Aiko Nijima

2 years ago...

Aiko's pov:

It was lunch time and everyone including me, left the classroom to go eat lunch. I was on my way to the courtyard of our school so I could eat lunch with my bestfriend/childhood friend. For years now, we have been inseparable, and was always causing trouble for my dad and his parents. I live with a single parent. I never met my mother before, but dad gave me a necklace with a picture of what seems to be my mother. She was a beautiful woman, when I first saw the picture.

I arrived at the middle of the courtyard and sat at a nearby bench. I pulled out my bento from my bag and waited for him.

"Any second now." I waited patiently when a couple of minutes later...

"Sorry I'm late Aiko-chan!" I turn to the person who is calling me, and it seems to be the person I've been waiting for. My crush also known as Ren Hiyama.

"Your late as usual, but it felt like two more minutes then before." I said jokingly while looking at my watch.

"Sorry, Ike had me held back just to help him finish his assignment. He didn't even finished it when I told him to do it last night." He pant heavily.

I don't know why, but I felt like I've been getting distant with him if he's always with someone else, especially if it were to be girls. I really hope that isn't the case. Otherwise I would be the one being all possesive when I'm around him if such feeling were to be the problem. I'm happy to know that he's gain some confidance, now all that's left is for him to be more active. He's got some weak muscles and he's always a bookworm. If he gained more muscle then he would be more hot. Just picturing it might turn me- wowow calm down girl!, he's your best friend.

"Anyways... Do you wanna go out later after school?" I ask

"I wish I could, but I've been volunteered by the council to run some errands, apparently everyone is busy since its near the final exam."

"Oh... Okay then, that's too bad." I felt dissapointed at his answer but decided to not show.

"Senpai!" A familiar voice of a certain kouhi we know is waving at us.

"Finally your here, we're you also held up by someone or did you doze off in class and woke up 5 minutes later afterwards." I crossed my arms getting ready to scold her.

"No I didn't. I just... Had alot of assignments that's all." She giggles nervously.

"Those marks on your cheeks says a different story, and I can't belive for a second that you wouldn't forget about your homeworks. Since you sleep late and would often remember your homework right before getting into bed." I said to her.

"What the!? What are you my stalker!? How much do you know about me?" she fled to Ren's back as she said those words.

"It's not my fault that your so open to us." I started to laugh at her abit.

After that, the three of us ate lunch together and enjoyed chatting to one another. Nothing like a good friendship time with Ren and Shirogane.

7 minutes later...

"Ahaha... So I thought that maybe Rika-nee would like some cake and gave it to her." I said to Shirogane explaining a prank I did on Ren's older sister.

"How did the cake even landed on her face though?" Shirogane asked.

"Remember the spring device I brought to school the other day. Well I bought alot of its material and decided to make a tiny version of it, and when Aiko-chan notice how it would be a nice plate holder for the leftover cake I had in my fridge, she told me that it would be nice to make this as a prank on my sister for her return." Ren said as he smiled while reminisceing about the prank.

"So I held the cake near the door where Rika-nee was about to open, and as she was about to open the door, the cake went straight to her face with incredible force, making her trip and landed on her butt outside his front door. I had a few lines to say to her when she came back, but when the springs went loose, it caught us both off gaurd and didn't go according to plan, but it was satisfactory." I wiped a tear of laughter from my eyes. Shirogane did the same.

"But the consequences were brutal." Ren had his head down.

"Did she do something after the prank?" Shirogane asked.

"We were both forced to watch her eat our sleepover snacks while our hands were tied down, we were both heart broken after that night." I said.

"My condolences." said Shirogane.

"Meh... We deserved it anyways."

"Oh... Lunch is over." Ren said as he looked at his watch.

"Oh well. That was a good talk together huh." Shirogane said.

"A trip down memory lane. An adventure of me and Ren-kun, right." I ask Ren.

"Yeah." He nods.

"You two are as close as ever huh, that makes me kinda happy to hear." Shirogane smiled at me.

"Hey Shirogane-chan can we talk for a bit?" Ren said to her.

"Um... Oh okay, sure." She nods like she understands what he wants to talk about.

"What's this about you two? Can I listen in?" I ask the two.

"Sorry Nijima-senpai, but this is something very secret." She winks at me with her index finger on her lips showing me that her lips are sealed after their conversation.

Shirogane and Ren went to talk to each other alone, and as for me I left for my next class.

