Mirror |[Sasusaku Story]

Chapter 1

The sent of the burning incense filled the quiet and dimly lit place. Only the setting sun and the flickering flame of the burning candle were illuminating faintly the Stale Room. On the tatami floor, sitting on her knees before a wooden table, a pink-haired girl was covering a blank sheet of paper with flowers with black obsidian ink.

"Konohana Sakuya Hime-sama, bless us with your greatness and gentleness," the pink-haired girl prayed as she kept drawing flowers. "Make our lives as beautiful as a flower, protect the town for unfortunate events, and protect us from unwanted changes, help us succeed in our goals and allow achievements to flourish,"

The pink-haired teenage girl placed the brush back in the holder.

Allow me not to lose determination and not to fail as helping the ones I love, she thought as she waited for the ink to dry. Let my blazing will burn for as long as I shall live, and accompany me on my journey.

When the ink was finally dried, the girl gently took the paper and brought it to the flickering flame. She watched the paper turning into aches, meddling with the burnt incense.

"Thank you, Konohana Sakuya Hime-sama," the girl said gratefully, her hands clasped.

She then gathered the aches in a pot and slid open the fusuma, heading to the garden. Next to a tree, she grabbed a small shovel and craved the earth. Once the hole was deep enough to her liking, she took the pot and poured the remaining of the ritual into the hole before putting the earth back.

Once done, she went back to the Stale Room and sat back at her former place. Waiting for the incense to burn completely, she clasped her hands together once again and read the prophecy on the stone stale which was placed on a pedestal.

Power of the Gods

Cherry and Raven gifted with your strength

Make them see beyond and let them reach the impossible

And restore our broken bonds

But then, the girl abruptly opened her eyes. A sudden gust of wind blew into the room, wavering the flame. A soft metallic sound rang into the air, like two necklaces colliding with each other. The pinkette frown, looking behind her at the garden through the open fusuma. But nothing. There was nothing abnormal. Only the usual little pond and tree she was costumed to see since as far as she could remember, with the regular sound of the bamboo stick hitting the rock.

Maybe I just dreamt it, she dismissively thought.

When the girl turned back to face the small table, the incense was completely burnt. She cleaned the table and then left the Stale Room.

"Ah, you are here, Sakura!" the pink-haired girl heard, dragging her luggage behind her as she walked toward the red torii. A light brunette woman in her late thirty was standing next to a dull pink-haired man in his forty. One old woman in a kimono and an old man in a yukata, both of them having dull pink hair as well stood by them. "If you don't hurry, you'll miss your train. What if you miss the first day back to school? What will you say to Kakashi-sensei?"

"Relax Mebuki," the man beside her said in a lax tone. "It's looking like you want our precious daughter to leave as fast as possible,"

"What are you saying?" Mebuki exclaimed, offended. "Of course I want her to stay Kizashi! But high school is important! She shouldn't miss school,"

"Yeah but she is grown and responsible," Kizashi said. "You are babying her too much,"

"Of course, I'm babying her, she's my baby!"