As The Cherry Blossoms

As far as first dates are concerned Suo’s partial to bloody fists; they last longer than any rose stripped of everything that made it dangerous.

In-between them an island forms in the same shape as Kyūshū, an errant breeze could pull it apart as it rises out of the earth. And the little towns, the little cities, the metropolis spread their roots. You need a cable cart to ride the cracks climbing higher across the knuckles. Of Mount Nakadake, Mimaka, Kurodake; go name the rest. Those up and down the ocean green surrounding Yamanami to Furin, Beppu, and the tenderness sweeping down the broken rock face up the skeleton. But Suo could manage it—the entire distance. He could walk there in Sakura’s hand. It’s a one-for-one recreation; he’d be foolish to let it go. Though it smears him in broken blood. Splintered knuckles. Naked tendons. Sure it stains him in these ways and he holds on without a doubt; this got dirty for Suo’s sake. Who among you would tell him, ‘No’?