Falling petals

What the future will hold.

"Your highness! Wait, you might end up falling!"
 
Raphael quickly scooped Sakura up, he knew it was improper to do that so suddenly, however he was scared she would bump into something or fall with the way she was running.
 
"Sakura?"
 
Her head quickly turn away so he wouldn't see her face.
 
"What's wrong?"
 
Her head was still turned away and he began to worry, but before he could say or do anything she turn to him and gave him a happy smile.
 
"Nothing! I wanna go quickly and then eat my key lime pie!"
 
He looked at her and he remained silent. The only response she gave him was a tilt of the head and a naive smile.
 
She didn't know if he believed her or if he was going to expose her act. She just hoped it was good enough for him to accept.
 
"...Then we should quickly reach your uncles so you can get your pie quickly."
 
"Yup!"
 
She wraps her arms around him and leans on his shoulder. Her smile disappears and she grimaces at the memories of her mother that she will never be able to see again. But before she can get consumed by those emotions, she quickly relaxed her expression when she saw her father appear around the corner.
 
"Papa!"
 
"Haha. You are quite quick aren't you."
 
He reaches behind them in no time and lightly taps the tip of her nose, his smile warm and filled with pampering love. Sakura looks at that expression and wonders how much the other Sakura must have wished for that type of love and care, even if it was just one tenth of what he is showing her.
 
'His daughter died so long ago, yet again and again he will live this life losing another and another; it seems that this cycle may be reaching its limit and this can be the last replay. I can say he loves me a lot, but there were so many replays that I keep dreaming through that I can't say I can truly believe in his love....'
 
When she thinks of that she reaches out and grabs his hand that lightly tapped her nose. She spreads the hand with her own and she looks at how small her hand is compared to his.
 
A short memory appears that overlaps their hand with that of a much older yet still teen Sakura doing the same exact thing.

She was in his arms, her abdominal bleeding fresh blood, the black and red blood staining his clothes while he presses on the wound to stop the bleeding. He learn to use healing magic just to heal small cuts or small headaches when he doesn't feel like taking medicine, and now he was using that pathetic level of magic on the wound.
 
He knew he was fooling himself when he kept casting it and he watches as that dim worthless light grow dimmer and dimmer till nothing can be used up anymore. He wanted to move but knew he couldn't, her lower half was already stiff and made of translucent white.
 
They say nothing to each other and she can't even feel his hand on her abdominal. Rather she was loosing all her feeling of touch at an exponential rate.
 
Yet she says nothing and just watches her fathers futile struggle, his pathetic attempts that even she finds him to seem pitiful.
 
***
"Father...ugh."
 
She coughs but quickly holds it in, only the small dribble of blood that slides down on the side of her lip indicates whatever she was holding in.
 
"..."
 
"Father. Look at me."
 
Mihkael slowly turns his eyes to her, she can see nothing from his expression, but she knew he was losing himself with how his eyes seems to show an unexplainable feeling.
 
"Give me your hand."
 
He flinches and even when she can feel nothing below her chest now, she for some reason can tell he was trembling.
 
"Father, please."
 
Her calm yet pleading voice made him comply and he takes his hand off from her abdominal. The place stopped bleeding already and was already stiff yet delicate like glass.
 
He reaches his blood covered hand to her own and she smiles, her smile beautiful yet haunting.
 
She spreads his hand out and can feel her blood beginning to dry even when it was so much. She moved her eyes to see his hand following all her commands and she placed her own hand to mirror his. Her palm to his. She was obviously an adult now, yet when comparing her hand to his, it seems so small and childish.
 
"I've always wanted to hold father's hand. Just how those commoners I've seen would hold their child while making sure to keep them beside them so they don't lose sight of them... I always wondered why father didn't want to hold my hand, why you never reached out to me; 'did father not want me beside him? Does he not care of losing sight of me?'... did you ever even loved me."
 
Her voice cracked and she shut her eyes to try and stop the tear that fell through her eyes. But the tears she tried to hold back released itself when she felt his awkward hands try and brush her tears away.
 
She opened her eyes and can see his pained expression that seemed as if he would cry any moment.
 
While looking at that she laughs. The noise sounding painful yet held a hint of happiness.
 
"Sakura."
 
She stops and looks at her father. The man was already in his 40s yet he never looked above his 30s, however she didn't know when, but his usual well combed hair was in disarray, his calm and confident aura disappeared to show an exhausted and lost man. And his face seemed as if he aged ten years.
 
In a way it pained her to see her father this way, yet it made her feel like he became like this because he did in fact love this daughter of his, this daughter who he always pushed to the side and never used to display an ounce of affection to, not like how he would with Rose, his daughter that was created by no means of love.
 
"I'm sorry."
 
His voice was laced with self loathing and pain while he watches his daughter suffering and the cause being him. That it was his fault she became like this.
 
