this has to be the longest chapter Ive done sorry for the wait but I'm a college student and computer science doesn't play around
Date: 9/8/2101 - 9/14/2101
Title: Long Ass Week
Day One -
It's been a couple hours since I left Akira, and apparently God has decided that I've been unfucked for too long. Even with a bike, getting out of Yokohama isn't gonna be easy. It takes maybe an hour of riding before the amount of heroes becomes too uncomfortable to ride though. The second I find a discrete enough alleyway, I ride in and get to work. First thing I do is put on some new clothing and a hat. My last one is covered in mud and blood. I really wish I could say new clothes make a new man, but my skin feels like Kirishima has been rubbing his hair on it for hours.
Locking my bike under a dumpster (thanks to Akira for buying a lock), I then ball up my old clothing in the left sleeve of my hoodie and place a backpack on that shoulder. It won't fool anyone if they get a real good look at me, but in life, one does not usually stare at random people's arms and try to figure out if they're real.
After my makeover, I walk to the closest manga cafe. To those that don't know, manga cafes might as well be homeless hotels in Japan. For like 1 dollar a day or something, you get a room, food, and bathing. Dropping the money to the counter, I give the girl at the front a quick nod before walking to the closest showers. Thank god they aren't occupied
Now this is the part that sucks. Taking a backpack strap and putting it in my mouth, I turn the water to hot, grab some soap, and begin to clean myself. Now, anyone that knew me when I was a kid knows I'm a crier. I'm not scared to say it. Jacob tried to beat it out of me, Bastion tried to beat it out of me, Roofy and Androgynous would… actually they either let me cry or tried to make me feel better. Back to the point, I cry when I'm frustrated or scared, but it's never stopped me from getting the job done, and I would love to see anyone clean out their own skin fissures and not cry like a little bitch.
"Uh, sir? Are you alright in there?" the lady on the front must have come to check on me. I guess that whimper was louder than I thought.
"Sorry, I stepped on something sharp," I reply, watching the bloody water go into the drain.
"Alright then. You got five more minutes, by the way," she replies, accompanied by the sound of her walking away.
The next five minutes could be described as a full body scrubbing with steel wool and then getting toweled off with sandpaper. I go through the process of cleaning my whole body. The water turns into all kinds of different colors as I pry away cracked skin and scrub off dried blood. Can't say that I feel better after leaving that shower, but I do feel cleaner. After that, I go to my room where I start to care for my wounds. Akira got me everything I needed.
The antibiotics, cream, and pills were the first things I used, and boy did they feel nice. I let out a sigh of relief as the itching burning feeling that had cursed me since I used grape skin finally died down. After wrapping myself up, I decide to work on a game plan. The bike is a short reprieve. As much as I love Akira, I assume he told the cops its brand and everything. So either I need to get as far away as possible before the bike is recognized, or hide out until the heat dies down. As much as I would love to stay, Endeavor's son is gonna be in this town soon, and I don't need another problem. I guess the only thing now is to figure out how to get the hell out of Yokohama.
Day 2 -
I leave the cafe early in the morning at around 5 am. Night heroes are about to go to bed, and earlier mourning heroes are still groggy. I'm feeling great personally, but I'm pretty sure that's because of the painkillers that I had before leaving. And for the first time since I've broken out of prison, I feel honestly prepared. While most of my food and medical supplies are in the cart on my bike, I make sure to stick a bag full of supplies on my back with a couple of smaller orbs so I don't lose it. I also sewed survival pockets into my current pants and put one of my camping knives in My phone had finally died, but I did manage to get a look at a map of the city before It did, so I at least know which way to go. Plan is basically to bike as far as I can till I get to a smaller town, or at least somewhere that doesn't have so many heroes around, then get on a train to Kobe. I have nothing else to write, so I'll continue if something happens.
I briefly see my reflection before smashing through the glass wall of the office building. Thankfully I still couldn't feel anything as I slam into tables and desks and finally come to a stop after smashing through a draft wall and falling gracefully on my back… as you can tell, something happened. For the sweet love of god, something happened. And by something, I mean fucking Mt. Lady.
It was about two hours after I made my way to get out of the city. The wind was blowing. I was on cloud nine from a second dose of painkillers, and the bike was riding like a dream. It was in that state of euphoria that I noticed a crowd snapping pictures of someone. Curiosity killed the freakin cat, so I crossed the street, which I think is what fucked me. Or rather, whoever honked their horn at me while I illegally crossed the street.
I'm still wondering what tipped her off. Did she decide to catch a jay walker? Or did she recognize the bike's description? Whatever it was, one moment I'm biking away from a group taking pictures of someone, next moment I hear a thumping. Looking back, I curse as I see the giant form of Mt. Lady reaching down to grab me. Thank you Jackson! is the only thing that comes to mind as I lean sharply to the left while lifting my left leg. I feel the wind from her fingers brush my head as I slide the bike under her hand while also turning a sharp left. If this was a motorcycle instead of a bike with an electric engine, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the strength needed to pull off that trick with one arm… on the other hand, if it was a motorcycle, I could have probably outrun Mt. Lady.
Righting myself with a grunt, I have a moment to consider the cons of freaking turning into traffic before I have to serve to avoid driving into a car. "Move, watch out, out the way, move." For a couple moments, it's just me screaming words like that, and cars swerving to avoid me until I find the center of the car lines and road down that way. Looking back, I see Mt. Lady trying to follow me while trying not to step on any cars. Finally a freaking win. I would love to see her try to grab me and have a car run into her finger. Wait no, scratch that, she might get a broken finger, but I bet the driver would be dead. Now for the bigger problem is getting out of sight before more heroes show up.
My thoughts are interrupted by another hero showing up. Jurota Shishida is scary, strong, and possibly a descendant of Tarzan, but what I didn't know was that he was so casual. Dude looks like the kind of hero that makes himself known when he shows up by beating his chest or swinging from a vine. One moment I'm riding down the road enjoying my great escape, the next moment a giant furry arm comes from the window of the car driving past me. I have a moment to think about the fact that this real life Donkey Kong is really about drive-by closeline me. The next moment I notice how coarse his fur is before I slam face first into his arm. I feel my nose break as I slam into what feels like a furry streetlight, which sends me sailing feet overhead until I smash into the hood of a car that had stopped to watch the heroes beat the shit out of me.
"I think the painkillers are wearing off," I groan as I roll off the car.
Jurota apparently seems to be in the mood for grapes for breakfast, because he's already out of his car on all fours running at me. Falling to my stomach, I let out a cry as I roll under the car I just smashed into. Jurota, being the Rikido of class B, simply lifts the car with no problem. Thankfully, he does it slowly, probably to not hurt the civilians in said car. This gives me time to pull out my gun and shoot him in the kneecap.
He grunts ...he grunts! I just fired a gun like 3 feet away into his knee, and he freaking grunts like he walked into a table chair!
"Fuck!" I yell, jumping forward and pressing the gun into his stomach. One, two, three, I keep pulling the trigger till I hear the tell tale sound of an empty chamber. Thankfully that seems to have done something. Sadly, whatever damage it does causes Jurota to drop the car, which lands on me and sends me slamming into the ground.
This would be a perfect time for Jurota to pull me out and start pounding the fuck out of me Donkey Kong style, but I guess he's a little distracted. The yeti man is bullet resistant, not immune. The pro hero stumbles away, holding his stomach where I just unloaded into him. heh. Burning rubber brings me back to reality... guess Mr. Driver has decided he's a little too close to the combat.
Rolling completely under the car and leaning my head forward, I press my head against the bottom of the car, sticking to it the second before it starts reversing from the wounded hero. I spread my leg to latch the edges of the car to stop my back from scraping on the road. Thankfully, Mr. Driver still has enough wit to not keep reversing into oncoming traffic and decides to gun it back the way I came.
I swear Jurota makes the Chewbacca noise as we drive past. Okay, new plan. Hopefully this dude is going far away from this fight, and I can dismount and go hide in an alley somewhere. My shoddy plan is interrupted by the car suddenly stopping. No way he caught up to the car with that gut wound! That thought is quickly proven in the worst way possible when the car starts to rise in the air. Oh, I guess Mt. Lady knows I'm here, I think as I place my gun in my mouth while reaching into my pocket for a new clip.
Once high enough, I disconnect my orbs, sending myself falling back to the ground. Wait, why didn't she have her other hand to catch me? I think as I load the gun, cocking it with my teeth, returning it back to its holster, then throwing a compact grape on the ground. I actually feel my scalp crack as I push my quirk past its limit. Hope someone caught that on camera, cause that must have been cool. Where the hell am I going? I think desperately as I land on the orb eye, darting around before I realize that it wouldn't matter.
The reason why Mt. Lady doesn't try to catch me while I'm falling is because her giant hand is cocked back. Violet eyes were glued on to me as she clenched her hand into a fist, getting ready to literally punch me to hell. There's nothing I can do, I think around gritted teeth. Unlike flies, I can't change directions mid air. I jump with a high ark, and I'll get swatted. I jump with a low ark, and I'll smash into a car then get swatted.
Launching from the ball, I can only watch as she lets fly an overhand punch, her car-sized hand getting closer and closer. My brain must be burning itself up, because it's taking forever for it to hit. As death crawls its way over to me, I go over my life. Not in a life flashes before my eyes way, more of a man I lived a shit life sort of way. From start to finish, it was a pretty shitty ride, a lot of it my own making, a decent amount just because of fate.
It was only after leaving UA that stuff started looking up. I met Roofy and Jackson, I was allowed into the Gray Academy, and I spent time with class T. I lived a short life, but I managed to go around the world and did things most heroes and villains never even dreamed of.
