Chapter 14: Results Day
Like usual, Takumi's morning was spent watching over Power as she worked through her basic literature lessons. Her handwriting was slowly starting to show signs of legibility, but there was still plenty of practice that needed to be done before the word 'acceptable' would come to her teacher's mind.
It seemed ambitious, maybe even wishful, but Takumi expected Power to pass the Kōtō-nintei within the next two years. The Japanese equivalent of a GED.
Financially, there was no way he could afford to send her to an actual high school before he started working as a pro hero, which wouldn't come to fruition until he graduated from NMHU's Urban Heroics program 4 years from now. Lest he wanted Power to end up as a 20-year-old NEET, he needed to make sure she was on the fast track towards getting an actual life of her own.
In order for Power to pass, she needed to demonstrate a certain level of competency in: Japanese Language, Geography or History, Civics, Mathematics, Science, and English. Which would require Takumi to get her to that level while he was studying at NMHU, and managing his part-time job.
"Creepy human! Look!" Power held up her Hiragana workbook towards Takumi. Her cross-shaped eyes beaming with pride.
Takumi exhaled. "Your stroke order's still flawed. The book specifically has annotations telling you the correct sequence, use them." He took a red pen and triple-circled said annotations.
"Bah! What use do I have for such sequential micromanagement? As long as the characters look the same that's all that matters! In fact, you humans should be thanking me for opening your eyes to a superior way of inscribing literature—!"
"Power." His voice cut through her ravings like a knife. "Don't test me."
Her bravado deflated like a punctured balloon, not a word of retort leaving her mouth as she took her workbook back, this time following its instructions to the letter.
"O-Okay, I suppose I can entertain your species' antics if you truly insist…"
Takumi checked his watch, noting the time to be 9:32 AM.
It had been a week since he had taken NMHU's entrance examinations, and the results were set to be posted at the institution's front entrance at exactly 10:00 AM.
He went over to his wardrobe and changed into his semi-formal attire. "I'll be out for a bit, by the time I'm back, I expect pages 17-21 to be completed properly. Understood?"
"Understood! Captain Creepy!" She performed a childish salute.
///
.
Alongside roughly 500 other applicants and their relatives, Takumi was gathered at the front courtyard situated right in front of NMHU's main academic building.
Before him, five boards were all positioned in a neat horizontal row, all with red pieces of cloth draped over them to hide their contents, and one being noticeably larger than the rest, presumably containing the names of the entrance examinations top-scorers.
"Today's finally the day." Unsurprisingly, Ren decided to walk up to Takumi the moment he entered his field of view. His amber eyes focused intently on the larger board. To an outsider, Ren looked to be virtually glowing with confidence and certainty, but Takumi's quirk knew better.
'Micro-expression scan. Eye tension: +18%. Finger rigidity detected. Breathing rate: elevated. Confidence authenticity: 41%. Psychological state: concealed anxiety.'
It was all just a front, deep down, Ren had butterflies in his stomach. It was clear he knew he was good, exceptional even, he'd have to possess a complete lack of self awareness to think otherwise, but he didn't know if he was good enough.
Through tracking Ren's eye movements, Takumi's quirk could tell that he was hesitant to even glance anywhere but at the uppermost spot of the concealed board. Positively terrified of imagining the sight of anything other than '1.' next to his name.
Of course, like always, his quirk wouldn't let its calculations end there.
'Recommend strategy: apply psychological pressure. Success probability of bait strategy: 78%.'
Takumi simply breathed a tired exhale, averting his gaze to try limit his quirk's unwanted equations. If he could, he'd try to comfort Ren in some manner, but it was hard to come up with the right words when his quirk wouldn't stop rambling about how to do the exact opposite.
Ultimately, he chose silence. If he didn't have anything nice to say then it was better not to say anything at all.
"Where do you think you'll place, Kisaragi-san?" He posed the question to Takumi, as if he was trying to mitigate his own unease by having someone else replicate his current train of thought.
"I don't know," Takumi lied through his teeth. "I don't think it matters either, as long as my name's up there somewhere."
President Sakamori promised him the full-ride simply as long as he passed the entrance examinations, he never specificed a ranking Takumi needed to attain.
Ren let out a hollow chuckle. "It seems you're just as carefree as you were during the exams." There was a faint undertone of bitterness in his voice, but Takumi decided it was best to just feign ignorance.
"Kisaragi? I see, so this is the one you were talking about." An unfamiliar voice called out to Takumi from his rear, stemming from someone he noticed fixate onto him the moment Ren mentioned his surname. "I recall Ren mentioning you over dinner."
