To say that the day got better from there would be… A complete lie. Classes continued to grill him harder than steak served Well Done, and the only upside was that his absence didn’t end with him missing much he would actually be able to understand. Of course, nothing could top the sheer heart pumping action of nearly getting shot or fighting with Magnolia. The memory was still fresh in his mind, and not even the number grinding ‘calculus’ could drill it out of his head, whatever that was.

Eventually though, mercifully, the school day finally came to an end. The artificial sun was dyed in afternoon colors as all the students began to filter out of VEA and into the rest of Valhalla. A lot of Valhalla itself was actually leisure, as it turned out. Stores, movie theaters, arcades, restaurants, you name it and Valhalla had it. Of course, even with his new-found status as a Valkyrie-in-training, one thing hadn’t changed for the midgard duo: They were flat broke.

As such, the only thing that Ash could do at the moment was swing by the cafeteria for another glob of that artificial health slime before heading to his new home. One that Magnolia and Liesa didn’t share, for as A-Rank Valkyries they apparently resided in those tall skyscraper five star hotels, which of all things were student dormitories. Not for him though; Kyouko guided him through Valhalla, past the B-Rank houses, the C-Rank condos, and even so far as to the very outskirts of Valhalla. The path becomes less concrete and more dirt, with nature trying to reclaim its territory in this artificial environment. After what seemed like forever, they arrived.

“And here we are!” Kyouko exclaimed as she gestured at their dormitory. “Home sweet home!”

Ash stared at struggling to find something to say. “It’s… not bad?”

“It’s a complete dump.” His partner declared, and that was putting it lightly. Far from what one would typically expect of Asgard extravagance, the dormitory was cramped and tiny. Time had taken its toll on the building as visible cracks, stains, and other damage, along with an awful smell that had Ash scrunching his nose up in disgust. Despite the state of the building though, Kyouko still smiled as she patted her much taller friend on the back. “But we’ve had worse, even if this building is a piece of shit that could rival the slums of Midgard.”

Suddenly the door creaked open with a slam before something came hurling out of it at top speed. Ash couldn’t even react before the object—a slipper—smacked directly into Kyouko’s forehead, knocking the girl off her feet. With a cranky shout, a small old lady with more wrinkles on her face than grey hair walked outside. “If you hate the place so much then just move out already!”

“Screw off, you old bat!” Kyouko cried as she clutched at her forehead. “You know why we can’t do that!”

“Then that’s your old damn fault, you ungrateful brat…” The old woman clicked her tongue, shaking her head before turning to glance at Ash. “Ah? So you’re the Whitelund huh?”

“...Yeah.” He nodded. “Call me Var-”

“No,” she cut him off flatly. “A couple of guys came and dropped off some stuff for you. None of my business, so I just chucked it up into your room. Speaking of.”

She reached into her pocket before tossing something at the Vintrkind. Ash glanced down before raising his eyebrows. “A key?”

It wasn’t even a keycard. It was just a plain old key attached to a ring, the kind of old fashioned not even the most retro of crowds would use as security. While it was immune to any form of hacking by virtue of not being electronic, the sheer amount of rust the key had was not very reassuring. Then again, that meant that instead of taking Breaker ten minutes to pick the lock, it would only be one.

“If you want better security then move out,” The old lady declared before sighing. “Call me Miss Ingen if you don’t want to be rude like your friend here. I’m the dorm manager, so I’ll give you a quick run down of the rules. Curfew is at 10 pm, only residents are allowed inside, anything in the kitchen is free game for everyone, there’s no hot water for the bath so don’t ask, and if you break something then either pay for it out of your own pocket or just suck it up.”

“Harsh,” was all Ash could say.

“This is literally the worst place to end up as a student,” Kyouko replied as she dusted dirt off of her skirt. “As if Asgard would let a place like this exist for any reason unless it was intentional. The dorm is obviously a punishment telling you to get good or drop out of Valhalla all together.”

“If you understand that then move out already!”

“I have been in Valhalla for a week!”

“You mentioned there was a kitchen.” Ash interrupted. “Is there any food right now?”

“Hm? Oh I see.” Miss Ingen smirked. “Sick of the synthesized meal the cafeteria serves already huh? I already heard about your dietary requirements so I went grocery shopping earlier today.”

