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The Castle Guarded by the Swaying Cherry Blossoms

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daltar (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#1: Aug 19th 2011 at 4:25:19 PM

Sakurasaki city.

A city that certainly lives it up to its name as no matter were you go within this place you can be almost sure you'll be able to see a cherry tree nearby. Spring time is marked by the whole city being filled with by the pink petals, swaying in the breeze that make the place one of the most beautiful places to be for miles and miles. As for the city, it isn't a sprawling metropolis but neither is it a small town. It's whole landscape is made of contrasts, lots of old shrines, monuments and pieces from ages past decorating the more modern buildings, their presence giving a little bit of personality and color to a city of the present.

Sakurasaki has always been a good city in the memories of those who live there. Sure, bad stuff happens everywhere but this place has always been good to those who live there. People are nice to each other, their surroundings are beautiful and most problems seem like a thing far away...

Or at least that's how it was before.

Lately, people have woken up to find that the old relics of the town's past have faced acts of vandalism. Surrounding flowers have been stomped upon, old statues have suffered incredible wear in a single night and the wood of some monuments has been painted with a nasty substance that makes them rot.

Of course, the citizens of Sakurasaki are not going to stand up for this! While the City Hall discusses how to handle this unexpected attack on the cultural past of the city, a certain group of schools, elementary, middle and high, have decided to be proactive about solving this issues.

A large group of students have been assembled to go to the sites and fix everything they can. This ragtag bunch have gathered either out of concern for their city, cause it might be fun or because they got caught doing something bad at school and so they got sent with the group to redeem themselves.

"Right! Everyone gather up, we're here!" Called out the teacher responsible for today's clean up effort. A kind, responsible kind of man that just can depend on.

Today's spot was a small park on top a hill near the center of the city. A long time ago a shrine rested on this place, though it has been a long time gone. However, it's ground are just as pretty as ever and so the place became a nice park for people to relax in every once in a while. There were a few foodstands on the side and lots of ground for kids to run around in. However, the students mission today was a single one.

In the middle of the park there was an ancient stone monument, tall as an adult and half again. It was made of carved stones, squares down and getting slightly more spherical on top and they had a single human virtue printed on each of them.

However, this was no longer evident as the stones were covered in a strange red paint. Smaller remains of the shrine were also covered by the paint and some of the grounds had seen a pretty bad while the night before.

"Very well kids, you know the drill. Work as a group and lets take care of all this mess!" The professor said lifting one fist to the air. He would hang around, try to direct their efforts a little before stepping in to help.

AnnoR "Of course, Satsuki-sama." from Honnouji Academy Since: Sep, 2010
"Of course, Satsuki-sama."
#2: Aug 19th 2011 at 4:58:46 PM

Miki grinned. Of course, most of the time her expression was some variant of a smile. Her default attitude, in fact, was cheerful. Cheerful and extremely energetic. This cheer and energy extended to today's activity, of cleaning up the defaced statues.

She rolled up the sleeves of her middle school uniform and and stretched. That red paint was her enemy. And she was going to defeat it.

"Alright, guys!" she declared loudly, picking up a bucket so full of water that it was probably too heavy for her to move with. "We're going to clean up this monument!"

Miki put the same amount of enthusiasm into cleaning up these shrines as she put into almost everything she did. Well, everything she did except chores and schoolwork. She treated both of those with considerably less enthusiasm and considerably more grumbling. Still, when it came to most activities, Miki was as enthusiastic as you could get. This enthusiasm almost immediately backfired when she realized just how heavy the bucket she had picked up was after trying to run with it, and narrowly avoided dropping it.

"Eh-heh..."

She went back and picked up a light bucket of water, and began to carry it over to one of the statues.

edited 19th Aug '11 5:03:56 PM by AnnoR

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."
tachikaze from Australia Since: Apr, 2009
#3: Aug 19th 2011 at 5:02:58 PM

In addition to the people present for fun, punishment or out of concern was a rather short girl who seemed like it had been quite some time since she had seen the sun for longer than it took to get to and from school.

Suzu sighed. These people are way too enthusiastic about this...It's manual labour, why are they treating it like some kind of game?

Without a word, she grabbed a bucket and approached the monument.

