Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


The pressure wave reached far and wide, incapacitating most of the town's people who stood outside the mansion, waiting for the news of what was happening within. Children and women, men and elders all fell down while the rest staggered around clutching at their bodies to keep them together. Only one man stood unaffected aside form the whipping of his ponytail in the god-sent wind that flew around him like a flock of frantic birds. Hoji Araijin stood above the chaos, peering hard into the sky and snorting loud his nose.

"Might rain later" Hoji noted. He seemed not to notice the pressure, despite the nosebleed that it brought on he was sniffling away. "Tch, damn. That's gonna make walking back home a bitch." Another long drawn snort. Hoji placed his hands in his pocket and moved for shelter. He didn't want to get rained on.

Meanwhile, inside the mansion, the fight broke out in a surprising explosive fashion. Guy was suddenly defending against the blade of a manically glaring Shin.

"Did you get stronger" Guy asked "all of a sudden?"

"Nope" Shin said. "I just decided not to screw around with you!" Shin kicked Guy in his gut and drove his toes up under his ribcage, reaching into his lungs and blowing the air out of them. Guy was thrown into the air where Shin gave chase, sword drawn over head. Guy blocked Shin's powerful blow and was sent to the ground where he bounced off the destroyed stone floor and spun until he hit the ground again. Shin landed softly, poised his sword forward and rushed. Guy struggled up and blocked Shin's attacks, finding a second wind of life in the relentless assault. He ran away from Shin as he blocked, keeping up his defense the whole time. He eventually found his way to the rushing, berserk Jin who was reeling his arms around for a swing. He left to the side, leaving Shin to slide on the ground to a stop and block Jin's berserk accidental swing.

"Watch it Jin" Shin said. "I'm on your side."

KYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!! Jin roared.

It seems Shikei began wisely that his pressure is overpowering his mind. He can't see straight, nor can he swing properly.

"That's annoying" Shin said. "I may as well get Suichi in here to help me fight!"

"Who was that?" Guy asked from the room away. Shin looked over and saw him with his sword in front of his eyes. Shin's eyes shot wide open and he flash-stepped to the side as the glaring beam just missed him. "I didn't think you'd bee that gullible" Guy admitted.

"Then why try?" Shin asked, landing and twirling his sword around his body. "If you know Death is coming why would you run?"

"How absurd!" Guy shouted. He jumped up and aimed once more through his blade, shooting multiple possession beams at a lively Shin who dodged each one and flipped away. "You actually believe that you are a true manifestation of Death?"

"I think" Shin said as he dodged "you call us 'Death Gods' in this region. 'Shinigami' is essentially the same thing, you know. I consider myself a God and I consider myself death. That's the only thing that makes sense." Shin was done dodging. He jumped up onto a wall and then blasted from the wall straight at Guy who still floated in mid-air. Guy blocked Shin's flying thrust and was pushed into the wall behind him. Shin came back, kicking off the air, and started attacking with chop after chop coming from all possible angles. His speed was hindered because of the power he backed the swings with in the attempt to simply sever Guy's head from his slender, immaculate shoulders.

"You shinigami" Guy began as he defended "are incredibly simple. You think, just because you have a few powerful assets in your army, you can take whatever part of the world you wish! Be it this region or the one next to it, the Imperial Dynasty or the 'Order of the Flying Mountains', you simply refuse to step down as a self-proclaimed 'dominating power!'"

"I'm not even affiliated" Shin argued "with Seireitei. Just Rei Unohana."

"Who?" Guy asked. Shin kicked him again, square in the face, pushing his head into the stone wall with pain. Shin fell down to the ground after that, unable to stay in mid-air, and began panting. Jin creapt up somehow and loomed over Shin like a tower of destruction, taking in a raspy breath just before raising up his one terrible butcher blade to strike with. Shin back-flipped over himself, caught the ground and jumped as far away as he could. He noticed Guy was gone and searched high and low around the broken room.

He saw a shadow retreat into the halls and gave it chase. "Hey Jin!" Shin shouted as he fled. He caught the crazy boy's attention and beckoned him to follow. "Let's get this son of a bitch!"

KAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! Jin roared in reply. They both gave chase to their fleeing opponent, unaware of who they were really chasing...


I've figured it out Suichi thought as he ran in a clumsy stumble. This Jin guy has an aura comprised of multiple elements. I could definitely sense a strong bond of Earth in him, but his aura as a whole was just a bombardment of all the other elements. There was fire, ice, water, air, even some of Shin's aura of Death. Jin is an incredible case. Perhaps he's the one we're after!

Suichi was right on the mark, although there wasn't anyone to acknowledge it. He slowed himself to a stop to catch his breath and looked through a doorway at the end of the long hall he just conquered. He finally saw it! Although it was littered with a myriad of either dead or dying bodies, the entrance was in plain sight, just across from the foyer! Suichi grinned happily and began calmly limping for the door. Then a blast of pure force hit him from behind and he went from the top of the stairs to the center of the floor below, unable to gripe due to the extreme exhaustion and strain that racked his body.

