A/N: I wrote this chapter mainly because I missed Nari/Hitomi interaction, and also because Nari is a main part of the birthday chapter; I'm trying to give her more of a presence before I post it.

I also figured while we're at it, I'd give you Nari's voice actors too -
JP: Inori Minase (Nagisa Aizawa from Jitsu wa Watashi wa)
EN: Erica Mendez (Retsuko from Aggretsuko)

Art -

[Complete Gallery] Add /21axlkt3bolc to the DeviantArt Stash URL.

[Ch. 25] Add /21sun99riuzk to the DeviantArt Stash URL.

"We have to refrain from taking long trips over the summer?" Uraraka exclaimed, surprised.

It was the last day of school before summer break, and all the Class 1-A girls had gathered around Yaoyorozu and Hitomi's desks to discuss their summer plans.

"It can't be helped," Jirou said, replying to Mina's disappointment over not getting to use her new swimsuit. "We were attacked by the League of Villains before."

"Even so!" Mina yelled, waving her arms in frustration, "I wanna play! I wanna go somewhere!"

"Then," Hagakure started, "do you wanna meet up at the school pool over summer vacation?"

The girls all voiced their approval, Yaoyorozu rising from her seat to get permission from the teachers.

"Wait, Yaoyorozu," Hitomi said, getting up from her seat as well. "Do you think it'd be possible to bring a friend of mine along? I haven't been able to hang out with her as much this semester, and I think she'd have a lot of fun in our class."

"I'm sure I can get the teachers' approval," Yaoyorozu replied. "Just come with me so we can make sure."

"Guys," Hitomi said, gesturing towards her friend, "this is Nari Varsteg."

Hitomi's best friend flashed everyone a bright smile, everyone warmly greeting her in reply.

"It's nice to meet you, Varsteg-kun!" Iida said, holding his hand out for a handshake. "Kanetsukabe-kun brings up her best friend quite often, which is you, I presume?"

"Yup, that's me!" Nari beamed. "I already know all of you guys from the sports festival; you're all taking good care of my daughter, right?"

"Daughter…?" Midoriya questioned.

"Nari!" Hitomi suddenly yelled, her face bright red.

"What?" Nari replied, feigning ignorance. "You're training to be a hero, of course I'd be worried."

Hitomi huffed, cradling her face in her hands from embarrassment as the class laughed at the childhood friends' antics.

"So, Nari-chan," Mina said as she passed a beach ball, "how'd you and Hitomi-chan meet?"

Nari paused for a second, digging up old memories from the past. "My mom and her dad were old college friends. When her family was looking for a place to stay in Tokyo, my mom got them the house next to mine since she's a real estate agent, so we became neighbors! You should've seen Hitomi when she was little, she was so cute!"

Hitomi yelped at Nari's comment, getting distracted and was hit in the head with the beach ball.

"Oh my gosh, what was she like when she was younger?!" Uraraka asked.

Nari let out a laugh, picking up the beach ball and throwing it. "I remember one time when she was 6, she got a hold of some scissors and cut off a huge chunk of her older brother's hair in his sleep. He had been trying to grow a portion of his bangs out because he said he wanted to be 'emo', so you can imagine his surprise when all of his hard work was suddenly gone. He wouldn't talk to her for a week!"

Hitomi sunk herself into the water, only half of her face above the surface. Her face burned as the girls laughed at the story, mortified that her childhood antics were being exposed.

Nari continued to tell the girls more childhood stories before Jirou took a glance at her neck.

"I'm sorry if it's rude of me to ask, but I've just been wondering. What's that?" Jirou pointed to a scar on Nari's neck that was poking out of her swimsuit.

Nari followed her gaze, pulling back the swimsuit to reveal more of the scar. "Oh, this? It happened a few years ago."

"I'm going to the bathroom," Hitomi suddenly interjected, quickly jumping out of the pool and hurrying away.

The girls didn't miss the way Hitomi's face suddenly looked distraught.

"I wonder what's wrong…" Yaoyorozu said, feeling concern for her classmate.

"Hitomi was there when it happened," Nari explained. "She doesn't really like to remember or talk about it."

"What happened?" Uraraka asked.

Nari held the beach ball, looking up at the sky as she remembered the day she could've died.

"Well, I don't know if you knew already, but Hitomi actually moved to America back when she was 9. My family flew over to visit one time during summer break back when we were about 12. We were at a shopping mall one day, and there ended up being a villain attack there."

The Class 1-A girls' eyes all widened in surprise as Nari continued.

"The villain appeared right in front of me and Hitomi, and ended up taking me as a hostage." Nari placed a hand on the scar, recalling the fear she'd felt that day. "He had some kind of claw quirk, and sliced me from my neck to my chest before the heroes were finally able to apprehend him.

Hitomi never likes talking about it because she thinks it's her fault I ended up like this; she still believes to this day she should've been able to protect me, no matter how many times I try to tell her she shouldn't need to feel guilty."

The girls were all silent, the atmosphere settling into one of gloom.

"I'm so sorry I brought it up…" Jirou said, feeling guilty over draining the fun out of their pool day.

"It's okay!" Nari reassured her, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm not bothered by it or anything! Y'know, Hitomi actually decided to become a hero because of that incident, so at least something good came out of it, right?"

"I suppose that is true…" Yaoyorozu said. "Her current skills are already quite amazing."

"Right?" Nari replied. "Our families watched her at the sports festival! She was so badass!"

Uraraka nodded her head in agreement. "Wasn't she?! She was super cool, especially when she was fighting Bakugou!"

The mood finally started to lift to its previous happy state as Nari began to pass around the beach ball again, the girls discussing Hitomi's fight with the ash blonde.

"I'm back," a voice sounded by the edge of the pool, turning out to be the girl in question. Hitomi took a seat on the edge, cracking open a can of orange juice she'd likely gotten from the cooler Iida had brought. "Whatcha talking about?"

"Your fight with Bakugou," Mina replied.

Hitomi's eyebrow twitched, remembering her loss as she sipped her drink. "Hm? Why?"

"Because it was so cool!" Uraraka said. "You even smashed him down into the ground! That's not easy, especially when it's Bakugou you're dealing with."

"It… wasn't really. If anything, Bakugou was the cool one. He's the one who won the sports festival, after all."

Nari suddenly splashed water into Hitomi's face, making her spill some of her juice. "Quit denying it, dummy! You're way too modest!"

"Eh?! But it really wasn't that cool…"

Nari observed Hitomi's embarrassed face as the other girls laughed, relieved that there were no more signs of turmoil.

A/N: If y'all caught that "emo" comment about Hitomi's older brother, his hair was somewhat based off Ray's from The Promised Neverland- *coughcough*

Also, that haircut story? It's true, lol. I did it, to myself. According to my mom, I got a hold of some scissors when I was like 4 and chopped a lot of my hair off, leaving me with a pixie cut when I was younger.