Chapter 180: Accrual Points
Matsushita Yusuke sat in his chair and worked through the problem from every angle, the minutes ticking quietly by.
Before long...
As the daylight outside began to fade, the furrow that had been sitting in his brow smoothed itself out unexpectedly.
Nothing complicated had changed. The reason was simple.
Footsteps from outside the door.
They stopped in the hallway.
Three knocks.
"Captain Matsushita. I'm back."
Gin Ichimaru's head appeared around the door frame. Looking at him, Matsushita Yusuke came back to himself and opened his mouth.
"Ah. School out already? How was today?"
Gin Ichimaru had been arranged to attend Shin'o Academy as a student, partly as preparation for later and partly to save Yusuke the trouble of teaching the foundations himself. Having him live in the dormitory would have been perfectly straightforward, but the kid had insisted on commuting, so Yusuke had let it go.
As for the two of them as a pair?
Time had done what it usually does. They were considerably more comfortable with each other now, conversations moving at a natural pace.
"Easy stuff. I'll have it all down fast."
Watching Gin spread his hands out and pull on that particular expression he wore when he thought he was above something, Matsushita Yusuke rubbed his cheek.
The kid was getting a little full of himself, no question. But looked at from another angle, he genuinely had the talent to back it up.
Couldn't argue with that.
"Tone it down a little. There's always someone stronger out there."
"I'm not accepting that until I see it with my own eyes. Besides..." Gin set his things down in the corner, straightened up, and turned. "Captain Matsushita. That special training you mentioned before. Does that offer still stand?"
Matsushita Yusuke seemed to surface from wherever his thoughts had been.
He looked over at Gin and studied the fox-eyed kid carefully for a moment, then let out a quiet, amused sound.
This was someone who had endured everything for the person he cared about. He was also the kind of person who was very likely concealing his real intentions right now, playing the long game, working to lower Yusuke's guard and eventually get where he actually wanted to go.
Put plainly: the kid was deeply calculating.
But honestly? Didn't matter.
At the end of the day, this was a mutually exploitative arrangement. Both sides understood that.
"Sure. Get yourself together and come to the dojo. I'll show you what real strength looks like."
Gin's expression shifted slightly, and he made an obvious effort to keep the excitement off his face. He mostly managed it, but not entirely. He was still young. Compared to the old fox of a hundred-plus years that the source material had described, this version had considerably more edges showing.
Matsushita Yusuke led the way to the dojo. Soifon heard them coming, poked her head out to confirm who it was, and withdrew again without a word. Minor operational detail. Not worth her time.
"The Academy covers the basics, so I'm going straight to the deep end here. Any objections?"
"...What does that mean, exactly?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Oh, and don't relax your guard. Tighten up, or this is going to hurt. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Matsushita Yusuke stood easy and rolled his shoulders once.
And then...
A slight blur. His silhouette warped and was gone.
The next voice came from behind.
"What it means is, I prefer hands-on instruction over explanations."
Before the thought could even finish forming, Gin Ichimaru was launched sideways by a kick that sent him plowing across the dojo floor for a solid ten meters.
Matsushita Yusuke gave a cheerful whistle.
"Get that feeling into your body. Try to dodge next time."
There is no way this is a legitimate teaching method!
He very much wanted to say that out loud. But Matsushita Yusuke's silhouette had already shifted again, moving toward him like a ghost.
No recovery time. None at all.
Gin Ichimaru gritted his teeth, let out a sharp yell, and threw himself forward to meet it.
Half an hour later.
Gin Ichimaru lay thoroughly beaten on the ground, completely unrecognizable. Matsushita Yusuke picked him up by the scruff, ran Kaido over the damage with the casual expression of someone finishing a workout, and said:
"Good work. Same time tomorrow."
[You have trained squad member Gin Ichimaru. Accrual Points +10]
Accrual Points.
This was the direct output of the squad management interface, the accumulated product of everything the squad system tracked. It sounded abstract at first pass, but the simplest way to describe it was this:
Another kind of currency.
Matsushita Yusuke could use Accrual Points to exchange directly for stat improvements of his choosing. No randomness, no luck factor. Targeted development, applied exactly where he wanted it.
This was the advanced system delivering on its design. In the character development department specifically, it had streamlined and refined every detail.
The costs varied by category and difficulty. For the relatively underdeveloped areas, Hakuda and Shunpo, raising either by a single point ran around two hundred Accrual Points. Kido was five hundred per point. Scaling the Zanpakuto categories required an even more substantial investment beyond that.
But taken as a whole, this was a genuinely good setup. Having a measurable exchange rate meant he could estimate and plan improvements with real precision. Long-range planning backed by actual numbers was always going to produce better results than grinding at random.
Accrual Points could also be exchanged for things beyond raw stats, which kept the overall flexibility high.
Which was exactly why the squad management system had been one of his most anticipated investments since he first saw it. And looking at what it had actually delivered? His read on it was right on the money.
Full of future potential. In the most literal sense.
As for how to get the most out of it, the logic came back to something he had already established:
The talent of the squad members was also a resource.
Someone like Gin Ichimaru, who improved a measurable amount every single day, fed directly back into Yusuke's own income stream. Every session, more points coming in.
You get stronger, I collect, we both have bright futures ahead.
And at the same time, Matsushita Yusuke found himself looking forward to the next squad member's arrival with something close to genuine eagerness.
Zaraki Kenpachi!
When exactly was that guy going to show up?
He couldn't wait to open another mine.