Chapter 041: If You're Going After Me, You Can't Go After Anyone Else
Too much. All at once.
Matsushita Yusuke swallowed.
He waved his hand in a vague settling motion and pressed two fingers to his temple, keeping his expression from doing anything that would be visible across the table.
"Captain Urahara, I'm sorry. Could you give me a moment..."
Urahara seemed to catch up a beat late, registering that he might have been slightly too direct.
He let out a quiet "ah," settled back into his seat, and smiled with a touch of embarrassment.
"That was probably a lot to absorb all at once. Sorry about that, Matsushita-kun. Take your time."
Right. Now.
Breathe. Think.
Matsushita Yusuke closed his eyes slowly.
First: the quest itself.
A Unique Quest. The reward list was not something he could read neutrally and then put aside.
This was the kind of reward that flipped the entire board.
Urahara's research was not simple work. Soul modification technology: in the original story, two children living in his shop had been, in their own way, viable candidates for the Soul King's role. That alone was the proof of what this man understood about the fundamental structure of the three worlds. And the soul the system had produced, the one that had traded bodies with Ichigo and played out something resembling a high school drama, that was also a product of this exact technology.
Applied correctly, that was in the same weight class as the Hogyoku. No exaggeration.
Zanpakuto modification technology. Technically this was supposed to be Mayuri Kurotsuchi's domain, but Urahara had been the man's direct superior. There was no version of events where he hadn't known about it. Working it out from first principles probably hadn't been the challenge it looked like.
So both modification techniques in the reward list: not surprising. Expected, even.
And Kido Mastery.
Urahara Kisuke could produce Kido numbered above ninety without notable effort. In terms of pure technical depth, he was not below Aizen Sosuke. He simply hadn't had many moments in the original story where he got to look impressive doing it.
The man was missing a good entrance, not the ability behind it.
Then the last reward.
Zanpakuto Rule plus fifty.
Fifty.
At his current Rule score, that would push him directly to Shikai threshold and put Bankai within reach with some additional effort. In terms of raw development pace, that was a skip across entire chapters of grinding. The difference between where his level was supposed to be and where that reward would put him.
The feeling of playing a standard progression game while everyone else was still at level forty, and the system randomly mails you best-in-slot level sixty equipment. Does this game actually intend to keep running?
But the Unique Quest property.
That was the part that stopped everything.
Completing this quest closed the Aizen track. Permanently.
Like a visual novel route lock. You pursued this character, and the other characters became unavailable.
If you're going after me, you can't go after anyone else.
Something about the framing felt genuinely unreasonable.
Why couldn't he do both? Run both tracks simultaneously? Play both sides and collect from the middle?
The answer was: obviously not.
Because both of these people were operating at a level that saw through most things. Matsushita Yusuke had two lifetimes of experience between him and a baseline human, and he had no illusions that the combined total was enough to outmaneuver either of them in the long run.
Self-awareness was a virtue worth having.
He set the complaining aside and put his attention back on the actual question.
Whether to accept.
The immediate case for saying yes was visible and concrete. Accept, collect the rewards, arrive at something close to vice-captain-level ability from a standing start. And staying close to Urahara meant staying close to Yoruichi, which meant noble connections, practical support across multiple areas, doors opening in directions that weren't currently accessible.
Yoruichi was taken. Obviously.
But the Shihoin family also had a very likable younger sibling.
He coughed quietly. Right. Moving on. Not relevant to the analysis.
The point was: joining Urahara's side had visible and immediate advantages.
The cost, though. The price.
Was Aizen Sosuke. Closed off. That door locked.
That was the tradeoff. One side's gain required giving up the other side's access entirely.
Matsushita Yusuke let the conflict show on his face for a moment, then looked up.
"Captain Urahara, I'm sorry. Would it be possible to give you my answer after some time to think it over?"
The other man nodded without hesitation.
"No rush. I was speaking without filtering myself back there, ah, though the invitation itself is completely genuine."
Nothing more needed on either side.
Matsushita Yusuke gathered himself and left quickly.
Urahara watched the departing figure for a moment, then settled the bill and headed out himself.
Back at the Academy, Matsushita Yusuke found he had no appetite for practice. An unusual state. He sat with the weight of the decision instead, turning it over.
Urahara's quest was called the Project to Rebuild Soul Society.
Even without knowing the full details, the shape of the idea was clear enough to sketch out.
Replace the Soul King through some other means. Provide a different foundation for the three worlds. Or possibly, and this wasn't outside the range of plausible, link up with Yoruichi and dismantle the old noble structure entirely. The current Shihoin head had always leaned toward that kind of thinking.
From Urahara's position, those were probably the two most likely directions for a project with that name.
Both of them, honestly, were large in a way that wasn't self-serving. Neither one was about Urahara getting something for himself. Both were about the shape of the world after.
The man was, in some sense, a genuine idealist.
Carrying that complicated feeling and no particular appetite, Matsushita Yusuke ate dinner without tasting most of it and drifted toward his evening classes.
Small gains still counted. The Academy schedule wasn't going to skip itself.
"Finals are coming up fast. Are you ready?"
"I think so. Kido is going to be fine this time-"
"What about swordsmanship? You'll have to repeat the year if you're too far under the line-"
"Passing is enough. I was never going for top student anyway-"
The fragments of conversation around him pulled him back to the present.
Right. Finals.
It felt like he'd enrolled yesterday.
He let out a quiet breath, readjusted, and looked around properly.
Then noticed something.
Tonight's class was Aizen Sosuke's calligraphy session.
Of all the moments for it to be this class.
What was he supposed to say when he got there? Say it directly, that Urahara had made him an offer? Or say nothing?
The questions multiplied in no useful direction.
And then, when the time came...
Aizen Sosuke, who had never once been late to this class, who was always at the podium before anyone else arrived—
Was not there.