Nari
The Siren blared on...until it didn't.
Nari could only watch as her sister outed herself in the most public of ways. If she had the mental capacity to be kicking herself, she definitely would be.
But her brain power was being used to try and understand what exactly she was seeing.
Ani was no longer standing, having knocked herself over in the blast. She crumpled to the ground in a heap and sobbed into her hands.
Nari knew she should go over to comfort her but...time had stopped.
Literally.
Ani's scream bounced off the walls and into the ears of everyone in the building, making them go silent and stiff.
People who were once running and almost trampling each other were now frozen in place. The siren was gone, leaving a dull ringing in the air. Even the dust particles in the air halted in their floating.
Like time had stopped.
Nari hesitantly began to walk through the frozen atmosphere, unsure if it would affect things in any way. When her cautious steps did nothing to disturb the still figures surrounding her, she continued to the sobbing form of her sister.
Once she arrived she remained silent, simply doing that one thing she wished someone had done for her when her own quirk first manifested. She embraced her and allowed Ani to cry into her hair.
All those feelings she had felt almost a decade ago were coming back to her tenfold. Helplessness, shock, and confusion...the self-hatred.
She thought things were bad then, and that nothing would ever top it as the worst day she'd ever experienced.
But this one was coming in really close. First, she gets told that someone she barely knows is not only in on her secret but also shares the same skeleton. Then she's made to feel like she's the insane one for wanting to purify her blood.
And now this.
If she were naive, she'd say that nothing could make this day any worse. But words were powerful, and the One writing her story had already proven to have some sick sense of humor. She didn't want to jinx it.
Turns out her thoughts were enough.
As soon as Ani could breathe again, whatever hold she had on the atmosphere was released. The alarm came back with a shriek, and everyone who had once been frozen now hugged themselves in fear. In the back of Nari's mind, she had hoped that Ani's quirk would make it so they weren't conscious during their frozen state, but that wasn't how it worked.
They had felt and seen everything that transpired in the short time they were frozen, and they were mortified.
" Dear gods! THE QUIRK USER IS INSIDE THE BALLROOM!!" One older man pointed an accusatory finger at the two sisters.
" Which one is it?!" Another person screamed.
" We have to call the Martial! Someone grab them before they can escape!" A founder stood from his seat, red and angry in the face.
Nari wished she could say something, anything, but her throat was constricted. She'd always imagined what this day would look like. The day she was finally outed for her crimes, and put to trial in front of her fellow citizens.
In her nightmares, she was a blubbering, sobbing mess. Apologizing profusely for her blood, and for hiding it all these years, begging for reprieve.
The scenery was pretty much the same, except the one blubbering and crying wasn't her, it was Ani.
" I'm so sorry! I didn't- I would never- I- I!" She snotted, face wet with tears.
At the near confession from Ani, the people responded rowdily. Some backed away in terror, while others stood tall and began to shout in outrage. They yelled obscenities at the crying girl in Nari's arms, calling her worthless, a liar, a quirk hellion.
Nari felt sick.
It wasn't right. Ani was perfect, she had always been perfect; inside and out. She was nice, generous, and understanding. She of all people didn't deserve the hate she was being thrown. Quirk or not.
Nari had only questioned the concept of good and bad quirks once in her life. Whether the quirk played a part in the person's heart, was always a mystery... until now.
Ani having a quirk shouldn't decide who she is. Everyone around them knew the kind of person Ani was, they had all adored her just a while ago. And now at the mention of a quirk, they suddenly hated her? It made no sense.
Looking at her sister's hopeless expression made something snap inside of Nari, although she was younger, she knew she had to be the one to protect her sister this time around. If it saved Ani from being expelled then she would do anything, even be the realization of her own nightmares.
Ani was perfect, and Nari would make sure she remained that way.
She gave her sister one last hug and hoped that her eyes conveyed the sorry she wanted so badly to voice.
Standing tall, she took a deep breath and yelled.
" IT WASN'T HER, IT WAS ME! I'M THE QUIRK USER!" It was the loudest she had ever sounded in years, so most were surprised by her outburst.
A hush fell over the rampaging people, and for a second they all stared in confusion.
And then the wall caved in.
...
" TOKOOOOOO'S!" A booming voice made everyone jump, and they had only a second to brace themselves before the wall was blasted inward.
The force knocked all who were close almost ten feet from where they once were, and left some unconscious.
