Kensei Muguruma

is a Vizard and a previous Captain in the Gotei 13. He served as the 9th Division Captain with his lieutenant, Mashiro Kuna.

Appearance
Kensei is a tall, muscular man with sharp features, short light-gray/silver hair and golden eyes (brown in the anime). He has a 69 tattoo on his chest (the "6" for his last name, "Muguruma", which uses the kanji for "6" in it; the "9" for 9th Division), which the young Shūhei Hisagi saw and later copied by tattooing his face with the same number. During his time as a captain, he wore a standard but customized shihakusho with a rope belt and a sleeveless kimono and haori with fingerless black gloves.

His current attire is a blue and white basketball jersey with green cargo pants as well as black combat boots and orange fingerless gloves. In the manga, his shirt is shown slightly differently, as it appears black with a white and orange outline. He has also acquired a series of golden piercings in his time as a Vizard, one in his eyebrow and three on his left ear.

Personality
Unlike some of the other Vizard, Kensei is portrayed as a much more mature, serious, and decisive individual, though is easily-annoyed and rather temperamental, often to a fault. He's also greatly annoyed at the very concept of immaturity, as evidenced when Orihime infiltrates the Vizard's hideout, asking where the bathroom is and subsequently saying "just kidding", resulting in Lisa Yadōmaru and Love Aikawa calming him down. A skilled and respected battlefield commander, he has a rather brutal fighting style, and quite often blasts his opponents apart.

When not fighting, he has a blunt and slightly aggressive attitude, trying to cheer up a tearful Hisagi in a manner reminiscent of an army drill sergeant, though he seems more passive and somewhat melancholic as a Vizard. He is most frequently irritated by his former lieutenant Mashiro Kuna, due to her childish air-headed manner, and once noted that she had the uncanny ability to aggravate him even when asleep. Kensei is also quite analytical when watching a fight, noticing just how scared Ichigo was to call out his hollow mask.

History
Approximately 100 years ago, Kensei was the captain of the 9th division, with Mashiro Kuna serving as his lieutenant, though she easily annoyed him, due to her childish behavior. He attended the promotion ceremony of the 2nd Division's 3rd Seat Kisuke Urahara to 12th Division Captain. Nine years later during an investigation of mysterious disappearances in Rukongai, Kensei came across a young Shūhei Hisagi, whose family had apparently been killed by a giant hollow. He easily killed the hollow and attempted to cheer up the small boy. Hisagi would never forget Kensei after this event, tattooing his face with a '69' in remembrance. During the night, his entire group was attacked being stabbed from behind by his former subordinate, Kaname Tōsen.

Following the incident, he appeared as a half-hollow and attacked Shinji Hirako and Hiyori Sarugaki. Upon injuring his friend, Lisa Yadomaru, another friend of his, Rōjūrō Otoribashi, stated that the Kensei he knew was not the sort of 'weakling' that would attack a woman. He was then restrained by Hachigen Ushōda's Level 99 Kidō Spell. Unfortunately, the rest of his friends were cut down by Tōsen, leaving Shinji the only Shinigami conscious. He and the rest of the victims were eventually saved from turning into hollows by the timely arrival of then Captains Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi. Although the Hōgyoku stopped the process of Hollowfication, Kensei would be forever changed by this event. Kensei and the rest of the now Vizard escaped to the real world using Gigais created by Urahara, and have been in hiding ever since.

Arrancar arc
When Ichigo Kurosaki arrives to the Vizards' hideout in order to learn how to suppress his inner hollow, Kensei notes that Ichigo is too scared to call out his inner hollow, even referring to him as a punk during his short fight with Shinji. After Ichigo proves the strength of his hollow, the Vizard agree to "pound the way to suppressing his hollow into the core of his soul," resulting in Ichigo's full hollow transformation within the underground area of their hideout. As Kensei gets his turn to train Ichigo, the two spar, with Kensei clearly having the upper hand. However, a half-hollow Ichigo surprises him by creating a monster-like entity out of his arm, forcing Kensei to use Tachikaze's special ability. Overall, he doesn't have much trouble against the Hollow Ichigo. Kensei, along with the rest of the Vizard, witnesses Ichigo's endurance in training after Ichigo's hollow is defeated. Later, Orihime slips through Hachi's special barrier around the hideout, shocking everyone as she is only a mere human. Kensei is shown to be visibly angry when she jokes around, revealing his lack of humor in the situation. He is last seen reluctantly letting Ichigo go to fight the Arrancar that have been invading Karakura Town under Shinji's order.

Fake Karakura Town arc
Kensei is first seen in this arc with the other Vizard, preparing to join the fight at the fake Karakura Town, although as to what actions they will take remain unclear until their arrival at the battlefield.

He is then seen with the rest of the Vizard arriving at the fake Karakura Town, intercepting Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tōsen's release from Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's Jōkaku Enjō. He also witnesses a fallen Hisagi before joining his comrades into battling the Gillian that have spewed out of Wonderweiss Margera's companion's mouth. In his battle against the Menos, Kensei brings down scores of them in hand-to-hand combat and kills a Gillian sneaking up on him by stabbing it with his released Zanpakutō. He kills the last Gillian, and, after Mashiro complains, he takes his mask off and says he'll leave the Fūrā to her.

