As the son of the CEO of one of the top technological corporations in the world as well as the High Realm's most legendary hero, Ken Shinigami was expected to mold himself to take on both mantles once he came of age. Yet, he never knew what he wanted for himself... that is, until he moved to Kihiro City and found it. Now he's determined to lead his own team of heroes, his own way--slowly but surely freeing himself from his father's toxic grip.

He grew so used to solitude, constantly watching his words, that by the time he'd left his father's manor he'd nearly forgotten how to speak to others. He feels at home on the battlefield--sometimes too at home, making brash decisions to get into the fight. He's level-headed most times, brave, analytical, and smart as a whip... but can be cold, hard to speak to, and distrustful of new people. Toss in the fact that he's numb to pain, oblivious of the world's workings, and distant to a fault, and it's no secret why he's an enigma to his classmates.

Darkness Manipulation

He's been trained extensively in his darkness abilities by his father, and is extremely efficient with the element. As he ages, he'll only grow stronger, but even now he's a formidable force. It's his primary element, what he's strongest with and most trained in using. He can use bursts of darkness to fly, but he stops using it once his angelic nature is revealed.

• Dark Surge - A devastatingly powerful attack, wherein which he draws energy from the shadows around him before sending out a blast of dark energy that can only be blocked by extremely strong shields.
• Spectral Soldiers - darkness swirls around him for a few seconds, which has mild attack-deflecting ability, before coalescing into anywhere from three to ten soldiers of darkness--have human strength, but can be annihilated with a strong attack, especially if its light or fire-based. If he's interrupted while casting, Ken won't have the energy to do it again for around 10 minutes. The swirling wind can barely deflect attacks--anything stronger than a throwing knife can break through and hit its target.
• Knock Out - can take someone's hand and, with extreme focus and care, send shadow into their body to knock them out. Rarely used, and can be dangerous if he loses focus--in which the darkness becomes like a poison in the person's veins, causing extreme pain, nightmares, and potentially death.
• Shadow Tendrils - can clench his hand, and tendrils of shadow will wisp around his hand and his target, wrapping around and attempting to get into the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth until the victim is dropped. The longer the shadows remain, the more effective, though the target can die from being in the grip too long. The tendrils can also appear as arms of inky darkness--in this form, their touch leaves burn-like marks and deals poisoning damage that can prevent the usage of powers.
• Shadow Force - can punch or kick with darkness surging near his hands or feet to add a devastating force to his attacks.
• Shadow Weapons - can form weapons out of shadows, typically things like swords and shields. They don't have much durability, and feel much lighter than a normal object. Can also create solid chains out of darkness to keep someone or something restrained as long as he maintians focus.
• Shadow Creatures - Can manipulate shadows to look like different creatures, then solidify into said creature. These creatures don't have much attack power, and are mostly for personal entertainment.

Ice Manipulation

Can create ice or dark ice, create ice energy blasts, cool down a room, and easily cast ice-related spells. It's his secondary element, but through lots of training he's incredibly strong with it.

• Encased - can encase things in blocks of ice which permits little to no movement within.
• Dark Ice - A mix of Ken's ice and dark abilities. Creating and casting dark ice statuifies the target and saps its energy (heat or otherwise), allowing Ken to use the energy in later attacks. Ken refuses to use this on living things. Can also cast a non-verbal spell to create an icy edge to his sword--when cut, ice grows within the wound until it explodes into dark ice, killing or extremely debilitating the victim. Only uses on monsters, would never consider using this on a human being.
• Frost Edge - Can create a frost over his blades, making them grow bright blue and deal additional ice damage to his attacks.
• Ice Blast - a blast of ice energy that has a freezing effect that deals ice damage and can slow down the target. Can also be modified into an Ice Spire, which deals additional piercing damage.
• Item Creation - can create blades made of ice--sharp, but not very durable at all. Can also create a thick shields and walls out of ice, which can soak up a lot of damage before breaking. He can move the walls forward and backwards at his will.

Spellcasting

Ken has been training to cast spells all his life, and has many memorized. Also has a library of spellbooks to refer to. Some spells are inherently easier for him to cast than others--his strength lies in darkness and ice spells, and he's especially weak in casting fire and light spells.

