Bleach (c) Tite Kubo
Black and Blue
Retail Therapy
Despite her reputation as a lackadaisical lieutenant who enjoys discovering new and inventive ways to foist off administrative paperwork onto her fellow seated offices, Rangiku Matsumoto is a deceptively astute student of social behaviour. Consequence of which, she can spot brewing storm clouds a thousand miles away.
Especially in certain human teenagers who so generously allowed Rangiku and her Captain to stay in at her home.
Beneath all the pomp and and circumstance, all the preconceptions of glamour and fame (or infamy depending who you ask), Shinigami are ultimately soldiers. Even in their correct deployment in the real world, the youngest of them is a combat veteran with at least fifty decades of experience under their belt. Plenty of time to train up or adopt appropriate emotional mechanisms to cope with difficult psychologically taxing situations.
While Orihime Inoue is an absolute darling of a girl, for all her incredible talents she is only human and a young teenager at that.
Rangiku knows a thing or two about obfuscating true feelings, insecurities and fears behind cheerful smiles and bull-headed stubbornness.
While Orihime tries her best to conceal it under her bubbly persona, the recent days have been getting to her.
Its been getting to them all frankly.
Though putting her best effort into it, Orihime simply lacked the life experience of adults to compartmentalize the chaotic emotions of the battlefield and to appropriately deal with those trying emotions after the fact when it was safe. Like with all the troubles, she buries it.
Which is why Orihime Inoue has reluctantly but not unwillingly been roped into a 'specially prescribed girls day out'.
"On my authority as Lieutenant of the Tenth division, I Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto hereby order you to relax, have fun and indulge in a wonderful little concept we like to call retail therapy." Rangiku announces as she practically pushes Orihime out into the street by the shoulders, then hooking her arm into hers and dragging her along.
"Don't wait up for us, Captain! Make sure to lock everything up if you decide to head out~! We'll bring back some delicious treats for you~!" Rangiku declares in a sing-song tone over her shoulder. Captain Hitsuguya merely gives them both a long withering look before resuming his work.
Today Rangiku's wearing a semi-fashionable yellow blouse over a white lace shirt and green slacks that might be considered trendy if a bit on the plainer side, while Orihime is dressed in a pink top with floral lacing down one half and a white ankle-length shirt of her own.
"R-Rangiku, are you sure?" Orihime tries to object but the lieutenant is having absolutely none of it.
"Now now. None of that. Its my day off and the weekend for you so its perfect for us to kick back, take a load off and hit the town for some girly time. Doesn't that sound fun? Now, come on, I haven't been assigned to the World of the Living for ages. Its already changed so much since the last time I was here; you have to promise to show me absolutely everything today, okay?" Rangiku's eyes sparkle with delight and its not long before Orihime is caught up in the revelry.
They catch a bus parked at the stop around the corner from Orihime's apartment which takes them on a twenty minute journey into the main commercial center of Karakura town. There they spend the whole morning in and out of some beauty boutique or another. Clothes, shoes, jewelry - none of it was off limits. Though their wallets would doubtlessly seem a great deal thinner than they were this morning.
Rangiku and Orihime would zoom in and out, trying on new clothes, mix and matching different styles like they were each other's personal mannequin, playfully poking each other with teasing remarks or offering sincere flattering compliments. Although, admittedly most of the teasing came from Rangiku.
By morning tea, they were laden by colorful shopping bags filled with everything from new clothes to preciously adorable little knick-knacks.
"Ooo. Orihime, have a look at this. That's so amazing, what is this?" Rangiku pauses by a particular shop front, her nose practically pressed to the Cafe's window with childish glee. Inside was primarily decorated with pastel hues of pinks, blues, yellows and greens.
"Look at all of those pastries. They're circling the tables? How are they doing that?"
"Oh, that's an All-You-Can-Eat Café." Orihime supplies brightly, pointing at the chain of cute dessert dishes travelling a slow circuit through the entire Café on a band, occasionally one patron or another would reaches for a new plate after finishing their current one. The tables are neatly packed and some patrons have entire high stacks of empty plates while still reaching for more. "You see the conveyor belt the cakes are on; they come from the kitchen and circle the bar before going back. You can pick and choose whichever you'd like and you're allowed to eat as many or as little of them as you can handle."
