Side note: Figured at the start of every chapter I should remind people the different types of speaking so
"Talking out loud"
"Inner thoughts"
"Text"
Chapter 11: Life can be cruel but also uplifting
Today starts out like any other day in Snow's life. Get up early enough for his morning workout with Hayato,come back home to have breakfast and plan out what he will work on for that day. Be it quirk training,systema,freerunning or stealth. But today is different that Snow and Saya are expecting their letters of acceptance into the highschool of dreams,U.A.. With that knowledge in mind Snow cuts his workout short to head home to read his letter in the hopes of getting into U.A.
"Hey mom, we're home." Snow says while walking in with Hayato.
Saori emerges from the kitchen and greets them with a smile and some water bottles. She gives them the water bottles and the two of them happily take them.
"I just got done making breakfast for you two and Snow I checked the mailbox and it's here."
Saori shows Snow the letter and hands it to Snow. Snow eyes widen from seeing the seal. It's the U.A insignia.
"Mom, did Saya get her yet? We plan on opening the letters together."
"Yep she got one this morning as well she'll be coming by as soon as she eats breakfast at her house."
"This is it. The letter that can change my life forever. Best case scenario we both get in if not I hope Saya gets in at least. She's way more deserving of it."
The family of 3 go into the kitchen and sit down at the table to have breakfast meanwhile in the Sasaki household Saya was also going through the same train of thought that Snow had. Both friends want what's best for each other and hope that the outcome is a positive one. Once done with breakfast Saya quickly goes into a change of clothes and rushes to the door with the letter in hand and gives a quick hug to both of her parents before heading off to Snow's house.
"Bye mom,Bye dad I'll call you when we know we're accepted into U.A." Saya says with great confidence.
"Bye Saya and wishing the best for you two." The couple said in unison.
Saya runs down the street and heads towards Snow's house. Once there she knocks on the door and is greeted by Hayato.
"Hey Saya figured you'd be here soon. Come on in." The two walk in and Hayato takes her to the living room and sees Saori sitting on a couch adjacent to where she will be sitting.
"Hi Saya, Snow will be right out soon he's just getting into a change of clothes." Saori says with a warm smile. Saya sits down and Hayato sit's next to Saori and waits for Snow. Snow walks out of his room and joins everyone in the living room.
"Ok Saya on the count of three we'll open them together."
"Alright."
"1….2…..3." Snow and Saya said in rush to open up their letters in anticipation and Snow decides to read his first but to himself upon reading the first two sentences.
" 'Snow Arisato we are grateful for your application but due to the amount of applicants this year. You were not eligible to attend our school and we are truly sorry about that.' I didn't make it in…." Snow puts his letter down on the coffee table and tries to hide his disappointment and hopes that Saya gets accepted. But when he turned over to Saya she had a look of disappointment. She too didn't get accepted to U.A. The room is filled with silence until Saori speaks up.
"Hey is everything alright you two? What happened?" Saori says with a concerned expression. Curious about what the letter said she picks up Snow's letter and lets out a gasp from what she read. Hayato reads it as well and puts two and two together that neither Snow nor Saya got accepted into U.A. Saya gets up from the couch and wants to leave to not show her sadness.
"I'm sorry…..I have to go." Saya says with a sadden tone and runs out the house and bumps into her parents at the front door. She gives them a quick glance and continues to run.
"Hey what happened Saya?" Yukina shouts to Saya hoping to get her attention but to no avail she doesn't stop. Snow quickly gets up from the couch and puts on his shoes and runs after Saya.
"I'll be right back everybody." Snow says in a reassuring tone before heading out. Leaving the Sasaki's confused, Hayato show's them both Snow and Saya's letter to get the full picture of what just happened.
Snow is now running down the streets of Aptos desperately looking for where Saya could've gone. To get a better view he heads into a nearby alleyway and jumps to a fire escape and pulls himself up. He walks up the fire escape to reach the rooftop and starts jumping from rooftop to rooftop in hopes that he can see Saya.
"Where could you have gone Saya? Maybe I should call her but then again what good would that do me. She'd probably just ignore it." Snow stops in his trail to catch his breath and looks around until he sees a windmill and suddenly an idea as to where Saya could be pops into his head."I'm an idiot I know exactly where she would be. The windmill near the shoreline,me and her would always go there as our usual hangout spot or to clear our heads." Snow changes his path and heads towards the shoreline located in the southern part of Aptos. As Snow is making his way to the shoreline a number thoughts race into heads.
"What am I even going to say to Saya? I don't even know how I would cheer her up. Is there even anything I could say or do to cheer her up?" Snow shakes those thoughts out of his head."I can't think like that. I know what to do. Being there for her is the best thing I can do." With those reassuring thoughts Snow picks up his pace and before he knows it he's at the shoreline with the windmill in sight. Snow looks up at the windmill before entering through the door and climbing up the long flight of stairs to the top. Once at the top Snow opens the door and looks to his left then his right and sees Saya sitting and crying silenting into her knees. Snow notices and closes the door behind him slowly and sits next to her. Saya notices the sudden presence of someone sitting next to her and she lifts her head to see Snow.
"I'm sorry for running out like that." Saya says in a low tone.
"Hey you don't have to apologize for that Saya. It's perfectly normal for that kind of reaction." Exclaimed Snow with a reassuring smile.
"It's just…..not fair Snow. We got rejected for something that was out of our control."
"You're right, Saya, it was out of our control and we will never get the chance to go to the best hero school in the country. But that doesn't mean we have to be sad about it."
"How can you be so optimistic,Snow?"
"Well because our end goal is still the same right, Saya? No matter where we go we'll be trained to be heroes and that is what matters the most." Snow says in great confidence. Upon hearing those words Saya's mood starts to brighten and she wipes away the tears and gives Snow a hug. Snow returns the hug and the two stay in each other's arms.
