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"All right everyone." Vali began, leaning on the teacher's podium as he addressed the class. "I hope you all had a good rest yesterday, I'm just up here to remind you all that Hound Dog is open for any counselling you may need, if you feel like you need someone to talk to about the other day's events or any problems in general then his office is in the General Studies pillar on the first floor, just ask one of the third years and they'll be able to guide you to him, alright?"
He linked his eyes to a hand full of students as he spoke, Asui had seemingly recovered perfectly. Her stoic look made her hard to read but Vali had been around expressionless people for far longer than that girl had been alive so reading her way easy. She'd most likely taken the day yesterday surrounding herself with her family and coping at the fact she nearly died there.
Similarly, Jirou, Aoyama and Mineta seemed to have recovered perfectly too.
He felt a tad bit worried for Aoyama, the student originally being from France. He was simply renting an apartment in Japan while he studied. He didn't have the chance to surround himself with family since they were all back in Paris.
Luckily Jirou and Mineta were both originally Japanese and had family here. While Jirou wasn't messed up like the other two she'd experienced a lot of backlash from using her quirk like she did. Having to spend most of your day practically deaf after a massive villain attack like they had was bound to be scary.
Mineta was just… well the kid probably just watched porn until he felt better.
He's sure the kid had a decent bone somewhere in his body but… Vali just isn't sure where it is and He'd rather not touch him to try to find out. Just sitting behind the guy was close enough for him.
"With that over with, I've been informed that-" He continued his list of things to talk about when he was rudely cut off
"Morning." Aizawa stumbled through the door, bandages wrapped around his face to hide the damage Nomu had done to his body.
"Mr Aizawa?! You're back?" It seemed the entire class had exclaimed that. Vali smiled at the teacher, having received the news this morning before school had begun, Yaoyorozu had as well if he assumed correctly.
Seriously, Nezu just decided to text them whatever they needed to know is the height of ingenuity and innovation. It means he can just wake up to a dozen texts from the Principle and relay that news to the class!
Oh sure, he's pretty sure this is just a simulation on how news is delivered to Pro's who own agencies but it still saves time soooo much time.
This way he doesn't have to go all the way to the teacher's office or go Nezu's office, listen to them babble on about shit and then relay it to the class. He just gets to check his phone and let everyone know.
Amazing.
"Mr Aizawa, you're alright?" He heard Iida call out, surprise etching his tone as he addressed the teacher.
"Would you really call that All right…?" Uraraka was clearly the saner voice of the too, the fact that Aizawa is wrapped head to toe in bandages doesn't exactly scream 'I'm alright' to anybody.
And if it does then… well they should probably seek medical attention honestly.
"Don't concern yourselves with me." The teacher interrupted as Vali sat back in his chair, understanding that the teacher was taking his role and delivering the most important news of the day "After all, the battle hasn't ended for you all just yet."
He could see the moment people fell into fear. Worry entering students' eyes as they whipped their heads around the room for villains or to confirm their thoughts with their friends. Vali sighed at the scare tactic.
Seriously Aizawa? Now of all times
Haaa, he doesn't know what he was expecting honestly, it's just like the man to do this after such an intense battle for kids with no experience.
...maybe he's forgotten how it feels to be inexperienced? Nah surely not.
While the fight was quite easy for them two except for the whole Nomu thing, he must understand that the kids were completely out of their depth in the battles they had.
Seriously, most of them had never fought a live partner before the attack.
Eh, the man probably knows what he's doing. He'll ask him about it later but it's probably just another one of his future preparation things he does, 'It's simulating facing one extreme one day and another the day after.' That's probably what he'll say if Vali were to ask anyways.
"A SPORTS ESTIVAL?!" The shout was a mix of relief and surprise, after the previous days' events, he has a guess why to both of them. Sadly the class answered his thoughts before he could even speak them. "I KEEP FORGETTING THIS IS AN ACTUAL SCHOOL"
He smothered a sigh, for these kids the sudden rise in excise and tests probably did make them forget it was a school, they spent at least 2 hours a day studying heroics and practising fights, then, of course, they were attacked by villains so the excitement and rush have probably made them forget that this is a proper school that has proper educational standards.
Vali was all too aware that this was still a school.
No matter how much villain activity they simulated, no matter how much exercise they made him do, how much work they threw at him, none of it comes close to what he used to do on a daily basis. Being forced to sit through 3 and a half hours of plain school work just to do 2 hours of exercise isn't enough to make time go faster for him.
"Wait hold up, that sounds like something Villains would try take advantage of to sneak in" It was Jirou who rained on everyone's parade this time, the class had barely begun celebrating before she cut in. He felt a small smile cross his face as he leaned forwards, his head resting on his knuckles as listened to his classmates.
"On the contrary, the school board thinks it's necessary to show that U.A's crisis handling is sound." the bandage wrapped man informed them "I've also been informed that the Polices presence will be five times larger than usual. Anyhow, you shouldn't be thinking of that but of how large an opportunity this presents for you. This isn't some event that can just be brought down by some villains."
He agreed, U.A's sports festival was as globally important as the Olympics used to be. Well, the U.A. Sports Festival alongside the other 5 Schools sports festivals is just as globally important as the Olympics used to be. If something were to happen to one of them then it would catch everyone attention and UA would be under scrutiny by a lot more than just the Japanese Government.
