Dr. Shinobu Kenja was created by Rizzo and Hollander and played primarily by Hollander.

Shinobu Kenja
Species & Gender:	Minkan Male
Date of Birth:	YE 04.02.29
Organization:	Special Personnel Projects
Occupation:	Scientist
Rank:	Doctor, SPP Irregular
Current Placement:	Operation La Prossima

Preferred Plots:

1. Operation La Prossima

He is somewhat tall for a Minkan at six feet of height. When working, his body is draped in a white lab coat arrayed with colorful stains and occasional cuts and shreds. The coat obscures a body that is irregularly fed, given his work-focused and obsessive life style. Green hair hangs in flat, straight strands down his back, and his eyes are a similar shade of color. His face is severe, critical, and he often wears a pair of spectacles with tiny digital readouts aimed at his eyes. His skin is free of tattoos, but not of a few scars which he has yet to have treated; these are marks from botched experiments or risky tests conducted in less-than-ideal circumstances. When he deigns to speak, it's with a deep and caustic voice that is frequently critical to whomever he is speaking to.

Acerbic, impatient, and driven, Shinobu is a poor team player. His intelligence sets him apart from his peers, but his ego often outpaces his genius, earning him the dislike of childhood classmates, and his superiors and subordinates. Shinobu despises being in subservient positions, and avoids situations where he is not the most powerful person in the room. There's a certain sort of cowardice in his behavior; unless he wields all the power and authority possible, he'll abandon a project or shrink away to a hidden little sector where he can be in charge of something significant. He is driven to be vindicated for his perceived failures in his study of ST Data Fragmentation, though it is more for the sake of his own ego than for any altruistic reason. He is hard-working, to the detriment of his social life and physical health. His romantic attachments are brief, and often combative; he prefers to be in the dominant position of his infrequent intimate encounters.

Shinobu Kenja was born in YE 04. His family lived in Port Xenn on Yamatai (Planet); his father served at the garrison there, and his mother managed a small shelter for abandoned animals. Shinobu, an only child, was a morose and pouty infant who grew into a miserable boy, prone to fits of dour silence and fights with his peers. The young Shinobu was the sort of child who was bullied as often as he himself bullied others. He excelled in courses which interested him, and his grades suffered in topics that bored him, though he seemed to be nothing but critical of all of his teachers no matter how well they performed or how hard they worked to reach him. Tired of the limited educational opportunities available in Port Xenn, he successfully applied to a program that let him study in schools away from home. He did not miss his parents much, and contacted them infrequently, much to their dismay.

Shinobu developed a juvenile fascination with medical horror stories involving diseases and disorders; teachers tried to turn this into a pursuit of a career into the medical field with some success. His interest matured over time, and Shinobu began to study medicine, with a focus on the neuroscience and the remarkable Soul Transfer technology. He approached these fields not in the spirit of a healer or of a man who wished to help the suffering, but instead with a cold and calculating desire to overcome intellectual challenges, and to master the living mind and the ways that it could be linked to computers and technology.

By the time of his early teens in YE 17, Shinobu was enrolling in advanced study programs, and he attended academic camps hosted by PNUgen Corporation and the Ketsurui Zaibatsu, who wished to rear promising young scientists and doctors. Though he rated poorly in social and leadership skills, Shinobu excelled in the purely academic and scientific aspects of his areas of study. One of his notable early projects involved the culturing of an artificial biological neural network, which he then trained to operate a robotic body. He conducted a study of a neurological disease affecting a particular bloodline of Anthros which contributed to the work developing a cure for their condition. His ego enjoyed a significant boost from his acceptance into a youth project analyzing captured Elysian documents detailing recorded instances of failures of their Soul Transfer technology, which Yamatai stole in their earliest years of existence. He had the opportunity to work on a youth robotics team building servitor droids, but he found he disliked working on non-sentient robotics tasks.

