Muto Kenji

Muto Kenji, also known as "The Fox", is a highly skilled member of the Tribe and the Master of the Muto family. Like the Tribe in general, his allegiance switches among various factions over the course of the series, though he maintains a genuine affection for Otori Shigeru and later his successor Otori Takeo.

Kenji befriends Shigeru through two chance encounters during Heaven's Net is Wide, saving his life during the latter; he subsequently alerts Shigeru to several attempts to assassinate him over the years. Though vaguely aware of Shigeru's long-term plan to overthrow and defeat his archenemy Iida Sadamu, Kenji maintains that his first loyalty is to the Tribe. Thus, when Shigeru and his nephew Takeo attempt to carry out their own assassination attempt on Sadamu, Kenji- who initially trained Takeo in the ways of the Tribe- reluctantly helps abduct Takeo to preserve his talents for the Tribe, resulting in Shigeru's arrest, torture and eventual death.

Kenji remains haunted by his betrayal of his closest friend for the rest of the series, and when Takeo eventually defects from the Tribe he does not join the Kikuta's attempts to kill him. After Kenji's daughter Muto Yuki (who had given birth to Takeo's son) is poisoned by the Kikuta, a grieving Kenji renounces them and pledges the allegiance of the other four Tribe families to Takeo and the Otori Clan. He and his niece, Muto Shizuka, help Takeo win the War of the Otori Succession and become his spymasters during the subsequent eighteen years of peace.

Sixteen years later, aware of the prophecy that says Takeo can only be killed by his son, a dying Kenji attempts to free his grandson, Kikuta Hisao, from the malevolent influence of the exiled Kikuta family. The attempt is a failure and results in Kenji taking poison to avoid capture, though in his last moments he encounters the ghost of his daughter, Yuki. With his death, the loyalty of the Tribe to Takeo becomes split once again.

Section heading
Write the first section of your page here.

Section heading
Write the second section of your page here.