February 26th, 9:30 am.
This time had been burned into Hitoshi's mind since he decided to attend U.A.
Keeping a very careful count of the days and studying every book he could think would be helpful until Kirishima had come along.
Hitoshi still didn't believe it now even many months later that someone could hear about his quirk and immediately tell him, unprompted, that he could-No that he would be an amazing hero.
Despite his disbelief though, Kirishima hadn't changed in his cheer when meeting up with him, other than his new determination to help Hitoshi get in shape for the exam.
Admittedly, in all of his preparations Hitoshi had neglected to consider the physical part of the exam.
Kirishima had done his best to correct that though.
Speaking of, his new 'friend' had made sure to text him the morning of the exam, an excitable ramble of nerves but Kirishima still asked if he was ready for the exam and promised to meet up with him at the entrance of U.A.
It... was nice to have someone other than his brother to wish him well today.
Hitoshi got up from his bed and put on the clothes he prepared last night. The pair of tracksuit pants was old but the most appropriate thing he could think of and Hitoshi had only found it because his brother mentioned he might have a pair that could fit him in his room.
A shirt that would be thick enough to keep him warm and the worn sneakers were usable thankfully because they were his only good pair of shoes.
Hitoshi also grabbed a jacket and one of the water bottles that Kirishima gave him a few weeks ago, and as carefully as he could Hitoshi slipped out of his room and down to the kitchen.
It wasn't a surprise to see his mother was there, his father was already at work no doubt, and Hitoshi took an apple from the fruit bowl and waited for his mother to finally acknowledge him.
Hitoshi held his breath as her eyes landed on him.
Her eyes turning away after staring him down for a few seconds.
Hitoshi did not allow himself to overthink her swift dismissal and left the house, only allowing himself to release his breath once the door was closed behind him.
An apple was better than he thought he'd get, at least he wouldn't have to go on to the exam hungry.
Hitoshi finished the apple off by the time he got on the train to U.A. and he was unsurprised to find the car full of students from other schools, and he quickly pulled up the hood of his jacket to hide his hair when he spotted a few kids from his school.
He would rather not deal with them right now, nor how they would undoubtedly react if they saw him.
By some margin of luck Hitoshi made it all the way through the ride without any of the kids from his school spotting him and Hitoshi was quick to leave the train along with many dozens of kids.
The group out pacing Hitoshi so by the time he reached the gates of U.A's grounds he stood there relatively alone, the large gateway's size somehow pressing its weight squarely on his chest as he looked upon it.
And for a brief moment he thought he would be crushed by that weight.
But just before it could sink that deeply into him a cheerfully called "Shinsou!" brought him out of his thoughts.
Kirishima rushed over to him and glomped onto him, unfortunately, the sharp-toothed boy misjudged either his own strength once again or Hitoshi's balance and the two of them were falling backwards.
Before they could hit the ground though someone else managed to steady the both of them, helping the two of them stand upright again.
"You two okay?" a girl asked and Hitoshi didn't look at her at first since he was embarrassed but when looked at her out of the corner of his eye he saw it was girl with brown hair.
"Yeah, just nervous from the exam, sorry about this Shinsou I swear I didn't mean to-" Kirishima tried to apologize but Hitoshi waved his hand dismissively.
"I understand, I'm sure the both of you will do your best." The girl told them as she raced up the stairs with a wave before she completely disappeared from their view.
"She's right, we're going to do our best today buddy and then we're going to be heroes together. Right Shinsou?" Kirishima asked flashing him a slightly uneasy grin.
Hitoshi nodded, trying not to grimace, shoving his balled-up fists in his pockets.
"A no words day?" Kirishima inquired and Hitoshi reluctantly nodded.
"Okay, I'll tell the examiners if they call on you, but do you think you can still use your quirk? Just in case?" Kirishima questioned a bit concerned.
Hitoshi, while absolutely wrapped in his anxiety, couldn't not acknowledge how immediately Kirishima was willing to jump to his defense, Hitoshi answered his question with a thumbs up.
"Good, then I think we'll have a chance at passing." Kirishima said nodding to reassure himself before puffing up his chest and trying to square his shoulders.
"Now let's go inside." Kirishima told him walking forward without waiting to hear or see an answer from Hitoshi.
Hitoshi did trail right after him to get registered for the exam.
A few desks were set up on the other side just for the registration today no doubt, and once they were given their examinee numbers, then they were guided to a large room where they would be taking written exam.
Kirishima giving him a quick thumbs up before they split up to their seats for the written exam, and Hitoshi was stunned by how Kirishima leaving making him feel oddly alienated suddenly without the cheerful boy beside him.
Hitoshi shook the feeling off though and tried to focus himself instead on the test he would be taking, something that would be important in passing the heroics exam.