When he reached the age of majority in YE 21, he accepted a position with PNUgen's labs where he worked with a team to maintain and develop the minds of the NH-7 Nekovalkyrja. He would later find himself captivated by the most infamous NH-7, Eve; one of his hobbies involves the collection of stories and artifacts from her disturbing reign of terror. In YE 22, Shinobu assisted with the transfer of thousands of NH-7's into new NH-X Nekovalkyrja bodies, and later still into the mass-produced line of NH-17 Nekovalkyrja's. Some of Shinobu's proudest work during this period involved the telepathic NH-17T series; his fingerprints can be seen in its memory acquisition system, and in aspects of its mind-communication abilities. Shinobu declined recruitment overtures from the Star Army Research Administration in their first few years of existence, preferring instead to work for private companies where he could operate in a more corruptible environment; Shinobu preferred to arrange for as much solo-work as possible, and wasn't above trickery and malfeasance to work in a team of one. Shinobu jumped ship from PNUgen in YE 26 to take a higher-paying position with the Ketsurui Zaibatsu, only to cackle wickedly a year later when PNUgen found itself dissolved and incorporated into the Ketsurui Zaibatsu. As an employee of the Ketsurui Zaibatsu, Shinobu worked on the team that developed the Type 30 Mental Transfer and Backup Unit which saw release in YE 31.

Shinobu was still with the Zaibatsu when he installed a cybernetic voice modulator for the young Plebeian Emiko Amaterasu. The twin implants in her cheeks allow her to speak.

Shinobu was thirty years old when the Battle of Yamatai took place in YE 33. Shinobu already had good reason to villify the Mishhuvurthyar for employing their own twisted copies of the Nekovalkyrja when, during the invasion of the planet Yamatai by the NMX, Port Xenn was destroyed by a tsunami caused by chunks of the planet's orbital ring falling into the ocean nearby. Both of Shinobu's parents were killed in this disastrous event. Four and a half million people, including civilians, had been killed in this one single, terrible event. Ever callous, even Shinobu was shocked by how deep a wound had been inflicted on the Empire. In the aftermath of the disasters, Shinobu volunteered with the Yamatai Department of Health and Medicine to diagnose and treat sufferers of neurological disorders caused by exposure to toxins, radioactive materials, and strange Mishhuvurthyar weaponry. He continued to serve in this capacity for two years until, in YE 35, much of the healing work was done. He accepted a position with Kessaku Systems, a division of the Ketsurui Zaibatsu. This company had taken up maintenance and continued development of the Nekovalkyrja Operating System, which Shinobu had extensive experience working on, and they were thrilled to recruit a man of his experience. They were less thrilled once they realized how awful he was to work with, and quickly acceded to his demands to be assigned to solo projects.

In YE 39, Shinobu was conducting a check-up on Shi Fumetsu, an NH-33 who had recently graduated from Star Army Medical. Though they were both abrasive, they respected each other's intelligence, and both were driven to excel in their fields. They married, but it was not a marriage that would last. She would be assigned to a warship later that year, and would even be killed during a harrowing mission, only to be 'reborn' without memory of the death. The distance and lack of contact strained their relationship…

It was while working for Kessaku that Shinobu began to unravel an unusual problem that may have very, very old roots. In his continued work on the Nekovalkyrja Operating System, he was beginning to discover disturbing signs of what would later be termed ST Data Fragmentation. Apparent anomalies in specific instances of the Nekovalkyrja Operating System were causing disruptive fragmentation of the data that comprised the 'soul' of a person… The very same 'soul' that was moved during a Soul Transfer process. After collecting what little data he could, Shinobu contacted his former employers in the Department of Health and Medicine in YE 40, only to discover that they had already arrived at some of the same distressing conclusions… Shinobu attempted to sound the alarm on this terrifying news, but the Department wanted to keep the issue entirely secret. Research on the condition was still too new, too untested, and only a scant few examples even hinted at the nature of the problem. Shinobu was adamant that the problem not only existed, but that the theorized capability of ST Fragmentation to 'spread' could be weaponized by someone affected by it. Someone so motivated could conduct OS-altering psionic attacks, leading to tremendous disasters of a viral and neurological nature. He dared to try to inform the greater medical community… Shinobu was not only silenced, but he was disgraced. The medical community called him crazy, and the Department of Health and Medicine declined to comment on his theory, privately reiterating their demand that he remain silent, though they too shared concerns about ST Fragmentation. His mood became worse than usual, and with him missing countless hours of work due to his panicked private research on this problem, he was fired from his position with Kessaku Systems. To this day, Shinobu believes that agents of the government conspired to see him terminated from his job in order to further shut him up about his theory.

