Ayaka Iwamoto was born weak.
The first breath she took in this world as a living being was small and ragged, not enough to keep her heart pumping. The arms that held her weren't her mother's, but the village's doctor, Nozomi Kobayashi.
A scream pierced through the air in the main room of the Iwamoto's house. Kaori Iwamoto had gone into labor.
Her hand desperately grabbed her husband's, her face extremely pale and soaked in sweat, shaking in exhaustion for the many hours she had spent like that, with the only comfort of her husband's hand and her mother's on the other side, who looked even more nervous as she squeezed Kaori's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Iwamoto-san, just a bit longer, I promise!" Nozomi yelled, the tightness on her face as a sign of the many hours she had also been there. She moved swiftly and expertly through the room even with her son Yuu at her back, not much older than a year (who stayed glaring around the room, strangely calm). Meanwhile, Nozomi runned from one place to another, carrying hot towels as her husband, Tamaki Kobayashi, came in through the door with a hot water bucket.
Makoto fastly took a piece of cloth and soaked it into the water, then tried as best as he could to clean off the sweat from his wife's forehead with trembling hands, either in excitement or nervousness.
Who could blame him, if the child he had waited so long for would be on his arms in just a few more hours?
"This will all end in a moment, so take in a deep breath, Kaori," he tried to cheer her up as he drowned in his own nervousness, taking his own advice and inhaling deeply.
Kaori tried to muffle another scream as she bit her lip. Her knuckles were as white as they could be as she squeezed her husband's hand, and it was no secret Makoto Iwamoto wasn't able to feel her fingers until a few hours later.
"You aren't helping, dammit Mako! Fuck off!" she cursed, as all Fujiokas did during hard times, because it felt like she was gonna die right there and then, along with the baby's she had cherished so much.
"Okay, Kaori, sweetie, it's okay. Doc said we're already at the end, right, Nozomi-san? I'll finally have a grandchild to spoil with mochi, think about that all you can," Kaede tried to say as she squeezed her daughter's shoulder once again. If she calmed down Kaori's nerves or her own, no one could tell.
As it was quite clear, the Iwamoto family was close to losing their minds.
"Iwamoto-san, you're close, just another push!" Nozomi asked by Kaori's feet, a clean piece of cloth on her hands.
And with another scream piercing through the room from her mother, Ayaka Iwamoto breathed for the first time.
"It's a girl!" Nozomi yelled with a smile as she wrapped the baby on the cloth.
Kaori immediately collapsed out of exhaustion with a final huff.
However, the bizarre silence that fell over the room was something that worried her.
"Why isn't she crying? Mako, why isn't our daughter crying?" she wondered with hazy eyes.
She slipped between consciousness, but still made the effort to listen, and there was no weeping.
It was popular knowledge when healthy babies came to this world they were accompanied by crying, moaning and screaming, letting out all the feelings in their little hearts so the world heard them.
"There's something wrong," Nozomi muttered to herself, eyebrows knitted in confusion.
Instead of letting the mother hold the baby, which was natural, Nozomi held it on her arms, looking cautiously at her chest. Her breathing wasn't ordinary, heavy, as if it hurt. It's probably a fever, she thought, as she stared at the baby coughing from time to time.
She laid the baby on the cloth, her hands going over her small body, looking for something else out of the ordinary.
Besides her extremely cold temperature, violent shooks overwhelmed her body over moments, and Nozomi feared every time she would stop breathing with every wave.
"What the hell is wrong with my granddaughter!?" Kaede ordered, as she fanned her daughter's face aggressively trying to make her stay conscious.
"Kaede-san, please calm down," Makoto pleaded desperately, and for the first time he wasn't smiling, heavy eyebags in sign of worry and wrinkles on his forehead. At this, Kaede decided that for once, she would listen.
"My daughter... is my daughter okay?" Kaori continued asking in a dreamy voice.
"I don't know…" Nozomi said, whose hair was being tugged on by Yuu. "It would be best for your daughter to stay with me for a few days. I can't assure she will live but if she survives thirty days maybe she'll make it, although she won't have the best of health."
Kaede got up in an exasperated jump.
"You're telling me that you don't know!? That you can't assure she survives!? And you're supposed to be a doctor!? You should at least be able to do that!" she exclaimed, getting her hands to her head.
