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Character Name: Abarai Renji
Source: Bleach. Timeline is sometime after the Winter War (post Fake Karakura Town Arc, during the timeskip after Ichigo loses his powers, but sometime before the Lost Agent Arc).
Genre: It starts out as a humourous, urban, supernatural series with a monster-of-the-week shtick in the form of lingering-souls-turned-monsters-in-need-of-purification, but later takes on a more straightforward shounen action type of plotline, while retaining the supernatural and humourous aspects. It no longer takes place as often in Karakura Town itself, as the setting shifts more often to spiritual worlds and there's more of a focus on fighting big bads instead of only monsters-of-the-week.
Personality: (Unfortunately, I ended up going into his history a lot in this section, because I wanted to explain the effect of his background and the environment he grew up in on his personality. ^^; I hope this is acceptable...)
He's loud and obnoxious, often speaks without thinking, and comes across as an annoying punk with little common sense. He doesn't seem to care about most things, makes very little effort to be polite (aside from when he's addressing a superior), and has a casual disrespect for the way things should be done.
He is more often than not scowling or wearing a nonchalant, bored expression on his face. If fighting, he'll often have a few rough smirks or grins, but in general, Renji does not smile. It gives him a very stand-offish appearance, but his kind nature shines through on very rare occasions.
He depresses very easily, especially after losing an important fight. It reaches to the point of despair and self-loathing if his childhood friend Rukia's well-being is at stake and he'll blame himself.
Personal space doesn't seem to mean anything to him and he tends to invade it unintentionally, by sitting too close (on the same chair as someone else) or by leaning in so close that the other party can feel his breath on their face. It's perfectly innocent and he has no ill intentions when he does it, it's just the way he is, probably because he was always used to living in cramped conditions with a bunch of other kids growing up.
He loves to roughhouse and sometimes even displays affection by punching or shaking and such. Rukia is also susceptible to this behaviour, but she's just as bad. He greets Ichigo by tag teaming with Rukia in punching him in the beginning of the Arrancar Arc.
Behaviour-wise, the simplest way to describe him would be as a typical teenaged boy, despite the fact that he is, in reality, many decades old (Soul Reapers are long-lived, but their appearances seem to reflect a much slower paced aging then humans).
He acts so much like fifteen year old Kurosaki Ichigo that people often mistake them for brothers in the anime-only Bount Arc. They're also similar in how determined they both can be and how willing they are to accomplish their goals against all odds (shown when they succeed in seemingly impossible training and when Renji stands up against his whole divison and his Captain in order to rescue Rukia, against orders). It's noted that Renji's determination and reasoning is like that of a small child; this makes him a very stubborn person, but this is also one of his best traits, when coupled with his loyalty, because he won't betray his friends, no matter how difficult it is to remain on their side.
His somewhat simple-minded, rather childlike personality also gets him into silly fights and arguments, but he also forgives easily, as seen in how easily he goes from thinking of Ichigo as an enemy to thinking of him as a friend. In the anime-only Bount Arc, Ichigo mocks him for being so child-like, that he can't even handle the bitter taste of coffee (which is why Renji tried to lump in so much sugar into his coffee, he practically ended up with a cup of sugar with some coffee), but Renji always has a strong preference for sweets. Renji also dislikes spicy food, in contrast with his Captain, who enjoys eating just about anything spicy. Renji's favourite food is taiyaki: a big, fried pastry shaped like a fish and filled with sweet red bean paste, a common favourite of children as well.
While even Kira, one of Renji's friends in the academy, admits Renji is "not that bright", Renji claims he isn't really stupid, just emotional.
It seems about right, as despite his blunt, sometimes flat-out rude way of speaking does little to help his credibility, he can come up with good plan or two (but usually doesn't have the foresight to see obvious holes others, like say Rukia, would). He simply doesn't really depend on intelligence as much, probably because of his upbringing. The ability to run away or fight is far more useful to someone in his envrionment; what's the use of being smart if you're slow enough to catch and kill? He relies on his instincts and his feelings, making him a very hot-headed indivual.
He has a bit of a perverted streak, but it's nothing horribly scandalous. For example, when his Zanpakutou (soul-cutter; it manifests as a sword, but it has a spirit closely linked to his own) Zabimaru breaks during a fight, he doesn't trust Mayuri to fix it, believing Mayuri will turn the poor spirit into another one of his experiments- that is, until Mayuri reveals that he can give Zabimaru a sex change and, since Zabimaru is a primate (sort of; Zabimaru is a nue, a sort of baboon chimera with a snake-tail), he can make it resemble an attractive, busty human female... and Renji accepts the offer!
Despite his high rank, it's stated in the databook that Renji most often wanders through the Sixth Division in his night-wear (a single-layered white kimono patterned with pink cherry blossom designs and bandages wrapped around his waist). He also wanders around barefoot, without even his Vice-Captain badge, but is still greeted by the members of his Division respectfully as Vice-Captain Abarai (Abarai-fukutaichou). They all seem quite used to it.
He has a number of hobbies when he's off-duty, like playing soccer (he's trying to build a team with his division members) and he also loves to collect sunglasses, goggles, and visors; just about anything he can wear over his eyes or forehead. His favourite store in Soul Society is the Silver Dragonfly Lenses, which is run by the previous Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division. However, the goods are incredibly expensive and Renji has horrible taste in eyewear, so he usually spends his yearly paycheck on a single pair of (often incredibly tacky) sunglasses. When they break, he finds other things to wrap around his forehead (usually a white cloth headband, but sometimes he uses other things, especially when he's in the human world).
This might be to hide his tattooed eyebrows, as tattoos are frowned upon in Japanese society due to their link to Yakuza. For Renji, his tattoos are symbolic of his achievements and are a sort of link with his Zanpakutou; the designs are reminiscent of Zabimaru's markings. Anytime he achieves something noteworthy, he adds another tattoo to his body.
For example, he tattoos a simple design onto his eyebrows when he's accepted in to the academy, but then tattoos even more complex designs onto his eyebrows when he passes exams.
By the time he's made Vice Captain of the Sixth Division, his chest, back, abdomen, upper arm and forehead are covered in tattoos.
Another reason for his love of colourful, unique sunglasses might also be to grab attention. He hates being ignored and being looked down upon, so he tries to make his appearance as eye-catching as possible. But that's mainly conjecture.
Besides that, his taste in clothes is... unique. Namely he seems to have a preference for loud, colourful clothes. He's not very fond of closing his shirt and will often wear unbuttoned shirts, unzipped jackets, or anything else that'll show off his tattooed chest, when he doesn't have to cover it up (he can't get away with unbuttoning too much when he's trying to fit in Icihigo's highschool, for example).
He is very out-of-touch with many modern (at least, to him) inventions and conventions in the human world, like most soul reapers, since Soul Society is most similar to ancient Japan. What's coffee, some weird kind of tea? How do you operate a "juicebox" anyway? Poor Rukia.
When Captain Kuchiki Byakuya and Vice-Captain Abarai Renji make their first formal appearance, they're both portrayed as cold, threatening, and fully intent on killing Rukia if they're not able to capture her alive.
But even in their first appearance, marked differences were shown. Where Byakuya is silent and lacking in any sort of definitive facial expression, Renji's talkative, animated, and cycles through quite a few silly grins and cruel smirks.
