[application | information | critique and comments]
[IC Information]
Character Name: Matsumoto Rangiku
Series: Bleach
Gender: Female
Age: ...WELL. Rangiku's age is never directly stated in canon; she has the appearance of someone in their mid-to-late twenties. However, seeing as how she's a shinigami, it can be assumed that she's somewhere around a century or so old, if not even older.
Species: Shinigami
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Appearance:
Tall, with a lithe figure and… um… jaw-dropping curves, there’s no denying that Rangiku is a beautiful woman. Her wavy, honey-blonde hair, always worn loose, hangs nearly halfway down her back; her eyes, a beautiful dark-blue color, somehow manage to look both lazy and amazingly astute at the same time. She has a small beauty mark to the right side of her bottom lip.
Rangiku wears the standard shinigami uniform, from the black robes down to the standard sandals, although, in her typical style, she has added her own personal flair here and there. She always wears a long pink scarf, draped carelessly over her shoulders, and a Y-necklace, the end of which drops down into her bosom. Her vice-captain armband is hung onto the belt of her uniform instead of being worn on her arm, as everyone else wears it.
Personality:
If there was one word to describe Rangiku, the word would have to be, without a doubt, “lazy”. It’s common knowledge throughout Soul Society that Rangiku is completely and totally averse to having to do anything that involves actual work and/or actual thinking. After all, she would much rather be out and about, having a good time and drinking the boys under the table. That is, after all, just the type of person that Rangiku is: incredibly easygoing, incredibly self-absorbed, and, as it seems to many people, incredibly ditzy. All of this possibly stems from the fact that Rangiku is comfortable in being who she is; she isn’t out to impress anyone, after all. She’d rather enjoy every moment in life that she can than spend time trying to be something that she isn’t.
However, that doesn’t mean that Rangiku is anyone to be taken lightly. She is, after all, the vice-captain of the tenth division, and she definitely has the skills to back her position up. She is capable of turning serious when the time calls for it, able to remain cool, calm, and collected in even the most desperate of situations. Her serious side also comes forth in other moments, as well; whenever she reflects back on her past, or thinks of those who are important to her, she will also drop her happy-go-lucky façade, if only for a second. She isn’t, after all, one who is willing to show others what she is truly thinking, because she doesn’t want anyone else to worry about her; her troubles are her troubles, and they certainly aren’t anyone else’s burden.
Rangiku is also slightly motherly towards those that she cares about; if anyone needs some sense talked into them, or someone to talk to, or even if they simply need a shoulder to cry on, they can trust on Rangiku to always be there for them. On the same note, messing with those people-the people for whom she truly cares-is not a very wise thing to do; she will be the first to defend them in any way that she can.
Abilities:
Like the other shinigami, Rangiku possesses a zanpakutou; her own is named “Haineko”-literally, “Ash Cat”-and is released by the command “Growl, Haineko”. In its shikai, or initial release, the blade of Haineko disintegrates into a fine grey ash, which Rangiku can then control to cut through basically anything. However, Rangiku has yet to master the bankai, or the final release; Haineko is stated to be just as lazy and as stubborn as Rangiku herself, certainly making things difficult for the both of them.
Seeing as how she is a vice-captain, it can be surmised that Rangiku is also proficient in the art of kido, as well as in hand-to-hand combat.
As for her limitations while in DC… well. I’m going to go along with similar restrictions to the rest of the Bleach crew. Flash-steps will certainly require a lot more effort than they normally would, meaning that she can only do a few at a time; releasing her shikai will also take a phenomenally greater amount of effort, meaning that her releases will be rare and limited to only the most dire of circumstances. Kido will also be limited to the simplest forms, and even then it will be difficult for her to use them. Therefore, for the entirety of her stay in DC, Rangiku will probably have to require on her skills with a sword and her agility to get her through any fights that she may encounter.
Weaknesses:
One of Rangiku’s greatest weaknesses is the fact that she constantly tries to hide her own feelings and emotions from everyone else behind a cheerful, carefree façade. It isn’t that she’s trying to be something that she isn’t, per se; she only hides what she feels because she doesn’t want others to shoulder her burdens. Her cheerful façade itself also leads most people to underestimate who she is and what she is capable of, which, while proving to sometimes work to her advantage during a battle, usually makes people brush her off as nothing more than an annoying woman.
