Pre Author Note: before getting to the author note i'm gonna have to retcon something real quirk. It recently came to my attention that the MHA universes take place 300 years in the future instead of 100. So I'll be updating past chapters and tagging about 200 years on all dates. Alright so onto the author note.
AN Yo I'm back, not gonna lie I truly think I could have finished chapter 8 by the end of april. But there were some problems that came along. One was… well, not writer's block, more like trying to find a spot to cut the chapter because some of my editors think I should make my chapters shorter and some of the reviewers commented on that as well… from the word count of this chapter you can guess how that went. Alright so after a while I figured out where to stop and then I got hit by another issue. This is a question to the boy readers (do I have any girl readers? Mineta MC story so not sure) anyway do any of you boys know what an UTI is? No? Its fucking hell, that's what the fuck it is and it's somthing that normally happens to girls but apperntly if you get really really sick for 4 days and don't drink enough water you can get one and it's hell. So yeah, extreme sickness for 4 days (sweating weakness, joint pain chills) followed by another 4 days of UTI and its treatment (look it up if you want) and I was back on track… besides you know being a college student and missing a whole week of school so I had to make that up. But after that I was ready to write again. Wait… no I wasn't, why is that you ask? Because after all was said and done it was the week before finals… So yeah that happened. But now all finals are done and it's finally time to finish this damn chapter. Hope you enjoy. P.S read the bottom author notes. I got some questions for you all.
-Text document -
Date: 9/14/2301
Title: Ghost from the past, Pain from the present, and FUCK for the foreseeable future
"Well give it a shout!" Bastion sang. His deep voice rang across the plane. So-ri was hanging off his shoulder, already hammered, but more than capable of using his quirk to add to the song.
"Woah we're halfway there!" Eero and Christopher joined in.
"Woah livin on a prayer!" Quinn sang, jumping on Wendy's back, the giant girl holding them up easily.
"Take my hand, we'll make it I swear!" Bastion spun, holding out his hand to me while dancing to the song.
I smiled and handed him the bottle in my hand which he gratefully took and then left So-ri to lead the song. Even the pilots were getting into it and banging their heads to the song. I laugh at the display, marveling that the whole of class T could be here today. Even Zilko had come out of retirement to see me off, the graduated student joining into the song. Well, most of them. My mood soured as I thought of those we lost. Jackson said it was impressive, Class T had a higher mortality rate then most classes, so it was rather impressive that 80% of our class survived after almost a decade of missions, which was way above expectations. Doesn't really make you feel better when you're holding your friends as they die before you. A hand lands on my shoulder and I shudder as I feel the sadness literally removed from me. Already knowing who it was, I sighed before looking up to meet the star shaped irises. "Princess."
"I've given you permission to use my name instead of my moniker, Mineta." Anosova sighs as I remove her hand from my shoulder. "How long are we going to do this?"
"Well I know when it's time to dip," Bastion says, finishing my bottle and giving it back to me. "Call me back once this is done." He makes a vague hand motion in our direction before walking back to our singing classmates and grabbing Quinn, who seems to have noticed the situation and had been coming to save me by grabbing the scruff of their neck and dragging them away.
"What great friends we have," I mutter before turning to Anosova. "As for us, we are not doing anything, I want to relax and have fun with my friends. I don't know what you want besides possibly to manipulate me again."
She flinched at my words and I felt a bit of remorse before stamping it under my foot. "That's not true and you know it."
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. "'That's not true, wow, that's a big statement especially when you just used your quirk to remove my sadness." I lean forward. "Please explain how using your quirk on me is not manipulation?"
"Okay yes I was trying to manipulate you, but not in the way it happened." One of her fingers wrapped around her hair in the same way she did when she was nervous. It was a rare sight seeing her so unsure about herself. "You know my quirk, it works with emotions that are there, I was expecting happiness, maybe a little annoyance, obviously arousal, I wasn't expecting to find lo-"
"A crush." I cut her off not even wanting to entertain the notion. "It was a crush at best, a crush that is very much dead since I can never trust you again."
She stomps her foot, "you know you can trust me!"
"I don't know that for a fact, in fact, because of your quirk I have no idea which emotions I'm feeling are really mine." I wave to the rest of the class who Bastion had thankfully began to distract by choosing louder songs to avoid them noticing the conversation. "I don't even know how many of their emotions are real, maybe Wendy still hates me or Bastion hates fried chicken, you control emotions Princess, you're asking a lot for me to put my trust in you again."
"My quirk never worked on you this way before." She says exasperated. "Plus, it was by Jackson's instruction and he's messing with our minds all the time."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better? That Jackson gave you permission to fuck with me?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. She fidgets a bit and I continue before she can open her mouth. "Plus, when it's classwork like this Jackson always offers multiple options, I assume that all boys in Class T were open and I just offered the highest credits?" Her silence was all I needed to confirm. I hissed and turned away from her. I like Jackson, I really did but the man could and would be an asshole to the highest degree if he thought he could turn a situation into a lesson.
"Again, Jackson is the one that instructed me to do it." she continues. "And he made it very, and I mean very, clear he wanted me to target you. Why aren't you mad at Jackson?"
Because he's Jackson I thought angrily, being mad at him is like being mad at the sea. It's usually a waste of energy and time.
Anosova sighed for a moment. I could actually believe that she was sorry. "Look, I don't want you to leave pissed at me. Can we talk please?"
"I'm only going to Japan for a couple months." I sighed and rubbed the back of my head. "It's not like a permanent retirement, I'm just taking a break from it all and visiting an old friend. Look we didn't date and neither of us know shit about relationships… and even if we did, I'm pretty sure whatever this is doesn't count as one, but I feel like shit like this requires space, at least that's what I've seen in movies and that seems… right." I raise a hand to stall her complaints. "So can we put this conversation on pause until I come back?" I smile at her hoping it doesn't look half as forced as it feels. "I need time Princess, please." she stared at me for a moment and seemed like she was about to say something before a ring covered hand landed on her shoulder. Instantly Anosova buckled as if she had finished her 4 bottles of vodka. Roofy catches her practically holding the girl up as her quirk comes into effect.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to Mineta for a moment." Roofy leans in to whisper something in Anosova's ear as she places her in her seat. Anosova could only angrily yawn at her as Roofy motioned for me to follow.
"When you come bac-" Anosova yawned at me as I walked past. "Promise". I nodded to her as I followed Jackson's second. Roofy leads me to the back of the plane where there was a private room. Once I enter, she closes the door behind us cutting off the sounds of song and merriment.
"Thanks," I said moving to the other side of the mini table in the center of the room.
"Don't thank me, I just didn't want to see the mood be brought down by your argument if Princess started to get pushy." She sighs into her hand. "The girl is stubborn whether she is right or wrong. If it makes you feel better I can tell you she hasn't permanently affected any of your emotions, what you're feeling now and for the last month have been your own feelings."
"Oh that's nice, at least she hasn't been tinkering with my heart after she smashed it," I grumbled. That also means that all this shit in my head I can't explain are just natural fucked up feelings. Honestly I was hoping she was making me feel like crap for ignoring her, at least that would make sense. Is this what normal people go through in relationships? If so then how do we continue as a species? "The least she could do is give me an apology," I grumble, reaching a hand under the table. "Am I in the wrong here?" I ask, pulling a champagne bottle from the fridge under the table. "Don't bullshit me."
"I never do." She replies waving a hand to deny me when I offer the bottle. "By normal society standpoints you're in the right, though most would say you should be mad at both Jackson and Princess but as it stands, I'm pretty sure most people in the academy would say you're-"
"Overreacting?" I sigh.
She chuckles. "No, I would say overreacting, most of the people in the academy would say you were bitching." She shrugs at my look. "One of Princess's main classes is seduction & manipulation, makes sense they would want to make sure she can do a mission even if it's with someone she has a relationship with."
"But why the hell me?" I groan. "Class T is mostly male, and Bastion gets a side chick every third mission."
"Bullet has shown and proven that he can keep it in his pants when it's needed. You were chosen because of your complicated relationship with the oppose sex."
I hiss clenching my hands imagining the smug prick's neck in between them. "Years of not letting girls seduce me on the battlefield and he pulls this? Why the hell did he feel the need to test me now?"
"He wanted to make sure that you were just as careful with the girls you trusted as the ones you didn't." She shrugs. "Only reason the test happened now and not earlier is because Jackson wasn't sure, until recently, if you actually trusted any girl in the academy beside Azrael, especially after the Cock ring incident."
I hissed, not at all happy that she knew about that incident, because that meant Jackson knew about it. "And Anasova was chosen, why? There are plenty of others in the academy, why did Jackson choose her?"
"He knew you weren't gonna fall for the same thing twice, he wasn't even sure you were gonna fall for it the first time." she shrugs. "He wasn't even sure if you did have those feelings for her, he didn't even use his quirk to confirm, he saw your interactions and made a guess." Roofy changes her voice into something approaching Jacksons. "I think it's time to test the boy's heart Ruth." She reverts to her normal voice, "Are you sure? It could damage the team dynamic for a bit and you use Class T alot." Back to Jackson's imitation, "No this should have been done sooner to begin with, I rather he be heartbroken in here than dead out there, he needs to remember to always be vigilant, especially on accounts of the heart."
"Well, he succeeded." And the only downside was that he damaged one of my most positive relationships with the opposite sex. I wasn't the most trusting of girls before this."Is he even a little bit sorry about how that played out?" I ask.
Roofy pauses for a moment before going on. "He was sorry that you took it the way you did and that this has affected your teamwork. He also believes that this is one of the reasons you're going to Japan and has shown disdain at being picked as the chosen candidate for Class M."
"Those two have no relation with one another!" At her look I relent. "Okay yes I'll admit he pulled that crap with Anosova… didn't exactly make me want to jump at the idea, but even without that I just don't want to join class M."
"Well you wouldn't be joining class M, you would be a candidate, which means you are being conside-"
"You know what I mean!" I cut her off. "I don't want it!"
"Any particular reason?" her eyes narrow. "This isn't another 'I was a pity project' thing again, is it? I keep telling yo-"
"And I keep not believing you." I cut her off. "But no, the fact that I was a pity project isn't why I'm against being a candidate."
"Then why? It was Jacket's wish for you to be the next candidate you know?" She must have seen from my face then that it was a surprise. "He never told you?"
"No he never told me that! Fuck!" I rub my face, coming to terms with that information. "When did he tell you this fact?"
"It was in his will, only me, Jackson, and some M class members know… not Mark." She says when she sees my eyes widen. "You can thank me for him not getting that update." She shrugs her shoulder, "honestly that in itself shoots your score way up, you should be proud that a past candidate chose you for their successor especially when that candidate was of Jackson's blood."
"No to the fifth power, still not doing it, not even for him."
"Again I ask, why?" She motions to herself. "There's nothing but benefits to become one, bigger credit income, more control over the vault, better training and augmentations, and you'd be a higher rank than most of the other students at the academy, technically since you were sponsored by a different candidate you'd probably be bumped up somewhere in the middle of the top rank."
I wave a hand in the air as if swatting the idea. "It'd just be another ladder to climb, though this one would be the jugular-slicing-backstabbing-blender that is class M, which, I'll very much remind you, Mark is also a member of M and is the third highest ranking member of it." I shudder to imagine how he would react if he learned I was even close to the same rank as him. And you won't be able to protect me from him all the time." She nods to confirm this, not even seeming abashed. "This also puts me in the line of succession, and while he wants you to take his place out of the class, as far as I can tell, just being a candidate means he's gonna try to groom me into a mini Jackson and I shudder to imagine how much that's gonna increase if I make it to the actual class itself, and that's ignoring the fact that I don't think I'm the right choice."
"The choices were between you and Bullet for the Class M position, for class T students," she states. "You scored more points in missions that required… sterner leadership, so you got the position."
"Yeah, stern isn't the word I would use. Point is, I don't like the idea that I'm getting the role because I was able to do the things that Bastion… Bastion! A kid that killed his abusive uncle at age ten, was in his first gun fight at 13 and grew up in one of the most dangerous places in America, refused or couldn't do. My moral compass is already warped enough as it is."
"Your point being?" She raises an eyebrow, surprising me since I couldn't understand why she wasn't getting my point.
"I'm not a good, good person," I motion to myself up and down. "I never said I was, but I'm pretty sure becoming the next Jackson wouldn't be good for me or the academy."
"You believe you would be corrupted by the power?"
"Can you honestly say that you're the same, being the Right hand of Jackson? Is Mark the same as the left hand? Class M isn't really a beacon of morals… and I'm saying that as a member of a class Nicknamed the Terrorist Bunch and Jackson's terrors. I'd rather put Bastion in the class since he still has morals and I trust the dude to keep them, unless Jackson literally programs them out of him. I on the other hand… honestly I don't know, I just don't think it a good idea to give me control of an international… anything to be honest."
She seems to consider both me and my words before continuing. "So you are not trusting yourself as usual." I frowned at her, not happy she shortened my whole argument into 7 words. "So, are you actually retiring or was all that just a middle finger to Jackson?"
"I have no idea," I answered honestly with a sigh. "Don't get me wrong, I owe everything to the academy. When you found me in Japan I was lost, I had no one and nowhere. I was considering jumping off that building before I saw you in trou- or when I saw you looking like you were in trouble." I corrected when I saw her eyes narrow, jeez, years later and she is still mad about a teenager saving her life even though she herself has thanked me for it. "I have heavy baggage in Japan, might as well deal with it now and take the time to decide if the GA and Jackson is where I want to spend the rest of my life. If not then I'll try being a normal pro hero."
"So you're basically going on leave?" she questioned before adding, "drama queen." I give her the finger. "Why all the fanfare?"
"Hey, I wasn't the one that threw the whole going away party, you can blame So-ri for that." Honestly I don't know how they figured out I was leaving. I wasn't really talking about it.
"Well, if you are then I will have to decommission you."
"I thought that's what the med team did before we left?" I lifted an arm freshly removed of any scar or tattoo that would show me as a GA member as well as the rest of my body. "Gonna need to get a whole new set of tattoos to cover all this blank skin."
"They just removed all physical markings besides those you got while you were in your hero persona. What I have to do is a series of mental blocks." She allows me to groan. "It happens to every agent that retires or goes on leave."
"Yeah, Jackson already told me, I just assumed it would happen once we landed, or he already did it and I just didn't remember."
"Better to do it now." To my horror she lifts a clipboard from the table and pulls a pen from her hair.
God dammit women, use a phone! I think lightly glaring as she licks the tip of the pen. All the technology in the world and she uses paper and pen .
"Which of your personas are you planning to use while on leave? I have to ask," she says when she sees my look.
"Since I'm going on vacation and not to a war, I'm using my white persona, Pro hero Grapeshot," I say.
"Any particular request for your gray persona Gremlin or your black persona Rat?"
"Don't care as long as you don't kill them off, if I do come back I don't want to have to make a name for myself in those fields again."
"Hmmm, then their circles will be told that they're laying low." She writes on the board. "Where will you be staying while on leave?"
"Japan."
"Any other agents going with you?
"Not that I am aware of but wouldn't put it past Jackson."
"How long are you planning to stay?"
"No idea, maybe 6 months, less than 1 year for sure."
"Are you aware while decommissioned that you will not be able to use any of your gray or black persona equipment as well as academy owned equipment?"
"I assumed so… wait, my bank accounts are fine right?"
"Your white persona ones will be open and in cases of emergency you can access your Backup." I nodded in understanding and she went back to writing. After what feels like forever the wave of questions finally ended and she put the clipboard down.
"Now for the fun part." I sigh as Roofy puts a hand on my head. "How much will I forget?"
"You only forget specific missions that align with your black, and certain gray personas, all your pro hero missions will be fine, same with Bullet and the others, you'll remember your hero work together with them, but you will not remember their other personas or the missions you did with them." She rubs her hands together. "Any questions?"
"Yeah, what will the main branch of the IHA be told? Do I have to check in with them as well?"
"No, since you will be restricted to the memories and clearances of your white persona, you will be an official IHA member on vacation time with all those benefits. Completely over the table."
"Okay then go," Roofy said a word that I didn't remember and I felt my vision get inverted as whatever program Jackson put in my vault took effect. "Did it work?" I asked, not feeling all that different.
"What's Bullet's real name?"
"Bastion"
"What's Bullet's black persona?" I opened my mouth then closed it as I pulled out a blank.
"Who were you teleported to the Arctic with on mission 27?"
"I don't remember anything about that mission."
"Who held you when Jacket died?"
I blink not expecting her to bring up something like that. "Oh we're getting personal now? Uh, Androgoyse."
"What is their real name?"
"Quinn."
"Was Quinn the only boy you ever kissed?"
"What does that hav- oh you're fucking with me," I said when I spotted the smallest grin fighting to come on her face. "First of all, Quinn doesn't count as boy or girl and secondly, everyone was drunk off their asses so it doesn't count, wait, should I remember that? That was a GA memory right?"
"Yeah but it wasn't a mission. You should remember most of your down time at the academy and missions that have been deemed safe to be shared in certain cases."
"Ah alright, so are we done?"
"Pretty much, also you should apologize to Princess."
"Gonna need you to run that by me again."
"At least for the 'I can't trust you' line," she explains. "Almost a decade in the field and you guys haved saved each other a lot, not the type of bond you want to break off just like that." I really wanted to tell her to sit on my finger and spin with that statement. but I realized she did have a point.
"Fine, give me a piece of paper, I'll write something."
"Just because you're as small as a kid doesn't mean you get to act like one. Face to face, come on."
I glared at her for a moment before jumping for her clipboard, to which she sidestepped me. This happens 3 more times before she uses her quirk, causing me to buckle and feel like I just downed some Sonata. "Bah." I held a hand up in surrender and the feeling of drowsiness goes away. "Fine, I'll talk to her, but fuck you for not letting me be up in my feelings more."
"Please, you're lucky I stopped Jackson from talking to you the first day this happened." I shudder to imagine that conversation as she grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet. "Now get back to your party before Bullet comes looking for you."
"You know you can call us by our actual names right?"
"The same way you call me by mine?" she asks and I grin. pretty sure I'm the only one brave enough to call her roofy, at least to her face. "I actually can't. I would explain why but you won't remember the context, but I can't refer or remember a lot of GA members' real names or info."
"But you can for me?"
"Special circumstances." She flashed me a smile as she patted me on the back before pushing me towards the door. "Go have fun with your friends, you need moments like these to remember."
The screech of tires wakes me up and I pull on the steering wheel, pulling the car back into my lane, practically hearing the other driver's curses from the near collision. Ugh if I'm falling asleep then the adrenaline must be wearing off. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. I had been on an empty tank long before I dragged myself to Sakurai's door. I lean on the steering wheel, mind straying onto better memories. I've called for help. They have to be coming for me. They have to be, Jackson sent me that message in my dream, any day now. I'm gonna see Pilot's plane zooming by to pick me up. I scratch my head using my knees to move the steering wheel as I take a turn to the left, the heavy feeling in my arm not able to dampen my mood. Finally after months of bullshit after bullshit I'm getting out of Yokohama.
"Turn left in one mile." The friendly voice of the GPS didn't do much to calm my nerves. Sakurai's car is on a timer, sooner or later the words gonna come out that it's stolen and then it's Fast And The Furious time. Trying to block out such thoughts, I leaned forward to turn on the radio. The blood on my clothing is sticking to the seat for a bit, gonna have to change the bandages soon. I turn on the radio only to hear a different type of depressing mix with a hint of the fuck what now.
"This just in, another Nomu worm has been defeated by Deku with the help of another group of heroes including the Pro Hero Ash Master, daughter of Tomura Shigaraki, the controversial hero has been making big moves to remove herself from her father's sinister shadow as well as introduce the newest heroes of the Saisei Academy." I stared at the radio wide-eyed for a moment before remembering I'm in a car. I looked up and jerked my wheel cursing as I barely made my turn.
Saisei was something I knew of, it was an academy that popped up after all the crap with AFO. The idea of it had been thrown around when I was still in Japan. It's a private hero academy school, backed heavily by the government. Either your parents are rich enough to send you in or you're a kid the HPSC picked up and enrolled in it. Jackson offered to get me into it earlier on, probably to act as a spy. I, having no interest in ever going back to Japan at the time, said hell no. I remember the smile he had given me. The part about Shigaraki having a kid, now that shit was new. Between being fused with AFO and fighting a war to destroy All Might and peace, I didn't think he was one to go looking for romance. Also, the fact of his quirk, how the hell did he have sex to begin with? Handcuffs play? One spank of the ass and his girl needs to be vacuumed up. A cold feeling covers my cheek and I realize that my head is now resting on the window. I blink fighting off the tired feeling trying to convince me that a car moving 60-something MPH is a great sleeping pace as I pull myself back into a straight sitting position. I wonder how much blood I've lost. Shaking my head, I strain to listen to the radio which has gone back to talking about the Nomu. Such trivial things could wait. I needed to hear this.
"This marks the sixth appearance of these higher grade Nomu Worms. The police have decided to designate them as Wyrms, because of their similar characteristics to one another. Previously it was believed that these creatures were focused on targeting the top heroes after the first thought attacked the pro heroes Lemillion, Dynamite, Gale Force and Comicman. The last two attacks have strayed from this pattern, attacking Tartarus and The Pit respectively."
I stared at the radio for a moment before returning my eye to the road. I was still shocked at the idea that there were more of those things, if what Sakura told was anything to go by then the Wyrm that attacked the pit gave Deku some trouble. DEKU! That means these are high cream of the crop Nomus, higher than the 12 that were problems in our youth. Bullshit, no way someone could be popping nomu of that power out like that. Though maybe there is a power difference, the news isn't giving how many heroes helped them beat those things so I can't judge fully yet. The bligger question is how similar are these nomu to each other, because the news made it seem like these things all fit the category of a wyrm dragon which doesn't seem like a common enough quirk to make 6 nomus out of… unless the sick fuck kidnapped a whole family, but pretty sure the goverment would have taken note of that. Maybe he found someone with a twice like quirk… doubt it, in that case why isn't there an army of these things? Honestly from everything I've heard, the only odd thing in the pattern is that these nomus attacked The Pit. While The Pit was made because of the mass breakouts from Tartarus, it doesn't have the depth of SS and S rank prisoners it predecessor had, mostly on account that since Shiguraki there hasn't been many villains of that rank around. It has some A ranks and a lot of B ranks but is that worth the possibility of losing a high end nomu to get?
Tartarus makes sense with Dabi, Gigantomachia, and that lot in there. I need to know the result of these breakouts. I mean, I managed to make it out and apparently some others were able to make it out of The Pit, but what about Tartarus? If I can figure out who got out, I might be able to figure out who this person is linked to. It was then that radio voice reminded me why I hate Japan in so many ways.
"It is unknown who the creator of these beings is, but some believe they might be related to escapees of The Pit. With some heroes believing there to be a connection between the inventor and the disgraced hero Mineta Minoru."
"OH FUCK YOU!" I yell at the radio. Now they're just throwing anything they can onto me. I haven't been in Japan in years and yet they think I'm in contact with a nomu-creating genius. At this point the government is just goanna throw every fucking crime at me. Leaning my head onto the steering wheel I growl as I listen to the radio sprout more BS.
"The villain is still at large, but is believed to still be in the Yokohama area, civilians are advised to stay home at night and to stay in groups if they have to go out. If anyone sees the dangerous criminal do not engage, run to a safe location and contact the police as soon as possible."
"Why don't you tell them that I ride around in a white van as well? Maybe turn on some amber alerts?" I gurgle into the steering wheel, slightly biting the leather covering. "Leather, of course Sakurai would put leather on her steering wheel… not even good tasting leather." Took me a solid 10 seconds to understand that I was biting a leather steering wheel. Okay, time for another adrenaline shot reaching for the medic kit. I grin as the voice of the GPS states that I am 3 miles away from the Tokyo Bay aqua line. The bridge might be watched by heroes but I'll steal a boat on the bay side and use that to cross. Aquatic heroes will be patrolling down Tokyo Bay, but it would be too big for them to patrol the whole thing. I'll just off road to the right place and wait for the right time to cross.
"This just in." The radio interrupted my thoughts. "Satsuki Asui, sister of the number 5 Tsuyu Asui hero, is in critical condition after being attacked by Mineta Minoru."
