Character Info - Scorched
In Character Information
character name: Renji Abarai
fandom: Bleach--manga specific, so he wouldn't know any of the anime-only characters if they ever showed up.
timeline: Manga chapter 275, after using shakkahou to blow up Szayel Aporro-Grantz (and himself).
character's age: Unknown; I guesstimate around 125ish; visibly he's in his early to mid 20s.
powers and skills: Probably Renji's greatest power lies in his tenacity. He never gives up, never surrenders, and keeps on keepin' on even when it might tear him in two. It's in his strength, both of body and of character, that Renji really shines. While he's not so great with wielding kidou, what he lacks in sorcery expertise, as it were, he more than makes up for with his swordfighting skills. In fact, so long as he's got his trusty blade at his side and his trademark stubborn determination on-hand, Renji won't go down easily, no matter how stacked against him the odds seem to be. Eagerly playing the tank in any party, Renji can take just as much damage as he deals, and just keeps going and going, to the point where it appears he's more likely to break apart at the seams than give up.
Though he is not particularly good with kidou, it's certainly not because he lacks the potential. Quite to the contrary, he has more than enough power behind his attacks, his problem lies in controlling them. Renji just has more spiritual energy than he really knows what to do with, and thus has a nasty tendency to blow himself up, along with all of his surroundings, when he tries to execute an attack. When he really focuses and pulls it off, he's a force to be reckoned with, but nine times out of ten he's just going to end up charred and smoking. That's probably why he prefers to just get his point across the manly way: with live steel.
His weapon of choice is a good old-fashioned katana to the naked eye, but there's a lot more to it than that. As a zanpakutou--a soul-cutting blade--his weapon is actually connected to his very soul, and it is because of the bond he shares with the spirit within the blade that he can wield it so well.
Zabimaru「蛇尾丸」
In its sealed state, Zabimaru looks like any other standard-length katana, with a gently curved blade and a mahogany-colored saya. The tsuba is solid, rectangular, slightly oversized, a burnished dark gold color with lightning bolts etched into it. Dark olive-green tsuka-ito wraps the hilt, no menuki decorate the rayskin, and the pommel is unadorned.
Renji wears Zabimaru lashed to his hip on the left side, as he is right-handed. He has been known to fight with the sword in its sealed form when he feels his opponent isn't worth the trouble of busting out shikai, however he never uses the saya in battle.
Shikai
•Invocation: Hoero 「咆えろ」 "Howl"
In its initial release, Zabimaru doesn't appear to get much longer, but the shape of the blade is changed dramatically. Upon release, Zabimaru shifts into a segmented blade with seven sections that grow gradually larger and wider from hilt to tip. Each segment has a prong at one end that resembles a tooth, the last piece being significantly longer and fang-like. The segments of the blade are connected by what visually resembles bone-and-sinew, and this connecting tissue allows Zabimaru to be extended to incredible lengths, actually making the weapon more effective as a whip than as a sword (this is why Indiana Jones is Renji's hero), though the blade still cuts just fine, as Renji is more than happy to demonstrate.
The downside to this method is that Renji can only make three consecutive attacks before he has to recoil the weapon to recover. This leaves him vulnerable for the time it takes to snap the sword back together and gear up for another attack. The connecting tissue between the segments of the sword is not infallible; it can be cut and the segments severed. If this happens, Renji does have a contingency plan. If push comes to shove, he has an attack that can still be utilized even if the segments of Zabimaru have all been ripped apart and scattered.
• Higa Zekkou 「狒牙絶咬」 "Bite of the Severed Baboon Fang"
When he's got no other choice, Renji can use the fragments of Zabimaru's blade in a one-shot multi-directional attack that strikes his enemy from all sides and deals heavy damage. Using his reiatsu to separate the sword (or, as is usually the case, to utilize the broken pieces), Renji can position the blades around his opponent and make the unavoidable strike, but he only uses this attack in dire straits, as it is heavily damaging to Zabimaru and leaves him completely defenseless until the zanpakutou can heal itself.
