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An eerie silence washed over the crowd, and the Sports Festival’s electrified din died out, replaced by an almost haunting air.
Goosebumps rippled across Nariko’s skin, and she fought back the accompanying shudder. She hadn’t shown her nerves yet, and she wasn’t about to now that she was close enough to taste her victory.
Stepping out of the tunnel and into the arena, Nariko rolled her shoulders, straightening her posture the way her momma taught her, and clenched her jaw, her expression a mirror image of her father’s infamous scowl.
Nariko had grown used to the crowd’s hooping and hollering. Without it, her thoughts roared in her head.
Fisting her hands at her sides, she stepped into the ring.
She watched her twin sister do the same.
“It’s the match we’ve all been waiting for!” Chargebolt yelled through the announcer’s speaker. “We hoped. We prayed—and the girls delivered. Before us, we have not one but two Bakugous competing for first place. Uravity and Dynamight have to be proud, but boy, I do not envy them now. I mean, who do you cheer for, amirite?”
Chargebolt’s laugh ricocheted around the arena.
“We’ve announced them before, but I’ll do it again! On the west side of the ring, mass manipulation is her game; Bakugou Himari is her name! Across the way, Bakugou Nariko. You better watch her hands. She’s not playing around. All five fingers down, and you can say goodbye to whatever she touches. And remember! The fight doesn’t end until someone gets knocked out or goes out of bounds. Ladies? Are you ready?!”
Nariko swallowed. She wasn’t nervous. She could beat her sister and knew as much.
Still, a knot grew in the pit of her stomach, and a familiar ache bloomed in her chest. Competing ran in her blood, but fighting her sister never came easy, especially not when Himari still had that scar wrapped around her shoulder—Nariko’s five-finger burden to her sister.
No, Nariko wasn’t nervous. She was terrified.
Her parents were watching. Her peers were watching—and so was all of Japan. She couldn’t let anyone down, least of all herself. But facing Himari, could she do enough to beat her without hurting her again?
She didn’t know if she could stomach the answer.
For a fleeting selfish moment, she wished her sister hadn’t made it this far. At least then she wouldn’t have to hold back.
An unmistakable voice split the air from behind.
“SHOW THESE EXTRAS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A BAKUGOU!”
Nariko’s and Himari’s heads whipped toward each other, their eyes locked and lips curling around the edges. As expected, he’d gone and yelled something embarrassing.
“Looks like you owe me,” Nariko snarled through a grin, clinging tooth and nail to her fierce and unaffected facade.
“Aww, really?” Himari whined, her steely expression slipping into a pout. “Wanna double down? You beat me; I’ll pay up. I beat you; you owe me double.”
“Fine by me, mochi butt.”
Himari puffed her cheeks out and narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t retort.
“Dynamight’s gonna be a winner no matter what!” Chargebolt cackled through the loudspeaker. “I wonder how Uravity is holding up. You crazy kids better stick around for an interview!”
“Chargebolt, start the fight already,” Earphone Jack groaned, her tone dripping with displeasure.
“You heard the lady!” Chargebolt boomed. “Can we get some noise for our final competitors?!”
Roused from its trance, the crowd began to stomp and cheer.
Nariko’s breath caught in her throat. She could feel the ground quaking. Electrifying tremors buzzed through her body, up from her soles. If this was the crowd’s pre-match energy, she couldn’t begin to fathom how they’d react after.
“Ready?” Chargebolt yelled through the mic.
His voice struck Nariko’s nerves like a match, igniting a flame in her heart. She was a Bakugou! Maybe her dad was super embarrassing—the damn geezer—but he wasn’t wrong about her: she had something worth showing off to Japan.
Bending her knees in preparation, Nariko’s eyes darted to Himari’s feet. She knew how her sister moved and refused to be caught off guard. Any remaining reservations were a mere blip on her radar. All that mattered was taking Himari down as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary injury.
That was more than doable. Nariko told herself so, and she had no choice but to believe it with every last ounce of unwavering grit and passion she could muster.
“Fight!”
Himari still had a long way to go, Nariko thought as she began running in a dead sprint toward her twin. Sure, she’d progressed leaps and bounds since barely scraping into Class 1-A, but she lacked the focus and drive necessary to go toe-to-toe with someone as driven as Nariko. It was her biggest barrier to skyrocketing herself into the class’s top ranks.
