Chapter 284: We Have Objections
Matsushita Yusuke rubbed the back of his head with a look that said he had several things to say and couldn't say any of them.
"I didn't -- don't just say things like that."
Hitsugaya's response was a single, completely flat eye-roll.
"Fine, your personal life is your business. I'm not getting involved." He stepped forward and let the topic go in the same motion. "Back to the actual matter."
He came to stand beside Matsushita Yusuke, eyebrow slightly raised, and began ticking through an itemized list.
"Zaraki Kenpachi pursued a defeated opponent in violation of tournament rules, made an unauthorized attack on the tournament referee, then initiated a second confrontation with someone outside the tournament framework, and then--"
Point after point.
Methodical. Precise. Hitsugaya delivered it with the particular quality of someone who had been keeping track this entire time and was now presenting the evidence in proper order.
He closed the summary the way a gavel comes down.
"That's at least six separate violations. As captain of Squad 10, I'm not in a position to ignore the harm caused by his conduct."
Squad 10.
As had come up before -- also designated the Imperial Guard -- the squad carried specific institutional authority, including the power to formally categorize criminal conduct.
Of course, any actual judgment and sentencing beyond that required a different process: formal holding in Squad 9 custody, followed by a full hearing before Central 46. That was what a final ruling looked like in the technical sense.
But Squad 10's assessment still carried weight as a reference point -- it fed directly into whatever determination came after.
Matsushita Yusuke had served as acting captain long enough to be reasonably familiar with the process.
Right now, though, his attention was on what Hitsugaya had actually said.
"Seriously? You're actually going to pursue this?"
He leaned his upper body forward and dropped his voice to something close to a whisper, the tone of someone trying to slide something under the table without making it obvious.
"Come on, cut him some slack. What if we just called it even and moved on?"
The situation was genuinely flexible. Everyone involved was essentially family -- and apart from Matsushita Yusuke himself, nobody had come away seriously hurt.
In theory, this was exactly the kind of thing that could be quietly filed away with no further action. Look the other way once, close the file.
"Old man Yama hasn't said a word about any of it -- what do you think?"
Yamamoto's position carried its own signal value, and the old man was currently peeling a sweet potato with the air of someone who had completely stopped caring what happened next.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been enough to let the whole thing slide without consequence. That should have been the end of it.
It was not going to be the end of it.
"No. I disagree."
Hitsugaya kept his arms crossed and stood exactly where he was, letting his gaze travel toward the distant shape of Zaraki on the ground.
The expression in his eyes wasn't trying to hide anything.
"I've had a problem with this guy's attitude for years now. He refuses to be managed, he won't be corrected, and I genuinely thought that after all this time he might have improved at least slightly."
He hadn't.
"His behavior has actually gotten worse. As captain of Squad 10, I am not able to overlook the kind of disruption he causes. Captain Matsushita -- I think he needs to face some actual consequences."
So the consequence was jail.
Considering that during their time at the Academy, Old Eight had not exactly gone out of his way to avoid provoking Hitsugaya -- there was some history between these two that went back further than today.
"Let me ask you something first -- you're not doing this just to settle a personal grudge, are you?"
With Hitsugaya's personality, that kind of thing shouldn't have been in the mix.
And yet the small white-haired captain turned his head to the side and said nothing, which was its own kind of answer.
Hold on.
"Look me in the face and tell me there's no personal grudge involved. Can you actually say that?"
While this exchange was running its course, Matsumoto Rangiku appeared from the direction where she had been managing things at a distance, directing Squad 10 members through the general cleanup. She made her way over.
In terms of appearance, the ten years had left her essentially unchanged. If anything had shifted at all, it was in the details -- today, for instance, she had not kept her usual style. The long hair was gathered up and arranged into a neat, round bun at the back of her head.
It made her look considerably more put-together.
Given the nature of the day's event, the change had probably been deliberate. Looking like someone in command required a certain amount of looking like someone who had made an effort.
She read Matsushita Yusuke's silent gesture the moment she arrived -- tell him he's wrong -- and stepped right in.
"Captain! However you look at it, this is going a bit far, isn't it? The guy's brain is half-scrambled -- what's the point of locking up someone who can barely string a thought together right now?"
Not far away, Yachiru, who was still crouched beside Zaraki monitoring his condition, heard this, drew her head back slightly, and looked over with an expression that communicated having quite a few feelings about it.
It was blunt. It was also not exactly wrong.
Matsushita Yusuke had been about to make another attempt at persuasion when a hand landed on his shoulder from behind.
"Captain Matsushita. I think Captain Hitsugaya's position is correct."
He half-turned. Gin Ichimaru was standing behind him, hand resting on his scabbard, expression serious in a way that left no room for interpretation.
"With you away from the squad recently and Vice-Captain Soifon on leave -- honestly, Zaraki has been getting a little out of hand."
A short pause. His gaze moved toward Zaraki. His tone gained just enough additional weight to make the point land cleanly.
"I've been putting up with a lot as his de facto supervisor these past few weeks. So on both professional and personal grounds, I think it's time he learned something from this."
When it came to internal squad operations, Matsushita Yusuke genuinely didn't have much standing to overrule.
He let out a quiet, slightly pained sigh.
"So both of you are saying you want him locked up for a few days to knock some sense into him."
"Yes." Both at once.
Zaraki, what is wrong with you.
The three of them had spent years as the core of the same squad -- a relationship that was supposed to be about pushing each other and building each other up. And yet somehow this man had managed to turn what should have been a unit into a two-against-one situation where his own closest colleagues were the ones lining up against him.
In the original story, Zaraki had always been something of an outlier -- his personality made Squad 11 what it was, distinctly itself, operating in its own way. That was expected.
But on this timeline, with Matsushita Yusuke actively shaping the squad's culture for decades, this particular man had somehow still managed to collect enemies faster than friends when it came to the people he worked with every day.
Zaraki's social skills had a hard ceiling, and it seemed like that ceiling was not going anywhere.
When it came to actual combat, he could think when he needed to. In every other area of life, the wall was permanent.
There was no point continuing to argue. Doing so would only make it look like Matsushita Yusuke was playing favorites, and that was a worse outcome than just accepting the result.
Fine.
It wasn't as if the man needed to pass any kind of qualification exam. A few days in a cell could only improve things.
"All right. I understand. But one condition."
He glanced around to make sure nothing else needed his attention, confirmed nothing had been missed, and added the one stipulation he actually cared about.
"Wait until he wakes up before you tell him. Can we do it that way?"