Ichibei Benkei

{{Bleach Character Infobox (Shinigami) Ichibei Benkei (弁慶市兵衛, Benkei Ichibee) is a human who possesses shinigami powers. He is an ally of Soul Society and is a close friend and student of Jinbei Hitotsuboshi his teacher and mentor. He was also the childhood friend of Siegfried Schwartz and Great Grandson of Ichigo Kurosaki. He also entered Soul Society in the hopes to see his mothers soul, and consequently started another Ryoka invasion.
 * title = "Twin-blade" Ichibei Benkei
 * image = Ichibei Benkei.jpg
 * name = Ichibei 'Monotsuke Tengu' Benkei
 * kanji = 弁慶市兵衛
 * romanji = Benkei Ichibei
 * race = {{bw|Human}} ({{bw|Shinigami}}
 * birthday = September 7th
 * age = 31
 * gender = Male
 * height = "6'2"
 * weight = 167lbs
 * eyes = Brown
 * hair = Black
 * blood type = O+
 * affiliation = Soul Searcher's
 * previous affiliation = None
 * occupation = Substitute Shinigami
 * previous occupation = Student of Tokyo University
 * team = Ashita
 * previous team = None
 * partner = None
 * previous partner = Siegfried Schwartz
 * base of operations = Nakajima Island - Human World
 * marital status = None
 * alignment = Good
 * relatives = Maito Kurosaki (Mother) Mitsuhide Ichibei (Father)
 * education = Tokyo University
 * status = Active
 * shikai = Tenchi Wareru
 * bankai = Tenchi Hananimoni Meru

==Appearance= Benkei has the appearance of a scruffy middle-aged man, with a thin beard and his hair tied into a knot. He is generally seen in his Shinigami uniform which is a blackish navy blue. When he was younger he had Ginger hair, which he repeatedly dyes so as to "fit in". He is incredibly muscular.

During his youth he had ginger hair and freckles.

Personality
Benkei is quick to anger, but is generally very over-reactive, he frequently jokes around and is rarely seen without a smile. He dislikes people insulting his friends, family or his honor, he is also prone to becoming incredibly serious when in battle, but still smiles nonetheless. Benkei enjoys helping and protecting others weaker than himself, but is not one for fighting his battles for his friends if they can handle it on their own, despite the injuries that it may incur in doing so which contradicts his desire to protect his friends. Benkei is unusually patient, he can be usually found sitting and watching the cloud for hours on end during his spare time, when he is not doing his favorite hobby, fighting. He trains constantly and seeks to become the best swordsman that the world has even seen, in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and even the Human world and constantly seeks new opponents be they Captains, Arrancar, Vasto Lorde, Fullbringers or Quincy. His personality has changed little from his youth, during his youth he frequently cried when bullied or when his best friend Siegfried got hurt defending him. During their adolescence Siegfried lost his parents and started to loathe Shinigami and threatened to kill and obliterate Benkei if their paths ever crossed again, both loving battle, their paths surely will.

History
Benkei's mother died when he was young as she protected him from a powerful Arrancar. It traumatized him deeply and his father was rarely ever around. During his childhood he made friends with Siegfried Schwartz and they often got bullied with Benkei crying while Siegfried fought the bullies, eventually Benkei came to love fighting and soon they both began to hold their own and never got bullied again. When Siegfried lost his parents to the hands of Shinigami when they reached their teens he became hate filled and ran away threatening to kill Ichibei if they met. Soon after this Ichibei found Jinbei Hitotsuboshi who began to mentor him after discovering his latent Shinigami potential. And soon found new friends and traveled to Soul Society to search for his mothers soul, incurring a Ryoka Invasion. After this he began to search for his mother in all of the realms and seek out working dueling opponents to fuel his lust for battle.

Human Powers & Abilities
Advanced Growth Rate: Having taken lessons of all schools of swordsmanship and mastered and beat the inventors and masters of the schools in duels in less than 7 years, is truly impressive, even more so when he accomplished all of this in his human form.

Godlike Reflexes: Benkei stated one of the reasons he mastered all sword schools and accomplished so much was due to his monstrous reflexes, in his eyes even the fastest humans move at a snails pace.