Burn up, hurricane of justice!
Saturn Hurr from On The Rings Since: Jun, 2011 Relationship Status: I-It's not like I like you, or anything!
Hurr
#4: Aug 19th 2011 at 5:03:30 PM

"Your enthusiasm for life is as cute as always, Miki."

Katou originally didn't want to do this. He planned on, most likely, skipping the class, which he doesn't do often at all, but the girls in his class wanted him to be there, and convinced him. When he actually saw all the paint, he decided that it was a good cause and deserved his attention.

He smirked at Miki as he took a soapy, wet sponge and put it to the paint. Nothing wrong with getting to spend more time with all the cute girls in his class. He did sigh at the manual labor, though.

edited 19th Aug '11 5:04:46 PM by Saturn

Gaunt88 from Australia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#5: Aug 19th 2011 at 5:10:07 PM

Toshiko set down the crate of washing brushes and soap powder she had been carrying and looked around the desecrated park. Desecrated was the right word, she thought, shaking her head at the pointless vandalism. This was history, this place. Seeing it like this made the Sakurasaki girl's heart sink.

Well, moping about it isn't going to get anything done.

"Right, you heard the teacher." She called out to the students around her. "We have brushes and soap here, and I think I saw a tap back by the garden. Can someone - oh, you've already got some water? Well done, Miki, Suzu."

Picking up a bucket and brush herself, Tosh made her way up to the statue, passing Suzu, Miku and Katou on the way. The taller girl gave them an encouraging nod. "With everyone here, this won't take long." She said, starting to scrub at a patch of paint.

edited 19th Aug '11 5:17:00 PM by Gaunt88

AnnoR "Of course, Satsuki-sama." from Honnouji Academy Since: Sep, 2010
"Of course, Satsuki-sama."
#6: Aug 19th 2011 at 5:24:47 PM

"Eh?" Miki turned in mid-run, to face Katou to her side. "Ah, thank you, Katann-san!"

She smiled. She'd met Katou a few times before, enough to know a bit about him. He was in high school, while she was in her last year of middle school, so they didn't meet each othere very frequently. However, there was always assignments like this, or occasional meetings when Miki was walking home. The middle school and the high school were quite close to each other, after all.

She'd also heard he was popular in the High School, but she wasn't sure why yet.

Miki set the bucket down by the statue, and turned again to face Toshiko when she spoke. "Oh, well, I had to grab the heaviest bucket so I could get enough water! But... that one was too heavy, so I got this one instead."

edited 19th Aug '11 5:28:15 PM by AnnoR

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."
TroperRoxas ... from Scotland Since: May, 2010
...
#7: Aug 19th 2011 at 6:09:14 PM

I can't believe anyone could do this... Alice thought as she scrubbed hard at the stubborn paint. Messing up everything like this... what is wrong with them?

Alice hadn't taken to the vandalism well. Not that it was a personal insult to her very existence, but she had grown so complacent with the peaceful nature of Sakurasaki that for something like this to happen... it was like a betrayal!

Well, not really, but it was still a horrible thing to do. But at least everyone was willing to fix it. People from all kinds of schools and year group had gathered to help out. While Alice had mostly avoided contact, aside from some 'yes/no' answers, she was currently helping someone two years younger with the paint she was now futilely scrubbing away at.

The girl had since gone on to help out some other way, when it seemed apparent she wasn't going to do much, what with Alice refusing to yield to the patch. Although she did allow herself to rest her tired arms.

Wow, this is hard work... Alice thought. One of her hands was buried in a pocket, extracting an object she always had with her.

the small orb clasped in her hand, Alice stared at the still flame emblazoned within. Then again, you had a much harder job, and you loved every minute of it...

Gripping the orb tightly, Alice felt a renewed vigour flow through her body.

"Okay, I'm cleaning this thing until I can eat from it!" Alice vowed to herself. Pocketing the orb again, Alice got back to work.

KiriAme Thom Raiwhat? Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
Thom Raiwhat?
#8: Aug 19th 2011 at 8:54:29 PM

Alouette kneeled at the edge of the monument, scrubbing furiously at the paint as she glared at the monument.

"Stupid detention..." she muttered to herself. "I was just trying to have a laugh! They didn't have to make me clean stuff. This is so boring..." Ignoring the nearby group of older students who were scrubbing at the monument with considerably more enthusiasm, Alouette began to speed up her scrubbing, furiously attacking the graffiti as she tried to get the job done as quickly as possible.