Shinobu's wife Shi believed that there was credence to his theories. Nonetheless, between her military service keeping them apart and Shinobu's collapsing career, their partnership was difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. They mutually agreed to divorce in YE 40, going their separate ways relatively amicably.

The now-divorced Shinobu remained unemployed for three more years. From YE 40 to YE 43, Shinobu found himself taking on black market research projects in order to get buy, and to fund his own obsessive research into the ST Fragmentation issue. He traveled the Kikyo Sector working dangerous and sometimes criminal jobs, endeavoring to keep his own name hidden as much as possible. During this time, Shinobu took a few jobs which were, in some way shape or form, connected to the On'nin Ikemen - 隠人イケ面. Evidence linking his work to their organization was as intangible as mist, and though Shinobu suspected their involvement, he needed the money and equipment he earned from them for his greater cause…“

The death of Candon Howard Suites in YE 43, however, led to a drastic shift in Shinobu's fortunes. The agent's demise seemed to finally spur a clear and present effort to combat the weaponizing of ST Fragmenation; Operation La Prossima was launched. Star Army Intelligence, in their efforts to organize a concerted effort, saw to it that Shinobu Kenja was 'brought in' as an irregular under the supervision of Special Personnel Projects. Shinobu took to the assignment with grim determination, though he remained skeptical about who was pulling his strings. Ultimately, suffering the manipulations of an organization far greater than himself was something he'd have to bear. It would all be worth it…

The key to his vindication lay in the mind of a 'dead' man… ¹⁾

After the successful revival of the man who would become Initzio Barone, Shinobu participated in Operation La Prossima.²⁾

Shinobu Kenja has the following notable skills:

• Neuroscience, brain-machine-interfaces, cybernetics.
• Nekovalkyra Operating Systems - Shinobu has worked on Neko brains since YE 22.
• Medicine and Surgery - Shinobu studied medicine, but has never been a licensed practicing medical doctor. His bedside manner is, to put it mildly, really bad.
• Soul Transfer Technology - Shinobu could be considered quite skilled in this field.

Shinobu Kenja is connected to:

• Parents, deceased, killed during the destruction of Port Xenn.
• Installed the cybernetic voice implant for Emiko Amaterasu.
• Ex-wife Shi Fumetsu, married one year from YE 39 to YE 40.
• Has collaborated remotely with Nepleslian Red geneticist and cyberneticist Dr. Ravi Mendoza on various projects.

Shinobu's equipment depends on where he is working, and who he is working for. Over the years, particularly while working black market projects, he has amassed personal computers, devices, and scientific tools.

His glasses are a modified pair of Emrys Uno Sunglasses.

Please feel free to know any facts about his professional life. He's a published scientist, very involved with Neko history, he's worked with companies that are both righteous and good, and those that are shady and sketchy. I don't know that just anyone should be able to find out about his black market work, I'd prefer to be asked unless you're quite sure your character would know.

He's such a bastard! Are you sure? Well, if you are, he's easy to link up with if you're a Neko, or a Yamataian who's spent any time on Yamatai. I, myself, am not a jerk, and I'll write with you and we'll have a good time, but Shinobu is a sourpuss. He does respect intelligence, craft, and will, and he does form relationships, so there are opportunities there.

• Shinobu's speech color is Chartreuse. 7fff00

In the case that Hollander AND Rizzo become inactive:

• Can this character be used as an NPC by a GM or FM? YES
• Can this character be adopted after I've been gone for a year? YES

• Rizzo and Hollander created this article on 2024/02/08 14:35. They made this character specifically for the ST Data Fragmentation and Operation La Prossima plots.
• Art generated by Rizzo using Midjourney.

• Approved by Nakshatra 2024/02/11.³⁾