"Well… the written portion wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be." Chihiro mused, picking at her bento that her parents had lovingly packed for motivation for the entrance exam.
"Right?" Nejire nodded, taking out an eggroll from the Shun-chan created bento and popping it into her mouth, humming in content. "Also, crazy how the school gives us an hour before the practical too."
"I agree with Hado-dono," Don nodded, but looked at the served lunch by Lunch Rush for the examinees and then looked at Nejire and Chihiro's bentos, pausing before speaking, "...I didn't ask for a bento from my own parents because this humble one was curious about the Pro Hero Lunch Rush's cooking ability, but I can't help but feel a bit left out, de gozaru."
"Oh, I was also curious about Lunch Rush's food too, but Shun-chan never cooks, so I chose the bento instead," Nejire agreed with Don, taking out another eggroll from the bento, before adding on, "And also, when we get accepted into U.A. can't we just eat Lunch Rush's food whenever?"
"...Ohh!" Don clapped like she had a realization.
"Such confidence, Hado-dono! Using 'when' means that you're truly confident that you'll get accepted into U.A. de gozaru! This humble one strives to have your confidence, de gozaru!" Don said with brightened eyes.
"Hehe," Nejire puffed out her chest in pride. "Of course I'll get accepted into U.A.! After all, I've had the bestest tutor teaching me this entire time!"
"Tutor?" Chihiro tilted her head, asking, "Did you ask an alumni or something?"
Nejire shook her head. "Nope! Shun-chan helped me!"
"...Hmm, it seems that this Shun-chan is being mentioned quite a lot, de gozaru." Don noted. "If it isn't disrespectful, Hado-dono, may I ask who this... Shun-chan person is?"
After all, while Nejire had asked a barrage of questions during the gap between the English portion and the Japanese Language and Literature portion, Chihiro and Don didn't have a single opportunity to ask Nejire any with the exception of her Quirk.
Nejire put a finger to her chin in thought, then nodded as if having defined her relationship with Isshun into a single classification, "Well… Shun-chan's my forever partner!"
"Pfft! Cough cough!" Chihiro, who was drinking water, immediately did a spit take. Unfortunately, the water went down the wrong pipe, causing her to cough.
Don, sitting next to Chihiro, patted Chihiro's back, a dumbfounded expression on her face.
"Umm… Hado-dono, may I ask for clarification of what you mean by… 'forever partner'?" Don asked, quickly analyzing Nejire's innocent expression.
From what Don knew of Nejire, which was little, she could assume that Nejire was somewhat airheaded.
For a Chuunibyou like Don, this was a surprisingly astute observation.
But even that was all she could tell from Nejire.
Nejire might seem airheaded when looked at surface level, and at her core, she actually was indeed airheaded.
This only applied to Isshun, who was confident in his own understanding of Nejire.
However, for the majority of the population who went in deeper, Nejire was someone who seemed airheaded but was actually surprisingly aware.
So when Nejire had classified Isshun as her 'forever partner,' she hadn't meant something as misunderstandable as being Pro Hero partners until they retired.
No.
Nejire believed from the bottom of her heart that the relationship between her and Isshun was that of being together until death.
Of course, Nejire never thought about this relationship in a romantic way.
It was just how it was, and it was how it was meant to be.
Like how grass was green, and the sky was blue.
"Like how I said!" Nejire said, not understanding what was to be misunderstood.
Yet, her lack of explanation only led Chihiro and Don to misunderstand even further, assuming that Nejire just didn't understand the meaning of the two words.
And unfortunately, the two were too aware to not tell Nejire about this misunderstanding.
"I…see." Chihiro nodded.
While Nejire's statement of 'forever partners' made her a little curious as expected of youth her age, that they were also at the age to believe that marriage was a decision to be made at a much older time in their lives.
So with the emotionally heavy classification of 'forever partners,' Chihiro inwardly debated on whether it was a good time to ask further.
Fortunately for her, Don's curiosity won instead.
"So may I ask how you two met, de gozaru?"
Because…even if she might be a little eccentric, she couldn't help being curious about romance!
"We met a long time ago…" Nejire reminisced, thinking back to when she first met Isshun. "I think I was only a first grader when I first met Shun-chan."
'So childhood friends.' Both Don and Chihiro immediately classified the relationship.
With that information, additional assumptions then popped into their heads.
'So it's that promised marriage childhood friend trope… I understand it now.' Chihiro concluded, connecting Nejire's previous 'forever partner' statement to the childhood friend classification.
Don's thoughts went along the same lines as Chihiro.
So while Nejire continued a very shortened, biased, and inaccurate childhood story, it only fed into the delusions of Chihiro and Don, time quickly passed.
"Shun-chan also made—"
Before Nejire could brag about Isshun any further, an announcement could be heard through the intercom.
"There are only five minutes remaining before lunch break concludes. I repeat, there are only five minutes remaining before lunch break concludes."
"All examinees, please make your way towards the auditorium. I repeat, all examinees please make your way towards the auditorium."
Fortunately for Don and Chihiro, they were finally free from Nejire's 'Dog Food Feeding Experience.'
"Let's quickly make our way to the auditorium before it gets full." Chihiro quickly stood up, immediately taking the opportunity to end the convo.
"Good idea, Saiyuki-dono." Don swiftly agreed, having already put her tray away.
"Okay…" Nejire begrudgingly agreed, also standing up.
--<>--
While Nejire was making her way to the auditorium, back at the Hado Household, Isshun was in Nejire's room, 'casually' working on her costume.
Of course, contrary to what one might assume with Isshun's necklace still on her, Isshun hadn't been eavesdropping on Nejire's conversation.
Rather, he had set it that way on purpose, because he didn't particularly want to feel like a stalker. What he did though, was classify a specific trigger that dictated when he should be observing Nejire.
Originally, he did it every single time Nejire called for him, but after getting forced awake after Nejire had mumbled his name multiple times in her sleep, he changed it to more specific ones, such as calling his name with a specific tone.
There were additional conditions in which he would look over at the necklace's range.
For example, when an object large enough to be threatening entered the range, or when Nejire's cortisol levels rose.
It was similar to having a chrome tab open, but only moving that specific tab to another screen when he was playing a video on it.
Isshun had created similar triggers to judge when he would teleport people to the police.
For example, force towards another human being that would cause injury was judged as automatically being sent to the police.
Isshun originally created this trigger to make his life easier, but it also had an additional benefit of not just catching villains, but also unintentionally catching cases of domestic abuse.
He wasn't normally the type to butt into family related things, but a crime was a crime.
Even if he never explained why specific people were sent to the police while he was on the clock, it could be easily assumed based on the people sent, so Isshun never bothered to decide what happened after.
Isshun teleported another piece of fabric into his hands to feel it, as Shiori entered the room.
"Shun-kun, would you like some snacks?"
"Yes, ma'am." Isshun nodded. He needed some sugar in his system.
"You seem pretty confident that Nejire-chan is going to pass the exam, Shun-kun," Shiori noted, which only got a poised look from Isshun.
"Of course. I taught her after all."
--<>--
A/N: Here is the actual weekly chapter.
Enjoy your week.