Saga: Sakura Lost

The setting was always the same: a single, ancient cherry tree in a courtyard, its bark scarred with kanji. Surrounding it, the ghostly afterimages of a ceremony gone wrong. Kaito could see the figures flickering: a bride in a blood-red kimono, her face a porcelain mask of grief; a samurai with a sword half-drawn; a priest scattering not rice, but ashes.

But Sakura, in her dying breath, cursed the tree. "As my blood waters the roots, so shall my sorrow bloom eternal. You will lose this moment forever, Ren. You will watch me fall, unsave me, for a thousand springs." sakura lost saga

Kaito, however, was different. He wasn't a fighter or a mage. He was a listener. The setting was always the same: a single,

The petals fell not in spring, but in winter. But Sakura, in her dying breath, cursed the tree

On the second cycle, Kaito didn't approach the lovers. He approached the old priest who always stood at the edge of the ceremony, silent. The priest was a blur, a fragment of the memory, but when Kaito spoke to him, the man's eyes focused.