Rangiku's eyes light up and she presses a finger to her lip thoughtfully, "That sounds absolutely delightful."
"I know!" Orihime chirps, bubbling with excitement, "There's restaurants that do the same thing with Sushi, hotpots and table side barbeque hotplates too. Its all super yummy."
Rangiku is positively bedazzled by the concept, "Wow, the Living world really does seem to come up with some new crazy ideas whenever you look away for a decade or two. It really makes my head spin."
"Don't you have anything like this in the Soul Society?" Orihime inquires innocently.
"Oh, we have our pastry shops and all of the usual suspects but nothing like this. This looks fantastic. A lot of those pastries look really exotic too, like nothing I've ever seen." Rangiku repeats, pressing a finger to her lip thoughtfully with a sly grin, "I'll have to suggest something like this to my local baker when I get back to the Soul Society. Who knows how much more business she'd attract if she had even half the variety in there."
In the corner of her eye, Rangiku sees a brilliant true smile spread across Orihime's face, "You know I was just thinking I could really use a pick-me-up right about now, an endless supply of pastries sounds like it'll do just the trick; would you like to try it?"
Rangiku turns to face her, suddenly self-conscious. "Oh no. Wouldn't this be really expensive? Especially after all the damage we've already done to our wallets today?"
Orihime stifles a giggle shaking her head quickly, "Not at all. See the vending machine just inside the door there; you can buy a ticket and a timeslot of about forty minutes. It's super good value for money and the food's super delicious!"
Rangiku tosses her bag-laden arms around Orihime, enveloping her in a bone crushing hug, "Oh Orihime, you're such a darling sweet little angel. Whatever would I do without you? What are we waiting for? Lets go eat!"
Rangiku practically shoves Orihime into the café after that. The vending machine whirs angrily, spitting out two tickets for the pair and they managed to wedge their way into the back corner with all their baggage but still in view of the café's front window.
Orihime happily explained away all the different kinds of pastries as they came by. She even explained that some of the more bizarre looking ones were actually traditionally prepared in foreign countries, describing them with strange names like quiche tart or ham'n'cheese croissant (it took Rangiku a few tries to pronounce their names correctly).
They seemed so strange and abstract. That being said, Orihime's own cooking was on the bizarre side but she had an excellent palate, so Rangiku had no doubt when she said something was delicious.
"Lets not sit here and watch them all pass us by then." She announces, snatching herself a bit of everything from savoury to sweets.
After munching down a mini-sized dango she turned her attention to her next beast. A gorgeous creamy white cake with a hard crusty base like a tart, decorated by a dome of some honey-brown wiry candy. Orihime told her it was called a cheese cake and the hard candy was a caramel birds nest topping while swearing up and down it was completely edible.
A bit on the zesty side, but after the first bite Rangiku savoured every last mouthful. She tackled the croissant next. Flaky on the outside but mouthwateringly buttery on the inside. Rangiku's halfway through a deliciously flaky taiyaki when she notices her companion's expression drop as though caught in her own head.
"So how about you tell me what's bothering you?" Rangiku prompts playfully, "You haven't touched any of your deserts in five minutes. Keep this up and I'll end up outpacing you. I might even steal this one away, it looks so colourful."
The lieutenant teasing snatches up her spoon and threatens to steal a spoonful of white icing topping of one of Orihime's strawberry shortcakes.
On impulse, Orihime jerks it out of reach then blinks as though caught wrong-footed. When she finally registers the comment, Orihime smiles as brightly as ever.
She's sinking back into her shell again, Rangiku muses to herself when it doesn't reach her eyes. "W-what? There's nothing bothering me at all."
"Come on now, tell me all about it. I'm a pretty good listener." Rangiku prods in her usual upbeat manner.
"Oh, but... I'm fine. Really." Orihime tries again but Rangiku can spot the lie a mile away,
"I'll have to punish you if you don't tell me. And I'll be merciless. You don't want that, do you?" Rangiku teases.
Orihime responds with a light laugh but her smile wanes. It seems she's genuinely considering taking Rangiku up on her offer. She lifts her spoon to her mouth ready to take another bite before it lowers to the back to the plate with a soft clink.
