THOOOM.
The ground shook.
Nejire turned toward the noise, and in front of her eyes was a gargantuan robot, towering over the buildings within the Mock City.
Just from the sheer size, a feeling of oppression and fear welled up inside Shiza's body.
Even though she knew that this was just an Entrance Exam.
Even though the possibility of her being injured was low.
When faced with something of such sheer size, the only emotion she could feel was dumbfoundedness.
"...Is that the Zero Pointer?"
Shiza trailed off, tilting her head upward to at least see the top of the Zero Pointer.
She might have listened to the briefing from Present Mic, but she would have appreciated something other than 'It's like a thwomp from Mario!'
If there was a bright side, it was that the attention of the Zero Pointer didn't seem to be in their direction.
"How did something so big appear so fast?! Only a few seconds passed!"
"...Is that really the important question?"
Shiza couldn't help but be a bit out of the loop when it came to Nejire's rather… eccentric thought process.
"Regardless, we should quickly evacuate now… Hado-san?"
Shiza looked to her side, where Nejire had just been, only to see displaced dust instead.
"..."
She blinked before hearing a faint yell coming from the distance.
Turning her head toward the noise, she saw Nejire looking at her apologetically and mouthing, 'Sorry for leaving, I'm going to see if I can help anybody!'
Shiza watched as Nejire bowed apologetically once more before flying in the direction of the Zero Pointer.
"...Why does this feel so familiar?"
--<>--
Whoosh!
Still in tip-top shape, Nejire hovered a small distance away from the back of the Zero Pointer's head, now ready to think through her next move.
'The eyes are on the other side, so it shouldn't be able to see me, right?'
Now that she was in a position to think, her mind went back to a few days ago, when she was training with Shun-chan.
…
...
"So what are we doing today, Shun-chan-sensei? Quirk or body? I feel like I haven't worked out my body in a while…"
Isshun shook his head. "No. We're doing something else today."
"Hmm~?"
She tilted her head.
"Today's a special lesson on…" Isshun trailed off before pausing in thought.
"On?"
"How to… fight giant robots?"
"Fighting giant robots?" Nejire echoed back, before half realizing what Isshun just said. "Didn't you tell me I'd only be fighting normal robots?"
"Fighting giant robots… Am I going to fight Unit-01?! But wait, I don't wanna fight Unit-01!" She complained. "Cool robots shouldn't be broken! They should be piloted, like Gundams!"
"No, you're not fighting Unit—wait, why do you even know Unit-01? No way you're watching that stuff at your age," Isshun questioned before adding on, "And how do you even know about those two franchises? They ended decades ago."
"I don't! I just overheard one of my classmates talking about it, and I looked it up!" Nejire explained.
"… Anyway, back to the topic. For the next few days, I'm going to teach you what to do when encountering a giant robot on the off chance that you do fight a giant robot. It's not even really fighting, but more of an 'optimal response' when encountering a giant robot."
"But—"
"On the off chance. No complaints. You'll be thanking me later."
"Okay…"
...
…
"I'll have to thank Shun-chan when I finish this exam!"
Nejire nodded and watched the robot move around.
'First off, Shun-chan said that in a controlled environment… with a timer on how long the robot can keep running… keep track of how long the robot can run for.'
"How oddly specific…"
Nejire couldn't help but point out.
Unfortunately, she hadn't counted—
[FOUR MINUTES AND ELEVEN SECONDS REMAINING.]
—Never mind!
She had four minutes and eleven, probably ten now, seconds remaining!
'Robot operation time, check!'
'Next, determine the kind of legs it has and whether it's possible to topple over…'
Nejire glanced at the design of the legs. It was the type of legs that weren't really legs but resembled the type of wheels you could find on tanks.
Shun-chan had a specific name, but she forgot about it.
Anyway, it basically meant that it was hard to topple over.
'Determining what kind of legs it has, check…'
After that thought, a strange feeling of forgetting something entered her mind.
'...Did I forget a step?'
She paused for a few seconds, then heard noise from nearby rubble where the Zero Pointer had already passed.
