Chapter Text
It was a little while after I belonged to The Snake Pit. In the midst of rigorous training, I saw a phantom. It was a humanoid shape. I was sparring with the instructor when I saw a silhouette of a man with a neck, arms, torso, and legs.
I was surprised and momentarily caught off guard. The instructor grabbed me by the shoulders and put his arm around my neck. It was a choke-sleeper hold. Normally, I would have accepted the technique quietly, been hurt more than necessary, and accepted the abuse with open arms.
But today is different than usual. A mysterious silhouette stands before me, silently watching me. I had a feeling he was here with a meaning although I didn't know what it was.
(Я не хочу, чтобы он считал меня слабой и разочаровался. )
At the moment a strange and strong feeling arose in my heart, I twisted my neck toward the instructor's arm. Then I made a gap, escaped the chokehold, and moved behind him. Finally, I hang my legs over his thighs, twist up his arms, and done! The more you try to get out of the hold, the harder it gets to get out. Palo Special - a special move I created and only I can do.
I could hear people around me groaning and the instructor moaning, but I didn't care because I was doing it for my one and only.
(Он...!? )
I lost sight of it for a moment, but the silhouette was still in the same place. When I tilted my head, he seemed to nod.
(Я рад, он доволен мной....)
I was happy but it only lasted a moment.
"Bойна машины! "
I was seized by several other instructors who rushed to me and slammed me to the mat. After that, I was verbally abused, and even punched and kicked by those who should have had nothing to do with it.
This comes with here. The Snake Pit is a training institute for jobber chojin - in other words, I was not expected to win. It would have been better if I had just lost quietly, but it was my fault for being so greedy. However, at that moment, I felt more pity than pain and fear.
(Я не хотела его разочаровывать, а наоборот, показала ему, какая я жалкая....)
I was wounded all over my body and it was not until after the date had changed that I was able to return to my cramped bedroom. As I tended to my wounds alone while my companions were all asleep, I thought about that phantom.
(Что это было? Неужели я настолько сумасшедшая, что у меня бывают видения? )
But I was very tired after being beaten up so much. I lightly concluded that anything was fine and went to sleep that day.
However, the phantom continued to appear the next day. At first it was just a silhouette, but it gradually took the form of a human being, and now it is a knight with a blue mask and armor.
The dull, shiny mask was severely damaged at the chin and nose, and distorted in many other places. His hands and feet were painfully bandaged, and the damage seemed disproportionate to his imposing appearance.
He never speaks out. I wonder if he can't talk. He looks down at me in silence, his red eyes staring up at me from behind his mask. When it got bad - for example, when I failed to apply a technique - he would beat me with whips and chains. He was like an instructor. But it is only a phantom, it doesn't hurt, and scar. That was fine, but it was scary to see a man bigger than me swinging a whip or chains at me. So I always stiffen up and take a position to protect myself.
To my companions, who didn't know nothing about it, it seemed to look terribly creepy. I was asked by several people "Как ты? ", but I was the one who creeped me out the most.
At first I didn't get it and was a little scared. Was it possible that I was a masochist, that I had a desire to be hurt more and more? No, it wasn't. I had been bullied since childhood, but never taken sexual arousal in it.
Then why was I having those visions? I thought about it again and again, but could not have any answers.
And it may around the same time. To forget the distress of The Snake Pit, I sometimes dreamed of a wonderful life somewhere not here. Looking back, my fantasies were childish and poor for my age because I had never been experienced books or movies.
I didn't know where it is, but it is definitely not here - it is sunny and warm. There is a large garden with beautiful green grass and colorful flowers giving off a fragrant scent. Butterflies are sucking the nectar from the flowers, and a shiny dog is getting down to hunt them. In the middle of the garden stands a large pavilion that looks like a castle. A man is in one of the dozens or hundreds of rooms. He is wearing a clean, ironed, superior shirt and drinking a cup of delicious, clear reddish-brown tea. A beautiful woman sitting next to him talks to him. He laughs. They are a married couple - .
