Chapter 368: My Name is Rangiku

"You three! Go search over there, quickly! This credit is ours; don't let the 11th Division take it!" commanded a Soul Reaper officer, without bothering to look closely at his squad members. He glanced strangely at the three Soul Reapers and shouted orders, directing the search areas for each team member.

"Yes! We'll go right away." Dressed in the standard Shinigami uniform, Orihime Inoue stood at attention, her body stiff and her expression serious and responsible, immediately responding.

She hurried away with H'el and Uryū Ishida towards their assigned area, turning a corner and disappearing from the officer's sight.

The officer only felt a bit puzzled as he didn't have much memory of these particular team members, but after a brief moment of confusion, he turned back to continue searching with the rest of his squad.

Perhaps they were newcomers.

After Ishida defeated Ikkansanki Jirōbō, Jirōbō didn't dare to cause any more trouble in H'el's presence, so they quickly turned into another alley and headed toward their destination.

Since H'el wasn't doing much, and Orihime felt guilty for dragging him into their troubles, she decided to bring him along as they ran.

At first, they almost got caught by a few groups of searching Soul Reapers. However, with a flash of insight, Orihime and Ishida knocked out three Soul Reapers, took their uniforms, and disguised themselves as Soul Reapers.

They had already managed to avoid several search parties this way.

After reaching a narrow alleyway, Orihime wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Phew... that was close. If we had to talk for much longer, we might have been exposed."

The number of Soul Reapers on patrol was surprisingly high; they had already encountered several search parties.

Being on enemy territory, Orihime and Ishida felt that it would become increasingly difficult to maintain their disguise.

As they walked down the alleyway, Uryū Ishida warned, "Be careful. A Soul Reaper is coming toward us."

Ahead, a female Soul Reaper with wavy orange hair, a voluptuous figure, and a loosely worn Shinigami uniform, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, was running towards them, appearing ready to engage in combat at any moment.

Orihime and Ishida instinctively lowered their heads, trying to quickly pass by the approaching Soul Reaper.

H'el, however, continued to walk alongside Orihime and Ishida with a calm expression, as if he were on a sightseeing tour, completely unbothered.

When he saw the female Soul Reaper with the orange hair approaching, he looked directly at her with a calm, unperturbed gaze, meeting her eyes.

The wavy-haired orange female Soul Reaper briefly met H'el's gaze, glanced at him, then looked away, continuing to run ahead.

As H'el and the orange-haired female Soul Reaper passed each other in the alleyway, it seemed like the whole world darkened for a moment, as if a strange, familiar lightning bolt struck as they crossed paths, also striking their hearts.

This inexplicable feeling caused the orange-haired female Soul Reaper to stop in her tracks.

She stopped directly behind H'el, her orange wavy hair catching the sunlight, and turned to look at his back, calling out, "Wait, you three!"

Orihime and Ishida felt a jolt in their hearts, their bodies stiffening slightly, as they quickly racked their brains, trying to come up with a way to bluff this passing Soul Reaper.

"What do you want?" Orihime asked with a slightly stiff tone, hesitating whether to turn around and face this unfamiliar Soul Reaper.

However, if they didn't turn around, it would seem too impolite and suspicious.

In the end, she and Ishida nervously turned around, forcing awkward smiles as they faced the orange-haired female Soul Reaper.

H'el, meanwhile, looked curiously at the orange-haired Soul Reaper. If he were to say he felt a strong sense of familiarity, it wasn't quite that, but it was still a strange feeling.

It was like the ordinary sense of familiarity that suddenly emerges when one feels like they've done something before—a feeling that makes you wonder if it's some sort of parallel world or a memory overlap from a different timeline.

H'el felt that the orange-haired female Soul Reaper standing in front of him carried that same sense of a parallel world overlap, like someone he had seen and spent time with before.

"You...," the orange-haired female Soul Reaper gazed intently at H'el, her brows lightly furrowed. She, too, had a similar feeling, though it was only a feeling and couldn't prove anything.

The sensation was like suddenly recognizing the face of a passerby, feeling a vague familiarity from somewhere.

"Have you seen the Captain of the 10th Division?" The orange-haired female Soul Reaper glanced over H'el briefly, shaking off the strange feeling from her mind, attributing it to the possibility of seeing an unfamiliar member from the Gotei 13 before and recognizing them faintly.

She turned and asked her question directly.

She was looking for her captain.

"No... no, we haven't!" Orihime quickly answered, not expecting such a simple question from the passing Soul Reaper. Since she had no idea what the 10th Division Captain looked like, the simplest answer was to say no.

"Damn it, where could he have gone?" the orange-haired female Soul Reaper muttered, frowning. After glancing at H'el a couple more times and not getting the information she wanted, she nodded towards the three of them and said, "Continue searching."

She then turned to leave.

Orihime and Ishida exchanged glances and breathed a sigh of relief, preparing to turn away when suddenly, they saw the orange-haired female Soul Reaper stop in her tracks after turning around. Her voice came again:

"By the way, which Division are you from?"

Orihime and Ishida's relief instantly turned to anxiety.

How would they know which Division?

However, they knew that they absolutely could not say the 10th Division because the female Soul Reaper had just asked about its captain; she was likely a member of the 10th Division.

So, Ishida decided to avoid mentioning anything related to the 10th Division and quickly came up with another one:

"We're from the 6th Division."

"Yes, we're from the 6th Division, currently searching."

"Oh..."

The orange-haired female Soul Reaper's "Oh" carried a subtle undertone. Her back seemed to freeze in place, as if halting the breaths of Orihime and Ishida.

"My name is Rangiku Matsumoto. What's yours?"

Suddenly, she turned back, her orange wavy hair flowing under the sunlight, exuding a sexy charm and looking stunning as she glanced at H'el.

Orihime and Ishida exchanged puzzled looks and then both turned to look at H'el.

"Black Ant."

"Bakudō #1: Sai!"

°°°

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