𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: a whole papa saitama chapter! Woo hoo! :)
get the tissues everyone. This one's a doozy.
:)
𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: suicide (kind of), past character death, keita's parents being the worst
There's a TLDR at the bottom for plot stuff if you don't want to read it (stop at the marked section and scroll til you see another one) stay safe everyone <3.
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The cemetery was quiet. It made sense of course, for it to be quiet but Keita felt uneasy.
He sighed as he dropped down to sit before the grave. With a quick familiar motion, a colorful bouquet of flowers was gently placed in the pot, replacing the wilting ones. Keita paused, leaning forward wiping what little dirt was there off the gravestone. He glanced at the cards and gifts scattered around it. Like the graves of just about every even tangentially well known hero, Aki's gravestone was covered in cards and flowers.
"Thanks for saving me" or "Thank you Hero!" and other messages of gratitude and support covered the grave like leaves in the fall. As much as Keita hated the fact that Aki had been forced to become a hero, he knew that Aki would be thrilled to have helped so many people. Was it selfish to say he'd rather have his brother?
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Y/N not too far away sitting crisscrossed on the ground, hands moving as she excitedly told her mom all about hanging out with friends and being a hero. It reminded him of when she was younger when she'd ramble to her mom about her day at school.
Keita couldn't help but smile lightly at that. Eva would've doubtlessly been just as happy about their kiddo's recent friendships. He could all but see the proud and happy smile on his late wife's face, her eyes flicking to the same warm comforting yellow they always did when she was incredibly happy.
He let out a happy sigh before turning back.
"Hello Aki." He mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry I haven't visited in a bit... Still a workaholic I'm afraid... " He chuckled lightly. "You know me, I can't leave well enough alone. Life has been rather hectic recently. Y/N's doing well. Genuinely doing well , not how she sometimes pretends she's okay for my sake. She doesn't want me to worry... She's like you in that way. Well, actually, she's like you in so many ways." He chuckled weakly and sniffled. . "You would have adored her no doubt. And she would've loved to meet you..."
"Y/N's in UA, if you'll believe it..." He glanced back at Y/N still engrossed in whatever story she was telling, completely unaware of his words. "That terrifies me." He sighed, pulling off his glasses to rub his face. "If you'd told me that my kiddo would go to a hero school... I would've said 'over my dead body'. In all honesty, I still don't like it. You and I know how heroics goes... But... She's so happy. I know how difficult this all has been for her.
He glanced at Y/N. "It's a bit irrational. I know she's incredibly strong but she's still a kid. Still my kid. I need to protect her." Keita sighed and tipped his head back, staring at the clear blue sky. "Better than I protected you, Aki..."
-----------------<<< tw: suicide (kind of) & major character death >>>-----------------
Keita barely managed to yell a quick "Sorry!" over his shoulder at the nurse he'd practically barreled over. But he didn't stop. He kept running despite his body screaming at him to stop. He didn't stop until he saw the numbered room he'd been searching for. Keita's shoes actually left scuffs on the floor as he forced himself to stop mid-run and even then he still slammed into the wall by the door. He slammed the door open and ran into the room.
"Woah... Keita, you look terrible... Are you okay?" Akinori's soft voice pulled him from his frantic thoughts. He was alive. He was talking.
"You're the one in a... a hospi-... a hospital... bed..." Keita managed out between gasps of air. "And... you're asking... me? Asking... me if I'm okay?" He fumbled to adjust his glasses.
"You're gasping, Kei..." Akinori frowned.
Keita took a moment both to catch his breath and to really look at his twin. Akinori had bandages wrapped around nearly his whole body, even one eye and his forehead and he was lying dead still in the hospital bed. And even for someone who'd looked tired as long as Keita remembered, Aki looked exhausted.
"Ran here. Ugh... As soon as I heard." Keita managed as he limped over to a chair sat by the bed and dropped into it like a puppet with cut strings.
"Your office is halfway across the city..." Akinori said as if he had to remind Keita of that.
Keita laughed breathily and shrugged, "Yeah. I noticed... I tried to take a car but that fight of yours blocked off the freeway so, uhh... I decided to run the rest of the way."
"You're crazy." Akinori's voice sounded far too fond for 'crazy' to be anything but a compliment.
"Well... That's nothing new." Keita shrugged.
Akinori laughed. Then he coughed and kept coughing.