And then I came back to Japan. Coming back to the place I was born really jolted me back to reality. Who was there? Family? No. My classmates? No. Only one blond haired idiot who had been with me since the beginning, who took a day from his job to meet me at the airport. The same blond idiot who was my first and best friend in this shit filled book I called a life. The same best friend who made me his kids' godfather. The same best friend who died alone in the rain and sent me clues to finish what he started. The same best friend that I'm letting down by giving up and dying to this big bitch when I should avenging the only man I gave a flying fuck about in this damn world.
The scream that comes out of my throat is hoarse. I fly into the air. I scream in fury as Mt. Lady hand comes closer. I scream in victory as I push myself past my limits and then past them again. My grape skin feels different this time when I force it out of me, like a bush is growing from my skin …a bush made of steel and covered with lemon juice that constantly wiggles and moves slightly.
I feel clotted wounds reopen and am immediately damp with all the fresh blood leaving me. The next second, her fist makes contact. I think my nerves are just done with this bull shit, because I don't feel the fist hitting me or me hitting the ground. I feel the wind as I'm sent sailing through the air. I guess I bounce at an angle, or else I assume she would have just hit me down again like a paddle ball.
After a couple moments of seeing only blue sky as I fly through the air, I'm concerned. I've been sailing for a couple seconds now ..how hard did I bounce? I'm also sort of worried that I can no longer feel anything, especially since I know for a fact I'm FBAR. Probably means my nerve ending got damaged with that last move…hope nothing permanent. Wait, is that my reflec-.
And that's how I got in my current predicament. Thank god I can't feel anything, because smashing into that glass wall would've hurt. I black out for a moment, but I think I hear people screaming. "I escaped …yeah," I say. At least, I think. I can't hear past the ringing in my ears. Lifting a trembling arm up, I grab my nose before forcing it back into a straight position with a slight crack. "Can't be losing any more of my good looks now, can I?"
From the corner in my eyes, I see something with green hair jump through the hole I had created with my body. "No," I say as the green hair blur hops closer to me. I strain, trying to focus on her, but my vision stubbornly stays fuzzy. "Tsuyu, is that you? If it is, then just kill me, because at this point, god is calling me."
"I'm not Tsuyu," the voice replies, barely audible behind the ringing in my ears. "But I'll kill you like you want... though I doubt you'll see god." The last thing I see is not-Tsuyu pull back her foot and smash it into my chin. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure I'm already out before she makes contact.
Day 3 -
I wonder what Jackson is doing. Is he having a nice cup of coffee while I'm getting my ass beat up and down the fine town of Yokohama? Because unless he's on a mission, the second I see that man, I'm kicking him in the nuts...if I can. Pretty sure Jackson could give Midoriya some problems. It's this weird thought that goes through my mind as I wake up.
First thing I notice is that I'm handcuffed to a bed. Next thing I notice is that I can't feel most of my body. Looking down at myself, I see I'm still wearing my pants, though someone had seen fit to remove my shirt, probably to remove the backpack stuck to it and my gun holster. Oh damn, I look like old meatloaf, I think as I lift a bandage to stare at my bruised and cracked skin. That grape skin felt different—much different than my normal version. Did my quirk awaken? No. Considering how high I bounced, I assume it used the same hair as I do when I use a compact grape… in that case, I might have evolved to grow more hair, since I'm pretty sure I was at my limit right there.
That would be… actually really useful. Grapeskin is only like 3mm thick normally (I panicked and overused the hell out of it at the tower), which makes me resistant to a lot of damage, but it can still be overwhelmed with enough weight or force depending on how much hair I have. If my quirk did awaken, then hopefully it did create a lot of hair for grapskin. It would make me… well… not indestructible, but at least I wouldn't be getting worked over by every single hero I came across. Less bitching, more focusing. I shake my head.
Tilting my head, I bite into my shoulder to see if I could get some feeling. Nope. Oh god, that ain't good. Jackson taught us that pain was our friend. It told us what was alive and what needed to be worked on. No pain either means you're perfectly fine, or you're truly fucked up, and no one is ever perfectly fine. Since I can't feel anything, I try to move my legs and arms to see if they still work.
It takes a second, but the limbs do what they're told. Don't think anything is majorly broken ...probably got some fractures that I can't feel….fuck, please don't have internal bleeding. Alright, so I've been captured, but not by heroes or cops, or I'd be in a real jail cell. Looking around the room, I notice that whoever captured me probably did it in a spur of the moment kind of thing, because who the fuck locks someone up in a guest bedroom? A window, blue bed, green wall paint, slight smell of rain but lacking the bit of life that makes it clear a room is regularly used. Yep, this is a guest bedroom, and with the frog pillow on the bed, I'm scratching my head a bit.
Okay, so not-Tsuyu told me she wasn't Tsuyu, and Tsuyu would have no reason to lie to me. It could be a fan of Tsuyu. Someone else with a frog quirk that looks up to her, but why did she grab me? Instantly, I remember what Sakura said - basically all the girls spilled the beans of my first year action to the news...oh fuck. I've got to get out of here.
Heroes and cops have rules, but fucking fans can do some crazy shit. Dislocating my thumb and pulling my hand from the cuff, I strain to get to my feet. I don't feel any pain, but my legs wobble before I fall straight down to my face. Fuck, something is definitely wrong there. Relocating my fingers, I channeled my inner Aizawa andI inchworm my way to the door and lean into it to listen for something. After hearing nothing, I try to open it. The door slides open with barely a sound, and the hallway beckons me to freedom.
This …this is too easy. My eyes trailing across the hallway, I try to notice anything odd, any traps, anything at all. After finding nothing, I lean over slightly and stick my hand out of the doorway and wish I died. Now hear me out, I've experienced pain before. Getting stabbed in prison, working as a hero, working for Jackson. I've been bit kicked, stabbed, shot, and a lot of other things, but right now, you could have put a black cloak and some rods into me and called me Nagato, because I knew pain. Even looking back on it, I can't explain what type of pain it was. Closest thing I can compare it to is if someone had poured superheated worms into my bloodstream and they were slowly eating their way through my body. Thankfully my body isn't up for that and gives me sweet release after a couple seconds of that hell.
"Is he dead?"
"I hope. It saves us the trouble."
If I had a dollar for how many times I've heard that… I wouldn't be rich, but I'd probably be able to buy a bitching necklace or something.
"Hey bastard, are you alive?" I play dead, deciding to see if they'll go back to talking if they think I'm out. "I'll move the field on top of you if you don't move." Not in the mood for that again, I roll onto my stomach, not feeling strong enough to get to my feet.
"See, I told you he was alive."
"How did he get out of the handcuffs?" a third voice asks. Oh goody, there are more.
"Hey numb nuts, how you'd get out of the cuffs?" the second voice asks in a voice that's way too loud for my liking.
"Mmh mmhh," I groan as if I couldn't speak well and try to look more pitiful than I already feel.
"Maybe my quirk broke him," the first voice wonders. She sounds concerned, which could mean a lot of things, but I'm hoping that she doesn't want to kill me.
Rising to my knees, I survey the trio. All three are wearing masks, identical ski masks - classic - and are wearing black pants and shirts. They're also all female, so I'm already on edge.
"What happened to me?" I ask, throat dry as I try to rise to my feet.
"My quirk allows me to make zones where I can make people feel different things," the girl in the middle says. She's the shortest of the group, maybe 5'4, which means she still towers over my 4'9 height. Little bit on the heavy side, and from what I could hear from her voice, a little nervous. That's pretty much all I could determine from her appearance. "Usually I use it at work to make everyone calm, but we couldn't have you running around the house."
"The house? Not your house?" Her eyes glance at the third member of their group, the one that hasn't talked yet. "No, it's her house…and not sure yet, but I'm betting she dropped this little kidnapping plot on you, didn't she?" Shorty's eyes widen, confirming my statement. The loud one looks like she wants to say something, but I cut her off, turning to Miss Quiet. "You're the one that took me from the building, right?
Miss Quiet stares at me. Looking her over, she is uncomfortably similar to Tsuyu. Same frog posture, same green hair, though most of it was hidden under the mask, and the same deadpan eyes. Honestly, I would have thought she was Tsuyu if it wasn't for one thing. "Satsuki, was it? What is the sister of the Number 5 hero doing kidnapping people?
Satsuki's eyes widen as she takes a step back in surprise. Shorty looks shocked, and Loudmouth looks vaguely surprised. Anyone that knew Tsuyu well enough might have been able to guess that they were sisters, but my way was a bit more...instinctual.
"How the fuck did you figure it out?" Loud mouth asks. Well, if I wasn't sure before, I am now. Yeah, these three are new to the kidnapping shtick.
"Her boobs, hips, and thighs are smaller than her sister's," I answer truthfully. The three girls stare at me for a moment, and I honestly couldn't blame them. Even Jackson was always impressed that I was able to recognize people from their figures. I had actually used that skill to recognize an assassin that was hiding out in a cosplay function.
"So why am I here?" I ask, getting a bit uncomfortable with the girls glaring at me. "Satsuki, explain. You seem to be the leader of this merry band."
She stares at me for a moment before pulling off her ski mask and stepping towards the doorway. Shorty makes a hand gesture before she actually walks through. So, she can control and move those zones, which could be a problem. Satsuki has basically the same quirk as Tsuyu. Good to know if a fight breaks out, but honestly wouldn't do me much good. I still don't know what Loud mouth's quirk is. To be honest, if any of them try anything I really don't think I could do anything besides cry and take it like a bitch.
"Do you know why you're here, Mineta?"
"Because you kidnapped me," I say, looking behind me at the window on the other side of the room, briefly wondering if there's a zone around it. "Also, why did you kidnap me? I was already passed out."
"I knocked you out," Satsuki says.
"I passed out," I repeat. "The point is, I was out. Why grab me when you could have literally left me for the cops?" Shorty's eyes widen, and she looks at Satsuki. Loudmouth puts a hand on her shoulder before she can say anything.