Manifestation
The spirit manifestation of Zabimaru is that of a nue, a mythological creature with the body of a baboon and a snake for a tail. These two creatures have two different personalities--the baboon is wise and speaks sagely in the old tongue, while the snake is much more irreverent and snide. Both creatures are sentient and self-aware, however the baboon appears to be the more dominant of the two. The physical body of Zabimaru appears to be able to change size; he manifests in Renji's cell after the fight with Ichigo and is visually about the size of a large dog, however is significantly larger when Renjij manifests him for bankai training under Urahara Shouten. It can be assumed that Zabimaru can change size depending on the size of his surroundings.
Renji appears to have a good relationship with his zanpakutou; the two bicker, but Renji seems to argue with all the people he is close with. He speaks openly and casually with the spirit, and the spirit, in turn, often offers wisdom and insight and harassment in Spanish.
Bankai
• Hihiou Zabimaru「狒狒王蛇尾丸」 "Baboon King Zabimaru"
Renji is one of only two [known] non-captain-level Shinigami to have achieved bankai (aside from Ichigo, who is not an actual Shinigami). This skill usually takes decades to achieve, and even longer to properly master. Though Renji had been training toward achieving bankai for a while, he manages to really punch it and makes the last leg of training in three days' time, proving his determination and focus when he has a goal in mind.
In its second release, Zabimaru grows into an enormous skeletal snake, with a head approximately the size of a Smart Car, and an indeterminate amount of segments that coil around Renji and serve not only as a means of attack, but a nigh impenetrable wall of defense. Renji gets a bit of a wardrobe change himself, donning a rather swanky green pimp coat cowl (ignore the anime. Renji does not wear a mauve fur ruff kthx. Pink flowered yukata are one thing, but he does not wear mauve fur) held together by a string of fangs, with a 'sleeve' or sorts that extends down his right arm to a glove. The hilt of Zabimaru is also transformed into bone, and Renji commands the massive bankai by holding and directing it by this final segment of its 'tail'.
The segments of Hihiou Zabimaru are held together with Renji's own reiatsu instead of the bone-and-sinew that held together the shikai form, and as such it is impossible to 'break' Renji's bankai. Renji can actually separate and reattach the segments of his bankai at will, and if one is damaged or destroyed (though this is decidedly difficult) he can just detach and discard it with no overall damage. Unlike Zabimaru's shikai, Hihiou Zabimaru is not a blade, and therefore does not actually cut an enemy. Renji's method of attack with his bankai deals mostly in gratuitous property damage and trying to crush his enemy to death. ... No, I'm serious. One trick he uses is to press his enemy backward or downward using Zabimaru's massive jaws until he can slam them into a wall or the ground; biting is also quiet effective.
Though Zabimaru is a power-type zanpakutou and therefore mostly makes use of pure brute strength, Renji has one more trick up his sleeves. Aside from a powered-up higa zekkou, Hihiou Zabimaru has one additional trump card.
• Hikotsu Taihou 「狒骨大砲」 "Baboon-Bone Cannon"
Using a condensed surge of pure reiatsu, Hihiou Zabimaru can fire a searing red concentrated beam of energy at an enemy. This attack not only has the capability to burn an enemy, but blow them to Bermuda clean off the battlefield under the right circumstances.
On a less tangible field, Renji is also rather a smart cookie. Despite his thuggish looks and Dumb Jock presentation, he was in advanced courses at the Shinigami Academy, and aside from the odd kidou accident, he excelled in all his classes. He's also extremely loyal and would sooner fall on his own sword than turn his back on a friend. Besides that, he has the uncanny ability to bleed a whole helluva lot and somehow not die. Also, like all Shinigami, Renji has the ability to sense reiatsu--basically he can 'feel' peoples' auras. He can tell when other people are nearby, can identify the individual energy signatures of people he knows, and can even garner some sense of their current state of health and mind based on the energy signal itself. This ability extends to all living people (and probably animals, too, though that isn't specifically addressed), not just Shinigami, and is logically not limited to the people from his own canon.
equipment: Shinigami uniform, zanpakutou, silly bandanna, lots of bruises and lacerations and burn marks considering he's just had the crap beat out of him and has blown himself up.
