Kurenai Zenshin

Kurenai Zenshin (善心=紅, Zenshin Kurenai) is a mysterious young woman that Gai Nagareboshi encounters. From her introduction, Kurenai quickly becomes one of the main protagonists of Bleach: Rising Phoenix. Beautiful, fey, and mysterious, Kurenai is Gai's closest companion, a very cheerful girl. Noticing that Gai has trouble with his emotions and morals, Kurenai does her best to pick his spirits up when he gets discouraged. While not the protagonist, Kurenai is a driving force behind Gai's actions in her own right, being a leash for him in regards to his actions and morals; her influence is the one thing that allows him to be considered even remotely similar to an actual hero, and she is the medium in which Gai decides that he desires to change. She tends to react to things emotionally rather than thinking, although she's still less reckless than Gai; she also prefers to speak her mind, and her enthusiasm and caring enable her to make fast friends with almost anyone.

Appearance
Kurenai's figure is one of tremendous beauty; with long, flowing crimson hair which is splayed out in all directions at the ends, reaching down to her hips. Several large clumps of hair stick out, some curling away horizontally. Her bangs frame her face, though they have two 'layers', with the behind layers falling to rest upon her chest. There are a few locks of hair kept in the middle of her forehead; there is a slim curled forelock of hair at the top of her head. Her piercing emerald eyes glimmer in the sun. Kurenai is described as a "person who seems so gentle, yet rather scary at the same time". Even though Kurenai appears strikingly identical to Gai's mother, this fact does not stop him from falling deeply in love with her.

Personality and Traits
Kurenai is a sweet and kind girl, though rather quiet, generally positive and upbeat, despite supposedly having amnesia. As Gai saved saved her life and gave her a name, she shows absolute respect and devotion towards him, acting as an older sister of sorts, being the 'leash' on his morals and actions. Kurenai is one of the few people who can influence Gai's train of thought in a nonviolent or manipulative way. She does not understand her own emotions, shown when she even had to ask Nika if she loves Gai or not. Above all, Kurenai has a dislike of violence, and detests fighting in any way; to the point that she will regularly call Gai out on his brutal killings, even if it is for the sole purpose of protecting her.

Despite her happy attitude, Kurenai feels inferior and a burden to others, making her jealous of some people. Kurenai attempts to turn these feelings into positive ones and not let them affect her, never stopping protecting the people close to her. Initially, Kurenai displayed little concern for her own life, and instead saw herself as expendable. However, through Gai's influence, she quickly grew out of these feelings and fell in love with him. Kurenai constantly gives Gai emotional support through the more hellish parts of his life, even though she remarks that she doesn't know what kind of person he is deep down. She is in love with Gai, and is one of the major characters into softening his heart.

However, underneath the facade she puts on, she is actually a very depressed, cynical and broken young woman. On top of her amnesia, she was once an outcast who nobody loved, and was subequently rejected by the world, called a "witch" due to her powers. After meeting Gai, Kurenai's personality has changed dramatically, from where she's scared to stand alone, to the point where she's willing to fight for her own sake and now holds beliefs of her own.

Powers and Abilities
At the time of Bleach: Rising Phoenix, Kurenai has very little going for her, leading her to often end up as the 'damsel in distress' more often then not. However, by the time of the sequel, she has improved significantly. However, while her new combat skills are dwarfed by fighters of Gai or Mitsuru's caliber, they are at a level superior to that of a low level Captain. Her high comprehension of Gai's fighting style due to their shared memories and close combat in general lends itself to her proficiency with improvisational tactics, basic hand-to-hand combat and notable skill with a blade.

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist:

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant:

Kōshinho Expert:

Intimidating Strength:

Enhanced Speed:

Enhanced Durability:

Fluctuating Spiritual Power: As with all Mototsu, Kurenai's reiatsu is constantly fluctuation. Her reiatsu is unreadable at its lowest point and at its highest point being as high as a average Lieutenant's. Like all Mototsu, Kurenai's reishi patterns are similar to that of the Hōgyoku. This works by materializing what Kurenai wants to happen. Even at less than half strength, her spiritual energy is still comparable to a Lieutenant-level fighter.
 * Anki (暗記, "Memorization"): Thanks to her high intellect and way of learning, Kurenai can instantly develop new applications of many of her pre-existing techniques to deal with threats as her body dynamically learns from experience. This power is one of the main reasons why Kurenai is sought after; as it allows Kurenai to evolve beyond any limit, which allows her to learn and predict moves of opponents she faces. As Kurenai fights, she learns from her opponent's movements, attack patterns, abilities, and techniques. This ability gives Kurenai an increasing advantage over many other foes, as counter tactics can be produced very quickly. It was through Anki that Kurenai managed to learn her attack styles.

