Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Did I die?”

The woman who looked exactly like her stood there naked in the endless corridors of the Infinity Castle.

“No, wait. I did die…” The naked woman pressed her fingers to her head like checking for a wound. “I was snowboarding and the wind took me…”

She finally looked up to Shinobu, her violet eyes widened. “You’re the one I saw in my dreams… That haori… Shinobu Kochou the Insect Hashira?”

Shinobu tried to answer.

Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“I’m Shinobu Kochou too, I’m from 2026.” Her smile cracked. “But I died in the cold. That part felt very real.”

The castle dissolved into white. The naked woman flinched and her figure started to fade too.

Shinobu reached for her or at least tried to, but cold slammed into her instead.

“Ma’am. Are you with me?”

The voice was calm, she never heard that voice before.

“Niseko Patrol, this is Sabito. I found one unconscious female, suspected hypothermia, possible head strike. Blood on the helmet, I repeat blood on the helmet.”

Static cracked sharply.

“I’m near Annupuri Peak Gate, below Jumbo Four lift. Request immediate backup and sled.”

More cracking sounds:

“Copy. Backup and sled en route.”

“Tomioka en route from Jumbo Four.”

“The college part-timer?” Sabito sounded amused. “Oh well, understood.”

The cracking sound stopped. She could feel one hand steadied her helmet, the other pressed firmly into her shoulder.

“Ma’am,” he said close to her ear. “Can you hear me?”

No response.

He applied pressure again. “Open your eyes if you can for me okay? Help is coming.”

Shinobu slowly opened her eyes. Snow was everywhere across the glass. Her vision was blocked by what she could only guess as giant glasses.

“Urghh…” She groaned.

“Good you’re awake!” The man’s voice continued. “Stay as still as you can for me okay? We're gonna take good care of you.”

She did not see the man or replied to him. She looked at her feet instead. Shinobu could not just stand still, she tried to move, but they didn’t work like they used to.

That demon broke her feet didn’t he? End her life too. But he was supposed to eat her and consumed her wisteria poison. If he didn’t eat her, then her plan failed.

She had to find her way back and fight Douma again. The slayers needed her help. Shinobu tried moving her feet again. It didn’t work. Something heavy pinned them together.

“Stay with me okay?” Sabito’s voice continued to echo. “Can you tell me your name?”

She looked further down.

A single long black board was attached to her boots. Whatever that was. Her legs were bound by metal grips, tight and hard to break free.

She could feel her head spinning and heard that woman’s voice again, the one that sounded just like her:

“I was snowboarding and the wind took me…”

Was this strange board called snowboarding because it was made for snow?

The snow was cold, the wind was strong too. If she relied on her usual haori, she’d freeze to death. But her clothes were different too. It was thick and padded with something that felt like a futon. It was purple, like the garment in her hands which also had bulky coverings.

It would be hard for her to hold a blade.

SCREECH! SLOSH!

There was a wet sloshing sound as the snow sprayed more to her side. A man appeared, strange in a red suit, moving like he was zig zagging rather than walking. His feet weren’t trapped on a board like hers. Instead, two long, thin boards moving freely over the white powder.

The man held sticks, and lifted the sled behind him to move closer to her.

As he approached. She could see it… The man approaching her wore a helmet, giant glasses and a bizarre red suit with a patch:

Giyu Tomioka
NISEKO SKI PATROL

Shinobu tried her best to understand what just happened and not die a second time.

The Water Hashira is here? What? Shouldn’t he be fighting along with the other slayers?

“Patient ready?” Giyu asked.

It sounded just like the Tomioka she knew.

“Conscious,” Sabito replied. “Still hypothermic though, possible head strike, I’m so glad you’re close man. Let’s go and help her.”

Giyu nodded. “I will try my best.”

Shinobu’s lips moved, but she couldn’t speak. She just watched Giyu lower the sled beside her. There were harnesses and straps, it looked like the ones she used to carry patients back at the Butterfly Mansion.

“Gentle,” Giyu said to himself.

Shinobu’s heart hammered somehow at the voice. It felt rather strange that the man she knew was here in this snowstorm wearing that outfit.

