Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado (old version)

13.5. Ethereal beginnings

Yuu Kobayashi was only five years old when he truly talked for the first time with Ayaka Iwamoto.

It was unnerving, the way her sharp eyes were always on him.

Back then, Ayaka must have been only four years old. She had gotten En aquel entonces, Ayaka tendría unos cuatro años. She had gotten sick with severe pneumonia that forced to spend weeks in bed, suffering of excessive sweating, vomits and delusions, and Yuu's mother didn't move away from her, not even once. Ayaka's hold on the hand of Nozomi Kobayashi was so strong she deeply sank her nails on her skin, begging that she didn't want to die, time and time again in between tears and delusions.

"I don't want to leave... my parents alone, please... please don't let me die!" she desperately pleaded. Her voice broke in heartbroken sobs, and Yuu, who had never seen something like that before during his short life, didn't know what to do.

Ayaka had never talked before, only whispering to Nozomi when she wanted to say something, staying quiet most of the time. But her big brown eyes like hazelnut observed everything around her in unspoken curiosity, Yuu most of all, who even as he tried to pay her no mind, she always, always looked at.

Although Yuu wanted to be a healer, a doctor like her mother, he found himself paralyzed at the act.

What could he do? What effort could he pitch in, with his scarce experience and his uncontrolled nervousness?

Yuu was a skinny kid, short and messy hair that never stayed still and a permanent black stain on his nose, that no matter how hard he tried never stayed off his face. He was careless, and maybe a bit disastrous, making her nose end up stained in black one way or another whenever he practiced his calligraphy with graphite bars.

As the little girl shook in trembles, the corner of her lips stained with vomit, Yuu had an idea.

"Hey, don't worry" he started, softly caressing her head. Ayaka looked up scared, along with doe eyes, as her other hand clutched onto Yuu's wrist. "Everything will be okay."

Nozomi's eyebrows flied up to her forehead as she looked at Yuu, who didn't lose his composure as he continued patting Ayaka's head.

"Look, this is a samurai, you've seen me play with it before, right?" Yuu continued, raising the rag doll on his hands that was supposed to look like a human, the one he played with and he was sure Ayaka had seen him with, because she dedicated her time to observe as he narrated out loud stories about undefeatable warriors that turned into the most cherished and loved heroes from Japan.

Ayaka nodded quickly, fixing her gaze on him and no one else. Her breathing slowed down bit by bit.

"Tomorrow morning you'll be better, and I'll play pretend samurais with you as much as you want, you also want to be a samurai, right? We'll become samurais together, tomorrow when you will still be breathing, and the next day, and the day after that one and all the ones that come." Yuu wasn't sure about her words, he had no clue if Ayaka would survive that night, but that was the trick.

Ayaka relaxed, loosening up her hold as tears slowly stopped falling.

"Do you really mean it?" She asked. Yuu softly patted her futon as he smiled.

"I mean it, but for that to happen I need you to fall asleep or else the medicines won't kick in." He threw a questioning glance at her mother to know if he was right, she nodded as her eyes sparkled. His son had talent.

"Can you... can you stay with me and hold my hand?" Ayaka shily asked, and Yuu accepted.

After a long while Ayaka fell asleep, Yuu by her side since she didn't let go of his long fingers, not even in the world of dreams..

Her mother leaned on the wall in exhaustion. On her face were prominents the black eyebags of the stress that had been eating her up for the last few days, despite that he gathered enough strength to proudly smile at Yuu.

"You're good at this." Those were the only words her mother said on that long night.

Yuu smiled in pleasure as Ayaka's chest calmly went up and down. And he allowed himself to enjoy the satisfaction of healing someone.