Kerath Shadowstar

"You shouldn't listen to me. I'm formerly one of the famous Xyz 1-3 bullies. I'll guide you down all the wrong paths, and you'll enjoy every second of it."

### Status

Alive

Kerath was a protagonist (eventually) of the Seaside series, though he started out as a minor "villain" in the Blue Dorm, representing Xyz Class 1-3. When the rest of his bully squad ended up routinely being manipulated by the enemies they faced, he put his allegiance primarily with the Seaside Raiders. Has a nearly photographic memory, and his skill at taking detailed comprehensive notes was once described by his cousin as "unfair".

## Personality

Sarcastic, profane, and mischevious. Chances are Kerath is causing as many problems as solving, from throwing grapes at people in the Arena's stands, to rudely insinuating relationships between people who aren't in them. Working with the Raiders shifted his bullying to more of having fun at other people's expense than being genuinely mean, and chances are most things he did would benefit the Greater Good in some manner or another. Embodies the tropes "Good is not Nice" and "Jerk with a Heart of Gold". Has a genuine distaste for entertainment duelists, though he has some theatrical skill of his own when he decides to put on a show. Struggles slightly with an alcohol problem, though for the most part the struggle is smuggling it into the school. Attracts so-called Rivals like flies to honey, though he doesn't consider any of them (except *maybe* Tabooru) as his own rival. He had a deep relationship with Celeste, and grew a lot as a person during the span of it, though they mutually broke it off shortly before her death at the Vanguard tournament. He spent some time dating Sylvia, though ended up breaking it off with her because he had an unfortunate habit of getting involved with Suenami Aoi despite being in a relationship with Sylvia, and realizing he wasn't going to *stop* doing that (due to being actually kind of entranced by his friendship with Aoi). He eventually ended up in a somewhat stable relationship with Aoi, even if starting that did get him kicked out of school for a while by Charlotte Desirae Lord.

## Biography

### Backstory

The son of a professional Entertainment Duelist, Kerath's family was struck by disaster when he was only 8 years old. During a bad rainstorm, traffic lights malfunctioned, showing all green, and the car his mother was driving was T-boned by a semi truck, killing his mother instantly and leaving Kerath comatose for almost an entire year. His father had stopped his career temporarily to take care of Kerath, but finally got back into the circuit. However, he never truly recovered from the death of his wife, and his fame quickly plummeted, leaving him a ghost of the man he once was, and leaving Kerath bouncing around to other parts of the family. While Kerath inherited his father's skill at Duel Monsters, he grew to genuinely dislike the man right up until his death in season 1.

### Seaside Rumble 1

Kerath's biggest note early on was his immense dislike of Red and Yellow dorm duelists, who he immediately dismissed as trashy duelists until they proved themselves otherwise, and his tendency to give people nicknames instead of referring to them by their own given names - mostly in a mocking way. His first interaction with the plot was investigating Takahara Akihito and his supposed "Pendulum" cards that cause real damage, especially after hearing of a Yellow Student who broke her ribs dueling him. Cornering him in the field behind the duel arena, they dueled, Kerath taking some literal shots from Akahito's Performapal Gatlinghoul, before he forfeited the duel. He had gathered the information he needed, and scooped out to avoid taking unnecessary real damage, all the while scorching Akahito for calling his dueling "entertainment". He had stayed long enough for ViiBaCi MijiiRa to appear and lose to Akahito, disappearing to the void after before leaving to write down his notes on the Summon method.

After passing his notes to his Xyz 1-3 fellow bullies about Pendulums, he spent quite some time simply stalking the protagonists as they learned more about the Ba'al threat, getting his own information and messing with the others but without formally joining their "goody-two-shoes team". He was disappointed when he found out about Akahito being seemingly killed, though surprised when he showed up without his memory... or his pendulums. He was content to stay on the sidelines, right up until his partners in crime, Saitei and Rei were corrupted by the influence of Monochrome's Pendulums. In the process of investigating thim, he received word of his father's death, and received his Dragunity /Assault Mode deck - Kerath tried it out for a bit, but gave it up relatively quickly, preferring his own Red-Eyes cards.

