Their steps are in sync as they approach U.A.'s gargantuan gates.
They may be best friends, but at this moment, they are competitors. They agreed beforehand that they would split up once they entered the exam hall.
"Oi," Katsuki says after having stayed quiet during the majority of their trip, "I won't fucking lose. Not to you." Or Deku goes unsaid.
"Hah?" The competitive fire in her ignites and she tilts her head back, eyes narrowing as she puts her hand on her hip. "Well one of us has to, and it sure as hell ain't me."
He snorts. "You sound like me."
They straighten their postures and walk through the gates with their heads held high, chins jutted up, oozing pure confidence.
Ren grins when she sees a boy with familiar green hair walking not too far ahead of them in the distance. He's gotten a little taller, and his shoulders a bit broader, but the way he twiddles his thumbs and walks with his chin tucked to his chest is all too recognizable. The annoyed 'cheh!' coming from the boy beside her can only mean that Katsuki's noticed him too.
"He looks like a fuckin' idiot, standing there with his mouth hangin' open." He says.
"He's just nervous, Kacchan." She teases, "Why don't you go hype him up?"
The glare she receives is lethal.
"Go fuck yourself."
He says that, but still, he stomps up behind Izuku and growls, "Get freakin' moving, Deku!"
Katsuki isn't blind. Of course, he notices that the dweeb has put on some muscle, but that doesn't mean jack if he doesn't have a quirk. U.A. isn't that simple. "Get out of my way," he points a finger, "or you're dead ."
Izuku lets out a squeak.
"O-oh! Kacchan!" Well if the blond is here…
Izuku nearly snaps his neck as he turns to look over his shoulder. "Recchan!" Ren shouldn't be too far behind.
She throws up a peace sign and sticks out her tongue. The gestures look really out of place when the rest of her facial expression is so bland. "Yo." She greets, "Have a good break?"
"Y-yeah, I did!" He stutters after a few seconds. He eyes her up and down, blinking rapidly. "You...you gained weight!" He exclaims.
Katsuki huffs at the comment. Ren's skin also now has a very, very faint hue to its color- no longer is she 'google-docs white' as Katsuki would put it, her hair is a lot longer, and she's grown a few centimeters to her neighbor's complete chagrin. That was her last growth spurt, though. She dreads the day that Izuku and Katsuki inevitably overtake her— honestly, Katsuki's already gotten pretty close, but for now, she relishes in standing over them at her 174 centimeters.
"I did." On the outside, she's smiling, but in her head, she's screaming. She'd have to be made of rubber if she didn't gain any weight after the past ten months of Katsuki's force-feeding. "So did you." She acknowledges.
Katsuki clicks his tongue. "That don't mean shit," he spits.
He narrows his eyes at her, "C'mon!" He jerks his head toward the direction of U.A.'s entrance.
"Whatever," Ren snickers, "He's being annoying."
She places a hand on Izuku's shoulder and levels him with the most serious look she can muster. In his opinion, she just looks like she's about to pass out, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her. "Keep your head up, yeah? You're already braver than most for being here."
Not everyone has the guts to even walk through the front gates.
Instantly, she notices a change in his demeanor. He fixes his posture and the next inhale of his breath is even. He nods. "All three of us should do our best, right?"
"Is there any other option?" She asks before turning towards the building. Katsuki's already disappeared somewhere and since they'd already agreed to split up before the test, she walks at a leisurely pace, not too concerned about catching up.
Behind her, she recognizes Ochako's twinkling laughter.
The first room that the U.A.-hopefuls are herded into is modeled like a college lecture-hall, easily seating hundreds of students. They're given ninety minutes to complete the written exams.
The exams are laughably easy and Ren is one of the first to finish. She doesn't bother to double-check her answers and naps for the rest of the fifty minutes. The lavender-haired student sitting to the left of her gives her a look of alarm when he notices, but after about another five or so minutes, he lets out a yawn of his own. He crosses his arms over the top of his desk and tucks his head into the crook of his elbow. She's clearly got the right idea, and he's not interested in staring at the wall for the rest of their allotted time.
After the written exams have concluded, the students are split off into different categories; hero, support, general, and business, for additional testing.
