[Japan's National Flower]
Disclaimer: I only own the plot. Gakuen Alice isn't mine to covet.
A/N This is the one-shot I promised eons ago about Lei Yumiho, that mysterious girl from Senior Tales who kissed Natsume during his plane ride to Paris.
Most people would say that the cherry blossom is Japan's National Flower. Infamously renowned it is due to its role in the country's legends, a perfect reflection to the Land of the Rising Sun's own splendor.
The cherry blossom is a frail piece of life. Like a glass, it is fragile. Like a child, it is delicate. Like Japan, it is beautiful.
Some would say that it is the yellow chrysanthemum.
The chrysanthemum serves as a crest to a royal family. It is a symbol of the sun and the perfection of life. Japan still celebrates chrysanthemum as a symbol of royalty and honor during the Festival of Happiness. This flower is known to symbolize cheerfulness, mirroring the Japanese people.
For Alice Academy, Japan's National Flower is Lei Yumiho.
Lei— a pure Japanese wonder, the Asian epitome of the courageous blood flowing through the veins and the brave at heart and mind revolting and changing the past and the present.
Lei Yumiho was an Alice Academy pride. She had the best grades, she had the most pleasing personality, and she was friends with everybody. It was an almost clichéd state of a knock-off novel, but she wasn't the mean witch who stepped on the others. She wasn't faking her pleasantries and smiles. But she was real.
Too real.
She was given a once-in-a-lifetime chance— a full scholarship with no expenses required apart from personal needs with a ready job straight under the Prime Minister. When she had the news, she couldn't keep herself, but it was real.
Too real.
Mid-junior year, she dropped off. No one really knew what happened or why she did. Like a popped bubble, she vanished. Like the wind, she was gone. But it was real.
Too real.
It was the seniors' graduation day when she turned up for the passing of roles to the undergraduates. She pulled on the school's parking lot and walked out in her pressed uniform, cotton knee-high socks and polished leather flats. Her long hair was tied to a high ponytail and pinned to place, her cheeks rosier than before but her skin undoubtedly paler. She used to have that size 5 for jeans she worked hard for with her personal trainers, but she had also dramatically dropped weight.
Like a flower, she died.
And she was real.
Lei have always taken an interest with Natsume Hyuuga. He was mean and stubborn. He was quiet but knew a lot. He treasured his few friends and seemed as if he didn't give a damn to life. Like your typical protagonist, she was hooked to the one dubbed as the 'bad guy' who your mother and father warned you about. Natsume never really opened up to Lei, but he didn't treat her badly either. He didn't push her away. He let her take over his life, nudge him during class, sit beside him in the cafeteria and rant about her problems towards their Art teacher and the class, her least favorite subject.
When Natsume saw Lei, he was grudgingly passed a lot of money by his friends. He bet that she would come back.
Senior year came for their batch, but Lei didn't show up. There were no uniforms, and rumors were that Lei was responsible for that emanation of tradition.
He later found out why their flower was wilting and slowly dying, and though Natsume tends to be rude, unbecoming and a supporter of blood, gore and violence, he wouldn't wish for anyone what Lei had become.
At the end of the day, everyone knows, and must know, the truth.
There is no National Flower.