Note: This is the story in the artbook.

Title translation: One Day, in the Forest of Sakura

The forest of sakura spread as far as the eye could see. By the light of endless hanging lanterns, the ghostly white sakura trees emerged with a mysterious elegance.

Within that eternal flurry of sakura petals, someone stood.

The figure’s hair, as black as the feathers of a crow, danced in the wind, but the face could not be made out. There was also someone else there, at the foot of a sakura tree, head bowed, sobbing— a young Shuurei.

“Now, Shuurei, please. Don’t cry, smile. Come back with me.”

The young Shuurei, still crying, shook her head.

“No. I won’t. I won’t go back. I can’t smile. Cause—”
What she said after that was drowned in a storm of petals falling, like a whirlpool, and could not be heard.

***

“Shuurei, what’s wrong? You’re staring into space.”

At her father’s words, Shuurei finally realized that she had been blankly staring into the garden. She had been gazing at the sakura tree which Ryuuki had given to her. Now, there were only three flowers blooming on the tree.

“I had some strange daydream. In a forest all of sakura trees, there was lantern after lantern, even though no one was there…”

Maybe it was so fantastic, that the echoes of its mysteriousness remained. But, did that mean she had gone to see an endless sakura forest like that?

Shouka stared at Shuurei surprisedly.

“A sakura forest? Before you did say something like that. But it was a long time ago.”
“Huh? I did?”
“Yes, after you were spirited away.”
“Spirited away?!” [note: the word here is kami-kakushi. Like the Miyazaki film.]

Shouka smiled a little painedly.

“You don’t remember? When you were a child, you went missing on Higurashi Mountain.”
“No way, really?…… I don’t remember a thing about that.”
“It was a big mess. You and Seiran had gone mushroom picking. When it turned dark, Seiran came back, pale in the face, saying that you had siappeared. So then we both went to look for you, but you weren’t there. But in the middle of the night you suddenly appeared from somewhere.”

Looking back on it now, there were many strange things about that memory. Even though he couldn’t find her after combing all over the small Higurashi Mountain, he suddenly found Shuurei standing before his eyes, as if she had come down from somewhere.

“When you appeared, you were holding a sakura seedling. It’s that one in the back that’s not flowering.”
“Eh? I came back with that? That strange sakura tree? But are there sakura trees on Higurashi Mountain?”
“There aren’t any. That’s why it was so mysterious. That time I wondered whether you had really been spirited away. “

Shuurei truly remembered nothing at all. Even though she had been told about it now, she couldn’t recall a thing.

“That time, you definitely said something about the sakura forest and lanterns. And then you said other strange things. Maybe that time you were dreaming.”

***

“Please, Karin-dono! At any price!”

That day also, Ryuuki was following around Heki Karin, who was famed as the greatest painter of the age, pleading with her. Despite this un-king-like humility, Karin was totally unimpressed.

“Hmph. Do you think you can buy my paintings with money? Don’t ask me again, you twerp.”

After his 101st request had been rejected, and having been called a twerpt and sent off, Ryuuki returned dejectedly. As he was sitting by the pond hugging his knees, someone sat down beside him.

“Mother was cold to you again? Sorry. Cheer up, king.”

It was Heki Karin’s son, Banri (five years old). Hearing these kind words, Ryuuki ended up pouring out his troubles to him.

“….Why won’t Karin-dono paint a picture of Shuurei for us? Since she seems to like Shuurei, we thought she definitely would paint her…”
“Um, besides Father and me, Mother hardly ever paints pictures of people. Don’t worry about it.”

Even though he had known of that rumor, Ryuuki could not give up. He had cherished a modest ambition of getting a pocket-sized picture of Shuurei that he could keep with him while walking around.

Then, Ryuuki suddenly thought of a good idea.

“That’s it, Banri, what about you? Would you paint a picture of Shuurei for us?”
“Me? Um…but…”

Banri hesitated. Although he had made some sketches for fun, he had not yet really painted a picture of a person. It was also because his mother had said to him ‘you’re not ready for that yet.’ But with the king’s pleading, hope-filled eyes staring at him, Banri couldn’t refuse just like that.

“…..Umm. Okay. I’ll see what I can do. ….”
“Really?! Thank you Banri! We owe you one.”

Ryuuki was so happy he picked Banri up and swung him around in a circle.

“We’ll draw you a map to Shuurei’s house and you can go and do it. Since she’s under suspension she should be there alone.”

Banri looked at the king. Huh? Was the reason that the king had asked him to paint the picture…?

“Banri, sorry for leaving you alone too. There aren’t any children in the palace. Should we call some of your friends here for you?”
“I,I don’t have any friends, so you don’t need to worry. Because I’ve always been wandering around with Mother and Father.”

Ryuuki did not miss the slightly lonely expression which flitted across Banri’s face. Banri then smiled.

“But, you’re also here, king. If I’m painting a picture, I won’t be lonely. I’ll be going now.”

While watching Banri go off with the map, Ryuuki thought of something else.
***
(Hmm, this year there’s not a single flower at all on this sakura tree!)

