Loose Spirit

Loose Spirits (, shiryou) are the wandering souls of dead humans who passed on through murder or accidents.

These souls have the capability of becoming shinki if they are named by a god, at which point they gain various abilities, including transformation into a vessel and usage of spells, songs, curses, and borderlines. Because of this, if they remain unnamed, they are vulnerable to being attacked by ayakashi. In that event that they become corrupted by an ayakashi, their vessel form will be damaged in some way if they ever become a shinki.

Otherwise, loose spirits are subject to many possible fates. They can become sudama; they can be reincarnated; they can "meet their maker"; or after some time, they can eventually just cease to exist.

Appearance
Loose spirits can take many different forms. According to Nora, this is due to the existence of multiple different religions and belief systems concerning life after death– so one's postmortem fate is ultimately determined by what they believed while they were alive.

For example, Mineha appears as regular human. When Daikoku was a loose spirit, he was shown to be mostly human-like– but he lacked legs and feet, floating in the air much like a yūrei. Grandfather Iki took on a shadowy, vaguely humanoid figure after death. Yukine appeared as a sudama.

However, once they become shinki, all loose spirits take on a fully human-like appearance. Should their name be revoked, they maintain their human form instead of reverting to their original spirit form, as demonstrated by Mayu, Sakura, and Momo.

Pristine Spirit
Pristine Spirits (, sudama) are a more primitive form of a spirit. Appearance-wise, they are pale, dandelion-like orbs with beady eyes and triangular lips. They seem to be about palm-sized, but grow smaller over time.

Sudama were once a common fate, as the old view of the afterlife described the souls of the dead descending from the mountains during the winter and returning at the change of seasons. In current day, it seems that sudama are less common due to the presence of multiple new belief systems. Still, loose spirits can become sudama after a long time wandering, particularly if the spirit had not yet formed a conception of death before they passed. Although the exact duration remains unspecified, becoming a sudama takes less then thirty years, as evidenced by Yukine.

Memories
Loose spirits at first retain some or all of their memories, which then fade over time. Nora claims that Yukine had probably been wandering in the mountains with all of his memories intact, until eventually his spirit dissolved into sudama form. Additionally, a loose spirit that Yukine met did not realize she was dead and remembered that her mother was supposed to come pick her up at six o'clock.

It has been stated that when a loose spirit is named by a god, their posthumous name seals away the memories of their first life. This may partially explain why the God's Greatest Secret becomes so traumatic for shinki, as they are suddenly bombarded with painful memories and emotions that had previously been locked away. Despite this, loose spirits and shinki are still capable of retaining fear-based emotions that stemmed from their deaths: Yukine is afraid of confined spaces and the dark after being locked inside a refrigerator, and Mayu is uncomfortable around large fires after being burned alive.

Characters
Characters who were introduced as loose spirits:
 * Yukine
 * Mineha
 * Sakura
 * Nana
 * Grandfather Iki
 * Momo

Characters who have become loose spirits:
 * Mayu (temporarily)
 * Miyu

Characters who have been retroactively shown as loose spirits:
 * Daikoku
 * Kiun