"Our sports festival is one of Japans biggest events." Their teacher interrupted the many conversations that flooded through the room. The man reiterated what Vali had just been thinking regarding the sports festival. "In the days before quirks came around, the Olympics were what brought the nations together, but now, as you know, the population has shrunk and lost a lot of its substance. So what's taken the place of the Olympics in Japan at least is the U.A. Sports Festival"
"The top heroes in the country are bound to be watching us" Yaoyorozu continued, dragging the classes attention to his fellow Class Representative "They'll be scouting us for when we get out of school to take us on as Sidekicks"
Eyes turned to him.
Vali blinked blearily at them, eyebrow-raising up his brow at the exchange
"What, they've already covered it all." He muttered before sighing. "Haa fine, speech, speech… Ah, here we go."
He sat up and turned to face the class, plastering a smile on his face as they leaned forwards, ready to hear his oh so inspirational words of divine wisdom-
"Do your best out their guys, you'll need it!" He gave them a thumbs up, chuckling as they faltered at the words before sighing
"Alright seriously this time. The Yuuei Sports Festival is one of only Five Events World-Wide that garners global attention, it's during this event where eyes from all around the world will tune in and watch your every action, the results of the sports festival can determine if you'll be stuck as a side-kick or if you'll have the potential to join the ranks of a World Hero" The class gulped, seeing the sudden weight he'd thrown on them "You only get three chances at the sports festival, once every year you attend UA. Here in your first year, results don't matter, people are simply here to see the new students and take notes to compare when you're third years, however, you'll also have the eyes of politicians and governments worldwide, they'll scrutinise you for every action and compare you to their own hero hopefuls. Who knows, If you perform for them well enough, you may even receive an offer to study for a year internationally or you may even be offered a place at a different nations table of heroes"
He trailed off into silence, closing his eyes as he let those thoughts stew.
"As Mizushima said, not only will the top heroes be watching you but powerful figures worldwide will be too" Their teacher finally continued "It doesn't matter to you first years since everyone will be more interested in our third years but It pays well to be aware of the eyes that follow you, so you better perform well and catch their attention, it may make or break your hero career."
The class slowly returned to its usual chatter after he ruined their parade. Could he have left that out and let them have a fun day without worry? Yeah, he could've, but this event was extremely similar to the Grand Magic Games and if there's anything he learned from playing those games every year it was that people loved watching large games to decide whose superior or not.
After Fairy Tail lost the first few years the number of jobs they received was the lowest they'd ever had, while a nobody guild like Sabertooth was able to become one of the most wanted guilds in the world. When he finally returned and pulled them out of their losing streak Fairy Tails influence spread across the borders, he'd received jobs in different continents let alone in different Ishgarian countries
Sure he knew a lot of Ishgarian Royalty by the time he returned to Fiore but they daren't send the guild jobs without it looking bad on their own guilds. The GMG made it so people could send guilds jobs in other countries without it looking too bad on their own people, it also had a ripple effect of having various other countries make their own GMG's.
It just goes to show how important something so silly can be, the GMG quadrupled Fairy Tails notoriety and made a guild nobody knew of a household name. He knows for a fact that the same rules apply to the UA sports festival. The other 4 top hero schools will be watching the Festival to see their future rivals, governments worldwide will be watching to find any talent they can hopefully sway to their own nations and heroes around the globe will watch to see if there are any future heroes they can swoop ina d steal to train as either sidekicks or successors of their own.
It was something that happened quite clearly with All Might.
He'd been a UA student for all three years but made such a great impression on people that he received an offer to study at a Hero College in America, an offer he took happily. He then went on to join the American Hero force for a few years before wandering the planet and dominating crime globally. Eventually, he did return to Japan where he settled down but his performance in the UA Sports Festivals was what made him as famous as he is.
It's the exact same thing with Star and Stipe, Ruyi Jingu Bang, Leshy and the other Deviants that studied at the highest Hero Schools in the world.
They shook the world with how powerful they were and gained scholarships and references from all across the globe, becoming so much more than household names and inscribing their Heroics into history like every deviant before them and all those that'll come after them will.
"Naturally" Aizawa brought him from his thoughts and Vali wiped the frown that formed on his face off of it, painting on the leisurely smile he usually supported nowadays "Entering the agency of a famous hero will get you a higher status and more experience. Remember that your time here is limited, if you get noticed by a Pro then that gives you a higher standing than you would have otherwise."
"As Mizushima said." The Pro continued after a brief pause "You only get this chance three times in three years, If you want to make it as heroes then this is a chance you cannot miss"
-/-
"I mean, I knew it was coming but now that It's here the tension is rising high!" Kirishima exclaimed, excited at the prospect of the sports festival. The redhead had dragged Vali to his other friends while Ashido, Yaoyorozu and the other girls hung out at the back of the class
"If we put in the effort and stand out to a pro It'll be a massive leap forward in our future!" Sero joined in the excitement, Sato agreeing with the two excited boys while Vali and Tokoyami watched on.
"Everyone's so hyped up" Midoriya spoke to Iida, the two of them standing just behind their group.
"Don't you feel so, too?" the Blue haired boy asked, practically vibrating in his spot for… some reason "You've enrolled into UA to become a Hero, so getting fired up is only natural!"
