Ichigo Kurosaki arrived at the agreed meeting spot with a small toy airplane in hand, staring blankly at the bloodstain beneath a utility pole.
"Ah... so you really came, kid." An elderly voice spoke up behind him.
Ichigo Kurosaki turned around and saw the half-transparent ghost of an old man floating in midair. "Yeah."
Ichigo Kurosaki, fifteen years old, a first-year at Karakura High School, could see ghosts.
"I'm really sorry. That child disappeared," the old ghost sighed. "And that airplane... you went and brought it for nothing."
"It was just sitting in my drawer anyway." Ichigo Kurosaki lowered his gaze. "Better to give it to someone."
But the child he was supposed to meet here today was gone.
All that remained was the blood on the ground.
Whenever this happened, Ichigo Kurosaki was hit with the same sense of helplessness.
He could see souls.
He could touch them, talk to them.
But that was all.
He didn't know why they vanished.
He didn't know why there were bloodstains only he could see.
All he knew was...
There was nothing he could do.
"Sir, then how about I give you the airplane?"
"I don't want it." The old ghost waved him off. "I'm long past the age where I go 'whoosh' with toy planes."
"If you don't need it either..." Ichigo Kurosaki set the little airplane on the ground. "Then I'll just leave it here."
As something left behind in this world, it was at least better than a bloodstain.
And that was all he could do.
If he couldn't do anything for them, why was he able to see them at all?
Even in class, Ichigo Kurosaki kept turning that question over in his head.
If he couldn't do anything for them, what was the point of seeing them?
A faint vibration drew his attention. He turned toward the source, and his eyes landed on one of his classmates.
Natsu... or was it something like that?
Before he could fully recall the name, Ichigo Kurosaki saw something almost horrifying.
That classmate pulled out the vibrating phone, glanced at it, then slapped a hand against his chest.
In the next moment, another body dressed in black, a sword at its waist, slipped free from inside him.
Like something crawling out of a thick, sticky cocoon.
What the...?
Ichigo Kurosaki looked toward the podium, but the teacher didn't seem to have noticed anything at all.
He watched as the other classmate walked out of the classroom as if nothing had happened, and a reckless thought took root in his mind.
Could it be...
He's a ghost disguised as a human?!
"Mizuiro," Ichigo Kurosaki asked while eating bread on the rooftop at noon, "do you know anything about Natsu?"
"Natsu?" Mizuiro Kojima thought for a moment. "The one who's always sleeping? I heard his grades are really good."
From the side, Keigo Asano suddenly exclaimed, "You mean the Sleeping Tiger—Muten Natsu?!"
Ichigo Kurosaki froze. "What kind of weird nickname is that?"
"As fellow delinquents, you don't even know him?"
"First of all, Ichigo isn't a delinquent," Mizuiro sighed. "And even among real delinquents, it's rare to find someone who knows delinquent gossip as obsessively as you do."
Ichigo Kurosaki pressed on. "So you actually know things about him?"
Keigo Asano thought for a moment. "I don't know anything from elementary school."
"...You really don't need to know that far back."
"He transferred to Sakurabashi Middle School. On his very first day, he beat up three third-year seniors. I heard one of them almost died." Keigo Asano rattled it all off smoothly. "No idea what kind of connections he had, but he got off completely fine. Then three days later, he began his path to kingship!"
Mizuiro Kojima glanced at him. "Isn't that a bit exaggerated?"
"Not exaggerated at all!" Keigo Asano rubbed his arms. "He took down all the delinquents in the surrounding area in just one week! The most terrifying part was the Throne of Flesh battle at Mashiba Middle School!"
Mizuiro Kojima sighed. "What kind of ridiculous term is 'Throne of Flesh'..."
"It's a documentary-style description," Keigo Asano explained enthusiastically. "Mashiba Middle School was the final stop on his path to kingship. After he defeated their leader, he was about to leave, but the guy said, [I may not be able to beat you now, but I won't give up. One day, I'll surpass you!]"
"Oh~" Mizuiro Kojima played along. "That's pretty hot-blooded."
"And then reality hit him like a bucket of cold water," Keigo Asano continued as if he'd seen it himself. "After hearing that, Muten Natsu didn't leave. He told the guy to call more people. At first it was just students from Mashiba Middle School, but later delinquents from other schools rushed over too after hearing the news. Muten Natsu fought them one by one, knocked them out, stacked them together, and sat on top of the pile until no one else showed up."
Mizuiro Kojima turned to the large, silent guy beside him. "Chad, could you do that?"
Chad Yasutora Sado, with his dark skin and nearly two-meter height, replied hesitantly, "I... don't know."
"So," Ichigo Kurosaki cut straight to the point, "why did he do all that?"
"According to him..." Keigo Asano looked utterly incredulous. "Some delinquents were disturbing his sleep. To make sure his sleep wouldn't be interrupted again, he decided to beat up all the delinquents first, so they'd understand the consequences of bothering him while he slept."
"Unexpected, but somehow reasonable," Mizuiro Kojima nodded. "It really is an effective method."
"I also heard he fights in underground matches at night," Keigo Asano lowered his voice. "That's why he values his daytime rest so much."
"You once spread rumors about me smuggling banned drugs and standing in bookstores for five hours reading adult magazines," Ichigo Kurosaki shot Keigo Asano a look. "Let's drop the rumors... or at least change topics. Have you heard anything about his constitution?"
"His constitution?"
"Like... whether he can see ghosts or something."
"Not that I've heard," Keigo Asano shook his head. "But even if he could see ghosts, he probably wouldn't be scared. He'd just grab one and beat it up."
"Ghosts aren't really that scary..." Ichigo Kurosaki looked downstairs. "And there's no reason to beat them up either..."
His voice suddenly stopped.
Down below, a figure walked into the school. It was Muten Natsu, the same one who had left during class.
Dressed in black, Muten Natsu leaped up to the third floor and jumped straight through a window.
Ichigo Kurosaki saw it clearly. At the cuff of the close-fitting white shirt under Muten Natsu's black clothes, there were vivid crimson bloodstains.
Just who was he, and what had he done?
Where had the blood on his sleeve come from?
Ichigo Kurosaki had no answers.
But when his eyes fell on the sword at Muten Natsu's waist, he couldn't help but recall what he had seen before, the traces left behind by vanished spirits...
Spattered bloodstains.