The words shocked me so much that I accidentally knocked the med kit off the passenger seat. I cursed not trusting shit to not go sideways in the time it would take to get it. Critical condition? I fucking bashed her head in with a crowbar! How is she alive? Maybe this is God's way of beating me with the bone he's thrown me because if she's alive, even though it sucks, it also means that Tsuyu is by her side like a good sister and not out here looking to turn my intestines into tube socks. Sadly, that doesn't mean that the other heroes won't be and since they know that I attacked Satsuki then that means Satsuki's car time is up. So I got t- the world blurred and I felt my head brush into the steering wheel. Growling I let go of the wheel happily for the long stretch of road. Practically falling out of my seat, I reach into the foot rest grabbing the medkit and pulling it into my lap. Come on adrenaline shot, please. I hadn't been counting how many there were. It was actually rare for non-military med kits to have adrenaline shots, these weren't
even the hard core ones, these were the ones they used for certain types of allergic reactions but they can keep someone going.
A black blur appears in my vision shocking me so much that I jerk back to an upright position. The blur travels across my vision for a moment before it moves to the passenger seat and starts to change. Blood loss must be fucking with me, I think to myself as the blur shifts and grows into a see-through white smudge in my vision, getting bigger and bigger untill it was human size in my sight, and then started to gain definition. When it was done the person it revealed made me want to laugh and cry.
"Well if it isn't Jackson's angel, hello again Blake, or should I call you Azrael?" Azrael was sitting calmly in the passenger seat, looking like she had been there the whole time. She was just how I remembered her when I first met her in the Grey Academy. Skin a white so bright that it practically glowed in the dark car, her gray eyes did glow. Misty gray iris staring at me telling me that her mystery quirk was in effect. She was wearing a simple gray sundress under a low cut jacket that looked like she would be better suited on a night at the beach then with the shit class M gets into.
I blink at the, quite literal, wraith beside me coming to terms that if I am able to see her, then that means her quirks are in affect and I'm in trouble. "Are you physically here?" I ask hoping that somehow her appearance was a part of her quirk that I didn't know about. She shakes her head and places her hand on my cheek. I could clearly make out the smell of decayed roses as she drew near. I expected her hand to grab my cheek but thankfully it phased through me, leaving a cold peaceful feeling where her flesh would have touched mine. She quickly pulled away as I sag into my seat.
"So, I'm dying then?" She does a so-so gesture which brings me some hope. From our first interaction I learned that whatever her quirk is (or quirks, Eero is certain she's a nomu that Jackson had created, Quinn thinks she's one of those that are basically born with multiple quirks like shoto), gets stronger and charges more around death and the dying. Me being able to see her isn't the best, but that just means I could be dying in the sense of if I don't get medical attention in a couple days or something. Now if she starts being able to touch me then that means I have hours and hearing her means I might have an hour left. "Any idea the cause?" She shrugs before her eyes widen for a moment and she points at the window. Looking forward I curse and hit the brakes before I rear end the car in front of me. I jerk forward, nearly eating the steering wheel.
"Well, the best bet I have is blood loss." I pant as my suprarenal gland pumps whatever it has left in my system. Most of my earlier cuts were from first using grapskin closed up, but there were still a couple days of light bleeding from my whole body, then there were a couple days stuck at Satsuki's house so I got blood back from that. Then I spent how much time fighting and being drowned in a lake with a hole in my foot, basically adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping me going. Did Jackson have my adrenal glands altered… were they unaltered when I left? How many body modifications are still working? The vault works fine. I thought about asking Azreal these questions but focused on the bigger question.
"Where's backup?" she tilts her head at me. "You know? Class T, I assume it's them coming to pick me up, right? I can already see Wendy chewing me out for being sloppy." I freeze as she shakes her head. "Class S then? They'll never let me live it down but I'll put down the team rivalry long enough to save my life." Another head shake causes a pit to start in my stomach. "Alright so Class L? That's fine I'm cool with a more precise approach, in fact that might be better because that means I'll probably get to sue… I don't even know who, the whole Japanese Hero Association? The government of Japan? Ashio? As fun as it would be to see class T descend down with an attack helicopter and pick me up, I'll take whatever at this point." Another head shake dashes those hopes. "Don't leave me in suspense here, wait, are they sending Class A? Q? You and the rest of class M?" I shake my head imagining the chaos even as I try to ignore the pity look she was giving me. "I wouldn't stop you but I am worried about civilian safet-" The feeling of peace she gave off as she placed a hand around my shoulder nearly broke me. "No one's coming for me, are they?"
She opens her mouth at first I thought she was goanna speak which would have been the final straw, but she places her tongue over her bottom teeth and slightly shakes her head. she also moves her right hand backward a couple times swinging at the wrist. Blinking at her I recognize it as American sign language and struggle to translate her mostly transparent hands.
"Not yet?" I guess to which she nods. "They're coming but that can't come yet?" Another nod. I sigh in relief. "Why can't they come yet?"
She did a couple of hand signs before seeing my confusion and simplified it to the signs for 'Complicated' and 'Hard.' What could be hard about it? Ignoring all the stuff the main branch of the IHA could do. One of the reasons the academy had classes A-Z was so that it had teams for any situation, legal or illegal. Hell even some classes themselves had the students train to do both legal and off-the-book missions (like Class T). Even if Japan refused to release me on a legal standpoint, something that they couldn't do without turning a couple of countries on them, especially after the AFO situation where international heroes were sent to help Japan which led to the death of the first Stars And Stripes. Jackson would just send in a team to pick me up, hell if he wanted to, the academy could just full-on attack Japan in a straight fight, not to destroy it, but just to show Japan that it is not worth holding me.
It was the horn of the car behind me that stopped me from screaming into the sky. Driving again I sigh and look at her from the corner of my eye. "Why did Jackson send you here?" She shakes her head. "He didn't?" To that she nods. "Does the academy know you here?" Another so-so gesture meaning someone does. "Does Roofy know you're here?" Another head shake which was odd. "Mark?" Another head shake. Okay now that is just insane, the right and the left hand don't know what a Class M member is doing? The Jackson Nuclear Option Team is usually heavily monitored. "Does the academy know what's going on in my situation?" So and so motion. So, they haven't or can't send help and they don't know all that is happening. "Is the academy okay?"
Azrael looks at me before slowly shaking her head and clenching a fist holding her index finger of her other hand in front of it.
"Attacked? The academy was attacked?" At her nod I shake my head. "Was the IHA attacked?" Headshake which meant that whoever hit us knew of the academy's other purposes, but couldn't prove it or else they would have simply made that shit public and dropped a ton of problems onto Jackson's lap. "By who?" I groaned as she gave the sign for 'Complicated' again. "Should I expect any help soon?" Her next signs meant something along the lines of 'Define soon'. "A couple days? weeks? months?" when I reach months, she gives a shrug which was better than the head shakes she gave for the earlier options. This isn't good, the academy must've been hit hard if Jackson hasn't sent help. "Alright Azrael, I need you to listen to me, I don't know much but Japan has accused me of a whole list of crimes and imprisoned me in the pit with no trial, I was to be executed." The death quirk user's eyes widen as I explain. "Before that could happen, an earthquake possibly caused by an odd type of Nomu freed me, I am ready for –" I blink as she shakes her head. "What, you can't tell Jackson?" At her nod I hiss "Why?" At this she holds one hand in the other loosely before letting it fall. "MISSING? HOW THE FUCK is HE MISSING!?" Azrael shrugs. "Well that's bloody fine, wait, so no one from your academy sent you right?" At her head shake I blink. "Then uh ….why are you here?"
Her next signs stunned me. I didn't want you to be alone if you died. I blinked at her subconsciously following the GPS instruction. At first I wanted to be mad at her lack of faith but the very fact she is here right now means that I was dying. Even so, having her say it kind of floored me and brought up some rather bitter memories. Before being a member of class M, she was the candidate from class F, aptly nicknamed The Forensics, mostly focused on dead and dying agents. Usually helping find the cause of death or locating a body, though some of them had taken to comforting the dead which was how I met her in the first place. I had been in the hospital for a month after getting hit with some type of bio weapon. Azrael had sat by me every day as I slowly wasted away playing with my hair watching movies with me, making me feel at peace when the pain got too much. She was the only being I saw for that month, since I was contagious. The medical team managed to save me but that month has a spot in my mind and it made it clear to me why Azrael was this girl's moniker.
Though I would have liked help along the lines of killing my enemies instead of the Old yeller treatment, I wanted to snap at her but I rather not scare away the only friend I have in this country. "Thanks," I say, turning back to the road. "But I'm afraid it's gonna be like our first meeting. I'm not ready to die just yet." She smiled at me, a sad smile that said that she didn't believe me, which was fair. In her own words, Jackson wasn't coming in with an antidote this time . "By the way," I ask, realizing something. "Did you give me a pick me up at the pond?"
I remember a moment when I was drowning in the pond where something had perked me up. It didn't surprise me that she wasn't surprised, even if I didn't see her. I'm pretty sure she can sense the upcoming death of anyone she's been in contact with or at least anyone from the academy. She is also one of the only ones in the academy with the ability to save me in that situation, or at least the only one that could save me in that way and not just get me out of the country. She stares at me for a moment before making a fist with the thumb pointing to the left before turning her fist so it turns to the right. "Someone else." A lump caught in my throat. If Jackson was missing, it could have been him but it didn't feel like him, it almost felt like a jolt of electricity. "Was… was it Denki?" It sounded stupid when I said it out loud but I've seen too much to disregard the possibility of an afterlife. My belief didn't really falter when Azrael put a finger to my lips and moved her lips. She mouthed it slowly so I could read her lips. "I don't talk to the living on matters of the dead."
I stewed on that for a moment before a siren behind me shattered the silence and took me away from the spiritual questions that were spiraling in my head. I let out a sigh and lay my head on the wheel even as my foot gets ready to stomp the gas. It's one thing after another. Looking through the rearview, I pray that maybe they're pulling over someone else. The police car was still a bit aways, but was already using its megaphone to tell me to pull over. I let out a sigh before leaning on one side of the wheel causing the car to drift to the side. "Is there any help you can give me without physically being here?" She signs "Not much unless more people start to die." I sigh, deciding that I have to do this myself. Shoot the cop, take his car, use the siren to get through traffic, maybe even take a nap when I make it to the bay. Hopefully the cop has a blanket or something. I'm feeling a bit cold.
Someone climbing onto the top of the police car stops that idea dead in its tracks. As the cop car got close, my eyes widened as the figure stood on the top of the car illuminated by the red and blue lights. Green spandexs were the first thing I noticed followed closely by short dark green hair that was flowing freely in the window. Both of those were disconcerting, but what happened next nearly made my heart stop. Yanking the wheel to the left I nearly scream as a familiar tongue slams the space where the car was. No no no no no this isn't a fight I want! Ripping my eyes from the spirit of vengeance behind me as I slammed my foot on the gas. The car lurched forward and thankfully in a world of heroes, police cars didn't get the budget they so obviously needed. It wasn't 10 seconds before the police were giving chase but thankfully the hero didn't seem willing to try that tongue trick again until the car got closer. "That can't be Tsuyu right?" I talk to Azrael as well as myself. "No way she was in a random police car that happened to find me, right? She would have been with her dying sister, right?! RIGHT!?"
Azreal didn't even look at me, too busy turning back to look at the car following me. After a couple of moments she signs for me to go faster.
"Oh fuck me!" I growl, as I try my hardest to shove my foot though the car floor. The tires screech as I make a dangerous turn . "Is she why you're here?" I yell to Azrael as I watch the speedometer reach those bright colored numbers. She shakes her head but I already knew the answer. While not much is known of her quirk, she can only appear to those that are dying and not a moment before. If you're gonna die by car accident you wouldn't see her till your organs start to get smashed. "HOW THE HELL DID SHE FIND ME?" I screamed, placing both feet on the gas and watching the meter rise even higher. I briefly wondered if Tsuyu had a tracker in her sister's car and if that was how they found me so quickly. Maybe it was just bad luck and a cop car was giving her a ride and she happened to see her sister's car. These questions will have to wait for this brief intermission of me getting fucked up. Now, I wish I could tell you what possibly, hopefully not, Tsuyu was doing, but I didn't waste time looking back. What I can tell you was that one moment we were speeding through traffic for maybe 5 minutes at something close to 90 mph. "That's the bay!" I yelled looking at Azrael who was looking behind me with a worried expression. "I'm gonna make it."
At that moment I guess the cop got close enough for Maybe-Tsuyu to make a move. And make a move she did. Now, I didn't see what she did but I'm pretty sure she leaped off the hood of the cop car (who had stopped so that the force of her kick didn't get him into an accident) and basically drop kicked my car. One moment I'm going down a straight path at 90, the next the car was balancing on its front wheels at 97 mph. Screaming like a little girl, I cross my arm over myself and pull out Grapskin. The next moment the impact hits. I didn't hear anything but tearing metals and the sound of steel on concrete, but it felt like a bad crash as I bounced around like a ball before slowly coming to a stop. Opening an eye I blink at the shard of broken metal that would have been where my head was if I didn't curl up before the accident. Maybe God hasn't left me yet. "Azrael?" I called out. Looking around I notice the death quirk user outside the car motioning for me to get out and pointing wildly down the road. The smell of gasoline and the rising heat explains her panic to me. Grape skin protected my hand from glass as I grabbed my bag and simply pulled myself through the shattered front window, which was now parallel to the ground since the car had flipped. Speaking of said car, yeah, that thing isn't driving anywhere again. The front had crumbled inward like a soda can and the back had a decent sized hole where 98%-sure-that's-Tsuyu had possibly put her foot though it. The crumpled front was leaking and from the smoke I could already see, I assumed, a fire was about to start. Stepping away from the soon to explode car, I looked down the road to see how far the bay was only to blink. "Shit, the night life is really bustling." I sigh, staring at the crowd that had started to collect by the crash. At first I thought they wanted to help and they probably did, but once they saw my hair they stopped and made some distance backing away, some running away.
I was happy for them to fuck off, if this was America or worst, Iran, I would expect the civilians to freaking get on it by either throwing shit at me or trying to go vigilante on my the bag on my shoulder, I check myself to make sure I have everything. Gun and final clip in holster? Check. Badass crow bar on my hip? Check. Bag of life on my back? Check. Time to leave. Throwing a compact orb to the ground, I jump off of it hoping to soar above the crowd, only for two feet to collide with my chest. Pretty sure if that wasn't midair my chest would caved in, turning all my organs into goo. That being said, I was sent over the crowd and back-first into a streetlight which bent to accommodate me. The crowd cheered which was not helping me.
"Hey, it's Jiraiya!"
"Hey! Jiraiya!"
"Beat his ass Jiraiya!"
Soon enough the crowd was cheering this new arrival's name, oh great now they have a cheer squad. While japanese crowds don't jump villains like the previously mentioned groups, they do have a habit of being the fucking tide if heroes were the moon. No hero or the hero losing, they'll fuck off and stampede like idoits, the second heroes are around they think it's a fucking show, and crowd around. I fucking thought AFO bullshit taught you all to stop doing this. I guess a decade of riding Deku dick has gotten the civilians of Japan docile again. On the bright side it wasn't Froppy. On the dim side, I don't think it could have been any worse if the task force sent after my ass showed up.
"Getting pretty sick of frogs," I growl, getting to my feet, and drawing my gun. I held it up and roared "MOVE!" That got the crowd's attention who then scampered away from me to reveal the toad boy who looked like he was about to jump over the crowd to get at me. Well, at least I had a reason to think it was Tusyu, though I'm pretty pissed I'm fighting another member of this damn family.
Me and goddamn Samidare Asui stared at each other for a solid 15 seconds, sizing each other up. He hadn't changed much over the years, though he now had much longer hair that could be confused for a girl when seen at night. He is about 5'10 now, and he was dressed in a uniform almost exactly the same as his dear sister, besides possibly being a couple shades darker, must have caught him coming home. Slender frame for a man but if my car had anything to say to that, he got that frog strength that gained Tsuyu that number five rank. His eyes, those same damn eyes that sent me off to be drowned a couple hours ago, watched me, promising me bitter things. If Samidare is half of what his sister is then this would be a fight even if I'm at 100%, I have no idea how I'm gonna beat him now.
"Azrael," I whisper. "I'm bleeding out so I'm gonna need your help, so stay behind me, if I get rocked or rattled touch me to bring me back to focus." She nods to me and shoots Samidare a pissed off look, not that the hero saw it, then moves out of my frame of sight. Glaring at the frog hero, I already knew how this was going to go and was already coming to terms with it, or rather coming to terms with how much it was gonna hurt… alright let's get this done.
I cracked my neck and increased the hair that was covering me, turning grapeskin from a couple millimeters thick to a half inch. At the same time I shed the grapeskin around my hand and grew a sticky version of it around my wrist and over my palm forcing the gun to stay where it was needed. That's not good, I think as blood sinks into the newly growing hair, that's really not good, I think as I lift my arm seeing the burly and uneven sticky hair, yeah limit is being reached. Hissing as I looked from the matted and uneven violet hair that was going to protect me to the pissed off frog man. Honestly the idea of extending grape skin to a full 2 inches was appealing but anything past a half inch becomes a bitch to move in. Even now my whole body feels incredibly heavy. This is gonna be a slug out, but If I hold out long enough, I might be able to tire him ou-oh who am I kidding? If I spend more than five minutes here, more heroes are gonna show up which will make whatever chances I have to get out of this zero. This ain't gonna be a fight, it's gonna be a let-him-whail-on-me-till-I-could-seize-a-moment-to-shoot-him kind of fight. I met his eyes again and it seemed he was watching me as well. Which was honestly surprising. I expected that he would be itching to attack me. Is he waiting for the crowd to back away? He hasn't told them to move any farther away and the crowd doesn't seem to want to leave, having opted to watch while semi hiding behind cars and the like. What is he waiting for? I narrow my eyes before hissing when it hits me. He is just planning to wait me out. I'm on a timer.
"So you're a hero?" I ask, eyes trailing around the street to see what I can use before focusing on the frog hero. "You're a hero, Tsuyu a hero, why wasn't Satsuki?" Samidare's eyes narrow and I grin. "Was she the black sheep of the family? Did your parents try to get her in the job, but she wanted a cushy job away from danger?" I force a dry chuckle. "Didn't really work all that much. I tore through her like a bucket of frog legs for dinner!" Licking my lips, I grin at him. "Finger licking good."
"Shut up." His voice was deeper than I expected, but did have that froggy tone that his sisters have.
"I mean, she didn't act like a hero when I last saw her." I tilt my head as if thinking about it. "Honestly, she was a bit of a bitch, though it's pretty hard to look heroic when you're choking on your teeth." I laugh, eyes locked on Samidare who seems to be vibrating. "I think I knocked most of them out, you know? Though to be honest, I was aiming for her head more than her jaw, but I did get some hits on it, probably gave her some free face surgery, you know now that I think about it she might thank me if she makes it, I'm pretty sure I fixed that fucked up frog jawline you all seem to have. Well, she still has her super freaking long tongue, honestly that thing is too long you know, too long to use normally, though I did figure out a fun thing she can do with that tongue with a little compan-"
That did it. One moment I'm looking at a calm hero waiting for backup, next I'm looking at a pissed off brother ready to murder. Sakura Two Electric Boogaloo. I force a grin as those dull eyes grow alight with anger. I was already moving by the time I saw his muscles tense . You see, fighting quirk users with full body enhaments requires: 1) timing, 2) constant motion, and finally 3) momentum. If you're reacting to their movement, then you've already lost. Jumping backward I lean back, barely missing the fist that would have drilled through my face if I moved a bit slower. Me and Samidare's eyes briefly met as he flew over me. Trying to catch myself with a handstand, I cursed as my arm gave out sending my crumbling to the ground. rolling back to my feet I wasn't fast enough to block the punch to my sternum.
Let me correct a misconception. Most think that Tsusyu, and therefore Samidare, can only kick since their super strength is based more around their lower body. Anyone that knows how to throw a good punch knows that's bulllshit. You use your whole body for that shit which includes the feet, which you use to plant on the ground to keep a punch steady, or in some cases, you can use them to push off the ground to give more force like just now. His fist buried itself into my stomach, bending me like a taco and sending me flying back . I think he cracked a rib through my grapskin! Welp, I ran my mouth, time to take it. I thought as the wind was forced out of me as I was soaring through the air. Bouncing off the hard concrete I couldn't even gasp before he landed his feet on my chest surfing my body for a couple of feet before bouncing off me, the force sending me skidding across the street. The pressure in my chest told me that something was compressed. Yep, this is going about how a fight with Tsuyu would go. Pushing myself to my feet just in time to see his knee a moment before it impacts my face, the grape skin around my face keeping my skull from breaking.
The force of the blow caused me to fucking flip in place, landing face first on the ground. I barely had a moment to come to terms with that before he kicked me up like a soccer ball before once more sending me flying off via skyline spin kick into my side. A brief moment of peace from the rising agony that was assaulting me meant that I must have been sent through Azrael. That moment of peace went out the window when I smashed through the window of some building. The smashing of glass was drowned out by the screaming of whoever I had crashed in front of. He's trying to dial his force down. I realized as I stumbled off a table hissing and punching my leg when it tried to clamp up. Brushing off bits of glass and what seemed to be rice off of me, I took the short reprieve for what it was and put my mind to work. While I assume kicking me across the buildings is cathartic as hell, Samidare wasn't really hurting me consistently. He was mostly sending me flying. Unlike the DOS who have sharp items and water to damage me, he has to use pure force that he has to measure so he does the maximum damage through my grape skin and doesn't send me flying all over the place. Alright, time to think of a way out of this. I concentrate pushing past the screaming of the… sushi restaurant? Turning my head I take in the family that was frozen in fear at the table I had slammed into. I guess they didn't order the roting grapes for dinner.
"Everyone down!" Samidare's voice came to my ears the second his tongue wrapped around my foot. Not again, was my last thought before he whipped me into the support pillar of the restaurant. I bent around the thing like a horseshoe. God damnit, stop slamming my stomach! My whole body is gonna be a bruise if I make it out of this. My next thoughts were interrupted by him swinging me back first at the corresponding wall. Deciding that waiting for the perfect moment wasn't gonna work out I decide fuck it, I'll take more bullets from another cop. Twitching my finger to confirm the gun hadn't somehow been knocked out of my hand, I point my arm at Samidare. I see his eyes widen and he whip his tongue as I pull the trigger. I hear the bang confirming that yes my gun was still in my hand, but sadly he had thrown off my aim by letting go, sending me soaring across the building and into, you guessed it, another fucking wall. Bouncing off the wall and falling to the ground with a thump, I briefly complained that this restaurant is too small before a herd of feet interrupted me. At first I thought the customers of the restaurant had decided to stomp me out, but it quickly became clear that those that had herded to the other side of the restaurant to watch this fight hadn't expected me to go flying in their midst and were trying to get away from me… how that involved running me the fuck over I couldnt tell you. Forcing myself up once the stampede of feet lessened, I rose to my feet and threw some of my orbs into the crowd before running in. Instantly the crowd of 12-15 people came to a crawl as random people got stuck to the ground or each other as they tried to run away from the bleeding pissed off villain, running into their midst.
Latching onto someone's back, I used the crowd as cover, certain that Samidare ain't gonna start throwing civilians around to get to me. How the fuck am I getting out of this? Fighting someone faster and stronger than you is hard enough when you're at top shape, but I feel like I'm gonna drop any minute now and that last hit made it really hard to breath, not in a wind knocked out of me type of way, more of a ribs-might-be-pushing-on-my-lung now, type of way. Maybe I should have tried to talk to him first. Oh yeah, my mind sees fit to throw that idea at my mind. After all this, in my defense, it's been a long month to be thinking of peace. Sadly my moment of peace was taken from me by the civilian that decided to use their quirk for self-defence on the villain hanging off of their back. He didn't explode, but he suddenly sent out a burst of force that sent me flying off him and happened to knock over anyone that was stuck to my orbs. Falling on all fours, I rushed for the door hoping that he missed me in the mass of bodies. Sadly, Samidare wasn't a dumbass. Landing infront of me with a livid expression, he saw me on my hands and knees and kicked his foot into my side sending me through whatever tables were left in the resturant before smashing into, you guessed it, another fucking wall. Falling to the ground I sighed, honestly considering playing dead, but quickly realized it wouldn't be playing anymore if I stayed still any longer. Samidare jumps onto the ceiling, staying there for a moment before launching himself off of it, spinning in mid-air and extending his leg heel aiming straight for my head. I can't tell if he was trying to kill me or not, honestly I wasn't sure if I was trying to kill him either, which was a rare thing for me. Twisting to the left I felt the air of his kick pass my cheek as his foot bore a hole in the wooden floor. Aiming my gun at his lung, I pulled the trigger, only to curse as he displayed decent flexibility by leaning back, the bullet leaving a line across the stomach of his outfit to show how close I was to ending this. His foot had extended at the same time and almost caught me in the chin if I had not tilted my head back as well. Realigning my aim, my finger didn't get to tighten on the trigger before his tongue wrapped around my hand and forced it in the air, lifting me so I was on my tippy toes.
