February arrives fairly quickly with Fushiguro's birthday getting celebrated late December. When Nobara had casually greeted Fushiguro on the twenty-second of December while they shared a sink as they brushed their teeth, Yuriko-san just so happened to pass by and shrieked about how they did not tell her anything about birthdays. (Nobara briefly asks Fushiguro if he is technically sixteen years old now despite their original world being in early October before they jumped to this world of Quirks in early December but he only glares at her. She tried to compute it at the top of her head but gave up halfway, finding that studying for the upcoming entrance exam was a more pressing matter than Fushiguro's actual age.) The rest of the day was spent with Nobara laughing hilariously at Fushiguro who was as stiff as a rock in the midst of Yuriko-san's pampering. And once the day was over, they returned to their room, Nobara still giggling under her breath. As she laughed, Fushiguro turned to her: "Aren't you supposed to be giving me a birthday present?" He asked.

Nobara thought about it for a few minutes. It made her genuinely think about it: what does Fushiguro even like? The only thing she knows about him is that he hates bell pepper and likes food with lots of ginger. The unfamiliarity unnerved her, so she settled for an answer neutral enough but good enough for Fushiguro to accept it. She adjusted her position in her own futon and grinned at Fushiguro. "I'll let you punch Itadori first before me when we see him," and Fushiguro grunted, turning away from her but nonetheless satisfied with her answer.

But still, Nobara thinks that Fushiguro's birthday passed a little too quickly. The more she thinks about it, the more she gives excuses on why it is like that—because they don't feel at home yet, obviously. If they celebrated his birthday back in their world, they would have woken up Fushiguro at exactly twelve in the morning, barging in his room and dragging him out of his bed. Their Gojō-sensei and Maki-san would definitely know more about Fushiguro than Nobara. (They still don't know each other that well, don't they?) And even as two months pass since the birthday, Nobara still thinks about it when she looks at Fushiguro.

Fushiguro rummages through the refrigerator of the convenience store, Pocari bottles in his arms. As always, he is in charge of restocking everything while Nobara is stuck in the cashier under the excuse that people would definitely like it more if they are greeted by a pretty girl than a gloomy boy stuck in his chūnibyō phase. Fushiguro chucks a bottle to her face. Nobara sneezes. She rubs her hands on each other. February is surprisingly less cold than January though the only place she can compare to Musutafu is her old hometown. Fushiguro glances at her. "You should've worn something thicker," he tells her.

"Maybe if someone didn't somehow break the heater, then we wouldn't have a problem," Nobara returns to which Fushiguro scoffs, "And besides, can you believe it? We'll be having the UA Practical Exams in the middle of winter? What are they even thinking? They should at least do it indoors. A maze or a treasure hunt would be nice."

Nobara looks around, then at the clock. She decides for herself the lack of customers means she gets to have a quick break and walks to the chairs and the tables. Fushiguro follows her, placing down microwaved ramen for the both of them. She frowns but accepts it gratefully anyway. "The exam is in less than a week and I still have to memorize the original Quirk laws. And don't get me started on how much Biology I still have to learn," she groans and the grimace on Fushiguro's face deepens in agreement, "Hey. Speaking of, aren't you getting too focused on your history? I thought we were done with it."

Fushiguro purses his lips. "I just got distracted," he briefly glances at Nobara, choosing his words carefully, "They have a huge gap in their history that I can't just find anywhere. It's bugging me but—nevermind. Let's focus on exams instead. If we're going to take the spotlight, one of us has to get first place, unless they allow two first placers, which I doubt. Many complaints about UA are their unorthodox point-system. They won't really tell you how you got your final score. Just what it is."

Slurping the noodles in one go, Nobara hums. She has seen the comments littered in many blogspots concerning UA and though majority of them are about how they dream of entering said school, a large deleted comment complained about their strange curriculums and demands. She almost compares UA to her own Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School but the thought leaves as quickly as it arrived. Jujutsu High School do not hide the fact that the power system is disgusting, does not hide their misogyny and their favoritism towards those from Clans, and does not even bother to hide how they hog their Inumaki-senpai, keep him in a tight leash, as the threat of the Inumaki Purge remains. At least, in their original world, Nobara knows exactly what she is going to expect. This one, however, is more complicated than that, heavily surrounded by a culture she did not grow up in. And like Fushiguro, she does not find the idea of 'Pro-Heroes' and 'Villains' very appealing. Not in the slightest.

"If we end up in something like a treasure hunt, you should lead," Nobara decides, "You're more flexible than me when it comes to that—your little birdie and the Gyokuken can be pretty useful there."

"Nue."

"What?"

