Yae Sakura/Story

Yae Sakura was a miko (shrine maiden) of Yae Village. Despite her devotion, hard work, and wishes for the village's well-being, her ill sister was ultimately sacrificed and used in a barbaric ritual to try and bring rain during the droughts. Despite her sister's last wish to not let fate burden her, Sakura gradually began to feel hatred towards the village.
==Appearance==
Sakura is a tall, fair skinned woman with long pink hair, reminiscent of the cherry blossoms. She is often seen in her miko attire, which is primarily a shrine maiden’s robe and under skirt with a purple scarf around her neck and a fox mask on her side. When she became the vessel for the Previous Era’s Herrscher of Corruption, she grew two long and thin fox ears.
File:Yae Sakura (Young).jpg|Yae Sakura as a child
==Personality==
When Sakura was younger, she had an unshakeable will to do everything possible for the sake of her younger sister. At a young age, she was already burdened with the layers of responsibilities and handled them well, finding satisfaction in her duties, especially concerning her sister. However, after Rin died, Sakura’s world shattered, and she became cold and detached, performing her newfound duties with diligence and grace as a miko simply because of Rin’s dying wish. It was only until she met Kallen, did she start to hope and feel again, for something she wanted to protect in this world.
==History==
Yae Sakura was born in Yae Village, Shinano, Japan, to the Yae family, and had a natural stigmata. She also had a younger sister by the name of Yae Rin who was often sickly - a stark contrast to Sakura herself. Thus, she made it her duty to take care of Rin, and the two were practically inseparable. That was until, a drought plagued the village, prompting her father to choose to sacrifice Rin. Unwilling to part with her sister, the young Sakura made plans to escape with her sister out of the village. However, her father discovers this and has the villagers hamstring Rin prior to the actual ritual. When Sakura was called up to deal the final blow, she cut Rin’s bindings and tried to run, only to realize that Rin could no longer use her legs. Her father then grabbed her hand and drove the blade through Rin, while Rin’s last wishes of “being a good miko” will haunt Sakura for years. Some time later, a white-haired gaijin washes into the village and Sakura brings her back to her shrine. That gaijin goes by the name of Kallen Kaslana, who had been ambushed on her travels eastward. Sakura had noticed the strange Black Box, but seeing its importance to Kallen, gave it back as a way to secure trust. Sakura then ventures off as she catches wind of some beasts threatening the village, but is outmatched by the honkai beast. Luckily, Kallen arrives in time to rescue her before berating Sakura for rushing headfirst alone. Sakura only replies that as a miko, this was simply her duty. After a pause, Kallen then says it didn’t have to be as she swears to stand by Sakura’s side from then on. This was never meant to be, however, as the Black Box now had a crack and began to feast on Sakura’s resentment at her godless village. Eventually, Kallen finds out about the village’s child-sacrifices and tries to intervene, but is met with an emotionless Sakura doing her duty. Kallen is able to get through to her, though, and Sakura breaks down as Kallen moves past her to stop the ritual. It is then revealed that Sakura was already too far gone into the herrscher’s whispers and had already been possessed. Soon, though, Kallen confronts her when the Oath of Judah arrives from Schicksal and the two fight viciously. In the midst of it all, Sakura was able to retain a bit of her own consciousness, and unwilling to kill Kallen, drove her own blade into her body to stop the herrscher. Left with no choice, Kallen seals Sakura away, where the miko sleeps for hundreds of years. In 2014, with the aftermath of Raiden Mei’s eruption, the seal that held Sakura broke, and allowed her spirit to wander the mortal realm once more. This leads to her eventual encounter with Theresa Apocalypse, a clone of Kallen, due to the familiar scent of the other’s blood. Theresa had been gravely wounded and poisoned in her fight against a pseudo herrscher, Yuna Gao, when she underestimated her opponent. Because of the striking similarities to Kallen, Sakura yielded her presence on the planet to Theresa, by bestowing the other, her natural stigmata in order to save her. This provokes the still existing Herrscher of Corruption to bestow Theresa enough power to overcome Yuna, before passing out. It is then revealed that Sakura’s presence has now been transferred to the stigmata on Theresa’s back - as well as the Herrscher of Corruption. 
