Kenji Mitsuura

Kenji Mitsuura (密裏 賢治, Mitsuura Kenji) is the founder of the Awakening Lab.

Appearance
Kenji is a tall young man with light brown hair, a goatee, light brown eyebrows, short sideburns, and small eyes with black pupils. His hair is styled into a small afro.

Kenji wears a pair of white penny loafers; orange socks; red trousers; a black belt with a silver buckle; a one-button blazer jacket with a light beige collar and a checkered red-white pattern; and a dark red shirt with several images of open eyes on the front.

Personality
Kenji is friendly and sociable, a nice guy all around, though he is a bit eccentric. Despite his vast wealth, he is not interested in money or its many perks - his goal in life is to become an esper, and he has been pooling all of his resources into psychic research to make his dream come true. He is very optimistic and determined to rise to his own standards, sympathizing with Ritsu, who has similar desires.

He has a cordial relationship with the esper children of the Awakening Lab, and is rather disturbed when Ritsu's questions for them imply he was doing illegal experiments on the children. After Claw kidnaped the esper children, Kenji became very distraught at his inability to protect them.

History
Kenji hailed from a wealthy local family. At one point, he used his family's money to create the Awakening Lab to research psychic abilities, so he could find out how to awaken them in normal people such as himself. Along the way, he recruited Takeshi Hoshino, Go Asahi, Rei Kurosaki, and the twin brothers Daichi and Kaito Shiratori. These children were revealed to be espers, and have been staying with him to develop their budding powers.

Big Cleanup Arc
Shortly after Mob's psychic fight with Teruki Hanazawa occurred, Kenji met Ritsu Kageyama, mistaking him for his older brother, and gave him a business card that contained the location of the Awakening Lab. Ritsu, who had been resenting Mob for possessing the psychic powers he wanted, decided to check out the place.

After Ritsu arrived at the Awakening Lab, Kenji gave him a tour and introduced him to the esper children learning there. All of the children displayed very weak abilities, which failed to impress Ritsu. Ritsu later asked the children if Kenji did anything to them to make their powers awaken, which Kenji was disturbed by. Takeshi assured Ritsu that Kenji was just interested in psychic powers. Kenji reveals that his dream is to become an esper, and created the Awakening Lab to make it happen. Ritsu thinks it to be a foolish dream, but sympathizes with the man's desire to rise to his own standards.

Later, as Ritsu attempts to bend a spoon in a psychic development room, Kenji notices Ritsu's darkening mood, unaware of the boy's growing feelings of guilt. Ritsu finally reveals to Kenji that he's just a normal human, unlike his powerful psychic brother Mob, and throws away the spoon in frustration before storming out. While an amused Takeshi expressed doubts over Ritsu actually having psychic potential, Kenji finds Ritsu's discarded spoon and is surprised to see it severely twisted out of shape.

After Ritsu is possessed by Dimple, he displays his increased psychic powers to a shocked Takeshi and Kenji by bending many spoons at once. Ritsu then offers to do more by snapping Kenji's car in two. Kenji is disturbed to see Ritsu's personality take a malicious turn.

7th Branch Arc
During Claw's attack on the Awakening Lab, Kenji, along with the neuroscientists he hired for the research facility, were knocked unconscious, while Takeshi, Rei, Go, Daichi, and Kaito were bound and kidnapped by Sakurai. He was later revived by Mob and Teruki, who suspected he had ties to Claw. Kenji's distraught feelings towards the kidnapped esper children revealed that he actually didn't know Claw. During a discussion over how to take on Claw, Kenji suggests letting him go with Mob and Teruki, but is turned down.

Suddenly the trio are confronted by Terada, who seeks to kill Mob so his power won't surpass his if he joins Claw. Using their psychic powers, both Mob and Teruki easily subdued Terada and his henchmen and interrogated him for information. Despite Terada giving all he could, Teruki doesn't believe he would be so willing to expose his Claw employers.

While Mob and Teruki go off to rescue the esper children and Ritsu (who was kidnapped by Koyama), Kenji was left behind due to being a normal human.

He reveals that Teruki has joined the Awakening Lab.

World Domination Arc
Kenji allows Reigen to use the Awakening Lab as a place to gather for those who plan on fighting against Claw. He stays with Reigen while all the espers go out to stop the chaos, but the lab is soon found and breached by Claw soldiers. In an omake, he is shown to have hidden inside a cupboard while Reigen hid in a broom closet with Dimple and the unconscious Mob, and appears to have stayed there for the battle which ensued when Shibata arrived.

???% Arc
Kenji was seen watching ???% destroying the city on his phone, wondering if it is a natural disaster.

Powers & Abilities
Other than his great wealth, Kenji does not possess any psychic abilities.

Quotes

 * "I'm the son of a wealthy family, but I'm not special. I don't believe in doing anything to make advancement in society or science. I just want to become an esper."

Etymology

 * The name Kenji means ""  and "".
 * Kenji's surname Mitsuura means "secrecy, dense/density (pop), minuteness, carefulness" (密) (mitsu) and "back, rear, reverse side, sole, lining, wrong side, undersurface, palm, last half" (裏) (ura).

密裏 賢治