Why Me? by Nakamura Ayumu (book club reads .TXT) 📕

because my mother told me a quote that was passed down by generations; 'There's one thing I can tell you about life, whether you have good or bad moments throughout, all I can say about it is that life goes on, even when you're not ready to handle what gets thrown your way, you just have to learn to pick up the broken pieces of your emotions and heart, swallow the large lump in your throat called pride, and grow up." after those words had resonated off the dense walls of my room, I had left for the throne room, I guess it's true what they say; The facts of life, no matter where you are or what you're doing never change.


Chapter 2: Faded memories

The throne room isn't really all that special to me, the oriental architecture that would make any other commoner think 'Oh my goodness, the architecture in this castle is quite vintage, I wish I this was my castle' was nothing more than a mere dust pile of a thought in the back of my head, I saw the chancellors Junichi and Daisuke standing in front of the throne where I was soon going to take my mother's place in. as I walked in the room towards the stairs in front of the throne I stood there and I began to feel a tinge of eerie nostalgia and I began to space out to a once faded memory of my mother's coronation day.

~*~

'I had walked into my mother's room; I was 10 and so naive back then. I walked in on my mother, who was wearing the dress I wear now. I looked at her in awe, I couldn't wait until I had my chance to shine in that dress of hers, I never knew that she wasn't going to be here, and neither was my father when I got to wear it. I smiled at her as she turned around.

"Mommy, you look so pretty in that dress! I can't wait until I get to wear that!" I smiled at her as she looked at me in surprise that was in her room, but then her expression softened as she realized that I was able to get past the guards because, well…I'm her daughter.

"Thank you sweetie, I liked it on my mother when I was your age, and I couldn’t wait to wear it either." She bent down, ruffled my hair and smiled at me. I Walked out to the balcony and looked over at the courtyard.

"Mommy! The lilacs look so beautiful!" She walked out in the same direction that I had and saw with a look of complete awe in how beautiful it looked, and that I was completely right.

"Nakamura dear, please head to the throne room with your father." I nodded at her with an ear to ear grin, and I ran off to my dad who was waiting outside my parent’s room. He took my hand and led me to the throne room; it was my first time going in there...ever. I had vowed it to be my last, once I entered the room I looked all around in awe of the elegant design of the overall room. There was so much to look at; it was almost too hard to take it all in.

"Wow! This room is amazing daddy; it's almost too much to take in!" I said to my father and I looked at him with a look of astonishment across my face. He told me to stand by Chancellor Junichi. I never really liked him, but I did as my daddy wanted me to, so I stood by the wretched man. The room was instantly filled with commoners as well as wealthy tavern and shop owners. The courtsmen all walked in to play their trumps to signal that my mother was entering the room, they all had their trumps at a precise angle to align all seven of them, they played their usual arrangement of fanfare, it wasn't a big deal as it was to see my mother in her stunning dress. She walked elegantly towards the throne, where she took her place. My father walked in at a later time and took his place next to my mom. Five minutes later Daisuke walked in the room carrying a Burgandy velvet pillow with my mother's new crown, all diamonds where certain jewels should have resided, my mother had good taste in jewels. My father took the crown off the pillow and sent Daisuke off. As my father was about to place the crown on my mother's head, he began to cough up blood as he took hold of his chest for dear life, collapsed to the ground and dropped the crown in the process. My mother got up and ran to his aid, but only succeeded in confirming her own suspicions that he was dead. The entire crowd was put into a huge mess of panic and hysteria.

"Mommy, what happened to daddy?" She pointed towards the wall and began to sob over my father’s body. I looked in that direction to see a rusted katana in the wall, I tried to hold back the tears, but I just couldn't help myself. I collapsed to the ground, hugging myself as I began to sob softly. I looked over at my mother, who was now standing up and staring at something off into the distance. I looked at the crowd of panicked people, I saw a man made his way through, dressed in all black, and he wore a mask worthy enough to be a thief’s. He casually walked up to my mother and loosely placed it against my mother's jugular. I knew that this would be the end for my mother because the only thing I could do in that situation was stand there and watch pathetically if he did in fact intend to kill her with a measly swing of his sword, he parted his lips to say something, and he shouted it audibly to anyone within earshot of his preposition.

