Crows x Souls

"We'll get stronger, Ken-chan. Together, let's get stronger. I know that Ken-chan is the best. So let's get stronger! You and me together." — Yachiru Kusajishi. 

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Kenpachi's laughter rang out like sonic boom and traveled through the buildings and the ground, bouncing and reverberating against each other. The result: snarls of demonic laughter that made anyone who heard it shiver.

Jin dodged under a narrowly close cleave, only for Kenpachi to use the force of the swing to turn around for a longer reach and, blindsiding Jin by the innovation, cut his left arm into two – from the knuckles down to the shoulders. 

"Stop running around." Kenpachi clicked his tongue in mild annoyance but overall still enveloped in his good mood. 

His body drank in the free Reishi and he was as good as new. He brought his two hands together as Kenpachi closed in on him and a huge cocoon of compressed air formed, twice Kenpachi's size, and slammed into Kenpachi before the raging bull of a man could react and sent him crashing into the ground where air bomb suddenly went off, completely destroying everything in and outside its radius. 

He knew that was not enough to kill a Captain but at least it should worsen his fighting ability, right?

A very thick ball of air covered him in preparation for Kenpachi's continual onslaught, and he was glad he did it because a few moments later a dense blast of Reiatsu clashed against his barrier and though he was pushed back the barrier stood. 

"Windestanz." Four baleful tornadoes swirled to surround Kenpachi but the Mad Shinigami had had enough as he cut all four tornadoes.

"Aren't you tired of these tricks?" Kenpachi sneered as he closed the distance between them, and upon seeing the wind barrier and knowing what it does, he still continued straight on until his Zanpakutō met resistance as it made contact with the wind barrier… before slipping in. 

Jin had to think of something and think of it quick because no matter what he did he couldn't defend against Kenpachi's blade. Attacking Kenpachi was the easy part as the man himself proudly encouraged him to do so.

He also did not miss the dark irony of his current situation: Kenpachi mostly attacked, almost never defending. He on the way was more focused on his defense than attack. 

He sidestepped the blade's pierce and tried to distance himself but Kenpachi suddenly grabbed his collar and kept him in place. He grabbed Kenpachi's hand with sharp wind blades covering his, hoping to shred the man's hands to bits but Kenpachi only smiled harder, not at all minding his shredded hand. 

"Down you go." 

The ground below caved in as the smokescreen from the crash slowly receded and revealed Jin struggling to get out of the rubble. 

SHLECK! 

Kenpachi's Zanpakutō stabbed Jin through, the latter having not expected something like this, only for him to roughly pull the blade out, gouging both his flesh and tearing open a geyser of blood. 

As Jin heaved and wheezed with intense pain shooting up every single nerve in his body, something called out to him to be used. The power he had sacrificed everything for.

The Jōkaishō was a Reishi generation machine that not only boosted his Reishi levels, but also converts the ambient energy to Reiryoku and gave him a special trait that allows him to naturally switch between the two sources of energy. 

He was saving the Jōkaishō and the well of energy inside it for the next day where he would use it to connect to the other Jōkaishō around the Seireitei and control them to blow up the Seireitei. 

But now that heart of energy was calling out to him to use it. He might die here otherwise, he reasoned. 

The moment he tapped into the crest of the Jōkaishō on the side of his torso, everything changed. It was so much purer. So much more potent. It was so so more. 

His red Reiatsu surged even higher and grew darker as it gained more weight. The wind from Messer vibrated excitedly and lightning bloomed. 

'This power is addicting.' He admitted as he felt it course through his body with fluid potency. 

"Hoh? Looks like you finally decided to go all out. Good. Very good." Kenpachi stood fearlessly in front of Jin's overwhelming Reiatsu without so much as an uptick of trepidation in his heart. 

"Your life will end here, Shinigami." Jin said. Lightning danced over him and meshed together like a net, woven tightly to catch a specific stubborn fish. 

"Wind and Lightning, at just this level? It looks like you still don't understand." Kenpachi stared at him and for the first few seconds nothing happened. 

