sacrifices i made

prologue

"Koushi, meet your little sister, Emi." Koushi's mother leaned down for the elder sibling to see the child. 

"Pretty!" He shouted only to be shushed my his parents. 

"You'll wake her up. She's sleeping." Koushi held his finger over his lips.

"Shhh! Baby sleeping!" He gently put his hand over her forehead and softly petted her. He leaned  closer and gave a small peck on her cheek. "Night night Emi."

-

"Ne-chan! Come on!" Koushi ran and grabbed his two year old sister's hand. He dragged her to the swing set as his parents sat on the bench. He picked up Emi and made sure she was secure on the swing. After he was sure, he started pushing her on the swing, making her swing back and forth. 

Giggling, the little girl accidentally let go of the swing making her fly forward and fall onto the rocky ground. 

"Emi!" Her parents ran to her and started to tend her wound on her hands. She got them when she fell onto the ground. "Koushi! I told you, you have to be careful!" 

Koushi started to tear up and you could hear him softly mumble an apology. When Emi saw this, she got up from her parents grasp and went in front of Koushi. 

"Don't be mad at Ni-chan! Ni-chan good!" She started to cry as well and held her arms stretched out, like she was blocking anyone from going to her older brother. "Ni-chan good! Don't be mad!" 

The parents saw how well the two bonded after Koushi hugged Emi and they both smiled. They went back to playing with each other and the parents knew they would be fine.

-

"She's only 9! You can't take her!" Emi began to cry as she heard her parents argue. Just because she was only 9 did not mean that she didn't know what it meant. They were planning on splitting apart and they were going to separate the two siblings. 

She was about to start yelling at her parents not to fight, but on the side, she saw Koushi behind the couch. His face was filled with tears and he had fear in his eyes. She realized that she had to protect him. Running, she embraced her older brother in her arms.

"Ni-chan is going to be okay. Everything's okay." She cradled him in her arms until he was asleep. She grabbed a pillow from the couch and rested his head on the pillow. She then got up and went to her parents in the kitchen. They were still fighting but when they noticed her, they stopped.

"Emi, go back to bed okay?" Her father went to go pull her back to bed but she backed away.

"Emi? Are you okay?" Her mother asked with worry. Emi looked up with teary eyes.

"Stop fighting. You made Ni-chan cry." She pointed to her older brother who was sleeping on the floor. The parents looked at each other before regretting their decision. "I know you two are going to split, but you can't take Ni-chan away from me."

The two adults looked at each other again before sighing. They realized that Emi was smarter than Koushi when she turned 5 and began to read the bigger books. 

"Emi, honey, we are going to split but I promise you and Koushi are not going to be torn apart from each other." Her father hugged her along with her mother. She sniffed and nodded. Her father picked her brother up and brought him to his room while her mother brought her to her room. She tucked her in and kissed her forehead. 

"Good night Emi." Emi shut her eyes and fell asleep. 

-

"Ni-chan, i'm going to have to go now." She sniffed and gave her brother one last look. "I love you Ni-chan!"

"Ne-chan! No! You can't go! Come back please!" Koushi reached out to her but his mother pulled him back as his father tugged on Emi's hand.

"Emi, we have to go if we want to be early. You need sleep so you can train more tomorrow." She nodded and looked back at her brother. Shedding a tear, she gave Koushi one last smile before heading to the car her father had drove. 

-

She knocked on the door and it took a while before anyone answered. Emi had just been picked up from the airport by her mother. After their happy reunion, she wanted to see Koushi. The door was opened.

"Oka-san, you're here fas-" He looked at his little sister and his eyes started to hurt. Tears began to pour out and he used his hand to wipe them away, but it was no use because it kept coming. "Ne-chan?"

"I'm back Ni-chan!" She stretched her arms out and Koushi immediately wrapped his arms around her waist, sobbing. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and patted his back. Crying, she said, "I missed you too Ni-chan."