Zaraki Kenpachi: The Strongest Shinigami

In the world of Bleach, there is much meaning to be found in a name. The name of an individual forms one’s status, their title determines their power, even the weapon one wields has a name that speaks not to just its powers but also to the feelings that it carries. Names hold such importance that even the one who created these names has power that towers above others. The protectors of the balance in this world are known as “Shinigami”, meaning “death god”, and thus is a name that is earned through strength and bloodshed. Amongst these Shinigami, there is a name that stands above all others. A name that, even amongst those who call themselves gods of death, is feared. It’s a name that is power and violence incarnate, it’s the name that belongs to the one who has earned the right to call themselves the strongest Shinigami. In Soul Society, there is only one who can claim this name.

There is only one Kenpachi.

It’s a name that is given to the strongest Shinigami, a title that was given to the captain of Squad 11 of the Gotei 13, said to be home to the Shinigami with the greatest fighting capabilities. Though it’s a name that’s passed down, that passage is only attained through blood. There can only be one Kenpachi per generation, and as such the only way to earn that name is to kill the previous owner. To earn the name soaked in blood, one must grasp it with blood covered hands, and no one was as suited to carry that title than the 11th holder. The Kenpachi of Zaraki who was born without a name.

Zaraki is the name of the most brutal and unruly district of Rukongai. To survive, you must take the lives of others, constantly bathing yourself in blood. For a child born into this world, alone and without a name, he took many lives as they stood in his way; a monster that not only took those lives but thoroughly enjoyed it. This boy from Zaraki who had no name defeated anyone who stood in his path, even those who called themselves “gods of death”. Those lives that he took in exchange for survival with that Zanpakuto that he claimed from a Shinigami eventually led him to the holder of the title of strongest. For the first time, both of them had experienced fear and the thrill that comes from battle. That boy without a name who only knew blood now knew the greatest thrill in this word and nothing could compare. A battle where all that mattered was strength, not for survival but purely for the thrill…a connection that he searched for when he was all alone.

That boy from Zaraki grew in strength and power, unable to forget that thrill, and worked his way to becoming a Shinigami, searching for the one who taught him that thrill. He eventually found his way to Squad 11, claiming both the titles of captain and Kenpachi by slaying the previous holders of both, becoming the Kenpachi of Zaraki. He was the strongest Kenpachi in history, with a broken, damaged sword with no name and a peerless fighting ability and bloodthirst. All those around him feared him, and those he led respected and adored him. He who did not care about looks, status or one’s past and only cared about strength, that was the man who held the name Zaraki Kenpachi. A name that, while he had technically earned, still wasn’t his.

Within a name, there holds many meanings. A Zanpakuto’s name unlocks Shikai, the power that lies within that blade and the abilities that suit the user. But that jagged, scratched and dented nodachi that Zaraki stole didn’t have a name, at least, not that he was aware of. To him, that blade was merely a tool. His title of Captain, an excuse to fight stronger and stronger opponents. They were all merely tools for him to seek that thrill that he found all those years ago; they were all a way to seek that connection he experienced when he was a boy without a name. 

Because of his desperate desire to recreate that thrill, Zaraki placed upon himself shackles to weaken his immense power. Bells to let his opponents see where he is, an eyepatch that constantly fed on his seemingly infinite and extremely powerful reiatsu, his fighting style with so many openings as to intentionally allow his enemies to hit him, his refusal to learn even the most basic of fighting techniques, even casting away his pride as a warrior, everything he was was made to relive that day that he found a connection. While outwardly he was the Kenpachi of Zaraki, all he was was that boy without a name. However, similarly, the only other connection Kenpachi had at the time was also one without a name. Who, like him, did not fear blood. A girl that Zaraki gave the name Yachiru.

A man who only knew violence, surrounded by corpses was approached by a girl who like him had no name. While others feared him, this little girl approached him with a smile on his face, her hands covered in blood. This innocent-looking girl from Kusaijishi formed the second connection that the boy from Zaraki would make. For him, he would claim the name of Kenpachi that belonged to the strongest…but for the girl he gave the name of the first connection he ever made. The names Yachiru and Kenpachi hold more significance than probably is apparent, as both are tied to that connection he made when he was a boy without a name. Neither one really belonged to him and were merely lent to him by the one who gave him the thrill that he sought. In his mind he formed this ideal built around those names, weakening who he was to find that connection once again.

And that was Unohana Yachiru’s greatest sin.

As the originator of the name Kenpachi, Unohana found her greatest foe in that boy without a name. Even for her, who was known as the most diabolical criminal to ever live in Soul Society, who Yamamoto Genryuusai brought on to his Gotei 13 for her skill, that boy with a stolen Zanpakuto was the greatest threat she had ever faced. He was so powerful even her who was named the strongest she had to rely purely on her fighting skill. She barely made it away with her life, and that battle left a scar on her chest as a constant reminder, but the scar she left on that boy was far worse. In his idealization of who she was, he had it in his mind that no one would or could be as strong as her. No one could give him a thrill like she did. With her own hands, she trapped the boy from Zaraki in that moment, and as if to atone for her sins relinquished the name Kenpachi and became the captain of Squad 4, the squad that specializes, ironically, in healing. In that moment, it was if not one but two lives were locked away, both throwing away their pride as warriors. Because the name Kenpachi wasn’t truly passed along, time would never resume until that sin was corrected. For that boy from Zaraki to earn the name Kenpachi, he would have to face Unohana Yachiru one more time…he would have to kill that ideal he created in his mind.

How could Zaraki Kenpachi, the strongest Shinigami, struggle and lose against a boy who had just gained his Shinigami powers? How could Zaraki Kenpachi, who knew no equal, struggle against the fifth strongest Espada? How could he, who Unohana Yachiru feared with all of her being lose to anyone? Why didn’t he know his Zanpakuto’s name? The answer is simple.

