Chapter 2: Exam
The waiting room for the Recommendation Entrance Exam was tense enough to snap a violin string. Unlike the general exams, where nervous energy manifested as chatter and fidgeting, the atmosphere here was one of heavy, suffocating expectation. These weren't just kids with dreams; these were scions of powerful families, prodigies with track records, and talents that the world already had its eyes on.
There were only a handful of them. Maybe thirty students in total.
Aokiji sat in the back row, his long legs stretched out under the desk in front of him, creating a tripping hazard he didn't care to fix. He rested his chin on his hand, scanning the room with half-lidded eyes.
To his right sat the girl he had seen earlier. Momo Yaoyorozu. He recognized her. The Yaoyorozus and the Kuzans had crossed paths at high-society galas, though he had usually spent those events hiding in the kitchen eating hors d'oeuvres. She sat with perfect posture, her hands folded on her lap, radiating a mix of confidence and extreme focus.
To the front left was the dual-haired boy, Shoto Todoroki. He was an island unto himself. He didn't look at anyone. He stared straight ahead, his eyes cold—specifically the right one. The left side of his face, marred by a burn scar, seemed to throb with a heat that Aokiji could practically taste in the air.
A memory flickered in Aokiji's mind—his father's calm voice saying, "This year, the daughter of the Yaoyorozu family and the son of the famous hero Endeavor will be taking the entrance exam with you. That's what my business agents have discovered. Make a good impression."
Endeavor's kid, Aokiji realized. That explains the intensity. Looks like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
And then, there was the noise.
"I AM SO EXCITED TO BE HERE! THIS IS TRUE PASSION!"
A massive boy with a buzz cut and a shiketsu-style coat draped over his shoulders was practically vibrating. Inasa Yoarashi. His voice boomed off the walls, causing Yaoyorozu to flinch and Todoroki to narrow his eyes slightly.
"Please lower your voice," an examiner said, stepping into the room. "The written portion is about to begin."
Aokiji groaned internally. Written portion. Of course.
The test papers were distributed. Aokiji flipped his over. English. History. Paragraph writing about being a hero. And... Mathematics.
He stared at the math section. Calculate the trajectory of a falling object with a mass of 50kg assuming wind resistance of...
"Give me a break," he muttered. He picked up his pencil. He knew how to do it—his tutors had been relentless—but that didn't mean he had to like it. He filled in the answers with a lazy scrawl, finishing quickly not because he was rushing, but because he wanted it to be over. He was the first to put his pencil down, leaning back and closing his eyes while the others scribbled furiously.
"Written exam is concluded!" the proctor announced an hour later. "Please proceed to Ground Gamma for the Practical Exam. Change into your athletic gear."
Ground Gamma was a labyrinth of industrial pipes and concrete platforms, but for the recommendation exam, they were using a specific track. It was a 1-kilometer obstacle course designed to test mobility, terrain control, and raw speed.
The students lined up at the starting block in heats of six.
Aokiji found himself in the first heat. To his left was Momo Yaoyorozu. To his right was a boy with a quirk that seemed to involve turning his skin into iron.
In the viewing booth above, the teachers watched. Shota Aizawa looked bored, while Present Mic was practically climbing out of his seat.
"Ready?" the robotic voice of the starter pistol announced. "SET!"
BANG!
The iron boy took off running. Yaoyorozu instantly created a motorized scooter from her thigh, hopping onto it to gain speed.
Aokiji didn't run. He took a single step, and the ground beneath his right foot turned white.
"Ice Age," he murmured, though he kept the power contained. He didn't want to freeze the whole stadium, just his path.
Ice exploded from his foot, coating the ground in a thick, smooth layer of permafrost. It spread forward like a cracking whip, overtaking the runners.
Aokiji shaped a narrow blade of ice beneath his sneaker, and with a sharp push, he launched himself forward, gliding smoothly along the icy trail spreading under his feet.
He was a blur of black and navy, sliding effortlessly over the ice he created in real-time. It was a method of travel he had perfected to get from his bedroom to the kitchen without lifting his feet.
He glided past the iron boy. He pulled up alongside Yaoyorozu.
She looked at him, startled. "Kuzan-boy.."