Makoto grabbed her arm in an attempt of making her sit again:
"She's the doctor, Kaede-san, we should listen to her. I'm sure it will be alright, you'll see."
She pushed away his arm harshly, fury on her eyes like a beast prepared to go against her prey, even if she was much smaller than Makoto.
"That's what you always say! Stop hiding Mako, goddammit, you always end up doing nothing!" she accused, pointing a finger at him.
"Mum," Kaori called weakly, taking one of her mother 's hands against hers. "Mum, please, I'm very tired, just let Nozomi do her work."
Tamaki Kobayashi appeared through the doorway once again, a wooden tray with rice and a teapot on his hands.
He came to a halt, sensing the tension hanging in the air as his eyes travelled nervously over the room.
"Did I interrupt something? I can go if you want me to," he offered, thumb pointing towards the way he had come in.
Nozomi sighed in exhaustion as she cradled the small, so small baby in her arms.
"No, dear, I was just telling the Iwamotos that her daughter will have to stay with us for a few days, that's, of course, only if they allow it." She sent a look at Kaede, who, with a huff, nodded reluctantly.
Ayaka Iwamoto's life started like this. Those thirty days weren't the only ones she spent sick, after surviving her first month on this world. A lot of sick days came, and, overall, bedridden time, going from the rooms on her house to the Kobayashi's, depending if her fever got worse or not.
They were lucky the house wasn't so far away, just on the other way of the rice fields, making it easy for Ayaka if gravely ill to be carried to Nozomi immediately, which made her life become longer.
Despite everything, she was still alive. And she was a demon slayer.
But there was a time where she wasn't, when she still clutched to her mother's skirt during storms and listened intently when her father told tales on nights her fever got too high that made her forget them the next day.
Once, she had loved Yuu Kobayashi with all her heart.
It was no wonder that, bedridden and with no possibility to go out with the other kids, the only friend she had for the first ten years of her life would be Yuu.
They had known each other for all their lives, there was no moment Ayaka remembered Yuu to not be there. H was simply someone always by her side, and on the limits of their comfortable and familiar friendship, she had always felt at home.
If she had any secret, Yuu was the one she told it to.
If she discovered something, Yuu was the first one she went to.
Whatever she did, Yuu was who would be there, intertwining his hand with hers.
But that would have to change one day.
She was ten years old when Yuu started to fade away from her side, when the warm touch of his hand against the coldness of hers disappeared. And she couldn't see it.
It was on a summer afternoon when it started.
Yuu had just turned eleven and Ayaka was still only nine. They had decided to go to the river, even though they knew if Ayaka got sick they'd be scolded, but the idea of diving into the cold water and competing in who could be underwater longer was too attractive for mere children.
Laughs weren't scarce between them as Ayaka had fun, for once, like a normal kid.
She knew too well she'd get sick because of it, she knew that more than anyone else, but she had wanted this so much. Go to the river with Yuu, be with Yuu, have fun with Yuu.
So with a playful smile, Ayaka splashed her friend from head to toe with the cold water.
She'd use all the time she had, it didn't matter if she got sick if she got to enjoy herself like this with him.
"Catch me if you can!" She threw the challenge at the air with mischief, running off to the other side of the shore, hoping he would.
"You know I will!" Yuu replied, smiling as he started to run after her. Ayaka smiled.
Just as he promised, he caught her shortly after, wrapping his arms around. Then, he lifted her in the air.
"Yuu, Yuu don't!" She let out a scared yell that was drowned as Yuu shoved both of them underwater.
All the noise around her disappeared and the only thing she could feel was the cold and the touch of Yuu's soft hands.
It felt good.
She indulged in the calmness of the moment for a moment longer, and with closed eyes, wrapped her hands around Yuu's forearms hoping he wouldn't let go.
If she could have spent eternity right there, with the affection and love she felt for her first and only friend, happiness bubbling on her heart, she would have.
But that didn't happen, and she got out of the water with a harsh tug.
Air filled her lungs and she realized she had been underwater way longer than what she had at first thought.
Yuu's laughs instantly overcame her ears. Ayaka turned around and wrapped his arms around him just like he had done with her, and both of them laughed with one another, as if their souls were in sync.
