Application - Tanagura

[pinkexorcist]

OOC INFO
_NAME: Lorie
_PLURK: nolno


IC INFO
_CHARACTER'S NAME: Renzo Shima
_CANON: Ao no Exorcist/Blue Exorcist
_CANON POINT: current canon - chapter 67 (Also, I haven't watched the anime yet, so I won't be considering any anime filler events in my playing of the character.)
_CHARACTER'S (ACTUAL) AGE: 16
_CHARACTER'S (APPARENT) AGE: 16
_CHARACTER'S HAIR COLOR: (dyed) pink
_TANAGURA (elite) OR MIDAS (mongrel)?: Tanagura
_HOUSING PREFERENCE: I don't really have a preference. Do with him what you will.


_HISTORY: To start with, there's a canon wiki entry for Renzo and a little more on wikipedia.

To fill in the gaps between the two plot summaries, the Impure King Revival arc is an important one for Renzo and his childhood friends. They return to their hometown of Kyoto to support the True Cross branch after someone tries to steal an important artifact - the Right Eye of the Impure King, a demon who was defeated more than a century ago. At the same time, the Exwires are in the middle of a more personal struggle. At the end of the previous arc, Rin showed his true nature in the fight against Amaimon. Beyond the general shock at being classmates with the son of Satan, it's an especially sensitive subject for Renzo, Ryuji, and Konekomaru. Each of them lost a family member to the blue flames of Satan during the Blue Night, the same flames that surround Rin when he fights. However, Renzo is the first of the three to accept Rin, finding it too much trouble to keep avoiding him.

Despite their efforts, the Impure King awakens. Renzo joins the others in freeing Rin after he was sentenced to death by the Vatican, and they head to the mountain where the body of the Impure King is rapidly expanding. Renzo and Konekomaru are given the job of passing along information they learn from Ryuji's father while Rin and Ryuji go off to directly attack the Impure King. When they're cornered by extensions of the demon's body, Renzo is tempted to run away, but he can't do it in the end. He and Konekomaru make it through and are able to send support to Rin and Ryuji to help them defeat the Impure King.

Renzo only plays a supporting role during the brief Terror of the Kraken arc, but heading to the ocean with the rest of the Exwires does highlight his love of the beach and, even more than that, girls in swimsuits. Ryuji calls him out on being relaxed when he talks about what Rin, Yukio and Shiemi could be up to (eyebrow waggle heavily implied) on a deserted island while they're waiting for the Kraken to make a move, but he joins the fight when it finally does.

In the True Cross Academy Festival arc, while Rin and Yukio go through some personal struggles and developments, the larger group is tasked with solving the Seven School Mysteries as there's an overall increase in supernatural activity in the area caused by the opening of a Gehenna Gate (gate between the demon and human worlds). For all of the Exwires, this assignment shows how far they need to go in developing their teamwork. For Renzo, it highlights his laziness in his studies, with moments like forgetting the words in the middle of a basic sutra and Konekomaru telling him he'll probably fail his certification exam.

With the Seven Mysteries either exorcised or explained away, Renzo gets the honor of announcing that it's almost time for the True Cross Academy Festival, and he then joins forces with Rin in trying to find a date for the couples-only dance party. What starts out as a slice-of-life comedic sideplot (with the coveted dates being so far out of reach they turn into zombies after being rejected too many times) becomes much more serious on the night of the event. Vatican officials learn that the Illuminati, the organization responsible for opening the Gehenna Gate, plans to kidnap Izumo from the festival.

Renzo finds her in a confrontation with Takara, and comes to her aid. For the first time, he shows off what he's truly capable of in releasing his familiar Yamantaka. Izumo is shocked that he has such a high-level familiar. He says he's had it since he was a kid, but he rarely uses it because it wears him out. Just when it seems that he's defeated Takara and all is clear, Renzo knocks Izumo out and reveals that Takara isn't the Illuminati spy; he is.

Lucifer himself arrives at the festival and announces the Illuminati's plans to revive Satan and erase the boundaries between the human and demon worlds. They leave with Izumo.

The Illuminati arc focuses on the organization's plans for Izumo and the remaining Exwire's plans to rescue her. Michael Gedōin, a mad scientist type, is working to turn her into the vessel for a demon. Renzo is allowed to talk to her at the research center.

He tells her he joined the Illuminati right before he enrolled in True Cross Academy and was given the job of watching over the other cram school students, while they also told him that Izumo was important. When she presses him on why he did it, he says it's because he hated everything - his friends, his family, and the Myodha. The only thing he never hated was girls. Despite this, and attacking his friends when ordered, Renzo also does things that call his true motives and allegiances into question, like only pretending to destroy Izumo's familiars when he fights them.

When it's all over, they leave with Izumo but not Renzo. However, it later comes to light that he joined the Illuminati under orders from his family and the True Cross Order and is working as a double agent. In the most recent chapter, he's just returned to school, and his friends are left to decide whether they can trust him or not.

_ABILITIES: Renzo is an Exorcist in training. While the idea of an exorcist fighting demons has a Catholic connotation to a certain extent, in this world, the Vatican has broadened its reach to welcome other religious traditions. He belongs to the Myodha, a Buddhist sect, and is a monk...of sorts.

He has reached the rank of Exwire, which is one step above the starting rank of Page. The next step in his education is to pass a certification exam in a specific area called a Meister, and his plan is to be an Aria. These are Exorcists who fight demons through the chanting of Biblical verses and sutras. It requires extensive memorization, which he has proven himself to be shaky on so far. However, he does have novice skill in the area.

Renzo wields a K'rik, a ringed Buddhist staff. Although K'rik is the term generally used for this canon, they're also called khakkhara. He knows how to use it as a weapon for physical fighting in addition to using it for summoning. When he has occasion to fight with it, he shows a general athleticism and quick reflexes.

