A Machine's Purgatory

TRAIN 'TIL YOU DROP: TESTING MEMORIES

V1 found out early on that Class 1-A had a problem when it came to their fighting: most of them  relied exclusively on their quirks. Using a quirk to fight was not a bad thing, but V1 knew the class needed at least basic knowledge of self defense to perform as good heroes (plus it may help in the sports festival). Meeting with Aizawa the next day, V1 was looking at the terminal in the teacher's lounge. Nezu had promised to get V1 a functional work station by the end of the sports festival since most of U.A's financing was being spent on it, so the machine had to make due with the terminal and a laptop. The laptop, precariously set up on top of the terminal it was plugged into, was slowly feeding basic info about 1-A's students into it's database. Seeing as it had 10 minutes before it was finished transferring, V1 headed to the lunchroom to refuel for the day.

The lunch rush cafeteria was packed today, with students talking about their upcoming classes and plans for after school. V1 slipped into the kitchen, finding a bucket filled with blood and a note attached to it.

'This is all the extra blood I had while cooking. I wouldn't expect much in the future, as there is also some from before the USJ.'

V1 dipped its arm into the bucket, watching as the blood drained into its arm, not a drop left. Not wanting to disturb Lunch Rush, who was serving food, V1 took a quick walk around campus. Looking at its fuel status, the machine noticed that it's fuel level went from around 25% to 70%, more than enough to last for the next week. Resting under a tree for a moment, V1 finally took its time to reflect, loading an old recording from when it first started testing.

FILE NAME: F-015

RECORDED: 2101.09.16

PLAY? Y/N

"This is test F-015 for finger dexterity and flexibility for project V. [REDACTED], you programed the task, correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. Begin test in three, two, one."

The machine blinked to life after the press of a button, lifelessly following the commands coded into it for the day. Reaching towards the instrument, an acoustic guitar, its arms wrapped around it and brought it to the chest, ready to play. Plucking the guitars strings, the song that played quickly became the only sound in the room. Had it been human, and with control of its lower body, V would have tapped to the beat of the music like the male human in the testing room. When the song was finished, V let go of the guitar, and the scientists went in the test room to claim it.

"I've never heard of that song before [REDACTED], what's it called?"

The male's eyes brightened slightly "It's a special lullaby I composed for my daughter. I've been working on lyrics, but I haven't gotten time to finish them lately. What sucks is that I keep talking about the outside, but there's none anymore."

"Oh, and what do you thing the song will be called when it's done?"

The male thought for a moment, before he came to a conclusion.

"The Fire is Gone. Good title for a bedtime song."

"Definitely sound li-"

Before her sentence could be finished, the lab was shaken from what seemed like an earthquake.

"Shit, we need to secure V and get to the evac site. Did you turn off the test recording?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then get o-"

FILE END

V1 looked where it was sitting, startling the bird that perched upon its head. It looked down to see a nest built in its lap. The machine got up anyway, since the nest could never be built on it. It made it's way to the admin office, delighted to see that 1-A's info was uploaded to the terminal. V1 sat in front of the only object it could consider a friend, and began constructing a new training regiment for the weeks before the sports festival with some input from Eraserhead and All Might.

God, I am so sorry for not keeping you guys posted. I hit a roadblock with what I wanted to do for this arc of the book, and I let personal shit get in my way. I've been slowly getting burnt out of both Ultrakill and MHA, so I'm gonna take a month or two off to focus on other things and my personal life. I'll make an announcement on my Wattpad profile when I plan on coming back, but until then I hope you're happy with this chapter.

If you've got any thoughts on this chapter, please let me know! (Seriously, all your kind words help me get through my day at the worst times :) )

If you have any small story ideas, then hit me with them. Most of the plot points I come up with were found in dreams and random thoughts during school (Which is why I'm struggling to upload for this stretch of story, I keep getting action ideas for after the sports festival and I hate it).

I published this part but forgot the title and song, haha (I need to stop writing these before bed).

That's all I got, have a good day, afternoon, or night, and I'll see y'all in a bit.