Guess who's back...not me. Okay so I'm currently on chapter 8 but my original editor had to stop editing because of work so I had to get new ones(yes ones as in I now have 3) but they also have lives so editing takes a while. Another thing chapters are probably gonna be shorter after chap 7 not sure how much shorter but you probably won't get 17K words length chapters back to back. Now you're probably wondering but decode if you are not back yet is this just an update then? The answer is no unless I'm canceling the story I will never give a plain update because it gets your audience's hopes up to kick them in the dick. it will probably just be a wacky or sad story of past Mineta with his crew in the gray academy or going into details I won't go into in story. Speaking off I got something for ya a 5K chapter of what happened between the DOS and Mineta. I wasn't sure if I was gonna put it in chapter 7 but an editor suggest this so here ya go. since it is cannon ill call this chapter 6.5
"SAKURAI!" My voice comes out hoarse as I jolt awake, sweat dripping from my face as I roll panting out of bed. That was intense… I haven't dreamed in a while.
I must have been like that for a while because I didn't hear my mom walk in until her foot began roughly prodding my side, bringing me back to reality.
"You know I agreed to treat you neutrally until our first meeting," my mom says as she continues to prod at my side, looking down on me with her pink eyes practically glowing in annoyance, "But I think even a normal mom would be pissed to be woken up by their son screaming in their sleep."
Actually, I'm pretty sure they'd be concerned.
"Nightmare," I pant, putting a hand over my face and momentarily being surprised to feel real flesh instead of the prosthetic I used to have, "I'll be better."
I let myself feel my face for a moment in an attempt to try to steady my mind.
"Good," is her only response before she leaves, closing the door behind her.
"Wait," I say, stopping her just before she closes it all the way, "Did I scream anything? A name, maybe?"
She stares at me a moment, the lingering effects of sleep and a little bit of alcohol still evident in her eyes, "Sakura."
As my mom leaves the room I sigh into my hands, trying to stifle the scream that wants to come out.
So um, god, don't suppose you could have left the pain and nightmares back in my old life could you? No? Just gonna fuck with this body as well as my mind? Alright then thanks. Sighing, I look at the clock.
"3 AM," I mutter, staring at the screen in exasperation, "Might as well nip this in the bud."
I cross my legs and shift into a more comfortable position, relaxing and preparing myself for what I am about to do. Moments later the last thing I feel from my body is a heavy sigh as my mind is sent into the vault. Looking around, I let out a sigh of relief.
Honestly, I was giving this a 50/50 chance of working. The very fact that I was having a bad dream means that something is wrong with it. I guess it makes sense since the vault is a real thing, just permanently amplified by a mental quirk and since everything else of my mind got transferred that makes sense that…wait, no it doesn't. Can't a mental quirk only affect the mind and not the brain? I guess it really can or else I wouldn't be able to use the vault to this level.
Understanding Jackson's quirk has always been difficult for me, especially considering the fact that he doesn't really explain it. It's literally just, 'Hey, come here! Oh, hey, I'm grabbing your face now! Oh, now your brain is a Matrix and I'm the Architect!'
Okay, it's definitely time to stop pointlessly wondering about the existential question of the difference between the mind and the brain.
Instead, I look around the black void that is my mental vault.
Should I clear this out? I wonder as I glance around the floating orbs of memories. Well, this is a new life, I should clean the slate and all that.
I grab a memory in my mental hand, studying it as it rests in my grip. It is a little bigger than a baseball, meaning that it's probably only an hour or two long. As I carefully glance into it, I prepare myself to be met with a bitter or sad memory, only to smile as I recognize it. It was the day I had returned to Japan. The whole of Class T had come with me on the plane ride. We spent the whole time dicking around and having a party until it was time to land.
It was also where I was officially classified as a retired member of the Gray Academy. Letting the memory go, I watch it float off before regaining my focus and sending out a mental thought.
Most recent memory access.
Instantly memories start to shift before the one that had busted into my dream comes forward. There you are, I think. Reaching into the memory, I blink for a moment before suddenly appearing at a place I know I will never forget.
Apparently, the memory knows to pick up right where it had left off, though thankfully not in a first-person perspective like it had been in my dream. Of course, I would still feel the same feelings as the mental me no matter which perspective it's in, but it's far less intense in the third person.
