Uesugi Kenshin

About
Uesugi Kenshin is the previous leader and main commander of the Uesugi House, one of the most powerful Houses during the 4th Warring States Period of the departed country JAPAN. Considered one of the main contenders to unify JAPAN during this warring era, she rose as the Head of the House and astonished all throughout the land with her unparalleled swordsmanship, quickly becoming an extraordinary figure that left anyone at awe with her presence on the battlefield and gaining the title of "Goddess of War". Widely recognized as the finest swordsman in the country, her fame even reached outside of JAPAN and she inspired countless women to join her house to earn the honor of serving under her, furtherly enhancing the military strength of the Uesugi. Under her command, their might reached new levels and served as the main rivals of the Takeda House, which was considered the strongest military force of JAPAN, and their battles would often end in a stalemate thanks to Kenshin's uncontended fighting ability. She holds a very close relationship with her second in command Naoe Ai, one of the most brilliant tacticians in the country, and the one responsible for organizing most of the political affairs of the territories owned by the Uesugi.

Despite the fact that her House was one of the most solid contestants to unify JAPAN, Kenshin never showed any desire in attempting to do so, as she thought it was better for each House to peacefully reign over their provinces without engaging in war to expand their territories. Whenever she learns that another country is in danger and needs help, she will immediately send forth her troops without consideration of the situation of her own house. Because of this, the Uesugi never engaged in an offensive battle when under her command, and focused on preventing other houses from expanding themselves by temporarily siding with their enemies to reach a stalemate. It was thanks to her efforts that the Takeda where incapable of expanding and conquering the territories of the Houjou House or the Imagawa House. They've had countless battles but none is capable of defeating the other for good. During the events of Sengoku Rance, the Uesugi eventually and inevitably found themselves at war with the Oda House, who under the leadership of a loud and eccentric foreigner was continuously expanding through JAPAN and eventually reached the east, leading Kenshin to be forced to raise arms against the Oda. After war breaks out between the two houses, their first battle takes place where Kenshin herself is deployed and quickly crushes the troops of the Oda, but as the leader of the Oda Rance hears that Kenshin is a beautiful woman, he decides to fight her himself despite the warnings of his allies, and the two engage in battle. A brief battle takes place where Rance is quickly defeated, but just at that moment an unexpected turn of events occurs when Kenshin develops a spontaneous crush for him before taking his head. Overwhelmed by confusion and agitation she withdraws from the battlefield on the spot, confusing everyone from both sides (with the exception of Chaos and Suzume, who were the only ones that noticed what happened). Ever since then, Kenshin becomes incapable of fighting against Rance in the battlefield, causing every battle where he's deployed as a commander to become an instant victory for the Oda since Kenshin's unit withdraws. However, because she can't allow her house to be defeated like that, Kenshin will immediately reconquer whatever territory they lose through night assaults, preventing the Oda from gaining an upperhand in the war despite Kenshin's lack of participation.

Her role in the war is preemptively stopped however after her uncle Uesugi Kensei successfully pulls off a coup that removes her from power after taking many of her commanders and soldiers hostages, forcing her to surrender as a prisoner and abandoning her position as the Head of the House. Afterwards, Kensei attempts to negotiate a peace treaty with the Oda by offering Kenshin as a sexual outlet for Rance, but Rance is disgusted by the whole situation and kills his messenger on the spot. Without Kenshin or any of the most competent officers, as were kept as hostages by Kensei, the Uesugi's military power is lowered immensely, and they're easily crushed by the Oda. When defeated, Rance frees Kenshin along with her subordinate Naoe, taking them to where Kensei is hiding in panic. Kenshin is determined to take her uncle's life as penalty for his betrayal but her hesitation allows Rance to behead him himself, officially defeating the Uesugi House. With her house officially gone, she decides to join the Oda in order to support Rance in his unification of JAPAN, and her romantic feelings for him fully blossom after they stop being enemies. Because of her deep love for him, she devoted all her very self to Rance alone, fully supporting him throughout his conquest of JAPAN.

After JAPAN is fully unified by the Oda and the defeat of Dark Lord Xavier on the Battle of Tenma Bridge, Kenshin discards her title as the Head of the Uesugi and leaves in order to expand her training and improve herself in case another disaster were to occur, isolating herself in the mountains for extended periods of time. At some point two of her most loyal subordinates, Uesugi Katsuko and Uesugi Torako, join her in her training as well. A few months pass and, during the events of Rance Quest, she's able to re-encounter with Rance when he visits her on a snowy mountain. After Rance's recent encounter with the Kalar where he raped their Queen during a sacred ceremony, the dreadful Morurun Curse was placed upon him, which prevents him from having sex with anyone under Level 35.

