Chapter 103: Small Time Skip

"Honestly?" Mirko said, letting out a loud breath. "I don’t even know what to say." She stood and walked around the cave’s rocky perimeter before continuing. "As you probably already know, I’m not really the dating kind... but," she paused, looking Gray dead in the eyes, "I’m not entirely against the idea."

Before Gray could reply, she held up a finger to cut him off. "I’m not saying I will agree to date you right away. All I’m saying is we need to get to know each other some more first. Twenty minutes ago, I thought you just had an extremely strong Quirk, and it turns out you’re some kind of alien warrior."

"Yeah... and that’s not even the most shocking part about me, to be honest," Gray said with a light chuckle. "So we start being a bit more honest with each other? Go on dates and stuff?" He stood up and smoothed his clothes. "Though I know you’d probably rather fight me instead of us going to some random restaurant, and honestly, I’m probably the same..."

"Hah! You already know me so well," Mirko said with a grin.

Gray stared at her, wondering how far he should push his transparency. She hadn’t rejected him, but she hadn’t completely accepted him yet either. Weighing his options carefully, he decided it was time to drop another bomb on her.

"But I do have to tell you something else, though," Gray said, walking slowly towards her. "I will need an answer from you soon-ish, because I plan on leaving this world in a couple of months."

Mirko’s brow furrowed instantly. "What do you mean, leave?"

"My time in this world would end up getting too boring for me," Gray explained, sitting back down on a ledge. "I’m way too strong, and I just don’t see a real challenge in staying here long-term."

"I mean..." Mirko’s tone turned a bit more serious as she processed that. "I know you said some Saiyans are strong enough to destroy planets and galaxies, but how strong are you really?"

"Honestly? I could use only about 1% of my normal state and be strong enough to blow up this planet," Gray replied. "But if we are talking Saiyan-wise... well, as far as I know, there’s only about a handful of them out there stronger than me. Maybe a couple more, but definitely less than ten in total."

Mirko’s eyes widened. "Wait. You’re telling me you can blow up the planet and not even break a sweat, and there are others out there even stronger than you?!"

"Yeah, but... I wouldn’t be too worried about that," Gray replied smoothly.

"Why is that?"

"Well, I highly doubt they would ever be able to make it to this world," Gray continued. "I’m not just a Saiyan. I have access, as you already know, to that Training Dimension, and to these special plots of land that can sprout food in an extremely short time." Gray kept his voice calm as he laid out the final truth. "I also have access to another power that lets me travel freely between universes. Every time I jump to a new universe, I have to stay there for a few months for that power to fully recharge. But once it does, I’m completely free to move on to another one." he decided to give her a half-truth, half-lie; it was the truth that he had to wait a few months before he could use Rebirth again, but she didn’t need to know that.

Mirko looked like she was actively about to short-circuit. "Is that why there’s no record of you anywhere? No birthplace, no legal information on you until a few weeks back?"

Gray nodded. "Yes." He let her sit in the silence for a moment to process the mind-boggling scale of it all before he pressed on. "Listen, no one else knows about this. You’re the only one in this entire world who knows about me and this power. I wanted to be as honest as I could with you because... well, I wanted to ask you to join me eventually."

"You can actually take people with you?" Mirko asked, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.

"I haven’t tried it yet, but I was planning to do a test run soon," Gray smiled. "I’m definitely not leaving Eri behind. I plan on taking her with me eventually, though of course, I’m going to ask her properly first so she can choose whether she wants to stay here or come with me."

He took a step closer, his expression growing serious. "And because of that, I wanted to extend an offer to you. This isn’t attached to the dating thing at all, so even if you end up saying no to me down the line, the offer still stands. I’ve noticed that you’ve hit a wall regarding your current hero training. So... I wanted to ask if you’re willing to let me turn you into a Saiyan."

Mirko’s breath hitched instantly. "You can actually turn regular people into these alien warriors?"

"With enough time, yes. But I don’t exactly want to do it for just anyone," Gray continued. "This kind of power is incredibly dangerous, so I have to pick carefully before making an offer like this. But honestly, you already possess plenty of Saiyan traits yourself. That raw, primal battle hunger you have? It matches almost every pure-blooded Saiyan. I’m probably the exception to the rule since my training dimension keeps me satisfied, making me more laid-back."

Gray stood and extended his hand toward her. "So, how about it? Do you want to grow stronger after every death match, with little to no limits to your strength?"

Mirko stared at his open palm, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. "So what is this, some kind of deal with the devil?"

"No," Gray said, shaking his head and laughing. "I’m glad you’re that paranoid, but as I said, even if you rejected me on the spot, I still planned on offering it to you eventually. You’ve been incredibly sweet to Eri, and well... I just genuinely like seeing people get stronger. Hence why I offered to train those brats from UA."

"Okay," Mirko finally said, a familiar spark returning to her eyes. She stood up and shook his hand firmly. "Just don’t go crying once I end up becoming stronger than you."

"Heh, if you manage that, I’d finally have a good sparring partner around here."

They both turned and walked out toward the mouth of the cave. As Gray was about to fly them out, he remembered the teleportation feature linked to his home garden plots. He extended his hand again, and Mirko took it without question. Gray focused on the soil plots back at UA and willed the travel to happen.

