Chapter 032: A Thousand Years. Blood War.
Kishinoshin's delivery was blunt, but the actual practice of soul burial turned out to be considerably more involved than that implied.
The full ceremony ran across several distinct stages: the opening address, the formal proceedings, the sending-off itself. Multiple phases with their own requirements.
In the original story, watching Rukia tap a hilt against a forehead with a cheerful smile and call it done. That was the condensed version. All that actually accomplished was moving a soul to Soul Society. The full soul burial ritual, performed properly to send someone into the cycle, was a different process entirely. More involved. More layered. Matsushita Yusuke hadn't come in with any particular expectations on that front, so this was a genuine education.
And speaking of unexpected things.
The quest notification had been the real surprise.
[Quest: Learn one of the duties of a Shinigami]
[Profile: Soul Society serves as the great transit point for spiritual energy across the three worlds. Every day, thousands upon thousands of souls pass through. You are the most essential presence the three worlds have -- remember your purpose, your responsibilities, and become someone worth relying on.]
[Rewards: Shunpo +2, Kido +2]
By any reasonable standard, that reward was above what he'd normally expect from a classroom session.
But it matched the logic he'd been working with. Higher reward meant higher actual weight. The two things moved together.
What that told him, even from this one data point alone: soul burial was not a minor skill. Even after actually joining the Gotei 13, he'd likely have to put real time into this. It wasn't going to be background noise.
Worth taking seriously then.
The first group stepped down from the front. Kishinoshin flipped through the handout without looking up.
"Right. Second group. Anyone want to volunteer?"
The response from the rows below was enthusiastic to a degree that was almost alarming.
Hands went up everywhere. People called out over each other, apparently convinced that if they weren't loud enough they simply wouldn't exist.
Someone near the front stood up entirely and shouted at full volume:
"I'll do it, senpai!"
It's a practice session, not a marriage proposal. Settle down.
But the reasoning was the same as always. Impression points. The invisible accounting system everyone was quietly maintaining, and moments like this were currency.
Meanwhile, and Matsushita Yusuke was aware of the irony as he thought it, all these people chasing their employment prospects while the foundation of Soul Society needed building around them...
You know what, I want to go up too.
"You."
Kishinoshin pointed directly at Matsushita Yusuke.
"Come on up."
Having an existing relationship did, occasionally, make things more straightforward.
Matsushita Yusuke made his way out of the crowd and walked to the front under Kishinoshin's calm attention, and ran through a simplified mock soul burial ceremony.
The large man offered a brief explanation alongside it.
"Soul burial is one part of a Shinigami's core responsibilities. Day-to-day, specialists handle most of it. But think of it like the four combat disciplines -- you don't need to master it, but you need to know enough to function."
Someone in the group asked: "Why does it need to be that way?"
Kishinoshin looked at them steadily and gave a flat answer.
"Because in wartime, we don't have spare hands. Which means other Shinigami end up conducting the soul burial ceremonies for their own fallen colleagues."
Silence.
A specific kind of it.
Wartime.
For most of the people in that room, the word sat at an abstract remove. Something that belonged to history. The Thousand-Year Blood War was, by definition, a thousand years ago -- and the generation that had lived through it was down to almost no one. You couldn't understand what that kind of conflict had actually been without the memory of it, and the memory was almost gone.
So instead of alarm, what the room produced was something closer to uneasy puzzlement.
"But when would we ever actually go to war... there's no real threat to Soul Society."
"Right, no external enemy to speak of."
"Unless it was internal--"
"Some things are better left unsaid."
The room murmured around various conclusions.
Matsushita Yusuke, walking back to his seat, wore an expression that was doing something more specific.
War.
Forget the past.
The Thousand-Year Blood War in the original story -- the second invasion in particular -- was not ancient history from where he was standing. It was going to happen. A concrete future event, not an abstraction.
Yhwach. The Wandenreich. The Quincy.
Just thinking through the logistics of it was enough to put a cold edge on things.
The people in this room had no real frame for what was coming. Which made a certain kind of sense. The first invasion had worked because it was a surprise attack, plain and simple. If Soul Society had known in advance, if there had been any preparation at all...
The outcome could have looked completely different.
The second group finished and stepped down. Kishinoshin kept going.
"I know some of you are probably wondering about all of this in your own time. But that's not something I get to make policy on -- if you have complaints, take them to the Captain-Commander. Anyway. Next group."
The rotation continued, cycle after cycle, until roughly a third of the students had been through. By then class was nearly at time.
The turnout had been noticeably higher than expected.
The reason wasn't hard to trace. The previous field rotation -- Yoruichi Shihoin appearing out of nowhere and upending the whole exercise -- had put every student in the Academy on a different level of alert. Opportunities for direct contact with nobility were rare. Even a passing recognition, a name remembered, could theoretically matter later.
Which made it genuinely disappointing that today was only Kishinoshin.
The odds of pulling a Yoruichi Shihoin were apparently not in anyone's favor.
"I was planning to get everyone through today, but the enrollment was higher than I expected." Kishinoshin paused, expression moving through a brief calculation. "I'll move the mock setup down to the first-floor conference room."
He thought it through out loud.
"I'll leave the equipment there for about two weeks. Anyone who wants more practice time can come in and use it. Bringing other students along is fine too."
One condition.
"Be careful with the instruments. This is shared equipment for the duration, and I'd appreciate it if everyone treated it accordingly."
Even improvising, Kishinoshin's ability to organize a situation and make it functional was consistent. It showed up every time, even in the small moments.
"Alright. That's everything for today."
Class ended.
Matsushita Yusuke fell into step behind Kishinoshin as they moved out of the room.
At the corner of the corridor, Kishinoshin turned and looked at him with an easy smile.
"Matsushita-kun. Have you had a chance to think it over?"
He'd already talked it through with Aizen. There was no hesitation left.
Matsushita Yusuke grinned and looked up without ceremony.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd show me the way, Kishinoshin-senpai."
"Good answer."
Kishinoshin had already formed a positive impression of the kid. Getting the chance to work with him more regularly was something he was genuinely pleased about.
"Go get your things sorted. Let's meet at the Academy gate in half an hour."
He held up the document folder tucked under his arm -- off-campus instruction had its own required procedures, a set of fixed steps before the work officially counted as done.
Matsushita Yusuke nodded.
"See you then, Kishinoshin-senpai."
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