Promotion? (Rangiku/Ranma)

Seriously, she was tough as all hell! Tsuzuri Raiden could’ve at least inconvenienced her or made her jolt back, but she powered through and pushed him further back when he needed to flip himself over to recover his foothold. His Zanpakutō had exhausted itself slowing her down earlier, so it couldn’t release the same sphere again. That sphere took up a lot of space, and thus it required a lot of Reishi to pull off – not something you could just unload like a minigun.

But if he shrank the area of effect, he could do some other Zanjutsu with it. Ranma proved really capable in that regard.

“Bakudō? Hell yeah! That’s my bread and butter,” Ranma quickly proclaimed victoriously, almost as if answering a question in a billion yen quiz, “Whatcha gon’ ask me next? That the sky’s blue? Noharu’s the fastest motherfucker alive? Pigs can’t fly? Your tits are huge? Not to be Captain Obvious over here, but I’m kinda synonymous with Bakudō-“

He’d practiced with Hinamori-sensei on chantless spellcasting for now, but Ranma did come up with a sly little plan. He’d utter the chant, but by holding his mouth – or whatever his bandages were covering – and utter it in a quiet, rapid fashion, as fast as he could. “… Pspspspspsps, sfff, pspspsps, Bakudō #21: Sekienton!”

And just as Morikawa-sensei warned him… taking the Kidō lightly would hurt. Instead of summoning a red smoke forward to cover the Vice-Captain’s area, red gases instead blew right into his own face from his own palms. The smoke would expand – thank the lord for the low offensive power of this spell, otherwise he’d be smoked like bacon right now.

Great… fuckin’ wonder! I do wanna try that again, it’s a bit like chantless… wait, I can use this! She can’t see me clearly right now, can she?!

This time, he’d treat Kidō with all of the respect it deserved! Holding both palms against each other, he’d lower his voice and slowly invoke his chant: "Ye lord, Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man… inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south…"

Within the red smokescreen of his, a red light glowed out, giving away his position. Immediately after, the red orb would charge out of the smoke, pushing away a bit of the gas as it charged towards Ranny. However… this was a bit too linear of an attack, wasn’t it? Surely Ranma had thought this through, right?

Okay! Now that the Shakkahō was fired, Ranma immediately aimed the sharp side of Hōkamaru towards it, ready to launch a Yone at the Shakkahō! His plan was foolproof – he’d slow down the fire orb amidst its track, confuse the shit out of Ranny, and use that opening to tackle into her! If he was lucky, he’d avoid smashing his head into her dick cushions – he was loyal, after all – but tackling her would at least give him an opportunity to bring her to the fire orb’s line of flight… like, okay, it required her to be standing at the right distance from that line, but- fuck, wait, would this work?! Did he overthink it?!

No, no, no, don’t panic, just try-

“Wha-“

His back felt a poke from a sharp, imposing Zanpakutō, and he could’ve sworn he felt dust and ashes rise up his nose just from this. She quite literally did just the exact thing that’d ruin his strategy, and she did it swiftly and with ease. That attack plan of his would’ve never worked… and it visibly frustrated him.

“I-I was- I just- FUUUUUUUCK!!!” he let out with clenched fists, raising them up to his face and slowly dropping them back down again, his face lowered and ashamed to even face his Vice-Captain like this, “I didn’t even mean to… I just thought I could- arrrrgggggh, forget the promotion! I’m clearly not fit for that shit, am I?!”

A lot of anger, a lot of anger… and suddenly, his shoulders dropped as well. Less anger, more shame. Ranma was a very expressive creature. “Sorry… I mean, can I help it? Heh… mhm… man, this sucks! Why didn’t I just say the chant NORMALLY?! Aww, this is exactly what Morikawa-sensei warned me against! Oh, she’s gonna have a field day with me…”

Yeah, his promotion was sinking in the water. If somehow, Ranny would allow for a rematch, he'd have a seldom chance, but that was wishful thinking. He just felt embarrassed right now.

Ranny surprisingly dealt with him like a pristine pedagogue, despite how difficult Ranma was to deal with. Feeling that comfort made him recollect himself, looking back up to her – reminiscent of when he joined the 8th Squad for the first time. About 1/5 shorter than right now, full of aspirations to do his job, get strong and skilled and wise, his own place, and have fun and good time with his party squad led by a literal, musical genius. And Ranny captivated him from day 1 – not once did he ever have the guts to ask her out, ‘cause at the time, the height difference alone made him shit his pants… but Erica had stolen his heart before long. It wasn’t moving anywhere else.

Now, Ranny was more like a role model. She was confident in herself, carried herself with style, and didn’t compromise her squad members in any endeavors. She was really comforting… even if it made him feel like a damn child. “Y-You know… I appreciate the support, Ranny, I really do. I got my issues to work through, musta been a pain for ya… b-but I’m not that young. Like, damn girl, Noharu gon’ bully the shit out of me if she sees me being coddled like this.”

He'd shrug her patting off like the brat he was… but he was blushing gratefully. “I’ll keep attending to Morikawa-sensei’s lessons, whenever she has time. She showed me some killer tricks I’ve yet to try,” he’d inform her with a new sparkle rising in his eye, “…”

Did she know Hinamori-sensei? She did live in the Rukongai, but he had… weird gut feelings about her relations with the Gotei. Some confusing, brain-tying context there that he didn’t have the brain power to process. Fuck it.

“… Ya the coolest, Ranny.”

… Nani the fuck?

”… Hu- wait- WHAT?! WAIT, HOW- WHO TOLD YOU?!” Ranma confronted his Vice-Captain with utter bewilderment in his eyes, “WHO EAVESDROPPED ON US?! I SWEAR, IT’S FOR BONDING – I DON’T SCREAM ALL THE TIME!!!”

Safe to say, he needed answers, even if it required poking Ranny about it throughout her entire process of writing his recommendation up for Captain Rose to evaluate later. “Who told ya?, huh? Who? Or did you find out yourself? How the fuck’d you even do that? And you’re the one saying I shouldn’t act out of order when ya damn threat to my privacy yourself!” It was almost as if Ranny used to be just as rowdy and out of left field as Ranma back in the day… but fuck if he’d ever know that.

“I’m flattered and all, but my heart belongs to Erica – sorry, not sorry, but sorry! Hmpf! Dun care if it’s you or some other sly, lil’ goon who told ya – buncha unhinged pervs, all of ya… wait, was it Noharu? I SWEAR TO GOD, CAN SHE GIVE ME SOME SLACK?!?!?!”

He ended up just sitting at the corner of Ranny’s office, facing the wall and hugging his legs until the recommendation was done.

He couldn’t believe it. People just knew, now? Rumors spread that quickly? He had to warn Erica, before… before… shit, they probably knew back in her squad too! He messed up! He shouldn’t have groaned and moaned so loudly, why’d he not think about this?! It felt so weird that his own squad knew his love cries now, and once the true realization kicked in… that they actually knew his special gasp voice, so he could never fake it in any of those truth-or-dare games anymore, his heart shrank into a raisin.

…

“Noooooooooooooooooo…” he replied with a voice dry and lifeless, his entire body greyed out from embarrassment. He’d fallen to his side, still hugging his legs for the small amount of comfort it brought him in his darkest hours.

He’d pretty much stay like this. Even a few other Squad 8 Shinigami would ask why he was dying in the corner like that when visiting their Vice-Captain throughout the day. Although, many already knew the answer and just wanted their getback against him for all the sleepless nights he spent practicing chantless Shakkahō.