Author's Note: If you're wondering, this is set in 271 AS, 29 years prior to "Present Day".

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	Vale Studies
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	He was nervous.  Mostly because they'd discovered he had a magical bloodgift that could lead him to becoming a mage.  The problem was the expense.  Going to Vale, even on a scholarship was expensive and he'd heard many stories of people needing to spend years paying off their student loans after attending Vale.
	His family wasn't exactly rolling in money to begin with, and he was the only son of Tethys, the sole Youma in his father's harem.  His mother was a bit... unusual.  First of all, with her blue skin, dark green hair and solid red eyes, she tended to throw people off.
	Of course, the biggest shocker to people meeting her for the first time was her utter lack of a mouth.  She was able to talk and eat somehow, but no one knew how, and Tethys would just giggle and wave off the question.
	Children of Youma and other demonic pokegirls weren't well received by most other children.  Most of his 'school chums' liked to brag about their parents, and he could only wonder how bad it would be at Vale.
	Like many children heading to Vale, Ben was with a Vale Mage by the name of Michael.  It was apparently customary to have a guide bring the students all the way from their homes to the Transmission Springs and just as customary for the family to say goodbye prior to the relatively short journey.  Likely because it was less of a financial strain on the student's family to go all the way to Vale only to say goodbye and head home.
	Michael was a tall and lanky man with blonde hair that was spikey on top with a bit of a mullet forming in back and he stood almost three feet taller than Ben.  He wore a simple white t-shirt with a worn blue denim jacket and matching pants.  Ben had to question whether or not Michael was really a mage, but after he'd teleported himself and Ben to the Transmission Springs, that question was answered.
	Ben was a bit envious of Mike.  He'd been slow to gain height and he hadn't grown much in the last year.  Sure, he was only ten, but he was sure that puberty would probably kill his growth entirely.  He had light brown hair that was light and thin.  Despite what hair stylists said, it was a damn pain in the ass, because it would continually blow into his face in virtually any wind and save for hair gel, which made his hair feel like a crusty bun or a helmet than something growing from his head, there were few ways to make it compliant.
	Ben's blue eyes were fixed on the Transmission Springs.  The pink light eminating from the pool didn't seem to bother Michael, but that was probably because he'd seen it so often.  Michael motioned towards the springs, indicating that Ben was to go into the water first.
	Ben sighed and extended a foot towards the pool, wondering how the magic worked.  Everyone had heard of the Transmission Springs, but few knew how they-
	The instant Ben's shoe touched the water, the world seemed to turn into a fish eye's lens and zoom at him really quickly before returning to normal.  Ben staggered, wondering what the hell had just happened, but quickly noticed that he was now in a large underground cavern.
	A platinum-haired woman with several glowing red marks on her arms, legs and stomach smiled at him, extending a hand towards him.  She was easily a foot taller than him and had golden eyes, and was wearing a simple outfit consisting of a white strip of cloth across her breasts and white short-shorts.
	"Hello, I'm Namina.  Pleased to meet you." she said, smiling.
	"I'm Ben.  Am I supposed to fight someone in here?" Ben inquired, looking around.  Mike was nowhere to be found.  Had Ben been the paranoid sort, he might have suspected a trap of some sort, but more than likely, Mike was just supposed to get kids to the springs.
	"No, silly," Namina laughed lightly, "This is where we check what spells you'll be best at."
	As he took Namina's offered hand, a blush came over his face.  She was beautiful and he was... well, him.  His tattered pants, faded t-shirt and forty year old plaid suitcase made him feel incredibly out of place next to her.
