Buchikome High Kick- — -final- -aokumashii-

The word again. The bruise-colored finality. The first exchange lasted 0.8 seconds.

"You went to the final," she said. It wasn’t a question. Buchikome High kick- -Final- -Aokumashii-

He nodded.

Akari smiled. It was a small, fragile thing. But it was real. The word again

For seventeen-year-old Kenji "The Iron Anvil" Todoroki, it was the color of his own heart. Buchikome High kick- -Final- -Aokumashii-

And in the center of the cage, Goro Mutō waited.

Part One: The Stain of Ash The sky above the Buchikome Ward wasn't blue. It was aokumashii —a bruise-colored, pale, sickly indigo that hung over the city like a held breath. That was the word the old-timers used. The color of a fading ghost, or the moment before a storm decides not to break.