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"NOW THAT YOUNG MIDOROYA HAS ARRIVED, IT'S TIME TO BEGIN THE COMBAT TRAINING!" Vali turned to their teacher, sharing a brief look with Jirou as he did that conveyed his annoyance at his 'Uncles' loud voice
"Sir!" Vali hid a groan as Iida spoke up. The kid has a problem, of that Vali's certain. "Regarding the Battle Ground, this is the Mock City we took our entrance exam. Does that mean we'll be conducting Urban Battles again?"
It was a fair question, if not entirely obvious.
"NOT QUITE, TODAY'S LESSON WILL BE ON INDOOR BATTLES!" Vali cringed at those words. Ugh, indoor fights were the most common ones to have in urban cities but God they were so annoying.
There were so many unspoken rules and courtesies you had to follow when fighting indoors, the main one being the need to hold back and keep your attacks as precise as possible to not blow the building apart from the inside out unless doing so is absolutely necessary or if you can do it without there being any consequences.
All Might went on to explain the nature of their coming lesson, how the class would be split into 10 groups of two and sent to fight each other with one pair as the heroes and the others as the Villains.
"-NOW, TO ASSEMBLE THE TEAMS!" The man reached behind his back and pulled out a box with the word 'Lots' on it in English "YOUR TEAMMATES AND OPPONENTS WILL BE CHOSEN BY LOTS!"
Vali bobbed his head a few times, it makes sense on many different levels. They'd only known each other for a day and hadn't seen anyone else's quirks or fight styles meaning getting randomly thrown together lets the teachers evaluate not only their own battle skills but their cooperation skills.
It also resembled the uncertainty of a true fight in that you don't know if you'll have a partner or not, there'd been a lot of times in Earthland where He'd joined another mage from a separate guild on a quest because he was in the area, plus when he was fighting I'm both the Bellum Civil War and the Alvarez War he had to rely on people he didn't even know the names of.
So while the lots weren't a perfect replicated scenario, it was as good as the school could get to match the uncertainty of a professional partner.
It seemed that Midoriya had had a similar thought as he explained All Might's potential reasoning to, guess who, Iida.
He was seriously getting sick of that boy and his questions.
"ANYWAYS, LET'S START THIS!" The man thrust the box forward, his large hand holding the boxes base as he did "COME UP ONE AT A TIME!"
Nobody moved.
Vali sighed.
Vali moved.
"MIZUSHIMA, YOU'RE GOING FIRST ARE YOU? COME THEM!" He rolled his eyes at All Might's words but dipped his hand in the box nevertheless, pulling out one of the 2 dozen sticks he sighed at the letter.
"J" He moved away from the box, heading to a clearer space. Luckily his classmates followed his initiative and slowly the teams formed, as for Vali-
"Yo!" He smiled at his classmate. He'd been paired with one Hanta Sero. They hadn't talked much but then, he hadn't talked to a lot of his classmates, however, Sero had been one of the students to gather around him yesterday and introduce himself, so he at least knew his name.
"Seems we're partners huh, Sero" He chuckled, slapping the band of his fellow student in greeting.
Sadly before they could continue talking, All Might interjected as the final pair - Yaoyorozu and Mineta, poor girl - formed.
"NOW THEN! WITH THE TEAMS FORMED WE CAN BEGIN WITH THE FIRST MATCH!" The Hero pulled another two boxed out from behind his back and Vali was seriously starting to wonder how the fuck his 'Uncle' was doing it
Placing the two boxed down on pedestals He'd once again grabbed from nowhere, the man thrust his hands and them. His right-hand dipping into a pitch-black box with the word 'Villains' marked in white on it, while his left dipped into a pure white box, with 'Heroes' written on it in black.
"AND THE VILLAINS WILL BE… TEAM D!" The man ripped his hand from the box, a small ball with the letter 'D'.
So, Bakugou and Iida then.
That's an… interesting pair.
Yeah, Vali knew that pairing wasn't gonna work the moment Iida approached the angry blonde.
He'd, unfortunately, noticed it yesterday but brushed it off as the kid being pissed at him for stealing first place from him in the Entrance Exam. However when He'd seen Bakugo continue to be antagonistic to his classmates - Midoriya especially - today during their lessons, He'd realised that yeah, this kid is definitely Sting Eucliffe before his shit was kicked in.
He could practically read his thoughts. He'd been better than everyone else in his hometown and believed himself, God, just as Sting and Rogue had been in the two Grand Magic Games He'd missed. Of course, one ass pounding later and He'd humbled the two kids easily enough, now that he thinks about it, Sting and Rogue were around the same age Bakugou is now when he knocked some good old sense into their brains.
Sadly it seems he'll have to do that with this kid as well.
Todoroki too, if his vibes from that kid prove as true as vibes about Bakugou did.
God, He really does have another Sting and Rogue on his hands. Bakugou was definitely Sting in this case, brash, arrogant, cocky. Needed his teeth kicked in a few dozen times before the lesson that he isn't shit set itself into his brain. Todoroki definitely seems to be Rogue, cold, moody, and self-centred. Needed a few of his bones broken before he realised that keeping that kind of attitude is just gonna get him killed sooner rather than later, and by his allies rather than his enemies.
"AND THE HERO TEAM WILL BE…" Vali was brought back to reality by All Might's voice and it was a good thing is Uncle was so loud, otherwise He'd have completely lost track of time.
