Chapter 184: Upper-Tier Captain Level
The Thousand-Year Blood War.
There was no corner of all three worlds that could escape this particular topic.
At its core, it was a family drama: a son taking out his grievances on the father who created him. The family angle made a certain kind of sense in isolation, but when the son in question was strong enough to wreck everything in reach, leaving him alone wasn't an option.
Anyway.
Soul Society's role in that war was, naturally, one of central importance.
The most obvious example: Yamamoto personally cut down Yhwach.
But at what cost?
The source material made it clear enough. Sasakibe Chojiro came charging out of a pile of bodies to drive a blade into Yhwach. That pile included the fallen bodies of enemy Quincy. But it also held the remains of countless Shinigami.
The war ended in victory for all three worlds. Yhwach was dealt with, everyone resumed their lives. But the sacrifices involved were never going to be accounted for in a single passing line.
At least, not for those who had actually lived through it.
Matsushita Yusuke set his teacup down with a thoughtful expression and let out a quiet sound.
This topic got heavy fast.
Also, the tea was genuinely terrible.
"What should I do?"
"Get yourself in the right condition before that day arrives. Have everything prepared."
Aizen Sosuke drew a slow breath and continued in a measured tone.
"Leave the rest to me and Tosen. Your focus belongs entirely on the Captain-Commander."
It sounded reliable. It also meant that Matsushita Yusuke's job was to go and square off against the most dangerous person in Soul Society, which was the part making his scalp tingle.
He had mentally prepared for this before it arrived. Now that it was actually here, the nervousness was still there.
"Understood. We'll go with that arrangement, Aizen-sensei. I'm heading back. I need to make my final adjustments before then."
Aizen gave a nod. He showed no inclination to keep him.
"I'll put everything behind you, Matsushita-kun."
"Then I'll thank the boss for his support in advance."
The meeting was over.
Back at the barracks, Matsushita Yusuke made a quick stop at the vice-captain's office first.
"I'm going to train for a while, so I won't be in the office. Any documents that need signing, take care of them for me."
Five years hadn't changed the broad strokes of Soifon's appearance. The one noticeable shift, if you were looking, was that she had started growing her hair out.
Her explanation, when it came up, was straightforward: the short cut had always been a practical choice for fieldwork. Now that she was no longer doing that kind of work, she had stopped thinking about it deliberately.
"Got it. Don't tire yourself out. I left some energy drinks in your desk drawer. If you push too hard, drink one. Don't force it."
Five years of daily work had worn away a lot of her edge. She no longer spoke with the same pointed sharpness as before, and her temper had settled into something considerably more even.
"That said, why is your haori hanging off you like that? A captain walking around in public. Maintaining a proper appearance is part of the job, you know!"
Some things, of course, never changed at their core.
After about half an hour of corrections, Matsushita Yusuke escaped from the vice-captain's office looking thoroughly beaten.
He found the nearest dojo and locked himself inside.
The room had been specially fitted: when sealed, it cut off reiatsu from the outside as well. He needed a quiet environment to think through his available conditions, rank them properly, and work out an approach to the coming confrontation with Yamamoto.
So.
How many cards was he holding?
He started, as always, from the familiar panel.
[Reiatsu Level: 69] (current cap: 100)
[Zanjutsu: 71] [Hakuda: 60] [Hoho: 67] [Kido: 84] (Composite: 100)
[Overall Assessment: Upper-Tier Captain Level]
Five years of steady, consistent progress across all four disciplines.
Though, to be fair, a large part of that was the fact that Yusuke hadn't been deliberately chasing these numbers.
Five Zanpakuto types, after all. Five of them. What was the point of getting into a PVP match on pure swordsmanship fundamentals? If he was going to ignore his own mechanics and just play basics with someone, he was throwing away everything he actually had.
That said.
He had still put in the honest work to pull every discipline above the minimum threshold. At least 60 across the board. Anything lower and there was really no justifying it.
On top of that, since Kido stat directly influenced Kido-type Zanpakuto release ability, he had kept that climbing steadily without any slack.
Same for Reiatsu.
Because the current version of the game hadn't updated to the post-Thousand-Year-Blood-War chapter yet, PVP in this version still ran on the framework the Boss himself had put forward: Shinigami combat at its core was a contest of reiatsu.
Matsushita Yusuke had fully committed to that principle. The push never stopped.
Taken together, those efforts had brought him to his current overall assessment: Upper-Tier Captain Level.
Good progress. For a generation of the Gotei 13 with this level of talent assembled in it, his raw combat ability had risen to the upper tier.
Though the main reason was that this generation simply wasn't all that strong.
A side note: Kuchiki Byakuya had taken over as Squad 6 captain, the transition complete. Squad 10 was still vacant, though apparently candidate nominations had been put forward.
Yusuke didn't pay much attention to any of that.
"Without drawing my Zanpakuto... the ones who could still beat me right now are probably down to a handful."
He thought it over briefly. At pure baseline ability, he estimated himself at roughly a thin margin below Kyoraku Shunsui. Not the strongest. Well ahead of most. The middle ground.
With that settled, he shifted his attention to what actually mattered.
Over five years, using what was essentially the leftover margin of his capacity, he had pushed the four base disciplines forward. So where had the main investment gone?
His favorite, of course.
The Zanpakuto.
[Zanpakuto Ability Panel]
[Physical: 79]
[Elemental: 73]
[Kido: 88]
[Biological: 70]
[Rule: 65]
All five advancing steadily. All five had now reached the point where Bankai was freely available.
And the standout was the Kido-type, which had surged to 88 points.
Only someone who had played the Shinigami game would understand what that number actually meant. The higher you pushed it, the more Accrual Points each additional point cost. It wasn't linear. The scaling was closer to exponential. Just reaching 90 would require an astronomical investment.
So in the later stages, Yusuke had also started proportioning a share of his resources toward developing the other Zanpakuto categories.
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