"How do you know exactly what to say to me Snow?"
"Guess I've picked up a thing or two from you Saya. We should probably head back, our parents might get worried."
"I know but can we stay here a bit longer?"
"Sure."
The two stay in each other's embrace,enjoying the moment and staring out to the ocean.
"Normally I'd be nervous being in Snow's arms for this long but it's comforting. Maybe what mom says is true. Snow. I think I love you."
A couple of hours have passed and the 2 teenagers are nearing Snow's house. Once there Snow takes out his keys and unlocks the door and holds the door for Saya. The two are greeted by their respective parents and Saya decides to apologize for her sudden outburst and running off.
"I'm sorry for running off and the scene I caused mom and dad. I shouldn't be worrying you two like that."
"You don't have to apologize Saya. It's perfectly normal to have a reaction like that but I'm glad that you're safe,Thank you for finding her Snow." Yukina says while giving Saya a hug.
"It's nothing Yukina,I'm just doing what anybody would've done for their friend."
"But you're no normal friend Snow, you gave me a new outlook on the situation and I'm grateful for that."
Upon hearing Saya's words Snow starts to blush and bashfully scratches the back of his head."Glad I could help."
The two families decided while Snow and Saya were gone they'd all go out for lunch together. Hayato tells Snow and Saya about the plans and they're happy they'll be spending more time together on the same day. Normally a get-together like that is a normal occurrence but after the time they spent together at the top of the windmill they feel closer than ever. The two families enter in Akatuski's SUV and head to the diner they'll be having lunch in. Once there they're seated and enjoy the outing. This was a much needed reprieve from the bad news they received.
"Good Saya's back to her normal self." Snow's thought is interrupted by his dad.
"Y'know Snow it's impolite to stare." Hayato says in a low tone.
"D-dad I wasn't trying to. I'm just glad Saya is smiling and laughing again."
"Saya is lucky to have a friend like you Snow. But to change topics, it's nice to know your rooftop running has gotten better."
"How did you know?" Snow asks with a confused look on his face.
"Shortly after you left I asked Kisara to help look for Saya as well and she saw you running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop looking for her as well."
"Well I thought a higher ground would be better to see where she was and it did give me an idea of where she was."
"Where did she go?"
"The windmill by the shoreline me and her always go to."
"Isn't that where couples go to be left alone with each other?" Hayato says with a smirk. Upon hearing those words Snow's face is a bright red after recalling what he and Saya did there. He tries to hide his face so that no one notices and luckily for him Hayato was the only one that noticed.
"Why must you torture me dad?" Hayato lets out a laugh and puts his arm around his Son and the two enjoy the outing before heading home. Once back in the car Akatsuki drops off the Arisato family at their house and Saya asks his dad to wait a minute to say goodbye to Snow.
"I'll be right back dad." Saya runs towards Snow to say something to him. Snow turns around from hearing something behind him. He turns around and sees a somewhat shy Saya standing behind him.
"Hey Saya,did you forget something?"
"Yeah I just want to thank you for being there for me today and not just today. You're always there for me when I need you the most and I'm thankful to have someone like you in my life." Saya gives Snow a hug and Snow hugs back and says something to her.
"That's what friends are for Saya. I'll be here to pick you back up when you're down because I know you'll do the same for me." Snow says while smiling at Saya. The two break away from the hug and go their separate ways. Before entering the car Saya looks behind and waves to Snow and Snow does the same before entering his house.
Weeks passed from that day but that day's events still played in his head and wondered how Saya was holding up. During mid workout Snow's mind starts to wonder. "I could just call her to see how she's doing but I don't really want to bring it up to upset her." Snow finishes his workout and tries to work through the problem as he's walking home. Hayato notices that Snow is a bit more quiet than usual and wonders if something is bothering his son.
"Hey Snow everything alright?" Hayato says with a concerned look. Snow's train of thought is broken and realizes he's worrying his father.
"Everything's alright dad. Just something on my mind."
"If you don't mind me asking what's on your mind Snow? Is it about what happened 2 weeks ago?"
"Well that's part of it. I was just wondering if I should call Saya and see how she's holding up."
"You absolutely should Snow. It shows that you care about her,why would you be hesitant about that?"
"I just don't want to bring it up and it kills her mood for the day." Hayato and Snow stop talking and Hayato puts his hand on one of Snow's shoulders and looks him in the eye.
"Snow regardless if you bring it up or not Saya is gonna be happy you called her. Like I said earlier it shows that you care about her well being."
"You're right, dad. I really need to stop second guessing myself. I'll call her once we get home."
"Good," Hayato says with a smile. The two continue their way home. Once home they are greeted by Saori as per usual with water bottles and breakfast being made. The 3 have breakfast and have idle chats about various things. Saori decides to bring up acceptance letters and hands Snow one from the various schools he applied to.
"Here you go Snow,Saya also got a letter today too from the same school." Snow looks at the letter and sees it from the local hero oriented highschool in Aptos called gekkoukan high. He opens it and and not all that surprised he gets in. He excuses himself from the table and goes to his room and decides to call Saya to see if she got in. He dials her number and puts the phone up to his ear and waits for her to answer. Saya hears her phone ringtone and looks to see who was calling her and sees that it's Snow. She answers the phone and greets him with a very chipper tone.
"Hi Snow, how are you doing?"
"Hi Saya, I'm doing fine thanks for asking. How about you?"
"I'm doing great. I was actually about to call you as well about being accepted into gekkoukan high."Snow wasn't shocked about it because local high schools will almost always take any and all applicants but wanted to congratulate her friend anyway.
"That's great Saya congrats! I also got accepted into the school as well. I wonder if we'll be in the same class."
"I hope so but we also have to start studying and training hard for the next couple of weeks since we did apply for the hero courses as well. So no doubt we'd have entrance exams."
