"Come on, Captain Ailin, let's have a drink and stop thinking about these headache-inducing problems for now."
"Hahaha, exactly. Isn't that what alcohol is for?"
At the mention of drinking, M Matsumoto Rangiku, who had been pretending to be a wallflower, immediately perked up.
"Haha, true."
"Come on, bottoms up!"
At Shunsui Kyōraku and M Matsumoto Rangiku's urging, Ailin cast aside his pointless emotions and raised his cup with the others.
After several rounds of drinks, especially with M Matsumoto Rangiku taking the lead, Tetsuzaemon Iba and Shuhei Hisagi also loosened up considerably.
After a few more rounds, everyone was a little drunk.
M Matsumoto Rangiku draped one hand directly over Ailin's shoulder.
"Captain Ailin, I... I heard, heard that Captain Gin Ichimaru of the Third Division is your disciple. Could you tell us about your story with Captain Gin Ichimaru?"
Though she was using the alcohol as an excuse, this was what M Matsumoto Rangiku most wanted to know.
M Matsumoto Rangiku and Gin Ichimaru had been childhood friends who depended on each other since they were young. But one day, when M Matsumoto Rangiku woke from a deep sleep, Gin Ichimaru had left her only his retreating back. Saying that he wanted to become a Shinigami, he had left M Matsumoto Rangiku behind and come to the Seireitei.
Later, after countless hardships, M Matsumoto Rangiku made her way alone from the Rukon District to the Seireitei, enrolled in the True Zero Spirit Arts Academy, graduated with outstanding results, and joined the Tenth Division. Now, she had even become the Tenth Division's Vice-Captain.
Yet what M Matsumoto Rangiku could not understand was that although she and Gin Ichimaru had met here, she felt an enormous barrier had formed between them.
It was as though Gin was trying to distance