Oh, Sabito was wearing the same outfit too.

But still, it felt strange. The memory of that woman flashed in her mind again...

“I’m Shinobu Kochou too, I’m from 2026.”

Right, she said that. What if this was her modern world? Future Shinobu was dead in the snowstorm? Did Hashira Shinobu die too?

What happened?

“One… two… three,” they said that together.

Somehow Shinobu was already on the sled, it moved down over the snow.

Her fingers curled inside the gloves and the blanket that was covering her. She needed to keep herself warm and figure this out.

She kept staring at Giyu’s back with his red jacket, carrying her down the slope. He was still tall, glided with the same broad shoulder and calmness. She wondered if this Giyu looked like her Giyu too.

His face was hidden by a helmet and his gigantic glasses, but he felt so familiar.

Then she blacked out.

The storm was gone. The noise of the blizzard was replaced by something beeping softly.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

She opened her eyes.

A woman’s voice came from beside her.

“Can you tell me your name?”

She blinked, trying to remember. “Shinobu… Kochou?”

“Do you know where you are?” the nurse continued.

Shinobu shook her head.

“That’s okay, you’re in a hospital,” she said, moving closer. “We need to make sure you’re stable and oriented. Can you lift your arm for me?”

Shinobu’s hand felt heavy, tubes were attached to it. She tried to move, but it was difficult.

“Do you know any emergency contact we could call?” The nurse asked her.

Shinobu shook her head.

What was an emergency contact? A kakushi? A mission partner?

Wait.

Her mission partner was…

“Giyu… Tomioka,” she finally said.

“That’s me.”

Shinobu groaned, trying to process Giyu’s voice and her blurry eyes. She forced her gaze to her hands. Instead of the usual tubes, she saw a thinner tube running into her veins.

“Urghh…” She groaned.

That was when Giyu walked in and started looking at her. She could see the same handsome face, same blue eyes, but with short hair and a concerned face.

He looked identical. Just like Giyu Tomioka.

She never imagined she’d miss him like this. Even here, in what felt like a dream. He still moved like water. Her heart still wouldn’t shut up about it.

Shinobu remembered pushing this feeling away over and over again.

Revenge, duty, survival. She kept clinging on to those.

But now? In a foreign place, surrounded by strangers… he was the only one she felt like she could trust.

“Sorry,” Giyu said in a flat tone. “I don’t actually know you. How did you know my name?”

He had a blank face like when he was thinking. The kind of look the Giyu she knew gave her when she teased him about being disliked by everyone.

“Oh.” He paused again and then he started looking at his red jacket. “It’s the ski patrol uniform isn’t it?”

“You don’t recognize me?” Shinobu asked him.

“I do, I saved you.” Giyu added matter-of-factly.

She asked again. “I’m sorry where am I?”

The nurse finally seemed to notice a pattern.

“Kochou-san,” she said gently. “Can you tell me where you live?”

“The Butterfly Mansion.”

“And where is that?”

Shinobu hesitated. “I… can’t tell you. It’s to prevent demons from invading the—”

“Demons?” The nurse tilted her head.

“I mean, they already invaded. I was at the Infinity Castle, and then I fought an Upper Rank demon and then—”

“Kochou-san,” the nurse interrupted her softly, “can you tell me what year it is?”

“1923.”

“Kochou-san, I think you may be hallucinating—”

“No. 2026.” Shinobu corrected it immediately.

“Yes,” the nurse nodded, writing something down. “Good. Keep going. Do you know your emergency contact? Not the ski patrol dispatcher. Your family? Parents? Siblings? Partner, perhaps?”

“…They’re all dead.”

The nurse paused.

“Kochou-san,” she said carefully, “I’m going to ask the doctor to come back in. Please stay here, okay?”

Apparently, she had been too focused speaking to the nurse the entire time while Giyu had moved to the corner of the room, facing the wall.

He pulled something from his pocket and began talking to it.

“Yes, mom. I’m at the hospital. A girl had a severe head injury,” he said calmly. “I happened to be at the scene with a senior.”

Shinobu tried to focus on him, but it made no sense. He was speaking to thin air.

