Ichijouji Ken

Ichijouji Ken, also once known as the Digimon Kaiser, is an antagonist turned protagonist of Digimon Adventure 02.

=Profile= Ken is a sweet boy, very kind and polite towards others. He became a Chosen Child to fight a threat to the Digital World several years before the other Chosen. He is haunted by the death of his elder brother and everything he did as the Digimon Kaiser.

Ken's Digimon Kaiser persona is cruel, cold and sadistic, enjoying nothing than causing pain to others and seeing them suffer. This persona was fueled by a corrupting Dark Seed planted in the back of his neck.

=Appearances=

As a child, Ken grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Ichijouji Osamu, a boy genius. One day, when the two were in their shared room, a Digivice emerged from the screen of Osamu's computer. Osamu took it and hid it away in his desk drawer, telling Ken not to touch it. However, the curious youngster touched it anyway, and an upset Osamu taking the Digivice.

Ken wanted nothing more than for Osamu to vanish now, and a little later, Osamu ended up getting hit by a car and dying. Ken was full of sorrow, thinking his wishes were the reason Osamu died. He dedicated himself to his studies, in an attempt to help his parents fill the void created by Osamu's death.

Following an anonymous email he received while working on Osamu's old computer, Ken took the Digivice again and ventured to the Dark Ocean, where he changed his Digivice into a D-3 and become corrupted. Ken went on to become the ruthless Digimon Kaiser, and began creating the Evil Rings and Dark Towers in order to put the Digital World under his control. At the same time in the Real World, Ken started excelling in his studies and became very athletic, becoming famous in Japan as a boy genius, much like Osamu was before him.

Eventually, opposition to his regime came in the form of three new Chosen Children, who hadn't realized he was the famous Ichijouji Ken. In turn, he hadn't realized that they or their Digimon were real, thinking it was all a game.

After some time, Ken's Tamachi FC soccer team were scheduled to play a game against Odaiba Elementary's team. Ken arrived only for the second half, but brought his team to victory. During the game, he saw the Chosen Children with their Digimon in the audience, and played against Motomiya Daisuke, but hadn't realized yet that the Digimon he was fighting were all real beings. A tackle from Daisuke injured Ken's ankle during the game, and in retaliation, Ken (as the Digimon Kaiser) had Daisuke degrade himself, threatening to feed the Chosen Children to Deltamon. However, the real Chosen Children appeared, revealing the deception. Daisuke tackled the Kaiser in a scuffle, and during the fight, he recognized the injury on the Kaiser's leg, prompting Ken to reveal himself as the Digimon Kaiser.

Following this, Ken ran off to the Digital World, determined to purge his opponents and take full control of the world. He developed the Evil Spiral to control Perfect Digimon and used in on Yagami Taichi's Agumon, but his tainted D-3 only managed to evolve the Digimon to Skull Greymon. After Wormmon helped Agumon escape, Ken recaptured him and finally made him evolve into a dark Metal Greymon. However, the Chosen Children managed to bring Agumon back to them with Daisuke's new Digimental of Friendship.

From this day on, Ken started working on creating a synthetic Digimon he named Chimairamon. He sent Chimairamon out to wreck havoc around the Digital World, but eventually, Chimeramon proved too violent for him to fully control. To save the Digital World and Ken, Wormmon helped Daisuke to locate the Kaiser's base's engine room, where he discovered the source of its energy, the Digimental of Miracles. Daisuke used it to evolve V-mon to Magnamon. When Daisuke unlocked the Digimental, V-mon noticed that a crest is inside of it, which was later revealed to be Ken's Crest of Kindness. Although Magnamon was powerful, his true power was not revealed until Wormmon gave him the energy to defeat Chimairamon using his attack. Daisuke and the others finally made Ken realize that Digimon were real, living things, not just computer data, a point driven home by the death of Wormmon. He shed his Kaiser persona and decided to go home and never return to the Digital World.

However, Ken ended up returning to the Digital World and reuniting with a reborn Wormmon, and decided to help destroy the Dark Towers he'd erected to try and make up for what he'd done. Wormmon aided him, finally evolving into his adult form of Stingmon. When he went head on into a hopeless battle against Okuwamon, Daisuke showed up and tried to convince him that he can't go fighting all on his own. Daisuke's words to Ken enabled Stingmon to Jogress with XV-mon and form Paildramon. From this point on, Ken worked with the Chosen Children and eventually became one of their own. He even invited them all to a Christmas party, though it was cut short by an invasion of Digimon.

On Christmas Day, the Chosen Children found out that Digital Gates were open in the entire world. Qinglongmon gave the Chosen Children one of his Digicores to help power up the Digimon, enabling Paildramon to evolve into Imperialdramon. Ken and Ishida Yamato travelled to Mexico to help the local Chosen Children round up the wild Digimon that had come through the gates, there meeting up and working with Chichos, a Mexican Chosen who developed something of a crush on Ken.

Back in Japan, the children had to fend off the Demon Corps, a group of evil Digimon led by Demon. When Skull Satamon was threatening to destroy a bus full of children, the others' Perfect Digimon gave Imperialdramon the power they got from Qinglongmon, and he mode changed into Imperialdramon Fighter Mode. With this power, Imperialdramon destroyed Skull Satamon. Following this, Archnemon and Mummymon showed up with a truck full of kids they had rounded up, and coaxed Ken to come with them. In the truck, he met their boss, Oikawa Yukio, who revealed to him that he had been manipulating Ken in his Digimon Kaiser days using the Dark Seed in Ken's neck. Oikawa proceeded to scan Ken's Dark Seed and implant the copies in the children. The truck was stopped in Hikarigaoka by Demon, who demanded to have Ken. Ken used his D-3 to opened a gate to the World of Darkness, with the help of the other Chosen Children, and banished Demon there. However, Archnemon, Mummymon and Oikawa, managed to run away.

