Relationships Write-up (updated 6/15)
This will probably be long and overly detailed, and I doubt any of you will be able to sit through the whole thing. But! I like to essay, and Ken's getting close enough to people in camp that I've been telling players his canon history over and over again, so I might as well type it out here for ease of reference in the future.
I'm stopping all histories at the point I apped Ken from, somewhere between Kapitel and Gluhen, including only some of the drama CD timelines. If anyone's curious about what happens afterwards in the series, I'm sure I could keep going. Side B, FTW! ^_~
Let's go!
Ken's Mother - died when he was young, probably age 4 or 5. (In the Holy Children, Ken is 19/20, and a girl named Natsuki he knew from the orphanage says she hasn't seen him in 15 years.) Since it's Weiss, and Weiss is all about Aya and Omi in terms of family trauma, we don't get the ages or names of any of Ken's family members.
Ken's Father - Aaaah, the beginning of the abandonment issues. After Ken's mother died (we don't know how), Ken became "depressed and unsociable," and his father "sent him to a church" where they "gave child psychotherapy." It should be noted that Ken is from Niigata. The church his father sent him to was in Tokyo, and just happened to be an orphanage. I doubt Ken's father ever intended for him to come home, and there's no indication that any family members bothered to contact him, even after he became a professional soccer player in his teens.
Sister - The nun that gave Ken "psychotherapy" as a child, and also, the woman I believe raised him in the orphanage. She turned out to be sociopathic, and was turning the kids she counseled into little sleeper agents, if you will. She sent them to kill celebrities and media figures that she found unsavory. The opening scene of Holy Children depicts one of these murders... a girl from the orphanage is in a rock star's dressing room, having a good time... and her cell phone rings. She picks it up, hears "a crisp ringing sound," on the line, goes crazy, and murders the rock star. The bell she heard was Sister's trigger. There is evidence that Ken was also brainwashed (he responds to the bell and responds to her commands at one point), but maybe it was too long ago or never took properly. Ken kills Sister himself.
There's a weird canon time loop that goes on during this sociopathic nun arc involving Nagi that's actually quite interesting... but unimportant, since the Nagi is camp uses the more logical canon past.
Kase - was Ken's best friend. Or so he thought. Kase and Ken were in J-league together, and it's implied they'd known each other for some time before the team. They were inseperable. And probably lovers. *koff* But you didn't hear it from me. In any case, Kase could do no wrong in Ken's eyes. He was the person Ken trusted most... and the person who was able to hurt him the most. You see, Ken was a much better soccer player than Kase. He was the league's star, the youngest there and an amazing goalie. They hadn't lost a game yet. Kase was jealous. And corrupt. He was part of an underground gambling right, and when the time came to throw a game, Kase decided that he could kill two birds with one stone. He could ruin Ken's career, and throw the officials off his trail, as far as the gambling went. At halftime, he drugged Ken's drink, and a drugged goalie is a pretty horribly goalie. Ken couldn't stand for the second half of the game, and the league jumped on him for throwing the game, implicating him in the gambling ring instead of Kase. Since he'd dropped out of school to play soccer, and had no family to crawl back to, Ken's life was effectively ruined. He went crazy researching, trying to figure out who had framed him. Kase, of course, offered to help.
Even with Kase hindering his searches, Ken managed to get close enough to the truth that more drastic measures were needed. So Kase set up a "meeting" between him and Ken, and the gambling thugs. He told Ken to meet him in an abandoned warehouse, convincing him that he had things under control. Ken, of course, trusted his friend and showed up. It was, of course, a setup. The thugs arrived and beat Ken half to death, dragging Kase off so that it looked like they were going to kill him. They then locked Ken in the warehouse and set it on fire. Ken survived, but blamed himself for Kase's death.
