A/N: Wrote this on a whim. As the S above indicates, don't read on if you don't want spoilers about upcoming events in the book. This takes place around tweleve or so years before the beginning of the series. If requested, I would be willing to write more about Aoi, as I'm not sure how much of his backstory will actually be told during Bladeswoman. Just keep in mind that he most likely won't be revealed for a long time, so everything you know about him wouldn't be known typically.

‘He’s taking me back to the island.’

Settled comfortably with his back towards the wind, sat a small, white-haired, feminine looking boy. He appeared to be six years old at the most, although his thin frame could have belonged to a boy of a younger age. His pale, misty blue eyes were settled on his father, who knew that despite the boy’s seemingly focused gaze, the child couldn’t have been really looking at him in this lighting. Already at this young of an age, the boy’s vision was distorted. In dark lighting the boy could see- better than most- but in daylight it was like asking a normal person to stare at the sun.

“Otousan?”

The boy frowned when his voice came out slightly hoarse. Instead of voicing his annoyance aloud, however, he simply tugged at the sides of his jacket in an attempt to warm himself up. Despite the fact that they were only about a day from an island that was warm enough to have never seen snow, the air around them was chilled to the point of the two travelers easily being able to see their own breath.

When his father didn’t respond, the boy took it as a sign to continue.

“Are Keniro and Okaasan home?” he asked slowly. “You said I got to stay with you until they got back.”

He couldn’t help the slightly jealous tone to his voice. His sister, Keniro, had no such problem with her vision. More often than not when their mother chose to leave the Forest of Eternal Night, or the Eternal Forest as many began to refer to it as, she took his sister with her. It wasn’t because Keniro was her favorite, but because it was easier to handle taking a child out who she didn’t have to worry about as much as she did Aoi. The strange thing about the matter is that this trip was supposed to last four months, they’d only been away for around two.

Once again, his father didn’t respond. Aoi chewed on his lip for a moment before narrowing his eyes in an attempt to focus on the area in front of him. Faint, blurred shapes appeared as he focused, much to the boy’s pleasure. A moment later he shut his eyes, not wanting to see the expression he could faintly make out on his father’s face.

There was something wrong about the serious expression the man wore.

The two continued on in silence for a long time, the boy huddling down on his side of the boat and eventually closing his eyes. A small, thudding pain had developed in his head, the result of straining his eyes by trying to long to focus on the sights around him.

‘Maybe Keniro got in trouble,’ he decided eventually. ‘Maybe Mom decided a pirate ship is for adults.’

His sister wouldn’t be happy if that was what happened. The boy debated for a moment about what he’d do if that was the reason why he was coming home early. If it was Keniro, she’d tease him. If he teased her, though, she might cry, then he’d get in trouble. The ladies in Northern Eternal got mad if he made Keniro cry. They said that boys were supposed to protect their sisters and make sure they didn’t cry.

‘I’ll cheer her up.’

Keniro liked to practice with their wooden practice swords. If she’d been told she couldn’t go on trips with their mother anymore, then he’d just have to put up with being beat with the bokken for awhile. Keniro was rather skilled despite how young the two children were, whereas Aoi, much to his chagrin, had barely any skill with the sword. He did his best to ignore it, but he knew that his father was disappointed. At the same time, the boy had begun to discover something as a result, his marksmanship when the villagers volunteered to teach them about slings one day rivaled the elder kids in their practice group.

That wouldn’t satisfy his father, the boy knew. He was uncharastically aware of this fact despite his age. He knew that the main reason his father volunteered to take him out when his mother and Keniro left on trips was because he hoped that by being around him he might gain at least a liking for the sword, if not better movements. Aoi lightly clenched his hands in his lap at the thought. He’d heard his parents discuss it at one point.

If his father noticed the movement, he gave no indication.

________________

Relief flooded into Aoi’s system as they docked and headed down the steep path that would take them into the forest. He knew the trail by heart as he’d never actually taken step into the southern villages of the island- his father had only ever taken him out using this. It kept him from having to try and keep up in the daylight with how busy the sunlight touched side of the island tended to be. His eyes couldn’t keep up with it all. With his jacket bundled tightly in his arms, Aoi ran to the edge of the forest, glancing back at his father once he’d reached it. Using one hand to shelter his eyes from the sun, he squinted, just barely making out the blurry shape behind him.

“Come on!” he urged, a grin threatening to break past his usually passive expression. “You’re so slow.”

“Aoi.”

The calm reprimand made the boy pause and collect himself. Pulling up what expression his father usually wore in his mind, Aoi did the best he could to mirror it.

