Author Note: From today through Monday, I'm scheduled at work for about thirty-six hours not including lunch breaks so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write chapters for this fic. I hope in that case that you enjoy what I am able to write.

Chapter Twelve – Root Causes

That night, Kuon had sat with his hand gripping the phone as he waited for his young friend to pick up. He had just told Kou a story about when Kyoko had taken care of him when he was sick and the little boy had fallen asleep. Due to what Kanae had said to him outside that restaurant, Kuon had promised himself that as soon as Kou was asleep he would make a phone call.

"Hello," the recipient of the call smiled as she picked up, "This is Maria. Kuon, is this you?"

"Yeah," Kuon said weakly, "Maria, I hope it's alright that I've called."

"Of course, big brother," Maria nodded trying to sound happy despite how much she personally missed her big sister. "You're always welcome to call me. What can I help you with?"

Kuon took a deep breath in, he was almost going to choke on the words. "Can you help me plan the funeral? Do you have a little time tomo-tomorrow?" he asked with his body shaking over the mere thought of having to say goodbye to the woman he loved, the woman who had made his world complete.

"Of course, I'll come over after school if that time works for you," Maria said quickly and Kuon nodded with a weak smile before realizing she wouldn't be able to detect that.

"That works perfectly, thank you," he told her. "Have a good night, Maria"

"Thanks, Kuon. I hope you can get some sleep as well," Maria told him as she ended the phone call and felt a sense of relief rush through her.

On the other end of the line, Kuon carefully placed the phone down on the bedside table and stared longingly at the empty space beside him in the bed. Feeling himself break, he allowed the tears to fall and his entire body to shake. He knew he should change the sheets and wash the pillowcases but it felt too soon.

Less than a week ago, his wife had slept here. In the middle of the night when one of them had felt anxious about anything, they would reach out and the other one would take their hand and hold it to show that there was some connection to love and safety and protection. Well, Kuon Hizuri had only given his wife the love, he hadn't been able to save her from the inevitable.

Kuon blinked as he heard a knock on the door, "Hey, you can come in" he called out, his voice weak and his emotions on the surface unable to be buried at this point.

He nodded as he saw his father there. Well, it was really a 50-50 chance on who it would be since Kou would just push it open and come in and Kuon was pretty sure he was still in his bed. Kuon looked at the spot in the bed and felt his body break. "I just keep having this feeling, dad, that she's still alive. It's like there's always been this silent and probably impossible connection to her and I don't think she's dead." He laughed bitterly and hung his head, "I'm an idiot. I saw her die, I was the last person on her mind."

"Kuon," Kuu said slowly, "Can I discuss something with you?" he asked.

Kuon sighed and stood up from the bed, he pointed outside to the balcony. "Can we go out there? I always feel better about discussing these things outside…in America it was better though, less people around."

Kuu nodded as he went to the balcony with Kuon and sat down in one of the chairs by a small table they had put out there. "How are you feeling?"

Kuon gave a heavy exhale as he sat down, "What kind of a question is that?" he asked with a raise of his eyebrow. "I don't even….obviously not good. I'm scared that I'm going to turn out to be a terrible father, my own wife is dead and I failed her, and if you haven't realized this is the second time that someone died because of me."

Kuu sighed, "Can you please at least try not to blame yourself. I know that when you were fifteen you didn't feel that you could share any of the blame with anyone, but you've changed, you've grown up and unless you brought a tank full of the virus that killed her into your home, you did nothing wrong."

Kuon shook his head and felt his entire body crumble within. "Dad, if I hadn't have been there, then she would never have died," he tried to argue. "I don't even know what she died of. They should be finished with the lab results soon."

"Maybe they'll find the answer," Kuu said very weakly before standing up and looking out at Tokyo. "Kuon, did I ever tell you about my greatest role?" he asked as Kuon laughed bitterly.

"Not really in the mood to talk about acting here, dad, and if you're using this as a trick to find out who the better Katsuki was," he rolled his eyes but saw his father shake his head.

"I was offered the role in May twenty-eight years ago. I didn't know whether I would be any good at it but I had to take it. It was a dream offer, an offer of a lifetime and an offer of a life." Kuu looked around. "It took around nine months for that role to open and for me to act in it. During that whole time I was scared that I would mess it up and if I messed it up that there would be plenty of NGs following me around my whole life. I did make some of those NGs but I got reoffered the role more recently,"

Kuon looked down, "and you're saying that you want to go back to America?" he asked despite the fact that if he had had more sleep he would have figured it out.

"On February 10th next year, I will have had that role, the most important role of my life for twenty-eight years," he said. "Even if some of that time, I was unable to act properly on the main stage. The fact that I was able to be a father, that I had such an amazing son that I loved unconditionally with every part of my heart and my soul. That is my best role ever," he said as he sat down.

"I don't see a murderer when I look at you, Kuon. I don't see a bad father or a bad husband either. I know that if there was anything at all that you could have done for Kyoko, if there was any way you could have stopped what happened with Rick, you would have done. Do you feel that you killed them on purpose," he said as he saw Kuon about to shatter again.

"No," he finally whispered, "If I could have saved them…" he trailed off and Kuu nodded as he reached out to put a hand on his child's shoulder.