Powers & Abilities
Master Swordsmanship Specialist: The fact that Kensei can still fight effectively with his blade at close-range when it's sealed and its Shikai form is smaller than most Zanpakutō, as evidenced by his battle against Hollow Ichigo (who was using his Bankai) during the Vizard's training, is a testament to his skill. Unlike the rest of the Vizard, Kensei seems to prefer using the skills and powers he obtained as a Shinigami.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Despite the skill and power he has in his Zanpakutō, Kensei takes more pride in his hand-to-hand combat prowess, which can be seen in his physique. During Ichigo's transformation into a hollow, Kensei is able to knock him away at a good distance with just an elbow strike. He then dodges all of Hollow Ichigo's attacks, despite the latter's use of Tensa Zangetsu, and manages to kick him. The only times he uses Tachikaze in this fight are when he cuts Ichigo once and twice more to fire his spiritual energy.

Enhanced Strength: It has been implied by his fellow Vizard, back when they were captains, that his strength was high, even before his Hollowfication. After which it was considerably augmented allowing him the ability to break out of high level binding kidō using solely brute strength, something considered impossible. When donning his hollow mask during the battle at the Fake Karakura Town, Kensei was able to defeat a Gillian-class Menos with his fists alone, further demonstrating his incredible strength.

Flash Steps Expert: As a captain-level Shinigami, Kensei possessed considerable skill in this area, especially owed to the fact that upon his Hollowfication; His speed was highly increased to the point of taking his fellow captains by surprise when he attacked them.

Highly Perceptive Combatant: Despite his short-tempered nature, Kensei has shown to be a very perceptive fighter. Back when he was a captain, he was able to instantly determine that his men were somehow removed from their uniforms simply from how the uniforms were discovered.

Immense Spiritual Pressure: As a captain, he must have had great spiritual power. But after becoming a Vizard, it is most likely he has the dual type like the rest of the group.

Zanpakutō

 * When sealed, it is shown as a short katana with a rectangular guard in an 'H' shape and white hilt weaving.


 * Shikai: Kensei's Shikai is triggered by the command in which air currents swirl around Kensei in a circle up to his Tachikaze. It then transforms into a survival/combat knife with a black guard and small ring on the hilt's blunt edge. He commonly keeps this released form active rather than sealed and keeps it in the pocket of his cargo pants.




 * Shikai Special Ability: In this form, Kensei has demonstrated the ability to manipulate wind while mixing it with his spiritual energy for devastating effects. In the video games, his fighting style resembles that of Western boxing combined with Tachikaze.


 * Air Blades: Making slashes allows him to release transparent blades of wind to cut enemies from a distance. It appears to be extremely powerful, easily severing and killing a giant hollow.


 * Energy Blast: Kensei charges spiritual energy in Tachikaze and fires white energy blasts from his hand with extreme force. This blast is quite devastating as it was shown blowing off the arm of Ichigo's hollow form.


 * Bankai: Not Yet Revealed

Hollowfication
Kensei is unique among the Vizard so far in that he seems to prefer his Shinigami abilities over his Hollow powers. His hollow self is a large, bulky humanoid with armored hands and feet and with a number of thick cylindrical protrusions on its back and forearms. In addition, the cylinders on his back seem to make him a hunchback in his hollow form. While in his Hollow form, he appears to become more muscular.

Vizard
Hollow Mask: His hollow mask resembles a flat hockey face guard with six slitted eye holes in two columns and three extensions on each side which wrap around and connect to cover the sides and back of his head.


 * Power Augmentation: During his hollow metamorphosis, Kensei used his Zanpakutō's special ability very efficiently. One of his energy blasts was enough to greatly injure his friend, Love Aikawa. In terms of physical might, Kensei's hollow form was shown to give him vast superhuman strength and speed as evident from his ability to effortlessly punch massive craters into the ground, forcing himself out of a high level Bakudō, and dodging multiple high-speed attacks from his allies. He was able to block a sword blow from Love in this form with nothing but his arm (though this was before Love too was Hollowfied).


 * Enhanced Strength: With his mask on, Kensei's strength is greatly enhanced, as he was able to smash a menos' mask using only his fists, with ease.


 * Enhanced Speed: With his mask on, Kensei's speed increases greatly, as shown when he rapidly dealt punches to a Menos Grande during the winter war.


 * Instantaneous Tachikaze Blasts: In Kensei's hollow form he can fire these blasts from his Zanpakutō instantly without having to charge them.

Appearance In Other Media
It shown in Bleach: Heat the Soul 6, Kensei can use an Energy Sphere. This could be seen in the game Heat the Soul 6 as a Combo for him and his Lieutenant. Kensei focuses his Reiatsu and traps the enemy in an Energy Sphere, which implodes to deal massive damage to the enemy. It is not yet confirmed whether he could use this in the manga or the anime.

Quotes

 * "I'm Muguruma Kensei and I'm gonna crush you."
 * "Blow it away, Tachikaze!"
 * (Referring to Ichigo Kurosaki) "Are we seriously considering accepting this kid?!"
 * (To Shūhei Hisagi) "Smile, damn it!"

Trivia

 * With the exception of Ichigo, Kensei and Love are the only Vizard to have shown Shikai, with Kensei being the first and Love the second, at the battle in Fake Karakura Town.
 * Kensei is also the only Vizard who had another Vizard as a lieutenant while they were still in the Gotei 13.
 * Kensei is one of three Shinigami to have a wind attribute Zanpakutō. The other two are Shunsui Kyōraku and Senna.
 * Kensei is one of the few characters to show his sword's release before revealing it's name. Kensei is also the only character to keep his sword released for extended amounts of time, the only others having constant released swords.

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