canon history: Renji's Role in Bleach in 30 Seconds or Less: Renji enters the story as a rival and kind of a jerk. He's sent to earth to retrieve his old friend Rukia and drag her back to Soul Society for trial and probable execution, and really shows little remorse as he and his captain fight off her weird human bodyguard and cart Rukia home. What we don't discover until later is that Renji and Rukia have a long, if bittersweet history--they were best friends for years until Rukia was adopted into the Kuchiki clan, and he has spent the last forty years basically trying to get awesome enough to feel like he deserves to be her friend again. When it looks like Byakuya has no plan to save her from her cruel and unusual death sentence, Renji takes matters into his own hands, defying his captain and his comrades, and throwing away his pride and potentially everything he's worked for to try and save his old friend. He battles Ichigo, deems him worthy, and then falls to his knees and literally begs him to save Rukia where he himself could not. And thus, an epic bromance was born.
Knowing it's not going to be easy, and determined not to give up, Renji knuckles down and gets to some bankai training, heading off to the battlefield while Ichigo finishes his crash course in How To Be A Badass. He confronts his captain and shows off his new bankai, and pretty much almost dies for his efforts. Yeah, not cool enough to kick Byakuya's ass yet. Oops. Luckily he has a fanboy who saves his life, and after being duct taped back together, it's right back off to fighting the good fight. Renji arrives just in time to watch Ichigo save the day and prevent Rukia from being flambé'd, and when Ichigo pitches her at him like a screaming football, he doesn't think twice and just takes off running. Unfortunately, he is confronted by Aizen, who is actually a misanthropic douchebag to end all douchebags, despite his innocuous presentation and the fact that everyone thought he died a while back. Surprise! Here's where we see Renji's amazing bleeding abilities in action. Aizen basically slices and dices him in an effort to get Rukia away from him--Rukia's body is currently the vessel for a little device called the Hougyoku that will basically make Aizen God, so you can see why he would be so adamant about getting it from her--but Renji won't have any of it. After fighting off some other captains and having an amazing epic battle with Byakuya, Ichigo shows up just in time to save Renji from getting his arms hacked off, and the two of them attempt to tag-team Aizen.
It's not very effective. They both get pwn'd, Aizen gets the Hougyoku and ascends into the clouds in a magical beam of light, and the people left standing have a big mess to clean up. Oh well, at least they tried. This arc of the story concludes with Ichigo returning home to earth and something like a happy ending as Rukia makes peace with her brother by learning about her late sister, and Aizen's still probably a threat, but for the moment we can pretend it's all good.
Peace is short-lived, however, and it's not long before Renji and some other Shinigami descend upon Ichigo's school and drag him into the next plot arc, which involves the Arrancar, who are a bunch of thugs with bone-masks and holes in inexplicable places who all proceed to kick everyone's ass. Then Orihime gets kidnapped and suddenly it is, as they say, on. Despite being forbidden to pursue Orihime by The Old Guy In Charge, Renji and Rukia and the others go to the Sahara Mexico Hueco Mundo to try and get their friend back. Here they encounter many more Arrancar, including Aizen's personal army of badasses, the Espada, who are basically the ten most powerful Arrancar ever. Since the nakama decided that splitting up would be a good idea, they all wind up fighting the Espada individually or in pairs, and before being brought to Anatole, Renji and his begrudging ally Ishida are in the process of getting their asses kicked by fighting the Eighth Espada, Szayel Aporro-Grantz.
In a nutshell, Renji's role in the story, while truncated at times, is to serve as something of a tie between the Shinigami cast and the human cast--as Rukia's best friend as well as a close comrade of Ichigo's, Renji serves as a unique fulcrum between both earth and Soul Society. Despite their somewhat rocky beginnings, Renji and Ichigo are supreme bros, right down to the bitching at each other like old marrieds, and when Rukia gets thrown into the mix, it's a kicking and screaming free-for-all like no other. They all show affection by inflicting bruises. Renji makes several trips between the two worlds, having befriended Ichigo and his gang rather fiercely after they risked their lives to try and save Rukia, and when Orihime is taken by the Espada, Renji is actually the first to volunteer to go after her: he takes his alliances very seriously.
