Rangiku Matsumoto

is Lieutenant of the 10th Division of the Gotei 13, Serving under Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya.

Appearance
Rangiku is an attractive woman with long, wavy, strawberry-blonde hair (worn short in her youth) and icy blue eyes. Her most distinctive features are her extremely large breasts, which are even larger than Orihime Inoue's. She also shares Orihime's very strange taste in food. 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 necklace and a pink scarf over her arms. In addition, her lieutenant's armband is worn on her uniform's sash, as opposed to around the arm.

Personality
Rangiku tends to be a slacker who doesn't like paperwork and loves to drink. She's not the slightest bit modest about her appearance, frequently referring or complaining about her large breasts in normal casual conversation much to the embarassment/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 - abet unsuccessfully - to bribe Ichigo Kurosaki into letting her stay at his house.

Her easy-going and free-spirited personality makes a sharp contrast too the serious Hitsugaya, but the two seem to be quite close regardless. Rangiku met the young boy prior to him reasising his power and encouraged him to enter the shinigami academy. As a lieutenant she is almost constantly by his side and has shown deep loyalty to him on several occasions, even though he is frequently put out by her laziness.

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 when needed and is a capable fighter and stratagist, best shown when she uses clever teasing to manipulate Halibels fraccion into squabbeling among themselves and put them off their guard.

History
Not much is known or mentioned about Rangiku's past. She came from Rukongai and was rescued as a child by Gin Ichimaru; the two soon became friends. In one short chapter from the manga, she was once asked by Ichimaru during her childhood when her birthday was. She replied that she did not know because she had been alone for as far as she could remember. This possibly means she was orphaned since birth. When he heard about this, Ichimaru told her that if this was the case, then her birthday should be set on the day they met (the day she was not alone anymore).

It is not known how she became a shinigami or how she became lieutenant of the 10th Division, but she was the one who convinced Hitsugaya to become one by confronting him by his hurt grandmother.

Soul Society arc
Making her first appearance as a very bothered Vice-Captain in the meeting called for all Vice-Captains, Rangiku may strike many males as one of the better looking females of Soul Society’s top echelons, even if the major reason is her cleavage.

Nevertheless, during the report, she gains an attitude of seriousness that immediately sets the record straight – she will do her duty whenever needed, and back it up with a serious attitude and her combat skills if need be.

She is also the one who restrains Momo Hinamori after her little skirmish with Izuru Kira, when her Captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya orders them arrested. She then had a little conversation with Hinamori while the latter was being kept in the 5th Squad cells and handed her a letter addressed to her by Aizen, that Hitsugaya had found in Aizen’s room.

Later, when Hitsugaya faces off with Gin Ichimaru, she stops Ichimaru’s blade from killing an unconscious Hinamori, thus saving Hinamori’s life. It is then that she wonders where Ichimaru will go from there. While thus occupied with their own thoughts, a message comes via a hell butterfly for them stating that the execution of Rukia Kuchiki was being pushed forward. Hitsugaya, determined to get to the bottom of the matter, realizes that the only way to do so would be to stop the execution. He thus orders Rangiku to follow him to Central 46 Chambers, where they make the shocking discovery later that the entire Central 46 Chambers has been massacred.

Following Kira’s bait, Hitsugaya later returns to Central 46 Chambers upon being told that Hinamori had been following them. When Hitsugaya leaves, Kira releases his own Zanpakuto to fight against Rangiku who had been ordered to continue the chase. Despite blocking Kira’s attacks, the ability of Kira’s Zanpakuto doubles her weapon’s weight seven times, forcing her to release her own Zanpakuto. She defeats him and then learns of the truth behind Central 46 Chambers.

When she arrives at the Sougyoku, she holds Ichimaru’s arm and places her Zanpakuto on his neck, asking him not to move and effectively placing him under arrest. When the Gillian’s Negashion field comes down to save Ichimaru however, she releases her hold upon him. Ichimaru then expresses his regret that she could have held onto him a little longer, and that he was sorry. He then bids her a farewell.

Later, Rangiku is dismayed over this turn of events, but when Kira turns up to apologize to her, she asks him to forget everything, and to join her in a revelry of sake which ends up with all of them getting drunk.

Arrancar arc
During the arrancar arc, Rangiku along with Yumichika Ayasegawa, Ikkaku Madarame, Renji Abarai and Rukia are part of the advanced force led by her Captain to defend Karakura Town against the threat of the arrancar. When Grimmjow Jeagerjaques leads an attack on the living world she is left to fight one of his Fracción, Nakim. After lifting the limit that is placed upon all Vice-Captains and Captains to limit their spirit power when entering the living world, she easily kills him.

When Luppi leads the next invasion she is forced to join in a group battle compromised of Yumichika, Ikkaku and her-self against Luppi but is defeated.

Fake Karakura arc
When Aizen along with his top three Espada attack the fake Karakura Town, Rangiku along with her captain and the rest of the Gotei 13 Captains currently not in Hueco Mundo are seen awaiting for Aizen's arrival.

After the pillars that keep the real Karakura Town in Soul Society are successfully defended and four of Barragan's Fracción are killed, Rangiku faces off against all three of Halibel's Fracción by herself while her captain takes on their leader, Halibel. Matsumoto gets into verbal warfare with Apache and Mila-Rose (as Sun-Sun criticizes them for taking her bait) before releasing. After cutting Apache's arm using Haineko's Shikai, Matsumoto attempts an ash twister to surround the Fraccion trio, but they use Ceros to drive it away.

Zanpakutō
''': The guard is in the shape of a cat's head, as its name suggests. The zanpakutō's form is that of a straight-bladed wakizashi.


 * Shikai: It's release command is '''.


 * Shikai Special Ability: In its shikai, Haineko dissolves into ash, which Rangiku can then control. Everything surrounding it when it turns to ash within a certain distance, can be cut as soon as Rangiku moves the hilt. The ash can cut through objects as easily as a sword would, similar in principle to Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura. When someone is cut by the ash it leaves similar marks as if one was scratched by a cat or tiger. As Rangiku mentally controls the ash she can make it take various forms, so far she has created a gust of ash towards her opponents and a tornado. This gives her an advantage in fighting groups.


 * Bankai: Not Yet Achieved. Rangiku has not yet mastered the bankai of her zanpakutō, though she is trying to learn it; however, Haineko is just as moody, lazy, and selfish as Rangiku is, making progress difficult