Crows x Souls

Chapter 260 – The Difference

Itachi slowly eased back into a rhythm that had been slowly becoming unfamiliar, making a conscious effort to pace himself through the waves of his official duties. He didn’t rush into it nor did he let himself think too much about it as he took little moments of the day to distract himself. 

It could be something as simple as staring at the clouds for a few minutes through his office window. The crows sensed the subtle change and like the very empathetic creatures they were, they adjusted slightly on their perch anytime they sensed that he was introspective. 

A week ago, he’d cooked and boxed a simple lunch for Soi Fon and Junpei, and though they were slightly surprised, they accepted it with a simple thanks and thought nothing of it. He didn’t box one for Yachiru or Yoruichi because Yachiru – one of her more esoteric senses going off most likely – showed up in front of his house the moment he finished cooking, joined him for breakfast and took off after coercing an extra lunch off his hands. 

As for Yoruichi, well he didn’t think much about boxing one of her, but she’d shown up in his office immediately he started eating and joined him without asking. She really lived at her own pace. 

As for what he was currently doing, he was frowning a bit at Soi Fon and Junpei in the midst of their spar. 

It wasn’t as if their skills were becoming rusty, the opposite in fact, but it was the fact that he had a few handicaps on himself. 

“I really don’t like that frown, you know?” Junpei said with a mental wince, standing beside Soi Fon with a casual stance and an easygoing attitude. 

Soi Fon ignored it and straightforwardly asked Itachi. “What is it?”

“One more exchange.” Itachi simply said, pushing her question aside for a bit. 

The two of them didn’t say anything or even look at the other before they rushed Itachi from the front. As they got close, Itachi’s eyes glanced briefly at the subtle hand gesture Soi Fon’s hands made, and then to Junpei’s fingers that twitched before his sword started travelling an expected path. 

His eyes had barely moved before they arrived in front of him, utterly focused on their actions, when he reacted; one hand went to Soi Fon’s to interrupt whatever it was she wanted to do, while his other swung his shrunken Zanpakutō into Junpei’s intended path. 

His hand was an inch away from grabbing Soi Fon when a Bakudō spell wrapped around his hand and sealed it in place from behind. His feet already kicked out at Soi Fon, faster even than his hands, and would've connected with Soi Fon’s midsection if she hadn’t aborted her actions and caught the kick. Junpei’s sword clashed with Itachi’s and locked it in place, but neither of their actions stopped there. 

Junpei and Soi Fon’s disguise wore off revealing their swapped positions and Junpei, in Soi Fon’s former position, thrust his sword at Itachi who was only standing on a foot, while a gale of wind covered Soi Fon’s hands in a controlled display of her Shunkō as she grabbed his hand and went for his head. 

His sword’s length extended but Soi Fon easily anticipated it and shifted the position of his hand and let the sword harmlessly trail past her. A fist and a sword; the two of them were dangerously close to nicking his skin but surprisingly the tip of Junpei’s sword was stopped by a thin, hardly visible, steel wire held in his mouth and connected to his foot in Junpei’s grasp. 

He narrowly avoided Soi Fon’s hands by a stroke of ingenuity that had the blade of his sword fading away and growing out from under the hilt. She didn’t appear fazed as she made an instant redirection of his wrist but that split moment was enough for him to lean his head in Junpei’s direction and dodged the Shunkō-clad hand. It wasn’t a flawless execution as a thin cut mark appeared on his cheek. 

A single exchange that lasted barely a second. 

They disengaged, the Bakudō spell sealing his hand fizzling out, as the two of them looked at him curiously. 

“So?” Soi Fon asked. 

Itachi ran a finger across his cheek and looked at the small trail of blood. 

In case it wasn’t obvious before, it appeared crystal clear now. They had the decisive upper hand in a single exchange and they did it flawlessly. They targeted both of his hands and restricted them tightly enough that he had to abandon them for an instant and use other methods to fend off their attacks. 

Soi Fon’s Shunkō-clad grip around his wrist arrested the limb in place quite strongly. 

