Day 3 prompt - Scent: Floral or fruity (300 words)
"It's time for the cherry blossoms to bloom."
The lieutenant was waiting by the door, a worn coat snugly wrapped around his body—and Shoukaku knew he wasn't simply stating the obvious.
"I don't want to go. There's no reason for me to go."
She had to look away when the man continued to knowingly smile at her, even though she had just refused him.
"On the contrary, I think you do have one or two. Do you really want to stay cooped in this smelly old house that much?"
As if the words were a cue, Shoukaku took a discreet whiff. The musty, pungent sensation striking her nose was indeed overbearing. And when she thought about it, having nothing to look at but the same surroundings, the same rooms, the same arrangements, every passing day—it had admittedly become burdensome.
"Well?" he asked again. The apparent crack in her composure was as reassuring as it was emboldening.
Shoukaku pondered some more before finally sighing.
"...I guess I'll go…then."
Petals blanketed the desolate old road, and as far as their eyes could see, almost no corners were left untouched, surrounded by cloud-like blooms waiting for their turn to flutter to the ground.
Shoukaku tipped her head up; she took in the scent of cherry blossoms. It had been too long since she last saw them—was their fragrance always this ghost-like and elusive? Transient like their ephemeral nature?
Or was she too tainted to even really remember any other scent than smoke and blood?
"Pleasant, isn't it? The fragrance?" he asked as he walked up to her. Shoukaku noticed he had petals on his wiry hair and coat. At times he'd inhale and exhale and, without a doubt, be pleased and laugh about it.
The strange feeling in her chest grew taut. She didn't know if she should envy him or regret being there, or perhaps even both.
"I…don't know. I can't really smell the fragrance. Perhaps…I was indeed too tainted by my sins to do so. Should I even be here while these blossoms die a beautiful death?"
His smile ebbed until it was no more.
"Perhaps there's no more fitting time than now for Shoukaku, the tainted warrior, to die a beautiful death as well," he murmured as another cloud of petals swayed into the road. Before she could speak anything, he was already turning to face her.
"But Shoukaku, the ordinary person, should live the rest of her days in peace. Because spring has come."
Petals began to shower all over her body, but Shoukaku didn't shake them off—she allowed more and more to fall, even to her palms. Their fragrance grew potent as they became her own, and she could feel the sides of her face warming up. Perhaps her tainted self indeed had been laid to rest, and now only her remains.
Her smile bloomed like spring. But unlike cherry blossoms, they were certain it wouldn't be so fleeting.