Ayaka had been so happy back then, so happy that joy sometimes overcame her heart and made her chest explode.
She loved him so much.
She loved her parents so much, she loved her grandmother so much, and she loved Nozomi and Tamaki Kobayashi so much.
She loved them so much, more than her weak and delicate body could ever stand.
Their laughs finally came to an end, because laughing for so long hurt and although they stopped embracing each other, Ayaka took Yuu's hands right after.
Tired of water, they laid on the shore, simply enjoying each other's presence, simply being together.
"Hey," Yuu started, "want me to tell you a joke?"
Ayaka chuckled, snorting slightly, as she threw her head back to look at the sky.
"Your jokes are always lame," she objected in a huff. "They never make any sense."
Yuu rolled his eyes to look at her with raised eyebrows, leaning on one side.
"That's because you have no sense of humour," he replied nearly offended, puffing his cheeks in a childish way. "Besides, I promise this one is good. It's my father's."
"All your jokes are your father's," Ayaka said, amused, then she stuck out her tongue. "I do have a sense of humour, it's just that you and your jokes are lame."
Yuu huffed and stuck his tongue out too. Ayaka snickered but nevertheless waited to hear his joke.
"Okay, here it goes then. If you think they're so lame, you won't laugh, right?" Yuu asked, and Ayaka nodded, feeling the bubbles of laughter forming on her throat.
"Prepare, because here it comes, the best joke you'll ever hear in your life," he warned, pointing a mocking finger at her.
"Unless you come up with something way more stupid," Ayaka butted in, leaning her cheek against hand. Yuu puffed his cheeks again.
"Let me tell the joke, will you?"
Ayaka nodded, eyes looking over at him lazily. Yuu took in a deep breath:
"What do you tell a three-headed ghost?"
Ayaka turned her head to the side. Yuu waited a moment to hear her response, but since she stayed looking at him, expecting, he gave up. It was Ayaka after all, acting blindlessly had never been her thing.
"Hello, hello, hello," Yuu finally said, a certain excited light on his eyes. Ayaka's hand flew to her mouth, trying with all her might to drown the small chuckles that couldn't help but get out of her throat. It was no use, because it was clear by the way her shoulders trembled she was, in fact, laughing.
"I'm not.. This isn't funny… I swear I'm not laughing… I'm really not…" she tried to say, voice trembling under chuckles.
"Yes you are!" Yuu accused as he got closer, which only made Ayaka laugh harder.
It was useless, since at the end Ayaka burst into chuckles without any remorse. Bubbling and warm, they made her chest shook endlessly.
"It's just… It's just… So dumb!" she finally yelled, her loud laughs echoing through the air and filling the forest. "Why does it have to be a ghost? I don't understand!"
She continued laughing, and Yuu's nose bridge turned red in shame.
"W-well! I'm sure you can't tell a funny joke either!" he pointed out, standing up on a whim looking to embarrass her. Ayaka ceased her laughs with a final chuckle and a sigh, leaning on her elbows to take a look at him.
"Oh, you want me to make you laugh? Is that it?" she asked in a voice Yuu couldn't decipher. She had gotten up, progressively coming closer to him.
He didn't like what she was implying nor the smile with which she was saying it. Ayaka was a small weak thing, they knew that, everyone did, but she could be terrifying too.
Suddenly her closed smirk turned into a smile from ear to ear, and in an instant, as if she threw herself at him with the intention of devouring him, Yuu saw himself prisoner to her skilled and fast hands that tickled, on his weakest points, places only she knew.
He tried to endure it somehow, biting his lip and puffing his cheeks. He tried to get her hands away but Ayaka was too close and she had an iron grip on him. She could be strangely strong at times.
"Ayaka..." he tried to beg in between laughs. "Please… Stop…" Another wave of chuckles as she brought her hands to his ribs stopped him from talking.
He took her by the wrists to stop her and with a harsh tug, both of them tumbled against their feet and fell to the floor.
Yuu had no time to let out a pained moan just to let out a muffled "oof" as Ayaka fell against his stomach.
"Oh gods, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"Ayaka asked worriedly, an apologetic smile on her face, however she didn't get off of Yuu.