After her father had gone to work, Shuurei went, as she hadn’t done in a while, towards that ‘strange sakura tree’ in the back garden. What was odd about it was that its branches were different from those of other sakura. It didn’t look like a sakura tree at all. But the one who had said it was a sakura tree had been Shuurei herself. Although it had grown healthily, it had never flowered, even once. It was if it had stubbornly decided it was the middle of winter. The other trees and flowers had stopped blooming at the time of the succession struggle, but this tree alone had refused to flower since before then.

(Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen this tree.)

Before when coming to see it, she had let loose her complaints. Maybe because it had heard these complaints, it had become twisted.

Shouka’s house was quiet. Both her father and Seiran had gone to work, and Shuurei didn’t feel like going out. She washed the dishes, hung out the laundry, cleaned, and after that there was nothing else to do. This was greatly different from her time in Sa Province.

Shuurei looked at the blue spring sky. The sound of the oriole’s song come from somewhere had suddenly stopped. In the silence, Shuurei felt as though she had become the only person in the world. Her eyelids had begun to lower, when from the gate she heard a cheerful voice saying ‘excuse me.’

“You want to paint my picture? Why?”

After Banri had apologized for coming over without warning, Shuurei, who was taking out some sweets for him, was surprised.

“Yes, uh, I wanted to get some practice drawing a woman’s face.”

Banri hurriedly made up somethng up. Although he was young, he had seen that the king would want the picture to be a secret from Shuurei. Although he didn’t know why, there was definitely some impure motive involved.

“Hmph. Well, if I’m okay, then go ahead. I’ve got a lot of time on my hands.”

After Shuurei had made the tea, as Banri said to her, she sat in a chair and smiled. The king would be happy to see that expression, so Banri was ready to begin. Okay, he thought, I’ll do my best. Although he had enthusiastically taken up his brush and begun painting, Banri presently began to turn his head.

(Huh? … This is weird… My hand stopped in the middle of painting….)

No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t move the brush. He tried in vain to continue, but he kept feeling strange.

After having wasted several tens of sheets of paper, Banri decided to change his method. That’s right, he thought, it must be because he had made her smile that he had that unnatural feeling.

“Shuurei-onee-san, please try to act normally. Don’t pay any attention to me.”

Anyway, though she was clearing away the tea and sweets, she was incredibly conscious of Banri’s gaze, and whatever she did, it was impossible to act naturally, and she got rather nervous. Although Banri at first looked perplexed, as evening approached, and he had used many tens of sheets of paper, his face took on a driven expression. Cold sweat poured down Shuurei’s back.

“Hey, um… what if you tried some other woman instead of me? Maybe I’m not right for this.”
“No, I’ll paint you. I’m going back now, but I’ll come back tomorrow, and the day after that!”

—Then, just as he had announced, Banri came every day after that to see Shuurei. Some days he took his brush with him, and others he spent empty-handed watching Shuurei. He made many botched trial attempts, and it seemed he wasn’t at all satisfied. When she glanced at them, there seemed to be nothing wrong with his work, but when she praised him, Banri became more and more dissatisfied. It was incredibly strange.

On the fifth day, Shuurei took Banri into the garden for a change of air. They wandered around the garden together, and Banri turned his head towards the back garden several times.

“What’s wrong?”
“….It sounds like there’s someone’s voice… Is there someone over there? In the back garden.”
“Eh? There’s no one there. Today it’s just you and me.”

But Banri kept on turning his head, feeling something in the back garden. Shuurei soon began to worry that there might be a thief there, so with a broom in one hand, she went with Banri to see what was there.

….There was no one in the back garden, except for the strange sakura tree. Shuurei was relieved, but Banri for some reason went straight up to the strange tree. Crouching down, he stared at it. After curiously turning his head this way and that to take a good look at it, he turned to Shuurei.

“Shuurei-onee-san, this tree isn’t flowering, isn’t it?”
“…….Banri-kun….Are you all right? This tree isn’t flowering, there aren’t even any buds, right?”
“……That’s right. But it’s strange. Even though there aren’t any flowers…. I see a forest of sakura.”

Muttering that, he took up his brush, and began to paint ferociously. Shuurei was disturbed. He had said these strange things about hearing voices, and seeing a sakura forest. Had he been driven to this because he wasn’t able to paint her?!

“There, I’ve finished. It’s this.”

Shuurei, who was worriedly looking on, was astounded.
It was a forest all of sakura, and hanging lanterns. Although it was drawn only with ink, the painting was so skillful that she felt as though she were lost within a real forest.

Shuurei felt as though she had sometime, somewhere seen this place.
Abruptly, Banri looked up beside her. Shuurei also turned her head up—and was speechless.

—A storm of sakura. They were standing within an endless wood of sakura trees.

Then an unfamiliar boy’s voice happily welcomed them.

***

That day as well, Ryuuki was making something during his breaks. It was a secret, so he worked on it deep inside of the garden. When he smiled to himself, thinking that it looked like it was going to be done today, he heard something behind him in the shrubbery.

