Akiko came running through the corridor like something had broken loose inside her.
Her sandals slapped against the wooden planks in an uneven rhythm — the sound of someone who had been standing frozen in a room trying to hold themselves together and had finally failed at it and was now moving entirely on the momentum of everything they had been holding back. Her face was wet before she had even reached Sakura, the tears already running, her breath coming in short broken pulls.
"Hime—!"
Sakura heard her coming and turned.
