Visiting an old friend
“It has been such a long time, hasn’t it, Aurorus?” With a heavy sigh, Yamamoto greeted his old friend, one of the founders of the MutPunk office in their days of glory. A friend he hadn’t seen in a few years now.
“I did the unthinkable, and I reorganized the MutPunk office. Pancho and I are back on active duty, and so are Ooi and Naoto. I’m sorry; I promised I wouldn’t do anything big without your approval.” Yamamoto closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.
“Yet I am back in activity. I’m sorry, Aurorus; I should’ve asked your permission first, but it was something I had to do. One of my daughters was attacked; I couldn’t just stay still and do nothing.”
‘Do nothing while she suffers, do nothing as innocents suffer. This isn’t how I do things, and you know it, Aurorus.’ His eyes felt heavy, his vision shaky, and his heart burdened with regret and sorrow.
His lips feel dry. “I’m back at this profession I thought I left for good. I need to protect those who can’t defend themselves and escape from the mayhem brought by villains.” His chest feels heavier at the memory of his daughter hooked on machinery, so hurt and doubtful.
The nephew he wanted to leave out of the mess of the hero's work and family politics was thrown right in the middle of this chaos. ‘No matter how much I think about it, did we make a change for good? Did the MutPunk help anyone?’
Yamamoto knew this wasn’t true, but at times like these doubts arise when he stops to see if something changed from the trying times he grew on, if the world is becoming a better place like himself, Endeavor, Aurorus, and his office wanted it to become.
It is a little better, but there is much work left to do. “This world continues so full of hardship, Aurorus, so we need to make it easier for the next generations and for the sake of our future.”
Red eyes fall to see white-blue hair, skin so pale it looks sick and frozen, yet so beautiful and regal in its way. “At times like these, I miss you so much, Aurorus; you don’t know how we all miss your advice and you.”
Red eyes stare at the picture of his best friend, her grave a little dusty. “I know this is not the monument they raised in your memory, but for them to leave your actual grave in such a poor state.”
Using a part of his shirt, Yamamoto rubs the dust off the tombstone and the picture of the person Aurorus was behind her uniform. Sasaki Yuki. “It has been such a long time, twelve years, I think? Saurus is the new rank two in your place; you were forgotten like you were just another hero, it is so infuriating.”
The tall man sits on the ground, uncaring if his pants get stained with dirt or blades of grass, an ornate bottle at his side, sealed. “You would be mad at me for bothering you even after you died, and even more mad because I will do something stupid.”
A bittersweet smile blooms on his face, recalling the good moments they all had in the office, their wild and goofy days when the world was easier and simpler, they were heroes, and they had to face villains.
The vultures weren’t as bad as they were, and they were free to experiment and be themselves, instead of marketable objects for some company. Bittersweet becomes bitter and sour as the ex-rank five hero remembers the circumstances of his friend's death.
“You deserved better, forgotten because they couldn’t market you enough after your death. That day Enji was so mad he almost went to burn down the Agency himself for how they swept your death under the rug after the festivities were done.”
Used to raise money and discarded when her death no longer generated profit. This is how things went for her. His heart beats with heaviness at those sour memories. “You would beat me for sulking over your death until now. For someone so cold, you had such a fierce temper.”
“There is a new villain group in town, the Night’s Parade, led by that old fossil, and the five decided to act on our turf. Legion has grown to be a problem deep-rooted in Tokyo.” So many things happened, so much changed in a mere decade.
His retirement and the world growing crazier, him coming back from retirement. She lost so much. “Well, things are not as bad as they seem; Enji still is Enji, that big oaf already offered to come to Kyoto for a time, I said for him to keep his eyes on Tokyo, things are bad everywhere.”
His old friend Endeavor, still the top hero in Japan, has a heart ignited by passion and the fires of hope. “We will be doing our best; the next generation is shaping greatly; they all have the power to succeed where we couldn’t. This makes me happy; you would love to see their potential.”
His nephew, his daughters, their friends, and those of their generation, strong and full of hope, unbound by the rules of old and the nights of yore, can strive and make their dreams of peace and prosperity happen. “This doesn’t mean we the old guard will stop fighting, but we need to guide them too.”
He is half a century old, and a century ago, chaos reigned with free reins and unchallenged. His own mothers would be seventy-four. “The world moved faster than we could catch up.” A smile of many mixed emotions shows on his face.
Sadness, pride, and hope for their future, they did and still are doing, their best. “Well, I brought a gift too, a European white wine of three hundred years ago. Aged to perfection. Oh gods, I can feel your wrath over wasting a perfect wine like that here.”
With a chuckle, Yamamoto opens the bottle and drinks half of it in one gulp, feeling sweetness overwhelm his tastebuds as he swallows half of the bottle’s contents in a go, leaving exactly half of the bottle left. “Tsc, it is good but too sweet. Well, it suits your tastes better than mine.”
Unceremoniously, he pours the other half of the bottle over the ground of her grave. “I hope you can taste it in the afterlife; it was kind of expensive to find it. I wanted to share it with you back then. I’m happy I can do it now.”
Letting the ground absorb the contents of the wine he just poured, the Atsushi patriarch gets up, placing the bottle to rest against her tombstone, and cleaning the dust and dirt off his pants.
“The others will be here with the monster machine at any moment. It was good to talk to you again, Aurorus. I’m sorry for not having my eyes open to you until it was too late. Have a good rest.”
Yamamoto turns around, walking away. “Sigh. “I have lives on my hands, so I will save those I can save. Heroes exist to help those who can’t escape the cruel traps of life. The world is hard, so I must make it easier.” Keep my seat warm for when we meet again.”
Muttering her mantra, Yamamoto walks away, seeing the outline of the Monster Machine stop by the Graveyard’s entrance.