I run downstairs with my things ready for school and a brand new book. That I plan to finish by the time the week was out. I headed into the kitchen.
I bowed. “Morning Haku-sama.” I said greeting Niyomi’s husband Haku.
“Morning Katsumi-chan.” He says patting my head.
I go to take my seat at the table. “Morning Niyomi, Renji.”
“Why are you so formal with him but never with me?” Niyomi says as she slaps her hands down on the counter and stares at me waiting for an answer. While Haku gets up from his seat and hugs her from behind.
“Because she respects me more than you.” He chuckled and kissed her on the cheek.
My mouth hung open. That was not why I spoke to him so formally. I really didn’t know why. I just did.
“Um…Renji. We better go or we’re gonna be late.” I said not wanting to have to try to explain myself.
“Oh, okay.” He said taking the plates off the table and putting them in the sink.
We left the house and headed for school. We walked side by side as I read my book. Every now and then Renji would look down at me. We made it half way to school when I couldn’t take it anymore.
“What!?” I shouted, closing my book but keeping my thumb on the page that I was on.
“Why are you always reading? I never see you without a book in your hands.” He paused but I didn’t answer because I knew that wasn’t really what he was asking me. “Even at school. Do you even have any friends?”
“Yes! I have friends.” I snapped. He gave me a look. I sighed. “So? Who cares. I don’t have friends. Who needs them anyway.”
“Katsumi,” He said holding on to my shoulders. “ You need to make some friends. I don’t think it healthy for you not to. I’m going to be leaving for a year and you will have no one to talk to besides Niyomi and Haku. Promise me you’ll try.”
I looked into his eyes. I hated when he was serious about things. “I’ll try…for you.”
That was easier said than done. It’s not like I didn’t want friends, I wouldn’t mind if I had a few. As we continuedon our way to school and even at school I thought about why it would never happen.
I was an outcast. People just naturally avoided me, like someone would avoid touching a hot fire. Besides my family, people didn’t talk to me unless a teacher forced them to or it was completely unavoidable.
Sometimes I heard the other kids talk about me. They would call me different kinds of monsters and spirits from the legends and myths they heard when they were small children. I knew about most of them because I had heard the stories too but other I hadn’t so I had to read about those.
The most popular ones were ‘Kyuketsuki’ which was basically a vampire. A ‘Yakubyo-gami’ that’s a bad spirit that brings misfortune on to others. ‘Nikusui’, she was a kind looking girl that was really a monster and she ate the flesh of her victims. Another big on was a ‘Shinigami’, the god of death or a Grim Reaper.
The most famous or infamous one used was ‘Kerakera-onna’ or ‘Kijo’ meaning witch. Just my luck, too. I had unknowingly named myself after the most famous evil witch of them all.
My train of thought was broken when I over heard a group of girls talking amongst themselves on theories about why I wasn’t reading today.
I decided right then that I needed answers. I needed to know why they called me all those awful things. So I got up from my desk in the corner of the room and walked over to the new girl. She had only been here two weeks, she was in the student exchange program like Renji, but she knew from the other kids to stay clear of me.
“Hey.” I said trying to sound as friendly as possible.
She looked up with a smile but it faded away when she realized that it was me. “Um…Hey, Katsumi-san.” She said with wide eyes. She looked and sounded as if I had a knife to her throat and would kill her at any time.
“You can just call me Kat.” I said ignoring her fear. “ I um…I wanted to ask you a question.” I waited for her to say something but she just stared at me. So I just asked. “I wanted to know if you knew why everyone calls me things like ‘Yasha’ or ‘Kijo’?”
she glanced over to a group of students that where now watching us but were to far away to here what was being said. Then she mumbled something under her breath.
“What?” I asked touching her arm. She jumped to her feet away from my touch. She picked up her things off her desk and glared at me.
“You’re evil.” She whispered. “You have a thick heavy evil aura, just like a demon or monster. Sometimes…sometimes people can feel it, like I just did.” She took a few steps back from me. “You’re evil.”
I watched as she joined the group and left the classroom. I walked straight home after class, I didn’t wait up for Renji like I normally did. When I got home I locked myself in my room and crawled into bed.
All I could think about is what that girl had said. I stayed in my room all weekend, leaving only to eat. Niyomi and Haku didn’t ask what was wrong. I guess they figured I was just upset that Renji was going to be leaving soon. Which was kinda true. Niyomi would have her baby while he was gone.
Thinking about the baby upset me more. If I was really evil…had an evil aura that people could feel then bad things could and probably would happen.
I decided that when I was old enough I would join the student exchange program, so I would be far away and couldn’t hurt them. I couldn’t hurt my family.
**************
“ So that’s why you left? Because of what some kids said? You thought you would hurt them because some kids said you had an ‘evil’ aura?” Faelin asked as I took a few sips of water. All this talking was drying out my mouth.
“Yeah.” I gave her a look that said ‘duh’. She must have forgotten why I was in jail, why she even cared to talk to me.
“Well did anything happen?” she gave me a look of her own. “ Niyomi had her baby when you were thirteen and you didn’t leave until you were seventeen.” She said as if there might have been another reason for me leaving.
“Nothing.” I said looking into her eyes. “Nothing happen. He was a health baby boy. Niyomi and Haku even let me name him—?
“What did you name him?”
“Hajime.” I smiled. “ It means beginning and it was…for them.”
The guard walked in and said that I had to go back to my cell. When I got there I saw that Melanie was already asleep, I was glad she was. That meant I wouldn’t have to answer any of her silly questions tonight.
Before I went to sleep I thought about what I was going to tell Faelin next. If I was going to tell the whole truth, did I even trust her with it? What would she think and how would she use it to help me?I thought about him, even with all the bad things that were going on he was the only person who could make me feel better.I think that’s why I love him so much.
