The knelt down in front of the dog, looking at it. It didn’t make sense that an animal could see hollows and shinigamis, but that one seemed even familiarized with the presence of spirits. He reached the collar around its neck; the tag had the name “Hiei”.
There was something about the dog. A small spiritual pressure, strangely familiar: the same presence he had been tracking on the last few hours. Could be the dog attracting the hollows? It did have been present on the sites of the last hollow appearances.
Suddenly, Hiei turned its back to the right, aware of something. “What?”, the shinigami asked, and the dog started sniffing, walking away. Followed closely by the boy, it tracked something until the park’s center, when it stopped. Then, it barked and started running.
“I felt it too!” The shinigami ran after him, his concentrated expression contrasting with the dog’s thrill. That same reiatsu was there again, and it was much like the dog’s, but stronger. They ran though several streets until they arrived at a big parking lot. The boy recognized the place by the crack on the ground; a hollow had appeared there two days earlier, and some of its reiatsu was still there, mixed with the other spiritual presence, just enough to make them lose the track. “Damnit, again?!”
Discouraged, he sat down as Hiei continued to walk around, its untiring nose on the search for whatever it was looking for. “It’s no good, we lost it again!”, the boy yelled, and then frowned even more. “Hold on, why am I talking to you? Great, I knew it! That woman um my squad is definitely driving me crazy!” The dog looked back and bent its head, almost as it was expressing compassion for the new companion, before starting to sniff at the ground again.
Hiei walked away slowly, following its sense of smell away from the crater left by the hollow’s attack, until it finally sensed that presence again. It barked, thrilled, and ran on that direction. The shinigami sighed and followed it, starting to grow tired of that endless chasing, but he soon realized they were on the right path; somehow, the dog had found the track again! Now feeling it too, he ran aside with Hiei until they reached the gate of a school. Its tail waving wildly, the dog ran into the playground, barking.
“Hiei!” A girl shouted and climbed down a swing to hug Hiei, which licked her face, affectionate. Then, the boy noticed the chain hanging from her chest, and confirmed that he and the dog had bee searching for the same thing.
