Chapter 224: My Expectations
The new student welcome ceremony had come to an end.
Kyoraku Shunsui let out a long, lazy yawn and immediately started turning over in his mind where to go for drinks afterward.
Standing beside him, Matsushita Yusuke wore an expression that could only be described as wistful.
"Captain Matsushita, what's wrong?"
"Nothing... just got caught off guard by what that young man said, that's all."
Matsushita Yusuke rubbed his nose, his smile carrying something subtle, his tone brushing up against something that resisted easy description.
"My squad member is, at heart, a complete brute. He doesn't do things with any deliberate intention behind them... for him, what happened out there was basically just going out to blow off some steam."
But in someone else's eyes, it had become the act of a savior.
Holding that up for comparison, it was the kind of thing that genuinely gave you pause.
Kyoraku Shunsui rubbed his chin, his tone carrying a gentle thread of amusement.
"That's just the gap between people, isn't it? These things happen all the time. No need to get this sentimental about it."
"So I'm just a little surprised, that's all. Don't worry too much about my mood."
"As if I could ignore it. This is a rare vulnerable moment from the great Captain Matsushita. I intend to savour it properly."
Matsushita Yusuke couldn't help rolling his eyes.
"I'll leave you here, then. I have another appointment, so I'm heading out."
Kyoraku Shunsui glanced sideways with a grin, his expression carrying an unmistakable note of schadenfreude.
"Speaking of which, don't you have to go report to Old Man Yama after this?"
"That's right. It's my turn to brief him today."
"Watch yourself, then. The old man has been cracking down on attendance lately. People like us are exactly the type he drags out as cautionary examples."
"So you do have some awareness of how completely you've been coasting?"
"Ha, we're both the same on that front. Well then... shall we call it here?"
"Yeah... see you around, Captain Kyoraku."
After saying goodbye to Kyoraku Shunsui, Matsushita Yusuke let out a quiet breath and raised his right hand to cover his face.
A brief moment to let his thoughts settle.
Then... his right hand dropped back down.
Nothing had visibly changed. But anyone who had been watching the whole sequence would have found themselves staring.
Because the entire quality of the atmosphere around him had shifted. Suddenly. Completely.
Like Sukuna taking over a host and calmly reaching up to slick the hair straight back.
Technically, it was still the same person standing there. But anyone with eyes could feel it: the persona was something else entirely.
Matsushita Yusuke caught himself almost immediately.
He let out a soft "Hm," lowered his head, and gently rubbed his own cheek with his right hand.
"No, no... that mode isn't for this kind of situation. I still have people to see. Hold on, let me dial it back..."
Within moments, the familiar easy casualness settled back across his face.
He seemed satisfied with that. A small nod, a long breath.
Switching faces was harder than it sounded.
"Trying to pull off what Aizen does, completing the full flip right at the historic moment... still a bit beyond me at this point, it seems."
In another sense, Matsushita Yusuke was currently the Club member who had gotten the earliest start on rehearsing for the big reveal.
And through this kind of practice, he was hoping to get himself comfortable with the transition as fast as possible.
Right. A little more settling down, then time to get moving.
Matsushita Yusuke exhaled briefly, gathered himself, and started walking.
Decades of accumulated practice had given him genuine confidence that his ability to keep up an act was at least equal to Aizen's. But...
"I'm still going to be a little nervous in front of Yamamoto."
Consider it a graduation exam.
Matsushita Yusuke let himself relax slightly and picked up the pace.
Before long, he was standing at the gates of Squad 1, expression composed and serious, waiting to be called in.
Sasakibe Chojiro stepped through the side door, walked quickly over, and kept his voice low.
"The Captain-Commander is ready..."
Matsushita Yusuke gave a brief nod and stood.
Requesting an audience with the old man was not, in itself, particularly difficult. But a formal work briefing was a more serious affair than the usual off-the-cuff conversations.
Which meant announcing yourself in advance, making the proper preparations, and only then proceeding to the actual meeting.
