– under the cherry tree, a dead body lay buried.

Setting

Contemporary fantasy.

The world has a little more greenery than it does now. This is a story of the flowers who seek the best fertilizer, so that flowers more beautiful than any other may blossom; and the people who abandon their remaining lives in order to obtain something greater.

After tree-planting was instituted into law, “enhanced” plants began to appear, and competition for survival among the various flowers turned fierce. At that point, the powerful abilities that the flowers held inside them began to manifest – the flowers tempted humans in despair with this exchange: In return for allowing one’s remaining human life and body to be taken, they would receive the power to satisfy one final wish through their connection to the flowers. The world’s flowers became ever more brilliant and beautiful, but people thought of it as merely the result of the earlier “enhancements.” Nor did anyone realize what was causing the increased number of human disappearances.

The title mentions “spring,” but this setting can be used in any place or season.

If you upload drawings or other images to Pixiv, I’d be happy if you could tag them with “Spring and the Flower Possessions” (春と花憑き).

Please send anything else to @thykgn.

The logo’s not all that fancy, but feel free to use it as you wish.

I got some questions about this: I don’t plan on doing further work on this on Pixiv for the time being (neither for a project, nor for the characters and setting), so feel free to put up character and setting drafts and contributions!

Character types

• Possessed: Those who have been taken by the flowers. In exchange for offering their remaining lives and their bodies, they have been given one exceptional ability. Their bodies crumble like ash after their sacrifice, and become nourishment for the flowers, while the possessed themselves become like ghosts. A flower either grows from, or replaces a part of, their body. The flower starts out as something foreign, but after a short time can become like part of the body. The possessed cannot stray more than a few meters from the plant that has power over them, and should the plant wither they too will die. Flowers of annuals are short-lived, and therefore grant extraordinarily strong powers; if the possessor is a perennial, the possessed may hibernate during the winter, thereby extending their lives. Flowers of trees are longer-lived, and therefore only grant weaker powers.

• Protectors: Those who protect flowers. Each has his or her own reason for doing so. There is no penalty for allowing a flower under one’s protection to die. On the other hand, there is no real benefit to protectors, even if they accompany a possessed person until his or her wish can be granted. They may borrow powers from possessed people with deeply-rooted greenery. Unlike the possessed, they may separate from their plants, and can even still use their powers; however, their powers grow weaker with distance. When using their powers, tattoos in the form of flowers appear on their bodies.

• Devourers: Those who eat flowers. Each has his or her own reason for doing so. There are those who use methods of defoliation with the aim of destroying all of the possessed, and who are opposed by those who side with the possessed and become protectors. Others want to see a particular possessed person gone. Devourers do not literally eat flowers. There are fellowship-like organizations for devourers, but since there are many lone actors, membership is not high.

• Researchers: Those who do the research to “enhance” flowers. Their numbers include those who wish to support flowers and become protectors, those who fall to despair and become possessed, and those who see the dangers of flowers and become devourers, as well as others. There are many who love flowers from the heart, and set their minds on research.

Resources

[All of the following pages are in Japanese, sorry. Maybe you can break out Google Translate or something.]

• Q&A
• Shindan Maker
• Pixiv page