It's been ten months exactly since the day Izuku first tried to kill himself and came back, his initial process was frenzy- die and die and die again until something, anything works so he can stop coming back, stop waking up to that black void and white word, stop coming to a couple hours before and he can finally...
It's been ten months and now, it's time for the UA entrance exams and Izuku is trying out- not for the hero course but general studies, it is one of the best education centres in the world even for those not training to be heros so the choice was easy. What was not easy, however, was getting into UA.
He'd revised for a couple days, which didn't seem like a whole lot but everytime he finsihed reading and memorising it he'd reset and start over until he had everything down in a fifth of the time it would usually take- it was an effective approach, a little risky with how much more Katsuki seemed to notice since the... incident but he didn't overdo like he had the first day, the day he made that one fatal mistake that limited how much he could test and try out in one day and extended how many more days he'd have to be here.
It was easier to shift the blame a little than to face that he actually could not leave, that even if he had all the time in the world with no interuptions to test he wouldn't get an answer just fying over and over again in different ways.
It's easier to think that Katsuki had it coming with how long he'd been stringing him along when all he wanted was some information, it was easy to paint it that way and not think about it properly.
And as occams razor states, there should be no more assumotions made than neccessary, so despite Izuku knowing better he sticks to what's easiest and carries on.
Revision is his one set goal, just cramming every bit of information in those books into his mind and if he forgets something he'll just reset and do over. Katsuki has been keeping to himself much more for the past month or so, likely revising for the exams like him.
He knows he remembers everything he could possibly need, he's taken the mock tests online and modified his revision accordingly, he's searched up every hint of what the exams could be about this year so he can narrow how much he has to remember.
He's done everything he needs to, so when he enters that exam hall he is not worried at all, he's learned long ago that if anything goes wrong he has an instant reset button.
Izuku walks out of the exam hall two hours later with a slightly aching hand and a little bored, he finished 45 minutes early and combed over his whole paper five times and still had twenty minutes to sit and wait.
He hears two people talking about their answers outside, he slows his walk and listens in a little, they're discussing the eighteenth question- one he'd had a slight bit of difficult with himself. He listens for their answers and compares it to his own before walking onwards and stopping into the nearest public bathroom and locking himself in the furthest cubicle
Was it worth resetting because someone else got a different answer?
He trusts himself but he did have a little difficulty, and if he'd gotten it wrong it could drop his percentage 1%- and what if he'd gotten others wrong that he just hadn't drawn his attention to?
Izuku balanced the razor on his finger tip before rolling his sleeve up, he'd done this so much there was practically a 'cut here' line on his forearm.
He was back a couple hours before the exam and he breathed, the simplest explanation was that he had gotten some things wrong so he'd just study for that exact question and make absolutely sure he'd gotten it right.
He goes to the exam room, sits in the same seat as last time next to the same two boys and he puts his full focus onto the exams and combing every last inch of his brain for the information he'd so meticulously stored in there.
It's two hours later and Izuku walks out of the exam hall, he hears the same boys talk about the same thing and again he listens in. And again he sits in that bathroom stool and twiddles that sharp blade.
This is dumb, he's being dumb because he's revised that exact question but an uneasiness settles deep within his chest. He combs over every question he had even the slightest struggle with in his mind and makes a mental note of them. The easiest thing to do is to carry on and trust himself, to make no further assumptions about his possible inaccuracies.
He knows this, and yet he goes against it and resets, and then he sets to work.
It's a couple hours later and Izuku is standing outside of the entrance hall again, he's reset thrice to make absolutely sure everything there is to know about any question he didn't breeze through.
He walks in and sits in the same spot he has twice before, between the boy with the purple hair that defies gravity and one with spiky red, he sets his eyes down to his paper and focuses like he has twice before.
The questions are almost instant to answer he's done them so much, he has no doubt about how accurate he is as he writes in the solutions. Somewhere he's aware he's turning the pages a lot faster than the others but he's too immersed in the focus of it all that the rest of the world and even himself seems to finally drown itself out.
Izuku finishes an hour early, combes through his paper with an extra fine tooth eight times and counts the amount of support beams in the room for the remaining ten minutes. When he walks out he leaves with the useless knowledge that there are 132 visible metal supports and walks straight past the two boys discussing their test results outside.
He does not stop at the nearest public bathroom and lock himself in the far cubicle, he doesn't flip a razor between his fingers for a couple minutes whilst he thinks, he does not cut that line on a guide like a child who can't be trusted to even cut straight, he doesn't reset.
Deciding that the easiest thing is that he has a good enough test result and ignores the part of himself that wants to refine it further. He makes no further assumptions about his own work or how much he knows.
He follows occams razor
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