Honestly, it wasn't like she'd done anything that bad. All of the frogs had been returned to the pond in the park eventually, and in her personal opinion the slime stains on the wall looked kind of cool. Alouette didn't see what everyone was complaining about. All she'd done was inject a little life into a lonely classroom. Instead of being praised for her efforts, however, she was stuck doing even more community service.

Story. Of. Her. Life.

edited 19th Aug '11 8:57:24 PM by KiriAme

Anyway here's Blackwall
tachikaze from Australia Since: Apr, 2009
#9: Aug 19th 2011 at 9:18:33 PM

Suzu gave a barely noticable nod in recognition of Toshiko's comment and continued what she was doing. Eventually she looked up from her unenthusiastic attempt to look like she was putting some effort into this and couldn't help but smirk, finally someone else was treating this like what it was...and it was some brat on detention.

She sighed and got back to "work".

If he cares about this monument so much, why didn't he come here himself?!

edited 19th Aug '11 9:27:02 PM by tachikaze

Burn up, hurricane of justice!
ArgeusthePaladin from Byzantine. Since: May, 2010
#10: Aug 20th 2011 at 12:12:05 AM

Among the group there was a girl who seemed average in all respect, seemingly sunken into the crowd for her seemingly generic looks. One might mistake her for a poor soul having just been conscripted into whatever manual labor this entailed by way of her naivete or subservient nature. Any thoughts along those lines, however, would be neutralized when she received her tools. The girl quite nearly literally jumped at the bucket and sponge with glee.

"Guys, guys, don't fall behind!" she exclaimed as she began to set to work on the nearest patch of stain, her eyes twinkling in enthusiastic delight.

"Sorry, Mr. Paint, but you really, really have to go," she muttered towards the partch of dirt as she worked, her voice energetic and, depending on how those surrounding her perceived it, almost naively sincere, as though she actually believed the dirt before her was some sort of sentient being.

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KiriAme Thom Raiwhat? Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
Thom Raiwhat?
#11: Aug 20th 2011 at 12:24:40 AM

Alouette glanced over at the teenage girl who was apologising to the paint as she scrubbed it away, and rolled her eyes.

"It isn't alive, you know," she informed her in a cross, matter-of-fact voice. "And pretending it is just makes you look really stupid." With renewed vigour, she began to scrub at the paint in the vague hope that doing so would allow her to go home more quickly. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck removing paint with a bunch of deranged middle- and high-schoolers.

Anyway here's Blackwall
ArgeusthePaladin from Byzantine. Since: May, 2010
#12: Aug 20th 2011 at 2:05:45 AM

"For real? Awww..."

Hikaru said in a seemingly disappointed voice, trailing off in a long echo. She would pull out this display every single time she was in the middle of daydreaming and got pulled back to the real world. She glanced back at the girl who just did that, at which point her eyes opened wide and bright.

Hikaru did not know this gaijin little girl too well. Then again, Alouette was kind of the talk of the neighborhood for as long as her parents and extended family had been in town. Not exactly because of her foreign nature *

, but because she was known as an utter monster with language as coarse as a college delinquent and the tendency to wreck havoc on almost the same level. How she managed to do that while being barely around three and a half foot tall is anyone's guess.

"But, but!" Hikaru protested. "Aren't all matters made of cells? And aren't cells living things? This paint is living things too then! Is it wrong to apologize for so forcefully displacing them from their homes?"

Of course, Alouette would probably not know that Hikaru had apparently slept through her Biology and Physics class and therefore could not tell the difference between cells and molecules.

edited 20th Aug '11 2:07:57 AM by ArgeusthePaladin

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Flanker66 Dreams of Revenge from 30,000 feet and climbing Since: Nov, 2009 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Dreams of Revenge
#13: Aug 20th 2011 at 2:19:04 AM

By now Sergei was scrubbing the paint as hard as he could, trying to get the offending paint off of the stones. He felt as though it were his duty to help maintain the city's shrines in this manner. Part of him wondered who was responsible, and why they were doing this, although he was fairly confident that it was just some delinquents trying to rebel against "the man". Nevertheless, there was something oddly relaxing about cleaning the park up, even though a small voice in his mind reminded him constantly that he could have been doing something better with his time. What that 'better' thing was... he wasn't sure.

