The Shadows of the Cherry Blossoms

The scene was calm, the midnight breeze sending a chill down his spine as he continued down the road. It was festival time, so the light was illuminated by the lanterns hanging in the air. 

He continued down the road. He was starving, the food not prepared yet. He left to get away from the smell, the scent being enough to keep his stomach rumbling like a kettle drum. 

The cherry blossoms swayed back and forth with the wind, the cool breeze hitting against his face. Something stirred in the corner of his eye, but he didn't pay much attention to it. 

He continued walking, ignoring the small noises behind. They kind of sound like...

Footsteps? 

He turned quickly, looking back and forth. No one was there. 

"I could've sworn I heard something," he thought. 

Something grabbed his leg, dragging him up the tree as he screamed. Sharp claws stabbed into his leg, the pain ripping through his body as the monster laid his eyes on his prey. 

He screamed out in terror as the monster tear him limb from limb, blood coating the petals of the tree red. 

A pass-byer walked towards the tree, curious where the commotion was coming from. The monster, satisfied with its meal, threw the remains of its supper out of the tree.                             

The man's body fell, the pass-byer screaming in terror as blood fell like rain. 

Two Days Later 

The blood was dried up by the time he got there. 

It took the police a few hours trying to find all the remains. Most of them were eaten, the others spread out among the trees. The man was a normal person, average in the eyes of the world. 

Many people have gone missing within the span of a few days, not rare for festival times. But it was odd. Usually the missing people would have something in common, but this time a wide variety of children to elderly to tourists were all vanishing in thin air. 

He walked towards the tree, blood coating some of the petals. 

"So," his partner says, "What are we looking at here?" 

"A murder." 

"Murderer?" 

"Well how should I know?" 

"Well, what are we looking at?" 

The detective examines the tree, noticing a familiar pattern on its trunk. His eyes widened, trying to keep himself from laughing out loud. 

"What is it?" 

"Something," Adachi chuckled, "something familiar." 

He taps on the bark of the tree, examining the splattered blood. It was a little damp, not fully dried up. 

"I wouldn't be over here if I were you." An unfamiliar voice says. 

Adachi turns, face to face with an elderly woman. 

"A child died here two days ago," she says, "torn to shreds by what my daughter says was a monster." 

"Your daughter saw what did this?" 

"Yes," the woman says, "with her own two eyes." 

"It couldn't have been a monster," the partner, Himari, says. "Monsters are just fantasies told to us when we are young to teach us lessons. Right?" 

Adachi keeps his mouth shut. 

"My daughter has never told a lie in her life," the woman says, "she wouldn't dare to lie about something like this. You can ask her yourself." 

"Thank you, ma'am, we'd love to speak with your daughter." 

"Who even are you?" 

"I am a detective, please call me Adachi." 

"Never heard of you." 

"As much as I have heard of you." 

Himari looks back at the tree. Something was odd about it, Adachi's reaction to it was weird, like he had seen it before. She walked closer towards the tree, noticing the small markings in the dirt. 

鬼

Oni. 

"What's an Oni?" Himari asks. 

Adachi bursts out laughing, a blank expression on his face. "Where did you hear that from?" 

Himari frowns, Adachi's behavior becoming even more strange. 

"An Oni is a monster," the woman says. "That could have been what my daughter had seen." 

"Or maybe she was just delusional!" Adachi blurts out, laughing. 

He takes in a breath of air as Himari looks at him. 

"Okay," Adachi says, "Let's talk to the daughter." 

The room was quiet when they walked in, the smell of tea and paint filling the air. Adachi looked around, the paintings on the wall creeping him out a bit. 

Monster after monster covered every inch of the room, the daughter seemed to be describing what she saw through art. Adachi looked closely at the black and red paintings. 

One hundred percent an Oni. 

"What on earth?" Himari says, looking at the walls. 

"She's an artist," the woman says, "so she displays her emotions through painting. Well, in this case, her trauma." 

"No kidding," Adachi says, looking at the painting of limbs falling out of the tree. 

"Sayuri?" the woman calls, "Are you here?" 

"Yes," she says, crawling from behind a canvas. 

Her hair was messy, clothes slightly dirty, bags under her red eyes. Their was paint coating her hands, the mixture of black and red creating a thick crimson tint, the same as the monster in her paintings. 

