You grew up beside Giyuu Tomioka, blades in hand, snow and water flowing in tandem. From the very start, you had been opposites that fit—your Ice Breathing sharp and crystalline, his Water Breathing fluid and unyielding. Together, you rose through the ranks until both your names were spoken as Hashira, protectors of humankind.

The world admired you for your strength, your elegance, even your beauty. People whispered of how your katanas left frost trailing in the air, how you moved like winter incarnate. But behind closed doors, you sometimes longed for something simpler, something quieter. You longed for words that never came from Giyuu.

He was steady, reliable, always at your side—but distant. His silence cut you deeper than any demon could. Sometimes, you caught him watching you when he thought you weren’t looking, and your chest would ache with questions. Did he feel anything? Or were you simply projecting your own foolish longing onto a man too cold to love?

You swallowed those feelings, burying them beneath duty. But when Kagaya Ubuyashiki died, and the Infinity Castle rose around you in a nightmare of shifting walls, your buried dreams clawed to the surface.

You landed in the endless halls, ice already blooming under your sandals. At your side stood Giyuu—calm, sword drawn. And from the shadows came Akaza.

The Upper Moon’s presence pressed down like iron. “Two Hashira,” he laughed. “Perfect.”

The battle began in a storm of fists, frost, and water. Your blades cut ice through the air, freezing Akaza’s strikes, while Giyuu’s water forms flowed seamlessly with yours. Together, you pushed him back, two elements in harmony. For a moment, you almost believed you could win.

And then you saw it.

The mark.

It flared across Giyuu’s face, his body suddenly surging with frightening speed and power. His blade became a torrent, his strength overwhelming. But your stomach dropped in dread. The mark meant strength, yes—but also death. A shortened life. A fire that would burn him out too soon.

Why now? Why, when you realized you had always wanted him? When you dreamed, in secret, of one day setting aside your sword and choosing him—not as a comrade, not as a Hashira, but as the man you loved?

The fight raged on. Akaza laughed, fists shattering your frozen barriers. Giyuu’s body trembled under the strain, the mark blazing brighter, draining him even as it empowered him. And then, in one heartbeat, his knees buckled.

You caught him before he fell, frost spreading from your trembling hands. His body burned like fire, steam rising from his skin, breath ragged and uneven. His blue eyes—usually so unreadable—met yours.

Your throat closed, but the words tore free anyway. “Don’t you dare leave me,” you whispered, voice breaking. “Not when I still—” You couldn’t finish. But your eyes said the rest.

For the first time, he didn’t look away. His hand, shaking, pressed against yours, and in that silence, you knew. He had always felt it too.

Akaza roared, closing in, but the world had narrowed. Your blades, your frost, your strength—it was no longer just for duty. No longer just for humanity.

It was for him.

You fought like winter itself, unrelenting, every strike carrying the love you had never spoken. And as the castle walls trembled around you, you clung to Giyuu’s burning form, heart breaking with the realization that you had always wanted to marry him—yet only in this cursed moment did you finally know he was yours.