"Yes, I could have left you to the cops," she says, stretching her hands over her head. I could see what was coming, but damn, my body isn't ready to react to it. Her tongue lashes out and smashes into my stomach. The force sends me skidding a couple feet back. "That was for my sister."
I would have had a witty come back to that, but I'm trying to get the wind back into my lungs. Falling to my knees, I don't even get the chance to lose my lunch before her tongue strikes me again, this time in the forehead, properly folding me to the ground like the world's most abused lawn chair. "That was for whatever girl you forced yourself on."
"You hit like a substitute teacher," I groan on the ground. She apparently takes that as an insult, because I feel her tongue wrap around my face.
"These are for the rest of the girls of class 1-A."
"Wait, wait, wa-" I barely get a chance to put my arm over my head before she smashes me head first into the ceiling. Up, down, up, down, up, down, up - she smashes me into the ceiling a couple more times before letting go, allowing me to drop unceremoniously to the ground. "Cops or heroes would have brought you to justice, but I don't want justice. I want revenge."
"Fucking I've done nothing to you!" I growl, getting back to my feet "Your sister has every right to hate me. You, on the other hand, don't even know me." Her tongue lashes out, hitting me in the shoulder and sending me spinning to the ground. Hopefully her frog quirk is weaker than her sister's, because I think Tsuyu can fucking throw a car with hers.
"I know everything I need to know about you. I know enough about you to know that you don't deserve an easy death. I know enough to know that you don't deserve to peacefully go to sleep. I know my sister was wrong to forgive you. I grew up hearing stories of what you did to the girls at UA, including my sister. And then years after you left with your tail between your legs, you come back claiming to be better and fixing old wounds."
She laughs before lashing me with her tongue. This time, she hit my stump, which brought a new type of pain. I guess the scream I let out surprised her, cause no more tongue lashes came out.
"That. Is. Fresh!" I growl, holding my mutilated shoulder. "God damnit, it's bleeding again! I don't have the blood for this."
"How hasn't that healed yet?" Loudmouth asks. During my whipping, she looked vaguely excited, the opposite to Shorty's thinly-veiled horror.
"I lost the thing like two weeks ago! …I think? Fuck, how long has it been since I left prison?"
"19 days."
"Really?" I shake my head in wonder. "Fuck, really? God, a week in the cold rain, and a hero attack, and now I'm gonna die because some bitch with a sister comple-'' This time, the tongue slaps me across the face, sending me spinning in a graceful arc till I smash face first into the corner of a dresser. "Fuck, will you stop that!?"
"You don't seem to understand what is happening." I guess Satsuki is upset at being ignored. Her eyebrows are slightly furrowed, and if her face is anything like Tsuyu's; that means she is livid. "I brought you here to kill you. You're gonna die here today, and you will die horribly." Her voice held the thinly veiled rage you just don't hear from Tsuyu.
"No." I shake my head.
"No?"
"No," I confirm. "You would not be killing me, you would be murdering me, and you won't be murdering me either, or else your friends are gonna go to jail."
"What's the difference?" Loudmouth asks.
"Jail?" Shorty squeaks.
"Killing is something that is done in war or in an even fight. A hero kills a villain that's holding hostages. Murder is what you're doing. You're about to beat an injured, one-armed 4'9 man to death. I've shown no hostilities. If anything, I'm the victim here." I manage to duck under Satsuki's tongue this time, but I'm not ready for her whipping it downward, slamming it on my shoulder. I hear a pop as it's dislocated. At least it's the arm less shoulder, I think numbly as I roll on the ground.
"How dare you claim to be a victim!" Satsuki shrieks, displaying rage that her sister doesn't even display to villains, her tongue smashes into me again, this time in the stomach.
"Because I fucking am!" I wheeze. "I'm being held against my will and tortured by the three of you. I am a victim in this case, and you three will go to jail for it."
"Dead men tell no tales," Loudmouth helpfully points out.
"No, but my body will. You guys are sloppy, and from what I can guess, you two were dragged into this." I roll onto my stomach. "What if Satsuki messed something up? She dragged me here from her job, after all. What if a camera caught her? What if someone saw her with me? Hero's sister kidnaps defeated villain whose body shows up later. Wouldn't that look good on the news?"
"The people would praise me," Satsuki says, walking closer and grabbing me by the hair. She really doesn't know me if she doesn't know to not touch that. "You think anyone would really try and charge me? I just need to say you attacked me, and I can get away scott free."
"Possibly. It's quite possible the government covered up bigger things, but no, the problem with that is that you have a hero for a sister. A high ranking one as well." I tilt my head to look her in her dead frog eyes. "Whether Tsuyu was involved in this or not, people are gonna think she did. The trust in heroes is pretty weak nowadays, what are people gonna think if heroes start killing people in the background?"
"They won't blame my sister for my actions."
"Just like people didn't blame my family for my granddad's? People remember that shit, Satsuki, you really want to risk bringing that shit on your family just so you can hurt a man already destined for death?" I laugh in her face. "Throwing away your family's reputation and well being just to get back at someone who wronged you in the past sounds pretty villainous to me." Satsuki hisses and slams me face first into the ground.
Thankfully, it's enough to knock me out.
I wake up to new bandages around my stump and re-handcuffed to the bed. I guess they didn't want me bleeding too much on their good floor. Which reminds me, is it called a stump? I'm missing the arm up to the shoulder, but I still had the shoulder itself, so …questions for later. Sitting up, I look around the room only to meet the eyes of Loudmouth, who is sitting on a chair watching me.
"Whether I succeed or not, I'd rather there be a record of my attempt so my story will be heard. Until then, this is Mineta Minoru signing off," a familiar voice comes from a laptop she has in her hands.
Well, at least my flash drive is intact.
"Re-watching my greatest hits?" I ask, rising to a kneeling position.
"Yes, actually," she replies. "Second rewatch, to be honest. If I'm gonna kill someone, I'd like to know that I'm doing the right thing."
"Speaking of my possible upcoming death…where are the other two, and why am I still alive?"
"My friend stopped Satsuki from smashing your head in. She said that it might have left marks in the floor that her sister would notice. There was an interesting part where she was stuck to your hair and the other one helped her. Then they got into an argument over whether anyone saw her take you and all that. If you were planning to start a fight, you did a pretty good job."
I run my arm over my body, hissing at the new bruises that have formed from my recent beating. "You seem…pretty calm talking to me."
"There's a zone about 3 feet around you, so you can't really touch me. Plus I have this." She lifts up my pistol from her lap waving it in front of me with a shit eating grin.
"How the hell did you get that?" I ask, eyes wide. "Was I still bloody holding it when Satsuki found it?"
"Apparently. Well, Satsuki said it was stuck to your chest by some purple stuff. It came off in her car."
"Oh, my blood in her car. Tell Shorty about that as well." At her raised eyebrow, I explain, "The longer they fight, the longer I have to figure out a way out of this."
"You think you can escape this? Even if we decide not to kill you, they're going to turn you in to the cops, and you'll be back on death row."
"I'll deal with the cops if they get involved." I shrug my shoulders, hissing at the pain that comes with it. "So why are you watching my flash drive?"
"Trying to learn more about you." She turns the laptop to show me. On it are different news articles showing my hero work across the world. "From what I've found out, you're an international hero. Not the cream of the crop by any means, but you help in a lot of cases."
I was in the top 200! I think angrily as I read the screen. Yeah, it's not the top ten, but once you hit the top 100 of the international hero list, you basically get people who can fight Japan's top 5.
"That was a stupid decision." At her raised eyebrow, I explain.
"You're about to kill someone, and you just decide to look into their life? What if I had a wife or kid or something, or I had opened an orphanage?"
"You think that would stop me from killing you? That it would absolve you of your sins?"
"Hell no. I'm saying you're throwing emotions into it. You're giving a name and life to the face that you're going to kill."
"Well, excuse me for wanting more information about who I'm about to kill." She humphs before turning the computer back to face her.
"So what's the most recent news on me?"
"Well, the first thing that came up was your hostage video with that couple." I grin at that.
"What's been the response?"
"Some think he was working with you to get money, but apparently his wife has been talking about your interactions with her. It made it seem more believable. Some people have been sending money to pay for what you took from him, and I think a pro hero replied on the video asking to question him."
"Well, hope he gets his money. Wait, what did Sakura say about me?"
"That you threatened her with a gun, claimed you were framed, and a couple other things."
"At least she was telling the truth." I sigh in relief. "I sort of assumed she would say I touched her or something just to screw me over."
"That's a dim view to have of someone you took hostage."
"Women are poisoned daggers," I say, stretching my arm. "They can be cool to look at, but hold one the wrong way, and they can cause injuries that will never heal."
"Which leads me to my second observation." She pauses and scratches her head. I would have paid to see behind the mask and read her expressions. "You were apparently a menace at UA." I roll my eyes at her statement, which she notices. "You don't agree?"
"Menace is an overstatement."
She raises an eyebrow at me. "Saying crude things to girls?"
"Any high schooler has put their foot in their mouth," I counter.
"Inappropriate touching?"
"Circumstantial at best." Momo, I was on her back. Tsuyu wasn't even on purpose; I was more focused on All Might coming to save us and Ashido….well yeah, not gonna lie, that one I planned out like Batman. "Half the stuff they claim I did was by accident".
"And the other half?"
"I'll admit to that guilt."
"Peeking on the girls?"
"Okay, yeah, I did do that."
"Trying to steal their underwear?"
"I wouldn't say steal. I was trying to sniff them." At her look, I shrug. "I could blame my mental illness, but yeah, I was sort of fucked up as a kid."
"Trick them into wearing skimpy clothing?"
"Okay, yeah. I did that too, but Denki was right with me for that!"
"Roofying your classmates."
