Only A Bet – A Series of Seishirou Centric Oneshots
~ I ~
Seishirou unceremoniously flung his young victim to the ground. Pale pink sakura blossoms drifted down from the nearly black branches of the sakura tree he was reclining on and landed on the little girl's dead body. The petals were then stained a crimson red. Seishirou's blood-coated arm dangled off the sakura branches and the blood dripped down in rain-like droplets.
Seishirou heard the high voice of a young boy. "Blood?" it asked, mystified. Clueless. Thoughts crossed Seishirou's mind. He instantly identified the child as someone in the same trade as him. An onmyouji. An onmyouji that could not possibly remain alive.
After all, the Sakurazukamori had an absolute law. Anyone, no matter who it happened to be, that witnessed them killing must be eliminated.
However, Seishirou felt a slight inclination to diverge from the traditional order of business. He silently leapt down from the sakura tree and turned to face the child. The boy was petite, even for his age, and dressed in the ceremonial onmyouji robes. Hair black as pitch framed an innocent and naïve face that was all too trusting and kind, setting off vivid emerald eyes. This boy had power; Seishirou could feel it radiating from his ofuda talismans. The feeling was even stronger now. This boy mustn't be killed.
He mustn't be left to walk away free, either.
"Sakura…" the younger onmyouji whispered.
Seishirou smirked and approached the child.
"Do you like the sakura blossoms?" Seishirou asked in a smooth, neutral voice that masked the danger underneath.
"Yes!" the child answered while nodding his head, very confident.
"Well," Seishirou said, his tone darker now. "Did you know that underneath every sakura tree is a corpse?"
The boy looked horrified. "A- a corpse?"
"You see, the sakura blossoms weren't always this pale pink color. They used to pure white, like snow. Then how do you suppose they became this shade of pink?"
All of the false warmth had left Seishirou's voice.
"They drink the blood of the corpse buried underneath them."
Tears started to flow from the wide eyes of the boy onmyouji.
"But- but isn't that person in pain?"
Seishirou was slightly shocked for a moment. In pain? The boy didn't even know the victims Seishirou had offered to the Tree. They were nothing to him. Seishirou decided to gloss over the question, then bend down to meet the boy's green eyes.
"I'll make a bet with you," Seishirou stated. "Your heart is the exact opposite of mine – kind, innocent, pure, and trusting. If we ever meet again, let us live together for one year. I will try my very hardest to learn to love you and do everything a person in love would do. I will spend time with you, look at only you, protect you. When that year is up, even if only the smallest shard of truth had grown from that lie, I will not kill you. However, if I cannot consider you special, I shall kill you.
"And so I can recognize you once more, I shall carve my mark onto your hands, branding you as the prey of the Sakurazukamori."
Seishirou placed his hand onto the younger onmyouji's forehead, causing him to lose consciousness. He whispered a few ancient words, erasing the juniors memories of his encounter with the Guardian of the Cherry Blossom Barrow.
Seishirou took each of the boy's pure hands that were unsullied by blood – much unlike Seishirou's own – and pressed his lips to them, inscribing an inverted pentagram onto the backs of each. The symbol of the Sakurazukamori.
It's only a bet, Seishirou told himself, then disappeared in a cloud of sakura blossoms.