Grave of Cherry Blossoms

[Current Punishment: Grave of Cherry Blossoms]

Asher found himself on a bed of soft pink flowers. Above him were the branches of a crimson cherry tree, in full blossom.

Each gust of wind shed a few petals from the shivering branches.

But he stood up, not admiring the scenery in the slightest.

'System, just when did Mei get parasitized by that monster?'

[Midday.]

'T-Then, can you rewind me to before noon when this is over?'

[Objective: Survive for fifteen minutes.]

'...Please?'

It did not respond. Asher interpreted the silence to mean that it listened to his request. Because if it didn't, then his sanity might have snapped right there.

'I'll complete this mission for you. I'll even get an S-Rank! ...So midday it is?'

If Asher did well, then the System would take him to before Mei got infected, he thought.

A baseless assumption, but one that gave him the motivation to complete the mission.

He pushed his doubts to the back of his mind as he glanced around him once again, this time more focused.

A grove of cherry trees filled his vision. Everywhere he looked, there would be another tree dancing in the wind with its pink petals.

The air had an indescribable sweet quality to it, a combination of fruit, candy, and blood. A strange mix, but more calming than Asher would have liked to admit.

Asher took a deep breath, sighing as he stretched his arm out and plopped to the ground once again. The bed of fallen flowers acted as a cushion as he felt the sudden urge to sleep.

A voice interrupted the peaceful quiet.

"I wouldn't do that if I were- Nah, that doesn't make sense."

Asher jolted upright as the voice chuckled beside him. A man with pitch black hair and stormy grey eyes stared back at him.

He felt a strange sense of familiarity from the man's face. Similar facial structure, and grey eyes that matched his.

Only... older.

The man's next words made him freeze.

"Can't say 'if I were you', right? Because I am you." The man smirked.

Asher wasn't curious about why his future self was there. He was furious.

"Why were you friends with Elena?! She's evil, she's insane!" Asher couldn't associate himself with his future self anymore. Not after what he experienced with the Blood Red Night. Not after Elena tortured Mei's mind, forcing him to watch as her mind truly broke.

The man blocked the clumsy swing Asher gave him.

He clenched his grip, crushing Asher's fist until every drop of blood was wrung out of it. The cherry blossoms seemed to turn even more crimson as blood spattered onto them.

Asher gasped in pain as the man twisted his hand off, snapping bone and ripping tendon.

"Evil? No, I can't tolerate that nonsense. You have yet to see the truth, child of the past. We were the heroes, the last bastion of humanity in this cursed City."

"You..." Asher coughed, "Fucking insane..."

Black spots appeared in his vision as he clutched the stump on his wrist.

The man smiled, his amicable aura containing a whiff of malice. That small bit of malice caused Asher to nearly faint in terror.

"I'm you, so watch yourself." He spread his arms, marveling at the surrounding scenery as Asher groaned below him. "Still, this is the effect of Timetrack, huh? [Grave of Cherry Blossoms]... Perfect for a picnic with Greta..."

The System interfered.

[Error detected. Removal of error in progress.]

"Pah, so it detected me after all."

The man dissolved into dust before he could say another word, and Asher's hand reformed like nothing had happened.

'What the hell was that?!'

[The seal on your memories weakened due to the Grave of Cherry Blossoms' nature. The error has since been corrected.]

[A strange ruthlessness courses through you. +5 Justice.]

Asher fell silent. He saw his future. A future where he was... insane. And did the System prompt mean that he was becoming more like his future self?

Justice... Ruthlessness...

'If I didn't have the System, would I have become like that, surrounded by Stars like the Blood Red Night?'

His breath hitched slightly. Asher remembered how uncaring his future self's eyes were as he crushed his wrist.

What was greater than a Star? A being that should not exist.

Yet Asher had just met one. He had just met himself.

[Objective: Survive for fifteen minutes.]

Only when the System reminded him of what he had to do did Asher break free from his trance.

But looking around him again, Asher couldn't see anything that could possibly cause him to fail. It was just a grove of cherry trees. What was so dangerous about that?

The trees' branches swayed with agreement. Sturdy brown bark and beautiful pink blossoms. He should relax here.

"How much time left is there?" Asher relaxed as he spoke aloud to himself. His voice came out slurred and euphoric, but he didn't notice.