So you'd imagine that a few years later, when Kase's face appeared in a briefing for one of Weiss' missions, Ken was more than a little surprised. It turned out that Kase was working for Weiss' target, but Ken was just so happy that his friend was alive that he convinced himself Kase couldn't know about the criminal activity. He ran off to have a reunion, during which Kase started more manipulations, making Ken doubt the integrity of Weiss and Kritiker. This was, of course, another setup. Kase let Ken "convince" him to give away his boss' address, then ran ahead and killed the crime lord and framed Ken. Yes, again. He emptied a clip into Ken's chest and left the scene, thinking that Ken would be blamed for his boss' murder, leaving him to take over the crime ring. Of course, he talked before he shot, revealing that he was the one who ruined Ken's career. Can we say betrayal, folks?
But Kase didn't know Ken was in Weiss. Or that Ken had been wearing a bulletproof vest. So he was more than a little surprised when Ken showed up again, this time to kill him. (Why won't you stay dead?) The third time's the charm, apparently. He shot at Ken again, and Ken started to cry, but kept coming at him. Kase started to talk, but for once Ken didn't listen, thank god. And Ken killed him, with the rest of Weiss watching.
I guess that's all there is to tell. When your best friend tries to kill you three times, and you love them so much that you fall for it the first two times... you start developing trust issues. And I could talk about Akira here, but... let's do Yuriko first.
Yuriko - the obligatory love interest. Directly after killing Kase, Ken got on his motorcycle, and drove off to emo in peace and quiet. This was not to be. A pretty girl, also on a motorcycle, ran him off the road. Because, like, that's how you flirt or something like that. o_O Maybe he was just miserable and wanted a distraction, but Ken and Yuriko hit it off, and wound up spending a few days at a little resort type place up in the mountains. It was cute, actually. He taught her about flowers, she flirted by the pool, and Ken slept on the floor because he was too much of a gentleman to share the bed. It's implied that they finally had sex upon returning to Tokyo, when Ken drops her off at her apartment and then just... doesn't leave. He's too-cheerful the next day at work.
Happy couple? Perhaps they would have been, if it wasn't for the fact that everything and everyone that a Weiss member touches is cursed. CURSED, I tell you. First, it was just Youji giving Ken a hard time about having a girlfriend. He was pretty cruel, rambling on about blood on Ken's hands and how he didn't deserve a relationship after what he'd done... Ken tried to shake it off, but then Yuriko was the victim of one of Weiss' targets, a soft drink company that was addicting and poisoning its customers. Yuriko was so spooked by the whole event that she bought two tickets to Australia. One for her, and one for Ken. Except Ken knew that as much as he wanted to, he couldn't leave. So he showed up at the airport, but only to watch Yuriko's plane fly away.
I've gotten crit that says Ken forms attachments in camp too quickly. Yuriko is the canon evidence of how quickly Ken becomes attached to people. In a 20-minute episode (maybe about a week passes? maybe) he falls for a girl and is considering packing up and moving to a different country for her. Abandonment issues? Probably. He clings. And speaking of clinging...
Akira - appears only in the two episodes of the OVAs, but is notable for his connection to Ken. Specifically, how Ken believes in him. After Kase, you'd think the boy would have no trust left at all. But he had just enough to believe in Akira, a vigilante of sorts who wanted to protect his sister from a government conspiracy. Weiss was given a mission to kill Akira, but even though Akira had taken shots at him and Youji, Ken couldn't manage it. Instead, he chased after Akira, helped him fight, made him explain himself, and then took his side. Turns out that Ken is a good judge of character, because it was a false mission and Akira was a good guy all along. But that didn't save him from getting killed anyway. Ken and Omi left Akira and his sister in hiding while they did some recon, and when they returned the sister was gone and Akira had bled out in the snow, having been shot about a million times. I think Ken might have cried if another battle hadn't started immediately. There's only so many angst breaks you can fit into a 20-minute show.
Reiko - Appears in the drama CDs, somewhere before Weiss disbands and after the end of Kapitel. Ken meets her because he's out looking for a violence fix (to be elaborated upon in a future essay), and she happened to be getting attacked. (Yay convenient rapists!) He makes it very clear that he didn't care about her, just the beatdown he was giving the guys... but she still seems to like him, and takes him out for dinner. Turns out Reiko wants to die. She and Ken bond over their sick fascination with death and murder, and their connection to the Tokyo underworld. There is, like with Yuriko, an instance of incredibly passionate, "can't leave you here," sex. They are not in love. But there is a connection, and then, because Weiss is cruel like that, Ken has to kill her on a mission. Her death is very dramatic, as if that were a surprise. And there you have it, another lover that Ken killed with his own hands. I can't really list Reiko under abandonment issues... but it's definitely some kind of issue.
