[ A LONG PAUSE.... like, how can he explain this without sounding completely insane? but in the end, he decides that he's going to sound pretty crazy anyway to someone that's never seen this before, so he might as well just go ahead and give hijikata the proper explanation, no matter how weird it sounds! ]

Whenever something makes us happy, these sakura petals just kind of... appear around us. It only happens when we're really happy, too, so it doesn't usually happen too often. Otherwise, we'd be drowning in cherry blossoms all of the time, and sweeping them up would be some kind of daily chore.

[ he then ducks his head, glancing up every once in a while. ]

It's also... kind of embarrassing.