Hours after the bitter cold had pierced his bones, Yujiro's consciousness slowly opened to a strange reality. His first sensation was the hardness beneath his back and a suffocating dampness in the air. He opened his eyes to find himself stretched out on the dark forest floor, covered by a thin layer of fresh snow that hadn't been there yesterday. Every part of his body ached terribly, as if something had entirely torn out his soul and then returned it to him.
"Where am I?" he muttered, his voice hoarse, attempting to rise. He couldn't recall anything after the moment he saw the 'flower.' Everything after that was a black void.
He began to crawl slowly, using his arms to lift his body, and then stood on his trembling feet. The forest was unnaturally silent; no birdsong, no rustle of life, only the whisper of the cold wind through the thick branches. Shy rays of sunlight, a bluish-gray color, filtered through the branches, announcing a cold day... and a strange, mysterious one.
Yujiro walked with no specific destination, pushing aside snow-covered branches and avoiding rocks, leaning on the trees for support. He walked at an increasingly slow pace due to exhaustion and pain until he finally glimpsed an old wooden signpost covered in moss and ice. It was pointing in the direction of his village. He felt a fleeting moment of relief, but it quickly faded, for the darkness was swallowing the forest faster than it should, as if night was advancing with hasty steps.
Fearing that a beast might surprise him in the dark, he decided to climb a towering spruce tree. He spent the next few hours buried among its dense branches, covering himself for protection from the biting cold, until sleep finally overcame him. It was a disturbed sleep, filled with nightmares of blossoming white flowers and strange, slender hands reaching out for him from the darkness.