"Gah...!"
Spiritual energy began to circulate through her body once more, as if she were taking her first breath after drowning.
Rangiku Matsumoto scrambled to gather her scattered consciousness. She remembered now—Gin, the man she loved, had placed her in a state of suspended animation with Kido.
"That was... Way of Binding 26, Hakufuku..."
It had been a much rougher application than the one she'd received from Momo Hinamori three days prior. It was cold, clinical, and completely devoid of compassion. The realization made Rangiku's heart ache.
But her sorrow was cut short by a sudden event in the distance.
"What...!?"
An explosion.
A massive pillar of light surged toward the heavens. Rangiku was nearly blown off her feet by the resulting shockwave. It was an ominous phenomenon—a colossal mass of power that radiated absolutely no Spiritual Pressure.
"It can't be..."
Drenched in cold sweat, Rangiku instinctively began to run toward the center of the storm.
No, no, no. A horrific premonition gripped her mind.
She felt it. She felt Gin's presence within that light. Only the Demon King could create a sight like that. If that was the case, then Gin—
"Ah..."
The moment the thought crossed her mind, a chill washed over her, as if all the blood had been drained from her body.
The vibration of his energy... it had flickered unnaturally.
"No..."
His presence, which had been swelling to a terrifying degree, was now vanishing. There was only one thing that could mean.
"No... NO!"
The woman ran. She sprinted desperately, the tear-blurred scenery whipping past her as she prayed to a God she didn't believe in.
I hate this. I hate this so much.
They had finally reunited. She had finally reached him. She had finally found the resolve to tell him—
"Liar! Gin!"
Rangiku reached the site of the blast—a literal hellscape that felt like a vortex of gravity. There, she saw the Demon King in his grotesque, transcendent form, raising his blade. And before him, kneeling on the ground, was the man most precious to her.
"—!!"
A silent scream escaped her lips. She reached out her hand as if she could bridge the impossible distance between them. But her voice and her hand were both too late to save him.
"I'm ending this, Aizen."
Instead, a human stood between the Demon King and his prey. A hero who shared a strange, fated connection with her—the son of her former Captain.
"Ichigo...?"
Rangiku whispered the name of the orange-haired man in black. He was a youth who lived in this town. His appearance made sense, yet she could hardly believe the man standing before her was real.
She couldn't feel a thing. Just like the ominous explosion, just like the monster Aizen, her senses seemed to have gone numb. The young man's presence was impossibly thin.
"Rangiku."
His voice snapped her back to reality.
"Take him somewhere safe. With those wounds, he won't be causing any more trouble."
"You..."
"If you ask Unohana, I'm sure she can heal him. After that... what he does is his own business."
Rangiku stared at him. This was a human who had gone to Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime, fought countless life-or-death battles, and then returned only to be broken and defeated by Sosuke Aizen. He should have been a mirage, an uncertainty.
But to Rangiku...
—Ichigo Kurosaki looked like the most reliable hero in the world.
"I owe you one...!"
She hoisted the bleeding, semi-conscious Gin onto her shoulder and vanished from the battlefield with a full-power Flash Step.
It wasn't an act worthy of a Gotei 13 officer. She would likely face a harsh reprimand from the Head Captain, who already felt a heavy debt to the young human. But Rangiku chose to rely on Ichigo's kindness, harboring a strange, absolute faith that he would be okay.
***
She ran. She bolted. She soared.
Faster. Further. Somewhere where no one could follow.
The weight of her childhood friend on her shoulder lit a million different emotions in her heart. Rangiku sprinted past the edges of the transfer barrier, deep into the wilderness of the Rukon District outskirts.
Nostalgic scenery blurred past. A desolate, cold village where she and Gin had spent simple, free days long ago. The autumn landscape of the 64th District of North Rukon: Sabitsura.
"Ran... giku..."
"Shut up! Just stay still!"
It wasn't a short distance, but before she knew it, she had carried him into a small, abandoned house. Inspired by her friend Momo, she began to apply the rudimentary Healing Kido she had learned to his wounds.
She hadn't sought out Captain Unohana or her comrades because she feared how they would treat him as a traitor. But the truth was simpler: Rangiku didn't want to share this miracle. For the first time in her life, she was the one supporting him, and she wasn't ready to let go.
