Ren

Ren(蓮 ; Ren) is a supporting character in Highschool DxD: Яe-birth. A member of the hidden ninja village of the Hot Springs(湯隠れの里;Yugakure no Sato), he's a proeminent and important character through volumes 4 to Volume 8, one of Haruka's children with a random male, the older sibling of Annabelle Hellsing and Ichijou Tsukino's best friend. Despite being born a female, all the characters and the narration itself tends to label him as male.

Appearance
Ren is an androgynous, handsome-looking and tanned-skinned young woman with about the same height of Ichijou, white short spiky hair and golden eyes, an trait he inherited from his mother and shares with his sister Annabelle. When first introduced, Ren disguised his own proeminent chest with several layers of cloth around his chest rib, making others believe he was a male, which was first revealed false after the events of Volume 7. According to Ichijou, Ren has several scars and tattoos around his body.

In order to maintain appearances during school days, Ren usually wears a black gakuren with matching pants which hides his presence, assets and identity. So far, the only different outfit he was see wearing was a towel covering his shames.

Personality
"Y'know what? I kinda missed those freak-outs of yours."

- Ren,

Educated under ninja tutelage, Ren was first introduced as a snarky, quiet, formal young man hired by Nemesis Gremory in order to help find and eliminate any possible threat that it might happen to Kuoh during the Vampire-Devil meeting. Ren speaks in a very hoarse and rude manner, using "ore"(おれ), a highly masculine pronoun, in a way to refer to himself, while refering to others with "Omae"(お前), a very rude form of such.Like any other ninja, he follows a strict set of rules of shinobi behavior, and his motto, along with the first rule of such list, is "Never compromise"(妥協しない; Dakyō shinai).

Despite such mentality, Ren greatly respects his mother Haruka, and literally went in a quest of revenge against his younger half-sister Annabelle when the former vandalized a monument of their mother. He also treasures his friendship with Ichijou and the rest of his gang, and while maintaining a composed and stoic façade, he enjoys the time they spend together and becomes midly distressed when their relationship was threatened. However, he rarely exposes this side of him, which shows a high level of professionalism, although he does snap when the situation reaches a certain point.

It is implied that, despite their own quarrel, Ren really loves his sister Annabelle and rather find loopholes in his contract to avoid direct and deadly confrontation.

History
Ren is one of the countless children of the Ultimate-class ninja and leader of the Hidden Ninja Village of the hot springs, also known as the Hanzo Village, Haruka and one of her countless lovers, the older sibling of Annabelle Hellsing, real name Sayuri. In some point during his training, Ren chose to follow the path of the shinobi instead of the path of the kunoichi, giving up his femininity in order to concentrate his training in assassination and stealth instead of seduction and disguise.

Roughly one year before the beginning of the plot, after Annabelle's vandalism on Haruka's monuments, Ren swore revenge and began a quest in order to track and punish his rebellious younger sister.

Powers & abilities
Unhuman Strength - Despite not being at the same level as Annabelle, Ren shows a vast knowledge of technique and wit during fights and confrontations, capable of dealing and sufferand great amount of damage before be rended powerless. His endurance is shown to be far greater than Annabelle's and have suberb reserves of energy to pull several ninja techniques in a row, as well as brawl with Ichijou for several hours before reaching exhaustation,

Master of Hand-to-Hand combat - Ren shown to be extremely versatile and skilled in hand-to-hand combat, as he was able to fight toe-to-toe against his sister and Ichijou

Immense Speed - In Veritas as his position as a Ninja, Ren can run at speeds faster than the eyes can see.

Stealth - Also as a ninja trait, Ren can disguise and vanish his own presence to the point not even Senjutsu users can detect him. Ninja Arts(忍法; Ninpō)- Ninja arts, or ninpo, are several kinds of techniques that a ninja uses to further improves it's performance in battle, and it can be used to assist in wars, conflicts, single battles and even mundane activities like house duties. Ren has shown to have a greater amount of knowledge about Ninja arts than Annabelle, and the ability to pull several of them in a row:
 * Summoning technique(口寄せの術; Kuchiyose no Jutsu) - Using this technique, Ren can summon several beasts and familiars in order to assist him in battles. His own personal and favorite summoning seems to be a giant frog named Jiraiya, which can spit a highly imflammable oil.
 * Ninja Art: Acid Miasma(忍法：酸瘴気; Ninpō: San shōki) - Ren's very own techinique which he developed in order to counter highly ranked enemies or serve as a distraction. He can produce from his hands a highly corrosive black miasma that it can rot or corrode anything in the vicinity in a few minutes. Curiously enough, said miasma seems to have no effect in the interior of the body, as it can be inhalated without consequences.
 * Reverse Summoning technique(逆口寄せの術; Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu) - After forming a contract with Ichijou, Ren can now be summoned by the former as a way of transportation or in order to assist Ichijou in a battle.

Equipments
Ninja weapons - Being a shinobi, a feudal assassin, Ren uses several weapons and gadgets to assist him during battles, including knives, kunais, smoke bombs, explosive papers, traps, switches, swords, bladed shoes and gloves, metal balls and many, many more. His weapon of choice seems to be a kunai knife and demon wind shurikens.

Ninja Frog Jiraiya - Ren is capable of summoning his frog Familiar Jiraiya in order to assist him in battles. A frog big enough for him to support himself atop of it, it has the ability to spit a highly flammable oil from it's mouth and use it's tongue as a high-speed lance, which contains a paralizing poison on it.

Trivia

 * Ren's appearance and images are based on the character Miyabi from the Senran Kagura series. Moreover, Jiraiya is named after the tale of the gallant Jiraiya, one of Japan's most known folklore stories.
 * Ironically, Annabelle's the only member of Ichijou's group who he never saw naked, while the Reveal of Ren's gender via naked-view is a major plot-point of volume 7.
 * Unlike his mother, who speaks in heavy kansai dialect, and his sister, who speaks in a mocking Kyoto dialect, Ren speaks in formal keigo.
 * Ren is the favorite character and favorite love-interest of the writer Frekat, a great friend of Houki Minami.
 * Ren is the second character to have an identity issue(The first being Berolina Gremory/Ludger Bael)
 * Despite having his gender reveal, the characters and even the narration itself refers him as male, including this very own page.