"I didn't do that!" I roar that statement, bringing up bad memories. "God damnit, I didn't even go near the punch at that party, but everyone thought I spiked it." ugh, the amount of fights that started still makes me mad. Fucking teacher thought I did it too, but there was no evidence, so they couldn't really punish me for it.
"So you draw the line at drugging your classmates." She shrugs, giving me a pointed look. "I guess that makes you a perfect gentleman… in the 1780s."
"Fine, fuck, I'll admit I wasn't the best person as a kid, but there was a big jump between trying to peek on girls to becoming a rapist. Wait! Look up my mission in China three years back. Me and a team destroyed some human trafficking rings."
She nods to confirm that she's read it. "Yeah, but it also states that you were undercover in that organization for 3 month, so far as I know, you could have been having a blast and got everyone else arrested to cover your tracks."
I stare at her wide eyed. "Do you really believe that?"
She shrugs. "I don't know what to believe from your little 'I'm gonna prove my innocence video' and the fact that beside your time at UA, you seemed to have been a decent hero. Violent as hell and a little underhanded, sure, also you seemed to avoid most female heroes like the plague, but other than that, decent in the grand moral standpoint."
"But?" I ask, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"For some reason, a couple of your pro hero missions are bare bones. You don't seem to stay anywhere long, and you're cited for being involved in a couple of big cases, but I couldn't find an interview with you or any big statements about it. You're almost a shadow in some of these missions, like you're only there to cover someone else's tracks, or someone is covering up your tracks."
She puts the laptop aside to look at me. "This gives me three theories on you so far." She holds up a finger. "So A) you really are being framed, and then I'd be helping to kill a innocent person. B) You've been a hero for all these years, but you fell off the wagon, in which case I have no qualms in killing you, or C) you've been doing this across the world, and you only got caught here because someone has been helping you cover your tracks." Her blue eyes narrow on me, becoming cold as ice as she levels my pistol at my face. "You have ten seconds to convince me it's option A before I put a bullet in you. 9….8."
"WAIT WHAT!? JUST LIKE THAT? SHIT, GUNS ARE LOUD!" I exclaim, eyes trained on the barrel. "THE NEIGHBORS WILL HEAR!"
"My quick controls sound. Why do you think no one heard Satsuki smashing you around her house? 7…6."
"I've been fucking hiding out the last couple week. You just watched and read everything I've freaking been doing since I got out of jail."
"5…that's not convincing me ..4."
"How will you be hiding the body?" The grin she gives me answers my question and tells me all I needed to know about this girl. "You've..you've done this before." I don't know why or what the circumstances were, but this girl has seen death and been involved in it.
"Something like it. 3…2."
Mind going blank, I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. "I'M UNDERCOVER."
Her raised eyebrow and waving of the gun told me to keep going.
"I'm part of a branch of the IHA that handles under the table interactions with other governments and high power individuals," I say slowly, trying to give myself more time to think of what I can say without getting myself in trouble. It isn't exactly a perfect description of the Gray Academy, but it was close enough that Jackson might get upset. ''I've exposed secrets and lies from across the world under the guise of different heroes and civilians. There are many rich people in our country that would want me dead if they knew some of my other identities "
"Tell me more." She leans back on her seat and puts the gun away.
"If I tell you-"
"You'll have to kill me?"
"No, but there's a high chance someone will come to kill you either to learn what they think you know or to hide what secrets they think you know. They might kill the other two as well."
That causes her to pause for a moment before she goes back to reach for the gun.
"Think about it!" I say, forcing as much stress as I can to start leaking from my throat. "Arrested suddenly, no trail, not even an official word of what I did. Then the leaks. Why hasn't the government spoken about it yet? Wait, wait, wait, look up the criminal rights of international heroes!"
She narrows her eyes at me before typing on her keyboard. She reads it for a bit before raising an eyebrow. "You're supposed to be taken to some sort of committee and then given to the country that you broke the crime in to be given a trial there. In some cases, your country of birth will be given custody of yo-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but all committee decisions should be documented. Hell, the very notion of an international hero doing a scandal like that should have made some waves."
More typing, more reading. After a couple of minutes, she looks up to me. "Nothing at all. No news of the hero Grapeshot for about a year now."
"Exactly. After I went back to Japan."
"So you're saying the IHA doesn't know you're here?"
"Oh, they know I'm here. IHA heroes have to make it clear where they are whenever they're on duty or not, so they must know I'm here. I assume the Japanese government is doing something to keep them from making a fuss. That's probably why my team hasn't sent anyone to save me or just have Stars and Stripes request my release into IHA custody."
"Like?"
"…."
"Right, right. Get me and all my friends killed." She sighs and goes back to her computer. "Well, you made A) sound at least possible, if not completely crazy."
"So you believe me?"
"Not sure yet, but it at least convinced me enough not to shoot you."
"Fuck it, I'll take it." I sigh in relief. "So what now?"
"We wait to see what the girls will decide. It's basically their show now, I'm neutral."
I blink at her. Fucking neutral? She's about to shoot me in the face!
"Are you gonna stop me from escaping?"
"If you can get through the field, then sure, go ahead, but if you attack them, I'm gonna light you up."
"Could you help me convince them?"
She raises an eyebrow at me. "You want me to convince them that you're some type of spy, and the government wants you dead?"
"I was more hoping that you could convince them that I'm being framed and that my arrest seems shifty, but whatever floats your boat."
"But I don't believe you yet."
"Not completely, but it paused you enough to not kill me. At this point, I'll take that. All I need is time." She stares at me for a moment before shrugging.
"I'll throw my two cents in, but she seems to hate you."
"She can hate me all she wants. I'm used to it. I just need her to get out of my way. I have an innocence to prove, and then I'm going back to America."
"Not gonna stay in your homeland?"
I stare at her, waiting for her to realize why the fuck that isn't gonna happen. "Fuck no. Fuck Japan. Only reason I came back here was to dig in my family closet and bury the hachet with my old classmates. You see how that went. Once I'm done with this, I'm going back to America, or fuck, maybe Canada. I was happy there."
"I heard Mexico has some nice places."
"I can't go to Mexico."
"Why."
"Becu…wait, why can't I?" I blink as I pull up a blank. "I don't remember. Hmm..gonna look into this later, but more importantly, if you have my gun, you have the backpack that was stuck to me, right?"
"Yes."
"Can I have the medic gear in it? I need to change my bandages and put more disinfectant on it:"
She shrugs before leaving the room, annoyingly taking the gun and laptop with her. Well, she's no Akira, but at least she has sense. Briefly wondering if she's perhaps bluffing about the field in her mind, I consider testing it before deciding that I'm in enough pain, and even if the field wasn't there, I'm in no condition to fight these ladies.
Loud mouth... not sure if I should call her that anymore. She is definitely the most dangerous. At least, she has killed before. Shorty seems the easiest to sway; she got dragged into this, and she wants out. She must be a good friend to stick with Satsuki this far. Satsuki on the other hand…. either she's someone who took a chance, in which case logic could possibly get her to call the cops on me, or she's like me and is a vengeful person that won't let me go. The second option is what I'm scared of. If Satsuki decides fuck it, then I am done like dinner.
A couple minutes later, Loudmouth comes back with my med kit and new clothing. She throws it to me, not wanting to get too close to the field.
"Thanks," I say as I start undoing the bandages around my stomach, only to blink as she watches with rapt attention. "Uhh, see something you like?"
"Not yet," she replies without a hint of a joke. "You're selling a story of being some type of spy, and I assume if there's any truth to that, then there'd be some type of scars."
"What if I said I was a master or have never been wounded?"
"I'd say you were bullshitting. If you were that good, you wouldn't be in this position." I grumble while undoing the band aids. Professionals mess up too. Fucking Mexico, for example. Alright, second time my mind's brought up some trip to Mexico I can't remember. That means something.
"What's that scar?" she asks, pulling me away from my thoughts and pointing to a welt below my kidney. I'm surprised she could tell which scars were older, since they were blending in with the black and purple mural that was my body.
"Prison shank."
"This one?"
"Gun shot."
"That fancy one in the shape of a circle?"
"That's a brand."
"What type?"
"Slave marker."
"You were a slave?"
"For about a week. Can we not talk about it?"
"Alright. Oh, that one with the crack pattern."
"Uh… Hmm, enemy quirk."
"Villain?"
"Enemy that wasn't a hero. Wouldn't really call him a villain."
"What about the arm?"
"Mina."
"Pinky?"
"That's her hero name, yes."
"When did she do that? During your capture?"
"No, during my escape." I rub the wound. "Thanks for changing the bandages on that, by the way."
"Didn't need you bleeding on the floor." Thankfully, she's quiet while I change clothing and apply antibiotic cream.
"Who is Jackson?"
I freeze at her question. There are a handful of ways that she could know that name, and 7/10 of them lead to one of us dying. For a moment, I just stare at her, gauging her expression before continuing my work. "How do you know that name?"
"You were muttering in your sleep something about Jackson, Bastion, and Mexico."
For a moment, I'm completely befuddled. I shouldn't be able to talk about Jackson unless I focus on him. It's a semi-mental block he puts on every student to prevent slip ups. The same situation as Bastion. Once is by chance, twice is coincidence. This makes three, and that's a pattern. "Did I say anything else?"
"Not that I heard."
I feel a smile inching up my face. This had to be a message. I can't think of any other reason mental blocks would become undone like this. Jackson is most likely trying to contact me. Since he hasn't talked to me in my dreams or just projects messages in my mind, that means that he's still far away. Considering that this hasn't happened before probably means Jackson is somewhere in the right side of Europe and might have finally reconnected with my mind. Still can't remember the trip to Mexico, but it must be him giving me a hint since he hasn't talked to me yet. "My team might be trying to contact me, or at least tell me something."
