"Nico-chan, Nico-chan!" Honoka exclaimed. Nico looked around at her surroundings. She was in the middle of the school hallways, and there was a huge board taking up most of an entire wall. But the room did not feel right, odd even.
"I can't believe you did it, Nico-chan!" Kotori added.
"That's our Nico-chan," Rin said. "Number one meister in all of DWMA, nya."
Nico turned her head to look at the board. There they were, the scores for the Ultimate Written Exam. And there she was, right at the top. Nico beamed with pride. Before feeling a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see who it was. It was Maki, but her face was hidden in shadow from a large sunhat.
"What's the matter, Maki-chan?" Nico asked. "Upset that I beat you without even studying?"
Nico lifted the brim of Maki's hat to see her expression was completely blank and lifeless. Nico stepped back a bit in horror. Honoka, Kotori, and Rin seemed to have vanished, though she could hear Rin laughing in the distance. Maki opened her mouth, and began to yell out in obnoxious, high-pitched screeches that sounded...
...exactly like Nico's alarm clock.
Nico groaned as she awoke, rubbing her eyes a bit before looking over at the calendar. Two weeks left until the Ultimate Written Exam. Maki was already awake, her face looking normal and a pencil to her study notes. And Nico's notes were right beside hers, blank. Because Nico had used being kicked out of the library as an excuse not to study, in addition to her usual lack of desire to do so. Guilt spread through Nico like a wildfire. Two weeks left and she hadn't studied even once. She pulled the hood back down from her bunny pajamas and rolled out of bed.
"You're finally up," Maki said.
"Yeah," Nico replied, still not fully awake. It was a school day, so Nico figured she'd go ahead and get ready for class, and spend whatever time she had left to study. (or at the very least copy some of Maki's notes without her knowing)
The bell rang for classes to end, as Nico began hurriedly scribbling down some more notes on a sheet of paper. I thought I could beat Maki-chan and be number one without even studying, but... Nico looked again at a graded quiz that was handed to her earlier that day. Since I only scored forty percent of the answers correct on this... ah, what are you thinking, Nico-Nii? You can get this right naturally, you're Nico Yazawa!
"Everyone ready to head to the library, nya?" Rin asked.
"We were kicked out, Rin," Nico replied.
"Kicked out, not banned," Rin corrected. "You and I can go back now as long as we don't cause any trouble. Kayo-chin and I have been studying a lot in there yesterday."
"And from today on until the test, all of μ's is joining in," Eli added.
"Yeah!" Honoka cheered. Honoka, Nico thought. Probably the only person who I can count on that's studied the same amount as me. Honoka held up a surprisingly thick notebook. Or not. Guess Drill Sergeant Umi's at it again. Okay, Nico, confidence.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Nico asked. "Let's go!"
"Oh, you nine are going, too?" Tsubasa asked. She was standing flanked by Anju and Erena as usual. A-RISE was always inseparable, wasn't it?
"We'll still beat you all," Erena said.
"There's nine of us, and three of you," Nozomi said.
"So in terms of total points, we will have a near-total chance at winning," Umi added. "So I guess you're challenging us on, hmm... group averages or which member gets the highest score overall?"
"Highest overall," Anju replied. "But if it's a tie, then group averages."
"μ's, consider us your rivals for the next two weeks," Tsubasa said. And with that, A-RISE walked away. Nico tried to hide it while the others were talking to them, but she was definitely intimidating. A-RISE is consistently at the top of the class in terms of both combat and academics. But μ's has Eli, Umi, Maki-chan, and myself if I make a perfect comeback, Nico thought. Maybe Hanayo or Nozomi could do it.
"So I guess they Nico-Nico-need to step up their game if they think they have a chance," Nico said. Out loud. With no regrets.
"That's the spirit, Nico-chan!" Hanayo said. And there was no doubt in Nico's mind that it was.
Until she actually went to the library and opened up a textbook. There were so, so many words on that page in such tiny, tiny print. Nico looked around the table at the other girls. Honoka was sitting with Hanayo and Kotori, Umi was helping Rin and Nozomi, while Eli and Maki were just sitting with each other, looking at their own notes. Hmm, Maki-chan and Eli are both smart. Nico inched over to them.
"Ah, Nico-chan," Maki said.
"Can I compare you two's notes with mine?" Nico asked, setting her notes with theirs. She froze up a second. Crap, Eli and Maki-chan have both written so much and so neat. Sure, Nico's notes looked fancy, with the letters all big and bubbly, all the lowercase I's and J's dotted with hearts, and to put the icing on the cake, any letters like "O" with "holes" in them all had those holes made of hearts as well. But in terms of handwriting-to-content ratio...
