UTSUKUSHII USO NO YOU NA YUME DESHITA/IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL,FALSE DREAM.

HIGANBANA

That child.
She screams.

Her throat.
Torn.

Heart.
What heart?

That child.
Understands now.


SAKURA

Ash.
Everywhere.
So many bodies,so much chaos and blackness that it is overwhelming me like i haven't been more than enough for however long i have been here.

The sky is virtually obsidian with little to no clouds and the few i see are red with a blood moon above us with no sun or natural gentle light to be seen for miles and miles in every direction.

I see the massive mutated forms of warriors that the poor child Aoi had to contend with,no regarding of human life in sight and very few of humanity is in sight now.

"What happened?Wh-what happened?......"

I hear no answer from the crimson woman so i try to walk the long expanse of black ash ground,the inability to avoid stepping on a person or what's left of takes too long to hit me but it does and the sounds of dried bones cracking or simply flattening to match the ash beneath me is enough to make me lose what is left of my breath for this place smells like it is.

Death and fire.
Ash and misery.

Like i suppose my Grandmother and i smell.

A hill is just before my eyes made up entirely of ravens feasting on the corpses of the very villagers i had seen torture my Grandmother and her Father.
They still scream like this is the first time they have been slain yet by them yet i see that they are constantly reanimated.

Running is pointless,i can barely crawl up the mound and the sensation of touch is mortifying to me currently as i wish i did not know what it feels like to press into rotted and bleeding flesh that cries out after every push in i must make to climb up,because this massive expanse of blackness,bodies and blood.
Creatures once men and ravens.

They all lead up to whatever is beyond this climb.

So i climb.

I climb to see it,i see her.

"Do you require more reasons?Love can only go so far when that once love turns into utter defiance of order and righteousness.You are true in loving her but love is not what is at fault here,Do you see?"

I do not want to hear her but i understand now.

My eyes rest on the sight of my Grandmother standing by a throne of ravens talons and blood with a tall man clad in black and gold and ravens feathers armor,even his face is partially hidden but his eyes.
Lock onto mine.

I feel his heart,i feel his truth,i feel it so much so it aches me to my core.

NAGAREBOSHI

Do you see me,child?
I know you do.
Where does love begin and hatred begin?
Where does love end and hatred end?
Can you answer that?
All of this was for you and i.
You know this,she will not let us go.
I should have stopped her,i felt her change things over and over and over to no good and i allowed it for my own dream of getting what i thought was my due fate.
Do you care for life like i should have?
I see all of your lives because my love wants me to feel it all too,her love and effort.
I hope yours is not poisonous.
I am no longer of any hope until now.
Do it.
WHAT.
MUST.
BE.
DONE.
Little blossom......


SAKURA

He showed me his struggle to free my Grandmother from her obsession to save him and me but she could not suffer a world without us,so much so that she put all her hope love and power into the locket i wear,pure will into action is all of what we have seen thus far.
What i have seen.

The last thing i see of the warrior that sits on that throne is his eyes guiding towards the small white sphere that my Grandmother keeps by in her hand like a pearl.

When i near them,he regards me and somehow by i think his own last reserves of will and strength he keeps my Grandmother motionless enough to let me look at the pearl of light she holds so devotedly.

I look at it closely and i see it like a prism of beauty.
Or a prison so wonderful one would never wish to leave it.

It is a home,deep in the forest with a river by a clearing.
Cherry blossoms are all over and weeping willows,sunflowers planted by the home and so many more that it is breathtaking.
I am standing by the doorway,mashing leaves to make tea while i watch...
While i watch.
Them.

Noroi and our daughter.
She is happily in his arms as he guides her through the willows as though on a journey,he even whispers that some creature or other is pursing them but she will be safe,he being her protector while she enjoys every second of it.

Noroi seems at ease for one of few times i think i have ever seen it,alive.
He is fully smiling both dimples on full display and he wears a hakama instead of armor,no mask to cover his pain or his vulnerability.

Just him.
And a young boy that runs up and past them towards me,i kneel and scoop him up in my arms.
Both of the children have his dimples but our son has my softer eyes while our daughter has her fathers green eyes.

My heart.
Oh GOD,please help me my heart.....

No wonder i kept trying over and over to have it all.

My Grandmother wanted her love and me to have mine.

Nagareboshi.
I look back at him and see him,he looks at her then me again and no words are spoken for me to understand.

I simply feel it,know it.

He vowed to become a warrior to honor,a quiet blade in the night and she gave him that.
He regrets it with his soul but has chosen,even now to remain motionless.

He is asking me without a word.

I look back to the pearl my Grandmother holds,i look into her eyes and still feel her very real,very true love but see it.
Relentless obsession.
I mirror it when i see my memories too.

Once more i look at that pearl.
Once more i look at the life together with Noroi,with our children play out beautifully and happily over and over again growing old,grandchildren and not dying but starting over.
We,oblivious to it.
To the..
Falseness.

Oblivious indeed.

"You are have decided i see.
You have to return to the physical world now,and wait for the warrior to find you and then you must end yourself.Start over and with my last bit of strength you will have power and recollection.Do what must be done,what we couldn't child."


The forest as it was when i first arrived.
I am alone and feel so,so very cold.
I rather be dead now but i.
I....
Cannot.