Kenji Mitsuura

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

Appearance
Kenji is a tall young man who has 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 has been pooling all of his resources into psychic research so he can make his dream come true. He is very optimistic and determined to rise to his own standards, which is sympathized by Ritsu, who had 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 the esper children were kidnapped by Claw, Kenji became very distraught at his inability to protect them.

History
Kenji hailed from a local wealthy family. At one point, he used his family's money to create the Awakening Lab for the purpose of researching psychic abilities so he can 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.

Plot
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 wants, 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 is 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 thought 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.

During Claw's attack on the Awakening Lab, Kenji along with the neuro scientists 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 him for having 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 interrogate him for information. Despite Terada giving all that 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.

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."