RIKO POV
I stared at the black puddle on my desk. The ink was still dripping off the edge of the wood, landing with a rhythmic
drip...
drip…
drip…
My storyboards the weeks of work, the character arcs, the literal sweat and tears I'd poured into those pages were now just soggy, black mush.
I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I just felt a cold, humming vibration start in the center of my chest and radiate out to my fingertips.
I slowly turned my head. A group of three girls were huddled near the back lockers. They weren't even trying to hide it. One was stifling a giggle behind her hand, and another was wearing a smirk so smug it deserved to be immortalized in a museum of punchable faces.
I walked toward them. Each step felt heavy, like I was made of lead.
"Who did it?" I asked. My voice was low, flat, and sounded nothing like a 11-year-old girl's.
The leader of the group, a girl with long, perfectly manicured hair named Satomi, tossed her head back. "Who did what, Riko? Maybe if you spent less time acting like a boy and hanging all over Bakugo, you'd have time to clean your desk."
I didn't waste time with a witty comeback. I reached out, my hand blurring, and grabbed Satomi by the throat, not enough to choke her, but enough to slam her back against the locker. BANG.
The lockers rattled. The smirk vanished instantly.
"I'm going to ask one more time," I whispered, my palm starting to hum and glow; the skeleton of my hand was visible.
Pop... crackle... "Who threw the ink?"
Satomi's eyes went wide. She could feel the heat radiating from my hand. "I-it was Hana! Hana Kimura! She's in the third-floor washroom! Please, it was her idea!"
I let go. She slumped to the floor, shaking. I didn't look back. I had a target.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HANA KIMURA POV
"Did you see her face?" I laughed, leaning against the sink in the girls' restroom. "She probably thinks she's so special because Bakugo actually talks to her. Please. She's just a gorilla in a school skirt."
My friends giggled, leaning against the stalls. "Honestly, Hana, you're a legend. Someone had to put that freak in her place. She walks around like she owns the school.
"Exactly," I said, checking my reflection. "Now that her precious little drawings are ruined, maybe she'll realise she's at the bottom of the food chain. If she tries anything, we'll just tell the teacher she threatened us. We'll make her life—"
BOOM.
The restroom door didn't just open; it was kicked so hard the hinges groaned and the wood slammed into the tiled wall with a deafening crack.
A girl stood in the doorway. She was tall, and her shadow seemed to stretch across the entire room. Her green eyes were glowing with a faint, dangerous light.
"Which one of you is Hana?" Riko asked.
Nobody spoke. The air in the room suddenly felt ten degrees hotter.
"Fine," Riko muttered. "Process of elimination it is."
She moved faster than any of us could react. She grabbed the girl nearest to the door by her collar and tossed her aside like a sack of flour. Then she turned to the rest.
"Wait! Stop!" one girl shrieked, swinging her arm. Her Quirk Stiff Ribbon, activated, her hair lengthening and hardening into sharp, blade-like whips. She lashed out at Riko's face.
Riko didn't even flinch. She tilted her head an inch to the left, the ribbon whistling past her ear, and stepped into the girl's guard. A sharp, disciplined palm strike hit the girl's chest, sending her flying back into a stall door. CRUNCH.
"H-Hana! It's her! The one with the pink bow!" another girl screamed, pointing at me while trembling on the floor.
Riko's gaze locked onto mine.
I panicked. My Quirk, Slick Mist, erupted from my pores, a greasy, slippery fog meant to make people lose their footing. "Stay back! Don't touch me, you monster!"
Riko didn't slip. She didn't even slow down. She walked through the mist like it was a summer breeze; her boots were glowing and crackling with every step she took, the fog started to evaporate. She reached through the fog, grabbed my wrist, and twisted.
"AHHHHH!" I hit the floor, my face pressed against the cold, wet tile.
"Listen to me, Hana," Riko said, leaning down so her lips were right next to my ear. I could feel her hand charging. The tile under my cheek started to vibrate. "You ruined seven weeks of work."
"I-I'm sorry! I'll pay for it! I—"
"You can't pay for time, you little brat," Riko growled. She pressed her glowing palm against the floor right next to my head. BOOM. A small, controlled blast shattered the tile, sending ceramic shards flying.
"If you ever touch my things again…if you so much as look at anyone else with that smug face, I won't just ruin your desk. I will leave you with scars that no Quirk can heal. And if you go to the teacher?. And I pray that you do, I'll have a reason to finish the job."
She stood up, looking down at the four of us sobbing and grovelling on the floor. She looked disgusted.
"Get out. Before I change my mind."
We scrambled. We didn't care about our bags or our pride; we practically crawled over each other to get out of that room.
RIKO POV
I stood in the silence of the bathroom, the smell of ozone and cheap soap hanging in the air. My hands were shaking, but not from fear. From the leftover adrenaline.
Great, I thought, looking at a cracked mirror. Its my first week of middle school and I've officially become a school bully. ROB is probably laughing his slimy ass off.
I walked back to the classroom to see if any of my pages were salvageable. As I entered, I saw Bakugo and Midoriya standing by my desk, looking at the black mess.
Bakugo looked at the door, then at me. He sniffed the air, he always could smell when an explosion had gone off.
"You smell like smoke", he grunted, his eyes narrowing. "Did you kill someone?"
"Not yet," I said, sitting down and picking up a ruined drawing of Hange. "But hey, the day is still young.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
author's casa
Yep, it happened.