• Glacio - a spell that releases an icy mist that will easily freeze most things, including some energy attacks. Can also be used to freeze surfaces like floors.
• Nix - a wordless spell, which allows the user to create powdery snow they cast from their hands
• Nox - a wordless spell, which allows the user to extremely darken any room with thick shadows, darkening vision as well as blinding cameras and other sensors.
• Casting too many spells will cause him to lose energy quickly, until he eventually may get dizzy or even pass out. This is especially a risk if spells are cast in rapid succession, and if he's casting primarily spells he's weaker with. When he casts a lot of darkness spells, his hair and eyes get darker, and his fingertips up to his elbows will begin to turn black for anywhere from five minutes to two hours afterwards. When he casts a lot of ice spells, his hair and fingers begin to frost over.

Angelic Traits

Angels are a species that evolved alongside/similarly to humans, but have their own traits that separate them. Asides from the obvious (feathered wings, sharp teeth, etc) there are other notable abilities.

• Enhancements - enhanced strength and speed, enhanced senses of smell and taste, and enhanced vision. Also have stronger magical abilities than humans with similar powers.
• Cold Sensitivity - Angels tend to be extremely vulnerable to changes in temperature, often shutting down in colder temperatures. Ken is resistant to this, more able to handle cold temperatures than humans and most angels. However, he still has his limits--ice attacks cast by other people chill him severely, though he's resistant to chilling effects from his own ice.

Cold Resistance

Significantly more resistant to the effects of cold than humans and most angels, though in consequence is much more vulnerable to overheating.

Side Effects

Straining his powers too much leads to a variety of side effects. Frost will begin to grow along his hair, nose, and hands, and his skin will grow extremely cold to the touch. Using too much darkness in quick succession can leave dark spots in his vision that remain for days. He's incredibly sensitive to the effects of fire and light attacks, being burned more easily and more severely by both. He's also more prone to getting sick after extensive use of his ice powers.

Weapons

• Twin Wakizashi - Typically used by samurai as a backup or auxilary sword, Ken chooses to follow in the Shinigami family's footsteps and wields two of them. The swords themselves are family hierlooms, said to go as far back as his great great great grandfather. They're made of high realm steel, which makes them more durable than the typical blade as well as attuned to magic use.

Ken's life started out normal--at least, as normal as you could get, what with being the son of the realm-famous Arcis Shinigami. He and his brother Luke were safe and happy under the care of their parents, of course they did! Sure, their father could get pushy with the spell training--their mother insisted that five years old was far too young to be trying some of the spells he was teaching, but they enjoyed learning from their Father!

Life was easy and simple--a bit insulated, but they had no reason to mind. Anytime they wanted to have fun with other kids, they could just walk themselves to the nearby park!

Until one day, they went to the park and didn't come back home.

The Facility

Ken wanted nothing more than to go home, to just close his eyes real tight and wake up in the loving embrace of his parents, or in his bed beside Luke, anywhere but this hell. The Facility, the other kids called it--they'd been kidnapped and taken here to be live experiments, labrats, living and dying at the will of a twisted human man they all called Doctor Dread. Trying to make friends to pass the time was a near-futile effort--it was like every friend he made wound up dead a few days later, but he did befriend Taru. Ken spent most of his time hiding in the corner of his cell, hungry and tired and terrified--until it was his turn on the chopping block.

He had proficient ice powers for a kid, according to the scientists' tests. So he was chosen for the Dragon experiment--taking a child with ice powers and infusing them with the blood of a dragon. Would they survive? What about them would change? Ken was fated to find out the hard way... until Luke stepped up to do it instead, not wanting to see his brother hurt. Luke was quickly whisked away... but they didn't close the cell all the way. Was this Ken's chance? Could he find an escape, or stop the Doctor from cutting open his brother? He slipped out and silently followed, trying to get a lay of the area.

He found an exit. But he was also found by Doctor Dread himself, who quickly punished him by carving his scalpel down the length of his right arm, from thw shoulder to the wrist. And swore that he would experience the agony suiting of a rebellious shit like him. And when it was his turn again, for a different experiment--by god, he ensured it.

