#shibazaki

I made this handy dandy family tree to explain my headcannon/au where Karin and Ken are cousins. It also explains the existence of Ren and Ran. Essentially, Karin and Ken related through their mothers, Nadeshiko and Yuuki, who are sisters from a wealthy family (I call them the Arisawas) looking to gain more prestige. They increased their social standing by having their daughters marry into prestigious families, the Masters family from America and the Kanzuki family at home in Japan.

Ken and Karin became close as kids due to Ken’s family functionally abandoning him in Japan. Ken had already met his baby cousin, of course. He’s eight years older than Karin and was quite proud of himself that she took a liking to him as a baby and would promptly fall asleep every time he got to hold her. When Danton left twelve year old Ken with Gouken, Ken struggled to adapt and with feeling abandoned by his parents, who from that point forward made very little effort to be involved in his life. Gouken felt sorry for the child and gave him one day a week to visit his relatives, which led to him spending a lot of time with his baby cousin, who he sees more as a little sister because of it. Ken has always worried about Karin and tried to get the rest of their family to take the abuse Karin was put through by her father seriously, however every attempt to remedy the situation was shutdown and met with active hostility.

Nadeshiko is the older sister, but due to fertility issues she had Karin much later than her sister had Ken. A big point of contention in Nadeshiko and Daigenjuro’s marriage was Nadeshiko’s ongoing fertility issues. She had multiple miscarriages and stillbirths before and after Karin, eventually dying giving birth to a son who died of anencephaly the same day. Karin is their only surviving child and Daigenjuro hates that she survived over all of her deceased infant brothers.

Daigenjuro and Nadeshiko were told that Nadeshiko would die if they kept trying to have more children which led to them planning a sanctioned affair where Daigenjuro could try to have a son with a few of the family ninjas. One of the ninjas he slept with had twin girls, which he promptly ignored. Ren and Ran are four years younger than Karin.

In an almost comical twist of fate, shortly after Karin’s mother died, the twin’s mother also died. Daigenjuro’s father (I named him Kaito) discovered the affair and was disgusted, demanding that Daigenjuro take in his estranged daughters so that no Kanzuki blood would mingle with commoners in the orphanage. This is how eleven year old Karin discovered that she had younger sisters. She wanted to hate them, but couldn’t bring herself to. They were mourning their mother too and were displaced in a household Karin knew to be dangerous, so she did her best to protect them. Karin over-asserted herself as the legitimate, rightful heir partially to shield the twins from Daigenjuro’s rampant abuse and “tests”.

Kaito is partially responsible for the monster Daigenjuro became. He once had a wife and many children, but tragedy struck House Kanzuki, leading to the death of his two older sons and teenage daughter, who he loved dearly. His wife was so consumed with grief she committed suicide to be with her children. This left only Daigenjuro, who was his father’s least favorite child and became the target of his abuse. Daigenjuro went on to severely abuse his daughters and staff. Kaito is fond of Karin but enables the abuse by constantly telling Daigenjuro how much better he finds Karin to be, how he’s being out done by a girl, and how Daigenjuro couldn’t even get her right because she’s a girl and she would be the perfect heir had she been a boy.

Growing up, Karin’s safe people were two indentured servants who worked for her family, Shibazaki and Ishizaki. They were both orphans raised on Kanzuki property and told they were not allowed to leave until they work off the debt of every meal they ate and night they slept on Kanzuki property, which led to the already mounting debt accumulating with every day worked. Shibazaki was sixteen years old when two year old Karin was placed into his care. He raised her as his own, loving her as though she was his own daughter, and Ishizaki did the same when he joined three years later. Karin received most of her emotional and practical care from them, so she see them as her adoptive parents even if it takes a long time for her to properly articulate that. They both tended to spoil her and overhype her achievements in an attempt to make up for the rampant abuse in the household. It was impossible for them to protect her due to them also being abused, but they could love her as enthusiastically and earnestly as possible to try to keep her spirit from being crushed. They could also document. Shibazaki began keeping a journal and recording every instance of abuse against Karin, Ran, and Ren. He took pictures of injuries that went untreated, copied medical reports, wrote down detailed accounts of the incidents, recorded eye witness accounts from staff, and made Karin keep her own journal entries to corroborate his reports.

When Karin took over the Kanzuki Zaibatsu, part of her terms were that Daigenjuro sign emancipation papers, sign custody of her little sisters to her, and comply with a restraining order or she would press charges and release the evidence to the press. Daigenjuro stepped down and complied for a while, though broke the restraining order later when Karin was being particularly irresponsible with her newfound freedom and unlimited spending. Shibazaki, with the help of Ken, blocked the rest of the family including Daigenjuro, from being able to take advantage of Karin, by pressing charges and requesting a temporary conservatorship of Karin and custody of her sisters. Shibazaki was named their legal guardian and had to sign off on major spending and zaibatsu decisions until Karin completed college, something she initially was furious about but came to appreciate when she realized how close she was to being under her father’s thumb again. Daigenjuro ultimately was convicted of aggravated child abuse, child endangerment, false imprisonment, among other charges related to financial irregularities and abuse of his staff and daughters, leading to him going to prison after a very long, public trial that left Karin exhausted.

During the trial, Karin stayed with Ken and Eliza, who handled the press on her behalf. Ken ended up getting into public fights with his parents and maternal grandparents over the matter, calling them out for ignoring the evidence for years and shutting him down when he had spoken up years ago. He didn’t let them feign ignorance to save their reputations, something Karin appreciated immensely. Around this time, Mel was born, and Karin became his eccentric aunt, happy to be included in Ken and Eliza’s family.

I mean . . . was that a Spinels joke, director Shinichiro Watanabe?

He also had another line about how the other guy on leave was creeping out his wife, and it was said with a certain idk awareness? If that makes sense? 

I mean . . . I think . . . that Shinichiro Wantanabe is a Shinkane shipper.