Chapter 280: Are You Serious?
Something like that was circling in Komamura Sajin's mind, leaving his expression caught between relief and tension -- a state that landed somewhere close to not knowing what to do with his hands.
He had nothing but respect for this man. That was beyond question.
But.
Barging in uninvited and cutting off a fight that Komamura had considered a matter of honor -- was that actually the right call?
In principle, Komamura shouldn't have been fighting in the first place. But that wasn't the question he needed to be sitting with right now.
The great dog's thought process leaned toward the methodical even under normal conditions. Having been hit with too much at once, he was visibly operating at reduced capacity, somewhere in the vicinity of a light daze.
Act or don't act. That was the question in front of him.
Matsushita Yusuke appeared to feel none of this. He simply smiled, turned toward Komamura, and gave a relaxed wave.
His tone was completely casual.
"Sorry about that, Captain Komamura. This idiot caused you trouble. I'll take him off your hands now -- no need for you to deal with anything further."
Komamura looked at Zaraki -- twitching faintly, eyes rolled back, somewhere in the neighborhood of conscious and not winning -- and found himself with his mouth slightly open, unable to produce a response for a fairly long time.
Right. How exactly was he supposed to continue this?
Looking at the state Zaraki was currently in, even the most dedicated combat enthusiast would have trouble finding the spirit to press forward. And Komamura's nature was not the type to kick someone when they were already down.
After a brief, quiet moment, something in him seemed to release. He let out a long breath.
Then he squared his shoulders, lifted his head, and looked directly at Matsushita Yusuke.
His expression was complicated.
"Matsushita-kun."
He said the name with a slight hesitation, gaze flickering, and then spoke in a tone that carried a specific quality.
"After this, I would ask that you instruct Zaraki-seated-officer more carefully. I hope he does not repeat this kind of behavior."
There was an old saying about not striking a person who was already smiling at you.
More to the point: the original problem was already resolved. The instigating party had received the appropriate response, and what remained was Squad 11's internal matter. For Komamura to continue pressing at this point would be unreasonable regardless of how he framed it.
Beyond that.
Komamura took a quiet, assessing look at the man in front of him.
They hadn't directly exchanged blows. But the reputation alone, combined with what he had just witnessed -- Komamura did not believe he would win. Matsushita Yusuke's strength was something that people who had seen it did not easily forget. Without genuine confidence in the outcome, Komamura was not the type to force a confrontation.
"Consider this matter closed."
With that, he turned and walked.
He had arrived with presence and he left with it intact.
The furry head was a slight tonal complication, but that was beside the point. By any honest measure of character, Komamura Sajin was exactly the kind of Shinigami who took his work seriously and conducted himself with consistent integrity.
Watching his retreating back, Matsushita Yusuke rubbed the back of his own head and allowed himself a quiet, resigned smile.
He also took a moment to nudge Zaraki with his foot.
"Could you try acting like a normal person for once? You spend all your time either picking fights or starting trouble. Think next time -- at minimum, don't attack the referee."
After that assessment, he gave him a flat open-handed pat on the side of the head.
Not a reprimand, exactly. More of a retrieval mechanism.
"That's enough. Wake up."
Zaraki's eyes snapped open.
He wrenched free of Matsushita Yusuke's right hand and took several quick steps backward.
The specific energy of a sleeping animal that wakes up, registers something directly behind it at close range, and has a very immediate physical reaction.
The overall presentation was not dignified.
The fighting spirit, however, had not gone anywhere.
He wiped the blood and various signs of recent humiliation off his face, exhaled once, and the look in his eye went completely serious.
"Good timing. You're exactly who I needed."
He closed his hand into a fist and directed it at Matsushita Yusuke with full volume.
"I don't want the name you handed me! You can take Kenpachi back!"
Here we go again.
Matsushita Yusuke raised his right hand and rubbed the back of his neck, eyebrows pulling together with the particular expression of someone managing a recurring inconvenience.
"You hate it that much?"
The name Kenpachi.
As had come up before, this was historically the exclusive title of the Squad 11 captain -- an inherited designation passed down through each generation, earned only by defeating the previous holder in direct combat. One Kenpachi per era. That was how it was supposed to work.
Fairly obviously, Matsushita Yusuke had not been particularly interested in following that logic.
Why exactly should I have to? Unohana Retsu is walking around perfectly fine. Nobody said the Kenpachi succession had to involve a death.
I refuse.
In an earlier era, that kind of departure from precedent would not have been tolerated by anyone.
And yet -- whether because this man was simply too much himself for the institution to contain, or because everyone had slowly adjusted to Matsushita Yusuke operating by his own rules -- the whole situation had settled into something that nobody actively objected to anymore.
He had the reputation. He had the strength to back it. The combination made the irregularity difficult to argue against.
Of course, the handover of the title to the next generation had not gone as smoothly as anyone might have hoped.
The summary was simple.
Zaraki refused to accept it, and made that refusal extremely loud.
And because Matsushita Yusuke had other things to deal with, he had never pushed the matter to a final resolution.
The resulting situation was exactly as awkward as it sounded.
Zaraki himself would not acknowledge the name. But with Matsushita Yusuke's quiet approval as background, many people had already shifted to calling Zaraki Kenpachi anyway.
Was that something to be happy about?
Obviously not.
Being handed a title as a kind of administrative gift was not what Zaraki Kenpachi wanted. What he wanted was a real fight -- to defeat Matsushita Yusuke directly and take the name through his own strength, not through some arrangement made on his behalf.
That was the only version of it that meant anything.
The accumulated grievance had been sitting there for a while.
And now, unexpectedly, the person responsible had walked right into arm's reach.
New grudge and old grudge. Might as well handle both.
Zaraki was already in unrestricted state. He reset at the fastest pace available to him, pushing back toward his ceiling.
Right here. Right now.
"I'm challenging you, Matsushita Yusuke!"
The other man's eyebrow went up slightly.
Then he turned around.
"Are you serious?"
It would be embarrassing to admit, but the moment Zaraki saw that particular motion, he took half a step back without meaning to.
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