The Gladiator's Soul chapter 10

Previous chapter: The Gladiator's Soul chapter 9

Arrghh at last… I am sorry for the delay, but this chapter did not seem trite to me. As the title says, it is an “especial” one on the occasion of the end of the world, so I have made it longer than usual. This is only because, if the world ends, at least I wanted to reach the beginning of the plot just before the end… XDDD

Hime was stiff, seeming more a statue than anything else. First a face of surprise looking at her present; then lifted her sight and trained it on me, closing her mouth: “This… what ‘s this supposed to be?”

“Didn’t I tell you before? This is your surprise.”

“Yeah, I guess.  But I didn’t expect something like this…”

“Well… after all your work this summer… I think you deserve a reward…”

“Anything would do, you don’t need to look after me so much. Moreover, even if you give me the course enrolment, my parents won’t be able to pay monthly…”

“About that… I haven’t shown you all the surprise yet. It turns out that I asked my parents if they could pay for your course… and they were pleased to help.”

Her expression hardened a little: “And also you are going to pay for my course? I’m sorry, we are the best friends, but I cannot accept this. I shouldn’t depend on you so much, you make me feel bad, as if I were taking advantage of you.”

And there came what I feared: Hime openly rejecting my present.

“I don’t think you are taking advantage. Moreover, actually I just brought up the topic casually when talking to my parents about you being offered the accelerated course, and everything else was from them. If you want to reject their kindness go ahead, but I think they will feel hurt.”

Although I did not like the idea of telling lies to my Hime, in that case I thought that ‘the end justified the means’. At any rate I had to achieve it, that was going to be beneficial for her in every sense.

“… Really…? It came from them…?”

“Of course, they know you are my best (only) friend and want to help you; and anyway they have money to spare, I don’t think this means even a small expense.”

“But… but… taking advantage of their kindness… I’m so poor… They shouldn’t spend their money on someone like me…” Her shy eyes now focused the ground, in a clear gesture of uneasiness.

“Hime!” I shouted suddenly.

Startled, she opened her eyes all at once and lifted her head.

“…”

“Damn, you shouldn’t be so selfish!”

“I am selfish…?” Yes, I could be so. After all I’m always abusing your good faith…”

“It’s not that! You are selfish because you don’t let me look after you, although it’s the only that makes me happy in the world!”

Hime blushed all of a sudden and retracted a little.

“But if I do that… if I take on the accelerated course, we won’t be in the same class anymore. We won’t be able to see each other all the time…”

So it was that. I felt deeply comforted. In the end, she just wanted to be with me. That reinforced my determination:

“There’s no problem, we can come together to class, and go back home together. I don’t like either the idea of not being in the same classroom, but you have talent and should make good use of it. Otherwise, my parents’ good intentions will go to waste.”

Mercilessly, I dealt the ‘coup de grace’: “And now that they are excited about everything you can become, I don’t dare to tell them that you have rejected it just like that. Besides, if you do well in the special course I promise I will reward you.”

“…” She seemed somewhat affected after hearing that.

Suddenly Hime’s phone ringed:

“Are you wearing a mobile phone today? That’s rare!”

“Yes, for some reason my father has lent it to me and told me to take it with me ‘just in case’…”

“…Yes…?”

From the other end of the line the voice of a woman sobbing was heard: “Sniff… sniff…  daughter… we are very poor… if only we could at least pay a good education for you…. Sniff… sniff… Aaaahhhh I’m so sorryyyyyyy… I’m a bad mother… I can’t give you what you need… sniff…”

“Mom, don’t say that. You aren’t bad…”

“But, if you had the chance to study, you wouldn’t reject it, would you…?”

“No, mom; you know I wouldn’t do it…”

 “Ah, ok; now I feel more relaxed.”

And she hung. The girl pulled a face kind of strange, and whispered “what was that about…?”

“… ok… I could maybe try it… I don’t want to disappoint anybody.”

It was almost time for lunch. As in a tacit agreement we began to walk towards her house. Although it looked like I had achieved what intended, now Hime seemed somewhat distant, I had made her feel bad. Practically it could be said that was the first time I saw her in that mood. So, while I bragged inwards about knowing how to make her smile, I had done the contrary this time. She did not let a word out the whole way. It was logical, almost it could be said that I had forced her to accept that enormous present.

