Kenzo’s story begins with his parents. Being born to a sorceress from Fiore and a legion commander from Bellum, Kenzo’s parents met in the field of battle in a border dispute between Bellum and the Peregrande Kingdom. Being an accomplished Fairy Tail sorceress from the magic land of Fiore, Kenzo’s mother traveled to the east while gathering information for a hundred years quest. During an unfortunate encounter, she was forced to join forces with a Bellan legion’s detachment to repel a large host of Peregrande’s knights. Proving herself powerful enough to hold back half of the enemy army during battle, Kenzo’s mother was escorted back to the capital city to be rewarded for her assistance.
Before long, his parents fell in love and decided to form a family. Finishing her reconnaissance mission for the hundred years quest, Kenzo’s mother sent back the information she had gathered to her guild master. As a side note, she notified the guild that she would stay in Bellum for longer than she had first anticipated. As such, the years went by, and before long, the couple gave birth to a young boy. The days were joyful and peaceful. As Kenzo turned 6 years old, he showed promising talent in the use of magic under the tutelage of his mom. He would spend his days learning about spells and magic manipulation, while also following his father to the barracks to see the soldiers train. In his mind, Kenzo dreamed with becoming a soldier like his father and leading the legions against Bellum’s enemies with his magic like his mother.
One day, his mother received a letter from the Fairy Tail guild master asking her to return as quickly as possible to Fiore. Seeing this as an opportunity for Kenzo to know his mother’s home, the Valens family decided to travel together. The contents of the letter would change Kenzo’s life forever.
The night before their departure, an ominous feeling swept through the air. The details of whatever happened are still fuzzy in Kenzo’s mind. The only thing he remembers is the feeling of waking up in a cold sweat after hearing his mother’s plea for help. Trembling, the young boy walked down the stairs into the living room. What came next is still something Kenzo does not remember very well. There are flashbacks of him seeing towering presence, a demonic figure with grotesque wings and horns that held his mother by the neck. A flash of an image of his father charging at the beast and being impaled by the demon’s long claws from its free hand. Time froze, sound left the world. Frozen with fear, Kenzo stood motionless while his mother wrestled with the demon as he opened a portal into a dimensional rift. Before the demon finished, his mother called for his name as she chanted a spell. Kenzo could feel his mother’s magical energy enveloping his body in a blue-ish hue while the whole room was filled with a golden light that emanated from her hands, blurring his vision and rendering him unconscious.
Waking up the next day in a puddle of blood and sweat, Kenzo’s mother and the demon were nowhere to be seen. The only evidence left that what occurred had not been simply a terrible nightmare was his father’s lifeless corpse. As he dragged himself to his body, a searing pain scorched Kenzo’s stomach. Where once before laid his skin and belly button, a pitch-black hole cursed all the way through his torso. Fear immediately took control of his body, as the missing part of his stomach hurt as if he was being stabbed by red hot blades. However, he had no time to waste. Ignoring the pain and the shock, Kenzo quickly ran to the library where his mother kept her magic tomes. Struggling to even move, he used his whole strength to open the chapter on healing magic. Without thinking twice, the young boy attempted a high-grade spell to heal his father. He had never attempted a spell so advanced before, but there was no time to waste. As he focused on making the ethernano flow through his body, the pain on his stomach surged to a peak. As he uncontrollably tried to stop the pain, he felt as if something was coming out of his right cheek. Tearing through his flesh and bone, a sinister half jawbone slowly formed on the right side of his face. The more he channeled his magical power to the healing spell, the faster the jawbone materialized. After it had completely formed, the pain knocked the young boy out. Sadly, Kenzo not only lost both of his parents that day, but also his ability to use magic.
The years passed and Kenzo survived as a street orphan in the capital city of Bellum. His memory of that fateful night growing fuzzier as the time passed. The local authorities determined that the sorceress from Fiore had killed the Bellan commander, leaving behind a child with the brand of the devil. Thrown into the cruel reality that humans don’t care for anything other than their lives, Kenzo was left to fend for himself. Spending weeks on end starving and dreaming of something to eat, the young boy learned that the only way to survive was by constantly stealing and fighting. Only those with power and wealth could afford a lifestyle of peace. Kenzo promised himself that he would become stronger and richer than anyone else, making sure that nothing would be out of his reach again and no one would be able to take away from him the peace and comfort that he would construct for himself.
As he grew up as a thug in the streets, he became acquainted to a group of mercenaries from the west, managing to convince them to let him join their quest for riches and glory. For almost ten years, Kenzo would fight the daimyo’s battles in Joya. Making himself acquainted with the way of the warrior that Joyan samurai were known for, he quickly adopted the use of the katana. Even if his days were full of slaughter and battle, he slowly felt like he had found once again a place to call home. With time, many young orphans like him had joined the mercenary band and with each battle they survived the boys grew to become brothers.
However, misfortune rarely strikes once. For Kenzo, this meant that everything was about to change again. After a particularly successful raid to an enemy camp, the merry band of mercenaries celebrated by drinking themselves to sleep that day. What no one expected, was that an enemy group would ambush and massacre the members in the darkness of night. One of Kenzo’s comrades in arms had decided to betray them in hopes of obtaining a larger portion for himself. The men fought valiantly against the attackers, left and right Kenzo’s friends died. As he saw the corpses of those he called brothers pile up, the young mercenary was consumed by a burning rage. With each strike of his sword he drew the blood of his enemies, and with each life he took an ever more sinister smile grew on his lips. The jawbone on his cheek emitted an ever-darker aura with each life he took, slowly making his light blue eyes shine in the darkness of night. As he fought for his life, Kenzo’s mind slowly fell into the abyss in an all-consuming hatred. He is not even sure if he slashed some of his brethren in his fury, but he fought until he had the head of the one who had betrayed them all. However, the enemies were just too many, and the man was left with no other option but to retreat.
Barely escaping with his life, Kenzo once again mourned the death of his parents as he felt hopeless. There was nothing left in the world for him again, except for that cursed hole in his stomach and jawbone in his cheek. Aimless and desperate, Kenzo tried to remember what had happened the night his parents were killed. Sadly, it was impossible for him to make sense of his memories. The only thing he knew, was that whatever attacked them that day was not of this world. If he wanted to recover his past, he would need to uncover the truth behind his mother’s past. As he arrived to Fiore in search for answers, his peaceful and happy days with his family and later with his brothers in arms seemed like a dream.
For now, Kenzo wanders through Fiore in search for a clue. Taking jobs as a bounty hunter and a mercenary wherever he goes. He doesn’t know where this path will take him. And yet, he feels that deep within his memories lies the answer as to why the hole in his torso hides more than what first meets the eye.