Princess Mononoke Fan Fiction ❯ Princess Mononoke Rebirth ❯ Sakura: The First Princess Mononoke ( Chapter 22 )

Sakura: The First Princess Mononoke

 

San was still in the other room of the other house; too terrified of Ashitaka at that moment to unveil her appearance to him. So she sat against a wall; with her knees clutched together and her arms wrapped round them. The suddenly she felt a cold breeze passing her body, she rose her head up from the wind that touched her nerves. The breeze then blew stronger and brushed pass her face, after that, the maddening whisper occurred back into her head again.

“I'll be coming to see you soon San; it's time to remember the princess you once were.”

The wind suddenly struck San in the chest, which made her sleep and reoccur memories she had nearly forgotten, with images of the past flickering in her mind.

 

“Mother, why are humans bad?”

“But I'm human though, right?”

“Why can't I meet new friends?”

“Because they will reject you.”

“How do you know? You're not human!”

“Go ahead then; go into the human world and see what they are like.”

“Fine! I will!”

 

Then suddenly, the pictures turned into a soft, blurry blackness that lasted for a few moments, and then, San saw herself sleeping in a bed. She was about thirteen years old then, with a thick, long-sleeve shirt stitched with wolf's fur and worn underneath it was her violet baggy dress. She was covered with a thick blanket of boar fur in a small room. There was a blurry figure standing over her, as she felt the touch of a hand on her forehead. She felt hot; her cheeks were deep pink and her head was cringing with a migraine. The hand was then lifted from her forehead, as then the figure had left the room, and shut the slide to block the light out from the room. San then opened her hazy eyes and looked at the ceiling, as she overheard whispers coming from two humans outside.

“She's got fever.”

“Again? Why does she keep doing that?”

“I don't know, but it has to stop; it's becoming a nuisance.”

“And what is with those markings on her face?”

“I heard she was raised by wolves in the forest.”

“No wonder she acts like an animal.”

San sighed to herself with depression as she heard the gossip. She then rose to her feet as she tried to control her balance; she then slowly climbed out from a window behind her. When she climbed out, she found herself in some small tropical wildlife with dark pea green leaves and ebony bark. She tried to walk steadily for a few moments, but failed to do so as she fell quite aggressively onto the earth with her face flat down. She couldn't move; she didn't want to move. But then she heard some sort of purring in front of her. So she looked up, and saw a cute raccoon looking at her friendly. She chuckled as it licked her cheek.

“Are you worried about me?” She giggled a little more. “Don't worry about me. I'm here to prove to my mother that humans aren't monsters, and to make friends but…it's not going too well.” She then laid her face flat again. “Humans aren't monsters…right?” She started to sob to herself.

 

“Hey wolf! Hey! That's right, you!” A boy shouted from the corner of another room. San was standing over her wolf coat covered in mud, with three other boys standing behind her. “Why's your coat covered in mud, and why does it stink so much?” A boy in green spoke with cheekiness, but San refused to reply.

“Can't you even talk?” Another boy in red asked her, as he pushed her over viciously and made her collapse to the floor. The boys then laughed at her maliciously as she bruised her shoulder.

“I heard the teachers called you an animal, and they ditched you in the forest.” The boy in blue spoke.

“No wonder; she must have tried to eat one of them.” A boy in purple intervened. San tried to get up without speaking, but then she was once again tripped over and ended flat on her face. The boys laughed at her again as they also began to point at her.

“You must be a beast in disguise. I wonder what we would find if we cut you open.” One in blue wondered horridly while the others just…laugh and point. San gritted her teeth and looked angrily at the floor. Then a girl wearing a brown kimono walked in, and saw the bullying that was taken place in there.

“Sensei! Neiji and the boys are causing trouble!” she shouted out.

“Damn it! Let's scram.” The boy in blue pushed passes the girl along with the other two out of the room.

“Bullying a girl is the worst!” She shouted across to them, and then walking up to San as she stood back up again. “Are you alright? Oh no, they ruined your coat.” She sighed at the stained wolf's fur with San staring at it too.

“The humans here are miserable.”

“Pardon me?”

“When you are miserable, you pick on someone the opposite of miserable.” San then grabbed the coat and ran out of the room.

“Hey wait!” shouted the girl.

 

The girl then washed the coat in a small stream outside with the pea leaves and San standing behind her.

“There, it should be better now.” She raised the coat out of the water and handed it to San. “Why do you let those boys bully you?”

“I don't know…I just don't feel strong enough around them.” San said weakly.

“Well, you always have me to come to when you have a problem.”

“Really?” San pricked her head up to the young girl.

“That's right.” They both smiled at each other as they walked back into the tropical house.

