The Shogun

Chapter 19 : The Shogun - Side Stories 1

The side stories covers the stories that Seiran never witnessed, never heard or is just too embarrassed to tell.

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Story 1: Inko's Final Hour

'I don't feel secure enough to confide my problems to you Mom... I never felt safe...'

The slap she gave was a few hours old, three to be exact, but its sound was still ringing through Inko's ears. To hear those words come from her son... was indeed heart wrenching. Izuku has always been a good kid. He never uttered a word about anything that was bothering him and Inko took it as a sign that he was doing well. Only today, she has come to a realization that she was a horrible mother.

Inko had her share of ups and downs in her life. She was the only daughter of a pair of loving parents, who didn't have much to call their own, but were still happy. She grew up in the countryside, near the hills to be exact and she did everything in their power to give her a good education. She got herself a good job and that is where she met her husband. Ex-husband to be exact. But tragedy struck as soon as she became pregnant with her first child. Izuku was not her first child. Her first child, a girl, didn't even get the chance to breathe her first gasp of air. When she became pregnant with Izuku, a landslide occurred at her town which ended up killing her parents. All these things had happened but yet Inko was happy. She had Izuku and Hisashi and everything will be fine.

So she thought.

The straw that broke the camel's back came in the form of a report that told her that her son was quirkless. One by one everything was falling out of place. Hisashi and her had regular fights, arguments over arguments. At one point, he even accused her of cheating and he believed that Izuku was never his son. Even when she showed the proof that Izuku was indeed his son, he refused to look at their son. And to top it off, Izuku came back home with bruises, which she brushed off as children being rough. Eventually it reached the point where Hisashi just divorced her and left.

Now, here she was struggling to make the ends meet. She has been off the market so long that she can't rejoin the company she once had a job at, so she was reduced to the meager job of a convenience store handler. The income was so low that she was forced to do three jobs at a time, but it didn't matter because all of that was the apple of her eye.

But did she bother to ask what her apple felt?

Today was indeed an eye opener. The words she spoke. The slap she dished out. All spoke of her failure in being a mother. Time to time, her mind went back to one thing. Izuku's eyes. The empty, hurtful emerald sea, that anyone can get lost in, if they took their time to notice them. Those eyes haunted Inko all the time.

She shouldn't have said that. She shouldn't have slapped him. She never believed him. She never instilled him with the confidence he desperately needed. She never supported him. She always shut him down. He didn't have anyone in his corner. He was truly alone. Inko hated the powerlessness she felt.

But it was too late now as all she could do was watch as a huge slab of concrete came tumbling down on her. She felt the air and blood leave her body as a pair of exposed iron rebar stabbed her in her chest and stomach, effectively locking her down in the place. The tremors were destroying the building left and right, and a lot of screams were being heard, but Inko couldn't focus on it as the pain seeped in. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Her body was being crushed by the concrete dust that was getting added every second.

But at that time, there was only one thing on her mind and only one wish. If there was a god out there, she prayed that she would have enough breath left in her to apologize to Izuku. That's the least she could do and she let the consciousness fade, falling deep in the pits, hoping that she would get this one last chance.