"Well, I'm impressed that you were able to take these in class," Eli said. "They look so... elaborate."
"Couldn't sacrifice my charm now, could I?" Nico asked.
"But once you look past that, they're really sparse," Maki replied. "It's like you summarized a summary and took the abridged version of that."
"At least my notes are cutest," Nico pouted.
"This isn't a cuteness test," Maki said.
"I know that," Nico replied, starting to look over Eli's notes more. They looked perfect. Neatly written, with as much information crammed into as little space she could. All highlighted and formatted accordingly. In fact, it also looked like a summary of a summary before taking the abridged version of that, but instead of just one day of class's worth of information, it was the entire year's worth of classes. No fair, Eli. But at least we're gonna have an edge with A-RISE's challenge for sure. Just wish it could've been me. No, Nico, you've still got two weeks, you can make this!
Nico took Eli's notes and walked off to find a copier. She was sure she could just memorize those and pass the test, easy-peasy. Wait, is there even a copier in here?
"Nico, I need that back," Eli whispered. Nico yelped in surprise, before turning around to see an unimpressed Eli. "Shh," Eli said, putting a finger to her lips.
"I was looking for a copier..." Nico mumbled. I could always just copy it by hand, I guess...
Which is what she spent the rest of that study session doing.
The next day, μ's organized in threes again. But this arrangement was a lot less lucky. Nozomi sat with Kotori and Hanayo; Umi, Eli, and Maki created a cool elite, and Nico was stuck with Honoka and Rin. It's not that those two weren't fun and lively people to be around, they definitely were and Nico loved that aspect of them, but... well, in terms of studiousness, let's just say Nico was matched with those the same type as her own.
"Let's start, nya!" Rin exclaimed just a bit too loud for a library.
"Yeah!" Honoka added.
"Okay!" Nico said. The three of them opened up a textbook, all of them staring at the pages. Nico, Honoka, and Rin all immediately exchanged the same "I don't understand a word of this" look. Nico sighed, taking out "her" page of notes. Honoka and Rin gasped in amazement.
"Nico-chan, those are amazing," Honoka said. "Who did you copy them off of?"
Damn, Honoka saw right through her.
"Eli," Nico replied. She knew Honoka wasn't trying to be malicious with that comment, her tone definitely didn't suggest it. (Nor did Nico really try to pass them off as her own other than just taking them out of her bag)
"No wonder," Rin said. "Oh, not saying you couldn't make anything like this, Nico-chan."
"D-don't worry about it," Nico replied. "I wonder if we could spend the next hour and a half or so just studying this." Of course, I shouldn't mention I spent a majority of yesterday copying this thing out by hand...
It took three minutes for the trio to go over to Eli's group. Eventually, all nine members of μ's came together. Within fifteen minutes, simple confusion turned into a lively study session that lasted until the library closed for the evening. Nico left feeling satisfied, feeling she had a lot of fun while learning a bit.
The rest of the study sessions were like that one, with the splitting up and recombining. It didn't matter whether the groups were by age, meister/weapon pairs, or whatever. They always ended up back together in the end. Perhaps that was what μ's really was. Togetherness.
Oh, how Nico hoped the togetherness was going to pay off by test time.
On test day, Nico's alarm rang bright and early, but she turned it off immediately and rolled back into bed,
"Five more minutes," she muttered to nobody in particular.
"Oh no you don't, Nico-chan," Maki said, walking over to wake Nico up. As usual, Maki was dressed and ready for class. How does she do it? Does she just wake up earlier, earlier than Nico, on purpose? How does one even do that?
But Nico couldn't really pay any mind to that.
Get out of bed. Have breakfast. Wonder how Cocoro, Cocoa, and Cotaro are doing back home. Stave off worries and homesickness, today is not the day for that! Get dressed. Meet up with the rest of μ's at the front of the dorms and walk to school together. Obligatory gripe about the steps from someone, today it was Honoka, as usual. Walk to class. Sit down. Be split up from Maki because meisters and weapons couldn't sit together during the test for whatever reason. Wonder why Sid-sensei was carrying a beat-up blue-haired boy outside to the next class over. Realize you forgot your pencil, right as Nygus-sensei comes in. At least the morning up to now wasn't TOO unusual.
"Umi-chan, can I borrow a pencil?" Nico whispered, as Nygus was explaining the test rules.
"Fine," Umi replied, handing Nico a mechanical pencil. "You should have brought your own. Now let me listen to the rules."