…And, well… Gin has to pop up in here sometime, doesn’t he? While she is completely and totally aware of his betrayal, and while she doesn’t condone his actions in any way, shape, or form, he is still someone who is important to her. Like I said, this does not mean that she approves of what he has done, and she will certainly not go out of her way to talk to him, but… he is what she considers to be her family. With him here at DC, she is sure to have moments of uncertainty, and doubt, and, perhaps, even moments of sadness; however, if he does anything to anyone she cares for, or if he gives her even the tiniest reason to make her think that he is planning something, she will not hesitate to confront him and/or to defend her friends.
Manhattanite or outsider? Outsider
History:
Very little is known about Rangiku’s early years; from the short flashback that is seen in the manga, it is shown that Rangiku lived in the Rukongai when she was a child. Wandering about in a barren area, suffering from hunger in a place where the other inhabitants did not need food to survive, she eventually collapsed, starving. That was when Gin entered her life; a small child, just as she was, he offered her food… and it was then that their odd friendship was formed. He became her family; he even gave her a birthday when she had none, declaring that her birthday should be the day that they both met one another.
It is not known when she entered the Academy and became a shinigami; however, it is known that she has been a shinigami longer than her captain has. She was, in fact, the one who convinced him to become a shinigami himself. One day, while Histugaya was still living in the Rukongai, he just happened to be purchasing something in the store, and the clerk just happened to drop his change onto the counter instead of placing it in Hitsugaya’s hand… and that was when Rangiku stormed in, angered by the way the clerk was treating the boy. As soon as her boobs collided with his face they began arguing, she realized that he was leaking large amounts of reiatsu; however, he ran off before she even had the chance to tell him anything about it. Therefore, she followed him to his home, just waiting for him to wake up. Lol, I swear, she was totally like a stalker in the chapter. It was then that she warned him of the large amounts of reiatsu he was leaking, bringing to his attention the way it was hurting his “Granny”. Therefore, partly because of her urging, Hitsugaya became a shinigami, and he eventually rose through the ranks to become her captain.
The next we see of Rangiku-which was, actually, the first time she was seen in the manga-, she was attending a vice-captain meeting after Ichigo and company invaded Soul Society. Shown to be just as lazy as always, she immediately started complaining about how she couldn’t find her captain and how her head hurt.
However, after some time had passed, Aizen, captain of the fifth division, was found dead, pinned to a wall with his own zanpakutou. Hinamori, Aizen’s vice-captain and Hitsugaya’s childhood friend, was, of course, distraught by his sudden death; when Ichimaru Gin arrived on the scene, Hinamori recalled when Hitsugaya had warned her to beware of the third division, especially of Ichimaru Gin. Therefore, believing him to be her captain’s murderer, Hinamori lunged at Gin; Izuru Kira, Gin’s vice-captain, stepped in to defend him from her attack. They fought for a brief moment, both releasing their shikai, before Hitsugaya arrived and stopped them. Matsumoto grabbed Hinamori and led her to the jail after Hitsugaya ordered that both she and Kira be arrested. Sometime later, Rangiku went to visit her, giving her a letter that had been found in Aizen’s office.
After Hinamori broke out of jail, and after Hitsugaya found her and she accused him of killing Aizen based on what was written in the letter, and after Hitsugaya and Gin began to fight because Hitsugaya believed that Gin had orchestrated the whole affair, Rangiku stepped in, deflecting an attack that Gin had purposely aimed that an unconscious and defenseless Hinamori. After giving Gin a determined look and stating that, if he didn’t stop, she would be his opponent, he turned and left them where they stood. This, of course, left Rangiku wondering as to what Gin’s true intentions were, and what he truly had planned….