"I guess. I'm just not - are you sure its really okay for us to be out and about like this, shopping without a care in the world?" Orihime ventures, her tone dripping into a rare melancholy. "Ichigo was badly hurt. So was Toshiro, Ikkaku and so many others. Should we really be doing any of this? It doesn't feel right."
"We need to do this." Rangiku tells her warmly but firmly, maternal in her tone as Orihime stares at her with wide eyes. "You can't fight in a war with low morale. It just won't work."
"War?" Orihime echoes quietly.
Rangiku places her half-eaten taiyaki on the fine plate and whips the crumbs off her hands with a serviette, "Let me give you a little insight about growing up Orihime. Two lessons, in fact. The first important lesson, the most important lesson that you'll ever learn in life, is learning how to actively forget your problems and have fun for a while. It's important to know when and how to wind down and let things go. Especially after a hard struggle, and that doesn't only apply to the battlefield. If you don't, you'll end up letting yourself stew in the past or in anxious anticipation of something worse happening in the future. Spend all your time fretting will only wind up twisting yourself into knots and cripple your resolve to move forward."
The older woman gestures to their shopping haul and their half-eaten deserts. "This is a way to blow off some steam, to recharge and rest, so next time we have a challenge we can face it with clearer eyes and a level head."
"If you go looking for problems then problems are all you'll ever find, right?" Orihime answers and Rangiku gives her a proud little wink.
"Exactly right. I always said you were a bright girl. Which leads me to lesson number two: As you grow older, you'll learn the problems in this world fall into two categories. The ones you can control and the ones you can't and figuring out how to distinguish between the two."
Orihime seems to absorb this with a small nod to herself.
Rangiku continues on kindly, "This doesn't just apply to Shinigami, but people. We all need to forget our problems every once in a while and let ourselves live a little. Especially the ones outside our control. If you ask me, it's even more essential than training endlessly day in and day out. Focusing only on work is emotionally and physically exhausting and fun distractions like this lets us wind down and recharge, so when the next challenge rounds the corner we'll be rested and ready to tackle it head on."
"I hope Ichigo can do the same." Orihime says contemplatively while she pokes her multi-coloured layered dessert with her spoon (Orihime said it was called an English trifle, or was that the tiramisu?).
"He will." Rangiku reassures, "He's a stubborn hard-headed boy. Only a teenager at that... both of you are still only kids. He hasn't learned to stand up by himself yet. And until he does, he'll need all the support he can get. From his friends and especially from you."
"I just wish I could do more to help sometimes. Ichigo, Chad and even Uryuu. They're all so strong and capable. They can stand their ground against whatever they come up against." Orihime confesses quietly, "Compared to them, it feels like I can't do anything at all."
Rangiku listens, her gaze lowering before for a moment before speaking with authority, "In my expert opinion, which should never be questioned under any circumstances because I'm completely right a hundred percent of the time," her words spark a tiny stifled giggle from the younger girl, "I say you're selling yourself and your contributions far too short, Orihime. You've done more than your fair share to help and then some."
Rangiku tells her with a fond yet slightly exasperated smile and eyeroll, "One thing I think most people forget is fighting on the battlefield isn't the only way to demonstrate strength. On one face of it, the front line is only as strong as those who support it, but for another - well, that crazy stunt you all pulled a couple months ago trying to save Rukia, that's still the talk of the town back in Soul Society. I don't think you realise what massive names you've made for yourselves."
"Oh no, I didn't do anything at all. Not really..." Orihime responds and there's that fractional drop in tone that picks at Rangiku's nerves.
"That's not true in the slightest and you know it." Rangiku retorts sternly, "The way I heard it from Ikkaku, you managed to convince Captain Zaraki and three of his ranking officers into help you without ever fighting once. All the Eleventh cares about is living for the next good fighting - I don't think you realise how impossible it is to reason with that pack of glory hounds sometimes."
Orihime stares at her with wide doe eyes and Rangiku smiles comfortingly, "It's essential to be who you are, not what you think others expect you to be. You all have your different strengths and that's okay. Don't let yourself get so down in the dumps because you're comparing your talents to theirs. Its not fair to anyone and most especially yourself."
The shimmer of tears in Orihime's eyes, she's about to open her mouth and respond to the touching words. Rangiku feels a sense of triumph for getting through to the young girl and helping pick her up.
