"U.A?" her teacher asked, eyeing at her. Minoko nervously twisted her fingers, only relaxing when Mr. Takahashi let out a fond laugh. "I really should have seen this coming," she said. "Well, you should get started with training. Those noodle arms aren't carrying anyone!"
Minoko grinned, "I'll work hard!" she bowed before leaving the faculty room.
An arm wrapped around her neck, "You little sneak! Here I thought you'd just go along with whatever and get an office job you don't even like!" Aki exclaimed, hitting her initial plan right on the head.
"There's nothing wrong with office jobs," Minoko said, "but yeah, I wouldn't enjoy it." She let out a hum before turning to the boy, "Aki! I'm going to be a hero!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I just did that!"
Aki laughed, "Well, you better! It's nice seeing you like this," he smiled.
Minoko tilted her head, "Like what?"
Aki gestured to her, "All excited and everything. You definitely need something to spice up your boring routine. Ever since we've entered middle school, you've always been so…mellow I guess? Yeah, you've been trying new things but it didn't look like it was doing you any good," he said. "It's like you went on a self-discovery journey and never came back." He brought a hand to his hair, messing it around, "Sure when you started volunteering, your mood lightened significantly, but never to this extent."
He looked at Minoko, "I'm glad you found yourself."
Minoko couldn't help but let a smile reach her lips, "Thank you."
"Took you long enough anyway," Aki said, shrugging, "Like, it was so obvious and everything."
Minoko whined, "And here I thought you were being sweet you dumbass!"
She went to the volunteer center that day, and she was assigned to food preparation. They were delivering lunch to people affected by a landslide tomorrow. Minoko took this opportunity to talk to their group leader. She didn't want to fully drop it of course, but she did say that she'd be coming in less in preparation for the entrance exams. Her senior understood and supported her decision fully. He wished her luck on her journey.
Minoko smiled as she stirred the contents of the pot.That's one thing down.
Once they were dismissed, Minoko made her way eastward. In front of her stood a gym. This is one of the things she tried during her 'self-discovery journey' as Aki had dubbed. She entered the building and was greeted by a woman in her mid 40s.
"Kaeda? Is that you?" The woman exclaimed, sitting up properly. "I haven't seen you since you stopped coming around a year ago, I think? Something about volunteer work?"
"Yeah, it's been a while," Minoko said, with a smile and a small bow. Only then remembering that going to the gym was one of the last things she had tried before engaging in volunteer work. "It's nice to see you again, Ms. Nakamura."
"Well, what brings you back here, squirt?" Nakamura asked,leaning forward on the desk.
"I was wondering if I can renew my membership," Minoko started, "I'm planning to take the entrance exams of U.A., Shiketsu, and Ketsubutsu, and yeah," she raised her arms, "these aren't gonna be helping me with anything."
The woman let out a hearty laugh, "Well of course you can!" She scrambled around her desk, finding a pen and her clipboard, and making Minoko fill out a form. "I can't give you your old locker back, but I hope this one does you justice," Nakamura said, handing the girl a key.
"Thank you," Minoko said, handing the clipboard and pen to the woman. "I'll be coming here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays if that's alright?" she said. She'll take the other days to focus on school work and volunteering, but she'll still take time to go on a jog every morning.
"Sure, come in whenever," Nakamura said.
"Great! I'll be back on Monday then!" Minoko exclaimed.
And so, when Minoko got home that night, she took a long shower. She changed into her night clothes and wore the glasses on her desk—quite ironic since her father has a sight enhancement quirk, but alas, she didn't get those genes and is now stuck with contacts and glasses—and stared at the calendar in front of her. Everyday was marked with a green marker indicating jogging. Then Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays were marked with red for the gym. Tuesdays for quirk training. Thursdays for volunteer work. Saturdays for academics and finally Sundays for a break.
She then glanced to the left of the calendar was also a notepad filled with dietary advice from her father.
This was the plan Minoko was going to follow for the next ten months.
I better get started.She walked over to her bed.Not before a good night's rest of course.
The next ten months passed quickly as they entered the last leg of February. "Are you nervous?" Aki asked Minoko who was reading books profusely in the local library.
"Nervous? Who, me?" Minoko laughed, flipping through the book and writing down words, "Of course not! What makes you say that?"
Aki raised an eyebrow at her, "Maybe the fact that you exchanged your pen with chopsticks?"
Minoko scrunched her eyebrows and looked at her left hand, it was indeed holding chopsticks. "Sothat'swhere they went."
Ever since she started her training, Minoko had avoided using the quirk canceling gloves her mother had made, in efforts of controlling her quirk better. Alas, it seems like she still slips up as she didn't even notice that she had sent her chopsticks to the pocket dimension during lunch.
"You'll dofine," Aki said.
"You don't know that," Minoko muttered, swapping out the chopsticks with her pen.
Aki raised an eyebrow, "You passed at Ketsubutsu," he pointed out. "And you won't know if you passed Shiketsu unless you open that letter that's been collecting dust on your desk."
Minoko grimaced at the thought of the unopened letter behind all the stuff on her desk. Shiketsu's practical test was brutal, to say the least. Then again, what else would she expect from one of the best hero schools in Japan. And to think she's taking U.A. 's next…yeah, not nervous at all.
Shaking her head, she says, "I'll be fine."
Minoko was not fine. She was in front of the U.A. gates, gawking at how massive the building was.Promotional photos do this no justice,she thought as she passed the gates. In her distracted state, she hadn't realized she wasn't paying attention until she felt herself hit something, "Sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going!" she exclaimed.