Matsushita Yusuke raised his hand and pushed the door open.
"Pardon the intrusion..."
The door eased open. He slipped inside, leaving Sasakibe Chojiro to close it behind him.
The room was sparse, nearly without decoration. A single hanging scroll bearing the character for "heart" on the wall, and Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni seated formally at the center.
Not even a meeting table. The old man really didn't believe in small comforts.
Matsushita Yusuke crossed the room and stood before Yamamoto with an expression of mild suffering.
Silence from both sides.
It was Yamamoto who gave first. One eye cracked open, gaze sliding toward Matsushita Yusuke.
"Why aren't you sitting?"
"...Is there somewhere to sit?"
"Kneeling is tradition."
"Ugh. My circulation is going to suffer. And it's very easy to end up bowlegged."
"A work briefing is not the place for that kind of attitude!"
Of course, that was just the opening move.
Matsushita Yusuke did, in the end, settle properly into a kneeling position.
Watching this particular troublemaker behave for once, Yamamoto's earlier irritation quietly eased back toward composure.
Not getting worked up. Not getting worked up.
"Then. Begin today's report."
"Yes, sir..."
Squad 11's various ongoing operations. Recent internal administrative matters. Projections for the coming period.
For a captain, having a firm command of all this was non-negotiable.
And it all had to be delivered conversationally, condensed to its simplest form. Matsushita Yusuke was well-practiced in this particular skill. Not everyone was.
He had heard, for instance, that the new head of the Kuchiki household wasn't exactly shining in this area.
Say what you would about Byakuya: outwardly composed, impeccably turned out, the sort who appeared to look down at everyone he met. In practice, the man's administrative capability was genuinely lacking, and Yamamoto apparently called him out on it with some regularity.
In a certain sense, someone like Byakuya wasn't really suited to the captain's role. The number of times he had let personal feelings drive his decisions was simply too high to count.
Cough. Back to the point.
"That covers, broadly speaking, the work I've been conducting in Squad 11 over this period."
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni did not respond immediately. After a long moment of apparent consideration, he gave a slow nod and said quietly.
"Well done."
Unremarkable on the surface. But coming from Yamamoto, this qualified as high praise.
Because the old man's baseline approach was fundamentally one of high expectations and no coddling. Praise was not offered to encourage: it was the other kind of recognition. Reserved for when someone had exceeded what he had actually expected of them.
In other words.
"So I'm holding up decently then, Old Man Yama."
"Hmph... don't let it go to your head. There is still considerable room for your growth."
Tough as ever.
"Then let's continue with other matters."
Matsushita Yusuke's eyebrow went up slightly.
Something off-script. That was unusual. These unscheduled additions didn't come up often.
"Uh, Old Man Yama, you didn't mention this in advance, so I won't know anything about it, just so you know."
Yamamoto gave a small roll of his eyes, clearly unimpressed.
"Stop playing dumb!"
"Ha. Go ahead, then."
"Have there been any noteworthy developments in Hueco Mundo recently?"
Hueco Mundo. Honestly, it had been years since that subject had come up between them directly.
After Yamamoto had handed the relevant duties off to Matsushita Yusuke and Ukitake, the old man had rarely asked about it himself. Which was exactly why him bringing it up now, without prior notice, meant something.
"Has something happened that's caught your attention?"
Faced with the question, Yamamoto went quiet for a moment, then let his gaze drop.
"No. Nothing specific. Only..."
He raised his right hand and made a slow, deliberate fist.
"It has been too quiet lately."
A brief pause.
"The people who attempted to assassinate me have been silent for a long time now. They have not simply ceased to exist. And yet the only lead we have, Hueco Mundo, has yielded no progress for quite a while."
It hadn't reached the level of a full crisis.
But Yamamoto had, in fact, begun to feel genuinely uneasy about what might be ahead.
"I do not believe those people have given up. And at the same time... lately I find I cannot shake a certain feeling."
He seemed to be choosing his words carefully.