After Azure promised him a duel in exchange for him buying her some cards as part of a plot to unmask Monochrome, he finally joined the newly formed Seaside Raider's group chat, shortly before finally getting the chance to meet up with Sai and Rei, who had gone mostly silent. They tried to push Pendulums onto him as well, but surprising them; he refused, and ended up in a 2v1 duel against their decks which had changed to Deskbots and Lunalights. Against all odds, Kerath actually won the lopsided duel, outpowering the Deskbots sky high attack power with his Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword, and cleansed both girls of their pendulum cards; although Rei ran off in the aftermath, before being corrupted (again) by SaaZe.

Things were relatively calm for Kerath, until he heard of a girl he had slept with before, Celeste, had been injured severely. Worst off, the damage seems to have been caused by Azure and Azure's new Pendulum cards she had received from Loptr. He helped the medical staff care for her, surprising her when she woke up with Kerath in her room; though not as surprised as she was when he told her he actually cared about her, despite what she had called him on waking up in his room previously.

Before Celeste could recover, the Raiders sprung a trap to catch Rei. Kerath was front and center in the plan, given that he essentially considered Saitei and Rei as his little sisters in a fashion, he was determined to return Rei to Saitei regardless of the cost. The cost it turned out was relatively high, as while Azure freed the SaaZe hosts that appeared alongside Rei when Vii dueled Isao (the lights of Pendulum Scales attracting the High Ba'al), Kerath wasn't quite as lucky when dueling SaaZe/Rei. However, he had set simple terms for that duel: If he won, SaaZe would leave Rei. If he lost, SaaZe would get Kerath instead. Either way he was freeing Rei, for Saitei's sake. Now bearing SaaZe in his mind (and verbally fencing with the High Ba'al, as is his tendancy) he left his decks with Azure with instructions to leave them with Celeste, and then vanished into the Woods. He did go to Lord before long, asking her to lock him up so that if he did lose control to SaaZe that he'd be contained, but was dismayed to learn that despite having a hard light generating suit of dueling war armor, she did not in fact have a containment cell. With clearance from Lord to get unlimited coffee, he made his way out, endeavoring to stay awake as long as humanly possible to stave off the infection after his seemingly uncharacteristically selfless act. Although, he also made a stop at the infirmary, leaving his Duel Disk and school phone with Celeste - mostly to keep SaaZe's eyes out of the Raiders' group chat.

Kerath was freed from SaaZe's grip not by his own actions, in the end, but by a 3v1 duel of SaaZe in Miyaura Remei's form taking on Akahito, Jack, and Mezah. Granted, this was after 5 days with no sleep, and at that point SaaZe being removed had forced him unconscious from the cell Lord had finally provided him. Fortuitously, Azure had been reporting Kay's infection to Lord at the time, and dragged Kerath out from down the staff elevator back to the ground floor.

He finally awoke a couple days later, in the presence of Isao and Celeste; Celeste had actually helped him out of it, using her new Powers as the Spirit of Benevolence to ease his weariness, as well as giving him the summary of what had happened during his absence. He then met with Akahito to retrieve his phone (Celeste had handed it over when she joined Ec Tisia's side, respecting the implied wish of the Raiders to keep High Ba'al other than Vii not aware of their plotting) and try to talk him into not leaving the fight.

The next day, Kerath encountered Kuro, who was still blinded by the Sovereign's denial. Frustrated over Kuro's arrogance (he had dueled Kuro a few times prior, basically insulting all of Kuro's hopes and dreams as being immature), he offered to help as best he could with Kuro unable to hear. Then, he led Kuro into the forest on the island, and *beat the hell out of him* until Kuro agreed to apologize to the Sovereign, to recognize the High Ba'al's power as legitimate even if he didn't like it.

He spent quite a bit of time after that trying to help Saitei and Rei figure out their problems; mostly Sai, since Rei had gotten her head back on straight after being relieved of SaaZe. One night at a party with the Raiders, where she was even more drunk than Kerath was, he finally figured out what the problem was; what made Sai happy when they were "corrupted" was Sai being in charge of Rei. So, Kerath challenged her to a duel, with terms; if he won, she'd woman up and actually dom Rei the way they both probably wanted, and if he lost he'd have to "share" Celeste with Sai (which Celeste didn't find amusing, given that she was rather straight, but she trusted in Kerath's skill). Expecting Saitei's tellar deck and its anti-dark properties, he went with the Windrider's Dragunity/Assault deck. Unfortunately, Sai was using Evilswarm, a deck that can potentially shut down a Synchro deck pretty effectively. If not for a well timed King's Consonance he would have been outright defeated, but he came out victorious in the end, telling Sai to "Take that same arrogance, that same boss attitude to where it needs to go. Make her call you Onee-sama in that sickening simper of hers some more." and hoping it set them on the path to actually being happy.