The DOS had just drowned me for a third time and had begun to resuscitate me. The art of suffocating and resuscitating has actually been used before throughout history, usually for big crimes. Hilter used it on some of the members of Operation Valkyrie, though that was hanging with piano wire and not drowning. Focusing back on the memory, it seems like past me is waking up. I can vaguely feel the chest pain as my eyes opened and he vomited out a lung-full of water.
Spear Girl and Crowbar Girl were placing bets on how long I would last. At this moment, the former was happy that she had won, holding out a hand for Crowbar Girl to drop some yen into it. Tendril Girl, on the other hand, walked over and grabbed past me's chin, staring into his eyes. She said something but past me was too waterlogged to understand it. But I remember the feelings that had been going through my head at this point: the fear had died out after the first drowning, leaving me in a sort of numbness. This wasn't the first time I was close to death and even though I didn't know it at the time, it certainly wouldn't be the last. Tendril Girl tilted past me's head so she could whisper in his ear.
"Any last words monster?"
I lick my lips and lean in to listen to the words that came from my mouth all those years ago.
"Why are you so certain?"
"Hmm?" Tendril Girl hummed as she leaned closer to hear him.
"Why are you so sure I'm a monster?" I asked, blinking my eyes, blood-red from the stress of the second drowning that had caused some capillaries to burst. At the time I hadn't noticed, but the itching feeling in my eyes that I could now feel made it clear what had happened. "You've never met me, you don't know me, what makes you so certain that I deserve this? All I want to do is get revenge for my friend, the first person who saw the person within me."
Tendril girl laughed a bit before wrapping her tendril around past me's leg. She dragged him back into the water with a mocking laugh, "That's where you are wrong, Mineta. You were never a person, you were always a monster. You simply learned how to hide it. And this friend of yours was just too blind to see it."
And with those words, I was pulled into the water once more.
This was it. This was where my story ended.
This was where Mineta Minoru died, drowned by a group of vigilantes that didn't know a damn thing about him. Even looking back on it now, I half expect the past me to die, for it to be revealed that everything after this moment was a dream that my dying brain made for me, but then came the one moment that changed it all.
I don't see anything, which makes sense. This is a mental recreation of the memory, but I feel it, a hand in the center of my back as if someone was trying to push me out of the water. It was only for a moment, a flash of a second as if a ghost of the past had reached across the veil to keep me from death's cold embrace.
Whatever it was, be it a ghost, a phantom feeling, or Jackson sending help, this would be where I say it started. People always wonder when Moonseed was born. Was he born when I was arrested? Born when I killed my first hero? But to those that actually asked me when I personally believe Moonseed was born, right then and there the man that would become Moonseed was born, from the mind of a man drowning in a swamp that just had enough of it.
I'd had enough.
I honestly think this was a moment where something permanently changed in me. What changed, you ask? I don't know, but whatever it was I can tell you that it had been holding me back. Whatever it was that day that was holding me back, it was keeping me patient, it was keeping me understanding, it was making me empathic and, now that it had broken, it could never be whole again.
I watch my past self float in the water, trembling in rage that simmered just under the surface, one frustratingly familiar. This was the rage that kept me going when I left UA, the rage that kept me alive during my time in the Gray Academy, the rage that kept me going when Mount Lady was about to squish me.
This is the rage that comes when the fear has tired itself out, when the misery has dried up, when the pain has grown too high to be measured. This rage was my limit and it had been tested.
I can vividly remember what happened next, but I still let myself watch it happen. To this day, I wonder if Jackson had something to do with this quirk awakening. At a later date Bastion told me he couldn't have done it, but I refuse to believe that the mental blocks somehow naturally broke and then the Mexico rescue mission memory got pushed into the front of my mind, right before I needed it, by chance.
Past Me grabbed the tendril and pulled himself to it before grabbing his hair and starting sticking balls to it. At first nothing happened, but as the buoyancy levels started to rise she had to push her tendril down to keep me under. As she started to push him down he grabbed the tendril and twisted, forcing it to the ground, causing it to become stuck to the floor. The tendril tugged against the ground, trying to free itself, I grin as my past self grabbed the tip of the tendril and forced it off his leg. Lifting his head out of the surface for only a moment.