Sadly, Vali felt the headache start the moment he watched the Ball get ripped from the box, of course, it just had to be-
"TEAM A WILL BE THE HEROES!"
Midoriya's team.
He groaned, an action that raised Sero's eyebrows but the teen didn't question his partner, content to focus on the lesson at hand.
He already knew where this match was going and he felt bad for Recovery Girl. Ugh, he was going to be having words with his Uncle when the lesson ends.
His uncle went on to further explain the rules but Vali wasn't paying attention, too busy muttering prayers because somebody - most likely Midoriya since he can't even use his fucking quirk without hurting himself - was going to get hurt and severely.
This matchup was almost as bad as the first time He'd been introduced to that bastard Jellal but at least he had self-restraint when beating the shit outta the ex-wizard Saint, Bakugou didn't seem capable of restraining himself, especially with that feral fucking grin on his face.
Yup, he's gonna have to beat some sense into the kid before he goes too far.
-/-
Vali sighed as the fight between Bakugou and Midoriya ended. He'd warned their teacher at the beginning of the match that something would go wrong and that the moment either Bakugo or Midoriya started going at it he should be prepared to end the fight regardless of his preference to the green-haired kid, sadly his Uncle once again proved his useless a teacher he was and let the fight go on until it was too far and the one time he went to end the fight he stopped himself because his favoured student clearly had some kind of plan.
He held in the urge to scoff as he watched the building all but collapse once the four students left it, with Midoroya being more or less dragged from the building by Uraraka and Iida.
It was ironic really, the first team had done the one thing All Might had told them not to do, the one thing that would've screwed them over if this were a real fight.
They'd destroyed the building.
Forget the fact a literal bomb would be in the building if this were a real scenario, none of them would be able to stand having a building collapse on top of them and even if they'd managed to get out the window the lowest floor they were on was the third story and a fall from that height would ruin their chances of being heroes even with recovery girls healing
Uraraka and Iida would've been killed if they jumped out of the window, having been on the fifth floor of the building.
And let's say the bomb even was in the building, they'd have exploded that fucker within moments of fighting, seriously Uraraka's home run, while cool, was extremely dangerous to do when your opponent is standing next to a literal explosive.
In a real-life scenario, all of the kids would've been dead or injured to various degrees that would have ruined their lives at the very minimum. Bakugou needed to be taught a lesson in humility and learn the importance of timing before he gets himself and everyone around him killed. Midoriya needed to learn even the most basic of fighting skills as well as how to not make every fight a pyrrhic one
Uraraka needs to learn when to question orders and when to listen to them as well as learn how to separate her Hero personality from her Fighting one, something that'll be detrimental to have in a fight.
And Iida needed to learn to, One) loosen up and Two) question and fight back against his teammate. He'd done well to work around Bakugou's personality while deciphering Midoriya's plans but He'd been a pushover when Bakugou refused to cooperate.
He sighed. These kids need to actually be taught something and All Might simply isn't a good enough teacher to teach them that.
It seems a call to Sorahiko is in order.
-/-
"HMM, I'D SAY THE MVP OF THIS MATCH WAS YOUNG IIDA." Their teacher said after a hum of consideration and as much as Vali loathed to admit it, he agreed.
"But weren't the winners Midoriya and Uraraka?" Asui asked though she received no answer
"I WONDER WHY I COULD POSSIBLY THINK SO, CAN ANYBODY GUESS?" The man asked, looking around the room to see if anyone had their thoughts and before either the old man could answer or Vali could lay into the students, Yaoyorozu placed her hand in the air
"It was because Iida was the one who adapted the most to the situation."
...what?
"Having watched the fight, Bakugou's behaviour was clearly driven by some personal grudge and thus, arbitrary. Plus, just as you told us earlier, Sir, a large-range attack in an indoor arena is just idiotic." The girl continued, pointing out the various things wrong with Bakugou.
"That goes for Midoriya as well" Okay, and Midoriya.
"Uraraka's game got loose halfway through, and her final attack was too reckless. We were treating that papier mache thing as an actual nuclear weapon so that kind of attack just wouldn't fly." He hummed in agreement, finally, someone else had the same thought as him.
"Iida devised a counter-strategy against an opponent because he correctly assumed the match would revolve around the core. While he was too slow to act to that last attack, I believe the hero team's so-called 'Victory' is being too nice in calling this 'just training' and that gets dangerously close to skirting the spirit of the rules." Yaoyorozu continued to state, her words silencing the room while Iida puffed his chest out in pride.
He didn't like it.
So he spoke up before All Might got the chance to dismiss the critique and let the next pair begin.
"I'd like to add that Iida was the only person to not kill anybody." He drew the eyes of everyone in the room and he sighed. "If this were a real battle in a real environment then Bakugou, Midoriya and Uraraka would've killed or injured dozens of citizens walking the streets and, in the case of Bakugou and Midoriya, their own allies."
He paused again, looking All Might in the eyes to try to give the man some idea how serious this grudge was.
"Bakugou and Midoriya decided that their grudge was worth more than their teammates and endangered their lives because they were petty. Meanwhile, Uraraka was lucky that Iida was wearing armour otherwise all of these stones would have broken her opponent's bones or pushed them through the window, making them fall from a height they physically wouldn't survive unless they had a durability enhancement quirk." He closed his eyes, shifting his sea-green eyes that looked to glow in the dim room, back to Iida.