At her look I shrug, which she takes as a can't say anymore. I finish replacing my bandages without feeling an instance of embarrassment when I change my clothing. "I need to sleep now."
"You're going to sleep here? Now?" she asks in surprise as I go into a meditating stance. "Shouldn't you be figuring out how to prove your innocence?"
"I am … I hope someone gives me a hint. Hopefully it can convince you of my innocence." Or best case, it might be Jackson telling me to sit tight while they finally send someone to help. I close my eyes and cross my legs, going into a meditation pose and trying to force myself to be calm. After a couple minutes, I sigh. "Can you leave? I can feel your eyes on me, and it's not helping me concentrate."
"I'm supposed to watch you." It annoys me that she sounds so smug too. She knew I couldn't get out of this field; she just likes making me feel unsettled.
I sigh and turn so my back is facing her and return to trying to concentrate.
I think I've mentioned the vault before. Probably something along the lines of I have to check the vault for that or put that in the vault, so let me explain what the vault is in more detail. The vault is a mental visualization practice and is one of the first lessons Jackson taught us. For lack of a better term, it is a mental space to put A) stuff you can't handle, B) things you don't want to have defenseless in your mind, or C) yourself, if you want to examine/experience a memory in greater detail.
Someone dies halfway through a mission? Put the emotions in the vault till you can deal with them. Something fucked up happens and you don't want it rattling around your brain? Put that shit in the vault. Some mental quirk user skimming your mind? If they can't read past surface thoughts, then they won't find anything in the vault. You can even relive dreams in the vault if you're good enough with it.
Now, the vault isn't all powerful. It depends on your mental fortitude. Bad enough memories can - for lack of better words - break out of the vault, and when they do, that shit gets sent into the forefront of your mind. Apparently something like the vault is a natural thing that all people have, but most people never train with it, or in our case, have someone with a quirk that can enhance and advance their access to it.
Welp, time for a trip down memory lane. I start to take deep breaths, slow my heartbeat, and clear my mind. After some time, I feel my mind shift inward, away from my injured body. I move my mind away from the outside and go as far into myself as I could until I didn't even feel my own heartbeat. Darkness is all I saw, which was expected.
Seeing something in the vault is the same as imagining something in your head. You can't see it, but you can see it. In the darkness of my mind, imaginary orbs of different colors appear. Most of them are the size of basketballs, but there are some that are as large as horses. All of them are memories, or in some cases, collections of memories I decide not to think about or put in a safe place. After who knows how long of just sitting there, I let out a mental sigh.
I hope that someone is waiting to give me a message. Even if Jackson couldn't for some reason, the Academy has other ways to contact someone. Hell, there is someone that could talk in dreams in my class. That brought up the fact that I might not be deep enough for that person to contact me. The vault was basically hard core daydreaming, but I would rather not completely fall asleep in my current condition since it's not someone trying to contact me, since then I won't be able to wake myself up.
Mental moving forward, I start to look for the memories that I placed here. A main weakness of the vault is that it puts you in your feelings, and it has a habit of pulling you in. Depending on how much is in there and how intense it is, you could spend hours just reliving your past. It's a good way to gain closure, I guess, but I don't really have the time.
Avoiding any thought of my childhood or early teenage years, I start looking into some of Jackson's harsher lessons, brushing my mind into them as lightly as I can so I don't get dragged in. Poison detection, information gathering, intimidation… all useful stuff I used in the pit, but not what I'm looking for. First day back in Japan. Didn't realize I had put that one here.
Slowly pushing the memory away, I let a thought flow into the vault Mexico? I feel buried memories shift as some of my memories related to that subject are pushed forward. Not exactly a search function - anything too buried or that my mind doesn't make the connection wouldn't be moved there. Also, the case where my mind can sense a connection I don't remember.
At first, the only memories I really get are lessons in school, which started to attract some of my other school memories, which I really didn't want to get involved in. After the third time pushing away a memory where Sato had been talking about a movie that took place in Mexico while I was staring at a girl's ass, I'm afraid that it's either too deep, or that Jackson put a code phrase that would stop me from remembering it at all.
I'm about to say fuck it and go ask Loudmouth to bring me some sleeping pill when I feel a tug to certain memories. Turning my...attention, I focus on a memory pushed a bit farther back from the selected pile. This is a fresher memory, so this one is more likely to be what I need. Selecting the memory, I dip a mental toe in to see what I'm looking at.
An explosion rocks the side of the plane, sending everyone bouncing around the soon to be crashing aircraft.
"You guys got to jump now!" The pilot says calmly, as if we aren't all about to die.
"Are you kidding!?" I shout, tightening my seat belt as a muti colored feather the size of a truck zooms past the plane, leaving a gash in its wing. The metal folds in on itself, fixing the damage, but I doubt the pilot could do that forever.
"I'm not kidding. I can't dodge these things with you guys in the plane, and you guys have a mission, now jump!"
"You're seven miles from the drop zone. You gotta get us clos-" This time, the feather went through the plane, nearly clipping my nose. Rainbow color material stronger than any diamond cuts through steel like warm cheese. There's a frightening second when the half's of the plane starts to separate where I really start to regret my life choices. The pilot points a hand. Instantly, the metal of the plane warps and reaches for its other half, grabbing it and pulling it closer as we fall from the sky. As metal once again fuses together, I check to see if I pissed myself. Thankfully not.
"Do you really think this plane is safer than the ground right now!?" the pilot screams as she pulls the joystick, sending us arcing into the sky.
"It's away from whatever is shooting these feathers at us, so yes!" I scream as the force pushes me back in the chair.
The pilot, apparently fed up with my attitude, turns and points her finger at me. Instantly, the seat belt of my seat comes undone and the chair bucks me to my feet. "Look, I know it's your first big test at the Academy, but I'm not dying because you're scared of heights, so get off the plane in the next 10 seconds, or you're gonna experience mach 20 forces."
"I'M SCARED OF THE FUCKING PLANE CUTTING ARROWS, NOT HEIGHTS!" I scream just in time for the plane to start dog rolling below an energy blast or something.
"Whatever. Just fucking jump."
"Fuck you!" is my response. I cling to my seat as the pilot jerks her joystick down, causing the plane to dive under an black energy wave of some kind. "Yeah, fuck going out there, Jackson can suck my di—" My thoughts are interrupted by a metallic hand grabbing my shoulder.
"I got him." Bastion lifts me up. "Come on, Mineta, we got to go."
"No, we don't. Wendigo's a big girl, she can take care of he-FUCK." My well-placed argument is interrupted by Bastion spinning and throwing me, sending me flying through the closed plane door and out into open night air. My last thought before gravity reminds me it existed is that he didn't give me a parachute.
Jerking away from the memory, I blink as it reconnects, giving me context to what I just saw. It was one of my first midterm tests for Jackson, a rescue mission in Mexico that went to shit real fast, which means that Jackson must have been the one to lock it up, which also means Jackson is probably trying to give me a hint of how to get out of this situation. Probably not info, since Bastion isn't the stealthy type of person, so it's probably a way to get out of my current arrangement. It's pretty much my only lead, I think as I open up the collections of memories and start skimming them. Might as well see what I can find.
Moving past the memories of the landing and bitching out Bastion for throwing me out the plane, I search for any memories focused on escaping.
"Hhhheeellllpppp mmmeee!" My voice reaches a new octave as I struggle to push off the giant tongue that was wrapped around my leg. I could probably get it off with both hands, but one is focused on stopping the basketball-sized teeth smashing into my feet.
"You got this, man," Bastion's voice comes from the phone. In the background, I could hear a female giggling before he turned it off...is this man getting lucky with a girl he just met while I'm being eaten alive one floor below?
"FUCK YOU," is the last thing I say before I'm pulled into the mouth.
I pull myself from the memory panting. Downside of the vault is that those memories are always fresh, no matter how old they are, plus the acidic saliva that thing had is giving me bad memories. Alright, let's keep going.
I let out a laugh as the man with the brick head brought a metal cane down on Bastion's face. It sparked as it makes contact, and from his grunt, Bastion is at least feeling the impact. "Who knew out of the two of us, I would be the better one when it came to torture resistance?"
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Bastion spits out a tooth as he hangs, chained to the ceiling.
"Of course not," I say. "This dude hits like a baby. I can't get anything fro-" I shudder and jerk, letting out a moan as the electric current flows through my body, courtesy of the taser tip side of Brickhead's cane that he presses into my nipples.
"That," I lick my lips, "had some kick in it."
"You seem kind of into that," Bastion says, grunting as Brickhead turns the taser point on him as well.
"No," I state, gasping for breath. That was intense, but not what I would call pleasant.
"Then why do you make the," he let out a moan, "sound?"
"Because we're getting fucking tortured!"
"I'm getting tortured! You're fucking getting off right now!"
"No, I'm not," I state as Brickhead approaches me again, clicking my boot together. I heard the toe blade come out before I whip my foot forward, sending it sailing into the forehead of this asshole. He stumbles back, blood coming from the light gash that the knife left.
"Did you think that would work?" Bastion asks with a dull expression. "His head is a fucking rock."
"I was hoping. At least I'm fucking doing something; you're hung up there like a pig while I'm the only one trying to get out of HHHHEEERRRRREEEE." The last bit comes out as a shriek as Brickhead tases me again. "Oh, what, are you mad at me? The knife didn't even go a inch in- ay wait, what are you doing?"
My eyes widen as Brickhead turns the head on his cane, causing the tip to give an audible hum. "Uh oh," is all I had to say before he jabs the cane into my crotch.
"Eeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiii." I pull back my head and let out a cry that even I feel uncomfortable about. Brickhead pulls the cane back and gives me a particular look. He can't understand the language we've been speaking to each other (Russian), but he gives Bastion an odd look and motions to me like the fuck is wrong with this guy?