He took a gasp of fresh air only to duck his head back under just as an orange spear sliced through the air over him. Past me pushed himself deeper in the water, just in time as a familiar crowbar smashed into the location he had just been moments earlier. Thanking the darkness of the night he swam away from the splashing, closer to the center of the pond, once he felt like he was safe he stuck his head out of the water. Night vision must have been taking effect, because I could barely see four figures at the banks of the pond, yet I could hear them just fine.
"I'm stuck!" Tendril Girl complained, followed by grunts as she tried to pull her tendril out of the water.
"Where did he go?" Spear Girl questioned, from the way her head whipped back and forth she no doubt thought I had left the pond by now. I can only chuckle remembering how past me hadn't recognized her. In hindsight, it was obvious, especially since he had been chased up a flight of stairs by her girlfriend a couple days before.
"He's there! He's right there!" Tendril Girl pointed toward what was probably past me's general direction.
Without hesitation, Spear Girl turned and threw it at his location.
Ducking once more, his eyes widened on reflex as the spear went soaring over his head. He hadn't even had a moment to realize what was about to happen before Spear Girl appeared over him, holding the spear by its handle, ready to strike. Spinning midair, she swung the spear at past me like a bat, the tip of the spear biting into his neck, beginning its ark to remove his head. A horrible itching came from his head, followed by a force that sent him backward in the water. Spear girl was sent head over ass to splash in the water a couple feet away from where past me had been.
I laugh at the sight, and even though I hadn't actually seen it happen like that for real, my mind vault could calculate the sounds and the force used and make its best guess at what happened. A couple seconds later past me rose from the water sputtering and feeling the cut on his neck to see how deep it was. He turned to look at Spear Girl, blinking at the sight of Spear Girl holding her shoulder; the shoulder that suddenly had an orb stuck on it. He didn't get a chance to question what had just happened before a light shone on him.
"Got him!"
Past me dove under the water once more, hearing what I now assume to be staples slicing into the water above him. Going deeper, he kicked his feet and started to swim to the other edge of the pond.
Of course, past me certainly couldn't feel anything because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins, but I distinctly remember the hole in his foot that Tendril Girl had made when she first caught him. At the time, the tendril she had wrapped around his leg had acted like a tourniquet. But now that he was free, it was probably not good to stay in the water with an open wound. Past me dragged himself out of the water, letting out a sigh of relief before screaming as pain suddenly shot up his leg. A quick glance down revealed a staple about a foot long sticking out of his leg.
Looking up, past me barely had time to register that not only was Staple Girl only around 7 feet ahead of him, but she also had her arms crossed in front of her with the slots in them—where I assume the staples come out—aimed at his head.
That itching feeling returned, followed by the pressure in his head, this time sending past me falling into his ass. Staple-girl seemed to get it the worst, as past me heard the sound of ribs breaking and a body rolling across the ground. Past me forced himself back onto his feet, watching as staple-girl held onto an orb stuck to her chest gasping for breath.
I think it was at this moment past me realized he had reached a quirk awakening. He didn't get a chance to really consider it because of a roar coming from his left. Flipping backward he saw a crowbar sink into the ground before its user ripped it out of the mud and chased him.
"Die!" Crowbar Girl yelled, drawing said crowbar back in preparation to bring it down on his skull.
Not wanting to waste any energy, he waited for her to begin her swing before stepping just to the left. The crowbar slammed into the wet ground, sinking a couple feet into it. Past me jumped on the crowbar, running across it and the girl's arm to knee the giant woman in the face. He was hoping to hear the gratifying sound of her nose breaking, but she must have been a mutation type because no sound came and she felt like a rock against his knee.
In that moment of pause, she tried to grab him. Instead, past me quickly jumped off using her shoulder-high hair as a swing, whipping around to her back and grabbing onto her waist. Continuing the fluid motion, he swung in between her legs and rolled to put some distance between them.
"You're a quick little rat, aren't ya?" she drawled, turning to regard past me.
He was about to say something in response, but instead he had to duck to avoid the staple that was flying for his face. Glaring at the tree line, he tried to see where Staple Girl was but it was too dark. Though he did notice that Spear Girl was nowhere to be seen, which had been disconcerting. Thankfully Crowbar Girl seemed stupid enough, so he had decided that he could end it quick.