"Right, I almost forgot about that. Maybe we could study or train together sometime." Snow says with a red face."Thank god my parents didn't hear me say that. Dad would've surely said it was a date,although….. I wouldn't oppose it to be one."
"Yeah sure I'd love that Snow. Especially on the studying wish I picked up on some of your study habits."
"Don't worry I'll make sure you'll pass." Snow says in confidence.
"Thank you Snow." Saya says with a slight blush. The two continue to talk and set dates up to when to train or study together. Once the scheduling is done they say their goodbyes and tell their parents that they got accepted into the school and tell their plans for the next couple of weeks. With the following week's Snow and Saya prepared themselves as best they could with guidance from either Hayato or Yukina or both at the same time. Before they knew it came entrance exam day. Saori invited Saya over for breakfast that morning so that Snow and her could leave together. Once Saya arrives at the Arisato household she knocks on the door and is greeted by Saori's warm smile. She welcomes Saya into her home and takes her to the kitchen for breakfast. Once she sits at the table Saya doesn't see Snow anywhere.
"Hey Saori, where's Snow?"
"Oh he should be out of the shower soon Saya. He forgot to set his alarm."
"Ok and thank you for inviting me for breakfast, Saori."
"It's no problem at all Saya you're always welcomed here." Saori says with a warm smile. Meanwhile Snow was getting out of the shower and dries his body off and brushes his hair. Once done he starts putting on clothes and realizes he forgot to bring a shirt and heads out the bathroom. Before heading into his room he decides to go to the kitchen and ask his mom when Saya would be here.
"Hey mom, when did Saya say she would be coming over?" Snow says while walking into the kitchen. Saya turns around and sees Snow and her face is bright red from seeing Snow's well defined body. She had seen him shirtless before as kids and even as teenagers but that was before Snow had started working out, the extent she saw of his body post workout was whenever he wore a tank top during training. Saya continues to ogle at Snow's body until he notices that Saya was sitting at the table and realizes all he has on is a pair of pants and a towel around his neck.
"I'MSORRYFORSTARING!" Saya quickly said and turned around rapidly trying to not cause any more attention to herself. Snow rushes back to his room and finds something to put on before heading out to the kitchen again. All while Saori was trying to contain her laughter from seeing what had transpired.
"Those two are so adorable." Saori thought to herself. Snow now returns fully clothed and tries not to make as much eye contact with Saya and have breakfast. Saori decides to break the silence between the two with a question. "So are you two nervous for the entrance exams?'
"Now that you've mentioned it mom I haven't been nervous at all. What about you Saya?"
"Well I'd be lying if I said I wasn't but knowing that you're not Snow makes me feel better. It means I have nothing to worry about." Snow starts to blush and nervously puts his hand at the nape of his neck.
"H-happy to help Saya." The two continue to eat breakfast and have idle chat about various things,like potential hero outfits,if they'll be in the same class and what they should do after the exams. Once they're done eating breakfast Snow helps Saori with the dishes and Saya patiently waits at the front door for Saori and Snow. Once they're done washing dishes they dry their hands on the nearby hand towels and Snow walks back to his room to put on his shoes and Saori grabs the key from the kitchen basket and walks out the door with Saya following her. Snow heads out the house and makes sure he locks the door and makes his way to Saori car's and sits in the back with Saya. Saori starts the car and drives out of the driveway and starts to drive towards the testing site where their exams will be taking place.
One relatively short drive later they're parked right outside the building Snow and Saya step out the car and Saori does as well. Once out Saori gives both Snow and Saya a hug and wishes them good luck on the tests.
"And when you two are done make sure you call me or your father ok Snow."
"I will mom. Come on Saya we don't want to be late. Bye mom."
"Bye Saori and thank you for breakfast and driving me here."
"Bye you two and again good luck on the tests I know you'll pass with flying colors." The trio go their separate ways and wave off to Saori before heading into the building and Saori waves back before getting into her car.
Snow and Saya are now in the building and follow the line of students heading into the test room for the written portion. Once Snow's turn is up the person at the desk asked for his name for seating.
"Snow Arisato miss."
"Arisato….Here you are, you'll be sitting over there, don't open the booklet until testing has started ok." The woman says while pointing towards Snow's seat. Since the test takers are sitting in alphabetical order according to last name, Snow sits in the front row."
"Right," Snow takes his seat and waits for testing to start.
"Next." Saya walks towards the woman and says her name.
"Sasaki you're over there,don't open the booklet until testing has started ok."
"Ok." Saya takes her seat towards the middle of the room.
The seating continues for another 5 minutes. Once everyone is seated The woman at the desk gets up and stands in the middle of the class.
"Ok, entrees I will be your exam proctor and you'll be taking the written portion of the exam. This test is 2 hours long and will have a break once 1 hour has passed. You are obviously NOT allowed to talk about the contents of the test during the break and remember to pace yourself and not rush through the test. But be mindful that you don't have all day. The test consists of mathematics,general aptitude,and modern literature. With that said You may open your booklets and the testing starts now." The woman goes and takes her seat behind the desk and the students all open the booklets and start to take the test. Snow decides that the best way to tackle it would be to try and get the mathematics out the way first.
"Since math is usually the biggest time sink I'll get that done first." Snow starts to work through the first problem and feels confident about his answer and continues his pace. Saya on the other hand started with modern literature first.
"Modern literature is the subject I know I can ace. General aptitude shouldn't be too much of a problem but math is going to be my biggest struggle,that's why I'll save the math section for last so I can give myself the most amount of time possible. I just need to remember what me and Snow study and I'll pass for sure." Saya starts to answer some questions and feels confident about some of her answers and continues with an even pace. Before they know it, one hour has passed and the test takers are allowed to get up from their seats to stretch and walk around the room for a bit before they have to resume testing. Snow gets up from his seat and walks towards Saya's desk.