"Nice bike," Aokiji drawled as he slid past her, his hands in his pockets. "But engines need fuel. Gravity is free."
He came closer to the obstacle: a massive wall. Most students were climbing it. Aokiji simply placed his hand on the ground. A massive pillar of ice shot upward, creating a ramp. He skated up with calm expression and launched himself over the top.
Up in the booth, Present Mic adjusted his sunglasses. "HEY! ERASER! DID YOU SEE THAT? WE ALREADY HAVE ENDEAVOR'S KID IN THE NEXT HEAT, BUT THIS ONE? ANOTHER ICE TYPE! AND HE MOVES LIKE HE'S TAKING A SUNDAY STROLL!"
"He's efficient," Aizawa noted, his eyes tracking Aokiji. "He's not wasting a single calorie. Look at his face. He looks like he's about to fall asleep."
Aokiji crossed the finish line first in his heat. He didn't even breathe hard. He canceled his quirk, and the ice path behind him began to mist in the heat of the sun.
He walked over to the waiting area, grabbing a water bottle. He watched the next heat lineup.
It was the main event. Shoto Todoroki vs. Inasa Yoarashi.
The gun fired.
It was a spectacle. Inasa controlled the wind, flying through the air with a roar of laughter and passion. But Todoroki... Todoroki was a glacier. He didn't skate like Aokiji. He didn't finesse the ice. He brute-forced it. He created massive spikes, freezing the obstacles entirely, propelling himself forward on a wave of jagged frost.
In the very end, Inasa won the race.. He wanted Todoroki to see him.
Aokiji leaned against the wall, observing the difference. His ice is angry, Aokiji thought. It's sharp. Brittle. He's using it to push people away. My ice is just... cold. It's just nature. And this wind boy is so talented..
As the students gathered to cool down, the tension snapped.
Inasa, loud and boisterous, approached Todoroki. "HEY! YOU! THAT WAS INCREDIBLE! YOUR ICE IS AMAZING! I'M INASA YOARASHI! LET'S BE FRIENDS!"
Todoroki didn't even stop walking. He turned his head slightly, his cold left eye piercing through the excited boy. "Get out of my way," Todoroki said. His voice was low, filled with a disdain that had nothing to do with Inasa and everything to do with his own father. "You're annoying."
Inasa froze. The smile dropped from his face, replaced by a look of pure shock, and then, deep offense.
Aokiji, standing nearby, took a sip of his water. "Ouch," he whispered. "That's cold. And I'm the ice guy."
Inasa's fists clenched. He looked at Todoroki's retreating back, his eyes trembling with intensity. The rejection wasn't just rude; to someone like Inasa, who valued passion and spirit above all else, that cold, dead look in Todoroki's eyes was an insult to the very concept of heroism.
"I..." Inasa muttered. "I don't want to be in the same place as eyes like that."
Aokiji watched as Inasa turned around and marched toward the exit, ignoring the proctors calling his name. He was withdrawing. Walking away from the top hero school because of a bad vibe.
"What a waste of energy," Aokiji mused.
He looked over at Yaoyorozu, who was also watching the scene with concern.
"Is he leaving?" she asked Aokiji.
"Looks like it," Aokiji replied, shrugging. "Some people run too hot. When they hit something cold, they crack."
He looked back at Todoroki, who was standing alone in the corner, radiating isolation.
"Well," Aokiji stretched his arms above his head, his spine cracking audibly. "I passed the run. I passed the written test. I think I'm done for the day."
He walked toward the exit, passing by Todoroki. For a brief second, the two ice users locked eyes.
Todoroki's gaze was challenging, expecting another rival, another person to look at him with Endeavor's expectations.
Aokiji just blinked slowly. "You got a little frost on your shoulder," he said, pointing vaguely.
Then he kept walking.
He stepped out of the U.A. gates, where the Kuzan family car was waiting. He got in, sinking into the leather seats.
"How did it go, Master Kuzan?" the driver asked.
Aokiji pulled his sleeping mask down over his eyes.
"It was loud. It was hot. And the people are intense," Aokiji murmured, drifting off. "But... I didn't have to do any calculus. So, I guess it was a good day."
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.
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