Crows x Souls

Chapter 261 – Settling Differences

“I was just taking a walk and I dropped by to tease you.” — Gin Ichimaru. 

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The faint whistling of a folklore tune was the open indication of Gin’s mood, which was a rarity in and of itself – that he expressed it, not that he was in a good mood – but fortunately for everyone not involved, Gin wasn’t particularly close with most people for them to be able to tell. 

As far as anyone else was concerned, someone was humming a tune, and that was it. The person was probably bored out of his mind since the inflections in the song were all out of tune. They would think along this line but would otherwise stay silent because they couldn’t find where the tune was coming from. 

Gin, or Black as what characterized by the mask he wore, remained unconcerned and capricious as was wont his nature and blew his tune away. 

If he were ever to be asked, Gin would happily say that his most loved part about being part of the 2nd Division was how free he could be most of the time. Even when compared to the rest of his group of cosplayers, he appeared to bask in the divine freedom of laziness, at least until the big boss of his particular circus gave him a new script to act out. 

He had it better than most, a fact he was intimately aware of and never failed to brag about, and as a ghost his interactions with other people were pretty much nonexistent. For a dead man walking, he was unfettered in his freedom and lack of obligations. Duties he had, but he smugly detached himself from any obligations that would form from it. 

Alas there was also a good and bad thing that came from his duties(duties only, not obligations) and that was secrets. 

Gin loved secrets. He loved hearing and knowing people’s secrets. What he never liked was being part of the secret. Thankfully it was a balance he knew how to navigate fairly well. 

He was feeling particularly pleased with himself on this day so he decided to do something that would make it more productive. 

His knowledge of particular secrets guided him all the way to a secret training ground. One of dozens that was spread all over the Seireitei. 

He hummed his carefree tune as he crossed the barrier hiding the entrance training ground and trailed over to the focus of his arrival. 

Other than the routine hobbies and personal gratifications, this was one of his favorite pastimes; pissing off Junpei, with extra points for how little energy he expended in doing so. 

He arrived at the training ground of this… training ground, and paused his good mood humming to whistle. 

“You look wrecked. That bad huh.” He chuckled and stepped into the open ground, walking towards the tired form of Junpei and Soi Fon. 

He knew the reason for their current disposition and while he expected it, seeing the result this clearly tingled his funny brain. 

“Well at least you made fun, I’m sure.” He chuckled to himself. 

“… We didn’t.” 

“Hmm?” 

Soi Fon looked at him this time with a silent screaming frustration in her eyes. “We didn’t.” She repeated. 

Gin blinked in confusion behind his mask and knocked on the side of his mask. “Okay, ya lost me.”

His eyes turned towards Junpei’s prone form that was looking up idly at the stalactites that were looming down at them. 

“We didn’t make it anything fun.” Junpei’s voice was devoid of the usual emotions it carried. It was an extremely rare sight to see Junpei being this cold and serious. Gin would confidently wager that it was harder to see a cold Junpei than it was to see the Captain smile. 

“There was nothing to do.” Junpei said, having no idea how unnatural Gin found him at the moment. “Somehow… somehow we lost the moment the fight started.”

It took all of a second for Gin to understand what happened, especially with what he knew of the man. 

“Ah, now I see it.” And that was how his good mood was slowly drained away. 

Gin loved knowing secrets. He hated being part of them. Despite his lackadaisical attitude, Gin was a ferociously tenacious individual, and it was because of how stubborn and enduring he could be that there was only one thing he wished he could forget. 

That Damned Hellscape. 

It was that moment that made Gin intrinsically aware of the difference between him and Itachi Uchiha. It was the same difference that existed between him and Aizen. 

However, unlike with Aizen where Gin could detach himself from it and even delude himself into thinking such a gap never existed, he couldn’t do so with Itachi. That memory was burned into the core of his soul. 

In that short instance a handful of years ago, Itachi had corrupted Gin in a way Aizen never could… and for that Gin could never forgive him, because he could never forget it. No matter how much he wished he would. 

He looked down at Soi Fon and Junpei and couldn’t help but envy them. They might have seen what he saw but he was certain they didn’t experience what he did. 