"So how do you think you're doing so far Saya?"
"I think I'm doing ok, what about you Snow?"
"The same actually,I'm curious about the quirk aptitude test."
"I'm curious as well, Snow. I wonder if it'll be like U.A's"
"What were U.A's entrance exams like Saya and how do you know about them?"
"Well I found out yesterday that U.A had their entrance exams 2 days ago through social media. I saw some of the students talk about how they had to fight robots to score points."
"Huh that doesn't seem too bad. If it's the same then we'll have no problem. I'll just freeze them and you'll short circuit them."
"Hopefully it'll be that easy. I feel like my brain is gonna split." The two continue to talk until it is time to resume testing.
"Ok ,entrees testing will resume in 3 minutes please take your seats." Everyone starts to head towards their desks and wait until it's time to resume the test. Once the 3 minutes have passed the exam proctor starts to talk again. "Ok you'll be resuming the test as soon as I'm done talking. Remember you have 1 hour left. I will notify you once you have 5 minutes left in the test. If you are done when I give the warning please check your work in sections that you don't feel confident about and if you are not done when I give the warning. Please start to make educated guesses. It's better to hand in a test that's filled in rather than left blank. With that said you may now resume." The students open up their booklets and resume where they left off. The hour prior Snow had finished the mathematics section of the test and is now going through general aptitude. Saya also finished the subject she first started with that being modern literature she tackles the next section which is general aptitude. The two continue working on the test. During the general aptitude section Snow stumbles upon a question that's strange at first.
"What does it mean to be a hero? Maybe this is an oddball question they decided to throw in. Well,a hero should always be there when needed,to help those who can't help themselves." Snow writes down his answer and continues on. Saya also comes across the same question.
"What does it mean to be a hero? Hmmmmm,I got it. A hero should be someone who always gets back up no matter what happens and presses on." Saya writes down her answer and continues with the test. The two continue on an even pace completing general aptitude. They move onto their last sections modern literature and mathematics respectively. Snow finishes modern literature with little to no trouble. Saya is only halfway done through the mathematics section and her concentration is interrupted when she hears the proctor start to talk.
"This is your 5 minute warning again if you're done, check over your work and if you aren't start guessing."Upon hearing that Saya quickly fills in the multiple choice questions she has left and she finishes with a minute to spare. The exam proctor starts to talk again.
"Alright the test is over you are to close your booklets right now and I will come and collect them. Once I've collected them if you applied to the hero course you may get up and head on over to the other test site across the street,if you're here for support item development down the hall to your left will be your showcasing of support item ideas and if you're here for just general academics you are free to go but do not loiter." Once Snow and Saya's booklets were collected they head out of the building together and walk across the street to where their next test is. Once inside the adjacent building they're greeted by a man with black hair in a bowl cut with green eyes wearing a black button up shirt,black pants and shoes to match.
"Hi you two must be here for the quirk portion of the hero course walk down that hall and into the lecture hall to join the other entrees." Snow and Saya nod in affirmation and head down the hallway and into the lecture hall. They walk into the lecture hall and sit in the back to wait for the instructor. A few minutes pass by and the man from the front desk walks into the lecture hall and begins to talk.
"Hello everyone my name is Minato Kirigaya and I will be your instructor for the test. I will be telling you all what the test entails and how to pass and how this will dictate where you are placed in the school. First things first as you all know this test will be a way to see you all in action with your various quirks. You will be fighting against these." Minato points to the screen behind him showing silhouettes of 4 different figures. Ranging from small to large.
"These small robots are called nektons." The picture lights up showing what it really looks like. It's small body is gray with two giant blue antennas. "They are worth one point once they are defeated. The next robot is a hoplite." Another picture brightens up showing a robot with a black and yellow color scheme and resembles something you would see in a construction site.
"They are worth 3 points when defeated. The next robot with a point value is a boxed phalanx." The next silhouette lights up. It has a similar color scheme that of the hoplite but with large arms and valve-like hands. "These are worth 5 points,by themselves they aren't much but joined with multiple hoplites it becomes a force to be reckoned with. The last and final robot is a dreadnought." The last silhouette and the largest one at that lights up showing it's appearance. It has the same design philosophy of the hoplite and boxed phalanx but more deadly looking than the former. Not only is it's size imposing but it's long arms with 3 pronged claws are enough to scare some the entrees and even have some audible gasps.
"They are worth 0 points and are best avoided. With that being said you're all probably thinking 'All I need to do is fight these robots and I pass'. If that was what you were thinking then you are correct, fight these robots, rack up points and you pass. I'm not allowed to share the amount of points needed but just try your best out there. Now how will this dictate where you are assigned for classes, I can't give you all of the details but there are 3 main hero course classes. 0,1 and 2 depending on your score you are placed in either of those 3 classes. Now don't be discouraged as to where you may be placed regardless of where you end up,you'll be recognized in the eyes of the staff that you are heroes in training,the next generation. You are all brilliant minded people and once again wherever you may end up I look forward to working with each and everyone of you. Before I let you all go, remember our school's motto: the decisions you make here are yours,no regrets and press forward to pave a way for others." Upon hearing those words the entrees clapped from the encouraging words from Minato. Snow and Saya are clapping as well but a burning fire in Snow lights wanting him to do his best no matter what. Once the clapping stops Minato starts to talk again.
"To my left and right are exits to the waiting room. You will hear on the intercom someone counting down from 10 to 1. Once you hear them say go the doors will open and the test will begin. Good luck to you all and I look forward to seeing you all once class starts." Minato leaves the room and the entrees get up from their seats and leave to either east or west exit into the waiting rooms. The waiting rooms were an empty space with shutters that were remote controlled. Snow and Saya both head towards the east exit and wait until they hear the voice on the intercom. Snow takes a pair of tactical gloves out of his pocket and puts them on. The gloves are a support item that helps regulate Snow's quirk. On the inside there are tiny needles that poke into his hand extracting his blood and on the outside of the gloves is where the ice will form. Hayato also had a pair of these gloves when staring out and wanted Snow to do the same until he got the hang of his quirk. Saya notices the gloves and never saw them until now.