The next staple that came flying at him was his cue to go on the attack. Ducking under the projectile, past me reached toward his head as he spun, pulling an orb from his hair. Thankfully, the prior week of rest had given his quirk some time to recover. As past me finished his spin, he flicked his wrist, sending a whip of orbs from his head at Crowbar Girl. The giant girl swung her crowbar, catching the whip with her weapon. But before she could pull past me towards herself, he dropped the other side of the whip to the ground, effectively anchoring the weapon there.
As she took a moment to try to free her crowbar, past me dashed towards the tree line. All of a sudden, another staple came from the top of one of the trees: then another. Past me barely ducked under the first one and was nipped by the second in the side as he stepped to the left. He ignored the pain that shot through his side as he tossed a ball into the ground, jumping onto it. Smashing into the leaves and branches of the tree line, he briefly met eyes with who I assume was Staple Girl before his forehead smashed into her chin.
They both fell out of the tree, past me catching himself on a branch and watching her fall to the ground and landing on her side with a resounding crack. Once she landed, he let go, making sure to angle himself so that his feet would smash into her chest. I couldn't help but smile at the resulting sound of her ribs breaking further. Staple Girl let out a gasp before I aimed a kick at her face and sent her to dream land.
Honestly, if what happened next hadn't happened, I'm pretty sure I would have killed that girl. But thankfully for her, Crowbar Girl came to her rescue. The whistling of her hand swinging warned past me that she was about to attack, so he managed to roll away from the hit that was intended to take his head off.
"You know, I like to think of myself as a calm person," past me seethed, running at the giant woman.
He ducked under her swing and then jumped back as she tried to crush him with an overhand strike. Feeling the itching feeling increasing past me finally decided to acknowledge it and try to use this new ability. The same force came again, but, since he was ready this time, he got to see what was happening. Apparently the force was coming from an orb being launched from his head, it sailed through the air with the force of a cannon ball and smashed into Crowbar Girl's face, sending her stumbling back.
"But I think even Deku himself wouldn't stop me for what I'm about to do," past me glowered, sending another orb smashing into the girl's face.
A part of him was disappointed that these orbs didn't seem to stick to the target, but they did seem more solid and the crunch of a broken nose was almost more satisfying. As Crowbar Girl stumbled back past me tossed some normal orbs at her feet, sticking her firmly to the ground. After he was sure she couldn't take a step he made another orb whip and swung it around the giant woman, wrapping it around her.
"I'll deal with you later" he said, walking around the struggling girl, stopping to throw some orbs onto Staple Girl he looked around.
"Alright, Spear-user," he yelled into the air, "Your friends are stuck. Come out now or I'm gonna start hurting people."
Past me threw some orbs into the water, glancing around before jumping on them: bunny hopping across the small pond, only stopping to smile at Tendril Girl.
"You guys see yourselves as true heroes, right?" he said, circling the woman who had drowned him multiple times that night.
"Well then, hero, come on out. There is an escaped convict about to do something to one of your allies. If you don't do something soon, I'm afraid she's gonna get hurt… Well, to be honest, I'm gonna do more than hurt her. I'm gonna kill the fuck out of her, like, if reincarnation is a thing, she's gonna come back sterile, or at least lacking the desire to fuck."
At that, Tendril Girl lunged for him, only to get pulled taut by her own tendril before she could reach him. Her movement exposed something on her belt, which took a second for past me to recognize. His weapons glinted as a small sliver of light reflected off the metal. He had forgotten that Staple Girl had handed Tendril Girl his gun.
Apparently, his glance towards her belt had reminded her of them as well, because after a brief pause her hands immediately reached for the weapon. Pulling the itching feeling from his scalp, he somehow sent an orb into her hand, hearing a crack from her finger as she dropped the gun. Past me grinned as he sent another orb into her chest to send her stumbling back into the water.
He took his time walking over to the gun, picking it up with a sick sense of satisfaction.
Derra
The sound of a twig snapping caused me to look to my left only to see the tip of a spear coming at my eye. Ducking under it, he watched it slam into a tree behind him, waiting a moment to see if she would appear on it. He cursed to himself as he heard footsteps approaching from behind. Not wasting time to turn around, past me pulled as much as he possibly could at the itching feeling. As he did, he felt the pulsing pain in his skull. The force that had come every time before was even stronger and sent me flying forward.