Byakuya shows no mercy in getting his job done, seemingly going through things systematically. Renji holds back at first, and even admits Rukia did not dodge his first blow. He missed on purpose, but swears the next time will be absolutely serious. He also mocks and chides Rukia for the humanity she's gained from spending too much time among the living and for her growing attachment to this world.
In a way, they both came across as utterly ruthless, but Renji shows more concern for Rukia, although how much he cares is hidden quite well behind a casual facade and love of fighting.
As Kuchiki Byakuya's Vice-Captain, he is outwardly respectful to him, but honestly finds him incredibly irritating. He hates the way he ignores those he sees as beneath him, but he does not hate him nor does he wish he were dead, which is what Byakuya himself had believed, until Renji denied it in the hospital, where Renji waited until Byakuya woke up. He tells Byakuya that without him, he would have no drive to get stronger.
And besides that, the way he feels towards Byakuya is... before he could tell Byakuya anything else, Ichigo shoves his head in through the window and starts yelling at him. Renji headbutts Ichigo and both sit there glaring for a while, while Renji complains that Ichigo ruined the mood, just as he was about to say something nice.
What he really thinks of Byakuya is never revealed, but we do find out that his admiration of his skill is not faked (not that Renji could really fake all of that; he's far too open) and that his actual feelings for Byakuya are hinted to be admiration for Byakuya's strength. The feeling that Byakuya took Rukia away from him has certainly lessened and they are all now on more or less good terms, after Byakuya saved Rukia at the last second. While there is less resentment between them, Renji remains highly respectful towards Byakuya- occasional shows of cocky bravado aside- and keeps his antics (that he recognizes as inpappropriate, mind, he doesn't catch everything) under some form of self-restraint.
Renji still goofs up every once in a while. In one of the omake, Kusajishi Yachiru breaks into Byakuya's house for the umpteenth time searching for sweets. Byakuya offers her something he designed; a treat in the shape of the Seaweed Ambassador, a poorly-drawn and bizzarely shaped creation of Byakuya's.
Yachiru, who would even eat flowers, laughs at it and says she doesn't want it, running away. Renji looks VERY impressed and says that was exactly what was to be expected of his Captain. Byakuya shoots him a glare and Renji quickly realizes it was not intended to be repulsive to the girl.
Renji's a horrible slacker, but one can easily guilt-trip him into doing work, because he's also the sort of person who is incapable of saying "no" when someone requests something of him. Urahara has been taking advantage of this and guilt-tripping him into doing work for quite a while.
He can be somewhat easily discouraged from approaching Rukia (after all, he didn't approach her once after her adoption until he became Vice-Captain, because only then did he feel they were nearly on the same level) due to his status and means. For example, when he brought Rukia a cute Chappi the rabbit keychain as a gift, upon seeing her Captain's gift to her (a far more extravagant and expensive Chappi-themed gift) he pocketed his and retreated.
Still, despite this, he still likes to give gifts on occasion, although he doesn't always know whether they meet standards or not. He once bought a pair of incredibly tacky heart-shaped sunglasses for his Captain as a gift, because Ichigo (without looking at them) said they were fine, which Kuchiki Byakuya immediately rejected.
History: In the way he fights, it's immediately obvious (at least, after learning about all the different Divisions in Soul Society) that he was formerly in the Eleventh Division, the Division boasted as the strongest in all of Soul Society, full of burly men whose love of fighting is their most common link (however, against the stereotype, its Vice-Captain is a sweet, but horribly mischievous girl who looks no older than eleven and acts much younger, with a love of sweets, games, giving silly nicknames... and of course, fighting), many of which are unseated officers despite their talents, which masks their true skill.
Hence why it's pointed out that many who leave the Eleventh Division for other Divisions shortly rank up to Vice-Captain. Such also seems to be the case with Renji.
Outside the borders of Soul Society lies the Rukongai, where ordinary, non-Soul Reaper spirits are found. The Rukongai is broken up into numbered districts, in a sort of sorting algorithm of levels of order and peace.
The closest districts to Soul Society are the most peaceful, so District 1 would be the most peaceful, being so close to Soul Society and its more-or-less-benevolent rule, and District 80, Zaraki, would be the absolute worst, devoid of any sort of laws or peace-keeping.
Renji, as a child, grew up in one of the worst districts of the Rukongai; District 78, Inuzuri (howling dog), which Renji personally described as "a town like a garbage dump, where all the adults were thieves and murderers, and the children lived like stray dogs."
Renji, along with his friends, were orphans through some manner or another and lived under the same small roof as upwards of eleven other kids of various ages. They would steal jugs of water and catch fish to live and the rough life has definitely left its print on Renji. But even though it was hard to acquire any food at all, despite appearances, Renji was kind. This much remains a core aspect to his personality even now, as a Vice-Captain. He puts up a tough front, but he's like an older brother figure to many in the Division, concerned with their well-being, even if he's likely to playfully beat on them, tease them ("geeze... can't you do anything without me there to hold your hand?" even as he heads off to help members of his Division speak with his Captain) or act as if he couldn't care less.
He would try to divide their meager spoils as fairly as he could, even if the older spirits would fight with the younger ones, because they felt the hunger the younger spirits didn't.
Most of the spirits did not need food that badly to live, as their spiritual power was barely there to begin with; with the exception of Renji and Rukia, who had larger amounts of spiritual power and therefore felt the pain of hunger; for the others, it was mainly a psychological pain, from seeing others enjoy what they could not, and it did not help matters that they could taste flavours and smell scents
Rukia was even kinder, giving her share of the confetti candy (which we later find out is her favourite food) to a crying child after an older spirit tore the bag, scattering the food on the floor.
Rukia's kindness and strength drew Renji in and he admired her greatly. She had an air of effortless elegance to her even then and great strength (she also later has the ability to create sort of balls of spiritual energy... which were much larger than Renji's, who apparently sucked at kidou even before he knew what it was. xD; Which hinted at their true potential.).
While blushing, he thought to himself that she spoke in a more manly way than any man he's ever known. Er, that, coupled with having the nickname "Ren-chan" at an age most boys would rather be called by something a little more masculine ("-chan" is mainly used for small children, cute pets, and girls) set him with some rather amusing gender-related oddities. Although appearance-wise, he strikes the average Western viwer as the more masculine between him and his Captain, it's actually Kuchiki Byakuya who fits the traditional Japanese ideal of masculinity, both in looks and personality. Renji is the more open and emotional of the two, while Byakuya is more reserved and stoic, giving the illusion of being emotionless.
However, life in the Rukongai was difficult and despite the promise he and Rukia made to their friends that they would never leave Inuzuri for Soul Society, in spite of their obvious potential in becoming Soul Reapers, in the passing years, all of Renji's friends save for Rukia passed away. So Rukia decided to become a Soul Reaper, and as did Renji.
Life in the Rukongai has left its mark on him in many ways. He's far less cultured and worldly knowledgeable than his current Captain, for one thing, and behaves in a manner you'd expect of someone who lived in the Rukongai (if Soul Society is most akin to Edo Period Japan, Rukongai is more easily compared to the lives of all save for the nobles of the Heian Period).