The boy’s eyes widened immediately at the prospect of actual food. “Then does that mean-”

“Yes, I’m willing to cook you something. I’m not a monster.” The old woman shook her head. “Some of VEAs policies I can’t agree with myself. Dinner’s at 7 pm, until then you have free time to do whatever you want.”

With that, she walked back inside of the run down building leaving the Midgard duo standing outside. Kyouko was the first one to speak up. “Quite a character isn’t she? Supposedly there’s another person also kicking it here, an upperclassmen, but I haven’t seen her myself.”

There was a few more seconds of silence before red eyes turned to the Vintrkind. “Vargr.”

“What.”

“You’re drooling.”

“No I’m not,” Ash denied as he hastily wiped his mouth with his sleeve and took a deep breath of winter. He most definitely wasn’t drooling for any meal at all after having to go eight hours of only dealing with tasteless gunk. That’d be ridiculous. “There’s stuff in my room right? I’m going to go check it out.”

“Yeah, I’ll show you around.” Kyouko glanced at his key before letting out a whistle. “Oh nice, you got the room next to mine!”

The black haired girl quickly pushed the boy inside. A few minutes later, he was entering his new room. It was just as dirty as the rest of the building, though from what he could tell at the very least it had been dusted out and cleaned before he had moved in. Closing the door behind him, Ash quickly moved over to the boxes in the center of the room before he started to open them. Fresh new school uniforms, physical paper textbooks, and other school supplies soon were littering the floor. It was the bare minimum of essentials for what he would need for the coming semester, and it was probably all the assistance that he would get from Valhalla.

Everything else was up to him.

With a sigh, Ash tossed himself onto the mattress that served as his new bed before rolling to stare up at the ceiling. Today had been long and exhausting, but he wouldn’t say that he hated his time so far in Valhalla. Slowly his muscles began to relax as the tension from the day began to fade away.

There was a creak before a loud crack sounded throughout his room. Wood shattering, the frame of Ash’s bed broke under his weight, leaving the boy staring emotionlessly up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath.

Despite what Kyouko would claim later, Ash Whitelund most certainly did not let out an audible curse that everyone in the dorm heard.

---

The clock continued to tick on. Ash devoured the food Miss Ingen cooked like a starving wolf. It was just objectively cruel to let a boy taste the extravagance of Asgard and then resign him to tasteless gunk for the rest of his days. The mere thought made him shudder. Luckily, his life wasn’t that much of a torturous nightmare. Soon enough, curfew had come around and Ash found himself once more trying to drift off to sleep. Except, there was something a bit off about this situation. Namely, the fact that Kyouko was lying right next to him on the bed they shared. Now this wasn’t the first time such a situation had occurred, but like every time before it Ash was feeling awkward as shit. The black haired girl was by no means a neat sleeper, and so she constantly ended up pressing her body against his. It was intoxicatingly warm, so much so that his every breath brought with it a frosty chill.

At this point he’d rather move his mattress to the floor and sleep there, but his partner wouldn’t let him. In the times when a roof over their heads was too expensive to afford, much less other modern amenities, Ash’s status as a vintrkind relegated him to the position of “Human Air Conditioner”. It saved on the bills, yes, and the dorm they had moved into had absolutely terrible ventilation, but Ash got the feeling Kyouko had gotten a bit too comfortable with the situation.

Certainly, she didn’t seem to mind much as she spoke up in the middle of the night. “So, I heard a rumor.”

“Mm,” Ash grunted, turning on to his side as Kyouko shifted closer.

She whispered into his ear. “Is it true that you turn into a girl when you use a Valkyrie Gear?”

The words sent a chill through the Vintrkind’s body as he carefully considered his next words. “...That’s just a rumor.”

“Really?” The white haired boy couldn’t see it but he knew the girl was smiling. “So what’s it like to use a Valkryie with an Einherjar?”

How could he put it? “It’s… freeing?”

“Freeing huh?” Kyouko mused. “Yeah I get that. Back when I used a Valkryie it certainly felt like I could do anything.”

The ability to fly, seeing the world in a whole new way, the rush of adrenaline that caused his heart to race with the power to do or be anything that he wanted. It felt like, no matter how much he ramped up as a Vintrkind, nothing could compare to the sheer high of turning into a valkyrie. Of course, when he finally detransformed, the rush wore off and he soon had to confront all the stupid shit he had done on impusle. It made going to sleep a bit harder, even if he wasn’t sharing a bed with Kyouko.