"Hey Snow, what are the gloves for?"
"Oh these are to help with my quirk,I'm still not 100% sure on how much blood I need to use so the gloves will help control my output. Kisara made them."
"Wow, that's so cool Snow. I wonder if I'll use a support item in the future. Maybe Kisara could develop some for me as well." Their conversation was cut short from a voice coming from the intercom.
"All entrees I'm here to inform you that we will be starting in 10." As the woman kept counting down from 5 Snow was thinking to himself
"Wait, we're starting so soon. Well here goes nothing, just remember what me and dad did and I'll be fine." Saya as well was having a quick thought before starting.
"You'll be fine, They're robots, I'll be able to short circuit them. I just have to remember what mom taught me about my electricity output." The voice continued on the intercom.
"5,4,3,2" Snow and Saya turn to each other.
"Good luck." The two said in unison.
"1, and go!" The shutters flew open and the entrees started to run out to the city scape field. It was replicated to resemble Aptos' environment. Snow and Saya make their separate ways to not get in each other's way. While running Snow passes by various people taking out the nektons and Snow has a plan of his own.
"Going after the nektons is pointless, everybody is going after them since they're the easiest targets. From what Kirigaya said, boxed phalanxes will be accompanied by the hoplites so bare minimum I'll get 8 points." Snow continues to run until he spots a boxed phalanx with 3 hoplites with it. Snow readies his quirk while he's running towards the robots. He creates icicles and throws them into the 3 hoplites. Once they hit, they instantly freeze the robots encasing them in ice. While running Snow jumps into the air, does a flip and extends his right leg out for a kick and knocks down one of the frozen hoplites. Crashing it to the ground breaking it into pieces. When landing he then shrouds his fists in ice and punches the other two hoplites. They too break into pieces upon impact. All there's left is the boxed phalanx. The phalanx swings one of it's giant arms and Snow counters the attack by ducking the swing and quickly strikes the chestplate and freezes the phalanx entirely. Snow tips it over to knockdown and looks for over hordes of robots.
"14 points down,however many more to go." Snow continues to run through the mock Aptos and takes out some nektons on his way to his next boxed phalanx encounter. Saya on the other hand was dealing with a group of 4 hoplites. She starts to run at one of the hoplites and evades a swipe and lands a palm strike on the hoplite's chest and uses her quirk to send electricity to hoplite effectively short circuiting it. She then shifts her focus to the other 3 and runs towards them but she has a plan as to how she'll deal with them.
"I'll have them hit each other and place my hand on one of them. It'll cause a chain reaction and take them down all at once." Saya enacts her plan. She rushes towards the 3 hoplites and provokes all 3 of them to strike. At the last moment Saya dodges out of the way by jumping over them and the hoplites arms clash against each other. Once behind the hoplite in the middle Saya quickly places her hand on the back of it and activates her quirk. Whenever Saya activates her quirk a blue aura is emitted and her pupils glow red. Saya sends electricity from her hand to the hoplite and the shock effects the adjacent hoplite effectively short circuiting them.
"I scored 12 points. Let's keep this up." Saya continues to find more Hoplites and quickly dispatches any nektons along her way. Snow and Saya keep up their pace and take out the various robots left and right. The test continues for another 8 minutes until they hear Minato's voice over the intercom.
"All entrees the test will be ending in 2 minutes." Everyone frantically tries to rack up as many points as they can. Unbeknownst to them while in the observation booth Minato pushes a button to release a dreadnought. The 0 pointer was a way to see how students will react given the dire situation. All of the entrees stop their fighting from the sudden ground shake. One of them looked out towards the stomping and in the distance there was 0 pointer making its way towards them. All entrees disperse into several directions to avoid conflict. Snow decides to get to higher ground by scaling a nearby building. Once on top Snow looks over the field and tries to look for Saya out of concern for her safety.
"Saya, where are you? I know you would've made a run for it as soon as the 0 pointer showed up but where could you be?" Snow continues to look for Saya and hears a familiar scream. It was Saya and she is under the rubble the dreadnought made while walking through the mock city. Snow quickly jumps to an adjacent building side and activates his quirk and slides down the building using snow. Snow jumps once he's nearing the ground and makes a run for it towards his friend.
"SAYA!" Snow screamed. Saya notices her friend and is relieved that he's coming to her rescue but quickly tells him to get away.
"Snow, get out of here! I'll be fine." Saya screams not wanting her friend to get hurt. Snow Ignores her and continues to run towards Saya. Once he's nearing Saya he notices he won't be able to save her in time Snow quickly makes the decision to fight the zero pointer. Snow activates his quirk and jumps while creating large ice spikes beneath his feet to launch him into the air. Saya watches in awe as Snow launches himself into the air. Once Snow is face to face with the dreadnought he cups his hands together and shoots out a ton of icicles from his hands.
"Absolute zero: Freezing rain!" Snow shouted out. The icicles didn't do any damage but Snow wasn't finished yet. Snow then raises one his arms in the air and creates an ice grenade. Hayato taught him the technique over the summer while in Aptos. Snow throws the grenade at the dreadnought's legs and it detonates upon impact and freezes the dreadnought's legs. Saya takes notice of the situation and pries herself out from the rubble. Meanwhile this is going on Minato takes notice of the situation and is impressed by Snow's heroic nature and general prowess.
Back to Snow's fight while still suspended in the air Snow creates one more thing of ice. His last attack was a technique he made up himself. Snow clasps his hands together and pulls them apart creating a scythe. With scythe in hand Snow dives in ball-like motion to hasten his descent and strikes the dreadnought's head.
