Sakura Hanazono

Sakura Hanazono (花園 さくら) is a character who appears in Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose. Her first appearance is in Innocence Seekers: Dimensional Crossing, as Mirai's classmate. Sakura becomes an important character in Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light, becoming an integral member of Akari's group, and is a main character of Innocence Seekers: Mimori Flower Club.

Sakura is an outgoing girl who holds a rather idealistic view of the world. While not as optimistic as her friend Himawari (or Akari), she places a lot of faith in others, and believes that even if things are taking a turn for the worse, it can get better as long as one tries.

As a mage, Sakura is a light elemental magic user, who is capable of using a variety of weapons (although she prefers the staff as it augments her magic better than any other weapon type). While her physical attacks have decent strength and her magical attacks are powerful, her lack of speed and physical defensive power means that it is difficult for her to fight in close range. Her Inherent Ability is Blooming Garden (咲いている園, saiteiru sono), which, when activated, grants her and her allies powerful regenerative abilities (capable of healing near-fatal wounds in seconds). However, once activated, it cannot be deactivated manually (only until three minutes have passed, Sakura is knocked out or she runs out of mana), it rapidly drains her mana, and if activated in Full Burst mode, deactivation will cause her to leave Full Burst mode (if the ability was activated while Sakura is not in Full Burst mode, it simply knocks her out after deactivation).

Backstory
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Sakura had learnt from an early age that she was a magical girl. She attended Mimori Elementary School, where she joined the Mimori Flower Club. It was at Mimori Elementary School where she met her friends, as well as Mirai. Sakura met Mirai when they ended up in the same class. She approached Mirai, and tried to speak to her. Mirai was initially hesitant, but began to open up to Sakura.

Along with her friends Himawari and Yuri, and her senior Sumire, Sakura makes up part of the Mimori Flower Club's magical girl cohort. As a magical girl, Sakura knows that the club is more than just a flower-studying club, with some of its members, including Sakura herself, being sent on assignments given by the Zodiac Warriors. One of those assignments, which occurred during Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light, resulted in her directly meeting a witch. She managed to escape after Erika saved her, and was then sent to Yaezora to help Akari and Mirai.

END OF SPOILERS

Innocence Seekers: Dimensional Crossing
Sakura makes her first appearance in this entry.

Innocence Seekers: Akari of the Light
Sakura plays a major role in this entry, as a member of the Mimori Flower Club, and later joins Akari's group halfway through chapter 2.

Innocence Seekers: Mimori Flower Club
Sakura is one of the two main characters in this entry, the other being Mirai.

Relationships
Note that Innocence Seekers: The Black Rose has a predominantly female cast, so expect yuri subtext in every entry.

Shipping pairs referenced in the source material:
 * SakuMira (さくみら) – Sakura with Mirai Aooka

Trivia

 * Sakura's surname literally means "flower garden" in Japanese.
 * The Japanese word 桜 sakura means "cherry blossom".