[Gintama] Immortal

The fate with the crow can be traced back to the time when Yae stayed in the deep mountains.

The first crow was only attracted by the offerings when passing by by chance. Later, when she came to her senses, the descendants of the descendants of the descendants of the crow had nestled around the shrine and could not leave.

Those guys are black, shiny, curious, and like to collect shiny objects.Once a bird croaks on the branch, there will always be echoes in the forest one after another, as lively as a big family.

When he has nothing to do, Yae will sit on the decaying roof of the shrine, holding his chin and watching the crows busy on the branches.

In spring, crows build their nests.They pick up twigs and dirt with their pointed beaks and spend days flying in and out.

After building the bird's nest with all their efforts, the newly married couple of crows moved into the new house together. After waiting patiently for more than ten days, the immature birdsong will break out of their shells, and the chirping sound is as attractive as their fluffy feathers pity.

Yae didn't know why she suddenly recalled such a long memory.

Dark crows landed on the branches, folded their wings, and held fresh berries in their beaks.It bounced forward, stretching its neck, and its nest mate raised its neck in unison, swallowing its hard-earned food.

The two crows made a chirping and cooing sound from their throats, and their heads were pressed together tightly.The cry was different from the hoarseness of the past, it seemed to be some kind of warm whisper.

Humans seem to think that love is their monopoly, but that's not the case.

It's snowing in the mountains.

A thick layer of snow wraps the world in a silvery white that is not stained with dust.The wilderness lying in the valley seems to be covered with a brand new and white cotton quilt, and there is no trace of wrinkle when looking around.

Yae excitedly ran towards the overwhelming white, and within a few steps, there was a "poof", and the whole person was caught off guard and fell into the fluffy snow.

The white snow went up to her knees and almost flooded her thighs, half of Yae's body was buried in the snow, and she worked hard for a long time, but she couldn't save herself.

... Careless.

Unexpectedly, the first snow this year will be so thick.

The shadow of another person was projected on the white snow, Yae raised his head, his condescending eyes seemed a little cold.She felt like a radish planted in the ground at the moment.

"That..." Yae tentatively opened his mouth, "Can you help me?"

She had every reason to be suspicious, and would turn around and leave in a second.

After a short, long silence, he grabbed her by the collar with one hand and easily lifted her out of the snow.

Yes, mention it.

Yae honestly let Xu carry it, like a rabbit with its nape pinched.He seemed to have expected that if he put her down, he would just repeat the same mistakes. She couldn't walk normally in the snow that didn't reach her thighs, so he didn't stop at all, and he put her in his arms and hugged her. .

The two of them waded through the thick snow field, the sky was like a gap in the valley, and the gap was filled with dark clouds that were about to snowfall.

Crunch, crunch, the fluffy snow clucked softly underfoot.There is no wind in the valley, the sounds of all things are buried under the thick snow, and the breath of people is exhaled into the cold air, turning into white mist in the blink of an eye.

"Are you cold?"

Unexpectedly, there was no response, Yae thought for a while, put his arms around Xu's neck and leaned his head on his shoulders, his whole body temperature stuck to his arms.

She was still running a fever, as if there was a charcoal stove burning inside her body, and she didn't know if it could be of any use.

Yae hoped that he could be of some use.

The bright red eyeballs moved over at once.

"What are you doing?"

Yae: "Be your scarf."

As he said that, he closed his eyes and put on a look of "I'm very dedicated, please do not disturb".

She buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder, so close that she could see and feel the warmth of the skin on the side of his neck.The steady and beating pulse came through the thin skin, which was the position of the carotid artery, which continuously transported fresh blood to the whole body.

Even if the head is cut off, this body used to be like an indestructible tree, and new shoots would sprout from the broken trunk in an instant.

Yae thought, if only she was a fox at this moment, or a weasel.That way, she could protect his neck with her slender body and soft fur.

She had seen foxes protecting their young, and weasels huddled together for the winter.In the overwhelming snow, those little creatures hid under the roots of the trees, hid in the caves of the earth, snuggled up to each other silently, and used each other's body temperature to resist the severe cold of winter.

In the darkness, something cold fell on his face.

The coolness was fleeting, soft as the feathers of a bird flying across the sky.Yae was confused for a while, then slowly opened his eyes, only half of the field of vision reflected the pine forest standing like needlepoints.

White snowflakes are tearing cotton and fluttering in the forest, and the low-hanging sky seems to be crushed on the dark green pine needles.The unfamiliar scenery is reflected on the dim retina, shaking slightly with the sound of footsteps stepping on the snow.

After a while, it snowed again.

Yae raised his head from Xuren's shoulders, and the cold snowflakes happened to fall on his eyelashes, blinking, and melted before breathing.

"woke up?"

Xu Xu's voice is more like saying "you fell asleep again".

Yae looked around, the two had obviously left the previous valley, and it was unknown how long Xu had walked with her in his arms.

The white snow was flying, and she thought of those glass balls, which contained tiny worlds.The silence that enveloped the surroundings was like a glass cover, blocking out the sounds of the outside world.Except for the flying snowflakes, there is no other movement in the white forest.

Yae was quiet for a while, then suddenly said, "Is it the first month?"

She finally cared about the passage of seasons.

Glancing at her, he raised the corners of his lips with a half-smile: "Why, human festivals are very important to you?"

It was not so much the arc of a smile as it was the movement of a beast baring its fangs.

"Well," Yae thought for a while and said seriously, "Happy New Year?"

Lived into the new year again——for Xu, this incident didn't seem to be worth celebrating.

