Under the cherry tree

Chapter 1: Fateful meeting

There is noise coming from all around me. It seems to be voices, or probably just the painful ringing in my head. I'm not quite sure. The world looks so hazy as I slowly open my eyes, trying to fight the mist that's been clouding my thoughts for the last few minutes I've been awake.

"Look, she's up!" said the voice of an unknown man.

There's murmurs drowning each other in an indistinguishable choir.

"Are you okay? What happened?" goes another.

So very noisy.

"Keep it down. You're going to startle her."

"That looks like quite a nasty concussion."

A hand is reaching towards my head. I'm sure it touched my forehead, most likely inspecting the gravity of the injury. It then hovers over to my left temple. I feel it smudging a warm liquid that's in this area. It smells like metal. Blood.

A boy with short brown hair and a small scar across his jawline is looking at my confused self. "There's a cut here. Probably from the shattered vases."

I finally gain a bit of clarity in my vision as I begin to register what has happened. I fell off Mrs Peng's tea shop as I was trying to escape the hawk-like man that was chasing me. People saw me as I hit the street shop's made-up roof. I shattered the poles holding up the reddish cloth covering the vases the foreign merchant was selling. Since the people who gathered around me show no sign of being alert, this must mean that the assassin vanished while they were distracted by my less-than-graceful fall. He sure knows how to hide his presence, even in broad daylight, in a market full of people.

My body is sprawled all over the broken table full of debris and broken porcelain. I've got a deep cut across my right calf, lots of shallower ones on my back and a medium one on the side of my face. It stings sharply.

I regain a bit of my strength as I slowly sit up. A woman gasped. Yeah, yeah, I know. I must look brilliant.

The scarred man helped me up. "Don't move too fast! You have shards stuck all over your body."

"I'm very much aware of that, thank you. Mind calling me a doctor?" I said wincing. Oh boy, that jump was indeed miscalculated. Still better than a sword sticking out of my back, though.

He looked worried as I began taking out the little pieces on my arms carefully, swallowing a gasp. Then another guy came running along with an old man in a white robe tied with blue strings holding a heavy bag in his hands.

"She's here, doctor. She fell off that roof and is bleeding quite heavily." The new man said while pointing at my take-off spot. This one has long straight black hair tied loosely at the ends. He is wearing a neat looking white robe that has a plum blossom embroidered on the side of his chest. Could it be...?

"Thank you!"

The physician frowned. "Let's go somewhere more private. This is going to be a lot of work. Precision is critical. We don't want any shards missed in there."

"Yes, sir." I'm suddenly glad I had a leathered bodice posing as a made up armor piece over my clothes today. My back could've been sliced like butter. That leg seems to be the only real damage I've taken.

"Let us help you get to an inn nearby. The lady shouldn't move too much, otherwise the wounds may get worse." Said the man in the uniform. Upon closer inspection, I'd say he's a boy. Doesn't look much older than my 19 years. Very polite.

It seems his friend went off to disperse the crowd earlier. Now he's back by the other's side. Though the scar gives him the impression of a warrior, he is very young as well.