A/N: SherLucario will resume after this chapter. Please understand.

July 11 is a historic day for Nintendo.

This chapter stands out because it's sad. You can skip it if you want, because it doesn't affect the main story. I just want to pay tribute to a great man.

Chapter 37: Please Understand

Lucas was sitting beneath a tree at the Smash Lake, a sunflower in his hand. He had started coming here often a week ago. He always went during the middle of the night so nobody would disturb him. However, Ness realized that something was up with Lucas and told Mario about it. He even missed the meeting where they announced the passing away of...

Anyways, on this particular night, Mario had followed Lucas silently from his house and all the way to the tree.

Mario crouched behind a bush, watching Lucas to see what was going down. From where Mario could see, Lucas was just staring at his sunflower. However, Lucas soon broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably into his legs.

"Lucas..." Mario got up from behind the bush and walked quietly towards him. When Lucas took his face out from his legs, the plumber was sitting next to him.

"Hey."

"Ah! Mario! W-what are you doing here?"

Lucas quickly wiped his tears.

"Ness was-a worried about you, and so am I. He said that you've been-a acting strange lately. You've grown quieter and more distant." Mario looked at Lucas kindly. "Is there something you need to-a talk about?"

"Well, I..." Lucas started breathing loudly and sniffing. "Um..."

"It's ok to tell me. You don't have-a to say if you don't want to, though." Mario smiled at him and wrapped an arm around him. "But, if you have a problem, it's my duty to-a fix it."

Lucas's eyes started watering more and more. His grip on the sunflower tightened. Then, he suddenly started bawling and ran into Mario, burying his face into the hero's chest. "Waaaaaahhhh!"

Mario patted Lucas's head. "Shhh... It's alright. What's causing you so much-a angst?"

Lucas wiped his tears again and pulled out a picture of a beautiful woman with hazel hair and cherry red lips. She was wearing a red work dress. A tough looking man dressed like a cowboy was standing next to her, smiling. In their hands were two newborn babies that looked identical. The only difference was their hair color, one had blonde hair and the other had ginger hair.

"Oh, is this your family?"

Lucas nodded. "Yeah, that's me." He pointed to the young baby with blonde hair. "This is my dad, Flint." He pointed to the cowboy.

"Wow, and who's this young boy? Your brother?" Mario asked, pointing to the other baby.

Lucas sniffled. "Well, yeah..."

"How come I've-a never heard of him before?"

"It's because he's... he's..." Tears slid down his face once again.

Mario knew he hit a nerve and started panicking. "Oh, and-a who's this lady?" He said, trying to change the subject.

"That's my mom... She's also..." Lucas started bawling again and ran into his chest once more.

Mario nodded sadly. "I see..."

Lucas started shouting angrily. "Why? Why did this happen to me? Why was I so weak?! Mom, Claus... Why have you abandoned me?" He yelled.

Mario was taken aback from this outburst of anger. He had never seen Lucas this worked up. He took Lucas by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye.

"Listen, Lucas... Sometimes, someone may leave your life. And this person may be-a very important to you. Recently... A very important man was taken from all of us too... Don't get me wrong, it's-a perfectly fine to mourn for them, but it's not okay to become sad or mad whenever you remember the ones you've-a lost. If you loved them and they loved you back, I bet they wouldn't want you to become sad whenever you-a think of them. I know I wouldn't if I ever happened to..."

Lucas gasped. "Don't say that, Mario!"

"Don't worry." Mario smiled slightly. "I'm-a not dead yet. Anyways, my point is... You can be sad when you think of someone you lost. But remember that-a that sadness comes from-a the unmeasurable amount of happiness that you felt when you were with them. Life goes on, with or without you. It's best to come to peace with the deceased rather than-a not, so that life doesn't leave you in-a the dust. I'm sure your mother would want it that way, and so would he..." Mario started tearing up.

Lucas took a deep breath. "...I think I understand... Thank you." He let a slight smile escape him, as well as a single tear. Lucas promised himself that it would be his last tear over this matter.

Mario smiled. "No problem." He gave Lucas a hug. "Now, why don't we head home?"

Lucas shuffled shyly. "Actually... I kinda wanna stay here one last time..."

"That's alright." Mario sat against the tree with legs outstretched. "I'll stay with you."

Lucas smiled. "Yay!" He sat down next to Mario and rested his head against Mario's arm. In little more than a minute, he was asleep.

"Whew... He's finally asleep." Mario sighed and watched the moon's reflection on the lake. Now that Lucas wasn't paying attention, he finally let a tear stream down his face. He took a 1-Up mushroom and held it close to him. In the distance, he could see a fairy flying off from the Legend of Zelda household. A jar of honey flew off from Olimar's house. All around him, Mario could see the tributes from the rest of the smashers flying off towards the sky. He could even see Snake across the lake, who had stomped his cigarette into the ground and was saluting. Looking into the night sky, he threw the 1-Up mushroom as far as he could at the moon. "Rest in peace, Iwata..."

A/N: Iwata is an inspiration to me and he really made Nintendo feel magical. He's done so much for the company that he loves so much, and I feel like we, as Nintendo fans, owe a lot to him. This is just my little tribute to him. He left us Mario Maker so that we could make our dreams of creating dreams become a reality, like what he did. I like to think that he's looking down from the next world right now, watching us fail at Mario and playing Mario himself.

Thank you, Iwata. You will be missed, but never forgotten.