I actually had this pre-written already when I published chapter two-

Even so, the whole "yell at me if I don't publish on Monday" thing still stands. As of right now while I'm pre-writing this (when I haven't even published chapter two), I have chapter six done and seven well on its way. 

Now let's get on with the story :)

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

The second Kento rolled out of bed on Sunday morning a week later, he staggered to his feet, took two steps, and collapsed bonelessly into his desk chair. He winced at the light from his laptop when he cracked it open, but typed in the password and opened up his personal email. It'd been written down on his answer sheet for his preferred method of contact rather than a physical letter.

Sure enough, there was a message from Yūei. Among the other things that the school was famous for, it was known for sending out exam results exactly on schedule.

He clicked on it, rubbed his eyes to clear the sleep from them, and read the email.

Dear Todoroki Kento,

On behalf of Yūei High, I am happy to congratulate you on your exceptional score on the written exam. Your result for the academic portion is an unprecedented perfect score, and I found that your responses on the Ethics and Morality section prove you to be a deep thinker.

Our school has several of the most exclusive programs in the country of Japan, and we only accept the very best students into our heroics program. With a score such as yours, we hereby extend an invitation to participate in the practical exam one week from now.

Please arrive at Yūei High at 8:40 AM in your school uniform. The exam will be detailed in the auditorium, after which students will be allowed to change into appropriate clothing. Support items of any kind and amount are permitted, so long as they are not to the detriment of fellow students.

We hope you succeed, as you would be a strong addition to our heroics department.

Plus Ultra!

Sincerely,

Principal Nezu

Kento fell back in his chair, letting out a relieved puff of breath. He hadn't been worried, but... one less obstacle was in the way of his goal. One less thing for him to do to finally beat Shōto.

The redhead exited out of his email and shut his laptop, quickly dressing in casual clothes and leaving his room. Fuyumi slept in on Sundays, so he would 'break the news' to her later that he'd gotten into Arutravi.

He hated lying to his sister, but she would inevitably let it slip to their father. Kento couldn't have that quite yet; not until the first day of school at earliest should he be in the same class as Shōto. The odds were fifty-fifty.

He grimaced to himself while getting a bowl of cereal and resigned to keep the secret until it couldn't be kept any longer. All would be revealed in time.

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

Fuyumi was overjoyed upon hearing the news. The second Kento turned with a smile on his face to look at his sister sleepily entering the room, she grinned widely and engulfed him in a hug.

"I knew you could do it," she declared proudly, holding his shoulders and lightly shaking him back and forth. Kento ignored the slight pang in his chest at how she readily accepted the lie, choosing to grin back. "You're the smart one, huh?"

"Natsuo's going into the medical field, so I think he's the smart one," Kento found it in himself to joke, his throat feeling oddly tight. He chose to ignore the sensation in favor of shrugging. "But you teach little devils for a living, so... can't say much for your intelligence."

Fuyumi made a sound of indignation and smacked his shoulder. "Hey! They're all little angels and I love each and every one of them!"

Kento couldn't help but let out a snicker at the look on her face, leaning back to narrowly avoid the hand aiming to mess up his hair. The topic had successfully been changed away from high school, much to his relief, and he could act like a normal little brother teasing his older sister.

It was nice, being able to almost relax around his older siblings. Even if Natsuo was rarely home anymore, he didn't have the same thoughts of 'fixing' the family like Fuyumi. He and Kento agreed on a lot of unspoken matters.

But neither of them would ever understand Kento's drive to get their father to acknowledge him. Fuyumi wanted him to be a father to the whole family, no matter if she also fell under that umbrella or not. Natsuo didn't care for anything related to their father and preferred to stay as far away as possible.

The only one who ever understood was Tōya.

Nevertheless, Kento just raised his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, but no more complaining about how your little angels don't listen," he negotiated as though he didn't really care, closing his eyes to fake indifference.

Fuyumi sighed in dramatic defeat. "Fine, some of them are little devils. But they're still cute!"

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

Exactly one week later, Kento carefully slid open his bedroom window. He winced at the small squeak that resulted, but shouldered his backpack and clambered out before he could second-guess his decision.

An excuse for when Fuyumi inevitably found his room empty could come later. He knew she'd probably panic since he was gone without a word and would probably tell their father. But honestly, Kento could come up with the most bullshit explanation for where he'd gone and they'd take it. Fuyumi would just be glad that he came back, and Endeavor would only care that his reputation was safe.

The trip to Yūei was less crowded than two weeks prior, considering roughly eight thousand had been reduced to only five hundred. Kento only saw two other teens in school uniforms at his station and that was it, and each of them boarded different cars. That was... good. It was nice having less people on the trains, even if the number was only a little smaller.

When he climbed the hill, however, that was a different story. Numerous other students all trudged along, all chattering and proclaiming that they were going to pass with flying colors.

As if. Only thirty-six spots were available in the heroics course for students not recommended by a pro. That was just over a seven percent chance to get accepted, and even then, one could always get expelled.

