Renji Abarai

**Renji Abarai** is the lieutenant of 6th Division under Captain Byakuya Kuchiki and one of Ichigo Kurosaki's closest friends and rivals. He is also a member of the independent Team Karakura and one of the main supporting protagonists of the *Bleach* franchise.

## Physical Appearance

Renji is a tall and muscular young man with fair skin, brown eyes and long crimson-red hair, which he wraps in a high ponytail at a large widow's peak hairstyle. His upper body is covered in tribal tattoos, which has increased over time, which also covered his entire back, much of his chest, his extremities and even much of his forehead.

Renji wears the standard black Shinigami outfit, along with a maroon-colored bandanna, covering all of the tattoos on his forehead. Ironically despite his rank, Renji does not wear his squad's badge around his left arm. He also wears a pair of long, dark straps on each wrist with bandages over his arms.

## Personality

Renji is quite dynamic, unlike any other characters in the *Bleach* series. He varies from smug, arrogant and cocky to disquieted and depressed after his major defeats, but shows himself to be an incredibly serious, stalwart, and determined fighter when confronted with an actual challenge or threat. Willing to fight, kill, and die for whatever he believes in, Renji is a dangerous and brutal man to those who stand in his way. Yasutora Sado and Lieutenant Momo Hinamori compares him to Ichigo Kurosaki and Karin Kurosaki when fighting. Renji is determined to surpass his Captain, Byakuya Kuchiki, and it's this determination that drives Renji to grow stronger everyday. Renji likes *taiyaki* (a popular fish-shaped pancake usually filled with sweet bean paste) and dislikes spicy food. Renji likes futsal and in his free time works on assembling a team from the 6th Division, with success, more or less. The current members are himself, Rikichi and the 4th, 8th, 13th and 20th seated officers.

All of Renji's sunglasses are from Seireitei's popular "*Silver Dragonfly Glasses Store*" and cost half a year's worth of his paycheck. However, every time he wears a pair, they are broken in one way or another. On these occasions, he replaces them with a white or red bandanna, until he can purchase a new pair of goggles. His dream is to once wear a pair that he has designed himself. He also looks for them in the World of the Living as evidenced in the latest Soul Reaper diary though he has no sense of fashion since he took some of the heart-shaped and star-shaped variety.

## Abilities

**Master Swordsman Specialist**: Renji is highly skilled in various swordsmanship techniques and has a high degree of swordplay, despite his rank and power. He has trained by the 3rd Seat of the 11th Division, Ikkaku Madarame when he was relocated to his squad. Before becoming a lieutenant, his skills were great enough to fight on par with Ikkaku's Shikai and earn the rank of 6th Seat Officer in the 11th Division. Renji is able to hold his own against captain-level fighters, and is also one of the four lieutenants to attain Bankai (alongside Chōjirō Sasakibe, Momo Hinamori, and Shūhei Hisagi).

* **Whip Mastery**: What makes Renji so effective is the unique method in which his Zanpakutō works, in the fact that his Zanpakutō is more of an amalgamation of a whip and a sword. Renji is versatile because of this, and to effectively wield it is a testament to his skill. Renji has stated that his Zanpakutō is an extension of his body both his arms and legs and to that point he has used it in a variety of ways. He can use its extension ability to attack an opponent from behind or either the left or right without giving away the variation of his attack until its too late. He has shown considerable skill in using his extension capabilities to entrap an opponent by surrounding him from various angles and then retracting in order to crush the opponent or trap them in a web to prevent his enemies from escaping.

**Shunpo Expert**: Knowing the Zabimaru's Shikai attacks leave him open to counter-attacks, Renji has become very proficient in Shunpo to compensate for this weak point. Renji can even keep up with captain-level Soul Reapers and Espada-class Arrancars for an indeterminate amount of time. He even knows enough to be informed on their higher level techniques.

**Kidō Practitioner**: Being a student of the Shinigami Academy, Renji poorly accels at Kidō, which results in an explosion if not utilized correctly. He is skilled enough in the use of the level 31 Shakkahō spell that he can fire it without much trouble half of the time, but in other instances it has exploded. Renji also has enough knowledge to Kidō to manipulate it for purposes other than fighting. For example, he used Shakkahō as a light in one of the dark corridors of Las Noches. However, he was only able to create a small light without reciting the full chant.

**Great Spiritual Power**: Being a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, Renji possesses high spiritual energy. Upon learning Bankai, this power increases on a scale of 5-10. Rukia comments that it was so high, she could not recognize it until it decreased by the end of Renji's fight against Byakuya, which caused it to become more familiar to her. After two years of intense training, Renji's spiritual pressure has increased greatly to the point where he can overwhelm his foes at the level of captain-class with just his Shikai and physical strength, before relying on his Bankai against more dangerous opponents. His increased level of power makes him fight at the level of a Soul Reaper captain, despite his rank as a lieutenant. His Reiatsu is light-red in color.