Growing desperate over longer periods of time without engaging in sexual activity, he traveled to JAPAN in order to find someone that met this requirement, being Kenshin his first choice. Kenshin is more than happy to be embraced by the man she loves and accepts his request, despite the complaints of her subordinates, and they spend a warm night together. However, because Rance's curse also has the side-effect of lowering the Level of those he sleeps with back to 1, Kenshin's training all goes for none as her Level dropped to the lowest, leading her subordinates to yell at Rance as he'd completely forgotten about it. When Rance decides to return once again to The Continent Kenshin makes her own request and asks to accompany him, joining his party and adventures from that point. Even though she needs to start from scratch at level 1, she proves to be a reliable ally due to her incomparable swordplay, and is able to quickly raise Levels due to the many unconventional quests Rance takes. Because of the curse placed on him, Rance can't have sex with her again unless she reaches Level 35. Because Kenshin wants Rance to be happy, she begins to work extra hard and even put herself in danger by taking part in many reckless and unreasonable battles to level up in a short period of time, leading her to sustain a considerable number of injuries before being scolded by Rance for her rash actions. In the Epilogue of Rance Quest, it was mentioned that she officially passed the title of Head of the Uesugi House to Uesugi Katsuko, and once again began a rigorous training to be able to assist Rance in his future battles.

While not many details have been given, she was one of the few character that have already been confirmed to make an appearance in the finale of the series in Rance X, and she appears on the sketch presented alongside Rance, Sill and Sheila during a battle against Dark Lord Kayblis.

Personality and Appearance
A stunningly beautiful JAPANese woman, Kenshin is someone that immediately causes a visible reaction from those that witness her. She boasts a slender and physically fit, yet feminine and alluring body capable of charming any man. Her bottom-length blue hair, perfect skin and soft facial features don't look like traits of a warrior, and her graceful and always serene disposition furtherly enhances her title as a "Goddess". She is of average height, and is almost always seen clad on her silver armor, leaving no skin exposed. She also sports a somewhat odd long-pointed helmet. She's noted for being a pleasure to look at when fighting, where she still maintains her refined and elegant appearance. Her godlike outlook is so astounding that countless men and women expressed attraction for her, with a not so small number of her subordinates having crushes for her, and she's universally respected and admired by friend and foe alike. She's surprisingly a lot younger than she looks, being only 19 years old by LP0006.

Unlike what many expect from the woman that earned the title of the Goddess of War, Kenshin is an extremely gentle and submissive girl, largely incapable of feelings of anger or impatience. She speaks in a formal, respectful tone and treats everyone equally, without even thinking of herself as superior to anyone else, and makes sure to never mistreat anyone. Her expression is usually calmed and somewhat serious, but her words are very expressive and emotional. While she manages to be largely effective and admirable as a leader, her young age can be easily perceived by those that meet her, as her immaturity and naivete are far more notable than what people expect. She has an almost mother-daughter relationship with her subordinate Naoe Ai, who she came to rely on a lot on her daily life.

Because of her lack of assertiveness, she usually follows every instruction given to her obediently and is not one to step up and express disagreement over matters. She tends to see the positive aspects of others while overlooking or justifying their flaws, and has a limitless compassion that borders with foolishness. A good example of this was seen in Sengoku Rance, as she was still willing to forgive her uncle after his betrayal despite the fact that he removed her from power and would have traded her as a sex slave had Rance accepted the offer. She's what would be described as a perfectly pure girl, with no evil thoughts or intentions, and almost incapable of comprehending sheer malice. She's also naturally selfless, always placing others feelings above hers without a second thought, and with an incomparable loyalty to those she loves. She's a big glutton, eating portions substantially larger than those of an average man. All her meals are handled by Naoe Ai, who prepares all her dishes personally and administrates her diet. Her unusually big gluttony is a source of embarrassment for her and tries to avoid exceeding with her meals on public view. She seems to have a weak spot for sweets and candies in particular.

In the battlefield her personality drastically changes, becoming the epitome of her nickname. She leads the charge right into enemy forces like an unstoppable whirlwind, and takes a frontal and aggressive stance with an intimidating aura that strikes deep fear onto her enemies. She jumps straight to the enemy with no hesitation or fear, and even without thinking things through, something that her subordinate Naoe usually reprimands her about. She's extremely dedicated to the sword and the traditional JAPANese art of swordplay, regularly training herself in solitude with discipline. She's devoted to the JAPANese god Bishamonten, who she usually prays to and who she usually turns to when she's in situations where she's mentally confused or doesn't know how to act. When this happens, she takes her sword and meditates alone until she reaches a conclusion of how to proceed. She deeply believes in this God and his teachings, holding him in a higher regard than almost anyone else.

