A Blossoming Flower (Falling Petals)

Nightmares.

The moment Sakura closed her eyes, the next thing she notices is her sitting on a chair facing a long table. There were other chairs with people seated on them. But for some reason Sakura can't see their appearance. Only a shadow covering their top half of their body. She looks ahead and can't seem to find the end of the table. It just disappears in darkness.

'What the f**k? Where the hell am I?"

"Your emotions are in turmoil. You are forming an attachment to those people. Are you aiming for the same fate? Of being discarded and going through the pain of it?"

'What type bullshit is this?'

Sakura opened her mouth to ask who they were and what are they talking about. Yet stopped when she looked down at herself. Her figure wasn't that of a child, but of a women who already matured. 

".....where the hell am I? Who are you people?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes and glanced at each women, only to look back at the one seated right across from her.

'She was the one who spoke just now. And if I guessed right. I may actually know who all this women are.'

"You begin to believe in them. Are you going to repeat the same mistake? They are not to be trusted. They would leave the moment they meet her."

"Are you speaking from experience?"

The women doesn't speak again and only a silence filled the air.

"It doesn't surprised me much. I should have expected something like this when I started to piece things together. But seeing myself in this situation. I can assume I'm correct? Are you trying to warn me because that's what you people have done and went through?"

"You need to have your guard up. You shouldn't believe in them. They don't care for you, they never did. Each time it is the same, years of connection cut when they meet her. You will never be important to them."

"Never will be important."

Those who are at the side of the table speak up, making Sakura flinch in pain from their echoing voices.

But then she looked on to them and laughed, her eyes glaring while feeling them look at her.

"This is some psychological bullshit. Or a moment a character fights against their inner demons and find answers. You guys are my inner demon that I have to appease or govern over."

A cold and mocking look can be seen in Sakura's expression. She didn't even try to look to find the womens faces anymore.

"I read novels where such people experience a type of answer to their questions through their dreams. And you guys are the answer to mine. If I have to think of it, then each one of you sitting here are a fragment of or are the past Sakuras who failed to change their fates. Am I heading to the right direction?"

Only silence answered her which was the only answer she needed.

"Seeing as you guys are keeping your mouth shut, I would take it as a yes. Then let me use this chance to get the answers I need."

"We wish to help, you are forgetting your objective. Which is to live. No matter what."

"That is actually one of my questions in fact."

Sakura leans into her chair and crosses her legs, and was going to cross her arms only to notice her figure even more.

She raises her hands and see well pedicured hands. The skin smooth and not even a blemish can be seem. An engagement ring of silver gold with a design made with such a delicate and 

The skin pale and tempting. The dress was identical to the ones that those women are wearing who are surrounding her but hidden. A peach sleeveless ruffled dress, small diamonds designed to the rim of the chest and a red see through shawl covering her arms.

"Why was I brought here from my world? I accept that I may be dead, but why was I selected to be Sakura?"

"You were not selected."

"Oh? Then why am I here? Why am I Sakura?"

"Because that is your fate. YOU ARE SAKURA."

"I don't have time to decipher your cryptic bullshit. If you don't want to be straight with your answers, then let me ask a question where it is easy to get my answer."

She looks forward and held an expressionless gaze when she stared to the end of the table.

"You must be the original Sakura, the true Sakura? So you haven't really left when you spoke to pa-no, to Mihkael."

"You are right and wrong. I am Sakura, everyone here is Sakura. You are Sakura. That was a new beginning for-"

"Shut the f**k up! It was just a type of event, wasn't it? you make a person feel pity for you and try their best to work even harder to be you after thinking you finally rested in peace? Was that to motivate us? Was that moment of fatherly and daughter bond a tool to get what you need?"

Sakura rose her voice and kept her glare in her eyes, a few moments passed and her expression eased up. A low laugh escaped her lips, only to raise to higher heights.

"Hahaha!! Well I'm not really blaming you. I would have done the same if I needed to reach my end goal."

Her gaze was steady, not a hint of what she feels at the moment is shown from it.

"Then those around us. They are those who took up the challange. Who's fates I must have played in the game, whose ends were tragic and painful. The ones who lost."

"You know the answer. They are a part of you. A part of me. We all are connected more that you believe. Their emotions are yours. What you feel is what you truly feel, and we are just showing you."

"Right now you aren't being straight with the answering, but I'll amuse you for now. I hold no real grudge against the game characters and targets. You are the ones who do, and because of your lingering hatred, it interferes with my turn as Sakura."

