Chapter 47 · Spring Cherry Blossoms in Sachets

When Tokyo's autumn sun poured into Grandma Chizuru's tatami room with osmanthus scent, a celadon vase on the windowsill held half-bloomed cherry blossoms—borrowed by Su Li from Locking Dragon Abyss three hundred years ago using her spatial spirit pattern. Dewdrops clung to the petals, like rouge-colored tears about to fall.

"These are Yuekui's favorite yaezakura (double-flowered cherry blossoms)." Grandma Chizuru shakily held up a faded embroidery frame, a half-finished cherry-patterned cloth draped over it. "She used to say cherry blossoms fade quickly, so we should sew spring into fabric—then even in winter, a touch could bring back their scent."

Little Peach leaned in, fingertips brushing the cloth. The embroidery frame rippled with light as Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core warmed at his waist, starlight crawling up the fabric—revealing a spring scene from three hundred years ago at Locking Dragon Abyss. Yuekui sat on a creekside stone, embroidery frame on her knees, a silver thread between her fingers. Her armor lay nearby, bloodstains on the wrist guard, yet she focused on threading the needle, the cherry-blossom hairpin in her hair swaying gently.

"Little Peach!" Grandma Chizuru suddenly grabbed her wrist. "Look, that's…"

In the vision, Yuekui looked up and smiled. In the creek behind her, the reflection of a double-pigtailed girl appeared—Little Peach. She was crouching by the water, poking the surface with a branch, splashing droplets onto Yuekui's embroidery that blurred the newly stitched petals to pink.

"So…" Little Peach's voice trembled. "I met Yuekui back then?"

"Not 'met'." Grandma Chizuru traced the stitches on the cloth. "It's you, her, every 'Reunion Knot' wrapped in love, mirroring each other through time."

In the afternoon, everyone gathered on the tatami. Grandma Chizuru opened a sandalwood box containing twelve cherry blossom sachets—each embroidered with different flower patterns, all missing the final stitch.

"These belonged to the twelve spirit pattern envoys who fought with us." Her gaze swept over them. "One sachet each, vowed to visit all spring cherry blossoms together after the war."

Su Qinghuan gently picked up a pale pink sachet. Her spirit pattern core warmed, and tiny characters appeared on the sachet: "To Qing: May your hands always cook rice balls, and your heart wait patiently for returns."

"For me?" Su Qinghuan's eyes reddened. "But I've never seen…"

"Of course you have." Grandma Chizuru pointed to the crooked cherry blossom at the sachet's corner. "You stitched this clumsily at sixteen. You called yourself hopeless, but Yuekui said, 'Clumsiness is just like spring'."

Lin Ye took an indigo sachet. His Reverse Scale Core resonated with it, starlight seeping into the fabric as the embroidery thread came alive, re-stitching a complete pattern in mid-air—under Locking Dragon Abyss's stars, he and Yuekui sat side by side, her head on his shoulder, half a stardust meteorite in her hand.

"The final stitch…" he murmured. "I've owed her this all along."

As twilight fell, embroidery frames were set up under the Spirit Pattern Tree. Grandma Chizuru, wearing reading glasses, taught Little Peach to thread a needle: "Start loose, like spring wind; end tight, like warmth in the palm." Little Peach's murder of crows perched on her shoulder, tilting their heads to watch the silver thread weave; Sakura projected a tablet, overlapping the three-hundred-year-old embroidery frame with the present one; Jiu's crows brought dried cherry blossoms, "to add spring's scent to the sachets".

"Captain, pass me the scissors!" Little Peach waved her embroidery frame, golden powder from earlier clinging to her hair. "What flower should I stitch?"

Lin Ye looked at her focused profile, recalling Yuekui's memory—the girl by the creek three hundred years ago, also stitching intently, cherry-blossom hairpin shining. He took a small cloth pouch from his pocket, revealing a stardust meteorite fragment that fit perfectly with Grandma Chizuru's half sugar-painting box.

"Yuekui's." He placed the fragment beside the frame. "She said to sew the most important things into sachets."

Late at night, Lin Ye sat alone on Tokyo Tower's deck. The Reverse Scale Core hovered over his knees, starlight flowing with today's embroidery scenes: pale pink cherry blossoms, indigo starry skies, Little Peach's tilted-head smile… Each glowed warm gold, like crushed starlight.

"Captain." Little Peach's voice came from the stairs. She held the completed sachet, embroidery powder still in her hair. "Grandma Chizuru said the final stitch should be sewn by the 'most reunited one'."

Lin Ye took the sachet. Twelve cherry blossoms were stitched on its surface, each shimmering with tiny lights—memories of the twelve envoys. At the center, a blank space remained, its edge stitches as crooked as when Little Peach first learned to thread.

"What to stitch here?" he asked.

Little Peach took out a sugar painting from her pocket—a phoenix made with Grandma Chizuru that day, sugar frost still coating its shell. "This." She pressed it to the blank space. "Yuekui said sweet things can stitch time together."

Lin Ye threaded the silver needle through the sugar shell. The Reverse Scale Core's starlight warmed, melting the sugar without dripping; instead, it condensed into a crystal star, inlaid at the sachet's center.

"Look." Little Peach pointed. "It's glowing."

Lin Ye looked up as Tokyo Tower's lights lit up. Warm yellow light passed through the sachet, casting twelve cherry blossom shadows on the ground—each shadow dancing, embracing, as if saying, "We are together."

Somewhere far away, a healed soul watched, smiling softly. It was Yuekui, and every "Reunion Knot" once wrapped in love.