Always a shadow. There was no other way to describe the fearless, powerful, and beautiful fukutaicho of the tenth division. She kept to the shadows while the others shone around her. At first, it had hurt. She was Shiba-Taicho's second in command, not Tōshirō. Never Tōshirō. But…. The younger soul had a brighter potential than she did. He was ice and fire contained within the composed facade of serenity.

For some time, she held that against him. Eventually though, she realized that she was never meant to step up. Ever. But that was okay. She was destined to be the flower shadowed in darkness to follow the strikes of dragons. Dust is to dust as ashes are to ashes. Anyways, ashes are harder to track in darkness than in the light.

She was beautiful and the eye was naturally drawn to her figure, but that was, in part, on purpose. Enemies always underestimate women, particularly those who seem fragile. So she wears the more frivolous of her emotions on her sleeve, allows her love of shopping to define how others view her while she silently contemplates the second division.

She is more like Soi fon than she lets others catch onto. Where the petite taicho's disguise is behind the silence of night, her burning heart hidden within its darkened fold, Rangiku is the opposite. Her disguise is the brightness of day, dragging her away from the shadows that define her so well. She contemplates every angle and its implications in how she will be viewed. While the most cherished part of herself longs for the silvery light of the moon, she instead burns herself in the fiery inferno of the sun. Thus is her punishment.

She could not save him. Therefore she hides herself away from everything she should have been, pain, disgust, (assassin… a part of her whispers) and forces herself to be the parts of her personality, as minute as they were at first, that he loved (It is still not enough. It is never enough and she is well aware of this fact. But does that stop her? No.) and cherished because she knows that the dark side of the moon always covets the sun. However… she knows that she is no sun.

She is the shadows it leaves behind.

AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS

So, apparently I like writing tiny burbles about Matsumoto Rangiku... These will be updated sporadically and probably not very long. They may or may not be continuous and some may be AU. Let me know what y'all think!