We Rise Again by Tenshi no Kijutsu
--
"Sakura, please. Please, follow all your dreams and never give up. Do your best in life. Remember, you can do anything if you believe in it enough."
Sakura shuddered. She was on a plane, off to fulfill those words. They had been the last words of her father, after a car crash when she was in fifth grade. Then they were the last words of her brother, who was shot two years ago in a drive-by shooting. Both had died in the hospital. These words would forever haunt her.
Sakura Kinomoto Hsu was twenty-four years old and had recently gotten her master's degree in archaeology. She had already gone through one marriage to Lewis Hsu, a Chinese-American who had been born into a Chinese family in America but moved to China and then Japan as an adult. Most of the time these days Sakura didn't bother with her married name. Lewis had died recently of cancer, which he had been fighting since childhood. He had died in a coma and never had the chance to tell her goodbye. She found out only a few days later that she was pregnant with their second child.
The little light came on with a soft beep that told passengers to put their seatbelts on. It was time for the plane to land in Hong Kong. Sakura was heading to a remote area in China that had not yet been excavated. She wanted nothing more than to live up to her father's example, and his hopes for her future. Finally, she was only hours away from the only place where she believed she could make a major discovery. She buckled her seat belt and sighed, waiting for the impact of wheels on the landing strip. She quietly checked on her two children, both in car seats and one on each side. They were her beloved daughters, Hanamizuki and Suzuran. Like Sakura, they had names of flowers. Hana's name meant dogwood and Suzu's name meant lily-of-the- valley.
--
LOG - KINOMOTO SAKURA DAY
1Ah, here at last. It's wonderful here. The prep team
has already built the shelters, and they're not bad for temporary
structures. They've marked off the spots they believe to be the most
promising. We hope to start the digging in a couple of days. We're
waiting for two others to arrive. If they're not here soon, then
we'll start without them. We only have a two-month permit to work
here. It's hardly anything, but it's all we could get from the
authorities. The other experts and I have been discussing what
we might find. There haven't been many findings in this area, and
some of the people here are a bit resentful of getting such a
"hopeless" site. We're not really expected to find much more than
a couple of pottery sherds. Oh well, I'd be glad to find anything on
my first real dig. The girls really like it here. Now that
Suzu is three and a half, she's walking on her own and I'm lucky I've
already potty-trained her. Hana is almost five and so she's all over
the place. I'm glad
that they enjoy it here and they know where everything is. The rest of the people here seem to like the girls. They watch them and laugh sometimes. I'll really miss them when they have to start school. Hana's starting just next year. I should get back to my work.
--
"You know, this is really getting annoying," Sakura said with a sigh. Nobody had found anything in the past week. One week out of only eight was already gone. "This is just ridiculous."
"Yeah, but you know, at least you got a site right out of school. Didn't you notice you're the youngest one here? All of us have been waiting years for a paying excavation like this," the woman next to her replied. She looked about five years older than Sakura. She had long violet hair and pretty eyes. Her skin was pale and a bit sunburned from being outside all day for the past week. She didn't look much like an "outdoor girl."
"I guess so. How old are you, then? Oh, I'm so impolite. My name's Sakura Kinomoto, what was yours again? I know we were all introduced the first day and all, but I'm terrible at remembering names."
"It's quite all right. My name is Tomoyo Daidouji Hiiragizawa. I'm twenty-eight, and I've got four kids and a husband back home in Tokyo."
"Oh, you live in Japan too? I've been in Tokyo since I started college, but I come from Tomoeda."
"Well, we have three houses," Tomoyo clarified, ducking her head modestly. "There's the one in Tokyo, the one in Hong Kong, and the one in London. I'm Japanese, Eriol's English, and he's got close relatives in Hong Kong. Right now they're in the process of moving to Hong Kong so that they can visit me here. He's worried about me since I'm four months along with number five."
"Congratulations, Tomoyo! I've got my two girls and that's quite enough for me to do alone." Sakura smiled. It was nice to make a friend that she had something in common with.
"Oh, thank you. Are you really a single mom? I'm so sorry."
"My husband, Lewis Hsu, died three and a half years ago right before I found out I was pregnant with Suzuran."
"Oh, that's awful! At least you have the girls though, right? There's nothing like a child to remind you how to find joy in the simple things. I'll have to show you pictures of my children sometime," Tomoyo said with a small smile.
"No need for that, Tomoyo," a man's voice called out. He was tall with blue hair and blue eyes. He carried two young boys, one under each of his strong arms, and was followed by a little girl and a little boy.
"Eriol! You're here! And with the children!" Tomoyo squealed, running over to him and hugging her family "Sakura, this is my husband Eriol Hiiragizawa and our children. The oldest is Aster, she's eight. Then Shino is six. Shuang is five and then Xing is three."