She was too busy looking at the small dark specks that filled his eyes. She had never noticed, but now that she was so close she took in just how charming the black on his eyes could be.
It reminded her of a galaxy, so immense and limitless she doubted there was a way out.
Did he always have those small marks on his cheeks? Like sparkled stars that had slid from his eyes, leaving the galaxy empty of light and falling on the valley of his face with the marks of their falls.
Had he always been this pretty? More importantly, had she always felt the urge to nuzzle her face on the gap of his neck and stay there?
Yuu got up in a rush and Ayaka fell flat on her face. Suddenly conscious of her thoughts, her cheeks turned crimson. It was either shame or she had caught a fever.
Maybe both, she wasn't sure. Dizziness overcame her but in a different way than she was used to. It stunned her but made her happy at the same time.
She couldn't ignore that strange feeling on her chest, as if her heart was jumping instead of pumping.
"We should go, it's late," Yuu suggested, his eyes flying somewhere else.
The way he avoided her gaze was weird, but Ayaka stayed smiling without worries, getting up from the floor to join his side, just as she always did.
Neither of them talked during the way, and Ayaka decided not to worry about how the silence between them wasn't comfortable, not how it usually was.
She had faith in Yuu, and it was nothing if he looked angry for once.
«He'll get over it soon», Ayaka told herself as she silently eyed Yuu by the corner of her eye. She knew he was annoyed, she only had to look, but what about?
«He'll get over it.»
Then Ayaka fell ill for a week, and another one passed to see Yuu again.
But not how she had hoped.
He had been rejecting her many offers to hang out for a few days. He seemed indifferent and Ayaka dared say he was annoyed, but she decided not to believe what her eyes were telling her.
«It's Yuu», she naively thought. «If there was something that annoyed him he'd tell me.»
Her parents were always tired so she didn't dare bother them with stupid things like that, opting to solve her problems herself and let her parents take a break. So the only option left to tell her worries was her cat, Mr Fluff.
Mr Fluff was an old gray cat covered in a generous amount of fur that had been living with them for a very long time. Ayaka had been with Mr Fluff ever since she remembered, having raised him herself when her father found him on the side of the road one day. He had thought it to be a good idea to keep her company because of all the time she spent alone as they worked on the rice fields and she was forced to stay in bed, fever high enough to stay bedridden but not to go to the Kobayashi residence.
So, Mr Fluff turned into her biggest confidant, only after Yuu of course.
"What do you think is wrong with him, Fluff?" Ayaka asked as she caressed his tummy.
The clouds that covered the sky that day were grayish as his fur, covering any sunlight that could have shone over the rice fields and making the weak shine of the sword over on the wall bright the room. The hyottoko mask next to it returned the look Ayaka gave it, nervously going back to the window.
It was going to rain, that much was obvious, and Ayaka decided it was more pleasant to look through the window instead of at those weird memoriams, Fluff on her lap and her hand never stopping on her petting and eyes usually travelling to the sword and hyottoko mask over on the wall.
Her cat purred delighted, more focused on how her fingers travelled over his fur than on Ayaka herself.
At this her eyebrows furrowed. That had never happened before, it was weird not to have Yuu to tell her worries to, but this time she couldn't, since her worries were about him.
With nothing she could do about the matter, Ayaka decided to imagine what Fluff would say if he could talk.
"I'm sure it's nothing, you should try and talk to him. You'll see how everything goes back to normal" Ayaka tried to imitate in a low tone what she believed her cat would say, moving his paws up and down as if that was something cats did when they talked.
"But Fluff, do you think if I talk to him he'll tell me what's wrong?" Ayaka asked worriedly. "We're going to hang out today to play near the river, should I bring it up?"
She started to move Fluff's paws up and down once again.
"Of course, he's your best friend, you should have more trust in him," Mr Fluff sentenced, and then he started to lick her fingers hoping she'd continue petting him.
Ayaka used her free hand, the one that wasn't petting Fluff's tumy, and scratched her cheek in thought.
"Yeah you're right! I'm sure if I talk with him we'll be able to fix this," she said in excitement, getting up from the floor on a whim and making Mr Fluff run away terrified to some place to hide.