"Iida's got a really odd way of releasing his passion, ribbit" Tsuyu spoke up, Ahido giving an agreement seconds later as the class turned to the engine-legged boy
"Deku, Iida..." Now everyone turned to Uraraka, the girl's eyes shadowed under her fringe, a frankly sadistic grin on her face as she addressed her friend group "The Sports Festival. Let's crush it."
"What up with her? Uraraka's being kinda not Uraraka?" Ashido muttered and Vali smiled. It was good to know that everyone was intermingling with each other ad leaving no one out. Well, no one who didn't want to be left alone that is.
"She's just excited is all" He nudged the girl's shoulder with his own, smiling down at the pink girl "It's the first time the public will really be noticing any of you guys ad it's the official start to your hero career. What's there not to be excited about? Can you honestly say you weren't excited when you first started learning to dance?"
"Yeah but this… is soooo different from the normal Uraraka." She deadpanned
"Eh, we all show our excitement in different ways, hers is just more… sadistic than usual." He shrugged, smiling all the same.
"Guys! I'm gonna crush this!"
"Yup, definitely more sadistic than usual aha"
-/-
Vali sighed, resting his head on his desk as the day's Hero Studies came to a closure. He knew it was coming, even if the rest of the class didn't, but not every hero lesson will be action lacked or even have then doing anything, such as today where their two-hour session consisted of the laws heroes have to follow
In itself the lesson is extremely useful, however, it was just so boring to listen to, something his classmates were agreeing to if their groaning and complaints meant anything
"You alright dude?" He pushed himself upright, narrowing his eyes at Jirou who smirked at him
"Yeah, everything's just gonna be busy for the next few weeks before the festival." He sighed, ignoring the massive group of people who were gathering outside their classroom.
He knew why they were coming and he couldn't be bothered to deal with their bullshit. Plus, he has to spend the next two weeks messing around with all the instruments he needs for the sports festival. He couldn't in good conscious make the band perform on their day off so he was doing literally all of this in secret
The only person who knows is his manager since the man doesn't like surprises and was, therefore, the only person to know that Vali had taken a gig at the sports festival.
His producer, agent and band hadn't been told anything yet since he hadn't got the physical tickets from Nezu to surprise them so they didn't know.
Which made it awkward since his producer was the one helping him make the instrumental track for the performance
"Geez, by the look on your face I can only wonder what's going on." She didn't ask questions which was nice, not that she wasn't curious, it was written in her smirking face but she didn't push.
He wouldn't have told her if even she did.
He wanted it to be a surprise for everyone that their class president was running late only to suddenly hear fucking boss music before the festival started and find out last minute that Valentine Mizushima was making a concert out of the Sports Festival.
Heh, he always loved watching the sunrise on people's faces when he took over big events like that.
Fairy Tail had been surprised the first time he showed up at the GMG to perform, the Tenrou members had been shocked as fuck to see him perform at the GMG and he also did that thing where he went around Fiore playing random shows in random towns and cities, the surprise on people's faces were legendary.
He has no doubts that this will be just as good.
"It wouldn't be so bad if I had more time to get it done but I'm just gonna be rushing a lot." He admitted as he left his seat "My Manager has me doing a ton of meeting next week and I have interviews to do because of the Erza EP I released the other day."
Yeah, He'd just started naming his albums and EP's after people from Earthland, to be honest. So far gender released the Gildarts Album which was basically just a bunch of sex songs in disguise, a Laxus EP which was a mix of EDM and Rock and Roll, the Rogue Album was just a bunch of emo and punk songs and the list went on and on
The Erza album was named as such since most of the stuff in there were either breakup songs or songs that had to do with love.
Oh, he was well and truly over Erza, He'd gotten over her way before he returned to Fairy Tail but she was also his first 'love' so he felt like it's only fitting that her album is dedicated to songs about love and heartbreak. It was either that or songs to do with fighting and he was saving most of them for either the Fairy Tail album, the Ishgar Album or the Mizushima Album - he hasn't decided on a name yet.
He's been busy this past year, releasing ep after ep, single after single because there was literally nothing else to do
'Actually…' He paused, humming noncommittal to himself, casting his eyes over Jirou much to her confusion 'I could probably bring Jirou into it, she clearly wants to break out into music and will relish in the prank itself. Could be a good way of helping a new friend and having some fun'
"Hey." He nudged her, watching Uraraka approach the door from the corner of his eye "Is it alright if I call you later? I need to talk to you about some stuff in private"
Now that dragged eyes towards them, Vali ignored the gaping mouths and wide eyes; however, Jirou wasn't so experienced, which was clear from the blush that had crawled up her cheeks. Honestly, the sight made Vali grin, He'd never view any of his classmates in a romantic light, he was much too old for that now and they were just kids to him, but making people flustered was a fun pass time for Vali.
His usual targets were usually royalty though.
There's nothing better than watching a Princess or a Queen go bright red because you made an innuendo or referenced something only they got. He can still remember meeting Melody for the first time, just giving the teenage queen a wink made her entire body turn red with embarrassment, let alone when their relationship turned sexual and he made references to their… 'Study sessions'
Heh, those fucking Geezers loved to Hound in him for making his songs too sexual not knowing he was banging their queen over the drum set they provided him.
Ahh, good times, good times.