We said goodbye with a gesture that seemed to me as lifeless as the tundra. In the way home, with each step I felt like my heart was going to come out of my body. I knew everything: How I had been so selfish, and even worse… how the fact that she did not want to be with me would benefit my even more selfish (if possible) plan to protect her. And to top it all I had called her so. They could tell me self-centred until they became hoarse, but I had to do it. It was becoming my obsession.

Far from forgetting what happened when going out of the school, during the summer holiday I had not stopped brooding and thinking that as soon as the classes began we would be in danger again. There were no options left; I had got her enrol the accelerated course, that alone was positively an achievement. Now I only had to become strong, and look after her from where she could not see me. So that she would not have problems. She was someone with talent, but unfairly had been born within such a poor family. I, on the other hand, never had any special talent. Well, until few minutes ago I thought it was to make her happy…

I felt a deep pressure in my chest, as though I were going to suffocate. I did not know if it was either because of the idea of moving away from her or the fact that I had made her suffer. And the rain of sadness started from my eyes once more, falling on my incredulous hands. I was still a child, a very weak and coward one. Again I was sobbing… the grief took away from me my balance as well as my only friend, and nothing but a cold street light supported me. That was what awaited me; cold, regret, falseness… it was my punishment for aggrieving her.

I stayed for a while watering the pole with my sorrow. I could not believe what was happening… was really that what I wanted? Losing Hime?

<<I am silly…>> “I am silly!!”, I yelled at the sky, like cursing the very space-time that had led me to that situation.

There was nothing else to think about. I was halfway to my house, and turned back. I dashed like sick; my mind blank, my legs light. I think until then I had never seen the world move so fast. The fresh wind on my face made me feel alive. I had already reached top speed, I guess at that moment I believed myself to be the bullet train… but something in the middle of the sidewalk approached like a rocket. I could not brake, there was no way to stop me.

All happened in a split second: a brief glimpse of Hime’s face, followed by the biggest known tackle between two non-rugby-professional people. Both fell down to the ground and remained there in pain.

As soon as I managed to stand:

“I’m sorry, Himawari. I have made you feel bad.” My ashamed eyes focused my knees. “Moreover I have lied to you. It was not my parents who suggested the accelerated course, I have made that up. Actually… I asked them. I did it because I know you have talent, and if you cannot develop it, that’s only due to a lack of money.  I’m sorry… I have been selfish for not checking it with you, but I wanted to give you a surprise…”

She also stood up and came near me.

“You know, Kota… being so poor gives me a complex, and I don’t want to be depending on others. But I’m not as poor as you think, since you are by my side.”

She wiped one of my humid cheeks with her hand. “… what you have done has upset me, that’s true. But you calling me Himawari… is something that I never want to hear again. And these tears… are something that I never want to see again. I know it, everybody says that I have talent, that if I could study… but if it’s for you, only for you, I will take on the course. If that makes you happy… I know nothing about the world, Kota. But I believe in you.”

Arrgghhh I will never forget that moment, after hearing that I was on top of the world. <<There can be champions in all the disciplines, kings, princes and ministers… but that’s nothing: she believes in me!!>>

“Buaaahhhh…” I burst into tears like a little child, overwhelmed by the swell of emotions in such a short time.

Hime stood and approached me: “you are such a crybaby…” and hugged me.

Her beautiful words echoed within me like harp music. Maybe I could manage everything: to protect and not to lose her. In the same way as a charcoal sketch is erased, from my face was erased the concern I had harboured during the summer. I got lost in her arms, and later I floated to my home with a stupid smile of happiness.

The next day Hime came to collect me really early in the morning, with a smile matching with the advanced summer sun that blinded me as I opened the door for her.

“Kotaaaa! Come with me to the countrysideeee!”

“…mmmm…? …ehhh…?” I was still asleep.

“I go with my parents to spend some days in the countryside, at my aunt and uncle’s house. And they told me you can come as well.”

“Err…”

“You’ll come along, right…?!”

“Ehhh…yes…well…” I tried to wake myself up, but Hime just had a head-start on me.

“Enough talk! I will help you to pack your bags!”

And so sudden it was. But I was glad that she was the same mischievous girl as always.

Later her parents came to pick us up with their car. We left quickly with my luggage, in order not to make them wait. Her mother got off the vehicle:

“Hello, Kota! How was Hime’s surprise…? You know, the accel…”

As she spoke I gestured the best I could trying to express <<no, don’t say it!>>,  while Hime’s face was progressively crinkling.

