I do not own Samurai Champloo, or anything to do with the franchise, although I wouldn't mind having Shinichiro Watanabe for a day(and a translator, of course).
This idea just kind of came to me…
Shino's POV
It had been three years. It had been three years now, and I should have known better. I had painted a picture in my mind of the perfect romance.
I should have known that he wouldn't come back. After all, I'm not that pretty. I'm not especially talented either. Nor do I have a vast amount of wealth. No, I had nothing to offer him. That desperate love we had shared three years ago was just an illusion, easily forgotten, wisped away in the winds of time. Never to come back.
And we carry on.
Through pain and suffering, we carry on.
I must forget my feeling. I must forget my pain. Survival, the primordial instinct in all of us, leads me forth on a never-ending journey of desperate hope.
I can still taste his lips on mine. I can still see him, powerful and fierce, as he protected me against our pursuers. I can still smell the rain on him as I walked into our room in the brothel. I can still feel the calluses of his sword hand as he pulled me along behind him. I can hear his voice, deep and quiet, whispering sweet words of hope in my ear.
I must forget.
I adjust my kimono, pull out my umbrella, and walk out into the rain, leaving behind the cause of my sorrow, as well as my greatest joy.
After three years of waiting and weeping, I must move on.