That day, my Master spoke about a concept associated with that iconic flower of Japan, "mono no aware", which meant the impermanence of things. That nothing in this life lasted, just like the short-lived bloom of the sakura. We would never pass the same moment again twice.

We come from two very different worlds, his filled with real dangers, violence, and passion, whereas all the perils and action in my life, have been largely confined to the pages of the books I read and to the imagination that I hold inside my own head.

She was the soothing balm to my wounds, the effective painkiller to my aches, the potent drug to my paranoia.

See what war does to the lives of people. Hate begets hate, revenge begets revenge, and the cycle never ends. And it is always us the common folks, the people at the bottom, who suffer the most. Someone should have put a stop to this nonsense.