Psychic Powers
Psychic Powers: Kurenai possesses heightened mental awareness; with an sixth sense. She is capable of telepathically detecting others, and is sensitive to the hostile intentions directed at her by others, allowing her to uncannily react to her opponents even before the offender carries out their intended action. Kurenai also exhibits psychokinesis, amplification of will, reproduction of thought, transplantation of emotions, the ability to control memories. This allows Kurenai can move around the "threads" of people's memories that are located within their soul to her liking. She can even cut the "strings" completely, turning the victim into little more than an empty shell. It should be noted that these powers are not from the planes of Soul Society, Hell, or the World of the Living, and instead were borne from an unknown source- the source of which are causing the Eldritch to spawn in the spiritual realms. Most of the time, Kurenai utilizes these abilities to supplement Gai's own powers, which is one of the reasons why the Mototsu-Seishin hybrid is able to survive so many encounters with powerful foes in Part IV. Whenever in usage, a cyan aura coating summons Kurenai.
 * Psychokinesis: Psychokinesis is an ability to move matter with the mind without exerting any physical force upon the items. Kurenai uses this ability to manipulate physical objects; she is able to grasp an object and hurl it at her targets great distances with tremendous force. She can also project energy blasts that can bring harm to others and she is able to stun her targets by materializing a sphere of psychic energy around herself. For movement, she is able to manipulate herself by levitating in the air to fly at tremendous speeds which are comparable to the highest Shunpo speeds. She can also teleport short distances. Later, this ability evolves to the point that she can control anything at an atomic level. One of her favourite tactics is to create telekinetic energy appendages to move an item, giving it a vector, making it easier to move and more effective than normal telekinesis. She can create large blades of psychokinetic energy called that can be launched at her opponent or used as swords as her main attack, and she can confuse her opponent's sense of direction.
 * Mind Healing: Mind Healing is a godsend; an ability that really helps when dealing with the broken, traumatized, and in some cases psychotic cast members of Rising Phoenix. All in all, Mind Healing allows Kurenai to "cure" any mental trauma and disorders in anyone she wishes via a type of psychic surgical operation, even herself. Kurenai is also able to delve into a target's mind, searching their innermost thoughts and feelings, enabling Kurenai to observe outside forces, or spiritually aware personas which wish to override her target's mind, which allowed her to assist Gai in fighting his Envoy of Destruction form. On a harsher note, Kurenai can utilize mind healing to send various nightmare illusions directly created by the opponent's brain; her opponent is trapped within an illusion that is almost indistinguishable from reality. She can also considerably weaken control of her target's spiritual energy and depth of perception of reality. It should be noted, that its true name is "psychometry", but Kurenai is the one who calls it "mind healing".
 * Telepathy: With telepathy, Kurenai is able to mentally communicate over small or vast distances with other individuals, which she usually employs only to read the states of minds and engage in silent conversations. For it to be able to be used, Kurenai must be able to sense the presences of those she wishes to contact. However, communicating with non-spiritual beings becomes nearly impossible over distances greater than a ten meters, and the limit for spiritual beings is one-hundred meters. Kurenai can only exchange short ten-word sentences to those that she is attached to. Eye contact allows Kurenai to have less difficulty in focusing on a target's thoughts. Moreover, telepathy also gives Kurenai an advantage in combat, being able to easily predict the next movement of an opponent, and furthermore to taunt and confuse opponents by echoing her voice in their head in every direction, masking her position.
 * Envoy Arms: Kurenai is able to telekinetically manifest invisible demonic arms which appear similar to the arms of Gai's Envoy of Destruction form. They, like the rest of Kurenai's powers, are psychic in nature and origin, and only those who were at the scene of what is known as 'The Night the Soul King was Dethoned', the climax of Part II are able to observe them. The quantity of appendages that Kurenai can summon at one time varies on her emotional state, and they can be between five and ten meters long. These arms are magnitudes more fearsome than 'normal' arms. They can shatter almost anything except the most powerful defenses, they can throw objects with enough force to impale any target at long range, they can block many a projectile, and brutally rip or precisely slash any body apart with ease. It should be noted, that Kurenai can only manifest these arms when in a shattered mental state.