"Ah, no,I'msorry," the black haired kid chuckled with a hand raised to his neck, "I shouldn't have been standing around, but like, look at it!" He exclaimed, his red eyes shifting back to the building.
Minoko let out a chuckle, "I guess I wasn't the only one gawking."
The boy looked back at her and let out a laugh of his own. "Yeah. My name's Kirishima Eijirou," he introduced himself, a hand offered for a handshake.
Minoko gripped his hand and gave it a firm shake, "Kaeda Minoko," she said. "Shall we head inside, Kirishima?" She led the two of them to the assembly area where they will be taking the written exam and where the practical exam was going to be explained.
"What's your exam number?" Kirishima asked, as he stared at his own paper.
"Examinee Number 2189," Minoko said, showing her paper to him.
"Wait, no, seriously?" He held up his, which says 'Examinee Number 2190.'
Minoko's eyes widened, "Huh, will you look at that. You think someone here has a probability quirk?" She looked around.
Kirishima laughed, "Let's look for our seats." They entered the large room where the seating was grouped into three. They were in the middle group, on the 19th row. Kirishima sat at the end of the row. "Oh," he said.
"What is it?" Minoko asked.
"I think we're arranged by school," Kirishima said, pointing to the people sitting in the same row as them, but in the third group. "Those people are from my school."
Minoko tilted her body to see, the kids in the other group were wearing the same uniform as Kirishima, the pink haired one in particular just waved at him. "I have a feeling this would be relevant for the exams."
"Are you the only one in your school applying?" Kirishima asked, seeing the lack of uniforms identical to her's.
"I think so?" Minoko said, "I don't think anyone else wanted to test their luck and try out for U.A." She looked over to the boy and froze when he had the beginnings of a tear forming at the corner of his eye. "Are you alri—"
"That's so manly!" He exclaimed.
Feedback from the speakers stopped the two from continuing their conversation. "Examinees! Please take your seats," a voice came from the speakers, which prompted everyone to settle down. "On your desks are a workbook and an answer sheet. There are instructions inside the workbook, please follow them accordingly. There will be no proctor in the room with you when you take the exam, but rest assured, we will know if you cheated. You have 2 hours to answer the entire workbook. Your time starts…NOW!"
A huge timer came to life on the monitor at the front of the room.
Minoko pushed her bangs back, with a hairclip. She took a deep breath and opened her workbook.
A loud buzz echoed through the room. "That's time! Examinees, pencils down! Anyone caught still answering will be classified as a cheater and will be dropped from the exam. Please wait until the helper robots collect your answer sheets and workbooks. We will start the orientation for the practical exam in a little while."
"Finally," Kirishima leaned back on his chair, stretching his body. "Math was so hard," he complained.
Minoko hummed, as she watched the helper robot collect their work. "Literature has always been my weak point. Why can't people just be straightforward with their words?"
"Where's the fun in that?" Kirishima grinned.
"WELCOME EXAMINEES!" The loud voice almost made Kirishima stumble backwards, but he managed to regain his balance. The two faced forward and were met by a man with blond hair that was styled similarly to a cockatoo. "EVERYBODY SAY HEY!"
Silence filled the room.
"SO MUCH ENERGY!" He exclaimed. "Alright then, I'll give you listeners a quick rundown on how the practical's gonna go. Are you ready?! YEAH!"
Minoko wasn't sure if it was just her, but she was pretty sure she could hear fangirling a few rows behind them. Present Mic, as she heard, continued, "You listeners will be going to ten-minute mock urban battles! You can bring whatever you want with you." The monitor behind him lit up. "After this you will be going to your specific battle centers which you can find on your examinee cards."
"So that's why they had students from the same school sit consecutively," Minoko whispered.
"They're preventing us from working together with people we already know," Kirishima added.
The two peaked at each other's examinee cards. Kirishima had Battle Center B, while Minoko had C.
"There will be three faux villains scattered in the battle center," Present Mic said, silhouettes of three robots appearing onto the monitor. "Each kind has a corresponding number of points depending on its difficulty." The screen shifted to show a video game looking version of Present Mic going through the battle center and taking out robots. "Your goal is to use your quirk to immobilize the faux villains and earn points. Obviously attacking other examinees is prohibited!"
"I have a question!" Minoko looked behind her and saw a guy wearing glasses with his hand in the air. "In the print out there seems to be a fourth faux villain. If this was a misprint, then UA, one of the most prominent schools in Japan, should be ashamed as to make such a crucial mistake!"
The nerve of this guy,Minoko thought at the blunt words.
"We are all here to become exemplary heroes!"
He's still going.
"So you, over there, with the curly hair," the guy pointed to a guy a few rows behind him. "You've been muttering this whole time. It is distracting."
Minoko shifted to the side.Is that…Midoriya?she thought as her eyes caught the familiar green hair.It is!She'd know that muttering from anywhere.
"Thank you for that Examinee 7111," Present Mic said as a new silhouette appeared on the screen. "The fourth faux villain is worth…Zero Points! It's basically an obstacle. You can try to defeat it as it isn't impossible or you can avoid it. Personally, I recommend you avoid it!"
Small chatter erupted from the examinees. "That is all from me!" Present Mic said, "Let me just give you listeners a present. The school motto. The hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said: 'A true hero is someone who overcomes life's misfortunes.'
"Go Beyond! PLUS ULTRA!"
Notes:
TRIVIA!
Name: Kaeda Miruda
Relation: Father
Occupation: Firefighter
Quirk: Fish Eye
When he activates his quirk, his eyes function like Fish Eye Lenses.
Name: Kaeda Kotai
Relation: Mother
Occupation: Support Items Engineer
Quirk: Shift
Her quirk allows her to move an object from one hand to the other.