This is the story of Sakura. That's it. She has no middle or last name. Well, she might have. Then again, she might have had a different first name, too. She'll never know. She has no parents, or, at least, doesn't know where they are, or if she even had parents to start with. She doesn't know when she was born, or exactly how old she is. She just remembers living in a cardboard box up until one day when the man who was to be her master found her. But that will come later. She can't remember much of when she was an infant, she just remembers that she had always lived in that box in the corner of the park, under the cherry tree. Her earliest memory of her life is not a face, or a picture, or an event, but a voice, the voice of a young woman, perhaps her mother, singing a song to her. And, for as long as she can remember, she had always worn a little bell around her neck.
Oh, and one more thing. Sakura is part cat.
Sakura taught herself to speak common English from listening to the people who walked through the park past the cherry tree. She knew what money was, she knew it was what she didn't have, and she knew it was something very valuable. she knew words like Me, I, You, They, We... She knew what the sky was, and the trees, and the moon and the sun, and the stars. She knew grass, dirt, wind, light, buildings... and she knew a few words to describe them. She could describe feelings and senses, and many verbs; all self taught by the time she was only 3.
It was at that age that she discovered she cold transform into a little white kitten, with black ears and tail. Her eyes also changed color with her mood, but she had always known that, she saw it in her reflection in the puddles of water on the ground after it rained.
She got by from finding old thrown out, but still good, clothes, and eating the berries from the bushes in the park, along with apples from the apple trees, and some leftover food people would throw out.
Then, one day when little Sakura was just around four years old, a man finally aproached her box.
"Well, hello there," he said with a kind smile.
Sakura peered up at him. "H-hello..."
The man suddenly noticed her ears and tail, and that her big, lonely eyes had changed color. "My, aren't you a cutie. You look like a little kitten."
"....Kitten?" She said softly.
"Yes, a kitten, a little baby cat. Small furry animal with pointed ears and a long tail."
"... Oh, like this?" she said and immediately turned to her full cat form.
The man kind of stared for a while in amusement, but then shook it off. "Yes, that's a kitten. You're part cat, I see."
"Oh, that's why I look different than other people," she said in realization after she changed back.
"What's your name, little girl?" he asked her.
".....N-name?" she said, confused.
"Yes, name, what people call you. Your parents gave you a name, didn't they?"
"Parents?..... I don't understand...... I am confused."
"Do you have parents?" he asked, "a mom and dad?"
She stared at him.
"Oh, I see, you don't have parents," he finally realized, "Well, do you remember a word that you may have heard said to you a lot when you were really little?"
"No...." she said.
"Oh, so you don't have a name..... Would you like one?"
"Oh, yes, please," she said politely. She was always very polite, polite and obedient, even if she had no one tho be polite or obedient to. It just came naturally.
" Ok then," the man said, looking around. He spotted a cherry blossom on the tree. "I'll call you.... Sakura."
"That's a nice word." she said, smiling a bit.
"Well Sakura," he said, bending down closer to her,"I'll tell you what. You can come live with me. I'll give you a place to stay, with some new clothes, and food.... Whaddya say?"
She paused for a moment, thinking. "Can I bring my box?" she finally asked.
"Yes," he chuckled,"you can bring your box."
"Ok." She transformed to her kitten form once more and the man picked up the box with her in it and carried her to his home.
He lived in a large, mansion-esque house several miles away from the park. When they got there, he had some clothes quickly made for her by his personal tailor, gave her a bath, which she found quite fun to splash in the water(she is one of the few cats who actually enjoys water), and he showed her her room and gave her something to eat.
"Now," he said after she was finished, "since I'm letting you stay here, you in turn will have to do what I say. Anything I say. And if you do something I don't like, you will be punished. Ok, Sakura?"
"Ok," she said. It made perfect sense to her.
"Good."
"Wait, so what should I call you, sir?" she said.
"You are to call me Master," the man said.
"Ok."
For the next few years, she was his servant, doing whatever he asked of her. He was very abusive. He would punish her by chaining her to the wall in the basement and whipping her, even if she did nothing wrong. She just figured she had done something he didn't like. He never really took her back out into the outside world, nor taught her much about it. He didn't teach her much of anything at all. Many nights he would rape her, telling her that it was a punishment, and tell her to close her eyes, so she wouldn't see what he was doing, and so that he wouldn't see the color of her eyes. She never knew what he was doing or that it was wrong, but she knew it hurt. About the time she was 10, she discovered that she could heal with her touch, and would heal her wounds every night. Her master did not notice.
Finally, when she was about 13, she realized something was wrong, that there was more to life. She felt in her heart that something just wasn't right. She did not know love yet, she just knew attention. But she felt that there was something more. So she ran away. He did not go after her. She never saw him again.
She lived on her own in the streets, wandering, for the next three years or so. She didn't know. She only knew days, and by this time she had lost count. She was just back where she started; without a home, without much clothing, and on her own with finding food. Inexistant, as far as the world knows. Just a name. Sakura.