Kinemon is on the same power level as the Straw Hats Monster Trio

The speculation is based on the recent reveals by Orochi, some of them might enlighten us:

• We learn about the “Nine Red Scabbards”
• Moreover Orochi claims Kine’mon to be clever, while on the same time the random guy questions him. From here on we get an insight of Kine’mon being the “Acting Leader” and executing a plan in awareness of Orochi

At this point we can question on the procurement measure of this information given by Orochi to his men, but this isn’t relevant yet, but I promise this will be relevant once stuff gets heated up:

1. Giving us the input of Orochi about his knowledge and with thus foreshadowing a counter measure.
2. Hyping up Kine’mons position in all of this.

So yeah, we already know what kind of person Kine’mon is right? Yes…he is sheeping with the Strawhats, but Oda did something with Kine’mon that is relevant for the speculation.

Kine’mon since back in Zou was known for revealing bangers one after another, this is a sign of sheeping and chapter 920 proves why he was sheeping.

From the information we know from all above mentioned, we can easily make a conclusion on what kind of character Kine’mon was presented as:

1. He and the other retainers including Momonosuke had to get an understanding of the situation and the world they are in, a reason Kine’mon had to hold back if he is the claimed strongest person out of them.
2. He said they went from crisis after crisis, this includes the execution of Oden, which felt for Kine’mon as it was yesterday. He mentioned this personal issue with the incident 20 years ago in the very same chapter. This can be the excuse for Kine’mon holding back his true powers.

With that we have certainly the reason for Kine’mon being held back with proper evidence, but now to the big question? How strong is he for real?

​Scaling Kine’mon in the New World:

The proper introduction of Kine’mon! First we learn about him being tall which can always be a positive attribute for fighting. Also Brook has no real side-effects due to his size if it comes to fighting. Also this scene is refering to something special, hold on…YOU might question yourself “Why even Kine’mon got cut into pieces if he should be that strong?”
Oda gives us another evidence:

Kine’mon was portrayed to have conflicted both Trafalgar D. Water Law and Caesar Clown…it was a desperate situation…Convinced? This leads us to spoiling Kine’mons powers, first with Smiley:

At this point Kine’mon reveals that he isn’t a “nameless person”. We get the moment to get heavy insights of Kine’mons powers as payback to his rescue.

A great moment for Kine’mon where he manages to get the attention of the Straw Hats for his action, and this is basically an “impact-foreshadowing” to what impact the fighting style of Kine’mon could achieve. In the end he even moved the Straw Hats…

Oda gives us a massive reveal on the abilities and the especially the impact caused on Zoro, who suddenly acknowledges Kine’mon and welcomes him. Kine’mon achieved what he wanted…paying back and entrusting himself to the Straw Hats. Ergo Oda shows us that Kine’mon is strong willed and posses the power of fullfillig his will. This is nothing higher power like thing, but it is very strong DETERMINATION.

The second relevant scene is this here:
Kine’mon was portrayed on par with Brook, also the contrast fire and ice is fitting as an attack combo theme. Beforehand Kine’mon asked to finish it off alone but Brook was eager to do so. Another proof of Oda holding back Kine’mons true powers! But also Zoro mentions a certain ability of Kine’mon again…”cutting fire”. That’s why this scene is relevant and will always be. Such kind of scenes have to purpose of scaling a character and revealing something about his fighting style. In this case it was executed well on Kine’mon!

Both scenes together make him capable of surviving in the New World similair to the good fighters of the Strawhat pirates. But as said, Kine’mon is still held back…

Dressrosa:

We have the fight Law & Zoro vs Doflamingo and well…we all know how this turned out.
Kine’mon is a respectful character seeing a kind of “leader” in Law hence the title “dono”.
Anyway Kine’mon has a motive to engage, and the motive is even clearer now, it was for the alliance! But well we already knew this. Noteable is that Oda decides to have both Kine’mon and Zoro tag-team along in a skirmish, right after Kine’mon acquired Zoros respect on Punk Hazard. Kine’mon opens himself up! And Oda evend ecides to match him agains Doflamingo and Fujitora!

And they were “low-diffed” as some of you might like to call it.
And that’s the funny thing, this was the last fighting action relevant, by Kine’mon and later he was seen acting as a support and he was durable, but this was neccessary due to the chaos and the credits Luffy, Law and Doffy had to earn.
The “defeat” of Kine’mon and Zoro was only for the portayal of Fujitora and Doflamingo.

Conclusion:

• Kine’mons powers were foreshadowed to be impactful, also Oda holds back his true powers obviously for the Wano arc. It has to be related to fire, cutting fire and absorbing fire, a reason Zoro has acknowledge Kine’mon as a reasonable fighter, equally to Zoro (both had the same low-diff almost) and Brook (both had a similair win-portrayal).
• Kine’mon is adressing “dono” to the important fighters, a word of respect, wealth and even in a sense of military, which leads us to:
• Kine’mon taking the role of acting leader of Oden’s Vassals. Orochi portays him as clever, which is proven by his sheeping method, and now recently with the plans against Kaido. Oda puts Kine’mon in the role of a military general on the side of an emperor, a strategist and he also is a person who is capable of protecting Momonosuke and even the other retainers until the very now. This isn’t a job given to a “usual Samurai”. Kine’mon has a role to fulfill as “right hand man” to the leader of the Kouzuki clan, indicating he has to be the strongest Samurai of the Kouzuki clan, right below Oden and the former Shogun Sukiyaki.
• Backing up his determination to fullfil his goal as seen in Punk Hazard, Kine’mon might be a success factor for the allies plan and hence this will involve kine’mon in a possible fight, where he has to go all out, in order to complete his mission, this fight will showcase Kine’mon as a capable fighter, able to overwhelmly impress most of the Strawhats and other allies.

*Theory by Rej