Ren Kannagi

Ren Kannagi (神凪 煉, Kannagi Ren) is the secondary protagonist of the series and a direct descendant of the Kannagi head family. He is the younger brother of the estranged Kazuma Yagami and second cousin of Ayano Kannagi. He looks up to Ayano, whom he considers to be a big sister, and practically worships Kazuma, stating that one day he hopes to be as strong as him. He currently attends middle school in Seiryō Academy, the same school Ayano attends, together with Kanon Suzuhara and Tatsuya Serizawa (his closest friends).

Appearance
Ren is a pre-teen of average height with spiky white-blonde hair, large emerald green eyes and pale skin. He has apparently high altitude and seems to be very slim. He is considered as a handsome young boy.

In school, he is seen wearing the dark blue uniform of middle school students in Seiryō Academy. Whereas outside school, his common garment consists of a pink toggle coat over a maroon collared shirt with mint-green trousers.

Personality
Despite being brothers, Kazuma and Ren have very little in common, though this is justified due to the eight-year age gap between them. While Kazuma is blunt, arrogant, selfish and apathetic, Ren is soft-spoken, humble, kind and somewhat effeminate. These traits lead to many being protective of him and even fighting over him, including his best friends, Kanon Suzuhara and Tatsuya Serizawa, with the latter even worrying he'll become too feminine if he hangs around the former too much. He is also shown to be easily saddened when Ayano begins to insult Kazuma, even if she didn't mean to, such as when she states she couldn't even remember him despite fighting him for Enraiha.

Despite his kind and soft-spoken nature, Ren is very brave and does not hesitate to help others when need be, and will gladly fight for his family and friends or when provoked or simply when it's necessary. However, he is a very merciful person and prefers to avoid killing enemies if he can help it, such as during Episode 12 when he purified Yuuji Tsuwabuki's aura and changed him back into his original form, rendering him unconscious but not killing him. Although Ren's appearance earns him some contempt for his male classmates, Ren nonetheless appears to be very popular at his school, and excels in his studies and athletics.

Ren has never liked the fact that Kazuma was cast out of the family simply for having no power, and to this day, still holds him in high regard. He always hopes that one day, his brother Kazuma and his father will get along someday so that the three of them can be a family again. Like Ayano, Ren also doesn't approve of Kazuma's cold attitude towards the Kannagi family, believing that they're still his family even if they have disowned him, and is shocked by his willingness to let them all be killed by the Fugas.

Ren looks up to both Ayano and Kazuma, though his opinion of the latter reaches near-worshipping levels. Despite this, he tends to act as the 'straight man' between the two, often expressing exasperation at their frequent arguing and general coldness towards one another. Just like Jūgo, Yukari and Nanase, Ren is also shown to be supportive of Kazuma and Ayano's growing feelings towards each other, believing they would be good together if they just learned to get along.

Biography
Ren is first shown in Episode 1, when he greets Ayano, and she makes upsets for her father when she sneaked in the past hour.

Ren begins to tell her that his brother, Kazuma, has returned to Japan. Ayano tries to remember if Ren had a brother. Ren reminds her that his brother lost against her during the Enraiha inheritance ceremony, where she then remembers defeating him with one burst of magic. Later, they both broke into a meeting with the clan boss, her father Jūgo Kannagi, Genma Kannagi and Shinji Yuuki. In the conference room, he learns that Kazuma is a wind magic-user. Then he states that it is unbelievable that someone in the head family would become a user of the wind magic. The next day there is confusion in one of the branches of family households; three members of the unit were murdered. Hyoue Kazamaki claims that the victims were killed with the magic of wind stronger than his knights,

Enjutsu
Despite his age and timidity, Ren is actually a very powerful fire magic user, his Enjutsu skills rivaling even that of Ayano. Ren's power is 金火 the Golden Flame, which has the greatest purification effect among all fire magic. There were certain times when Ayano feels jealous of him when he demonstrates techniques that she can't use or had no prior knowledge of, such like his Golden Flame of Purification which he wielded a number of times throughout the series to protect the ones he loves, or such like in Episode 18 and 23 to purify the evil youmas who were possessing the "magicians" who were actually humans.

Other Abilities

 * Keen Intellect: There is the matter of his intelligence, nearly likened to his older brother, Kazuma's, as seen when he turns sand into magma so that it cannot be used by Yuuji Tsuwabuki, during their mini confrontation battle in Episode 10 where he tried to prevent Ayumi from being captured by her own family.

