Anime

Florina Hegedüs
Further north-west, at the foot of Mount Fuji, the green mountain trees are replaced by a withered forest. There lives Masato. He was the leader of a band of thieves in his youth. He isn't alone. Toseiko is with him. A tiny little girl with big eyes and a smile from ear to ear. He's the one who raised her, and taught her not to be afraid of demons. Masato was sleeping when Toseiko saw a human body hanging from the dried branches. She was afraid. She wanted to run. But Masato hadn't drawn her legs yet.

Dan Banu
Rem, we will never be happy, gasped Hoshi. I'm just a cold star, I don't know what love is. I belong back with Kaguya. I shall cover my brightness with a cloud and ask her to forgive me. Please help me get there. And quickly, before Hanami[1], because it will already be too hot then, and Shinigami will certainly look for me. When Hanami unveiled its first fragrances, the boat made of petals was finished. And in three days, when the scents gathered into an enormous wave, she rose straight towards the sky.
Iulia Vîși
Rem, we will never be happy, gasped Hoshi. I'm just a cold star, I don't know what love is. I belong back with Kaguya. I shall cover my brightness with a cloud and ask her to forgive me. Please help me get there. And quickly, before Hanami[1], because it will already be too hot then, and Shinigami will certainly look for me. When Hanami unveiled its first fragrances, the boat made of petals was finished. And in three days, when the scents gathered into an enormous wave, she rose straight towards the sky.
(Translated by Raluca Sălcianu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In December 2023, the group has 12,210 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.