Kerath had little to do with the events of the Season 1 Epilogue, having been on SaaZe watch with Akahito, and saw when the sky broke and the path to Greater Ba'al was established. He did however announce to the Raiders about Kuro being missing, after giving the Yellow duelist a direct call and getting an out of service notice.

### Seaside Ride 1

Kerath finally got dragged out by Celeste to Card Capital a while after Griffin and Odd disappeared (although Azure had originally asked him to look into things about her brother, he had demurred for a some time, citing "not giving a crap about Vanguard". He did finally give in to Celeste, picking up his Murakumo deck on his first trip to Card Capital. Kerath was present at Card Capital when a lot of off-duty Raiders appeared, including meeting Akahito's sister Namiko, and enjoyed the expression on her face when he told her some of the various things that had happened at Duel Academy that last semester. Not the least of which being when Akahito literally shot him.

Kerath mostly offered moral support for assorted people (as was his want - he was a profane jackass, but he tended to do so in a way to support his allies). He and Celeste mutually parted ways shortly before the events of the tournament began. He, Saitei, and Rei joined the Vanguard Tournament as Team 1-3, but were eliminated in the Top 16 by Team Raiders - while Saitei defeated Isao, Rei lost to Akahito while Kerath lost to Ginko. Team 1-3 had left the arena after, so were not subject to the after effects when Loptr was freed, but his phone did meet an unfortunate end when he saw the text that Celeste had given up her life to help the Sovereign Re-Seal the Devourer.

### Seaside Rumble 2

Kerath met with Aoi before the term started back up, trying to get information on where Celeste's body was held so he could say goodbye and reclaim the Angel Feather deck she had used that he had funded. When Aoi pointed out that he probably wouldn't want to *see* her per se, since her body was covered in life support tubes, but she could probably reclaim his deck, he thanked her. Ec Tisia interrupted their discussion shortly after, partly to inform Kerath that Cartias lived on at the Sovereign's side and when he wanted to say goodbye to her, he could do so to her spirit (while revealing that he was, on Caritas's behalf, on a kind of divine suicide watch). He also informed Kerath to tell Aoi (Ec Tisia couldn't directly contact Aoi due to her mental defenses) that Ryuko was still in fact alive - she had been a host of Vii, but Vii abandoned her body when going to the fight at the Vanguard Tournament, and her body had gotten back up after and walked away from the spot, though Ec Tisia had lost track of her after that.

Aoi visited again later with the requested deck, and over a cup of tea he passed on the news about Sol=Firle not being Sealed by Ec Tisia, as well as having the honor of being the first person in the cast to actually make her laugh. With Celeste's deck, and a pendent he had special ordered of a Ruby Angel (from a Ruby he bought from Jas) he was finally ready to say goodbye to Maya, and met her at the Sovereign's throne - also telling Ec Tisia while he was at it about Sol=Firle, and what he had learned of the plot regarding gathering Talon's pieces for Sol=Firle's sake.

It wasn't long again before Aoi was back at his rooms, but this time in much worse shape: she had found Ryuko/The Gorgon, and lost. Severely injured, she managed to mostly sneak to Kerath's room so as to not worry Lord - or worse, Midori. Kerath treated her with the medical kit in the blue room (along with some vodka to ease pain and curb infection), and then carried her to his bed to rest. He napped a bit on his couch before he awoke to her eating him out of house and home and plotted with her about hiring Griffin and his Self-Banishing deck (with some modifications for anti-Majespecter tech) to deal with Ryuko, shortly before Lord and one of her ninjas showed up anyway. After clearing the confusion on Lord's part of why Aoi was in Kerath's room, wearing his clothes and severely bandaged up, she agreed to go to the infirmary since Lord knew what happened anyway, while Lord promised to try to keep this info from Midori.