"I'd also like to say that Iida was having to work with a person who didn't care for his presence at all and was still able to defend the bomb despite his opponents conspiring against him. If Bakugou had decided to put aside his grudge, I'm sure they'd have won their match with ease as it's clear that Midoriya and Uraraka have no experience in close quarters combat, unlike Iida and Bakugou." The girl looked down, a frown on her face at his final comment.
"Finally I want to point out that Iida should've done more to work with Bakugo, his planning skills were effective and well made yes but if he can't control his own partner and allow himself to be pushed over by him then he needs to learn how to reign in the tempers of his peers, otherwise it could lead to something fatal happening." He's also sure it was only due to Bakugos already shocked and failing mind that he didn't explode in rage. Iida also looked contemplative, probably - hopefully - thinking that he should've done more to persuade his partner to work as a team.
"ERR, YES, EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING YOUNG YAOYOROZU, YOUNG MIZUSHIMA." All Might coughed, breaking the silence He'd left in wake of his own analysis.
"NOW, ONTO THE NEXT PAIR!"
-/-
The matches progressed smoothly from there on out, apparently, He'd taken the wind out of people's sails when he brought up the real-life consequences of their actions. Luckily nobody seemed to hold it against him and even looked to him to discuss what they did wrong.
It turned out that he and Yaoyorozu had made a pair of analysts during the different fights, with Yaoyorozu pointing out the different Pro's for each person as well as their slight cons, while Vali discussed everyone they did wrong while throwing in slight praises every now and then.
He enjoyed it, it was fun.
Sadly however his time had come to an end as his letter was called up.
"So, how're we gonna do this, Vali." His partner asked as they looked upon the bomb. The teams chosen had been his team, Team J, as the Villains and their opponents, Team G, Kaminari and Jirou's team, were the heroes.
He was… excited
Mainly because he wanted to see how his opponents would try and take him on this time.
"Can you remind me about your quirk Sero? Just so I have everything in order." He asked, smiling at the boy with tape elbows.
"There's not much to it but sure, my quirks called Tape, it allows me to shoot tape out of my elbows. The tapes are much stronger than usual tape though so I can swing around on it and pull things with it." He hummed, an image of a tape welding spiderman popping into his head.
"Ah, I see." He hummed. "From what I know, Jirou's earphone jack allow her to blast her heartbeat into anything she plugs them into, I also have a theory that putting her jacks into something allows her to amplify her hearing through a form of echolocation. Denki on the other hand using electricity as his main attack, he told me that he has a certain limit before he short circuit which will probably put him out of the game."
He closed his eyes, recalling the sketch they'd been shown of the building.
"If my theory's true then Jirous is gonna know where we are and depending on how good her hearing is, she'll be able to tell us apart depending on our footsteps so moving around is gonna be a pain… hmm." He opened his eyes looking at Sero.
"Can you start making rounds in the building and leave your tape everywhere, it doesn't matter how you place it just make it difficult for them to move freely. When you're done, meet me back up here." He commanded.
Sero nodded his head with a smirk before leaving the room. Vaki smirked when he heard the door close and turned to the bomb.
"Now…" He placed his hand on the surface of the bomb, watching as Onyx coloured water slowly consumed the bomb and with a shiver of light, the bomb disappeared, the water reflecting the surface around it in a form of Illusion.
"Now for the boxes…" He moved around the room, slowly piling boxes around the bomb in such a manner that they'd look halfheartedly thrown into one corner. The bomb's reflective surface mixed with the boxes made the bomb look practically invisible in the room.
"Hmm, I'll have to wait for Sero to come back before unleashing the mist… annoying." He murmured, "Guess I can start doing that… yeah."
He pushed his way out the door and for the next few minutes moved through the building, dodging his way through the tape Sero left around and ducking in and out of different rooms.
In some rooms, he left the slightest but flooded, not enough for the entire building to flood but enough that it'll hopefully cause either Jirou or Kaminari to slip up and attack.
In other rooms, he created fake bombs, shaping water into the shape of the bomb and increasing the tension of the water so much it became near solid and using the unique application of his magic to cast what was effectively a water-based Illusion, turning the normally pitch-black water into what looked like the bomb.
And in some rooms he simply went up to the doors and pushed his magic through the small cracks, forcing the water to stick to wall and door and freezing it solid, sadly freezing water - whether it be his own, water that had already turned into ice or water somebody else had created - took away a lot of the control he had, and eating the frozen water gave him barely an eighth the boost eating normal water would.
Which was fair since Ice isn't his natural element
Shame he didn't get a cool upgrade like Lightning-Fire Dragon Slayer Mode, Shadow-Iron Slayer Mode or Poison-Sky Dragon Slayer Mode.
Oh, he had his own dual elemental mode, it was just not worth using, unlike the Dragon Slayers dual-element mode.
Once he was finished trapping various rooms in the building he headed back up to the room the bomb was in, smiling at Sero who was waiting for him in confusion
"So, what now?" He smiled at the question.
"The timer will be going on any minute now so we just have to wait, for now…" He placed his hand on the door and with only the tiniest speck of concentration started filling the building with a thick, white fog.
"So what are ya doing?" Sero asked me, raised eyebrow and all
"My Quirk has many, many applications, one of which being the ability to create and control fog and mist. Right now I'm filling the building with fog so that they can barely see in front of them, if all goes well, they'll get caught up in some tape and get stuck, either that or they'll go into one of the rooms I trapped and we'll be home free without having ever seen them." He smiled, slowly taking his hand away from the door and cutting of the mana supply when he felt the mist cover the entire building
"Woah, and the bomb? Where did you hide it?' He smirked, motioning to the box in the corner. With a mental command, the water shimmered, allowing the bomb to become visible before disappearing, replaced by various boxes where the bomb truly was.
