girl holding a notebook

It was so cold, a trembling voice escaped unconsciously between the teeth, the biting chill penetrated into the skin from the relaxed pores, Sora curled up his body, trying to get warmth.However, the heat obtained in this way was only a drop in the bucket, and soon, the unbearable cold swept over every inch of the skin of the body.The hand that stretched out to find the quilt also became cold and stiff.

The snow fell endlessly.

Opening his drowsy eyes, white snowflakes suddenly jumped into his eyes, and the moist and cold touch rippled from between his brows.Dream?Kong tried to close his eyes again, his hands and feet were already stiff and unconscious, the cool snow water slid down his face, it felt real.

The drowsiness was blown apart by a gust of cold wind.

With a shivering body, Kong sat up with difficulty, put his hands around his knees, and warmed his unconscious hands with the warm air he exhaled, and circles of white mist blurred from his mouth, forming a small white ball.She was still wearing thin pajamas, but the room in front of her was not a familiar room. In the silent night, the dry trees stretched out to the sky.The surrounding withered grass was covered with a thin layer of white snow.

"Sorry,...are you alright?" The pale purple notebook floated in front of Sora, and he lowered his head in shame.

"Send...send me...back"

Sora glanced at the notebook, said the request in a trembling voice, stood up from the spot tremblingly, her unconscious feet were completely out of control, and within a moment, she would be frozen to death here.

"Temporarily... can't go back" the notebook whispered, seeing Sora's current state, it was also very worried. "You won't go back until you complete the task here, and the time in the real world will stand still. Sorry, I was just made by the people who manage time and space by accident." The notebook stopped by Kong's hand, "You just If you can see the first page and meet the above requirements, you will leave this world. Don’t think that this is a dream, and all the scars are real. Of course, this only exists at night, and you still exist in the real world during the day. "

He wanted to tear open the notebook at hand, but in fact, Sora couldn't even clench his fists now.Like a toy being played with by someone, Sora held the notebook and opened the first page with his feeling hand that was so cold that it was shocking.

Hakuouki: Main line (1), joined the Shinsengumi.

Shinsengumi?The cold wind that poured in from the mouth raged randomly in the throat, and Kong covered his mouth and coughed violently.The temperature of the body is losing in a rapid state.The snow is getting bigger and bigger, as if someone is squandering wantonly.

The wind blew through the forest, mixed with the roar of a wild animal.A withered and uninhabited forest. Will humans really exist in such a place? I don’t know.Everything is unknown, and Sora can only do his best to walk fast. The so-called fast is just like ordinary people, maybe it is a speed that even walking can't match.

The mind has been disarmed, unable to function any more, just walking stubbornly, hoping to see people.Don't die here, the desire to survive made her accept the explanation given in the notebook, hatred, fear, and despair were woven together, so that she had no thoughts in her mind, no, live, that's all.

A night of snow, white, pure as snow, but at this moment wraps this bloody world.The rising morning glow, dawn, the scene that should have been full of vigor is stained with the brilliance of blood.

She is still alive, maybe it was just a dream last night, Kong opened his eyes, a strange place, a strange world.Yes, she should have thought that she was saved.If he died in that icy and snowy place last night, Kong closed his eyes and thought wildly.And soon the tranquility was interrupted by the sound of a sliding door.

"Are you awake?" A middle-aged man in his thirties walked in through the door, holding a set of ordinary clothes in his hands, "Can you change this dress?" The man put the clothes aside, It has a half-crescent crescent unique to the Edo period.

"...Thank you, where is this place? Are you?"

Thanks to Kong Kong, the man's face softened a bit, and he replied, "This is the settlement of the Shinsengumi, and I'm Matsubara Tadashi." While speaking, the man stood up, "After changing, come out."

Sora watched the man leave, but he could still see the man's figure through the sliding door.Shinsengumi?Is she lucky? Sora couldn't squeeze any smile from the corners of her mouth. The Saba faction Shinsengumi, which goes against the tide of history, was named 'Shinsengumi' for its contribution to assisting the shogunate in the third year of Bunkyu. Based on this inference, it should be three years after Wen Jiu.

Sora opened the sliding door and saw Matsubara standing in front of the window, "I want to thank the person who saved me last night, is that okay, Mr. Matsubara?" Sora asked, his long chestnut hair tied up with a headband. The reason for sending clothes, if someone didn't pay attention to it deliberately, they wouldn't be able to tell the gender.

"Are you talking about the chief?" Matsubara looked at Kong with a troubled look on his face. It's only natural to thank a savior, so after thinking about it, Matsubara said, "Please follow me."

"Thank you, Matsubara-san"

The pale purple notebook flew in the air, but it didn't attract the slightest attention.To be solemnly apologized by a notebook that looks like a child, and the matter has come to this point, Sora can't destroy the notebook that is the culprit.