"I'M NOT INTO THIS," I say, panting with flushed cheeks as I change to Spanish so he could understand me.
"Yes you are!" Bastion yells, also turning to Spanish Brickhead is examining his cane, probably to see how much juice is in it. I lean over to see and giggle - actually fucking - giggle. "It's 180 million volts; it's weaker than Denki in second year!"
Brickhead apparently doesn't like my laughing, cause he decides just to hit me in the stomach with the head of the cane. That isn't pleasant in any way, but it at least gets him close enough. With that thought, one of my orbs falls off my head, which I kick into the man's face.
"Why didn't you do that sooner?" Bastion asks, watching the man try to pull the orb off as I dislocate my thumbs and fall from my chains.
"Wanted to see what I could learn."
"Well, you learned you were a masochist, so was it worth it?"
"Fuck off."
"That wasn't a no."
"Jump up on you own, ass, and die," I say, taking Brickhead's cane from where it had dropped, dodging a wild swing from the suffocating man.
Alright, so far this memory is proving to be not helpful at all. Come on, there has to be something here! I skim over three days of memories until I finally find something ..interesting.
"50 Caliber Punch!" I roll out of the way as Bastion goes soaring over me, smashing his fist into nameless grunt number 9. You can imagine from the name of the move what happened to his head.
"Watch it!" I growl, only to curse and drop when I heard 12 Gage roundhouse come from his lips. The grunt I made as I fell to the ground was followed by a series of booms and then by the smell of fresh blood. I took the relieve silence as a sigh that it's safe to get up, though sadly someone's foot decides to help me by smashing into my face with enough force to force me back to my feet.
"You are too big to be this fast," I mutter before ducking under something that hissed by my ear. crossing my arms I manage to pull up grape skin just in time for some bullets to slam into my forearms. Black eye - which was what we've been calling the latest 6.5 feet tall problem - hisses as the gun clicks empty before pulling out the biggest of all knives and taking strides towards me. Drawing the cane I took from Brickhead from my back, I twirl it to test its weight and start walking to meet him.
"Ever heard of quick awakening?" Bastion punctuates his question with the shattering of a rib cage as his foot makes contact with some poor sap. I look at him, more shocked by the question than the violence at this point, before I have to focus on the knife heading for my eyes.
"ARE YOU FUCKING GIVING A LESSON RIGHT NOW?" I yell, deflecting another knife strike with my new cane.
"Yep, and if you don't answer my question, I'll tell Jackson you were being a little bitch at the start of the test." The fucking asshole says that all without looking at me, not even flinching when a throwing knife bounces of his forearm before he ducks under an energy ball thrown by another grunt who he sends flying out of the alley way with a one inch punch. God damn, he makes it seem like talking while fighting is easy.
"Fine! It's when your quirk levels up. What about it?" I ask, ducking the next swing before shoving my new cane pointed side into the extended arm of my assailant. The black eyed man falls back silent and looks at the wound that seems to be dripping a golden liquid instead of blood. Oh great, it's gonna be one of those days.
"What if you could trigger it at whim?" Bastion asks before vanishing with a booming and then a whooshing sound. Flipping over Black eye's punch, I get to watch Bastion's obsidian black boots burst from his chest with a gush of liquid. "What is this guy made of?"
"No idea," I respond, watching Bastion vanish again with another boom and appear beside me. He is still smoking that god damn cigar he had taken from Brickhead. I want to know how he kept the damn thing in his mouth the whole time.
"Use your balls on him!"
"The mother fucker is made of liquid! Why don't you go through him?"
"Because I don't want to get stuck in him. What if he's acidic? What if - Look out!" He shoves me out of the way as a wave of golden liquid slams into him. Oh shit. Dropping an orb on the ground and jumping on it instantly, I'm sent soaring through the air, throwing a orb on a approaching telephone pole I kick off it cartwheeling thought the air before landing on a roof a couple yards back from the alleyway where we were just fighting. "Bastion, you good?"
A moment later, Bastion appears right by me again, though not unscathed. "Argh, what is this stuff?" he asks, wiping the liquid off and spitting a large amount of it from his mouth. "Dude tried to force himself down my throat."
"Don't most men do that when they first meet you?"
"Shut up. Blegh, dude tastes like olive oil. Not the good shit either, that olive oil people used to give to their kids for medicine."
"Where was this dude when we were in Italy?" I joke before seeing a wave of what we now know is olive oil flowing up the building wall towards us. "Got your lighter?" I hold out a hand and grin once he puts the silver box in my hand. "Bye bye, Black eye," I say as I drop the lighter in the mass of oil.
"You fucking dumbass."
"You gave me the lighter!"
"You blew him up!"
"I expected him to burn, not fucking explode!"
Bastion glares at me for a moment before lighting another cigar with a snap of his finger and putting it in his mouth. "Whatever. Where the hell is Wendigo? I want to be back on the plane before the rest of the cartel knows we're here."
He's hoping for a lot. If I was that pilot, I'd be long gone by now. If the cartel doesn't know we're here at this point, then they're stupid. I dont even know why he mad the explosion only hurt his clothing i'm pretty sure I have second degree burns "What were you saying about awakening, by the way?" I asked as we returned to the alleyway where the fight had started. Not because I really cared; I just didn't trust a pissy Bastion to watch my back.
"Oh yeah!" he says, already forgetting that he was pissed at me. "Awakening happens when you are in the fear of death, right?" he asks, kicking over bodies to see if any were alive. "It's basically emotional stress mixed with an immediate threat."
"Intense stress, but you're right," I state, seeing a batch of blonde hair smashed under a pile of bodies. "Shit, I think the bullet broke one of her antlers… she's gonna be pissed." I feel her pulse to see how far she is along. She was taken out of the fight quickly with a lucky bullet to the head. Considering how her body is twitching, she's gonna get back up soon. Grabbing a dead body, I pull it on top of her just in case she woke up hungry. I doubt he would mind, on account of being dead. "So, how would you activate that on a whim?"
"Normal people, I assume, could use some type of drug to stress them out and then get into a fight." At my raised eyebrow he explains, "In theory it should work. If you don't die. Stress is stress, after all."
""You said normal people," I state, turning away as Wendigo wakes up and starts to gnaw on the corpse I dropped on her. "How would heroes or we do it?"
"Well, heroes will just jump into fight after fight until one does the trick. We could and will do the same thing, but we also have Jackson, who we both know can make us feel and think in any way he wants."
"Well, not any way, but I get your point." It's sort of true. While Jackson couldn't really puppet someone unless they let him, making someone pissed off or suicidal wasn't outside his range.
"Now that I think about it, we might be able to do it ourselves with our vaults. We can enhance our own stress whenever we fucking want."
"You mean by reliving any tragic stuff we have in there? It can't be that easy."
"Easy isn't the word I'd use for it. You have to be good at using the vault and then have enough stressful memories to work with….you also need to have the mental fortitude to keep shoving your mind into trauma from your past life….it actually might be easy in theory for you." He looks me up and down like a judgy girlfriend before nodding his head as if to conform his theory.
"Huh?"
"Think about it. Most people get over their trauma, even people that have a fully complete vault sooner or later have to deal with their shit, but you can't. You're a man child; you hold on to that shit forever."
I briefly consider shooting him in the shin for the comment, but I decide that running these guys' pockets was more important. "And?"
"You're one of the best vault users, at least of our year," Bastion explains it like it should be obvious. "Which means you can hold that shit in the longest time and save it up for something like that. You can think of something from five years ago and be just as pissed as you were the day it happened."
"Which would give me more emotional stress to try and force an awakening?"
"Bingo, though I assume there'll be a point where trying to induce an evolution would make you less stressed, and then it won't happen and you'll be fucked."
"Wait, then shouldn't you have not told me about this theory, since it now gives me an expectation of that?"
Bastion stares at me for a moment before smacking his forehead. "Right. I shouldn't have said that...don't worry, just put this conversation in the vault."
"Bitch, I'm putting this whole trip in the vault. I almost got eaten alive...twice!"
"Oh, don't be a baby. It was hard for me to."
"You barely got hurt," I tap the cane against his metallic skin.
"And you discovered so much about yourself!"
My retort is interrupted by a ground shaking roar. I briefly look at Wendigo to see if that was her, but she's still enjoying her meal, her blonde brown hair starting to grow as her quirk takes effect. Which means that that's probably...
"Oh no, Quetzalcoatl's mad."
"You think he knows where we are?" A red feather the size of a car comes falling from the sky, its pointed side coming down at us like a missile.
"Yes."
Letting go of the memory, I growl. This could have several meanings, only a couple being good. 1) Jackson could be giving me a warning that he's gonna trigger a stress trip to try and awaken me...though that doesn't make sense, since wouldn't I be less stressed if I saw it coming? It also means that Jackson is in range to mentally affect me to that extent, which makes me question how close he actually is and how upset I will be when I find out how long he's been that close.
On the other hand, he might be letting me remember that story because he wants me to try and trigger my own awakening… in which case, fuck him. That was his hint? Get stronger? Yeah, that makes sense for a Jackson lesson, but I'm not actually that stressed, and even if my quirk did evolve, it would have to be big cause I'm pretty sure my body can't take much more of this.
No backup for a year in a shit bag of a prison and the first help they bring is Hey, remember that conversation you had about how you're such a petty motherfucker that you could possibly force a quirk evolution…? Yeah, do that. Fucking I'm feeling more stress about this then I do about being captured. I sigh and rub my face, briefly surprised when I realize that I feel both hands till I remember this is a mental thing. Okay, so it's not impossible. I guess I might have just evolved my quirk when fighting Mt. Lady …is there a cool down? Ah shit, what if I can't do it again since I've already done it? Damn it, Bastion, why didn't you talk more about this?
