Asumi gave Ali a subtle annoyed stare as she tilted her head slightly. Not breaking eye contact.
"I guess it has been..." She gritted her teeth, she looked at the ground but her eyes immediately shot back at Ali, there was no reason for this meeting to be this melo-dramatic but it was. Eira had never had any friends her age so this was all new for her. She could tell something was off by the way they stared at each other it was almost competitive. Well, it was mostly Asumi, she had this certain awkwardness to her. At least that's what Eira sensed from Asumi's aura fluttering as soon as Ali spoke to her. She couldn't get much out of Ali's grey and motionless aura. The auras clashed, Ali's monochrome grey and Asumi's sweet pink with the lines of red that strangled over it. Eira sighed, the air was dense with unnecessary tension. Eira didn't know what would happen.
"Is this what people my age are like down on land?" Eira thought, she held her sword and watched as Ali stepped forward.
"Ahhh! I missed you so much Asumi!" Ali started to sob all of a sudden and went for a hug. Asumi dodged him and he went flying into a tree. As Ali looked back, he saw something that made his heart flutter. Even if Asumi rejected his love for her, she couldn't hide hers for him. He spotted the flower tied at the back of her hair, that glowed so brightly, and smiled a bit. The youthful blue flower hadn't changed one bit since they had gotten it. Ali kept his flower in his pocket all the time as well, except he kept his in a small wooden box.
"I guess I'll give it some time. Give her the space she needs, it's like what they say, happy wife happy lif-" Ali thought to himself before crash landing into the tree. Eira couldn't help but laugh at this interaction, this was followed by Asumi shooting her a dirty look. The sunlight just brushed upon the area they stood upon, the stress of final selection had somewhat lifted off their shoulders. There was an awkward silence, the chirps of the birds filled the void, but it didn't make it any better. All of a sudden Ali spoke.
"Yo... let's group up, it'll be easier to survive huh?" He excitedly proclaimed. Eira liked the idea, but Asumi not so much. She started to walk away. Asumi did want to spend more time with Ali, but she was afraid he would distract her too much and a demon attack would be the end of both of them. She did the sensible option and left. She needed a proper reason to tell them though... She couldn't just blurt out how Ali would distract her too much.
"Do I look like a babysitter? You can't even defend yourself and you talk about going in a group. In the end, me and her would end up having to do all the work." Asumi glared at Ali before she continued to walk. She seemed to disappear into the bushes, Ali was confused on what to do, chase after her, or stay where he was. He turned to Eira who was deeply lost in her thoughts staring at Ali. He let her be and instead started to look for his wooden sword that had gone missing ever since he encountered that big demon.
"Wow… His skin is… and his hair is so wavy…" Eira was very immersed in observing Ali and his attributes, which were different to anything she had seen. To Eira, Ali was like a giant, mostly because Eira was rather short. His eyes were a dark brown, still, they glowed with joy and cheer whenever he would smile. And his hair was dark brown and wavy, much longer than she was used to, she had never seen a man with hair longer than 5 centimetres. She had more important questions, however.
"Sorry if this is rude… But when's the last time you had a bath?" Eira asked bluntly to Ali, who had found his sword. Ali was reaching into a bush, so deep that his whole arm had gone in. He grunted and turned to look at Eira. Ali was confused but answered regardless.
"Why? Do I stink or something?" Ali tugged at something in the bush. He tugged again harder, he fell backwards as he pulled his infamous wooden sword out of the bush.
"No you smell fine but… because you have dirt all over your body… Like you're all brown." Eira laughed awkwardly. Ali looked up at her with an amused stare. He smiled and started to laugh, he laughed a lot. Eira was confused but waited patiently.
"That's gotta be the funniest thing I've heard… Yeah nah. This is my skin colour, brown. Not dirt." Ali laughed as he brushed his sword off. He stood up and stared at Eira with an amused smile on his face.
Ali had originated from South Asia, and because of Eira's lack of exposure to different races, she had a very narrow view of how people could look. Her brain seemed to explode when she heard Ali's response. People could be born brown?
"Wait… like you were born and you were just… brown?!" Eira's eyes went wide and she covered her mouth. Ali laughed even more at her innocent ignorance. Ali had experienced a fair share of comments on his skin colour, both negative and positive, they were bound to rise, especially in a country with barely any other brown people, but Eira's was his favourite.
"Don't treat it like a tragedy, if anything, it's a blessing, you see how good I look in this skin?" Ali gave an admirable smirk to Eira. Eira gulped and stared at Ali, she felt an unbearable feeling of frustration, she had such a strong desire to be able to see his aura colour, but she was in denial. There was no way such a bright and colourful character like him was represented by grey. Eira took a deep breath, her opinion on Ali had changed so much in a mere couple of minutes. She went from hating him to admiring him.
"Anyways you wanna pair up or nah?" Ali asked her. Ali waited for her response as Eira nervously looked around. It was no doubt that Asumi had spoken the truth, pairing up with Ali would be like babysitting. Eira gulped and reluctantly sighed and nodded. She had no idea but it felt like her destiny was tied together with him, although not a valuable asset in fights he seemed like a good person regardless.
"Alright, let's go then, find a place to rest or something," Ali said smiling as he started to walk. Eira couldn't help but smile back at the radiant smile. Ali held his sword and put the blade on his shoulder as he walked. Eira eyed the wooden sword. She found it matched his character somehow. Maybe Ali wasn't so bad?
After about an hour of walking mindlessly, Eira was on the brink of reaching insanity, Ali just did not shut up, and never took a break. Just as he never stopped talking, he also just did not stay still. Whenever Eira glanced back at him he was always partaking in a new activity, whether it was making a grass knot, pretending a stick was a gun or climbing a tree itself. That was it, Eira was fed up, her mind had been tortured due to Ali's voice constantly playing in the background like a song on repeat... A 24-hour podcast on basically any topic in the entire world, he did not ever run out of things to say.
"Right? So then I went into the forest, and I was sweating a lot you know? So I went to take the biggest-" Ali laughed but then Eira looked back annoyed, she walked up to him and hit him in the stomach with the butt of her sword, shutting him up. She gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on her sword,
"Do you ever shut up?! I don't care about your stupid stories! You're so... annoying! Maybe if you were strong like Asumi I would let it slide! But you don't even post any benefits for me! You're loud and annoying!" She shouted at him as he held his stomach. Her voice was loud and different from usual, anger was a feeling Eira was inexperienced in and she just let loose when she did become angry. Instead of fighting back or shouting back, Ali just laughed, recovering like the hit didn't even affect him.
He almost always had a smile on his face. He just adjusted his jacket like haori and continued walking. But unlike his mentor, the Wind Hashira, the haori was quite tightly strapped onto Ali, he liked to boast his physique so it wasn't a surprise.
"You'll get used to it. Plus, if I shut up, you'd just be bored you know?" Ali made the stupidest excuse to talk. Eira grabbed the back of his collar, which to grab she had to extend her arm quite high. She only came up to Ali's collarbone.
"I'll lead. You'll just make us walk in circles." Eira pulled Ali back. She was annoyed, but as she saw the scenery of the forest she somewhat calmed.
"Please… Just let this be over quickly… Mountain Gods… Relatives looking over me. Please…" Eira sent a desperate prayer.
"Anyways as I was saying, I took the biggest-!" Ali started to talk again.
"Shut up!" Eira shouted almost as soon as Ali started.
Ali didn't shut up.