"Hmm…"
Nejire looked at the walls surrounding the artificial city, curious.
'I wonder how much money went into this?'
Don and Chihiro were unfortunately—or, depending on the person, fortunately—placed in a different examination center, leaving her all by her lonesome.
Nejire had already changed into a tracksuit, tying her hair back into a ponytail. Unlike fiction, when moving at high speeds with long hair, they only got in her way.
Isshun's main priority when training Nejire's quirk was a single feature.
Speed.
Whether it was the speed of her own blasts or the speed of her flight, it was all centered on speed.
Because in most cases, the faster you were, the better.
The force of Nejire's Wave Motion was already enough to demolish trees, and realistically, there wasn't a reason to have more force than that for most enemies.
This didn't include the world-ending villains or people with Quirks that directly increased their durability.
However, Isshun had decided that the force of Nejire's own Wave Motion blasts was sufficient enough that Nejire could pass the practical exam with flying colors.
He wasn't a leading expert on Quirk Training or Quirk Development either.
At most, he had read a few studies posted on academic journals just in case he was accidentally devolving Nejire's own growth.
That wasn't that much.
Nejire looked around at the other examinees, and her eyes eventually rested on the nearest, most interesting-looking person.
The girl was slightly shorter than herself, and her purple eyes were tinged with light blue, as if displaying a midnight sky, while her long, blonde hair was reminiscent of flowing wheat.
Despite a first impression of the girl being similar to an 'older sister next door' along with a hint of a 'country girl' vibe, further observation made it obvious that the girl had the grace of a rich young lady.
However, despite all that, her biggest feature that made her stand out to Nejire was the dark, curved horns growing on the sides of her head and the accompanying animal.
The animal looked like a sheep if it were a complete ball of fluff, with a spherical body and a cartoonish, blissful expression.
It even bounced around the girl as if it were a balloon!
Its cute, round exterior caught Nejire's attention like a moth to a flame.
So without hesitation, Nejire made her way to the girl.
As Nejire got closer to the bouncing sheep, the girl noticed Nejire as well and looked toward her with a curious expression.
"Do you need anything, classmate?"
Nejire nodded rapidly.
"Can I pet your sheep?!"
Nejire pointed at the sheep that was orbiting the girl like a moon, anticipation on her face.
She really wanted to pet it…!
The girl paused as if registering Nejire's question, but followed with a nod, reaching out a hand to stop the sheep mid orbit, holding it out toward Nejire.
"Go ahead."
"Thank you!" Nejire smiled brightly, reaching out a hand to pet the ball of fluff.
"W-woah…" As her hands touched the ball, it melted into the fluff, and Nejire couldn't help but melt into it like ice cream on a hot day.
"So soft…" Nejire marveled, appreciating the softness of the creature in her hands. "Did you make this your Quirk? I'm so jealous~."
"Thank you for the compliment~" The blonde girl looked at Nejire with a bit of fondness, like looking at a younger sibling, despite the two probably being the same age.
However, Nejire's natural airheaded outer appearance, tempered by Isshun's lessons on being respectful…
'B-being respectful?'
Nejire paused her petting.
'Did I even introduce myself…?'
No, she didn't.
Nejire sheepishly got up from the ball of fluff, patting away any fur that might have gotten on her.
"I don't think I introduced myself!" Nejire gave an awkward smile, half self-conscious. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine."
The blonde girl returned a reassuring smile.
"START!" A loud voice interrupted, getting the attention of the blonde girl, making her turn to head to the speaker, along with almost everyone else who was waiting for the practical exam.
"Was that Mr. Present Mic…" The blonde girl trailed off, belatedly realizing that her conversation partner had suddenly disappeared while she wasn't looking.
Caught off guard for the first time, the girl looked around confusedly, before Nejire entered her field of vision, flying with a rush toward…the mock city…?
She could barely hear an "I'm so sorry~" from the periwinkle haired classmate that was getting further away.
"C-Classmate…?"
--<>--
"M-my body moved automatically!"
Nejire couldn't help but quietly complain, already quite a distance away from the girl with the cute sheep by her side.
She looked back to see the rest of the examinees, some looking confusedly at Present Mic, and the other looking at her, realization dawning on them.
But it felt nice to be at the front of the pack.
It was like she was a trendsetter, and everyone else was just riding her wave.
Back when Shun-chan trained her, because he emphasized speed training, he also simultaneously trained her reflexes and reaction time.
One of the ways Shun-chan trained her was by yelling randomly during their training sessions and timing how fast she could get into flight.
Depending on how long it took, Shun-chan would either give her some snacks or extra training.
And coincidentally, Present Mic's sudden yell of "START!" had triggered that automatic reaction that she had built up as a result of her training.
In front of her, she could see a Three Pointer accompanied by a One Pointer.
Looking at the threatening appearances of the robots, Nejire couldn't help but marvel.
"Woaah! They look super dangerous!"
Especially that Three Pointer!
With those barrels, if they actually shot bullets, she would probably already be out of commission or dead!
Of course, she was only commenting on their appearance. She wasn't stupid to assume that U.A. would actually use live ammunition on students.
Didn't stop the robots from looking cool, though.
"Nejire Shot!" She called out, raising an arm and aiming it at the nearest one.
With a near-silent whirr as energy gathered and materialized, a yellow spiral shot from her outstretched arm.
She watched as the yellow spiral sped toward the Three Pointer's body.
BANG!
The spiral bullet hit the exterior of the robot, cleanly drilled through the arm, and out the other end.
Despite its intimidating, hard-looking armor, her first shot revealed its hollow interior, displaying only the hydraulics and electronics that allowed it to move.
Nejire sped past the Three Pointer, creating distance just in case it would retaliate, but instead it barely reacted, turning around.
She could hear a faint crackle of broken electronics as she turned around to observe the robot.
Because of her training in reflexes and speed, her general fighting style was essentially tailored toward hit-and-run.
However, what Nejire didn't expect was that her hits, which during training felt like they barely did anything to the trees, actually hit like a cannon to these hollow machines.
"Could it be…" Nejire mumbled.
"That I'm actually super strong?!"
--<>--
A/N: There might be a misunderstanding here, but NEVER was it stated that the U.A. Entrance Exam changes every single year. It HAS though, changed from when Aizawa went to U.A.
And yes, I get the concern about 'what if alumni or seniors tell family or some shi'. I shall solve that by bullshitting that the entrance exam changes every few years, and there's an NDA. Though the main reason is because I can't be bothered to write a new entrance exam when it wasn't even explicitly stated that the entrance exam changes every year. Simple as that.
--<>--
A/N No.2: Also, this chapter is a birthday present for a long term disc server member, so happy birthday to him!
Regarding whether im no longer on hiatus...
I can at least say I can do weekly chaps again, and thats kinda it.
or ig it depends on whether people want to read my shi.