Are You Crying, Too?

Phthonus's Story

I had just finished training and me and Phthonus were heading to our room so that I could rest.  My body was incredibly sore from our training session, as we had focused on endurance the whole time. 

Once we got to our room, I flopped on the bed and closed my eyes before groaning at the enormous amount of pain that flowed through my body.

Phthonus sat beside my worn-out form and glided his hand across my abdomen.

"You're getting quite strong," he observed with a smile on his face.  He laid down and raped his arm around my torso, while putting his head on the upper part of my chest.  He sighed in contempt.

"You don't know much about me, so you?" Phthonus asked.  I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling as I hummed a 'no.' I

"Well...  What do you want to know?  If we're lovers, then we should know stuff about each other."

I grimaced at the word 'lovers.' I loved him...  But it wasn't me that truly fell in love with him.  I thought about Phthonus's question.  He was giving me the ability to get information out of him.  It was a good opportunity.  But I didn't know which question I should ask.  Why did you kidnap me?  Why did you want me to fall in love with you?  What was the point of searching through my memories if you did nothing with information you got?  Was it just a precaution?  A 'just in case something happens?'  Blackmail?  Why did you do what you did?

But one question in my mind stood out to me the most; what is your story?  What made you who you are?  So, that's what I asked.

"My story, huh?  I guess it's only fair that if I know yours, you should know mine," Phthonus's body tensed at my question.

" I-it's okay if you don't want to tell me! " I nervously said.  Phthonus slightly shook his head.  I watched him as he closed his eyes and burrowed his head into my chest.

He begun his story, "My real name is Tename Akizawa.  'Ten' is written using the kanji for heaven, and 'ame' is written with the kanji 'rain'.  'Aki' uses the kanji for 'fall,' and the last part 'zawa' uses the 'river' kanji.  I was born to a woman named 'Fuyukawa Akizawa,' and my father..."  Phthonus took a deep breath, " His name is 'Akiko Kosuki.'

"My parents were not married.  They lived in the same house because they both wanted to take care of me, but they didn't get along.  I grew up with them always yelling at each other.  I used to think that curse words were used in everyday conversation.  I also always thought that it was normal for people to yell at each other.  And that I should yell at others, too.  So, that's what I did.  Everyone called me a 'troubled child.' They said that I would never be fixed.  I started to hate them because of what they said.  As a child...  Those things hurt...  Other children started to pick up on what the teachers said about me, which was nothing nice.  They started to call me that during school, even if they didn't know what half of the words meant.  'Terrible influence,''Troubled child,' 'mean,' 'brat.' Those were the type of things they called me.  At the time, I didn't know what those words meant, but I knew they meant bad things. 

" I started to call the other kids names that my parents sometimes called me. 'Bastard,' 'Unwanted,' 'Useless.' I made the other kids cry, and that made me feel superior to them.  Back then, I felt so powerful.  Pushing others around.  Making them fear my name.  I started to get into fights with the older kids.  I remember one time that I had a knife from my parents kitchen hidden in my pocket.  I used it to stab one of the bigger kids who was winning in a fight against me.  The teacher tried to stop us, but I ended up stabbing her in the hip and running off.  I knew that I couldn't face an adult in battle.  It didn't matter if I hated them or not.  They were to strong for my weak body.  They would beat me in a second.  And I didn't want to lose any battle that ever presented itself to me.  The teacher ended up crippled  and the kid almost died.  They had a talk with my parents, and that was when my parents first started to beat me.