"W-Huh? I- ugh, yeah sure, Jeez you didn't have to make it sound so weird dude." He chuckled, ignoring the punch he received in favour of laughing.
"Don't worry it's not like that just some stuff-"
"Oh- Woah, what the heck?" Uraraka shouted from the door, the large object flung open to reveal a hundred bodies crowing the only entrance - and therefore exit - to the room
"They're crowding the exit, what are they even here for?" It was Mineta who shouted this time, confused as to what was happening like the rest of the class.
Vali rolled his eyes as Bakugo pushed past the smaller student, all the swagger in the world and with a bark as bad as his bite he confronted the crowd
"They're scoping out the competition idiot, they wanna see the students who experienced a villain ambush. They're checking us out before the sports festival." The blonde turned his nose up, jutting his chin out as Vali and the rest of the class circled the door.
"It's pointless to try so why don't you just fuck off you two but extra." The angry pomeranian finished, snarl on his face.
Vali sighed, pushing himself forward to stand next to the blonde but didn't comment on his language as Iida did in the background. As the face of the class, He'd stand with the blonde, as annoying as he is he was right as to why they appeared and if they were gonna act like he knew idiots would act then He'd be breaking either somebody's nose or spirit before the days end
"I'm a bit disappointed, is that really it?" A purple-haired, purple-eyed boy pushed himself to the front of the crowd and Vali felt the frown form on his face the moment his face became clear. So this is the idiot he'll be breaking this time, he's… pathetic
"There are lots of kids who end up in the General Studies department or other departments because they can't make it into the Hero Course, did you know that?" He monologues and Vali rolled his eyes, much to everyone's visible consternation "And based on the results of the sports festival, people can even come under review to be transferred to heroics and the reverse is also the same."
A beat passed, Vali rolled his eyes as his lower-scoring classmates tensed
"Hey, why don't we pull the rug out from those heroic kids while they're on their high horses?" The kid spoke, addressing the internal thoughts of everyone crowding the door.
"Consider this a declaration of War."
Vali couldn't help it.
He snorted, a laugh escaping him at the words.
This? A declaration of War? How… cute
"What? Do you have a problem with that?" The kid asked with a frown, anger in his tone and Vali had to force himself to stop laughing and speak
"Haa, honestly kid I was expecting something when I felt you just show up outside our classroom but God this takes the cake, seriously how fucking pathetic can you be? It's laughable really, damn, you must've felt so badass giving that speech and for what? It was pathetic." He chuckled, patting the guys shoulder with a laugh
"You call that a declaration of War? Dude, I know 12-year olds that's delivered worse threats than that. You want to be scary? Then at least try to make us feel threatened instead of making some half-assed comments to try to scare us." He chuckled "I mean seriously you came all the way out here just for that? God dude you're literally an entire building away, you must've run here to give that speech."
He snorted once again, becoming serious right after.
"Did it ever occur to you that you failed the hero exam for a reason?" He smiled, watching the kid scowl with anger "No, shh think for a second. You're gonna say some stupid bullshit about how your quirk doesn't help right? How is the exam only for those with physically strong quirks that work on robots? Am I right?"
He let the silence continue, watching the kid intently to force the answer from his lips
"...Yes." He grits out eventually, teeth grinding together as he spoke
"Did you ever consider hero points? Midoriya over there scored 6th in the entire exam on hero points alone, no villain points at all, and do you really think that Hagakure and Mineta over there could destroy those robots with their bare hands?" He bobbed his head to his fellow students, the physically weakest in the class with no offensive quirks. "Face it, dude, you failed the exam because you don't have what it takes. If you read the hand out it clearly explains the multiple ways to defeat the Villains and while having a powerful quirk helps, if you can't face foes your quirk doesn't work on then you're just gonna be another casualty."
He sighed, patting the kid's shoulder
"Maybe instead of 'declaring war' or whatever that little lion cub display just before was, you should focus on actually attempting to make yourself a better hero first." He sighed, pushing forward and splitting the crowd as he did
That didn't have his usual bite to it, he just wasn't feeling it today he guessed.
Shame, He'd have liked to destroy the kid's heart and spirit and make him rethink all his life choices
"HEY!" He paused, groaning under his breath "I HEARD YOU FOUGHT SOME VILLAINS OR WHATEVER SO I CAME HERE TO HEAR IT FROM YOU DIRECTLY BUT I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT FROM SOME SNOT NOSED PUNK! DON'T EMBARRASS US DURING THE MAIN EVENT YA HEAR!"
He paused, eyebrow twitching as he turned to the voice
"Haa, it just seems like none of you gets it." He dropped his bag and as the first piece of fabric touched the ground spikes of water shit up from the ground, the tips of the sharp water just tickling their chins.