Ren seats herself at the end of a random row of seats when she enters the auditorium. She doesn't recognize any of the students in her immediate vicinity and doesn't bother to introduce herself to them. Instead, she elects to sit her chin on the palm of her hand and closes her eyes. Her breathing slows, but her mind is very much awake.
"Seriously? Sleeping at the entrance exams?" She hears a boy whisper.
"Why is she even here?"
"She was sleeping during the written, too!"
"WELCOME TO TODAY'S LIVE PERFORMANCE!" Present-Mic's voice blares through the auditorium, "Everybody say 'hey!'"
She exhales air out of her nose when the students only stare at the hero in stunned silence. Not that it bothers him in the slightest. "Well, that's cool, my examinees! I'm here to present the guidelines of your practical. ARE YOU REAAADY?"
More silence, although it's probably more from second-hand embarrassment at this point.
"This is how the test will go, my listeners! The next portion of your test will be a ten-minute long 'mock city-scape maneuver.' You'll be given thirty minutes to change your clothes and prepare however you'll need to. Bring along whatever items you think you'll need. After thirty minutes, you need to be at whichever of the seven zones you are assigned."
The students around her begin to shuffle in their seats, turning and whispering to one another as they realize that they're to be split from their friends. Ren's heart-rate picks up as the adrenaline begins to build, not from anxiety, but from excitement. She's finally here.
"Each site will be filled with three kinds of faux-villains." Present-Mic continues to explain, "Points range from one to three points depending on their level of difficulty. Your goal is to use your quirks to disable the villains and earn as many points as possible. Of course, playing the antihero and attacking other examinees is prohibited!" At this, Present-Mic's voice becomes incredibly cold.
"You will instantly be apprehended and disqualified."
There are some murmurs when a student shoots up from his seat with a raised hand. Ren opens her eyes. "I have a question!" The student declares.
With a long, tired sigh, Ren crosses her arms and leans back against her chair. While she did eventually come to like her class representative after some time, Ren had forgotten how just annoying and self-righteous Iida was in the beginning.
"You claim that there are only three faux villains; however, there are actually four villains on this pamphlet. Such a blatant error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming for U.A., Japan's top academy! We're all here today in the hopes of being molded into model heroes. And you, with the curly hair!"
He turns to point at her childhood friend, seated a few rows behind him. "You've been muttering this whole time. It's distracting! If this is some sort of game to you, then please leave. Immediately."
Ren clicks her tongue. Out of curiosity, she sneaks a peek at Katsuki. Even he has an agitated curl to his lips.
Izuku slaps his hands over his lips and squeaks out a meek "Sorry!"
"Woah, that's harsh…" A student whispers from behind her, and she's inclined to agree.
"Alright, alright!" Present-Mic waves his hands and gestures for Iida to sit back down, "Examinee 7111, nice catch. Thanks, but I was going to explain regardless. The fourth faux villain gets you zero points. It's more of an obstacle than an objective. He's kind of like a thwomp from Super Mario."
Iida clears his throat. "Thank you, sir. I apologize for the interruption."
"That's all from me!" Present-Mic gives them all a thumbs-up, "I'll leave my listeners with our school motto. 'True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life.'" He recites, and Ren's heart pumps with excitement as he finishes the slogan with jazz hands, "The great hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'Plus Ultra!'"
It sends chills down her spine.
"Break a leg, everyone!"
Ren is so very thankful for U.A.'s facilities. The mock-city comes with artificial weather as well, which means that she's no longer freezing her hypothetical balls off. She's changed into a white cropped hoodie and a pair of Kin's old joggers that are so big on her that she could pull them up to her chest if she wanted to. Fastened securely on her thigh is her emergency first-aid pouch. Of course, the knives are in there as well, but she won't be needing them.
She begins jogging in place to warm her body up. Other students, taking notice of this, also start their own stretches and warm-ups.
"Ah." A bland voice calls her to attention, "It's you."
She turns to her right. "Huh?"
"I thought you'd be like me since I saw you sleeping during the written, but you don't look scared at all."
She tilts her head to the side and in an equally as bland voice, she asks, "Do I know you?"
She wants to laugh.
