"Are you coming to see the fireworks with me?"
It is July and on Nabu Island, the population is quivering for the annual summer fireworks show, to be seen under the stars in the company of friends, loved one, family members or simply with a tasty skewer of yakitori within the fingers.
Who is speaking is Kibo Heiwana, a fifteen-year-old boy with short brown hair, blue eyes and a yukata that recalls the color of his irises, with lighter stripes.
The girl he is talking to, Mahoro Shimano, is short, of the same age and with long dark blond hair.
She wears a black yukata shaded towards white, with cheerful pink peonies scattered here and there.
She also has some floral clips in her hair, and the set of details forms a well-groomed image of a beautiful teenage girl.
"No, Kibo... Thank you, but I prefer to be alone. I'm sorry."
That nice boy who has stretched out a hand towards her, towards the promise of a nice evening with friends and maybe something more... She knows him from elementary schools... And Kibo has never hidden his crush on the beautiful Mahoro.
The boy's sea-colored eyes are clouded with disappointment, but he doesn't feel like ruining his evening, or insisting.
"It doesn't matter... I'll see you around if you like."
"Bye…"
Mahoro loves Kibo, he's her best friend and she is perfectly aware of the fact that he wants her as a girlfriend, and looking at those explosive colored flowers together under a starry cloth could be the right occasion to declare not-too-hidden feelings, but she doesn't want a story with him.
She walks in the chattering crowd, among the ones trying to catch goldfishes from the stalls and wearing bright clothes.
Everything is perfect, everything. Even the climate, peaceful and pleasant.
If it weren't for one particular.
The Quirk "Hologram" is a cursed Quirk, a cruel mockery put in place by a fate that has predicted everything several years before she was born, and that made her suffer from it. Like this, for pure taste.
Mahoro can create as many as she wants, of any size and for every need or desire.
But... Her Quirk is a simple "look but don't touch".
What she creates has no shadow, cannot interact with the surrounding environment and disappears if hit hard, or if she herself loses concentration.
So... If she is hungry she can only look at the tasty sandwich she has on her plate, just as she can only pretend that the fairy of her favorite book, which her mother read to her before getting sick, is a real creature.
Creating her mom's hologram is also too cruel.
A hologram is cold, impassive, impalpable.
A hologram can show her that beautiful face, those strong but at the same time handsome features she has been dreaming of for years.
A hologram can show her those fire-colored eyes, which shine with the same reverberations, sometimes surrounded by that fascinating black halo.
A hologram can delight her with that irregular cloud of light blond hair, edgy yet soft.
A hologram can do this, but it cannot bring her love to her.
Yes, the admiration she feels for the explosive Hero, Katsuki Bakugou, has gradually changed into a romantic feeling on her part.
Mahoro sighs and looks up, towards the full Moon that observes the human people rejoicing with divine grace, caressing them with its opalescent light.
At least once a year, Bakugou and Deku visit Nabu, where they are warmly welcomed.
Katsuma is also always enthusiastic about the idea of seeing them again, they are two very cool big brothers to him.
"But I don't want Bakugou to see me as a sister forever!" suddenly the blonde blurts out, albeit in a low voice.
She has a grim appearance, so much so that some boys look at her a little stunned.
Boys ... Those of her age, including Kibo, just don't fascinate her.
She likes Katsuki's confidence, his exaggerated costume, his cheeky attitude. The six years that separate her from the 21-year-old appear to her as a boring invitation to wait another five years.
She has never told anyone about her crush, not even her closest friends.
Only Katsuma knows, and only because he knows his big sister better than his own hat.
The fires begin to explode in the sky and all heads turn upwards.
She is there alone, while Katsuma and her father are somewhere around the fair.
She doesn't need company at the moment.
She is tired of waiting, tired of always having to restrain herself, tired of being in love with an unattainable person and of not being able to be like her classmates, including the one with the disturbing Quirk that she never shows to anyone, and that anybody has yet to understand what it does.
If even she can live love affairs with the boys, why can't she? Why not her, who has a relatively mild and not particularly dangerous Quirk?
The show lasts a few intense minutes, after which people go back to talk, enraptured by the beauty of those bright colors, and she returns home, without waiting for Katsuma and her father.