"It is our hatred, but yours as well, that is what you need to understand."

"What? Your gonna speak that bullshit that because I'm Sakura now, I have to recieve your hatred from being betrayed by them? Hah! No thanks. I'm fine with not feeling anything for them, may it be love or hatred, I don't need those feeling."

"Lies! You are feeling attachment to father! To that adulterer Phelan! You will repeat the same mistake once again. You would trust those others and believe you finally changed the end. That they will be with you and care for you!! But it's a lie!!! You will be discarded, and you will break from the emotional pain. Your heart is already cold-"

"So lets get this straight. What I get from this conversation so far is that I'm not the second person to be selected. Second, all the ones in this table are my predecessor, and all failed. Third, any advice that you give is worthless because you all failed. And last, but not least, you all let your emotions win over your rationality. Which lead you to actually feel some type of bond with this characters and feel great pain and regret when you failed in being the one they choose. You all believe you are helping me by trying to keep me away from the capture targets with controlling my emotions about them? Heh... hehe.. hahahahaha!!"

Slam! Sakura smacked her hand on the table and sneered.

"I'm just trying to gain their trust and love, doesn't mean I'll give them it back. I'm just planning my survival by using them, so I don't need anything. I don't need those type of strong emotions when I meet them. Isn't that why you brought me here, to survive?"

"We did not bring you here."

"Then whomever did, you must know them. But whatever since it doesn't really matter who did, I'm already here and there is no changing it."

She shrugs her shoulder and kept her gaze steady when she looked forward to the darkeness.

"Your own emotions are a mess. You do not see it. We are here to give you a sign."

"Are you sure it isn't your emotions that are in a mess? Right now when you guys watch me. Do you feel some type of envy? Jealousy? Is that why you all choose to interfere? Because I'm doing so much better that you all ever have from the very beginning?"

"You wish to get rid of us by trying to use your words to harm us. But I know you don't actually think that way. You are probing us."

Sakura smiles and laughs a bit while looking at the woman in the end of the table.

"Your right, I was curious to see if you'll snap at me. But this is another way to get what I'm aiming for. And make me understand what you all are."

She looks at all the women in the table one more time and laughs. laughter filled the room and it was the only thing echoing through that room.

"You are all pathetic."

A cold gaze filled with contempt and disinterest filled her.

'You may be just fragments of souls filled with regret and hatred. I'll be honest with y'all. Your time is up. You are nothing but a hindrance now. A past that has no future. I won't let you release your regret and hatred with my turn. I don't need you to interrupt me. Right now I'm Sakura, not you. You all must be the Sakura's whose route I played in the game with each capture target?"

"....."

"I'm right huh. Then why do you keep on staying? To see and collect more hatred? Do you believe that making me hate the targets and keeping a distance from them will lead to the safest ending?."

She smirks.

"You are foolish if you believe that. I won't make the same mistakes as you all did. I won't end up dying like you all did when you fully displayed your heart to them. Now, I ain't saying it's wrong to open up. But the issue with all of you; you formed a type of attachment, you believed in them, and had your heart broken when they didn't believe in you. That's why you always lost against the corruption. Because you fully gave your heart to them and feel it shatter when they betrayed you. However, I won't make the same mistake, not because of your actions of interfering, but because I only see them as play pieces that have use for the future."

"You will care for them. You already formed an attachment to father and Raphael. And I can already see the bond forming with Phelan. "

"Of course I would. From what I can tell in the game, they are the most important pieces in the board game. Papa actually loves me a lot and Raphael does too, and Phelan follows my like a cute puppy. They love me unconditional and I see that because of the game: which makes me question you guys. If you are players as well, then you must have know what was to occur. Yet, all of you lost? Or better yet, you guys didn't seem as if you recalled the game at all, why?"

"Because they have not played any game, nor have you."

"Huh? What the hell you mean about that?"

"You never truly had control. Other people are pulling the strings behind your back. What is your reality? You must find the answer before you get any deeper, we are you, and you are us. That is the only thing left to say."

"Wha-? Wait just a f*****g second! What you mean by that! Tell me things straight up rather through hints and cryptic messages. I ain't a f*****g detective!!!"

The dark room begins to crumble. The table starts to c***k, everything starts to become hazy. The women that were sitting stand steadily, as if their surrounding weren't breaking apart and the all walk away from her. Even when she yells for them to come back and answer her.

"SAKURA!!"

"Wah!!"