"Hey, I know I should've asked this earlier, but are you open to communication and hearing my side of the story?" He replied to this perfectly reasonable statement by slamming his knee into my stomach, his tongue stopping me from curling around his fist. Samidare lifted me a little bit higher before forcing me back against the wall, a part of the building I was really starting to get sick of. Think and talk, think and talk. "Guess not, okay you caught me, don't suppose you could listen to what I have t- what are you doing?" Samidare had taken a Taekwondo stance shifting his leg in preparation for a roundhouse. "Samidare, I have surrendered, you caught me." He didn't seem to be listening though he was eyeing my neck and flexing his foot. "You're gonna mortal-kombat-fatality me?" I say, not panicking, I think I ran out of that a bit ago, honestly at this point I was just coming to terms with what was about to happen. "Not very heroic don't you think? You could easily take me in."
"I dont care." Was his only reply before his foot blitzed forward, coming towards me like a guillotine, which is a good comparison, cause I bet it's gonna do the same thing. Welp, at least he made it easy to determine if I should kill him or not. Focusing, I'm once again greeted by the itching feeling on my head followed by the great force as one of the orbs from my head get sent flying off in the direction of the toad hero. I briefly felt the air that was being pushed from his kick brush my face before my orb sent him flying back. That was a bit close. I think with a grin as Samidare lands on his back, eyes wide, holding his stomach where the orb had hit. Experiencing the itching feeling, I laugh as I send another orb out, watching the hero's eyes go even wider before the dark purple orb slammed into his face. I need to think of a name for that. I think to myself as his tongue loosened around me, allowing me to stomp on it with my foot. Launching another orb, I watch Samidare's head get thrown back with enough force to give a normal person whiplash. Wrapping my arm around his tongue, I let out a grunt of exertion as I pulled on it, sending the hero stumbling forward. Sending my leg forward, the tip of my foot slams into his chin. Damn it I hissed as my injured foot shudders, causing me to lose strength in my kick. Instead of forcing his mouth shut and making him bite off his own tongue I sent him falling back.
I wonder how many of those I can fire a day? I march forward as He stumbles pulling him back with his tongue again before kicking him in the leg, forcing the hero on his knee. He tries to rise but I grab his hair and knee him in the face. Not trusting my bad foot, to stay stable I use it bringing it back and forward into the hero's face. After 3 more blows I let go of the hero's hair, letting the final knee knock him on his back. Almost instantly he was about to launch himself at me but a BANG stopped that. The frog hero stumbles forward before falling to his knees holding his stomach where I had shot him.
"For every action retaliate." I hiss, stepping back and raising my gun. If he makes a move I'm shooting him in the knee. "Look, a lot of my insticnts are telling me to shoot you right now and it's really really really fucking tempting, if you will listen to me for a moment that'd be r-" My words die on my lips as he raises his head to glare at me. Those eyes, those same damn eyes, those were the eyes of the person that left me to be drowned, the eyes of someone who had already made up their mind about who I was and wasn't trying to hear anything I had to say. He's not gonna let me go is he? Almost without noticing it my aim raises higher, adjusting the barrel so that it is facing the hero's head. "Don't choose this path." I hiss, seeing the hero's eyes widen at the gun then narrow, testing his chances. Don't throw your life away. Don't do it. He twitches and I curse my weakness, jerking the gun lower and pulling the trigger. The bullet slams into his gut, forcing him onto his back. "I don't want to kill you, well actually I do, but I think I shouldn't want to, so I'm gonna need you to listen to me for five minutes. If not, I'm gonna shoot you now, fucking choose." Before he could answer and I could do what needed to be done a voice yells to my left.
"Hey villain!" Blinking, I look to my left briefly regarding the sushi chef before smacking away the plate she had thrown at me… sadly not blocking the food that was in said plate. Wasabi, fucking wasabi, was on that plate. I don't even think there was food on it to this day. I think that chef saw a villain fighting a hero, filled up a whole plate full of Wasabi, and was just waiting with that shit. How do I even describe the pain of wasabi in the eyes? Here's one, go to your fridge, find some ghost pepper juice, and rub that shit deep into your peep holes. Really marinade those orbs. That's somewhere in the solar system of what I felt. Torture training doesn't really help with pain you don't see coming. And unlike mace, which I gained a resistance to after I had to fake kidnap a governor's daughter (don't ask) and she educated me on the fact that she, her friends and 90% of every american female, has mace. You can't gain the same type resistance of Capsaicinoids, not without eye modification which I never got because I wear goggles/helmets. Where was I? Oh right, Wasabi in the eyes. I screamed, wiping my eyes with my sleeve while firing at the chef with a lack of self control I'm still guilty about. Thankfully she was smart enough to get out of the way when attacking someone, or I assume she was since I didn't hear a bullet connect, what I did hear was Samidare getting up. Hissing, I turned away from the hero trying to get some distance shooting once behind me to keep him away from me. When his arms wrapped around my back I realized that the bullet hadn't worked and that I was in alot of trouble. At first, I thought he was gonna squeeze me, but he must've thought grapeskin would protect me from that so he simply lifted me up, and smashed me into the ground like some WWE shit. Thankfully I twisted so I mash into the ground shoulder first instead of head. Once I was prone he proceeded to plant one foot on my chest. Next I thought he was gonna stomp on my chest or hold me like this till the cops came. But apparently this man really liked his sister, or not being shot because it seemed like he just wanted me to stay still so he could show me how much my words had upset him. I could feel my tear filled eyes widen at the same time the grin on his face stretched before the frog hero lifted the leg not pinning me to the ground and with the force of a falling bowling ball stomp on my crotch.
First thought was the wasabi, man I would have loved to return to that blissful moment because the pain that came from that stomp removed all that pain to be replaced by an even worse one. Not gonna lie, to this day I remember that pain and I was still pissed that Azrael saw this happen and for some reason didn't take the initiative in numbing me out when he did that. I know I didn't tell her to, but there's a time to move without orders and when you see your friend's family jewels be turned into bangers and mash, it's time to jump in. Don't get me wrong, I personally believe I'm jaded when it comes to pain, GA agents need to be. But fucking nobody better give me shit for curling up and emptying my stomach as the feeling compared to a cyborg ostrich tap dancing was delivered to my balls. It was only the large amount of hair naturally there that allowed grapeskin to prevent them from popping, that and the fact Samidare had been aiming for my groin itself. While I was curled up, Samidare decided since I was ball shaped he might as well play. One moment I was nearly crying over the death of the future generation before, what felt like, a train slammed into my back instantly straightening my spine more than any chiropractor.
Sliding across the ground with enough force I was sent into the air, then slammed into and launched off of a table that had collapsed into a makeshift ramp. Landing on a counter and rolling off the side I realized that I was behind one of the chef's little stations. A moment later all the food that had been prepared on that counter slid off to greet me. "Help." I wheezed, instantly followed by the sweet cold clarity as Azreal put a hand through my shoulder. "The fuck were you five seconds ago?" She signs something that I couldn't catch. "Put a pin in that statement." Pulling myself to my knees my eyes widen as a knife flies at my eye. Training kicked in and I leaned my head to the left allowing the blade to graze the hair covering my cheek. Glaring at the sushi chef that had just tried to stab me. "YOU!" I growl recognizing her from the wasabi incident a moment ago. Fucking bitch looked at me before going for another knife, lunging foward I grabbed her sleeve and pull her forward, tilting my head so she lands face first into my hair. Instantly she starts panicking, which makes sense since she probably couldn't breathe. I disconnected the hair from my head leaving the 2 orbs firmly planted on her face. She tries to stand but a kick to her knee sends her falling onto her ass. "I HAVE A HOSTAGE!" I not so much yelled but wheezed, crawling over the chef girl before Samidare could hop over and get back to work beating me to death. "Don't move or I blow her brains out!" Apparently she realized I meant her because chef girl proceeded to freak out even more, trying to kick me off of her as well as rise to her feet. A punch to her neck stopped both of those. "Stop it you idiot, your mouth's not even fully covered, fucking breath!" I whisper in her ear before grabbing the orb on her lower face. I tilt it so she can get a couple of breaths more easily. "There we go, now I want you t-" Tilting my hand under the orb, I used my skin to work under it as I pulled it off of her. I didn't have the time to do it slowly so I understood the screech of pain she let out as I peeled the orb off her face, taking some skin with it. However it could've been much worse, it was a testament to how bad of a shape I was since it was that easy to take off. I briefly looked over the hairball, it was more of a clump instead of its normal perfect sphere shape which was also telling me bad things were happening to my health. My attention was brought back to the chef girl as she tensed herself, hands jerking at my hand trying to grab the gun. Side-stepping her grab and pushing my pistol into her stomach stopped that idea. "Help me up," I whispered, thankfully she was smart enough not to test her luck. Grabbing my shirt she hoists me to my feet while I keep the gun to her stomach.
"Mineta, has a hostage situation like this ever worked?" Oh, he's talking to me now? That's good… maybe but he's right. Hostage situations are sketchy at the best of times, especially in this position, where time is on the hero's side. Sooner or later someone is gonna show up that can take the gun from my hands. I need to end this now and get out of here… maybe the sewer system. Eyes scanning the counter I grin at the rows of knives and fish guts, one of which was a familiar blowfish. "You sly dogs, is that fugu?" I whisper into the chef's ear, feeling her stiffen in response. I grin feeling a plan come together already. "On the ground Samidare or… well, you know." I push the gun deeper in the chef's stomach. The frog boy glared at me but slowly started getting to the ground.
I watch him at the moment, judging how the gut wounds were fairing him. Judging by his clenched teeth he felt it but it doesn't seem to have slowed him down much. Jeez, need some hollow points or 45 cal to stop this family. "Is your whole family just built different? First Satsuki takes the Jason Todd treatment and you take two rounds to the gut and you still look like you could kick my ass."
Samidare glared at me for a moment before ignoring my statement and delivering his own. "Might as well give up now Mineta, more heroes will be here any moment. This ends here, you end here."
"I doubt it. I've survived worse than heroes." I lick my lips. "Can we talk like gentlemen? Would you listen if I told you I was being framed?"
"People saw you leave her house, Mineta, don't bother." Yeah well, I wasn't exactly subtle. Not seeing the point of lying about that point I shrug my shoulder.
"Oh no, I totally did that, beat her head in with the intention to murder." Samidare looked like he was about to punch me but I pulled the chef closer and shook my head. "Do you want to know why?" I leaned close to the chef's ear to whisper, "If you want to make it out of this alive you will do as I say." Forcing her forward so that I nearly had her bent over the counter. I raised my voice so Samidare could hear me. "Why do you think I went to her house, Samidare? Better yet, how did I know where she lived?"
"You followed Tsuyu there." A step closer to the half-prepared fish lifting the gun to the chef's back to keep Samidare's attention.
"Really? Then why attack her? Why not smother Tsuyu in her sleep with my hair?" Fugu should work on frogs the same as humans even if he has frog toxins like Tsuyu. It should do something, honestly I was more scared that the poison would take too long to take effect. "I was in her house long before Tsuyu came to visit." I leaned over the chef. This probably didn't look like the best position especially since I had a false leer on my face. While they already think I'm a rapist, better Samidare thinks I'm speaking dirty things in her ear than what I'm actually gonna do. "I'm gonna need your help." I whisper in the chef's ear, jerking slightly as Azraell taps me on the shoulder calming me, "When I say back, you're gonna push backward with all your force. If you don't, I will kill as many people as I can in this restaurant before the hero takes me down and I have a lot of bullets." Yeah, a whole half clip full if even that. "She kidnapped me, you know." I said loud enough for anyone left in the restaurant to hear." When Mt. Lady defeated me, and she did defeat me, I was down and Satsuki Asui found me."
"You lie." Samidare says.
"Am I Samidare? I want you to use your brain for this one. Why would I go after Satsuki? What would I gain from watching Tsuyu? Why go after her sister knowing it would get her pissed off at me?" I stare him down, already seeing the family bonds clouding his mind. "Her neighbor or friends are a short girl that can make some type of emotional/feeling barriers and another friend that could cancel sound. How would I know? How did I escape Mt Lady with my injuries and then discover Tsuyu was in the city? She's not part of the task force shown on the news and if I did see her why did I follow THE FUCKING NUMBER 5 HERO AND THEN ATTACK HER SISTER!?" The chef was shuddering as I started to raise my voice, forcing my hand to tremble keeping Samidare's eyes on the gun as I got into position.
"You wanted to get back at my sister!" Samidare said. Not sure if he was grasping for straws or if he honestly thought of a plausible reason.
"For what?" I raised an eyebrow. "I've met Satsuki once before when she was a kid and Tsuyu and I buried the hatchet when I came back to Japan… mostly." I growl. "What has Tsuyu done that I would want revenge for?"
"Because she rejected you back at UA." He said with a grin covering his face. "And that she revealed all the things you did at UA to the other girls of class 1A." I blinked at him for a moment before I laughed, which seemed to confuse him and certainly freaked out the chef. I laugh hard tears coming from my eyes with the force of it… or possibly the wasabi that was still wreaking havoc to my eyes. After a moment I calmed down, still chuckling, only to almost start laughing again when I saw Samidare's face. "You think I cared about that? No Samidare, I got over my crush on Tsuyu years ago and have no bad blood about her spilling the beans on how awful a person I was." I wish I had my other hand so I could wipe the tears coming from my eyes from laughing. "It's honestly cute how much people think I care about shit that happened over a decade ago… though it makes sense since I'm a vengeful person but anyway, Samidare. Thank you for that laugh, but it's time for you to make a choice."
"And what's that?" He narrowed his eyes at me.
"I want you to think about everything they said I've done, and I mean officially, and figure out if that fits the actions of what the world has said I've been doing since leaving Japan. I want you to look me up and to really consider who you're hunting and why the fact that the IHA hasn't shown up to arrest me or even denounce me." I would have loved to see Samidare puzzle that out but then an officer burst through the door.
"I have a hosta-" Mr officer apparently didn't give a fuck about what I had to say because before I finished the sentence my head jerked back as what felt like a hammer to the face hit me. That wasn't a .38! The fuck is this guy!? What cop jumps into a hostage situation blasting? And what Japanese cop has what felt like a 45 hollow tip bullet! As I stumble back I feel a pain in my forehead. If I had normal grape skin on that might have killed me! "BACK!" Thankfully Chief wasn't taking chances because she launched herself backward, sending me stumbling away from another shot. Landing on my back I aim and start firing in the front door directly through the bottom of the counter. I smile as I hear a gunt of pain which was quickly taken away when chef girl took her moment to run away before I could grab her. Shit. I moved the arm to adjust but Samidare was still a hero, he knows when to use a moment. His tongue came from over the counter and wrapped around my throat and tightened, grape skin the only thing stopping my neck from being crushed into jelly
I felt him tense and tried to hold myself on the counter while I started growing more hair around my chest and neck. Sadly I only got maybe another 2 seconds before he pulls me forward, doing a good Scorpion impression as I pull towards him. He drops to his hands and draws his legs in. I couldn't even pull my arm to block as he delivered a reverse donkey kick to my chest, sending me smashing through the counter I had just been hiding behind. Alright, plan needs to be changed a bit I thought before spitting up a decent amount of blood, that's not good. Feeling something under me, I briefly recognize the fugu fish, now more like fish mush covered in wood shards before Samidare's tongue wrapped around my foot and started to reel me in. Rubbing my hand with as much as the fish goop I could and rubbing it onto his tongue, coating it with the goop while trying to rip said tongue off of me. Please still have the poison sack, please still have the poison, sack please sti- Samidare's tongue flicked me forward into Samidare's waiting hands, which wrapped around my face before he lifted me up and slammed me into the ground cracking the wooden floor under me . I feel my jaw creak as the thinner hair around my face fails to stop all the force his hands are extending on my face. He does this two more times before lifting me up to a standing position.
"He-he" Azrael must've guessed I was trying to say 'help' because the cold peace came pushing back what was most likely a concussion.
"Help?" Samidare asked, apparently misunderstanding my words were for him and getting pissed at my assumed audacity to ask for help after shooting a cop… or beating his sister to near death, whichever one came first. Though not to argue the point, that the cop shot me first. He grabs my throat and starts to squeeze. I grab his arm trying to rip off his grip by instinct really, but yeah didn't work too well
"I finally understand what Tsuyu was saying about you Mineta, this is how you lasted so long without getting kicked out of UA." Oh god now he's monologuing. "I finally understand what you do, Mineta, you worm your way into people's minds, making them lower their guard, making them believe that you could actually change, but really, but really… bu… bu… re... but… " Samidare slurs on his words, apparently confused as to why he can't talk. I took that moment to use the quirk awaken I had apparently forgotten about. Grabbing his arm, with rapidly weakening strength, I feel the itching feeling in my head before a hair orb smashes into Samidare's face. It didn't have the force of the earlier one, but it managed to knock his head back and send him backpedaling before he lost his balance and hit the floor.
"Fugu," I explain, whipping my hand on the table to remove any excess fish guts.
To those that don't know, Fugu is the Japanese version of American eating sandwiches that have warnings of causing heart attacks. But while the American burger is sort of poisonous, the Fugu fish is very poisonous. A sodium channel blocker basically causes your muscles to paralyze and for you to suffocate… added bonus is that the victim is awake almost the whole time while it is killing them. "So, Samidare?" I ask panting. "This is what you wanted right? You didn't want to hear my side right? Well, I gave you a choice and yo-" My words were interpreted as the previously thought to be dead Mr Officer combat rolls from behind a broken table and unloads on me.
Remember when I said Japanese police don't use 45 hollow points? You want to know another thing they don't use? Overpressure 45 hollow points. Thankfully this wasn't the walking dead so no bullshit head shots. I felt one wiz by my ear, another caught my stump which was a new type of pain. Stumbling backwards I covered my head with my arm which was good because apparently the man got some time to adjust because three shots went where my forehead was. When he saw that wasn't working, he followed with one in the collar bone and 2 more hitting my bottom center of the chest. That must have pushed my damaged ribs in because whatever air I did had got sent out of me with a whoosh of air causing me to fall on my ass. "You done?" I was spitting blood from my lips. Thank god I made the chest hair thicker. Rising back to my feet, only to have another two bullets find themselves in my leg knocking it out from under me. I fell on to my stomach using my arm to block another two bullets that would have found their way to my face. Too fast for a reload, he either has another gun or an extended clip, highly doubt this is a japanese cop.
Overpressured 45 cal hollow points are a pretty good bullet to handle most mutation types, wouldn't go through them and would make huge cavities in them. Perfect for something like Tsuyu or Shoji who are hard to put down with normal bullets, but grapeskin, even in its weakest form like I'm using it now, is basically synthetic rubber armor. You're gonna need a lucky shot to get me. That is not to say it doesn't fucking hurt. I hissed as a bullet must have hit an already damaged part of my grapeskin. Not getting stopped like the rest but at least getting slowed down enough that it didn't go deep when it entered my arm a couple millimeters. Even if he uses the worst bullet against me, sooner or later one is gonna get thought and the bullet fragments that are getting into my skin might nick an artery and I don't have the blood to spare. Fuck Japan, one of the only places I wouldn't expect to get lit up! Finally the click-click I was waiting for alerts me that he is out of ammo. Rising to my feet I pull out an orb from my head, running forward and jabbing it onto the barrel of the gun as Mr. Officer brought it up after doing one of the quickest reloads I've seen. He looked at the covered gun, then me, before throwing it to the side reaching behind his back. Making some distance I lift my arm, shooting the second gun he had pulled out of his hand. Pretty sure that was my last round. "You're not a Japanese cop, who the hell are you?"
"What are you talking ab-" I cut him off, not in the mood.
"Japanese police use two types of pistols, the New Nambu Model 60 which is a revolver type gun they've been using and its newer version the New Nambu Model 80 which is a pistol type gun that I have right now, both fire the same bullets. And that's ignoring all the rules you broke coming in here during a hero battle and firing into a hostage situation, so who ar-" His arm blurs out and I dip down blinking as a fucking throwing knife goes deeply into the grapeskin of my shoulder getting stuck halfway. "They also don't use throwing knives."
Mr. Officer's eyes widened at me before narrowing. Any ideas of him being a Japanese cop were thrown out the window when his hands grew into foot long talons and he started running to me with a growl. Yep definitely not a Japanese cop, they don't use their quirks. Stepping back I hiss as my leg finally gives out of me causing me to fall on my back. Mr Officer takes the opening as it is, jumping in the air, arms drawn back to plug into my chest. He's gonna pierce through my grape skin. Closing my eyes, I channel everything I have left into my grapeskin, trying to copy the same thing I did when Mt. Lady tried to smash me. But this time was different. I needed it to be sticky. I couldn't trust my hair to stop him alone. A familiar agony comes over my body as it feels like steel wool shoving itself out of the skin, erupts from my entire body. A different stabbing pain erupts in my chest a moment later. I hiss as what feels like serrated blades embed themselves into my sternum. I jerk my head back hissing, expecting them to go deeper to feel my very own heart get shredded. After a couple seconds of not dying, I open my eyes.
Alright, I'm gonna go on a quirk tangent here. I've been using grapeskin the most since getting out of the pit, but I haven't been using grapeshaping with it, at least not consciously. Grape shaping is basically how I can wear hats and create compact grapes or rather any grape that is not the default. Basically I can control the way or shape my hair grows or doesn't grow. The thickness of the hair, whether it's sticky or not, and the pattern. I can grow it and control most of the properties of what I can make.
Normally I have to do this consciously, but in certain situations I've done it by instinct like with the grape skin shield I apparently made that saved me from Mt. Lady, though never something that powerful. My instincts are also apparently much better at grape shaping than me since it made a shield that protected me from a Pro hero but also fell apart so I would have been able to escape if I could've still moved or Satsuki hadn't found me. Because of it falling apart and Satsuki knocking me out soon after, I didn't get a chance to study the new type of grape skin but from what I remember It couldn't have been big, but it was thick and had bulged my clothing out stretching it to high heaven. My guess was that since it grew out of me so fast that it was lacking the intricate woven pattern that my normal orbs or shields do which might explain why it fell apart after I disconnected it from my skin since it wasn't sticky, it was just a mush of hair surrounding me.
Once again my instinct has shown to understand my quirk better than me. This time the grapeshield has thinner hair, but is much longer. I could only blink as what could be described as a 3 foot thick bush of hair was sprouting from my body. Honestly, I was giving Nagamasa Mora some competition. Another pleasant accessory was Mr Fake Officer who was partly submerged in the hair coming from my chest trying to pull both his arms and the rest of him from the big hair ball that had come from me. Fragments of the clothing I was wearing were stuck to the outside of the ball which made sense but also meant that I was very much naked in the center of this protection.
Is it sad that even though I've had grapeskin for years and it is basically one of my go to moves when I face certain opponents, and yet I don't know every little thing about it yet? Thinking back I'm pretty sure I've been using grapeskin the most since getting out of The Pit. This is mostly on account of being lacking one arm and there hasn't been a lot of situations where ball throwing would help. But even with how much I've been spamming grapeskin since my escape, it could be said I'm holding back with it. Mostly on account that with grapeshaping I can make a much better covering then what I'm currently doing. Before my capture I didn't bother doing it because any alterations usually makes it more noticeable through my uniform and the brief time I was doing hero work it japan I didn't fight anyone that needed the good patterns and since grapeskin normally follows the shape of body I don't even have to think about it all that much when I grow it to its default state.
It's times like this I wonder how different my school life would've been if I had unlocked grape skin back then, I would've loved to see them call my quirk worthless then.
Shaking my head I snap back to reality. My thoughts are wandering, probably not a good sign. After watching the faker to see if he was gonna pull out any more tricks, I did a quick observation of the bush that has encompassed my body. Collecting every little detail so I can practice doing it naturally. The one that came out while I was fighting Mt. Lady basically seemed like a loosely connected but still thick tiny compact grapes, this one seems to have been based off of my default grape but lacking any pattern. I'm basically just stuck in a big sticky hairball. Thankfully while it had destroyed my clothing it seems to have spared my backpack with only the straps being ripped off of my hair quirk expansion.