"Can I help you?" Sayuri says, trying to brush back her hair a bit. 

"We heard you witnessed the murder of the man who got thrown out of the tree." 

"Yes." 

Himari pulls a notepad. 

"Well, if you wanna know the whole story, I might as well tell you," she says, wiping the paint from her hands. 

Adachi noticed something, just a split of a second. 

A small cut on her hand, only for her to move it away from his sight in a split of a second. Adachi mutters something under his breath, causing Himari to give him the same look as earlier. 

"What?" Adachi mutters. 

"You've been acting strange lately." 

"I'm always this weird." 

They look back down at Sayuri. 

"I was taking a stroll that night, excited because of the cherry blossoms. My mother had said she heard something, so I was going to check it out during my walk. I came across a moving tree. I had figured something or someone had gotten stuck in one of the trees, so I went to help them. Then someone’s body fell from the tree. I started screaming, terrified, and that’s when I saw it. It was a large and ugly monster, its bright yellow eyes staring at me. It was big, and fat, and disgusting, showing off its yellow blood stained teeth, teeth sharp as knives.” 

Adachi looked back at the paintings. Limbs falling from the sky, the blood covered petals. The yellow eyes staring at him. The blood dripped from its teeth. The monster reaching for her…

“Did it hurt you?” Adachi says. 

“Not really,” she says. “I got a little scratched, but people came before they were able to eat me. It quickly ran away, hiding within the trees.” 

Adachi mutters something else under his breath. 

Himari frowns. 

“Was there anything special about the monster?” Adachi says. “Any markings or signs?” 

“Not really.” 

Adachi sighs in relief. 

“Is that it?” Sayuri says, “Is there anything else you need to know?” 

“That’s it,” Adachi says, walking towards the door. He took one last look at the paintings on the wall. 

That’s when he finally noticed it. 

He walked slowly towards the painting, making sure he wasn’t dreaming. The markings on the tree. An enchantment. 

“Could you see the writing on the tree?” he says. 

“I couldn’t understand it. But it looked like this.” 

She pulls a small slip of paper from her pocket. Adachi looks at it. He was right. It is an enchantment. 

He sighs, shoving it in his pocket and leaving the room, Himari following slowly behind. 

The night was beginning to fall among the land, the sun slowly setting, the colors seeming to fade alongside it. Adachi looked up at the cherry blossoms. They continued to sway with the wind, back and forth and back and forth and so on. 

“So what do we do now?” Himari says, following behind him. 

“I need you to go get the autopsy report.” 

“What are you going to do?” 

Adachi stays quiet, bitting his lip as he walks off. 

“Adachi!” she yells out, following him. “What’s going on? You’ve been acting so weird lately.” 

“It’s nothing.” 

“You can’t think that these monsters are actually real.” 

“Oh, I don’t have to think.” 

“Adachi, be serious.” 

Adachi continues, walking towards the murder site. “Hurry up and get the report.” he calls back, “we’re going to need it.” 

“Why?” 

Adachi continues walking, eventually leaving her sight. Himari frowns, trying to figure out what to do. If she follows him he might get mad, but if she does what he wished him to she wouldn’t know what was truly going on. She gulps, coming to the conclusion of her thinking. 

She quickly heads down the road, following Adachi. 

Adachi doesn’t seem to notice her following, mind distracted on other things.  Himari slowly crept towards him, hiding in the shadows. 

"Alright old friend," Adachi says, reaching into his pocket. "I think it's about time we got to the bottom of this." 

He pulls a slip of paper from his pocket. 

A tails-men. 

He slides it onto his arm, the word DRAGON HALE written down in thick black ink. The words seem to start moving, similar to fire they began to spread down his arm, covering Adachi in a thick black and blue aura. 

Himari watched in shock, watching the dragon emerge from his arm. 

"Could you figure out where it is?" he says, "The whole Oni thing is getting on my nerves. And this was supposed to be my vacation." 

The dragon seems to be annoyed, rising into the air and flying off into the sunset. Adachi chuckled, walking towards the tree. 

Himari hid behind a cherry blossom tree, looking towards Adachi. 

The tree began to shake, and Himari stepped back, watching the trunk split open. A hand stuck out, grabbing her and yanking her in. She screamed as she vanished into the darkness of the tree.