**Immense Strength**: Renji possesses immense physical strength, well beyond ordinary Shinigami with average levels of physical strength. When he swung Zabimaru toward Ichigo in their second fight, he was able to easily toss him into the air, and subsequently push him through an entire building about a dozen meters away, with relative ease. During the fight with Szayelaporro's unique Fracción, Renji protected Uryū from a direct punch by one of the stronger (and larger) Arrancar using both hands, and proceeded to throw him aside. Later, by spinning Zabimaru above his head, Renji was able to cause enough force to generate a whirlwind, blowing away all of Szayelaporro's Fraccion several yards despite their massive size. Szayelaporro commented that he was using "brute force." Seventeen months of training after Aizen's defeat, Renji's newly-enhanced raw strength allows him to nonchalantly block Jackie's strongest Fullbring-enhanced strike, which had enough force to unearth a large portion of the ground within the shockwave, with just the back of his wrist, and effortlessly knocked her out with a simple blow to her stomach using the hilt of Zabimaru. By his own claim, he's been training hard to battle opponents that fight at the level of Sōsuke Aizen since his two years of intense training.

**Immense Endurance**: Renji has high levels of superhuman endurance and resillience. During his fight with Byakuya Kuchiki, Renji took direct hits from every blade of **Senbonzakura Kageyoshi**, and was pierced by five more blades when he continued fighting his captain. Even taking such grievous injuries, Renji makes a last ditch effort to pierce Byakuya with Zabimaru, but missed and was defeated. He was confident enough in his resilience to hit Szayelaporro at point-blank range with a full-power Hadō No. 31 spell, and was even willing to take the damage as well.

**Enhanced Durability**: Renji is a very durable fighter. He withstood a Fullbring-enhanced kick from Jackie without suffering any injury, despite the force of her attack.

### Zanpakuto

**Zabimaru** (*Snake Tail*): Zabimaru's sealed form resembles a typical *katana*. It has a rectangular-shaped, bronze hand-guard with a jagged design to it, and a red handle and sheath. Zabimaru is a Melee-Type Zanpakutō.

* **Shikai**: Zabimaru's Shikai command is "**Howl**" ("*Roar*" in the English Dub). In its Shikai, Zabimaru transforms into an even longer 6-part segmented blade; each segment is wider than the one preceding it from the hilt with 2 pick-like protrusions on the front and back of each segment, with the ones on the front much longer than the ones at the back. Zabimaru's segments grow in number almost without limit. The segments are connected by a stretchable thread, making Zabimaru more useful as a whip than an actual sword, though it can serve as a regular sword just as easily, thanks to Renji's swordsmanship. Zabimaru's hand-guard and handle remain the same in its Shikai release. While Zabimaru can be stretched to incredible lengths in its whip form, Renji has a limit of three consecutive attacks before having to bring the segments of Zabimaru back together for recovery - which makes him fairly vulnerable during the time interval. To make up for this, Renji usually relies on Shunpo for evasion as he retrieves Zabimaru's segments. Renji's Shikai, while durable to an extent, can ultimately sustain serious damage the longer the fight drags on. Not that it can't withstand dangerously prolonged combat, but even it has limits in enduring high-level attacks that were conducted by either the enemy or by Renji himself. Because of these many drawbacks, Renji states that out of all the other Zanpakutō wielded by the other lieutenants, Zabimaru is the most difficult to master.