"Why, Rangiku?"
Gin finally spoke, his voice filled with genuine confusion. Rangiku felt a century of suppressed anger bubble over.
"Why... why would you...?"
"Shut up! 'Why' is my line, you idiot!"
His skin was as cold as ice, but there was a faint, human warmth beneath it. Touching that fragile heat made her remember the terror from moments ago.
"Why... why would you do something like that!?"
Just before the explosion, Rangiku had felt Gin's Spiritual Pressure skyrocket. What had happened there? Had he been discarded by the Demon King, or had he challenged him? She pushed the questions back into her aching heart. He wouldn't answer her anyway.
Still, the floodgates had opened, and the current couldn't be stopped.
"Always, always, always going off on your own! Finishing everything by yourself!"
"..."
"And this time! If Ichigo hadn't come..."
Rangiku buried her face in his chest, trying to stifle her sobs. If the help had been one second later, that would have been their final contact. The mere thought made her body shake with a freezing terror.
"Now, now, Rangiku. You shouldn't cry for someone like me..."
The man spoke with such thoughtless cruelty, never realizing how massive a space he occupied in her heart.
"What is that supposed to mean...?"
She wanted to be stubborn, to tell him she wasn't crying. But different words escaped her lips.
"What do you mean, 'someone like you'?"
The fear transformed into an unstoppable confession.
"You say you're going to 'make it so Rangiku doesn't cry,' acting all high and mighty..."
She pulled away from his chest, her face drenched in tears and rage.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MAKES ME CRY THE MOST!! YOU IDIOT!!"
The feelings and tears that had accumulated for a hundred years rushed toward the exit.
"I love you, Gin."
She had finally said it.
"You're a fool, so I'm sure... you were planning to act like the past never happened..."
She heard him gasp. It was understandable. She was usually the lazy, playful one; to see her this "heavy" must have been a shock.
"I've... I've always, always... felt this way about you!"
"Rangiku..."
Casting aside fear, logic, and the voice in her head telling her to stop, the woman sobbed out her century of longing.
She had always loved him. She had always waited. When he graduated from the Academy early, when he was promoted to Third Seat, when he became a Lieutenant, and then a Captain—she had waited for a word from him, but he never said a thing.
She told herself he was busy. She told herself it couldn't be helped. She was too afraid to ask if he had forgotten her.
And yet, every time he was promoted, she had been happy just to have an excuse to write to him. She hoped that, through letters, they could reclaim their bond. She spent days thinking about what to say, rewriting every line, and sending her congratulations with a prayer.
And he had only ever sent back a single line of social courtesy.
Even when it came to his Lieutenant, she had waited for him to scout her. She had waited for him to say "Let's live together" again, just like the old days.
"Why do I have to be the one to say it!? Why do I have to say 'I love you' in a place like this... looking like a mess... covered in blood and sweat and dirt and tears!?"
Her voice was a tragic, ugly rasp, devoid of any charm. She hadn't wanted to tell him like this. she wanted to tell him after everything was over, in a happy place where they only had eyes for each other. She wanted to be dressed up and wearing a bright smile. She wanted a sweet, perfect confession to correct this idiot's misconceptions.
"Don't... don't vanish alone..."
But all she could do now was cling to him and weep.
"Stay with me... forever..."
If she asked that, she knew this man would only pull away again.
"Don't make me cry anymore..."
He hadn't forgotten her. He didn't hate her. There was only one reason a man as stupid as him would push her away for an entire century.
But Rangiku was done with it. She was done with a life of watching him from a distance.
"Like we used to be... stay by my side..."
"—and make me happy."
...But I know, Gin.
I know the truth.
You will likely never answer these feelings. Just as I hate myself for being a "coward," you hate yourself for being a "worthless man."
She had sensed it for a long time. The way he would disappear without a word and return with food or water. The way he would return to his child-sized body covered in bruises or sword wounds. She knew why.
And she knew that every time it happened, the frequency of him returning to the shack to spend time with her decreased. He always insisted on staining himself alone, and he always looked pained at the thought of staying by her side while he was "filthy."
He placed her on a pedestal, decided her happiness for her, and convinced himself he had vanished from her heart.