Jin didn't know why he was paying attention to Kenpachi but that soon changed as he saw it. It kept flowing. It kept spreading. It kept growing. Very soon, it was all his senses could pick up – the monster named Zaraki Kenpachi and the haunting depths of his Reiatsu. 

Daylight dimmed and the gravity under their feet increased as Kenpachi let the full weight of his Reiatsu bear down on the world, something he rarely ever does. 

To Jin, Kenpachi was akin to a walking sun. A baleful sun that shone with dark omen. 

"Don't back out now. This is your chance to kill me. Make sure you cut deep enough, because I will." 

Jin no longer hesitated at this point. Cackling lightning and shrill winds formed around him. Messer was fully summoned – forming around his hand in the form of an ornamental pata sword hilt – and from its guard was a blade formed from compressed wind and lightning. 

Jin did not need to wait for Kenpachi. Like a shooting star, or a furious spirit, wind and lightning followed him and when they saw his enemy, they left him and went after Kenpachi with a furious howl. 

Kenpachi stood, unmoving and infallible, his grip around the hilt of his blade tightened and a deathly skull formed behind him, and when he raised his hand up, the darkness seemed to follow. 

The first to be cut clean through was the wind and lightning. They dissipated as soon as his blade neared them. He was Kenpachi, and his blade was #?&¿#?%, and there was nothing they couldn't cut. 

When Jin's blade drew close, Kenpachi's Zanpakutō was still in his travelling path and as soon as they clashed, it was over. 

There was no fanfare. No struggle between blades. No intense explosion. No contest between powers. 

Zaraki Kenpachi had cut through it all. 

"H-how?" Jin was on his knees with a lost and confused expression on his face as he stared at his hand and Messer… both of which were no longer there. 

"W-what have I done?" Horror joined the lost and confused expression on his face. Nothing made sense. He had been cut, he knew that, but this was much more than a simple cut. It was more like everything had been severed. His power, his determination, the Jōkaishō, Messer – everything had been mercilessly severed. 

He was already fading away. He could feel it. He turned to the man who had killed him and saw him walking away. 

"My name is Jin Kariya. I'm a Bount. We had been abandoned, betrayed, persecuted for no crime except for one; existing. I and the others like me who were lucky to survive kept on moving for two reasons: to live because we wanted to live since the only choice ever offered us was death, and our collective hatred towards everyone else who got to live freely – Shinigami, Quincy, Hollows, Humans – most especially Shinigami…."

Jin kept talking for reasons he couldn't understand. He said everything he could– as much as he could before he faded away. 

Maybe somewhere deep down, somewhere forgotten and abandoned, he just wanted people to listen. 

On that barren ground, a Shinigami walked away while the last words of a dying soul faded away. 

... 

Kenpachi walked aimlessly, no point or focus in his eyes, just going through subconscious motions for what felt like a while until something jolted him out of his unfocused stare.. 

He looked at his sleeves and saw that Yachiru had been pulling on them to get his attention for a while now, judging from rather long struggle line on the ground. 

She looked at him unsure, a cross between hopeful and hesitation, and bit her lips in an uncharacteristic way. 

"What is it, Yachiru?" 

She could barely look at him at this point, eyes darting everywhere but on him. She looked really nervous. 

"Did you hear what I said when I called you?" It was barely above a mutter that he missed almost everything she said. 

"Huh? Lost your voice or something?"

"Did you hear what I said when I called you?" She asked again, a bit louder this time but could still be called a whisper compared to her usual staccatos. 

Kenpachi scratched his head trying to remember if he ever heard her voice telling him something and ended up shaking his head when nothing recent came up. 

"I'm sorry. I haven't been paying attention. Mind telling me again what I missed?"

Yachiru blinked, apparently surprised, then shook her head with a soft smile. "It's alright, Kenny. It's not important if you can't remember. If it's important then you'll remember later." With that she climbed onto his shoulders with a cherry laugh, whatever her real thoughts were was something only she knew.