	Namina took him to get his bag checked for any 'sensitive material'.  He wasn't sure what they meant by that, since Michael had already made sure he didn't have anything that might explode.  The checking staff then sent the suitcase to his room.  It felt so arbitrary to simply send his stuff to a room, but as Namina explained, his scholarship ensured his stay so long as he wanted to continue taking classes and there were still things to learn in Vale besides magic.
	Next, he followed her into the testing room, where he found several other kids his age standing next to various guardians.  Strangely, most of the kids were girls.  Weren't signs of magical ability in girls supposed to indicate that they were about to threshold?  Maybe they'd been abandoned by their parents and taken to Vale.
	The only extraneous person was a tall blonde man with a thick mustache that appeared to be a darker brown.  He wore a blue t-shirt with a tan jacket, and matching tan jeans and gloves.  In the center of the room was a large circular wooden table.  On it were twelve items, each located an even distance from each other with an abbreviation above them.
	"Okay, we have enough to do a sorting." the blonde man with a thick mustache declared.
	"Right, Professor Diggers." the adults sounded in unison.
	The item in front of Ben was a strange ball that looked like it was made of snot.  At Namina's direction he reached out to touch it and it became a triangle, then a box, what resembled a bottle of bleach and finally returned to it's original ball shape.  Namina suddenly had a clipboard and was writing on it.
	Without further ado, she directed him to the next item, a golden token.  This one flared brightly.  Ben tried to ignore Namina's frantic scribbling as they moved onto the next item, what looked like a stick that was on fire at the furthest end, yet the table wasn't catching fire.
	Everyone leapt back as a column of flame burst from the stick to touch the ceiling.  Ben frowned at his unburned hand.  His face was covered in sweat from the heat, but his entire arm was completely unaffected.  It was if the heat only affected him at a certain distance.  The trial in question was becoming rapidly more bizarre with each item.
	After finally setting down the only item he hadn't touched, a black NERF arrow that had billowed out a thick purple cloud, Namina  and Ben got into line with the other students.
	Namina handed the clipboard over to Professor Diggers, as did the other adults.  Professor Diggers nodded, "Well, students, I'm Professor Diggers, as you may have already gathered.  I am the senior professor for the first year or Alpha students.  You may think of me as the Principal for the time being.  The staff members who greeted you are among your teachers, though some you might not see again until you reach a higher grade.  The first year is not going to be easy, as it is about learning how to access your magic and how to control it, among other things.  The education you get here is different from normal schools and unlike normal schools, we are more strict.  The power you have inside of each of you can be dangerous if misused, both to yourself and those around you.  Now, I'm sure tomorrow will be a very stressful day, so the instructors will show you to your rooms and give you a small tour of your dorms."
	With that, Professor Diggers smiled just before fading away like the morning mist, only he didn't leave behind any moisture on the ground.
	Namina extended her hand to Ben.  The instant he took hold of it, he got that rushing sensation and found himself in a rather spacious room with two beds, two dressers, two closests and two private bathrooms.  His suitcase was sitting in front of the bed on the right, but he noticed that save for that, the room looked unoccupied.
	"Who's my roommate?" Ben inquired.
	"Unfortunately, you don't have one.  We're a bit uneven this year." Namina explained, "This is the third floor of your dorm.  The stairs are at the end of the hall and the cafeteria is on the first floor if you get hungry.  I'll come by tomorrow morning around nine o'clock to give you a more complete tour and your class schedule."
	Ben nodded and waved goodbye as Namina left.