Kerath did finally get an award for his hard work on his birthday, when Aoi appeared at his doorstep to give him a "present" for his trouble. Lord then gave him a follow up present, despite having told him that he owed her after helping save Aoi, he got seemingly permanently suspended when Aoi decided to physically involve herself with him. After a chance meeting with SaaZe in the city and the insinuation that followed, he tried to get Aoi to not get into a fight with Lord, since SaaZe implied she was waiting for just that - but, it's not like he can stop Aoi when she sets her mind on things. Finally though, without fanfare Kerath returned, not spreading the word of why he had gotten suspended: walking the line after he got disciplined, and all that.

Partly due to not wanting to upset Lord, partly out of a a feeling that he wouldn't measure up anyway, Kerath didn't spend his time idly pursuing the unpursuable Aoi - Part of it was hitting on Muse to try to build her confidence up so that hopefully she'd have the guts to stay true to Azure rather than side with Loptr when push came to shove (it didn't hurt that Muse was cute) - but part of it was a genuine attraction to Silvia, who he did eventually get into a relationship with.

While Azure was out of commission, Kerath did try to get Jas to get more in touch with the Spirit Ec Tisia had granted him, and advised he try using the spirit's power some to get a new set of cards by shifting his deck into Ba'al Pendulums. Specifically, in his room, or where someone could watch him. Jas of course took exactly half of that advice, and began shifting his deck... in the open, outside of the Red Dorm, where he promptly got jumped by NoNoN. Given his deck was unusable, another duelist; Amber, who had just recently started coming out and socializing, stepped up and promptly got beat by the Priestess. Jas and the spirit were whisked away by Ec Tisia right before Loptr managed to eat their soul, but it was a near thing, and Loptr took her anger out by dueling Kerath with her powers active for once. However, he manages to come out on top with the burn effects of his Red-Eyes, despite her powers Devouring cards and restoring her life points in the process.

During a fun little tournament amongst the Raiders, where Kerath finally avenged his losses to Tabooru (yet still lost to Akahito), he was trying once again to pep talk Akahito to a degree, after Akahito was having a bit of a down duel against Isu and just... scooped. He had quietly said "If you're gonna be like that, just go home." Those were the last words he said to Akahito, as an instant later (to his eyes) Akahito was gone, and the arena they had been playing in was a smoking crater. Kerath contacted Aoi to get Lord's Whites involved in blocking the area off, though Aoi was concerned; she knew Akahito actually meant quite a bit to Kerath, despite the way they talked.

During the Season 2 finale, Aoi approached Kerath once more, and gave him an important mission - go to distract Sol=Firle and ViiBaCi so they could not interfere in what they were planning on doing against Loptr. Muse tried to get him to stop, saying it was suicide - "D-do you trust a feather t-to hold back the tide?". Of course, Kerath had the perfect response to her analogy - *I'm no feather, I'm a motherf\*\*\*\*\*\* dragon.* He encountered Vii and Sol=Firle in the forest, and challenged them to a duel. Fighting Vii's Tindangles was a frustrating experience, because nothing was quite as difficult for a power duelist like Kerath than an opponent who can shut down a power strategy in approximately 7 different ways. Of course, he wasn't there to win as much as to be a distraction, and in desperation, he scooped the duel, turned and ran into the forest, yelling "TAG, YOU'RE IT!" He probably was going to die, but if Vii was chasing him she wasn't interfering with Aoi. Luckily for him, Vii stopped chasing him right when Loptr got broken, and he observed the 3v1 duel against Loptr at Aoi's side.

### Seaside Ride 2

Kerath picked up Buddyfight out of amusement more than anything else, of running dark dragons with what he liked to call "Final Countdown on Steroids" - he was however less than amused when his Core Deck Case shifted his outfit into that of The Windrider, as if taunting him that he had been striving to leave his "old ghost" behind.

Kerath joined Azure's raiding party heading to the Flower's bad end future, and had an unfortunate overexposure to the flowers in Lord's rooftop Garden on their way into the Academy. When Lucille and Neue were being cornered by the White Haired girl that had stripped Lucille of her powers, Kerath hung back to try to help them; unneeded, as Neue had the ability to time travel on her own anyway, and transported them away. Kerath found himself face to face with the Angel Taliel, and dueled her for her God's amusement. Though her ability to reset a duel upon losing was troublesome, Kerath managed to defeat Taliel's Dark Synchro monsters with his own Red-Eyes, and got a card from them as a prize to investigate.