**Shikai Special Ability**: Zabimaru is mostly used for long- and short-range combat (due to Renji's usage of its' whip and sword-like forms). Zabimaru also has a rarely used special technique and a powerful ultimate technique known as:
* **Higa Zekkō** (*Broken Baboon Fang Bite*): Renji can also use his spiritual power to take the disconnected/broken segments of Zabimaru and levitate them into the air, allowing him to execute a one-shot omni-directional attack, but states that it is damaging to Zabimaru and leaves Renji defenseless for counterattacks if the move fails. Byakuya later comments that using this technique will prevent Renji from reactivating his Shikai for an unspecified duration.
* **Orochiō** (*Snake King Fang Finisher*): By channeling some of his great spiritual energy into the Shikai form of Zabimaru, Renji can summon a red spiritual snake composed of that spiritual energy, then releases the whip-form of Zabimaru, fused with that energy, into the opponent. When in contact, the spirit snake bites the opponent with its' fangs and can create a massive explosion, which can critically wound an opponent and cause fire marks on the ground within a 3 kilometer area radius. This makes it Renji's ultimate attack and serves as a finisher against more powerful enemies.
* **Bankai**: **Hihiō Zabimaru**(*Baboon King Snake Tail*): Upon Bankai activation, Renji transforms Zabimaru into a massive version of its Shikai form, resembling a skeletal-version of a snake. Zabimaru gains many more segments, which are much larger resembling a mix between a snake's vertebral column and the pick-like protrusions of his Shikai segments, and it also gains a snake-like head about the size of a small car. Renji is also slightly transformed, gaining a fur cowl around his neck held by a red strap with several fang-like jaw necklace pieces that held the cowl in between. The cowl appears to be the fur of an ape and thus, the ape's skull could be seen over Renji's left shoulder while the rest of the fur extends to cover his right arm with a black metal plate on the top portion of his right hand and a black glove. Zabimaru itself, in Bankai form, does not literally "cut"; Renji usually catches his opponent with the snake-head of his weapon and smashes his opponent into the ground with it. The head has also proven capable of inflicting heavy damage through biting. One year after Ginjō's defeat and Ichigo regaining his Shinigami powers, Renji went into more intense training in order to become more capable with his Bankai when fighting against more powerful opponents and more effective with its' abilities, as well as protect it's weak-spots.

**Bankai Special Ability'*:*** *Hihiō'***Zabimaru** is mostly used for powerful long- and short-range attacks. It can pin its opponent between its teeth and ram them into buildings, or follow them through the air and deliver powerful biting attacks to deal heavy damage. The Bankai also gives Renji a new array of techniques in his arsenal:
* **Bankai Reconstruction**: Unlike its Shikai, Zabimaru's segments are held together by Renji's spiritual power, allowing him to separate and reattach them at will. The segments themselves are extremely tough, making it extremely difficult to destroy **Hihiō Zabimaru**. Even if a segment is damaged, knocked off, or destroyed, Renji can simply detach it and reform Zabimaru.
* **Enhanced Higa Zekkō**: He can also use a much more powerful version of **Higa Zekkō**, where all the segments detach, glow and sharpen with spiritual energy. They surround the opponent and execute an omni-directional attack of blades of spiritual energy. After use of this attack, Hihiō Zabimaru reconstitutes itself.
* **Hikotsu Taihō** (*Baboon Bone Cannon*): After Renji becomes more adept with using his Bankai he learns to use this technique. The technique fires a dense blast of concentrated spiritual energy from Zabimaru's mouth. The technique costs a substantial amount of energy from Renji which usually causes an aftermath that breaks the segments out of formation.
* **Reiatsu Ropes**: Renji can separate his Bankai segments and use them to surround his opponent. By linking the segments together again with his Reiatsu, Renji is able to bind the target.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Zabimaru (Zanpakuto Spirit)
* Byakuya Kuchiki (Captain)
* Team Karakura
	+ Ichigo Kurosaki (Best friend and friendly rival)
	+ Rukia Kuchiki (Childhood best friend and teammate)
	+ Uryū Ishida (Close friend and teammate)
	+ Orihime Inoue
	+ Yasutora Sado (Close friend and teammate)
	+ Karin Kurosaki
	+ Momo Hinamori (Childhood best friend, classmate and teammate)
* Kon
* Tōshirō Hitsugaya
* Rangiku Matsumoto
* Ikkaku Madarame (Close friend and swordsmanship mentor)
* Yumichika Ayasegawa
* Shūhei Hisagi (Close friend and childhood classmate)
* Izuru Kira (Childhood classmate and teammate)
* Yachiru Kusajishi
* Kenpachi Zaraki
* Tetsuzaemon Iba
* The Urahara Shop
	+ Kisuke Urahara
	+ Yoruichi Shihoin
	+ Tessai Tsukabishi
	+ Jinta Hanakari
	+ Ururu Tsumugiya
	+ Ririn
	+ Kurodo
	+ Noba
* Dondochakka Bilstin
* Pesche Guatiche
* Sasuke Uchiha
* Gray Fullbuster
* Alphonse Elric

### Rivals

* Ichigo Kurosaki (Friendly rival)
* Tetsuzaemon Iba

### Enemies

* Ryuha Armament Alliance
	+ Shin Uchiha
	+ Sho Uchiha
* Sōsuke Aizen
	+ Gin Ichimaru
	+ Kaname Tōsen
* Hollows
* The Arrancars
* The Espada
	+ Yammy Llargo
	+ Szayelaporro Granz
* The Bounts
* Xcution
	+ Kugo Ginjo
	+ Jackie Tristan

## Quotes

* *You picked a fight with the wrong opponent!*
* *It doesn't matter what if you are a friend or a foe. No one can beat me in raw power!*
* (To Orochimaru)
* (To Szayelaporro Grantz)