His short fuse notwithstanding, Renji also serves as something of a voice of reason, to Ichigo in particular. They're very alike--hot-headed, impulsive, and loyal to a fault--but Renji has probably a century of experience on Ichigo, and thus knows when to fold his hand, how to pick his battles, and when to bide his time. He has been known to stop Ichigo from eating too much foot, and he's far more perceptive than he appears, reading into the motivations and unspoken intentions of his comrades and enemies alike, and spouting the odd nugget of wisdom at just the right time as a result. He's also known to give a damn good pep-talk.
Thus, Renji is unexpected wisdom to Ichigo's naivete, brawn to Rukia's brain and strategy, and a surprising inspiration to the team.
personality: Renji is a man of many colors. Literally, on occasion, as his fashion sense often leaves something to be desired, but when it comes to his personality he's a lot more layered than his wardrobe people give him credit for.
On the surface, he's gruff and tends to strike as irritable and short-tempered; it's really no wonder he did well in the Eleventh Division when he worked there, because he does have a bit of a talent for finding trouble. Or rather, for being found by it. He doesn't always go looking for fights, but they have a way of looking for him, it seems, because more often than not anytime anyone sees him, Renji's managed to injure himself in one manner or another. He's got a bit of a temper and tends to get very wrapped up in fighting, wanting to win at all costs, and in his initial introduction into the Bleach storyline, he comes off as a real hardass, seeming not to even care that his old friend Rukia is going to be executed; after all, rules are rules, and his commanding officer's orders are paramount. Get the job done swiftly, efficiently, and keep personal investments out of the line of duty. His advent into canon paints Renji as a coldhearted Shinigami workaholic with little regard for past alliances and supreme loyalty to his captain--an attitude all good lieutenants should have, of course. And in all honesty his stiff and unrelenting attitude is really not surprising, given his history. If a kid learns one thing growing up in Rukongai it's that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger--makes you who you are.
But the other thing a kid learns growing up in Rukongai is a little humility, and what people don't get to see unless they get to know him very well is the more complicated side of his persona. What you see is most decidedly not what you get, in Renji's case. While his attitude problem and gritty language are much more in the forefront of his presentation, Renji has many more layers than the average observer can garner from a first impression. His bite is most assuredly just as bad as his bark--or maybe it's worse, since he's not exactly known for being eloquent when he's righteously pissed off--but if you can get past the swagger and the rough vernacular (and the eyebrows) to get to know the other side of him, Renji's actually a pretty good guy. He is proud above most things, and loyal to a fault. In fact, his loyalty to and love for his friends is probably the only thing he will sacrifice his pride for, and he demonstrated this irrefutably when he was defeated by Ichigo in Soul Society and fell to his knees, begging the youth to save Rukia's life in his stead.
It seems his friends and their happiness are more important to him than most things, and despite the facade of a dumb jock, he's actually quite perceptive and sensitive. Aside from Rukia, his two oldest friends are Kira and Hinamori, with whom he attended the Shinigami Academy. During a lieutenants' meeting, Hinamori laments her worries about her captain to Renji, who in an effort to assuage her concerns quickly assures her that it's probably nothing to worry about and that the alert should be called off soon. After Orihime Inoue is branded a traitor for going to Hueco Mundo, though he doesn't know her well himself, Renji is the first to volunteer to take troops to Las Noches to retrieve her, knowing how much she means to Ichigo and Rukia. Of course, perhaps a better indication of just how good to his friends Renji may or may not be is in how he is treated by his comrades. Kira and Hinamori decide not to tell anyone when Renji cuts out of the lieutenants' meeting early to go and fight Ichigo, fearing he'll get in serious trouble for his actions, and when Kira finds him bleeding and unconscious after the fight, he makes the decision to have Renji's injuries treated rather than having his men pursue the intruders. Hinamori actually speaks harshly to Byakuya, of all people, in Renji's defense regarding the situation. Even the other officers seem unusually fond of the crass, brash lieutenant; stern and stoic Retsu Unohana of the Fourth Division anonymously heals Renji's injuries after his battle with Byakuya, despite the fact that he raised his blade to his own captain and has defied the Gotei 13 trying to save Rukia's life.