"You are only the third person to ever make me burst out of my clothing." I joked to Mr. Not Officer, who had been trying to unstick himself and managed to get more encased in my hair. "And to get me so drenched as well, really impressive," Since this was my sticky hair it was covered in the liquid that actually makes my hair… sticky. Unlike normally where it's basically lightly spritzed on, the whole bush was dripping in the transparent liquid. Looking down I concluded that my hair stopped his arms mid thrust but his claws were still partly in my chest possibly to the bone. "Has your wife told you that you don't go deep enough?" Apparently that was one joke to many. He glared at me for a moment before going back to trying to struggle out of my hair. Thankfully he couldn't make his talons go any deeper… sadly he was more than able to jerk them around which confirmed to me that he had indeed managed to impale my sternum. "Fuck! Stop that!" I hiss, trying to raise my arm to shoot him but realizing that my arm won't move. Of course I couldn't move, I was literally encased in a gooey mass of hair and was stuck to the ground. This made me aware of another problem… disconnecting. I was way past my quirk limit, the second I pulled out, my whole skin was gonna start spurting blood like a geyser, even if it stops quickly I don't have the blood to lose.
"Seems like we're both stuck." Mr. Officer said with a grin taking over his face. "I've read your file, seeing how bad you were when fighting Jiraiya, you won't be able to move." The amount of smugness this dude was giving off was physical. "You're done, we got you, you won't even make it back to The Pit."
"You're not even trying to be subtle anymore?" I say, gunting as a spike of pain comes from my chest where he was still moving his talons. He wasn't even trying to get out anymore, he was just being a dick. "You're not a Japanese officer, why are you after me?"
"I guess you'll never know"
"Really? You're going to be coy after that level of smugness? Alright, let's test that theory. I am a class 6 Advanced Interrogator of the IHA and a class 8 Advanced Torturer of the Gray Academy. Does that mean anything to you?" I stared into his eyes waiting. He was good at keeping his face neutral, really good I'll grant him that, but for a moment, just a moment, his face flickered in recognition. "So you do know about the Academy, more importantly, you know about the academy's more secretive side. Interesting, who are you? Terrorist cell? Ex-Special Forces? Mercenary? How much do you know?" He glares at me before shifting his claws. "OW! Fuck, come on, if I am such a dead man you don't have anything to worry about, tell me!" Silence. "Please, I'm gonna hurt you if you don't." More silence, more talon twitches "...No? Alright."
Taking a deep sigh I mentally disconnect my hair. The first feeling I felt was warm, which I guess was from the blood rapidly filling the area that my hair had just opened up. Then the pain came and oohh did it come. I don't think I can describe the feeling of my Dermis skin layer cracking like glass across my body so let's just keep it as being toweled off with sandpaper then jumping into a pool of alcohol. Oh, and let's not forget the 10 lines of pain across my chest from the claws that really didn't want to leave my flesh and bone. Howling like a wolf, I shed my hair like a tarantula molting. After about 15 seconds of the agony of slowly dragging my body backward I was out. "Bloody hell it's cold out here." I hissed as the blood coming from my… everything, started to cool in the cold air. Staring down at myself I glared at the ten dime thich gashes that went from the center of my chest to about an inch above my pelvis. Even if my skin stops bleeding soon which, is a 50/50 chance since the more I go over my limit the longer it bleeds, these cuts won't close up any time soon and I dont have the blood. Shaking myself like a dog I hear a scream below me. Raising an eyebrow I turned to look down at a customer laying on the ground, some of my blood had almost landed on her. "Well, that's what you get for staying to watch a fight, wait why the fuck are any of you you stil- oh right," I say noticing that the customers I had stuck to the floor… were still stuck to the floor. "...My bad guys, I'll deal with you in a minute." For some reason that seems to make them more nervous.
"Now for you," I say turning to Mr Officer. He in turn turned to smirk at me straight on. Hmm, some broken teeth will fix that smile. "Man, the things we could do if I had the time. Sadly no, it's gonna have to be a quickie." Running to the kitchen, nearly tripping over a broken table on the way, I start pulling open shelves till I find something. After a couple seconds I found a lighter which would work perfectly running back to my target. "Alright, who sent you? Why do they want me? Do you know why I was framed? What do you know about the academy?"
He opens his mouth but I hold a fist up to his face to stop him using the nozzle of the lighter as a middle finger. "Now before you open your mouth let me give you some advice, I will not… I repeat not set you on fire, I will bake you like a christmas fruit cake." I point to the hair around him. "And that sticky shit my hair's covered in burns hot, slow, and absorbs heat, the hair on the inside, the hair touching you, will start cooking you long before the fire itself reaches you. It will be a slow agonizing death and by the time the fire goes out the only thing that will be left of you is your skeleton.
"Gonna be pretty hard to prove your innocence if you burn a cop to death won't it?" Fake cop said with a raised eyebrow. Shit, that's a good point, cooking this dude would be satisfying but wouldn't really be good in the grand scheme.
"Good point, I'll have to let the hero's handle you… those guns can't be legal."
"You remember I came with a hero right? In fact I lead that hero to you."
That got my attention. I already assumed that was the same cop that handled the car that Samidare was in. The fact that Samidare found me on a random road was low odds as well as the fact that heroes don't normally ride with cops. A bigger question is how did he know where I am or which way I was going.
"How did you know where I was?" If they have a hero that can track me, that is a whole big other bag of problems to deal with.
Thankfully faker cop seemed pretty open to answering questions that weren't in the 'who do you work for' category. "We figured out who took you and kept a visual on you for a couple of days. After we saw you leaving the house we were gonna take you then but thought it would be cleaner letting a hero take you down, especially if it was a family member of your recent victim."
"And you open with saying this outside," I spread an arm to the hostages stuck on the ground "Around all these witnesses?"
The laugh he let out dashed any hope I had. "Don't worry about it, they'll be taken into protective custody when the hero detains you and the only thing they'll remember after is a villain killing a hero."
"Your group has a quirk that can alter memories?" At his nod what he really just said sank in
"Fuck."
I wanted to say somthing a lttle bit more elegant but Well… fuck, just FUCK I- the fuck do I do then? Memory alteration? How do I even start? Fuck! Well, it must have some limitation since they didn't do it to the couple I took hostage a couple days ago… or it might be the fact that they put it on video quicker than they could find them… doesn't really matter since even if it is the weakest type of memory alteration I can't do shit to stop it beside taking the hostages with me.
"So damned if I do or if I don't huh?" I scratch my head. "Guess I'll just have to cook you and run then.
"I think it's too late for that."
On some movie type timing the outside of the restaurant is suddenly alight with sirens. Turning my head I hissed seeing five police cars stop in front of the restaurant.
"Fuck meee so deeply in the star spangled cunt." I practically sang ducking low incase bullets started to fly.
"I believe this is checkmate, or in your words, I believe you are quite fucked."
"Don't be so sure, I have like 10 hostages here, if I'm gonna be a villain I might as well be a smart one." Throwing an orb into the corner of the front door I begin crab walking to the kitchen. I retrieve the fire extinguisher there and throw an orb blocking the back door. Wouldn't stop them from breaching it but with hostages they'll probably wait for heroes to show up. Why aren't they here yet? Crawling back to the restaurant I thank whatever god was left that I still had a stump, using my armpit to hold down the nozzle and spraying the front window of the restaurant. In a moment the view of officers begging to mobilize was covered up by a wave of white. If these ones are real cops, they're not gonna fire on me in this situation, they'll wait for the heroes… who should be here before them.
"Alright, what the hell?" I turn to my prisoner. "The fuck are the heroes?"
"We wanted to kill you so we got the closest hero that had the highest chance to go that far." Mr Officer shrugs. "Honestly if pinky was closer we would have chosen her." Shit that was luck then. Yeah that's a fight I wouldn't win, that would have been death or at least mutilation to a point that I wouldn't be able to survive whoever they send to take me out in the pit.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck.'' Once the windows were fully covered I started to drag tables in front of them, if heroes start jumping through the windows then at least they'd have a couple of moments of bad footing, which would give me a chance to shoot.
"But now since the frog failed, your old friends from class 1-A should be on the way." He was laughing at this point. "What's your plan, grapeshot? How are you gonna get out of this one?"
"I've been through worse," I growl putting a kitchen apron on to cover myself. Just had a team with me and alot more gear. Pacing back and forth I hiss as I try to figure out how to barricade the giant display window of the restaurant. Tables. Use the tables and my orbs to block the window and door. I think to myself, shoulder checking a table over and pushing it to the window. Won't stop cops… or heroes… or thermal if they have it… or bullets, but it might slow some things down I think. Trying to lift the 8 person table I growl as I try 3 more times before basically using orbs to stick it in front of the door as a makeshift wall. I need to do the back door as well- no no, I need an escape route, need to check that first. Running back to the kitchen hissing as wasabi flavor sweat dripped in my eye, I removed the clump of hair I call an orb and opened the door slightly.
"PUT YOUR HANDS IN T-" Not even bothering to hear the whole spiel, I slammed the metal door shut applying the orb and adding 8 more to the sides of the door. They looked like heroes, don't recognise them though. Have no idea what their quirks are. Need my gun, need an idea, need to think, I don't think I can trust another grape skin so soon. Landing on my bad foot wrong I hiss as pain goes up my leg and I fall to my hands and knees.
As I stared at the wooden floor panting, sweat dripped off of my face. I blink at how pale my hands are. Pretty sure I'm anemic at the moment, for a moment, just a moment, everything hits me. Everything, the stress, the pain, the frustration, the blood loss, the ruined foot, the ribs crushing my lungs and stealing my breath, the exhaustion, everything sat itself on my back as a burden that was trying to drag me to hell. That moment was all that was needed with a sigh. I fall flat on my stomach finding comfort on the wooden floor. No gear, one arm, and malnourished as fuck and yet I still manage to avoid them for a month, pretty good if I do say so myself if I could have made it to the woods I think I could've lasted forever. Rolling onto my back, I wonder if I would bleed out before the heroes got here or if the cop grew the balls to breach it. I wonder if they'll be disappointed that their big bad villain is long dead before they could get a final battle. A cold peace comes over me and I tilt my head to see that Azrael had sat cross legged beside my one hand petting my stump.
"I hate to say it, but I guess you were right Blake, seems like this is the end." I sigh as she pats me on the head shuddering at how solid she felt even though she was still phasing through me. "Tell Bastion to destroy my computer, actually no, tell Sin-ri to do it. Eero can have my gear, split the rest of my belonging to the rest of the team… are you writing this down?" The pale girl smiles at me, signing that she'll remember. "You're too understanding, you know that? You could at least be mad at me giving up, I know Jackson wouldn't let me live it down." We both share a laugh, imagining how he would react to me laying on the job as he would say, well a sort of laugh, she was still silent and mine was more like a rattle. Calming down I sigh, staring at her misty eyes, certain they were gonna be the last thing I see in this world. "Be a little disappointed in me."
Azeral tried to speak and I guess I wasn't that dead yet since I couldn't hear her yet I could ask her to speed it up, probably be less painful than waiting for the blood loss. Man, it hasn't been half an hour and we're already a heel face turn from our earlier conversation. I guess I will be taking the old yeller way out after all. Sort of wish I could see how they find my body, while not painful Azrael's quirk does leave the victim's body… altered… wait, Azrael's quirk! Eyes widening and tilting my head back; I stared at the hostages that I had stuck together. Most were looking at me, at least the ones that could. "Azrael, where's your real body?" She raised an eyebrow at me before rubbing her chin and giving me the sign for 'not sure,' then gave the sign for 'Europe'. "Your quirk is stronger the closer you are right?" At her nod I feel the start of a twisted idea coming to my head. "Could you get me out of here if I gave them to you?" Azrael looked at me for a moment then at the hostages before closing her eyes. For a moment I felt incredibly weak and tired as she flexed her quirk not taking anything but tasting how much energy she could have if she took all my vitality that moment. This tiredness felt so much more permanent than the tiredness that Roofy's quirk hits you with. After what felt like years, the oppressive tiredness fades. She held up 4 fingers and nodded to me. "If I give you four you can get me out?" She shakes her head and gives the sign 'forgive, all, kill, 4.' Four lives. If I kill all the civilians she can kill 4 people for me. They wouldn't even see it coming, the second they get in her range they just die of some sort of natural cause. All I have to do is kill 10 civilians, and an asshole that didn't hear me out, and I'm in the clear. The thought wormed itself in my head: 10 hostages, 1 hero, 1 hostile, 12 people in total. 12 people die for me to live. 12 people to die, for me to avenge Denki. If I wait for the task force to get here Azrael could wipe them all out. And if cops are still using .38 I could force one last grapeskin. No idea if it would be good enough but it would at least give me a chance to survive. It wouldn't stop with 12 though I sighed. I doubt I could escape without having to kill some of the cops and depending on how far Azrael's quirk will reach the tipping point when she can help me as long as she keeps killing people. She is pessimistic but If she thinks she can actually save me then she'll start a slaughter. My life for 12 innocents is a hard enough choice, but letting Azrael run wild? Denki would never forgive me. I sigh again, relaxing and closing my eyes and waiting for it all to end.
"1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3."
I open my eyes, hearing the repeated counting followed by a burst of breath. Opening an eye I turn my head to see the sushi chef pushing on something.
"1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3."
Why does that seem familiar? I strained my mind trying to remember why that counting was so familiar.
"1, 2, 3!" I counted doing the chest compression, "come on, wake up!" The rain dripped into my eyes blinding me but I didn't care. Nothing matters except keeping him breathing. My hands pushed against cold flesh. Too cold, way too cold. I leaned forward breathing air into lungs that would never breathe into themselves again. "Breathe Denki, damn it breathe! 1, 2, 3! 1, 2, 3!"
"1, 2, 3," the sushi chef said, pushing on Samidare's chest. She was hunched over samdire pushing on his chest before tilting his head up to breathe into his mouth.
Even though she had been a problem to me the whole fight, I couldn't help but admire the girl. "Push harder," I advised. She looked at me confused for a moment, "push harder." I repeated. "He's a mutation type, he can take it and you want to make sure he's getting' enough air in his blood." She looked at me with obvious suspicion which semi annoyed me. Why bother trying to trick her when I can get up and crack Samidare's neck if I wanted to kill him? Straining in exertion, I kick myself back up to my feet, lost my balance and fell back on my back. "Forget you saw that," I say before noticing she had gone back to giving CPR, taking my advice as she did so. She's smarter than I gave her credit for. If she keeps him breathing until medics get here he'll most likely survive and hey, he gets to kiss a pretty girl for an hour so that's a plu- my eyes widen as I think of something. Stumbling to my feet I make my way to the two. Sushi chef didn't even give me any attention and just kept doing CPR.
"Oh? And here I thought you decided to lay down and die." Mr fake officer was still spouting shit apparently but I wasn't paying him much mind any more.
Kneeling by the hero I lean down to stare into his eye, come on you son of a bitch revenge and spit has kept me up from worst… I stared into those frog eyes only to grin when the eyes blink. How much did he hear? Did he black out at any time? This could change everything. Eye drifting to Mr. Officer, I stood up and dusted myself off.
"Well, thank you for answering my questions, at least some of them." Walking over to the covered Officer Faker I reached into my hair bundle and started pulling stuff out using my finger to disconnect my hair from it. "EVERYBODY LISTEN UP!" I yell out drawing out my crowbar. It felt like lead in my hand. My hostages perked up from the clump they were stuck together, the men, women, and at least 2 children cowering as I stared down on them. Honestly, I don't know why they were so scared, I was a one armed 4'9 man, freaking wearing nothing but an apron… and covered in blood.
"You all heard this man's words, yes?" The looks they gave me confirmed that thankfully most had. "I am Mineta Minoru, international hero. I was sent here because there is a splinter cell within Japan's government." Lies within lies or possible truth, Denki didn't give me much to work with but that was my best theory of why he was killed and I imprisoned. But that wouldn't really convince the masses and even if it did I couldnt trust them. Better to say that someone in their government was a traitor to try to spark the patriotic flame. "I was informed of this by my friend Denki Kaminari, otherwise known as Charged Bolt."
"Lies." One of the hostages says dashing those hopes. He, a man in his 40's, in a business suit told me that he was probably making that big money. "Chargebolt was a traitorous hero that sold out his comrades."
"What did you just say?" I turn to that man floored by what I just heard. "What are you talking about?"
"That's wrong!" Another hostage said, this one a woman of about 30. "Mineta killed Chargebolt when he discovered him raping another hero." She leveled a glare on me. "Whatever your plan is, it ends here."
"When was th-'' I tried.
"I thought Chargebolt and Mineta were running a drug ring?" Hostage 3, a man in a tracksuit, about 20 who seem to have sunglasses for eyes asked.
"The fuc-" was my response to that one but I was still stuck on the other ones.
"You're all idiots" This hostage was a high schooler boy if the jacket was to be believed, "it's obvious that Mineta had blackmail on Chargebolt a-"
"SHUT UP OR I WILL FUCKING POUR BOILING OIL IN YOUR ASSHOLES!" That got them to shut up, well all beside Mr. Officer who was laughing his ass off. "Sorry to yell, it's been a long… year." Reaching into my officer jacket I pull out his police radio and turn it on, tuning it to an open channel.
"Hello, I am Mineta Minoru broadcasting on an open channel, repeat this is Mineta Minoru on an open channel. I'll keep this brief. I have a bomb, if heroes or cops try to rush the resturant it will go off, stand by for my demands." Turning the radio off I glare at the hostages.
"First of all you, you!" I say pointing to a man in his 40s, he seems to have realized that while he had fallen on 3 orbs, they were all sticking to his jacket so he could get loose if he was careful, thankfully he was in the back and the other hadn't noticed. "I see you." The man glared at me but nodded, accepting the fact that he wasn't gonna get a sneak attack. At least one has sense, let's see how the others go. "Alright, I've heard a lot of things right now that I didn't like so ground rules, the next person that insults Chargebolt will be anal examed with this crowbar." I gave them a moment to let it sink in, holding the crowbar up to show them it. "Now alright, so all the things you all just said, how much of that was on the news?"
Silence, pure silence, until hostage number 5 decided to speak up, this one is female, about 50. "We're not scared of yo-" she started.
"NOT WHAT I FUCKING ASKED!" I roared, drowning her out, stomping over to her. I raised the crowbar causing the cluster of hostages to coward away from me. "WHERE DID YOU HEAR IT!? WHAT NEWS CHANNEL?"
"It wasn't on the news." Highschool Boy struggled against the orb that pinned him. He must have fallen on some because he's stuck elbow to back on the business man while also being leg to leg with 50s lady who he was trying to cower from me. "The situation between you and ChargeBolt has been kept off the news, but the rumors have been going across the internet."
"And you all believe it?" I hiss. "Of course you do, you're bloody japanese, you'll believe the government's information even if the government doesn't even say it!" I growl at them baffled by the level of stupidity I just heard. "God dammit, this is why I like working in America or the UK, they don't just believe everything that's spoon fed to them… well, some do but at least not like this."
"Aren't you Japanese?" This hostage was about 80, male, covered in white scales. "Where is your national pride?"
"I'm an international hero, I give my life for the world not one nation, I have no national pride for one nation."
"International heroes can't have national pride?" Hostage 7, who couldn't have been more than 7, asked. He was a mutation type if the elephant he had for a head had anything to say about… and no he didn't have an elephant head for a head he had a miniature elephant for a head.
"Oh no, international heroes can have pride in their home country, I just don't… at least not a lot of it."
Hostage 8, who I assumed to be the boy's mother, pulled him closer to her or as much as she could with the boy's arm stuck to a table. "Don't talk to him sweetie, he doesn't know what he's talking about."
"Really? I don't?" I tilt my head at her. "As someone who been around the world, I think I can say that the Japanese are some of the coldest fucking people to their own people, in the whole world. And no, I'm not talkin' about heroes, I'm talking about civilians, you guys are so mean to each other and let's just ignore how you guys treat mutation types." I raise my hand. "Don't get me wrong, mutation types get shit on all over the world, but it's really bad here once you get out of the big cities or even in them," I look down at the kid, "come on kid, tell me, have the kids from school bullied you because of your head? Called you dumbo or big ears or anything like that?" The way the kid's eyes dipped down confirmed my point. Kneeling down so I was his height I continued. "When you grow up, you're gonna see people treat you like a freak, and you're going to have to decide what you gonna do about it, trust me, I know, I'm a mutation type too." I point to my hair. "My quirk only makes me small and puts balls on my head but even that was enough for people to think they were better than me, to think that I didn't matter, that I was but a toy for their amusement. But I can't blame my mutation completely for that. They did that to me mostly because I was weak. Weak in body, weak in mind, weak in control, weak in soul." I giggle at the little rhyme before patting the kid on the head. Leaning forward when the mom tries to shield him. "Kid, I'm gonna be honest, you're gonna get hated by people that don't even know you just because of who or what you are. It's not gonna be fair and it's not gonna be fun but it's going to make you have to choose how you're gonna take it. You're gonna let it break you or not? Are you gonna be standing at the top of your school as a king or not? Are you gonna be standing on the ledge of a bridge wondering if jumping off it is worth it or no-" I stop myself before going too far, the kid looked like he was on the brink of tears and the mom was glaring at me. I cough into my hand.
"Sorry… went on a tangent there, I'm sure you'll do fine kid, but yeah, I'm not really feeling that japan spirit."
"Where's your loyalty to your country?" Hostage 6 aka scale man asked, apparently ignoring that whole tirade on why I don't have loyalty to a country.
"To my country? What do you even mean by that? The government? Fuck them, they framed me. The people? I literally got drowned by vigilantes that didn't want to hear me out 2 hours ago, at that. There are 3 people whose opinions I care about in this country, one is a friend's sister, another is the symbol of peace and the other was Chargebolt who is dead! My first true friend gone, who apparently has been framed the same as me and has his reputation dragged in the mud."
"If he was anything like you then good riddance." Hostage 5 aka lady in her 50's said.
"Miss, please cover your child's eyes." Was my only response as I stepped over to the dead woman, coming to a rest and laying the edge of the crowbar just under the eye and started to lean on it. She screamed then everyone was screaming and I was about to give them a reason to keep screaming. I push the crowbar slightly more, watching the skin under the eye pull slightly taunt by the force. Just as I started to put more force on the crow bar a cold peace hit me and I glared at Azrael who had walked through me to stand between me and the women. Glaring at and through her at the women I wanted to hurt, I hissed through my teeth, "you type of people are why I don't come to japan anymore. You know what I get in America? Fucking cheesecake and wine, you know what I get in the UK? The best damn tea ever. You know what I get in Japan?" I walk over to the hair cocoon reaching into it and lifting up a bullet that had been shot into it. Yep, fucking .45 cal hollow points. "Fucking bullets and false acusations, why, oh why would I come back to japan to do any of the things you spoke of? Use your damn brains for one moment!" A wave of peace hits me and I glare at Azrael who had poke me through the chest.
"And the fuck do you what?" I hissed to which she starts handsigning me.
"Didn't say anything." the hostage woman said carefully, apparently finding her survival instinct.
"Not you, shut up," I say, trying to read Azreal's hands. "Fuck it! Do you know morse code? lift a thumb for dot, finger for dash."
"Who are you talking to?" Hostage 9 asked, a woman about 40 whose cat tail got stuck by an orb.
"My imaginary friend, who is the president of the Shut The Fuck Up Foundation." I hissed reading the signs. "7 more cop cars have arrived, 2 unknown heroes at the front and 1 at the back, no sight of Momo or Shoto but they could be here any moment. Growling I go back to the hair cocoon and finish retrieving all my property from the hair ball, hissing at the broken backpack straps. Azrael got my attention and pointed to Samidare, making the hand sign for dying. Why is he dying? Chef is still giving him CPR …oh fuck right I shot him the stomach a bunch.
"God dammit, here," I say throwing medical gauze and wrapping to shush chef. "Patch him up."
Sushi Chef blinks at me for a moment before moving to action.
"Good idea." Mr. Officer said. "Give him a chance to take another swing at you, ooh I can't wait to see if he gets you next time!"
