A Machine's Purgatory

SAILING INTERNSHIPS: ROBOTS DON'T DREAM OF ETERNAL PAPERWORK

The two days after the sports festival were busy for V1 even without any students on the school. Given it acquired new weapons and variations, it spent the best 48 hours experimenting and seeing what would fit its loadout. Most of the research was done in the real world in Gym Gamma with a side of filth torching in the simulated sandbox. After much experimenting and learning of new things (who knew the Attractor's electricity would bounce off coins?) V1 decided on its new loadout for the foreseeable future:

• Alternate Overpump shotgun to maximize single-target damage while keeping the Core Enect and Sawed-off base form to keep their versatility
• Using the Sawblade launcher for the Attractor and Overheat for are denial while using the base Attractor for more single-target damage

Satisfied with its new loadout and with school starting up again, V1 confidently walked in the administration office only to find a mountain of paperwork on its new desk. Even the terminal, which V1 moved to the desk for easier access, had a pile of paperwork laid out on top of it (there was even a rage emoji from some old website on the display).

"I understand I just got my new desk, but this is an excessive amount of paper work."

"Hey hey V1! The first years in the hero course are starting their internships early, so we all have to crunch through the paperwork! Normally they wouldn't start until next year, but with the villains we gotta step our teaching up a notch!"

Mic, seemingly always energetic, called out from a mountain of paperwork that would have obscured him from view had his hair not been slicked up. All Might was face down groaning into his computer's keyboard, so V1 went to comfort its coworker.

"Remember our agreement. Today, during lunch, in here."

Or not. All Might groaned again, but this time it vaguely sounded like an 'OK,' so V1 sat in its desk and got to work.

This fucking sucked. For every hero that offered an internship to a student, there were ten pages of paperwork to go through for the student to have the ability to accept the internship. This would have been fine if the top three in Class 1-A didn't have a total of 5,000 offers, which was the biggest source of paperwork. V1 was about halfway done with its share of paper work by the time lunch had arrived, and it was operating at maximum speed with help from the terminal. It kept working, ignoring All Might as he left the room and kept going until a tug on its arm stopped it. V1 whipped its head to the side only to see All Might in his skinny form with a wide-eyes Midoriya at his side.

"It's already that time? I don't normally get sidetracked like that. I'll keep it short, you two are keeping secrets and I need to know in case this endangers the school. So spill."

V1 crossed its legs as it watched Midoriya stutter with wide. All Might stood with his arms in a lazy cross, trying to look in charge.

"What I'm about to tell you is very important, and intended only for you to know. So please, turn off your friend, just while I talk."

V1 bent down and turned off the Terminal's screen.

"Happy? Now talk, before I report you two to Nezu."

All Might knew it was unintentionally an empty threat since Nezu already knew the details of his quirk, but he still intended to tell V1 what exactly One for All is. It didn't seem like a good idea to keep secrets from a machine designed to kill, after all. With a heavy sigh, he talked.

"Midoriya is my successor. My quirk is an old one back from when quirks started to appear, and is able to be passed down from generation to generation. Whoever bears One for All, the quirk I hold, is destined to become a great hero and defeat its nemesis on the Villain's side, All for One. Midoriya was quirk less like me and inherited One for All so that he may use it after my eventual death."

V1 sat there for a moment, its eye displaying a rotating wheel while it processed everything it heard.

"That is a good secret to keep. I appreciate you telling me. Midoriya, I'm assuming you would have told me the same thing?"

The boy sheepishly nodded his head.

"Well I told you I would tell you a secret about me, and given Midoriya can be trusted with a secret like that I'll let him hear it. I'll even tell you two, but you'll already know the first one."

V1 lazily turned towards Midoriya and said in the flattest tone possible for its text to speech in voice, said "I'm not human, I'm a robot."

His eyes went wide, followed by his body twitching until he exploded with questions, ranging from why V1 lied about it being a severely disabled hero to asking how it was even made in the first place.

"Calm down Midoriya, calm down. My quirk is still technically real, since I'm a prototype for a now defunct company that fuels itself with blood. Now, the second secret is only for All Might's ears, so I need you to run along out of here. You've got twenty minutes of lunch left, so please remember to keep our secret, OK?"

Modoriya happily agreed and left the office, leaving just All Might and V1 alone.

"I think something followed me out of Hell. I've been getting the feeling I'm being watched, even during night in UA, but even a scan for life shows nothing near me when I feel it. A terminal in Hell told me every machine in Hell can see what I do, but it's from my perspective while I feel like I'm watched from behind."

All Might figured he knew what V1 was talking about. After his fight with All for One, he had a similar feeling months after. With a reassuring clap on the back, All Might answered.

"I think it's the pressure of being a hero. Many feel it like you do now, heck even I did for a while! I promise that you'll get used to it, just give it time."

"I... Thank you, All Might."

"Call me Toshinori, at least when we're not out being heroes."

"Alright, Toshinori. There's a couple minutes of lunch left, why don't you go grab some to eat? I don't need to refuel for another few days."

Toshinori started strolling towards the door.
"Crap, I forgot with our little meeting! I guess I should grab something to eat, it takes a while without a stomach! And V1," Toshinori stood by the doorway, leaning out of it slightly. "I have no doubt in my mind you'll make a great hero."

"I'm proud to hear it from you, Toshinori."

V1 could feel a weight on its shoulders as Toshinori left it alone in the admin room, the terminal updating All Might and Midoriya's info pages while invisible eyes watched V1's back.

Short chapter since school is starting very soon (like, tomorrow). I was supposed to start like six days ago but we've had bad weather so it keeps getting pushed back. I think y'all know where this arc will end, but I've got some plans to shake things up :)

Also I learned the hard way that a Wattpad chapter doesn't reset views or comments or what not, so if you were spammed by notifications from me fixing it In sorry!