[Scene opens – Rekikan Outer Ring: The Trial Grounds, just before sunrise]
The sky in the Rekikan never truly brightens. Instead, it glows—dim, eternal twilight caught between night and day. The Trial Grounds were a circular arena carved into the bones of a slain spirit beast. Ghostly flame pillars circled its edge. Ancient. Unforgiving.
A hundred initiates stood in silence, surrounded by observing upper-classmen, Soul Knights, and the Twelve Captains themselves.
Jin Kuroya stood near the back. Hood up. Renzai pulsing faintly beneath his jacket, like a heartbeat waiting to be unleashed.
Tsukiko stood beside him.
"Don't die. I don't have time to drag your half-corpse back through the veil."
"That's your version of 'good luck'?" Jin muttered.
A deep rumble echoed from the center of the arena as the ground split open. From the depths rose a floating monolith covered in ancient glyphs, blood seals, and cracked memories.
"Initiates," a voice echoed from all directions. It belonged to Captain Raizen Kujo, head of Division Four and Master of Judgement. A man cloaked in chains, eyes covered in soul-cloth. "Welcome to the Trial of Worth."
"Each of you will face a fragment of your soul—your darkness, your guilt, your weakness. If you survive, the Rekikan will recognize you. If you falter, you will vanish into the Veil."
---
[Scene shift – Jin's Trial: a mirror dimension]
The moment Jin stepped into the monolith's light, the world warped.
He opened his eyes… and found himself standing in his childhood bedroom.
Everything was just as he remembered. The cracked posters. The stack of old manga. The ashtray his father left on the windowsill.
But then he saw him.
Another Jin.
This one sat on the bed, eyes empty, body bound in chains made of regret.
A shadow hovered behind him, massive and shifting—a monstrous Yomurei that resembled a twisted version of his mother, hollow-eyed, screaming silently.
"This is you," the chained Jin said. "The part you buried. The one who ran from guilt. The one who still believes it was his fault she died."
Jin froze. "Shut up."
"She died because of you," the chained Jin said again.
"You ignored the signs. You didn't speak up. You let it happen."
The Yomurei surged forward.
---
[Battle – Internal Trial, Soul vs. Guilt]
Jin barely dodged. The thing moved like smoke with claws. Its screams tore through his ears like knives. Every hit it landed made the guilt grow heavier. Like gravity. Like chains.
He dropped to one knee, vision blurring.
"This is who you really are," the chained version whispered in his ear.
"Weak. Broken. Pretending to be strong."
Renzai didn't appear. Not yet.
Until—
Jin clenched his fists. Blood dripping.
"Maybe I am broken," he muttered. "But I'm still here. Still standing."
"And I choose what I become from this point on."
BOOM.
Crimson flame erupted around him.
Renzai appeared in his hand—sharper, longer, glowing with furious soullight.
"I don't need to run anymore," he roared. "I'll burn the past down if I have to—but I'm moving forward."
He slashed.
One clean strike.
The shadow shattered.
The chained Jin looked up one last time—then smiled faintly before vanishing.
---
[Scene shift – Trial Grounds, moments later]
Jin emerged from the monolith, stumbling, sweating, shirt torn open, Renzai still glowing in his hand.
All eyes locked on him.
Tsukiko blinked.
"…Four minutes."
Renya Daze whistled from across the crowd.
"Yo! That's gotta be a record."
Captain Raizen narrowed his eyes from above.
"…Interesting."
But in the highest seat—shrouded in smoke and fog—a hooded man watched the boy intently.
"Jin Kuroya…" he whispered.
"The Crimson Soul stirs again."
---
[Final scene – Later that night, alone in the courtyard]
Jin sat alone under the glowing sky, Renzai resting beside him.
The blade pulsed once. Whispered faintly in his mind.
"We are one now. But this is just the beginning, bearer."
Jin looked up at the stars.
"Yeah. I figured. Bring it on."