He doesn't see the appeal in calligraphy (his handwriting is noteworthily terrible, made up largely of angry streaks and scratches; he probably learned to write quite late, as having any sort of formal teaching seemed pretty rare where he came from), nor in ikebana flower arranging. When he went to the Soul Reaper Academy, he had a difficult time adjusting. He would fall asleep in trees (Rukia still often sits in trees and other high places as well, and was shown to do so in the Rukongai) and embarassed himself in the lecture hall by raising his hand excitedly when he knew the answer to something, like a gradeschooler. The professor explained that while he appreciated Renji's enthusiasm, for Renji to come down to write on this board, all of the other students would have to get out of their seats.
He has a distaste for the spoiled children of nobles that fill the Soul Reaper Academy, because they could not understand his and Rukia's strife, and mocked him, calling him "District 78 trash" and saying that his behaviour came as no surprise considering where he's from.
Rukia was all he had left from his old life when he went to the Academy. So, they understood one another and helped eachother adjust to learning in an environment filled with noblemen. Renji did have a few other friends... Kira, who is probably of (lesser) noble birth, but whose parents both died, leaving him an orphan, and Hinamori Momo, who comes from the very peaceful First District and was- and still is- highly gifted at Kidou.
Rukia was always a very important friend to him, which was why it affected him so badly when she was adopted by the noble Kuchiki family, shortly before he graduated.
Despite the pain he felt at this revelation, knowing they would be separated by class, he forced a smile and encouraged her in no uncertain terms to agree. He told her over and over in every way he knew how that he was so happy for her and so jealous, damn, he felt so jealous, imagine what kind of food nobles eat...! He said he was getting angry just thinking about it, but she caught his hands again and smiled sadly at him and thanked him.
When their hands separated, she turned away and walked off with her new family.
After asking his friends and getting the same answer ("Even she knows she's different from us now," "it's easier to let go than to embrace..."), he separated himself from her; their bond broken, Renji focused on getting stronger and left Rukia to adapt to her new lifestyle without an old friendship with some dirt-poor nobody from the Rukongai making the transition any harder.
Especially as she now had a real family at last, not some makeshift family of misfit children.
He hated every minute of living in the Rukongai, but can't deny it's had its effect on him. He laments after Ichigo defeats him that he's always just been a stray dog barking at the moon, but too cowardly to actually bite.
This could reference Byakuya, as Byakuya later compares himself to the moon, and Renji often bitterly compares himself to a stray dog, and Rukia to a star. Rukia's name is taken from light, and she lights up both his life and Ichigo's.
Kuchiki Byakuya, the man who became Rukia's older brother, became his greatest obstacle and a challenge he put for himself and the standard by which he measured his strength. He trained endlessly to beat him. Learned everything he could about the way he fought and watched him closely, especially when he became his Vice-Captain.
For the longest time (up until he fought him after acquiring Bankai), Renji was unable to withstand Byakuya's aura. Even when the man was standing on a dizzyingly high pole, far away from him, Renji froze up and broke into a cold sweat, drops falling around his feet.
Byakuya was always the only person he's ever wanted to surpass, even before he joined the Gotei 13.
In order to beat him, Renji trained his eyes to keep up with Byakuya's swift movements when the latter uses Shunpo (Flash Steps), before training his body to catch up as well. He also trained to acquire Bankai to defeat him, and becomes the only Vice-Captain known to have Bankai.
He did not manage to beat Byakuya, when he sided with Ichigo, to save Rukia from execution (when he and Byakuya brought her, he knew she would be detained, not executed!), but he did manage to bring Byakuya down on one knee. Byakuya acknowledged him, telling him that "your fang has surely reached me" and threw his very expensive scarf (the symbol of his status as Kuchiki clan head) onto Renji as he lay dying, to honour him.
Renji survived the battle and Rukia was not executed, thanks to the interference of Ichigo, Renji, and all of Ichigo's friends. It was also revealed that Aizen had a great deal to do with hurrying her execution, because he wished to obtain the a powerful orb that had been secretly placed inside of her. When Aizen was revealed to be a traitor and that he had murdered the Central 46 (the judiciary system of Soul Society), Rukia's unfair execution was cancelled entirely.
Aizen and his fellow traitors to Soul Society, Tousen and Gin, escaped to Heuco Mundo, world of the Hollows (those curropted once-human souls that feed on other souls).
Ichigo returned to the world of the living with his friends, leaving Rukia, Renji, and all the other soul reapers behind in Soul Society. They didn't cross paths again until a new threat revealed itself; they're called Arrancar, Hollows who've had their masks partially removed and regained some part of their humanity, so they were no longer mostly mindless beasts. They had swords, similar to those wielded by soul reapers, but they also retained so much humanity, that many were rather sympathetic... some were even nice, like Nell and her brothers, who helped Ichigo and the others.
After Aizen took Orihime from the human world to Heuco Mundo, Ichigo and his human friends went to Heuco Mundo to rescue her. They were later joined by Renji and Rukia, who Byakuya had kindly (and discretely) allowed to go to Heuco Mundo, claiming that while he received orders to bring Rukia back to Soul Society, he received no order to keep her there... Byakuya was also kind enough to give Rukia and Renji cloaks to protect them in Heuco Mundo.
Renji reveals that he's now able to come up with more complex strategies in his fight with the Arrancar Szayell Aporro, although the latter is so strong, that Renji resorts to what is essentially a suicide attack to take down Szayel. He survives again, even if he's injured. ^^;
Sometime after, war waged between the soul reapers (all Captains and Vice-Captains took part) and Aizen and his army of Arrancar. The ryoka (Ichigo and friends) aided the soul reapers again... the Vizards, who were exiled from Soul Society, but helped train Ichigo, also fought alongside the soul reapers and ryoka.
The Arrancar fell and Aizen was taken to jail and sentenced with, I'unno, 2,000 years or something else ridiculously stupid. So, betray Soul Society, kill thousands of innocent souls, well done, go to prison. Stay too long in the human world and make human friends and develop more human feelings, how dare you, BE EXECUTED AT SOUKYOU HILL AND BURN IN THE MOST PAINFUL, HORRIFIC WAY RESERVED FOR THOSE GUILTY OF HIGH TREASON.
The Central 46 has got to be the worst judiciary system ever.
Anyway. The other traitors, Tousen and Gin, died during the war. Renji was among the injured soul reapers, but he survived his fight with the Arrancar Yammy.
Renji and the other soul reapers hail Ichigo as a hero, Ichigo loses his powers... and with them, he loses his innate ability to see spirits, including his soul reaper friends Rukia and Renji.
Renji figures he's tired of being weak and losing all his fights, so he spends the next seventeen months training to be strong enough to defeat Aizen. Now, Renji's already Captain class, when it comes to power, according to Byakuya, and he has Bankai. Add even more training onto that, and Renji winds up on the path to being ridiculously powerful and finally end his long losing streak!
Oh, yeah, Renji also grows out his hair. Spending so much time serving under Byakuya seems to have rubbed off on him, as even though Renji previously had no qualms about fighting with women in the same vicious way he fights with men, Renji now seems to be oddly chivalrous, which he shows when he fights Jackie Tristan in the later Lost Agent Arc. Even though he easily defeats her, he refuses to kill her, claiming that a man who hurts a woman is scum and that if he had to become scum to survive, he'd rather be dead. His way of speaking and his child-like simplemindedness and stubborn nature remains the same, but those essential ideals (honour or death) are more suited to noblemen like Kuchiki Byakuya, so I'd imagine that's who instilled them in him.
Powers/Abilities/Unique Items: He was quite good at fighting with a sword (although his skills weren't the very best, especially if he was too emotional to fight well enough) and even better when his Zanpakutou was in its released form.
