The Day It Snowed Sakura Petals

He had woken up a little earlier than necessary to go hunting for a deer with a soul attached for Madarao, the white demon dog that had served his family for over five hundred years - since the Sumimura had been founded. He was passed down from the very founder Hazama Tokimori and now was in the custody of Yoshimori Sumimura.

A thick mist shrouded Karasumori, the ancient land that the Sumimura clan had protected for nigh five hundred years. And, with a faint smile, he had noticed, so had the Yukimora Clan. In particular, Tokine Yukimura, who he was partial to. A light drizzle chilled his skin, making him shiver a little. It made the cool autumn night just a little colder.

"Come on Madarao-kun, let's get moving - I want to finish this night's search quickly. Here, I brought you something." he said and brought some slabs of deer meat, one containing the soul sealed in a barrier, otherwise known as a ketsu. He brought his upright hand down and to his right, one finger pointed at the side to indicate his next move before saying Kai, releasing the soul from the barrier.

Madarao, who had been lazily getting up, swept into the air and ate the deer soul in one gulp hurriedly so it wouldn't get away, then landed to devour a thick slab of deer meat. A little fresh blood ran from the end of his lips before the ghost-dog licked greedily at it. "Now that's what I call a proper wake up call." said Madarao, who was at his master's side in a flash.

Yoshimori grinned - Madarao tended to be in a bit of a better mood whenever he had some fresh deer soul before they went out. And, his actions proved it, he thought with a slight smile before he turned serious again. He had ditched the sandals after he went outside, and slipped on tennis shoes - better grip, and not quite as slippery - not to mention he didn't have to do all that tying and such. It was a real pain putting on those darned sandals.

"Madarao, check the southern gates and to the east - I'll check around the north-side and west-" he said as he glimpsed a shadow and a flash of light nearby where he was running - he grinned, leaping over the miniature barrier that Tokine had put up as she did to trip him up most every night. But this was the first night that he had actually been able to avoid it. And the look on both Tokine and Hakubi's faces made him grin.

"Looks like he's finally getting it, huh Honey?" said the black ghost dog that was Tokine's demon dog - it was about a hundred years younger - and Madarao often delighted himself with calling Hakubi a puppy. Naturally, his demon dog had a much better nose than hers, but that didn't mean the two didn't get ahead most of the time - often they would jump into action as soon as Madarao found a scent of the ayakashi, or demons.

Yoshimori grinned, looking pretty proud of himself. "Well," he said, a hint of a grin forming on his lips, "I didn't expect you to be so impressed Tokine." he said, the grin in full form. Was it his imagination, or was she blushing? It had to be an illusion or something. 'I mean, when has Tokine ever blushed before?' he thought as her face turned from surprised to haughty again. "Don't be too proud of yourself - it was only a small barrier, like a large pebble." she said huffily and turned away from him, both arms crossed.

"Gee Tokine, you don't have to be so mean about it." he said, the grinning changing into a pout. She looked at him with a steely gaze, her deep honeyed brown eyes closed. He looked at her from the corner of his eye, and saw a surprising thing - her hand covered her mouth, as though she was forcing herself not to laugh. This surprised him - and he suddenly started laughing. He didn't know why he was laughing, but the situation seemed so funny.

She clamped her hand to her mouth harder, trying to resist a laugh, a giggle, trying to retain her seriousness, but it wasn't working as she'd had hoped. When she looked from the corner of her eye, and seeing that he was doing the same thing, laughter flowed from her pretty sakura-colored lips freely. Then the lovely lips turned upwards just a tiny bit, indicating a hint of a smile.

Giving her a smile, his face reddened a little before digging a medium-sized cake box from his bag - slightly larger than the ones he usually gave her - this one was his finest creation he had made yet. As he brought it out, a slip of coordinating paper slid out, and drifted lazily to the ground at Tokine's feet. "Eh? What is this?" she asked, bending down to grasp it - Yoshimori dove for it, but didn't reach it in time.

'Damned it - now she's going to berate me for sure!' he growled in his thoughts. First, her face was passive, then curious as she unrolled the parcel - then her eyes went wide with amazement, her mouth opening just a little to pronounce her surprise. On the sheet of paper was the most wondrous cake she had ever seen him attempt to make.

