Kenneth Drayden
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English |
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Other | Kengo Dojun ( | ||||
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Occupation | Bounty Hunter[1] | ||||
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Anime Deck | Drone | ||||
Appearances | |||||
Anime debut | Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode LINK VRAINS 2.0" 47: " | ||||
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Voice actors | |||||
Japanese |
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Drayden, Kenneth |
Blood Shepherd, real name Kengo Dojun[2] (
Contents
Design
Appearance
Kengo is a slim man with lilac eyes and purple hair with a navy blue underlayer. He conceals his identity behind grey glasses with blue hexagonal lenses and a maroon scarf that covers his nose and mouth. He wears a long denim blue coat with a high collar open over white pants and a pale blue shirt with a lilac lining.[3] His artificial arm has a black glove over the hand with a teal patch on the back. In his youth, he wore a more simple suit in subtle shades of purple with a yellow-brown tie.
As Blood Shepherd in LINK VRAINS, his Avatar is a masked man with a cowboy Western motif. His face is entirely masked, covered in grey skin and a twin-section "mask"; the top section is red and resembles the face of a bat with pink lenses, the bottom section is blue and covers most of his face. Blood Shepherd swathes himself in a light purple mantle with red lines running down it, and a green line running around its collar with a red rectangular clasp. He also wears a grey jacket with a high collar and green inside, grey pants with loose straps around the ankles, and grey boots with straps around the feet and red soles. Blood Shepherd's artificial right arm is more obviously expressed; the forearm is stylized after the hammer and chamber of a revolver, and the knuckles and fingers are lined with red. These lines intersect with a black and red "eye" or "barrel" on his palm, which appears to be where he focuses his ability to destroy Avatars. His left shoulder has a hexagonal light purple pauldron lined with green, while his left hand is simply gloved.
Kengo is strongly associated with the color purple both in reality and as Blood Shepherd. Ironically, Playmaker defeats him with a Fusion Monster, which have a purple border.
Personality
Kengo is a consummate and ruthless professional. He bases his decisions largely on monetary gain, with no regard for personal attachments, and he considers Ghost Girl soft for refusing to hunt for Playmaker because she owed him. He displays casual ruthlessness by dissolving the Avatar of a person who harassed him and boasted of his own abilities to attack Avatars.[1] He is pragmatic; using Akira Zaizen and Ghost Girl as bait while battling a hacker, though he still took the time to rescue Emma when she was endangered. He has no hesitation in lying and misinforming his opponents to let their guard down. Similar to Playmaker and Varis, Blood Shepherd also has a habit of listing a count of three in various situations.[4]
Kengo loathes and distrusts AI due to the role a malfunctioning one played in his mother's crippling, and he constantly demeans both Ai and his own AI, which he has modified to lie. He believes that AI should be under humanity's control and that they cannot be trusted.
Abilities
Blood Shepherd displays the ability to dissolve Avatars within LINK VRAINS, which appears to be a function of his artificial arm. By grabbing the unfortunate Avatar, Blood Shepherd shocks them and they convulse, then go limp before dissolving. It is unclear if this deletes their data.[1] He can also fire energy blasts from his palm.[4]
Biography
History
![](https://ms.yugipedia.com//thumb/5/51/KengoDojunNoMask.png/200px-KengoDojunNoMask.png)
Kengo's father died before he finished high school. After completing his education, he took his his mother out to dinner for her birthday. He was grateful he was able to finish high school and wished to jump straight into a career rather than pursue a higher education. His mother was hesitant about this. They took a new AI-controlled taxi home, but it malfunctioned and the care crashed into the site a previous car accident had just occurred. Kengo lost the use of his arm, but his mother's spinal cord was severely damaged, meaning she would never walk again. Kengo built himself a prosthetic metal arm and devoted his career to bringing AI programs under the control of humans.[2]
Kengo worked in the military for a time, where he was known to interrogate AI with his artificial arm. He later became a bounty hunter, taking the alias "Blood Shepherd". He worked alongside Akira Zaizen and Emma Bessho in a net world that was not LINK VRAINS to capture a hacker, using them as bait to attain a chance to destroy the hacker's Avatar, and rescuing Emma from the hacker's bomb, calling her by her real name.[4]
Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Blood Shepherd received a contract to capture Playmaker, and he waited at a cafe in LINK VRAINS. Two Avatars were harassing the other patrons and chasing them away, trying to claim their spot. The younger brother tried to intimidate Blood Shepherd, but was unsuccessful, so he and his brother threatened him with their Avatar-harming programs. Unimpressed, Blood Shepherd picked up the older brother and informed him that he could also kill Avatars, before proceeding to do so, terrifying the younger brother. Ghost Girl approached, asking if he'd accepted the contract on Playmaker from SOL Technologies. Blood Shepherd confirmed that he had, and criticized Ghost Girl for being soft when she stated that she hadn't as she owed Playmaker. When criticized in turn for making his decisions based on money, he replied that it was professional and warned her that he wouldn't show her mercy if she opposed him. When Playmaker logged in LINK VRAINS, he was confronted by Blood Shepherd, for he had a bounty on his head. Playmaker replied he didn't have Ignis by his side, but was betrayed by his Duel Disk, for Ai returned to him with "Linkuriboh". To get rid of Blood Shepherd, Ai summoned a Data Storm, causing Blood Shepherd to log out, due to the danger present.[1]
Gore was surprised to see Kengo masked, as Kengo didn't want to show his face to those that revealed theirs in LINK VRAINS. Gore claimed that he would be the one to defeat Playmaker, lamenting that Playmaker was always a step ahead of him. Kengo ignored Gore, but reminded him not to order him around, as he did his things at his own pace. Akira showed footage of the orange figure that Playmaker had Dueled as Kengo believed it would help them track Playmaker down. Gore was alarmed at the figure, while Kengo noticed that the figure had not logged out. Regardless, Akira explained the figure went beyond the Restricted Area of LINK VRAINS.[3]
Blood Shepherd waited at the gate to the Restricted Area to ambush Ai and Playmaker.[5] He attacked them with energy blasts from his artificial arm, so Ai released a Data Storm in retaliation. This time Blood Shepherd resisted the Storm and continued attacking them until Playmaker commented that he was just threatening them, as he could only win Ai through a Duel. Blood Shepherd warned them to choose to Duel or surrender, giving them a count of three to let their guard down, and shot at them after the second count. Unable to escape, Playmaker agreed to a Speed Duel. Blood Shepherd took the first turn, simply summoning "Drone Pawn" and Setting a card. As Ai commented on Blood Shepherd's moves, Blood Shepherd's AI explained the effect of "Drone Pawn" and noted to Blood Shepherd that they had put it in position to be vulnerable to the consecutive attack effect of Playmaker's latest monster. Blood Shepherd noted that he had Summoned "Drone Pawn" in the wrong Zone. Playmaker Link Summoned "Elphase", and Blood Shepherd's AI explained that he could not activate his Set card. Playmaker subsequently brought out "Shootingcode Talker", and used the effect of "Elphase", to revive "Clock Wyvern", setting up an OTK. Blood Shepherd's AI explained its owner would lose in the next attack, which Ai agreed with.