"Sorry," she said softly at his ears under the laundry, before getting out of the house.
The place where they had decided to hand out wasn't too far away, near the river behind her house where they had gone to what seemed years ago.
The end of summer got closer and autumn started to make itself present with its strong wings that freezed Ayaka's hand and cut her skin.
Her short hair shook against the wind without rest, the omens of what promised itself to be a tough autumn and by the time Ayaka reached the river, she could barely feel her cheeks.
She sat on a rock as her whole body trembled and waited. She tried to make her fingers come back to life by rubbing them against her purple kimono but it was no use, so after ten minutes she sighed in defeat and dedicated her time to wait for Yuu.
When he arrived she'd make sure to ask him to go somewhere guarded from the wind, what mattered to her now was to see him, no interest in being able to use her fingers or not.
So she waited. First it was simply fifteen minutes, repeating to herself time and time again that nothing bad had happened to him and it was just a small delay, that he'd be okay.
However, when thirty minutes passed, she started to get worried.
Never before had he taken so long, and she was totally convinced that there had been something else to stop him from arriving on time. She believed in Yuu, he'd never leave her hanging.
When thirty became forty five, Ayaka heard someone's footsteps.
Her face brightened, hoping Yuu would finally appear, that all those doubts (those that weren't accidents) had just been her own imagination, that he'd never let her down.
When she turned around, it wasn't Yuu.
"Ah, Takeshi, hello," Ayaka said, trying for her disappointment not to show on her face and failing completely.
The boy in front of her was no less than Takeshi Akada.
In such a small village everyone knew each other and it wasn't hard for her to recognize him, even if she didn't go out of the rice fields except on her short trips to the market.
Takeshi Akada was the son of sandals sellers and other pieces of handicraft. Despite his age, his incredible tongue led all the customers on however he wanted, enchanted. No matter how stubborn the buyer was, Takeshi would end up not only selling him not just a pair of sandals in the middle of winter, but also made them buy many things even more ridiculous. And maybe a pair of boots for the snow if he was generous.
It was also a known fact in the village his father beat him up from time to time, but that was besides the point.
"Aya-san, it's been so long since I last saw you. Are you enjoying your new sandals?" Takeshi gave her a closed eyed smile as Ayaka nodded. She had also fallen to his trap a few weeks ago.
He didn't seem surprised at seeing her in the forest, coming closer to her in a friendly manner. Ayaka scratched her cheek, she really didn't know how to talk with other kids her age besides Yuu. The bubble that was her childhood made sure she missed everything that was there to know about how other people acted, so she preferred to be with Yuu, where everything was familiar.
"So tell me, what are you doing in this place?" Takeshi asked, interested. He was still dedicating her his very unnerving closed eyed smile.
She doubted for a moment, her feet moving in their place, but Ayaka decided to tell the truth.
"I'm waiting for Yuu, we were supposed to be hanging out right now, but he's taking quite a lot," she said, trying not to look worried about his delay.
Takeshi hummed.
"So you're talking about Yuu-chan? Yuu Kobayashi?" He raised his eyebrows in question, looking confused for a moment.
Ayaka's eyes couldn't tell if his feelings were real or not, there was something wrong with him, somehow. She couldn't see past the surface, and that, along with her usual clumsiness, made Ayaka fidget more than she usually did with strangers.
She didn't like things she couldn't figure out.
However it was she nodded, waiting for his reply in lazy distraction as her eyes drifted away to the path without wanting them to. Even if she had all the time to get prepared, it would have never been enough for the blow to her heart to be less painful.
"I was going right now to hang out with him, we are all meeting to play together, Yumiko, Nanami and Ryu too," he said, looking worried for a moment at the astonishment that painted on her face that instant. She knew all those names, kids her age that lived in the village. Takeshi smiled, it brought him extreme red pleasure, even if she couldn't see it. "He's been playing with us for the past few weeks, but it seems he didn't tell you, and how stupid of me, to believe he didn't want you to get sick. It's a pity, really, you're such a lovely girl, Aya-san."
And just like that, Takeshi continued on his path, leaving her there.
Yuu didn't go that day.
It also rained, and she ended up going back home soaked to the bone.
Her mother prepared rice balls to make her go back to a normal warmth, but it was really as if she was absent all the time.
