6 Chapter 5

-Anais POV-

My name is Anais, I've been in the orphanage for as long as I can remember. Since I was old enough to interact with people, I have noticed that the other kids would look at me funny even the Matron of the orphanage would look at me funny, while it wasn't as bad as the other adults in the village and the kids in the orphanage, I could tell she was disturbed when she was in my presence, but I could never understand why.

Then one day it happened, I started getting bullied by one of the older kids his name is Tatsumaki, he was the one that started bullying me he called me an ugly monster and I would get pushed around when the matron wasn't around us and eventually the other kids started copying him and one day he took it too far and I got hurt and for the first time since I can remember I cried a lot and matron came to intervene, naturally the others were punished and Tatsumaki was punished the most, unfortunately the bullying didn't stop it actually got worse.

As time passed, I started feeling bad about myself I could no longer look at myself normally in the mirror because the kids' voices would constantly ring in my head telling me that I was ugly, and no one would ever marry me, and I would always be alone. I started having nightmares about it, so I decided to talk to the matron about it.

Anais: "Matron, I've been having nightmares"

Matron: "well that's not good, have a seat and tell me about what the nightmares are about"

Remembering the dreams led to me crying and I couldn't stop

Anais: "Matron, am I ugly?"

The matron flinched with clear struggle on her face and that was all I needed to know that she couldn't say to my face immediately that I wasn't, I didn't want to stay there any longer, so I ran back to my room and cried myself to sleep.

The matron probably felt bad about it, so she has been watching over me closely and has tried to reduce any bullying of any sort happening in the orphanage while it reduced the bullying, she wasn't able to completely stop it, so I eventually got used to it, I didn't like it, so I avoided the other kids to read the stories that were in the library.

A few months ago, something happened Tatsumaki changed a lot he no longer bothered with bullying me and he was always exercising or practicing fighting this scared me a lot, while I was glad he no longer bullied me I couldn't get rid of the voice in my head that would always say "what if he decides to use all the exercise he's doing to bully you" and as much as I wanted to believe that the matron would protect me I was too scared to take a chance so I avoided him completely except when we had dinner.

His appetite had increased a lot, he was eating enough for 4 of us in the orphanage I thought it was unfair that he got to eat much more than us but the matron said it was fine since he was always exercising ad helping around the house, I really wanted him to get fat and hoped maybe he would also get bullied but it never happened, instead he started getting bigger than the rest of us he got taller and he had lots of muscles on his arms and while I was around the village I heard them talking about Tatsumaki being as strong as the adults.

Hearing this talk from the adults scared me, doesn't that mean if he decided to bully me the matron wouldn't be able to help me because he is as strong as her or maybe even stronger, I read that boys are much stronger than girls the voice in my head still kept ringing so I tried to spend less time near the orphanage when I didn't have to do chores.

I thought trying to avoid him would work but I am very unlucky, I would run into him occasionally, but he never bothered with me, we would just glance at me and move on to do what he was doing it happened often enough that the voice in my head eventually stopped and I wasn't as scared of him as I used to be.

I didn't know when it happened, but I occasionally found myself staring at him, I felt more comfortable around him compared to other people. He didn't have the look on his face that other people had when they saw my face, he was always indifferent and sometimes there would be other expressions, but he never looked at me with pity or disgust like everyone else.

While I wasn't as scared to be around him as I was before I couldn't bring myself to be alone with him as I was still scared of how he used to bully me.

Earlier today the matron was busy with the younger children and asked Tatsumaki to look after us, he told us not to go too far from him and not to bother his training, so I went far a bit further away to read the book I took from the library, unfortunately I didn't notice some of the other kids following me.

Things went the way they usually do with me being bullied but there was a change this time, Tatsumaki came and defended me and stopped the bullying. I was scared when some of the others complained that he no longer played with them like he used to because what they did together the most was bullying me but fortunately, he didn't care and had them leave.

I was cleaning myself and preparing to leave but surprisingly he spoke to me, he told me to stick close to the matron and he even allowed me to stick close to him when he is training to protect me from the bullying, I was scared that it was his plan to bully me where no one could interfere but he didn't insist on it so I left to find somewhere to read my book but his offer still kept ringing in my head.

The next day I decided to go to the place he usually exercises, I kept telling myself I shouldn't come but a part of me wanted to believe that he just wanted me to help avoid being bullied so I decided to go through with it, the worst that can happen is he beats me up and I avoid him forever after that.

I arrived at the place he I heard the matron say he was exercising and I saw me there doing push ups with a large rock tied to his back with ropes I was so shocked that I accidentally let my voice leak, he seems to have heard me and stopped for a bit to look at me, he looked shocked that I was here and I immediately felt my heart start beating super fast I thought he was really going to bully me but he just continued with his push ups after telling me not to disturb his workout.