The Blooming Norm
Written By AnimayWriteY0
Prologue:
"Why….Why does this cruel world continue to torture me with so much hate and contempt. Do I even deserve to have this backwards, demeaning, and inhumane life style upon that fated event? I can't even imagine why the people surrounding me would view me as some sort of monster? I-I just don't understand...Will there be anything that can stop this broken image of a world I see as unforgiving become something that I can be okay with? Will I ever be able to breakthrough the wall that's been keeping me from seeing whats ahead of me? I don't know and I wish I didn't care. All I want to do is rest, until there's nothing left of me to strive for...but is that always the only option for me? I can't let fate decide how I want to live...I have to keep trying...I just want something that can make this life of mine be…normal."
Chapter 1: Just Another Day
[Okinawa Japan 2017]
Early Saturday 6:30 am, the hot sun becomes visible hanging overhead to one of the islands, its shiny ultraviolet rays began to envelope the area of a nearby village far from Ishigaki. Once the bright light hits a specific hut that is poorly constructed than the others, is the first to shine through. A girl slowly and achingly starts wake up groaning, it's time to start the day. After pushing aside her palm tree leave blanket, she proceeds to grab her clothes hanging onto her clothe racks going outside taking a long stroll straight to the Umichi Springs to take her bath. This girl's name is Reina Kujima a tall, slender, and broken girl who has been spending the rest of her life in this village, a place for the homeless. Her life being here was all thanks to her only parent, her father. She didn't want to remind herself of the horrible things that transpired for Reina but she couldn't allow herself from getting caught up with such nonsense. After taking a dip in the nice warm spring pool Reina finishes her drying following up with putting on her ragged clothes she has for a long time. She never thought about getting new clothes for herself at the main city, it held bad memories for her, especially that one place that started to go downhill for the broken blonde, the place she hopes to never step her two feet on.
Living as one of the homeless is definitely tough in of itself but it sure does beat being ridiculed, spat upon, and physically/verbally assaulted by the civilians from the mainland. Once it's time for breakfast Reina took her clothes off only leaving her undergarments on while holding on to her own hand-crafted spear and took a dive in one of the fishing spots. After a few minutes she reemerges from the water taking several deep breaths, once she took a glance on her spear she gives off a triumphant smirk as she caught a juvenile jobfish. One of the common and delicious fishes for the villagers who dined on this delicacy. After drying herself up from her successful catch, Reina then washes her meal first cleaning off any contaminates that could be harmful for her health.
After that, Reina does the usual procedure to gut the fish and removing it's scales so she can have her meal be cooked nicely inside so any known parasites can be dealt with by the use of fire. Food around here in the village is fairly sustainable. As for water, there is a small riverbed that held fresh water 5 miles away from the village. The people in the village use the same tactic for the food as the gatherers bring gallons of water from the riverbank and boil it hot to kill any left-over bacteria within the gathered water. Once Reina took a few sticks patching it up with a few long leave threads skewering her fish and places her food next to the fire cooking it till it's nice and crispy.
While she waits for her food to cook up properly someone is approaching her way, a young boy took a seat on one of the boulders that have a flatter surface. Sujo Araki is Reina's most well-known friend who tends to stick with her whenever she looks lonely. She places her hand on the young boys head petting him as she forces herself a smile trying to not let Sujo be concerned for her. Joining them is Sujo's mother carrying some of her own fishes preparing them for the villagers. "Thank you Reina for starting a cooking fire." Sujo's mother bows to her giving off a sweet motherly smile as she places the row of fish by the fire. Reina nodded who subsequently already devoured her food the moment Sujo's mother is about to bring up the same conversation regarding Reina making any sort of plans going back to Ichigaki to continue on with her education. "Reina, I really hope that you'll continue your education on the medical field...you've come so far to looking after our people." Reina turns herself away from them not giving a glance to Sujo's mother as she sighed and shook her head.
"I…can't, that damned city is filled with so much prejudice against me after what the public found out about my "Father..." Sujo immediately sits beside Reina and tugs on her shirt. Reina turns her head to look at him. "It's not your fault at all...please don't be sad..." Sujo places his head on her shoulder while Reina hesitantly pets the boys head and tries her hardest to smile. It was clear to his mother that Sujo views Reina as a big sister to him, but it was obvious that the blonde is earnestly putting herself into a cage isolating herself with anyone and her potential of making a much better living than where she's in now.
Even with all the kind things she did to help nurse the sick and injured from the village. She honestly couldn't bring herself to interact with anyone due to her own intentional introverted state. She's a natural when it comes to tending to the sick and injured, she even makes ointment out of the exotic fruits from the Hikiyo Jungles to provide healing relief. The villagers tried to offer her some of their daily payment to make up for Reina's generosity. Reina had always politely declined the payment due to her being able to manage herself without any sort of currency. That is until some of the locals wanted to at least pay her so that she can continue on with her education for her nursing career in Ishigaki.