She sprang up from the bed in a hurry. Her heart felt like it was beating her chest. Her hazy and confused mind comes to focus when she takes a few more breaths, and her heart steadies from the deep breaths she takes.

"Pa...pa?"

Mihkael was holding Sakura close to his chest. His hold of her wasn't suffocating, but strong, as if he was holding his lifeline.

Sakura can hear his heart beating out of his chest and his small tremor when he heard her voice.

"Sakura? Are you awake?"

His voice was shaky and held a hint of joy.

"Yeah? What's wrong papa?"

Sakura found the situation a bit peculiar and tries to look up at him, but he was still holding her too close to himself.

Feeling her squirm a bit in his arms. All of Mihkael's tense muscles released in relief. He uses his hands to hold Sakura's cheeks and had her look him in the eye. What he see are the confused and questioning eyes of his daughter, and he has never been more relieved when he saw those eyes.

Sakura widen her eyes even more when she a tear drop fall to her face. The man was holding her face in his hands as if he was holding a delicate and precious jewel. His eyes blurred from the tears falling from his eyes. His whole body was shaking and went weak when he noticed her awake and speaking.

'What the hell happened!? Why is he crying and stuff!?!?"

Sakura couldn't comprehend the situation she woke up in but decided to ask.

"What's wrong papa? Are you hurt somewhere?"

Sakura reaches out and gently tries to wipe his tears away. She was panicking internally because she never really seen his tears, even in the game. They just hid it by having his hair cover his face when he embraces the corpse of his child.

'What the hell happen? Why is he crying?'

While Sakura spoke in a cruel way in her dream, she knew she may have formed a type of attachment. She feels a piercing pain when she sees this man cry in such a relief and pitiful way.

"You wouldn't wake up...."

"Huh?"

"... you didn't move, you just played there still. Not even your grunt of annoyance of being woken appeared."

He held her face even closer and and looked at every detail of her face.

"I thought.... I thought I would end up seeing you sleep and never wake up.... just like Aurora...."

He whispered the last part, his eyes still having traces of fear. He woke up at the usual time and was laughing to see his daughter sleeping so soundly. When he begins the usual routine or shaking her shoulder a bit, something different of usual happened.

***

Sakura didn't furrow her eyes and grumble in annoyance. She didn't try to shove his hand away and turn to the side to sleep even more.

She just..... slept there. Those were the first warning signs, Mihkael quickly shook her a bit quicker and more tightly his hold was. But no even a sound was let out.

The moment Mihkael knew she wouldn't wake up. His vision grew hazy, and the appearance of his sleeping wife overlapped Sakura's.

"No... no, no No!! This is a dream, a nightmare! I have to wake up. I need to wake up!!!"

Mihkael was loosing breath and looked around, his eyes landed on a letter opener and he didn't think twice. He sliced his hand and felt the pain.

"I'm not dreaming..... no.. no, no, no, NO!!!"

Mihkael let out a shout which caused Raphael to enter the room and see his old friend covered in his blood while shaking Sakura. He hears his friend scream for her to wake up and watch how he was loosing his sanity bit by bit.

"Mihkael stop!! What's wrong. Mihkael What's Wrong!?"

Raphael grabs his shoulder only to hear his friends broken voice.

"She's not waking up Raph. She won't open her eyes, she's not moving at all!!"

Mihkael shouted at Raphael, his eyes blood red.

"I'll get Gabriel and Uriel."

Raphael noticed the urgency of the moment and wanted to stay to watch over Sakura but knew he was the only one right now who can get those two, Mihkael wasn't in the right mind right now to.

So when Raphael went to get help, Mihkael was screaming out Sakura's name, until the moment Sakura finally opened her eyes.

*** 

Watching this man breakdown in front of her. Sakura can't describe the feeling that was piling up inside her. She felt guilt, pain and a bit of joy, to know she truly matters so much to him, and she noticed the bleeding hand and got scared at the sight.

"Papa!? Your bleeding. We need to cover it."

Sakura quickly grabbed the bed sheet and tried to put pressure on the wound, but the strength of a 3 year old isn't working that well.

"I'm fine. As long as you are here and healthy, I will always be fine."

Mihkael smiles and hugs her again, making sure the blood doesn't get on her.

A few minutes later, Gabriel and Uriel with Raphael show up out of breath and in a panicking manner when they thought the worst may have happened. Yet they arrived to only see Mihkael bleeding a bit and a worried Sakura trying to make sure her dad put pressure on the wound.

That morning was quite an eventful moment that happened after a while in the palace. And it was a beginning for even more of an event for the day.