Kensei Muguruma is the Captain of the 9th Division of the 13 Court Guard Squads and a Visored. Over 100 years before the start of the series, Kensei was already a Captain before being betrayed by his 5th Seat Kaname Tosen and forced to undergo Hollowfication as a part of Sosuke Aizen's experiments. He was exiled from the Soul Society and forced to live in the Human World, where he met Shinji Hirako and became a member of the Visoreds. He worked with them until the fateful battle against Sosuke Aizen and his army of Espada, where after his defeat, Kensei was reinstated as a Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads. Kensei is a very serious person and doesn't take too kindly to childish or immature behavior, scolding a young Shuhei Hisagi for crying after a Hollow attack and getting constantly mad at his Vice Captain and later fellow Visored Mashiro Kuna. He does care deeply about his comrades however, but has a hard time expressing it around his tough demeanor and speech.
This Respect Thread will be divided into and cover the following sections:
Soul Reaper Basics
Accolades
Zanpaku-to
Kido
Strength
Speed
Durability/Endurance
Soul Reaper Basics
(Ch. 49) As a Soul Reaper, Kensei materializes spirit energy from his own soul and manifests it into his zanpaku-to:
(Ch. 35) Reiraku are spirit ribbons, manifestations of spiritual energy, that a good Soul Reaper can sense and a great one can even grab. Being able to sense reiraku allows a Soul Reaper to locate beings with high spiritual power and even track them:
(Ch. 105) In Bleach, a battle between two people is a battle of spiritual power. If one opponent's spiritual power isn't strong enough, they can't even cut a stronger opponent. This is displayed and described by Kenpachi Zaraki when he let's Ichigo Kurosaki get in a free cut during their fight. Ichigo swings as hard as he can but doesn't scratch Kenny and even his hands start to bleed:
(Ch. 187) Although a Soul Reaper's zanpaku-to and spiritual power and directly related, meaning the bigger the zanpaku-to the more spiritual power, Captain-class Soul Reapers know how to hone their blades down to manageable sizes, otherwise they'd be swinging around swords the size of buildings:
Accolades
(Ch. 146) Kensei was originally a Captain of the 9th Division and after the battle against Aizen and his forces was reinstated as a Captain in the Soul Society. There are three ways to become a Captain of the 13 Court Guards squads:
Zanpaku-to
Shikai
(Ch. 120) All zanpaku-to have two releases, shikai and bankai. Shikai is the first release and occurs when a Soul Reaper calls out their sword's name and along with bankai, needs to be mastered in order to become a Captain:
(Ch. 127) The essence of Shikai is to communicate and synchronize with your zanpaku-to:
(Ch. 315.5) Kensei's zanpaku-to is called Tachikaze, Earth Severing Wind, and it activates when he says the phrase "Blast it!". His katana transforms into a small knife oddly enough and allows him to use wind to attack as well as explosive power:
(Ch. 220) Kensei blows off a large Hollowfied arm of Ichigo Kurosaki after it had threatened to knock him back:
(Ch. 315.5) Kensei uses Tachikaze to slice through a large Hollow's neck and then blow it up, effectively oneshotting it:
(Ch. 366) Kensei stabs a Gillian with Tachikaze and blows its head up:
Bankai
(Ch. 120) Bankai is the second release of a Soul Reaper's zanpaku-to and in general, increases the users power by five to ten times. Even if you have exceptional skill and talent, mastering bankai can still take a Soul Reaper up to and at least ten years:
(Ch. 127) Where Shikai is the essence of communicating and synchronizing with one's zanpaku-to, bankai requires a Soul Reaper to externalize the zanpaku-to and force it into submission. It usually takes at least ten years for this training because the zanpaku-to needs to be summoned to our world:
(Ch. 162) According to Byakuya Kuchiki, only the most experienced Soul Reapers can achieve bankai:
(Ch. 377) Kensei's bankai is called Tekken Tachikaze and when he activates it his blade transforms into a pair of large knuckle blades with a curved silver edge. Segmented purple bands wrap around Kensei's arms and a thicker band comes around behind him:
(Ch. 377) You can see the large explosion Kensei makes when he attacks Wonderweiss behind Aizen as the other Captains prepare to fight him:
(Ch. 560) Tekken Tachikaze is a bankai that packs the power of an explosion into a fist and as long as the fist is in contact, the power of the explosion will continue to be hammered in infinitely:
(Ch. 560) Kensei is able to block a two-legged kick from the Stern Ritter Mask de Masculine that sent him skidding back at least four buildings length of distance and toppled a large tower. He then berates Shuhei Hisagi for losing to an attack of that level:
(Ch. 560) Kensei changes his Tekken Tachikaze from bladed knuckle weapons to brass knuckles and punches the Stern Ritter Mask de Masculine in the stomach, doubling him over and creating a sphere around him that cratered the ground and damaged nearby buildings:
(Ch. 560) Kensei punches and blasts the Stern Ritter Mask de Masculine a far distance away into a building:
Kido
Kido are spells in the Bleach verse and can be used regardless of a Soul Reaper's zanpaku-to abilities. It's basically the magic of the verse.
(Ch. 220) It's not an actual feat of Kensei performing a Kido spell, but Kensei has the ability to harness spiritual energy in his fists to greatly amp his striking power. He is capable of blowing off Ichigo Kurosaki's arm when he was trying to master his inner Hollow:
Strength
Feats marked with a "*" are feats performed by Kensei when he was using his Hollow Mask or when he was using Hollow powers.
(Ch. 219) Kensei elbows a Hollowfied Ichigo Kurosaki a fair ways away:
(Ch. 315.6) *Kensei, as he is first turned into a Hollow, leaves small craters and cracks the ground with his punches. This Hollow Kensei is Canonically weaker than the Kensei who has control of his inner Hollow:
(Ch. 315.7) *Kensei, as he is first turned into a Hollow, is able to break out of Hachigen Ushodo's Bakudo 63 Sajo Sabaku, Ethereal Binding Chain, and surprises Hachigen that he was able to do so with just physical strength. This Hollow Kensei is Canonically weaker than the Kensei who has control of his inner Hollow:
(Ch. 366) *Kensei literally blows up a Gillian by punching it repeatedly:
(Ch. 367) *Kensei blows up another Gillian's head with a punch, and from the looks of it he didn't use his zanpaku-to to do so:
(Ch. 376) Kensei catches a punch from Wonderweiss, who's strong enough to throw Mashiro multiple building lengths away, in order to save Mashiro:
(Ch. 377) Kensei then throws Wonderweiss into a nearby building with one hand again:
(Ch. 560) Kensei is able to stop the Stern Ritter Mask de Masculine from stomping on his Vice Captain Shuhei Hisagi by catching his foot with his own:
Speed
Shunpo
Feats marked with a "*" are feats performed by Kensei when he was using his Hollow Mask or when he was using Hollow powers.
(Ch. 155) Shunpo, also known as Flash Step, is an ability where the user travels at FTE speeds in order to cross a large distance in a short matter of time:
(Ch. 315.7) *Kensei, as he is first turned into a Hollow, uses Shunpo to blitz behind Captain Love Aikawa and surprise him. This Hollow Kensei is Canonically weaker than the Kensei who has control on his inner Hollow:
Durability/Endurance
(Ch. 24) A thing to note and be aware of is that according to Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper's life force is equal to his/her spiritual energy:
(Ch. 560/561) Kensei is smacked away by an amped Mask de Masculine and crashes into a building, but shrugs it off and charges right back into the fight:
(Ch. 561) Kensei endures Mask de Masculine's Star Eagle Kick and Star Headbutt attacks in order to counter attack:
This is awesome.