Omi - the best friend. For real. Ken was, I'm pretty sure, in Weiss before Youji, so there was a time where he and Omi were alone together for training. As far as series interaction goes, Ken and Omi are clearly the closest members of Weiss. Ken stays up to help Omi research. They're continually diving in front of attacks to "save" one another. Whenever one of them is hurt, there's always a lot of screaming and panicking and overly dramatic clinging on the part of the other one. They stick up for each other perhaps more than they should. In the OVAs, Ken breaks off from Weiss and Kritiker, and Omi sticks with him even though Ken is clearly going to get them both killed. They trust each other implicitly.
Campwise: Omi was gone from Ken's world for 8 months. I keep Ken's canon the same... Omi would have started taking a more administrative role in Kritiker, thanks to his grandfather. In Omi's absense, Kritiker started sending Ken and Youji on missions to Europe in pre-Gluhen style, to investigate Esset's new evil plan. Since Youji's not the most stable character, either, Ken really didn't have anyone to talk to after Omi left, which doubtlessly contributed to his mental decline.
Future Canon: In Gluhen, Ken and Omi have not seen each other for quite some time.. probably due to the European missions and Omi's self-imposed isolation from Weiss. When Omi does show up in person, Ken is cool and bitter about the separation. Again, abandonment. But he clearly misses Omi too much to stay that mad for long. He manages about ten minutes of crankiness before giving Omi a hug.
Farfarello - Ken's main opponent. When we first meet Schwarz, the matches for battles between them and Weiss seems to be by height/appearance, like most anime stereotypes. But Ken and Farfarello... perhaps they aren't too similar at the beginning of the series. Farfarello is a maniac, a Berserker. He's a demon when he fights, invulnerable to pain and fast as hell. He's crazy, and difficult for Schwarz to control. And Ken... becomes a lot like him, over the course of the series. Post-original series, and post contact with Farfarello, Ken goes a little crazy, starting to enjoy the killing too much. He becomes excessively violent when he fights. When he arrived in camp, Ken had been thinking that Farf was dead* and seeing him now that they have something in common made him think for a moment or two that maybe Farfarello would understand how he felt. Now he realizes their mental states are really very different, and he's working harder to keep hold of his own sanity.
*(Although there's a drama CD that I haven't read that claims Farf ran off with some girl named Sally or Sandy or something... I believe Ken killed Farfarello in the final battle of the series, as he lands a punch under Farf's jaw. With the way the blades are situated on Ken's gloves, Farfarello's throat would have been cut to shreds. And we never see his physical presence in the series again.)
Not-exactly-relationship things worth noting:
Children - Ken is great with kids. I would assume it was from growing up in an orphanage, where there were lots of children and not enough people to give them attention. In the manga, some neighborhood kids show up at the flower shop, begging him to come play soccer with them. ("Ken-niiii-chaaaaan! Let's play soccer!!!" "But I have to mind the shop right now." "Awww, until when?") In the anime, a little time is passed, and he's gotten together a little-league-esque team. We get to see him coaching them, and it's obvious that he adores them. So. Ken loves kids, and they love him back. Not much more to say about that.
Pets - are something I don't think Ken has ever had. He was separated from his family younger than any of the other Weiss members. (Omi was the next youngest, at 7, then Aya at 18. We don't know Youji's family history, but it's assumed to be a normal childhood.) The closest thing Ken has to pets in camp are the chibis Ryuuken gave him, which he actually considers an odd cross between pets and children.