[Ten minutes.]

"Aww, gimme more time~"

Asher scooped up a pile of fallen blossoms, giggling as he tossed them into the air. The petals fell on his body like rain.

He felt just a little happier, his troubled mind taken away by the beauty of the scenery.

But why was it called 'grave' of cherry blossoms? A doubt in what remained of his mind nagged at him, but he brushed it off.

That hardly mattered. The trees were just so beautiful.

Laughing, he spread his arms out, planting face-first into the layers of pink petals on the ground. The fallen petals were so soft, some of them were even rotten from excess stagnation. But that only made the air more sweet.

Almost sickeningly so.

Fermented pulp trickled into his mouth as he smashed into the ground, pulverizing the blossoms below him.

It tasted so sweet. It tasted like blood.

He coughed, giggling as he spat out some red juice from his mouth. A tooth unknowingly fell from his lips.

Playing in the petals made him feel tired. He was so tired. He coughed out more pulpish juice as he stumbled to his feet. Asher felt like he could take a long, long nap. His arms were turning numb. His skin was turning cold. If he could just sink into the warm floor...

The pink petals below him were stained with liquid.

The cherry trees shivered, their blossoms turning dark crimson. More petals grew on their branches until the only bark left visible was a tiny fraction of the stumps.

With this, the air became irresistibly sweet. The scent of candied blood filled his nose as each tree began to ooze pinkish sap.

He laughed, tossing himself into the ever-growing pile of discarded blossoms. Blood streamed from his ears.

Worming his way to the bottom, he took a deep breath of the coarse dirt beneath all the shades of red. He was covered by blossoms by now, like a warm blanket.

A hand caressed his cheek.

"Ack-!"

He shot up, kicking away the layers of pink to reveal a nightmarish sight.

Underneath the paltry sheen of dirt was a thick weave of human arms and limbs. A mountain of bodies, hidden by cherry blossoms. Their skin was pale and lifeless, sucked dry of any color.

He looked at his own hands. They were nearly white as well.

Asher covered his mouth in shock, forcing the red 'juice' that threatened to spill out of his mouth back down. That was not juice. It was his blood.

Any sense of comfort he had felt was replaced by dread as he realized his mind was unknowingly ensnared by the Abnormality. The grove of cherry trees itself.

The air sweetened even more, until his mind buzzed with thoughts that weren't his. To relax, to join the bodies in the ground.

But now he knew that his mind was being attacked. Asher didn't follow his urges, knowing it was from the effect of the whispering cherry trees.

And once he shook himself out of the temptation, the danger was over. The trees, just like most other plants, could not physically harm him.

Although there were certain exceptions to that in the far reaches of the world, as was with all common knowledge, this specific creature was not one of them. It could only rustle its branches a little more violently as it tried to entice him to fall down, to lie on the soft bed of flowers.

Asher panted, holding back the urge to cough as he waited for the mission to end.

He struggled to hold still as the nauseatingly sweet air, as soft and grainy as candy floss, wormed its way into his lungs. His legs twitched as he nearly succumbed to the temptation, but luckily his Temperance was much higher than normal humans.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, finally the System reported back.

At this point, Asher's vision was swimming in pink, waving and distorting as he swayed weakly on his feet.

[...Good job.]

Asher blinked at the System's sudden praise.

"Soooo midday it is, thenn~?" He slurred.

[First, I will reveal the true form of the Grave of Cherry Blossoms.]

The petals on the ground slowly faded, disintegrating into dust. Only then could Asher see what this mission was truly about.

"-!"

Bodies. Bodies as white as paper, farther than the eye could fathom, as deep as the earth's core.

The trees and bodies turned transparent, and he could see every root, every vein in the bodies below.

The grove of trees sustained themselves with human blood.

[Grave of Cherry Blossoms. The number of bodies below you approaches the millions. This is where the Center used to be.]

Asher shivered as he stared at the uncountable number of lifeless bodies below him.

"W-Why did you show me this?"

[You have been able to handle every problem you faced so far, simply by reviving and trying again. But the world is cruel. Keep that in mind. Happiness is a privilege; sorrow is life's universal right.]

Before Asher could comment on any of the System's sudden philosophies, he began to fracture into shards of light.

Just why did the System suddenly give him such an ominous warning?