Akemi sat quietly as her mother carefully laced her hair together, picking strands after strands and weaving them into a Dutch waterfall braid, starting from above her bangs to the back of her head.
The small strands were carefully braided together, Akemi could tell her mother is picking out specific strands to create some sort of effect, but she doesn't know what. She shifted a little but her mother inhaled sharply and shushed her gently, so she stayed still.
When the braid is finally finished, Akemi sags slightly, back stiff from sitting up straight for almost half an hour. She rolls her shoulders, but her mother then picks up a hair curler and winks at her, so she grumbled and let her mother work.
And finally, finally. She's done.
"Mom, usually it shouldn't take that long, this is just a symmetrical Dutch waterfall, right? It's in a crown braid which makes the waterfall transaction tricky but..." Akemi's breath caught as her mother finally uncovered the mirror, and clasped her hands over her mouth.
"Your hair has a golden layer, from your quirk. I just put that to good use." Her mother's fond voice drifted in her ears and Akemi wants to cry.
The golden strands of her hair were picked out, carefully mixed with several brown strands and woven into the shape of a laurel crown. Her normally straight hair is carefully curled into waves, pouring down her shoulders.
"M-mum..." She choked out, "this is a sports festival, my hair's gonna be all messed up anyway..."
"Ah, nope." Mum pats her on the shoulder, "I made sure the braid is so steady not even an explosion would mess that up. The curls maybe, but you're only going to need that for your speech." She presses a kiss to her temple and smiles, "I'll be watching in the stands with Kōki."
"Mum..." Akemi almost sobbed, "oh, com'on... I might not even win!"
"You're already a winner in my eyes. See, I got you a laurel crown." Mum chucks and she shoves her, laughing a little.
"Now, go get your stuff and let's get going!"
If only I know how to do that...
Yeah. I skipped a lot of the cannon scenes before the Sports Festivals. Really sorry! But I don't exactly have those episodes stored in my phone and I'm running out of Data.
Up next: The Sports Festival's Speech!