"Hitoshi Shinsou." He introduces himself after a few seconds of staring. He can't tell if she's playing him or not; she has to be more aware of her surroundings than that. "I was sitting next to you."
"Ah." She nods, "I remember."
She does not, in fact, remember sitting next to Hitoshi. Her mind was very focused on finishing the test as soon as possible before knocking out. "Ajisai Ren."
He makes no move to remove his hands from his pockets when she lazily thrusts a hand in his direction. An awkward silence falls between the two introverts for a couple of seconds. She slowly lowers her hand and goes back to stretching and minding her own business before he asks, "What's your quirk?"
"Eh. Well," She sighs. Deciding that it'd be easier for her to just show him rather than have to explain the complexities of her quirk, she lifts a hand and allows the tiniest of vines to sprout from her fingertips. "I can control their size and length to an extent, too." She says. "What's yours?"
His eyes widen a fraction at the display of her quirk. She's definitely not like him. "Useless." He mutters before beginning to walk away.
He was a fool to think that anyone but himself dared apply to U.A.'s heroics program as unprepared as he currently is.
She grabs onto the sleeve of his dark tracksuit just before he moves out of her reach. Hitoshi Shinsou became an incredible hero in her timeline. Eraserhead eventually even let him take over his patrols, deciding to focus more on teaching than heroism. "No quirk is useless ." She says.
He tugs his arm from her grasp.
"What use does mind control have against robots? I should have gone with the gen-ed kids."
She chews on her bottom lip as she mulls it over. Surely, this wouldn't be too big of a hint. She'd be doing the world a favor if Mineta Minoru never stepped a foot into U.A., right?
"It's a hero test. Heroes don't only beat stuff up. Heroes can prevent harm, too, right?"
She can almost see the light-bulb go off in his head.
He opens his mouth, perhaps to thank her. She'll never know because-
"ANNND! BEGIN!" Present-Mic's booming voice interrupts. Her heart rate picks up. She doesn't stop Hitoshi when he runs away this time.
"What's wrong?" Present-Mic taunts the students, "The test's started! Run! RUN!"
Her grin is almost feral when a vine shoots out from the palm of her hand and wraps itself on the bar of a random apartment room's balcony-railing. If she had a more extroverted personality, she'd probably be whooping and cheering, but she's more the type to chuckle quietly to herself. She swings herself off the ground before another thick vine rips out of her other palm and grabs onto a street lamp. She laughs as her hair whips around in the wind. She'll never get sick of gravity's snap during the split seconds where she transitions from dropping to swinging. She swings herself all the way to her first robot and lands on its shoulders, shocking nearby students (or more accurately, spectators), when she wraps some vines around its neck before promptly jumping off of the thing, utilizing her body weight to rip its head off of its body.
"Well?" She raises an eyebrow when she notices a few more students idling around her, "Are you all just going to watch?"
She snickers when they all start running. The pattern continues. She swings herself across the city and tears the heads off of whatever robots she finds. Every so often, she'll also descend to grab or pull another student out of harm's way.
That said, she also makes sure to steer clear of the zero-pointers. She hasn't the time to deal with them. Ren is not a power-type and she will not delude herself into acting like one.
She can't blow through all of her problems like Katsuki can; like Izuku will. She has to think smart.
Present-Mic's voice rings in her ears from somewhere in the distance. He's counting down.
She rips off another head.
"THIS IS A PROJECTION!"
"Uwahh!" Kin exclaims before excitedly waving an arm through said projection, "This is next level!"
"Kin, sit down and stop flailing through All-Might!"
Ren wheezes when her brother body-slams himself into her lap and digs an elbow into her stomach. "What? You think just 'cause you got some abs, you can order your big brother around? I'm still stronger than you!" He pulls her into a headlock.
"Oi, stop it! I'm trying to listen to All-Might!"
"I am happy to announce that I, All-Might, will be joining U.A. starting the next semester as a member of their staff." All-Projection bows, "Please take care of me!"
Kin gasps. "No way! You lucky duck!"
Ren screams when Kin starts rubbing his knuckle against the top of her head. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T STOP BULLYING ME RIGHT NOW -"
Daitan yells back from the kitchen, "KIN, LEAVE YOUR SISTER ALONE!"