"Absolute zero: Lunar arc!" Upon impact the dreadnought is encased in ice and is incapable of moving. The scythe dissipates and Snow continues falling and quickly throws a mound of Snow to the ground to catch his fall. Saya watches the entire fight in awe and realizes Snow is falling quickly and runs towards him. Snow falls into the giant pile of snow and Saya digs him out and drags his unconscious body off the snow. She places his head on her lap and pats the side of face to get a response.
"Hey snow can you hear me?" With concern in Saya's voice. Snow slowly opens his eyes and smiles at Saya. Before Snow could respond Minato's voice can be heard from the intercoms.
"The test is now over please return to the waiting rooms and medical staff will be there to treat any injuries." Snow lets out a small laugh and continues with his response.
"Glad to see you're ok Saya." Snow says with a warming smile before blacking out due to the exhaustion he was feeling. Saya sees this and is filled with dread.
"Snow?!" While Saya was concerned for her friend's well being, a familiar woman came to their aid. It was Kisara.
"Saya it's gonna be ok he's just tired is all. Help me carry him to the infirmary." Kisara says while picking up Snow's body and putting one of his arms behind her shoulder. Saya at first was confused about Kisara's sudden appearance but quickly shakes the confusion away to help Snow into the infirmary.
Snow is now in the infirmary hooked up to an IV machine while Kisara and Saya watch over him. Kisara sat on a chair next to Snow's bed and Saya is sitting right next to her. Now that everything's calmed down Saya decides to ask how Kisara knew where they were and what happened to him.
"Kisara, how did you know what happened to Snow?"
"Well those gloves he has on have are connected to a system I created to monitor vitals. Initially it was only used for his dad but since Snow now uses the support items I make. It was easy to tell what had happened. He went past his limit despite the gloves being inherent restrictors. My question now is how did this happen Saya?" Kisara says looking over to Saya.
"Well….I was trapped under some rubble and Snow came to save me but he must've known he didn't have enough time. So he fought that giant robot you saw behind us. I've never seen Snow's quirk act like that before." Kisara ponders for a bit until an old memory comes to her head. A similar situation happened like this before with Hayato when Saori was in danger once. Kisara was gonna speak but was interrupted by Snow's yawn. Snow puts his hand over his eyes from the sudden bright lights around him and tries to gather where he is. He looks to his left and sees 2 familiar women sitting next to him and realizes it's Saya and Kisara.
"Hey everyone, how long was I out for?" Snow says in a dry voice while sitting up. Saya gets up from her seat and gives Snow a big hug and lets out a sigh of relief to know that he's ok. Snow was taken back from the sudden hug and returned the hug. Kisara wanted to make a joke but decided not to ruin the moment. They stay in each other's embrace for a couple of seconds until they break away and look at each other.
"Sorry to worry you Saya."
"J-just give me a heads up next time ok." Saya says with a small laugh. Snow laughs as well and smiles back at her.
"Sure thing." Kisara decides to talk.
"Glad to see you're ok Snow. I'll be right back. I'll go get you some water."
"Much appreciated Kisara." Kisara leaves the room and Saya and Snow are left alone. Saya decides to talk about what had occurred hours ago.
"So Snow what was that back there? You fought that 0 pointer all by yourself and won! You were so cool out there, no pun intended." Saya says with enthusiasm.
Snow's memories start to flood in and remember vividly what had happened prior to passing out."Right I fought that dreadnought. Wait.!" Snow remembers that she may have been hurt during the ordeal and looks over to her friend to spot any injuries. Snow noticed her bandage on her right leg. "Saya your leg! Are you ok?" Snow says with great concern. Saya tries to calm him down.
"Yeah I'm fine Snow. Just a scratch, nothing to worry about. See." Saya moves her right leg around to show Snow that she's perfectly fine. Snow calms down and remembers that Saya had asked a question about how he did what did.
"That's good to hear Saya and to answer your question well…I'm not sure. The gloves I had on restricted my quirk use so I won't hurt myself but I definitely went past my limits and for the most part I'm ok."
"Your father calls the state you were in, frost end. He's been in similar situations before." Kisara says while walking back into the room. She hands Snow the water bottle and Snow thanks her and takes a sip of water and clears his throat.
"But dad never told me about it." Snow says with a confused look.
"Well that's because it's only ever happened so few times. Me and your father figured that in times of duress,stress and in general flight or fight responses from your bodies, your quirk will be amplified so your body goes into overdrive to finish the fight quickly. Hence the name frost end."
"Huh well I'm glad it kicked in when I needed it the most."
"Agreed, the last thing you'd want is your girlfriend flattened like a pancake." Kisara says with a sly smile
"K-Kisara!" The two embarrassed teens said in unison. Kisara's laughs and heads to the back of the room and grabs a bag and hands it over to Snow.
"A change of clothes. Me and Saya will wait for you in the car and make it quick. Don't want to keep your parents waiting."
"Right." Kisara and Saya leave the room and wait in the car. Snow changes out of his clothes and into a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He then folds his dirty clothes and puts them into the bag and walks out the infirmary. As he's walking down the hall he's greeted by Minato. "Hi ." Snow says while bowing his head.
"Arisato right?" Snow nods in confirmation and Minato starts to talk again. "I just passed by your guardian and friend. I'm glad I was able to speak to you before you left. So how are you feeling after that little show you put out there." Snow bashfully scratches the back of his head before responding.
"Well I'm a little sore all over and still a bit tired but other than that I'm fine."
"Incredible, not only did this kid take out a dreadnought and show his heroism but didn't suffer any major injuries. He's a perfect fit into my class 0." "Well that's good to hear Arisato,don't want you falling behind before class can even start."
"Speaking of class, how will we know which of the hero classes we will be in 2 weeks from now?"
