Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 4: Stoneside Coincidence

Ochako merely sighed, she was going to have to give this more thought another time. She couldn't concentrate and likely wouldn't be able to for a while to come. She had been walking for nearly fifteen minutes when she finally left the more populated areas of the city and came into the area where only some housing blocks and parks were located. She stopped and thought for a moment. At this rate, it was going to take forever to reach her destination. Normally she'd call a cab and just drive there, but the day was just too perfect to miss.

Ochako shrugged, she knew she probably shouldn't, not out of proper hero attire anyway but she didn't fancy walking the whole way out of the city proper. So, without giving it a second thought, she rose into the air and proceeded to fly over the buildings rather than walk. Flying was not only very enjoyable, but it also saved an immense amount of time.

Ten minutes later of the casual, leisurely flight, she had touched down in front of the wooden torii she had come to know all too well. Resuming her walk, she walked through the Torii into the shrine proper.

The stone walkway was ancient, likely dating back 400 or more years. The stone walkway was overgrown, with moss and small grasses growing between the stone slabs comprising the walkway. The path split early into the shrine, with one path going left towards the main shrine complex. Ochako knew the main complex consisted of the honden, with two other buildings on either side of it that she didn't know the purpose of. The path leading right was the route to her destination but she always made sure to offer a prayer at the shrine first.

She took the leftmost path and walked towards the honden, offered a prayer and donation then turned around and continued down the leftmost path. There was an old monk who kept up some basic maintenance of the area but as he was only one man he didn't have the time to fix the stone walkway. The path led through a copse of trees and a second, older stone Torii. In the early years of quirks, places like these places not often tread by human feet were left barren and aging. Eventually though, after everything had started to settle down, many priests and worshipers returned much more regularly but some places were still abandoned. This place was one of them, and the old stone torii and its simple traditional design of ages past helped ease her heart. She had seen many such Torii and shrines when she was growing up in the suburban areas where nature and modernity mixed much more frequently and this sight always helped her relax. She stepped through Torii, stopped, and took a long look at the area before her. The cemetery had a quiet and tranquil peace to it; it never ceased to amaze her that people had largely forgotten such a beautiful and peaceful place. Then again, perhaps it was for the best. The dead could rest peacefully here, disturbed only by the passing of animals and the odd person coming to visit. She proceeded to walk past the many stone monuments. Some newer, some older, she kept walking down the stone path until it was nothing but new stone monuments and headstones. Despite them being new, they were not visited often. Many of the people buried here didn't have a family that could visit easily or didn't have any family left alive. The place had been positively bustling about a year ago when all the funerals were being held across the country. Now, apart from the new headstones and patches of dirt without grass, you'd never know it had been so popular. Continuing down the path, she eventually took a left and went down some 20 headstones until she came upon two headstones in particular.

She stood staring at the headstones for a time. The simple words marking where her parents were buried with birds etched into the headstones. She eventually knelt down and placed the bouquet of flowers between the two headstones into a small ground-inlaid metal vase. She filled it with water and then placed the incense sticks into a similar holder located in front of the vase. She lit the two sticks and putting her hands together, prayed.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but when she eventually stopped praying, she sniffled. It never got any easier, no matter how many times she visited she always ended up sniffling and crying. She set up the foldable chair and sat on it. The incense smoke rose lazily upwards, the warmth of the day was soothing and with no wind at all, tranquil. She didn't say anything, just sat there and thought about everything she had been through in the last year. Her therapy had progressed well, she had made great progress on her physical trauma thanks to her therapist's efforts. That was still only a part of the problem, the mental traumas ran deep and so did her sins and it was going to take more than a few years of therapy to help with that.