About Rin

Rin has an outgoing and bright nature, but will have sporadic changes in his mood that reveal his dark feelings and rage simmering under the surface; he's undecidedly suicidal. His humor is unpredictable which catches people off guard since his words are a bit offputting coming from a boy like him. Rin gets mistaken for a girl due to his petite frame and cute big blue eyes, but rest assured that he is packing.

He is also packing his stilettos, the dual daggers that he wields during Igura matches. Other contents of his inventory include his camera, Solids, and tags. Rin likes to use his camera to document Toshima and his Igura kills, and also sells his photography to Motomi.

It is worth noting that Rin is uniquely the only love interest to ever be an uke in the entire history of Nitro+Chiral.

Bl@ster

Before coming to Toshima for Igura, Rin was a prominent player of Bl@ster, a fighting game that emerged after the Third Division which rigorously trained children for a battle that never came. To blow off steam, children began playing Bl@ster in various districts of Japan. The main difference between Bl@ster and Igura is that fighting to the death is NOT permitted in Bl@ster matches. In Area GHOST, Rin excelled in leading the team Pesca Corsica, the strongest team in the Bl@ster scene, and was deeply in love with his teammate Kazui.

Shiki is Rin's older paternal half-brother. The two bonded over stargazing in their earlier years, but Shiki was never really active in Rin's life and grew apart. Despite that, Rin always viewed Shiki as a positive role model.

Much later, Shiki entered Rin's life again to inquire about stargazing. Rin got very enthusiastic and ended up revealing where Pesca Corsica's hideouts were as they were great stargazing spots. Soon after, Shiki mass murdered Pesca Corsica as he was hired to do so.

This was an incredible loss for Rin, as not only did he lose his closest friends, he lost his love Kazui. After this tragedy, Rin relocated to Toshima with an unrelenting goal to kill Shiki.

Igura

Like Bl@ster, Igura is a fighting game that takes place in the crime ridden Toshima. Due to the nature of the lawless and chaotic environment, Igura was a much more brutal game that required fights to the death. However, it was more structured and a mandatory step in joining the game was to participate in an onboarding ceremony to receive starting tags. Fights between players took place for the goal of receiving tags, which served as currency. With enough tags, surviving players could challenge Il Re, which was the ultimate goal of Igura.

Rin joined Igura to avenge his dead teammates. Per the goal of Igura, one can only play until they die or defeat Il Re. Rin's mindset here is a little all over the place. As I said, he's undecidedly suicidal. He feels soul-crushing guilt for mistakingly letting his teammates get killed, but simultaneously he wants to use his strength get to Il Re. Why? Because Shiki is Il Re! Rin wishes he'd died instead, but also wants to live to get revenge. So... he continues playing.

Once Akira enters Igura and meets Rin for the first time, Rin is quickly attached to him. But he also tends to emotionally split on him... so he has this push and pull with Akira. Rin opens up to Akira and grows close to him, but Rin's former teammate Tomoyuki warns Akira that Rin is not trustworthy and only likes Akira because he looks like Kazui.

With Rin's strong bloodlust for Shiki and instability, he ultimately betrays Akira, stealing his tags and declaring he has enough to challenge Il Re. Rin heads to the Palace ready for battle, but he is deemed too unhealthy to fight, due to the large gash on his leg from a previous fight with Akira. Instead, Akira and Rin are told to fight for the right to battle Il Re. All of a sudden, civil war breaks out in Toshima, cancelling the match, and Rin goes unconscious. He wakes up in a room that Akira locked from the outside because of his recklessness and volatility. Rin becomes immediately hostile, demanding to continue his fight with Shiki.

Rin can't grasp why Akira saved him despite the harshness he displayed. He pathetically attempts to prove that he's not worth saving, throwing himself at Akira, forcing Akira to pity him in this state. Akira acknowledges that Rin is never going to be fulfilled by doing this, and especially not by pretending Akira is Kazui. Instead of Rin's remarks repulsing Akira, he stands his ground and says he's not going to be driven away. To Akira, Rin is worth the fight. The two have sex, and Rin decides that for the first time in a long time, he wants to live. Must've been really good...

The morning after, Rin wakes Akira up to inform him he's going to defeat Shiki once and for all. He heads to an abandoned highway and finds Shiki. He confronts him, telling him he can't go on until either he or Shiki dies. Shiki hands Rin a katana, and they share their final fight.

Timeskip

5 years after Rin's last encounter with Shiki, Bl@ster has a resurgence in the streets of Japan. Waiting for a match to start, Akira stands by as a spectator until he feels somebody around him. Looking around, he finds Rin, who assures him he's really alive; the only loss Rin endured during the battle was his leg, as he now has a prosthetic. Appearing all grown up, Rin is noticeably taller and grew his hair past his ears, sporting an orange tee under a fur lined jacket (quite similar to Akira's outfit). Rin hands Akira the katana he used to kill Shiki with as a symbol of closure. It would be the final action to tie up the withered ends of his past. Akira accepts the katana, and Rin is finally at peace.