"Keep laughing please, don't worry, it won't come back to bite you I'm sure," I say to officer fake-ass before turning to the hostages. "Look, I'm not gonna lie to you, I hate a lot of things about Japan and a lot of it has to do with the people you never helped me, never cared for me and never saw fit to cure me before I became," I motion to myself, "this. And this situation has not been helping me in the matter but I want you to think about this alot. If I'm a villain that has been rumored to do horrible things and as you have heard, I have nothing left to lose, even if you believe that your memory's getting wiped, which that man over there said would happen to you all, is somehow a good thing, you have to realize that everything Mr. Not Officer said over there gives me a reason to kill or do worst to you all since I have nothing to lose."
That got some of them thinking. Heroes of the A and S ranked don't just get that rank because of their quirks but because of their personality. Gentle criminal could have been ranked B or even A ranked if he decided to kill the handful of heroes he folden in his short career. Assuming my rank is at least a B then I just remind them that even in this state I could make the last 10 minutes of my life ruining theirs.
"On the other hand, even though I don't like any of you, I won't lie and say you have many reasons to trust me. I didn't exactly have the cleanest record when I left Japan so anyone searching my history here would not have a big picture. While I was an international hero, doubt you heard much about me and I didnt do many hero jobs on my vacation here. So I know that it's hard to think your government or news is lying to you but I'm gonna ask you to think, from my perspective. I left Japan because I knew I was never to be liked here, I was a horrid child and those sins will always taint the ground here. I left, I ran, whatever you want to call, basically I went where I would get a new life." Reaching through the hair, I search Mr. Officer's pockets, pulling out a wallet, car keys, a badge and around 18 throwing knives.
"So why would I come back here just to stir up trouble? Hundreds of countries with corrupt governments that will let an international hero do what they want, thousands of other places I could go where I don't have a bad reputation. Why come back to the only place people knew who I was before?" I show the key to Azrael, she looks it over for a moment before nodding to me and running through me to phase through the wall to look for the car. "Also, please look at the obviously-not-a-fucking-cop gear here and thing for yourelf, the man has throwing knives… throwing knives! why even…" My thought trailed off as a thought came to my mind. "These things better not have any poison!" I glare at Mr. Officer then realized if it was poison then either the poison got caught on the sticky grapskin, I'm immune to it or I would be dead already. "Stupid question, but yeah, notice how he grinned when I said that, does that seem like somthing a cop would do… you're all just gonna ignore what this dude said and the fact that he has throwing knives and used his quirk?… none of this look sketchy?"
The older hostages seemed to be more stubborn, but looked like School Girl and Jacket Boy were looking at each other contemplatively.
"Villain, let me see the pistols he was using." Hostage 10 finally opens his mouth, honestly beside that one hostage that had been thinking about rushing me earlier he was the other hostage I was paying the most attention to. The only orb that was pinning him down was an orb connected to the leg of hostage 3, a 10 year old that had probably tried to step over the orb on the ground and got stuck to the ground. The 30-40 year old must've tried to unstick the kid and get stuck as well. So far he was the only hostage that I could call calm about the situation and from his face I saw something that made him my most and least favorite hostage of the group.
"Ah, so the SDF man finally says something!" I say grinning, unsticking the orb from the gun, unloading it then using my mouth to pop the round in the chamber. "I highly suggest not testing me," I warn him as I throw the gun, and then after a moment, the single round to the hostage. He caught them with his free hand and I could see him thinking about it, playing it out in his head: could he put the single bullet in the gun and take the shot before I stop him? I gave him 7 seconds to figure it out before remembering that I was on a timer. "You gonna take the shot?" I tilt my head, interested honestly to see his response. When it came to logic and reason, I had more trust in the wolves and dogs of the world than the sheeps that were most civilians.
"This is a gen 12 Glock 21." He replies, looking the gun over. "Made in America."
"And not used by any Japanese forces, including the special defense force." I finished, "and using hollow points, which I know for a fact aren't allowed in this country."
"Hollow points were the best way to get through that hair you grow on your body," Mr. Officer hissed, "we weren't aware that you could make it thicker."
God if I had the time, the pain party we would have. well no use crying over soon to be spilled blood. "Soldier boy, I've never been good at convincing people of everything." My eyes are locked on the military man now that I've recognized him as the only hostage with sense, "I ask you to judge me on what you've seen today and not what you've heard of whispered on the news, make your own choices. You head what this man said, he spoke of taking your memories, he spoke of leading a hero against me to kill me, he used weapons illegal in your lands, he made it so other heroes wouldn't come assist the one that lays bleeding behind me, he laughs as you all lay at my mercy, does this seem like one of your police to you? Does this seem like your countryman that works to protect you, that respects you?" Grabbing Fake Cop's head I pushed his chin lower forcing his mouth to be covered by the hair he's stuck in. "You heard what I've said and what I've done, I've killed no heroes, I've harmed no civilians, the only person that I've hurt was someone that fed me to the DOS. "Make up your own damn minds for once and decide if what you've seen and heard makes sense, because I'm about to ask you all a question that a villain or a hero will probably never ask any of you again." Bending down on my knees I bow to the group before me, "help me by giving me the choice of doing the right thing, help me by giving me a chance to reclaim what's left of my humanity."
There was a moment of silence, just a moment then all hell broke loose.
"Shoot him!"
"What are you waiting for!?"
"Shoot him already!"
"Arrest him!"
The other hostages decide to fill in the silence with their own opinions, none of them good for my health. Not that I cared about their opinions all that much. All I cared about was one individual that I was putting way too much hope in. Come on, the whole situation doesn't make sense. I heard the sound of Soldier Boy putting the bullet in the chamber but forced myself to relax. Come on man, think it out in your head. The seconds dragged on like that for what felt like eternity. Finally after a sigh I hear the gun dropped to the ground, "I don't know what to think anymore."
I sigh in relief and feel a smile come from my face. He wasn't no loudmouth but if 1 person was willing to at least think for themselves th-
What felt like a heavy boot hit my head forcing me to smack my face on the floor. Confused, I reached into my hair only to feel a hole in it. Reaching into it I hissed as I felt something hot and pulled it out dropping it to the floor. A bullet, my mind couldn't process that for a second. They had shot me with a bullet in the head… while I was bowing. Slowly lifting my head, I met the eyes of the military man who looked as surprised as me. He also wasn't holding the gun anymore hostage 5 was apparently holding it, her hand glowing from what had been a close range attracting quirk. Well at least he didn't do it, my mind told me, though he might have wished he did when he sees me kill this lady.
Mr. Officer summed up the situation rather nicely, voice muffled with my hair. "I don't think you should have done that."
"No, she shouldn't have," I answer, rising to my feet.
She must have seen something in my eyes because she pulled her finger on the trigger trying to light me up with the empty weapon. Realizing the fact, she lowered the gun and pointed a finger at the discarded clip which started to levitate towards her till I put a foot on it. Grabbing an orb from my head I throw it, catching Military Man's shoulder as he was trying to shimmy out of his jacket then two more onto the hip of hostage 1 who had started trying to take off his shirt and jacket to be free. After throwing some more orbs to make sure they stayed on the ground, I turn my attention back to the hostage.
"Get away from me, don't touch me. HELP! HELP!" She started to scream bloody murder in that high pitch horror movie victim way, at least until I calmly put a foot on her shoulder. Oh, and this is the same 'calmly' as Dumbledore asking Harry if he put his name in the Goblet Of Fire so there was a wonderful sound of what sounded like a collar bone fracturing.
"On second thought maybe I do have some humanity left, I mean humanity has discovered so many fun ways to punish those that they see as guilty. Stoning, flogging, hanging… yeah, humanity got really good in the art of pain and revenge… yeah, I think I found my humanity," I laugh, honestly finding it hilarious that I tried to reason with these people, it must have been the blood loss. Giggling, I pull the crowbar from where I placed it and spun it in my hand, staring at hostage 5 who was already going pale. "The rest of you think over my offer, I think it's time I share some of my humanity with the lady here"
—-end document-
"I'm so dazzling!" Aoyama exclaims, showing off his knight-like uniform.
"It's very shiny." Rikido states, being the closest one to the exchange student and thus having most of his attention. The rest of the boys were enjoying their costumes as well, Bakugou was flexing his biceps, testing the weight of his grenade gauntlets. Iida had the biggest grin staring at armor that perfectly copied the design of his family. I wonder if they have personal designers since everyone in his bloodline seemed to wear the same white armor. No one seemed to have any dislikes about their costumes, which was nice, a hero should like their costume since they'll be spending a lot of their time in it, be judged in it, HAVE TO FIGHT IN IT, AND ALL IN ALL A COSTUME IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BITS OF EQUIPMENT FOR ANYONE.
"Uhh Mineta, are you okay?"
Denki asked, I don't blame him for being worried, I'm pretty sure I've been staring at my costume for the last 40 years. It's a wonder I haven't melted the thing with how hard I've been glaring at it.
"You wearing a diaper grape nerd?" Bakugo sensing blood in the water decided to start biting.
"IT'S A BOWL!" I exclaim glaring at the smirking blonde, before I return my glare to my first real enemy of my second life. "It was supposed to remind people of a bowl of grapes, they messed it up! It was supposed to be heroic!"
"A bowl of grapes is heroic?" Sero asked only to hold up his hands as I hissed at him.
"I can't wear this." I dropped the costume, shaking my hands as if it was contaminated. "I'll fight in my school uniform."
"Just leave the dip-bowl." Sato corrects himself as I turn to him. "The purple spandex will be enough."
"Of course you would think that." I make a hand motion to his bodybuilder physique then to Ojiro then to Kirishima. "The only people that wear spandex are those that are fit and attractive enough to pull it off."
"Neither of us wears spandex though," Kirishima says looking at the pants and shoulder pads that make up his costume.
"But you could!"
"Come now Mineta," Iida said, the robot marching over to me and picking up my uniform. "You seem to be in good health yourself." I stared at him wondering if he was serious while also tensing in case he tries to force that thing on me.
"He's right." Sero adds in, "you're just slim like me and I look fine in spandex." He flexes and I growl at the fact that he did look good, not as buff as Sato but athletic enough to grab someone's eyes.
"You're also tall and have an attractive face so it evens you out. I'm not, I'll look like a naked mole rat. Plus, your spandex is different from mine." I wave at his crotch. "All of you have a codpiece, my spandex does not."
That seems to get everyone to think, well everyonebesidese Shoto who seem to go from not paying attention to the conversation to paying a lot of attention to me which was still concerning.
"Would it show?" Midoriya asked, face red with what must be imagining himself in this situation.
"Yes," I confirm. "And I would like to keep mini-me to myself, thank you very much."
"What, afraid to show off?" Bakugo asks with a smirk.
"Ever heard of wrestling boners? As much as I bet you enjoy the sight Bakugo, I don't want to smack people with my 2 and-a-half foot long–"
"Mineta!" Iida shrieks.
"… arms as I sport a raging erection." I raised an eyebrow at Iida, a grin stamped on my face. "What did you think I was gonna say?" As the engine hero gave me an unamused look, I gave an envious look at the boys around me. "Also, what the heck, you all have pants? Why am I the only one that gets full spandex?"
"They gave you pants." Denki points out snickering while pointing at the travesty in the engine hero's hands.
"What they gave me was lies and deceit. Every other dude gets normal pants and I get …" I stop myself as an idea comes to me. "Hey, I'll just wear the spandex under my gym pants!"
"Mineta," Iida was now hand chopping at me, almost hitting me with the mentioned costume. "You have to wear the costume, it would be disrespectful to the designers if you didn't. Besides, the teacher told us to go into our uniforms, we're not supposed to alter them ourselves."
"Never heard that rule." I cut him off, grabbing the spandex and started to undress. Following the bro code, the boys didn't make eye contact with me when I had my junk out which I appreciated. While I have fought in some uncomplimenting clothing before and even sometimes nude, I was always still a bit twitchy being looked at naked… at least when there were a lot of people and they were being judgy about it. A brief memory of getting my clothing stolen in middle school forced itself into my mind. Instead of being mad at it I'm relieved that it was just a normal embarrassing memory and not more vault damage.
"There we are," I say, pulling on the gym pants and looking myself over. "Might just have this be my design now, comfy." Spandex and pants, literally what most of the class had, and for some reason, they gave me a a fucking iron diaper. "I remember drawing myself with normal pants in the request drawing." I think as I glare at the normal pants. Could have given me a metal codpiece but noooo, let's wrap a hero, whose focus is mostly on mobility and mid-range, in a bowl of god damn heavy ass metal. Though to be fair those pants had protected me from some Serious nut attacks over my time at UA, I distinctly remember the reason they were metal being discovered because Jiro broke her foot trying to kick me when I said something stupid. Ah, good times, now what could this bowl have that I'm losing by? Looking over the hero shots, I note the only thing that it has was the purple dots that work like weaker versions of my hair. I'll have them make that into a belt to compensate later. Maybe It was good meeting Mei early. As long as I keep an eye on her I can have her work on my costume.
As the class started to head out, I straggled behind saying that I had to put the bowl away as an explanation. The second the boys were gone I ran to a poster on the wall and lifted it. So I was right, I think to myself with mixed feelings as I look at the blank wall. In original life, this wall would bear a peeping hole that I would use to peek at the girls only to nearly get my eye punctured by Jiro. I had always assumed it was an older classmate that left the hole for us, but when Aizawa came out and accused me of making it, that's when I realized it was a current thing. The hole had been filled up 8 times within the year and 8 times it had been reopened. I never knew not to risk using it after Jiro made it clear the second time that she would legit blind me. Considering that this revelation came after the Ruffy accusation incident, people were not thinking the best of me and I on the other hand was 500% done with people after Denki ghosted me. Thinking back The hole was my second clue that there was another Pervert at UA, the first one being the aforementioned ruffying at the party. Honestly, the second pervert probably used me as a scapegoat for so much shit. There were times when I would be accused of something and the only reason Aizawa didn't expel me was lack of evidence. While first-year situations like that were mostly me just being clever to hide my track, but after the ruffy incident, he didn't get a chance to bust me because I had gone from groping to hating and did everything within my power to keep the girls away from me at that point. Observing the placement of the soon-to-be hole I make a mental reminder to check the area every day. Normally I wouldn't have much beef with a fellow pervert, me, bastion and So-ri got along exceptionally even though we were all perverts in different ways, but this Pervert had crossed the line. Say what you will about everything I've done in my childhood. I never tried to take advantage of my classmates with drugs. Years later and I finally get a chance to meet you, my perverted brother. With Images of how that meeting was to go I put on my mask and cape completing my temporary outfit before speeding off to catch up with the class.
By the time I caught up with the group, the boys and girls met up and were comparing each other's costumes, which brought up another thing I had an issue with. Now don't get me wrong, I love skin-tight suits, especially on hot people. These aren't your Party City Get Cut By A Tree Branch types of deals, these hero spandex costumes were blade resistant, super durable, and are some of the best clothing for throwing hands. Tight suits are very useful clothing when it comes to fighting, if it is, and I can't stress it enough, made right. Assuming that it can stretch correctly and doesn't tear or cut easily, tight clothing is good because it's hard to be grabbed by.
One of the worst things that can happen in a fight is your clothing getting caught on something or your clothing getting used against you. Ignoring my GA time where I've strangled dozens of people with their scarfs or Jackets. There were dozens of videos of me grabbing Jiro by her clothing and smashing her face into shit. but the second I fight any of the other girls it's like grabbing onto a pig covered in plastic wrap dipped in oil. You wouldn't believe how many times I've grabbed Tsuyu, Mina, and Uraka's hair, horns or even belts because it was the only thing on them that I could get a grip on. Kid me would of loved grabbing any of those girls' boobs or hips but all I felt was anger because it meant that I missed their throat or eyes. And I dare you to try to throw someone by the hip when you barely reach their fucking hip while they're trying to rearrange your organs. Though there is one downside with most skin-tight clothing, there normally is one piece meaning if you're stuck with one of my orbs unless you can rip the material you're stuck there. honestly that had to be one of the most annoying parts of fighting me. All in all tight-fitting clothing as long as they are worn well is usually great for hero work but… It might be because of an argument me and the rest of class T had about hero offcuts but honestly there is a difference between tight and skin tight. I can't help but think that hero support classes just wanted some eye candy when it came to the girls. Tsuyu makes sense but Uraraka's quirk guarantees she's gonna be fighting close up even if she gonna be a rescue hero, giving her some protection would have been better but nooo, the world must see that ass I guess. Honestly, I could forgive the skintight suits mostly because some of my grapeshot and moonseed costumes were skin tight and I like it. It was freaking Momo's and Jiro's that were killing me. Leather, freaking leather, I doubt it is real leather but still, I'm annoyed about all the arguments that superheroes must stand out and must do and Kyoka's outfit legit is sturdy yet casual while they try to hit me with a boss baby look. Then there was Momo, where do I begin?
I can't even imagine how long I stared at Momo's costume over the course of my life, though unlike my first childhood which was interested in what was under said costume I was just staring at it trying to figure out how this got passed production.
My main problem with Momo's costume is that it takes everything good about spandex and removes it, but before I talk about Momo's costume let me talk about three members of Class T who I could argue had the worst costume problems than Momo. Bullet, Zilko, and Wendy. Bullet moves at the speed of a high caliber bullet, the amount of stress he put on his costume was stupid and that's ignoring the fact that his metallic-like skin would heat up from friction if he moved too much (to this day I'm trying to understand how he pulled so many girls with skin that has some properties of metal). So his suit needed to survive constant heat and superhuman speed. Then there's Wendy and Zilko whose quirks have them 8/10 times turning into Final Fantasy bosses on crickety dickity crack. Even when Wendy's going slow her quirk has her going from a 6ft something tall girl to a 13 ft monster depending on what and who she eats so her uniform basically has to deal with extreme shape-shifting as a start. Then there was Zilko who wore basically wore an extreme chemotherapy outfit, so his quirk wouldn't go out of control and turn him into a flesh abomination. Now, I might be able to forgive Momo's designers since the GA is better at everything so they would be better with clothing making but… SELF-REPAIRING FABRIC WAS A THING BEFORE THE RISE OF QUIRKS. Seriously, self-repair clothing was coming out in the early 2010s.
they could have really just given her a mix of self-repair clothing and that thin shit that Midnight used to use even if she makes something huge like a cannon they should be able to make it so the outfit could still close up after it then she would be fully clothed, hell it might not even have to be skin tight if she didn't want it to be. Instead of this… what even is that? It is not a skirt I don't think she's is wearing a belt? WHY? Why not just make it a skirt at that point?! you already have her ass exposed to the world anyway.
"What are you staring at?" a voice asks.
"An ass exposed to the world for all to see for some reason," I answered before blinking. Whipping my head to the side I stare at Denki praying he was the one that asked me. He gave me a wide-eyed look before pointing back. Turning back I looked up to stare at the cold face of Momo.
They ask you how you are, and you just have to say you're fine when you're not really fine, but you just can't get into it, because they would never understand.
Staring at Momo, her glare quickly brought up bad memories and I moved behind Denki using him to cut the connection. "That whole sentence came out wrong."
"Sounded right to me." Denki chucked only for it to die a quick death at Momo's face.
"No, no," I say, raising my arms in case she tried to hit me. "I didn't mean what I said."
"Oh, so you weren't staring at Momo's ass?" Denki asks, apparently remembering the bus I dropped on him with Midnight and deciding to find one to ride into me.
"No! well yes, no, yes, frick yes, but only because I was studying her outfit."
"A certain part of it maybe," Momo said, staring down at me.
Don't look at me like that, please don't look at me like that. Looking away from her I focus my attention on Urakak who was showing her outfit off to Deku who was discretely spazzing. Even while watching that… don't even know what to call it. I made sure to point a hand at Momo to make sure she knew I was talking to her. "You know what? Yes, I was staring at a certain part of your outfit. You want to know which part? The part that makes you look like a stripper!"
Momo gasps and I jerk back behind Denki. "Not that you look any more than a stripper than the rest of the girls." I try to backtrack.
"Wait, what?" I could only growl as Jiro apparently heard what I said and walked over to chew me out.
"Hasn't anyone told you it's rude to eavesdrop?"
"Anyone tell you it's rude to stare?" she counters.
No actually… which is one of the reasons I turned out how I am!
"I wasn't staring at you, your costume makes sense… depending on if that's real or synthetic leather but Momo's… look at her, the designer literally made the outfit just to show her off!"
"I designed my own outfit, thank you very much." Momo interrupted me.
"But was it that revealing?" I prompted, only to be surprised by the answer.
"Actually, it would have shown more skin to enhance my quirk capabilities."
I looked at Momo, staring at her with a raised eyebrow. That was a little bit of news that I wasn't aware of in my first life. I distinctly remember Momo's boob window getting larger as the year went by and always assume it was the design department fucking with her. Thinking back Momo's pro-hero outfit besides the cloak she used to cover herself was more revealing.
"Alright, that's my fault for assuming," I nod in acceptance, "didn't realize you were an exhibitionist."
If Momo was offended by believing I was perving on her, she looked pissed at that statement.
"I'm not an exhibitionist!" She snapped at me.
boob window says what? "The most revealing outfit in the whole class disagrees."
"Doesn't mean she's an exhibitionist." Jiro butted back into the conversation.
"Jiro, there are outfits made for a hero Edgeshot who can make himself thin like paper and Mt Lady who can grow to the size of a skyscraper, I refuse to believe there isn't something that would let her use her quirk and still have sleeves."
"It seems like you're the only one bothered by it," Jiro said, jabbing her ear jacks in my face. Her older self had learned pretty quickly to keep those things away from my mouth. "It's not her fault if you can keep your eyes to yourself."
"That's not it!" I hiss, smacking away the ear jack, "it's the practicality! Costumes shouldn't be this stupid even if Momo made the request the costume was still made by the school designers and this is the best hero school in japan right? They should have offered some-" I blink as a thought came to my head, "wait a sec, Momo come here real quick, I want to see your costume." The creation girl looked down on me with a suspicious look.
"Why?" In response, I turn so she could see a symbol on the back of my jumpsuit's neck.
"Do you have this symbol too? If so, we have the same designer and therefore the same problem with incompetence."
"Again Mineta, I have no problems with my costume or my costume designer and why are you mad? your costume looks fine," she asks, but still turns her collar to check.
"That is not his costume." Denki pointed out.
"Denki," I warned.
"His had a diaper on it, but he decided to wear his gym pants."
"IT WASN'T A DIAPER." I hiss at Bakugo who smirks at me before going back to enjoying his outfit.
"A diaper?" Mina questions with a grin already forming on her face as she closes the distance. Not liking the girls surrounding me, I abandoned Denki's leg to move so Momo is between us and the yellow-eyed girl. "You have to put it on Mineta!" The pink girl exclaimed with a grin.
"Are you having a laugh? Why would I do that? so you can laugh at me?"
"Of course." Well at least she was honest. "I'm sure your designer had a good reason to make you look like a baby."
"The same reason he made you and Momo look like strippers?" I point at her symbol, then mine, "we have the same costume designer."
"I do not look like a stripper!" Mina exclaims, moving her hand as if to poke me in the nose but I moved so Momo's leg got in the way. "I look like a gymnast!"
The strippers of sports I thought but didn't say because Momo was looking at her own outfit.
"Do I really look like a stripper?" She asks looking over her outfit and I felt a little bad at the disappointment in her voice.
You're wearing what is basically a bikini with boots and a belt! "No?" I replied
"That sounded like a question."
"Well, strippers don't wear capes."
"Unless they cosplay." Denki saw fit to point out.
"Does Tsuyu look like a stripper then?" Mina was still on this as she pointed to the frog hero. "She has the same costume designer as us."
The frog girl looked at me and gave me her deadpan frog stare, though from years of experience I could recognize the possibility of violence. "No, Tsuyu looks like a deep sea diver."
"Then why don't we look like deep sea divers?" Mina pointed out.
"Because your outfit isn't a wetsuit!"
"Where all the girls made by the same dude?" Toru asked, looking for a symbol on her gloves and boots.
Happy to change the conversation I reply, "No, only me and these 3 have this guy, what do you guys have?" This got some of the classmates looking at themselves to see who their designers were or who the neighbors had.
"What are you doing round face!?" Bakugo roars at Uraraka who had apparently noticed she and Bakugo's costumes had the same designer and apparently went for a closer look. Taking the chance for what it was, I move away from Momo and return to the safety of Denki's legs. "All Might, what are we doing today?" I say trying to raise the Pro Hero from his little costume comparison with Midoriya.
The symbol of peace snaps out of whatever conversation he was having and rises to his full height. "Alright everyone!" His deep voice boomed out, ending any conversation that was still going on. "You can compare costumes later. We have hero training to do." All Might pointed ahead before strutting down the path, the class soon following him.
