Chapter 286: Nothing in This World Is Guaranteed
Yamamoto had meant it simply as a reflection on reality.
But hearing it, Matsushita Yusuke found himself with a slightly complicated expression.
He looked down, tilted the cup in his hand gently, watched the tea shift and settle, and held that for a moment.
The process and the purpose might be different between them. But when it came to this particular question, he and Yamamoto were operating from something remarkably similar.
"Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing what that kid becomes too."
Matsushita Yusuke was not the type of person who would run experiments on his own child. That was simply not where his mind went.
But if he was being honest -- even without doing anything deliberate -- he did not expect the child to be unremarkable. The potential was there regardless. He was curious about it.
Yamamoto's expression settled into something comfortable and easy. He sipped his tea with the relaxed air of an old man watching children play in a park, carrying no weight of rank whatsoever.
"So. Is it a boy or a girl?"
"No idea. Not particularly concerned about it -- we'll find out when it arrives."
"What are you saying?!"
Why did the old man's face change so suddenly?
Yamamoto's eyes went slightly wider and he made a sharp, scolding sound, turning to Matsushita Yusuke with a tone that had gone considerably more pointed.
"Boy or girl, you should have clothes ready in advance! And preferably the kind that have been worn before -- that fabric is soft, broken in, gentle against the skin. The best thing for a small child!"
That advice sounded like it came from a much earlier era.
But given Yamamoto's age, Matsushita Yusuke filed the impulse to say so somewhere he would not be using it.
Opening his mouth to be clever about it right now would probably result in the old man jumping up and applying some very direct chiropractic correction.
"Where am I supposed to find something like that?"
"I'll sort it out for you!"
Yamamoto waved a hand with the decisive confidence of someone who had been waiting for exactly this question.
The old man clearly had a soft spot for children. That much was obvious.
And honestly, given the situation -- looking around at the Gotei 13's roster of senior figures, the pattern held. None of them had much interest in having families. Most were either people with specific long-term research goals occupying their full attention, or individuals so thoroughly defined by their own singular focus that there was no obvious space for anything else.
Even the ones who might have had genuine feelings for someone had, in most cases, run into circumstances that made anything lasting difficult to hold.
Thinking about that made Matsushita Yusuke feel something he couldn't quite name.
He didn't push it further. Some things didn't need to be examined in detail.
He let the thought go and raised a hand to touch his own forehead lightly.
Something else had come to mind.
"Old man -- can I ask you something?"
"Say it."
"If something happened to me -- Soifon and the child might--"
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
Yamamoto cut him off.
The warmth in the old man's face had been replaced, quickly and completely, by something considerably more serious. He turned to look at Matsushita Yusuke with an expression that left no ambiguity about what he thought of the direction this conversation was heading.
"Are you suggesting there is someone currently in the Gotei 13 who could kill you under my watch?"
Not the most realistic scenario, admittedly.
But there was a gap in what each of them knew. Matsushita Yusuke pressed his lips together, rubbed the side of his face, and looked away for a moment before exhaling.
"I still think about Captain Isshin."
That said everything it needed to.
Because Ichigo Kurosaki was Matsushita Yusuke's primary reference point for what that situation had produced.
The words landed differently in Yamamoto's ears, though. The confidence that had been there a moment before drained away. The old man seemed to diminish slightly where he sat.
Facts were facts.
From Hirako Shinji and the others at the beginning, through to Isshin Shiba, and including several direct confrontations aimed at Yamamoto himself -- to this day, the figures who had disrupted Soul Society had never been caught. There was no indication any of them were anywhere near being brought back in.
Coming and going as they pleased.
Leaving behind a dead captain or two on the way out.
On this particular point, the old man who was normally so absolute in everything went quiet in a way he rarely did.
He had nothing to say in his own defense. He knew it. So after a silence, he said, without the usual certainty in his voice:
"What are you asking for?"
"Can Soifon be reassigned somewhere else?"
This was something Matsushita Yusuke had been thinking about for a while.
For Squad 11 as it currently stood, the day-to-day administrative work had reached the point where seated officers could handle most of it. The vice-captain's role had evolved into something closer to a stabilizing presence -- someone whose position itself provided a certain weight, rather than someone actively managing operations.
Reassigning Soifon served two purposes.
The first was practical: she was no longer suited to active frontline responsibilities given her situation.
The second was harder to say plainly, but it was there.
The main story's timeline was getting close. Before things started moving in earnest, certain adjustments needed to be made in advance. Putting the right people in the right positions before the fact, rather than scrambling afterward.
"I'll still be active on the front line. But going forward -- with a child to look after, Soifon won't realistically be able to take on much else. So--"
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
Yamamoto had caught the full meaning before the sentence was done.
The old man pressed his lips together and nodded slowly, once.
"I'll take care of the arrangements. Leave that with me."
A brief pause. Then he continued.
"Whatever comes up from here -- I'll make those two my first priority. You have my word on it."
That was enough.
Matsushita Yusuke smiled and gave a small nod, then stood.
"Then I'll head off. Oh -- one more thing, old man. Go easy on the roasted sweet potato. Digestion at your age isn't what it used to be. You'll end up with acid reflux."
Watching him leave, Yamamoto's earlier good mood had gone completely.
He sat with a slight furrow in his brow, staring at the ground in front of him, expression turning inward.
The Seireitei had its own cycles. Its own particular rhythms that had persisted for as long as anyone could remember. But lately, somewhere at the edges of those cycles --
Something was quietly, slowly changing.
Yamamoto fell silent. He stayed in that position alone with his thoughts for a long time, and said nothing further.
As for Matsushita Yusuke.
He had barely risen and taken two steps when another figure came into view directly ahead.
Unohana Retsu.
He walked over at an easy pace and came to stand facing her, both of them looking at each other for a moment before either spoke.
"Why were you so eager to pass the Kenpachi name on?"
Matsushita Yusuke's response to her question was a quiet, helpless press of his lips.
Because honestly -- the name had never meant much to him in the first place.
Whatever Zaraki and Unohana had between them, whatever the weight of that particular bond and rivalry was, that was theirs. Matsushita Yusuke's role in it was at most to keep the conditions stable -- and provided no one died in the process, he was genuinely content to let those two eventually have whatever resolution they were building toward.
He thought about it for a moment, then gave a small shrug.
"Because I think I might be getting close to the age where I step back."