#kanzakura muses

[kanzakurawrites]

Ben's title should be Emperor instead of King

[fantasticalrealms]

Cherry Blossom Promises: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: At First Sight 

“Good morning Kanzakura!” A clear voice rang through the quiet grove. A handsome young man stretched out of the heart of a massive cherry tree in the center of the circular grove. With a lazy drawl he greeted the new day by waving at the sun in the sky as if he knew it personally. The last of the winter snow was melting from the ground and he gingerly dodged the mushy piles to keep his feet dry. Despite the cold freezing his breath, the tree above was in full bloom.

“So… who am I going to visit first?” The question hung in the air as he looked into a small clear pool near the tree. Faces of girls started flashing before him and he popped every one of them into his memory. One in particular caught his eye. “WHOA! Stop! Back up, back up!” The image of the girl re-appeared and he stared at it in awe.

“She… She… GAH! She’s mortal!” He slumped down, suddenly heedless on the slush and mud, withd a defeated look on his face. “Show me what she’s doing…” he muttered running a hand through his short bright red hair. “Yeah right you can’t do…”

She appeared in the pool moving around throwing snowballs at a younger girl and a about the same age boy.

“Hey! I didn’t know you could do that.”

‘You never asked.’ Appeared in writing above the picture. The young man shrugged and went back to watching the images dancing beneath the surface. He was thoroughly amused and spent the rest of the day doing so.

Matsudai Aiiko walked down the dusty country road on a beautiful warm spring day. Above her the sun shone golden bright and warm. There was a junction where the two dirt paths came together just in front of her. All around her were rice paddies with members of her family’s labor force working in them. Her plain blue yukata was rolled to just below her knee and the bottom of it dripped water on the dry ground. Her sleeves had been rolled up and tied off on her shoulders. Long black hair lay free on her back and it swayed in the breeze and in the movement of her walking. Mud caked on her legs and hands as she passed on down the road carrying a basket at her side. She had gotten up extra early to do some work and was ready for a much need break. Her father despised her attitude of wanting to do hard work like the laborers since it had scared away a long line of acceptable suitors.

“Aiiko!” A boy called from one of the paddies she was walking past. She smiled and waved back happily.

“Hello, Yuki!” she called back to the boy. “Whew… It feels good to get a long day of hard work in once in a while.” She sighed as she approached the well.

“Aiiko your father had better not find out you’ve been working in the fields again!” An older woman called from just inside the wooden gates of a manor.

“He won’t know if you don’t say Mother!” Aiiko called back with a smile. Her Mother just shook her head and walked away.

Far above her in the Heavens two young gods, by godly standards, sat watching over the activities on Earth. “Where is everyone?” The younger one asked looking around. She had bright blue eyes and long white hair that laid lazily on the ice blue material of her kimono.

“Off doing this and that.” The older one replied with a sigh. He had short spikey orange-red hair that seemed to dance like flames and green eyes. His orange kimono shirts with red hakama pants were slowly wrinkling as he laid lazily over the viewing pool.

“This is boring.” The girl sighed.

“Yeah without Susanowa around causing trouble it’s awfully quite up here. I almost wish I had Musubi’s job…” he mused with a half-hearted grin.

“Why is that?” the young girl wondered looking over at him.

“He always has something to do and he always gets to meet the pretty mortal girls. He’s so lucky.”

She smacked him upside the head and looked at him a bit miffed. “Owe! Sorry…” he replied rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah but it’s sad really. He’s always down there telling those mortals they’re going to find love but never finds it himself,” she explained sympathetically. A worried look punctuated her point.

“I don’t know about that… He’s been spending an awful lot of time down there lately,” he went on smugly.

“It’s spring down here… You know, the time for love and passion among mortals…”

“Oh…” he replied feeling a little silly. “Still you never know.”

A young man, handsome by any term of the word, garbed in typical peasant fashion strolled down the dusty a road; a broad smile reached across his face. His blue eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun just as the water around him did. In his hand was a bunch of cherry boughs full of fresh spring blooms. Ahead of him a young woman passed over the crossroad and went on. He stopped in his tracks and gawked, his mouth agape. He continued to stare at her a few more moments before absentmindedly brushing a lock of black hair out of his eyes.

“She… She is so beautiful,” he muttered as she walked on. He snapped out of his trance and the smile returned to his face. “A creature of this earth so beautiful as that deserves love. Even if it isn’t mine…” He started in pursuit of his quarry.

