My Ardent Affection

Kai as Sara's "stalker" and the Chidouin family servant and guard (with some meta ranting about how the YTTD fandom sees Kai)

Many in the fandom love Kai and want to rid his name of any dirt because he's so cute and malewife, but it is undeniable that given the canon, Kai can so easily be interpreted as a disgusting fucking pervert; he is way more qualified for the title of "creep" than Keiji, the character most regarded by the fandom as the pervert in the cast, had ever been. This is simply pretty privilege at play seeing how Kai has the typical bishonen traits like long hair and a "female appearance" while having straight up introduced himself as "something akin to a house husband" while Keiji is a cop that looks like stale sleepy shit.

It pisses me off because I'd bring up this point to other fans and it would almost always fall on deaf ears or get told I didn't play the game. Often people would bring up that "Kai was actually protecting Sara!" as though to imply that he's wholly innocent as a conclusion. The fact that Kai was Sara's guard (supposedly good) and had "good intentions" proves nothing against the fact that Sara was being harmed by him regardless of his intent, which, by the way, was the first thing that happened in the game.

On my first run through of the game, the fact that Kai was Sara's stalker never left my mind. It personally disturbed me a lot, especially with how Sara felt unsafe to even express that Kai is a dangerous person to her. It was uncomfortable, too, to see how Sara was lumped in with a bunch of other shady adults who were getting in her business. Sara is just a teenage girl mind you, and these other guys like Keiji were relying on her to do things too much, to the point I would feel uneasy when Sara was separated from Joe. There was also that part when Sara was alone with Kai at the cafeteria (1-2: Mishima's death aftermath); my god I was shitting myself during the blackout. I declared Kai is the worst character in the game and that I won't fall for the typical pathetic creature propaganda. (Little did I know...)

Later on, Kai's lore is revealed. He was hired by Sara's father, who we will refer to as Mr. Chidouin, to work as an assistant. It's made clear that the jobs he were assigned were to protect the family and manage the housework.

In the 2-1 Prologue, Kai's relationship to the Chidouins is explained more clearly: he is like family to the Chidouins. And Kai cherishes the Chidouins for being the family he never had, having been raised solely to kill by his own family at ASU-NARO. Kai specifically mentions his "affection" for Sara, and there's a quick gag moment about how Sara's father will never give her to Kai.

It may be true that Kai was indeed Sara's protector from the shadows but it doesn't disprove at all that he really was stalking her. Perhaps he kept her safe from anyone else, except for himself. You could say I'm exaggerating what he is shown to have done (calling him a pervert when the most he was shown to know about Sara are her favorite foods and school life) but there is too little proof that shows Kai is completely trusthworthy in this aspect. His Fondness Events with Sara in the Your Time To Shine spin-off further proves how bad it is.

Your Time To Shine, Kai's Story: Sara's Fondness Events

One can argue that the spin-offs can be written off as non-canon, but I believe it was just a way for Nankidai (the creator of YTTD) to demonstrate each of his characters outside of the primary death game setting. Essentially it contains the nature of each character's relationship with each other.

Is he stupid? I don't know how anyone could defend him here. He keeps it vague on purpose for who knows why. This was genuinely crazy and nobody talks about how gross it was.