"You'll receive a letter in the mail within 3-5 days with your test results and as to what class you belong in."
"Thank you for letting me know and checking up on me sir."
"Of course, I look forward to working with you regardless of where you end up, Arisato. Well I don't want to keep you here any longer than you need to be. It was nice talking with you, bye for now." Minato says and walks past Snow.
"It was nice talking to you as well ." Minato continues to walk and holds up his right hand. Snow continues to walk down the hall and heads to the front door and notices Kisara's car parked out in the front. Snow gets in the back seat seeing as Saya was in the passenger seat. Snow gets in the car and starts to apologize.
"Sorry for taking so long, Kisara. I was talking to one of the staff."
"The tall guy with black hair right?"
"Yeah him."
"We passed by him as we were walking out. Is he a teacher?" Kisara says while starting the car.
"I'm not sure actually. But he has to be since he said to me he's looking forward to working with me wherever I get placed."
"You're probably right Snow. So I'll drop you off first Saya. Is that ok with you?" Kisara is now backing up the car and starts to drive.
"Yeah that's fine and thank you for the lift Kisara."
"No problem at all Saya." Kisara drives to Saya's house. During the drive Saya continues to talk about Snow's amazing feat and continues to ask Snow what else he's been hiding from her. Snow tells her about the quirk related training he went through with his father and explains how some of the moves work. Kisara chimes in here and there with explanations on the quirk moves. Before they knew it they were in front of Saya's house. Saya exits the car and thanks Kisara again for the drive home and walks to the front door. Before entering the house Saya waves goodbye to Snow and Kisara before they drive off.
"Bye Saya." Snow and Kisara say in unison while waving to Saya. Saya smiles back and heads into her home. Kisara starts to back up and makes a U-turn to Snow's house. One quick drive later and they're in front of the Arisato residence. Kisara and Snow walk to the front door and Snow takes out his keys and unlocks the door and let's Kisara in first.
"Hey Saori we have a stray, what do you want to do with him?"
"Hey I'm not a stray!" Snow retorts.
Saori and Hayato come out of the kitchen and Saori gives Snow a big hug. "I'm so glad you're ok Snow. You gave us a big scare."
"Sorry about that mom." Snow hugs his mother back and Hayato decides to talk about their "Stray".
"Hey Snow, who's the stray?" Snow and Saori laugh from the comment and Kisara quickly retorts.
"Hey don't pin the joke on me!" Hayato laughs and closes the door behind them and the 4 of them walk to the kitchen table. They all sit down and Snow tells his parents everything that had happened during the entrance exams and reassures them that he and Saya are ok. Once Snow is finished telling his story Hayato thinks back to the first time he activated frost end and decides to tell Snow his first experience with it.
"It was when me and your mother were stopping a hostage situation and it went sideways quickly. We weren't aware of one of the hostage takers' quirks and your mother was in danger. To not go into any specifics my quirk shot passed it's limit and I was able to use it without any noticeable drawback. And well you just experienced it. I blacked out and ended up in the hospital."
"It's kinda scary to think our quirk can go haywire like that."
"Yeah…." Hayato says with a sigh."And unfortunately we can't exactly train that instead to compensate we just have to be aware of our surroundings. It's easy to lose ourselves in that state." Saori decides to change the subject so the atmosphere isn't gloomy.
"Hey Snow, How will you know what class you will be placed in? You said there were 3 classes right?"
"Yeah 0,1, and 2 I'd imagine a combination of my scoring on the written and the quirk test will be taken into account. Oh and said a letter will come in the mail 3-5 days from now."
"I wonder why 0,1, and 2 for you know anything about this Hayato?"
"Uhh no Saori. It is odd to have a 0 for a homeroom. I guess it could mean one of two things. One, top of the entrees or two lowest of the entrees."
"Well wherever Snow may end up I'm sure you'll do your best no matter what." Saori says with great enthusiasm.
"Yeah, the kid's talented, he obviously got it from you, Saori." Kisara says. Hayato rolls his eyes from the comment and Saori lets out a small laugh.
"Hey Kisara, why don't you stay for dinner? It's the least I can do for you." Kisara checks her watch before making the decision to stay or not.
"Sure why not. I can afford to stay out of the office for a little while longer."
"Great! Hayato help me prepare dinner. It'll be long so make yourself at home, Kisara." Saori and Kisara smile at each other.
"Oh I will and besides, I can criticize Hayato's cooking." Hayato once again rolls his eyes from Kisara's comment. Snow gets up from his chair.
"Hey mom I'll be in a room you don't mind letting me know dinner is ready."
"Of course not Snow." Snow walks out the kitchen and heads to his room. He opens the door and enters the room and closes the door behind him. He sits at his desk chair and moves his mouse to exit the screensaver from his desktop. Snow looks at his wallpaper. It's a picture of one of his favorite series growing up. It's all of the heisei era kamen riders standing side by side. After staring at the wallpaper for a bit he realizes that he did a rider kick during the entrance exams.
"5 year old me would have lost it seeing me do a rider kick like that. I'm 14 and I'm still amazed at that." Snow laughs to himself about his sudden realization. He then decides to open up a folder labeled "Tabs". Once he opens it up he clicks on a file to open it up. He then grabs his guitar and pic from across the room and sits back down on his chair.
"Alright let's see if I can figure this song out." Snow plugs in his headphones and presses play and plays along. Everyone in the kitchen can faintly hear the guitar in the background and Kisara recognizes the song in an instant.
"Hey, that's Flower-colored beautiful girl by sakanamon. Didn't know Snow listened to them." Saori decides to give some context as to why Snow is learning that song in particular.
"He didn't until a couple of weeks ago. While he and Saya were studying in the living room,Saya was playing music on her phone and that was the song that was playing. She was even humming the song before she played it on her phone. I kinda nudged Snow to learn the song so he could sing to her. But don't tell him I said that, I don't need either of you two teasing Snow."