Adachi quickly turned, only to see Himari pulled in. The trunk closed, leaving Adachi looking around. 

Tree by tree split open, the Oni's hand grabbing someone and pulling them in. Screams filled the air as person by person got taken. 

Adachi mutters again, walking towards the tree. 

The dragon returns, a sad expression on it's face. 

"Have any clue on what we should do?" 

The dragon shakes no. 

Adachi sighs, pulling another tails-men from his pocket. He closes his eyes, whispering the enchantment...

The tree splits open, a cold breeze coming from it. 

The dragon opens its mouth, fire illuminating the path. Adachi steps in carefully, following the sounds of screams. 

Himari looks around. 

About 50 humans are all in the realm, the Oni's already killing off about 10 of the original amount. 

Himari points her gun towards the Oni. "Oni's aren't real, Oni's aren't real.."

An Oni roars at her, grabbing her by the legs and preparing to eat her alive. 

"Oni's might be real..."

The Oni lifts her upwards, dangling her head towards his mouth. 

"Oni's are real..." 

Fire spreads across the realm, burning the Oni into a crisp. Himari falls to the ground, looking around nervously. 

Adachi looks around. "So much for the autopsy report." 

Himari's eyes widened, looking back and forth from him and the dragon. 

"It's a long story," Adachi mutters. 

The humans quickly run towards the portal, leaving the darkness of the realm. Adachi helps Himari up, looking around for more Oni. 

Three seem to pop out of nowhere, grabbing him by the neck. Another grabs his arm, prepared to rip the limbs off his body. Himari yells out.

"First Flame Enchantment," he mutters, then whispers the enchantment in a language Himari can't understand. 

The Oni's scream out as they burn alive, fire releasing from his throat. 

He wipes the blood from his mouth as he looks for an exit.

The portals have closed, sealing them off from the mortal realm. 

He mutters under his breath, looking at the dragon. "Find a way to open the portal." 

The dragon nods, flying towards the tree. 

Adachi looks back at Himari. Who has passed out from fear.

Adachi sighs, trying to make clear of the objects moving in the darkness...

An Oni comes from behind, its horn stabbing into his back. Adachi quickly pulls himself down, whispering more enchantments as fire begins to spread across his body. The Oni's drop one by one, their blood coating the dirt ground. 

Another Oni comes from the darkness, grabbing him by the arm. Adachi quickly moves his hand, stabbing at his eye. The Oni yells out and begins to deepen its claws into his skin. The claws pierce through, blood falling down its arm. 

The dragon yells out, seconds away from leaving the portal-

"Stay there!" Adachi chokes out, blood spilling from his mouth, "Get Himari and take her out of here!" 

The dragon nods, tears rushing down its face as it flies towards the portal, Himari in its tail. 

Adachi looks back at Oni, who is inches away from biting his hand off. He yells out in pain as the fire grows, burning down the Oni's throat. It collapses, dropping Adachi onto the ground. 

He coughs out blood, vision blurring. 

Himari opens her eyes, watching the dragon flying towards the portal. She looks back towards Adachi. 

"Adachi!" She yells out. 

Adachi looks up. 

Thousands of monsters stare down at him, mouths watering in hunger. Adachi chuckles, pulling the slip of paper Sayuri had given him. He copies the patterns of the words, stabbing it into his arm with the Oni's horn. 

The monsters rush towards him, Himari going through the portal. 

Adachi slowly lifts himself up, muttering the Five Forbidden Words of Enchantment and the Nine Forgotten Enchantments of Power. 

He feels something stab through his head as fire spreads through the realm. 

The dragon turns, trying to get back to it's master - 

The portal closes in a flash of blue light. 

Himari lifts herself up, looking at the tree. 

The cherry blossoms continue to sway in the wind, the world continuing on like nothing has happened. The survivors continue to walk down the roads, unaware of what just happened. 

The dragon looks back at the tree. 

A small cut forms in it and light begins to spread from it, the portal opening. 

Adachi crawls out, covered in blood. 

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," he says, brushing the Oni guts from his clothes. 

Himari tries to keep herself from throwing up as she helps Adachi up. The dragon flies around in joy, happy it's master has returned. 

"Autopsy?" Adachi says. 

Himari looks at him in disbelief. 

"What?" he mutters. "You think people would believe what actually happened?"