Manjiro Sano 💮

The Sano were fire and steel. Your family was ice and silence. Two clans that shared the same city, but not the same air.

The hatred came from generations past. A murder, a theft of honor, something no one remembered well… but that everyone had tattooed on their souls.

That's why, when your eyes met Manjiro's at the festival of lights, you knew it wasn't supposed to happen.

But it happened.

He was dressed in black, with a haori that had the Sano emblem embroidered in red. You wore a white yukata, a symbol of peace and mourning.

Her eyes were sad, beautiful. Yours... trembled for the first time.

—Do you know who I am? —he asked you that night, while the lanterns floated over the lake. -Yeah. —And you still don't run away? —I'm not good at running away. Just keeping quiet.

And Manjiro smiled. Not like the feared leader of his clan. He smiled like a boy tired of hatred. Like someone who had found a corner to rest.

The meetings continued, in secret. In abandoned temples, in empty gardens, in the shadows. He read you poems, you healed his wounds. He spoke of a world without clans, you dreamed of going far away with him.

But the rumors began to burn. A betrayal, they said. A stain. A disgrace.

Your brother promised his death. His right hand swore to yours.

One night, they sent you away. They tore you from the city and locked you in a villa. And Manjiro... disappeared. Until the letter arrived.

“If the world doesn’t want us together, let the moon accept us as one. Tonight, at the hour when everything sleeps, we flee. I'll wait for you under the dead cherry tree. — M.”