Aoi was born on the 18th of October as the second child of the Yoshioka family. As the second child, her story really begins before birth. At that time, Aoi’s older brother Akami was only 8 years old, and he had already forsaken the ideal of family.
When Aoi’s parents first decided to have a child, they desperately wanted a girl but ended up getting a boy. Akami wasn’t what they initially wanted, but they still loved him very much. Through a struggling economy, his parents dedicated a lot of time to making Akami comfortable. They both took up jobs with the intention of treating their wonderful child to whatever he may desire… But through all the work, the family soon grew distant. This distance only became greater when Akami overheard his parents talking about their original desire for a daughter…
When Aoi was born, the Yoshioka family finally had a daughter, however, no one had the time for her. The already hard-working parents now had to support an extra child, a child they rarely spoke with. Aoi became Akami’s responsibility, and Akami wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand he finally had someone to spend time with, but on the other hand, he was stuck dealing with his distant parents’ problems.
As Aoi grew up in a world where her only family was her brother, Akami grew up in a world where family was a bother. A child shouldn’t be taking care of a baby. A teenager shouldn’t be taking care of a child. Akami had things he wanted to do. That much was clear, even to Aoi. But Aoi trusted her brother… The seven-year-old Aoi convinced Akami to seek out his passions instead of staying inside to babysit her, and Akami was overjoyed. His life very clearly changed at that moment. He was following his dreams and living for his hobbies, the exact thing his parents hoped to let him do… But when the parents discovered that Aoi was spending her evenings alone at home with no one to care for her, they blamed Akami.
Akami continued to avoid home in favor of pursuing his passions, and he grew ever distant from his family, Aoi included. On one particular occasion, Akami took Aoi with him to share the life he was living. Aoi was led to a seedy part of the city, where the floor rumbled and the sky filled with smoke. Somewhere in the underbelly of the city, a celebration of music took place. Akami had brought Aoi to an underground rock concert.
Aoi was afraid of the booming and the shaking. She cried and cried until Akami took her home, after which the two stopped speaking with one another. Four years after that fateful event, Akami decided to move away from the city; he wanted to tour the world with the rock music he loved, and he had little attachment to home in the first place.
Aoi slowly lost touch with what family meant. Without her brother, she had no one to care for her and no one to look up to. Through loneliness, she began to think, and through thinking, she began to soul search. Her soul searching brought her to a world where the floor rumbled and the sky filled with smoke. Vibrations pounded through the fabric of reality, beating with the passion of the heart. Aoi was scared of this rock music world, but the piercing guitars and the seething drums spoke to her. This was how humanity felt. This was how humanity screamed. This was… the world her brother chased.
Aoi began to sing. She wanted to share her mind and communicate with society. This music was her chance to connect with the world, to make a global family. She sang and she screamed and she belted her thoughts, going as far as an underground stage would get her…
One day a producer from I MY ME came to the stage to scout Aoi. The producer offered Aoi a job within the company as a rock idol with the stipulation that she spends three years training with them. Step one of her plan to speak with the world: Aoi accepted the offer.
Want more Aoi? Read the short story Let’s Be One, out now!
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