Title: A Thousand Paper Cranes
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Osaka, Japan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Osaka remembers the girl who folded origami cranes and their message to the world.
Notes: This is dedicated to the memory of Sadako Sasaki and to all the children of Hiroshima who suffered the effects of the bombing. "This is our cry, this is our prayer: for building peace in the world."

~.*.~

It's not fair.

He watches silently, fingers curled into his palms, in a desperate attempt to hold unto the intangible strings that tied his world together. It is foolish of him, he knows, because there are no strings, intangible or not. Even if there were any, they would have been broken – broken dreams, broken lives; pieces of memories lying all around a sea of ghostly debris.

Flash-bang. Bang-

He shakes his head, frustrated, shakes to dispel the ugly thoughts, the unwanted memories.

"Leave it to me, sir."

At the sound of the child's voice, he looks up from his hands and sees a young girl across the room from him. A girl so pale and skinny, her small frame wrecked with terrible illness. Even so, she sits herself up, diligently folding a piece of yellow paper with her hands and fashioning it into a crane.

"They say if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you're granted a wish."

She continues to fold another crane, small fingers trembling around the edges of the paper.

Flash-bang. Pika- Pika-don.

"I want to be well, and I want everyone else to get well also."

She looks up, and gazes at the man seated beside her bed, his weak frame covered in bandages. He looks almost as ill as her, if not worse. And like her, he folds a small piece of paper into a crane.

"So leave it to me, sir. I will fold a thousand paper cranes and make a wish for everyone."

Softly,softly, atom bomb.*

The man sitting beside her smiles at her then, a sad, sad smile but he nods in agreement anyway. She is too young to understand, after all.

Osaka watches as Japan continues to fold paper cranes together with the little girl and as he approaches them, wearing the usual big grin on his face – "Ah, Seiji-kun, you've come to help fold paper cranes too! Arigatou ne!"– he feels his heart crumbling into a million shards of sorrow.

He continues to smile anyway.

Many had wished they were already dead – it was less aggravating, less torturous than waiting.

Many had wished for better days – for days past and long gone, for days when things were simpler.

"I'm so sorry, but the little girl, she... she died today."

As Japan bows his head, his stoic mask now overcome by grief, Osaka doesn't know what he wishes for anymore.

Beside them, scattered upon the wooden table like withered cherry blossoms, were hundreds of paper cranes, their wings crooked and bent, as if never to fly again.

He gazes upward, watching as they released the doves into the air, watching as the birds soared across and over the massive dome before them and far away into the bright blue sky stretching out endlessly above them. He hears Japan moving from his side and shifts his gaze from the skies.

Japan makes his way down the path, flanked by bouquets of flowers laid out on the sidewalks. Osaka follows suit and together they walked silently, following the trail of flowers that eventually led to a monument which stands at the centre of the park.

Japan casts a sombre gaze up at the bronze statue of a girl holding up a golden crane in her outstretched arms. Glass boxes surround the monument like guardians, filled with colourful origami cranes from all over the world, all their hopes and wishes imprinted into every crease, every fold.

Osaka watches as Japan lets out a tiny sigh as he brings his gaze back to study the marble plaque at the base of Sadako's arch. He sets his bouquet of golden chrysanthemums by the plaque.

"Kore wa bokura no sakebi desu. Kore wa watashitachi no inori desu. Sekai ni heiwa o kizuku tame no."

Then he straightens up again and glances over at Osaka, meeting the younger man's gaze with those soft brown eyes; eyes that have seen years of warring tribes and clans, of rapid modernisation in the fervent bid of catching up with his peers, of a thousand bloodshed and a million more lives lost. Eyes that held in them the solemn promise of never again.

Osaka understands.

"Leave it to us, Sadako-chan." Kiku says softly, lifting his gaze towards the statue once more. "We will continue to fold a thousand paper cranes and to work hard together in building peace."

Tonight, as the sun begins its descent in a brilliance of orange, pink and gold, they will offer prayers and light candles, releasing them in paper lanterns to float down the river from Aoio Bridge. But for now – with the wind blowing gently past them, sending dove feathers, ginkgo leaves and petals into their hair – for now, they would stay and reflect upon their past, and most of all, they would remember.

"Leave it to us."

Osaka watches and continues to smile.

-owari-

~.*.~

Notes:

- Sadako Sasaki was a young girl who lived in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th 1945. She developed swellings on her body due to radiation and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia.

- Sadako believed that if she folded a thousand cranes, she would have her wish granted and get better. However, she only completed 644 cranes before her death. It is said that her friends helped her complete the 1000 and that these paper cranes were all buried with her. She was only 12 years old.

- A memorial dedicated to her and to all children who died from the effects of the bombing now stands in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and folding a thousand paper cranes are a symbol of the peace movement.

- Kore wa bokura no sakebi desu. Kore wa watashitachi no inori desu. Sekai ni heiwa o kizuku tame no
This is our cry, this is our prayer: for building peace in the world.
This message of peace was inscribed on the marble plaque of the monument.

- *This is not a term I came up with but is from this fic and poem, by this awesome author here:
http:(double slash)www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net(slash)s(slash)5413493(slash)1(slash)Pikadon

- "Pika-don" literally means "flash-bang" and refers to the A-bomb. "Pika" referred to the flash of light and "don" was the onomatopoeic reference to the sound of the explosion that came soon after the flash.

- Since Osaka does not have any official human name, I took some creative liberties of naming him Okita Seiji.