"Ajisai Ren!" All-Holograph exclaims, "Your written scores were exemplary, placing you at sixth! Congratulations! Your graded scores are included within this envelope. Additionally, the scores for the practical are out." He grins before leaning in closer to where Ren assumes the camera was during the time of the recording, "How do you think you did?"
Kin relaxes his hold on her and opts instead to sprawl across her lap like some kind of overgrown cat. Both siblings watch the projection intently.
All-Might's silhouette flickers out of the display and there, tied for second on the leaderboard with Kirishima Eijiro, is her name. Briefly, her eyes also drop to fifth place on the leaderboard.
Shiozaki Ibara.
"Ah. I thought Ibara-chan wanted to go to Shiketsu?" Kin asks.
"She may have gotten competitive after dad mentioned to auntie that I would be applying to U.A. I didn't see her at all during the test though."
"She's always hated you for some reason."
"Adores you though," Ren teases, alluding to her cousin's childhood crush on her brother.
Kin cringes. "Stop it. That's gross."
She shrugs.
"In first place, with zero rescue points!" All-Might's voice narrates over a clip of Katsuki blasting the bots, "The one-and-two-pointer faux villains were just itching to capture him. In the second half, when the other examinees were slowing down, this guy just kept going at it. He's one tough cookie!"
"Haha, squirt's pretty good!" Kin laughs, "Still short, though."
"He's going to actually murder you one day and I'll have to tell your ghost 'I told you so.'"
"And on the other end of the spectrum," the projection plays a clip of Izuku standing before the zero-pointer, "in eighth place with zero villain points, this kid makes me wanna go 'YEAH!'"
Kin digs his elbows into her thighs as he pushes himself up, visibly confused as he squints at the projection. "How did he do that?" He asks, "Isn't Broccoli-kun quirkless?"
She smacks her brother until he rolls off of her and onto the floor. He's heavy and his elbows were really starting to annoy her. "I don't know. I asked him after the test and he said that his quirk manifested late."
Kin frowns. "Seven or eight, I've heard of, but fourteen?"
"How am I supposed to know?" She asks, "He clearly has one, so he's not lying."
"I'm not saying he is…" He mumbles, brows furrowed, "That's just a crazy outlier."
All-Might stands before them once more. He points a finger at her.
"You, young Ajisai, achieved forty-seven villain points and twenty-seven rescue points, totaling to seventy-four points overall!"
A clip of her swinging across the city plays.
"Let me be the first to congratulate you for placing second during this exam." All-Might's voice booms, "I am proud to welcome you, young Ajisai, to U.A. Highschool! PLUS ULTRA!"
Ren finds herself gasping for air again when her brother wraps his stupidly beefy arms around her and squeezes her soul out of her body.
"You did it!" He sniffs, "You're all grown up now!"
"Are you...are you crying?"
"MOM! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE TWO FAMOUS CHILDREN?"
"Kin! I'm not even a student there yet!"
"ARE YOU COMING OR NOT?" Katsuki screams as he bangs on the front door.
"HOLD ON!" Ren yells back.
From the outside of the house, Katsuki can hear some scrambling and a muffled 'YOUCH!' Suddenly, Ren swings the door open, panting like a dog with her hair and uniform disheveled. He eyes her with a disgusted look. "Why do you look like that?"
"Kin's acting like a maniac." She responds after catching her breath. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Where's your tie?" He asks.
"Where's yours?" She raises an eyebrow. He 'tchs' back at her.
"We're going to be late, let's go." She grabs the sleeve of his blazer and starts speed-walking away. He wants to rip his arm away, but then he hears a distant cry of 'WAIT COME BACK! YOU LOOK UGLY IN THIS PICTURE!' from Foxface.
They start running.
They spend the rest of their trip to school in relatively comfortable silence, though they do get many more interested glances than usual from strangers. That has to be the power of U.A.'s uniform, though Katsuki glares at any person who dares stare for longer than three seconds.
They arrive at school fifteen minutes early. Not a single green hair in sight. Ren decides that Izuku must have spent the morning with All-Might because the three of them would normally have to take the same routes to get from their neighborhood to U.A. She's sure that Katsuki's noticed the other boy's absence, but he's probably thinking something along the lines of 'Stupid dweeb chickened out, huh?' so she decides not to bring it up.