Himari waited for Nariko, unmoving and crouched in her signature defensive stance, ready to activate her quirk on herself or her sister at a moment’s notice.
‘Tch,” Nariko growled. Her heart raced, pounding in time with the slapping of her feet on the concrete. Even as she drew closer, Himari didn’t budge to move out of the way.
Dropping into a slide, Nariko hurtled toward Himari. She couldn’t use her explosive touch on her sister, but she wasn’t about to go easy on her either.
Counting in her head, Nariko timed her assault. She had to be faster than Himari’s hands and more set than her resolve. She had to take her down before there was a chance to fight back.
Without a second to spare, Nariko struck the ground at Himari’s feet and activated her quirk. The ear-splitting sound of the concrete detonating was all that preceded the ground crumbling beneath them.
Grabbing Himari’s ankle, Nariko slowed her trajectory, saving herself from flying out of bounds or tumbling into the growing pit of rubble beneath them. Between the explosion and pulling Himari’s feet out from under her, Nariko had expected her sister to fall, but—
“Holy sh-cow!” Chargebolt yelled through the loudspeaker. “That is quite the crater!”
Himari grunted, but she didn’t go down, not even with her sister dangling from her ankle. She’d managed to activate her quirk on herself and—to Nariko’s complete and utter shock—was floating in the air, just like Momma.
“When did you learn—?”
“You’re gonna have to try a little harder!” Himari yelled, grinning fiercely down at her sister. “I’m not the little girl you used to boss around. I grew with you, Nari-chan. It’s my turn to shine. If I can’t blaze ahead of you, then I want to burn brightly beside you.”
Himari’s words bounced off Nariko and tumbled into the crater below. Nariko could feel her grip slipping, but shock immobilized her.
“Sorry in advance,” Himari laughed, her crimson eyes burning like twin suns. “This is going to hurt!”
Nariko didn’t have a chance to overcome her paralysis. Her surprise was ushered out by the heel of Himari’s shoe as she brought her free foot down as hard as she could into her sister’s face, freeing her ankle and sending Nariko hurtling to the bottom of the crater.
In many ways, Nariko was like her father. She was a fiery competitor and as abrasive and impatient as she was passionate and protective. But, she couldn’t produce blasts from her hands the way he could, which left her freefalling into the grave she’d dug for herself the second she’d underestimated her sister’s abilities.
She’d hoped to end the fight fast, and it seemed as though it very well might—just not the way she’d envisioned.
Twisting in the air, Nariko swung herself to face the ground head-on. She only had one trick left up her sleeve, and if she didn’t execute it damn near perfectly, she’d need a lot more than a few healing gummies to save her skin.
The crowd roared as the ground rushed up to meet Nariko. The breath in her lungs had long since stagnated, but she had more pressing matters to worry over than whether or not she could breathe.
Nariko’s fingers twitched with anticipation, their tips burning with power she couldn’t yet expel.
Pain sharper than any she’d ever felt lanced up her fingers and arms as she connected with the ground. Her body didn’t follow, though. The second her fingertips grazed the rubble, she released her quirk, riding the blast wave with little more than fractured fingertips, a small price to pay. She’d reviewed countless U.A. Sports Festival footage. She knew others before her had paid steeper prices for less.
Tucking her legs, Nariko flipped back, settling near the outer rim of the crater. She landed hard, and the cement rubble shifted precariously under her feet.
“Ha!” Nariko spit, flexing her bloody hands and glaring up at her sister. “This isn’t over! You’ve still got a long way to go if you want to catch up to me.”
Try as she might, she couldn’t hold back the proud grin that probably made her look crazed to anyone who didn’t know how deep the sisters’ bond ran. Even through the pain of having her ego shattered, her heart soared for Himari.
“Oh, yeah?” Himari yelled back. “I should have told you before, Nari-chan. I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, but I finally found my drive. There’s someone I want to be like, and it’s my goal to surpass them, even if just this once. So that’s why—I’m going to beat you! Because to meet that goal, I have to surpass you. Don’t go easy on me. I know you’re holding back!”
Astonished, Nariko faltered, her eyes glazing over as overwhelming awe surged against her ribs and flooded her veins. Had Himari become someone else overnight? This fiery blonde with flames in her eyes wasn’t the sweet, gentle sister she’d grown up with. She wasn’t the same girl that stopped to look at flowers and dawdled when cats and other critters crossed her path.
