Muguruma Kensei (六車拳西)

Age: Unknown
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Birthday: Unknown
Blood Type: Unknown
Affiliation: Vizard
Rank: [Former] Captain
Division: [Formerly] 9th
Zanpakuto: Tachikaze
Release Command: Blow It Away
First Seen: Volume 024; Chapter 214
Voiced by: Sugita Tomokazu (Japanese)

Personality & Appearance

Kensei has a very strict and serious personality, although not truly stoic and can be fairly easily irritated, especially when it comes to the antics of his fellow Vizard, Kuna Mashiro. Kensei, as seen in an omake, is also the Vizard's cook. Kensei sports a basketball jersey, gloves, and cargo pants with combat boots. He has several piercings in his ears as well as a single piercing on his left eyebrow as well as a tattoo of the number "69" on his stomach.

Currently

Kensei makes his initial appearance in chapter 214 of the manga, entitled "Immanent God Blues", alongisde the rest of the Vizard who, up until then, had not made an appearance. Kensei and the other Vizard show up in the series to recruit Kurosaki Ichigo and help to train and gather control of his hollow. The Vizard's base, at present, is located in an abandoned warehouse and have not yet made a move in the battle between Soul Society and Aizen. Given the history that the Vizard have with Aizen however that won't last much longer.

Zanpakutou

Kensei's zanpakutou, Tachikaze, in its sealed state, features a rectangular-shaped hilt. Tachikaze is released with the command "futtobase" (blow it away). In its shikai (initial release) form, Tachikaze takes the form of a black combat knife. During his fight with Ichigo it is seen that Kensei can charge Tachikaze with spirit energy and fire it at his opponent. This is similar in form, if not size, to Ichigo's own zanpakutou Zangetsu.

Before the Current Timeline

Chapters -108 to -100 of the manga, entiteld "Turn Back the Pendulum" are set a little over a hundred years before the current timeline. During these chapters it is revealed that Kensei is the former Captain of the 9th Division before Kaname Tousen. Kensei's Vice-Captain was Kuna Mashiro.

At the time, there was a rash of unexplained disapearences of souls in Rukongai and the 9th Division was sent out to investigate this phenomenom. Kensei, along with his Vice-Captain, and four officers from his division (Eishima, Todo, Kasak, and Kaname Tousen) were heading out to the last known disappearance when they spied a large Hollow chasing three [children] souls. Kensei and his officers quickly dispateched the Hollow and prevented it from harming the children. The child that Kensei protected is revealed to have been the young Hisagi Shuuhei.

After successfully defeating the Hollow, Mashiro reveals what she found - the abandoned sandals and uniforms of multiple shinigami. Their clothes are all that remains, and upon inspection, Kensei notices that the sandals are still all laced up and the sashes on the uniforms still tied. Conclusion: the first Shinigami victims of the disappearing soul case.

Kensei orders one of his officers, Todo, to return to Soul Society and inform the 12th Division of what is going on while he and the others remain behind as bait to lure out whoever is behind it all. During the night, after Todo returns, Kensei and his group are sneak-attacked by Tousen. Kensei and Mashiro's spiritual signatures disapear resulting in Soul Society sending in assistance in the form of 3 Captains and 3 Vice-Captain -the future Vizard. By the time assistance arrives, Kensei and Mashiro have degenerated to their Hollow forms.

Soon, Kensei and Mashiro's would-be saviors are also falling victim to the hollowfication process. At this time Urahara Kisuke and Tessai Tsukabishi arrive on the scene and rescue the soon-to-be vizards from Aizen, Gin, and Tousen. Due to Aizen's masterful planning, Central 46 is lead to believe that Urahara conducted the experiments on the Vizard. While Central 46 planned to hand down sentences of banishment and imprisonment for Urahara and Tessai, the sentence for the tragic victims, Kensei and his fellow vizards, was death. With Urahara's help, the Vizard gain control of their hollows and flee to the human world where they proceed to live fugitive lives.