Chapter 013: Mission in the Rukongai
Two examples of squads that were typically left off the rotation: Squad 8, which handled intelligence work, and Squad 1, which managed general administration and overall coordination.
Both had functions too specialized and sensitive to lend themselves to student supervision duties. They simply weren't on the list.
All of this was knowledge Matsushita Yusuke had crammed in from Aizen Sosuke's rundown, and it had stuck.
As for the actual content of each internship rotation, that came down to whoever was running it that cycle. Every squad did things differently.
For students, this was one of the rare chances to get real exposure to the Gotei 13 before graduation. Each squad had its own character, its own working style, its own priorities. Getting a taste of that early meant that when the time came to graduate and choose a posting, you weren't walking in blind. Less wasted adjustment time on both ends.
Which meant Yoruichi Shihoin being here in person wasn't just about putting a famous face in front of a room full of students. This was also a Squad 2 recruitment pitch. Maybe a few of them would walk out of this with genuine interest in signing up.
Rank-and-file members were the foundation of any squad. Getting good ones mattered.
"We'll be taking you out to a more out-of-the-way part of the Rukongai. Uh... actually I don't remember the specifics. Omaeda! You handle it!"
...This leader might be a little less organized than advertised.
Though honestly, it tracked.
Yoruichi Shihoin had never had much patience for administrative details. She'd never particularly cared about maintaining the family's public image either. Her natural habitat was somewhere in the vicinity of Kisuke Urahara, the two of them off in a corner working on something no one else could follow, something that invariably turned out to be extremely useful.
And she'd never needed the grind to keep up. The original story never showed her going through any kind of intensive training period, but she still managed to go toe-to-toe with Yhwach's personal guard and harass him directly. That wasn't a small thing. Compared to Byakuya, who'd had to go all the way up to the Royal Palace just to stay relevant -- there was a gap there, and it was a significant one.
The practical result was that Squad 2's internal operations largely ran through the vice-captain.
Omaeda.
Matsushita Yusuke turned his attention toward the broad figure and thought it through.
In the original story, Squad 2's vice-captain was named Omaeda Marechiyo. Big man, similar build. But this wasn't the same person.
This was his father. Had to be.
Brown pompadour, sunglasses, expression carrying a settled kind of self-importance that bordered on condescending.
The attitude was identical to his son's. Basically the same person with a different haircut. Whatever genetic material the Omaeda family was working with, it was very consistent.
At the same time, Matsushita Yusuke noted the pattern at play.
Captain and vice-captain, both from noble families. Generational hand-offs.
In a society built the way Soul Society was, it really wasn't that surprising. Father and son holding the same post was practically an expected outcome here.
Yoruichi called his name.
Omaeda -- this one, Kishinoshin -- stepped forward promptly from where he'd been standing and produced a prepared set of handouts from inside his jacket.
"Pass these out. We'll go through it together."
Handouts. Actual printed materials.
More than just verbal instructions -- concrete details laid out on paper, something you could reference. That alone put the preparation level above average. Matsushita Yusuke took his copy and skimmed through it.
Straightforward enough.
The handout gave a general overview of the Rukongai's current situation.
Four major zones -- north, south, east, west. Roughly eighty districts in total across them, subdivided into over three hundred specific residential areas.
In terms of raw area, the Rukongai dwarfed Seireitei by a significant margin.
Part of that was just the scale of Soul Society itself. But it also said something about the sheer volume of souls that needed to be accommodated. Souls came from two sources: those that formed naturally in Soul Society, and the dead from the living world who arrived and needed somewhere to land.
It was basically the same dynamic as any place that draws people in from everywhere without doing anything to actively discourage it. Population climbed on its own. No particular effort required.
Seireitei maintained some oversight of the Rukongai as part of the Gotei 13's broader responsibilities. But as just noted.
There were too many people. Full coverage wasn't possible.
So it came down to zone management. Prioritize, subdivide, do what you can.
"Some of you came from the Rukongai yourselves. But some of you grew up inside Seireitei. This information matters regardless of background, so pay attention. I'm going to repeat myself a bit and I'm not apologizing for it."
This Omaeda was more thorough than expected.
"The further down in district number you go, the more stable the area tends to be. Better resources, better conditions."
In fact, for some of the lower-numbered districts, the quality of life wasn't far off from Seireitei itself. The comfortable end of the Rukongai.
And on the other end?
Matsushita Yusuke read ahead in the handout and filled in the answer without waiting to be told.
"The higher the district number, the more unstable and resource-scarce the area. In some of the worst ones... survival itself is the only thing anyone is working toward."
Not hyperbole. A plain statement of fact.
He knew that souls here didn't need food the same way the living did. In Soul Society, reishi and water were enough to keep a spirit going. Hunger was a sensation, not a death sentence for a soul.
Which made it its own kind of grim joke. You can be starving and still not die from it. Feel free to enjoy that.
"Our assignment today is District 73, the Katagiri district. There's been recent Hollow activity in the area. We're going in to clear it out."
Eighty districts total.
District 73. Just hearing the number made the nature of the place pretty clear.
As for the actual work ahead, that wasn't surprising either.
Hollows didn't only appear in Hueco Mundo. At their core, they were souls that had degraded past a certain point. Which meant ordinary souls living in Soul Society could undergo the same process under the right conditions. The worse the environment, the higher the likelihood.
A district where people fought over scraps every day just to hold onto their footing was exactly the kind of place that bred that kind of degradation. Periodic cleanups of Hollow activity in the Rukongai were standard Gotei 13 maintenance work.
Matsushita Yusuke also noticed the specific wording used to describe the assignment.
The phrasing was precise. Not "potential activity." This was a confirmed target. Someone had already done the legwork.
That tracked. The Stealth Force didn't move without information. They'd investigated first, determined the target, then set the operation in motion. The difficulty level was probably calibrated too -- intense enough to be real fieldwork, not so intense it turned into a disaster for a group of students.
"Ten minutes to get ready. Then we move. Aiming to have the mission wrapped up by two in the afternoon. Let's get it done early and head back!"
The moment Yoruichi finished speaking, the familiar quest window materialized in Matsushita Yusuke's vision.
[Quest: Run a cleanup mission under Squad 2's supervision]
[Profile: First time working alongside actual Gotei 13 members. Not a bad opportunity to let them see what you're capable of, is it?]
[Rewards: Reiatsu Level +3, Shunpo +2, Master a Shihoin clan secret technique (random draw)]