“Ah! W-who is it?! …..Oh, Ouyou Jun-dono.”

Ouyou Jun, who had suddenly appeared, also was surprised. With the gentle expression that next appeared on his face, it was difficult to think that he was the husband of the strong-willed Heki Karin.

“Ah, your majesty….. I beg your pardon. Have you by any chance seen my son, Banri?”
“Banri has gone off to Shuurei’s house, probably.”
After Ryuuki had revealed to him his request to Banri, Ouyou Jun smiled as if satisfied.

“Ahhhh… I had thought that he was going somewhere everyday with a look on his face as though he were going to a duel. So that’s what it was. It’s natural for him to be troubled. He must be thinking ‘this can’t be’
“Was our request that difficult?”
“For my wife and Banri, it is difficult, being asked to paint a person. As for why… Should I say it’s because they don’t have the knack of tracing what they see and drawing it beautifully? Or that they can’t lie? “
“Huh? What do you mean? We didn’t request for them to draw her as especially beautiful.”
“It’s hard to explain… But, if my wife refused, it’s because it could be difficult for her to paint Shuurei, or maybe that it would be different from the picture your majesty wished for. Or both. Even if she wanted to paint it, she can’t.”
“Us? Huh? There’s no way it couldn’t be a picture that we wouldn’t want.”

After all, what he has asked for was a picture of Shuurei. He wanted it badly.

Ryuuki, not really understanding, could only tilt his head. Then, after awhile, he suddenly turned back to Ouyou Jun. Since there were only the two of them there, some curiosity welled up within him.

“By the way, Ouyou Jun-dono, what’s the story behind how you got married to Heki Karin-dono? She fell in love with you one-sidedly, then got you to marry her, little by little? It must have been like that.”
“Your majesty….. Do I really seem to have that easily-influenced of a personality?”
“But, we’re talking about Karin-dono here who likes art more than eating three times a day. If she weren’t totally in love, wouldn’t she say, “I have no time to marry or have a family! Art is more important than men!”?”
“Ahahaha. As expected of your majesty. Indeed, that’s what she said to me.”
“Really, really? Just as I thought. …………..Whaaaa? Then you were the one who proposed?”

Ouyou Jun fixed his eyes on Ryuuki, then smiled as if thinking of something nostalgic.

“…With Karin-san, it’s as if she were born to paint pictures. She lives and dies only to paint. It’s as if she were a priestess. She needs nothing else in life. To speak more plainly, she thought that love and romance were useless things. If she had to give up something of hers so she could walk the path she desired, fulfill her destiny— and if that something were love or marriage, it would be fine with her.”

With a start, Ryuuki raised his head. Ouyou Jun looked as him as if he were his past self.

“I thought it was fine if Karin-san wished for that. The same as everyone else.”

But, sometime, he started to find it hard to look at Karin, who had chosen solitude.

“Although I should have been fine with it, it was painful. Like a tree being chipped away at, I had a sense of something getting smaller and smaller. Even if Karin herself didn’t mind either way, I didn’t like that.”

He sometimes thought of himself as like the man who had fallen in love with the tennyo [heavenly maiden] and hidden her feather cloak, or the human man who had loved Bara-hime. They had only descended to earth on a whim, and had some place to return to, so they really wouldn’t have even looked towards a human man.

He had dragged a tennyo down into a human body. Perhaps that was a sinful thing. But no matter how many times he considered it— in the end, Ouyou Jun decided to not regret it.

“Many things happened, but, in the end somehow I managed to do it.”
“How?”

At Ryuuki’s whispered question, Ouyou Jun smiled.

“Well, now. Even if I tell you, it won’t be of any use to you. Your majesty must find your own way.”

And with that, he left.
–However, that evening, both husband and wife rushed to Ryuuki, saying that Banri hadn’t come home.

***

“Shuurei isn’t there either?”
“Banri-kun definitely came to visit the young lady, but no one saw him come out…”

Seiran, who had with Shouka searched the mansion and the surrounding area, for some reason held out a broom.

“This was left in the back garden. The young lady would not have gone out without putting it back.”
“And this picture… It bothers me that it was left in front of the ‘spirited away’ tree.”

Upon the paper that Shouka spread out was a magnificent painting of a forest of sakura, done in black and white. A sakura forest. Lanterns as if for a festival. He spoke to them of the dream that Shuurei had had the other day. He was bothered by the strange meaning of that.

When Karin and Ouyou Jun saw the picture, all expression vanished from their faces. as of their insides had fallen out.

“The ‘spirited away’ tree, you said?”
“Eh? Ah, yes, it’s the tree Shuurei was found holding when long ago she disappeared in the mountains.”

After Shouka had given a brief outline of what happened, Ouyou Jun put a hand to his forehead and looked up.

“….Banri…. This picture of his was accidentally seen as an “offering” and he was “invited.”"
Karin, biting her lips, looked resolutely at Shouka.
“—Please show us to this Higurashi Mountain.”