I don't know why I'm feeling like this, but them keeping secrets from me is making me anxious. And a flash of Shirogane's face came to my view, a flash of her face making that smile and wink as she left with him. I felt jealous because she can speak to Ren about privet stuff with him, normally privet things is what me and Ren always do. But they are discussing about something, and are alone so I don't feel at ease at all. In fact it's the opposite, I can't feel at ease knowing he's talking with another girl alone, I can't feel at ease with him meeting new girls and friends cause it would make it hard for me to bond more with him. I can't just find a new bestfriend to keep myself occupied whenever he's not around, for what ever reason it just feels like I'm betrying him.

After school...

I'm at the school gate waiting for him to finish up with work, I didn't realised that it would take about 2 hours so I had to wait for that long. Not long after, Ren was walking out from school feeling incredibly exhausted.

"Hey there Ren-kun!" I said with a big smile.

"Aiko-chan, I thought you went home already." He said with Suprise.

"I did wanted to, but then I thought maybe I should wait for you to come out."

"For two hours!?" He replied.

"Don't worry, it wasn't that much trouble." I said with a smile.

"How can I not be worried! You were waiting for me out here in the hot sun! Do you not realised that you could get sick if you stand out in the sun for too long." He scold

"I know, but I wanted to walk home with you, is that too much to ask?" I tilted my head.

"Walk home with me?" He looks down thinking and looking kinda frustrated. "Sorry, I can't walk with you today."

"What?! Why?! We always walk home together how come now you don't wanna walk home with me!?" I said with anger.

"Well since the final year exams are near, I'd figured that I might want to study more with my friends." He said.

"Then why not bring me?! I want to study with you too."

"It's not just me and him, we invited nearly all of the people who are struggling in class to his house and-" he was cut off by me.

"So is it just me or your pushing me away since you already have enough friends there." I had my head looking down on the ground.

"No! It's not that at all. All of the people that we invited are guys and I didn't see any girls asking for our help, besides I don't want you to be the only girl there and talk to some guys that you barely know, and I don't want to see you hanging around with other guys." The last part was faint and I couldn't hear what he said, but I could tell that he would feel jealous if he ever saw me hanging around other guys. I smiled and shrugged off

"Fine... But make sure that we will walk together after school tomorrow." I said before facing the path to my house.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure of it." He nods.

I walked and was on my way home. I don't feel like he's gonna keep that promise tomorrow, but we will see.

The next day, after school...

I was at the entrance of the school waiting for him. The bell rang five minutes ago and he's still not here.

I walked around for a bit to see him being hugged by a girl and walked away waving goodbye to each other. I felt like a surge of rage was building up and my blood boiling after seeing him hug another girl. But I kept my cool after he noticed me.

"Aiko-chan, your still here?" He asked.

"Ye-yeah... We were supposed to walk home together today, remember?" I reminded him

"Oh right, that..." He had his index finger scratching his right cheeks before continuing. "... Sorry Aiko-chan but, I'm gonna have to decline again." My eyes widen with rage when he said that. "I know I'm not suppose to keep promises that I can't keep, but I'm really sorry this time." He bowed down to show that he is sorry for me. "Anyways, I gotta go to my study with my friends. See you tomorrow." He waved goodbye to me before leaving.

I can't believe it, two days in a row. He rejected my invitation again, he has other friends that he cares about, they are the ones pushing him away from me.

For weeks now, he has been studying with his other friends, and has been rejecting my invitation, even when I ask him if its okay for me to join his study group, he would also decline me joining, he's reason is because 'There isn't any girls there and I don't want you to be talking with other guys while I'm tutoring. You'll just distract them if you were there.' I would distract them? I couldn't believe his words. And eversince then he has been studying with his friends until the exam started. It was no issue for me, but for Ren he sometimes could get a bit careless during exams. The exam days were over and the results came out and I got first place, but what really shook me the most was...

"So, you wanna walk home together?" The sudden thing that he asked, something that I never would have heard for a long time.

On my way home with him was very awkward. I didn't know what to say to him nor do I have anything to talk to him about, it was very quiet. That is until Ren decided to break the silence

"Man it's been awhile since we did walk home together."

"Yeah..." I said while agreeing with him. 'Now did he mention it, nothing what he's doing is making sense, first he declined every single one of my invitation to hang out just like we did back then, and now he wants to walk home with me like we always do.' I wondered in my thoughts, but I want to understand what's going on so I wanted to ask him something. "... Hey Ren-kun."

"Yes?" He ask me before he stopped in his tracks

"Why now?"

