Chapter 044: Year-End Party
The day after his last exam, Matsushita Yusuke made straight for the Squad 2 facility.
Today was the inspection visit. Leadership coming down to check on things. Worth being present for, and beyond that, the year-end atmosphere had everyone in a looser, warmer mood than usual. The kind of collective ease that only came around once a year.
That said.
However warm the general atmosphere, every time Soifon's eyes found him across the room, the expression that arrived with them was a specific and personal variety of disapproval.
"Yoruichi-sama is here."
Yoruichi came in with her usual energy, and Soifon, as the person running the place, moved forward immediately to meet her and begin the rundown of recent activities.
Kishinoshin fell in behind them, caught Matsushita Yusuke's eye across the room, and gave a cheerful wave.
"How have you been lately?"
"Well enough. Yourself, Kishinoshin-senpai?"
"Year-end has its own particular brand of chaos. Every item on the list is more irritating than the one before it."
The older man was just easier to talk to. That was the honest answer. Soifon's entire conversational range existed somewhere between squad operations and Yoruichi-sama, which made the common ground limited. Kishinoshin, whatever else could be said about him, understood that life had multiple components.
"How did you do on your exams?"
"Not bad. I ended up with the year's outstanding student award."
"Oh, that's genuinely impressive. Doesn't that come with some kind of benefit attached?"
"Half-price meals at the Academy canteen for the whole next year."
An objectively excellent policy. The kind of incentive that explained a great deal about student behavior in the lead-up to finals.
"Ha, so that's why everyone was working so hard. I thought the dedication was unusual."
"Was it different when you were a student, Kishinoshin-senpai?"
"In my time it was a discount on facility booking fees. These things get organized differently each year, Squad 1 handles the internal logistics..."
It was the kind of detail that never appeared in the original story. The gap between Soul Society as a setting and Soul Society as a place where tens of thousands of people actually lived and worked, the rules, the institutional systems, the small incentives that kept things running, filled in a little more every time a conversation like this moved into specifics.
A city that size, running continuously for that long, had to have structures for everything.
After a while, Kishinoshin glanced at Matsushita Yusuke with a thoughtful expression.
"Actually, Matsushita-kun, do you have any particular plans for the new year break?"
"Nothing fixed. Why?"
"I'm putting together a year-end gathering. Small one, just people I'm actually close to."
He dropped his voice slightly.
"Would you be interested in coming?"
A year-end party.
In an environment like this one, the concept wasn't surprising. Aizen had also been arranging something, which Matsushita Yusuke was already aware of. What he hadn't anticipated was Kishinoshin inviting him to a separate one.
"I'm not sure I'm the right fit, honestly."
He said it once, then made it clearer.
"I'm not from a noble family. Coming to your gathering seems like it might be a little out of place."
The observation wasn't paranoia. It was pattern recognition.
He'd seen enough by now to understand how these things worked. Noble and non-noble social circles ran separately from each other. Not because of formal rules, most of the time, more an unspoken arrangement that everyone understood and mostly adhered to. Casual contact across the line was fine. Being brought into someone's private celebration was a different register.
Kishinoshin looked entirely unbothered.
"Don't worry about any of that. Honestly, this isn't a formal event, it's not public, and the people coming are friends. Not people with impressive titles."
A private gathering.
Matsushita Yusuke recalibrated.
This was a social investment on Kishinoshin's part. Not a formal occasion, a cultivated circle of people he wanted to maintain connections with. Even nobles had people they needed to keep warm relationships with.
Apparently Matsushita Yusuke had made that list.
"You might not believe this, but Soifon has already agreed to come."
She has?
Actually, the surprising part wasn't that she agreed. The surprising part was that Soifon had any kind of social life outside of operational duties and Yoruichi-adjacent activities. It was easy to forget she was a full person who presumably did things.
The quest panel appeared at the same time.
[Quest: Attend Omaeda Kishinoshin's small gathering]
[Profile: Even among the nobility, investment in relationships is a necessity -- particularly for those in the middle and lower tiers. Maintaining position requires constant cultivation, bringing capable people into the family's orbit. You have been identified as worth having around.]
[Rewards: Interpersonal Skills +4, Eloquence +5, Noble Culture Knowledge +3]
Modest rewards by recent standards. But there was no reason to decline.
Small gains still accumulated. And the more practical value was the expanded social reach, the kind of thing that paid off slowly, across years, in ways that were hard to predict from the front end.
"I might have other commitments around that time, Kishinoshin-senpai, so I can't guarantee I'll be there..."
He left it open deliberately. Aizen's arrangement was the priority, and until that was confirmed, committing to a specific date felt premature.
Though as he thought about it, something didn't quite add up.
The Kishinoshin gathering had a quest attached. Aizen's planned outing hadn't generated anything yet. Why not?
He worked through it.
Probably because the date wasn't set. The System seemed to work from confirmed specifics, a real plan, a real time, triggered a real quest. Until Aizen's event had an actual date attached, there was nothing concrete enough for it to respond to.
That was probably it. Wait until the day of, and it would show up then.
Kishinoshin laughed at Yusuke's hedging.
"What, you're actually this popular? Ha! Don't stress about it. If something comes up, just don't come, I won't hold it against you."
That settled things for now.
They talked for a while longer, and by that point Yoruichi's inspection had largely wrapped up.
"You've done well, Soifon. Though it looks like the headcount has dropped a bit? Have you been scaring off the new ones again?"
Soifon shook her head firmly.
"I would never do anything like that. They simply felt they weren't living up to the standard, and chose to excuse themselves."
The ability to say something that implausible with that much composure was its own kind of talent.
Kishinoshin watched Yoruichi head for the door and got to his feet.
"I think we've seen enough. I'll leave you to it, Matsushita-kun. Work hard, and I'll see you next year!"
Matsushita Yusuke stood and saw them off, watching until Yoruichi and the others had disappeared from sight.
Soifon turned around.
The expression that appeared on her face the moment the others were gone was immediate and undisguised.
"Matsushita Yusuke. Come here."
The specific atmosphere of being called to a teacher's office for a private talking-to, after everyone else had been dismissed.
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