The sheet was longer than most - two or three times the size of a normal sheet - and then she saw that it was taped at the bottom all the way across. It was a European styled cake. with lovely sculpted tight braids of pink and blue licorice (made from cherry licorice) for decoration for the front door, where there was a little working drawbridge made from molded candy. The towers and roof was covered in a nice white fondue - or would be, when he did it. One corner said 'Ask Shuji about the cake recipe.'

Her eyes softened at that - Yoshimori was great about making the most amazing cakes, but sometimes it wasn't the best tasting. The roof was a more traditional Japanese roof - but for some reason, it was really rather beautiful, and it went well with the other. She scanned down to the bottom, and her eyes widened for just a moment.

Standing on the drawbridge, holding her shakujo, or her staff, but instead of her usual night time wear, she was wearing a beautiful sakura-pink kimono; her dark hair tied into an elegant little bun, with tiny tabi socks and geta sandals. Right beside of her was a little figure of Yoshimori, wearing the same thing that he usually wore at night during his rounds, but he looked cooler, and the two were smiling at each other happily.

"Yoshimori - this is, this is beautiful." she said, and he took a peak, almost expecting her to berate him for focusing on cakes too much again. But she looked almost . . . delighted by the figurines. He took a step closer to her, hesitant, not wanting to break this wonderful, beautiful moment. But she had turned, and handed him back the paper. Her eyes were bright though, and she had a smile on her face. "It really is extraordinary."

"Yeah, thanks." Yoshimori said, and rolled it back up with one hand, trying to hide the sudden red coloring his cheeks, and he handed her the medium-sized cake box. "For you. . . I . . . I finished it just before I came out." he said, her hands brushing against his as she took the box gently from him. She always took the cakes from him in an exceedingly gentle manner. That was good, as the cakes were often delicate.

She opened the box, and gasped. It was a small cake, true, but the cake wasn't what she was so drawn to - it was the tiny figurines that he had made out of hardened candy. It was much too pretty to eat. The cake was a traditional Japanese styled temple, and she was standing in front of it, her in her white yukata, he in his black, both were holding their staffs - he in his left hand, she in her right.

A long, eerie howl split the night - Madarao's cry sending his blood pulsing and the two looked up at the same time towards the western side of the building where Madarao's cry had came from. She sat the cake gently down on top of the gate, and put a small barrier around it before she headed off to see what the trouble was.

Yoshimori reached Madarao before Tokine arrived - it was similar to the little Hiwatari, except this one was huge - and had ten tails compared to the small five tailed one. A yelp escaped Madarao before he became smoke - it would take him several moments before he could reach them again. First, the ghost dog would have to go back to his body in the dog house, and then come back to where they were. He heard a gasp behind him, as Tokine sucked in breath - this had been a smaller one like the other Hiwatari that they had faced before, but it must have been here for a little while tonight before they arrived to have gotten this big and strong so quickly.

There was no time to waste - he had to protect Tokine, no matter what. In fact, he sort of had a bad feeling about this. He turned, facing her. "Maybe you should sit this one out Tokine, let me handle it." he said, but paused when a little Hiwatari popped out from behind the mother's, or so he supposed, was its mother's enormous blue tail.

Yoshimori grinned. That was perfect - she could go after the little one - surely it wouldn't be too much on her, right? "Eh? What are you talking about you idiot - that will certainly take both of us -" she started to say when he pointed to the little one.

"Yeah your right - do you and Hakubi mind doing the little one then while me and Madarao focus on the larger one?" he asked, when the giant ice fox leaped high into the air, soaring over the three of them. She looked indecisive for a moment, but when the little ice fox ran the other way; he took the initiative and ran the opposite way, towards the bigger fox.

As soon as Tokine started moving though, she came to a stop after hearing a soft 'snick!' at her heel - looking down, she saw that her laces had broken. Broken laces were an omen, a bad omen. Something was going to go wrong, very wrong - she was frozen into place - what to do, what to do? Should she still go after the little one or head to where Yoshimori was? She didn't get to make a decision about it cause an ice shard barely missed her head from the little ice fox.

She kicked off her sandals as they wouldn't be very much good to her now, and ran to catch the little fox. She wanted to do this as fast as she could, so she could get to him. "Hoi!" Tokine cried, locking onto her target, and then following it with a slash of her hand and then "Ketsu!". Several times she missed, but finally, she caught it, and with "Metsu!" the creature was destroyed. She quickly moved to where she thought that Yoshimori was, when she heard Madarao cry out. "Nooooo! Yoshimori!"