Although technically it would be exactly seven percent, considering Kento would be getting one of the thirty-six seats. He was confident enough in his own abilities to know that much, any anxious feelings solely due to time passing agonizingly slow.

The redhead made his way back through the gates of Yūei and followed the crowd of other students to the auditorium. Apparently, there was assigned seating based on what application number they'd gotten.

Kento recalled the three-digit number that he'd seen on the chart of names, glanced down at the cards on the desks to see how the numbers were arranged, and headed in a beeline for where his seat would be. Eventually, after scanning a row near the front of ascending numbers, he found it and sat down.

A custom card with the number four hundred ninety-nine printed on it, alongside an impassive picture of his face, his name, and a few other details.

Beside the card was an information sheet that showed four silhouettes of... robots? Was that what they were fighting?

Kento skimmed the informational text at the top of the page and confirmed it. The applicants would be fighting robots worth different amounts of points. Presumably, whichever thirty-six applicants scored the highest would be admitted.

He grimaced, mind racing as he tried to come up with a viable plan to win. Electronics didn't do so well in the cold, but his Quirk wasn't suited to create extreme temperatures. Not like Tōya's flames... or Shōto's ice.

Although... Kento wasn't entirely lacking in the speed department, nor was he uncreative when it came to using his Quirk. A power like his demanded to be used unconventionally to even be considered viable for combat.

The second the redhead finished planning, the spotlights above the stage flicked on, a pro hero and teacher at the center. The Yūei logo shimmered on the screen behind Present Mic as he flung his arms out and yelled out an enthusiastic greeting.

Kento half-payed attention while the pro made his introduction—that was a lie, it was impossible for him to tune anything out—cringing whenever he called for everyone to say, "HEY!" and there was absolute silence. He swore he could hear crickets chirping.

For the most part, the overly-extra presentation—complete with a video game representation of the exam—was summarized neatly on the information sheet. The only discrepancy, as pointed out by an extremely formal guy with glasses, was the fourth robot. According to Present Mic, it was worth zero points and was better to run away from than pointlessly defeat.

While the whole scenario of mock urban battles was relevant to future heroes, Kento found that the entire exam was bullshit. It catered to those with Quirks powerful enough to destroy or immobilize robots. Not capture people, who tended not to have treads or wheels that resisted sliding or heat vision.

From the way that the indigo-haired guy on his right was glaring at the paper with gritted teeth, he appeared to agree. Meanwhile, the pink girl on his left grinned widely and rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

Kento sighed under his breath. It was going to be difficult and out of his areas of skill, but he would win. An undeniable victory, even if Shōto had taken a different practical exam.

He had to win. It was the only way his plan could succeed.

•❅────✧❅✦❅✧────❅•

Fifteen minutes later, Kento found himself in front of Battle Center E with thirty-nine other people, all having been crammed into a single bus. Even with individual seating, it hadn't been comfortable in the slightest with so many strangers jostling into him whenever they went over the smallest bump.

Before that, though, changing into his black tracksuit with edges that matched his crimson hair in a crowded locker room... that had been hell. Kento wasn't insecure about being shirtless or anything—he'd been working out since he was around four and was pretty damn muscular—but the thought of anyone touching his bare skin, whether intentional or not, had been enough to make him change in the corner as fast as possible.

Kento absently flicked his fingers by his sides while he waited for the exam to start, tensing up immediately the second the doors to the fake city opened. He blinked in surprise a moment later when the person who emerged from the top of the observation tower was none other than Nishikawa, but brushed it off as a coincidence.

"Alright alright, mildly terrifying children, the exam starts now," Nishikawa greeted without ceremony, gesturing grandly to the faux city. "Go on, now, and drain Yūei's bank account. Just kidding, we're rich. So git. Shoo. Skedaddle."

Kento wasted no time in bolting forward into the battle center, the rest of the applicants close behind. He was just barely ahead, but it wouldn't last for long. It was time to speed things up a bit.

Snowflakes began to swirl at his fingertips, swiftly followed by a flurry created from nothing and aimed directly for his feet. The snow twisted and compacted around Kento's shoes while he ran, boosting his steps as he strained to shove himself higher into the air. His weight threatened to break through the seemingly fragile hold of the snowflakes, but the hastily-formed boots held firm.

Each step carried Kento three times that of his previous stride, and it wasn't long before he came across his first faux villain. A '2' was painted on its side. He immediately swept forward a hand, directing a flurry of new snow straight for the sensors to confuse the robot. If it couldn't see his heat signature through the cold, and its visuals were blocked...

The redhead dropped into a slide across the snow-cornered concrete, relying on his Quirk to see in the small and contained blizzard. And... there! Kento thrust out the hand he wasn't using for slide propulsion and sent a concentrated blast of snowflakes directly beneath the robot.