Sitting down and trying not to look around just in case one of his school mates were nearby, he did not need to worry about them right now.
Thankfully the room was full sooner than later and the examiner entered the room.
He recognized Ectoplasm from one of his last night research dives and couldn't help perking up somewhat.
Clone quirks didn't have the same bad reputation as Brainwashing did but it did give Hitoshi a little hope that if he managed to attend U.A. then he'd have at least one person that could understand quirkism.
Ectoplasm introduced himself and explained the rules for the test, all the standard rules of big tests like this.
No phones or other electronics that weren't medically necessary.
Three bathroom breaks allowed but no outside food or water.
Ectoplasm then asked for any examinees that needed food or water to raise their hands, left for food and right for water, a dozen or so people raised their hands.
Ectoplasm nodded and a few of his clones began to pass out the supplies before Ectoplasm explained they would have an hour and a half to finish the test that his clones started to pass out to everyone.
The stack of papers was intimidating, it looked almost fifty pages long not counting the scrap papers he was given along with a pen.
Hitoshi calmed himself with a deep breath and waited for Ectoplasm to announce the beginning of the test by looking at the first page's questions.
Feeling a bit better when they hadn't looked too difficult to start off with.
When Ectoplasm started the test, the large screen behind him showed a countdown of the time remaining and Hitoshi immediately started to mark down his answers.
Oh, the test was hard, there were a few easy ones but a good chunk of the questions were the kind that asked for them to write an answer in their own words and a quarter of those asked further for them to explain why they thought of that answer.
The last question though was the one that was the hardest for Hitoshi and it couldn't even be a multiple choice one but another 'write the answer' one.
150. In a rescue scenario of your choosing, please describe how you could help below.
Hitoshi was very stumped there; he didn't have any formal training in medicine and the stuff he reviewed for any rescue hero questions weren't things he could actually do yet.
And he would be hard pressed to think of any way his quirk would actually be helpful in a rescue way.
It wasn't until the last ten minutes Hitoshi as a hail Mary wrote down an idea that Kirishima mentioned about his quirk even though he didn't think it would actually work, that he might be able to help evacuations with his quirk's hold on people.
He also wrote some ways he knew how to treat surface level cuts and burns, and his ability to understand and translate for people who were deaf or mute in a crisis.
Hitoshi's relief for the end of the exam to come was swiftly crushed by the fact that they needed to sit with their school groups according to what Ectoplasm told them.
Which meant he would not be able to sit with Kirishima like he hoped, and worse instead would need to be grouped off with people from his school instead, the people he really hoped to avoid.
Just... great.
Kirishima threw a concerned look his way as they walked in the halls, but Hitoshi rolled his eyes, again waving his hand in the way Kirishima had taken to knowing as 'it's fine.' or 'I'll be fine.'
Kirishima pouted back but hadn't argued further and the two of them found their seats in the auditorium, Hitoshi hesitating before sitting down at his spot, desperately and pointedly ignoring his classmate beside him.
He just had to have the worst luck today, didn't he?
At least he could see Kirishima a couple of aisles in front and below him. He was sitting next to the girl that they met outside, and she gave him a friendly wave when she noticed him looking.
Hitoshi felt bad the only thing he could do in response was to limply hold his hand up and not even wave it.
The sniggering of the kid next to him made Hitoshi wince, preparing himself for the morbid and highly offensive comment his classmate would whisper to him.
But the loud entrance of Present Mic shut everyone in the room up.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Present Mic called out "What's up U.A. candidates?" Present Mic asked his arms moving energetically with his words.
"Thanks for tuning into me, your school DJ," Present Mic proudly announced before holding a hand up to his ear as he turned to the side "Come on and let me hear ya!" Present Mic said.
Hitoshi wasn't sure what kind of response Present Mic wanted, not recalling anything about their being a call and response part from what Ectoplasm said when his clones led them here.
But almost instantly three people, the girl next to Kirishima included, shouted back with a "Yeah!"
Most of the people around them looked at the three strangely, but Present Mic reacted without missing a beat and threw his arms up with a laugh.
"Now that's what I like to hear little listeners!" Present Mic happily told the crowd giving them a thumbs up.
"If you're that eager then let's not waste time and get started talking about the main event, savvy?" Present Mic asked holding his hands up to his ears again, clearly waiting for a response.
Embolden, more people shouted this time with the previous three, Kirishima probably though was one of few that threw their arms up as the collective "Yeah!" echoed in the room.
"Then I won't keep you waiting!" Present Mic told them and as promised the massive screen behind him changed from the U.A. logo.
"Like your applications said, you rockin' boy and girls will be conducting ten-minute-long mock battles in suburban settings." Present Mic informed them, the screen behind him, showing a total of seven areas labeled A to G.
