Please, leave a stain on this vast emptiness

Chapter 1

Tsumi softly pats the top of his head, small sakura petals gently graze against his slender fingers before fluttering off his hair from his movements, their silky texture is faint to the touch, but pleasant none the less.

Spring had came early. Ever so slightly, his lips curl upward at the corners as he remembers his little sister. Just two weeks ago, Komen sat on the window sill, resting her head carefully against the thin layer of rice paper. Silently, Tsumi's curious gaze followed her longing ones, far into the distance mountains.

He asked tenderly: "Penny for your thoughts?"

She had answered him with another question: "When will spring come?"

"I believe that is when the sakura trees start blooming."

"I can't see any from the house." She mumbled forlornly.

"There is quite a long row of them on my usual route back to the house." He stroked her hair as they continued to stare at the environment outside: "They've already started budding recently, pale little nubs, no doubt they will bloom very early this year."

"How strange, yet wonderful, February sakura." Komen sounded much more happy, which in turn made Tsumi's heart leaped with joy.

The smile formed from memory turns sour as Tsumi realizes he is trudging closer to the Jūnisakura estate, in his mind he swiftly weighs his pros and cons of facing home. Actually, depending on meaning, it is grossly inaccurate to defined it as a home. He contemplates in silence.

But he stops his train of thoughts when he peers at his hand as he brings it down from his hair. There, sticking to his palm by cold February dew, is a pale petal with the most peculiar shape.

What a cute heart shape, he thinks to himself as he gingerly peel the piece off for closer examination, she will like this.

No longer is he hesitant or sulky about the thought of going home, despite his bitterness toward the Jūnisakura family, Komen is always his first priority.

As soon as he is inside the house he kicks off his shoes at the doorway, without a care for his manners, and briskly heads to his sister's room at the almost desolated west wing, before walking in he checks to make sure no one notices.

If his father and mother catchs word there is no telling how they would punish Komen.

Just because she is a non-shaman.

The Jūnisakura clan, despite their long bloodline of shamans, is quite unremarkable jujutsu history. Their inherited technique's power was much too weak and ineffectual to provide any use for the long battle against curses, and none of the Jūnisakura shamans recorded were anyone special to applaud about. So it is reasonably understandable that the older son, Jūnisakura Tsumi is highly praised by the family, the young shaman's gift for jujutsu first shown through his ability to develop the clan's inherited technique in complete independence near the age of five, which is still developing at a steady but also rapid speed. The boy certainly has the talent as the prodigy picks up new knowledge everyday by just self-studying. It is no wonder why he was designated as heir to the Jūnisakura family at the tender age of eight.

Around that same time, Jūnisakura Komen, the younger sister aged six, is gradually becoming more and more disappointing in the eyes of the family until she is giving up upon and cast aside by the family. Her low cursed energy means that she is unable to perform any ability remotely close to jujutsu skill, could not even see or sense normal curses.

She is a normal girl. A simple, normal girl who could join the society outside and lead an ordinary peaceful life when she grows older in the future.