REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!
Chapter 028: You Absolute Lightweight
The light was going sideways, the day tilting toward evening.
Seireitei's street lanterns were coming on one by one, casting warm pools along the road as the three of them walked without any particular urgency, following wherever Aizen chose to lead.
He stopped in front of a place that didn't announce itself loudly, low signage, warm light through the window, the kind of establishment that had been there long enough to stop trying to attract attention.
"I've been coming here for years. The flavors tend toward the lighter end — if you want more seasoning, just ask and they'll add it."
An old-style izakaya. They settled into a corner table, the three of them arranged around it while the owner worked the grill without looking up, turning skewers and calling out a welcome in the same motion.
Aizen picked up the menu, scanned it, ordered several of the house staples, then looked across at the other two.
"Tosen, Matsushita-kun — what would you like to drink?"
Tosen was sitting to Matsushita Yusuke's left. Back straight, posture formal even seated, expression carrying its usual settled gravity. He gave a small nod.
"Water with lemon would be fine..."
"Tosen, we don't come out like this often. Have something."
There was no arguing with that, not when it came from Aizen. Tosen sat with the question for a moment, visibly considering.
"What do they have on the lower end?"
The server paused, then offered: "Draft beer?"
"That works. One of those."
Aizen approved, and turned to Matsushita Yusuke.
Who had already made up his mind.
"I'll have a highball."
Whisky and soda, a light citrus edge, something between a proper drink and a soft one. The kind of thing that worked in almost any social situation without committing to anything too strongly.
Aizen gave no particular opinion on either order. He turned back to the menu and made his own selection with the quiet certainty of someone who already knew what he wanted.
"Daiginjo — warmed, if that's not too much trouble."
Premium sake, served at temperature. The heat brought out a gentler version of what was already a gentle drink.
Order placed, the server moved off, and Aizen turned back to the table.
He seemed genuinely relaxed. The composure was still there, but whatever usually sat underneath it keeping everything at a measured distance had eased off slightly. The smile he was wearing was a few degrees warmer than the classroom version.
"Matsushita-kun, I'm sorry for pulling you away from your studies like this."
"Not at all — please don't apologize."
What was studying compared to this? Especially when the quest window had appeared the moment they sat down.
[Quest: Attend the informal gathering of the club members]
[Profile: People who walk against the crowd carry their own kind of loneliness. Your presence here matters more than either of them will show. They're not people who say these things easily -- so find your own way to make this worth their while.]
[Rewards: Sommelier +5, Kido +2, Zanpakuto Biological +1]
Good rewards. But what Matsushita Yusuke was more interested in was the profile.
So they actually were glad he was here.
You'd never know it from looking at them. Both of them had the emotional range of a sealed cabinet. Tosen was sitting at full formal posture at a casual izakaya table, and Aizen's warmth, as always, was technically present but remained at a carefully maintained altitude.
The three of them sat in silence for a moment after that. Nobody moved to start.
This was going to become awkward very quickly if someone didn't do something.
Matsushita Yusuke stepped in.
"Tosen-senpai — you graduated from Shin'o Academy too, right? Any courses you'd recommend? I'm still in my first year."
Not a random choice. The Academy was large enough that finding a good instructor in any given subject required actual information. A graduate with opinions on the subject was a useful source, and it gave Tosen somewhere specific to put his attention.
Tosen's posture shifted fractionally, the kind of micro-adjustment that meant he'd engaged.
"A few, actually. First year?"
"Yes."
"Then I'd point you toward Yamano-sensei for swordsmanship. His understanding of the fundamentals is genuinely strong. If you can get into his section, the return on your time will be noticeably higher."
"That's really helpful, thank you Tosen-senpai."
And he meant it.
The Academy was large enough that most courses ran with ten or more instructors in parallel. Matsushita Yusuke had been choosing sections more or less at random up to this point, since the content itself wasn't the variable that mattered most to him. But a better instructor meant better quest outputs, in his experience.
Tosen hadn't been wrong.
Opening that thread seemed to do something to the atmosphere. Whatever had been sitting stiffly between them loosened a little. And Tosen, as it turned out, was someone who had quite a bit to say once someone actually asked him a direct question.
"Second and third year the teaching assignments rotate — for that period I'd suggest Murata and Okawa. Both take their responsibilities seriously. If something comes up, either one will actually deal with it."
Aizen had been listening from a slight remove, but found his way in.
"They change the teaching assignments now? That wasn't how it worked when I was studying there."
"That would have been several decades ago, Aizen-sama. To be frank — graduate placement numbers haven't been ideal in recent years. The Academy has been quietly absorbing its own graduates to keep the employment statistics presentable before Squad 1 starts asking questions."
"Ha — so the institution that trains Shinigami is recycling them back into itself."
"The annual report needs to look acceptable. That's simply how it is."
"Times change."
Matsushita Yusuke watched the two of them settle into that exchange and felt his urge to comment dissolve on its own.
Why interrupt it? This was the whole point of coming out. Both of them were smiling, not the performed kind, just a quiet, easy thing. Let it run.
The drinks arrived.
Tosen's draft beer came first in the lineup, pale gold with a thick white head, foam sliding slowly down the inside of the glass. Matsushita Yusuke's highball sat beside it in a taller glass with half a lemon wedge balanced on the rim, clean and light-looking. Aizen's sake arrived in a small cedar box, the glass sitting inside it, the liquid clear enough that it barely looked like anything at all.
Aizen looked across the table at the other two, lifted his glass with an easy gesture.
"A rare occasion. To a pleasant evening — shall we."
All three drank.
"—hk — hk, hk hk—"
Tosen bent almost double, the coughing coming fast and hard enough that his face, already deep in tone, had gone distinctly red. Matsushita Yusuke reached over and put two firm pats on his back. It took a moment but he straightened up, wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and nodding once in thanks.
"I'll be honest — I'm not particularly suited to this."
"Is it that you don't drink often?"
"Probably. My eyes don't function the way most people's do, so I rely on other senses. Alcohol dulls those. I tend to avoid it for that reason."
That actually made sense. And made the fact that Aizen had pushed him to order something considerably less endearing in retrospect.
"That said—"
Tosen set his glass back down, expression unchanged.
"It's a rare occasion. A few glasses won't hurt."
You complete lightweight.
****
70+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces