Kishra Ward

"I'm here now. And I brought the rain with me."

- Kishra before fighting Jack Kaplan at the end of book one

Kishra Lance Ward is the secondary protagonist of Aftersight. He is a former United Stated Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant, an exiled member of the Fold, a founding member of Widow Team, and a Kilo-class Canid-S. He is married to Samantha Kirksey with two children, Keegan and Leala.

Early life
Kishra is a Siberian Husky Canid. Born Kishra Lance Nakashima (キシュラー 中島) in 1992, he grew up in Osaka, Japan with his father, Shunichi Hayate Nakashima, his mother, Chloe Rebecca Nakashima, and his two sisters, Angeline Natsumi Nakashima and Natasha Yukiko Nakashima.

Kishra suffered a severely traumatic childhood that greatly helped shape his detached and apathetic personality. He was raised by his mother in a destitute, slum-like area of Tokyo in a community dominated by gangs and homeless, and he adapted to this often-hostile urban environment quickly, developing a tough emotional skin and exceptional street smarts - he also gained the skills to break into and hotwire vehicles, covertly shoplift, handle weapons and do many other things. Kishra's father, Shunichi, was usually always working at Takeuchi Origen, and as such, Chloe was left to care for him and his sisters - that is, until one of Shunichi's assignments went seriously awry, forcing him to quit his job for his own safety. In 1998, the Nakashima family became the Ward family when, in order to protect his family against threats from (and attacks by) Sable and the Tiger's Eye, Shunichi legally changed his name to Tobias Ward - he believed that by adopting an American name, he could limit his adversaries' resources in their hunt for him.

In the summer of 2006, Kishra's life would never be the same; he was 14, Angeline was merely 9, and Natasha was 17 years of age when three armed assailants - two middle-aged men and one girl in her late teens - forced their way into the premises of Kishra's home with 12-gauge semi-automatic shotguns intending to retrieve the bounty placed on Tobias' head by the Tiger's Eye. When Chloe defended Kishra, she was fatally killed; Angeline and Tobias soon followed. Natasha was nowhere to be found. Paralyzed by the deaths of his entire family before his very eyes, a mute and apathetic Kishra was taken in by Osaka police until he left without warning several days later.

In order to try and forget his past, Kishra traveled as far from Japan as he could. However, little did he know that stowing away on a cargo ship would take him to the Verge - more specifically, Seraph City, Arizona. Kishra's past events shaped his general demeanor toward others, and because of this, he had very few friends and was shunned by most, which was also due to the fact that he was a Canid. He was heavily scrutinized due to one particular fact - that he was raised by his African-American mother in a slum. Because of this, those around him often made merciless ethnic judgments about him being "black" and "from the ghetto".

Arrest and Marines sentence
After the murders of his family, Kishra had subconsciously kept telling himself that his life would improve; however, little did he know, his problems were only beginning. At age 18, after becoming disgusted with the Verge's state of government, the apathetic mistreatment of the environment and the lawlessness and hostility that was rampant around him, Kishra stole another man's identity and attempted to use his credentials to leave the Verge. Once Kishra's true identity was discovered, he was arrested, and as punishment for attempted defection from the Verge and identity theft, the Supreme Court of the Verge sentenced him to serve in the Marine Corps.

Assignment and death of Gilliam
After graduating from basic training at the USMC Recruit Training Depot in San Diego, California, Kishra was placed in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Jamie Gilliam oversaw the rifle platoon that contained Coty Cazares and Joel Prather. The 4 were later organized into a seperate squad within the 1st Marine Division, dubbed Widow Team, and shipped to Kuwait for briefing on a denied op whom only soldiers of Kishra's level of capability were certified - Canids were a scarce and highly sought after asset in the military. Gilliam became Widow Team's 1st Lieutenant and leader.

After a year, at the beginning of his second tour in the Middle East, Kishra was promoted to Master Gunnery Sergeant, pay grade E9 (MOS 0369), just behind Cazares's promotion to Staff Sergeant, making Kishra his superior. At re-deployment, Gilliam agreed to undertake a previously classified assignment which relocated them to Kuwait - completely unbeknownst to the rest of the fire team. Several incredibly dangerous CFE prototypes had been located in the heart of the Kuwait jungle, and Widow Team's assignment was to retrieve the prototypes and reach extraction with no casualties, in order ensure that the CFEs did not leave the Verge. When they were flying in off-radar via a Longsword aircraft, one of its wings was taken off by an FGM-148 and Widow Team was forced to make a hard landing. Kishra was caught in the fuselage and both of his legs were fractured at the knee, but the rest of the team freed him and Cazares dragged him to safety in the nearby foliage. Widow Team pulled through and eventually met up with NERI suppport, but the mission took a turn for the worst when Gilliam was decapitated by a sniper round from an adjacent roof. Widow Team was provided immediate medevac following this event.