“I can’t leave yet. She has no ID and no emergency contact. She couldn’t remember them either. My seniors are trying to match her through nearby ski resorts. She was found near a backcountry terrain. Not sure where she entered.”

Backcountry? Ski resorts?

“My colleague will replace me after shift. Don’t worry. Just until she’s stable.”

Why is Giyu talking to the wall?

“I heard. One hundred twenty-six flights canceled at New Chitose Airport. It’s okay, we’ll meet another time.”

Flights? Airport?

“I’ll update you again mom.”

“Tomioka-san,” Shinobu called weakly.

“Yeah?” He turned.

“You look just like him.” Her head throbbed. “The Tomioka I know had long hair. He wore a mismatched haori.”

“Another Tomioka?” he asked.

“He’s quiet, terrible with words. But he said he felt comfortable talking to me.”

Giyu nodded slowly. “I used to find it hard to talk to people too.”

“Tomioka-san didn’t have friends,” she continued. “So I asked him to be my friend.”

“That was kind of you,” Giyu said, gaze drifting again. “As long as you didn’t friendzone him.”

“…What’s a friendzone?”

“It’s when you don’t want to be in a romantic relationship with someone but keep stringing them along.”

“What? No.” Shinobu shook her head. “I even confessed.”

“You did?”

“I said the moon was beautiful tonight.”

Giyu blinked. “That’s not a confession.”

“What is, then?”

Giyu inhaled slowly and then sat down at a chair near her. He stared at her eyes deeply. His blue eyes looked like the ocean. It softened as he exhaled and said…

“I like you, Kochou.”

And somehow, with that face, that voice, that expression—her heart stopped beating.

Her face flushed and she could feel the whole room tilted like she was going to die again.

“Maybe.. uh…” he added, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “That’s what I’d count as one.”

“I see.” Shinobu looked down at her hands. “Well, it’s too late now. I can’t be with him anyway. I’m planning to die.”

“Don’t say that,” Giyu said immediately. “Especially to someone who just saved your life.”

She froze.

Something vibrated in his pocket. He took out what looked like a very small notepad that lit up.

“We found her ID!” a voice said. 

A real voice came out of the notepad.

“Can you believe it? She’s a first-year at Hokkaido University! Same as you, dude.”

But… how? Telephones were supposed to be connected to wires.

“Name’s Shinobu Kochou. Staying at Ki Niseko Resort. Her parents are searching for her.”

The voice continued.

“I’ll stay here and accompany her until her family comes,” Giyu said.

“Oh, can we give your phone number to them? They want to video call her.”

“Sure.”

It stopped lighting up. After a while, the device vibrated again.

Giyu tapped it.

And suddenly, a moving image and a sound popped up on the notepad.

Her mother. She thought she had forgotten what her mother looked like. But that face, it was… her mother.

“Mom?”

“Shinobu!” the woman cried. “Your father and I were so worried! Kanae and Kanao are crying trying to find you in the storm!”

Kanae appeared beside her, eyes red. “Shinobu, we’re on our way to the hospital. Wait for us, okay?”

“Sister?”

Shinobu broke down crying.

When the image faded, Giyu sighed.

“See?” he said. “Your family loves you. So don’t talk about dying again.”

“Can I really live like this?” Shinobu whispered through her tears. “I don’t even… know anyone here.”

“Look, moving to a new place and starting uni is tough,” Giyu said. “But it’ll get better.”

“Tomioka-san…”

“Look, we both like skiing. So… if you don’t have friends besides that other Tomioka—maybe I could be your friend too.”

“Tomioka-san,” she sniffed, “I have friends. I’m not disliked like you.”

He smiled.

Actually smiled.

“Kochou,” he said, “people don’t dislike me.”

“Ah—sorry! I meant the other Tomioka.”

“Let’s be friends then, Kochou.” He smiled warmly.

Shinobu had seen Giyu smiling while eating salmon daikon during a mission. This one looked just like that…

“I’d love to be your friend, Ski Patrol Giyu Tomioka.” She smiled back.

And faintly, she could hear her voice from a long time ago at the back of her head:

Ne, ne, Tomioka-san. Let’s be friends! Tsun, tsun.