Future Canon, and Aya - In the Drama CDs, Ken goes crazy. This will be detailed in a later post, but the gist of it is that he goes nuts, and starts chasing death and violence and killing. Aya is the only one who really understands, probably, as when Youji and Omi are all, "wtf is with Ken?" Aya is more like, "leave him." By Gluhen, Ken is pretty shattered, sanitywise... and Aya seems to know that. Ken grabs a target and tells Aya to run them both through, because "it's the only way." Uh. No. Ken's not that stupid. And Aya's not that stupid as to do it without realizing there were other ways. Still, he does it. It doesn't kill Ken, however, unfortunately for them both. And at the end of Gluhen, Aya, the only one who understands... gets on a plane to Europe without Ken, who's asking him to stay. So Ken commits himself for awhile, thinking that being in jail will give him time to think. He winds up leaving and following Aya to Europe, joining Side B... another assassin team. Ah, Ken. Your crazy knows no bounds.
Bisexuality - As much as I tease him about it, Ken is not gay. Obviously. (Yuriko and Reiko prove that.) But he's also not straight. Less obviously. My canon evidence is, admittedly, mostly interpretation, but I believe that Kase was Ken's first lover as well as his first friend, as stated above. And there was someone else. David. This is a character who doesn't get his own write-up, since he appears in Side B, past the point I'm playing Ken from. But since technically he's from Ken's past, I'm going to talk about him now. Ken and David played soccer together, and David is killed by a conspiracy much like the one that ruined Ken's life - he was drugged. (CAMP!KEN DOES NOT KNOW THIS, THE DEATH OCCURS IN SIDE B.) It's rather clear and there was more between David and Ken than an old team connection. David kept a picture of Ken in his bedroom, and after he died his brother went through the trouble of tracking Ken (who, remember, hasn't seen or spoken to this guy in years) down to tell him about David's life. And then David's brother tries to kill him, and it was all some sorta scheme, but that's another badly translated story. Weiss is the most plothole ridden show in the world: why is an assassin keeping his somewhat notable identity? I DON'T KNOW. But! Boyfriends. Ken's had them. Girlfriends. He's had one. I think this is more due to the fact that he's much more comfortable around guys than girls. This is thanks to too many years in a locker room, and how most women in WK are either damsels in distress or completely fucking insane. So Ken likes girls, but he's completely inept when it comes to initating contact. If Yuriko hadn't kept badgering him, he probably would have been too awkward to speak, let alone flirt with her.
Yup. That's all I got.
I'm stopping all histories at the point I apped Ken from, somewhere between Kapitel and Gluhen, including only some of the drama CD timelines. If anyone's curious about what happens afterwards in the series, I'm sure I could keep going. Side B, FTW! ^_~
Let's go!
Ken's Mother - died when he was young, probably age 4 or 5. (In the Holy Children, Ken is 19/20, and a girl named Natsuki he knew from the orphanage says she hasn't seen him in 15 years.) Since it's Weiss, and Weiss is all about Aya and Omi in terms of family trauma, we don't get the ages or names of any of Ken's family members.
Ken's Father - Aaaah, the beginning of the abandonment issues. After Ken's mother died (we don't know how), Ken became "depressed and unsociable," and his father "sent him to a church" where they "gave child psychotherapy." It should be noted that Ken is from Niigata. The church his father sent him to was in Tokyo, and just happened to be an orphanage. I doubt Ken's father ever intended for him to come home, and there's no indication that any family members bothered to contact him, even after he became a professional soccer player in his teens.
Sister - The nun that gave Ken "psychotherapy" as a child, and also, the woman I believe raised him in the orphanage. She turned out to be sociopathic, and was turning the kids she counseled into little sleeper agents, if you will. She sent them to kill celebrities and media figures that she found unsavory. The opening scene of Holy Children depicts one of these murders... a girl from the orphanage is in a rock star's dressing room, having a good time... and her cell phone rings. She picks it up, hears "a crisp ringing sound," on the line, goes crazy, and murders the rock star. The bell she heard was Sister's trigger. There is evidence that Ken was also brainwashed (he responds to the bell and responds to her commands at one point), but maybe it was too long ago or never took properly. Ken kills Sister himself.
There's a weird canon time loop that goes on during this sociopathic nun arc involving Nagi that's actually quite interesting... but unimportant, since the Nagi is camp uses the more logical canon past.
