Chapter 010: A Shinigami's Three Jobs
Honestly, the Rule type was the one Matsushita Yusuke was most excited about.
Not just because abilities in that category tended to have far-reaching effects, but because he was already thinking ahead to the later stages of the story.
Ichigo Kurosaki's whole arc ran on the principle of hitting things harder than they could hit back, and that worked fine for him. But that didn't mean Rule-type abilities had no place. Haschwalth from the Wandenreich, Uryu Ishida's power set, both were perfect examples of how a Rule-type ability was the optimal tool for handling weaker opponents.
And even against enemies who completely outclassed you in raw strength, a Rule-type ability left room to maneuver in ways nothing else could.
He stood there turning it over from every angle, scratching his head, and in the end he exhaled quietly and let his hands drop.
No restrictions. Not a single one.
Because looking at the category as a whole, Rule-type abilities essentially had no bad outcomes. Any one of them was usable. Every single example was genuinely strong.
With all five categories finally configured, Matsushita Yusuke briefly considered setting parameters for the Zanpakuto's appearance too. Then he thought about it some more and dropped the idea.
Not knowing what it would look like was its own kind of fun.
As long as it doesn't come out looking completely ridiculous, I'll take whatever I get.
By the time he finished all of this, three months of his Academy life had already passed.
He was sitting in a general lecture hall one afternoon, listening as the instructor at the front ran through the upcoming curriculum changes.
"For those of you pursuing the path of a Shinigami, I assume you've already made your peace with what that choice involves. Going forward, we'll be covering the actual duties of a working Shinigami in detail, so you can start familiarizing yourselves before graduation..."
As mentioned before, Academy students were expected to lock in their career track early and start building toward it. Matsushita Yusuke's track was Shinigami, obviously.
So this lecture was mandatory listening.
Though the way the instructor phrased it sounded like more of a headache than expected. Not just coursework but actual fieldwork too? Shin'o Academy was remarkably practical for an institution of its prestige. No ivory tower nonsense here.
An internship.
The word that inspired such deep dread back in university, and apparently the Shinigami world had its own version waiting for him.
At least they didn't ask for a reference letter.
And honestly, front-loading practical experience made sense given the job. In the original story, Rukia heading out to the living world on a routine assignment nearly got her killed by a run-of-the-mill Hollow. Granted, there were probably forces behind the scenes nudging that situation along, but by any reasonable standard a Shinigami working alone in the field had to be able to hold their own.
Getting field experience early was good for everyone involved.
"So, in practical terms, there are three areas we as Academy students need to start working on."
The instructor, glasses slightly askew and looking like he'd rather be somewhere else, turned halfway toward the blackboard and tapped his pointer against the text he'd written.
"Soul burial, guiding the dead, and maintaining the balance of the three worlds."
"...???"
Matsushita Yusuke stared at the board with a deeply puzzled expression.
Wait.
Where are the Hollows?
Isn't a Shinigami's job supposed to involve fighting evil and cutting things down? Which of those three did Ichigo Kurosaki ever actually do? (bruh ..hahahaha)
He caught himself immediately. That line of thinking lasted about three seconds before he corrected it.
The manga had always followed Ichigo, and Ichigo was not a normal Shinigami by any definition.
The guy hadn't gone through standard Shinigami training. His entire entry into the supernatural was the result of being maneuvered into it by multiple competing factions with their own agendas.
His background was absurdly complicated. There was a famous fan image going around of Aizen Sosuke, Isshin Kurosaki, and Yhwach lined up outside a window on Christmas Eve, each holding a gift for him.
The most mixed-blood individual in all three realms, and the perks that came with it.
Because Ichigo's starting point was so impossibly high, his story and the world it occupied were always situated at the absolute top of the food chain. He was never going to deal with anything ordinary. Even when he was technically a substitute Shinigami, Yamamoto made a point of keeping a living person out of Soul Society's internal affairs as much as possible.
Over time, using the manga as your primary reference for how Soul Society actually worked meant developing a very incomplete picture.
Once he'd sorted that out in his head, looking back at these basic job descriptions with fresh eyes, Matsushita Yusuke felt something click into place.
Right. This is just what life looks like.
"Take these handouts with you and read through them when you have time."
The instructor's pointer cracked against the blackboard hard enough to make a few students flinch. His tone sharpened considerably.
"These three areas are all required coursework from here on out. Make time for them and do not skip. This feeds directly into your end-of-year evaluation. Anyone who wants to actually graduate had better show up. Are we clear?"
It's a mandatory course. You act like it's calculus.
He filed the complaint mentally and moved on, flipping through the handout to get a rough picture of what each job actually involved.
Soul burial.
Escorting souls from the living world to Soul Society. Required moving back and forth between the two, which made it the most logistically complicated of the three duties.
Guiding the dead.
Connected to the above, but focused on souls that had formed naturally. People died constantly in the living world and their souls needed to be received, directed, and settled into Soul Society properly. The handout didn't go into detail on the specifics since those were covered in the fieldwork itself.
Maintaining the balance of the three worlds looked like the vaguest category on paper.
But broken down, it was actually the most straightforward.
It came down to one sentence.
See a Hollow. Cut it down.
"Hollows are malevolent souls driven by a powerful hunger. They consume other souls. The more they consume, the more the balance of the three worlds destabilizes. The battle between Shinigami and these creatures has never stopped, from the earliest days of Soul Society to the present."
Official explanation, by the book.
Matsushita Yusuke nodded slowly as he listened, turning it over in his mind.
Soul Society's explanation of Hollows was pretty surface-level. If he ever wanted the real picture, he'd have to get it from Aizen Sosuke.