"My Quirk lets me do this small thing called a Water Mirage, it's an application of my quirk which allows me to bend light rays through the water to project an image, I can't do anything too complex and if the waters disrupted it becomes obvious but it's useful. I used to use it to change my appearance." He gave a small demonstration, covering his skull in water and shifting the water to what his 'true' appearance should be.
Honestly, he looked really strange with his true appearance. His pitch-black hair became a slightly less dark shape, his sea-green eyes faded to brown and his perfectly tanned skin turned more bronze than usual, his features and became much softer and feminine which was so strange to see after so long having sharp, masculine features.
Not that's he's complaining.
...okay he is a little bit, He'd been turned into a woman once and by God was he a sexy woman.
Almost made him question his own gender identity for a bit but He'd come out nearly the exact same as He'd been beforehand.
Only this time a small bit more experienced and knowledgeable in lesbian sex than he previously was
...so he experimented? Everybody would in that scenario.
He dropped the Illusion as the bell signalling the start of the match rang. His smile dropped, eyes narrowing as he extended his senses past his body, mind, eyes and ears reaching out to let him see and feel through the dense mist He'd spread through the building.
"They've just entered the first floor, did you set your tape on the bottom floor or not?" He asked, having not asked previously nor given the boy exact details on where to put his tape.
"Huh, yeah I did. Is that gonna be a problem?" The kid didn't seem too worried which was fine with Vali since he wasn't either.
He paused before answering.
"Nope, in fact, I just got a brilliant idea."
-/-
'It's too quiet' Kyoka Jirou thought, her body was tense as they moved through the building, stopping every so often to use her quirk to navigate the thick fog that she assumed Vali had created.
Seriously the pop star was showing them a lot of surprises today, first with all those questions at lunch and then again after the first match. She cringed at the thought of Bakugo and Midoriya's match.
It had been painful to watch, even for her.
Bakugo had gone way too far in that fight with Midoriya, but everyone but the kid who breaks his bones came out fine so everything was alright?
Well, it was until her friend brought up the real-world consequences and it had made her think.
She'd never taken into consideration how her quirk would affect people outside of the job. Had she been blinded by the rose-gold tint of hero life? It sure felt like it. Hearing Vali talk about civilian deaths because of their grudge made her wonder what would happen if she were in that situation. Her quirk, while not flashy, was pretty strong and if she used it wrong what was the worst thing that could happen?
Beforehand she'd have probably said the worst it'd cause would be a headache but now the thoughts became much darker. If she overpowered her quirk would it start bursting people's eardrums? Would it cause brain inflammation? If she used it in an urban area her heartbeat would probably shatter windows if she turned the volume up high enough, in a suburban area she may even cause a landslide or something
It was scary thinking of the possibilities and it brought up the question of what happened to her friend to make him think like that.
"Hold up." She whispered to her other friend and classmates. Denki was… strange, compared to Vali, much more normal but also super annoying in her opinion though that was mainly because he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
Ironic given his Quirk.
She sighed, one of her earphone jacks sliding down her arm and connecting into the wall, a moment later she retracted the jack. She couldn't hear anything so Vali and Seri were definitely in the room with the bomb in it but they were having trouble moving around.
They'd seen the tape Sero had spread around in the bottom floor, and while it had been annoying weaving through the various tapes it was so much worse now that they can barely see anything. Already she'd run into trouble when she nearly got herself stuck on one of the tapes and freaked out, she couldn't tell which was worse, the mist or the eerie silence in the building.
"Hey so- Woah!" Kaminari cut himself off and she jumped, head twisting at the blast of boiling water the shot between them.
How hadn't she heard him?!
"Vali?!" She didn't receive a reply, God she- they weren't ready for a surprise attack, how hadn't she seen that coming?!
She jammed the jacks into her forearm sound amps, and released them from their holsters, using the whip-like tendrils that connect her jacks to her body she shoved them towards Vali and channelled her heartbeat, hoping the soundwave would incapacitate their villain.
The soundwaves caused her opponent to stumble back, but it took Vali only a moment to recuperate and it made her eyes widen. She didn't think anyone would be able to stand against her attack like that, not only was the sound loud and annoying but the physical pressure was difficult to stand against for Vali to still move
She gulped
"KAMINARI!"
"I GOT IT!" Her partner yelled and she jumped back-
She felt herself trip, her head moving in time just to find a whole Web of tape behind her and before she could get herself stable she'd fallen too far, ending up entangled in the tape Sero had left. She jerked her hand but the tape tensed and render the motion useless.
She mentally evaluated her options, she could either give up now or keep tugging and hope the tape falls off eventually-
"1.3 Million VOLT-"
"DENKI NO!" She shouted, but it was too late, the fool she called a partner was using his entire capacity to take down the 'villain' they'd both agreed he was more suited to fight.
And while that was great and all that he was listening to her plan she needed helo getting out of the tape dammit! And he can't do that when his brain goes all dumb!