	The next day was mostly a tour of the campus.  Namina explained that in order to keep any possible inter-grade bullying (and bullying in general) to a minimum, there were only three places that all of the students could be at the same time.  The first was the Great Hall, where plays or announcements were done; the second was the Great Library, where virtually every book ever made was kept; and finally, the School Store.  Ben had been expecting it to be called the "Great School Store", but he figured that they had to have common sense somewhere around Vale.
	In any case, the dorms, classes and even cafeterias were separated by each grade, Alpha, Beta, Theta, Delta, Gamma, Sigma and Journeyman.  There were occassions when some dorms and cafeterias had been closed down temporarily, but Namina explained that those were unusual circumstances that the staff was now better prepared to deal with.
	Namina gave him his school badge, which put his school supplies on his scholarship, and he got the four books he needed for the first year.  After dropping his books off at his room, Namina showed him his new class schedule and a map of his dorm, so that he'd be able to find anything else he might need.
	It wasn't long before Namina had to leave to prepare for tomorrow's lesson.  It was apparently her first day teaching and she was nervous about it, which surprised Ben, as he gotten the impression that she'd been a teacher for quite a while.

	Ben felt bored.  It was only the third day of his Basics of Magic class, and he'd already managed to finish the book.  It was strange, but something about learning magic had changed after he'd met Namina.  She taught Potions from Alpha to Delta, which was another book he was mostly done reading.  In fact, save for Basic Plant Studies, he'd burned through most of the books.
	He looked around the classroom as the teacher used her wand to write on the board.  It was a small classroom, but as Namina had explained, Vale's administrators didn't like crowded classrooms, which invited delinquency.  There were almost no classes in the entire school that were larger than fifteen.
	From what he'd gathered, there'd never been more than a hundred twenty-eight students at the dorm, which meant that if all of the rooms were double-bed and full, they only needed sixty-four rooms.  But the dorm had eighty, simply to allow students to spread out.
	The teacher, Miss Naru Osaka, was going over the various places that Vale set up shop, the most famous being Black Rose Street, which was named after Royce "Black Rose" Waterwood, a famous alchemist who lived from 183 AS to 241 AS, and was the first to crack the color gene in flowers, allowing her to create natural flowers of virtually any color that were NOT sterile.  Ever since, all of the streets where Vale set up were named after a popular color of rose that Royce had made.
	The bell rang and the students cleared their desks.  Ms. Osaka called out that their assignment was to read Chapter 2, and Ben rolled his eyes.  Chapter 2 had been done twenty minutes into Day 1.
	He much preferred their other teacher, Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga.  No one knew why she was called 'Osaka', but the nickname often supplanted her real name in the minds of virtually everyone who talked to her, much to her and Ms. Naru's chagrin.  Since there were two "Osaka"s, some students kept commenting that they should duel over the name.
	"Man, what a joke." came a comment from Ben's right.  Ben glanced over to see two brothers.  The first was a blonde kid with golden eyes, and the other was a brown-haired kid with brown eyes.  Both wore their hair shot, but the blonde kid's hair was parted in the middle and grown long in the front.
	The blonde kid was the one who'd spoken.  Ben tried to remember his name... Edward.  The brown-haired kid was his brother, Alphonse, or "Al" as he'd told the class.
	"You ahead of the class?" Ben inquired.
	"WAY ahead." Edward said with a cocky smirk, "I had the book done by breakfast today."
	"I finished it yesterday." Ben said, feeling a bit smug at that accomplishment.
	Edward blinked, then smiled, "Well, Al finished it yesterday at noon!"
	"Well... I am good at reading." Al said, blushing at the compliment.
	"How about the other books?  I'm half done with the Potions book as well." Ben challenged them, feeling bold, having triumphed over Edward's accomplishment and hoping to beat Al's.
	"So am I, but Al's further along than I am." Edward responded, before thinking about something, "Y'know, I bet we could jump ahead a grade if we worked together."
	"Wait, we can jump grades?" Ben inquired.
	"Yeah, I read about it in the student handbook." Edward answered, which made Ben inwardly curse.  He'd forgotten to read that damn thing, which probably explained why he was ahead of Edward in reading the other books.
	"All we have to do is finish all of the assignments for this year and pass the year-end test.  Since we're all almost done with the books, the assignments should be easy." Edward theorized.
	"We could make it in a study group." Al proposed.
	"Could I join in?" came a hopeful voice behind them.
	They turned and glanced back at a pale girl with violet eyes and matching hair.  Ben recalled her name was Azalyn Rose.
	"Sure.  The more the merrier.  How far have you gotten in the books?" Edward inquired.
	Azalyn blushed, "um... well..."
	"Don't tell me you haven't started." Edward pleaded, a disappointed tone in his voice.
	"Actually, I'm done." Azalyn responded.
	"Done with Basics of Magic?" Ben inquired.
	"All of the books." Azalyn answered.
	There was a stunned silence from the boys.  She was ahead of all of them in terms of reading.  Ben could hear Ed mutter something about Al getting papercuts from reading too fast, which would explain why there were bandages on Azalyn's hands.
	"Well, I guess that means you're in, if you want." Al said, the first to recover from the shock.

	As it turned out, Al, Azalyn, and Edward weren't the only members of their grade seeking to move ahead a grade.  There were actually five more students: Midori Inverse, a blue-eyed girl with mostly red hair with a violet streak on each side of her head; Chocolate Truffle, another redhead, but her hair was a much deeper color and had no color streaks; Jimmy Smits, a somewhat pale boy with long black hair that made him seem like a girl; Miyabi Kagurazaki, a maroon-haired girl with long hair and violet eyes; and Alexis Cartwright, a girl with light brown hair that grew long in back, and golden eyes.
	Ben was amazed that, save for Azalyn, all of them were comparable when it came to reading, and they were all done with the reading by the end of the week.  The next week was spent working on assignments both in and out of class.  Most of the written assignments were done by mid-week and they were part of the way through the potions assignments (which were more like ointments) by the end of the third week.  As it turned out, much of the potions homework required some trial and error to turn out correctly, but the worst was the actual magic.  Midori and Azalyn, the two shyest members of the group, were actually the quickest to manage their light spells, shortly followed by Edward and Al.  Ben grumbled over being last to manage the spell.
	It took the entire first month of the semester, but with steady work and plenty of cooperation, the group managed to finish the requirements, which didn't surprise the teachers all that much, given how much homework they'd turned in ahead of time.