He is still very strong physically and he's much faster than one would expect, due to how he was brought up, as well as due to his training to defeat his Captain.
Renji might not be the strongest among his friends, but he is very loyal and can cooperate surprisingly well, even if he's prone to bickering at times.
He's quite good at cooking and baking.
He used to be scared to death of his Captain, but since he's gotten more powerful and developed more of an understanding towards his Captain, he only really fears inspiring his wrath.
It is very difficult for him to say "no" to other people, as stated in the personality section, making him very easy to take advantage of his. The fact that he's very emotional and unlikely to think things through the first time around, also make him a very easy target for deception.
Renji's fight with Szayel showed Renji's ability to fight without relying solely on brute strength. He is now capable of fighting while implementing the use of strategy, in a more complex manner than depending on something as simple as the element of surprise, as he did in the fight with Kuchiki Byakuya (Renji thought it would be enough to overwhelm his Captain with his sudden acquiring of Bankai, in order to win).
He understood that there was a huge gap in their strength and even admitted to it outloud, but he knew Szayel would feel the blow if he attacked him at point blank range.
He also has ridiculously horrible luck, so bad it should be listed in this section. Anything that can go wrong, usually does for this guy, but not before fate dangles that little string of hope in front of his eyes, before cruelly snatching it away before he can reach it.
His sword, Zabimaru, which appears to be an ordinary katana (a Japanese long sword) when in its sealed state upon release (Shikai [Initial Release]) transforms into a large blade with several sections, with many ridges and spikes on the cutting edge of each section, that can contract and stretch out. He can swing it and strike three times before it has to retract. Then he'll swing it again and slash and strike. He can a section nearer to him into the opponent and pull, each ridge digging and tearing away, cutting a deeper wound until it fully retracts.
The command is "Hoeru, Zabimaru!" or Howl, Zabimaru!
He can also use Bankai [Final Release]. His Bankai gives him a change in outfit (he dons a sort of pink fur around his shoulders and all the way down his right arm, along with a black glove on the same hand. On the left shoulder, is a skull. A string of red fangs along his chest links the jacket-like fur. He carries a bone club.)
The Bankai itself is a large snake-like skeleton with red fur around the skull, each bone breaking apart and separating, like his Zanpakutou, but held together by his reiatsu.
It can shoot powerful beams of concentrated energy from its mouth as crushing and smashing just about anything. It can also tightly restrain by way of binding. Renji also mentions that it's stubborn, so even if you separate it, it'll fuse itself back together with reiatsu, and can continue to fight even if it loses a blade or two.
Its downsides are that it is large, slow, and clunky. It requires a lot of reiatsu to keep it together, and Renji is not quite skilled at using it yet, having only had it for a short time.
I suppose its use will need mod permission, as it'll probably cause large-scale damage.
Personality-wise, his Zanpakutou loves to fight and the snake-tail half is particularly sarcastic. Even Renji is not immune to the mockery, but it seems to help him keep focus.
Their true humanoid forms are now a young woman almost entirely covered in green fur with pale pink hair much like Renji's, but far shorter, with black patterns running along it. Her facial structure is also much like Renji's, and she has an unusually deep voice. A chain is wrapped around her waist, binding her to her "tail", the Bankai snake half. He appears to be a young boy with sharp, serpentine yellow eyes who dresses all in white with gold embroidery. His chest and much of his midriff is partially bare like the woman's, and his sleeves are very long, hiding his hands. He has sharp fangs and a long and large white snake tail.
Both are horribly sarcastic, but the snake moreso than the baboon. They often fight, sometimes even butting heads with one another, but make a very good combination when working together. The sword Zabimaru itself can be switched out and used by either one of them at any given time (but not by both), who simply summons it, and has it arrive in seconds.
In the Zanpakutou filler arc of the anime, after befriending Renji, they often followed him around, trying on sunglasses with him, sleeping with him, and generally behaving like him... as well as making him rather awkward, as they seem intent on going even to the bathroom with him. xD;;
Besides that, as was previously stated, Renji is capable of keeping up with Byakuya, who is very good with Shunpo, and he has very good swordsmanship skills, but it pales in comparision to his Captain's.
Oh, he also fails at Kidou. He can perform a few simple Kidou, such as the over-used Flame Cannon, but it's easily rendered useless when blocked. Depending on his mood and whether he's performing it along with others more adept at it (Hinamori and Kira, for example), it can either be decent, tiny (when used on his own), or a huge, ridiculous explosion that poses a threat mainly to himself (when performed on his own, while he's not focused enough).
It can be quite destructive if he uses it at point blank range, so even if it backfires, the enemy will definitely get caught in the inferno. This is how he used it to his advantage in a last ditch effort to take down Szayel Aporro Granz.
He also has ridiculously horrible luck, so bad it should be listed in this section. Anything that can go wrong, usually does for this guy, but not before fate dangles that little string of hope in front of his eyes, before cruelly snatching it away before he can reach it.
Communicator Sample: [A quiet, confused voice, the owner of which seems to be speaking more to himself than to anyone else.]
Huh, what a weird phone... so is voice what you use on this thing to contact people? How come there aren't any numbers, then?
Um. Ah, ah, it's working! [Excitedly, and far too loud as he now seems to be screaming into the machine.] Hold up.
Hello. [Much more calmly now; almost bored. He also seems to have backed off of the phone too.]
Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division, Abarai Renji. Whoever you are, do you know who this phone belongs to? It's really not mine- but I didn't steal it! [After the defensive outburst, he's quieter again.]
... So, uh, if you know who originally owned this thing, can y'get back to me so I can return it to 'em?
Looks pretty expensive.
Just don't ask me how I got it, 'cause I sure as hell don't know.
It was just... with me, somehow. Nobody gets me anything, so it can't be a gift. [ Besides, who could afford such an expensive looking device? Apart from his Captain and he couldn't exactly see Captain Kuchiki buying him something and unceremoniously slipping it into his kimono, before leaving him wandering around some unfamiliar place. That sounds too much like a really weird prank...
There's a definite pause in speech here, as the feed goes perfectly quiet. If you strain your ears, you can hear faint footsteps, but then the sound fades away. The ground is moist now.
Every so often, leaves crunch and twigs snap to break the quiet, but there's another sound, fainter than the rest.]
Huh?
[A metallic scraping as he unsheathes his sword.]
What the...?
[A long silence, this one undisturbed for a much longer time, before the sound of wind and lightly flapping fabric cuts in. Silence again. It spreads unbroken for almost a full minute.]
...
How d'you send coordinates on this thing? And who am I talking to anyway? ... that is, if I'm even talking to anyone.
Not even an answer? Hey, is anyone even there?!
[Not bothering to wait any longer for a response from the weird phone, Renji ends the call feed quickly, because he's angry that whoever's on the other end of the line (he's still thinking it works like an ordinary cell phone) didn't say a word or make a single sound. And maybe he's just a little bit unsettled by the strange place he's found himself in, but that might not show too clearly in his voice; the anger easily drowns it out.]