His partner paused before continuing. “But it must be really awkward to suddenly have breasts huh?”

“A little bit-” Wait, crap. In an instant, Ash slammed his mouth shut, but it was too late.

Kyouko had already begun to clutch her sides, laughing uproariously. “Seriously?! You?! Hahahaha!”

“I’m trying not to think about it.” The temperature began to drop as Ash did his damndest not to face those mocking red eyes.

“Oh but it’s definitely on your mind, huh?” she teased, poking Ash in the back. “Hate to break it to you, but the walls here are super thin so if you ever try to experiment I’ll know about it, alright?”

The amount of frost the vintrkind began to exude from his body brought the room to near freezing levels of cold. Kyouko scowled before kicking him in the legs. “Too cold jackass!”

“Then stop saying stuff like that.” He hissed as calmly as he could. “Why would you even suggest it?”

“Oh please, it’s only natural you’d be curious. Hell, I would be if I became a guy,” she said, “Besides, you think I don’t know about your secret stash?”

Was she insinuating…?

Ash turned around to face her, briefly hesitating when he saw how close Kyouko’s face was before taking a wintry breath. “I don’t have a secret stash.”

“Of outright porn maybe.” His close (in both senses of the word) friend countered. “But in slightly-risque romance media for girls? You have more terabytes of the stuff stashed away then I could be bothered to count.”

She knew about that?!

“Vargr, you are the most unsubtle person I know,” Kyouko said as if she could read his mind.

“I’m not that bad,” he protested, though it was as fragile as ice.

“Without me around Midgard would’ve swallowed you whole.” The girl rolled on to her back before shuddering. “Can you imagine having to work for a syndicate, or worse, a Corp? Ugh, I couldn’t imagine you in a suit.”

“You’ve seen me in my school uniform.”

“That’s different, half the time you still can’t dress yourself properly.”

“I’ve only worn it for one day.”

“And for half of that day you wore your tie on your sleeve.”

Why was everyone giving him shit about that? It wasn’t his fault stupid things were so complicated. Though speaking of stuff back on Midgard…

“You think our stuff’s been stolen already?” Ash spoke up. Despite all the leniencies Odin had pulled for him, being able to actually move to Asgard with anything but the clothes on his back wasn’t one of them. Given he couldn’t spot any of Kyouko’s random junk, he assumed she was probably in the same boat as well.

“Oh definitely, if the landlord didn’t throw it out,” Kyouko agreed, before clicking her tongue. “And we finally managed to move up to the only partially poor slums of midgard. Not that it really matters, we’re stained beyond black at this point.”

“But we are in Valhalla,” he pointed out.

“But we are in Valhalla!” she agreed with a smile. “Even if the dorm is crap, it’s still a polished golden turd compared to everything else we’ve been through.”

There was a moment of comfortable silent agreement before Kyouko turned to stare up at the ceiling. “Hey, Ash.”

The white haired boy was instantly on high alert at the sound of his name. It could only mean one thing: the time for joking had come to an end. “Yeah?”

“...Why’d you agree to come to Valhalla?” she asked quietly, her usual cheer fading into a quiet hestianance. “And don’t give me any crap about it being your only option or whatever, as if Alfheim wouldn’t bankroll you for the rest of your life if you offered yourself up for science. Hell I’m surprised they haven’t blackbagged you already.”

“As if I could stand being a lab rat.” Even if it was for the sake of progress and science, Ash refused to relinquish his humanity. “Valhalla really is the only option for me.”

“Really, even when you could’ve had an easy life?” The Midgard girl shook her head and the Vintrkind nearly let out a scoff. As if Kyouko wasn’t being a hypocrite herself. “So, is it the only option to survive or the only option for you to live?”

“To live. It’s the only option I would ever pick if given the opportunity again.” Ash declared. “Odin promised me after all, that if I proved myself in Valhalla, I could finally get my revenge.”

“Ah, that explains it. So you’re finally going after the guys who chained you down and put a bomb around your neck.” Kyouko’s hand reached out to touch the scarring on the boy’s neck, just as she had on that day so long ago. “Having a lead for the first time in years must be exhilarating huh. Still can’t recall much?”

“...No,” the Vintrkind admitted. His memories had long since been frozen over, packed deep within the glacial winter of his mind. Even if he had been born there, he had been too young to fully understand what was going on. The little bits and pieces that had thawed over the years weren’t enough to actually track them down. Faces, screams, the emotions of suffering were the only things that came to mind when he thought about that time. Why had it become like that? Why had the pain burned so vividly into his eyes been lost to the frozen wastes?