Fushiguro's eyebrow twitches. "My 'little birdie'—" He stresses each word. "—is called Nue."

With an apologetic smile, Nobara continues: "Right. Nue." Fushiguro's glare hardens. "As I was saying, I have more firepower than you so if we end up fighting, I don't know, something, I guess I'll be the one leading. And if we separate?" She leaves her question open-ended.

"I'll just attach a shikigami with you."

Nobara gapes. "If that's that toad again—"

"Gama."

"Toad is gama." Nobara rolls her eyes. "But if you sic that toad on me again—"

Fushiguro sighs. "I'll be attaching Gyokuken to you, not Gama. They're more suitable for tracking and it's easier for them to track one another. We'll be finding each other quickly if we need to. We need to stick with one another as often as we can in the Practical Exams too. We need to sell each other as a pair if we're going to go to the same class," and Nobara thinks that is the biggest problem.

Nobara is confident that they can easily pass the Practical Exam no matter what it is truly about because of their experience and their flexibility in battle but the problem is going to the same class, most preferably Class 1-A. There are no instances in which the First Place of the Practical Exam did not go to Class 1-A. Topping the charts is no problem but sticking together is. Upon further research, there are many cases of 'Pro-Hero Duos' graduating in UA but none of them ever really reached the top ranks because of their reliance on one another but if Nobara and Fushiguro sell themselves as a pair well enough while one of them maintains their spot as the First Place, then capturing the attention of the missing Itadori Yūji will be a step easier.

And though the two of them have been a team longer than with Itadori because of his 'death', Nobara still has more experience fighting with their missing classmate and Fushiguro obviously has the same sentiment. Nobara can never be satisfied with just being a pair with Fushiguro. Just remembering the mourning and how awkwardly they stood with one another when Itadori was still 'dead', or hidden by their Gojō-sensei, makes Nobara want to curl up somewhere. Death is nothing foreign for someone who grew up to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer but that does not mean Nobara still likes it.

She finishes her cup noodles with a click of her chopsticks. She puts the pair right above her cup while Fushiguro scans through his textbooks. "So our priority is to find each other first and then get the top rank," she summarizes, "Then—"

"Somehow, the two of you are always slacking when I always pass by."

Nobara almost jumps out of her skin, and with a quick look at Fushiguro, he is as startled as her. They were too comfortable with their discussion, too used to the safety of their environment. Nobara cusses to herself mentally at such a rookie mistake, one Fushiguro had pointed out to her countless of times with the oddly large number of times she got whisked away by their enemy curses. She sighs in relief, however, when she sees it is just Sugiyama-san with his typical mild yet intimidating face. She smiles sheepishly. "I promise you that we weren't, Sugiyama-san! We just got a little—" She drawls her words. Sugiyama-san's mild irritation melts to a fond smile, though too small to be seen, at her joking tone. "—bit distracted. The entrance exam is coming soon, you know."

Something that Nobara discovered growing up in the countryside where she is surrounded by old men and women, is that the grumpiest of them usually just need a stereotypical happy-go-lucky kid who will push all of their buttons. And with a silent twitch of her lips, Nobara knows she got the perfect image of the ideal child. Though Sugiyama-san is a good lie detector to a certain degree, Nobara also knows that he has gotten soft on them because of how doting his wife towards them. In another situation, she would have felt guiltier but Nobara and Fushiguro have a distinct goal, a goal so clear that it is all they can see.

Sugiyama peers at the textbook in Fushiguro's hand, the same one that he lent to them that came from one of his grandsons. Fushiguro's shoulders hunch together uncomfortably at how close he is but does not move in an attempt to be polite. "The two of you are really working hard, aren't you?" He asks.

Nobara grins eagerly. She pumps her fist in the air, ignoring how Fushiguro cringes at her antics. "Of course! Megumi-kun and I are going to be the best duo that Japan has ever since! Then we can find our friend as fast as possible," with a small drop of a genuine smile, and a little bit of a 'sad backstory', as Nobara calls it, Sugiyama slouches, softening even further. Well, now, Nobara feels really guilty. And she knows this guilt will grow even more soon, but if she thinks of how she does not belong to this world, if she thinks of the home she is going to return to, if she thinks of Itadori who is probably rotting somewhere at the edge of this place, Nobara can move back to this play she is trying her best to finish.

She watches Sugiyama-san enter the staff room. She whips her head to Fushiguro. "See that? We're going to be the next Gon and Killua, Fushiguro," she announces.

"What are you? An elementary school student?"