She fell sick again, like usual, not enough to go to the Kobayashi's house, simply staying in bed for a few days.
Yuu didn't go visit her, not even to ask how she was, leaving her only company to be Mr Fluff and the brief forehead kisses wishing her good morning and good night from her parents.
They were tired when they came home and with her increasing free time Ayaka tried to help them as much as she could, would it be making dinner or cleaning the house. Because she owed them, because they worked hard to keep her alive.
Another two weeks passed for Ayaka to run into Yuu.
She was going to the market, a basket hanging from her arm and a happy skip on her pace.
Mr Fluff was by her side, rubbing against her legs from time to time which made her tumble against him every few minutes. She was close to falling to the floor a few times, and it was a miracle she didn't.
She suddenly saw a group of kids by the side of the road. They laughed and talked loudly, no worries in sight. Ayaka recognised them instantly, they were the other kids her age. Takeshi was with them, but so were Nanami and Yumiko Sato, mischievous twins whose mother worked as a seamstress, and even Ryu Takahashi, the quiet son of the lumberjack.
Finally there was Yuu, she had never seen him so light headed, like something on his eyes had lifted, shining in joy as he laughed with the twins like she used to laugh with her.
Ayaka decided not to mind the piercing blow on her heart the sight caused, but despite everything she smiles cheerfully. She wouldn't let all those horrible things her mind whispered to her to cloud her judgement. She'd trust in Yuu, because he was her best friend, and she was sure there were reasons as to why he hadn't visited her, or why he hadn't talked to her, or why he had lied to her.
In the blink of an eye Ayaka found herself face to face with the floor and her basket flies from her hands to the other side of the road and falls on the rice fields, ending up completely soaked in muddy water.
She tried to get up, overwhelmed by dizziness. Something had crashed against her foot, what was it?
The chuckles aren't something they tried to hide, and Ayaka hears them echo on her head, bouncing on the walls of her mind without rest. They were high pitched laughs, mocking, ringing on her ears to torment her. Were they… making fun of her?
"Sorry, are you okay?" What surprised her the most was Yuu 's voice saying those things, he even tried to show genuine worry, but her eyes knew, he didn't feel any remorse. He had made her trip, he had made her fall on purpose to make fun of her.
«No, Yuu would never do that», was the second thing she thought, shaking her head to keep those whispers away.
She accepted the hand that had remained right in front of her face for too long and Yuu lifted her up more harshly than necessary. Takeshi got closer to them, holding on his hands Ayaka's basket that had gotten hopelessly soaked, covered with rests of smelly mud and rotten bugs drowned in the water of the rice fields. Ayaka felt all her muscles tense.
"Here is your basket, Aya-san," he announced as he offered it to Ayaka with a closed eyed smile. He said her name with a ring to it, tasting every letter as if it was his favourite food. The twins were still laughing in the background and it's something hard to ignore. Even so she tried, accepting in uncertainty the basket from Takeshi's hands with a "thank you" as she tried not to shiver because of the dead bugs touching her.
She ended up taking it by the edges with her pinky and thumb, jaw tightening in discomfort. More unhidden chuckles.
Fluff came back to her side after running off scared of her fall. Now calm, he returned to rubbing his back against her leg, purring.
That made Ayaka smile slightly, scratching behind his ears.
Takeshi kneeled and started petting the cat as well. Everyone was staring.
"What a cute cat you have, Aya-san," he said as Mr Fluff snuggled against his fingertips. The only thing Ayaka had the courage to do was smile, even if her heart dived into a sea of worry.
"Um, where were you going in such a hurry?" she asked as she tried not to stutter.
"We were going near the river to play pretend samurais, right, Yuu-chan?" Takeshi said in a honeyed tone that stuck to his lips and Ayaka found it excessively sweet.
Right before Yuu could say anything, Ayaka butted in:
"Can I go with you?"
There was a tint of desperation, she hoped it wasn't obvious just how much it mattered to her (how much Yuu mattered to her).
Yuu and Takeshi exchange looks Ayaka couldn't figure out, and then they did the same with Nanami, Yumiko and Ryu. The only thing she could do was look impatiently, as she bit the inside of her cheek until the metallic taste of blood soaked her tongue.