Later on in the night, San sneakily escaped out from her room again and into the forest; carrying a tiny bag full of cooked rice. She stood near the stream where the girl kindly rinsed her coat in. She made an animalistic purring noise quietly to the atmosphere. Then the raccoon that met her the last night came to her again.

“There you are.” She giggled to it, and then handed out her bag of rice and tipped out the soft grains of it. “I brought you some food.” Then the raccoon began to feed off from the ground as it chewed the rice with its grainy teeth. It had then already gulped up the last bits of the rice. “You must have been hungry then.” San chuckled as she let out her hand as the raccoon licked off it, and then it released a rumble from its stomach as San chuckled at it. “I guess half of my dinner wasn't enough for you.” She giggled. But then the raccoon made a small bark at the house behind San as she looked at the back. “Don't ever go there, even if you are hungry. There are horrible people who live there who will torment you. If only I was stronger, then I would protect you.” The raccoon barked at the house once more.

 

If only I was stronger…

 

San thought to herself as she dreamt. She had her legs and arms wrapped close to her, as she then looked at her hands. She then slowly raised them out to the sky and into a bright light. She felt some sort of energy running through her veins as then some strange snakes rose out to the sky.

 

She suddenly opened her eyes to look at the ceiling once more panting heavily.

“Something is…moving inside me.” She whispered to herself as she then saw eccentric scaly marks across the floor. She then rose from her bed and quietly walked out of her room quickly, and then, when she walked out from the building, she saw the young girl in the brown kimono washing her cloth. She kept staring at the girl until she looked up at her.

“Nani?”

“What is it?”-

The young girl asked, and then San blurted out her little secret.

“I have a new pet here.”

“Wow! Really?!” The girl grew excited, but then was hushed by San. “Oh sorry! I know; Neiji and the boys will bully it. It's alright; I'll keep quiet about it. Can I see it?” San then whistled to the atmosphere as the young raccoon came out from the bushes. “Aww! So cute!” The young girl squirmed. They both then patted it gently.

Later on that day, San sat by a small wooden desk, with a small plant of sakura watered in a glass vase, until the bullies returned to harass her.

“Hey wolf!” San muttered at the Neiji. “You know you are really cheeky; for someone who's not human.” He grinned at her, as then rose up the raccoon that she played with earlier. San grew shock as her eyes turned small, all the boys started to laugh at her again.

“You son of a…!” San growled as she charged at him, but was then held back by the boy in red. They boys still kept on being amused by her. “Please! Let it go!”

“I've never seen you this upset before!” sniggered the boy in purple.

“You're just like a plank with no emotion before. Now, I want you to cry; cry like a baby! Or else…we will hurt the raccoon instead of you.” San then brutally kicked him in the stomach as he winced in pain.

“Aaah! Goddamn it! Hey, beat the shit out of that rat Neiji!”

“Yamerou!” San pleaded, but the boy then booted the raccoon against the wall as it whined in ache. San grew pale in her face as she saw the beating of an innocent creature. She tried to struggle her way free but the strength of the boy behind her was still too strong for her to bear.

“We thought this way; it will hurt you the most.” Neiji spoke with malice. He then raised an axe from his side and lifted it into the air. “Hold it still.” He then slammed he blade into the creature, as it screamed in anguish, but Neiji still kept lashing the axe down on it again and again. San felt she was going to be sick and hurled a little. Sweat dripped down the side of her face, her lips turned cold, and her limbs started to tremble.

“Why? Why are they doing this? Humans don't do these kinds of things, do they?” She silently whimpered to herself. Then the girl in brown came running in.

“Stop that!” she squeaked as she saw the beating of the raccoon.

“But, you're the one who told us about the rat.”

San then gasped in shock as she looked up at the girl.

“Yes but…going this far is…” The girl then looked at the betrayed San, and huffed in a breath and covered her mouth.

“I'm so sorry! It's because I've told them I…!” San then let her head hung down with deceitfulness and disloyalty from her “friend”.

“Hey! It stopped moving.” The boy in purple spoke, as the boy in blue scoffed at the raccoon.

“That was fast!” he spat out with the blood spreading across the floor, San then thought to herself about what she said, along with the last images of horror she had just saw.

“When you are miserable, you pick on someone the opposite of miserable. I finally see it now; the ones who are inhuman, the ones who are monsters…ARE YOU!!”

The suddenly, blood shot out from the boy behind her as his head flew off from his body. The blood had spread widely across the wall. Neiji gasped at what he saw, as then more of this red fluid fluttered transversely onto the ceiling and floor. The liquid had made an unnatural pattern everywhere; it even stained the innocent pink sakura, tarnishing it with dark red. Then San realized what she done; she had massacred everyone in the room.

