Chapter one

I love this part of the world. It is devastatingly beautiful. And after long months of mischief and the constant rejection of human interaction, sometimes it is nice to be alone. To be in a place where I can perhaps feel I am normal.

Although I remember this one time I was sitting on the branch of a tree, just over there. I was watching the gentle snow fall when out of the corner of my eye a young boy caught my attention. He was walking along a path, his saddle clad feet pressing foot prints into my perfect layer of snow. He didn't seem to be dressed for the cold water, apart from the scarf wrapped around his neck. But perhaps the most interesting about the boy's appearance was the cat mask that covered his face. It was white with a small yellow sun painted on the forehead and red whiskers painted on the cheeks.

I jumped from the branch I was sitting on to the next, following after the boy. Interested to see where he was going in the middle of the forest.

"You know, it's rude to be stepping in someone's freshly laid snow." I called cheekily out as I was wont to do.

The boy spun around a looked up, the black eyes of the mask he wore boring into my own.

"Did you just hear what I said?" I almost whispered, my heart slowly increasing at the prospect.

「すみません?」the words the boy spoke were in a language unfamiliar to me but he most defiantly replied to the sound of my voice.

I quickly hopped down for the tree and landed in front of or him, he was a little shorter than me and he wore clothes perhaps more suited for the summer. His hair stuck out at angles from behind the mask and was snow white, almost like my own.

"You can see me." I said, an uncontrollable smile spreading across my lips, "You can see me," I said again taking a step forward.

The boy took a quick step back and held up his palms in fount of him.

I froze noticing the way the boy had moved into a defensive pose, the smile fading from features. 「お前は人間なんだ?」The boy spoke but it was still just noise to me.

"I'm not going to hurt you." I said as calmingly as I could and held my own hands up, palms facing out in a sign of placidness. "It's just that no one has ever been able to see me before." I couldn't help the small smile that preceded.

The boy tilted his head to one side in a sign of confusion.

"Look I'm really not going to hurt you. I just wanted to introduce myself." I said, taking a further step forward. But this seemed to startle the boy, who ran behind a nearby tree. After a few seconds the cat mask pooped out from behind the trunk and the boy's gentle voice said 「俺が人間に触られると、消えってしまう。」

Not understanding the words he spoke I was at a loss as to what to do. Clearly direct contact was not going to work but I wasn't going to give up. This was the first person to see me in almost three hundred years.

I decided to go seat by a nearby tree, leaning my back against it, and wait for the boy to come to me.

After a little while the boy saw I wasn't moving and, imitating me, sat down by a tree not far from where I was.

For a long while we just sat in silence until I couldn't take it anymore. "I'm Jack by the way." I said.

When the boy just tilted his head in confusion I placed my hand over my heart, "Jack Frost." I said again, much slower this time.

"Jack Frost." The boy repeated.

"Yeah." I replied smiling. What's your name?" I said extending my open palm in his direction.

For a long while the boy just stared at me but then a soft voice said 「ギン」。

"Gin," I repeated out loud, and then "It's nice to mean you Gin."