"Now Princess, if you do not wish to meet the same fate as your husband, then you will allow me to take the throne in your stead!" His words became lost, intertwining within the screams of fear echoing throughout the enormous room. He firmed up his grasp on the sword's hilt and positioned it directly at her jugular. My mother looked at the sword then swallowed hard. All I could do was stand there, starring at the horror scene wide eyed, paralyzed with fear.

"I'd rather DIE than have you go in my stead!" She shouted back at him just as loudly.

"Heh, as you wish, my princess.” And just like that, the blade moved with a flick of his hand…she was decapitated, in front of my very own eyes. Everything faded to grey-scale, and time began to feel as if it had slowed down on purpose to mock my fear. Then it hit me, it hit me harder than a pile of bricks…she was gone. Gone like the breeze that flows on a cool summer day. I ran over to my mother's body and I collapsed over her and I uncontrollably sobbed over her decapitated corpse, I felt nothing but anger well up inside of me like an uncontrollable spark ready to ignite and create a roaring blaze, and that spark inside me did just that. I shot the man a fierce glare that sent chills down his spine, I shouted at the panicked crowd in the best calm disposition I could give off.

"Everyone! Get out of here...NOW!" Everyone sprinted for the exits and they all got out safely. I gently sighed in relief and noticed myself levitate upward out of harm’s reach. I could feel large warmth surround my body. I wasn't used to this feeling, so it was slightly uncomfortable. I noticed that my simple pink gown had changed to a mid-thigh Burgandy dress, and Knee-high gold boots. I had a pair of moon shaped earrings. I had a dog collar around my neck with a cloak that was attached to it. I slowly levitated myself towards the ground and landed softly on my feet. I looked at him straight in the face.

"Well, now it looks like just you and me."

"Indeed, but sadly dear. You'll just have to get out of the picture here."

"What are you trying to imply?" I watched him intently as he pulled out a sword from its sheath and threw it straight for me. I dodged it enough, for it to just barely scrape against my arm near the shoulder. I landed on my feet as a thin strand of blood dripped down my forearm. I looked over at my opponent and chuckled to myself a bit. He looked at me, thoroughly confused with the fact that I was chuckling to myself. I stood my ground and placed my hand outward. I looked over and I watched intently as a beautiful mages' staff materialized in my left hand, it was a very intriguing color combination of faded gold with dusty blue highlights scattered within the engravings carved around the staff. I closed my eyes and thought of repaying the man with the same death that he gave my mother, death by a sword. The staff began to glow a soft sunset orange, and it had instantly transformed into a Muramasa. The part of said Muramasa that piqued my interest was the fact that it had the flames of one’s own life energy shimmering on the blade. My life energy apparently was that of the vivid sunset. Unlike my staff, it only had one engraving on the hilt and to my surprise it was carved in traditional calligraphy from the Katakana alphabet, I read it softly to myself;
"Kibō o shinjite, kesshite furikaette; [Believe in hope, and never look back]" I kept a firm grip on to hilt of my Muramasa as I charged a small ball of energy in my free hand and I had tossed it into the air, after doing so I hit the ball of energy as hard as I could with my Muramasa, increasing the power of the attack immensely.

"Tokubetsuna bīmu kōgeki! [Special beam attack]" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I sent the attack towards him. He was scrapped by the attack, but he somehow skillfully dodged it. I looked at him mouth agape, he looked back at me. Not a scratch on him, I stared at him wide eyed

(What is he?)

He took another sword out of its sheath and began to walk towards me.

"Well, well, my fair maiden, it looks as if you’ve taken the same route as your mother."
He charged at me and swung his sword, hitting me across the torso, slicing through my stomach. Leaving a huge gash on my torso, this began to bleed profusely as he began to leave the throne room as nonchalantly as he had entered. I could barely see straight, but I had gathered enough energy to tighten the grip on my Muramasa and I whipped it towards him, the sword that began to gleam a faint orange had lodged itself deep within his back, making a direct shove through his heart. He grasped his chest, coughed up an immense amount of blood, folded himself over and had collapsed to the ground, convulsing a few times before it turned into relentless twitching. He remained motionless after a few agonizing minutes of his futile struggle to live. Both of us remain silent, lying in the pool of mixed blood. Injured by each other's hand. In that moment in which I was fading in and out of consciousness rapidly I hesitantly realized that I was