"-INDISCRIMINATE SHOT!" Electricity lit up the fog, and it was only pure luck that none of the electricity hit her. Time seemed to pass by slowly in those moments, she could hear the electric buzz in the air and her sensitivity hearing couldn't pick up on any footsteps when it let up. However, her hope was crushed as, from out the fog, a perfectly fine looking Vali emerged, a smug smile on his face as-
*POP- Whoosh*
Her friend exploded in a wave of, well, water. The strange Onyx water rushed over her body, freezing her in the process and while it did loosen the tape off her body the sudden ice bath chilled her bones to the core. She attempted to sigh but the chattering teeth she now had got in the way
Welp, they'd thoroughly lost that one.
-/-
"We can go down now." He mentioned to Sero, who was bored waiting in the room. They'd been standing around for the better part of five minutes, waiting for the pair to come up and even then He'd made his water clone halfway through those 5 minutes.
He'd used the mist to sense where his clone had ended up and feel what it was doing, honestly taking Jirou out first wasn't an intentional thing on his clones part, the tape had just been positioned perfectly to trap her when she fell. The fact Kaminari had proceeded to waste all his volts just made everything so much better for the two as they win their match without technically leaving the room.
"Wait what? That's it?" Sero sounded more surprised than annoyed but Vali had told him that his strategy made it so they may not even see the pair until after the match was done.
As if to confirm Seros words, All Mights voice cane through their earphones
"VILLAIN TEAM ARE VICTORIOUS!" He smiled at the words, something he shared with Sero.
"Man, it feels like I'd didn't even do anything" The spiderman rip off complained lightly, both annoyed at the fact and kinda happy he didn't have to fight, still he didn't want the boy to feel down
"Your tape actually came in real handy at the end there, the clone I sent out distracted Jirou enough for her to fall into your tape and get stuck while Kaminari shocked it, even if my clone didn't explode she'd still be stuck and ready for us to capture." He chuckled as they moved through the building. It only took him a single thought- a single blast of intent to rid the building of water
He could feel it dissipate. The mist vanished near-instantly and all around the building he could sense his traps and mirages fall away in a thin mist that dispersed as if they'd never existed in the first place.
"Sup Jirou, you already down there?" He smirked at the stuck girl, who glared at him with frozen lips.
"S-scre-w y-ou Val-i" He chuckled, flicking his hand to dry the poor girl's clothes, sadly it didn't get rid of the cold she was feeling unless…
"Want me to blast you with some hot water or will a blanket and some heating suffice?" He received a glare which told him everything he needed to know. He spent a single thought and watched as a ball of steaming water appeared above the girl, drenching her entirely before dissipating in hot steam.
She'd still need to have something warm thrown around her and probably spend the next few minutes sitting near a radiator but he had stepped off the cold for the most part.
"You think you can walk Kaminari back to the basement Sero?" The boy gave him a small salute and grabbed the boy with some tape, walking him away like a stray puppy while Vali pulled his friend off of the floor, making sure to keep close to her in case she needed anything
"So, how were the traps we set? Shame you didn't get past the first floor, you didn't even get the chance to get annoyed at my annoying abilities " He teased the girl who shot him an unamused glance for his efforts.
"If you hadn't put up that stupid mist then we'd have gotten further." She mumbled, taking the Hoodie Vali offered her and throwing it over her body.
He hid a chuckle, his Hoodie looked like a dress on the poor girl but what was he expecting when she barely came up to his shoulder in height
"How'd you even do that anyway, I thought your Quirk was water manipulation." She questioned him with a frown, hiding inside his obscenely large Hoodie.
'Huh' she thought 'So this is why he decided on a Hoodie… it's comfy'
"Mist is just tiny clouds of water droplets crowded together, it's a rather strange aspect of my Quirk but it's one of those things I can do" He smirked "I can also create illusions, I have slightly manipulation of ice, for the most part, I can communicate with sea creatures, I can also manipulate pressure and tension and I've been known to affect nearby bodies of water with my emotion."
He left out the gory bits in relation to his Quirk, she didn't need to know he could manipulate human bodies, their blood flow, manipulate their urine or vomit if it was liquid enough. The more disgusting parts of his magic that He'd only ever used because he had to.
And that one time he overthrew a King by using his own vomit as a spear to Stab him with.
But that's neither here nor there.
"...has anyone ever told you your Quirk is bullshit." Hr barked a laugh.
"I think I've heard someone say something like that before, yeah?"
-/-
The lesson from there on passed by slowly, with Vali being Proclaimed the MVP of his match as He'd created the plan that cemented their victory, the match for his fellow students was boring however, as his most covered the cameras and the heat vision recordings only showed Jirou stumbling over and attacking air before talking into something and Kaminari using his electricity in nothing.
His Water Clone would've shown up on the sensor if He'd made it hot, but the cline had been the same temperature as the mist up until the end of the fight when it exploded all over Jirou.
It was why his explanation went by so quickly, they saw him and Sero talking before splitting up and setting traps- and boy was he questioned about that - but once the mist hit they just had to take All Might's word that he was the MVP.
Not that anyone who knew him really doubted his ability but it was still annoying for them to suddenly rely on their teacher's word and not their own eyes and the thoughts of their classmates.
Sadly, however, all good things must come to an end and an end did come. After just under two hours worth of lesson time, they were free to get changed and leave for the day, so after confiscating his Hero Hoodie from Jirou the God Slayer finished getting changed and headed back to the classroom to grab his stuff.
"Oh, Vali! Do ya wanna walk with us to the station?" He smiled over at Ashido and Kirishima, the former asking him the question that He'd sadly have to decline
"Sorry, but I've got some business here in Musutafu to take care of but tomorrow I definitely will. " The two accepted his excuse with no fuss and once everyone had cleared the room, Midoriya included as he return to the land of the living, even though he imminently fled to go comfort Bakugo.
