Chapter 7: Morning Interlude & The Shadows of the Campus

Up to now, Di probably still has no clear idea about the scope of a Shinigami’s duties or the kind of risks they have to face.

At least, that was how Little Sparrow judged it.

The kid’s first mission had gone far too smoothly; looking back over her decades of industry experience, soul-cooperative spirits were exceedingly rare.

Few people can calmly accept their own death, let alone the fact that most people, upon learning about souls from a Shinigami after dying, end up regarding their current state as… a second life?

If you expect them to be harvested contentedly by a Shinigami, that’s simply impossible.

The concept of reincarnation certainly exists, but before that happens, the soul is already bleached into its most primitive state.

Not a single trace of one’s former self remains, making reincarnation no different from becoming a completely different person.

Rather than being thoroughly wiped blank, why not fight back fiercely and remain in this world as a soul?

The most troublesome part is that, according to the rules, Shinigami are forbidden from deceiving deceased spirits.

Therefore, day in and day out, Shinigami must either brawl with uncooperative spirits or play hide-and-seek with them—in short, it is a massive hassle.

However, Shinigami are no fools and always find ways to save trouble.

Knowing that spirits will resist and that lying is off-limits, wouldn’t it be simpler to just swing the scythe without saying a word?

Consequently, this created the gloomy, taciturn stereotype associated with Shinigami.

It is not that all Shinigami naturally possess this personality, but rather that speaking only brings extra trouble to the job.

So when Fini saw Di chatting away delightfully with that young girl’s spirit back then, her eyes nearly popped out of her head—how could you be so careless?

If that spirit had given you a few blows, wouldn’t you have kicked the bucket right then and there?

Thus, remedial lessons were an urgent necessity.

Since she could not teach him herself, she could at least find a top graduate from this year’s Shinigami Academy to impart some basic common sense on the matter to the kid.

A night passed, and when morning came, Fini returned to her partner’s side.

Looking at a certain someone sleeping in such a bold and uninhibited posture, she suddenly felt an urge to poke his armpit with her skeletal wing.

[At least the weapon is kept within arm’s reach, so that part is okay… like hell it is!]

Flapping her wings, Little Sparrow tried to shake out the shattered glass stuck between her bone joints.

Having failed to brake in time during flight, she had crashed right through the window and barged in, and now she felt like flinging the broken glass straight at his face.

Of course, Fini would never admit she had crashed on purpose, wanting to give her partner a surprise alarm clock on this early morning and see the panicked look on the kid’s face upon being startled awake by a loud noise, mistaking it for an enemy raid.

Who knew this kid could sleep so soundly?

Not even the commotion of a window shattering could wake him, instantaneously causing Fini’s playful mood to freeze.

The temporary residence for the human and the sparrow was located in a rift between the mortal realm and the underworld—a hotel established for the convenience of Shinigami frequently traveling back and forth to carry out missions in the mortal realm.

Theoretically, there was no need to worry about evil spirits or similar entities attacking this place, but the high volume and mixed nature of the passing crowd meant that ill-intentioned individuals were inevitable.

At the very least, after her crash, the hotel boss was bound to come knocking on the door in a moment…

Thinking of this, Little Sparrow decisively chose to run away.

The moment she leaped down from the window, urgent knocking echoed throughout the entire room.

“Control that ugly thing of yours! Don’t let that stupid, disgusting bird creature smash up my property!”

Vague shouts like that could be heard, though Fini was actually quite fond of such evaluations.

This was not her first time dealing with this hotel owner, and she knew all too well how much he detested ugly creatures like bone sparrows.

When they first moved in, simply because they brought along a bone sparrow, the red-haired owner assigned them a rather dilapidated room despite it being an official cooperative hotel for Shinigami.

Glass capable of maintaining its structure in a rift between two realms was by no means cheap.

The owner was bound to have a massive headache now, so shattering the window served as a tiny bit of revenge from Little Sparrow~

—Divider—

“What on earth is going on?”

Walking along the streets of the mortal realm, still trying hard to recall the interrupted, almost forgotten sweet dream, Di sank into frustration early in the morning.

“While sleeping peacefully, someone shattered the window. Who in this godforsaken place would be bored enough to play ball or throw stones outside? That doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

The rift between the two realms, as the name implies, had nothing in it—pure void.

Outside the hotel, there was no outdoor space at all, so who would possibly be hanging around out there?

“The boss said you were the one who broke the glass, Fini, but that can’t be right, can it? As small as you are, no matter how much he dislikes you…”

However, turning around to see Little Sparrow puffing out her chest and holding her head high with a proud face, Di suddenly realized that the boss might not have been shifting the blame randomly after all.

“Wait, was it really you who crashed into it?”

The special glass capable of existing in the rift between two realms was no simple material.

With Fini being only the size of a fist… Di felt that if the little creature on his shoulder truly slammed into the glass, the one shattering would likely be her own skeleton.

To give an example, it was as absurd as someone smashing bulletproof glass with a tiny pebble.

Bone sparrows were just skeletal frames on the outside, so there was no reason for them to be ridiculously hard, right?

“Forget it, let’s not dwell on this. After running around all day yesterday, I originally wanted to discuss things with you last night, but you took off… On my end, I’ve basically identified the suspect.”

When it came to official business, Fini settled down as well, carefully listening to the findings Di had gathered—all these injury incidents revolved around a male student who was ostracized by his classmates.

At first glance, it appeared to be ordinary school bullying, but there was much more to it beneath the surface.

According to the information Di had gathered, the boy had initially been a cheerful student who was very popular among his peers.

Little Sparrow had also sensed hints of this earlier.

While accompanying Di as he strolled around various parts of the school, she had indeed noticed a male student whom the other students deliberately avoided.

He was the student around whom she faintly sensed a dark aura from behind.

Fini noticed that the gazes the surrounding students directed toward him were completely different from the repulsive, hateful looks she usually received.

Long accustomed to all kinds of malice, Little Sparrow was quite confident in her discernment in this area.

She was certain that the gazes the students cast at that boy were purely out of fear of something.

It was one thing for students to act like this, but if even the teachers looked at him with a degree of apprehension, then the underlying issue was by no means small.

“However, when I tried to inquire further, none of them dared to speak anymore, as if it were some kind of taboo topic.”

Fortunately, he managed to find a girl with a yin-yang eye—the one ostracized as a weirdo by her classmates whom he had remembered last night—and the clues she provided were indeed extremely valuable.

“I am certain there is something on that kid, so today, we are going to confront him together!”

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