Introduction to Ami Gamo
There is only so much punishment that one person can take. At some point, they just have to get away from all of that pain and suffering, and if for some reason that isn’t possible for them, they’ll certainly dream about their escape. They’ll dream of things like freedom, happiness, and peace, of anything that doesn’t include the suffering that they’re going through. They may dream of people that help them find these things, or they may dream of places that they can go to and find them.
Ami Gamo had dreams like those. She liked to dream of a marsh, not a muddy and insect-filled swamp or bog, mind you, but of a small clearing within a forest. In this clearing there was a small hole of water, one just big enough for one or two people to fit into, and it’s filled with clear water that isn’t too hot or too cold. She liked to imagine that this clear pool of water would smell like the rain, clean and refreshing, a smell that can bring tranquility even to the most troubled of souls. Ami liked to dream of getting in the water and letting it cascade around her to engulf her in a calming embrace.
In her dreams she liked to lay her weary head against the edge of the pool and look out to the forest around her; the marsh would be covered in a very light and cool mist, and there would be exotic flowers of all sorts surrounding the pool, gracing her with their multicolored beauty. In the places without flowers, there would just be open forest floor, where the grass would be soaked with fresh morning dew. Ami’s marsh would be surrounded by an inner circle of willow trees, but beyond them would be tall trees and numerous wide trees; the wide trees would block her marsh away from the rest of the world, and the tall trees would keep too much light from reigning in on her but would let enough of it through to keep the marsh from getting too cold.
Ami’s marsh was a place of rebirth where hardships could be shed instead for comfort. Ami’s marsh was a place of peace and tranquility that the noises of the outside world couldn’t reach. Ami’s marsh was a place where she could find safety, where her pains just couldn’t manage to reach her.
Sadly, Ami’s marsh didn’t exist. She could not bathe in the peaceful waters of her marsh; she could not hide from the outside world in the comforting embrace of her marsh. She could not gaze upon the beauty of her flowers, nor was she protected by her willow trees. Ami’s marsh only existed in her dreams, and she would have given anything to be able to spend just one second in it.
Instead of living in her marsh, Ami lived the life of a high school student in Karakura Town. From the outside, she just looked like a harmlessly weird girl who never said a word to anyone, who just looked at the ground and avoided everyone. She didn’t have any friends, but she didn’t have any enemies, either; people just left her alone, which was a blessing and a curse for Ami. She longed to the feel the comfort of having another human being around her, but she wouldn’t dare share her problems with anyone and take a chance on involving them in her troubles. She’d rather suffer alone than take a chance on someone else getting hurt besides her.
Ami’s troubles came in the form of her family. She’d give anything for a caring and nurturing mother, for a father that would give his life to protect her, and for a brother that would look at her with anything except hate in his eyes. Instead, her father was a drunk that couldn’t keep a steady job, who blamed all of his problems on his daughter and took his frustrations out on her physically. Her mother never did a thing to stop him, and even though she never physically abused Ami, the amount of verbal abuse that came out of the woman’s mouth was atrocious. Ami’s younger brother was the worst of all of them. He never hit Ami or screamed at her; instead, he just did nothing. He didn’t care at all, and that hurt Ami more than any punch or insult.
Ami learned a long time ago that it was better if she just kept her mouth shut. She learned to stop screaming, to just endure the pain without showing any sign of weakness to her parents. Her silence seemed to deter them on occasion, but even then it did nothing to stop them, Ami refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry again. She’d rather live a life of silence than do that, so she instead covered her wounds and refused to make a sound.
She never really knew why her family hated her so much. It could have had something to do with the religion they followed. She had found them kneeling on the ground and praying on occasion, but that was about the only thing she saw them do to practice the religion. They hadn’t even told her the name of their religion; apparently, she was too unworthy to hear its name. She knew some of its practices and teachings though, and while some of them were relatively normal, she just couldn’t wrap her head around some of the other ones. Some of them were downright asinine, like the one that said that women couldn’t cut their hair, but her parents still made her follow the ridiculous rule, which was obvious every time she looked at her knee-length hair.
One of the main teachings of the religion was that all firstborns were supposed to be boys. Any firstborn that was a girl was considered to be bad luck, and families with these firstborn girls were damned to never prosper and they could possibly even die out. A teaching like this would seem ridiculous to a lot of people, but Ami’s family seemed to take it very seriously. Maybe that’s why they hated and abused Ami; maybe they were punishing her for all of the supposed bad luck that they had. Ami didn’t really care why they did it, though, because all she wanted was for it to all just stop.