Keiichi Kuchiki/Personality

Keiichi Kuchiki is very unique among members of the Kuchiki Family. Keiichi believes in honor above all else, and rejected the pride of his family, refusing to enter a battle solely on pride alone. To him a battle of honor is the greatest type of battle, which shows what type of character a man truly possesses. He's very humble and, despite his advanced abilities and high status, does not believe he is above his subordinates in any way, and even though he has served in many wars for the Soul Society, doesn't believe anyone owes him anything; shortly after he became Lieutenant he even picked a fight with Captain SoiFon for hovering her pride above all else, earning himself a few months in prison. He is very kind to others and treats them with respect, so long as they can treat him with respect as well. Although he does have a little bit of pride remaining, it's not all that much; according to Yoruichi, he appears to only have as much pride as he has to have in order to be proud of his achievements and accomplishments, but not nearly enough to make him stuck up and egotistical, which are the types of people that he absolutely despises. It wasn't always this way, however. Growing up he was raised by his father to believe that, because he was a Kuchiki, he was better than almost everyone else around him. This allowed him to get along quite well with his previous Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki, when Keiichi was the Lieutenant of the 11th Divisoin. However, after witnessing the suffering of the world, and being knocked donw a peg by several of his superiors, most notably Yoruichi Shihoin, who he now admires more than anyone else out there, he changed his ways, working hard to obtain a strong code of honor, and rejecting is family forever, most importantly his father. He also made the transition to the 2nd Division, before Yoruichi took back over again, so he would be away from Kenpachi Zaraki, who he grew to despise around this time.

Keiichi harbors a large amount of loyalty for those he respects a great deal. One of them is Yoruichi Shihoin, who he considers to have "saved him from his madness." In addition, due to her overwhelming powers in Zanjutsu and Kendo, Keiichi admired, respected, and remained loyal to Yachiru Unohana up until her death at the hands of Kenpachi Zaraki, (although he never learned the truth about her death or the what her true personality was).

Keiichi enjoys combat, but not in the same way he used to. Before changing his ways he enjoyed battle in a very bloodthirsty manner, slaughering countless opponents without a care in the world, and only showing his true power to those he deemed worthy; that basically meant they had to be strong enough for it. After changing his ways, however, he still enjoys battle, but in more of an honorable way than he used to. He prefers not to kill if he absolutely doesn't have to, (but is willing to go through with it should the circumstances demand it), and will show his full power to his enemy no matter what, should they request it, without them having to be "worth" of it, as a show of respect to his opponent. He also won't finish an enemy who can't fight back; this is a trait that he possessed before, except that then it went against his code of pride, and now it goes against his code of honor. Keiichi believes that people should uphold their ideals under almost any circumstance; however, if one should change their ideals, like he did, then they should never, ever flip flop back and fourth, as that shows signs of a week constitution, which is something that Keiichi highly frowns upon. He also believes that their is no form of combat more honorable than Zanjutsu, which is why he opened up his very own Zanjutsu dojo, in which he teaches new and vetrine Shinigami alike how to fight like a master with their own Zanpakuto. When fighting, Keiichi never uses cheep or sneaky tactics to win, as he feels that this is also very unhonorable and demeaning of one's character.

Despite how nice he normally is, Keiichi can be very fierce and demon-like when it comes to several things. One of these things is betrayal. As someone who has been betrayed by ones that he has trusted and/or loved countless times in the past, Keiichi gets very defensive and violent whenever he is betrayed nowadays. He believes in loyalty above all else, and that anyone who is unwilling to commit to absolute loyalty to someone or something is the lowerst form of a person. He will also kill without hesitation, (but will still have a b it of remorse), if the lives of those he cares about, such as family, friends, or lovers, are threatened. An example of this is when his mother was killed by Sosuke Aizen; Keiichi left the Soul Society without the proper authority to hunt down Aizen by himself, almost costing him his life when he caught up to him, and causing him to be thrown in prison for three months after he finally returned. Keiichi will fight to protect what is precious to him no matter what, but will also go out of his way to protect others in need to, no matter how far he has to travel, which often puts him into conflict with Ichigo Kurosaki, who has stated on numerous occasions that he will only attempt to protect what is right in front of him, and won't go out of his way to protect those that are out of his reach.

Another notable trait is his romantic life. In his youth, Keiichi was in love with a young woman from Rukongai named Sora Hiragi. Even thoug his family was against their romantic envolvement, he pursued her anyways, due to his rebellious nature. The two were not only inseparatable with their love, Keiichi going out of his way to protect her no matter what, (and Sora often doing the same for him), but they were said to be the best duo in combat, both part of the 2nd Divison, and fighting alongside each other all the time. However, after she was killed during a mission at one point in the past, something in his mind snapped; from this point onward, he was no longer capable of comprehending emotions such as "love" in a romantic way, at least like others are able to. In order to cope with the mental stress of loosing the only person he's ever truly been in love with, for several years he would get infatuated with random women whom he's had very little, if any, interaction with before hand, especially if they looked similar to Sora. In order to break him from this rut, his twin sister, Shion Kuchiki, decided to work with his mind, using her special Kido. She succeeded, but resulted in him falling in love with her instead. However, this time it was different; before, it was as if he wasn't in his right state of mind, and whenever anyone would attempt to criticize him for his actions to his fact, he would completely deny it; this time, however, he was able to acknowledge that being in love with his sister was wrong, and even made a deal with her that they could keep their interactions on a mostly sibling level, but he also noted that this didn't change his feelings for her, as he wanted to attempt to recapture the same feeling he once had with Sora.

Despite changing his ways, ever since Sora's death, Keiichi would occasionally, (or often, it varried), engulf himself in fits of rage, often resulting in him temporarily returning to his bloodthirsty ways. A notable time whent his occurred was during the Soul Society Civil War, in which he kickstarted the war by loosing control and killing the head of North Rukongai, putting the Seireitei at war with the Rukongai as a whole; after which, he got three years in prison, and a year of demotion, going back down to an unseated psosion for a year, (the demotion happened after he got out of prison). He always regrets the fits of rage, the lives he took, and all of the other troubles he causes once they're done, believing that there's nothing he can do to redeem himself for it. Thanks to Yoruichi Shihoin's and Shion Kuchiki's influence on him he's recovered quite a bit from this, but hasn't been cured yet.