It was during one of those musings that a Hell Butterfly arrived, interrupting her thoughts. Learning of the message it carried-that Kuchiki Rukia’s execution had been pushed up--, Rangiku followed her captain as he headed off to the Central 46 Chamber to try and stop Rukia’s execution. However, upon arrival, the two discovered that all forty-six of the men within had been slaughtered. Upon the arrival of Izuru Kira, the two took after him; eventually, though, Hitsugaya left Kira to Rangiku while he went to deal with Hinamori. It initially looked as if Kira would win the battle, due to the ability of his zanpakutou; however, Rangiku gained the upper hand when she released her own zanpakutou and was able to easily defeat him.
After learning of the truth from Isane’s transmission-and after learning that Hitsugaya had been defeated--, Rangiku headed directly to the Sougyoku, hoping to help stop Aizen and Gin at all costs. She was, in fact, the person who wound up restraining Gin; however, even with all of the captains surrounding them, Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen managed to escape because of the Gillian’s Negacion. Before departing, however, Gin made sure to tell her that he wouldn’t have minded if his “capture” had lasted a little longer, and that he was sorry.
After everything had calmed down a bit in Soul Society, Rangiku was shown reflecting over everything that had happened, replaying the even with Gin over and over in her mind. However, when Kira came to apologize to her for attacking her under Ichimaru’s orders, she recognized that she, too, was not the only one suffering because of his sudden departure; therefore, she set aside her own troubles and decided to help Kira with his. This, of course, led to Rangiku breaking out the sake, leaving both her and Kira drunk and insulting Gin in very imaginative ways, but… hey, man, she still helped!
Later, Rangiku came to the human world along with Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji, Rukia, and Hitsugaya, posing as students at Ichigo’s school while they carefully kept an eye on the area in case any more Arrancar popped up. Rangiku decided to take advantage of Orihime’s generosity stay with Orihime while in the human world. While there, she tried to convince Orihime to tell her what was bothering her, which prompted Orihime to finally reveal how she felt jealous of Rukia’s relationship with Ichigo, and how she was ashamed of feeling jealous of someone that made him so happy. Rangiku promptly jumped out of the bath she was in and tackled the girl, tickling her and telling her that she needed to stand up and confront her feelings instead of trying to run away from them.
When a pack of Arrancar, led by Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, appeared in the human world, Rangiku and the other shinigami immediately jumped into action. Rangiku’s opponent was an Arrancar named Nakim; at first, it looked as if he would surely win, and that Rangiku posed little or no threat to him. However, when Rangiku received a call from Soul Society telling her that her request to lift her limit had been approved, Rangiku immediately sat up and, after telling the others, succeeded in removing the restraint which had been put upon her reiatsu before she came to the human world. Once the limit was lifted, she was able to beat Nakim with no trouble at all.
When Grimmjow and a few other Arrancar invaded the human world again, Rangiku, along with Yumichika, Ikkaku, and Hitsugaya, went up against Luppi, the 6th Espada and Grimmjow’s replacement. Right when Luppi was about to poke her “scandalous body” full of holes, Urahara Kisuke intervened. However, as he went off to deal with Wonderwice, it looked as if Luppi was definitely going to skewer her… but then Hitsugaya returned. Luppi managed to escape from death when Ulquiorra called them all back to Hueco Mundo after his mission-kidnapping Orihime-was complete.
Ichigo and company realized that Orihime was gone after the battle; however, Hitsugaya and the other shinigami were called back by Yamamoto. Although reluctant to come back without searching for Orihime, Yamamoto sent both Zaraki and Byakuya to assure that they would come back without a fight. Yamamoto also used that time to declare that all the evidence pointed to the likely event that Orihime had made the conscious decision to join the Arrancar, and that she had not been kidnapped. Even if Rangiku and the others knew the truth, there was nothing that they could do.
I’m taking her from right before her reappearance in the manga, before she, Hitsugaya, and the others head to the human world in order to stop Aizen’s invasion. However, although she entered the Senkaimon like everyone else, she definitely didn’t end up where she was supposed to….
ALSO. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I should play Matsumoto, please feel free to drop me a note here. This is my first time playing her, after all, so your input would be greatly appreciated; all I ask is that you please phrase your critique in a polite and mannerly way. :D