Although it's an ability he usually keeps concealed, Renzo has a demon familiar, which means he's a Tamer. The ability to summon and control a demon is an inborn skill, and he says he could do it as a kid. His familiar is Yamantaka, a high level wisdom-king class demon. By using Yamantaka's powers, he can fight with black flames described as "more like flames from Gehenna" (the world of the demons). They can destroy a demon while leaving the body it possesses unharmed; when used on a human, they burn the soul. However, summoning Yamantaka drains his energy, and he's shown passing out moments after a fight.

_PERSONALITY: Although surrounded by ambitious people with lofty goals like passing multiple exorcist certification exams on the first try or even defeating Satan, Renzo prefers to take the easy way out. As a student, he's not on Rin's level, struggling to read a basic textbook, but he's not working to his full potential. He wants to be an Aria, but he hasn't memorized the sacred texts needed to fight demons nearly as well as Ryuji and Konekomaru. When Konekomaru questions him on it, he says he chose Aria because that's what he and Ryuji were doing, making it sound like it was easier to go with the flow and follow his friends. Konekomaru then says he's likely to fail the certification exam, and Renzo tells him it's no big deal. It's not worth the extra effort to him. As the festival approaches, Izumo and Ryuji refuse to be distracted from their studies because their exams are in three months, but Renzo equally refuses to let their first high school festival pass by without having fun. Those are his priorities.

Renzo is a pervert and generally girl crazy. For the same school festival, his determination to enjoy it means he leads the charge in trying to find a date for the dance. He's the most excited of the group about their seaside mission, and explains the wonder of swimsuits as, "When a girl wears a swimsuit...she's practically naked!" In a supplemental profile in one of the early volumes, he rounds out his list of pastimes (or perhaps he considers it a talent) with buying dirty books with no regard for whether he has to purchase them from a female cashier. It's also revealed that his nickname in elementary school was the Erotic Demon.

Being cool is important to him. When he talks to Rin for the first time after avoiding him for being the son of Satan, the ultimate icebreaker between them is when Rin accuses him of not being cool. While before, he was trying to find ways to get out of the conversation, at that point, he has to stand up for his reputation as a cool person. Their argument gets them laughing and helps them move past the gap between them.

He's exceedingly easygoing. Multiple times, his friends marvel at/question him on how relaxed he is in a situation, including while they're waiting for the Kraken to attack, as mentioned in the history section, and when they're about to face the first ghost of the Seven Mysteries. In both of those cases, he attributes it to Rin and knowing he's there to save the day. However, it can also be an act and another way of taking the easy way out because he doesn't like inconveniences. Returning to the character profile, he lists smiling, lying, and fake politeness among his pastimes and talents. It's easier to get along, and this is also key to why he resolves his problems with Rin before the others, saying "avoiding [him] is the biggest inconvenience of all."

When Konekomaru chastises him for his laziness in his studies, he tells him that he should be a Knight and should try harder. A few chapters later, it's revealed why he has the potential to be a Knight, and it's also another clear example of Renzo not working to his full potential. In all the time he's worked and fought with the other Exwires, he never summoned Yamantaka, his high-level demon familiar until he used him to help "save" Izumo. He says he's had it since he was a kid, but he rarely uses it because it wears him out.

When Izumo questions him on why he's working with the Illuminati, he tells her he hated everything, including his friends, his family, and his religious sect, and he thought about throwing it all away. When his position as a double spy becomes clear, the truth of this conversation becomes more suspect. However, the general sense that he's tired of the expectations placed on him and hates the pressure rings true. During the fight with the Impure King, there's a moment when he argues with Konekomaru, saying, "Everyone's always talking about honor and responsibility and blood ties and Myodha...and I'm sick of it! None of that is worth dying for!" Renzo even goes so far as to run away from his friend and leave him behind to find his own way out of the trouble. He wishes that it would all disappear but it doesn't take long before he's whining it would be easier if he really meant it and returning to Konekomaru to help him.

Which leads to the fact that Renzo's family is important to him, but they can also a burden. His father is the head of the Kyoto branch of the True Cross Order, and his two older brothers are exorcists. His staff was handed down to him from his father. His older brother died protecting him during the Blue Night, and living up to this sacrifice weighs on him. When Konekomaru has to attend a meeting as the surviving head of the Miwa family, Renzo mentions to him that it's easier to be the fifth brother. He seems perfectly content to not have that kind of duty or responsibility to add to the others. At the same time, he doesn't say no to his family's expectations. He's attending True Cross Academy to become an Exorcist, just like he "should", and it's at the urging of his family that he joins the Illuminati as a double agent.

His family is also devoted to protecting the head of their religious order, which in this case means he grew up being told he needed to look after Ryuji. Now that isn't to say that his friendship with Ryuji is purely one of obligation. Flashback scenes show the two of them and Konekomaru together at various ages, growing up as a trio, almost like brothers. As mentioned before, he follows them in wanting to be an Aria, even if it's likely not the Meister he's best suited for. He may be the first to fold, but he also joins them in shunning Rin because of their shared past. Sure, it's easier to go along with the group, but there seems to be a true bond there. Even if it's not always enough to motivate him past his other tendencies.

_ITEMS: He'll be wearing his school uniform - black slacks, a white button-up shirt, and a black v-neck sweater, like so. No tie for him. For items, he would only have his school bag on him, which would contain some things a typical high school student would carry - basic school supplies, cell phone, his music player and headphones - and some things only an Exorcist would need - prayer beads and his staff mentioned in the abilities section. Canon is unclear on the mechanics, but from his use of the staff moments after panels where he's standing around and not holding it, it appears to be collapsible.

For my reference: Six-month rewards and consequences