Like the absolute barbarian that he is, Katsuki kicks the classroom door open before sauntering in. He stands in front of the chalkboard with his hands on his hips, eyes scanning the classroom for optimal seats. For a split second, he makes eye-contact with Denki, who immediately winces and looks away. Iida stands from his chosen seat with his jaw dropped and his hands frozen in a gesture that can only be translated to 'what the actual fuck are you doing'.
Ren follows not too far behind with a hand pinching the bridge of her nose. She can already feel a headache building.
"Are we in the wrong classroom?" He suddenly asks her.
She blinks. "No…?"
"That plaque out there says 1-A?"
"Yeah?"
He scoffs before marching up to the seat beside Denki, plopping down on it, and swinging a leg over to the top of the desk. "Huh," he grins at the other boy, "Was just wondering how we ended up in a class full of weaklings."
Denki ducks his head. She thinks she can hear him whisper "If you can't see him, he can't see you. " Under his breath.
"Hohmygod." She sighs as she seats herself at the desk to the right of him, making sure to nod a curt and silent 'hello' to Hitoshi who's seated behind Katsuki as she does so. He nods back and his eyes hold a very entertained glint as they flicker from a quickly approaching Iida to the back of Katsuki's head, then back to her.
"Could you not pick fights before we even learn anyone's names?" Ren asks as she pinches the toe of his shoe with two fingers and drops his foot back to the ground.
"I do whatever the hell I want!" He snarks back as he slams both feet on the desk just to be petty.
"Great. Now you've gone and summoned the kraken."
"What the hell-"
"EXCUSE ME." Iida interrupts before Katsuki can sass her, "Remove your feet from that desk at once!"
Just then, the classroom door opens once more. An anxious Izuku steps through. She smirks and waves at him, fingers curling in the universal sign of 'come here! ' He takes one look at the arguing pair next to her and rapidly shakes his head.
Deciding that she was in a teasing mood, she starts curling her fingers more aggressively and adds some snaps and tongue clicking as well.
"Recchan!" Izuku whispers as he approaches, just to get her to stop embarrassing him, "I'm not a dog!"
She shrugs and points at the free desk on the other side of her. He sits obligingly but quickly moves to cover his face with his hands. He must be applying the Denki logic. If you can't see him, he can't see you.
"Oh, are you hiding from Blasty and Megane over there?"
"Recchan, please be quiet."
"Such an action is insulting to those who came to U.A. before us as well as the craftsmen who made the desk-" Iida lectures.
Katsuki cuts him off. "Like I care." He rolls his eyes, "What middle school are you from, you extra ?"
"My name is Iida Tenya," the glasses-wearing teen bristles, "I'm from Somei Private Academy."
"Somei ?" Katsuki sneers, "You hearin' this, Frankenstein? This elitist prick is just asking to be blown up."
"I didn't hear a thing." She says, "Don't drag me into your fights. I'm not your lackey."
"You are awful," Iida says to Katsuki with wide eyes, "Do you really wish to become a hero?"
"I'm here aren't I?"
Iida then turns his attention to her. "Are you his friend? How can you allow him to conduct himself in such a manner?"
Ren shrugs before taking off her blazer and crumpling it up into a ball. "I don't control him, I'm not his mom."
She places her blazer-ball onto the top of her desk.
"No, Recchan!" Her ball is yanked from underneath her, and her face slams against the wooden desk.
"Ow, what the fuck Izuku!" She groans as she rubs her forehead. She turns to see Katsuki biting on his bottom lip, choking back laughter. The only reason why he isn't cackling the way he probably wants to is because Izuku is the one who did the funny.
Hitoshi, however, does not have the same reservations. He openly guffaws at her pain. She flips him off over her shoulder, only for him to wheeze.
She turns again and glares at the curly-haired boy.
"You can't sleep through your first day." Izuku admonishes before draping the blazer over her shoulders. "Wear your uniform properly."
"So I can sleep through the rest of the days?"
"Not what I meant!"
A hand whips out in front of her and Ren flinches back from the suddenness. "My name is Iida Tenya from Somei Academy," he introduces himself again to Izuku.