No anasthesia. No numbing medications. Just him, strapped face-down to a table, as a giant X was sliced into his back, his wings forced out of their veil and cut open for analysis. The chilling, biting cold as liquid darkness was poured directly into his veins. He'd pass out, only to be forced awake by the pain again. Through it all, the Doctor's laughs echoed around him, and the thrumming of violins and chellos from the music he played on his radio throughout.

It didn't take too long for the changes to take place. The visible darkness in his veins faded with time, but his eyes permanently changed to black, his hair shifting to black with white edges, and his darkness powers became far more powerful than his ice abilities, as his DNA was rewritten--it was painful, hard to move, hard to see, hard to even speak. Once it settled, he was regarded as a success... he was alive, which was good enough for more testing. Forced to use his abilities until he collapsed, puking solid darkness, weak and cold. But as they were taken to different training rooms, he saw that exit...

The charge to escape was led by him. He convinced the other kids to simply tear a shred from their gowns to stuff into the base of the cell doors, jamming it just ajar enough to be forced open late at night. He accounted for everything--the security system, how far the exit was from their cells, the likely response of the scientists and how they could overpower them together. He didn't account for the collars around their necks until it was too late--by the time word got around to force them off before they got out, a few dozen kids had rushed outside only to die to the poisonous barbs. In the end, between the scientists' attacks, the collars, and the subsequent explosion, only a hundred kids made it out. They split up, each trying to find their own way home, unsure if they'd ever see each other again.

The Manor

By some miracle, Ken and Luke managed to get home. Even though their bodies had changed, they were recognizeable enough to get enough attention that their parents were quickly notified. But the happy family Ken was hoping for wasn't to be--just a few months after they got back home, his parents divorced. Frost managed to get custody of Luke, but his father Arcis got sole custody of him. Frost and Luke moved out of the manor, and the place Ken had called home quickly lost its warmth.

Arcis was determined to get a perfect heir--even if he had to train up his labrat son to do it. The expectations were heavy, and the punishments dire if he didn't own up to it--but eventually it became all Ken knew. His father was controlling--no music, no friends... hell, Ken was only allowed to step onto a patio as a 'reward' for good behavior. Ken's life became constant training, constant studying, constantly trying to measure up to his father's expectations and constantly failing to do so. He forgot what warmth even felt like, the icy chill of his father's presence settling itself deep into his veins.

Studying to be the heir of the Shinigami Technologies company came hand in hand with training to inherit the title of The Greatest Hunter, the Hero of the Realm--leading a team of monster hunters to victory at his command. He was tossed into monster fighting at ten years old, quickly growing accustomed to it until he was taking down hellbeasts on private missions at eleven years old. Mastering spells and training in combat became a passion of Ken's, the one way he could expel the anguish he didn't fully register he was feeling. Even still, there were restrictions--he had to do it his father's way, and even the slightest strain against it resulted in heavy punishment that left him bruised and battered for days on end. But such was life, and until he was properly suited to inherit the titles put upon him, this was what he grew to expect. Grew used to. There were no other options for him, and eventually he forgot that other people lived any differently.

Freedom

His expectations on how his life would go were interrupted when the courts mandated a brief custody switch, now that the kids were at an age where they could decide for themselves what life they wanted to live. While Luke went to stay at Arcis' manor for the year, Ken was shipped of to the Middle Realm--Kihiro City, specifically--to stay with his mother. On the night of his arrival, there was a meteor shower--after contacting a meteorite, his already-boosted powers received yet another boost.

There was a lot to adjust to, living with his mother in the middle realm. Like living with his mother and her more 'be free' style of parenting. Or going to public school instead of filling the day with restrictive homeschooling and constant training. Care and concern for his safety and well-being, instead of being told to toughen up and show less emotion. He was resistant to it at first, but slowly with the help of his new friends he began to live a freer, happier life. Now he leads his own team, but does it his own way.

There's a lot more to learn, and he's painfully aware of that every time he fucks up. But he'd rather trip up and learn how to live than ever return to the dungeon that is his father's manor ever again.

He's still plagued by nightmares, reliving experiences from the Manor as well as the Facility. He still doubts he'll ever learn how to be a good friend like his friends deserve. He makes mistakes, day after day, and sometimes he looks in the mirror and wonders if he's doing anything right.

But with his friends at his side, he can just worry about the now.