Kase - was Ken's best friend. Or so he thought. Kase and Ken were in J-league together, and it's implied they'd known each other for some time before the team. They were inseperable. And probably lovers. *koff* But you didn't hear it from me. In any case, Kase could do no wrong in Ken's eyes. He was the person Ken trusted most... and the person who was able to hurt him the most. You see, Ken was a much better soccer player than Kase. He was the league's star, the youngest there and an amazing goalie. They hadn't lost a game yet. Kase was jealous. And corrupt. He was part of an underground gambling right, and when the time came to throw a game, Kase decided that he could kill two birds with one stone. He could ruin Ken's career, and throw the officials off his trail, as far as the gambling went. At halftime, he drugged Ken's drink, and a drugged goalie is a pretty horribly goalie. Ken couldn't stand for the second half of the game, and the league jumped on him for throwing the game, implicating him in the gambling ring instead of Kase. Since he'd dropped out of school to play soccer, and had no family to crawl back to, Ken's life was effectively ruined. He went crazy researching, trying to figure out who had framed him. Kase, of course, offered to help.
Even with Kase hindering his searches, Ken managed to get close enough to the truth that more drastic measures were needed. So Kase set up a "meeting" between him and Ken, and the gambling thugs. He told Ken to meet him in an abandoned warehouse, convincing him that he had things under control. Ken, of course, trusted his friend and showed up. It was, of course, a setup. The thugs arrived and beat Ken half to death, dragging Kase off so that it looked like they were going to kill him. They then locked Ken in the warehouse and set it on fire. Ken survived, but blamed himself for Kase's death.
So you'd imagine that a few years later, when Kase's face appeared in a briefing for one of Weiss' missions, Ken was more than a little surprised. It turned out that Kase was working for Weiss' target, but Ken was just so happy that his friend was alive that he convinced himself Kase couldn't know about the criminal activity. He ran off to have a reunion, during which Kase started more manipulations, making Ken doubt the integrity of Weiss and Kritiker. This was, of course, another setup. Kase let Ken "convince" him to give away his boss' address, then ran ahead and killed the crime lord and framed Ken. Yes, again. He emptied a clip into Ken's chest and left the scene, thinking that Ken would be blamed for his boss' murder, leaving him to take over the crime ring. Of course, he talked before he shot, revealing that he was the one who ruined Ken's career. Can we say betrayal, folks?
But Kase didn't know Ken was in Weiss. Or that Ken had been wearing a bulletproof vest. So he was more than a little surprised when Ken showed up again, this time to kill him. (Why won't you stay dead?) The third time's the charm, apparently. He shot at Ken again, and Ken started to cry, but kept coming at him. Kase started to talk, but for once Ken didn't listen, thank god. And Ken killed him, with the rest of Weiss watching.
I guess that's all there is to tell. When your best friend tries to kill you three times, and you love them so much that you fall for it the first two times... you start developing trust issues. And I could talk about Akira here, but... let's do Yuriko first.
Yuriko - the obligatory love interest. Directly after killing Kase, Ken got on his motorcycle, and drove off to emo in peace and quiet. This was not to be. A pretty girl, also on a motorcycle, ran him off the road. Because, like, that's how you flirt or something like that. o_O Maybe he was just miserable and wanted a distraction, but Ken and Yuriko hit it off, and wound up spending a few days at a little resort type place up in the mountains. It was cute, actually. He taught her about flowers, she flirted by the pool, and Ken slept on the floor because he was too much of a gentleman to share the bed. It's implied that they finally had sex upon returning to Tokyo, when Ken drops her off at her apartment and then just... doesn't leave. He's too-cheerful the next day at work.
Happy couple? Perhaps they would have been, if it wasn't for the fact that everything and everyone that a Weiss member touches is cursed. CURSED, I tell you. First, it was just Youji giving Ken a hard time about having a girlfriend. He was pretty cruel, rambling on about blood on Ken's hands and how he didn't deserve a relationship after what he'd done... Ken tried to shake it off, but then Yuriko was the victim of one of Weiss' targets, a soft drink company that was addicting and poisoning its customers. Yuriko was so spooked by the whole event that she bought two tickets to Australia. One for her, and one for Ken. Except Ken knew that as much as he wanted to, he couldn't leave. So he showed up at the airport, but only to watch Yuriko's plane fly away.