"I heard you before." The boy responds, "I'm Midoriya Izuku."
His brain flashes back to their initial meeting at the exams and with a red face, he says(?), "Pleased to meet you, Iida-kun?"
It certainly sounds more like a question.
"Midoriya-kun...you…" Iida grimaces, "You perceived the true nature of that practical exam while I did not! I misjudged you. I hate to admit it, but you were the superior candidate!"
Ren snorts. That's definitely not what happened.
"Huh?" Izuku furrows his brows in confusion.
"DEKU DIDN'T PERCEIVE SHIT." Katsuki spits, obviously coming to the same conclusion as her. The nerd was probably too flustered to make a move until the end, and like the selfless idiot that he is, he saved some random chick without even thinking about it.
Ren turns to look at him with raised eyebrows. He lifts a fist in the air and feigns a punch in her direction.
"Fuck you lookin' at, Frankenstein?"
She scoffs before shoving her arms back through the sleeves of her blazer. "Your ugly face-"
"If you're here to socialize, then get out." A quiet voice says from behind the newly arrived Ochako, who was in the middle of introducing herself to Izuku. "This is the hero course."
Of course, the coolness of his entrance is immediately canceled out by the aggressive sucking of his juice box.
"It took eight seconds for you to quiet down," The man says as he slides out of his sleeping bag, "Time is a precious resource. You lot aren't very rational, are you?"
He tosses said sleeping bag to the side as he stands behind the podium.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota. Pleased to meet you." The tone of his voice instigates that he's anything but pleased. Maybe annoyed.
Katsuki turns to stare at her with a considering look before his eyes flicker toward their teacher, then back to her.
He doesn't have to say a word for her to know what he's thinking. 'Don't' she mouths.
He smirks.
Aizawa Shouta bears a striking resemblance to her father. The coloring is all wrong, but they're about the same height and build. They could also both probably compete for the record for the world's darkest dark circles. Or the world's most tired man. She resists the urge to turn around and look at him, but she considers adding Hitoshi to that race as well.
"Quickly now," Aizawa waves an arm, "change into your gym clothes and head out to the grounds."
Thirty minutes later, the entirety of class 1-A is gathered at one of U.A. 's many training grounds.
"Um, sir! What about the entrance ceremony? Or guidance sessions?" Uraraka asks.
"No time to waste on stuff like that if you want to become heroes," Aizawa drones, "U.A. is known for its 'freestyle' education system. That applies to teachers well. Softball throwing, standing long jump, fifty-meter dash," he begins to list, "endurance running, grip strength, side to side stepping, upper-body training, and seated toe touch. You did all these in middle school, yes? Your standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests."
"This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the national averages. That is not accurate or rational. The department of education is just procrastinating. Bakugou."
The blond by her side perks up.
"How far could you throw in middle school?" Aizawa asks.
Katsuki smirks. "Sixty-seven meters."
"Great. Now try it with your quirk. Do whatever you need to, just don't leave the circle. Give it all you got."
She thinks that he's attempting to be encouraging. It's not working.
Katsuki stands in the circle and turns the ball a few times until he's holding it in his hand with his favorite grip. " DIE!" He yells as he sends an explosion to his fingertips and yeets the thing further than the eye can see.
"It's important for us to know our limits." Aizawa says as he checks his device.
705.2 meters blinks back at them when Aizawa turns his device for the students to see.
"That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you'll be."
Ren whistles.
"Tell foxface to get a load of that," Katsuki says with his arms crossed over his chest as he retakes his place next to her.
"I'm sure that if professional baseball players could use their quirks," she says dryly, "like full-on use their quirks and not just their passives, baseball would no longer be a very fun sport to play."
"HAH?"
"Oh, that's why her name sounded so familiar…" A voice says from somewhere behind her.
"Oh! I saw her picture on Instagram this morning!"
"You're hoping to become heroes after three years here, and you think it'll all be fun and games?" Aizawa sniffs, "Right."
Here it comes. Ren sighs as the atmosphere becomes tense.
"The one with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged and expelled."
Ren feels a tingling at her fingertips as her quirk begs to be used.
"Your fates are in my hands. Welcome to U.A."