Zero Hero || MHA ||

17. The Hero Festival

The Hero Festival. As the name suggests, it's a summer festival honoring and celebrating our heroes. It's a big event that happens across the entire country with multiple festivals being held in different locations. When Strawberry Shades heard about the festival, he begged me to go. "I'm gonna be there! You don't want me to be alone, do you?" I remember him saying. Although I wasn't planning on going, Hiro thought it'll be a fun outing.

"All done!" Mom announced, finishing wrapping the bow on the back. She pushed me to the mirror on the wall.

I was wearing a lavender yukata with pale pink cherry blossoms printed on it. The sash was pink too, but it was a bit more saturated than the flowers on the yukata. Although this was Mom's old one, it still looked good as new.

Mom was somehow able to fix my hair into something presentable. I don't know how she did it, but she put my short hair into a braided bun. There was an assortment of flower hairclips embedded inside the braids. For the finishing touch, there was a big white flower that was clipped on the right side. I didn't really care about fashion but this outfit looked nice. When I told Mom that, she went bonkers.

"You look so beautiful!" Mom giggled. She pulled out her phone and snapped a photo, blinding my eyes. "Let's go show your father!"

"Uh, I don't think that's necessary. He's coming too..." I mumbled, seeing stars prickling in my vision. However, she was already dragging me downstairs and into the living room. Hiro noticed us, and his eyes glimmered.

"That really suits you, Rin!" he complimented.

Dad, who was putting his shoes on, turned around to look at me. He squinted his eyes at me for a moment trying to quickly think of a response. Then, he turned back around. "...You look nice, I suppose," he said gruffly.

"That's it? After all my hard work..." Mom grumbled.

I went to go put on my wooden Geta sandals. I hated wearing them because they're so uncomfortable. I asked Mom if I could just wear my regular flip-flops, but she said no. She said that it'll ruin the outfit.

We walked to the event since it wasn't too far from where we lived. When we got to the festival grounds, the sky had grown dark and red paper lanterns were on. At the entrance was a gigantic blow-up All Might doll. As expected, Mom forced us to take a picture. Inside, lined up around us were stalls selling food, merchandise, toys, and other random knickknacks. As expected, the place was packed. People wore yukatas, but I also spotted some of the kids wearing hero costumes. There were a lot of All Mights. We had to squeeze through the line of people who were buying and waiting for food and merchandise at the stalls. The entire place smelled like delicious food: grilled meat, takoyaki, candied apples... It was enough to make my mouth water.

I felt my phone vibrate. Pulling it out from my sash, I saw that Iida texted me.

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New Message from:

Iida 👓

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【 👋 ʜᴇʟʟᴏ ᴏɴɪꜱʜɪ. ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴏɴɪɢʜᴛ? 】₆:₅₉ ₚₘ

【 ʏᴇᴀ 】

【 ɪᴍ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴇʀᴏ ꜰᴇꜱᴛɪᴠᴀʟ 】

【 ᴘᴇʀꜰᴇᴄᴛ ᴛɪᴍɪɴɢ! 😀】