Takumi turned around, coming face-to-face with a woman who his quirk clocked to be in her early 40s. Her sharp steel-blue eyes locked with his steel-gray, carrying a stare intense enough to force most who met it to pause midsentence. The woman sported long, jet-black hair fashioned into a sleek corporate bun. Not a single loose strand to be seen, even through Takumi's quirk.
She wore an evidently high-end, custom-tailored black business suit alongside a crisp white blouse and surprisingly minimalistic high heels. Her accessories consisted of an elegant platinum watch, and a thin wedding ring. The kind of outfit only someone who expected to carry an air of authority wherever they went would adorn.
Justifiably so, after all, she was Aika Arakawa. The founder and CEO of Arakawa Strategic Holdings, a company that provided predictive analysis and crisis management services to reputable hero agencies across the nation.
Takumi bowed respectfully. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Arakawa." He didn't need an intelligence quirk to figure out who she was to Ren, she even looked at him with the same constantly-analyzing gaze, only more refined and sophisticated.
"Likewise, Kisaragi-kun." Aika looked to Takumi's sides, clearly expecting to see someone. "Are your parents not present?"
Takumi's voice grew solemn. "My father has passed."
Both her and her son's expression paused in a moment of stupor. The latter regaining her composure far quicker than the former.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Aika returned a respectful lean of her own. She and Ren contemplated asking about his mother for a moment, but the implication seemed obvious.
"It's fine. He lived well and passed of natural causes."
Like most of his observations, Takumi wouldn't voice it, but he noticed Ren's posture tense up by about 23% just from hearing the sound of his mother's voice, and the nervous indicators he was subtly displaying as he looked at the board had increased significantly in volume.
"I see, that's good to hear." Aika's voice was almost as flat as his own, only off by a hertz or two. "Ren tells me you also possess an intelligence-type quirk. I don't mean to come off as invasive, but I did skim through your quirk registry, types like yours are quite the rarity as I imagine you're aware."
"I do, and as long as you did so through legal channels and due process, I have no qualms." Takumi didn't look at Ren, but noted that he very clearly wanted to say something, but couldn't bring himself to do so in his mother's presence.
His quirk knew what Ren's baseline behaviour was supposed to look like: high vocal engagement, maintained confident posture, and repeated attempts at conservational dominance. However, at the moment, Ren's behaviour was read to be the complete opposite.
'Subject: Ren Arakawa. Current behaviour detected. Speech frequency: 0. Shoulder tension: increased. Eye movement: reduced. Behavioral deviation detected: 64%.'
The source of the anomaly was obvious.
'New variable detected: Aika Arakawa. Ren Arakawa's stress markers increasing in subject's presence. Authority figure probability: 76%. Psychological influence assessment: Ren Arakawa displaying performance pressure response.'
'Conclusion: Ren Arakawa's behavioural confidence in situational. Source of pressure: Aika Arakawa. New vulnerability detected: presence of maternal authority.'
"Your quirk was registered as B-Tier." Her words were blatantly directed at her son. "Battle Algorithm, I believe it's name was?" It was evident this was the subject of a discussion she had shared with Ren before.
"Indeed."
He knew Aika was trying to get him to reveal something or show some form of meaningful reactiveness by mentioning her possession of his file, but such primitive social engineering was unlikely to have much of an effect on him. If any at all.
She narrowed her eyes. It was rare for people to maintain such perfect composure in front of her, let alone someone this young. "You must have performed well in the one-on-one evaluations."
"I believe that's for the faculty to decide." He adjusted his glasses, the sound of hurried footsteps originating from the main building's entrance catching his quirk's attention.
"Alright everyone! Listen up!"
Speak of the devil.
Combat instructors Kaede and Shun, alongside a handful of other faculty members stood in front of the boards.
Kaede was the first to speak, but not before sparing Takumi a brief glance.
'Detected hostility: 48%.'
"We're going to start releasing the results for the entrance examinations now, obviously, if you can't find your name anywhere, that means you've unfortunately failed." Her eyes scanned the crowd, ensuring everyone was paying attention. "I can tell you're all eager, but I don't want to see any pushing or crowding. Once all the boards have been unveiled, come to the front and find your name, then leave from the sides so others can do the same."
The staff started from the side, removing the clothes off the boards and leaving the biggest one for last.
Cheerful yells of excitement. Fearful groans of despair. Neutral hums of acknowledgement. Supportive pats on the back. Displeasured clicks of the tongue. Ecstatic fist-pumps of triumph. Takumi could hear them all, as a matter of fact, with the exception of the final board, his quirk could calculate that about 238 of the 1000 applicants present had passed. The normal rate for an institution like NMHU.
As Kaede's fingers clasped the edges of the final board's covering, Takumi felt Ren's breath sharpen drastically, and his mother's intense gaze heighten.
Five incredibly large names were revealed.
