The Crimson Butterfly [My Hero Academia & Tokyo Ghoul]

Chapter 44: The Shape Of My Love

The shape of my love for Touya always used to change with the change of every season around me where it took various shapes and forms at different times and they were all unrivaled by one another. Every shape of my love for him was pure, genuine, and beautiful. 

When did I start to feel for him in that way, when did I start to see him in that way, I couldn't recall it properly. Was it when I met him for the first time and got mesmerized by his beauty and quirk or was it the time when he saved me from my bully and said that I looked like a beautiful butterfly with my Ukaku kagune unleashed from my back or was it that one time when we built a sandcastle together, I didn't know. For all, I knew I was in love with Touya Todoroki and there was no going back from those intense yet sweet feelings. I once heard a quote, didn't know from where but it was something like this, that – "Love is like lightning; electrifying and fast. So fast and powerful that it can hit you in the blink of an eye and in a matter of seconds, you're done. You'll never be the same ever again..."

I guess whoever came up with that quote wasn't entirely wrong at all.

Summer

"What have you written down there, Nana-chan?" a thirteen-year-old Touya questioned me as he peeked into the tanzaku paper I was writing on.

It was the time of the Tanabata Star Festival that year and Touya decided to celebrate it with me and my parents rather than with his own family that one time because to him, my family felt more like his own than the family he was born in. My parents on the other hand had welcomed the white-haired Todoroki boy warmly with open arms, assuring him that he could stay at our place as long as he wanted, causing Touya to be all over the moon. I could still vividly remember how much my Mom and Dad loved Touya dearly as if he was their own son; a love that Touya got from my parents which he probably never got from his own.

Summer in Japan means it's the season of festivals. From the lively Obon held to remember and celebrate one's ancestors to various fireworks illuminating the night sky, there's no lack of opportunities to celebrate, the Japanese way. But there's one festival that is especially wonderful and magical and that is the Tanabata Festival.

The Star Festival, as Tanabata is also called, has been celebrated in Japan since 755 and thus has a long and rich tradition within the Japanese calendar. It has its roots in China, in a celebration called Qixi Festival. The tradition was picked up by Empress Koken, the 46th monarch of Japan, who introduced the festival's lore and traditions to Japan. The people loved the idea behind the Star Festival and it was welcomed with open arms ever since then.

"Touya-kun will surpass All Might and Shoto-kun and become the best!" my five-year-old self stated with a determined voice and sparkly eyes as I showed him what I had written in my tanzaku paper.

"Nana-chan, that's not a wish. That's a resolution!" Touya stated, furrowing his eyebrows a bit at me.

"Oh, you're right!" I gasped out in realization making my Dad chuckle at us in amusement.

My Dad, Touya, and I were all sitting around at the dining table with a window open beside us, and by the side of that window, my Mom decorated a small Tanabata bamboo for us to write down our wishes and hang the papers on it.

"I think I know what I want..." Dad stated before writing down his wish. "I wish that I get back the car I sold."

"I wish that we could get a new air conditioner and set it in this dining room." I wrote it down, given how hot the summer was that year.

"I wish that my new project gets selected for the next year's competition and I win the best quirk scientist award for it."

"I'd like a balcony attached to my bedroom where I can decorate some bamboo branches."