Chapter 031: What Kind of Physical Last Rites Is This
The conversation had turned, naturally and without anyone steering it there, toward something that actually mattered.
Aizen Sosuke crossed his arms over his chest and considered.
He looked, for all appearances, like a man who was genuinely thinking it through.
"If Matsushita-kun is asking for my opinion, I think joining would be perfectly fine."
The reasoning was simple.
"From where things stand right now, the arrangement doesn't have any real binding obligations. It's purely a matter of enjoying whatever resources Yoruichi provides, isn't it?"
Matsushita Yusuke nodded.
"Theoretically, yes."
"Then that's already enough."
Aizen smiled, adjusted his glasses with one hand, and spoke in his usual unhurried tone.
"It may sound a little blunt to put it this way... but for Matsushita-kun, at this stage, seizing every available opportunity to improve yourself is the most important thing."
He freed his right hand, index finger slightly raised, and tapped it once against his left arm as he thought.
"We Shinigami have long lives. But thinking too far ahead is rarely useful. The work itself carries real risk."
And besides.
"The Shihoin family is one of the four great noble houses. To put it plainly, even the scraps that fall through the gaps for them could be genuinely valuable to Matsushita-kun."
Matsushita Yusuke understood this completely.
Like a whale feeding. One pass and it filters through more krill than you could count. What falls through the gaps is already enough to fill an entire school of smaller fish.
Aizen's opinion was, to say the least, remarkably practical.
And in truth, Matsushita Yusuke's own thinking wasn't far off.
You didn't turn down free resources. That was just basic sense.
The only real consideration was that his long-term goal was still joining the Standing Above Everyone Else Club. Which meant keeping too much from Aizen at a moment like this wasn't the right call.
Honesty, after all, was its own kind of damage output.
"So Aizen-sensei thinks it would be fine for me to join?"
"Yes, that's my view. Take it for whatever it's worth, Matsushita-kun. And also..."
Aizen visibly hesitated for a moment. Then, after a beat, he smiled and continued.
"To be honest, some years back I received a similar invitation myself."
"...Sorry?"
Yoruichi Shihoin had invited Aizen Sosuke to join her personal unit?
What kind of alternate history was this.
"The Shihoin family keeps close watch on anyone who shows exceptional ability during their Academy years. Bringing in these rising stars while securing their goodwill. That sort of thing is more common than people tend to assume."
Having opened the subject, Aizen continued without holding back.
"Among Soul Society's four great noble houses, each has its own particular strengths. The Shihoin family is the most open of them all. The current head has a noticeably forthright style, which has generated no shortage of gossip over the years."
Matsushita Yusuke found himself nodding along.
Yoruichi's approach was genuinely far removed from how most nobles carried themselves. A reputation like that was hardly surprising.
But what he was actually more interested in right now was something else entirely.
"What did you say when they asked, Aizen-sensei?"
"Me?"
Aizen's gaze dropped. He was quiet for a moment, something moving behind his eyes that read as genuine reflection.
After a few beats of silence, he pressed his lips together and spoke with a quiet smile.
"I declined."
No surprise there.
Given Aizen Sosuke's personality, accepting an invitation from anyone had never really seemed like his kind of move.
"There was someone there I didn't particularly get along with... but that's all old history. Bringing it up now just makes for a mildly embarrassing story."
He shook his head, still smiling.
Matsushita Yusuke caught the subtle shift underneath the words.
Someone Aizen would actually describe as someone he didn't get along with. Search the three worlds for a candidate and there was probably only one.
Kisuke Urahara.
In the original story, Aizen had gone off at full volume right before his sealing, years of compressed fury finally finding an exit. And through the characters themselves, the story had established that Urahara had conducted his own independent research into the Hogyoku, and had done so before Aizen, arriving at the same truth entirely through his own methods.
The Soul King, pulling invisible strings over everything.
Two people who had walked far enough to see the same thing. And they had made completely opposite choices.
Aizen Sosuke had chosen to fight. Kisuke Urahara had chosen to stop.
In the original story, Aizen's breakdown in the moment his plan collapsed was understandable on its own terms. But that particular anger, the feeling of watching someone who could have stood beside you choose to walk away, that was something else. A different kind of wound entirely.
"Urahara Kisuke, I despise you."
That line. Which was, in all probability, the harshest thing Aizen Sosuke had ever allowed himself to say directly to another person.
"So I..."
"Matsushita-kun doesn't need to follow my example."
Aizen seemed to understand completely what was coming. His expression softened fractionally, voice coming out level and unhurried.
"I have my own convictions and my own way of seeing things. Matsushita-kun has his own particular perspective. That distinctiveness, the way you think, is the most valuable thing about you. Hold onto it."
With that said, pushing the point any further would have felt forced.
Matsushita Yusuke ran through everything quickly and arrived at the same place.
"I understand. Thank you for the advice, Aizen-sensei."
"Not at all. Whenever Matsushita-kun has something he's uncertain about, I'm always happy to talk it through. So whatever it is, whenever it comes up, just reach out."
That was, honestly, genuinely warm.
Having made up his mind, Matsushita Yusuke nodded and took his leave. They agreed to meet again next week as usual.
Aizen watched him go, then turned and began gathering the things on his desk.
Maybe it was a misread. Or just the effect of having let his guard down more than usual lately. But Aizen Sosuke couldn't quite shake the feeling that these weekly meetings had become, without him ever particularly noticing, one of the few things he actually looked forward to.
Was it the conversations themselves? Or was it simply that the person sitting across from him was Matsushita Yusuke?
He considered it for a moment, then let the question go without pushing it further.
Either answer was fine.
The next day. Class.
Matsushita Yusuke arrived on time.
The session had rotated to soul burial. Everyone was in the rows below, watching Kishinoshin work through the handout at the front, pausing every so often to pull a student up for a live demonstration.
"The core of soul burial is giving the dead their peace! We are, technically speaking, not entirely unlike them ourselves... but there will always be those who linger. Who can't let go. When that moment comes."
SMACK.
He brought his hand down on the desk hard enough to fill the room, voice carrying to every corner without effort.
"Sending those people on. That is our responsibility!"
What kind of physical last rites was this.