In a normal snowstorm, the snow would be pushed by the wind; however, it would still be nowhere near enough force to even damage a massive robot. Fortunately for Kento, his Quirk didn't create normal snowstorms. In that one single blast, there were likely more snowflakes than how many fell in his yard the entirety of winter.

Meaning that the snow hit the robot like a wrecking ball and sent it flying across the street, tumbling into a wreck of sparking electronics and billowing smoke, and landed in a heap of scrap metal.

Kento huffed out a breath at the slight tremor that swept its way up his spine, but didn't waste time to shake off the familiar yet unfamiliar feeling. Creating that many snowflakes at once used to take insurmountable amounts of effort before he'd painstakingly trained it up, and it was the only way he'd be able to gain a high score. Any other plan was based on skeptical what-ifs and hypotheticals.

He forced himself to carry on without a second of break, recalling every last snowflake created and gradually letting it melt on the skin of his hands and face. While Kento couldn't use fire in the slightest, or deliberately heat or cool down his body, his automatic thermoregulation was surprisingly helpful. The hotter his surroundings, the colder his skin became. The same was true for the opposite: the colder his surroundings were, the more he heated up.

Granted, the temperature change wasn't overly significant—the cold was just enough to make anyone think an ice cube fell down the back of their shirt, and the heat could efficiently melt snow—but it was still extremely useful for a Quirk like his.

Kento directed his trajectory mid-bound with a timed flurry to round a corner, locked his eyes on a three-pointer, and repeated what he'd done to the previous robot. A grunt of effort escaped his throat as he pushed back off the ground in search of his next target.

Five points.

He came across two robots next: a one-pointer and a two-pointer. There was just enough space to slide between them and send them careening end over end in opposite directions.

Eight points.

Wisps of steam rose from Kento's skin after every blast of snowflakes and he panted for breath, but never stopped moving. This was what he'd trained for. He couldn't lose, or all those hours upon hours he'd spent in the woods working on his Quirk would be useless.

Another three-pointer, with two one-pointers nearby.

The redhead gritted his teeth and pushed himself to go faster, to keep going. He dropped back into a slide, turned with timed surges of snowflakes, and hit each robot with condensed flurries.

Thirteen points.

Kento wheezed out a breath, made a face, and fixed his breathing. It was far too easy to get out of breath when it came to running, controlling and maintaining the snow boots on his feet, and creating such concentrated blasts.

He was used to the running and sliding part, since he ran both normally and practiced with the boots every morning in the woods before school. He was also used to creating condensed flurries of snow and could do so for an hour straight. He was not used to, however, combining the two and doing both at the same time.

But Todoroki Kento was nothing if not resilient, one of the few attributes he'd strongly inherited from his father. Endeavor spent his entire career chasing after All Might and never once gave up, even when it was apparent that he'd never surpass the Number One Hero. As much as Kento hated to admit it, that didn't change the fact that it was true.

"Seven minutes left!" Nishikawa's voice announced over the speakers mounted around the fake city. Several other students around Kento flinched at the sudden countdown, having been reminded that ten minutes wasn't actually that long.

Three minutes had already passed, and from the looks of things, most of the applicants had taken out three or four robots and collected anywhere from three to twelve points.

Kento was at twenty, having gained seven more points in quick succession with one three-pointer and two two-pointers.

He did the calculations in his head while leaping towards the next group of robots half a street away. Twenty points divided by three minutes could be reduced to eighteen divided by three, which was six. Then the remaining two points could also be divided by three and added to the other result, and... that was six and two-thirds points per minute. If he continued at that rate, his final score would be that number times ten, so... sixty-six or sixty-seven points.

He grimaced and flew forward the final meters to the robots and took out the two one-pointers, then spun around their crumpled forms to launch the three-pointer into a heap of scrap metal.

Twenty-five points.

That was better. Around fifteen more seconds or so had passed—Kento's internal clock wasn't all that good, so he was probably off by at least five seconds—so his rate per minute had maybe increased to between seven and eight. That increased his estimated final score to be around seventy-seven. Maybe more, maybe less.

Nothing like doing mental math while fighting robots to get into the most prestigious hero school in Japan.

Kento rolled his eyes, his turquoise gaze already locked onto his next targets. It was so helpful how they all crowded close together and made it easy to get all those points at once.

He found his lips curling into a small smirk at the addition of six more points to his score. This exam wasn't so bad after all. Sure, it sucked for people like the guy with indigo hair from back in the auditorium, but Kento didn't particularly care about how the other applicants did. As long as he scored higher than everyone...

As long as Kento scored the highest, he didn't care who else passed or failed.

No one outside of his family mattered in the grand scheme of his goal, and they never would.

I feel like sometimes we forget how much force can be behind snow. Just look at how destructive avalanches are, and how much force is behind it. Imagine one of those, condensed into something around five times the size of Aoyama's laser, and you have Kento's snow blasts.

I've also chosen to ignore the fact that his pants and shoes would be soaking wet from melting snowflakes and bullshit that the water evaporates :)