The Future Firecracker

PILOT | THE PERFECT PRODIGY

THE PERFECT PRODIGY
the future firecracker sequel

a pilot

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CHAPTER ONE

Miraiko

I think that believing you could do anything you say is wrong. Dad would have my head if he heard this. He and Mom always want the best for me. I don't know how to feel. Sometimes it's overbearing and sometimes it's overwhelming.

We would go out of the house, try to make our way into the inner city centre without being bombarded with questions about his work or the studies regarding my siblings and I.

Katsuro was the oldest. A whole six years smarter than me and seven years than Mayumi. She's the baby of the family and she's the one I feel like I have to look after even when she doesn't want me to. Katsuro looks out for us both when our parents aren't around.

The moment I started to feel like I had a responsibility was when I was eight and realised that not everyone can have a happy origin story for the books. In fact, it's normally a shit backstory that makes the good read.

I was involved in my first fight. We were coming out from a restaurant. Dad was walking to the multi-story car park and I was with Mayumi, who was six at the time, standing next to the vending machine because she wanted a juice box with the legendary All Might on it.

Some villain came striding towards us asking about God knows what. He asked me a few questions directly. I didn't answer.

I stared at him, sight flicking to his hands, pocket, anywhere where he could pull out a weapon.

When he realised he didn't have a chance of getting me to spill out the answers he desired, he grabbed my sister.

Our family name spilled out of his mouth, drenched with disgust and distastefulness.

I immediately tensed and thought of what gave it away, maybe it was my appearance.

Then I feel it weigh on me, around my neck, suffocating me.

I looked down. It's the family pocket watch. It's open. The picture hung by a thin sheet of plastic to the opposite side of the ticking clock.

My feet moved back, still stiff but I get into a similar stance my dad used to train Katsuro with, I copied it. My palms' sweat started the beginning of an explosion. It's heating up. It's hot. Almost a burning feeling on my skin.

Since two out of the five people in my family have explosion type quirks, I thought about how they come home almost unscathed. Then the thought disappears.

My sister is crying. No one should make her cry.

The explosion detonated in front of me, hitting the man and just avoided Mayumi. I used my quirk to blow him back a few metres, the loud explosions signalling for my dad.

He's propelling himself out of the third story when I caught my little sister's head. She wiped her runny nose on my sweater sleeve. It's fine. I complained later.

When the villain was detained, I told the great Dynamight the whole thing. I didn't know if he was proud I managed to finally get a grip on my quirk or if he was disappointed that I didn't stop myself before I was on the path to wrapping my hands in bandages.

I wondered if he wanted me to yell for him or even wait for another pro-hero to arrive. All I know is that he didn't have a very expressive opinion on me taking a villain on my own.

I think a lot.

It's because I find it hard to believe the truths as they are given out in front of me. It's like I'm searching for something that's just by my feet and refuse to look down because I want a better answer.

"I didn't get hurt," I said to him. "I didn't. I swear."

"That's fine."

"Don't you want to tell me anything else?"

"Nothing. You're both unhurt. C'mon sparks. Your mom is waiting for you both, get in the car please."

I asked Katsuro when I got home that night. He was fifteen at the time. He hugged me and asked me the same questions and said the same things my dad said to me.

"You'll be okay," he told me. "Dad isn't mad. He could never be angry at you unless you really messed up."

"That sounds like it means something else."

"Don't think too much about it. He's just worried."

Mom had a different reaction, though. I didn't expect it from her. She was sat peacefully on the sofa and leaped over once Mayumi told her what happened.

Mayumi was lifted into the air, laughing and giggling. "She was so brave! It's like she is already a hero!"

"Really? She's a good person, isn't she? A hero? A symbol of bravery?"

"Yeah! My big sis is so cool!"

That's when I decided that without my power, my quirk, that I was nothing but a powerless person. Because if I didn't have a quirk, my dad would've never jumped out of the car park building, I would've been in hospital at nine and my sister would've been taken away.

I rely on it.

It's so hard to stop depending on it.

But I won't go overboard with obsessing over quirks, especially after reading my brother's book.

Never. I Bakugou-swear.