If it was the Gin from years in the past, he would have hated them from this moment forward, but now, with his mood gone and his fun absent, all he could do was sigh. 

He looked at them and sighed again and removed his mask, letting them see his face, and more importantly, the expression on it. 

This was why he preferred duties to obligations. Duties was what gave plausible deniability and it came with an illustrated guidebook – straightforward and precise, no double meanings to read through. 

Obligations… obligations were what made celebrated fools. It came with ‘trust’ and ‘I believe in you’ and lots of ‘do what you want’. It was chaos with persecuting intent and everyone accepted it because ‘that’s who you are’. 

Gin was no celebrated fool. And yet he opened his mouth anyway. 

“Don’t beat yourself up about it.” He started and soon chuckled, drawing their complete attention to him. “I’m sure he monologued about something along the lines of ‘the difference’ and ‘the staggering divide’. Haha, yeah right.”

Soi Fon sat upright and stared hard at him. “What are you saying?”

She was a sharp lass… maybe a little too sharp. He never allowed himself to show his back to her, no matter how casual he was with her. 

“I’m saying, buzzkill,” she twitched, but he ignored it and continued anyway, “that whatever distance between you and him only exists one way.”

He paused and his slanted eyes twitched when he saw that they still weren’t getting it. His eyes turned dead cold. 

“Stop putting him on a pedestal.” They flinched as if the words threatened them. Pathetic. And still, Gin continued speaking. 

“This distance you’ve conjured up that exists between you ‘n him, while it truly exists, is daunting because you only know of the distance between you and him. What of the distance between him and you?”

He took up his Zanpakutō and held it horizontally before them. 

“He has an ability that brought you low in an instant, that’s the ‘difference’ he has set between you.” His eyes gleamed. There was a cold satisfaction in them as if he was finally getting his revenge, in small parts. “He has his Sharingan, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. Those are his differences.”

He slowly turned his sword, still holding it horizontally but in the opposite direction. “You have Shunkō, Suzumebachi and Shichishito. Those are your differences. It’s simple really, and he already showed you how to.”

He smiled. A deceptive smile befitting a cunning revengeful snake. The honeyed words he spoke next were so delightful that he almost salivated for them. 

“You just have to repeat what he did with what you have. That very same pit in your gut is your goal. Stack and grow your differences to the point that you can inflict the same feelings in your equals.”

He returned his Zanpakutō to wherever he hid them and like flipping a switch, he reverted back to the ‘normal’ Gin they knew, all good mood and instigating. 

“Eh, just as simple as that. I don’t know why you’re so stunned when even first years know this.” He turned around to leave, mask back in place and radiating smugness with every step he took. 

“And what of your difference? How does it compare?” He stopped when he heard Junpei ask that and couldn’t help but smile as he regarded Junpei from the corner of his eyes. 

“Now, now, don’t be too eager. You’ll spoil everything if you’re this prude.” He tittered laughingly as he sauntered away. “Tata~” 

He continued humming his tune, once again basking in the slothful privileges of his freedom, and after deciding that he still wanted to do something productive today, especially after the letdown that Junpei and Soi Fon were, he marched his way through the 2nd Division while being hardly noticed by anyone and snuck his way into the boss man’s office. 

Surprisingly, the man was not at his desk but was instead sitting in front of a small table in the middle of the room and painting scribbles. 

“Doodling in our free time are we?” He dropped in front of the table and rested one hand on it to prop up his head. 

“Gin,” he smirked as Itachi acknowledged his presence even as his motions didn’t stop. 

Gin opened his mouth to speak but somehow Itachi beat him to it even with his slow drawl. 

“You have a way with words that can easily distract others if they aren’t listening. You teach despite not trying to tell them anything and you impart while trying to leave them confused. I thank you for helping them quickly understand what I meant.”

Gin’s befuddlement kept his mouth opening and closing behind the secrecy of his mask and he sighed dejectedly. 

“You’re no fun.” He drawled in mock offense and then continued in dry sarcasm. “Of course you were watching. How shocking.”

The crow painted in silence while the snake tempted it in silence. 

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