Growing up in Japan, Akira Ren had a very weird phobia. After moving from his hometown of Shibuya at a young age to a remove village, Ren quickly developed a fear of the Kuebiko (or in English, the scarecrow). In Japan the Kuebiko is often worshiped as a god of agriculture and wisdom. However, Ren considers them to be demons who are lying dormant biding their time until they can finally take over the world from humans. The villagers suspect that this phobia developed when Ren was lost in the fields late one cold and windy night during a full moon and was frightened senseless by the rustling of the Kuebiko. Perhaps he was also playing too much Shin Megami Tensei. No one truly knows but Ren is adamant in his belief that the Kuebiko are alive and evil. As he grew older, he managed to avoid scarecrows by moving back to the city, that was until he moved to play hockey in the SMJHL and found out there was a team called the St. Louis Scarecrows. While Ren is usually a competent defender, he is unable to play defense against the Scarecrows (as evidenced by the fact Mika Kadinsky kept scoring on him). Hopefully for the sake of the Lethbridge Lions he can learn to conquer his phobia.