"At this point, I can't tell if it's ignorance or sheer arrogance. You want to declare war? fine then consider this my victory since all of you would be dead if I was trying to kill you"
He turned locked his eyes on the frozen, shouting kid
"Yes, we did fight villains. They nearly killed all of us because they wanted to fight our teacher, they decided to show up, lock us all up and surround us with over two hundred villains with unknown fighting abilities, quirks and knowledge, a guy who can teleport seemingly everywhere, a guy who can turn whatever he touches into dust and a creature with the strength, speed, Endurance and durability to fight All Might." He painted the picture "From that event, only one person was injured, all of the Villains bar two of them were captured. Do you have any idea how terrifying that can be? Should I just show up at your home one day and throw your little sister into an open fire? Should I hang your mother from a window and make her guess when I'll finally drop her to her death? Should I force your father to gouge his eyeballs out to spare his child's life? Should I appear in the middle of the night and kidnap your entire family giving you only a letter of their whereabouts to guide you? Should I blind you and tie you down and make you listen as I torture your family-"
"Vali." He felt a hand hit his arm and he scowled
"Ahem." He cleared his throat, baking down from his rant "So yes, we fought villains. Happy? What else did you say, oh yes you called me a snot-nose punk but how am I the punk when you show up outside our classroom, for no reason and start shouting at us for something outside of our control. It seems to me the brats here, are you. Does Vlad King not teach you anything in your lessons? Is humility not a thing you know? Because I can teach it to you here and now."
The water sharpened and relaxed, He'd gotten riled in his speech and the water reacted, slowly moving closer and closer to the student's throats, ready to kill them as they'd done time and time again but he knew restraint even without Yaoyorozu intervening
He wouldn't have killed them.
Scratch and maim them? Yup
But kill? No, he'd given up killing
"Finally you said to not embarrass the hero course in the main event." He sighed, picking up his bag again and walking through the stiff crowd "The only embarrassments I see here are you lot. You want to become hero course students? Learn some fucking dignity before screaming in our faces, you don't see us showing up in front of your classrooms and threatening an endless field of death, torture and destruction on you when exam season comes around."
He hummed as he exited the crowd
"Actually… maybe I should declare war on you all for exams, I do have the highest grades in this school." He chuckled "Really it says more about you than it does me, I'm currently the top-ranked student in three out of the four departments for 1st Years and that's only because I haven't tried to compete in the support course"
-/-
"[So what was earlier about?]" Jirou asked over the phone. It had taken them a while before they started talking since Jirou had to get back to her home in Mustuafu and Vali had to get to his recording studio - His recording station or whatever being called Atlas Studios - and up to the studio He'd basically been given complete control over
What? He was like, their biggest named artist or something so He'd been given a private studio in the building
"Eh, that fucking kid annoyed me. I mean seriously who do they think they are, declaring war or whatever." He snorted at the reminder, messing around with a guitar as he lounged around the empty room.
"[I mean, I get it but you went pretty far, dude. The spears, the speech, it was pretty intense]" She admitted and he could hear the worry in her voice as she did, probably trying to broach the subject but not wanting to offend him
"Yeah I get it, I just have shitty experiences with people like that. The purple guy doesn't understand what he's talking about and that's stupid. He wants to be a hero but he has no muscle mass, he clearly lacks the mental fortitude to be a hero and he blames others for his own failures." He sighed, putting the guitar to the side and putting the phone back to his ear, taking the device off speaker
"As you can tell, I like letting people see the consequences for their thoughts. You all saw that first hand at the USJ. One wrong move and we'd have all died, those guys don't understand that and they need to if they want to be heroes, just sprouting some half-assed words won't help you become a Hero."
"[Yeah, I guess.]' She sighed, accepting her fate. Vali heard her shuffle around, the muffled notices coming through the phone before she changed subjects "[So who'd you want to call me anyway? Couldn't you have just told me at school?]"
"Nah, this is like, top secret." He admitted, smiling as he closed his eyes "Principle Nezu asked me to put on a mini-concert before the Sports festival."
He heard her gasp through the phone
"Cool right?"
"[Uhh, yeah! That's sick dude!]"
"Yup, I'm trying to make some original music for the festival which is why my weeks gonna be busy." He admitted with a frown before smiling again "So anyways, I was wondering if you'd be down to help me with some of the stuff. I have to do all the instrumentals myself and I could use a female voice to do some backup vocal-"
"[YES]" He chuckled at the excited shout, the girl clearing her throat as she heard his laughter "[I mean, yeah sure dude, I'll help.]"
He laughed, the noise filling the soundproof room
"Thanks, Jirou, it's nothing major, just some backup vocals and instrumentals- uhh, you do know how to use a guitar or whatever right?" He asked, already knowing the answer but wanting the confirmation just in case
"[Oh, yeah I can play a ton of instruments]" She admitted sheepishly, he could just picture her rubbing her neck in embarrassment right now. The thought nearly made him chuckle but he managed to hold it in
"Good, good. So yeah, over the next two weeks if you can help me do all this I'll help you prepare for the sports festival, it's only fair after all. There's a Quirk Gym around here which we can go to after the session to train and stuff if you're down that is."
"[Hell yeah dude]" He smiled
"Well, I hope you're free for the next two weeks because you're gonna be joining the extremely busy schedule of Valentine Mizushima." He chuckled, "Just make sure you don't have anything going in after school and to let your parents know you'll be home late for the next two weeks."
He paused
"Oh, you may also want to grab some extra clothing and sleepwear in case we end up sleeping in the studio." He told her "You'd be surprised at how often that happens."
Day 1
"Welcome to Hell Jirou." He greeted her with a smile, kicking open the doors to the gym he'd more or less bought. It was actually a collective effort from his and Toshinori to be honest, for some reason the man had never really felt the need to use a gym that wasn't basically given to him.
