The Gladiator's Soul Chapter 1

Well, here I go with my first long story. I know it will not be as easy as the short ones I usually publish, but I will try as I may. And as a commemoration of the almost 1000 views of my blog I felt encouraged XD. It is a mixture of comedy, romance and adventures. Here we go!!         

“For a gladiator there is no such thing as tomorrow: Today you face your fate, clinging to what you love the most, realizing that you can die. In a certain way there is nothing more beautiful, and at the same time more painful, that bet your life for it. Each drop  of your blood is a shining spark of desire, and in the arena your whole body becomes a sea of dreams.”

My name is Kotaro.

I was a wealthy child, one of those that never stain their hands for anything. Always dressed in clean, expensive clothes, being looked after by my servants at every moment. I did not know the happiness or unhappiness, it was that I had only experienced that shallow lifestyle.

Add to that that my parents were always abroad for business, and my closest contact with them was the money that they sent me monthly for my expenses.

By that time I was about 7 years old. As you could imagine I was a shallow child who only valued the money; in fact, at that young age I was already mature enough to understand that the servants treated me kindly just because they were paid by my parents.

Perhaps because of my attitude, or simply because of my appearance (or maybe a bit because of everything) I felt very alienated at school. Bad glares aimed to me, like telling me that that I did not belong there. Other children often bullied me, insulted me, spitted at me and even stole the money I had. Although it annoyed me a lot, I never had the courage to fight back; I was a coward, and I did not feel that my life had any value.

Anyway, no matter what I did the world would never change, and people would only approach me targeting my money, or to convey their hatred. The world was like that; everything you were not able to buy could line up against you.

There was just somebody in all the class, or almost rather in all the school, who did not look down on me. It was an extremely poor child, whose humble attire and appearance gave the fact away clearly. The same as me, the child, called Himawari, was marginalized by the other children. Maybe because of that she understood my pain. So we started to spend time together during the breaks, when returning home… and also out of school.

I started calling her “Hime” (what at the beginning caused her to blush like a tomato), and I got “Kota” from her. She often came to make me company in my cold house, only full of servants, flooding the atmosphere with warmth. We even had baths together, had dinner together,… basically we were such good buddies.

A certain day we were going out of the school, already in the evening, way home; there suddenly appeared a group of our feared bullies. There were five of them; there was no wondering why they were there waiting, it was so obvious. They looked at us with a face which seemed a blend between scorn and fun, and I froze.

Unable to react, I just closed my eyes in a submissive attitude awaiting the inevitable.

But suddenly… “Let him alone! What in the world has him done to you all? You are nothing but damned, good-for-nothing bullies!

The screams made me open my eyes again, shyly. And I could not believe what I saw: Hime charging against all of them on her own, with a red face out of rage and roaring from pure anger.

The story continues here: The Gladiator's Soul Chapter 2

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Note: "Hime" is Japanese for "Princess".