Shikibi

The elders say that the strongest bamboo bends, but the coldest wind always finds the cracks. Shikibi was taught this as a lesson in resilience, but they only ever heard the warning. They see the cracks everywhere now—in the strained smiles of their instructors, in the lessons they skip over, in the sanitized reports from the border. They wear the Seifuku, the uniform of a student promised a future of service within the city’s high bamboo walls. But beneath their eyes, they wear the paint from the day they were told was a 'training drill.' It wasn't. The things that came through the cherry blossoms were not a test. The lanterns they carry aren't for the city; they're to see the shadows everyone else pretends aren't there.