Ken and the others followed the seeded children for the following days, facing Oikawa several times. On December 31st, they followed Oikawa and the children to the world of dreams, where it was revealed that Oikawa Yukio was possessed by the spirit of Belial Vamdemon, who absorbed the power of the Dark Seeds to gain a corporeal form. He killed Archnemon and Mummymon, which shocked and frightened Ken and the others. When Daisuke and XV-mon started fighting back, Belial Vamdemon subjected the children to an illusion, showing their greatest desire. Ken had two desires; to see his evil Kaiser self punished and destroyed for all his bad deeds, and to be with Osamu again. However, the dream Osamu and Wormmon told Ken it was just a dream, and all the Chosen Children and their Digimon appeared to take bring him back to reality. When everyone's illusions were broken, Ken used the power of the dream dimension against Belial Vamdemon, with Stingmon, Paildramon, Imperialdramon and Imperialdramon Fighter Mode appearing all at once to fight Belial Vamdemon. After Belial Vamdemon escaped to the Digital World, the light from his D-3 helped weaken Belial Vamdemon and power up Imperialdramon Fighter Mode's Giga Death cannon.

Ken was sent with Daisuke to collect Kuramon that Diablomon sent to Earth. When all of the Kuramon fused into Armagemon, Ken and Daisuke used all of Omegamon's remaining power to mode change Imperialdramon Fighter Mode again into Imperialdramon Paladin Mode.

25 Years Later
By the year 2028, Ken has married Inoue Miyako and became a police officer. Together, they have three children; a daughter with blue hair who is partnered with a Poromon, a son with purple hair who is partnered with a Minomon, and a baby with darker purple hair who is partnered with a Leafmon.

Ken appears to supply Daisuke with Stingmon in order for V-Mon to evolve into Imperialdramon.

Akiyama Ryou and Ichijouji Ken are called to the Digital World soon after witnessing the battle with Diablomon, after it appears to escape to the Digital World. There, Ken meets his partner Digimon Wormmon, and Ryou partners up with V-mon, the future partner of Motomiya Daisuke. Millenniumon appears after the battle and says that the Diablomon was simply meant to lure Ryou back into the Digital World, after which Millenniumon destroys Mugen Mountain, causing the Digital World to tear into two.

During the remainder of the game, Ryo and Ken take turns clearing the various fields and dungeons until they arrive at Millenniumon's floating continent. After defeating Millenniumon, it unleashes a wave of Dark Seeds, one of which - meant for Ryou - instead strikes Ken, initiating his eventual descent into the Digimon Kaiser persona a year later.

Ken (in both his real name and as the Digimon Kaiser) is mentioned by Wormmon and V-dramon in Jungle City, the former mentioning how he feared his anger, and the latter mentioning how he lost control of himself after staring into Ken's eyes. He's mentioned once again by Wormmon, now Stingmon, as well as Garurumon in Igloo City, with the latter once again pointing out how he fell under the Digimon Kaiser's spell. Finally, Shadramon mentions him in Junk City.

The Digimon Kaiser finally makes his appearance as the final opponent of Dark City's Battle Arena, after facing four forms of his Partner, Wormmon. He expresses surprise that someone as weak as the player got so far, and calls Wormmon useless as he couldn't stop even a weakling like him. This angers the player, who ultimately tells him to shut up and points out how he's done nothing so far, as Wormmon was the one who fought all the time. The player proceeds to mock him, noting how he must lack skill at Card Battles, angering Ken. The Digimon Kaiser uses the Rule of Chains deck, a Black/Darkness deck with 4 attack, 3 defense and 3 evolution speed, which is capable of controlling the battlefield. Upon being defeated, the player mocks the Digimon Kaiser once again, telling him how he'll tell everyone that Wormmon was more of a challenge than him. The Digimon Kaiser has a nervous breakdown after this, completely unwilling to believe he lost, though the player tells him that it was only oen defeat and he can always try again. The Kaiser refuses and leaves, telling the player that he'll never see him again.

Nonetheless, the defeat proves good for Ken, as Wormmon tells the player in Dark City's Battle Cafe that he's changing his ways.

Ken reappears in Steep Road's Battle Cafe. The player immediately recognizes him as the Digimon Kaiser, and Ken apologizes for what he did before. The player tells him that Wormmon deserves his apologies and thanks more than he does, and that Wormmon has forgiven him already. In response, Ken gives the player his last Partner Card, which can be any of the six Partner Cards in the game the player hasn't chosen already (V-mon, Hawkmon, Armadimon, Patamon, Tailmon and Wormmon). Wormmon can only be obtained here. Afterwards, he asks the player for a rematch.

Ken can be battled in the postgame after his Partner, Gran Kuwagamon, is defeated. Upon being challenged, he tells the player that he's improved too and won't be defeated. Ken plays the Wormhole Deck, a Black/Darkness deck that attacks by Jamming. Upon being beaten, he praises the player's strength and realizes he isn't as strong yet, but vows to keep training so he won't keep losing. Beating Ken for the first time will award the player an S-Black Pack, and subsequent defeats may award it too. Beating him six times will award the player Digi-Part 114 Drop Opponent's Top 4 DP Cards. Furthermore, during the third and sixth battles, Ken will give the player his Shadra and Coatl decks so the player may register Shadramon and Coatlmon if he hasn't chosen Wormmon as a Partner Card. If he has, he won't offer the decks.

TCG
=Image Gallery=