She had escaped permanently from her old house, and buried the dead raccoon in a stone grave, and looked down upon it with blue sentiment.

“Please forgive me; I've done a terrible thing.” Her eyes began to water. “Just because I'm different to other humans, why must this happen? Why?” She started to tremble, as she then gripped her hands upon her head, and began to squeeze violently. She then heard footsteps approach her.

“Excuse me?” She heard a girl voice, but then harshly exhaled out and looked darkly behind her. She saw another girl, with long chestnut hair tied up in a high ponytail as the end swerved with the calm breeze and her fringe that went up to her forehead, her skin was quite pale as snow, the eyes were deep blue with glitters of sapphire in them, she was wearing a purple kimono; all quite ragged but stitched up neatly, she was also wearing beige trousers which went down just below her knees, along with her gritty sandals. The girl wondered at the mysterious San as she carried somewhat; a red clay mask, with orange markings and three holes and was also pierced together with white wolf fur; along with clay fake ears of red on top of the main mask, as if it was made to look like a real wolf. San stared at it furtively and with curiosity; she had became hypnotized with the strange mask. The girl then looked down at the mask to where San was looking at as well.

“You…you've been looking at it for a while now.” She then put the mask away in a brown bag she carried over her shoulder. San then looked back down on the grave.

“It's just…it's just that I like the style of it.” The young girl then looked at San's face as she saw the red wolf marks upon it.

“Are they real; your markings?” San then turned angry by her question.

“Humans…are so aggravating.” Snakes then slowly rose out sneakily from her back, and tried to make its way to the girl. Then suddenly the girl lapsed her hands onto San's shoulders and turned her around; San became anxious and uneasy by her touch.

“Wow! They are so amazing! You are so cool!” San then softened her emotions as the purple lucent snakes disappeared. But she then quite insensitively moved the girl's hands off her.

“It's because of these I have been through so much; people won't accept me for who I am.” She then walked away from the girl.

“Hey! My name's Naru! Do you want to become friends?” San then thought back to the last “friend” she had once.

“You've got to be kidding me.” She hissed back.

“What do you mean? I'm sure we won't be that bad.” San stopped in her tracks and looked back at Naru.

“Even if we would be friends, my markings annoy me.”

“Well then…” Naru then walked hastily to San, grabbed the mask out of her bag, and shoved it on top of San's head.

“What are you doing?!”

“There, now you won't be so annoyed when you're around people; it even suits you too.” San felt the soft fabric as it touched her skin, and smiled a little.

Naru and San then sat down near a tree blowing sakura from its branches.

“Now I've told you my name; what is yours?” San stuttered a little.

“I don't really have a name. People had called me “wolf” once, but I don't like that name.” Naru then looked at the blossoms on the trees.

“What about Sakura?”

“Sakura?”

“It means flower blossom; what do you think?”

“I…I like it.” San chirped. She then looked at Naru as she smiled at her.

“So Sakura, what are doing tonight?”

“Tonight? Why?”

“I and my other friends are going to the star festival that's taking place not far from here; you should come.” San then heard the word “other friends” and thought to herself for a moment.

“Maybe I shouldn't come or I'll kill them. Kill?” San then lead herself into a dark room in her mind. “What's wrong with me? Why do I have to kill?”

“Because you love killing humans.” The eerie voice occurred into her head. “No. Just because I killed others before doesn't mean I will kill them now.”

“You should know by now; we were brought up by wolves, and man and animals don't live in harmony. As a wolf; we should kill humans on sight.”

“No!”

“What's the matter Sakura?” Naru asked out.

“I mean “No!”. No I will not come!” San firmly stated.

“Come on, please? If you wear the mask when you're there, you won't have anything to worry about.” Naru commented which made San think once more.

“Fine; I will come.”

“Great!” Naru then gave San a big bear hug that made her blush a little.

“I have to go now, but meet me there at dusk.”

“I will.” San quite weakly replied, as then Naru grabbed her belongings and ran off into the darkness of the forest, leaving San to doubt on her decision.

 

“Don't come running to me if things fail to plan.”

“It won't; I'll promise you that.”

 

Afterwards it became dusk. A bunch of lights were lit up not quite far from the forest, the breeze became warm and peaceful as it swept by. And over the forest was a small market where a lively festival was taken place. The people hustled and bustled in their traditional costumes, as the children giggled with glee from the delight they saw that night. And in from the crowd came San, or “Sakura” wearing her wolf mask that was given to her.

