A/N: Sorry for the long gap, like actually. Finals week and shit. length might be bad but i couldn't force a higher word count cause i was blanking out.
--<>--
Nejire took the seat listed on her testing ticket, curiously looking around the testing environment, with an uncharacteristically calm demeanor.
Originally, even someone like Nejire would be nervous as important as an Entrance Exam to a school that she had been looking forward to since she had the dream to become a hero.
Yet, instead of the nervousness one would expect from a test taker, she could only feel determination.
If only to repay her childhood friend for helping her so much.
Nejire's hand reached up to her necklace, offhandedly feeling the pendant, the tips of her fingers brushing over the grooves.
Like with everything Isshun had given her as a gift, it was needlessly high quality.
It made making gifts in turn a little difficult for her, often ending up in gifts that looked half-assed, but was a result of hard work. Nejire wasn't the type to skimp out on the effort of getting her best friend's birthday gifts.
Because in comparison the difference between the quality was stark, in the beginning she couldn't help but feel a little worried that he would be unsatisfied.
Yet, when Nejire took out her own gift, Isshun had simply taken it with a satisfied smile.
When Nejire had asked Isshun at a later time why he had taken it, he simply responded with, "Why wouldn't I take it? It's a nice gift."
At the time, she pouted in return. "But it looks so much worse than what you normally make! Are you sure you're not just making fun of me?"
She had said it as more of a joke.
She knew herself that Isshun wasn't the type to lie straight to her face.
But she couldn't help it.
"Did you try your best?" He had asked in return.
Nejire gave a small nod. She really had tried her best, buying books on tutorials and all the materials with her allowance.
"Then it's fine." He said, taking out the gift she had given him.
A simple white handkerchief, embroidered with a rather disproportionate vanilla flower to the point that one couldn't even tell if it was a flower or not.
Just looking at it again, she couldn't help but feel the inferiority of the quality.
When Isshun had glanced at her face, seeing her downcast expression, his expression turned stern, holding up the handkerchief.
"Don't compare yourself to anybody," he had said. "You're just yourself. No need to be like anybody else, not even me."
Putting the handkerchief back in his pocket, he reached up to awkwardly pat her head. It was a little clumsy due to Nejire being taller than Isshun at the time, but he did it anyway.
"Stand proud, Nejire. As long as you don't half-ass your effort, I will always appreciate what you give me."
It was one of many one-liners Isshun had told Nejire, and while her memory wasn't good enough to remember every single one he had said, each and every one of his attempts to teach her had affected who she was today.
As long as she tried her best, Isshun wouldn't care.
Well, even with those thoughts, failing would be a bit embarrassing. After all of the time Isshun had spent tutoring her in both her academics and her Quirk, despite being two grades below her, only for her to not pass would even make her ashamed.
She looked around her desk, wondering if she could get along with any of her fellow test takers. After all, there were still a few minutes before the exam started.
Why not spend that time learning about cool new Quirks?
Nejire turned her head to her left, to see a student wearing an unfamiliar middle school uniform, notes clenched in one hand, his other to his head, mumbling.
'Uwah… how intense…' She couldn't help but think in her head.
Additionally, the boy didn't have any defining features that might signal any Quirks either…
In a world where colors of hair and eyes could be any shade of the rainbow, using them as reference was almost never accurate too…
Normally, Nejire liked to play the 'Guess the Quirk' game with most people she saw in public, but with no actual hints to go off on, even she couldn't help but lose a little bit of interest.
It wasn't like she could ask the obviously nervous guy to start demonstrating, could she?
Welp.
Maybe she'd ask if he seemed emotionally available during the break between exams.
Nejire turned to head to the right, to see a contrasting scene compared to the nervous boy to her left. Well, there was still a nervous vibe coming off the girl, but it wasn't as…intense as the mumbler.
The girl had ash-colored hair that went down to her neck, and golden red eyes, which stood out more than the unfortunately plain boy to her left, with dark brown hair and light brown eyes.
If there was a feature that interested Nejire the most, it was the golden headband that was floating above the girl's head.
It reminded Nejire of Isshun's own halo.
While Nejire was curiously watching the golden headband hover above the girl's head, the girl noticed Nejire's gaze and turned to her curiously.
Taking this opportunity to start up a conversation, Nejire glanced at the golden headband and back to the girl's face.
"Hi! My name's Hado Nejire!" She gave a simple introduction, as after some life experience(Isshun scolding her), even she knew to introduce herself at least before asking personal questions.
"...Saiyuki Chihiro."
"Nice to meet you, Saiyuki-san!" Nejire reached out her hand.
Chihiro grabbed the outstretched hand, and the two had a simple handshake. "Nice to meet you too, Hado-san."
"So, how does the halo work on your head?" Nejire reached above her own head, displaying her own accessory, or rather the lack of a halo on her head.
"It isn't technically a halo," Chihiro explained. "Have you ever read the Journey to the West?"
Nejire immediately shook her head. She wasn't one for reading after all.
'Shun-chan probably knows about Journey to the West. I'll ask him when I get back,' Nejire wrote on her mental list.
Whenever Nejire had a question she wanted to know, and her trusty ShunGPT wasn't with her, remembering the questions so she could ask them all at once was a common habit she had built up.
"Well…" Chihiro checked the time on a nearby clock before looking back to Nejire, she gave a brief explanation. "There's a character in that book where he's restrained by a golden headband, not a halo."
"But aren't headbands supposed to be on the head, not above it?"
That innocent question paused Chihiro in her tracks, as she fell into thought, but she quickly made up an explanation. "Magic."
"Oooh," Nejire nodded. "So what does it do?"
Chihiro reached up to the golden headband, and to Nejire's surprise, simply took the halo off, before holding it in a frisbee position.
"So basically, if I throw this, and it gets close to the 'head' of something, it basically just freezes them."
"Woah…" Nejire gave a satisfactory reaction, but her next words were simply unpredictable. "Have you ever tried breaking it? Or rather, can you even break it in the first place?"
"...Huh?"
Before Chihiro could even respond, a proctor with sheets of paper held under an arm entered the examination room, removing her chance to even respond.
--<>--
After the proctor passed out every test, the overall atmosphere of the room cooled, as every student in the room waited for the proctor to give permission.
"You may now begin. You have forty five minutes to complete this section of the exam, and I will notify you when five minutes remain."
With that, all the students turned the first page to start the exam.
Nejire had a focused expression on her face, scanning the mathematics questions on the paper.
She had a strategy to properly use her time efficiently.
That was skipping the time wasting ones and solving the easiest ones first!
'Skip.'
'Skip.'
'Skip…'
'...Skip.'
'...Hm.'
'...Am I skipping too many questions?'
--<>--
A/N: Posting announcements on wn is too time consuming, but i been having exams and final projects the last week and this week, so there was a delay so i didn't update last week.
I didn't drop this fic and im not planning to, and don't ask for me to update if you see me in a review or comment, it just makes me want to update less.
I started writing fics cause it was fun, and comments like those stress me tf out.
Peace.