Upon returning to the current timeline, he promptly handed it over to Aoi, who was amazed at the card; looking like Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but a Pendulum, and only having one side - when you turned it over, it was still the same thing. Before Aoi took it off to Rebecca for research, however, she did spend the night with Kerath in his dorm. He promptly confessed it to Silvia the next day, along with the admission that - given the chance - he'd do it again, and they promptly broke it off, but amicably enough.

### Seaside Rumble 3

At the start of the new school year, Xyz 2-3 (formerly 1-3) was back together, having spent time reconnecting over the break. Reimei Miyaura wanted to give the trio something for helping her out so much the year before, Saitei told him, so after class on the first day he went with them to see her. Unfortunately for them... or possibly for the school, Reimei had already been possessed by the enemy and their new yet somewhat familiar strategy, which resulted in Kerath obtaining Negative Number 11: Celestial Eye and Negative Number 89: Databeast Diablosis Zero.

He didn't have long to try it out, as he got challenged to a duel relatively quickly by Sin, who he once again annihilated. Once Alternative Blue-Eyes, stolen by Celestial Eye, wiped out Sin, Kerath spread the Negative Number infection to a second duelist - Sin came to be in possession of Negative Number 46, and fell under the Angel's sway.

When Xyz 2-3's plan to infect Amber with a Negative Number failed due to her quick thinking, Kerath sent out a message to the Raiders on Sai's suggestion; telling them that *Amber* was in fact the Negative Number holder, and had attacked Sai and Rei before running off. With nobody to doubt Kerath's word, this put Amber as the enemy to their view. He tried to defeat Silvia to bring her over, but bricked; since he never even summoned a Negative Number, the duel went off without any difficulty, he didn't lose any and she wasn't corrupted.

Not long after, he had another duel in the same behind-the-arena battlefield, but this time against Aoi - and to Kerath's shock and concern, she was going all out, using the Celestial Necloths she had used to fight down the pre-broken Loptr... even though using that hurts Aoi. The duel was brutal, and Kerath never stood a chance. She stalled him out through the entire duel, forcing him to use both of his Negative Numbers to try to overcome her, but there wasn't anything he could do against that deck, and with an uppercut Aoi finished Kerath's last dragon, and the last of his lifepoints - breaking Zerachiel's control over him, though given that her Celestial Necloths were manifest, he was in almost as bad as shape as Aoi was just for using them. And then, of course, she insisted he take her to Lord.

Naturally, Lord meets him at the top of her Staff Elevator. With a gun. After talking her down (and her seeing Aoi is fully clothed) Kerath explains how the Negative Numbers vanish if you're defeated with them, as well as sharing that not only do Sai and Rei have them, but the teacher Reimei, Sin... and that he had seen and recognized Azure was corrupted as well. He's sent to "suspension" (since Aoi had implied another meaning to their meeting) to get him out of the way just like Amber is on a self imposed exile.

After his return, he found himself in the awkward position of feeling he'd hit a wall with his deck. He was strong, many raiders knew that from experience, but there was only so far he could push Red-Eyes. He didn't want to let Aoi down if he failed because his deck was insufficient. After a bit of teasing from Aoi and a promise of Ritual tutoring from her (especially after she let it slip that she broke it off with Lord after Lord started dating Midori again) he got the Black Luster deck that Tabooru used to use, and spent the night with her in deck tutoring, amongst other things. At least, until for the second time in a calendar year, his phone exploded from being thrown full force into a wall, as Tabooru reported Amber's disappearance, presumably against the Angel of Death. Both Aoi and Kerath swore revenge and that they'd get her back, even against Death herself.

He continued his practice with his deck until he though the had it down, and then did what he had been wanting and dreading to do. Once he had come to the realization that he didn't even want to go pro in dueling, he called Aoi to his room and asked her if he could go with her, after it was done. Whatever she did with Suenami, he wanted to be her backup and partner. He wasn't immediatly shut down like he had been partly afraid of, and she seemed receptive enough to his request, so he had hope in his chances. Plus, she bedded him again after, so that was another perk. Not long after, Tabooru let Kerath know that Samael (who he could sense) was following him, and Kerath wasn't ready for that yet; calling the Sovereign for a divine Evac, he escaped Death.

