The name "Zenvious" had been used by his player in several games. In World of Warcraft, he was a Gnomish mage who had an infatuation with Night Elf women. In The Matrix Online, Zenvious was a woman who believed Neo to still be alive, and whose self-determined mission it was to find him. When he was created in City of Heroes, he went through a number of permutations while the player decided what he would be. Eventually, Zenvious settled into a nice combination of Gravity Control and Kinetics, and, with no story behind him, became the player's first attempt at a controller. It was not long, however, before it became obvious that City of Heroes, and more importantly Virtue, was Zenvious' true home, as a deep story began to develop behind the character.

Contents 1 Affiliations 2 Origin 2.1 The Early Years 2.2 Do You Believe In Magic? 2.3 The Foundation 2.4 Messing With His Mind 2.5 A Silver Lining 2.6 Luck Be A Lady 2.7 Death and Return 2.8 And Now... 3 Powers

Affiliations

Mr. Zen is the founder and Axiom of The Zenvious Foundation

Origin

Mr. Zen was born on September 20, 1972, in Kyoto, Japan, only child of billionaire Zen Basho. His upbringing was a constant struggle between father and son, old-guard discipline and the brash rebellion of youth. It wasn't until his father's death in 1993 that the young man, Zen Kajiro, would discover his link to the arcane.

The Early Years

As a child, Zen Kajiro was raised by his father, Zen Basho, and his caretaker, Kaijitsu. He ignored most of his father's instruction and instead focused on his desire to enjoy life, a trait which remained his driving force until his father's demise. The one love he shared with the elder Zen was that of traveling; he and Kaijitsu often accompanied Zen Basho on his business trips, the young man learning much about culture and food and history and even mythology, but very little about business, to his father's chagrin.

Do You Believe In Magic?

Kajiro's link to the arcane was discovered by accident, when in anger he tore an ancient oak tree from the ground by its roots. Not understanding his newfound power, he spent the next two years hunting for answers, devouring the information in ancient tomes and seeking out known locations of mystical power. It was on one such journey that he happened upon an object in a curio shop in the back alleys of Bonn, Germany; a runed stone, emanating strange power. Purchasing the rock for a paltry sum, he soon learned that it was intended as a focus of magical energies. Naming it the kinestone, he began to hone his abilities, becoming more skilled in the magical arts. Taking on the name "Zenvious", he began to make a splash in the arcane world.

The young Zen's newfound attention to the esoteric began to turn heads in the magical community, and he was quickly approached by Jenna Hagan, a representative of the enigmatic group known only as The Institute. It was during his time with them that he developed an interest in technomancy. He left The Institute, however, when the group began performing tasks he found ethically reprehensible. In retaliation for his desertion, Jenna Hagan led a metaconcert of psychic savants in a personal assault on his mind. Left blinded by the attack, Kajiro narrowly escaped with his life and the kinestone, and fled to Japan.

The Foundation

Reuniting with Kaijitsu in Japan, he spent the next eight years in relative seclusion, learning how to use his abilities to augment his senses. In late 2004, however, he convinced Kaijitsu, long time executor and overseer of the Zen Basho estate, to assist in funding an organization to study the strange rise of super-powered beings in Paragon City, Rhode Island, USA. Moving to Paragon City and changing his name to Zen Kajii, he and his former caretaker formed The Zenvious Foundation and began their research almost immediately. Their first subject was Zoe Fix, a young empath with wondrous powers and a perplexing curse.

The connections made by the Foundation within Paragon City allowed Mr. Zen to renew an old love of his with a new twist; he was now able to work with Portal Corp and travel not only around the world, but inter-dimensionally. It was during one of these excursions that he met the Ka'Thural, a race of stone giants who would later play a major role in shaping his life.

Messing With His Mind

In October of 2006, Zen Kajii was attacked and abducted by a Malta hit squad hired by Jenna Hagan and The Institute. Kept in a sensory deprivation tank for seven days while being assaulted mentally by the same metaconcert that blinded him ten years earlier, he teetered on the verge of insanity. Finally released to the Foundation, he returned a different man, a person with no inhibitions. After causing a number of problems within the group, he was eventually sedated as Jet Falcon and Deviant Redemption fought to heal his damaged persona.

The young duo succeeded, but in the process a burst of pure kinetic energy destroyed the kinestone, the focus through which Mr. Zen had been using his power. Left without a means to direct his abilities, Zen Kajii faced the future utterly powerless and bereft of the kinetic sense which had taken place of his sight during the previous decade.