“We’re escalating.” 

Junpei looked surprised, instantly understanding what he meant, and Soi Fon doing so a split second later. 

“Your skills are great. No need to focus only on it.” In other words, no more handicapping him in their spars. He would be fighting them in his full capacity as a Captain just like he does with Zaraki and Yoruichi. 

Their spars were mostly centered around skillful applications but with certain caveats, which was why he rarely ever used Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi in them — in other words, more skill and less power, mostly for himself than for them. 

They didn’t react much outwardly, merely taking a deep breath and nodding at him. They were already strong, no doubt about that, as they already had the skills that put them on par with most of the Captains, but it was the power behind it that was lacking, especially in Junpei’s case. His Shikai helped, but so did every Captain’s. 

So to them this was an acknowledgement bigger than most. Itachi, without clearly stating it, was telling them that their skills were more than enough to contend against him and he would henceforth be facing them without placing any previous limits on himself. 

They could hold their own skills against his, yes, but could their power contend?

Junpei tore his eyes from Itachi and looked down at his hands as he clenched his fists a few times. “Finally made it this far, I guess…. I don’t really feel that much different.”

“We’ll find out soon.” Itachi looked at Soi Fon who appeared thoughtful and slightly confused. “Soi Fon?”

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her name and sighed when she saw the two of them staring at her. 

“We’ll be fighting you the same way they do from now on. Guess I’m only just noticing the difference.” The ‘they’ She was referring to was none other than Kenpachi and Yoruichi and she couldn’t help but acknowledge the distinction. 

Sure, she and Junpei could hold their own against some of the Captains of the Gotei, she knew that, they knew that, but most of them couldn’t hold their own against Itachi skill wise. And even fewer of them – barely a handful – could hold their own against him in terms of power and the sheer scale of it. 

‘Kenpachi can. Lady Yoruichi can.’ She acquiesced silently. 

So what if she was already strong enough to be a Captain? It clearly didn’t matter if she couldn't fight on the same level as he and Yoruichi. 

“Don’t think too much about it.” He said almost as if he could read her mind. “It’s not an insurmountable gap. You’re closer than most.”

They were thinking on slightly different tangents as to where they thought they lacked the power, Itachi thought they already had it but needed to push it to the next level. 

However, just because his thoughts on it were simple didn’t mean that it was something they could bridge easily. Thousands of Shinigami could spend the next few centuries training and they wouldn’t be able to bridge the gap he wanted the two of them to cross. 

At this stage it wasn’t about mindset or determination or discipline. It was about nature, the essence of their souls, the depth of their Zanpakutō spirit, the synchrony between them, talent, luck, innate potential and a hundred different factors that they couldn’t interact with. This was something different. 

Something wicked was coming. He’d seen it in Hell. He’d seen it in how fast the seasons changed. He’d seen it in his dreams. 

While he couldn’t do anything about those, he could do something about this.

The two of them sensed the changes in his thoughts and confirmed what they already thought. This wasn’t simply about making them stronger. It was about making sure they were strong enough. 

“Get ready.” Those two words reminded them instantly of the now absent limitations. He would no longer be constraining his movements to a defined space. 

His eyes turned red as three tomoe spun in them and sweat trickled down their brows. 

Something was different. He had fought them with his Sharingan active hundreds of times. They had seen his eyes a thousand times. They had faced his illusions a thousand more. And yet something was different. 

There was a distinct change in tempo that they both could feel. 

Even his Reiatsu – something that they were intimately familiar with – flowed differently. 

“Let us begin.”

They had kept their senses peeled and their Reiatsu volatile in defense against his illusions should he try to use it against them, and yet they could only stare in horror as the world bled away and a crimson one took over. 

He decided to use this chance to teach them something simple, and to do it in a way that they were unlikely to forget. 

“Tsukuyomi.” 

It was a fairly simple thing and its importance would depend on how they understood it, and that thing was… 

The Difference. 

––––––

Patreøn*com/QuackVader

––––––