I start to follow behind before I realized something. Wait, did I just call Bastion Bullet? Blinking as I went over my mental thoughts, I realized I did. Ever since the Sakurai/DOS incident where my mental block broke; possibly by Jackson forcing them open so that I could trigger a quirk awakening, my vault has always been …not fully intact after that. But that normally means I remember something I shouldn't, not that any of my mental blocks should be on. Maybe it's because I reset the vault. I can still think of his name as Bullet..I mean basti-" a slight pain taps my brain and a symbol flashes in my vision.
Instantly recognizing it as a warning, the same type of symbol that was supposed to let me know that something was going on with my vault earlier. But this one was different…thankfully the symbol reminded me what it meant the second I saw it. Vault recalibrating please stand by warning of possible vault malfunctions during recalibration. As I stared at the symbol that faded away from my vision I could only sigh. It's always something.
Denki Kaminari
"Whoa." I couldn't help but mutter as the class was led to a building covered with monitors.
"This will be how the rest of the students will follow the fights." All Might says motioning to the walls of monitors. I still can't believe All Might is gonna be our teacher, if I wasn't as cool as I was I'd probably be bouncing up and down at the idea of being taught by the number #1 hero. And I wasn't the only one, the whole class seemed excited for the next step. Well, almost the whole class. My eyes drifted down to Mineta who had slowly started to lean into my leg on the way here. It didn't even seem like he noticed, it just looked like he was unknowingly trying to fuse with me. Bending down so that I was closer to his height I whispered.
"Are you okay?" He blinked at me as if surprised I would ask then gave a look I couldn't read, sort of like apathetic self annoyance.
"Yeah, just running probabilities in my head."
"Oh… and the reason you're holding onto my leg is?"
"Oh sorry." He let go of me unenthusiastically, shifting to my right. I couldn't help but notice that he was moving so I was between him and the larger population of the class. Not sure if this is better or worse than yesterday or this morning for that matter. He's gone from not giving a damn to pissed off to, I don't even know what this is, panicky? Paranoid?
"You want to hang out again after school?" I ask.
"Just the two of us?" Mineta asks, perking up before wilting, "sorry, can't do got multiple things after school today." He lets out a sigh, "and probably tomorrow as well."
"Oh, then maybe later then." He nods and goes back to his condemnatory look before wrinkling his nose, face wincing in displeasure.
"What's wrong?"
"Doing probability calculations in my head." He mutters, chewing his lip. "20 students, 10 matches, 2 students that annoy me, 4 students I can't stand, 4 other students that I'm pretty sure I can't beat with this bo-in the state I am in." He pats his chest as if he was annoyed with his own skin. "While there a 0.0008% chance of me being put in a match with the other 3 being people I can't stand, there a 0.0867% chance of getting someone that going to be an annoyance either on my side or the others teams and then there's another 0.0867% chance that I'm put in a match with someone with a quirk that will fold me no matter. Basically, all in all, they're 10 out of 20 students that for some reason or another I don't want to be in my match."
That caused me to raise an eyebrow. I couldn't think of any quirk that would get in the way of Mineta besides maybe Mina depending on if her acid could melt it. It's also kind of worrying that he already has people that he doesn't want to fight with on the second day of school.
"I feel like you could work well with anyone" I replied.
"It's more of a personality preference, I already know who I can fight the best and the worst against or with." He replied. I blinked at him, it was the second day, I didn't know enough about our classmates to even do a personality quiz and here he is saying he got their combat styles down. "We're probably gonna have to work with everyone in our class sooner or later. It would be better to get someone you don't agree with sooner so that you can fix the issue."
Mineta stared at me for a moment and I would have paid money to read the expression that was being framed by his pitch-black eyes. I like Mineta, dude was fun and was good at games, but I won't say there aren't times the dude freaks me out with that stare of his.
"Hmm, I can't hear you if you speak all at once!" All Might's voice shakes me out of my thoughts. As I tune back in I curse myself for not following the rest of the class and listening to the absolutely important lesson being taught by the literal symbol of peace. In fact, I'm the only person in the whole class who isn't, the obviously important issues … well, besides Aoyama.
"Doesn't my cape look dazzling?" He asked me, not exactly whispering but keeping his voice at a low volume so as not to interrupt the teacher.
"What?" I ask, not quite understanding what he is asking.
"My cape, isn't it dazzling?" The blonde hair student pulls the shimmering blue cape in front of him to give me a better look.
"Uh, yeah I guess," I whisper back. "Though I don't get why you keep asking, you were talking about it in the changing room as well right?"
"I like it!" Mineta replied with more cheer than I think I've ever heard the small classmate express. The short kid had moved from my side and grabbed a fistful of the shimmering blue fabric black, eyes locked on the flamboyant boy's as his hand roamed the material. "Feels very soft too, very good material." I blinked at the display, pretty much the most active I've seen him in a conversation… at least when he was not talking to me. After a couple minutes of Mineta and Aoyama talking about fabric cuts and designs, I lost interest in the conversation, using it as background noise. I came to realize that Mineta apparently knew a lot about clothing.
Was that why he got so ruffled when he saw Momo's costume? He must be really into it, hmm, didn't really expect him to be that interested in something so girly. Though to be fair I've only known him for a day… though in the course of a day he seems to have grown quite close to me. Sero's words decided to worm themselves back into my head which I quickly shook away. Liking fashion doesn't mean you're gay and even if Mineta is gay that won't change our friendship. Though, I have no idea what to do if he gets a crush on me… I hope he doesn't. I don't want to ruin our friendship… oh god, is this what being a girl is like?
"Denki? Bonjour, n'importe qui à la maison?" I blink as Mineta is jumping in front of me, briefly matching me in height as he tries to get my attention.
"What …what did you just say to me?" I strain my head trying to figure out what he said to me.
"Oh, je parle toujours français." Mineta said something again before I assume shifting to Japanese. "Sorry, Aoyama was more comfortable speaking in french and I got too into it."
You can speak french? Wait, Aoyama can speak french? Pushing aside those questions for later I respond. "Sorry, was off in my head for a moment. What did you say?" Mineta was still holding Aoyama's cape, apparently still deep in clothing discussion with the apparent french speaking boy. Though now the glamorous boy didn't seem as happy anymore, in fact, he was looking at Mineta with an off expression as if he was trying to understand what the short kid had just said.
"I was asking you if you think Aoyama's cape reminds you of Joseph's cloak?" Mineta pulled the fabric closer to me, slightly pulling Aoyama off his feet and making him stumble over to me. "He was from the bible, betrayed his brother and became the prince of Egypt?
I noticed Aoyama flinching from the corner of my eyes, which makes sense. I wouldn't want to be pulled by my cape either. Though I don't wear capes because it seems like a good way to get strangled. Thinking of Mineta's question, I narrowed my eyes trying to remember the bible story. "Wait, didn't his brothers betray him, sell him or something?"
"You might be right" Mineta said, looking at Aoyama for confirmation. "Been a while since I've seen the works of God, but I was pretty sure the one in the glimmering cloak is the traitor, though I could be wrong. l guess I'll have to read it later."
"Whatever dude." I shrug. "More interesting books to read in my opinion, right man?" I gave Aoyama a light punch on his armor to which he looked at me and gave a quick nod.
"Oui." He says looking a little uncomfortable.
Is he okay? I wonder, watching the boy focus on All Might. Maybe he's just thinking about what Mineta said, I'd be uncomfortable being compared to a biblical traitor. Any thought I had in this situation was removed as All Might once again reminded me that he was talking and that I should be listening.
"Anyway let's start this!" All Might exclaimed, handing over the box for us to pick from.
Crap I missed the rules! I scream in my head as I watch my classmates get slotted up. Who would be a good team member for me? I guess it doesn't matter since it is random, maybe Sero? He's cool but I don't know how well tape and electricity does.
"-nd young Jiro!" I blink at the statement did Allmight say my name? I'm I on Jiro's team? I'm I turned to the mentioned girl who turned to regard me. Hey, she is pretty cute. I looked at my partner-to-be up and down. The rockstar motif she had was pretty cute and I loved the bangs. She stared at me and I flashed her a smile trying to break the ice. She snorted and went back to talking to Momo. Shot down. Oh well, I'll try again later.
A tug on my shorts made me look down at Mineta. He didn't look happy but made a show of motioning to Jiro. "Try talking about some Fall Out Boy or Imagine Dragon songs, it will give you something to talk about."
"Are those just random bands you happen to know?" I ask not wanting to seem like an idiot and talk about random stuff. "How do you know what she likes? Also, are those bands good, I've never heard of them?"
"They're good and the reason you haven't heard of them is because they're American and they're an older band from the early 2010s."
"And you expect her to be a fan of nearly 300-year-old music?"
"Beethoven is still popular to this day. Look, just do it even if she doesn't like them, they're rock and it will get your foot in the door, if you're serious about pursuing her that is."
"Honestly, I haven't thought of it all that much. I was more thinking about asking Ochako on a date."
"Don't bother." The short boy held up a hand using two fingers to point at Uraraka and Midoriya. It took me a moment to see what he was implying.
"No way, I don't see it "
"Really? I'll bet you by the end of the semester you will see the spark of romance between them, but feel free to ask her out if you don't believe me."
"I'll take that bet, don't take this the wrong way but you don't look like the grand master of dating knowledge." At his raised eyebrow I realized how that may have sounded and tried to explain. "Wait, that came out wrong, I meant that you don't seem like the type to… date."
"Everybody dates," Mineta said, his simple black eyes becoming indescribable for a moment before changing to annoyance. "If this is about what Sero says I would have to be able to date whether gay or not, but you're right, my dating experience is complicated. But I know the basic enough to point out when someone barking up the wrong tree."
"First of two groups to do combat are groups A as heroes and D as villains." All Might's voice rings out distracting me from the conversation.
"Who are those teams again?"
"Midoriya & Uraraka vs Iida & Bakugo." Mineta hissed out. Looking down I widen my eyes at the look of pure exasperation on his face.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Mineta hissed out. "Some things never change apparently, I'm just going over in my head the process of probability and hating my luck." I blink trying to figure out what he meant.
"What?"
"Don't worry about it." Mineta raised his voice. "I'm betting on Midoriya's team, anyone in?
Kirishima seems about to join in but the symbol of peace saw fit to intervene.
"Young Mineta, a true hero shouldn't bet on the results of a fight like it is a cage match." All Might calls out grinning down at the short student. "A fight isn't something to be glorified and enjoyed like a bloodsport."
My ears barely catch the 'what the fu-' leaves Mineta's lips in a whisper as he turns to stare at All Might in what I could only say was befuddlement. At first I thought he was being sarcastic but it honestly looked like what All Might said truly confused the student. Slowly Mineta held up a finger and seemed to be about to say anything before closing his mouth with a sigh.
"Yes sir." He replied
I let out a sigh of relief. I guess even Mineta can't snark at the symbol of peace after the fiasco of the homeroom. I half expect Mineta to snap at any teacher that bothers him.
"Alright, let's get started!" The symbol of peace exclaimed as the combatants went to their places.
Mineta Minoru
Seriously All Might, why are you here? You have like how many hours in that form and you waste it here? I couldn't help but stare at All Might as the fight started. Yes I know he is here to watch Midoriya but god dammit use your time. Had to give him some slack. It's possible he's here to stop Midoriya from going too far… Or not, now that I think about it. No matter how fast All Might is, if Izuku loses control of his quirk when throwing a punch then Bakugo goes on a trip to meet God no matter what, All Might can't stop that. Speaking of said fight, I took in everything that was happening to try and identify anything odd happening. After about 2 minutes of Bakugo screaming I came to realize that this fight was gonna be boring. I was following the first fight between the two pretty well, mostly along the lines of Midoriya not really fighting Bakugo at first and mostly just trying to survive him, which is a feeling I could relate to. I guess it makes sense that this fight is the same, same people. Even though I knew that by logic the idea that this is the terminator 1 & 2 types of time travel where it's a predestined loop and everything that happens will happen the same way. That would be just my luck, God sent me back in time only for me to be unable to change anything. If that is the case though God's gonna have a workout trying to stop me from changing shit. If the powers above want to play games with the timeline I'll happily flip the table on them.
My compilation of a mental competition with God on a temporal scale was interrupted by the sight of Uraraka approaching the doomsday weapon room where Iida was waiting for her… again. Watching the … not fight, more like an extreme chase that happened brought a chuckle from my lips. It was an odd thing to think about but Iida was slow in a relative kind of way. Compared to Bastion and his future self, both people I've fought with and against, seeing his younger self zip around thinking he was fast reminded me of his daughter who I met once when I broke into Iida's house. Shaking my head from the memory of the migraine that arose from that situation, I sighed and focused on the fourth combatant of this fight and her more lackluster result. Izuku and Bakugo were monsters even during this time and Iida could wreck a lot of people if he caught them lacking but Urakaka … yeah this fight reminded me, I sort of forgot that Urakaka sort of just… floated around at this point, watching the round head girl float towards the bomb only for Iida to carry it across the room was eye-opening to say the least. As I watched the fight I struggled to find the connection between this girl and the woman that I fought on the ruins of an exploding building falling from a couple thousand feet from the sky. Welp, everyone starts from somewhere. Comparing this girl to the woman that I battled for years. Honestly, out of all the girls, I think I've had the most respect for Uraraka. Don't get me wrong, I had respect for the other girls. Tsuyu was a mix of fear and respect, Ashido was hatred respect followed by pity- fear-respect at the end, Jiro was Denki-respect, like I'm not gonna lie, if she wasn't Denki's wife and the mother to his children, I would have cut those ear jacks off our second fight. Toru was … I don't know, a conflicting respect? She was a part of the World Hero Association program which while having a semi-rivalry with the IHA, still worked together on other missions. She was the only person from class 1A that had encountered me before I came back to Japan. We did a 3-week long mission together, the fact that it took her that long to figure out that I was framed really pissed me off, freaking she was like the 6th one to figure it out when she should have been second… Though she did make it up to me later, but still, I never found out if her memories were being altered or if she never did think about contacting the IHA or class T when I'm screaming about being framed every third fight. But Uraraka? Nah, I've had respect for her since I met her, and her actions during my Moonseed days just gave me more respect for her. Even as a kid I respected the bubbly girl, though most of that was reflected in all the respect I had for Midoriya. In fact, besides Jiro who I left alone because Denki had a crush on her, I never directly perved on Ochaco. Don't get me wrong, I stared at her like every girl but I never targeted her specifically like I did most of the other girls. Then the roofie incident happened in which while Ochaco didn't believe that I had nothing involved in it, she also took the fact that there was no proof that I was involved and decided to not bully me like most of the class. And when I came back to Japan she also was the first girl to try and contact me with a little persuasion from Denki and Midoriya. But my respect for her soared when she not only realized that I was laying traps for heroes but she thought of a counter trap and managed to spring it on me… sure that plan of hers went horribly wrong and ended with the both of us fighting on the falling rubble of a building that was falling from a couple thousand feet from the air.
I nearly laugh out loud remembering my reaction to Kiiroi screaming to me that the building was floating and then being dragged by a drone towards the prison followed by Ochaco's face when I revealed that I had planted explosives throughout the building to bring it down… originally my trap was for Tsuyu, so yes I made it that excessive. All in all, over the course of 1 hour we went from my trap, which basically ended up with me fighting her in a small room, to her trap which was the same as mine besides the now floating building and then none of our plans which quickly became an episode of Naruto with floating rubble big enough for people to stand on. An anti-gravity quirk and a quirk that allows a person to stick and bounce on anything they want to. There was technically a fourth stage where she turned her quirk off sending the both of us crashing back to earth fighting onto a chuck of a building, but at that point I can't call that a trap anymore.
While watching the fight go on I pull out my phone and start texting in the note app, typing the message in french. While not forged in combat like my original body, the younger me was still ambidextrous and could easily text without looking at it. After finishing the message I went over it in my head a couple times before deciding to change some things about it. After about a minute or two of this I realized I must've been stalling which was semi-understandableble since this was my first big step to change the timeline. Alright, that was probably long enough, I think to myself, taking a deep breath and moving aside thoughts of the gravity girl to a hero that I have much more complicated feelings for. Leaning closer to Aoyama, I waited to make sure he was invested in the fight, waiting for the right timing.
"Traitor," I whisper in french, grinning as the shiny hero nearly leaped out of his armor.
"What?" the boy nervously babbled.
"What we were talking about before," I said, switching to French and giving the UA traitor my biggest smile. "You know, even if Denki is right, I think it could be said that Joseph in a way betrayed his brothers."
"I wouldn't know." He said back to me, turning back to the fight. From his posture it was obvious he was still listening.
"Of course, of course, but hear me out, wasn't it Joseph's parents that forced him to betray his brothers?" I didn't get a response but I kept going. "His parents need to cuddle him, lead him into the situation with his brother, and turn them against each other. That pretty cloak that was given to him gave him nothing but trouble with his family right?" I patted his stomach, my hand hitting his stomach to which he flinched. "His parents loved their son too much and gave him a gift he never asked for that gave him a lot of trouble."
"What are you trying to say?"
"What do you think I'm trying to say?" I asked, tilting my head at him, interested in how much this was getting through.
"I have no idea but I rather we talk about something else, this story is rather boring." The french boy says breaking eye contact.
Shifting my vision too to All Might to make sure he wasn't paying attention and switched to French just in case. "Alright, let's talk about All For One."
Man I wish I had a camera, Aoyama's face at that moment could have been put in a museum. Honestly, I thought I broke him for a moment. I stretched my back low key getting ready for a fight in case he panics and starts to blasting …which would be stupid but honestly you never know what people will do with their back to the wall.
"You know All For One right?" I whisper, grinning at how pale he was. "Seems like something you have been familiar with since you were a kid?"
"How did you know?" He grits out. Honestly I was feeling bad, he looked like he was about to cry, but thankfully the rest of the class was focused on the fight, which to be fair was getting kind of intense.
"What do you mean, isn't the 3 musketeers a children's book in french?" I asked honestly now that I think about that, I wonder if it still was. I guess it was since Aoyama nearly fell over in relief.
"Yes!" He says once he gets control over himself, "it's a story that was told when we were kids."
"Ah, that makes sense." I nodded, "did you have a bad time with the book? You seemed to panic when I said the quote."
Now believing that he was in the clear he spun displaying his shiny armor as he was finally relaxing. "No my little friend, it's just I've never heard someone say half the quote, though I did get a really bad stomach pain when I was a kid so story time was odd to say the least."
I nod my head, "makes sense getting a quirk that your body is not born for, can cause damage, so why'd he give you a laser?"
"It was because- '' might have to buy the kid a chiropractor with the amount of whiplash I'm giving him. He turned down to look at me and I met his eyes.
"What's wrong Aoyama, that shiny cloak too heavy with the burden your parents put on it?"
Aoyama backed away from me at least until backing into Sero who was invested in the fight, nearly running the kid over.
"Hey, watch it!" The tape boy says briefly looking at the french hero before going back to watch the fight. Thankfully he didn't look at Aoyama's face who seemed like he was about to blow the boy's head off. Before he could do anything that could make it harder I decided I'd had enough fun.
Slapping him on the back I give him a smile, "If I was going to turn you in, don't you think I would've by now? Calm down, I'm a friend." The sound of floors collapsing brought us both to focus. Midoriya had just faked out Bakugo, sending the force of his punch that would have probably killed the exploding dick into the ceiling of the building, blasting a hole in all the floors of the building and making plenty of rubble for Uraraka's home run comet. How the fuck is that a home run? She should have called it "comet barrage" or "meteor shower", well she is using a "bat" so it makes some sense. To be fair, her naming sense gets better in the future … kind of. Twin Comet Descension sounded more like a dance than the 2000 feet in the air spinning piledriver she used to try to send me to satan directly. Cracking my neck in remembrance of that impact I shake my head as the gravity hero clings to the weapon winning it for her team. So far everything seems to be going the same way it was before, though I'm pretty sure it might have been a bit longer than the original. What could I have done to cause that change? Only thing I could think of is me attacking Bakugo and Midoriya somehow finding something from it which is pretty impressive for a 7-second fight. Honestly, this seemed like something I should pay attention to. Even if the changes are little, this proves that my actions can change the timeline. The question is how far can I go? Changing my ranking was a minor change and should yield minor results, while my talk with Aoyama is probably going to affect the course of the whole timeline. Either way, studying the ripples of changes might have been a better option before jumping in.
"Clean up your face and read this," I say handing Aoyama my phone with the message I've been writing on it. Leaving him to read, I turn my attention to the screen watching All Might calm down Bakugo from what literally looks like a panic attack from losing to Midoriya. Yeah, that's not unstable at all, I think to myself watching the giant man put a hand on Bakugo's shoulder. Yep, just some pats on the shoulder are all that kid needs, nothing else at all. Honestly couldn't blame All Might, he doesn't really have the mind to teach a class..or teach anyone for that matter considering that Midoriya absorbed all his bad teaching methods.
Once the symbol of peace and the students returned, I grinned preparing myself for a little fun. Failure always hurts but the first taste of it must be especially bitter. I watched the explosive boy more or less sulk as he took his place in the room. It didn't help much that All Might and the class began to break down what everyone did wrong.
"The best in this match was young Iida" All Might exclaims surprising most of the class
"But weren't Midoriya and Ochako the winners?" Tsu asked.
"Indeed, can anyone tell me why I think Iida was the best? Who knows why!?" the symbol of peace flings his arm into the air as if he was raising his hand.
"I do."
"Yes All Might sensei!"
Momo and I briefly look at each other in surprise, oh yeah she did do this the original time.
"Go ahead," she offers.
"No no, you go." I step back, "you can roast them just as much as I can." She gave me a dry look and then began said roasting. Sure, she wasn't being harsh about it but she was direct which is something refreshing in this world. Honestly, I agreed with everything she said until she went to Ochaco being too reckless with a nuke, or at least I assumed the weapon was supposed to be a nuke since it looks like you're supposed to shoot it somewhere. Fun fact, contrary to movies, you can't stop or start a nuke with random punches or gunshots. If the fission process has started then that's it, it's out of your hands unless you got a quirk user that can control nuclear powers. On the other hand, starting that fission process unnaturally, I.E without the detonator, is almost impossible. You can't punch or shoot a nuke and get a boom, well not a nuclear bomb at least. Best case scenario, you get a nuke that doesn't work anymore, worst you get something leaking radiation. Funny enough, I actually got phone instructions on how to disarm a couple of tactical nukes before on a mission that went to decaying dog shit. If my vault let me have nightmares again then they would be that 8 ft tall dumbass of a terrorist throwing tactical nukes at me like they were footballs while we were on an 18-wheeler going to New York.
I was brought back from the memory of my run-in with death by Momo finishing her explanation and getting congratulated by All Might, after a brief moment of stunned silence. Very impressive for the second day, I thought to myself grinning, top recommended freshmen indeed. I remember how this moment intimidated me in my past life, someone so smart and collected to me, Momo was someone who had their life all figured out and was to be respected ...until I saw her ass, and instantly my mind was on something else. How often did I look at Momo as a person instead of a pound of flesh? I suck my teeth and cringed remembering every stupid thing I said to the girl, every lustful look, every… everything. Treated her like crap for a year, disappeared for the next decade then came back just to kill her. Took her away from her kids, took her away from her family. She was one of the good people of this world and you killed her yo-
A wetness on my cheek brought me back to reality. Whipping my hand across my face I glare at the tear for a moment before wiping it on my pants. Thankfully the class didn't seem to have noticed since they were watching the next fight … except for the two people who did notice and who were watching me. All Might was watching me from the Corner of his eyes, still rocking his trademark grin but now tinged with concern which was … concerning, but the more direct one was Tsuyu was watching me, her deadpan eyes locked on me. We stared at each other and had a brief staring match of me saying, "don't say shit" with her eyes and her thinking whatever the fuck she was thinking with that can't read frog expression. I drew the line when she started to move through the crowd to get closer to me, shaking my hand slowly while keeping my eyes on her. Thankfully she seemed to get the hint and broke eye contact. Sighing in relief of not having to deal with that, I turn and notice the third person that had seen me.
"It's nothing." I wave a hand before Denki opens his mouth. He looks like he's gonna push it but seems to read my expression and drops it. At least it seems my vault is indeed fixed or at least the memories stayed locked. An hour or two ago I'm pretty sure that thought process would have sent me spiraling into the memory. I let out a sigh of relief as I turned to watch the fight.