The movement was instantaneous. In a literal blink, the rocky cavern vanished, and the two found themselves standing inside the secure warehouse Nezu had constructed specifically to house the magical crop plots.

Mirko stumbled slightly, looking disoriented at first, but she caught her balance and got a hold of herself pretty quickly. "Whoa... what the hell was that?"

"Oh, I forgot to mention, but I can teleport between any of these plots of land as I please," Gray replied with a cheeky grin.

Mirko’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "So you mean to tell me you could have just done that from the start, instead of flying me over half of Japan to get to that cave?"

"Yes, but!" Gray quickly put both hands up defensively. "I needed the travel time to think about what I had to say to you, okay?!"

"Right." Mirko rolled her eyes playfully and started walking toward the exit. "Say hi to Eri-chan for me, would you?"

"Sure thing," Gray replied, relief washing over him. "So, I should be expecting you this coming Saturday?"

"Of course!" Mirko turned back around just before hitting the door, flashing him a smile. "I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Besides... it’s a ’date’."

With that final tease, she slipped out the door and exited the UA campus grounds.

Left alone in the quiet warehouse, Gray finally exhaled a heavy breath. It had been nerve-wracking to bare his soul and secrets to someone, but the fact that she hadn’t changed how she acted or looked at him made the risk worth it. Now, all he had to do was focus on farming his hourly gold income so he could eventually transfer his Saiyan physiology to her.

Just the mental image of a Saiyan-powered Mirko wreaking havoc on the world made a grin spread across his face. Even if she ended up rejecting his feelings down the line, well, he would cross that bridge when he got to it. For now, he had at least two solid weeks of passive gold accumulation and two more weekend training sessions inside the Training Dimension to look forward to before the UA Sports Festival officially kicked off.

The next few days passed in a flash. Gray kept buying upgrades and multipliers as he saw fit, and when Saturday finally came, he watched the students arrive with their bags packed, ready for the next training dimension session. He instantly noticed, however, that far fewer students from the general courses had shown up this time. He half-expected a drop-off after the initial grueling experience, but not by this much. At the very least, everyone from Hero Classes 1-A and 1-B had shown up.

What surprised him most was seeing Mineta and Kaminari actually return. He had genuinely wondered if they would even dare to show up after the severe punishment he had dealt them on Kamabakka Island. Dealing with their furious parents over the past week had been a massive headache, but once Gray calmly explained exactly what the boys had been caught doing, the parents’ anger instantly shifted from Gray to their own sons, and their concerns vanished. Now, seeing everyone assembled and ready, Gray willed the massive portal to open and let the students march into the dimension.

Days blurred together inside the training dimension without a hitch. Gray expanded the roster, assigning more unique mentors for the kids to work with. He also paired students with similar or complementary Quirks to maximize their efficiency.

True to his promise, Gray had also spent 10 million gold to purchase a small army of Nomus for Mirko to fight. He bought a handful of the lethal, intelligent High-End Nomus from the show, along with a few standard variations, to keep her occupied. And just as they had agreed, they started spending significantly more time together, growing closer with each passing day. It still wasn’t quite at the level of an official couple just yet, but they were rapidly closing the distance.

By the end of the four simulated weeks inside the dimension, the kids had grown notably stronger once more. Gray spent almost all his personal time in the void pushing into his Super Saiyan transformation, working relentlessly to normalize the strain. He had successfully managed to fight and sustain the golden form for longer and longer periods without burning through his energy, leaving him highly satisfied with his progress.

Once the dimension closed and the exhausted students headed home for the weekend, Aizawa approached Gray on the quiet gym floor. "The Sports Festival officially has a date. I was just informed by the principal."

"Oh? When is it?" Gray asked, rolling his shoulders.

"We will have time for one more weekend session inside your training dimension," Aizawa said, rubbing his tired eyes. "The festival will be held a week from tomorrow."

"Monday, huh?" Gray nodded along, a smirk tugging at his lips. "Maybe the kids will actually show us some decent matches."

The following week flew by. Days passed quickly as Gray kept farming upgrades and multipliers. Because he and Mirko had grown closer inside the training dimension, they started spending more of their free time together in the real world, too. Mirko would regularly drop by the UA campus just to spend a few hours hanging out with Gray and Eri. They would pass the time talking and catching up, with Mirko eagerly recounting the various villain brawls she had endured that week. Of course, she also never passed up the chance to pick intense sparring matches with Gray while she was there.

By the time Saturday rolled around again, it was time to open the training dimension for the final stretch. Gray pulled up his system interface to check his financial progress one more time.

[Status Info]

Name: Gray Ashwood

Age: 23 years old

Race: Saiyan

Gold: 42,450,874,432

Gold per hour: 1,757,656,464 (764,198,463)

Gold Multiplier: 2.30x

Time: 7:12 PM

It was a bit unfortunate that he was just a little short of affording the next major upgrade, but he shrugged off the minor annoyance. Aside from the 10 million gold he had dropped on those Nomu sparring partners for Mirko, he hadn’t spent his gold on anything else, letting his passive wealth pile up massively. Doing some quick math, he figured that once they finally exited this upcoming training session, he would only need to wait around five hours in the real world to cross the threshold for his next big purchase.

Content with his passive gold farming progress, Gray willed the dimensional rift open once more. It was time for one last round of grinding before the UA Sports Festival officially took the stage.