What's gotten her all upset? She's almost like Maki-chan this morning. But handing me a mechanical pencil... so much trust.
"The exam has multiple answer types, with sixty minutes to complete," Nygus said. Thank goodness it's multiple choice. "You must fill in the bubbles corresponding to each answer completely..." Nico then zoned out. This was like every other standardized test she's ever taken. Except for the subject. She's never had a standardized test entirely on Soul Studies before. "Fill out your name at the top before answering any of the questions. You may begin."
And with that, the Ultimate Written Exam had begun! Nico wrote down her name in her usual cutesy handwriting, but was careful not to take too much time with it. She then turned to Question One.
"Fill in the blanks: A sound soul dwells in a sound (_) and a sound (_)."
Multiple choice, my foot, Nico thought. Wait, Nygus-sensei said "multiple answer types", not "multiple choice"! Crap! Okay, okay, you can do this. A sound soul dwells in a sound (_) and a sound (_).A sound soul dwells in a sound (_) and a sound (_). A sound body and a sound mind! Wait, is that order right? Think, think, what did Nozomi say about this...
"Remember, if you don't know the answer, go with your spiritual intuition. Or maybe just your gut, whatever works."
Nico immediately wrote down what she first thought. Go with my gut, go with my gut...
She glanced around the room to see what everyone else was doing. Of course, just like she thought, everyone was just testing as usual. On Nico's right, Umi was using her left arm to block her test from Nico. And on Nico's left... Honoka. Already on Question Five. Already? Nico thought. Either I'm wasting time or Honoka's just guessing. Nico weighed the possibilities, and came to the conclusion she should get back to her test, because Nygus seemed to be looking at her funny. Nico tried to look in front of her at Anju, but her head blocked her test. No, you can't even THINK about cheating! Do the test, Nico! Do the test!
Nico breezed through the next few questions, confident that the test was actually going to be very easy. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... ten! Question Ten was a true or false question. And gosh, it sure looked true. But Nico's gut was telling her something. Something... suspicious. The one who wrote the test questions, Dr. Stein, wasn't someone Nico personally knew, but some said he had a… reputation, to put it nicely. So the question might be a trick. Oh no, nobody's going to trick Nico Yazawa on her watch, Nico thought, going with her gut and picking "false." She glanced over the question a few more times as she tried to answer Questions Eleven and Twelve, but ultimately, she decided not to doubt her gut. And then she heard a ear-splittingly high-pitched screech. There was no guessing on who that came from.
"Kotori!" Eli gasped. Nico looked over at the other side of the classroom. Kotori slowly got up from her seat, clutching her writing hand. No, she can't be giving up. "Sensei, Kotori's bleeding!"
What? Why? How?
"How big's the cut?" Nygus asked, getting a small first aid kit out of her cargo pants. Kotori moved her other hand off the bleeding one. And there was a nasty paper cut, right across her fingertip. It was only a little blood, but Nico winced nonetheless. Right across the fingertip on Kotori's right index finger. Probably one of the worst places to get a paper cut. Nygus gave Kotori a Band-aid, and sent her back to her seat.
Nico looked back at the test, which, thanks to the distraction of Kotori's minor injury, now looked as if it was written in gibberish. Nico ended up guessing on the next two questions to make up for lost time, before looking at the clock. Crap, half an hour's passed already? Nico thought. I'm not even halfway through the test! How long did I zone out?
If you don't know, go with your gut. If you have to guess, go with your gut! Argh, it seems my gut's taking the test more than my brain!
Nico kept doing whatever she could to get the answers filled in as quickly and (hopefully) accurately as possible, when...
"I'm done!" Honoka exclaimed, standing up. She was the first one to do so.
"Great work, Miss Kousaka," Nygus replied. "Set your test on my desk, return to your seat, and do not disturb the others." If Honoka finished first... crap, did I assume wrong for who's gonna be on top? Nico slipped into a daydream about Honoka, standing in front of the score board, having the highest score, just how Nico dreamed she did. And then she accidentally stabbed her finger with the pencil and just like that, Nico Yazawa was snapped back to reality. She went right back to Question One and changed it to what she saw Honoka write, just in case. Because the people who finish the test first are either super smart or end up with the worst grade of the bunch. Honoka's track record indicated that Nico really shouldn't have placed a bet, but gosh darn it, she was feeling really lucky on that one answer now.
Fifteen minutes remaining. The classroom was going into a frenzy. All Nico could hear were pencils, the tapping of Honoka's restless fot below the desk, and the flipping of papers. She had finished nearly all the questions by now, and was just flipping through to check her answers. Umi had already turned in her test, so did most of the rest of μ's, save for Nico and Rin. A-RISE was already long past the point of no return, all three of them sitting confidently in their seats.