Reassignment
When Kishra returned from the battalion aid station for his broken legs, he was informed that he would receive no debriefing; instead, he and the remainder of Widow Team were shipped to their company's C2 center in San Juan, where they were joined by a Major from a neighboring company, Eugene Verbeck, who would fill Gilliam's place in the squad. When Kishra arrived at the center, he was aghast to hear from other Marines that Colonel Nicholas Wolf was there. His executive board held a meeting with Kishra, Cazares, Verbeck and Prather on the next course of action for 3rd Battalion, as the circumstances were extraordinary; Colonel Wolf stressed that it was absolutely vital that Widow Team be kept in rotation and that they succeed in their operations, and this could not be done without an advising officer. Kishra, being obviously the most qualified for the position, was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in place of Gilliam and became Widow Team's CO - this evoked a great amount of personal resentment and jealousy from Verbeck and Prather, but Cazares stood by Kishra unconditionally. Colonel Wolf then proceeded to inform Widow Team of a new mission of critical importance that was the main reason for Kishra's promotion; members of local militia had managed to pinpoint the location of the CFE prototypes that had previously slipped away from them Widow Team - they were tasked with reaching the hospital before the militia did and securing the prototypes at any cost. Realizing the importance of the situation, and after discussing what they believed Gilliam would have done, Widow Team accepted the assignment, and were shipped out within the hour.

Capture and experimentation
Upon re-insertion into Kuwait, Widow Team began to converge on the CFE coordinates - but upon breaching the hospital, they were ambushed by a section of commandos possessing technologically advanced weaponry. Widow Team was immediately overwhelmed; Verbeck and Prather were KIA, while Cazares and Kishra were separated. Kishra was rendered unconscious by an aerosol grenade.

When Kishra returned to consciousness in the rear area of the hospital's first floor, he had been handcuffed to the frame of a broken-out reception window, and his legs were forcibly broken. Surrounded by the strange commandos, they demanded to know the location of the liquid-filled vial that he had found near his home. When he refused, they cut through his outfitting and hit him multiple times with an electroshock baton; still retaining his resolve, they proceeded to use a Canid-control frequency emitter on him, after which he almost instantly surrendered, revealing that he had been keeping the vial in the buttstock storage compartment of his AR57A1. They disassembled the weapon, retrieving the vial, then removed Kishra's handcuffs and struck him unconscious again.

Some hours later, Kishra awoke nude and restrained to an operating table in what he perceived as a pure-white, perfectly clean room, although his senses were still recovering, his vision blurred and his hearing muffled. He was surrounded this time by men and women in white coats - he also caught fleeting glimpses of a tall man who seemed to be some sort of supervisor. Before long he was transported to a large, bright room where medical staff positioned a large machine over him with a long robotic arm - it first injected a liquid into his forearm that completely immobilized him. Then, doctors attached a long needle onto the liquid-filled vial that the commandos had taken from him, and connected it to the machine. The machine impaled Kishra in the chest, injecting the liquid directly into his heart - it caused him intense pain and discomfort as his heartbeat reached seemingly unsurvivable speeds and his veins were flooded with energy. As the liquid burned through him, Kishra's body began to emanate with an incandescent light blue color.

Escape
As the palms of his hands exuded a bluish glow and the pain subsided, Kishra's senses were restored and his fractured legs completely repaired - he regained control of his body, infused with pure power as his heart spread the liquid throughout him. A few doctors remained in the room monitoring his condition - he waited until they turned their backs to effortlessly tear through his restraints and lift himself from the operating table. Startled and panicking, the doctors attempted to stop Kishra, but he killed them without difficulty. With everyone around him dead, he used his newfound abilities to fire a blast of pure Osiris at the wall, destroying it. Before leaving, he located his outfitting in a nearby storage compartment, found his HF radio and, although deep underground and unable to receive a signal, called for extraction.

Using his crude but incredibly deadly abilities, Kishra advanced through the strange facility, walking past horribly mutilated and dissected bodies as he went. It was not long before he was cut off by more commandos with high-tech weaponry - however, he annihilated them without difficulty, sending blast after blast of energy from his fingertips and watching as they exploded into bloody mist and bits of flesh. After killing what must have been dozens of them, he eventually came upon a service elevator out of the facility. Upon taking the elevator upward, he arrived in the rear of a cleared-out building and managed to reach the outside of it, inhaling the fresh air and beginning to hear the faint sound of a helicopter as he collapsed suddenly, vomited and then blacked out from altitude sickness.

Notable Quotes
"Now, it's your turn to die."

- Kishra, before drowning a man

"You shouldn't have fucked with a Nakashima!"

- While fighting

"When you're sick of how people treat you, you don't lie in the dark and pretend it's alright - you break down the walls and remind them which side of the line they're on."

- When comparing his personal history to NERI's oppressiveness

Trivia

 * At age 13, Kishra was propositioned by a prostitute named Lisa Jiang. They began to have sex, but were interrupted when Lisa's brother entered the room. Kishra remained a virgin until age 22, when he met Sam.
 * Since a very early age, Kishra has shown a prominent fascination with blades.
 * For unknown reasons, Kishra has a strong emotional connection with children, despite his general venomous attitude toward others; for example, he was deeply affected by the deaths of Simone Hunter, Miracle, and his sister in ways that he had never previously experienced.
 * The first time Kishra ever took a life was at age 16, by drowning a man who tried to run him over in a truck.
 * Despite his peak physical condition, Kishra is afflicted with multiple disorders and is in somewhat poor health; he suffers from hypertension, farsightedness and, most notably, post-traumatic stress disorder.