"Alright, alright."
Muten Natsu slid the constantly refreshing psychological guidance screen aside.
"What matters now is restoring my strength, adding new modules, tracking my physical recovery in real time, and pushing notifications the moment my skills become usable."
A new light screen appeared in front of him.
[Edit Module Activated]
[Recommended Templates Listed Below]
More translucent screens drifted around him.
It had been far too long since he last worked on the editing modules. Muten Natsu was genuinely out of practice.
Dragging panels clumsily and tweaking settings, he muttered in complaint,
"I feel like you're already a fully grown Zanpakutō. You should've learned how to edit your own functional modules by now."
[My power has not fully recovered]
[Compared to being mature]
[I am closer to being incomplete]
[Additionally, as the mirror of your soul]
[If you're lazy, I'm lazy too]
[Do it yourself]
[Live well and eat well]
[Don't trouble me with things you can do yourself]
[I won't shove my responsibilities onto you]
[If you're fine, I'm fine too]
Muten Natsu: "..."
[You've fallen into self-loathing again]
[This is a form of invisible self-harm]
[You need to accept that you are not perfect]
[And actively communicate with the positive side of yourself]
"I'm working."
Muten Natsu casually flicked the psychological guidance screen aside.
"Don't interrupt me."
[Avoidance will not solve the problem]
His hands paused. Muten Natsu turned his head and stared silently at the screen.
[Your emotional state is highly unstable]
[This will increase the degree of Hollowfication]
[Soul boundary continuing to collapse]
[Ultimately resulting in soul suicide]
Black cracks surfaced within the white space, spreading and branching outward.
[Psychological Guidance Deactivated]
Muten Natsu closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then continued editing the new module's functions.
He set parameters, pinched with two fingers, and resized the text boxes.
"I understand all the reasoning. I just understand it, that's all."
His movements gradually became smoother as several screens layered over one another, linking together and running tests.
"There's a huge gap between knowing and actually doing."
[I am currently unable to respond to your statement in a rational manner]
[Would you like to activate psychological guidance?]
A vein throbbed visibly on Muten Natsu's forehead.
"No, thank you."
[You appear to require psychological guidance]
"I don't!"
[Would you like to activate the tsundere response module?]
"I said no!"
At last, the functional module design was complete.
Lying back on the sofa, Muten Natsu opened his eyes, feeling drained in both body and mind.
Serves me right.
He reached out, picked up his phone, and dialed a number.
Gazing at the full moon beyond the window, he spoke softly,
"Urahara, I've got some procedures to take care of here..."
…
So cold...
Rukia's dirty little feet curled instinctively, her small body shrinking into a tight ball in Muten Natsu's arms.
Muten Natsu undid his patched shirt and wrapped it around her feet.
"Does this feel a little better?"
"...Mm." Rukia gazed at the snowflakes swirling through the air. "It's snowing so hard."
Muten Natsu lifted his head and looked at the thatched roof, already half collapsed under the weight of the snow. "If only I'd built the house a bit sturdier."
"But we built it together," Rukia protested as she looked up at him. "Are you trying to take all the credit?"
"Does a thatched hut crushed halfway by snow even count as something to brag about?"
Rukia corrected him seriously. "Half of it didn't collapse."
Muten Natsu chuckled softly. "Then next time, we'll build a better one together. We'll make sure the other half doesn't collapse either."
"Deal." Rukia reached out with her small hand, covering Muten Natsu's ears, red and frozen from the cold, and passed the warmth from her palm to him.
Snow filled the sky. Inside the half-collapsed thatched hut, Rukia nestled against Muten Natsu's soft chest...
Huh?
Rukia Kuchiki opened her eyes and found Orihime Inoue beside her, looking slightly troubled.
"M-morning..." Orihime Inoue's face was bright red. "Good morning."
"Good morning..." Rukia Kuchiki replied awkwardly, unable to meet her gaze.
She hadn't expected to dream of something from so long ago.
So long ago that she had thought she'd already forgotten it.
Even though they had made such a promise back then.
Seeing the gloom on Rukia Kuchiki's face, Orihime Inoue bit her lower lip and finally steeled herself.
"If… if you want, you can keep going!"
"Huh?" Rukia Kuchiki blurted out.
"Because you look really sad. If I can help at all..."
"No, no, no!" Rukia Kuchiki's face burned. "It's not because I want to keep going. I just had a dream... it was just a dream."
"I had a dream last night too!" Orihime Inoue said cheerfully. "I dreamed I was hugging Enraku while sleeping, and Enraku kept burrowing into my arms..." She suddenly realized something was wrong and coughed lightly. "Cough, cough! Oh no! I'm going to be late!"
After changing into her school uniform at top speed, Orihime Inoue stepped into the living room and saw Muten Natsu sleeping soundly on the sofa. She went into the kitchen, checked the refrigerator, and quickly prepared a simple breakfast for three.
Today's breakfast was yuzu pepper chikuwa onigiri.
"The food in the World of the Living really is fascinating," Rukia Kuchiki said as she carefully savored the citrus yuzu, the spicy kick, and the savory flavor of the chikuwa.
"I told you, not all food in the World of the Living is like this..." Muten Natsu took a big bite. "But this is actually pretty good."
"Only pretty good?" Orihime Inoue protested.
Muten Natsu took another bite. "Yeah. More than just a little."
"By the way," Rukia Kuchiki said, turning to him, "you're going to school today, right? I'm coming with you."
Orihime Inoue looked worried. "Wouldn't it be better for you to rest more?"
"My injuries won't affect my movement," Rukia Kuchiki explained. "But he took my power. I came to Karakura Town on a patrol assignment. I'm supposed to deal with the Hollows here and send them to Soul Society. Since I've lost my power, that part of the mission naturally falls to the one who took it."
"Borrowed," Muten Natsu corrected calmly.
"Are you going to return it?"
"...I've already had your transfer paperwork taken care of." Muten Natsu finished his onigiri. "You'll go to school with us today and report in."
Hollows were most drawn to souls with high spiritual density. Even after losing part of her power, Rukia Kuchiki was still far stronger than an ordinary soul.
And since the previous Hollow attack hadn't been a coincidence but a deliberate ambush, there was no way Muten Natsu would feel at ease letting Rukia Kuchiki act alone in her current state.
Travel between the World of the Living and Soul Society was troublesome for Shinigami, so there were shops in the World of the Living officially authorized by Soul Society. They provided items unavailable in the human world and helped handle certain procedures.
Even though they were officially sanctioned, the distance between the two worlds meant that, far from central oversight, these shops occasionally conducted transactions outside the strict bounds of spiritual law.
Even someone like Muten Natsu, who had left Soul Society through unconventional means, could still obtain help from places like these.