Renai Iwasaki

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Renai Iwasaki (Ren) is a recurring supporting character in Bleach: Project Genseki. She a childhood friend of the twins Akimoto Kazuma and Juro Kazuma and is working as a Soul Reaper in the 3rd Division. Previously, she worked as a hostess in her mother's brothel, the Blackthorn Brothel.

Appearance
Ren is a slender girl that looks around the ripe age of twenty. Her shoulder-length brown hair flows downward and her bangs are on a side fringe. She has piercing red eyes that command a magnificent presence to her. Her smile is carefree and natural, but give off a rather unsettling atmosphere.

She wears the traditional shihahusho garment with no special customization. During work and battle as a Soul Reaper, she often times ties her hair up to a bun as she fights. She in fact has multiple scars on her body from years of abuse, and there's a very noticeable one on the nape of her neck.

When working as a hostess, she is dressed up depending on the level of service that she is to provide. For more extravagant entertainment, she wears a red kimono along with various accessories to decorate her hair and neck. Otherwise, her traditional white European-styled gown suffices for most casual working situations as a hostess.

Personality
Ren is a theatrical girl with a knack for flair. She tends to day dream and push the buttons of those around her even in the most dire situations. She shares this trait with her friends Akimoto and Juro Kazuma, but she in fact dominates them in theatrics and flair. This is due to her exposure to various plays that she's acquired such as Shakespeare's.

But behind her intial stoic and cool aura, she is a rather emotional and stubborn person, who is unafraid to voice her opinions and complaints about anything in particular. She has bitter snaps of anger, especially when it comes to a lack of integrity in people, and is quick to hold a grudge to those who fail to hold their end of the bargain.

This proves to be a problem for her health, because she still hopes for the chance of the other person's redemption while she continues to place herself in dangerous situations just to test someone's reaction. However, her grudge only applied to Akimoto, so it is hard to say how far she will take her 'mercy' for other people.

In battle, she still takes her theatrical self and attempts to defeat opponents in the most efficient yet graceful way possible.

Background
Ren was adopted by Hinako Iwasaki and was given the name Renai Iwasaki. Strongly indebted to her adoptive mother, Ren worked as a hostess in her mother's brothel, the Blackthorn Brothel, where she was brought up to entertain and to please clients with engaging conversation, dance, and songs as she served them food and beverages.

Becoming a hostess proved to be quite a challenge to her, for she was unbelievably shy at first, but with training, Ren became quite a cultured individual who was also versed in the stories of the World of the Living. She provided and circulated information and rumors to some same various clients as well.

Some decades later, Ren met a young boy her age called Juro Kazuma and soon became friends. Days later, she met Akimoto Kazuma who was posing as his twin brother, Juro, at that time. But due to the slight discrepancy between his personality and Juro's, Ren was able to figure it out easily. And so she heard Akimoto's side of the story and his desire to overcome his Huntington's Disease. She sympathized with the boy's desire to explore outside his house, and so she entertained him with her knowledge.

She grew close to both brothers, even if they had to meet each other one at a time. Eventually, Akimoto was old and strong enough to leave the house with Juro, and the three of them played to no end.

As the years passed by, Ren started getting abused by the male staff members and clients of the brothel. Eventually, she found that Akimoto and Juro had a hobby of swindling money from 'underground' members. Horrified, she desperately, wanted her friends to notice this abuse in order to make them stop their gambling hobbies. But instead of telling them of her situation, she deviously planned out an event to see how the boys would react.

That day came and Ren took the boys to her house to show them what exactly they are doing to her. As they witnessed her domestic and sexual abuse first-hand, Juro instantly makes an attempt to assist Ren, but he was too weak and was dispatched easily.

Akimoto on the other hand, runs away, using his own chronic illness as an excuse to not help her. A disappointed Ren watches her friend run, and to this day, harbors a grudge against him. She secretly treats Juro's wounds later that night.

And on that same night, she finds Akimoto sneaking into her room to retrieve Juro. Ren strips herself naked and shows him every mark, scar, and bruise inflicted upon her body. She scolded him to the point where Akimoto carried on the guilt for the rest of his life.

Atonement Arc
After hearing that Akimoto was coming to see her after all these years, Ren devised a plan to test his resolve. Hinako Iwasaki sends in multiple bodyguards and brutes after Akimoto once he entered the brothel, while Ren tended to the captured Kishoku Hyakuhasu, who accompanied Akimoto as a bodyguard.

After releasing Kishoku from her binds, Ren sought out to dispatch the guards in various places to slow Akimoto down. But her intention was to make the guards lose hope and lash out on her where Akimoto would see.

Wondering if Akimoto would have the guts to help her and not use his illness as an excuse, she made it so that a guard attacked her where Akimoto would see. Immediately, Akimoto came to her aid and proved to Ren that he was sorry for leaving her at that time. Unsatisfied with this expected answer, she runs off to test Akimoto's resolve even further by having him fight more guards.