A Silver Lining

It was during this time that Mr. Zen met Brenna, also known as Blackbird, a young woman staying at St. Jude's chapel in King's Row, who offered to aide him in the day to day tasks involving sight - notably reading. Over the following weeks, he fell in love with her. So great was his love for her that he was able to use it to focus his abilities and restore his connection to the arcane. Shortly thereafter, he developed a technomystical machine that could, with the help of some of the more powerful minds in the Foundation, remove the psionic block that hindered his visual cortex. With Brenna and half the Foundation watching, the device was used, restoring Zen Kajii's sight.

Their love, however, was hindered by deep magic that bound her to the Rogue Isles. Brenna returned to the Isles to free her uncle and to face Nathair, so that she could sever the tie and be free to love and live as she desired in Paragon City. Mr. Zen followed, dressed in his father's samurai armor and wielding kitsrugi, the Zen-family ancestral sword. Too late to be of assistance, he could only watch in awe as Draken Knight and Morrigan, the deity for which Brenna was the avatar, destroyed Nathair. Draken Knight, in draconic form, then carried Brenna off to The Warrens to recover, and Kajii did not see her again for several days.

It was shortly thereafter that Brenna and Zen Kajii came to a mutual agreement: He was not able to be free enough for her, and she would never be able to "cage herself" for him. What relationship they enjoyed ended that day, though Mr. Zen still carries a very strong love for his kietsu, and believes Brenna feels the same.

Luck Be A Lady

Nearly two months after the brief relationship ended, Kajii met Grace Courbier (Alumette), who had come to know the Foundation through Kai Keller (Psi Monk) and Jade Ohm. The two discovered they enjoyed each other's company, and eventually went out once. Instead of taking her to the high-class restaurant where he had reservations, however, they attended a showing of Guys & Dolls, a dinner theater fundraiser the Foundation was sponsoring at a local middle school. Attracted and intruged as he was by Ms. Courbier, however, the two of them would not see each other again before Mr. Zen was killed.

Death and Return

On April 4, 2007, Jet Falcon confronted Clockwork Dawn concerning Bobby Thistle, a young member of the Foundation she had kidnapped and had been torturing. Intervening, Mr. Zen offered himself in exchange for the boy. The trade was made, and Zen Kajii disappeared. His body was found two days later in Recluse's Victory. A memorial service was held at the old wooden bridge in Croatoa as Zenvious' body was flown back to Japan where it was burned on a traditional funeral bier, the ashes stored in an urn to be kept in the family ancestral shrine.

His death triggered The Veritas Protocol, a series of events predetermined by Mr. Zen should he perish. The leadership of the Foundation was transfered to Kaijitsu, the Foundation was placed under government oversight, and cryptically, a virus began streaming from an undisclosed dimension through the computer in Kajii's office and into the Foundation's supercomputer. The virus, which overwrote FAITH, the Foundation's AI, could only be identified by the phrase "Rare Cubic Ogre". Members of the Foundation puzzled over this name as Mike Mars (Mr. Protagonist) fought to restore the system. Meeting with an emissary of the Ka'Thural, a group of Foundation members led by Sunder Shock discovered that the virus was not a virus at all, but a digital imprint of Mr. Zen's ka, his spiritual essence. Armed with that information, they looked at the clues at hand anew, and discovered that "Rare Cubic Ogre" was an anagram for "Grace Courbier".

Grace was brought to the Foundation, where she was met by a surprise: the computer responded to her presence with a digitized version of Zen Kajii's voice. After she provided the passkey to unlock the program binding him to the Foundation's computer (she was required to sing "Luck Be A Lady" from Guys & Dolls), an incorporeal Zenvious emerged. Day by day, however, he becomes more "real", more "solid", as he continues to strive toward returning himself to his previous humanity.

And Now...

It is difficult to say whether the returned Zenvious is the same being as the previous incarnation. Though they share the same attitude and appearance, there are some factors to be considered. The new Zen Kajii is built on a copy of the original Zenvious' ka. The Ka'Thural claim the ka is the anchoring point of the soul, that which holds a spirit in place. The current theory suggests the duplicate ka was a secondary anchoring point to Mr. Zen's spirit, so that when he died and the tie between body and soul was removed, Zenvious' essence was drawn to the second anchor.

An interesting side effect is that Mr. Zen has been left with no true physical form, and it is uncertain where his ka is currently anchoring his soul. As a temporary solution to a lack of a body, Zen Kajii has been summoning a dark matter simulacrum when he needs to exert a physical presence.

Powers

Where prior to his death, he exercised control over gravity and kinetics, Zenvious now has limited control over temporal reality directly. Using his newfound abilities, he may speed up or slow down time locally - or completely stop time for short periods. He may also change the density of objects, move them, or simply transport them from one place to another. Even Mr. Zen is uncertain where these powers come from, but if pressed will admit that he sees things from an entirely different perspective than before his death.