This greatly annoys Reina, to her why would anyone want her going back to that stupid city just to study more? Let alone be a part of those partisan who made her question her own life existence and place on this world. To the people, they would have someone as talented as Reina be successful, to inspire them to do the same, lead by example. The thought of becoming something important was never a thing to the sad blonde. In her mind this sort of ideal is something that reminds her of the road her father took that led him to become the man he is today or was. What's more she's afraid that if she ever did become highly successful she would turn herself into the very people that have looked down on her. She couldn't do it even if the whole village begged her to keep trying.
Once the bell rang by Mrs. Araki signaling that the food is ready, the people came out of their huts and gathered around the fire site. Each of the residents place themselves into a line to take turns getting their own well cooked fish. The population for the village is only seven families strong, enough to manage since Mrs. Araki is the one to take up the role as village caretaker, looking after the people with the help of Reina. By the time the people has had their fill, Reina excuses herself away from the gatherers and proceeded to get some of her more cleaner clothes to do her next task. This one is more difficult than the one she did previous. Being one of the volunteers to do it, she's tasked to buy some more rice bags approximately 7 bags from their local grocery store that's about 5 miles away east from Sagano Village.
Fortunately for her, she'll get a helping hand with one of the young residents of the village. The thing they need to use to carry all that weight is a cattle cart where they would have to manually push it themselves. And so Reina relaxes her arms and cracking her knuckles in order to ready herself with this task. Being the one who is more physically fit, she and the other person a young man name Kozu pushes the cattle cart going off to get more rice and any other ingredients that is appropriate for this pick-up duty. For about 30 minutes in of pulling the pick-up cart Reina and Kozu effortlessly dragged the cattle cart all the way into the city side of the mainland. "So Kujima San, is this where you used to live in?" Kozu unwittingly asked which causes Reina to gradually slow down and feeling quite torn sharing that thought of the life she once had from here. "…" Reina seemingly kept her silence which Kozu once again in a dire attempt to know why she's feeling so glum. "K-Kujima San?" The depressed blonde took a deep sigh and simply states her displeasure in answering that question. "I much rather not talk about it Kozu Chan...please just don't make me bring up bad memories right now…" The young man sweat drops and did so by keeping quite which ended in a very awkward silence as the two continue to push the cattle cart towards their intended destination.
Many of the passer-by's took quick glances at both of the two with seemingly judgmental gazes towards the two primarily on the Blonde which made Kozu nervous. But Reina encourages him to just ignore them. "Don't worry kid, just keep pulling and don't look that way okay?" Reina ensures the young lad that he's doing a good job and supports him to not let the people driving those automated vehicles draw out his anxiety. He nods hesitantly "O-okay, sorry Kujima San..." She looks at him and draws out her usual fake smile just to help him feel a bit more secured and comfortable. "Hey kid, you're doing the village a big favor here, once we bring back the rice bags you''ll be given a lot of praise I bet ya. Oh, and do please just call me Reina okay?" Kozu widely smiles and nod. "You're right Kujima San! I'll do my very best then!" Suddenly the momentum of the cattle cart begins to pick up which ultimately causes Reina to smirk as she does the same helping Kozu push the cart to a more elevated speed. And in no time Reina could see a faint distance of an all-familiar city tower that signals her that the pair of them are entering the main city of Ishegaki.
Once the two managed to arrive at a small town of Ishigaki, they're surrounded by the residents who to some extend put their sights on the two young duos pushing a cattle cart. Reina just sets her eyes aside paying her attention only on what she sees in front of her. While Kozu buries himself by slumping down, shoulders up, and hiding half of his face trying hard to not have unwanted attention. Some of the people walking past them are talking about them in the most degrading and humiliating insults towards the two from their gossip. The majority of those revilement are referred to the amber haired Reina who she just shove off those words without any acknowledgment. After adjusting herself, she and Kozu arrive at Fujuko Super Market. After setting the cattle cart aside near the entrance Kozu brought in a shopping cart while Reina is currently looking through the aisle to find the right items on the list given to her by the families. After scanning through the shelves Reina picked up some fish sauce, seasonings, and produces to go with the meat at home. Kozu calls to Reina for help since he found the rice from aisle 11. Reina being the one with the shopping cart at the moment brought it to the aisle and saw different types of rice, the blonde scanned through the bags until she found the jasmine rice. The two took about 6 bags each weighing about 30 pounds and placed them on top of each other.