"Okay, that will be fun," Takeshi finally said, without letting go of that strange smile. The other kids looked at each other in confusion, pissed off grimaces and hints of annoyance. Ayaka started sweating.
That didn't go as planned. In fact, instead of making her closer to Yuu it only made him fade away more and more from her fingertips.
She had hoped that if she returned back to him things would go back to normal, that she'd be the same as always, but the breach between them only grew bigger, what had one been a trace of a line on the earth lead the way to a snowy cliff.
He didn't look her in the eyes, instead making jokes out of her. Just how pale she was, how small she was, how soft her voice was and how useless she was. That time wasn't the only time he made her fall to the ground.
He wasn't the only one, the twins were unusually "clumsy" and dedicated their time not only to "accidentally" pushing her, but also to lean on her weak body as if she was less than a thing to put their elbows on, and although she wasn't sure, it looked like they made sure to be as close as possible to her as they whispered things about her in the less discreet way possible. They weren't exactly good things.
Ryu didn't say much, but she had the hopes to befriend him at some point since his father had worked with hers not too long ago, and he hadn't seemed like any of the villagers there. Instead, he tried to act as if she wasn't there, which only made it worse when she looked at him waiting for a reaction as everyone laughed in yet another joke about how sick she looked, anything that meant he disagreed, but there was nothing.
And with all that, Takeshi simply observed everything with that smile that brought Ayaka such strong negative feelings.
Even so, Ayaka clutched to them, especially Yuu, because she really wouldn't be able to stand the loneliness that came with having no one.
She still had the hopes of everything going back to normal, but she didn't know what to do to make that happen.
Many months later, Ayaka found the corpse of Mr Fluff in the garden, next to her mother's red spider lilies.
She screamed, the fear on her voice alarming her parents who were luckily there and soon made her look away from such a horrible sight. Her mother chose to hug her against her chest so she didn't have to see it, and Ayaka only cried silently on her shoulder.
But she could remember, how foam came out of Mr Fluff 's mouth and how his lifeless eyes looked at the sky. There was no light there she could look at.
She didn't talk much with her parents from then, but they didn't confront her about it and never brought it up again, as if Mr Fluff had never existed.
Ayaka had the light suspicion that her parents considered her too weak to talk about it, that she'd burst into tears if they even dared mention Mr Fluff's name.
It was true she hadn't been as cheerful for the last few months, but that didn't mean she was a flower in her mother's garden that couldn't stand even a light breeze.
They didn't have any pets again.
The breaking point finally came for her, all hopes she had on Yuu had been slowly fading away with every joke, every push, every mocking laugh he directed at her. So she tried to do what she thought was best, ask him just what had him so upset with her.
She finally found him alone once Yuu went back to his house over the rice fields path, passing by close enough to her house for Ayaka to see him.
"Yuu!", she called, running to try and catch up to him. It had been so long since they were last alone. Yuu sped up his pace, making sure he was as far away from her as possible. Ayaka did the same, shouting his name against the wind a second time instead of thinking about how he was purposely ignoring her.
How did it end up like this? What happened for it to come to this?
"Did I do something wrong!?" she yelled, eyes starting to water. She managed to control her tears, but there was no way to stop the trembling on her lips.
And then Yuu suddenly stopped walking, still with her back to her, and Ayaka stopped running too, although taking small steps towards him.
"If I did something wrong, please tell me!" she pleaded as she came closer, drying the few tears that she couldn't stop falling down the valley of her cheeks.
He didn't turn around, not even when Ayaka hugged him from behind, fingers desperately grabbing to his clothes.
Yuu had always felt like a familiar comforting place to go back to, now it only felt like a burning nail that burned brighter the more she clutched onto it.
And like the burning nail he was, he slapped her away from him, and Ayaka crashed against the floor.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked, finally turning around to her.
She flinched, feeling herself become smaller and smaller the more his gaze was fixed on her. Yuu scared her and it hadn't been the first time, every word that came from him brought a twinge of fear to her chest. But in that moment, she really believed he'd be able to hurt her, that Yuu was a cruel person.
"Why can't you just be normal? You go pitifully following me around all the time like a lost puppy. You can't even stand a speck of dust, you have no one else to hold onto except for me, you fall ill every two damn days! You're seriously so weak and pathetic you disgust me."
