My ride home on the Shinkansen was weird, to say the least. I couldn't hold still for the life of me, constantly twiddling my thumbs or playing with my hair until I'd catch myself and stop for a minute, only to find myself fidgeting again a minute later. The relief from completing the exam in one piece was overwhelming, especially when it butted up against my anxiety over finding out how I did. I didn't know I'd handle waiting a whole week to get my results back, but I'd manage. I had to.

I got off from the Shinkansen a few blocks from where I was staying, because I had to do some grocery shopping. It was crazy to have to pick up the ingredients for dinner after what a doozy that entrance exam was, but hey, life goes on, right? My shopping list had survived the trip in my bag to and from campus just fine, with only a few wrinkles and rips along the edges to show for it. The grocery store wasn't too far from home, only two corners away on the other side of the block. The list led me from aisle to aisle, filling up my basket with groceries. Corn, butter, and ramen were the main items I had to get; I managed to find some Cola in the freezer, but they were out of beef stock. We still had enough at home for another meal, so that was fine.

All the way up to the cash register, I was so lightheaded that I felt like my feet were going to leave the ground any second. I set my basket up on the counter, took out my little frog-shaped coin purse, and began to count out the total in yen coins. It took me a while because of how much my hands were shaking, and the cashier couldn't help but notice. Leaning over the counter a bit, she fixed me with those warm, dark eyes of hers. "You look shaken up, Asui-san," she addressed me. "Did the exam not go well?" I put my coin purse down for a minute, taking a deep breath to tell her about it. I told her about Mina, and about the freckly kid who smashed the 'unbeatable' villain-bot, too. I resisted the urge to ask she call me Tsuyu, too.

"That sounds like it was a doozy," she told me, putting my basket aside with her prehensile tail while she bagged my groceries for me. "I'm sure you did just fine, though. You've struck me as a very competent girl, even if we've not known each other very long." I fussed with the yen some more, trying to fish out a few small coins to get exact change. "Don't worry, Asui-san," the cashier chuckled. "Just hand me another fifty, I'll make change." I quietly thanked her, handing over another fifty yen coin. She handed me back the change, which I thankfully managed to put away without dropping any. Tucking my coin purse away, I exchanged thanks and good byes with the cashier, and carried the grocery bag out onto the street to walk home.

The float-y feeling in my head and stomach still wouldn't go away. Every time my feet flopped down against the pavement, I felt like I was going to bounce off into space. My hand couldn't get a comfortable grip on the grocery bag's handles, either gripping them so tight my knuckles shook a little, or so loose it felt like the bag would slide off. I had to keep switching from hand to hand so that I didn't lose my grip or drop it, and had to have switched almost two-dozen times by the time I rounded the block to head for home. I was so close now, relieved to be coming up to the front step of the apartment building. I didn't dare look up, at the risk of dizzying myself and possibly falling over now that I was almost home free.

Inside the door, I heaved a huge sigh of relief. The hardwood floor felt bouncy like rubber in my current state, but it was much better than hard shoes on hard pavement, after the day I'd had so far. My whole body ached at the exertion, and my tongue felt like it could fall off if I stretched it too far. Thankfully, I was only staying on the second story, and wouldn't have to climb four or five stories to get home. On the way up, I passed by a cheery old man who lived across the hall from our apartment. "Hey, Asui-chan," he grinned at me. "I hear you were out taking the entrance exam for Yuuei?" I nodded, shifting my bag from one hand to the other. "Well, I'm sure you did great," he beamed at me, giving me a thumbs up. "Say hi to your aunt for me!" He whistled gaily as he trotted down the steps and out the door. I always wondered at how he managed to be in such perpetually high spirits. Maybe it was his quirk?

Ascending to the second floor, I made my way halfway down the hall to the apartment I was staying at. The front door was unlocked, like usual, so I let myself in. "I'm home, auntie," I called out, peeling my shoes off. I was really sweaty, and hadn't noticed until my hand touched my socks. I needed a shower. My aunt gave an indistinct call from the kitchen, so I set the grocery bag down on the rough-hewn coffee table, sat on top of a weirdly-patterned rug. It looked like it was made out of a sail, and knowing how obsessed with the sea my aunt was, I wouldn't put that past her. She had all sorts of weird knick-knacks from God-knows-where, like the anchor hung on the wall beside the door, or her collection of sea shells in a glass and bamboo display case beside the TV. Apparently my aunt used to be a heroine focused on sea rescue and anti-piracy, but had to take a break due to a leg injury. And by 'had to take a break,' I mean her managers had to really twist her arm into taking it easy for a few months.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," I called out to her, tugging my hair out of its little knot on the way to the bathroom. She shouted back at me again, and I heard a loud clatter from the kitchen. I'd learned to just not ask about what my aunt did in her kitchen, at times like this. It usually came out tasting fine, anyways. Closing the door to the bathroom, I leaned on the soapstone counter and looked in the mirror. I looked like a mess. My hair was all askew, and my lower lip had a little dent in it where I'd unknowingly been biting it. A shower was in order in more ways than one. I had to really fight to peel my clothes off, they were so sweaty and sticky. It wasn't too much warmer in Tokyo than in Sapporo, all things considered, but this time of year really showed a different side. Late summer usually meant rain in Sapporo, but in Tokyo, it was drier and hotter than what I liked. I felt dehydrated and gross after today, and was all-too-happy to take a nice shower.

