The Unnamed Poet : Volume 0

Chapter 30 : Kawabata Aoi, Checkmate

Kumiko did not have an easy sort of life.

She obtained her Serpent ability from her father. But she got a much more enhanced version of that ability. She was born into one of the seven great families of ability users. Like the Shiro or Vinogradov family.

The Serpent was their blueprint on how to raise the soul of a child in their clan. They saw how powerful it was and how it killed animals much larger than it. Kumiko was supposed to be named after a Python from a certain tale. But her mother insisted on naming her like that. Because she just seemed. Adorable in her own eyes.

At the age of four every single child of that clan had the serpent tattoo on their backs. They beloved in a certain deity that was said to be a snake large enough to swallow the planet. But Kumiko didn't believe in that. She decided to not believe in their own beliefs as opposed to others they believed the planet was everything the universe had.

She refused to believe that. As one night she stared at the stars. She was outside her clan and looked outside. Her father. Her clan always told her that the moon and the stars were so small. But she could feel such delight looking at this night sky. She knew how large this world is. Because she could see it. Like this deity her family believed. She felt like she could crawl around the world and float around the cosmos.

Every time she had the chance. Whether to camp or anything else. She'd go outside and stare at the beauty of the world. She talked about it with her mother and the loving face she always has. Faded to disappointment. She was punished by being forced to pray to their deity. No food and water for days. She felt like she was ready to cry.

It was a late night. That time Kumiko was thirteen. She then had found out she was sold to some other family by her parents. She was ready to cry.

But no tears left her eyes.

Before she was going to be sold she was allowed a chance to do any one thing she liked.

She asked to see the night sky she so loved. As she was staying there looking up with two guards next to her. They both fell asleep and someone broke her chains with a hammer. A small one. She turned and saw a young boy. A bit older than her. His white hair with yellow tips were just below the moonlight. «What's your name?» are the only words Kumiko uttered. The man had answered. «My family calls me Tohru... but please just... call me... Archive».

He placed his hand in front of her and as she went to grab it. Her hand went through the palm of Archive.

Those were the memories that went through her head. Out of her pleasant memories with her younger brother. Out of her games and everything. She only remembered the night sky, and the moonlight that shined upon her love.

Her eyes runned tears of regret and guilt. She couldn't live much longer. Yet she still wanted to do this. For him... the person who liberated her. Her arms wrapped around Aoi tighter, her heart pumping faster and faster. Producing enough energy to simply... burst.

She was barely even a corpse now. Her body the way it was you couldn't understand that it was human. Only recognizable by the face. Aoi was poisoned from everywhere and he threw her dying body away. At her last moments she was near an entrance and in her eyes she saw Archive was looking at her. Back then under the moonlight.

... and Archive... he stared back at her smiling face. He was holding hiw own wound but no longer. He lifted his head and looked at Aoi. That pathetic man trying to withstand the poison. He was crawling towards the shrine when he turned to the left and his gaze met his.

All animals including humans have a fight or flight instinct. Even with Toma Shig Aoi was planning to fight.

But...