Sighing, Vali slipped his hand in his pocket and pull out his phone, placing the screen to his ear after tapping a few buttons-
Ring…
Ring…
Ring…
Ri-"Brat?"
"Old man." He greeted back as he wandered the halls of the school heading to the teacher's lounge where his uncle would be
"Calling me so soon after school ended, Haa. What do you want brat?" The old man groaned out
"You need to knock some sense in the head of that student of yours. We were doing mock trials today and he decided to let one of his students get dangerously injured because he wanted him to win." He sighed out, complaining into the phone.
"He did what?" The man sounded both confused and annoyed, his unimpressed tone clear as day to Vali
"Yup, it's this Midoriya kid he's so interested in. Decided that letting him go against his childhood bully in a veritable deathmatch was the smartest thing to do instead of doing his job as an actual teacher. What I'm calling you for is to tell you to smack some knowledge in the oafs head before he gets the brat killed"
"...Haa, you sure know how to man an Old Man's life hard don't you brat? And here I was thinking I'd only have to talk to Toshinori when the Sports Festival came up." The man complained "Fine, put me on the phone with him and I'll talk to him.'
"Give me juuust a minute." He dropped his phone from his ear, knocking on the door to the teacher's office and coming face to face with their Principle.
"Good afternoon Principle Nezu, I'm here to speak to Toshinori, he has a call." The Principle returned his smile and greeting cheerfully.
"Valentine Mizushima, yes good afternoon to you as well! Just give Toshinori a moment to get ready and he'll be out soon." The rodent dipped his head back in the room and gave a single nod before stepping out entirely, closing the door behind him.
"I was actually meaning to talk with you at some point Mizushima, I do hope that you can find time to visit my office this week." The rodent mentioned with a smile, one Vali returned as he debated the reasons In his head.
"I'd be happy to, Principle Nezu. In fact, why don't we discuss this now while my uncle takes his call." He offered, smiling at the teacher.
"Hmm, yes that'd be perfect and I do believe Toshinori is ready inside-" As of summoned the door creaked open, with the much more gaunt man exiting the room. "Ah, Toshinori perfect timing. Young Mizushima here says you have a call and while you take that, we'll be in my office so come and join us when you're done"
The two gave the number one hero smiles as Vali deposited the phone. The last Vali heard as he rounded the corner with Nezu was a high pitched-
"TEACHER?!"
-shriek.
-/-
"So how have you been enjoying your time at UA, Young Mizushima?" Nezu asked as they walked through the building, squeaky voice reminding him of the exceed Natsu and Lisanna raised.
"The lessons are good, a bit boring but that's no fault of the teachers." He assured the animal "However I do have a small problem with both Mr Aizawa and Toshinori that I hope will resolve itself sooner rather than later."
He confessed and luckily the rodent didn't take it negatively, reacting just as Vali assumed he would, with a curious question
"Hmm, has something happened in their classes to make you feel that way?" He didn't get angry nor defensive at his teachers, simply curious about the opinions of his Student and Vali respected that from the small creature.
"Hmm, well the obvious is that Toshinori doesn't have the experience to be good at teaching, something we both know." He shared a small smile at the creature as they entered his office at the top of the building. "However during our combat class at the end of the day, he allowed two students with a personal grudge to fight it out and didn't intervene in the fight despite the High risk that one of the students could get severely injured because of his own biased thoughts towards the said student. If it weren't for the fact that they weren't actively trying to kill each other then one of them may have very well died."
The rat hummed with a frown, sighing as they took their seats in the office. The room was spacious and filled with thousands of books, the walls being converted into bookshelves with ladders positioned at various sides of the room for the small being to climb to reach the higher shelves.
Honest Vali had to stop himself from slavering, he wants to read every book in this room… he'll as the Principle if he can come in and steal some books from time to time
"Haa I see, I knew of Toshinori's inclination to Young Midoriya but I didn't think it was going to be this bad." He didn't comment on the fact the teacher knew the boy he was talking about, cementing the fact that the teacher had also been watching and was scolding his uncle before he interrupted.
"And what about Mr Aizawa, you had some concerns about him as well did you not. Tea?" The Principle asked, pouring himself some tea before offering him some
"Yes please." He graciously accepted, sipping from the cup before finally talking about his homeroom teacher.
"There's nothing wrong with Mr Aizawa perse, I just don't agree with his teaching methods. His first impression to me was that of a man too lazy to do his job." He spoke, getting a hum from Nezu.
"Oh? And why is that?" The creature asked, sipping away at his tea.
"His first act as our Homeroom Teacher was an act of Tyranny, his imminent response to people not meeting his standard was expulsion despite his job being to make us reach the standard." He explained. "At this point, the only people with any kind of formal training in heroics are people who come from heroic families like myself where we have access to resources where we can train our quirks and bodies freely with proper professionals."
He paused to sip his tea. It was some tasty tea.
"In Japan using your quirks in public is illegal and the few places where people can train their quirks are too expensive for most Japanese families, which means that hero students who come from 'normal' families don't have access to the training facilities they'd need to get any decent control of their quirks. Something Aizawa determined to be needed before his impromptu exam." He stated, recalling the ungodly high prices He'd need to pay to use a Quirk Training Facility
"Of Course this was my first impression of the man and we've only met twice but his actions upon my first assessment of him have left him in a negative view. In fact, if the man had expelled one of his students I'd have arranged a meeting with you to either swap classes or arrange to leave the school entirely." He finished the cup, setting it down and locking his eyes to Nezus own "I understand the teacher's ability to expand free reign on teaching methods, but I refuse to learn under a man who cannot bring himself to put forth any effort and expel his problems away instead of stepping up to do his job and teach his students."
