Ren Takigawa

**Ren Takigawa** (滝川 蓮, *Takigawa Ren*?) is the older stepbrother of Masaki Takigawa. He works as an illustrator and children's literature writer in Tokyo.

## Appearance

Ren is a young man with short brown hair, with bangs swept over his left eye. He has narrow blue eyes slanted downwards, and a small beard. He notably does not resemble Masaki very much, though this being because he's his stepbrother.

## Personality

Ren is easygoing and laid-back, doing whatever he pleases. He likes to joke around with people, though he listens when they tell him to stop.

As a photographer, he is observant of people's behavior and body language, such as noticing how close the Kazemai boys got after the river incident compared to the morning.

## Story

### Yata Shrine Training Camp

Minato Narumiya asks Masaki if he will be okay with dealing with his priest duties as he is also working with the kyudo club for the training camp. Masaki replies that there is no need to worry as his older brother is coming from Tokyo to help out, and he is only needed for one job so he can leave his job for a while.

On the morning of the second day of training camp, Minato wakes up and feels someone pulling his hair from behind. Minato manages to grab his wrist and sees an unfamiliar young man. The man comments on how quick the reflexes of high school students are. The commotion sends Masaki running towards the boys' room, and then he sighs in exasperation when he sees his brother Ren, telling him to wake the boys up normally. Ren replies that he wanted to give some sort of service as he didn't get to meet them yesterday. Masaki introduces him to the boys as his brother. Ren asks Minato how was his waking up, and when Minato responded that it was terrible, Ren says that was impolite of him and that he will apologize at the kyudojo later.

After the club members finished their morning duties, Ren is there at the kyudojo to take pictures of their shooting postures, since he has a hobby of taking pictures in addition to working as an illustrator. As the boys keep messing up their *taihai*, Ren has an "oh goodness" look on his face as he records them. They decide to leave it for the end of the training camp and move on. Afterwards, the girls' group shooting went well and Ren also skillfully finished photographing everyone.

On the last day of training camp, as the boys are about to head home, Ren gives them a photo of the five of them talking he had taken without them noticing.

### Ball Game Tournament

Ren spots Minato, who is visiting Yata Shrine after club activities and sitting by the pond, and calls out to him. They have not seen each other since the training camp, and Minato is surprised to see that he is still staying at the shrine. Ren says he is currently on a break between jobs and felt like relaxing. He asks if he needed Masaki for something. Minato says that he doesn't, as Masaki was absent from club activities today because of business and that he has heard that he doesn't live at the shrine. Ren tells him that Masaki is currently at a *renseikai*, which is a study meeting sponsored by the prefecture for those who want to take the *renshi* exams, since he has decided to study more in order to teach others. He wonders aloud about what changed, since before, during the time he had his fight with their grandfather and stopped doing kyudo in his territory, he had been going out of the prefecture to ask another teacher to teach him without joining his university's kyudo club.

Ren then changes the subject and asks Minato if he has heard any stories about the pond. When he says no, he tells him a story about a one-eyed fish that lives in the pond. It used to be a girl who was supposed to be sacrificed to the gods, but the villagers hid her away and incurred the wrath of the gods, who turned her into a fish with a wounded eye and the village was hit with famine. He adds that afterwards, it is said that whoever sees the one-eyed fish will be hit with misfortune, although no one in his family has ever seen it. Minato remarks that the legend is a little bit scary. He mentions that a long time ago in this region, there is a custom of wounding the special thing that would be offered up to the gods, and asks him if he perhaps has a wound as well. Minato tells Ren not to scare him and that he is just a high school student who loves kyudo. Ren laughs and apologizes, then sets off to go back to the shrine office and tells him not to stay out late.

### Masaki's Accident and Hospitalization

After Masaki is taken to the hospital, Ren arrives at the cafe where Masaki's car was still parked to pick it up, and takes Ryouhei Yamanouchi, Nanao Kisaragi, and Kaito Onogi to the hospital. When they arrive, Minato apologizes to Ren for being protected by Masaki when he was injured. Ren tells him that he did nothing wrong and that they did more than enough. He tells him to go home and that he will call him when Masaki wakes up. Minato refuses, saying that he already told his father that he will be staying with Masaki. Ren decides to let him stay.

When Masaki finally wakes up, he asks where he is. Ren answers him and asks if he knows who he is. Masaki calls him Stupid Ren and Ren remarks that he must have lost his memory. He asks about Minato and Ren reassures him that he is safe. Ren leaves the room along with Seiya to call for a nurse.

When Masaki sneaks out of the hospital to watch Kazemai at the Prefecturals finals, Ren helps him by taking his place in his hospital bed.

## Relationships

### Masaki Takigawa

Masaki is his younger brother who he sees occasionally due to living in different places. The two are on good terms with each other and can have personal talks with each other easily. He worried about Masaki's state of mind after the falling out between him and his grandfather, but is pleased to see him enjoy himself after a long time with his new students.

## Trivia

* According to Masaki, Ren has some sort of sixth sense.

## References

1. ↑ Tsurune Volume 1, Chapter 4
2. ↑ Tsurune Volume 1, Chapter 5
3. ↑ Tsurune Volume 1, Chapter 6