The wind howled, flinging needles of snow through the air. The village at the foot of the mountain hunched beneath the storm, just a blur in the distance.
"It's already March! What the hell's with this weather?!"
Bundled up to the point of immobility, Hoshino tugged his scarf higher until only his perpetually gloomy eyes were visible. His voice, though loud to him, was devoured by the storm—what reached Himeno's ears was barely a murmur.
"Huh? What'd you say?"
"I said—maybe we should find a house to rest in first!"
He pulled his leg free from snow that went past his knees, only for the next step to swallow him up to mid-thigh. Alarm bells went off in his head. Picking up his pace, he caught up to Himeno and pointed toward a shrine not far away.
"The snow's too heavy! We'll get buried alive out here! Let's take shelter there!"
"That's exactly what I was thinking!" Himeno shouted back.
"Move!"
They trudged faster.
Then, out of nowhere, a pale crack split open across the ridgeline beside the shrine.
At first, just a few wisps of snow mist rose into the air—but the next instant, the entire mountainside erupted.
Snow mixed with shattered rock and broken pines, roaring downward like a herd of white elephants freed from their chains. The collapsing snow wall crushed everything in its path, splintering fir trees as it went. The tree crowns flickered in and out of view on the rolling wave, like the pale hands of the drowned reaching up from the depths.
From Hoshino's position, he couldn't see where the avalanche ended—but the thunder in the air and the sharp tang of ice told him everything he needed to know.
Compared to that, the surrounding blizzard didn't feel so terrifying anymore.
Just as his nerves began to ease, Hoshino suddenly felt that something was… missing.
He stopped, turned around—
"!!!"
"Hoshino-kun! Don't stop!" Himeno called over her shoulder. "What, tired already?"
Even with only her eyes visible, he could tell she was grinning.
"Want big sis to carry you? I like guys your age the best."
"She's gone!!!" Hoshino blurted, face pale.
"What?"
"Kobeni's gone!!!"
"Hah?!"
Behind them, only a wall of white—no trace of Kobeni anywhere.
"I'll go look—"
"No! I'll go!" Hoshino swung his backpack to the front, and two massive, three-meter-long muscular arms burst out of his back.
"You head to the shrine!"
He stomped down hard, the giant arms launching him out of the deep snow. "In this kind of terrain, my power's better for finding people!"
Before Himeno could argue, he turned and sprinted back into the storm.
With the wind at his back, his speed tripled, covering a long stretch in seconds. But the situation wasn't good—the footprints from earlier were already filling up, the trail vanishing beneath fresh snow.
He could only move forward by instinct.
The sky was choked with dark clouds. Snowflakes, whipped into a frenzy by the wind, slashed through the air. The world was nothing but endless gray.
Hoshino had brushed snow off himself more times than he could count. His body temperature was dropping fast—his hands and feet were numb.
If I keep searching like this, I'll freeze before I ever find her.
Without landmarks or tools, humans can't find anything in a blizzard.
"Is it pointless to keep going?" He stopped, thinking hard.
Then an idea struck.
"Wait—I'm not human!"
He smacked his forehead, brushing the snow off his pack and digging out a small circular mirror, about the size of his wrist.
Not for checking his reflection—this was a focus for his Authority of Aging.
Aside from the Finger Gun, it was another manifestation of the Aging Devil's power. Strange as it sounded, mirrors were tied to that ability.
Two mirrors might look unrelated, but in truth, they were linked by a void between them.
With twenty-five percent of the Aging Devil's Authority, Hoshino could create one "exit" mirror. To enter that space, though, he needed a real mirror like this one.
He wiped off the mirror's surface—only for snow to blanket it again seconds later—and exhaled white breath.
"Kobeni Higashiyama, a girl who doesn't carry a mirror in this cruel world… seriously, you're just asking for it!"
He plunged his hand into the mirror's surface and began feeling around.
It wasn't cold on the other side—around twenty-five degrees Celsius, maybe. For hands that had gone numb, it felt like dipping into hot water. The warmth made him sigh in relief.
Using the Aging Authority as a guide, he quickly sensed the nearest mirror.
Without hesitation, he reached deeper.
His fingers brushed soft fabric.
Smooth, springy fabric.
A metal clasp.
"Guess your luck's not all bad," he muttered—though even he wasn't sure if he meant Kobeni or himself. He activated the Muscle Authority and yanked hard.
Rip—
The sound echoed in his mind.
A moment later, one of his massive arms burst from a backpack on the ground ahead, slamming into the snow.
The noise was small, barely audible through the storm, but faint "thump-thump" sounds followed.
Hoshino raced toward them.