Blood Shepherd retorted that he had succeeded in fooling them; activating "Capture Drone" to trap "Shootingcode Talker". Ai protested that Blood Shepherd's AI stated he could not activate his Set card, and Blood Shepherd enigmatically stated that he shouldn't have trusted his AI, or any AI, much to Ai's anger. On his next turn, Blood Shepherd swarmed the field with "Drone Tokens" via the effect of "Capture Drone", silencing his own AI and demeaning Ai for explaining obvious information before bringing out "Battledrone General".
Blood Shepherd used the effect of "Battledrone General" to revive "Drone Pawn" from his Graveyard and swiftly reduced Playmaker's LP to 500, but before he could finish him off with "General's" attack, Playmaker activated "Cure Conversion" to negate the attack and recover LP. Ai commented that Blood Shepherd had missed his target, and Blood Shepherd noted that they also had, since their LP was no longer low enough to activate Storm Access. Playmaker managed to overcome the effect of "Capture Drone" by using his Ritual Monster, "Cyberse Magician", which forced Blood Shepherd to Tribute "Battledrone General" in order to halve the battle damage to stay in the Duel. Despite having no monsters left on the field, Blood Shepherd is able to rebuild his formation while also Link Summoning "Medicdrone Dock", and then proceeded to perform the same combo from his previous turn. This time, Playmaker survived due to the damage-halving effect of "Cyberse Magician", leaving him with only 900 LP. Blood Shepherd used his Skill, Drone Craft Force, to reduce the ATK of "Cyberse Magician" and destroyed it with "Battledrone General". Intending to finish the Duel, he attacked "Cyberse Witch" with "Medicdrone Dock", but Playmaker forced a Double KO, triggering the effect of "Dock" to increase Playmaker's LP and once again prevent him from using Storm Access.
Blood Shepherd complimented Playmaker, admitting that he was the first to escape his "Three Turn Count" and he offered Playmaker a chance to surrender and hand over the Ignis. Ai himself refused, claiming that Playmaker would never comply because of their strong bonds, a statement that caused Blood Shepherd to recall the circumstances of his mother's accident. He angrily stated that all AI should be under humanity's control, much to Ai's confusion. Playmaker was able to use "Dimension Link" to both free "Shootingcode Talker" from "Capture Drone" and halve his LP, thus finally activating Storm Access. Since Blood Shepherd's "Drone Cordon" still wouldn't allow Playmaker's Link Monsters to attack, Playmaker instead used his newly acquired "Clock Spartoi" to enable him to Fusion Summon "Cyberse Clock Dragon". Using its effect, Playmaker raised its ATK to 7500 and defeated Blood Shepherd in a single attack. As he was hit by the finishing blow, Blood Shepherd asked himself how he could have lost to someone allied to an AI.[2]
Deck
![](https://ms.yugipedia.com//thumb/3/38/Blood_Shepherd_and_his_monsters.png/200px-Blood_Shepherd_and_his_monsters.png)
Kengo uses a "Drone" Deck. His main strategy is to use "Drone Pawn", "Battledrone General", and "Battledrone Sergeant" to perform a One Turn Kill through direct attacks and effect damage, while using Traps like "Capture Drone" and "Drone Cordon" to shut down the opponent's Link Monsters. Though he tends to bypass his opponent's monsters due to the low ATK of most of his monsters, he can use his Skill, "Drone Craft Force" to lower the ATK of his opponent's monsters. Blood Shepherd Duels pragmatically, ordering his AI to lie about the capabilities of his cards and employing strategies to prevent Playmaker from using Storm Access.
After learning about Takeru Homura's weakness, he adds Despair from the Dark to his deck, setting up a combo between it, Duplicate Drone, and 3D Bio Scanner in order to trigger Takeru's PTSD.
Deck
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Duels
Opponent | Episode(s) | Outcome |
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Yusaku Fujiki/Playmaker | 53-54 | Lose |
Takeru Homura/Soulburner | 62-??? | TBD |
References
- ↑ a b c d Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode LINK VRAINS 2.0" 47: "
- ↑ a b c Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode Game of Drones" 54: "
- ↑ a b Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode A Common Cause" 50: "
- ↑ a b c Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode The Shepherd" 53: "
- ↑ Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode Tapping Out" 52: "