I've gotten crit that says Ken forms attachments in camp too quickly. Yuriko is the canon evidence of how quickly Ken becomes attached to people. In a 20-minute episode (maybe about a week passes? maybe) he falls for a girl and is considering packing up and moving to a different country for her. Abandonment issues? Probably. He clings. And speaking of clinging...
Akira - appears only in the two episodes of the OVAs, but is notable for his connection to Ken. Specifically, how Ken believes in him. After Kase, you'd think the boy would have no trust left at all. But he had just enough to believe in Akira, a vigilante of sorts who wanted to protect his sister from a government conspiracy. Weiss was given a mission to kill Akira, but even though Akira had taken shots at him and Youji, Ken couldn't manage it. Instead, he chased after Akira, helped him fight, made him explain himself, and then took his side. Turns out that Ken is a good judge of character, because it was a false mission and Akira was a good guy all along. But that didn't save him from getting killed anyway. Ken and Omi left Akira and his sister in hiding while they did some recon, and when they returned the sister was gone and Akira had bled out in the snow, having been shot about a million times. I think Ken might have cried if another battle hadn't started immediately. There's only so many angst breaks you can fit into a 20-minute show.
Reiko - Appears in the drama CDs, somewhere before Weiss disbands and after the end of Kapitel. Ken meets her because he's out looking for a violence fix (to be elaborated upon in a future essay), and she happened to be getting attacked. (Yay convenient rapists!) He makes it very clear that he didn't care about her, just the beatdown he was giving the guys... but she still seems to like him, and takes him out for dinner. Turns out Reiko wants to die. She and Ken bond over their sick fascination with death and murder, and their connection to the Tokyo underworld. There is, like with Yuriko, an instance of incredibly passionate, "can't leave you here," sex. They are not in love. But there is a connection, and then, because Weiss is cruel like that, Ken has to kill her on a mission. Her death is very dramatic, as if that were a surprise. And there you have it, another lover that Ken killed with his own hands. I can't really list Reiko under abandonment issues... but it's definitely some kind of issue.
Omi - the best friend. For real. Ken was, I'm pretty sure, in Weiss before Youji, so there was a time where he and Omi were alone together for training. As far as series interaction goes, Ken and Omi are clearly the closest members of Weiss. Ken stays up to help Omi research. They're continually diving in front of attacks to "save" one another. Whenever one of them is hurt, there's always a lot of screaming and panicking and overly dramatic clinging on the part of the other one. They stick up for each other perhaps more than they should. In the OVAs, Ken breaks off from Weiss and Kritiker, and Omi sticks with him even though Ken is clearly going to get them both killed. They trust each other implicitly.
Campwise: Omi was gone from Ken's world for 8 months. I keep Ken's canon the same... Omi would have started taking a more administrative role in Kritiker, thanks to his grandfather. In Omi's absense, Kritiker started sending Ken and Youji on missions to Europe in pre-Gluhen style, to investigate Esset's new evil plan. Since Youji's not the most stable character, either, Ken really didn't have anyone to talk to after Omi left, which doubtlessly contributed to his mental decline.
Future Canon: In Gluhen, Ken and Omi have not seen each other for quite some time.. probably due to the European missions and Omi's self-imposed isolation from Weiss. When Omi does show up in person, Ken is cool and bitter about the separation. Again, abandonment. But he clearly misses Omi too much to stay that mad for long. He manages about ten minutes of crankiness before giving Omi a hug.
Farfarello - Ken's main opponent. When we first meet Schwarz, the matches for battles between them and Weiss seems to be by height/appearance, like most anime stereotypes. But Ken and Farfarello... perhaps they aren't too similar at the beginning of the series. Farfarello is a maniac, a Berserker. He's a demon when he fights, invulnerable to pain and fast as hell. He's crazy, and difficult for Schwarz to control. And Ken... becomes a lot like him, over the course of the series. Post-original series, and post contact with Farfarello, Ken goes a little crazy, starting to enjoy the killing too much. He becomes excessively violent when he fights. When he arrived in camp, Ken had been thinking that Farf was dead* and seeing him now that they have something in common made him think for a moment or two that maybe Farfarello would understand how he felt. Now he realizes their mental states are really very different, and he's working harder to keep hold of his own sanity.