"I'm sorry, what?" He asked me again.

"We haven't been walking home much eversince you actually got more open and more friends. I'm asking why now would you want to walk home with me?" I was shaking and didn't want to know the truth, but I had to know whether it hurts me or not.

He wasn't listening to me but was in his thoughts.

"Aiko-chan, there's something that's been on my mind lately." He had a red face when he faced me while I had my head down. "Aiko-chan... I'm- I'm in love with you."

'What?...' I flinched a little by his response, I couldn't believe it though. '... That doesn't make sense, all of this doesn't make sense! He avoided from hanging out with me next thing you know, he's in love with me AHAHAHA!' it's not actually a bad thing for me. I didn't feel like I loved him right now, but I feel very happy. But something doesn't sit right with me. 'Why would he want to confess to me now? He never showed me any sign of affection towards me, so why would he say this... He's lying isn't he?' I didn't believed him right now so my response was...

"Liar..." I said softly.

"What?.." his smile faded to absolute shock

"Liar... Your not in love with me."

"I am, I'm not lying Ai-" I stopped him before he could continue his sentance.

"This must be a set up right, for a false Confession just because I got number one on the final exam?" I tried to piece some of his answers.

"What no, that's not true! I'm actually in love with you it's not a se-" I stopped him once again

"SHUT UP! I know your lying, you've been hanging out with other people besides me, especially those girls you've been getting along with!" I notice some girls hanging around him, mainly Kirisu.

"Aiko-chan, there's nothing between me and those girls, those girls are just my friends!" he said while trying to recover from this.

"How could you do this to me Ren-kun, I've been so lonely for so long and you turned down all of my invitations for more then I could count!" I am very frustrated right now. "I'm lonely, but I can't stop forgiving you, I feel so stupid. Your so stupid." I looked down trying to take in all of these realisation.

His eyes widen even more when he heard my words.

"I'm telling you, I don't like those other girls, I love Aiko Nijima, and I'm being honest. I don't have such intentions to make you feel lonely!" his words are getting through to me, but I don't want to hear excuses, I won't be deceived by him.

"Just stop lying Ren-kun! You turning down my invitation was proof enough that you don't care about me." An idea occurred to my head so I went with it for my payback. "You know what, if you always turn down my invitations, then I should turn you down as well." I looked at his eyes to see tears forming around his eye lids. 'Why is he still acting.' I thought.

"How... How could you!" tears are now dropping down his cheeks. I realised that I just turned him down as an act of revange. But those tears are no act anymore, I could see that those tears a genuine, and he actually loves me, I can't believe I'm doing this but there's no turning back now.

"You... You were never really my type anyways, I like the rich, handsome, strong and the ones that has the same acedemic levels as me. You never match any of those, your pathetic, you cry alot and your weak, you'll never be better and you will never have a chance with me, I hate you... Hiyama-kun." these words that I said were making me upset with my choices, he wasn't lying and I'm pushing him away from me

He ran away from me and bumped into a blonde haired girl. As I watched him picking her up, I notice that he smiled to help another person even though he's at his ropes end. Then another feeling deep inside me is burning with rage when I saw that girl touching his hands. Skin to skin contact, I felt so jealous and so... Irritated.

The girl walked past me and I gave her the stink side-eye look with a very hostile aura. She luckily didn't notice.

I wanted to strangle her neck with every strength I have, but I had my senses back to normal and held back. The sky was turning dark and I decided to head home for today, thinking about what I had done to miss a chance with him.

As I arrived home I opened the door and heard some people talking in the living room of our house.

The only person who is living with me was just my father, he raised me as a single parent and taught me on how to be a incredible woman for Ren, and yes he knows about my little thing for him, but it doesn't matter anymore. I don't know much about my mother, the only thing my father ever told me about her is that, 'one day your mother will take you from me and raise you on her own, and once she does don't forget about me okay.' My head thought remembering the exact words he said.

I entered the living room only to see my father and three men in black while wearing masks. I was very worried that my father might have been in debt or something. I wanted to ask him now.

"Dad, what's going on here?"

He looked to his left and was surprised to see me.

"Aiko! Your home. You didn't... Tell me." He looks down with a sad expression.

"I didn't want to interrupt some kind of discussion you're currently having."

"Please don't mind, it's a family matter so this involves you too." The words he said made me worried on what's happening.

I looked down on the table to see a signed paper that had my father's signature.

"What is that paper for?" I asked.

He looks up to me and said with a serious face.

