#but like all aboard the SS Angst GinRan

[rangikuxmatsumoto]

Shipping GinRan is difficult because you weren’t given shit – just one-sided narratives and flashbacks – but on the bright side it means that being a GinRan shipper you get to write a ton of headcanons. And in the process, break your heart OVER and OVER again, because why the hell not? RIGHT. 

So, lets dive into one of my favorite theories/headcanons, and I don’t know what spurred this thought and I realized I didn’t dive into this when I wrote a long winded, rambling, misconception meta some time back – but – I theorize that Gin ended things with Rangiku around the time of Isshin’s disappearance.

You’re probably saying, “What the fuck are you talking about Courtney” right about now but hear me out.

I find it rather interesting that the situation with “White” – the all black hollow of Aizen’s creation – happened in Naruki City, initially, a city which falls under the Tenth Division’s jurisdiction. If you’re one to believe the notion that everything was part of Aizen’s plan, then go ahead and stop reading because there’s no point in explaining (i.e. Aizen targeted this city because it was the Isshin’s jurisdiction, meaning Aizen is one hell of a matchmaker and also like Gossip Girl (which still makes more sense than DAN, CW’S GOSSIP GIRL)).

But if you’d like to hear more of my insane ramblings, continue reading now.

However, I’ve come to suspect that the choice may have been a swayed by one Gin Ichimaru.

At the very core of Gin’s reasonings for all that he did was this desire to protect and avenge Rangiku, to retrieve what was stolen from her by Aizen. With the events of White, we’re reaching End Game status. Plans are getting more and more finite every day, Aizen is getting closer and closer to making the definitive move – which means, the end is near for Gin and Rangiku’s relationship. Gin isn’t dumb, he makes some dumb ass decisions, but he’s considered a prodigy for a reason (i.e. murderous intent). Keeping Rangiku close would be a risky decision – she’d be a lose string, raising questions of Gin’s true intentions, how devoted he is to Aizen’s cause, does she know more than she should – it places a target on her back. Again, Gin’s primary goal is to get back what was taken from Rangiku, but it is also to keep her safe in the process. Like what would be the point if she ends up dead, right?

So, this is why I believe that prior to the events of “Everything but the Rain”, Gin has actually ended things with Rangiku in order to protect her but also to make her HATE HIM. Suddenly, a bunch of the Tenth division’s members in Naruki City are getting killed and Soul Society is doing jackshit about it (shocker), so Isshin Shiba comes into the mix, guns a blazin’ and gets taken out of the picture. This means that the Tenth is without a captain, they’re also potentially under some sort of suspicion because nothing says justice like Soul Society, meaning that the current vice-captain is going to be working a sort of “acting captain” role until they can promote a new captain. While this happens potentially shortly after, the Tenth isn’t going to be able to spare anymore time to investigate what happened to Isshin, those random murders of their division members or really anything else. More or less, they’re gonna keep their heads down and shut the hell up for the time being – until Hitsugaya gets his panties in a bunch over Gin and then it’s a god damn game of Clue but that’s another 20 years from there.

However, there’s more – Gin ending things around this time double strike to Rangiku, her captain disappears under mysterious circumstances, the love of her life/soul mate ends things – she isn’t having a good time. Gin is putting that separation between the two of them, in order to protect Rangiku but more so to harden her heart against him.

Not once during the events of Soul Society Arc does Rangiku back Gin, she questions his motives, she suspects him of nefarious actions, she’s willing to draw her blade against him, she follows Toshiro’s lead even when he questions Gin.

**Small side note, I have to mention is that one of the greatest and often overlooked connection between Toshiro and Rangiku throughout Soul Society and into Winter War is how often he checks in on her well-being without ever mentioning Gin specifically. He knows at the root of her heart she’s in a terrible situation, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Pitted against the man she loves and her duty. Two major points, when she stops Shinso and is injured in the process, he thanks her and shows concern about her. And then when the captains and vice captains show up for the battle of Karakura, he asks her if she’s prepared – this can be looked at in two fashions, for the battle ahead of them and that of seeing/facing Gin on opposite sides. BUT NOT THE MAIN POINT OF THIS RAMBLING.

Had they still been romantically connected everything he was doing would be coming as much more of a shock to her. Think about how Izuru, Momo and Hisagi all blindly followed their captains’ commands at this point, and they were merely professionally affiliated with them, devoted to them. You really don’t think someone who would be ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED would just be like “Oh you think my boyfriend killed another captain? Totally.”

Absolutely not.

So why is Rangiku like “what did this fucker do now” – BECAUSE HE’S ALREADY BROKEN HER FUCKING HEART.

YEARS AGO.

She’s had years to sit there and start to hate him – however much you can hate someone you love with every fiber of your being. But you know what they does, it makes you see them for who they really are. You see the flaws, you see the good, the bad, the ugly parts about them because the rose-colored glasses of being in love with them is gone. So Rangiku could see Gin being distrustful, Rangiku could accept that Gin was up to no good. But there’s also a part of her that doesn’t want to believe it either.

Because of course she still loves him.

[And of course, because I want to make things as emotionally devastating for my muse and love ANGST. They may have broken things off officially but if you don’t think they have random hook ups for twenty years….

Like Rangiku just getting an eggplant emoji at 1 AM from Gin and Rangiku just being like “well I’m about to make a terrible decision” but doing so anyways. You wanna know when Rangiku’s drinking problem got truly bad those twenty years because she keeps getting back with her ex.]

But this is also where Aizen’s remark about Gin having “killed” Rangiku after “having feelings for her” plays in – like OBVIOUSLY people knew there was something there. Everyone seemingly knows that Renji is smitten for Rukia, like striving for his chance to prove not only to Byakuya but to Rukia as well his worth and everything. So, you can’t tell me that there was something for Gin and Rangiku. People knew they had a past, I always liked to believe that it was one of those like worst kept secrets of Soul Society. Like everyone just knew that Rangiku was spoken for, everyone knew who her heart belonged to but at the same time neither of them was calling it anything more than friends.

But I digress, Aizen’s statement could be that there was current or former romantic feelings shared between the two of them, but I have always seen it as former feelings because why the fuck would Aizen be like “Oh Gin you’ve got a girlfriend when we’re trying to overthrow Soul Society, yeah that’s great” but if it was over and done with and something in the past, slight romantic notion that Gin ONCE CARED FOR HER, then cool boy, no harm, no foul. Bros before hoes and all that jazz.

I don’t know if I’ve even made my point.

Anyways.

I think that at some point prior to the start of the Bleach timeline, either around Isshin’s disappearance or slightly after/before – Gin ended things with Rangiku. Knowing that he had to make it easier on her when he went through with abandoning Soul Society and him. Knowing that it was going to break her heart, and his, but also knowing that there was a chance (and damn good one) that he wasn’t going to come back. There’s a reason he apologized when he did, was there hope he’d be successful of course, did he know the probability was shit – absolutely.

Plus, listen, my girl is feeling herself at the start of Soul Society, at her introduction. Gone is the going steady scarf around her neck, and she’s flaunting that body – if that isn’t a huge ass REVENGE BOD, FUCK YOU GIN ICHIMARU, I don’t know what it is.