Chapter 381: Story of Her Life
Eventually, once Kamiko managed to get herself completely together she answered Kat's lingering question. "Yeah. Yeah I think I do."
Kamiko turned herself right-side up and move over to the edge where she could take a seat. Unlike Kat who could abuse her wings' surface area to easily float around Kamiko had to put in a little extra effort, and she wanted to make sure she didn't just fall under the water, so sitting was the way to go. The water was still relaxing, but she could already feel the change. It was now like it was pressing in on her rather than helping her relax properly, but she swallowed her fear as she thought of the similarities between her own story and Kat's.
"So, the first part of my story is a little like yours. Though… maybe I should start with my family. You mentioned that you didn't have anyone to talk to well… I had my family but I never wanted to complain about this to them, especially not properly. In some ways… it's their fault but they aren't to blame? If that makes sense.
"A lot of my issues are because of things they did… even if they never knew those things would end up being a problem for me." Kamiko let out a sigh. "I'm also certain my mother knows. She's never brought it up, but… sometimes she says things in certain ways that make it so I can't help but question how much she's already figured out."
Kamiko pulled herself together best she could and let out a long breath of air, trying to steady herself but it wasn't going the best. Still she pushed forward anyway. "So, the school stuff I mentioned? Well… it's not one school per district. Demons don't really tend to have enough children for that. For some reason, it gets harder and harder to have children in two ways. The first is power, the stronger the demon the harder it is without assistance from an artifact or something.
"The second is the number of children you already have. I… I don't think I've ever mentioned how weird my parents are seen by a lot of other demons for the number of children they have. It's… it's maybe not the most appropriate thought, but… one thing I did have to hear repeated a lot is that my parents have to be having sex like rabbits just to get the number of children they did. Not to even mention how rare triplets are. Twins are fairly common actually, not that much rarer than single children, maybe forty percent? But higher than that is rare.
"At the time… I was always so embarrassed. Though I guess now that I think about it those sorts of teasing only started when I was a little older. Continuing the point though, because there is one I swear, is that having as many kids as my parents do is rare. Nowadays, I think it's actually kind of romantic you know, that my parents clearly still care so much about each other. Clearly still LOVE each other even after all the years they've been together… and I take a lot of comfort in that now.
"At the time though, it was just another point to make fun of me for. Wait, I'm skipping around. School districts!" Kamiko splashed the water in minor irritation "Right, so, when we do our learning, it's in a schoolhouse that everyone from the district goes to, but there are normally quite a few districts that share a schoolhouse.
"Which is fine, of course, and there isn't too many kids but… it happens to be in THIS district, and I already talked about the issues with my mum's plants. Additionally, me and the triplets are at this slightly awkward age bracket. They are just old enough that none of the children would actually know who they are, having all graduated.
"But certainly not old enough that the teacher had forgotten them. This means I started as an outcast. Whereas my sisters managed to make due simply because there was three of them, and they all had their own area they could excel in and bring in new friends I… I just don't."
Kamiko sounded surprisingly sad to Kat's ears as she continued to speak. "They all have something they are brilliant at. Something that captures their passion but… I just have nothing. Books are nice, and I'm not the worst artist. Kerra let me destroy plenty of canvases to learn. I enjoy my time playing sports with Merra, but I don't care for them on their own… I guess I just lack a passion.
"This meant that… I was the weird kid from the weird house, and that fact was spread quickly by the teachers that weren't fond of my parents or siblings… AND the ones who were fond of me, believed that I would have some crazy specialty like they did… so I'd always get singled out in various activities. Looking back on it, they were just trying to help me find my… thing? So to speak.
"I think they saw that I wasn't exactly… the happiest even though I was always smiling, so they'd give me chances to find something that would make me happy… of course, picking the 'weird girl' to demonstrate one thing or another only made me stand out more and more, so the ostracization got worse.
"There was nothing too physical like you, any proper fighting was practically instantly put to a stop by the teachers. There are quite a few and they are much stronger than adolescent demons. But little things, bumping into me in the hallways, knocking my writing stuff from my hands.
"Stealing my lunch and leaving something else in its place to make it look like I'd grabbed the wrong thing from home… that one happened more than once." Kamiko set with a particularly bitter note in her tone. "So… I just wasn't able to get to know anyone I guess. Whenever I tried to get close to someone, a particularly nasty guy, called Craignez, would start picking on whoever showed me a hint of interest, and then double up my own bullying for the week.
"So I just… kept my head down, and spent time with my family. They all knew of course, that I had no friends… it's not like I could hide that part, but my sisters especially took time out of their schedules to play with me. To teach me things, and eventually my mother trained me in combat that you've seen."
Kamiko smiled at this, Kat could see through the fog with her eyes, but it looked somewhat sad as well. "It was lovely really, and I do love them for the fact that they helped me get through it all… but it wasn't what I wanted, nor I suspect, particularly what I NEEDED. Well, perhaps the combat training COULD have been, but it wasn't.
"I still wasn't taught to actually go after the things I wanted. Even with a bit of confidence and what were actually somewhat refined skills for my age group at the time… I was already the outcast and everyone knew it. People would move away from me if I approached them. The best I could get was a polite, if stiff conversation about simple things everyone should know the answer to.
"Also, it's worth noting, that our own version of schooling doesn't take up that many hours of the day. Most demons would play together or socialising afterwards but… of course, I wasn't welcome. So to home I would wander, hoping that one of my sisters would take the time out of their day to humour me.
"They didn't always, and I understood that, intellectually, but emotionally, it really hurt. There was three of them, and they didn't always have contracts so… I felt betrayed all of the times I was alone. The times they didn't have time for me. Which, is perhaps… somewhat horrible of me you know?
"They have their own lives. They have friends that they want to spend time with, and their own pursuits. If Erra wants to read a book… well actually she can read in the middle of a live combat and be fine, so if she was actually around and nobody else was she'd just hand me a book and give me space wherever it was that she happened to have taken up residence but… that was a bit more hollow than spending time with the other two triplets.
"Perhaps Kerra would be a better example. Sometimes, she was home, and yet she'd lock her door and enable the silencing panels on the walls to keep me from getting her attention. I understand why, but it did hurt.
"Perhaps though, the real reason it hurt so much, is that I have so much love for them. I've always been a very bouncy person, and I've loved hugs since before I could talk, or so I'm told. I just… I enjoy chatting with anyone I can, and speaking with people, but I'm just a kid to most people my parents know, and they're boring anyway. My sisters though… sit at that awkward area, where they are old enough to have a life, but young enough I wanted nothing more than to be a big part of it."
"Wait… what about Aslena? Didn't she grow up with you?" asked Kat. "Aren't you similar ages?"
Kamiko sighed. "Yes and No. She didn't go to the same school as the rest of us, she wanted to do the full education and headed somewhere else for it. So she wasn't home that often once we got older. It's… it's another story really, I'll talk about it another time… if we have one that is? I mean… I'd like that?"
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