Chapter 160: Don't You Die on Me!!!
There's a famous piece of military wisdom that goes: "I don't understand why we keep losing." (That's not the right quote.) The actual one is this: before you take the fight outside, you settle things inside first.
Setting aside some external factors and analyzing the principle itself, there is genuine strategic weight to it.
Given that Hueco Mundo was going to be everyone's home base going forward, now that Soul Society had stabilized, turning attention to consolidating the rear made sense. Nothing wrong with that approach.
"Up until now, I couldn't find the time, and I had concerns about exposure, so I let the two of you operate freely. But now. The situation is different."
Aizen Sosuke took a small sip of sake, and the satisfaction on his face became visibly unmistakable.
Matsushita Yusuke couldn't help laughing.
You could say that again.
The entire Gotei 13 was now completely within Aizen's reach. In that situation, his ability to act was essentially unconstrained.
"I'm eager to see new horizons, though I understand the importance of not rushing things..."
Small sip after small sip. The smile on Aizen's face didn't fade.
The boss's satisfaction meter had to be completely maxed out today.
"Let's take three days. After that, we meet up and head out. And this time... we will resolve every remaining concern in Hueco Mundo in the shortest possible window."
A signal for a full offensive.
Considering how thoroughly Aizen eventually controlled Hueco Mundo in the source material, and the completion stage of the Arrancar forces, this timing probably lined up with the original story's trajectory.
Matsushita Yusuke nodded slightly, eyes showing focused thought.
The boss was about to begin his great Hueco Mundo campaign.
So what was in it for him?
He turned the question over carefully. The answer came quickly.
While the boss clears the map, find an ideal passive farming location.
His Hollow power had been crawling upward. The bottleneck was a combination of his own level and the limits of his environment. If he could break through those constraints, the rate of improvement went without saying.
"In these next hundred years, I at least need to get the alt leveled up properly.'
Set a broad goal. Work toward it from there.
Just like the Visored incident: complete the mission and quietly farm extras for himself on the side. That was Matsushita Yusuke's survival strategy.
He gave a quiet nod, feeling reasonably settled.
Then Tosen turned his head slightly, facing in Yusuke's direction without looking.
"Matsushita..."
The quiet address brought Matsushita Yusuke back to the moment.
Huh, what...
He wanted to ask that aloud, but caught Tosen's intent before the words came.
The line of sight.
Someone was watching them from not far away.
Who? Who had the nerve to spy on the Club right now, of all times?
Matsushita Yusuke turned toward the window, swept his gaze across, and caught the glimpse of a figure vanishing in an instant.
A thin silhouette, gone like a rat that had been spotted, quick and light and careful.
For a captain-level observer, this degree of "effort to disappear" was almost a little funny.
Brief pause.
Matsushita Yusuke stood abruptly and turned to Aizen.
"Aizen-sensei, should I handle this person?"
"Go ahead, leave it to Matsushita-kun."
Aizen answered almost before the question was finished, a faint flush of drink visible on his expression, voice carrying an unusually light, upward lilt.
"I already said this decision is entirely yours to make... since you've already reached a conclusion, I won't be stepping in."
So.
"Whatever you decide for him, Matsushita-kun."
Permission granted. Matsushita Yusuke gave a single nod and stood.
"Then... excuse me."
Flash.
In the instant shunpo activated, his figure blurred at the edges and was gone.
Tosen watched the direction Yusuke had disappeared in and held a brief silence.
"His shunpo has improved considerably from before."
In response to Tosen's observation, Aizen smiled quietly beside him, tone carrying the manner of someone reflecting.
"True talent won't be satisfied with simple forward progress... precisely because such people have a direction they're moving toward, they keep getting stronger. Tosen, you mustn't slacken. In this respect, look to Matsushita-kun as your benchmark."
There it is.
The boss's classic pressure-from-above management technique.
A normal employee would feel the weight of that.
But Tosen was different. He never let things fester internally. He simply applied the pressure inward and kept going.
Keep training.
"I have been too lax lately, Aizen-sama."
"It's fine... Tosen, I say this not to rush you, but to help you recognize your own weak points. We all have them, but filling them in and adapting to them transforms those weaknesses into strength."
The boss was full of life philosophy today. Not yet at the polished-aphorism level of later years, but the shape of it was clearly already there.
The exchange between the two wound down.
Elsewhere.
For the figure now sprinting frantically through the streets, this was a moment of acute and nearly unmanageable tension.
Not good.
Exposed!!!
Need to hide now. These people killed without hesitation, and they had connections running all the way through the system.
Before finding a solution, personal safety had to come first. Countermeasures second.
An exit!
He spotted the light at the end of a narrow passage, relief breaking across his face.
Just get some distance. Then blend into the crowd and completely disappear...
BANG!!!
A dull impact from directly above.
He arrived so suddenly that the person's body went involuntarily limp.
The force drove through the entire body, spread to every limb, and shut down every nerve at once.
Thud.
He collapsed helplessly to the ground, like a sack dropped from a great height, raising a small cloud of dust.
Two streams of dark red blood ran from his nostrils, looking considerably worse than it probably needed to.
Fading in and out, he could just barely register an unfamiliar voice from somewhere nearby.
"Huh? How did you start bleeding? I didn't even use any force... wait, you— oh no! Hey, don't you die on me!!!"
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