Ken
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The finer details...
This is a list of headcanons and fun facts for this self-ship AU. There will be no particular order to these, and no consistency to the subject matter. Consider it an infodump of sorts. It will receive regular updates.
✏️ represents any facts exclusive to the Yakuza 0 timeline, and 🦷 represents any facts exclusive to Kiwami onward.
All material with sensitive topics will be marked with a ⚠️, so read with caution when you see this emoji!
Ken has four distinct fighting styles. During the events of 0, they only had access to three of them.
The first is Bruiser: an undefined all-rounder style in the same vein as Kiryu's Brawler and Majima's Thug styles. This style's main quirk is its lean towards stun moves, taking advantage of vulnerabilities to land a devastating hit that stuns the opponent before going in for an all-out attack.
The second style is Beartrap: a defensive jab-based style that mainly involves strong parry and counterattacks with their machete. They'll hold a defensive stance when not attacking, and will be much harder to knock down than in other styles.
The third style is Pitcher: a strong and precise style focused around projectile attacks. When unarmed, their attacks are slow, needing a wind-up, yet hard-hitting and precise with an increased chance of knocking down the opponent. When in possession of any throwable object, they can throw it with a much higher speed, power, and accuracy than most fighters. Bonus points are awarded if the object is a baseball or something similar.
(🦷)Their final style, discovered shortly after the prologue of Kiwami, is Infected: a merciless rushdown style utilizing a sharpened surgical steel grill and clawed gauntlets. Throwing caution to the wind, they will continue attacking through hits that would normally knock them down and mainly inflict damage through slashes and bites. Holds can become especially devastating, as once the opponent is immobilized, Ken can latch on and rip into their flesh, quickly reducing them to a critical state if proper precautions aren't taken.
(🦷) Ken still retains their underlying intelligence after "going rabid", and takes the proper precautions one should take after assaulting strangers with bites. They're a regular at Emoto's clinic, where they regularly get checked for diseases.
If someone is being particularly dense or unreasonable, Ken will refer to them by first name. They learned pretty quickly that this is considered informal almost to the point of offense coming from them, and thus will use it as a redirection tactic in order to break someone's train of thought.
Their handwriting sucks in all languages, but it's nigh indecipherable in Japanese syllabaries. As such, they usually communicate through digital means when verbal communication is impossible.
Being from the southern U.S, Ken is much less formal than many of their Japanese peers, particularly the ones from the Kanto region. They tend to get along better with Kansai natives as a result.
(✏️) While Ken was still learning Japanese, they tried to flirt with Nishiki by giving him the pet name "Kiki". It took them the rest of the night and a thorough combing of their English-to-Japanese dictionary before they realized why this caught him so off-guard. Fortunately, he wasn't upset for too long, and the failed attempt at a pet name became something of an inside joke between them.
Being from America and leaning towards the wrong side of the law, Ken has a deep distrust of law enforcement and politicians that often shows itself as bald-faced hatred. They outright refuse to speak to police unless absolutely forced to.