Prose Sample: Additional Note: ((Similarities between this application and that of twitchytwitch's tackysunglasses are due to the fact that twitchytwitch was my old account, which I had to stop using. ^^;))
E-mail: foldingpaper@windowslive.com
AIM/MSN/Y!M: AIM doesn't work very well at all in my country. ^^; MSN's the same as my e-mail! foldingpaper@windowslive.com
I'm usually on Y!M. wishingstarof7nights@yahoo.com
Character Name: Abarai Renji
Source: Bleach. Timeline is sometime after the Winter War (post Fake Karakura Town Arc, during the timeskip after Ichigo loses his powers, but sometime before the Lost Agent Arc).
Genre: It starts out as a humourous, urban, supernatural series with a monster-of-the-week shtick in the form of lingering-souls-turned-monsters-in-need-of-purification, but later takes on a more straightforward shounen action type of plotline, while retaining the supernatural and humourous aspects. It no longer takes place as often in Karakura Town itself, as the setting shifts more often to spiritual worlds and there's more of a focus on fighting big bads instead of only monsters-of-the-week.
Personality: (Unfortunately, I ended up going into his history a lot in this section, because I wanted to explain the effect of his background and the environment he grew up in on his personality. ^^; I hope this is acceptable...)
He's loud and obnoxious, often speaks without thinking, and comes across as an annoying punk with little common sense. He doesn't seem to care about most things, makes very little effort to be polite (aside from when he's addressing a superior), and has a casual disrespect for the way things should be done.
He is more often than not scowling or wearing a nonchalant, bored expression on his face. If fighting, he'll often have a few rough smirks or grins, but in general, Renji does not smile. It gives him a very stand-offish appearance, but his kind nature shines through on very rare occasions.
He depresses very easily, especially after losing an important fight. It reaches to the point of despair and self-loathing if his childhood friend Rukia's well-being is at stake and he'll blame himself.
Personal space doesn't seem to mean anything to him and he tends to invade it unintentionally, by sitting too close (on the same chair as someone else) or by leaning in so close that the other party can feel his breath on their face. It's perfectly innocent and he has no ill intentions when he does it, it's just the way he is, probably because he was always used to living in cramped conditions with a bunch of other kids growing up.
He loves to roughhouse and sometimes even displays affection by punching or shaking and such. Rukia is also susceptible to this behaviour, but she's just as bad. He greets Ichigo by tag teaming with Rukia in punching him in the beginning of the Arrancar Arc.
Behaviour-wise, the simplest way to describe him would be as a typical teenaged boy, despite the fact that he is, in reality, many decades old (Soul Reapers are long-lived, but their appearances seem to reflect a much slower paced aging then humans).
He acts so much like fifteen year old Kurosaki Ichigo that people often mistake them for brothers in the anime-only Bount Arc. They're also similar in how determined they both can be and how willing they are to accomplish their goals against all odds (shown when they succeed in seemingly impossible training and when Renji stands up against his whole divison and his Captain in order to rescue Rukia, against orders). It's noted that Renji's determination and reasoning is like that of a small child; this makes him a very stubborn person, but this is also one of his best traits, when coupled with his loyalty, because he won't betray his friends, no matter how difficult it is to remain on their side.
His somewhat simple-minded, rather childlike personality also gets him into silly fights and arguments, but he also forgives easily, as seen in how easily he goes from thinking of Ichigo as an enemy to thinking of him as a friend. In the anime-only Bount Arc, Ichigo mocks him for being so child-like, that he can't even handle the bitter taste of coffee (which is why Renji tried to lump in so much sugar into his coffee, he practically ended up with a cup of sugar with some coffee), but Renji always has a strong preference for sweets. Renji also dislikes spicy food, in contrast with his Captain, who enjoys eating just about anything spicy. Renji's favourite food is taiyaki: a big, fried pastry shaped like a fish and filled with sweet red bean paste, a common favourite of children as well.
While even Kira, one of Renji's friends in the academy, admits Renji is "not that bright", Renji claims he isn't really stupid, just emotional.
It seems about right, as despite his blunt, sometimes flat-out rude way of speaking does little to help his credibility, he can come up with good plan or two (but usually doesn't have the foresight to see obvious holes others, like say Rukia, would). He simply doesn't really depend on intelligence as much, probably because of his upbringing. The ability to run away or fight is far more useful to someone in his envrionment; what's the use of being smart if you're slow enough to catch and kill? He relies on his instincts and his feelings, making him a very hot-headed indivual.
He has a bit of a perverted streak, but it's nothing horribly scandalous. For example, when his Zanpakutou (soul-cutter; it manifests as a sword, but it has a spirit closely linked to his own) Zabimaru breaks during a fight, he doesn't trust Mayuri to fix it, believing Mayuri will turn the poor spirit into another one of his experiments- that is, until Mayuri reveals that he can give Zabimaru a sex change and, since Zabimaru is a primate (sort of; Zabimaru is a nue, a sort of baboon chimera with a snake-tail), he can make it resemble an attractive, busty human female... and Renji accepts the offer!
Despite his high rank, it's stated in the databook that Renji most often wanders through the Sixth Division in his night-wear (a single-layered white kimono patterned with pink cherry blossom designs and bandages wrapped around his waist). He also wanders around barefoot, without even his Vice-Captain badge, but is still greeted by the members of his Division respectfully as Vice-Captain Abarai (Abarai-fukutaichou). They all seem quite used to it.
He has a number of hobbies when he's off-duty, like playing soccer (he's trying to build a team with his division members) and he also loves to collect sunglasses, goggles, and visors; just about anything he can wear over his eyes or forehead. His favourite store in Soul Society is the Silver Dragonfly Lenses, which is run by the previous Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division. However, the goods are incredibly expensive and Renji has horrible taste in eyewear, so he usually spends his yearly paycheck on a single pair of (often incredibly tacky) sunglasses. When they break, he finds other things to wrap around his forehead (usually a white cloth headband, but sometimes he uses other things, especially when he's in the human world).
This might be to hide his tattooed eyebrows, as tattoos are frowned upon in Japanese society due to their link to Yakuza. For Renji, his tattoos are symbolic of his achievements and are a sort of link with his Zanpakutou; the designs are reminiscent of Zabimaru's markings. Anytime he achieves something noteworthy, he adds another tattoo to his body.
For example, he tattoos a simple design onto his eyebrows when he's accepted in to the academy, but then tattoos even more complex designs onto his eyebrows when he passes exams.
By the time he's made Vice Captain of the Sixth Division, his chest, back, abdomen, upper arm and forehead are covered in tattoos.
Another reason for his love of colourful, unique sunglasses might also be to grab attention. He hates being ignored and being looked down upon, so he tries to make his appearance as eye-catching as possible. But that's mainly conjecture.
Besides that, his taste in clothes is... unique. Namely he seems to have a preference for loud, colourful clothes. He's not very fond of closing his shirt and will often wear unbuttoned shirts, unzipped jackets, or anything else that'll show off his tattooed chest, when he doesn't have to cover it up (he can't get away with unbuttoning too much when he's trying to fit in Icihigo's highschool, for example).
He is very out-of-touch with many modern (at least, to him) inventions and conventions in the human world, like most soul reapers, since Soul Society is most similar to ancient Japan. What's coffee, some weird kind of tea? How do you operate a "juicebox" anyway? Poor Rukia.
When Captain Kuchiki Byakuya and Vice-Captain Abarai Renji make their first formal appearance, they're both portrayed as cold, threatening, and fully intent on killing Rukia if they're not able to capture her alive.
But even in their first appearance, marked differences were shown. Where Byakuya is silent and lacking in any sort of definitive facial expression, Renji's talkative, animated, and cycles through quite a few silly grins and cruel smirks.