Why did he name that girl Yachiru?

Ichigo saw Zaraki as an unbeatable monster, but he was able to defeat him once he realized that he wasn’t alone, that Zangetsu who stood by his side was no tool but was a part of him. Zaraki could not hear his Zanpakuto let alone learn its name because that weapon was a tool. His name Kenpachi not truly earned. Zangetsu’s voice was heard by Ichigo because Ichigo was actively searching for the meaning behind his ideals, to find his true self. Zaraki, who locked away his true self for fear of losing a connection, couldn’t do that; was incapable of doing that. Ichigo could evolve but Zaraki was frozen in time until that battle led to his defeat. Ichigo, who had pride in who he was and Zaraki who threw his pride away to enjoy the thrill of battle. Zaraki found a connection with Ichigo in the midst of their battle.

“錆びつけば　二度と突き立てられず

摑み損なえば　我が身を裂く

そう　誇りとは

刃に似ている”

“If it rusts, it can never be trusted

If its owner fails to control it, it will cut him.

Yes, pride is

like a blade.”

A chain was removed.

Nnoitora refused to be weaker than anyone, much less a woman. He was stronger, his pride wouldn’t allow him to accept subservience to that which he viewed as inferior. Nelliel was a woman who didn’t deserve the number on her back, the title that she held. But Zaraki didn’t care about that. Status, appearance, rank, skill, ability, Shinigami, Hollow, Human, Quincy, man, woman—what did any of that matter? All that matters is the winner. All that matters is the thrill of battle. The one who is strong decides everything. After all, in his mind, the one who taught him this thrill was no other than the strongest Shinigami; a woman. Nnoitora was a mere insect wishing for power and cursing those who had it while he did not, but Zaraki cast aside his power out of his desire to connect to the one who held power he felt was beyond his. Nnoitora, an insect cursing all others and desiring to look down upon them, and Zaraki who forever desired to keep looking up for in his eyes, there is nothing more depressing than constantly looking down. Nnoitora, who was consumed by pride and Zaraki who threw his away. Zaraki found another connection.

“俺達は虫

不揮発性の

悪意の下で

這い回る蠕虫

首をもたげる

月より高く

憐れなお前等が

見えなくなるまで”

“We are insects.

Swinging around with no nature

desiring evil, descending,

creeping like worms.

I lift my head up

even higher than the moon

Until I can’t see

you bastards anymore.”

Another chain was removed.

This husk of who he once was bound by weakness after weakness, starved for a thrill, a connection was slowly and slowly being reawakened. Through battle, through the threat of near-death was the only way to bring Zaraki back to the boy without a name, to the time when he was at his strongest. With every battle he partook in that brought him to the brink of death he gained another connection. In order for him to regain who he was and move past that, he would have to kill that which trapped him in time. The one who gave him the name Kenpachi and the name Yachiru would have to die.

You see, when Unohana found Zaraki, she, like him, grew tired of fighting. It was only when she was struck in the collarbone by this boy filled with bloodlust that she regained a thrill like no other. She knew full well that this boy was meant to inherit that title, because the title of Kenpachi can only belong to the strongest, and she had intended to give him that title someday but never got the chance. She had taken from him the joy of fighting, never game him that title and instead instilled within him a fear that he could never experience something like that ever again. She gained the power to heal, for it the only way to revive him was to kill him, she would kill him again and again, and revive him again and again. With those hands once stained in blood that stole from him the thrill of the fight she healed him and returned him to who he was until his blade met her once more.

The names Yachiru and Kenpachi meant more to him than simply strength, they signified to him something he had never known. When getting ready to face her, he couldn’t help but talk endlessly to her, like a child speaking excitedly to their mother. She meant so much to him that he weakened himself as not to lose her, naming the only other person he loved after her. But Kenpachi had found others to fight, others he had connected with. He, unknowingly, had others that he could face and test him, no longer needing that ideal that held him back, that ideal that he threw his pride as a warrior away for. The title needed to be passed on.

“誇りを一つ捨てるたび

我らは獣に一歩近付く
心を一つ殺すたび

我らは獣から一歩遠退く”

“Any one time we throw away pride

we take a step closer to becoming beasts.

Any one time we kill an emotion

we take a step back from becoming beasts.”

It was then that Kenpachi heard a voice. No longer locked away by that ideal, that fear of losing a connection, his Zanpakuto that had yearned for its voice to be heard finally reached its owner. As the boy from Zaraki finally earned his name, as he no longer clung to the name Yachiru, he heard the name of his Zanpakuto. A Zanpakuto that could cut through meteors, swords and even space itself, a Zanpakuto that was his power embodied, a Zanpakuto that unleashed the monster that had laid dormant at the first Kenpachi’s hands. A weapon filled with the pride of the Kenpachi.

The name meaning Weather-Beaten One, the name Nozarashi.

The one who holds the title of the Kenpachi is the strongest. He has no fear of death because death in battle is the best way to go and that merely means he wasn’t strong enough. He doesn’t look down on others and only cares if they can give him a thrill. Their fighting strength knows no bounds, for if the enemy is as strong as steel, he can cut right through it. If the enemy is endless, he’ll keep fighting till he has his fill. If the enemy is unknown, he’ll fight to satiate his curiosity. If the enemy is stronger than him, that just means the fight will be that much more thrilling. Even if the enemy holds the power of imagination or miracles, there is nothing to match the power beyond imagination, nothing that can block or defend against power that’s feared even by those who call themselves “gods”.

Because the name Kenpachi belongs to the strongest, and that name earned by the one who truly embodies it.