1,548On the first day of September Nejire awoke from playing around with Jiki in their Mindspace and simply laid in her bed with a touch of awe.
Since having Inheritance fully settle within her every once and awhile, she'd wake up with her body still reeling from returning from that space, her quirk would catch up soon.
But for a brief few moments she could just... be.
Enjoying the post waking haze deep under her warm blankets for a few greedy little moments before she got up and reached out into the Mindspace mentally.
*Good morning, guys, how's your morning going Chi-Chi?* Nejire cheerfully greeted before heading over to grab her clothes for the day.
"Good morning Nejire-Chan, Chi-Chi's busy getting ready for patrol so he can't respond right now" Sobo-Nana answered, her phantom arms wrapping around her for a quick hug.
*Got it, tell him good luck for me when he's done.* Nejire requested before warning them she was going to get dressed, waiting for Sobo-Nana to block her out before changing.
She and Jiki were still working on isolating their minds from the main space, so until then the past users had taken to retreating to their own spaces to give them privacy when changing or the like.
Jiki was getting close to forming mental blocks though, no doubt having a lot of motivation since he and Oz had finally gotten together.
Nejire giggled as she thought of the how they got together, poor little Jiki.
She would absolutely tell their future kids that Jiki breaking Oz's nose was how they finally got together though.
She had a duty to playfully embarrass her baby brother after all.
Dressed and ready to go she rushed downstairs, getting herself some breakfast quickly.
"Don't eat so fast Nejire-Chan." Sobo-Nana warned her.
*Sorry Sobo.* Nejire apologized only to stiffen when her grandmother entered the kitchen.
"Morning." Nejire greeted her, her grandmother's eyes flicked over to her.
Pale blue eyes sitting on her for a moment too long to be comfortable before her grandmother hummed back, acknowledging her barely before turning to her coffee machine.
Nejire sighed and stood to leave, putting her dishes in the sink before turning to her grandmother.
"I'm going to be taking the provisional license exam today, and I'll be staying over at Mirio's house tonight. So, I won't be home until five tomorrow." Nejire said.
Her grandmother didn't even blink and just hummed again.
"Does that woman have brain damage?" Bruce questioned, the man no doubt crossing his arms as Nejire left the house.
*Technically, no.* Nejire answered.
"Then what's her deal?" Second asked incredulously.
Nejire bit her lip.
*She been around as long as cousin Youchi, and my mom wasn't her only kid.* Nejire told them.
"And that leaves a woman commutating through batman level hns how?" Bruce questioned.
Nejire would have paused if she could, instead she just drummed her fingers and tapped her foot after she sat down on a bench waiting for her train to pull into the station.
Contemplating whether to tell them more about her family or not, eventually deciding against it since she didn't want to risk Jiki overhearing.
Perhaps immortality wasn't a straight-up curse, but frankly, as her grandmother's centuries-old attachment issues proved, it all depended on the time in which you lived.
And her grandmother lived through multiple wars, lost most of her family to them or old-fashioned tragedy.
So, no Nejire couldn't blame her grandmother for retreating into a disconnected head space in the wake of all that happened to her.
But all the understanding in the world wouldn't change how she feared one day becoming a shadow of herself like her grandmother had.
Inheritance though, did.
Because unlike her grandmother Nejire would forever have people that she loved beside her in the coming centuries.
Sure, Jiki and certainly Chi-Chi would pass away long before her time, but thanks to Inheritance they'd still be there to ground her.
Not to mention Sobo-Nana and Cousin Youchi.
The train ride to U.A. was uneventful aside from the running comments from the past users about certain things or people.
And as she got in sight of U.A. Nejire saw that just as they planned all of her friends were already there and waiting with Haruki-Sensei to go to the testing center.
*Otoutosan, I'm here!* Nejire called out through the Mindspace, waving when she saw that Jiki's head turn to where she was.
She rushed over and glomped on top the two people closest to her.
Which happened to be Mirio and Yuyu, the two of them hugging her back.
"Hey guys, I've missed you. How's your new costumes, are they everything you both wanted and more?" Nejire cheerfully greeted as she let them go .
Mainly so that she could hug Masao's tail.
Yuyu shrugged "I've gotten used to most of it, still a little trouble with the heels I've added." Yuyu answered.
"What about yours Mirio-Chan, is yours ready yet?" Nejire asked when Mirio hadn't spoken up yet.
Mirio beamed back at her though.
"It's great! I don't know how Deku-Sensei got it made so fast but I'm glad I was able to try it out, and its-" Mirio cheerfully said but he was cut off by Nejire's hands on his mouth.
"No spoilers!" Nejire told him, giggling slightly then turned and pounced onto Jiki and Oz.
"Hello future brother-in-law.~" Nejire teasingly greeted the pinkette, causing Jiki to turn rather red.
*Oneesan!* Jiki squeaked in the Mindspace.
Oz glared back at her but did not let go of Jiki's hand "Keep talking like that and the cannibalism train stops man-eater." Oz warned.
"No." she said whiningly as she fell to her knees, while hugging Oz's waist.
"If I didn't know that they were talking about his cast offs, I'd be worried about our ninths being honest to god cannibals." Banjo commented.
Oz rolled his eyes and pushed her off of him, Nejire would have 'protested' more but Haruki-Sensei clapped her hands with a wispy chuckle.