Next was Shoto Todoroki & Mezo Shoji vs. Mashirao Ojiro & Kyoka Jiro. From what I remember the ear jack girl had replaced Hagakure in this fight, not that it would matter a lot. I've already said my thoughts on Shoto and Ojiro. All that leaves was Shoji who I'm not gonna lie and say fighting him was easy but he was a decent workout in the grand scale of things. Now let's focus on Jiro and oh boy do I have a lot to say.
Alright, I'm not gonna lie to you, without hero gear Jiro becomes a menace. When it comes to Class A her hand-to-hand skills are the worst of them all, but her quirk does a good job at evening it out. It's honestly an argument on whether you want to fight her with or without her speaker. Yes, without the speaker you won't suck down soundwaves, but the downside is she uses her super strong self extendable lobes to pierce steel ear jacks into you over and over again. Basically without her speaker, she becomes a prison Shanker and that's ignoring the fact that when she stabs you she can decide to just send a shockwave through your body with her ear jacks, which depending on how hard she is trying, could turn you into a fine mist. Even with that, she is the worst 1A girl when it comes to straight hand-to-hand fights. But on the plus side, they're not knife-proof. If you're fast enough you can catch them, and let me tell you, pulling on those things is better than pulling on someone's hair. A core memory of mine was getting ambushed by Jiro, taking a dose of R3k, and snapping back to reality to me tying Jiro up with her own ear jacks. Not gonna lie, I took pictures, I had that shit up on my wall as a poster because you don't get to disrespect someone like that every day.
Why am I thinking of happy memories when I am about to make new ones right now? I think to myself as the countdown and the match started. I slunk my way to Bakugo, thankfully Bakugo being himself was a slight distance from the group, allowing me to talk to him in a whisper. "Hey firecracker." Bakugo didn't even turn to regard me but I could tell he was listening, "watch this match very closely, you're about to learn that you're at the big boy table, watch and see how your classmates fight."
He turned to glare at me and because of that he almost missed it. Todoroki laid his hand on the wall and activated his quirk, sending a wave of ice across the building, freezing it inside and out. The class let out sounds of shock and surprise but I kept an eye on Bakugo, watching his face contort in frustration.
Yeah, you're frustrated, imagine fighting the grown-up version of him with my quirk.
"You think you can beat him?" I ask, grinning as I smack him on the back. "I don't know man, I wouldn't bet on you, I'm pretty sure he could be the number one hero, but hey, you might make it to three or something." I smiled as I could practically hear Bakugo's teeth grinding into each other. "And let's not forget the other schools, we don't even know the other recommended freshmen; they might be even stronger than him." I leaned over feeling the boy trembling and the light growling. "Man when you think about it in terms of power, you're good, but you're in a sea now little fishy, time for you to sit back and watch out for the shar-" a heavy hand lands on my shoulder and I raise an eyebrow as Kirishima.
"Yes?"
"Don't you think you're being a little harsh?" The hardening hero replied, not glaring at me but looking down at me sternly. Friends in this life and the next, Red Riot and Dynamite partners for life. I nod my head and raise my arms as if in surrender.
"Maybe, but it's better if he learns now, you have to admit he needs an attitude adjustment." I smack Bakugo on the back and nod to Kirishima. "Maybe you can do better than me, carrot to the stick and all that." I walk off leaving the hardening hero to try and calm Bakugo down.
The next team was when we finally got a big mix-up: Fumikage Tokoyami & Kirishima for heroes vs Denki & Sato as villains. Even though it was already proven, I sighed in relief at the knowledge that random action can still affect the course of history and I wasn't stuck in some sort of Absolute point where I can't change anything. Thinking back to everything I've done since coming back, unless contacting dad really rocks the boat, then that means I've done no changes that could cause any extreme changes.
Might be a little early to think this, but I think this is a multiverse situation and not A Fixed timeline. Something that's been going through the back of my head was this time travel situation and its rules. Now I don't know if mental time travel plays by the same rules, but from what I remember from movies there are 3 types of time travel. Fixed, Dynamic, and multiverse. Fixed is what I'm most afraid of because that means whatever happens will and already has happened and time travel just causes the correct thing to happen. Basically in this situation nothing can be truly changed and my action simply causes the correct action to happen. Thankfully I think I can safely say that's a No for this one since I never got in a fight with Bakugo in the original timeline and I won't be perving on Momo as I did in the first life… wait. What did I do to Momo in the first life… I stared at her ass… Just like I did a couple of minutes ago.
"Hrrrrrrwrrrwrrr," noticing Denki's startle expression, I realized I had actually growled quite loudly too, since some of the people in the back of the group were looking at me. "Sorry, remembered something I forgot to do." Waving them off I got back to thinking how fucked I am. Calm down, that still doesn't fit a fixed timeline situation because I've still made changes which means free will still exist. Sighing in relief, I rise back to my feet. Since it can't be fixed that means it is either dynamic or multiverse. Multiverse might be the worst of the two because again, I haven't gone too far in this world so I don't know if there are any changes that could be no different than my original world or could be so different and the only reason I don't know is because it's day one. Multiverse is good as long as it gives me as close to the original timeline as possible. And finally, probably the best choice for me would be a dynamic timeline which is basically free reign since I don't have a future to return to. In a dynamic timeline what you do in the past affects your present, real change is possible and will affect your future. This obviously is the best choice and the one I'm hoping for, free range with no limit. Unless it's Dr. Who/What if and it's a dynamic timeline with fixed/absolution points that can't be changed. That could be a problem depending on where these points are and who they relate to. Will I always touch Tsuyu's boob in the UA attack? Will I always jump on Momo's back? If there are fixed points I assume they would be something bigger like AFO or All Might, but honestly, I could imagine fate fucking me by making it so all my perverted acts still happen in some way or another. Speaking of AFO and in extension, the L.O.V, now is about as good of a time as any to figure out what I'm going to do with them...on second thought let's put a pin in that cluster of problems.
Pulling my thoughts away from time travel, I thought back on the last time I fought these four. In the 6 months I spent in Japan before getting arrested, I never fought Denki besides some light sparring and he was long dead before any of my crimes. Kirishima on the other hand did the unforgivable crime of being married to Ashido and therefore by that rule alone he was an enemy, especially when he would always go on about what it is to be a man and being a prick by getting in my way when I was trying to fuck up another hero in my way… usually Ashido. On the plus side, the dude doesn't have dodge in his vocabulary so capturing him was really fun, then all I had to do was wait for his quirk to run out. If there's one thing I respect about him, even without his quirk he took a lot of damage from me and kept asking for more. Of course, all the stated facts below meant he received a lot of my violence over the years but hey, he was a tough boy and kept coming back so I was fine with it. Tokoyami was… I don't even want to talk about him, let's just leave it as stressful. Sato on the other hand. Sato was fine, better than fine. If it was just him by himself. It was when he was working with other heroes that he became a pain. You see, Sato's quirk makes him dumber the more sugar he eats so he's not the type of hero to plan. I, on the other hand, am Batman when I can be, and since my orbs fuck up the laws of tension and compression, unless he's downing in diabetic levels of sugar, he can't hope to get out of my quirk normally. So most of our fights are over before they start. The problem is when there's someone, Sato will listen to in sugar dumb form that I can't just fight with Sato on my ass. Seriously, when Saiko leads them on the radio, Sato, who at the time I have beaten like 6 times in a row before 1 v 1, and Tatanu Nakagame, a girl who's quirk that to this day I will argue sucks more than mine, kicked my ass. If the members of Dark Thiasus hadn't come I would have died right there. I blink as I realized that I hadn't thought of anyone from my… villain team? Terrorist team? We never really hashed out what our team was so let's stick with freedom fighters. Anyway, now that I realized it, I felt kinda bad for not thinking about them since I went back to the past. Makes sense kind of, they're all from Japan so you'll be seeing most of them soon. In the next couple months, Bastion, Anasova, all your friends from the GA, you'll never see them again.
My depressing ass thoughts were interrupted by the class gasping. Looking up I raised an eyebrow as Kirishama went flying into a wall via Sato's fist. The hardening boy grunts before bringing his arms across his face, good thing too since Sato proceeded to get that twelfth piece combo sending the red-haired boy through said wall, though he was right back up the second later, shaking off the rubble and running back to the Buff boy.
Oh please do it, I think to myself as I see Sato pull his arm back. Just as I hoped, he started to unleash a wave of punches at Kirishima who crossed his arms and dug his feet in to endure.
"Standing here I realize you were just like me trying to make history," I sang semi annoyed by the lisp in my voice but determined to not miss the moment.
"What are you doing?" Toru asks.
"That scene is straight from a video game."
"Which one?"
"Metal Gear Solid, I think it's from the early 2000s."
"You play games over 300 years old?" Sero asks me with wide eyes.
"You'll be surprised how epic the games from the past are, oh shit, I gotta get you to play Elden Ring some time." Turning back to the fight I reach for my phone before raising an eyebrow. Before I remember who had it. "Aoyama, may I?" The french hero had in fact managed to calm his expression and handed me back my phone though it seems he had been typing down a row of questions that he wanted to ask me in turn. Briefly looking at the list I type the words after school at the bottom and show it to him. "Put your number in." The french boy looked at the phone, and shot me a stink eye before doing what I asked.
If I remember correctly it's his parents that are being watched, not him, so us being in contact is safe as long as he doesn't snitch. Which I'll have to make sure he doesn't after school. One of the best ways to see how the rules of this time travel is by killing one of the villains. As I thought of the benefits of that, Denki came falling down one of the staircases being chased by the dark abomination that was dark shadow. The lightning boy threw himself forward slamming himself into the creatures and covering himself in electricity reminding me of when I fought the Jet-Black Hero.
"I'm in love with a fairytale even though it hurts!" I yelled-sang in the night sky. The normally bright skyscrapers and apartment lights go dark. "I don't care if I lose my mind!" I continued the speaker on my outfit sending my voice bouncing on the empty streets, though to be fair I was the only one dumb enough to be out here when that monster was on the loose. "Cause I'm already cursed." As I finish the lyrics I grin as I feel the ground start to shake. Grabbing the bat that was slung on my back, I grind it against the ground causing the phosphorus covering it to ignite. Instantly the heat and light cause me to turn away from it, grinning at the light that was reflecting off the buildings. I wasn't worried about my arm, the bat would start to melt away long before the heat would damage the prosthetic's protective cover. Rotating my arm's wrist I heard the motor whirl as my hand rotated like a helicopter, making a circle of heat and light in my hand. "Leave it to the villain to have to save the hero's ass." I muttered looking at the cloudy night, "judging by the wind we got 20 minutes before the moon comes out which means 20 minutes for me to decide how far this is gonna go." In my organic hand my fingers were wrapped around a modified flare gun, fingers itching to turn darkness into light. "I'M IN LOVE WITH A FAIRY TA-" my song was cut off as I felt the ground start to shake, "finally," I hissed. I grinned when I saw it, or should I say him. Rounding the corner of the darkened street was a sea of blackness known as dark shadow, red eyes bigger than a bus, narrowing at me as it sped towards me at a terrifying speed. I didn't even bother trying to see where he was trapped in it or say anything, I doubt he could even hear me. I simply jump on the orb I had on the ground sending myself soaring at the eldritch horror surrounding the hero.
Blinking at the memory that popped up, I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Thankfully no actual emotional connection comes with it like the early memories. Just a normal memory, no emotional flux means no vault damage.
"Sato's got this, he's gonna wear Kirishima down," Sero exclaimed watching the mentioned student duke it out.
"Doubt it, it depends on two things, first one being how long can his quirk hold out and the other being how long can Denki hold out"
"What do you mean? Denki seems to be holding off Tokoyami rather well." Iida chops at me with his hands.
"Is he? Denki's looking kind of dumb right now." I point and sure enough, the lightning boy's face had that dull look that he gets when he is about to short himself out.
"What's wrong with him?" Uraraka asked.
"Must be some type of limit to his quirk." Midoriya was already starting his rambling.
"Kirishima doesn't need to win this fight, he just needs to hold off Sato 'till Denki falls and dark shadow will clean it up."
"He has a name you know," Mina said.
"Not talking about Tokoyami, I mean dark shadow, I'm pretty sure that thing's alive and I honestly doubt that Tokoyami got the CQC… close quarter combat to those that don't know."
"Why do you think it's alive?" Midoriya asked me, notebook in hand and eyes locked on me.
"I've seen a couple of puppet or animating type quirks, this doesn't match, of course he could be controlling it perfectly with his mind but if you notice it is crying a bit when Denki shocks it."
"Aaaw…" Hagakure says and I assume she moves closer and notices, "now I feel bad for it."
"Is that animal cruelty?"
"Quirk cruelty, but as we know quirks don't have rights."
"What do you mean by that?" Momo asked, I consider answering before shaking my head.
"Later, we're about to see the photo finish."
Seems like Fumikage had had enough, because dark shadow suddenly swerved, aiming for the muscle boy. Denki, instead of doing the smart thing and tackling Tokoyami himself, launched himself onto Dark Shadow's back and went all out shocking the creature.
"Why doesn't he just throw lightning at it?" Tsuyu poked her chin wondering.
"Because, you damn frog," Bakugo said, still up in his feelings. "He can't, he can only channel lighting from his skin, he can't direct it."
Oh yeah, I forgot, Denki can't aim yet. Alright yeah, they're gonna lose. As Denki fell to the ground giggling like a toddler, Kirishima summoned his inner Reiner from Attack on Titan, meaning he got his ass beat the second someone really attacked him. It happened in an instant, one of Sato's blows had more force than he was ready for and it blew the red hair boy's guard wide open. Taking the chance for what it was, Sato shoulder-checked the hardening hero into the ground. Sato's got this in the bag.
"Who is the hero and who is the villain again?" I asked as I watch the sugar hero force the redhead to the ground.
"Sato and Denki are villains." Sero answered.
"You would know that if you weren't talking about three musketeers with Aoyama and texting." Tsuyu mentioned.
"I don't need you talking about who I talk to thank you very much," I stick my tongue out at her before continuing, "anyway, in that case, heroes win."
"What? What are you talking about?" Sero asks, pointing to the screen. "Kirishima's on the ropes."
Indeed Kirishma seemed to be in a bind as he and the bigger, stronger hero grappled on the floor. Take this from a stupidly short person with a mid-range quirk, if someone is trying to grapple you, do everything in your ability to not get grappled. Years of training at UA then the training of the GA and you wouldn't believe how many times grappling nearly got me killed. Thick thighs save lives my ass, I think glancing, at the legs of Tsuyu. Remembering when I had gotten the girl in a joint lock and she had replied with some black widow shit and wrapping those goddamn pythons she calls calves around my neck. Nearly popped my head off like a bottle opener… now that I think about it, fucking 90% of the time I grappled someone as Moonseed I nearly got killed, Momo, Sato, Tsuyu, Mina, hell even Sero gave me trouble that one time. As I watch the two heroes grip and roll around on the ground. And yet, grappling is one of my favorite combat practices. What the hell? Why did I like this again!?
Bastion hissed as Wendy pinned him to the ground. Unless he could get leverage and space to move his muscles, he was about the same strength as a normal human, but those muscles bulged gloriously as he pushed against the amazon girl. It seems the Beast girl was the stronger of the two. Bastion strained, sweat dripping off his face as black metallic-like skin strained against her equally sweet olive skin. He thrust his hips up trying to dislodge the taller girl, but she bored herself down on him, pressing herself down to keep the pin.
Oh right, because it's hot, I think to myself.
"Mineta, hey Mineta!" snapping fingers brought me back from my memories.
"Liked what you see?" Bakugou asked with a grin and I realized I had probably been staring at the grappling match on the screen drooling over the memory I just saw.
"Sorry, spaced out," I said, killing any blush from my face. "What were we talking abo- oh yeah, heroes are winning."
"Yeah, that." Sero was shooting me a grin and I narrowed my eyes at him. "How are they gonna win? Kirishima is about to be captured, and Dark Shadow seems to have been evaporated by Denki's last attack."
"Yep, but where is Tokoyami?"
At my words, Sero and the less attentive members of the class started looking at monitors trying to find the dark spirit hero.
"And the hero team wins!" All Might did it for us announcing the victory and pointing to the top right camera which showed the bird head boy resting a hand on the bomb.
"Sato should have bashed Tokoyami in the back of the head with some of the rubble from his fight," I say, seeing the muscle hero release the recently captured boy. "Denki could've stopped Kirishima and he could've held off Dark Shadow to make it a two-on-one."
"Maybe he shouldn't have bashed someone in the head with a rock when he has super strength." Jiro pointed out with a voice that made me aware she was trying to make me look stupid.
"Bakugo literally tried to erase Midoriya with an explosive in the first round, as long as you don't kill your classmates everything goes."
"It's not that simple, young Mineta." All Might decided to cut in, "we only allow our students to go through a minimal amount of danger and the second things get too intense, we step in."
"Alright then, Sato could've bashed his knee in with rubble."
"You're sort of dark when it comes to fighting," Sero commented.
"F.E.A.R, for every advisory ravage." At his look, "Or in more heroic sounding terms, make your opponent lose the will or ability to fight."
"That's a much better way to say it young Mineta," All Might said as he patted the returning students on the back. "Now let's go on about what you boys did right and wrong"
I was pulled away from All Might's speech as I felt someone tap my shoulder. Looking up I met the terrified eyes of Aoyama. Sighing, I take some steps from the group and lean in to listen to him, "I said we'll talk lat-"
"How did Tsuyu know we talked about the three musketeers?"
Those words took the wind right out of my sails and a couple of holes in my boat. Oh… that could be a problem. Thinking back I realize that Tsuyu had been one of the closest people when I had started talking to the traitor, but we had been speaking french.
"Let me test something," I say, stepping away from the french hero. Moving around the back of the group, I stare at the back of the frog girl's head. Switching to French and making sure I was speaking French, I started to whisper to her, I didn't want the rest of the class to hear this, "frog face panties, isn't that a little childish for a new hero?" I duck under her tongue swipe, startling Koda who had been to my left. I point at her switching to Japanese, "ah ha! you do speak french!"
"And you speak pervert." She replies, dully pulling her tongue back in and reaching to pull her skirt down before realizing that she was wearing her costume and therefore I couldn't have gotten a peak at her.
"Yeah, it's my native dialect, but it's your fault for falling for it."
"What was the point of that?"
"How much did you hear me and Aoyoma say?" I strain to read the emotions between her dull eyes even after knowing her for as long as I did. It was tricky.
"Does it matter?" she asks, staring at me.
"Not really, just didn't expect you to be a fly on the wall, I expected those to be your dinner."
"I feel like that's racist to mutation types."
"Possible, not for me though, I am a mutation type."
"You are?"
"Yeah, technically I am, but you wouldn't be able to… oh ho ho, good try don't change the subject."
"You're the one that changed it, not me."
"No, it was you."
"Nope, pretty sure it was you."
"Nope."
"Yes it was."
"Those grapes must be sucking the nutrients from your head."
"Is this because of the stripper line? You were the only one I said was… son of a- you're doing it again!"
"Doing what?"
"Distracting me."
"No I'm not."
"Yes yo-" taking a deep breath I calm myself, "what did you hear?"
"Nothing much, you talked a bit about the bible about the 3 musketeers and Aoyama getting his quirk from something, Midoriya destroying the floor drowned out everything else."
Stomping down any emotion from showing on my face beside a slightly raised eyebrow, I keep my voice calm. "Oh that? I was just asking if he got his quirk from his dad." I let out a fake sigh of relief, still keeping my eyes on Tsuyu looking for any twinge of emotion. "I thought you heard when we started talking about them french girls, cause let me tell you there," tilting my head forward I felt Tsuyu's tongue hit me on the top of my head and felt her tug as she tried to get her tongue unstuck.
"Well Well Well, isn't this ironic? The frog is caught" I laugh lightly as Tsuyu gives up trying to get her tongue to look and just stares at me. "Maybe you shouldn't be licking people without their consent?" I say grabbing her tongue and working it off of my hair. She narrowed her eyes at me and I grinned at her making my way back to Aoyama.
"Well?" Aoyama asked once I got back to him.
"Why did Tsuyu just lick you?" Sero asked the more important question.
"Ladies love the grape pop," I said before realizing what I just said, turning and making sure none of the girls heard that. "Thank god." Turning back to Sero, "she saw a fly and she tried to catch it." Turning to Aoyama I replied, "she heard nothing, just us talking about the Bible."
Aoyama let out a sigh of relief and I was semi-annoyed that he made it so obvious that he was hiding something. Also a little naive of him to think I was telling the truth, while I wasn't 100% sure I'd be willing to bet that she heard more than she let on but besides AFO giving Aoyama's quirk, everything else was on text so unless Aoyama let her look over his shoulder, there's nothing for her to latch onto till months in the future so I wasn't afraid of that. What I'm afraid of is how goddamn sloppy I've been lately. Yes, it's day two back in the past and a lot of stuff going on, but between not realizing I didn't need dad for the medical files, leaking information on Shoto's mom, and now this, I've fumbled the ball three times.
Three chances? You're on your third chance right now!" The instructor steps closer and Bastion steps in front of me though that wouldn't stop him if he really wanted to hurt me. "Your first chance was when you allowed yourself to be born as a fucked up little gremlin! The second chance was when I didn't kill you the second Jackson brought your sorry ass before me! You're living your third chance every moment of your life! This is your third chance, don't ever forget it!"
I wrinkled my nose at that memory, practically feeling the instructor's spit. They were always tough, but sometimes they were just dicks to be dicks. Going to need to watch Tsuyu for a bit, put her at ease, or get her to slip up in a controlled environment.
"hhhehehe yeah,'' Denki said, giving me a thumbs up as he walked over to me. I give him a thumbs up back enjoying the droopy smile he has. Apparently Jiro did as well cause she was snickering behind her mouth at the shorted-out hero at least until she looked at me and promptly shut up. What was that about? Was I glaring? Even if I was Jiro, not someone to shy away from me of all people giving her the stink eye. Turning away from her I raise a hand to feel my face before releasing that whatever expression I had would have been gone. Turning back to the sound girl, I locked eyes with her and raised an eyebrow as if asking what that was about. Jiro decided that she didn't want to have this conversation and turn to talk to Ashido. Now slightly concerned that my face was making an expression without me noticing I looked around hoping someone else in the class caught that so I could get asked what face I was making. Sadly someone was watching and it was the one person I didn't want to be watching. Tsuyu and Aoyama and you I think to myself as I met the eyes of Todoroki Shoto. He was staring at me from the corner of his eye and if I had to guess he was doing that for the whole day. Now he for a fact I know can't speak french but I'll probably need to watch him as well… sigh, time traveling gonna be a bit harder than I thought isn't it? Turning away from the half-and-half hero I go back to counting my chances as the next group gets called.
Next fight was probably the most different. Tsuyu & Hagakure vs Sero and Koda.
"Alright, here's what you gonna need to do, there's not gonna be a lot of animals so don't trust Koda's quirk, have him act as bait to attract Hagakure and catch her when she goes for him, after that for Tsuyu you need to do is ho-hey!" I gasp as someone picks me up off the scruff of my shirt.
"No giving him hints," Mina shakes me slightly, grabbing her hand. I fantasized breaking it for a moment before pinching a nerve and forcing her to drop me.
"All Might, is there any rule about giving your classmates advice before going into the ring?"
The symbol of peace seems unsure for a moment before letting out a laugh and shaking his head. "This is my first time running this class, but I'll have to agree with young Ashido, perhaps if you started with the first group but now it seems like an unfair advantage."
Sighing, I ignore Mina's cocky grin and turned to Sero, "sorry man, you're on your own."
"Don't worry dude, we got this!" Sero smacks Koda on the back, the lionfish-head-looking student flinches at his touch but nods. Once the 2 groups had left I sigh, "Tsuyu's team is Villians right?"
"Uh huh," dum Denki replies to me.
"Dang, Tsuyu on defense? Damn, Sero never had a chance."
"Don't be so quick to say who wins," Momo admonished me.
"Didn't say they wouldn't win, I said Tsuyu is gonna crumble Sero into a little tape ball. It wouldn't surprise me if Hagakure captures Koda but Tsuyu claps Sero."
"You seem to have confidence in Tsuyu." Iida states, "why is that?"
"Sero's quirk works better in open spaces and Tsuyu is probably fast enough to dodge his tape if he catches her lacking, I guess he could win but there's also Hagakure to worry about, if they were in defense Sero could make a web to defend against Hagakure. This also isn't the best place for Koda's quirk which is animal control."