Relationships

 * Kazuma Yagami: Ren practically worships Kazuma, stating that one day he hopes to be as strong as him, and still holds him in high regard despite being born with no fire powers. It was revealed that he missed Kazuma after he was banished (to Ren's dislike) from the Kannagi family by their father, Genma; upon first meeting him after four years with Kazuma initially not being able to recognize who he was in Episode 2, Ren appears to want to spent as much quality brother time as he could with Kazuma by being an enthusiastic younger brother around Kazuma several times throughout the series and does suffer from Kazuma's teasing at times. However much respect he has for his older brother, Ren doesn't hesitate to correct or talk it out with him whenever Kazuma's actions are wrong in several moments, such like threatening Kazuma with his fire powers when he had initially refused to use his precious Elixir medicine to save Ayano from dying during Episode 4, and not willing to give up on Kazuma when he had turned rogue at one point. He always hopes that one day, his brother Kazuma and his father will get along someday so that the three of them can be a family again. In return, Kazuma is seen to love his brother dearly and would do anything to keep him safe, such like rescuing him when Ren was captured by the Fuga clan. Ren is the only Kannagi that Kazuma still considers his family, since his younger brother had never harmed him emotionally during his youth. Much like Jūgo, Ren is a big supporter of the growing feelings between Ayano and Kazuma and hopes the two will one day be honest with their feelings.


 * Ayano Kannagi: Ren looks up to Ayano as a big sister, affectionately calling her 'Nee-sama' and cares a great deal about her, as like Kazuma. In return, she is very affectionate towards him and worries whenever his whereabouts are missing, and she also doesn't hesitate to be brutally honest to him so as to guide him to becoming a better person, such as when she bluntly told Ren that he abandoned Ayumi Tsuwabuki and that sitting around feeling sorry for himself wouldn't solve anything in Episode 11. She often teases him, much to his dismay. However, sometimes Ayano feels jealous of him when Ren demonstrates techniques that she can't use or had no prior knowledge of. Much like Jūgo, Ren is a big supporter of the growing feelings between Ayano and Kazuma and hopes the two will one day be honest with their feelings.


 * Ayumi Tsuwabuki: Ren first met Ayumi when she was singing to the moon on the night he walked home in Episode 9 and was instantly captivated by her. He had shown his fondness and loyalty towards Ayumi as he was willing to take her to the places she wanted to go, and also using his fire powers to protect her from being captured by the Tsuwabuki family initially. Though viewing her as a friend at that start, Ren slowly fell in love with her later when he initially stormed into the Tsuwabuki family mansion to apologize to her for abandoning her from being captured earlier on, with the help of his cousin, Ayano and his older brother, Kazuma. Ren is later seen determined to rescue both her and Mayumi Tsuwabuki from the terrible fate of being sacrificed, by defeat the behemoth of Mt. Fuji, which had long submitted the Tsuwabuki family to a terrible cycle of sacrificing one of their kind every 30 years to seal the beast. Sadly, Ayumi chose to sacrifice her life to weaken the beast when it tried to escape, ultimately aiding Ren, Ayano and Kazuma in destroying the unleashed beast. Ayumi evidently died in Ren's arms and with her last words telling him that she loved him, and him in return to her; he was later seen to be crying out loud in despair after she passed on.
 * Kanon Suzuhara & Tatsuya Serizawa: Kanon and Tatsuya are Ren's closest friends and classmates in school. Despite the tight friendship the trio share, Tatsuya and Kanon mostly appear to always fight to catch Ren's attention or stay with Ren; in Tatsuya's case, to do things that friends do as he strives to maintain a close brotherly friendship with him, while in Kanon's case, to do things that couples do as she appears to have developed a crush on Ren in which Ren is either unaware of, or he doesn't return her feelings. Kanon and Tatsuya often end up fighting over Ren or bickering whenever the three of them gather together, in which case, Ren often stands as the peacemaker between them both. Ren deeply cares very much for them both as well, using his fire powers at one point to protect them from being harmed by one of the "Seeds" fire attacks when they were cornered by a group of them in Episode 18. Though both were only later made aware of Ren's fire powers, they still treated him the same and care very much for him as they had always done. Both Kanon and Tatsuya care very much about his well-being, being able to recognize or talk to Ren whenever he was not himself.
 * Genma Kannagi: Ren has never liked the fact that his father cast Kazuma out of the family, simply for having no power. It is unknown to what father-son relationship they share, yet Genma shows a preference towards his younger son over his older son, Kazuma, with Ren's powerful Enjutsushi skills since birth; in that sense, he holds him in higher regard compared to Kazuma and sees him as his only son initially when Kazuma was banished. Ren, in return, does hold a certain level of respect for his father, being the most powerful fire mage in the Kannagi family. Despite the tense ongoing rivalry between his older brother and father, he always hopes that one day, Kazuma and his father will get along someday so that the three of them can be a family again.


 * Jūgo Kannagi: Ren holds much respect for Jūgo, being the head of the Kannagi family, and finds it easy to talk to him and sometimes share his thoughts or feelings. In this sense, he may appear closer to Jūgo than his own father, Genma, as he sees him as another fatherly figure; in return, Genma is seen to care much about Ren's wellbeing like his own daughter, Ayano, and treats him like a son of his. He is often seen throughout the series giving a full body hand massage to Jūgo while conversing with him in the Kannagi family home. Much like Jūgo, Ren is a big supporter of the growing feelings between Ayano and Kazuma and hopes the two will one day be honest with their feelings; Ren himself has been recruited several times into Jūgo's many planned outings for both Ayano and Kazuma.

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