. Four days ago he'd come home from another fruitless trek to claim vengeance and found nothing but disaster waiting again. Even as he tried to parse it together, the only things left were anger and anticipation. He hadn't even given himself time to register what things meant until he found himself at Kari Wilson's grave, weeping like a helpless child. In his hand, a hand woven wreath made of the most incredible kinds of feathers he'd found in the last six months. Every time he came home, he brought her another creation involving their shared love of the beauty that came from avian creatures. Even things that weren't necessarily birds; if it had feathers, chances are there was a majesty to it that no other creature could capture with fur or patterned flesh.

Their relationship had been... Slow. Ken was difficult to be with, given how long one could spend without him. When he had initially come to St. Portwell, the two of them had bonded over shared experiences of the Allverse. Though Kari couldn't travel there on her own, Ken had always promised to take her once things were over. There was a particular realm that she'd had visions of, and Ken had made frequent passage through its jungles for supplies needed by the Gama pact. Dennu'ba, the Banded Worlds. But duty called, and life went on. 
He returned to his clan, and Hannako filled that part of his life. They married, and it wasn't long before their child was due when everything happened. It was a four year gap... But when Ken came back to St. Portwell, he found that Kari's feelings hadn't changed much. It only hurt more now, knowing that he never even got the chance to make things up to her. He was too wrapped up in himself, and she understood and accepted him despite it all. Even when she deserved better. And the dream had left him in the worst kind of mood, and reminded him only that something awful was happening.

He was sobbing. Utterly sobbing over her body buried six feet beneath the soil. Stones and rocks and loose headstones bubbled upward into the sky little by little. His sniffling voice spoke up between the tears.
[color=7B81B3]"I-I-'m... So... Fucking..."[/color]
He thought about when he got back, how she showed him her project. What she'd been working on. She said she was onto something. At that point, his own desire for information and revenge was so strong that there was no way he was going to tell her that what she was digging into would probably just lead to suffering. That hunting entities and kicking rocks over looking for ghosts involved with the Stygian Snake was just a bad fucking idea. How could he be a hypocrite to her? So he praised her. And now he had the chance to consider something. The idea that she had opened the door for something that never should've come, and that they were all in danger because of her actions.

Ken tried to tell himself that it could've been anything, and that there was only so much time before someone or some[i]thing[/i] came for revenge themselves. Their own sick revenge for a twisted monster who deserved what it got... But they were the same kind of monsters to some other dimension. These things weren't able to be reconciled, and it was a pointless exercise to try. All it did was make him empathize with her more. 
[color=7B81B3]"P-pl-e-ase... Come back... Come back! I can't... I don't-want-to... Be..."[/color]

Alone. Nobody was in the graveyard at five in the morning. Nobody but Kenshiro Murakin and his regrets.[hr]
The break of day came with the sunshine and voices. There was no way Auri was going to be the first one to the trough when it came to Kari, but he didn't want to rain on her parade either. He was tucked up on the roof, hearing her approach a little while ago before more began to trickle in. 

He was going to interrupt when Drake called Kari "some dead chick." He found it disrespectful, but that's a part of who Drake was. Hot-headed, callous on occasion. Definitely quick to respond with instinct. They weren't so different, he and Drake. But, Ken had been trained to be patient for other things, and had found that it was applicable training to his normal daily life. So he waited further, until Auri dropped that Lyss Burns had been killed under their noses. It was that same feeling all over again, except now it was starting to get old. He wasn't sad, now he was pissed.

He let his body roll off the roof, fingers twisted into the soma for Enlighten, and he hit the ground with an unnatural lightness that masked almost all the sound of it. He was dressed in full kit: a black gi and matching trousers, the old wrapped up socks and the sandals, a vest that had a thousand different pockets and a belt with a similar setup. He had a headband, his channeler, with the stains of his companion's blood still changing its purple fabric into a deep brownish black, as well as a scarf. He jingled with chainmail padding beneath his gi.

[color=00BFFF][i]“I’ll still help you look, I just want clarification."[/i][/color]
[color=7B81B3]"Hey now, be respectful of her things. And Drake, she wasn't just some chick... She did a lot for us."[/color]
Ken's eyes scanned the gathered, and fell on Britney and the Noble Vow. Quite the piece of hardware. His family's own sword, the direct family's sword, not the super important clan sword they failed to defend, was strapped to his back. It was massive, just as tall as him; a Nodachi field sword. There were two others of varying sizes tucked into and tied in his belt. He was clearly ready for violence if it were to come.
[color=7B81B3]"Otherwise, yeah... Just looking for any sort of hint or clue that'll put us on the right track."[/color]
His head turned to Auri.

[color=7B81B3]"Do you want me to get the key?"[/color] he asked, thinking about the last place he remembered her keeping the spare.