After reading off the list Reina checked each item that's present on the cart, fortunately for her the money she got by the villagers is enough to pay for this load. Before the two begin to push the shopping cart Reina caught an earful from behind her. A couple of feet away from the entrance between Aisle 11 and Aisle 12 are two gossiping girls who looked to be the same age as Reina, in her guess those girls are from Asagashi College. One of the girls snickered as she tells her friend about the close-minded blonde who's obviously trying to ignore them. "Oh look who finally dragged herself out of the garbage heap, ohhh I can smell her from miles away!" The first girl insulted in spite. "Gosh, I guess even living in that dump wasn't good enough oh wait…she's even worse! Haha." The other backs up with a malicious smile, Reina brushes it off as always trying to not let her emotions get the better of her, yet she does clench her hand to a fist the more verbal abuse those girls put out on her. "And who's that with her? Is that supposed to be her boyfriend? Pfft what a fucking joke! At least my boyfriend is a handsome bad boy type. That girl has piss poor choice in men!"
Unlike Reina who's obviously ignoring all of this, Kozu took a huge offense of how horrible these girls are towards Reina. Legitimately upset and angry Kozu couldn't contain his temper as he slowly approaches the two gossiping girls who are clearly unaware of him coming towards them. Just who do these girls think they are picking on Reina like that? They have no place for them to talk down on someone who is such a kind and caring person like Reina?! What did she do to deserve all this hate?! Before he could say a thing to them, Reina firmly grabbed Kozu's shoulder which made him look back at the blonde in confusion. Reina shook her head to let him know it's not worth it. Kozu looked down while going back to the cart waiting in line. Just as Reina thought those two girls were done with all their fun, one of them brought up something that personally made Reina more upset and ticked than usual.
"Hey, lets not try to piss off the brawler bitch...She could have a screw loose again." The first girl continuously laugh at that nickname. That name, oh how Reina hated it when people call her that due to her being able to defend herself. She's a self taught fighter and was given that stupid nickname because she was able to beat down three girls who were trying to bully her when she was still in school. The second girl suddenly proceeded to bring up the one thing that pisses her off the most once she heard the second girl complaining about something.
"Ugh I just can't believe my mom didn't get me that new dress I wanted so badly, why does my life suck?...I just hate it when she tells me that I need to earn it, I call bullshit! I deserve it anyway!" That over privileged spoiled little brat, is she being serious?! There people in this world who are living off of nothing and eating crap just to stay alive! Even ones without a home, those girls just can't even possibly have the right to say that when they're living comfy and financially secured because of their parents! While others are struggling to make a living with what they have! With that Reina just takes off with the cart while Kozu follows behind as the girls tries to call out the angry blonde for being a coward. Reina paid for the food with just 17,900 yen. Once some of the stuff is bagged she and Kozu took the cart out and arrive back at the cattle cart where the two took each heavy rice bag and place them on the holding surface along with the extra ingredients at the far back so they won't get crushed by the stacked rice bags.
Reina and Kozu pushes the now heavy cart back to their home. That was pretty hard to carry with just two thanks to the added weight, but given from their efforts they are gonna be back home for about an hour. It was tough to take in from what she had to hear from the girls but its just another day for her, so she's used to it. Nonetheless, she just wish that things can be okay for her. Reina and Kozu are halfway back to Sagano Village while avoiding any eye contact from several other serious looking locals within the general public.
Feeling bored of this silence Kozu couldn't help but bring up the situation between those girls and Reina. "Reina? What in the world is up with those girls treating you that way?" The young boy struggling to push the loaded cart behind them as he glances at a somewhat blank Reina who's clearly looking dejected. "I know you told me not bring anything up, but I really can't help but be so angry at them for picking on you like that! What causes them to be so detestable?" Reina stayed silent for a minute but begrudgingly offered the shortest answer she could possibly give the boy. "The short answer, it's what my dad did way back…" Kozu tilted his head with a confused eyebrow raise. "Your dad?" Clearly not knowing what Reina's parent was like but it sure gave some clear hints for Kozu to know that her father must have done something terrible which causes the public to hate him and in extension towards Reina as well. "Kozu Chan please let's just concentrate on getting this cart back home, okay?" Reina sadly smiles which felt almost too uncomfortable for her to do which the young boy can see through it. "Reina…" Kozu laments while staying quiet through the whole trip giving Reina her much needed space.
Somewhere along the same route, 3 girls are walking towards their pathway. As soon as they cross paths the two girls from opposite sides started their conversation on the brooding blonde. "Hey isn't that Reina? Oh my gosh, she actually showed up here? Gosh...she's a mess..." The first girl from the left definitely wasn't a fan of her due to the biases. "I don't know I find it dumb to have her back here…besides she chose to take on that life of hers…There's nothing we can do for her." The girl from the right refrain herself from saying something that she may regret. "I know, but let's be fair having to see so many people dog pile on her just felt so wrong…" As the two continue their ongoing gossip and becoming more distant from the middle girl, they turn back to call out their friend to know why she's slowing down. "Hey Tsunomori San are you okay? You're seriously lagging behind!" The girl with twin short ponytails turn to them with a nod. "I'm fine…I'll be right you guys in a minute." Hiharu answers directly and turns her sights back to Reina. "Reina…" With that, she turns around and goes off with her friends.
To Be Continued.