Kenichiro is an android patron of the Ox & Carriage. Manufactured by Aoba Lifelike Systems Specialists, Kenichiro is a jack of many trade and likes to push the limits of what he can experience as an artificial lifeform, he believes the best way to find those limits is to find other talented people and challenge them. As you'd expect, this lifestyle of big bets and upped antes is paired with a cocky personality- Kenichiro will goad people into calling his wagers or pressure them into accepting his challenges. This cockiness has a root of humility to it, as when he loses a bet Kenichiro is a good sport about it, recognizing there are lessons only failure can teach and you'll never learn them if you don't try. He's challenged Bi Feng's Illusion Fist a few times to no immediate success. He has not been able to goad Big Henry into a test of strength, which is probably for the best. He has arm wrestled Puke Commander, right- and left-handed; he won the right-hand match but the southpaw set blew out his synthetic deltoid. Lessons learned.
- Kenichiro can be hired on to adventuring parties if you best him in a simple game of chance.
- Kenichiro is frequently looking for challengers in games of skill or chance. He pays well if you win.
Titan Garden has a thriving entertainment sector in the E-District- and high-rollers can often be found at the Mobius Casino- but Kenichiro prefers the kind of challenges he can find among the A-District's residents. The big distinction here is that E-District gambling has rules and regulations, whereas anything goes in the all-purpose A-District. Games are run at corner tables with the added challenge of not being bested by a crooked dealer and odd challenges happen everywhere- can you cut a glass bottle with a metal cleaver? Kenichiro's taken the bet. An angry starfarer drawn into a loss by Kenichiro's goading on a wager has challenged him to blasters drawn in the back streets; onlookers say Kenichiro threw a concealed knife and spared the man's life, sticking him in the shooting hand before his blaster could clear its holster. Odd challenges take many forms and you don't always find that variety in other districts, but above all other things Kenichiro loves to race starships.
Kenichiro's prize starship is called the King Cobra. He originally won it off a hot shot pilot tearing a streak of thruster exhaust around Saturn's rings, a popular circular track for Titan's drag racers to test their mettle. Since coming into Kenichiro's possession the King Cobra has undergone numerous modifications, improving its accelerating, its handling, its efficiency and its shield projectors. He's shaped the King Cobra into a formidable racer and a big part of his secret recipe is eschewing the stock parts and factory-new upgrades popular in other racers' builds in favor of rare salvage parts, components of other starships which have been tested and survived the end of their host ships' lives. Parts that have been pushed beyond their limits and still survive to keep working. Parts just like him.
Naturally being a high-stakes Android gambler with a ship made of salvage parts Kenichiro is a regular customer of Red Raven Towing & Salvage. He prefers Red Raven's salvage and refurbished parts to Timberwolf's since their chief mechanic specializes in restoring broken machinery in a way that is hard to compete with. When Red Raven works on the King Cobra they're able to make parts from different manufacturers and different world standards of measurement fit together somehow, giving the hodgepodge little ship an unusual performance profile. Kenichiro pays very well so he's a valuable regular customer to have, but he isn't an easy one to maintain- he won't let just any old parts grace his King Cobra, he wants the team to prove the parts perform like they say they do, so any Red Raven Kenichiro transaction is always prefaced by a race around Saturn's rings. Fortunately, Red Raven has an ace pilot of their own to help seal the deal.
Haley has come to know Kenichiro pretty well. The normally risk-averse Delta android has a weak spot of her own, she doesn't let challenges to her own piloting ability slide easily. There's a big payday on the line any time Kenichiro comes through and it's up to Haley to seal the deal and deliver the goods, and she won't let losing the sale put a dent in her reputation. Amy put together a small craft for her called the Ghost Crab which usually sits under a tarp in the yard behind Red Raven's hangar; when Kenichiro comes through to buy a new part Amy will hook the part up to the Ghost Crab and Haley will take it up into space for a one-on-one drag race around Saturn's rings against Kenichiro and his King Cobra. If Haley wins he will acknowledge the parts are an upgrade to what he already has and pay for the service job, and if she loses the parts would have held his craft back and the sale would be lost. Haley doesn't see it as being about the craft, though, she sees it as something personal for her as a challenge to a skill she takes great pride in, and she won't be beaten by this cocky hotshot. So far Haley has been thoroughly successful in selling Kenichiro on all of his salvage part inquiries, helping put Red Raven in the green after a big shipwreck salvage job.
Kenichiro is thankful for the service and for a great challenge from Haley, but someday, when the King Cobra has reached the upper limits of its performance output, he will return not for a sale but for the Jackrabbit II. If this little crew can work their magic on his own ship, what secrets do they have under the hood of their own mighty workhorse? What exists beyond the limits of his own piloting ability? He'll put his own ship on the line to find out, and Haley might not have it in her to turn down the challenge.