*(Although there's a drama CD that I haven't read that claims Farf ran off with some girl named Sally or Sandy or something... I believe Ken killed Farfarello in the final battle of the series, as he lands a punch under Farf's jaw. With the way the blades are situated on Ken's gloves, Farfarello's throat would have been cut to shreds. And we never see his physical presence in the series again.)
Not-exactly-relationship things worth noting:
Children - Ken is great with kids. I would assume it was from growing up in an orphanage, where there were lots of children and not enough people to give them attention. In the manga, some neighborhood kids show up at the flower shop, begging him to come play soccer with them. ("Ken-niiii-chaaaaan! Let's play soccer!!!" "But I have to mind the shop right now." "Awww, until when?") In the anime, a little time is passed, and he's gotten together a little-league-esque team. We get to see him coaching them, and it's obvious that he adores them. So. Ken loves kids, and they love him back. Not much more to say about that.
Pets - are something I don't think Ken has ever had. He was separated from his family younger than any of the other Weiss members. (Omi was the next youngest, at 7, then Aya at 18. We don't know Youji's family history, but it's assumed to be a normal childhood.) The closest thing Ken has to pets in camp are the chibis Ryuuken gave him, which he actually considers an odd cross between pets and children.
Future Canon, and Aya - In the Drama CDs, Ken goes crazy. This will be detailed in a later post, but the gist of it is that he goes nuts, and starts chasing death and violence and killing. Aya is the only one who really understands, probably, as when Youji and Omi are all, "wtf is with Ken?" Aya is more like, "leave him." By Gluhen, Ken is pretty shattered, sanitywise... and Aya seems to know that. Ken grabs a target and tells Aya to run them both through, because "it's the only way." Uh. No. Ken's not that stupid. And Aya's not that stupid as to do it without realizing there were other ways. Still, he does it. It doesn't kill Ken, however, unfortunately for them both. And at the end of Gluhen, Aya, the only one who understands... gets on a plane to Europe without Ken, who's asking him to stay. So Ken commits himself for awhile, thinking that being in jail will give him time to think. He winds up leaving and following Aya to Europe, joining Side B... another assassin team. Ah, Ken. Your crazy knows no bounds.
Bisexuality - As much as I tease him about it, Ken is not gay. Obviously. (Yuriko and Reiko prove that.) But he's also not straight. Less obviously. My canon evidence is, admittedly, mostly interpretation, but I believe that Kase was Ken's first lover as well as his first friend, as stated above. And there was someone else. David. This is a character who doesn't get his own write-up, since he appears in Side B, past the point I'm playing Ken from. But since technically he's from Ken's past, I'm going to talk about him now. Ken and David played soccer together, and David is killed by a conspiracy much like the one that ruined Ken's life - he was drugged. (CAMP!KEN DOES NOT KNOW THIS, THE DEATH OCCURS IN SIDE B.) It's rather clear and there was more between David and Ken than an old team connection. David kept a picture of Ken in his bedroom, and after he died his brother went through the trouble of tracking Ken (who, remember, hasn't seen or spoken to this guy in years) down to tell him about David's life. And then David's brother tries to kill him, and it was all some sorta scheme, but that's another badly translated story. Weiss is the most plothole ridden show in the world: why is an assassin keeping his somewhat notable identity? I DON'T KNOW. But! Boyfriends. Ken's had them. Girlfriends. He's had one. I think this is more due to the fact that he's much more comfortable around guys than girls. This is thanks to too many years in a locker room, and how most women in WK are either damsels in distress or completely fucking insane. So Ken likes girls, but he's completely inept when it comes to initating contact. If Yuriko hadn't kept badgering him, he probably would have been too awkward to speak, let alone flirt with her.
Yup. That's all I got.