"You again!?" Guy shouted. He jumped away from Suichi and Suichi instinctively jumped up, although he couldn't fight. "Suichi, right? The assassin, I assume?"

"Dang" Suichi said sarcastically, "how'd you guess?"

"You're little friend Shin" Guy began with a scathing hint in his voice "has gotten you into a lot of trouble!"

"Oh, on the contrary" Suichi said. "I believe, in the long run, he's bound to save me from a lot of trouble. Hopefully not any time soon, of course."

"What are you saying?" Guy asked. "That man is a living burden! I'll prove it to you by killing you with all this rage he gave me!" Guy put his sword up to his eyes once more and cast a bright flash at Suichi, but Suichi was much smarter than Guy knew. He had replaced his body with that of a dead one lying on the floor and vanished. Guy spun around, catching a glimpse of Suichi with his blade held high in a back-stabbing motion, and swung at it. The vision vanished like a puff of smoke and the ground started to shake.

"Don't worry" Suichi said from the rafters of the ceiling he hid behind. "It's just Death and Madness joined together as an unstoppable monster of destruction. You can fight them, no problem!"

"I'll kill you all!!!" Guy shouted. He looked at the duel doorways that led to that long hall with building dread. The shaking and pounding was growing ever stronger as they, those two monsters, drew closer. Suichi grinned and held on for dear life. Finally, the rumbling stopped and the ground was still. Now the fear started building up as well. The blackness of the arched doorways became exaggerated through Shin's approaching aura and two faced came to light in the darkness.

The first was Jin's face, a twisted expression of murderous glee with his wide mouth in a horrific grin and his eyes sloped with more evil than even Guy could willfully muster. The five claws of hair over his face were spiked and angled like lightning, though the effect of the light on his face made them look more like disfiguring, bloody scars that somehow hung un the air around him rather than on his skin. Yes, his face was so terribly scary that even the air around him seemed to bleed, especially around his round, domed head where the blood pooled and formed at soft curls that clung close to his skull.

Then, in the opposite doorway, the glaring white eyes and dashing white teeth of the shinigami came from the blackness and moved out into the light, his short black hair rippling like fire off his head.

"What's wrong, mercenary-man?" Shin asked. He brought out from the darkness a weapon in his hands, a scythe, and flicked his tongue to lick his lower lip. His reflection in the blade came back as a menacing skull, both black eyes glaring down Guy from within the soul-killing metal. "You've got all the brains here, right? We're just a couple of berserk monsters looking for a flayed human carcass to devour. That's your approximate interpretation, I believe." Shin took a step onto the stairs. Jin smashed several stairs with a stomp. "Oh no, wait, I'm supposed to be an imperialist pillager who fights selfishly for an entire people, a militant officer of war in service to some distant-ruling figure-head. And what about Jin? Is he just some psychotic nursery case?"

"The crowing cock at dawn" Jin said with a shivering mad voice "sings only for me! Just for me!!!" Shin took a long, empathetic look at Jin from across the short stretch of room between them. Then he gave a single laugh as if to encourage him and turned back to Guy as he walked calmly down the steps.

"Actually" Shin said, "I'd agree with you on that regard. He is pretty damn crazy."

"Stay back!" Guy exclaimed, holding up his sword with a shaky hand. "I'm warning you!!!"

"It's funny, isn't it?" Shin asked. "I've done all your work for you, killed all your bandits that you were holding in the prison, beat some sense of war and struggle into your Regent and still, STILL, you refuse to let me take my only obliged dues."

"What!?" Guy shouted. "No! I'll kill you! Pompous fool! Ignorant bastard!!!" Guy fired his beam, improperly without an incantation, and Shin deflected it into the ground with a quick spin of his scythe around his wrist. He came slowly across the room, making his trek of a few seconds seem to be years long, all while Jin silently stomped his way over to the door to look at the sky he missed so much.

"It's all black" Jin said. "I haven't missed a thing."

"Jin" Shin called, grabbing his attention. Suichi looked away and braced himself. "You wanna see something...red?" Shin kicked Guy in the gut, then brought his scythe handle sharply down onto his head, forcing him to his knees. Taking no more time to appreciate the pain he put his enemy in, Shin spun his scythe around to pick up its speed and cleanly, effortlessly sliced Guy's head off his shoulders.


It was over, but something else began. Rain. Silver blades of water came down from the cloak of blackness overhead that was the stormy sky and rain began falling into the paralyzed city streets. What had started as a discrete rescue mission had become yet another log in the book of Shin Kenpachi's crime. An entire town brought to paralysis merely from his visit and a manically powerful monster released back into the world that sealed him away. Jin stood out in the rain and felt it for the first time in so long. His tucked his blades back into his body, pushing them through his clay-like skin and then drawing his bloodless hands back out. His bangs were pushed carefully away from his face, three to the right and two to the left over his curved ears, and he looked up into the sky.

"I missed it" Jin admitted. "Even though it isn't as pleasant as sunshine, I missed his."

"The rain?" Shin asked. His blade stayed perched on his shoulder, no longer a harvester but simply a blade so the rain could wash the disgraceful blood off before he sheathed it again. "Even to me it seems oddly nostalgic."