The room folded into silence, Nezu finishing his own cup before pouring them both a new cup. The silence wasn't uncomfortable nor tense but it wasn't comfortable either, he had just complained to the man about the actions of one of his teachers after all
"I see." The silence was broken. The teacher smiled at him despite everything. "I'll bring up your concerns to Aizawa when I next see him, anonymously of course."
He shrugged, sipping the delicious tea again.
"I don't particularly care if you tell him it was me who complained or not, if he can't accept criticism and singles me out because of it, then it just cements my opinion of him into fact and I'll see about changing schools as soon as possible." He responded blasely.
If that was the case then He'd transfer to either Shinketsu or a school in either the States, England, China or Australia.
UA isn't an undisputed powerhouse of a hero school after all, and all of these countries had schools alongside UA competing year-round for the title of Top Hero School.
Currently, UA has been in the lead for the last 3 years but its Number 1 status was being threatened by the Australian Hero School, apparently, they had a couple of third-year students who could give even their number 1 student a run for his money.
So yeah, if AU wouldn't accept him then He'd just transfer to another school, probably the English School since it was in his original home country.
"I see… very well then, I'll let Aizawa know you brought up concerns about his teaching style." The rodent said after a moment.
"Thank you." He stopped from the cup before placing it back on the platter it had been handed to him on and crossing his arms. "Now, what did you wish to talk to me about?"
"Hm, oh yes!" The Principle returned to his previous joyous attitude but quickly matched Vali's own expression and Vali knew that that the creature had shifted away from being 'Valentine's Principle' to being 'Principle of U.A High School.'
"As you may be aware, UA hosts their annual Sports Festival within the first month of schooling so that their students may put themselves both on the radar and to allow them to focus on their exams later in the year." The Principle stated, waiting for Vali's confirmation before continuing.
"These last few years the viewer rating has started dropping, people are getting bored from watching the same old festival every year, however, we cannot change anything but the content of the students' first two rounds. We are forced to work within set guidelines that will allow our students to showcase themselves and be challenged, however, that's created a lot of problems as our events are starting to grow stale." He hummed, he understood that.
Don't get them wrong, the UA Sports Festival is still one of the most-watched programs world wide, people tune into it every year to see the students of one of the top 5 showcase their skills, however showing the same things every year will make people stop watching since they'll already know the outcomes of certain fight and events so Nezu and UA needed to bring in something that'll draw the crowds attention and up their viewership.
He understands where this is going now and he smiled. Using his position as Principle to ask a favour huh, it would've worked back in Fiore- it had worked back in Fiore, kinda.
Heh, He'd could always try and get the same deal here hehe had with King Toma and Princess-Turned-Queen Hisui
"As such, we need to do something new that'll draw attention to the tournament and bring our views back under control." The rodent confirmed his thoughts, sipping his tea as he did so
"And you want me to put on a performance before the festival begins right? Cornering me without my agent and even bribing me by letting me vent my frustrations, My, how manipulative Principle Nezu" He spoke, a teasing twist to his voice as he finished his words but neither of them reacted to it. He knew Nezu wanted something and Nezu knew Vali knew what he wanted the moment he started talking about viewership.
This was just courtesy and Vali brought the atmosphere back into a comfortable one.
"That's right, I brought you here to ask how much It's cost us to hire you to perform at the beginning of the UA Sports Festival." The teacher didn't deny his manipulations, simply smiling at the student before him.
He was proud, that much was obvious.
"Hmm, my rate for songs changes depending on the different stipulations the buyer wants to impose. For example, hiring me for 12 songs, so around a full album could cost somewhere around 8.5 Million Yen normally, it'd also let you choose which songs I should play if you have a preference. The price goes up or down depending on the song list, the event and what-not but if I had to guess an estimate that my agent would demand for this I'd say it'd be 9 Million Yen." He did the maths in his head.
He didn't really like discussing performance rates, it was annoying and the price always made him feel like others felt he was arrogant. However, that was just the price of performances.
His current price equated to somewhere between 75,000 and 80,000 dollars. Which, when compared to his fellow artists, was pretty low. Even back when he was alive his current price was low, there were artists out there whose rates were in the millions which were insane.
Sure his rate had been around the same in earthland but that was different.
"I see, so it's around 750,000 Yen per song." The teacher hummed, doing some maths in his head. "To perform 5 songs in 3 different establishments would be 11,250,000 Yen, and mumble, mumble, mumble..."
He closed his eyes as the rodent did his calculations, clearly debating if it was worth it to have Vali travel to the different Stadiums and give performances there or to have him stick to one arena and give a larger, less rushed performance. He let a small smirk cross his face.
"Of Course, we could go a different way." He mentioned opening his eyes and meeting Nezu's own. It probably wouldn't work, the rodent's too smart to let him trick him and unlike in Fiore, he isn't the main attraction people are coming to see.
"And that is?" The creature asked, having already guessed what Vali would say and doing the maths based on previous years to see which was more worth it.
"I'll do the performance for free, but I'll take a percentage of the profits you make off of my performance." He hummed "Normally when a concert happens the promotion gets 15% of ticket sales and the act gets 85% however this works the opposite way since I'm not the main event and just the opening act, so 15% of ticket sales you make."
