yokai | t. giyu, douma & k. muzan

epilogue

2018, 

Indian sitting in front of the light wooden circular table while eating breakfast, eighteen year old Tomioka Hana earnestly watched the morning news while sipping on her warm miso soup prepared by her mother. When she was finished, she immediately gathered her used utensils and placed them on the sink, quickly washing them all up before bolting upstairs to get her belongings.

"Do you have anything to do later after classes?" Her mother asks, looking up at her while her hands raised the morning newspaper. "There's a festival in the city. We can go and watch the flowers blooming."

A bright smile paints her lips as she puts her shoes on the doorway. "Sounds great! Let's go there tonight!" She announces, getting up on her feet to open the front door. "Bye bye mama! See you later!" And with that, the girl is off, happily skipping while holding onto the adjustable straps of her backpack.

On her way to school, Hana caught sight of two people whom she was very familiar. Raising her hand up in the air before waving to them. "Touko! Yoshiteru!" She calls out to the Agatsuma siblings before rushing towards them.

As Yoshiteru found Hana going over to them, he quickly sprinted towards her, hiding behind her back. "Hana! Please save me! I'm going to die in the hands of Touko!"

Blinking twice, Hana pointed at Touko. "I don't think she's gonna kill you unless you have good reason!"

"Don't mind him!" Touko says, smiling at Hana before glaring at Yoshiteru. Her younger brother continuing to hide behind Hana's back.

"Hana look!" Touko announces, showing to the other girl the screen of her phone. "Uzui bagged another gold!"

"He's so handsome!" Hana exclaims, her heart bursting inside her chest the longer she stared at Uzui Tenma's photo on the article.

"Hey!" Yoshiteru suddenly chimes in, "I thought you only had eyes for me, Hana!" He cries out, tears forming in his eyes. "Only look at me! Love me! Uzui is nothing but trouble!" He wailed, clutching onto the only Tomioka child. His cries died down when Touko kicked him off Hana.

"So noisy! The people in this area are going to kill you before I can!" Touko shouts, averting her eyes back to the screen of her phone as she furthers scrolls. A certain article caught her eye before showing it again to Hana.

"Look at this!" Touko says, pointing at the photo of a golden ring with an akoya pearl design.

"That's so pretty" Hana commented, her eyes trained on the artifact. "It looks so old and intricate!"

"I know, right?!" Touko beams, scrolling through the article. "It says here that it was discovered in an old city. The only report about this ring is that the seller sold this to a man who he described was tall and wore a red robe and hat. He was initially supposed to propose to the girl he loves before the girl went missing!"

"That sounds terrible!" Hana cries out, frowning at Touko. "What kind of love story is that? Stories like that should have a happy ending!"

"I'm still here you know" Yoshiteru mumbles, holding onto a red bump on his cheek. Courtesy by his older sibling, Touko.

As the three continued to walk around, talking about random topics and such, Touko squealed upon seeing someone from the corner. "Kanata!" she greets him.

"Morning, Touko." Kanata simply greets her back.

As Touko and Kanata kept praising each other, Hana could only blink before pointing her index finger at them. "What's up with them?" she asks

Yoshiteru, who looked like he was ready to ready to murder Kanata, mumbles. "I don't know what's up with them. Let's leave them be, Hana."

As Yoshiteru and Hana walked behind Kanata and Touko from behind but with a good distance, Hana couldn't help but take a deep breath and then exhaling it with her eyes closed. "Don't you like the spring season? It's so romantic and the blossoms are so beautiful, day or night!"

"Sure" Yoshiteru says, "But did you know that there's a story behind it?"

"Really?" Hana asks "Can you tell me more about it?"

"It's really an old story dated back in the Taisho era!" Yoshiteru beams to her. "They say that there was a cherry blossom demon who liked to eat unfaithful and traitorous men in the night! She uses the blossoms to lure them to their death too!"

"That sounds scary" Hana mumbles

"But that's not all!" Yoshiteru adds, "Women who had trouble with these men pray to the cherry blossom demon in front of the blossom trees. Apparently, calling her 'cherry blossom demon' is too long, so the people back then gave her a name. Sakura." Yoshiteru informs her.

"They say, Sakura had a huge crush on her male friend but she was abducted by a demon. They didn't see each other for many years but her male friend never forgot about Sakura! So, when the faithful arrived, they met again under a circumstance - Sakura's male friend saw her in her demon form. He was sad that she became a demon but he still loves her. His love for her came to a point where he sought help to make her human again. And, just like every love story, Sakura became human again and they happily married!"

"That's so cute!" Hana beams, gushing to herself. "I love stories like that! Thank you for telling me that, Yoshiteru kun!"

With a blush on his cheek, Yoshiteru motions his hand up and down. "You're flattering me, Hana." He sighs dreamily. "When you think about it, according to legends, cherry blossoms signify birth and renewal. Just like the story, Sakura birthed into a demon but renewed as a human. It represents the transience of life. You are born and live for a moment before fading away."

"That sound poetic." Hana replied, slowly nodding her head before turning to look at Yoshiteru. "Where did you learn that?"

"Mangas" Yoshiteru simply replied, shrugging his shoulders to her.