	It wasn't entirely surprising that a lot of the other Alpha students hadn't pushed as hard as he had to jump a grade.  Getting caught up on the Beta reading was tough: there was a lot more emphasis on practical magic usage, the group had more classes to take and less free time, and most of them had already begun heading down their chosen paths.
	Ben was glad to see Namina was still his instructor in Potions, and she was also his Basic Defense Spells teacher.  He was also taking Basic Attack, Healing, Enchantment, Necromantic, Transmutation Spells; and Basic of Elements.
	Luckily, most of the classes were spread to roughly twice a week, each class taking two hours.  Of course, the forty hours of lessons were a BIG change from his previous twenty hours of lessons as an Alpha student.  Of course, most of the other students probably wouldn't take as many classes, but Ben was hoping to be as much of a generalist as possible.
	Strangely, he'd still wound up in a doubles room with no roommate.  He wondered if there WERE any single rooms.
	Of course, he would have easily put up with all of the problems of a potential roommate if it meant getting rid of the four people who seemed to determined to make him their personal rival.  It was VERY annoying.
	The first Uzu Fae, a boy with bluish-silver hair and purple eyes who stood roughly four feet tall, and tended to wear an elaborate silvery outfit encrusted with glitter on the shoulders and hip extensions.  The outfit was hard to explain, looking like a cross between a jumpsuit with bellbottoms and a butterfly.  He was best at Transmutation, and had even added two pairs of fairy-like gossamer wings to himself so he could fly.  He was, perhaps, the least serious of Ben's rivals, but he was quite the showoff and made a point to mention how much better his work was over Ben's.
	Wendy Myght was a nice enough girl specializing in Necromantic and Enchantment magics.  She was apparently the daughter of a well-reputated witch on Blackrose Street and was seeking to be the top of her class.  She had short brown hair and brown eyes, with a greenish horizontal stripe on her left cheek.  She generally wore a green pointy hat, a white-collared green dress and green soft shoes that looked like the sort that Pre-Sukebe Santa Claus' elves were said to wear.
	The next was a boy named Ray, who seemed to dislike Ben simply for being him, and Ben seemed to feel the same way towards Ray.  Ray was a blonde boy with long hair that reached down to his ankles, and he was quite popular amongst the girls, especially with his glowing blue eyes.  He seemed to emit an air of nobility, which was probably why Ben didn't like him back.
	And finally a violet-haired mega-rich girl named Mayu who seemed determined to show Ben up at every turn, and often failed.  Fortunately for Ben, this meant she tended to irritate his other rivals, meaning that the likelyhood of them ever cooperating to make his life miserable were low.  Her wavy hair only when down to her butt, which was fortunate, as most other kids wanted a clear target for their curses.
	Ben stopped as he was about to leave Basic Enchantments and backed out of the way to let the teacher through first, which threw off Mayu's timing on her slime bucket trap, which splashed the teacher, Mister Alex Louis Armstrong.  Alex heard Mayu, "Ooops!" and his blue eyes locked on her like a wire-guided missile.  Alex or Mister Armstrong, as he was more regularly known (to the teacher's chagrin, as he preferred to be closer to people), was a little mountain of muscle.  He stood 8'6" and could have easily won any Mister Universe contests.  His largely bald head only had a thick blonde mustache that covered his mouth and a curly wisp of hair.  He was also known as the Long Arm of the Academy, being one of the very few war mages on staff, he had surprisingly little to do with war magics in general, but the effect of his training had left him with a perfect physique.
	"YOUNG LADY!  PRANKS OF THIS VARIETY ARE NOT AMUSING!" Mister Armstrong roared with his general over-exaggeration, as he grabbed Mayu and began hauling her off to the detention room, "WE'LL SEE HOW FUNNY YOU THINK IT IS WHEN YOU'VE WRITTEN A HUNDRED APOLOGIES BY HAND!"
	Mayu cried out in protest, tears filling her eyes as the war mage hauled her off.  Unfortunately for Mayu, while the teary-eyed routine might have worked on some of the more gullible people in her household, Vale instructors knew such tricks by heart and were adept at figuring out the fakers.
	Ben might have been willing to tell Mister Armstrong the truth, that he'd realized the bucket was there and stepped away to avoid being hit by it, but it was more entertaining this way.  Plus, it would get Mayu off his back.  And then there was the fact that _he'd_ have to face Mister Armstrong, who was quite intimidating to someone half his height.
	A quick spell from the janitor would clean up the slime, but in the meantime, most of the students found ways around it, like levitation, simply jumping or even edging around it.
