Prologue: The Princess Who Lost Everything
She sits in the quiet room of her fourth period class, Japanese. The teacher allowed for some silent time to work on their creative writing assignments, so the only audible sounds came from the scratching of pens or pencils on paper. Sakura loves this subject; she always has stories and poems running through her head. Fortunately, Shimizu-sensei would have a free writing assignment due every other week, so Sakura could expel all of the pent up creativity.
For this assignment she writes a short story about a prince and princess who fall in love during a time of war. Ultimately, the princess dies sacrificing her life to save her loved ones. It is just before she can pave the way for the possibility of a happy ending the door to the classroom slides open. Kokubunji-sama, the principal, stands at the door and motions for Shimizu-sensei to speak with him in private.
"Uematsu Sakura, a word out in the hall," Kokubunji-sama calls out as he steps away from the doorway.
Sakura looks around garnering concern from her friends in the class and the rest of the seniors. She slowly gets up then walks to the door. After she steps outside of the classroom Shimizu-sensei slides the door shut. The younger and older ladies look at the principal with concern as he dons a grave look on his face. Finally, averting his gaze from the window to the two in front of him, he speaks.
"There has been an accident," Kokubunji-sama starts off gaining their full attention, "I received a call from the hospital and immediately came down here. Your parents were involved and have been admitted into the ICU," he says to Sakura and her jaw nearly drops to the floor. "There is a squad car at the front ready to take you to the hospital."
Without a word Sakura bolts to the front of the school. She nearly trips down the flights of stairs as she bulldozes through and just barely misses knocking over a couple juniors along the way. "No running in the school!" a student teacher calls out to her as he leans out of the doorway of the class he is assigned to. He runs his fingers through his long silver hair in exasperation as she ignores him completely. Not slowing down a bit or turning to apologize. She throws both of the school's front doors open and sees the squad car. The officer waiting outside holds the door to the passenger side open for her, and she leaps in. They speed to the hospital as Sakura holds her head in both of her hands. Silently, she holds back tears and prays.
At the school, the student teacher turns back to his class ignoring the stifled laughs of the students who witnessed his futile attempt to exert his authority. "Read to yourselves the story on page 231: Down the Rabbit Hole and Back Again. On a sheet of paper compare and contrast the two leading characters. No less than 300 words and due at the end of class," the student teacher says to his second years as he strides over to the window. Students groan and shoot glares at the ones who laughed. At the window his golden eyes watch as the front double doors to the school are thrown open, and the silver hair of the student who defied him trails back as her long legs take her to the squad car. He continues to watch as they speed off.