The idea of basically trying and making myself stressed to force an evolution isn't appealing to me, but it's pretty much my only plan, which is annoying because in other cases, I have escaped more complicated prisons. Sadly enough, a year of malnutrition fucks up the temple that is your body. Damn, if I was in my prime …well, I wouldn't have been captured in the first place, would have just made four V4 compact grapes and fucking flew out of Yokohama.
Opening my eyes in the physical world again, I blink as I realize I'm in a completely different place. Workout machines, a mini fridge, and a TV on the wall. Turning my head, I notice a note by me and grab it and quickly read it, letting out a chuckle.
Satsuki's sister came over. Apparently she's been assigned to the task force to capture you and would like to stay with family while here. Satsuki put you on my plate till she's gone. Your med pack is behind you. Feel free to have anything in the fridge or use the TV. Fair warning, my quirk is still in effect, and I had my friend put her fields in front of the door and window… and the walls are brick, so don't bother.
From: the girl you need to convince not to kill you
Welp, I must have been deep in the vault if she was able to pick me up and drop me off here. Shit, I wish I was awake so I could have seen what Satsuki's address is. A quick exploration around the basement showed one room, a bathroom, and the main room that is the workout area. A test of the bathroom window proves that she isn't lying about said fields. After waking up again, I decide that earlier thoughts of Loudmouth having probably done something like this before was probably true , either that or she thought this through way more than Satsuki did. The door out is at the top of the stairs, so she had Shorty put a field in front of said stairs so I couldn't wait behind the door and attack her with something.
Medkit doesn't have any hard drugs besides pain killers, so I can't drug her either. Best option would be to smash a weight into the brick wall and try to break it down. Considering that Loudmouth has my gun, might be able to hear the sounds her quirk mutes, and is the only one that is currently even close to believing my story …best not to piss her off till I have to. Plus, the more time I have, the more I heal and the more my quirk recovers.
Day 4
Once again, I'm in a state of waiting for something to happen and recover from my last ass beating. After stitching my wounds over again, I decide to just go into the vault and see if there's anything else I could use. After rewatching the Mexican trip a fifth fucking time, I came to conclusion that Jackson is probably telling me to handle this myself…FUCK! Oh, and in other news, the city of Yokohama rejoices as the Number Three Hero arrives, and he brought friends. Momo looks better, though you could see the shiner I gave her during my escape. Mina looks absolutely overjoyed, waving for the camera. If I didn't need to keep watching, I would have smashed the TV.
"Great. Fucking great," I mutter, downing a protein shake and another pain killer as I glare at the screen. I need to be out of this town fucking a month ago. On the plus side, Bigfoot survived me lighting him up, so at least a real murder isn't on my rap sheet.
It's concerning me that Tsuyu isn't with the group. It could mean she's going vigilante with this, which is terrifying because she knows how to hide a body. Or it could mean she's part of a stealthy task force assignment to go after me…which isn't fun...Fuck. I basically spend the rest of the day doing light stretches and searching the vault for anything fucking useful I may have forgotten.
Day 5
This basement is reminding me too much of prison for my liking. It's nicer, obviously, but there's still the fear someone might be coming to attack me at any moment. At least in the pit, it was clear who was gonna try and shiv me again, or if someone put rat poison in my food. Loudmouth could open the door and shoot me, and I couldn't do much to stop her.
Speaking of my captors, I try to see if the zones were still up and am once again introduced to unbearable pain. After trying to use a pain killer and finding out it did fucking nothing, I'm pretty sure it's a mental pain rather than some physical force. The brief idea that the zones might be affecting the mental locks occurs to me, but honestly I have no idea how to confirm that, and if that's true, that means Jackson still isn't helping me, which is for so many reason not good, Honestly, I would have stopped watching the TV, just seeing Mina makes my stump hurt, but I need information. I'm surprised to discover that Mt. Lady and Jurota were getting interviews.
"What do you think about the backlash you have gotten for allowing Mineta to escape?"
Mt. Lady fidgets with her hair at the reporter's question. "I think it's deserved. I underestimated him because of his injuries, and because of that, he got away."
"I have to disagree with you, Mt. Lady," Jurota cuts in. "You handled the situation perfectly. From the knowledge that we have, quirk awakening can happen randomly and is impossible to predict."
Grape skin has been in my arsenal for years, I think grumpily. So either my quirk did evolve, or I did better at hiding it than I thought.
"And what of you, Wildman?" the report asks Jurota using his hero name. "Did you underestimate him as well?"
"I didn't," Jurota answers. "I engaged the villain in a way that wouldn't put civilian lives in danger, and he took advantage of that." He rubs his stomach, and I have to snort. My whole body is black and blue, and this man is complaining about what was basically little worse than BBs to him. that basically how the whole the interview went mostly with the reporter giving Mt. Lady crap for not smashing me into the ground and Jurota defending her. I am honestly about to turn it off when the reporter actually asks an important question.
"Will the heroes be allowed to use more drastic measures because of Mineta's stance as a death row inmate?"
"Of course not," Mt. Lady exclaims. "Heros are only enforcers of the law, just like cops. More than the cops, even. These powers come with responsibility. Mineta was not a current threat to any civilians, and his quirk doesn't pack enough lethality to define him as a threat that requires lethal force."
"And what of the people he hurts now. Wouldn't that be your fault?"
"Killing villains is a slippery slope. It's the same reason you don't see cops gunning down villains in the street. It is not their place or our place; it's the government's place to decide whether or not this villain needs to die."
"So you're saying if the government gave you permission to kill him, you would have?"
"I would do what is necessary to keep civilians safe."
That's…fair. I guess my time with Jackson has taught me that sometimes putting people down is necessary. The argument of taking the law in your hands vs. the government not doing enough has been talked up and down for centuries, though I would have been happy if it had never happened to me. At least that confirms my thought. Unless I'm doing something stupid, heroes will probably not try to flat out end me…which makes it odd that IQ did.
I was a running target, and neither she nor the cops should have lit me up like that. IQ could be a possible link, then, though it is possible she decided that driving a bike into a hotel is enough to warrant deadly force. So possible targets are Mina and IQ, since both have skirted the rules of using lethal force on a fleeing villain, but that could be an issue of personality, so I can't be sure yet. This is circumstantial evidence at best. I'll have to see if any of them work with the H.P.S.C before I start pointing fingers.
Watching the ending of the interview, I feel a little bad for Mt. Lady. Say what you will about her start, but she stuck with us during all that shit with OFA. I wouldn't have ruined her retirement party if I didn't have to… on the other hand, she spiked me like a volleyball, so I don't feel too much regret.
Day 6
The sound of the door opening wakes me from my meditation. Opening an eye, I blink as three familiar faces appear in the doorway. "Tsuyu out looking for me?"
Satsuki glares at Loudmouth, who is back in her all-black outfit. "You told him?"
"Does it matter that he knows?" she asks. Satsuki glares at her but doesn't seem to have a retort
"So what's the verdict?" Loudmouth throws something at me. Catching the black blur with my hand, I briefly grin that my reflexes are recovering, then open my hand to see what she threw at me. "My flashdrive. So did you show them my video?"
"And the photos on your phone."
"And what about the other thing we spoke about?
"I pointed out the little things that didn't make sense."
Wonder how much that means. Doesn't really matter, I guess I barely gave her any hints to begin with.
"And?" I prompt.
"We're gonna let you go." Shorty says, nodding her head. I blink, then blink again before slowly looking at Loudmouth. At her nod of confirmation, I turn to Satsuki, only to curse her damn frog face. I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"Why?"
"She chickened out." Loudmouth points to Shorty. "And Satsuki doesn't think she could hide it from her sister that she killed a man."
"I never wanted to kill him in the first place!" Sshorty exclaims. If I had to assume, she's the type of person that doesn't like violence of any kind. Funny since how her quirk seems the perfect way to stop a villain.
"So you're just gonna let me go?" I raise an eyebrow.
"No." Satsuki shakes her head. "We're putting a bag over your head and driving you out somewhere... or I will be."
"I have to erase the evidence of you being in my house," Loudmouth states before pointing at Shorty. "And she needs to forget this ever happened."
"So …I'm gonna be alone in a car with Satsuki?"
"Don't get any ideas," she warns.
"Take your own advice. I don't trust you. Can't Loudmouth take me?"
"Is that me?" Loudmouth asks, giving Shorty a minor glare when she giggles.
"Yes. Why can't she take me?"
"Satsuki took you, she's returning you. It's her responsibility."
"Then can't you come with us in the car as well?"
Loudmouth sighs. "Sure, whatever."
Shorty makes a hand motion, which I assume is to move the field.
"Are you gonna come up calmly or what?" Satsuki asks, hope in her voice probably hoping that she would get to stomp me out for being unruly .
"I have no reason to start trouble if you're letting me go," I state, picking up my medical bag and standing up. Walking up the stairs, I turn around so Loudmouth can put a bag over my head. I hear a click of the handcuffs and feel Shorty grab my arm before realizing that there's nowhere to connect it.
"Put it through the belt hoops of my pants," I offer, which she complies with a silent thank you.
I let out a whoop of surprise as someone lifts me onto their shoulders.
"You're lighter than I thought you'd be," Loudmouth mutters.
"I'm not even five feet tall, what did you expect?" A couple of minutes of walking, and I feel myself get thrown into a trunk. "OW! Um, my backpack?"
"In there with you," Loudmouth says. "Though I have your gun and knives at the front with me."
"Fair enough. Goodbye, Shorty."
I hear a cry of offense. "You out of everyone here shouldn't be talking about being short!"
"It's because I'm short that I can talk about being short, but anyway, let's get this show on the road, chop chop." I feel the trunk close and the car start. Sighing in relief, I dislocate my thumb to take the handcuff off. Well, that wasn't so bad, I think with a grin. Guess I didn't need Jackson's help after all. That thought brings me some worry. Jackson not omniscient but the fact that he had that memory popped up at this time means he seeing something I'm missing or sensed something my subconscious picked up on, and that's worrying me.