It took a minute for the water to adjust, but once it did, I could heave yet another sigh of relief. A nice, cool shower was just the trick to calm my nerves. I couldn't have it too cold, due to my quirk not getting along well with very low temperatures. My parents found that out the hard way during my first snow festival, when I had to take a little trip to the emergency room with a mild case of hypothermia. I was able to enjoy it every year after, though; I just had to really bundle up, with two or three layers to keep me warm. It took an occasional tweak of the knob left and right to keep the temperature just how I wanted it, but a good shower really did the trick like I'd hoped. After I'd rinsed my hair a couple of times, I stepped out to towel off and get dressed. My aunt had left me a t-shirt, shorts, and underwear on the bamboo shelf by the tub. She'd been an alumni of Yuuei, so I figured she knew I'd need a shower after that work out at the entrance exam.

I had my hair brushed and back into its little knot by the time I walked back out into the living room. "I'm out," I spoke up so she could hear me from the kitchen. The way she shouted back sounded less like she'd heard me than before, especially when a louder clatter that lasted even longer rang out. Seeing as how I really didn't have much else to do right now, I began to stride towards the kitchen. Knowing my aunt, she'd probably brought home some improbable live ingredient for dinner, and was trying to wrestle it into submission. Despite what a dangerous prospect that had been before, my curiosity got the better of me. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Besides, it wasn't like my aunt couldn't handle whatever her disobedient ingredient of the day was.

At the doorway to the kitchen, I paused for just a minute. The struggles inside were a little less audible, so I felt it was safer to go in that it had been a minute ago. "I'm coming in," I politely announced myself, gently pushing the door open to sidle my way in. As I had suspected, my aunt had a very unusual ingredient of choice laid out on the table. It was some kind of eel with a body as thick around as one of my legs, and armed with a mouth lined with teeth the size of hypodermic needles. It was still struggling weakly, but I didn't have anything to fear at this point. A meat cleaver was buried right under one of its flared gills, pinning it to the table as it gave up the ghost.

My aunt was absent only a moment more, before rounding the corner to give me a cheeky smile. She had bluish-gray skin, dark eyes, and a head of shaggy black hair interrupted by what looked like a dorsal fin crowning her scalp. Her imposingly muscular arms were bent so she could dab some kind of ochre liquid on a gash by her elbow, using some tweezers and a cotton ball to apply the antibacterial fluid. "Glad you made it home just fine, kid," the menacing woman greeted me with a big, toothy grin. Each of her teeth was the size of a knife blade, but I hadn't been scared of that smile since I was a very little girl, and didn't know what kind of woman my aunt was. She was incredibly strong and could be incredibly violent when she caught a whiff of a criminal's blood, but when it came to me, she was determined to dote on me until I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Welcome home, Tadpole," my auntie grinned. That nickname used to really embarrass me, but I'd gotten over it a long time ago. Well, mostly. Noticing my curious stare at the eel pinned to the table, auntie set the tweezers aside. "Some fishermen I know caught it, and didn't have anyone else who would take it," she explained. "So I brought it home, and wrestled it into submission! Figured it'd make some good soup, tomorrow!" Auntie's enthusiasm always amazed me. Well, that and her ability to be so keen, when she wasn't so absentminded. As auntie dragged the eel off the table so she could start dismantling it, I went into the living room to fetch the groceries. We planned on celebrating my entrance exam by cooking up some ramen with butter and corn, a Hokkaido dish that my dad used to make on really cold days. It was something to comfort my anxious mind.

After my aunt had prepared the eel and dumped its different eel bits in a bucket beside the sink, she washed her hands while she watched me prepare the corn. I took the knife and carefully stripped the corn off of the cob, going a side at a time. After five movements with the knife, all the corn was ready. While auntie heated up some broth she'd prepared earlier on the stove, I rinsed the knife off, ignoring the pungent smell coming off of the eel's remains. Being able to ignore unusual smells came in handy, around my auntie's kitchen. Once the ramen noodles had been allowed to cook in the broth for a few minutes, we poured in the butter and corn, as well as some mushrooms that auntie had chopped up and put in a bowl to the side. It only took a minute or two more, and we had two bowls of butter corn ramen ready. My auntie and I weren't master chefs, and tended to fudge a few steps, but it still tasted amazing in the end.