Byakuya shows no mercy in getting his job done, seemingly going through things systematically. Renji holds back at first, and even admits Rukia did not dodge his first blow. He missed on purpose, but swears the next time will be absolutely serious. He also mocks and chides Rukia for the humanity she's gained from spending too much time among the living and for her growing attachment to this world.
In a way, they both came across as utterly ruthless, but Renji shows more concern for Rukia, although how much he cares is hidden quite well behind a casual facade and love of fighting.
As Kuchiki Byakuya's Vice-Captain, he is outwardly respectful to him, but honestly finds him incredibly irritating. He hates the way he ignores those he sees as beneath him, but he does not hate him nor does he wish he were dead, which is what Byakuya himself had believed, until Renji denied it in the hospital, where Renji waited until Byakuya woke up. He tells Byakuya that without him, he would have no drive to get stronger.
And besides that, the way he feels towards Byakuya is... before he could tell Byakuya anything else, Ichigo shoves his head in through the window and starts yelling at him. Renji headbutts Ichigo and both sit there glaring for a while, while Renji complains that Ichigo ruined the mood, just as he was about to say something nice.
What he really thinks of Byakuya is never revealed, but we do find out that his admiration of his skill is not faked (not that Renji could really fake all of that; he's far too open) and that his actual feelings for Byakuya are hinted to be admiration for Byakuya's strength. The feeling that Byakuya took Rukia away from him has certainly lessened and they are all now on more or less good terms, after Byakuya saved Rukia at the last second. While there is less resentment between them, Renji remains highly respectful towards Byakuya- occasional shows of cocky bravado aside- and keeps his antics (that he recognizes as inpappropriate, mind, he doesn't catch everything) under some form of self-restraint.
Renji still goofs up every once in a while. In one of the omake, Kusajishi Yachiru breaks into Byakuya's house for the umpteenth time searching for sweets. Byakuya offers her something he designed; a treat in the shape of the Seaweed Ambassador, a poorly-drawn and bizzarely shaped creation of Byakuya's.
Yachiru, who would even eat flowers, laughs at it and says she doesn't want it, running away. Renji looks VERY impressed and says that was exactly what was to be expected of his Captain. Byakuya shoots him a glare and Renji quickly realizes it was not intended to be repulsive to the girl.
Renji's a horrible slacker, but one can easily guilt-trip him into doing work, because he's also the sort of person who is incapable of saying "no" when someone requests something of him. Urahara has been taking advantage of this and guilt-tripping him into doing work for quite a while.
He can be somewhat easily discouraged from approaching Rukia (after all, he didn't approach her once after her adoption until he became Vice-Captain, because only then did he feel they were nearly on the same level) due to his status and means. For example, when he brought Rukia a cute Chappi the rabbit keychain as a gift, upon seeing her Captain's gift to her (a far more extravagant and expensive Chappi-themed gift) he pocketed his and retreated.
Still, despite this, he still likes to give gifts on occasion, although he doesn't always know whether they meet standards or not. He once bought a pair of incredibly tacky heart-shaped sunglasses for his Captain as a gift, because Ichigo (without looking at them) said they were fine, which Kuchiki Byakuya immediately rejected.
History: In the way he fights, it's immediately obvious (at least, after learning about all the different Divisions in Soul Society) that he was formerly in the Eleventh Division, the Division boasted as the strongest in all of Soul Society, full of burly men whose love of fighting is their most common link (however, against the stereotype, its Vice-Captain is a sweet, but horribly mischievous girl who looks no older than eleven and acts much younger, with a love of sweets, games, giving silly nicknames... and of course, fighting), many of which are unseated officers despite their talents, which masks their true skill.
Hence why it's pointed out that many who leave the Eleventh Division for other Divisions shortly rank up to Vice-Captain. Such also seems to be the case with Renji.
Outside the borders of Soul Society lies the Rukongai, where ordinary, non-Soul Reaper spirits are found. The Rukongai is broken up into numbered districts, in a sort of sorting algorithm of levels of order and peace.
The closest districts to Soul Society are the most peaceful, so District 1 would be the most peaceful, being so close to Soul Society and its more-or-less-benevolent rule, and District 80, Zaraki, would be the absolute worst, devoid of any sort of laws or peace-keeping.
Renji, as a child, grew up in one of the worst districts of the Rukongai; District 78, Inuzuri (howling dog), which Renji personally described as "a town like a garbage dump, where all the adults were thieves and murderers, and the children lived like stray dogs."
Renji, along with his friends, were orphans through some manner or another and lived under the same small roof as upwards of eleven other kids of various ages. They would steal jugs of water and catch fish to live and the rough life has definitely left its print on Renji. But even though it was hard to acquire any food at all, despite appearances, Renji was kind. This much remains a core aspect to his personality even now, as a Vice-Captain. He puts up a tough front, but he's like an older brother figure to many in the Division, concerned with their well-being, even if he's likely to playfully beat on them, tease them ("geeze... can't you do anything without me there to hold your hand?" even as he heads off to help members of his Division speak with his Captain) or act as if he couldn't care less.
He would try to divide their meager spoils as fairly as he could, even if the older spirits would fight with the younger ones, because they felt the hunger the younger spirits didn't.
Most of the spirits did not need food that badly to live, as their spiritual power was barely there to begin with; with the exception of Renji and Rukia, who had larger amounts of spiritual power and therefore felt the pain of hunger; for the others, it was mainly a psychological pain, from seeing others enjoy what they could not, and it did not help matters that they could taste flavours and smell scents
Rukia was even kinder, giving her share of the confetti candy (which we later find out is her favourite food) to a crying child after an older spirit tore the bag, scattering the food on the floor.
Rukia's kindness and strength drew Renji in and he admired her greatly. She had an air of effortless elegance to her even then and great strength (she also later has the ability to create sort of balls of spiritual energy... which were much larger than Renji's, who apparently sucked at kidou even before he knew what it was. xD; Which hinted at their true potential.).
While blushing, he thought to himself that she spoke in a more manly way than any man he's ever known. Er, that, coupled with having the nickname "Ren-chan" at an age most boys would rather be called by something a little more masculine ("-chan" is mainly used for small children, cute pets, and girls) set him with some rather amusing gender-related oddities. Although appearance-wise, he strikes the average Western viwer as the more masculine between him and his Captain, it's actually Kuchiki Byakuya who fits the traditional Japanese ideal of masculinity, both in looks and personality. Renji is the more open and emotional of the two, while Byakuya is more reserved and stoic, giving the illusion of being emotionless.
However, life in the Rukongai was difficult and despite the promise he and Rukia made to their friends that they would never leave Inuzuri for Soul Society, in spite of their obvious potential in becoming Soul Reapers, in the passing years, all of Renji's friends save for Rukia passed away. So Rukia decided to become a Soul Reaper, and as did Renji.
Life in the Rukongai has left its mark on him in many ways. He's far less cultured and worldly knowledgeable than his current Captain, for one thing, and behaves in a manner you'd expect of someone who lived in the Rukongai (if Soul Society is most akin to Edo Period Japan, Rukongai is more easily compared to the lives of all save for the nobles of the Heian Period).