He quietly listened to what everyone else was saying, and decided to offer his own opinion of what was happening. He decided to conveniently forget about what Hikaru said - pointing it out would be needlessly antagonistic.

"The quicker we do this, the quicker we get it over with, I guess." It wasn't the best, as far as motivational phrases went, but hopefully it would silence any complaints before they cropped up.

edited 20th Aug '11 2:21:08 AM by Flanker66

Locking you up on radar since '09
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#14: Aug 20th 2011 at 2:22:19 AM

Meanwhile, Kei was simply scrubbing away at one of the paint stained surfaces, more-or-less oblivious to what was going on around her.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
KiriAme Thom Raiwhat? Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
Thom Raiwhat?
#15: Aug 20th 2011 at 3:40:28 AM

Alouette dropped her sponge back in the water and turned to glare at Hikaru.

"No. You're stupid," she replied scathingly. "Cells aren't living things at all. You're thinking of molecules, which are only found in living things."

Having a surgeon as an aunt and a biologist for a cousin meant that Alouette had been subjected to many lectures on the subject of science over her ten years of life, and although she had quite obviously not learnt a great deal from these lectures, she had managed to remember her own... "special" versions of certain facts.

As a boy nearby spoke up, attempting to motivate the group, Alouette found herself agreeing with him more than she would have expected. She would never have expected such a sensible, pragmatic viewpoint from one of the older students, but he had managed to make what was, in Alouette's mind, an extremely good point.

Hastily picking her sponge up again, she got to work once more, determined to get this detention over with as quickly as possible.

Anyway here's Blackwall
TroperRoxas ... from Scotland Since: May, 2010
...
#16: Aug 20th 2011 at 4:05:33 AM

"Phew... I think I'm getting somewhere..." Alice muttered, looking at the peeling paint. It was far from finished, but she was finally vanquishing the paint. About time too, her poor arms were practically shaking from the furious scrubbing.

... Maybe a little rest will help. Alice decided, sitting down. It was hard to work with tired arms, after all.

Gaunt88 from Australia Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#17: Aug 20th 2011 at 4:53:38 AM

Toshiko smiled at the younger student's enthusiasm. "That bucket is fine, Miki. Don't go overtiring yourself trying to carry the big loads - that's what us oldies are for, right Katau?" She added, dipping her brush in her own bucket again as she grinned at her nearby classmate.

It was nice, seeing the community pulling together like this. Of course, not everyone here was a volunteer. She could faintly hear one of the junior school kids - Alouette, she thought her name was - sounding decidedly uncharitable. She made a mental note to check on that group next time she refilled her bucket *

. As is it was, she nodded along with Sergei's comment and started scrubbing fresh patch of stone.

AnnoR "Of course, Satsuki-sama." from Honnouji Academy Since: Sep, 2010
"Of course, Satsuki-sama."
#18: Aug 20th 2011 at 9:15:32 AM

"I'll be fine!" Miki replied with a smile. She re-rolled her sleeves, which had fallen down, and dipped her sponge into the soapy water before setting to work scrubbing the paint off of the statue. It wasn't coming off all that easily, but it was at least starting to come off. Weird, though, it didn't really feel like normal paint. Paint normally chipped away or felt like liquid plastic, this almost seemed like some kind of gel when it got scrubbed off.

Miki was distracted from this line of thought when she noticed one of the othe students nearby, a gradeschool girl. She didn't recognize her at all, obviously not being particularly familiar with gradeschoolers, but she was adorable enough to warrant a planned ambush hug. Little did Miki know that this girl was one of the city's bigger delinquents.


The figure watched. Vague irritation was probably the easiest way to describe what it was feeling at the moment. The defacement of the local monuments and shrines was crucial to its work. Subtlety required not outright breaking them to pieces, but it also meant that they could be cleaned, or repaired.

Maybe it was time to abandon subtlety all together...

edited 20th Aug '11 11:30:40 AM by AnnoR

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."
TroperRoxas ... from Scotland Since: May, 2010
...
#19: Aug 20th 2011 at 9:46:17 AM

Her arms still felt like lead, but Alice decided her break was over now. Sitting up, Alice grabbed the sponge she had been using, dunked it into the bucket, and continued her assault on the intrusive paint.

