I'm not one of them

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Kazeko often felt conflicted about where she lived.


Some times she was grateful about where she lived. There wasn't much money to pay for stuff, the gardens and forest were beautiful and she could explore it all. There was a strange butterfly in the dirt and it was told there were keys buried to some sort of treasure.

Other times she felt sad living there. Her parents died when she was only 4, so she only had her grandma, and even then she had to start taking care of both herself and her grandma at a young age. It was also unfortunate that most of the food they had to eat was just berries from the forest due to the money they had being paid for their Minka. Getting a job was out of the question, as Kazeko was too young to work and her grandma was too old to work.

Kazeko often felt lonely. She loved her grandma but she never had any friends or people her age to talk to. Her grandma was too paranoid to let her near others after the death of her parents. Kazeko was pretty sure her grandma saw her as her own daughter instead of her granddaughter. It made sense, Kazeko looked almost identical to her mother when looking at their portraits side to side.

Picking berries was her favorite time of day. She loved tasting them while looking for them. It was the only food they could eat after all. Even though they became underweight and skinny from only eating those most of the time.

One day she felt off. She picked the berries like usual, but when she got back, she felt a painful jolt in her mind. Like someone had taken it over.

"This isn't my body?"  What? That wasn't her. What is going on? She'd never think anything like that. 

"Young lady, what do you mean by that? Such a silly girl. Fetch some more berries dear." Her grandma said, and she gave her a strange look. Kazeko became worried. She was a little strange and unhinged from no human contact beside her grandma, but now she's acting like she's possessed.

Um, what?  Thought the strange voice. Why is she acting like this, she never questioned her grandma asking berries.

What the hell does she mean "fetch some more berries?" I'm a grown woman! She can't order me around. Why on Earth would she say that? She never swore, and she was barely a teenager. She always followed orders.

Oh, wait.... I'm guessing whoever I am right now is not an adult? This is so confusing! Regardless of what the voice  thought, Kazeko went into the forest to get more berries under the old lady's commands. Whoever I'm in right now? Who is this voice? What's in her body, and how did this happen. One thing she could agree with the voice was that this was very confusing.

So that old hag might be this girl's grandmother right? Excuse me?! Old hag? She would never call her that! Her grandmother may be a bit possessive but she didn't mean any harm. She raised Kazeko and if it wasn't for her they would have both died.

If that's correct then maybe we're getting berries for our family. Man, I haven't done this for years. The voice thought those very words as laughed her anger off. The laughter sounded off, like she was older than a 14 year old. Our family was unfortunately just her and her grandma. The voice was so much angrier than Kazeko had ever been.

She found a bush containing berries where angrily plucked them one by one. Kazeko was extremely confused. She always plucked the berries gently, but this time she was practically tearing them off the bush.

Jeez, my entire life everyone has to order me to do this and do that. I can only imagine what this girl went through.  Order me to do this and do that? I feel like it might be true. She had only obeyed her grandma her entire life and she never got to do anything she wanted outside of simply surviving.

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