== Gratitude Arc ==
After Theresa passed out again when she arrived in St. Freya High from her battle with Yuna, Theresa’s consciousness was dragged into the stigma space where she meets a replica of the honkai beast that had overpowered Sakura in the real world 500 years ago. Due to a lack of weapons, she is overpowered and Sakura arrives in time to save her, much like how Kallen did years prior. Sakura then nurses Theresa back to health but has to leave for a meeting with the village, who are demanding another sacrifice. During the meeting, the villagers issued their beliefs that the recent monster attacks were related to Theresa’s arrival in the village. Sakura insists that there is no proof of the connection before requesting for more time to investigate and put an end to the monster attacks, as the villagers hurl accusations at her for not doing her job. Her father then reminds her that the offering day was coming and that Theresa would be a good candidate to be sacrificed. Sakura starts to protest before he brings up that Rin had given her life for the village, drawing Sakura back to her sister’s dying wish for her and the misery she had for following it. Multiple voices then fill her mind, insisting that to be a good miko like her sister wanted, she had to feed the gods in selflessness and thus offer Theresa up as the sacrifice before claiming that Sakura was already beyond redemption. Eventually, Theresa wanders into the meeting and Sakura has to take the blow from the angry villagers that turned on the gaijin.
When Sakura suffered the injury, the villagers quieted and her father dismissed them when she begged for some time to think about the sacrifice. As he’s living, his form is taken over by the Herrscher of Corruption, who warns her it knows that she sees Kallen in Theresa and swore to consume Theresa’s soul to break her. Later that night, Sakura is recounting all those that died in the village the past few days and praying for them before the Herrscher of Corruption speaks in her mind, goading her to feed it and allow it to grant her the tools necessary to wipe the village out once again. The chief priest then appears as Sakura is trying to shut out the herrscher’s voice, and he tells her to make her choice already as they were out of time. Emotionless again, Sakura chooses Theresa and the ritual is prepared.
At the sacrifice, the herrscher begins celebrating its victory as Theresa, bound and hamstrung, scowls at it. Soon, Sakura appears blankly as she draws her blade to complete the offering. However, upon seeing Theresa knelt there, Sakura is reminded of Rin and cannot bring herself to do it as she drops the sword and stumbles backwards in pain. The herrscher then holds up Theresa for Sakura to see, insisting that it was already too late to save Theresa as the other could no longer walk before reminding Sakura of her sister’s last words to be a “good miko.” With these words, Sakura’s eyes become dull again as she picks up her sword and drives it through Theresa. Right as she’s dying, Theresa gently caresses Sakura’s face, pleading with the other to not give in to the herrscher when she’s gone. The herrscher is triumphant while Sakura realizes what she had done, breaking down as she finally reveals a crack in her resolve, which had kept her hoping and living for 500 years within the dreams. The herrscher then embraces Sakura, declaring that they would now be inseparable while Theresa’s body in the real world is taken over by the herrscher.
The samsara plunges into an endless nightmare once again, with Sakura exploring every way possible to still escape, but each ending as horribly as another. Finally, in one cycle, Sakura is aware of the previous samsaras, and ends up back as her younger self, lamenting on how she had failed to save Theresa. The Rin in the cycle comforts Sakura and tells her sister to rest as she insists on being able to at least feed herself, but instead she spills the bowl. Rin apologizes before Sakura brushes it aside and says she can make another one. Rin then says it’s alright and that she knew that she would never get better, before the herrscher whispers to Sakura to give it up. Sakura runs outside and yells at the herrscher that she would never give up, confusing the Rin in that cycle. Rushing through the shrine, Sakura tries to make preparations for another escape attempt, but trips and falls, finding it incredibly hard to bring herself back up as she recalls the past failures and calling herself pathetic. It is then that a little, blue-eyed white cat with a ribbon tied to her tail appears, licking Sakura’s face to comfort her. At first, Sakura pushes away the comfort, believing that the cat would just die like everything else in the samsara later, only to hear the cat persistently meow and being unable to resist bringing the cat with her. Sakura plans to feed the cat, but the cat then paws at the bitter herbs, reminding Sakura to remake the soup bowl for Rin. After making it, Sakura then sinks into depression again as she sets the bowl down by Rin’s mattress, who apologizes again for spilling the bowl. Sakura then says Rin might be right that she wouldn’t be able to recover, and she didn’t have to drink the bowl if she didn’t want to. The cat then shows up again, having followed Sakura to the house, and brushes itself against Sakura. Rin notices the cat and gets excited, letting the cat into her arms and naming it Chiyo. Sakura is surprised as she has never seen Rin so happy before. 
