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The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:

Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.

The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”

If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.


The concept of the wishing tree felt more like a cosmic joke.

It came back every year, and the story was no different. Write a wish. Make a wish. Put it on the tree. Draw another wish. Try to fulfill it. If it was fulfilled, the wish that had been left might come true, too.

But when had any of her wishes ever come true? When had anything she ever asked the cosmos become any kind of reality for her? When had anything she ever desired become reality?

Delilah wasn't sure why she had decided to go to the Wishing Tree. Her life was full of wishes, infinitely spawning every time she opened her eyes and took a breath, but there wasn't any way anyone in the world would be able to grant what she wished for. The amnesia, so far as she could tell, was permanent. When Sedna had became a member of the White Moon again, she hadn't magically gained her memories back. Her memories were still truncated and stuck at the time that she had been forced into Chaos, just like her. She had long since given up on ever understanding who she was before she had lost her life besides for someone who had been an enemy to Captain -- General -- Marcasite. All she had left was her birthday and a senshi name that felt right but still had the edges of unfamiliarity even though it had been several years since she had reawoken. A sphere that didn't feel like it belonged to her, an outfit that felt like the only outfit she understood but also terribly incorrect, a skin that felt like it might have belonged to someone else even though she had been the one wearing it for several years now.

The connections that she had even to her new life felt like they were dwindling. Marcasite was gone without a trace. Her team had long since collapsed. Well. She had one connection, she supposed.

Maybe two.

She hadn't heard from Sedna in a long time. She had chosen to make the assumption that she was okay and found a way to break herself away from the war. Perhaps that was what she should wish for; that was, the safety of someone who was long gone but who had meant so much to her. She couldn't accept the alternative. If Sedna was gone without a trace and she hadn't found safety, perhaps the Negaverse had finally gotten to her and killed her for purifying. If that was the case, Nembus would feel responsible, and she couldn't feel responsible. She wasn't sure if her heart would be able to stand it.

She could write a more minor wish that felt like something the average person could grant. Maybe something like return an item that was lost or stolen or make it so someone can afford dinner that night. They were good wishes, but to Delilah, they had a hint of hollowness to them. They were things she certainly would have wanted in theory. She wasn't against the good of her fellow human. In fact, with how terrible every day seemed to be in this forsaken town, a few more good things happening might make the world feel more alright for a few moments.

But they weren't sincerely her wishes. Good things to happen, but not what she wished for. It felt like writing it on a piece of paper was supposed to give it more importance, and if she was just writing things that seemed like good things but weren't actually her wishes, what was the point?

What was the point of any of this, really?

She couldn't just write her true wish on the piece of paper and pin it to the tree. If she expected that to get fulfilled, it was a joke. If she expected anyone to even pick her piece of paper off the tree, because why would they even do that, they would probably just put it back or find the most roundabout way to fulfill it possible. What were they supposed to do with her actual wish? Find a way to pat someone on the shoulder, point them in the direction they wanted to go, and call that a day?

She plucked a piece of paper up, though, despite her own trepidation, and observed the note that had been left to the side.

When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.

It gave her an idea. She couldn't exactly grant her own wish, but it would be a way to write the truth of the wish without having to come up with some empty lie of a wish she hoped might bring a bit more good to the world. She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth at the same time she took a pen out of her pocket and wrote down the truth.

I wish I had a direction in life and some friends to share it with.

Complicated. Perhaps too many wishes at once. Perhaps she was doomed to never see its success because she couldn't even follow the damned directions that had been set in front of her. Perhaps it didn't matter at all, and her wish was her wish, and she should just let it go.

She folded the piece of seed paper as well as she could, ignoring the way it partially crumbled as she tried. Carefully, daintily, she made her way through the park, finding a spot where there were few other people to place the wish she desperately wanted to be fulfilled and desperately wanted to be rid of. She found a spot where there were already flowers growing, figuring that her wish would only add to the beauty of the flowers -- or, at least, hopefully, it wouldn't make them worse -- and dropped down to make a small hole in the ground.

Once the hole was created, she jammed the little paper into the hole, covered it back up, and scurried away as quickly as she could.