“This isn't going to be so bad; I think humans aren't so bad after all, except for the odd view.” She carried on walking, trying to find Naru. Until there were a few faces that started to stare at her. She began to feel uneasy a little, as her paranoia started to build tension again. Except finally she spotted Naru with another group of variable children surrounded her. “There she is!” But then she heard whispers coming from the conversation from Naru and her friends as she speaks.

“I saw you talking to another animal before tonight.” Said one of the girls.

“Animal? What are you talking about?” Naru questioned with confusion.

“You know; the girl with red markings on her face.” Replied another.

“I heard she was raised up by wolves, and that her human parents threw their baby at them to save themselves.” San then gasped at what she heard.

“My parents were humans? And they abandoned me?” San quivered.

“Huh! No wonder no one wants her in any group.” A boy intervened into the mix.

“Now, that' not true!” Naru argued back.

“Come on now! Tell us the real truth; do you find her weird?” Naru then sighed to herself as she shrugged her shoulders. Then the other laughed and smiled. Sakura grew sick and frail.

“I knew it! I bet you only wanted to be friends with her out of pity!” One the girls shouted out.

“I bet the girl's a freak really.” The boy roared out with laughter, as Naru only chuckled nervously. Sakura still stood at a fair distant away from the group feeling like she needs to vomit.

“Why did she lie to me?” Sakura quivered to herself, until she was then pushed over by an obese man as she fell flat to the floor.

“Watch where you're standing baka!” The man spat at her as she still lay level with the floor.

“Why did she lie to me? Why” San shuddered in her head.

“I just didn't want to be the bad guy.” She heard Naru's voice as she looked up to see a spitting image of her. “I only lied so I would still be higher than you.”

“Then why did we become friends then?” San asked with fear.

“Like they said; I only did it out of pity.” San then cried as she then saw all the children she killed out of her unnatural powers.

“How stupid can you be…to make the same mistake twice?” The voice came back this time in a shadow, as Sakura cried.

“No more! I can't take it anymore! I want to go home!” she screeched out as she plummet her face into her hands with tears dripping out from them. Then the shadow came across to her, and rubbed her shoulders intently.

“Like I said before; man and animals can't live in the same world.”

“When what should I do?” Sakura asked the shadow.

“…It's simple…” The shadow the dropped her mask like a blanket, and then revealing the mirror image of Sakura, but more darker and filled with evil, with her face darkened and her fringe masking one of her eyes.

“…Turn the world into our world, change humans into nothing but mere dust. I have the power to change that. After all…we were born with demon curse, and it is our duty to embrace it, not like humans who got caught with them and die within time. Make us immortal; turn us into Princess Mononoke.”

“Ok then” Sakura replied. Her body then rose from the floor, and took off her mask to show off her markings. Then suddenly one of the girls in Naru's group spotted her.

“Hey! Isn't that her?” She pointed out, as Naru then saw her too.

“Oh no!”

 

“Take my body; release my soul to rule over me.” Sakura pleaded, as then the shadow touched her body and her spirit floated into the distance; turning her world black…and black…and black…

 

Then, a flash of light swiped pass a group from a crowd, and decapitated them from their organs. Blood sprayed over the scene as it splattered Sakura on her clothes and face. The severed limbs fell to the floor as the other turned frantic and terrified.

“What happened?!” One panicked.

“Quick; lets get out of here!” another shouted out as he started off a running spree around the festival, with people colliding over each other to run away from what was happening. But Sakura walked calmly forward as if she didn't care what she was doing, then the group that was talking to her, approached her without Naru.

“Is that her?” one of the girls asked.

“Why is she covered in blood?” another questioned.

“I don't know, are you-?

Before the boy could finish their sentence, all three of their heads departed from their bodies as the blood poured out fountains of liquid into the air. Sakura still stood there with malice in her eyes.

“I'll kill you. Every damn last one of you!” She coldly whispered. As then Naru was watching from a dark corner where she saw her friends butchered like cattle; she saw what her new “friend” did.

“Sakura…w-what have you done?” she trembled with fear and fright as she then fled the scene.

Outside the festival, there were a couple of people including Naru, which escaped from Sakura's wrath.

“Are we safe?” A man panted.

“I think we are. What happened back there?!” another dreaded. Naru heaved in deep breaths of air into her lungs as she looked back at the horror festival. But what she didn't notice was that the Princess Mononoke was floating far above her heads with the snakes of hate caressing around her. She looked down at the humans, and gave them a look they will never forget.

 

“…Usotsuki.”

 

San then gasped out from her dream as she rose from her laying position.

“Even if I would return to my past life, it could mean that I will do something that I will regret forever, like Naru.” San whispered to herself, and then looked back outside a window to see the collapsed Ashitaka with Kaya outside.

 

“Ashitaka!”