REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!
Chapter 038: Refreshing the Quest. Correct Decision.
Matsushita Yusuke walked back to the Academy full and satisfied.
In the days that followed, he restructured how he was spending his time.
Roughly a third of it now went to the Squad 2 facility. The reasons were the same ones he'd already worked out: better quest density, and direct access to the one area where his build was most obviously lagging. Shunpo techniques were the specialty of this house, and the people here were the right sources for it.
And Kishinoshin's estimate about Yoruichi's visit frequency had turned out to be accurate.
"Get this place cleaned up properly! Yoruichi-sama is coming tomorrow and I am not having her see a single speck of dust anywhere!"
Soifon stood with one hands on her hip, right arm raised, pointing at corners of the room one by one.
The other members of the unit made the universal expression of people who had complaints and no viable outlet for them, then went to get cleaning supplies.
"You! Come with me!"
The finger swung to the back of the group.
Matsushita Yusuke stepped out from the crowd holding a cloth, expression somewhere between resigned and deeply unbothered.
"As you say."
Two months in. He had a reasonable grasp of the rhythm by now.
Day-to-day, things were relaxed. People came and went, ate, trained, talked. Nothing particularly structured.
But when Yoruichi was due the next day, a certain amount of visible effort was considered appropriate. The place needed to look like it was being run with some care.
It was roughly equivalent to an early-stage investor announcing they were coming to check on the company. You tidied up. You made things look presentable. It wasn't complicated.
Soifon glanced at him once, then turned and walked toward the entrance without waiting.
"Bring a mop and a bucket. You're helping me with the stone garden out front."
Nothing to be done about it. Time to work.
Matsushita Yusuke picked up the supplies and followed. The two of them stopped in front of the dry stone arrangement near the entrance.
Soifon shrugged off her outer layer and tied the sleeves around her waist. The close-fitted dark clothing underneath was compact and practical. She moved like someone who was used to working.
Though why the back was completely exposed was a design choice he chose not to examine.
You're not Flash Stepping anywhere right now, so I'm not sure what that's for.
"Stop staring. Get to work."
She flung a cloth at him. He caught it before it hit his face, barely.
He took a moment to check the quest panel.
[Quest: Help Soifon clean the courtyard]
[Profile: She is not good at expressing herself. No one ever taught her the right way to show goodwill toward someone. She respects your ability -- more than she's shown. She actually believes you're someone who could follow Yoruichi-sama. You might try, gradually, teaching her what normal people are like.]
[Rewards: Reiatsu Level +2, Zanpakuto Physical +1]
Modest rewards. But this was a task that was happening regardless, so having it count toward something was a clean bonus.
The profile was the more interesting part.
She's already decided I'm worth something?
No indication of it from the outside.
That was tsundere as a personality type doing its most committed work, with no audience to appreciate it.
And it was also genuinely not what he'd expected from her. The picture filling in was that Soifon wasn't simply bad-tempered. She thought about the bigger picture. She had standards that weren't arbitrary.
She just, specifically, found him irritating.
"Why are you standing there? Get moving. Clean up fast and we can get to dinner sooner."
She cut another sideways look at him, the expression carrying a level of visible disapproval that went beyond what the situation technically required.
Then she went to work herself.
Not just giving orders. She was actually down here doing the same thing. That much she'd absorbed from somewhere: a leader who only directed and never participated wasn't worth following, and that principle had been drilled into her since she was old enough to learn it.
The feudal framework had limitations in every direction. But the things it passed down, when they were worth passing down, had some integrity to them.
She sat on the edge of the stone border, legs curling under her, and pulled off her tabi socks.
Matsushita Yusuke glanced at her feet.
Lean, well-built, no visible scarring. Faint lines of tendon along the arch.
For a brief and frankly inexplicable moment, he found himself curious about the s—
He shook his head.
Absolutely not. That thought is not being completed. I have been studying too hard and need to sleep more.
He cleared his throat, straightened up, took off his outer layer, rolled up his hem, and stepped into the water to start scrubbing.
"Handle the waterline along the edges. I'll take the rest."
Soifon had grabbed a mop and was already moving, covering ground at a pace that matched her usual speed in most things. Her braids swung with each motion, catching the light.
She was, genuinely, a hard worker.
"That's not much to do. I can take some of yours-"
"No need."
Flat. No pause.
She kept moving, breath finding a rhythm with her work, voice lifting slightly.
"This is how I show my loyalty to Yoruichi-sama. You don't get to be part of that."
Protective of it.
Matsushita Yusuke started scrubbing tile without further comment.
His actual goal here had nothing to do with the cleaning.
Kishinoshin had said to give her face and build something workable. That was Kishinoshin's method.
Matsushita Yusuke had his own.
"Hey, Soifon. Have you been making any progress lately?"
"Progress in what?"
"Your ability. If we went again, would you still lose?"
"Are you kidding me? I'd knock every tooth in your head loose if we went again!"
"Want to set a time?"
"Yes!"
She stopped entirely.
Turned around. Full eye contact, visibly irritated, right hand coming up with the index finger extended directly at his face.
"Fine, one more round! When?!"
She was, genuinely, annoying.
That was the honest internal summary.
....
In terms of ability she had no real complaints. There were things about how this person fought that she was genuinely learning from, gaps she'd exposed in him that were worth addressing.
But the personality.
This casual, careless, says-whatever-he-feels type who seemed constitutionally incapable of minding his words around people.
Someone like that wandering around in Yoruichi-sama's orbit.
He was basically a second Urahara Kisuke.
This time she was going to win.
Matsushita Yusuke watched the quest panel update and let the corner of his mouth do what it wanted.
So you could fish for quests like that too.
Genuinely impressive.
Though the reward on this version of the quest was a little thin.
Worth trying to refresh it?
He rubbed his chin, thought about it briefly, then smiled.
"Actually, maybe not. You haven't really gotten stronger lately, have you? I'd feel bad about it."
"...Excuse me?!"
Soifon went fully incandescent.
And the quest panel refreshed on the spot.
Right call. Refreshing the quest. Correct decision.
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