“….” “So all of you knew it….?! Aaaaarghh! Now I understand why the phone call! You were all in cahoots against me!”

Her cheeks grew bigger than ever, and I thought they would explode.

“Uguu! You are so mean! You play bad pranks on me!”

Her father pulled a strange smile as he averted his gaze sideways and scratched his nip. And her mother tried to calm her down. “We are so sorry, my child. But Kota said he will make up to you for the trouble… however you want.”

“ehhh…? I…” The woman looked at me straight in the eye and my sentence was cut.

<<oh, oh… I think they have played a trick on me…>>

“Really? However I want? And it doesn’t expire?”

Her mother’s pressing eyes were still trained on me.

“No, it doesn’t expire…” I said smiling with the resignation of a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.

It seemed like Hime was satisfied with the deal, so we considered the issue settled and got on the car.

The house was large, it had something like seven rooms. All wooden, rustic as expected of a country house.

Most of the time we were playing with the animals (well, we rather teased them, XD).

I remember we went with her uncle to feed the goats they had in a pen. The truth is Hime was very excited, it was wonderful seeing her like that.

“… and what do goats eat?” she asked, with her eyes sparkling and wearing that insurance seller grin.

The farmer showed indifference: “Bah, they eat almost anything. You can give them fresh grass, withered grass or whatever you have at hand.”

“Ok! Let’s prove it!” She took a little of straw from the ground and offered it to a goat. The animal did not seem very attracted by the menu, but she proved to have resources for the situation:

“Co-o-me-ee li-i-ittle-e-e-e-e go-o-o-a-a-a-at, lo-o-ok wha-a-a-at a ta-a-asty-y-y thi-i-i-ing I-i-i-I ha-a-a-a-a-a-ave…”

The dinner guest in question was observing her intently and began to walk towards her, slowly. But…

 “HAHAHAHA!” I could not hold it anymore and burst into laughter. “HIME YOU ARE THE BOOOOMB HAHAHAHA!”

Facing my yells the animal jumped back.

“AAAAAHHHH! LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! YOU SCARED IT OFF!”

“Ehhh… err… I’m sorry, that was not my intention…”

She was still standing beside the pen fence: “Yes, of course, and now all my plan to the rubbish.”

“Ok, don’t worry. I will lure them.”

“Do you think so?”

“Sure, trust me. You will see my ability to summon goats.” And I started to bleat like them, in a very low-pitched and deep way: “be-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e…” but nothing happened. I kept on trying, even more low-pitched: “be-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e…”

This time I did receive response. From the flock a fat, enormous goat went out before coming towards us tamely. It seemed rather old, at least judging by its voice and size.

Hime took the chance: “Here you are, little goat, eat this straw…” The quadruped smelt what she offered but did not seem very interested in it, and moved a little away from the fence.

She pushed her arm a little further in, to reach the food to the animal: “Uguu, eat this… don’t you like it…?” In the blink of an eye the goat approached her head again; it looked like it was finally going to eat it. The girl was pleased, feeling that at last she achieved what she intended. But what the goat ate was not the straw… but Hime’s jacket sleeve.

“Aaaaahhhh! Look what it did to me!” She hastily removed her hand from the fence, startled. The goat bleated louder and louder, as if complaining because we had taken the menu away from it. It lowered its head, and scraped several times the ground with its hoof…

I had a bad feeling about it: “It’s not going to… it’s not going to…”

Yes, ‘it was going to’.

It dashed all of a sudden and bumped hard into the pen fence.

“Aaaahhh! Run, Himeeee! Now that it tasted you, it wants to devour you whoooole! Heeeelp!” And she terrified with me: “Nooooo! Goats eat giiiirls! Heeeelp!”

Her uncle was cracking up. “Hahahaha! What happened? Still, ‘sabertooth!” (intentionally shouted it for us to hear it).

At that moment Hime and I were going out like crazy through the door: “sabertooth? Ahhh, run Hime ruuun! It really eats people!”

“HAHAHAHA…!” Now her uncle was really dying laughing.

During the dinner he was telling the event to the rest of the family, who had much fun at our expense.

We enjoyed a lot there in the countryside, every day we had quite a lot of fun. The little of holiday left gathered the last good memories I hold from that bright period.

Finally summer ended, and classes were to start again. I was happy like a child, as I should always have been. But my naivety would play on me the dirtiest tricks of my life. Everything was going to change.

The story continues here: The Gladiator's Soul chapter 11