He'd used the UA school gym in school then the gym in the American school he went to, as a hero in America he used a gym for heroes and so on and so on until one was built into his agency building.
When Vali came along, he all but demanded that he have a private gym somewhere. They'd eventually decided to split the costs between them since he wasn't as rich as he used to be and they shared the gym, though Vali's sire Toshi had only used their private gym a couple of times while Vali was in all the time.
They'd gotten a permit to train their quirks inside of it as well, so Vali spent a while testing his magic in here to see if anything had changed.
Nothing had, he later found out.
"...did you really call this place hell?" He chuckled at the deadpan. Yup, he had indeed decided that this place should be called hell, his previous students all said they'd rather be in hell than with him so he figured if he made hell then there'd be no way they could ever escape his curious grasp.
He chuckled darkly, not noticing the shiver that ran down Jirou's spine as she started debating whether she'd make it to the door in time before he noticed her attempted escape.
"Yup, you'll see why soon~" He promised, watching her shoulders slump for some odd reason. He interrupted her escape, not that he knows that of course.
"Anyways, tour time!" He cheered.
The building itself was rather small, only having three rectangular rooms that separated the building. The first room had been renovated and split in half and was effectively the locker room. Since the gym was only intended for Vali and Toshinori they didn't really need gender-based changing rooms or lockers since they'd simply come to the gym in their clothes.
However, as the smart one of the pair, Vali decided to have a couple of changing booths and lockers put in the building in case they eventually brought someone along with them to the gym
Which was proving useful right now since Jirou would've been forced to change in the bathroom and leave her clothes in her bag somewhere in the gym. It would also mean that Midoriya can leave his stuff in the gym since Vali's sure Toshinori had given the kid a set of keys or whatever.
(Toshinori had not, in fact, given Midoriya a set of keys. He hadn't even told Midoriya of this place yet since he didn't want the kid running into Vali before he was accepted into UA and- okay, he forgot alright! Sue him, Vali would've destroyed the kid had they met when he first started training the green bean!)
Vali sneezed, as Jirou came out from the locker room.
"Bless you."
"Thanks" He smiled, looking over the clothes before shrugging. If that's what she's comfortable in then he won't complain. "Right so, those were the changing rooms me and my Uncle down usually need them but they're great for guests, there should be a locker in there as well for your stuff just throw it in there, nobody can really take it."
Someone had attempted to break into the place one day. Luckily Vali needed a sparring partner and… well, let's just say the guy gave up crime after that particular experience.
"Done?" He asked as Jirou returned, bag missing and carrying her phone. He hummed, she never seemed to wear headphones so… her earphone jacks can act as a connecter and send the music into her brain?
...does her skull work like a record player then? The grooves - or in this case vibrations - creating the music inside of her mind and playing it for her?
...thoughts for a different time.
"Right this way." He led her through the building, pushing through a set of double doors into the smaller of the two rooms which were home to the miniature gym.
Mirrors lined the walls, going from the floor to the ceiling and reflecting everything in the room with racks of dumbbells laying perfectly in front of them. In the corner of the room, where small windows let in the sun a trio of treadmills lay, each looking as new as the day they'd been made. Similarly, exercise bikes, Rowing Machines, barbells- everything a gym would need was packed in the room. Speakers were snuggly placed in the corners of the room, ready to blast whatever music Vali wanted to listen to, a water machine was pressed into one of the walls and-
Well, just imagine the most perfect home gym you could ever think of and that's basically what this room was. It was designed by two nutcases obsessed with training and keeping themselves up to scratch with near-unlimited money.
Of course, it was gonna be amazing.
After finishing this room, they moved on to the third and final room of the building, The Vault.
While not as amazing as the original training fields he used, The Vault was as good a replacement place as He'd get without buying an entire island to mess around with or take all his training out to the middle of the ocean to play around with and He'd been told in no uncertain terms that he isn't allowed to do the latter in case he causes a tsunami and 'attacks' another nation or whatever.
Anyways, The Vault is a mostly empty room having only a couple of punching bags and steel dummies.
...yeah, they'd had to buy steel dummies…
...yeah, they both could still destroy steel dummies with little effort but buying something else was just annoying to do.
They were already spending so much money replacing those dummies so often. Ascalon just slides through them so nicely and the number of times All Might send a dummies head shooting into the sky like He'd hit it with a baseball bat was too much to count
"Welp, this will be one half of your new home for the next two weeks Jirou." He nudged her shoulder, the girl turning to face him resolutely, 'ready' for the upcoming tort- training.
Heh
-/-
Day 2
"VALI YOU BASTARD! I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!"
"NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!"
-/-
Day 3
"You've… never actually fought anyone before have you Jirou?" He couldn't help but ask, watching the girl's rather shitty attempt at a boxing stance. He dragged his hand down his face with a sigh, this is gonna be a long week
"What gave it away?" The question was both curious and annoyed, the purple-haired girl frowning behind her fists.
Luckily she seemed to know the basics of how to fight, she had her fists made correct and her arms were in decent placement, her footwork was horrible though and it was obvious she didn't really know what she was doing other than punching forwards.
"...haaa, literally everything." He closed his eyes before dropping into the correct stance, "Right, so you need to bring your arms up like this…"
-/-
Day 5
"One, nothing wrong with me
Two, nothing wrong with me
Three, nothing wrong with me
Four, nothing wrong with me
One, something's got to give
Two, something's got to give
Three, something's got to give now
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Hey! Come!