Ten minutes remaining. Nico was ever so close to just turning in her test right then and there, but there was a nagging feeling in her gut that said she shouldn't. She had already gone through her answers a dozen times, second-guessing herself any more than that would just harm her, she was sure of that.
"Wait, are those red spots on my paper?" Nico whispered as quietly as she could muster. She flipped through, to find them all over the margins of her test. Nico looked down at her hands, Sure enough, the finger she stabbed with her pencil earlier was smeared with blood. Not actively bleeding anymore, but smeared with the tiniest amount of blood. Nico sighed. Feeling a dampness in her T-shirt's armpit areas as she moved her arms back, she realized she had literally put her blood and sweat into this test. All that was left was tears. Nico picked up her test and walked down to Nygus's desk, right as she called out the five-minute mark, and Rin loudly gasped, running over to hand her test in right as Nico set hers down.
"Ha, you're the last one!" they both exclaimed. "No, you are!"
"It doesn't matter, back to your seats," Nygus replied. Five minutes, left just to rest. And Nico was sure she handed in her test just a half second before Rin did, what gives her the right to...
"No, Nico," Nico said to herself. "I'm sure I beat Rin either way."
Nico sat at her seat, waiting through the last five minutes, as commotion from the next room over could be heard through the walls.
"Man, Class Crescent Moon really seems to be going at it," Honoka said. "Wonder if they're okay in there."
"Can't have gotten multiple injuries like us, right?" Nico asked, right as she heard a scream coming from in there. "Okay, maybe... nah."
"Multiple?" Umi whispered. Nico showed Umi the dried blood on her finger. "Huh."
"Pencils down," Nygus said.
"And a pencil back to you," Nico said to Umi.
The class period ended soon after that. Nico still kept her initial confidence until she got back to the dorms, when she realized she had left the last question blank.
"Nico-chan, what's wrong?" Maki asked.
"Son of a..."
μ's and A-RISE were abuzz at the board every day until the grades were put up. The top score, a perfect one hundred points, did not go to anyone from either group, instead to Class Crescent Moon's Maka Albarn. Second place also went to someone from Class Crescent Moon, Ox Ford, scoring ninety-nine points. Nico looked around, unable to find her name near the top, but she did notice a name she recognized. Eli Ayase, ninety-eight points.
"Elicchi, look!" Nozomi exclaimed. It seemed that she noticed at the exact time Nico did. "Seems someone from μ's has the highest score among us all."
"Hold on a second..." Tsubasa said, looking through the board. There she found her own name, with ninety-six points, just behind Umi, who had ninety-seven. Maki also scored ninety-six points, Erena ninety-five, and Hanayo and Anju both eighty-nine.
"Seems there are μ's members above all of three you," Honoka said.
"But where's your name?" Erena asked.
"Nozomi, you scored an eighty-seven," Eli said.
"Oh, I got eighty-eight!" Kotori exclaimed.
"Fifty-three, nya!"
"You did your best, Rin-chan," Hanayo said.
"Better than Nico-chan's forty-four," Rin replied.
"WHAT?" Nico gasped, looking over at her score. Ninety-fourth place, Nico Yazawa, forty-four points. Well, at least she was still in the top one hundred. Out of the one hundred and thirty EAT students who took the test. Nico groaned. I can't have missed all those points for just leaving one question blank, which means...
"I scored thirty-four," Honoka sighed. At least Nico had ten points over the last one in the group. So there's at least that to console her.
"Honoka, that's not good," Umi said. "Look, you're literally just below the cutoff for the makeup test range."
"I... failed?" Honoka asked. "No, it can't be..."
"So in terms of highest score overall, μ's won, but if we tied and had to do an average, A-RISE would have won," Tsubasa muttered to herself. "If only I had scored at least two more points..."
I have to accept "not the worst test-taker of the group", don't I? Nico thought to herself, looking at the makeup test range. Which was everyone who scored under thirty-five points, and the two students who for some reason, were left out of consideration. So with forty-four points, Nico was ten points above needing to take a makeup.
"Well, whatever," Nico said. "Honoka, I hope your makeup test goes well."
"Thanks, Nico-chan," Honoka replied. "Cheer me on, okay?"
"Okay."
"Hey, hey, Nico-chan!"
"What is it, Honoka?"
"I just got the results of the makeup test in! I scored a forty-FIVE!"
"That's wonderf...hey!"