red cherry blossoms // ochamina

|6| under the sakura tree

//warning, this chapter contains extremely dark content//

ashido, 6:43 am

mina popped her prescribed morning amount of pills into her mouth before washing them down with water, feeling confident now that she had a fighting chance at survival. at dr. ishi's advice, ashido was to avoid all contact with ochaco. all their teachers knew, at mina's wish they didn't say anything to ochaco or her family. the seating charts had changed for mina's safety, dorm arrangements were to soon be changed as well. yet, it hurt to have to stay so far from uraraka. and so, ashido devised a plan, one she couldn't say a word about to anyone at all. 

ashido, 3:02 pm

the day had gone normal enough, so ashido put her plan into action. she rushed to the shoe lockers and slipped a note into ochaco's, looking around and hoping no one saw, then she rushed away to her own. the letter was short, but it read all mina needed to say.

'hey ocha-san!

i wanna hang out this weekend at the park! if that's cool, i have something to tell you. i'll be there at about 1:00 pm this saturday, i'll be at koen park, on a bench, unless you get there first of course.

hope to see ya there!

-mina'

ashido knew the letter was a dangerous game, she knew it. but, according to her, most likely incorrect, calculations, she found be well enough by then to see uraraka. it gave her another long day with the "miracle meds" as her mother called them. so the pink-haired teen charged out to meet with her friends for the shopping trip they had planned weeks before with a smile.

ashido, 12:54 pm, saturday

mina was reckless in getting ready, putting on her most outlandish piece of clothing before forgetting the rules she had and taking three pills rather than one, but she was still terrified to meet uraraka again. ashido looked down as she walked, a nervousness filling her soul, she knew she would end up screwing things up in some form, but no, she had to tell ochaco.

it was a pretty day, the sun was out and the rain the previously occupied the ground was gone, the cherry trees were rimmed with the pink flowers of spring. the air was warm, at least compared to the bleak and cold winter. the perfect surroundings gave ashido confidence, she pushed forward through the fear of seeing ochaco again, she didn't notice her chest hurting.

ashido approached the park, looking around for the brunette she was there to meet. mina saw her, about 45 meters away on a bench, facing the other direction. mina smiled when she was uraraka, she began to sprint towards her, but she fell. ashido lay clutching her chest and stomach, which felt like they were on fire, as she hacked and coughed and vomited flowers and blood. 

the other people on the path she was on surrounded her, yelling for someone to call an ambulance, but ashido still rolled around despite their best efforts. mina couldn't breathe, the roots were wrapped around her lungs, pricking them thorns and preventing her from breathing.

but before an ambulance could arrive, she was dead, surrounded by pale pink petals falling.

uraraka, 1:06 pm

she had heard the commotion, and when ochaco went to investigate, she saw people crowding around something or someone, she went closer.

eventually, uraraka couldn't move. she saw the cheery pink-haired girl she was supposed to meet laying on the ground with blood and flowers around her, unmoving. dead.

her amber eyes were open, but the bright yellow had no joy, her skin was pale, desaturated. ochaco couldn't look.

ochaco took a step back, then another, it wasn't long before she turned around and sprinted away, tears falling down her pale cheeks. she couldn't believe it, she wouldn't. mina ashido was dead, gone, not ever coming back.

uraraka didn't know she got there, it was a blur of sadness and grief, but she was back at ua grounds, close to the common room. ochaco burst in to all of her classmates hanging out in the common room, laughing and oblivious to what was happening. they all turned to her at the sound of the door opening and tears, their faces showing confusion at ochaco's frantic state, her tears and hurt posture. midoriya was the first to take action.

"ochaco...what happened?" he asked cautiously, slowly standing up and approaching the sobbing brunette.

"it's mina! she's-" uraraka let out a broken sob, eijiro's face darkened quickly as he shook his head, he knew what happened.

"she's dead!"

ochaco screamed before falling to the ground, she was pounding her fists down. tears fell on the floor beneath and around her. there were murmurs from her classmates, sounds of crying or gasps, sounds of disbelief. there was a broken laughter sound from denki that faded to crying as soon as the realization it wasn't a sick joke set in.

there wasn't someone unhurt, they just lost one of their own.

uraraka, 3:19 pm

it didn't take long for ochaco long to realize why and how mina had died. she figured it out quick, ashido had hanahaki for uraraka and seeing her in the park is what killed her.

it hurt for uraraka to know ashido died because of her.

uraraka room was torn up, her stuff of the ground, sheets sprawled about. but she was still crying, had been for three hours with the door locked. the news stories broke while she was in her room, frantically looking through photos of her and ashido, hoping it could bring the cheery girl back. but it couldn't, nothing could.

ochaco saw it, the news, they were already trying to figure out who gave mina hanahaki, like it would do something. the headlines made her sick, the photos, sick. her heart was hurt and heavy, the picture of her body made uraraka nauseated.

it was suffocating. 

ochaco stumbled out of her room, the tears falling silently instead of with helpless screams, she saw an older woman sitting in the common room, she was looking down sadly as kirishima and a few other comforted her. uraraka recognized the woman as kowareta ashido. the poor old woman, first her husband left then her daughter died, ochaco felt such pity, and such guilt for her loss.

ochaco knew it was her fault.

-

1050 words, i told you this would be dark and sad! i'm sorry for this, but i love you all so so so so much! the next chapter is the last!!