He doesn't see the appeal in calligraphy (his handwriting is noteworthily terrible, made up largely of angry streaks and scratches; he probably learned to write quite late, as having any sort of formal teaching seemed pretty rare where he came from), nor in ikebana flower arranging. When he went to the Soul Reaper Academy, he had a difficult time adjusting. He would fall asleep in trees (Rukia still often sits in trees and other high places as well, and was shown to do so in the Rukongai) and embarassed himself in the lecture hall by raising his hand excitedly when he knew the answer to something, like a gradeschooler. The professor explained that while he appreciated Renji's enthusiasm, for Renji to come down to write on this board, all of the other students would have to get out of their seats.
He has a distaste for the spoiled children of nobles that fill the Soul Reaper Academy, because they could not understand his and Rukia's strife, and mocked him, calling him "District 78 trash" and saying that his behaviour came as no surprise considering where he's from.
Rukia was all he had left from his old life when he went to the Academy. So, they understood one another and helped eachother adjust to learning in an environment filled with noblemen. Renji did have a few other friends... Kira, who is probably of (lesser) noble birth, but whose parents both died, leaving him an orphan, and Hinamori Momo, who comes from the very peaceful First District and was- and still is- highly gifted at Kidou.
Rukia was always a very important friend to him, which was why it affected him so badly when she was adopted by the noble Kuchiki family, shortly before he graduated.
Despite the pain he felt at this revelation, knowing they would be separated by class, he forced a smile and encouraged her in no uncertain terms to agree. He told her over and over in every way he knew how that he was so happy for her and so jealous, damn, he felt so jealous, imagine what kind of food nobles eat...! He said he was getting angry just thinking about it, but she caught his hands again and smiled sadly at him and thanked him.
When their hands separated, she turned away and walked off with her new family.
After asking his friends and getting the same answer ("Even she knows she's different from us now," "it's easier to let go than to embrace..."), he separated himself from her; their bond broken, Renji focused on getting stronger and left Rukia to adapt to her new lifestyle without an old friendship with some dirt-poor nobody from the Rukongai making the transition any harder.
Especially as she now had a real family at last, not some makeshift family of misfit children.
He hated every minute of living in the Rukongai, but can't deny it's had its effect on him. He laments after Ichigo defeats him that he's always just been a stray dog barking at the moon, but too cowardly to actually bite.
This could reference Byakuya, as Byakuya later compares himself to the moon, and Renji often bitterly compares himself to a stray dog, and Rukia to a star. Rukia's name is taken from light, and she lights up both his life and Ichigo's.
Kuchiki Byakuya, the man who became Rukia's older brother, became his greatest obstacle and a challenge he put for himself and the standard by which he measured his strength. He trained endlessly to beat him. Learned everything he could about the way he fought and watched him closely, especially when he became his Vice-Captain.
For the longest time (up until he fought him after acquiring Bankai), Renji was unable to withstand Byakuya's aura. Even when the man was standing on a dizzyingly high pole, far away from him, Renji froze up and broke into a cold sweat, drops falling around his feet.
Byakuya was always the only person he's ever wanted to surpass, even before he joined the Gotei 13.
In order to beat him, Renji trained his eyes to keep up with Byakuya's swift movements when the latter uses Shunpo (Flash Steps), before training his body to catch up as well. He also trained to acquire Bankai to defeat him, and becomes the only Vice-Captain known to have Bankai.
He did not manage to beat Byakuya, when he sided with Ichigo, to save Rukia from execution (when he and Byakuya brought her, he knew she would be detained, not executed!), but he did manage to bring Byakuya down on one knee. Byakuya acknowledged him, telling him that "your fang has surely reached me" and threw his very expensive scarf (the symbol of his status as Kuchiki clan head) onto Renji as he lay dying, to honour him.
Renji survived the battle and Rukia was not executed, thanks to the interference of Ichigo, Renji, and all of Ichigo's friends. It was also revealed that Aizen had a great deal to do with hurrying her execution, because he wished to obtain the a powerful orb that had been secretly placed inside of her. When Aizen was revealed to be a traitor and that he had murdered the Central 46 (the judiciary system of Soul Society), Rukia's unfair execution was cancelled entirely.
Aizen and his fellow traitors to Soul Society, Tousen and Gin, escaped to Heuco Mundo, world of the Hollows (those curropted once-human souls that feed on other souls).
Ichigo returned to the world of the living with his friends, leaving Rukia, Renji, and all the other soul reapers behind in Soul Society. They didn't cross paths again until a new threat revealed itself; they're called Arrancar, Hollows who've had their masks partially removed and regained some part of their humanity, so they were no longer mostly mindless beasts. They had swords, similar to those wielded by soul reapers, but they also retained so much humanity, that many were rather sympathetic... some were even nice, like Nell and her brothers, who helped Ichigo and the others.
After Aizen took Orihime from the human world to Heuco Mundo, Ichigo and his human friends went to Heuco Mundo to rescue her. They were later joined by Renji and Rukia, who Byakuya had kindly (and discretely) allowed to go to Heuco Mundo, claiming that while he received orders to bring Rukia back to Soul Society, he received no order to keep her there... Byakuya was also kind enough to give Rukia and Renji cloaks to protect them in Heuco Mundo.
Renji reveals that he's now able to come up with more complex strategies in his fight with the Arrancar Szayell Aporro, although the latter is so strong, that Renji resorts to what is essentially a suicide attack to take down Szayel. He survives again, even if he's injured. ^^;
Sometime after, war waged between the soul reapers (all Captains and Vice-Captains took part) and Aizen and his army of Arrancar. The ryoka (Ichigo and friends) aided the soul reapers again... the Vizards, who were exiled from Soul Society, but helped train Ichigo, also fought alongside the soul reapers and ryoka.
The Arrancar fell and Aizen was taken to jail and sentenced with, I'unno, 2,000 years or something else ridiculously stupid. So, betray Soul Society, kill thousands of innocent souls, well done, go to prison. Stay too long in the human world and make human friends and develop more human feelings, how dare you, BE EXECUTED AT SOUKYOU HILL AND BURN IN THE MOST PAINFUL, HORRIFIC WAY RESERVED FOR THOSE GUILTY OF HIGH TREASON.
The Central 46 has got to be the worst judiciary system ever.
Anyway. The other traitors, Tousen and Gin, died during the war. Renji was among the injured soul reapers, but he survived his fight with the Arrancar Yammy.
Renji and the other soul reapers hail Ichigo as a hero, Ichigo loses his powers... and with them, he loses his innate ability to see spirits, including his soul reaper friends Rukia and Renji.
Renji figures he's tired of being weak and losing all his fights, so he spends the next seventeen months training to be strong enough to defeat Aizen. Now, Renji's already Captain class, when it comes to power, according to Byakuya, and he has Bankai. Add even more training onto that, and Renji winds up on the path to being ridiculously powerful and finally end his long losing streak!
Oh, yeah, Renji also grows out his hair. Spending so much time serving under Byakuya seems to have rubbed off on him, as even though Renji previously had no qualms about fighting with women in the same vicious way he fights with men, Renji now seems to be oddly chivalrous, which he shows when he fights Jackie Tristan in the later Lost Agent Arc. Even though he easily defeats her, he refuses to kill her, claiming that a man who hurts a woman is scum and that if he had to become scum to survive, he'd rather be dead. His way of speaking and his child-like simplemindedness and stubborn nature remains the same, but those essential ideals (honour or death) are more suited to noblemen like Kuchiki Byakuya, so I'd imagine that's who instilled them in him.