When contacting Matsubara, Sora quickly thought of the person who rescued her last night, Mr. Okita, who was limited to sporadic historical records. It was hard to imagine that someone who had been dead for a hundred years was now standing in front of her alive.

She has light chestnut hair somewhat similar to hers, and leans her body casually against the wall.The man was sitting on the wooden board under the window, without a trace of murderous intent when he was beheading the enemy.The gentle sunlight streamed through the hair.

"It seems to be fine." Okita opened his dark green eyes, which are a little darker than emerald, "It's lucky that he didn't freeze to death."

"Thank you for what happened yesterday, Mr. Okita." Sora bowed solemnly to thank him, ignoring the teasing in Okita's tone.

"You're welcome," Okita said with the corners of his mouth curled up, "This dress fits you well."

The dark green eyes were stained with a smile, but he did not forget the girl in the thin and strange clothes under the heavy snow, her pale and bloodless cheeks could not escape the word pain.

Okita's words are extremely ingenious, maybe the speaker has no intention, but the listener has intention.Okita deliberately didn't identify her as a woman, but asked someone to send men's clothes. For some unknown reason, Sora politely thanked Okita for her compliment.

"Leave?" Hearing Sora talking about leaving, Okita looked at Sora playfully, thinking of leaving without anything, "Do you want to join the Shinsengumi?"

Okita stood up with the sword in his arms holding the sword in his arms. If Mr. Hichikata found out that he was trying to dissuade a girl from joining the Shinsengumi, it would be troublesome.Just thinking this way, Okita didn't want to take back what he blurted out.

"...Don't you need to sign up and then be screened?" Sora asked in surprise, his head was a little confused because of Okita's words, and he didn't understand the specific process of entering the Shinsengumi, but registration-screening should be a common method.

A gentle smile appeared on Okita's face, "Well,...can't pass the test, remember to return the clothes to me"

Suppressing the twitching of the corner of his mouth, Kong wished he could take back all his words, trial?She also only knows some knowledge of kendo, and she doesn't even know where the kendo gym in Kanagawa is.

After admiring Sora's expression, Okita pretended to be enlightened and said, "However, the Shinsengumi is not recruiting members now....Do you really want to join the Shinsengumi?"

"Yes" Sora shouted like an idiot.The heavy snow fell from the branches with a puff, rustling down.With such a positive answer, Okita squinted his eyes at Sora and smiled happily. Sora didn't know the meaning of this laughter, but his heart was sinking all the time, reaching the abyss. Agreeing and denying were inextricable knots.

Does she have the consciousness of death?

In this era where human life is regarded as nothing, killing or being killed is a matter of course.After that, Sora went back to his room and opened his notebook. The lines of "Main thread (1), joining the Shinsengumi" were no longer lead black, but bright red.A few lines of teeny lowercase letters gradually appeared, "Physical improvement, learning swordsmanship: natural mind flows into the door."

An indescribable sense of lightness continued to fill with the appearance of the handwriting, and the exhaustion accumulated yesterday was stripped from the body, and more swordsmanship about the natural flow of mind naturally appeared in the mind.

It was like being in a game, and her chest was sore from this joking thought, no matter what, she didn't want to die here.There is not much leeway to complain, to lament, to regret, and to live on.

Just when Sora made up his mind, there was no reminder of the next main line on the notebook.

"...It may be that your own ability conditions cannot be met." The notebook was separated from Sora's hand and floated to a distance that Sora couldn't grasp.The notebook didn't know the reason for such a situation, and only simple knowledge was poured into its mind.In fact, it is not strictly a finished product, and the people who manage time and space made it just as a pastime for entertainment.

After several conversations that were almost calm, Sora also had no hope of getting information from the notebook.However, her own ability and conditions are not enough, and she really can't continue to wait here, whether for herself or for the mission.

"Mr. Matsubara?" Kong opened the sliding door and saw Matsubara who happened to be standing outside the door, stepped aside, and invited Matsubara to enter the door. "Excuse me, what's the matter, Mr. Matsubara?"

Matsubara's figure was not tall, with a slightly long and thin face, and instead of hanging sabers from his waist like other soldiers, he carried two swords of different lengths in his hands.

"Why did Hoshino join the Shinsengumi?"

The air became stagnant with Matsubara's questioning, and the change in the atmosphere made Sora tense up. She wanted to give a reasonable reason for herself to join the Shinsengumi.

There was a chill in the palm of my hand, Kong said, "—for my own wish"

"Wish? That's it, don't be too nervous, Hoshino." Matsubara said with a smile, "Nowadays, there are very few people like Hoshino who volunteered to join the Shinsengumi. Come on, as a man, you will be laughed at if you walk around empty-handed." .”

Matsubara delivered the two swords in his hand to Kong.