Chapter I: A mysterious man.
Matsumoto Rangiku was sitting on a bench in the park in Karakura town. It was a nice unclouded evening. Her captain was out for some business and Orihime was already asleep. That's why she decided to take a walk in the real world…for the first time. This arancar encounter was all so sudden. She was worried…and she was thinking about him again.
"Gin. What are you planning to do!" She was asking the same question again and again as if this could help to understand this man's true motives.
"Yare, yare!"
She didn't notice that another person was sitting on the bench next to her.
"Such beautiful girls should not cry"
He was young…maybe of the same age as Renji or Shuuhei. But his hair was white. Pure white, as he was a very old man. She knew, being a shinigami, that appearances can not always be right. She was somewhat 100 years old, however she looked like a teenager in the real world.
And he was wearing all black. A wide black raincoat. His long hair were bind with a black hairband as if he was some XVIII century's Lovelace. His whole appearance was old-fashioned. But still, he looked attractive…very attractive.
"Huh!" The only thing Matsumoto could say
"Beautiful girls like you should not suffer…especially because of the likes of him!"
"Huuuh!" Matsumoto's eyes widened.
"How come he knows Gin. I don't even know him, moreover, I have never even seen him before. He is not a shinigami…come to think of it, I can't even sense any reiatsu from him…as if he is a normal human soul…so how come! Maybe it's just a bluff? Just wait a minute…I'm not in a gigai. So how can he even see me?"
"Thinking about past over and over makes you lose the track of the reality. And it's quite a price even for the shinigami, who live kinda longer than mere humans." He was smiling, still he wasn't looking in her direction sitting on the edge of the bench half-turned away from her.
"Look around. It is beautiful isn't it?" With these words he raised his hand to the sky and pointed at something.
Matsumoto looked up, following his hand just to see myriads of shining stars and a full moon.
And then a flashback!
She remembered her childhood in rukongai. Even before she met Gin, before her exile.
- What a cute little girl we have here. What's your name?
- Matsumoto…Rangiku, sir.
…
- Rangiku-chan, do you know that you are special?
- Mmmm?
- Aren't you hungry?
- I don't know, sir
…
- It means that you have it too…this power.
"It was him there. It was this man" She was sure it was him back then. The same white hair...the same look…and the same age! He was wearing a shinigami robe and carried a soul slayer. But she's never seen him after that…. Come to think of it…she has never recalled this incident ever before, like if it never happened or rather…somehow erased from her memory.
A young woman with a kid passed by. Mysterious man stroke the child's hair and smiled to the woman.
- You have a beautiful son, lady
- Oh, thank you, - she smiled back as they went away.
It was becoming more and more suspicious.
"Normal people can see him, and he obviously can see me. So he must be in gigai after all."
Right after that a medium-sized hollow appeared nearby, some feet above the surface of the pond. He quickly looked around and noticed the kid. The hollow looked hungry and rushed to the boy without even paying attention to the shinigami nearby. Matsumoto has only unsheathed her soul slayer, but the hollow was already defeated in a blink of an eye …shred to pieces, that were starting to dissolve in air. She didn't notice how it happened…as if some shadow materialized and cut him. She didn't notice any change in man's reiatsu either. It was the same as a minute ago – like a normal human would have. Still, Matsumoto knew it was his doing. She couldn't feel anyone in the area with reiatsu, stronger than a normal soul could have.
"This is impossible…simply impossible. To fight without leaving his gigai. Moreover,..how did he…"
The man was smiling… And his smile seemed somehow familiar.
"Ano…is it possible for me to know you…somehow?" Matsumoto asked still unable to think rationally.
"Well, maybe…or maybe not" The man looked at his pocket watch.
"Yare, yare… looks like it's time for me to go now. So much to do, and so little time! However, Matsumoto-san, I think we'll meet again very, very soon. So, excuse me until then."
With these words the man disappeared. It wasn't a flash step, or an invisibility or mind-trick technique. He simply disappeared in the air. Matsumoto was still shocked to think over it. She didn't even pay attention to the fact that the man knew her name. She just stood up from the bench and headed to Inoue's house. The rest of the evening she was thinking about this encounter, trying to remember what really happened back then…in rukongai, in her past. But it didn't help a bit. All she could remember is that the shinigami from her past looked very similar to the man she met in the park. Without noticing it, she was rubbing her necklace. And then she fell asleep...
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OK, I know, this chapter is a bit crappy and has no sense. The next chapter will reveal the mysteries.
P.S. Oh and it was my first fanfic ever, so please, R&R. Tell me if you are interested in the whole concept of shifting the main storyline from Ichigo and Rukia to Matsumoto and… (because, you know, I like her so much!)
P.P.S. Me suck at grammar. English not a native talk. So please correct my grammar if you find some disgraceful mistakes