Don't forget.
In an unexpected turn of events, the Midoriya’s, Togata’s, and Watanabe’s gathered again in Christmas, but this time in Kaito-oji’s house. Somehow the experience was different. This time they didn’t meet to celebrate just one person but to be together, give gifts to each other and express their love—this life is getting her so sappy she sometimes wants to take her thoughts and throw them out the window—. Kaito-oji made fried chicken, Ms. Midoriya brought the cake, and Mother and Father made potato salad and bought wine—she tried to taste it with the excuse that she was old enough, her parents didn’t budge—. Christmas is a holiday she likes and she didn’t want to ruin it by bringing up problematic topics. Still, this was the best opportunity to speak with Ms. Midoriya, so she took it and that’s how she ended up like this.
“It wasn’t my intention to make you cry Ms. Midoriya” it really wasn’t. Chieko just asked the woman if it was okay for Izuku to go to her Primary School instead of the one closer to Ms. Midoriya’s house—where the most probable is that Bakugou will attend too—. Chieko suggested that she would accompany Izuku to school and take him back home, so Ms. Midoriya wouldn’t need to worry about him walking alone so far away. It really wouldn’t be a problem for Chieko because she was planning to attend Miio’s primary school since always—the hyperactive blonde made her promise—. She is completely sure nothing she said was deserving of bursting in tears.
“I know dear...It’s just...I’m very glad Izuku has such a great friend” those words make Chieko’s face heat up and she is glad her skin color in this life help her hide her blush “If your parents agree with your idea, I would be very grateful...I only wish Katsuki-kun would be Izuku’s friend again. Izuku loved so much to play with him…” the woman wipes her tears with her hands and Chieko surprises herself trying to reach out to comfort her.
It seems like she has then again another person she appreciates. It is difficult not to, really, Ms. Midoriya is a lovely and kind person. The woman treats her as if she were family. Never has she felt unwelcome at the Midoriya's house. Chieko also kind of likes the woman's silent strength—so similar to Kaito-oji’s—, taking care of a child without any help is not an easy thing no matter in which world you are.
“Honestly, I don't think I can or want to do anything about Bakugou” he was her friend, but their bond was never strong. Looking at it now, it isn't very surprising they broke their friendship after a year. Ironically, cheerful or quiet people are the ones Chieko ends up liking the most, and Bakugou is everything but that.
Ms. Midoriya assures her that’s totally okay. The woman’s face makes her stifle a laugh. Something tells her she is relieved Chieko didn’t give her a more grown-up answer. Although Ms. Midoriya takes Chieko’s intelligence in a considerably good way—not like the babysitter...that girl really got on her nerves. She wishfully hopes she won’t encounter someone like that ever again—, that doesn’t mean she isn’t weirded out by it.
Chieko talks a little more with the woman. She tells her the school’s location, what route she would take, and that Izuku will not be alone there. He will have Mirio and her. At that point, Ms. Midoriya laughed at her when she understood a great part of her decision to go to school there was because that’s where Mirio studies.
Izuku and Mirio enter the kitchen running, yelling, and playing. Hiroyuki close behind them. Her friends have a cape and an All Might figurine while her father has black paint surrounding his eyes. Izuku freezes as soon as he sees them, then Mirio crashes against him and the push makes them fall. Father stops himself on time and somehow manages to fall back instead of on top of them. The silence is interrupted by Mirio’s laugher, which Father follows, and soon enough, Izuku is swallowing his tears and laughing too. At least until mother appears behind them, wearing that icy expression meaning someone is in trouble.
“Hiroyuki,” Chieko doesn’t even try to contain her smile. Even Ms. Midoriya is softly laughing at his scared expression “What have I told you about running in the house?”
“...not to…?” His bashful expression is completely fake, and Chieko can see her mother forcing herself to not smile.
“And what did you do?”
“Auntie! It isn’t his fault! I made him play with us,” as always Miio, the hero he is, goes to the rescue. Now that she thinks about it, since when did Mirio start calling her mother ‘auntie’?
“But I was the one who made them fall. I’m sorry,” of course, Izuku couldn’t leave them to face punishment alone. Ms. Midoriya is already at his side, helping him get up and making sure his tears weren’t because of a serious injury.
“Surely, dear wife of mine, you can find it into your forgiving heart to let us go this time,” here her mother simply can’t continue faking her anger, and smiles at them in an exasperated way while helping Mirio stand up—“I need help too” “Surely, dear husband of mine, you are able to stand up by yourself”—. “Is Izuku alright, Inko?”
“Yes. I have already told you to be careful when running. Why did you stop like that?”
