Chapter 112: Shinigami Stardew Valley
A ghost coming to collect on a life's debt also gets a forecast these days?
It sounded absurd, but Squad 11 was not a normal organization, and Matsushita Yusuke had long since adjusted his expectations accordingly.
So in two to three days an older woman was coming to check the goods. He rubbed his slightly sore cheek and shook his head.
Things really do just keep coming. One after another, no end in sight.
But the complaint was brief and the dislike wasn't there. Wanting to achieve something meant needing more training and more tasks. That was the deal.
Time waits for no one.
If he dragged his feet here and fell behind there, and then Aizen started making his move while Yusuke was still a half-assed practitioner: that would be a real problem.
After signing everything, he let out a quiet exhale.
As of now, at least, things had paused momentarily.
All that remained was handling the miscellaneous matters inside the squad.
He was thinking this through before he had even risen from his seat when a familiar notification appeared.
[Manage Your Squad 11]
[A qualified captain is not only strong but also a qualified management expert... Your predecessor left a disaster, but you cannot do that. Starting now, run your squad in an organized manner. Greater renown and earned respect await.]
[Management Quest]
And then a second screen:
[Note: Management quests provide long-term, abundant, multi-faceted rewards. Pay them sufficient attention and go all out.]
Looking at this quest, Matsushita Yusuke's expression went somewhere complicated.
He involuntarily let out a small surprised sound.
Because the display format was strange.
Not only did it have no specific reward listed, but the text color itself was different from anything before.
Orange. Why orange?
And it had a separate category label: Management Quest.
The moment that registered, everything clicked.
This was a new quest system.
Not the same as regular quests. Not the faction quests that paid out heavily but only once. Not achievements. This was clearly a special system that only unlocked after becoming a captain-level figure.
He had been only mildly interested a moment ago. Now he was paying full attention.
This was not a burden.
If anything, it was the opposite. For Matsushita Yusuke, this was a gold mine.
A channel that could be continuously worked over long stretches for multiple types of rewards.
So this is what was waiting ahead. No wonder.
He had been paying attention to quest forms and reward-acquisition patterns for a long time now. Back at the Academy: attending class worked. Slightly higher level: sparring with people. But continuing past that? The problem was that opponents had ceilings. The total number of people across all of Soul Society who could achieve Bankai was finite. Even if he sparred his way through the list, that wasn't a path to maxing out.
That had been a genuine concern. But it was apparently completely unfounded.
As identity changed, the paths to rewards changed with it.
Basic quests had always existed. They just needed the right triggers.
Understanding that, Yusuke's expression visibly eased.
Quests don't dead-end.
Going forward, with his identity changed, he just needed to focus his attention on management. And like back at the Academy with accumulated class time, he could pile up rewards gradually through the work of building something.
When he put it that way, everything suddenly opened up.
Though the system switching genres on him like this was going to take some adjustment.
How did I end up in Stardew Valley?
But honestly, not bad. Compared to attending class with no clear direction, this kind of construction-type development had a much clearer sense of progress.
He had originally planned to head out, but with the Management Quest appearing, he stopped in place.
He gave it a moment's thought, then looked back toward Sasakibe Chojiro.
"Sasakibe-senpai. There's something I'd like to discuss, if this is a good time."
The other man showed a cheerful smile without hesitation.
"Anything within my ability: I'll do my utmost."
"Regarding squad members. Do you have any suggestions?"
Right now, the most immediately difficult problem was recruitment.
Because Kijishi had effectively cleared out most of his own subordinates.
Though that had its upside. Yusuke wasn't particularly enthusiastic about restarting with Kijishi's old guard in any case. Those people were Kijishi's "elites," selected according to his own worldview from who knows where, and completely incompatible with what Yusuke was looking to build.
"Oh. That is indeed somewhat troublesome."
"After all, I'm not interested in working with whoever Kijishi left behind."
"Ha ha. He really didn't hold back when he cleaned things out."
There was a moment.
Speaking of Kijishi, Sasakibe found himself recalling the scene of the fight.
"By forcibly absorbing others' reiatsu and compressing it within the body, forming something resembling 'reishi armor'... the concept isn't bad, but his technique was too crude. The effect was never as significant as it should have been."
And then on that subject:
Sasakibe folded his arms and showed an expression of considerable reflection.
"We Shinigami actually aren't particularly skilled with that kind of thing. If you really want to talk about who handles reishi manipulation better, it isn't us, it's more like..."
He paused, then seemed to catch himself, and redirected.
"My apologies. Forget what I just said. Don't worry about it."
That only made it more interesting.
But even without the explanation, Yusuke could fill in the blank: the Quincy. Compared to Shinigami, they were genuinely more capable with reishi control, plus their Blut applications and everything else that came with it. The Thousand Year Blood War bore that out. Because the fighting happened on home ground, more than half the Seireitei had been torn apart in the process.
All of which was, of course, very much future history.
Back to the immediate situation: Yusuke still needed to think through where squad members were going to come from.
Follow Kijishi's method and scout directly from the Rukongai?
It sounded simple enough, and it could address the current shortage in bulk. But the reality wasn't that clean. Rukongai backgrounds produced wildly inconsistent talent. There were people worth noticing, like the late Miasa Susumu. There were also people who were, in the most literal sense, useless. Screening and filtering all of that would be a process.
After thinking it over briefly, Yusuke tried asking:
"Can I conduct public recruitment directly at Shin'o Academy?"
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