You don’t need to know Onmyoji to follow this story. It works as a short yokai tale about a very small creature who wanted to be brave.
A name taken from rot and fireflies
Kusa’s true form is rotting grass. She was born in a stretch of deep, black, filthy water, timid by nature and easy prey for other yokai. Bullied from the start, she could only hide in the dense forest and endure hunger and fear.
Even in that darkness, she longed for light and hope. Her heart turned toward fireflies.
That is where her name comes from: born from rotting grass, yet reaching for fireflies.
The arrow that changed her
One day, when she was being tormented and close to death, Hakuro saved her with a single arrow that pierced the sky.
From then on, Hakuro became both her rescuer and the person she looked to for guidance.
Kusa later joined a small territory held by minor yokai, hoping to learn how to become stronger. She tried swinging a dandelion around. It did not accomplish much, but she seemed to have a knack for it.
Her wish was not only to protect herself. She wanted to become brave like Hakuro and protect others.
Eventually Hakuro agreed to train with her. During their practice, Hakuro taught her: every time you draw your bow, be brave. Imagine you are fighting for the person who matters most to you, and treat every arrow as your last.
The road of healing and backlash
The good days did not last. A goddess of destruction brought endless corruption into the world, and in a single night, living things were devastated.
When Kusa woke, Hakuro was gone. She decided to set out and find him.
Along the way, she used her healing power again and again to help yokai suffering from the miasma. But every healing rebounded on her, and every use drained her spiritual power. In the end, she would dissolve into rotting grass and disappear.
“From the beginning, I knew that resisting the miasma would bring backlash… so this is my last training, one I cannot turn back from.”
Dandelion seeds over Heian-kyo
Kusa passed through the Seven-Corner Mountain, Black Night Mountain, Mt. Oe, Arakawa, and Omagahara before finally reaching Heian-kyo. There she found Hakuro, deeply corrupted, his mind on the verge of collapse.
“They were friends I once protected. In the Seven-Corner Mountain, by the Arakawa, on Mt. Oe… they are all waiting for me to grow up and come back.”
The next second, the wind rose.
The whole mountainside was in bloom with dandelions I had planted.
White flowers spread into rain, and they would all follow that wind toward the far places I had hoped for.
Hakuro was afraid of hurting Kusa and, in despair, wanted to end his own life. Kusa, in the last moments of her life, finally saw the person who mattered most to her.
“I will save you—but not only you.”
“Please witness me. Even someone as small as me will give everything.”
She released her final purification. It consumed all her strength, and she scattered into flecks of light. Thousands of dandelion seeds fell like rain, healing many frenzied yokai and purifying the corruption in Hakuro.
“Hakuro… I’m late.”
“…Kusa…”
“The corruption is heavy. Don’t worry—I’ll heal you.”
“Don’t… don’t stay for me…”
“I kept my promise, Hakuro. Everything you told me, I did.”
“To find you, I really did become brave.”
What grows after
Kusa died in the final battle, but the dandelion seeds she became could sprout again. Reborn as a child, she lost all her memories—even her memory of Hakuro.
Hakuro took her to plant dandelion seeds and waited for her to grow up.
“They travel with the wind, free and unbound, only to plant hope farther away.”
They do not fear wind or rain, morning or night. No need to hold them back; no need to hesitate.
“This is the journey dandelions are meant to take.”
The me of the past must have run like this too, working toward happiness somewhere far away.
Can the me of the future be as brave as a dandelion?
One small detail: in the Ephemeral Kusa design, the stem of her dandelion is Hakuro’s bow.