"Are you an idiot?"
Yoh had practically dragged Sado Yasutora back to his home by force, but he still couldn't help himself from flicking the guy's forehead to try and knock some sense into him.
What kind of normal person gets crushed by falling steel beams, then gets hit by a motorcycle, and tops it off by getting attacked by a Hollow?
To make matters worse, instead of resting after treatment, the guy had spent two whole days squatting outside Yoh's house. If Kurosaki Ichigo hadn't come by to bring him meals, he probably would've starved himself to death.
Honestly, Sado Yasutora's physical endurance was practically superhuman; any one of those mishaps would have been fatal for anyone else.
"I'm sorry..."
"Please don't be mad at the mister, Big Brother. He did it all for me..."
Seeing the man and the parakeet both looking so dejected, Asakura Yoh slapped his knee and laughed.
"Seriously, Yasutora, he calls you 'Mister'? Hahaha! Your looks really are deceiving. Or is it something else? You didn't lie about your age, did you?"
"...Yuichi, I'm only fifteen..." Sado went quiet for a moment before stubbornly explaining himself to Shibata Yuichi once more.
Someone else might not have noticed, but as his friend, Yoh could easily tell that Sado was actually quite bothered by it. After all, the guy was a man of few words; if he didn't care, he wouldn't have bothered to explain.
"But a mister is a mister!"
"Hahaha! What an honest kid. But don't worry, Yasutora. I'm certain that in twenty or thirty years, you'll be the one who looks young for your age. That's the perk of maturing early."
"...I'm not happy about that at all..."
After lightening the heavy atmosphere, Yoh turned serious again.
"Back to what we were talking about. While I can't turn Yuichi back into a human, it's not like I'm completely powerless."
Sado didn't interrupt; he remained lying down and listened.
"The power I use can either strengthen a soul or forcibly suppress it."
"In other words, while I can't fully separate Yuichi's soul from the bird's, I can bolster his soul while suppressing the bird's naturally weak consciousness. That way, Yuichi becomes the absolute dominant soul."
Yoh's explanation was a bit convoluted, and the eight-year-old Shibata Yuichi didn't quite grasp it, but Sado understood perfectly.
"So you can ensure that Yuichi's consciousness won't be overtaken by the parakeet's instincts?"
"In simple terms, yes. However, that would mean Yuichi would spend the rest of his life as a parakeet. Setting aside the lifespan of a small bird like this, if he's not kept in a cage, there are far too many things in the world that could kill him."
Yoh glanced at their reactions. Clearly, this wasn't the outcome they wanted.
"There's another way. I can completely fuse Yuichi and the parakeet's souls and extract them, then use my power to transform him into a special spiritual body—one different from standard souls."
"That way, you wouldn't have to worry about a bird's lifespan or physical threats. You could live in this world indefinitely. Once I stabilize your soul completely, you wouldn't even need to stay by my side."
"If there's someone in the living world you still care about, I think this might be a viable choice..."
Yoh regretted the words the moment they left his mouth. He hadn't been thinking clearly and forgot that the person Yuichi cared about most—his mother—had long ago been murdered by that serial killer.
'Wait, his mother was murdered...'
In the original story, Kurosaki Ichigo, who didn't understand how the Soul Society worked, told Yuichi that he could see his mother if he went there. That was why Yuichi had happily accepted the Konsō ritual.
But the reality was that the Soul Society was vast. The chances of Yuichi ever finding his mother were almost zero; instead, he ended up forming a new family with other souls who also couldn't find their loved ones.
But at the end of the day, did Yuichi's mother actually go to the Soul Society?
She was a woman who had done nothing wrong yet was killed by a total stranger—a mother who was deeply loved by her son and who had protected him until the very end.
Would someone like that really move on to the Soul Society after death without leaving a single trace of regret?
Or was she given a Konsō by the Soul Reaper responsible for Karakura Town before Kuchiki Rukia arrived? The chances of that were slim. Unlike Hollows, which emit strong spiritual pressure fluctuations, the souls of ordinary Pluses are very difficult to detect.
If neither of those happened, there were only two possibilities. One was that she was found and eaten by the murderer after he turned into a Hollow, or eaten by some other predatory Hollow.
The other possibility was that his mother's soul was still wandering the living world even now.
Of course, the worst-case scenario was that she had already turned into a Hollow herself. But considering it had been less than three months since her murder, as long as there was no outside interference, it shouldn't have reached that point yet.
"Yuichi, would you be willing to give me some time? Your mother's soul might still be in the living world. I might be able to find her for you. If I can't find her, then I'll send you to the Soul Society to look for her. How does that sound?"
"Really? Can I really see Mommy again?"
Yuichi opened his beak, his small eyes sparkling with hope at Yoh's words.
"I can't give you a hundred percent guarantee, but as long as her soul is still in Karakura Town, the odds of me finding her aren't low."
"Really!? Then please, Big Brother!"
Shibata Yuichi flapped his wings, finally appearing to have found his spirit again.
"Yeah! Leave it to me. Also, just call me Yoh."
Yoh struck a confident pose to put Yuichi at ease.
"Okay! Big Brother Yoh!"
"Good! That's the spirit!"
"Yuichi, that's wonderful."
"Mm! Thank you too, Mister!"
"Yoh and I are actually the same age..."
Having made the decision, Yoh didn't let Sado leave. The guy was heavily injured and weak; he couldn't let him keep being reckless.
With a wave of his hand, Yoh authoritatively forced the man and the bird to stay.
"Hey, Yoh..."
"Yeah?"
"Your house... it's huge..."
Yoh looked around his old-style mansion—which was probably more than ten times larger than the Kurosaki residence—and nodded in agreement.
"It is quite big. But it doesn't feel lonely, does it?"
"Yeah, Mister. Big Brother Yoh's house is so lively."
'Lively? Not lonely?'
Sado looked at the empty, silent house, his expression turning a bit dazed. Then, he thought of a possibility.
"Gho...sts?"
Sado squinted his eyes with effort. For a brief moment, he seemed to see faint mists—some in human shapes, others in different forms—drifting through the air.