Butterfly's Curse

Black Butterfly

Even when that thought started to haunt Mifuyu for the rest of their walk towards the red butterfly, Satoru never let go of his hand. He was guiding him through the path of red flowers that are being slowly painted black. He never showed any kind of fear, but Mifuyu knew that deep inside him, he was worried about what the shadows had said.

Even when Satoru knows about the fate that awaits them, his will of saving those children never waved. He has the courage that Mifuyu always wanted, he has the courage that Mifuyu needed to confront his fears. Fears that have bounded him in a circle of constant regret, fears that have chased him the moment he entered the red butterfly's realm; impeding him to want to continue; breaking his will of courage.

Without Yugen, Satoru or Hifumi, Mifuyu would not be here right now. He would have died a long time ago, and he was aware of it. The three of them have been protecting him, they have been protecting a person that doesn't have the courage to continue on his own. A person who has been paralyzed by fear every single time, unable to continue and do anything by himself.

Walking through the path of chrysanthemums flowers, a voice suddenly could be heard in the distant. A mysterious voice that was calling out to Mifuyu. The voice echoed through the forest in a veil of eerie silence; faintly and ghostly.

The voice spoke words that Mifuyu couldn't understand, words in a foreign language. Even when he did not understand what the mysterious voice was trying to say, its words still have the power to make every inch of his body quiver in fear. And it only took the mysterious voice to call Mifuyu's name one more time to know that a unseen creature was lurking inside this forest.

Whatever was calling out to Mifuyu it wasn't human, the voice howled like a fierce wind and lacked any emotions that did not sound like a human voice at all. The voice was coming from in front of the two young men, but ahead of them there was no one or anything to been seen. Even the black butterfly that was flying a head of them at some point had disappeared among the flowers, leaving only its black dust behind.

Mifuyu asked Satoru if he could hear that faint voice, but he told him he couldn't hear anything. At first he thought that the breeze were carrying the voices of the shadows once again, but knowing that Satoru can't hear anything, he started to wonder if the one that was calling out to him was the black butterfly.

In a instant, Mifuyu felt the stare of hundreds of eyes on him, hundreds of eyes observing every inch of his soul. When he finally looked towards his left, little black butterflies were still perched on the flowers and, compared to before, the amount of butterflies had increased.

Feeling their eyes on him, Mifuyu's uneasiness started to come back again, but this time with more intensity. The bad feeling he was feeling before become stronger, so strong that he could feel the whirlwind of negative emotions flood the entire forest.

The butterflies kept staring at Mifuyu and Satoru while they felt their evil emotions flow inside them, until they could hear every lament word of the children the red butterfly took away.

Every single one of them wanted to go back -- to go back to where they belong. They wanted to be reborn once again, but their soul was trapped inside this forest for all eternity, impeding them from leaving this place. Hearing the children's laments, Mifuyu wondered if there's something they can do to save them; something to make all these children rest in peace.

'If the red butterfly is reborn again, will the souls of the children be saved?'

'Will they be able to be reborn again?'

In a question of seconds, the laments become a wave of hatred, surrounding Mifuyu's body in a evil aura of laments. The hatred become so strong that Mifuyu could feel and hear every negative emotion.