Quintessence Manipulation
Quintessence Manipulation is a byproduct of Gai's newly awakened psychic powers; instead of granting him the normal basic powers of a freshly-borne psychic, they adapted and underwent a metamorphosis in order to suit his needs. By modifying his spiritual energy to become the quintessence element, Gai is able to produce quintessence from any part of his body, including his lungs, giving him the ability to, in essence, breathe and manipulate quintessence in its purest form to the point that it appears like pure energy. Gai can consume quintessence, with the exception of the quintessence he has created, to gradually accelerate healing and rejuvenation of his spiritual energy; though he is naturally insusceptible to the quintessence that he created as well as those coming from other sources. Gai's already impressive hand-to-hand blows are augmented drastically in both offensive and defensive manners as he can change his own body into quintessence; which is in turn further enhanced by the psychic energy-emitting Zanpakutō, allowing him to use his own body as a make-shift weapon unique to himself, drastically increasing his close-quarters skills. Gai can cause air space or matter to split and eliminate natural forces. Gai can also focus quintessence in a way that it takes a physical essence, appearing like pure energy. From there, the energy can take on a variety of functions, such as offensives, supplements, and altering of elements. As well, the techniques aren't just limited to the physical, as Gai has shown that he can create "voids" in an enemy's harnessing of their reiatsu, though this is temporary. As a supplement, Gai can eliminate the adverse effects of the earth's natural forces upon himself in order to move more freely, the concept being used in one of his techniques as quintessence energy flows from Gai's eyes being the source, to remove the limits created by outside forces upon his form. This ability also grants Gai a much greater level of endurance, as well as a powerful sense of smell which is beyond that of a regular spiritual being. Though it is rarely utilized by itself, after forgoing his Zanpakutō in favour of Renkyotō, Gai has been shown to integrate his quintessence manipulation within his blows. However, on occasion, Gai has been known to unleash a Shining Onslaught or two from his hands just to mix up his style and give his foes a friendly warning that the Immortal Phoenix still has what he's most famous for. For a matter of facts, Gai's quintessence cannot be nullified in any way due to the way he learnt it, however, it can be dodged.


