Chapter 014: First Deployment
Oh nice.
He'd already set his expectations going in. But seeing the actual reward list, Matsushita Yusuke couldn't help feeling genuinely pleased.
Right. This was exactly why you stuck close to real talent.
Yoruichi Shihoin was old-money nobility with ability to match, and her track record in the original story spoke for itself in the clearest possible terms. The kind of output she was capable of wasn't the sort of thing you needed to guess at.
As a quest source, she was right up there with Aizen Sosuke. An extremely high-grade deposit.
With that settled, the look Matsushita Yusuke turned on Yoruichi's back got noticeably warmer. He watched her and let the appreciation sit there unexamined.
Genuinely impressive. On every front.
Before long, the group got itself organized and started moving.
As they walked, Yoruichi would occasionally lean toward Kishinoshin to exchange a few quiet words, and through those small moments Matsushita Yusuke pieced together how the two of them actually operated.
Yoruichi was the type who didn't do administration.
So she'd handed everything over and let Kishinoshin run it.
Practically speaking, it was a clean setup. Efficient. The only thing it required was a fairly high level of trust between them, and from what he could observe, that was clearly there.
He ran it back a step.
Before Kishinoshin, that vice-captain position had probably been Kisuke Urahara's.
Which made the dynamic between Yoruichi and Urahara a lot more legible. That kind of ease didn't come from nowhere. It was built on a long history of working together, trusting each other, covering each other's gaps.
And the Omaeda family...
Matsushita Yusuke's mind drifted sideways to Marechiyo and his dynamic with Soifon in the original story.
Soifon wasn't much of an administrator either. Most of the day-to-day operational work probably landed on Marechiyo the same way it landed on his father now.
Which made the Omaeda family, in some sense, effectively the Shihoin family's core support structure. Generation after generation, filling the same gap.
Complicated, when you thought about it.
Thoughts running quietly in the background, Matsushita Yusuke kept pace with the group.
"Prepare to move out!"
The four great gates of Seireitei were sealed by default and kept under constant guard. Getting through them normally required documentation, authorization, some form of official clearance. For a Gotei 13 captain, the haori on their shoulders did all of that work.
Under Yoruichi's lead, the group passed through and left Seireitei behind.
Matsushita Yusuke glanced back over his shoulder.
He'd never left before. This place, enclosed and regulated and noble-blooded to its foundations, had been the only world he'd known since arriving. He hadn't expected his first time stepping outside of it to happen quite like this.
Something about that sat with him for a moment.
Then he turned back around and looked ahead.
The nearest stretch of Rukongai -- this was District 2 territory.
Wide streets. People dressed well enough. Vendors calling out from storefronts, foot traffic moving in every direction, an ongoing noise of daily life filling the air.
Matsushita Yusuke took it in and blinked.
It was completely different from Seireitei. The order there was constructed, deliberate, the product of hierarchy maintaining itself. What he was looking at now had a different texture to it. Looser. More immediate. The kind of energy that came from people living close together without much in the way of imposed structure.
He followed the group and let his attention drift across it.
"There are so many more people here than I expected..."
Someone nearby said it out loud. A small sound of agreement rippled through the group almost immediately.
"Right? Living inside Seireitei, I don't think I've seen this many people in a full week, let alone one afternoon..."
The density was definitely part of it.
But what Matsushita Yusuke was actually focused on was something more specific.
High population wasn't automatically a good sign.
He'd read the relevant arc. In the Thousand-Year Blood War, one of the central crises was that the Wandenreich had been eliminating too many Hollows, disrupting the balance between the three worlds. And the Gotei 13's solution to the resulting pressure buildup had been to simply erase an entire Rukongai district. Gone. Taken off the map.
Treating souls as a resource to be managed, adjusted, removed when the numbers got inconvenient. The kind of decision that only made sense if you'd already stopped thinking about it in terms of individual people.
And it had been authorized by Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni himself.
So at its core...
The Gotei 13 is basically just a very large criminal organization with better branding!!
With that thought cheerfully filed away, Matsushita Yusuke kept walking.
As the group moved further from Seireitei, the change was gradual enough that it almost crept up on you. The streets that had looked ordinary at the start were quietly, incrementally not that anymore.
Buildings shorter, closer together. People more sparsely distributed. Clothing simpler, and then simpler still, until simple became worn-out and worn-out became threadbare.
The line between ordered and not-ordered blurred and then disappeared.
At several points along the route, checkpoints manned by Shinigami in standard uniforms. As the student group passed through each one, the officer on duty would take in the scene, note the escort, and wave them through.
"Internship group, understood. Safe travels. Watch yourselves out there."
The faces at these posts were experienced. Older, largely. The kind of settled, unhurried composure that came from having dealt with actual situations for long enough that nothing rattled you anymore.
The type of person you could give a hard assignment to without worrying about hesitation at the critical moment.
They'd follow through. No ambiguity there.
Eventually, the group arrived at the target area.
A Shinigami stationed in the district came forward to meet them, slipping naturally into the role of local contact and giving Yoruichi a quick, respectful rundown of the situation.
"We've had a lot of hollowfication cases lately. Corrupted souls have been attacking nearby residents. We're stretched thin out here..."
Exactly what Matsushita Yusuke had already mapped out in his head.
Every Shinigami had a focus. Most of them had one area they put their real effort into.
If you specialized in intelligence gathering and intimidation work -- the Stealth Force's bread and butter -- your combat effectiveness against Hollows was going to suffer for it. The reverse was equally true.
Only the exceptional ones managed both at once. The kind of people who showed up with names in the original story.
"That's the situation. Let me run through the assignments."
Kishinoshin cleared his throat and produced what was clearly a prepared briefing sheet.
His voice carried. Even standing at the back, Matsushita Yusuke heard every word clearly.
"Students in their third year and below: operate in groups, focus on reconnaissance. If you locate signs of Hollow activity, report it immediately. Do not engage on your own.
Students above third year: you're the primary force this time. Be ready to engage at any moment. Remember -- you've all received your asauchi. You are Shinigami candidates. There is no room to back down.
That's all."