Heroes

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Are you sure this is okay?” I said hesitantly, starting to bend down and clasp my hands together in prayer. 

“Sure!” Yuzu said, her voice cheery. She kinda reminded me of a bunny. Hm…maybe I should start calling her Yuzu-pyon. I giggled at the stupid nickname in my head and started to pray at Masaki’s grave.

Hi, Masaki, I thought to the clouds. Can you hear me? Well, I’m not really used to this…praying thing, so I’ll just do the best I can. Masaki, you have some of the best kids a mom could ever wish for. The twins are just amazing, almost like little sisters to me, if that’s okay with you. And while your son avidly takes after Isshin in the ‘complete idiot’ category, he’s all in all a decent guy. If he wasn’t I wouldn’t let Tara date him, of course. That’s what good friends are for. Suddenly I sighed. Please, if you could, help Ichigo in any way you can to relieve this pain. He feels responsible for your death. It’s been eating away at him for years. I just pray that you’re happy up there and watch over him and the twins all the time. I know I never personally knew you, but if I ever did, I like to think we would’ve been good friends. Thanks for listening, if you did. I think today’s gonna be a good day for the whole Kurosaki clan, including you. With that I ended my talk with Kurosaki’s mom and pulled myself from the prayer place set in front of the grave. 

Karin moved in to replace me and bent down to pray. I smiled soberly as I saw her childish concentration of her words. She was really serious about these words. But her prayers were soon interrupted by Isshin’s stupidity.

“HEY, IT’S TIME FOR THE ANNUAL ‘KUROSAKI FAMILY TOUMBSTONE DOMINOES TOURNAMENT!!” He started to do a Thriller-style clap-and-shuffle. “A FULL TWO-AND-A-HALF HOURS OF TOUMBSTONE DOMINOES AND EMBARASSING FAMILY FUN!!!” …And after that I kinda zoned him out, so I forget what he said next. Just know that Karin was the epitome of if-looks-could-kill and Yuzu was frantically trying to calm her spazztastic dad. 

I just sighed. “Isshin, chill with the stuff for today. Let’s kinda cool off, alright?”

He looked disappointed. “But A-CHAN!!” he whined annoyingly.

“No,” I whispered sternly, making him silence. “Today is not the day, okay? And I know that it‘s not my day or whatever, but seriously, Karin looks like she might murder you in a moment.”

His head snapped over to his praying daughter, and his eyes flashed in realization. “Ooh…” he revelated. “I get it…’kay, I’ll quit for now….” With that he kinda slunk into the background.

Karin ended her prayer and led her sister down a set of stairs nearby, trying to lead her to a quieter place so she could cry with some decent comfort. I grinned sadly and decided to follow them, needing some solitude of my own. 

As we walked down the steps, Yuzu’s control slowly weakened and she quickly burst into tears. Karin wrapped an arm around Yuzu’s shoulder, and I grabbed her hand. God, this girl was so sweet. She didn’t deserve this pain. Hell, none of this family did. 

“Come on!” Karin said. “We’re almost eleven, practically adults!” I snickered at bit at their childish innocence, but Karin continued. “You’re getting too big to cry every time we come here!”

“I-I know…” Yuzu sniffled. “But--” Her weak voice was cut off by another wave of tears. 

Karin sighed. “Maybe next year….”

WHEEEEEEEEE! A whistle blew across the temple grounds, and it kinda sounded like…

“A chicken?” I inquired. Suddenly it flashed to me. “Isshin….” I sighed, pinching the bridge between my eyes. “You freaking idiot….”