Disclaimer: I own no copyrighted material, as usual.
Warnings/Notes: Not my best but I figured what the hell, at least it's something.
He had wasted all his time until their journey's end trying to bury shame. At first, every kill that became necessary was thought to purge the memory of his first murder. He danced with swords in the hope that putting enough distance between blade and blood would cleanse him of haunting memories. He would not kill for killing's sake, but he had never hesitated to end a life. Somewhere deep down he was counting the bodies, as unfathomable as it had been to recall his first kill was master, it was perhaps more unthinkable to pin Mugen as his last.
The younger was a shameless façade, covering scars with satire to strengthen a cryptic resolve. And Jin became acutely aware that there was no reason to kill someone who was more of a child than the female companion some four or five years their junior.
The only thing he had seen of greater magnitude than death was motive. People died in self-defense, in mercy, in loyalty. Sometimes, Jin knew, people died just because. But he would not be one to add to the pile of carnage atop which that flag flew. He had spent his entire life bearing the burden of one indecency, he refused to endeavor another because Mugen willed it.
When the time came he knew there would be no victor in the final fling of their swords. It was because Jin felt strangely determined to die with meaning, that he indulged the younger's whim of fighting for the sake of a challenge: as if the opponent's life was just part of a game.
And when he rose, aching, and dazed, and alive, he stood at the crossroads as Mugen's equal. Motives aside, he realized that bonds between two people meant abandoning thoughts of killing one another. His master had not cared enough for him to cast aside thoughts of killing for self-preservation, but Mugen valued him, in whatever way, enough to set aside the only need he had ever had – killing time with battles.
No matter how shameless the opponent – their draw is his greatest victory.