Shinigami Powers & Abilities
Master Swordsman: Benkei is a masterful swordsman, able to fight evenly with his own master, and a excellent swordsman in his own right, Jinbei Hitotsuboshi. Benkei is regarded as one of the greatest swordsmen of this current generation of Shinigami. With only members of the Royal Guard, The 1st and 0 Espada, Leader of the New Visored, 1st Division Captain and the King of Hueco Mundo and his aide being superior in swordsmanship. Having never fought or witnessed Siegfried Schwartz' power for himself, it cannot be stated who is a superior swordsman. Benkei enjoys using two blades, but only on powerful opponents who are worth his time. Benkei has reputedly mastered all the schools of swordsmanship in the entirety of the human world, but prefers using his own mixed in with the other styles. He has invented a few sword techniques of his own.
 * By quickly unsheathing and striking a foe and sheathing his sword Benkei can quickly cut down a foe. While this may seem to be an ordinary feat, the speed at which Benkei draws his sword and strikes his foe makes it seem like nothing but a blur to observers, seeing only the afterimage of the attack, hence the term "hollow" he can incorporate flash steps into the technique to cut through multiple foes in conjunction. The technique works by focusing large amounts of Reiryoku into the arms and front foot, and stepping forwards, but it also incorporates the similar movement of Shunpo, but only in the arms.
 * Similar to the normal Hollow Edge, however this technique uses both swords but they aim for the edges of a foe, and strike and slightly different times, the wider area it covers along with the time delay make the technique difficult to block, depending on the opponents skill and second strike can be activate known as : this second attack involves bringing the two blades that cut the sides of the opponent back towards each other, joining at the middle swiftly cutting the opponent in half and sheathing them in the same movement, this is where the true lethality of the Twin Hollow Edge attack becomes apparent, the second strike is followed up in a similar manner to the first, but it is all one fluid movement and appears as though Benkei is sheathing his swords, which is what is accomplished with the addition of the second strike.

Immense Spiritual Power: Benkei possesses a utterly monstrous Spiritual Power. It is more than double the level of a captain and can even make an opponent as powerful as Jinbei Hitotsuboshi stand in awe. For a reason unknown there are two types of power dwelling within Benkei and are stated to be of different qualities. His Spiritual power is said to be equal to the 3rd Espada, a remarkable feat, as they are the strongest group of Espada assembled in history.
 * Novice Reiatsu Control: Benkei has poor Reiatsu control, although when exerted can distill nothing but fear in opponents and raw killing intent, it is still terrible and he has trouble controlling it and occasionally hurts others with it.

Hakuda Expert: Benkei is not defenseless without his swords, and has trained himself rigorously in Hakuda to compensate for the possibility of his loss of swords. While not a favored method of combat, he can hold his own against Captain-level opponents.

Shunpo Master: Benkei has mastered Shunpo. He only uses it to dodge can catch opponents by surprise, while not as gifted as his mentor Jinbei, or several Captains of the Gotei, he does without a doubt qualify for the prestige of being a master of Shunpo. Picking it up incredibly quickly, after seeing it once from his mentor, he cut his hat in half in one strike, an unprepared Jinbei was astounding at Benkei showing expert level proficiency after seeing Shunpo just once. He refined it to at least keep up with the fastest foes.

Kido Practioner: Benkei stated he has little need for Kido, so created a Kido to gauge and find beings with high spiritual power so as to help him seek them out and judge their power. This is especially handy considering he struggles to sense most foes at a distance.

Enhanced Speed: Due to his training with Jinbei and using Jinbei's gravity blade he is accustomed to moving quickly without the need for Shunpo.

Immense Strength: Having clashed with Jinbei's "Heavy Blade" so many times, he was able to withstand 800,000 times the swords gravity impacting him and repelling it with even force, a feat few can accomplish. Although he said if it was any heavier he may have broken his wrist.

Immense Durability: Having spent most of his life honing his body he has developed a powerful body, he stated that few opponents can kill him without releasing their true power. Many shinigami, including Jinbei have stated his pure Durability is utterly abnormal.

Enhanced Endurance: Capable of withstanding great injuries and being brought to the brink of exhaustion, Benkei can continue to fight.