“Well, I...I thought Chieko would be mad if she saw me running inside the house…”
…What the fuck? He fears her anger more than he fears his mother’s? That’s not how it’s supposed to be… A look from her mother tells her they will talk about this when the visits are gone. It’s not the first time they talk about Chieko’s overly controlling nature and it’s something she wants to fix, but...huh, it’s more difficult than it looks like. She wasn't like this in her past life. At least, not totally. She had to be controlling on missions, an information gatherer who can’t control his targets is no shinobi at all. Still, after her reincarnation she is just...let’s say it's not truly healthy to know everyone’s daily schedules and almost-freak-out-but-not-really when those schedules are not met.
“I only get mad when you hurt yourself doing silly things…” insert Izuku’s terrified face “...And I won’t get mad today! And anyway, why do you fear my anger?” While she thinks there’s no way this baby face can be scary, everyone looks at her as if she was the most oblivious person in the world...Although looking at it from their perspective, she may be scary sometimes...Still, she was pretty mild that time she asked—more like interrogated—Izuku about who was bullying him, and that time when she talked—she may have been a little aggressive with her words— with Mirio about being a hero, and that other time she glared—it wasn’t even one of her worst glares, really— at her father for saving that dog and almost getting run over.
She grimaces apologetically “I’m sorry…?”
They are lucky to be her family. Otherwise, she would have kicked them for laughing at her sincere apology.
April arrives and her first day of elementary school is just around the corner. As always, she wakes up at 5 a.m. to work on her chakra control for an hour, then she prepares herself for the day. She may not be a vain person, but her hair requires a lot of work and so the next half an hour is spent trying to make it behave. At 6:30 a.m. her mother comes to her rescue and helps her comb her hair—so what if she sometimes takes longer than necessary just so Yua goes and helps her? She likes it—. After that, they usually cook, eat, and clean the kitchen while waiting for Hiroyuki to come down. He is the type who waits until the last moment to do everything and somehow is never late. However, this time that’s not the case.
A series of hurried steps are coming from the second floor, and then her father comes to view with teary eyes and a worried expression. “Chieko! My daughter...why?” she reciprocates the bear-hug, but that doesn’t stop her from wondering what the fuck is wrong with him. “Why are you growing up so fast?!” Kami.
“Come on dad. Don’t be such a drama queen,” what follows her comment is a series of whispers-cries about how much he loves her, and how worried he is about her first day of school, and that he hopes she makes thousands of friends—he is asking for too much, but she doesn’t see the point on telling him she probably won’t make any friends at school—.
…
“Hey, Izuku, you okay?” Chieko picked up the boy some minutes ago, and now they are walking to school. Surprisingly, that hasn’t changed much, while in some parts of the world parents take their children to school, in Japan, six-year-olds are expected to start becoming more independent and therefore to walk alone to school— at least they don’t expect them to kill people…—.
Back to reality, he seems extremely nervous, much more than she has ever seen him before. He doesn’t even answer her question and instead just makes a sound like a whine and leaves it at that.
“Hey, Deku!”
Kami. Shinigami. Sage of the Six Paths. Please give her patience to deal with this. Chieko positions herself in front of Izuku and Uchiha-glares at Bakugou. “How bad to see you. What are you doing here?”
“Eh?! I called you first! Where are you going? Or are you too stupid to see that’s not where the school is?” Mmm, since last time he developed immunity towards Uchiha-glare level 1…. “Don’t ignore me!”
“We are going to another school” she can see exactly when the realization hits him, and she almost laughs except that there’s no way she doesn’t recognize the regret on his face. Regret that instantly turns into fury.
“That school must be shitty anyway!” then he walks away. Of course, Bakugou always needs to have the last word, and Kami, where did he learn to speak like that?
Izuku’s quivering chin tells her how much Bakugou’s presence affects him. Wonderful. Now she needs to convince him, yet again, that Bakugou’s opinions aren’t important.
…
Aside from the incident in the morning. The day passes quietly. School is different from what she remembers at the Academy, but it is boring anyway. All her free time is spent reading or helping/talking with Izuku. They meet their classmates and get to know their teachers. Regretfully, —for their parents at least— they don’t make friends in their class. Izuku is too nervous to speak to anyone and she is too antisocial to care about speaking with anyone.
Now that she thinks about it. She is glad Izuku met Mirio. When she interacts with her two friends, she feels more like an older sister. Mirio is very social, so he would be alright even if she wasn’t there, but Izuku… He needs friends his age. He must learn to interact properly with others, and find people who will support him. As much as she wishes he will only ever need her, that’s not true nor realistic. If she wants him to grow up mentally strong and healthy, he needs human interaction.
“Eh...Chieko?...are we going to eat with Mirio…?” the question takes her out of her thoughts. A quick scan of the classroom tells her the lunch bell already rang.
