The silence has become stifling, but I cannot seem to force words past my swollen lips.  The letter must be the reason why our traitor suspects that there is something not quite right about the lord of the Amachi clan.

"I did not tell Sakura about the letter," I start, "because I had not thought about it until this moment when you brought it up.  The only reason I know about the letter is due to the fact that I overheard our fathers talking about it days before they marched off to their deaths.

"I know not the contents of the letter, only that they deal with Sakura in some way.  That is all I know, Yamane Osamu.  I wish now that I had had the courage to have taken it from among Taro's possessions, but I believe it too late for that step at the moment."

Osamu nods, a contemplative look in his sightless eyes.  "Very good, general.  You have answered well despite your initial hesitation.  Lord Amachi Junichi, what did the shinobi tell you when you first awoke in their care?"

"Which one?" he fires back almost immediately, none of the silence prologuing Rika's and my answers touching his.

"Whichever you would like to state."

Tadashi's face becomes hard with some unspoken emotion.  "Emi told me that if I chose to take the path that I am currently on, I must be willing to make sacrifices later on.  If this is your way of making me want to return to my previous life, I can assure you, Osamu, that it is no longer a possibility for me.  My life has become intertwined with Rika's in a way that I cannot easily untangle."

"She," he says, raising Rika's hand, "is my entire life now.  When we are wed, she shall be my flesh, my blood, my love, my life.  You have continually made the point that you do not believe that this is the right path for me because of something that Masumo, Emi, and you will not tell me.  If my actions ensure that I can spend a lifetime with Rika and that Sakura is free from the burdens which have been with her from her birth, then I will consider my path correct."

Osamu settles back into his chair, eyes focused on something beyond what any of us could see.  "To tell you what may happen at the end of this path could alter the course of your history, Junichi.  That is why none of us will tell you the ending.  Emi believes that this path is correct based on how she feels about love and justice.  I disagree heavily with her, but I fear that it is too late to redirect you.  Too many people have committed, and you have refused to divert."

His head moves toward Sakura, whose back is stiff as a board.  I run a light hand across her spine, feeling the tension of anticipation rippling beneath her skin.  "Now for you, Sakura.  Have you forgiven your father for what he did to you?"

Her shoulders relax for a moment when the words leave his mouth.  "I have tried over and over again to forgive my father for everything that he did; however, I find that it is a continuous process.  The moment that I think that I have broken free from the cycle of bitterness that I have been trapped in, I find that there is one more thing that I need to let go of.  So, no, I have not forgiven my father in the way that you are likely talking. 

"I have yet to let go of all the pain that he caused me, every moment that I felt unloved for the mere fact that I had been born female and not male.  It is the power that he still manages to hold over me, and I fear that I will hate that fact for the rest of my life."

Sakura turns her head to look at me.  "I used to look at those who were training with me and wonder what I had done so wrong besides being born the wrong gender.  I had done everything that I could possibly do to earn my father's respect, yet it never seemed to be within my grasp."

"You had all answered honestly, and I thank you for that.  That fact tells me more about your character than the answers that you have given.  Despite my doubts, as Junichi has pointed out, I believe that Emi has done the right thing in directing your paths towards one another," Osamu says as he stands and politely bows.  "It would be my honor to perform the ceremony which will join your lives together."

With those words, he carefully walks around Bashira, who is still seated by his feet, and reenters the house.  I look towards Rika and Tadashi, both who give me a wide smile of pure joy.

"We cannot linger too long," Sakura says from her place in my lap.  "I told the shogun that we would be gone no longer than a couple weeks, and much of that time will be taken up by travel.  With that in mind, when do we want Osamu to perform the ceremonies?"

"Two days," Rika answers, eyes flitting over to Tadashi's.  "I have already waited years for what I believed to be an impossible fantasy, and I refuse to wait any longer than needed.  I do not need anything elaborate, do not need anything overwhelming.  I have everything that I could need."

He leans over and plants a light kiss on her lips after she finishes.  "I love you, Fujioka Rika."

"I love you too, Junichi," she answers, a red tint staining her cheeks.  She uses their joined hands to tug him to his feet, the two of them stepping off the porch and out of our view.

Sakura shifts in my lap so that she can face me without straining her neck.  "Rika planned for something like this happening.  I saw a wedding kimono in her bags the other night."

"Are you going to be all right with marrying this way?"  I ask quietly.  "I am afraid that you are going to see this as one more thing that you were cheated out of in your life, and that is not how I want us to start out."

A tear catches the light, but she ducks her head before I can see if it falls.  "I feel ridiculous, Ryuu, right now.  I am upset about the fact that I do not have any family and hardly any friends to see us wed.  I am angry that I did not think to find suitable attire for it.  Yet I should not feel any of those emotions.

"I should be happy that I am marrying you just like I wanted.  I should be grateful that I was not forced into an arranged marriage with a man that I may or may not despise.  And yet the part of me that I thought was strangled by years of pretending and acting a certain way wants everything that I can possibly have.

"Which is selfish of me.  And in some ways, everything that I want is right here."  Sakura lays a gentle hand on my chest.  "Ryuu, I can see in those eyes of yours that you want to run out and somehow make all of those foolish hopes come true for me.  But in a decade, that is not what I will be worried about remembering; that is not what I want to remember if all else fades.  I just want to remember how you looked at me that day and every day after, remember how I saw the future and all its bright hope in your eyes.

"That, my love, is all I truly need.  Everything else is just the fantasies of a silly girl who had wished beyond all hope that one day she would be allowed to shed the trappings of the false identity that weighed heavily upon her and find a man who saw who she was beneath it all.  You did all of that for me, yet sometimes my mind still does not believe."

She lifts strangely shy eyes towards me at last.  "I just need you, Ryuu.  The man who, when he looks at me, seems as if he has seen a woman that has touched the stars.  I am not afraid anymore that our story will end in pain and heartbreak because you have seen me at my worst and still somehow not fled in terror."

I touch her cheek carefully, feeling how her breath races through her body after her words.  "I fear, Sakura, that I love you more than the earth loves the stars' caresses at night.  I did not think it possible to feel this much love for someone and still feel like I could give even more of it to them.  I would conquer the world for you if I had time, but I fear that I find myself loathe to leave your side for that long."

Her lips turn up in a slight smile, and I touch mine to them in the gentleness of the moment.  I can feel her heartbeat as if it were within my own chest, pounding against the bone and muscle that resides there.

Sakura pulls back after mere moments, trailing trembling fingers across my face.  "Two days suddenly seem like an eternity."

I can only nod, finding that whatever words I could have said have hooked themselves firmly within my throat.  A light cough in front of us breaks the atmosphere, and we both look to find Bashira staring sheepishly at us.

"If you really need something suitable to wear, Sakura, I might have a solution," she says.  "That is, if you are not too opposed to me stepping in."

Her entire body lights up, and she bounces up to clasp the other woman's hands.  "Really?  Oh, Bashira!"

A touch of sorrow crosses Bashira's face, but it is gone almost as fast as it appears.  "Of course.  You will be the most beautiful bride that this kimono has ever had the privilege of adorning.  I promise."

Sakura barely takes a moment to blow a kiss back towards me before hauling the other into the house in her excitement.  I merely lean back my head against one of the chairs and allow my heart to fill up with peaceful joy.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the new year.  I am sorry that this is way late (let's take a slight moment to mourn all the writing hours lost to the homework monster), but I believe that this will be the second to last chapter from Ryuu's point of view.  The next, of course, will be the wedding (and I might be way more excited about that than I should be).  As always, thanks for continuing to take this journey with me.