Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado (old version)

7. The desire to be strong

Once Ayaka and Tanjirou were so far away they couldn't be seen, so so far away not even Kaede could see them, Kaori Iwamoto collapsed on her husband's shoulder.

"I don't know where I got the courage to tell her that", she said exhausted. Her husband patted her back softly in a comforting manner.

"But you did it, right? That's what counts," he said, in an attempt to cheer her up. "It wasn't how we expected, but at least she came to visit and that's what we wanted. It shows she hasn't forgotten completely about us."

Kaori sank deeper on her husband's shoulder.

"I know that, it's just that." Her big and beaming eyes shined even more with the tears she tried not to shed. "She doesn't even look the same, if she was distant before now it feels like she's fading away from my very own fingers."

She could still remember the moment where she left, after so long.

It had been a rainy day. The so called Himejima had appeared at their house after hearing the rumour that such a small child had gotten to defeat a demon with just a sword on her hands and no training of any kind.

She hadn't forgotten when she left, with the gray and dark eyes announcing winter was approaching, so the wind was cold and harsh and they lashed against Ayaka's short locks, who slowly disappeared from her sight as she didn't have enough courage to tell her just how much she loved her and how proud of her she was. She didn't forget how her daughter didn't look back, not even once.

And Kaori could only look how she became smaller and smaller by the side of that foreign man that was double the size of her little girl. She had been so small, so small back then, where had she been all this time? She was even taller than her father now.

Makoto dried the few tears that had managed to fall on the back of his callous hand. His smile didn't falter, it never had, not even when Ayaka left.

"It's okay, it'll be okay, we'll be okay. We just have to give her some space, just a bit more time, we can't give up." He could hardly hold her in his eyes, but she gladly accepted the warmth..

With a sigh Kaori recomposed, standing proudly on her own two feet. She dried any trace of tears that could be seen and smiled.

She noticed her husband had the same traces left by tears on his cheeks so she dried them too.

"We'll be okay," she confirmed. Makoto nodded as his smile became just a little bit wider.

Yuu Kobayashi uncomfortably played with the cotton on his nose that had been placed there since the day before by Kaede's orders. He didn't dare look Ayaka's parents in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, to the both of you, if I hadn't done what I did then you wouldn't- "he started with pressed lips and his head down.

"Don't say silly things, Yuu," Kaori cut him off with a light frown. "We already said this has nothing to do with you, but with us."

Kaede let out a bored huffed from where she was.

"Don't be silly, you are partly to blame, Kobayashi," she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, taking her fan out in a swift move, pointing it towards her daughter. "And don't you dare say no, you have to be tough sometimes, that's why I'm here."

Yuu shrunk in shame, still only having the courage to look at the floor.

"Mom!" scolded Kaori, as he saw how the boy who had lived with them for the last three years made himself smaller and smaller.

"You can't change your past actions, but the only thing you can do now is make it right," Kaede said, patting Yuu harshly on his lower back. Yuu opened his mouth to talk back but Kaede was always faster. "And no, letting her punch you doesn't count."