Chapter 098: Your Decision
Since the Seireitei had been established, everything had run according to its rules. Gears meshing, turning, cycling through each rotation in a process that had produced a stable and settled present across the centuries.
That stability had only deepened after the Thousand Year Blood War. The long peace that followed had made the current state of things feel like the natural order to everyone living inside it.
Matsushita Yusuke's arrival would change that.
Whatever had gone still in those waters was going to start moving again. Something was coming that would hit the Gotei 13 like a storm, and the quiet surface that everyone had grown comfortable with was not going to survive it.
The captains' meeting and the vice-captains' separate conversation ran for roughly two hours. When it was over, the captains filed out of the office one by one, and the scene outside took on the specific quality of parents collecting children from school, each captain locating their respective vice-captain and departing.
"Aizen!"
"Here, Captain."
Hirako Shinji found him, grinned, gave his vice-captain a pat on the shoulder, and turned to walk ahead.
"I have things I need to check with you. Walk with me."
"Of course."
The two of them left the Squad 1 compound together, moving in the direction of Squad 5.
"Sosuke, how well do you actually know this young man?"
Aizen summarized his relationship with Yusuke briefly, covering roughly the same points he had shared with the other vice-captains earlier.
"Oh, so you two have a real connection. Perfect. When you get the chance, pass something along to him from me."
Hirako's expression settled into the particular version of casual that meant something was coming.
"Tell him to prepare himself. He'll be fighting Kijishi again in half a month."
A short silence.
"Why would that arrangement be made?"
By Aizen's understanding of how the Gotei 13 operated, a decision this apparently irrational should not have been the outcome.
"Don't ask me. I wanted Kijishi gone too, but I didn't expect things to end up here."
Hirako rubbed the back of his head with an expression of genuine exasperation, then added:
"That said, the decision basically came down to two things."
He raised his right hand without looking back, extending one finger.
"First: this is a special ruling that only applies to Squad 11. That squad has always operated under its own particular rules. Honestly, everything we discussed in there counted for less than Captain Unohana's single comment."
Which meant, in a certain sense:
"This is a question of historical precedent. You follow that so far?"
Aizen understood perfectly.
Squad 11's line of succession had never been governed by the same mechanisms as the other squads. The organization had been built for combat, and the way it determined succession was correspondingly direct.
The capable rise.
The logic was sound. Placed in that frame, the arrangement stopped seeming unusual.
Aizen gave a small nod.
"Understood."
"Good. You think fast, talking to you is efficient."
"Second."
Hirako raised his middle finger. Then rearranged it into a peace sign, casual as anything, and said without changing his tone:
"This is also the Commander-General's position."
"The Commander-General's... position?"
The image that surfaced in Aizen's mind was a figure that inspired a specific and particular kind of wariness.
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni. A person who was, in the most literal sense, the living history of the Seireitei itself.
The power contained in his Zanpakuto was the single largest obstacle on the road Aizen was traveling. The thought landed, and he pulled his attention back from where it had started to drift.
"Why would the Commander-General..."
"I don't know the specifics of his reasoning, and don't ask me. The old man's thinking is not something anyone can predict."
Two factors.
Historical precedent, and the Commander-General's explicit endorsement.
With both of those behind it, the rematch seemed like a settled matter.
And yet.
"Sosuke, go ask the young man what he wants."
Hirako said it over his shoulder with a light smile.
"As the serving captain, Kijishi has no standing to refuse a challenge. But the person issuing the challenge is a different matter. They have the right to step back from it."
That was the meaningful distinction between their two positions.
"If he accepts the match, he has the opportunity to take the Squad 11 captaincy and everything that comes with it. The privileges and access that position carries."
Hirako didn't go into the specifics, partly because he had no particular interest in cataloguing them. The benefits of a captaincy spoke for themselves, and Squad 11's specific character meant that certain privileges applied to its captain that didn't apply elsewhere.
Some people would want that. Some people wouldn't.
"The old man's thinking is to find out what he actually wants first. If he's willing, get it arranged and finished quickly. Put a proper end to this whole mess."
And on the other side of that:
"Even if the young man doesn't want to fight, Kijishi still doesn't have the standing to remain as Squad 11 captain."
That part needed no elaboration.
Running in full view of a street full of witnesses was not a matter of principle or perseverance. The question of dignity didn't even enter it. A captain who behaved that way had no business representing the Seireitei in any capacity. He had disqualified himself, and the consequences that followed from that were entirely his own.
"That's roughly everything I needed to say. Sosuke, can you pass the message along?"
Aizen gave a small, measured nod.
"Leave it to me."
Time moved. The next day arrived.
Aizen arranged to meet Matsushita Yusuke after calligraphy, as usual, and in the faculty office laid out the situation plainly.
"So, Matsushita-kun. What do you think?"
The decision was his to make. Accept the rematch and take the Squad 11 captaincy if he won, or treat the whole thing as settled and continue developing at the Academy at his own pace.
Both options had their costs and their merits. The choice was Matsushita Yusuke's.
Aizen meant that straightforwardly.
After a brief moment of surprise, Matsushita Yusuke started working through it.
The situation sounded complicated. In practice it reduced to one sentence.
I beat Kijishi. Does that mean I'm qualified to be a captain?
Honestly, he was leaning toward declining.
The reason was simple. He was a second-year student. He needed more time, not a promotion.
But before he could say anything, something came back to him.
Wait.
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