"Your mother has reached out to me, and today..." He trembles on his words with sorrow when he speaks. "Will be the last time I will ever see you." Tears were going down his cheeks now.

My eyes widen and I was left speechless. The only words I could say right now was...

"Why?" my voice trembles.

One of the men in black walked up to me.

"I'll take it from here." The man said. "Mr.Nijima has commited a crime against our clan and his punishment has been lifted. Because the mistress- your mother has decided that once you have finish with your middle school year, you will be sent back home to you mother and leave your father. That was the condition that was made by your mother and the high elders of our tribe."

I couldn't understand a single thing he's saying. "First off, what do you mean by tribe and second who is my mother?!" I ask furiously.

My dad got up from his seat and explained to me. "They are Ninja Warriors of this generation, a clan called the Hakagures, and your mother is the daughter of the late cheif of the Hakagures. And you are the daughter of the current cheif of their clan and the soon to be future cheif of the new generation."

I was even more shocked to hear the sudden news about my origin. Future... Cheif? Nothing is making sense right now. What?

"In short, you are needed for the future of the Hakagure, and your father will be continuing his research in his lab." The man said.

"Will I still be able to see my father?" I asked.

"I'm afraid not, your father has commited a crime that cannot be forgiven by our people. Should he return to our town, he shall be killed and burned alive. At least that's some of the things we've been told."

I look down and made a decision. "I... I don't want to go. I want to stay with my father!" I yelled.

"Aiko, this isn't a decision you can make." My father said.

"He's right, no matter how many times you wish to stay, you will come with us even if it means we have to use force." The man in black said.

'No... I don't want to go.' I tried my best to hold back my tears due to the realisation that I'm being taken away by my mother's people and will never see my father, the person who was always there for me, the only person who helped me whenever I'm alone. And I won't be able to make more memories with him.

"If we had more time... No, if I didn't help Kazuma then I could've live a happy life with you and your mother. I regretted my choices from the very beginning, yet I still went with him. I'm sorry Aiko, but this is a price I have to pay." Drops of tears could be seen on my father's face, seeing the man that always smiles with me makes me want to cry. "Oh boy, I thought I already prepared myself for this day, but it seems its still hard for me to contain my tears." He says as he wipes some of them off of his face.

"Well, we aren't monsters. You can still say your goodbyes to your friends before we take you. But please, make it quick, we have to leave before sundown." He said before leaving with the rest.

It was just me and my father left in the room. My father wanted to say something to break the silance.

"Aiko listen... I'm-" I stop him.

"Why?"

He stops for a bit and tries to answer my question.

"Because... I have to atone for what I did to your mother. I'm a terrible husband to her, and a failure as a father. That's why, I wanted to atone for what I did... By taking care of you until she is ready to take you in."

Silance returned to the room and I responded.

"Did you even loved me at all?"

"I do love you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, your mother would think so too."

"If she does then why won't she let me stay with you!" I shout at my father.

"Your mother and I couldn't find another solution, it wasn't her idea first. The elders made the decision... And your mother didn't had the authority back then. Once she gave birth to you, the elders made her cheif of the town. And even if she did try to allow me back home, the people would think that she has lost her mind. Thus the people and the elders would make her a traitor for unbanishing me, a traitor as well." he explained.

"But why did you hide it from me!?"

"I didn't want to worry you, plus I made a promise to her before I left."

I looked at him with tears forming. "What was this promise you made with mom." I asked

"She said: make sure she lives her life to which she wants, and teach her how to count, how to spell, how to love... And more importantly, always be with her no matter what, try your best to never be disappointed in her. Those are the words she spoken, it kinda surprised me when I realised I memorised every single one of them, or so I hope they are the same." He giggled with a low energy showing that he feels sad and exhausted.

I couldn't believe it, at first I thought my mother was a terrible person. But had I never asked why he kept it hidden, I would have resented her. Now I know, if I left to stay with my mother, I would be living the same way I'm living now, but at a cost of leaving the only person dear to me... No at a cost of leaving two people who cares for me, well I do have doubts about one of them... I don't think so he cares for me anymore eversince I rejected him in the most painful and brutal way I could possibly say.

I don't know what to do... But either way, I don't have a choice anyways. My father seems like he already wished me luck in my new life with my mom. I still don't want to leave Ren and dad. They are both precious to me... Ughhh this is getting stressful.

Third pov:

Aiko is struggling to make a decision, to leave the old life for a new... We will soon find out how and why has she descended to madness.