"How'd you know that?" Shoto asks, stepping up.
Why the fuck are you talking to me? At this stage the half-and-half boy shouldn't be taking an interest in anyone besides Midoriya.
Is he trying to bait me? No, If I was at the Entrance exam I would have a reason to know Koda's quirk. In the original timeline Koda hasn't even spoken yet and no one will originally know that he can even talk until the student vs hero fights.
Staring at Shoto I realize that his eyes were locked on me, soaking in every expression on my face. God damnit, he baited me. I must be really getting sloppy. Quick lesson on learning, if someone knows something they should ask them something they shouldn't know and see how fast they respond. If they fuck up like I just did they'll take a couple of seconds confirming what they can or can't say before opening their mouth.
Recover and retaliate, "What do you mean?" I tilt my head at him as if the answer was obvious, "We all saw him during the entrance exam… oh right, you weren't there," I smacked my forehead as if I had forgotten, "special students with special quirks from special parents get special tests right?" I watch his eyes narrow slightly and narrow mine in turn before turning back to the camera. I waited a moment to see if he would say something else before continuing, "with what I saw it seems like he needs to call them, not sure if you noticed but he's very shy, I haven't even heard him talk yet."
"We did," Denki said, still derpy but quickly recovering, "we got him to talk a bit about animals together, remember?"
"Oh right, yeah," another change from the original timeline, though not a big one.
"But yeah, Koda's quirk is much better in a forest area than in an artificial city. I'd be surprised if they have any birds or rats in there so he's gonna need to go hand to hand which doesn't seem to be his style."
As the two boys started to enter the building, the camera watched as Hagakure took off her gloves and boots before, I assume, fucking off somewhere. "Hey, do we have a thermal?"
"Hmm, I'm actually not sure, let me- ah ha! Here it is," the symbol of peace taps a button causing the camera to create circles around the three students as well as a circle around empty air that I assume was where Hagukura was.
A camera that can show thermal heating and normal images at the same time. Technology leagues ahead of anything a civilian can get their hands on. I wonder if All Might ever think about the discrepancy between heroes or, should I say, government technology and civilians.
I put that thought on hold as I watch Tsuyu crawl on the wall of the hallway leading to the bomb room and making her way to the ceiling above the door frame, she simply waited.
They're gonna have a bad day. I think to myself watching the frog girl wait for her prey.
After what I did to her sister … and arguably what I did to her brother… and what I did to her family probably didn't help either. It quickly became clear that it wasn't as if I would be fighting Tsuyu, it would be when and where and also what and how, as in what will I have on me and how will I beat the big scary frog lady.
If I had to say that Mina was the Joker to my Batman in my Moonseed days, then Tsuyu was sure as hell my Bane. There was seldom some over-scaling plan to capture me, no it was simple, she would just randomly show up and it was on sight. Throughout all my time as Moonseed, I'm pretty sure we fought a total of too many fucking times. Seriously, even Naruto and Sasuke fought like 4 times throughout the whole show. Now if we remove the group vs group fighting then in 1 vs 1, Me and Tsuyu fought a double handful of times, definitely the highest number of fights I had in the 1A girl category. Honestly it was ridiculous. At one point Kiiroi asked if Tsuyu was my spy on the inside since we fought so much... I thought four of those should probably be removed because they were fights that I had with the M arm since … well I don't count many of the M arm fights as fights. 1) because most of them were slaughters, and 2) because I don't personally remember them. If I could have asked Tsubasa one thing it would be what the hell was his plan with the M arm technology If we didn't team up cause that thing… years later and I still can't explain the feeling of using that thing besides comparing it to getting your arm transplant with pure solid black air force energy. Moving past those fights with Tsuyu, no matter how prepared either of us was, it always ended up with both of us bruised and bleeding all to hell, and that's ignoring the S.N.A.F.U it becomes when other heroes or villains join the fight. Even when she cools down from the, "I'll kill you" to the, "I'll capture you"
phase, our fights were still some of the most personal and violent out of all my fights with class 1A.
No matter what timeline, Tsuyu will always rock my plan. "All Might … sir?... sir All Might? Almighty? Screw it, All Might!" I say louder, getting the hero's attention, "do these fake buildings have electrical systems? Sprinklers? Fire extinguishers? Chairs or tables?"
"No young Mineta, most of the buildings in-ground beta are empty shells. We do have a more advanced version for higher-class students. Why do you ask?"
"Fire extinguishers can help with Hagakure, even if it is not possible, the breaking of a table leg and swinging it around you could help."
"Clever ideas." the symbol of peace said, "what would you do to face young Asui?"
Bombs… a lot of them, "She's on the villain team right?" I look down at my arms… small… weak… worthless. Shaking those thoughts from my head and giving the idea some thought. "I would have just blown through the window and latched onto the weapon."
"You wouldn't fight her?" Kishima asks.
"Not my job to beat her, my job is to stop the bomb, since in this test we have the magic power to turn the bomb off without it being turned back on, I don't even have to fight. If I thought I was fast enough I would have just run past them to do it and left my teammate to keep them busy," at the class's look, I raise an eyebrow. "What?"
"Would you leave your teammates to fight the villains alone?" Iida said with a hint of disapproval.
"In the field? Not unless I knew they could handle it, but this is a test, the worst that can happen here is they get caught."
"I think you should be taking this practice as seriously as you should a mission in the field." the engine hero explains.
Oh, you really don't want that. "Gonna have to agree to disagr-oh? What's this now?"
To my honest surprise, it looked like Koda was actually about to do something. I had noticed that the normally silent boy had been talking to Sero but hadn't thought much of it but he had suddenly bent down by a vent by the ground and started whispering into it.
"What is he doing?" Mina asks.
"Do we have vent cameras?" Sato asks.
"I think he's calling rats,'' Midoriya said, and sure enough it wasn't a moment later that out from the vent came about 20 of the brown things.
"Ew," Mina flinched away from the screen and from the corner of my eye, I noticed that Momo was physically leaning away from the screen as if it was giving off energy.
"They're not that bad." Uraraka kept gaining my respect. Well, her family is poor so she might have more experience with rodents.
"Are you kidding?" Mina turned to the gravity girl, "they're diseased-ridden vermin! They come into your house and steal your food and leave droppings everywhe-"
"As would every animal if it got into your house would," I pointed out, "they honestly get a bad rep, I rather like them."
"You would," Jiro muttered.
"Indeed I would. I've found out that rats are better than some people, smarter than some too." I made a show of slowly looking her up and down before turning back to the screen.
"You litt-"
"Look! they're doing something," Denki steps between me and the, I'm assuming, approaching Jiro cutting off the argument.
Just as he said the platoon of rats was moving in front of the duo as they explored the building.
"What will the rats do to help?" Momo asked, "They can't see Hagakure either."
"For all humanity's evolution, animals still have us beat in some departments. Hagakure can block her sight but not her scent or hearing, if she's smart she wou-" I was cut off as apparently one of the rats smelled something, letting out a victorious squeak and charged a corner of the room which the cameras showed the invisible girls position, the other rats quickly following. Toru Hagakure did exactly what you would assume a naked 16-year-old girl would do when a group of rats ran up on her. She screamed loud and hard and ran away, managing to jump over the first rat.
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!" I covered my mouth as I watch the rats chase the screaming heat signature, Koda didn't seem to tell them to attack her, they were mostly just jumping in her direction and squeaking at her, though honestly, I wouldn't test it either.
"It's not funny," Mina growled at me.
"Oh lighten up, they're not hurting her."' The rats in the pit were way less kind when they would nibble on your toes to see if you were alive, though they did taste well enough when cooked, if you have enough hunger to season them with.
"You shouldn't laugh at other people's pain," Momo said, looking down at me disapprovingly.
People laughed at my pain all the time, I thought to myself as I turned away from her with a growl.
Sero managed to predict that the screaming rat chased the target and shot a line of tape that snagged the invisible girl causing her to fall to the ground in a seemingly empty bundle. Immediately Koda told his little friends to stop and come to him which led to Toru managing to calm herself down.
"Didn't expect to see Koda pull out the win for this one," Midoriya said, writing something in his notebook, "I wonder if he's controlling the animals or if he's asking them to do this?"
"You think he can control people with Animal quirks like normal animals? "Denki asks, looking at a certain bird head hero.
"Not unless they sleeping walking or having animal intelligence at least that's my guess on it," I reply thinking back to my first life. Before I broke his voice box … and his whole throat for that matter Koda had basically reached some sort of quirk awakening after surviving a Nomu worm attack his quirk basically turns into anything with an animal level or lower IQ listens to him. Now you're thinking to yourself what's the difference? I'll tell you what, it gave him the power to freaking control Nomus or people with their consciousness suppressed like people under Shinso's quirk control. Though I guess even after that awakening it didn't save him in the end. Koda's death had been violent but thankfully for him quick, it's also something I regret not stopping. Looking at the shy boy jumping excitedly at his victory I could see the beginning of the hero that had pigeons make arrows in the sky to project my position for days on end. I guess I have been making some good changes. That joyful moment was removed violently by a certain frog girl. Tsuyu's tongue came in like a viper wrapping around Koda's chest and throwing him into the air.
"Where'd she come from?" Kirishima yelled out.
"She must've moved when she heard Hagakure screaming," Momo stated unneededly.
"This is why I believe in Tsuyu," I said.
Sero swung his arms sending a twin stream of tap at the frog girl. Tsuyu, instead of jumping out of the way like I thought she would, simply tossed Koda into the incoming streams causing him to get sucked into the tap.
"You think he can control his tape to unstick him?" Denki asked.
"Doubt it," Midoriya said, fingers going a mile a minute, "if he could control it, it would have been better to have it dodge Koda and go for Tsuyu when she didn't see it coming."
"Better question is does that tape count as capture in the game sense or do we have to use the captured string?" Denki asks turning to All Might, "because if not then Koda should be allowed to break out if he can."
"The villains don't need to capture the heroes young Kaminari," he corrected, "They simply just need to protect the bomb, if younger Koda can break out then he's free to assist his ally.
"Though, I don't think he's gonna have the time to," I said watching Tsuyu jump around the room avoiding Sero's tape. Koda was calling his rat friends and they began biting through the tape. It was only a couple seconds before Koda was free shaking off the remnants of tape and nervously watching the frog lady leap around the room.
"Koda! Tag the bomb," Sero yells still slinging tape at the frog girl, "I have her," Koda seems to hesitate for a moment before running down the hallway.
"Yeah, heroes got this in the bag," Kirishima exclaimed.
"Not so fast Kirishima, your match should have taught you not to underestimate your opponent," Iida admonished.
"Hagukura and Tsuyu went to intercept them about 4 floors down from the bomb, no marking to show where the bomb is. Tsuyu still has time to catch up to Koda if she can get away from Sero," Midoriya rattled on.
Tsuyu leaped towards the doorway only to stick her tongue to the ceiling and real herself back as a wave of tape covered the doorway blocking her in.
"Looks like you're stuck in here with me," Sero said, smiling at the rainy day hero before continuing the battle.
"Don't get cocky Sero," I mutter, eyes locked on the screen, "just hold her off and you got this."
"I thought you wanted Tsuyu to win," Mina said, "changing sides?"
"I always wanted Tsuyu to lose, I just didn't assume Sero could beat her, I'm still seeing it as a long shot, if there's one thing I've learned about frogs it's-" it was at that moment Tsuyu's arm started dripping with a semi see-through gunk and tossed it in the tape boy's face. "They have something up their sleeves."
"What was that?" Kirishima asks as Sero yelled in pain covering his eyes.
"Frog mucus, semi-poisonous, highly irritating." Though she can control how poisonous it is if she wants.
Tsuyu didn't even bother finishing Sero off; she simply opened the closest window and crawled out to it.
"Gonna be close," Iida stated.
"What's the time?" Mina asks.
"Little less than a minute," Denki answered.
Honestly, I was getting a little into it as well. The next minutes were rather intense with Koda heading to the final floor while Tsuyu crawled the outside of the bomb room. It was the 20-second mark when Koda came running into the room and a moment later he spotted Tuyu as she crawled through the window of the floor. Their eyes locked for a moment before Koda made a beeline for the bomb.
"He's gonna make it!" Kirishima said.
"I highly doubt I,'' I say as Tsuyu lashes her tongue out. Koda manage to amaze me again by dodging the first one, rolling under the tongue and nearly headbutting the bomb before Tsuyu's tongue came back around and wrapped around his foot.
"Dang it!" Kirishima and Denki said at the same time.
"I thought he had it," Sato says, watching as Tsuyu holds the shy boy upside down waiting for the timer to run out.
"Well, it was closer than I thought but I guess vill-" my words died out as I saw Koda reach out and place a rat on Tsuyu's tongue. I didn't see when he picked up the rat. I guess it must have sat on the back of his uniform while waiting for the right time. What I do know is that for all Tsuyu's can't be shaken attitude, a living rat on her tongue was apparently her last straw, her tongue unwrapped from her prey to remove the unwanted passenger.
Whatever words I was gonna say were drowned out by Kirishima, Sato and Denki who had apparently become the quiet boy's fan club screaming, ''GO!'' as loud as they can, thankfully Koda didn't drop the ball and launched himself forward, latching onto the bomb right as the timmer hit the zero.
"Tie!" All Might exclaimed.
"Tie?" The class exclaimed.
He actually managed to get a tie, I think to myself still staring in shock at the timer. Koda, the shy guy that doesn't become useful until Jiro kicks him into shape during the pro hero fights just beat, arguably, the strongest girl of class 1A. How the hell did a couple of minutes of talking about animals change all of that? I smiled as I realized something, I made a difference somehow.
"For every alteration rejoice," I say tasting the words, "no for every amendment rejoice," I doubt every alteration I'll do will be something I will rejoice about. I smiled as the teams returned to the room, but I hope most of them are.
Koda was bright red at everyone congratulating him and Sero for the win. Sero was asking Tsuyu what she spits into his eyes as one of the robot helpers was washing out his eyes for him. Dumb AI workers/doctors were another thing that would benefit more than just heroes. Though I did raise an eyebrow when it called Sero eyes inferior to its sensors, okay maybe not so dumb after all… don't like how it's saying it's superior. Eero would call that a hostile AI threat.
Thinking of Eero brought another thought to my head. What are all my friends from Class T doing and can I help any of them? Bastion is in America being the Alexander the Great and uniting the gangs there, So-ri somewhere on the streets of Korea, Christopher is being used as a cocaine factory somewhere in Australia, Anasova's in Russia and her quirk should have been awakened last year or this year so she's either at rock bottom or on a power trip most mind-altering quirk users find themselves on. Wendy is controlling Windigo by being the Jack the Ripper/ Ted Bundy love child to any rapist in the continent of Europe. Quinn, Eero, and Zilko are in the wind, at least for a couple of years. It was sort of disappointing that even coming back in time I couldn't really help any of my friends but it was sort of expected, there were too many things in the world that I couldn't do. What are a few more? My eyes drift over to Koda who was listening to what All Might was saying about what he did right and wrong during the fight. But there are things that I can change, that thought brought me back to the last two members of class T that I hadn't thought of which made sense in a way because in my time they were dead. Justin was part of class M not to mention Jackson's son so he must be with his father. He's safe for another 7 years at least if we're following the original timeline. And all that was left was Kotei. Kotei and I had a different relationship than anyone else in Class T. We weren't as close as say, Bastion and So-ri but we are the only members of class T from Japan so we bonded over that. And he apparently trusted me enough to tell me to look after his siblings, Rin and Atsuhiro, when he was dying, a task which much like most things I do in my life I failed. Atsuhiro wasn't my fault, he was taken into custody in a couple of months from now but Rin … should have never let her join the Black Thiasus. Speaking of which, while I'm unable to help most of my friends from the GA I'm more than able to help the members of Black thiasus. Two of them are in elementary school right now so they're safe. Another in ketsubetsu so I'll see him soon enough. Finding Kiiroi before the LOV will be the next big thing … not sure how I'm gonna help him through his shit but at least it will be something. Yūyake is somewhere in the street fighting ring and will have to find out if Rappa has been recruited by Overhaul yet to see if I can find her. It was this thought of my friends which reminded me that I will never see them again, at least not as they were. My Class T and Black Thiasus will always be out of my reach even if I meet them in this time, they won't be the ones I fought for, they won't be the ones I would have died for time and time before, they won't be my family. Revenge has its price, it always does. I saved Japan but they will never thank me for it. I avenged my best friend and that price is that me and every other friend I ever had was separated by a distance I will never cross. I'll never sing with So-ri and Bastion again, I'll never try wired drugs with Christopher, I'll never watch Wendy hunt squirrels, I'll never see if Kiiroi finished college. The truth hit me kind of quickly with the list of things that me and both my groups of friends will never get to do. I'm out of my time no matter what I do, that is something I'll never be able to truly fix.
A hand landed on my shoulder startling me from my thoughts.
"You okay dude?" Denki asks me with concerned eyes.
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
I felt my face and realized that I was crying, and not just a couple of tears like before but a full-on waterfall of tears. A quick look at the class made it clear that thankfully I haven't been making any sounds. Only one who was looking at me was Shoto, who had been doing so the whole goddamn time, and Tsuyu.
"Are you okay?" Denki asked again.
"Yeah." I lied. "Some dark memories came up, sorry to make you worried."
"You want to talk about it?"
More than you will ever know.
"That's okay, I'm good." I wipe my face and give him my best smile. "I'll deal with it."
"Well, if you ever want to talk about it I'm here for you man." Denki patted me on the shoulder and I flashed him a real smile. Yes, it sucked that I'd never see my old friends again but being sad about it won't change that fact. None of them would want me crying over them when they're not even dead and who knows, time travel is a thing so hopefully there's an afterlife.
They don't need me to look after them anymore. I relaxed myself with the thought, after all my actions the academy will watch after all of them. I could already tell that the DT would get along with class T. Might be a little heated with some of them, but they'll figure it out. Oh jeez, did I really just take a page from my dad's book and leave Rin to take care of the kids? Of course those were two completely different circumstances. For number one, unlike my dad who left for true love, leaving me to catch a lifelong batch of Ls. I left because I was sent to the past via Midoriya's foot. Also the kids aren't mine, well, sort of. One of them is made from a fetus that has my DNA but not sure if I can still call it my child, the other one is purely adopted or rather rescued. And lastly, which is the biggest one up I had from my dad in this situation. I never abandoned them. I never knew they existed and when I found out about them I literally burned the HSPC building down to get them… Well, to get the one that had my DNA, the other one had been complicated to get. At least Rin will have someone to watch the kids with her because I have no idea how to be a father. Now that that thought comes up Rin better take the GA offer to get the fuck out of Japan. Even if the majority of Japan believes all the information I leaked on the web I don't think anyone will like the idea of the grandchild of one of the most famous criminals raising two official nom-ans that were adopted by a criminal that literally set their country on fire… who also had a bloodline of known criminals, especially if they learn that one of those nom-ans where made from the fetus of said villain child. You know, when I say all that out loud it's really hard to regret implementing Black Orchid. Yeah, Bastion will get them out of there if Kiiroi doesn't first, they'll probably move them to America.
Denki Kaminari
I tap Sero on the shoulder getting the slim boy's attention.
"What?" he asked with a bit of venom in his voice, apparently he was a little salty about his loss.
"Something's wrong with Mineta," I whisper instantly. Sero's attention was on me, while we didn't know him long we both had taken a liking to the short classmates.
"Another panic attack?" Sero asks then blinks. "No, he is freaking out." He turned to look over my shoulder and stared at the short kid. "What's wrong with him?"
Turning to look at Mineta I saw the same thing that I had seen once he told me he was alright. It was obvious that Mineta wasn't paying attention, but unlike before in class where he just looked bored, here he looked … off. Dude had a thousand-yard stare and whatever he was looking at wasn't fun
"He looked like he was crying," Sero stated.
"He was," I said whispering, not because I thought Mineta would hear me, he tucked in his head for that so the other classmates wouldn't be brought into this. "Look at his feet."
Sero looked down and saw the tiny puddles of tears at Mineta's feet. "Whoa."
"'Whoa' is right, dude didn't make a sound or move a muscle. I didn't even hear a sniffle. He had been crying for a hot minute and beside his red eyes, you wouldn't have been able to tell. Also, did you see how he looked at Jiro?"
"No, what did he look like?"
I opened my mouth to say pissed, but the look the short kid gave the girl was much more complicated than that. Bitter is better, he seems really bitter about something. I explained as much to Sero
"What should we do?"
Why are you asking me? I think to myself, annoyed. I ask Sero because he seems smart and seems like he might know what to do when a friend is crying. More than you'll ever know Mineta's words sent a shudder through me, mostly because I don't think he even realized he said them out loud.
"Alright class, it's time for our final match," All Might said, pulling out the final orbs, "Momo Yaoyorozu and Mina Ashido on the hero side vs Yuga Aoyama and Mineta Minoru on the villain side."
"Yes," Mina said, hopping up grinning, "we got this in the bag."
"That's a bad match-up," Sero said even though we knew the four students that were gonna fight we didn't know the pairs yet, "Mina's quirk kind of counters Mineta's doesn't it?"
"To be fair, what doesn't acid counter?" I ask, turning to Mineta to see his reaction only to freeze.
Mineta's face had gone pale, his eyes rolled back into his head, and his face transformed into a meral of rage. His fingers were clenched as his body literally vibrated for a moment. A thin line of blood came from his nose and his jaw, it looked like he was gritting his teeth. He stayed like that for a millisecond before his entire body relaxed and he fell to his knees.
"Mineta," the class turned to my startled yelp as I caught the boy before he could fall all the way, "Mineta are you alright?"
"Mineta?"
"Are you alright?"
"What happened?"
"Nurse!"
"I'm fine!" Mineta's voice rang out over the different voices asking if he was alright, "got a little lightheaded, comes with the nose bleed, shouldn't have skipped breakfast today."
"Young Mineta, are you okay to participate today?'' The symbol of peace walked over as the short boy rose to his feet.
"Ohh you bet I am," Mineta looked up to meet the teacher's eyes and I flinched back at the look on that boy's face. "I feel perfectly fine sir, the nose bleed goes and com- I mean comes and goes I'm fine to play."
"Are you sure man? You seemed pretty bad there for a moment," Sero's face told me he saw the same vistage of rage that I'd seen on Mineta's face before he dropped. "You sure you don't want to go to the nurse's office?"
Mineta's laugh sounded more like a cackle to my ears. "No no, actually physical activity helps with the nose bleeding a little, running around will help it stop faster." He pulls out the bottle of pills he's been eating from today and downs 5 down. "Recovery Girl said these were all I need so I'm ready to go."
"Mineta I'm not sure-" he turned to me and his face shut me up. Now I don't believe Sero's words about Mineta having a crush on me… not completely, but I do believe he liked me a lot. The face he gave me was the closest he ever gave me, in the short time we knew each other, to anger. The look stunned me even though it wasn't an angry face, it wasn't even an upset face, it was a face of pure conviction, a face that said he was doing this.
"Denki I'm fine, I got this."
All Might look concerned. "Well, if the nurse said that it was okay then I'm not one to argue." He turned to the hero team, "are you two okay with this?"
Momo fiddled with her hair. She had been facing Mina when Mineta dropped so I doubt she saw his face, "if he says he's alright then I guess so, how about you Mina?"
Mina grins at Mineta looking him up and down and locking eyes with him, "if he thinks he's good to go then I'm good, but he better not blame his headache when he loses!"
Mineta's face twitched and his eyes dilated, the pinprick dots of dark suddenly becoming big pits of black framed by a bit of white that filled up the boy's eyes. It had to be an effect of the pills but still put me on edge.
"You have no idea how much fun this will be."
I couldn't help but feel like we were making a terrible mistake as Mineta said those words.
AN: FFS look at this monster act 2 (which will start at chapter 10 or 11) will have shorter chapters one way or another. Freaking not sure yet but this one might be bloody longer than 7! Chapter 9 hasn't been started and no idea when it will out have to get a job for the summer and all that.
Alright, time for the aforementioned question. Which structure do you like more? The half moonseed and half present Mineta chapters? or full moonseed chapters followed by full present Mineta chapters? Or do some of you believe I should have a Moonseed chapter every 3 or 5 normal Mineta chapters? Leave a review and share your thoughts and all that. Also yes i just learned about the horizontal line and will be using them from now on
as always looking for editors feel free to message me if you are interested also does A03 have a horizontal line option like does?
