Leap of Faith

Ken Joshima and Chikusa Kakimoto have been with Mukuro since day one. The three have been together through thick and thin. Ken and Chikusa feel indebt to Mukuro and they are willing to do just about everything he will ever ask for—but can the same be said for Mukuro?

It was a living hell growing up with the Estraneos, and Mukuro decided to change that. Killing the adults, he offers Ken and Chikusa a chance of a life time; to join him in his quest of revenge. Ken and Chikusa are irreplaceable to Mukuro. They are the only ones beside him to have ever experienced the trauma he had. His relationship with these two is so different from the rest, because Ken and Chikusa will be the only ones who can ever truly understand Mukuro.

Mukuro had replied to Tsuna with a passive, "Any body I possess is mine, Vongola. And I’ll use it as I like." To everyone, Mukuro treats the world with malice—including Ken and Chikusa. He uses their bodies to their limits, an act deemed as inhumane to everyone else but to Mukuro it's his own way of showing respect to these boys. Ken and Chikusa understand that while they have the determination like Mukuro, they lack in power to help him succeed. In order to see Mukuro's plans to the end, Ken and Chikusa are willing to give up their lives for Mukuro because they believe it is all they have to offer.

         

When Mukuro makes the sacrifice of helping Ken and Chikusa escape the Vendice Prison without him, it truly makes one wonder why he would do so when Ken and Chikusa have given up so much just so he could survive. "Let's split up here, and each of us will escape our own way. I'll be able to work something out on my own, but with you guys tagging along, you'll just be a burden..." is the lie Mukuro tells them just so that they may escape from the Vendice. Ken and Chikusa must have been so agonized upon seeing that their savior has burdened himself once again for their sakes and without their notice to top it all off. I believe Mukuro will only put Ken and Chikusa's lives at stake when they have nothing left to throw at the enemy, just like the battle against Tsuna and his comrades.

Mukuro has proven to us time and time again that he does care for these two boys just as much as they care for him. When Chikusa came back heavily injured from his battle with Gokudera in the Kokuyo Arc, Mukuro actually sat by his bedside waiting for him to awaken and was actually showing slight concern for Ken who had just been captured by Tsuna-tachi. He is the type to put on a façade because Mukuro feels he has to be the strong one between the three of them because if you look past their crimes and bloody deeds, the three are nothing but kids (Ken and Chikusa are 14 and Mukuro is only 15) who just never found a place to belong. No one had protected them in their childhood and now they are acting upon it through vengeance against the mafia who had attacked them. As much as Mukuro hates the mafia, he had to swallow his pride and protect the mafia he hates so much (specifically the Vongola by becoming the Mist Guardian) just to keep Ken and Chikusa out of harm's way. If Ken and Chikusa weren't there for Mukuro, I don't think we would ever see the human side of him at all.