Kushida Rin

* Ashura
* Omega

**Kushida Rin** (串田 凛, *Kushida Rin*; "*Rin Kushida*") is Yamashita Kazuo's secretary, dispatched by Nogi Hideki to keep an eye on him and Tokita Ohma. After the events of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, she came to work under Yamashita Kazuo at Yamashita Trading Co. as the head of the fighter scouting department.

## Appearance

Rin is a cute young lady with a bob of hair, thin eyebrows and seemingly perpetually closed eyes.

She wears a smart black waistcoat over a white long-sleeved shirt, with a black tie, a short black skirt and simple dark pumps.

## Personality

She appears to be a flighty person with underlying traits of cunning, befitting the surveillance role given to her by Nogi.

At the end of the tournament, it is revealed she was infiltrating the Nogi Group at the behest of Katahara Metsudo, revealing that she was from the Inside, just like Tokita Ohma, whom she was sent to spy on. Despite all this, she chose to leave Katahara Metsudo to stay with Yamashita Kazuo as she had grown fond of him and his group of friends, claiming that he was still a novice to which she needed to keep her eyes on his actions.

## Plot

### *Kengan Ashura*

When the various Kengan Association members were boarding the ships that would take them to the tournament's venue, she made herself apparent and introduced herself to Yamashita Kazuo, Akiyama Kaede and Tokita Ohma as Kazuo's new secretary. Getting on board the S.S. Annihilation with the others, Rin informed Kazuo about betting on who the five winners of the preliminaries would be. With the preliminaries ending after only 15 minutes, Rin informed Nogi of Kazuo's ability to correctly name all five winners. At that, she and all the other corporation associates from the winning group, all then boarded the S.S. Kengan (but not before witnessing the power of Metsudo's Bodyguards first-hand).

After arriving at Ganryu Island, Rin and everyone else relaxed and unwound for the first day. The next day, the Kengan Annihilation Tournament began in earnest with Rin watching the first round alongside Akiyama and Kazuo. After Ohma's victory over Inaba Ryo, Rin spied on him as he exited a bathroom with his mouth covered in blood and informed Nogi that Ohma's time was running out.

On the day of the second round, Rin again watched the tournament's fights alongside Akiyama. During Hayami's attempted coup, Rin was inside the Kengan Dome watching the entertainment with Nogi and Akiyama.

On the final day, Rin watched the final day of tournament. In the break between the quarter-finals and semi-finals, Rin hurriedly went to retrieve Ohma to go and save Kazuo, as Kiryu had put him in danger. Rin watched the rest of the tournament as Kuroki Gensai and Motorhead Motors were crowned winners.

After the tournament, she told Metsudo that she would continue to support Yamashita Kazuo as he was still a bit of a bungler.

Some time later, she and Akiyama were seen helping Kazuo set up the new base of Yamashita Trading Co.

### *Kengan Omega*

Having joined Yamashita Trading Co. alongside Akiyama Kaede after the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, Rin was put in charge of the overseas fighter scouting department meaning she would go on year-long business trips. The last time she was mentioned, it was noted that if she was on schedule she would be in Egypt.

During the Kengan Association VS Purgatory Tournament, Rin was in Nice, France trying to recruit new fighters. Upon meeting judo champion Teddy Nelner, who declined Rin's offer, the two started talking about one of Purgatory's gladiators: Arashiyama Jurota. The two were later joined by legendary french kickboxer Guillaume Le Banner, to whom Rin asked about his brother Nicolas. Upon discovering Nicolas' past, Rin could only feel sorry for his brother Guillaume before noticing a picture of the two and Teddy and realizing that the man she was in Purgatory's files wasn't the same in that picture. Further investigating, and without revealing anything about the Worm, Teddy and Guillaume showed Rin a picture of Nicolas and a friend of his from his special ops days, called Jean-Luc. Rin recognized the man with Nicolas and the Nicolas Le Banner she knew saw in Purgatory's files.

## Etymology

* **Kushida** means "skewer/skewers, spit" (串) (**kushi**) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (**ta**/**da**).
* **Rin** means "dignified, severe, cold" (凛).

## Notes & Trivia

* Rin is from the Guchi District of the Inside.
	+ She can't stand people from the Inside due to them typically being "self-centred assholes with death wishes".
	+ She seems to be aware of the existence of Tokita Niko.
* Her preferences in men include them being, "tall, dark and handsome".
* There is a running gag that Kushida Rin and Kaneda Suekichi are viewed as siblings since they keep making the same face, but they don't know about it and nobody tries to point it out. When they see a picture of them together, calling them clones, she denies the resemblance.
* Rin was omitted from the anime adaptation.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Kushida Rin's profile
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 235
3. ↑ Extra: Akiyama Kaede & Yamashita Trading Co.
4. ↑ Chapter 2 (Omega)
5. ↑ Chapter 28
6. ↑ 4-koma: Kaneda & Kushida
7. ↑ 4-koma: V🌑W!