Sharp Wings; 鋭い翼 [Gintama]

Prologue

-

THE first thought that ran in her mind was, "It's so cold."

Really, that was just a small act in attempt to block out the pain that she was feeling around her body.

Not that she's not already used to it.

She had already lost count of the days that she had been lying on the cold ground of some moving vehicle – a ship, most likely. Every time they moved, she was always jostled around the small and cramp space that she was placed in – it always hurt her. She doesn't even know where she was anymore. She's not even sure who she was, exactly. All she knows is that, because of the time that she had spent inside that small room, her eyes already learned how to adjust to the darkness.

She always hated the dark, but she didn't exactly go together with light, either.

It had been a long time since she saw sunlight. She never really liked the heat or the light ever since she was a kid since the sunlight tend to slightly burn her skin and the light always hurt her eyes, but she sometimes tolerated it enough to not use an umbrella when she goes out – of course, that was before she was stuck inside that small room. Some would mistake her for some ready-to-be extinct species of Amanto, but she knew that she was an Earthling down to the last drop of blood. Even if she forgot most of who she was, she would never forget that she's human. It was a promise that she made to someone when she was young – though, she doesn't remember exactly who she made that promise with.

"Have you checked up on her?"

She slowly opened her eyes. She always heard that voice coming from the outside of the room she was kept in. The voice was somewhat rough, but it was high in pitch – if she would hear that voice in public, she would immediately recognize it in a heartbeat. She doesn't know how many times that man had asked the same question – not that she was counting. She just wants to get out. Maybe she's finally missing the sunlight that she was already greatly deprived of. She thinks that her legs already gave up on her a long time ago, too.

"Yeah, she's still tied up, gagged and alive."

She always heard the same answer over and over again, always from different people with different voices. She knows that they were the guards that were posted outside of her small room. They always give the same answer, even without actually checking up on her. Well, they don't need to, anyway, because her hands were tied behind her back and her legs were tied together so she couldn't actually do anything but to press her cheek on the cold floor. They do, actually, check up on her sometimes, but that's only when she's given food that she barely eats – they taste like dirt and wood. She thinks that her weight is already way below the average for her small size.

"Alright, then."

She always heard that response from the first man right after, and sounds of footsteps was heard echoing outside the small room until it slowly faded away. She was left on her own again. She always hated that, being left alone without anyone to talk to. She's already used to it, though, but at times like those, when she feels lonely, she liked to close her eyes and imagine things.

"Let's go!"

She liked to imagine that someone was yelling that to her while taking her hand. They would run up a hill while laughing and constantly looking behind them while trying not to trip on their own feet.

"Wait for me!"

She always thinks that someone would follow closely behind them, trying to catch up to her and the person holding her hand. They would laugh loudly while throwing harmless insults at each other, sometimes the person falling behind would lunge at them to try to tackle them to the ground but she and the other person would always get away.