Living world.
Karakura Town.
It was around eight or nine in the evening.
From a distance, the curtain of night shrouded the town.
Compared to the bustle of the day, it was now profoundly silent—almost eerie.
It was as if a massive, pitch-black beast had opened its jagged maw to slowly devour everything, leaving only the scattered, dim glimmer of streetlights like a final, desperate act of resistance.
Suddenly, a black butterfly fluttered slowly by.
The pale moonlight illuminated its form, turning its wings into a brilliant, translucent blue that made the entire creature seem ethereal.
As the butterfly drifted, a slender figure suddenly flickered into existence along its path.
Dressed in a black kimono and wooden clogs, with a sword hanging at her waist, the slight curves of her silhouette revealed her to be a woman.
“Hmm?”
The moonlight illuminated her face.
She looked very young—perhaps too young, appearing to be around fifteen or sixteen, or maybe even twelve or thirteen.
She had a rounded, bob-like hairstyle and refined features, but her expression was frost-cold.
Her furrowed brow practically screamed “keep away.”
“Strange.
What’s going on?”
“The Reishi here…
it’s weird.
I can’t quite put my finger on it.” The girl looked at the fluttering butterfly in confusion, her brow furrowing even deeper.
“Is it because I just arrived from the Soul Society and haven’t adjusted yet?
No, that’s not it.
Even thin spiritual pressure doesn’t feel like this.”
The novice girl was baffled by the situation, muttering to herself while rubbing her chin, her small head filled with a massive question mark.
*Zzzzt—*
For some reason, a nearby streetlight began to flicker, pulsing on and off with a rhythmic cadence.
The girl glanced at it but didn’t pay much attention, continuing to ponder.
“Hey!
What are you doing here!”
Suddenly, a gruff voice boomed from behind her.
The girl looked up to see a middle-aged man frowning at her, marching toward her while shouting, “A young girl out this late at night in such strange clothes!
What do you think you’re doing!”
The righteousness in his voice caught the girl off guard.
She looked at him, wondering if this middle-aged man was actually talking to her, while she instinctively gripped the hilt of her sword.
Her confused gaze instantly sharpened.
‘Strange.
This human has absolutely no spiritual power, so how can he see me?
And…’
“I’m talking to you!
Why are you staring at me?!
Get home this instant!”
Unexpectedly, yet logically, the man brushed right past her.
It was as if he hadn’t seen her at all as he continued walking straight ahead, leaving a pungent scent of alcohol in his wake.
“Hey!
Old man!
Are you a cop or something?
Mind your own business!”
The girl looked back and saw another girl standing under a streetlight not far away.
Dressed in eccentric clothing with heavy makeup that made her look like an anime character, she was holding a mirror and a powder puff.
“It’s too dangerous!
Where are you from, kid?
Don’t you know girls have been disappearing lately?
There are already three!”
The man shouted, squinting his eyes to try and see the girl’s face.
Judging by his staggering gait, he had clearly had a few too many; he probably wouldn’t recognize someone even if he saw them every day.
“Tch!” The girl in heavy makeup clicked her tongue in annoyance, packed her things, and hurried away.
“Psychopath!
If you’re that drunk, just go home, old man!
Can’t you see I’m heading out on a date!”
The girl disappeared from sight, cursing under her breath, leaving the man standing there in a daze.
It took him a moment to recover before he stumbled forward again.
‘So he really can’t see me…
but something is still off.
There’s a feeling I can’t describe.’
Thinking this, the girl released the hilt of her sword and continued to reflect.
The situation had exceeded her understanding; while there was no obvious problem, the sense of dissonance was overwhelming.
*Zzzzt—*
A faint electrical hum sounded as the streetlight flickered.
The air seemed to stagnate, and the atmosphere grew eerie.
*Flutter, flutter—*
The black butterfly flapped its wings and accelerated, as if it had found its target, flying toward the area behind the girl.
“Did it sense something?
As expected, you can’t beat a Hell Butterfly in times like this.”
Sighing with admiration, the girl followed the butterfly.
The creature didn’t seem fast, but it actually covered ground quickly, crossing several streets in a short time before arriving in front of a building.
[Kurosaki Clinic]
The Hell Butterfly vanished into the sign above the main entrance.
The girl’s furrowed brow relaxed slightly.
The building wasn’t large—a two-story house.
The first-floor doors were tightly shut.
The girl pressed her finger against the glass door, and a strange phenomenon occurred: her body became ethereal.
Black ripples spread across the glass, and in the blink of an eye, a black void opened in the door.
A second later, the void vanished as if nothing had happened.
However, the girl, who had silently appeared behind the door, proved that the event was very real.
By the dim moonlight, she could tell it was a simple clinic.
Passing through that room led to a living room filled with the warmth of daily life, creating a stark contrast with the sterile clinic next to it.
‘The Hell Butterfly disappeared here…
meaning the source of the anomaly is this household…’
A bit of light filtered down from the stairs, accompanied by faint, intermittent sounds.
Clearly, the house was structured with the clinic and living room on the first floor and the residential quarters on the second.
Having made her judgment, the girl no longer hesitated.
She stepped lightly up the stairs, her movements slow but her body tense, alert to everything around her.
Upon reaching the second floor, the girl scanned the area.
After closing her eyes to sense the surroundings for a moment, her brow furrowed even deeper.
She still couldn’t find anything objectively wrong, yet the sense of dissonance in her heart grew even stronger.
The girl stopped in front of a door with a sign that read [15].
It was this sign that attracted her; none of the other doors had anything hanging on them, and the subconscious tends to gravitate toward the outlier.
*Click—*
With a turn of the handle, the girl slowly pushed the door open.
Unsurprisingly, the room behind the door was very ordinary: a single bed, an old television, a desk, and a wardrobe.
Evidently, this was a very simple boy’s room…
An orange-haired youth sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed.
Wearing ordinary loungewear, his eyes were closed and his expression was calm, clearly in the middle of meditation.
The simple furnishings and white walls emphasized the occupant’s mundane and normal nature, but the meditating boy shattered that normalcy.
“Yo!” The boy opened his eyes and looked at the girl.
“Who are you?”
“Huh?!” The girl froze, visibly taken aback.
Then she crossed her arms and lifted her chin with a proud huff.
“Show some respect, human!
I’m not just anyone.
I’m a Shinigami!”
“A Shinigami, huh.”
The boy repeated the word.
His tone seemed curious, yet certain and tinged with complexity, leaving the girl momentarily dazed.
“What a coincidence.”
The boy smiled faintly and stood up from his meditative pose.
In the next instant, under the girl’s widening pupils, his loungewear transformed into a black kimono identical to hers.
Simultaneously, a long sword and a short sword appeared at his side and waist.
“I’m a Shinigami too.”