SakuKallen

SakuKallen is the femslash ship between Yae Sakura and Kallen Kaslana from the Honkai fandom.

Canon
Yae Sakura is a normal human girl growing up in feudal Japan, in Yae Village. In the Yae Village, every so often a child gets sacrificed to the local God for a good harvest. Sakura has a little sister, Rin, who is sickly and frail, and can't do much on her own. And Sakura is training to be a miko to serve the local God and protect the village. However, after there's been no rain for a long time, their dad decides that if Rin is so weak, she would best serve as a sacrifice, and Sakura is forced to kill her own sister. Rin accepts her death willingly, begging Sakura to finish it and begging her to be 'a good miko' and protect the village. So while Sakura holds a grudge, she continues her work as a miko, becoming bitter but loyal.

After a few years, in Europe, Kallen Kaslana has stolen the box containing the Previous Era Herrscher of Corruption from the Shicksal church, to stop their attempts to open the box. She flees to Japan, and there she meets Sakura. The two of them fall in love and live a fairly peaceful life together, as Sakura feels her bitterness lessen. However, she doesn't want to go into too much detail about the village and what she feels about her little sister's death. Her failure to open up to Kallen would soon spell doom for the both of them, as the Herrscher, taking the form of Hellmaru, was empowered by Sakura's anger and bitterness, and breaks free from the box. Hellmaru possesses Sakura, causing her to go on a murder spree, which forces Kallen to fight her lover and kill the possessed Sakura.

After this, Kallen is sentenced to death. In past canons, as seen in the "St. Freya High" manga, Kallen is sentenced to death for falling in love with a Herrscher and betraying Schicksal, though Kallen defends Sakura. This is later retconned to Kallen being guilty just for betraying Schicksal. A rescue attempt is made by Otto Apocalypse, a man obsessed with Kallen. He unleashes monsters into a village to distract the guards. But Kallen, heroic as she is, decides to shield the civilians, and dies in the process.

Sakura Samsara
However, Sakura is really not dead, and in some way, Hellmaru survived, and she took Sakura's spirit along with her. Sakura just longs for the peace she had with her Kallen, and Hellmaru wants to destroy humanity, so the both of them clash. Later on, Sakura manages to break free from the possession and her spirit is left alone in a fictional world. There, she lives a perfect life, alongside her lover, Kallen.

But one day, as she is lying with Kallen, holding hands, she starts realizing that it is painfully obvious that this Kallen isn't real. So Kallen tells Sakura that she has to leave her to continue her journey alone. Sakura quickly rushes to the village in search of Kallen, but instead she's met with a strange-looking fox creature, known as Higokomaru.

Higokomaru asks Sakura to bring her to the Celestial Pavilion to help her recover her memories. Upon arrival, Higokomaru discovers a sword, and after touching it, she turns into Jizo Mitama, a ghost samurai. After Sakura defeats Jizo, Higokomaru returns to her normal form. She profusely apologizes to Sakura for all the grief she has caused her. Sakura tells her that she already knew that Kallen wasn't in the real world. And desperate to be with her, Sakura continues her search for Kallen.

Then, Kallen suddenly appears in her phantom persona, stealing the sword away as it was too dangerous to be kept. Sakura's hand reaches out to softly caress Kallen's face, telling her how glad she was to finally have found her. Sakura tells Kallen that she is there for her, not for the sword, and that she wants to be with Kallen forever.

Kallen's memories get recovered, but the sword goes berserk afterwards, as Kallen's will gets weakened. So Sakura and Kallen, alongside Higokomaru, fight Jizo and defeat the ghost. In exchange, Higokomaru offers to resurrect Sakura's consciousness, but she declines the offer, saying that all she ever wanted was to stay with Kallen forever, leaving a peaceful life in the fantasy afterlife. So the sword gets thrown into the real world instead.

Gratitude Arc
The Gratitude Arc manga tells a similar story to Sakura Samsara, so its place in the canon is unclear. It takes place after Theresa gains Yae Sakura's stigma. Theresa has a nightmare of Yae Sakura, corrupted, swinging her sword to strike at Kallen. The next morning, Theresa passes out, with her consciousness sucked into in the stigma world. Mei enters the stigma world finding a burned village, where Kallen, on the verge of death, pleads Mei to take a crucifix pendant to Sakura.

Meanwhile, Theresa meets Yae Sakura, who is reminded of Kallen when she sees Theresa. The Previous Era Herrscher of Corruption torments Sakura so that she will give in and the herrscher can devour her soul. The herrscher throws Sakura into a repeating Samsara where she experiences the death of Rin over and over again, but Theresa appears to give her hope when she is on the verge of giving up. The herrscher moves to kill both of them, but Mei arrives to block its attack, though she is not powerful enough to defeat it. After Mei gets injured, Kallen's crucifix pendant falls towards Theresa and Sakura, acting as a shield. Sakura holds the pendant and is moved to tears, seeing that Kallen has stayed to protect her. The tears fall on the pendant, transforming it into the Oath of Judah. Theresa subdues the herrscher and is able to convince it to let go of its hatred. The herrscher willingly retreats back into the Black Box, and thus Sakura, Kallen, and Rin go on to live a happy life within the stigma space.

Quotes
"The Herrscher girl is innocent, and I was in love with her!"

- Kallen about Sakura, "St. Freya High" manga Ch.9.

"Huh? You also seem to be quite familar, priestess, almost as if I've seen you somewhere before. This may very well be the fabled 'love at first sight.'"

- Kallen to Sakura, final Sakura Samsara quest.

"In the distant east, by the hands of twisted fate... Just like you, I did something terribly wrong. You killed your own sister Eleanor, and I... I killed her."

- Kallen in her farewell letter to Otto, Chapter 26 (Story Event 59).

Fanon
SakuKallen is one of the most popular Honkai ships. Although it's not as popular as Kiamei and Bronseele, the two other canon relationships. Fans of this ship love the couple and their story of soulmates overcoming all the complications that got in their way and all the times they were driven apart, to find each other again and living happily together, which is the reason why many ship the couple. Also, since Yae Miko's character, from Genshin Impact, has been inspired by Sakura's character design, fans of the ship wish for a Kallen equivalent to join her in another sort of "alternate universe." Similarly, some make a Previous Era version of Kallen to ship with the Previous Era SAKURA.

The ship has dwindled in popularity because of Yae Sakura's lack of relevance in the main story. Even in the "Thus Spoke Apocalypse" arc, Kallen's past friendship with Otto was focused on, with no direct mention of Sakura. Fans believe this is likely because of China's censorship laws plus Honkai's bigger popularity, so Mihoyo has to be less obvious about their femslash ships.

Currently, the ship has 107+ works in AO3.

Fandom
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Trivia

 * Sakura and Kallen are married according to a 4koma posted by the official JP Twitter.