"Alright," one teacher called, clapping his hands once. "Let's go."
Students surged forward in loose clusters, some eager, some reluctant, some simply carried along by the flow. Shoes met stone steps with soft, steady sounds. The chatter returned, blending with the quiet rhythm of footsteps.
Minato exhaled, staring up at the endless line of gates. "Wanna race to the top."
Hitori smirked slightly. "no, i am good."
"Well...how about you, takahashi?."
"sure"
And they both ran ahead and with them some of Minato's friend followed. Hitori smiled and exhaled.
The path narrowed as it climbed.
Vermilion gates pressed close on either side, their pillars rising in steady rhythm, one after another, like a corridor that refused to end. Snow clung lightly to the edges of stone and wood, softening everything, but the color of the gates burned through it.
Footsteps echoed in uneven patterns. Laughter drifted ahead, then faded, then returned again from somewhere behind.
In front of him, a group moved at a relaxed pace.
Tachi's group.
They walked together in a loose line, voices overlapping, their conversation light and effortless. Someone gestured wildly while talking. Another laughed too loudly. It was the kind of group that moved like it belonged together.
But Tachi herself wasn't fully in it.
She glanced around now and then, her eyes drifting past her friends, scanning the path behind them as if searching for something or someone.
She saw Minato running ahead but he was not with him so he turned back.
Further back, through the repeating frames of the torii gates... hitori, She saw him.
Between the endless rows of vermilion gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha, where light slipped through in thin, golden fragments, a familiar figure stood apart from everything else.
For a moment, the world seemed to rearrange itself around him.
Snow drifted lazily through the air, soft and weightless, catching in the quiet current of wind that moved through the path. The sunlight filtered sideways between the gates, brushing against him in fleeting strokes—touching his shoulders, his face, his hair—before slipping away again.
He looked almost… unreal.
Not in a distant way.
But in the way something feels when it's too perfectly placed within a moment.
His hair moved gently with the breeze, strands lifting and settling again, catching the light just enough to soften their edges.
And then there was his expression.
A quiet smile.
As who saw the most beautiful moment of the life.
Tachi slowed without realizing it.
The chatter of her group faded somewhere ahead her. Even the steady rhythm of footsteps around her seemed to soften, as if the entire path had taken a quieter breath.
She just stood there for a moment.
Watching.
The sunlight shifted again, slipping through another gap between the gates, tracing the outline of his face before fading into shadow.
Tachi felt something tighten slightly in her chest.
Not sharp.
Not painful.
Just… there.
A quiet recognition she couldn't quite name.
She had seen him before.
Of course she had.
In classrooms, in hallways, in moments that passed without leaving much behind.
But this—
This version of him felt different.
As if the place, the light, the moment itself had drawn something out that usually stayed hidden beneath the surface.
Her fingers curled slightly against her sleeve.
The cold didn't feel as sharp anymore.
For a second, she wondered—
Had he always been like this?
Or was it just here?
Just now?
Just this moment, caught between snow and sunlight, between movement and stillness?
Tachi slowed.
Then stopped.
"Good morning."
Her voice slipped easily into the space between the gates.
He blinked, as if pulled back from somewhere else, then looked at her.
"…Morning."
She tilted her head slightly, studying him for a second before smiling. "Well? How's it going?"
Hitori exhaled, glancing ahead, then back at her. "Hmm… a bit interesting."
There was a pause.
Then she laughed.
Not loudly, not dramatically—just enough to fill the quiet space between them.
"That's a very you answer," she said.
They began walking again, side by side this time, their pace slower than the others ahead.
"So," he said after a moment, glancing at her, "why aren't you with your friends?"
Tachi looked forward, watching as her group continued further up the path, their figures shrinking between the gates.
"I just saw you," she said simply. "So I came over. Thought I'd talk to you for a bit."
She smiled as she said it, casual, almost effortless.
Hitori looked at her for a second longer than necessary.
"…Oh," he said. "I see."
The path stretched ahead, endless and repeating, the red gates framing them like a scene that kept rewriting itself with every step.
Further down, far less poetic things were happening.
Minato stopped.
Not gracefully.
Not dramatically.
Just… stopped.
He bent slightly forward, hands braced against his knees, breath coming out in uneven bursts that fogged the cold air in quick, desperate clouds.
"…Why… is this… so long…" he muttered between breaths.
The path behind him was empty.
He straightened slowly, turning his head, scanning the gates behind him.
Only his friends were there.
"…Where the hell did they both go?"
His eyes narrowed.
"And why did Takahashi disappear? He was right next to me."
A beat.
"…Was I too fast for him?" he added, almost hopefully.
A voice answered from behind.
Minato turned.
Takahashi approached at a steady, unbothered pace, hands tucked comfortably in his pockets, as if he had all the time in the world.
Minato groaned.
Takahashi said. "Sorry sorry i just lefted behind."
"Well…Where's Hitori?" . Minato looked behind him.
Takahashi shrugged slightly. "Ahh… he's with a girl."
A few minutes later, footsteps approached from behind.
It's hitori.
"What were you doing back there?" he asked.
He already knew.
But asking felt important.
Hitori didn't hesitate.
"Nothing much."
Then they all of them fell into step, their footsteps echoing softly beneath the endless gates.
Above them, the path continued to climb.
Ahead, the red stretched on.