A Problem Shared || Wife!Reader x All-Might

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: Graveyard Smiles

Gigantomachia had reportedly been spotted in Chiba over a month ago.

By the time Naomasa had gone in to investigate, the behemoth of a man had vanished. He had left no trail, no evidence of ever stalking through the bustling city if not for a short interaction he had with a young middle-school girl.

According to her statement, the giant was apparently looking for a place, somewhere she and her friends had never heard of before (unfortunately for them, she could hardly remember the name of the place when she'd been questioned). To steer him away from her friends and all the citizens he had started to terrorise, she'd falsely given him directions to the nearest police-station.

It was a clever move on her part, indirectly leading him to the authorities to be dealt with. Only Gigantomachia hadn't been received by the South Chiba Police Department, which meant All for One's henchman had somehow realised he was heading towards a trap.

Naomasa and a few other colleagues were still combing the prefecture for clues as to where the large man had gone, but a part of you knew their attempts would be futile. After all, though Gigantomachia was comparatively less intelligent than Ujiko, he still held close ties to the defeated mastermind. Meaning, he'd at least know it was better to leave than follow a potential set up, even if it meant never reaching his intended destination.

Still, Naomasa's report on the giant didn't do much then confirm what you had already known: Even with All for One dead and gone, his lackeys were still somewhere out there. Still active, still moving.

It was an unsettling thought.

(Not my problem, a part of you whispered. My problem was him, and he's gone - Toshi made sure of it.)

Frowning, you absentmindedly lift the bouquet of flowers in your hand before taking a whiff. The fragrant smell of the Stargazers in your hand is a familiar scent, one you haven't exactly smelt since you, Toshi and Sorahiko had laid Nana Shimura to rest.

~~~~~

"Is he coming?" You murmur lowly, (e/c) eyes peering up to Sorahiko as the man shakes his head.

In front of you, Yagi stands in front of Shimura-san's casket, hands trembling at his sides as he bends his head. Despite being unable to see his face, you can still tell that there is an equal mix of heartbreak and sorrow twisting at his expression. Because though he makes no sound - his loss is all too evident in the way the his shoulder sags and he drags his hands up to scrub harshly at his face.

Silently, Sorahiko brings out a piece of paper from his pocket, eyes rimmed red and devastated as he holds it up for you to read.

Good riddance, Shimura Kotaro had written, I hope she burns in hell.

Scoffing at the paper, you ignore the way your action causes Sorahiko to flinch.

The Pro may feel guilty about what's been said, may be mourning the lost love between his long-time friend and her only son in addition to the woman herself; but you won't let yourself join him. You want to mourn Shimura, yes, but you want to do so with the ones who loved, the ones who lost and the ones who understood wholeheartedly the price that came with sacrifice.

Now's the time to mourn Shimura and Shimura only. For that reason alone, you take the bouquet of Stargazers that you've been holding and join the young man's side - chest squeezing tight as the picture of Nana's smiling face greets you brightly.

Even if Kotaro doesn't mourn his mother, doesn't mourn the sacrifice she had made for his future, you find consolation in the fact that Shimura had at least one son who does:

Crumbling to his knees, Yagi Toshinori is proof that you don't need to share blood to be family.

(His grief, his loss - it's so painstakingly familiar that for what seems to be the first time, you see the boy for more than he already is.)

~~~~~

With the sun beginning to set, you find yourself walking through Musustafu's long cemetery in search of Shimura's resting place - a last minute change in plans, you'd told Toshinori over the phone.

Your friend's grave is located in the western part of the cemetery, you know, with her ashes buried beneath a tall slab of stone that sits beneath the shade of a lone cherry-tree that's always been too easy to find.

When you get there, you place Shimura's flowers in front of the tall monument before settling next to the tree's trunk. Marvelling the falling cherry blossoms that dance in the breeze for a moment before your eyes skim over Shimura's headstone.

"Keep smiling:For in this world, the ones who smile are the strongest of all."

Sitting next to the fallen Hero, you don't say anything.

You don't know where to begin.

Instead, you remember the day of her burial and the words written by her biological son, Kotaro.

At the time, you remembered feeling indifferent about what he'd written. Wanting to focus more instead on your friend's memory rather than the memory of someone she'd left behind, even when that someone had been her son, her own child.

Now, over a decade too late, you find your heart mourning for the death of Shimura's relationship as equally as you did for her on that day. Because deciding to visit her so suddenly was not an arbitrary decision, despite what you'd told your husband.

Today was about grieving what might've been for those who had been. It was about apologising to Nana, Banjo and everyone else for the way things turned out and the families and loved ones they had to leave behind.

With you and Toshinori trying to start a family of your own, asking for their forgiveness and blessing was something you just had to do. Now more than ever. So no, coming here today was not a sudden decision you'd made on a whim.

Tear trickling down your cheek, you close your eyes to the sight of falling cherry-blossoms, wipe at your face with a small sniffle and think.

You think of Nana and of Banjo, of her grave in front of you and his in Taito and all the others spread around Japan - some engraved, some not - and what exactly it is you want to say to them before you think: there's no better place to start than here and now, I guess.

And so, just as Shimura's epitaph declares, (e/c) eyes flutter open as you greet your friend's headstone with a wide, blinding smile.