	Ben chose the latter, seeing he would have to jump over most of the slime in order to get to his next class and he didn't like the feeling of levitation.
	Ben had to wonder where Mayu found all her free time.  Granted, he was taking more classes than others, but still, she would have to have an incredibly light course schedule in order to have all the free time she seemed to have.
	He seemed to recall she was friends with a few other snot-nosed brats, all of whom had a lot of money or influence, like that raven-haired girl, Sassy or whatever.  She was a right pain in the ass as well, but she didn't seem as intent on Ben as Mayu was.
	Ben frowned, wondering if it was some sort of reverse attraction thing, where she was actually just trying to get his attention.
	That thought made Ben queasy, and it only got worse when the evil little thought that Uzu and Ray might be the same way came into his head.
	Ben shuddered and continued to Basic Attacks.  Last time, they'd learned the most basic water spell, and this time, they were supposed to learn a basic fire spell.  The teacher was putting ice off for last, given the number of pranksters who'd used it last year.  Over half had been severely punished and a few had been expelled after a memory erasure.  In fact, because of one of the incidents, any students using ice spells in any sort of prank would be suspended the first time and expelled the second.  So far, it hadn't really deterred the major pranksters, they just used natural ice or soapy water.
	Ben sighed as he neared the main hallway.  It was the quickest way to Basic Attacks without risking an encounter with Uzu or Ray, but it was currently being clogged with clubs trying to attract interested students.
	The clubs were, perhaps, the only activities that weren't restricted to grades.  Quite a few were simple activities, like tennis, astronomy and such, but due to the large number of sections in the campus, most of the recruiting took place in the first semester of school, but two week long festivals for each grade level.  Next week was the Beta students' festival.
	And unfortunately for Ben, students who'd jumped ahead were viewed more tenaciously, as they were more likely to 'miss' the first festival.  And a lot of the recruiters had Beta students among their crew, so they knew who wasn't already in a group.
	"Hey, Ben, don't forget that sign ups are tomorrow!" came a cheerful call from Angela, a girl Ben barely knew, who was in the Drama club.  She was eager to talk normally and had become doubly so since hearing that he wasn't "decided" yet.
	Ben made a motion that indicated that he'd heard, then hurried through the throngs.  But, apparently, he'd used up his good luck when he'd detected Mayu's trap, as every single club's recruiters zeroed in on him and each had a pamplet they wanted him to have.
	He waited until he was out of sight to dump all of the pamplets into the trash.  He had enough on his plate to worry about crap like clubs.
	"Not very nice." Alexis spoke up as she caught up to him, "But I can relate."
	Of all of the members of the study group he'd been a part of, Ben had the most with Alexis.  She was also in his Basic Defense, Basics of Elements and Transmutation classes, and was perhaps the only one, besides Azalyn, who had a workload as big as he did, "Yes, but you've already chosen a club."
	"But that's because I like it." Alexis responded, "Getting asked by groups I have no interest in if I want to join feels..."
	"Annoying?  Obnoxious?" Ben inquired.
	Alexis shrugged.
	"So, how are your other classes going?" Alexis inquired.
	"Okay, I guess, but it's pain in the ass trying to get these damn rivals off my ass." Ben commented, "Each of 'em seem to think I'm theirs exclusively."
	Alexis smiled, "Well, I know you don't mind Wendy too much, but are the others really that bad?"
	"You have NO idea." Ben responded, as he and Ray caught sight of each other and exchanged venomous glares before moving their separate ways.  They had a duel scheduled for Saturday to settle their differences, but it was likely that it wouldn't do a damn thing.(1)
	Alexis shrugged her shoulders and dropped the subject.

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	(1) - The school's policy is that no students may duel a student of a higher or lower grade unless both are at least Gamma.  No death duels are allowed, the duel must be approved by the teachers (meaning it has to end whatever conflict provoked the duel) and both students must wear magical protective bands that will block all of the magic that lesser students can manage.

	That's all I've got for now.

	Next Time on Vale Studies: 
	Since their instructors already knowthat a duel wouldn't solve their problems, Ray and Ben have their duel changed into a competition: whoever beats a Marathon Challenge Maze lowered to Beta level would get bragging rights over the other.  However, Ben and Ray aren't the only ones who want in on those bragging rights.

	A-kun