Hey! Come!
Hey! Come!
Hey! Come!-
I think that's enough for now Jirou." Vali smiled, turning the music off when the final crash of the drums played. This was one of his many attempts to recreate Drowning Pool's song 'Bodies' however he just didn't have the voice for it, He'd have to pawn it off eventually to some better heavy metal artist but for now, it was simply Vali screaming the lyrics in the mic.
Why were Bodies playing? Well, Vali and Jirou were doing quirk training and Vali decided that not every situation a person's in will be at a manageable level, hence he played the loudest sing he knew and put it at full volume.
The first… half-hour had been painful, mainly because he was just watching Jirou squirm on the ground as the building shuck itself to the song, blood eventually started dripping from her eyes and he debated stopping and letting her recuperate but she managed to push through and attempt to continue his training-
"HUH?" Vali winced at the shout "WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU?"
...He'd forgotten about that
Whoops.
-/-
Day 7
"You know, a while ago I did something similar to this with a friend." He said, lounging on the sofa inside the studio. Day 7 of Jirou's hell week was a rest day, which effectively meant that they were simply staying in the studio all day so Vali could practise, Jirou could record her parts in his songs and so she could rest her body.
"Really? How'd that work out?" Jirou groaned
"Well, it was in preparation for this test we had to take. The girl, Levy-" Jirou's eyes widened for a moment, shooting him a look as she no doubts remembered the interview he gave the day of the break-in which he first mentioned Levy in this world "She was my partner. We were given a week to prepare so we had a hell week, not unlike this one and I can distinctly remember telling her why I train as hard as I do, why I trained her as hard as I do."
"And…?"
Vali closed his eyes, recalling the day in perfect clarity, a small smile slipping onto his face as he did.
"I said to her 'One thing you need to remember Levy is that people only see the result, they don't care or know the journey. People look at All Might and see this immensely powerful man who earned his spot upon the top of the world because of his strength, but All Might also trained, he pushed himself for years to get that strong, taking decades to become as powerful as he is. All Might is a master of multiple forms of combat and is proficient in many more styles too, he didn't cheat to get that power by taking enhancing drugs or a knowledge downloading quirk or whatever, he earned that power through sheer strength of will'" He paraphrased the conversation, shifting the tone away from Master Makarov and onto the teacher they share experiences with
"When people look at Me, Todoroki, Bakugo or Yaoyorozu they only see the results." He continued "They see me, a Deviant whose control over the ocean is terrifying. They see Bakugo who can make massive explosions with ease or Todoroki who can freeze entire buildings and Yaoyorozu who can make anything but don't see the things we went through to get there."
He paused, sighing.
"Bakugo pushes himself a lot every day to keep his strength up. He's not only physically strong but agile, he can equate how best to use his quirk calculating how gravity will affect him and how the situation works with or against him all in mere minutes. Todoroki has only shown himself using sheer brute force to the class but the control and fitness he has over his ice are insane, the fact he can simply generate heat without the fire most fire emitters need is extremely advanced stuff that most fire users never achieve." He complimented
"And Yaoyorozu… well the less said about her the better, she has to memorise thousands of chemical formulas to create what she needs and can do so with memory alone. The memorisation skills needed for that is crazy and the fact she can do it so seamlessly is scary, the amount of time she's had to of spent going over the molecular structure and the chemical formula is mind-boggling. It wouldn't surprise me if she finished her studies at school and then spent hours at home re-reading the formula of the most important things a hero would need because she has to know those things." He continued, cringing at the amount of work his Vice President had to do
"When people look at you Jirou, all they'll see is some girl in a punk outfit with earphone jacks that expel her heartbeat, they don't know the inner workings of your quirk, they don't care about the inner workings of your quirk. The only people who know the journey is you and it's up to you whether or not the journey is worth the goal." He finished, sighing as the room descended into silence.
-/-
Day 9
"You ready?" He asked, watching from the sideline as Jirou approached the large orb of pitch-black water.
"As I'll ever be." Earphone jacks plunged into the pitch-black depths, disappearing from view and seemingly not doing anything when-
Voomp
A ripple formed on the surface. Then two. Then four. Six. Eight. Ten. Twenty. Fourth. Eighth- the ball started vibrating, moving like crazy as the vibrations begged to escape, to explode out of the bubble and into the air but Vali's bubble held strong, as he knew it would. This was just a test, after all, to see if she could do it.
The water continued to move, waves forming along the bubble, splashing out into the air and sending small droplets through the air. He kept her doing this for as long as she could, making her work until it was physically painful on her or until she was tired enough to stop.
He was testing her Endurance at her maximum capacity, forcing the soundwaves to be trapped in the water allowed her to work at her fullest without damaging anything or deafening people while letting her set her own limits.
"Well, you've definitely improved." He said as she tapped out, looking down at the timer in his hands. "A week ago you could barely go all put for a minute but now you can hold on for around 5, the power you were putting out as well was scary, you'd demolish a building with it if you aren't careful."
He didn't mention she'd have to have one of her earphone jacks in every support pillar to do it but it was amazing nonetheless, enough to split the ground open and generate tiny, tiny earthquakes and fissures.