Powers/Abilities/Unique Items: He was quite good at fighting with a sword (although his skills weren't the very best, especially if he was too emotional to fight well enough) and even better when his Zanpakutou was in its released form.
He is still very strong physically and he's much faster than one would expect, due to how he was brought up, as well as due to his training to defeat his Captain.
Renji might not be the strongest among his friends, but he is very loyal and can cooperate surprisingly well, even if he's prone to bickering at times.
He's quite good at cooking and baking.
He used to be scared to death of his Captain, but since he's gotten more powerful and developed more of an understanding towards his Captain, he only really fears inspiring his wrath.
It is very difficult for him to say "no" to other people, as stated in the personality section, making him very easy to take advantage of his. The fact that he's very emotional and unlikely to think things through the first time around, also make him a very easy target for deception.
Renji's fight with Szayel showed Renji's ability to fight without relying solely on brute strength. He is now capable of fighting while implementing the use of strategy, in a more complex manner than depending on something as simple as the element of surprise, as he did in the fight with Kuchiki Byakuya (Renji thought it would be enough to overwhelm his Captain with his sudden acquiring of Bankai, in order to win).
He understood that there was a huge gap in their strength and even admitted to it outloud, but he knew Szayel would feel the blow if he attacked him at point blank range.
He also has ridiculously horrible luck, so bad it should be listed in this section. Anything that can go wrong, usually does for this guy, but not before fate dangles that little string of hope in front of his eyes, before cruelly snatching it away before he can reach it.
His sword, Zabimaru, which appears to be an ordinary katana (a Japanese long sword) when in its sealed state upon release (Shikai [Initial Release]) transforms into a large blade with several sections, with many ridges and spikes on the cutting edge of each section, that can contract and stretch out. He can swing it and strike three times before it has to retract. Then he'll swing it again and slash and strike. He can a section nearer to him into the opponent and pull, each ridge digging and tearing away, cutting a deeper wound until it fully retracts.
The command is "Hoeru, Zabimaru!" or Howl, Zabimaru!
He can also use Bankai [Final Release]. His Bankai gives him a change in outfit (he dons a sort of pink fur around his shoulders and all the way down his right arm, along with a black glove on the same hand. On the left shoulder, is a skull. A string of red fangs along his chest links the jacket-like fur. He carries a bone club.)
The Bankai itself is a large snake-like skeleton with red fur around the skull, each bone breaking apart and separating, like his Zanpakutou, but held together by his reiatsu.
It can shoot powerful beams of concentrated energy from its mouth as crushing and smashing just about anything. It can also tightly restrain by way of binding. Renji also mentions that it's stubborn, so even if you separate it, it'll fuse itself back together with reiatsu, and can continue to fight even if it loses a blade or two.
Its downsides are that it is large, slow, and clunky. It requires a lot of reiatsu to keep it together, and Renji is not quite skilled at using it yet, having only had it for a short time.
I suppose its use will need mod permission, as it'll probably cause large-scale damage.
Personality-wise, his Zanpakutou loves to fight and the snake-tail half is particularly sarcastic. Even Renji is not immune to the mockery, but it seems to help him keep focus.
Their true humanoid forms are now a young woman almost entirely covered in green fur with pale pink hair much like Renji's, but far shorter, with black patterns running along it. Her facial structure is also much like Renji's, and she has an unusually deep voice. A chain is wrapped around her waist, binding her to her "tail", the Bankai snake half. He appears to be a young boy with sharp, serpentine yellow eyes who dresses all in white with gold embroidery. His chest and much of his midriff is partially bare like the woman's, and his sleeves are very long, hiding his hands. He has sharp fangs and a long and large white snake tail.
Both are horribly sarcastic, but the snake moreso than the baboon. They often fight, sometimes even butting heads with one another, but make a very good combination when working together. The sword Zabimaru itself can be switched out and used by either one of them at any given time (but not by both), who simply summons it, and has it arrive in seconds.
In the Zanpakutou filler arc of the anime, after befriending Renji, they often followed him around, trying on sunglasses with him, sleeping with him, and generally behaving like him... as well as making him rather awkward, as they seem intent on going even to the bathroom with him. xD;;
Besides that, as was previously stated, Renji is capable of keeping up with Byakuya, who is very good with Shunpo, and he has very good swordsmanship skills, but it pales in comparision to his Captain's.
Oh, he also fails at Kidou. He can perform a few simple Kidou, such as the over-used Flame Cannon, but it's easily rendered useless when blocked. Depending on his mood and whether he's performing it along with others more adept at it (Hinamori and Kira, for example), it can either be decent, tiny (when used on his own), or a huge, ridiculous explosion that poses a threat mainly to himself (when performed on his own, while he's not focused enough).
It can be quite destructive if he uses it at point blank range, so even if it backfires, the enemy will definitely get caught in the inferno. This is how he used it to his advantage in a last ditch effort to take down Szayel Aporro Granz.
He also has ridiculously horrible luck, so bad it should be listed in this section. Anything that can go wrong, usually does for this guy, but not before fate dangles that little string of hope in front of his eyes, before cruelly snatching it away before he can reach it.
Communicator Sample: [A quiet, confused voice, the owner of which seems to be speaking more to himself than to anyone else.]
Huh, what a weird phone... so is voice what you use on this thing to contact people? How come there aren't any numbers, then?
Um. Ah, ah, it's working! [Excitedly, and far too loud as he now seems to be screaming into the machine.] Hold up.
Hello. [Much more calmly now; almost bored. He also seems to have backed off of the phone too.]
Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division, Abarai Renji. Whoever you are, do you know who this phone belongs to? It's really not mine- but I didn't steal it! [After the defensive outburst, he's quieter again.]
... So, uh, if you know who originally owned this thing, can y'get back to me so I can return it to 'em?
Looks pretty expensive.
Just don't ask me how I got it, 'cause I sure as hell don't know.
It was just... with me, somehow. Nobody gets me anything, so it can't be a gift. [ Besides, who could afford such an expensive looking device? Apart from his Captain and he couldn't exactly see Captain Kuchiki buying him something and unceremoniously slipping it into his kimono, before leaving him wandering around some unfamiliar place. That sounds too much like a really weird prank...
There's a definite pause in speech here, as the feed goes perfectly quiet. If you strain your ears, you can hear faint footsteps, but then the sound fades away. The ground is moist now.
Every so often, leaves crunch and twigs snap to break the quiet, but there's another sound, fainter than the rest.]
Huh?
[A metallic scraping as he unsheathes his sword.]
What the...?
[A long silence, this one undisturbed for a much longer time, before the sound of wind and lightly flapping fabric cuts in. Silence again. It spreads unbroken for almost a full minute.]
...
How d'you send coordinates on this thing? And who am I talking to anyway? ... that is, if I'm even talking to anyone.
Not even an answer? Hey, is anyone even there?!
[Not bothering to wait any longer for a response from the weird phone, Renji ends the call feed quickly, because he's angry that whoever's on the other end of the line (he's still thinking it works like an ordinary cell phone) didn't say a word or make a single sound. And maybe he's just a little bit unsettled by the strange place he's found himself in, but that might not show too clearly in his voice; the anger easily drowns it out.]
Prose Sample: Additional Note: ((Similarities between this application and that of twitchytwitch's tackysunglasses are due to the fact that twitchytwitch was my old account, which I had to stop using. ^^;))