"Shin!" Hoji shouted. Shin snapped to attention and saw Hoji come jumping into scene, planting himself forehead-first at the ground before his feet. "I'm sorry, Shin. I disgraced myself and you!"

"How?" Shin asked. "Few things can phase me as long as you could win."

"I struck my opponent" Hoji began "when he could no longer defend himself. Pity my poor decision. I did the honorable thing and removed myself from the rest of the combat up until right now! It was the only thing I could do!" Shin took off his scabbard and hit Hoji lightly in the head with it.

"Bad" Shin chided. "Don't hit people if they can't hit back."

"I'M SORRY!!!" Hoji shouted, praying that he didn't start using his actual sword.

"Come on up" Shin said. Hoji immediately jumped to his feet and snorted back a clot of blood while Shin put the scabbard back in his waist belt. "That was disgusting" Shin said, regarding his snorting. Hoji looked down and away, ashamed of himself.

"Hello, Death" Jin greeted, kneeling down to Shin. He looked over at Hoji and smiled at him. Hoji picked up on his childish vibes and looked back, his face still marred with shame. "Hello, Death."

"Oi, Shin" Hoji began flatly, "this guy's kinda creeping me out."

"You'll get used to him" Shin said. "This is Jin. He's our orphan."

"Tch!?" Hoji grunted taking a surprised stance as if he were punched with no guard. "You serious!? This huge dude?" Jin smiled with his mouth hanging open and his eyes went beady. "When I think of a war orphan I think of a little kid, at least half my height, curled up in a corner growing mushrooms off his head from moping too much! What the hell is THIS!?"

"Don't act so surprised" Suichi said, fumbling his feet into position. Hoji was shocked to see the usually unscathed or at least slightly disheveled Suichi come into scene with dried blood all over his uniform and a painful sway in his stance. "There are such things as giants roaming around. I've killed one before. It ain't easy." The drain of energy finally caught up to Suichi and he passed out. At first he simply stood with his eyes rolled up but then as he began to fall forward Hoji stepped forward and caught his head on his shoulder.

"Dammit..." Hoji cursed. He hoisted Suichi up onto his shoulder and began walking after Shin who was already strolling out of town. "Dammit all to hell and back! I missed some good action!"

"Mr. Kenpachiiiii!!!" Jayce called. Hoji looked back and saw the regal boy running as fast as he could after the retreating spec of total blackness. "Mr. Kenpachi, please wait a moment!" Shin turned around and sheathed his sword, trying not to act hostile now that his job was done, and let the young ruler confront him. Jayce didn't get to start as eloquently as he wished as a sword got positioned to his throat.

"Can I redeem myself here, Shin?" Hoji asked, holding his sword in one hand and Suichi in the other.

"Don't be an idiot" Shin said. "Give Suichi to Jin. He's much bigger than you."

"Tch" Hoji scoffed. He tossed Suichi over to Jin who caught him and marched over with a still innocent smile on his face.

"What's up?" Shin asked. "We were just leaving, if you were after us for a proper banishment."

"Not at all" Jayce admitted. "Although I can't agree with any of your resolution methods, a great deed was done today, Guy Rose was a menace to our province and my hiring of him was the only way to bring peace to our border lands. I must thank you..." Jayce bowed down at the waist with a hand at his chest and one foot drawn back a step. The un-traditional bow perplexed the Shinigami and invoked a two-part harmonious head-tilt between Hoji and Shin. "...however, there is something I must ask of you before you leave."

"Really?" Shin asked. "What might that be?"

"I heard" Jayce began "you say that you work under Rei Unohana. I know of her, she researches Hollows in the woods some distance away."

"A distance and a half" Shin said. "Is that something that concerns you? Is she affiliated with an enemy of yours?"

"No" Jayce said. "There is...a certain Hollow that haunts me. It killed my sister and forced me into this position. I...I want you to find it and kill it if you can, and if you must use Lady Unohana to help you. It is not something as petty as revenge for me...it would mean my life if you could do this for me, even though I have nothing to give you."

"Done" Shin said. Jayce looked up in surprise to see Shin's back walking away. "You want me to kill a Hollow? Big deal. I kill them for fun. Regardless if there's a vendetta involved, that Hollow and every other one I see is as good as dead." Jayce felt solace finally sweep into his chest. The rain made his clothes heavy and close to his skin, and the cold sent heavy shivers through his body, but none of that concerned him. He knew that, in the vanguard of Shin Kenpachi, such a dream of personal triumph would be realized.

Then the rain reminded him of one important thing: Shin didn't know which Hollow would lift the burden from Jayce's heart, so he ran after them once more to remind them. Shin Kenpachi was reported from the Regent of Xierd Leek to have come into town during a mercenary uprising under the lead of former wanted bandit Guy Rose and took justice into his own hands. The captain of the guard, Kinden, was instructed to attest to it and had no problem doing so, though he made no official mention of Suichi. The steel cage remained in the dungeonous basement of the mansion as the crews of workmen rebuilt it, no one saying a word about it, as its contents were on the move through the forests back home.