1. Takumi Kisaragi.
2. Ren Arakawa.
3. Shino Sosaki.
4. Ryuko Tsuchikawa.
5. Tomoko Shiretoko.
Ren's face whitened. All color drained from his skin. Any hints of hope wiped from his expression.
The A-Tier took a few steps back, blinking rapidly to confirm his eyes weren't deceiving him.
The number '2.' was next to his name.
Not '1.'
'2.'
Second place.
The spot belonging to the highest placing loser, as his mother would word it.
"Congratulations, Kisaragi-kun." Aika's voice broke the deafening, despair-ridden silence between the three.
Takumi offered no verbal response, just a slight, appreciative nod.
"You." Kaede pointed at the now-revealed top examinee. "President Sakamori wants to talk to you, let's go." She gestured with her head for him to follow her lead, to which Takumi eagerly obliged.
He couldn't bear to stand around Ren, not when the calculations his quirk was running were easily some of the most disgusting ones he had ever experienced the misfortune of listening to. Bad enough to the point where Takumi was just barely holding back the urge to regurgitate right then and there.
"You were beaten." Aika's words felt like a thousand needles pressing against Ren's neck. "I allowed you to apply to this backwater institution despite how poor of a career choice it was, yet you still allowed some B-Tier to surpass you."
Her every syllable caused Ren to shudder uncontrollably, the fact that he was in public being the only thing keeping him from losing what little control he could hold on to.
"How disappointing."
///
.
Step by step, Takumi followed Kaede to the President's office.
"You're lying, aren't you?" Out of the blue, the instructor threw an accusation at him.
"Pardon?" He pretended not to know what she was referring to.
"Your quirk, it isn't B-Tier, is it? It may have been when you were four, but that's not the case anymore. It's grown. It's grown to a level where you can predict my every move in a battle and capitalize on it without the slightest exertion of effort," she eyed him up and down. "Despite the fact that you don't seem to have trained a day in your life."
Takumi's physique wasn't anything like Ren's, there was no bulk, it was just that of an ordinary civilian who did some light exercise here and there for the sake of maintaining their health, not to prepare themselves for battle.
"I've already confirmed the nature of my quirk with President Sakamori, he did not appear to harbor any doubts." Takumi's response was practically a non-answer. A deflection at best.
"President Sakamori's not the one who evaluated you one-on-one, is he?" She scoffed. "You act all diligent and respectful, but I can tell you're hiding something. I saw it in your eyes last week."
"My eyes?" Only a few steps remained before they reached the President's office door.
"Mhm," she side-eyed him. "You have the eyes of a reaper. Not that of a budding hero student." Her words were laced with unmistakable self-assurance.
Much to Kaede's confusion, Takumi took no offense, simply breathing an amused exhale.
"A reaper?" A faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "I see. Perhaps you're right, Ishimura-sensei." Her words were only half-true, but true nonetheless. The 'eyes' Kaede had seen were not that of Takumi Kisaragi's, but rather that of the existence occupying in his brain that had reached almost 80% of its latent efficiency.
She had perceived his quirk's intent.
Not his souls', as his father would say.
"Tch. Creepy ass kid." Instead of knocking, she brazenly opened her boss' door at her own discretion. "Oi, bossman. Your golden boy's here."
"Ah, Takumi!" The grizzled veteran's eyes lit up in delight as he pushed his monitor away. "Please, come in." He ushered him inside while giving Kaede an appreciative nod and motioning for her to leave.
Wordlessly, Takumi sat down opposite him like he had done a week ago.
"So, number one!" He grinned from ear-to-ear. "You must be feeling like a million bucks, eh? You have every right to be. Achieving what you did is no small feat. Especially after your performance against Instructor Ishimura during the combat evaluations, and your impressive gas leak defusal in the urban simulation exam."
Takumi remained deadpan as ever. "I'm grateful to have been rated so highly."
"Hah! You definitely show it!" His voice radiated with shameless sarcasm. "It goes without saying, but as promised, the full-ride's yours."
"Thank you, President Sakamori." He performed a slight, seated bow.
"Mm." Haruto's posture eased up, his tone softening. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but it's customary for the top-scorer to give a speech during NMHU's inaugural ceremony. It doesn't have to be anything grandiose, just something to motivate your peers to try their hardest before the semester begins."
"I can do that."
"Excellent," he hummed his approval. "Now before I discuss the rundown of the ceremony with you, are there any questions you have for me?"
"One." He affirmed, piquing the President's intrigue. "Are the cafeteria meals included in my scholarship?"
Haruto paused for a second, having expected something a little more profound.
"They are."
In a heartbeat, Takumi's quirk recalculated his grocery budget.
Providing for Power had just become much, much less of a financial burden.
///
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