Friendly Fire

Prologue

It all started when I was finishing up middle school. I decided I wanted to attend high-school in Japan rather than America. From everything I'd heard, their hero programs were far more advanced. I was gifted with a strong quirk and it quickly became my life goal to save and protect others. My quirk, called Lioness, gave me more brute strength than your average person and a number of other lion-like abilities. I was essentially a powerhouse. I can produce roars that shake the whole ground, and my claws are strong enough to claw into metal. So when I told my father about my idea to be a pro-hero, naturally, he decided to let me go. I eventually would be known as Lioness, but back then I was just a 14-year-old girl with a dream.

Being a hero was something my father had always dreamt of when he was a little boy. His quirk was practically the same as mine, just not quite as strong. He applied at every school in Japan but unfortunately nowhere accepted him. So instead of being upset about it, he decided that if he couldn't be a hero, he would still help them. My father is extremely smart and very technical so he started producing hero-specific support gear and submitted his portfolio to UA's support program. After he graduated he started his company, NakTech, which has now become one of the biggest support tech companies around the globe. My dad never made me feel like I owed him his dream. If anything, he was the first person to tell me that I didn't have to become a hero just because he couldn't. But it only made me chase it more.

Since my father's side of the family was from Japan I was able to live with my grandma Nakamura. I took the entrance exams at a few schools and ended up getting in at UA, the top school in the country, just like my dad. I was placed in class A. I was ecstatic, but that's also where I met him, Katsuki Bakugo, my best friend.

It was my very first day and I walked into the classroom and saw many different quirks of people my age. At first I didn't even notice him until we were sitting next to each other. He just looked over at me and scoffed rudely, like he couldn't believe that someone like me made it into that class. It was clear he was arrogant, but I really saw it once I witnessed him bashing everyone else in the room for not being as amazing as him. Later that month we got paired up for sparring, I figured I could knock him down a peg—...until he blasted me into a wall. The next week we got paired up again and this time I used my roaring tactic to push him into a wall! Safe to say he was extra grouchy for the next few days... By the third time we got paired up Aizawa said we were getting too reckless and that if we didn't quit he was going to have to suspend us.

Kats is explosive by nature but also the most determined person I've ever met. We were competitive at best and destructive at worst, almost like rivals. He's a pretty sore loser and always got butt-hurt anytime I beat him in... well- anything. I just remember telling him, "One day you're gonna get used to looking up at me, Kats." So my new plan was just to try and beat him constantly. We always tried our best to outdo each other. Sparring became our favorite hobby and over time we kept getting closer. We were good friends and we didn't seem to desire much more than that. He was just my best friend, the guy who would always rush to guard me and cover my back in a fight or go get food with me after a hard training day. And we weren't just competitive in brute strength, but also just in general knowledge. He always made sure I studied and always shoved his higher test scores in my face. He was the one person I could study in silence next to without it feeling awkward. Our friends had tried to get us to date for the longest time. Neither of us viewed our friendship as something romantic, we were just best friends.

Eventually graduation day came and we went our separate ways. There wasn't some dramatic goodbye between us. We both knew what we wanted, and we were ready to chase it. We were adults now and had our own careers to tend to. The agencies we started working for were on opposite sides of Japan and there didn't seem to be much we could do about it. We definitely weren't the sappy emotional types like many of our peers. So before we left he walked up to me and said, "Don't hurt your neck looking up at me from below." We couldn't focus on constantly one-upping each other anymore like we used to, but we could definitely still do it from afar. Especially once both of us went indie later on. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I wish I could spar with him again to really see who was on top but it just isn't realistic for the time being. However we do constantly compare weekly ratings and text each other to boast.

Kats: Paws I beat you again in ranks this week

Me: Wtv I had more save assists than u so suck it 😝

Kats: stfu 👎

Me: ur just mad i was behind u by only 1 villain capture

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That's pretty much a summary of every text chain we've ever had. We were perfectly happy that way. We had our careers, schedules, occasional banter, and it felt like that was all we needed. But it seems life had other plans...