As if he had violently punched her, Ayaka turned her head to the ground.
Then, as much as she tried to stop them, tears went down her cheeks and marked their path to her chin.
"I'm sorry." That was the only thing she could say. "I'm truly sorry for bothering you."
And seeing how Yuu disappeared in the distance, Ayaka wished for Fluff to be alive.
She never joined the other kids again, nor did she try to tell her parents. She had stopped reciprocating the forehead kisses a long time ago.
Her parents wouldn't help her, they never did. They were cowards, that was what they were, pathetic cowards just like her that couldn't even see what was in front of them.
All the other villagers took advantage of their kindness, they all mocked them behind their backs and took them for fools. Ayaka saw it all, every time she went to the market, but both her and her parents decided to ignore it and continue being the kind and naive Iwamoto family.
And then a few days later, everything turned into chaos.
Ayaka had been safe from the darkness of the night, safely looking through the window, when she saw the fire.
Fire on Yuu's house.
There wasn't only fire, there was also something inhuman, something she had never seen before.
She grabbed that old pink sword that hung on her living room's wall and ran, feeling under her hands the carvings of flowers on its handle and ignoring the yells of her parents asking her where she was going, because neither of them were able to see the fire.
As much as she attempted to, as much as she tried to to hate Yuu time and time again. All that time she had dedicated to try and forget him for the past days ever since he said all those things. It was no use, nothing she did could ever change that.
The closer she got to the house the bigger and hotter the flames turned. Nozomi and Tamaki were already dead by the time she got there, she could see their corpses on the second floor of the house, along with their blood splashed over the walls and the furniture.
The warmth of the flames and the smoke were asphyxiating, but Ayaka went forward, even if she started to choke searching for Yuu.
Never before had she held a sword, least did she know how to use it, but a certain sense of security overcame her at holding one in between her delicate hands.
She didn't find Yuu in between the black of the ashes, but Yuu was the one to find her.
His face was stained with cinder except for the way his tears had cleaned down his face, and he fell to Ayaka's feet with a loud bang, crawling over the floor without noticing she was there, desperately attempting to go to the exit.
She kneeled before him, and for the first time, Yuu seemed to recognize.
With trembling hands, he clutched to her clothes. His weeping didn't stop.
"It's… it's... it's. .. Take... Take…" sobbed Yuu uncontrollably, making it impossible for Ayaka to hear what he said.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you" Ayaka whispered to his era in an attempt to calm him down, as she gently caressed his dark brown hair.
Yuu didn't stop holding onto her and Ayaka was forced to separate him forcefully, his strong fingers not not wanting to let go from her clothes.
"Aya-san, how good to see you!" said a voice she knew perfectly. Ayaka's eyes travelled to the other side of the room.
"Takeshi," Ayaka muttered to herself, instinctively giving a step back with a twinge of fear.
It was him, but not really. His eyes were strange, and both the colour of his skin and his hair had changed as well. His mouth was covered in blood, and she didn't have to give it much thought to know it was the Kobayashi's.
As scared as she was, Ayaka held her sword towards him, gathering all the strength not to shiver.
He was simply inhuman, there was no other way around it.
"Did I seriously have to eat the Kobayashis for you to finally do something? I thought your cat would be enough, but your passivity has reached unexpected limits. You're seriously weak, Aya-san," Takeshi said, leaning his cheek against his hand.
Ayaka's blood burned in fury, he had that closed eyed smile again on his face, the one she hated so much, and she understood then why.
"At least you reacted before I killed your parents and Yuu-chan, it's an accomplishment coming from you, don't you think so?"
All of that, was it because of her?
«I'm going to kill this bastard», was what she thought right before charging at him.
Everything else was blurry, somehow Ayaka managed to behead Takeshi before passing out of blood loss and the fever. Yuu and her miraculously survived.
This was how she turned into a demon slayer, this was how she decided to trust on her eyes only, and that way, Ayaka Iwamoto became strong.
Didn't she?
ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ
"Zenitsu, stop getting my uniform soaked in snot and sweat!" Ayaka yelled exasperated.
But after all, she would always have a weakness.