"Okay, now that we're all here let's get you to the testing center. I've got all of your costumes loaded up." Haruki-Sensei told their group.
"Are the others not coming with us Haruki-Sensei?" Yuyu asked as they were ushered to one of the buses.
"No, the others will not be allowed to go because the judges wouldn't want you to get that much outside help." Haruki-Sensei explained as they climbed onto the bus.
"Aw... You're going to take a pictures and video for them though right?" Nejire asked.
"Unfortunately, I'll only be able to take pictures before and after. There are rules against recording any part of the test." Haruki-Sensei informed her, patting Nejire's shoulder as she began to pout.
"Don't look so glum Nejire-Chan, we can show Chi-Chi how the test went tonight through your memories." Sobo-Nana said to cheer her up, and it worked somewhat.
*But I wanted to show Aizawa-Sensei how good we got too.* Nejire replied into the Mindspace as she slumped into her chosen seat.
Miyake not minding when she lay slumped against him.
"And you both will, once you show him your well-earned provisional licenses." En spoke up with his hand on her shoulder.
Nejire smiled and nodded, sharing a glance with Jiki and then smiled before she turned to the rest of their friends to talk about her ideas of what the exam might be like.
Haruki-Sensei focusing on driving them, not that the drive was a long one, or maybe she'd been too caught up in talking with her friends to notice when they arrived before Haruki-Sensei spoke up.
"Alright, we're here. Line up and I'll give you your costumes as you step off the bus." Haruki-Sensei instructed as she stood from the driver's chair.
Once they were all ready to go in, Haruki-Sensei helped them get their I.D. numbers and they were shown to the locker room.
She smiled feeling the weight of the spiral shaped braces on her arms and legs.
Nejire held her hand up and charged her quirk, watching the spiral coil from the energy before letting him go and the spiral unwound to its uncharged state.
With a smile she put on her helmet and straightened out her curls.
Nejire gleefully walked out and nearly squealed when she saw Yuyu's new costume.
"Yuyu-Chan you look so good, and you have a quiver now too? That's amazing!" Nejire eagerly complimented as she got a full look at the costume from all sides.
Yuyu smiled "Thanks Nejire-Chan, your costume changes look good on you too." Yuyu replied.
Likely the padding that made her form larger and the recently added braces to her costume.
"I know right, come out let's go now! I wanna see Mirio-Chan's new costume." Nejire told her and happily pulled Yuyu out of the women's' locker room.
Only to gasp and rush forward to see Mirio up close.
"Mirio-Chan look at you!" Nejire said almost in disbelief and reached forward to wave his new cape, watching it swish as she moved it.
"I see that Deku-Sensei aimed for the more roman look for your new suit." Yuyu commented, and Nejire wished that she could see Mirio's reaction, but he had a new helmet that blocked his face from sight.
Mirio's arm coming back to rub his neck like he usually did when he was nervous.
"Yeah, Deku-Sensei brought back my original idea for a costume, but the European style was trademarked by the Iida family, so he asked if I wanted to lean more into the roman look since it was closer to what I originally planned and worked well with my colors." Mirio replied.
"And the sheath?" Nejire asked "Already planning for the knife that Deku-Sensei's definitely giving us?" Nejire guessed, noticing the large but notably empty sheath.
"Oh no, the knife's going to be here. This is going to be for a sword after Snipe-Sensei says I'm ready to weld one." Mirio answered patting one of the smaller pockets that was sheath-shaped on his upper thigh, semi-hidden by his skirt like thing.
"Come along, we don't want to miss the orientation." Miyake told them, holding his hands out and herding the three of them over to the entrance of a large auditorium.
The four of them finding and meeting up with Jiki and Oz, not having to wait for too long for an employee from the commission to come out explain the rules of the exam to them all.
"Hm, a capture the flag game? That's new." En commented.
"Yeah, I think that must be a 'this decade' thing, I had to do a battle royale until there was only a thousand of us left." Sobo-Nana added after a moment.
"Eh, sounds better than the damn five hour test I had to do." Banjo muttered before she shushed them in the Mindspace.
"There are ten different flags, you must collect all ten types to move on to the next part of the test, and only the first seven hundred of you who do so and keep their personal flag can move on." the woman informed them pointing to the large screen behind her.
"Your personal flags will have your hero name and examinee number on them, they will also be used to track your statuses. These flags will need to be added to your costume in a visible place." The woman further stated.
"Any attempts to permanently maim or harm your fellow examinees will immediately be disqualified regardless of your number of flags or if you have kept your personal flag." the commission employee sternly warned.
"Oh, we are so going to crush this." Nejire gleefully told her friends.
"Mm, damn straight we are. Especially since Jiki here has been training for this kind of shit for months now." Oz said laying his arm across Jiki's shoulders and tugged Jiki closer to him, only his ears showing how red his face was.
"You do see the way the rest of the examinees are looking at you guys, right?" Hikage pointed out to them.
And yes, Nejire had noticed how people around them cast glances at her and the rest of her friends, minor flares of Danger Sense coming as they all followed the arrows on the floor to their waiting area.
It only made her grin and hold herself with quite a bit more confidence.
*Oh, I know... but frankly they are more than welcome to try and go for us. The six of us can easily show these guys what happens when you mess with U.A.* Nejire smugly told the past users putting a touch more swagger in her walk.
I made drawings of the new costumes for the canon members of the group, if you want to see them they'll be posted on this same chapter on ao3.