Past me landed on his face, rolling away in case Tendril Girl had recovered. He looked behind to see what had happened. All three of the orbs that were usually on my head had been launched into the spear-wielding vigilante with violent force. He supposed that she had tried to block them with her arm, because when he glanced at her, she was sporting a broken arm and dislocated shoulder.
"You're a hero aren't you?" he asked, watching the salmon haired girl return to her feet.
Her training seemed too advanced and her quirk too strong for her not to be.
She didn't reply, though the fighting stance she took basically confirmed his assumption, as it was a fighting stance that was only taught at UA. Then, suddenly, she disappeared from his vision.
Spinning on his heels, past me aimed the gun at where her spear was placed and fired. Blood spurted from her shoulder as she pulled the weapon out in favor of dodging the hit. She rolled on the ground and threw it, catching a second round in the leg before disappearing again. Straining his ears, past me listened for her stumbling footprint as it faded off into the tree line.
He hesitated for several more minutes, focusing on the ambient sounds of the woods and waiting for a sign of her return. After a couple of minutes he came to terms that she was probably gone and turned back to Tendril Girl. He threw a few more orbs around her, not bothering to root her to the ground just yet. She was still cradling her broken hand glaring at me, though I could see a slight tremor from her body that pissed me off.
"Oh no you don't," past me muttered before walking over to her.
"You don't get to act all brave but then play the part of a scared girl after you literally drowned me."
Pulling the itching feeling from my head for the last time that night, past me launched another orb into her stomach. The orb sent her falling backward into the actually sticky orb on the ground, restraining her there. Allowing himself to glare at her for a moment, he let the numbing feeling from his wounds wash over him.
Past me figured that he needed to stop the bleeding. He hobbled around, trying to locate where his backpack had fallen. He knew that he'd had it when Sakurai betrayed him, though the thought of that name alone brought the rage back full force. She was gonna get it next.
Finally finding the backpack, he opened it up and whooped at the sight of the stocked medical supplies. He wrapped his foot and leg, enjoying more pain killers and watching Crowbar Girl trying to free herself from his orbs. Thankfully, he assumed that whatever his mental state was, it was enough to keep his quirk sticky for a while. Adding final touches to his medical dressings, he decided to get to work.
Walking back to Tendril Girl, he sat down to stare the bitch directly in the eyes, "I should just shoot you. I really should. But before I do, I want to thank you."
At her confused expression, he continued, "I worked with a man named Jackson…you probably heard his name while I was screaming. He taught me a lot of things: how to fight, how to survive in the woods, how to center myself in my mind… But the most important thing he taught me was how and when to kill with conscience."
He let the silence drag on, checking the gun before speaking once more, "He started us off with animals: cows and ducks in different states of health. Sick, injured… it didn't matter. He told us to choose if and how to kill them. After a while he brought us death row inmates and prisoners with life in prison with no parol and had them tell us their stories."
Aiming the gun at her face, he watched her eyes tremble in fear. Past me kept going as he held the weapon still, "He never explained why he did it until the end. Not until we all had killed at least three humans. Only then did he tell us that it was to teach us the price of taking a life."
He pushed the gun to her forehead, "To teach us that if we were going to kill someone to make sure you can do it with no regret," the hammer of the gun cocked into place, "So that you can go to sleep without a single nightmare. If you can kill someone and not regret it, then you have killed for the right reason."
Past me smiled and wondered what he looked like to her. His pure black eyes that were framed in red, staring at her, judging her, and finding her all so wanting.
"Thank you," he whispered, his finger begging to pull the trigger already, "For reminding me that I will have to kill to obtain my goal in this life."
At this point, I pull my mind from the memory. I can't say I'm sad about what I did that day, but I'm sure as hell not proud of what happened. The only reason I decided to return to this memory was because if I didn't, it would have been rewinding in my head for the rest of the night.
Returning to my bed, I sigh and push that day from my mind. Funny enough, this was the birth of moonseed in more than one way.
Not only did it change me mentally, but what I did at that pound was the first step down the stairway that was the Black Orchard.
P.S if I do a chapter of one Mineta then the next one gonna be of the other next past Mineta will be chapter 8
