Rangiku Matsumoto

**Rangiku Matsumoto**is the lieutenant of the Tenth Squad of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, serving under captain Toshiro Hitsugaya.

## Physical Appearance

Rangiku has long and wavy strawberry blonde hair, pale-blue eyes, full lips, and a beauty mark located under the right side of her mouth. She is well known for her curvaceous figure; her most distinctive feature of it is her very large breasts. She dresses in the typical Soul Reaper garbs, though she lets her robes hang loose for her ample bosom to be revealed. She wears a thin golden necklace tucked between her cleavage and a long pink scarf over her shoulders. In addition, her lieutenant's armband is worn on her uniform's sash, as opposes to around the arm. She carries her Zanpakuto around her back.

## Personality

Rangiku tends to be a slacker who dislikes paperwork and loves to drink. She is not the slightest bit modest about her appearance, frequently referring or complaining about her large breasts in normal casual conversation, much to the embarrassment/amusement of anyone around at the time. She is not above using her considerable feminine charms to get her way, as shown when she tries - albeit unsuccessfully - to bribe Ichigo Kurosaki into letting her stay at his house.

Her easy-going, nonchalant, laid-back, and free-spirited personality makes a sharp contrast to the serious, brooding and short-tempered Hitsugaya, but the two seem to be quite close regardless. Rangiku met the young boy prior to him utilizing his power and encouraged him to enter the Soul Reaper academy. As a lieutenant, she is extremely causal around him, almost constantly by his side and showing deep loyalty to him on several occasions, even though her laziness frequently annoys him. While she seems somewhat self-centered, she is sensitive to the feelings of others, evident when she sees the concern Hitsugaya has for Momo Hinamori, the guilt Izuru Kira shares with her when Gin Ichimaru is revealed as a traitor, and when Orihime feels depressed about her role in Ichigo Kurosaki's life. Despite her lackadaisical image, she can be extremely serious, focused, and thoughtful when needed and is a capable fighter and strategist, best-shown when she uses clever teasing to manipulate the Tercera Espada's Fraccion into squabbling among themselves long enough to drop their guard and leave them open for an attack.

Rangiku's favorite food is dried persimmon, just like that of Ichimaru. She also shares Orihime's very strange taste in food. She dislikes bamboo shoots because she finds their taste too strong and their texture unpleasant. She likes Japanese dancing, and in addition to her shihakusho robes, she enjoys buying superfluous amounts of clothing from various department stores in the Human World. When she feels like drinking, she finds free people and invites them to come out with her, and then has them treat her to drinks, so that she wouldn't have to spend any money. She is drinking buddies with Shunsui Kyoraku and Shuhei Hisagi.

## Powers and Abilities

### Zanjutsu Prowess

* **Expert Swordsman Specialist**: Rangiku shows a great proficiency in wielding her Zanpakuto. While she can obviously hold her own in a fight, her skill in the wielding of her Zanpakuto comes from her mastery of its special ability. Through sheer imagination in conjunction with her Zanpakuto's special ability, Rangiku has become skilled at taking on large groups at once.

### Kido Prowess

* **Kido Expert**: As a lieutenant, Rangiku has enough of an understanding of Kido spells to identify them on sight. Though she is not a common user of this art, she is able to use Bakudo 77 without incantation. Rangiku can also use Hado 31 and Hado 58.

### Shunpo Prowess

* **Shunpo Practitioner**: Rangiku's Shunpo are great enough to keep up with her captain, but her skill at it is most likely of the same level as most lieutenants. Her skill has proven great enough to easily out-maneuver Arrancar capable of fighting at lieutenant-level skill.

### Intelligence

* **Expert Tactician**: Rangiku has proven to be quite intelligent when she needs to be such as in her battle with Nakeem whom she fooled into believing that she was unconscious in-order to request that the limiters be removed more easily, as well as in her battle with Halibel's Fraccion and caused them to argue with one another and attempt to defeat them with one concentrated attack.

### Spiritual Power

* High Spiritual Power - Being a lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Rangiku boasts a high level of spiritual energy. Her Reiatsu is white.

### Other Skills

* **Enhanced Strength**: Despite her highly feminine appearance, Rangiku has shown herself to be deceptively strong. During her battle against Nakeem Grindina, she was easily able to hold back the Arrancar's large stomping foot with a single hand and his fist with her forearm, the former while her limiter was still active.
* **Enhanced Endurance**: Rangiku has been shown to have a high endurance. Even fighting against three Arrancar Fraccion, she was able to hold her own against the three of them at once.
* **Enhanced Durability**: Rangiku has shown to have a high durability. As she has taken a direct hit from the hollow creature Ayon resulting in the loss of the entire right side of her abdomen and she still was alive, though was breathing heavily.

### Zanpakuto

**Haineko** (*Ash Cat*): Her Zanpakuto's sealed form  is that of a straight-bladed katana. The tsuba is in the shape of a cat's head, with two triangles on the top half curving into ear-points and the bottom half tapering down into a single point. It has a dark red handle. Rangiku keeps Haineko behind her clipped onto her waist obi.

* **Shikai**: The Shikai release command is "**Growl**".

**Shikai Special Ability**: In its Shikai, Haineko's blade turns to ash, and with a flick of the hilt, she can cut anywhere the ash has landed on. All the ash that surrounds her opponent(s) might as well be her sword. With simple hand gestures and a thought she can control where the ash goes as well as make it take various forms. So far she has created an enveloping cloud which she can then enclose around her opponents turning it into a deadly tornado. This provides her an advantage while fighting groups of enemies. Though it now takes on the look of scattered ash, each particle is a tiny blade. Rangiku controls the ash to attack from any direction as soon as she moves the hilt, ultimately enveloping and tearing up the enemy. So evidently, Haineko is very hard to fight against in this form. The main attack strength of Haineko comes from how much ash makes contact, thus why it is clumped together. If the ash was to attack the opponent in single particles, the damage would be little to nothing. The ash can cut through objects as easily as a sword would, similar in principle to Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura. Rangiku has shown that Haineko can be a defensive weapon as well by having it take the form of a shield to defend against Apacci's attack. This katana is incredibly difficult to use.

* **Neko Rinbu** (*Cat Round Dance*): Rangiku can create an enveloping cloud which she can then enclose around her opponents, turning it into a deadly tornado. This provides her an advantage while fighting groups of enemies.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Haineko (Zanpakuto Spirit)
* Toshiro Hitsugaya (Captain)
* Karin Kurosaki (Niece figure and Third Seat)
* Ikkaku Madarame (Close friend)
* Yumichika Ayasegawa (Close friend)
* Renji Abarai (Close friend)
* Rukia Kuchiki
* Momo Hinamori (Best friend and younger sister figure)
* Izuru Kira (Close friend)
* Shuhei Hisagi (Close friend)
* Tetsuzaemon Iba
* Isane Kotetsu
* Yachiru Kusajishi
* Ichigo Kurosaki
* Uryu Ishida
* Orihime Inoue (Best friend)
* Yasutora Sado
* Kon
* Temari
* Opal Beifong
* Rouge the Bat

### Enemies/Rivals

* Owari Otsutsuki
* The Kihei
* The Red Lotus (Xin Bau's Group)
* Sosuke Aizen
* Gin Ichimaru (Love interest and former enemy)
* The Dark Swords
* Hollows
* The Arrancars
* The Espada
	+ Yammy Riyalgo
	+ Ulquiorra Schiffer
	+ Luppi Antenor
* Ayon
* The Bounts
* Muramasa
* Kageroza Inaba
* The Reigai
* Oko Yushima