"I have a sense that in the coming days... something unsettling may be coming to Soul Society."
"..."
Matsushita Yusuke said nothing.
He was too busy absorbing the full weight of what he had just heard, accompanied by a silent, indignant scream.
You have a feeling about this and we haven't even made a move yet? What are you, some kind of supernatural early warning system?!
If it weren't for the fact that their organization was tiny and the possibility of an informant was essentially nil, he would genuinely be wondering whether someone had sold them out.
Is the old man just fishing?
"Do you have any specific intelligence on this?"
"None."
Really? That confident with absolutely nothing to back it up?!
Yamamoto apparently caught the faint edge of disbelief in Matsushita Yusuke's expression. He cleared his throat and adjusted his approach.
"Of course, a hunch alone cannot serve as grounds for action... I have simply been unable to settle lately. I wanted to give you a heads-up, nothing more."
Given what had just been said, there was no pretending he hadn't heard it.
Matsushita Yusuke scratched the back of his head with an expression of resigned exasperation.
"Understood. Over the coming days I'll increase patrol assignments and raise the frequency. I'll also keep myself on standby and be ready to move the moment anything unusual surfaces. Will that do?"
The old man gave a satisfied nod and added: "You may want to coordinate with Shiba Isshin on the specifics."
Squad 10's responsibilities covered patrol and escort duties. This fell squarely in Isshin's lane.
"This already qualifies as overtime, doesn't it. Any chance of a pay raise, Old Man Yama? My drinking budget is running dangerously low."
"I will submit the relevant details to Central 46 and have it formally recommended on your behalf."
"The Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13 can't handle a salary adjustment directly? Really, that's—"
"Watch your words."
Being handed extra work and not even allowed to grumble about it.
"Fine, fine. Not another word."
Nothing if not cooperative when there was nothing better to do.
On the practical side, there was no real reason to refuse, so Matsushita Yusuke committed to it quickly.
"Then I'll go assign everything once I leave here. If there's nothing else, may I—"
"Wait."
Yamamoto stopped him.
Meeting Matsushita Yusuke's mildly puzzled look, Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni let his gaze drop in quiet thought. Then, in a low voice:
"If you run into any problems with your work, remember to come to me... I will do what I can to help you resolve them."
Matsushita Yusuke blinked.
"Old Man Yama, are you running a fever?"
Maybe singed by Ryujin Jakka?
The old man's image across the entire Gotei 13 was one of impartiality, strict principles, and absolutely no special accommodations for anyone.
And now here he was, voluntarily offering personal backup support.
It was genuinely difficult not to wonder whether someone had quietly swapped him out.
"Insolent..."
A brief reproof. Then Yamamoto's mouth worked for a moment before he finally let out a sigh that carried real weight.
"My strict demands on all of you have never been about making things difficult. They were about pushing you to grow, to reach a point where each of you could truly stand on your own."
A pause. His gaze grew distant, carrying something unmistakably wistful.
"In the thousand years Soul Society has existed, it has faced more than one moment of existential crisis. What I have never wanted, after all those years and all that effort, is to arrive at the end of it and find that I am still the only one who can hold everything together."
There was real feeling behind those words. Yamamoto's expression had shifted, and the change was unmistakable.
It pulled something out of Matsushita Yusuke too.
"Even someone as strong as you has moments like this?"
"No one remains the strongest forever. I am no exception."
That was a clearer-eyed view of things than you might expect from someone who had stood as Soul Society's immovable foundation for a thousand years.
If this moment had been set in the main storyline, there was a real chance it would have been written off as invented history.
"Honestly... I do still have expectations for you. Matsushita Yusuke."
The words seemed to lift him slightly. Yamamoto's tone carried something close to warmth, and his expression had become notably more earnest as he repeated himself.
"I look forward to the day you can truly stand on your own, Captain Matsushita."
"Oh. Thank you. I'll make sure to keep working at it."
Of course.
As for how it all turned out...
You would be seeing it for yourself before long.
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