Akimoto and Kishoku fought off against the guards and finally captured Ren before seeing her mother. The three met with Hinako Iwasaki, who required monetary compensation as well as staff replacement in exchange for Ren's release from the brothel.

Although Ren wasn't in any need for rescue, she would be victimized in Akimoto's place due to her relationship with him. Eventually, Akimoto relinquished his funds acquired from gambling, but wasn't willing to hand over Kishoku as a replacement for Ren. So he then grabbed Ren and escaped from brothel with Kishoku trailing behind.

The three then stopped by an orphanage sponsored by the brothel for the night. The following morning, Akimoto and Kishoku dropped Ren back to the Kazuma residence. She and Akimoto did some catching up with the Kazumas, especially with Juro, who was aware of today's events.

Having reluinquished her grudge, Ren pledged to Akimoto that she'll see him again, but this time as a Soul Reaper. Akimoto and Kishoku departed to reunite with the rest of their group to meet a new member.

Bankai Experimenation Arc
While not directly involved, Ren appears in Akimoto's dream during the Bankai Experiment as a Soul Reaper.

'Ren' tries to make the dreaming Akimoto remember her, as she destroys his perception of his surroundings by slicing off Juro's head. Enraged, Akimoto engages the mysterious girl into combat.

After releasing her Zanpakutou, Ren disarms Akimoto and shows him the location of Odoruningyo's Inner World. However, since the dreaming Akimoto has no recollection of having a Shikai, his memories of Ren are lost as well.

Frustrated and with anguish, Ren activates her Bankai and continues to fight Akimoto, while inflicting major wounds at the exact same place as her scars. Akimoto eventually figured out her Bankai's ability and deals a lethal blow to the girl's chest.

As the apparition of Ren dies, Akimoto still hasn't a clue on who she was, but upon touching her body, he begins to feel the physical pain that Ren has endured during her abuse. The marks on her body began to show in his body as well, and after succumbing to the pain, Akimoto reaches for her hand before waking up.

Powers and Abilities
Her methods of combat also serve to lock swords and slipping in for an attack. In her fight, she has been shown to disarm him multiple times, despite him being very well versed in Zanjutsu.

Zanpakutou
Hakucho (はくちょう, Swan): The sealed form takes the appearance of a slender nodachi with a silver rectangular tsuba.
 * Shikai: Release command is "Purge". Water starts to trickle down from the tip of blade before enveloping the katana with a thin layer of water.
 * The water nullifies offensive forms of Reiatsu and Reiryoku that come into contact with it. This allows Ren to dispel Kido and Reiastu attacks and drastically soften the blows of strikes that are hardened by Reiryoku.
 * The water makes it easy for swords to lock in place. Ren uses this to her advantage of disarming the other person's weapon.
 * Ren can manipulate the form of the liquid to various things such as projectiles or whips before having it revert. She can also manipulate the water to change form within the liquid state and increase the density and surface tension. This can be used to heavily reduce the impact of blows.


 * Bankai: Hakuchou no Mizumi (はくちょうのみずうみ, Swan Lake)
 * The water from the blade pours out and spills to form a small layer of water within a very large radius (10 meters). Everyone except the wielder within the space are unable to shape Reiatsu and Reiryoku into offensive and defensive forms. Offensive bursts of Reaitsu entering the space are immediately dispelled.
 * The wielder is also leaves an after-image when moving. The after-image is an illusion that tricks the opponent into attacking elsewhere. It is a passive ability upon activation of the Bankai.

Akimoto Kazuma
Ren's childhood friend, whom she loves very much to the point where her she suffered just to test his own character. They often tease each other and are comfortable in each other's presence to the point where they can be rude to one another without any hard feelings.

Despite her grudge, she is truly caring for Akimoto and has engraved him into a special place in her heart. Despite her feelings, she is hesitant to reveal her affection because he does not understand romantic love. So she tries to show him what love is through her stories and tales of various authors and such.

Other than that, she and Akimoto trust each other very much.

Juro Kazuma
Ren is also platonically close to Juro as she is to Akimoto. During the latter's absence, Juro was the one that visited her to give her news of Akimoto's whereabouts. Other than that, they continued to share new stories that happened in their lives.

Kishoku Hyakuhasu
Ren is shown to be quite content with Kishoku, despite the latter's prominence in endowment. She talks to Kishoku with politeness, but is unable to tease too much lest she gets victimized by Kishoku's bout of anger.

Ren also harbors some jealousy to Kishoku, because she feels that Kishoku would be the one that will make Akimoto discover what is means to be in love. Other than that, Ren's relationship with Kishoku is rather stable despite knowing each other for two days.

Behind the Scenes

 * Ren's favorite foods are tarts, quiche, and crepes.
 * Doesn't like edomame.
 * Ren is a fan of Shakespeare's tragedies.

Trivia

 * Ren is nearly a spiting image of Akimoto's Zanpakutou Spirit, Odoruningyo. This is because Akimoto's guilt eventually shaped the spirit to bear resemblances to Ren.