"Shit" Keita jumped up and immediately asked, "Sorry! You! Are you okay?" Aki hesitated and Keita knew from experience that getting his brother to talk to him about his injuries was like pulling teeth so, "I'm going to get the doctor. I'll be right ba-"
"Keita. I'm dying." Akinori dropped the bomb.
Keita froze. His whole body desperately considered both running and dropping unconscious, but he did neither as he just stood there. He finally managed to squeak out a "What?"
"I'm dying. Probably won't make it to the morning, doctors said." Akinori said it as casually as anything.
"What?"
"It's my quirk. It uses the energy in my body and when I use it, my body starts to lose the ability... uh... to hold a charge, so to say, like a battery." Aki still didn't seem all that upset. Hell he didn't even sound like it was an inconvenience. Just stated it like a fact. "And, well, I suppose I'm finally all out of charge."
Keita's mind was racing, plans already being created and tossed aside in his head. "How do you know?" He had to stay calm. He had to fix this.
"Found out about six months ago. I felt exhausted all the time. I was slower. My wounds healed slower. I- I tried sleeping more or eating better but it uhh... didn't do anything. So, I finally went to a doctor and they ran tests and it turns out my body can't hold enough energy to keep functioning. They... uhh... Well, they told me I had a year or maybe two if I got lucky..." Akinori chuckled. "But you and I both know my luck is terrible. I wasn't ever going to get lucky..."
Keita's exhaustion was all gone. In its place was a rancid pile of fear. He was still gasping for air but it wasn't from running halfway across the city, it was a cold terrifying panic. He simply stared at Aki. No. No this couldn't be happening. It simply couldn't and- wait- "You found out six months ago and they said you had a year but you're dying now?" Aki flinched lightly at Keita's harsher tone.
Aki hesitated before answering. The first time in this entire conversation. "I... Well... they said I'd have a year if I stopped being a hero... Uh... Stopped using my quirk. But, well, I... uh... clearly didn't, so..."
"Why!?! Why didn't you stop? Why didn't you stop being a hero? Why didn't you quit?" Keita's tone bordered on hysterical, his whole body was almost shaking. He grasped at the end of Akinori's bed, gripping it so tightly the blood left his fingers.
"What do you mean?" Aki furrowed his brows like the answer was obvious. "What else was I supposed to do?"
Keita stared shell shocked. "What else? I- I don't know, anything?" Keita busied his trembling hands with adjusting his messy suit. "You could have written that book of yours or traveled or, hell you could have done nothing and just stayed at my place! You know we would love to have you! You should have just quit."
Aki sighed. "I couldn't quit. Not when I could still be helping people."
"You could have helped people! Hero work isn't the only way to help!" Keita groaned. He knew full well that there was no way to convince him. At least not right now. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I have to make a few calls. Don't worry. I'll fix this. I'll-"
"Keita, no, you can't fix this. There is no fixing this." Aki interrupted, raising his voice as much as he could.
"No no no! I can figure something out!" Keita's brain was working at full speed. "There's got to be some way... if your quirk could use the energy in your body then there's a chance there's someone else who's quirk can do the inverse."
Of course the problem there was how they'd get that person in the first place. Finding them was one thing but what if they were outside the country? No.
"Kei..."
"Or perhaps some kind of medical treatment... if your organs are failing there are ways to circumvent that and at the very least buy time."
Sure, hooking Aki up to life support machines was ideal but it could work...
"Keita."
"Do you need a transplant? Could that help? Because I know we're a perfect match."
He'd heard his parents talking about it before. Keita could be spare parts for his brother if Aki ever got hurt. That was one of the only times he'd agreed with his mother. Because Keita wouldn't hesitate to give blood, a kidney, a heart, whatever he needed!
He'd give Aki his damn soul if that's what it took.
"Keita! Please stop." Akinori's voice was so painfully soft.
Keita obeyed without thinking and froze, staring wide eyed at his twin.
"There's no time. Even if you somehow managed to fix me, it won't take long for me to be back here again. I'm done for and my body knows it. I already told the doctors not to do anything." Akinori smiled weakly. "None of that matters. It's okay."
"You're dying." Keita stressed.
Aki stared at the sheets of the hospital bed. "You're right. I'm dying. But it's okay." He glanced at Keita, his eyes already having lost their glow. "I should've known you'd be here. Would've asked the doctors to call you if you weren't. But I wouldn't have called you to come and fix everything. I- I just want you to be here."