Honestly, Renji would probably give his right arm to help a friend if it really came down to it, though his friend would likely never hear the end of it afterward. He's very devoted to his comrades and fiercely protective of them, even if he tends to act aloof and indifferent unless the situation is dire. He visited Rukia's cell often while she awaited her execution sentence, and though he tried to act apathetic about it, it became quite apparent very quickly that he was in fact worried sick that this whole thing wasn't going to get resolved. His prior actions in assisting in her capture were notsomuch mindlessly following orders because they were orders and much more abiding his superior's wishes in an effort to be able to make a plea for appeal later. Renji clung to the dwindling hope that Byakuya, as Rukia's adoptive brother, would see fit to lessen her punishment, but if he had betrayed Byakuya's wishes in a premature rescue attempt, it would have nullified any subsequent petition he might have put forward. And so his tendency to act without thinking notwithstanding, Renji does have the capability to plan ahead, even if he doesn't use it often. In the end, despite Byakuya's plans to uphold the law rather than save his own sister's life, Renji's actions spoke too loudly to be ignored, and his willingness to give up everything to save Rukia allowed him to fight Byakuya at full-power, reaching the captain on more than a physical level when he used the last of his strength to try and strike him down with a shattered blade.
Despite his notable strength and tenacity in combat, Renji has something of an inferiority complex, never quite feeling as if he did the best he could, and if he fails to win a fight, he has been known to pout and angst about it quite grandiosely, to the point of melodrama on occasion. That said, his loyalty is laudable, and his stick-to-itiveness commendable, and though he doesn't particularly approve of his captain's haughty and standoffish attitude, Renji respects the man very highly, and is determined to someday attain Byakuya's level of skill. A very dedicated man, Renji's high marks in the Shinigami Academy and his admittance into the advanced class reflect his iron will to succeed and build a life for himself that was better than the one he came from. Though he is a very talented swordsman, Renji's kidou skills are a bit lacking; it seems he would rather use brute force than precise spells to get himself out of trouble, though he has been known to use spells in combination attacks on occasion. (Though he's pretty touchy about his lack of prowess with kidou, so don't bring it up unless you want to be scowled at.)
Off the clock, Renji is very laid back and casual, preferring to spend his days off traipsing about in his pajamas, and having a great dislike of handshakes and formal introductions. He is also an avid futsal-player, and spends a lot of time trying to organize an official Sixth-Division team, with something not entirely unlike success--his 'teammates' consist of Rikichi, his self-proclaimed fanboy, and several of his seated subordinates, though who they play and when these tournaments happen is never clarified. He's very comfortable in his own skin on most fields, making no effort to hide his love of taiyaki and sweet things (generally considered very emasculating foodstuffs in Japanese culture) and unafraid to look a bit foolish if it means bringing a smile to a friend's face (read: his long-suffering tolerance of Rukia's obsession with Chappy the Bunny).
But wait! There's more! As if Renji weren't dichotomous enough already, it could be pointed out that his personality and demeanor varies ever so slightly depending on his company. With his closest colleagues, for example, he speaks very roughly and casually, often using generally derogatory terms in an affectionate way (such as calling Ichigo and Rukia by a term that would normally be translated as 'bastard' or 'wench'). With someone he considers a friend but still respects as a senior, his language is a bit less crass, though still far from formal (for example, his calling his mentor by his given name but a formal honorific, and using a contracted form of the polite word for 'you' when addressing him). And despite his poor, unrefined beginnings, Renji speaks with flawless formality to the people who command the right sort of respect (as he uses formal, polite Japanese when speaking with his captain, Byakuya Kuchiki).
Though the two sides of Renji's coin are quite in opposition, he somehow manages to balance his own internal dichotomy pretty well, and maybe that's part of what makes him such an interesting fellow. In conclusion, despite his somewhat alarming appearance and coarse speech patterns, at his core Renji is a steadfast and stalwart friend if he is anything. His affection for his companions--especially Rukia--runs deep and fierce, and he would do nigh anything to keep them safe, even at the risk of his own well-being. Once you've earned Renji's trust and confidence, you've got yourself a (reckless, impulsive, hyper-competitive, foul-mouthed, and arrogant)(generous, dedicated, reliable, passionate, and in the end just downright good-hearted) comrade for life.
