Chapter 029: No Going Back Now — Fight!
By the time the food had made several rounds and the drinks had kept pace, all three of them were showing it in their own way.
Tosen had loosened the most.
He was working his way through a skewer of chicken skin with quiet, focused enjoyment, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth, chewing with a kind of unhurried satisfaction that was completely at odds with his usual bearing.
Matsushita Yusuke was experiencing a mild, pleasant spinning sensation and had started picking the green onion out of his nanban chicken, which tasted, he'd decided, uncomfortably close to the stems of cilantro.
Aizen had a faint flush across his cheeks. He'd turned slightly toward the window, and the smile on his face was something different from the usual one. Quieter. Less constructed.
Which made sense.
Between managing the Hogyoku research in secret, navigating Hirako's distrust, covering his tracks at every step, and keeping all of it from unraveling, the sustained expenditure of effort and attention that required was not nothing. Even Aizen Sosuke was still, at some fundamental level, a person. The same principle that applied to everyone applied to him too. Tension needed somewhere to go.
And right now, for the first time in a while, he'd let it.
On the other side of the table, Matsushita Yusuke had noticed.
His attention was clearer than it probably should have been. Two lifetimes had left him with a reasonable tolerance, and a highball was mostly soda by volume; he wasn't about to lose his footing over that. He wasn't Tosen, who had apparently never developed any meaningful alcohol resistance and was now happily demolishing his fifth skewer with zero remaining awareness of social conventions.
[Quest complete... Rewards acquired]
The gathering quest had settled mid-evening. Which meant both Aizen and Tosen had already internally classified this as a success, no lingering dissatisfaction on either end. Smooth.
The Kido and Biological Zanpakuto gains registered cleanly. Getting stronger at a bar was an outcome Matsushita Yusuke chose not to examine too closely on philosophical grounds.
But.
Wait.
Was that it? Was that really everything this situation had to offer?
He looked at Aizen, genuinely relaxed, color in his cheeks, the window holding his attention, and a thought surfaced that was either very clever or very stupid.
What would happen if he tried to get Aizen drunk?
In the original story, in any available account of the man's actual behavior, Aizen losing control of a situation in any form was simply not something that existed. Not once. Not even close.
But right now, at this table, on this particular evening?
This might genuinely be the only window in Matsushita Yusuke's entire life where this was even theoretically possible.
He had barely finished the thought when the familiar window appeared.
[Quest: Drink until there's nothing left in the bottle]
[Profile: Tonight has been good. But for Aizen Sosuke, this is still the shallow end -- the part of himself that runs cold and steady won't let him go further on his own. Push him. Give him a reason to. Something interesting might happen.]
[Rewards: Sommelier +10, Reiatsu Level +3, Hakuda +2, Zanpakuto Kido +4]
...
Matsushita Yusuke stared at that reward list.
Zanpakuto Kido plus four.
Plus FOUR.
Did the System just get drunk too? Was that actually real?
A jump that size in a single reward was genuinely unprecedented. He'd never seen the Zanpakuto panel move more than one or two points at a time.
He took a breath and thought it through.
Quest difficulty correlated with reward size. That was consistent. And the main quest, join Aizen's team, become Club Member 003, was still sitting unaccepted, still out of reach. Which meant the relationship wasn't there yet. Full trust wasn't on the table. Aizen hadn't fully opened the door.
Which meant getting Aizen drunk was not going to be easy.
Matsushita Yusuke sat with that for exactly three seconds.
Then he accepted the quest.
Why wouldn't he?
In a straight fight, two hundred versions of himself stacked on top of each other wouldn't survive one Kurohitsugi. That was just the reality. But drinking? Alcohol tolerance? That was a completely different playing field. One where raw power didn't automatically win.
He was going to need every edge he could find over the next five years.
And tonight, at this table, there was a very specific edge available.
"Aizen-sensei!"
Aizen half-turned from the window.
He found Matsushita Yusuke on his feet, glass raised, expression somewhere between formal and cheerful.
"A toast. To you, sensei — I'm grateful."
"...Thank you, Matsushita-kun. You really don't need to—"
Before the sentence finished, Matsushita Yusuke had drained his glass completely.
Aizen processed this.
Teacher and student, yes. But at a drinking table that hierarchy was a formality. His student's glass was empty. His own still had a few sips left. Any way you looked at it, that wasn't how this worked.
He exhaled, a faint line forming between his brows, and finished his sake.
The warmth spread down his throat and kept going.
It wasn't unpleasant. It was, if anything, rather good.
He'd been about to reach for a piece of squid to settle the warmth when Matsushita Yusuke's hand came up and flagged down the server.
"Another round, please."
Aizen looked over.
"Matsushita-kun. You've already had quite a bit."
"Could you make sure my sensei gets a refill too?"
"I'm fine, actually, I think I've had—"
"Are you saying you can't keep up, Aizen-sensei?"
"...?"
Silence.
Brief, specific, charged.
Aizen leaned forward slightly, expression doing something complicated.
Excuse me?
"Are you saying you've had enough, Aizen-sensei?"
Matsushita Yusuke repeated it. Softer this time, tone carefully neutral. Because he was not, in fact, suicidal. He'd said it once, it was already out there, and whatever came next was going to come next regardless. Might as well see it through.
A moment passed.
Then the corner of Aizen's mouth curved upward.
Slowly. Deliberately.
Ah.
So that's how it is.
He picked up his sake cup, tilted it slightly, and spoke in a light and entirely pleasant tone.
"I suppose I still have some reserves left. Let's keep going then." A pause. "Actually — hold on."
He raised one hand and redirected the incoming order.
"Could you bring us a Kuroshima Kiri instead? Thank you."
The server returned with a large bottle.
The label read: 69% ABV. Small-batch craft distillation.
Matsushita Yusuke looked at it.
Then looked at Aizen.
Aizen poured himself a measured half-glass, rested his chin on one hand, and watched Matsushita Yusuke with an expression that was doing most of its work in the eyes.
"Your turn, Matsushita-kun. Not feeling up to it?"
No going back now.
"After you, Aizen-sensei."