The night was thick with silence, the kind that weighed heavily on the heart and suffocated the soul. Giyuu jolted awake, cold sweat clinging to his skin, his breath ragged and uneven. The remnants of the nightmare clung to him like shroud-flashes of blood.

He sat up, the emptiness of the world around him more suffocating than the dream. In the darkness of the room, the reality of his solitude pressed in. Nearly everyone he had fought alongside, bled for, and cared about was gone.