Rangiku would've let her have her say but sometime prickles at the edge of her senses and it sets her on edge. A strange faint static taste in the air that while not necessarily a threat definitely has her hackles up. It's almost too faint to sense, but there's enough of a shift that makes Rangiku pause. What puzzled her most was the fact she wasn't sensing reiatsu but a shift in the atmosphere, like the first scent of ozone before an oncoming storm.
Rangiku frowns to herself. The feeling is getting closer and when she glances out the window, she catches a glimpse of other humans going about their business. But it's the man wearing the dark blue jacket with a raised hood that catches her attention. The man's striding with purpose and effortlessly weaving his way through the other humans seemingly muttering to himself all the while.
Sure enough, as soon as he'd disappeared from sight, the weird static miasma recedes.
"Rangiku?" Orihime questions, frowning herself.
"Orihime, could you take this back to your place for me. I have to check up on something." Rangiku rises from the chair, gesturing to her shopping back while Orihime tilts her head quizzically, puzzled by her sudden change.
"I don't mind but is there something wrong?" She offers, then more gravely, "Is there another Arrancar or a Hollow? Should I call the others?"
Rangiku pauses for a moment to consider the question. She hopes that won't be necessary.
She shakes her head once. "I don't think so. I'm sure its nothing but I just need to check to confirm."
Orihime does hesitate clearly wishing to offer her assistance but relents with a single nod. "Okay, I'll take these back and come right back with whomever I find, okay?"
"Thank you." Rangiku nods her gratitude before briskly making her way out, her hand slips into her pocket for her Gikon dispense and her eyes scan the area for the suspicious man in question. She spots him about fifty metres away, taking a flight of stairs two steps at a time before vaulting over a guard railing into a small park beyond.
Rangiku breaks into a jog after him. Even though Gigai naturally mute a Shinigami's reiatsu signature, there's still a minute amount that releases. She makes the conscious effort to keep her signature concealed as she pursues this curious potentially threatening quarry.
A dead man stares at Rangiku wide eyed like a deer caught in the headlights, a cigarette dangling stupidly from his lips.
Rangiku stares back, mouth gaping in open shock.
Kaien Shiba is supposed to be dead. So either this is a hell of a coincidence that this man happens to bare exactly the same face and name as Kaien Shiba, or he's not actually dead.
There's differences from the official records, of course. Shadows under his eyes, a thick rope of scar tissue cutting into his neck bisected by tattoo and a fading tan, but there's no mistaking who this man is. Which begs the question: Why in the Soul King's name is he standing here right now?
They're frozen there in shock for maybe two minutes before he breaks the silence.
"... okay, I can explain. Kind of."
It snaps Rangiku out of her stupor.
"Explain?" Rangiku sputters then explodes in furious anger, "Explain!? Explain what? That you've been alive this whole time and told no one?!"
Rangiku stalks up to him, snatching that cigarette right out of his mouth and tossing it to the ground.
Kaien backs away slowly, hands raised defensively. "Hey now, settle down. There's no need to do anything drastic here Rangiku. I promise there's a perfectly good explanation if you give me five minutes."
"First Captain Shiba and now you?!"
His expression drops. "- Ah, shit. You saw Uncle Isshin too?"
"- Where the hell have you been!? There had better be a damned good reason why one of my favourite drinking buddies let the world believe he was dead for sixty years!" Rangiku punctuates her questions by jabbing her finger into his chest, forcing him back a step with each jab before snatching his collar. "And so help me, if you tell me you faked your death just to snag yourself an extended vacation, I'll sock you so hard you'll be spending the rest of the week picking up teeth."
Kaien winces, "That's a little harsh. Been spending a bit too much time with my sister lately?"
"Shiba." Rangiku warns harshly.
"Okay. I didn't feel like letting the whole world know where I was because the man who murdered me was still at large in the Soul Society, holding a sword to the throat of everyone I loved and cared about." Kaien confesses all in one breath.
Rangiku glowers at him for a long minute. Kaien flashes a nervous smile.
Rangiku inhales furiously through her nose then folds her arms with a huff. "Good enough."