"Nice to meet you all. It's interesting that Shino has a Japanese name, Aster has an English name, and the other two have Chinese names. Why is that?" Sakura asked. Tomoyo blushed.
"Their names are of the nation in which they were conceived," Eriol said with a smile as Tomoyo smacked his arm lightly in embarrassment. "The new baby is going to be named Maude if it's a girl or Laramie if it's a boy. We were visiting friends in Paris at the time."
"Ah, I guess that makes sense," Sakura replied with a laugh. She noticed Hana and Suzu watching shyly from a few yards away. "Come here, girls. This is Eriol, and you know Tomoyo, I'm sure. These are their children, Aster, Shino, Shuang, and Xing. Everyone, these are my daughters. Hanamizuki is almost five and Suzuran is three and a half. I call them Hana and Suzu." Everyone smiled and the children began to talk to each other and make friends. They soon ran off in a game of tag.
"So, dear, how has it been going?" Eriol asked Tomoyo.
"Not so good. Absolutely nothing all week, not even a false alarm with one of the trainees. Unbelievable."
"Oh, that's too bad. Well, it's time I got to the real reason I came here," he said, his cheerful expression fading. He turned and the couple walked a few steps away, but Sakura could still hear them too easily to ignore.
"You know our cousin in Hong Kong, Li Meilin? Well, it seems that the Li Clan will be gone soon. She got in a car accident yesterday. I knew that you wouldn't have gotten the news yet all the way out here, so I came to tell you in person. I won't lie, the doctors don't think she'll make it more than a couple of weeks, months at best," Eriol said seriously. His cheerful face was now in the shape of a frown. Tomoyo's grin faded into a grimace as Eriol's news sunk in.
"Oh, Meilin-chan! She's only our age, she can't die! This is so horrible! I have to see her. Is she responsive?"
"No, Tomo-chan. She's in a coma. Her brain activity does go up when someone speaks or touches her, so she seems to be aware of what's going on, but her nervous system isn't working. If she manages to live, Meilin will probably be paralyzed or severely disabled for the rest of her life. All because some guy was high in the driver's seat. He's doing much better, although that rubs salt into the wound in a way."
Sakura
approached them slowly, a little embarrassed to have overheard such a
sensitive conversation. "Tomoyo, you need to go visit your
cousin. I don't think anything will happen for the next couple of
days. Anyway, the trainees will be here all this week. Take some days
off, we'll manage."
Tomoyo looked at her with tears in her eyes. "Really, Sakura? Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to me!"
Sakura just smiled weakly. "You'd be surprised. I went through this when my father, brother, and husband passed on, each at a different time, of course. I know exactly how much this means to you and you're very welcome. Now hurry along, the sooner you leave the sooner you can get to see her."
Tomoyo, Eriol, Aster, Shino, Shuang, and Xing left in a large limousine shortly afterwards. Sakura explained to the rest of the staff why Tomoyo had taken the next few days off.
--
LOG
- KINOMOTO SAKURA DAY 14There still seems to be
nothing to be found. It's amazing that we've been here two weeks and
haven't uncovered a single thing. I don't know if it's our own faults
or if this site is just useless. The girls have started helping out.
They have little plastic wheelbarrows they move dug-up dirt with.
They love to mimic the team. One of the workers had his wife bring
the wheelbarrows in for them. They used to belong to his two sons
when they were little. Tomoyo returned late last night. Xing,
her youngest son, has returned with her. He missed her so much that
she decided he could hang out with Hana and Suzu while she works. And
if he wants to go home, his father is only a few hours away. She
seems very upset about her cousin Meilin and I can only hope that the
girl gets better, although it seems very unlikely. Tomoyo was
comforted a bit when she learned that my father died in a car
accident similar to Meilin's. But then she cried more since he had
not survived, and that probably meant that Meilin wouldn't either. I
feel so horrible right now. It seems the only things going right in
my life are the girls. I miss Lewis a lot on days like this, but I
have to admit that as my memory slowly ebbs away, so does my strong
feeling of love. It scares me to think that I can stop loving Lewis
after everything. Well, this book isn't supposed to be a journal,
it's supposed to be a log of what's going on at the site. All I can do now is hope that we'll
find something soon. Even something insubstantial would boost morale.
It's time to put the girls to bed.
One
of the trainees, Sasaki Rika, seems to be slacking off lately to hang
out with one of the other experts, Terada Yoshiyuki - not that he
minds. And the two trainees Mihara Chiharu and Yamazaki Takashi seem
to be in love. I feel kind of bad for the other trainee - Yanagizawa
Naoko. She's all by herself when her coworkers go off in pursuit of
romance. But she's a very dedicated worker and I'm proud to have her
training under our team.