Snow fell on his fair hair, on her cheeks and the tip of her nose.So much snow, covered layer upon layer, dyes the world it touches into white, the whiteness of time.

Yae hugged his neck and laughed: "Old man."

White hair overnight, it doesn't sound so bad.

The snow seemed to be falling bigger and bigger, almost drowning the world, pouring down from the gap in the sky mercilessly.

Yae stopped laughing, bent down slightly, fingers clenched the skirt of the chest.

Plop—the heart suddenly fell from between the ribs in the chest cavity.

She took a breath, but she couldn't feel the oxygen, and the unreasonable pain swept over like a tsunami in the next moment, tearing her nerves to pieces.

There was something else inside her—the only thought that filled the silent screaming brain.

The trembling and shrinking eyeballs could no longer see. She became a parasitic plant. The outsider had been lurking in her body for a long time. After so many days of entangled struggle with that thing, she finally reached the critical point of collapse.

something else.Alien parasites.Cells invaded by other planets.

It has changed.

She seemed to see the moment the door closed.She didn't know what that door was, but all she knew was that it was closed, leaving no gaps, locking the darkness shut.

At the moment before her consciousness was annihilated, she tried to reach out her hand, stretching out her hand——

As if hoping to catch someone.

……

A figure slowly ascended the snow-covered steps.

At the end of the steps, an ancient temple stands quietly in the silent mountain forest, the black roof is buried by snow, and the paulownia gate is covered with traces of years of desolation.

The sluggish figure climbed the last bluestone steps, and unexpectedly found that the door of the ancient temple was open.

...Is it a traveler avoiding the snow?

The old abbot lowered his head, and the question disappeared immediately when he saw the blood sprinkled in the snow.

The dark red bloodstains had dried up, but there were still more blood spots, extending and winding along the traces of the threshold, like the marks crawling through the belly of a snake, full of cold and ominous atmosphere.

After hesitating for a moment, the old abbot took another step.

Following the shocking bloodstains, he finally came to the Buddhist hall.

Arriving here, the smell of blood in the air was so thick that it almost turned into substance, and the smell of wet rust came to the nostrils, making it difficult to breathe.

The old abbot pushed open the door, a chill suddenly rose up his spine, he was pinned in place by an invisible force, the Buddhist hall in the dark was not lit, something was sitting in the shadows with its back to him, he subconsciously He wanted to see more clearly, but his survival instinct prevented him from doing so.

Noticing the movement behind him, the thing moved, and the moment his dark red pupils raised up to meet his gaze, the old abbot thought he saw the mythical crow tengu, with huge and pitch-black wings curled up and down on his side, as if dead Woven carpet.

But then, he realized that the man sitting in the darkness was not a monster, at least the man did not have wings, and the shadows scattered around him, slowly flowing down the grain of the wooden floor, were not crow feathers, but blood.

Wet, blood with the residual warmth of the human body.

... The other party does not seem to be alone.Although it is well hidden in the bosom, but the corners of the clothes exposed from the black feathers are embroidered with light-colored flowers, which is obviously a woman's kimono.

Noticing his probing gaze for the first time, the man narrowed his eyes, and his voice was piercingly cold:

"You can try."

The old abbot was silent for a while, and slowly raised his hand to take off the snow-covered bamboo hat.

Intuitively, he said in a hoarse voice, "I can help you."

Faint light streamed in from the panes, and Xuehua was cold and pale.

The old man lowered his head: "I know you are... some kind of very ancient existence."

"I am ashamed to say that I have been able to see some unusual things since I was born, so I became the host of this temple, and I am responsible for observing the dragon veins here."

The murderous intent wandering in the air is like the fangs of wild beasts, like the scaled body of a poisonous snake, it gathers silently around his hanging head and neck, and with a little force, it can instantly tear him to pieces separate.

With the dim light, he discovered the source of the blood on the floor.

The bloody left wrist seemed to have been cut open by the man repeatedly with a knife, leaving only a little skin and flesh connected.Viscous blood kept dripping down his elbow, and the other party seemed to have no pain, nor any consciousness to stop the bleeding, and the cold and scarlet eyes stared at him without blinking.

"Do you know what happened to the last person who said that like you?" The gentle tone was like poison soaked in honey, with a creepy tone.

The old abbot kept his head bowed, motionless, as if rooted in place.

"I'm on the verge of death. In your opinion, this lifespan is probably no different from that of an ant. If you want to take it, then take it."

Tick-tick-the blood seeped into the cracks in the wooden floorboards.

"Dragon pulse... has been very gentle these past few years." The old abbot didn't raise his eyes, "What's the problem? No, it should be said, why did it swallow the pollution inside instead of letting it spread on the surface? I'm really puzzled."

"Can you show me?" His tone was extraordinarily sincere, negotiating with non-human beings, and his posture was low and low, directly humbled into the dust.

"I won't touch her."

For a long time, in the long and cramped silence, a small voice sounded.

Almost instantly, the cold gaze covering the old man disappeared, and turned to his arms.

The voice sobbed indistinctly, whimpering like a young animal.

The woman in black feathers was covered in blood from the corners of her mouth to her throat, and she leaned weakly against the man's arms. If her skin and flesh were not intact, she would have looked like a prey whose throat had been bitten off by a wild beast, with a pale face. There is no trace of blood on the face, and the cheeks are covered with groups of hard crystal stones.

She cried silently in the man's arms, tears rolling down her cheeks one by one.

Trapped in a nightmare where she couldn't wake up, she repeated a name over and over again:

"……little monster."

The killing intent condensed in the air collapsed, shattered like a cracked shell.