Kaien's hands drop with a short sharp sigh of relief, "Okay. As long as we've got that cleared up. But uh, you're taking this suspiciously - ow!"
He stumbles back, rubbing his arm where Rangiku punched him. Hard. "Hmm. So you aren't a hallucination or an illusion. Good to know."
"You're supposed to pinch yourself when you think you're hallucinating, not the illusion itself. What is that even supposed to accomplish!?" Kaien protests, scowling grumpily.
"Mm. True, but this was much more fun. Besides I'm sure you've done something recently to well and truly deserve it." Rangiku replies unrepentantly. In the corner of her eye, she sees Kaien sag giving her a thoroughly unamused look.
"Glad to see you haven't changed one bit."
Rangiku turns her nose up, "How dare you, sir. That's no way to speak to a lady. Have some manners, won't you? You're supposed to say 'you've gotten even more beautiful since the last time I saw you', you brute."
Kaien gives a crooked smirk, "Then next time I see a beautiful brunette I promise I'll tell her so."
Rangiku is taken aback, even putting on a show of mock offense with a hand to her chest. Kaien crosses his arms with a challenging smirk before faux indignation gives way to a surprisingly delighted laugh. "Nice to know you're the same as ever, too. But jests aside, I'm still angry. Now explain to me why you're still alive. Last time I saw you, you made a fairly convincing corpse."
Kaien grimaces, gestures to the bench he'd just vacated. "Oh boy. Even the cliff notes are a story and a half. We should probably sit down..."
Rangiku follows him and they sit. From there, he relays a heavily summarized account of his last sixty years. How his death was effectively a set up that ultimately led to his kidnapping, how he'd ended up as one of Aizen's experiments, how he'd spent a year trapped in Hueco Mundo before somehow managing to escape to the World of the Living where Kisuke Urahara found him and stabilized his condition. How he'd been working with the former captain ever since on odd jobs.
Rangiku has no doubt there's far more to the story than those bare bones, but she doesn't press for details. The cliff notes were disturbing enough, and completely believably in light of everything else. The problem is anything even tangentially related to Aizen demands a level of scrutiny.
However Rangiku does take comfort in the fact that, at the very least, this reanimated Kaien isn't presenting himself as a threat right now. She wants to maintain that state of affairs for as long as possible.
"I see. Since then you've been hiding out in Karakura town trying to avoid anyone from the Soul Society until a few months ago."
"Mostly in Karakura. I've been travelling around a bit but generally? Yeah. Hiding from one person - actually, three people in particular. But that cat's out of the bag now, ain't it?" Kaien answers dryly.
Rangiku processes this new information, comparing it with what they learned over the last few days. She has a hunch and decides to act on it. "Given that you've been in hiding until recently, I'll assume you know what's been happening in the town lately and the Arrancar attacks?"
"Yeah, I've been spectating." Kaien admits.
Rangiku continues as though this were a debriefing, "In that last attack we detected ten assailants in total, but we couldn't account for three of them when the battle done. No one spotted their retreat but if we take your presence into consideration, its not a particularly bold stretch of the imagination to assume you were the one who took them out. Am I correct?"
"Yeah, that was me. Then there's the overgrown moth attacking Kuchiki, that makes four. Plus the six you all fought which neatly tallies up to ten." Kaien reveals casually.
Rangiku's eyes widen slightly before examining his profile, "Rukia said she hadn't seen who killed the Arrancar."
Kaien makes a noncommittal sound in his throat, "I mean... she didn't exactly see me deliver the killing blow, she only saw the Arrancar drop dead afterwards. So she's technically correct." Rangiku levels a supremely unimpressed look his way, he gives a vague shrug, "Just saying."
Rangiku folds one leg over the other and leans forward on them, she'd retort to the pedantic barb if her concentration wasn't elsewhere. "Just to clarify, are you claiming you defeated them all by yourself? I know your reputation and I've seen you in sparring matches, but when we were fighting them we couldn't do much more than keep the battle at a stalemate until Gentei Kaijo was authorized."
"Its easy taken someone out when they don't see you coming. That, and they were genuinely that weak." Kaien sends a sympathetic glance her way, "Frankly I'm shocked. Aizen certainly did a mighty fine job thinning the ranks, didn't he? High ranked officers like you guys shouldn't have had that much trouble against them even with Gentei Kaijo's restrictions. Or maybe you could argue that it's a demonstration of the terrible things a maniac like Aizen is capable of with the Hyogoku."