What she saw was something horrid enough to make her drop to her knees at the gate to the pool. Yoshimori was suspended in the air, and the fox's tail had dug straight through his chest, like a giant blade. It would be a mortal wound, but while she had the advantage, she sealed it in a barrier, up to half the tail, and called metsu. The fox howled in fury as it went, the sound echoing eerily across the school grounds. The part of the tail that was left - that was sticking into Yoshimori's chest - had fallen to the ground, causing the victim to fall to the ground.

Big tears were welling up in the white ghost dog's eyes, and he had struggled to get the fox tail out of Yoshimori's chest, with no luck, so he laid his head on his master's chest and started to whimper. She saw them talk for a moment, and then Madarao floated off towards home. She didn't have the strength to get up, so she crawled over to him, tears streaming from her eyes. "Yoshimori! Get up! Get up!" she sobbed after reaching him, and pulled at the fox's tail. With the third yank, it came free, causing fresh blood to pool in the already coagulated one below him.

She tossed the tail aside, which was already trying to form back, bound it in a barrier and destroyed it with metsu, before turning back to him to find Yoshimori smiling, or trying to while coughing. Blood was running in a shallow stream from his mouth. "Hey To - Tokine. It's going to be alright, give me a second to rest, and I'll get on up." he said, taking a breath and tried to sit up, but failed, landing back on the ground.

Yoshimori was frustrated for a moment before he closed his eyes and sighed. He closed his eyes once more, gaining a calm look about him, almost similar to his older brother's gaze as he looked at her. A faint pink tent colored his face, as he met her eyes and then flicked his eyes downwards. "Hey, um, To-Tokine, there's something that I should tell you - something you should know."

She leaned closer to him and grasped his hand with both of hers. She couldn't seem to stop the flow of her tears, couldn't seem to reach that calm, yet haughty usual attitude for some reason. Why couldn't she? Damned it, this couldn't really be happening! He had so much left he was supposed to do! What happened to sealing up the Karasumari so no one would be hurt? What about soaring above his brother in kekkaishi?

But all she could do was stare at him. "Tell me when we get you home." she said, sending a shinigami to alert both families, and then turning towards him again. He was hurt so badly, but wasn't he always injured? Though she couldn't remember when he had looked this bad before. She leaned forward to check his pulse and was surprised when she felt something feather-light brush against her lips, pushing against them gently. . .

'Damned it, my strength is running out on me. I gotta tell her now, now before it's too late.' thought Yoshimori and pressed his lips against hers as she leaned into him. Why did it have to happen like this? Why was he dying like this? He wasn't ready to die yet! But if he had to, if he absolutely had to, then he would tell her how he felt.

He was getting weaker as the seconds ticked by - soon he wouldn't be able to talk at all. "Hey, um Tokine, I wanted to say, um, that I've always loved-" And suddenly, just like that, his throat closed on him. Damned it all! Just as he was trying to finally confess too! He'd loved her ever since he was a child, ever since he had been born. Yoshimori had always followed her like a ghost puppy lead by a nenshi leash, first crawling after her, and then turning into an uneasy walk, until he could finally stand on his two feet. And then he still followed her.

He was desperate, and for some reason he couldn't speak anymore, nor move much. So he tried to point to her, but his hands wouldn't work right for some reason. He spoke 'you' but no sound came from his lips - so he grabbed hold of her hand, the only thing he could manage to do, before his sight started fading on him too. 'Goodbye, Tokine. I love you, and well, I guess I always have.' he thought before his eyes started to dilate.

It took her a moment before she understood why his hand went slack, why just why he couldn't speak, though he tried to, and why his dark eyes were going darker and wider, were dilating. She grabbed the front of his yukata and shook him, making his head lull back. "Nooooo! You can't be dead! Noooo, I won't let you die that easily - wake up damned it! Wake up!" she cried, her tears falling faster. She fell down on top of him, sobbing and hitting his chest with her fist over and over again. "No, you can't be dead. Please, please Yoshimori, please don't be dead. You can't die on me. Please, I'm begging you!"

Those last three words seemed to echo in his mind for a short eternity. And the last thing that was in his mind when that too went blank was her tearful plea that he not leave her. If it was up to him, he never would have left her side. But, as it looked now, it was not up to to him, and it was not to be.