Aiiko set the basket down by the old well and began to pull a bucket of water up to wash with. Her arms ached with every tug up until finally they gave way and the bucket crashed back into the water. She groaned and kneeled down next to the well, resting her head on the edge. “Too tired but I have to get cleaned up…” She closed her eyes and breathed long and heavy breaths trying to relax. There was a thump by her head and she looked up. Beside her was a tall young man about her age holding the bucket on the edge and smiling at her.

“It looked like you were in need of assistance,” he answered her confused look. He reached out a free hand in an offer to help her up. She blushed as she reached for his hand, saw how dirty it was and pulled it back hiding it behind her back. “Hey we all get dirty sometimes!” he replied grabbing her hand and pulling her up. “Here you go, water to wash up with.” He pointed to the bucket then slid it towards her. “I’ll let you be, but before I go, this is for you.” He reached down and picked a cherry bough up off the ground and handed it to her. He gathered up the rest of them and started walking away.

“Who are you? Won’t you at least tell me your name so I can have something more lasting to remember you by?” The man stopped again and stood there a minute before turning slightly but still declining to face her. “You don’t have to leave so soon…”

“Why would you like to know?” he asked slowly and quietly.

“So I can have a name to put with a hand and face of such wonderful kindness...” she replied blushing and looking down into the well.

“My name isn’t important but if you value it so much when I return to these parts again, I will give it to you,” he answered with a slight smile.

“Will you really return? Or is this just a sweet lie meant to amuse my young heart?” she asked sadly.

He furrowed his brow a bit then eased and smiled.

“If you truly want me to.”

Her face brightened as she looked up at him again. “I would like that very much. And I would like it even more if you stayed longer than you did today.” Her answer bubbled out of her happily as she looked up at him again.

“Then if your heart desires this in three months time, meet me by that tree on this day just after lunch.” He smiled and continued walking and gently taking in the smell of the blossoms.

“Why would I not?” she whispered as she watched him walk away. She set about washing up as her other laborers approached the well. Her best friend Yuki came up to her with a wild smile on his face.

“And who was that? What did he want? Hmmm?” he asked in a teasing manner.

“Yuki. I think I’ve fallen in love with a young man I’ve never met and don’t even know his name…” she whispered looking up at him with a slight smile.

“Aiiko? In love?! Never!” he teased while wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Of all the suitors who have come to claim her love all have failed for it is Aiiko! The hardest woman in all of Japan to woo! All he gave you was a cherry branch? You’re getting softer as you get older…” Yuki raved flailing his free arm about to emphasize his point.

“In three months time she’ll be married off I suppose… It was a foolish promise to make for my part if not hers. But I suppose I’ll humor myself again and see what happens,” Musubi sighed sadly as he watched Aiiko playfully pour water all over Yuki’s head.

“Ok so let me get this straight… If I can make a girl to fall in love with him in the next 50 years, you’ll do all my chores for the next 500?” the older god asked his younger friend.

“That’s the deal all right. And if you can’t you have to do all of mine for the next 500 years. Are you up to the challenge?” she replied with a sly smirk.

“Definitely!” They shook on it and the boy bounded off to check out what Musubi was up to and if there were any mortals he was interested in.

“There is no way he can do it…” she sighed a little disheartened. “You can’t MAKE beings fall in love, you can only help it along. I don’t suppose he’ll get that until it’s all said and done but oh well. That just means no chores for me for 500 years,” she smirked as she walked off.

[tentoriwrites]

Fireflies Sweet Ending

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Continue now or return to select a new ending!

“You go ahead and get out first, Shigezane. I won’t look.” She said quietly after a long moment of silence.

“I wouldn’t mind if you did…” He mumbled under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing… nothing.” He mumbled as he moved to get out. She turned her body to look away as he dressed. “You never got a chance to get washed up, did you?” He sighed just now realizing it. “I’ll wait outside the door.”