The twenty-sixth of February is not as cold as Nobara expected it to be, though still cold enough for Fushiguro and her to wear scarves around their necks. Before they had left, Fushiguro had suggested to simply wear jackets in place of buying a random uniform online. Uniform colors and designs can be recognizable with one look and if they end up matching with someone but not recognizing them, it would be a big trouble for the both of them. The plainness of their dark skirt and pants makes it easier to blend in the crowd of students, and the weather is a good excuse for their jackets and scarves. And in this sea of wannabe-heroes, Fushiguro and Nobara are barely noticeable—meters away from them is a boy that sits at almost seven feet, another with bright pink skin, a boy with a speech bubble for a head, and other strange features that Fushiguro moves away from. For a pair who arrived only a few months earlier, Nobara finds the exam easy which only means that UA truly picks out which students to accept in the Practical Exams. After all, what is booksmarts when you cannot even apply it in an actual situation? Itadori seems to be the primary example of this.

This is the only exam Nobara studied for to this extent. If she did anything less, all of their plans would come crashing down and the two of them would forget about being a Pro-Hero but allying with the Villains instead, desperate for any scrap of information concerning their missing third.

Sitting beside Fushiguro in the auditorium, Nobara rubs her hands together. The heater works perfectly and consumes the entirety of the large dome. UA shows off its wealth, easily housing thousands of students in one place. It does not take a while for someone to enter the gigantic stage. A seemingly familiar blond man forgoes the microphone in front of him and brightly greets the crowd: "Welcome one and all to my live show! Everybody say 'hey'!" The crowd remains silent. Nobara feels Fushiguro lean further into his seat, embarrassed on the man's behalf.

She moves forward to whisper something to him. "Isn't he the Pro-Hero from Yuriko-san's radio show?"

"Present Mic," Fushiguro confirms.

The said Pro-Hero maintains his confidence and his eccentric greeting. "I've got shivers down my spine too, listeners! All right, examinees! I' m gonna give you the low-down about how this'll go down! Are you ready!" He answers his own question with a loud shout of agreement. "Now pay close attention, listeners! We'll be testing your mettle by running a ten-minute practice rnu at our replica city-district! You can take whatever you like! Everybody gather at the designated meeting area after the presentation, 'ya dig?" Letters begin to pop out at the screen behind him, separated into seven areas. Nobara winces.

"We'll be sprinkling a large number of 'Villains' over the battlefield, and they'll appear in three different varieties, with point values scaled according to difficulty! Using each of your individual Quirks, dispatch as many 'Villains' as you can. Your goal, listeners, is to rack up a high score! And don't think about directly attacking any other competitors or any of that nasty anti-hero stuff, because that's against the rules, capiche?"

Nobara scoffs and crosses her arms. She opens her mouth to whisper something to Megumi again, finally understanding how the Practical Exams will work but is interrupted by a spectacled boy at the other side of the auditorium. "If we're only going to fight for ten minutes, we wouldn't have enough time to find each other," she fishes for the piece of paper she got from the receptionist, a draw-lots system to ensure the lack of favoritism though Nobara does hear about the recommended students. She flips open hers: "I got D, what about you, 'shiguro?" She asks.

Fushiguro shows her his. "A."

"Then there's only one solution to that," Nobara straightens her back and moves forward to tap the student sitting in front of her. The boy looks back. She makes sure to pout, tilt her head in the right direction, using her looks to her advantage. "Excuse me..." She forces her cheeks to redden a little, thinking of the most embarrassing moment in her life to make it look as real as she can. "You see, I'm really worried about the exam... and my paper says that I got separated from my only friend and—I—" She lowers her head, peeking through her bangs. "May I know if you got A?" She asks.

Unsurprisingly, the boy blushes more than her. He stammers on his words before grabbing his seatmate's, perhaps a friend of his, slip. He quickly shoves it to Nobara's direction as she exchanges her own. The boy ignores his friend's obvious protest. Nobara tugs a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much you helped me!" She returns to her proper position and waves her new assignment right in front of Fushiguro's face smugly. "Ah, Fushiguro-bōya, you still have so much to learn."

Fushigurp stops being surprised. He looks at Nobara as if he did not expect anything less from her.

"Now, now, Fushiguro-bōya, Present Mic-san is talking." Nobara pushes Fushiguro's face to the front.

"—the fourth type of Villain you'll encounter is worth zero points! Let's call them 'arena traps'! Have any of you ever played 'Super Mario Brothers' before? I guess it's rather retro," Nobara gapes, having played Super Mario Brothers only recently with the second years, Itadori, and an uninvited Gojō-sensei, "You remember those things that'd go thomp on you?! There's a thing like that in each area! Their 'gimmick' is that they rampage when crowded! Well, that's enough from me! I'll leave you all with a presentation on the "school precepts" of this academy of mine! As a certain 'hero' by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life'! Now, let's move to the main event! Plus Ultra! And may you all suffer gladly the trials to come!"

