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Hitoshi nods, grasping Izuku’s hand as it’s held out, and following the shorter boy through the school halls. Gripping a bit tighter in comfort, Izuku nudges his shoulder against where it comes up to Hitoshi's elbow, they stop in front of the door.
“You ready?” Izuku signs, feeling a bit more nervous in the crowd.
“Ready.” Hitoshi signs back, and they push open the door, walking into the test that will decide their future careers together.
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They walk into the classroom, finding a good amount of desks taken already, even though the people were only allowed in starting a few minutes ago. One particular boy, one with spiky blond hair and deep crimson eyes, catches his attention. He seems familiar, but he can't place a name on his face.
He shrugs off the feeling, instead leading Hitoshi to a spot in the back where there were two seats open next to each other. Izuku takes the outer seat, Hitoshi closer to the wall. They sign to each other as they wait for the room to fill and the supervisor to come in.
The actual test, of which they had four hours to complete, contained fifty questions from four courses; Japanese, English, math, and science. There was a ten questions ethics section, as well as three optional essays at the end.
Izuku took ninety-three minutes to complete it. With an additional twenty minutes to go over the multiple choice sections, and another ten for each the math problems and the essays, he was amongst the first to turn in his test packet at two hours and thirteen minutes.
One of Ectoplasm’s clones led him to the cafeteria, where he waited for Hitoshi until he came out not too long after. Izuku didn’t pay too much attention attention to the other people, only looking up when he sees the blond from before.
The blond looks up and meets his eyes, and what looks to be shock fills them. Bits of smoke and what appear to be condensed sparks of explosions come from the blonds’ hand, and Izuku gets flashes of reds and oranges in his memory; a swing-set with two little boys in awe at the tiny sparks coming from ones’ palm.
His attention is snapped away when Hitoshi nudges his arm, signing, “You good?”
“Huh?” He asks, looking back at his brother.
“ You were staring at him.” Is signed back, and Izuku lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
“ I never told you how Dad and Papa found me, did I?” Izuku signs, and with a shake of confirmation, Izuku informs his brother of a quick life history.
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Izuku was right about the exam being robots. Good thing he planned for this, signing out a plan to Hitoshi as they walked towards the auditorium, looking at their pamphlets.
Soon enough, they were all seated and Papa was on the stage, announcing the different parts. He was signing as he went, along with subtitles on the large screens above, so Izuku could turn off his hearing aids and not worry about missing important information.
Four types of robots, according to the pamphlet, three of which give you points. Fifteen minute time limit, get as many points as you can. Obviously, to Izuku anyway, there was some kind of secondary point system, probably based on rescue or something.
Suddenly, there’s a spotlight focused on a boy in the row in front of Izuku, and Hitoshi snorts quietly. He looks over questioningly, and his brother starts translating for him, and then the boy whirls around on him, spouting something that Izuku can’t hear, but Hitoshi translates.
“And you two, with the unkempt hairs! Stop messing around with your hands and pay attention! If you’re going to take this unseriously, then I ask that you leave!”
Izuku raises an eyebrow as Papa draws attention back to themself, sighing as the boy finally breaks eye contact and turns around. “That pretentious asshole,” Hitoshi signs, and Izuku nods.
The rest of the presentation goes without a hitch, and Izuku and Hitoshi hug as they split for their separate exam areas, Izuku slipping a knife into Hitoshi’s pocket. Izuku turns his hearing aids back on, making sure he has his own knife for robot wires on him as well.
Finally, he’s on the bus, going over the plan he’d made in his head. He knows there won’t be a countdown, so get as much stretching in as possible without getting hurt, and rather than taking for the road, go for the roofs to get better views.
Getting off the bus, he starts out stretching, but something gets knocked into his foot. He was going to ignore it, thinking it was just a rock, but he looks down and sees a planet shaped phone charm, and then a brunette looking around for something. He picks it up and goes to walk over and return it, but is stopped.
With a sharp inhale of breath, Izuku turns around to see the boy from the presentation with his hand on his shoulder, gripping tightly. It takes a lot of patience to not flip him over, instead gripping onto the tight hand and lifting.
“Next time you want to get a someone’s attention, just tap them, don’t grip their shoulder.” He hisses, rubbing at the sore spot as best he can as he walks away to give the brunette her charm back without listening to what the boy had to say.
He pushes a bit closer to the gates, hearing them start to open but seeing that no one else has noticed, until there' s a sliver open that he slips through. No one else notices until Papa shouts, “Well what are you waiting for?! The gates are open, the die has been cast! Run, run, run!”
Izuku has already gained five points by the time everyone else is in the exam city, and he only gains more; cutting the wires on a three-pointer, taking a knocked down stop sign and jamming it into a two-pointers eyes, and knocking the knees out of a one-pointer.
He also pulls people out of debris and out of the paths of destructive robots, not for points but simply because that is what a hero would do- prioritize the rescue. He’s a little angry with everyone who just runs past, not worrying about the other participants, simply focused on the points.
As his dad would say, none of them have any potential. He hopes that Hitoshi is doing alright at his exam.
( Hitoshi very much is, able to cut away at the cords in all of the robots fairly easily, sticking to the shadows until he needs to help someone. He may not be able to use his quirk against the robots, but a quirk is just a tool and he has plenty other tools around him if he so chooses to use them.)
With eight minutes left to the exam, and not having come into contact with the zero pointer, he knew something was up. It was then he felt the rumbling of the ground, and saw the dust and debris flying everywhere, along with people running back towards the entrance.
Except for Izuku, who runs towards the giant robot, helping people who have tripped get back up on their feet. He sees the brunette from the gates and quickly bounds up to her, explaining how he’s going to help her out before sticking the pole he’s been carrying around underneath the rock to use as a lever.
Just as he gets her to safety, tucked in an alley away from debris, Papa calls time, and he sighs, turning to the brunette, who is turned away and vomiting. “Are you okay? Injured?” He asks, leaning on the wall to catch his breath.
“I twisted my ankle a bit when I fell, other than that, just quirk exhaustion. I’ll be fine to walk in a minute,” she says, and Izuku walks up, pulling back her hair just in time for her to vomit again.
She was right though, in just a few minutes, she was okay to half-lean on Izuku as they walk towards the entrance, where Chiyo was waiting. After confirming she would be okay, Izuku left her to Chiyo, going back to the bus, laying his head on the window of his seat, as he waits for people to get on.
He really hopes that Hitoshi is able to pass. Sure, they’ve spent the last week doing what they can for training, but a week can only do so much when you’re recovering as well. If he doesn’t pass, then Izuku knows that he’ll kick ass in the sports festival get in that way.
He sighs, turning his hearing aids off and closing his eyes to combat the headache already forming. He stretches out a bit on the seat, thankful for his short stature to be able to do so. He’s tired, and even though he can rest in Dads’ office, it will be a while before he can go lay in his own bed.
But, he muses, the exam is over, and only the results block the way of his future.