Nari felt like she was underwater, her head had hit the ground considerably hard and was now pounding with pain. Her ears rang as she tried to sit up, but the sting of her palms on top of the debris made it difficult.
Her first thought was her sister. Where was Ani?
The second was probably much more pressing. Who exploded the wall?
The latter was answered a moment later when a large man came into view. The dust and debris settled, revealing a nearly ten-foot-tall figure who was three times the size of a Sumo wrestler.
His hair was an icy blue, and his chest moved up and down quickly like he struggled to breathe. His eyes were bloodshot and violently red. But none of those features were what made Nari and all the other citizens tremble in fear.
It was his skin.
Puffy and almost engorged, the intruder's skin was moving. Slithering around his form like a covering of slime all over him. It was thick and pulsing, and grotesque. His face held a deeply unsettling grin as his eyes searched the room for whoever he was looking for.
In all the chaos that had transpired since the siren started, Nari had forgotten the reason the chaos had begun.
Someone had breached the borders of the Kohitsuji. And that someone was standing before them right now.
The man had brought a plethora of law enforcement with him, and they all were surrounding him just outside the hole he created. Guns were firing, and some of the bullets met their target, except his skin did more than slither around his body.
It seemed to act as a barrier or shield for the man. He paid the police no mind as the bullets they fired bounced right off of him, and ricocheted to places around the room.
Nari had to duck as one bullet nearly embedded itself into her right shoulder.
" THE CITIZENS! HOLD YOUR FIRE!!" One Martial commanded his subordinates.
They clearly didn't hear him, because the bullets continued to fly. Those who could run were doing so, putting as much distance between themselves and the intruder. Some hadn't gathered their wits yet and remained frozen in fear while others, like Ani, had been injured in the blast. She lay with her disabled leg sitting in an awkward position, unconscious.
The intruder was on the move, right in her direction.
At that moment it finally registered to Nari what the man had screamed before he made his big entrance. He had screamed the Toko's name, the same family that her sister lay unconscious in front of.
Nari moved without thinking. She ignored the pain in her head and stood on shaky legs, trying to intercept the attacker before he reached her sister. Her injuries had inhibited her run, so she limped as quickly as she could toward the man, but she knew she wouldn't make it in time.
Again, she watched helplessly as he picked up speed, bulldozing through anything in his path. Tables, chairs, even people. Nothing seemed to be enough to stop him, and he didn't have any regard for the lives he was endangering.
As she watched people scramble to pull family members and friends out of the way, she became enraged.
How heartless could someone be? She thought, feeling her hands begin to vibrate.
Time felt like it had slowed down, and with no other option, Nari clung desperately to the only idea she could think of.
Her last resort, her quirk.
Raising her buzzing hands, she was again reminded of the one other time she had used her power. Her mind felt like it had been transported back to that moment, but this time there was a fresh emotion that wasn't present back then.
Anger.
Nari was angry. Whatever this man had planned, whatever he was trying to do, she had to stop him, by any means necessary. And she would do it as painfully as possible.
The hot searing pain came back, but unlike last time, Nari embraced it. She raised her hands calmly toward the assailant, and with a scream she released a blast of light that blinded everyone watching the scene unfold.
It was unclear whether the blast had hit its mark, but when a scream erupted from the throat of the man with the moving skin, Nari knew she had succeeded.
The blinding light faded away, and the sight that everyone was met with, sent most of them spiraling.
The intruder's skin had stopped moving and instead sagged like melting dough off of his body. His face drooped and swayed with his frantic movement as he tried to hold his skin to his figure.
He wouldn't have to hold his skin for long, because it began jolting in awkward directions. Pulling and tugging against him, tightening and loosening like the outer layer of a stress toy.
It was like Nari had made his quirk go haywire.
He turned to the young girl in horror, " Bwhah dihhd juh do ta mee!?" His words were warped due to his lips hanging too far below his face.
No one moved an inch as the scene unfolded. They could only watch as their final obstacle for the night met his end.
The Martial Coalition moved in once the intruder was subdued, tackling him roughly and cuffing his wrists together. All the while he snarled and barked incomprehensible things at the family he had tried so hard to get to.
As he was carted off, the young girl who had put an end to his tirade, collapsed.
Her small form was the only thing in the middle of the wreckage now, and all the other attendees merely stood a safe distance away, scowling in disgust at the child who had just saved their life.
And all the while, the Siren blared on.