Writing Samples
Third Person Sample:
Consciousness slowly tugged at Renji's brain, and with a groan of pain he opened his eyes to stare at the white ceiling above him. He sighed and just stared for a moment, then closed his eyes again, wondering what time it was. The light in the room was diffused--it was afternoon? That was unexpected. Renji enjoyed sleeping in as much as the next person, but he rarely slept so late. The captain was going to kill him if--
Wait.
His eyes snapped open wide and he peered up at the ceiling over his head again. These weren't his quarters--this wasn't even Soul Society, so far as he could tell; it didn't feel right. But... he couldn't quite tell, really, and it was kind of freaking him out. Why couldn't he feel any reiatsu nearby? If he was in Soul Society, he should have been able to pick out any number of familiar energy signatures. Where the hell was he?
Oh, wait. If he recalled correctly (which, contrary to popular belief, he usually did), the last thing that he'd done was slam the Octava Espada with a point-blank shakkahou, blowing the both of them to high-heaven (or low-hell, as he figured Grantz sure as shit wasn't going anywhere but) so Ishida could do one of his fancy-sounding froufy Quincy moves. Okay, that explained why he couldn't sense any divisionmates nearby, he supposed, but what had happened? Had something gone wrong? More than that, what had happened to the others? He'd been fighting Grantz with Ishida, but there was no trace of his reiatsu either. And Rukia... Grantz had said she was dead. Was it true? What had happened? Was she really gone? Could she really be dead? After all they'd gone through, after all this... Had he gotten her back again only to lose her now? And, perhaps most worrisome of all, where was Grantz?
Renji frowned.
... Was he dead? Again? He had to admit he really wasn't sure what to expect from death at this point. He didn't remember dying the first time, but he was pretty sure there hadn't been any beds or mysterious rooms involved. He expanded his mostly-aimless search for reiatsu signatures a bit, sighing with a bit of relief as he found... well, someone. Multiple someones. Nobody felt familiar immediately, but wherever he was, he wasn't alone here. That meant that Ishida and the others were probably around somewhere.
Sitting up, he grimaced, grunting softly in pain. Well, he'd definitely blown himself up--he ached all over, was bleeding, and was pretty sure he'd scorched his hair. You never forgot the smell of burnt hair, and with as many times as Renji had managed to blow himself up in the academy, it was pretty firmly etched into his frontal lobe. His sword was still lashed to his side, at least, and he carefully slid it from the sash at his hips.
"Oi, Zabimaru, you okay?" he asked, and the nue spirit sort of grunted noncommittally at him. He'd take that as a yes. He figured Zabimaru's pride was probably more damaged than anything else--that bastard Grantz had somehow blocked his ability to summon bankai, leaving Zabimaru floundering with physical attacks that were blocked each time without fail.
He shifted and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and blinked when there was a soft clattering sound. A small, electronic-looking device had slipped off the bed with his movement, sliding just under the edge of the bed. Renji dropped to one knee and scooped up the little device, turning it in his hand. Huh, it didn't look like a Soul Phone. Maybe this was just another one of Grantz's stupid tricks. Yes, that had to be it: a test, or something. The Octava did love his stupid mindfucks. Fine, Renji would play along for now.
Moving to what appeared to be a bathroom, then grimaced when he saw his own face in the mirror. Gods, he looked like hell. He supposed that was to be expected, but it was still a little unsettling. Twisting the faucet, he splashed some water on his face and grabbed a towel to dab at the blood, wiping it away carefully. Er... damn, now he'd stained the towels. Well, hopefully whoever owned this place wouldn't charge him for damages to the linens, because he was pretty sure he'd bled on the sheets, too.
Renji tugged the bandanna off his brow and untied the leather strip that held his hair back, raking his hands through it to try and smooth it out a bit. Yanking his hair up into its usual ponytail again--at least he looked a little less bedraggled now--and readjusting his bandanna around his brow, Renji looked at the little phone-device, shrugging his chin a bit and pressing his lips together. He really sucked at technology, but if Szayel Aporro-Grantz wanted to play games, Abarai Renji would rise to the occasion. He just hoped the Octava understood that Abarai Renji was a very sore loser.