Beyond the heavens, crystalline prisms of snow drifted downward from the leaden sky.

  Kawagishi cupped his palm to catch a frail snowflake. The warmth of his skin dissolved it instantly, leaving only a lingering chill.

  "Memories of my past life keep resurfacing," he murmured. "Sixteen years... yet it still feels unreal."

  "My old world had steel birds piercing the clouds, massive ships plowing through oceans. Humanity conquered realms through something called... technology."

  "But here?" His breath fogged the air. "This place resembles early 20th-century Japan, yet technological progress remains jarringly uneven—most regions still crawl like infants. Life here is harsher, cruder."

  "Which world is this, truly?"

  Sixteen years of inquiries yielded nothing. No trace of the Eastern nation he once knew. The customs here mirrored his vague impressions of Japan, yet details diverged strangely.

  People's hair and eye colors spanned an impossible spectrum—all naturally occurring. His own crimson locks and ruby irises drew stares initially.

  He once believed he'd traveled through time. Now he knew—this was an entirely different reality. His original world had vanished like that melting snowflake.

  "Big Brother Kawagishi, what are you thinking about?"

  A voice warm as a winter hearth brushed against his ear.

  He turned to see a boy with crimson hair and ruby eyes—a faded scar etched across his forehead, a sun-shaped earring dangling from his left lobe. His younger brother, Kamado Tanjiro. Kawagishi instinctively touched the matching earring on his own right ear, their father Kamado Tanjuro’s legacy to both sons.

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  Though sharing similar features, the brothers contrasted like ink strokes on parchment. Tanjiro’s round face and wide eyes radiated youthful innocence, while Kawagishi stood taller, his sharp jawline and narrowed gaze giving him the intensity of an unsheathed blade.

  In this world, he was Kamado Kawagishi—though faint memories of another life as Lin Chi still haunted him like half-remembered verses.

  "Just thinking how this bitter cold might mean more charcoal sales," Kawagishi ruffled Tanjiro’s hair, snowflakes catching in the boy’s red locks. "Enough to get you all new winter clothes."

  The Kamado family resided deep in the mountains. After their frail father Tanjuro's early passing, the household now consisted of mother Kie, three younger brothers—Takeo, Shigeru, Rokuta—and two sisters, Nezuko and Hanako. As the eldest, Kawagishi had shouldered the family's burdens since childhood, sustaining them through charcoal sales.

  Tanjiro, ever perceptive, had begun accompanying him on sales trips years ago.

  "Big Brother's the best!" Tanjiro grinned, adjusting the bamboo basket strapped to his back. "But stay home today. I'll handle it."

  Kawagishi hesitated. Lately, fragmented nightmares haunted him—visions of suffocating despair that left him trembling at dawn. A gnawing dread clung to his waking hours, though its source eluded him. He'd hidden it well, or so he thought.

  "How'd you know?"

  Tanjiro tapped his nose. "Your scent... it's sour. Like unripe persimmons."

  Of course. His brother's preternatural sense of smell could detect even emotional shifts. Sometimes Kawagishi wondered if Tanjiro was entirely human.

  "Just tired," he admitted, tousling crimson locks. "Be safe."

  As Tanjiro descended the snowbound path, the younger siblings clustered at the doorway. "Come back soon!" chorused Nezuko and Hanako, their breath frosting in the air.

  Mother Kie lingered, gaze fixed on the vanishing footprints. A cough rattled her thin frame.

  "He'll be fine," Kawagishi reassured, guiding her inside their creaking timber home. Memories flashed—his previous life's loneliness, the cutthroat corporate wars as Lin Chi. How different this fragile warmth felt.

  "You've all given me everything," he murmured, stoking the hearth.

  Dusk approached. Kawagishi stood at the threshold, watching the mountain devour daylight. The dread in his chest tightened, coiling like frostbitten vines.

  "Return safely, Tanjiro."

  Yet with each passing moment, the premonition grew teeth.