If this isn't corruption, I don't know what is, is the first thought that flashed in Nobara's mind the moment she sees the overly gigantic arena they will be conducting the exams in. The mountains and forests that surround their Jujutsu High School are different for it came from the old money of the various clans that have been studying there since even the days before the Taishō Era. But something like this that must have taken lots and lots of money, is not to be taken lightly. Nobody seems to take note of this though. Only Fushiguro and her seem to be more questioning than amazed at the lengths taken for a simple exam. Nobara tries to consider the absence of corruption but then, where did that mouse-bear principal get this money? Sure, the government funds them but how can the government allow something as wasteful as this to continue?

Nobara tugs on the hood of her jacket uncomfortably. She jolts when Fushiguro plants both of his hands on her shoulders from behind. He hushes her. "You're going to wear a skirt in a Practical Exam?" He questions.

Putting a hand on her waist, Nobara looks straight on at the tall walls of the faux city. "If I'm going to fight, then I'm going to look good doing it. And besides, I always fight in a skirt," well, in a uniform and Nobara honestly misses the comforts of her personalized uniform. "Also, if you drop me, I'm going to kill you."

Fushiguro purses his lips. "I'm not—"

"AND START!"

In the midst of confused students, Fushiguro lets go of her shoulders for a second, clasping them right in front of her face. "Nue." She hears the soft boiling of his shadow from under her feet and before she knows it, Fushiguro's hands are already gripping the hood of her jacket tightly, the rush of the wind tickling her cheeks as she is lifted further and further from the ground. Someone from the crowd yells something about 'cheating' and out of instinct, Nobara sticks her tongue out at them, pulling on her waist where her equipment is present. "Just don't look down," reminds Fushiguro.

Nobara rolls her eyes. She is used to facing at the front and nothing but the front, anyway, as someone trained with aiming throughout her life. "You don't have to remind me," her fingers wrap around her hammer, her other hand toying with the nails. As soon as the enter the boundaries of the arena, Nobara's lips curl into a smile. "It's been a while!" She throws her nails in the air and with an expert maneuver of her wrists, the flat surface of the hammer glows with her Cursed Energy. (The release feels so nostalgic that Nobara's grin widens.) "Hey, 'shiguro! Do you remember what they say about big targets?" Her nails slice through the air. The three-pointer turns its head to their direction. "The bigger they are, the easier it is to hit them!"

The robot's head explodes upon coming in contact with Nobara's nails, hitting it perfectly on its forehead.

Fushiguro pulls them to the rooftop of one of the buildings, dropping Nobara gently. "Gather as much points as possible. Make sure to show off. Nue will be with you and I'll be right below you," he says, guiding Nue to clutch on Nobara's shoulders, "You remember our plan?"

"Of course."

"Then," Fushiguro mumbles. He puts his hands together and the familiar forms of Gyokuken rise from his shadows. He greets them with a small pat on their heads. "I'm going down now. Remember the signal."

Nobara pushes her feet off the ground as Nue flaps its wings. She gives a crystal clear sign, watching Fushiguro jump down from the building with his shikigami shouldering his fall. As if reading her mind, Nue flies to a higher spot, giving her what is arguably the best view to catch her enemies. "Put me on your back, Nue—" Nobara shrieks when Nue tosses her up, her body flipping back but safely landing on the bird's back. Her heart pounds wildly. Is this bird teasing her after calling it 'little birdie'? She laughs.

She gathers more nails in her hands, treating the wandering robots as nothing but slow-moving targets because is that not what they are? Even her grandmother's training dummies were a lot harder than this. And with a single flick of her wrist, her hammer, flickering in its blue-black energy, slams against the heads of the nails. They find their destinations with ease, the crackling of grinding metal becoming nothing but music in her eyes. Nobara lets Nue move around, following wherever Fushiguro is. Nue dives close to the ground, spinning around Fushiguro. "I think we got this, Fushiguro," she chirps.

"Don't get too cocky," Fushiguro waves his hand above his shadow, a Cursed Weapon coming in contact with his hand. He swings it just as Nue flies above, slicing the foot of a two-pointer, "Gyokuken!" The twin dogs immediately race for the falling robot's neck, the dark one biting through the thick metal of its skin while the white one dives for the wires. "How many have you put down?" He ducks under the falling robot, grabbing a wayward student out of the way. He jumps over the robot's body.

