~*~Silence Of The Heart ~*~
Chapter four:
Sakura Kinomoto knew her family was truly dead when the doctor had called her one evening to indefinite her father's body. She stood completely still when the doctor led her to the gloomy place that lacks warmth and cheerfulness. He pulled out the white sheet that was covering the body, showing her father's face.
A big gasp escaped from her lips, her hand trembling and her eyes shimmering. She went to her father's side as she studied the body more closely. She still hopes that it was a mistake, if she taped her father's shoulder, he would wake up and everything would be back to normal.
But it was useless and she knew it.
"Yes that him." Sakura heard herself saying.
The doctor didn't reply. After a few moments, she realized that a chair had been brought for her to sit in. The doctor has stepped out of the room, leaving Sakura alone. Sakura sat down, staring at her departed father.
Sakura touched her father's face, laying her hand on his cold pale forehead. It was just like her parents used to do for her when she was feeling sick, checking to see if she had a fever.
This reminded her of her departed mother, Nadeshiko.
She remembered herself as a little girl playing around the manor with her older brother and Kero when he was just a puppy while her loving parents watched over them longing. Not wanting to tell her about the illness that had taken over her mother.
A terrible disease had hit Nadeshiko while she was visiting her grandfather in Nihon before his passing. The time came too quickly to Nadeshiko that she was forced to stay in bed, not able to eat a single bit of food and coughing off lots of blood. Sakura was the first to notice and stay by her bedside every morning and evening when her father allowed her to see her. Her mother hated to see her daughter like this and had no choice to tell her about her sickness.
"Are you ready to go, lady Kinomoto?"
Sakura nodded as the white sheet was been replace on her father's cold dead body as she was led out from the room. One of her father's men arrived and explains how and when the attack happened and why there was nothing they could do to save him. Sakura stood silently as she was given the clothes her father had been wearing before he and her brother were killed.
"And Touya?" she asked suddenly. "Were you able to recover his body after he was taken away by Jarret?"
"Unfortunately, they finished him off before we got there but we were able to bring this..."
Tears fell from her eyes as she took it from the soldier's hands. Sakura embraces it tightly, rubbed it against her clean cheek, blood now staining her face.
"Thank you so much," she mumbles finally. "For bring him back to me."
"It's no trouble, after what you father and brother had done for us and for this country, it's the least we could do."
"We are all gathered here today, to say goodbye to our loved ones, Lord and leader of the Japanese army Fujitaka Kinomoto of Tomoeda, Japan, and his only son and second of command of the Japanese army, the young master, and heir Touya Kinomoto."
Sakura looks down at the casket being lowered into the ground. Sakura was racked with grief and suffering that surrounded inside of her heart. Even though she wanted to cry and scream out her pain and loneliness and shed many tears over the loss of her entire family, she couldn't.
Her father wouldn't want to end that way. He didn't want to see her lovely face being cover with sadness and her beautiful emerald eyes turning puffy red when he is looking down at her in heaven along with her already departed mother and beloved brother.
Lighting struck over at the already dark sky, as cold drops of rain started to fall over the grave.
"Please come back inside, my lady, you will catch a cold."
Sakura didn't reply. She just stood silently as the rain continue pouring down, soaking her entire body as she keeps her eyes on the dark sky.
The voice walks towards her, putting her hand on her shoulder. Sakura turned to find Tomoyo behind her. "I'm sorry Sakura."
Tomoyo smiled, trying to hide the sad expression that was been placed on her face in that very moment. Tomoyo lowered her head to see Sakura's sad expression, but Sakura saw this and quickly smiled.
"It's all right, Tomoyo. Father is dead, and I realize that. I just only wish I could at least covered the rest of my brother's remains. Since we have his arm and sword, I had it buried along with my father. Since my brother no longer has a body left in this world to bury."
"Sakura..."
"Lady Sakura Kinomoto-" said a voice interrupted her.
Suddenly a very slender woman appeared next to her. Sakura stares at Kasumi, one of Yumi's trusted spies who was put in charge of watching her. "It's time to go back, Mistress Yumi expects you."
Sakura nodded as they returned back to Kinomoto Manor, heading toward Yumi's corridors.
She entered Yumi's spacious domain, the room that had once belonged to her parents now belongs to her. Sakura hated what she did to it.
The simple large wood-frame bed she uses to share with her parent when she was little were now draped in a gaudy red silk, and the decorative living room had been added to the room. Long expensive custom made wardrobes filled the closet with the many rich dresses and mantles.
Yumi was lying down on her couch with a queenly air, her smooth, thin body clothed in the most expensive clothing.
"I would like to retire, Yumi." Sakura spoke after a few moments had passed in silence. "So if you will tell me why I am here."
"Yes, I imagine you want to sleep after today," Yumi said. "Tell me, girl, do you feel you are being overworked? But no, you must not think so, for you never complain."
"Yumi, if you can just tell me why you have summoned me..."
"I think your stubbornness has gone far enough, don't you agree?" Yumi didn't wait for her to answer. "You will live in one of the servants' cabins across the courtyard. It's not quite pretty as this one but I think it will do. It might do much to improve your attitude. Kasumi will accompany you."
It didn't came to a surprise to Sakura that Yumi would start making changes on her living arrangement as soon her father and brother's death was announced. Like this afternoon, when she returned to her bedroom to get ready for the funeral, she found her stuff gone.
They went outside the manor where the servant's houses were held. They were small and bits run down. When Sakura told her father about this, Fujitaka had promised her to send someone to fix them when he reaches Jade. However, when the man came, Yumi had order him to fix up her parents room to her liking instead.
The cabin wasn't too big compare to Yumi's room. In fact, it was much smaller compare to her room. It was just a bed, a table, some chairs, and a fireplace. The servant's hut was dusty and filled with cobwebs in the celling and squeaking floors.
Sakura collapsed onto the little wooden chair the moment she entered the cottage and started to cry.