This wasn’t the Himari that Nariko knew.
But perhaps, this Himari was the rival she’d been looking for—the one she’d been dreaming about finding, like how Poppa had Deku. And Momma had, well, Poppa.
“Is Nariko bleeding?” Chargebolt crowed. “That had to hurt like a butt cheek on a stick.”
“Kaminari!”
“Oh, oops. Did I say that out loud?”
Himari touched down on the opposite side of the crater, resuming her defensive crouch.
“What do you say, Nari-chan?” she yelled across the yawning gap. “Let’s give this fight everything we’ve got!”
Years of guilt sat heavily on Nariko’s chest, but the look in Himari’s eyes was a challenge she couldn’t ignore. It was a declaration that proved Himari was stronger than Nariko. She wasn’t the one held back by the past. She wasn’t the one too afraid to lose control.
For as close as the girls were, they were separated by a significant divide—one that Himari was fighting to close. She’d put her all into doing so. Nariko had to acknowledge that, and the best way to meet Himari in the middle was to cast aside doubt and treat her like an opponent that could take a hit and get back up.
Nariko swallowed and bent down, grabbing a softball-sized chunk of concrete. She was careful not to touch it with all five fingers, keeping her index finger a hair’s breadth from grazing it.
“Fine! But don’t go crying to Mom when I wipe the floor with you!” she hollered across the pit, cocking her arm back and ignoring the sharp pain in her fingertips.
Then, she hurled the debris at her sister with everything she had, quirk included. Before it could leave her grasp, she tapped her index finger down, sending the missile rocketing toward Himari.
Nariko still planned to end the fight quickly. She didn’t want to drag it out, and she’d only be able to ignore her injuries for so long. To win, she couldn’t afford to give Himari a chance to fire back at her.
Skirting the crater’s perimeter, Nariko grabbed what she could, hurling rock after blood-stained rock at her sister. If she played her cards right, she could push Himari out of bounds by forcing her to dodge the attacks. And if that failed, a solid blow to the chest would knock the wind out of her.
“Now this is interesting!” Chargebolt’s commentary was white noise. Nariko couldn’t afford to be distracted by him. “It looks like this fight isn’t over just yet!”
Nariko’s arm burned from overuse. Fatigue threatened to overtake her, but her sights were further than the podium. Winning had never been about the medal. It wasn’t even about the praise.
She was chasing her parents’ shadows, and she was going to prove she could become a formidable pro hero too.
Bored of playing defense, Himari launched her own attack. She wasted little time hefting debris into the air, floating it over the arena in a mirror image of her mother’s fight with their father.
Sweat dripped from Nariko’s brow. If push came to shove, she could defend herself against the onslaught. She’d watched that old footage a thousand times over too. Himari wasn’t the only one who’d studied it tirelessly.
“Release!”
Rubble rained down around Nariko.
She dodged when she could and used her quirk when she couldn’t. Her reflexes were lightning-fast, but her body screamed in frustration. It was impossible to evade the attack unscathed.
Nariko choked on dust and swallowed the growl of pain that threatened to slip out whenever debris slipped by her defenses.
All the while, Himari raced toward her sister. This was her chance. Both sisters knew the quickest way to end the fight was to lay hands on the other, and her best bet to avoid Nariko’s hands and float her into the stratosphere was to attack when she was otherwise engaged.
Nariko could see Himari approaching. She could also see Himari had made a fatal miscalculation: she wouldn’t be able to reach Nariko in time; she would be too late.
Himari reached for Nariko.
“You’re not ready,” Nariko gritted out. Knocking Himari’s arm away, she surged forward, planting four fingers on Himari’s chest. “Surrender.”
“You’re wrong,” Himari replied fiercely. “You’re the one that isn’t ready!”
Nariko’s world lurched. Her head swam, and she felt herself become weightless. She hadn’t seen Himari’s other hand coming.
“How?” Nariko yelled. “When did you—?”
Her words were cut off as her breath was ripped from her lungs, and the world fell away beneath her.
Tears of frustration sprang to Nariko’s eyes. Himari was right. She’d been a fool, and her punishment was to be humiliated on a national scale. Her shattered dreams and bruised ego would hurt more than the fall.
“Release!”
