Summer Konohana Sakuya/Stories
Quotes
- When Entering Dragon's Roost
- Let's relax and take in the breeze together.
- Goodness me, welcome! I've been SO eager to see you!
- Hee hee! Have you been enticed by the scent of summer cherry blossoms?
- After Receiving a Gift
- Here! It's a midsummer's gift, just for you.
- Please accept this as a mark of my gratitude.
- After Bond Level Increase
- Like a wave breaking on the shore, your heart has permeated my own.
- I believe any flower could blossom beneath a radiant sun like you.
- Idle After Bond Level 1
- Forget the battles and hearken to the roar of the sea as we make for the beach together!
- I preserve summer cherry blossoms in an icehouse so they last. Would you like to come see them?
- Summer flowers do not succumb to the heat, and instead bloom in full, dignified glory—not unlike you.
- Idle After Bond Level 10
- I made a new friend at the beach— a lovely, cherry-blossom-colored crocodile!
- I would very much like to know what you think of my outfit.
- This castle is like a field of sunflowers ever filled with bright, shiny faces.
- Idle After Bond Level 20
- Hee hee! You aren't capricious like a hydrangea, are you?
- Your heart is a vast ocean, and to be enfolded in its warmth brings me great joy.
- I do so hope to play once more with the fish and the crabs and Marishiten's little boars!
Dragon Story Episodes
A Flower Blooms
Wilting under the heat of summer,
the cherry blossom dragon Konohana Sakuya
shed her robes for sensible swimwear
and let the sea breeze wash over her.
Crashing waves mingled with joyful whooping
as humans gamboled about the shore.
Crabs and beach fauna frolicked underfoot.
Yet despite the air of frivolity, she sat alone.
"Alone again..."
The words slipped from her lips.
Even so, her lips curved not into a frown,
but rather a smile tempered with resignation.
Konohana Sakuya's power allows all who attain
it to blossom, granting strength and glory both.
But just as the brightest of blooms fade fastest,
so too are the lives she touches cut short.
She'd seen countless lives scattered before her
like so many falling petals. She dared not let
her dreams of companionship enter the realm
of the material. As white sand slipped between
her fingers, a cacophonous sound drew near...
STOMP STOMP STAMP STOMP STOMP STAMP
STAMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STAMP STOMP
"Aaagh!"
The source of the frantic footsteps had
scarcely come into view before it leapt
into Konohana Sakuya's arms.
"Er... Hello, little boarlet."
The tiny creature quivered in fear as it clung
tightly to her, tears welling in its eyes.
A moment later, its pursuer appeared:
a large, cherry-pink crocodile.
It was clear at a glance that their
relationship was one of predator and prey.
"To torment your lesser is the basest cruelty."
She stood between the pair, admonishing the
reptile who continued to lunge toward the
frightened boarlet cowering in her shadow.
Unexpectedly, the crocodile burst into tears.
Konohana Sakuya, now completely flummoxed,
addressed the bawling reptile while keeping
the boarlet squarely behind her.
"Why do you harry this poor fellow?" she asked.
"I just...w-wanted to be...f-friends!"
came the reply through choked sobs.
Friends—the precise thing that Konohana
Sakuya herself so ardently craved.
She knew all too well the pain of solitude.
She resolved in that instant to help the animal,
and she had just the plan to do it...
Konohana Sakuya laid out her
secret plan to help the sniffling
crocodile befriend the boarlet:
"What better way to show your feelings than
with a flower?" She presented a charming
tropical blossom. Vivid in color and
sweetly perfumed, it was sure to lift
its recipient's spirits. And yet...
"The boarlet always zooms off before I can
even get a word out. How will I manage to
hand over a flower when we can't even speak?"
The crocodile's face was dark as a storm
cloud, all hope drained from its eyes.
"Have faith. Heartfelt emotions will always find
their way into another's bosom, and there is no
truer ally in that pursuit than flowers."
Buoyed by Konohana Sakuya's smile, the croc
took the flower in its claws and extended it
to the boarlet. "I'm sorry for chasing you!
I really just wanted to be your friend!"
The air hung still until the trembling boarlet
poked its snout out from behind the dragon.
It was greeted by the redolent scent of nectar.
It opened its teary eyes and saw vibrant color.
It opened its wary heart and found sincerity.
A single, quavering step. And then another. The
boarlet slowly approached the crocodile and
clasped the flower with its trotter. "Will you
please be my friend?" the reptile entreated.
The boarlet replied with a smiling nod.
"You make a fine pair. Now, go and enjoy the
seaside. Run off and play, the both of you."
Konohana Sakuya waved at the duo as they
walked off along the sand.
But the new friends quickly returned, this
time with a flower of their own acquisition.
"For me?" Konohana Sakuya inquired, her
surprise plain. Before she could respond,
another visitor appeared—a dragon.
"Accept it with gratitude. It symbolizes their
desire to befriend not just each other,
but you as well." It was the boarlet's master,
Marishiten. The warrior dragon's piercing gaze
left Konohana Sakuya at a loss.
She did crave friendship. Desperately, in fact.
But did she who had sent so many lives
scattering to the winds deserve such a thing?
Like the crocodile before her,
Konohana Sakuya's face clouded over.
The words that came next were profound.
"You deserve to smile more, Sakuya."
It was a voice, carried on the waves.
She gasped, looking to the water's edge,
but found only the surf singing its low,
insistent song. Still, she had heard it clearly.
"You once compared my smile to a flower bud
opening its petals to the sun. Perhaps... I have
the same right to blossom as any other."
She cast her gaze out to the horizon and
then dashed off with the croc and boarlet,
as Marishiten ambled behind them.
The four friends' smiles bloomed brightly,
sowing a garden upon the white, sandy shore.