“All right.” She waited until the door shut before she got out of the water. She kept splashing periodically as she got dressed to make it sound like she was washing. She needed a few moments away from Shigezane to gather her thoughts. She followed the narrow stone path to the side gate. She followed the illumination of the fireflies back to the shrine once more. Something drew her there now just as it had hours before. As she rounded the corner of the inn, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Standing in the center of the shrine was a person… she thought. She couldn’t be sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. She blinked quickly a few times. Still there. She screwed her eyes shut hard and counted to five. Still there… She pinched herself on the arm as hard as she could. Still there…

They were tall, so very tall, easily twice her height. They were facing away from her and there was a curtain of hair streaming down their back. It was so long it flowed all the way to the ground and pooled there. It was white at the roots and graduated to blood red at the tips. They turned ever so slightly, eyes trained on the crescent moon in the sky. When they turned, she could see their kimono was snow white at the top with a pattern of cherry blossoms that grew darker in color and more prolific as they trailed down to the hem. They had snow white skin and dark violet eyes. The being seemed to glow all on their own, not just their skin and hair but their clothes as well. Though the glow seemed gentle, the being was so imposing in stature it easily illuminated the whole shrine. There was a cherry branch in their hand with only two open blossoms on it. The rest were just buds, waiting to spring open.

“You don’t have to keep standing there. I’m not going to hurt you.” A smile graced their lips and she judged from the voice they were male. He reached his free hand out to her and her feet started to move all of their own. She was scarcely breathing as she drew closer. Suddenly, a mass of cherry blossoms pooled at her feet and pushed her into the air so she was at chest level with him. Somehow, the mass became solid under her feet. “There we are, now I can see you much better.” He mused in the most soothing voice she had ever heard.

“Who are you?” She managed to get out in an awe-filled whisper. He just handed her the branch in his hand.

“Why I am the deity of this shrine.” His smile broadened. “Think for just a moment, Beautiful, and you’ll know who I am…” His smile broadened as he gestured down to the branch. She looked down at it, studying it briefly before her eyes grew large as saucers. Her head shot up instantly, color draining from it completely.

“You… this is… Kanzakura?” He smiled so broadly wrinkles formed at his eyes. “And that means…” She looked down at the branch and gasped again.

“You have been given a gift from a sacred tree; the nature of that gift surely does not elude you…” His voice drew her gaze back up to him.

“It means I’ll find love soon.” She whispered and he smiled once again. “But who?”

“You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”

“But he never said anything after I told him…” She looked down again, sadness in her eyes.

“Yes… well… If a certain meddlesome innkeeper would learn to have a better sense of timing…” He grumbled as his shapely pink eyebrows pulled together in exasperation.

“I just don’t understand…” She muttered looking down at the branch in her hands.

“What’s not to understand?” He titled his head to the side as he gently coaxed her face upward with slender fingers on her chin.

“What I could have possibly done to deserve a blessing like this.” She started to cry. She knew the tales, a branch from Musubi, the deity of love, meant you were guaranteed to find love.

“The blessing is not just for the young woman who receives it.” He replied with a laugh. “You have proven yourself a woman with a strong and noble heart. You sacrifice much for those you love and you deserve someone who has done the same. Someone who has lost many he has cared about to another and still managed not to hold a grudge against any of them. For noble heart such as those belong together.” He explained with a warm smile as he leaned down to eye level with her. “Loves takes two…” He added kissing her on the forehead gently. Her eyes were wide as he pulled away. “The branch only guarantees love. The kiss guarantees an enduring love. A love that shall survive even death itself. Death will surely take you both one day. But your heart will be light because you’ll always find each other again.” He went on as he righted himself.

“I still don’t quite understand why…” She uttered, voice stolen by her disbelief.

“This is what happens when you catch the eye of a deity.” He replied simply. Suddenly, he coughed into his hand, pointing in the direction of the inn with his head. “Seems your absence has gotten the attention of certain lord…” There was a teasing quality to his voice as she turned around. There was Shigezane froze in his tracks gawking at the bizarre sight.

“Nice to finally meet you, Date Shigezane!” The deity called jovially with a wave.

“What the…” Shigezane stammered falling right on to his butt when all his strength gave out on him.

“Awe now don’t be like that! Come say hello!” A mass of cherry petals picked Shigezane up and brought him over, still in a sitting position. “There we are now…” He went on as Shigezane was pushed into a standing position, floating next to her on a mass of petals.

“Who the… what… the…” He just stared up at the being before him.

“Thank you for accepting my invitation.” The deity replied with a bow.

“Home?”

“Invitation?” She looked stunned. “You mean… you… I picked the wrong path on purpose?” The deity smiled sheepishly, a look that seemed in complete juxtaposition with his elegant, transient beauty.

“Well actually you were on the wrong trail to get where you wanted to go from the start. I might have seized on the opportunity to bring you here though.” He answered honestly. “You really shouldn’t try to follow such vague directions from strangers. It could be dangerous, you know.”

