"Not a supposed to thing. I'm just kinda surprised he didn't," Renji said. "I mean... not like we go announcin' it since some people get kinda weird, but..." He shrugged. "Shinigami means... uh... dunno. I guess the closest is death god. We were human at one point. We died. We became shinigami. Go into the living world and find souls that've lost their way, stuff like that." He glanced at Rukia. He could explain things, but she was normally better at it than him, anyway.

He was curious, so he propped one elbow on the table and closed his eyes. He felt sluggish, since he'd tried to heal Valyn at breakfast (fat lot of good that had done, anyway) but it came, eventually. He opened his eyes; they looked a little unfocused because he was trying so hard to look at something that wasn't really tangible.

Keman's spirit thread was green and metallic; sparks ran up and down it. He'd never seen anything quite like that before.

He blinked the sight away, then pinched his nose shut with his fingers. "Definitely not human," he said. "Haven't seen anything like that before."