She fell in love with Rance in the battlefield, something that striked a lot of concern for her subordinate. She initially found herself in a contradiction about what to do with her feelings as they were enemies and even recognized him as an evil person, forcing herself to conceal her emotions for some time. However, after he saved her and the Uesugi House from her uncle Kensei's coup and joining him in the Oda House, she completely embraced her love for him and came to achieve a profound happiness from being at his side and assisting him. She was the first woman to actually give an honest declaration of love to Rance (Lia too but she was more of a crazy stalker), something that left him completely astonished. Rance was so confused by it that he couldn't even look at her and would usually just run away, which depressed Kenshin. Eventually Rance was able to answer to her feelings and treats her with an impressive amount of respect and care, much more than he does to any other woman. Kenshin never showed even the slightest bit of jealousy over Rance having sex with other women, and has even been happy for her subordinate Ai to hear that she also has grown to like him, furtherly proving her natural selflessness. Ever since she came to accept her feelings for him, she has devoted her life to be with him and make him happy regardless of her own circumstances.

Abilities
An unbelievable talent, Kenshin was widely recognized as the strongest fighter in JAPAN on a short period of time, an incredible feat considering the country has been filled with many powerful warriors that were forged on a warring nation. Her strength was such that she was able to single-handedly turn her House on one of the dominant powers during the Warring States Period, and very few people were capable of giving her a good battle, being Baba Shouen the only one that could match her and the cursed Mouri Motonari that achieved enhanced power thanks to his curse the only one that could best her. With a ludicrous Level Cap of 70 and a Sword Combat Lv2, the amount of training and dedication she places to improve her own abilities and her experience fighting in a large civil war, her strength comes as no surprise, and word of her skill has spread even to the main continent like wildfire, with many of the world's strongest fighters expressing eagerness to experience her swordplay firsthand. In battle, no-one so far has canonically bested her on a duel, and few warriors in JAPAN dared to even try, as many considered the mere idea of facing her suicide. She delivers fast and heavy blows in a quick succession and can perform flash attacks where she's lost from the enemy's sight. As a Level 2, she has a unique skill of her own called Cartwheel Sword, an onslaught of slashes that attacks everything around her at unbelievable speed and strength.

A solid proof of her strength was how easily she was capable of defeating Rance on their battle, someone who by himself is already an extremely skilled swordsman, though he was arguably underestimating her initially and carelessly lowered his guard. She was also capable of defeating Leila Grecni on a duel, the Captain of the Leazas Royal Guard and the one recognized as the strongest woman in Leazas, though she does consider Leila one of the strongest women she has ever fought. With a Level of 63, she's currently recognized as one of the strongest humans alive, and the only one capable of matching her is the Red Death of Leazas Rick Addison, who has shown interest in dueling her but said duel has yet to take place.

In-Game
For more in depth gameplay information of each game refer to:
 * Uesugi Kenshin/Sengoku Rance
 * Uesugi Kenshin/Rance Quest

Trivia

 * Inspired by the historical figure Uesugi Kenshin. There is a theory in Japan that claims that Uesugi Kenshin was actually female, based on a couple of pieces of historical evidence.
 * The rivalry between the Takeda and the Uesugi is a reference to the real-life conflict that the two houses experienced at the time, with Kenshin and Shingen being considered rivals.
 * In Sengoku Rance there is an event where the two houses clash and Kenshin engages in a brief battle against Takeda Shingen, who is forced to defend himself unarmed. This is a reference to the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, where Kenshin managed to reach Shingen and he fought for his life with a metal war fan.
 * Uesugi Kenshin is a name passed down through the generations for the leader of the Uesugi House. The remainder of this article describes the Uesugi Kenshin during Dark Lord Xavier 's last revival in the year LP0005.
 * Kenshin made a cameo appearance as a playable character in Eiyuu Senki, where she appeared as an extra unit that could be recruited in a secondary event.
 * In the Sengoku Rance popularity poll she was ranked in the 1st place among female characters. In the Rance Quest poll however she was ranked 4th, which is still very high though.
 * In a poll made for the most popular heroines in visual novels, Kenshin ranked in the 1st place, beating even Saber for a very small gap and becoming the most popular character from an eroge.
 * Along with Minerva Margaret, she's the world's strongest female human. At least when it comes to physical fighters.