Sakura Chan - | Black African And Japanese 20yo B...

Today, however, she had a plan. It was a reckless, secret plan.

She wasn’t a bridge anymore. She was the destination. Sakura Chan - Black African And Japanese 20Yo B...

“Just be yourself,” her mother always said on video calls from Lagos, where the sun seemed to yell. “You are not a fraction. You are a whole.” Today, however, she had a plan

On a small stage, a microphone stood alone. Tonight was open-mic night. Sakura pulled a folded piece of paper from her jacket. It was a poem she’d written in a fever at 3 a.m., after her grandmother in Kyoto had asked, “But where are you really from?” and a boy in Harajuku had touched her hair without asking, saying, “So exotic.” She was the destination

Tetsuo came up and put a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Oi, Sakura-chan. You just drew a new map. Next Friday, you headline.”

Now, at twenty, Sakura stood in the middle of Shibuya Crossing, feeling like neither.

Sakura laughed, the sound echoing off the wet pavement. She stopped at a vending machine and bought a warm can of matcha latte—her favorite. For the first time, she didn’t see her reflection in the dark glass of a closed shop window and think split . She saw a girl with a samurai’s spine and a lioness’s heart.