Sakura

After that fateful day of killing my dear mother, Setsuka, it seemed that my life was finally being set into motion. I had been waiting far too long to not enjoy the feel of killing, the smell of blood on my hands.

My life was not an easy one. I grew up surrounded by emotionless people and forceful actions, becoming the dark shadow that people had feared. For fifteen long years, I was a soulless human. I felt nothing. I loved no one and I was planning to stay that way.

My foolish mother. How could she say that she loved me? I doubt that anyone one born into this family could actually love. My father was an outsider, obviously he was someone that happened to be her assignment, and yet she showed a small flaw. Then, unexpectedly they both created me; an infant who was merely lost on the situation.

But, that is too far back to where I want to begin. The day I want to start at is the day that I met my dear Subaru-kun.

Subaru Sumeragi. The heir to the Sumeragi Clan. I had heard of the Sumeragi and their powers. I was to study it and learn their styles of attacks, the spells they used, and how they used it to help humans in need.

I never understood why they used it to help worthless humans who only had merely a small amount of time to live. But, he was different.

His heart was too pure. His soul was innocent. He loved humanity so much that he was willing to risk his own life to save them.

Such a foolish boy.

We met unexpectedly one that day. I was beginning to fed a body to the sakura tree, when I glanced over to see him standing near the roots of the tree itself. He was gazing in amazement with those bright green eyes. I found myself slightly captivated by this boy, having not seen a human like him before. But, as I stared, I came to realize that he was dressed in robes.

The next in line to the Sumeragi Clan. A boy this young?

As I was gazing down at him, he was gazing up toward me. I had seen confusion and fear in his eyes as he stared at the bloody corpse against me. He had caught me in the act of my job.

A simple mistake. I had to kill him before he ran away. After catching this little boy, now limp in my arms, I pondered on what to do with him.

To kill him or to let him live? He was an onmyoji, like myself. But, he was of the other clan. I wasn't sure how this boy truly was, for I did just cause him to fall unconsciousness. So, why not test him to see if he is worthy of living?

I let him awake from his temporary sleep, helping him to his feet as he looked up at me with confusion. As soon as that was done, he apologized for his careless actions, thinking that he may have disturbed me as if I were a regular person admiring the tree.

"I'm very sorry! I must have fainted… thank you for your help!"

His smile was a very bright and innocent one. And I could tell just by looking at him that he was indeed a naive person. A caring, naive child.

"The cherry blossoms are wonderful!"

So, he was really oblivious to everything. At least the small temporary state will give me some time to examine him closely.

"You really think so? Well, do you know the tale of the cherry blossoms?" I watched him shake his head no. I leveled myself to his height, seeing that he was quite small, seeing his eyes look at me with interest.

"Well, they say that the cherry blossoms were white. As white as snow. But they are this bright pink because there is a corpse buried underneath each tree."

"A corpse?" He asked, surprised.

"Yes…a corpse." I continued as I turned toward the tree behind me. The blood from the corpse is soaked up into the branches, which gives them the bright pink color."

"But…isn't the corpse in pain?"

I looked back, seeing his emerald green eyes in tears, which actually surprised me. He was too caring. That was a small flaw with this boy. Yet, it was admirable. I couldn't help but smile at how nice he was, in which I surprised myself.

"How about….we make a bet?" I asked, seeing his eyes blink in confusion. "A bet?"

"Yes, a bet. I have a feeling that we will meet again sometime in the future. I don't think I can let a nice boy like you fade away so quickly…so we'll make a bet…"

I really had his attention while I talked, but he strained for a moment.

"Wait….I can't hear what you are saying….the wind is picking up…"

Of course, that was to my doing. He didn't need to know the formalities of the bet. I would let him figure that out on his own. If he could.

"But, until then, I'll let you go…" I had finished making the bet after marking him on his hands with a kiss.

Surely, I could easily spot him if I did it this way. Since he was a weak boy, he fainted easily. After completing my first task of feeding the corpse of the young girl to the sakura tree, I let him go. I figured that his grandmother, who I knew was the 12th head to the Sumeragi clan, would be looking for him.

And once she had seen that he had been branded, she would take drastic measures to keep me from finding him. Of course, it wasn't that easy. I had my eye on him, and I planned to keep it that way for a long time.

At least until Subaru won the bet. That is, if he won.