Sat across the table from each other, we both dug in eagerly. I hadn't realized just how hungry was until I started eating, wolfing down the toppings and slurping up the noodles with reckless abandon. By the time I'd caught myself, I had tipped the bowl back to guzzle down the broth, ignoring the little bit trickling down my chin. Setting it down with a gasp, I blushed and apologized to my auntie. "Nah, don't worry, kid," she laughed. "I ate like a woman possessed after my entrance exam, too! Looks like they're still putting you kids through your paces, eh?" I nodded, wiping off my mouth with a smile. Somehow, when she really wanted to, my auntie could always put my mind at ease.

The rest of dinner was pretty uneventful. I told my auntie about the giant robots they used, and she gave a laugh. "They really love to splurge on stuff like that, at Yuuei," she told me. "Even if it's going to probably be destroyed, they want it to be state-of-the-art!" On that note, I told auntie about the guy who had busted up the 'invincible' area hazard robot, as well as how he'd done it to save another girl. "Huh," she grunted thoughtfully. "Sounds like that kid's gonna go places. Even if it was unnecessary, Yuuei favors students who have got that kind of heroic moxie." After she finished off her bowl of ramen, auntie asked me the question I'd been waiting for: "Did you make any new friends?"

My answer tumbled out uncontrollably. "Her name is Mina Ashido and she's really cool," I tried in vain to contain myself. "Her quirk lets her produce acid and she looks kind of like an alien, but she's really nice and picked up my pencil when I dropped it at the seminar!" I took a pause to breathe, smiling sheepishly as my aunt shook with repressed laughter. "She fell during the entrance exam, and I…I didn't need to, but I helped her up. I hope my score doesn't suffer for it." My aunt looked like she wanted to say something, but held it in. We did the dishes in short order, and my auntie never did tell me what she wanted to say. I'd find out later what it probably was, though.

The next week went by in a blur. I helped my auntie cook and clean, looking for any task to calm my nerves. I took notes based off of the exam, I reviewed my notes from the seminar, and I even reviewed hero-related notes I'd taken back in middle school. I was just so anxious to get my results, but apprehensive all the same. What if I'd failed? What if by saving Mina, I'd shot myself in the foot? I tried to tamp down those worries, but they just would not go away. I was still nervously trying to distract myself by the time an envelope arrived, bearing the Yuuei seal in bright red wax. It was time.

Sat on my bed with my legs folded, I held the envelope in front of me, my nerves frayed. I was afraid to open it, to be honest. If I failed after coming, I didn't think I'd be able to live with myself. Not one bit. When I thought of my family, though, of how they'd encouraged me and supported me so far, I just had to steel my resolve. Taking a deep breath, I opened the envelope and dumped out the contents.

What landed on top of the pile was a peculiar little device, which proceeded to project a hologram before me. As I watched, none other than All Might walked into the shot, dressed in a suit. "Testing, 1, 2, 3," he boomed jovially. "Am I on screen? Good!" I really hoped they hadn't recorded these individually. That would really be at odds with my humble nature. "You there! Asui Tsuyu!" Of course they did. "I must say, you really leapfrogged into first place," All Might joked good-naturedly. I couldn't even be disgusted with him and his Silver Ager puns.

"With regards to the written test," he went on to say, "your performance was top-notch! In the practical skills exam, you performed exceptionally, given the nature of your quirk." Well, it was certainly nice of them to admit that test was hard on certain quirks. "You came very close passing, just based on how well you fought against those robots. Very close, indeed!" My face fell. Of course, it had all been for naught. Just like All Might to use praise to cushion the worst of news.

"Fear not, young Asui," All Might boomed. Was I being watched? "I was an entertainer in a past life," he said cheekily. "I can read any audience, no matter the distance! As I was saying, you needn't fear. Your technical performance was not the only remarkable feat of yours." Did he mean…?

"The judges were watching," he continued, "and saw that you, much like a certain other boy, jeopardized your chances of success in order to ensure the safety of a fellow student." I began to blink back tears.

"Based on your outstanding selflessness and willingness to take the safety of another person into your own hands," All Might beamed, "you, Asui Tsuyu, have passed the entrance exam with flying colors!"

All Might said more after that, but I'd have to replay them later. Tears of relief were just pouring out of me. I was in.

Little did I know how the entrance exam was the most paltry trials and tribulations to come.