"Possibly a bit of both. We have become complacent. Too complacent, maybe." Rangiku agrees neutrally. She draws in a breath as a silence stretches between them. "You know I have to report you, right?
Kaien closes his eyes and shrugs, unperturbed. "Already been reported. Kind of."
When Rangiku raises a questioning eyebrow at him, he elaborates. "I met up with Rukia the other day. After we had a bit of a sit down and talked things out, she put me in contact with the Captain. That was a debriefing and a half. Captain Ukitake... he's handling it as best he can but it'll take some time before I can go home. Presuming I can go home at all."
"Presuming you can go home at all?" Rangiku echoes incredulously, "You're kidding. One of our best is back in the fight. Captain Ukitake would move mountains with his bare hands for a ghost of a chance of getting you back, why don't you sound particularly enthused about the prospect?"
Kaien sighs heavily as though a great weight suddenly dragged him down, "Because if its not handled carefully I'd end up with my head on a spike for some trumped up reason or other." He runs his fingers across the rope of scarring on his throat, Rangiku's eyes trace the tattoo. His wife's name. "One decapitation attempt was more than enough for me, thanks. Ignoring that Aizen already tainted the gimmick, you don't think another revered veteran coming back from the dead wouldn't garner suspicions? Seriously, how long would it take for people to accuse me of being a spy for that bastard? Hell, when you recognized me just now don't tell me you didn't have that suspicion too. If only as a gut impulse."
Rangiku doesn't respond to the accusation because he's right and they both know it.
Kaien scratches the back of his head with a quiet grumble to himself before continuing, "But more than that is the biggest knotty problem; I'm sure Special Order Thirty-Two has come to your attention at some point, right?"
"You're referring to the order to execute hollowfied Shinigami. I'm familiar with it. What's that got to do with-" Kaien raises his hand with a humourless smile and Rangiku's face drops at the implication and his hand drops to his lap, "Oh." Her expression darkens notably, "Side effects of the experimentation, I'm guessing."
"What, you think a miracle like coming back to life happens without some kind of price." Kaien says helpless yet unrepentant. "Although its honestly not all that bad once you get used to it. Being hollowfied, I mean. Like having a second cranky slightly psychotic zanpakutou spirit. Random hunger pangs might be a bitch but human souls do taste delicious. Like mochi donuts."
Rangiku scowls at him. "That's not funny."
"Sorry. It was a free shot, couldn't resist taking it," Kaien chuckles. "It can take its toll, but all in all we've coped pretty well."
Rangiku decides she's not even going to ask for details about that.
"Regardless of that, I'm sure Captain Ukitake can appeal the decision on your behalf. You weren't part of the original order. Not to mention you're one of the Clan Heads, even if the Shiba clan has been disgraced."
Kaien snorts derisively. "Come on Rangiku, you're not that naïve. If this were an ideal and just world, that might have worked. But even if the faces change, the core remains the same. And Central 46 is still lousy with rot and corruption. Always has been."
Her eyebrows shot up at the remark, "I take it back, you've become more cynical since last we met."
Kaien puts up a façade of being offended, "Excuse you, I'm an absolute ray of sunshine. That doesn't change just because I happen to be stating an empirical fact; Central 46 are a bunch of corrupt old farts with their head shoved up their own collective asses."
Rangiku tries to cover a rather unladylike snort and Kaien grins at the reaction.
A suspicion occurs and Rangiku ventures a cautious question on a whim. "I hesitate to ask but is... Captain Shiba also...?"
Kaien closes his eyes and raises his hands in surrender, "I have no idea. If you can pry that story out of Isshin, be my guest. I've been wondering for twenty years but he's been tight-lipped about it." Kaien rubs his forehead as if to fight off an oncoming headache, "Then again, I confess I haven't exactly been trying too hard to find out either. Frankly we've had more important issues to deal with than getting those answers. And the Omnitsukido are persistent pesky little bastards. Hanging around at his place for long stretches would've been as good as setting off a flare... and desertion doesn't win you any brownie points with the top brass, no matter what the reason may be."
