Mãi bên cạnh Người (Always by your side)

3. Left

Summary:

Death comes to all. But that doesn't mean everyone can easily accept it, like him.

Notes:

Up till this chapter, Ao has been 11 years old. :>

================================================================================

...As an inevitable result, since the first meeting that did not leave much sympathy that day, Tachi and Aoi, from two strangers who have never met each other, are now officially into a relationship that is even more distant than before. Over time, the Guardian of the Mist Island, the center of the whole mess, is hated more and more mercilessly by his junior girl, for the reasons that one lives the hidden life like him will never be able to fully comprehend its intricacies.

Of course, this was something that both Hayate and Airi could have long foreseen, even though the two of them couldn't be happier with themselves being right. A young prodigy, with extreme thinking and an unrelenting obsession with something as vague as "power"? It will only be a matter of time, until one day she becomes arrogant towards that hundred-year-old senior, who all the strong people on this island have boundless respect to.

Even so, however, openly criticizing Tachi, because of a little misunderstanding and still in the state of hysteria after the battle, was a completely different story. Hayate was cold and restrained, so he was able to keep those discontented feelings down to just a few reminders. But the sentimental Airi is the complete opposite. As soon as she met Aoi again, and first learned of what happened on the north coast through Hayate, she had an argument with her soon after, something that had never happened between the two of them before...

"What were you thinking to say those words to him!?"

Suppressing the uneasiness in her heart, Airi spoke while squeezing Aoi's shoulders tightly. After the incident that happened to Yinya and Yuna's family in the past, the Dragon Soul ninja felt the need to take the responsibilities for their daughter's upbringing, as a compensation for the fact that she had not arrived on time and could not do anything that day.

And certainly, acting disrespectfully like that, wasn't the kind of ninja way that Airi had directed her sworn little sister to follow.

"The two of them not only fought in a single frontline, but had to visit every key area of ​​the island before reaching you. The pain for that delay, they can totally understand, and have even prepared to face it. Don't let your ego overwhelm reason and act like such an immature person, okay?"

"But that still doesn't change the fact that he always cries with those closed eyes, right?" Aoi stubbornly refuted, but still couldn't look directly at Airi back then. She had never seen her sister lose her temper and raise her voice so loudly, just because someone had to endure her childish arrogance.

"...Everyone has their weak moments."

"But we don't make them a burden to others. He does. And crying, out of habit? It's even more shameless and immature."

...Of course, like any previous serious talks between the two of them, this didn't lead to any real solution, and always ended with Aoi dropping everything and hiding somewhere, with whatever reason she could have randomly said at that time. To Aoi, Airi is a sister, a spiritual support for her, yet she is not her mother. She didn't need anyone to tell her what to do, or who she has to pay respect. The only two people having the right to do that, have left her and do not know if there will be a day to return.

But things just don't end up well right there, since that the absolute respect that Airi had for Tachi, part of the reason for the conversation that day, have made her impression of the Guardian even worse. Consequently, for almost half a year after that, let alone talk, not even polite greetings existed between those two, despite the fact that the island was a very small place, and the fact that it is completely impossible for them to avoid each other forever.