"That's just it, if you could have saved them you would have because you loved and cared about each of them. Now, I know I have very little right to ask this of you whilst you're in mourning, but I'd really like to keep my most important role. I need to know that I can, that that little baby I held in my arms on February 10th twenty-eight years ago isn't going to become ash," he said bluntly.

Kuon looked down. "I promise," he nodded, "Don't worry. Even if I find it pointless to live for myself right now, I've experienced that role myself. I might have only had it for a shorter time, but that little boy is my own son. I would never leave him an orphan by choice. Just, I might need some help for a while."

Kuu smiled and nodded, "Your mother will be thrilled not to have to pack," he said as he tilted his head to the side. "Do you think you're going to be alright?"

Kuon nodded, "Eventually."

….

….

Maria was surprised that Kuon hadn't decided to take Kyoko's body down to Kyoto where they had first met. The meeting between the young six year old girl and the ten year old fairy prince was a tale that Kyoko had told a lot and had even been in a few magazines during interviews. However, when Kuon had explained that he had picked the best cemetery that was closest to LME, Maria had understood that.

She had been surprised when Kuon had also reserved the plot next to her grave, but it made sense. She knew that her big brother wasn't going to marry anyone else. She knew that despite the possibility of him having half a century of his life left, he would stay a widower and loyal to the woman he loved. It only made sense for him to rest beside her years later.

That was why they had to make the best funeral possible.

It was a long time to wait and Kyoko wasn't the best at being patient. Sure, for a while, the actress could remain still and think calmly but then her calm thoughts would generate hundreds more questions. Maria remembered a time when Kyoko had gone to the airport to meet Kuon two hours earlier than she had originally planned because she had missed him so much.

So, that was why the two of them were looking over a large picture that Maria had sketched of where the funeral ceremony was going to be held.

Kuon looked at her with warm and attentive eyes before pointing. "Maria, I have no problem with the fairy lights at the top of the trees, but I do object to using tinsel to wrap around the trees. I don't think that's really the feel that Kyoko would want."

Maria hummed, "I see your point, but I think that big sis would want some kind of magic. Maybe those are too fluffy, kind of overdoing it in a way," she said. "Besides, even if big sis was born on Christmas, it shouldn't look too much like Christmas."

Kuon sighed as he looked at the trees, "How about we put flowers around them?" he asked as Maria's eyes lit up.

"That's perfect" she nodded, "Big sis loved flowers so I'm sure she would have stood there saying how beautiful it all was. Now I've already put a rush on the memorial programs and I do think your obituary was beautiful," she said as she reached out for his hand.

Kuon nodded, this was really hard to sit here and plan it, but he wanted to celebrate Kyoko's life and the things that she loved instead of show the doom and gloom that came with losing her. He looked down, "So, we have the coffin with the fairy etching," he tried to say calmly, "we have the photographs and the flowers, I have my speech, and Kanae is going to pick out the clothes," he said before wrapping his arms around himself and letting himself crumble for a moment.

Maria paused and then wrapped her arms around the broken man, "I'm sorry," she apologized. "We should take a break, let's take a break, this is really hard for me too."

Kuon sat there for a few moments with Maria holding him before hearing his phone ring. Maria shook his head, trying to encourage him not to answer it, but stopped when she saw it was Kanae calling him. Kuon stood and took the call, his legs shaking as he stood.

"Hey, Kanae, is everything -"

"Those stupid idiots…" Kanae said as she sounded angry enough to cause something physical damage. "They botched it. They cremated the body despite knowing we were burying her," Kuon's eyes snapped open as he felt his heart break. This was not what he planned and it definitely wasn't what he had promised his wife.

"This isn't a joke, is it?" he paled as he heard Kanae crying, that was enough to tell him that she was being honest. "Tell them that I'm burying her in the coffin anyway. In any form," he said in a strong and authoritative tone. "I promised her that I'd bury her. Also, if you could do a favor for me, Kanae, let them know that I'm bringing a lawsuit to them."

Kanae tried to steady her breaths, "If this wasn't such a serious situation that involved my best friend's last wishes, I'd make a comment on how you Americans always think litigation will solve everything," she said bitterly. "There's another thing as well, but I'm not sure you'd want to know…these doctors certainly weren't going to tell you."

Kuon waited a moment, unsure if he wanted to really hear what would come next. However, he felt that he should for Kyoko's sake.

"Go ahead, Kanae" he said as his fingers clenched tighter around his phone.

"The medication was making her sick, the doctors obviously didn't know what they were doing when they prescribed it to her," she said although both of them wondered whether there was somebody who actually wanted to kill Kyoko. "There was an addictive substance in there as well. That's why she never wanted to test them or get off of them, they drugged her and they murdered her."

"And the so called specialist!?" Kuon growled down the phone much louder than he would have wanted to.

"I wanted to murder the guy myself, but the house was burned down and the name was false. We should have done more research on this," she said as Kuon felt the anger almost overwhelm him. When the call ended he tossed the phone onto the sofa as the rage filled his body.

He should have protested more about those pills.

What kind of a heartless jerk and total idiot was he? If he had stopped her from taking them then none of this would ever have happened.