Rangiku Matsumoto (Raze)


 * "A voluptuous beauty with an adult charm in the Gotei 13 Squads. With her broad-minded personality, the chances of guys in the 13 divisions who say no to her... do not exist." - Tite Kubo

Rangiku Matsumoto (松本乱菊, Royal Key Of Pine) after the death of Captain Yamamoto and the re-assignment of many Captains, Rangiku herself took time off from the Gotei 13. Returning to her duties after a three year absence, she respectfully declined to become the lieutenant of the 10th Division once more as she felt that too far of a gap had formed between her and her former Captain; so Rangiku was instead placed as the new West Lieutenant of the 14th Division.

Appearance
Rangiku has long and wavy blond hair, 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, which are even larger than the Captain Commander Madoka Mizuki's. She dresses in the garb typical of Shinigami, 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 opposed to around the arm. She carries her Zanpakutō behind her back.

Seventeen months after Aizen's defeat, Rangiku sports a new hairstyle. It is shorter, stopping short of her shoulders and curling near her chin, the left side of which hangs over her face. Her Shihakushō also has a split in it, which runs along the length of her right leg

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 to bribe several male Shinigami into fighting several Hollow for her. In fact, she would even consider stripping naked if no one compliments her on her outfit, regardless of how skimpy it may be.

Her easy-going and free-spirited personality makes a sharp contrast to the serious 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 Shinigami academy. As a lieutenant, she is extremely casual 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. Despite her lackadaisical image, she can be extremely serious when needed and is a capable fighter and strategist, best-shown when she uses clever teasing to manipulate the third Espada's Fracción 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 dislikes bamboo shoots because she finds their taste too strong and their texture unpleasant. She likes Japanese dancing, and in addition to her shihakushō 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 Ginchiyo Tachibana and Ekatarina Satonaka, even shirking her duties in order to go off drinking instead.

History
For the full list of Rangiku's plot and history, see Rangiku Matsumoto on the Bleach Wiki.

Powers and Abilities
While she can obviously hold her own in a fight, her skill in the wielding of her Zanpakutō comes from her mastery of its special ability. Through sheer imagination in conjunction with her Zanpakutō's special ability, Rangiku has become skilled at taking on large groups at once.

Shunpo: While Rangiku's true skill in Shunpo is unknown, she is skillful enough to keep up with her captain. Her skill has proven great enough to easily out-maneuver Arrancar capable of fighting at lieutenant-level skill.

Kidō Expert: As a lieutenant, Rangiku seems to have capable understanding of Kidō spells at least enough to identify them upon sight. Though she is not a common user of this art, she has been seen capable of using Bakudō #58 as well as Hadō #31 without incantation, while still retaining a respectable level of power. She is also known to use Bakudō #77 without incantation.

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 level of endurance. Even fighting against three Arrancar's Fracción she was able to hold her own against the three of them at once.

Enhanced Durability: Rangiku has shown to have a high level of 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 was still alive.

High Spiritual Power: Being a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, Rangiku boasts a high level of spiritual energy. She is shown manifesting reiatsu to intimidate Chad and Noba. Her spiritual power is white.

Expert Tactician: Rangiku has shown 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 Harribel's Fracción and caused them to argue with one another and attempt to defeat them with one concentrated attack.

Hakuda Practitioner: While mainly using her Zanpakutō in actually combat, Rangiku has on various occasions showed some noticeable skill unarmed. During various mission to the living world while in Gigai, she would use well-coordinated kicks and punches people with perverted advances. Ikkaku has noted that she should hold back more on her strikes as she tends to knock out the target

Zanpakuto
Haineko (灰猫, "Ash Cat"): The Zanpakutō's 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: Its release command is "Growl" (唸れ, unare )


 * Haineko.gifShikai 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. 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 (猫輪舞, "Cat Round Dance"): She 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.

Bankai: Bōyū H​aineko (暴勇唸れ, Hell-Bent Ash Cat): To release her Bankai, Rangiku gathers the ash created by Haineko around the body which forms into a large cat head-shaped cloud around her before condensing down upon Rangiku's body. When the ash cloud clears, Haineko has now transformed into an elaborate flintlock with a wooden handle and an elongated golden barrel and plating, giving it the appearance of rifle-like weapon.


 * Bankai Special Ability: To activate her special ability, Rangiku pulls the hammer of her Bankai back and fills Bōyū H​aineko with spiritual energy, to the point where its golden edges begin to glow with a white coloration before she pulls the trigger. When fired, the attack launches a wide angled white stream of spiritual energy, adorned by thin blue lightning bolts. The stream of energy is capable of engulfing a large area, destroying everything that comes into contact with it. In reality, blast is an expulsion of ash in a massive quantity and at high speeds that reflects the light giving it the white coloration. This ash is able to be super-heated at Rangiku's command by pulling the trigger once more, causing anything that has been exposed to the ash to combust immediately before exploding violently.