Nobara squints, thinking. "Not enough, I think," Fushiguro glares at her. With one look sent to Nue by Fushiguro, Nobara is whisked away once again.

Get as much as you can. Show off. And showing off is what Nobara does best. She lets those words resound in her head as she plucks more and more and more and more nails from her pockets, from the sleeves of her jacket, from Fushiguro who takes a package from what lies beyond his shadows, Nobara lets her Cursed Energy run wild. She misses this feeling, she realizes, and she thinks her hunger will only be sated once she actually exorcises something but she settles for now. Her energy flickers in the pit of her stomach, fickle and about to die with how much energy she has been releasing for what short minutes she has been here. (Get as much as you can. Show off.) They need to stand out. They need to stand out, become the first placers of the Practical Exam and—

The signal resounds.

The arrival of the Zero-Pointer Robot shakes the entirety of the faux city and the students quickly run away from it. Zero Points mean nothing but Nobara remembers the articles she spent endlessly reading and the shallow voice of Yagi Toshinori about how being a Pro-Hero does not mean being the one to defeat the bad guys. And though Nobara took her sweet time with Fushiguro to figure out what exactly they mean by that, they still end up finding the answer. She grasps the signal with both hands, ready to give the examiners an unforgettable show—Pro-Heroes are celebrities, right? Pro-Heroes are meant to stand in the spotlight and show only the best of their forms. And that is exactly what Nobara and Fushiguro are going to do.

As Nue flips, Nobara's hoodie falls just a few inches above her stomach, her skirt tickling her waist but all she can focus is Fushiguro's eyes focused on her. They exchange a small nod. Fushiguro entwines his hands again, wrapping it around one another and her least favorite shikigami of his arrives, the toad stretching out its tongue to keep the robot in place. Nue continues to glide as Fushiguro dispells the Gyokuken and in another beat, the shrill of an elephant's roar echoes. The final signal.

Water surges from the mouth of the elephant, its fountains reaching high enough to the waist of the gigantic robot. Nobara feels Nue let go of her and despite the furious pounding of her chest, she allows herself to act on instinct, watching Nue explode into electricity, its thunderous technique rushing through the sea that the dispelled elephant released. With an amused, almost deranged smile, Nobara falls, snapping her fingers, urging the forgotten nails she nestled in the surrounding buildings come alive. The robot rumbles.

"Hairpin."

The cackle of Cursed Energy is all Nobara can hear. For a moment, she even forgets that she is crashing to the ground, watching Nue dissipate into blackness, drained of Cursed Energy. (The alarm rings.) Before she realizes that truly is falling, Fushiguro is already jumping to her, hopping on the destroyed robot and catching her by her waist. She shields her face as they skid to the ground, rolling painfully. Nobara ends up hitting Fushiguro's knee. She gathers herself quickly with a groan. She feels blood drip from her forehead. Her mouth slacks. "I literally fell from the sky and I got a wound because of your knee?" She looks at Fushiguro, just a rubble away from her and look a lot worse than her after he mostly took the brunt of her fall. "Why didn't you just use Nue?"

Nobara struggles to stand with her hazy vision but she manages to pull Fushiguro up who mimics her poor balance. "It's been a long time since we fought, and I only recently tamed Banshō," he furrows his eyebrows, getting crankier and crankier the more he talks about his crippled Cursed Energy. Now that Nobara thinks about it, Fushiguro summoned Nue, Gyokuken, Gama, and Banshō consecutively, even using Nue and Banshō's signature attack in the process.

Nobara takes it upon herself to put Fushiguro's arm around her shoulder, though she did it a little awkwardly because of their height difference. She feels Fushiguro sigh right by her neck. "Ugh, stop that or I'll drop you."

"You're not doing much help anyway—" Nobara pushes Fushiguro off of her, simply watching as Fushiguro falls on his bottom.

"Thank you for the hardwork, Fushiguro-kun!"

(In less than a week, the results are delivered to the doorsteps of the Sugiyama Household. Yuriko embraces the two children that happened upon her home under strange circumstances, giving them the biggest celebration that they are most comfortable with. The patriarch of the household complains about something under his breath but the pride for the strangers bloom along the first week of March.

Kugisaki Nobara ranks first with seventy villain points and fifteen rescue points. Fushiguro Megumi ties in the third place with a Kirishima Eijirō, acquiring thirty-four villain points and fourty rescue points. They are both in Class 1-A.)

・ bōya (坊や) means boy

・ question of the chapter: which jujutsu kaisen or bnha character do you want to train you for the ua entrance exams?

・ answer: i personally would want maki to teach me. she seems really effective as a teacher!

three years on a cold stone will make the stone warm