Oh, who was he fooling. He knew exactly why. The only thing that he could recall, the motto he couldn’t help but live by. Ash couldn’t remember who told him it but the words were the only thing he remembered vividly. “Freeze your tears, snuff out your anger, and give your loyalty to the dead. That’s the only way we can live in this sunless world.”

And then, all of a sudden, his life had been turned upside down and Ash Whitelund had found himself a Valkyrie-in-training of all things, with a promise of more to come. He couldn’t help it. Despite how much the Vintrkind tried to keep himself cool, an orange spark still ignited in the middle of a blizzard. Desires long unfulfilled were finally able to come to fruition. As long as he proved himself, that was.

“Proving myself, huh?” He muttered as a gnawing feeling formed in his gut. Day one and he couldn’t even see the starting line. Compared to all the other students, he had to work his ass off just to get to a passable level. Yet a thought still nagged at him. If he worked hard, if he managed to just become a Valkyrie, would that be enough to impress the One Eyed Queen?

For some reason, a certain blonde girl from Asgard came to mind. Ash could practically hear her voice in his head, with those same determined eyes. To prove something, one needed evidence. You couldn’t just be the best, you had to be great. Someone who had done rather than one who might be. And with that thought, what he needed to do became abundantly clear.

“Breaker,” he spoke determinedly. “Does Midgard have a Wing?”

“Of course it does.” Kyouko replied with a wave. “Sime corp loves to show her off all the time. Of course when it comes to the King of Joy you can’t tell what’s reality and what’s just mindrotting propaganda, but she’s a Wing so she’s probably pretty strong. Why?”

“That’s what I need to aim for.” Ash clenched his fist before holding it up in the air. “I can’t just meet the minimum passing standard. In order to prove myself, I need to become a Wing.”

“Aiming pretty high huh?” his partner mused. “You know we’re D-Rank right? Aces, Best, Common, and then us, the Dropouts. We can’t even get access to a Valkryie Gear without express permission from a higher up every time. The odds are stacked so high against us we might as well be trying to climb to the sun.”

The young boy didn’t care. Becoming not just a good Valkryie, but someone great. To give himself the wings he needed to soar high into the sky. No matter how out of reach it seemed to be at the moment, that was the goal Ash needed to achieve. It wasn’t just some fictional fantasy or a delusional dream, it was the rigidly real resolution he had to make. Besides…

“Does that mean you’re not going to help me?” Ash asked, already knowing the answer.

“Of course I am! You really think I’m going to waste this chance by sitting on my ass?” Kyouko smiled before hopping off the bed and straightening out her clothes. “You helped me get my revenge, so of course I’ll help you get yours. Hell you nearly sent yourself to Helheim for me, as if I’d just let that go unpaid.”

Ash Whitelund and Kyouko Hagemu. Neither of them were able to survive in the biting cold of Yggdrasil on their own. From the day they had met, they had acted as each other’s wings. Partners through thick and thin. And now that they had been given the chance, together they were going to soar.

“Here, check this out.” The black haired girl grinned as she picked up her data pad. Ash had to cover his eyes as bright holographic displays appeared in the dark of the night. Slowly his eyes adjusted until he was able to read what looked to be various graphs, calculations, and strategies. “I’ve been analyzing how Valhalla works since the day I got here. The rankings, the point system, anything and everything about how the school operates, I’ve analyzed and strategized in order to figure out how to get ahead.”

There was a childish glee in her eyes that morphed into a kind of mania. As if the great and mighty Valhalla, home of the Valkryies, was nothing more than a toy ready to be taken apart by Kyouko’s hands. A game to be won.

“We’re going to make it to the very top, right, Vargr?” She held out her hand. “Then let’s do it. Doesn’t matter how hard they try to stack the deck against us. Let’s break Valhalla.”

Kyouko- No, Breaker smiled. It was a look that Ash couldn’t ignore as he got out of bed and gave his partner’s hand a firm shake. “Yeah. Let’s do it. All the way to the top.”There was no lingering hesitation or wavering resolve. Despite being dead last, with each other at their side, these two would climb through hell to reach the sun.

The dreams of these dropouts would push them to a future neither could have expected.