Sea of Sunflowers. Lost Love
"Dear the boat is ready to leave."
A soft gentle voice broke Jin's deep thoughts of the past.
He looked up at the woman in front of him.
He stood up and patted away the dirt on his pants.
Slowly but full with composure, he walked forward and followed the woman on a passenger boat.
He settled himself beside the woman on a small wooden bench.
Shino.
His wife. The woman he loves. Or so he thought.
He managed to find her in a small town across the sea one year after his departure with Fuu and Mugen. They got married another year after they met.
He had settled down in the small town as a sensei in a martial art dojo.
He was contented with his life. Every morning, he leaves for his work. Every evening he goes home with Shino waiting for him. He enjoyed the peacefulness in this town.
Yet lately, Jin was troubled.
His past kept on haunting him. He found himself constantly sinking into the deep sea of memories.
How long had it been?
Jin pushed his specs back onto his nose.
It had been approximately five years now since the last time he saw Fuu and Mugen.
How are they doing?
This question always bothered him lately.
He wasn't a man who used to dwell in the past.
He came out with a conclusion. Maybe it was because he had been staying in the small town for 3 years. Its time for a change. At least a temporarily change.
This was the reason why he was on this boat with his wife.
He had decided to go on a vacation.
Yes a vacation.
Jin wanted a vacation.
He thinks a vacation will help him to settle his thoughts and emotions. So he thought.
Fuu.
His thoughts seems to return to this name no matter how he had tried to distract himself.
He wondered how she looks like now.
Jin chuckled inwardly.
Hopefully her flattened front will have some changes after all these years.
Occasionally, Jin will dream of Fuu. Her bright shimmering eyes. Her high-pitched voice. Her cheerful image. Her pink yukata. Her silliness. Her warm smile. Her everything.
He doesn't understand why.
He takes it as a manifestation of his dream from his pure curiosity of Fuu's current condition. So he thought.
A light shake on his arm brought him back from his scattered thoughts.
"Hn?"
Still sticking with his trademark 'hn', Jin could imagine Fuu's hopeless expression if she had heard him saying this after all these years.
"We reached our first stop. I remembered you saying that you would like to stop by this town?"
Jin looked around and recognized the surroundings.
"Hn."
He picked up the luggage of Shino and his. He motioned Shino to walk in the front and him following her from behind.
Shino paid the old man on the boat.
Jin stood along the prior and inhaled deeply. How long had it been since he last stood here?
This was the place where Fuu met the sunflower samurai, her father five years ago.
What a mess all of them were in when they were here in the past.
He had returned after all these years.
This place did not change much.
Still surrounded by sunflowers. As peaceful as usual.
He and Shino walked along the small dirt road in the middle of the sea of sunflowers.
"This place is so beautiful."
Shino tugged Jin's sleeve showing himher anticipation.
"Hn."
There came Jin's normal response
Shino smiled gently.
He did not change much after all.
She knew all along.
Jin did not change.
He was still the dangerous but composed samurai in within his current peaceful and quite appearance.
She knew Jin's heart was still attached to his travels with his ex-companion. The girl and the other guy with ruffled hair.
No matter how many years they had been together. Shino knew inside Jin's heart, he had still longed and savored his past.
That's the reason why she had agreed on this vacation proposal. Jin really do need a get away. Maybe in a way this vacation will help him. So she hoped.
Suddenly, Jin stopped abruptly.
Shino peeked over his broad shoulder curiously.
She saw nothing but more sunflowers.
"What happened?"
Jin did not response to her.
Shino felt his shoulder blade tensed and his breathing quicken.
She followed his gaze and looked to the side.
On the left side of the muddy path, in the middle of the sunflowers, there stood a grave.
"Eh, a grave? The person must be in love with sunflowers to be buried here, ne Jin."
Again Shino failed to get any response.
Suddenly, Shino lost her balance. She nearly fell to the front when Jin suddenly moved towards the grave.
"Jin?"
Shino was worried.
Jin acted weird. What happened?
Jin kneeled down in front of the grave.
He could not feel anythingn.
He can hardly breathe.
This can't be happening.
This is not true.
No..
Dammit Dammit Dammit Dammit
Uncertainly, Shino stretched her hand to touch Jin's stilled form.
Before her hand manage to touch him, to her greatest shock, she saw a tear drop slipped out from the corner of Jin's eyes.
Shino cringed her brows tightly. What on earth had happened?
Does Jin know the person in the grave?
She focused on the tombstone.
A picture of a young woman with a cheerful smile was laminated on the stone.
My Beloved Wife
Fuu
Rest in peaceIn the middle of the peaceful small town surrounded by seas of sunflowers, there stood a confused woman, a man with his late epiphany of his lost love and a grave.