“Come on Ash, you can't give up. It's only been a few weeks.” Ash sits off to the side, oddly calm. She looks at me, seemingly to my soul, “I have a question. Do you hate me?”

    “What's gotcha thinking that now? You're like my sister. I don't hate you.” She looks down and laughs a little, “You know they said that a lot. You’ll start hating me eventually too. Everyone always does. They start off nice, and they start to hurt me.” I look at Ash in surprise,

    “What do you mean?”

    “It doesn't matter,” she jumps up, back to ‘normal’, “Let's get to training, shall we?” I shake my head, “Sit down Ash. I want you to talk to me.” She looks at me, clearly not expecting me to care. She then bursts into tears, “Ash! What's wrong?”

   “Nobody… Nobody's ever cared like that…” 

   “Well, I do. You can tell me, right?”

   “Yeah… Just please don't tell anyone how much of a bitch I look like right now.” I nod as she starts her story.

               Ashido, 10 years ago

    “Mommy! Look what I made!” I show her a picture of her and me and daddy. She glares at me and snatches the paper, and slaps me, “If you have time to make stupid drawing, you have time to work! Go clean the living room!” I start crying, and she kicks me. I puke blood on the floor as she starts yelling. My brothers and sister laugh as I cry even harder. What did I do…?

   “YOU LOOK LIKE THAT RETARD YOU CALL A FATHER!!! YOU'RE CURSED!!!” She kicks me again and walks away, and tells my siblings something before going upstairs. I get up, and get pushed down immediately by my older sister, “Wait! Let me do what mommy-” she punches me, and I spit out a tooth and they cram it back in my mouth. “You should be lucky for such a nice person like me Mina! Anyone else would just kill you, but mom and me feel bad, so we'll let you live! Now go clean something!” I get up and glare at her before going to get the broom. “You know, you’re gonna grow up to be a little fucking retard, just like your dad.” I turn around, and ram the broom into her chest and push her out the nearby window. I watch as she falls down 66 stories and into the ground, stunned, but nowhere close to dead. I turn around, only to see everyone staring at me. “What did the retard do no-... Get out. Get out! GET OUT!!!” I run out as my mom is screaming hysterically after me. After that I go from place to place, with every time being similar to the last. Until I met a blue haired boy with a heart too warm for this world… I can barely hold my head high… but for my sanity, maybe I can try just one last time. I can put on my final performance.