"Awww how sweet of him. And of course I won't tease him, Saori." Hayato quickly chimes in from hearing Saori refer to multiple people teasing Snow.
"Hey, what do you mean by "you two". I don't tease him."
"Hayato." Saori says while giving Hayato a "oh really" face.
"R-right sorry." Hayato says while scratching the back of his head. Hayato and Saori continue cooking while Kisara watches. Meanwhile back at the Sasaki household Saya was telling her version of the story to her parents. Although a bit hyperbolic.
"You just had to see it mom and dad. Snow was like zipping through the air, shooting out multiple icicles out his hands and he created a giant SCYTHE! Well maybe it wasn't that big but you get the point."
"Sounds like you had an eventful exam to say the least Saya. Glad you and Snow are ok though it must've been scary to have something like that happen to you two." Akatsuki said.
"I was scared but Snow just ran in and handled that zero pointer like it was nothing." Saya says while looking down.
"Don't sell yourself short Saya. You took the initiative of getting out of there and when the dust cleared you immediately looked for Snow. Both of you showed heroism in your own way." Yukina said with a reassuring smile.
"Yeah you're right mom. I was awesome out there today." Saya continues to tell her parents about her day and mentions the letter they should be getting in the mail in the coming days. Saya and Snow enjoy the rest of their evenings with their respective families. Once nighttime rolls around Saya says good night to her parents before heading to bed. She takes off her slippers and rolls into bed and decides to text Snow goodnight.
"I hope he's still awake. He has a much better sleep schedule than I do." She searches her contacts until she finds Snow's name with a heart next to it in the contact name. She taps the name and starts to text.
"Hey Snow you up?" Snow is laying in bed ready to fall asleep until he's interrupted from his phone vibrating against the nightstand. He reaches his arm over, looks at the notification and sees that it's Saya.
"What could Saya want at this time?" Snow opens up the text and reads it and replies back.
"Yeah I'm up,what's up." Saya sees the response and texts back.
"Just wanted tell you good night. Honestly surprised you're still up lol."
"Well I was about to go to sleep until you texted me. But thank you for texting me goodnight Saya."
"Sorry about that but while I have you here do you want to open our letters together when we them?"
"Sure why not."
"Cool. Well let me not keep you up any longer Snow,goodnight,again."
"Goodnight Saya." The two teens put their phones away and fall fast asleep.
In the following days Snow and Saya got their exam scores along with class placement. Both families agreed upon meeting in the Arisato household. So Saya and her family are now walking towards them. Saya is nervous but knows that regardless of the outcome she'll accept it no matter what. Once there Akatsuki knocks on the door and the family of 3 are greeted by Hayato.
"Hey there everyone come right in." Hayato welcomes them in and takes them to the living room where they are also greeted by Snow,Saori and Kisara. Once they are done exchanging greetings Snow and Saya sit next to each other and open up their test scores first. Snow quickly glances over the test scores and sees that he's scored 180/200 answers correctly on the written portion. For quirk aptitude he saw that he scored 50/100 points that would normally mean you failed but he didn't. He passed. Meanwhile Saya looked over her test and got 170/200 on the written portion and the quirk aptitude test she scored 45 points. She also notices that she would normally fail from a score like that but saw that she passed. Saori looks at the two and is confused why they aren't sharing their scores.
"Is everything ok you two?" Saori says with slight concern in her voice. Snow answers first.
"Yeah mom I'm just confused about the quirk aptitude test and to quickly get this out the way I passed the written positions with only 20 questions wrong."
"Hey I passed as well with only 30 questions wrong and I'm also confused on the quirk aptitude test."
"That's great you two but what's confusing about the scoring." Yukina chimed.
"Well mom it says I only scored 45/100 points but I passed."
"For me as well but I scored 5 points higher than Saya."
"Maybe the other piece of paper explains why?" Hayato said. Saya and Snow reach for the other piece of paper and unfold it. Snow decides to read it out loud.
"Snow Arisato you may be confused about your test scoring but we assure that it is no mistake. For reasons that we can't explain at this time, you will find out why you passed once class starts in a week and welcome to class 0."
"Hey mine said the same thing as well. We're in the same class Snow!" Saya says with a big smile. Snow smiles back at the thought he and her will be in the same class. Snow then tries to figure out what class 0 means.
"I guess that means one of two things: Saya,we're dead last or top of the cut somehow."
"Either way you two passed the test and this calls for a celebration." Akatsukii exclaims.
"Yeah you two have been working your butts off, take a break for your last week of summer vacation." Saori added. The two teens put down their letters and do exactly what their parents suggested. The two families had planned an outing to the amusement park. The families walk out the house and get in Kisara's van and drive off to the amusement park and spend the rest of the day there.
Author's Note: Hi everyone, been awhile huh. This chapter was definitely more experimentation with the way bigger word count than my previous chapters. So let me know if you guys prefer this over the shorter chapters. To go over the references really quickly. First gekkoukan high is a persona 3 reference(One of my favorite games of all time.).
Next is the FF13 reference of the robots they fought. Nekton,hoplites,boxed phalanx and dreadnoughts are all enemies within the 13 series. Make sure you look them up to see what they look like.
Next reference although this one was way more in your face then the other 2 is the kamen rider reference. Recently I just got into kamen rider and started with Kuuga so I had Snow replicate Kuuga's rider kick.
Next reference is FF type-0's class 0. And if anybody has played type-0 you would know that class 0 is the best of the best.
Oh and it slipped my mind but the Song's name was actually translated in google translate if you guys want to listen to it the name is this. sakanamon 花色の美少
There's also an acoustic cover of the song when you search it up on youtube to get an idea of how it sounds with just an acoustic guitar. So that's all for now I'll see you guys in the next chapter take care until then.