She falls asleep serene, strangely, and without even feeling too melancholy, apparently.
Alas, fate has something against her, because the next day, on a sunny afternoon, she and her friend Hana find themselves in the park eating ice cream.
Hana, a blonde with long side tails held at bay by elastic bands decorated with flowers created thanks to her Quirk, is seriously convinced that Mahoro has a crush and doesn't intend to leave her alone until her friend has fired away.
"Wait, Mahoro-chan, I'll put a daisy on your cone!"
"Oh, thank you, Hana-chan!"
As she licks the vanilla ball, Hana's light green eyes, as penetrating as the Sun when it hits the morning dew, focus on Mahoro's chestnut-colored ones, who soon feels uncomfortable.
"Why are you staring at me like this?"
"So... talk."
Mahoro immediately feels a shiver in her back.
"What should I say?"
"Kibo was rolling all alone at the fair last night. We all know that boy is cooked for you, how long will you keep him on the hook?"
"I'm not keeping anyone on the hook, but Kibo is my best friend and nothing else."
"Could you at least watch the fires with him, what did it cost you?"
"No, because surely he would have given me awkward speeches!"
"Oh, well, Mahoro... Do you like someone else?"
That sudden question triggers an impulsive reaction from the girl, who shakes her ice cream cone and this drops a few beads of vanilla on Mahoro's thigh.
"Damn!"
"I hit the mark..."
Hana has painted on her face the smile of the cat that has trapped the mouse.
Mahoro blushes quickly.
"Hana... What questions do you ask me?"
"I want the name."
"We don't talk about it!"
"May it be Professor Metori? I would understand you, he is young and handsome."
"No, he's just the math professor."
"So, Senbo?"
"For heaven's sake, he's a jive turkey!"
"But the girls from the other classes also like him a lot... It could also be Yubi from 1^B!"
"She is a girl!"
"I'm trying them all, if you don't collaborate!"
"I don't like anyone anyway, you were wrong."
"Maybe…"
Hana is not at all convinced.
Throughout this little drama, Kibo passes on the elevated platform above the bench on which the girls are eating.
"Oh, look who's there... Kibo!"
As soon as he sees the two friends, the brown-haired rushes to them.
"Why did you invite him here?" Mahoro mutters softly to her mischievous friend, while Kibo runs towards them.
"Eh..."
Hana sticks out her tongue and winks at her. There are times when Mahoro would choke her.
"How's it going, girls?"
"We are having a snack! Would you like to have some?"
"No, thank you... I'm going to my grandpa..."
Mahoro gets up from the bench and looks towards the sea, and an intense block of nostalgia suddenly forms in her throat and this begins to cry, also encouraged by the brackish air that speaks to her of Shizuoka, where a piece of her heart rests.
Kibo doesn't know what's going on, but Hana has a female intuition.
"Kibo... Go to your grandpa, don't worry..."
The boy, albeit reluctant, leaves the scene, always without taking his eyes off the girl he is in love with, and who is now crying for reasons unknown to him.
Mahoro, meanwhile, is rubbing her eyes.
"What happens? It has to do with a boy, right?"
"You are obsessed with that..."
The young Shimano sobs vigorously.
"Mahoro, would you please be honest?"
"Mine is an unhappy love."
"What do you mean? Do you like a guy who lives beyond the sea?"
"Yup."
"Can't you tell me who he is?"
Her friend shakes her head.
"Oh…"
The afternoon ends at sunset, with Hana who has tried for a few hours to distract her friend with other topics, without ever dropping the accent on her impossible love. It hasn't been easy, but if nothing else Mahoro has spent the hours without crying anymore.
When she returns home, Hana stays for a long time watching her as she walks with her shoulders slightly bent, as if loneliness had betrayed her with the taboo thought.
"From what I have seen, Kibo has no hope of winning against this phantom Mister X..." is the conclusion of the girl with the Flower Quirk, who with a gesture of the hand makes a red rose appear and detaches the petals one after the other, to then fly them away, as if to symbolize the passionate feeling that binds her friend to this boy.
"I would also like to experience such intense emotion." she finds herself thinking, despite her friend's tears. Hana has never shown interest in anyone, not even physically, so she is a little envious.
If only she knew...