She wasn't quite at Cobra's level but Erik was in his twenties when Vali took on his training, plus his sound magic was much stronger and much more versatile than Jirou's earphone jacks
He passed her a bottle of water
"Drink up, we'll take a break and let your heart slow down before doing actual training. I hope this shows you how well you're progressing." He smiled, chucking the stopwatch into the corner of the room as he left for the gym.
Today was leg day, which meant he was not gonna be having fun.
-/-
Final Day
"Well, this is it Jirou." He sighed, watching his friend from across the room as she plucked the strings of a guitar. "You've spent two weeks going through hell training as well as messing around with me here in the studio, if there's anything you need to do or say then now's your chance."
Vali was only saying this since He'd called his boss earlier. The guy who owns the label, the one All Might saved and handed him over to, was waiting for them in his office on the top floor of the building. Oh He'd told the man by now that he was writing some songs for the sports festival, the man had his tickets already and had worked out why he was spending so much time in the booth
The reason he was waiting for them was because he saw his top star working with some random amateur instead of with one of the many other artists employed on the label, he'll one of his band members usually does his backup vocals and adlibs so why is this random here?
Well, it was all for Jirou's future.
She'd confessed to him during the week that it was a dream of her parents and herself to make it big so an artist, that while her main goal is to be a hero she also wants to make a stand in the music scene as he has so Vali gave her a few tests, let her play around with the instruments, get to know the studio, do some covers and originals all that stuff and let the boss man listen in and decide if she had potential.
She does, the big man decided, and he wants her to join the studio.
Vali understood it, getting your hands on any young talent is a boon, especially one that will no doubt make it big from the connections she's formed with Vali and will form as a hero, so he wants to grab her as soon as possible.
This test? Just to see if she has the initiative to ask for her dreams.
Oh if she didn't ask by the time they left he'll still tell her, the offer is open and on the table, she can come and take it whenever she wants really but this is simply for Vali's satisfaction.
Nothing is handed to you in a silver platter and if it is then there's always a catch. For Jirou, she's already gone through the catch, she's had to prove she's worth the offer given to her and this was only the last part before her unknown prize. He wouldn't give her a recommendation because she's his friend, he doesn't work that way.
If you want something from Vali then you need to prove you're worth it to Vali.
And Jirou had more than proved she was worth it. She'd dealt with his Hell Training with minimal complain, she put up with him in the booth and delighted in the chances to mess around in a professional studio to record her own stuff. She'd taken the initiative to stand out, whether she did that knowingly or not is unknown, but she'd done it nonetheless-
"Vali…" He quirked his eyebrows, keeping his face as stoic as possible as he waited for her question "Would it… be possible if we can do this again?"
He refused a sigh, not quite the answer he wanted but it was also sufficient to what he needed to hear. It was her putting herself forward but her own insecurities probably made her think she hadn't proven anything yet.
Basically, she'd both passed and failed his test.
He smiled and leaned back, pulling his phone out his pocket and-
17:08
-Yup, the boss man is still there.
"Let me give you a counter-proposal." He sat forwards, linking his fingers together and resting on his knees "We won't do this again-"
He watched her deflate
"-as friends." He watched the confusion etched on her face, delighting in the confusion that she displayed. "Right now, upstairs, my boss is waiting for me in his office to see if I thought you were good enough to sign on. For the past week, I've been giving you small tests to see if you're capable. So, Jirou, do you want to do this again, not as friends, but as co-worked?"
Yo!
Well, I don't have much to say about this chapter really, the final part of the chapter was a kind of throw-back to when Vali took his S-Class exam, which I referenced in the main fic itself and the whole speech thing about All Might was basically a word for word copy of Vali speech to Levy in TSoG but changed from Master Makarov to All Might. I also started this chapter off with the whole shit with Shinso and Tetsutetsu which was annoying but fun to write. I wasn't really in the mood to write a scene like that which is why it wasn't the best but I hope I got across Vali's point of view well enough
Oh! I'm really annoyed. So I was reading this Mushoku Tensei fanfiction that one of the favourite authors started writing and it made me want to write one as well but I just have so many problems with the Mushoku Tensei world that makes me not even want to read it to make changes with an OC. Which is annoying since I basically have the OC all but planned out. It was also going to play a part in the whole trilogy idea I've been thinking of doing with Vali-
I've never explained that before, whoops. Well, y'all get a sneak peek before the Slayer of Gods lot so here we go-
I want to write a trilogy of fanfiction all set in different worlds with three different OC's, each using a different kind of slayer magic. Vali, obviously, embodies God Slayer Magic. This new OC I wrote, Aurelius - or Aura for short - was going to me by take on a Sky Dragon Slayer/Tempest Dragon Slayer set in the Mushoku Tensei world, I know we get a lot of Sky Dragon Slayer Magic in canon FT but Aura and Wendy would use their magic very differently, Wendy/Sherria were definitely more healing focused and didn't really display a great level of attacks while Aura would be a healer second and an attack mage first. I don't know what I want to do with a Demon Slayer but I've debated putting them in One Piece, however that would be super cheaty since, well, Devil Fruits.
Anyways, now I have this character all planned out, I'm enjoying how he feels, I have a whole document full of attacks and spells for him and- I can't use him because I despise the Mushoku Tensei world.
FUCK!
Ugh, anyways I'll see y'all later.
Ciao!