It is possible that the get stronger lesson is supposed to come into effect after the girls release me? That makes a type of sense. I'm left to ponder that thought for the next 15 minutes, then 30, then 45. "Hey, uh, how far are you taking me?"
Silence.
"Hello?"
Silence.
That's not good.
The car stops.
Not good either.
I wait to hear the car door open, but the only thing I do hear is the truck being unlocked. Opening it, I hold my backpack in front of me in case Satsuki decides to attack. It is night, but the full moon gives enough light to illuminate my surroundings. Looking around, I can see only an empty road surrounded by woods. Leaving the truck, I look around. woods,woods and more words no sigh of civilization anywhere if I didn't know better I would think i was in the middle of the wilderness I wasn't even aware there were woods this large in Yahomoto.
"Where are we?"
"Your grave," Satsuki replies, leaving the car with my gun in her hands. I dive around the corner of the car but don't hear any gunshots. "Oh, I'm not gonna do it." I hear her grunt and see my gun flying to the woods. At first nothing happens, then I hear rustling . A second later, something comes flying from the wood to my left. Rolling, I barely have a moment to recognize the item is a giant staple before another one comes.
"You see, something you said stuck with me," she says, watching as I roll away from the projectile. "You're right, I don't know what I'm doing. I've never killed someone before. I probably would have made some mistakes, so I did what any student should do when they need help with something. I called someone with experience."
Almost on cue, a spear made of an orange stone slams where I was just standing. A second later, a form appears on it. Orange hair and yellow eyes are all I can make out before she spins off the spear like a stripper, her heeled foot smashing into my face and sending me spinning across the ground. "Vigilantes are back in fashion , people don't trust heros the same way any more."
"LOUDMOUTH!" I yell, grabbing a giant staple that I had just jumped to avoid. Ripping it out of the ground, I straighten it out with my foot and use it as a mini knife against the spear user.
"Don't bother, she's asleep. I don't know how you managed to get her to believe you're getting framed, but I know what you are, Mineta, and I won't let anyone else be hurt by you."
I roll under orange spear's leg, stabbing her calf with the giant staple. She hisses but falls back before I can do more damage. This time, a giant of a woman with a crowbar engages me, almost smashing me into pulp if I hadn't noticed her behind me. Suddenly, I feel a sharp pain as something is jabbed into my foot. Before I can even scream, I feel the tendril drag me chest deep into the ground.
"Well I'll be," a new voice replies as a figured came from the bushes. "We expected this to be a trick by the hero's. Guess there are those that want change after all." Tilting my head, I turn to see who's talking. Tactile clothing with multiple knives with a red and black theme. Looking around, I realize all my assailants are wearing these garments. If that made me feel worried, the fact that all these people are females is also terrifying.
"You're some type of man-hating vigilante group, I assume," I ask, struggling to pull myself from the ground. The tendril tightens, causing me to hiss.
"We're more than just a vigilante group," the one says. She walks closer, and that gives me a chance to notice that a brown tendril is coming from her back into the ground… I'd bet some good money that's the thing in my foot right now. "We are the Daughters of Stain, and we will be erasing your stain of this world tonight."
Bloody fantastic, I'm gonna fucking die! Fucking Stain. Dude killed some heroes and fucking became the Jesus of hero hunters. He wasn't even that big in the grand scheme of shit, but his words have stuck with this generation. And of course, the fucking DOS, out of the 3 main groups that worship the fucker, they have to be the worst.
So the DOS isn't actually a main group. They're a branch of one called the COS - Children of Stain, which is the most violent out of the groups. If COS is the Batmans of vigilante groups, then the DOS are the Kristen Gilberts. All of them are women obviously, so you know shits about to get fucked up. They mainly focus on male heroes that abuse their powers in the worst way - rapists, groomers, extortionists, people like that, but unlike the Jury who gets information and sends it to the cops, or the Stained who just shoot the guilty party and be done with it, they make it hurt and they make videos. Castrations, waterboarding, all that blackbox bullshit you can think of.
Now, some of you are thinking that's not so bad...you would be wrong, but some of you would be thinking that, so let me say it simply. In the triad of extremist groups born from the philosophy of Stain an extremist, the COS are seen as extremists, and within that group, the DOS are seen as extremists to them… meaning I'm fucked right in the down under.
"Satsuki, you're making a mistake!" I yell out, not even bothering to cover the fear in my voice. "I'm innocent! I don't deserve this! You don't have to do this!"
"I'm not doing anything," she replies, handing crowbar lady my knives. "I was never here, but if it makes you feel better, Mineta, I'll tell loudmouth that I let you go scott free. It'll stop her from feeling guilty." She turns to look at me, and the smile she has will forever taint how I think of Tsuyu. "I hope it hurts, fucker. You deserve more pain than they can ever give you."
"Fuck you," I scream as I thrash in the mud. I reach for an orb, but a staple pins my arm to the ground. "Satsuki, I'm innocent. I'm fucking innocent. You can't let them do this!"
"Even if I wanted to stop them, Mineta, it's too late. I'm not involved." She shrugs. Actually fucking shrugs, like she isn't throwing me to the wolves. "What are you gonna do with him?" she asks as crowbar girl grabs my shoulders, lifting me from the ground.
"There's a clearing just a little ways into the wood." Tendril girl points. "It has a pond. We're gonna see how many times we can drown and resuscitation him."
"JACKSON!" I scream, nearly hysterical. At this point, I'm writhing in crowbar's grip, but nothing is working. "BASTION! WENDIGO! ANYONE, GUYS HELP!"
"Well, we might as well get started," tendril girl says, talking over my screaming. "You should get going; you won't want to see what happens next."
Satsuki nods, giving me one last smile before getting into her car and driving away. "SATSUKI!" I scream. The last sight I have of her is her driver's plate moving off into the distance.
They don't even bother to stop me from screaming when they walk me into the pond. I won't lie, I scream. I shake, I rave. Jackson would probably be disappointed in me throwing all my training away, but I'm not ready. I'm not ready to die not like this, not for something I didn't do, not before I avenge Denki.
Crowbar lady drops me at the edge of the water. Before I could crawl away, I feel the tendril dig into my leg, dragging me deeper into the water. Thankfully, I cover my mouth before I went under, but I shouldn't have bothered. It's just gonna make it longer for me.
As the murky water surrounds me, I pull at the tendril around my leg. At that moment, I could have hated this woman more than Satsuki. She held me so that my body is only a centimeter away from the waters surface. keeping fresh life breathing air only a fingertip away which was more than far enough for me to drown In. I fought and fought but like a bug being covered in amber their was nothing I could do. my lungs burn in pain it felt as if i had breathed in needles followed by a dragon trying to inflate me like a balloon . Finally, after what seems like hours, my mouth opens and fills with water. My last thought before I black out is about a certain trip to Mexico…
day 7
I knock on the door, feeling incredibly cold. Which is odd - it's fall, after all, though at least it isn't raining. That doesn't really matter, since I'm soaking wet anyway. At least the water keeps the blood from crusting over, which I'm thankful for. If you asked me how long it took me to walk my way back here, I wouldn't be able to tell you, though the dull ache in my feet tells me it must have been an hour or two.
The devil must have blessed me if he allowed me to make it back here unmolested. I wonder what Todoroki would have said if he saw me. Honestly, he probably would just kill me where I stand, because I think I'm already dead.
"Hello?" Satsuki Asui asks as she opens the door. Never have I ever been as thankful for my height as I am today, because it takes her a second to look down and notice me. She freezes. I honestly can't blame her. I mean, how often is it that you see a dead man? Well, I'm looking at a dead woman, but she hasn't seemed to realize it.
She certainly looks comfy. She's wearing snuggly pajamas, the type that you wear on the weekend when you're about to binge movies. Honestly, they're a pretty pair. I could imagine being killed in worse. Honestly, I'm surprised that I can still get angry. I thought my rage burned up back at the pond. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna kill her, but I thought it would be cold and unattached. But I guess Satan saved me some rage, because when I see how relaxed and happy she looks, that makes me snap.
"Fear," the word comes from my coarse lips.
"Wh-" I don't know what she was going to say, and to this day I don't care. I lift the crowbar that DOS member so happily dropped for me and bring it down on her face. Her nose crumbles beautifully, and she goes stumbling back into her house. I walk in after her, only pausing to close the door before.
"For every action retaliate," I say simply before bringing the crowbar on her foot. She falls with a cry, and at that point, I pounce on her. At first I use the crow bar, but that feels too impersonal, like how she was impersonal when she gave me over to those fucking fanatics.
She wasn't there when they drowned me six times and dragged me back from the grave. I feel like I need to be personal. I may not be big, but Jackson taught me to throw a punch, and I don't think I've ever appreciated his teaching more than in that moment. I don't know how long I hit her. Honestly, the only reason I stop is because my lungs can't keep up. I step away from the meat in front of me and fall on my knees and throw up. Fucking more water, I think as I look at the bloodly liquid on the ground.
"Satsuki, are you okay?" I blink as I hear knocking on the door and a familiar voice. Maybe she and Shorty were gonna have a movie night celebrating my murder. Not even caring to be quiet, I grab Satsuki's wallet and keys and jump through the closest window. Gravity takes hold and I land back first onto a rose bush. I don't care about the pain; it can join the line. I hear the door burst open, followed by a scream. I wonder who looks worse - me or her. Either way, bigger things to worry about. Hobbling over to her car, I unlock it and start the ignition. Neighbors are just starting to leave their houses as I back out of the driveway and speed down the street.
AN: introduce a lot here. chapter 7 will go back to present mineta but it might take a bit to finish and will most likely be shorter then this