After Amber's return, he noticed himself the presence of an angel following him, figuring that Samael had come to collect her due he went to his room and poured drinks for them both. He was more surprised to find Parciel, the Angel of Tilia sitting across from him. He offers Parciel a chilling set of terms: if he won, she'd return Rebecca to them, and if he lost, he'd be hers. And, if she didn't accept his terms, he'd ask for nothing in return for victory but would promptly go and *murder Mirai.* With that hanging over her, she had little choice but to accept Kerath's terms. The duel was short but fierce, Kerath banking on the fact that even if she was an Angel now - she was still Tilia, and still just a Red. She walked right into a clearly telegraphed move from a tutored card, and Kerath punished her relentlessly for it. Reclaiming Rebecca (and restoring her body in the meantime), he passed on the good news, safe for another day.

Immediately prior to the finale, Kerath received a new card from Rebecca, along with the rest of the keyholders; Black Luster Soldier with Eyes of Red - A counterpart to Super Soldier referencing his Red-Eyes, that completed the Kuriboh/Gaia references in the series.

His part in the finale ended up primarily emotional support for Amber after Ryuko was killed by Eriel, as he never had a chance to duel against the Angels.

### Post Seaside

After Azure changed history, Ginko was never killed so Midori never hooked up with Lord, causing Aoi to never break up with her. Though they stayed friends, they didn't get nearly as close so presumably they didn't team up afterwards. Kerath did still end up not going pro, and finally took up a job as one of Lord's Whites, followed by as a teacher. Of course, Lord's sense of humor put him in charge of a familiar class to start his career - Xyz 1-3.

## Relationships

### Suenami Aoi

Kerath and Aoi's relationship started out pretty frosty, since she knew of his reputation, though he notably didn't push very hard; Kerath is nothing if not able to tell when a girl is receptive to his approach or not. They warmed to each other in season 2, when he went to her for help in retrieving Celeste's Angel Feather vanguard deck, and let her know that Ryuko was still alive. She went to him with help when she nearly died dueling Ryuko/Gorgon, and he volunteered to help (along with hiring Griffin) to deal with her the next time around. They ended up having a casual physical relationship, that grew stronger as time went on (and Lord got over it, since she was hooking up with Midori anyway), ending in Kerath offering to help Aoi in her job after school, having lost the desire to be a pro duelist.

### Tilia

Kerath never had a particularly close relationship to Tilia (never even once trying to sleep with her, despite at one point sleeping on the opposite end of a bed with her) but used his particularly harsh methods of motivational speaking more than once to try to draw her out of her shell and make a better duelist out of her, although one of those speeches resulted in her synchronizing more with MjR. In the end, it was Kerath who pulled the trigger on getting Tilia as Perciel to return Rebecca's soul to them (while threatening to kill the mortal she liked) - though he could have opted to save her, he viewed Rebecca as the bigger prize, leaving saving her to his former-angel cousin.

## Decks

### Seaside Rumble

For most of Seaside, Kerath used a Red-Eyes deck, built around using Fusion Summons to set up his Xyz Summons. For a short while, he used a Dragunity /Assault Mode deck he was sent by his father, but quickly discarded it; it wasn't his deck, or strategy, or path forward in life. At the end of Season 3, he had switched to a Black Luster deck, for several reasons - his perceived wall of effectiveness he had encountered with his Red-Eyes, learning Ritual play from Aoi, and wanting to have something a bit stronger on hand, so that he could remain useful to Aoi as their relationship deepened.

### Seaside Ride

In Vanguard, Kerath used a Murakumo deck focusing on Yasuie, but he never took the game very seriously, including getting kicked out of Card Capitol at one point. His lack of taking the game seriously aided in their very early exit from the tournament.
While playing Buddyfight, he likewise used a Dark Dragon deck, built around Death Count Requiem - A Final Countdown-esque card designed to alternate win condition a fight.

### Custom Cards

Both from his time corrupted by Zerachiel and his Custom for the Final Gauntlet, these custom cards were at one time or another held by Kerath:

Black Luster Soldier with Eyes of Red

Numbers -11: Celestial Eye

Numbers -89: Databeast Diablosis Zero