"I remember..." Muten Natsu rubbed his earlobe. "Reiichi Ōshima from Togata Junior High School, right?"
"Ah, yes, yes, yes!" Reiichi Ōshima nodded repeatedly, bowing as he did. "I'm in the same school as you now."
"I heard you're still acting like a delinquent?"
"Rumors! Total rumors!" Reiichi Ōshima protested indignantly. "I've really turned over a new leaf! I'm doing great. Like, really great!"
"Put your time into studying." Muten Natsu patted Reiichi Ōshima on the shoulder. "I'll check your grades later. If you're failing..."
"I'll study hard! I love studying! If I don't study for even one day, I feel awful all over!"
Muten Natsu waved him off, signaling Reiichi Ōshima to leave.
By the rooftop railing stood the tall Yasutora Sado. Beside him was the blond-haired Ichigo Kurosaki, along with two other male classmates.
Muten Natsu recognized them. The slightly shorter one with black hair was Mizuiro Kojima, who often arrived at school in a sports car driven by a beautiful older woman.
The other, with brown hair parted neatly down the middle, was Keigo Asano, always loud and full of energy.
Noticing Muten Natsu looking over, Keigo Asano visibly panicked. "S-sorry! That just now was an accident! Hey! Chad! I told you not to hit him that hard! I'm really sorry! Chad was just trying to help me, that's all..."
"Hi there, Natsu-kun." Mizuiro Kojima stepped forward with a smile and extended his hand. "I'm Mizuiro Kojima. Did you come up here to eat lunch too?"
"Natsu..." Ichigo Kurosaki seemed to think of something. "Is there some kind of problem?"
Ghosts, or something like that.
Yasutora Sado: "..."
"Muten Natsu." Muten Natsu shook Mizuiro Kojima's hand, then turned his gaze to the birdcage Yasutora Sado had set on the ground. "Where did you get this parakeet?"
"Yesterday..." Yasutora Sado's eyes drifted slightly, as if searching his memory. "Someone gave it to me."
"Hey!" Keigo Asano knew him well enough to catch on immediately. "You definitely skipped a bunch of details again, didn't you? That's such a bad habit! Come on, tell us the whole story!"
"I see..." Muten Natsu crouched in front of the cage. "What's your name?"
"Hello, Muten Natsu Nii-san," the parakeet replied in a clear, bright voice. "My name is Yūichi Shibata!"
"Oh!" Mizuiro Kojima exclaimed. "It learned that after hearing it just once?"
"My name is Keigo Asano." Keigo Asano leaned in close. "Say it: Asa—no—"
The parakeet immediately echoed back, "Asano-Nii-san!"
After exchanging a few words up close, even with Muten Natsu's fairly average sensory abilities, he could detect two distinct types of spiritual energy leaking from the parakeet.
Spiritual bodies are formed from Reishi. Just as the human body sheds skin cells through metabolism, spiritual bodies also release Reishi. These particles drift through the air, forming what is perceived as spiritual energy.
Once separated from the spiritual body, Reishi gradually loses its original Reiatsu and becomes part of the ambient Reishi in the atmosphere.
That is why stronger spiritual bodies release more spiritual energy. Their Reiatsu lingers longer, spreads farther, and is easier to sense.
As for something as faint as the spiritual energy coming from this parakeet, Muten Natsu had to observe it face-to-face for quite a while before he could even notice it.
Ichigo Kurosaki noticed the change in Muten Natsu's expression and asked pointedly, "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing serious." Muten Natsu stood up. In a situation like this, he just needed to find some time to perform Konsō. "I..."
His gaze shifted to the bandages wrapped around Yasutora Sado. "What happened to your injuries?"
"Rebar... bread..." Yasutora Sado thought for a moment. "Motorcycle."
Muten Natsu: "?"
"Explain it properly!" Keigo Asano shouted. "Who's supposed to understand that?"
"Uh... the injury on my head happened yesterday." Yasutora Sado pointed upward. "I was hit by falling rebar. As for my arm, that just happened. I went out to buy bread and ran straight into a motorcycle."
Ichigo Kurosaki was startled. "Isn't that really serious?"
"Yeah, the motorcyclist was badly hurt..." Yasutora Sado pointed off in one direction. "So I carried him to the hospital."
Keigo Asano went blank. "S-so that's why you were late..."
Ichigo Kurosaki shook his head. "Your body really is as hard to believe as ever."
It already felt like it was beyond the limits of what a human body should be.
"Have you heard any rumors?" Muten Natsu sensed something off. "About this parakeet."
"I've heard..." Yasutora Sado recalled what a friend had said. "Everyone who's ever kept it ended badly."
"Kurosaki." Muten Natsu frowned. "I need to talk to you."
"Me? Ah..." Ichigo Kurosaki understood immediately. Under his friends' slightly worried looks, he left with Muten Natsu.
"That parakeet..." Muten Natsu fixed his gaze on Ichigo Kurosaki's face. "I never noticed before, but does anyone in your family have the surname Shiba?"
"Shiba?" Ichigo Kurosaki looked completely confused. "No, I don't think so."
"You really look like him..." Muten Natsu examined him from every angle. At school, he either slept or skipped class and barely interacted with his classmates. On top of that, Ichigo Kurosaki's hair color stood out so much that he'd never really paid attention to his features before. Now that he looked closely, the resemblance was striking. "You look a lot like a friend of mine."
"Maybe a distant relative," Ichigo Kurosaki said, curious about Muten Natsu's complicated expression. "Do you have his contact information?"
"No. He's dead." Muten Natsu shook his head. "Forget that for now. There's a soul attached to that parakeet. Do you know where its owner's family lives? I'll perform Konsō tonight."
"I was just about to ask you about that!" Ichigo Kurosaki finally seized the chance. "About everything that happened earlier..."
Muten Natsu reached into his pocket and handed him a sheet of paper.
Ichigo Kurosaki took it without thinking. "What's this?"
"I figured you'd ask, so I printed everything about Shinigami and Hollows." Muten Natsu replied. "I don't feel like explaining it. Read it yourself."
Ichigo Kurosaki: "..."
"Take your time with it later." Muten Natsu gestured toward Yasutora Sado. "Give me his address. I'll go over there tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Yeah. This probably isn't that simple."
Originally, Muten Natsu had planned to head back to class, put away his Gigai, and resolve the matter right away. But after seeing Yasutora Sado's injuries, he began to think differently.
The soul attached to the parakeet, Yasutora Sado getting injured again and again, gave him a faint sense of déjà vu.
After talking with Ichigo Kurosaki for a bit, he immediately realized where that feeling came from.
It was somewhat similar to how a Strong Hollow had once used a soul as bait.
If things really were as Muten Natsu suspected, then this was no longer just about the soul attached to the parakeet. It likely involved another Hollow using the parakeet as bait.