Keita trembled, phone still held in an iron shaking grip. "I-I-... you can't seriously expect me to be okay with this. I'm not okay with this. Aki, you can't die. You... you can't."
"Kei, I'm really tired." Akinori's voice was so soft, so fragile.
Suddenly Keita wasn't a twenty something with a powerful job and a wife, he was suddenly, without warning, twelve again and trying to drag his barely conscious brother back to their room after a brutal training session. Any confidence and power he felt he'd managed to pry out of himself vanished instantly. He felt just as powerless as he had ever been.
"Just, please, come over here and sit and just talk to me. That's all I want." Akinori's voice had gotten so pained and haggard. He looked like he could barely keep his eyes open. "Please?"
Keita dropped his hands to his sides, his phone sliding from his grasp and clattering on the floor, forgotten immediately. He had to drag himself to the chair again. "Ok... Ok. What do..." He took in a deep shuddering breath. "What do you want me to talk about?"
Aki smiled sleepily. "Anything. Work, your wife, your friends. Just talk to me, please."
Keita gripped Aki's far too cold hand in his and forced his voice to stop shaking. "Well, recently, my wife and I have been talking about maybe having kids. She really wants to but I'm nervous. I don't want to mess a kid up"
"You'd make a great dad." Aki mumbled with a light smile.
"And you'd make an amazing uncle."
"Hmm. If you do have kids... tell them uncle Aki said hi."
"I will, I swear. Eva's got me talking about names. I've been thinking that maybe if it's a boy, we might call him Akinori. It's a good name, you know? I heard a lot of amazing people have that name." Keita attempted to lighten the mood. Aki chuckled weakly. His eyes fluttered closed. "And if it's a girl, Eva was thinking maybe Y/N."
"Y/N..." Aki echoed softly. "That's a lovely name."
"Yup. If we don't end up having kids, maybe I could name my next invention Akinori or Y/N?" Keita offered with a light laugh. "That's like, kind of a kid right?"
Another weak chuckle from Aki. "Kei?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. For everything."
Keita did everything in his power to keep his voice from shaking audibly but didn't do anything to stop his tears, now that Aki's eyes were closed. "Of course. Any time."
"Could you... keep... talking, please?" Aki managed to squeeze out, his voice soft and breathy.
"Of course I can." Keita knew he had to say it now if he never would get another chance. "I love you Aki. And I'll miss you. Goodnight." The goodnight slipped out more on instinct than anything else but Keita stood by it. Aki was tired. That's what he needed to hear. That he could finally properly rest.
Aki smiled ever so slightly even as his hand slowly stopped moving. "G'night... Kei... See you... in the... morning."
Keita barely managed to get out a "see you." He kept talking though, even as Aki's hand went limp and cold in his grasp and the machines around him screamed, Keita kept talking, rambling on about some silly thing Tatsu had done at the office the other day.
--------------------------------<<< end >>>--------------------------------
He honestly had no idea how long he sat there rambling before the doctors gently ushered him out of the room. Keita leaned against the wall and sank to the ground and promptly started bawling.
It didn't take long for Eva to arrive, having finally managed to get the car through the closed roads, followed closely by Alya and Tatsu who'd headed over as soon as they heard about Keita running out of the office like a bat out of hell.
They comforted him, Eva being his shoulder to cry on while Tatsu, in cat form, sat curled in his lap, purring loudly. Alya made sure he drank water and intermittently dealt with the hospital staff and made arrangements.
She was in the middle of talking to him when it happened. "Keita, don't worry about the office, take as much time off as you need. I'm sure Tatsu and I can handle everything until you're ready and-"
"I don't care, I need to see my son now!" Keita jumped up when he heard a shrill familiar voice approaching.
He leapt to his feet and he saw his friends look on confused as his mother walked around the corner flanked by his sisters and father. Keita grimaced, wiping his tears away with his sleeve.
"I need to see Summoner and eh? K-Keita? What are you doing here?" She had the audacity to ask, almost accusingly.
"To see my brother. Why else?" He responded coldly.
She huffed, visibly upset, rolling her eyes. "Not now, Keita. I don't have time for your nonsense, I'm here to see your brother. Where is he?"
If Keita weren't in the worst mental place he'd ever been, he probably would've thought over his options. But right now his grief struck mind zeroes in on the only right answer. The cruelest one.
"He's dead." Keita dropped bluntly, expression and voice just as cold.