It was better than the deal he had with the King of Fiore. He'd been able to take 45% of the ticket sales the Grand Magic Games make as well as the rights to sell Fairy Tail merchandise at the stadium itself and bit out in the city.
Oh sure most of the money he gained went right back to the city, he spent a lot of money increasing the lives of people in Magnolia and surrounding villages and towns but he made a shit ton of profit from it all even with the money he was giving away.
"Sadly that won't be possible." The Principal decided after a moment. Shame, but expected.
He tilted his head, a small thought bubbling through his head that brought a frown to his face. It wasn't an exactly great business but it may be worth it.
"Hmm, I can knock the price down and day it's a school ming bonus however I'd like to enforce my own stipulation to that deal." He proposed and at Nezu's look, explained. "You want me to do performances on all the three days the festival spans, if I were to do seven songs at each then it'd cost… 15,750,000 Yen, I'll take that down to just above my usual price and leave it at 10 Million Yen on the conditions that you hold onto… let's say 50 tickets for me in relatively good seats, I'll try and get a more accurate number sometime tomorrow."
"Tickets?" The rodent asked, curiously and he was fine with that. It was a rather strange deal to propose, acts usually got a few tickets to give to friends and family anyways and while he was asking for a lot of tickets, it wasn't really enough to drop his price by 5 million Yen.
The reason for the tickets? Well, it was for his classmates. He had a feeling most of their families would only be able to watch from home as getting tickets was nearly impossible to do. They sold out extremely fast and are pretty expensive, so if they did manage to get tickets it was by our luck
So he said 40 as a roundabout number, he didn't know if anyone had Siblings or whatever so He'd try and find out as best as possible to ensure everyone's families got tickets to their kids first UA Sports Festival.
Similarly, the other 10 tickets were for his closest staff, his agent had always wanted to see a sports festival in person with his wife and kid, his manager was single and Vali knew he watched the festival every year if only to watch something fun so getting him a ticket was just courtesy as is his producing team and band-mates who'd dealt with him for the past year which brought the count up to around 50-ish tickets
He repeated these thoughts out to Nezu, who smiled at him in response making Vali roll his eyes. He's a bit sappy, so what? He'd done this with some of the Fairy Tail lot's parents and family so they could watch their son/daughter/husband/wife/brother/sister/father/mother fight.
"I see, very well then. You don't have to worry about your classmates, I'll sort out tickets for their families. However, if you can find out how many people you're inviting outside of that, at some point in the next two days that'll be grand?" The Principle answered, dragging out a notepad and jotting something down inside of it.
Honestly, it would just take a quick message to his manager to find out how many tickets He'd need. The man didn't like surprises anyway so letting him know about it wouldn't do that much damage.
"Ah, and it seems Toshinori is finished with his phone call." The creature said after a brief glance at his monitor. The two stood up, Vali silently finishing his tea before doing so.
The meeting ended fairly silently after that. The two shared a handshake and a couple more words before Vali fled back to where He'd left All Might, the man shakily handing him his phone, a look of pure horror on his face at being suddenly lectured by his terrifying old master.
He left school that day with a smile on his face that he wouldn't have had without the meeting taking place at the end there.
He liked his Principle. He's a cool dude. Creature. Thing.
So It was at this moment I realised I fucked up. I made Vali the class Dad! He's basically turned into the guy you can go to for your problems! Shit!
Also, I hope y'all liked the whole thing with Nexu at the end, I won't pretend to know much about the whole Music Artist industry but I know enough, also the prices that I have would be around the prices a character like Vali would be going for in the real world for those kinds of performances and not just me pulling numbers out of my ass, like keep in mind that artists like Taylor Swift apparently have rates of $1,000,000 per show or something which is insane compared to the $75,000 or whatever I have Vali going for. Also, this was the thing I was hinting at in the last chapters authors note, I have an idea for a song that I need Vali to sing during this small, 7 song concert that I think will be hilarious when put in the contexts It's gonna be used in
Also If y'all have any song suggestions for this show then let me know, I mean, the chapter will probably be written by the time this is published but I can still ask y'alls opinions!
Also, the conversation with Sorahiko over the phone was supposed to go very differently but then It'd contrast what I've written in the next chapter and I can't be having that. Oh sure I think I've contradicted myself a few times already but this was an important thing Vali was contradicting that will show off more of Vali's skills and intellect. You don't go however long Vali has lived with an Eidetic Memory and not picked up some Sherlock level deduction skills after all! Ah- That was a spoiler, ignore that sorry. Eh, you can probably guess what I'm on about anyway so it doesn't really matter
Ugh, Imma go before I give anymore spoliers.
See Ya!
Vali
P.S. These are catching up way too fast for my liking, I'm barely halfway through chapter 7 and am already posting Chapter 4!
P.P.S. Honestly, I wanted Vali to fully tear into Bakugo and Toshinori but I decided to leave Toshinori to Sorahiko, the old man will know how to best discipline his student after all and Bakugo... well, Vali won't be doing much to him as of now but by the time the sports festival ends Vali will have given the kid a good 'talk'.
P.P.P.S I just had a 6tought about the culture festival because if they do still go with a concert... well Vali's a literal professional musician, I don't see Jiro leading that which basically steal that whole character arc for her and it's just- Ahhhh! I've thought something out but it's annoying still, It'll be fun to do but it takes away basically everything from Jiro