Chapter 287: The Changes Within
Unohana Retsu's first response was a sideways glance.
She didn't open her mouth. She didn't say a word.
After two seconds of silence, she raised her right hand, extended her index finger, tapped the air in front of her once, fixed him with those flat, dead-fish eyes, and pressed her lips together in a way that communicated warning without requiring volume.
"Save the sleeptalking for when you're actually asleep. What you just said -- keep it for Soifon. Don't go saying things like that in public."
"That's not--"
She was already leaving. No opportunity to argue. By the time the sentence was halfway out she had turned and walked away, and within moments she was gone entirely.
Matsushita Yusuke stood where he was with the particular expression of someone who has been talked past without being heard.
Honestly, he had been thinking about stepping back. But he wasn't about to give up the captain position -- Squad 11's management panel was still paying out, and the squad had come a long way past the brutal early phase of building it from nothing. It had settled into the comfortable daily rhythm of something that maintained itself. He was finally at the stage where the work was supposed to feel easy.
The timing for leisure had just arrived in his life and he was not about to abandon it.
What he mainly wanted to pass along was the name.
The Kenpachi title. Holding onto it wasn't doing him any particular good at this point. Early on it had served a practical function -- the name itself was part of what held Squad 11 together when the structure was still fragile. But looking at where things stood now, that kind of necessity had largely passed.
By his current standing, the title was more or less a weight he was carrying for no reason.
You two figure it out yourselves. He was the outsider in whatever Zaraki and Unohana had going between them, and keeping himself in the middle of it would only make the dynamic awkward.
The problem was that from all available evidence, the resignation wasn't going smoothly.
Unohana's position was firm. The idea of all three of them existing in some kind of layered succession arrangement -- that was apparently not something she was willing to accept.
Matsushita Yusuke put both hands on his hips and scratched at the corner of his mouth with a look of resigned helplessness.
"Captain Matsushita."
Someone else calling his name. He adjusted his expression and turned.
Standing not far away was a figure he hadn't expected to see here.
Kuchiki Byakuya.
The two of them were colleagues in the technical sense, but in practice the amount of actual contact between them was close to zero.
Part of that was simply Kuchiki Byakuya. His adherence to noble conduct and the expectations of his house meant he kept a particular kind of distance that required no explanation.
Part of it was Matsushita Yusuke's own complete lack of interest in closing that distance. The head of the Kuchiki household had a personality that was genuinely difficult to manage, and while the original story had made it clear there was something warmer underneath the exterior, Matsushita Yusuke already had Soifon in his life. Managing one difficult-to-approach tsundere was already a full-time commitment. Adding another one to the rotation was not a project he had any enthusiasm for.
So the relationship had settled at the level of colleagues who acknowledged each other in passing. Nothing more.
"Captain Kuchiki. Is something the matter?"
He watched the man approach at a measured pace and come to a stop in front of him. They stood looking at each other for a moment. Then Kuchiki Byakuya closed his eyes slightly, gave a small, composed bow.
"Thank you. For today."
What exactly did I do?
The thought circled once. Matsushita Yusuke's gaze drifted sideways and caught a glimpse of the scene not far away.
Abarai Renji, flat on a stretcher, wearing an expression of profound suffering, being rushed away by Squad 4 members.
Right.
This was almost certainly about stopping Zaraki's pursuit earlier.
"It was nothing. Zaraki is my squad member -- cleaning up after the trouble he causes is my responsibility. Don't think twice about it."
"I see."
Kuchiki Byakuya gave a small nod. His expression didn't soften.
"I've heard that Captain Matsushita has an easy-going manner. Looking at it now, that description seems accurate." A slight pause. "Allowing a subordinate to run loose and cause disruption is a somewhat notable failure of oversight."
Was he being lectured right now?
But before Matsushita Yusuke could respond, Kuchiki Byakuya continued.
"That said, Squad 11 is a combat designation by nature. A certain looseness of form is not unreasonable for that context." He kept the same composed, self-directed tone throughout. "And addressing a subordinate openly in front of others -- that kind of presence carries its own weight."
A faint, measured smile crossed Kuchiki Byakuya's face. He had been talking essentially to himself from the beginning.
"Regardless. The reason my inadequate vice-captain was able to walk away without serious injury today is due to your intervention. That is a debt of gratitude. I will come to pay my respects properly on another occasion."
With that, he stepped back half a pace. A slight incline of the head. Then he turned and left with complete composure.
Leaving Matsushita Yusuke standing there with the expression of someone who had several things to say and could not find the right moment for any of them.
Is this just how people from noble families operated? The entire conversation had been essentially one-sided -- the man had talked himself through the whole thing start to finish without requiring anyone else's input.
Watching Kuchiki Byakuya's retreating back with a look of resigned amusement, Matsushita Yusuke turned to the surrounding squad members and started issuing direction.
"Stop standing around. Get the grounds cleaned up a bit. That's it for this year's tournament."
Then.
"I'm heading out."
Matsumoto Rangiku, who had been making her way toward him from a distance with what appeared to be a work update ready to deliver, heard his voice and immediately raised hers.
"Wait, wait, wait! Captain Matsushita, just a moment!"
She jogged over, slightly out of breath, and came to a stop in front of him. Before she even had time to wipe the sweat from her face she was already pulling a document folder from inside her uniform.
"Could you look at this? If there's nothing wrong with it we can push it through internally."
Matsushita Yusuke took it, flipped through it quickly, and found nothing that particularly demanded his attention.
This was Squad 10's internal administrative work.
He met Matsumoto's uncertain expression with a questioning look of his own.
She gave a slightly awkward laugh.
"My captain said he wasn't sure how to handle this part and wanted you to check it over." A pause. "His seal is already on it -- all we need is your approval and it can move forward."
Matsushita Yusuke clicked his tongue quietly.
Hitsugaya. Getting lazy lately, is he? He can't make a call on something this routine?
Had he been too accommodating with that kid? In the original story Hitsugaya had carried himself like a proper adult. Was that persona all surface with nothing underneath?
Was the hard-edged exterior just a front for someone who folded when push came to shove?
He thought about it briefly, then flipped through the paperwork at speed and made up his mind.
"Looks fine. Push it through." A pause. "Oh -- actually, hold on."
He stopped Matsumoto before she could turn to leave.
"Was there something else? Captain Matsushita."
Looking at her standing there with the document folder tucked under her arm, Matsushita Yusuke smiled easily and pitched the next sentence in a tone that was somewhere between genuine and teasing.
"Just curious -- how are things going between you and Gin?"