"I'm going to die."
 
When those words left her lips, the hand that was brushing away her tears flinched. She smiled calmly and closed her eyes while feeling his trembling, when she opened them again to say something more, she stops and widens her eyes.
 
His expression didn't just look like he was crying but is now fully filled with tears, that agonizing expression of his filled her with pain. Even if he ignored her as a child, even if he pampered a bastard child and would even scold her for that child. She never wanted her father to truly suffer, words of hate or anger she may have said to him wasn't what she truly wanted to say. It was just words influenced by the corrupt being that filled her thoughts with things that weren't her own.
 
What she wanted was just to ask for his care, a praise or two. She just wanted to know if he loved her or not and if he was ever proud of her. She just wanted to feel like her existence meant anything to the only parent she had after not having her mother with her.
 
"No..."
 
His voice was low, but she can clearly hear the agony in that no.
 
"It is ok. So do not cry father. I will be fine now."
 
"No!"
 
He wanted to hold her but he can already feel the back he was holding loose the warmth of a body and turn cold like ice to his touch, he can already see her face begin to become clear and watches how she smiled in reassurance to him.
 
"It is already too late. Just knowing you actually loved me is enough for me to go in peace. Please.... when I'm gone, can you bury me beside Raphael? I know he done many wrong things against you, but you know he did it all for me, so can you promise me that he will have a special place beside me?"
 
"Ugh!"
 
He couldn't speak and knew nothing he can do will change her outcome, so he can only nod and feel the hot tears fall his eyes.
 
She smiles and looks up at the sky. The clear sky that shined down to the war filled land seem to darken with gray clouds, the surrounding that surprisingly quite the moment she was shot by an arrow remained quite while a barrier was used to cover her father and her. A small rain drop hits the barrier, then another and another, until just a downpour filled the area, as if even those above are crying at her death.
 
Her eyes grew hazy and was darkening, yet a bright light shined through that light and memories that seem to be hers yet at the same time were not began to fill her mind.
 
"Ah.... so it seems that this has already happened before."
 
"What?"
 
Before Mihkael can ask what she meant by that her whole appearance turn to translucent and she died right there. Taking with her cryptic last words.
***
 
"Sakura?"
 
Mihkael smile held a bit of confusion when she still kept that posture while Raphael kept walking, he didn't move his hand away and kept then together until she wanted to separate it.
 
While wondering what she was thinking about he noticed her hand move, she grabs one of his fingers and her hand wrapped over it, displaying even more how small her hand is. While looking at it he looks at her again and sees her smile.
 
"Papa. Will you always be beside me?"
 
"Of course!"
 
"Will you never turn your back to me and leave me behind?"
 
"Of course not! I will always be beside you!"
 
"Promise?"
 
"I promise, no; I swear to you and to the gods that I will never turn away from you!"
 
"!!!.... ok papa. Then I will put my trust on you. One last time."
 
She said the last part in a low murmur that even Raphael had a hard time hearing it.
 
 
"Papa. I love you a lot."
 
She said that while smiling and moving his finger side to side with her whole hand. Sewing her cute action Mihkael had to hold himself from clutching his chest from the small heart attack he got from seeing his daughter's cuteness.
 
"We are here."
 
Raphael was smiling at the interaction between the two and can tell the joy his friend must be feeling to know how much his daughter loves him.
 
"Are you ready Sakura?"
 
She takes a deep breath and exhales. Her grip tightens a bit but releases after feeling a type of reassurance with having both her father and father figure beside her.
 
"Yup. I'm ready."
 
'Time to begin a new battle. One where I will have to be vigilant with my words and actions, because I'll have a fox and a wolf to watch out.'
 
With that, Raphael knocks on the door and it opens. To reveal a man with a lazy and yet confident smile.
 
"Well it took you guys long enough. I felt like I was growing moss here."
 
"Shut up mutt, get out of the way and let them in."
 
"Haha kk."
 
He moves away to reveal a room mixed with different types of men, yet all have one thing in common.
 
'I see them almost everyday, yet even after years pass, I still feel my breath is taken away by their good looks.
 
"Well Sakura. Are you ready to explain a few things?"
 
Seraph sits in a couch with an upright and confident posture. The man felt intimidating yet Sakura takes a gulp and nods.
 
"I'll talk."
 
Now begins a new battle that can strengthen Sakura's image or ruin all of her hard work.

A/N:
Hello!! Writer here! We're getting close to the reveal!! Or are we?? Well I'm procrastinating my writing with each passing day and I feel bad, I really get moment of no motivation yet it's a miracle when I do finish a chapter. Sometimes I have to reread what I wrote before because I don't have drafts of this, I just write and then publish, I ain't a professional so sorry😉 well till the next chapter. Bye bye.