(Я хотел так жить), I thought. If I wasn't a robot chojin. If I didn't have this ugly face. Would there have been a chance for it to come true? None of them suited me, but if anyone did, it's ...... yes, that phantom knight. If he really existed, I betted he lived like that.
Once I thought so, he began to appear in all my subsequent fantasies. In my mind, he was petting his dog, walking in the park holding hands with his wife, and so on. The dreams were as childish as ever, but his image became more and more vivid although there was no source for him. It was strange.
Perhaps he really did exist somewhere in the world. And I might had met him before, just I couldn't remember it at all. Or maybe he is me from a previous life. Maybe my long-missing brother. Maybe my nemesis with whom I would eventually get to know.
For some reason, I had begun to hope to meet him in real life. He must be an important to me because he keeps appearing in front of me over and over again.
If I kept living, I might meet him one day. When in the world? Maybe Tomorrow. Maybe next week. Or maybe end of my life. I didn't know where he is but knew that he was not in this Snake Pit. Then there was no chance that I can meet him as long as I was here....That's sad.
I needed him much more than I thought I did. I even wished he would come to the farthest reaches of Siberia to find me.
◆
One night I finally escaped from The Snake Pit. I ran from the dogs and gun-toting pursuers. I had nowhere to go, but I knew I was doomed if I stayed there any longer.
The number of pursuers was gradually decreasing. Their sharp fangs and weapons were nothing to me, as I had undergone a lot of rigorous training.
I did a Palo Special on the last of my pursuer. The technique worked perfectly and no one was in the way like before. This is what I wanted to show that phantom.... Soon after, I felt a bone cracking in pursuer's arm and I released the technique.
(Хорошо, теперь все в порядке, я свободен....)
As soon as I thought so, I heard what sounded like a gunshot, so I reflexively turned around. I saw white smoke rising from a long, thin tube that had fallen on the snow, but it did not seem to have hit me. I could see a strange figure tightening his grip on my pursuer, who seemed to be the owner of the gun. I thought I had beaten them all, but apparently there was still one left.
(Что произошло? Кто это? )
Perhaps noticing my gaze, the figure looked at me and untied its arms. The pursuer crashed down with a dull thud, but we didn't even look at him.
It was a tall man. His muscular physique was wrapped in a blue armor, and he stood without shrinking in the harsh Siberian cold. Behind a cracked blue mask, he gazed at me with red eyes.
I caught my breath, “Ты...”.
The man who had been in my mind for some time, the man who had always looked down on me and sometimes whipped me with whips and chains, the man I thought was in somewhere wonderful but not here, was right in front of me. He took one look at his fallen pursuers and immediately returned his red gaze to me.
“Ты сильная. И это был отличный ход, который ты только что сделали.”
His Russian had an accent. Even in the blizzard, his words, spun in a deep baritone, reached my ears.
(Твой голос звучит вот так....)
I had never thought about it, but it seemed to be what I expected.
The man took a step toward me.
“Как тебя зовут? ”
"Я Bойна машины."
I quickly answered. I could hear the slight rise in my voice.
“А ты? ”
“Mаска робина.”
Again, how I thought (Я так и знал). I felt that there was no other name that would suit him better. As I stood there thinking about this, Robin Mask's eyes softened a little and he said.
“Поездка в Сибирь стоила того. Я давно искала такого человека, как ты.”
“Я тоже. Я всегда хотел тебя увидеть.”
I don't know if he was able to grasp the true meaning of my words. But he seemed to have interpreted it in his own way and came up with a satisfactory answer.
“Ну что ж, это значительно упрощает задачу.”
Robin Mask held out his hand to me.
“Пойдем со мной. Осуществи мою мечту.”
I approached him without saying and took his hand. After a firm handshake, we walked out into the darkness of Siberia.
After that day, I never saw that phantom again.