“Thank you!” Shigezane exclaimed. “I’m always telling her to be warier of strangers…” He added in a grumble.

“Like me?” Shigezane’s head quirked to the side at the odd question the glowing being had broached. “You have very good reason not to trust me. I do hope you’ll forgive me all the false alarms but I have a gift for you now!”

“False alarms?”

“That’s Musubi…” She whispered holding up the branch. Shigezane’s eyes got huge as his gaze darted between her and the deity. The deity just smiled ambivalently.

“All right!” The deity mused as he clapped his hands together. “The innkeeper should be finding himself well and fully passed out right now so… On you go!” There was an explosion of petals causing them to close their eyes. When they opened them, they were alone in the shrine, feet planted firmly on the ground. Shigezane took her hands in his, grasping them as firmly as he could.

“There’s something I’ve been trying to tell since we got here.” He went on rubbing the bark on the branch, now entwined between their hands. “I love you. I have loved you for months but I didn’t think you felt the same about me. You were so devoted to Masa… and you spent so much time with Kojuro… I thought… I thought how could you ever love me when you could have either of them…” Tears flowed from his eyes unbidden though he was still smiling. She cut him off before he could say anything else.

“I could never have either of them…” She smiled as she looked up at him bashfully. “You’re the only one I could ever love.” His eyes went wide and even more tear poured out. His hands found their way to her cheeks and he leaned in to kiss her, at long last. He paused, reflexively looking at the inn. When no interruption came he smiled and finished his descent to her lips.

“No matter what happens now… I will always love you. I vow this to you on this sacred tree, on Musubi, on every god there is to swear by. No matter what happens, even if death takes me… I’ll find you again.” He cried as he hugged her into his chest, tightly, as if he thought he might lose her immediately if he didn’t…

Gods in heaven… if this is a dream I don’t ever want to wake up…

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…” Shigezane snapped straight up from a dead sleep and looked around wildly. He didn’t remember falling asleep, let alone being in his room at Yonezawa when he did. The sound of rain pouring outside the only sound.

It was only a dream after all. That was pretty damn cruel…

There was a sudden rustling of fabric and his eyes shot down to the bedding next to him. There she was, smiling serenely in her sleep.

“I love you… Shigezane…” She murmured as she rolled over and grasped his arm, yanking it out from under him. He fell over in the bedding and chuckle escaping his lips. He propped himself up again and noticed a cherry branch, in full bloom, in a vase on his writing desk.

“Was it worth the wait?” A much shorter deity of love asked from the open doorway. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared out at the sky with a smile.

“You sent us home?” He whispered.

“Couldn’t have either one of you getting sick… You two have a long, happy life together.” The deity replied as he pushed off the door frame.

“Thank you.” Shigezane bowed as deep as he could in his position.

“Take good care of her. That will be thanks enough.” He turned his gaze into the room and pointed a slender digit at the writing desk. “There’s something on the desk. I want you to give it to her on your wedding day. If you can resist the urge to open it. You will be rewarded handsomely.” There was an explosion of cherry petals and he was gone. Shigezane looked over at a small, red, fabric colored box.

 --- --- --- --- ---

“You still haven’t learned to stop breaking the rules.” A woman’s voice called out as Musubi passed through the garden of Yonezawa. He froze in place instantly. “Even though you knew it couldn’t have been her.”

“Amaterasu…” He bowed reverently. “Yes… I knew it wasn’t her but…” He looked over his shoulder briefly.

“Soon Musubi… I promise one day she’ll be reborn and when she is, you’ll be together forever.” Amaterasu smiled warmly. “All of you…” Musubi smiled back at her.

“I know…”

 --- --- --- --- ---

“What is this?” She wondered as Shigezane handed her a small red box.

“You know what, Doll? I have no idea. Musubi told me to give it to you on our wedding day.” He explained with a shrug. Her eyes lit up and she handled the box like the sacred object it was. Slowly, reverently, she pushed open the lid. Inside was a crystal cherry blossom, the color of rose quartz on a chain.

“A necklace! It’s beautiful!” She gasped as her fingers hovered over it, afraid to touch it.

“Let me put it on you.” Shigezane offered and she handed the box to him. She turned so he could clasp it around her neck. Once secured, she turned to face him again.

“How does it look?” Shigezane just smiled.

“Nothing in the world could ever be as beautiful to me as you are right now…”