“Sorry.”

It was all he could do not to grin when his father reached him and gave a small, approving nod. That was at least something he could do better than his sister, she always wore all of her emotions on her face.

Forcing himself to go slow, he kept himself to only about three feet ahead of his father as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest. His good mood only grew as his vision became clear, although he was careful to keep his face constructed in the even expression his father preferred. The only indication he gave was the small bounce to his steps and the swing of his small hands at his sides.

The village was oddly silent when they reached it. He was used to at least a bit of noise, no matter the time of day. Many of the villagers held odd hours- a result of living without the sun and it’s timeline. So someone was always awake and working, no matter if it was day or night.

The only time that the village would be silent, the boy realized, was when it was in mourning.

The Eternal forest was a small place where most people could recognize each other, whether or not they came from opposing villages. When someone was lost, the entire forest felt it. News traveled quickly, despite the fact that the majority of villagers seemed to rarely travel. It was one of the mysteries of the island that Aoi had yet to uncover the reason behind.

Perhaps this was the reason for the stiff expression his father had been wearing. As he dropped back to trail behind the man, unsettled by the silence, Aoi noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head slightly to follow it and recognized the pale-blonde haired boys as two of the older children that he and Keniro practiced with occasionally. He began to raise a hand in greeting, but paused as the first boy’s eyes widened and he spun around to whisper to the other child, gesturing with one of his hands towards where Aoi and his father were walking.

Chewing on his bottom lip, Aoi turned away and picked up his pace as to not fall behind. His father seemed to have lost what little patience he had, had since the journey had begun. Soon they came to a stop outside of a house Aoi recognized as his grandmother’s. Furrowing his brow, he slipped in beneath his father’s arm as the man held the door open.

No one greeted them as they entered, it wasn’t until the two males ventured into the kitchen that they saw someone, Aoi’s grandmother having settled herself down at the table with a book laid out in front of her. At the sound of their approach, she raised her head to reveal puffy-red eyes.

“Dear me,” she mumbled, raising to her feet the instant her gaze landed on them. “I didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly. I’m sorry, just let me…”

The tone of her voice triggered alarms in Aoi’s head as he curiously peered down at the book that she almost instantly seemed to close. He only had time to catch sight of one picture plastered to the album page, one of his father and mother when they were older than him. He’d seen it before, it was the one taken when his father had first come to the island when the man was eleven years-old. Aoi’s mother, Ann, was proudly beaming at the camera despite the multiple bruises and scratches dominating her appearance following practice with his father, who had looked as pristine and stoic as ever.

His grandmother only pulled those albums out when she was telling stories.

“Is there anymore news?” his father asked as the woman quickly tucked the book away in a nearby curio cabinet.

She stiffened, dropping her arms to her sides. A wry, humorless smile tugged up one-side of her lips as she turned to face him.

“As blunt as ever,” she commented under her breath, then rose her voice, brushing her white hair from her face. “Only that the Marines have already claimed the ship, it’s not surprising considering how big her name became when she traveled with you. I doubt that there’s anyone who wouldn’t recognize her at the cities they were docking in. The Marines might have been on their trail before whatever unearthly whim of theirs caused them to dock on that island.”

The man impatiently drummed his fingers on the table, his expression betraying nothing of his thoughts. Aoi glanced between them, his practiced expression falling away as their conversation caused trendles of fear to form in the back of his mind.

“Of Ann?”

“Dear boy,” the woman responded, resignation on her face. “Do you think if that child had survived, she’d let the Marines be crawling all over her ship?”

The man’s jaw clenched, the only betrayal of his thoughts on the matter.

“What of Keniro, then?” he demanded.

Aoi’s grandmother shook her head, one hand shakily holding the back of her chair as she settled herself back down. Her swollen eyes and unkept appearance finally clicked on the young boy’s mind. His father’s words, everything going on, snapped together in an instant and he stepped back from the scene, his back pressing up against the wall.

‘Don’t be such a baby, Aoi-niisan,I’ll be back soon! It’s only a few months longer than last time!’

His head spun, Keniro’s parting words flashing through his mind.

‘Don’t be such a baby, Aoi-niisan.’

Aoi dug his nails into his palms as he harshly bit down on the lip he’d been lightly chewing on up until that moment. Fear had caused tears to sting behind his eyes, but using both of these he managed to beat them back as his grandmother spoke the sentence that would haunt him for years to come.

“Only Marines there, Mihawk. Only Marines on that ship.”