It’s cold.

That was your first thought of everything happening around you..

The frigid air gnawed at your consciousness, each breath was like inhaling shards of ice, slicing through your lungs. The pain from the gash on your side pulsed with a dull, relentless throb, making it hard to focus on anything but the excruciating cold and the spreading warmth of your own blood.

The forest around you was eerily silent, the thick snow muffling all sounds, creating a surreal, almost dreamlike atmosphere. Alone and injured, the isolation pressed down on you as heavily as the falling snow.

Your vision began to blur, the world dimming at the edges. You fought to keep your eyes open, but the overwhelming fatigue and cold were winning. Memories of the battle you fought earlier flashed through your mind—the demons sneering face, the flash of claws, the sneering pain—and then nothing but the endless white of the snow-covered forest.

Just as the darkness began to close in, a shadow fell over you. You could barely registered the figure standing above you, the snow swirling around the man’s form. His face was set in a cold, emotionless mask, his eyes hard and unreadable.

Giyu Tomioka, had found you before the snow swallowed you whole.