“Ah, ye…”
“Chi-chan! Izuku!” speak of the devil. Mirio pokes his head in the classroom and his face lights up as he sees them. “Did you forget? We promised to go get lunch together!”
The green-haired boy goes through a series of red shades as he tries to formulate an explanation. She is about to help him explain, but the silhouette behind her blond friend takes away the words from her mouth. It’s weird. He looks familiar in a way nothing else in this world has ever felt, yet she can’t place his face. He evades her eyes, and she is sure she has never met him before. Nevertheless, the feeling she is forgetting something does not leave her. Vaguely, she hears Mirio introducing his friend “Tamaki Amajiki”. Definitely not a name she knows.
She follows them outside the classroom. No one notices she is not truly there with them, so together, they continue walking towards the cafeteria. Mirio talks eagerly with the other two children, and gradually everyone but Chieko is speaking freely. She tries to stay present, but the back of Tamaki’s head seems wrong. Shouldn’t he be smaller?No, it’s not that he should be smaller, she should be taller.A memory overlaps Tamaki’s image, making her stop abruptly.
She knows she has a problem— many problems—, but this…This is different. The ghosts from her past are relatively normal. It’s even getting better over time. What’s not normal is her memory. Chieko shouldn’t have so much difficulty remembering. She promised. She promised she would not forget. Still,wouldn’t it be better if she forg—
“Chi-chan? Are you okay?” Miio’s worried face monopolizes her field of vision, and for a second, another memory overlaps his image. They are nothing alike, so why?! Her heart clenches painfully. She can’t bear to look at him, so she looks away.
“I want to go home”
She is not sure which home she is talking about.
Some minutes before Chieko came back home, Hiroyuki answered the phone to listen to Mirio’s worries. Apparently, Chieko was very sad but refused to ask the teacher to go back home. It was a short conversation, and it mostly consisted of Hiroyuki trying to appease Mirio. A small part of him hoped the kid was exaggerating; however, feelings don’t lie and as Chieko enters the house, Hiroyuki feels her melancholy.
Even though he already finished cooking, Hiroyuki walks through the kitchen trying to look busy. It’s not a good tactic considering how knowledgeable his daughter seems to be about acting and reading people, but Hiroyuki doesn’t have a better plan to hide his concern. As much as he wants to ask and help, he will not do anything unless she seems cooperative....that may take a long time though…
“Dad?” her words startle him, so he almost cuts himself with the knife he was washing. “Father, stop daydreaming while you are in the kitchen!”
“Sorry, sorry! You know how I am, I got a little distracted,” he gives her an embarrassed smile and continues tidying up the kitchen “How was school?” Ah, maybe he asked the wrong thing...A chill runs through him. Nope. He definitely asked the wrong thing. Why is he so clumsy when it comes to helping his own family? God.
“Stop worrying,” her voice is very close this time. Out of nowhere, Chieko is beside him taking the sponge from his hand and putting it on the counter, then she checks his hands. It’s amusing. The difference in height is abysmal, so she needs to stand on tiptoe to do all those things.
“My job is to worry about you, you know?” Hiroyuki waits patiently for an answer.
“Hey, dad? Wouldn’t it be better if I forgot everything?” Okay. He didn’t expect that, but this is an opportunity that won’t come back. This may as well be his only chance to make her open up and help her.
Sadness, doubt, hope.
“Do you want to forget?”
Anger, doubt, shame.
“I-I don’t know. I just…” Silence fills the kitchen. Chieko’s hands tremble and she makes the attempt to let go of his hands, but Hiroyuki does not let her. He reaffirms his grasp and gives her an encouraging look. The feedback he receives because of that little action is incredible.
Doubt, confusion, love, shame, love, guilt, love, pain, love, adoration, love, love, love...It's as if her very soul is trembling from all the pent-up emotions. It’s hard to keep up with everything she feels. His head starts to hurt, but he forces his mind to make sense of all her emotions. Some emotions he knows are directed at him; however, most of them are directed towards something else. Chieko’s past.
Love. That’s it.
“Are all the memories painful?” He already knows the answer. What he wants is for her to say it out loud.
Silence.
“Do you want to forget everything?”
Doubt.
“No!” the sudden cry resonates in the kitchen “No…I don’t, but...”
“It hurts” her eyes full of fear look up at him “It’s so terribly painful. It’s as if your soul was about to break. I feel you, Chieko. It’s understandable that you want to forget” He wishes he had some answer to give her, some miracle medicine to make everything disappear...
“I don’t want to forget them”
“Then you don’t have to…—”
“It’s not that easy!”
“It’s not,” he would be able to feel her frustration a mile away “The grief you are experiencing right now...It feels like hell. Even so, in the middle of all that infernal heat, there is something else. What do you think makes you so doubtful of forgetting everything?”