"Each of you will head to your specified battle centers okay?" Present Mic added.
Hitoshi paused trying to recall if he was told where to go before, he remembered the exam tickets being checked and stamped by Ectoplasm clones and dug out his ticket.
His number, name and student I.D. picture from before now had battle center B in the previously blank space before.
"Okay, okay, let's check out your targets." Present Mic called and Hitoshi quickly turned back to the hero.
The screen behind him now depicting a square of buildings and three silhouettes that made Hitoshi's stomach drop upon seeing them.
"There are three types of faux villains in each of the battle centers, you'll earn points based on their level of difficulty."
Present Mic's speech went on beyond that Hitoshi was sure but the only thing that he could focus on was how clearly the faux villains were not humans.
His eyes went down to Kirishima and already his friend had lost all of his cheer and looked back at him full of his own worry.
Hitoshi's hands clenched his knees much too tightly to be comfortable as reality set in for him that there would be no way for him to pass.
His quirk would be useless and there was no way the brief exercise he had done with Kirishima would ever be enough to deal with those robots.
His classmate smug grin did nothing to lift his soured mood.
"Guess you won't be able to sweet talk your villain ass into the hero course like you planned, huh?" the boy mockingly whispered.
And it took everything in Hitoshi not to cry in that moment as he bit his lip.
After all of this work it would all be for nothing.
Hitoshi only knew the lecture had ended because the room had lit back up and listlessly, he followed the others out of their chairs and back into the hall.
Part of him hoped that Kirishima would be in his group or at least try to come over and comfort him, but the clones of Ectoplasm were efficient in dividing them up and Hitoshi only spotted Kirishima through the window on his bus.
His friend leaving for battle ground A according to the large letter printed on the bus.
And there left any other hope Hitoshi had for squeaking through, Kirishima wasn't the smartest grade wise but maybe he could have helped him come up with something.
Hitoshi let his head hang, resigned.
Definantly though another part of him immediately kicked himself for it, U.A. was the best hero school but that shouldn't have meant that Hitoshi should expect the school to be any less quirkist.
He'd just need to go with his backup plan and try to get in through the gen-ed course.
The ride was short, but Hitoshi thought he'd at least able to regain some of his confidence as they all piled out of the bus.
Another of his classmates was grouped with them and Hitoshi made sure to move away from the main group of examinees.
Hitoshi sat himself down on the ground and started to do the stretches that Kirishima drilled into him before a long run.
Even if Kirishima's help wouldn't get him in the hero course, he'd at least be able to outrun the robots around the battle center or dodge any stray fire from the other people in his group.
"What are you-" A loud voice questioned drawing his attention because of how close it was, and Hitoshi turned fast enough to see the people speaking was some stocky guy with glasses, his hand on the shoulder of a now familiar girl.
The girl yanked herself away and continued her path over to him without so much as acknowledging the guy that grabbed her shoulder and smiled.
"Hey you're Shinsou right? Kirishima's friend?" she politely asked as she sat right next to him, starting her own form of stretching.
Hitoshi nodded.
"I'm Uraraka, and I'm sorry if I'm overstepping but I saw how nervous you both got once you saw the robots, I guess your quirk won't be helpful against them right?" Uraraka guessed.
Hitoshi's shoulder hunched up despite how nonjudgmental her tone was.
"If that's the case, do you want to be partners for the exam then?" she asked shocking Hitoshi dumb.
He stared at her in disbelief, half wondering if this was some ploy or if she was being serious.
Why would she ever offer something like that?
Uraraka leaned in aware of the others watching them, stocky glasses guy included and softly whispered to him.
"I'm not sure if you read the handout, but it clarified that we could earn points by either stopping the robots or destroying them, I can hold them in place so you could destroy them."
For a second Hitoshi paused trying to recall the paper but he couldn't.
Still even if that was true, why would she offer to help him? A random stranger and possibly a person that would take a spot in the hero course from her.
Perhaps seeing his distrust and reluctance Uraraka merely smiled back to him in a way his mother had to his younger sisters after they had a scrap of some kind.
"Kirishima basically begged me to keep an eye for you, told me how hard you'd been training for today and it doesn't seem right that you might not pass just because your quirk isn't suited for this." Uraraka informed him.
Part of him wasn't surprised that Kirishima would do that.
Still, Hitoshi couldn't help feeling a traitorous leap of his heart when Uraraka held her hand out, all pretense of stretching by the two of them stopped.
"So do you want a partner today?" Uraraka asked.
Hitoshi swallowed but took her hand and shook it, even if it was a major risk trusting her Hitoshi did not have any options.
And if nothing else, he could still take the gen-ed exam later and try to get into the hero course through the sports festival.