21 Salvation

Life wouldn't give Light any reprieve though. His aunts and uncles began pressuring him to relinquish his parent's inheritance and the head of the family position. Light decisively gave up the position, he was not even remotely interested in contending for the position. However, he refused to give up the inheritance. This was his bottom line.

Using his powerful strategic abilities, he was able to safely navigate the waters and hold onto the inheritance. After 2 long years of fighting, Light had grown weary. His two brothers were now 9, and he desperately wanted to move them out of this toxic environment.

An opportunity came up in City A and he took it right away. He booked a flight, packed up everything sentimental to them, and decisively flew with his brothers to City A, never looking back. Light thought they were finally free from all the tragedies. But after only a year of living in City A, the apocalypse hit. They were forced to fight their way out of the city. Thankfully, they were all Aikido masters and were able to leave the city safely.

Aida felt the immense sorrow and darkness lying within Light as she finished healing him. He was now awake but made no attempt to escape or move. Instead, he just stared blankly at the ceiling, seemingly lost. Since even he was healed, he knew his two brothers were safe.

To be honest, Aida absolutely abhorred the protagonists that wanted to help every person they saw and do good in this world. She felt that was incredibly hypocritical and she would never make the mistake. She had spent most of her life being forced to do things that she didn't want to do, so now she would make it up by exclusively doing things she wanted to.

Before living through his story in person, Aida probably wouldn't care at all for the trio. She would only string them along for Xiao Ai's sake. However, having lived through Light's life and understood his pain and suffering, her otaku spirit was awakened. She was incredibly drawn to Light's contradicting personality. He was a figure of darkness yet maintained his purity. She also greatly respected his selflessness, humanity, and unending love for his brothers.

Smacking Light's head, she said lightly, "You belong to me now. Follow me. I will allow you to avenge your father and protect your brothers."

Hearing these words, Light's eyes began to flicker with life as tears rolled down his eyes.

Since he woke up, he felt inexplicably connected to Aida and could feel her emotions. When he heard her words, he could feel the conviction and sincerity. After his mother's death, he had been hit hard with one situation after another. He constantly forced himself to continue to stand tall in order to keep his brothers safe, he was already at his limit.

This warmth he felt from Aida felt like salvation. He finally felt like he could put his guard down and relax for the first time in a long time. For this, he was willing to follow Aida for the rest of his life.

While this decision from Light may have seemed extremely arbitrary, it was not easily earned. He knew that Aida reviewed his entire life, particularly the decision to kill his own father. This was a big wound in his heart and he felt tremendous guilt and remorse towards his actions despite knowing it was the right thing to do. With Aida's simple sentence, he was able to feel that wound begin to heal for the first time in years. She was able to absolve him of the guilt while reminding him that it was not too late to avenge his father.

Smacking his back, she said, "Ok! Enough crying and moping. Oh right, your brother is all healed, he hasn't woken up yet because he has been mentally fatigued over the past couple days."

Right at this moment, Ace comes walking back with a backpack full of electronics, more trash cans full of food and a gun pointing into the room. (Ace appears to be developing an unhealthy obsession with trash cans..)

He had heard the noise and thought there was trouble, his heart palpitated as he thought something happened to Aida. Scanning the room, his eyes immediately landed on Aida who was sitting intimately close to Light.

Dropping everything, Ace ran over to Aida and gave her a great big hug. Aida, on the receiving end of the hug, turned into stone. She wanted to push him away but was shocked by the torrent of emotions he was currently releasing. Since Aida took his blood and secretly injected some of her blood into his system (which is what allowed the wound to coagulate so quick), they had formed a bond that allows her to read his emotions and vice versa.

After her moment of shock, she immediately pushed Ace off and took a step back, reacting as though she had been bitten by a dog. Ace, who was so immersed in his feelings of thankfulness and relief, entirely missed this reason from her. In fact, he didn't even notice Light who was sitting right beside Aida.

Yukio and Xiao Ai, who was sitting atop his head, came out from the corner they were playing at when they heard the noise. Yukio's eyes widened as he saw that Light was awake and immediately ran to him, "Nii-chan!!!" Yukio hugged Light for dear life.