When he found her, only Kobeni's head was sticking out of the snow. Her hair and lashes were crusted white, her face stiff, eyes rolled back, icicles hanging from the corners.
Two frozen streaks dangled under her nose—and she was licking them, mumbling in a daze.
"Ice cream… second time… sea salt flavor…"
She was completely out of it.
Hoshino fought down a wave of nausea and smacked away the "homemade popsicle," grabbing Kobeni by the collar and hauling her up.
She shot out of the meter-thick snow like a carrot being yanked from the ground.
Snow exploded around them, the wind scattering it instantly.
That was when Hoshino remembered—
—the backpack wasn't exactly intact anymore.
Naturally, the contents went flying: pink, white, blue, striped… fluttering like snowflakes before vanishing into the storm.
"…"
Invoking the sacred rule of 'the me from one second ago has nothing to do with me now', Hoshino slung Kobeni over his back and dashed toward the nearby forest.
Inside the trees, the wind was weaker, the visibility better—and there were more places to shelter.
Her breathing was weakening behind him, muttered delirium spilling from her lips. Hoshino stopped holding back.
Two more arms sprouted from his back, and he moved like an ape, swinging from tree to tree, always just ahead of the falling snow.
In an open clearing, he spotted a cave about two meters high.
When he got close, icy wind howled straight through it—not exactly livable.
He tossed Kobeni inside and ran back into the forest.
The ends of his giant arms twisted into axes, chopping down two small trees. He dragged them to the entrance to block the worst of the wind and snow.
When that was done, he returned to Kobeni's side.
Her hands were purple. His expression hardened as he turned her onto her back.
As expected, her pale face had turned blue too. The snow beneath her had melted, soaking through her jacket..
"A cave, a man, a frozen woman… great, classic setup."
He flipped his lighter on and off, flame flickering weakly.
But without dry wood, even that was useless.
"Brought this to prepare for emergencies like this, and it's still useless… sorry about this."
No time for modesty—saving her came first. Hoshino pulled Kobeni to the deepest part of the cave.
In the pitch dark, he stripped off everything except her underclothes, careful not to touch her skin directly.
The faint scent unique to girls grew stronger as each layer came off.
But for once, Hoshino felt zero lust.
Even at his age—when hormones burned like fire—the northern cold smothered everything. Forget desire; he could barely feel his limbs.
Half-delirious, an image of Kobeni licking her own frozen snot flashed through his mind.
He gagged.
He turned away before his eyes could adjust to the darkness, leaving the rest to the six huge arms behind him.
"Damn it, can't see a thing."
"Where's the clasp? …Why's it in the front?"
After some fumbling, the last button came undone.
Her body was already wrapped securely by his transformed arms, cocooned in warmth like a living sleeping bag.
The "sleeping bag" leaned against the rock wall, and Hoshino leaned against it in turn.
He flicked his lighter on and off, the flame flaring and dying. Each click echoed in the dark.
It was the only way to keep his focus—he was freezing too, not much better off than Kobeni.
He'd burned through too much energy, surviving only by the Devil's regenerative power.
Pulling an onigiri from his pack, he bit into it.
Cold dulled his appetite as much as it did everything else. The sour pickled plum inside did nothing to help.
He forced down three of them for some strength, then took out the Sands of Time.
A simple golden hourglass. Its grains were pure white.
Normally, flipping it would make the sand fall from one side to the other.
But the Sands of Time didn't move.
He'd tried over and over yesterday—from noon until night—and nothing happened.
Now, with no expectations left, he flipped it again.
"…Huh?"
Under the dim orange light, the white grains began to trickle down.
Joy lasted only a few seconds before unease replaced it.
He remembered an old saying: 'When something's too strange to be normal, something's wrong.'
The mission in Okura Village was a joint operation—Public Safety Devil Hunters working alongside a civilian organization.
That almost never happened.
The government usually kept the two groups apart to avoid conflict and messy profit disputes. In fact, there were explicit laws preventing interference between them—like how killing a Devil captured by a civilian group counted as obstruction of business.
Normally, they'd just send official Devil Hunters from another city if local ones couldn't handle it. Cooperation was a last resort.
Which meant this mission was too dangerous for Okura Village to handle alone.
Before deployment, Makima had given them clear instructions:
Due to time constraints and incomplete paperwork, the three of you aren't officially on the task roster. Find the Silkworm Devil, then leave immediately. Don't get involved in Okura Village's affairs.
At the time, Hoshino had scoffed. Who'd stick around anyway?
But now…
A March blizzard. A missing Himeno. And the Sands of Time suddenly turning on their own.
Every sign screamed the same thing—something big was coming.
"Let's just hope it doesn't get worse."