"HELP! ANYONE THERE?! I'M STUCK UNDER SOME RUBBLE!!!"
Turning her attention to that noise, she finally remembered what she had forgotten.
'People who need saving!'
With an 'ohhhh' expression and a slap to her forehead, Nejire first turned to the robot's path to see if anyone was in immediate danger.
After making sure that there wasn't anyone who was in danger, she made her way to the cry for help.
As she got closer, she saw the face of the person who was crying out for help.
It was a brown-haired boy who was controlling a floating shovel, trying to pry off the rubble that pinned down his foot.
The shovel made clink clink noises as it tapped the rubble, but whether it was due to the boy's panic or the strength of the quirk, it didn't do much to help.
"I am here!"
Nejire announced, getting the boy's attention.
But before the boy could even ask for help again, Nejire floated above the rubble, using the yellow spirals to surround the rubble and lifting it up before quickly letting it go after moving a small distance.
"You okay?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Yes—"
"That's great! Good luck with your exam!
After getting an affirmative from the brown-haired boy, without giving the boy a chance to thank her, a burst of energy shot from the soles of her feet, shooting her back up into the sky.
'See if there is anyone who needs immediate assistance; check!'
After remembering what Isshun had said, Nejire returned to floating behind the robot with a satisfied look on her face.
'The next step is making sure that the robot isn't causing too much havoc…'
…How much is too much havoc?
Well…
Looking at the demolished buildings that the Zero Pointer passed through, along with the additional damage to the nearby buildings that the Zero Pointer smashed with its arms, Nejire paused once more.
Hmm… This doesn't seem like too much…
'Third step…check?'
After checking the last step off in her mind, Nejire returned to step one.
This was because Isshun had taught her how to handle a situation like that, given her current abilities.
First of all, it was nearly impossible for Hado Nejire in her current state to defeat the Zero Pointer, even within the theoretical time limit of ten minutes let alone the current four.
Yes, she technically had a large pool of energy to draw from, but there was a difference between her 100% Maximum Output and the maximum amount of energy in her body.
That 100% Maximum Output wasn't nearly strong or concentrated enough to do enough damage to the exterior of the Zero Pointer yet.
Her maximum output was still growing, but at her current stage, it was a futile effort.
Isshun knew this, which was why his main instructions for encountering this 'random giant robot' were the ones he had taught her.
In the worst-case scenario in which she had the robot's attention, there was a separate series of steps that Isshun drilled into her head.
Just getting Nejire to commit to those two series of steps was troublesome for Isshun, mainly because Nejire wasn't the type of person who excelled at rote learning, and getting her to understand it conceptually would take too long.
Of course, whether the first series of steps was just an easy way to farm rescue points… Isshun had no comment.
'Back to step one…'
Just as Nejire was on her second run through of the steps, she watched as the Zero Pointer abruptly changed directions, immediately heading towards the nearest group of examinees.
'People who need saving! And a lot of them!'
And unlike the shovel wielding boy that was already out of the Zero Pointer's way, these people were right in its path!
--+--
A/N: I am alive... I was just busy irl and had writer's block cause i forgot everything i wrote here and spent time doing a reread, and getting used to writing again.
I also hesitated a lot personally cause i felt bad for basically up and disappearing, then realized what the reader was looking forward to wasn't me hesitating, but a chapter instead, lol.
Also, while i working on this chapter i was like 'why is nejire's extrance exam so long i wanna write something other than this' and felt like i should have finished it this chapter, but it seems it'll 100% end next chapter instead.
I originally had a plan where isshun helped her mid exam and i originally didn't wanna do that, since it would take away some of Nejire's self sufficient meguminess and just makes her seem like someone who only leans on isshun if times are hard, which I didn't want.
The purpose of Nejire's arcs is to build up her character as someone who while leaning on Isshun as a spoiled/spoiler, isn't dependent on him for basically everything.
If you did want that stuff, read solo leveling or some other slop manhwa.
Also, im also personally drawing nejire's new costume which isshun is working on, so look forward/dont cause im not that good at drawing.