"It certainly doesn't." Rangiku murmurs to herself.
Kaien continues on, "But given we've not seen hide nor hair of them in the last six months, safest assumption is they finally gave up the chase or were reassigned to track down Aizen and his two lapdogs."
"The Omnitsukido likely has been reassigned to higher priorities." Rangiku concludes. She wasn't exactly the closest with anyone in the Second Division, the Shinigami Women's association not withstanding. Even if she were, they'd never divulge any classified operations to anyone outside those who needed to know.
"Mm." Kaien hums in agreement.
Rangiku tosses her hair back and straightens up. Her expression quiet and contemplative, "Though in hindsight I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was to learn Ichigo was Captain Shiba's son. Or your younger cousin. It only makes too much sense in the grand scheme of things. From the time the Captain disappeared compared to how old Ichigo is. There's his immense strength, far too strong if he were an ordinary human. And most obviously the familial resemblance."
"Yeah. The fact he's basically an orange-haired mini-me is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?" Kaien jokes with a crooked grin.
Rangiku chuckles, "Yes, that's true. And Captain Hitsuguya let me read Captain Kuchiki's after action report. According to his report, Ichigo's sword technique is called Getsuga Tenshou. That is the Shiba clan's signature move, isn't it?"
"He knows-?!" Kaien blurts out in sudden outrage before crossing him arms, grumbling the rest under his breath. "Of course he knows Getsuga Tenshou."
Rangiku hides her open-mouthed shock behind her finger tips, taken completely aback by the sudden explosive reaction, before leaning across with a genuine delight when she sees his face.
"Oh my, are you... pouting?"
"No." Kaien lies, pointedly looking away.
He's sulking. The reputed Kaien Shiba is sulking like a baby!
Rangiku grins, giggling, "Wait... wait wait wait, you're jealous of your baby cousin aren't you?"
She couldn't believe it nor did she bother stopping her giggles.
"I'm not jealous." Kaien lies again petulantly. "Why would I be jealous? Because he inherited the Shiba technique and I didn't?"
Rangiku gasps, a bright gleeful smile splitting her face. On impulse, she pinches him playfully. "Oh you are. That's so precious. The Kaien Shiba, jealous of his baby cousin! Ah, I never thought I'd see the day."
"Enough comments from the peanut gallery." Kaien mutters to himself, slouching.
Rangiku laughs, rubbing her hands together plotting with manic glee, "Oh, I need to tell Kiyone and Sentaro when we get back to Soul Society; they'll never let you hear the end of it! Oo-ho-ho. I can't wait!"
"Don't you dare." Kaien threatens darkly.
Rangiku leans in with a mocking grin, batting his arm playfully. "Come on now. What do you have to be so jealous about? Isn't Nejibana most powerful water-type Zanpakutou in Soul Society's history?"
"Shut your face." Kaien orders grumpily.
Rangiku cackles even louder, enjoying this discovery far too much.
"Rangiku!"
Rangiku's head jerks up at the sound of Renji's voice, he's jogging towards them at a brisk pace and still in his gigai, but she can see he's holding his gikon dispenser.
"Renji? Did Orihime bump into you?" Rangiku asks climbing to her feet to face him.
Renji nods once quickly. "Yeah. Asked me to come find you. She mentioned something about you needing a hand dealing with something dangerous and I came as fast as I could. Are you alright? Did something happen...?"
His voice trails off. Renji's gaze flickers to Kaien for a split second before he does a sharp double take. His eyes go wide in a mix of recognition, shock and fright. And his face pales like he'd seen a ghost.
"Y-You. Impossible - you're-?!"
"Hi. Kaien Shiba. How's it going?" Kaien greets brightly, then with sharp cold anger. "I'm giving you five seconds. Start running."
Author's note:
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. :)
Bonus content. Kaien's internal monologue:
Kaien: I'm not jealous
Hollow: Spoken like a man jealous as all hell.
Nejibana: Now now, clearly he isn't jealous.
Kaien: Thank you, Neji-
Nejibana: The correct term is envious. :)
Hollow: ROFL.
Kaien: Enough comments from the peanut gallery.
Edited: 30/4/2023 - Cleaned up the chapter's grammatical errors and spruced up the language a little.
Regards,
Aurora313