Hiroyuki knows he is very lucky to be her father. If he was anyone else, she would probably hit him for beating around the bush. She doesn’t answer and there is something dark about the aura that surrounds her. He is not sure how to explain the feeling, but it is enough to tell him she is thinking about the wrong answer.
“Do you want to forget the good times?” rephrasing the question makes her pause for a second. Her doubt disappears as if it never existed, and he knows her answer before she even opens her mouth.
“No” love “...I will never forget the good times…” Resolve “I can’t forget the bad times either...” Curiosity makes him want to ask more about that, but he stays quiet and listens “Thank you, Dad. I suppose I needed to talk about it”
“Any time, Chieko. If you ever want to talk, I’m always here—”
“I’m home!”
“Welcome home, darling!” “Welcome home, mom!”
The mood changes drastically, and Chieko breaks free from his grip. For a second, he is afraid she is trying to compartmentalize everything again. Deal with things one by one only when it becomes too much to bear. Leave this situation in the back of her mind and listen to his advice when she can’t control it by herself anymore.
“Thank you,” it’s amazing how two simple words can make him feel so relieved.
Extra:
Saturday is the perfect day to thoroughly clean the house. Unfortunately, the only one who actually enjoys it is Yua. Her husband is responsible, devoted, and tidy enough to clean the house next to her each weekend, but that doesn’t mean he does it full of enthusiasm. Each Saturday morning, it is a total challenge to wake him up. Not even an earthquake is enough to make him get up before 11 am. A long time ago, that trait of his made Yua insane. Now, it is only an endearing trait she gives little significance to. As long as he doesn’t make her do everything, he won’t be sleeping on the couch any time soon.
Yua doesn’t use an alarm to wake up. She is accustomed to waking up by herself; however, weekends are different. Since she sleeps more than usual, her internal clock does not wake her up early. Instead, Hiroyuki’s snores are the “beautiful” sound she hears first thing in the morning. The time may vary, but she usually hears him between 8 and 9. As a light sleeper person, once awake there is no other option but to get up. Before, it was a time Yua spent by herself making breakfast, cleaning the kitchen, and listening to the news. Now, she spends that time with her precious daughter. Chieko is an early riser too, and she wakes up earlier than Yua does, so when the woman goes down to the first floor (where the kitchen and living room are), her little girl is usually there already. Because of that, Chieko’s absence in the area greatly worries Yua.
She goes back on her steps until she is in front of Chieko’s bedroom. She knocks a few times and waits a second for an answer.
“Yes?” Chieko’s voice sounds insecure and weak, but Yua restrains herself from invading the room.
“Is everything alright?” unexpectedly, a sweet laugh echoes through the door. Yua has never heard Chieko laugh like that. It makes her hesitate to interrupt whatever her daughter is doing. At times like this, she wishes to have Hiroyuki’s quirk.
“You can come in, mom,” Yua doesn’t waste any more time doubting or worrying, and quickly enters the room. Chieko’s bedroom is simple and small. In the left corner are her bed and a nightstand. Besides the nightstand, there is a closet, and right in front, there is a short table—which will be replaced with a proper desk as she grows up— with a pillow as a chair. Chieko is situated on the pillow writing in a journal. As Yua gets closer, she notices the many papers lying under the table. It also comes to her attention that Chieko isn’t writing but drawing. Yua should scold her for not putting the garbage in its place, but something tells her this is not the right moment for that.
Yua sits next to her daughter and waits for any negative reaction towards her actions. When there is none, she commits herself to observe the only drawing on the table. It looks like a portrait and there are two boys on it. The first one looks like a teenager while the second one is probably Chieko’s age. With his flushed cheeks and pout, the little one is the embodiment of cuteness. He seems like a stubborn child. The older one appears to be walking behind him, and wears a fond smile. The drawing is so realistic and detailed that, somehow, there is no doubt in her mind that these are real people. They are probably her family.
Yua changes her attention towards the drawing Chieko is working on. The pencil sliding through the paper and their breaths are the only sounds in the room. As the woman’s legs start growing numb, she questions just how much time Chieko has been awake to make such a beautiful drawing. Time passes slowly. Bit by bit, stroke by stroke, the unintelligible lines come together to form a face. Short, unkempt hair. A headband with an unusual symbol. Beautiful eyelashes outline a playful wink. And… as Chieko’s hand trembles... painfully slow, a toothy smile appears on his face.
The second drawing has the same dedication and love the first does, and yet, it feels totally different. A tired sigh returns her attention towards her little girl. She can’t see her face, but something tells her she is smiling. As if it is something precious, Chieko’s hand caresses the smile on the paper.
“His name was Shisui”