 * Shining Onslaught (炯然躍進, "Keizen Yakushin"): Shining Onslaught is Gai's signature technique; due to rigorous training, the Mototsu-Seishin hybrid has developed this technique for use without the need for his Zanpakutō. Gai amasses an extremely dense amount of quintessence upon his palm, before compressing and expanding into the form of a golden 'X' shaped wave of quintessence; it should be noted that this iteration appears similar to an elongated fūma shuriken. As it forms upon his palm, Gai pours more of his spiritual energy into the attack, causing it to spin faster until it reaches the speed of sound, intensifying its speed and power by convergence and acceleration. Swinging his hand which holds the attack in an arc, Gai unleashes the Shining Onslaught. The attack makes it almost impossible to utilize forms of spiritual energy or plasma as its gravitational force would pull in the energy and it would be absorbed by the wave. Upon impact with Gai's foe, the attack then rips and creates a large explosion after attempting to pull in any opponents mid-flight. When utilized at full power, it gives off the appearance of a phoenix rising from the ashes upon being fired from Gai's palm. Gai is also able to charge-up this technique to produce considerably more damage. The power, speed, blast area, force, and size of the Shining Onslaught is far beyond any other application of the technique; to point of seriously harming a Tenjōgekido, which are stated to be impossible to harm unless their opponent is the Soul King, a Seishin, or another Tenjōgekido. Gai's tremendous speed allows him to move faster than the Shining Onslaught itself, allowing him to fire multiple blasts from different directions.
 * Gyakuten Ryūshutsu (逆転流出, "Reversal Drain"): Gai utilizes quintessence to manifest a void in matter through a barrier for the sole purpose of ensnaring forms of spiritual energy and reflecting it in a similar manner to Nika's Vectoriales, or even assimilate it. However, Gai can only assimilate a fraction of spiritual energy that of which he ensnares. The same technique can be applied to an opponent, by manifesting the barrier around the target's body and drawing out their spiritual energy, causing damage which increases over time. Gyakuten Ryūshutsu is designated to form in a certain amount of space and due to this reason; Gai is unable to capture techniques that require a large amount of spiritual energy such as Full Throttle: Shining Onslaught; however this most certainly does not apply to a foe's body as the attack can continuously draw spiritual energy from any being no matter what their heritage is.
 * Tenkū (天空, "Ether"): Gai brings forth quintessence and commands it to rapidly expand air particles. By dispersing the air particles around the arena except for where Gai himself is located, this causes the opponent to have difficulty breathing. If Gai moves around, then the quintessence energy forms a body-sized 'barrier' of sorts which draws the air particles in and protects the Mototsu-Seishin hybrid from feeling his own effect and thus, causing him to be done in by his own attack. As well, due to the decrease in the scalar pressure of the air, all forms of matter held together by that pressure (excluding living bodies) will slowly begin to break apart. This includes constructs erected by his foes, allowing Gai to smash through them with little effort. On weaker opponents, the quintessence would cause the air particles to disperse within the target, thus forcing their consciousness to slip and send them into slumber.
 * Tengan (天眼, "Heavenly Eye"): Gai manipulates his quintessence and transmogrifies his eyes into an additional medium through which the power can flow, thus drastically enhancing his speed, power, and depth perception; it is estimated that these fortes have been quadrupled. Gai can use this technique in order to utilize sight as a way of manipulating the scalar field and lower his opponent's internal energy supply, temporarily disabling their ability to use spiritual energy, as changing the scalar field allows Gai to affect his foe's Saketsu (鎖結, "Chain Binding") and Hakusui (鎖結, "Soul Sleep") for one minute only. The activation of this ability also twists quintessence causing a void in the air space, which manifests as a multitude of vacuums in the air that can shred away at his opponent in a similar manner to dozens of razor-sharp blades.
 * Kyōka Busō (強化武装, "Strengthening Armament") Gai amasses quintessence around his arms and legs, before compressing it to its utmost point, granting him drastically increased speed and strength, also augmenting his melee attacks to the point that he can break through even a Kidō master's barriers. The quintessence around his arms and legs swirls around at high speeds, creating a grinding drill-like effect that allows Gai to strike his foe ten times with a single punch. The effect also shreds at his opponent, making them feel as if Gai had cut them ten times per second. Gai's already impressive hand-to-hand blows are augmented drastically in both offensive and defensive manners as he can change his own body into quintessence, allowing him to use his own body as a make-shift weapon unique to himself, drastically increasing his close-quarters skills. At any instant, Gai is able to release the quintessence from his limbs as short-ranged projectiles which can break through most solid matter.
 * Phoenix's Wings: Gai molds the quintessence around his arms into the shape of phoenix's wings, before rapidly rushing at his opponent at tremendous speeds, after which he unleashes the energy in the form of an array of obliteration. This application of Kyōka Busō can also be utilized for transport through the skies via high-speed flight.
 * Phoenix's Armaments: Gai molds the quintessence around his arms and legs into the shape of a phoenix's beaks and claws respectively, which he utilizes to augment the strength and sharpness of his blows. This application of Kyōka Busō can also be utilized for quicker movement upon the ground via rushing around upon all four legs.
 * Saikan (債艦, "Bond Destroyer"): One of Gai's deadliest abilities; by focusing immense amounts of quintessence within the tips of his fingers and accelerating that force to the point that it is potentially lethal by fusing his own spiritual energy into the mix, this gives him the ability to sever the bonds that hold Kidō abilities of any kind together, allowing him to disperse them with a single touch. However, it is somewhat more complicated than that; at the instant of connection with the spell, the quintessence flows forth from his fingertips and envelops and consumes the spell at astounding speeds; to his foe, it seems as if that Gai had dispersed the spell in a split-second, though Gai had actually absorbed its power into his own spiritual aura, augmenting his own power ever-so-slightly. However, despite this ability's power, Gai cannot access it on a whim most of the time, leaving him more often than not to deal with Kidō the usual way; i.e. evading or taking it down with Shining Onslaught.
 * Zankaen Ningyō (残火炎人形, "Lingering Blaze Puppet"): Gai is able to shape a large amount of quintessence into his exact likeness, which function as if they were Gai himself, even able to bleed. After sustaining enough damage, they become miniature phoenixes and rise to the heavens before turning to ash. Gai often makes use of these puppets to utilize some of his stronger attacks and to act as diversions or support in the heat of battle. Zankaen Ningyō is by far, Gai's most useful technique. These puppets also carry a shocking twist- when defeated, they let out a small explosion which can burn or paralyze his foe in an instant.

Zanpakutō
Seshiichinyo (生死一如 "Life and death are the two faces of the same coin") is the name of Kurenai's Zanpakutō.