It was a sick kind of satisfying to watch their reactions. His mother stared at him in abject shock. His oldest sister, Natsumi, looked moments away from crying. The other two sisters were looking at him as if expecting him to follow it up with a 'just kidding'. His father was stoic as ever.
"What?" His mother managed after a long uncomfortable moment.
"He's dead." Keita reiterated, hiding the tremble in his voice with rage. "And you all are late. Missed him by, say," He glanced at a watch-less wrist. "about an hour or so. Did you have something more important to do?" He'd never seen his mother so out of control. It was odd really. If Keita were in his right mind, he wouldn't be so cruel but it was so so much easier to be angry rather than sad.
"Aki wouldn't want me to say this part. He wants, no well, actually, he wanted me to be civil with you," Keita emphasized the past tense. "to see the best in people. And I will do that going forward for the most part. I owe him that much." He hesitated and were it not for the fact that he'd been crying for hours he probably would be tearing up. Instead all he felt was numbness and ice cold rage.
"But you need to know this." It was also strange to actually meet his mother's gaze after having spent nearly his whole life avoiding it. This time she was the one who flinched back. "I need you to know that it was
All.
Your.
Fault."
He emphasized each syllable with a step forward until he was close enough to reach out and touch his mother. Her eyes were wide and she was almost trembling. The frantic expression on her face was so odd he almost didn't recognize her.
"Hey Th-that's not fair-" his youngest sister, Yori, started but Keita cut her off.
"Not fair?" Keita was stunned as he echoed the words. "Please! What's not fair is that Aki is dead for a dream that wasn't even his!" Keita snapped. "None of you ever cared what he wanted. Never even asked. You made him be a hero and it killed him. You all killed him."
"You killed him with that training" He pointed at his mother. "And the rest of you killed him with your negligence."
"Turns out, forcing a kid to use their quirk until they pass out day after day for their entire life isn't healthy. Surprise surprise. Who would have seen that coming?" Keita took a step forward and grinned darkly when they all took a step back. "You killed him. Con-grat-ula-tions." He emphasized the word with a sarcastic clap. His words were cold and harsh and they cut deep like knives. "I sure hope whatever you got out of having a kid with a powerful quirk was worth it. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted."
He dropped his voice to a threatening hiss. "Hope it was worth your fucking son's life." He spun on his heels, rage finally starting to simmer down into exhaustion. He couldn't deal with them right now. "Aki put me in charge of the funeral. I'll send an invite. Any of you cause a scene and I will kick you all out. Do not test me right now." He called over his shoulder.
"Keita!" Natsumi called out. She was the only one to do so and if Keita wasn't so out of control, he probably would have noticed how she sounded genuinely upset.
But instead he stormed out.
–--
Keita was pulled from his dark memories by a jolt. He glanced away from the sky to see that Y/N had walked over and was hugging him tightly.
"Kiddo?" He asked almost shakily.
"You were crying." Y/N mumbled into his shoulder.
"So-Sorry kiddo. I guess I got caught up in my own thoughts for a bit." He mumbled the apology as he wiped his still teary eyes with his hand. He felt awful. Y/N shouldn't have to deal with his fragile emotions.
"Hugs make me feel better." Y/N stated. "Is it helping?"
Keita couldn't help but smile as he pulled a hand up to run his fingers through her hair. "Yeah, thank you Y/N. I feel better already.
"I vote we go home, order pizza, call up Tatsu and Mrs. Alya, and play video games." Y/N offered almost nervously, it was clear she really didn't know if she was doing the right thing to help him calm down. But, she was his darling kiddo so anything she did cheered him up.
Sounds like a plan!" He agreed and, with Y/N still in his arms, jumped up to his feet, earning himself a panicked sound from his daughter. "What? Surprised my brittle old bones can still carry you?"
"Release me!" Y/N protested but she was laughing so Keita decided to keep teasing, well aware that Y/N could easily break his grip if she actually wanted to.
"Never!" Keita shamelessly carried his uber-powerful kiddo back home in his arms.
–--
"You better send me postcards!" Y/N yelled from the tarmac as Keita was all but dragged onto the private jet by Alya and Tatsu
"Of course!" He called back. "I'll find the worst ones just for you!"
"YES!!" His kiddo cheered. "Bye dad! Come back soon!!"
"Bye kiddo!!"
Keita would be lying if he said he didn't slump in his seat as the private jet got ready for take off.