That was the kind of hopeless idiot Gin Ichimaru was.
"...Rangiku."
And so, here it was. No matter how much she confessed, no matter how much she begged him not to go—
"—I'm sorry, Rangiku."
...You're going to leave me again, aren't you?
You're going to disappear all by yourself.
Gin applied the Kido—a flash of light in a spot that was visible but far from lethal—to knock her out. Unlike the rough technique he'd used in Karakura Town, this Hakufuku was gentle, lulling her into a peaceful sleep.
In that small change, she thought she saw a flicker of hesitation in his heartless resolve.
Savoring that tiny detail like nectar, Rangiku Matsumoto collapsed into the arms of the man she loved.
Ah... I knew it.
That's exactly... what I love about you—
***
Activating the emergency signal device he took from the unconscious woman's robes, Gin Ichimaru left the simple shack with his head hanging low. Someone from the Gotei 13 would find her soon.
He faked the spiritual pressure traces and the signs of a struggle before leaving the area with a Flash Step.
Don't look back. Don't have regrets.
He kept repeating the impossible command to himself as he departed.
"My, my... you really did become a fine woman."
But his lips spoke his own thoughts anyway, knowing she couldn't hear them.
You'll be fine.
You can find a man much, much better than a piece of trash like me. Anyone would cherish you.
If she couldn't forget him after a hundred years, then she could wait two hundred, or three hundred. The reason he had followed Aizen only to try and kill him was to give himself a logical reason to stay away from her as a criminal.
"Well... what am I supposed to do now?"
The question escaped him. The chance to kill Aizen was gone. The chance for him to die was gone too. And the childhood friend he wanted to forget him had just confessed a century of love.
Nothing was going according to plan. Momo Hinamori really is something else, Gin thought, sending a mixture of admiration and hatred toward the demon. Could she have handled this better?
"Oh?"
A thought occurred to him. Looking back, Momo's actions fell into two patterns. One was the meticulous meddling she performed on people like Toshiro Hitsugaya and Ichigo Kurosaki. The other was simply watching with a sparkling smile, doing nothing.
The former had faced death many times but were still very much alive. Ichigo Kurosaki had even obtained a level of strength that made him look like a different person.
But the latter group consisted mostly of Aizen's subordinates, and almost all of them were dead. Tosen, the Espada... lives that could have been saved if Momo had lifted a finger. It was as if she viewed their deaths as their "destiny."
"Wait a minute..."
Gin touched the wound on his chest, which Rangiku had healed enough for him to move. A twisted smile appeared on his face.
If he had to categorize himself, he would certainly be in the latter group—one of those destined to die. And yet, here he was, alive and well enough to worry about his future.
This strange emptiness... something was definitely wrong.
"Hehe... Hahaha! Momo... you didn't... you wouldn't... would you?"
It was so absurd he couldn't stop laughing.
What kind of face was that self-proclaimed Goddess making right now? Was she pouting like a pufferfish because Aizen was teasing her? Or was she wearing that blank, fearless expression she wore when the Demon King pressured her?
Regardless, if the cause of her frustration was the Ichigo Kurosaki she had so carefully cultivated, it made all of Gin's past troubles worth it.
"Now then."
Gin straightened up, ignoring the lightheadedness from blood loss. He made his decision.
This life, having escaped the curse of destiny, was no small thing. From now on, he would live not just for Rangiku, but to make that demon grit her teeth. He would live in the shadows, protecting Rangiku, savoring Momo's frustration like fine sake. He would watch over his kind-hearted friend's happiness, perhaps even aim for Momo's life for hurting Rangiku as a "friend," and finally, when his time came, he would die after spitting out one last "Serves you right."
That felt like the perfect revenge.
"Win, Hero," Gin said, looking toward the distant horizon.
Light was flashing, spiritual pressure was warping space, and the terrain was being rewritten. A battle more terrifying than hell itself had begun.
"You can... win."
Whether his victory or Aizen's was what that girl wanted didn't matter. To the immortal Demon King who had fused with the Hogyoku, winning or losing against the hero they had raised together was just another scene in an eternal comedy. They could enjoy their transcendent bonding in their own stupid way.
So.
He would simply wish for the victory of his greatest benefactor.
Momo: (｀ω´)=3
***
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