The chief priest then appears, scoffing at Rin for playing with animals before reminding Sakura that the ritual was due soon. Sakura pleads with her father that she couldn’t take the cycle anymore while Chiyo leaps off Rin’s arms and hisses at the priest. Waving his hand, the priest walks off as repeats the reminder, causing Sakura to despair as she feels the cycle continue again. However, Rin settles down with Chiyo, telling the cat about Sakura’s promise to bring her to see the cherry blossoms one day. Motivated again, Sakura takes Rin’s hand and repeats those promises, before their father returns with the villagers in fox masks. He then reveals that he had already told Rin about being chosen as the sacrifice in which Rin confirms, crying as she tells her sister that she is at least glad to be able to protect the village like Sakura did before wishing her to be the “good miko” again. Chiyo then attacks the priest, causing him to toss the cat aside in rage. Seeing this, Rin is heartbroken as she reaches for the cat, but falls and stares at Chiyo, saying that it may be her time to go but that somehow she felt a bit of hope when she saw Chiyo. Sakura insists that it’s not over and begs Rin to not give up just yet, while her father demands why she keeps resisting him. It is then that Chiyo transforms into Theresa and dropkicks the priest, and bolts with Sakura.
Sensing their resistance, the herrscher then manifests as Hellmaru as she begins to chase them around the stigma space. Right as they sit vulnerable to the herrscher, Mei finally arrives but is then overpowered. The herrscher’s attack, however, breaks the golden crucifix pendant's chain on Mei’s neck, freeing it as it fell towards Sakura and turning into a shield. The golden cross settles on Sakura’s lap, who picks it up and recognizes the familiar Kaslana’s spirit, crying as she realized the other had stayed behind to protect her once again. Her tears then activated the pendant which emitted a cascade of light that enveloped Theresa, granting her the powers of Celestial Hymn suit and Oath of Judah. With these, and a hard lesson of forgiveness, Theresa is able to convince the herrscher to relent her millenia long hatred, freeing Sakura from the endless nightmares. 
In the aftermath, Sakura, a Kallen memory, and Rin memory are cheerfully eating onigiri under the cherry blossoms in the artifical stigma world. 
==Other==
The following content are still in the game but have conflicting placements and disputes with the actual timeline and will be placed below here until further notice.
===First Samsara===
In the first Samsara, it shows the current events where Sakura found Kallen. Kallen was eventually forced to seal her away when the Honkai in the box possessed Sakura.
===Second Samsara===
In the second Samsara, the herrscher of corruption manages to control Sakura. Kallen fought her, but was unable to defeat it. The possessed Sakura eventually kills Kallen.
===Third Samsara===
In the third Samsara, Sakura managed to regain her consciousness and broke off the herrscher’s control. She worked together with Kallen to defeat it and purified the Honkai energy that had been shrouding the village for a long time. Both were finally able to live a happy and peaceful life from then on.
=== Fourth Samsara | Soul Throne Raid ===
When Sakura and Kallen were lying down on the meadow, Kallen suddenly sat up and told Sakura that she had to leave. Sakura went to the village to search for Kallen. When she arrived in the village, she noticed the villagers had been acting strangely, prompting her to investigate. She soon found a barrel and inside was a strange creature fox sprite she named Higokumaru. Sakura brought Higo along on her search for Kallen and fought several villagers who tried to stop her from leaving with the strange fox creature. Higo then asked Sakura to bring her to the Celestial Pavilion to help find her memories. On their way there, they encountered monsters and a mysterious mask which triggered some of Higo’s memories.
Upon reaching the top, Higo touched a mysterious sword, causing her to turn into Jizo Mitama, who was then defeated by Sakura. Higokumaru fully recovered her memories, recalling herself as the Previous Era’s 12th Herrscher, and apologized for the grief she had caused, which Sakura accepted. Higo then told Sakura that the Kallen they were searching for was an illusion from her memories. Sakura apologized and said that she knew the real Kallen is no longer around in the outside world. Even so, she still wanted to find the missing Kallen in this stigmata dimension.
The missing Kallen then suddenly appeared in her phantom thief persona and stole the Jizo Mitama sword. Sakura recognized Kallen's voice and went to chase after her along with Higo. When the two found Kallen again, the latter apologized and chained Sakura in order to stop her. Kallen, who had lost her memories, said that she had to take the sword away because it was too dangerous. Sakura reached her hand out to touch Kallen's face and told her that she was here for her, and not the sword.
This made Kallen's memories come back and hesitate, which sent the sword into berserk. After the three defeated Jizo Mitama for the second time, Higo offered to use the sword to resurrect Sakura's consciousness into the real world. Sakura declined her offer, saying that staying here in the stigmata dimension is enough for her. The sword was later thrown into the real world.
==Trivia==
*Spirit Guns - Yae were created in memory of her.
==Navigation==
==Notes==
==References==
Category: Honkai Impact 3 Wiki
pl:Yae Sakura/Fabuła