"Aw, miss Mini-Saitama already?" Tatsu teased.
"As if you don't?" Keita immediately teased back. Tatsu pouted, the sight made all the more apparent when his ears drooped.
"I'll see when we can make enough of a gap to fly back here." Alya offered.
"Thank you. But don't try to force it. I know research needs all the hands they can manage." Keita smiled, touched by the offer but he knew their schedules were tight. "Speaking of, how are the latest trials going?" Keita asked once the plane was airborne.
"Pretty smoothly." Tatsu reported. "Fully vetted out to about 200 miles."
Keita hummed in acknowledgement. "Good. Seems we're actually ahead of schedule..." He jolted slightly. "Oh, Alya before I forget, from now until I say otherwise I want 20% of my salary to be donated anonymously into an open fund to be offered to cover the legal fees of anyone who wants to sue Endeavor. Property damages, injuries, whatever."
Alya stared at him. "Of course. Why?"
"I had the displeasure of meeting him." Keita all but snarled. "He's like my mother. You can guess what kind of offer he made me about my kid." The cabin went silent. Alya frowned and Tatsu nearly growled.
"I'm also pitching in on the fund." Tatsu stated flatly, his voice low.
Keita seemed surprised. "There's no need 20% of my salary is more than enough."
Tatsu sighed. "I know. I still want to." He replied, trying to convey in his voice that he wasn't backing down. It seemed to work as Keita smiled fondly and nodded.
Alya smiled, composing an email to the finance department letting them know about Keita and Tatsu's requests (as well as a donation from her own salary). "It's done."
"Though I'm curious..." Tatsu leaned over almost conspiratorially. "Defense fund is kinda tame as far as you're concerned. What's up with that?"
"Tame?" Keita asked, seemingly oblivious.
Tatsu buried his face in his paws. "Seriously? You can't act like you don't go full 'scorched earth' on anyone who messes with you or your family."
"That's a bit dramatic..." Keita mumbled like a man who hadn't specifically bankrupted his parents' company with some clever investments just to swoop in and buy it out from under them or beat the Hero Commission at its own game with a technicality.
"Besides, a more aggressive route wouldn't be a good idea." Keita continued. "His youngest is still under his custody and getting a protective order against a pro hero is... dicey at best. Not to mention that, while the kid hates his guts, I'm not sure if he'd want a long drawn out case... Endeavor might have the lowest approval rating of any hero in the top ten but he's number 2 as far as cases go. He's a valuable asset that the powers that be want to keep and HPSC already doesn't like me. I shouldn't poke the bear for anything short of a guaranteed victory and there unfortunately isn't any red tape I can use this time." Those words were said with the annoyed confidence of someone who had looked for said red tape and not found anything.
"With free defenses however," Keita grinned. "they're going to have to pay much more to get people to settle rather than try their luck in court. They might decide he's too troublesome and they might drop him."
The cabin was dead silent.
Keita jumped, seemingly realizing that he'd been talking out loud. "Ah! Sorry! Rambling again..."
But before anyone could say anything else, the speaker system of the jet crackled to life.
"Good morning y'all! This is your captain speaking. We will officially leave Japanese air space in about... eh... five-ish minutes. So... This is your last reminder to do whatever you gotta before we get this show on the road for real! Finish those drinks, put all your stuff away and make sure it's secure! Then sit down and enjoy the ride! Over and out!"
Tatsu sighed as Alya downed the rest of her coffee like someone on the verge of dehydration.
"Dude." Tatsu managed. After a breath, he reached out, placing a paw on Keita's shoulder. "I mean this is in the nicest, most friendly way imaginable: you are absolutely terrifying."
"Huh?"
>>>TD;LR for those who skipped: Akinori overuses his quirk to keep being a hero knowing it would kill him.<<<<
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a/n: if there's a better way for me to mark which sections to skip, please let me know!
this fic is officially long enough to be classed as a novel! That's wild.
"Fun" fact: Keita felt somewhat guilty for being so harsh in this chapter's flashback and that's the reason he tried to give his mother another chance in the flashback in chapter 17. Not that it went well for him.
The poll for Y/N's hero name is here! Link → https://www.quotev.com/quiz/15679794/yns-hero-name
Please fill it out! (I honestly have no ideas/preference for her hero name so I'm leaving it up to you guys!)
Me, about this chapter: haha, my readers are gonna cry so hard >:)
Also me, while writing:
reminder: you are important, valued, and loved.