Hard. Work. Is. Hard! Alice thought, accentuating ehr words with every stroke. Not that she was going to complain, though. It was hardly the most labour-intensive work out there, and it was far from dangerous, at least.

Well, after god-knew-how-long of scrubbing, the paint had finally come off. Not at all how she would have expected it to, but then again she wasn't a painter. Maybe the gel-like stuff was just a certain mix?

Again, break. Alice decided. This time, she could say she earned one by getting rid of that stain, more or less.

Oni-Lord Since: May, 2010
#20: Aug 20th 2011 at 11:06:22 AM

She watched with only mild interest as a group of girls attempted to clean up the statue. She wasn't exactly interested in it, but this was something she was tasked with doing. Occasionally she would glance at the trees instead, allowing herself to be distracted slightly. She would always re-focus herself after a few minutes though.

All she had to do right now was await orders, so she kept to herself for the time being.

daltar (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#21: Aug 20th 2011 at 12:29:08 PM

"Alright kids! Time for a little break! The owners of these fine stands have just told me that they'll give us some food after seeing you working so earnestly" The professor said with a little smile on his face, most likely born out of being proud of the kids of Sakurasaki "Everyone, form up and don't forget to say thanks to them for the delicious food we will be eating now"


A few hours later...

The sun was already setting and it had been a long hard day of work. However, the results were quite clear. The whole park was completely reborn due to the efforts of the youth of Sakurazaki. Not one scrap of paint remained on the statue, the grounds were completely cleaned and the stone pathways had been scrubbed until all moss and dirt were swept away.

At this point most of the students were either lazying around or talking with each other. The only thing left to do was to do was to put away some of the cleaning implements that were borrowed from a little storage place in the park.

It was at this moment that the professor was called on his cellphone... with the news that his wife was going into labor!

"Ehhhhhh!? I thought it was going to happen next week!" The man, called Ichihara Kazuki, said quite loudly an expression of panic on his usually composed face "I-I got it I'll be there in a second, honey!"

Kazuki then turned to face his students "I'm sorry kids I got to leave first! Just put away the rest of the things and then close the storage with this key. Hand it to me at school later and try not to go home too late!"

"Now... I must go!" The husband about to turn into a father said while turning and launching himself into a sprint. The energy provided to him due to this situation was sure to carry him running all the way to his home... and then to the hospital once he realizes that his wife has already being taken there.

In some other city, it would be quite irresponsible of a teacher to leave his students alone in a park with nighttime quickly approaching. However, this was Sakurasaki city... a place were such concerns seemed a thing of places very far away...

AnnoR "Of course, Satsuki-sama." from Honnouji Academy Since: Sep, 2010
"Of course, Satsuki-sama."
#22: Aug 20th 2011 at 12:36:20 PM

"Ahhhh," Miki stretched, shutting her eyes as she did, and then sagged. It almost looked like cleaning up the park had actually tired her out... until she snapped back into action and started searching for small cleaning items she could put in one of the empty buckets. Yes, it seemed like she never ran out of energy whatsover.


It wasn't going to wait.

The statue would be destroyed by its weaker minions, and then it would send its disciples...

"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#23: Aug 20th 2011 at 12:36:52 PM

Wow. He's really in a hurry.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
Flanker66 Dreams of Revenge from 30,000 feet and climbing Since: Nov, 2009 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Dreams of Revenge
#24: Aug 20th 2011 at 1:14:16 PM

Well, that was unexpected, thought Sergei as he too began looking around for whatever cleaning equipment was left behind. Oh well, I guess I'd better finish with this, first.

He couldn't help but feel a bit bored as he continued his search. It wasn't the most riveting of activities, after all.

Locking you up on radar since '09
TroperRoxas ... from Scotland Since: May, 2010
...
#25: Aug 20th 2011 at 2:33:01 PM

Alice groaned wearily. While restoring the park had been rewarding, it had also knackered her poor arms, unused to so much repetitive scrubbing. But it would all go to a good cause, at least. Not only was the place looking amazing again, but she may just have raised her strength just a little. Oh, and she never complained once. Out loud, at least.

Still, Alice couldn't help but sigh as she wandered the park, empty bucket in hand with her sponge and another she found laying around inside it. Right now, she just wanted to rest. No interruptions.


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